Probing the Concept of Statistical Independence of Intermediate-Mass Fragment Production in Heavy-Ion Collisions

It is found that the total IMF-transverse-energy (E_t) spectra in multi-IMF events are well represented by synthetic spectra obtained by folding of the single-IMF spectrum. Using the experimental IMF multiplicity distribution, the observed trends in the IMF multiplicity distribution for fixed values of E_t are reproduced. The synthetic distributions show binomial reducibility and Arrhenius-like scaling, similar to that reported in the literature. Similar results are obtained when the above folding-type synthesis is replaced with one based on mixing events with different IMF multiplicities. For statistically independent IMF emission, the observed binomial reducibility and Arrhenius-type scaling are merely reflections of the shape of the single-IMF transverse-energy spectrum. Hence, a valid interpretation of IMF distributions in terms of a particular production scenario has to explain independently the observed shape of the single-IMF E_t spectrum.Comment: 13 pages with 8 figur

Oral anticoagulation treatment in atrial fibrillation - To bleed or not to bleed, that is the question

Background: Oral antigoagulation treatment (OAT) with warfarin have a narrow therapeutic window and patients exhibit a highly variable doseresponse that is attributable to genetic, disease-related,and environmental factors as well as prescription and nonprescription drugs, dietary vitamin K and alcohol. The effect of warfarin treatement on blood coagulation is measured using international normalized ratio (INR). Monitoring and tight control of anticoagulation treatment reduces the risk of both thrombosis and bleeding. The time in therapeutic range (TTR) has been validated as a quality indicator of the anticoagulation treatment given, correlating inversely to complication frequencies. The Swedish national quality registry for atrial fibrillation and anticoagulation (AuriculA) was founded in 2006 and has by August 2011 enrolled 68,000 patients, close to 40 % of all patients on anticoagulation in Sweden. Patients with end stage renal disease are at high risk for both bleeding and thrombosis and even a moderate decrease in glomerular filtration rate (GFR) is associated with thromboembolic and bleeding complications. Impaired kidney function has also been shown to be associated with a greater need of warfarin dose adjustment, poor TTR, and an increased risk of bleeding in patients taking warfarin. New anticoagulants, most of them eliminated by renal route, can be administered in a fix dose, have few drug and no dietary interactions, has been shown to be at least inferior and in some cases superior to OAT with warfarin. Methods: The Anticoagulation Clinic in Malmö participates in AuriculA, and uses this registry for prospective follow-up and as a tool for OAT dosage. This thesis has utilized data from AuriculA for epidemilogical analysis of impaired kidney function, using two equations for estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), TTR, and the correlation of these two markers to major bleeding and thrombo-embolic events. Results: In Paper I, TTR in 18391 patients in the whole Swedish AuriculA population was 76.2%. Compared to recent prospective randomized trials of warfarin treatment, TTR in the AuriculA population was higher. Adherence to treatment, as measured by TTR, was higher in elderly patients with a significant correlation with increasing age. In 4273 patients from two centers in AuriculA the frequency of major bleedings and venous/arterial thromboembolism were 2.6 % and 1.7 % and for atrial fibrillation (AF), 2.6 % and 1.4 %, per treatment year respectively. In Paper II, the fraction of 2603 AF patients on warfarin with eGFR 3.0 (p<0.001 for both). There was no correlation between age, eGFR and thromboembolic events. The prevalence of eGFR <45ml/min/1.73m2 was 52% in patients aged ≥75 years with major bleeding. eGFR levels <30 ml/min/1.73m2 were particularly associated with high risk of bleeding in elderly patients. No correlation between eGFR and thromboembolic events was seen. In Paper IV, 397 patients on OAT with warfarin, there was a positive correlation between results from the point-of-care device (POC) CoaguChek XS and the Owren-type PT assay for INR measurement (r=0.94;p<0.001) and concordance of 88.2%. In patients with 152 double samples analyzed with the CoaguChek XS, a positive correlation of 0.99 was seen; p<0.001. Conclusions: The quality of OAT with warfarin in Sweden is high and comparable to prospective randomized trials of warfarin treatment. Complications were low, probably due to the organization of anticoagulation treatment in Sweden, although the AuriculA dosing algorithm could have contibuted by keeping dosing regimens consistent over all centers. The POC-device CoaguChek XS presents reproducible results, highly comparable with Owren PT at therapeutic levels of INR, offering a more convenient method of monitoring, compared to regular venous INR measurement in patients on OAT with warfarin. Severe renal impairment is common among AF patients on OAT with warfarin, especially at higher ages, indicating one important difference between a ‘real world’ clinical population and those of randomized controlled trials of new oral anticoagulant drugs, where patients with severe renal failure (eGFR <30 ml/min/1.73 m2) were excluded. Given the strong correlation between eGFR and major bleeding events in patients on anticoagulation treatment demonstrated in Paper III, caution is advised in the upcoming era of new oral anticoagulants with elimination by renal route. Monitoring of renal function should be implemented in clinical practice for AF patients treated with new anticoagulants eliminated by the kidneys and registries like AuriculA can be used for prospective follow-up of these patients

Modifications of the Omega ratio for decision making under uncertainty

The Omega ratio (Ω-ratio) was proposed by Shadwick and Keating in 2002 as a performance measure applied to rankings of assets, portfolios or funds. It involves partitioning returns into loss and gain below and above a given threshold. The original version was designed for decision making under risk (probabilities completely known), but recent research has shown that this measure can be adapted to decision making under partial information (likelihood known incompletely). Our contribution will be to use the concept of the Omega ratio in decision making under uncertainty (DMUU) which occurs when the decision maker (DM) chooses the appropriate alternative on the basis of certain scenarios for which probabilities are not known at all. The goal of this article is to adjust the Ω-ratio to DMUU so that it takes into consideration the DM’s attitude towards risk and the distribution of all payoffs connected with particular decisions. The Ω-ratio is combined with a hybrid of Hurwicz and Bayes rules proposed by the author in another paper. The significant advantage of the new measure, Ω(H+B)ratio, is the possibility to compare alternatives (strategies, projects) when the likelihood of particular scenarios is not known or when the DM does not intend to use the available data

Odzyskanie suwerenności? : Brexit i Parlament Zjednoczonego Królestwa

Elastyczna formuła brytyjskiej konstytucji skutkuje względną otwartością na wpływy zewnętrzne. Tym niemniej, członkostwo Zjednoczonego Królestwa w strukturach Unii Europejskiej (1973-2020) skutkowało postępującym ograniczaniem doktryny suwerenności Parlamentu. Brexit nie odwróci skutków „miękkiego” modyfikowania fundamentów ustroju Zjednoczonego Królestwa, które częstokroć miały miejsce w sferze praktycznej realizacji kompetencji poszczególnych segmentów władzy państwowej. Prima facie, decyzja o wystąpieniu ZK z UE powinna skutkować „renesansem” tradycyjnej doktryny suwerenności Westminsteru w ujęciu Dicey'owiskim. Jednakże aktywizm sędziowski, dalsze obowiązywanie Europejskiej Konwencji Praw Człowieka (inkorporowanej na podstawie ustawy o prawach człowieka z 1998 r.) oraz nieodwracalne skutki powstałe w wyniku dewolucji kompetencji w ZK na rzecz Wali, Szkocji i Irlandii Północnej stanowią czynniki hamujące ewentualną rewitalizację zasady suwerenność parlamentu brytyjskiego.The flexible formula of the British Constitution results in a relative openness to external influences. Notwithstanding this fact, the United Kingdom’s (UK’s) membership in the European Union’s (EU’s) structures (1973–2020) resulted in a progressive limitation of the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty. Brexit will not reverse the effects of the ‘soft’ modification of the foundations of the UK’s system, which occurred in the sphere of the practical implementation of the competencies of the branches of governance. Prima facie, the decision on the UK’s withdrawal from the EU should result in a ‘renaissance’ of the traditional doctrine of Westminster sovereignty, per A.V. Dicey. However, judicial activism, continued validity of the European Convention on Human Rights (incorporated on the basis of Human Rights Act 1998) and the irreversible consequences of the devolution of competencies in the UK for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are the factors that hinder the possible revitalisation of the sovereignty of the British Parliament

Project of instrumentation of cyclic multiple-spindle driller aimed at improving its machining efficiency

Osnovni dio svake viševretene bušilice jest njezina radna jedinica koja se naziva glava za bušenje. Uporaba viševretenih bušilica omogućuje simultano bušenje rupa u redovima, što čini takve bušilice učinkovitijima od jednovretenih bušilica. No njihov je nedostatak nemogućnost bušenja rupa u četvrtastim drvnim elementima. To je osobito velik problem kad je riječ o bušilicama za prolazne provrte, što je razlog da se u području te vrste obrade provode intenzivna istraživanja. Projekt pridonosi proširenju tehnoloških mogućnosti viševretenih bušilica, a u radu se razrađuju neke mogućnosti njihova opremanja.The basic element of each multiple-spindle driller is its working unit also called drilling head. The use of multi-spindle drill heads enables simultaneous drilling of holes arranged in rows, which makes such drillers much more efficient than one-spindle drillers. However their defect is the lack of possibility to make holes in stud elements. Passage drillers are particularly affected by this problem and this is why research on this machine-tooling was undertaken. The project enables widening technological possibilities of multiple-spindle /gang/ drilling machines. This paper deals with the presentation of some types of tooling

Transparency and government accountability in Brexit negotiations

This chapter presents an analysis of the implications and the consequences of the United Kingdom’s (UK’s) decision to withdraw from the European Union (EU) in the context of the principle of transparency and the UK Government’s accountability in the Brexit negotiations. In political terms, the result of the 2016 Brexit referendum took on a particular role because its effects made it impossible for the UK Parliament to disregard the will of the people and in legal terms, the Her Majesty’s Government was unable to trigger Article 50 of the Treaty on the European Union (TUE). The outcome of the so-called Miller I case showed that the courts had been forced again to draw the boundaries of constitutional competence between the executive and the Parliament, in the sense that they had consistently backed Westminster. Thus, this chapter discusses that the credibility of the EU and the UK Government depended on the principle of transparency in the Brexit negotiations. The author argues that openness is a key element in ensuring accountability in the decision-making process. Taking into account the nature of the issue, it would be rational to expect both the EU and the UK to adopt a common approach to transparency, which was to result in increased responsibility

DRILL WEAR DURING THE BORING OF PARTICLE BOARD: A MULTI-FACTOR ANALYSIS INCLUDING EFFECTS OF MINERAL CONTAMINANTS

This paper evaluates and discusses multifactor non-linear, statistical dependencies of drill side-edges recession VBK and drill diameter recession DW on the cutting path length LC, the content of hard mineral contaminants CMC, the size of contaminant particles SMC, and the Mohs hardness MH. Significant influence of the cutting path LC, the content CMC of hard mineral contaminants (HMC), and the size of contaminant particles SMC was found, whereas the Mohs hardness MH of the contamination particles was less important

SPECIFIC RESISTANCE AND SPECIFIC INTENSITY OF BELT SANDING OF WOOD

This paper examines and discusses the specific belt sanding resistance K (N·cm-2) and specific belt sanding intensity SI (g·cm-2·min-1), for wood of Pinus sylvestris L., Picea abies L., Quercus robra L., Acer pseudoplatanus L., Alnus glutinosa Gaertn., and Populus Nigra L., by different sanding pressure pS, different sanding grit NG number, and different wood grain angles Phi(v)