Soins liés à la COVID-19 en site non traditionnel de soins au Québec : une étude de cas à Laval

Afin de répondre à l’augmentation des besoins au niveau des ressources hospitalières causées par pandémie de la maladie à coronavirus de 2019 (COVID-19), différents sites non traditionnels (SNT) ont été déployés au Québec et mondialement. Le SNT de la Place Bell a été déployé à Laval durant la première vague de la pandémie et avait comme fonctions de libérer des lits en milieu hospitalier en accueillant des usagers atteints de la COVID-19. Le but de cette étude de cas était d’examiner la capacité du SNT de la Place Bell à remplir ces fonctions. Un devis mixte convergent a été utilisé, incluant une analyse descriptive des données quantitatives ainsi que des entrevues semi-dirigées auprès de sept participants, incluant des professionnels, des non professionnels et un gestionnaire. Malgré un faible taux d’occupation et une ouverture tardive, le SNT a permis de libérer 29% des lits occupés par des usagers atteints de la COVID-19 à l’hôpital. Le cout par nuit au site était plus élevé qu’en centre d’hébergement et de soins de longue durée et que pour un autre SNT dans la province, mais moins élevé qu’en milieu hospitalier. En considérant le risque de transmission de la maladie dans les milieux de vie et qu’une des options alternatives était de garder les usagers en milieu hospitalier, le SNT semble avoir été un choix financier efficient. Le SNT a été un environnement favorable au déploiement d’une plus grande étendue de pratique infirmière, en raison du haut ratio de personnel-patient, l’absence de médecin sur place et l’autoorganisation du travail au site. En conclusion, plusieurs éléments contribuent à l’efficience d’un SNT, dont son déploiement rapide, la composition des équipes, le soutien offert aux employés et l’autonomie et l’indépendance du site.In order to respond to the rapidly increasing needs in hospital resources caused by the coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, different alternate care sites (ACS) were deployed in Quebec and worldwide. The Place Bell ACS was deployed in Laval during the first wave of the pandemic with the aim of offloading the volume of patients in the hospital by admitting patients with COVID-19. The aim of this case study was to examine the capacity of the Place Bell ACS in achieving these functions. A mixed convergent design was used, including a descriptive analysis of the quantitative data and semi-structured interviews with seven participants including professionals, non-professionals and a manager. Despite the low occupancy rate and the late opening, the ACS was able to free up 29% of the beds occupied by COVID-19 patients at the hospital. The cost per night at the site was greater than that of a residential and long-term care center and of another ACS in the province, but lower than the cost per night in the affiliated hospital. In considering the risk of propagating the virus in certain home environments and an alternative option of keeping the patients in the hospital, the ACS seems to have been an efficient financial option. The high staff-to-patient ratios, the absence of doctors on site and the self-organization of the team’s work contributed to making the ACS a favorable environment to a larger scope of practice for nurses. In conclusion, several elements contribute to the efficiency of an ACS, including its rapid deployment, the team compositions, the support offered to the employees as well as the site’s autonomy and independence

A Safe, Stable Place to Call Home Supports Young Children's Health in Arkansas

Families should be able to afford a roof over their heads and still have enough money to pay for food, utilities, and healthcare. Unfortunately, for many Arkansans, wages are not keeping up with housing costs. Presently, fair market rent for a two-bedroom apartment is $216 more a month than a full-time minimum wage employee earning$7.25/hour can afford. Children's HealthWatch research shows families are forced to sacrifice basic necessities when they confront the gap between the cost of housing and their ability to pay for it

Dreamkeeper: 3D Game Using Unreal Engine 4

The goal of this senior project was to combine our diverse skills to make a 3D game. The plot involves a young girl who has been given the powers to enter dreams and defeat nightmares. The 3D assets that we built and animated were made in Autodesk Maya. We used Unreal Engine 4 to piece together our assets and create the logic for the game. This document explains the technologies that we used, design choices we made, feedback from our player-testing, and work that we want to complete for the project in the future. Our final game demo features two levels, a combat systems that allows played to level up skills, and puzzles that allow the player to proceed to the final battle

Time-Trend Comparison of NFL Combine Peformance from 2000-2009

The National Football League (NFL) combine is a final opportunity for collegiate seniors to showcase physical talent to NFL personnel responsible for draft decisions. Potential draftees complete tests of speed, agility, and power; the results of these tests are distributed to all NFL teams. Due to the importance of combine performance to draft order and corresponding financial incentives, training facilities now specialize in teaching technical strategies to improve combine scoring performance. Many athletes now participate in combine preparation programs which may have resulted in increased performance of recent cohorts. Purpose: To determine if NFL combine performances in the 40-yard sprint, pro agility, vertical and broad jumps have improved from 2000-2009 and if the improvements varied by position. Methods: Combine data were obtained from publically available sources previously used for publication. Data included 1904 football players participating in the combine during the following years: 2000 (n=190), 2001 (n=159), 2002 (n=169), 2003 (n=175), 2004 (n=177), 2005 (n=200), 2006 (n=215), 2007 (n=205), 2008 (n=200), 2009 (n=214). Each player completed the following tests: body mass determination (BM), 40-yard sprint (SP), pro-agility (AG), vertical jump (VJ), and broad jump (BR). Peak power (PP) was calculated using Sayers equation. Based upon collegiate positions, players were divided into 3 groups: Skill Players (n =833), Big Skill Players (n=391), and Lineman (n=680). A two-factor ANOVA (draft-year x position) was completed on each dependent variable. For brevity, only main effects and interactions are reported. Alpha was set at p\u3c0.05 prior to analysis. Results: Body mass did not vary by draft-year (p=0.94) but there was a significant main effect for position (p\u3c0.001). Significant main effects were detected for draft-year (p\u3c0.001) and position (p\u3c0.001) for SP. An interaction effect was present for draft-year by position for AG. Significant main effects were evident for draft-year (p\u3c0.001) and position (p\u3c0.001) for VJ. BR scores varied by draft-year (p\u3c0.001) and position (p\u3c0.001). Significant main effects were identified for power by draft-year (p\u3c0.001) and position (p\u3c0.001). No interaction effects were present for BM, SP, VJ, BJ, and Power. Conclusion: Visual trend analysis suggests there was a systematic improvement in SP and BR during the past 10 years. These improvements do not differ by position grouping. Variations in AG, VJ and power by draft-year were not systematic and likely reflect normal variation in draft cohort talent. Further research is needed to determine if players participating in combine preparation programs score higher than athletes who do not

Household food insecurity positively associated with increased hospital charges for infants

Objective: To test whether household food insecurity (HFI) was associated with total annual hospitalization charges, annual days hospitalized, and charges per day, among low-income infants (months) with any non-neonatal hospital stays. Methods: Administrative inpatient hospital charge data were matched to survey data from infants\u27 caregivers interviewed 1998-2005 in emergency departments in Boston and Little Rock. All study infants had been hospitalized at least once since birth; infants whose diagnoses were not plausibly related to nutrition were excluded from both groups. Log-transformed hospitalization charges were analyzed, controlling for site fixed effects. Results: 24% of infants from food-insecure households and 16% from food-secure households were hospitalized \u3e2 times (P=0.02). Mean annual inpatient hospital charges ($6,707 vs$5,735; P Conclusion: HFI was positively associated with annual inpatient charges among hospitalized low income infants. Average annual inpatient charges were almost $2,000 higher (inflation adjusted) for infants living in food-insecure households. Reducing or eliminating food insecurity could reduce health services utilization and expenditures for infants in low-income families, most of whom are covered by public health insurance

Developing a Web Analytics Strategy for the National Science Digital Library

In August 2004, a two-day workshop was held on Developing a Web Analytics Strategy for the National Science Digital Library (NSDL) . The workshop was sponsored by the NSDL Educational Impact and Evaluation Standing Committee (EIESC) and was jointly organized with the NSDL Technology Standing Committee (TSC). It brought together 26 representatives from government and industry, as well as some of the projects funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) NSDL program, to discuss how web metrics could be implemented in a pilot study to identify current NSDL use and develop strategies to support the collection of usage data across NSDL in the future. This new pilot follows a study that the EIESC conducted in 2002 to identify and collect basic web metrics data for NSDL.A bibliography on web metrics was prepared and distributed to the participants of the 2004 workshop. During the workshop, participants first reviewed the processes and technology used to gather web metrics data by two different organizations: the Association of Research Libraries E-Metrics Project and Sun Microsystems. Through a series of breakout and plenary sessions, participants identified high-level goals for the new pilot study, formulated and prioritized a list of desired effects and requirements for collecting web metrics across NSDL, and developed recommendations for implementing web metrics data collection on a project and program level. The workshop concluded with the EIESC and TSC establishing a joint taskforce to lead the pilot study in NSDL over the next year. Web analytics will be used to address two high-level goals. That high quality learning resources be accessible to a large spectrum of the US population That there be value added to users and projects by participating in NSDL.This workshop report provides a brief history of previous evaluation activities across NSDL and discusses the importance of web analytics to NSDL. After a review of the literature on web metrics, the report identifies cross-cutting issues that affect implementing web metrics in the upcoming pilot study (e.g., build vs. buy, data ownership and storage, organizational structure that supports ongoing data collection, user privacy); describes the goals and requirements for the pilot study; and lists near term action items for the joint task force. Documents from the workshop, including a preliminary report entitled Workshop on Web Metrics in NSDL , slides from ARL and Sun Microsystems presentations, participant statements and the web metrics bibliography can be found on the workshop website

Association Between Anthropometrics, Vertical Jump and Broad Jump to Pure and Transitional Acceleration in Junior College Baseball Players

Sprint acceleration is a key physical attribute in baseball players that can be characterized by two phases: pure (PURE) and transitional (TRANS) acceleration. In a linear sprint, PURE occurs from the initiation of movement to approximately 15-meters; TRANS acceleration occurs from approximately 15-meters until an athlete reaches top velocity. Since baseball fields are clearly marked at 13.7m (foul-line) and 27.4m (1st base), acceleration can be determined in a sports-specific environment and these data may be helpful in characterizing player success. Purpose The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between anthropometrics, vertical, and broad jump ability to PURE and TRANS acceleration of junior college baseball players sprinting to first-base. Methods: Nineteen male junior college baseball players (19.6 ± 2.2y; 181.2 ± 6.9cm; 80.6 ± 11.7kg) volunteered as subjects. They performed tests of physical performance on three days, separated by one week. Initially, subject height and body mass (BM) were determined using a standard equipment. Percent fat (%Fat) was measured using skinfold calipers and a three-site equation. On a separate day, countermovement vertical jumps were performed on a force plate set to sample at 400 Hz. Vertical jump height (VJ), peak force (PF), peak power (PP), and relative power (PP rel) were determined from these data. Broad jump (BJ) distance was measured using a marked court and tape measure. During a third testing day, subjects performed linear sprints from the batter’s box to first-base. Time was recorded at the foul-line and first-base using hand-held stop watches. Acceleration was computed between the two 13.7 meter intervals to first-base: home-plate to the foul-line (PURE) and foul-line to first-base (TRANS). Pearson’s r were calculated between PURE and TRANS and the anthropometric and performance data. Alpha was set a p \u3c 0.05 which equated to r = 0.44 for df = 18. Results: Of the tested variables, PURE was only associated with %Fat (r = -0.50), TRANS was significantly correlated with %Fat (r = -0.61), VJ (r = -0.50), and PP rel (r \=-0.51). Conclusion: These preliminary data indicate a primary determinant of pure acceleration to first-base is %Fat. VJ and PP relative to body mass are also associated with acceleration from the foul-line to first-base. Interesting, body mass was not related to acceleration in either phase. Therefore, strength and conditioning programs that reduce body fat and develop increased peak vertical power capabilities may be helpful in improving overall acceleration to first-base

Trapped Particle Stability for the Kinetic Stabilizer

A kinetically stabilized axially symmetric tandem mirror (KSTM) uses the momentum flux of low-energy, unconfined particles that sample only the outer end-regions of the mirror plugs, where large favorable field-line curvature exists. The window of operation is determined for achieving MHD stability with tolerable energy drain from the kinetic stabilizer. Then MHD stable systems are analyzed for stability of the trapped particle mode. This mode is characterized by the detachment of the central-cell plasma from the kinetic stabilizer region without inducing field-line bending. Stability of the trapped particle mode is sensitive to the electron connection between the stabilizer and the end plug. It is found that the stability condition for the trapped particle mode is more constraining than the stability condition for the MHD mode, and it is challenging to satisfy the required power constraint. Furthermore a severe power drain may arise from the necessary connection of low-energy electrons in the kinetic stabilizer to the central region