21,394 research outputs found
A pre-post test evaluation of the impact of the PELICAN MDT-TME Development Programme on the working lives of colorectal cancer team members
No full textBackground: the PELICAN Multidisciplinary Team Total Mesorectal Excision (MDT-TME) Development Programme aimed to improve clinical outcomes for rectal cancer by educating colorectal cancer teams in precision surgery and related aspects of multidisciplinary care. The Programme reached almost all colorectal cancer teams across England. We took the opportunity to assess the impact of participating in this novel team-based Development Programme on the working lives of colorectal cancer team members.Methods: the impact of participating in the programme on team members' self-reported job stress, job satisfaction and team performance was assessed in a pre-post course study. 333/568 (59%) team members, from the 75 multidisciplinary teams who attended the final year of the Programme, completed questionnaires pre-course, and 6-8 weeks post-course.Results: across all team members, the main sources of job satisfaction related to working in multidisciplinary teams; whilst feeling overloaded was the main source of job stress. Surgeons and clinical nurse specialists reported higher levels of job satisfaction than team members who do not provide direct patient care, whilst MDT coordinators reported the lowest levels of job satisfaction and job stress. Both job stress and satisfaction decreased after participating in the Programme for all team members. There was a small improvement in team performance.Conclusions: participation in the Development Programme had a mixed impact on the working lives of team members in the immediate aftermath of attending. The decrease in team members' job stress may reflect the improved knowledge and skills conferred by the Programme. The decrease in job satisfaction may be the consequence of being unable to apply these skills immediately in clinical practice because of a lack of required infrastructure and/or equipment. In addition, whilst the Programme raised awareness of the challenges of teamworking, a greater focus on tackling these issues may have improved working lives furthe
Colors 1981
No full textCONTENTS
Untitled, John I. C. Ramirez 2;
Love will fly, Tim Furness 3;
Untitled, Palmer Hoovestal 4;
The wave, Jerome Lightbourne 6;
The land*lord, R. Lea 7;
Song of the newborn, Heidi Muller 8;
Untitled, Mary Ostervold 9;
Good crops, Gina Larson 10;
Come, challenge the sea, Paula Schafer 12;
Untitled, Pat Dooris 14;
Untitled, Eric Peterson 16;
A flight of fancy, Tony Schaan 17;
Ode upon a london tube, Kit Warfield 18;
Sponge, Debbie Court 19;
Untitled, Debbie Court 20;
Untitled, John I. C. Ramirez 21;
Untitled, Joyce Lowry 21;
Untitled, Mary Taft 22;
Thank you, Lord [unidentified author] 23;
From generation to generation, Denise Marsh 24;
Untitled, S. M. 25;
Untitled, M. F. 26;
Brain Cramp, Francine Bergeron 27;
Untitled, Pat Dooris 28;
Untitled, Tom Mertes 30;
Untitled, John I. C. Ramirez 31;
Untitled, Dolores Bock 31;
Untitled, Christopher Perez 32;
Untitled, Pat Dooris 33;
Echoes of Innocence, Kelly Cosgrove 35;
Beloved, M. Bowen 36;
Untitled, Mary Ostervold 36
Analysis of ecosystem services provision in the Colombian Amazon using participatory research and mapping techniques
No full textOver the last two decades indigenous peoples in the lower Caquetá River basin in Colombia have experienced detrimental changes in the provision of important ecosystem services in ways that have significant implications for the maintenance of their traditional livelihoods. To assess these changes we conducted eight participatory mapping activities and convened 22 focus group discussions. We focused the analysis on two types of change: (1) changes in the location of ecosystem services provisioning areas and (2) changes in the stock of ecosystem services. The focal ecosystem services include services such as provision of food, raw materials and medicinal resources. Results from the study show that in the past two decades the demand for food and raw materials has intensified and, as a result, locations of provisioning areas and the stocks of ecosystem services have changed. We found anecdotal evidence that these changes correlate well with socio-economic factors such as greater need for income generation, change in livelihood practices and consumption patterns. We discuss the use of participatory mapping techniques in the context of marginalized and data-poor regions. We also show how this kind of information can strengthen existing ecosystem-based management strategies used by indigenous peoples in the Colombian Amazon
Efficacy of Siltuximab and 1,927 nm Fractional Laser for the Treatment of Cutaneous Manifestations in Castleman's Disease: The Role of Dermoscopy and Reflectance Confocal Microscopy for Lesion Evaluation
No full textIntroduction: Multicentric Castleman s disease (MCD) with cutaneous involvement has rarely been discussed in dermatologic literature, with few reports. Cutaneous lesions in MCD may induce deep scars, causing a significant impact in the daily life of the patients. The treatment of Castleman s disease (CD) is usually a challenge, especially in case of cutaneous involvement. Case Presentation: We report the case of a 35-year-old Caucasian man with a 3-year-old history of MCD with cutaneous involvement that we treated with a combined therapy characterized by siltuximab and 1,927 nm fractional laser. The patient showed a therapeutic response, characterized by a reduction of systemic symptoms and cutaneous manifestations. Conclusion: We believe that the combination of siltuximab and 1,927 nm fractional laser might have a synergistic beneficial role in patients with cutaneous iMCD and maximize esthetic outcomes. Anyway, additional evidence is needed to validate our findings
Measurement of the muon charge asymmetry in inclusive pp →W + X production at s=7 TeV and an improved determination of light parton distribution functions
No full textPublished by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published articles title, journal citation, and DOI.Measurements of the muon charge asymmetry in inclusive pp → W + X production at root s= 7 TeV are
presented. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 4.7 fb−1 recorded with the CMS
detector at the LHC. With a sample of more than 20 million W → μν events, the statistical precision is
greatly improved in comparison to previous measurements. These new results provide additional
constraints on the parton distribution functions of the proton in the range of the Bjorken scaling variable
x from 10−3 to 10−1. These measurements and the recent CMS measurement of associated W þ charm
production are used together with the cross sections for inclusive deep inelastic e p scattering at HERA in
a next-to-leading-order QCD analysis. The determination of the valence quark distributions is improved,
and the strange-quark distribution is probed directly through the leading-order process g þ s → W þ c in
proton-proton collisions at the LHC.the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science and Research and the Austrian Science Fund; the Belgian Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique, and Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek; the Brazilian Funding Agencies (CNPq, CAPES, FAPERJ, and FAPESP); the Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Science; CERN; the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ministry of Science and Technology, and National Natural Science Foundation of China; the Colombian Funding Agency (COLCIENCIAS); the Croatian Ministry of Science, Education and Sport, and the Croatian Science Foundation; the Research Promotion Foundation, Cyprus; the Ministry of Education and Research, Recurrent financing contract SF0690030s09 and European Regional Development Fund, Estonia; the Academy of Finland, Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture, and Helsinki Institute of Physics; the Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules/CNRS, and Commissariat à l’Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives/CEA, France; the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, and Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft Deutscher Forschungszentren, Germany; the General Secretariat for Research and Technology, Greece; the National Scientific Research Foundation, and National Innovation Office, Hungary; the Department of Atomic Energy and the Department of Science and Technology, India; the Institute for Studies in Theoretical Physics and Mathematics, Iran; the Science Foundation, Ireland; the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Italy; the Korean Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and the World Class University program of NRF, Republic of Korea; the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences; the Mexican Funding Agencies (CINVESTAV, CONACYT, SEP, and UASLP-FAI); the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, New Zealand; the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission; the Ministry of Science and Higher Education and the National Science Centre, Poland; the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal; JINR, Dubna; the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, the Federal Agency of Atomic Energy of the Russian Federation, Russian Academy of Sciences, and the Russian Foundation for Basic Research; the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of Serbia; the Secretaría de Estado de Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación and Programa Consolider-Ingenio 2010, Spain; the Swiss Funding Agencies (ETH Board, ETH Zurich, PSI, SNF, UniZH, Canton Zurich, and SER); the National Science Council, Taipei; the Thailand Center of Excellence in Physics, the Institute for the Promotion of Teaching Science and Technology of Thailand, Special Task Force for Activating Research and the National Science and Technology Development Agency of Thailand; the Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey, and Turkish Atomic Energy Authority; the Science and Technology Facilities Council, UK; the U.S. Department of Energy, and the U.S. National Science Foundation. Individuals have received support from the Marie-Curie programme and the European Research Council and EPLANET (European Union); the Leventis Foundation; the A. P. Sloan Foundation; the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation; the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office; the Fonds pour la Formation à la Recherche dans l’Industrie et dans l’Agriculture (FRIA-Belgium); the Agentschap voor Innovatie door Wetenschap en Technologie (IWT-Belgium); the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MEYS) of Czech Republic; the Council of Science and Industrial Research, India; the Compagnia di San Paolo (Torino); the HOMING PLUS programme of Foundation for Polish Science, cofinanced by EU, Regional Development Fund; and the Thalis and Aristeia programmes cofinanced by EU-ESF and the Greek NSRF
Detailed optical and near-infrared polarimetry, spectroscopy and broad-band photometry of the afterglow of GRB 091018 : polarization evolution
No full textFollow-up observations of large numbers of gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglows, facilitated by the Swift satellite, have produced a large sample of spectral energy distributions and light curves, from which their basic micro- and macro-physical parameters can in principle be derived. However, a number of phenomena have been observed that defy explanation by simple versions of the standard fireball model, leading to a variety of new models. Polarimetry can be a major independent diagnostic of afterglow physics, probing the magnetic field properties and internal structure of the GRB jets. In this paper we present the first high-quality multi-night polarimetric light curve of a Swift GRB afterglow, aimed at providing a well-calibrated data set of a typical afterglow to serve as a benchmark system for modelling afterglow polarization behaviour. In particular, our data set of the afterglow of GRB 091018 (at redshift z = 0.971) comprises optical linear polarimetry (R band, 0.13-2.3d after burst); circular polarimetry (R band) and near-infrared linear polarimetry (Ks band). We add to that high-quality optical and near-infrared broad-band light curves and spectral energy distributions as well as afterglow spectroscopy. The linear polarization varies between 0 and 3per cent, with both long and short time-scale variability visible. We find an achromatic break in the afterglow light curve, which corresponds to features in the polarimetric curve. We find that the data can be reproduced by jet break models only if an additional polarized component of unknown nature is present in the polarimetric curve. We probe the ordered magnetic field component in the afterglow through our deep circular polarimetry, finding P circ < 0.15per cent (2σ), the deepest limit yet for a GRB afterglow, suggesting ordered fields are weak, if at all present. Our simultaneous R- and Ks-band polarimetry shows that dust-induced polarization in the host galaxy is likely negligible
Artificial intelligence for stability control of actuated in–wheel electric vehicles with CarSim® validation
No full textThis paper presents an active controller for electric vehicles in which active front steering and torque vectoring are control actions combined to improve the vehicle driving safety. The electric powertrain consists of four independent in–wheel electric motors situated on each corner. The control approach relies on an inverse optimal controller based on a neural network identifier of the vehicle plant. Moreover, to minimize the number of sensors needed for control purposes, the authors present a discrete–time reduced–order state observer for the estimation of vehicle lateral and roll dynamics. The use of a neural network identifier presents some interesting advantages. Notably, unlike standard strategies, the proposed approach avoids the use of tire lateral forces or Pacejka’s tire parameters. In fact, the neural identification provides an input–affine model in which these quantities are absorbed by neural synaptic weights adapted online by an extended Kalman filter. From a practical standpoint, this eliminates the need of additional sensors, model tuning, or estimation stages. In addition, the yaw angle command given by the controller is converted into electric motor torques in order to ensure safe driving conditions. The mathematical models used to describe the electric machines are able to reproduce the dynamic behavior of Elaphe M700 in–wheel electric motors. Finally, quality and performances of the proposed control strategy are discussed in simulation, using a CarSim® full vehicle model running through a double–lane change maneuver
Source Differentiated Mexican Dairy Import Demand
No full textMexico is a major destination of dairy exports and is the single largest importer of US dairy exports. We use a restricted source almost ideal demand system to estimate the demand for dairy products imported into Mexico. The estimation facilitates an examination of the demand for dairy imports and the results have implications for exporting firms and countries. Our estimates indicate fierce competition for the Mexican market between the US, Oceania, and “other countries†primarily from South America.dairy trade, import demand, almost ideal demand system, source differentiation, Demand and Price Analysis, International Relations/Trade, Q10, Q11, Q17,
Neural Network Inverse Optimal Control of Ground Vehicles
No full textIn this paper an active controller for ground vehicles stability is presented. The objective of this controller is to force the vehicle to track a desired reference, ensuring safe driving conditions in the case of adhesion loss during hazardous maneuvers. To this aim, a nonlinear discrete-time inverse optimal control based on a neural network identification is designed, using a recurrent high order neural network (RHONN) trained by an Extended Kalman Filter. The RHONN ensures stability of the identification error, while the controller ensures the stability of the tracking errors. Moreover, a discrete-time reduced order state observer is utilized to reconstruct the lateral vehicle dynamic not usually available. For the control problem, the references of the lateral velocity and yaw rate are given by a dynamic system mimicking an ideal vehicle having not-decreasing tire lateral characteristics. The proposed approach avoids the identification of the Pacejka’s lateral parameters of the tires, so simplifying the input control determination. Moreover, an optimal control is proposed to optimize the actuator effort and power, usually bounded. Control gains are determined using optimal “nature-inspired" algorithms such as particle swarm optimization. Test maneuvers, performed through the full vehicle simulator CarSim®, have been used to test correctness, quality and performances of the observer, the neural identifier and the inverse optimal controller. Robustness of the reduced order discrete-time state observer is also discussed for different sample times. Finally, a fair comparison between optimal and non-optimal control schemes is presented, highlighting the numerical results obtained in simulation
Comparing the use of ERA5 reanalysis dataset and ground-based agrometeorological data under different climates and topography in Italy
No full textStudy region: The study region is represented by seven irrigation districts distributed under different climate and topography conditions in Italy. Study focus: This study explores the reliability and consistency of the global ERA5 single levels and ERA5-Land reanalysis datasets in predicting the main agrometeorological estimates commonly used for crop water requirements calculation. In particular, the reanalysis data was compared, variable-by-variable (e.g., solar radiation, R-s; air temperature, T-air; relative humidity, RH; wind speed, u(10); reference evapotranspiration, ET0), with in situ agrometeorological obser-vations obtained from 66 automatic weather stations (2008-2020). In addition, the presence of a climate-dependency on their accuracy was assessed at the different irrigation districts. New hydrological insights for the region: A general good agreement was obtained between observed and reanalysis agrometeorological variables at both daily and seasonal scales. The best perfor-mance was obtained for T-air, followed by RH, R-s, and u(10) for both reanalysis datasets, especially under temperate climate conditions. These performances were translated into slightly higher accuracy of ET0 estimates by ERA5-Land product, confirming the potential of using reanalysis datasets as an alternative data source for retrieving the ET0 and overcoming the unavailability of observed agrometeorological data
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