Nursing Students\u27 and Recent Graduates\u27 Observations of Fatphobia in the Clinical Setting

Objectives: To investigate the incidence of fatphobic behaviors among the healthcare team and how nursing students’ and recent graduates’ observations of fatphobic behaviors impact the provision of affirming care. Background: Weight stigma among healthcare providers can lead to fatphobia (e.g., hurtful or stigmatizing language, dismissal of symptoms). These experiences can negatively impact patients’ health and experiences with healthcare, leading some patients to avoid or delay seeking healthcare services. Fatphobia can also cause increased stress levels among patients, which places them at a higher risk of several diseases. The short-term and long-term effects of fatphobia lead overall worse health outcomes. Methods: A mixed-methods approach was used to develop a survey and distribute among undergraduate nursing students and recent graduates. Data collected included demographics, a Fat Phobia Scale, and both quantitative and qualitative questions about instances of observed fatphobia. Results: Participants (N=67) reported engaging in fatphobic behaviors themselves (n=20, 30%) and observing fatphobic behavior by their clinical instructor (n=14, 21%), nurse (n=23, 34%), and provider (n=20, 30%) engage in at least one fatphobic behavior. Participants also reported that others’ engagement in these behaviors makes it more difficult for them to provide affirming care (n=21, 31%). Conclusions: Nursing students and new graduates are observing multiple roles engage in multiple types of fatphobic behavior, which is making it more challenging for them to provide affirming care. Further research is needed on methods of reducing weight bias in healthcare

Automated progress identification and feedback in large experimental laboratories

In this work we describe a novel web-based system whose aim is to enhance the learning environment within experimental laboratories, and report on its deployment in undergraduate computer architecture modules. Student progress is tracked and recorded throughout the practical work, and supervisory facilities are provided including the visualisation of the progress of everyone in the laboratory on a management console. The system delivers information concerning the practical work to be undertaken, and uses carefully designed sets of questions based on the observations to be made by students in the laboratory. The responses made in this system are used to feedback further specific information to the student to aid their individual progress

Application-Specific Energy Modeling of Multi-Core Processors

Recent developments of high-end processors recognize energy monitoring and tuning as one of the main challenges towards achieving higher performance given the growing power and temperature constraints. Our thermal energy model is based on application-specific parameters such as consumed power, execution time, and equilibrium temperature as well as hardware-specific parameters such as half time for thermal rise or fall. As observed with the out-of-band instrumentation and monitoring infrastructure on our experimental cluster with air cooling, the temperature changes follow a relatively slow capacitor-style charge-discharge process. Therefore, we use the lumped thermal model that initiates an exponential process whenever there is a change in processor’s power consumption. Experiments with two codes – Firestarter and Nekbone – validate our approach and demonstrate its use for analyzing and potentially improving the application-specific balance between temperature, power, and performance

Towards an Application-Specific Thermal Energy Model of Current Processors

Recent developments of high-end processors recognize temperature monitoring and tuning as one of the main challenges towards achieving higher performance given the growing power and temperature constraints. To address this challenge, one needs both suitable thermal energy abstraction and corresponding instrumentation. Our model is based on application-specific parameters such as power consumption, execution time, and asymptotic temperature as well as hardware-specific parameters such as half time for thermal rise or fall. As observed with our out-of-band instrumentation and monitoring infrastructure, the temperature changes follow a relatively slow capacitor-style charge-discharge process. Therefore, we use the lumped thermal model that initiates an exponential process whenever there is a change in processor’s power consumption. Initial experiments with two codes – Firestarter and Nekbone – validate our thermal energy model and demonstrate its use for analyzing and potentially improving the application-specific balance between temperature, power, and performance

A comparison between omeprazole and a dietary supplement for the management of squamous gastric ulceration in horses

Although several studies have assessed the short-term effect of dietary supplements on the treatment and prevention of gastric ulceration in horses, few have assessed the response over a duration of more than 30 days. A blinded randomized noninferiority clinical trial was conducted using 42 Thoroughbred horses in race training with squamous ulceration of ≥ grade 2/4, randomly assigned to one of two treatment groups for a period of 90 days: omeprazole at the full label dose of 4 mg/kg or the Succeed digestive conditioning supplement. Noninferiority analyses and Wilcoxon sign rank tests were used to analyze the data. At day 90, Succeed was noninferior to 4 mg/kg omeprazole administered daily in terms of the proportion of horses with complete resolution of squamous ulceration. At day 30, Succeed was found to be inferior to omeprazole in terms of the proportion of horses with grade ≤1/4 squamous ulceration. The proportion of horses with reducing squamous ulcer score (compared with day 0) was statistically significant for both treatments at days 30 and 60. At day 90 of the 17 horses on Succeed, nine had a reducing squamous ulcer score (P value = .049), and of the 19 horses on omeprazole, 10 had a reducing squamous ulcer score at day 90 (P value = .091). The noninferiority of Succeed compared to omeprazole at 90 days for the complete resolution of squamous ulceration and the reduced efficacy of omeprazole following 90 days of treatment are likely to be of interest to practitioners managing gastric ulceration in performance horses

Exploring performance and power properties of modern multicore chips via simple machine models

Modern multicore chips show complex behavior with respect to performance and power. Starting with the Intel Sandy Bridge processor, it has become possible to directly measure the power dissipation of a CPU chip and correlate this data with the performance properties of the running code. Going beyond a simple bottleneck analysis, we employ the recently published Execution-Cache-Memory (ECM) model to describe the single- and multi-core performance of streaming kernels. The model refines the well-known roofline model, since it can predict the scaling and the saturation behavior of bandwidth-limited loop kernels on a multicore chip. The saturation point is especially relevant for considerations of energy consumption. From power dissipation measurements of benchmark programs with vastly different requirements to the hardware, we derive a simple, phenomenological power model for the Sandy Bridge processor. Together with the ECM model, we are able to explain many peculiarities in the performance and power behavior of multicore processors, and derive guidelines for energy-efficient execution of parallel programs. Finally, we show that the ECM and power models can be successfully used to describe the scaling and power behavior of a lattice-Boltzmann flow solver code.Comment: 23 pages, 10 figures. Typos corrected, DOI adde

A multiple-SIMD architecture for image and tracking analysis

The computational requirements for real-time image based applications are such as to warrant the use of a parallel architecture. Commonly used parallel architectures conform to the classifications of Single Instruction Multiple Data (SIMD), or Multiple Instruction Multiple Data (MIMD). Each class of architecture has its advantages and dis-advantages. For example, SIMD architectures can be used on data-parallel problems, such as the processing of an image. Whereas MIMD architectures are more flexible and better suited to general purpose computing. Both types of processing are typically required for the analysis of the contents of an image. This thesis describes a novel massively parallel heterogeneous architecture, implemented as the Warwick Pyramid Machine. Both SIMD and MIMD processor types are combined within this architecture. Furthermore, the SIMD array is partitioned, into smaller SIMD sub-arrays, forming a Multiple-SIMD array. Thus, local data parallel, global data parallel, and control parallel processing are supported. After describing the present options available in the design of massively parallel machines and the nature of the image analysis problem, the architecture of the Warwick Pyramid Machine is described in some detail. The performance of this architecture is then analysed, both in terms of peak available computational power and in terms of representative applications in image analysis and numerical computation. Two tracking applications are also analysed to show the performance of this architecture. In addition, they illustrate the possible partitioning of applications between the SIMD and MIMD processor arrays. Load-balancing techniques are then described which have the potential to increase the utilisation of the Warwick Pyramid Machine at run-time. These include mapping techniques for image regions across the Multiple-SIMD arrays, and for the compression of sparse data. It is envisaged that these techniques may be found useful in other parallel systems

Predicting the cache miss ratio of loop-nested array references

The time a program takes to execute can be massively affected by the efficiency with which it utilizes cache memory. Moreover the cache-miss behavior of a program can be highly unpredictable, in that small changes to input parameters can cause large changes in the number of misses. In this paper we present novel analytical models of the cache behavior of programs consisting mainly of array operations inside nested loops, for direct-mapped caches. The models are used to predict the miss-ratios of three example loop nests; the results are shown to be largely within ten percent of simulated values. A significant advantage is that the calculation time is proportional to the number of array references in the program, typically several orders of magnitude faster than traditional cache simulation methods