50 research outputs found
U.S. Spacesuit Knowledge Capture
The ability to learn from both the mistakes and successes of the past is vital to assuring success in the future. Due to the close physical interaction between spacesuit systems and human beings as users, spacesuit technology and usage lends itself rather uniquely to the benefits realized from the skillful organization of historical information; its dissemination; the collection and identification of artifacts; and the education of individuals and groups working in the field. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), other organizations and individuals have been performing United States (U.S.) spacesuit knowledge capture since the beginning of space exploration. Avenues used to capture the knowledge have included publication of reports; conference presentations; specialized seminars; and classes usually given by veterans in the field. Recently, the effort has been more concentrated and formalized whereby a new avenue of spacesuit knowledge capture has been added to the archives through which videotaping occurs, engaging both current and retired specialists in the field presenting technical scope specifically for education and preservation of knowledge. Now with video archiving, all these avenues of learning can be brought to life with the real experts presenting their wealth of knowledge on screen for future learners to enjoy. U.S. spacesuit knowledge capture topics have included lessons learned in spacesuit technology, experience from the Gemini, Apollo, Skylab and Shuttle programs, hardware certification, design, development and other program components, spacesuit evolution and experience, failure analysis and resolution, and aspects of program management. Concurrently, U.S. spacesuit knowledge capture activities have progressed to a level where NASA, the National Air and Space Museum (NASM), Hamilton Sundstrand (HS) and the spacesuit community are now working together to provide a rather closed-looped spacesuit knowledge capture system which includes specific attention to spacesuit system artifacts as well. A NASM report has recently been created that allows the cross reference of history to the artifacts and the artifacts to the history including spacesuit manufacturing details with current condition and location. NASA has examined spacesuits in the NASM collection for evidence of wear during their operational life. NASA s formal spacesuit knowledge capture efforts now make use of both the NASM spacesuit preservation collection and report to enhance its efforts to educate NASA personnel and contribute to spacesuit history. Be it archiving of human knowledge or archiving of the actual spacesuit legacy hardware with its rich history, the joining together of spacesuit system artifact history with that of development and use during past programs will provide a wealth of knowledge which will greatly enhance the chances for the success of future and more ambitious spacesuit system programs
The Auxiliary Mass Method beyond the Local Potential Approximation
We show that the evolution equation of the effective potential in the
auxiliary mass method corresponds to a leading approximation of a certain
series. This series is derived from an evolution equation of an effective
action using a derivative expansion. We derived an expression of the
next-to-leading approximation of the evolution equation, which is a
simultaneous partial differential equation.Comment: 23 pages, 3 EPS figure
Investigation into O(N) Invariant Scalar Model Using Auxiliary-Mass Method at Finite Temperature
Using auxiliary-mass method, O(N) invariant scalar model is investigated at
finite temperature. This mass and an evolution equation allow us to calculate
an effective potential without an infrared divergence. Second order phase
transition is indicated by the effective potential. The critical exponents are
determined numerically.Comment: LaTex 8 pages with 3 eps figure
Calculating total health service utilisation and costs from routinely collected electronic health records using the example of patients with irritable bowel syndrome before and after their first gastroenterology appointment
INTRODUCTION: Health economic models are increasingly important in funding decisions but most are based on data, which may therefore not represent the general population. We sought to establish the potential of real-world data available within the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) and linked Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) to determine comprehensive healthcare utilisation and costs as input variables for economic modelling.
METHODS: A cohort of patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) who first saw a gastroenterologist in 2008 or 2009, and with 3Â years of data before and after their appointment, was created in the CPRD. Primary care, outpatient, inpatient, prescription and colonoscopy data were extracted from the linked CPRD and HES. The appropriate cost to the NHS was attached to each event. Total and stratified annual healthcare utilisation rates and costs were calculated before and after the gastroenterology appointment with distribution parameters. Absolute differences were calculated with 95Â % confidence intervals.
RESULTS: Total annual healthcare costs over 3Â years increase by ÂŁ935 (95Â % CI ÂŁ928â941) following a gastroenterology appointment for IBS. We derived utilisation and cost data with parameter distributions stratified by demographics and time. Women, older patients, smokers and patients with greater comorbidity utilised more healthcare resources, which generated higher costs.
CONCLUSIONS: These linked datasets provide comprehensive primary and secondary care data for large numbers of patients, which allows stratification of outcomes. It is possible to derive input parameters appropriate for economic models and their distributions directly from the population of interest
Critical Exponents and Critical Amplitude Ratio of The Scalar Model from Finite-temperature Field Theory
The critical exponents and the critical amplitude ratio of the scalar model
are determined using finite-temperature field theory with auxiliary mass. A new
numerical method is developed to solve an evolution equation. The results are
discussed in comparison with values obtained from the other methods.Comment: LaTex 19 pages with 12 eps figure
Interventions for drug-using offenders with co-occurring mental health problems
Background
This review represents one from a family of three reviews focusing on interventions for drugâusing offenders. Many people under the care of the criminal justice system have coâoccurring mental health problems and drug misuse problems; it is important to identify the most effective treatments for this vulnerable population.
Objectives
To assess the effectiveness of interventions for drugâusing offenders with coâoccurring mental health problems in reducing criminal activity or drug use, or both.
This review addresses the following questions.
âą Does any treatment for drugâusing offenders with coâoccurring mental health problems reduce drug use?
âą Does any treatment for drugâusing offenders with coâoccurring mental health problems reduce criminal activity?
âą Does the treatment setting (court, community, prison/secure establishment) affect intervention outcome(s)?
âą Does the type of treatment affect treatment outcome(s)?
Search methods
We searched 12 databases up to February 2019 and checked the reference lists of included studies. We contacted experts in the field for further information.
Selection criteria
We included randomised controlled trials designed to prevent relapse of drug use and/or criminal activity among drugâusing offenders with coâoccurring mental health problems.
Data collection and analysis
We used standard methodological procedures as expected by Cochrane .
Main results
We included 13 studies with a total of 2606 participants. Interventions were delivered in prison (eight studies; 61%), in court (two studies; 15%), in the community (two studies; 15%), or at a medium secure hospital (one study; 8%). Main sources of bias were unclear risk of selection bias and high risk of detection bias.
Four studies compared a therapeutic community intervention versus (1) treatment as usual (two studies; 266 participants), providing moderateâcertainty evidence that participants who received the intervention were less likely to be involved in subsequent criminal activity (risk ratio (RR) 0.67, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.53 to 0.84) or returned to prison (RR 0.40, 95% CI 0.24 to 0.67); (2) a cognitiveâbehavioural therapy (one study; 314 participants), reporting no significant reduction in selfâreported drug use (RR 0.78, 95% CI 0.46 to 1.32), reâarrest for any type of crime (RR 0.69, 95% CI 0.44 to 1.09), criminal activity (RR 0.74, 95% CI 0.52 to 1.05), or drugârelated crime (RR 0.87, 95% CI 0.56 to 1.36), yielding lowâcertainty evidence; and (3) a waiting list control (one study; 478 participants), showing a significant reduction in return to prison for those people engaging in the therapeutic community (RR 0.60, 95% CI 0.46 to 0.79), providing moderateâcertainty evidence.
One study (235 participants) compared a mental health treatment court with an assertive case management model versus treatment as usual, showing no significant reduction at 12 months' followâup on an Addictive Severity Index (ASI) selfâreport of drug use (mean difference (MD) 0.00, 95% CI â0.03 to 0.03), conviction for a new crime (RR 1.05, 95% CI 0.90 to 1.22), or reâincarceration to jail (RR 0.79, 95% CI 0.62 to 1.01), providing lowâcertainty evidence.
Four studies compared motivational interviewing/mindfulness and cognitive skills with relaxation therapy (one study), a waiting list control (one study), or treatment as usual (two studies). In comparison to relaxation training, one study reported narrative information on marijuana use at threeâmonth followâup assessment. Researchers reported a main effect < .007 with participants in the motivational interviewing group, showing fewer problems than participants in the relaxation training group, with moderateâcertainty evidence. In comparison to a waiting list control, one study reported no significant reduction in selfâreported drug use based on the ASI (MD â0.04, 95% CI â0.37 to 0.29) and on abstinence from drug use (RR 2.89, 95% CI 0.73 to 11.43), presenting lowâcertainty evidence at six months (31 participants). In comparison to treatment as usual, two studies (with 40 participants) found no significant reduction in frequency of marijuana use at three months post release (MD â1.05, 95% CI â2.39 to 0.29) nor time to first arrest (MD 0.87, 95% CI â0.12 to 1.86), along with a small reduction in frequency of reâarrest (MD â0.66, 95% CI â1.31 to â0.01) up to 36 months, yielding lowâcertainty evidence; the other study with 80 participants found no significant reduction in positive drug screens at 12 months (MD â0.7, 95% CI â3.5 to 2.1), providing very lowâcertainty evidence.
Two studies reported on the use of multiâsystemic therapy involving juveniles and families versus treatment as usual and adolescent substance abuse therapy. In comparing treatment as usual, researchers found no significant reduction up to seven months in drug dependence on the Drug Use Disorders Identification Test (DUDIT) score (MD â0.22, 95% CI â2.51 to 2.07) nor in arrests (RR 0.97, 95% CI 0.70 to 1.36), providing lowâcertainty evidence (156 participants). In comparison to an adolescent substance abuse therapy, one study (112 participants) found significant reduction in reâarrests up to 24 months (MD 0.24, 95% CI 0.76 to 0.28), based on lowâcertainty evidence.
One study (38 participants) reported on the use of interpersonal psychotherapy in comparison to a psychoeducational intervention. Investigators found no significant reduction in selfâreported drug use at three months (RR 0.67, 95% CI 0.30 to 1.50), providing very lowâcertainty evidence. The final study (29 participants) compared legal defence service and wrapâaround social work services versus legal defence service only and found no significant reductions in the number of new offences committed at 12 months (RR 0.64, 95% CI 0.07 to 6.01), yielding very lowâcertainty evidence.
Authors' conclusions
Therapeutic community interventions and mental health treatment courts may help people to reduce subsequent drug use and/or criminal activity. For other interventions such as interpersonal psychotherapy, multiâsystemic therapy, legal defence wrapâaround services, and motivational interviewing, the evidence is more uncertain. Studies showed a high degree of variation, warranting a degree of caution in interpreting the magnitude of effect and the direction of benefit for treatment outcomes
Cross-institutional collaborations for health equity research at a CTSA
Objective/Goals:
We were interested in health equity research for each CTSA-affiliated institution, specifically focusing on cross department and cross-campus co-authorship. We conducted a bibliometric analysis of our CTSA-funded papers relating to diversity and inclusion to identify cross department and cross-campus collaborations.
Methods/Study Population:
We worked with our CTSAâs Racial Justice, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Task Force to conduct an environmental scan of diversity and inclusion research across our CTSA partner institutions. Using the Scopus database, searches were constructed to identify and retrieve the variety of affiliations for each of the CTSA authors, a health equity/health disparities search hedge, and all of our CTSA grant numbers. We limited the dates from the beginning of our CTSA in 2008-November 2021. We used PubMed to retrieve all MeSH terms for the articles. We used Excel to analyze the data, Python and NCBIâs Entrez Programming Utilities to analyze MeSH terms, and VOSviewer to produce the visualizations.
Results/Anticipated Results:
The results of this search yielded 94 articles overall. We broke these up into subsets (not mutually exclusive) to represent five of the researcher groups across our CTSA. We analyzed the overall dataset for citation count, normalized citation count, CTSA average authors, gender trends, and co-term analysis. We also developed cross department co-authorship maps and cross-institutional/group co-authorship maps.
Discussion/Significance of Impact:
This poster will demonstrate both the current areas where cross-departmental and cross-institutional collaboration exists among our CTSA authors, as well as identify potential existing areas for collaboration to occur. These findings may determine areas our CTSA can support to improve institutional performance in addressing health equity.This poster was funded with support from the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute which is funded in part by Award Number UL1TR002529 from the National Institutes of Health, National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, Clinical and Translational Sciences Award. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.
The Routledge Handbook on Biochemistry of Exercise
From its early beginnings in the 1960s, the academic field of biochemistry of exercise has expanded beyond examining and describing metabolic responses to exercise and adaptations to training to include a wide understanding of molecular biology, cell signalling, interorgan communication, stem cell physiology, and a host of other cellular and biochemical mechanisms regulating acute responses and chronic adaptations related to exercise performance, human health/disease, nutrition, and cellular functioning.
The Routledge Handbook on Biochemistry of Exercise is the first book to pull together the full depth and breadth of this subject and to update a rapidly expanding field of study with current issues and controversies and a look forward to future research directions. Bringing together many experts and leading scientists, the book emphasizes the current understanding of the underlying metabolic, cellular, genetic, and cell signalling mechanisms associated with physical activity, exercise, training, and athletic performance as they relate to, interact with, and regulate cellular and muscular adaptations and consequent effects on human health/disease, nutrition and weight control, and human performance.
With more emphasis than ever on the need to be physically active and the role that being active plays in our overall health from a whole-body level down to the cell, this book makes an important contribution for scholars, medical practitioners, nutritionists, and coaches/trainers working in research and with a wide range of clients. This text is important reading for all students, scholars, and others with an interest in health, nutrition, and exercise/training in general