Neutron dosimetry by reaction rate measurements in standard fast neutron fields

Imperial Users onl

Characterization of gram-positive bacterial isolates from burn victims

Streptococcus and Staphylococcus were collected from patients hospitalized at the Oregon Burn Center, Emanuel Hospital, Portland, Oregon, between October 27, 1980 and January 1, 1981. Forty-five isolates of Staphylococcus and twenty-one isolates of Streptococcus, Lancefield Group D, were included in the investigation. The objectives of the investigation were: (i) to identify to the species level all isolates, (ii) to determine their susceptibility to antimicrobial agents, (iii) to test the organisms. over time for increasing resistance to silver, (iv) to determine, if present, a bacterium harbored within the burn unit (nosocomial bacterium), and (v) to determine any recognizable pattern of successive bacterial colonization which occurred in hospitalized patients

Impact of wearable physical activity monitoring devices with exercise prescription or advice in the maintenance phase of cardiac rehabilitation: systematic review and meta-analysis

BackgroundPhysical activity (PA) is a component of cardiac rehabilitation (CR). However, life-long engagement in PA is required to maintain benefits gained. Wearable PA monitoring devices (WPAM) are thought to increase PA. There appear to be no reviews which investigate the effect of WPAM in cardiac populations. We firstly aimed to systematically review randomised controlled trials within the cardiac population that investigated the effect WPAM had through the maintenance phase of CR. We specifically examined the effect on cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), amount and intensity of daily PA, and sedentary time. Secondly, we aimed to collate outcome measures reported, reasons for drop out, adverse events, and psychological impact from utilising a WPAM.MethodsA systematic search (up to January 2019) of relevant databases was completed, followed by a narrative synthesis, meta-analysis and qualitative analysis.ResultsNine studies involving 1,352 participants were included. CRF was improved to a greater extent in participants using WPAM with exercise prescription or advice compared with controls (MD 1.65mL/kg/min;95% confidence interval [CI; 0.64-2.66]; p=0.001; I-2=0%). There was no significant between group difference in six-minute walk test distance. In 70% of studies, step count was greater in participants using a WPAM with exercise prescription or advice, however the overall effect was not significant (SMD 0.45;95% [CI; -0.17-1.07] p=0.15; I-2=81%). A sensitivity analysis resulted in significantly greater step counts in participants using a WPAM with exercise prescription or advice and reduced the heterogeneity from 81 to 0% (SMD 0.78;95% [CI;0.54-1.02];

Development and evaluation of lessons for class and group situations in grade one

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

System model development for nuclear thermal propulsion

A critical enabling technology in the evolutionary development of nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) is the ability to predict the system performance under a variety of operating conditions. This is crucial for mission analysis and for control subsystem testing as well as for the modeling of various failure modes. Performance must be accurately predicted during steady-state and transient operation, including startup, shutdown, and post operation cooling. The development and application of verified and validated system models has the potential to reduce the design, testing, and cost and time required for the technology to reach flight-ready status. Since Oct. 1991, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Department of Defense (DOD), and NASA have initiated critical technology development efforts for NTP systems to be used on Space Exploration Initiative (SEI) missions to the Moon and Mars. This paper presents the strategy and progress of an interagency NASA/DOE/DOD team for NTP system modeling. It is the intent of the interagency team to develop several levels of computer programs to simulate various NTP systems. The first level will provide rapid, parameterized calculations of overall system performance. Succeeding computer programs will provide analysis of each component in sufficient detail to guide the design teams and experimental efforts. The computer programs will allow simulation of the entire system to allow prediction of the integrated performance. An interagency team was formed for this task to use the best capabilities available and to assure appropriate peer review

Revisiting the Core Ontology and Problem in Requirements Engineering

In their seminal paper in the ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology, Zave and Jackson established a core ontology for Requirements Engineering (RE) and used it to formulate the "requirements problem", thereby defining what it means to successfully complete RE. Given that stakeholders of the system-to-be communicate the information needed to perform RE, we show that Zave and Jackson's ontology is incomplete. It does not cover all types of basic concerns that the stakeholders communicate. These include beliefs, desires, intentions, and attitudes. In response, we propose a core ontology that covers these concerns and is grounded in sound conceptual foundations resting on a foundational ontology. The new core ontology for RE leads to a new formulation of the requirements problem that extends Zave and Jackson's formulation. We thereby establish new standards for what minimum information should be represented in RE languages and new criteria for determining whether RE has been successfully completed.Comment: Appears in the proceedings of the 16th IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference, 2008 (RE'08). Best paper awar

Convergence Conditions for Random Quantum Circuits

Efficient methods for generating pseudo-randomly distributed unitary operators are needed for the practical application of Haar distributed random operators in quantum communication and noise estimation protocols. We develop a theoretical framework for analyzing pseudo-random ensembles generated through a random circuit composition. We prove that the measure over random circuits converges exponentially (with increasing circuit length) to the uniform (Haar) measure on the unitary group and describe how the rate of convergence may be calculated for specific applications.Comment: 4 pages (revtex), comments welcome. v2: reference added, title changed; v3: published version, minor changes, references update