Coordination Matters : Interpersonal Synchrony Influences Collaborative Problem-Solving

The authors thank Martha von Werthern and Caitlin Taylor for their assistance with data collection, Cathy Macpherson for her assistance with the preparation of the manuscript, and Mike Richardson, Alex Paxton, and Rick Dale for providing MATLAB code to assist with data analysis. The research was funded by the British Academy (SG131613).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Coordination and Collective Performance : Cooperative Goals Boost Interpersonal Synchrony and Task Outcomes

Acknowledgments The authors gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Cathy Macpherson and Hope Fawcett-Lipscombe with data collection and coding as well as Mike Richardson for generously sharing Matlab code and providing invaluable guidance. Supplementary Material The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01462Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Orphan Breakwaters - what protection is given when they collapse?

Around the UK, many coastal harbours have reduced in importance and/or lost the original sources of income against which to defray maintenance or refurbishment. Their breakwaters may however still protect harbour-side properties against wave overtopping, and thus flooding. This paper presents results from an exploratory study to identify how blockwork breakwaters common in many smaller UK coastal harbours may collapse due to storm action, and in this paper, how much wave protection is given by collapsed breakwaters. The companion paper by Pearson & Allsop (2017) describes initial work to estimate the failure of blockwork walls, and presents results of wall collapse tests

Physical characteristics of localized surface plasmons resulting from nano-scale structured multi-layer thin films deposited on D-shaped optical fiber

Novel surface plasmonic optical fiber sensors have been fabricated using multiple coatings deposited on a lapped section of a single mode fiber. UV laser irradiation processing with a phase mask produces a nano-scaled surface relief grating structure resembling nano-wires. The resulting individual corrugations produced by material compaction are approximately 20 μm long with an average width at half maximum of 100 nm and generate localized surface plasmons. Experimental data are presented that show changes in the spectral characteristics after UV processing, coupled with an overall increase in the sensitivity of the devices to surrounding refractive index. Evidence is presented that there is an optimum UV dosage (48 joules) over which no significant additional optical change is observed. The devices are characterized with regards to change in refractive index, where significantly high spectral sensitivities in the aqueous index regime are found, ranging up to 4000 nm/RIU for wavelength and 800 dB/RIU for intensity

Research activities arising from the University of Kent

In this paper I describe research activities in the field of optical fiber sensing undertaken by me after leaving the Applied Optics Group at the University of Kent. The main topics covered are long period gratings, neural network based signal processing, plasmonic sensors, and polymer fiber gratings. I also give a summary of my two periods of research at the University of Kent, covering 1985–1988 and 1991–2001

Feminism and Couple Finance: Power as a Mediator Between Financial Processes and Relationship Outcomes

Feminism is rarely used as a theoretical framework for couple finance research. The purposes of the present paper are (a) to discuss couple finance research in the context of feminism to encourage more frequent and explicit use of feminism in couple finance research, (b) to present a gender and couple finances model, and (c) to test this model with longitudinal dyadic data. Using actor-partner interdependence models (APIM) and data from 327U.S. mixed-gender couples, relational power was explored as a potential mediator between four couple financial processes (earners of money, access to money, management of money, and conflict about money) and two relationship outcomes (relationship quality and relationship stability). Results suggest that couple financial processes are associated with relationship outcomes and with joint management as well as low conflict being key longitudinally. Additionally, although power may not play a mediating role, it appears to be connected to couple financial processes and relationship outcomes concurrently. Gender differences as well as both actor and partner effects are explored. This research has implications for researchers, clinicians, and educators. For example, clinicians may want to encourage their clients to use joint bank accounts, manage their money jointly, and minimize financial conflict. Gender, and therefore power, are inseparably tied to couple finances. When both spouses are involved in financial processes, partners tend to be more empowered, and relationship quality and stability tend to be higher.12 month embargo; published online: 26 November 2018This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

Upheaval in cancer care during the COVID-19 outbreak

On Monday, 23 March 2020, Nigeria recorded its first mortality from the novel global COVID-19 outbreak. Before this, the country reported 36 confirmed cases (at the time of writing) and has discharged home two cases after weeks of care at a government-approved isolation center in Lagos State. This first mortality was that of a 67-year-old man with a history of multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer. He was undergoing chemotherapy and had just returned to Nigeria following medical treatment in the United Kingdom. The novel COVID-19 pandemic has grounded several global activities including the provision of health care serves to people with chronic conditions such as cancer. Evidence from China suggests that cancer patients with COVID-19 infection are a vulnerable group, with a higher risk of severe illness resulting in intensive care unit admissions or death particularly if they received chemotherapy or surgery. This letter is an attempt to suggests practicable interventions such as the use of existing digital health platforms to limit patients' and oncology professionals’ physical interaction as a way of reducing the risk of COVID-19 infection transmission amongst cancer patients and oncologists, as well as outlining effective strategies to ensure that cancer care is not completely disrupted during the outbreak

Idylls of socialism : the Sarajevo Documentary School and the problem of the Bosnian sub-proletariat

This historical overview of the Sarajevo Documentary School considers the films, in the light of their recent re-emergence, as indicative of both the legacy of socialist realism (even in the context of Yugoslav media) and attempted social engineering in the Bosnia of the 1960s and 1970s. The argument is made that the documentaries, despite their questionable aesthetic status (in respect of cinma-vrit and ethnography) and problematic ideological strategies and attempted interventions, document a history and offer insights that counter the prevailing revisionist trends in the presentation of Eastern and Central European history

‘…you just put up with it for the sake of humanity.’: an exploratory qualitative study on causes of stress in palliative care nursing during the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

Objective To explore and analyse causes of stress among nurses in palliative and inpatient hospice care settings in Germany during the COVID-19 pandemic. Design Explorative, qualitative study using problem-centred interviews. Interview data were analysed using structured qualitative content analysis. Setting Telephone interviews with nurses of different settings of palliative and inpatient hospice care. Participants 16 nurses from inpatient hospice, palliative care units and specialised palliative home care were recruited. Results COVID-19 infection control measures placed both physical and psychological strain on palliative care nurses. Due to changes in infection control information, workflows were being readjusted on a daily basis, preventing everyday routines and hindering relief from stress. There are reduced and limited opportunities for sharing and reflecting on daily working routines with team colleagues. Specific causes of stress in the individual settings of palliative and inpatient hospice care were identified. Overall, there is a tension between the nurses’ perceptions of proper palliative care nursing, in terms of closeness, psychosocial and emotional support and compliance with infection control measures. Conclusions Palliative care nurses have been exposed to high levels of both physical and psychological stress during the COVID-19 pandemic. This requires rapid relief and support, with a need to ensure continuity of professional supervision and peer-support, which may be facilitated via digital technologies. The unique role of nurses in inpatient hospice and palliative care during COVID-19 ought to be recognised and valorised

Tidal Turbine Benchmarking Exercise: Environmental Characterisation and Geometry Specification

Uncertainty in tidal turbine loading contributes significantly to conservatism in turbine design. This uncertainty originates not only from a lack of knowledge of the flow field at a particular site, but also from lack of understanding of the fundamental physics which govern the loading and performance of tidal turbines in unsteady and turbulent flow regimes. In order to reduce this conservatism and the costs associated, the mathematical and engineering models used in turbine design must be improved. To facilitate the development of these models requires scale experimental data for validation. However, few well-documented experimental data sets are available for tidal turbines, especially at scales large enough to achieve Reynolds number independence and comparability to full scale devices.This paper reports on the initial phases of a tidal turbine benchmarking project that will conduct a large laboratory scale experimental campaign on a highly instrumented 1.6m diameter tidal rotor. The turbine will be tested in well defined flow conditions, including unsteadiness created by free surface waves, as well as freestream turbulence, with instrumentation to determine edgewise and flapwise loading distributions along the blades as they rotate through the unsteady flows. As towing tanks by their nature have low levels of freestream turbulence, a carriage-mounted turbulence grid will be utilised to generate sufficient freestream turbulence in a well-defined manner.In this paper the turbine geometry and test conditions are specified, as well as providing details of the rotor’s hydrodynamic design process. Additionally, the results of a flow characterisation of the carriage-mounted turbulence grid via Acoustic Doppler Velocimetry are presented. The turbulence grid produced a mean turbulence intensity of 3:5% across the region in which the turbine will be tested, and a very uniform flow profile of 0:913 times the upstream velocity