Structural Ceramics by Fused Deposition of Ceramics

Fused Deposition of Ceramics (FDC) is a SFF technique, based on FDMTM technology, for fabrication of advanced structural ceramics from powderlbinder filaments. In this study, in-situ reinforced (ISR) Si3N4 powder and polymer/wax based binder systems were used as filament material for FDC processing using a commercially available FDMTM system, 3D Modeler. Powderlbinder feedstocks were mixed using a torque rheometer and filaments were fabricated using a capillary rheometer and twin screw extruder. Green FDC components were built from these filaments and then characterized for inter-road and inter-layer bonding. Binder removal procedures were established for FDC green components to yield brown parts without distortion or shape change. Brown FDC parts were characterized for carbon residue, pore distribution and dimensional changes. Brown FDC parts were then sintered and the sintered density, microstructure, and shrinkage anisotropy were studied.Mechanical Engineerin

Submerged in the mainstream? A case study of an immigrant learner in a New Zealand primary classroom

Immigrant children from diverse language backgrounds face not only linguistic challenges when enrolled in mainstream English-medium classrooms, but also difficulties adjusting to an unfamiliar learning community. The culture of primary school classrooms in New Zealand typically reflects conventions across three dimensions: interactional, instructional task performance and cognitive-academic development. All three dimensions are underpinned by the culturally specific discourse conventions involved in language socialisation. New learners may be helped by classmates or their teacher to understand and successfully use these conventions, but left on their own they may sink rather than swim. This is a case study of one Taiwanese 11-year old boy, 'John', who entered a New Zealand primary classroom midway through the school year. John's basic conversational ability was sound, but he did not possess the interactive classroom skills needed to operate in the new culture of learning. Selected from a wider study of the classroom, transcript data from audio-recorded excerpts of John's interactions over several months with his teacher and classmates are interpreted from perspectives derived from sociocultural and language socialisation theories. The article concludes with a brief consideration of the extent to which John constructed, or was constrained from constructing meaningful learning experiences, and suggestions for further research and reflection

A chemotherapy privileging process for advanced practice providers at an academic medical center

Purpose: Nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and pharmacists are advanced practice providers who are highly trained and qualified healthcare professionals that can help support traditional demands on oncologists' increased time in direct patient care. The purpose of this study was to detail and assess the creation of a privileging process for this group of medical professionals within an academic medical center. Obtaining the designation of limited oncology practice provider (LOPP) gives the right to modify chemotherapy orders and to order supportive care medications. Methods: An interdisciplinary team developed a comprehensive training process inclusive of required educational domains, knowledge goals, and educational activities to become an LOPP. In 2018, five years after the implementation of the privileging process, a survey was distributed to assess perceptions of the training process and integration of LOPPs within oncology practice. Results: Most oncologists noted that working with LOPPs is beneficial to oncology practice (94%) and that they make modifying chemotherapy orders more efficient (87%). Greater than 82% of LOPPs also reported that their privileges streamline the chemotherapy process and make them feel valuable. Conclusion: The creation of the LOPP designation is an effective way to integrate nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and pharmacists within oncology practice. The inclusion of a focused privileging process ensures the safety of cancer care provided and has created a streamlined process for chemotherapy modifications and supportive care

"It's making contacts" : notions of social capital and implications for widening access to medical education

Acknowledgements Our thanks to the Medical Schools Council (MSC) of the UK for funding Study A; REACH Scotland for funding Study B; and Queen Mary University of London, and to the medical school applicants and students who gave their time to be interviewed. Our thanks also to Dr Sean Zhou and Dr Sally Curtis, and Manjul Medhi, for their help with data collection for studies A and B respectively. Our thanks also to Dr Lara Varpio, Uniformed Services University of the USA, for her advice and guidance on collating data sets and her comments on the draft manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Child health insurance coverage: a survey among temporary and permanent residents in Shanghai

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Under the current healthcare system in China, there is no government-sponsored health insurance program for children. Children from families who move from rural and interior regions to large urban centres without a valid residency permit might be at higher risk of being uninsured due to their low socioeconomic status. We conducted a survey in Shanghai to describe children's health insurance coverage according to their migration status.</p> <p>Method</p> <p>Between 2005 and 2006, we conducted an in-person health survey of the adult care-givers of children aged 7 and under, residing in five districts of Shanghai. We compared uninsurance rates between temporary and permanent child residents, and investigated factors associated with child health uninsurance.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Even though cooperative insurance eligibility has been extended to temporary residents of Shanghai, the uninsurance rate was significantly higher among temporary (65.6%) than permanent child residents (21.1%, adjusted odds ratio (OR): 5.85, 95% confidence interval (95% CI): 4.62–7.41). For both groups, family income was associated with having child health insurance; children in lower income families were more likely to be uninsured (OR: 1.96, 95% CI: 1.40–2.96).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Children must rely on their parents to make the insurance purchase decision, which is constrained by their income and the perceived benefits of the insurance program. Children from migrant families are at even higher risk for uninsurance due to their lower socioeconomic status. Government initiatives specifically targeting temporary residents and providing health insurance benefits for their children are urgently needed.</p

Language Identification in Short Utterances Using Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) Recurrent Neural Networks

Zazo R, Lozano-Diez A, Gonzalez-Dominguez J, T. Toledano D, Gonzalez-Rodriguez J (2016) Language Identification in Short Utterances Using Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) Recurrent Neural Networks. PLoS ONE 11(1): e0146917. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0146917Long Short Term Memory (LSTM) Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs) have recently outperformed other state-of-the-art approaches, such as i-vector and Deep Neural Networks (DNNs), in automatic Language Identification (LID), particularly when dealing with very short utterances (similar to 3s). In this contribution we present an open-source, end-to-end, LSTM RNN system running on limited computational resources (a single GPU) that outperforms a reference i-vector system on a subset of the NIST Language Recognition Evaluation (8 target languages, 3s task) by up to a 26%. This result is in line with previously published research using proprietary LSTM implementations and huge computational resources, which made these former results hardly reproducible. Further, we extend those previous experiments modeling unseen languages (out of set, OOS, modeling), which is crucial in real applications. Results show that a LSTM RNN with OOS modeling is able to detect these languages and generalizes robustly to unseen OOS languages. Finally, we also analyze the effect of even more limited test data (from 2.25s to 0.1s) proving that with as little as 0.5s an accuracy of over 50% can be achieved.This work has been supported by project CMC-V2: Caracterizacion, Modelado y Compensacion de Variabilidad en la Señal de Voz (TEC2012-37585-C02-01), funded by Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad, Spain

Phase partitioning and volatility of secondary organic aerosol components formed from alpha-pinene ozonolysis and OH oxidation : the importance of accretion products and other low volatility compounds

We measured a large suite of gas- and particle-phase multi-functional organic compounds with a Filter Inlet for Gases and AEROsols (FIGAERO) coupled to a high-resolution time-of-flight chemical ionization mass spectrometer (HR-ToF-CIMS) developed at the University of Washington. The instrument was deployed on environmental simulation chambers to study monoterpene oxidation as a secondary organic aerosol (SOA) source. We focus here on results from experiments utilizing an ionization method most selective towards acids (acetate negative ion proton transfer), but our conclusions are based on more general physical and chemical properties of the SOA. Hundreds of compounds were observed in both gas and particle phases, the latter being detected by temperature-programmed thermal desorption of collected particles. Particulate organic compounds detected by the FIGAERO-HR-ToF-CIMS are highly correlated with, and explain at least 25-50% of, the organic aerosol mass measured by an Aerodyne aerosol mass spectrometer (AMS). Reproducible multi-modal structures in the thermograms for individual compounds of a given elemental composition reveal a significant SOA mass contribution from high molecular weight organics and/or oligomers (i.e., multi-phase accretion reaction products). Approximately 50% of the HR-ToF-CIMS particle-phase mass is associated with compounds having effective vapor pressures 4 or more orders of magnitude lower than commonly measured monoterpene oxidation products. The relative importance of these accretion-type and other extremely low volatility products appears to vary with photochemical conditions. We present a desorption-temperature-based framework for apportionment of thermogram signals into volatility bins. The volatility-based apportionment greatly improves agreement between measured and modeled gas-particle partitioning for select major and minor components of the SOA, consistent with thermal decomposition during desorption causing the conversion of lower volatility components into the detected higher volatility compounds.Peer reviewe

English language proficiency and the accommodations for language non-concordance amongst patients utilizing chiropractic college teaching clinics

Background: The number of households in the United States that are not proficient in the English language is growing and presenting a challenge to the health care system. Over nineteen percent of the US population speak a language other than English in the home. This increase in language discordance generates a greater need to find and implement accommodations in the clinical setting to insure accurate and efficient diagnosis and treatment as well as provide for patient safety. Aim: The purpose of this study is to determine the percentage of patients accessing the chiropractic college teaching clinics who are not proficient in the English language and to what extent the colleges provide accommodations for that language disparity. Methods: The clinic directors and deans of the Association of Chiropractic Colleges were surveyed via an on-line survey engine. The survey queried the percentage of the patient population that is not English language proficient, the accommodations the college currently has in place, if the college has a language specific consent to treat document and if the college has a written policy concerning patients without English proficiency. Results: Fifty percent of the contacted chiropractic colleges responded to the survey. In the respondent college clinics 16.5% of the patient population is not proficient in English, with over 75% speaking Spanish. All but one of the respondents provide some level of accommodation for the language non-concordance. Forty five percent of the responding colleges employ a language specific consent to treat form. The implementation of accommodations and the use of a language specific consent to treat form is more prevalent at colleges with a higher percentage of non-English speaking patients. Conclusions: The percentage of patients with limited English proficiency accessing services at the teaching clinics of the chiropractic colleges mirrors the numbers in the general population. There is a wide disparity in the accommodations that the individual colleges make to address this language discordance. There is a need to further develop accurate and meaningful accommodations to address language disparity in the chiropractic teaching clinics.https://doi.org/10.1186/2045-709X-21-