Electrical Transport during Structural Transformations of Alkali Perchlorates

852-85

Hazard Assessment for Manufacture of Combustible Cartridge Cases using Picrite

A systematic study of the effect of impact, friction, flame and electric spark sensitivity was carried out on the samples combustible cartridge case (CCC) withdrawn at different stages of manufacture. These are Stage I dried felted CCC; stage II-CCC from stage III Coated with nitrocellulose coating. based on the results obtained from various experiments, the CCC can be classified for handling storage and transportation as Group 3, for safety distance category as UN 1.3 and for fire fighting as class 2. further it is concluded from hazard analysis study that the CCCs are safe to handle but these should be protected from naked flame

CFD Analysis of a Micro-Rotor In Ground Effect

In this work, computational fluid dynamics is used to compare experimental results for a two-bladed small rotor Out of Ground Effect and In Ground Effect conditions. The paper focuses on the evalutation and prediction of the performance of the rotor and investigates the outwash generated in ground effect. Time and phase averaged outflow velocities with two different scaling methods are compared with experiments. The results are also scaled to a full-size rotor, and compared with the PAXman model of crew operating in close rotor proximity. A particle pickup model is also used showing the dust cloud generated by the rotor

Barriers and Determinants of Referral Adherence in AI-Enabled Diabetic Retinopathy Screening for Older Adults in Northern India During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Mixed Methods Pilot Study

\ua9 Anshul Chauhan, Anju Goyal, Ritika Masih, Gagandeep Kaur, Lakshay Kumar, Neha, Harsh Rastogi, Sonam Kumar, Bidhi Lord Singh, Preeti Syal, Vishali Gupta, Luke Vale, Mona Duggal. Background: Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a leading cause of blindness globally. DR has increasingly affected both individuals and health care systems as the population ages. Objective: This study aims to explore factors and identify barriers associated with nonadherence to referral recommendations among older adult participants after DR screening (DRS) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Method: This paper presents findings from a pilot study on artificial intelligence-enabled DRS conducted in two districts in Punjab, India (Moga and Mohali) during the COVID-19 pandemic. The screenings were conducted from March to June 2022 at community health center Badhani Kalan in Moga and from March to June 2021 in community settings (homes) in Block Boothgarh, Mohali. Participants were referred to the district hospital for an ophthalmological review based on artificial intelligence-enabled screening. After 1 month, the participants were contacted by telephone to assess adherence to the referral recommendations. Participants who did not adhere to the referral were then interviewed alongside health care providers to understand the barriers explaining their nonadherence. Results: We aimed to recruit 346 and 600 older adult participants from 2 sites but enrolled 390. Key challenges included health facility closures due to COVID-19, low motivation among health personnel for recruitment, incomplete nonparticipation data, and high participant workloads. Approximately 45% of the participants were male and 55% female. Most participants (62.6%) were between 60 and 69 years old, while 37.4% were 70 or older, with a mean age of 67.2 (SD 6.2) years. In total, 159 participants (40.8%) were referred, while 231 participants (59.2%) were not. Only 23 (14.5%) of those referred followed through and visited a health facility for ophthalmological review, while 136 (85.5%) did not pursue further evaluation. Our analysis revealed no significant differences in the characteristics between adherent and nonadherent participants, suggesting that demographic and health factors alone do not predict adherence behavior in patients with DR. Interviews identified limited knowledge about DR, logistical challenges, financial constraints, and attitudinal barriers as the primary challenges. Conclusions: This study, conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, showed suboptimal adherence to referral recommendations among older adult patients due to knowledge gaps, logistical challenges, and health system issues. Quantifying and understanding adherence factors are crucial for targeted interventions addressing barriers to referral recommendations after DRS. Integrating teleophthalmology into and strengthening infrastructure for artificial intelligence-enabled diabetic retinopathy screening to enhance access and outcomes

The Prescription Drug Monitoring Program in a Multifactorial Approach to the Opioid Crisis: PDMP Data, Pennsylvania, 2016–2020

Background: Prescription opioids remain an important contributor to the United States opioid crisis and to the development of opioid use disorder for opioid-naïve individuals. Recent legislative actions, such as the implementation of state prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs), aim to reduce opioid morbidity and mortality through enhanced tracking and reporting of prescription data. The primary objective of our study was to describe the opioid prescribing trends in the state of Pennsylvania (PA) as recorded by the PA PDMP following legislative changes in reporting guidelines, and discuss the PDMP\u27s role in a multifactorial approach to opioid harm reduction. Methods: State-level opioid prescription data summaries recorded by the PA PDMP for each calendar quarter from August 2016 through March 2020 were collected from the PA Department of Health. Data for oxycodone, hydrocodone, and morphine were analyzed by quarter for total prescription numbers and refills. Prescription lengths, pill quantities, and average morphine milliequivalents (MMEs) were analyzed by quarter for all 14 opioid prescription variants recorded by the PA PDMP. Linear regression was conducted for each group of variables to identify significant differences in prescribing trends. Results: For total prescriptions dispensed, the number of oxycodone, hydrocodone, and morphine prescriptions decreased by 34.4, 44.6, and 22.3% respectively (p \u3c 0.0001). Refills fluctuated less consistently with general peaks in Q3 of 2017 and Q3 of 2018 (p = 0.2878). The rate of prescribing for all opioid prescription lengths decreased, ranging in frequency from 22 to 30 days (47.5% of prescriptions) to 31+ days of opioids (0.8% of prescriptions) (p \u3c 0.0001). Similarly, decreased prescribing was observed for all prescription amounts, ranging in frequency from 22 to 60 pills (36.6% of prescriptions) to 60-90 pills (14.2% of prescriptions) (p \u3c 0.0001). Overall, the average MME per opioid prescription decreased by 18.9%. Conclusions: Per the PA PDMP database, opioid prescribing has decreased significantly in PA from 2016 to 2020. The PDMP database is an important tool for tracking opioid prescribing trends in PA, and PDMPs structured similarly in other states may enhance our ability to understand and influence the trajectory of the U.S. opioid crisis. Further research is needed to determine optimal PDMP policies and practices nationwide

CFD Analysis of a Micro-Rotor In Ground Effect

In this work computational fluid dynamics is validated using experimental results for a model rotor In Ground Effect. The paper concentrates on the evaluation and prediction of the performance of the rotors and on the outwash generated In Ground Effect. Finally, safety considerations in terms of outflow forces and particles in the flow field are presented, comparing the results with other safety, distance based criteria. Using data of three different aircraft, scaling factors have been used to take into account the different size of the small-rotor studied and real case scenarios. The results show how heavier helicopters may generate the most dangerous situations, in terms of induced forces and presence of particles in a delimited area

Smartpixels: Towards on-sensor inference of charged particle track parameters and uncertainties

The combinatorics of track seeding has long been a computational bottleneck for triggering and offline computing in High Energy Physics (HEP), and remains so for the HL-LHC. Next-generation pixel sensors will be sufficiently fine-grained to determine angular information of the charged particle passing through from pixel-cluster properties. This detector technology immediately improves the situation for offline tracking, but any major improvements in physics reach are unrealized since they are dominated by lowest-level hardware trigger acceptance. We will demonstrate track angle and hit position prediction, including errors, using a mixture density network within a single layer of silicon as well as the progress towards and status of implementing the neural network in hardware on both FPGAs and ASICs.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Neural Information Processing Systems 2023 (NeurIPS

Evaluating the Impact of Modic Changes on Operative Treatment in the Cervical and Lumbar Spine: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Modic changes (MCs) are believed to be potential pain generators in the lumbar and cervical spine, but it is currently unclear if their presence affects postsurgical outcomes. We performed a systematic review in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. All studies evaluating cervical or lumbar spine postsurgical outcomes in patients with documented preoperative MCs were included. A total of 29 studies and 6013 patients with 2688 of those patients having preoperative MCs were included. Eight included studies evaluated cervical spine surgery, eleven evaluated lumbar discectomies, nine studied lumbar fusion surgery, and three assessed lumbar disc replacements. The presence of cervical MCs did not impact the clinical outcomes in the cervical spine procedures. Moreover, most studies found that MCs did not significantly impact the clinical outcomes following lumbar fusion, lumbar discectomy, or lumbar disc replacement. A meta-analysis of the relevant data found no significant association between MCs and VAS back pain or ODI following lumbar discectomy. Similarly, there was no association between MCs and JOA or neck pain following ACDF procedures. Patients with MC experienced statistically significant improvements following lumbar or cervical spine surgery. The postoperative improvements were similar to patients without MCs in the cervical and lumbar spine

Achievement of the planetary defense investigations of the double asteroid redirection test (DART) mission

Artículo escrito por más de cien autores.NASAʼs Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission was the first to demonstrate asteroid deflection, and the missionʼs Level 1 requirements guided its planetary defense investigations. Here, we summarize DARTʼs achievement of those requirements. On 2022 September 26, the DART spacecraft impacted Dimorphos, the secondary member of the Didymos near-Earth asteroid binary system, demonstrating an autonomously navigated kinetic impact into an asteroid with limited prior knowledge for planetary defense. Months of subsequent Earthbased observations showed that the binary orbital period was changed by –33.24 minutes, with two independent analysis methods each reporting a 1σ uncertainty of 1.4 s. Dynamical models determined that the momentum enhancement factor, β, resulting from DARTʼs kinetic impact test is between 2.4 and 4.9, depending on the mass of Dimorphos, which remains the largest source of uncertainty. Over five dozen telescopes across the globe and in space, along with the Light Italian CubeSat for Imaging of Asteroids, have contributed to DARTʼs investigations. These combined investigations have addressed topics related to the ejecta, dynamics, impact event, and properties of both asteroids in the binary system. A year following DARTʼs successful impact into Dimorphos, the mission has achieved its planetary defense requirements, although work to further understand DARTʼs kinetic impact test and the Didymos system will continue. In particular, ESAʼs Hera mission is planned to perform extensive measurements in 2027 during its rendezvous with the Didymos–Dimorphos system, building on DART to advance our knowledge and continue the ongoing international collaboration for planetary defense