Considering Her Disorder

pages 21-2

The Speaker\u27s Prayer II

page 2

Burning Field

pages 18-1

Design exploration: totem as alternative for efficient and socially responsive burial

American cities are facing unprecedented development pressures. Urban populations in particular are increasing and diversifying, land as a resource is becoming more valuable, and designers/developers are challenged to creatively maximize space for all land uses. As urban populations grow, space for burial of the dead may become limited thereby prompting communities to consider alternatives to traditional burial. The increase in numbers of cremation already points to this trend. In addition to the spatial limitation issues there also exist issues of social and cultural limitation. Ethnic diversity is rapidly increasing and within each group one finds different traditions and needs regarding burial and memorial. This diversity of trends is often ignored in cemeteries today. Considering the pressures for land in urban areas and the dramatically shifting demographic in the United States, it seems appropriate to reevaluate our use of all land including cemeteries. This thesis will explore fnctional considerations associated with burial, as well as other social needs in order to develop guidelines for efficient and socially responsive burial

HANFORD SITE RIVER CORRIDOR CLEANUP

In 2005, the US Department of Energy (DOE) launched the third generation of closure contracts, including the River Corridor Closure (RCC) Contract at Hanford. Over the past decade, significant progress has been made on cleaning up the river shore that bordes Hanford. However, the most important cleanup challenges lie ahead. In March 2005, DOE awarded the Hanford River Corridor Closure Contract to Washington Closure Hanford (WCH), a limited liability company owned by Washington Group International, Bechtel National and CH2M HILL. It is a single-purpose company whose goal is to safely and efficiently accelerate cleanup in the 544 km{sup 2} Hanford river corridor and reduce or eliminate future obligations to DOE for maintaining long-term stewardship over the site. The RCC Contract is a cost-plus-incentive-fee closure contract, which incentivizes the contractor to reduce cost and accelerate the schedule. At $1.9 billion and seven years, WCH has accelerated cleaning up Hanford's river corridor significantly compared to the$3.2 billion and 10 years originally estimated by the US Army Corps of Engineers. Predictable funding is one of the key features of the new contract, with funding set by contract at $183 million in fiscal year (FY) 2006 and peaking at$387 million in FY2012. Another feature of the contract allows for Washington Closure to perform up to 40% of the value of the contract and subcontract the balance. One of the major challenges in the next few years will be to identify and qualify sufficient subcontractors to meet the goal

The Impact of Compliments

This study explored the positive impacts of two different types of compliments, compliments on personality and compliments on physical characteristics. This study was an extension of another study that focused on how people underestimate the positive impact of their compliments. We predicted that personality-based compliments would have a higher positive impact that compliments based on physical characteristics

Academic & Non-Academic Variables Impacting BSN Students Who are Unsuccessful on Initial NCLEX-RN

Nursing program quality is measured byfirst time National Council Licensure Examination-Registered Nurse (NCLEX-RN) pass rates. Therefore,many schools of nursing have implemented aggressiveprediction and remediation measures to improve firsttime NCLEX-RN pass rate success. The purpose ofthis retrospective study was to determine predictors ofsuccess or failure on the NCLEX-RN for graduates ofa Southeastern, Baccalaureate nursing program. Datawas examined from academic records of students whocompleted Baccalaureate School of Nursing (BSN)program of study from Spring 2007 to Fall 2011.Results of the study reveal the importance of earlyidentification of at risk students. Early identificationallows for the implementation of strategies to aid inpromoting student success on NCLEX-RN. Thesestrategies include tutoring, state board review courses,study skills classes, time management classes andpractice questions

Seeking Collaborative Instruction Models beyond the Pandemic: Lessons Learned from the JapanKnowledge Workshop Series hosted by the Plains to Pacific Alliance

As the Pandemic disrupted normal communication patterns and networking opportunities, videoconferencing, usually using the Zoom platform, became the preferred method for academic institutions to continue providing instruction to students and supporting researchers. In 2021, the Plains to Pacific Alliance (PPA) developed plans to use this technology to present a workshop series on the JapanKnowledge database that would be open to Japanese studies researchers and students in North America and beyond. This entailed deciding on content, developing instructional materials, promoting the workshops in collaboration with the North American Coordinating Council on Japanese Library Resources, creating a registration system, presenting the workshops through Zoom and analyzing the post-workshop survey results

Adopting Weight-Based Dosing With Pharmacy-Level Stewardship Strategies Could Reduce Cancer Drug Spending By Millions

Immune checkpoint inhibitors, a class of drugs used in approximately forty unique cancer indications, are a sizable component of the economic burden of cancer care in the US. Instead of personalized weight-based dosing, immune checkpoint inhibitors are most commonly administered at one-size-fits-all flat doses that are higher than necessary for the vast majority of patients. We hypothesized that personalized weight-based dosing along with common stewardship efforts at the pharmacy level, such as dose rounding and vial sharing, would lead to reductions in immune checkpoint inhibitor use and lower spending. Using data from the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) and Medicare drug prices, we estimated reductions in immune checkpoint inhibitor use and spending that would be associated with pharmacy-level stewardship strategies, in a case-control simulation study of individual patient-level immune checkpoint inhibitor administration events. We identified baseline annual VHA spending for these drugs of approximately $537 million. Combining weight-based dosing, dose rounding, and pharmacy-level vial sharing would generate expected annual VHA health system savings of$74 million (13.7 percent). We conclude that adoption of pharmacologically justified immune checkpoint inhibitor stewardship measures would generate sizable reductions in spending for these drugs. Combining these operational innovations with value-based drug price negotiation enabled by recent policy changes may improve the long-term financial viability of cancer care in the US