Educating and Improving Collegiate Athlete Sunscreen Use

Introduction: The purpose of this evidence-based practice Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) project was to prospectively evaluate the ability to alter the behavior of young adults by providing sunscreen education and thereby reduce their risk of skin cancer from sun exposure. Twenty-three collegiate athletes ages 18 to 21 years old who were on the university softball team were enrolled. These student athletes were then educated about the impact of daily sun protection and risk factors. The goal was to observe an increase in sunscreen use and increase sun exposure awareness. Background: Skin cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in the United States. In ages 20-29 melanoma of the skin is the third most common cancer. One of the most effective ways to prevent skin cancer in young adults is UV skin protection. Outdoor sport athletes specifically have higher rates of sun exposure, thereby leading to additional risk of melanoma. Based on primary and secondary research, many college athletes lack a basic understanding of skin cancer. Methods: UV exposure risk and sun protective behaviors were determined by using The Sun Exposure and Protection Index (SEPI). This questionnaire was administered to female softball players before and after the intervention period. Athletes were instructed to apply SPF 50 to any unexposed skin once daily for 14 days before sun exposure. One 15-minute educational session was completed where materials about melanoma were distributed, and sun protection was discussed. This education session was conducted prior to the intervention period. Results: Twenty-three students participated in the evidence-based practice project and results were primarily evaluated on SEPI Part 2. SEPI Part 2 consists of five questions ranked zero to four with the total score ranging from 0 to 20. The average score of the SEPI Part 2 was 9.65 before the intervention. After the intervention, the average score decreased to 8.81 which reflects an increase in sun protection habits. While these results are not statistically significant, these small behavior changes will likely have a positive impact over the long term. Evaluation: Sunscreen application and UV risk screening are successful in targeting behaviors correlated with melanoma risk. If properly incorporated, appropriate sun exposure behaviors decrease lifetime skin cancer risk for college athletes. While this evidence is encouraging, additional efforts are needed to expand educational programs, further reinforce sunscreen application, and modify young adults’ behaviors towards sunscreen use

High-global warming potential F-gas emissions in California: comparison of ambient-based versus inventory-based emission estimates, and implications of refined estimates.

To provide information for greenhouse gas reduction policies, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) inventories annual emissions of high-global-warming potential (GWP) fluorinated gases, the fastest growing sector of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions globally. Baseline 2008 F-gas emissions estimates for selected chlorofluorocarbons (CFC-12), hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFC-22), and hydrofluorocarbons (HFC-134a) made with an inventory-based methodology were compared to emissions estimates made by ambient-based measurements. Significant discrepancies were found, with the inventory-based emissions methodology resulting in a systematic 42% under-estimation of CFC-12 emissions from older refrigeration equipment and older vehicles, and a systematic 114% overestimation of emissions for HFC-134a, a refrigerant substitute for phased-out CFCs. Initial, inventory-based estimates for all F-gas emissions had assumed that equipment is no longer in service once it reaches its average lifetime of use. Revised emission estimates using improved models for equipment age at end-of-life, inventories, and leak rates specific to California resulted in F-gas emissions estimates in closer agreement to ambient-based measurements. The discrepancies between inventory-based estimates and ambient-based measurements were reduced from -42% to -6% for CFC-12, and from +114% to +9% for HFC-134a

Collaborative International Research in Clinical and Longitudinal Experience Study in NMOSD.

Objective: To develop a resource of systematically collected, longitudinal clinical data and biospecimens for assisting in the investigation into neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD) epidemiology, pathogenesis, and treatment. Methods: To illustrate its research-enabling purpose, epidemiologic patterns and disease phenotypes were assessed among enrolled subjects, including age at disease onset, annualized relapse rate (ARR), and time between the first and second attacks. Results: As of December 2017, the Collaborative International Research in Clinical and Longitudinal Experience Study (CIRCLES) had enrolled more than 1,000 participants, of whom 77.5% of the NMOSD cases and 71.7% of the controls continue in active follow-up. Consanguineous relatives of patients with NMOSD represented 43.6% of the control cohort. Of the 599 active cases with complete data, 84% were female, and 76% were anti-AQP4 seropositive. The majority were white/Caucasian (52.6%), whereas blacks/African Americans accounted for 23.5%, Hispanics/Latinos 12.4%, and Asians accounted for 9.0%. The median age at disease onset was 38.4 years, with a median ARR of 0.5. Seropositive cases were older at disease onset, more likely to be black/African American or Hispanic/Latino, and more likely to be female. Conclusions: Collectively, the CIRCLES experience to date demonstrates this study to be a useful and readily accessible resource to facilitate accelerating solutions for patients with NMOSD

Self-love and sociability: the ‘rudiments of commerce’ in the state of nature

Istvan Hont’s classic work on the theoretical links between the seventeenth-century natural jurists Hugo Grotius and Samuel Pufendorf and the eighteenth-century Scottish political economists remains a popular trope among intellectual and economic historians of various stamps. Despite this, a common criticism levelled at Hont remains his relative lack of engagement with the relationship between religion and economics in the early modern period. This paper challenges this aspect of Hont’s narrative by drawing attention to an alternative, albeit complementary, assessment of the natural jurisprudential heritage of eighteenth-century British political economy. Specifically, the article attempts to map on to Hont’s thesis the Christian Stoic interpretation of Grotius and Pufendorf which has gained greater currency in recent years. In doing so, the paper argues that Grotius and Pufendorf’s contributions to the ‘unsocial sociability’ debate do not necessarily lead directly to the Scottish school of political economists, as is commonly assumed. Instead, it contends that a reconsideration of Grotius and Pufendorf as neo-Stoic theorists, particularly via scrutiny of their respective adaptations of the traditional Stoic theory of oikeiosis, steers us towards the heart of the early English ‘clerical’ Enlightenment

A Study of Behavior Changes Among Children Who Have Left the Children\u27s Psychiatric Day Treatment Center

This study began with the authors\u27 interest in the Portland Public Schools\u27 program for Emotionally Handicapped children. Originally, the researchers were interested in assessing behavioral characteristics and changes among children in that program and in relating these variables to the kind and extent of parental involvement. Such a study was particularly timely, it was felt, since some schools were considering eliminating the parent involvement component of the program and there was discussion of phasing out the entire program as it then existed in favor of mainstreaming. The researchers soon discovered the paucity of research information relating to program effects on children after their termination and realized that program changes might well happen for political and subjective reasons in the absence of research data. Unfortunately, recent changes in Oregon Law relating to confidentiality, in addition to administrative arid funding difficulties in the schools forced an upper level decision to curtail outside research in the school system. In September of 1976 the authors were left with an interest and a partially formulated research design but no program within which to apply their design. At this point the researchers contacted the Childrens\u27 Psychiatric Day Treatment Center in Portland (C.P.D.T.C.) and presented a preliminary plan for research to that agency\u27s Administrative Committee. They received the agency\u27s approval to pursue research relating to children who had been in that program and were able to begin the present study. in early October. The present study undertakes to measure behavior changes among the forty-one children who had left the Center during the previous two years and to relate the stability of these changes to subsequent events in the childrens\u27 home lives and to the degree of their parents\u27 involvement in their treatment

Aviation English Intelligibility

Aviation English (AE) is the “primary dialect” of international aviation. Demonstrably, AE and Conversational English (CE) are distinct varieties of English. Pastresearch shows that AE is spoken more rapidly, with less inflectional variation and differentrhythm than CE. Differences are strong enough that AE and CEmaynot be mutually intelligible. However, flight students are not trained in AE production and perception prior to flight training.This study examines the intelligibility relationship between AE and CE by comparing native English speaking non-pilots andnative English speaking pilots responding to actual air traffic controller transmissions. A difference between these groups was predicted, given theircomparative AE familiarity. However, the difference in AE intelligibility proved to be stronger than expected. Additionally,results from licensed pilotsindicate that AE learning continues with flight experience, suggesting there may notbeadequate training prior toreliance on AE in flight