Betreuungsindex in Pflegeheimen: Entwicklung und Validierung eines neuen Instruments zur Beurteilung von Betreuungsqualität in Pflegeheimen

Zusammenfassung: Hintergrund: Derzeit gibt es in der Literatur kein geeignetes Instrument zur Beurteilung der Betreuungsqualität in Pflegeheimen. Die Autoren haben deshalb ein neues Instrument, den Betreuungsindex in Pflegeheimen (Nursing Home Care Index, NCI), konzipiert und getestet. Material und Methode: Betreuungsqualität wird in der Literatur in 8Dimensionen definiert. Es wurde ein Fragebogen mit 42Fragen aus 12validierten Messinstrumenten entwickelt. Der Originalfragebogen wurde mit 320Mitarbeitern aus 15Alteneinrichtungen getestet. Die Daten wurden mithilfe einer Faktorenanalyse und Cronbachsα untersucht und auf 3Faktoren und 16Fragen reduziert. Das revidierte Instrument wurde in einer weiteren Studie mit 136Mitarbeitern auf seine Anwendbarkeit überprüft. Ergebnisse: Als Ergebnis der Faktorenanalyse konnten 16Items mit einer 3-Faktoren-Struktur, d.h. soziale Teilhabe, emotionales Wohlbefinden und Selbstbestimmung, identifiziert werden. Diese 3Faktoren erklären 51,2% der Gesamtvarianz. Die Reliabilität der Gesamtskala beträgt 0,87, die der 3Subskalen Selbstbestimmung 0,86, emotionales Wohlbefinden 0,71 und soziale Beziehungen bzw. Teilhabe 0,78. Die Gesamtpunktezahl des NCI erlaubt eine Kategorisierung der Betreuungsqualität in den 3Abstufungen gut, ausreichend und dringender Verbesserungsbedarf. Schlussfolgerungen: Der NCI hat eine doppelte Funktion. Einerseits dient er Mitarbeitern und dem Heimmanagement als internes Qualitätssicherungsinstrument. Andererseits könnte es zukünftig Angehörigen von potenziellen Heimbewohnern die Möglichkeit bieten, die Betreuungsqualität verschiedener Pflegeheime zu vergleiche

Momentum constraint relaxation

Full relativistic simulations in three dimensions invariably develop runaway modes that grow exponentially and are accompanied by violations of the Hamiltonian and momentum constraints. Recently, we introduced a numerical method (Hamiltonian relaxation) that greatly reduces the Hamiltonian constraint violation and helps improve the quality of the numerical model. We present here a method that controls the violation of the momentum constraint. The method is based on the addition of a longitudinal component to the traceless extrinsic curvature generated by a vector potential w_i, as outlined by York. The components of w_i are relaxed to solve approximately the momentum constraint equations, pushing slowly the evolution toward the space of solutions of the constraint equations. We test this method with simulations of binary neutron stars in circular orbits and show that effectively controls the growth of the aforementioned violations. We also show that a full numerical enforcement of the constraints, as opposed to the gentle correction of the momentum relaxation scheme, results in the development of instabilities that stop the runs shortly.Comment: 17 pages, 10 figures. New numerical tests and references added. More detailed description of the algorithms are provided. Final published versio

Binary black hole merger in the extreme mass ratio limit

We discuss the transition from quasi-circular inspiral to plunge of a system of two nonrotating black holes of masses $m_1$ and $m_2$ in the extreme mass ratio limit $m_1m_2\ll (m_1+m_2)^2$. In the spirit of the Effective One Body (EOB) approach to the general relativistic dynamics of binary systems, the dynamics of the two black hole system is represented in terms of an effective particle of mass $\mu\equiv m_1m_2/(m_1+m_2)$ moving in a (quasi-)Schwarzschild background of mass $M\equiv m_1+m_2$ and submitted to an ${\cal O}(\mu)$ radiation reaction force defined by Pad\'e resumming high-order Post-Newtonian results. We then complete this approach by numerically computing, \`a la Regge-Wheeler-Zerilli, the gravitational radiation emitted by such a particle. Several tests of the numerical procedure are presented. We focus on gravitational waveforms and the related energy and angular momentum losses. We view this work as a contribution to the matching between analytical and numerical methods within an EOB-type framework.Comment: 14 pages, six figures. Revised version. To appear in the CQG special issue based around New Frontiers in Numerical Relativity conference, Golm (Germany), July 17-21 200

Towards absorbing outer boundaries in General Relativity

We construct exact solutions to the Bianchi equations on a flat spacetime background. When the constraints are satisfied, these solutions represent in- and outgoing linearized gravitational radiation. We then consider the Bianchi equations on a subset of flat spacetime of the form [0,T] x B_R, where B_R is a ball of radius R, and analyze different kinds of boundary conditions on \partial B_R. Our main results are: i) We give an explicit analytic example showing that boundary conditions obtained from freezing the incoming characteristic fields to their initial values are not compatible with the constraints. ii) With the help of the exact solutions constructed, we determine the amount of artificial reflection of gravitational radiation from constraint-preserving boundary conditions which freeze the Weyl scalar Psi_0 to its initial value. For monochromatic radiation with wave number k and arbitrary angular momentum number l >= 2, the amount of reflection decays as 1/(kR)^4 for large kR. iii) For each L >= 2, we construct new local constraint-preserving boundary conditions which perfectly absorb linearized radiation with l <= L. (iv) We generalize our analysis to a weakly curved background of mass M, and compute first order corrections in M/R to the reflection coefficients for quadrupolar odd-parity radiation. For our new boundary condition with L=2, the reflection coefficient is smaller than the one for the freezing Psi_0 boundary condition by a factor of M/R for kR > 1.04. Implications of these results for numerical simulations of binary black holes on finite domains are discussed.Comment: minor revisions, 30 pages, 6 figure

Simulation of Binary Black Hole Spacetimes with a Harmonic Evolution Scheme

A numerical solution scheme for the Einstein field equations based on generalized harmonic coordinates is described, focusing on details not provided before in the literature and that are of particular relevance to the binary black hole problem. This includes demonstrations of the effectiveness of constraint damping, and how the time slicing can be controlled through the use of a source function evolution equation. In addition, some results from an ongoing study of binary black hole coalescence, where the black holes are formed via scalar field collapse, are shown. Scalar fields offer a convenient route to exploring certain aspects of black hole interactions, and one interesting, though tentative suggestion from this early study is that behavior reminiscent of "zoom-whirl" orbits in particle trajectories is also present in the merger of equal mass, non-spinning binaries, with appropriately fine-tuned initial conditions.Comment: 16 pages, 14 figures; replaced with published versio

Gauge conditions for long-term numerical black hole evolutions without excision

Numerical relativity has faced the problem that standard 3+1 simulations of black hole spacetimes without singularity excision and with singularity avoiding lapse and vanishing shift fail after an evolution time of around 30-40M due to the so-called slice stretching. We discuss lapse and shift conditions for the non-excision case that effectively cure slice stretching and allow run times of 1000M and more.Comment: 19 pages, 14 figures, REVTeX, Added a missing Acknowledgmen

Beam Test of Silicon Strip Sensors for the ZEUS Micro Vertex Detector

For the HERA upgrade, the ZEUS experiment has designed and installed a high precision Micro Vertex Detector (MVD) using single sided micro-strip sensors with capacitive charge division. The sensors have a readout pitch of 120 microns, with five intermediate strips (20 micron strip pitch). An extensive test program has been carried out at the DESY-II testbeam facility. In this paper we describe the setup developed to test the ZEUS MVD sensors and the results obtained on both irradiated and non-irradiated single sided micro-strip detectors with rectangular and trapezoidal geometries. The performances of the sensors coupled to the readout electronics (HELIX chip, version 2.2) have been studied in detail, achieving a good description by a Monte Carlo simulation. Measurements of the position resolution as a function of the angle of incidence are presented, focusing in particular on the comparison between standard and newly developed reconstruction algorithms.Comment: 41 pages, 21 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in NIM

A Tapestry Of Educational Technology Women Leaders In Higher Education: A Qualitative Study

A qualitative study was used to understand the experiences of 12 women, leaders in Education Technology in higher education. Through interviews, women leaders described their environment as well as personal and behavioral aspects of their work. Findings revealed four threads of descriptive concepts including relationships, leadership, persistence, and advice. Relationships were from workplaces and professional networks. Leadership was defined by vision and teamwork. Persistence was addressed as either values-based or relationship-based. The fourth thread in the findings, advice, was divided into three sub-threads: education, family (both personal and work), and managing emotions. A qualitative approach was used to highlight interview responses to demonstrate the experiences of women leaders in Education Technology in Higher Education

Expressivity in children's drawings of themselves for adult audiences with varied authority and familiarity

This study investigated whether children’s expressive drawings of themselves vary as a function of audience authority and familiarity. One hundred and seventy-five children, 85 boys and 90 girls, aged between 8 years 1 months and 9 years 2 months (M= 8 years 5 months) were allocated into seven groups; a reference group (n=25) where no audience was specified, and six audience groups (n=25 per group) varying by audience type (policeman vs. teacher vs. man) and familiarity (familiar vs. unfamiliar). They drew baseline then happy and sad drawings of themselves, rated affect towards drawings type, and rated perceived audience authority. Audience familiarity and authority impacted expressive drawing strategy use and this varied by gender. There was higher overall expressive strategy use for happy drawings and for girls, and influences of affect type, familiarity and authority were found. The implications of children’s perceptions of audience type on their expressive drawings are discussed