Burnout among nursing home care aides and the effects on resident outcomes

While burnout among health care workers has been well studied, little is known about the extent to which burnout among health care workers impacts the outcomes of their care recipients. To test this, we used a multi-year (2014-2020) survey of care aides working in approximately 90 nursing homes (NHs); the survey focused on work-life measures, including the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) and work-unit identifier. Resident Assessment Instrument Minimum Data Set (RAI-MDS 2.0) data were obtained on all residents in the sampled NHs during this time and included a unit identifier for each resident. We used multi-level models to test associations between the MBI emotional exhaustion and cynicism sub-scales reported by care aides and the resident outcomes of antipsychotics without indication, depressive symptoms, and responsive behaviors among residents on units. In 2019/2020, our sample included 3,547 care aides and 10,117 residents in 282 units. The mean frequency of emotional exhaustion and cynicism across units was 43% and 50%, respectively. While residents frequently experienced antipsychotics without indication 1,852 (18.3%), depressive symptoms 2,089 (20.7%), and responsive behaviors 3,891 (38.5%), none were found to be associated with either emotional exhaustion or cynicism among care aides.</p

Spinning Strings, Black Holes and Stable Closed Timelike Geodesics

The existence and stability under linear perturbation of closed timelike curves in the spacetime associated to Schwarzschild black hole pierced by a spinning string are studied. Due to the superposition of the black hole, we find that the spinning string spacetime is deformed in such a way to allow the existence of closed timelike geodesics.Comment: 5 pages, RevTex4, some corrections and new material adde

Unwrapping Closed Timelike Curves

Closed timelike curves (CTCs) appear in many solutions of the Einstein equation, even with reasonable matter sources. These solutions appear to violate causality and so are considered problematic. Since CTCs reflect the global properties of a spacetime, one can attempt to change its topology, without changing its geometry, in such a way that the former CTCs are no longer closed in the new spacetime. This procedure is informally known as unwrapping. However, changes in global identifications tend to lead to local effects, and unwrapping is no exception, as it introduces a special kind of singularity, called quasi-regular. This "unwrapping" singularity is similar to the string singularities. We give two examples of unwrapping of essentially 2+1 dimensional spacetimes with CTCs, the Gott spacetime and the Godel universe. We show that the unwrapped Gott spacetime, while singular, is at least devoid of CTCs. In contrast, the unwrapped Godel spacetime still contains CTCs through every point. A "multiple unwrapping" procedure is devised to remove the remaining circular CTCs. We conclude that, based on the two spacetimes we investigated, CTCs appearing in the solutions of the Einstein equation are not simply a mathematical artifact of coordinate identifications, but are indeed a necessary consequence of General Relativity, provided only that we demand these solutions do not possess naked quasi-regular singularities.Comment: 29 pages, 9 figure

Exposure to Oil Spill Chemicals and Lung Function in Deepwater Horizon Disaster Response Workers

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between total hydrocarbon (THC) exposures attributed to oil spill clean-up work and lung function 1 to 3 years after the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) disaster. Methods: We used data from the GuLF STUDY, a large cohort of adults who worked on response to the DWH disaster and others who were safety trained but did not work. We analyzed data from 6288 workers with two acceptable spirometry tests. We estimated THC exposure levels with a job exposure matrix. We evaluated lung function using the forced expiratory volume in 1second (FEV 1; mL), the forced vital capacity (FVC; mL), and the FEV 1 /FVC ratio (%). Results: Lung function measures did not differ by THC exposure levels among clean-up workers. Conclusion: We did not observe an association between THC exposure and lung function among clean-up workers 1 to 3 years following the DWH disaster

Lung Function in Oil Spill Response Workers 1-3 Years after the Deepwater Horizon Disaster

Background: Little is known about the effects of inhalation exposures on lung function among workers involved in the mitigation of oil spills. Our objective was to determine the relationship between oil spill response work and lung function 1-3 years after the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) disaster. Methods: We evaluated spirometry for 7,775 adults living in the Gulf states who either participated in DWH response efforts (workers) or received safety training but were not hired (nonworkers). At an enrollment interview, we collected detailed work histories including information on potential exposure to dispersants and burning oil/gas. We assessed forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV 1; mL), forced vital capacity (FVC; mL), and the ratio (FEV 1 /FVC%) for differences by broad job classes and exposure to dispersants or burning oil/gas using multivariable linear and modified Poisson regression. Results: We found no differences between workers and nonworkers. Among workers, we observed a small decrement in FEV 1 (Beta, -71 mL; 95% confidence interval [CI], -127 to -14) in decontamination workers compared with support workers. Workers with high potential exposure to burning oil/gas had reduced lung function compared with unexposed workers: FEV 1 (Beta, -183 mL; 95% CI, -316 to -49) and FEV 1 /FVC (Beta, -1.93%; 95% CI, -3.50 to -0.36), and an elevated risk of having a FEV 1 /FVC in the lowest tertile (prevalence ratio, 1.38; 95% CI, 0.99 to 1.92). Conclusions: While no differences in lung function were found between workers and nonworkers, lung function was reduced among decontamination workers and workers with high exposure to burning oil/gas compared with unexposed workers

Yrast structure of Fe64

The level structure of the N=38 isotone Fe64 was studied with the Ni64 + U238 reaction at 430 MeV. Several new levels were identified and compared to shell model calculations. Results show no evidence for deformation in the ground state, but a possible contribution from intruder orbitals at higher energy and spin

Structure of 60,62Fe and the onset of νg9/2 occupancy

Level structures in 60,62Fe34,36 and adjacent nuclei were studied with Gammasphere using the reaction of a 430-MeV 64Ni beam on a 55-mg/cm2 thick 238U target. High-spin level schemes were deduced from singlyand doubly-gated prompt coincidence events. Levels populated in the β decay of 60,62Mn isomers were studied in singly- and doubly-gated delayed coincidences. Spin and parity assignments were deduced from angular correlations of γ rays observed in both nuclei, leading to firm positive-parity yrast assignments up through 8+ in 62Fe. The observed levels for 60Fe up to ~3.5 MeV compare well with pf shell-model calculations available in the literature. Calculations performed in a limited pfg basis exhibit reasonable agreement for the 2+, 4+, and 6+ levels in 62Fe. However, theoretical descriptions that include the newly identified negative-parity levels in 62Fe require a much larger basis, necessarily including g9/2 neutrons, as well as improved interactions leading to negative-parity levels

Search for direct production of charginos and neutralinos in events with three leptons and missing transverse momentum in √s = 7 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for the direct production of charginos and neutralinos in final states with three electrons or muons and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is based on 4.7 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded with the ATLAS detector. Observations are consistent with Standard Model expectations in three signal regions that are either depleted or enriched in Z-boson decays. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set in R-parity conserving phenomenological minimal supersymmetric models and in simplified models, significantly extending previous results

Jet size dependence of single jet suppression in lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s(NN)) = 2.76 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions at the LHC provide direct sensitivity to the physics of jet quenching. In a sample of lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s) = 2.76 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of approximately 7 inverse microbarns, ATLAS has measured jets with a calorimeter over the pseudorapidity interval |eta| < 2.1 and over the transverse momentum range 38 < pT < 210 GeV. Jets were reconstructed using the anti-kt algorithm with values for the distance parameter that determines the nominal jet radius of R = 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5. The centrality dependence of the jet yield is characterized by the jet "central-to-peripheral ratio," Rcp. Jet production is found to be suppressed by approximately a factor of two in the 10% most central collisions relative to peripheral collisions. Rcp varies smoothly with centrality as characterized by the number of participating nucleons. The observed suppression is only weakly dependent on jet radius and transverse momentum. These results provide the first direct measurement of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions and complement previous measurements of dijet transverse energy imbalance at the LHC.Comment: 15 pages plus author list (30 pages total), 8 figures, 2 tables, submitted to Physics Letters B. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at http://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/HION-2011-02

Measurement of the polarisation of W bosons produced with large transverse momentum in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS experiment

This paper describes an analysis of the angular distribution of W->enu and W->munu decays, using data from pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2010, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 35 pb^-1. Using the decay lepton transverse momentum and the missing transverse energy, the W decay angular distribution projected onto the transverse plane is obtained and analysed in terms of helicity fractions f0, fL and fR over two ranges of W transverse momentum (ptw): 35 < ptw < 50 GeV and ptw > 50 GeV. Good agreement is found with theoretical predictions. For ptw > 50 GeV, the values of f0 and fL-fR, averaged over charge and lepton flavour, are measured to be : f0 = 0.127 +/- 0.030 +/- 0.108 and fL-fR = 0.252 +/- 0.017 +/- 0.030, where the first uncertainties are statistical, and the second include all systematic effects.Comment: 19 pages plus author list (34 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables, revised author list, matches European Journal of Physics C versio