Screening And Intervention Practices Of Family Nurse Practitioners For Smoking Tobacco Usage

Smoking tobacco usage and it’s related health problems are a significant problem addressing the health care industry. Clients depend on primary health care provides to help identify potential health problems and to assist them in improving their health. The family nurse practitioner is in an ideal position to screen for smoking, and to intervene with those clients found to be at risk, to promote wellness within their client populations. Erikson, Tomlin and Swain’s theory o f Modeling, Role-Modeling served as the theoretical fi-amework for this research. This descriptive study explored the screening and intervention practices utilized by family nurse practitioners for their clients who use smoking tobacco. Research questions included: (1) What are the screening practices used by nurse practitioners to identify smoking tobacco usage? (2) What intervention practices are used by family nurse practitioners to assist their clients in quitting smoking? The researcher-designed questionnaire was mailed to two hundred randomly selected family nurse practitioners certified in Tennessee. Those meeting criteria and returning the questionnaire within one month o f initial mailing were included in the study. A final sample o f 115 was obtained. Data analysis to identify frequencies and percentiles was performed using descriptive statistics. Over one-half o f the study participants reported that they always screen for smoking usage on all clients, with the highest occurrence rate for clients with smoking related symptoms or illnesses at 92.2%. The rate o f always advising and informing all smokers o f available resources for quitting smoking occurred in less than one-quarter o f the participants. The most fi-equently used intervention reported by the study participants for assisting clients in smoking cessation was verbal encouragement. Based on the findings o f this study, implications for nursing included the need for family nurse practitioners to use individualized and combined interventions when assisting their clients in quitting smoking. Recommendations included conduction o f a study to explore the effectiveness o f combined therapies for quitting smoking, including motivation, medication, exercise and counseling. Another recommendation included conduction o f a research study to explore facilitators and barriers to smoker’s receptiveness to involvement in smoking cessation interventions

Abundance Anomalies in the X-ray Spectra of the Planetary Nebulae NGC 7027 and BD +30 363

We revisit Chandra observations of the planetary nebulae NGC 7027 and BD +30 3639 in order to address the question of abundance anomalies in the X-ray emitting gas. Enhanced abundances relative to solar of magnesium (Mg) for NGC 7027 and neon (Ne) for BD +30 3639 are required to fit their X-ray spectra, whereas observations at optical and infrared wavelengths show depleted Mg and Ne in these systems. We attribute the enhancement of Mg in NGC 7027 in the X-ray, relative to the optical, to the depletion of Mg onto dust grains within the optical nebula. For BD +30 3639, we speculate that the highly enhanced Ne comes from a WD companion, which accreted a fraction of the wind blown by the asymptotic giant branch progenitor, and went through a nova-like outburst which enriched the X-ray emitting gas with Ne

Detection of pulsar beams deflected by the black hole in Sgr A*: effects of black hole spin

Some Galactic models predict a significant population of radio pulsars close to the our galactic center. Beams from these pulsars could get strongly deflected by the supermassive black hole (SMBH) believed to reside at the galactic center and reach the Earth. Earlier work assuming a Schwarzschild SMBH gave marginal chances of observing this exotic phenomenon with current telescopes and good chances with future telescopes. Here we calculate the odds of observability for a rotating SMBH. We find that the estimates of observation are not affected by the SMBH spin, but a pulsar timing analysis of deflected pulses might be able to provide an estimate of the spin of the central black hole.Comment: 15 pages aastex, 8 Fig

Limits to the planet candidate GJ 436c

We report on H-band, ground-based observations of a transit of the hot Neptune GJ 436b. Once combined to achieve sampling equivalent to archived observations taken with Spitzer, our measurements reach comparable precision levels. We analyze both sets of observations in a consistent way, and measure the rate of orbital inclination change to be of 0.02+/-0.04 degrees in the time span between the two observations (253.8 d, corresponding to 0.03+/-0.05 degrees/yr if extrapolated). This rate allows us to put limits on the relative inclination between the two planets by performing simulations of planetary systems, including a second planet, GJ 436c, whose presence has been recently suggested (Ribas et al. 2008). The allowed inclinations for a 5 M_E super-Earth GJ 436c in a 5.2 d orbit are within ~7 degrees of the one of GJ 436b; for larger differences the observed inclination change can be reproduced only during short sections (<50%) of the orbital evolution of the system. The measured times of three transit centers of the system do not show any departure from linear ephemeris, a result that is only reproduced in <1% of the simulated orbits. Put together, these results argue against the proposed planet candidate GJ 436c.Comment: Replaced with accepted version. Minor language corrections. 4 pages, 4 figures, to appear in A&A Letter

What do successful elementary leaders perceive that they do that promotes academic success of at-risk students?

High school dropouts are an ongoing concern in North Carolina. Although improvements have been made in recent years, 13,488 North Carolina students did not complete high school in 2011-2012 (Public Schools of North Carolina Consolidated Report, 2011-2012). This research study seeks to identify common, specific characteristics, strategies, and techniques that effective elementary school administrators demonstrate that they perceive increases the learning of at risk students. A multisite case study was implemented utilizing multiple interviews, observations, and document analysis in order to provide an accurate portrayal of actual characteristics, strategies, and techniques employed by different elementary administrators who have been proven to be successful with at risk students. Data from four elementary principals was triangulated in order to identify common characteristics, behaviors, and strategies for each of the principals identified as successful with at-risk elementary students. Presentation of findings is reported through a description of common perceptions of dropouts and instructional and non-instructional perspectives that positively impact at-risk students. Common principal perceptions of at risk students include low academics, lack of parental support, lack of vision/motivation, and limited or negative home environment. Elementary school administrators' instructional perspectives that positively impacted at-risk students included areas such as curriculum focus, instructional monitoring, high expectations for staff and students, and specific instructional strategies. Elementary school administrators' non-instructional perspectives that positively impacted at-risk students were relationships with all stakeholders, open communication, and motivational, non-instructional activities. The intent of this study was to provide educational leaders and preparation programs perceived characteristics, strategies, and techniques that were common among elementary principals who were identified as being effective with at-risk students. As a supervisor of elementary principals, my research has focused on the most important qualities of effective administrators who strive to be successful with at-risk students

The M Dwarf GJ 436 and its Neptune-Mass Planet

We determine stellar parameters for the M dwarf GJ 436 that hosts a Neptune-mass planet. We employ primarily spectral modeling at low and high resolution, examining the agreement between model and observed optical spectra of five comparison stars of type, M0-M3. Modeling high resolution optical spectra suffers from uncertainties in TiO transitions, affecting the predicted strengths of both atomic and molecular lines in M dwarfs. The determination of Teff, gravity, and metallicity from optical spectra remains at ~10%. As molecules provide opacity both in lines and as an effective continuum, determing molecular transition parameters remains a challenge facing models such as the PHOENIX series, best verified with high resolution and spectrophotometric spectra. Our analysis of GJ 436 yields an effective temperature of Teff = 3350 +/- 300 K and a mass of 0.44 Msun. New Doppler measurements for GJ 436 with a precision of 3 m/s taken during 6 years improve the Keplerian model of the planet, giving a minimum mass, M sin i = 0.0713 Mjup = 22.6 Mearth, period, P = 2.6439 d, and e = 0.16 +/- 0.02. The noncircular orbit contrasts with the tidally circularized orbits of all close-in exoplanets, implying either ongoing pumping of eccentricity by a more distant companion, or a higher Q value for this low-mass planet. The velocities indeed reveal a long term trend, indicating a possible distant companion.Comment: 27 pages, 7 figures, accepted to PAS

Observability of pulsar beam bending by the Sgr~A* black hole

According to some models, there may be a significant population of radio pulsars in the Galactic center. In principle, a beam from one of these pulsars could pass close to the supermassive black hole (SMBH) at the center, be deflected, and be detected by Earth telescopes. Such a configuration would be an unprecedented probe of the properties of spacetime in the moderate- to strong-field regime of the SMBH. We present here background on the problem, and approximations for the probability of detection of such beams. We conclude that detection is marginally probable with current telescopes, but that telescopes that will be operating in the near future, with an appropriate multiyear observational program, will have a good chance of detecting a beam deflected by the SMBH.Comment: 18 pages, 16 figure

Panchromatic observations and modeling of the HV Tau C edge-on disk

We present new high spatial resolution (<~ 0.1") 1-5 micron adaptive optics images, interferometric 1.3 mm continuum and 12CO 2-1 maps, and 350 micron, 2.8 and 3.3 mm fluxes measurements of the HV Tau system. Our adaptive optics images reveal an unusually slow orbital motion within the tight HV Tau AB pair that suggests a highly eccentric orbit and/or a large deprojected physical separation. Scattered light images of the HV Tau C edge-on protoplanetary disk suggest that the anisotropy of the dust scattering phase function is almost independent of wavelength from 0.8 to 5 micron, whereas the dust opacity decreases significantly over the same range. The images further reveal a marked lateral asymmetry in the disk that does not vary over a timescale of 2 years. We further detect a radial velocity gradient in the disk in our 12CO map that lies along the same position angle as the elongation of the continuum emission, which is consistent with Keplerian rotation around an 0.5-1 Msun central star, suggesting that it could be the most massive component in the triple system. We use a powerful radiative transfer model to compute synthetic disk observations and use a Bayesian inference method to extract constraints on the disk properties. Each individual image, as well as the spectral energy distribution, of HV Tau C can be well reproduced by our models with fully mixed dust provided grain growth has already produced larger-than-interstellar dust grains. However, no single model can satisfactorily simultaneously account for all observations. We suggest that future attempts to model this source include more complex dust properties and possibly vertical stratification. (Abridged)Comment: 26 pages, 11 figures, editorially accepted for publication in Ap