Inexact Process Research Articles

'Selection into training will always be an inexact process': A survey of Directors of Physician Education on selection into Basic Physician Training in Australia and New Zealand.

Despite being one of the largest medical specialty training programmes in Australasia, there is no standardised method for selection into Basic Physician Training (BPT), and limited data exist regarding current practices. To address existing knowledge gaps, we aimed to create a 'snapshot' of current BPT selection practices and explore the perspectives of Directors of Physician Education (DPEs) regarding trainee selection. An electronic survey of DPEs from adult and paediatric medicine BPT sites in Australia and New Zealand was undertaken in January-February 2022. A combination of free text, multiple-choice and yes/no answers were analysed using descriptive statistics and qualitative content analysis. A total of 70 responses were received, achieving a response rate of 35% (70/198). Selection practices were found to be heterogenous across BPT sites. Respondents had varying opinions regarding the utility of selection tools and desirable candidate attributes. A heavy reliance upon interviews and the reported use of subjective assessments raise concerns for selection process bias. BPT sites should critically evaluate their selection methods, and more research in this field is needed to establish best practice.

Autonomous Quantum Devices: When Are They Realizable without Additional Thermodynamic Costs?

The resource theory of quantum thermodynamics has been a very successful theory and has generated much follow-up work in the community. It requires energy-preserving unitary operations to be implemented over a system, bath, and catalyst as part of its paradigm. So far, such unitary operations have been considered a "free" resource in the theory. However, this is only an idealization of a necessarily inexact process. Here, we include an additional auxiliary control system which can autonomously implement the unitary by turning an interaction "on or off". However, the control system will inevitably be degraded by the backaction caused by the implementation of the unitary. We derive conditions on the quality of the control device so that the laws of thermodynamics do not change and prove - by utilizing a good quantum clock - that the laws of quantum mechanics allow the backreaction to be small enough so that these conditions are satisfiable. Our inclusion of nonidealized control into the resource framework also raises interesting prospects, which were absent when considering idealized control. Among other things, the emergence of a third law without the need for the assumption of a light cone. Our results and framework unify the field of autonomous thermal machines with the thermodynamic quantum resource-theoretic one, and lay the groundwork for all quantum processing devices to be unified with fully autonomous machines.

Design Analysis of Approximate Redundant Binary Multipliers

As innovation scaling is arriving at its cutoff points, new methodologies have been proposed for computational effectiveness. Inexact processing is a promising method for elite execution and low power circuits as utilized in blunder lenient applications. Among surmised circuits, rough number juggling plans have drawn in huge exploration interest. In this paper, the plan of rough excess twofold (RB) multipliers is contemplated. Two inexact Booth encoders and two RB 4:2 blowers dependent on RB (full and half) adders are proposed for the RB multipliers. The inexact plan of the RB-Normal Binary (NB) converter in the RB multiplier is additionally concentrated by considering the mistake qualities of both the estimated Booth encoders and the RB blowers. Both rough and accurate ordinary incomplete item clusters are utilized in the surmised RB multipliers to meet distinctive exactness prerequisites. Mistake investigation and equipment reenactment results are given. The proposed surmised RB multipliers are contrasted and past rough Booth multipliers; the outcomes show that the estimated RB multipliers are superior to inexact NB Booth multipliers particularly when the word size is huge. Contextual investigations of blunder tough applications are likewise introduced to show the legitimacy of the proposed plans.

Inexact descent methods for convex minimization problems in Banach spaces

"Given a Lipschitz and convex objective function of an unconstrained optimization problem, defined on a Banach space, we revisit the class of regular vector fields which was introduced in our previous work on descent methods. We study, in particular, the asymptotic behavior of the sequence of values of the objective function for a certain inexact process generated by a regular vector field when the sequence of computational errors converges to zero and show that this sequence of values converges to the infimum of the given objective function of the unconstrained optimization problem."

AHRR Methylation is a Significant Predictor of Mortality Risk in Framingham Heart Study.

Background.-The ability to predict mortality is useful to clinicians, policy makers and insurers. At the current time, prediction of future mortality is still an inexact process with some proposing that epigenetic assessments could play a role in improving prognostics. In past work, we and others have shown that DNA methylation status at cg05575921, a well-studied measure of smoking intensity, is also a predictor of mortality. However, the exact extent of that predictive capacity and its independence of other commonly measured mortality risk factors are unknown. Objective.-To determine the capacity of methylation to predict mortality. Method.-We analyzed the relationship of methylation at cg05575921 and cg04987734, a recently described quantitative marker of heavy alcohol consumption, to mortality in the Offspring Cohort of the Framingham Heart Study using proportional hazards survival analysis. Results.-In this group of participants (n = 2278) whose average age was 66 ± 9 years, we found that the inclusion of both cg05575921 and cg04987734 methylation to a base model consisting of age and sex only, or to a model containing 11 commonly used mortality risk factors, improved risk prediction. What is more, prediction accuracy for the base model plus methylation data was increased compared to the base model plus known predictors of mortality (CHD, COPD, or stroke). Conclusion.-Cg05575921, and to a smaller extent cg04987734, are strong predictors of mortality risk in older Americans and that incorporation of DNA methylation assessments to these and other loci may be useful to population scientists, actuaries and policymakers to better understand the relationship of environmental risk factors, such as smoking and drinking, to mortality.

Assessing Suicide Risk: What is Commonly Missed in the Emergency Room?

Although risk assessment for suicide has been extensively studied, it is still an inexact process. The current study determined how busy emergency clinicians actually assessed and documented suicide risk, while also examining the differences between psychiatric and emergency medicine opinions on the importance of various suicide predictors. Phase 1 of the study involved the administration of a survey on the relative importance of various suicide predictors for the specialties of psychiatry and emergency medicine. In phase 2 of the study, a chart review of psychiatric emergency room patients was conducted to determine the actual documentation rates of the suicide predictors. Several predictors that were deemed to be important, including suicidal plan, intent for suicide, having means available for suicide, and practicing suicide (taking different steps leading up to suicide but not actually attempting suicide), had low documentation rates. Medical specialties have different opinions on the importance of various suicide predictors. Also, some predictors deemed important had low documentation rates. Educational interventions and simple assessment tools may help to increase documentation rates of several suicide predictors in busy clinical settings.

Practice Bulletin No. 171 Summary: Management of Preterm Labor.

Preterm birth is the leading cause of neonatal mortality and the most common reason for antenatal hospitalization (1-4). In the United States, approximately 12% of all live births occur before term, and preterm labor preceded approximately 50% of these preterm births (5, 6). Although the causes of preterm labor are not well understood, the burden of preterm births is clear-preterm births account for approximately 70% of neonatal deaths and 36% of infant deaths as well as 25-50% of cases of long-term neurologic impairment in children (7-9). A 2006 report from the Institute of Medicine estimated the annual cost of preterm birth in the United States to be $26.2 billion or more than $51,000 per premature infant (10). However, identifying women who will give birth preterm is an inexact process. The purpose of this document is to present the various methods proposed to manage preterm labor and to review the evidence for the roles of these methods in clinical practice. Identification and management of risk factors for preterm labor are not addressed in this document.

Practice Bulletin No. 171: Management of Preterm Labor.

Preterm birth is the leading cause of neonatal mortality and the most common reason for antenatal hospitalization . In the United States, approximately 12% of all live births occur before term, and preterm labor preceded approximately 50% of these preterm births . Although the causes of preterm labor are not well understood, the burden of preterm births is clear-preterm births account for approximately 70% of neonatal deaths and 36% of infant deaths as well as 25-50% of cases of long-term neurologic impairment in children . A 2006 report from the Institute of Medicine estimated the annual cost of preterm birth in the United States to be $26.2 billion or more than $51,000 per premature infant . However, identifying women who will give birth preterm is an inexact process. The purpose of this document is to present the various methods proposed to manage preterm labor and to review the evidence for the roles of these methods in clinical practice. Identification and management of risk factors for preterm labor are not addressed in this document.

Practice Bulletin No. 159 Summary: Management of Preterm Labor.

Preterm birth is the leading cause of neonatal mortality and the most common reason for antenatal hospitalization (1-4). In the United States, approximately 12% of all live births occur before term, and preterm labor preceded approximately 50% of these preterm births (5, 6). Although the causes of preterm labor are not well understood, the burden of preterm births is clear-preterm births account for approximately 70% of neonatal deaths and 36% of infant deaths as well as 25-50% of cases of long-term neurologic impairment in children (7-9). A 2006 report from the Institute of Medicine estimated the annual cost of preterm birth in the United States to be $26.2 billion or more than $51,000 per premature infant (10). However, identifying women who will give birth preterm is an inexact process. The purpose of this document is to present the various methods proposed to manage preterm labor and to review the evidence for the roles of these methods in clinical practice. Identification and management of risk factors for preterm labor are not addressed in this document.

Practice Bulletin No. 159: Management of Preterm Labor.

Preterm birth is the leading cause of neonatal mortality and the most common reason for antenatal hospitalization . In the United States, approximately 12% of all live births occur before term, and preterm labor preceded approximately 50% of these preterm births . Although the causes of preterm labor are not well understood, the burden of preterm births is clear-preterm births account for approximately 70% of neonatal deaths and 36% of infant deaths as well as 25-50% of cases of long-term neurologic impairment in children . A 2006 report from the Institute of Medicine estimated the annual cost of preterm birth in the United States to be $26.2 billion or more than $51,000 per premature infant . However, identifying women who will give birth preterm is an inexact process. The purpose of this document is to present the various methods proposed to manage preterm labor and to review the evidence for the roles of these methods in clinical practice. Identification and management of risk factors for preterm labor are not addressed in this document.

Modulus Methods for Nonnegatively Constrained Image Restoration

In image restoration problems, it is reasonable to add nonnegative constraints because of the physical meaning of images. In general, this problem can be expressed as a quadratic programming problem with nonnegative constraints, which results in a linear complementary problem from the KKT optimization conditions. By reformulating the linear complementary problem as implicit fixed-point equations, a class of modulus-based matrix splitting iteration methods is established. In this paper, for a better computational implementation, we present an inexact iteration process for these modulus-based methods. Convergence properties for this inexact process are analyzed, and some specific implementations for the inner iterations are presented. Numerical experiments for nonnegatively constrained image restorations are presented, and the results show that our methods are comparable and more efficient than the existing projection type methods.

The inexact fixed matrix iteration for solving large linear inequalities in a least squares sense

A fixed matrix iteration algorithm was proposed by A. Dax (Numer. Algor. 50, 97---114 2009) for solving linear inequalities in a least squares sense. However, a great deal of computation for this algorithm is required, especially for large-scale problems, because a least squares subproblem should be solved accurately at each iteration. We present a modified method, the inexact fixed iteration method, which is a generalization of the fixed matrix iteration method. In this inexact iteration process, the classical LSQR method is implemented to determine an approximate solution of each least squares subproblem with less computational effort. The convergence of this algorithm is analyzed and several numerical examples are presented to illustrate the efficiency of the inexact fixed matrix iteration algorithm for solving large linear inequalities.

Schedule Risk Analysis of ICT Infrastructure Projects

Scheduling a project is an inexact process in that it tries to predict the future. An ICT infrastructure project is a combination of interrelated activities that must be performed in a certain order of completion. To cut development costs and meet tight deadlines in ICT software Infrastructure Projects, managers need to understand some key doubts about the standard scheduling methods and how to use a schedule risk analysis to provide information crucial to an ICT Infrastructure Project's success before they embark on their ICT Infrastructure Project. This study deals with the benefit of conducting schedule risk analysis on an ICT Infrastructure Project. It is shown that such risk analysis has the potential to provide key information for ICT Infrastructure project managers in advance so that risk mitigation plans can be developed and implemented in time.

The use of Delphi methodology in agrifood policy development: Some lessons learned

Developing policy in the agrifood area is an inexact process, usually relying upon effective integration of opinions from multiple experts from different disciplines, organisational types, and regions/countries. Delphi would appear to have the potential to overcome some of the typical limitations related to soliciting expert opinion and identifying consensus on future activities or options, particularly where relevant experts are dispersed geographically, and international consensus is required, as is the case in this domain. Three case studies, focused on the application of Delphi to emerging policy needs in international or European agrifood policy, are presented here to exemplify the utility of the technique. A number of practical recommendations are drawn from these case studies that may be applicable to other major policy making arenas. Among these recommendations are; that an exploratory workshop to refine round one Delphi questions is essential; that the implementation of “cascade” methodology (utilizing the personal contacts of researchers or members of existing policy networks) appears to increase response rates in subsequent Delphi rounds; and that the policy issue under discussion should be particularly relevant to stakeholders in order to increase participation rates. Further research might usefully focus on developing ways to incorporate measurements of uncertainty associated with stakeholder judgement into quantitative responses, and on establishing how best to utilise such information in feedback in subsequent Delphi rounds. Ensuring how best to inform policy uptake of the outputs of Delphi merits further research in particular.

Tool development based on modelling and simulation of hot sheet metal forming of Ti–6Al–4V titanium alloy

In the aero engine industry alternative manufacturing processes for load carrying aero engine structures imply fabrication. The concept of fabrication involves simple forgings, sheet metals and small ingots of e.g. titanium alloys which are welded together and heat treated. In the concept phase of the product development process, accurate evaluations of candidate manufacturing processes with short lead times are crucial. In the design of sheet metal forming processes, the manual die try out of deep drawing tools is traditionally a time consuming, expensive and inexact process. The present work investigates the possibility to design hot forming tools, with acceptable accuracy at short lead times and with minimal need for the costly die try out, using finite element (FE) analyses of hot sheet metal forming in the titanium alloy Ti–6Al–4V. A rather straightforward and inexpensive approach of material modelling and methods for material characterisation are chosen, suitable for early evaluations in the concept phase. Numerical predictions of punch force, draw-in and shape deviation are compared with data from separate forming experiments performed at moderately elevated temperatures. The computed responses show promising agreement with experimental measurements and the predicted shape deviation is within the sheet thickness when applying an anisotropic yield criterion. Solutions for the hot forming tool concept regarding heating and regulation, insulation, blank holding and tool material selection are evaluated within the present work.

Using an eclectic model to educate students about cultural influences on the nurse-patient relationship.

This article describes how the concepts of cultural awareness, cultural sensitivity, and cultural competence are integrated into the nursing curriculum at Lehman College, City University of New York. A culturally diverse student population engaged in lectures, classroom exercises, and clinical experiences in order to learn the ideas and imperatives of cultural diversity in nursing care. The exercises were problem-based learning experiences guided by a university-developed model for teaching students to understand cultural diversity. The model is derived from Leininger's comparative cultural caring model and Paterson and Zderad's humanistic nursing model. By observing differences and similarities among diverse cultures, students learned that the assignment of cultural attributes is an inexact process and should be organized as hints rather than as certainties. Students also learned the importance of integrating cultural awareness, cultural sensitivity, and cultural competence into their nursing care.

Schur complements on Hilbert spaces and saddle point systems

For any continuous bilinear form defined on a pair of Hilbert spaces satisfying the compatibility Ladyshenskaya–Babušca–Brezzi condition, symmetric Schur complement operators can be defined on each of the two Hilbert spaces. In this paper, we find bounds for the spectrum of the Schur operators only in terms of the compatibility and continuity constants. In light of the new spectral results for the Schur complements, we review the classical Babušca–Brezzi theory, find sharp stability estimates, and improve a convergence result for the inexact Uzawa algorithm. We prove that for any symmetric saddle point problem, the inexact Uzawa algorithm converges, provided that the inexact process for inverting the residual at each step has the relative error smaller than 1/3. As a consequence, we provide a new type of algorithm for discretizing saddle point problems, which combines the inexact Uzawa iterations with standard a posteriori error analysis and does not require the discrete stability conditions.

DNA barcoding: A molecular tool to identify Antarctic marine larvae

To begin to understand overall patterns and processes influencing marine populations, communities and ecosystems, it is important to determine the timing, duration, mode and dispersal of larvae. However, few studies of the spatial and temporal variation in abundance of larvae have been undertaken at any locality, other than for a few commercially important species. In Antarctic seas the abundance and species-richness of marine larvae are key to a number of concepts (such as the validity of Thorson's rule and ecological versus evolutionary success of brooders compared to spawning species). Traditionally, marine larval identification (using microscopy), even to order level, is a time-consuming, labour-intensive and inexact process. Ontogenic changes during larval life make identification difficult and require high levels of expertise, and identification is generally confirmed only by laboratory spawning experiments. New molecular genetic methods enable faster direct identification of marine larvae to a higher resolution. Our preliminary results show that it is possible to identify larvae of Antarctic species using DNA barcoding techniques, but that the resolution is currently limited by the availability of comparative adult sequences in the DNA sequence databases.

Determining Regional Structure Through Cointegration

Evaluating regional industrial structures remains an inexact process as traditional aggregation schemes often lump superficially similar but behaviorally distinct industries together. We use pairwise cointegration methods to apply econometric criteria to aggregate detailed industries into behaviorally similar sectors. Based on these aggregations, cointegration guides the proper specification of a regional system to analyze the export versus local nature of core sectors. These methodologies are applied to Denver metropolitan data to demonstrate their utility. The findings indicate previous aggregation schemes are statistically inferior to those generated by this paper’s approach.

American Indians and the private health care sector: the growing use of private care by Indians has implications for patients, providers, and policymakers.

American Indians and the private health care sector: the growing use of private care by Indians has implications for patients, providers, and policymakers.