“I'm at breaking point”; exploring pharmacists' resilience, coping and burnout during the COVID-19 pandemic

Background There is a lack of evidence on how the multimodal dynamic process of resilience has impacted personal adaptation of frontline healthcare professionals, working under extreme pressure during the COVID-19 global pandemic. Objectives To explore resilience, burnout and wellbeing for UK pharmacists in patient-facing roles, including individual and organisational factors that align to the ABC-X theoretical model of the dynamic process of resilience. Methods A non-experimental pragmatist research design was adopted, with a cross-sectional online survey distributed via social media and professional networks between June and July 2020. Quantitative data aligned to a positivist research paradigm was collected using validated scores, to statistically analyse wellbeing, burnout and resilience. Qualitative textual data, consistent with an interpretivist research paradigm, were analysed following an inductive thematic approach. Results A total of 199 surveys from pharmacists working within community, hospital and GP sectors were analysed. Wellbeing scores were strongly correlated to resilience scores. Wellbeing and resilience scores were both inversely correlated with burnout scores. Two-thirds of participants were classified as high-risk within the burnout scales. Key stressors were highlighted by participants, who described how individual resources and perceptions shaped their experience, which overall contributed to their burnout. Organisations that supported pharmacists embraced change and quickly adopted new ways of working, such as teleconsultations, flexible and remote working, redesign of workflow, alongside clear guidance. However, there was also reported frustration at lack of, slow or conflicting guidance from employers. Conclusions This study adds to the growing evidence base for how individuals are affected by adverse events in a dynamic environment, alongside the role that employers can play in supporting individual and organisational resilience. It provides an opportunity to learn from pharmacists' responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, and a call to action for healthcare organisations to rebuild and invest resources into sustained support for staff wellbeing

Near-field spatial and temporal blast pressure distributions from non-spherical charges: Horizontally-aligned cylinders

Research into the characterisation of blast loading on structures following the detonation of a high explosive commonly assumes that the charge is spherical. This has the advantage of simplifying experimental, analytical and computational studies. In practice, however, designers of protective structures must often consider explosive threats which have other geometric forms, which has significant influence on the loading imparted to structures very close to the explosion source. Hitherto, there has been little definitive experimental investigation of the ‘near-field’ blast load parameters from non-spherical explosive charges and studies that have been conducted are usually confined to measurement of the total impulse imparted to a target. Currently, a detailed understanding of the development of loading on a target, necessary to fully inform the design process and appraise the efficacy of predictions from computational models, is lacking. This article, the first part of a wider investigation into these geometrical effects, details work conducted to address this deficiency. Results are presented from an experimental study of loading from detonations of cylindrical charges, set with the longitudinal axis parallel to an effectively rigid target, instrumented to facilitate the capture of the spatial and temporal evolution of the loading at different radial and angular offsets from the charge. These results are compared against loads from spherical charges and the effect of charge shape is identified. Significant differences are observed in the mechanisms and magnitude of loading from cylindrical and spherical charges, which is confirmed through the use of numerical analysis. The overall study provides insights which will assist the future design of effective protection systems

Recent advances in video analytics for rail network surveillance for security, trespass and suicide prevention— a survey

Railway networks systems are by design open and accessible to people, but this presents challenges in the prevention of events such as terrorism, trespass, and suicide fatalities. With the rapid advancement of machine learning, numerous computer vision methods have been developed in closed-circuit television (CCTV) surveillance systems for the purposes of managing public spaces. These methods are built based on multiple types of sensors and are designed to automatically detect static objects and unexpected events, monitor people, and prevent potential dangers. This survey focuses on recently developed CCTV surveillance methods for rail networks, discusses the challenges they face, their advantages and disadvantages and a vision for future railway surveillance systems. State-of-the-art methods for object detection and behaviour recognition applied to rail network surveillance systems are introduced, and the ethics of handling personal data and the use of automated systems are also considered

GIS and spatial data analysis: Converging perspectives

We take as our starting point the state of geographic information systems (GIS) and spatial data analysis 50 years ago when regional science emerged as a new field of enquiry. In the late 1950s and 1960s advances in computing technology were making possible forms of automated cartography that in due course would lead to th

Geographic Visualization in Archaeology

Archaeologists are often considered frontrunners in employing spatial approaches within the social sciences and humanities, including geospatial technologies such as geographic information systems (GIS) that are now routinely used in archaeology. Since the late 1980s, GIS has mainly been used to support data collection and management as well as spatial analysis and modeling. While fruitful, these efforts have arguably neglected the potential contribution of advanced visualization methods to the generation of broader archaeological knowledge. This paper reviews the use of GIS in archaeology from a geographic visualization (geovisual) perspective and examines how these methods can broaden the scope of archaeological research in an era of more user-friendly cyber-infrastructures. Like most computational databases, GIS do not easily support temporal data. This limitation is particularly problematic in archaeology because processes and events are best understood in space and time. To deal with such shortcomings in existing tools, archaeologists often end up having to reduce the diversity and complexity of archaeological phenomena. Recent developments in geographic visualization begin to address some of these issues, and are pertinent in the globalized world as archaeologists amass vast new bodies of geo-referenced information and work towards integrating them with traditional archaeological data. Greater effort in developing geovisualization and geovisual analytics appropriate for archaeological data can create opportunities to visualize, navigate and assess different sources of information within the larger archaeological community, thus enhancing possibilities for collaborative research and new forms of critical inquiry

Snow sports injuries in Scotland: a case-control study

Objectives: To examine the incidence and patterns of snow sports injuries at the three largest commercial ski areas in Scotland and to identify factors associated with injury risk. Methods: A prospective case-control study of all injured people at Cairngorm, Glenshee, and Nevis Range ski areas during the 1999–2000 winter season. Personal details, snow sports related variables, diagnosis, and treatment were recorded. Control data were collected at random from uninjured people at all three areas. Random counts were performed to analyse the composition of the on slope population. Results: A total of 732 injuries were recorded in 674 people. Control data were collected from 336 people. The injury rate for the study was 3.7 injuries per 1000 skier days. Alpine skiers comprised 67% of the on slope population, snowboarders 26%, skiboarders 4%, and telemark skiers 2%. Lower limb injuries and sprains were the commonest injuries in alpine skiers and skiboarders. Snowboarders sustained more injuries to the upper limb and axial areas. Skiboarders and snowboarders had a higher incidence of fractures. After adjustment for other variables, three factors were all independently associated with injury: snowboarding (odds ratio (OR) 4.07, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.65 to 10.08), alpine skiing (OR 3.82, CI 1.6 to 9.13), and age <16 years (OR 1.9, CI 1.14 to 3.17). More than five days of experience in the current season and at least one week of experience in total had a protective effect against injury. Conclusions: Despite a change in the composition of the alpine population at Scottish ski areas, the overall rate and pattern of injury are similar to those reported previously in comparable studies. Several factors are associated with an increased risk of injury and should be targeted in future injury prevention campaigns

Realistic assessment of irrigation potential in the Lake Tana Basin, Ethiopia

Although Ethiopia has a large potential to develop irrigation, only 5% of the 3.5 million hectares of land potentially available has been developed. To examine the underlying causes, this study evaluates the suitability of surface water irrigation for the Lake Tana Basin development corridor. Surface water availability and land potentially suitable for medium and large-scale irrigation development (200 ha and larger) was considered. Surface water potential was examined by considering river discharges. Land suitable for irrigation was determined with a GIS-based multi-criteria evaluation (MCE), which considers the interaction of various factors, such as climate, river proximity, soil type, land cover, topography/slope and market outlets. The result indicates that nearly 11% of the Lake Tana Basin is suitable for surface irrigation. However, by analysing 27 years of river discharge, less than 3% of the potential irrigable area (or less than 0.25% of the basin area) could be irrigated consistently by run-of-the river-systems. Thus, the irrigation potential in the Lake Tana Basin can only be met by increasing dry season flows (if proven feasible) and by supplying water from existing or future reservoirs or by using water directly from Lake Tana