Non-profit Health Care Services Marketing: Persuasive Messages Based on Multidimensional Concept Mapping and Direct Magnitude Estimation

Persuasive messages for marketing healthcare services in general and coordinated care in particular are more important now for providers, hospitals, and third-party payers than ever before. The combination of measurement based information with creativity may be among the most critical factors in reaching markets or expanding markets. The research presented here provides an approach to marketing coordinated care services which allows healthcare managers to plan persuasive messages given the market conditions they face. Using market respondents’ thinking about product attributes combined with distance measurement between pairs of product attributes, a conceptual marketing map is presented and applied to advertising, message copy, and delivery. The data reported here are representative of the potential caregivers for which the messages are intended. Results are described with implications for application to coordinated care services. Theory building and marketing practice are discussed in the light of findings and methodology

Transient modeling of the thermohydraulic behavior of high temperature heat pipes for space reactor applications

Many proposed space reactor designs employ heat pipes as a means of conveying heat. Previous researchers have been concerned with steady state operation, but the transient operation is of interest in space reactor applications due to the necessity of remote startup and shutdown. A model is being developed to study the dynamic behavior of high temperature heat pipes during startup, shutdown and normal operation under space environments. Model development and preliminary results for a hypothetical design of the system are presented

Proof of Rounding by Quenched Disorder of First Order Transitions in Low-Dimensional Quantum Systems

We prove that for quantum lattice systems in d<=2 dimensions the addition of quenched disorder rounds any first order phase transition in the corresponding conjugate order parameter, both at positive temperatures and at T=0. For systems with continuous symmetry the statement extends up to d<=4 dimensions. This establishes for quantum systems the existence of the Imry-Ma phenomenon which for classical systems was proven by Aizenman and Wehr. The extension of the proof to quantum systems is achieved by carrying out the analysis at the level of thermodynamic quantities rather than equilibrium states.Comment: This article presents the detailed derivation of results which were announced in Phys. Rev. Lett. 103 (2009) 197201 (arXiv:0907.2419). v3 incorporates many corrections and improvements resulting from referee comment

Transforming NICU Care to Provide Comprehensive Family Support

AbstractParents whose babies are admitted to neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) are subject to a variety of stresses that increase their risk to suffer from postpartum depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, and anxiety disorders. Parental distress can adversely impact parent-infant bonding, which in turn can lead to worse outcomes for the child. An interdisciplinary workgroup convened by the National Perinatal Association (NPA) has published recommendations for psychosocial support of NICU parents. This article presents nurses, who are key players in quality improvement (QI) initiatives in their hospitals, with a QI approach to transforming care in NICUs to provide comprehensive family support using the NPA recommendations as a road map

A Case History of Site Instability Due to the Presence of a Shale Layer Above Sloping Bedrock

A study conducted for St. Louis County of Missouri, United States of America classified several areas of the county as unstable for any type of construction because of the presence of high plastic shaley clay or clayey shale on sloping bedrock. These areas are considered to have a potential for site instability to occur due to any change in natural conditions that may increase the moisture content of the high plastic shaley clay or clayey shale. A two-story parking garage, founded on shallow foundations, constructed in one of the potentially unstable zones, showed some movement after several years of its construction. After movements in the structure were observed, further review of the subsurface conditions revealed that as a result of construction at the site, the clayey shale layer became exposed, thus, creating easy access for water to enter this layer. Infiltration of water caused softening of the clayey shale layer, which in turn caused movements in the structures constructed on the site. This paper presents the detailed information about the subsurface conditions and type of structures constructed on the site

Utah Regional Differences in Respirator Use and Fit Testing among Pesticide Applicators

The purpose of this study was to determine regional differences within Utah in response to piloting a mobile respirator training and fit assessment program for pesticide applicators. The objectives were to describe worker perceptions of respirator use and training experiences. Pilot trainings were offered in two southern counties and two northern counties of Utah. A total of 141 individuals completed the post-training questionnaire regarding use and fit testing experience with respirators as well as perceptions of the benefits to protecting respiratory health. The majority of respondents were male (95.7%, f = 112). The proportion of participants in the southern counties who had respirator training experience (61.0%, f = 25) was not significantly higher (X2 = 3.763, df = 1, p = 0.05) than the proportion of participants in the northern counties (43.0%, f = 43). Three-fourths (73.5%, f = 72) of participants in the northern counties agreed that they expect to wear a respirator in dusty conditions, while two-thirds (61.0%, f = 25) of participants in the southern counties agreed that they expect to wear a respirator in dusty conditions. The results indicated that more training should be done to improve perceptions and beliefs about using respirators. A high priority for this population will be identification of comfortable respirator options as well as communicating the importance of proper fit testing

Time Perspective and All-Cause Mortality : Evidence from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing

Acknowledgments We gratefully acknowledge funding support from the Economic and Social Research Council (ES/L010437/1, ESRC Future Leaders grant to M. Daly) and European Union’s H2020 Work Programme (2014–2020) (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Career Development Fellowship to M.  Daly funded under the Research Executive Agency grant agreement 750169). We thank the UK Data Archive for providing these data which, along with materials, have been made available to researchers at https://discover.ukdataservice.ac.uk/series/?sn=200011.Peer reviewedPostprin

RCS043938-2904.9: A New Rich Cluster of Galaxies at z=0.951

We present deep I, J_s, K_s imaging and optical spectroscopy of the newly discovered Red-Sequence Cluster Survey cluster RCS043938-2904.9. This cluster, drawn from an extensive preliminary list, was selected for detailed study on the basis of its apparent optical richness. Spectroscopy of 11 members places the cluster at z=0.951 +- 0.006, and confirms the photometric redshift estimate from the (R-z) color-magnitude diagram. Analysis of the infrared imaging data demonstrates that the cluster is extremely rich, with excess counts in the Ks-band exceeding the expected background counts by 9 sigma. The properties of the galaxies in RCS043938-2904.9 are consistent with those seen in other clusters at similar redshifts. Specifically, the red-sequence color, slope and scatter, and the size-magnitude relation of these galaxies are all consistent with that seen in the few other high redshift clusters known, and indeed are consistent with appropriately evolved properties of local cluster galaxies. The apparent consistency of these systems implies that the rich, high-redshift RCS clusters are directly comparable to the few other systems known at z ~ 1, most of which have been selected on the basis of X-ray emission.Comment: 12 pages, 1 color figure. Accepted for publication on The ApJ Letter

Transient thermohydraulic heat pipe modeling : incorporating THROHPUT into the Caesar environment /

The THROHPUT code, which models transient thermohydraulic heat pipe behavior, is being incorporated into the CAESAR computational physics development environment. The CAESAR environment provides many beneficial features for enhanced model development, including levelized design, unit testing, Design by ContractTM (Meyer, 1997), and literate programming (Knuth, 1992), in a parallel, object-based manner. The original THROHPUT code was developed as a doctoral thesis research code; the current emphasis is on making a robust, verifiable, documented, component-based production package. Results from the original code are included