Home-grown CASE tools with XML and XSLT

This paper demonstrates an approach to software generation where xml representations of models are transformed to implementations by XSLT style sheets. Although XSLT was not primarily intended for this use, it serves quite well. There are only few problems in this approach, and we identify these based on our examples

Examining collusion and voting biases between countries during the Eurovision song contest since 1957

The Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) is an annual event which attracts millions of viewers. It is an interesting activity to examine since the participants of the competition represent a particular country's musical performance that will be awarded a set of scores from other participating countries based upon a quality assessment of a performance. There is a question of whether the countries will vote exclusively according to the artistic merit of the song, or if the vote will be a public signal of national support for another country. Since the competition aims to bring people together, any consistent biases in the awarding of scores would defeat the purpose of the celebration of expression and this has attracted researchers to investigate the supporting evidence for biases. This paper builds upon an approach which produces a set of random samples from an unbiased distribution of score allocation, and extends the methodology to use the full set of years of the competition's life span which has seen fundamental changes to the voting schemes adopted. By building up networks from statistically significant edge sets of vote allocations during a set of years, the results display a plausible network for the origins of the culture anchors for the preferences of the awarded votes. With 60 years of data, the results support the hypothesis of regional collusion and biases arising from proximity, culture and other irrelevant factors in regards to the music which that alone is intended to affect the judgment of the contest.Comment: to be published in JASS

The Einstein-Vlasov sytem/Kinetic theory

The main purpose of this article is to guide the reader to theorems on global properties of solutions to the Einstein-Vlasov system. This system couples Einstein's equations to a kinetic matter model. Kinetic theory has been an important field of research during several decades where the main focus has been on nonrelativistic- and special relativistic physics, e.g. to model the dynamics of neutral gases, plasmas and Newtonian self-gravitating systems. In 1990 Rendall and Rein initiated a mathematical study of the Einstein-Vlasov system. Since then many theorems on global properties of solutions to this system have been established. The Vlasov equation describes matter phenomenologically and it should be stressed that most of the theorems presented in this article are not presently known for other such matter models (e.g. fluid models). The first part of this paper gives an introduction to kinetic theory in non-curved spacetimes and then the Einstein-Vlasov system is introduced. We believe that a good understanding of kinetic theory in non-curved spacetimes is fundamental in order to get a good comprehension of kinetic theory in general relativity.Comment: 31 pages. This article has been submitted to Living Rev. Relativity (http://www.livingreviews.org

Feasibility of UV lasing without inversion in mercury vapor

We investigate the feasibility of UV lasing without inversion at a wavelength of $253.7$ nm utilizing interacting dark resonances in mercury vapor. Our theoretical analysis starts with radiation damped optical Bloch equations for all relevant 13 atomic levels. These master equations are generalized by considering technical phase noise of the driving lasers. From the Doppler broadened complex susceptibility we obtain the stationary output power from semiclassical laser theory. The finite overlap of the driving Gaussian laser beams defines an ellipsoidal inhomogeneous gain distribution. Therefore, we evaluate the intra-cavity field inside a ring laser self-consistently with Fourier optics. This analysis confirms the feasibility of UV lasing and reveals its dependence on experimental parameters.Comment: changes were made according to reviewer comments (accepted for publication in JOSA B

Global existence and asymptotic behaviour in the future for the Einstein-Vlasov system with positive cosmological constant

The behaviour of expanding cosmological models with collisionless matter and a positive cosmological constant is analysed. It is shown that under the assumption of plane or hyperbolic symmetry the area radius goes to infinity, the spacetimes are future geodesically complete, and the expansion becomes isotropic and exponential at late times. This proves a form of the cosmic no hair theorem in this class of spacetimes

Improving Smoking History Screening and Documentation to Increase Lung Cancer Screenings in Primary Care Clinics

BACKGROUND: In the United States, lung cancer has the highest mortality rate of all other cancers among men and women. Kentucky is ranked 50th among all states, leading the nation in new lung cancer cases each year. Lung cancer screening using Low dose Computed Tomography (LDCT) can reduce lung cancer-related morbidity and mortality. Lack of smoking history documentation to identify eligible patients is a major contributing factor to low national screening rates. Obtaining complete smoking history remains the most important technique in identifying candidates for lung cancer screening. PURPOSE: The purpose of this quality improvement project was to evaluate the rates of complete smoking history documentation and LDCT orders in one primary care setting after implementing evidence-based interventions to improve documentation and screening rates. METHODS: This quality improvement project followed a quasi-experimental design. Using the FOCUS-PDSA as the improvement model, baseline data for complete smoking history documentation and LDCT orders were analyzed, and a target goal was set. A total of three rapid cycles of change using evidence-based improvement strategies (patient information poster in exam room, staff education, and clinical reminder cards) were implemented and evaluated to assess changes in the amount of smoking history documentation recorded and lung cancer screening orders after each cycle. RESULTS: Smoking history documentation throughout the study improved significantly (p = .039). Documentation was significantly higher after the final cycle (PDSA cycle 3) compared to both cycle 1 (p=.022) and cycle 2 (p=.010) There was no significant difference in LDCT orders over the three cycles (p=0.248). There was minimal improvement overall when evaluating accurate documentation with ordering LDCT (p=0.30). CONCLUSION: Through the combination of interventions used, there was a significant increase in smoking history documentation throughout the study. No specific intervention used was found to have a significant improvement independently. LDCT orders were not affected substantially by the interventions used in combination with each other or individually. The results suggest that the use of clinical reminders had the greatest improvement in LDCT orders overall and had a significant increase in former smokers’ lung cancer screening orders within the chosen clinic

Pengaruh Ekstrak Etanol Buah Pinang Yaki (Areca Vestiaria ) Terhadap Gambaran Makroskopis Organ Lambung Pada Tikus Putih Jantan Galur Wistar (Rattus Norvegicus L.)

Pengaruh Ekstrak Etanol Buah Pinang Yaki (Areca vestiaria ) terhadap Gambaran Makroskopis Organ Lambung pada Tikus Putih Jantan Galur Wistar (Rattus norvegicus L.) Rein A. Gosal1), Widdhi Bodhi1), Herny Simbala1)1)Program Studi Farmasi FMIPA UNSRAT Manado, 95115 ABSTRACTCrownshaft palm (Areca vestiaria) is one of the plants that grow in North Sulawesi region which is widely used to cure diseases such as diabetes, diarrhea, and as a contraceptive drug. This study aims to determine the effect from ethanolic extract of crownshaft palm fruit (Areca vestiaria) against the description of gastric organ macroscopically. The method used was experimental methods and male white rats wistar strain as research subjects, totaling 12 rats, which are divided into three groups of dose were given ethanol extract of crownshaft palm nuts orally (7.2 mg / mL 14.4 mg / mL, 21.6 mg / mL) and a group as a negative control for comparison. The tests were carried out for 40 days, with observations made against the body weight of rats, gastric organ macroscopically and the weights of organ.The results were of stomach macroscopic picture of rats with treatment shows no difference compared to negative control. In the analysis using one-way ANOVA test showed no significant difference in the results of the weighing of body weight and rat gastric organ weights (p> 0.05). The conclusion of this study was the crownshaft palm fruithas noinfluence, which can damage the stomach of wistar rats. Keywords: Crownshaft palm (Areca vestiaria), gastric macroscopic, white rat (Rattusnorvegicus). ABSTRAKPinang yaki (Areca vestiaria) adalah salah satu tumbuhan yang tumbuh di daerah Sulawesi Utara yang banyak digunakan untuk menyembuhkan penyakit seperti diabetes, diare, dan sebagai obat kontrasepsi. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui pengaruh ekstrak etanol buah pinang yaki (Areca vestiaria) terhadap gambaran organ lambung secara makroskopis. Metode penelitian yang digunakan adalah metode eksperimental dan subjek penelitian menggunakan tikus putih jantan galur Wistar berjumlah 12 ekor, yang dibagi dalam tiga kelompok dosis yang diberi ekstrak etanol buah pinang yaki secara oral (7.2 mg/mL, 14.4 mg/mL, 21

Global existence of classical solutions to the Vlasov-Poisson system in a three dimensional, cosmological setting

The initial value problem for the Vlasov-Poisson system is by now well understood in the case of an isolated system where, by definition, the distribution function of the particles as well as the gravitational potential vanish at spatial infinity. Here we start with homogeneous solutions, which have a spatially constant, non-zero mass density and which describe the mass distribution in a Newtonian model of the universe. These homogeneous states can be constructed explicitly, and we consider deviations from such homogeneous states, which then satisfy a modified version of the Vlasov-Poisson system. We prove global existence and uniqueness of classical solutions to the corresponding initial value problem for initial data which represent spatially periodic deviations from homogeneous states.Comment: 23 pages, Latex, report #