Health Care Leader Strategies for Cultural Diversity in the Workplace

Health care leaders who lack strategies to manage workers from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds face high employee turnover. High employee turnover can jeopardize the health of patients and the financial stability of their organization. Grounded in the cognitive diversity theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies eight health care leaders in Iowa use to manage diverse employees. Data sources were semistructured interviews, researcher notes, and a review of the diversity policies of each facility. Five themes identified through thematic analysis included leaders using recruitment strategies to promote diversity, leaders encouraging and using communication/feedback, leaders conducting diversity training to encourage diversity, leaders providing suitable working conditions to promote diversity, and leaders encouraging and engaging in teamwork and collaboration. A key recommendation for health care leaders is to conduct diversity training that encourages teamwork and collaboration amongst employees with diverse cultures and backgrounds. The implications for positive social change include the potential for health care leaders to build a more inclusive culture that can lead to lower turnover in staff and improve the quality of healthcare for patients

Determination of population structure and stock composition of chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta) in Russia determined with microsatellites

Variation at 14 microsatellite loci was examined in 34 chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta) populations from Russia and evaluated for its use in the determination of population structure and stock composition in simulated mixed-stock fishery samples. The genetic differentiation index (Fst) over all populations and loci was 0.017, and individual locus values ranged from 0.003 to 0.054. Regional population structure was observed, and populations from Primorye, Sakhalin Island, and northeast Russia were the most distinct. Microsatellite variation provided evidence of a more fine-scale population structure than those that had previously been demonstrated with other genetic-based markers. Analysis of simulated mixed-stock samples indicated that accurate and precise regional estimates of stock composition were produced when the microsatellites were used to estimate stock compositions. Microsatellites can be used to determine stock composition in geographically separate Russian coastal chum salmon fisheries and provide a greater resolution of stock composition and population structure than that previously provided with other techniques

Breakup of diminutive Rayleigh jets

Discharging a liquid from a nozzle at sufficient large velocity leads to a continuous jet that due to capillary forces breaks up into droplets. Here we investigate the formation of microdroplets from the breakup of micron-sized jets with ultra high-speed imaging. The diminutive size of the jet implies a fast breakup time scale $\tau_\mathrm{c} = \sqrt{\rho r^3 / \gamma}$ of the order of 100\,ns{}, and requires imaging at 14 million frames per second. We directly compare these experiments with a numerical lubrication approximation model that incorporates inertia, surface tension, and viscosity [Eggers and Dupont, J. Fluid Mech. 262, 205 (1994); Shi, Brenner, and Nagel, Science 265, 219 (1994)]. The lubrication model allows to efficiently explore the parameter space to investigate the effect of jet velocity and liquid viscosity on the formation of satellite droplets. In the phase diagram we identify regions where the formation of satellite droplets is suppressed. We compare the shape of the droplet at pinch-off between the lubrication approximation model and a boundary integral (BI) calculation, showing deviations at the final moment of the pinch-off. Inspite of this discrepancy, the results on pinch-off times and droplet and satellite droplet velocity obtained from the lubrication approximation agree with the high-speed imaging results

Colorectal Cancer Screening for the Vietnamese American Population in Iowa

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a primary cause of cancer-related mortality in the United States. Asian Americans have the highest CRC mortality rates. CRC screening tests can reduce CRC incidence, yet Asian Americans, specifically the subgroup of Vietnamese Americans, underuse CRC screening. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand why Vietnamese Americans, ages 50 to 75, underuse CRC screening. The health belief model constructs of susceptibility, severity, benefits, barriers, and self-efficacy were the framework for understanding this population\u27s health-related behaviors. Three research questions focused on how knowledge, language, and cultural beliefs and perceptions affect Vietnamese Americans\u27 CRC screening decisions. Interviews were conducted with 11 participants, and transcribed interview responses were input into NVivo 11 software to maintain a reliable database and to identify emerging themes. Key study findings revealed knowledge and English language gaps as well as adverse cultural perceptions of fear and doubt that influenced CRC screening choices among these 11 Vietnamese Americans. Future researchers might focus on cultural-tailored strategies to minimize these barriers for Vietnamese Americans. An understanding of this study population\u27s perspectives offers the promise of positive social change for health services and public health administrations to develop cultural-tailored interventions that promote healthy lifestyles, prevention, early CRC detection and, consequently, reduce mortality rates and associated health care costs

Differences between regular and random order of updates in damage spreading simulations

We investigate the spreading of damage in the three-dimensional Ising model by means of large-scale Monte-Carlo simulations. Within the Glauber dynamics we use different rules for the order in which the sites are updated. We find that the stationary damage values and the spreading temperature are different for different update order. In particular, random update order leads to larger damage and a lower spreading temperature than regular order. Consequently, damage spreading in the Ising model is non-universal not only with respect to different update algorithms (e.g. Glauber vs. heat-bath dynamics) as already known, but even with respect to the order of sites.Comment: final version as published, 4 pages REVTeX, 2 eps figures include

Recursive Graphical Construction for Feynman Diagrams of Quantum Electrodynamics

We present a method for a recursive graphical construction of Feynman diagrams with their correct multiplicities in quantum electrodynamics. The method is first applied to find all diagrams contributing to the vacuum energy from which all n-point functions are derived by functional differentiation with respect to electron and photon propagators, and to the interaction. Basis for our construction is a functional differential equation obeyed by the vacuum energy when considered as a functional of the free propagators and the interaction. Our method does not employ external sources in contrast to traditional approaches.Comment: Author Information under http://www.physik.fu-berlin.de/~kleinert/institution.html Latest update of paper also at http://www.physik.fu-berlin.de/~kleinert/29

Tweets, Hashtags, & Likes: How is Social Media Use Related to Empathy?

poster abstractEmpathy is the tendency to perceive and interpret others’ perspectives and feel care and concern for them (Davis, 1983; Hoffman, 1977). However, empathy has been declining in American college students in recent years (Konrath, O’Brien, Hsing, 2011) and many scholars blame new technology and social media (see Konrath, 2012 for a review). Over the course of 3 separate studies, we investigated the relationships between social media usage and empathy. Study 1 found that among online adults Empathic Concern (emotional empathy) was related to less frequent Twitter use, β=-.07, p=.04, and Perspective Taking (cognitive empathy) was related to less frequent Facebook use, β=-.07, p=.05. However, Fantasy and Personal Distress were both associated with more frequent use of Twitter and Facebook, βs=.06-.11, ps=<.04. Study 2 found that among students, dispositional personal distress is associated with more daily tweeting, β=.60, p=.009, but fewer Facebook status updates, β=-.39, p=.007. Finally, Study 3 found that among teens, those higher in empathic concern were more likely to feel connected to their friends and family when using Facebook, β=.47, p=.03. These studies reveal that empathy is related to both the frequency of social media usage and the emotional connections experienced through social media. These results can be used to help better understand and navigate this fairly new media terrain. Our studies take a more comprehensive look at the relationship between empathy and social media use by measuring not only frequency of use but emotional connection on different social media platforms

Abundance Profiles and Kinematics of Damped Lyman-alpha Absorbing Galaxies at z < 0.65

We present a spectroscopic study of six damped Lya absorption (DLA) systems at z<0.65, based on moderate-to-high resolution spectra of the galaxies responsible for the absorbers. Combining known metallicity measurements of the absorbers with known optical properties of the absorbing galaxies, we confirm that the low metal content of the DLA population can arise naturally as a combination of gas cross-section selection and metallicity gradients commonly observed in local disk galaxies. We also study the Tully-Fisher relation of the DLA-selected galaxies and find little detectable evidence for evolution in the disk population between z=0 and z~0.5. Additional results of our analysis are as follows. (1) The DLA galaxies exhibit a range of spectral properties, from post-starburst, to normal disks, and to starburst systems, supporting the idea that DLA galaxies are drawn from the typical field population. (2) Large rotating HI disks of radius 30 h^{-1} kpc and of dynamic mass M_dyn > 10^{11} h^{-1} M_sun appear to be common at intermediate redshifts. (3) Using an ensemble of six galaxy-DLA pairs, we derive an abundance profile that is characterized by a radial gradient of -0.041 +/- 0.012 dex per kiloparsec (or equivalently a scale length of 10.6 h^{-1} kpc) from galactic center to 30 h^{-1} kpc radius. (4) Adopting known N(HI) profiles of nearby galaxies and the best-fit radial gradient, we further derive an N(HI)-weighted mean metallicity _weighted = -0.50 +/- 0.07 for the DLA population over 100 random lines of sight, consistent with _weighted = -0.64 (-0.86, +0.40) observed for z~1 DLA systems from Prochaska et al. Our analysis demonstrates that the low metal content of DLA systems does not rule out the possibility that the DLA population trace the field galaxy population.Comment: 57 pages, 17 figures, to appear in the ApJ 20 February 2005 issue; a pdf version of the paper with full-resolution figures is available at http://falcon.mit.edu/~hchen/public/tmp/dlachem.pd