Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS) - Essay Example Clinical Decision Support Systems are "active knowledge systems which use two or more items of patient data to generate case-specific advice" (Wyatt J, Spiegelhalter D, 1991). Some successful systems such as 'Dxplain' and 'QMR' originating in the 1980s were successfully commercialized. There are compelling evidences for the effectiveness of CDSS for improved patient safety and improved quality of care. CDSS has been portrayed in a positive light by majority of reviews. The basic components of a CDSS include a medical knowledge base and an inference mechanism. It could be based on Expert systems or artificial neural networks or both. The computing techniques that are used to create CDSS are divided in two broad categories: For a clinically useful CDSS, the knowledge system should be based on best evidence and it should fully cover the problem. Also, it requires the capability to update the knowledge base. The system should be easy to use and its performance should be validated rigorously. A medical practitioner needs to deal with different kinds of data and knowledge and no single DSS model has the ability to manage all of them. In any advanced DSS model, data and knowledge are complementary; both are useful to take an appropriate decision in a complex domain like medicine. Due to heavy investme

How the media portrayals Los Angeles Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

How the media portrayals Los Angeles - Essay Example However, issues such as homelessness, poverty, and unemployment are seldom brought to the limelight. In this perspective, the paper will argue that although there are people who lead lavish lifestyles in Los Angeles, there are numerous poor people who are unemployed and some even do not have houses to live in. LA is known for its celebrity culture as well as the film and television industry (Time Out). LA, nicknamed the City of Angels is known around the globe for the creation of television productions, recorded music, and video games, thus being the leader in the production of motion pictures as shown in the documentary Los Angeles Plays Itself. The media has often portrayed LA as place where people live lavish lifestyles and is full of celebrities, including dancer, filmmakers, musicians, actors, and writers living and working in LA. Such media include movies, television series, music, and video games. Some of the movies that talk about LA comprise of the following: Blade Runner (1982) that shows the dystopian LA in November 2019; the Terminator series that depicts the post-apocalyptic 2029 LA; LA Confidential (1997); Escape from LA, and The Core (2003) among others. Furthermore, some of the most popular television series that reference LA include FOX, Angel TV series, Law & Order: LA, Entourage TV series, L.A Law, and Real World: Los Angeles among others. However, in spite of the media showing LA as a place that is full of celebrities who own expensive cars and live in luxurious homes, there are numerous unemployed people and some are even homeless. Many are of the belief that homelessness is as a consequence of laziness or poor work ethic. Baker (417) argues that the increasing costs of acquiring living and poverty are other factors that contribute to homelessness in addition to unemployment and global conflict. Hafetz (1215) defines the homelessness as a person or family that has no access to fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime

Surface Tension of Deionized Water | Experiment

Surface Tension of Deionized Water | Experiment Abstract Surface tension of deionized water was measured across a range of 0 ml to 4.8 ml of two different compounds by dropping a solute onto a penny until the surface tension was broken. The uncertainty in the measurements varied between 0.02 0.11 for granulated sugar and 0.6 0.14 for table salt. Reference tables and charts were developed using the experimental data. Introduction Water is very important to all biological systems on Earth and is one of the more unique molecules. Without it life on Earth, or possibly on other planets, could not exist. The molecular structure of water is what makes it so unique. Water is a polar covalent molecule meaning that one part of the molecule can have a positive charge and the other part a negative charge. Because water is a partially polar molecule it possesses many important biological characteristics that make it crucial to creating and maintaining life on Earth. (Conway, A, et al.) The partial polarity of water is important as it allows soluble polar molecules and ionic compounds to dissolve in it, such as sugar and salt. This allows fundamental biological reactions to occur which are crucial to life. Another important characteristic of water is hydrogen bonding. This is a weak bond that forms between hydrogen atoms and other nearby atoms. This bond is established between the negatively charged oxygen atom of a water molecule and the positively charged hydrogen atoms of another nearby water molecule. (Conway, A, et al.) Hydrogen bonds also display two other characteristics which are cohesion and surface tension. Surface tension is defined as the expression of the resistance which liquids show in response to an increase in their surface area. This is caused by the strong attraction of molecules of the same kind in the surface layer of the liquid which is called cohesion. Cohesion causes the liquid to behave as if it were covered in a thin membrane under tension. This is a result of the molecules in the interior of the liquid interacting equally with molecules from all sides, while oxygen molecules at the surface of the liquid are only affected by the molecules below it. The stronger surface bonds generate a net inward force, pulling the surface molecules toward the middle of a droplet of liquid which causes the molecules to resist being pulled apart. (University of Hawaii) As gravity presses down on a droplet of liquid, the cohesive forces inside the liquid are stronger than the force of gravity within the small surface area which allows the droplet to hold its shape. As more droplets are added to the surface area the more molecules are added and the larger the droplets surface area becomes. As the size of the surface area increases, the amount of force that gravity exerts on the surface of the droplet also increases. As more molecules are added to the droplet, the cohesive forces inside the liquid will struggle to hold its shape. The force of gravity will eventually overpower the cohesive forces within the liquid and the droplet will break. Apparatus/Method/Procedure For this experiment the following apparatuses and compounds were used: Deionized water at room temperature Granulated sugar Table salt One penny One 1.0 ml syringe Plastic cups Toothpicks Paper towels About 30 ml of deionized water was added to 5 plastic cups and numbered 1 through 5. In the first cup the deionized water was left just as it is. In the second through the fifth cups, granulated sugar was added in multiples of about 1.2 ml. The sugar mixture in each cup was swirled and mixed with a toothpick until fully dissolved. One further cup filled with about 100 ml of deionized water was also used for rinsing the syringe. Cup Number Deionized Water Granulated Sugar Added (multiples of about 1.2 ml) 1 30 ml 0 2 30 ml 1 3 30 ml 2 4 30 ml 3 5 30 ml 4 One newer looking penny was washed thoroughly with hot water, dried completely with a paper towel and placed on a flat work surface. The syringe was then filled completely to the 1.0 ml line using the first cup of deionized water. The water was then released from the syringe onto the surface of the penny drop by drop until the surface tension broke and the water spilled over the side of the penny. The amount of liquid used right up until the surface tension broke was then recorded for each cup. The amount of times the syringe needed to be filled for each cup was also recorded. This was then repeated five times for each cup with increasing amounts of granulated sugar. The penny was rinsed in hot water between each cup. The syringe was also rinsed out between each cup from the extra cup of deionized water. The same side of the penny was used throughout the experiment to ensure continuity. The entire experiment was then carried out again using increasing multiples of table salt. Results and Discussion   Ã‚   Granulated Sugar Just Water 1.2 ml 2.4 ml 3.6 ml 4.8 ml No. Times Syringe Filled Cup 1 1.52 1.65 1.66 1.45 1.45 2 Cup 2 1.55 1.62 1.65 1.5 1.52 2 Cup 3 1.57 1.67 1.61 1.5 1.45 2 Cup 4 1.59 1.59 1.5 1.4 1.42 2 Cup 5 1.3 1.66 1.55 1.41 1.45 2 7.53 8.19 7.97 7.26 7.27 /5 1.51 1.64 1.59 1.54 1.45 0.11 0.09 0.06 0.04 0.02 Table 1: Results of granulated sugar experiment. The values of each set of cups were added together to get the mean or . The sum was then divided by 5, which is the number of tests that were conducted from each cup, to get an average number for each set of tests. In example: Just water-granulated sugar experiment- 1.52 1.55 1.57 1.59 1.30 /5 = 1.506 1.51 squared was then subtracted from each cup result- 1.52 (1.51 = 0.0001 1.55 (1.51   = 0.0016 1.57 (1.51   = 0.0036 1.59 (1.51   = 0.0064 1.30 (1.51   = 0.0441 The square root of sum over 4 was then done to get the standard deviation or ÏÆ'. So: This was then repeated for all cups with the results listed on tables 1 and 2. Table Salt Just Water 1.2 ml 2.4 ml 3.6 ml 4.8 ml No. Times Syringe Filled Cup 1 1.51 1.5 1.37 1.3 1.4 2 Cup 2 1.75 1.46 1.39 1.2 1.45 2 Cup 3 1.43 1.25 1.3 1.24 1.35 2 Cup 4 1.67 1.45 1.43 1.35 1.3 2 Cup 5 1.43 1.45 1.27 1.35 1.25 2 7.79 7.15 6.76 6.44 6.75 /5 1.59 1.43 1.35 1.29 1.35 0.14 0.1 0.06 0.06 0.07 Table 2: Results of table salt experiment. The pooled sample variance was then taken for both the granulated sugar and the table salt. First all the squared readings were added together and then divided by 24 Granulated Sugar: Table salt: The sum was then square rooted to get the pooled standard deviation. Pooled Standard Error: Pooled T Statistic: Granulated Sugar:   Table salt: Graph 1: Results of granulated sugar experiment. Graph 2: Results of table salt experiment. 1. What effect(s) are the solutes having on the surface tension of water? The surface tension results for the granulated sugar experiment varied depending on how much sugar was in each cup. Interestingly the highest surface tension results were from cups 2 and 3. The higher surface tension of the sugar may result from how well the sugar was dissolved in the water as it was much harder to dissolve than the table salt. As expected, the table salt results in each cup showed a slight decrease in the surface tension of the water compared with the plain distilled water. 2. Are your findings consistent and reproducible? A consistent water temperature was maintained throughout the experiment as well as using the same penny and the same side of the penny. Results were slightly inconsistent from the same cup but this could be attributed to how far away I was holding the syringe from the penny and how fast I was dropping the water. The inconsistencies were very minimal and the results can be reproduced inside the margin of error. 3. Can you explain the scientific basis for any effects observed? Depending on the compound added to the water it will either, cause a lower surface tension by depleting the surface molecules at the water air interface, or make the bonds stronger by pulling more molecules toward the middle of the droplet which increases the water air interface. As the sugar was harder to dissolve in the water, the solute concentrated more on the surface thereby making the bonds stronger. The negative result from the salt can be attributed to the salt staying in the solute rather than concentrating on the surface. 4. Are there alternative explanations? None that I can find. 5. Does the chemical nature of the solute matter? Some liquids have stronger cohesive forces than others. Water molecules have some of the strongest cohesive forces due to being a polar covalent molecule. The stronger the cohesive bonds are inside the liquid, the larger a droplet will be able to grow before it is overcome by the force of gravity. 6. Do your results agree with the same or similar measurements that you might find in the literature? The results of this experiment came out as expected according the literature in provided to us as well as in the citations; both with the varied results of the granulated sugar and the generally descending results of the table salt. 7. Are there any sources of inaccuracy or potential flaws in the methodology used? Can you suggest modifications to the experimental protocol in the light of your evaluations? How far away the syringe was held from the penny as well as how fast the drops were let either increased or decreased the surface tension. How well the penny was cleaned in between each test could also affect the surface tension. To improve the results a drop counter could be used which precisely controls the amount of liquid in each drop as well as the time between drops. 8. Link your work to the concepts introduced in the introductory passage of this experimental brief. Think about how the results might have relevance to the initial formation of life, and reflect on how they relate to the module materials in Sections 1 to 6. ie discuss the experiment in the context of Astrobiology. Water is crucial to the formation of life on Earth as its able to dissolve many common substances making known as the universal solvent. This is important as reactants must be dissolved in water for most biological reactions to occur. The hydrogen bonds formed by water are also important as they can be found in the DNA of many living organisms as it helps to keep the DNA chains together. The high surface tension of water and its cohesive properties of water allow trees and plants to pull water up from their roots to their leaves. This same process is also essential for blood transport in animals. For life to form on other planets it can be assumed that it will need a solvent like water to enable chemical reactions and to transport materials. (Conway, A, et al.) Conclusion Overall the experiment succeeded in showing that the strength of a cohesive bond inside the solute is dependent upon which compound is dissolved in it. It also showed that the cohesive bond in the surface tension of the solvent is also effected by how much of the compound was dissolved in the solute. Differences existed in the experimental data of the granulated sugar and the table salt, however, these can be accounted for by experimental error. Bibliography   Ã‚   Conway, A, et al. 2003. Origin of Life. 2003. In: Rothery, Gilmour and Sephton (eds). An Introduction to Astrobiology. pp. 3-15, 8-10. Cambridge University Press. University of Hawaii. 2017. Types of Covalent Bonds: Polar and Nonpolar. [ONLINE] Available at: https://manoa.hawaii.edu/exploringourfluidearth/?q=chemical/properties-water/types-covalent-bonds-polar-and-nonpolar. [Accessed 27 February 2017]. Shakhashiri . 2011. Water. [ONLINE] Available at: http://scifun.chem.wisc.edu/CHEMWEEK/PDF/COW-Water-Jan2011.pdf. [Accessed 27 February 2017].

Women in The Fabliaux :: essays research papers

Females are portrayed in the Fabliaux as having certain distinct characteristics. In 'Les Quatre Sohais Saint-Martin';, 'The Chevalier Who Made Cunts Talk';, and 'The Miller's Prologue and Tale'; medieval women are portrayed in similar ways. Women are imaginative and therefor their thoughts must be controlled. They also, in the Fabliaux, crave sex and have sexually creative minds. These three Fabliaux texts present women that are similar and represent commonly held views about the female sex of the time.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Women in the Middle Ages were thought of as having wildly creative imaginations. They were capable of much more description and creativity then men. This is portrayed in 'Les Quatre Sohais Saint-Martin';. The peasant women, when presented with her husbands four wishes, begins to wish for pricks all over her husbands body. After first describing her husband's current state as 'soft and like a furry animal'; (lecture notes) she goes on to say that she wishes for big pricks, short pricks, curved pricks, strait pricks, and other kinds all over his body including his ears, knees, forehead, and abdomen. She does not merely wish for one, hard prick but instead lists all the types she can think of. Because the husband only wishes that the 'same comes to her'; (lecture notes) it is obvious that the wife is the one with the creative imagination. In 'The Chevalier Who Made Cunts Talk'; the women are also very imaginative. After the Chevalier rescues the three naked women's c lothes they decide to each present him with a gift as a reward for acting so honorably. The first grants him a loon. The second grants him the ability to make all cunts speak to him. The third, not wanting to be upstaged by the first and second, gives him the talent to make all assholes speak. It is here that the extents of the female imagination are demonstrated. The Chevalier finds these gifts to be so wild that he thought the girls were mocking him: ' 'Those meadow girls made fun of me''; (Guerin 233). In the Middle Ages a woman's imagination was considered a powerful thing that must be controlled. If a woman's thoughts were not controlled there could be drastic consequences like strange characteristics in children. The thoughts and actions of the women in these Fabliaux are representative of this wildly held belief among men.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The women in these three Fabliaux are also very interested in sex.

Dot-com Bubble and Fastest-growing Camera Company

Ever since his days at the University of California at San Diego in the late 1990s, Nicholas Woodman wanted a way for him and his surfing buddies to capture their exploits without having to take turns sitting on shore with a camera and telephoto lens. â€Å"No surfer wants to be the photographer, especially when the waves are good,† he says. Woodman, 36, eventually decided to solve the problem and founded GoPro in 2002. GoPro makes a small, durable, lightweight (just 3. 3 ounces) camcorder and special mounts to attach the device to surfboards, helmets, ski poles, car hoods, or pretty much anything else.It’s become a phenomenon in the world of extreme sports, with back-country snowboarders, kayakers, scuba divers, and others using it to document their feats. Woodman’s company has sold hundreds of thousands of them through sports shops and is only now reaching beyond its X Game base with national TV ads and a distribution deal with Best Buy (BBY). â€Å"It’ s a very cool story,† says Christopher Chute, an analyst with IDC. â€Å"GoPro may well be the world’s fastest-growing camera company. †The stepson of Irwin Federman, a chip industry pioneer and successful venture capitalist, Woodman started an Internet marketing firm after college, but it didn’t survive the dot-com bust. He decompressed with a five-month surfing trip to Indonesia and Australia, where he began testing prototypes of a wrist-mounted camera. Once he got the design right, he borrowed and raised $30,000—in part by selling Indonesian bead-and-shell necklaces from the back of hisVolkswagen bus—and hired some buddies to cold-call surf shops and ask them to stock GoPro’s Hero line of cameras.Corporate giants such as Samsung have worked on wearable camcorders for years, but GoPro’s devices, which cost $180 to $300, stand out for image and sound quality, ease of use, and ruggedness. They’re waterproof to 180 feet an d drop-proof from 3,000 feet. (One was dropped from that height by a skydiver, who still uses it. ) A skier can attach one to his helmet to record what he sees and another to the tip of his ski to film himself. The cameras are also becoming a staple on TV, where they have been used to help film dozens of reality shows, including Deadliest Catch and Whale Wars.George Lucas is using them to shoot part of his next film, Red Tails. Woodman, who says GoPro is profitable enough to go public, wants to expand beyond hardware into media. One idea is for a cable show featuring extreme sports videos shot by GoPro users. The push into content is one reason Steamboat Ventures, the venture capital arm of Walt Disney (DIS), recently invested in GoPro. Says Beau Laskey, managing director of the fund: â€Å"There’s the potential for this to be much more than a camera company. †

Transport Network

Transportation and Logistics Goals Amanda Contreras November 16, 2012 640 The central goal of my company is to keep retail prices low. Working with suppliers to ensure their prices are constantly low, but also means price changes are kept to a minimum. Aiming to become lowest cost producer, the firm can compete on the price with every other industries and earn higher unit profits. Cost reduction provides the focus of the organization strategy. It targets a broad market.Competitive advantage is achieved by driving down costs. Price Leadership – The Company is well known for its â€Å"Every Day Low Pricing†, but is aiming to give the consumer greater value for each product category. Through leverage selling general and administrative expenses, the Company can ask suppliers to introduce efficiencies in the transportation of items. This can be the supplier to the distribution center, distribution center to the store and also within the store.Since transportation can be as m uch as one-half to two-thirds of the total cost of distributing product it only makes sense to drive is in as many efficiencies into your transportation network as you possibly can. The 1st strategy is to limit the margin that would have to be paid to a third-party providing that service. The 2nd strategy is controlling the fleet my company can control the quality and timing of the service to move the freight from the distribution centers to the stores.That 2nd strategy is an important goal in reducing labor costs and maximizing the utilization of assets and resources. Currently, the vendor manages nearly all vendor shipments to my company. My company arranges backhaul pick-ups at vendors after one of its trucks makes a delivery to its stores. More stock will be needed prior to the seasonal upturn in sales volume. As sales decline, less merchandise is needed. My company balances the â€Å"need for speed† with the costs inherent in the mode of transport.This includes the rate charged for the service, minimum weight requirements, loading and unloading facilities, packaging, possible damage in transit, and any special services that may be required. The basic modes of transportation are water, rail, motor carrier, air and pipeline. Water being the slowest mode with rail, motor carrier, and air following in order of speed of delivery. Generally, the order is reversed when looking at costs. Selection of the appropriate carrier has several steps. First the firm selects a transportation mode.The shipper must compare the service desired with the rate or cost of service. Service usually means transit time or the time that elapses from the time the consignor makes the goods available for dispatch until the carrier delivers to the consignee. Once the mode and type of carrier is determined a final decision can be made based on other factors. Accessibility is one such factor. Some firms have geographic limits to their routing network. Others may not possess physical access to needed facilities or have the ability to provide the equipment and facilities that movement of a particular commodity may require.Reliability, the consistency of the transit time a carrier provides, is also a key factor. Finally, convenience and communication are other important considerations when selecting a carrier. Measures that a transportation firm would use to judge its performance include: orders shipped on time, orders shipped complete, order preparation time, product availability, and transit time. From the customer perspective performance can be gauged from orders received on time, orders received complete, orders received damage free, orders filled accurately, and orders billed accurately.