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The impact of nurses’ values on the prevention of pressure ulcers: a Straussian grounded theory study
Get PDFThis is a Straussian grounded theory study about the impact of nurses’ values on pressure ulcer prevention. Semi-structured interviews were used to gather data from participants (n=16) who were recruited from the non-acute adult medical wards of 14 hospitals in one NHS Trust and a local university. The participants were asked to talk about their experiences of preventing and managing pressure ulcers and their values were elicited from their accounts. The data were analysed and interpreted with Straussian grounded theory.
Nurses were found to work according to the value that they placed on pressure ulcer prevention, as this value influenced the manner in which they prioritised and delivered skin care to their patients. Similar links between nurses’ values and their delivery of care with regards to other aspects of nursing were also identified. The delivery of care to prevent pressure ulcers was found to be subject to clinical priorities and other factors. As a result, the majority of care to maintain skin integrity was delivered by nursing auxiliaries and students because nurses were busy doing other things. Despite this, nurses who place a high value on pressure ulcer prevention appear to be more proactive and determined to deliver care that protects the integrity of their patients’ skin than their peers. This is highlighted by the participants’ accounts of how their prioritisation and delivery of care to prevent pressure ulcers changed when the value that they placed on pressure ulcer prevention increased from low to high. This study also identified the manner in which the value that nurses place on pressure ulcer prevention is formed and evolves.
The recommendations that arise from this study are: further testing of this grounded theory in other settings to increase its generalisability and a greater awareness of the impact that the value that nurses place on different aspects of patient care has on their delivery of care to patients, especially with regards to pressure ulcer prevention. Nurse education and training must also take into account some of the factors that help to form and change the value that nurses place on pressure ulcer prevention. Greater attention needs to be paid to the value that nurses place on different aspects of nursing in view of the relationship between nurses’ values and care delivery, if patients are to receive the best possible care
European youth policy
No full textIn an earlier contribution to Youth and Policy, the author had considered the increasing convergence in youth policy development and implementation at a European level between the Council of Europe and the European Union. This article interrogates the central planks of such ‘youth policy’ evolution in the context of the challenges around the social condition of young people in Europe, in relation to education, the labour market, health, housing and justice and in the context of youth participation, youth mobility and out of school learning
The use of the Welsh language on Facebook: an intial invesigation
No full textThe existence of many minority languages is threatened by language shift, whereby the community of speakers moves to using the majority language in place of the minority language. Social network sites such as Facebook might be important environments for minority language maintenance, as networks of strong ties may help speakers resist pressures towards language shift. However, to date, there has been little research that investigates this aspect of minority languages' online presence. This paper presents an initial examination of the current use of the Welsh language on Facebook. The paper introduces a method for sampling the network of groups being used by a language community, based on the Related Groups information within Facebook group profiles. Basic information is presented about the use of Welsh in Facebook groups, including membership numbers, the range of topics, and the levels of activity. Visualizations of the network reveal a small number of popular central groups playing a significant role in connecting the community. The successive removal of central groups results in a relatively sparsely connected network and reveals a number of geographical neighbourhood and topic-specific sub-networks. The use of Welsh on personal profiles is also examined, as are the demographics of Welsh speakers on Facebook. The results of this examination provide evidence that suggests that the use of the Welsh language has been normalized to some extent within Facebook and that the language has established an active presence on Facebook groups and profiles
Transatlantic terror! French horror theater and American pre-code comics
No full textAt first glance it may seem farfetched, if not ludicrous, to draw a parallel between French theater of the modern period and American comics of the 1950s. In the case of the Théâtre du Grand-Guignol (1897–1962), however, and the pre-code EC comics (1950–55), there are not merely a number of formal and thematic parallels to be drawn but several points where the Grand-Guignol can be seen to have had a direct influence on EC's titles. This influence can be detected in EC's direct reference to the Grand-Guignol's legendary status as the “The Theatre of Horror,” but there are also instances where EC makes use of Grand-Guignol archetypes or “borrows” storylines from the French repertoire.This article will investigate the hitherto neglected link between two specific examples of French theater and American comics both of which came to share a monumental significance—and notoriety—in their respective fields of popular horror culture. The article will give an overview of their respective legends before looking at the parallels between their formal structures, theme and content
Measurements and modelling of cellular interference in local point-to-multipoint distribution systems
No full textFrequency and polarisation reuse for optimum spectral efficiency in local multipoint distribution system (LMDS) networks generate co- and adjacent-channel inter-and intra-cell interference because of the line-of-sight constraints among transmitting and receiving antennas. Such operational constraints limit the system capacity and affect link performance. Measurements at 40 GHz from a number of possible interference scenarios for two different LMDS reuse cellular plans of dual-frequency and dual-polarisation discriminations are presented. An electromagnetic-stochastic propagation model is employed. The model successfully predicts the interference parameters and takes into account the effects of multiple paths and depolarisation caused by reflection and scatter from building surfaces at millimetre-wave frequencies. The probability density function of the signal-to-interference ratio and the statistical channel parameters, such as the average signal strength and the Rician K-factor, are extracted from the measured data and compared with model predictions
Performance evaluation and resource management of hierarchical MACRO-/MICRO cellular networks using MOSEL-2
No full textThe paper presents a performance evaluation and resource management of hierarchical MACRO-/MICRO cellular networks using the new Modeling and Evaluation Language (MOSEL-2). MOSEL-2 with new constructs has the ability to find the performance and reliability modeling and evaluation of systems with exponential and non-exponential distributions. A MACRO/MICRO cell structure is solved numerically and mathematically in this paper to handle the handoff calls. Additionally, a simulation program is written to validate these results. In order to reduce the loss probability, a guard channels are introduced at the MICRO cell and channel reservation at the MACRO cell. Additionally, the concept of queuing is introduced where there is a possibility for the handoff calls from both MACRO and MICRO layers to be queued when all the resources are occupied. MOSEL-2 is used to find the numerical solution for this problem with both exponential and general exponential (GE) distribution. The performance analysis show the efficiency of the proposed scheme to manage the handoff calls and the ability of the suggested scheme to reduce the blocking probability of handover calls and the loss probability as the main objective is to block the new connection rather than terminating the ongoing connection as well as balancing the load all over the whole network. It is shown in this paper that there are a set of important factors that affect the performance, such as: reservation policy, channel allocation, handover ratio, capacity of the queue and the variation of the inter-arrival times. These factors are discussed via some important performance measures, such as: new call blocking probability, blocking probability of handover calls, loss probability, utilization and the average delay of the queue
Radiated emissions and experimental precautions of equipment with cables in GTEM cells
Get PDFAny electric or electronic equipment sold within the European Union has to comply with the EC Directive on Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC). To achieve compliance, the equipment must be tested for radiated/conducted emissions and immunity. A wide range of national and international testing methods and standards are in force such as the IEC 61000-40-20. However, standards in general lack of describing testing methods for equipment with cables. Since most devices and systems contain leads and cables; the current standards cannot be directly employed. In an effort to approach this crucial matter, we present the outcomes of measurements conducted on an EUT (metal box) with different cable bundle configurations, in conjunction with both, the correlation algorithm given in the standards and the repeatability concerns between different GTEM cell
Approaches for improving image quality in magnetic induction tomography
No full textMagnetic induction tomography (MIT) is a contactless and non-invasive method for imaging the passive electrical properties of objects. Measuring the weak signal produced by eddy currents within biological soft tissues can be challenging in the presence of noise and the large signals resulting from the direct excitation–detection coil coupling. To detect haemorrhagic stroke in the brain, for instance, high measurement accuracy is required to enable images with enough contrast to differentiate between normal and haemorrhaged brain tissues. The reconstructed images are often very sensitive to inevitable measurement noise from the environment, system instabilities and patient-related artefacts such as movement and sweating. We propose methods for mitigating signal noise and improving image reconstruction. We evaluated and compared the use of a range wavelet transforms for signal denoising. Adaptive regularization methods including L-curve, generalized cross validation (GCV) and noise estimation were also compared. We evaluated all these described methods with measurements of in vitro tissues resembling a peripheral haemorrhagic cerebral stroke created by placing a bio-membrane package filled with 10 ml blood in a swine brain of 100 ml. We show that wavelet packet denoising combined with adaptive regularization can improve the quality of reconstructed images
Screening Wales: portrayal, representation and identity: a case study
No full textThe essay begins with an overview of some recent thinking and writing about national identity and culture, drawing on both academic sources and broadcasters. It then argues, using evidence from textual analysis and audience surveys conducted as part of a research project funded by the BBC Trust Audience Council Wales (Screening the Nation: Landmark Television in Wales), with Doctor Who (1963-89; 1996) and Torchwood (2006-present) as its main case studies, that television representations of place, space and identity provoke complex responses from audiences, that both intersect with and complicate the idea of the national, but are not bound by it
Threads of influence: Greek tragedy and its relevance to the contemporary novel, with specific reference to Donna Tartt's 'The secret history', and my novel, 'The first seven years'
Get PDFThis MPhil concerns the contemporary literary novel and how it has been influenced by
the Golden Age of Greek tragedy. It comprises of three parts: the thesis and the novel,
hereby presented, and the journal of creative experiences, which was observed at viva.
My thesis examines the historical development of Greek tragedy and its structure. It
further explores how tragedy has influenced writers through the ages, culminating in the
literary tragedy of today. The methodology of tragic form is investigated in the works of
writers educated in Greek tragic structure, and also those with no classical background.
This thesis aims to show how novelists without a classical education have accessed the
tragic form, via threads of literary influence, and utilised it successfully, albeit often
unconsciously.
My novel, The First Seven Years, is a work of contemporary tragic fiction. It tells the
story of one woman’s attempts to do the best for her child. Trapped between raising her
young son, Alfie, and caring for an increasingly frail elderly relative, Kate becomes
emotionally and physically stretched. When she discovers Alfie has been badly bullied in
his failing state school, her attempts to change schools have tragic consequences.
Finally, my journal, presented at viva, compiles my creative thoughts, notes and
research for both novel and thesis in one portfolio. My original notebooks show much of
my novel’s planning and I have included visual images used of characters, buildings,
locations, Kate’s photography and Martha’s pottery. Factual research is also integrated;
investigating peripheral neuropathy, school league tables and admissions criteria. Thesis
research includes relevant newspaper cuttings, programmes to Oedipus Rex and Phèdre,
readings by DBC Pierre & Jeanette Winterson, and an interview with David Guterson.
This journal has proved invaluable throughout my MPhil, both as an inspiration and an aide-mémoire