The emergency observation and assessment ward

A recent development to reduce ED crowding and increase urgent patient admissions is the opening of an Emergency Observation and Assessment Ward (EOA Ward). At these wards urgent patients are temporarily hospitalized until they can be transferred to an inpatient bed. In this paper we present an overflow model to evaluate the effect of employing an EOA Ward on elective and urgent patient admissions

WTEC monograph on instrumentation, control and safety systems of Canadian nuclear facilities

This report updates a 1989-90 survey of advanced instrumentation and controls (I&C) technologies and associated human factors issues in the U.S. and Canadian nuclear industries carried out by a team from Oak Ridge National Laboratory (Carter and Uhrig 1990). The authors found that the most advanced I&C systems are in the Canadian CANDU plants, where the newest plant (Darlington) has digital systems in almost 100 percent of its control systems and in over 70 percent of its plant protection system. Increased emphasis on human factors and cognitive science in modern control rooms has resulted in a reduced workload for the operators and the elimination of many human errors. Automation implemented through digital instrumentation and control is effectively changing the role of the operator to that of a systems manager. The hypothesis that properly introducing digital systems increases safety is supported by the Canadian experience. The performance of these digital systems has been achieved using appropriate quality assurance programs for both hardware and software development. Recent regulatory authority review of the development of safety-critical software has resulted in the creation of isolated software modules with well defined interfaces and more formal structure in the software generation. The ability of digital systems to detect impending failures and initiate a fail-safe action is a significant safety issue that should be of special interest to nuclear utilities and regulatory authorities around the world

Online Investment Banking Phase I: Distribution via the Internet and Its Impact on IPO Performance

In the past few years, there has been a growth in Internet markets run by online investment bankers, where companies and investors can buy and sell initial public offerings (IPOs) of corporate stock. In this study, we confine our examination to the first of what we anticipate will be several phases in the evolution of Internet IPOs: the online distribution of shares. This implies the beginning of a general disintermediation in the IPO process where traditional roles of investment banks are being circumvented via the Internet as participants search for greater market efficiency. This is an important research area because potentially it affects all public companies, or companies considering going public, the investment banking industry, and all stock investors. We address two research issues not considered by previous studies. What factors affect organizational choice of online vs. traditional IPO distribution? What are the financial performance differences for IPOs distributed using online and traditional processes? These issues were addressed using company characteristic and financial performance data from 27 IPOs from the last half of 1998. We find that the Internet IPO firms are larger, have younger CEOs, choose more reputable investment banks and are more likely to be involved in a Web-based business, directly employing the Internet in their product or service, than the firms that choose the traditional method of going public. In addition, market performance, both initially and over the first three months of trading, is significantly greater for Internet IPOs

A critical analysis of universal design for learning in the U.S. federal education law

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) has been frequently discussed as a framework that guides the design of inclusive learning environments for all students with and without disabilities. This policy brief reports on findings of a content analysis of how UDL was referenced in three major U.S. federal education laws. Results indicate that UDL was not explicitly defined although it was closely tied to alternative assessment and technology in K-12 education laws. References to UDL in the higher education law suggested using UDL to guide inclusive educational practices for post-secondary students and the need to integrate the framework into educator preparation

Public experiences of mass casualty decontamination

In this article, we analyze feedback from simulated casualties who took part in field exercises involving mass decontamination, to gain an understanding of how responder communication can affect people’s experiences of and compliance with decontamination. We analyzed questionnaire data gathered from 402 volunteers using the framework approach, to provide an insight into the public’s experiences of decontamination and how these experiences are shaped by the actions of emergency responders. Factors that affected casualties’ experiences of the econtamination process included the need for greater practical information and better communication from responders, and the need for privacy. Results support previous findings from small-scale incidents that involved decontamination in showing that participants wanted better communication from responders during the process of decontamination, including more practical information, and that the failure of responders to communicate effectively with members of the public led to anxiety about the decontamination process. The similarity between the findings from the exercises described in this article and previous research into real incidents involving decontamination suggests that field exercises provide a useful way to examine the effect of responder communication strategies on the public’s experiences of decontamination. Future exercises should examine in more detail the effect of various communication strategies on the public’s experiences of decontamination. This will facilitate the development of evidence-based communication strategies intended to reduce anxiety about decontamination and increase compliance among members of the public during real-life incidents that involve mass decontamination

Extracellular free water and glutathione in first-episode psychosis-a multimodal investigation of an inflammatory model for psychosis.

Evidence has been accumulating for an immune-based component to the etiology of psychotic disorders. Advancements in diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have enabled estimation of extracellular free water (FW), a putative biomarker of neuroinflammation. Furthermore, inflammatory processes may be associated with altered brain levels of metabolites, such as glutathione (GSH). Consequently, we sought to test the hypotheses that FW is increased and associated with decreased GSH in patients with first-episode schizophrenia (SZ) compared with healthy controls (HC). SZ (n = 36) and HC (n = 40) subjects underwent a multi-shell diffusion MRI scan on a Siemens 3T scanner. 1H-MR spectroscopy data were acquired using a GSH-optimized MEGA-PRESS editing sequence and GSH/creatine ratios were calculated for DLPFC (SZ: n = 33, HC: n = 37) and visual cortex (SZ: n = 29, HC: n = 35) voxels. Symptoms and functioning were measured using the SANS, SAPS, BPRS, and GSF/GRF. SZ demonstrated significantly elevated FW in whole-brain gray (p = .001) but not white matter (p = .060). There was no significant difference between groups in GSH in either voxel. However, there was a significant negative correlation between DLPFC GSH and both whole-brain and DLPFC-specific gray matter FW in SZ (r = -.48 and -.47, respectively; both p < .05), while this relationship was nonsignificant in HC and in both groups in the visual cortex. These data illustrate an important relationship between a metabolite known to be important for immune function-GSH-and the diffusion extracellular FW measure, which provides additional support for these measures as neuroinflammatory biomarkers that could potentially provide tractable treatment targets to guide pharmacological intervention

Post-Tenure Review 2011

Compilation of scholarly output, teacher evaluations, course materials, and other material representative of academic performance.CONTENTS Self-Evaluation p.1 Appendix A – Representative course syllabi p.11 Appendix B – Results of Student Opinion of Instruction surveys p.73 Appendix C – Reprints of peer-review articles published p.105 Appendix D – Herbarium related consultations and services p.371 Appendix E – Annual evaluations p.385 Appendix F – Curriculum vitae p.40

THE IMPLICATIONS OF A NORTH AMERICAN FREE TRADE AREA FOR AGRICULTURE

This is one of two papers commissioned by the International Agricultural Trade Research Consortium on various aspects related to the agricultural sector of a prospective North American Free Trade Agreement. The companion paper to this one has been prepared by a working group chaired by Thomas Grennes, North Carolina State University. To minimize duplication with the Grennes paper, this paper has given greater attention to the general trade policy issues raised by a NAFTA, institutional factors, additional commodity detail in cereals, fruit and vegetables, and the relevance of other regional trade agreements such as the Canada-U.S. Trade Agreement. This work has also benefitted from an earlier report and its annexes, prepared for the Fraser Institute, under the direction of Tim Josling.International Relations/Trade,

The politics of punishment in colonial Mauritius, 1766-1887

The history of imprisonment in British colonial Mauritius is intertwined with its political economy, most especially the relationship between metropolitan government and plantation owners. Whether labour was predominantly enslaved, apprenticed or indentured, incarceration was part of a broader process through which the regulation of the colonial workforce was taken from the private to the public sphere and became associated with economic development. Nevertheless, prisoners both challenged and used prison regimes as vehicles for the improvement of their lives. Mauritian jails were intensely political arenas in which the changing nature of colonial relations and the regulation of labour was both expressed and contested