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Biomedical subjects

G Day

Publications and source records attributed to G Day.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Water pricing in England and Wales--institutions and objectives.

Water pricing in England and Wales reflects a range of influences. Cost recovery is generallythe primary influence over prices. The privatised public water supply sector dominates water usage. Water abstractions are licensed and allocated mainly on an administrative basis. Charges are levied to recover the water management costs of the licensing authority (the Environment Agency), and are not closely related to the scarcity of water resources, or the environmental impact of abstractions. Public water supplies are subject to price cap regulation. This provides incentives to reduce costs. Public water suppliers are expected to choose an optimal combination of water resource interventions in planning water supplies. The system of regulation has exposed choices. Tariffs for customers reflect company and regulatory concerns to share the burden of cost recovery equitably. Tariff innovation to influence behaviour has been limited by the low extent of metering of household customers. The cost recovery and institutional framework has led to discipline in investment decision-making.

Conservation of Natural Resources↗

Electronic excitations in homopolyatomic bismuth cations: spectroscopic measurements in molten salts and an ab initio CI-singles study

The electronic excitations of the low-valence bismuth cluster cations Bi5(3+), Bi8(2+), and Bi9(5+) have been studied with experimental and theoretical techniques. The UV-visible spectra of the bismuth ions were measured in acidic chloroaluminate melts (mixture of 1-methyl-3-benzyl imidazolium chloride and AlCl3). The spectra of the Bi5(3+) and Bi8(2+) ions agree fairly well with previous reports, but also revealed additional low-energy absorptions. Ab initio methods were employed to assign the experimentally observed electronic transitions of these homopolyatomic bismuth cations. Structures were optimized at the RHF, MP2, and B3LYP levels of theory by using split-valence LANL2DZ basis sets that were augmented with one and two sets of pure d functions. The computed structures agree well with the results of neutron diffraction analyses of melts. Electronically excited states of the three clusters were treated by using the CI-Singles theory. The results of these calculations were used to explain the observed UV-visible spectra. The observed electronic excitations in the UV-visible range are all found to result from transitions involving the molecular orbitals formed by 6p-atomic-orbital overlap. This leads to the necessity of using basis sets that include d-type functions, which allow for an adequate description of the bonding that results from such p-orbital overlap. Spin-orbit coupling becomes increasingly important with increasing atomic number and its consideration is necessary when describing the electronic transitions in clusters of heavy atoms. The calculations show that singlet-triplet transitions, which are made accessible by strong spin-orbit coupling, are responsible for some of the observed absorptions.

Journal Article↗

Improving medication administration through an enhanced occurrence reporting system.

Accurate data about medication errors are essential to prevention efforts. A multidisciplinary team at Bon Secours Hospital trialed an innovative method of reporting medication errors. It increased the number of reported medication errors six times compared with the same time period for the previous year on the pilot unit. It also saved time for the person reporting the error. The continuous quality improvement methodology was used to implement the new process.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗

Dynamic urethral function in the assessment of spinal injury patients.

Forty-two spinal injury patients underwent single or sequential urodynamic studies to assess the value of dynamic urethral pressure using transducer tipped catheters. Three groups of patients were identified: those with poor detrusor function, those with unsustained dyssynergia and those with sustained dyssynergia. All patients demonstrated some dyssynergia. Urethral needle EMG mirrored urethral pressure changes accurately. The addition of dynamic profilometry to fluoroscopy, detrusor pressure and urethral EMG has clarified our understanding of lower urinary tract behaviour after cord lesions.

Adolescent↗

Earlier onset of QRS in anterior precordial ECG leads: precision of time interval measurements.

Onset of QRS was compared between simultaneously recorded conventional ECG leads in 84 subjects with clinically normal hearts from a defined population sample. Mean onset of QRS was 6.4 msec earlier in lead V1 and 7.4 msec earlier in V2 than in lead II. These differences were statistically significant. The measuring system was adapted from drafting techniques and took into account variations in paper speed which occurred during recording. Interobserver differences equivalent to greater than 1 msec occurred in 3.9% of timeline measurements, but in in 38% of QRS onset measurements. The lower precision in measuring QRS onset may be attributed to baseline oscillations and to the relatively slow rate of voltage change at the onset of ventricular depolarization.

Adult↗

An integrated approach to hospital strategic planning, quality assurance, and continuous quality improvement.

Like many other healthcare organizations today, the authors' facility, a 306-bed acute care community hospital in Michigan, strives to visualize and make a transition from traditional quality assurance to continuous quality improvement. The Juran Trilogy provided the insight that strategic planning, measurement, and continuous improvement must exist side by side. At the authors' facility, this realization resulted in the hospital quality plan, which treats each of these components as part of the foundation for quality. The authors explain this model and the reporting and communication mechanisms that support it.

Communication↗