Most quality improvement or change management interventions are currently designed intuitively and their results are often disappointing. While improving the effectiveness of interventions requires systematic development, no specific methodology for composing intervention strategies and programmes is available. This paper describes the methodology of systematically designing quality of care imp...

The determination of the flow properties of a fluid containing a cylindrical inclusion with its long axis oriented parallel to the vorticity direction is a 2-dimensional problem which is treated as a special case in a calculation of the corresponding D-dimensional problem. The velocity and pressure are obtained from the solution of the equations of hydrodynamics where D-dimensional multipole po...

where ρ [ kg m3 ] is the mass density of the phase α; ε [1] is the volume fraction occupied by the phase α; q [ m s ] is Darcy’s velocity of the phase α; ω i [1] is the mass fraction of component i in the α phase; Ji [ kg m2s ] is the flux vector representing the diffusive flux of component i in the phase α; f i [ 1 s ] is the source of component i in the phase α; ei [ 1 s ] is the gain of mass...

This study utilizes ICESat Release 33 GLA14 data to analyse water level variation of Xinjiang's lakes and reservoirs from 2003 to 2009. By using Landsat images, lakes and reservoirs with area larger than 1 km2 are numerically delineated with a software tool. Based on ICESat observations, we analyse the characteristics of water level variation in different geographic environments, as well as inv...

In this study, the nanostructures and thermophysical properties (thermal conductivity, viscosity, and specific heat) of one new type of nanostructured heat transfer fluid, water/polyalphaolefin nanoemulsion fluid, are investigated. The water/ polyalphaolefin nanoemulsion fluids are thermodynamically stable containing dispersed water nanodroplets formed by self-assembly. It has been found that t...

Methane oxidation rates observed in a topsoil covering a retired landfill are the highest reported (45 g m day) for any environment. This microbial community had the capacity to rapidly oxidize CH(4) at concentrations ranging from <1 ppm (microliters per liter) (first-order rate constant [k] = -0.54 h) to >10 ppm (k = -2.37 h). The physiological characteristics of a methanotroph isolated from t...

For regions of partial melt in the lower mantle, both compressional and shear wave velocities decrease monotonically with increasing melt volume fraction. It has been observed that regions close to the core-mantle boundary thought to contain partial melt have a velocity decrement ratio (relative change in shear velocity over relative change of compressional velocity) of about 3. This is certain...