Clinicians’ perceptions of medication errors with opioids in cancer and palliative care services: a priority setting report

© 2018, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature. This paper reports the findings of a priority setting process, undertaken with cancer and palliative care clinicians, to better understand the characteristics of medication errors with opioids within their services. Participants representing six public hospitals in one Australian state took part in a series of priority setting workshops and, drawing on actual incidents occurring in their services, sought to identify where in the opioid medication process errors were most frequently occurring. Opioid error types and perceived contributing factors were explored, and strategies to reduce/prevent opioid errors were proposed. The priority setting process provided valuable insights into the types of opioid errors that occur in cancer and palliative care services and the complexity of addressing opioid errors from the clinician’s perspective. The findings from this priority setting process will inform future targeted quality improvement initiatives to support safe opioid medication practices in cancer and palliative care services

Network-mediated encoding of circadian time: The suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) from genes to neurons to circuits, and back

The transcriptional architecture of intracellular circadian clocks is similar across phyla, but in mammals interneuronal mechanisms confer a higher level of circadian integration. The suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) is a unique model to study these mechanisms, as it operates as a ∼24 h clock not only in the living animal, but also when isolated in culture. This “clock in a dish” can be used to address fundamental questions, such as how intraneuronal mechanisms are translated by SCN neurons into circuit-level emergent properties and how the circuit decodes, and responds to, light input. This review addresses recent developments in understanding the relationship between electrical activity, [Ca(2+)](i), and intracellular clocks. Furthermore, optogenetic and chemogenetic approaches to investigate the distinct roles of neurons and glial cells in circuit encoding of circadian time will be discussed, as well as the epigenetic and circuit-level mechanisms that enable the SCN to translate light input into coherent daily rhythms

The littlest Higgs model and Higgs boson associated production with top quark pair at high energy linear e+e−e^{+}e^{-} collider

In the parameter space allowed by the electroweak precision measurement data, we consider the contributions of the new particles predicted by the littlest Higgs($LH$) model to the Higgs boson associated production with top quark pair in the future high energy linear $e^{+}e^{-}$ collider($ILC$). We find that the contributions mainly come from the new gauge bosons $Z_{H}$ and $B_{H}$. For reasonable values of the free parameters, the absolute value of the relative correction parameter $\delta\sigma/\sigma^{SM}$ can be significanly large, which might be observed in the future $ILC$ experiment with $\sqrt{S}=800GeV$.Comment: latex files, 13 pages, 3 figure

A new experimental technique for quantifying the galvanic coupling effects on stainless steel during tribocorrosion under equilibrium conditions

Galvanic coupling during tribocorrosion of passive metals at open circuit potential (OCP) generates a wear-accelerated corrosion process within the depassivated area (worn surface) that is electrically in contact with the still passive one. The galvanic coupling effect at OCP was recently modeled using an electrochemical approach allowing for the theoretical quantification of the wear-accelerated corrosion under equilibrium conditions. Despite the usefulness of this model that mathematically determines the electrochemical conditions inside the wear track in terms of anode potential via the approximation of the net anodic current density, an experimental technique allowing for their experimental determination is essential in the effort to verify the galvanic coupling models and further understand the tribocorrosion mechanisms at OCP. In the present work, a new experimental technique based on galvanic current and potential measurements through a Zero-Resistance Ammeter (ZRA) for quantifying the electrode potential and anodic current inside the wear track during rubbing at OCP has been assessed. This experimental set-up has allowed for the first time to determine the prevailing electrochemical conditions (electrode potential and anodic current) inside the wear track by solely exposing the wear track to the electrolyte and physically separating the cathode from the anode (wear track). The effects of sliding wear at open circuit potential have been investigated for a super duplex stainless steel (UNS S32750) in 3.4 wt% NaCl. The new experimental set-up proposed in this work separates the cathode from the anode and exposes solely the wear track to the electrolyte. Using well-established electrochemical theories, the effect of the extent of the galvanic coupling on wear at the open circuit potential conditions has been quantified.The authors would like to thank the support from the European Union for funding C. Torres through the Leonardo da Vinci Mobility program. C.B. von der Ohe and E. Jensen are also acknowledged for having taken part in the initial phase 1151 of this long project. Dr. N. Papageorgiou (NTNU) is also acknowledged for the input and calculations in the modeling part and for preparing Figs. 6-9 of the paper.Espallargas Álvarez, N.; Johnsen, R.; Torres, C.; Igual Muñoz, AN. (2013). A new experimental technique for quantifying the galvanic coupling effects on stainless steel during tribocorrosion under equilibrium conditions. Wear. 307(1-2):190-197. doi:10.1016/j.wear.2013.08.026S1901973071-

Simulating the High Energy Gamma-ray sky seen by the GLAST Large Area Telescope

This paper presents the simulation of the GLAST high energy gamma-ray telescope. The simulation package, written in C++, is based on the Geant4 toolkit, and it is integrated into a general framework used to process events. A detailed simulation of the electronic signals inside Silicon detectors has been provided and it is used for the particle tracking, which is handled by a dedicated software. A unique repository for the geometrical description of the detector has been realized using the XML language and a C++ library to access this information has been designed and implemented. A new event display based on the HepRep protocol was implemented. The full simulation was used to simulate a full week of GLAST high energy gamma-ray observations. This paper outlines the contribution developed by the Italian GLAST software group.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, to be published in the Proceedings of the 6th International Symposium ''Frontiers of Fundamental and Computational Physics'' (FFP6), Udine (Italy), Sep. 26-29, 200

Physics Behind Precision

This document provides a writeup of contributions to the FCC-ee mini-workshop on "Physics behind precision" held at CERN, on 2-3 February 2016.Comment: https://indico.cern.ch/event/469561

Tailoring the pressure-drop in multi-layered open-cell porous inconel structures

This study investigates the pressure-drop behaviour associated with airflow through bulk and structurally tailored multi-layered, open-cell porous Inconel structures over a wide airflow velocity range (0–50 m s-1). The effect of airflow velocity on the pressure-drop behaviour as a function of the sample thickness is presented and related to the flow behaviour corresponding to the relevant flow regimes (Darcy, Forchheimer, Turbulent and Postturbulent). Entrance effects are highlighted as a source of the pressure-drop increase for porous structures with air gaps, regardless of their sizes, as long as they are larger than those generated by loosely-stacked structures. The pressure-drops for gapped porous structures and the mathematical-summation of the pressure drop for the corresponding individual components, were in very good agreement, at lower airflow velocities. The potential for mass-efficient porous structures, providing a high pressure drop, was demonstrated using multiple thin porous laminates separated by air gaps