635 research outputs found
When daily planning improves employee performance: the importance of planning type, engagement, and interruptions
Does planning for a particular workday help employees perform better than on other days they fail to plan? We investigate this question by identifying two distinct types of daily work planning to explain why and when planning improves employees’ daily performance.
The first type is time management planning (TMP)—creating task lists, prioritizing tasks, and determining how and when to perform them. We propose that TMP enhances employees’ performance by increasing their work engagement, but that these positive effects are weakened when employees face many interruptions in their day.
The second type is contingent planning (CP) in which employees anticipate possible interruptions in their work and plan for them. We propose that CP helps employees stay engaged and perform well despite frequent interruptions. We investigate these hypotheses using a two-week experience-sampling study. Our findings indicate that TMP’s positive effects are conditioned upon the amount of interruptions, but CP has positive effects that are not influenced by the level of interruptions.
Through this study, we help inform workers of the different planning methods they can use to increase their daily motivation and performance in dynamic work environments
Digging deeper: quality of patient-provider communication across Hispanic subgroups
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Recent research suggests that ethnic subgroup designation plays an important role in health-related disparities among Hispanics. Our objective was to examine the influence of Hispanics' self-reported ethnic subgroup designation on perceptions of their health care providers' communication behaviors.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Cross-sectional analysis of the 2005 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS). Participants included non-institutionalized Hispanics (n = 5197; US population estimate = 27,070,906), aged ≥18 years, reporting visiting a health care provider within the past 12 months. Six (n = 6) items were used to capture respondents' perceptions of their health care providers' communication behaviors.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>After controlling for socio-demographic covariates, compared to Other Hispanics (reference group), very few differences in perceptions of health care providers communication emerged across ethnic subgroups. Puerto Ricans were more likely to report that their health care provider "always" showed respect for what they had to say (OR = 2.16, 95% CI 1.16-4.03). Both Puerto Ricans (OR = 2.28, 95% CI 1.06-4.92) and Mexicans (OR = 1.88, 95% CI 1.02-3.46) were more likely to indicate that their health care provider "always" spent enough time with them as compared to Other Hispanics.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We observed very few differences among Hispanics respondents in their perceived quality of interactions with health care providers as a function of their ethnic subgroup designation. While our findings somewhat contradict previous research, they do suggest that other underlying factors may influence the quality of perceived interactions with health care providers.</p
Pretreatment nutritional status and response to checkpoint inhibitors in lung cancer.
Background:Checkpoint inhibitors are integral to non-small-cell lung cancer treatment. Existing data suggests that nutritional status may play a role in antitumor immunity. Materials & methods:This retrospective study of 106 non-small-cell lung cancer patients who started checkpoint inhibitors between 2014 and 2017 at our institution assessed relationship of nutritional parameters to overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival. Results:Mean age was 68.7 ± 9.2 years and 59.4% patients were male. On multivariate analysis for OS, hypoalbuminemia and significant weight loss were prognostic at p-values of 0.0005 and 0.0052, respectively. We noted a parabolic association between age and OS (p = 0.026, 0.0025). Conclusion:In our study, some malnutrition parameters were associated with decreased OS. U-shape relationship between age and OS noted here warrants further evaluation
Two-atom dark states in electromagnetic cavities
The center-of-mass motion of two two-level atoms coupled to a single damped
mode of an electromagnetic resonator is investigated. For the case of one atom
being initially excited and the cavity mode in the vacuum state it is shown
that the atomic time evolution is dominated by the appearance of dark states.
These states, in which the initial excitation is stored in the internal atomic
degrees of freedom and the atoms become quantum mechanically entangled, are
almost immune against photon loss from the cavity. Various properties of the
dark states within and beyond the Raman-Nath approximation of atom optics are
worked out.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure
A microfabricated sensor for thin dielectric layers
We describe a sensor for the measurement of thin dielectric layers capable of
operation in a variety of environments. The sensor is obtained by
microfabricating a capacitor with interleaved aluminum fingers, exposed to the
dielectric to be measured. In particular, the device can measure thin layers of
solid frozen from a liquid or gaseous medium. Sensitivity to single atomic
layers is achievable in many configurations and, by utilizing fast, high
sensitivity capacitance read out in a feedback system onto environmental
parameters, coatings of few layers can be dynamically maintained. We discuss
the design, read out and calibration of several versions of the device
optimized in different ways. We specifically dwell on the case in which
atomically thin solid xenon layers are grown and stabilized, in cryogenic
conditions, from a liquid xenon bath
Mantle cell lymphoma with in situ or mantle zone growth pattern: a study of five cases and review of literature
We present two rare cases of in situ mantle cell lymphoma ( in situ MCL ) and three cases of MCL with mantle zone growth pattern (MCL-MZGP). The patients include four males and one female, with a median age of 66 years (range, 52 to 86 years). Two present with isolated lymphadenopathy and three with multiple lymphadenopathy. At presentation, the complete blood count (CBC) and serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) are normal in all cases. Histologic examination reveals an in situ pattern in two cases and a mantle zone growth pattern in three cases. The staging bone marrow biopsies show minimal involvement by lymphoma in one case and no morphologic evidence of lymphoma in four cases. All cases are positive for cyclin D1, including two with typical MCL phenotype and three with CD5-negativity. Four out of five cases express kappa light chain. FISH study for t(11;14) is performed in three cases, of which one is positive and two are inconclusive. For four patients with a median follow-up of 38 months, three are in clinical remission and one has persistent disease. In conclusion, the in situ MCL is associated with incidental finding, indolent clinical course and lower tumor burden. The predominant usage of kappa light chain and frequent CD5-negativity observed in our cases are unusual. We review the clinical and laboratory features of in situ MCL cases in the literature
Preparation of decoherence-free, subradiant states in a cavity
The cause of decoherence in a quantum system can be traced back to the
interaction with the environment. As it has been pointed out first by Dicke, in
a system of N two-level atoms where each of the atoms is individually dipole
coupled to the environment, there are collective, subradiant states, that have
no dipole coupling to photon modes, and therefore they are expected to decay
slower. This property also implies that these type of states, which form an N-1
dimensional subspace of the atomic subsytem, also decohere slower. We propose a
scheme which will create such states. First the two-level atoms are placed in a
strongly detuned cavity and one of the atoms, called the control atom is
excited. The time evolution of the coupled atom-cavity system leads to an
appropriately entangled state of the atoms. By applying subsequent laser pulses
at a well defined time instant, it is possible to drive the atomic state into
the subradiant, i. e., decoherence free subspace. Up to a certain average
number of the photons, the result is independent of the state of the cavity.
The analysis of the conditions shows that this scheme is feasible with present
day techniques achieved in atom cavity interaction experiments.Comment: 5 page
Vacuum Induced Coherences in Radiatively Coupled Multilevel Systems
We show that radiative coupling between two multilevel atoms having
near-degenerate states can produce new interference effects in spontaneous
emission. We explicitly demonstrate this possibility by considering two
identical V systems each having a pair of transition dipole matrix elements
which are orthogonal to each other. We discuss in detail the origin of the new
interference terms and their consequences. Such terms lead to the evolution of
certain coherences and excitations which would not occur otherwise. The special
choice of the orientation of the transition dipole matrix elements enables us
to illustrate the significance of vacuum induced coherence in multi-atom
multilevel systems. These coherences can be significant in energy transfer
studies.Comment: 13 pages including 8 figures in Revtex; submitted to PR
Nonclassical Interference Effects In The Radiation From Coherently Driven Uncorrelated Atoms
We demonstrate the existence of new nonclassical correlations in the
radiation of two atoms, which are coherently driven by a continuous laser
source. The photon-photon-correlations of the fluorescence light show a spatial
interferene pattern not present in a classical treatment. A feature of the new
phenomenon is, that bunched and antibunched light is emitted in different
spatial directions. The calculations are performed analytically. It is pointed
out, that the correlations are induced by state reduction due to the
measurement process when the detection of the photons does not distinguish
between the atoms. It is interesting to note, that the phenomena show up even
without any interatomic interaction.Comment: 4 pages, 6 Figure
Creating research-ready partnerships: The initial development of seven implementation laboratories to advance cancer control
BACKGROUND: In 2019-2020, with National Cancer Institute funding, seven implementation laboratory (I-Lab) partnerships between scientists and stakeholders in \u27real-world\u27 settings working to implement evidence-based interventions were developed within the Implementation Science Centers in Cancer Control (ISC3) consortium. This paper describes and compares approaches to the initial development of seven I-Labs in order to gain an understanding of the development of research partnerships representing various implementation science designs.
METHODS: In April-June 2021, members of the ISC3 Implementation Laboratories workgroup interviewed research teams involved in I-Lab development in each center. This cross-sectional study used semi-structured interviews and case-study-based methods to collect and analyze data about I-Lab designs and activities. Interview notes were analyzed to identify a set of comparable domains across sites. These domains served as the framework for seven case descriptions summarizing design decisions and partnership elements across sites.
RESULTS: Domains identified from interviews as comparable across sites included engagement of community and clinical I-Lab members in research activities, data sources, engagement methods, dissemination strategies, and health equity. The I-Labs use a variety of research partnership designs to support engagement including participatory research, community-engaged research, and learning health systems of embedded research. Regarding data, I-Labs in which members use common electronic health records (EHRs) leverage these both as a data source and a digital implementation strategy. I-Labs without a shared EHR among partners also leverage other sources for research or surveillance, most commonly qualitative data, surveys, and public health data systems. All seven I-Labs use advisory boards or partnership meetings to engage with members; six use stakeholder interviews and regular communications. Most (70%) tools or methods used to engage I-Lab members such as advisory groups, coalitions, or regular communications, were pre-existing. Think tanks, which two I-Labs developed, represented novel engagement approaches. To disseminate research results, all centers developed web-based products, and most (n = 6) use publications, learning collaboratives, and community forums. Important variations emerged in approaches to health equity, ranging from partnering with members serving historically marginalized populations to the development of novel methods.
CONCLUSIONS: The development of the ISC3 implementation laboratories, which represented a variety of research partnership designs, offers the opportunity to advance understanding of how researchers developed and built partnerships to effectively engage stakeholders throughout the cancer control research lifecycle. In future years, we will be able to share lessons learned for the development and sustainment of implementation laboratories
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