1,341 research outputs found

    Visualisation of the service use for individual clients with a Personality Disorder at Devon Partnership Trust to support clinical decision making

    Get PDF
    This is the final version of the posterIn Devon (county in South West England) the mental health services are provided by Devon Partnership Trust (DPT). DPT are aware that clients diagnosed with a Personality Disorder (PD) utilise a large volume of their services, which comes with the associated high cost. DPT commissioned a project to help them understand the patterns and trends that PD clients access their services, to inform decisions regarding system improvements. As part of this project we developed clear visualisations of individual client's service use, based on reported techniques to visualise temporal data. This visualisation captures and delivers the information in an easily accessible format, thus offering clinicians a visualisation tool to use both before and during a patient consultation that has the potential to save resources. (1) Time saved: A quick glance at the graphic provides information to a clinician that would otherwise require up to 20 minutes to scan pages of text; (2) Appointments saved: Using the graphic during client consultations to aid the discussions regarding their previous service use, and to explore together patterns of previous service use that did not have the desired outcome (preventing repetition). In response to the clinicians enthusiasm to have access to these individual client service use graphics, DPT plan to electronically embed the service use visualisations within their existing Carenotes so that they can be produced automatically on demand from data already on their system. Discussions are ongoing to tailor the visualisations to embed more information (such as waiting times, number of contacts and cost of services).Devon Partnership NHS Trus

    THE CHORÁ OF PATMOS (GREECE): ANALYSIS OF ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE, IDENTIFICATION OF RISKS AND ASSESSMENT OF IMPACTS

    Get PDF
    Abstract. The Historic Center (Chorá) of Patmos, located in one of the Dodecanese Islands of Greece, was inscribed in the World Heritage List in 1999. The morphological feature, the housing typologies and the building techniques that characterize the Chorá provide an authentic and astonishing expression of the stylistic and typological models of the vernacular architecture of the Greek islands. This paper presents part of the research carried out on the Chorá of Patmos, within the 3D Past project, funded by the European Creative Europe program. The first part illustrates the results of the research concerning the analysis of the material components of the architectural heritage of Patmos: the urban structure, the evolution of the main architectural typologies, the feature of the main building systems. The second part of the paper presents the application of the Heritage Impact Assessment (HIA), a tool for the management of site transformations and in particular for identifying, forecasting and evaluating the impact of potential development on the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of the properties. In the case of Patmos the application of HIA can provide an important contribution to manage changes and future transformations in order to preserve the cultural significance of the site and ensure its sustainable development

    Geopolymers reinforced with natural fibers: A comparison among different sources

    Get PDF
    The performance of different natural fibers (hemp, kenaf and bamboo) used to formulate composites with an alkali-activated matrix based on metakaolin is evaluated. Short fibers were randomly dispersed up to about 3% of the binder weight, and the fresh and cured properties of the derived composites were determined. Up to the investigated fraction, it is still possible to obtain adequate workability without the supply of additional water or additives. Upon modification with fibers, the mechanical behavior changes from completely brittle to pseudoplastic with increased toughness. The flexural strength increases by up to 80% at the highest bamboo amount and up to 20% for kenaf. Hemp fibers have a negligible effect on flexural strength but strongly improve the materials’ toughness. Moreover, the addition of fibers does not change the manner in which the material interacts with moisture. Indeed, the water uptake of the modified samples was comparable to that of the unmodified samples, and the composites showed a decreased rate of water diffusion as the amount of fiber increased

    Large K-exciton dynamics in GaN epilayers: the non-thermal and thermal regime

    Full text link
    We present a detailed investigation concerning the exciton dynamics in GaN epilayers grown on c-plane sapphire substrates, focussing on the exciton formation and the transition from the nonthermal to the thermal regime. The time-resolved kinetics of LO-phonon replicas is used to address the energy relaxation in the excitonic band. From ps time-resolved spectra we bring evidence for a long lasting non-thermal excitonic distribution which accounts for the rst 50 ps. Such a behavior is con rmed in di erent experimental conditions, both when non-resonant and resonant excitation are used. At low excitation power density the exciton formation and their subsequent thermalization is dominated by impurity scattering rather than by acoustic phonon scattering. The estimate of the average energy of the excitons as a function of delay after the excitation pulse provides information on the relaxation time, which describes the evolution of the exciton population to the thermal regime.Comment: 9 pages,8 figure

    Pandemic data quality modelling: a Bayesian approach in the Italian case

    Get PDF
    When pandemics like COVID-19 spread around the world, the rapidly evolving situation compels ofcials and executives to take prompt decisions and adapt policies depending on the current state of the disease. In this context, it is crucial for policymakers to always have a frm grasp on what is the current state of the pandemic, and envision how the number of infections and possible deaths is going to evolve shortly. However, as in many other situations involving compulsory registration of sensitive data from multiple collectors, cases might be reported with errors, often with delays deferring an up-to-date view of the state of things. Errors in collecting new cases afect the overall mortality, resulting in excess deaths reported by ofcial statistics only months later. In this paper, we provide tools for evaluating the quality of pandemic mortality data. We accomplish this through a Bayesian approach accounting for the excess mortality pandemics might bring with respect to the normal level of mortality in the population

    Pandemic Data Quality Modelling: A Bayesian Approach = Modellazione della qualit`a dei dati pandemici: un approccio bayesiano

    Get PDF
    When dealing with pandemics like COVID-19, it is crucial for policymakers to constantly monitor the emergency. Correct data reporting is a hard task during pandemics, and errors affect the overall mortality, resulting in excess deaths in official statistics. In this work, we provide tools for evaluating the quality of pandemic mortality data. We accomplish this through a spatio-temporal Bayesian approach accounting for the bias implicitly contained in the data

    Sexual violence in post-conflict Liberia: survivors and their care.

    Get PDF
    Using routine data from three clinics offering care to survivors of sexual violence (SV) in Monrovia, Liberia, we describe the characteristics of SV survivors and the pattern of SV and discuss how the current approach could be better adapted to meet survivors' needs. There were 1500 survivors seeking SV care between January 2008 and December 2009. Most survivors were women (98%) and median age was 13 years (Interquartile range: 9-17 years). Sexual aggression occurred during day-to-day activities in 822 (55%) cases and in the survivor's home in 552 (37%) cases. The perpetrator was a known civilian in 1037 (69%) SV events. Only 619 (41%) survivors sought care within 72 h. The current approach could be improved by: effectively addressing the psychosocial needs of child survivors, reaching male survivors, targeting the perpetrators in awareness and advocacy campaigns and reducing delays in seeking care

    WHO Clinical Staging of HIV Infection and Disease, Tuberculosis and Eligibility for Antiretroviral Treatment: Relationship to CD4 Lymphocyte Counts.

    Get PDF
    SETTING: Thyolo district, Malawi. OBJECTIVES: To determine in HIV-positive individuals aged over 13 years CD4 lymphocyte counts in patients classified as WHO Clinical Stage III and IV and patients with active and previous tuberculosis (TB). DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. METHODS: CD4 lymphocyte counts were determined in all consecutive HIV-positive individuals presenting to the antiretroviral clinic in WHO Stage III and IV. RESULTS: A CD4 lymphocyte count of < or = 350 cells/microl was found in 413 (90%) of 457 individuals in WHO Stage III and IV, 96% of 77 individuals with active TB, 92% of 65 individuals with a history of pulmonary TB (PTB) in the last year, 91% of 89 individuals with a previous history of PTB beyond 1 year, 81% of 32 individuals with a previous history of extra-pulmonary TB, 93% of 107 individuals with active or past TB with another HIV-related disease and 89% of 158 individuals with active or past TB without another HIV-related disease. CONCLUSIONS: In our setting, nine of 10 HIV-positive individuals presenting in WHO Stage III and IV and with active or previous TB have CD4 counts of < or = 350 cells/microl. It would thus be reasonable, in this or similar settings where CD4 counts are unavailable for clinical management, for all such patients to be considered eligible for antiretroviral therapy
    corecore