The Case for Combining a Large Low-Band Very High Frequency Transmitter With Multiple Receiving Arrays for Geospace Research: A Geospace Radar

We argue that combining a high‐power, large‐aperture radar transmitter with several large‐aperture receiving arrays to make a geospace radar—a radar capable of probing near‐Earth space from the upper troposphere through to the solar corona—would transform geospace research. We review the emergence of incoherent scatter radar in the 1960s as an agent that unified early, pioneering research in geospace in a common theoretical, experimental, and instrumental framework, and we suggest that a geospace radar would have a similar effect on future developments in space weather research. We then discuss recent developments in radio‐array technology that could be exploited in the development of a geospace radar with new or substantially improved capabilities compared to the radars in use presently. A number of applications for a geospace radar with the new and improved capabilities are reviewed including studies of meteor echoes, mesospheric and stratospheric turbulence, ionospheric flows, plasmaspheric and ionospheric irregularities, and reflection from the solar corona and coronal mass ejections. We conclude with a summary of technical requirements

Global IT and IT-enabled services

Several topics that were covered during the IEEE Symposium on Advanced Management of Information for Globalized Enterprises (AMIGE) held in September 2008, in Tianjin, China, are presented. The symposium focused on the globalized information management, a multidisciplinary covering such fields as computer science, industrial engineering, information systems, management science and engineering, and operations management. The research in global IT and IT-enabled services covers a wide spectrum of topics that include business processes and management in a global setting, such as global workflow technologies and applications, global information system integration and interaction, and global knowledge management. One of the topics focused on the importance of business process modeling technologies and security requirements in order to derive a trust federation from formally described business process models.published_or_final_versionSpringer Open Choice, 21 Feb 201

Weakest-link failure prediction for ceramics

Weakest-link failure prediction for ceramic components is usually based on strength data obtained from 3- and 4-point bend tests. However, in the route from test specimen to actual component several pitfalls are encountered. Firstly, the bend tests themselves do have their problems. Secondly, there is the problem of the interpretation of the uniaxial strength data in terms of a failure criterium for multiaxial stress states, for which at this juncture no universally applicable model is available. In this contribution the difficulties encountered will be summarized. Besides alternatives will be mentioned which are based on microstructural insight and anisotropic deformation models

Economic evaluation of the NET intervention versus guideline dissemination for management of mild head injury in hospital emergency departments

BACKGROUND: Evidence-based guidelines for the management of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) in the emergency department (ED) are now widely available, and yet, clinical practice remains inconsistent with the guidelines. The Neurotrauma Evidence Translation (NET) intervention was developed to increase the uptake of guideline recommendations and improve the management of minor head injury in Australian emergency departments (EDs). However, the adoption of this type of intervention typically entails an upfront investment that may or may not be fully offset by improvements in clinical practice, health outcomes and/or reductions in health service utilisation. The present study estimates the cost and cost-effectiveness of the NET intervention, as compared to the passive dissemination of the guideline, to evaluate whether any improvements in clinical practice or health outcomes due to the NET intervention can be obtained at an acceptable cost. METHODS AND FINDINGS: Study setting: The NET cluster randomised controlled trial [ACTRN12612001286831]. Study sample: Seventeen EDs were randomised to the control condition and 14 to the intervention. One thousand nine hundred forty-three patients were included in the analysis of clinical practice outcomes (NET sample). A total of 343 patients from 14 control and 10 intervention EDs participated in follow-up interviews and were included in the analysis of patient-reported health outcomes (NET-Plus sample). Outcome measures: Appropriate post-traumatic amnesia (PTA) screening in the ED (primary outcome). Secondary clinical practice outcomes: provision of written information on discharge (INFO) and safe discharge (defined as CT scan appropriately provided plus PTA plus INFO). Secondary patient-reported, post-discharge health outcomes: anxiety (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale), post-concussive symptoms (Rivermead), and preference-based health-related quality of life (SF6D). Methods: Trial-based economic evaluations from a health sector perspective, with time horizons set to coincide with the final follow-up for the NET sample (2 months post-intervention) and to 1-month post-discharge for the NET-Plus sample. Results: Intervention and control groups were not significantly different in health service utilisation received in the ED/inpatient ward following the initial mTBI presentation (adjusted mean difference $23.86 per patient; 95$106, $153; p = 0.719) or over the longer follow-up in the NET-plus sample (adjusted mean difference$341.78 per patient; 95%CI − $58,$742; p = 0.094). Savings from lower health service utilisation are therefore unlikely to offset the significantly higher upfront cost of the intervention (mean difference $138.20 per patient; 95$135, $141; p < 0.000). Estimates of the net effect of the intervention on total cost (intervention cost net of health service utilisation) suggest that the intervention entails significantly higher costs than the control condition (adjusted mean difference$169.89 per patient; 95%CI $43,$297, p = 0.009). This effect is larger in absolute magnitude over the longer follow-up in the NET-plus sample (adjusted mean difference $505.06; 95$96, $915; p = 0.016), mostly due to additional health service utilisation. For the primary outcome, the NET intervention is more costly and more effective than passive dissemination; entailing an additional cost of$1246 per additional patient appropriately screened for PTA ($169.89/0.1363; Fieller’s 95$525, $2055). For NET to be considered cost-effective with 95% confidence, decision-makers would need to be willing to trade one quality-adjusted life year (QALY) for 25 additional patients appropriately screened for PTA. While these results reflect our best estimate of cost-effectiveness given the data, it is possible that a NET intervention that has been scaled and streamlined ready for wider roll-out may be more or less cost-effective than the NET intervention as delivered in the trial. CONCLUSION: While the NET intervention does improve the management of mTBI in the ED, it also entails a significant increase in cost and—as delivered in the trial—is unlikely to be cost-effective at currently accepted funding thresholds. There may be a scope for a scaled-up and streamlined NET intervention to achieve a better balance between costs and outcomes. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN12612001286831, date registered 12 December 2012

Using interpretative phenomenological analysis to inform physiotherapy practice: An introduction with reference to the lived experience of cerebellar ataxia

The attached file is a pre-published version of the full and final paper which can be found at the link below.This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.Qualitative research methods that focus on the lived experience of people with health conditions are relatively underutilised in physiotherapy research. This article aims to introduce interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA), a research methodology oriented toward exploring and understanding the experience of a particular phenomenon (e.g., living with spinal cord injury or chronic pain, or being the carer of someone with a particular health condition). Researchers using IPA try to find out how people make sense of their experiences and the meanings they attach to them. The findings from IPA research are highly nuanced and offer a fine grained understanding that can be used to contextualise existing quantitative research, to inform understanding of novel or underresearched topics or, in their own right, to provoke a reappraisal of what is considered known about a specified phenomenon. We advocate IPA as a useful and accessible approach to qualitative research that can be used in the clinical setting to inform physiotherapy practice and the development of services from the perspective of individuals with particular health conditions.This article is available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund

Histologically proven myocardial carcinoid metastases: the value of multimodality imaging

We present a case of a patient with intramyocardial metastases from a carcinoid tumor. These findings were detected using cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging, with functional metabolic activity analyzed using nuclear imaging and confirmed by histologic findings at surgical biopsy. This case highlights the value of cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging and the importance of multimodality imaging

Punctate White Matter Lesions Associated With Altered Brain Development And Adverse Motor Outcome In Preterm Infants.

Preterm infants who develop neurodevelopmental impairment do not always have recognized abnormalities on cerebral ultrasound, a modality routinely used to assess prognosis. In a high proportion of infants, MRI detects punctate white matter lesions that are not seen on ultrasonography. To determine the relation of punctate lesions to brain development and early neurodevelopmental outcome we used multimodal brain MRI to study a large cohort of preterm infants. Punctate lesions without other focal cerebral or cerebellar lesions were detected at term equivalent age in 123 (24.3%) (59 male) of the 506 infants, predominantly in the centrum semiovale and corona radiata. Infants with lesions had higher gestational age, birth weight, and less chronic lung disease. Punctate lesions showed a dose dependent relation to abnormalities in white matter microstructure, assessed with tract-based spatial statistics, and reduced thalamic volume (p < 0.0001), and predicted unfavourable motor outcome at a median (range) corrected age of 20.2 (18.4-26.3) months with sensitivity (95% confidence intervals) 71 (43-88) and specificity 72 (69-77). Punctate white matter lesions without associated cerebral lesions are common in preterm infants currently not regarded as at highest risk for cerebral injury, and are associated with widespread neuroanatomical abnormalities and adverse early neurodevelopmental outcome

Variation in Vector Competence for Dengue Viruses Does Not Depend on Mosquito Midgut Binding Affinity

Several factors, such as mosquito and virus genetics and environmental variables, determine the ability of mosquitoes to transmit dengue viruses. In this report, we describe new and important information that in some ways contradicts what is in the literature. Midgut infection barriers have been described as important determinants of virus transmission in mosquitoes but we found that virus binding to these midgut cells does not vary. When we compared binding of 8 different, low passage dengue viruses to mosquito midguts that were dissected out of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes (the main vectors of dengue) from Mexico and Texas, we found that there were no differences. Previously, we (and others) had shown that these same viruses differed significantly in replication and dissemination throughout the rest of the mosquito body, including the salivary glands, and therefore they differed greatly in their potential to be transmitted to humans. Thus, the data presented here are important considerations for future studies of vector competence and in determining strategies for control of dengue viruses in the vector