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Connections: the power of learning together to improve healthcare in the United Kingdoms
Get PDFAn edited collection of chapters from international experts on patient engagement. Chapter 6.Connections: The Power of Learning Together to Improve Healthcare in the United Kingdom. A research review of patient engagement, with consideration of practical techniques to teach and support patient engagement. The voices of patients are strong with pieces written by twelve patients on their experiences of involvement
Effect of premature loading on punching resistance of reinforced concrete flat slabs
Get PDFPremature loading of reinforced concrete flat slabs in multi storey buildings during construction may occur after shuttering removal and loading slabs earlier than usual to meet project time targets. Some case studies showed failure of flat slabs, which were prematurely loaded during the construction process before it reaches its full characteristic strength (at 28 days), which was used in structural design. This research aims to address this problem through experimental testing and design application according to current building codes. Eight specimens with dimensions of 1100 * 1100 mm and a total thickness of 120 mm were experimentally tested to study the effect of concrete age and actual compressive strength at loading on the punching shear capacity of reinforced concrete slabs. All specimens were supported by a square column with dimensions of 150 × 150 mm and loaded at the four corners with a span of 1050 mm. Accelerating admixture was used in three studied specimens to achieve higher concrete compressive strength at early ages compared to their companions of normal concrete without these admixtures. It was found that increasing concrete compressive strength of slab from 25 N/mm2 to 35 Nlmm2 (40% increase) for normal concrete, without early admixture, improved punching shear capacity by 26%, while increasing it to 45 N/mm2 (80% increase) improved punching shear capacity by 49% when the specimens were loaded 7 days after casting. In addition, using an accelerating admixture increased early concrete compressive strength, which improved punching shear capacity of reinforced concrete slab over that without accelerating admixture by 31% and 29% after 7 days and 14 days, respectively. According to inclusion of reinforcement ratio, BS8110 - 97 and EC2 design codes showed the most accurate prediction of punching shear capacity at 28 days, while ACI and ECP seemed conservative as their equations do not take steel ratio into consideration. At early ages, BS8110 - 97 and EC2 design equations did not provide accurate prediction of punching shear capacity while ACI and ECP provided reliable equations. It is highly recommended to use the actual compressive strength of concrete at early age (7 days for example) for calculating punching shear resistance of flat slabs in multi storey buildings prior to shuttering removal to prevent any premature loading
Effect of elevated temperature on axially and eccentrically loaded columns containing Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) fibers
Get PDFPolyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) fiber was developed more than 80 years ago in Japan. They are heavily used in non-structural applications and in Engineered Cementitious Composites (ECC) mainly for beams and thin slabs sections. There are gaps in the research regarding their performance in other structural elements and at elevated temperatures. The aim of this work is to study the behavior of reinforced concrete columns containing PVA fibers after being subjected to elevated temperatures and then loaded either concentrically or eccentrically. A total of thirty-six reinforced concrete columns, having constant longitudinal reinforcement, were experimentally tested under different load eccentricity ratios (0.0, 0.50, and 1.0). Different ratios of PVA, 0.75%, 1.50%, 2.25% were included in the concrete mixes. The studied columns were exposed to elevated temperature before loading. It was observed that columns containing PVA fibers had higher ultimate loads, higher ultimate deflection, less crack widths, higher ultimate deflection, higher energy absorption, and higher temperature resistance compared to normal reinforced concrete columns. In addition, these columns didn’t show any sign of spalling due to the fiber bridging effect of PVA fibers unlike other studied normal reinforced concrete columns without fibers. It was found that addition of 1.50% fiber content showed better performance for centrically loaded columns while this was raised to be 2.25% for eccentrically loaded columns. The ultimate load of the columns exposed to elevated temperature rapidly decreased with increasing the duration of temperature to different magnitudes depending on the percentage inclusion of PVA fibers. It was found that ductility and energy absorption for columns including 1.5% PVA were higher than their companions without fibers after temperature exposure. It was observed that the energy absorption of eccentric columns exposed to temperature for up to two hours was still higher than that of their companions without fibers by 40% for eccentricity ratio of 1.0
Institutional Framework for Public-Private Partnerships in Nigeria: Is it a Case of Too Many Cooks for One Pot of Broth?
No full textPublic-private partnerships (PPPs) are long-term contracts between the government and the private sector with the aim of delivering cost-effective, well-maintained infrastructure facilities. The PPP arrangement makes room for the private sector to tap into private capital and expertise to drive economic growth and development. This is largely due to the huge infrastructure deficit that has been the bane of both developed and developing and emerging economies in contemporary times. The regulation of PPP is to ensure that there is a balance between the goals of the public sector and the private sector partners to a PPP transaction. Regulation is the tool for monitoring the market place, ensure protection for the private investor, and ensuring that the project meets with public policy including environmental protection. The paper argues that the regulation of PPP in Nigeria should be made less complex to achieve the above objectives
Persons with Intellectual Disability and Access to Justice in Nigeria: Challenges and the Way Forward
Get PDFConservatively, there are approximately about two million persons in Nigeria who may be referred to as persons with intellectual disabilities. These persons suffer from several challenges ranging from economic to non-inclusion in the society. In the paper, the discussion focuses on persons with intellectual disabilities and the effective access to justice as a fundamental right. The paper finds that even though Nigeria has adopted and ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the Federal Government of Nigeria has not been proactive in supporting the persons with disabilities in the country to enjoy these rights. Furthermore, despite the provision in the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to ensure freedom from discrimination, there is no direct effect on procedure to ensure that the rights of the disabled persons are protected. The paper proposes for a framework for the protection of the person with intellectual disability which includes legal protection, legal awareness, legal aid, adjudication and for civil society oversight of the access of persons with intellectual disabilities to justice
The Link between Employee Voice and Affective Commitment: A Systematic Review
No full textAbstract: This systematic review aimed to explore the relationship between
Employee Voice and Affective Commitment in literature. The researcher
approached several databases, including Academic Search Complete, Business
Search Complete, Business Search Premier, Science Direct and Google Scholar
and found 235 relevant studies. Nine studies were selected for review after a
vigorous process that rejected many studies because they were duplicated or
not fitting in the inclusion criteria. The chosen studies were put in separate
folders; Folder 1: Employee Voice, and Folder 2: Affective Commitment. A
thematic process that included careful reading data, coding, identifying trends,
establishing themes and confirming themes, was used on material separately.
The researcher identified and confirmed “trust”, “employee/work
engagement”, “innovation”, “positive relationship” and “communication” as core
themes and further analysis of themes as done including sub-themes to
validate the outcome. This review found that there was a significant link
between Employee Voice and Affective Commitment in literature. Previous
studies also supported this connection. Limitations, the vigorous process
could have left out some critical studies that could have changed the outcome.
Even, the thematic analysis that identified and confirmed themes could have
been biased towards the researcher’s understanding. Therefore the
researcher recommends further research to confirm these outcomes. Future
research should include more qualitative studies and more studies to explore
the association between the two concepts. However, the current results help
future scholars and practitioners to understand the link between Employee
Voice and Affective Commitment.
Keywords: Employee Voice, Affective Commitment. Systematic Review, Link
Multiple perspectives on what (if any) is an optimal time for people with dementia to move to a care home
Get PDFThe relationship between charismatic leadership and affective commitment: a systematic review
Get PDFThis researcher suggested a model that links between charismatic leadership and affective commitment in the body of literature. A systematic review exposed the same words that were deliberately used by previous scholars and emerged from both Affective Commitment and Charismatic Leadership articles. A vigorous selection process of 30 most relevant articles was carefully conducted, although many articles were rejected during the process. The previous studies (e.g., Vandenberghe and Bentein 2009, and Sokoll 2014) came short on linking the two concepts. However, there are some limitations to this study include, some studies could not pass through the rigorous selection process in this study, and therefore some useful information may have been missed. Also, the study considered work only published and peered reviewed articles, therefore some good papers could have missed out. However, to limit these drawbacks, the researcher consulted a wide range of databases and publication dates were stretched between 1966 and 2018, to accommodate all potential articles. The researcher suggests more research is needed to establish this result and quantitative approach is suggested considering the keywords as moderators and find the strength of the relationship
Whole genome sequencing revealed new molecular characteristics in multidrug resistant staphylococci recovered from high frequency touched surfaces in London
Get PDFThe rise of antibiotic resistance (AMR) is one of the most important public health threats worldwide.Today, increasing attention is being paid to multidrug resistant staphylococci isolated from healthcare and non-healthcare environments as the treatment of these bacteria has become increasingly difficult. In this study, we compared staphylococci isolates recovered from high frequency touched surfaces from public areas in the community and hospitals in East and West London. 281 out of 600 (46.83%) staphylococci isolates recovered were multidrug resistant, of which 49 (8.17%) were mecA positive. There was significantly higher proportion of multidrug resistant staphylococci (P = 0.0002) in East London (56.7%) compared to West London (49.96%). The most common species identified as multidrug resistant were S. epidermidis, S. haemolyticus and S. hominis, whereas penicillin, fusidic acid and erythromycin were the most frequent antibiotics the isolates were resistant to. Whole genome sequenced of mecA positive isolates revealed that S. sciuri isolates carried the mecA1 gene, which has only 84.43% homology with mecA. In addition, other frequently identified resistance genes included blaZ, qacA/B and dfrC. We have also identified a diverse range of SCCmec types, many of which were untypable due to carrying a novel combination of ccr genes or multiple ccr complexes
Energy management in harvesting enabled sensing nodes: prediction and control
Get PDFEnergy efficient transmission rate regulation of wireless sensing nodes, is a critical issue when operating in an energy harvesting (EH) enabled environment. In this work, we view the energy management problem as a queue control problem where the objective is to regulate transmission such that the energy level converges to a reference value. We employ a validated non-linear queuing model to derive two non-linear robust throughput controllers. A notable feature of the proposed scheme is its capability of predicting harvest-able energy. The predictions are generated using the proposed Accurate Solar Irradiance prediction Model (ASIM) whose effectiveness in generating accurate both long and short term predictions is demonstrated using real world data. The stability of the proposed controllers is established analytically and the effectiveness of the proposed strategies is demonstrated using simulations conducted on the Network Simulator (NS-3). The proposed policy is successful in guiding the energy level to the reference value, and outperforms the Throughput Optimal (TO) policy in terms of the throughput achieved