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The Paris Agreement of 2015 established an enhanced transparency framework, in which parties of the agreement compile and provide their national greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories based on annual statistics of [...]

Aim. The aim of this study was to investigate nursing students' perception of and satisfaction with clinical group supervision based on a special model, used in nursing training. Background. Long-standing efforts have been made to create supervision models in nursing training that promote personal and professional development and prepare nursing students to cope with the complex and demanding situations they will face as registered nurses. Methods. Data were collected from nursing students ( n = 43) during their clinical training by means of two questionnaires. Most questions were concerned with the importance of factors involved in the contract and the students' experiences of how these factors were covered during the clinical group supervision. Findings. The findings showed that, before starting the supervision programme, most all the students expressed positive attitudes towards group supervision, but 25% had negative expectations as well. At the end of the programme all students thought that group supervision had been an important support to them during their training and almost everyone wanted to participate in group supervision in the future as registered nurses. The findings showed that both the structure and the climate were important for the success of the group supervision. Relevance to clinical practice. The findings will strengthen the model and confirm its usefulness in clinical training for nursing students. Using this supervision model, which includes reflection about feelings, thoughts and actions, the students will be well prepared for demanded situations in their future role as a registered nurse. A replication of this study addressed to trained nurses would be valuable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atmospheric Motion Vectors (AMVs) constitute an integral part of the global observing system. The heights of these vectors are determined by the target temperature, which, in the case of semi-transparent or broken clouds, is corrected for the upwelling radiance from scenes below the target. Despite the success of these methods, the attributed heights are still the largest single source of error of the AMVs. In order to improve the existing methodologies to determine the height of the AMVs alternative methods have to be employed. The potential of geometric cloud height estimates, where two satellites view the same cloud, has already been demonstrated with geosynchronous satellite data only as well as together with data from polar orbiting satellites. In these studies the cloud targets have been selected manually and the analysis has generally been based on imagery data from the visible channels. In this paper we take the methods further by applying them to geostationary infrared imagery data, using a fully automated procedure. The reason for exploiting infrared data is the capability of continuous observations also during night-time. The results presented demonstrate the stereo method as a verification and analysis tool for satellite cloud top temperature height retrievals and that it can be applied to 5-km resolution infrared imagery data from the geostationary satellites Meteosat 5 and Meteosat 7. A further analysis combining Meteosat data with imagery data from a polar orbiting satellite shows that the automated geometric technique can be extended beyond the range of overlapping geosynchronous observations, using an asynchronous stereo technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To explore what situations students focus on during group supervision sessions, and what this supervision meant to nursing students during their clinical placements., Background: Knowledge about clinical supervision of nursing students in groups is scarce concerning what situations the students bring to the sessions., Method: Open-ended questionnaires were filled out by students after each session. Qualitative content analysis was performed., Results: The content evolved as: being a nursing student, encountering demanding situations and becoming a nurse. The meaning of group supervision was captured in the categories: 'satisfaction of being together in the supervision group', 'new understanding and insights' and 'hesitation and discomfort'. A change of pattern was found over time showing a development among the students from a self-centred focus to a profession-centred focus., Conclusion: The value of group supervision as a tool to support nursing students' personal and professional development was emphasized. The students' great need for and lack of support in 'bed-side nursing' was obvious., Implications for Nursing Management: Our findings would be valuable for nurse managers when striving for a good learning environment in clinical placements, as well as for nursing teachers, in their supportive role to both students and preceptors., (© 2010 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.)

Falls and fall-related injuries are a major problem for elderly persons. Most falls occur during walking and turning, and the risk of falling increases when attention is diverted to something besides walking. It is often difficult to standardize methods for testing balance and fall tendency in a clinically relevant setting. We describe the development of a system using a virtual environment (VE) to assess how attention demanding and unexpected events influence a person's capacity to control balance and movement. The hardware in the system consists of a head-mounted display (HMD), a magnetic tracker system, and two SGI computers. The software consists of the image generation of the VE and the management and visualization of motion tracking data. In a preliminary pilot study eight subjects (age 23-80) participated. Each subject walked on a normal floor and was visually presented a familiar outdoor environment in the HMD. They were exposed to different unexpected events, such as a virtual snowfall and tilting of the VE. Disturbances of balance and walking patterns such as changes in speed, stride length and balance reactions like slipping were observed. Two subjects experienced symptoms of cyber sickness with a SSQ score above 25 points. Walking with sensors only did not affect walking time, but in VE the subjects generally walked more slowly. Virtual tilting of the environment had an impact on balance performance during walking. This effect was not observed while the test subjects were walking in a virtual snowfall. The model needs further development but may hold a potential for clinical use.