An Improved Method for Obtaining Small Pressed Powder Pellets for the Analysis by XRF

A rapid, very low cost of instrumentation and simple approach to specimen preparation for the analysis by X-ray fluorescence spectrometry is presented. This technique requires a few mg of powdered samples, which are compressed to produce pellets. This procedure is employed for determining major, minor and trace elements in muscovites and K-feldspars. Factors affecting measured intensities, such as particle size and distribution, surface texture, pelletizing pressure, etc, are considered. A description of the new sample preparation device, including technical characteristics, is also given. It is demonstrated that suitable specimen presentation to the X-ray beam is obtained by using our procedure.Fil: D`angelo, José Alejandro. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - San Luis. Instituto de Química de San Luis. Universidad Nacional de San Luis. Facultad de Química, Bioquímica y Farmacia. Instituto de Química de San Luis; ArgentinaFil: Strasser, Edgardo. Universidad Nacional de San Luis. Facultad de Química, Bioquímica y Farmacia; ArgentinaFil: Marchevsky, Eduardo Jorge. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - San Luis. Instituto de Química de San Luis. Universidad Nacional de San Luis. Facultad de Química, Bioquímica y Farmacia. Instituto de Química de San Luis; ArgentinaFil: Perino, Ernesto. Universidad Nacional de San Luis. Facultad de Química, Bioquímica y Farmacia; Argentin

The impact of care competency training for primary care nurses in South Africa

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 184-200).To effectively support the primary health care transformation of the South African health system, human resource development is needed. Nurses, at the forefront of primary care service delivery, urgently need support and advancement to fulfill their role. This study aimed to investigate the impact of core competency training on primary care nurse competence. To begin this investigation, a framework or core competencies was generated through two reference group meetings. This work was followed by a Delphi study to further define core competence in primary care nursing and how best to measure such competence. Nine core competencies were defined which led to the development and piloting of a core competency evaluation tool including a self-lest and observation tool. This early work was followed by the implementation and evaluation of a novel core-competency training program. This program was implemented within district health systems with working clinic nurses. It involved tour distinct sites in three different provinces. A total of 162 nurses took part in the study, including an intervention and reference group. The goal was to assess the impact of training in a real world setting. Using the self-lest and observation tools, this study showed that competence does improve with this type of training. Additionally, competence is most reliably assessed through observation since test familiarity and possible contamination decrease the usefulness of repeated self-test measures. Further assessment or this novel training program and ref1nement of the measurement tool are recommended. This study can serve to inform health policies, particularly regarding human resource development within emerging district health systems. It provides a practical and effective training approach for increasing nurse performance of primary care core competencies

The impact of care competency training for primary care nurses in South Africa

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 184-200).To effectively support the primary health care transformation of the South African health system, human resource development is needed. Nurses, at the forefront of primary care service delivery, urgently need support and advancement to fulfill their role. This study aimed to investigate the impact of core competency training on primary care nurse competence. To begin this investigation, a framework or core competencies was generated through two reference group meetings. This work was followed by a Delphi study to further define core competence in primary care nursing and how best to measure such competence. Nine core competencies were defined which led to the development and piloting of a core competency evaluation tool including a self-lest and observation tool. This early work was followed by the implementation and evaluation of a novel core-competency training program. This program was implemented within district health systems with working clinic nurses. It involved tour distinct sites in three different provinces. A total of 162 nurses took part in the study, including an intervention and reference group. The goal was to assess the impact of training in a real world setting. Using the self-lest and observation tools, this study showed that competence does improve with this type of training. Additionally, competence is most reliably assessed through observation since test familiarity and possible contamination decrease the usefulness of repeated self-test measures. Further assessment or this novel training program and ref1nement of the measurement tool are recommended. This study can serve to inform health policies, particularly regarding human resource development within emerging district health systems. It provides a practical and effective training approach for increasing nurse performance of primary care core competencies

Historical-institutionalist perspectives on the development of the EU budget system

The EU budget has only recently started to feature in theories of European integration. Studies typically adopt a historical-institutionalist framework, exploring notions such as path dependency. They have, however, generally been rather aggregated, or coarse-grained, in their approach. The EU budget has thus been treated as a single entity rather than a series of inter-linked institutions. This paper seeks to address these lacunae by adopting a fine-grained approach. This enables us to emphasize the connections that exist between EU budgetary institutions, in both time and space. We show that the initial set of budgetary institutions was unable, over time, to achieve consistently their treaty-based objectives. In response, rather than reform these institutions at potentially high political cost, additional institutions were layered on top of the extant structures. We thus demonstrate how some EU budgetary institutions have remained unchanged, whilst others have been added or changed over time

A mapping approach to synchronization in the "Zajfman trap": stability conditions and the synchronization mechanism

We present a two particle model to explain the mechanism that stabilizes a bunch of positively charged ions in an "ion trap resonator" [Pedersen etal, Phys. Rev. Lett. 87 (2001) 055001]. The model decomposes the motion of the two ions into two mappings for the free motion in different parts of the trap and one for a compressing momentum kick. The ions' interaction is modelled by a time delay, which then changes the balance between adjacent momentum kicks. Through these mappings we identify the microscopic process that is responsible for synchronization and give the conditions for that regime.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures; submitted to Phys Rev

Bryozoan beds in northern Italy as a shallow-water expression of environmental changes during Oligocene isotope event 1

Shifts in carbonate-producing biotic communities in the geological record provide evidence of past environmental changes in the neritic realm. The shallow-marine Calcare di Nago Formation exposed in the San Valentino section (northern Italy) covers the Late Eocene and Earliest Oligocene. The succession is characterized by the occurrence of light-dependent biota such as coralline algae and larger benthic foraminifera. In the uppermost part of the section, however,\ the fossil association is dominated by bryozoans, which are filter-feeder organisms. This ca. 12 m thick interval locally contains up to 86% bryozoans, while coralline algae as well as larger benthic foraminifera are absent. Coralline algae and nummulitid foraminifera recover in the upper part of the bryozoan beds, whereas orthophragminids do not recover. The gradual disappearance of larger foraminifera and coralline algae within the bryozoan-dominated deposits is coeval with a pronounced positive shift in δ13C. Based on its biostratigraphic position, this positive shift is interpreted to be linked to the positive shift in δ13C recognized in deep-sea records shortly above the Eocene-Oligocene boundary, which in turn is associated to the positive shift in δ18O leading to the Oi-1 (Oligocene isotope event 1) cooling phase. Total phosphorus content increases in the bryozoan beds, suggesting enhanced nutrient supply to the neritic ecosystem. This phosphorous peak is coeval with the globally recognized increment in ocean productivity around the Oi-1 and δ13C positive shift. Thus, disappearance of light-dependent biota and the dominance of bryozoans in the platform carbonates studied are interpreted to result not necessarily from a deepening of the depositional environment but from the combination of lower sea-surface temperatures and the deterioration of underwater light conditions on account of elevated turbidity in surface waters, resulting from enhanced primary productivity. As bryozoan beds occur in several Italian localities around the Eocene-Oligocene boundary, they are interpreted to represent the regional expression of neritic carbonate depositional systems to global environmental changes occurring at the dawn of an ice-house Earth

Structure of sufficient quantum coarse-grainings

Let H and K be Hilbert spaces and T be a coarse-graining from B(H) to B(K). Assume that density matrices D_1 and D_2 acting on H are given. In the paper the consequences of the existence of a coarse-graining S from B(K) to B(H) satisfying ST(D_1)=D_1 and ST(D_2)=D_2 are given. (This condition means the sufficiency of T for D_1 and D_2.) Sufficiency implies a particular decomposition of the density matrices. This decomposition allows to deduce the exact condition for equality in the strong subadditivity of the von Neumann entropy.Comment: 13 pages, LATE

Measuring the Discernability of Virtual Objects in Conventional and Stylized Augmented Reality

In augmented reality, virtual graphical objects are overlaid over the real environment of the observer. Conventional augmented reality systems normally use standard real-time rendering methods for generating the graphical representations of virtual objects. These renderings contain the typical artifacts of computer generated graphics, e.g., aliasing caused by the rasterization process and unrealistic, manually configured illumination models. Due to these artifacts, virtual objects look artifical and can easily be distinguished from the real environment. A different approach to generating augmented reality images is the basis of stylized augmented reality [FBS05c]. Here, similar types of artistic or illustrative stylization are applied to the virtual objects and the camera image of the real enviroment. Therefore, real and virtual image elements look significantly more similar and are less distinguishable from each other. In this paper, we present the results of a psychophysical study on the effectiveness of stylized augmented reality. In this study, a number of participants were asked to decide whether objects shown in images of augmented reality scenes are virtual or real. Conventionally rendered as well as stylized augmented reality images and short video clips were presented to the participants. The correctness of the participants' responses and their reaction times were recorded. The results of our study show that an equalized level of realism is achieved by using stylized augmented reality, i.e., that it is significantly more difficult to distinguish virtual objects from real objects

Desire Versus Efficacy in Smokers’ Paradoxical Reactions to Pictorial Health Warnings for Cigarettes

Pictorial health warnings on cigarette packs create aversive emotional reactions to smoking and induce thoughts about quitting; however, contrary to models of health behavior change, they do not appear to alter intentions to quit smoking. We propose and test a novel model of intention to quit an addictive habit such as smoking (the efficacy-desire model) that can explain this paradoxical effect. At the core of the model is the prediction that self-efficacy and desire to quit an addictive habit are inversely related. We tested the model in an online experiment that randomly exposed smokers (N = 3297) to a cigarette pack with one of three increasing levels of warning intensity. The results supported the model’s prediction that despite the effects of warnings on aversion to smoking, intention to quit smoking is an inverted U-shape function of the smoker’s self-efficacy for quitting. In addition, smokers with greater (lesser) quit efficacy relative to smoking efficacy increase (decrease) intentions to quit. The findings show that previous failures to observe effects of pictorial warning labels on quit intentions can be explained by the contradictory individual differences that warnings produce. Thus, the model explains the paradoxical finding that quit intentions do not change at the population level, even though smokers recognize the implications of warnings. The model suggests that pictorial warnings are effective for smokers with stronger quit-efficacy beliefs and provides guidance for how cigarette warnings and tobacco control strategies can be designed to help smokers quit