A randomized trial of brief intervention strategies in patients with alcohol-related facial trauma as a result of interpersonal violence

Facial trauma is associated with male gender, low socioeconomic status, alcohol misuse, and violence. Brief intervention (BI) for alcohol is effective at reducing consumption in patients presenting with facial trauma. Singlesession control of violence for angry impulsive drinkers(SS-COVAID) is a new intervention that attempts to address alcohol-related violence. This study assessed the effect of SS-COVAID and BI on drinking and aggression in facial trauma patients. Male facial trauma patients who sustained their injuries as a result of interpersonal violence while drinking and who had Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) scores of ≥8 were randomized to either BI or SS-COVAID. Patients were followed up at six and 12 months, and drinking and aggression outcomes were analyzed. One hundred ninety-nine patients entered the trial, and 187 were included in the analysis. Of these, 165 (89%) considered themselves to be victims, 92 (51%) had sustained a previous alcohol-related injury, and 28 (15%) had previous convictions for violence. Both interventions resulted in a significant decrease in negative drinking outcomes over 12 months of follow-up (p<0.001). Neither intervention had a significant effect on aggression scores, nor was there a significant difference between interventions in terms of either outcome. Both SS-COVAID and BI had a significant effect on drinking variables in this patient cohort. No effect on aggressionwas seen despite the fact that SS-COVAID specifically addresses the relationship between alcohol and violence. One reason for this may be that the facial trauma patients in this study considered themselves to be victims rather than aggressors. Another possibility is that, while BI may successfully address lifestyle factors such as hazardous or harmful drinking, it may not be effective in modifying personality traits such as aggression

Locking-free two-layer Timoshenko beam element with interlayer slip

A new locking-free strain-based finite element formulation for the numerical treatment of linear static analysis of two-layer planar composite beams with interlayer slip is proposed. In this formulation, the modified principle of virtual work is introduced as a basis for the finite element discretization. The linear kinematic equations are included into the principle by the procedure, similar to that of Lagrangian multipliers. A strain field vector remains the only unknown function to be interpolated in the finite element implementation of the principle. In contrast with some of the displacement-based and mixed finite element formulations of the composite beams with interlayer slip, the present formulation is completely locking-free. Hence, there are no shear and slip locking, poor convergence and stress oscillations in these finite elements. The generalization of the composite beam theory with the consideration of the Timoshenko beam theory for the individual component of a composite beam represents a substantial contribution in the field of analysis of non-slender composite beams with an interlayer slip. An extension of the present formulation to the non-linear material problems is straightforward. As only a few finite elements are needed to describe a composite beam with great precision, the new finite element formulations is perfectly suited for practical calculations. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

An in vitro assessment of growth promoting activity of a synthetic basic fibroblast growth factor (b-FGF) using Rama-27 cell line

AbstractGrowth factors (GFs) are naturally occurring proteins or steroid hormones which act as signaling molecules between cells that play a key role in the processes of proliferation, cell differentiation and maturation of a wide variety of cells and tissues. A recently purified synthetic basic b-FGF was assessed using a routine tissue culture assay via application of a wide range of doses ranged between 0.1 and 300ng/mL of the basic fibroblast growth factor (b-FGF) in phosphate buffer saline (PBS) and 10% fetal calf serum (FCS) on the growth rate of Rama-27 mammary cell line. Applying SPSS “Student T-test” biostatistics the result showed significant increase (p≤0.05), almost 7 folds in tissue proliferation at a low dose of 0.3ng/mL FGF in comparison with control tissue (PBS) only. It is concluded that 0.3ng/mL dose represents the lower optimal dose suggesting its possibility of an in vivo technique to test its potency in curing skin wounds in rats

Shepherd Leadership: A Review and Future Research Directions

This chapter is important because Shepherd leadership is not much taught in popular business or leadership textbooks. There is inadequate understanding and practice of compassionate care-Shepherd leadership quality-in sectors such as education and healthcare. Education is an important sector as it impacts students’ learning. Teachers with Shepherd leadership qualities motivate students to outperform, and be creative and work persistently to improve themselves, their communities and society. Healthcare is an important sector because providing healthcare has significant impact on personal and public health, development and economic growth to attain major employment. Additionally, research reveals that caring and compassionate leadership is lacking in organizations because it forms resilience, nurtures a team spirit, enhances engagement, and may reduce employee turnover. This chapter sheds light on the importance of compassionate and caring leaders in religious and educational organizations, healthcare, the army, and business organizations. This chapter will discuss mainly Shepherd leadership and aims to define it and will explore where it is mostly utilized and in what type of organizations has this leadership been applied and successful. This chapter also compares Shepherd leadership with Servant leadership, a closely related leadership, and other popular leadership styles in today’s organizations. Lastly, this chapter will touch on the challenges of Shepherd leadership

Non-linear analysis of two-layer timber beams considering interlayer slip and uplift

A new mathematical model and its finite element formulation for the non-linear analysis of mechanical behaviour of a two-layer timber planar beam is presented. A modified principle of virtual work is employed in formulating the finite element method. The basic unknowns are strains. The following assumptions are adopted in the mathematical model: materials are taken to be non-linear and can differ from layer to layer; interacting shear and normal contact tractions between layers are derived from the non-linear shear contact traction-slip and the non-linear normal contact traction-uplift characteristics of the connectors; the geometrically linear and materially non-linear Bernoulli's beam theory is assumed for each layer. The formulation is found to be accurate, reliable and computationally effective. The suitability of the theory is validated by the comparison of the numerical solution and the experimental results of full-scale laboratory tests on a simply supported beam. An excellent agreement between measured and calculated results is observed for all load levels. The further objective of the paper is the analysis of the effect of different normal contact traction-uplift constitutive relationships on the kinematic and static quantities in a statically determined and undetermined structure. While the shear contact traction-slip constitutive relationship dictates the deformability of the composite beam and has a substantial influence on most of the static and kinematic quantities of the composite beam, a variable normal contact traction-uplift constitutive relationship is in most cases negligible

Health economic burden that wounds impose on the National Health Service in the UK

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the prevalence of wounds managed by the UK's National Health Service (NHS) in 2012/2013 and the annual levels of healthcare resource use attributable to their management and corresponding costs. METHODS: This was a retrospective cohort analysis of the records of patients in The Health Improvement Network (THIN) Database. Records of 1000 adult patients who had a wound in 2012/2013 (cases) were randomly selected and matched with 1000 patients with no history of a wound (controls). Patients' characteristics, wound-related health outcomes and all healthcare resource use were quantified and the total NHS cost of patient management was estimated at 2013/2014 prices. RESULTS: Patients' mean age was 69.0 years and 45% were male. 76% of patients presented with a new wound in the study year and 61% of wounds healed during the study year. Nutritional deficiency (OR 0.53; p<0.001) and diabetes (OR 0.65; p<0.001) were independent risk factors for non-healing. There were an estimated 2.2 million wounds managed by the NHS in 2012/2013. Annual levels of resource use attributable to managing these wounds and associated comorbidities included 18.6 million practice nurse visits, 10.9 million community nurse visits, 7.7 million GP visits and 3.4 million hospital outpatient visits. The annual NHS cost of managing these wounds and associated comorbidities was pound5.3 billion. This was reduced to between pound5.1 and pound4.5 billion after adjusting for comorbidities. CONCLUSIONS: Real world evidence highlights wound management is predominantly a nurse-led discipline. Approximately 30% of wounds lacked a differential diagnosis, indicative of practical difficulties experienced by non-specialist clinicians. Wounds impose a substantial health economic burden on the UK's NHS, comparable to that of managing obesity ( pound5.0 billion). Clinical and economic benefits could accrue from improved systems of care and an increased awareness of the impact that wounds impose on patients and the NHS.Ye

Exact slip-buckling analysis of two-layer composite columns

A mathematical model for slip-buckling has been proposed and its analytical solution has been found for the analysis of layered and geometrically perfect composite columns with inter-layer slip between the layers. The analytical study has been carried out to evaluate exact critical forces and to compare them to those in the literature. Particular emphasis has been placed on the influence of interface compliance on decreasing the bifurcation loads. For this purpose, a preliminary parametric study has been performed by which the influence of various material and geometric parameters on buckling forces have been investigated. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Fire analysis of timber composite beams with interlayer slip

The purpose of this paper is to model the behaviour of timber composite beams with interlayer slip, when simultaneously exposed to static loading and fire. A transient moisture-thermal state of a timber beam is analysed by the Luikov equations, and mechanical behaviour of timber composite beam is modelled by Reissner's kinematic equations. The model can handle layers of different materials. Material properties are functions of temperature. The thermal model is validated against the experimental data presented in the literature. Generally, the model provides excellent agreement with the experimental data. It is shown that the material properties of timber play an important role in the fire resistance analysis of timber structures when exposed to fire

Mn-Zn spinel ferrite synthesis by solution combustion method and applications in adsorption of dyes

Dyes are hazardous chemicals that are commonly found in textile industries’ effluent water. Adsorption techniques are more efficiently used for the removal of various dyes from wastewater. The present work deals with the synthesis of Mn-Zn (Mn0.3Zn0.7Fe2O4) spinel ferrite through the solution combustion method. The solution combustion method has many advantages over other conventional methods. Single-phase spinel ferrite materials can be synthesized by using this method at lower temperatures and in a shorter time. Synthesized Mn-Zn spinel ferrite material has been characterized by using FT-IR spectroscopy. As synthesized ferrite material has been employed for the adsorption of various dyes with different concentrations from their aqueous solutions. Results related to dyes’ adsorption have been reported using UV-Visible spectroscopy. Mn- Zn spinel ferrite has worked efficiently as an adsorbent and its magnetic nature is useful for its extraction from the aqueous solution