University of Bedfordshire

About: University of Bedfordshire is a education organization based out in Luton, Bedford, United Kingdom. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Social work. The organization has 3860 authors who have published 6079 publications receiving 143448 citations. The organization is also known as: University of Luton.

Caring for older adults with diabetes mellitus: characteristics of carers and their prime roles and responsibilities.

Abstract: Aims Expanding prevalence of diabetes has a major health impact on older people and the burden experienced by their informal carers. We report research which aimed to examine the burden on carers and highlight their input into diabetes care. Methods Of 98 diabetes patients aged over 59 years, 89 regularly received help with day-to-day activities or looking after from someone else and, of these, 83 carers consented to interview. Patients and carers were administered questionnaires related to the management of diabetes and personal strain (including Diabetes Knowledge Questionnaire, EuroQol, Caregiver Strain Scale and General Health Questionnaire). Results A substantial unmet need of older people with diabetes mellitus, in relation to domestic activities and diabetes care, was highlighted. Patient and carer diabetes knowledge was low. Primary carers were generally female relatives from the same household, not in paid employment. Twenty-seven carers (33%) provided ≥ 35 h of care work each week. Most carers experienced a moderate level of stress, but 11 (14%) regularly felt overwhelmed. Thirty-three carers (40%) said they had never received any information on diabetes from professionals. Help most frequently wanted was advice and support in relation to accessing community services and about finances, benefits and/or allowances. Conclusions Both patient and carer diabetes education strategies are required. Instruction for carers in the basic care of patients with diabetes is also needed and should be targeted. As many as one in seven carers felt regularly overwhelmed and lacked adequate support. Finally, 26 carers (31%) were entitled to benefits which they did not claim.

Resource Allocation in an LTE Cellular Communication System

Abstract: The problem of allocating resources for user transmissions on the downlink of a Long Term Evolution (LTE) cellular communication system is studied. A novel optimal multiuser scheduler is proposed and its performance is evaluated. Numerical results show that the system performance improves with increasing correlation among OFDMA sub-carriers. It is found that a limited amount of feedback information can provide a relatively good performance. A sub-optimal scheduler with a lower computational complexity is also proposed, and shown to provide good performance. The sub-optimal scheme is especially attractive when the number of users is large, as the complexity of the optimal scheme may be unacceptably high in many practical situations.

Tissue treatment device

Abstract: The tissue treatment device consists of a bladder (2), having inlet (1) to be connected to a fluid source (not shown). The bladder (2) is placed within a wound cavity and inflated to conform to the cavity shape and apply constant pressure against the wound surface or pulsed pressure, as required. A seal (3) isolates bladder (2) and the wound cavity from atmosphere. Seal (3) includes one or more inlets/outlets (4, 5) for connection to a vacuum source and/or for the supply of media to be introduced into the wound cavity. The vacuum source can be a vacuum pump or a continuous vacuum provided in hospitals. The media to be introduced into the wound cavity can be saline, water or ozone, oxygen, or any substance to promote wound healing. The bladder (2) is made from polymeric material and can also be impregnated with wound healing compounds to promote healing.

Understanding the Impact of Business Analytics on Innovation.

Abstract: Advances in Business Analytics in the era of Big Data have provided unprecedented opportunities for organizations to innovate. With insights gained from Business Analytics, companies are able to develop new or improved products/services. However, few studies have investigated the mechanism through which Business Analytics contributes to a firm's innovation success. This research aims to address this gap by theoretically and empirically investigating the relationship between Business Analytics and innovation. To achieve this aim, absorptive capacity theory is used as a theoretical lens to inform the development of a research model. Absorptive capacity theory refers to a firm's ability to recognize the value of new, external information, assimilate it and apply it to commercial ends. The research model covers the use of Business Analytics, environmental scanning, data-driven culture, innovation (new product newness and meaningfulness), and competitive advantage. The research model is tested through a questionnaire survey of 218 UK businesses. The results suggest that Business Analytics directly improves environmental scanning which in turn helps to enhance a company's innovation. Business Analytics also directly enhances data-driven culture that in turn impacts on environmental scanning. Data-driven culture plays another important role by moderating the effect of environmental scanning on new product meaningfulness. The findings demonstrate the positive impact of business analytics on innovation and the pivotal roles of environmental scanning and data-driven culture. Organizations wishing to realize the potential of Business Analytics thus need changes in both their external and internal focus.