Direct Outcome (direct + outcome)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Flame structure and NO emissions in gas combustion of low calorific heating value

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENERGY RESEARCH, Issue 15 2003
Jeong Park
Abstract Numerical study on addition effects of CO and CO2 in fuel side (H2/Ar) on flame structure and NO emission behaviour in counterflow diffusion flame has been conducted with detailed chemistry to fundamentally understand gas combustion of low calorific heating value. A modified Miller,Bowman reaction scheme including a complementary C2 -reaction subset is adopted. The radiative heat loss term, which is based on an optically thin model and it especially important at low strain rates, is included to cover the importance of the temperature dependence on NO emission. Special interest is taken to estimate the roles of added CO and CO2 in fuel side on flame structure and NO emission characteristics. Increasing CO concentration in fuel side contributes to the enhancement of combustion due to the increase effect of the concentration of reactive species. The increase of added CO2 concentration in fuel side suppresses overall reaction rate due to the high heat capacity. It is seen that chemical effects due to the breakdown of added CO2 in fuel side make C2 -branch chemical species be remarkably formed and the prevailing contribution of prompt NO is a direct outcome of these effects. It is found that in the combined forms of H2/CO/CO2/Ar fuels the effects of added CO and CO2 concentrations in fuel side compete contrarily to each other in NO emission behaviour. Particularly the role of added CO is stressed in the side of restraining prompt NO. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Numerical study on flame structure in H2,O2/CO2 laminar flames

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENERGY RESEARCH, Issue 7 2003
Jeong Park
Abstract Numerical study, aimed at the understanding of the flame structure in O2/CO2 recycling combustion system, has been conducted with detailed chemistry. Special concern is focused on addition effect of carbon dioxide on flame structure in H2,O2 counterflow diffusion flame as a simulating configuration. To clarify chemical and thermal effects on flame structure, the comparison between predicted results with a virtual species X to displace the real carbon dioxide and with added carbon dioxide in oxidizer stream is made according to strain rate and the concentration of added CO2. From the systematical comparison of a dominant radical producing reaction with a chain termination reaction the effects of strain rate and composition control of oxidizer stream on flame structure are estimated. It is found that the behaviours of C1 - and C2 -branch species are a direct outcome of that of produced CO due to the breakdown of added CO2. There exists a temperature dependency in the behaviour of produced CO and this competes for the behaviour of the produced CO with chemical effects due to the backward reaction of CO+OH=CO2+H. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Community health practitioner's practice guideline for a changing health care: Korean contribution

JOURNAL OF CLINICAL NURSING, Issue 8 2009
Il Sun Ko
Aims and objectives., The specific aims of the study were (1) to identify community residents' health problems and community health practitioners' activities, (2) to explore community health practitioners' perception of the practice guidelines and (3) to provide recommendations for the development of a new practice guideline in the future. Background., Community health practitioners in Korea are recognised as a critical component of the public health workforce in rural areas. Community health practitioners are registered nurses with six months special training, who have the chief responsibility of delivering primary health care to remote or isolated communities. Although there has been numerous changes in focus of community health practitioners practice over the two decades, community health practitioners guidelines have never been updated since being first developed in 1981. Design., This investigation employed a cross-sectional survey and focus group interview. Methods., The samples included two different groups: 1003 community health practitioners participated in a survey and a group of 12 community health practitioners participated in a focus group interview. A measure of perception of the guideline was developed from Mansfield's work. Goolsby's criteria were revised and used to guide the focus group interview. Results., The participants recognised that the role of community health practitioners is in a process of transition and expect to use well developed guidelines that will allow an appropriate response to the needs of the community. Community health practitioners are generally supportive of practice guidelines although they report various contextual, social and resource barriers to the use of practice guidelines. Finally, the researchers have provided recommendations for the development of new community health practitioners practice guidelines. Conclusion., A newly developed community health practitioners guideline should assist in articulating new roles and responsibilities in the practice of community health practitioners and establish a foundation for knowledge, skills and training necessary for them to work independently. Relevance to clinical practice., New services made available for under-recognised health problems may be a direct outcome of newly developed guidelines. [source]


The Struggle over Employee Benefits: The Role of Labor in Influencing Modern Health Policy

THE MILBANK QUARTERLY, Issue 1 2003
David Rosner
Health care policy has often been described as the work of political actors seeking to benefit the larger community or a particular group of individuals. In 20th-century America, those actors worked in a historical context shaped by demographic and political pressures created during a period of rapid industrial change. Whereas scholars have placed the emergence of European social welfare in such a larger frame, their analysis of movements for health insurance in the United States has largely ignored the need for a frame. If anything, their studies have focused on the lack of a radical political working-class movement in this country as an explanation for the absence of national or compulsory health insurance. Indeed, this absence has dominated analyses of the failure of health policy reform in this country, which generally ignore even these passing historical allusions to the role of class in shaping health policy. Explanations of why health care reform failed during the Clinton administration cited the lack of coverage for millions of Americans but rarely alluded to the active role of labor or other working-class groups in shaping the existing health care system. After organized labor failed to institute national health insurance in the mid-twentieth century, its influence on health care policy diminished even further. This article proposes an alternative interpretation of the development of health care policy in the United States, by examining the association of health policy with the relationships between employers and employees. The social welfare and health insurance systems that resulted were a direct outcome of the pressures brought by organized and unorganized labor movements. The greater dependency created by industrial and demographic changes, conflicts between labor and capital over the political meaning of disease and accidents, and attempts by the political system to mitigate the impending social crisis all helped determine new health policy options. [source]


The impact of an introduced predator on a threatened galaxiid fish is reduced by the availability of complex habitats

FRESHWATER BIOLOGY, Issue 8 2007
RICK D. STUART-SMITH
Summary 1. The availability of complex habitats such as macrophytes may be vital in determining the outcomes of interactions between introduced predators and native prey. Introduced brown trout (Salmo trutta) have impacted numerous small native freshwater fishes in the southern hemisphere, but the potential role of complex habitats in determining the direct outcomes of brown trout , native fish interactions has not been experimentally evaluated. 2. An in-lake enclosure experiment was used to evaluate the importance of structurally complex habitats in affecting the direct impacts of brown trout on a threatened galaxiid fish. Five Galaxias auratus and a single brown trout were added to enclosures containing one of three different habitat types (artificial macrophytes, rocks and bare silt substrate). The experiment also had control enclosures without brown trout. Habitat-dependence of predation risk was assessed by analysis of G. auratus losses to predation, and stomach contents of remaining fish were analysed to determine if brown trout directly affect the feeding of G. auratus and whether this is also habitat-dependent. 3. Predation risk of G. auratus differed significantly between habitat types, with the highest mortality in enclosures with only bare silt substrate and the lowest in enclosures containing artificial macrophytes. This result highlights the importance of availability of complex habitats for trout , native fish interactions and suggests that increasing habitat degradation and loss in fresh waters may exacerbate the direct impacts of introduced predators. 4. Stomach contents analyses were restricted to fish in enclosures with artificial macrophytes and rocks, as most fish were consumed in enclosures with brown trout and only bare silt substrate. These analyses suggest that brown trout do not directly affect the feeding of G. auratus in complex habitats, but it is still unknown whether its feeding is reduced if complex habitats are unavailable. [source]


The Virtual International Stroke Trials Archive (VISTA): results and impact on future stroke trials and management of stroke patients

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF STROKE, Issue 2 2010
C. Weimar
Background The Virtual International Stroke Trials Archive was established to improve stroke care and trial design through the collation, categorization and potential access to data sets from clinical trials for the treatment of stroke. Methods Virtual International Stroke Trials Archive currently provides access to a combined data set of 29 anonymised acute stroke trials and one acute stroke registry with data on >27 500 patients aged between 18 and 103 (mean 71) years. Results Virtual International Stroke Trials Archive has facilitated research across a broad canvas. The prognosis was poor in patients with very high blood pressure at the time of admission or with a wide variability of systolic blood pressure during the acute phase. The late occurrence of hyperthermia following an ischaemic stroke worsens the prognosis. Stroke lateralisation is not an important predictor of cardiac adverse events or 90-day mortality. Haemorrhagic transformation is seen frequently in patients with cardio-embolic strokes and is associated with a poor prognosis when occurring after the acute phase. Virtual International Stroke Trials Archive has allowed various prognostic models for patients with ischaemic or haemorrhagic stroke to be established and validated. More direct outcomes such as lesion volume can be useful in phase II clinical trials for determining whether a phase III trial should be undertaken. New outcome measures such as ,home time' may also strengthen future trials. On a worldwide level, the prognosis of stroke patients differs considerably between various countries. Conclusion Virtual International Stroke Trials Archive provides an excellent opportunity for analysis of natural history data and prognosis. It has the potential to influence clinical trial design and implementation through exploratory data analyses. [source]