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Experiences of successful physical activity maintenance among adults with type 2 diabetes: a theory-based qualitative study
No full textApproximately 70% of adults with type 2 diabetes (T2D) fail to achieve the 150 minutes of weekly physical activity (PA) recommended for self-management. Interventions to promote PA adoption in T2D rarely achieve stable maintenance. Analysis of lived experiences of adults with T2D who have successfully transitioned to long-term PA maintenance can build understanding of factors influencing long-term maintenance.Semi-structured interviews were conducted among 18 adults with T2D who had transitioned to a lifestyle incorporating maintenance of recommended PA. Interview topics were informed by the three phases of the 'Multi-Process Action Control' (M-PAC) Framework, and explored attitudes, beliefs and experiences relating to PA decision, adoption and the transition to stable maintenance. Transcripts were thematically analysed.Seven themes emerged. Results variously showed that negative affect engendered by T2D diagnosis and inspiration from peers influenced intention formation, and that setting easy, fun goals, and experiencing biopsychosocial gains were important to behaviour adoption. PA maintenance was regulated by habit, expectations of positive affect, and a new sense of identity.Phase-based frameworks can help understand how regulation of behaviour evolves over time. PA promotion strategies for inactive adults with T2D should be phase-tailored, to help people transition from intentions to maintenance
6G for Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) Communications: Enabling Technologies, Challenges, and Opportunities
Full text linkWe are on the cusp of a new era of connected autonomous vehicles with unprecedented user experiences, tremendously improved road safety and air quality, highly diverse transportation environments and use cases, as well as a plethora of advanced applications. Realizing this grand vision requires a significantly enhanced vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication network which should be extremely intelligent and capable of concurrently supporting hyper-fast, ultra-reliable, and low-latency massive information exchange. It is anticipated that the sixth-generation (6G) communication systems will fulfill these requirements of the next-generation V2X. In this article, we outline a series of key enabling technologies from a range of domains, such as new materials, algorithms, and system architectures. Aiming for truly intelligent transportation systems, we envision that machine learning will play an instrumental role for advanced vehicular communication and networking. To this end, we provide an overview on the recent advances of machine learning in 6G vehicular networks. To stimulate future research in this area, we discuss the strength, open challenges, maturity, and enhancing areas of these technologies
Resonant Quenching of Photoluminescence in Porphyrin – Nanocarbon Agglomerates
No full textBy adopting structural conformations with sub-nanometer precision, nature creates highly concentrated pigment-protein arrays to capture solar energy with high-efficiency. Synthetic analogues of such systems exhibit concentration dependent fluorescence quenching when approaching pigment concentrations of that seen in biological systems. Here we report on systems of acid functionalised multi-walled carbon nanotubes (o-MWCNT) and aminophenyl tetraporphyrins that create a novel synthetic pigment-scaffold complex. The complex does not follow the trend of typical fluorescence quenching. Our steady-state and time-resolved data suggest an optimal concentration that offers a luminescence enhancement compared to the expected standard Stern-Volmer quenching relationship. The quenching is modified by controlling 1 the pigment-distance via agglomerate size to near the upper limit for Dex-ter transfer of 10Å10˚10Å as confirmed by dynamic light scattering measurements and chromophore-chromophore nearest neighbour calculations. Our results highlight a potential synthetic complex with facile synthesis to investigate resonant electron transfer processes that do not follow traditional luminescence self-quenching relationships
Causal explanations for patient engagement with primary care services in Saudi Arabia: a realist review protocol
No full textSaudi Arabia (SA) has a rapidly developing universal healthcare system which is maturing from its hospital focused origins. However, health service usage suggests that up to 65% of the cases seen in emergency departments were classified as non-urgent and could have been appropriately managed in primary healthcare (PHC) settings. Primary care development in SA has lagged behind secondary care, and evidence suggests that Saudi citizens are currently ambivalent or dissatisfied with their PHC services. Previous research has focused on the quality and patient satisfaction of PHC services in SA. Yet, uncertainty still exists about causal explanations for patient engagement with PHC services and what refinements are needed for PHC. Less attention has been paid to how patient engagement strategies might work differently, which is increasingly recognised as important in PHC services. The aim of this review is to understand the causal explanations for patient engagement with PHC and to generate theory of how the intended outcome of patient engagement with PHC in SA might be achieved through identified contexts and mechanisms.A realist review approach will be used to synthesise the evidence. Databases including Medline, EMBASE and CINAHL will be searched. Literature will be included if it has relevance to the research question, and is trustworthy in nature. All document types will be screened including peer reviewed articles, relevant grey literature and related media items. All study types will be included. Stakeholders' feedback will also inform our review. A realist approach is suitable for this review because patient engagement with PHC services is a complex phenomenon. A range of different relevant data will be included in the following stages: developing an initial programme theory, searching the evidence, selecting data, extracting data, synthesising data and refining the programme theory.This study will use secondary data, and stakeholders are involved only to shape our understanding of the important contexts in patient engagement; hence, a formal ethics review is not required. Findings will be disseminated in a peer-reviewed journal and at relevant conferences.CRD42020175955
Barriers and facilitators to out-of-hospital pain management for children
Full text linkPain is one of the most common symptoms presented by patients of all ages to ambulance services. While children in pain make up a relatively small proportion of the patients attended by prehospital care services, medical intervention is needed in only 40% of cases. This might go some way to explaining why management of paediatric pain is perceived as poor. Aim: To establish and explore published barriers and facilitators to out-of-hospital pain management for children aged <18 years. Methods: Key search terms were used to search the three databases (CINAHL, MEDLINE and PSYCHInfo) individually and simultaneously. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied and 15 papers were identified as meeting the criteria and were subject to data extraction. Results: Three broad themes were identified; organisational factors, patient factors and clinician factors. Conclusion: From considering international systems and aspects of care, it can generally be accepted that the assessment and management of paediatric pain is below what would be expected, and compared with with that for adults, it is sub-optimal. Multiple demographic influences are evident and appear to influence clinician decisions
Ultrasonic degradation of perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) correlated with sonochemical and sonoluminescence characterisation
Full text linkSonolysis has been proposed as a promising treatment technology to remove per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) from contaminated water. The mechanism of degradation is generally accepted to be high temperature pyrolysis at the bubble surface with dependency upon surface reaction site availability. However, the parametric effects of the ultrasonic system on PFAS degradation are poorly understood, making upscale challenging and leading to less than optimal use of ultrasonic energy. Hence, a thorough understanding of these parametric effects could lead to improved efficiency and commercial viability. Here, reactor characterisation was performed at 44, 400, 500 and 1000 kHz using potassium iodide (KI) dosimetry, sonochemiluminescence (SCL), and sonoluminescence (SL) in water and PFOS solution. Then the degradation of PFOS (10 mg / L in 200 mL solution) was investigated at these four frequencies. At 44 kHz, no PFOS degradation was observed. At 400, 500 and 1000 kHz the amount of degradation was 96.9, 93.8 and 91.2%, respectively, over four hours and was accompanied by stoichiometric fluoride release, indicating mineralisation of the PFOS molecule. Close correlation of PFOS degradation trends with KI dosimetry and SCL intensity was observed, which suggested degradation occurred under similar conditions to these sonochemical processes. At 1000 kHz, where the overall intensity of collapse was significantly reduced (measured by SL), PFOS degradation was not similarly decreased. Discussion is presented that suggests a solvated electron degradation mechanism for PFOS may occur in ultrasonic conditions
Essays on the impact of technology and trade on the economy
Full text linkThis thesis is composed of two chapters each studying different aspects of the impact oftechnology and international trade on the economy.Chapter 1 analyses the effects of trade and technology shocks on the internal migrationof workers in the United States between 1990 and 2007. It finds that routine workersexhibit a lower migration response to rising Chinese import competition than non-routineworkers. This is the case despite the China trade shock triggering disproportionate falls inroutine wages and employment in high-trade exposed regions. It also finds that the sharesof routine in-migrants decline as the automation of routine-tasks displaces routine workersin technologically advanced regions. Using a spatial equilibrium model, the chapters explainsthe regional adjustment process emerging from the disjoint geography of trade andtechnology shocks from theoretical standpoint. The migration of routine workers is hamperedby lower equilibrium wages. Less routine workers migrate across regions, and otherlabour market outcomes such as unemployment worsen in response to the shock.Chapter 2 analyses optimal fiscal policy in an economy with two types of capital: physicalcapital, and automation capital (“robots”), that is substitutable with labour. If the taxsystem is complete, the optimal robot and capital taxes should be set in such a way, so thatthe pre-tax returns on automation and physical capital are equalized along the transitionto the zero-distortion steady state. I examine the implications of this result in an economywith a declining price of automation that matches U.S. data.<br
Improved capsule routing for weakly labeled sound event detection
Full text linkPolyphonic sound event detection aims to detect the types of sound events that occur in given audio clips, and their onset and offset times, in which multiple sound events may occur simultaneously. Deep learning-based methods such as convolutional neural networks (CNN) achieved state-of-the-art results in polyphonic sound event detection. However, two open challenges still remain: overlap between events and prone to overfitting problem. To solve the above two problems, we proposed a capsule network-based method for polyphonic sound event detection. With so-called dynamic routing, capsule networks have the advantage of handling overlapping objects and the generalization ability to reduce overfitting. However, dynamic routing also greatly slows down the training process. In order to speed up the training process, we propose a weakly labeled polyphonic sound event detection model based on the improved capsule routing. Our proposed method is evaluated on task 4 of the DCASE 2017 challenge and compared with several baselines, demonstrating competitive results in terms of F-score and computational efficiency
Assessing variability in vascular response to cocoa with personal devices: a series of double-blind randomized cross-over n-of-1 trials
Full text linkThe Dynamics of Organizational Autonomy: Oscillations at Automobili Lamborghini
Full text linkThrough a 21-year longitudinal study of the relationship between Italian supercar manufacturer Automobili Lamborghini and its parent, German carmaker Audi AG, we examine how a unit's degree of organizational autonomy is renegotiated over long periods of time. Using detailed empirical data, we develop a process model of the dynamics of organizational autonomy in a unit-parent relationship. This process model shows an ongoing dialectical tension between parent managers' autonomy-reduction efforts and unit managers' autonomy-extension efforts, and it reveals oscillations in the unit managers' discretion over resource-orchestration decisions. Driving this dialectic are parent managers' appraisal respect for the unit, their search for firm-wide strategic integration, and unit managers' organizational identity and concern for distinctiveness. Our process model captures concurrent feedback loops that endogenously produce these oscillations between lower and higher autonomy. We then conceptualize a harmonic domain in the unit-parent relationship, in which these oscillations persist without deviating toward amalgamation or separation. Finally, we develop a theory of change in autonomy by identifying a theoretical link between resource orchestration and specific dimensions of organizational identity. Our study highlights the dialectical, dynamic, and ongoing nature of organizational autonomy
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