475 research outputs found
The Respiratory Protection Effectiveness Clinical Trial (ResPECT): a cluster-randomized comparison of respirator and medical mask effectiveness against respiratory infections in healthcare personnel.
BACKGROUND: Although N95 filtering facepiece respirators and medical masks are commonly used for protection against respiratory infections in healthcare settings, more clinical evidence is needed to understand the optimal settings and exposure circumstances for healthcare personnel to use these devices. A lack of clinically germane research has led to equivocal, and occasionally conflicting, healthcare respiratory protection recommendations from public health organizations, professional societies, and experts.
METHODS: The Respiratory Protection Effectiveness Clinical Trial (ResPECT) is a prospective comparison of respiratory protective equipment to be conducted at multiple U.S. study sites. Healthcare personnel who work in outpatient settings will be cluster-randomized to wear N95 respirators or medical masks for protection against infections during respiratory virus season. Outcome measures will include laboratory-confirmed viral respiratory infections, acute respiratory illness, and influenza-like illness. Participant exposures to patients, coworkers, and others with symptoms and signs of respiratory infection, both within and beyond the workplace, will be recorded in daily diaries. Adherence to study protocols will be monitored by the study team.
DISCUSSION: ResPECT is designed to better understand the extent to which N95s and MMs reduce clinical illness among healthcare personnel. A fully successful study would produce clinically relevant results that help clinician-leaders make reasoned decisions about protection of healthcare personnel against occupationally acquired respiratory infections and prevention of spread within healthcare systems.
TRIAL REGISTRATION: The trial is registered at clinicaltrials.gov, number NCT01249625 (11/29/2010)
The Respiratory Protection Effectiveness Clinical Trial (ResPECT): a cluster-randomized comparison of respirator and medical mask effectiveness against respiratory infections in healthcare personnel.
BACKGROUND: Although N95 filtering facepiece respirators and medical masks are commonly used for protection against respiratory infections in healthcare settings, more clinical evidence is needed to understand the optimal settings and exposure circumstances for healthcare personnel to use these devices. A lack of clinically germane research has led to equivocal, and occasionally conflicting, healthcare respiratory protection recommendations from public health organizations, professional societies, and experts.
METHODS: The Respiratory Protection Effectiveness Clinical Trial (ResPECT) is a prospective comparison of respiratory protective equipment to be conducted at multiple U.S. study sites. Healthcare personnel who work in outpatient settings will be cluster-randomized to wear N95 respirators or medical masks for protection against infections during respiratory virus season. Outcome measures will include laboratory-confirmed viral respiratory infections, acute respiratory illness, and influenza-like illness. Participant exposures to patients, coworkers, and others with symptoms and signs of respiratory infection, both within and beyond the workplace, will be recorded in daily diaries. Adherence to study protocols will be monitored by the study team.
DISCUSSION: ResPECT is designed to better understand the extent to which N95s and MMs reduce clinical illness among healthcare personnel. A fully successful study would produce clinically relevant results that help clinician-leaders make reasoned decisions about protection of healthcare personnel against occupationally acquired respiratory infections and prevention of spread within healthcare systems.
TRIAL REGISTRATION: The trial is registered at clinicaltrials.gov, number NCT01249625 (11/29/2010)
Engaging Undergraduates in Science Research: Not Just About Faculty Willingness.
Despite the many benefits of involving undergraduates in research and the growing number of undergraduate research programs, few scholars have investigated the factors that affect faculty members' decisions to involve undergraduates in their research projects. We investigated the individual factors and institutional contexts that predict faculty members' likelihood of engaging undergraduates in their research project(s). Using data from the Higher Education Research Institute's 2007-2008 Faculty Survey, we employ hierarchical generalized linear modeling to analyze data from 4,832 science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) faculty across 194 institutions to examine how organizational citizenship behavior theory and social exchange theory relate to mentoring students in research. Key findings show that faculty who work in the life sciences and those who receive government funding for their research are more likely to involve undergraduates in their research project(s). In addition, faculty at liberal arts or historically Black colleges are significantly more likely to involve undergraduate students in research. Implications for advancing undergraduate research opportunities are discussed
Search for non-relativistic Magnetic Monopoles with IceCube
The IceCube Neutrino Observatory is a large Cherenkov detector instrumenting
of Antarctic ice. The detector can be used to search for
signatures of particle physics beyond the Standard Model. Here, we describe the
search for non-relativistic, magnetic monopoles as remnants of the GUT (Grand
Unified Theory) era shortly after the Big Bang. These monopoles may catalyze
the decay of nucleons via the Rubakov-Callan effect with a cross section
suggested to be in the range of to
. In IceCube, the Cherenkov light from nucleon decays
along the monopole trajectory would produce a characteristic hit pattern. This
paper presents the results of an analysis of first data taken from May 2011
until May 2012 with a dedicated slow-particle trigger for DeepCore, a
subdetector of IceCube. A second analysis provides better sensitivity for the
brightest non-relativistic monopoles using data taken from May 2009 until May
2010. In both analyses no monopole signal was observed. For catalysis cross
sections of the flux of non-relativistic
GUT monopoles is constrained up to a level of at a 90% confidence level,
which is three orders of magnitude below the Parker bound. The limits assume a
dominant decay of the proton into a positron and a neutral pion. These results
improve the current best experimental limits by one to two orders of magnitude,
for a wide range of assumed speeds and catalysis cross sections.Comment: 20 pages, 20 figure
Search for Relativistic Magnetic Monopoles with IceCube
We present the first results in the search for relativistic magnetic
monopoles with the IceCube detector, a subsurface neutrino telescope located in
the South Polar ice cap containing a volume of 1 km. This analysis
searches data taken on the partially completed detector during 2007 when
roughly 0.2 km of ice was instrumented. The lack of candidate events
leads to an upper limit on the flux of relativistic magnetic monopoles of
\Phi_{\mathrm{90%C.L.}}\sim 3\e{-18}\fluxunits for . This is a
factor of 4 improvement over the previous best experimental flux limits up to a
Lorentz boost below . This result is then interpreted for a
wide range of mass and kinetic energy values.Comment: 11 pages, 11 figures. v2 is minor text edits, no changes to resul
Searches for Extended and Point-like Neutrino Sources with Four Years of IceCube Data
We present results on searches for point-like sources of neutrinos using four
years of IceCube data, including the first year of data from the completed
86-string detector. The total livetime of the combined dataset is 1,373 days.
For an E spectrum the median sensitivity at 90\% C.L. is
TeVcms for energies between 1 TeV1 PeV in the northern
sky and TeVcms for energies between 100
TeV 100 PeV in the southern sky. The sensitivity has improved from both the
additional year of data and the introduction of improved reconstructions
compared to previous publications. In addition, we present the first results
from an all-sky search for extended sources of neutrinos. We update results of
searches for neutrino emission from stacked catalogs of sources, and test five
new catalogs; two of Galactic supernova remnants and three of active galactic
nuclei. In all cases, the data are compatible with the background-only
hypothesis, and upper limits on the flux of muon neutrinos are reported for the
sources considered.Comment: 36 pages, 15 figures. Submitted to the Astrophysical Journa
Determining neutrino oscillation parameters from atmospheric muon neutrino disappearance with three years of IceCube DeepCore data
We present a measurement of neutrino oscillations via atmospheric muon
neutrino disappearance with three years of data of the completed IceCube
neutrino detector. DeepCore, a region of denser instrumentation, enables the
detection and reconstruction of atmospheric muon neutrinos between 10 GeV and
100 GeV, where a strong disappearance signal is expected. The detector volume
surrounding DeepCore is used as a veto region to suppress the atmospheric muon
background. Neutrino events are selected where the detected Cherenkov photons
of the secondary particles minimally scatter, and the neutrino energy and
arrival direction are reconstructed. Both variables are used to obtain the
neutrino oscillation parameters from the data, with the best fit given by
and
(normal mass hierarchy assumed). The
results are compatible and comparable in precision to those of dedicated
oscillation experiments.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figure
A combined maximum-likelihood analysis of the high-energy astrophysical neutrino flux measured with IceCube
Evidence for an extraterrestrial flux of high-energy neutrinos has now been
found in multiple searches with the IceCube detector. The first solid evidence
was provided by a search for neutrino events with deposited energies
TeV and interaction vertices inside the instrumented volume. Recent
analyses suggest that the extraterrestrial flux extends to lower energies and
is also visible with throughgoing, -induced tracks from the Northern
hemisphere. Here, we combine the results from six different IceCube searches
for astrophysical neutrinos in a maximum-likelihood analysis. The combined
event sample features high-statistics samples of shower-like and track-like
events. The data are fit in up to three observables: energy, zenith angle and
event topology. Assuming the astrophysical neutrino flux to be isotropic and to
consist of equal flavors at Earth, the all-flavor spectrum with neutrino
energies between 25 TeV and 2.8 PeV is well described by an unbroken power law
with best-fit spectral index and a flux at 100 TeV of
.
Under the same assumptions, an unbroken power law with index is disfavored
with a significance of 3.8 () with respect to the best
fit. This significance is reduced to 2.1 () if instead we
compare the best fit to a spectrum with index that has an exponential
cut-off at high energies. Allowing the electron neutrino flux to deviate from
the other two flavors, we find a fraction of at Earth.
The sole production of electron neutrinos, which would be characteristic of
neutron-decay dominated sources, is rejected with a significance of 3.6
().Comment: 16 pages, 10 figures; accepted for publication in The Astrophysical
Journal; updated one referenc
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