Scoping study of the feasibility of developing a software tool to assist designers of pedestrian crossing places

This report is the outcome of a scoping study of how guidance can be provided for practising highway engineers in designing informal pedestrian crossing facilities. The main component of this report is an analysis by an IT consultant of a range of mechanisms for delivery of this. The study was informed by the opinions of a group of practitioners who have a direct interest in the provision of pedestrian facilities. These results are placed in context and their consequences are explored in the first part of the report

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

A BEMT model for a high solidity, hubless and ducted tidal stream turbine

5th Oxford Tidal Energy Workshop (OTE 2016), 21-22 March 2016, Oxford, UKA Blade Element Momentum Theory (BEMT) model for ‘conventional’ 3 bladed designs of Tidal Stream Turbine (TST) is presented, with validations from scale model experiments carried out in a cavitation tunnel. Assumptions and limitations of the model are discussed in order to gauge potential use in assessing a high solidity, hubless and ducted TST design, which has been developed by OpenHydro. A number of adjustments to the model are considered, which are to be validated with fully blade resolved CFD studies and field data from a full scale device deployed at Paimpol-Bréhat, Brittany at the start of 2016 in collaboration with EDF.The Industrial Doctoral Centre for Offshore Renewable Energy (IDCORE) is funded by the Energy Technology partnership and the RCUK Energy Programme (Grant number EP/J500847/1)

Adapting Conventional Tools to Analyse Ducted and Open Centre Tidal Stream Turbines

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from EWTEC via the link in this record.This paper details a hydrodynamic model based on Blade Element Momentum Theory (BEMT) developed to assess ’conventional’ 3-bladed tidal stream turbines (TSTs), adapted here to analyse an ’unconventional’ case of a ducted and open centre device. Validations against a more detailed coupled Reynolds averaged computational fluid dynamics (RANS-BEM) model shows excellent agreement, of within 2% up to the peak power condition, with associated computational times in the order of a few minutes on a single core. The paper demonstrates the application of hydrodynamic forces into a structural analysis tool, in order to assess blade stress distributions of a generic hubless turbine. Incorporation of parameters such as non-uniform inflows and blade weight forces are investigated, with their effects on stress profiles presented. Key findings include: i) the adapted BEMT model replicates the majority of turbine performance characteristics estimated through previous CFD assessments; ii) the proposed model reduces the computational effort by several orders of magnitude compared to the reference coupled CFD, making it suitable for engineering assessments iii) blade stress distribution profiles are quantified, detailing concentration zones and cyclic values for use in fatigue analyses. This work forms part of a greater project aimed to develop a suite of analytical tools to perform engineering assessments of bi-directional ducted TSTsThis research is carried out as part of the Industrial Doctoral centre for Offshore Renewable Energy (IDCORE), funded by the Energy Technology partnership and the RCUK Energy programme (Grant number EP/J500847/1), in collaboration with EDF R&D

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

Identifying professionals' needs in integrating electronic pain monitoring in community palliative care services: an interview study

Background: Poor pain assessment is a barrier to effective pain control. There is growing interest internationally in the development and implementation of remote monitoring technologies to enhance assessment in cancer and chronic disease contexts. Findings describe the development and testing of pain monitoring systems but research identifying the needs of health professionals to implement routine monitoring systems within clinical practice is limited. Aim: To inform the development and implementation strategy of an electronic pain monitoring system, PainCheck, by understanding palliative care professionals’ needs when integrating PainCheck into routine clinical practice. Design: Qualitative study using face-to-face interviews. Data were analysed using framework analysis Setting/participants: Purposive sample of health professionals managing the palliative care of patients living in the community Results: Fifteen interviews with health professionals took place. Three meta-themes emerged from the data: 1) Uncertainties about integration of PainCheck and changes to current practice; 2) Appraisal of current practice; 3) Pain management is everybody’s responsibility Conclusions: Even the most sceptical of health professionals could see the potential benefits of implementing an electronic patient-reported pain monitoring system. Health professionals have reservations about how PainCheck would work in practice. For optimal use PainCheck needs embedding within existing electronic health records. Electronic pain monitoring systems have the potential to enable professionals to support patients’ pain management more effectively but only when barriers to implementation are appropriately identified and addressed

Investigating homicide: back to the future

Purpose:- The purpose of this paper is to suggest two things: first, that the scientific and technological developments and increased regulation that have shaped homicide investigations in England and Wales over the last few decades have provided today’s investigators with opportunities not available to their predecessors, and play a key role in solving unsolved homicides. Second, however, the authors suggest that such developments have created new challenges for investigators, challenges that impede current investigations, potentially creating the future unsolved cases. Design/methodology/approach:- This paper draws on two qualitative studies that comprised over eight months of ethnographic research, observations, interviews with serving and retired homicide detectives and case file analysis. Findings:- The widespread changes to homicide investigations in England and Wales have been valuable in many respects, notably, they have allowed detectives to look back in time and bring longstanding unsolved cases to a close. However, change, although well intentioned, might actually be creating future cold cases as detectives endeavour to manage the volume of information now generated during investigations, fast evolving scientific and technological techniques and an increase in bureaucracy. Practical implications:- This study is helpful for: improving investigative practice; learning from change; reducing unsolved homicides vs a rise in new cold cases; and innovative and entrepreneurial investigators. Originality/value:- Utilising qualitative research, this paper contributes to the academic literature exploring homicide investigation in England and Wales, offering insight into the challenges facing detectives and the potential impact of these upon solving past and present homicide cases

What determines duration of palliative care before death for patients with advanced disease? A retrospective cohort study of community and hospital palliative care provision in a large UK city

Objective For patients with advanced cancer, several randomised controlled trials have shown that access to palliative care at least 6 months before death can improve symptoms, reduce unplanned hospital admissions, minimize aggressive cancer treatments and enable patients to make choices about their end of life care, including exercising the choice to die at home. This study determines in a UK population the duration of palliative care before death and explores influencing factors. Design This retrospective cohort study analysed referrals to three specialist palliative care services; a hospital based inpatient palliative care team, and two community based services (hospices). For each patient referred to any of the above services we identified the date of first referral to that team and calculated the median interval between first referral and death. We also calculated how referral time varied by age, sex, diagnosis and type of palliative care service. Participants 4,650 patients referred to specialist palliative care services in Leeds UK between April 2012 and March 2014. Results Median age of the sample was 75 years. 3,903 (84.0%) patients had a diagnosis of cancer. Age, diagnosis and place of referral were significant predictors of duration of palliative care before death. Age was independently associated (J = 2672078, z = -392046.14, r = .01) with duration of palliative care regardless of diagnosis. Patients over 75 years have 29 fewer days of palliative care than patients under 50. Patients with non-cancer diagnoses have 13 fewer days of palliative care than patients with cancer. Additionally, patients referred to hospital palliative care receive 24.5 fewer days palliative care than those referred to community palliative care services. Conclusions The current timing of referral to palliative care may limit the benefits to patient in terms of improvements in end of life care, particularly for older patients and patients with conditions other than cancer

Potential and challenges in collecting social and behavioral data on adolescent alcohol norms: Comparing respondent-driven sampling and web-based respondent-driven sampling

Background: Respondent-driven sampling (RDS) is a method successfully used to research hard-to-access populations. Few studies have explored the use of the Internet and social media with RDS, known as Web-based RDS (WebRDS). This study explored the use of combining both "traditional" RDS and WebRDS to examine the influences on adolescent alcohol use. Objective: This paper reports on the recruitment processes and the challenges and enablers of both RDS and WebRDS. It details comparative recruitment data and provides a summary of the utility of both methods for recruiting adolescents to participate in an online survey investigating youth alcohol norms. Methods: Process evaluation data collected from research staff throughout the study were used to assess the challenges and solutions of RDS and WebRDS. Pearson chi-square test (Fisher's exact test if applicable) was used to compare the differences in sociodemographics and drinking behavior between data collected by RDS and WebRDS. Results: Of the total sample (N=1012), 232 adolescents were recruited by RDS and 780 by WebRDS. A significantly larger proportion of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander (P<.001) participants who spoke English as their main language at home (P=.03), and of middle and lower socioeconomic status (P<.001) was found in the RDS sample. The RDS sample was also found to have a higher occurrence of past 7-day drinking (P<.001) and past 7-day risky drinking (P=.004). No significant differences in gender, age, past month alcohol use, and lifetime alcohol use were observed between the RDS and WebRDS samples. This study revealed RDS and WebRDS used similar lengths of chains for recruiting participants; however, WebRDS conducted a faster rate of recruitment at a lower average cost per participant compared to RDS. Conclusions: Using WebRDS resulted in significant improvements in the recruitment rate and was a more effective and efficient use of resources than the traditional RDS method. However, WebRDS resulted in partially different sample characteristics to traditional RDS. This potential effect should be considered when selecting the most appropriate data collection method