Chronically Ill Adolescents\u27 Involvement in Health Treatment Decision Making

The purposes of this study were to explore preferences for involvement of chronically ill adolescents in health treatment decision-making; describe, explain and predict relationships and differences in self-confidence in decision-making between older and younger chronically ill adolescents; and explore relationships between severity of symptoms and self-confidence in health treatment decision-making among chronically ill adolescents. Ten to twenty million American children have some type of chronic illnesses with 90% survival to adulthood. There is lack of current literature on adolescent preferences for involvement in health care decisions. Courts and legislators assume that minors lack the requisite capacity for information, and lack competence to make health care decisions. From a cross sectional research design, descriptive and inferential statistical analysis explored the research questions/hypothesis using SPSS version 11.0. A methodological triangulation was used to ensure corroboration of data and for complementarity. Eighty participants, 20 from each of the four chronic health conditions; cystic fibrosis, asthma, sickle cell, and leukemia were included. Upon USD-IRB and LLUMC-IRB, LLUMC-NRC and CSUSB approval, convenience samples from LLUMC Health Care that met the inclusion criteria were invited to participate with the help of the primary investigator. The researcher made initial contact with the family through the information letter to invite them join this research study. Upon their consent, the researcher made an appointment to meet with them one hour before their clinic appointment for signing of the informed consent and assent before survey questionnaires were administered. Ninety percent completed survey at the clinic while the 10% finished at home and mailed back or collected by the researcher. The study was limited to chronically ill adolescents 14 to 19 years old who spoke English at a 5th grade level. All the participants were patients at LLUMC health care and specialty clinics. Five instruments were used for data collection: (1) Adolescent Decision Making Questionnaire (ADMQ) to measure decision-making with .67 internal consistency for validity; (2) Problem Solving Inventory Form-A (PSI) to measure self-confidence has internal consistency of .72 to .90; (3) Coping Skills Inventory (CSI) to measure coping patterns has reliability ranging from.79 to .90; (4) (DK-PSDM) Deber-Kraetschmer Problem Solving Decision Making scale as a measure for preferences for involvement with Cronbach Alpha .71 to .90 reliability; and (5) Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale 10-18 (MSAS) as a measure for symptom severity with internal consistency of .70. Results revealed that chronically ill adolescents desire involvement in decisions made for their care; that adolescents have high coping ability and self-confidence in decision-making even in stressful situations. Gender, diagnosis, and severity of symptoms did not contribute to the self­ confidence of chronically ill adolescents. Overtime, coping ability contributed to self-confidence in decision-making. There were no significant differences in self-confidence in decision-making between younger and older chronically ill adolescents. Comparisons between variables and core perspectives revealed chronically ill adolescents\u27 achieving for involvement in health treatment decision-making significant for evidence-based practice. Results imply a paradigm shift in health policy to regulate involvement of chronically ill adolescents in health treatment decision-making. Results imply awareness among health care providers of the chronically ill adolescents\u27 preference to have a voice for oneself in health treatment decision-making. Having a voice reinforces self-actualization among chronically ill adolescents as a part of their maturation process

Addressing Filipino American Cardiovascular Health Disparities in Hawai‘i.

D.P.H. Thesis. University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa 2017

SUSY Dark Matter In Light Of CDMS/XENON Limits

In this talk we briefly review the current CDMS/XENON constraints on the neutralino dark matter in three popular supersymmetric models: the minimal (MSSM), the next-to-minimal (NMSSM) and the nearly minimal (nMSSM). The constraints from the dark matter relic density and various collider experiments are also taken into account. The conclusion is that for each model the current CDMS/XENON limits can readily exclude a large part of the parameter space allowed by other constraints and the future SuperCDMS or XENON100 can cover most of the allowed parameter space. The implication for the Higgs search at the LHC is also discussed. It is found that in the currently allowed parameter space the MSSM charged Higgs boson is quite unlikely to be discovered at the LHC while the neutral Higgs bosons $H$ and $A$ may be accessible at the LHC in the parameter space with a large $\mu$ parameter.Comment: talk given at 2nd International Workshop on Dark Matter, Dark Energy and Matter-Antimatter Asymmetry, Nov 5-6, 2010, Hsinchu, Taiwan (to appear in Int. J. Mod. Phys. D

Recent Approaches for the Determination of Forming Limits by Necking and Fracture in Sheet Metal Forming

Forming limit diagrams (FLD’s) are used to evaluate the workability of metal sheets. FLD’s provide the failure locus at which plastic instability occurs and localized necking develops (commonly designated as the forming limit curve - FLC), and the failure loci at the onset of fracture by tension (FFL) or by in-plane shear (SFFL). The interest of metal formers in controlling localized necking is understandable because the consequence of plastic instability is an undesirable surface blemish in components. However, because under certain loading conditions fracture can precede necking in sheet metal forming processes, there is a growing interest in characterizing the forming limits by necking and fracture in the FLD’s. This paper gathers together a number of recently developed methodologies for detecting the onset of local necking and fracture by in-plane tension or in-plane shear, and discusses their applicability to determine experimentally the FLC’s, FFL’s and SFFL’s.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad DPI2012-3291

The intermediate evolution phase in case of truncated selection

Using methods of statistical physics, we present rigorous theoretical calculations of Eigen's quasispecies theory with the truncated fitness landscape which dramatically limits the available sequence space of a reproducing quasispecies. Depending on the mutation rates, we observe three phases, a selective one, an intermediate one with some residual order and a completely randomized phase. Our results are applicable for the general case of fitness landscape.Comment: 8 page

Focus on quality of life

Este artigo tem por objetivo discutir aspectos relacionados ao conceito de qualidade de vida em Saúde. Este artigo apresenta também informações relacionadas aos instrumentos de qualidade de vida.This article aims to discuss aspects concerning Healthrelated to quality of life concepts. This paper presents some piece of information regarding the quality of life instruments