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Destitution in pregnancy: Forced migrant women's lived experience
Get PDFYesForced migrant women are increasingly becoming destitute whilst pregnant. Destitution may exacerbate their poor underlying physical and mental health. There is little published research that examines this, and studies are needed to ensure midwifery care addresses the specific needs of these women. This study aimed to explore vulnerable migrant women's lived experience of being pregnant and destitute.
Six in-depth individual interviews with forced migrant women who had been destitute during their pregnancy were conducted over one year.
A lack of food and being homeless impacted on women's physical and mental health. Women relied on support from the voluntary sector to fill the gaps in services not provided by their local authorities. Although midwives were generally kind and helpful, there was a limit to how they could support the women.
There is a gap in support provided by local authorities working to government policies and destitute migrant pregnant women should not have to wait until 34 weeks gestation before they can apply for support. Home office policy needs to change to ensure pregnant migrant women receive support throughout their pregnancy
Fidelity and the impact of patient safety huddles on teamwork and safety culture: an evaluation of the Huddle Up for Safer Healthcare (HUSH) project.
Get PDFYesThe Patient Safety Huddle (PSH) is a brief multidisciplinary daily meeting held to discuss threats to patient safety and actions to mitigate risk. Despite growing interest and application of huddles as a mechanism for improving safety, evidence of their impact remains limited. There is also variation in how huddles are conceived and implemented with insufficient focus on their fidelity (the extent to which delivered as planned) and potential ways in which they might influence outcomes. The Huddle Up for Safer Healthcare (HUSH) project attempted to scale up the implementation of patient safety huddles (PSHs) in five hospitals - 92 wards - across three UK NHS Trusts. This paper aims to assess their fidelity, time to embed, and impact on teamwork and safety culture.
A multi-method Developmental Evaluation was conducted. The Stages of Implementation Checklist (SIC) was used to determine time taken to embed PSHs. Observations were used to check embedded status and fidelity of PSH. A Teamwork and Safety Climate survey (TSC) was administered at two time-points: pre- and post-embedding. Changes in TSC scores were calculated for Trusts, job role and clinical speciality.
Observations confirmed PSHs were embedded in 64 wards. Mean fidelity score was 4.9/9. PSHs frequently demonstrated a 'fear free' space while Statistical Process Control charts and historical harms were routinely omitted. Analysis showed a positive change for the majority (26/27) of TSC questions and the overall safety grade of the ward.
PSHs are feasible and effective for improving teamwork and safety culture, especially for nurses. PSH fidelity criteria may need adjusting to include factors deemed most useful by frontline staff. Future work should examine inter-disciplinary and role-based differences in TSC outcomes.The Health Foundation’s Scaling Up Improvement Programme: Round One (2015
The mean–variance relation: A 24-hour story
Get PDFYesThis paper investigates the mean-variance relation during different time periods within trading days. We reveal that there is a positive mean-variance relation when the stock market is closed (i.e., overnight), but the positive relation is distorted when the market is open (i.e., intraday). The evidence offers a new explanation for the weak risk-return tradeoff in stock markets
Voltage Unbalance Mitigation in Low Voltage Distribution Networks using Time Series Three-Phase Optimal Power Flow
Get PDFNoDue to high penetration of single-phase Photovoltaic (PV) cells into low voltage (LV) distribution networks, several impacts such as voltage unbalance, voltage rise, power losses, reverse power flow arise which leads to operational constraints violation in the network. In this paper, a time series Three Phase Optimal Power Flow (TPOPF) method is proposed to minimize the voltage unbalance in LV distribution networks with high penetration of residential PVs. TPOPF problem is formulated using the current injection method in which the PVs are modelled via a time-varying PV power profile with active and reactive power control. The proposed method is validated on a real LV distribution feeder. The results show that the reactive power management of the PVs helps mitigate the voltage unbalance significantly. Moreover, the voltage unbalance index reduced significantly compared to the case without voltage unbalance minimisation.Innovate UK GCRF Energy Catalyst Pi-CREST project under Grant number 41358; British Academy GCRF COMPENSE project under Grant GCRFNGR3\1541; Mut’ah University, Jorda
Optimal Energy Resource Allocation in Isolated Micro Grid with Limited Supply Capacity
No full textNoAn isolated micro-grid network with limited generating capacity would most likely, end up having operational challenge either due to increasing number of customers, or introduction of new loads onto the network. This is in view of an observed scenario especially in developing countries whereby as load demand increases, installed PV capacity often do not receive commensurate expansion. So, in order to prevent network failure, each user can be allocated certain amount of limited power supply which should not be exceeded. These allotments are dynamic, and they vary at regular time intervals every day depending on their historic load profile data. This work is therefore based on managing power supply from a PV-source operating as an isolated micro-grid with storage capabilities. A power supply scheduling mechanism is introduced which allocates maximum power capacity for every user. Hence communities detached from the grid can enjoy electricity despite shortfalls in power supply capacity. The obtained results evaluated under three scenarios show that allocating energy limits to each user depends on the current capacity of the battery as well as the forecast load demand. This allotment is enforced using variable circuit breakers whose cut-off point is varied based on the prevailing energy demand and supply requirements
Message from A-MOST 2020 Chairs
Get PDFYesWelcome to the 16th edition of the Advances in Model-Based Testing Workshop (A-MOST 2020)
held on March 23rd, 2020 in Porto as part of ICST 2020, the IEEE International Conference on
Software Testing, Verification and Validation
Influence of Terminal Functionality on the Crystal Packing Behaviour and Cytotoxicity of Aromatic Oligoamides
Get PDFYesThe synthesis and characterization of three aromatic oligoamides, constructed from the same pyridyl carboxamide core but incorporating distinct end groups of acetyl (Ac) 1, tert-butyloxycarbonyl (Boc) 2 and amine 3 is reported. Single crystal X-ray diffraction analysis of 1-3 and a dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) solvate of 2 (2-DMSO), has identified the presence of a range of intra- and intermolecular interactions including N-H⋯N, N-H⋯O=C and N-H⋯O=S(CH3)2 hydrogen-bonding interactions, C-H⋯π interactions and off-set, face-to-face stacking π-π interactions that support the variety of slipped stack, herringbone and cofacial crystal packing arrangements observed in 1-3. Additionally, the cytotoxicity of this series of aromatic oligoamides was assessed against two human ovarian (A2780 and A2780cisR), two human breast (MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231) cancerous cell lines and one non-malignant human epithelial cell line (PNT-2), to investigate the influence of the terminal functionality of these aromatic oligoamides on their biological activity. The chemosensitivity results highlight that modification of the terminal group from Ac to Boc in 1 and 2 leads to a 3-fold increase in antiproliferative activity against the cisplatin-sensitive ovarian carcinoma cell line, A2780. The presence of the amine termini in 3 gave the only member of the series to display activity against the cisplatin-resistance ovarian carcinoma cell line, A2780cisR. Compound 2 is the lead candidate of this series, displaying high selectivity towards A2780 cancer cells when compared to non-malignant PNT-2 cells, with a selectivity index value >4.2. Importantly, this compound is more selective towards A2780 (cf. PNT-2) than the clinical platinum drugs oxaliplatin by > 2.6-fold and carboplatin by > 1.6-fold.University of Bradford Development Fund; University of Birmingham - Birmingham Fellowship; UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship (MR/T041315/1); UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship (MR/S035486/2
A prospective evaluation of the clinical safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 Urgent Eyecare Services across 5 areas in England
Get PDFYesPurpose: Although urgent primary eye care schemes exist in some areas of England, their current safety is unknown. Accordingly, the aim of the present study was to quantify the clinical safety and effectiveness of a COVID-19 Urgent Eyecare Service (CUES) across Luton, Bedford, Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire and Harrogate.
Methods: Consenting patients with acute onset eye problems who had accessed the service were contacted to ascertain what the optometrist’s recommendation was, whether this worked, if they had to present elsewhere and how satisfied they were with the CUES.
Results: 27% (170/629) and 6.3% (28/445) of patients managed virtually and in person, respectively, did not have their acute eye problem resolved. Regression analysis revealed that patients who attended a face-to-face consultation were 4.66 times more likely to be correctly managed (Exp (β) = 5.66), relative to those managed solely virtually. Optometrists phone consultations failed to detect conditions such as stroke, intracranial hypertension, suspected space occupying lesions, orbital cellulitis, scleritis, corneal ulcer, wet macular degeneration, uveitis with macular oedema and retinal detachment. Of referrals to hospital ophthalmology departments, in total, 19% were false-positives. Patients, however, were typically very satisfied with the service. Uptake was associated with socio-economic status.
Conclusion: The present study found that a virtual assessment service providing optometrist teleconsultations was not effective at resolving patient’s acute-onset eye problems. The range and number of pathologies missed by teleconsultations suggests that the service model in the present study was detrimental to patient safety. To improve this, optometrists should follow evidence based guidance when attempting to manage patients virtually, or in person. For example, patients presenting with acute-onset symptoms of flashing lights and/or floaters require an urgent dilated fundus examination. Robust data collection on service safety is required on an ongoing basis.The full-text of this article will be released for public view at the end of the publisher embargo on 10 Nov 2022
Driver Behaviour Modelling: Travel Prediction Using Probability Density Function
Get PDFNoThis paper outlines the current challenges of driver
behaviour modelling for real-world applications and presents the novel
method to identify the pattern of usage to predict upcoming journeys
in probability sense. The primary aim is to establish similarity between
observed behaviour of drivers resulting in the ability to cluster them
and deploy control strategies based on contextual intelligence and datadriven
approach. The proposed approach uses the probability density
function (PDF) driven by kernel density estimation (KDE) as a probabilistic
approach to predict the type of the upcoming journey, expressed
as duration and distance. Using the proposed method, the mathematical
formulation and programming algorithm procedure have been indicated
in detail, while the case study examples with the data visualisation are
given for algorithm validation in simulation.This paper outlines the current challenges of driver
behaviour modelling for real-world applications and presents the novel
method to identify the pattern of usage to predict upcoming journeys
in probability sense. The primary aim is to establish similarity between
observed behaviour of drivers resulting in the ability to cluster them
and deploy control strategies based on contextual intelligence and datadriven
approach. The proposed approach uses the probability density
function (PDF) driven by kernel density estimation (KDE) as a probabilistic
approach to predict the type of the upcoming journey, expressed
as duration and distance. Using the proposed method, the mathematical
formulation and programming algorithm procedure have been indicated
in detail, while the case study examples with the data visualisation are
given for algorithm validation in simulation.aiR-FORCE project, funded as Proof of Concept by the Institute of Digital Engineerin
A reliability inspired strategy for intelligent performance management with predictive driver behaviour: A case study for a diesel particulate filter
Get PDFYesThe increase availability of operational data from the fleets of cars in the field offers opportunities to deploy machine learning to identify patterns of driver behaviour. This provides contextual intelligence insight that can be used to design strategies for online optimisation of the vehicle performance, including compliance with stringent legislation. This paper illustrates this approach with a case study for a Diesel Particulate Filter, where machine learning deployed to real world automotive data is used in conjunction with a reliability inspired performance modelling paradigm to design a strategy to enhance operational performance based on predictive driver behaviour. The model-in-the-loop simulation of the proposed strategy on a fleet of vehicles showed significant improvement compared to the base strategy, demonstrating the value of the approach