Weight outcomes audit for 34,271 adults referred to a primary care/commercial weight management partnership scheme

Copyright © 2011 S. Karger AG, Basel.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Dynamics of aircraft antiskid braking systems

A computer study was performed to assess the accuracy of three brake pressure-torque mathematical models. The investigation utilized one main gear wheel, brake, and tire assembly of a McDonnell Douglas DC-9 series 10 airplane. The investigation indicates that the performance of aircraft antiskid braking systems is strongly influenced by tire characteristics, dynamic response of the antiskid control valve, and pressure-torque response of the brake. The computer study employed an average torque error criterion to assess the accuracy of the models. The results indicate that a variable nonlinear spring with hysteresis memory function models the pressure-torque response of the brake more accurately than currently used models

Discovery and Characterization of a Caustic Crossing Microlensing Event in the SMC

We present photometric observations and analysis of the second microlensing event detected towards the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), MACHO Alert 98-SMC-1. This event was detected early enough to allow intensive observation of the lightcurve. These observations revealed 98-SMC-1 to be the first caustic crossing, binary microlensing event towards the Magellanic Clouds to be discovered in progress. Frequent coverage of the evolving lightcurve allowed an accurate prediction for the date of the source crossing out of the lens caustic structure. The caustic crossing temporal width, along with the angular size of the source star, measures the proper motion of the lens with respect to the source, and thus allows an estimate of the location of the lens. Lenses located in the Galactic halo would have a velocity projected to the SMC of v^hat ~1500 km/s, while an SMC lens would typically have v^hat ~60 km/s. We have performed a joint fit to the MACHO/GMAN data presented here, including recent EROS data of this event. These joint data are sufficient to constrain the time for the lens to move an angle equal to the source angular radius; 0.116 +/- 0.010 days. We estimate a radius for the lensed source of 1.4 +/- 0.1 R_sun. This yields a projected velocity of v^hat = 84 +/- 9 km/s. Only 0.15% of halo lenses would be expected to have a v^hat value at least as small as this, while 31% of SMC lenses would be expected to have v^hat as large as this. This implies that the lensing system is more likely to reside in the SMC than in the Galactic halo.Comment: 16 pages, including 3 tables and 3 figures; submitted to The Astrophysical Journa

Hepatic Cryotherapy and Subsequent Hepatic Arterial Chemotherapy for Colorectal Metastases to the Liver

This paper presents an experience of thirty consecutive patients with hepatic colorectal metastases who were treated with hepatic cryotherapy and subsequent hepatic arterial infusion (HAI) chemotherapy using 5FU

Pressure ulcer related pain in community populations: a prevalence survey.

BACKGROUND: Pressure ulcers are costly to the healthcare provider and can have a major impact on patient's quality of life. One of the most distressing symptoms reported is pain. There is very little published data on the prevalence and details of pain experienced by patients with pressure ulcers, particularly in community populations. The study was conducted in two community NHS sites in the North of England. METHODS: The aim was to estimate the prevalence of pressure area related pain within a community population. We also explored the type and severity of the pain and its association with pressure ulcer classification. A cross-sectional survey was performed of community nurses caseloads to identify adult patients with pressure ulcers and associated pain. Consenting patients then had a full pain assessment and verification of pressure ulcer grade. RESULTS: A total of 287 patients were identified with pressure ulcers (0.51 per 1000 adult population). Of the 176 patients who were asked, 133 (75.6%) reported pain. 37 patients consented to a detailed pain assessment. Painful pressure ulcers of all grades and on nearly all body sites were identified. Pain intensity was not related to number or severity of pressure ulcer. Both inflammatory and neuropathic pain were reported at all body sites however the proportion of neuropathic pain was greater in pressure ulcers on lower limbs. CONCLUSIONS: This study has identified the extent and type of pain suffered by community patients with pressure ulcers and indicates the need for systematic and regular pain assessment and treatment

Probable Gravitational Microlensing towards the Galatic Bulge

The MACHO project carries out regular photometric monitoring of millions of stars in the Magellanic Clouds and Galactic Bulge, to search for very rare gravitational microlensing events due to compact objects in the galactic halo and disk. A preliminary analysis of one field in the Galactic Bulge, containing {$\sim430,000$} stars observed for 190 days, reveals four stars which show clear evidence for brightenings which are time-symmetric, achromatic in our two passbands, and have shapes consistent with gravitational microlensing. This is significantly higher than the $\sim 1$ event expected from microlensing by known stars in the disk. If all four events are due to microlensing, a 95\% confidence lower limit on the optical depth towards our bulge field is $1.3 \times 10^{-6}$, and a ``best fit" value is $\tau \approx 1.6 \times 10^{-6}/\epsilon$,where $\epsilon$ is the detection efficiency of the experiment, and $\epsilon < 0.4$. If the true optical depth is close to the ``best fit" value, possible explanations include a ``maximal" disk which accounts for most of the galactic circular velocity at the solar radius, a halo which is centrally concentrated, or bulge-bulge microlensing.Comment: submitted to Astrophysical Journal Letters, 10 pages text as uuencoded compressed PostScript, 5 figures and paper also available via anonymous ftp from merlin.anu.edu.au in /pub/kcf/mach

Damage identification in a concrete beam using curvature difference ratio

Previous studies utilising changes in mode shape or curvature to locate damage rely on the fact that the greatest change occurs around the defect. However, in concrete beams this fact is undermined due to the nature of the defect as distributed multi-site cracks. In addition, differences in mode shape and curvature as ways to locate the damage is unstable because of occurrence of modal nodes and inflection points. In this paper, one interesting solution to this problem is being tested by establishing a new non-dimensional expression designated the 'Curvature Difference Ratio (CDR)'. This parameter exploits the ratio of differences in curvature of a specific mode shape for a damaged stage and another reference stage. The expression CDR is reasonably used to locate the damage and estimate the dynamic bending stiffness in a successively loaded 6m concrete beam. Results obtained by the proposed technique are tested and validated with a case study results done by Ren and De Roeck [1] also by Maeck and De Roeck [2]. Another contribution of this work is that relating changes in vibration properties to the design bending moment at beam sections as defined in Eurocode 2 specifications [3]. Linking between a beam section condition and the change in vibration data will help to give a better comprehension on the beam condition than the applied load

TB123: Experimental Application of B.t.i. for Larval Black Fly Control: Persistance and Downstream Carry, Efficacy, Impact on Non-target Invertebrates and Fish Feeding

In the summer of 1985 a field experiment was conducted in the Sugarloaf area of Maine on the use of B.t.i. to reduce the numbers of black fly larvae in the Carrabassett River and a tributary stream. The objectives were to determine the rate of application necessary to produce an acceptable reduction in black fly larvae, to study the fate and persistence of B.t.i. in a stream following application, to determine the impact of B.t.i. on the abundance and drift of non-target stream insects and on the feeding success and diet composition of fishes in the treated streams.https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/aes_techbulletin/1083/thumbnail.jp

TB148: Alternative Forage Plants for Native (Wild) Bees Associated with Lowbush Blueberry, Vaccinium spp., in Maine

To determine potentially suitable alternative food sources for important native bee pollinators of blueberry, the primary objectives of the present research were (1) to compile the published North American nectar, pollen, and flower records; (2) to analyze the pollen loads of native bees associated with Vaccinium spp. in Maine; and (3) to survey distribution and abundance patterns of native bee populations in Maine blueberry fields.https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/aes_techbulletin/1048/thumbnail.jp

Photometry and spectroscopy of faint candidate spectrophotometric standard DA white dwarfs

We present precise photometry and spectroscopy for 23 candidate spectrophotometric standard white dwarfs. The selected stars are distributed in the Northern hemisphere and around the celestial equators and are all fainter than r ~ 16.5 mag. This network of stars, when established as standards, together with the three Hubble Space Telescope primary CALSPEC white dwarfs, will provide a set of spectrophotometric standards to directly calibrate data products to better than 1%. These new faint standard white dwarfs will have enough signal-to-noise ratio in future deep photometric surveys and facilities to be measured accurately while still avoiding saturation in such surveys. They will also fall within the dynamic range of large telescopes and their instruments for the foreseeable future. This paper discusses the provenance of the observational data for our candidate standard stars. The comparison with models, reconciliation with reddening, and the consequent derivation of the full spectral energy density distributions for each of them is reserved for a subsequent paper.Comment: 31 pages, 17 figures, 10 tables, ApJ in press (accepted on December 23rd, 2018