Comparison of the McGrath® Series 5 and GlideScope® Ranger with the Macintosh laryngoscope by paramedics

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Out-of-hospital endotracheal intubation performed by paramedics using the Macintosh blade for direct laryngoscopy is associated with a high incidence of complications. The novel technique of video laryngoscopy has been shown to improve glottic view and intubation success in the operating room. The aim of this study was to compare glottic view, time of intubation and success rate of the McGrath^®Series 5 and GlideScope^®Ranger video laryngoscopes with the Macintosh laryngoscope by paramedics.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Thirty paramedics performed six intubations in a randomised order with all three laryngoscopes in an airway simulator with a normal airway. Subsequently, every participant performed one intubation attempt with each device in the same manikin with simulated cervical spine rigidity using a cervical collar. Glottic view, time until visualisation of the glottis and time until first ventilation were evaluated.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Time until first ventilation was equivalent after three intubations in the first scenario. In the scenario with decreased cervical motion, the time until first ventilation was longer using the McGrath^®compared to the GlideScope^®and AMacintosh (p < 0.01). The success rate for endotracheal intubation was similar for all three devices. Glottic view was only improved using the McGrath^®device (p < 0.001) compared to using the Macintosh blade.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The learning curve for video laryngoscopy in paramedics was steep in this study. However, these data do not support prehospital use of the McGrath^®and GlideScope^®devices by paramedics.</p

Automated and Manual Testing in the Development of the Research Software RCE

Research software is often developed by individual researchers or small teams in parallel to their research work. The more people and research projects rely on the software in question, the more important it is that software updates implement new features correctly and do not introduce regressions. Thus, developers of research software must balance their limited resources between implementing new features and thoroughly testing any code changes. We present the processes we use for developing the distributed integration framework RCE at DLR. These processes aim to strike a balance between automation and manual testing, reducing the testing overhead while addressing issues as early as possible. We furthermore briefly describe how these testing processes integrate with the surrounding processes for development and releasing

Disparitäten im Wortschatzerwerb: Zum Einfluss des Arbeitsgedächtnisses und der Anregungsqualität in Kindergarten und Familie auf den Erwerb lexikalischen Wissens

Vor dem Hintergrund der Bedeutung von Sprache und Spracherwerb für die kindliche Entwicklung und für die Ausbildung sozialer Disparitäten in Schulleistungen und Bildungskarrieren werden innere und äußere Einflussvariablen auf die Wortschatzentwicklung bei 428 monolingual deutschsprachigen Vorschulkindern der BiKS-3-10 Studie untersucht. Die Entwicklung des im Alter von 3, 4 und 5 Jahren längsschnittlich erhobenen rezeptiven Wortschatzes der Kinder wurde mittels latenter linearer Wachstumsmodelle analysiert. Speziell geprüft wurde der relative Einfluss von Personvariablen (phonologisches Arbeitsgedächtnis) sowie von strukturellen und prozessbezogenen Merkmalen der Kindergartenqualität und familiärer Variablen (sozioökonomischer Status, Bildung der Mutter, „literacy“ Anregung) auf die Wortschatzentwicklung von Kindern mit vergleichsweise besserem versus schlechterem Sprachstand zu Beginn der Studie. Die Ergebnisse zeigen einen signifikanten Einfluss der phonologischen Arbeitsgedächtniskapazität, die sich bei der Gruppe der sprachlich schwächeren Kinder als besonders bedeutsam für die Wortschatzentwicklung erweist. Die Qualität und Varianz der „literacy“ Anregung im Kindergarten erwies sich insgesamt als eher niedrig; bedeutsame Effekte auf den Wortschatzanstieg waren nicht nachweisbar. Die Effekte der „literacy“ Förderung im Elternhaus variieren in Abhängigkeit vom Sprachstand der Kinder zu Beginn der Studie. Die Ergebnisse werden hinsichtlich ihrer theoretischen und praktischen Implikationen diskutiert.Language competencies are important for child development in general and have been suggested to play a major role for the emergence of social disparities in educational careers. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to investigate the impact of internal (phonological working memory) and external variables (measures of preschool quality, home learning environment, and family background) on vocabulary development in preschool children with relatively restricted or more advanced language competencies at the beginning of the study. A subsample of 428 monolingual German children (who took part in the larger BiKS-3-10 study) was tested for receptive vocabulary at three successive measurement points (age 3, 4, and 5). Using latent growth curve models the relative impact of phonological working memory capacity and various measures of preschool quality and home background (SES, mother’s educational level, literacy stimulation) was evaluated. The results show that the capacity of phonological working memory has a strong impact on vocabulary development in preschool children, especially in children with less advanced language competencies. The observed quality of and variance in literacy stimulation in preschool (domain specific preschool quality) proved to be rather low and had no significant impact on vocabulary growth. Home learning environment in the sense of literacy stimulation showed different effects depending on the child’s language status. The results are discussed with respect to developmental and educational consequences

Orchestrating Tool Chains for Model-based Systems Engineering with RCE

When using multiple software tools to analyze, visualize, or optimize models in MBSE, it is often tedious and error-prone to manually coordinate the execution of these tools and to retain their respective input and output data for later analysis. Since such tools often require expertise in their usage as well as diverse run-time environments, it is not straightforward to orchestrate their execution via off-the-shelf software tools. We present RCE, an application developed at the German Aerospace Center that supports engineers in developing and orchestrating the execution of complex tool chains. This application is used in numerous research and development projects in diverse domains and enables and simplifies the creation, analysis, and optimization of models

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements