20,869 research outputs found
Establishing links between organizational climate, employee well-being and historical patient outcomes
This research undertaken in collaboration with Queensland Health analysed the links between dimensions of workplace climate/employee well-being contained in a number of
Queensland Health databases, including the Patient Satisfaction Survey, the Clinical Incident database, the compliments and complaints database, the Variable Life Adjusted Display (VLAD) Database and the Better Workplaces
Staff Opinion Survey database. Queensland Health sought to identify in what ways workplace climate is related to patient outcomes using existing datasets collected within the Queensland Health Centre for Healthcare Improvement. The process of establishing links involved matching aggregated data for specific facilities (where possible), or failing that, larger facilities (e.g. Hospital), or the Health Service District. Once the datasets had been matched on location or facility, correlations were calculated between the aggregated scores. The results demonstrated links between the data sets. These links showed that a better workplace climate is associated with greater reported numbers of clinical incidents, especially “no harm” clinical incidents. There was also a link between workplace climate and patient compliments/complaints which show that unsolicited compliments received from patients and their families are clearly related to a number of positive aspects of workplace climate (workplace morale, role clarity, and appraisal and recognition) and individual
morale. The results linking workplace climate and patient satisfaction showed that there is a strong positive relationship between overall patient satisfaction and role clarity, and a negative relationship between overall patient satisfaction and both workplace distress and
excessive work demands. While these results relate to historical data and therefore should not be construed to reflect the current state of operation within Queensland Health, they are still indicative of some very important
relationships. This is the first study to demonstrate that more positive clinical management practices, better perceptions of the workplace climate and better employee
well-being are a reflection of a better incident reporting and learning culture in a health care organization, ultimately resulting in improved patient outcomes
A Class of Free Boundary Problems with Onset of a new Phase
A class of diffusion driven Free Boundary Problems is considered which is
characterized by the initial onset of a phase and by an explicit kinematic
condition for the evolution of the free boundary. By a domain fixing change of
variables it naturally leads to coupled systems comprised of a singular
parabolic initial boundary value problem and a Hamilton-Jacobi equation. Even
though the one dimensional case has been thoroughly investigated, results as
basic as well-posedness and regularity have so far not been obtained for its
higher dimensional counterpart. In this paper a recently developed regularity
theory for abstract singular parabolic Cauchy problems is utilized to obtain
the first well-posedness results for the Free Boundary Problems under
consideration. The derivation of elliptic regularity results for the underlying
static singular problems will play an important role
An analytically linearized helicopter model with improved modeling accuracy
An analytically linearized model for helicopter flight response including rotor blade dynamics and dynamic inflow, that was recently developed, was studied with the objective of increasing the understanding, the ease of use, and the accuracy of the model. The mathematical model is described along with a description of the UH-60A Black Hawk helicopter and flight test used to validate the model. To aid in utilization of the model for sensitivity analysis, a new, faster, and more efficient implementation of the model was developed. It is shown that several errors in the mathematical modeling of the system caused a reduction in accuracy. These errors in rotor force resolution, trim force and moment calculation, and rotor inertia terms were corrected along with improvements to the programming style and documentation. Use of a trim input file to drive the model is examined. Trim file errors in blade twist, control input phase angle, coning and lag angles, main and tail rotor pitch, and uniform induced velocity, were corrected. Finally, through direct comparison of the original and corrected model responses to flight test data, the effect of the corrections on overall model output is shown
The signal-to-noise analysis of the Little-Hopfield model revisited
Using the generating functional analysis an exact recursion relation is
derived for the time evolution of the effective local field of the fully
connected Little-Hopfield model. It is shown that, by leaving out the feedback
correlations arising from earlier times in this effective dynamics, one
precisely finds the recursion relations usually employed in the signal-to-noise
approach. The consequences of this approximation as well as the physics behind
it are discussed. In particular, it is pointed out why it is hard to notice the
effects, especially for model parameters corresponding to retrieval. Numerical
simulations confirm these findings. The signal-to-noise analysis is then
extended to include all correlations, making it a full theory for dynamics at
the level of the generating functional analysis. The results are applied to the
frequently employed extremely diluted (a)symmetric architectures and to
sequence processing networks.Comment: 26 pages, 3 figure
Thermodynamic properties of extremely diluted symmetric Q-Ising neural networks
Using the replica-symmetric mean-field theory approach the thermodynamic and
retrieval properties of extremely diluted {\it symmetric} -Ising neural
networks are studied. In particular, capacity-gain parameter and
capacity-temperature phase diagrams are derived for and .
The zero-temperature results are compared with those obtained from a study of
the dynamics of the model. Furthermore, the de Almeida-Thouless line is
determined. Where appropriate, the difference with other -Ising
architectures is outlined.Comment: 16 pages Latex including 6 eps-figures. Corrections, also in most of
the figures have been mad
Investigation of Reduced-Order Modeling for Aircraft Stability and Control Prediction
High-fidelity computational fluid dynamics tools offer the potential to approximate increments for ground-to-flight scaling effects, as well as to augment the dynamic damping derivative data for motion-based flight simulators. Unfortunately, the computational expense is currently prohibitive for populating a complete simulator database. This work investigates an existing surrogate-based, indicial response reduced-order model methodology as a means to efficiently augment a flight simulator database with high-fidelity nonlinear aerodynamic damping derivatives. Creation of the reduced-order model is based on the superposition integrals of the step response with the derivative of its corresponding input signal. Step responses are calculated using a computational grid motion approach that separates the effects of angle of attack and sideslip angle from angular rates, and rates from angle of attack and sideslip. It is demonstrated that the transients produced during the start of a forced-oscillation motion are captured by the reduced-order model to the level of fidelity of a comparable computational solution. Aerodynamic coefficients computed within minutes by the reduced-order model for an aircraft undergoing an 18-second half Lazy-8 maneuver and a 25-second Immelmann turn maneuver are compared with those from full computational flight solutions that required days to complete. Finally, a cost-benefit assessment is included that demonstrates a compelling advantage for this approach.
d for maneuvering, flexible vehicles
Protecting the Older Worker
Unlike racial discrimination, age discrimination statutes do not prohibit all forms of discrimination but only those forms that are arbitrary. In this respect age is most analogous to sex as a basis of discrimination: in neither case has a conclusive statutory presumption been made that these factors are irrelevant in an employment situation; in both situations the employer must make his decision to hire or not to hire on the abilities of the individual and not on assumptions, proven or unproven, about the class as a whole. This note considers the extent of arbitrary age discrimination and what measures have been taken and should be taken to combat it
Individual differences in pain sensitivity are associated with cognitive network functional connectivity following one night of experimental sleep disruption.
Previous work suggests that sleep disruption can contribute to poor pain modulation. Here, we used experimental sleep disruption to examine the relationship between sleep disruption-induced pain sensitivity and functional connectivity (FC) of cognitive networks contributing to pain modulation. Nineteen healthy individuals underwent two counterbalanced experimental sleep conditions for one night each: uninterrupted sleep versus sleep disruption. Following each condition, participants completed functional MRI including a simple motor task and a noxious thermal stimulation task. Pain ratings and stimulus temperatures from the latter task were combined to calculate a pain sensitivity change score following sleep disruption. This change score was used as a predictor of simple motor task FC changes using bilateral executive control networks (RECN, LECN) and the default mode network (DMN) masks as seed regions of interest (ROIs). Increased pain sensitivity after sleep disruption was positively associated with increased RECN FC to ROIs within the DMN and LECN (F(4,14) = 25.28, pFDR = 0.05). However, this pain sensitivity change score did not predict FC changes using LECN and DMN masks as seeds (pFDR > 0.05). Given that only RECN FC was associated with sleep loss-induced hyperalgesia, findings suggest that cognitive networks only partially contribute to the sleep-pain dyad
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