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Managing pipe breaks in water supply networks has been a challenge for water utilities around the world. In order to transform from reactive to proactive management of pipe breaks, South Australia Water Corporation (SA Water) has invested more than 4 million dollars to set up a Smart Water Network (SWN), in the central business district (CBD) of Adelaide. The network includes 305 permanent accelerometers that continuously monitor the 'noise level' in the water network. When a new pipe crack forms, the baseline noise level of the continuous measurements increases (relative to 'normal' network and other 'environmental' diurnal noise variations). This research develops a technique for automated pipe crack detection by detecting baseline changes in continuous noise measurements from the accelerometers. The developed technique is validated by field data from Adelaide SWN, and results confirm that the developed technique can achieve cost-effective early pipe crack detection and uncontrolled main break prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Partial or non-adherence in patients with schizophrenia is common and increases the risk of relapse. This study explored safety, tolerability and treatment outcomes in patients hospitalised for an exacerbation of schizophrenia initiated on maintenance treatment of once-monthly paliperidone palmitate (PP1M). Methods: A 6-week, observational cohort study of patients initiated on PP1M within 3 weeks after hospital admission. Results: Overall, 367 patients were documented, 85.8% with paranoid schizophrenia subtype. Mean time from hospital admission to PP1M initiation was 9.4 ± 7.7 days. Treatment-emergent adverse events were reported by 22.9% of patients. From baseline to endpoint, significant improvements were observed in psychotic symptoms (Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale total score mean change -19.3 ± 12.6, P < .0001) and functioning (Personal and Social Performance scale total score mean change 14.3 ± 12.4, P < .0001). Overall, 6.0% of patients were very or extremely satisfied with their prior antipsychotic medication at baseline compared with 47.2% very or extremely satisfied with PP1M treatment at endpoint. Conclusions: Initiating PP1M in patients with exacerbated schizophrenia shortly after hospital admission was well tolerated and resulted in statistically significant and clinically relevant improvements in symptoms and patient functioning, suggesting that patients may benefit from early initiation of PP1M during their hospital stay. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the original design of a side-discharge valve based transient generator that can produce two types of pseudorandom binary signals: a maximum length binary signal and an inverse repeat signal. These two signals are both wide bandwidth, persistent and periodic, but the inverse repeat signal has the advantageous property that it is antisymmetric within each period. The two signals are used to extract the frequency response function of a single water pipeline in the laboratory. The experimental results demonstrate that the frequency response function extracted by the inverse repeat signal is closer to the theoretical linear results as obtained from the transfer matrix method due to it being able to cancel the effect of even-order nonlinearities. The customized transient generator is then applied to a pipeline with a leak. The location of the leak is successfully determined using the first three resonant peaks as extracted by the inverse repeat signal. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Objectives. Gamma-band oscillations (e.g., the early auditory evoked gamma-band response, aeGBR) have been suggested to mediate cognitive and perceptual processes by driving the synchronization of local neuronal populations. Reduced aeGBR is a consistent finding in patients with schizophrenia and high-risk subjects, and has been proposed to represent an endophenotype for the illness. However, it is still unclear whether this reduction represents a deficit in sensory or cognitive processes, or a combination of the two. The present study investigated this question by manipulating the difficulty of an auditory reaction task in patients with first-episode schizophrenia and healthy controls. Methods. A 64-channel EEG was recorded in 23 patients with first-episode schizophrenia and 22 healthy controls during two conditions of an auditory reaction task: an easy condition that merely required low-level vigilance, and a difficult condition that placed significant demands on attention and working memory. Results. In contrast to healthy controls, patients failed to increase aeGBR power and phase-locking in the difficult condition. In patients, aeGBR power and phase-locking indices were associated with working memory deficits. Conclusions. The observed results confirm the applicability of aeGBR disturbances as a stable endophenotype of schizophrenia, and suggest a cognitive, rather than sensory, deficit at their origin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The linear frequency response of a fluid-filled pipeline extracted by fluid transient waves can be used to detect leaks in pipelines. This research conducts numerical analysis on how to accurately determine the linear frequency response diagram (FRD) of single pipelines using persistent transient pressure signals. Two types of persistent signals, the maximum-length binary sequence and the inverse-repeat sequence (IRS), are compared in terms of the accuracy in estimating the linear response of a pipeline at resonant frequencies. The IRS is found to be more appropriate for identifying the linear portion of the FRD of a pipeline, since its antisymmetric property can supress part of the nonlinear response. Numerical simulations are conducted to verify the findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives . Previous studies of antipsychotics have mainly focused on efficacy and tolerability. However, patient subjective well-being is increasingly being accepted as a valid and important measure of antipsychotic treatment outcomes and tolerability. Methods . In this open-label, observational trial data from 1322 outpatients with schizophrenia treated with flexibly dosed quetiapine were collected at baseline, Week 4 and Week 12. Patient well-being was assessed using Subjective Well-being under Neuroleptics (SWN-K) scale and disease severity with the Clinical Global Impressions-Severity of Illness (CGI-S) scale following quetiapine treatment. In addition, safety and tolerability were monitored throughout the study. Results . Quetiapine treatment, mean endpoint dose 337 mg/day, led to a significant reduction in disease severity, with improvements in CGI-S score of -0.7 at Week 4 and -1.3 at Week 12 (both P [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective . Investigation of the efficacy and tolerability of olanzapine (OLZ) as second-line treatment in subjects with a first-episode psychosis (FEP) who had been non-responsive, intolerant or non-compliant to Risperidone (RIS). Methods . The Early Psychosis Prevention and Intervention Centre in Melbourne admitted 786 FEP subjects between 1998 and 2000. Data were collected from subjects’ medical records (MR). The objective was to evaluate the efficacy of OLZ as measured by CGI-S, GAF, SOFAS and remission rates as well as tolerability. Results . A total of 104 subjects were switched because of non-response (38%), non-compliance (15%), or intolerance (47%). Independent of reasons for switch, significant symptomatic and functional improvements were detected. Overall, 46 subjects (44%) achieved full remission. Regression analysis indicated that reason for switch did not predict full remission. Significantly more extrapyramidal side effects ( P [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long-term treatment of patients with schizophrenia is particularly difficult. An advantageous efficacy/safety profile of the selected antipsychotic is particularly important during this phase, as an insufficient response or poorly tolerated side-effects are likely to reduce compliance, notoriously poor in chronic schizophrenia patients. The atypical antipsychotic amisulpride has demonstrated good efficacy against both the positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia in long-term clinical trials. Three studies involved treatment with amisulpride for 12 months, one in patients with positive or mixed symptoms and two in patients with predominantly negative symptoms. A further two studies, both involving patients with positive or mixed symptoms, evaluated amisulpride over periods of up to 6 months. In the three 12-month studies, amisulpride was significantly more effective than haloperidol against positive symptoms and showed a trend towards greater improvement in negative symptoms; significantly better effects compared with placebo were also seen in patients with predominantly negative symptoms. Amisulpride was well tolerated with low drop-out rates compared to standard treatment, indicating good compliance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a study which attempts to find evidence for a change in the prevalence of mental disorders among migrants in Germany. Age at onset of illness; Mental status at admission; Language problems; Over-representation of schizophrenic disorders.

A study was conducted on Jewish and non-Jewish subjects to determine possible response differences on the task of distinguishing between photos of Jews and non-Jews. The Jewish subjects were significantly higher in ace curacy and .response bias, but lower in number of cues used. Correlations between the Jewish groups' scores on Sarnoff's JAS and other measures showed no correlation between the JAS and either accuracy or response bias, but a significant correlation between JAS and number of cues used. Response bias correlated with number of cues in both the Jewish and non-Jewish groups. However, response bias correlated with accuracy only in the Jewish group. Accuracy and number of cues were independent in both groups. The use of a large number of cues in making photo discriminations is interpreted as indicating an acceptance of the majority group's stereotype of Jews, and therefore, as a measure of anti-Semitism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]