scholarly journals 1357 Ankle Blocks: Improving Day Case Efficiency

2021 ◽  
Vol 108 (Supplement_6) ◽  
Author(s):  
C Doherty ◽  
R McKenna ◽  
H W Kang ◽  
D Gibson ◽  
B Hanratty ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Care ◽  
Wound Complications ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Day Case ◽  
Forefoot Surgery ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Bed Capacity ◽  
Hospital Resources ◽  
Surgical Pathway ◽  
Training Opportunities

Abstract Introduction The COVID pandemic has exerted unprecedented pressure on hospital resources. Resulting in cancellation of elective operative services, increased patient waiting lists, limited surgical training opportunities along with reduced availability of staff, theatre, and in-patient bed capacity. A novel approach for day case forefoot surgery under ankle block, to mitigate the pandemic service limitations without compromising care, was developed. Method This is a 3-month, multi-centre, prospective cohort study evaluating the novel ankle block day case forefoot surgery pathway. Patients had a minimum of three months clinical follow up with outcome scores. They were matched to a cohort undergoing similar surgery prior to the COVID pandemic. Results The utilisation of an ankle block pathway resulted in an average reduction of inpatient stay by 2 days per patient. Over the study period conservative savings of £26,659 were calculated. Anecdotally we observed a reduction in morbidity (wound complications, SSI’s) although not statistically significant. Conclusions Our novel surgical pathway has enabled continued elective operating for procedures that previously required hospital admission during a period of severe restrictions within the NHS. We observed significant reductions in cost, surgical inpatient bed utilisation and total operative time with staff, resource, and time savings. We hypothesise that prehabilitation with physiotherapy, ankle instead of thigh tourniquets and early mobilisation may have contributed to improved morbidity scores. The findings of this project have implications for training, upper limb services and are transferrable as a template to improve service efficiency while maintaining high quality care.

Exploring normative perceptions and misperceptions of private, environmentally impactful behaviours

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elaine Gallagher ◽  
Bas Verplanken ◽  
Ian Walker
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
Behaviour Change ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Normative Influence ◽  
Change Mechanism ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Classical Studies ◽  
Referent Group

Social norms have been shown to be an effective behaviour change mechanism across diverse behaviours, demonstrated from classical studies to more recent behaviour change research. Much of this research has focused on environmentally impactful actions. Social norms are typically utilised for behaviour change in social contexts, which facilitates the important element of the behaviour being visible to the referent group. This ensures that behaviours can be learned through observation and that deviations from the acceptable behaviour can be easily sanctioned or approved by the referent group. There has been little focus on how effective social norms are in private or non-social contexts, despite a multitude of environmentally impactful behaviours occurring in the home, for example. The current study took the novel approach to explore if private behaviours are important in the context of normative influence, and if the lack of a referent groups results in inaccurate normative perceptions and misguided behaviours. Findings demonstrated variance in normative perceptions of private behaviours, and that these misperceptions may influence behaviour. These behaviours are deemed to be more environmentally harmful, and respondents are less comfortable with these behaviours being visible to others, than non-private behaviours. The research reveals the importance of focusing on private behaviours, which have been largely overlooked in the normative influence literature.

scholarly journals A Novel Approach to EEG Speech Activity Detection with Visual Stimuli and Mobile BCI

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 674
Author(s):  
Marianna Koctúrová ◽  
Jozef Juhár
Keyword(s):  
Visual Stimuli ◽  
Computer Interface ◽  
Single Subject ◽  
Detection Accuracy ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Activity Detection ◽  
Speech Activity ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Eeg Data ◽  
Speech Activity Detection

With the ever-progressing development in the field of computational and analytical science the last decade has seen a big improvement in the accuracy of electroencephalography (EEG) technology. Studies try to examine possibilities to use high dimensional EEG data as a source for Brain to Computer Interface. Applications of EEG Brain to computer interface vary from emotion recognition, simple computer/device control, speech recognition up to Intelligent Prosthesis. Our research presented in this paper was focused on the study of the problematic speech activity detection using EEG data. The novel approach used in this research involved the use visual stimuli, such as reading and colour naming, and signals of speech activity detectable by EEG technology. Our proposed solution is based on a shallow Feed-Forward Artificial Neural Network with only 100 hidden neurons. Standard features such as signal energy, standard deviation, RMS, skewness, kurtosis were calculated from the original signal from 16 EEG electrodes. The novel approach in the field of Brain to computer interface applications was utilised to calculated additional set of features from the minimum phase signal. Our experimental results demonstrated F1 score of 86.80% and 83.69% speech detection accuracy based on the analysis of EEG signal from single subject and cross-subject models respectively. The importance of these results lies in the novel utilisation of the mobile device to record the nerve signals which can serve as the stepping stone for the transfer of Brain to computer interface technology from technology from a controlled environment to the real-life conditions.

ChemInform Abstract: The Novel Approach to Indole Alkaloids by Using Pd(II)-Catalyzed Cyclization.

ChemInform ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 46 (17) ◽  
pp. no-no
Author(s):  
Hajime Yokoyama ◽  
Takayoshi Kubo ◽  
Yosuke Matsumura ◽  
Junichi Hosokawa ◽  
Masahiro Miyazawa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Indole Alkaloids ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Novel Approach

scholarly journals Caffeine-Induced Effects on Human Skeletal Muscle Contraction Time and Maximal Displacement Measured by Tensiomyography

Nutrients ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 815
Author(s):  
Przemysław Domaszewski ◽  
Paweł Pakosz ◽  
Mariusz Konieczny ◽  
Dawid Bączkowicz ◽  
Ewa Sadowska-Krępa
Keyword(s):  
Skeletal Muscle ◽  
Muscle Activation ◽  
Electric Pulse ◽  
Professional Athletes ◽  
Mechanical Activity ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Contraction Time ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Skeletal Muscle Contraction ◽  
Maximal Displacement

Studies on muscle activation time in sport after caffeine supplementation confirmed the effectiveness of caffeine. The novel approach was to determine whether a dose of 9 mg/kg/ body mass (b.m.) of caffeine affects the changes of contraction time and the displacement of electrically stimulated muscle (gastrocnemius medialis) in professional athletes who regularly consume products rich in caffeine and do not comply with the caffeine discontinuation period requirements. The study included 40 professional male handball players (age = 23.13 ± 3.51, b.m. = 93.51 ± 15.70 kg, height 191 ± 7.72, BMI = 25.89 ± 3.10). The analysis showed that in the experimental group the values of examined parameters were significantly reduced (p ≤ 0.001) (contraction time: before = 20.60 ± 2.58 ms/ after = 18.43 ± 3.05 ms; maximal displacement: before = 2.32 ± 0.80 mm/after = 1.69 ± 0.51 mm). No significant changes were found in the placebo group. The main achievement of this research was to demonstrate that caffeine at a dose of 9 mg/kg in professional athletes who regularly consume products rich in caffeine has a direct positive effect on the mechanical activity of skeletal muscle stimulated by an electric pulse.

Bioerodible Polypyrrole

2001 ◽  
Vol 711 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Zelikin ◽  
Venkatram Shastri ◽  
David Lynn ◽  
Jian Farhadi ◽  
Ivan Martin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Erosion Rate ◽  
Acid Group ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Carboxylic Acid Group ◽  
Polymer Backbone ◽  
Cellular Processes ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Efficient Control ◽  
And Function ◽  
Substrate Independent

ABSTRACTConductive polymers such as polypyrrole (Ppy) are potentially useful as an active interface for altering cellular processes and function. Their utilization in medically related applications however have been substantially held back by their non-degradable nature. Herein we report a novel approach to creation of bioerodible polypyrroles via modification of pyrrole beta-carbon with an ionizable moiety. It has been shown that the erosion rate of acid-bearing derivative of polypyrrole increases with pH, which is consistent with the pH dependent ionization of carboxylic acid group. The novel paradigm proposed for the creation of bioerodible polypyrroles allows for simple and efficient control over the erosion rate of the substrate independent of the polymer chain length, via the choice of the terminal ionizable group and its concentration along the polymer backbone.

Quantum-kinetic Theory of Defect-mediated Recombination in Nanostructure-based Photovoltaic Devices

2013 ◽  
Vol 1493 ◽  
pp. 91-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Urs Aeberhard
Keyword(s):  
Thin Film ◽  
Energy Gap ◽  
Photovoltaic System ◽  
Quasi Equilibrium ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Photovoltaic Devices ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Gap States ◽  
Non Equilibrium Green’S Function ◽  
Kinetic Treatment

ABSTRACTIn this paper, a quantum-kinetic equivalent of Shockley-Read-Hall recombination is derived within the non-equilibrium Green's function formalism for a photovoltaic system with selectively contacted extended-state absorbers and a localized deep defect state in the energy gap. The novel approach is tested on a homogeneous bulk absorber and then applied to a thin film photo-diode with large built-in field in the defect-rich absorber region. While the quantum-kinetic treatment reproduces the semi-classical characteristics for a bulk absorber in quasi-equilibrium conditions, for which the latter picture is valid, it reveals in the thin film case non-classical characteristics of recombination enhanced by tunneling into field-induced sub-gap states.

The Impact of ISTCS – A Clinician's Perspective (Questionnaire Study)

2010 ◽  
Vol 92 (9) ◽  
pp. 1-3
Author(s):  
D Mendis ◽  
A Hawrani
Keyword(s):  
Healthcare Delivery ◽  
Postal Questionnaire ◽  
Questionnaire Study ◽  
Case Mix ◽  
Day Case ◽  
General Attitude ◽  
Inpatient Services ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Training Opportunities ◽  
Controversial Aspect

Independent sector treatment centres and their effect on the NHS remain a controversial aspect of healthcare delivery. This postal questionnaire study aims to identify the general attitude among surgical consultants about their effects, specifically on NHS workload, departmental/trust finances, training opportunities and case mix. NHS hospitals within five miles of an ISTC offering day case/inpatient services were targeted.

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