“For the People: A Collaborative Space Assessment”: A Joyful Interpretation of Room Design

To create a space that matters one must focus on the needs of the people who will use it. It is easy to create a beautiful space, however if that space does not function for those it was built for it has no point. Currently in the basement of Founders Residence Hall on the Bowling Green State University campus there is an old unused cafeteria space. This space has not only the potential but the ability to become something new, something of use. It is an area that could not only be renovated and redone by the Honors College but a place that could become a home to collaboration on a major scale

Reading techniques used by mechanical engineering students

Communication researchers have found experience- and purpose-based differences in the reading techniques used by students and professionals in such fields as biology, physics, and law. More experienced readers tend to use techniques such as reading nonlinearly, questioning authority, integrating or referencing prior knowledge, and paying attention to illustrations. Using the read-aloud protocol methodology, this thesis examines the differences in the reading techniques used by two mechanical engineering students in the last year of their undergraduate program and two mechanical engineering students at the end of the first year of their graduate program. Suggestions for helping undergraduate engineering students read more critically are also offered

The Human That Is Not Human: Examining the Doppelganger Through David Hume

The roots of horror are deeply entangled with the concepts presented through Enlightenment thinkers, especially in terms of the self and what makes a human truly a human; David Hume\u27s essays and discussions on human nature lend themselves easily to the analysis of horror throughout the ages, particularly both in terms of what makes humanity human and in terms of metaphysical and theological concepts--and the rejection of them. This, coupled with Sigmund Freud and Otto Rank’s concepts of the uncanny, allows for the ability to perceive what makes creatures like the Doppelganger everlasting throughout humanity. Though horror as a concept includes many supernatural elements, at the heart lies a true fear of what it is to be human, and what it is to be not human; the Gothic functions to drive this point home through the usage of the Doppelganger to illustrate both the human and the human that is not human, including James Hogg\u27s novel The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner. As a direct descendent of the focus on the horror of humanity, certain internet horror projects, such as the YouTube series i am sophie and Alex Kister\u27s Mandela Catalogue, use the concept of the Doppelganger to juxtapose known humanity against unknown inhumanity and to underscore the true core of what makes the Doppelganger effective as a monster: twisting human nature, death, and humanity as a concept into something unknowable and alien to its audience, but just close enough to human to be unsettling—a creature haunted just enough by uncertainty to be, in the eyes of humans, wrong

Stormwater runoff - modeling impacts of urbanization and climate change

Development pressure throughout the coastal areas of the United States continues to build, particularly in the southeast (Allen and Lu 2003, Crossett et al. 2004). It is well known that development alters watershed hydrology: as land becomes covered with surfaces impervious to rain, water is redirected from groundwater recharge and evapotranspiration to stormwater runoff, and as the area of impervious cover increases, so does the volume and rate of runoff (Schueler 1994, Corbett et al. 1997). Pollutants accumulate on impervious surfaces, and the increased runoff with urbanization is a leading cause of nonpoint source pollution (USEPA 2002). Sediment, chemicals, bacteria, viruses, and other pollutants are carried into receiving water bodies, resulting in degraded water quality (Holland et al. 2004, Sanger et al. 2008). (PDF contains 5 pages

Multimorbidity, frailty and COPD: are the challenges for pulmonary rehabilitation in the name?

The overwhelming majority of people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have at least one coexisting medical condition often conceptualized as ‘comorbidities’. These coexisting conditions vary in severity and impact; it is likely that for some patients, COPD is not their most important or severe condition. The concepts of multimorbidity and frailty may be useful to understand the broader needs of people with COPD undergoing pulmonary rehabilitation. Multimorbidity describes the coexistence of two or more chronic conditions, without reference to a primary condition. Best care for people with multimorbidity has been described as a shift from providing disease-focused to patient-centred care. Pulmonary rehabilitation is well placed to deliver such care as it focuses on optimizing function, encourages integration across care settings, values input from multidisciplinary teams and measures patient-important outcomes. When designing optimal pulmonary rehabilitation services for people with multimorbidity, the concept of frailty may be useful. Frailty focuses on impairments rather than medical conditions including impairments in mobility, strength, balance, cognition, nutrition, endurance, mood and physical activity. Emerging data suggest that frailty may be modifiable with pulmonary rehabilitation. The challenge for pulmonary rehabilitation clinicians is to broaden our perspective on the role and outcomes of pulmonary rehabilitation for people with multimorbidity. </jats:p

EHealth search patterns: A comparison of private and public health care markets using online panel data

© Janina Anne Schneider, Christopher Patrick Holland. Background: Patient and consumer access to eHealth information is of crucial importance because of its role in patient-centered medicine and to improve knowledge about general aspects of health and medical topics. Objectives: The objectives were to analyze and compare eHealth search patterns in a private (United States) and a public (United Kingdom) health care market. Methods: A new taxonomy of eHealth websites is proposed to organize the largest eHealth websites. An online measurement framework is developed that provides a precise and detailed measurement system. Online panel data are used to accurately track and analyze detailed search behavior across 100 of the largest eHealth websites in the US and UK health care markets. Results: The health, medical, and lifestyle categories account for approximately 90% of online activity, and e-pharmacies, social media, and professional categories account for the remaining 10% of online activity. Overall search penetration of eHealth websites is significantly higher in the private (United States) than the public market (United Kingdom). Almost twice the number of eHealth users in the private market have adopted online search in the health and lifestyle categories and also spend more time per website than those in the public market. The use of medical websites for specific conditions is almost identical in both markets. The allocation of search effort across categories is similar in both the markets. For all categories, the vast majority of eHealth users only access one website within each category. Those that conduct a search of two or more websites display very narrow search patterns. All users spend relatively little time on eHealth, that is, 3-7 minutes per website. Conclusions: The proposed online measurement framework exploits online panel data to provide a powerful and objective method of analyzing and exploring eHealth behavior. The private health care system does appear to have an influence on eHealth search behavior in terms of search penetration and time spent per website in the health and lifestyle categories. Two explanations are offered: (1) the personal incentive of medical costs in the private market incentivizes users to conduct online search; and (2) health care information is more easily accessible through health care professionals in the United Kingdom compared with the United States. However, the use of medical websites is almost identical, suggesting that patients interested in a specific condition have a motivation to search and evaluate health information, irrespective of the health care market. The relatively low level of search in terms of the number of websites accessed and the average time per website raise important questions about the actual level of patient informedness in both the markets. Areas for future research are outlined

Thermal/structural analysis of the shaft-disk region of a fan drive system

In January 1989, a mishap occurred in the National Transonic Facility wind tunnel at NASA-Langley. It is believed that the failure of an insulation retainer holding foam insulation around the exterior of the fan drive shaft resulted in the subsequent damage to other components in the tunnel. The effect was determined of removing the external thermal insulation on the shaft would have on the stresses on the shaft, disk and bolts holding the two together. To accomplish this, a detailed thermal/structural finite element analysis of the shaft-disk interface was performed. The maximum stresses on the three components were determined for several configurations and conditions with and without the external thermal insulation, and then these results were compared to the original analyses to access the effect of removing the external thermal insulation on the proposed future operation of the shaft/disk structures of the fan drive system. Although the stresses were higher without the external insulation, the stresses did meet all stress criteria. In addition, all stresses were within the infinite life regime of the Modified Goodman diagram. Therefore, it was determined that the structural integrity of the shaft-disk region is not compromised if the external insulation is removed

Are Physical Activity and Benefits Maintained After Long-Term Telerehabilitation in COPD?

This study investigated whether physical activity levels and other outcomes were maintained at 1-year from completion of a 2-year telerehabilitation intervention in COPD. During the post-intervention year, nine patients with COPD (FEV1 % of pred. 42.4±19.8%; age 58.1±6 years) were encouraged to exercise on a treadmill at home and monitor daily symptoms and training sessions on a webpage as during the intervention. Participants were not provided supervision or motivational support. Physical activity levels decreased from 3,806 steps/day to 2,817 steps/day (p= 0.039). There was a decline in time spent on light physical activity (p=0.009), but not on moderate-to-vigorous activity (p=0.053). Adherence to registration of symptoms and training sessions decreased significantly. Other outcomes including health status, quality of life, anxiety and depression, self-efficacy, and healthcare utilization did not change significantly. In conclusion, provision of equipment for self-management and unsupervised home exercise might not be enough to maintain physical activity levels