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PaperChain: A Collaborative Healthcare System Grounded in Field Study Work
In this extended abstract we summarise our recent experiences of designing and deploying PaperChain, a system to support real-time information sharing in healthcare work. A guiding principle has been the development of a deep understanding of the work as the foundation for effective system design. We summarise the field work that motivated the development of PaperChain, some of the key findings and the resulting system. We briefly reflect on the benefits gained from undertaking substantial HCI work in the design of a healthcare system
The prevention and treatment of childhood obesity.
The effectiveness of interventions used in the prevention and treatment of childhood obesity published in a recent issue of Effective Heath Care is reviewed
Sickness certification system in the United Kingdom: qualitative study of views of general practitioners in Scotland
Objectives: To explore how general practitioners operate the sickness certification system, their views on the system, and suggestions for change.
Design: Qualitative focus group study consisting of 11 focus groups with 67 participants.
Setting: General practitioners in practices in Glasgow, Tayside, and Highland regions, Scotland.
Sample: Purposive sample of general practitioners, with further theoretical sampling of key informant general practitioners to examine emerging themes.
Results: General practitioners believed that the sickness certification system failed to address complex, chronic, or doubtful cases. They seemed to develop various operational strategies for its implementation. There appeared to be important deliberate misuse of the system by general practitioners, possibly related to conflicts about roles and incongruities in the system. The doctor-patient relationship was perceived to conflict with the current role of general practitioners in sickness certification. When making decisions about certification, the general practitioners considered a wide variety of factors. They experienced contradictory demands from other system stakeholders and felt blamed for failing to make impossible reconciliations. They clearly identified the difficulties of operating the system when there was no continuity of patient care. Many wished either to relinquish their gatekeeper role or to continue only with major changes.
Conclusions: Policy makers need to recognise and accommodate the range and complexity of factors that influence the behaviour of general practitioners operating as gatekeepers to the sickness certification system, before making changes. Such changes are otherwise unlikely to result in improvement. Models other than the primary care gatekeeper model should be considered
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Improving methods and procedures for reuse and exchange of open educational resources
Performance characteristics of a thermionic converter with a /110/ tungsten emitter and a collector of niobium with trace amounts of tungsten and niobium carbide on the surface
Comparison of thermionic tungsten /110/ converter performances with niobium collectors and nickel collectors at various emitter, collector and cesium reservoir temperature
Characteristics of a thermionic converter with a chloride vapor deposited tungsten emitter /110/ and a collector of molybdenum deposited on niobium
Performance characteristics of parallel plane, variable spaced thermionic converter with tungsten emitter and molybdenum-niobium collecto
Characterization, cloning and immunogenicity of antigens released by lung-stage larvae of Schistosoma mansoni
Lung-stage schistosomula are the target of protective immunity in mice vaccinated with attenuated cercariae of Schistosoma mansoni. Therefore, proteins present at this developmental stage, and in particular those which are secreted, are a potential source of novel vaccine candidates. However, little information is available about such molecules. Here we describe the cDNA clones identified by screening expression libraries with serum raised against proteins released by lung-stage schistosomula. In total, 11 different cDNA species were identified, 6 of which have been described previously in S. mansoni; these included fructose 1,6-bisphosphate aldolase and Sm21.7 which together accounted for two-thirds of all positive clones. Of the 5 newly described schistosome genes, 1 cDNA had a high degree of homology to the s5a subunit of 26S proteasomes, most significant being with the human protein. The remaining 4 clones showed no significant homologies to any genes sequenced previously. Fructose 1,6-bisphosphate aldolase, Sm21.7, the proteasome homologue and 1 unknown clone (A26) have been expressed in a bacterial expression system and serum produced against each recombinant protein. Immunolocalization showed fructose 1,6-bisphosphate aldolase, Sm21.7 and the proteasome homologue to be most abundant in muscle cells whilst clone A26 was distributed throughout many tissues, but was most abundant in the tegument. Analysis of the cellular immune responses of vaccinated mice showed 3 of the 4 expressed clones to be highly immunogenic, inducing the secretion of large quantities of the Th1-type cytokine interferon gamma
Methods of resistance estimation in permanent magnet synchronous motors for real-time thermal management
Real-time thermal management of electrical ma- chines relies on sufficiently accurate indicators of internal tem- perature. One indicator of temperature in a permanent-magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) is the stator winding resistance. Detection of PMSM winding resistance in the literature has been made on machines with relatively high resistances, where the resistive voltage vector is significant under load. This paper describes two techniques which can be applied to detect the winding resistance, through ‘Fixed Angle’ and ‘Fixed Mag- nitude’ current injection. Two further methods are described which discriminate injected current and voltages from motoring currents and voltages: ‘Unipolar’ and ‘Bipolar’ separation. These enable the resistance to be determined, and hence the winding temperature in permanent-magnet machines. These methods can be applied under load, and in a manner that does not disturb motor torque or speed. The method distinguishes between changes in the electro-motive force (EMF) constant and the resistive voltage. This paper introduces the techniques, whilst a companion paper covers the application of one of the methods to a PMSM drive system
Characteristics of a thermionic converter with a chloride vapor deposited tungsten emitter /110/ and a nickel collector
Thermionic coverter with chloride vapor deposited tungsten emitter and nickel collecto
Index theorems for quantum graphs
In geometric analysis, an index theorem relates the difference of the numbers
of solutions of two differential equations to the topological structure of the
manifold or bundle concerned, sometimes using the heat kernels of two
higher-order differential operators as an intermediary. In this paper, the case
of quantum graphs is addressed. A quantum graph is a graph considered as a
(singular) one-dimensional variety and equipped with a second-order
differential Hamiltonian H (a "Laplacian") with suitable conditions at
vertices. For the case of scale-invariant vertex conditions (i.e., conditions
that do not mix the values of functions and of their derivatives), the constant
term of the heat-kernel expansion is shown to be proportional to the trace of
the internal scattering matrix of the graph. This observation is placed into
the index-theory context by factoring the Laplacian into two first-order
operators, H =A*A, and relating the constant term to the index of A. An
independent consideration provides an index formula for any differential
operator on a finite quantum graph in terms of the vertex conditions. It is
found also that the algebraic multiplicity of 0 as a root of the secular
determinant of H is the sum of the nullities of A and A*.Comment: 19 pages, Institute of Physics LaTe
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