Despite the costs of organising nutrition support teams in hospitals, Essay

Despite the costs of organising nutrition support teams in hospitals, there is an overall saving in health care cost - Essay Example The nutritional support team provides artificial nutrition and maintains itself as the supreme source of evidence-based information about nutritional assessment and support. It audits practical standards of care and organizes ways to nutritional screening, monitoring, and assessment for doctors, nurses, and pharmacists. Nutritional Support Team also assesses different feeding routes and advises on alternative treatment options. Nutritional Support Team activities contribute to a shorter hospital stay, lower mortality rate, improved nutrition, and reduced complications (IrSPEN, 2013; Tan Tock Seng Hospital Nutrition and Dietetics Department 2015). Therefore, Nutritional Support Team decreases complications and healthcare costs through reductions in unrequited treatments and prevention of complications. Organizing of nutritional support teams incurs several costs. The costs are incurred in the clinicians or departments involved in the provision of adequate nutrition for patients. First, we have the catering staff. It is concerned with providing sufficient quantities of quality food to limit the unnecessary use of nutrition support. Patients who cannot feed on their receive food in a favorable environment. Therefore, there is spending of much cash in the provision of quality food and maintaining a healthy environment. Secondly, there are the dietitians who are concerned with the provision of nutritional support for patients who are unable to derive adequate nourishment from food. Dietitians provide nutritional screening and assessment, together with the stipulation of supplementary through oral, parenteral, and enteral routes to patients undergoing malnutrition. However, it is expensive to maintain the dietitians hence many finances spent. Third, the ward nurses look after the patients, undertake screening process, and instigate associated care pathways. They ensure

Soil strengthening of age-old-designed railway tracks Research Paper

Soil strengthening of age-old-designed railway tracks - Research Paper Example Superstructure consists of rails, fastening, and sleepers, and sub-structure consists of ballast, sub-ballast, and sub-grade. This research assignment studies the functions of substructure in track operation. Railroad substructure receives dynamic load from train movement and behaves according to the principles and laws of soil mechanics. Soil performance under loading in soil mechanics is governed by two characteristics: strength and deformation (STRATIGRAPHICS n.d.). Strength refers to the shear strength properties, and deformation refers to settlement. The proper functioning of substructure is characterized by the bearing capacity which implies that shear stresses caused by the cyclic loading has to be lower than the soil’s undrained shear strength value, and at the same time settlement will not develop plastic behavior in the soil. After a number of years of operation, instability of both super and sub structures is caused by the shear failure and plastic settlement of sub -grade. There are many factors that may contribute to the loss of soil-strength. Among them, poor drainage, and trapped water in ballast pockets play significant roles. According to Harry Cedergreen, drainage represents a significant issue for railroad construction and maintenance; stability and low maintenance cost can only exist when adequate drainage is provided (Cedergren 1989, p. 364). Sub-grade failure in railroad jargon is called â€Å"soft track† (Australian Rail Track Corporation a 2001). Soft track includes ballast failure, top formation failure, shallow sub-grade failure, embankment failure, and landslide failure. Water is one of the several contributors that cause these failures. The scope of this assignment is to study methods... The response to the cyclic loading of rail track is an interaction of superstructure and substructure. Ballast, sub-ballast, and sub-grade relates to substructure. Decades of operation bring structural changes of substructures. The sub-grades of the old existing rail tracks require rehabilitation to satisfy proper functioning and meet current technical operational standards. The scope of this assignment is to find the rehabilitation approach for the existing tracks of Australia. The solution must account that improvement of substructure by dismantling the railways is not an option due to the transport collapse, which is accompanied by financial losses. Rehabilitation of the existing railway is not a sheer issue that relates to Australia only; it is also a significant issue for the European countries, Canada, and USA. CSX Rail Line in Milstead, Alabama, USA faced excessive ballast settlement and soil pumping problems due to the poor sub-grade conditions. Moreover, Tallapoosa River run s parallel to the rail line. The rehabilitation of the track included raising the track, undercutting and removing the existing ballast, and use of filter fabric over the exposed sub-ballast, which was followed by a layer of Geogrid