Exploring a cardio-thoracic hospital ward soundscape in relation to restoration

Hospitals can provide stressful experiences for both patients and medical staff. A well-designed hospital soundscape should avoid adding to negative emotional states (e.g. stress), limit any detrimental cognitive effects (e.g. attentional fatigue), and enable restoration. Experiences of the cardio-thoracic ward soundscape, in a UK public University hospital, were explored via semi-structured interviews with 11 patients and 16 nurses. Thematic coding analysis resulted in 11 key themes including notions of restoration and emotional responses. The themes were used to develop a conceptual model to describe the processes involved in the perception and evaluation of the soundscape. The language used by patients and nurses indicated the emotional response to the soundscape was at times stressful and at others potentially restorative. Coping methods of accepting and habituating to individual sounds were noted. The impact of the patients' and nurses' ability to maintain these coping strategies are discussed in relation to restoration and the temporal variation of the soundscape. A period of 'quiet time' was in operation at the hospital and the importance of this was noted through various responses relating to emotion and restoration. The results suggest the soundscape has potentially, a beneficial role in facilitating restoration thus helping patients' recovery and medical staff's ability to remain productive. This research supports the need to study hospital soundscapes further so that design implications can be considered for the production of a more restorative environment, possibly through the masking/removal of unwanted sounds and optimising positive sounds

A study of major coding techniques for digital communication Final report

Coding techniques for digital communication channel

Springsheds of the Santa Fe River Basin

Powerpoint presentation (PDF has 45 pages.

Fluctuating Hall resistance defeats the quantized Hall insulator

Using the Chalker-Coddington network model as a drastically simplified, but universal model of integer quantum Hall physics, we investigate the plateau-to-insulator transition at strong magnetic field by means of a real-space renormalization approach. Our results suggest that for a fully quantum coherent situation, the quantized Hall insulator with R_H approx. h/e^2 is observed up to R_L ~25 h/e^2 when studying the most probable value of the distribution function P(R_H). Upon further increasing R_L ->\infty the Hall insulator with diverging Hall resistance R_H \propto R_L^kappa is seen. The crossover between these two regimes depends on the precise nature of the averaging procedure.Comment: major revision, discussion of averaging improved; 8 pages, 7 figures; accepted for publication in EP

Quantitative Nanofriction Characterization of Corrugated Surfaces by Atomic Force Microscopy

Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) is a suitable tool to perform tribological characterization of materials down to the nanometer scale. An important aspect in nanofriction measurements of corrugated samples is the local tilt of the surface, which affects the lateral force maps acquired with the AFM. This is one of the most important problems of state-of-the-art nanotribology, making difficult a reliable and quantitative characterization of real corrugated surfaces. A correction of topographic spurious contributions to lateral force maps is thus needed for corrugated samples. In this paper we present a general approach to the topographic correction of AFM lateral force maps and we apply it in the case of multi-asperity adhesive contact. We describe a complete protocol for the quantitative characterization of the frictional properties of corrugated systems in the presence of surface adhesion using the AFM.Comment: 33 pages, 9 figures, RevTex 4, submitted to Journal of Applied Physic

Using a bespoke situated digital kiosk to encourage user participation in healthcare environment design

Involving users through participation in healthcare service and environment design is growing. Existing approaches and toolkits for practitioners and researchers are often paper based involving workshops and other more traditional design approaches such as paper prototyping. The advent of digital technology provides the opportunity to explore new platforms for user participation. This paper presents results from three studies that used a bespoke situated user participation digital kiosk, engaging 33 users in investigating healthcare environment design. The studies, from primary and secondary care settings, allowed participant feedback on each environment and proved a novel, engaging “21st century” way to participate in the appraisal of the design process. The results point toward this as an exciting and growing area of research in developing not just a new method of user participation but also the technology that supports it. Limitations were noted in terms of data validity and engagement with the device. To guide the development of user participation using similar situated digital devices, key lessons and reflections are presented

The Politics of Commerce : The Congress of Chambers of Commerce of the Empire, 1886-1914

Peer reviewedPublisher PD