Making history: post-historical commemorations of the past in British television

The postmodernist re-evaluation of historical study has let to an awareness of the value of the moving image to the historian. Film can present us with glimpses of a past independent of discourse and its unique link with reality carries with it inevatible assumptions of authenticity. Yet the selection and manipulation of material by the filmmaker and the dependence on causality or the establishment of 'fact', makes historical documentary as problematic as any other mode of historiography. National history is shaped as national identity, and, ultimately, acts of commemoration say as much about the present as the past

A theoretical model for determining turbine flowmeter sensitivity

Analytical model of turbine-type flowmeter guides in the selection of valid extrapolation of available calibration data. An expression for flowmeter performance is developed to include the effects of fluid friction, bearing drag, and magnetic drag upon helical rotor design

Polarity sensitive circuit Patent

Electric circuit for reversing direction of current flo

Professional Secrecy: A Vincible Right

Dr. Smith, a professor of Moral Theology at Duke University, is a frequent contributor to Linacre. His article examines the subtleties and intricacies which arise from the question who is entitled to know what from whom

Ionospheric battery Patent

Lightweight, rugged, inexpensive satellite battery for producing electrical power from ionosphere using electrodes with different contact potential

Using queuing theory to analyse completion times in accident and emergency departments in the light of the government 4-hour target

This paper uses a queuing model to evaluate completion times in accident and emergency (A&E) departments in the light of the Government target of completing and discharging 98% of patients inside 4 hours. It illustrates how flows though an A&E can be very accurately represented as a queuing process, how the outputs of a queuing model can be used to visualise and interpret the 4-hour hours Government target in a simple way and how queuing models can be used to assess the practical achievability of A&E targets in the future. The paper finds that A&E targets have resulted in significant improvements in completion times and thus deal with a major source of complaint by users of the National Health Service. It finds that whilst some of this improvement is attributable to better management, some is also due to the way some patients in A&E are designated and therefore counted. It finds for example that the current target would not have been possible without some form of patient re-designation or re-labelling taking place. Further it finds that the current target is so demanding that the integrity of reported performance is open to question and that a different approach is needed. Related incentives and demand management issues resulting from this Government target are also briefly discussed