Breast Self-Examination Teaching for Women in Chemical Dependency Programs

Fifty-two women from 5 chemical dependency programs participated in a 1 hour health education program teaching breast self-examination using breast models. Tactile skills and general information about breast cancer and breast self-examination were presented. The program was evaluated for its ability to teach this high risk population. Nine true/false questions and lump detection skills were evaluated using_a pretest/posttest non-experimental design. A level of significance for the true/false questions was set at .01, and for lump detection skills it was set at .05. Dependent t tests was used to statistically analyze the data. Participants improved their general knowledge about breast cancer and self-examination as a result of this program (p \u3c.01). Lump detection skills also improved (p \u3c.05). This study indicates health education programs are of value and can potentially decrease the survival discrepancy for breast cancer for a specific high risk population

Test and Analysis of Foam Impacting a 6x6 Inch RCC Flat Panel

This report presents the testing and analyses of a foam projectile impacting onto thirteen 6x6 inch flat panels at a 90 degrees incidence angle. The panels tested in this investigation were fabricated of Reinforced-Carbon-Carbon material and were used to aid in the validation of an existing material model, MAT58. The computational analyses were performed using LS-DYNA, which is a physics-based, nonlinear, transient, finite element code used for analyzing material responses subjected to high impact forces and other dynamic conditions. The test results were used to validate LS-DYNA predictions and to determine the threshold of damage generated by the MAT58 cumulative damage material model. The threshold of damage parameter represents any external or internal visible RCC damage detectable by nondestructive evaluation techniques

Thermo-responsive, UV-active poly(phenyl acrylate)-b-poly(diethyl acrylamide) block copolymers

The homopolymerization of phenyl acrylate (PA) was investigated for the first time by nitroxide mediated polymerization (NMP) with the succinimidyl form of the SG1-based unimolecular initiator 2-[N-tert-butyl-2,2-(dimethylpropyl)-aminooxy]propionic acid (BlocBuilder MA). The control of PPA homopolymerization was improved by the use of 15 mol% additional free nitroxide SG1 ([tert-butyl[1-(diethoxyphosphoryl)-2,2-dimethylpropyl]amino]oxidanyl) and dispersities, Mw/Mn, of around 1.2 were achieved. A PPA homopolymer was then successfully chain-extended with diethyl acrylamide (DEAAm) to form a block copolymer of PPA-b-PDEAAm where the PDEAAm segment is thermo-responsive, while the PPA block is potentially UV-active. The thermo-responsive behavior of the block copolymer in 0.5 wt% aqueous solution was studied by UV-Vis spectrometry and dynamic light scattering (DLS), indicating cloud point temperatures of 26–30°C, close to that reported for PDEAAm homopolymers

LAURA Users Manual: 5.6

This users manual provides in-depth information concerning installation and execution of Laura, version 5. Laura is a structured, multiblock, computational aerothermodynamic simulation code. Version 5 represents a major refactoring of the original Fortran 77 Laura code toward a modular structure afforded by Fortran 95. The refactoring improved usability and maintainability by eliminating the requirement for problem-dependent recompilations, providing more intuitive distribution of functionality, and simplifying inter- faces required for multi-physics coupling. As a result, Laura now shares gas-physics modules, MPI modules, and other low-level modules with the Fun3D unstructured-grid code. In addition to internal refactoring, several new features and capabilities have been added, e.g., a GNU-standard installation process, parallel load balancing, automatic trajectory point sequencing, free-energy minimization, and coupled ablation and flow field radiation

Estimating Color-Concept Associations from Image Statistics

To interpret the meanings of colors in visualizations of categorical information, people must determine how distinct colors correspond to different concepts. This process is easier when assignments between colors and concepts in visualizations match people's expectations, making color palettes semantically interpretable. Efforts have been underway to optimize color palette design for semantic interpretablity, but this requires having good estimates of human color-concept associations. Obtaining these data from humans is costly, which motivates the need for automated methods. We developed and evaluated a new method for automatically estimating color-concept associations in a way that strongly correlates with human ratings. Building on prior studies using Google Images, our approach operates directly on Google Image search results without the need for humans in the loop. Specifically, we evaluated several methods for extracting raw pixel content of the images in order to best estimate color-concept associations obtained from human ratings. The most effective method extracted colors using a combination of cylindrical sectors and color categories in color space. We demonstrate that our approach can accurately estimate average human color-concept associations for different fruits using only a small set of images. The approach also generalizes moderately well to more complicated recycling-related concepts of objects that can appear in any color.Comment: IEEE VIS InfoVis 2019 ACM 2012 CSS: 1) Human-centered computing, Human computer interaction (HCI), Empirical studies in HCI 2) Human-centered computing, Human computer interaction (HCI), HCI design and evaluation methods, Laboratory experiments 3) Human-centered computing, Visualization, Empirical studies in visualizatio

Aspects of topology of condensates and knotted solitons in condensed matter systems

The knotted solitons introduced by Faddeev and Niemi is presently a subject of great interest in particle and mathematical physics. In this paper we give a condensed matter interpretation of the recent results of Faddeev and Niemi.Comment: v2: Added a reference to the paper E. Babaev, L.D. Faddeev and A.J. Niemi cond-mat/0106152 where an exact equivalence was shown between the two-condensate Ginzburg-Landau model and a version of Faddeev model. Miscelaneous links related to knotted solitons are available at the author homepage at http://www.teorfys.uu.se/PEOPLE/egor/ . Animations of knotted solitons by Hietarinta and Salo are available at http://users.utu.fi/h/hietarin/knots/c45_p2.mp

Context Matters: A Theory of Semantic Discriminability for Perceptual Encoding Systems

People's associations between colors and concepts influence their ability to interpret the meanings of colors in information visualizations. Previous work has suggested such effects are limited to concepts that have strong, specific associations with colors. However, although a concept may not be strongly associated with any colors, its mapping can be disambiguated in the context of other concepts in an encoding system. We articulate this view in semantic discriminability theory, a general framework for understanding conditions determining when people can infer meaning from perceptual features. Semantic discriminability is the degree to which observers can infer a unique mapping between visual features and concepts. Semantic discriminability theory posits that the capacity for semantic discriminability for a set of concepts is constrained by the difference between the feature-concept association distributions across the concepts in the set. We define formal properties of this theory and test its implications in two experiments. The results show that the capacity to produce semantically discriminable colors for sets of concepts was indeed constrained by the statistical distance between color-concept association distributions (Experiment 1). Moreover, people could interpret meanings of colors in bar graphs insofar as the colors were semantically discriminable, even for concepts previously considered "non-colorable" (Experiment 2). The results suggest that colors are more robust for visual communication than previously thought.Comment: To Appear in IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphic

Content validation of a new measure of patient-reported barriers to antiretroviral therapy adherence, the I-Score: results from a Delphi study

Background Over a third of people living with HIV (PLHIV) have suboptimal adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART). Measures of barriers to ART adherence often lack comprehensiveness. To help manage ART adherence barriers in HIV care, we are developing a new patient-reported outcome measure (PROM) of these barriers (the I-Score). Methods We assessed the content validity of 100 items (distinct barriers) to retain only those most relevant to both PLHIV and HIV health/social service providers. A web-based Delphi was conducted in Canada and France, collecting data from December 2018 to October 2019. Items were evaluated on relevance (the combined rated importance and actionability for HIV care of items among both PLHIV and providers); comprehensibility (rated item clarity); comprehensiveness (examined against our conceptual framework); cross-cultural equivalence (based on comparisons by questionnaire language (English, French) and country of residence). Pearson’s chi-square tests were used for comparisons by language, country, gender, and stakeholder group (PLHIV, providers). Results Panelists included 40 PLHIV and 57 providers (66% response rate). Thirty-one items were retained based on consensus thresholds for relevance (minimum: 50% for PLHIV, 60% for providers) and showed good comprehensibility and comprehensiveness, when compared to our conceptual framework (representation of: 6/6 domains, 15/20 subdomains). No significant difference in relevance based on language or country was found among retained items, suggestive of cross-cultural equivalence. Among all 100 items, only 6 significant differences on relevance were observed for gender. For 62 items, the relevance ratings of PLHIV and providers differed significantly, with providers showing greater endorsement of all items but one. Discussion The Delphi led to a much-needed item reduction. Remaining items highlight the panel’s multidimensional priorities for the PROM on ART adherence barriers, with few, if any, differences by language, country, and gender. While the analyses may lack generalizability and power, the sample size is considered adequate for a PROM validation study. Conclusion Retained items showed good content validity. The different patterns of item endorsement observed underscore the utility of engaging multiple stakeholder groups in PROM development for use in clinical practice. The greater endorsement of items by providers versus patients merits further investigation, including the implications of such differentials for measure development.KE is partially supported by a SPOR Mentorship Chair in Innovative Clinical Trials awarded by the CIHR to BL (Grant No. 383427). BL is supported by a career award, LE 250, from the Quebec Ministry of Health for researchers in Family Medicine. The Delphi benefited from methodological expertise and funding from the Quebec SPOR Support Unit -McGill Methodological Developments Platform (Grant No. M006). The Delphi is a subproject of the PROM development study, the I-Score Study, which is supported, in part, by the CIHR HIV Clinical Trials Network (CTN 283) and by a research Grant from the Investigator Initiated Studies Program of Merck Canada Inc. (Grant No. IISP-53538), neither of which had a hand in the design, conduct, or writing up of this work. The opinions expressed in this study are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of Merck Canada Inc or its affiliates or related companies