A co-designed equalization, modulation, and coding scheme

The commercial impact and technical success of Trellis Coded Modulation seems to illustrate that, if Shannon's capacity is going to be neared, the modulation and coding of an analogue signal ought to be viewed as an integrated process. More recent work has focused on going beyond the gains obtained for Average White Gaussian Noise and has tried to combine the coding/modulation with adaptive equalization. The motive is to gain similar advances on less perfect or idealized channels

Emotional and Embodied Knowledge: Implications for Critical Practice

Within the practice orientation of the Critical Social Work tradition there has been a dominance of conceptual and rational processes. This has lead to afailure to acknowledge the importance of bodily and emotive knowledge for practice theory. This paper offers a rudimentary and tentative epistemology which recognizes the importance of the body, emotions, ideas and their context. These ideas invite a reconsideration of critical theories of change

Evaluating process and outcome in the education of general practitioners

I set out to develop methodologies linking the educational processes adopted by General Practitioner trainers to outcomes, in terms of quality performance by their learners in later life as doctors. Evidence about educational process and about quality of practice must be collected and analysed in a format that takes full account of the judgements to be made for formative and summative assessment. This work iterates between considerations of evidence and judgements The first of three phases of research established a framework of categories and dimensions by which to describe educational behaviours of GP Trainers. This involved interviewing trained practitioners to find what had been of lasting value from training. The categories deriving from a Grounded Theoretical approach have proved useful in practice and have been incorporated into training assessments. Second Phase Research involved refining data collection methods for assessing prevalent educational behaviours in training practices. The process by which judgements are made about training was analysed and developed in the light of research findings, which support a trend towards self-assessment by trainers. The complexity of evidence collection is such that even experienced visiting teams struggled to construct meaningful aggregations across several categories in the course of a brief visit. Their limited data best serves to validate the self-assessments of trainers, carried out over an extended period of training, and involving potentially beneficial reflection-in-action and reflection-on-action. Finally, 31General Practitioners engaged in a pilot study of Insight 360® assessments of quality practice. Their self-assessments were compared against 331 patient assessments and 237 colleague perceptions. Literature review and preliminary experiments led to the conclusion that Multilevel Modelling (MLM) techniques are best suited to such data analysis. Even with small numbers, valid findings emerged around gender influences on self-perception, reinforcing the conclusion that MLM is needed if we are to relate complex data around quality of practice to the level of prior educational experience. Using the framework developed in this project, trainers can now be encouraged to examine their prevalent educational behaviours and record the evidence for formative and summative assessment. This work gives confidence that accumulated 3600 assessments of practitioners may in future be analysed using MLM techniques to shed light on different quality outcomes of varying educational processes

Design, validation and dissemination of an undergraduate assessment tool using SimMan® in simulated medical emergencies

Background: Increasingly, medical students are being taught acute medicine using whole-body simulator manikins. Aim: We aimed to design, validate and make widely available two simple assessment tools to be used with Laerdal SimMan (R) for final year students. Methods: We designed two scenarios with criterion-based checklists focused on assessment and management of two medical emergencies. Members of faculty critiqued the assessments for face validity and checklists revised. We assessed three groups of different experience levels: Foundation Year 2 doctors, third and final year medical students. Differences between groups were analysed, and internal consistency and interrater reliability calculated. A generalisability analysis was conducted using scenario and rater as facets in design. Results: A maximum of two items were removed from either checklist following the initial survey. Significantly different scores for three groups of experience for both scenarios were reported (p0.90). Internal consistency was poor (alpha<50.5). Generalizability study results suggest that four cases would provide reliable discrimination between final year students. Conclusions: These assessments proved easy to administer and we have gone some way to demonstrating construct validity and reliability. We have made the material available on a simulator website to enable others to reproduce these assessments

Predicting success in graduate entry medical students undertaking a graduate entry medical program (GEM)

Background: Success in undergraduate medical courses in the UK can be predicted by school exit examination (A level) grades. There are no documented predictors of success in UK graduate entry medicine (GEM) courses. This study looks at the examination performance of GEM students to identify factors which may predict success; of particular interest was A level score. Methods: Data was collected for students graduating in 2004, 2005 and 2006, including demographic details (age and gender), details of previous academic achievement (A level total score and prior degree) and examination results at several points during the degree course. Results: Study group comprised 285 students. Statistical analyses identified no significant variables when looking at clinical examinations. Analysis of pass/fail data for written examinations showed no relationship with A level score. However, both percentage data for the final written examination and the analysis of the award of honours showed A level scores of AAB or higher were associated with better performance (p < 0.001). Discussion: A prime objective of introducing GEM programs was to diversify admissions to medical school. In trying to achieve this, medical schools have changed selection criteria. The findings in this study justify this by proving that A level score was not associated with success in either clinical examinations or passing written examinations. Despite this, very high achievements at A level do predict high achievement during medical school. Conclusions: This study shows that selecting graduate medical students with the basic requirement of an upper-second class honours degree is justifiable and does not disadvantage students who may not have achieved high scores in school leaver examinations

Evidence-based medicine and values-based medicine : partners in clinical education as well as in clinical practice

The best clinical decisions are based on both evidence and values in what is known as the ‘twofeet principle’. Anecdotally, educationalists find teaching clinicians to become more evidence based is relatively simple in comparison to encouraging them to become more values based. One reason is likely to be the importance of values awareness. As valuesbased practice is premised on a mutual respect for the diversity of values, clinicians need to develop the skills to ascertain patient values and to get in touch with their own beliefs and preferences in order to understand those at play in any consultation. Only then can shared decision-making processes take place within a shared framework of values. In a research article published in BMC Medicine, AltamiranoBustamante and colleagues highlight difficulties that clinicians face in getting in touch with their own values. Despite finding that healthcare personnel’s core values were honesty and respect, autonomy was initially low ranked by participants. One significant aspect of this work is that this group has demonstrated that the extent to which clinicians value ‘autonomy’ and ‘openness to change’ can both be positively influenced by well designed education

Diálogos entre OT y Aps sobre el ambiente en la planificación territorial local: costa entre Laguna Garzón y Laguna de Rocha, Uruguay

Desde el Ordenamiento Territorial (OT) y a más de diez años de la Ley uruguaya que lo funda en relación explícita con el Desarrollo Sostenible, se definen las siguientes dos preguntas guías de investigación: ¿Cómo se puede mejorar la incorporación del ambiente en los procesos de planificación territorial local? ¿Qué conceptos y métodos de la Planificación para la Conservación de Sitios (PCS) pueden contribuir a mejorar la práctica del OT local? Esta investigación surge de preguntarse y preguntar éstas y otras interrogantes. Sistematiza las respuestas de doce entrevistas realizadas a profesionales referentes de la Arquitectura-Urbanismo-OT y de las Ciencias Naturales-PCS, con experiencia en planificación territorial en el recorte territorial de estudio: costa oceánica entre Laguna Garzón y Laguna de Rocha. Con el enfoque metodológico de la Grounded Theory (GT) se indaga desde las experiencias y reflexiones de las y los entrevistados, buscando enunciar desafíos y oportunidades para la mejora de la incorporación del ambiente en procesos de planificación territorial local. Así mismo, se busca visibilizar los desafíos de articulación entre los PLOTDS y los Planes de Manejo de Áps

Building Bridges: An Anthology of the War on Prostitution and the Greater Women’s Movement in Kansas City

Title from PDF of title page viewed January 32, 2018Thesis advisor: Matthew OsbornVitaIncludes bibliographical references.Thesis (M.A.)--Department of History. University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2017This research looks at Kansas City’s War on Prostitution in 1977 and the larger women’s movement of second-wave feminism throughout the 1970s and 1980s. The War on Prostitution makes the women’s movement in Kansas City unique because it brought together non-like-minded feminists despite their differences in ideology. A product of both oral history and traditional historical research, this work draws upon a large variety of primary sources including newspaper articles from the Kansas City Public Library, archived materials pertaining to women’s groups from the LaBudde Special Collections Archive at University of Missouri-Kansas City. At the core of the project is an oral history component of phone conversations and interviews with women who were active in varying areas of Kansas City public life, including politics, activism, and law during the early decades of the women’s movement. The interviews were conducted from August to November of 2017. Research also included secondary sources on the topic of second-wave feminism and feminist theory. The work serves as a platform for future research on the women’s movement, the War on Prostitution, and the lives of prominent women in Kansas City’s history. It is a testament to the women’s movement of the 1970s and 1980s and the remarkable women who were involved in it.Abstract -- Essay -- Transcripts -- Vit

Evaluation of polymyxin B AUC/MIC ratio for dose optimization in patients with carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae infection

Polymyxin B has been used as a last-line therapy for the treatment of carbapenem-resistant gram-negative bacterial infection. The pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic index (AUC/MIC) of polymyxin B has not been clinically evaluated, given that the broth microdilution method for polymyxin susceptibility testing is rarely used in hospitals. This study analyzed data from 77 patients with carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae infections. Among the samples, 63 K. pneumoniae isolates had MIC values of 1.0 mg/L as measured by broth microdilution but 0.5 mg/L as measured using the Vitek 2 system. Polymyxin B AUC/MIC was significantly associated with clinical response (p = 0.002) but not with 30-day all-cause mortality (p = 0.054). With a target AUC/MIC value of 50, Monte Carlo simulations showed that a fixed dose of 100 mg/12 h and three weight-based regimens (1.25 mg/kg/12 h for 80 kg and 1.5 mg/kg/12 h for 70 kg/80 kg) achieved a cumulative fraction of response &gt;90% regardless of renal function, but the risk of nephrotoxicity was high. For patients with carbapenem-resistant K. pneumoniae infections, the underestimation of polymyxin resistance in automated systems need to be taken into account when optimizing polymyxin B dosing based on pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic principles

'No coughing for me, but I'm okay!': a human service worker's narrative exploration of her own and other workers' body stories told in a domestic violence service

Relational, body-oriented and brain-based approaches to recovery and change are increasingly popular modalities for working with traumatised children and adults. However, although these approaches encourage the awareness, and the harnessing of workers' visceral experiences, there is little in the literature to describe how practitioners navigate their own somatic maps. In a research project undertaken from 2008–16, I invited nine human service workers to tell and explore stories about their own experiences of the body that emerged during, and/or in relation to, their own professional practice. A narrative methodology was used to help facilitate a depth of understanding of how the participants used their own bodies as a source of knowledge and/or as an intervention strategy with those with whom they worked. In this paper, I explore one of many stories told by Coral in which she describes the processes she uses to navigate her own somatic map as she interacts with clients and workers in a domestic violence service. I conclude that creating spaces for workers to explore embodied experience in the professional conversation is important, but is difficult without an acceptable discourse or narrative template. Nonetheless, given the opportunity, including the 'body as subject' encourages better outcomes for clients and provides richer accounts of human service workers' professional experience