Palliative and end of life care in prisons: a mixed-methods rapid review of the literature from 2014–2018

Objectives: To explore current practice in relation to palliative and end of life care in prisons, and to make recommendations for its future provision. Design: A rapid literature review of studies using qualitative, quantitative and mixed-methods, with a narrative synthesis of results. Data sources: Six databases searched between January 2014 to December 2018: ASSIA, CINAHL, Embase, MEDLINE, National Criminal Justice Reference Service Abstracts and Scopus. Eligibility criteria: Primary research articles reporting qualitative or quantitative findings about palliative and end of life care in prisons, published in peer-reviewed, English language journals between January 2014 to December 2018. Participants: Prisoners, prisoners’ families, prison healthcare staff and other prison staff. Data extraction/synthesis: Data extracted included: citation, design, aim, setting, sample/population, methods and key findings. Data were analysed thematically then subject to a narrative synthesis in order to answer the research questions. Quality appraisal: Two researchers independently appraised articles using the Qualsyst tool, by Kmet et al (2004). Aggregate summary quality scores are included with findings. Articles were not excluded based on quality appraisal. Results: 23 articles were included (16 qualitative, 6 quantitative, 1 mixed methods). Top three findings (by prevalence) were: fostering relationships with people both inside and outside of prison is important to prisoners with palliative and end of life care needs, inmate hospice volunteers are able to build and maintain close relationships with the prisoners they care for and the conflicting priorities of care and custody can have a negative impact on the delivery of palliative and end of life care in prisons. Conclusions: The key findings are: relationships are important to prisoners at the end of life, inmate hospice volunteers can build close bonds with the prisoners in their care and the prison environment and regime conflicts with best practices in palliative and end of life care. Directions for future research are also identified

Polymer/Silicate Nanocomposites Used to Manufacture Gas Storage Tanks With Reduced Permeability

Over the past decade, there has been considerable research in the area of polymer-layered silicate nanocomposites. This research has shown that the dispersion of small amounts of an organically modified layered silicate improves the polymer strength, modulus, thermal stability, and barrier properties. There have been several reports on the dispersion of layered silicates in an epoxy matrix. Potential enhancements to the barrier properties of epoxy/silicate nanocomposites make this material attractive for low permeability tankage. Polymer matrix composites (PMCs) have several advantages for cryogenic storage tanks. They are lightweight, strong, and stiff; therefore, a smaller fraction of a vehicle's potential payload capacity is used for propellant storage. Unfortunately, the resins typically used to make PMC tanks have higher gas permeability than metals. This can lead to hydrogen loss through the body of the tank instead of just at welds and fittings. One approach to eliminate this problem is to build composite tanks with thin metal liners. However, although these tanks provide good permeability performance, they suffer from a substantial mismatch in the coefficient of thermal expansion, which can lead to failure of the bond between the liner and the body of the tank. Both problems could be addressed with polymersilicate nanocomposites, which exhibit reduced hydrogen permeability, making them potential candidates for linerless PMC tanks. Through collaboration with Northrop Grumman and Michigan State University, nanocomposite test tanks were manufactured for the NASA Glenn Research Center, and the helium permeability was measured. An organically modified silicate was prepared at Michigan State University and dispersed in an epoxy matrix (EPON 826/JeffamineD230). The epoxy/silicate nanocomposites contained either 0 or 5 wt% of the organically modified silicate. The tanks were made by filament winding carbon fibers with the nanocomposite resin. Helium permeability was measured by Northrop Grumman, showing that the leak rate/day of the nanocomposite matrix tank was approximately 80-percent less than that of the neat epoxy matrix tank

A Monte Carlo resampling framework for implementing goodness‐of‐fit tests in spatial capture‐recapture models

Funding: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.1. Spatial capture-recapture (SCR) models provide estimates of animal density from spatially referenced encounter data and has become the most widely adopted approach for estimating density. Despite the rapid growth in the development and application of spatial capture-recapture methods, approaches for assessing model fit have received very little attention when compared to other classes of hierarchical models in ecology. 2. Here, we develop an approach for testing goodness-of-fit (GoF) for frequentist SCR models using Monte Carlo simulations. We derive probability distributions of activity centres from the fitted model. From these, we calculate the expected encounters in the capture history based on the SCR parameter estimates, propagating the uncertainty of the estimates and the activity centre locations via Monte Carlo simulations. Aggregating these test statistics result in count data, allowing us to test fit with Freeman-Tukey tests. These tests are based on summary statistics of the total encounters of each individual at each trap (FT-ind-trap), total encounters of each individual (FT-individuals) and total encounters at each trap (FT-traps). We assess the ability of these GoF tests to diagnose lack of fit under a range of assumption violating scenarios. 3. FT-traps had the strongest response to unmodelled spatial and trap heterogeneity in detection probability (power = 0.53–0.56), while FT-ind-traps had the strongest responses to random individual variation in detectability (power = 0.88) and non-spatial discrete variation in 0 (power = 0.35). The tests, designed to diagnose poor fit in the detection parameters, were insensitive to unmodelled heterogeneity in density (power = <0.001). They also demonstrated low false positive rates (<0.001) when the correct models were fitted; therefore, it is very unlikely that they will provide false indications of poor model fit. 4. We demonstrate that these GoF tests are capable of detecting lack-of-fit when unmodelled heterogeneity is present in the detection sub-model. When used jointly, the combinations of test results are also able to infer the type of lack-of-fit in certain cases. Our Monte Carlo sampling methods may be extended to a wider range of GoF tests, thereby providing a platform for developing more GoF methods for SCR.Peer reviewe

Shock Tube Measurements of Radiative Heating for Titan and Nitrogen

Detailed spectrally and spatially resolved radiance has been measured in the Electric Arc Shock Tube at NASA Ames Research Center for conditions relevant to Titan entry, with varying atmospheric composition, free-stream density (equivalently, altitude) and shock velocity. The test campaign measured radiation at velocities from 4.7 km/s to 8 km/s and free-stream pressures of 0.1, 0.28 and 0.47 Torr with a variety of compositions. Radiances measured in this work are substantially larger compared to that reported both in past EAST test campaigns and in other shock tube facilities. Depending on the metric used for comparison, the discrepancy can be as high as an order of magnitude. Due to the difference with previously reported data, a substantial effort was undertaken to provide confidence in the new results. The present work provides a new benchmark set of data to replace those published in previous studies. The effect of gas impurities identified in previous shock tube studies was also examined by testing in pure N2 and deliberate addition of air to the CH4/N2 mixtures. Furthermore, a test campaign in pure N2 was also conducted with the aim of providing data for improving fundamental understanding of high enthalpy flows containing N2, such as high-speed entries into Earth or Titan. These experiments cover conditions from approximately 6 km/s to 11 km/s at an initial pressure of 0.2 Torr. It is the intention of this paper to motivate code comparisons benchmarked against this data set

Putting the ‘love back in’ to journalism: Transforming habitus in Aboriginal affairs student reporting

While journalism scholars have identified a lack of critical reflexivity in journalism, few have identified ways to educate university students for critically reflexive journalism practice. This article reports on a university teaching project that enables such practice as a means to counter exclusions, stereotyping and misrepresentation of Aboriginal people by large-scale Australian media. Using Bourdieu’s concept of habitus to track transformations in student dispositions, particularly as they relate to practice, the article shows how participating students became more competent and confident Aboriginal affairs journalists with a strengthened sense of themselves, their practice and the journalistic field. Their investment in the field was strengthened as they sought to tell hidden and disregarded stories, and to include previously excluded voices, perspectives and representations. The article describes and analyses an example of critically reflexive learning, practice and teaching that has the potential to transform students’ learning, the journalistic field and relations between Aboriginal non-Aboriginal Australians

White Paper: Northwest Life Passages - Improving Care for Patients with Serious Illness in Whatcom County

Northwest Life Passages (NWLP) is a new collaborative service that aims to address shortcomings in care and improve services for people with serious illness and their families. The proposal is to operationally couple the outpatient palliative care services already provided by PeaceHealth and Family Care Network (FCN) with community-based support services being developed by the Whatcom Alliance for Health Advancement (WAHA). It is further being proposed that PeaceHealth and WAHA pursue a collaborative fundraising strategy that calls for WAHA to focus on the development of the community-based services and PeaceHealth Foundation to pursue support for the expansion of clinical services

Working Students and Their Academic Performance – A Decision Tree Analysis

In this study, a decision tree analysis is conducted to identify the effects from working. The result shows that student age is the first major indicator for better grade regardless of working status. Then, the factor of students’ self-perception on the effect of working on academic performance matters a lot. A pessimistic student, who believes in the negative impact of working on studying, needs a balanced combination of course work and working load. However, for an optimistic student, academic standing is important. Senior students with a positive perception on working are more likely to validate this perception by good academic performance. While, for students in other academic standings, working for a job relevant to major can help. Otherwise, a moderate level of working load is still recommended. The analysis approach can be easily applied to any academic counselling: to identify when working intensity can matter, which group of students may be more vulnerable to a negative impact of working, and what working aspects may play a role in academic performance