123 research outputs found
Don\u27t Pay for your Neighbors\u27 Garbage
The opportunities and benefits of recycling are under used in the City of Buffalo. The city currently achieves a meager 7% diversion rate. The rest of Erie County achieves a 42% diversion rate. Clearly, a great deal of recyclable content is included in city household garbage. Buffalo pays about 10 per ton of recyclable content it redeems. Every ton of waste that households can divert from garbage to recycling saves the City $52, a 124% savings
Characterization of Bubble Transport in Porous Media Using a Microfluidic Channel
This study investigates the effect on varying flow rates and bubble sizes on gasâliquid flow through porous media in a horizontal microchannel. A simple bubble generation system was set up to generate bubbles with controllable sizes and frequencies, which directly flowed into microfluidic channels packed with different sizes of glass beads. Bubble flow was visualized using a high-speed camera and analyzed to obtain the change in liquid holdup. Pressure data were measured for estimation of hydraulic conductivity. The bubble displacement pattern in the porous media was viscous fingering based on capillary numbers and visual observation. Larger bubbles resulted in lower normalized frequency of the bubble breakthrough by 20 to 60 percent. Increasing the flow rate increased the change in apparent liquid holdup during bubble breakthrough. Larger bubbles and lower flow rate reduced the relative permeability of each channel by 50 to 57 percent and 30 to 64 percent, respectively
Bridgewater âCommentsâ on 80 Years of Menâs and Womenâs Sports
Sports media is important because it shapes the perceptions, aspirations and dreams of the viewers (Angelini, 2008). It shows the viewers the skill and athletic achievement of both male and female athletes. The media allows viewers to witness the athletic prowess of their favorite athletes on TV and in print. Within sports media, the viewers are able to learn about the many different sports that are offered around the world. The viewers are able to get a sense about who the athletes are, their talents, their sport and their achievement. It is apparent that sports media has a huge impact on the people around the world who watch games, buy magazines, and endorse their favorite team by collecting team and player memorabilia
Vignette studies of medical choice and judgement to study caregivers' medical decision behaviour: systematic review
BACKGROUND: Vignette studies of medical choice and judgement have gained popularity in the medical literature. Originally developed in mathematical psychology they can be used to evaluate physicians' behaviour in the setting of diagnostic testing or treatment decisions. We provide an overview of the use, objectives and methodology of these studies in the medical field. METHODS: Systematic review. We searched in electronic databases; reference lists of included studies. We included studies that examined medical decisions of physicians, nurses or medical students using cue weightings from answers to structured vignettes. Two reviewers scrutinized abstracts and examined full text copies of potentially eligible studies. The aim of the included studies, the type of clinical decision, the number of participants, some technical aspects, and the type of statistical analysis were extracted in duplicate and discrepancies were resolved by consensus. RESULTS: 30 reports published between 1983 and 2005 fulfilled the inclusion criteria. 22 studies (73%) reported on treatment decisions and 27 (90%) explored the variation of decisions among experts. Nine studies (30%) described differences in decisions between groups of caregivers and ten studies (33%) described the decision behaviour of only one group. Only six studies (20%) compared decision behaviour against an empirical reference of a correct decision. The median number of considered attributes was 6.5 (IQR 4-9), the median number of vignettes was 27 (IQR 16-40). In 17 studies, decision makers had to rate the relative importance of a given vignette; in six studies they had to assign a probability to each vignette. Only ten studies (33%) applied a statistical procedure to account for correlated data. CONCLUSION: Various studies of medical choice and judgement have been performed to depict weightings of the value of clinical information from answers to structured vignettes of care givers. We found that the design and analysis methods used in current applications vary considerably and could be improved in a large number of cases
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Self-Tracking, Governmentality, and Nursing and Midwifery Council's (2016) Revalidation Policy
In April 2016 the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) introduced a new revalidation continuous professional development (CPD) policy. This policy states that revalidation is the responsibility of nurses, and although employers are urged to support the revalidation process, the NMC clearly states that employers have no legal requirement to provide either time or funds for the CPD activities of nurses and midwives (NMC, 2014, 2016; Royal College of Nursing, 2016). The aim of this professional development policy is to ensure that nurses and midwives maintain their professional competency and to promote public safety and confidence in nurses and midwives. A closer look at the process of revalidation suggests that several measures have been introduced to ensure that nurses and midwives conform to the CPD policy, and this paper examines the influence of governmentality and neoliberalism on the NMC's self-tracking revalidation policy. It will be recommended that the responsibility for the revalidation process should be shared by nurses, midwives, and their employers, and that time and money should be allocated for the professional development of nurses and midwives
Codesigning a Measure of Person-Centred Coordinated Care to Capture the Experience of the Patient: The Development of the P3CEQ
Background: Person-centred coordinated care (P3C) is a priority for stakeholders (ie, patients, carers, professionals, policy makers). As a part of the development of an evaluation framework for P3C, we set out to identify patient-reported experience measures (PREMs) suitable for routine measurement and feedback during the development of services. Methods: A rapid review of the literature was undertaken to identity existing PREMs suitable for the probing person-centred and/or coordinated care. Of 74 measures identified, 7 met our inclusion criteria. We critically examined these against core domains and subdomains of P3C. Measures were then presented to stakeholders in codesign workshops to explore acceptability, utility, and their strengths/weaknesses. Results: The Long-Term Condition 6 questionnaire was preferred for its short length, utility, and tone. However, it lacked key questions in each core domain, and in response to requests from our codesign group, new questions were added to cover consideration as a whole person, coordination, care plans, carer involvement, and a single coordinator. Cognitive interviews, on-going codesign, and mapping to core P3C domains resulted in the refinement of the questionnaire to 11 items with 1 trigger question. The 11-item modified version was renamed the P3C Experiences Questionnaire. Conclusions: Due to a dearth of brief measures available to capture peopleâs experience of P3C for routine practice, an existing measure was modified using an iterative process of adaption and validation through codesign workshops. Next steps include psychometric validation and modification for people with dementia and learning difficulties.</p
LSST Science Book, Version 2.0
A survey that can cover the sky in optical bands over wide fields to faint
magnitudes with a fast cadence will enable many of the exciting science
opportunities of the next decade. The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST)
will have an effective aperture of 6.7 meters and an imaging camera with field
of view of 9.6 deg^2, and will be devoted to a ten-year imaging survey over
20,000 deg^2 south of +15 deg. Each pointing will be imaged 2000 times with
fifteen second exposures in six broad bands from 0.35 to 1.1 microns, to a
total point-source depth of r~27.5. The LSST Science Book describes the basic
parameters of the LSST hardware, software, and observing plans. The book
discusses educational and outreach opportunities, then goes on to describe a
broad range of science that LSST will revolutionize: mapping the inner and
outer Solar System, stellar populations in the Milky Way and nearby galaxies,
the structure of the Milky Way disk and halo and other objects in the Local
Volume, transient and variable objects both at low and high redshift, and the
properties of normal and active galaxies at low and high redshift. It then
turns to far-field cosmological topics, exploring properties of supernovae to
z~1, strong and weak lensing, the large-scale distribution of galaxies and
baryon oscillations, and how these different probes may be combined to
constrain cosmological models and the physics of dark energy.Comment: 596 pages. Also available at full resolution at
http://www.lsst.org/lsst/sciboo
Petrogenesis of rhyolite-trachyte-basalt composite ignimbrite P1, Gran Canaria, Canary Islands
The 14 Ma caldera-forming composite ignimbrite P1 on Gran Canaria (Canary Islands) represents the first voluminous eruption of highly differentiated magmas on top of the basaltic Miocene shield volcano. Compositional zonation of the ignimbrite is the result of vertically changing proportions of four component magmas, which were intensely mixed during eruption: (1) Crystal-poor to highly phyric rhyolite (âŒ10 km3), (2) sodic trachyandesite through mafic to evolved trachyte (âŒ6 km3), (3) Na-poor trachyandesite (<1 km3), and (4) basalt zoned from 5.2 to 4.3 wt % MgO (âŒ26 km3). P1 basalt is composed of two compositionally zoned magma batches, B2 basalt and B3 basalt. B3 basalt is derived from a mantle source depleted in incompatible trace elements compared to the shield basalt source. Basaltic magmas were stored in a reservoir probably underplating the crust, in which zoned B2 basaltic magma formed by mixing of âenrichedâ (shield) and âdepletedâ (B3) mafic melts and subsequent crystal fractionation. Evolved magmas formed in a shallow crustal chamber, whereas intermediate magmas formed at both levels. Abundant pyroxenitic to gabbroid cumulates in P1 support crystal fractionation as the major differentiation process. On the basis of major and trace element modeling, we infer two contemporaneous fractional crystallization series: series I from âenrichedâ shield basalt through Na-poor trachyandesite to rhyolite, and series II from âdepletedâ P1 basalt through sodic trachyandesite to trachyte. Series II rocks were significantly modified by selective contamination involving feldspar (Na, K, Ba, Eu, Sr), zircon (Zr) and apatite (P, Y, rare earth elements) components; apatite contamination also affected series I Na-poor trachyandesite. Substantial sodium introduction into sodic trachyandesite is the main reason for the different major element evolution of the two series, whereas their different parentage is mainly reflected in the high field strength trace elements. Selective element contamination involved not only rapidly but also slowly diffusing elements as well as different saturation conditions. Contamination processes thus variably involved differential diffusion, partial dissolution of minerals, partial melt migration, and trace mineral incorporation. Magma mixing between trachyte and rhyolite during their simultaneous crystallization in the P1 magma chamber is documented by mutual mineral inclusions but had little effect on the compositional evolution of both magmas. Fe-Ti oxide thermometry yields magmatic temperatures of around 850°C for crystal-poor through crystal-rich rhyolite, âŒ815°C for trachyte and âŒ850°â900°C for the trachyandesitic magmas. High 1160°C for the basalt magma suggest its intrusion into the P1 magma chamber only shortly before eruption. The lower temperature for trachyte compared to rhyolite and the strong crustal contamination of trachyte and sodic trachyandesite support their residence along the walls of the vertically and laterally zoned P1 magma chamber. The complex magmatic evolution of P1 reflects the transient state of Gran Canaria's mantle source composition and magma plumbing system during the change from basaltic to silicic volcanism. Our results for P1 characterize processes operating during this important transition, which also occurs on other volcanic ocean islands
Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a telehealth intervention to support the management of long-term conditions: study protocol for two linked randomized controlled trials
Background: As the population ages, more people are suffering from long-term health conditions (LTCs). Health
services around the world are exploring new ways of supporting people with LTCs and there is great interest in the
use of telehealth: technologies such as the Internet, telephone and home self-monitoring.
Methods/Design: This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a telehealth intervention
delivered by NHS Direct to support patients with LTCs. Two randomized controlled trials will be conducted in parallel,
recruiting patients with two exemplar LTCs: depression or raised cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. A total of 1,200
patients will be recruited from approximately 42 general practices near Bristol, Sheffield and Southampton, UK.
Participants will be randomly allocated to either usual care (control group) or usual care plus the NHS Direct
Healthlines Service (intervention group). The intervention is based on a conceptual model incorporating promotion of
self-management, optimisation of treatment, coordination of care and engagement of patients and general
practitioners. Participants will be provided with tailored help, combining telephone advice from health information
advisors with support to use a range of online resources. Participants will access the service for 12 months. Outcomes
will be collected at baseline, four, eight and 12 months for the depression trial and baseline, six and 12 months for
the CVD risk trial. The primary outcome will be the proportion of patients responding to treatment, defined in the
depression trial as a PHQ-9 score <10 and an absolute reduction in PHQ-9 â„5 after 4 months, and in the CVD risk
trial as maintenance or reduction of 10-year CVD risk after 12 months. The study will also assess whether the
intervention is cost-effective from the perspective of the NHS and personal social services. An embedded qualitative
interview study will explore healthcare professionalsâ and patientsâ views of the intervention.
Discussion: This study evaluates a complex telehealth intervention which combines evidence-based components and
is delivered by an established healthcare organisation. The study will also analyse health economic information. In
doing so, the study hopes to address some of the limitations of previous research by demonstrating the effectiveness
and cost-effectiveness of a real world telehealth interventio
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