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Objective High-quality chest compressions during cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) play a significant role in surviving cardiac arrest. Chest-compression quality can be measured and corrected by real-time CPR feedback devices, which are not yet commonly used. This article looks at the acceptance of such systems in comparison of equipped and unequipped personnel. Design Two groups of emergency medical services' (EMS) personnel were interviewed using standardized questionnaires. Setting The survey was conducted in the German cities Dortmund and Munster. Participants Overall, 205 persons participated in the survey: 103 paramedics and emergency physicians from the Dortmund fire service and 102 personnel from the Munster service. Intervention The staff of the Dortmund service were not equipped with real-time feedback systems. The test group of equipped personnel of the ambulance service of Munster Fire brigade uses real-time feedback systems since 2007. Main outcome measure What is the acceptance level of real-time feedback systems? Are there differences between equipped and unequipped personnel? Results The total sample is receptive towards real-time feedback systems. More than 80% deem the system useful. However, this study revealed concerns and prejudices by unequipped personnel. Negative ratings are significantly lower at the Munster site that is experienced with the use of the real-time feedback system in contrast to the Dortmund site where no such experience exists-the system's use in daily routine results in better evaluation than the expectations of unequipped personnel. Conclusions Real-time feedback systems receive overall positive ratings. Prejudices and concerns seem to decrease with continued use of the system.

Exploring the culture and media of the Americas, this handbook places particular emphasis on collective and intertwined experiences and focuses on the transnational or hemispheric dimensions of cultural flows and geocultural imaginaries that shape the literature, arts, media and other cultural expressions in the Americas. The Routledge Handbook to the Culture and Media of the Americas charts the pervasive, asymmetrical flows of cultural products and capital and their importance in the development of the Americas. The volume offers a comprehensive understanding of how inter-American communication is constituted, framed and structured, and covers the artistic and political dimensions that have shaped literature, art and popular culture in the region. Forty-six chapters cover a range of inter-American key concepts and dynamics, divided into two parts: 1. Literature and Music deals with inter-American entanglements of artistic expressions in the Western Hemisphere, including music, dance, literary genres and developments. 2. Media and Visual Cultures explores the inter-American dimension of media production in the hemisphere, including cinema and television, photography and art, journalism, radio, digital culture and issues such as freedom of expression and intellectual property. This multidisciplinary approach will be of interest to a broad array of academic scholars and students in history, sociology, political science; and cultural, postcolonial, gender, literary, globalization and media studies.

Multiculturalism is to this day one of the predominant modes by which western democracies address cultural heterogeneity, migration and postcolonial legacies in political rhetoric and practice. This introductional article deals with the political conjunctures of multiculturalism in the Americas from the beginning in the 1960s passing through the crisis and neo-conservative backlash in the 1990s to the contemporary post-multicultural identity politics.