Sodium boiling incoherence in a 19-pin wire-wrapped bundle

During various flow transients in a sodium-cooled reactor, localized boiling can occur. If this boiling does not result in dryout, significant reactor core damage is not likely. A full-length electrically heated 19-pin bundle was used to determine the extent to which dynamic boiling can be sustained before dryout occurs. Over 30 boiling runs were made with runs at three flow-power conditions culminating in dryout. Continuous boiling for time periods exceeding 20 sec was observed. Preliminary data analysis suggested that thermal inertia of the duct walls, which were backed with thermal insulation, was higher than designed and was contributing to boiling incoherence. Posttest examination confirmed that the insulation annulus had become permeated with sodium, resulting in a significantly increased thermal inertia. Detailed comparisons of experimental results with the results of several different analytical techniques indicate that incoherent boiling caused by bundle thermal inertia was responsible for the long time periods between boiling inception and dryout. This suggests that thermal inertia designed into the reactor core could prevent or delay core damage during various flow-power mismatch transients

The positive outlook study- a randomised controlled trial evaluating the effectiveness of an online self-management program targeting psychosocial issues for men living with HIV: a study protocol

Background: The emergence of HIV as a chronic condition means that people living with HIV are required to takemore responsibility for the self-management of their condition, including making physical, emotional and socialadjustments. This paper describes the design and evaluation of Positive Outlook, an online program aiming toenhance the self-management skills of gay men living with HIV.Methods/design: This study is designed as a randomised controlled trial in which men living with HIV in Australiawill be assigned to either an intervention group or usual care control group. The intervention group willparticipate in the online group program ‘Positive Outlook’. The program is based on self-efficacy theory and uses aself-management approach to enhance skills, confidence and abilities to manage the psychosocial issues associatedwith HIV in daily life. Participants will access the program for a minimum of 90 minutes per week over seven weeks.Primary outcomes are domain specific self-efficacy, HIV related quality of life, and outcomes of health education.Secondary outcomes include: depression, anxiety and stress; general health and quality of life; adjustment to HIV;and social support. Data collection will take place at baseline, completion of the intervention (or eight weeks postrandomisation) and at 12 week follow-up.Discussion: Results of the Positive Outlook study will provide information regarding the effectiveness of onlinegroup programs improving health related outcomes for men living with HIV

Evaluation of a Web Portal for Improving Public Access to Evidence-Based Health Information and Health Literacy Skills: A Pragmatic Trial

Background: Using the conceptual framework of shared decision-making and evidence-based practice, a web portal was developed to serve as a generic (non disease-specific) tailored intervention to improve the lay public’s health literacy skills. Objective: To evaluate the effects of the web portal compared to no intervention in a real-life setting. Methods: A pragmatic randomised controlled parallel trial using simple randomisation of 96 parents who had children aged ,4 years. Parents were allocated to receive either access to the portal or no intervention, and assigned three tasks to perform over a three-week period. These included a searching task, a critical appraisal task, and reporting on perceptions about participation. Data were collected from March through June 2011. Results: Use of the web portal was found to improve attitudes towards searching for health information. This variable was identified as the most important predictor of intention to search in both samples. Participants considered the web portal to have good usability, usefulness, and credibility. The intervention group showed slight increases in the use of evidencebased information, critical appraisal skills, and participation compared to the group receiving no intervention, but these differences were not statistically significant. Conclusion: Despite the fact that the study was underpowered, we found that the web portal may have a positive effect on attitudes towards searching for health information. Furthermore, participants considered the web portal to be a relevant tool. It is important to continue experimenting with web-based resources in order to increase user participation in health care decision-making. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT0126679

Shear wave velocity prediction using seismic attributes and well log data

Formation’s properties can be estimated indirectly using joint analysis of compressional and shear wave velocities. Shear wave data isnot usually acquired during well logging, which is most likely for costsaving purposes. Even if shear data is available, the logging programs provide only sparsely sampled one-dimensional measurements: this informationis inadequate to estimate reservoir rock properties. Thus, if the shear wave data can be obtained using seismic methods, the results can be used across the field to estimate reservoir properties. The aim of this paper is to use seismic attributes for prediction of shear wave velocity in a field located in southern part of Iran. Independent component analysis(ICA) was used to select the most relevant attributes to shear velocity data. Considering the nonlinear relationship between seismic attributes and shear wave velocity, multi-layer feed forward neural network was used for prediction of shear wave velocity and promising results were presented

Protocol for population testing of an Internet-based Personalised Decision Support system for colorectal cancer screening

Extent: 8p.Background: Australia has a comparatively high incidence of colorectal (bowel) cancer; however, population screening uptake using faecal occult blood test (FOBT) remains low. This study will determine the impact on screening participation of a novel, Internet-based Personalised Decision Support (PDS) package. The PDS is designed to measure attitudes and cognitive concerns and provide people with individually tailored information, in real time, that will assist them with making a decision to screen. The hypothesis is that exposure to (tailored) PDS will result in greater participation in screening than participation following exposure to non-tailored PDS or resulting from the current non-tailored, paper-based approach. Methods/design: A randomised parallel trial comprising three arms will be conducted. Men and women aged 50-74 years (N = 3240) will be recruited. They must have access to the Internet; have not had an FOBT within the previous 12 months, or sigmoidoscopy or colonoscopy within the previous 5 years; have had no clinical diagnosis of bowel cancer. Groups 1 and 2 (PDS arms) will access a website and complete a baseline survey measuring decision-to-screen stage, attitudes and cognitive concerns and will receive immediate feedback; Group 1 will receive information 'tailored' to their responses in the baseline survey and group 2 will received 'non-tailored' bowel cancer information. Respondents in both groups will subsequently receive an FOBT kit. Group 3 (usual practice arm) will complete a paper-based version of the baseline survey and respondents will subsequently receive 'non-tailored' paper-based bowel cancer information with accompanying FOBT kit. Following despatch of FOBTs, all respondents will be requested to complete an endpoint survey. Main outcome measures are (1) completion of FOBT and (2) change in decision-to-screen stage. Secondary outcomes include satisfaction with decision and change in attitudinal scores from baseline to endpoint. Analyses will be performed using Chi-square tests, analysis of variance and log binomial generalized linear models as appropriate. Discussion: It is necessary to restrict participants to Internet users to provide an appropriately controlled evaluation of PDS. Once efficacy of the approach has been established, it will be important to evaluate effectiveness in the wider at-risk population, and to identify barriers to its implementation in those settings.Carlene J Wilson, Ingrid HK Flight, Ian T Zajac, Deborah Turnbull, Graeme P Young, Stephen R Cole, Tess Gregor

Evaluating the Effectiveness of an Autism-Specific Workplace Tool for Employers: A Randomised Controlled Trial

A randomised controlled trial evaluated the effectiveness of the Integrated Employment Success Tool (IEST™) in improving employers’ self-efficacy in modifying the workplace for individuals on the autism spectrum. Employers (N = 84) were randomised to the IEST™ or support as usual groups. Measurements of self-efficacy, knowledge and attitudes towards disability in the workplace were obtained at baseline and post-test. Results revealed a significant improvement in self-efficacy within the IEST™ group between baseline and post-test (p = 0.016). At post-test, there were no significant differences between groups in relation to self-efficacy in implementing autism-specific workplace modifications and employer attitudes towards disability in the workplace. Given the lack of significant outcomes, further research is needed to determine the effectiveness of the IEST™ for employers

Track D Social Science, Human Rights and Political Science

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138414/1/jia218442.pd

the prevention of chronic diseases through ehealth a practical overview

Disease prevention is an umbrella term embracing individual-based or population-based interventions aimed at preventing the manifestation of diseases (primary prevention), reducing the impact of a disease that has arisen (secondary prevention), or mitigating the impact of an ongoing illness (tertiary prevention). Digital health has the potential to improve prevention of chronic diseases. Its application ranges from effective mHealth weight-loss intervention to prevent or delay the onset of diabetes in overweight adults to the cost-effective intervention on the provision of mental-health care via mobile-based or Internet-based programs to reduce the incidence or the severity of anxiety. The present contribution focuses on the effectiveness of eHealth preventive interventions and on the role of digital health in improving health promotion and disease prevention. We also give a practical overview on how eHealth interventions have been effectively implemented, developed, and delivered for the primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention of chronic diseases

eHealth cognitieve gedragstherapie voor patiënten met chronische somatische aandoeningen

-based cognitive behavioral therapy for patients with chronic somatic conditions Many patients with chronic somatic conditions regularly experience impairments in physical and psychological functioning in their daily life. A way to support these patients is to offer online programs based on cognitive behavioral therapy (Internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy; ICBT). Although a substantial evidence base already exists regarding the effectiveness of ICBT in treating, for example, depressive symptoms, research on ICBT for chronic somatic conditions is still upcoming. In recent years, a growing number of randomized controlled trials were published that examined the effectiveness of ICBT in various chronic somatic conditions. To systematically and quantitatively evaluate the results of these studies, a metaanalysis was conducted, the results of which are discussed in this article. Results indicated that ICBT is also overall effective for chronic somatic conditions, with small to moderate effect sizes. Larger effects were occasionally found for disease-specific outcomes such as disease symptoms and disease-specific quality of life. A longer treatment duration was found to be marginally related to a larger decrease in depressive symptoms. In addition to the results of the meta-analysis, this article provides an overview of the recent literature regarding several clinically relevant ICBT topics: cost-effectiveness, guided ICBT interventions versus self-help, the role of treatment duration, and optimal design and implementation of eHealth interventions.FSW - Self-regulation models for health behavior and psychopathology - ou