Hooray for Hypoxia?

The mortality of critically ill patients rises steadily as the partial pressure of arterial oxygen falls below about 11 kPa (80 mm Hg). A new animal study in the May 2005 issue of PLoS Biology showing a potential benefit for hypoxia is thus a challenge to current thinking

Capturing the psychological well-being of Chinese workers and understanding its relationship with factory performance.

Capturing the psychological well-being of Chinese workers and understanding its relationship with factory performance Media reports of workers losing their lives in factory disasters indicate the failure of audit-based regimes to protect even physical well-being in global supply chains, while distress has been seen to lead to workers’ suicides, yet there is neither clear guidance nor even consensus on how factories should be monitored to facilitate the urgently needed change. Workers themselves are excluded from the social sustainability debate. The lack of knowledge about what impacts Chinese factory workers’ well-being led to a first research question: What are the factors that influence well-being for Chinese factory workers? To persuade stakeholders of the value of making changes, evidence of how that may affect factory performance was also sought. A link would provide an extra incentive for businesses to prioritise these workers’ well-being. This led to the formulation of a second research question: How does workers’ well-being influence factory performance? Going to the heart of the matter by asking the workers, fieldwork set out to discover what life is really like for workers in these factories. A novel research method using workers’ daily digital diaries was developed. A brief pilot in 2017 was followed by a 12-month study across four factories in 2019. Potential well-being interventions were also designed and tested in an operating factory environment to produce the empirical data required. The fieldwork identified three interdependent aggregate dimensions impacting these workers’ well-being: 1) social displacement, struggles with factory life and the trade-offs with long-term life goals; 2) frustration and demotivation due to operational problems and 3) work relationships impacting self-worth. Operational problems causing loss of remuneration were understood to impact workers’ life goals, which in turn undermined working relationships. The first research question was answered: Workers’ inability to influence operational issues led them to lose all hope of achieving their longer-term goals, damaging their eudaimonic and social well-being in the factories. This suggested two training interventions to address some identified operational and interpersonal problems in the work environment. Comparing pre- and post-intervention data indicated that these interventions had influenced both well-being and performance. Most significantly, post-intervention diaries indicated a reduction in negative sentiment. Factory-level metrics, supplied by factory management, indicated that the training had improved factory performance. Worker attrition also appeared significantly reduced after training. The second research question was answered: There were indications that interventions had positively impacted both workers’ sentiment and some aspects of factory performance. This work achieves transparency for the first time into the concerns of workers in Chinese factories, indicating that eudaimonic factors impact their well-being more than the hedonic factors now typically monitored. Unlike most Sustainable Supply Chain Management (SSCM) literature, which focuses on physical conditions, it highlights workers’ complex relationships with colleagues and line leaders. This brings empirical evidence and detail to a discussion long overdue, creating a basis for further theory development in supply-chain social sustainability, specifically around workers and impacts on their well-being. It also contributes to the Psychological Capital (PsyCap) literature, which had mainly focused on western workplaces and relied on surveys, by allowing for a more reliable well-being assessment. By measuring these workers’ well-being longitudinally over an extended period it allowed the researcher to infer causality, while using the factory’s performance metrics avoided data-integrity issues. This novel research connects SSCM with workplace well-being theory. It advances the knowledge with both an understanding of the well-being of workers in Chinese factories, hitherto missing from SSCM literature, and a more nuanced approach to the theory on workers’ well-being. It changes how these factories and their workers are seen by presenting the picture from a new and more relevant perspective

Mobile learning readiness : psychological factors influencing student's behavioural intention to adopt mobile learning in South Africa

With recent advances in technology, distance education has seen a move towards online and e-learning programmes and courses. However, many students in South Africa have limited access to computer technology and/or the Internet resources necessary for online learning. Worldwide trends have recently seen a growing emphasis on the use of mobile technology for learning purposes. High mobile penetration rates in South Africa means that mobile learning can potentially overcome many of the challenges associated with distanceand online learning. This research therefore aimed to explore adult distance education students’ mobile learning readiness in the South African context. Specifically, this study examined the influence of mobile learning self-efficacy, locus of control, subjective norm, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived behavioural control and attitude towards mobile learning on students’ behavioural intention to adopt mobile learning. In order to test a model predicting students’ behavioural intention, the conceptual framework guiding the investigation combined the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the Theory of the investigation combined the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) and extended the model to include locus of control and mobile learning self-efficacy. A sample of 1070 students from a private higher education institution in South Africa participated in this study. Data were collected using an online survey questionnaire. Multiple regression analysis indicated that perceived ease of use contributed most significantly to behavioural intention to adopt mobile learning, followed by attitude towards mobile learning, subjective norm, perceived usefulness, perceived behavioural control and locus of control. Mobile learning self-efficacy did not significantly influence behavioural intention to adopt mobile learning. Overall, the model accounted for 44.8% of the variance in behavioural intention to adopt mobile learning. Significant differences in age, gender, race and household income existed with regard to several of the psychological constructs hypothesised to influence behavioural intention to adopt mobile learning. 4 Structural equation modelling was used to examine the fit between the data and the proposed model. The chi square goodness for fit test and the RMSEA indicated poor fit between data and model. Considering the sensitivity of the chi square statistic for sample size and the negative influence of too many variables and relationships on the RMSEA, a variety of alternative fit indices that are less dependent on the sample size and distribution were used to examine model fit. The GFI, AGFI, NFI and CFI all exceeded their respective acceptable levels, indicating a good fit with the data.PsychologyM.A. (Psychology

Improving the service quality of a civil consulting engineering firm through benchmarking

The civil engineering industry in South Africa has seen a steady decline in the number of professionals during the last few decades, however it is expected that the government and private sectors are to spend over R200 billion on infrastructure in the next few years. This increases the demand on civil consulting engineering firms to achieve greater productivity, with reduced time and human resources, which has had a profound effect on the quality of service delivered to clients. These firms need to gain a competitive advantage by consistently providing Service Excellence, which is superior to their competitors. One way of achieving this is by benchmarking firms against their competitors. In this research paper the Service Quality and Service Recovery procedures of Company X in Port Elizabeth were benchmarked against its competitors using a customised form of the recognised SERVQUAL research instrument - the SERVPERF questionnaire. The results proved to be invaluable because the survey revealed insightful information which can be used to their strategic benefit. Civil consulting engineering firms need to be aware that Service Excellence is an imperative in the service industry, but do not necessarily have to be perfect. Firms simply need to outperform their competitors to be rated as market leaders. Strategies to improve the Service Quality and Service Recovery of the firm under review are suggested and this work concludes with suggestions for future research projects, which may be beneficial to the researcher, the civil engineering industry and the economy of South Africa

Medication errors: a prospective cohort study of hand-written and computerised physician order entry in the intensive care unit

INTRODUCTION: The study aimed to compare the impact of computerised physician order entry (CPOE) without decision support with hand-written prescribing (HWP) on the frequency, type and outcome of medication errors (MEs) in the intensive care unit. METHODS: Details of MEs were collected before, and at several time points after, the change from HWP to CPOE. The study was conducted in a London teaching hospital's 22-bedded general ICU. The sampling periods were 28 weeks before and 2, 10, 25 and 37 weeks after introduction of CPOE. The unit pharmacist prospectively recorded details of MEs and the total number of drugs prescribed daily during the data collection periods, during the course of his normal chart review. RESULTS: The total proportion of MEs was significantly lower with CPOE (117 errors from 2429 prescriptions, 4.8%) than with HWP (69 errors from 1036 prescriptions, 6.7%) (p < 0.04). The proportion of errors reduced with time following the introduction of CPOE (p < 0.001). Two errors with CPOE led to patient harm requiring an increase in length of stay and, if administered, three prescriptions with CPOE could potentially have led to permanent harm or death. Differences in the types of error between systems were noted. There was a reduction in major/moderate patient outcomes with CPOE when non-intercepted and intercepted errors were combined (p = 0.01). The mean baseline APACHE II score did not differ significantly between the HWP and the CPOE periods (19.4 versus 20.0, respectively, p = 0.71). CONCLUSION: Introduction of CPOE was associated with a reduction in the proportion of MEs and an improvement in the overall patient outcome score (if intercepted errors were included). Moderate and major errors, however, remain a significant concern with CPOE

Establishing drug utilisation research in regional North Queensland.

[Extract] Quality Use of Medicines includes the safe and effective use of medicines, and is a core objective of the National Medicines Policy in Australia. Dispensing data are collected by a government agency (Medicare) for administrative purposes, for reimbursement of the pharmacy where the medicine was supplied. Prior to April 2012, dispensing data were limited to prescription medicines which exceeded the patient co-payment cost. A proof-of-concept was initiated by the primary author (Kairuz) to develop a comprehensive dataset of local dispensing records. Collaboration with Pudmenzky and Rossato led to the development of software to extract and de-identify dispensing data. A pilot study was conducted in collaboration with Fredericks in metropolitan South Queensland (Ethical approval UQ 2012000078)

Biotic and abiotic drivers of macroinvertebrate assemblages in a South African river

Aquatic insects are the most numerically abundant and diverse group of organisms found in lotic ecosystems in South Africa and the world over. They play vital roles in freshwater ecosystem functioning, processing nutrients and in turn forming integral links in stream food-webs. This thesis focussed on examining the macroinvertebrate fauna within three reaches of headwater streams of the Keiskamma River system: reaches that were considered to be fishless; reaches that were invaded by non-native salmonid species; and reaches that were dominated by native fish. I described the effects of predatory fish presence through detailed examination of macroinvertebrate assemblage composition; macroinvertebrate drift timing and density; and through niche utilisation determined from stable isotope data. Patterns in the macroinvertebrate assemblages of the headwaters of the Keiskamma River appear to be driven more strongly by flow rate and seasonal influences, but fish presence and biotope availability were also significant drivers. Niche shifts due to predator presence were not easy to detect and, while patterns of influence may have been evident, they were not found to be significant. However, I demonstrated that salmonids selectively feed on native fish species when the opportunity is presented, occupying significantly higher trophic levels when co-occurring with native fish than in invaded reaches where native fish are absent. Drift timing and density were demonstrated to be significantly different between reach for specific macroinvertebrate species from the Ephemeroptera and Plecoptera, under differing fish predation regimes, in agreement with what has been observed from studies in rivers elsewhere. In freshwater ecosystems of South Africa and worldwide, mitigation of negative effects of alien fishes through their removal using piscicides may also affect non-target organisms. To better understand the effects of just such a removal operation, employed for the first time in the history of freshwater conservation in South Africa, macroinvertebrate communities were assessed for non-target effects of rotenone. The fish eradication operations were demonstrated to have a short-term negative effect on the macroinvertebrate assemblage, through water quality index measurements and alteration of densities of macroinvertebrate taxa collected from stone surfaces. However, no long-term detrimental impact was observed as macroinvertebrate faunas returned to a comparable pre-treatment state within a year of each rotenone application

Towards an architecture that facilitates research and education in a World Heritage Site : an environmental research facility for the iSimangaliso Wetland Park.

Thesis (M.Arch)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2008.The purpose of this research document was to determine a relevant, responsible and appropriate architecture for the design of an Environmental Research Facility for the iSimangaliso Wetland Park World Heritage Site in Northern KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. The nature of this architecture was generated through the investigation of current literature, case and precedent studies and personally conducted interviews with a number of informed professionals. The reason for these recommendations was ultimately the design of the facility for research and education, the goal was always the eventual application of the findings into a design. Ultimately, an appropriate architecture for an Environmental Research Facility for iSimangaliso Wetland Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is one which is accountable and responsible regarding the social, economic and environmental aspects of its design. These three rubrics of sustainability were then unpacked and investigated in order to clarify how this would be most effectively be achieved in the eventual design