from the article: "In this paper, we explore the characteristics of posters as an efficient and effective probing tool for hospital nurse participation in the development of processes, services or products. The main challenge in this respect is the limited time and attention available to nurses during their work shifts. For this, we analysed the design and effectiveness of posters from earlier projects and used existing knowledge on probing for preliminary guidelines focused on design elements, context of placement, and fit with work process. We then designed a poster for gathering insights during nurses’ work shifts into their administrative tasks and perceived relevance. To evaluate, this table poster design was consecutively placed on three nursing units in a Dutch hospital. Activities of nurses with the poster and necessary interventions were analysed and used for further insights into the characteristics of effective posters for this specific target group. The research raised new questions about how best to elicit nurses’ participation during work shifts."
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With this contribution, the results of the measurement campaign performed with a synchronously distributed antenna array testbed operating at the center frequency of 3.686 GHz are presented. For the first time, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, the electric field distribution induced by coherent downlink transmission was experimentally assessed in the proximity of the target receiver using a calibrated electromagnetic field probe. This allowed to quantify the actual observed electric field gain and the shape of the electric field enhancement region around the target received. It was found that 16 transmitting antenna elements enhance the root-mean-square electric field level by about a factor of two, in a 2.5λ neighborhood of the target receiver. In addition, a possible disruption of the propagation environment due to the probe movement was assessed through the real-time channel state information feedback.
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BACKGROUND: In critically ill patients, auscultation might be challenging as dorsal lung fields are difficult to reach in supine-positioned patients, and the environment is often noisy. In recent years, clinicians have started to consider lung ultrasound as a useful diagnostic tool for a variety of pulmonary pathologies, including pulmonary edema. The aim of this study was to compare lung ultrasound and pulmonary auscultation for detecting pulmonary edema in critically ill patients.METHODS: This study was a planned sub-study of the Simple Intensive Care Studies-I, a single-center, prospective observational study. All acutely admitted patients who were 18 years and older with an expected ICU stay of at least 24 h were eligible for inclusion. All patients underwent clinical examination combined with lung ultrasound, conducted by researchers not involved in patient care. Clinical examination included auscultation of the bilateral regions for crepitations and rhonchi. Lung ultrasound was conducted according to the Bedside Lung Ultrasound in Emergency protocol. Pulmonary edema was defined as three or more B lines in at least two (bilateral) scan sites. An agreement was described by using the Cohen κ coefficient, sensitivity, specificity, negative predictive value, positive predictive value, and overall accuracy. Subgroup analysis were performed in patients who were not mechanically ventilated.RESULTS: The Simple Intensive Care Studies-I cohort included 1075 patients, of whom 926 (86%) were eligible for inclusion in this analysis. Three hundred seven of the 926 patients (33%) fulfilled the criteria for pulmonary edema on lung ultrasound. In 156 (51%) of these patients, auscultation was normal. A total of 302 patients (32%) had audible crepitations or rhonchi upon auscultation. From 130 patients with crepitations, 86 patients (66%) had pulmonary edema on lung ultrasound, and from 209 patients with rhonchi, 96 patients (46%) had pulmonary edema on lung ultrasound. The agreement between auscultation findings and lung ultrasound diagnosis was poor (κ statistic 0.25). Subgroup analysis showed that the diagnostic accuracy of auscultation was better in non-ventilated than in ventilated patients.CONCLUSION: The agreement between lung ultrasound and auscultation is poor.TRIAL REGISTRATION: NCT02912624. Registered on September 23, 2016.
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(1) Background: Recent research showed that subtypes of patients with type 2 diabetes may differ in response to lifestyle interventions based on their organ-specific insulin resistance (IR). (2) Methods: 123 Subjects with type 2 diabetes were randomized into 13-week lifestyle intervention, receiving either an enriched protein drink (protein+) or an isocaloric control drink (control). Before and after the intervention, anthropometrical and physiological data was collected. An oral glucose tolerance test was used to calculate indices representing organ insulin resistance (muscle, liver, and adipose tissue) and β-cell functioning. In 82 study-compliant subjects (per-protocol), we retrospectively examined the intervention effect in patients with muscle IR (MIR, n = 42) and without MIR (no-MIR, n = 40). (3) Results: Only in patients from the MIR subgroup that received protein+ drink, fasting plasma glucose and insulin, whole body, liver and adipose IR, and appendicular skeletal muscle mass improved versus control. Lifestyle intervention improved body weight and fat mass in both subgroups. Furthermore, for the MIR subgroup decreased systolic blood pressure and increased VO2peak and for the no-MIR subgroup, a decreased 2-h glucose concentration was found. (4) Conclusions: Enriched protein drink during combined lifestyle intervention seems to be especially effective on increasing muscle mass and improving insulin resistance in obese older, type 2 diabetes patients with muscle IR.
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Peer reviewed research paper SEFI Engineering Education congress 2018 Within higher engineering education, students have to learn to close knowledge gaps that arise in professional assignments, such as capstone projects. These knowledge gaps can be closed through simple inquiry, but can also require more rigorous research. Since professionals work under tight constraints, they face constant trade-offs between quality, risk and efficiency to find answers that are acceptable. This means engineers use pragmatic research tactics that aim for the highest chance to find answers that fit sufficiently to close knowledge gaps in order to solve the problem with optimal use of time and resources. The problem is that research and problem-solving literature richly supplies solid strategies suitable to plan the research in projects as a whole, but hardly supplies flexible tactics to search for information within a project. This paper reports pragmatic tactics that starting bachelor engineering professionals use to acquire sufficiently good answers to questions that arise in the context of their assignments. For this, we conducted semi-structured interviews among computer science engineers with three to five years of work experience. The study reveals three pragmatic tactics: concentric, iterative and probe-response. The ambition level of the project determines when questions are sufficiently answered, and we distinguish tree sufficiency levels: check for viable answer, boost critical demand and change the game. The aim of this research is to add a view that makes pragmatic research choices for novice engineers more open to discussion and realistic.
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In this work, in situ measurements of the radio frequency electromagnetic field exposure have been conducted for an indoor massive MIMO 5G base station operating at 26–28 GHz. Measurements were performed at six different positions (at distances between 9.94 and 14.32 m from the base station), of which four were in line-of-sight and two were in non-line-of-sight. A comparison was performed between the measurements conducted with an omnidirectional probe and with a horn antenna, for scenarios with and without a user equipment used to actively create an antenna traffic beam from the base station towards the measurement location. A maximum exposure of 171.9 mW/m2 was measured at a distance of 9.94 m from the base station. This is below 2% of the ICNIRP reference level. Moreover, the feasibility to measure the power per resource element of the Synchronization Signal Block - which can be used to extrapolate the maximum exposure level - with a conventional spectrum analyzer was shown by comparison with a network decoder.
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From the article: Manufacturing technology can improve the turnover of a company if it enables fast market introduction for volume production. Reconfigurable equipment is developed to meet the growing demand for more agile production. Modular reconfiguration, defined as changing the structure of the machine, enables larger variation of products on a single manufacturing system; these solutions are called Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems (RMS). The quality of RMS, and the required resources to bring it to reliable production, is largely determined by a swift execution of the reconfiguration process. This paper proposes a method to compare alternatives for the ways to implement reconfiguration. Three classes of reconfiguration are defined to distinguish the impact of the proposed alternatives. The procedure uses a recently introduced index method for development of RMS process modules. This index method is based on the Axiomatic Design theory. Weighing factors are used to calculate the resources and lead time needed to implement the reconfiguration process. Application of the method leads to quick comparison of alternatives in the early stage of development. Successful execution of the method was demonstrated for the manufacturing process of a 3D measuring probe.
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Sinds het najaar 2020 heeft Netwerkcentrum De Opstap de deuren geopend en geeft daarmee invulling aan de transformatieopdracht in het Sociaal Domein van de gemeente Waadhoeke. Om meer te laten zien over de betekenis van De Opstap is er via een ontwerpgericht onderzoek met 13 deelnemers die vanaf de start actief zijn bij De Opstap gewerkt aan een serie portretten om de waarde van De Opstap creatief in beeld te brengen. Wat is hun verhaal, wie zijn ze en wat betekent De Opstap in die eerste fase voor de deelnemers. Door middel van een cultural probe waarbij zes opdrachten (die gingen over: zelfportret, groei en bloei, trots, talent, een dag bij De Opstap, en wat neem je mee naar huis) deels zijn uitgevoerd of meegenomen in contextual interviews zijn er van elke deelnemer middels een poster portretten gemaakt. De posters zijn weergegeven in hoofdstuk 1. Naar aanleiding van deze portretten zijn de stagiaires (3) bij De Opstap nog verder gaan observeren middels een Fly on The Wall naar betekenisvolle momenten en het vastleggen van momenten van waarde middels een fotosafari. In deze momenten van observaties zijn korte micro narratieven opgehaald welke zijn te vinden in hoofdstuk 2. Afsluitend heeft er een bijeenkomst met netwerkleden van De Opstap plaatsgevonden. Met verschillende werkvormen is de waarde van De Opstap in beeld gebracht, bekeken vanuit het perspectief van de netwerkpartners. Hoofdstuk 3 bevat een verslag van deze bijeenkomst. Tot slot geven we in hoofdstuk 4 de bevindingen samengevat weer en bekijken ze door de bril van Sociale Kwaliteit.
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