A Boundary Meshless Method Using Chebyshev Interpolation and Trigonometric Basis Function for Solving Heat Conduction Problems

A boundary meshless method has been developed to solve the heat conduction equations through the use of a newly established two-stage approximation scheme and a trigonometric series expansion scheme to approximate the particular solution and fundamental solution, respectively. As a result, no fundamental solution is required and the closed form of approximate particular solution is easy to obtain. The effectiveness of the proposed computational scheme is demonstrated by several examples in 2D and 31). We also compare our proposed method with the finite-difference method and the other meshless method showed in Sarler and Vertnik (Comput. Math. Appl. 2006; 51:1269-1282). Excellent numerical results have been observed. Copyright (C) 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

A new method for studying the vibration of non-homogeneous membranes

We present a method to solve the Helmholtz equation for a non-homogeneous membrane with Dirichlet boundary conditions at the border of arbitrary two-dimensional domains. The method uses a collocation approach based on a set of localized functions, called "little sinc functions", which are used to discretize two-dimensional regions. We have performed extensive numerical tests and we have compared the results obtained with the present method with the ones available from the literature. Our results show that the present method is very accurate and that its implementation for general problems is straightforward.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures, 6 table

Inverse heat conduction problems by using particular solutions

Based on the method of fundamental solutions, we develop in this paper a new computational method to solve two-dimensional transient heat conduction inverse problems. The main idea is to use particular solutions as radial basis functions (PSRBF) for approximation of the solutions to the inverse heat conduction problems. The heat conduction equations are first analyzed in the Laplace transformed domain and the Durbin inversion method is then used to determine the solutions in the time domain. Least-square and singular value decomposition (SVD) techniques are adopted to solve the ill-conditioned linear system of algebraic equations obtained from the proposed PSRBF method. To demonstrate the effectiveness and simplicity of this approach, several numerical examples are given with satisfactory accuracy and stability.Peer reviewe

Health Alliance for Prudent Prescribing, Yield and Use of Antimicrobial Drugs in the Treatment of Respiratory Tract Infections (HAPPY AUDIT)

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Excessive and inappropriate use of antibiotics is considered to be the most important reason for development of bacterial resistance to antibiotics. As antibiotic resistance may spread across borders, high prevalence countries may serve as a source of bacterial resistance for countries with a low prevalence. Therefore, bacterial resistance is an important issue with a potential serious impact on all countries.</p> <p>The majority of respiratory tract infections (RTIs) are treated in general practice. Most infections are caused by virus and antibiotics are therefore unlikely to have any clinical benefit. Several intervention initiatives have been taken to reduce the inappropriate use of antibiotics in primary health care, but the effectiveness of these interventions is only modest. Only few studies have been designed to determine the effectiveness of multifaceted strategies in countries with different practice setting. The aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of a multifaceted intervention targeting general practitioners (GPs) and patients in six countries with different prevalence of antibiotic resistance: Two Nordic countries (Denmark and Sweden), two Baltic Countries (Lithuania and Kaliningrad-Russia) and two Hispano-American countries (Spain and Argentina).</p> <p>Methods/Design</p> <p>HAPPY AUDIT was initiated in 2008 and the project is still ongoing. The project includes 15 partners from 9 countries. GPs participating in HAPPY AUDIT will be audited by the Audit Project Odense (APO) method. The APO method will be used at a multinational level involving GPs from six countries with different cultural background and different organisation of primary health care. Research on the effect of the intervention will be performed by analysing audit registrations carried out before and after the intervention. The intervention includes training courses on management of RTIs, dissemination of clinical guidelines with recommendations for diagnosis and treatment, posters for the waiting room, brochures to patients and implementation of point of care tests (Strep A and CRP) to be used in the GPs'surgeries.</p> <p>To ensure public awareness of the risk of resistant bacteria, media campaigns targeting both professionals and the public will be developed and the results will be published and widely disseminated at a Working Conference hosted by the World Association of Family Doctors (WONCA-Europe) at the end of the project period.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>HAPPY AUDIT is an EU-financed project with the aim of contributing to the battle against antibiotic resistance through quality improvement of GPs' diagnosis and treatment of RTIs through development of intervention programmes targeting GPs, parents of young children and healthy adults. It is hypothesized that the use of multifaceted strategies combining active intervention by GPs will be effective in reducing prescribing of unnecessary antibiotics for RTIs and improving the use of appropriate antibiotics in suspected bacterial infections.</p

Health Alliance for prudent antibiotic prescribing in patients with respiratory tract infections (HAPPY AUDIT) -impact of a non-randomised multifaceted intervention programme

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Excessive use of antibiotics is worldwide the most important reason for development of antimicrobial resistance. As antibiotic resistance may spread across borders, high prevalence countries may serve as a source of bacterial resistance for countries with a low prevalence. Therefore, bacterial resistance is an important issue with a potential serious impact on all countries. Initiatives have been taken to improve the quality of antibiotic prescribing in primary care, but only few studies have been designed to determine the effectiveness of multifaceted strategies across countries with different practice setting. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of a multifaceted intervention targeting general practitioners (GPs) and patients in six countries with different health organization and different prevalence of antibiotic resistance.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>GPs from two Nordic countries, two Baltic Countries and two Hispano-American countries registered patients with respiratory tract infections (RTIs) in 2008 and 2009. After first registration they received individual prescriber feedback and they were offered an intervention programme that included training courses, clinical guidelines, posters for waiting rooms, patient brochures and access to point of care tests (Strep A and C-Reactive Protein). Antibiotic prescribing rates were compared before and after the intervention.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A total of 440 GPs registered 47011 consultations; 24436 before the intervention (2008) and 22575 after the intervention (2009). After the intervention, the GPs significantly reduced the percentage of consultations resulting in an antibiotic prescription. In patients with lower RTI the GPs in Lithuania reduced the prescribing rate by 42%, in Russia by 25%, in Spain by 25%, and in Argentina by 9%. In patients with upper RTIs, the corresponding reductions in the antibiotic prescribing rates were in Lithania 20%, in Russia 15%, in Spain 9%, and in Argentina 5%.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>A multifaceted intervention programme targeting GPs and patients and focusing on improving diagnostic procedures in patients with RTIs may lead to a marked reduction in antibiotic prescribing. The pragmatic before-after design used may suffer from some limitations and the reduction in antibiotic prescribing could be influenced by factors not related to the intervention.</p

Engineering Analysis with Boundary Elements 31 The method of fundamental solutions for problems of free vibrations of plates

Abstract In this paper a new boundary method for problems of free vibrations of plates is presented. The method is based on mathematically modelling of the physical response of a system to external excitation over a range of frequencies. The response amplitudes are then used to determine the resonant frequencies. So, contrary to the traditional scheme, the method described does not involve evaluation of determinants of linear systems. The method shows a high precision in simply and doubly connected domains. The results of the numerical experiments justifying the method are presented.