Examining Training Motivations Among Public Health Workers

CONTEXT: As public health needs and priorities evolve, maintaining a trained public health workforce is critical to the success of public health efforts. Researchers have examined training needs in various contexts and subpopulations, but a nationally representative study of what motivates public health workers to seek out training has yet to be conducted. By understanding these motivations, public health agencies and policy makers can appeal to worker motivations in both training programs and organizational incentives. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this article was to describe overall training motivations and identify patterns of training motivations among public health workers. This study also explored whether or not training needs differ across prevalent motivational patterns. DESIGN AND PARTICIPANTS: Using data from the 2017 Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey (PH WINS), the study used latent class analysis (LCA) to identify motivational patterns and logistic regression to analyze associations with training needs. RESULTS: The most prominent motivation to seek training was personal growth (82.7% of respondents). LCA identified 4 motivational classes of public health workers: those motivated by organizational pressure and requirements (31.8%), those motivated indiscriminately by all factors (28.4%), those motivated primarily by personal growth (21.7%), and those motivated by organizational accommodations and supports (18.2%). Motivational class was not associated with indicating training needs in any of 8 training domains, nor was it associated with indicating any training need in any domain. CONCLUSIONS: Public health agencies should consider the different motivational classes present in the public health workforce. In particular, motivational classes that represent organizational choices suggest that public health agencies should both motivate workers with organizational requirements and pressure from managers and offer institutional support via paid travel and covered time for training

Catalysts for ultrahigh current density oxygen cathodes for space fuel cell applications

The objective was to identify promising electrocatalyst/support systems for oxygen cathodes capable of operating at ultrahigh current densities in alkaline fuel cells. Such cells will require operation at relatively high temperatures and O2 pressures. A number of materials were prepared, including Pb-Ru and Pb-Ir pyrochlores, RuO2 and Pt-doped RuO2, lithiated NiO and La-Ni perovskites. Several of these materials were prepared using techniques that had not been previously used to prepare them. Particularly interesting was the use of the alkaline solution technique to prepare Pt-doped and Pb-Ru pyrochlores in high area form. Also interesting was the use of the fusion (melt) method for preparing the Pb-Ru pyrochlore. Several of the materials were also deposited with platinum. Well-crystallized Pb2Ru2O(7-y) was used to fabricate very high performance O2 cathodes with good stability in room temperature KOH. This material was also found to be stable over a useful potential range at approx. 140 C in concentrated KOH. For some of the samples, fabrication of the gas-fed electrodes could not be fully optimized during this project period. Future work may be directed at this problem. Pyrochlores that were not well-crystallized were found to be unstable in alkaline solution. Very good O2 reduction performance and stability were observed with Pb2RuO(7-y) in a carbon-based gas-fed electrode with an anion-conducting membrane placed on the electrolyte side of the electrode. The performance came within a factor of about two of that observed without carbon. High area platinum and gold supported on several conductive metal oxide supports were examined. Only small improvements in O2 reduction performance at room temperature were observed for Pb2Ru2O(7-y) as a support because of the high intrinsic activity of the pyrochlore. In contrast, a large improvement was observed for Li-doped NiO as a support for Pt. Very poor performance was observed for Au deposited on Li-NiO at approx. 150 C. Nearly reversible behavior was observed for the O2/OH(-) couple for Li-doped NiO at approx. 200 C. The temperature dependence for the O2 reduction was examined

The (2k-1)-connected multigraphs with at most k-1 disjoint cycles

In 1963, Corr\'adi and Hajnal proved that for all $k \ge 1$ and $n \ge 3k$, every (simple) graph on n vertices with minimum degree at least 2k contains k disjoint cycles. The same year, Dirac described the 3-connected multigraphs not containing two disjoint cycles and asked the more general question: Which (2k-1)-connected multigraphs do not contain k disjoint cycles? Recently, the authors characterized the simple graphs G with minimum degree $\delta(G) \ge 2k-1$ that do not contain k disjoint cycles. We use this result to answer Dirac's question in full.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures. To appear in Combinatoric

Assignments in the electronic spectrum of water

To explain the inelastic feature at 4.5 eV in the spectrum of water and to study its spectrum in some detail, we have carried out several calculations on the excited states of water using the equations‐of‐motion method. We conclude that the calculated vertical excitation energy of 6.9 eV for the ^3B_1 state corresponds to the strong feature at 7.2 eV observed in low‐energy electron scattering spectrum. The 4.5 eV inelastic process almost certainly does not correspond to a vertical excitation of water at the ground state geometry. The other excitation energies and oscillator strengths agree well with experiment

Productivity Divergence across Kansas Farms

This study used 30 years of continuous data for 135 farms in Kansas to explore changes in productivity using Malmquist productivity indices (MPI). The indices were used to determine whether there was productivity convergence or divergence in Kansas farms. The results showed there was significant divergence among the farms. The average annual productivity growth was 0.50 percent; the top farms based on MPI were larger in terms of value of farm production, crop farm income, and livestock farm income and received a larger percentage of their income from oilseeds, feed grains, and swine than the other farms on average.convergence, divergence, productivity growth, Production Economics, Productivity Analysis,

Productivity Divergence Across Kansas Farms

This study used 30 years of continuous data for 135 farms in Kansas to explore changes in productivity using Malmquist productivity indices. The indices were used to determine whether there was productivity convergence or divergence in Kansas farms. The results showed that there was significant divergence among the farms and not a tendency for farms to catch-up to the same levels of productivity as the top farms in the sample. The average annual productivity growth over the sample period, 1979-2008, was 0.50 percent. The top farms based on MPI were larger in terms of value of farm production, crop farm income and livestock farm income and received a larger percentage of their income from oilseeds, feed grains, and swine than the other farms on average and relatively less of their income from small grains.Farm Management, Production Economics, Productivity Analysis,

Impact of Changes in Energy Input Prices on Ethanol Importation and Prices

Demand and Price Analysis, International Relations/Trade, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Large temporal variations of energetic electron intensities at mid-latitudes in the outer radiation zone Progress report

Variations of electron flux density observations by Explorer 12 and 1