395 research outputs found
Surfing or drowning? Student nurses’ Internet skills
The ability to use the Internet is an essential skill for nursing students, both to support their studies, especially as nursing students spend a lot of their time in placements away from the university campus, and to support their development of skills in using what is becoming an increasingly essential tool for professionals. A study at Bournemouth University, England, found that new student nurses had poor Internet skills and were not frequent users prior to starting the course.
No link was found between the students’ ages and their Internet use or skills. A clear link was however found between ability and frequency of use, except in relationship to the students’ ability to conduct an effective search. Almost half of the respondents said that they find far too much irrelevant information when searching for information on the Internet.
Given the importance of Information and Technology skills to nurses, both as lifelong learners and as competent practitioners and to nursing students throughout their pre-registration education, the inclusion of a programme to ensure that they develop these skills during their pre-registration education is essential
Surfing or drowning? Student nurses’ Internet skills
The ability to use the Internet is an essential skill for nursing students, both to support their studies, especially as nursing students spend a lot of their time in placements away from the university campus, and to support their development of skills in using what is becoming an increasingly essential tool for professionals. A study at Bournemouth University, England, found that new student nurses had poor Internet skills and were not frequent users prior to starting the course.
No link was found between the students’ ages and their Internet use or skills. A clear link was however found between ability and frequency of use, except in relationship to the students’ ability to conduct an effective search. Almost half of the respondents said that they find far too much irrelevant information when searching for information on the Internet.
Given the importance of Information and Technology skills to nurses, both as lifelong learners and as competent practitioners and to nursing students throughout their pre-registration education, the inclusion of a programme to ensure that they develop these skills during their pre-registration education is essential
Strict Positive Realness of Descriptor Systems in State Space
In this paper we give necessary and sufficient
spectral conditions for various notions of strict positive realness
for single input single output, impulse free Descriptor Systems.
These conditions only require calculation of eigenvalues of a
single matrix. A characterization of a KYP-like lemma for
descriptor systems is also derived, and its implications for the
stability of a class of switched descriptor systems are briefly
discussed
Essentially Negative News About Positive Systems
In this paper the discretisation of switched and non-switched linear positive systems using
Padé approximations is considered. Padé approximations to the matrix exponential
are sometimes used by control engineers for discretising continuous time systems and
for control system design. We observe that this method of approximation is not suited
for the discretisation of positive dynamic systems, for two key reasons. First, certain
types of Lyapunov stability are not, in general, preserved. Secondly, and more seriously,
positivity need not be preserved, even when stability is. Finally we present an alternative
approximation to the matrix exponential which preserves positivity, and linear and
quadratic stability
A quadratic stability result for singular switched systems with application to anti-windup control
In this note we consider the problem of determining
necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of a common quadratic Lyapunov function for a pair of stable linear
time-invariant systems whose system matrices are of the form A, A−ghT , and where one of the matrices is singular. We then apply this result in a study of a feedback system with a
saturating actuator
The influence of barefoot and barefoot inspired footwear on the kinetics and kinematics of running in comparison to conventional running shoes.
Barefoot running has experienced a resurgence in footwear biomechanics literature, based on the supposition that it serves to reduce the occurrence of overuse injuries in comparison to conventional shoe models. This consensus has lead footwear manufacturers to develop shoes which aim to mimic the mechanics of barefoot locomotion.
This study compared the impact kinetics and 3-D joint angular kinematics observed whilst running: barefoot, in conventional cushioned running shoes and in shoes designed to integrate the perceived benefits of barefoot locomotion. The aim of the current investigation was therefore to determine whether differences in impact kinetics exist between the footwear conditions and whether shoes which aim to simulate barefoot movement patterns can closely mimic the 3-D kinematics of barefoot running.
Twelve participants ran at 4.0 m.s-1±5% in each footwear condition. Angular joint kinematics from the hip, knee and ankle in the sagittal, coronal and transverse planes were measured using an eight camera motion analysis system. In addition simultaneous tibial acceleration and ground reaction forces were obtained. Impact parameters and joint kinematics were subsequently compared using repeated measures ANOVAs.
The kinematic analysis indicates that in comparison to the conventional and barefoot inspired shoes that running barefoot was associated significantly greater plantar-flexion at footstrike and range of motion to peak dorsiflexion. Furthermore, the kinetic analysis revealed that compared to the conventional footwear impact parameters were significantly greater in the barefoot condition.
Therefore this study suggests that barefoot running is associated with impact kinetics linked to an increased risk of overuse injury, when compared to conventional shod running. Furthermore, the mechanics of the shoes which aim to simulate barefoot movement patterns do not appear to closely mimic the kinematics of barefoot locomotion
Kemeny-based testing for COVID-19
Testing, tracking and tracing abilities have been identified as pivotal in helping countries to safely reopen activities after the first wave of the COVID-19 virus. Contact tracing apps give the unprecedented possibility to reconstruct graphs of daily contacts, so the question is: who should be tested? As human contact networks are known to exhibit community structure, in this paper we show that the Kemeny constant of a graph can be used to identify and analyze bridges between communities in a graph. Our 'Kemeny indicator' is the value of the Kemeny constant in the new graph that is obtained when a node is removed from the original graph. We show that testing individuals who are associated with large values of the Kemeny indicator can help in efficiently intercepting new virus outbreaks, when they are still in their early stage. Extensive simulations provide promising results in early identification and in blocking the possible 'super-spreaders' links that transmit disease between different communities
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