Epidemiology and burden of nasal congestion

Nasal congestion, which may be described as fullness, obstruction, reduced airflow, or being "stuffed up," is a commonly encountered symptom in clinical practice. Systematic study of congestion has largely considered it as a component of a disease state. Conditions associated with congestion include nasal polyposis, obstructive sleep apnea, and anatomic variation; however, most information on the burden of congestion comes from studies of allergic rhinitis and rhinosinusitis, diseases of which congestion is the major symptom. Congestion can be caused by other rhinologic conditions, such as non-allergic rhinitis, viral or bacterial rhinitis, and vasomotor rhinitis. Allergic rhinitis affects as much as one quarter of the population worldwide and imposes a significant economic burden. Additionally, allergic rhinitis significantly impairs quality of life; congestion causes allergic rhinitis sufferers decreased daytime productivity at work or school and reduces night-time sleep time and quality. Annually, rhinosinusitis affects tens of millions of Americans and leads to approximately $6 billion in overall health care expenditures; it has been found to be one of the most costly physical conditions for US employers. Given the high prevalence and significant social and economic burden of nasal congestion, this symptom should be a key consideration in treating patients with rhinologic disease, and there continues to be a significant unmet medical need for effective treatment options for this condition. © 2010 Stewart et al

Improving the viability of mental models held by novice programmers

Recent research has found that many novice programmers often hold non-viable mental models of basic programming concepts such as assignment and object reference. This paper proposes a constructivist-based teaching model, integrating a cognitive conflict strategy with program visualization, with the aim of improving novice programmers’ mental models. The results of a preliminary empirical study suggest that, for the relatively straightforward concept of assignment, tight integration of program visualization with a cognitive conflict event that highlights a student’s inappropriate understanding can help improve students’ non-viable mental models. 14 out of 18 participants who held non-viable mental models of the assignment process successfully changed their model to be viable as a result of the proposed teaching model

Food Preservation by Freezing

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Blood perfusion changes during sacral nerve root stimulation versus surface gluteus electrical stimulation on in seated spinal cord injury

Objective: To examine dynamic changes of ischial blood perfusion during sacral nerve root stimulation against surface functional electrical stimulation (FES). Methods: Fourteen adults with suprasacral complete spinal cord injury were recruited. The gluteal maximus was activated by surface FES or stimulating sacral nerve roots by functional magnetic stimulation (FMS) or a sacral anterior root stimulator implant (SARS). Ischial skin index of haemoglobin (IHB) and oxygenation (IOX) was measured. Results: Skin blood perfusion was significantly higher during FMS than the baseline (IHB 1.05±0.21 before vs. 1.08±0.02 during stimulation, P=0.03; IOX 0.18 ± 0.21 before vs. 0.46 ± 0.30, P=0.01 during stimulation, n=6). Similarly, when using the SARS implant, we also observed that blood perfusion significantly increased (IHB 1.01 ± 0.02 before vs. 1.07 ±0.02 during stimulation, P=0.003; IOX 0.79±0.81 before vs. 2.2±1.21 during stimulation, P=0.03, n=6). However, there was no significant change of blood perfusion during surface FES. Among 4 participants who completed both the FMS and FES studies, the magnitude of increase in both parameters was significantly higher during FMS. Conclusion: This study demonstrates that using SARS implant is more efficient to activate gluteal muscles and confer better benefit on blood perfusion than applying traditional FES in SCI population

The Promise of Adulthood

How do we assure ourselves that [our severely disabled son] Ian is somehow contributing to all the choices that get made about what constitutes a good adult life for him? We have created new options for Ian and others as we have struggled to answer these ques-tions. We have also increased our understanding of what it means for someone who has a variety of severe disabilities to be adult.https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/education_books/1014/thumbnail.jp

Winks, Blinks, Squints, and Twitches: Looking for Disability and Culture through Our Son’s Left Eye

In this article, we argue that while an appreciation of disability\u27s cultural context is fundamental, we should be careful not to replace one essentialist version of disability with a new one. We look at the relational patterns that emerge from the specific circumstances of significant intellectual disability. This article follows Clifford Geertz’ well‐known account of the multiple layers of cultural context and interpretive richness raised by even a seemingly simple act such as winking. By exploring the meaning of son\u27s ability to wink, we argue that intellectual disability may be interpreted as the absence of culture. The article goes on to explore the fragility of this relationship through the example of the cultural status of adulthood. Two recent reform initiatives ‐ independent living and community inclusion ‐ are discussed in light of this interpretation of intellectual disability. Implications for further research are briefly mentioned

The integration and evaluation of a social-media facilitated journal club to enhance the student learning experience of evidence-based practice: A case study

© 2016 Elsevier Ltd Introduction Nurses are required to interpret and apply knowledge so communities will receive care based on best available evidence, as opposed to care that is simply based on tradition or authority. Fostering nursing students' critical appraisal skills will assist in their capacity to engage with, interpret and use best evidence. Journal clubs are frequently used approach to engage learners with research and develop critical appraisal skills. Given new flipped and blended approaches to teaching and learning there is need to rejuvenate how research is utilised and integrated within journal clubs to maximise engagement and translation of evidence. Purpose This paper provides a case study of a single site Australian university experience of transitioning a traditional physical journal club, to a social media-facilitated club within a postgraduate health subject to stimulate and facilitate engagement with the chosen manuscripts. Data Sources This case study is based on our own experiences, supported by literature and includes qualitative comments obtained via student feedback surveys during November 2015. Design Case study. Implications for Nursing and Conclusion Social media-facilitated journal clubs offer an efficient way to continue developing critical appraisal skills in nursing students. The integration of a social media-facilitated journal clubs increased student attention, engagement with presented activities and overall student satisfaction within this evidence-based practice subject. Future rigorously-designed, large-scale studies are required to evaluate the impact of online journal clubs on the uptake of evidence-based practice, including those resulting in improved patient outcomes

Reconfigurable quadruple quantum dots in a silicon nanowire transistor

We present a novel reconfigurable metal-oxide-semiconductor multi-gate transistor that can host a quadruple quantum dot in silicon. The device consist of an industrial quadruple-gate silicon nanowire field-effect transistor. Exploiting the corner effect, we study the versatility of the structure in the single quantum dot and the serial double quantum dot regimes and extract the relevant capacitance parameters. We address the fabrication variability of the quadruple-gate approach which, paired with improved silicon fabrication techniques, makes the corner state quantum dot approach a promising candidate for a scalable quantum information architecture

Family Portraits: Past and Present Representations of Parents in Special Education Text Books

This paper analyses the descriptions of families of children with disabilities as contained in introductory special education texts over the last 50 years. These text books are typically used in pre-service teacher education courses as surveys of the education of ‘exceptional children’. The textbooks reflect the mainstream professional assumptions of the era about topics such as disability, special education, inclusion, and family/school linkages. However, they also shape the assumptions of the next generation of educators about these same topics. The paper summarises the results of a qualitative document analysis of a sample of these textbooks from two different eras. The paper compares and contrasts how the representations of families by leading scholars in special education have changed over time

Temperature perturbation model of the opto-galvanic effect in CO2-laser discharges

A detailed discharge model of the opto-galvanic effect in molecular laser gas mixtures is developed based on the temperature perturbation or discharge cooling mechanism of Smith and Brooks (1979). Excellent agreement between the model and experimental results in CO2 laser gas mixtures is obtained. The model should be applicable to other molecular systems where the OGE is being used for laser stabilisation and as a spectroscopic tool