Effects of an educational patient safety campaign on patients' safety behaviours and adverse events

Rationale, aims and objectives  The study aims to investigate the effects of a patient safety advisory on patients' risk perceptions, perceived behavioural control, performance of safety behaviours and experience of adverse incidents. Method  Quasi-experimental intervention study with non-equivalent group comparison was used. Patients admitted to the surgical department of a Swiss large non-university hospital were included. Patients in the intervention group received a safety advisory at their first clinical encounter. Outcomes were assessed using a questionnaire at discharge. Odds ratios for control versus intervention group were calculated. Regression analysis was used to model the effects of the intervention and safety behaviours on the experience of safety incidents. Results  Two hundred eighteen patients in the control and 202 in the intervention group completed the survey (75 and 77% response rates, respectively). Patients in the intervention group were less likely to feel poorly informed about medical errors (OR = 0.55, P = 0.043). There were 73.1% in the intervention and 84.3% in the control group who underestimated the risk for infection (OR = 0.51, CI 0.31-0.84, P = 0.009). Perceived behavioural control was lower in the control group (meanCon  = 3.2, meanInt  = 3.5, P = 0.010). Performance of safety-related behaviours was unaffected by the intervention. Patients in the intervention group were less likely to experience any safety-related incident or unsafe situation (OR for intervention group = 0.57, CI 0.38-0.87, P = 0.009). There were no differences in concerns for errors during hospitalization. There were 96% of patients (intervention) who would recommend other patients to read the advisory. Conclusions  The results suggest that the safety advisory decreases experiences of adverse events and unsafe situations. It renders awareness and perceived behavioural control without increasing concerns for safety and can thus serve as a useful instrument for communication about safety between health care workers and patients.

Validation of middle-atmospheric campaign-based water vapour measured by the ground-based microwave radiometer MIAWARA-C

Middle atmospheric water vapour can be used as a tracer for dynamical processes. It is mainly measured by satellite instruments and ground-based microwave radiometers. Ground-based instruments capable of measuring middle-atmospheric water vapour are sparse but valuable as they complement satellite measurements, are relatively easy to maintain and have a long lifetime. MIAWARA-C is a ground-based microwave radiometer for middle-atmospheric water vapour designed for use on measurement campaigns for both atmospheric case studies and instrument intercomparisons. MIAWARA-C's retrieval version 1.1 (v1.1) is set up in a such way as to provide a consistent data set even if the instrument is operated from different locations on a campaign basis. The sensitive altitude range for v1.1 extends from 4 hPa (37 km) to 0.017 hPa (75 km). For v1.1 the estimated systematic error is approximately 10% for all altitudes. At lower altitudes it is dominated by uncertainties in the calibration, with altitude the influence of spectroscopic and temperature uncertainties increases. The estimated random error increases with altitude from 5 to 25%. MIAWARA-C measures two polarisations of the incident radiation in separate receiver channels, and can therefore provide two measurements of the same air mass with independent instrumental noise. The standard deviation of the difference between the profiles obtained from the two polarisations is in excellent agreement with the estimated random measurement error of v1.1. In this paper, the quality of v1.1 data is assessed for measurements obtained at two different locations: (1) a total of 25 months of measurements in the Arctic (Sodankylä, 67.37° N, 26.63° E) and (2) nine months of measurements at mid-latitudes (Zimmerwald, 46.88° N, 7.46° E). For both locations MIAWARA-C's profiles are compared to measurements from the satellite experiments Aura MLS and MIPAS. In addition, comparisons to ACE-FTS and SOFIE are presented for the Arctic and to the ground-based radiometer MIAWARA for the mid-latitude campaigns. In general, all intercomparisons show high correlation coefficients, confirming the ability of MIAWARA-C to monitor temporal variations of the order of days. The biases are generally below 13% and within the estimated systematic uncertainty of MIAWARA-C. No consistent wet or dry bias is identified for MIAWARA-C. In addition, comparisons to the reference instruments indicate the estimated random error of v1.1 to be a realistic measure of the random variation on the retrieved profile between 45 and 70 km.

Effects of sources and meteorology on particulate matter in the Western Mediterranean Basin: An overview of the DAURE campaign

DAURE (Determination of the Sources of Atmospheric Aerosols in Urban and Rural Environments in the Western Mediterranean) was a multidisciplinary international field campaign aimed at investigating the sources and meteorological controls of particulate matter in the Western Mediterranean Basin (WMB). Measurements were simultaneously performed at an urban-coastal (Barcelona, BCN) and a rural-elevated (Montseny, MSY) site pair in NE Spain during winter and summer. State-of-the-art methods such as 14C analysis, proton-transfer reaction mass spectrometry, and high-resolution aerosol mass spectrometry were applied for the first time in the WMB as part of DAURE. WMB regional pollution episodes were associated with high concentrations of inorganic and organic species formed during the transport to inland areas and built up at regional scales. Winter pollutants accumulation depended on the degree of regional stagnation of an air mass under anticyclonic conditions and the planetary boundary layer height. In summer, regional recirculation and biogenic secondary organic aerosols (SOA) formation mainly determined the regional pollutant concentrations. The contribution from fossil sources to organic carbon (OC) and elemental carbon (EC) and hydrocarbon-like organic aerosol concentrations were higher at BCN compared with MSY due to traffic emissions. The relative contribution of nonfossil OC was higher at MSY especially in summer due to biogenic emissions. The fossil OC/EC ratio at MSY was twice the corresponding ratio at BCN indicating that a substantial fraction of fossil OC was due to fossil SOA. In winter, BCN cooking emissions were identified as an important source of modern carbon in primary organic aerosol.

Minority Rights and Humanitarianism: The international campaign for the Ukrainians in Poland, 1930-31

In October 1930, violent action of the Polish security forces against the Ukrainian population in Eastern Galicia resulted in an international campaign for the Ukrainians in Poland. Its central claim was the condemnation of these incidents as a violation of the Minorities Treaty of the League of Nations. The article focuses on the involved British extra-parliamentary groups and their international federations as well as leftist intellectuals, socialist parties and the Labour and Socialist International. In most cases, the commitment of the activists was motivated by the desire to expose a humanitarian scandal while the implementation of minority rights played a minor role. When it turned out that the first reports had presented an exaggerated version of the events, they shifted their focus to the Polish opposition whose persecution started in November 1930.

In search of the "why" behind campaign professionalisation: explaining the degree and profile of campaign professionalisation by an empirical analysis of 23 Swiss cantonal election campaigns

Die Organisation und die strategische Kommunikation von Wahlkämpfen haben sich in den letzten Jahrzehnten in den meisten westeuropäischen Staaten gewandelt, so auch in der Schweiz. Die Kommunikationswissenschaft hat dafür den Begriff der „Professionalisierung“ geprägt und Eigenschaften zusammengetragen, die zu einem „professionalisierten“ Wahlkampf gehören – wie z.B. die Beauftragung von externen Expertinnen und Experten oder die direkte Ansprache von Wählerinnen und Wählern („narrowcasting“). Welche Hintergründe diese Professionalisierung aber hat und wie das Phänomen nicht nur praktisch zu beschreiben, sondern auch theoretisch zu begründen ist, wurde bisher kaum diskutiert. Hier setzt die vorliegende Dissertation an. Basierend auf einer Analyse von 23 Wahlkämpfen aus den Kantonen Aargau, Appenzell Ausserrhoden, Bern, Neuchâtel und Zürich mithilfe der Methode Fuzzy Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) kommt sie zum Schluss, dass die Professionalisierung der Wahlkämpfe vor dem theoretischen Hintergrund des soziologischen Neo-Institutionalismus als Anpassung von Wahlkämpfen an sich verändernde Bedingungen, Erwartungen und Anforderungen in den wichtigsten Anspruchsgruppen oder „Umwelten“ für den Wahlkampf (Wählerinnen und Wähler, Mitglieder, Medien, andere Parteien) definiert werden kann. Daraus folgt, dass es nicht nur „die“ Professionalisierung gibt, sondern dass jeder Wahlkampf an jene Umwelten angepasst wird, wo diese Anpassung den Wahlkampfverantwortlichen am dringlichsten erscheint. Daher sollte Professionalisierung mit vier einzelnen Messinstrumenten bzw. Professionalisierungsindices – einem pro Umwelt – gemessen werden. Misst man Professionalisierung wie bisher üblich nur mit einem einzigen Messinstrument, gibt der resultierende Wert nur ein ungenaues Bild vom Grad der Professionalisierung des Wahlkampfs wieder und verschleiert, als Anpassung an welche Umwelt die Professionalisierung geschieht. Hat man ermittelt, wie professionalisiert ein Wahlkampf im Hinblick auf jede der vier relevantesten Umwelten ist, können dann auch zuverlässiger die Gründe analysiert werden, die zur jeweiligen Professionalisierung geführt haben. Die empirische Analyse der kantonalen Wahlkämpfe bestätigte, dass hinter der Professionalisierung in Bezug auf jede der vier Umwelten auch tatsächlich unterschiedliche Gründe stecken. Wahlkämpfe werden in Bezug auf die Ansprache der Wähler angepasst („professionalisiert“), wenn sie in urbanen Kontexten stattfinden. Den Wahlkampf im Hinblick auf die Mitglieder zu professionalisieren ist besonders wichtig, wenn die Konkurrenz zwischen den Parteien gross ist oder wenn eine Ansprache der Gesamtwählerschaft für eine Partei wenig gewinnbringend erscheint. Die Professionalisierung des Wahlkampfes in Bezug auf die Medien erfolgt dann, wenn er eine grosse, regional stark verteilte oder aber eine urbane Wählerschaft ansprechen muss. Für die Professionalisierung der Wahlkämpfe gegenüber anderen Parteien kann kein aussagekräftiger Schluss gezogen werden, da nur wenige der untersuchten Kantonalparteien ihre Wahlkämpfe überhaupt im Hinblick auf andere Parteien professionalisierten, indem sie die gegnerischen Wahlkämpfe beobachteten und den eigenen wenn nötig entsprechend anpassten.

From the Sea to Paris and back: On the interdependence of economic warfare, weather conditions and the submarine campaign 1916-1917

Starting of from Avner Offer’s comment that the First World War was not only a war of steel and gold, but also of bread and potatoes (1989: 1) and my own research on British as well as Australian preparations for economic warfare and based on sources from the entente as well as the central powers but also from the United States, Canada and Australia, may presentation will focus on the interdependence of the measures taken by entente as well as central power authorities in the second half of 1916. Already a year before both sides had become aware that this war would not only be decided on the battlefield, but that the issues of primary as well as secondary resources would be decisive. Accordingly measures that could strike the enemy in this field were discussed and put into place more and more and this at time, when weather conditions caused a reduction of harvest all over Europe, Northern America and Argentina.

Introduction to the Maïdo Lidar Calibration Campaign dedicated to the validation of upper air meteorological parameters

The first operations at the new High-altitude Maïdo Observatory at La Réunion began in 2013. The Maïdo Lidar Calibration Campaign (MALICCA) was organized there in April 2013 and has focused on the validation of the thermodynamic parameters (temperature, water vapor, and wind) measured with many instruments including the new very large lidar for water vapor and temperature profiles. The aim of this publication consists of providing an overview of the different instruments deployed during this campaign and their status, some of the targeted scientific questions and associated instrumental issues. Some specific detailed studies for some individual techniques were addressed elsewhere. This study shows that temperature profiles were obtained from the ground to the mesopause (80 km) thanks to the lidar and regular meteorological balloon-borne sondes with an overlap range showing good agreement. Water vapor is also monitored from the ground to the mesopause by using the Raman lidar and microwave techniques. Both techniques need to be pushed to their limit to reduce the missing range in the lower stratosphere. Total columns obtained from global positioning system or spectrometers are valuable for checking the calibration and ensuring vertical continuity. The lidar can also provide the vertical cloud structure that is a valuable complementary piece of information when investigating the water vapor cycle. Finally, wind vertical profiles, which were obtained from sondes, are now also retrieved at Maïdo from the newly implemented microwave technique and the lidar. Stable calibrations as well as a small-scale dynamical structure are required to monitor the thermodynamic state of the middle atmosphere, ensure validation of satellite sensors, study the transport of water vapor in the vicinity of the tropical tropopause and study their link with cirrus clouds and cyclones and the impact of small-scale dynamics (gravity waves) and their link with the mean state of the mesosphere.

Campaign strategies at the Swiss National Elections 2015: Nationalization, Coordination, and Personalization

This research note examines parties’ campaign strategies in the 2015 Swiss elections. We base our analyses on a collection of more than 5000 party advertisements, which were published in the forefront of the national elections in more than 50 daily and weekly national and cantonal print media. By comparing the amount of party and candidate ads, as well as the content and nature of the political advertisements, we explore the degree of professionalization of electoral campaigns in the most recent federal elections in terms of nationalization, coordination and personalization. First results show that although national campaign coordination exists, Swiss elections are to a considerable extent still cantonal and personal affairs.