Caring for the Adult patient with Autism: Development of staff education and an online toolkit for Healthcare Providers

There are disparities in knowledge among healthcare workers when caring for adult patients with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Lack of knowledge about the characteristics of this population and strategies to enhance care pose a barrier to treatment during hospitalization. A computer based educational module was developed and assigned to staff at a community hospital. An online toolkit for healthcare providers was developed to aid staff in recognition of triggers and supplied adjunct methods for communication. A pre and posttest of healthcare provider knowledge and stigma regarding autism was performed. Achievement of the training was robust among staff; of the one hundred and eighty-four module assignments, only two were not completed. Evaluation of pre and posttest data showed an increase in knowledge regarding ASD. Notable was the increase in staff confidence reported in identifying stressors and recognizing the signs and symptoms of ASD. Post-test data revealed less than two percent of staff were “not comfortable” recognizing or caring for a patient with ASD. The project succeeded in expanding awareness and starting a dialogue among providers to enhance care for patients with autism and other sensory processing disorders.

As if Middle School Didn't Already Suck: Perceptions of Disability from an Inclusive Classroom

No abstract available

Vonage: Taking Advantage of VOIP

http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/106650/1/MBA Marc-Conkle Allan-Afuah Winter 2006 Strat 750.PD

The Near Tragedy of Gemini 8: How Neil Armstrong’s First Space Mission was almost his Last

As the space race heated up in the sixties, NASA was scrambling to get ready to put a man on the moon. Though the Apollo program is the one that landed the U.S. on the moon, the Gemini program ensured we had the necessary training and technology to make it to the moon and back. The Gemini 8 mission represented many firsts in NASA’s long journey to the moon. It was the first attempt at docking, an essential and technologically challenging step that is often overlooked in the grand scale of the moon landing. It was also Neil Armstrong’s first mission in space and in the command pilot seat of a spacecraft, marking the beginning of his path to become the first person on the moon. However, the mission also could have led to a lot of lasts, for both NASA and Armstrong. Once docked with the Agena, Armstrong and Scott found themselves in the first critical-in-space emergency in NASA history, as the craft began it spin out of control. If it wasn’t for Armstrong’s quick actions and level-headed thinking, both him and David Scott would have perished, most likely taking NASA and the Apollo missions with them. In the aftermath of the near disaster, NASA was quick to understate the severity of the failure, but the months leading up to the launch were marred with engineering mistakes and administration oversight. By looking through archival sources from Armstrong himself, it’s shockingly clear to see how close NASA’s race to the moon almost took two astronauts to the grave

Evolving Values, Animus, and Same-Sex Marriage

In this Essay, I contend that a Fourteenth Amendment right to same-sex marriage will emerge, and properly so, when the Supreme Court determines that justice so requires and when, in the words of Professor Alexander Bickel, the Court’s recognition of this right will “in a rather immediate foreseeable future . . . gain general assent.” I suggest that we are fast approaching that juncture, and I go on to analyze three possible justifications for such a ruling: first, substantive due process; second, heightened scrutiny equal protection; and third, rational basis equal protection coupled with a finding of illicit “animus.” I contend that each form of constitutional justification can find support in evolving national values. I further suggest, however, that the first two alternatives, with primary emphasis on the second, present the best and strongest arguments for a right to same-sex marriage. By contrast, I suggest that it would be misguided, or at least imprudent, for the Court to rely on the third alternative. I argue that the Court’s “animus” reasoning in United States v. Windsor (invalidating the Defense of Marriage Act’s federal-law definition of marriage) was seriously flawed and that, in any event, this line of reasoning should not be extended to the state-law context

Book Review: Constitutional Federalism in a Nutshell, Second Edition. by David E. Engdahl.

Book review: Constitutional Federalism in a Nutshell, Second Edition. By David E. Engdahl. St. Paul, Mn.: West Publishing Co. 1987. Pp. xlv, 411. Reviewed by: Daniel 0. Conkle