Single-Phase Operation of Three-Phase Motors

Against the current backdrop of deteriorating economic and financial conditions, the authors consider recent trends and current prospects for credit unions in Great Britain. Although credit unions have experienced solid membership and asset growth, there are clouds on the horizon. Bad debts and loan arrears are on the rise and may be linked to recent legislative amendments and the increasing use by government of credit unions as a mechanism to achieve its financial inclusion goals. Whatever the reason, the deterioration in the loan book needs to be quickly addressed, or it will ultimately result in either more government bailouts or a stream of failing credit unions

Using metadynamics to obtain the free energy landscape for cation diffusion in functional ceramics : dopant distribution control in rare earth-doped BaTiO3

Barium titanate is the dielectric material of choice in most multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) and thus in the production of ≈3 trillion devices every year, with an estimated global market of ≈$8330 million per year. Rare earth dopants are regularly used to reduce leakage currents and improve the MLCC lifetime. Simulations are used to investigate the ability of yttrium, dysprosium, and gadolinium to reduce leakage currents by trapping mobile oxygen defects. All the rare earths investigated trap oxygen vacancies, however, dopant pairs are more effective traps than isolated dopants. The number of trapping sites increases with the ion size of the dopant, suggesting that gadolinium should be more effective than dysprosium, which contradicts experimental data. Additional simulations on diffusion of rare earths through the lattice during sintering show that dysprosium diffuses significantly faster than the other rare earths considered. As a consequence, its greater ability to reduce oxygen migration is a combination of thermodynamics (a strong ability to trap oxygen vacancies) and kinetics (sufficient distribution of the rare earth in the lattice to intercept the migrating defects)

Identifying the mechanisms underpinning recognition of structured sequences of action

© 2012 The Experimental Psychology SocietyWe present three experiments to identify the specific information sources that skilled participants use to make recognition judgements when presented with dynamic, structured stimuli. A group of less skilled participants acted as controls. In all experiments, participants were presented with filmed stimuli containing structured action sequences. In a subsequent recognition phase, participants were presented with new and previously seen stimuli and were required to make judgements as to whether or not each sequence had been presented earlier (or were edited versions of earlier sequences). In Experiment 1, skilled participants demonstrated superior sensitivity in recognition when viewing dynamic clips compared with static images and clips where the frames were presented in a nonsequential, randomized manner, implicating the importance of motion information when identifying familiar or unfamiliar sequences. In Experiment 2, we presented normal and mirror-reversed sequences in order to distort access to absolute motion information. Skilled participants demonstrated superior recognition sensitivity, but no significant differences were observed across viewing conditions, leading to the suggestion that skilled participants are more likely to extract relative rather than absolute motion when making such judgements. In Experiment 3, we manipulated relative motion information by occluding several display features for the duration of each film sequence. A significant decrement in performance was reported when centrally located features were occluded compared to those located in more peripheral positions. Findings indicate that skilled participants are particularly sensitive to relative motion information when attempting to identify familiarity in dynamic, visual displays involving interaction between numerous features

The Nursing Home Pneumonia Risk Index: A Simple, Valid MDS-Based Method of Identifying 6-Month Risk for Pneumonia and Mortality

Background Pneumonia is the leading infectious cause of hospitalization and death for nursing home (NH) residents; however, diagnosis is often delayed because classic signs of infection are not present. We sought to identify NH residents at high risk for pneumonia, to identify persons to target for more intensive surveillance and preventive measures. Methods Based on a literature review, we identified key risk factors for pneumonia and compiled them for use as prediction tool, limiting risk factors to those available on the Minimum Data Set (MDS). Next, we tested the tool's ability to predict 6-month pneumonia incidence and mortality rates in a sample of 674 residents from 7 NHs, evaluating it both as a continuous and a dichotomous variable, and applying both logistic regression and survival analysis to calculate estimates. Results NH Pneumonia Risk Index scores ranged from −1 to 6, with a mean of 2.1, a median of 2, and a mode of 2. For the outcome of pneumonia, a 1-point increase in the index was associated with a risk odds ratio of 1.26 (P =.038) or a hazard ratio of 1.24 (P =.037); using it as a dichotomous variable (≤2 vs ≥3), the corresponding figures were a risk odds ratio of 1.78 (P =.045) and a hazard ratio of 1.82 (P =.025). For the outcome of mortality, a 1-point increase in the NH Pneumonia Risk Index was associated with a risk odds ratio of 1.58 (P =.002) and a hazard ratio of 1.45 (P =.013); using the index as a dichotomous variable, the corresponding figures were a risk odds ratio of 3.71 (P <.001) and a hazard ratio of 3.29 (P =.001). Conclusions The NH Pneumonia Risk Index can be used by NH staff to identify residents for whom to apply especially intensive preventive measures and surveillance. Because of its strong association with mortality, the index may also be valuable in care planning and discussion of advance directives

The JCMT Legacy Survey of the Gould Belt: a first look at Orion B with HARP

‘The definitive version is available at www3.interscience.wiley.com '. Copyright Royal Astronomical Society.The Gould Belt Legacy Survey will survey nearby star-forming regions (within 500 pc), using Heterodyne Array Receiver Programme (HARP), Submillimetre Common-User Bolometer Array 2 and Polarimeter 2 on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope. This paper describes the initial data obtained using HARP to observe 12CO, 13CO and C18O J= 3 → 2 towards two regions in Orion B, NGC 2024 and NGC 2071. We describe the physical characteristics of the two clouds, calculating temperatures and opacities utilizing all the three isotopologues. We find good agreement between temperatures calculated from CO and from dust emission in the dense, energetic regions. We determine the mass and energetics of the clouds, and of the high-velocity material seen in 12CO emission, and compare the relative energetics of the high- and low-velocity material in the two clouds. We present a clumpfind analysis of the 13CO condensations. The slope of the condensation mass functions, at the high-mass ends, is similar to the slope of the initial mass function.Peer reviewe

A 2-Year Pragmatic Trial of Antibiotic Stewardship in 27 Community Nursing Homes

OBJECTIVES: To determine if antibiotic prescribing in community nursing homes (NHs) can be reduced by a multicomponent antibiotic stewardship intervention implemented by medical providers and nursing staff and whether implementation is more effective if performed by a NH chain or a medical provider group. DESIGN: Two-year quality improvement pragmatic implementation trial with two arms (NH chain and medical provider group). SETTING: A total of 27 community NHs in North Carolina that are typical of NHs statewide, conducted before announcement of the US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services antibiotic stewardship mandate. PARTICIPANTS: Nursing staff and medical care providers in the participating NHs. INTERVENTION: Standardized antibiotic stewardship quality improvement program, including training modules for nurses and medical providers, posters, algorithms, communication guidelines, quarterly information briefs, an annual quality improvement report, an informational brochure for residents and families, and free continuing education credit. MEASUREMENTS: Antibiotic prescribing rates per 1000 resident days overall and by infection type; rate of urine test ordering; and incidence of Clostridium difficile and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections. RESULTS: Systemic antibiotic prescription rates decreased from baseline by 18% at 12 months (incident rate ratio [IRR] = 0.82; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.69-0.98) and 23% at 24 months (IRR = 0.77; 95% CI = 0.65-0.90). A 10% increase in the proportion of residents with the medical director as primary physician was associated with a 4% reduction in prescribing (IRR = 0.96; 95% CI = 0.92-0.99). Incidence of C. difficile and MRSA infections, hospitalizations, and hospital readmissions did not change significantly. No adverse events from antibiotic nonprescription were reported. Estimated 2-year implementation costs per NH, exclusive of medical provider time, ranged from $354 to$3653. CONCLUSIONS: Antibiotic stewardship programs can be successfully disseminated in community NHs through either NH administration or medical provider groups and can achieve significant reductions in antibiotic use for at least 2 years. Medical director involvement is an important element of program success

Interaction of anions with the surface of a coordination cage in aqueous solution probed by their effect on a cage-catalysed Kemp elimination

An octanuclear M8L12 coordination cage catalyses the Kemp elimination reaction of 5-nitro-1,2-benzisoxazole (NBI) with hydroxide to give 2-cyano-4-nitrophenolate (CNP) as the product. In contrast to the previously-reported very efficient catalysis of the Kemp elimination reaction of unsubstituted benzisoxazole, which involves the substrate binding inside the cage cavity, the catalysed reaction of NBI with hydroxide is slower and occurs at the external surface of the cage, even though NBI can bind inside the cage cavity. The rate of the catalysed reaction is sensitive to the presence of added anions, which bind to the 16+ cage surface, displacing the hydroxide ions from around the cage which are essential reaction partners in the Kemp elimination. Thus we can observe different binding affinities of anions to the surface of the cationic cage in aqueous solution by the extent to which they displace hydroxide and thereby inhibit the catalysed Kemp elimination and slow down the appearance of CNP. For anions with a −1 charge the observed affinity order for binding to the cage surface is consistent with their ease of desolvation and their ordering in the Hofmeister series. With anions that are significantly basic (fluoride, hydrogen carbonate, carboxylates) the accumulation of the anion around the cage surface accelerates the Kemp elimination compared to the background reaction with hydroxide, which we ascribe to the ability of these anions to participate directly in the Kemp elimination. This work provides valuable mechanistic insights into the role of the cage in co-locating the substrate and the anionic reaction partners in a cage-catalysed reaction

Landau-Khalatnikov-Fradkin Transformations and the Fermion Propagator in Quantum Electrodynamics

We study the gauge covariance of the massive fermion propagator in three as well as four dimensional Quantum Electrodynamics (QED). Starting from its value at the lowest order in perturbation theory, we evaluate a non-perturbative expression for it by means of its Landau-Khalatnikov-Fradkin (LKF) transformation. We compare the perturbative expansion of our findings with the known one loop results and observe perfect agreement upto a gauge parameter independent term, a difference permitted by the structure of the LKF transformations.Comment: 9 pages, no figures, uses revte

Design and construction of a telescope simulator for LISA optical bench testing

LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna) is a proposed space-based instrument for astrophysical observations via the measurement of gravitational waves at mHz frequencies. The triangular constellation of the three LISA satellites will allow interferometric measurement of the changes in distance along the arms. On board each LISA satellite there will be two optical benches, one for each testmass, that measure the distance to the local test mass and to the remote optical bench on the distant satellite. For technology development, an Optical Bench Elegant Bread Board (OB EBB) is currently under construction. To verify the performance of the EBB, another optical bench - the so-called telescope simulator bench - will be constructed to simulate the beam coming from the far spacecraft. The optical beam from the telescope simulator will be superimposed with the light on the LISA OB, in order to simulate the link between two LISA satellites. Similarly in reverse, the optical beam from the LISA OB will be picked up and measured on the telescope simulator bench. Furthermore, the telescope simulator houses a test mass simulator. A gold coated mirror which can be manipulated by an actuator simulates the test mass movements. This paper presents the layout and design of the bench for the telescope simulator and test mass simulator