Recovery from gynaecological day surgery : are we underestimating the process

This paper reports a study investigating the post operative experiences of 80 women following gynaecological day surgery. Women kept a diary for the first 4 days following surgery. The diary included a recovery rating scale and a symptom management index focusing particularly on symptoms. A telephone interview conducted on post-operative day 10 further explored experiences. Results at day 4 indicated women experienced significant problems with pain, moving around and tiredness. By day 10, women were still experiencing tiredness, pain and other lingering problems. The study indicates that patients experience more problems than discharge education assumes.

Carbohydrates and fat for training and recovery

An important goal of the athlete's everyday diet is to provide the muscle with substrates to fuel the training programme that will achieve optimal adaptation for performance enhancements. In reviewing the scientific literature on post-exercise glycogen storage since 1991, the following guidelines for the training diet are proposed. Athletes should aim to achieve carbohydrate intakes to meet the fuel requirements of their training programme and to optimize restoration of muscle glycogen stores between workouts. General recommendations can be provided, preferably in terms of grams of carbohydrate per kilogram of the athlete's body mass, but should be fine-tuned with individual consideration of total energy needs, specific training needs and feedback from training performance. It is valuable to choose nutrient-rich carbohydrate foods and to add other foods to recovery meals and snacks to provide a good source of protein and other nutrients. These nutrients may assist in other recovery processes and, in the case of protein, may promote additional glycogen recovery when carbohydrate intake is suboptimal or when frequent snacking is not possible. When the period between exercise sessions is  <8 h, the athlete should begin carbohydrate intake as soon as practical after the first workout to maximize the effective recovery time between sessions. There may be some advantages in meeting carbohydrate intake targets as a series of snacks during the early recovery phase, but during longer recovery periods (24 h) the athlete should organize the pattern and timing of carbohydrate-rich meals and snacks according to what is practical and comfortable for their individual situation. Carbohydrate-rich foods with a moderate to high glycaemic index provide a readily available source of carbohydrate for muscle glycogen synthesis, and should be the major carbohydrate choices in recovery meals. Although there is new interest in the recovery of intramuscular triglyceride stores between training sessions, there is no evidence that diets which are high in fat and restricted in carbohydrate enhance training.

A comparative study at the logical level of centralised and distributed recovery in clusters

Cluster systems are becoming more prevalent in today’s computer society and users are beginning to request that these systems be reliable. Currently, most clusters have been designed to provide high performance at the cost of providing little to no reliability. To combat this, this report looks at how a recovery facility, based on either a centralised or distributed approach could be implemented into a cluster that is supported by a check pointing facility. This recovery facility can then recover failed user processes by using checkpoints of the processes that have been taken during failure free execution.

The haemodynamic status of cardiac surgical patients in the initial 2-h recovery period

Background
Critical care nurses caring for cardiac patients in the immediate postoperative period continually make decisions about the implications and treatment of their patients' haemodynamic status.

Aim
The aim of this study was to describe the haemodynamic status of patients on admission to critical care and over the 2-h period following cardiac surgery.

Methods
A quantitative, descriptive design was used. Data were collected using non-participant observation and an observation tool. The sample consisted of 38 patients.

Results
Analysis of data revealed the dynamic nature of the haemodynamic status of postoperative cardiac patients. On admission, 60% of patients (n = 23) were haemodynamically unstable. The instability in these patients (n = 23) was due to hypotension (34%), bleeding (21%) and hypoxaemia (18%). During the 2-h recovery period, 55% of patients were hypotensive, 16% of patients had low cardiac output syndrome and 16% of patients had low systemic vascular resistance (SVR) syndrome. Twenty-one percent of patients experienced bleeding complications. Shivering was a clinically significant problem in terms of occurrence (23%) and duration (X = 45, S.D. = 30 min). Twenty-nine percent of patients (n = 11) had a profound deterioration in haemodynamic status, necessitating urgent interventions.

Conclusion
Haemodynamic parameters indicate that 95% of patients in this study were haemodynamically unstable at some time during the initial 2-h recovery period. These findings inform resourcing decisions by organisations and have implications for nurses' assessment and interventional haemodynamic decision making.

Life-cycle energy analysis of building integrated photovoltaic systems (BiPVs) with heat recovery unit

Building integrated photovoltaic (BiPV) systems generate electricity, but also heat, which is typically wasted and also reduces the efficiency of generation. A heat recovery unit can be combined with a BiPV system to take advantage of this waste heat, thus providing cogeneration. Two different photovoltaic (PV) cell types were combined with a heat recovery unit and analysed in terms of their life-cycle energy consumption to determine the energy payback period. A net energy analysis of these PV systems has previously been performed, but recent improvements in the data used for this study allow for a more comprehensive assessment of the combined energy used throughout the entire life-cycle of these systems to be performed. Energy payback periods between 4 and 16.5 years were found, depending on the BiPV system. The energy embodied in PV systems is significant, emphasised here due to the innovative use of national average input–output (I–O) data to fill gaps in traditional life-cycle inventories, i.e. hybrid analysis. These findings provide an insight into the net energy savings that are possible with a well-designed and managed BiPV system.

Relationship marketing and pay TV: satisfaction, complaining behavior, service recovery, and repurchase

The aims of this research included demonstrating the detenninants of Pay TV subscriber satisfaction, and displaying the relationships between key aspects of relationship marketing, such as perceptions of value, satisfaction, customer complaint behavior and service recovery, and the intention to repurchase. A survey of 171 Australian respondents suggested that the perceived quality of the variety of the programs available and the perceived quality of the monthly program guide were major contributors to value, and that value was the main driver of overall satisfaction, which in tum was the main driver of the likelihood of disconnection from the Pay TV service. Those respondents who reported having a problem but not complaining directly about it were significantly more likely to have the intention to disconnect in the future, but they were not significantly different in tenns of their value perceptions or overall satisfaction.

The cost of recovery protocols in web-based database systems

The cost of recovery protocols is important with respect to system performance during normal operation and failure in terms of overhead, and time taken to recover failed transactions. The cost of recovery protocols for web database systems has not been addressed much. In this paper, we present a quantitative study of cost of recovery protocols. For this purpose, we use an experiment setup to evaluate the performance of two recovery algorithms, namely the, two-phase commit algorithm and log-based algorithm. Our work is a step towards building reliable protocols for web database systems.

Service failure and recovery in the presence of service guarantees

This paper presents a conceptual model and propositions outlining how, in a service recovery encounter, service guarantees (unconditional and specific) operate in conjunction with other organisational recovery variables (guarantee facilitation and service provider concern), to influence customers’ justice perceptions and subsequent satisfaction evaluations.

Polypyrrole-coated electrospun nanofibre membranes for recovery of Au(III) from aqueous solution

In this paper, for the first time, polypyrrole-coated electrospun nanofibre mats have been used as separation membranes to electrolessly recover Au from aqueous [Au(III)Cl₄]− solutions, based on a continuous-flow membrane separation process. With a [Au(III)Cl₄]− solution passing through the nanofibre membrane, the Au(III) ions were converted into elemental Au. The gold recovered was deposited on the nanofibre membranes in the form of Au particles, as confirmed by EDX and XPS measurements. It has been found that the polypyrrole-coated electrospun nanofibres are good candidate membrane material for the recovery of Au, and the recovery efficiency is affected by the membrane thickness, the permeate flux rate and the initial [Au(III)Cl₄]− concentration.

Effect of a weight-loss program on mental stress-induced cardiovascular responses and recovery

Objective: We assessed the effect of weight loss on blood pressure (BP) and pulse rate during rest, psychological stress, and recovery after stress.

Methods: Two groups of men completed two mental stress tests 12 wk apart. The control group continued their usual diet, whereas the weight-loss group underwent a dietary weight-loss program in which they were randomized to a high-fruit/vegetable and low-fat dairy diet or a low-fat diet.

Results: Fifty-five men with a baseline BP of 125.9 ± 6.9/83.6 ± 7.1 mmHg (mean ± SD) completed the study (weight-loss group, n = 28; control group, n = 27). The weight-loss group lost weight (mean ± SEM, −4.3 ± 0.3 versus +0.4 ± 0.4 kg, P = 0.001) compared with controls and had a significant decrease in resting systolic BP (SBP; −2.0 ± 1.1% versus +2.0 ± 1.1%, P < 0.05). There was a greater decrease in SBP (P < 0.05) and pulse rate (P < 0.05) at all time points during the stress test in the weight loss compared with the control group. At week 12, SBP in 23 (82%) subjects in the weight-loss group and 24 (89%) in the control group returned to resting levels, with recovering levels in the weight-loss group returning to resting levels 6.1 ± 2.6 min earlier than in the control group (P < 0.05). There was an overall greater decrease in diastolic BP (DBP; P < 0.05) and DBP during recovery up to 27 min after stress (P < 0.05) in the high-fruit/vegetable and low-fat dairy diet group (n = 14) compared with the low-fat diet group (n = 14).

Conclusion: A 5% loss of weight decreased BP during rest and returned SBP to resting levels faster, thus decreasing the period of increased BP as a result of mental stress, which is likely to lower the risk of cardiovascular disease in the long term.

Temporal dynamics of oocyte development, plasma sex steroids and somatic energy reserves during seasonal ovarian maturation in captive Murray cod Maccullochella peelii peellii

The temporal dynamics of oocyte growth, plasma sex steroids and somatic energy stores were examined during a 12 month ovarian maturation cycle in captive Murray cod Maccullochella peelii peelii under simulated natural photothermal conditions. Ovarian function was found to be relatively uninhibited in captivity, with the exception that post-vitellogenic follicles failed to undergo final maturation, resulting in widespread pre-ovulatory atresia. Seasonal patterns of oocyte growth were characterised by cortical alveoli accumulation in March, deposition of lipids in April, and vitellogenesis between May and September. Two distinct batches of vitellogenic oocytes were found in Murray cod ovaries, indicating a capacity for multiple spawns. Plasma profiles of 17β-oestradiol and testosterone were both highly variable during the maturation period suggesting that multiple roles exist for these steroids during different stages of oocyte growth. Condition factor, liver size and visceral fat stores were all found to increase prior to, or during the peak phase of vitellogenic growth. Murray cod appear to strategically utilise episodes of high feeding activity to accrue energy reserves early in the reproductive cycle prior to its deployment during periods of rapid ovarian growth.

An effective and efficient testing methodology for correctness testing for file recovery tools

We hereby develop an effective and efficient testing methodology for correctness testing for file recovery tools across different file systems. We assume that the tool tester is familiar with the formats of common file types and has the ability to use the tools correctly. Our methodology first derives a testing plan to minimize the number of runs required to identify the differences in tools with respect to correctness. We also present a case study on correctness testing for file carving tools, which allows us to confirm that the number of necessary testing runs is bounded and our results are statistically sound.

The influence of procedural and interactional justice, and disconfirmation on customers post recovery satisfaction evaluations

This study examines the influence of distributive and interactional justice and disconfirmation on customers’ postrecovery satisfaction evaluations, and in so doing, combines, for the first time, two existing instruments to operationalise the interactional justice construct. Using Structural Equation Modelling, the findings suggest that while both disconfirmation and justice are important predictors of satisfaction, distributive justice has the greatest influence. The research presented here reports on a section of a larger experiment-based study examining how customers’ postrecovery satisfaction evaluations are influenced by the way in which the organisation responds to the failure.