Matching small β\beta functions using centroid jitter and two beam position monitors

Matching to small beta functions is required to preserve emittance in plasma accelerators. The plasma wake provides strong focusing fields, which typically require beta functions on the mm-scale, comparable to those found in the final focusing of a linear collider. Such beams can be time consuming to experimentally produce and diagnose. We present a simple, fast, and noninvasive method to measure Twiss parameters in a linac using two beam position monitors only, relying on the similarity of the beam phase space and the jitter phase space. By benchmarking against conventional quadrupole scans, the viability of this technique was experimentally demonstrated at the FLASHForward plasma-accelerator facility.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figure

The effect of geriatric care on health care use

Health care for older adults with chronic conditions is costly and often of suboptimal quality. The quality of health care for geriatric conditions such as dementia and incontinence may be considerably poorer than for chronic disease such as diabetes and hypertension. Geriatricians have extensive training in and experience with physical, mental, cognitive, and social issues related to aging. Many elders might benefit from geriatric care; however, the current and projected future supply of geriatricians is limited. An understanding of the use and effects of geriatric care will help to ensure that the existing supply of geriatricians is used efficiently and provide information about possible benefits of expending supply. The purpose of this dissertation is to describe the use of geriatric care, to evaluate whether geriatric care reduces emergency department use, and to determine whether geriatric care is typically used in lieu of or in combination with care from other types of physicians. Using Medicare claims data for a national sample of elders who had a recent hospitalization for acute coronary syndromes and subsequent diagnosis of a geriatric condition, we found that very few patients received geriatric care. Use of geriatric care was closely tied to metropolitan status and nursing home residency. Geriatric care was associated with reduced emergency department use for both community and nursing home residents. Geriatric consultative care was associated with a reduction in emergency department use that was not statistically different from the reduction associated with geriatric primary care. Geriatric care was associated with fewer visits to family and internal medicine physicians and in some cases with fewer visits to specialists. Although our results suggest that geriatric care reduces emergency department use, the total clinical impact of geriatric care is likely to be very small because of the low supply of geriatricians. Because of the lack of existing literature on the topic, additional studies are needed to elucidate the use and effects of geriatric care in real-world clinical settings. However, for geriatric medicine to have a population-level impact on the health and health care of older adults, its focus may need to be on teaching, research, and advocacy/policymaking

Mesenchymal chondroprogenitor cell origin and therapeutic potential

Mesenchymal progenitor cells, a multipotent adult stem cell population, have the ability to differentiate into cells of connective tissue lineages, including fat, cartilage, bone and muscle, and therefore generate a great deal of interest for their potential use in regenerative medicine. During development, endochondral bone is formed from a template of cartilage that transforms into bone; however, mature articular cartilage remains in the articulating joints, where its principal role is reducing friction and dispersing mechanical load. Articular cartilage is prone to damage from sports injuries or ageing, which regularly progresses to more serious joint disorders, such as osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis is a degenerative joint disease characterized by the thinning and eventual wearing of articular cartilage, and affects millions of people worldwide. Due to low chondrocyte motility and proliferative rates, and complicated by the absence of blood vessels, cartilage has a limited ability to self-repair. Current pharmaceutical and surgical interventions fail to generate repair tissue with the mechanical and cellular properties of native host cartilage. The long-term success of cartilage repair will therefore depend on regenerative methodologies resulting in the restoration of articular cartilage that closely duplicates the native tissue. For cell-based therapies, the optimal cell source must be readily accessible with easily isolated, abundant cells capable of collagen type II and sulfated proteoglycan production in appropriate proportions. Although a cell source with these therapeutic properties remains elusive, mesenchymal chondroprogenitors retain their expansion capacity with the promise of reproducing the structural or biomechanical properties of healthy articular cartilage. As current knowledge regarding chondroprogenitors is relatively limited, this review will focus on their origin and therapeutic application

Staying the Course: Facility and Profession Retention Among Nursing Assistants in Nursing Homes

High turnover rates among nursing assistants (NAs) in nursing homes have costly implications for facility operation and quality, while low rates of NA profession retention can deplete the stock of experienced staff. This study assesses the extent to which the same factors are associated with NAs' intent to leave a particular job versus the NA profession

X-CHIP: an integrated platform for high-throughput protein crystallization and on-the-chip X-ray diffraction data collection

The X-CHIP (X-ray Crystallography High-throughput Integrated Platform) is a novel microchip that has been developed to combine multiple steps of the crystallographic pipeline from crystallization to diffraction data collection on a single device to streamline the entire process

Connection brokers: How educators work within and between social networks to cultivate community digital resilience to support children with disabilities using the Internet

For children with disabilities, being online can have great benefits, and being part of a well-connected community pays dividends. Research has focused on the development of digital resilience at an individual level but the ways in which surrounding networks of community support impact this is underexplored. Drawing on digital resilience as a socio-ecological concept and undertaking a thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with educators, this article addresses this gap by exploring how educators work within and between community networks to support children with disabilities online. Findings suggest that educators are key connection brokers who activate and provide access to a variety of assets and manage pools of resources to build digital resilience at a community level as well as for the individual. We note, however, that addressing structural holes to allow information to flow beyond the community level is challenging and requires continued investment to cultivate greater capacity

Pay progression in routinised service sector work: navigating the internal labour market in a fast food multinational company

The United Kingdom's widespread use of low‐skill, low‐paid employment has been well documented. It has been argued internal labour markets (ILMs) benefit such workers, affording them with opportunities for progression. Relatively little is known, however, about the impact of ILMs on entry level workers undertaking routinised service sector work. Drawing on qualitative data, this article explores the prospects on offer in a market leading, fast food multinational company. Potential enabling features include on‐the‐job training, a transparent and integrated pay structure and a professed culture of progression. Occupational movements to positions above the low‐pay threshold are, however, relatively rare. We conjecture this contradiction is the result of the business context in which the firm operates. The findings suggest that in sectors where price leadership strategies dominate, escape from low pay is likely to be exceptional, even within large organisations featuring some of the classic characteristics of ‘pure’ or strong ILMs

Exploring women's sensory experiences of undergoing colposcopy and related procedures: implications for preparatory sensory information provision

INTRODUCTION: Some women experience distress during colposcopy examinations which is partly related to women's fear, or experience, of pain during the procedure. However, little is known about women's sensory experiences of colposcopy (other than pain) or what might impact on these experiences. The aim of this study was to explore women's sensory experiences of colposcopy and related procedures and identify factors which influenced negative sensory experiences. METHODS: In-depth interviews were conducted with 23 women who had undergone, for the first time, a colposcopy (some with related procedures, including punch biopsies and loop excision) as part of follow-up for abnormal cervical cytology. Interviews were analysed thematically using the Framework Approach to organise the data and identify emerging higher-order themes. RESULTS: Women described a range of sensory experiences including pain or discomfort, cramping, stinging and cold sensations (due to the application of acetic acid to the cervix). Four key themes emerged as important aspects of the overall sensory experience: levels of pain, treatment-specific sensations, anaesthetic-specific sensations and solution-specific sensations. Factors that may influence women having a negative sensory experience were sensory expectations of the procedure(s) and lack of preparatory sensory information. DISCUSSION: Our study provides unique in-depth insight into women's sensory experiences of colposcopy and related procedures and suggests women require more preparatory sensory information. The issues identified as contributing to women having a negative sensory experience may help inform the development of pre-colposcopy information which may better prepare women with abnormal cervical cytology for follow-up examinations