Internet sources for nursing and allied health

Lists and describes available Internet resources for nursing and allied health professionals. Procedure for subscribing and unsubscribing from the discussion lists; Newsgroups available for nurses; Accessing to gopher servers

A coral reef as an analogical model to promote collaborative learning on cultural and ethnic diversity in science

An exercise designed to engage students in critical thinking and active conversation about gender, diversity, and ethnicity in science is described. First semester college science students frequently do not realize that individual scholarship is an integral component of global scholarship and that scientific progress stems from the scholarly contributions of numerous individuals. The described exercise initially uses a collage of a coral reef—chosen both for its visual impact and because it is an excellent model of diversity—highlighting various aspects of life on a reef. This is followed by a trawl of library resources to enable the development of a chronology of significant contributions and practices in the field of medicine and the identification of historical and contemporary scholars and practitioners by race, cultural heritage, and gender

TRAVEL MOBILITY AND PHYSICAL ACTIVITY IN THE DAILY LIVES OF COLLEGE STUDENTS

poster abstractTyson (2010) conducted research on 100 students using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and the Physical Activity Question-naire (PAQ). He concluded that students who engaged in more exercise had better mental health. Other studies have confirmed his findings, and have demonstrated how a student’s well-being is related to their success in build-ing relationships and maintaining academic studies. On the other hand, stu-dents that do not engage in physical activity often experience negative well-being, including difficulty concentrating, fatigue, and psychological disorders. The objectives of this study are to determine if the strength of association between daily emotion and activity participation is similar across college stu-dents, and how physical activity and travel mobility relate to well-being. The Experience Sampling Method (ESM), developed by Csikszentmihalyi, Larson, and Prescott (1977) will be used in conjunction with an accelerometer and global positioning system (GPS) to collect data from a sample of (n=24) full-time students over a period of seven days from 9:00am-9:00pm. Subjects will be randomly signaled seven times a day, at which time they will com-plete several Likert-type statements and semantic deferential items in order to measure their perceptions of well-being. To date, the combined methodo-logical use of ESM, GPS and accelerometry has not been conducted on col-lege students. Travel mobility and physical activity will be recorded using the Garmin Forerunner 410 GPS and the Actigraph accelerometer. Data collec-tion phase is incomplete. It is expected that the strength of association be-tween daily emotion and activity participation will be consistent across col-lege students, and physical activity and travel mobility will contribute to stu-dent’s well-being. It is also expected that students with high levels of physi-cal activity and travel mobility will report an overall sense of happiness and increased well-being as compared to those with low levels of physical activity and travel mobility

Treatment of breast cancer: Imo State Nigeria versus Indiana, USA women -- comparative analytic study

BACKGROUND: Women with breast cancer undergo multimodal treatment for best outcome. This study seeks to identify the treatment challenges for such women in Imo State, Nigeria vis-à-vis similar women in Indiana USA. We compared the treatment modalities of both groups; noting predictors of compliance for subsequent action. SETTING: Federal Medical Centre, Owerri; Imo State, Imo State University, Orlu, Nigeria and Indiana University Hospital, Indiana, USA. DESIGN: A retrospective study. METHODOLOGY: From 2000-2013, 100 randomly pulled charts of patients treated for pathologically confirmed breast cancer in Imo, Nigeria Federal Medical Centre Owerri, Imo State University Hospital; and Indiana University Hospital U.S. respectively were reviewed. The demographics, clinical and pathological data of the patients with confirmed breast cancer were obtained. The data were formatted and analyzed with SPSS version 16.0. The clinical features, management options, outcomes and specific features were compared for both groups using Wilcoxon Rank Sum tests (age, parity) and chi-square tests for all other variables. A 5% significance level was used for all tests. RESULTS: One hundred patients were included for each group. The mean/minimum ages; Imo, Nigeria 41.7/21 (SD/SE 15.3/1.5) vs. Indiana, U.S.56.4/29 (SD 12.4/SE 1.2) p<0.0001. Histology for Indiana USA women was predominantly ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) P<0.0001 while that of Imo, Nigeria was invasive ductal carcinoma inflammatory cancer P<0.0326. Women in both locations received chemotherapy and surgery. Imo women received less radiotherapy. Toxicity from chemotherapy remained constant features for both groups, P<0.0001. In Indiana USA, the 5year survival exceeded 85%; In Imo Nigeria it was 10%. This study showed that Women on both locations who were likely to be compliant were those receiving mastectomy; Imo, Nigeria 44(56%) <0.013 vs. Indiana, U.S. 74(80%) p<0.0186; women with cosmesis given; Imo, Nigeria 41(42%) vs. Indiana, U.S. 91 (94%) p<0.0001. Sample sizes were inadequate to perform multivariable models. CONCLUSION: The multimodal treatment regimen implied that there was need for an algorithm protocol for breast cancer women. Thus the need to improve the quality of treatment particularly in Nigeria by improved treatment documentation to overcome key barriers involving information exchange

A Public, K-Selected, Optical-to-Near-Infrared Catalog of the Extended Chandra Deep Field South (ECDFS) from the MUltiwavelength Survey by Yale-Chile (MUSYC)

We present a new K-selected, optical-to-near-infrared photometric catalog of the Extended Chandra Deep Field South (ECDFS), making it publicly available to the astronomical community. The dataset is founded on publicly available imaging, supplemented by original zJK imaging data obtained as part of the MUltiwavelength Survey by Yale-Chile (MUSYC). The final photometric catalog consists of photometry derived from nine band U-K imaging covering the full 0.5x0.5 sq. deg. of the ECDFS, plus H band data for approximately 80% of the field. The 5sigma flux limit for point-sources is K = 22.0 (AB). This is also the nominal completeness and reliability limit of the catalog: the empirical completeness for 21.75 < K < 22.00 is 85+%. We have verified the quality of the catalog through both internal consistency checks, and comparisons to other existing and publicly available catalogs. As well as the photometric catalog, we also present catalogs of photometric redshifts and restframe photometry derived from the ten band photometry. We have collected robust spectroscopic redshift determinations from published sources for 1966 galaxies in the catalog. Based on these sources, we have achieved a (1sigma) photometric redshift accuracy of Dz/(1+z) = 0.036, with an outlier fraction of 7.8%. Most of these outliers are X-ray sources. Finally, we describe and release a utility for interpolating restframe photometry from observed SEDs, dubbed InterRest. Particularly in concert with the wealth of already publicly available data in the ECDFS, this new MUSYC catalog provides an excellent resource for studying the changing properties of the massive galaxy population at z < 2. (Abridged)Comment: Re-submitted to ApJSS after a first referee report. 27 pages, 17 figures. MUSYC data is freely available from http://astro.yale.edu/MUSYC . Links to phot-z and restframe photometry catalogs, as well as to InterRest access and documentation, including a full walkthrough, can be found at http://www.strw.leidenuniv.nl/~ent

Improving the sensitivity to gravitational-wave sources by modifying the input-output optics of advanced interferometers

We study frequency dependent (FD) input-output schemes for signal-recycling interferometers, the baseline design of Advanced LIGO and the current configuration of GEO 600. Complementary to a recent proposal by Harms et al. to use FD input squeezing and ordinary homodyne detection, we explore a scheme which uses ordinary squeezed vacuum, but FD readout. Both schemes, which are sub-optimal among all possible input-output schemes, provide a global noise suppression by the power squeeze factor, while being realizable by using detuned Fabry-Perot cavities as input/output filters. At high frequencies, the two schemes are shown to be equivalent, while at low frequencies our scheme gives better performance than that of Harms et al., and is nearly fully optimal. We then study the sensitivity improvement achievable by these schemes in Advanced LIGO era (with 30-m filter cavities and current estimates of filter-mirror losses and thermal noise), for neutron star binary inspirals, and for narrowband GW sources such as low-mass X-ray binaries and known radio pulsars. Optical losses are shown to be a major obstacle for the actual implementation of these techniques in Advanced LIGO. On time scales of third-generation interferometers, like EURO/LIGO-III (~2012), with kilometer-scale filter cavities, a signal-recycling interferometer with the FD readout scheme explored in this paper can have performances comparable to existing proposals. [abridged]Comment: Figs. 9 and 12 corrected; Appendix added for narrowband data analysi

Upper limits on the strength of periodic gravitational waves from PSR J1939+2134

The first science run of the LIGO and GEO gravitational wave detectors presented the opportunity to test methods of searching for gravitational waves from known pulsars. Here we present new direct upper limits on the strength of waves from the pulsar PSR J1939+2134 using two independent analysis methods, one in the frequency domain using frequentist statistics and one in the time domain using Bayesian inference. Both methods show that the strain amplitude at Earth from this pulsar is less than a few times $10^{-22}$.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure, to appear in the Proceedings of the 5th Edoardo Amaldi Conference on Gravitational Waves, Tirrenia, Pisa, Italy, 6-11 July 200