Counting the cost of language services in psychiatry

Objective. To document interpreter utilisation at a major South African mental  hospital over a 2-month period in 1993.Design. A survey was conducted by requesting clinicians to complete a questionnaire each time they required an interpreter.Setting. seven admission wards at a Western Cape mental hospital and an emergency psychiatric service at a general hospital.Participants. Twenty-nine clinical staff members.Main outcome measures. Number of patients requiring an interpreter; who provides interpreting services; interpreter availability; and duration of interview.Results. One hundred and forty-eight predominantly Xhosa-speaking patients (20 - 30% of admissions) required interpreting. Interpreter services were available immediately in 69% of cases. Nursing staff provide 67% of the interpreter service, while cleaning staff provide 10%. There were 93.5 documented hours of interpreting. One person employed as an interpreter in 2 wards had longer interviews on average than the other staff members. The opportunity cost of using nurses and cleaners as interpreters amounts to A1 504 for the period of the study.Conclusions. PsychiatricaJly educated staff are clearly preferred as interpreters. A significant proportion of patients are being assessed through the use of family members, cleaners and other inappropriate people. The financial burden to the hospitals of not providing an interpreter service is small, but the impact on working conditions and service to patients is considerable

Post-weaning performance and carcass characteristics of steer progency from different suckler cow breed types

peer-reviewedIn two experiments a total of 44 steer progeny of spring-calving Charolais (C) and Hereford × Friesian (HF) suckler cows and C sires were slaughtered at approximately 2 years of age. Following weaning they were offered silage and 1 kg of concentrate per head daily during a 5 month winter after which they spent 7 months at pasture. In Experiment 1, animals were given a silage/concentrate diet during a finishing period of either 95 or 152 days. In Experiment 2, steers were offered either a daily diet of silage plus 6 kg of concentrates or concentrates to appetite plus 5 kg of silage (fresh weight) during the final 140-day finishing period. Following slaughter, an 8-rib pistola from each animal was dissected. For the two experiments combined C and HF progeny had carcass weights of 372 and 385 (s.e. 6.1) kg, proportions of carcass as pistola of 467 and 454 (s.e. 2.8) g/kg and pistola meat proportions of 676 and 642 (s.e. 5.1) g/kg, respectively. All fat traits were lower for the C than HF progeny but there was no difference in carcass conformation score. Increasing slaughter weight increased carcass weight (P < 0.001), kidney plus channel fat weight (P < 0.001), and pistola fat proportion (P < 0.001) and decreased the proportions of carcass as pistola (P < 0.05), pistola meat (P < 0.01), and bone (P < 0.05). In conclusion, breed type had no effect on carcass growth but the C progeny had higher meat yield than the HF. Increasing slaughter weight increased fatness and reduced meat yield

Optimising The Response To Supplementary Concentrates By Beef Cattle In Winter

End of project reportConcentrates are a major component of feed costs in winter finishing of beef cattle. Two separate experiments were carried out to evaluate the response to increasing supplementary concentrate level with grass silage and the effects of feeding the silage and concentrates separately or as a total mixed ration (TMR). In experiment 1, a total of 117 finishing steers (initial live weight 538 kg, s.d. 35.5) were assigned to a preexperimental slaughter group of 9 animals and to 6 feeding treatments of 18 animals each. The feeding treatments were: 1) silage (SO) only offered ad libitum, 2) SO plus a low level of concentrates offered separately (LS), 3) SO plus a low level of concentrates offered as a TMR (LM), 4) SO plus a medium level of concentrates offered separately (MS), 5) SO plus a medium level of concentrates offered as a TMR (MM), and 6) concentrates ad libitum plus a restricted silage allowance (AL). Low and medium target concentrate levels were 3 and 6 kg dry matter (DM) per head daily. When silage and concentrates were fed separately, the daily concentrate allowance was given in one morning feed. The animals were individually fed for a mean period of 132 days. After slaughter, carcasses were weighed and graded and the ribs joint was dissected into its component tissues. Silage DM intake decreased but total DM intake increased with increasing concentrate level. Live weight gains for SO, LS, LM, MS, MM and AL were 0.34, 0.86, 0.86, 1.02, 1.00 and 1.12 (s.e. 0.064) kg/day, respectively. Corresponding carcass weight gains were 0.25, 0.58, 0.58, 0.71, 0.68 and 0.82 (s.e. 0.028) kg/day. All measures of fatness increased, ribs joint bone proportion decreased, and muscle proportion was not significantly affected by dietary concentrate level. There were no significant interactions between concentrate level and method of feeding. Compared with offering the feeds separately, feeding a TMR increased silage DM intake by proportionately 0.06 and total DM intake by proportionately 0.04. Otherwise, method of feeding had no significant effect on performance, slaughter or carcass traits. Mean rumen pH decreased while ammonia concentration tended to increase with increasing concentrate level. Total volatile fatty acids and the acetate to propionate ratio were lowest for SO. Method of feeding had no significant effect on rumen fermentation

an Ellipsometeric Evaluation of Ion Implanted Silicon

~ Split Split Plot Design was implemented to investigate the relationship between the ion implantation conditions and the complex refractive index of the inherent damage layer. Four factors chosen to evaluate this relationship were wafer orientation, dose concentration, implant acceleration potential, and screen oxide thickness. The response variable was the complex refractive index of the damaged layer measured by ellipsometry. Results indicate that there is a relationship between the dose concentration and the response variable that is most sensitive to doses between 5e13 ions/cm2 and 5e15 ions/cm2. However, the range of the refractive index increases considerably in this range to prevent the implementation of this method as an evaluation tool

Photolithography model parameter extraction from in-situ measured development rates

None provided

Evaluation of supply control options for beef

End of project reportThe incomes of Irish cattle farmers benefited greatly from the reform of the CAP for beef and cereals in 1992 and more recently under Agenda 2000. In both of these reforms the institutional support prices were reduced and direct payments (DPs) were used to compensate farmers for the price reduction

Extraction of Process Specific Photolithogtaphy Model Parameters

In order to truly represent photolithography through simulation, the exposure, bake and development models and model parameters must be accurate. Models for the pre-bake, exposure, post-exposure/pre-development bake, and the development have been developed and are available with most commercial simulators.15 The extraction of the exposure parameters has been established.13 However, the extraction of the bake and development model parameters have been subject to question\u273 given the immersion type development that has been required for the measurement of the development rate and henceforth the extraction of these parameters. Using the approach for the measurement of the in-situ development rate, developed in the first paper of this two paper series, the model parameters were extracted for Shipley 812 resist with Shipley MF312 developer. Development rates for exposures of 66, 90 and ll4rnJ/cm2 were measured. It was discovered that the set of Kim model parameters, R1 through R, were highly correlated with the combination of the Dill exposure parameters. Thus, for A=O.581pin\u27, B=O.O82im1, C=O.013cm2/mJ, the parameters R1=25.559micrometers/min, R2=1O.45lmicrometersm/min, R3=1.879, R4=O.1l2, R5=1.586, R,=0.000micrometers, and a=O.OO16im were extracted. A comparison of simulated data using the extracted model parameters with the measured data demonstrated the quality of the fit

The relationship between various live animal scores/measurements and carcass classification for conformation and fatness with meat yield and distribution, and ultimate carcass value

End of project reportAccordingly, the primary objectives of the following study were to: (1) determine the relationship of live animal muscular and skeletal scores, ultrasonically scanned muscle and fat depth measurements of the m. longissimus dorsi, and carcass conformation and fat scores with kill-out proportion, carcass composition and value. (2) Specifically develop and test the accuracy of prediction equations for carcass meat, fat and bone proportions, derived from carcass conformation and fat scores, and develop prediction equations for total carcass composition from hind-quarter composition

Effect of an agri-environmental measure on nitrate leaching from a beef farming system in Ireland

peer-reviewedAgricultural nitrogen (N) management remains a key environmental challenge. Improving N management is a matter of urgency to reduce the serious ecological consequences of the reactive N. Nitrate (NO3−–N) leaching was measured under suckler beef production systems stocked at two intensities: (1) intensive, 210 kg organic N ha−1 with two cut silage harvests; and (2) rural environmental protection scheme (REPS), 170 kg organic N ha−1 with one cut silage harvest. Three replicate plots of each treatment were instrumented with ceramic cups (8 per plot), randomly placed within each plot at a depth of 1 m to collect soil solution for NO3−–N at 50 kPa suction to collecting vessels one week prior to sampling. Samples were taken on a total of 53 sampling dates over 3 winter drainage periods (2002/03, 2003/04 and 2004/05). Over the course of the experiment the mean annual soil solution NO3−–N concentration exceeded the MAC twice out of 15 means (5 treatments over 3 years). The REPS grazing and silage sub treatments had significantly lower mean annual soil solution total oxidized N (TON) concentrations than the respective intensive treatments in years 2 and 3. Annual total NO3−–N losses over the three years in intensive and REPS systems ranged from 55 to 71 and 15 to 20 kg N ha−1, respectively. Mean N surpluses in intensive and REPS systems were 210 and 95 kg ha−1, respectively with the corresponding mean N inputs of 272 and 124 kg N ha−1. The reduction in N inputs under the REPS system results in lower N leaching losses and contributed to a significant reduction in pressures on water quality

Optimisng the Reponse to Supplementary Concentrates by Beef Cattle in Winter.

End of Project ReportsConcentrates are a major component of feed costs in winter finishing of beef cattle. Two separate experiments were carried out to evaluate the response to increasing supplementary concentrate level with grass silage and the effects of feeding the silage and concentrates separately or as a total mixed ration (TMR)