513 research outputs found
A cross-sectional study on prevalence and predictors of burnout among a sample of pharmacists employed in pharmacies in Central Italy
Burnout is defined as an occupational phenomenon linked to chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed and included among the factors influencing health status or contact with health services. Although several studies were performed for assessing this phenomenon, there is a lack of data on the prevalence of burnout and associated predictors, due to different definitions of the syndrome and heterogeneity of assessment methods. One of the well-known evidences on burnout is related to the highest risk professions, which include policemen, firemen, teachers, psychologists, medical students, nurses, physicians, and other health professionals, such as pharmacists. Objective. The aims of the present study were to (1) assess the occurrence of burnout syndrome among a sample of pharmacists employed in public and private pharmacies located in Rome province (Latium Region; central Italy); (2) evaluate the role of some potential predictors for the development of the syndrome. Materials and Methods. A questionnaire elaborated ad hoc was administered online to 2,000 members of the Association of Professional Pharmacists of Rome and its province and employed in public or private pharmacies. The questionnaire included the 14-item Shirom-Melamed Burnout Measure (SMBM) tool and questions on demographic characteristics and working conditions. Results. Physical exhaustion was the burnout dimension with the highest score; besides, approximately 11% of the studied pharmacists were categorized as having clinically relevant burnout levels (≥4.40). Several of the investigated variables significantly influenced the single burnout dimensions at the univariate analyses; multivariate analyses demonstrated that alcohol consumption and workplace location have a significant independent role on the overall SMBM index, while working time significantly influences clinically relevant burnout level. Conclusions. The results revealed that pharmacists are at risk of burnout, and thus, it is necessary to perform specific preventive intervention for managing this occupational threat
Baryon-Baryon Interactions from Lattice QCD
We report on new attempt to investigate baryon-baryon interactions in lattice
QCD. From the Bethe-Salpeter (BS) wave function, we have successfully extracted
the nucleon-nucleon () potentials in quenched QCD simulations, which
reproduce qualitative features of modern potentials. The method has been
extended to obtain the tensor potential as well as the central potential and
also applied to the hyperon-nucleon () interactions, in both quenched and
full QCD.Comment: 6 pages, 10 figures, A plenary talk given at the 5-th International
Conference on Quark and Nuclear Physics, Beijing, September 21-26, 200
Colossal electroresistance and colossal magnetoresistive step in paramagnetic insulating phase of single crystalline bilayered manganite(LaPr)SrMnO
We report a significant decrease in the low-temperature resistance induced by
the application of an electric current on the -plane in the paramagnetic
insulating (PMI) state of
(LaPr)SrMnO. A colossal
electroresistance effect attaining -95% is observed at lower temperatures. A
colossal magnetoresistive step appears near 5T at low temperatures below 10K,
accompanied by an ultrasharp width of the insulator-metal transition. Injection
of higher currents to the crystal causes a disappearance of the steplike
transition. These findings have a close relationship with the presence of the
short-range charge-ordered clusters pinned within the PMI matrix of the crystal
studied.Comment: 4 pages 3 figure
What Do Grades Mean? Variation in Grading Criteria in American College and University Courses
This study examined differences in the criteria used by college and university instructors in the United States to assign course grades. Two hundred and fifty course syllabi (159 from universities and 91 from four-year colleges) developed by randomly selected instructors from five academic disciplines (education, maths, science, psychology, and English) were examined to determine the extent to which instructors employed different criteria in assigning course grades in introductory-level courses. Sources of variation in grade assignment included the use of product versus process criteria, the prevalence of using performance exams, and the framing criteria for grades. Differences between institution types and among academic disciplines were also investigated. Results revealed significant differences among the five academic disciplines in grading criteria and the use of examinations, with instructors in education and English relying more heavily on process criteria. A significant interaction between institution type and academic discipline in grading criteria was also identified. Theoretical, practical, and policy implications are discussed along with avenues for further research
Nucleon-nucleon interactions via Lattice QCD: Methodology --HAL QCD approach to extract hadronic interactions in lattice QCD--
We review the potential method in lattice QCD, which has recently been
proposed to extract nucleon-nucleon interactions via numerical simulations. We
focus on the methodology of this approach by emphasizing the strategy of the
potential method, the theoretical foundation behind it, and special numerical
techniques. We compare the potential method with the standard finite volume
method in lattice QCD, in order to make pros and cons of the approach clear. We
also present several numerical results for the nucleon-nucleon potentials.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figure
Investigation of Long Monolayer Graphene Ribbons grown on Graphite Capped 6H-SiC (000-1)
We present an investigation of large, isolated, graphene ribbons grown on the
C-face of on-axis semi-insulating 6H-SiC wafers. Using a graphite cap to cover
the SiC sample, we modify the desorption of the Si species during the Si
sublimation process. This results in a better control of the growth kinetics,
yielding very long (about 300 microns long, 5 microns wide), homogeneous
monolayer graphene ribbons. These ribbons fully occupy unusually large terraces
on the step bunched SiC surface, as shown by AFM, optical microscopy and SEM.
Raman spectrometry indicates that the thermal stress has been partially relaxed
by wrinkles formation, visible in AFM images. In addition, we show that despite
the low optical absorption of graphene, optical differential transmission can
be successfully used to prove the monolayer character of the ribbons
Alternating Tree Automata with Qualitative Semantics
We study alternating automata with qualitative semantics over infinite binary trees: Alternation means that two opposing players construct a decoration of the input tree called a run, and the qualitative semantics says that a run of the automaton is accepting if almost all branches of the run are accepting. In this article, we prove a positive and a negative result for the emptiness problem of alternating automata with qualitative semantics. The positive result is the decidability of the emptiness problem for the case of Büchi acceptance condition. An interesting aspect of our approach is that we do not extend the classical solution for solving the emptiness problem of alternating automata, which first constructs an equivalent non-deterministic automaton. Instead, we directly construct an emptiness game making use of imperfect information. The negative result is the undecidability of the emptiness problem for the case of co-Büchi acceptance condition. This result has two direct consequences: The undecidability of monadic second-order logic extended with the qualitative path-measure quantifier and the undecidability of the emptiness problem for alternating tree automata with non-zero semantics, a recently introduced probabilistic model of alternating tree automata
STM induced hydrogen desorption via a hole resonance
We report STM-induced desorption of H from Si(100)-H(2) at negative
sample bias. The desorption rate exhibits a power-law dependence on current and
a maximum desorption rate at -7 V. The desorption is explained by vibrational
heating of H due to inelastic scattering of tunneling holes with the Si-H
5 hole resonance. The dependence of desorption rate on current and bias
is analyzed using a novel approach for calculating inelastic scattering, which
includes the effect of the electric field between tip and sample. We show that
the maximum desorption rate at -7 V is due to a maximum fraction of
inelastically scattered electrons at the onset of the field emission regime.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. To appear in Phys. Rev. Let
Bound H-dibaryon in Flavor SU(3) Limit of Lattice QCD
The flavor-singlet H-dibaryon, which has strangeness -2 and baryon number 2,
is studied by the approach recently developed for the baryon-baryon
interactions in lattice QCD. The flavor-singlet central potential is derived
from the spatial and imaginary-time dependence of the Nambu-Bethe-Salpeter wave
function measured in N_f=3 full QCD simulations with the lattice size of L = 2,
3, 4 fm. The potential is found to be insensitive to the volume, and it leads
to a bound H-dibaryon with the binding energy of 30 - 40 MeV for the
pseudo-scalar meson mass of 673 - 1015 MeV.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figuers, add arguments, results unchange
Nuclear Force from Monte Carlo Simulations of Lattice Quantum Chromodynamics
The nuclear force acting between protons and neutrons is studied in the Monte
Carlo simulations of the fundamental theory of the strong interaction, the
quantum chromodynamics defined on the hypercubic space-time lattice. After a
brief summary of the empirical nucleon-nucleon (NN) potentials which can fit
the NN scattering experiments in high precision, we outline the basic
formulation to derive the potential between the extended objects such as the
nucleons composed of quarks. The equal-time Bethe-Salpeter amplitude is a key
ingredient for defining the NN potential on the lattice. We show the results of
the numerical simulations on a lattice with the lattice spacing fm (lattice volume (4.4 fm)) in the quenched approximation.
The calculation was carried out using the massively parallel computer Blue
Gene/L at KEK. We found that the calculated NN potential at low energy has
basic features expected from the empirical NN potentials; attraction at long
and medium distances and the repulsive core at short distance. Various future
directions along this line of research are also summarized.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, version accepted for publication in
"Computational Science & Discovery" (IOP
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