Acceptable Quality (acceptable + quality)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


In utero exposure to vigabatrin: No indication of visual field loss

EPILEPSIA, Issue 2 2009
Charlotte Lawthom
Summary The purpose of the study was to determine whether in utero exposure to vigabatrin caused visual field loss. Three mothers with four children who had been exposed to vigabatrin in utero and who were subsequently formula fed were identified. All seven individuals underwent perimetry and imaging of the retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL). All individuals yielded reliable outcomes to perimetry and RNFL images of acceptable quality. Two of the three mothers exhibited vigabatrin-attributed visual field loss and an abnormally attenuated RNFL. The third exhibited an upper left quadrantanopia, consistent with previous temporal lobe surgery, and a normal RNFL. All four children yielded normal visual fields and RNFL thicknesses. The presence of the normal findings for the children is reassuring and, if representative, suggests a lack of vigabatrin visual toxicity and therefore obviates the need for ophthalmological examination of those exposed to vigabatrin prenatally. [source]


Retransmission strategies for an acceptable quality of HDTV in the wireless and wired home scenario

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS, Issue 3 2007
Frederik Vanhaverbeke
Abstract We evaluate the performance of various retransmission schemes to achieve the goal of less than one visible distortion in twelve hours for high definition television. The focus is on an indoor wireless link and a DSL link, and we consider systems where the packets are protected by means of retransmissions with and without forward error correcting (FEC) codes. In order to achieve a satisfactory performance with restricted latency, we propose an unconventional retransmission procedure. The overall conclusion is that retransmissions without FEC achieve the best performance with the lowest latency, lowest overhead and lowest complexity, both in the wireless and the wired home scenario. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Dental fear/anxiety and dental behaviour management problems in children and adolescents: a review of prevalence and concomitant psychological factors

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PAEDIATRIC DENTISTRY, Issue 6 2007
GUNILLA KLINGBERG
Objectives., The objectives of this article were to examine the literature published from 1982 to 2006 and to evaluate prevalence of dental fear and anxiety (DFA) and dental behaviour management problems (DBMP) in children and adolescents, and their relationships to age, sex, general anxiety, temperament, and general behavioural problems. Methods., A broad search of the PubMed database was performed using three combinations of search terms. Results., A large proportion of the identified articles could not be used for the review owing to inadequate endpoints, measures or poor study design. Thirty-two papers of acceptable quality were identified and reviewed. The prevalence of both DFA and DBMP were estimated to 9%, with a decrease in prevalence with age. DFA/DBMP were more frequent in girls. DFA/DBMP were related to general fear and both internalizing and externalizing behavioural problems, although these relationships were not clear-cut. Temperament was related to both DFA and DBMP but with different temperamental characteristics, while general behavioural problems mainly correlated with DBMP. Conclusions., DFA/DBMP are common, and several psychological factors are associated with the development of these problems. In order to better understand these relationships, a number of issues concerning design of research and measurement of DFA/DBMP have to be dealt with. [source]


Satellite rural communications: telephony and narrowband networks

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS AND NETWORKING, Issue 5 2005
Roberto Conte
Abstract Rural communications are important for large and developing countries, and telecommunications systems have been implemented depending upon the available technology at the time. Rural users do not generate the same amount of revenue as urban users do, thus lowering incentives for rural telecommunications investment with service to those regions delayed as long as possible. Voice and data communications are essential to the economic development of a region, and it has been shown that traffic increases rapidly as soon as the service is available. Satellite-based digital networks provide efficient long-distance service to rural communities at lower cost than similar land-based wired networks with acceptable quality. Small earth stations along with Wireless Local Loops can provide both local and long-distance service efficiently and at low cost, offering digital multimedia services on a global scale. This paper focuses on the description of different narrowband technologies used to service rural communities, namely basic telephone and low-bit-rate data (<64 kbps) applications through the use of satellite and terrestrial wireless systems. A basic network economic planning description is presented, and important parameters such as satellite network size, topology and multiple access are identified in order to improve the process of effective and cost-efficient rural communications network design. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


EXTENDING SHELF LIFE OF FRESH-CUT PERSIMMON BY HONEY SOLUTION DIPS

JOURNAL OF FOOD PROCESSING AND PRESERVATION, Issue 1 2010
MUHARREM ERGUN
ABSTRACT Ripe persimmon fruit (Diospyros kaki L) cv. "Hachiya" were diced, then treated with 10,20% w/v diluted honey solution or water as the control, followed by cold storage at 4C until loss of acceptable quality. The persimmon cubes were subject to assessments during the storage of organoleptic and visual quality, softness and exuding juice, soluble solids content (SSC), and absorbance at 436, 440, 675 and 760 nm, respectively. Honey treatments prevented off-aroma development and delayed jelling. Softness and exuding juice of the fresh-cut persimmon cubes increased with time, with the increase in both parameters being significantly suppressed by honey solution dips. Changes in SSC, pH and the absorbance at 436, 440, 675 and 760 nm, respectively, during storage were minor and there was little effect of the honey treatments on these parameters. Overall, the shelf life of fresh-cut persimmon cubes was extended by honey solution dips, which delayed off-aroma development, firmness loss and jelling. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS New products and changing trends make today's food marketplace alive, and fresh-cut fruits and vegetables seem to be on top of list of these products. Although fresh-cut produce has been on the market for a long time, preserving their quality attributes has not been completely successful especially in the case of fruit. This study focuses on a new alternative fresh-cut produce, fresh-cut persimmon, with adapting a potentially safe organic method, use of honey dips. The present study demonstrated that honey solution dip treatments could preserve the fresh-like quality of typical flavor or aroma of persimmon fruit by causing no changes in aroma and taste attributes and extending shelf life. Therefore, honey dip treatment may be used, depending on commodity, to preserve and extend shelf life of fresh-cut produce in fresh-cut processing industry. [source]


SELECTED DRYING CONDITIONS AND STORAGE PERIOD AND QUALITY OF WALNUT SELECTIONS

JOURNAL OF FOOD PROCESSING AND PRESERVATION, Issue 2 2003
M. A. KOYUNCU
Walnut selections were hulled at harvest time, and 3 and 5 days after harvest to determine the effects of hulling time on postharvest quality. Walnuts removed from their hulls were stored shelled and unshelled under ambient conditions after being dried at selected conditions. Among the tested hulling dates, the best results were obtained from the walnuts hulled at harvest time. At the end of the storage period, the least quality losses were determined in the walnuts dried in the sun. Generally, quality losses in the shelled walnuts were greater than quality losses in the unshelled walnuts. According to the research results, walnuts removed from their hulls and dried under sun can be stored under ambient conditions (21 ± 1C and 50,65 RH) and retain acceptable quality for 12 months. [source]


Inherited myopathy of great Danes

JOURNAL OF SMALL ANIMAL PRACTICE, Issue 5 2006
A. Lujan Feliu-Pascual
A hereditary, non-inflammatory myopathy occurring in young great Danes with distinctive histological features in muscle biopsy specimens is reviewed. Onset of clinical signs is usually before one year of age and both sexes are affected. Clinical signs are characterised by exercise intolerance, muscle wasting, and an exercise-induced tremor. Although most affected dogs have a severe form of the disease, occasional dogs may have a less pronounced form and survive into adulthood with an acceptable quality of life. Litters containing affected puppies are born to clinically unaffected parents, and an autosomal recessive pattern of inheritance is likely. All recorded cases have had fawn or brindle coat coloration. Elevated serum creatinine kinase concentrations and spontaneous electrical activity in skeletal muscles are frequently found. While originally reported (Targett and others 1994) as a central core myopathy in this breed, the histochemical characteristics of the distinct cytoarchitectural structures differ from those of the well-characterised central core myopathy in human beings. In fact, these structures differ from any known myopathy in human beings and likely represents a unique non-inflammatory myopathy affecting dogs. Until this myopathy is characterised further, the name inherited myopathy in great Danes is suggested. [source]


Nurse practitioners as an underutilized resource for health reform: Evidence-based demonstrations of cost-effectiveness

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF NURSE PRACTITIONERS, Issue 4 2010
Jeffrey C. Bauer PhD
Healthcare reform in 2009 was motivated by an imperative to reduce the relentless increase in spending on medical care. Many efforts to solve the problem focused on applying proven principles of evidence-based practice and cost-effectiveness to find the least-expensive way to produce a specific clinical service of acceptable quality. This paper combines economic analysis and reviews published literature to show how the goals of healthcare reform can be accomplished by allowing independently licensed nurse practitioners to provide their wide range of services directly to patients in a variety of clinical settings. The paper presents extensive, consistent evidence that nurse practitioners provide care of equal or better quality at lower cost than comparable services provided by other qualified health professionals. [source]


A short-cut DNA extraction from cod caviar

JOURNAL OF THE SCIENCE OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURE, Issue 3 2006
Futoshi Aranishi
Abstract Caviars represent the most consumed form of fish roe products. Due to high demand, ingredient roes of fish are often susceptible to illegal substitution with those of related fish. This study developed a simple and inexpensive protocol enabling the rapid extraction of DNA of acceptable quality and amount to PCR amplification from both cod caviars and their ingredient pollack roes. The protocol was based on extracting total genomic DNA from eggs using urea and a Chelex 100 chelating resin, and could be completed in less than 15 min. Approximately 8 µg of DNA were reproducibly obtained from single eggs of cod caviars and pollack roes in eight individual experiments, and the quality and amount of DNA were sufficient to serve as template for hundreds of PCR reactions of polymorphic DNA markers for phylogenetic analysis. Being applicable to various caviars, this protocol can be useful to detect illegal substitution among ingredient roes of related fishes in PCR-based food inspection. Copyright © 2005 Society of Chemical Industry [source]


A note on stochastically acceptable quality

QUALITY AND RELIABILITY ENGINEERING INTERNATIONAL, Issue 1 2001
Max S. Finkelstein
Abstract A random variable of quality, characterized by the quality distribution function, is considered both for continuous and discrete cases. The acceptable quality distribution function is introduced and different types of stochastic comparison are discussed: comparison in the mean, ordering in distribution, variability ordering and hazard-rate ordering. Acceptable, unacceptable and intermediate regions for levels of quality are determined by the discretization procedure. It is assumed that the quality of a product is revealed through usage. A simple reliability setting is considered when the quality of a product is directly dependent on its reliability characteristics in usage. Possible generalizations are discussed. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Inclusion of weak high-resolution X-ray data for improvement of a group II intron structure

ACTA CRYSTALLOGRAPHICA SECTION D, Issue 9 2010
Jimin Wang
It is common to report the resolution of a macromolecular structure with the highest resolution shell having an averaged I/,(I) , 2. Data beyond the resolution thus defined are weak and often poorly measured. The exclusion of these weak data may improve the apparent statistics and also leads to claims of lower resolutions that give some leniency in the acceptable quality of refined models. However, the inclusion of these data can provide additional strong constraints on atomic models during structure refinement and thus help to correct errors in the original models, as has recently been demonstrated for a protein structure. Here, an improved group II intron structure is reported arising from the inclusion of these data, which helped to define more accurate solvent models for density modification during experimental phasing steps. With the improved resolution and accuracy of the experimental phases, extensive revisions were made to the original models such that the correct tertiary interactions of the group II intron that are essential for understanding the chemistry of this ribozyme could be described. [source]