113 Theatre Bleep: Quality Improvement Project

Introduction Efficient use of any theatre is essential for timely operating and maximising the use of resources. There are many reasons for inefficiency, including delays in patient transfer, and issues of communication between the ward and theatre staff. The objectives of this QIP were to establish areas for improvement in communication. Method A survey was distributed amongst staff with several questions subjectively rating the communication between theatres and the ward. Results Common reasons listed for delays mentioned included staffing (25) and communication (19), with only 18% rating communication when sending for a patient as good, and 58% of theatre staff rating communication when transporting a patient back as poor. A common response was failure of the ward to answer the telephone. A bleep was therefore introduced, which was carried by a nominated nurse on the plastic surgery ward each shift. Following the introduction of this bleep, the survey was repeated, with 71% rating communication when sending for a patient as good, and 86% of staff rating communication when transporting a patient back as either good or excellent. Conclusions This simple measure of a new ward bleep significantly improved communication, and we feel this measure should be implemented nationally.

A Simple Measure to Study Multinational Income Inequality

Using the Big Mac Index, we offer a simple measure to study the real income inequality. We provide a multidimensional real income inequality analysis by exploring the Coefficient of Variation and the Big Mac Affordability of households across all income deciles of 28 countries for the years 2000 to 2013. We look more into a few of the most interesting countries in our analysis in order to have explanations for the wide range of income inequality we observe. We compare Denmark and Mexico as representatives of the “more equal” and “less equal” countries in our analysis, and we find a visible difference in the share of each decile to the top decile of income between the two countries. However, we observe that, although a more equal country, Denmark has been exp eriencing a rise in income inequality while a less equal country (Mexico) has been experiencing a reduction in income inequality. We also focus on the United States and study how it compares to Russia, a country that shows a different direction of income inequality compared to the U.S.A. We find that while the wage income inequality in Russia has been correlated inversely with its growth, in the U.S.A., the overall growth and wage income inequality have been positively correlated.

An Accidental Intestinal Myiasis Caused by Cochliomyia macellaria

Intestinal myiasis is recognized as pseudomyiasis or accidental myiasis caused by dipteran fly larvae transmitted to humans via contaminated food or water. A case of intestinal myiasis acquired via contaminated food is reported in this case study. The patient is a 4-year-old boy who had frequent episodes of crampy abdominal pain and diarrhoea and the passage of many live worms at each time. As the child had the habit of eating ripe guava from his garden, the infection source was suggested as ripe guava, and the possibility was explored. All larvae collected from faeces and fruit were morphologically similar, and it has been identified as Cochliomyia macellaria. The treatment with several antihelmintics failed, and the recovery was achieved with a simple measure of abstinence from eating guava that came from his garden.

Evaluation of smartphone applications for measuring the total height of trees

The objective of this study was to evaluate the precision and accuracy of smartphone applications for measuring the total height of trees. We measured the heights of 90 trees of different species on the campus of the Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro in Seropédica, equally distributed in three height classes: (1) h ≤ 11.5 m; (2) 11.5 <h < 20 m; and (3) h ≥ 20 m. The heights measured by the Vertex III® hypsometer was the reference for the comparison of the tested applications: Measure Height (MH and MDH), Hypsometer (HYP), Simple Measure (SM), Height Calculator (HC), Smart Tools (ST), Height and Distance (HD), Two Point Height (TPH and TPH2) and Tree Meter (TM) using the MOTO G5 smartphone. For data analysis, we performed an F (α = 0,05) test, and if there is a significant difference Dunnett's mean test (α = 0,05) was applied, and height variation coefficients (CV%) were analyzed for all applications used. Then, we carried out the graphical analysis of the differences and the statistical parameters of Bias (V), Mean of Absolute Differences (MD), Standard Deviation of Differences (DPD), ending with the performance index (c). We concluded that the applications Height Calculator (HC), Smart Tools (ST) and, Two Point Height, (TPH) present greater precision and accuracy in the measurement of the total height of the trees. However, we observed that increasing the height of the trees, reduces the performance of the applications, mainly using the Simple Measure (SM) and Height and Distance (HD) applications. The Tree Meter (TM) can be used on trees smaller than 20 m in total height. Measure Height (MH and MDH) and Hypsometer (HYP) applications have low precision and accuracy in estimates.