The development and evaluation of a curricular activity program at Galt Joint Union High School

The basic problem involved in developing the curricular activity program at Galt High School was two-fold: (1) In what ways could the formal curriculum be modified and the schedule be adjusted in order to incorporate an informal club-activity program without impairing the regular educational opportunities?; (2) Could the use of school time for such a program be justified

Immunosuppressive drug assaying: A challenge for renal transplantation in the Northern Territory, Australia

All works published by Australasian Medical Journal are under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY License). This permits anyone to copy, distribute, display, perform and modify the work for any purpose provided that the source is appropriately cited.Background Renal transplant patients of the Northern Territory (NT) of Australia, suffer poor transplant outcomes including graft rejection, infection and increased mortality, therefore requiring stringent immunosuppressive drug assay monitoring. Best practice dictates that drug assay results should be received within 24 hours and at the most no later than 48 hours post blood collection. Assays from the Royal Darwin Hospital (RDH) are processed at an interstate laboratory, therefore prolonging the time to dosage adjustment. Aims To assess the time delay that exists between blood sample collection at the Royal Darwin Hospital (RDH) and the faxing of results from an interstate laboratory to RDH. Methods We conducted a retrospective audit of immunosuppressive drug assay samples and results between the 4th of January 2013 and the 22nd April 2014. Time delay was divided into intervals: T1: Total time between collections to faxing of results back to RDH, T2: Time between blood collection, sending of samples and reporting at an interstate laboratory, T3: Time between results reporting and the faxing of results back to RDH. Results A total of 389 drug assays from 49 renal transplant patients were analysed. Median times in hours (interquartile ranges) were T1=53.48 (31.68-78.55), T2=47.18 (28.80-76.18), T3=2.70 (1.87-3.90). 13.3 per cent of the results led to the requirement for dosage changes with the potential risk of under-dosing or overdosing. Conclusion The long median time delay between sample collection and receiving of results illustrates the challenges of immunosuppression in this setting and the need for on-site immunosuppressive drug assaying

Immunosuppressive drug assaying: A challenge for renal transplantation

BackgroundRenal transplant patients of the Northern Territory (NT) of Australia, suffer poor transplant outcomes including graft rejection, infection and increased mortality, therefore requiring stringent immunosuppressive drug assay monitoring. Best practice dictates that drug assay results should be received within 24 hours and at the most no later than 48 hours post blood collection. Assays from the Royal Darwin Hospital (RDH) are processed at an interstate laboratory, therefore prolonging the time to dosage adjustment.AimsTo assess the time delay that exists between blood sample collection at the Royal Darwin Hospital (RDH) and the faxing of results from an interstate laboratory to RDH.MethodsWe conducted a retrospective audit of immunosuppressive drug assay samples and results between the 4th of January 2013 and the 22nd April 2014. Time delay was divided into intervals: T1: Total time between collections to faxing of results back to RDH, T2: Time between blood collection, sending of samples and reporting at an interstate laboratory, T3: Time between results reporting and the faxing of results back to RDH.ResultsA total of 389 drug assays from 49 renal transplant patients were analysed. Median times in hours (interquartile ranges) were T1=53.48 (31.68-78.55), T2=47.18 (28.80-76.18), T3=2.70 (1.87-3.90). 13.3 per cent of the results led to the requirement for dosage changes with the potential risk of under-dosing or overdosing.ConclusionThe long median time delay between sample collection and receiving of results illustrates the challenges of immunosuppression in this setting and the need for on-site immunosuppressive drug assaying

Absolute Calibration and Characterization of the Multiband Imaging Photometer for Spitzer. II. 70 micron Imaging

The absolute calibration and characterization of the Multiband Imaging Photometer for Spitzer (MIPS) 70 micron coarse- and fine-scale imaging modes are presented based on over 2.5 years of observations. Accurate photometry (especially for faint sources) requires two simple processing steps beyond the standard data reduction to remove long-term detector transients. Point spread function (PSF) fitting photometry is found to give more accurate flux densities than aperture photometry. Based on the PSF fitting photometry, the calibration factor shows no strong trend with flux density, background, spectral type, exposure time, or time since anneals. The coarse-scale calibration sample includes observations of stars with flux densities from 22 mJy to 17 Jy, on backgrounds from 4 to 26 MJy sr^-1, and with spectral types from B to M. The coarse-scale calibration is 702 +/- 35 MJy sr^-1 MIPS70^-1 (5% uncertainty) and is based on measurements of 66 stars. The instrumental units of the MIPS 70 micron coarse- and fine-scale imaging modes are called MIPS70 and MIPS70F, respectively. The photometric repeatability is calculated to be 4.5% from two stars measured during every MIPS campaign and includes variations on all time scales probed. The preliminary fine-scale calibration factor is 2894 +/- 294 MJy sr^-1 MIPS70F^-1 (10% uncertainty) based on 10 stars. The uncertainty in the coarse- and fine-scale calibration factors are dominated by the 4.5% photometric repeatability and the small sample size, respectively. The 5-sigma, 500 s sensitivity of the coarse-scale observations is 6-8 mJy. This work shows that the MIPS 70 micron array produces accurate, well calibrated photometry and validates the MIPS 70 micron operating strategy, especially the use of frequent stimulator flashes to track the changing responsivities of the Ge:Ga detectors.Comment: 19 pages, PASP, in pres

A New Era in Extragalactic Background Light Measurements: The Cosmic History of Accretion, Nucleosynthesis and Reionization

(Brief Summary) What is the total radiative content of the Universe since the epoch of recombination? The extragalactic background light (EBL) spectrum captures the redshifted energy released from the first stellar objects, protogalaxies, and galaxies throughout cosmic history. Yet, we have not determined the brightness of the extragalactic sky from UV/optical to far-infrared wavelengths with sufficient accuracy to establish the radiative content of the Universe to better than an order of magnitude. Among many science topics, an accurate measurement of the EBL spectrum from optical to far-IR wavelengths, will address: What is the total energy released by stellar nucleosynthesis over cosmic history? Was significant energy released by non-stellar processes? Is there a diffuse component to the EBL anywhere from optical to sub-millimeter? When did first stars appear and how luminous was the reionization epoch? Absolute optical to mid-IR EBL spectrum to an astrophysically interesting accuracy can be established by wide field imagingat a distance of 5 AU or above the ecliptic plane where the zodiacal foreground is reduced by more than two orders of magnitude.Comment: 7 pages; Science White Paper for the US Astro 2010-2020 Decadal Survey. If interested in further community-wide efforts on this topic please contact the first autho

An Uncertain Dominion: Irish Psychiatry, Methadone, and the Treatment of Opiate Abuse

This paper investigates some productive ambiguities around the medical administration of methadone in the Republic of Ireland. The tensions surrounding methadone maintenance therapy (MMT) are outlined, as well as the sociohistorical context in which a serious heroin addiction problem in Ireland developed. Irish psychiatry intervened in this situation, during a time of institutional change, debates concerning the nature of addiction, moral panics concerning heroin addiction in Irish society and the recent boom in the Irish economy, known popularly as the Celtic Tiger. A particular history of this sort illuminates how technologies like MMT become cosmopolitan, settling into, while changing, local contexts

Does “Asymptomatic” Mean Without Symptoms for Those Living with HIV Infection?

Throughout the history of the HIV epidemic, HIV-positive patients with relatively high CD4 counts and no clinical features of opportunistic infections have been classified as ‘‘asymptomatic’’ by definition and treatment guidelines. This classification, however, does not take into consideration the array of symptoms that an HIV-positive person can experience long before progressing to AIDS. This short report describes two international multi-site studies conducted in 2003 - 2005 and 2005 - 2007. The results from the studies show that HIV-positive people may experience symptoms throughout the trajectory of their disease, regardless of CD4 count or classification. Providers should discuss symptoms and symptom management with their clients at all stages of the disease

Reduction Algorithms for the Multiband Imaging Photometer for Spitzer

We describe the data reduction algorithms for the Multiband Imaging Photometer for Spitzer (MIPS) instrument. These algorithms were based on extensive preflight testing and modeling of the Si:As (24 micron) and Ge:Ga (70 and 160 micron) arrays in MIPS and have been refined based on initial flight data. The behaviors we describe are typical of state-of-the-art infrared focal planes operated in the low backgrounds of space. The Ge arrays are bulk photoconductors and therefore show a variety of artifacts that must be removed to calibrate the data. The Si array, while better behaved than the Ge arrays, does show a handful of artifacts that also must be removed to calibrate the data. The data reduction to remove these effects is divided into three parts. The first part converts the non-destructively read data ramps into slopes while removing artifacts with time constants of the order of the exposure time. The second part calibrates the slope measurements while removing artifacts with time constants longer than the exposure time. The third part uses the redundancy inherit in the MIPS observing modes to improve the artifact removal iteratively. For each of these steps, we illustrate the relevant laboratory experiments or theoretical arguments along with the mathematical approaches taken to calibrate the data. Finally, we describe how these preflight algorithms have performed on actual flight data.Comment: 21 pages, 16 figures, PASP accepted (May 2005 issue), version of paper with full resolution images is available at http://dirty.as.arizona.edu/~kgordon/papers/PS_files/mips_dra.pd