384 research outputs found

    Too Cool at School - Understanding Cool Teenagers

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    Cool can be thought about on three levels; the having of cool things, the doing of cool stuff and the being of cool. Whilst there is some understanding of cool products, the concept, of being cool is much more elusive to designers and developers of systems. This study examines this space by using a set of pre-prepared teenage personas as probes with a set of teenagers with the aim of better understanding what is, and isn’t cool about teenage behaviours. The study confirmed that teenagers are able to rank personas in order of cool and that the process of using personas can provide valuable insights around the phenomenon of cool. The findings confirm that cool is indeed about having cool things but in terms of behaviours cool can be a little bit, but not too, naughty

    Constructing the Cool Wall: A tool to explore teen meanings of cool

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    This paper describes the development and exploration of a tool designed to assist in investigating ‘cool’ as it applies to the design of interactive products for teenagers. The method involved the derivation of theoretical understandings of cool from literature that resulted in identification of seven core categories for cool, which were mapped to a hierarchy. The hierarchy includes having of cool things, the doing of cool activities and the being of cool. This paper focuses on a tool, the Cool Wall, developed to explore one specific facet of the hierarchy; exploring shared understanding of having cool things. The paper describes the development and construction of the tool, using a heavily participatory approach, and the results and analysis of three studies. The first study was carried out over 2 days in a school in the UK. The results of the study both provide clear insights into cool things and enable a refined understanding of cool in this context. Two additional studies are then used to identify potential shortcomings in the Cool Wall methodology. In the second study participants were able to populate a paper cool wall with anything they chose, this revealed two potential new categories of images and that the current set of images covered the majority of key themes. In the third study teenagers interpretations of the meaning of the images included in the Cool Wall were explored, this showed that the majority of meanings were as expected and a small number of unexpected interpretations provided some valuable insights

    Outcomes and Costs of Post-Hospitalization Transitions in Urban and Rural Settings

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    Introduction. The Patient Protection and Affordable care Act introduced new incentives and reforms to improve hospital 30-day readmission rates and reduce unnecessary expenditures during a post-discharge period. Early follow-up care and home health utilization are key elements to improving these outcomes and costs. Little is known on how rural Medicare beneficiaries fare during a post-discharge period. This project will determine whether rural beneficiaries experience poorer quality of post-discharge care compared to urban beneficiaries (Aim 1), and assess whether the effect of early follow-up care and home health care on outcomes and costs are modified by rural residency (Aim 2 and Aim 3). Methods. We use the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey, Cost and Use files, 2000-2010. Key independent variables include rural residency, follow-up care (7-day/14-day), and use of home health care within 14 days. Key dependent variables included: Aim 1) time to first readmission, emergency department use (ED), and follow-up care; Aim 2) 30- and 60-day readmission, ED use, and mortality; and Aim 3) 30-, 60-, and 180-day Medicare expenditures. The analytical approach included a Cox Proportional Hazard model (Aim 1), a logistic regression with a two-stage residual inclusion (Aim 2), and a quantile regression with a two-stage residual inclusion (Aim 3). Results. Rural beneficiaries had fewer follow-up visits and a greater probability of ED use over 60-days post-discharge. There were no rural-urban differences in the effect of follow-up care and home health on readmission and mortality; however we found that rural beneficiaries experienced a greater benefit of 14-day follow-up care on reducing 30-day ED use. Early follow-up care increased expenditures for low-cost beneficiaries, and decreased expenditures for high-cost beneficiaries. High-cost rural beneficiaries who received a follow-up visit expended more Medicare expenditures compared to high-cost urban beneficiaries. Implications. These findings support the role of early-follow-up care on reducing readmission, ED use, mortality, and expenditures. Efforts to improve access to early follow-up care for rural beneficiaries, and targeting high-cost beneficiaries for early follow-up care, may be advantageous for rural providers working within bundled payment models, ACOs, or other shared-risk arrangements.Doctor of Philosoph

    Uintah Basin Revisited - 2012-2013 Bioregional Planning Studio Project

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    Since the Uintah Basin Research Conference in 2007, residents of the area have witnessed a consistent level of land-use development throughout the region. Portions of that growth and development have precipitated the need to develop a landscape-level plan in order to maintain the context of their region and community identity in the coming years. The purpose of this study is to research and develop a process that identifies current and future land-use issues throughout the Uintah Basin. The identification of these issues by various stakeholders will help to provide a framework for future policy decisions

    Strategy for the Implementation of an Industrial Land Bank

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    The City of Cleveland plans to create a long-term vision for industrial and commercial land reuse in order to better serve the business and neighborhood interests of its citizens. The implementation of an industrial land bank is one critical way in which to fulfill this goal. This study aimed to develop a strategy to aid the city in the operation and management of rehabilitating commercial and industrial properties for reuse. The objectives of the project were to: * Incorporate a strategy understood by senior managers at the city that identifies a broad economic redevelopment vision, especially for brownfields. * Include in the plan strategies for financing the acquisition and/or transfer of properties into the land bank. * Establish elements in the plan to include both short- and long-term implementation

    Strategy for the Implementation of an Industrial Land Bank

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    The City of Cleveland plans to create a long-term vision for industrial and commercial land reuse in order to better serve the business and neighborhood interests of its citizens. The implementation of an industrial land bank is one critical way in which to fulfill this goal. This study aimed to develop a strategy to aid the city in the operation and management of rehabilitating commercial and industrial properties for reuse. The objectives of the project were to: * Incorporate a strategy understood by senior managers at the city that identifies a broad economic redevelopment vision, especially for brownfields. * Include in the plan strategies for financing the acquisition and/or transfer of properties into the land bank. * Establish elements in the plan to include both short- and long-term implementation

    Chemical origin of the yellow luminescence in GaN

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    The influence of ion-beam-produced lattice defects as well as H, B, C, N, O, and Si, introduced by ion implantation, on the luminescence properties of wurtzite GaN is studied by cathodoluminescence spectroscopy. Results indicate that intrinsic lattice defects produced by ion bombardment mainly act as nonradiative recombination centers and do not give rise to the yellow luminescence (YL) of GaN. Experimental data unequivocally shows that C is involved in the defect-impurity complex responsible for YL. In addition, C-related complexes appear to act as efficient nonradiative recombination centers. Implantation of H produces a broad luminescent peak which is slightly blueshifted with respect to the C-related YL band in the case of high excitation densities. The position of this H-related YL peak exhibits a blueshift with increasing excitation density. Based on this experimental data and results reported previously, the chemical origin of the YL band is discussed

    Standing Weight Perception across Unweighted Conditions in a Lower Body Positive Pressure Treadmill

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    Lower body positive pressure treadmills (LBPP-TM) provide assistive body weight support to the user by forcing air into an inflatable chamber in which the user is secured. The result of this positive pressure can be experienced as a lift to the user. The degree of chamber air pressure (CAP) determines the amount of supportive lift provided with greater and lesser CAP producing more and less lift, respectively. Exercise studies consistently report lower effort perceptions with greater CAP which suggest a reduced physiological and mechanical strain on the body. What is less well known is the effect on resting perceptions of standing weight (SWP). The purpose of this investigation was to examine the perception of resting standing weight across four different weighted conditions in a LBPP-TM. Nine participants (6 female; overall age: 21.3±1.9 years) stood in a LBPP-TM under the following order of body weight set (BWset) conditions: 100%BWset, 70%BWset, 35%BWset, 90%BWset. A portable Davis Vantage weather station barometer measured CAP inside the inflatable chamber and a 10-cm visual analogue scale measured SWP. Repeated measures analysis of variance evidenced significant changes across CAP (100%BWset: 767.5±4.9 mmHg; 70%BWset: 780.0±3.0 mmHg; 35%BWset: 793.5±3.0 mmHg; 90%BWset: 776.4±7.0 mmHg; all ps ≤ 0.001) except for the 70%BWset and 90%BWset conditions (p = 0.486) and within SWP (90%BWset: 8.8±1.4 cm vs. 70%BWset: 5.8±2.9 cm, p = 0.011; and 35%BWset: 4.6±3.2 cm, p = 0.007) experimental conditions. LBPP-TMs appear to provide robust manipulations of perception across different experimental contexts. Similar to findings from exercise studies, greater CAP and its resultant lift produced significant reduced perceptions of standing weight while at rest.https://digitalcommons.cortland.edu/slides/1025/thumbnail.jp
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