Perinatal problems and the prevention of premature labor]

The article describes the experience of implementing patient-focused care from a physician's perspective. Pitfalls that guarantee failure are presented, many of which are avoidable with early participation by all parties involved: administrators, nursing staff, physicians, and patients. Contamination of the process with downsizing needs, lack of support for staff in dealing with necessary change, loss of administrative commitment, and withholding of appropriated funds are among the key errors to be avoided.     

The relativistic charged particles identification method based on the goodness-of-fit ωn-criterion

The statistical method of identification of relativistic charged particles by measurements of ionization losses or time-of-flights simultaneously in some detectors of an experimental plant on the basis of the new goodness-of-fit ω_n³-criterion is considered. The method proposed has been used for the secondary particles identification from the high energy -particles fragmentation on target nuclei. The efficiency of the method is excellently illustrated by reliable separation of events (rare events as well), connected with the appearence of 1- and 2-charged particles. The comparison of the ω_n³-method with the traditional methods and with the method based on the ω_n²-criterion shows that the new method outperforms the ω_n²-method and most of the traditional ones in efficiency, but compares unfavourably with the likelihood method in power, however, the former has a number of advantages as compared with the latter.     

Advantage of heat insulation made of materials with natural porosity

Various heat insulation materials produced at home and abroad are compared. The advantage of using natural nano-structured materials is substantiated. Translated from Novye Ogneupory, No. 7, pp. 41–44, July 2008.     

AlGaN-based quantum-well heterostructures for deep ultraviolet light-emitting diodes grown by submonolayer discrete plasma-assisted molecular-beam epitaxy

Features of plasma-assisted molecular-beam epitaxy of AlGaN compounds at relatively low temperatures of the substrate (no higher than 740°C) and various stoichiometric conditions for growth of the nitrogen- and metal-enriched layers are studied. Discrete submonolayer epitaxy for formation of quantum wells and n-type blocking layers without varying the fluxes of components was used for the first time in the case of molecular- beam epitaxy with plasma activation of nitrogen for the nanostructures with the Al _x Ga_{1 ? x} N/Al _y Ga_{1 ? y} N quantum wells. Structural and optical properties of the Al _x Ga_{1 ? x} N layers in the entire range of compositions (x = 0–1) and nanostructures based on these layers are studied; these studies indicate that there is photoluminescence at room temperature with minimum wavelength of 230 nm. Based on the analysis of the photoluminescence spectra for bulk layers and nanoheterostructures and their temperature dependences, it is concluded that there are localized states in quantum wells. Using the metal-enriched layers grown on the c-Al₂O₃ substrates, heterostructures for light-emitting diodes with Al _x Ga_{1 ? x} N/Al _y Ga_{1 ? y} N quantum wells (x = 0.4–0.5, y = x + 0.15) were obtained and demonstrated electroluminescence in the ultraviolet region of the spectrum at the wavelength of 320 nm.