Alien Registration- Astle, George L. (Millinocket, Penobscot County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/7922/thumbnail.jp

ECMAN A Standard Database Management System for Electronic Chart Display and Information Systems (ECDIS)

Electronic Charting made its debut over 10 years ago in the Canadian Arctic. At that time, its applications were limited to keeping a ship in the centre of a very narrow, ice filled channel. Today, electronic charting is viewed by some as being an answer to many of the major concerns of the shipping industry. Electronic charts can provide the information, currently available in the various formats and locations on the bridge, in a single integrated display system. To do so, this information must be accessible and properly managed. This paper reviews Universal Systems’ solution to the data management requirements of electronic charting

Mapping the role of sexuality in adolescent mental health and substance use

Individuals who belong to a sexual minority are at greater risk of adverse health and social outcomes. These effects are observed during adolescence when many mental health problems, such as depression, first emerge. Here, we used a network analytic approach to better understand the role that sexual minority status plays in the association between depression, interpersonal difficulties and substance use in a large sample of mid-adolescents. In doing so, we used data from 8017 fourteen year olds from the UK’s Millennium Cohort Study, of which 490 self-identified as belonging to a sexual minority. We found that sexual minority status was highly central in the network and connected to multiple adverse outcomes, sometimes directly and sometimes indirectly. The largest single association was between sexual minority status and depression, and this link mediated multiple negative associations with being in a sexual minority. The shortest path to drinking, poor social support and closeness with parents and victimization occurred via depression. The shortest path to smoking and drug use occurred via conduct problems. We also identified three distinct profiles of adverse outcomes among those belonging to a sexual minority, highlighting the heterogeneous nature of this group

Exploring standardized persons\u27 expectations for practice-readiness among student pharmacists

Although patient expectations and preferences for healthcare selection have been described in the literature, there are no studies exploring what qualities and behaviors standardized persons (SPs) identify for the practice-ready pharmacist. This manuscript explores those qualities and behaviors within an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) to determine SP interest in having the student as their pharmacy provider. Methods: Using open-ended questions via a Qualtrics survey, SPs were asked to provide qualities and behaviors they associated with each of three practice-readiness rating levels. Using a constant comparative approach, the researchers coded the collected data over multiple stages to allow for authentic reflection and interpretation of the data. Coders used both inductive and deductive processes prior to establishing a unified understanding and corresponding codebook. Results: A total of 55 SPs (61.1% response rate) participated in the survey, with the majority of participants working for the organization no more than two years (58.2%). Through the coding process, several major themes emerged across each of the three ratings including professionalism, patient-centered skills, communication, and preparation. Findings indicated the differences in ratings were influenced by the degree that students demonstrated each theme. Conclusions: Overall, these findings provide a better understanding of the qualities and behaviors SPs associate with student pharmacists completing OSCEs acting as practicing pharmacists. However, additional research is needed to determine if the same qualities and behaviors would be viewed as essential with SPs at other academic institutions

Developing a self-assessment instrument to evaluate practice-readiness among student pharmacists

This chapter explores the role of self-assessment in the development of professional identity formation within student pharmacists

Subjective SES is Associated with Children's Neurophysiological Response to Auditory Oddballs

Language and reading acquisitions are strongly associated with a child’s socioeconomic status (SES). There are a number of potential explanations for this relationship. We explore one potential explanation—a child’s SES is associated with how children discriminate word-like sounds (i.e., phonological processing), a foundational skill for reading acquisition. Magnetoencephalography data from a sample of 71 children (aged 6 years and 11 months–12 years and 3 months), during a passive auditory oddball task containing word and nonword deviants, were used to test “where” (which sensors) and “when” (at what time) any association may occur. We also investigated associations between cognition, education, and this neurophysiological response. We report differences in the neural processing of word and nonword deviant tones at an early N200 component (likely representing early sensory processing) and a later P300 component (likely representing attentional and/or semantic processing). More interestingly we found “parental subjective” SES (the parents rating of their own relative affluence) was convincingly associated with later responses, but there were no significant associations with equivalized income. This suggests that the SES as rated by their parents is associated with underlying phonological detection skills. Furthermore, this correlation likely occurs at a later time point in information processing, associated with semantic and attentional processes. In contrast, household income is not significantly associated with these skills. One possibility is that the subjective assessment of SES is more impactful on neural mechanisms of phonological processing than the less complex and more objective measure of household income

Task-specific transfer of perceptual learning across sensory modalities

It is now widely accepted that primary cortical areas of the brain that were once thought to be sensory-specific undergo significant functional reorganisation following sensory deprivation. For instance, loss of vision or audition leads to the brain areas normally associated with these senses being recruited by the remaining sensory modalities [1]. Despite this, little is known about the rules governing crossmodal plasticity in people who experience typical sensory development, or the potential behavioural consequences. Here, we used a novel perceptual learning paradigm to assess whether the benefits associated with training on a task in one sense transfer to another sense. Participants were randomly assigned to a spatial or temporal task that could be performed visually or aurally, which they practiced for five days; before and after training, we measured discrimination thresholds on all four conditions and calculated the extent of transfer between them. Our results show a clear transfer of learning between sensory modalities; however, generalisation was limited to particular conditions. Specifically, learned improvements on the spatial task transferred from the visual domain to the auditory domain, but not vice versa. Conversely, benefits derived from training on the temporal task transferred from the auditory domain to visual domain, but not vice versa. These results suggest a unidirectional transfer of perceptual learning from dominant to non-dominant sensory modalities and place important constraints on models of multisensory processing and plasticity

The Effect of Perceptual Learning on Face Recognition in Individuals with Central Vision Loss

Purpose: To examine whether perceptual learning could improve face discrimination and recognition in older adults with central vision loss. Methods: Ten participants with age-related macular degeneration (ARMD) received 5 days of training on a face discrimination task (mean age: 78±10 years). We measured the magnitude of improvements (i.e., a reduction in threshold size at which faces were able to be discriminated) and whether they generalised to an untrained face recognition task. Measurements of visual acuity, fixation stability, and preferred retinal locus were taken before and after training to contextualize learning-related effects. The performance of the ARMD training group was compared to nine untrained age-matched controls (8=ARMD, 1=juvenile macular degeneration; mean age: 77±10 years). Results: Perceptual learning on the face discrimination task reduced threshold size for face discrimination performance in the trained group (mean change(SD): -32.7%(+15.9%)). The threshold for performance on the face recognition task also reduced (mean change(SD): - 22.4%(+2.31%)). These changes were independent of changes in visual acuity, fixation stability, or preferred retinal locus. Untrained participants showed no statistically significant reduction in threshold size for face discrimination (mean change(SD): -8.3%(+10.1%) or face recognition (mean change(SD): +2.36%(-5.12%)).” Conclusions: This study shows that face discrimination and recognition can be reliably improved in ARMD using perceptual learning. The benefits point to considerable perceptual plasticity in higher-level cortical areas involved in face-processing. This novel finding highlights that a key visual difficulty in those suffering from ARMD is readily amenable to rehabilitation

Is point-of-care testing feasible and safe in care homes in England? An exploratory usability and accuracy evaluation of a point-of-care polymerase chain reaction test for SARS-CoV-2

Introduction: Reliable rapid testing for COVID-19 is needed in care homes to reduce the risk of outbreaks and enable timely care. This study aimed to examine the usability and test performance of a point of care polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test for detection of SARS-CoV-2 (POCKITTM Central) in care homes. Methods: POCKITTM Central was evaluated in a purposeful sample of four UK care homes. Test agreement with laboratory real-time PCR and usability and used errors were assessed. Results: No significant usability-related hazards emerged, and the sources of error identified were found to be amendable with minor changes in training or test workflow. POCKITTM Central has acceptable sensitivity and specificity based on RT-PCR as the reference standard, especially for symptomatic cases. Asymptomatic specimens showed 83.3% (95% confidence interval (CI): 35.9–99.6%) positive agreement and 98.7% negative agreement (95% CI: 96.2–99.7%), with overall prevalence and bias-adjusted kappa (PABAK) of 0.965 (95% CI: 0.932– 0.999). Symptomatic specimens showed 100% (95% CI: 2.5–100%) positive agreement and 100% negative agreement (95% CI: 85.8–100%), with overall PABAK of 1. Recommendations are provided to mitigate the frequency of occurrence of the residual use errors observed. Integration pathways were discussed to identify opportunities and limitations of adopting POCKIT™ Central for screening and diagnostic testing purposes. Conclusions: Point-of-care PCR testing in care homes can be considered with appropriate preparatory steps and safeguards. Further diagnostic accuracy evaluations and in-service evaluation studies should be conducted, if the test is to be implemented more widely, to build greater certainty on this initial exploratory analysis