Perspectives in quality: designing the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist

The World Health Organization's Patient Safety Programme created an initiative to improve the safety of surgery around the world. In order to accomplish this goal the programme team developed a checklist with items that could and, if at all possible, should be practised in all settings where surgery takes place. There is little guidance in the literature regarding methods for creating a medical checklist. The airline industry, however, has more than 70 years of experience in developing and using checklists. The authors of the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist drew lessons from the aviation experience to create a safety tool that supports essential clinical practice. In order to inform the methodology for development of future checklists in health care, we review how we applied lessons learned from the aviation experience in checklist development to the development of the Surgical Safety Checklist and also discuss the differences that exist between aviation and medicine that impact the use of checklists in health car

Higher education, mature students and employment goals: policies and practices in the UK

This article considers recent policies of Higher Education in the UK, which are aimed at widening participation and meeting the needs of employers. The focus is on the growing population of part-time students, and the implications of policies for this group. The article takes a critical perspective on government policies, using data from a major study of mature part-time students, conducted in two specialist institutions in the UK, a London University college and a distance learning university. Findings from this study throw doubt on the feasibility of determining a priori what kind of study pathway is most conducive for the individual in terms of employment gains and opportunities for upward social mobility. In conclusion, doubts are raised as to whether policies such as those of the present UK government are likely to achieve its aims. Such policies are not unique to the UK, and lessons from this country are relevant to most of the developed world

The new resilience of emerging and developing countries: systemic interlocking, currency swaps and geoeconomics

The vulnerability/resilience nexus that defined the interaction between advanced and developing economies in the post-WWII era is undergoing a fundamental transformation. Yet, most of the debate in the current literature is focusing on the structural constraints faced by the Emerging and Developing Countries (EDCs) and the lack of changes in the formal structures of global economic governance. This paper challenges this literature and its conclusions by focusing on the new conditions of systemic interlocking between advanced and emerging economies, and by analysing how large EDCs have built and are strengthening their economic resilience. We find that a significant redistribution of ‘policy space’ between advanced and emerging economies have taken place in the global economy. We also find that a number of seemingly technical currency swap agreements among EDCs have set in motion changes in the very structure of global trade and finance. These developments do not signify the end of EDCs’ vulnerability towards advanced economies. They signify however that the economic and geoeconomic implications of this vulnerability have changed in ways that constrain the options available to advanced economies and pose new challenges for the post-WWII economic order

Resolving the cosmic X-ray background with a next-generation high-energy X-ray observatory

The cosmic X-ray background (CXB), which peaks at an energy of ~30 keV, is produced primarily by emission from accreting supermassive black holes (SMBHs). The CXB therefore serves as a constraint on the integrated SMBH growth in the Universe and the accretion physics and obscuration in active galactic nuclei (AGNs). This paper gives an overview of recent progress in understanding the high-energy (>~10 keV) X-ray emission from AGNs and the synthesis of the CXB, with an emphasis on results from NASA's NuSTAR hard X-ray mission. We then discuss remaining challenges and open questions regarding the nature of AGN obscuration and AGN physics. Finally, we highlight the exciting opportunities for a next-generation, high-resolution hard X-ray mission to achieve the long-standing goal of resolving and characterizing the vast majority of the accreting SMBHs that produce the CXB.Comment: Science White paper submitted to Astro2020 Decadal Survey; 5 pages, 3 figures, plus references and cover pag

Development of the C-Band BPM System for ATF2

The ATF2 international collaboration is intending to demonstrate nanometre beam sizes required for the future Linear Colliders. An essential part of the beam diagnostics needed to achieve that goal is the high resolution cavity beam position monitors (BPMs). In this paper we report on the C-band system consisting of 32 BPMs spread over the whole length of the new ATF2 extraction beamline. We discuss the design of the BPMs and electronics, main features of the DAQ system, and the first operational experience with these BPMs

Micron Size Laser-Wire System at the ATF Extraction Line, Recent Results and ATF-II Upgrade

The KEK Accelerator test facility (ATF) extraction line laser-wire system has been upgraded last year allowing the measurement of micron scale transverse size electron beams. The most recent measurements using the upgraded system are presented. The ATF-II extraction line design call for the major upgrade of the existing laser-wire system. We report on the hardware upgrades, including the major hardware upgrades to the laser transport, the laser beam diagnostics line, and the mechanical control systems

In-situ characterization of the Hamamatsu R5912-HQE photomultiplier tubes used in the DEAP-3600 experiment

The Hamamatsu R5912-HQE photomultiplier-tube (PMT) is a novel high-quantum efficiency PMT. It is currently used in the DEAP-3600 dark matter detector and is of significant interest for future dark matter and neutrino experiments where high signal yields are needed. We report on the methods developed for in-situ characterization and monitoring of DEAP's 255 R5912-HQE PMTs. This includes a detailed discussion of typical measured single-photoelectron charge distributions, correlated noise (afterpulsing), dark noise, double, and late pulsing characteristics. The characterization is performed during the detector commissioning phase using laser light injected through a light diffusing sphere and during normal detector operation using LED light injected through optical fibres

Inclusive search for same-sign dilepton signatures in pp collisions at root s=7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

An inclusive search is presented for new physics in events with two isolated leptons (e or mu) having the same electric charge. The data are selected from events collected from p p collisions at root s = 7 TeV by the ATLAS detector and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 34 pb(-1). The spectra in dilepton invariant mass, missing transverse momentum and jet multiplicity are presented and compared to Standard Model predictions. In this event sample, no evidence is found for contributions beyond those of the Standard Model. Limits are set on the cross-section in a fiducial region for new sources of same-sign high-mass dilepton events in the ee, e mu and mu mu channels. Four models predicting same-sign dilepton signals are constrained: two descriptions of Majorana neutrinos, a cascade topology similar to supersymmetry or universal extra dimensions, and fourth generation d-type quarks. Assuming a new physics scale of 1 TeV, Majorana neutrinos produced by an effective operator V with masses below 460 GeV are excluded at 95% confidence level. A lower limit of 290 GeV is set at 95% confidence level on the mass of fourth generation d-type quarks