Loneliness:From Absence of Other to Disruption of Self

Loneliness is more complex and multi-faceted than it may appear at first glance. Most of the characterizations that we have of loneliness in the extant literature tend to focus on the absence of other people and on the social, mental, and physical distress that can be caused by this type of absence. Although the experience of absence may be a fundamental and encompassing aspect of loneliness, loneliness may also reflect a deeper, more complex experience. This paper integrates data from a qualitative study on the phenomenology of loneliness with philosophical theories on the self. It argues that there is a connection between the experience of absence and the impossibility to appear in the world and that this may consequentially lead to the disruption of self-experience

Improving Influenza Compliance Using a Reminder System

Objective: The clinical nurse leader project was to incorporate a reminder system to improve influenza compliance as the large metropolitan hospital is undergoing a decrease in the compliance of screening hospitalized at discharge. Improving the influenza compliance using a reminder system will assist healthcare professionals in implementing a structured screening process, administration of the vaccine, reminders of the importance of vaccination, and provide a standard for the healthcare team to follow. Methods: Create a reminder poster for medical-surgical units to remind nursing staff about influenza season and to vaccinate patients. Nursing rounds were incorporated to remind and educate nurses that a screening tool and vaccinations were available. Lastly, literature and evidence based practice analyses was collected for recommendations to improve processes. Expected Outcomes: To increase the screening and administration compliance; improve reminders in the electronic medical record for screening; maintain ongoing performance review to assess compliance; continuous education during the influenza season using the screening tool; and implement literature review recommendations. Conclusion: The reminder system will serve as start to incorporate new measures or improvements for the hospital in an effort to improve the compliance of remembering to vaccinate patients at discharged; and to improve outcomes in the hospital, but also to the public, so patients are less likely to get readmitted

Effects of submerged vegetation on water clarity across climates

A positive feedback between submerged vegetation and water clarity forms the backbone of the alternative state theory in shallow lakes. The water clearing effect of aquatic vegetation may be caused by different physical, chemical, and biological mechanisms and has been studied mainly in temperate lakes. Recent work suggests differences in biotic interactions between (sub)tropical and cooler lakes might result in a less pronounced clearing effect in the (sub)tropics. To assess whether the effect of submerged vegetation changes with climate, we sampled 83 lakes over a gradient ranging from the tundra to the tropics in South America. Judged from a comparison of water clarity inside and outside vegetation beds, the vegetation appeared to have a similar positive effect on the water clarity across all climatic regions studied. However, the local clearing effect of vegetation decreased steeply with the contribution of humic substances to the underwater light attenuation. Looking at turbidity on a whole-lake scale, results were more difficult to interpret. Although lakes with abundant vegetation (>30%) were generally clear, sparsely vegetated lakes differed widely in clarity. Overall, the effect of vegetation on water clarity in our lakes appears to be smaller than that found in various Northern hemisphere studies. This might be explained by differences in fish communities and their relation to vegetation. For instance, unlike in Northern hemisphere studies, we find no clear relation between vegetation coverage and fish abundance or their diet preference. High densities of omnivorous fish and coinciding low grazing pressures on phytoplankton in the (sub)tropics may, furthermore, weaken the effect of vegetation on water clarity

Meteorological noise in wire strainmeter data from Parkfield, California

Four invar-wire strainmeters have been operated in shallow trench sites for 19 months beside the San Andreas Fault at Parkfield, California. Temperature and rainfall records were correlated with 1 yr of strainmeter data, and 90 per cent of the strain signal power at periods between 2 and 120 days was predicted entirely from these records, using a multi-channel, Wiener filtering technique. The residual strain series fluctuates with a peak-to-peak amplitude of nearly 10^(−6) strain. Anomalous strain signals taking place over several days would have to be larger than this to be identifiable. Previous work shows that signals of amplitude 10^(−7) strain are identifiable if they take place within hours. Deep creep events giving rise to such signals, which may occur as precursors to earthquakes, would need to be very large. Other workers have shown that shallow, short-base line tiltmeters in California are also very sensitive to meteorological noise. Strainmeter and tiltmeter installations can be made less sensitive to meteorological noise, either by manufacturing instruments with long (∼1 km) base lines, or by using tunnel or borehole sites (≳100 m deep). Proven instruments of these types are costly, unless an underground site was already available. However, if networks of shallow, shortbase line strainmeters or tiltmeters are to be used for earthquake prediction, it is obviously desirable to invest in at least a few installations which are less sensitive to noise of meteorological origin

Climate-dependent CO2 emissions from lakes

Inland waters, just as the world's oceans, play an important role in the global carbon cycle. While lakes and reservoirs typically emit CO2, they also bury carbon in their sediment. The net CO2 emission is largely the result of the decomposition or preservation of terrestrially supplied carbon. What regulates the balance between CO2 emission and carbon burial is not known, but climate change and temperature have been hypothesized to influence both processes. We analyzed patterns in carbon dioxide partial pressure (pCO2) in 83 shallow lakes over a large climatic gradient in South America and found a strong, positive correlation with temperature. The higher pCO2 in warmer lakes may be caused by a higher, temperature-dependent mineralization of organic carbon. This pattern suggests that cool lakes may start to emit more CO2 when they warm up because of climate ch

Laryngeal Candidiasis Mimicking Supraglottic Carcinoma by Prolonged Inhaled Steroid Therapy: A Case Report and Review of the Literature

Candidiasis is a rare entity reported as an isolated and primary laryngeal disease. In this condition, inhaled steroids were the single most common predisposing factor. Also mycotic infections of larynx are frequently seen in patients with immune insufficiency, although they have also been reported in individual with normal immune status. We report a case of isolated laryngeal Candidiasis in an immunocompetent individual, with an unusual presentation with exophytic lesion, edema, ulceration, white plaque, and pseudomembranous formation mimicking supraglottic carcinoma, to highlight the clinical of this condition and provide a review of the literature

Classical analogy for the deflection of flux avalanches by a metallic layer

Sudden avalanches of magnetic flux bursting into a superconducting sample undergo deflections of their trajectories when encountering a conductive layer deposited on top of the superconductor. Remarkably, in some cases flux is totally excluded from the area covered by the conductive layer. We present a simple classical model that accounts for this behaviour and considers a magnetic monopole approaching a semi-infinite conductive plane. This model suggests that magnetic braking is an important mechanism responsible for avalanche deflection.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figure

Hydrous hydrazine decomposition for hydrogen production using of ir/ceo2: Effect of reaction parameters on the activity

In the present work, an Ir/CeO2 catalyst was prepared by the deposition–precipitation method and tested in the decomposition of hydrazine hydrate to hydrogen, which is very important in the development of hydrogen storage materials for fuel cells. The catalyst was characterised using different techniques, i.e., X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) equipped with X‐ray detector (EDX) and inductively coupled plasma—mass spectroscopy (ICP‐MS). The effect of reaction conditions on the activity and selectivity of the material was evaluated in this study, modifying parameters such as temperature, the mass of the catalyst, stirring speed and concentration of base in order to find the optimal conditions of reaction, which allow performing the test in a kinetically limited regime

Magpie: towards a semantic web browser

Web browsing involves two tasks: finding the right web page and then making sense of its content. So far, research has focused on supporting the task of finding web resources through ‘standard’ information retrieval mechanisms, or semantics-enhanced search. Much less attention has been paid to the second problem. In this paper we describe Magpie, a tool which supports the interpretation of web pages. Magpie offers complementary knowledge sources, which a reader can call upon to quickly gain access to any background knowledge relevant to a web resource. Magpie automatically associates an ontologybased semantic layer to web resources, allowing relevant services to be invoked within a standard web browser. Hence, Magpie may be seen as a step towards a semantic web browser. The functionality of Magpie is illustrated using examples of how it has been integrated with our lab’s web resources