Search results

The aim of this pilot audit study is to develop and test a model to examine existing adult patient database (APD) data quality.

A database was created to audit 50 records per site to determine accuracy. The audited records were randomly selected from the calendar year 2004 and four sites participated in the pilot audit study. A total of 41 data elements were assessed for data quality – those elements required for APACHE II scoring system.

Results showed that the audit was feasible; missing audit data were an unplanned problem; analysis was complicated owing to the way the APACHE calculations are performed and 50 records per site was too time‐consuming.

This is the first audit study of intensive care data within the ANZICS APD and demonstrates how to determine data quality in a large database containing individual patient records.

This paper presents finite volume computations of turbulent flow through a square cross‐sectioned U‐bend of curvature strong enough (Rc/D =0.65) to cause separation. A zonal turbulence modelling approach is adopted, in which the high‐Re k‐ε model is used over most of the flow domain with the low‐Re, I‐equation model of k‐transport employed within the near‐wall regions. Computations with grids of different sizes and also with different discretization schemes, demonstrate that for this flow the solution of the k and ε equations is more sensitive to the scheme employed in their convective discretization than the solution of the mean flow equations. To avoid the use of extremely fine 3‐Dimensional grids, bounded high order schemes need to be used in the discretization of the turbulence transport equations. The predictions, while encouraging, displayed some deficiencies in the downstream region due to deficiencies in the turbulence model. Evidently, further refinements in the turbulence model are necessary. Initial computations of flow and heat transfer through a rotating U‐bend, indicate that at rotational numbers (Ro = ΩD/W_b) relevant to blade cooling passages, the Coriolis force can substantially modify the hydrodynamic and thermal behaviour.

December 13, 1973 Master and Servant — Negligence — Manual lifting operation — Load caught on obstruction increasing effective weight — Two men sharing load near safe limit — Whether foreseeable risk that one man would receive a disproportionate share of load — Meaning of maximum safe load.

The review of food consumption elsewhere in this issue shows the broad pattern of food supplies in this country; what and how much we eat. Dietary habits are different to what they were before the last War, but there have been few real changes since the end of that War. Because of supplies and prices, shifts within commodity groups have occurred, e.g. carcase meat, bread, milk, but overall, the range of foods commonly eaten has remained stable. The rise of “convenience foods” in the twenty‐five year since the War is seen as a change in household needs and the increasing employment of women in industry and commerce, rather than a change in foods eaten or in consumer preference. Supplies available for consumption have remained fairly steady throughout the period, but if the main food sources, energy and nutrient content of the diet have not changed, changes in detail have begun to appear and the broad pattern of food is not quite so markedly stable as of yore.

TWENTY‐ONE years devoted to the development of ejection seats, 24,000 seats built for more than forty nations and now one thousand lives saved—that is the proud record of the Martin‐Baker Aircraft Company. To coincide with these achievements, the following article describes the technical development of the range of seats—from the first swinging arm concept through the early manually‐operated seat to the rocket‐assisted completely automatic zero/zero ejection seats of today. From whatever standpoint Martin‐Baker's record is examined, the result is impressive. In terms of mechanical engineering, a series of ingenious features allied to robust design have resulted in ejection seats of unparalleled performance yet renowned for their simplicity and reliability. In terms of sales, this comparatively small firm has, in effect, conquered the world and won substantial export contracts—not least those for over 7,000 seats for the United States armed forces. In human terms, the company has won the grateful thanks of all those aircrew members—a long roll of highly‐skilled and dedicated young men whom some might call the cream of manhood—who but for Martin‐Baker ejection seats would have perished. Small wonder that the name Martin‐Baker has become synonymous with successful ejection.

Discusses how resources are allocated in capitalist and socialist economies comparing the concept of interest (e.g. for present value calculations) with the use of capital charges (e.g. for calculating opportunity cost). Contrasts the Islamic economic system, which rejects interest but considers moral factors and the will of Allah when measuring welfare. Explains how these ideas can be expressed in the accounting price of capital (for objective factors) and by Islamic welfare criteria; and how they differ from the Pareto Criterion and capitalist concepts of utility. Lists four principles and 12 welfare criteria for an Islamic allocation of resources; and some hints on their practical application before summarizing the conclusions.

“Give us the tools …”—one of those clarion calls which will sound down the years, has certainly been answered by the successive Conservative Governments of the past decade when it comes to the legislative tools for those engaged in public health and consumer protection. From the sole standpoint of politics, it seems curious that so much of our social legislation comes from Conservative Governments, rather than Socialist, but looking back, it is obvious that this is so.

The liability of a master for the acts of his servant or agent is a well‐established principle of many branches of English Law. It is in fact as old as the Common Law itself and is considered to have originated in the responsibility of a master for hired menials who had no legal capacity and were part of the household for which the master had to answer in every way. In the law of tort, especially the tort of negligence, it is still firmly entrenched and the rule is that a master is liable for any tort which the servant commits in the course of his employment (Winfield). The servant is also liable and a servant, for the purpose of vicarious liability, is one whose work is under the control of another and “in the course of employment” includes any act committed as an incident to something the servant is employed to do. Apart from statutory modifications, the rule has been perceptibly changing in its applications through the years, even in both directions. Originally, hospital authorities held no responsibility for acts committed by their medical staff; the responsibility was entirely the doctor's, a legal relationship, however, which was always regarded as something of an anachronism as between employer and employed. Perhaps this conception was an error stemming from an early High Court decision, but gradually the position has changed, quite apart from the National Health Service Act, 1946, towards the hospital authority's responsibility to the injured patient just as much as that borne by the officer whose failure caused the injury.

Planning charts are a necessary counterbalance to the mass of information which now assails management. This report examines some of the ways chart systems have been adapted to meet individual user needs.