Modernizing Nursing Education for Student Success

Nursing education has evolved over time to meet the changing demands of an increasingly complex healthcare system. To enable teaching faculty to facilitate students’ capacity in applying critical thinking and application of nursing concepts—skills required of graduate nurses--this Organization Improvement Plan (OIP) identifies classroom teaching strategies as instrumental in students’ acquiring these skills. Analysis of University and Program conditions identify challenges and strengths of both that are considered throughout this plan. Based in transformational leadership elements, this plan describes how a grassroots or informal leader can initiate change and move it forward with formal leaders’ support. Application of Kotter’s Eight-Step Change Process (1995) identifies necessary actions the informal change leader uses to raise awareness of the issue associated with conventional classroom teaching methods and follow through required to bring the plan to institutionalization. This Process also acknowledges the relationship between informal and formal leadership to advance improvements. The Harkness Model for Teaching (Trustees of Phillip Exeter Academy, 2019) is presented as a tangible way that active learning can be supported in the classroom setting. Although the long-term goal is to provide students with skills to enable them to be practice-ready on graduation, this plan focuses on providing teaching faculty with the motivation to modernize their classroom teaching strategies

A Composite Rigid Double Cantilever Beam Specimen for Assessing the Traction–Separation Response of Mode I Delamination in Composite Laminates

This is the Preprint of Hartlen, D. C., Montesano, J., & Cronin, D. S. (2023). A composite rigid double cantilever beam specimen for assessing the traction–separation response of mode I delamination in composite laminates. Experimental Mechanics. The Version of Record is available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11340-023-00987-2 © Society for Experimental Mechanics 2023Background Interlaminar delamination is a common damage mechanism in composite laminates that can lead to structural failure. Assessment using contemporary numerical modeling techniques requires delamination behavior as a traction–separation response. However, existing experimental characterization approaches are not well suited to support these modeling techniques as specimens were developed to assess single delamination parameters, not a full traction–separation response, or utilize analysis schemes that require knowledge of material properties. Objective To develop a test specimen and data analysis methodology to directly measure the traction–separation response of Mode I delamination in a laminated fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composite, including strength, toughness, and damage response. Methods The proposed composite Rigid Double Cantilever Beam (cRDCB) specimen is comprised of a [0]_4 unidirectional E-glass/epoxy laminate co-cured to rigid metallic adherends. Traction–separation response was assessed directly from measured force and displacement behavior using a closed-form analysis scheme that does not require a priori knowledge of composite material properties. Standard double cantilever beam (DCB) tests were performed for comparison. Results The cRDCB specimen captured early damage initiation and progression in greater detail than the DCB, with measured strain energy release rates agreeing well between the two approaches. The cRDCB also captured the effects of large-scale damage mechanisms such as fiber bridging. The measured traction–separation responses are suitable for scenarios where prediction of the initiation and early damage response of delamination is important. Conclusions Combined with a data processing technique, a single cRDCB test enabled measurement of the full Mode I traction–separation response. In addition, the cRDCB provided high-resolution and could detect early-stage Mode I delamination damage in FRP laminates. The measured traction–separation responses can be directly inputted into cohesive zone models to predict the initiation and progression of Mode I delamination

A Novel Test Geometry for Characterization of Traction-Separation Behaviour in Composite Laminates Under Mode I Delamination

This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in Mechanics of Composite, Hybrid and Multifunctional Materials, Volume 6. The final authenticated version is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59868-6_2The integration of composite laminates into automotive structures can provide weight reduction and improvement in occupant safety. However, the adoption of such materials requires characterization and efficient modeling of the damage behaviors of composite laminates which may occur during crash events, such as delamination. Numerical modeling techniques such as cohesive zone modeling require a traction-separation response for each mode of loading. The standard test technique used to characterize Mode I delamination, the double cantilever beam (DCB), measures the critical energy release rate; however, additional tests or inverse fitting techniques are required to characterize the full traction-separation response. Additionally, compliance inherent in the DCB specimen can influence the measured energy release rate while the large size of the specimen complicates the high deformation rate testing needed for crash analysis. In this study, a novel Mode I test specimen adapted from a recent advancement in structural adhesive characterization is applied to evaluate composite delamination. The hybrid Rigid Double Cantilever Beam (RDCB) test specimen presented herein consists of rigid steel adherends co-molded to a composite plate containing a crack initiator. The use of steel adherends eliminates compliance in the composite laminate and ensures the interface of interest is loaded consistently and uniformly during tests, enabling measurement of the Mode I traction-separation behavior of composite delamination in a single test. As an example, the hybrid RDCB geometry is used to characterize the Mode I delamination behavior of a unidirectional E-glass fiber/epoxy laminate under quasi-static conditions, highlighting the ability of this specimen geometry to extract a full traction-separation behavior from a single test

Assessment of brain response in operators subject to recoil force from firing long-range rifles

Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) may be caused by occupational hazards military personnel encounter, such as falls, shocks, exposure to blast overpressure events, and recoil from weapon firing. While it is important to protect against injurious head impacts, the repeated exposure of Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) service members to sub-concussive events during the course of their service may lead to a significant reduction in quality of life. Symptoms may include headaches, difficulty concentrating, and noise sensitivity, impacting how personnel complete their duties and causing chronic health issues. This study investigates how the exposure to the recoil force of long-range rifles results in head motion and brain deformation. Direct measurements of head kinematics of a controlled population of military personnel during firing events were obtained using instrumented mouthguards. The experimentally measured head kinematics were then used as inputs to a finite element (FE) head model to quantify the brain strains observed during each firing event. The efficacy of a concept recoil mitigation system (RMS), designed to mitigate loads applied to the operators was quantified, and the RMS resulted in lower loading to the operators. The outcomes of this study provide valuable insights into the magnitudes of head kinematics observed when firing long-range rifles, and a methodology to quantify effects, which in turn will help craft exposure guidelines, guide training to mitigate the risk of injury, and improve the quality of lives of current and future CAF service members and veterans

POD-Galerkin reduced order methods for CFD using Finite Volume Discretisation: vortex shedding around a circular cylinder

Vortex shedding around circular cylinders is a well known and studied phenomenon that appears in many engineering fields. A Reduced Order Model (ROM) of the incom- pressible flow around a circular cylinder is presented in this work. The ROM is built performing a Galerkin projection of the governing equations onto a lower dimensional space. The reduced basis space is generated using a Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) approach. In particular the focus is into (i) the correct reproduction of the pres- sure field, that in case of the vortex shedding phenomenon, is of primary importance for the calculation of the drag and lift coefficients; (ii) the projection of the Governing equations (momentum equation and Poisson equation for pressure) performed onto dif- ferent reduced basis space for velocity and pressure, respectively; (iii) all the relevant modifications necessary to adapt standard finite element POD-Galerkin methods to a finite volume framework. The accuracy of the reduced order model is assessed against full order results

Tuning surface properties of amino-functionalized silica for metal nanoparticle loading: The vital role of an annealing process

Metal nanoparticles (NPs) loaded on oxides have been widely used as multifunctional nanomaterials in various fields such as optical imaging, sensors, and heterogeneous catalysis. However, the deposition of metal NPs on oxide supports with high efficiency and homogeneous dispersion still remains elusive, especially when silica is used as the support. Amino-functionalization of silica can improve loading efficiency, but metal NPs often aggregate on the surface. Herein, we report that a facial annealing of amino-functionalized silica can significantly improve the dispersion and enhance the loading efficiency of various metal NPs, such as Pt, Rh, and Ru, on the silica surface. A series of characterization techniques, such as diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (DRIFTS), Zeta potential analysis, UV–Vis spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis coupled with infrared analysis (TGA–IR), and nitrogen physisorption, were employed to study the changes of surface properties of the amino-functionalized silica before and after annealing. We found that the annealed amino-functionalized silica surface has more cross-linked silanol groups and relatively lesser amount of amino groups, and less positively charges, which could be the key to the uniform deposition of metal NPs during the loading process. These results could contribute to the preparation of metal/oxide hybrid NPs for the applications that require uniform dispersion