Predetermined Steps Research Articles

Audit of quality in a radiological department — A pilot study

As part of the development of an auditing system for this department, a pilot study was designed to audit the quality of the product leaving the department. One hundred and six patient investigations were reviewed. For each investigation 26 items which were considered to reflect the quality of information on the request card, the films, the report and the condition of the film packets were assessed using a simple scoring system. Overall performances for various aspects of the departmental 'product', and for groups of staff within the department, were derived from these scores. Several problem areas were identified. Individual items were then scrutinized for recurring low scores and where scores fell outside a predetermined range steps were taken to improve standards. The scoring system developed is simple, easy and effective in use. It is considered that audit of quality is worthwhile and should be extended to become a routine part of departmental management.

Computer controlled forced stepwise isothermal analysis

A new version of the Stepwise Isothermal Analysis technique is described in which the temperature is forced to increase in predetermined steps during the reaction. Data obtained by this technique can be used to determine not only the controlling mechanism but also the activation energy and the pre-exponential factor in the Arrhenius equation. As a demonstration of the advantages of this technique the results obtained in a kinetic study of the thermal decomposition of cerium carbonate in different atmospheres is described.

Realization of a high speed biped using modern control theory

The purpose of this paper is to propose a new controlling method of the biped locomotion composed of seven links and to show simulated and experimental data of the locomotive motion of the biped called CW-1 built in our laboratory. The control method depends mainly on the linear optimal state feedback regulator, which stabilizes the stance supported by both legs as a commanded attitude. As a result the biped successfully walks any pre-determined steps such that one step takes only one second.

The Human Life Cycle: The Traditional Hindu View and the Psychology of Erik Erikson

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN psychoanalysis, especially in its emphasis on ego strengths (Heinz Hartmann) or basic virtues (Erik Erikson), show a startling affinity to the Hindu asrama (stages of life) theory. Though the phases of human development, like infancy, adolescence, etc., have been studied both by academic psychology and by psychoanalysis, the study of the individual life cycle as a functional whole and as a link in the chain of has been comparatively rare. Erikson has been the first psychoanalyst to treat this approach systematically. Erikson sees human development not as a continuum, but as a series of predetermined steps or stages by which the individual seeks contact in an ever-widening radius with his society, which welcomes and regulates his unfolding. Each phase of this development has a turning point, a crisis, which poses the solution of a specific task-a solution which is prepared in the preceding stages and is worked out further in the succeeding ones. The relative solution of each crisis in turn is the source of a specific psycho-social strength which is both the individual's heritage from and contribution to the succession of generations and to society's institutions. Erikson thus speaks of eight stages of man.'

Magnetic properties of grain-oriented silicon iron. Part 1: Use of ceramic displacement transducers for the measurement of magnetostriction

One basic problem in the measurement of magnetostriction in laminations is that samples of silicon-iron sheet are rarely perfectly flat when tested. This can sometimes lead to spurious values for the longitudinal magnetostriction, with ceramic displacement transducers. A method has been developed whereby, using three transducers in turn, the true longitudinal component of magnetostrictive motion can be determined. The use of an oil film between the sample and the bed plate, to reduce or eliminate the vertical movement, has been shown to be unreliable.To measure the magnetostriction directly over a small region (say, from grain to grain), a special pickup has been developed from the basic parts of two transducers. Each part is calibrated independently, and the two outputs are connected in opposition. By varying the apparent sensitivity of one part of the double pickup in predetermined steps, the true longitudinal magnetostriction over the small region can be evaluated.