Mentorship for Newly Licensed Nurses: A Pilot Program

Background: The turnover rate for newly licensed nurses is high, posing financial and resource challenges for healthcare organizations. Transition to practice programs are an effective means of supporting retention. Mentorship is a best practice within such programs as it promotes job satisfaction, professional growth and development, and retention. Objectives: The purpose of this project was to implement and evaluate a pilot mentor program with new nurses. Outcomes were: development of a structured program, enhancement of mentees knowledge about the value of mentorship, and assessment of mentee and mentor satisfaction with the program through a final satisfaction survey. Methods: Participants were scheduled to meet/connect at least monthly for six months. Mentees and mentors were given a relevant pre-reading article and guides to help structure the meetings/connections. Both groups were asked to complete a final satisfaction survey that measured eight items related to the mentor relationship, professional growth and development, and transition to the workplace. Surveys were conducted online. Results: A structured mentor pilotprogram was developed and implemented. Eight mentee/mentor pairs were recruited and matched. Thirty-eight percent of mentees and mentors completed all program requirements. The satisfaction survey results for both mentees and mentors demonstrated positive outcomes in terms of satisfaction with the program and help with transition to the workplace. Mentee survey results also demonstrated that the program had a positive impact on their professional growth and development. Comments offered by participants also indicate opportunities to build more structure into the program, solidify the mentee-mentor relationship, and enhance program engagement. Conclusions: Implementation of a mentor program during the COVID-19 pandemic was challenging for both participant recruitment and engagement. While most mentees and mentors reported a high degree of satisfaction with the professional development opportunities, others reported barriers to staying connected. These results suggest the importance of mentorship and the need to create innovative communication methods for mentor relationships as a formal mentor program is developed

Quantifying the role of vehicle size, powertrain technology, activity and consumer behaviour on new UK passenger vehicle fleet energy use and emissions under different policy objectives

This paper quantifies the impacts of policy objectives on the composition of an optimum new passenger vehicle fleet. The objectives are to reduce individually absolute energy use and associated emissions of CO$_2$, NO$_x$ and PM$_{2.5}$. This work combines a top down, diversity-led approach to fleet composition with bottom-up models of 23 powertrain variants across nine vehicle segments. Changing the annual distance travelled only led to the smallest change in fleet composition because driving less mitigated the need to shift to smaller vehicles or more efficient powertrains. Instead, managing activity led to a ‘re-petrolisation’ of the fleet which yielded the largest reductions in emissions of NO$_x$ and PM$_{2.5}$. The hybrid approach of changing annual distance travelled and increasing willingness to accept longer payback times incorporates management of vehicle activity with consumers’ demand for novel vehicle powertrains. Combining these changes in behaviour, without feebates, allowed the hybrid approach to return the largest reductions in energy use and CO$_2$ emissions. Introducing feebates makes low-emitting vehicles more affordable and represents a supply side push for novel powertrains. The largest reductions in energy use and associated emissions occurred without any consumer behaviour change, but required large fees (£79–99 per g CO$_2$/km) on high-emitting vehicles and were achieved using the most specialised fleets. However, such fleets may not present consumers with sufficient choice to be attractive. The fleet with best diversity by vehicle size and powertrain type was achieved with both the external incentive of the feebate and consumers modifying their activity. This work has a number of potential audiences: governments and policy makers may use the framework to understand how to accommodate the growth in vehicle use with pledged reductions in emissions; and original equipment manufacturers may take advantage of the bottom-up, vehicle powertrain inputs to understand the role their technology can play in a fleet under the influence of consumer behaviour change, external incentives and policy objectives.The authors acknowledge the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council funding provided for this work under the Centre for Sustainable Road Freight Transport (EP/K00915X/1) and the Energy Efficient Cities Initiative (EP/ F034350/1)

Can UK passenger vehicles be designed to meet 2020 emissions targets? A novel methodology to forecast fuel consumption with uncertainty analysis

Vehicle manufacturers are required to reduce their European sales-weighted emissions to 95 g CO2/km by 2020, with the aim of reducing on-road fleet fuel consumption. Nevertheless, current fuel consumption models are not suited for the European market and are unable to account for uncertainties when used to forecast passenger vehicle energy-use. Therefore, a new methodology is detailed herein to quantify new car fleet fuel consumption based on vehicle design metrics. The New European Driving Cycle (NEDC) is shown to underestimate on-road fuel consumption in Spark (SI) and Compression Ignition (CI) vehicles by an average of 16% and 13%, respectively. A Bayesian fuel consumption model attributes these discrepancies to differences in rolling, frictional and aerodynamic resistances. Using projected inputs for engine size, vehicle mass, and compression ratio, the likely average 2020 on-road fuel consumption was estimated to be 7.6 L/100 km for SI and 6.4 L/100 km for CI vehicles. These compared to NEDC based estimates of 5.34 L/100 km (SI) and 4.28 L/100 km (CI), both of which exceeded mandatory 2020 fuel equivalent emissions standards by 30.2% and 18.9%, respectively. The results highlight the need for more stringent technological developments for manufacturers to ensure adherence to targets, and the requirements for more accurate measurement techniques that account for discrepancies between standardised and on-road fuel consumption.NEDC data measurements were supplied by CAP Consulting. The authors are also grateful to the Energy Efficient Cities Initiative and the EPSRC (EP/F034350/1) for funding this work.This is the author accepted mansucript. The final version is available via Elsevier at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2015.03.04

How Well Do We Know the Future of CO₂ Emissions? Projecting Fleet Emissions from Light Duty Vehicle Technology Drivers

While the UK has committed to reduce CO₂ emissions to 80% of 1990 levels by 2050, transport accounts for nearly a fourth of all emissions and the degree to which decarbonisation can occur is highly uncertain. We present a new methodology using vehicle and powertrain parameters within a Bayesian framework to determine the impact of engineering vehicle improvements on fuel consumption and CO₂ emissions. Our results show how design changes in vehicle parameters (e.g. mass, engine size and compression ratio) result in fuel consumption improvements from a fleet-wide mean of 5.6 L/100 km in 2014 to 3.0 L/100 km by 2030. The change in vehicle efficiency coupled with increases in vehicle numbers and total fleet-wide activity result in a total fleet-wide reduction of 41±10% in 2030, relative to 2012. Concerted internal combustion engine improvements result in a 48±10% reduction of CO2 emissions, while efforts to increase the number of diesel vehicles within the fleet had little additional effect. Increasing plug-in and all-electric vehicles reduced CO2 emissions by less (42±10% reduction) than concerted internal combustion engines improvements. However, if the grid decarbonises, electric vehicles reduce emissions by 45±9% with further reduction potential to 2050.The authors acknowledge the UK EPSRC funding provided for this work under the Energy Efficient Cities Initiative (EP/F034350/1) and the Centre for Sustainable Road Freight Transport (EP/K00915X/1)

Emissions, performance, and design of UK passenger vehicles

Consumer, legal and technological factors influence the design, performance and emissions of light duty vehicles. This work examines how design choices made by manufacturers for the UK market result in emissions and performance of vehicles throughout the past decade (2001-2011). Light-duty vehicle (LDV) fuel consumption, CO$_2$ emissions and performance is compared across different combinations of air and fuel delivery system using vehicle performance metrics of power density and time to accelerate from rest to 100 km/h (62 mph, t$_{z-62}$). Increased adoption of direct injection and turbocharging technologies helped reduce spark ignition (SI, gasoline vehicles) and compression ignition (CI, diesel vehicles) fuel consumption by 22% and 19%, respectively over the decade. These improvements were largely achieved by increasing compression ratios in SI vehicles (3.6%), turbocharging CI vehicles and engine downsizing by 5.7-6.5% across all technologies. Simultaneously, vehicle performance improved, through increased engine power density resulting in greater acceleration. Across the decade, t$_{z-62}$ fell 9.4% and engine power density increased 17% for SI vehicles. For CI vehicles, t$_{z-62}$ fell 18% while engine power density rose 28%. Greater fuel consumption reductions could have been achieved if vehicle acceleration was maintained at 2001 levels, applying drive train improvements to improved fuel economy and reduced CO$_2$ emissions. Fuel consumption and CO$_2$ emissions declined at faster rates once the European emissions standards were introduced with SI CO$_2$ emissions improving by 3.4 g/km/year for 2001-2007 to 7.8 g/km/year thereafter. Similarly, CI LDVs declined by 2.0 g/km/year for 2001-2007 and 6.1 g/km/year after.Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (Centre for Sustainable Road Freight Transport (EP/K00915X/1), Energy Efficient Cities Initiative (EP/F034350/1)

Quantum Chemistry in the Age of Quantum Computing

Practical challenges in simulating quantum systems on classical computers have been widely recognized in the quantum physics and quantum chemistry communities over the past century. Although many approximation methods have been introduced, the complexity of quantum mechanics remains hard to appease. The advent of quantum computation brings new pathways to navigate this challenging complexity landscape. By manipulating quantum states of matter and taking advantage of their unique features such as superposition and entanglement, quantum computers promise to efficiently deliver accurate results for many important problems in quantum chemistry such as the electronic structure of molecules. In the past two decades significant advances have been made in developing algorithms and physical hardware for quantum computing, heralding a revolution in simulation of quantum systems. This article is an overview of the algorithms and results that are relevant for quantum chemistry. The intended audience is both quantum chemists who seek to learn more about quantum computing, and quantum computing researchers who would like to explore applications in quantum chemistry

Paving (through) Amazonia: Neoliberal Urbanism and the Reperipheralization of Roraima

This paper examines the neoliberal reshaping of infrastructure provision in Brazil's extreme north since the mid-1990s, when roadway investments resulted in unprecedented regional connectivity. The BR-174 upgrade, the era's most important project, marked a transition from resource-based developmentalism to free-market transnationalism. Primarily concerned with urban competitiveness, the federal government funded the trunk roadway's paving to facilitate manufacturing exports from Manaus. While an effort was made to minimize deforestation, planners sidelined development implications in adjacent Roraima. The state's urban system has thus experienced reperipheralization and intensified primacy. Market-led growth now compounds the inheritance of hierarchical centralism and ongoing governmental neglect. Our study shows a vast territory dependent on primate cities for basic goods and services. Travelling with Roraimans from bypassed towns, we detected long-distance passenger transportation and surface logistics with selective routes. Heterogeneous Roraiman (im)mobilities comprise middle-class tourism and heightened consumerism as well as informal mobility tactics and transnational circulations of precarious labor. The paper exhorts neoliberal urbanism research to look beyond both Euro America's metropoles and their Global South counterparts. Urbanization dynamics in Brazil's extreme north demonstrate that market-disciplined investments to globalize cities produce far-reaching spatial effects. These are felt even by functionally-articulated-yet-marginalized peripheries in ostensibly remote locations

Commercial Arctic shipping through the Northeast Passage:routes, resources, governance, technology, and infrastructure

The Russian and Norwegian Arctic are gaining notoriety as an alternative maritime route connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and as sources of natural resources. The renewed interest in the Northeast Passage or the Northern Sea Route is fueled by a recession of Arctic sea ice coupled with the discovery of new natural resources at a time when emerging and global markets are in growing demand for them. Driven by the expectation of potential future economic importance of the region, political interest and governance has been rapidly developing, mostly within the Arctic Council. However, this paper argues that optimism regarding the potential of Arctic routes as an alternative to the Suez Canal is overstated. The route involves many challenges: jurisdictional disputes create political uncertainties; shallow waters limit ship size; lack of modern deepwater ports and search and rescue (SAR) capabilities requires ships to have higher standards of autonomy and safety; harsh weather conditions and free-floating ice make navigation more difficult and schedules more variable; and more expensive ship construction and operation costs lessen the economic viability of the route. Technological advances and infrastructure investments may ameliorate navigational challenges, enabling increased shipping of natural resources from the Arctic to global markets.Albert Buixadé Farré, Scott R. Stephenson, Linling Chen, Michael Czub, Ying Dai, Denis Demchev, Yaroslav Efimov, Piotr Graczyk, Henrik Grythe, Kathrin Keil, Niku Kivekäs, Naresh Kumar, Nengye Liu, Igor Matelenok, Mari Myksvoll, Derek O'Leary, Julia Olsen, Sachin Pavithran.A.P., Edward Petersen, Andreas Raspotnik, Ivan Ryzhov, Jan Solski, Lingling Suo, Caroline Troein, Vilena Valeeva, Jaap van Rijckevorsel and Jonathan Wightin

The global abundance of tree palms

Aim: Palms are an iconic, diverse and often abundant component of tropical ecosystems that provide many ecosystem services. Being monocots, tree palms are evolutionarily, morphologically and physiologically distinct from other trees, and these differences have important consequences for ecosystem services (e.g., carbon sequestration and storage) and in terms of responses to climate change. We quantified global patterns of tree palm relative abundance to help improve understanding of tropical forests and reduce uncertainty about these ecosystems under climate change. Location: Tropical and subtropical moist forests. Time period: Current. Major taxa studied: Palms (Arecaceae). Methods: We assembled a pantropical dataset of 2,548 forest plots (covering 1,191 ha) and quantified tree palm (i.e., ≥10 cm diameter at breast height) abundance relative to co‐occurring non‐palm trees. We compared the relative abundance of tree palms across biogeographical realms and tested for associations with palaeoclimate stability, current climate, edaphic conditions and metrics of forest structure. Results: On average, the relative abundance of tree palms was more than five times larger between Neotropical locations and other biogeographical realms. Tree palms were absent in most locations outside the Neotropics but present in >80% of Neotropical locations. The relative abundance of tree palms was more strongly associated with local conditions (e.g., higher mean annual precipitation, lower soil fertility, shallower water table and lower plot mean wood density) than metrics of long‐term climate stability. Life‐form diversity also influenced the patterns; palm assemblages outside the Neotropics comprise many non‐tree (e.g., climbing) palms. Finally, we show that tree palms can influence estimates of above‐ground biomass, but the magnitude and direction of the effect require additional work. Conclusions: Tree palms are not only quintessentially tropical, but they are also overwhelmingly Neotropical. Future work to understand the contributions of tree palms to biomass estimates and carbon cycling will be particularly crucial in Neotropical forests

A political ecology of REDD+: property rights, militarised protectionism, and carbonised exclusion in Cross River

This paper offers a critical assessment of REDD+ in Nigeria through a political ecology perspective. Focusing on questions of property rights and resource access, it maps the discursive articulations and contestations through which carbon rights are being determined. It also shows how these articulations and contestations are linked to land and forest rights, and how they shape everyday access to the forest. Evidence from the Nigerian case suggests that factors that complicate rights and undermine access to resources for forest communities under REDD+ are immanent to the contested terrain constituted in part by REDD+ proposals, proponents’ discourses and practices geared towards securing the forest for REDD+. Efforts to secure property rights and guarantee the permanence of REDD+ forests align with economic, ecological and ideological aspirations of state and non-state actors to produce a regime of militarised protectionism. I demonstrate how, in addition to its material and symbolic facilitation of the emergent carbon forestry economy, militarised protectionism as a regime of exclusion also constitutes collateral political economies of ‘more-than-carbon’ forest resources (such as timber and non-timber forest products) which perpetuate capital accumulation by the elites. It is this kind of exclusion–accumulation dialectic legitimised by carbon forestry claims that this paper describes as carbonised exclusion. The paper thus furthers debates on the political ecology of REDD+ and other carbon forestry projects, while productively engaging technocentric literature on REDD+ and property rights