Case study: changing perceptions of the value of driver safety

With the continuing growth of online shopping in the UK, there has been an equivalent rise in the numbers of van fleets to complement demand. This steady increase has led to an acknowledged need in the industry sector to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of at-work road safety initiatives. Key to the design, implementation and evaluation of such initiatives, and to creating a workplace culture of driver safety, is a greater understanding of the behaviours and attitudes to risk of professional van drivers and how to monitor, assess and consider ways of influencing these proactively and effectively. The current study sought to investigate driver attitudes and behaviours to risk within a major retail online delivery service in which I am employed, Tesco Dot.com, as part of a wider set of interventions designed to inform the company workforce of developments, policy and practice in this area. Researching from an insider practitioner-manager perspective, I used a longitudinal case study approach to explore the role of innovative technologies for driver safety, allied with concurrent workforce development and training programmes. Using a mixed methods approach to data collection and analysis, I combined qualitative data from staff interviews and quantitative data from internal data sources, together with reflections on my changing role and developing influence within the team, to build up a rich picture of the challenges of fostering innovation and change from the inside, particularly in a discrete part of a complex, rapidly changing retail industry. As a result of ongoing evaluations, I formulated a number of medium and longer-term recommendations about the early implementation of company strategies, including recruitment and retention for drivers, strategies for addressing barriers and enablers to the rollout of proposed technologies, and formulated proposals for organisational reconfiguration to embed a culture of driver safety more securely within the company workforce

Proton beam radiotherapy in the management of uveal melanoma: clinical experience in Scotland

<p>Aim: To evaluate proton-beam radiotherapy (PBRT) in the management of uveal melanoma in Scotland.</p> <p>Methods: A retrospective review was undertaken on all patients receiving PBRT for uveal melanoma (1994–2005). Data obtained included: gender, past ocular/medical history, age, presenting complaint(s), diagnosis, laterality, tumor location/ultrasound characteristics, visual acuity (VA) and intraocular pressure. At post-treatment reviews (3, 6, 12, and 24 months), the following data was obtained: VA, intraocular pressure, tumor appearance and ultrasound characteristics. Mean follow up was 38.8 months.</p> <p>Results: Seventy-six patients were included. Mean age was 64 years; male to female ratio was 1.1:1. Ninety-seven percent demonstrated initial treatment response; 87% had successful control of tumor growth. Mean pre-treatment tumor height was 6.2 mm v.s. 4.8 mm post-irradiation (p < 0.001). Pre-irradiation VA was <3/60 in 18.5% compared with 74% post-irradiation (p < 0.0001). There was a statistically significant association between adverse events (enucleation, metastasis) and greater maximal basal tumor diameter. Eighteen eyes were enucleated. The median survival time was estimated to be 54 months.</p> <p>Conclusion: In our experience, PBRT is a precise, reliable and effective treatment in the management of large, and previously treated uveal melanomas. It prevents enucleation in the majority at short term follow-up.</p&gt

Radiation Damping Effects in Two Level Maser Oscillators

Several experiments [1,2] have noted recently that when an inverted two-level spin system was permitted to radiate spontaneously, the resulting oscillation was characterized by an appreciable amplitude modulation. The phenomenon was first believed to be the result of interference of different spin packets in an inhomogeneously broadened spectrum [1]. A theoretical analysis (which will be reported separately) shows that this is not the case. The spins are not independent but are coupled together by means of their radiation field. This explanation has since been by its original authors

The place of forest school in English primary schools: senior leader perspectives

Focussing on the place of Forest School in English primary schools, we explore the perspectives of school leaders. We use Biesta’s model of educational purpose as a critical lens to consider possible justifications for the inclusion of Forest School in the curriculum. Four distinct accounts, based on an analysis of in-depth interviews, illustrate a range of participant responses: risk, intervention, respite and the right thing. One of these, we contend, represents a tentative step towards a form of resistance on the part of a school leader in the face of current pressures to follow a diminished set of educational purposes

Detection of Point Sources in Cosmic Ray Maps using the Mexican Hat Wavelet Family

An analysis of the sensitivity of gaussian and mexican hat wavelet family filters to the detection of point sources of ultra-high energy cosmic rays was performed. A source embedded in a background was simulated and the number of events and amplitude of this source was varied aiming to check the sensitivity of the method to detect faint sources with low statistic of events.Comment: Proceedings of the Second International Symposium on Strong Electromagnetic Fields and Neutron Stars (Havana, Cuba, 2011). 6 pages, 4 figure

Ratchet-like dynamics of fluxons in annular Josephson junctions driven by bi-harmonic microwave fields

Experimental observation of the unidirectional motion of a topological soliton driven by a bi-harmonic ac force of zero mean is reported. The observation is made by measuring the current-voltage characteristics for a fluxon trapped in an annular Josephson junction that was placed into a microwave field. The measured dependence of the fluxon mean velocity (rectified voltage) at zero dc bias versus the phase shift between the first and second harmonic of the driving force is in qualitative agreement with theoretical expectations.Comment: 6 figure