Using behavioral economics concepts to increase organizational learning in an NHS hospital

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess whether the dissemination systems that hospitals use to spread information about particular safety incidents can be enhanced using behavioural economics concepts. Design/methodology/approach The current service evaluation took place within eight wards in a single acute care hospital. It was conducted as a randomized controlled trial with two groups. In the control group nothing was altered. In the intervention group ward managers received additional support to disseminate information to their nurses. Nurses were randomly selected to be surveyed during their scheduled shifts. The surveys revealed how the nurses learned about particular safety incidents and how many they remembered. Findings Nurses in the intervention group were more likely to learn about particular safety incidents than nurses in the control group. Practical implications Enhancing common dissemination systems in hospitals can increase organizational learning about safety incidents. The current study presents some means by which dissemination systems can be enhanced. Originality/value The current service evaluation is a unique application of behavioural economics concepts to enhance organizational learning of particular adverse safety incidents in an NHS hospital

Task analysis for error identification: Theory, method and validation

This paper presents the underlying theory of Task Analysis for Error Identification. The aim is to illustrate the development of a method that has been proposed for the evaluation of prototypical designs from the perspective of predicting human error. The paper presents the method applied to representative examples. The methodology is considered in terms of the various validation studies that have been conducted, and is discussed in the light of a specific case study

Manufactured Nano-Objects Confer Viral Protection against Cucurbit Chlorotic Yellows Virus (CCYV) Infecting Nicotiana benthamiana

Nanotechnology has emerged as a new tool to combat phytopathogens in agricultural crops. Cucurbit chlorotic yellows virus (CCYV) mainly infects Solanaceae crops and causes significant crop losses. Nanomaterials (NMs) may have efficacy against plant viruses, but the mechanisms underlying complex nanomaterials-plant-virus interactions remain elusive. We challenged Nicotiana benthamiana plants with GFP-tagged CCYV and observed morphological, physiological, and molecular changes in response to 21-d foliar exposure to nanoscale Fe and Zn and C60 fullerenes at 100 mg/L concentration for 21 days. We observed that in response to C60 (100 mg/L) treatment, plants displayed a normal phenotype while the viral infection was not seen until 5 days post-inoculation. On the contrary, Fe and Zn were unable to suppress viral progression. The mRNA transcriptional analysis for GFP and viral coat protein revealed that the transcripts of both genes were 5-fold reduced in response to C60 treatment. Evaluation of the chloroplast ultrastructure showed that NMs treatment maintained the normal chloroplast structure in the plants as compared to untreated plants. C60 upregulated the defense-related phytohormones (abscisic acid and salicylic acid) by 42–43%. Our results demonstrate the protective function of carbon-based NMs, with suppression of CCYV symptoms via inhibition of viral replication and systemic movement

Spin-wave scattering at low temperatures in manganite films

The temperature $T$ and magnetic field $H$ dependence of the resistivity $\rho$ has been measured for La$_{0.8-y}$Sr$_{0.2}$MnO$_{3}$ (y=0 and 0.128) films grown on (100) SrTiO$_{3}$ substrates. The low-temperature $\rho$ in the ferromagnetic metallic region follows well $\rho (H,T)=\rho _{0}(H)+A(H)\omega_{s}/\sinh (\hbar \omega_{s}/2k_{B}T)+B(H)T^{7/2}$ with $\rho _{0}$ being the residual resistivity. We attribute the second and third term to small-polaron and spin-wave scattering, respectively. Our analysis based on these scattering mechanisms also gives the observed difference between the metal-insulator transition temperatures of the films studied. Transport measurements in applied magnetic field further indicate that spin-wave scattering is a key transport mechanism at low temperatures.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. to appear in Phys. Rev.

A hysteretic multiscale formulation for nonlinear dynamic analysis of composite materials

This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.A new multiscale finite element formulation is presented for nonlinear dynamic analysis of heterogeneous structures. The proposed multiscale approach utilizes the hysteretic finite element method to model the microstructure. Using the proposed computational scheme, the micro-basis functions, that are used to map the microdisplacement components to the coarse mesh, are only evaluated once and remain constant throughout the analysis procedure. This is accomplished by treating inelasticity at the micro-elemental level through properly defined hysteretic evolution equations. Two types of imposed boundary conditions are considered for the derivation of the multiscale basis functions, namely the linear and periodic boundary conditions. The validity of the proposed formulation as well as its computational efficiency are verified through illustrative numerical experiments

Distinction between the Poole-Frenkel and tunneling models of electric field-stimulated carrier emission from deep levels in semiconductors

The enhancement of the emission rate of charge carriers from deep-level defects in electric field is routinely used to determine the charge state of the defects. However, only a limited number of defects can be satisfactorily described by the Poole-Frenkel theory. An electric field dependence different from that expected from the Poole-Frenkel theory has been repeatedly reported in the literature, and no unambiguous identification of the charge state of the defect could be made. In this article, the electric field dependencies of emission of carriers from DX centers in AlxGa1-xAs:Te, Cu pairs in silicon, and Ge:Hg have been studied applying static and terahertz electric fields, and analyzed by using the models of Poole-Frenkel and phonon assisted tunneling. It is shown that phonon assisted tunneling and Poole-Frenkel emission are two competitive mechanisms of enhancement of emission of carriers, and their relative contribution is determined by the charge state of the defect and by the electric-field strength. At high-electric field strengths carrier emission is dominated by tunneling independently of the charge state of the impurity. For neutral impurities, where Poole-Frenkel lowering of the emission barrier does not occur, the phonon assisted tunneling model describes well the experimental data also in the low-field region. For charged impurities the transition from phonon assisted tunneling at high fields to Poole-Frenkel effect at low fields can be traced back. It is suggested that the Poole-Frenkel and tunneling models can be distinguished by plotting logarithm of the emission rate against the square root or against the square of the electric field, respectively. This analysis enables one to unambiguously determine the charge state of a deep-level defect

Run 2 Upgrades to the CMS Level-1 Calorimeter Trigger

The CMS Level-1 calorimeter trigger is being upgraded in two stages to maintain performance as the LHC increases pile-up and instantaneous luminosity in its second run. In the first stage, improved algorithms including event-by-event pile-up corrections are used. New algorithms for heavy ion running have also been developed. In the second stage, higher granularity inputs and a time-multiplexed approach allow for improved position and energy resolution. Data processing in both stages of the upgrade is performed with new, Xilinx Virtex-7 based AMC cards.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figure

Astrocytic Ion Dynamics: Implications for Potassium Buffering and Liquid Flow

We review modeling of astrocyte ion dynamics with a specific focus on the implications of so-called spatial potassium buffering, where excess potassium in the extracellular space (ECS) is transported away to prevent pathological neural spiking. The recently introduced Kirchoff-Nernst-Planck (KNP) scheme for modeling ion dynamics in astrocytes (and brain tissue in general) is outlined and used to study such spatial buffering. We next describe how the ion dynamics of astrocytes may regulate microscopic liquid flow by osmotic effects and how such microscopic flow can be linked to whole-brain macroscopic flow. We thus include the key elements in a putative multiscale theory with astrocytes linking neural activity on a microscopic scale to macroscopic fluid flow.Comment: 27 pages, 7 figure