Hyponatremia is the most frequent electrolyte disorder in hospitalized patients with increased mortality and morbidity. In this study, we evaluated the follow-up diagnostic, the risk of inadequate ...fast correction and the outcome of patients with profound hyponatremia (pHN), defined as a blood sodium concentration below 120 mmol/L. The aim was to identify a promising approach for a laboratory-based clinical decision support system (CDSS).
This retrospective study included 378,980 blood sodium measurements of 83,315 cases at a German tertiary care hospital. Hospitalized cases with pHN (n=211) were categorized into two groups by the time needed for a follow-up measurement to be performed (time to control, TTC) as either <12 h (group 1: "TTC≤12 h", n=118 cases) or >12 h (group 2: "TTC>12 h", n=93 cases). Length of hospital stay, sodium level at discharge, ward transfers, correction of hyponatremia, and risk of osmotic demyelination syndrome (ODS) due to inadequate fast correction were evaluated with regard to the TTC of sodium blood concentration.
pHN was detected in 1,050 measurements (0.3%) in 211 cases. Cases, in which follow-up diagnostics took longer (TTC>12 h), achieved a significantly lower sodium correction during their hospitalization (11.2 vs. 16.7 mmol/L, p<0.001), were discharged more frequently in hyponatremic states (<135 mmol/L; 58 (62.4%) vs. 43 (36.4%), p<0.001) and at lower sodium blood levels (131.2 vs. 135.0 mmol/L, p<0.001). Furthermore, for these patients there was a trend toward an increased length of hospital stay (13.1 vs. 8.5 days, p=0.089), as well as an increased risk of inadequate fast correction (p<0.001).
Our study shows that less frequent follow-up sodium measurements in pHN are associated with worse outcomes. Patients with a prolonged TTC are at risk of insufficient correction of hyponatremia, reduced sodium values at discharge, and possible overcorrection. Our results suggest that a CDSS that alerts treating physicians when a control time of >12 h is exceeded could improve patient care in the long term. We are initiating a prospective study to investigate the benefits of our self-invented CDSS (www.ampel.care) for patients with pHN.
This article presents a range extension concept for a high-precision robotic inline 3-D measurement system. A scanning confocal chromatic sensor (SCCS) is integrated with a magnetically levitated and ...actuated measurement platform (MP) for the acquisition of 3-D images with submicrometer resolution, enabled by means of active sample-tracking to compensate for relative motion between the SCCS and the sample. Based on an intermediate range extension approach, the lateral scan area is pre-extended to enable a robotic repositioning of the 3-D measurement module, ensuring sufficient overlap regions between the individual 3-D image frames. Experimental results show that the proposed concept extends the 3-D measurement modules' measurement range by about 80% of the lateral scan area within an acquisition time of about 90s. Range-extended 3-D measurements directly in a vibration-prone environment reveal that 97% of disturbing relative motion between the SCCS and the sample are compensated by the active sample-tracking approach. In this way, lab-like conditions for the SCCS are established directly in an industrial production line and, improving the measurement error by three orders of magnitude down to several tens of nanometers.
In the literature, measurement of piezoelectric properties is often absent in work describing the processing of these materials. For a measurement to be used in process development and control, it ...should preferably be performed shortly after the process itself. However, there are only a few methods available to characterize the piezoelectric constants on an unstructured thin film. Furthermore, these methods do not measure the lateral piezoelectric coefficient <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">{e}_{31,{f}} </tex-math></inline-formula>, although it is the most important piezoelectric parameter for many devices. In this article, a new method is introduced to enable the measurement of the lateral piezoelectric coefficient on unstructured wafers. For the measurement, the entire wafer is bent. The charge generated by the wafer bending is used to calculate the piezoelectric constant. An analytical formula is derived to establish the relation between geometry, substrate properties, force, and charge. This formula is compared with finite-element analyses (FEAs). FEA is used to investigate the impact of geometric variations on the measurement. The method is evaluated on sputtered aluminum nitride and shows a good correlation with the four-point bending method. As the output signal of the new method is some magnitudes higher compared to the well-known Berlincourt method. The requirements for the measurement equipment are much less stringent, resulting in the need for only a few basic tools that are accessible to researchers without access to specialized laboratories.
Railway level crossings (RLCs) in Poland are classified according to their protection systems. Category D, which is a form of passive RLC, aims to ensure safe and efficient operation. Surveying is ...essential to prepare and control the geometry of the visibility triangles used at RLCs. This article presents a new approach to monitoring the geometry of visibility triangles of RLCs using an electronic total station and a magnetic measuring square (MMS). Its main assumptions are presented together with the application of the innovative measuring instruments. Visibility is demonstrated taking into account the angles of intersection of the road axis with the track axis of the railway line and additional attributes related to the analysis and evaluation of general visibility conditions. The research highlights controversies that have received special attention against the background of the safety status of railway level crossings. As a case study, the RLC located on a single-track railway line in Poland is examined. The final section presents applications of the results obtained according to the proposed methodology. It is shown that the proposed approach is practical and effective. In addition to surveyors, the survey methodology can be used by road and rail traffic engineers and policy makers to further improve traffic safety at RLCs. This is an important global research task.
This article presents a method for measuring the geometry of crane rails with terrestrial laser scanning (TLS). Two sets of crane rails were divided into segments, their planes were adjusted, and the ...characteristic rail lines were defined. We used their profiles to define the positional and altitude deviations of the rails, the span and height difference between the two rails, and we also verified that they complied with the Eurocode 3 standard. We tested the method on crane rails at the hydroelectric power plant in Krško and the thermal power plant in Brestanica. We used two scanning techniques: "pure" TLS (Riegel VZ-400) and "hybrid" TLS (Leica MS50) scanning. This article's original contribution lies in the detailed presentation of the computations used to define the characteristic lines of the rails without using the numeric procedures from existing software packages. We also analysed the influence of segment length and point density on the rail geometry results, and compared the two laser scanning techniques. We also compared the results obtained by terrestrial laser scanning with the results obtained from the classic polar method, which served as a reference point for its precision.
Ski jumping hills should be prepared for competitions in accordance with project documentation in order to ensure safe and fair conditions for competitors. Geodesy/surveying is essential for guiding ...preparations and controlling the actual shape of the hill. In this article, we present a methodology for the control measurements and preparation of an inrun for a ski-flying hill in Planica. On each side of the track, there is metal tube that guides the trolley, which mills tracks into the ice. A special platform containing three measuring prisms was designed to control the position of the tubes. The proposed method was thoroughly analyzed in terms of its measurement quality and compared to previously used methodologies. The empirical results suggest that our proposed platform provides inrun geometry with a higher quality than previously used methods.
Escherichia coli (E. coli) is a common pathogen that causes diarrhea in humans and animals. In particular, E. coli can easily form biofilm on the surface of living or non-living carriers, which can ...lead to the cross-contamination of food. This review mainly summarizes the formation process of E. coli biofilm, the prevalence of biofilm in the food industry, and inhibition methods of E. coli biofilm, including chemical and physical methods, and inhibition by bioactive extracts from plants and animals. This review aims to provide a basis for the prevention and control of E. coli biofilm in the food industry.
On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization announced the novel coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak as a pandemic due to the rapid growth in the number of cases worldwide. The ability of countries to ...contain and mitigate interventions is crucial in controlling the exponential spread of the novel virus. Several social distancing and control measurements have been applied in Saudi Arabia to mitigate COVID-19 epidemic such as quarantine, schools closure, suspending travels, reducing crowds, people movement restrictions, self-isolation and contacts tracing. This research aims to study the country interventions in Saudi Arabia and their impact on decreasing the spread of COVID-19. This paper examined different control measurements scenarios produced by a modified SEIR mathematical model with an emphasis on testing capacity expansion and number of critical cases. The modified SEIR mathematical model is solved numerically using Rung-Kutta analysis method for solving the modified SEIR system of ordinary differential equations. The simulation results revealed that the interventions are vital to flatten the virus spread curve. Early implementation of country interventions can delay the peak and decrease the population fatality rate.
Monitoring systems using automated electronic total stations are an important element of safety control of many engineering objects. In order to ensure the appropriate credibility of acquired data, ...it is necessary that instruments (total stations in most of the cases) used for measurements meet requirements of measurement accuracy, as well as the stability of instrument axis system geometry. With regards to the above, it is expedient to conduct quality control of data acquired using electronic total stations in the context of performed measurement procedures. This paper presents results of research conducted at the Faculty of Geodesy and Cartography at Warsaw University of Technology investigating the stability of “basic” error values (collimation, zero location for V circle, inclination), for two types of automatic total stations: TDA 5005 and TCRP 1201+. Research provided also information concerning the influence of temperature changes upon the stability of investigated instrument’s optical parameters. Results are presented in graphical analytic technique. Final conclusions propose methods, which allow avoiding negative results of measuring tool-set geometry changes during conducting precise deformation monitoring measurements.
This paper deals with the effects that displacements of the measuring pillar have on precise geodetic measurements. The changes in the position of the control points on the object or its surroundings ...can only be determined with well stabilized and stable reference points. These points are usually stabilized with measuring pillars which are not always constructed in an optimal manner. If they are placed in a dark tube with a high absorption factor, solar heating on one side of the pillar can cause the pillar to deflect considerably due to the temperature difference on the two sides of the pillar. This paper presents the influence of such a displacement, if the pillar is a survey point, orientation point, or control point. We show that even small displacement of the survey point can have important influence on all measurements and that the error in some cases significantly increases, e.g., if the standard deviations of the coordinates of the survey point are 1 mm and their covariance is assumed to be zero, the standard deviation of the distance between measured and exact position of the control point exceeds the value of 2.2 mm.
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