Adaptive Challenges, Adaptive Work, and Adaptive Leadership Among Women Living With HIV in the Southern United States: Findings From a Qualitative Study

Women living with HIV have a higher burden of non-AIDS comorbidities and prevalence of chronic conditions. The Adaptive Leadership Framework for Chronic Illness clarifies living with complex health challenges by delineating the technical work of health care providers as well as the adaptive work and leadership behaviors of patients and their providers. We conducted a descriptive, qualitative study of women residing in the Southern United States who were participating in the Women's Interagency HIV Study in North Carolina. Twenty-two participants (mean age = 52.2 years; 90.9% self-identifying as Black or African American) completed semi-structured qualitative interviews. We identified adaptive challenges (e.g., affective and disclosure challenges) and adaptive work and leadership behaviors. Women learned skills to care for their health and support their families and to work with their providers to manage their care. Findings support the importance of identifying leadership behaviors for the purpose of developing person-centered interventions

Exploring Resilience among Black Women Living with HIV in the Southern United States: Findings from a Qualitative Study

Black women living with HIV (WLWH) face individual and sociostructural challenges. Despite these challenges, many exemplify remarkable levels of resilience and coping. Yet, research on resilience and coping in this population is limited. Twenty Black WLWH in the Southern United States completed semi-structured interviews that explored challenges facing WLWH. We identified six themes related to resilience and coping: self-acceptance, disclosure, self-compassion, social support, will to live, and service. Of these, social support was a driving protective element and an essential component to building and sustaining resilience and coping. Women who experienced positive support often expressed a will to live as well as a desire to support other WLWH. Resilience and social support were characterized by patterns of reciprocity, in that they were mutually sustaining, stabilizing, and strengthening

Geodesic rewriting systems and pregroups

In this paper we study rewriting systems for groups and monoids, focusing on situations where finite convergent systems may be difficult to find or do not exist. We consider systems which have no length increasing rules and are confluent and then systems in which the length reducing rules lead to geodesics. Combining these properties we arrive at our main object of study which we call geodesically perfect rewriting systems. We show that these are well-behaved and convenient to use, and give several examples of classes of groups for which they can be constructed from natural presentations. We describe a Knuth-Bendix completion process to construct such systems, show how they may be found with the help of Stallings' pregroups and conversely may be used to construct such pregroups.Comment: 44 pages, to appear in "Combinatorial and Geometric Group Theory, Dortmund and Carleton Conferences". Series: Trends in Mathematics. Bogopolski, O.; Bumagin, I.; Kharlampovich, O.; Ventura, E. (Eds.) 2009, Approx. 350 p., Hardcover. ISBN: 978-3-7643-9910-8 Birkhause

Strawberry fruit resistance to simulated handling

Harvest operations are currently the main source of mechanical injury of strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa Duch.). Experiments were designed to simulate conditions encountered during commercial handling. Individual fruits were subjected to impact or compression forces with similar energy to determine the sensitivity to mechanical injury. Bruise volume was used as the measurement of injury. Bruise severity increased as a function of impact energy for both impact types. However, dropped fruits had larger bruise volume than fruits submitted to pendulum impactor at the same energy level. Doubling the impact energy (0.040 to 0.083 J) increased bruise volume by 7 times (13 to 91 mm³). Fruits dropped from 380 mm (0.075 J) showed 71% greater bruise volume than those dropped from either 130 mm (0.025 J) or 200 mm (0.040 J). Compressed fruits showed higher bruise volume than other tests. Some cultivars are more susceptible to compression forces than others. 'Sweet Charlie' berries showed bruise volume 40% higher than the others cultivars when subjected to compression. Fruits subjected to impact showed bruise volume lower than the compressed fruits, indicating the possibility to be handled and graded in a packing line.A etapa de colheita é a principal fonte de danos físicos ao morango (Fragaria x ananassa Duch.). Experimentos foram realizados para simular condições encontradas durante manuseio. Frutos foram submetidos individualmente às forças de impacto e compressão em energias similares para determinar sensibilidade dos frutos a danos físicos. Volume da injúria física foi utilizado para mensurar a incidência do dano físico ocorrido. Severidade da lesão aumenta, com incremento da energia, tanto para força de impacto como para compressão. Todavia, frutos submetidos à queda livre demonstraram maiores volumes de danos físicos do que frutos submetidos a danos ocasionados por pendulo no mesmo nível de energia. Dobrando a energia de impacto (0,040 para 0,083 J) ocorreu aumento no volume da injúria em sete vezes (13 para 91 mm³). Frutos submetidos à queda de 380 mm (0,075 J) demonstraram volumes de danos físicos 71% superiores do que aqueles ocasionados em queda de 130 mm (0,025 J) ou 200 mm (0,040 J). Frutos em teste de compressão mostraram maiores volumes de injúrias físicas do que outros testes. Alguns cultivares são mais sensíveis à força de compressão do que outros. Frutos cultivar 'Sweet Charlie' apresentaram volume de injúria 40% superiores do que outros quando submetidos à força de compressão. Morangos submetidos à força de impacto demonstraram volume de injúria inferior do que aqueles comprimidos, indicando a possibilidade dos morangos serem classificados e manuseados em uma linha de beneficiamento

Cost calculation and prediction in adult intensive care: A ground-up utilization study

Publisher's copy made available with the permission of the publisherThe ability of various proxy cost measures, including therapeutic activity scores (TISS and Omega) and cumulative daily severity of illness scores, to predict individual ICU patient costs was assessed in a prospective “ground-up” utilization costing study over a six month period in 1991. Daily activity (TISS and Omega scores) and utilization in consecutive admissions to three adult university associated ICUs was recorded by dedicated data collectors. Cost prediction used linear regression with determination (80%) and validation (20%) data sets. The cohort, 1333 patients, had a mean (SD) age 57.5 (19.4) years, (41% female) and admission APACHE III score of 58 (27). ICU length of stay and mortality were 3.9 (6.1) days and 17.6% respectively. Mean total TISS and Omega scores were 117 (157) and 72 (113) respectively. Mean patient costs per ICU episode (1991 $AUS) were$6801 ($10311), with median costs of$2534, range $106 to$95,602. Dominant cost fractions were nursing 43.3% and overheads 16.9%. Inflation adjusted year 2002 (mean) costs were $9343 ($ AUS). Total costs in survivors were predicted by Omega score, summed APACHE III score and ICU length of stay; determination R2, 0.91; validation 0.88. Omega was the preferred activity score. Without the Omega score, predictors were age, summed APACHE III score and ICU length of stay; determination R2, 0.73; validation 0.73. In non-survivors, predictors were age and ICU length of stay (plus interaction), and Omega score (determination R2, 0.97; validation 0.91). Patient costs may be predicted by a combination of ICU activity indices and severity scores.J. L. Moran, A. R. Peisach, P. J. Solomon, J. Martinhttp://www.aaic.net.au/Article.asp?D=200403

Milk proteins

Milk contains many types of proteins which are classified in two general categories caseins and whey proteins. Due to their nutritional and functional properties milk proteins products are widely used in the food industry. This chapter summarizes the current knowledge on milk protein fraction and their biological properties. The production of the mains protein-enriched products is described. In addition an overview of the current and potential biomedical applications of milk proteins is given.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio