The criminal histories of drug-drive offenders

This study examined the previous criminal behaviour of individuals who were arrested for violating the drug driving over the prescribed limit offence, introduced into the UK in March 2015. The sample consists of individuals arrested during the first year of enforcement of this offence from March 2015 to March 2016 within the jurisdictional boundaries of the Metropolitan Police Service in London. The previous criminal behaviour of the research subjects was framed within a number of criminological theories and there is examination of any correlation between their criminal history and the drug-driving offence they had been arrested for. The criminal activity was obtained from each individual’s criminal record held on the police national computer and coded with regards to offence groups. As well as criminal sanctions, there was also an examination of drug-related arrest histories. The results indicate a high level of previous criminal activity with drugs and driving matters dominating that activity. This supports the construct that, in this context, drug driving fits within their patterns of offending

An exploration of relationships between perceptions of family system and spiritual well-being

https://place.asburyseminary.edu/ecommonsatsdissertations/1112/thumbnail.jp

The role of human awareness on the spatial patterns of the tick-borne disease human monocytic ehrlichiosis in Missouri.

Human monocytic ehrlichiosis (HME), a tick-borne disease that has recently surfaced in the United States, exists in regions where the tick vector population is established. This study utilizes methods that look beyond identifying high-risk regions, and investigates disparate awareness, self-perceived threat, and seriousness of HME to further enhance existing spatial modeling. The Health Belief Model provides a theoretical framework that encompasses the disease ecology aspect of medical geography to understand the relationship between people and their environment by surveying participants in study regions of Missouri. Results are suggestive that awareness differs between high/low incidence regions. Furthermore, education and income were found to be significant to overall awareness. The frequency of finding ticks, age, and overall concern and awareness were important factors in the decision to use preventative strategies against ticks. These results can be used to focus efforts by state health departments to increase awareness of this important disease

Methane emission from U.S. coal mines in 1973, a survey : a supplement to IC 8558

This Bureau of Mines survey of methane emissions indicates that total daily emissions have declined from 227 MM ft3 in 1971 to 214.7 MM ft3 in 1973. The highest average daily emissions in million cubic feet per day observed in U.S. bituminous coal mines were, in decreasing order, Monongalia County, W. Va. , 40.7 ; Marion County, W. Va. , 23.1 ; Buchanan County, Va. , 22.1; Washington County, Pa., 12.4; Greene County, Pa., 11.7; McDowell County, W. Va. , 11.4; Cambria County, Pa., 9.8; Jefferson County, Ala. , 9.5; Wyoming County, W. Va., 6.0; Marshall County, W. Va., 4.8; and Indiana County, Pa., 4.8

Electronic structure measurements of twisted graphene and 2D magnetic systems

The field of two-dimensional (2D) materials has grown significantly in recent years, motivated by the continued discovery of emergent phenomena and exotic phases in fabricated 2D homo- and heterostructures. This is particularly evident in correlated 2D systems such as the magic-angle twisted graphenes and 2D magnets. Many of the phenomena observed in these correlated materials are intimately tied to their electronic structures. Due to their complexity, simplified electronic structure models have been developed, whose predictions require testing against experimental results. In this thesis, we use angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) with micrometre spatial resolution (μARPES) to directly visualise the electronic structure of twisted graphenes and 2D magnets and study their interlayer interactions, comparing measurements to theoretical predictions through both qualitative and quantitative analysis of spectral features. Three twisted graphene systems are examined: twisted bilayer graphene (tBG), twisted monolayer-bilayer graphene (tMBG) and twisted double bilayer graphene (tDBG), allowing a systematic study of the electronic structure within these structures as a function of twist angle and number of layers. Results are compared to predictions from a hybrid k・p-tight-binding (HkpTB) model, beginning with a qualitative comparison through simulation of the photoemission spectra, before extending this to a quantitative comparison of measured band parameters including hybridisation gap sizes and Dirac points shifts from an applied gate voltage. Good agreement with the HkpTB model is found across all stacking geometries for twist angles above 2◦, however, characterisation of a flat band observed in 1.5◦ tDBG highlights the need to include lattice relaxation effects in theoretical models of small twist angle systems. Similarly, we study the model 2D magnetic system CrSBr using μARPES. By exfoliating flakes onto a fresh metal surface, low-temperature charging effects can be overcome, allowing ARPES measurements of bulk CrSBr in the antiferromagnetic phase. These are compared to measurements above the N´eel temperature, revealing the effect that magnetic order has on the electronic structure. This technique could be readily applied to other semiconducting van der Waals magnetic materials, allowing measurement of their electronic structure at low-temperatures. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of ARPES in studying complex 2D systems and how improvements in instrumentation and fabrication methods will allow for deeper comparison to theoretical predictions

Experimental demonstration of quantum effects in the operation of microscopic heat engines

The heat engine, a machine that extracts useful work from thermal sources, is one of the basic theoretical constructs and fundamental applications of classical thermodynamics. The classical description of a heat engine does not include coherence in its microscopic degrees of freedom. By contrast, a quantum heat engine might possess coherence between its internal states. Although the Carnot efficiency cannot be surpassed, and coherence can be performance degrading in certain conditions, it was recently predicted that even when using only thermal resources, internal coherence can enable a quantum heat engine to produce more power than any classical heat engine using the same resources. Such a power boost therefore constitutes a quantum thermodynamic signature. It has also been shown that the presence of coherence results in the thermodynamic equivalence of different quantum heat engine types, an effect with no classical counterpart. Microscopic heat machines have been recently implemented with trapped ions, and proposals for heat machines using superconducting circuits and optomechanics have been made. When operated with standard thermal baths, however, the machines implemented so far have not demonstrated any inherently quantum feature in their thermodynamic quantities. Here we implement two types of quantum heat engines by use of an ensemble of nitrogen-vacancy centres in diamond, and experimentally demonstrate both the coherence power boost and the equivalence of different heat-engine types. This constitutes the first observation of quantum thermodynamic signatures in heat machines

Manipulation of drugs to achieve the required dose is intrinsic to paediatric practice but is not supported by guidelines or evidence

Background: A lack of age-appropriate formulations can make it difficult to administer medicines to children. A manipulation of the dosage form may be required to achieve the required dose. This study aimed to describe medicines that are manipulated to achieve the required dose in paediatric practice.Method: A structured, undisguised observational study and postal survey. The observational study investigated drug manipulations occurring in clinical practice across three sites. The questionnaire, administered to a sample of paediatric nurses throughout the UK, surveyed manipulations conducted and nurses' experiences and views.Results: The observational study identified 310 manipulations, of which 62% involved tablets, 21% were intravenous drugs and 10% were sachets. Of the 54 observed manipulations 40 involved tablets with 65% of the tablets being cut and 30% dispersed to obtain a smaller dose. 188 manipulations were reported by questionnaire respondents, of these 46% involved tablets, 12% were intravenous drugs, and 12% were nebuliser solutions. Manipulations were predominantly, but not exclusively, identified in specialist clinical areas with more highly dependent patients. Questionnaire respondents were concerned about the accuracy of the dose achieved following manipulations and the lack of practice guidance.Conclusion: Manipulations to achieve the required dose occur throughout paediatric in-patient settings. The impact of manipulations on the efficacy of the drugs, the accuracy of the dose and any adverse effects on patients is not known. There is a need to develop evidence-based guidance for manipulations of medicines in children

A protocol for co-creating research project lay summaries with stakeholders:Guideline development for Canada's AGE-WELL Network

Background Funding bodies increasingly require researchers to write lay summaries to communicate projects’ real-world relevance to the public in an accessible way. However, research proposals and findings are generally not easily readable or understandable by non-specialist readers. Many researchers find writing lay summaries difficult because they typically write for fellow subject specialists or academics rather than the general public or a non-specialist audience. The primary objective of our project is to develop guidelines for researchers in Canada’s AGE-WELL Network of Centres of Excellence, and ultimately various other disciplines, sectors, and institutions, to co-create lay summaries of research projects with stakeholders. To begin, we produced a protocol for co-creating a lay summary based on workshops we organized and facilitated for an AGE-WELL researcher. This paper presents the lay summary co-creation protocol that AGE-WELL researchers will be invited to use. Methods Eligible participants in this project will be 24 AgeTech project researchers who are funded by the AGE-WELL network in its Core Research Program 2020. If they agree to participate in this project, we will invite them to use our protocol to co-produce a lay summary of their respective projects with stakeholders. The protocol comprises six steps: Investigate principles of writing a good lay summary, identify the target readership, identify stakeholders to collaborate with, recruit the identified stakeholders to work on a lay summary, prepare for workshop sessions, and execute the sessions. To help participants through the process, we will provide them with a guide to developing an accessible, readable research lay summary, help them make decisions, and host, and facilitate if needed, their lay summary co-creation workshops. Discussion Public-facing research outputs, including lay summaries, are increasingly important knowledge translation strategies to promote the impact of research on real-world issues. To produce lay summaries that include information that will interest a non-specialist readership and that are written in accessible language, stakeholder engagement is key. Furthermore, both researchers and stakeholders benefit by participating in the co-creation process. We hope the protocol helps researchers collaborate with stakeholders effectively to co-produce lay summaries that meet the needs of both the public and project funders

Identifying MAIS3+ injury severity collisions in UK Police collision records

Objective This study represents the first stage of a project to identify serious injury, at the level of MAIS3+ (excluding fatal collisions) from within the police collision data. The resulting data will then be used to identify the vehicle drivers concerned and in later studies these will be culpability-scored and profiled to allow targeting of interventions. Method UK Police collision data known as STATS19 for the county of Cambridgeshire (UK) was linked using Stata with Trauma Audit and Research Network (TARN) hospital trauma patient data for the same geographical area for the period April 2012 to March 2017. Linking was two-stage; firstly, a deterministic process followed by a probabilistic process. Results The linked records represent an individual trauma patient from TARN data linked to an individual trauma casualty from STATS19 data. Full collision data for the incident resulting in the trauma casualty was extracted. The resulting subset of collisions has the MAIS3+ injury criteria applied. From the 10,498 recorded collisions the deterministic linking process was successful in linking 257 MAIS3+ trauma patients to collision injury subjects from 232 separate collisions with the probabilistic process linking a further 22 MAIS3+ subjects from 21 collision events. The combined collision data for the 253 collisions involved 434 motor vehicle drivers. Conclusions We produced viable results from the available data to identify MAIS3+ collisions from the overall collision data

The Biocatalytic Desulfurization Project

The material in this report summarizes the Diversa technical effort in development of a biocatalyst for the biodesulfurization of Petro Star diesel as well as an economic report of standalone and combined desulfurization options, prepared by Pelorus and Anvil, to support and inform the development of a commercially viable process. We will discuss goals of the projected as originally stated and their modification as guided by parallel efforts to evaluate commercialization economics and process parameters. We describe efforts to identify novel genes and hosts for the generation of an optimal biocatalyst, analysis of diesel fuels (untreated, chemically oxidized and hydrotreated) for organosulfur compound composition and directed evolution of enzymes central to the biodesulfurization pathway to optimize properties important for their use in a biocatalyst. Finally we will summarize the challenges and issues that are central to successful development of a viable biodesulfurization process