Playwrights and Copyright

Broadway, 1926. The Rialto is alive with drama. At the Mansfield Theater, a revival of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Beyond the Horizon is enjoying a healthy run. At the Imperial, George Gershwin’s Prohibition romp Oh, Kay is a bona fide sell-out. At the Mayfair, an unexpected guest upstages the opening night of a searing marital tragedy entitled The Half- Naked Truth. In the words of critic Brooks Atkinson: Toward the end of the second act. . .a gray cat walked amiably across the stage, peeped curiously over the footlights, and then sat down comfortably, yawned a little, blinked sleepily and apparently settled for the night. . . . . .What drama could vie with the reality of a cat? Or what actor could put a cat to shame?. . . . . .Unfortunately. . .the play. . .was amateurish in every [other] respect. The Half-Naked Truth closed within a month; the fate of the cat remains unknown. But the dramas playing out on Broadway that fateful year aren’t all happening onstage; in a nearby office building behind closed doors, a cluster of playwrights- Eugene O’Neill and humorist George Kaufman among them-are meeting with a group of theatrical producers. The writers have recently established a Guild, just fourteen years old, to fight for equitable practices in their profession. Somewhat reluctantly, the producers have agreed to meet with them. On one point, the Guild is intractable: the right of its members to control their copyrights and prevent unauthorized changes in their scripts

Scottish series

Exhibition of paintings held in Melbourn

Source and Background Gamma-ray Spectra

For this study, we have made spectra and integral count rate estimates for a trivial detector configuration with a variety of unclassified gamma-ray sources. The source/background spectra and absolute flux are taken from cumulative distribution files created from MCNP simulations prepared by Ron Wurtz and Mike Frank. The simulated objects were criticality assemblies (test setups to develop benchmarks for establishing safety margins in handling fissile material) taken from the International Handbook of Evaluated Criticality Safety Benchmark Experiments (Nuclear Energy Agency, 2001). These objects were placed inside a 30 cm box with packing material that corresponds to roughly 0.5 radiation lengths (X{sub 0}). The simulations were repeated with an additional 7cm thick steel box enclosure

Review of offshore CO2 storage monitoring: operational and research experiences of meeting regulatory and technical requirements

Legislation for offshore storage has been developing over the last decade or so and is currently most developed in Europe. Although the large-scale operating sites in Europe were started prior to the regulations coming into force, any planned sites will need to meet these regulatory requirements. Our review of monitoring experiences from both the operating sites and research at experimental injection sites and in areas of natural CO2 seepage suggest that broadly, the technical and regulatory challenges of offshore monitoring can be met. A full report reviewing offshore monitoring including tool capabilities, practicalities and costs is available from IEAGHG (released Q1 2016)

Suctioning of clear amniotic fluid at birth: A systematic review

Context Upper airway suctioning at birth was considered standard procedure and is still commonly practiced. Negative effects could exceed benefits of suction. Question In infants born through clear amniotic fluid (P) does suctioning of the mouth and nose (I) vs no suctioning (C) improve outcomes (O). Data sources Information specialist conducted literature search (12th September 2021, re-run 17th June 2022) using Medline, Embase, Cochrane Databases, Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects, and CINAHL. RCTs, non-RCTs and observational studies with a defined selection strategy were included. Unpublished studies, reviews, editorials, animal and manikin studies were excluded. Data extraction Two authors independently extracted data, risk of bias was assessed using the Cochrane ROB2 and ROBINS-I tools. Certainty of evidence was assed using the GRADE framework. Review Manager was used to analyse data and GRADEPro to develop summary of evidence tables. Meta-analyses were performed if ≥2 RCTs were available. Outcomes Primary: assisted ventilation. Secondary: advanced resuscitation, oxygen supplementation, adverse effects of suctioning, unanticipated NICU admission. Results Nine RCTs (n = 1096) and 2 observational studies (n = 418) were identified. Two RCTs (n = 280) with data concerns were excluded post-hoc. Meta-analysis of 3 RCTs, (n = 702) showed no difference in primary outcome. Two RCTs (n = 200) and 2 prospective observational studies (n = 418) found lower oxygen saturations in first 10 minutes of life with suctioning. Two RCTs (n = 200) showed suctioned newborns took longer to achieve target saturations. Limitations Certainty of evidence was low or very low for all outcomes. Most studies selected healthy newborns limiting generalisability and insufficient data was available for planned subgroup analyses. Conclusions Despite low certainty evidence, this review suggests no clinical benefit from suctioning clear amniotic fluid from infants following birth, with some evidence suggesting a resulting desaturation. These finding support current guideline recommendations that this practice is not used as a routine step in birth.publishedVersio

Comparison of Assertive Community Treatment Fidelity Assessment Methods: Reliability and Validity

Assertive community treatment is known for improving consumer outcomes, but is difficult to implement. On-site fidelity measurement can help ensure model adherence, but is costly in large systems. This study compared reliability and validity of three methods of fidelity assessment (on-site, phone-administered, and expert-scored self-report) using a stratified random sample of 32 mental health intensive case management teams from the Department of Veterans Affairs. Overall, phone, and to a lesser extent, expert-scored self-report fidelity assessments compared favorably to on-site methods in inter-rater reliability and concurrent validity. If used appropriately, these alternative protocols hold promise in monitoring large-scale program fidelity with limited resources

Family satisfaction with critical care in the UK: a multicentre cohort study.

OBJECTIVE: To assess family satisfaction with intensive care units (ICUs) in the UK using the Family Satisfaction in the Intensive Care Unit 24-item (FS-ICU-24) questionnaire, and to investigate how characteristics of patients and their family members impact on family satisfaction. DESIGN: Prospective cohort study nested within a national clinical audit database. SETTING: Stratified, random sample of 20 adult general ICUs participating in the Intensive Care National Audit & Research Centre Case Mix Programme. PARTICIPANTS: Family members of patients staying at least 24 hours in ICU were recruited between May 2013 and June 2014. INTERVENTIONS: Consenting family members were sent a postal questionnaire 3 weeks after the patient died or was discharged from ICU. Up to four family members were recruited per patient. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Family satisfaction was measured using the FS-ICU-24 questionnaire. MAIN RESULTS: A total of 12 346 family members of 6380 patients were recruited and 7173 (58%) family members of 4615 patients returned a completed questionnaire. Overall and domain-specific family satisfaction scores were high (mean overall family satisfaction 80, satisfaction with care 83, satisfaction with information 76 and satisfaction with decision-making 73 out of 100) but varied significantly across adult general ICUs studied and by whether the patient survived ICU. For family members of ICU survivors, characteristics of both the family member (age, ethnicity, relationship to patient (next-of-kin and/or lived with patient) and visit frequency) and the patient (acute severity of illness and receipt of invasive mechanical ventilation) were significant determinants of family satisfaction, whereas, for family members of ICU non-survivors, only patient characteristics (age, acute severity of illness and duration of stay) were significant. CONCLUSIONS: Overall family satisfaction in UK adult general ICUs was high but varied significantly. Adjustment for differences in family member/patient characteristics is important to avoid falsely identifying ICUs as statistical outliers. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ISRCTN47363549