Inelastic and reactive scattering of hyperthermal atomic oxygen from amorphous carbon

The reaction of hyperthermal oxygen atoms with an amorphous carbon-13 surface was studied using a modified universal crossed molecular beams apparatus. Time-of-flight distributions of inelastically scattered O-atoms and reactively scattered CO-13 and CO2-13 were measured with a rotatable mass spectrometer detector. Two inelastic scattering channels were observed, corresponding to a direct inelastic process in which the scattered O-atoms retain 20 to 30 percent of their initial kinetic energy and to a trapping desorption process whereby O-atoms emerge from the surface at thermal velocities. Reactive scattering data imply the formation of two kinds of CO products, slow products whose translational energies are determined by the surface temperature and hyperthermal (Approx. 3 eV) products with translational energies comprising roughly 30 percent of the total available energy (E sub avl), where E sub avl is the sum of the collision energy and the reaction exothermicity. Angular data show that the hyperthermal CO is scattered preferentially in the specular direction. CO2 product was also observed, but at much lower intensities than CO and with only thermal velocities

MICROBIAL ASSOCIATIONS WITH METCALF’S TRYONIA, TRYONIA METCALFI (GASTROPODA: COCHLIOPIDAE), AN IMPERILED CI´ENEGA ENDEMIC

The Chihuahuan Desert swamps are a hotspot for imperiled organisms including freshwater springsnails and bacteria. Many of these taxa are endemic to the desert and to the individual waterbodies where they occur. Efforts to conserve diversity in these threatened areas must account for the life history of the organisms, but also interactions between organisms including microbes. We documented the microbial assemblage associated with Tryonia metcalfi, a critically imperiled freshwater snail endemic to a ciénega system in western Texas. We identified 14 bacterial families in our snail samples and determined a core assemblage of 19 bacterial taxa (4 of which represented novel lineages) that are likely dependent on the snail. Future conservation efforts involving T. metcalfi and its environment should therefore consider the microbial diversity associated with both the snail and the ciénegas. - En las ciénegas del desierto de Chihuahua habitan muchos organismos en peligro, entre ellos caracoles de agua dulce y bacterias. Muchos de estos taxones son endémicos del desierto y de los específicos cuerpos de agua donde ocurren. Esfuerzos para conservar la diversidad en estas áreas amenazadas deben tomar en cuenta la historia de vida de los organismos junto con las interacciones entre ellos, incluyendo microbios. Documentamos el conjunto microbiano relacionado con Tryonia metcalfi, una especie de caracol de agua dulce en peligro de extinción, endémica a un sistema de ciénagas en el oeste de Texas. Identificamos 14 familias bacterianas en nuestras muestras de caracoles y determinamos un conjunto principal de 19 taxones bacterianos; cuatro representan nuevos linajes, que probablemente dependen del caracol. En el futuro, los esfuerzos para proteger a T. metcalfi y su ambiente en consecuencia deben considerarla diversidad microbiana asociada con esta especie de caracol y la ciénega

Comfort with Communication in Palliative and End of Life Care (C-COPE)

The C-COPE instrument is based on literature review, content from the COMFORT model, and iterative input from four content experts. The COMFORT communication model is grounded in patient-centered care and narrative medicine, where patients, families, and the healthcare team value each other’s story and collaboratively identify wishes and goals of care. COMFORT communication skills include bearing witness, understanding health literacy, actively listening, understanding family communication patterns, talking through the tension, embracing patient and family goals of care, and learning to collaborate with members of the team. The C-COPE operationalizes the key components of the COMFORT model: Communication, Orientation and opportunity, Mindful presence, Family, Openings, Relating, and Team. The 28-item instrument includes two ranked items and 26 items rated on a 5-point Likert-type scale (1 = not difficult, 2 = slightly difficult, 3 = uncertain, 4 = difficult, 5 = very difficult) to assess healthcare professional comfort with palliative and end-of-life communication. The range of possible C-COPE total scores is 26-130 points, with higher scores indicating less comfort with palliative and end-of-life communication. Rated items were categorized according to patient communication, family communication, and team communication. Preliminary psychometric analysis based on this pilot test of the C-COPE instrument supports test-retest reliability with ICC \u3e 0.77, internal reliability for total score with Cronbach’s alpha = 0.91, and four factors with Cronbach’s alpha ranging from 0.81- 0.90

Bridging University Institutional and Accreditation Standards: An Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN) Program Exemplar

The complexity of the health care environment requires the nursing profession to effectively anticipate current and future health care needs. Similarly, nursing education must ensure preparedness of future nursing professionals as well as meet the rigor of program accreditation standards. South Dakota State University (SDSU) College of Nursing Master’s and Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) programs are accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE), one of the two national specialized accrediting bodies for nursing. Both graduate programs must align with an American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) Essentials document that corresponds to the respective degree and specialty, e.g. family nurse practitioner (FNP). Required curricular framework, components, and competencies are mapped within The Essentials of Master’s Education in Nursing and The Essentials of Doctoral Education for Advanced Nursing Practice. Both documents inform curricular content needed to meet core competencies specific to all Advanced Practice Registered Nursing (APRN) roles, such as the family nurse practitioner (AACN, 2006)

An investigation of the degradation of Fluorinated Ethylene Propylene (FEP) copolymer thermal blanketing materials aboard LDEF in the laboratory

Samples of fluorinated ethylene propylene copolymer thermal blanketing material, recovered from the Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF), were investigated to determine the nature and the extent of degradation due to exposure to the low-Earth-orbit environment. Samples recovered from the ram-facing direction of LDEF, which received vacuum-ultraviolet (VUV) radiation and atomic-oxygen impingement, and samples from the trailing edge, which received almost exclusively VUV exposure, were investigated by scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy. The most significant result of this investigation was found on samples that received only VUV exposure. These samples possessed a hard, embrittled surface layer that was absent from the atomic-oxygen exposed sample and from unexposed control samples. This surface layer is believed to be responsible for the 'synergistic' effect between VUV and atomic oxygen. Overall, the investigation revealed dramatically different morphologies for the two samples. The sample receiving both atomic-oxygen and VUV exposure was deeply eroded and had a characteristic 'rolling' surface morphology, while the sample that received only VUV exposure showed mild erosion and a surface morphology characterized by sharp high-frequency peaks. The morphologies observed in the LDEF samples, including the embrittled surface layer, were successfully duplicated in the laboratory

The Estimation of Parameters in Regression Functions Subject to Certain Restraints

We consider two types of problems in maximum likelihood estimation of parameters of linear functions subject to certain restraints. One is a family of lines with equal slopes or intercepts; the other is a pair of lines constrained to meet at a predetermined point. In the case of normally distributed errors with equal variances within each set, the solutions are identical with least squares solutions. In addition to linear functions, non-linear functions which are transformable to linearity may be treated under these methods

Health, employment, and economic change, 1973-2009: repeated cross sectional study

Objective To see whether adverse relations between social class, health, and economic activity, observed between 1973 and 1993 and previously identified in a 1996 BMJ paper, were still apparent between 1994 and 2009 despite improvements in the general economic climate and overall population health

Could the rise in mortality rates since 2015 be explained by changes in the number of delayed discharges of NHS patients?

Background: 2015 saw the largest annual spike in mortality rates in in England in almost 50 years. We examine whether these changes in mortality rates are associated with an indicator of poor functioning of health and social care – delay in hospital discharges. Methods: ONS monthly data of death counts and mortality rates for the period August 2010- March 2016 were compared to delays in discharges from NHS England data on transfers of care for acute and non-acute patients for England. Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) regression models were used in analysis. Results: We estimate that each additional day an acute admission was late being discharged was associated with an increase in 0.394 deaths (95% CIs: 0.220-0.569). For each additional acute patient delayed being discharged, we found an increase of 7.322 deaths (95% CIs: 1.754-12.890). Findings for non-acute admissions were mixed. Conclusion: The increased prevalence of patients being delayed in discharge from hospital in 2015 was associated with increases in mortality, as many as 7,322 (CIs 1,754 to 12,890) deaths in a year in England. Our study provides evidence that a lower quality of performance of the NHS and adult social care as a result of austerity may be having an adverse impact on population health

Borda Meets Pascal

Every so often (especially in mathematics), unforeseen connections between different ideas arise and beg explanation. This happened to us when, in an effort to generalize the voting procedure known as the Borda count, we began to see vectors of the form (-1, 1), (1, -2, 1), (-1, 3, -3, 1), (1, -4, 6, -4, 1), and so on. As you might imagine, we were instantly intrigued by this unanticipated relationship with Pascal\u27s triangle, and we quickly set out to find an explanation. This article describes some of our initial findings