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Systematic Procedure (systematic + procedure)
Selected AbstractsHeroin users in Australia: population trendsDRUG AND ALCOHOL REVIEW, Issue 1 2004C. YALÇIN KAYA Senior Lecturer Abstract The aim of this paper is to identify certain important population trends among heroin users in Australia for the period 1971 , 97, such as: population growth, initiation, i.e. the number who were initiated to heroin in a given year, and quitting, i.e. the number that quit using heroin. For this purpose, we summarize and extract relevant characteristics from data from National Drug Strategy Household Survey (NDSHS 1998) conducted in Australia in 1998. We devise a systematic procedure to estimate historical trends from questions concerning past events. It is observed from our findings that the size of the heroin user population in Australia is in a sharp increase, especially from the early 1980s onwards. The general trend obtained for the period 1971 , 97 is strikingly similar to that obtained by Hall et al. (2000) for the dependent heroin user population in Australia, even though their study was based on different datasets and a different methodology. In our reconstruction of the time history we also detect a levelling-off prior to 1990. Initiation is also observed to be on a sharp increase. The latter trend is accompanied by a similar trend of quitting, perhaps indicating a relatively short heroin use career. A sharp decrease in both initiation and quitting is observed after 1990. In conclusion, in the case of the trend in the population of heroin users a high rate of growth has been identified that is consistent with the existing literature. In the process, we demonstrated that even a static survey such as NDSHS 1998 can, sometimes, be used to extract historical (dynamic) trends of certain important variables. [source] A systematic procedure for identifying and classifying children with Dyscalculia among primary school children in IndiaDYSLEXIA, Issue 2 2002S. Ramaa Abstract This paper describes the procedures adopted by two independent studies in India for identifying and classifying children with dyscalculia in primary schools. For determining the presence of dyscalculia both inclusionary and exclusionary criteria were used. When other possible causes of arithmetic failure had been excluded, figures for dyscalculia came out as 5.98% (15 cases out of 251) in one study and 5.54% (78 out of 1408) in the second. It was found in the latter study that 40 out of the 78 (51.27%) also had reading and writing problems. The findings are discussed in the light of previous studies. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Generalized strain probing of constitutive modelsINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR NUMERICAL AND ANALYTICAL METHODS IN GEOMECHANICS, Issue 15 2004Youssef M. A. Hashash Abstract Advanced material constitutive models are used to describe complex soil behaviour. These models are often used in the solution of boundary value problems under general loading conditions. Users and developers of constitutive models need to methodically investigate the represented soil response under a wide range of loading conditions. This paper presents a systematic procedure for probing constitutive models. A general incremental strain probe, 6D hyperspherical strain probe (HSP), is introduced to examine rate-independent model response under all possible strain loading conditions. Two special cases of HSP, the true triaxial strain probe (TTSP) and the plane-strain strain probe (PSSP), are used to generate 3-D objects that represent model stress response to probing. The TTSP, PSSP and general HSP procedures are demonstrated using elasto-plastic models. The objects resulting from the probing procedure readily highlight important model characteristics including anisotropy, yielding, hardening, softening and failure. The PSSP procedure is applied to a Neural Network (NN) based constitutive model. It shows that this probing is especially useful in understanding NN constitutive models, which do not contain explicit functions for yield surface, hardening, or anisotropy. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Robust control of depth of anesthesiaINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ADAPTIVE CONTROL AND SIGNAL PROCESSING, Issue 5 2009Guy A. Dumont Abstract This paper presents a systematic procedure to design both robust PID controllers and robust controllers based on fractional calculus (based on Commande Robuste d'Ordre Non Entier, or CRONE methodology) to regulate the hypnotic state of anesthesia with the intravenous administration of propofol. The objective of the controllers is to provide an adequate drug administration regimen for propofol to avoid under or over dosing of the patients. The controllers are designed to compensate for the patients inherent drug,response variability (uncertainty), to achieve good output disturbance rejection, and to attain good set point response. The performance of the controllers is assessed by calculating typical time domain measures and using the median PE, median absolute PE, divergence, and wobble. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] A new approach for using the pathological mirror elements in the ideal representation of active devicesINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CIRCUIT THEORY AND APPLICATIONS, Issue 2 2010Ramy A. Saad Abstract This paper is adopting a new approach to investigate the capabilities of pathological mirror elements in the ideal representation of active building-blocks and shows that the voltage mirror (VM) and current mirror (CM) are the basic pathological elements. The descriptions for the floating mirror elements in the nodal admittance matrix (NAM), using infinity-variables, are derived. The descriptions for nullator and norator using infinity-variables in the NAM are shown to represent special cases from the derived descriptions of the floating VM and the CM, respectively. Hence, new representations for the nullator and norator in terms of the floating VM and CM, respectively, are obtained. A systematic procedure for the derivation of pathological configurations to ideally represent various analog signal-processing properties featured by active building-blocks is presented. This systematic approach became plausible by virtue of the versatility offered by the NAM descriptions of floating mirror elements. Novel pathological configurations ideally describing most popular signal-processing properties that involve differential or multiple single-ended signals; like conversion between differential and single-ended voltages, differential voltage conveying, current differencing, differential current conveying, and inverting current replication; are derived systematically using this procedure. The resulting pathological configurations are shown to be constructed mainly using mirror elements and hence the capabilities of the mirrors as basic pathological elements are further demonstrated. Pathological representations for some active building-blocks, using the derived pathological sections, are presented as application examples. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Using the Conformity to Masculine Norms Inventory to work with men in a clinical settingJOURNAL OF CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 6 2005James R. Mahalik Given that gender roles are increasingly viewed as salient in clinical work with men, this article describes a process of exploring masculine gender roles with male clients in therapy by using the Conformity to Masculine Norms Inventory (CMNI). Specifically, this article (a) discusses how men's degree of conformity to masculine norms may be connected to a variety of benefits and costs, (b) describes the CMNI as a tool that can be used to explore men's degree of conformity to masculine norms, (c) describes a process by which to use the CMNI to explore the relevance of men's masculine selves to their presenting concerns, and (d) illustrates the process with a case example. As such, the paper is intended to provide a systematic procedure for clinicians working with men who want to explore the benefits and costs that both conformity, and nonconformity, to specific masculinity norms brings for male clients. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Psychol 61: 661,674, 2005. [source] Charge parameterization of the metal centers in cytochrome c oxidaseJOURNAL OF COMPUTATIONAL CHEMISTRY, Issue 5 2008Mikael P. Johansson Abstract Reliable atomic point charges are of key importance for a correct description of the electrostatic interactions when performing classical, force field based simulations. Here, we present a systematic procedure for point charge derivation, based on quantum mechanical methodology suited for the systems at hand. A notable difference to previous procedures is to include an outer region around the actual system of interest. At the cost of increasing the system sizes, here up to 265 atoms, including the surroundings achieves near-neutrality for the systems as well as structural stability, important factors for reliable charge distributions. In addition, the common problem of converting between CH bonds and CC bonds at the border vanishes. We apply the procedure to the four redox-active metal centers of cytochrome c oxidase: CuA, haem a, haem a3, and CuB. Several relevant charge and ligand states are considered. Charges for two different force fields, CHARMM and AMBER, are presented. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comput Chem, 2008 [source] High-dimensional solid-liquid phase diagrams involving compounds and polymorphsAICHE JOURNAL, Issue 10 2002Christianto Wibowo A systematic procedure for the generation and visualization of high-dimensional isobaric phase diagrams for systems exhibiting compound formation and/or polymorphism is presented. Such phase diagrams are useful in synthesizing crystallization-based separation processes for systems involving compounds and polymorphs, which are common in the production of pharmaceuticals. Polythermal as well as isothermal phase diagrams of multicomponent systems can be generated. Examples are provided to illustrate the procedure. [source] DEFAULTABLE OPTIONS IN A MARKOVIAN INTENSITY MODEL OF CREDIT RISKMATHEMATICAL FINANCE, Issue 4 2008Tomasz R. Bielecki This paper is a follow-up to "Valuation and Hedging of Defaultable Game Options in a Hazard Process Model" by the same authors. In the present paper we give user friendly assumptions ensuring that the general conditions in the previous paper are satisfied. We also give a systematic procedure to construct suitable intensity models of credit risk, and, in the Markovian case, we provide a variational inequality approach to the pre-default pricing problem. We finally illustrate our results on a study of defaultable convertible bonds. [source] Bicriteria product design optimization: An efficient solution procedure using AND/OR treesNAVAL RESEARCH LOGISTICS: AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Issue 6 2002S. Raghavan Competitive imperatives are causing manufacturing firms to consider multiple criteria when designing products. However, current methods to deal with multiple criteria in product design are ad hoc in nature. In this paper we present a systematic procedure to efficiently solve bicriteria product design optimization problems. We first present a modeling framework, the AND/OR tree, which permits a simplified representation of product design optimization problems. We then show how product design optimization problems on AND/OR trees can be framed as network design problems on a special graph,a directed series-parallel graph. We develop an enumerative solution algorithm for the bicriteria problem that requires as a subroutine the solution of the parametric shortest path problem. Although this parametric problem is hard on general graphs, we show that it is polynomially solvable on the series-parallel graph. As a result we develop an efficient solution algorithm for the product design optimization problem that does not require the use of complex and expensive linear/integer programming solvers. As a byproduct of the solution algorithm, sensitivity analysis for product design optimization is also efficiently performed under this framework. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 49: 574,592, 2002; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/nav.10031 [source] Reliability qualification of semiconductor devices based on physics-of-failure and risk and opportunity assessmentQUALITY AND RELIABILITY ENGINEERING INTERNATIONAL, Issue 2 2002W. H. Gerling Abstract Qualification frequently is a time-critical activity at the end of a development project. As time-to-market is a competitive issue, the most efficient qualification efforts are of interest. A concept is outlined, which proactively integrates qualification into the development process and provides a systematic procedure as a support tool to development and gives early focus on required activities. It converts requirements for a product into measures of development and qualification in combination with a risk and opportunity assessment step and accompanies the development process as a guiding and recording tool for advanced quality planning and confirmation. The collected data enlarge the knowledge database for DFR/BIR (designing for reliability/building-in reliability) to be used for future projects. The procedure challenges and promotes teamwork of all the disciplines involved. Based on the physics-of-failure concept the reliability qualification methodology is re-arranged with regard to the relationships between design, technology, manufacturing and the different product life phases at use conditions. It makes use of the physics-of-failure concept by considering the potential individual failure mechanisms and relates most of the reliability aspects to the technology rather than to the individual product design. Evaluation of complex products using common reliability models and the definition of sample sizes with respect to systematic inherent product properties and fractions of defects are discussed. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Complaint handling in pharmaceutical companiesQUALITY ASSURANCE JOURNAL, Issue 1 2007Glaucia Karime Braga Abstract Complaints show customer dissatisfaction about the quality of a pharmaceutical product. Despite a regulatory obligation in several countries, a good complaint handling system gives the company an opportunity to improve the quality of their products, being a good tool for the maintenance of Good Manufacturing Practices and a way to establish a committed relationship with their customers. A systematic procedure must be developed and implemented in order to register and investigate each complaint received and not only the Quality Assurance area must be involved. This process must involve other critical areas such as Marketing, Production, Quality Control, Finance, Regulatory and Legal Affairs. Thus the aim of this article is to discuss the main steps of a good complaint handling procedure that can be readily implemented in pharmaceutical companies. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Cassette-accelerated rapid rat screen: a systematic procedure for the dosing and liquid chromatography/atmospheric pressure ionization tandem mass spectrometric analysis of new chemical entities as part of new drug discoveryRAPID COMMUNICATIONS IN MASS SPECTROMETRY, Issue 5 2001Walter A. Korfmacher This report addresses the continuing need for increased throughput in the evaluation of new chemical entities (NCEs) in terms of their pharmacokinetic (PK) parameters by describing an alternative procedure for increasing the throughput of the in vivo screening of NCEs in the oral rat PK model. The new approach is called ,cassette-accelerated rapid rat screen' (CARRS). In this assay, NCEs are dosed individually (n,=,2 rats/compound) in batches of six compounds per set. The assay makes use of a semi-automated protein precipitation procedure for sample preparation in a 96-well plate format. The liquid chromatography/atmospheric pressure ionization tandem mass spectrometry (LC/API-MS/MS) assay is also streamlined by analyzing the samples as ,cassettes of six'. Using this new approach, a threefold increase in throughput was achieved over the previously reported ,rapid rat screen'. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Matrix perturbation theory for driven three-level systems with dampingANNALEN DER PHYSIK, Issue 10 2004B.N. Sanchez Abstract We investigate the dynamics of the , system driven by two resonant laser fields in presence of dissipation for coupling strengths where the rotating-wave approximation starts to break down. This regime is characterised by Rabi frequencies being approximately equal or smaller than the field frequencies. A systematic procedure to obtain an expansion for the solution of the Bloch evolution equations of the system is presented. The lowest contribution results to be the well-known rotating-wave approximation. The method is based on a semi-classical treatment of the problem, and its predictions are interpreted fully quantum mechanically. The theory is illustrated by a detailed study of the disappearance of coherent population trapping as the intensities of the fields increase. [source] ADAPTIVE SLIDING MODE BACKSTEPPING CONTROL OF NONLINEAR SYSTEMS WITH UNMATCHED UNCERTAINTYASIAN JOURNAL OF CONTROL, Issue 4 2004Ali J. Koshkouei ABSTRACT This paper considers an adaptive backstepping algorithm for designing the control for a class of nonlinear continuous uncertain processes with disturbances that can be converted to a parametric semi-strict feedback form. Sliding mode control using a combined adaptive backstepping sliding mode control (SMC) algorithm, is also studied. The algorithm follows a systematic procedure for the design of adaptive control laws for the output tracking of nonlinear systems with matched and unmatched uncertainty. [source] Fault detection and isolation for dynamic processes using recursive principal component analysis (PCA) based on filtering of signalsASIA-PACIFIC JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING, Issue 6 2007Jyh-Cheng Jeng Abstract A systematic procedure for the fault detection and isolation of dynamic systems is presented. The inputs of the process first pass through the dynamic filters which represent the process dynamics. Then, principal component analysis (PCA) is applied to the data matrix consisting of these filtered signals and the process outputs for fault detection. In case of a fault being detected, owing to an artificial linear relationship existing in the data matrix, the last principal component (LPC) is adopted for fault isolation. A recursive algorithm for PCA based on rank-one matrix update of the covariance is derived to compute the LPC on line. Patterns of the LPC are devised to isolate these faults, which include constant-bias and high-frequency noises originating from sensor measurement, errors resulting from input disturbance and change in the process gain. Furthermore, the magnitude of the fault can also be identified from the computed LPC. An illustrative example is used to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. Copyright © 2007 Curtin University of Technology and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Dynamic Metabolic Modeling for a MAB BioprocessBIOTECHNOLOGY PROGRESS, Issue 1 2007Jianying Gao Production of monoclonal antibodies (MAb) for diagnostic or therapeutic applications has become an important task in the pharmaceutical industry. The efficiency of high-density reactor systems can be potentially increased by model-based design and control strategies. Therefore, a reliable kinetic model for cell metabolism is required. A systematic procedure based on metabolic modeling is used to model nutrient uptake and key product formation in a MAb bioprocess during both the growth and post-growth phases. The approach combines the key advantages of stoichiometric and kinetic models into a complete metabolic network while integrating the regulation and control of cellular activity. This modeling procedure can be easily applied to any cell line during both the cell growth and post-growth phases. Quadratic programming (QP) has been identified as a suitable method to solve the underdetermined constrained problem related to model parameter identification. The approach is illustrated for the case of murine hybridoma cells cultivated in stirred spinners. [source] Latino farmworker perceptions of the risk factors for occupational skin disease,AMERICAN JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL MEDICINE, Issue 6 2006Thomas A. Arcury PhD Abstract Background Farmworkers in the US constitute a medically underserved population at substantial risk for numerous environmental and occupational health problems. Most US farmworkers are Latino. Skin disease is one health problem to which farmworkers are particularly vulnerable. Interventions to reduce skin disease must be adapted to farmworkers' understanding of such disease, including their beliefs or knowledge of risk factors for skin disease. Methods Structured by the Explanatory Models of Illness framework, this analysis uses a qualitative design based on in-depth interviews with 30 Latino farmworkers (6 females, 24 males) to determine beliefs and perceptions of the causes of common occupational skin diseases in this population. Computer assisted, systematic procedures are used to analyze the verbatim transcripts of these interviews. Results Skin disease is a major concern among farmworkers because it affects work, social interaction, and other aspects of their lives. Farmworker beliefs and perceptions of skin disease causation can be integrated into a general model in which perceived risk factors include sun and heat, chemicals, plants, insects, moisture, hygiene, and contagion. Each of these factors is moderated by the individual's personal susceptibility to that cause. The interaction or combination of two or more factors is thought to amplify their individual effects. Conclusions The farmworker model of skin disease causation suggests important content for health education to reduce skin disease among farmworkers. Am. J. Ind. Med. 2006. © 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] | |||||||||||||||||||