EXPLORING THE IMPACT OF JOB LOSS AS A FUNCTION OF GRIEF DEPRESSION, OPTIMISM, HOPE AND SELF-EFFICACY

This study explored the impact of job loss within a framework of bereavement grief that links the negative effects of unemployment on both an individual’s physiological and psychological well-being. 519 participants who experienced involuntary job loss were examined through a series of demographic questions, a question on work centrality, and survey responses on scales of grief, depression, optimism, hope and self-efficacy. The preliminary results suggest that at least 6.94% of the participant sample experienced a grief-type reaction immediately after their job loss while depression symptoms were more prevalent across the entire sample. Women appeared to have a greater grief reaction then men upon initial job loss. Work centrality scores showed a significant relationship with grief scores but not depression scores. Results also indicate that the positive psychology factors of optimism, hope and self-efficacy may play a protective function from experiencing a grief- or depression-like reaction after job loss

A reflective analysis of war rape through the lens of hegemonic masculinity

1 online resource (40 p.)Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references (p. 37-40).This thesis is an exploration of the nature and prevalence of sexual violence in large scale conflicts. It is written with a reflective standpoint as an innovative methodology, drawing on the work of Heather Smith, and the conversational nature present in the Feminist International Relations literature it draws on. The theoretical framework used is a lens of dominant gender concepts, most notably hegemonic masculinity. It analyzes the militarized nature of popular masculinity, and in turn reflects on how these notions of masculinity are embedded within ideas of war and military. Then the thesis explores the concept of hegemonic masculinity and how it relates to the production of gender in society, and in turn how these models contribute to violence, war, and war rape. The overall findings of this thesis are that hegemonic masculinity contributes to an arrangement of society that allows for high levels of not only rape, but war itself. The evidence used to come to these conclusions also suggest that there is hope of ameliorating the problem of sexual violence in war, but in turn that this would necessarily come with a reduction of war itself

Expanding the Scope of Community Pharmacy Practice in Nova Scotia: Impacts on Provincial COVID-19 Response

Nova Scotia has expanded the scope of practice for community pharmacists by allowing, among other changes, pharmacist prescribing under specific circumstances (2011) and administration of drugs by injection (2013), thereby alleviating stress on the health system. Due to these progressive expansions in community pharmacy scope of practice, Nova Scotia community pharmacy personnel (about 1,500 pharmacists and 246 technicians working in 315 pharmacies) were rapidly able to play key roles in the province’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Community pharmacies provided medicines, medical devices, personal protective equipment, hand hygiene solutions, thermometers, and pulse oximeters to patients and the public. In addition, they have responded to patients’ COVID-19-related needs by treating symptoms; providing referrals; discussing the benefits and risks of COVID-19 vaccines and administering them; making nirmatrelvir/ritonavir assessments; and addressing vaccine hesitancy and the spread of misinformation about COVID-19. Moreover, as in some other provinces, community pharmacists in Nova Scotia have played a leading role in delivering COVID-19 vaccines from almost the start of the vaccination campaign in December 2020. Their role expanded further in May 2022, when pharmacists were granted prescribing authority for inhaled budesonide in accordance with the provincial protocol to treat mild SARS-CoV-2 respiratory symptoms. La Nouvelle-Écosse a élargi le champ d’exercice des pharmaciens communautaires en autorisant, entre autres, la prescription par un pharmacien dans des circonstances spécifiques (2011) et l’administration de médicaments par injection (2013), soulageant ainsi le système de santé. Grâce à ces élargissements progressifs du champ d’exercice des pharmacies communautaires, le personnel des pharmacies communautaires de Nouvelle-Écosse (environ 1 500 pharmaciens et 246 techniciens travaillant dans 315 pharmacies) a pu contribuer de manière cruciale et rapide à la réponse de la province à la pandémie de COVID-19. Les pharmacies communautaires ont fourni des médicaments, des dispositifs médicaux, des équipements de protection individuelle, des solutions pour l’hygiène des mains, des thermomètres et des oxymètres de pouls aux patients et au public. En outre, elles ont répondu aux besoins des patients liés à la COVID-19 en traitant les symptômes, en orientant les patients, en discutant des avantages et des risques des vaccins contre la COVID-19 et de leur administration, en évaluant la pertinence de traiter certains patients au nirmatrelvir/ritonavir et en répondant à l’hésitation vaccinale et à la diffusion d’informations erronées sur la COVID-19. De plus, les pharmaciens communautaires de Nouvelle-Écosse, comme ceux d’autres provinces, ont joué un rôle de premier plan dans l’administration des vaccins contre la COVID-19 dès le début de la campagne de vaccination en décembre 2020. Leur rôle s’est encore élargi en mai 2022, lorsque les pharmaciens ont été autorisés à prescrire du budésonide inhalé, conformément au protocole provincial, pour traiter les symptômes respiratoires légers du SRAS-CoV-2

Pharmacists’ immunization experiences, beliefs, and attitudes in New Brunswick, Canada

Background: The expansion of pharmacist scope of practice to include provision of immunizations has occurred or is being considered in various countries. There are limited data evaluating the experiences of Canadian pharmacists in their role as immunizers. Objective: To describe the experiences of pharmacists in the Canadian province of New Brunswick as immunizers, including vaccines administered and perceived barriers and facilitators to providing immunizations. Methods: An anonymous, self-administered, web-based questionnaire was offered via email by the New Brunswick Pharmacists’ Association to all its members. The survey tool was adapted, with permission, from a tool previously used by the American Pharmacists Association and validated using content validity and test-retest reproducibility. Pharmacist reported immunization activities and perceived facilitators and barriers to providing immunization services were assessed. Results: Responses from 168 (response rate of 26%) were evaluable. Approximately 90% of respondents worked in community practice full time, 65% were female and 44% were practicing for 20 or more years. Greater than 75% reported administering: hepatitis A and B, influenza, and zoster vaccines. The majority of respondents felt fully accepted (agreed or strongly agreed) as immunization providers by patients, local physicians, and the provincial health department (97%, 70%, and 78%, respectively). Most commonly reported barriers were: lack of a universally funded influenza immunization program, insufficient staffing and space, and concerns around reimbursement for services. Conclusions: Pharmacists in New Brunswick, Canada are actively participating in the provision of a variety of immunizations and felt fully supported by patients and other healthcare providers. Barriers identified may provide insight to other jurisdictions considering expanding the role of pharmacists as immunizers

Development and calibration of a currency trading strategy using global optimization

We have developed a new financial indicator—called the Interest Rate Differentials Adjusted for Volatility (IRDAV) measure—to assist investors in currency markets. On a monthly basis, we rank currency pairs according to this measure and then select a basket of pairs with the highest IRDAV values. Under positive market conditions, an IRDAV based investment strategy (buying a currency with high interest rate and simultaneously selling a currency with low interest rate, after adjusting for volatility of the currency pairs in question) can generate significant returns. However, when the markets turn for the worse and crisis situations evolve, investors exit such money-making strategies suddenly, and—as a result—significant losses can occur. In an effort to minimize these potential losses, we also propose an aggregated Risk Metric that estimates the total risk by looking at various financial indicators across different markets. These risk indicators are used to get timely signals of evolving crises and to flip the strategy from long to short in a timely fashion, to prevent losses and make further gains even during crisis periods. Since our proprietary model is implemented in Excel as a highly nonlinear “black box” computational procedure, we use suitable global optimization methodology and software—the Lipschitz Global Optimizer solver suite linked to Excel—to maximize the performance of the currency basket, based on our selection of key decision variables. After the introduction of the new currency trading model and its implementation, we present numerical results based on actual market data. Our results clearly show the advantages of using global optimization based parameter settings, compared to the typically used “expert estimates” of the key model parameters.post-prin

Stakeholders' views and experiences of pharmacist prescribing: a systematic review.

While prescribing has been traditionally been the domain of physicians, prescribing by pharmacists has been implemented successfully in countries across the world. Developments are supported by evidence of effectiveness and safety. To facilitate further development and implementation, there is a need to review the evidence of views and experiences of stakeholder groups both pre- and post-implementation. The aim of this review is to critically appraise, synthesise and present the available evidence on the views and experiences of stakeholders pre- and post-implementation of pharmacist prescribing globally. Setting and Method: A systematic review protocol was developed according to the PRISMA_P standards and registered on the PROSPERO database at the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination. Search databases were MEDLINE, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), International Pharmaceutical Abstracts, PsychArticles, and Google Scholar with no date limits. Studies selection, quality assessment and data extraction were conducted independently by at least two reviewers. A narrative approach to data synthesis was undertaken due to heterogeneity of study outcome measures. Main outcome measures: Views and experiences around pharmacist prescribing as well as the facilitators and barriers to its development and implementation. Results: Sixty-three studies were included in the review. The UK was the main country studies (n=34) compared to Australia (n=13), USA (n=5), Canada (n=5), Nigeria (n=3), New Zealand (n=1), Ireland (n=1) and India (n=1). In addition, different stakeholders were researched. The majority of papers investigated perceptions and views of pharmacists (n=25) while few discussed patients (n=12), general practitioners (n=6), the public (n=4), nurses (n=1), policy makers (n=1) or had multiple stakeholders (n=14). Positive findings were reported by the majority of studies. The main benefits described were improved access to healthcare services and patients' outcomes, better utilisation of pharmacists' skills and knowledge, improved job satisfaction and reduced physicians' workload. Lack of support for this role reported was mainly due to liability issues, poor pharmacists' diagnosis skills and access to medical records and lack of organizational and financial support. Conclusion: There is an accumulation of evidence around improving healthcare delivery and patients' outcomes with the introduction of competent pharmacist prescribers. While there may be issues to resolve such as liability and financial considerations, these findings may support developments of pharmacist prescribing

Alien Registration- Isenor, Harold E. (Portland, Cumberland County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/21480/thumbnail.jp

Characterization of aerosol particles at low temperatures in a bath gas cooling cell and Bessel beam optical trap

This thesis focuses on low temperature studies of ensembles of aerosol particles formed in a bath gas cooling cell (78 K) and of single aerosol particles trapped in a counter-propagating Bessel beam optical trap (228-260 K). Ensemble particle measurements provide average data for all particles within the ensemble. These measurements are directly applicable to the study of clouds and aerosols in the atmospheres of a variety of planets and moons. Conversely, single particle measurements offer insight into behaviours which may be dependent on a particular particle property, such as particle size. Single particle data complement that obtained from ensemble measurements. The ensemble particle studies are performed with rapid-scan Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy to determine intrinsic particle properties (size, shape, composition, and architecture) and the temporal evolution of these properties. The assignments based on infrared spectra are supported by calculations using the vibrational exciton model. In this work, several mixed water aerosol ensembles are considered: carbon dioxide-water, ammonia-water, and acetylene-water aerosols. Each of these aerosol systems have relevance to the atmospheres of planets and moons (e.g. Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, Enceladus ). All three mixtures are studied under similar pressure and temperature conditions. While ammonia-water and acetylene-water are found to form molecularly mixed particles, there is no evidence of molecular mixing in carbon dioxide-water aerosol particles. Measurements are performed at low temperatures to study the freezing and evaporation of single aerosol particles. Our new experimental setup consists of a counter-propagating Bessel beam optical trap for trapping of micron and submicron sized particles down to temperatures of 223 K. The measurements in this thesis present the first freezing studies of single particles into the submicron size range. A series of freezing studies for supercooled liquid hexadecane, dodecane, and water particles are presented here, along with preliminary evaporation experiments for supercooled hexadecane droplets. These measurements show that the low temperature trap is an attractive device to study freezing and evaporation of single particles.Science, Faculty ofChemistry, Department ofGraduat

Alien Registration- Isenor, Harold E. (Portland, Cumberland County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/21480/thumbnail.jp