708 research outputs found
How Service Dogs Enhance Veterans’ Occupational Performance in the Home: A Qualitative Perspective
Background: This qualitative study explored the lives of veterans diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and/or traumatic brain injury (TBI) and how the partnerships with their service dogs supported improved occupational performance in their homes.
Method: Semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with six veterans with PTSD and/or TBI who graduated and received their service dogs from the Paws and Stripes Program in Albuquerque, NM. Home activities of daily living (self-care, household tasks, leisure activities, and family and friend relationships) guided the interview questions. The individual interviews were audio recorded, transcribed, and coded using qualitative data analysis software. Preliminary themes were independently developed by two graduate research assistants. Final themes and subthemes were generated by team consensus.
Results: The overarching theme was veteran and service dog partnerships improved occupational performance in the home. Four primary themes arose that supported the overarching theme: (a) providing physical safety and peace of mind; (b) supporting healthy behaviors; (c) my service dog, my hero; and (d) influencing family and friend relationships.
Discussion: Findings from this study support that veteran and service dog partnerships improved the veterans’ occupational performance in their homes. The service dogs assisted the veterans on physical and emotional levels and improved their healthy behaviors
Multi-layered Ruthenium-modified Bond Coats for Thermal Barrier Coatings
Diffusional approaches for fabrication of multi-layered Ru-modified bond coats for thermal
barrier coatings have been developed via low activity chemical vapor deposition and high activity
pack aluminization. Both processes yield bond coats comprising two distinct B2 layers, based on
NiAl and RuAl, however, the position of these layers relative to the bond coat surface is reversed
when switching processes. The structural evolution of each coating at various stages of the
fabrication process has been and subsequent cyclic oxidation is presented, and the relevant
interdiffusion and phase equilibria issues in are discussed. Evaluation of the oxidation behavior of
these Ru-modified bond coat structures reveals that each B2 interlayer arrangement leads to the
formation of α-Al 2 O 3 TGO at 1100°C, but the durability of the TGO is somewhat different and in
need of further improvement in both cases
PhOTO Zebrafish: A Transgenic Resource for In Vivo Lineage Tracing during Development and Regeneration
Background: Elucidating the complex cell dynamics (divisions, movement, morphological changes, etc.) underlying embryonic development and adult tissue regeneration requires an efficient means to track cells with high fidelity in space and time. To satisfy this criterion, we developed a transgenic zebrafish line, called PhOTO, that allows photoconvertible optical tracking of nuclear and membrane dynamics in vivo.
Methodology: PhOTO zebrafish ubiquitously express targeted blue fluorescent protein (FP) Cerulean and photoconvertible FP Dendra2 fusions, allowing for instantaneous, precise targeting and tracking of any number of cells using Dendra2 photoconversion while simultaneously monitoring global cell behavior and morphology. Expression persists through adulthood, making the PhOTO zebrafish an excellent tool for studying tissue regeneration: after tail fin amputation and photoconversion of a ~100µm stripe along the cut area, marked differences seen in how cells contribute to the new tissue give detailed insight into the dynamic process of regeneration. Photoconverted cells that contributed to the regenerate were separated into three distinct populations corresponding to the extent of cell division 7 days after amputation, and a subset of cells that divided the least were organized into an evenly spaced, linear orientation along the length of the newly regenerating fin.
Conclusions/Significance: PhOTO zebrafish have wide applicability for lineage tracing at the systems-level in the early embryo as well as in the adult, making them ideal candidate tools for future research in development, traumatic injury and regeneration, cancer progression, and stem cell behavior
On the precision of the theoretical predictions for pi pi scattering
In a recent paper, Pelaez and Yndurain evaluate some of the low energy
observables of pi pi scattering and obtain flat disagreement with our earlier
results. The authors work with unsubtracted dispersion relations, so that their
results are very sensitive to the poorly known high energy behaviour of the
scattering amplitude. They claim that the asymptotic representation we used is
incorrect and propose an alternative one. We repeat their calculations on the
basis of the standard, subtracted fixed-t dispersion relations, using their
asymptotics. The outcome fully confirms our earlier findings. Moreover, we show
that the Regge parametrization proposed by these authors for the region above
1.4 GeV violates crossing symmetry: Their ansatz is not consistent with the
behaviour observed at low energies.Comment: Added more material, mostly in Sects. 7, 8 and 9, in support of the
same conclusions. Latex, 28 pages, 3 figure
How Service Dogs Enhance Veterans ’ Occupational Performance in the Home: A Qualitative Perspective
Background: This qualitative study explored the lives of veterans diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and/or traumatic brain injury (TBI) and how the partnerships with their service dogs supported improved occupational performance in their homes.
Method: Semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with six veterans with PTSD and/or TBI who graduated and received their service dogs from the Paws and Stripes Program in Albuquerque, NM. Home activities of daily living (self-care, household tasks, leisure activities, and family and friend relationships) guided the interview questions. The individual interviews were audio recorded, transcribed, and coded using qualitative data analysis software. Preliminary themes were independently developed by two graduate research assistants. Final themes and subthemes were generated by team consensus.
Results: The overarching theme was veteran and service dog partnerships improved occupational performance in the home. Four primary themes arose that supported the overarching theme: (a) providing physical safety and peace of mind; (b) supporting healthy behaviors; (c) my service dog, my hero; and (d) influencing family and friend relationships.
Discussion: Findings from this study support that veteran and service dog partnerships improved the veterans’ occupational performance in their homes. The service dogs assisted the veterans on physical and emotional levels and improved their healthy behaviors
Fomin's conception of quantum cosmogenesis
The main aim of this paper is to extend the early approach to quantum
cosmogenesis provided by Fomin. His approach was developed independently to the
well-known Tryon description of the creation of the closed universe as a
process of quantum fluctuation of vacuum. We apply the Fomin concept to derive
the cosmological observables. We argue that Fomin's idea from his 1973 work, in
contrast to Tryon's one has impact on the current Universe models and the
proposed extension of his theory now can be tested by distant supernovae SNIa.
Fomin's idea of the creation of the Universe is based on the intersection of
two fundamental theories: general relativity and quantum field theory with the
contemporary cosmological models with dark energy. As a result of comparison
with contemporary approaches concerning dark energy, we found out that Fomin's
idea appears in the context of the present acceleration of the Universe
explanation: cosmological models with decaying vacuum. Contemporary it appears
in the form of Ricci scalar dark energy connected with the holographic
principle. We show also that the Fomin model admits the bounce instead of the
initial singularity. We demonstrate that the Fomin model of cosmogenesis can be
falsified and using SNIa data the values of model parameters is in agreement
with observations.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures; (v2) 22 pages, references added, figures
improved; (v3) rewritten using revtex4; (v4) minor changes; (v5) improved
formulas and extended statistical analysi
Do UK universities communicate their brands effectively through their websites?
This paper attempts to explore the effectiveness of UK universities’ websites. The area of branding in higher education has received increasing academic investigation, but little work has researched how universities demonstrate their brand promises through their websites. The quest to differentiate through branding can be challenging in the university context, however. It is argued that those institutions that have a strong distinctive image will be in a better position to face a changing future. Employing a multistage methodology, the web pages of twenty UK universities were investigated by using a combination of content and multivariable analysis. Results indicated ‘traditional values’ such as teaching and research were often well communicated in terms of online brand but ‘emotional values’ like social responsibility and the universities’ environments were less consistently communicated, despite their increased topicality. It is therefore suggested that emotional values may offer a basis for possible future online differentiation
Spontaneous Creation of Inflationary Universes and the Cosmic Landscape
We study some gravitational instanton solutions that offer a natural
realization of the spontaneous creation of inflationary universes in the brane
world context in string theory. Decoherence due to couplings of higher
(perturbative) modes of the metric as well as matter fields modifies the
Hartle-Hawking wavefunction for de Sitter space. Generalizing this new
wavefunction to be used in string theory, we propose a principle in string
theory that hopefully will lead us to the particular vacuum we live in, thus
avoiding the anthropic principle. As an illustration of this idea, we give a
phenomenological analysis of the probability of quantum tunneling to various
stringy vacua. We find that the preferred tunneling is to an inflationary
universe (like our early universe), not to a universe with a very small
cosmological constant (i.e., like today's universe) and not to a 10-dimensional
uncompactified de Sitter universe. Such preferred solutions are interesting as
they offer a cosmological mechanism for the stabilization of extra dimensions
during the inflationary epoch.Comment: 52 pages, 7 figures, 1 table. Added discussion on supercritical
string vacua, added reference
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