Applying sense-making to integrated health IT: Renal care in the UK and Sweden

Information technology (IT) in healthcare combines opportunities for improved integrated healthcare delivery with barrierswhich include clinician resistance and low adoption rates. While national level initiatives are taken to promote electronichealthcare (e-health), it is at the grassroots level that their outcomes unfold. This paper employs sense-making theory toextend prior research on the implementation of health IT by investigating the introduction of IT into renal care units in theUK and Sweden. Issues such as management support, user training, usability of systems and perceived benefits of technologywere found to have a direct impact on users’ sense-making processes. The manner in which people make sense of imposedsystems has far reaching effects, as the gap between intended results and actual outcomes is not limited to disparities betweenmicro-level end-users alone, but spans multiple levels including higher authorities, as well as individuals at the grassrootslevel

LARES/WEBER-SAT and the equivalence principle

It has often been claimed that the proposed Earth artificial satellite LARES/WEBER-SAT-whose primary goal is, in fact, the measurement of the general relativistic Lense-Thirring effect at a some percent level-would allow to greatly improve, among (many) other things, the present-day (10^-13) level of accuracy in testing the equivalence principle as well. Recent claims point towards even two orders of magnitude better, i.e. 10^-15. In this note we show that such a goal is, in fact, unattainable by many orders of magnitude being, instead, the achievable level of the order of 10^-9.Comment: LaTex, 4 pages, no figures, no tables, 26 references. Proofs corrections included. To appear in EPL (Europhysics Letters

The use of case studies in OR teaching

This article investigates the current use of case studies in the teaching of Operational Research (OR) in the UK: how and where they are used; how they are developed; and whether there is an interest in training this area. It is aimed at lecturers teaching OR who are using or planning to use case studies in their teaching. It may also be of interest to policy-makers who wish to know what is being done in OR. The article focuses on the results of a survey sent to lecturers of OR in higher education in the UK. These are combined with an examination of the literature on using case studies in teaching in general and a small number of specific examples of how case studies are used in OR teaching. Case studies are included in OR teaching in a variety of ways and to develop a range of skills; particularly the ability to transfer academic knowledge to real-life contexts. The article identifies that the most significant barrier to the use of case studies in OR teaching is the development of new case studies; suggestions are made to address this, including providing training and collaboration opportunities. Overall this article provides an assessment of the ways in which case studies are used in OR; the advantages and limitationsof using them; and specific examples of their use which will provide ideas to assist in improving OR teaching

Unfinished Business: a Review of the Implementation of the Provisions of United Nations General Assembly Resolutions 61/105 and 64/72, Related to the Management of Bottom Fisheries in Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction

In 2006 the General Assembly adopted resolution 61/105, based on a compromise proposal offered by deep-sea fishing nations, which committed States and regional fisheries management organisations [RFMOs] to take specific measures to protect vulnerable marine ecosystems [VMEs] from the adverse impacts of bottom fisheries in the high seas and to ensure the longterm sustainability of deep-sea fish stocks. These measures included conducting impact assessments to determine whether significant adverse impacts[SAIs] to VMEs would occur, managing fisheries to prevent SAIs on VMEs, and closing areas of the high seas to bottom fishing where VMEs are known or likely to occur, unless regulations are in place to prevent SAIs and to manage sustainably deep-sea fish stocks. Based on a review in 2009 of the actions taken by States and RFMOS, the UNGA adoptedresolution 64/72 that reaffirmed resolution 61/105 and strengthened the call for action through committing States, inter alia, to ensure that vessels do not engage in bottom fishing until impact assessments have been carried out and to not authorise bottom fishing activities until the measures in resolutions 64/72 and 61/105 have been adopted andimplemented

Si Industry at a Crossroads: New Materials or New Factories?

Many trends in the silicon industry could be interpreted as the herald of the end of traditional Si scaling. If this premise holds, future performance and system-on-chip applications may not be reached with conventional Si technology extensions. We review progress towards our vision that a larger crystal structure on Si, namely relaxed SiGe epitaxial layers, can support many generations of higher performance Si CMOS and new system-on-chip functionality without the expense of significant new equipment and change to CMOS manufacturing ideology. We will review the impact of tensile strained Si layers grown on relaxed SiGe layers. Both NMOS and PMOS exhibit higher carrier mobilities due to the strained Si MOSFET channel. Heterostructure MOSFETs designed on relaxed SiGe can have multiple-generation performance increases, and therefore determine a new performance roadmap for Si CMOS technology, independent of MOSFET gate length. We also indicate that this materials platform naturally leads to incorporating new optical functionality into Si CMOS technology.Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA

The Rise and Fall of Debris Disks: MIPS Observations of h and chi Persei and the Evolution of Mid-IR Emission from Planet Formation

We describe Spitzer/MIPS observations of the double cluster, h and $\chi$ Persei, covering a $\sim$ 0.6 square-degree area surrounding the cores of both clusters. The data are combined with IRAC and 2MASS data to investigate $\sim$ 616 sources from 1.25-24 $\mu m$. We use the long-baseline $K_{s}$-[24] color to identify two populations with IR excess indicative of circumstellar material: Be stars with 24 $\mu m$ excess from optically-thin free free emission and 17 fainter sources (J$\sim$ 14-15) with [24] excess consistent with a circumstellar disk. The frequency of IR excess for the fainter sources increases from 4.5 $\mu m$ through 24 $\mu m$. The IR excess is likely due to debris from the planet formation process. The wavelength-dependent behavior is consistent with an inside-out clearing of circumstellar disks. A comparison of the 24 $\mu m$ excess population in h and $\chi$ Per sources with results for other clusters shows that 24 $\mu m$ emission from debris disks 'rises' from 5 to 10 Myr, peaks at $\sim$ 10-15 Myr, and then 'falls' from $\sim$ 15/20 Myr to 1 Gyr.Comment: 48 pages, 15 figures, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journa

Calcium ionophore (A-23187) induced peritoneal eicosanoid biosynthesis: a rapid method to evaluate inhibitors of arachidonic acid metabolism in vivo

The present investigation characterizes calcium ionophore (A-23187) induced peritoneal eicosanoid biosynthesis in the rat. Intraperitoneal injection of A-23187 (20 μg/rat) stimulated marked biosynthesis of 6-keto-PGF1α (6-KPA), TxB2, LTC4 and LTB4, with no detectable changes on levels of PGE2. Levels of all eicosanoids decreased rapidly after a peak which was seen as early as 5 min. Enzyme markers of cellular contents of neutrophils and mononuclear cells, MPO and NAG respectively, decreased rapidly after ionophore injection; this was followed by increases after 60 min. Indomethacin, a selective cyclooxygenase inhibitor, and zileuton and ICI D-2138, two selective 5-lipoxygenase inhibitors attenuated prostaglandin and leukotriene pathways respectively. Oral administration of zileuton (20 mg/kg, p.o.) inhibited LTB4 biosynthesis for up to 6 h suggesting a long duration of pharmacological activity in the rats consistent with its longer half-life. The rapid onset and the magnitude of increases in levels of eicosanoids render the ionophore induced peritoneal eicosanoid biosynthesis a useful model to evaluate pharmacological profiles of inhibitors of eicosanoid pathways in vivo