ICTs and Family Physicians Human Capital Upgrading.Delightful Chimera or Harsh Reality?

In the present paper we provide a quantitative assessment of ICTs role in Family Physicians/General Practitioners (GPs) medical daily practice and scientific performance. It focus on the Portuguese underexplored context, where the Health Sector has been under pressure for wide and profound reforms. These reforms have been extensively relying on ICTs, namely on the Internet. Based on the responses of 342 GPs, we concluded that 94% uses the Internet and 57% agrees that the Internet is essential to their medical daily practice. This is a slightly lower percentage than that observed for other European physicians (62%). GPs tend to use the Internet mainly for professional purposes. On average, they spend 10 hours/week on the Internet for professional purposes. Further data shows that to have or to be enrolled in advanced training fosters the use of the Internet for professional purposes, which in its turn, tends to grant GPs access to more and up-to-date information and knowledge on these matters. A worrisome evidence is that at the workplace, a substantial proportion of GPs (over 70%) do not use the Internet or other related ICTs, namely Telemedicine. Although Electronic Prescription is used by roughly 60% of the respondent GPs, for all other activities – teleconsultation, telediagnosis, and telemonitoring – only a meagre percentage of physicians (10%) claim to use such technologies. Thus, Telemedicine at the workplace is still a chimera. Notwithstanding such dishearten scenario, our data shows that the Internet for the respondent GPs has a critical role on updating and improving their professional knowledge basis. They recognise, however, that the vast majority of GPs lack specific and general training in ICT-related technologies. In fact, half of them agree that they need to attend specific training actions on ICTs. A large percentage of GPs admitted that in the previous year they did not take any professional training targeting ICTs and those who did undertook rather short-term (less than one week) courses: Because of that, such training handicap uncovers that a large part of Portuguese GPs may be unable to reap the benefits of ICTs in their daily medical practice.GPs; Human Capital; Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs)

A theoretical study of the transference of heat and momentum across turbulent incompressible boundary layers

PhDA survey and evaluation of some models of turbulence for isothermal turbulent flows is made. Models such as mixing length, one-equation, two-equations and three-equations are solved with the aid of a high speed computer for annular turbulent flows. The results are compared with each other and with experiment and the significance is discussed. The three equation model (three transport equations plus the mean velocity equation) emerges as the most accurate and capable of the widest application: one set of constants only is sufficient to solve a number of turbulent flows. Also, this model does not require the prescription of any arbitrary length scale. A study of the effect of varying the constants in the three-equation model shows that the velocity and shear stress profiles are insensitive to the variation of the constants. A variation of up to 50%, in the value of the constants produces, at most, less than 2% variation in the velocity and shear stress profiles. Only the turbulence energy distribution shows some sensitivity. The position of maximum velocity for smooth annuli with different radius ratios, as well as friction factors for a number of wall conditions are calculated with the three-equation model. The comparison between predictions and experimental data shows a fairly good agreement. Starting from this three-equation model, an extended model, capable of predicting turbulent, two-dimensional, incompressible thermal boundary layers is developed. Three more equations are incorporated in the isothermal model, namely, (1) mean temperature equation (T), (2) convective heat flux equation (uyT') and (3) equation for the intensity of temperature fluctuation (1/2T'2). Appropriate approximations are introduced and the new model of parabolic differential equations is solved simultaneously with the equations for the isothermal flow. The new five-equations model (five transport equations plus mean velocity and mean temperature equations) is applied to a number of real flows, with and without the presence of walls. Both rough and smooth walls are considered. Generally, good agreement is obtained when predicted results are compared with the available experimental data

The optimal location of facilities on a network

Imperial Users onl

The global 5G race: South Korea speeds ahead. IES Policy Brief Issue 2019/05, May 2019

South Korea has become the first country in the world to launch commercial 5G services on 3 April. 5G economic benefits are estimated to include worldwide revenues of €225 billion by 2025 and a wealth of job creation. The US, China, South Korea and the EU are economic powerhouses vying to lead the unfolding global 5G market. US and China are strongly positioned in the current telecom market, but their growing 5G competition is spilling over into geopolitical competition. Wary of being swept up in US-China rivalry, the Moon government is banking on building strong 5G market competitiveness and doubling down on the IT sector which represents a critical economic growth engine domestically

Characterizing and dealing with anxiety in the foreign language classroom

Foreign Language Anxiety has been defined as the feeling of nervousness that may appear in the process of acquiring a new language. Although it may have beneficial effects on students’ performance, the presence of anxious students in language classes is a major concern for teachers and for the students themselves, which is why researchers on the topic have mainly explored its negative effects and its correlation with Foreign Language Acquisition (FLA). The present paper aims at understanding and analysing the role of this affective variable with a view to providing certain tips and strategies for teachers to take to the classroom, and to improve students’ self-esteem. In order to achieve this goal, I will deal with both theoretical and practical issues. Thus, the paper summarises several research studies that help us characterize foreign language anxiety. These studies are fundamental for the understanding of Foreign Language Anxiety as situation specific type (Gardener & MacIntyte, 1989, cited in MacIntyre, 2017). In addition, Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) (Horwitz et al., 1986) will be described in detail. This scale is considered a pivotal tool to measure anxiety levels and it has been highly useful for subsequent research. This paper also focuses on the effects of apprehension on each of the language competences, paying special heed to oral production since this is considered the most anxiety-evoking skill. From a more practical perspective, in this paper I intend to assist the learners in their process of overcoming foreign language anxiety. In order to do so, the ways in which instructors can identify apprehensive students by paying attention to the symptoms and attitudes adopted by those learners that require assistance are discussed. Then, some suggestions to create an anxiety-free classroom are provided. Thus, it is argued that it is very important that teachers accommodate their attitude or their classroom methodology to the needs of apprehensive students. In addition some activities that can boost learners’ confidence and help them to have a more realistic approach to their anxiety are proposed The main conclusion of the paper is that a favourable learning process needs to devote adequate consideration to anxiety since this is a frequent feeling that appears in many students and its effects may prevent the learners from having a comfortable experience of learning a new language