Practical sources of error in measuring pulmonary artery occlusion pressure: a study in participants of a special intensivist training program of The Scandinavian Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine (SSAI)

BACKGROUND: Physiological data obtained with the pulmonary artery catheter (PAC) are susceptible to errors in measurement and interpretation. Little attention has been paid to the relevance of errors in hemodynamic measurements performed in the intensive care unit (ICU). The aim of this study was to assess the errors related to the technical aspects (zeroing and reference level) and actual measurement (curve interpretation) of the pulmonary artery occlusion pressure (PAOP). METHODS: Forty-seven participants in a special ICU training program and 22 ICU nurses were tested without pre-announcement. All participants had previously been exposed to the clinical use of the method. The first task was to set up a pressure measurement system for PAC (zeroing and reference level) and the second to measure the PAOP. RESULTS: The median difference from the reference mid-axillary zero level was - 3 cm (-8 to + 9 cm) for physicians and -1 cm (-5 to + 1 cm) for nurses. The median difference from the reference PAOP was 0 mmHg (-3 to 5 mmHg) for physicians and 1 mmHg (-1 to 15 mmHg) for nurses. When PAOP values were adjusted for the differences from the reference transducer level, the median differences from the reference PAOP values were 2 mmHg (-6 to 9 mmHg) for physicians and 2 mmHg (-6 to 16 mmHg) for nurses. CONCLUSIONS: Measurement of the PAOP is susceptible to substantial error as a result of practical mistakes. Comparison of results between ICUs or practitioners is therefore not possible.

Dynamic Languages and Applications. Report on the Workshop Dyla 07 at ECOOP 2007

Following last two years’ workshop on dynamic languages at the ECOOP conference, the Dyla 2007 workshop was a successful and popular event. As its name implies, the workshop’s focus was on dynamic languages and their applications. Topics and discussions at the workshop included macro expansion mechanisms, extension of the method lookup algorithm, language interpretation, reflexivity and languages for mobile ad hoc networks. The main goal of this workshop was to bring together different dynamic language communities and favouring cross communities interaction. Dyla 2007 was organised as a full day meeting, partly devoted to presentation of submitted position papers and partly devoted to tool demonstration. All accepted papers can be downloaded from the workshop’s web site. In this report, we provide an overview of the presentations and a summary of discussions.

Differential effects of anti-hypertensive treatment on the retinal microcirculation: an Anglo-Scandinavian Cardiac Outcomes Trial (ASCOT) sub- study

Changes in the retinal microcirculation are associated with hypertension and predict cardiovascular mortality. There are few data describing the impact of antihypertensive therapy on retinal vascular changes. This substudy of the Anglo-Scandinavian Cardiac Outcomes Trial compared the effects of an amlodipine-based regimen (373 patients) with an atenolol-based regimen (347 patients) on retinal microvascular measurements made from fundus photographs. The retinal photographs were taken at a stage in the trial when treatments were stable and blood pressure was well controlled. Amlodipine-based treatment was associated with a smaller arteriolar length:diameter ratio than atenolol-based treatment (13.32 [10.75 to 16.04] versus 14.12 [11.27 to 17.81], median [interquartile range]; P<0.01). The association remained significant after adjustment for age, sex, cholesterol, systolic and diastolic blood pressures, body mass index, smoking, and statin treatment. This effect appeared to be largely attributable to shorter retinal arteriolar segment lengths in the amlodipine-treated group and is best explained by the vasodilator effects of amlodipine causing the visible emergence of branching side vessels. Photographic assessment of the retinal vascular network may be a useful approach to evaluating microvascular structural responses in clinical trials of antihypertensive therapy.

Why Smalltalk Wins the Host Languages Shootout

Integration of multiple languages into each other and into an existing development environment is a difficult task. As a consequence, developers often end up using only internal DSLs that strictly rely on the constraints imposed by the host language. Infrastructures do exist to mix languages, but they often do it at the price of losing the development tools of the host language. Instead of inventing a completely new infrastructure, our solution is to integrate new languages deeply into the existing host environment and reuse the infrastructure offered by it. In this paper we show why Smalltalk is the best practical choice for such a host language.

BPM software and process modelling languages in practice

IT has turned out to be a key factor for the purposes of gaining maturity in Business Process Management (BPM). This book presents a worldwide investigation that was conducted among companies from the ‘Forbes Global 2000’ list to explore the current usage of software throughout the BPM life cycle and to identify the companies’ requirements concerning process modelling. The responses from 130 companies indicate that, at the present time, it is mainly software for process description and analysis that is required, while process execution is supported by general software such as databases, ERP systems and office tools. The resulting complex system landscapes give rise to distinct requirements for BPM software, while the process modelling requirements can be equally satisfied by the most common languages (BPMN, UML, EPC).

Advances in Kartvelian Morphology and Syntax. Contributions to the festival of languages Bremen, 17 Sep to 7 Oct, 2009

Within the scope of Festival of Languages took place in 2009 the Conference Advances in Kartvelian Morphology and Syntax. Selected presentations are presented in this publication. The authors discuss topics such as anaphora in Svan, intonation in Georgien, pragmatics of subordinating clauses in Georgian, but also research on modern developments as SMS-communication in Georgian language area etc. DEUTSCH: Im Rahmen des Festivals der Sprachen fand im Jahre 2009 an der Universität Bremen die Tagung Advances in Kartvelian Morphology and Syntax statt. Ausgewählte Vorträge werden mit dieser Publikation vorgestellt. Die Autoren behandeln unter anderem Themen wie Ana-pher im Svanischen, Intonation im Georgischen, Pragmatik von Nebensätzen des Georgi-schen, aber auch Forschungen über moderne Entwicklungen wie die SMS-Kommunikation im georgischsprachigen Sprachraum usw. CONTENTS: NINO AMIRIDZE, TAMAR RESECK & MANANA TOPADZE GÄUMANN: Preface; KEVIN TUITE: The Kartvelian suffixal intransitive; MANANA KOBAIDZE: Towards the morphological and syntactical classification of Georgian verbs; RENÉ LACROIX: Origin of Sets I–II suffixes in South Caucasian through reanalysis; STAVROS SKOPETEAS & CAROLINE FÉRY: Prosodic cues for exhaustive interpretations: a production study on Georgian intonation; WINFRIED BOEDER: Anaphora in Svan; YASUHIRO KOJIMA : The position of rom and the pragmatics of subordinate clauses in Georgian; NATIA AMAGHLOBELI : Morphological aspects of Georgian SMS language.

Word Formation in South American Languages

This volume focuses on word formation processes in smaller and so far underrepresented indigenous languages of South America. The data for the analyses have been mainly collected in the field by the authors. The several language families described here, among them Arawakan, Takanan, and Guaycuruan, as well as language isolates, such as Yurakaré and Cholón, reflect the linguistic diversity of South America. Equally diverse are the topics addressed, relating to word formation processes like reduplication, nominal and verbal compounding, clitic compounding, and incorporation. The traditional notions of the processes are discussed critically with respect to their implementation in minor indigenous languages. The book is therefore not only of interest to readers with an Amerindian background but also to typologists and historical linguists, and it is a supplement to more theory-driven approaches to language and linguistics.