1,279 research outputs found
Cellular localization and metabolomic analysis of the Arabidopsis thaliana Major Intrinsic Protein NIP2;1: A root-specific lactic acid transporter induced in response to hypoxic stress
Translating employee-driven innovation in healthcare: Bricolage and the mobilization of scarce resources
With top-down models of innovation failing to address the entrenched problems of healthcare, policy-makers have proposed that staff working on the frontline might be better placed to innovate solutions. Drawing on a study of employee-driven innovation in UK public healthcare, the authors explore the process through which staff innovate without the resources that support policy implementation, showing how the translation of ideas from problematization to practice is underpinned by ‘bricolage’—the appropriation and repurposing of resources ‘at hand’.
IMPACT
This paper clarifies how staff innovate services on the ground when resources are scarce. The authors suggest that, where employees—clinicians and practitioners—are driving innovation, they engage in a creative process to mobilize resources; appropriating and repurposing local funding, available space, delivery models and even the labour of staff at all levels. This bricolage provides necessary support to the contingent, and often lengthy translation of employees’ innovation ideas into practice. These insights become more critical in a post-pandemic context that demands innovative solutions to new service delivery challenges
Does the Reliability of Reporting in Injury Surveillance Studies Depend on Injury Definition?
Background: Choosing an appropriate definition for injury in injury surveillance studies is essential to ensure a balance among reporting reliability, providing an accurate representation of injury risk, and describing the nature of the clinical demand. Purpose: To provide guidance on the choice of injury definition for injury surveillance studies by comparing within- and between-team variability in injury incidence with >24-hour and >7-day time-loss injury definitions in a large multiteam injury surveillance study. Study Design: Cohort study (diagnosis); Level of evidence, 2. Methods: Injury data were reported for 2248 professional rugby union players from 15 Premiership Rugby clubs over 12 seasons. Within-team percentage coefficient of variation and mean between-team standard deviation (expressed as a percentage coefficient of variation) in injury incidence rates (injuries per 1000 player match hours) were calculated. For both variables, a comparison was made between >24-hour and >7-day injury incidence rates in terms of the magnitude of the observed effects. Results: The overall mean incidence across the population with a >24-hour time-loss injury definition was approximately double the reported incidence with the >7-day definition. There was a 10% higher between-team variation in match injury incidence rates with the >24-hour time-loss definition versus the >7-day definition. Conclusion: There was a likely higher degree of between-team variation in match injury incidence rates with a >24-hour time-loss definition than with a >7-day definition of injury. However, in professional sports settings, it is likely that the benefits of using a more inclusive definition of injury (improved understanding of clinical demand and the appropriate and accurate reporting of injury risk) outweigh the small increase in variation in reporting consistency
No-horizon theorem for spacetimes with spacelike G1 isometry groups
We consider four-dimensional spacetimes which obey the
Einstein equations , and admit a global spacelike
isometry group. By means of dimensional reduction and local
analyis on the reduced (2+1) spacetime, we obtain a sufficient condition on
which guarantees that cannot contain apparent
horizons. Given any (3+1) spacetime with spacelike translational isometry, the
no-horizon condition can be readily tested without the need for dimensional
reduction. This provides thus a useful and encompassing apparent horizon test
for -symmetric spacetimes. We argue that this adds further evidence
towards the validity of the hoop conjecture, and signals possible violations of
strong cosmic censorship.Comment: 8 pages, LaTeX, uses IOP package; published in Class. Quantum Gra
Does landscape-scale conservation management enhance the provision of ecosystem services?
Biodiversity conservation approaches are increasingly being implemented at the landscape-scale to support the maintenance
of metapopulations and metacommunities. However, the impact of such interventions on the provision of ecosystem services
is less well defined. Here we examine the potential impacts of landscape-scale conservation initiatives on ecosystem
services, through analysis of five case study areas in England and Wales. The provision of multiple ecosystem services was
projected according to current management plans and compared with a baseline scenario. Multicriteria analysis indicated
that in most cases landscape-scale approaches lead to an overall increase in service provision. Consistent increases were
projected in carbon storage, recreation and aesthetic value, as well as biodiversity value. However, most study areas
provided evidence of trade-offs, particularly between provisioning services and other types of service. Results differed
markedly between study areas, highlighting the importance of local context. These results suggest that landscape-scale
conservation approaches are likely to be effective in increasing ecosystem service provision, but also indicate that associated
costs can be significant, particularly in lowland areas
Detection Limits for Super-Hubble Suppression of Causal Fluctuations
We investigate to what extent future microwave background experiments might
be able to detect a suppression of fluctuation power on large scales in flat
and open universe models. Such suppression would arise if fluctuations are
generated by causal processes, and a measurement of a small suppression scale
would be problematic for inflation models, but consistent with many defect
models. More speculatively, a measurement of a suppression scale of the order
of the present Hubble radius could provide independent evidence for a
fine-tuned inflation model leading to a low-density universe. We find that,
depending on the primordial power spectrum, a suppression scale modestly larger
than the visible Horizon can be detected, but that the detectability drops very
rapidly with increasing scale. For models with two periods of inflation, there
is essentially no possibility of detecting a causal suppression scale.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, revtex, In Press Physical Review D 200
“It’s like my life but more, and better!” - Playing with the Cathaby Shark Girls: MMORPGs, young people and fantasy-based social play
This article is available open access through the publisher’s website at the link below. Copyright @ 2011 A B Academic Publishers.Digital technology has opened up a range of new on-line leisure spaces for young people. Despite their popularity, on-line games and Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games in particular are still a comparatively under-researched area in the fields of both Education and more broadly Youth Studies. Drawing on a Five year ethnographic study, this paper considers the ways that young people use the virtual spaces offered by MMORPGs. This paper suggests that MMORPGs represent significant arenas within which young people act out a range of social narratives through gaming. It argues that MMORPG have become important fantasy spaces which offer young people possibilities to engage in what were formally material practices. Although this form of play is grounded in the everyday it also extends material practices and offers new and unique forms of symbolic experimentation, thus I argue that game-play narratives cannot be divorced from the everyday lives of their participants
Microdevices for extensional rheometry of low viscosity elastic liquids : a review
Extensional flows and the underlying stability/instability mechanisms are of extreme relevance to the efficient operation of inkjet printing, coating processes and drug delivery systems, as well as for the generation of micro droplets. The development of an extensional rheometer to characterize the extensional properties of low viscosity fluids has therefore stimulated great interest of researchers, particularly in the last decade. Microfluidics has proven to be an extraordinary working platform and different configurations of potential extensional microrheometers have been proposed. In this review, we present an overview of several successful designs, together with a critical assessment of their capabilities and limitations
Enterprise transformation: Why are we interested, what is it, and what are the challenges?
© IIE, INCOSE. The concept of enterprise transformation has become increasingly popular as companies recognize the need to achieve an integrated perspective within and across organizational boundaries to address complex challenges. Yet, there is little clarity concerning what constitutes an “enterprise” or indeed “enterprise transformation.” This article is conceived as an initial step along the journey towards this clarity. There is considerable work to be done in delineating this area of interest and this article is offered as a stimulus for debate on what constitutes enterprise transformation. Drawing on themes from the management and systems engineering disciplines, the article will propose four characteristics of “enterprise” as a unit for transformation and look at why this holistic unit of analysis has become critical to businesses. The article will also ask what constitutes transformation, and offer characterizing criteria to distinguish this magnitude of change from more incremental changes. A recent empirical case study will be examined to further elucidate challenges faced in defining, leading, and transforming multi-organizational enterprises. Finally, a near-term research agenda is outlined for the evolving discipline of enterprise transformation
In situ multi-frequency measurements of magnetic susceptibility as an indicator of planetary regolith maturity
Space weathering is now generally accepted to modify the optical and magnetic properties of airless planetary regoliths such as those on the Moon and Mercury. Under micrometeorite and ion bombardment, ferrous iron in such surfaces is reduced to metallic iron spheres, found in amorphous coatings on almost all exposed regolith grains. The size and number distribution of these particles and their location in the regolith all determine the nature and extent of the optical and magnetic changes. These parameters in turn reflect the formation mechanisms, temperatures, and durations involved in the evolution of the regolith. Studying them in situ is of intrinsic value to understanding the weathering process, and useful for determining the maturity of the regolith and providing supporting data for interpreting remotely sensed mineralogy. Fine-grained metallic iron has a number of properties that make it amenable to magnetic techniques, of which magnetic susceptibility is the simplest and most robust. The magnetic properties of the lunar regolith and laboratory regolith analogues are therefore reviewed and the theoretical basis for the frequency dependence of magnetic susceptibility presented. Proposed here is then an instrument concept using multi-frequency measurements of magnetic susceptibility to confirm the presence of fine grained magnetic material and attempt to infer its quantity and size distribution. Such an instrument would be invaluable on a future mission to an asteroid, the Moon, Mercury or other airless rocky Solar System body
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