To investigate the feasibility of predicting, identifying and mitigating latent system failures in a UK NHS paediatric hospital

The aim of this study was to investigate the feasibility of identifying latent system failures in a paediatric National Health Service hospital in the England (NHS). Medicine related errors affect up to 9% of all patients in NHS hospitals. The theoretical basis included error causation theory, the functioning of short-term memory and how the brain manages multiple stimuli. The literature review covered error causation and prevention research, undertaken in healthcare settings and other high-risk industries. The study environment was the dispensary of Birmingham Children’s Hospital (BCH) and a busy ward. The study instrument was non-participant, direct observation of routine dispensing and medicines administration tasks. The first phase identified latent risks in a specific readily observable task set in a specialist paediatric hospital pharmacy department. Having identified a major latent risk, interruption, the investigation then established the significance that interruptions had on operatives. The second phase investigated the efficiency and effectiveness of the current Incident and error reporting system (IR1s) in supporting learning from incidents and changing practice. The first phase identified “interruptions” as a latent error and demonstrated, for what appears to have been the first time in healthcare research, the impact these have on operatives. The second phase confirmed that a gap existed in healthcare error reduction strategies. From the outcomes of the first two phases a completely new strategy, to predict latent system errors and then to reduce them was devised. The strategy was then implemented in another area of the hospital, with different staff, on a high-risk task, IV medicine administration and was shown to reduce medicine errors

Sensors for ultrasonic nondestructive testing (NDT) in harsh environments

In this special issue of Sensors, seven peer-reviewed manuscripts appear on the topic of ultrasonic transducer design and operation in harsh environments: elevated temperature, high gamma and neutron fields, or the presence of chemically aggressive species. Motivations for these research and development projects are strongly focused on nuclear power plant inspections (particularly liquid-sodium cooled reactors), and nondestructive testing of high-temperature piping installations. It is anticipated that we may eventually see extensive use of permanently mounted robust transducers for in-service monitoring of petrochemical plants and power generations stations; quality control in manufacturing plants; and primary and secondary process monitoring in the fabrication of engineering materials

Overwintering Red Velvet Mites Are Freeze Tolerant

Although many arthropods are freeze tolerant (able to withstand internal ice), small-bodied terrestrial arthropods such as mites are thought to be constrained to freeze avoidance. We field-collected active adult red velvet mites, Allothrombium sp. (Trombidiidae), in winter in Southwestern Ontario, Canada, where temperatures drop below −20°C. These mites froze between −3.6° and −9.2°C and survived internal ice formation. All late-winter mites survived being frozen for 24 h at −9°C, and 50% survived 1 wk. The lower lethal temperature (LLT50; low temperature that kills 50% of mites) was ca. −20°C in midwinter. Hemolymph osmolality and glycerol concentration increased in midwinter, accompanied by decreased water content. Thus, this species is freeze tolerant, demonstrating that there is neither phylogenetic nor size constraint to evolving this cold tolerance strategy

Resolution of Overlapping Ultrasonic Echoes using Consistent Frequency Domain Amplitude-Phase Relationships

The ability to identify overlapping echoes is crucial to the enhancement of temporal resolution in ultrasonic testing. The majority of the techniques currently being investigated for separation of overlapping ultrasonic echoes are based on deconvolution. However, single reference deconvolution techniques are sensitive to the choice of the reference waveform and dictionary based deconvolution techniques require the enforcement of sparsity conditions. We propose a new post-processing algorithm that exploits the consistent frequency domain amplitude and phase relationships of two overlapping echoes. The frequency amplitude profiles are used as inputs and the corresponding set of phase values are calculated as the outputs. An example of the time profile and phase difference between two overlapping echoes are shown in Figure 1. The suitability of the output phase responses are then used as a metric to determine the accuracy of the trial amplitude inputs. Compared to dictionary based deconvolution approaches, the proposed method has a reduced search space in the optimization problem as the phases are now by-products of the algorithm. Compared to single reference deconvolution schemes this method is applicable to a much wider variety of echo combinations

From Specialty to Specialist: a citation analysis of Evolutionary Anthropology, Palaeolithic Archaeology and the Work of John Gowlett 1970-2018

A citation analysis of the discipline of evolutionary anthropology and its subfield Palaeolithic Archaeology, with a final ego-based citation analysis of the published research of John Gowlet

The Orion Pad Abort 1 Flight Test A Highly Successful Test

The Orion Pad Abort 1 (PA-1) flight test was designed as an early demonstration of the Launch Abort System (LAS) for the Orion capsule. The LAS was designed developed and manufactured by the Lockheed Martin/Orbital Sciences team. At inception it was realized that recovery of the Orion Capsule simulator would be useful from an engineering analysis and data recovery point of view. Additionally this test represented a flight opportunity for the Orion parachute system, which in a real abort would provide final landing deceleration. The Orion parachute program is named CPAS (CEV Parachute Assembly System). Thus CPAS became a part of the PA-1 flight, as a secondary test objective. At program kick off, the CPAS system was in the design state described below. Airbag land landing of the spacecraft was the program baseline. This affected the rigging of the parachutes. The system entry deployment conditions and vehicle mass have both evolved since that original design. It was decided to use the baseline CPAS Generation 1 (Gen 1) parachute system for the recovery of the PA-1 flight. As CPAS was a secondary test objective, the system would be delivered in its developmental state. As the PA-1 program evolved, the parachute recovery system (CPAS) moved from a secondary objective to a more important portion of the program. Tests were added, weights and deployment conditions changed and some hardware portions of the CPAS configuration were not up to the new challenges. Additional tests were added to provide confidence in the developmental system. This paper will review a few of these aspects with the goal of showing some preliminary and qualitative results from what we believe was a highly successful test

Thermal Biology and immersion tolerance of the Beringian pseudoscorpion Wyochernes 4 asiaticus

Wyochernes asiaticus (Arachnida: Pseudoscorpiones: Chernetidae) is a pseudoscorpion distributed across Beringia, the areas of Yukon, Alaska and Siberia that remained unglaciated at the last glacial maximum. Along with low temperatures, its streamside habitat suggests that submergence during flood events is an important physiological challenge for this species. We collected W. asiaticus in midsummer from 66.8N Yukon Territory, Canada, and measured thermal and immersion tolerance. Wyochernes asiaticus is freeze-avoidant, with a mean supercooling point of -6.9 C. It remains active at low temperatures (mean critical thermal minimum, CTmin, is -3.6 C) and has a critical thermal maximum (CTmax) of 37.8 C, which is lower than other arachnids and consistent with its restriction to high latitudes. Fifty per cent of W. asiaticus individuals survived immersion in oxygen-depleted water for 17 days, suggesting that this species has high tolerance to immersion during flooding events. To our knowledge, these are the first data on the environmental physiology of any pseudoscorpion and a new addition to our understanding of the biology of polar microarthropods