Saturday, January 31, 2009

Sierpinski Triangle

A Sierpinski Triangle, also called as Sierpinski Gasket or Sierpinski Sieve is a fractal named after the description of Waclaw Sierpinski in 1915. It is one of the basic examples of similar sets and is mathematically generated pattern that can be reproducible at any magnification or reduction.
The construction begins with any triangle in a plane. The conical Sierpinski Triangle uses an equilateral triangle with a parallel base to the horizontal axis. Then shrink the triangle to one-half height and one-half width, make three copies and position the three shrunken triangles so that each triangle touches the two triangles at a corner. The emergences of the central hole is noted because it is the most important feature in a Sierpinski Triangle. Then repeat the steps with each of the smaller triangles.

Friday, January 9, 2009

research problem

A Sierpinski Triangle is designed using equilateral triangles. The process involves removing smaller triangles from larger ones by joining the midpoints of the sides of the larger triangles.<-- STAGE 1

More triangles will be removed up to the nth stage. Find a pattern in the total number of the triangles removed.
STAGE NO ( y ) --------------------NO OF TRIANGLES REMOVED ( T )
1 ----------------------------------------------------------.1
2 ----------------------------------------------------------.4
3 ---------------------------------------------------------.13
4 ---------------- ----------------------------------------.40
5 -------------------------------------------------------..-121
6 --------------------------------------------------------.-364
7 ----------------------------------------------------------1093
8 ----------------------------------------------------------3280
9 ----------------------------------------------------------9841
10 --------------------------------------------------------29524
Formula
---- T = n + 3 ( x )
--------where n = 1
----------------..y = stage number
----------------..x = no. of triangles removed preceeding y
----------------..T = no. of triangles removed
Example:
---- stage 1: T = n + 3( x )
----------------= 1 + 3 ( 0 )
----------------= 1
---- stage 2: T = n + 3( x )
----------------= 1 + 3 ( 1 )
----------------= 1 + 3
----------------= 4
---- stage 10: T = n + 3( x )
----------------= 1 + 3 ( 9841 )
----------------= 1 + 29523
----------------= 29524

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Research Abstract

Research Abstract

Title: Information Needs of Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants: Implications for Health Science Librarians

Purpose: Describe the information needs of primary care nurse practitioners and physician assistants; compare to the information needs of physicians.
Setting/subjects: Ambulatory primary care practices in rural and nonrural settings. Nurse practitioners (42), physician assistants (22), and physicians (39).


Methodology: Observational study using paired, semi-structured interviews.

Results: During 103 half-day inteviews, clinicians caring for 842 patients articulated 645 questions. Of these, they pursued 275, found answers to 215, and reported an impact on the patient for 193. Over 40% of questions were pursued immediat ely. Most answers came from a single source (164 questions). There were no significant differences among clinician types for these variables. Answers to most questions came from human sources (109) or readily available printed matter (83). Organizational and institutional sources were consulted for 25 questions, more often by NPs and PAs. Libraries and digital media were rarely consulted (3 and 7 questions respectively), more often by MDs/DOs. Most questions concerned treatment, but NP and PA questions more often concerned multiple issues, including pathophysiology, clinical manifestations, and diagnostic testing. The type of information most often needed was medical knowledge, but NPs and PAs more often required patient data, logistic information, and information about peer practices. Most questions required only simple facts, but NPs and PAs more often requested higher-level responses, including analysis, synthesis, and judgment.

Discussion/conclusion: Primary care clinicians were quite similar in the frequency of clinical questions and in their information seeking patterns. Based on their own judgments about their questions, nurse practitioners and physician assistant s had broader medical knowledge needs, more frequent need for logistic and peer practice information, and more frequent need for higher-level responses, including analysis, synthesis, and judgment.