Closure to “Time Development of Scour around a Cylinder in Simulated Tidal Currents”

A Discussion Closure to “Time Development of Scour around a Cylinder in Simulated Tidal Currents

Quantifying the effects of learning styles on attention

Monitoring and managing attention in the classroom is nowadays an important aspect where the level of learner’s attention affects learning results. When students are using devices connected to the Internet in learning activities in which they send and received notifications, beeps, and vibrations and blinking messages, the ability to focus becomes increasingly important. This is true in many different domains, from the classroom to the workplace. This paper deals with the issue of attention monitoring, with the aim of providing a non-intrusive, reliable and easy tool that can be used freely in schools or organizations, without changing or interfering with the established working routines. Specifically, we look at desk students in learning activities, in which the student spends long time interacting with the computer.This work has been supported by COMPETE: POCI-01-0145- FEDER-007043 and FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the Project Scope: UID/CEC/00319/2013.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Natural coagulants - a sustainable approach

Natural coagulants - a sustainable approac

Filtration with a natural coagulant

Filtration with a natural coagulan

The impact of junior doctors’ worktime arrangements on their fatigue and well-being

Objective Many doctors report working excessively demanding schedules that comply with the European Working Time Directive (EWTD). We compared groups of junior doctors working on different schedules in order to identify which features of schedule design most negatively affected their fatigue and well-being in recent weeks.Methods Completed by 336 doctors, the questionnaires focused on the respondents\u27 personal circumstances, work situation, work schedules, sleep, and perceptions of fatigue, work-life balance and psychological strain. Results Working 7 consecutive nights was associated with greater accumulated fatigue and greater work life interference, compared with working just 3 or 4 nights. Having only I rest day after working nights was associated with increased fatigue. Working a weekend on-call between 2 consecutive working weeks was associated with increased work-life interference. Working frequent on-calls (either on weekends or during the week) was associated with increased work-life interference and psychological strain. Inter-shift intervals o

Implementing a 48 h EWTD-compliant rota for junior doctors in the UK does not compromise patients’ safety : assessor-blind pilot comparison

Background: There are currently no field data about the effect of implementing European Working Time Directive (EWTD)-compliant rotas in a medical setting. Surveys of doctors’ subjective opinions on shift work have not provided reliable objective data with which to evaluate its efficacy. Aim: We therefore studied the effects on patient's safety and doctors’ work-sleep patterns of implementing an EWTD-compliant 48 h work week in a single-blind intervention study carried out over a 12-week period at the University Hospitals Coventry & Warwickshire NHS Trust. We hypothesized that medical error rates would be reduced following the new rota. Methods: Nineteen junior doctors, nine studied while working an intervention schedule of <48 h per week and 10 studied while working traditional weeks of <56 h scheduled hours in medical wards. Work hours and sleep duration were recorded daily. Rate of medical errors (per 1000 patient-days), identified using an established active surveillance methodology, were compared for the Intervention and Traditional wards. Two senior physicians blinded to rota independently rated all suspected errors. Results: Average scheduled work hours were significantly lower on the intervention schedule [43.2 (SD 7.7) (range 26.0–60.0) vs. 52.4 (11.2) (30.0–77.0) h/week; P < 0.001], and there was a non-significant trend for increased total sleep time per day [7.26 (0.36) vs. 6.75 (0.40) h; P = 0.095]. During a total of 4782 patient-days involving 481 admissions, 32.7% fewer total medical errors occurred during the intervention than during the traditional rota (27.6 vs. 41.0 per 1000 patient-days, P = 0.006), including 82.6% fewer intercepted potential adverse events (1.2 vs. 6.9 per 1000 patient-days, P = 0.002) and 31.4% fewer non-intercepted potential adverse events (16.6 vs. 24.2 per 1000 patient-days, P = 0.067). Doctors reported worse educational opportunities on the intervention rota. Conclusions: Whilst concerns remain regarding reduced educational opportunities, our study supports the hypothesis that a 48 h work week coupled with targeted efforts to improve sleep hygiene improves patient safety

A Constrained Coding Approach to Error-Free Half-Duplex Relay Networks

We show that the broadcast capacity of an infinite-depth tree-structured network of error-free half-duplex-constrained relays can be achieved using constrained coding at the source and symbol forwarding at the relays.Comment: To appear in IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, 201

Suicide & Supervision: Issues for Probation Practice

Suicides by offenders in the community have been relatively under-researched in comparison with prison suicides. This study examined in-depth the events and experiences of 28 service users under probation supervision, based on continuous records from the start of their sentence to their death by suicide. The study presents novel findings through mapping suicidal behaviour on to the probation supervision process, and demonstrates the complex pathways leading to suicide in this population.Key issues identified include missed appointments, the impact of legal proceedings,changes in supervision, and the importance of recording risk