The Number of Subgrain Boundaries in the Airfoils of Heat-Treated Single-Crystalline Turbine Blades

In the present study, the dendrites deflection mechanism from the mold walls were subjected to verification regarding its heat-treated turbine rotor blades. The number of macroscopic low-angle boundaries created on the cross-section of the blades’ airfoil near the tip was experimentally determined and compared to the number of low-angle boundaries calculated from a model based on the dendrites deflection mechanism. Based on the Laue patterns and geometrical parameters of airfoils, the number of low-angle boundaries occurring at the upper part of the blades airfoil after heat treatment was calculated. This number for the analyzed group of blades ranged from 5 to 9.     

Improved two-stage tests for stratified phase II cancer clinical trials

In a single-arm, two-stage, phase II cancer clinical trial for efficacy screening of cytotoxic agents, a common primary endpoint is a binary (yes/no) patient response to treatment. Usually, fixed decision boundaries are used in binomial tests to determine whether the study treatment is promising enough to be studied in a large-scale, randomized phase III trial. We may know in advance that the patient response distribution for a phase II clinical trial will be heterogeneous, making it advisable to stratify patients into subgroups, each with a different prognosis. In this case, fixed decision boundaries may be inappropriate. In this article, we propose two-stage tests based on the Neyman-Pearson lemma. The proposed test statistic is a linear combination of the observed number of responders in each stratum. The test allows adjustment of the decision boundaries to the observed numbers of patients in each stratum and permits sample sizes to be increased adaptively after the originally planned number of patients is observed at each of the two stages. Our numerical results show that the proposed test is more powerful than an existing test in many cases. Finally, we present an application to a Children's Oncology Group phase II clinical trial in patients who relapsed after initial treatment for neuroblastoma.     

Environmental deformations dynamically shift human spatial memory

Place and grid cells in the hippocampal formation are commonly thought to support a unified and coherent cognitive map of space. This mapping mechanism faces a challenge when a navigator is placed in a familiar environment that has been deformed from its original shape. Under such circumstances, many transformations could plausibly serve to map a navigator's familiar cognitive map to the deformed space. Previous empirical results indicate that the firing fields of rodent place and grid cells stretch or compress in a manner that approximately matches the environmental deformation, and human spatial memory exhibits similar distortions. These effects have been interpreted as evidence that reshaping a familiar environment elicits an analogously reshaped cognitive map. However, recent work has suggested an alternative explanation, whereby deformation‐induced distortions of the grid code are attributable to a mechanism that dynamically anchors grid fields to the most recently experienced boundary, thus causing history‐dependent shifts in grid phase. This interpretation raises the possibility that human spatial memory will exhibit similar history‐dependent dynamics. To test this prediction, we taught participants the locations of objects in a virtual environment and then probed their memory for these locations in deformed versions of this environment. Across three experiments with variable access to visual and vestibular cues, we observed the predicted pattern, whereby the remembered locations of objects were shifted from trial to trial depending on the boundary of origin of the participant's movement trajectory. These results provide evidence for a dynamic anchoring mechanism that governs both neuronal firing and spatial memory.     

The struggle to improve patient care in the face of professional boundaries

Professional boundaries make inter-professional communication, collaboration and teamwork more challenging and can jeopardise the provision of safe, high quality patient care. This in-depth interview study conducted in three UK acute hospital organisations in 2003-2004 explored how professional boundaries affected efforts to improve routine practice by acute pain services (small specialist teams set up to drive improvements in postoperative pain management through education, training, standard-setting and audit). The study found that many anaesthetists and to a lesser extent nursing staff saw postoperative pain management as a new and unjustified addition to their professional role. Professional identities and strong fears about the risks of treatments meant that health professionals resisted attempts by the acute pain services to standardise practice and to change medical and nursing roles in relation to postoperative pain management. Efforts by the acute pain services to improve practice were further hindered by inter-professional boundaries (between the medical and nursing professions) and by intra-professional boundaries (within the medical and nursing professions). The inter-professional boundaries led to the acute pain services devoting a substantial part of their time to performing a 'go-between' function between nurses and doctors. The intra-professional boundaries hindered collaborative working among doctors and limited the influence that the acute pain service nurses could have on improving the practice of other nurses. Further work is needed to address the underlying fears that can lead to resistance around role changes and to develop effective strategies to minimise the impact of professional boundaries on patient care.     

Flexible Stopping Boundaries When Changing Primary Endpoints After Unblinded Interim Analyses

It has been widely recognized that interim analyses of accumulating data in a clinical trial can inflate type I error. Different methods, from group sequential boundaries to flexible alpha spending functions, have been developed to control the overall type I error at prespecified level. These methods mainly apply to testing the same endpoint in multiple interim analyses. In this article, we consider a group sequential design with preplanned endpoint switching after unblinded interim analyses. We extend the alpha spending function method to group sequential stopping boundaries when the parameters can be different between interim, or between interim and final analyses.     

Interprofessional spanning and building boundaries when supporting potential embryo donors to stem cell research

When patients undergo fertility treatment, it is likely that a surplus of embryos will be created. The existence of these surplus embryos creates responsibilities for the clinics where they are stored and for the people who own them. Since 2001, the owners of the surplus embryos in the UK have the option to donate them to be used in stem cell research (SCR). This development has generated a new population—potential embryo donors to SCR—who have unique support needs as they are neither fertility patients nor donors. However, little is known how lay and professional stakeholders associated with fertility treatment and SCR have conceptualised the support needs of potential embryo donors to SCR or have responded to the additional task once the option became available. In this article, we draw on Gieryn’s concept of boundary-work to explore how the emergence of donating embryos to SCR has provided opportunities for embryologists, counsellors, and scientists to shift, adapt, or confirm their roles, knowledge base, and areas of expertise. We present a thematic analysis of 21 in-depth, semi-structured interviews conducted with UK lay and professional stakeholders associated with fertility treatment and SCR. We conclude with reflections on the implications this boundary-work has for those contemplating donating embryos to SCR and the care they receive when making their decision. Such insights are pertinent given the current policy and practice discussions led by the National Donation Strategy Group to improve the care of donors in the UK.     

Relationship boundaries,abuse, and internalized whorephobia

Abstract

This article explores the connection between low levels of relationship power, and external and internalized whorephobia from the perspective of an experiential sex worker. Though the theory of internalized oppression and stigma isn’t new, it’s rarely applied to research or discussions regarding sex work. This autoethnography aims to remedy this by providing a base for deeper analysis & research.