"There are just a few of us, but we are all important": responses to a disaster preparedness survey in Interior Alaska river villages

Master's Project (M.A.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2015This survey explores individual perspectives about disaster preparedness in Interior Alaska villages. The results will be used to create a new, locally relevant preparedness outreach flyer for distribution across the Interior Alaska region. Modern Red Cross preparedness fliers use the "Be Red Cross Ready: Get a Kit, Make a Plan, Be Informed," flyer to educate people on useful preparedness behavior. This is also the standard across the United States used by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other government agencies. But is the information contained within the "Get a Kit, Make a Plan, Be Informed" flyer really applicable to life in small, remote, Alaskan communities? Many of these communities are highly isolated according to the standards applied to the rest of the country: they experience often-extreme environmental conditions, and are composed of indigenous people who have their own worldview and concept of risk and community values. In order to effectively prepare people in villages for disasters, everything must be reconsidered to fit this Alaskan setting. Key findings from this survey project include: the importance of outdoor survival gear and cold-weather gear in emergency kits; the need for more written small community emergency plans; and the need for cultural competency training for disaster response professionals and volunteers

Production of Primordial Gravitational Waves in Teleparallel Gravity

We study the production of primordial gravitational waves in the context of extended teleparallel gravity models and compare them with those of general relativity. Teleparallel gravity has been widely studied in the context of the late universe but not much in the early universe. Two sources of primordial gravitational waves are considered, vacuum fluctuations and tensor anisotropies within two inflation-compatible backgrounds: a perfect de Sitter and a quasi de Sitter background. We find that in the vacuum case with a perfect de Sitter background, the gravitational waves propagation equation is the same as that of general relativity, however, if the background is promoted to a quasi de Sitter background, the propagation equations are different resulting in an important difference on the tensor spectral index. When tensor anisotropies are included, we compute the most general solution for gravitational waves in terms of a retarded Green's function and analyze the contributions to the power spectrum from these anisotropies. Finally, we investigate the energy density of these gravitational waves.Comment: 21 pages. Version accepted in Physics of the Dark Univers

Growth of structures using redshift space distortion in f(T)f(T) Cosmology

Cosmology faces a pressing challenge with the Hubble constant ($H_0$) tension, where the locally measured rate of the Universe's expansion does not align with predictions from the cosmic microwave background (CMB) calibrated with $\Lambda$CDM model. Simultaneously, there is a growing tension involving the weighted amplitude of matter fluctuations, known as $S_{8,0}$ tension. Resolving both tensions within one framework would boost confidence in any one particular model. In this work, we analyse constraints in $f(T)$ gravity, a framework that shows promise in shedding light on cosmic evolution. We thoroughly examine prominent $f(T)$ gravity models using a combination of data sources, including Pantheon+ (SN), cosmic chronometers (CC), baryonic acoustic oscillations (BAO) and redshift space distortion (RSD) data. We use these models to derive a spectrum of $H_0$ and $S_{8,0}$ values, aiming to gauge their ability to provide insights into, and potentially address, the challenges posed by the $H_0$ and $S_{8,0}$ tensions

Impact of an Interdisciplinary Practice Laboratory on Pharmacy and Nursing Students’ Perceptions of Health Care Roles

Objectives: To evaluate healthcare students\u27 perceptions of an introductory interprofessional exercise and their team dynamics. Design: A workshop was developed, combining second-year medical students, fourth-year nursing students, and third-year pharmacy students to work as an interdisciplinary team. The teams alternated between working together on patient cases focusing on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma, and on the evaluation of standardized pneumonia patients. Teams were given the patients\u27 health information and no other instructions. A faculty member and the standardized patient evaluated the students using a teamwork global rating scale. Assessment: Student survey results showed a positive response to interprofessional teamwork. The faculty members and standardized patients reported that the students worked as a cohesive unit and demonstrated good team communication. Conclusions: This introductory interprofessional experience had a positive impact on the students’ understanding of collaboration and teamwork. This type of experience will help students foster future collaborations as healthcare providers

f(T, B) Cosmography for High Redshifts

In light of the statistical performance of cosmological observations, in this work we present the cosmography in f(T,B) gravity. In this scenario we found a cosmological viable standard case that allows the reduction of the degeneracy between several f(T,B) models already proposed in the literature. Furthermore, we constrain this model using Pantheon SNeIa compilation, cosmic chronometers and a newly GRB calibrated data sample. We found that with an appropriate strategy for including the cosmographic parameter, we do produce a viable cosmology with our model within f(T,B) gravity.peer-reviewe

Stability analysis for cosmological models in f (T, B) gravity

In this paper we study cosmological solutions of the f (T, B) gravity using dynamical system analyses. For this purpose, we consider cosmological viable functions of f (T, B) that are capable of reproducing the dynamics of the Universe. We present three specific models of f (T, B) gravity which have a general form of their respective solutions by writing the equations of motion as an autonomous system. Finally, we study its hyperbolic critical points and general trajectories in the phase space of the resulting dynamical variables which turn out to be compatible with the current late-time observations.peer-reviewe

Metagenomic next-generation sequencing aids the diagnosis of viral infections in febrile returning travellers

Objectives Travel-associated infections are challenging to diagnose because of the broad spectrum of potential aetiologies. As a proof-of-principle study, we used MNGS to identify viral pathogens in clinical samples from returning travellers in a single center to explore its suitability as a diagnostic tool. Methods Plasma samples from 40 returning travellers presenting with a fever of ≥38°C were sequenced using MNGS on the Illumina MiSeq platform and compared with standard-of-care diagnostic assays. Results In total, 11/40 patients were diagnosed with a viral infection. Standard of care diagnostics revealed 5 viral infections using plasma samples; dengue virus 1 (n = 2), hepatitis E (n = 1), Ebola virus (n = 1) and hepatitis A (n = 1), all of which were detected by MNGS. Three additional patients with Chikungunya virus (n = 2) and mumps virus were diagnosed by MNGS only. Respiratory infections detected by nasal/throat swabs only were not detected by MNGS of plasma. One patient had infection with malaria and mumps virus during the same admission. Conclusions MNGS analysis of plasma samples improves the sensitivity of diagnosis of viral infections and has potential as an all-in-one diagnostic test. It can be used to identify infections that have not been considered by the treating physician, co-infections and new or emerging pathogens. Summary Next generation sequencing (NGS) has potential as an all-in-one diagnostic test. In this study we used NGS to diagnose returning travellers with acute febrile illness in the UK, highlighting cases where the diagnosis was missed using standard methods