Softer perspectives on enhancing the patient experience using IS/IT

Purpose – This paper aims to argue that the implementation of the Choose and Book system has failed due to the inability of project sponsors to appreciate the complex and far-reaching softer implications of the implementation, especially in a complex organisation such as the NHS, which has multifarious stakeholders. Design/methodology/approach – The authors use practice-oriented research to try and isolate key parameters. These parameters are compared with existing conventional thinking in a number of focused areas. Findings – Like many previous NHS initiatives, the focus of this system is in its obvious link to patients. However we find that although this project has cultural, social and organisational implications, programme managers and champions of the Connecting for Health programme emphasised the technical domains to IS/IT adoption. Research limitations/implications – This paper has been written in advance of a fully implemented Choose and Book system. Practical implications – The paper requests that more attention be paid to the softer side of IS/IT delivery, implementation, introduction and adoption. Originality/value – The paper shows that patient experience within the UK healthcare sector is still well below what is desired

Audio-visual detection benefits in the rat

Human psychophysical studies have described multisensory perceptual benefits such as enhanced detection rates and faster reaction times in great detail. However, the neural circuits and mechanism underlying multisensory integration remain difficult to study in the primate brain. While rodents offer the advantage of a range of experimental methodologies to study the neural basis of multisensory processing, rodent studies are still limited due to the small number of available multisensory protocols. We here demonstrate the feasibility of an audio-visual stimulus detection task for rats, in which the animals detect lateralized uni- and multi-sensory stimuli in a two-response forced choice paradigm. We show that animals reliably learn and perform this task. Reaction times were significantly faster and behavioral performance levels higher in multisensory compared to unisensory conditions. This benefit was strongest for dim visual targets, in agreement with classical patterns of multisensory integration, and was specific to task-informative sounds, while uninformative sounds speeded reaction times with little costs for detection performance. Importantly, multisensory benefits for stimulus detection and reaction times appeared at different levels of task proficiency and training experience, suggesting distinct mechanisms inducing these two multisensory benefits. Our results demonstrate behavioral multisensory enhancement in rats in analogy to behavioral patterns known from other species, such as humans. In addition, our paradigm enriches the set of behavioral tasks on which future studies can rely, for example to combine behavioral measurements with imaging or pharmacological studies in the behaving animal or to study changes of integration properties in disease models

How large are departures from lithostatic pressure? Constraints from host-inclusion elasticity

Minerals trapped as inclusions within other host minerals will develop non-lithostatic pressures during both prograde and retrograde metamorphism because of the differences between the thermo-elastic properties of the host and inclusion phases. There is only a single possible path in P-T space, the entrapment isomeke, along which no residual pressure would be developed in a host/inclusion system; non-lithostatic pressures are developed in inclusions as a result of the external pressure and temperature deviating from the isomeke that passes through the entrapment conditions. With modern equation of state and elasticity data for minerals now available it is possible to perform precise calculations of the isomekes for mineral pairs. These show that isomeke lines are not straight lines in P-T space at metamorphic conditions. We show that silicate inclusions in silicate hosts tend to have flat isomekes, with small values of dP/dT(isomeke), because of the small range of thermal expansion coefficients of silicate minerals. As a consequence, the general behaviour under decompression is for soft silicate inclusions in stiffer hosts to develop excess pressures, whereas a stiff silicate inclusion in a softer matrix will experience lower pressures than lithostatic pressure. The opposite effects occur for compression after entrapment on the prograde path. The excess pressures in inclusions, including allowance for mutual elastic relaxation of the host and inclusion, are most easily calculated by using the isomeke as a basis. Analysis of the simplest possible model of a host-inclusion system indicates that deviations from lithostatic pressure in excess of 1 GPa can be readily produced in quartz inclusions within garnets in metamorphic rocks. For softer host minerals such as feldspars the pressure deviations are smaller, because of greater elastic relaxation of the host. The maximum pressure deviation from lithostatic pressure in the host phase around the inclusion is one-third of the pressure deviation in the inclusion. Routines for performing these calculations have been added to the EosFit7c software package

Effect of Epitaxial Strain on Phase Separation in Thin Films

We examine the role of an imposed epitaxial strain e in enhancing or depressing the spinodal instability of an alloy thin film. Since the alloy film starts with an imposed strain, phase separation offers a mechanism to relieve it, but only when the film is elastically inhomogeneous. With composition-dependence of elastic modulus given by y, and that of lattice parameter by {\eta}, our simulations using the Cahn-Hilliard model show (and analytical results for early stages confirm) that, for (ey/{\eta}) > 0, the imposed strain adds to the driving force for phase separation, decreases the maximally growing wave length, and expands the coherent spinodal in the phase diagram. Further, when (ey/{\eta}) > 0.372, it expands to even outside of chemical spinodal. Phase separation produces islands of elastically softer (harder) phase with (without) a favorable imposed strain. These results are in agreement with experimental results in GeSi thin films on Si and Ge substrates, as well as in InGaAs films on GaAs substrates.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Penghasilan dan penilaian video pembelajaran (CD) bagi mata pelajaran Prinsip Ekonomi (BPA 1013) bertajuk permintaan dan penawaran di KUITTHO

Kajian ini dijaiankan untuk meniiai keberkesanan sebuah video pembeiajaran (CD) mata peiajaran Prinsip Ekonomi (BPA 1013) bertajuk Permintaan dan Penawaran. Bagi tujuan tersebut, sebuah video pembelajaran telah dihasilkan membantu pelajar bagi memahami mata pelajaran berkenan semasa proses pengajaran dan pembelajaran berlaku. Video pembelajaran yang dihasilkan ini kemudian dinilai dari aspek proses pengajaran dan pembelajaran, minat dan persepsi responden terhadap ciri-ciri video (audio dan visual). Seramai 60 orang pelajar semester 2 Sarjana Muda Sains Pengurusan di Kolej Universiti Teknologi Tun Hussein Onn telah dipiih bagi membuat penilaian kebolehgunaan produk ini sebagai alat bantuan mengajar di dalam kelas. Semua data yang diperolehi kemudiannya dikumpulkan bagi dianalisis dengan menggunakan perisian "SrarMfKM/ Pac/rageybr Rocaj/ Sb/'eace " (SPSS). Hasil dapatan kajian yang dilakukan jelas menunjukkan video pengajaran yang dihasilkan dan dinilai ini amat sesuai digunakan bagi tujuan memenuhi keperluan proses pengajaran dan pembelajaran subjek ini di dalam kelas

Comparative patterns of winter habitat use by muskoxen and caribou in northern Alaska

Thesis (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 1992Snow depth and hardness strongly influenced selection of feeding zones, (i.e., those areas used for foraging), in late winter by both muskoxen (Ovibos moschatus) and caribou (Rangifer tarandus grand) in northern Alaska. Snow in feeding zones was shallower and softer than in surrounding zones. Depth of feeding craters was less than the average snow depth in feeding zones. Moist sedge tundra types were used most often by muskoxen, and their diet, based on microhistological analysis of feces, was dominated by graminoids. Moist sedge and Dryas tundra types were most often used by caribou; lichens and evergreen shrubs were the major constituents of their diet. Despite selection of moist sedge tundra types by both muskoxen and caribou in late winter, dietary and spatial overlap was minimal

Dislocation Formation and Work-Hardening in Two-Phase Alloys

A phase field model is presented to investigate dislocation formation (coherency loss) and workhardening in two-phase binary alloys. In our model the elastic energy density is a periodic function of the shear and tetragonal strains, which allows multiple formation of slips (dislocation dipoles). By numerically integrating the dynamic equations in two dimensions, we find that dislocations appear in pairs in the interface region and grow into slips. One end of each slip glides preferentially into the softer region, while the other end remains trapped at the interface. Under uniaxial stretching at deep quenching, slips appear in the softer regions and do not penetrate into the harder domains, giving rise to an increase of the stress with increasing applied strain in plastic flow.Comment: 14 figures (Higher resolution figures can be obtained at http://stat.scphys.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~minami_a/pict/cond-mat0405177/

Simple solutions of fireball hydrodynamics for rotating and expanding triaxial ellipsoids and final state observables

We present a class of analytic solutions of non-relativistic fireball hydrodynamics for a fairly general class of equation of state. The presented solution describes the expansion of a triaxial ellipsoid that rotates around one of the principal axes. We calculate the hadronic final state observables such as single-particle spectra, directed, elliptic and third flows, as well as HBT correlations and corresponding radius parameters, utilizing simple analytic formulas. We call attention to the fact that the final tilt angle of the fireball, an important observable quantity, is not independent on the exact definition of it: one gets different angles from the single-particle spectra and from HBT measurements. Taken together, it is pointed out that these observables may be sufficient for the determination of the magnitude of the rotation of the fireball. We argue that observing this rotation and its dependence on collision energy would reveal the softness of the equation of state. Thus determining the rotation may be a powerful tool for the experimental search for the critical point in the phase diagram of strongly interacting matter.Comment: 17 pages, 12 figure panel