Changing healthcare professionals' behaviors to eliminate disparities in healthcare: What do we know? How might we proceed?

The patient-healthcare provider communication process--particularly the provider's cultural competency--is increasingly recognized as a key to reducing racial/ethnic disparities in health and healthcare utilization. A working group was formed by the Office of Minority Health, Department of Health and Human Services to identify strategies for improving healthcare providers' cultural competency. This expert panel, one of several working groups called together to explore methods of reducing healthcare disparities, was comprised of individuals from academic medical centers and health professional organizations who were nationally recognized as having expertise in healthcare communication as it relates to diverse populations. During the 2-day conference, the panel identified, from personal experience and knowledge of the literature, key points of intervention and interventions most likely to improve the cross-cultural competency of healthcare providers. Proposed interventions included introduction of cultural competence education before, during, and after clinical training; implementation of certification and accreditation requirements in cross-cultural competence for practicing healthcare providers; use of culturally diverse governing boards for clinical practices; and active promotion of workforce cross-cultural diversity by healthcare organization administrators. For each intervention, methods for implementation were specified. On-going monitoring and evaluation of processes of care using race/ethnicity data were recommended to ensure the programs were functioning

Characterizing web pornography consumption from passive measurements

Web pornography represents a large fraction of the Internet traffic, with thousands of websites and millions of users. Studying web pornography consumption allows understanding human behaviors and it is crucial for medical and psychological research. However, given the lack of public data, these works typically build on surveys, limited by different factors, e.g. unreliable answers that volunteers may (involuntarily) provide. In this work, we collect anonymized accesses to pornography websites using HTTP-level passive traces. Our dataset includes about $15\,000$ broadband subscribers over a period of 3 years. We use it to provide quantitative information about the interactions of users with pornographic websites, focusing on time and frequency of use, habits, and trends. We distribute our anonymized dataset to the community to ease reproducibility and allow further studies.Comment: Passive and Active Measurements Conference 2019 (PAM 2019). 14 pages, 7 figure

New Qualitative Tests for Sulfide and Carbonate

At the present time, the test for sulfide is often made by placing a portion of the sample in an acid solution and identifying the gas evolved either by its odor or by holding a piece of moistened lead acetate paper in the evolved gas. The test for carbonate is often made in a similar war, except for the fact that a drop of barium hydroxide solution is used to identify the gas that is evolved. Both of these tests become increasingly uncertain as the size of the sample being tested is made smaller and smaller, which is the case in semimicro qualitative analysis. This paper describes a test that will detect 0.0001 g. or less, of sulfide ion in 1 ml. of solution, and also a test that will detect 0.001 g. or less, of carbonate ion in 1 ml. of solution

The Use of Semimicro Apparatus in the First Semester of Freshman Chemistry

For many years, many colleges have been using semi-micro qualitative analysis as the laboratory work of the second semester of freshman chemistry while classical experiments that used standard sized apparatus were used during the first semester. Such a plan has the following disadvantages: each student requires two different sets of apparatus during the freshman year, refitting student lockers at mid-year is an arduous task, the expenses of providing two different sets of apparatus for each student is considerable

Vapor Pressure of Iodine Monochloride

The Pearce and Snow dynamic method of measuring vapor pressure has been adapted to the measurement of the vapor pressure of iodine monochloride in the solid and liquid phases. Heats of sublimation, vaporization and fusion were obtained by application of the Clausius-Clapeyron equation

Dissociation Pressure of Some Potassium Polyhalides

Potassium dichloro iodide (KLCL2 or KCL-ICL, m. p. 195°) and potassium trichloro di-iodide (KCL.21CL, m. p. 45°) have been prepared and their dissociation pressures measured

The Solubility of Ignited Ferric and Chromic Oxides

In the gravimetric determination of iron the metal is frequently precipitated as the hydroxide by ammonia. It is then collected by filtration, dried, ignited and weighed as the oxide. Such precipitates when wet, as hydroxides, dissolve instantaneously in acids. After the precipitate has been ignited it often becomes practically insoluble. Such ignition gives a range of temperature of 600° - l000°C, depending on the type of heating device used. Kolthoff and Sandell suggest the fusion of this ignited ammonia precipitate with alkali pyrosulfate in order to convert the oxides into sulfate which then can be dissolved. This procedure is troublesome because the alkali must then be removed before the iron is determined either volumetrically or gravimetrically. Chromium is not usually determined in this way because the strong heating forms some Cr2(CrO4)3 which gives high results unless the oxide is ignited in hydrogen

Qualitative Analysis without Hydrogen Sulfide

A system of Qualitative Analysis is presented in which ammonium sulfide instead of hydrogen sulfide is used as a source of sulfide ion

Some Reactions in Liquid Sulfur Dioxide

Experiments by the authors support the following observations. l. Reactions in liquid sulfur dioxide are usually solvolytic in the sense that the solvent participates in the reactions. 2. Liquid sulfur dioxide under atmospheric pressure does not appreciably react with chlorine save in the presence of a catalyst. 3. Thionyl chloride and sodium sulfite do not react as indicated in the following equation:. SOCl2 + Na2SO3 =NaCl+ 2 SO24. Iodine monochloride and potassium thiocyanate react to form the products indicated in the following equation: 3 KCNS + 3 ICl + 2 SO2 = 3 KCl + I2 + I(CNS)3.2SO2. The iodine-thiocyanate-sulfur dioxide substance is a new compound

Iodine Monochloride

Iodine monochloride may be prepared in quantity and of superior quality by the reaction between solid iodine and liquid chlorine at -78°: Vapor pressure measurement of iodine monochloride between 30° and 60° indicate that it is a polar substance. If Ammonium chloride or potassium chloride is dissolved in liquid iodine monochloride conducting solutions are formed. When iodine monochloride reacts with common salts and chemical reaction ensues the reaction is usually either direct addition or else is solvolytic