Faith, Harm, and Neutrality: Some Complexities of Free Exercise Law

This essay reviews Professor Marci Hamilton\u27s God vs. the Gavel (2005). The essay surveys several areas of recent free exercise controversy in light of Hamilton\u27s defense of a robust harm principle as the proper analytical framework for free exercise analysis. It then takes the example of religiously based insanity defenses as an illustration of the theoretical difficulties that arise at the intersection of religious belief and criminal law

Brining Point-of-Care Ultrasound to a Rural Primary Care Clinic

Background and Objectives: In the rural primary care setting, the process for outpatient ultrasound testing has multiple steps, all of which provide opportunities for delay in testing and diagnosis. Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is a solution that allows the physician to perform same-day ultrasound in the primary care clinic. The objective of this program development project was to implement POCUS in a rural primary care clinic to reduce time to testing and diagnosis for those patients requiring ultrasound testing. Methods: A 3-month chart audit was conducted to examine the average length of time required to complete ultrasound testing in the outpatient radiology department. Audit results were compared to POCUS testing. A 6-question Likert scale was developed to assess patient satisfaction with the POCUS process. The Donabedian Model and Promoting Action on Research Implementation in Health Services framework were used to examine and implement POCUS. Results: Chart audits revealed 34 ultrasounds that were ordered. The mean number of days from the time the ultrasound was ordered to the time it was uploaded into the electronic medical record was 27. One POCUS was performed during the implementation period. It was done same- day and its results eliminated unnecessary specialty referral. Conclusion: POCUS is a valid and reliable tool that can be used by the primary care provider to assist in diagnosis and may significantly reduce time to testing and time to diagnosis. It may also have a unique role in rural settings where resources may be limited

Finding the Time: Age-Depth Models in Rockshelters and Their Paleoenvironmental Implications

Rockshelters are capable of preserving excellent environmental records within their sediments. But the matter of interpreting an environmental record from rockshelter sediments presents a significant hurdle in the form of dating. An “age-depth model” is typically used to estimate the age of environmental information extending through the deposit. An age-depth model calculates the changes in time between direct ages (like a radiocarbon age) and can provide an estimated age for any depth. While radiocarbon dating can provide an age for organic remains, optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) can provide a direct age on quartz sand deposition and is particularly effective when applied to deposits formed by the wind. This study compares radiocarbon and OSL age-depth models from Last Canyon Cave (LCC) in the Pryor Mountains of south-central Montana. While radiocarbon ages are quite frequently used to construct age-depth models, it is possible they fail to provide accurate ages for the environmental material they aim to date. I re-evaluated the stratigraphy at LCC and then collected OSL samples as well as samples for grain-size analysis from three different sedimentary exposures. Radiocarbon ages had already been produced for one of the exposures (Kornfeld et al. 2012). The OSL samples were most reliable when analyzed on a single-grain level. After creating age-depth models and collecting the grain-size data, I applied ages to all of the grain-size samples according to each of the three age-depth models. Ultimately, the single-grain OSL proved to be fundamentally different than the radiocarbon age-depth model, thereby challenging the current paleoenvironmental reconstruction of the site (Minckley et al. 2015). I conclude that the radiocarbon and single-grain OSL age-depth models were not sufficiently similar, and therefore both dating methods should always be used together when investigating deposits in rockshelters in order to understand how they relate to one another and to the site formation. The use of granulometry also proved to be an important part of reconstruction site formation history. Ultimately, both single-grain OSL and granulometry were determined to be essential parts of studying environmental records in sedimentary deposits in rockshelters

TB Screening Guidelines for Transitional Care Unit

The basis of this research was the formation of new TB screening and risk assessment guidelines on a Transitional Care Unit within a medical center. Current evidence-based research studies helped to guide the recommendations for the policy changes based on their results and findings. The most pertinent policy changes are the treatment offered for patients suspected with HIV, the rigorous use of the Risk Assessment Tool, and BAMT testing for TB

The Effects Of Acidic Conditions And Tannins On The Survival, Development, And Behavior Of Cope’s Gray Treefrog (Hyla Chrysoscelis)

As amphibians decline around the world, freshwater acidification resulting from pollutants and acid rain may be a contributor. The ability of organisms to cope with environmental changes is greatly mediated by behavior, and recent studies indicate that anthropogenic acidification impairs behavioral responses by impacting olfactory abilities of aquatic organisms. Responding appropriately to novel stimuli is important for individual performance and survival, and pollutants may cause organisms to behave maladaptively. In this study I sought to: a) determine whether the oviposition site choices of adult female frogs correspond with the pH and tannin conditions that maximize tadpole survival and performance in the laboratory, and b) investigate the impacts of mildly acidic conditions, with and without the added stress of tannins, on the survival, development, and anti-predator behavior of Hyla chrysoscelis tadpoles. I conducted a field oviposition study to determine adult female site choice, and reared tadpoles in acidic and tannic conditions to investigate survival and antipredator behaviors. I found that female oviposition site choice did not correspond with conditions that maximize offspring survival. Tadpole mortality was highest in tannic treatments, yet tannic treatments received a high proportion of eggs in the oviposition experiment. Trends in tadpole antipredator behaviors suggested that mildly acidic conditions impaired predator recognition, though this was not statistically significant. My results suggest that tannic conditions reduce tadpole fitness, yet adult females appear to respond maladaptively to elevated tannins by failing to avoid tannic treatments when ovipositing

The link between recurrent childhood animal cruelty and recurrent interpersonal violence

In the early 1960s, researchers began to examine the potential link between childhood animal cruelty and future interpersonal violence. Findings since then have been inconsistent in establishing a relationship between the two. This may be due to researchers failing to measure the recurrency of childhood animal abuse and the recurrency of later violent acts committed in adulthood. The current study, using data from 257 inmates at a medium-security prison in a Southern state, is a replication of research conducted by Tallichet and Hensley (2004) and Hensley, Tallichet, and Dutkiewicz (2009), which examined this recurrency issue. The only statistically significant predictor of recurrent adult interpersonal violence in this study was recurrent childhood animal cruelty. Inmates who engaged in recurrent childhood animal cruelty were more likely to commit recurrent adult interpersonal violence. Respondents’ race, education, and childhood residence were not significant predictors of the outcome variable

3D RECONSTRUCTION OF SYNDACTYLIZED HAND IN AUTODESK RECAP PHOTO WITH ARDUINO

Syndactyly is one of the most common congenital malformations of the hand and is a result of a failed separation of adjacent digits. These digits are common among congenital limb malformations that affect 1 out of 2,000-3,000 people at birth. A reconstructive surgery would be needed to separate the digital skin, reconstruct the web space between fingers, and cover the separated digits with soft tissues. Finding the optimal shape and size for a dorsal flap in the web commissure reconstruction is important to avoid web creep. Conducting a numerical study with known mechanical properties, such as Young’s Modulus of the dorsal flap that varies with age, gender, and ethnicity, can help understand why web creep occurs and how to prevent it. To the authors’ best knowledge, however, no numerical study has been conducted on the effect of the size and shape of the flap on the outcome quantitatively. This leads to analyzing the stress of the dorsal flap using a finite element analysis (FEA) that can be further investigated with 3D hand models of syndactyly digits. Results will vary depending on the given mechanical properties, type of syndactyly, and a determined found dorsal flap model to fully cover the patient’s separation of digits through reconstructive surgery. Gathering a range of data on patients with this defect is unattainable at this current stage and the results will be discussed as what is expected from our analysis. Keywords: Syndactyly; web reconstruction; finite element analysis (FEA); dorsal fla

Are the distributions of Fast Radio Burst properties consistent with a cosmological population?

High time resolution radio surveys over the last few years have discovered a population of millisecond-duration transient bursts called Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs), which remain of unknown origin. FRBs exhibit dispersion consistent with propagation through a cold plasma and dispersion measures indicative of an origin at cosmological distances. In this paper we perform Monte Carlo simulations of a cosmological population of FRBs, based on assumptions consistent with observations of their energy distribution, their spatial density as a function of redshift and the properties of the interstellar and intergalactic media. We examine whether the dispersion measures, fluences, inferred redshifts, signal-to-noises and effective widths of known FRBs are consistent with a cosmological population. Statistical analyses indicate that at least 50 events at Parkes are required to distinguish between a constant co-moving FRB density, and a FRB density that evolves with redshift like the cosmological star formation rate density.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, 3 table