COVID-19 Surge: Extraordinary Response to Unprecedented Times

Background Beginning in March of 2019, during intermittent COVID-19 pandemic surges, large influxes of patients overwhelmed the COVID-19 patient care areas. These areas were challenged with having adequate staff to perform all the tasks necessary to provide safe and comprehensive care. Staff were overwhelmed and stressed. Project Goals/Objective The purpose of the development of a labor pool was to emergently and systematically provide support staff to hospital COVID-19 patient care and other areas during times of patient surge. Methods of Implementation • Innovative concept of a Labor Pool emerged to optimize staffing during COVID-19 crisis with collaborative efforts of both nursing teams and Human Resources. • Non-direct patient care staff from across organization were asked to volunteer to provide extra support in COVID-19 areas. • Labor Pool included staff from various departments. • To assist direct care nurses: Non-clinical nurses re-trained to take vital signs and make phone calls to update families that could not come to visit. Nursing students teamed up with clinical partners. Dietary increased delivery to accommodate high demand of food requests. Environmental department deployed key personnel to areas in most need. Office personnel helped take temperatures at employee entrances. • These opportunities allowed many staff members to feel part of nursing team. Outcomes Through the implementation of the Labor Pool, non-direct care staff were deployed to COVID-19 patient care areas. The clinical staff in these areas felt supported and relieved. The Labor Pool proved to be an innovative initiative that benefited the clinical staff, patients and healthcare organization. Discussion The unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic patient surges brought about out-of-the-box thinking on how to help support the clinical staff. The extraordinary collaboration will remind us thru history that teamwork between departments in the hospital setting is vital for the survival of the nursing team

Resoluçâo de problemas matemáticos no ensino fundamental

Neste trabalho, apresentamos os resultados do primeiro ano de uma pesquisa experimental e longitudinal que investiga a resolução de problemas matemáticos por estudantes dos anos iniciais do Ensino Fundamental de uma escola pública no sul do Brasil. O objetivo é buscar o aprimoramento no desempenho dos alunos dos anos iniciais do Ensino Fundamental em resolução de problemas matemáticos aditivos e multiplicativos, qualificando a prática docente a partir de estratégias de formação continuada de seus professores. A comparação do desempenho dos estudantes no pré-teste e no pós-teste evidenciou avanços significativos em todas as séries, exceto no 6º ano do Ensino Fundamental

Teacher Education and Internship: An Evaluation of Alignment Between Preparation, Practice, and the Necessity of Engagement with Social Emotional Learning

Teacher education programs are established to create opportunities for preservice teachers to learn actively through course work and practicum experiences. This mixed methods study looked to understand preservice perceptions of their program post covid and to assess their perceived proficiency as an educator, by examining expectations placed on preservice teachers to indicate that there is a gap in their understanding of important concepts related to pedagogy and their application of best practices. The preservice teacher survey indicated a positive experience during their practicum experiences but the skill application for behavior management, flexibility, and classroom processes indicated limited experience and little empathetic understanding. The aim of this study is to reevaluate teacher education programs to better support and provide authentic opportunities for pedagogical skill development before graduation

Comparative Anatomy of a Presorted Pot-load of Yearling Steers

One load (n = 72; initial BW = 745 ± 54.5) of grass-raised Angus-cross yearling steers was purchased from a sale barn in north central South Dakota. The steers were sorted into load lots by sale barn personnel from a larger group of 1200. Upon arrival, steers were used in the 4-day Feedlot Shortcourse before being weighed and appraised for visual differences. Cattle were divided (randomly) into 8 groups of 9 head each. One steer was randomly selected from each of the eight groups to make a 9th group of steers comprised of each classification. The steers were fed until they reached an average visual ribfat depth of 0.40 in. The data would show that even though cattle came from one owner, variation does exist for feedlot and carcass characteristics. This variation can affect marketing endpoints, and if not managed properly, can cause a decrease in profitability

The FRIGG project: From intermediate galactic scales to self-gravitating cores

Abridged. Understanding the detailed structure of the interstellar gas is essential for our knowledge of the star formation process. The small-scale structure of the interstellar medium (ISM) is a direct consequence of the galactic scales and making the link between the two is essential. We perform adaptive mesh simulations that aim to bridge the gap between the intermediate galactic scales and the self-gravitating prestellar cores. For this purpose we use stratified supernova regulated ISM magneto-hydrodynamical (MHD) simulations at the kpc scale to set up the initial conditions. We then zoom, performing a series of concentric uniform refinement and then refining on the Jeans length for the last levels. This allows us to reach a spatial resolution of a few $10^{-3}$ pc. The cores are identified using a clump finder and various criteria based on virial analysis. Their most relevant properties are computed and, due to the large number of objects formed in the simulations, reliable statistics are obtained. The cores properties show encouraging agreements with observations. The mass spectrum presents a clear powerlaw at high masses with an exponent close to $\simeq -1.3$ and a peak at about 1-2 $M_\odot$. The velocity dispersion and the angular momentum distributions are respectively a few times the local sound speed and a few $10^{-2}$ pc km s$^{-1}$. We also find that the distribution of thermally supercritical cores present a range of magnetic mass-to-flux over critical mass-to-flux ratio which typically ranges between $\simeq$0.3 and 3.Comment: accepted for publication in A&

Detection limits of organic compounds achievable with intense, short-pulse lasers

Many organic molecules have strong absorption bands which can be accessed by ultraviolet short pulse lasers to produce efficient ionization. This resonant multiphoton ionization scheme has already been exploited as an ionization source in time-of-flight mass spectrometers used for environmental trace analysis. In the present work we quantify the ultimate potential of this technique by measuring absolute ion yields produced from the interaction of 267 nm femtosecond laser pulses with the organic molecules indole and toluene, and gases Xe, N2 and O2. Using multiphoton ionization cross sections extracted from these results, we show that the laser pulse parameters required for real-time detection of aromatic molecules at concentrations of one part per trillion in air and a limit of detection of a few attomoles are achievable with presently available commercial laser systems. The potential applications for the analysis of human breath, blood and tissue samples are discussed