Learning medical alarms whilst performing other tasks.

Two studies are reported which first observe, and then attempt to replicate, the cognitive demands of intensive care unit (ICU) activity whilst concurrently learning audible alarms. The first study, an observational study in an ICU ward, showed that the alarms are very frequent and co-occur with some activities more than others. The three most frequently observed activities observed in the ICU were drugs (calculation, preparation and administration), patient observation and talking. The cognitive demands of these activities were simulated in a second, laboratory-based experiment in which alarms were learned. The results showed that performance in the alarm task generally improved as participants were exposed to more repetitions of those alarms, but that performance decrements were observed in the secondary tasks, particularly when there were two or three of them. Some confusions between the alarms persisted to the end of the study despite prolonged exposure to the alarms, confusions which were likely caused by both acoustic and verbal labelling similarities. PRACTITIONER SUMMARY: The cognitive demands of working in an ICU were observed and simulated whilst alarms were learned. Alarms should generally avoid sharing similar rhythmic (and other) characteristics. The simulation task described here could be used for testing alarm learning without requiring a clinical environment

RISK, GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS, AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Nearly all farm business ventures involve financial risk. In some instances, private and public tools used to manage financial risks in agriculture may influence farmers' production decisions. These decisions, in turn, can influence environmental quality. This bulletin summarizes research and provides some perspective on private and public attempts to cope with financial risks and their unintended environmental consequences. Specifically, it examines the conceptual underpinnings of risk-related research, challenges involved with measuring the consequences of risk for agricultural production decisions, government programs that influence the risk and return of farm businesses, and how production decisions influence both the environment and the risk and average returns to farming.risk, agricultural production, government programs, environment, Agricultural and Food Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy, Risk and Uncertainty,

A comprehensive framework for automotive sustainability assessment

Business efficiency, stakeholder pressure and the need for legislative compliance compel the automotive sector to design and manufacture fuel-efficient, low-impact, environmentally responsible and sustainable vehicles. Managing and responding to these multiple and sometimes conflicting interests requires the measurement of economic, environmental and societal performance. Although a number of automotive sustainability measures are mentioned within the literature, there is no single and unique approach for the complete and integrated sustainability assessment of vehicles. This study has developed a comprehensive automotive sustainability assessment framework by selecting a set of sustainability assessment criteria from the literature and refining these through an interview study with 24 automotive experts from academia, car manufacturers, consultancies and non-governmental organisations. Based on this approach, 26 midpoint and 9 end-point environmental, resource, social and economic impact categories have been identified for the construction of a framework for automotive sustainability assessment. The proposed framework can be used as a decision-supporting tool at the early stages of the vehicle development process. It allows source and sustainability issues to be identified throughout the entire vehicle life cycle and provides the means to sharpen analysis and discussion around these issues. The framework can also serve as a design structure for a wide range of sustainability assessment methods and tools (e.g. multi-criteria decision adding or sustainability accounting methods). It serves as guidance on what needs to be measured in an integrated sustainability assessment of vehicles and leaves the choice of what to include in the decision-making process to the discretion of individual companie

RESOURCE QUALITY AND AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY: A MULTI-COUNTRY COMPARISON

This paper builds on earlier studies of agricultural productivity by incorporating spatially referenced soil and climate data combined with high-resolution land-cover data. Econometric analysis of these data, along with panel data on agricultural inputs and outputs from 110 countries for 1961-1997, quantifies the significant impact that differences in land quality have on agricultural productivity.Productivity Analysis,

Belief Systems and Illness Experiences: The Case of Non-Medical Healing Groups

An important, and often neglected, aspect of the illness experience is meaning—that is, how affected persons make sense of their experiences. Responses to illness, coping strategies, and the healing process itself are all shaped by the meanings people apply to their illnesses. This chapter examines some of the nonmedical approaches to illness used by middle-class suburbanites in order to highlight the importance of meaning in all illness experiences. The particular interpretations applied in these alter-. native healing systems vary, but the way these interpretive frameworks shape the illness experience sheds light on the broader significance of meaning in health, illness, and healing

Experimental Alluvial Fan Evolution: Channel Dynamics, Slope Controls, and Shoreline Growth

River deltas and alluvial fans have channelization and deposition dynamics that are not entirely understood, but which dictate the evolution of landscapes of great social, economic, and ecologic value. Our lack of a process-based understanding of fan dynamics hampers our ability to construct accurate prediction and hazard models, leaving these regions vulnerable. Here we describe the growth of a series of experimental alluvial fans composed of a noncohesive grain mixture bimodal in size and density. We impose conditions that simulate a gravel/sand fan prograding into a static basin with constant water and sediment influx, and the resulting fans display realistic channelization and avulsion dynamics. We find that we can describe the dynamics of our fans in terms of a few processes: (1) an avulsion sequence with a timescale dictated by mass conservation between incoming flux and deposit volume; (2) a tendency for flow to reoccupy former channel paths; and (3) bistable slopes corresponding to separate entrainment and deposition conditions for grains. Several important observations related to these processes are: an avulsion timescale that increases with time and decreases with sediment feed rate; fan lobes that grow in a self-similar, quasi-radial pattern; and channel geometry that is adjusted to the threshold entrainment stress. We propose that the formation of well-defined channels in noncohesive fans is a transient phenomenon resulting from incision following avulsion, and can be directly described with dual transport thresholds. We present a fairly complete, process-based description of the mechanics of avulsion and its resulting timescale on our fans. Because the relevant dynamics depend only on threshold transport conditions and conservation of mass, we show how results may be directly applied to field-scale systems

Acoustic characterization of crack damage evolution in sandstone deformed under conventional and true triaxial loading

We thank the Associate Editor, Michelle Cooke, and the reviewers, Ze'ev Reches and Yves Guéguen, for useful comments which helped to improve the manuscript. We thank J.G. Van Munster for providing access to the true triaxial apparatus at KSEPL and for technical support during the experimental program. We thank R. Pricci for assistance with technical drawings of the apparatus. This work was partly funded by NERC award NE/N002938/1 and by a NERC Doctoral Studentship, which we gratefully acknowledge. Supporting data are included in a supporting information file; any additional data may be obtained from J.B. (e-mail: [email protected]).Peer reviewedPublisher PD