45 research outputs found
A retrospective evaluation of the impact of a dedicated obstetric and neonatal transport service on transport times within an urban setting
OBJECTIVE:To determine whether the establishment of a dedicated obstetric and neonatal flying squad resulted in improved performance within the setting of a major metropolitan area.DESIGN AND SETTING:The Cape Town metropolitan service of the Emergency Medical Services was selected for a retrospective review of the transit times for the newly implemented Flying Squad programme. Data were imported from the Computer Aided Dispatch programme. Dispatch, Response, Mean Transit and Total Pre-hospital times relating to the obstetric and neonatal incidents was analysed for 2005 and 2008. RESULTS: There was a significant improvement between 2005 and 2008 in all incidents evaluated. Flying Squad dispatch performance improved from 11.7% to 46.6% of all incidents dispatched within 4 min (p < 0.0001). Response time performance at the 15-min threshold did not demonstrate a statistically significant improvement (p = 0.4), although the improvement in the 30-min performance category was statistically significant in both maternity and neonatal incidents. Maternity incidents displayed the greatest improvement with the 30-min performance increasing from 30.3% to 72.9%. The analysis of the mean transit times demonstrated that neonatal transfers displayed the longest status time in all but one of the categories. Even so, the introduction of the Flying Squad programme resulted in a reduction in a total pre-hospital time from 177 to 128 min. CONCLUSION: The introduction of the Flying Squad programme has resulted in significant improvement in the transit times of both neonatal and obstetric patients. In spite of the severe resource constraints facing developing nations, the model employed offers significant gains
Optimal Cross-Wind Towing and Power Generation with Tethered Kites
Non-powered flight vehicles such as kites can provide a means of transmitting wind energy from higher altitudes to the ground via tethers. Although there have been many proposals for systems to extract wind energy from higher altitudes, this paper focuses on the use of a light lifting body at the end of a tether to generate useful power. Two major configurations are studied: 1) the kite is used to tow a ground vehicle in the cross-wind direction, 2) the kite is flown to generate power using a ground generator. In both cases, the useful work done by the kite is transmitted to the ground through the tether. Both applications require automatic control of the kite. A simplified system model is used to study the nature of the optimal trajectories of the system for different wind speeds. Numerical results illustrate that optimal power generation requires complex three-dimensional kite trajectories, whereas cross-wind towing requires much simpler trajectories. A feedback tracking controller is demonstrated for tracking the kite trajectories in the presence of unsteady winds
Parâmetros nutricionais de novilhas de corte alimentadas com cana-de-açúcar tratada com óxido de cálcio e diferentes níveis de concentrado
Efeitos do ácido L-glutâmico e da vitamina K na composição bioquímica parcial de fêmures de frangos de corte
The Effect of Halofenate or Halofenate Free Acid on Human, Rat and Guinea Pig Platelet Aggregation
The design of a portable kit of wireless sensors for naturalistic data collection
Abstract. In this paper, we introduce MITes, a flexible kit of wireless sensing devices for pervasive computing research in natural settings. The sensors have been optimized for ease of use, ease of installation, affordability, and robustness to environmental conditions in complex spaces such as homes. The kit includes six environmental sensors: movement, movement tuned for object-usage-detection, light, temperature, proximity, and current sensing in electric appliances. The kit also includes five wearable sensors: onbody acceleration, heart rate, ultra-violet radiation exposure, RFID reader wristband, and location beacons. The sensors can be used simultaneously with a single receiver in the same environment. This paper describes our design goals and results of the evaluation of some of the sensors and their performance characteristics. Also described is how the kit is being used for acquisition of data in non-laboratory settings where real-time multi-modal sensor information is acquired simultaneously from several sensors worn on the body and up to several hundred sensors distributed in an environment.