Combination of contrast with stress echocardiography: A practical guide to methods and interpretation

Contrast echocardiography has an established role for enhancement of the right heart Doppler signals, the detection of intra-cardiac shunts, and most recently for left ventricular cavity opacification (LVO). The use of intravenously administered micro-bubbles to traverse the myocardial microcirculation in order to outline myocardial viability and perfusion has been the source of research studies for a number of years. Despite the enthusiasm of investigators, myocardial contrast echocardiography (MCE) has not attained routine clinical use and LV opacification during stress has been less widely adopted than the data would support. The purpose of this review is to facilitate an understanding of the involved imaging technologies that have made this technique more feasible for clinical practice, and to guide its introduction into the practice of the non-expert user

Nothing Lasts Forever: Environmental Discourses on the Collapse of Past Societies

The study of the collapse of past societies raises many questions for the theory and practice of archaeology. Interest in collapse extends as well into the natural sciences and environmental and sustainability policy. Despite a range of approaches to collapse, the predominant paradigm is environmental collapse, which I argue obscures recognition of the dynamic role of social processes that lie at the heart of human communities. These environmental discourses, together with confusion over terminology and the concepts of collapse, have created widespread aporia about collapse and resulted in the creation of mixed messages about complex historical and social processes

A team drives the train: Human factors in train controller perspectives of the controller-driver dynamic

Naweed, A ORCiD: 0000-0002-5534-4295Signal passed at danger events (SPADs) impact safety-risk on rail networks, despite the introduction of novel technologies aimed at addressing their cause and effect. Much of the rail safety literature has had a tendency to focus on activities within the cab, placing a spotlight on “errors” within the train driving role. However, a train is not propelled by a single person—is it is propelled by a tightly-coupled team where driving and train controlling activities are distributed but must work in concert. This study set out to understand how controllers perceive the controller-driver dynamic, and how these perspectives impact upon SPAD-risk. Interviews were conducted with 35 train controllers from 6 rail organisations across Australia and New Zealand. Data were collected using the SITT forward scenario simulation method and analysed using conventional content analysis. Eleven different perspectives were identified, ranging in type and varying by frequency, each with implications for the strength of the coupling in distributed cognition between the controller and driver roles and with implications for SPAD-risk. How these perspectives may influence controller-driver dynamics are illustrated using sample scenarios from the data. The findings emphasise key dimensions of the teaming factors in the movement of trains and illustrate how the underlying values and philosophies in different train controlling cultures influence safety. Findings are discussed in the context of obtaining a holistic and more informed model of train driving. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019