Main Areas Of Work Research Articles

Assessing infiltration and exfiltration on the Performance of Urban Sewer Systems (APUSS)

Sewer systems constitute a very significant heritage in European cities. Their structural quality and functional efficiency are key parameters to guarantee the transfer of domestic and industrial wastewater to treatment plants without infiltration nor exfiltration. Infiltration of groundwater is particularly detrimental to treatment plant efficiency, while exfiltration of wastewater can lead to groundwater contamination. The European research project APUSS (Assessing infiltration and exfiltration on the Performance of Urban Sewer Systems) was devoted to sewer infiltration and exfiltration questions. It was structured in three main Work Areas dealing respectively with i) the development of new measurement methods based on tracer experiments and accounting for detailed uncertainty analyses, ii) the implementation of models and software tools to integrate structural and experimental data and to facilitate data display, operational management and decision-making processes and iii) the integration of economic and operational questions by means of cost estimation, economic evaluation, performance indicators and multi-criteria methods applied to investment/rehabilitation strategies. This final report describes the objectives, methods and main results for each Work Area. References to detailed methods, protocols, reports and tools are given in this final report which will be an invaluable source of information for all those concerned with the performance of urban sewer systems.

Terrorism and Policy: Introduction

This article sets the stage for the special issue by indicating the current focus in the literature on applying analytical tools to enlighten policy makers in the practice of counterterrorism in the post-9/11 era. In particular, the article briefly indicates the main areas of recent work. The article also introduces some key concepts. Next, the article highlights the methodology and main contributions of each of the seven articles of the special issue. The novelty and policy insights of each article are emphasized.

IUHPE and social determinants of health: setting an action agenda

This commentary introduces the recently created IUHPE Global Working Group (GWG) on Social Determinants of Health, which provides a unique opportunity to bring a global health promotion response to the social inequalities that result from the unequal distribution of the social determinants of health.The two launch meetings of the GWG, which were held in the context of the conference ;Closing the gap in a generation', enabled direct discussion and reaction with respect to the implementation of the WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health's (CSDH) recommendations. Over the course of these meetings the group identified five main areas of work to specifically focus on over the next 18 months, leading to the 20th IUHPE World Conference on ;Health, equity and sustainable development'. The discussions also facilitated the revision of the GWG's terms of reference, as presented in this commentary.

Impact of Emergency Department Built Environment on Timeliness of Physician Assessment of Patients With Chest Pain

A retrospective cohort study was conducted to evaluate the effect of the built environment of an emergency department (ED) on the timeliness of physician assessment of chest pain patients. The main outcome variable was time to initial physician assessment. Potential predictor variables included presence of a solid door, distance of treatment room from work area, staffing team, day of week, and the patient's age, sex, and triage level. After multi-variate adjustment, the only predictors of time to initial assessment greater than 10 minutes were being placed in a room with a door (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 1.58; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.01-2.48) and being placed in a room 25 feet or more from the main physician work area (adjusted OR 1.38; 95% CI 1.13-1.67). These findings suggest that the ED built environment can be a barrier for providing timely care for this group of patients and may have implications for future ED architectural designs.

The design and use of a mapping tool as a baseline means of identifying an organization’s active networks1

As part of the Learning How to Learn in Classrooms, Schools and Networks Project, a mapping tool and associated interviews were devised to capture practitioners’ views of the networks associated with their schools and local authorities (LAs). This article discusses the development and use of the mapping tool, including its trialing, and the first stages of analysis. The task was open‐ended asking respondents to represent with whom and how their organization communicates. LA advisers and officers offered an LA‐based perspective and both headteachers and school project coordinators offered a school‐based perspective. Forty‐eight maps have been collected from 18 schools and 5 LAs. Theoretically, the development of the mapping tool draws on three main areas of work—sociograms dating back to the 1930s, social network analysis, currently being used by Finnish researchers, and the work of Mavers et al. in mapping children’s representations of the virtual world of computers. Initial discussion of the range of map structures drawn by respondents is presented. In all cases it was possible to extract from the maps a list of people, groups, places and events, termed nodes, and information about how these nodes were connected, termed links. Most maps were organized around one or, in some cases, two central nodes. Descriptive analysis of both nodes and links has been used both to give respondents feedback on their maps, incorporating them in the validation of further analysis, and for comparative purposes. Respondents were largely positive about both the mapping task as a useful, reflective task to focus on their networking activities and the validity of the feedback given to them. Map representations are also explored from a spatial perspective with reference to ideas drawn from Sack and Castells. Reference is made to networked learning communities as supported and developed by the National College of School Leadership and also the Government’s Virtual Education Action Zone initiative, examples of which were represented in the project.

Modelling Patient Flow in a Radiotherapy Department

This paper reports the development of a simulation model of the radiotherapy department of Walsgrave Hospital and shows the results of experiments conducted using the model. In the radiotherapy department a key target is the number of days from the time that the consultant refers the patient to the department to the date that the patient receives their first treatment. Many factors can affect this time and this project has attempted to identify and quantify the effects of these factors. Initial discussions were held to provide a framework for the study. These discussions were followed by a series of visits to the department to observe the way in which it operates and to interview staff in each of the main areas of work. Following this a flow diagram of the department was produced. This was used as a basis for the development of a computer simulation model which represents the way in which a patient moves through the department, from referral by a consultant, to the planning of the treatment, to the treatment itself, and finally discharge from the hospital. A series of experiments was used to evaluate the effects of changes to the input to the model, the number of resources in the model and the way in which the department operates. Finally, recommendations are made for future work to develop the model further and suggestions are made for its application.

8.1.3 Towards an Integrated Model of Enterprise Systems

AbstractAn enterprise system consists of a number of components or building blocks. It is common to use views or models of the enterprise that contain a selection of these components (dependent on the intended usage of the model). The premise is that if these views are considered systems in their own right then the total enterprise system is actually a system‐of‐systems. Difficulty arises however when the boundaries between the systems overlap ‐ it is therefore necessary to have an integrated model of the total enterprise that can cope with these overlaps and hence interactions between the systems. Within this paper there will be two main areas of work described; firstly the development of models/tools of “soft” enterprise characteristics; and secondly how these characteristics may be included in an integrated model of an enterprise system. Case studies of UK organisations (primarily within the defence industry) were undertaken to provide context to the results.

Exploring the contribution of the Clinical Librarian to facilitating evidence‐based nursing

To examine the potential role of the Clinical Librarian in facilitating evidence-based practice of nurses in acute hospital settings and develop a model for the role. There is a growing policy and professional expectation that nurses will seek out and apply evidence in their clinical practice. Studies have demonstrated that nurses experience barriers in working with an evidence-based approach. The role of Clinical Librarian has been used in other countries and within medicine to overcome some of the barriers to evidence-based practice. There are limitations in the previous work in terms of rigour of evaluation, scope of the Clinical Librarian role and application to nursing in a UK setting. A qualitative consultation of 72 nurses in acute care settings. Six consultation group interviews of between 4-19 participants. Written records were recorded by the scribe. Content analysis was undertaken to identify the range and frequency of comments. Clinical questions currently go unanswered because of barriers of time, skills deficits and access to resources. Literature searching, skills training and evidence dissemination were the main areas of work the staff requested that a Clinical Librarian should undertake. It was anticipated that the Clinical Librarian could interact and work productively with nursing staff with a limited but regular presence on the ward. Interim communication could be via e-mail, phone and written suggestions and requests for work. It was seen to be vital that the Clinical Librarian worked in partnership with staff to build evidence-based practice capacity and ensure clinical relevance of the work. This study has generated the first model for the Clinical Librarian role with an emphasis on nursing. It is derived from the views of clinical nurses. Recommendations are made for the implementation and evaluation of such a role. The Clinical Librarian could be an invaluable support to promoting evidence-based nursing.

My life as an applied social psychologist

I want to describe a personal odyssey that interweaves my career with three main areas of my work: social psychology, program evaluation, and mental health services research. This essay is a personal reflection on the many social, personal, and random factors that influenced the research paths that I followed. The organization is primarily chronological and I pick up the threads that run though my professional life in no particular order. Writing a professional autobiography is by its very nature an egocentric activity. Some who know me will think that this should pose no challenge to me.

Carteira de Trabalho, artigo de luxo: o perfil psicossocial de trabalhadores informais em Salvador, Bahia

A pesquisa investigou o perfil psicossocial de trabalhadores informais que divulgavam seus serviços em anúncios de rádio e jornal na cidade do Salvador. Durante cinco meses foram registrados 638 anúncios distribuídos por 19 áreas ocupacionais. O objetivo da pesquisa era obter informações, como: motivos de ingresso na atividade informal, tempo de atuação, etc. Foram realizadas entrevistas por telefone com 73 anunciantes. Os entrevistados possuíam idade entre 30 e 39 anos, ensino médio, remuneração mensal entre 240 e 479 reais, e atuavam no setor informal há menos de 3 anos. Utilizou-se análise de conteúdo temática e análises quantitativas (qui-quadrado e Homals). O primeiro resultado foi que as principais áreas de atuação dos trabalhadores informais são: alimentação, multifuncionalidade e informática. Outro resultado foi que o cruzamento (qui-quadrado) entre os motivos de satisfação, insatisfação e barreiras, de um lado, e idade, escolaridade e tempo de atuação no mercado informal, de outro, revelou significância estatística nos casos: (1) insatisfação e faixa etária, (2) motivos de satisfação e escolaridade, e (3) motivos de satisfação e tempo de trabalho no mercado informal.

Towards a better knowledge and management of infiltration and exfiltration in sewer systems: the APUSS project

Sewer systems constitute a very significant patrimony in European cities. Their structural quality and functional efficiency are key parameters to guarantee the transfer of domestic and trade wastewater to treatment plants without infiltration nor exfiltration. Infiltration of groundwater is particularly detrimental to treatment plant efficiency, while exfiltration of wastewater can lead to groundwater contamination. During the period 2001-2004, the European research project APUSS (Assessing infiltration and exfiltration on the Performance of Urban Sewer Systems) was devoted to sewer infiltration and exfiltration questions. It was structured on three main Work Areas dealing respectively with i) the development of new measurement methods based on tracer experiments and accounting for detailed uncertainty analyses, ii) the implementation of models and software tools to integrate structural and experimental data and to facilitate data display, operational management and decision making process and iii) the integration of economic and operational questions by means of costs estimation, economic valuation, performance indicators and multi-criteria methods applied to investment/rehabilitation strategies. This overview paper describes synthetically the objectives, methods and main achievements for each Work Area. References to both antecedent and companion papers are given for results and more detailed information.

Interview with Terence Taylor

Mr Terence Taylor is a member of the Directing Staff of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) and President and Executive Director oj IISS-US. His main area of work is at the intersection of science technology and international security policy. He is co-director of a project to develop a charter for a code of conduct for life scientists in academic circles and private industry on safe, secure and ethical behaviour. In addition, he is leading a project for the development of concepts and methodologies on risk assessment for high-level policymakers faced with complex emergencies. He is also a member of the Board of Editors of the International Review of the Red Cross.

The experiences of blind and partially sighted users of the NHS: Making the delivery of care more inclusive and effective

Patient satisfaction is now an integral part of measuring health care quality. The UK Government's NHS reform plan (2000) promises the delivery of services tailored to individual patient needs—that is, patient-led health care. In addition, the Disability Discrimination Act now requires providers of services to make reasonable adjustments in their provision of services in order to facilitate access for all users of these facilities. In 2003 Guide Dogs undertook a survey of approximately 800+ blind and partially sighted people to identify their experiences in the use of NHS facilities. The purpose of the survey was broadly to determine the extent to which ‘reasonable adjustments’ would need to be made within the health establishment to effectively address the needs of visually impaired patients and to ensure that delivery of care was indeed patient-led. The results of the survey highlight the main areas of work which must be undertaken by health facilities (primary and other care providers) to make their services more inclusive and accessible; as well as the role patients themselves will have to play in ensuring that the patient journey increasingly becomes a less stressful experience.

Counterpoints and fugues : Le Corbusier's use of colour for the Factory Claude and Duval in St. Dié

The factory Claude and Duval in St. Die represents one of Le Corbusier's few remaining buildings where the original colours and paints survived restoration efforts. The colour schemes of the ceilings in the main working area, which for the most part until today haven't been touched, bear exceptional witness to his postwar architectural polychromy. In Le Corbusier's own work the factory represents a turning point regarding the application of his colour concept polychromie architecturale. Here, he applied a new colour palette for the first time, which from now on in variations determined the colour schemes of his postwar buildings. Bright, vibrant hues, often used as combinations of primary colours are juxtaposed as colour accents with the robust character of concrete and other natural materials. The planning and construction of the factory Claude and Duval in St. Die coincided with the development of the Modulor, which puts the change in his architectural polychromy in a new context. What role did colour play in the interplay of the architectural elements, which for the first time were precisely controlled through the Modulor? Drawing on primarily unpublished documents, this paper investigates the colour design for the factory in St. Die and ties it back into the broader context of Le Corbusier's Polychromie Architecturale.

Advances in wearable technology and applications in physical medicine and rehabilitation.

The development of miniature sensors that can be unobtrusively attached to the body or can be part of clothing items, such as sensing elements embedded in the fabric of garments, have opened countless possibilities of monitoring patients in the field over extended periods of time. This is of particular relevance to the practice of physical medicine and rehabilitation. Wearable technology addresses a major question in the management of patients undergoing rehabilitation, i.e. have clinical interventions a significant impact on the real life of patients? Wearable technology allows clinicians to gather data where it matters the most to answer this question, i.e. the home and community settings. Direct observations concerning the impact of clinical interventions on mobility, level of independence, and quality of life can be performed by means of wearable systems. Researchers have focused on three main areas of work to develop tools of clinical interest: 1)the design and implementation of sensors that are minimally obtrusive and reliably record movement or physiological signals, 2)the development of systems that unobtrusively gather data from multiple wearable sensors and deliver this information to clinicians in the way that is most appropriate for each application, and 3)the design and implementation of algorithms to extract clinically relevant information from data recorded using wearable technology. Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation has devoted a series of articles to this topic with the objective of offering a description of the state of the art in this research field and pointing to emerging applications that are relevant to the clinical practice in physical medicine and rehabilitation.

Incidence of self-reported occupational injuries in seafaring--an international study.

Seafaring is known as a high-risk industry. The aims were to describe the incidence of non-fatal injuries among seafarers, including testing the hypothesis that long working hours might result in higher injury rates. A questionnaire study of injury on the latest tour of duty was carried out among seafarers in 11 countries with 6461 participants. The seafarers were asked if they were injured during the latest tour of duty and what was the number of hours worked. During the latest tour of duty, 9.1% of all seafarers were injured and 4.3% had an injury with at least 1 day of incapacity. The injury incidence rates for cargo ships and tankers: 39.5 per 1 million work hours and 37.6 per 100,000 days. Multivariate analyses: incidence rate ratios (IRR) for >70 working hours per week compared with <57 h: 0.90 [95% confidence interval (95% CI) = 0.61-1.32]; non-officers compared with officers: IRR = 1.57 (95% CI = 1.14-2.15); seafarers <35 years compared with > or =35 years of age: IRR = 2.11 (1.57-2.86); tour lengths > or =117 days compared with <117 days: IRR = 0.27 (0.19-0.39). Main work area on the deck and in the service area compared with work in the engine room: IRR = 0.37 (0.27-0.52) and IRR = 0.49 (0.26-0.91), respectively. There was no evidence that long working hours alone resulted in higher injury rates. Low self-perceived health, lack of use of personal protection and lack of occupational safety on board were significantly related to an increase in the injury risk.

OzFoodNet: a network for enhancing food-borne disease surveillance and investigation across Australia

The Australian Government established OzFoodNet in 2000 to enhance surveillance and determine the burden of infection from food-borne illness across Australia. The OzFoodNet network collaborates nationally to investigate food-borne disease. OzFoodNet has three main areas of work, which are to: ? Determine the burden of food-borne illness in Australia. ? Identify the causes of food-borne disease. ? Coordinate investigations into outbreaks of food-borne illness.

Computer shogi

This paper describes the current state of the art in computer shogi. Shogi (Japanese chess) promises to be a good vehicle for future research into game-playing programs that are based on tree-searching paradigms. This paper shows where chess and shogi are similar, and details the important areas that make shogi programming of particular interest. A crucial difference is the game-tree complexity, which is significantly higher in shogi than in chess. Three important differences are the “drop” rule, the diverging character of the game, and the slow build-up of forces. They make it difficult to have effective opening and endgame procedures. After a short summary of the rules of shogi and an outline of the main areas of current work in computer shogi, we provide an overview of the history of computer shogi, in which computer-shogi activities both in human tournaments and in exhibition events are given. We conjecture that by the year 2010 a computer will be comparable in strength to the best human players. The most important techniques used in computer shogi are described. We focus on issues such as opening play, selective search, quiescence search, solving tactical exchanges without tree searching, position evaluation and endgame play. At the end the key challenges in computer shogi are enumerated, and finally, concluding remarks are given.

Abattoir-associated Q fever: a Q fever outbreak during a Q fever vaccination program.

To investigate an abattoir outbreak of Q fever in southem New South Wales with reference to the protective effect and safety of the formalin-inactivated Q fever vaccine (Q Vax) administered before and during the outbreak. In September 1998, after notification of four Q fever cases in the abattoir, a cohort investigation of 103 workers was undertaken. Data on age, sex, immune status, vaccination status and main work area were obtained from the medical officer administering the vaccination program and abattoir records. Symptoms and occupational risk factors for illness were obtained from interview of 63 (61%) employees. Of 103 abattoir employees, 16 (16%) had immunity from previous Q fever exposure and 19 (18 %) had been vaccinated at least six weeks before the first case of Q fever exposure in the abattoir. Of the remaining 68 workers who were susceptible to primary infection, 29 (43%) had laboratory confirmed acute primary Q fever and eight were suspected cases. No workers vaccinated before the likely period of exposure developed Q fever. Of 32 workers vaccinated post-exposure, four developed laboratory-confirmed Q fever within eight days of vaccination. Vaccination administered 10 or more days after the likely period of exposure showed no significant protective effect (RR=0.57; 95% CI 0.13-2.57; p=0.60). Q-Vax was highly effective when administered in advance of the likely period of Q fever exposure. Post exposure vaccination was not shown to be protective. This study reinforces meat industry vaccination guidelines for abattoir employees. The optimal time to vaccinate workers is before they are put at occupational risk.

Providing Care to Drug Users on Wirral: a case study analysis of a Primary Health Care / General Practice-led drug service

This paper represents a case study analysis of a Primary Health Care / GP-led Community Drug and Health Care Service based on Wirral, Merseyside. A chronological description of the service is presented followed by a description of the major components of the case. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with 11 staff members and were recorded and transcribed. Salient descriptive elements of the services they provide were extracted and descriptions of the treatment approaches have been included in the text of this analysis. Vignettes of real cases are also included to highlight the criteria used to measure effectiveness. This case study details biographical and service-specific data from a major provider of services to illicit drug users in the North-West of England. The study systematically examines five main areas of work: making contact, assessing and treating health care problems, maintaining contact and promoting change, caring for vulnerable groups of users and reintegrating users into primary care. The findings of this case study describe how a GP (Primary Care) led unit, working in conjunction with other specialized services, provides effective care to a group of heterogeneous illicit drug users.