Comparison of case note review methods for evaluating quality and safety in health care

Objectives: To determine which of two methods of case note review – holistic (implicit) and criterion-based (explicit) – provides the most useful and reliable information for quality and safety of care, and the level of agreement within and between groups of health-care professionals when they use the two methods to review the same record. To explore the process–outcome relationship between holistic and criterion-based quality-of-care measures and hospital-level outcome indicators. © 2010 Crown Copyrigh

Collective excitations of a two-dimensional interacting Bose gas in anti-trap and linear external potentials

We present a method of finding approximate analytical solutions for the spectra and eigenvectors of collective modes in a two-dimensional system of interacting bosons subjected to a linear external potential or the potential of a special form $u(x,y)=\mu -u \cosh^2 x/l$, where $\mu$ is the chemical potential. The eigenvalue problem is solved analytically for an artificial model allowing the unbounded density of the particles. The spectra of collective modes are calculated numerically for the stripe, the rare density valley and the edge geometry and compared with the analytical results. It is shown that the energies of the modes localized at the rare density region and at the edge are well approximated by the analytical expressions. We discuss Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) in the systems under investigations at $T\ne 0$ and find that in case of a finite number of the particles the regime of BEC can be realized, whereas the condensate disappears in the thermodynamic limit.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures include

Temperature-induced resonances and Landau damping of collective modes in Bose-Einstein condensed gases in spherical traps

Interaction between collective monopole oscillations of a trapped Bose-Einstein condensate and thermal excitations is investigated by means of perturbation theory. We assume spherical symmetry to calculate the matrix elements by solving the linearized Gross-Pitaevskii equations. We use them to study the resonances of the condensate induced by temperature when an external perturbation of the trapping frequency is applied and to calculate the Landau damping of the oscillations.Comment: revtex, 9 pages, 5 figure

Thomae type formulae for singular Z_N curves

We give an elementary and rigorous proof of the Thomae type formula for singular $Z_N$ curves. To derive the Thomae formula we use the traditional variational method which goes back to Riemann, Thomae and Fuchs.Comment: 22 page

A systematic review of reviews identifying UK validated dietary assessment tools for inclusion on an interactive guided website for researchers: www.nutritools.org

Background: Health researchers may struggle to choose suitable validated dietary assessment tools (DATs) for their target population. The aim of this review was to identify and collate information on validated UK DATs and validation studies for inclusion on a website to support researchers to choose appropriate DATs. Design: A systematic review of reviews of DATs was undertaken. DATs validated in UK populations were extracted from the studies identified. A searchable website was designed to display these data. Additionally, mean differences and limits of agreement between test and comparison methods were summarized by a method, weighting by sample size. Results: Over 900 validation results covering 5 life stages, 18 nutrients, 6 dietary assessment methods, and 9 validation method types were extracted from 63 validated DATs which were identified from 68 reviews. These were incorporated into www.nutritools.org. Limits of agreement were determined for about half of validations. Thirty four DATs were FFQs. Only 17 DATs were validated against biomarkers, and only 19 DATs were validated in infant/children/adolescents. Conclusions: The interactive www.nutritools.org website holds extensive validation data identified from this review and can be used to guide researchers to critically compare and choose a suitable DAT for their research question, leading to improvement of nutritional epidemiology research

Generation of ultrabright beams in high energy Nd:glass and KrF laser systems

The development of ultrabright lasers is progressing rapidly particularly in the direction of table-top-terawatt systems operating at high pulse repetition rate with relatively low pulse energy. The highest pulse energies and highest absolute powers are being generated by the adaptation of larger-scale high energy laser systems operating in single pulse mode. The maximum focused intensity from either type of laser is determined by the beam brightness B which can be expressed in units of Watts cm where P is the power, lambda the wavelength and S the Strehl ratio, quantifying the ratio of brightness in a beam with less than diffraction limited quality to that in a diffraction limited beam

Wholesale pricing in a small open economy

This paper addresses the empirical analysis of wholesale profit margins using data of the Dutch wholesale sector, 1986. At the heart of the analysis is the typical nature of wholesale production: wholesalers do not produce a tangible product, but offer a service capacity. This has an immediate impact on the identification, interprelation and measurement of determinants of profit variations. A model is set up to explain variations in wholesale profit margins, which is inspired by two widely applied approaches to industry pricing: the behavioural mark-up model and the marginalist price-cost model

The global atmospheric electrical circuit and climate

Evidence is emerging for physical links among clouds, global temperatures, the global atmospheric electrical circuit and cosmic ray ionisation. The global circuit extends throughout the atmosphere from the planetary surface to the lower layers of the ionosphere. Cosmic rays are the principal source of atmospheric ions away from the continental boundary layer: the ions formed permit a vertical conduction current to flow in the fair weather part of the global circuit. Through the (inverse) solar modulation of cosmic rays, the resulting columnar ionisation changes may allow the global circuit to convey a solar influence to meteorological phenomena of the lower atmosphere. Electrical effects on non-thunderstorm clouds have been proposed to occur via the ion-assisted formation of ultra-fine aerosol, which can grow to sizes able to act as cloud condensation nuclei, or through the increased ice nucleation capability of charged aerosols. Even small atmospheric electrical modulations on the aerosol size distribution can affect cloud properties and modify the radiative balance of the atmosphere, through changes communicated globally by the atmospheric electrical circuit. Despite a long history of work in related areas of geophysics, the direct and inverse relationships between the global circuit and global climate remain largely quantitatively unexplored. From reviewing atmospheric electrical measurements made over two centuries and possible paleoclimate proxies, global atmospheric electrical circuit variability should be expected on many timescale