Middle school design and educational practice

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Design and synthesis of inhibitors of dihydrofolate reductase

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Design and optimisation of the resonant mirror, an optical biosensor, for the analysis of microalbuminuria in trauma patients

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Optimum design and production of two-storey timber framed housing

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Design and fabrication of fibre Bragg gratings with V-shaped dispersion profile

We propose a new type of fiber Bragg grating (FBG) with a V-shaped dispersion profile. We demonstrate that such V-shaped FBGs bring advantages in manipulation of optical signals compared to conventional FBGs with a constant dispersion, e.g., they can produce larger chirp for the same input pulsewidth and/or can be used as pulse shapers. Application of the proposed V-shaped FBGs for signal prechirping in fiber transmission is examined. The proposed design of the V-shaped FBG can be easily extended to embrace multichannel devices. © 2007 IEEE.

Ontologies for crisis management:a review of state of the art in ontology design and usability

The growing use of a variety of information systems in crisis management both by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and emergency management agencies makes the challenges of information sharing and interoperability increasingly important. The use of semantic web technologies is a growing area and is a technology stack specifically suited to these challenges. This paper presents a review of ontologies, vocabularies and taxonomies that are useful in crisis management systems. We identify the different subject areas relevant to crisis management based on a review of the literature. The different ontologies and vocabularies available are analysed in terms of their coverage, design and usability. We also consider the use cases for which they were designed and the degree to which they follow a variety of standards. While providing comprehensive ontologies for the crisis domain is not feasible or desirable there is considerable scope to develop ontologies for the subject areas not currently covered and for the purposes of interoperability.

Design and designing:a critical introduction

Design and Designing provides a broad and critical understanding of what is essentially a practical subject. Designing today is less a craft and more a part of the knowledge economy. It's all about knowing how to acquire knowledge and how to apply it creatively. Design and Designing covers the design process, modelling and drawing, working with clients, production and consumption, sustainability, professional practice and design futures. Chapters are written by expert teachers and practitioners from around the globe, each presenting an accessible and engaging overview of their field of design. Every chapter is highly illustrated with a combination of images and information boxes, which extend or highlight key material. Each section concludes with a design project, a hands-on activity for the reader. Design and Designing covers the full spectrum of design types, from graphic communication to product design, from fashion to games design, setting every type in its aesthetic, ethical and social contexts. With this essential book, readers will learn from today's best practice and best thinking in design, they will develop a critical sense, and become the designers of tomorrow.

A randomised controlled trial investigating the effect of nutritional supplementation on visual function in normal, and age-related macular disease affected eyes:design and methodology [ISRCTN78467674]

Background: Age-related macular disease is the leading cause of blind registration in the developed world. One aetiological hypothesis involves oxidation, and the intrinsic vulnerability of the retina to damage via this process. This has prompted interest in the role of antioxidants, particularly the carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin, in the prevention and treatment of this eye disease. Methods: The aim of this randomised controlled trial is to determine the effect of a nutritional supplement containing lutein, vitamins A, C and E, zinc, and copper on measures of visual function in people with and without age-related macular disease. Outcome measures are distance and near visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, colour vision, macular visual field, glare recovery, and fundus photography. Randomisation is achieved via a random number generator, and masking achieved by third party coding of the active and placebo containers. Data collection will take place at nine and 18 months, and statistical analysis will employ Student's t test. Discussion: A paucity of treatment modalities for age-related macular disease has prompted research into the development of prevention strategies. A positive effect on normals may be indicative of a role of nutritional supplementation in preventing or delaying onset of the condition. An observed benefit in the age-related macular disease group may indicate a potential role of supplementation in prevention of progression, or even a degree reversal of the visual effects caused by this condition.

Basic principles of design and functioning of multifunctional laser diagnostic system for non-invasive medical spectrophotometry

The devising of a general engineering theory of multifunctional diagnostic systems for non-invasive medical spectrophotometry is an important and promising direction of modern biomedical engineering. We aim in this study to formalize in scientific engineering terms objectives for multifunctional laser non-invasive diagnostic system (MLNDS). The structure-functional model as well as a task-function of generalized MLNDS was formulated and developed. The key role of the system software for MLNDS general architecture at steps of ideological-technical designing has been proved. The basic principles of block-modules composition of MLNDS hardware are suggested as well. © 2011 Copyright Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE).

Design and analysis of an all-optical processor for modular arithmetic

We present a logical design of an all-optical processor that performs modular arithmetic. The overall design is based a set of interconnected modules that use all-optical gates to perform simple logical functions. The all-optical logic gates are based on the semiconductor optical amplifier nonlinear loop. Simulation results are presented and some practical design issues are discussed.

Senior management leadership, social support, job design and stressor-to-strain relationships in hospital practice

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of the quality of senior management leadership on social support and job design, whose main effects on strains, and moderating effects on work stressors-to-strains relationships were assessed. Design/methodology/approach: A survey involving distribution of questionnaires was carried out on a random sample of health care employees in acute hospital practice in the UK. The sample comprised 65,142 respondents. The work stressors tested were quantitative overload and hostile environment, whereas strains were measured through job satisfaction and turnover intentions. Structural equation modelling and moderated regression analyses were used in the analysis. Findings: Quality of senior management leadership explained 75 per cent and 94 per cent of the variance of social support and job design respectively, whereas work stressors explained 51 per cent of the variance of strains. Social support and job design predicted job satisfaction and turnover intentions, as well as moderated significantly the relationships between quantitative workload/hostility and job satisfaction/turnover intentions. Research limitations/implications: The findings are useful to management and to health employees working in acute/specialist hospitals. Further research could be done in other counties to take into account cultural differences and variations in health systems. The limitations included self-reported data and percept-percept bias due to same source data collection. Practical implications: The quality of senior management leaders in hospitals has an impact on the social environment, the support given to health employees, their job design, as well as work stressors and strains perceived. Originality/value: The study argues in favour of effective senior management leadership of hospitals, as well as ensuring adequate support structures and job design. The findings may be useful to health policy makers and human resources managers. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Design and evaluation of compound metformin/glipizide elementary osmotic pump tablets

A simple elementary osmotic pump (EOP) system that could deliver metformin hydrochloride (MT) and glipizide (GZ) simultaneously for extended periods of time was developed in order to reduce the problems associated with multidrug therapy of type 2 non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. In general, both highly and poorly water-soluble drugs are not good candidates for elementary osmotic delivery. However, MT is a highly soluble drug with a high dose (500 mg) while GZ is a water-insoluble drug with a low dose (5 mg) so it is a great challenge to pharmacists to provide satisfactory extended release of MT and GZ. In this paper sodium carbonate was used to modulate the solubility of GZ within the core and MT was not only one of the active ingredients but also the osmotic agent. The optimal EOP was found to deliver both drugs at a rate of approximately zero order for up to 10 h in pH 6.8, independent of environment media. In-vivo evaluation was performed relative to the equivalent dose of conventional MT tablet and GZ tablet by a cross-study in six Beagle dogs. The EOP had a good sustained effect in comparison with the conventional product. The prototype design of the system could be applied to other combinations of drugs used for cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, etc.

Design and analysis of distributed utility maximization algorithm for multihop wireless network with inaccurate feedback

Distributed network utility maximization (NUM) is receiving increasing interests for cross-layer optimization problems in multihop wireless networks. Traditional distributed NUM algorithms rely heavily on feedback information between different network elements, such as traffic sources and routers. Because of the distinct features of multihop wireless networks such as time-varying channels and dynamic network topology, the feedback information is usually inaccurate, which represents as a major obstacle for distributed NUM application to wireless networks. The questions to be answered include if distributed NUM algorithm can converge with inaccurate feedback and how to design effective distributed NUM algorithm for wireless networks. In this paper, we first use the infinitesimal perturbation analysis technique to provide an unbiased gradient estimation on the aggregate rate of traffic sources at the routers based on locally available information. On the basis of that, we propose a stochastic approximation algorithm to solve the distributed NUM problem with inaccurate feedback. We then prove that the proposed algorithm can converge to the optimum solution of distributed NUM with perfect feedback under certain conditions. The proposed algorithm is applied to the joint rate and media access control problem for wireless networks. Numerical results demonstrate the convergence of the proposed algorithm. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Design and evaluation of a framework for cooperative and adaptive QoS control of DSRC network for road safety applications

Dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) are a promising vehicle communication technique for collaborative road safety applications (CSA). However, road safety applications require highly reliable and timely wireless communications, which present big challenges to DSRC based vehicle networks on effective and robust quality of services (QoS) provisioning due to the random channel access method applied in the DSRC technique. In this paper we examine the QoS control problem for CSA in the DSRC based vehicle networks and presented an overview of the research work towards the QoS control problem. After an analysis of the system application requirements and the DSRC vehicle network features, we propose a framework for cooperative and adaptive QoS control, which is believed to be a key for the success of DSRC on supporting effective collaborative road safety applications. A core design in the proposed QoS control framework is that network feedback and cross-layer design are employed to collaboratively achieve targeted QoS. A design example of cooperative and adaptive rate control scheme is implemented and evaluated, with objective of illustrating the key ideas in the framework. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of proposed rate control schemes in providing highly available and reliable channel for emergency safety messages. © 2013 Wenyang Guan et al.