A Comprehensive Examination of Pharmacy Technician Requirements and Pharmacists’ Perceptions of The Role of Technicians

Pharmacy technicians play a crucial role in assisting pharmacists and allowing a pharmacy to function properly and provide care to patients. While technicians take on many tasks in a pharmacy, their role has started to evolve and expand. The first purpose of this study was to determine how states differ regarding the following pharmacy technician roles and requirements: whether or not technicians are licensed and/or certified, mandated technician-to-pharmacist ratio, whether or not technicians are allowed to take or give verbal prescriptions, verify filled prescriptions, and provide immunizations. The second purpose was to analyze how pharmacists across the United States viewed different aspects of pharmacy technician training and education, as well as assess how pharmacists report how pharmacy technician training and education is handled in community pharmacies throughout the United States. Pharmacy technician state regulations for licensure, certification, and tasks were collected and frequencies were determined. It was determined that a majority of states require pharmacy technicians to be licensed and a minority of states required technicians to be certified. Only a small number of states allow pharmacy technicians to give and receive verbal prescriptions, and an even smaller number of states allow technicians to check prescriptions and administer immunizations A cross-sectional, descriptive online survey was distributed to 1904 pharmacists nation-wide, with 205 complete respondents. A majority of respondents believed that pharmacy technicians should complete an education program before being eligible to take a national certification exam. Respondents were split between their pharmacy not offering to pay for a national certification exam and reimbursing the technician after they passed the exam, with a minority offering reimbursement before the exam. Respondents were also split between if their pharmacy offered an in-house education program for technicians wanting to become nationally certified. A majority of pharmacists stated there should be additional training for technicians beyond the national examinations for those who are interested. A majority of respondents had pharmacies that offer reimbursement for an education program outside of their company. Percentages of current technicians that are nationally certified were split amongst the four answers, with a majority having 75% or greater. Most pharmacists encouraged their technicians to pursue national certification and had more confidence in technicians that were nationally certified. The open-ended question at the end of the survey gained a lot of responses, including thoughts about compensation for new tasks, training and education, comfort levels, responsibilities, employee satisfaction, and opposition to additional tasks for technicians. Overall, the pharmacists who responded had positive views regarding national certification for pharmacy technicians and were open to technicians taking on more tasks, as long as education and training were adequate. This study emphasized the importance of education and training, which will be key in allowing technicians to expand their roles and pharmacists having confidence in their technicians

Investigation of the use of optics in the analysis of structures

This study was made to determine the feasibility of the use of optics in the analysis of structures. Since the curvature of a beam due to a loading condition is a function of the moment, a measure of this curvature is a measurement of the moment. This study used the relationship between object size and image size formed by a concave or convex reflective surface to determine the radius of curvature and the moment at the point. Overhanging simply supported beams of plexiglass with concentrated loads at various positions were used to demonstrate the developed optical theory. Optical measurements were taken on the beams and the data plotted to obtain moment diagrams and inflection points which were compared with the results obtained by the use of statics. The comparisons were within tolerable limits and showed that the optical method is feasible --Abstract, page ii

Parent couples’ participation in speech-language therapy for school-age children with autism spectrum disorder in the United States

This study examined parent couples’ participation in and satisfaction with speech-language therapy for school-age children with autism spectrum disorder in the United States. Responses from 40 father–mother couples (n = 80 parents) were examined across therapy components (i.e. parent–therapist communication, assessment, planning, and intervention). Descriptive frequencies, chi-square tests, intraclass correlations, and dyadic multilevel modeling were used to examine participation across fathers and mothers and within parent couples. Compared to mothers, fathers communicated less with therapists and participated less in assessment and planning. Fathers also had lower satisfaction than mothers with parent–therapist communication and planning. Although few parents participated in school-based therapy sessions, 40% of fathers and 50% of mothers participated in homework. However, few parents received homework support from therapists. Results are discussed in terms of clinical implications for interventionists to more effectively engage both fathers and mothers in family-centered speech-language therapy for school-aged children with autism spectrum disorder

Conserving insect assemblages in urban landscapes: accounting for species-specific responses and imperfect detection

Understanding how global environmental change impacts insect biodiversity is central to the core principals of conservation biology. To preserve the ecosystem services provided by insects in cities, it is crucial to understand how insect species are influenced by the degree of urbanization of the surrounding landscape. Using a hierarchical occupancy-detection model, we estimated the effect of urbanization on heteropteran bug species richness and occupancy, an approach that concurrently accounts for species-specific responses and imperfect detection. We found that species richness decreased along a gradient of increasing urbanization. This trend corresponded well with species-specific trends, as approximately two-thirds of all herbivores and predatory species experienced a strong mean negative response to urbanization. These results indicate that many species are potentially at risk of local extinction as cities grow and expand in the future. A second group of species, however, showed a weak mean negative response, indicating that they are ubiquitous urban species that thrive regardless of the surrounding degree of urban disturbance. Our research suggests that as cities develop, many of the species that are currently present will become less likely to occur, and therefore assemblages in the future are likely to become more simplified. In order to preserve or increase insect biological diversity in cities, it is critical to understand how individual species are influenced by urbanization. Our finding that insects display species-specific responses to urbanization has important repercussions for decision makers charged with preserving and improving urban biodiversity and the deliverance of ecosystem services in cities

Regionale Potenziale für die Bereitstellung von Energieholz – Ergebnisse einer Studie in Nord-Ost Brandenburg

Die dezentrale Bereitstellung und Nutzung von Energie aus holzartiger Biomasse kann sowohl zu Klimaschutzzielen als auch zur wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung ländlicher Gebiete beitragen. Im Projekt belo-net [1] werden anhand der Region Nord-Ost-Brandenburg Ansatzpunkte für Kooperationen in regionalen Wertschöpfungsketten mit Schwerpunkt auf dem Bereich der Energieholzlogistik untersucht. Zur Bildung geographischer Handlungsschwerpunkte werden eine Rohstoff- und eine Infrastrukturanalyse kombiniert. Im Ergebnis können mögliche Standorte für Biomassehöfe, die als Lager-, Umschlagund Verteilzentren wesentliche logistische Elemente regionaler Energieholzstrategien sind, identifiziert und bewertet werden. Waldenergieholz könnte in Nord-Ost-Brandenburg je nach Mobilisierung und Nutzung der vorhandenen Rohstoffpotenziale 5 – 6 % des regionalen Wärmebedarfs decken.Sustainable production of energy from forest biomass helps protecting the climate and contributes to a balanced economic development in rural areas. In the northeast of Brandenburg the conditions for bio-energy production are very good. Important means to gain access to unused biomass resources, especially in the private forests, are the cooperation of companies in regional value chains and – as logistical hubs – regional storage and distribution centres. This paper introduces a method using geographical information systems (G.I.S.) to identify areas with sufficient resources for developing value chains and setting up storage and distribution centres. In the first step, we modelled the geographical distribution of forest biomass potentials based on planning data of the forest administration. By combining these data with an analysis of infrastructure for transport and storage, we could identify more than 40 suitable sites for storage and distribution centres. If mobilisation projects take effect forest biomass could contribute a share of 5 – 6 % to the heat supply in northeastern Brandenburg

No-vent fill pressurization tests using a cryogen simulant

The results are described of an experimental program which studied the performance of various no-vent fill techniques for tank-to-tank liquid transfer. The tests were performed using a cryogen simulant (Freon-114) and a test bed consisting of a multiple tank/plumbing network that enabled studies of a variety of different inlet flow and active mixing regimes. Several results and conclusions were drawn from the 26 transfer experiments comprising the program. Most notable was the significant improvement in fill performance (i.e., minimized fill time and maximized fill fraction) with increased agitation of the liquid surface. Another was the close correlation between measured condensation rates and those predicted by recent theories which express condensation as a function of turbulent eddy effects on the liquid surface. In most cases, test data exhibited strong agreement with an analytical model which accounts for tank heat transfer and thermodynamics in a 1 g environment

The Effect of Landscape History on the Urban Environment: Past Landscapes, Present Patterns

Peer reviewe

A primer for using and understanding weights with national datasets

ABSTRACT. Using data from the National Study of Postsecondary Faculty and the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Class of 1998-99, the author provides guidelines for incorporating weights and design effects in single-level analysis using Windows-based SPSS and AM software. Examples of analyses that do and do not employ weights and design effects are also provided to illuminate the differential results of key parameter estimates and standard errors using varying degrees of using or not using the weighting and design effect continuum. The author gives recommendations on the most appropriate weighting options, with specific reference to employing a strategy to accommodate both oversampled groups and cluster sampling (i.e., using weights and design effects) that leads to the most accurate parameter estimates and the decreased potential of committing a Type I error. However, using a design effect adjusted weight in SPSS may produce underestimated standard errors when compared with accurate estimates produced by specialized software such as AM