2,929 research outputs found
Psychiatric hospitalisation and the risk of suicide
No full textSummaryThe association between current or recent psychiatric hospitalisation and increased suicide risk is well described. This relationship is generally assumed to be due to the selection of people at increased risk of suicide for psychiatric admission and subsequent failure of protection from suicide once admitted. Here, Matthew Large and Nav Kapur debate whether or not admission to hospital also selects for vulnerability to certain harmful aspects of hospitalisation and whether the increased rate of suicide in current and recently discharged psychiatric patients is, in fact, due to psychiatric hospitalisation itself.Declaration of interestM.M.L. has provided expert testimony in legal proceedings following in-patient suicide. N.K. sits on the Department of Health (England) National Suicide Prevention Strategy Advisory group.</jats:sec
Drug binding sites on Nat1.8 sodium channels
Full text linkThe voltage-gated sodium channel, Nav 1.8, is known to play an important role in pain signalling. In this thesis, the functional properties and drug binding sites of wild type and mutant Nav 1.8 sodium channel currents were studied in mammalian sensory neuron-derived ND7/23 cells using whole-cell patch clamp.
While the voltage-dependence of activation was similar for wild type human and rat Nay 1.8 channels, the voltage-dependence of steady-state inactivation was more hyperpolarised for hNav 1.8 compared to rNav 1.8. Furthermore, as a consequence of the different time course for inactivation between human and rat channels, inhibition during frequent stimulation was less pronounced for hNav 1.8 than for rNav 1.8. Thus, this would imply that the human channel is more inactivated at normal resting potentials, and can support higher firing frequencies than the rat channel.
The action of tetracaine, ralfmamide, 227c89, Vl02862, and Nav1. 8-selective compound A-803467 on wild type hNav 1.8 and rNav 1.8 channels was studied. All compounds showed
preferential block of inactivated channels rather than resting channels. Compound A-803467 showed greater affinity for inactivated hNav 1.8 channels than for inactivated rNav 1.8 channels. Unexpectedly, an increase in current was observed for V102862 and A-803467 during recovery
from inactivation, likely due to "disinhibition" of resting block. For A-803467, rather than usedependent inhibition, this disinhibition increased the current during frequent stimulation, while for VI 02862 it led to the absence of inhibition during low frequency stimulation. Thus while
both V 102862 and A-803467 are potent inhibitors ofNav 1.8, V102862, rather than A-803467 might be a more useful blocker where physiological firing frequencies are higher.
Alanine mutations at residues 1381, N390, L14l0, V14l4, Il706, F1710 and Y1717 were made in the pore-lining S6 segments of the hN av 1. 8 channel, and at the corresponding positions in the rNav 1.8 channel. Many of the mutations caused shifts in voltage-dependence of activation and inactivation, and gave a faster time course of inactivation, indicating that the native residues
at these positions are important for both activation and inactivation in Nav 1.8 sodium channels.
The affinity of tetracaine for the resting and inactivated channels was reduced by hNav1.8 mutations 138lA, F1710A and Y1717A (only inactivated state affinity was measured for the
latter), and by mutation F17l0A for A-803467. For mutation L1410A both compounds caused complete resting block at very low concentrations; this block was removed by further
stimulation. While tetracaine did not show disinhibition for wild type channels during recovery from inactivation, it was seen particularly for mutants L1410 and F1710A. All mutations increased the extent of disinhibition of A-803467. These results suggest that the Nav 1.8-selective compound A-803467 acts within the pore S6 segments with a differing but partially overlapping site to that of the local anaesthetic tetracaine
Does clinical management improve outcomes following self-Harm? Results from the multicentre study of self-harm in England
Full text linkBackground
Evidence to guide clinical management of self-harm is sparse, trials have recruited selected samples, and psychological treatments that are suggested in guidelines may not be available in routine practice.
Aims
To examine how the management that patients receive in hospital relates to subsequent outcome.
Methods
We identified episodes of self-harm presenting to three UK centres (Derby, Manchester, Oxford) over a 10 year period (2000 to 2009). We used established data collection systems to investigate the relationship between four aspects of management (psychosocial assessment, medical admission, psychiatric admission, referral for specialist mental health follow up) and repetition of self-harm within 12 months, adjusted for differences in baseline demographic and clinical characteristics.
Results
35,938 individuals presented with self-harm during the study period. In two of the three centres, receiving a psychosocial assessment was associated with a 40% lower risk of repetition, Hazard Ratios (95% CIs): Centre A 0.99 (0.90–1.09); Centre B 0.59 (0.48–0.74); Centre C 0.59 (0.52–0.68). There was little indication that the apparent protective effects were mediated through referral and follow up arrangements. The association between psychosocial assessment and a reduced risk of repetition appeared to be least evident in those from the most deprived areas.
Conclusion
These findings add to the growing body of evidence that thorough assessment is central to the management of self-harm, but further work is needed to elucidate the possible mechanisms and explore the effects in different clinical subgroups
The Discount to NAV of distressed German open-ended real estate funds
Full text linkThe German open-ended real estate fund industry was strongly hit by massive out flows in the course of the global financial crisis. In total, 18 public and institutional real estate funds had to stop the redemption of shares and were ultimately forced to liquidate their portfolios. Investors of these funds either have to await the stepwise liquidation of the funds' assets, which can take up to several years, or they can opt to sell their shares on the secondary market, often at a substantial discount to the Net Asset Value (NAV Spread). This paper attempts to explain the NAV Spread of distressed German public open-ended real estate funds. The unique monthly dataset contains fund specifics and macroeconomic indicators for the entire relevant period. Fundamentals like the leverage ratio and the liquidity ratio as well as industry-wide spillover effects from fund closures affect the NAV Spread. Moreover, we detect a considerably influence of macroeconomic uncertainty explaining the discount to NAV
Detecting differences between versions of Microsoft Dynamics NAV
Full text linkMicrosoft Dynamics NAV is an Enterprise Resource Planning system developed by Microsoft. NAV is customized to specific countries, industrial segments, and enterprises by software developers both from the Microsoft Cooperation and from a chain of independent partners.In NAV, customizations are implemented as source-code modifications. This customization mechanism is flexible, since customizations are not limited to specific models imposed by implementation language or external customization tools. Therefore, it directly contributes to maintaining and enlarging the set of countries, industrial segments, and enterprises reachable by NAV. However, the customization mechanism of NAV imposes a significant cost of migrating customizations between different versions of the core product.This reports describes tools developed with the purpose of detecting and characterizing customizations applied to Microsoft Dynamics NAV. We propose to detect customizations by identifying differences between original and customized versions of NAV. In order to enable analyzes of the detected customizations, we furthermore suggest that differences are represented as hierarchically structured tree alignments .The primary components of the tools are an implementation of by Jiang, Wang, and Zhang’s algorithm for computing tree alignments and its use in a tool that detects changes between two different version of Microsoft Dynamics NAV. The report serves both as a manual to using the tools and to modifying the tools. The tools described in this report were implemented by the author between August 2008 and July 2009 when he was associated with a research project on Evolvable Software Products involving the IT University of Copenhagen and Microsoft Dynamics, Vedbæk, Denmark
Detecting differences between versions of Microsoft Dynamics NAV
Full text linkMicrosoft Dynamics NAV is an Enterprise Resource Planning system developed by Microsoft. NAV is customized to specific countries, industrial segments, and enterprises by software developers both from the Microsoft Cooperation and from a chain of independent partners.In NAV, customizations are implemented as source-code modifications. This customization mechanism is flexible, since customizations are not limited to specific models imposed by implementation language or external customization tools. Therefore, it directly contributes to maintaining and enlarging the set of countries, industrial segments, and enterprises reachable by NAV. However, the customization mechanism of NAV imposes a significant cost of migrating customizations between different versions of the core product.This reports describes tools developed with the purpose of detecting and characterizing customizations applied to Microsoft Dynamics NAV. We propose to detect customizations by identifying differences between original and customized versions of NAV. In order to enable analyzes of the detected customizations, we furthermore suggest that differences are represented as hierarchically structured tree alignments .The primary components of the tools are an implementation of by Jiang, Wang, and Zhang’s algorithm for computing tree alignments and its use in a tool that detects changes between two different version of Microsoft Dynamics NAV. The report serves both as a manual to using the tools and to modifying the tools. The tools described in this report were implemented by the author between August 2008 and July 2009 when he was associated with a research project on Evolvable Software Products involving the IT University of Copenhagen and Microsoft Dynamics, Vedbæk, Denmark
Application of Electro-Active Materials to a Coaxial-Rotor NAV
No full textA new Nano Air Vehicle (NAV) configuration based on a coaxial nano rotor has been studied by ISAE. The coaxial rotor provides the thrust necessary for hovering and low speed translation flight. The major design challenge for rotary-wing NAVs is related to the difficulty of miniaturizing complex mechanisms such as a rotor cyclic pitch swashplate commonly used for controlling helicopters. The use of actuators made of smart materials is believed to allow for controlling rotary-wing NAVs in a much simpler and lighter way. The multidisciplinary subject of this complete system is separated into few parts. The studies of each subject are individually conducted before integrated in the future in order to optimize the global system. Those studies which are being carried out are shortly described in this paper
ERP software system comparison between Odoo and Microsoft Dynamics NAV
Full text linkThe purpose of the thesis was to compare the two ERP software systems Odoo and Microsoft Dynamics NAV. The thesis sought to find out if Odoo can replace the existing Microsoft Dynamics core functionalities.
The commissioner is Lasse Seppänen, a principal lecturer at HAMK (Häme University of Applied Sciences) in Finland. The university currently uses Microsoft Dynamics NAV to teach students about business information systems.
The thesis explores the Microsoft Dynamics NAV system’s current features and asks how Odoo meets these requirements. The objective is also to determine which ERP system serves the university best.
First, the thesis explains central concepts related to ERP systems. In order to compare the two ERP systems evaluation criteria investigated through literary research. The thesis proceeds by discussing the current ERP requirements. Based on this data Odoo and Microsoft Dynamics were analyzed.
The research compares the two ERP solutions. The outcome of the analysis shows that Odoo is an alternative in comparison to Microsoft Dynamics NAV. The author recommends that the university implement Odoo through the Odoo Education platform
Reduced Navigation Data: Optimizing the Galileo I/NAV Navigation Message for a Fast First Fix
No full textThis research focuses on GNSS users interested in a faster position fix in a situation where the receiver holds limited data. This occurs when turning on a mobile phone or sport watch to use a location-based service, driving out of a parking garage with a navigational device or activating a search & rescue beacon. In these cases, users care more about directly setting a certain action into motion, than waiting until a sub-meter level of accuracy is acquired. For this purpose, we aim to decrease the time to first fix (TTFF) of a receiver at the expense of position accuracy by focusing on its most dominant component: the time to read the first fix data, i.e. the TTFFD. In turn, the TTFFD is decreased by reducing the size of the clock correction and ephemeris data (CED) and integrating this reduced set into the existing Galileo I/NAV message while maintaining backward compatibility. Three reduction strategies are presented to reduce the size of the CED. First, the expression of the CED parameters relative to the matching almanac parameters, which requires downloading the most recent almanac. Second, the absorption of the clock and ephemeris time reference into related parameters by leveraging redundancies in the user algorithm. Third, the truncation of the CED parameters, where the optimal parameter bit allocation per CED size is determined by means of a Monte Carlo simulation. Subsequently, the optimal reduced set is integrated in the existing Galileo I/NAV message, since it is not only size but also the location and repetition rate of the reduced CED in the navigation message that determine the final decrease in TTFFD. A simulation is developed where the three reduction strategies are combined and applied to one year of Galileo navigation messages and almanacs starting from October 2017. The current I/NAV message has a size of 428 bits and an average TTFFD of 25.4 seconds. The relative expression of the CED parameters, the absorption of the clock time reference and ephemeris time reference yield a 76, 15 and 10 bit reduction respectively, without a significant decrease in position accuracy expressed as the signal-in-space ranging error (SISRE). The reduction in size that can be realized by truncation results from a trade-off with the maximum acceptable level of SISRE. When combining all three reduction strategies a 296 bit, i.e. 69%, size reduction can be realized at a SISRE level of 10.04 meters, yielding a 132 bit CED. 66% of the size reduction is in this case achieved by parameter truncation. To maintain backward compatibility, the spare and reserved bits of the I/NAV message are used to integrate the reduced set. This finally results in an average TTFFD of 6 seconds, which is a decrease of almost 20 seconds. With the reduced CED the user gains full independence of out-of-band channels for the computation of a fast position fix. In addition, it decreases the impact of bit errors on the TTFF and increases the chance of receiving an error free set of first fix data. Moreover, the reduced CED is not only of interest to fast fix applications that desire a decrease in waiting time. Positioning based on the reduced set also decreases the time the receiver has to be "on" to read the navigation data and consequently the receiver's power usage. This leads to a second type of applications that benefits from the reduced CED: low-power applications that do not require a high accuracy, such as freight management, wildlife tracking and stolen goods trackers. To conclude, the constructed reduced CED provides multiple advantages for a wide range of GNSS users and should therefore be considered as a purpose for the spare and reserved bits of the Galileo I/NAV message.Aerospace Engineerin
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