116 research outputs found
Information Capturing in Pre-Hospital Emergency Medical Settings (EMS)
Emergency medical situations are characterized by high physical, cognitive and mental demands on the paramedics on the ground. Studies suggest that crucial information such as treatments administered to patients is often documented retrospectively, during patient transport or once a patient is handed over to an emergency department. Information access may also be surprisingly difficult (e.g. patient medical history). In this paper, we focus on supporting in situ information capturing and report on a realistic laboratory-based study involving experienced paramedics that we used to explore the specific requirements and constraints of supporting in situ information capturing. Specifically, we focused on ways to use audio and visual data capture methods and how they need to be designed to better support paramedics without interfering with their work. We then use the resulting information centric perspective to argue for a roadmap towards smart emergency medical services
Effects of Surface Coatings on the Joint Formation During Magnetic Pulse Welding in Tube-to-Cylinder Configuration
Magnetic Pulse Welding (MPW) is a joining technique favorable for the generation of
strong atomic bonded areas between different metals, e.g. aluminum and steel. Brittle
intermetallic phases can be avoided due to the high-speed collision and the absence of
external heat. The demand for the use of this technique in industries like automotive and
plant engineering rises. However, workpieces used in these fields are often coated, e.g. in
order to improve the corrosion resistance. Since the weld quality depends on the material’s
behavior at the collision zone, surface layers in that region have to be taken into account
as well.
This work investigates the influences of different coating types. Aluminum to steel
welding is used as an example system. On the inner steel part (C45) coatings like zinc,
nickel and chrome are applied, while the aluminum flyer tubes (EN AW-6060) are
anodized, chromated and passivated. Welding tests are performed using two different
welding systems with varying discharging frequencies and four geometrical part setups.
For all combinations, the flyer velocity during the process is measured by Photon Doppler
Velocimetry (PDV). By using the uncoated material combination as a reference, the
removal of surface layers due to jetting is analyzed. Finally, the weld quality is
characterized in peel tests, shear-push tests and by the help of metallographic analysis. It
is found that certain coatings improve the joint formation, while others are obstructive for
the performance of MPW. Some coatings have no influence on the joining process at all
Influence of Axial Workpiece Positioning during Magnetic Pulse Welding of Aluminum-Steel Joints
Magnetic Pulse Welding (MPW) offers a method to economically join similar and dissimilar
metals without the need for external physical or chemical binders, while avoiding the
adverse heating effects seen in many welding techniques. MPW allows for the fabrication
of joints via the harnessing of Lorentz forces, which result from discharging a current
pulse through a coil. In the process an outer piece (flyer) is accelerated onto an inner
piece (parent), and welding is achieved using propagating impact fronts. There are
several geometrical factors to be considered including the flyer-coil distance, the parentflyer
distance, as well as the axial relationship between flyer and coil (working length).
Various shapes of the front are possible and each configuration has its own advantages
and drawbacks. The goal of this work is to show not only how the aforementioned
parameters are related, but also ways to optimize front propagations, which are vital to the
welding result. This is done primarily by determining the influence of the working length of
tubular MPW specimens. It is shown that for steel-aluminum joints in the given
arrangements, three different front regimes exist, which are related to geometrical factors.
These results are especially useful to avoid seemingly favorable but nevertheless
suboptimal conditions for flyer movement that would reduce weld quality and energy
efficiency of the process
INTCare: a knowledge discovery based intelligent decision support system for intensive care medicine
This paper introduces the INTCare system, an intelligent information system based on a completely automated Knowledge Discovery process and on the Agents paradigm. The system was designed to work in Hospital Intensive Care Units, supporting the physicians’ decisions by means of prognostic Data Mining models. In particular, these techniques were used to predict organ failure and mortality assessment. The main intention is to change the current reactive behaviour to a pro-active one, enhancing the quality of service. Current applications and experimentations, the functional and structural aspects, and technological options are presented
Economics education and value change: The role of program-normative homogeneity and peer influence
In the light of corporate scandals and the recent financial crisis, there has been an increased interest in the impact of business education on the value orientations of graduates. Yet our understanding of how students' values change during their time at business school is limited. In this study,weinvestigate the effects of variations in the normative orientations of economics programs. We argue that interaction among economics students constitutes a key mechanism of value socialization, the effects of which are likely to vary across more-or-less normatively homogeneous economics programs. In normatively homogeneous programs, students are particularly likely to adopt economics values as a result of peer interaction. We specifically explore changes in power, hedonism, and self-direction values in a 2-year longitudinal study of economics students (N 5 197) in a normatively homogeneous and two normatively heterogeneous economics programs. As expected, for students in a normatively homogeneous economics program, interaction with peers was linked with an increase in power and hedonism values, and a decrease in self-direction values. Our findings highlight the interplay between program normative homogeneity and peer interaction as an important factor in value socialization during economics education and have important practical implications for business school leaders
Understanding information seeking behaviour in financial advisory
In light of the financial crisis, it has become even more critical for financial service providers to remain competitive. This paper discusses new perspectives on the problems of today’s advisory services, including the customer's dissatisfaction with personalization and individualization. Thereby we draw on research in human information behavior, particularly Wilson's model, which provides a promising framework to better understand the information behavior of clients and in turn helps us understand some of the IT-enablers of individualized financial services. Our findings are supported by data collected from mystery shopping episodes and focus group discussions
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