3,939 research outputs found
A PC parallel port button box provides millisecond response time accuracy under Linux
No full textFor psychologists, it is sometimes necessary to measure people's reaction times to the nearest millisecond. This article describes how to use the PC parallel port to receive signals from a button box to achieve millisecond response time accuracy. The workings of the parallel port, the corresponding port addresses, and a simple Linux program for controlling the port are described. A test of the speed and reliability of button box signal detection is reported. If the reader is moderately familiar with Linux, this article should provide sufficient instruction for him or her to build and test his or her own parallel port button box. This article also describes how the parallel port could be used to control an external apparatus
Millisecond accuracy video display using OpenGL under Linux
No full textTo measure people’s reaction times to the nearest millisecond, it is necessary to know exactly when
a stimulus is displayed. This article describes how to display stimuli with millisecond accuracy on a
normal CRT monitor, using a PC running Linux. A simple C program is presented to illustrate how this
may be done within X Windows using the OpenGL rendering system. A test of this system is reported
that demonstrates that stimuli may be consistently displayed with millisecond accuracy. An algorithm
is presented that allows the exact time of stimulus presentation to be deduced, even if there are relatively
large errors in measuring the display time
Frontmatter (Titlepage, Table of Contents, Author List, PC List, Reviewer List)
No full textFront matter including table of contents, author list, PC list, and reviewer list
Impact of palliative care in evaluating and relieving symptoms in patients with advanced cancer. Results from the demetra study
No full textBackground: Cancer patients experience multiple symptoms throughout the course of the disease. We aimed to provide a comprehensive analysis of the symptom burden in patients with advanced cancer at admission to specialist palliative care (PC) services and seven days later to estimate the immediate impact of PC intervention. Patient and methods: The analysis was based on an observational, prospective, multicenter study (named DEMETRA) conducted in Italy on new patients accessing network specialist PC centers during the period May 2017–November 2017. The prevalence and intensity of symptoms were assessed at baseline and after seven days using three tools including the Edmonton Symptom Assessment System (ESAS). Results: Five PC centers recruited 865 cancer patients. Thirty-three different symptoms were observed at the baseline, the most frequent being asthenia (84.9%) and poor well-being (71%). The intensity of the most frequent symptoms according to ESAS ranged from 5.5 for asthenia to 3.9 for nausea. The presence and intensity of physical symptoms increased with increasing levels of anxiety and depression. After seven days, prevalence of nausea and breathlessness as well as intensity of almost all symptoms significantly decreased. Conclusions: The study confirmed the considerable symptom burden of patients with advanced cancer. PC intervention has significantly reduced the severity of symptoms, despite the patients’ advanced disease and short survival
High efficiency implementation of PC and PC stable algorithms yields three-dimensional graphs of information flow for the Earth' atmosphere
No full textSeptember 3, 2014.Causal discovery algorithms have recently been applied to several climate applications. In particular, in prior work we have developed methods to recover pathways of interaction in the global climate system, using the classic PC algorithm. However, standard implementations of the PC algorithm cannot handle the large number of variables and temporal models required for this application. This technical report shows that a more efficient implementation of the PC algorithm can provide speed gains of a factor of 1,000 or more. This in turn enables us to calculate graphs of information flow with much higher resolution grids. Furthermore, we can now - for the first time ever - calculate information flow graphs that extend over three dimensions, i.e. rather than just including one layer of the planet's atmosphere we can now capture interactions across several height layers
State variable simulation package for IBM-PC
No full textThis thesis was scanned from the print manuscript for digital preservation and is copyright the author.
Researchers can access this thesis by asking their local university, institution or public library to
make a request on their behalf. Monash staff and postgraduate students can use the link in the References field
Degradation of bisphenol-a-polycarbonate (BPA-PC) optical lenses under simulated harsh environment conditions
No full textThis paper investigates degradation and failure mechanisms of BPA-PC lenses in simulated harsh environment conditions. Exposure of secondary optics in Light Emitting Diode LED-based systems or any other similar applications to environmental stresses can adversely effect the performance and lifetime of products. This paper simulates a harsh environment condition, using a salt bath oven. Salt spray exposure/ageing tests at 45° C were carried out up to four months. Fourier transform infrared-attenuated total reflection FTIR-ATR spectrometer and Lambda 950 Ultraviolet-Visible (UV-VIS) spectrophotometer were used to study the optical and chemical characteristics of aged plates. Results showed that salt bath exposure test resulted in the severe deterioration of optical characteristics BPA-PC samples. Degradation of optical properties of BPA-PC plates is attributable to the oxidation of samples.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Electronic Components, Technology and Material
Family history of cancer and the risk of prostate cancer and benign prostatic hyperplasia
No full textWe analysed the relation between family history of cancer in first-degree relatives and risk of prostate cancer (PC) and benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) using data from a multicentric case-control study conducted in Italy from 1991 to 2002 on 1,294 cases of incident, histologically confirmed PC, 1,369 cases of BPH and 1,451 men admitted to the same network of hospitals for acute, nonneoplastic conditions. Unconditional logistic regression was used to estimate odds ratios (OR) of PC and BPH, adjusted for age and other confounders. Men with a family history of PC had an OR of PC of 4.0 (95% confidence interval [CI] 2.5-6.5), and the risk was higher when the proband was younger, when 2 or more relatives were affected or when the affected relative was a brother. The risk of PC was also increased in men with a family history of cancer of the ovary (OR = 6.2, 95% CI 1.2-32), bladder (OR = 3.5, 95 % CI 1.6-74) and kidney (OR = 3.1, 95 % CI 1.1-8.5). An involvement of breast/ovarian cancer predisposition genes in a small proportion of PCs was suggested by the cluster of these cancers in female relatives of a few PC cases. The risk of BPH was increased in men with a family history of bladder cancer (OR = 2.2, 95 % CI 1.0 -5.0) but not PC (OR = 1.2, 95 % CI 0.7-2.2). Our study adds further information on the association of family history of cancer and risk of PC and is, to our knowledge, the first comprehensive epidemiologic information on family history of cancer and risk of BPH. (C) 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc
Family history of cancer and the risk of prostate cancer and benign prostatic hyperplasia
No full textWe analysed the relation between family history of cancer in first-degree relatives and risk of prostate cancer (PC) and benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) using data from a multicentric case-control study conducted in Italy from 1991 to 2002 on 1,294 cases of incident, histologically confirmed PC, 1,369 cases of BPH and 1,451 men admitted to the same network of hospitals for acute, nonneoplastic conditions. Unconditional logistic regression was used to estimate odds ratios (OR) of PC and BPH, adjusted for age and other confounders. Men with a family history of PC had an OR of PC of 4.0 (95% confidence interval [CI] 2.5-6.5), and the risk was higher when the proband was younger, when 2 or more relatives were affected or when the affected relative was a brother. The risk of PC was also increased in men with a family history of cancer of the ovary (OR = 6.2, 95% CI 1.2-32), bladder (OR = 3.5, 95% CI 1.6-7.4) and kidney (OR = 3.1, 95% CI 1.1-8.5). An involvement of breast/ovarian cancer predisposition genes in a small proportion of PCs was suggested by the cluster of these cancers in female relatives of a few PC cases. The risk of BPH was increased in men with a family history of bladder cancer (OR = 2.2,95% CI 1.0-5.0) but not PC (OR = 1.2, 95% CI 0.7-2.2). Our study adds further information on the association of family history of cancer and risk of PC and is, to our knowledge, the first comprehensive epidemiologic information on family history of cancer and risk of BPH
Development and external validation of a predictive multivariable model for last-weeks survival of advanced cancer patients in the palliative home care setting (PACS)
No full textPurpose Various prognostic indexes have been proposed to improve physicians' ability to predict survival time in advanced cancer patients, admitted to palliative care (PC) with a survival probably to a few weeks of life, but no optimal score has been identified. The study aims therefore to develop and externally validate a new multivariable predictive model in this setting.Methods We developed a model to predict short-term overall survival in cancer patients on the basis of clinical factors collected at PC admission. The model was developed on 1020 cancer patients prospectively enrolled to home palliative care at VIDAS Milan, Italy, between May 2018 and February 2020 and followed-up to June 2020, and validated in two separate samples of 544 home care and 247 hospice patients.Results Among 68 clinical factors considered, five predictors were included in the predictive model, i.e., rattle, heart rate, anorexia, liver failure, and the Karnofsky performance status. Patient's survival probability at 5, 15, 30 and 45 days was estimated. The predictive model showed a good calibration and moderate discrimination (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve between 0.72 and 0.79) in the home care validation set, but model calibration was suboptimal in hospice patients.Conclusions The new multivariable predictive model for palliative cancer patients' survival (PACS model) includes clinical parameters routinely at patient's admission to PC and can be easily used to facilitate immediate and appropriate short-term clinical decisions for PC cancer patients in the home setting
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