The Contradictory Nature of U.S. Laws and Nutrition Programs and Their Effects on Infant Feeding

The contradictory nature of U.S. laws, including the laws concerning infant feeding, though supposedly aligned with policies to promote wellness in Americans, can exacerbate gender and race inequality and work against the National Strategy. The overarching goal of U.S. laws concerning infant feeding is to ensure that infants are fed, nourished, and receive proper nutrition. However, the laws often appear to be directly contradictory to one another in the priorities they are promoting

The Contradictory Nature of U.S. Laws and Nutrition Programs and Their Effects on Infant Feeding

The contradictory nature of U.S. laws, including the laws concerning infant feeding, though supposedly aligned with policies to promote wellness in Americans, can exacerbate gender and race inequality and work against the National Strategy. The overarching goal of U.S. laws concerning infant feeding is to ensure that infants are fed, nourished, and receive proper nutrition. However, the laws often appear to be directly contradictory to one another in the priorities they are promoting

Calibrating urgency: triage decision-making in a pediatric emergency department

Triage, the first step in the assessment of emergency department patients, occurs in a highly dynamic environment that functions under constraints of time, physical space, and patient needs that may exceed available resources. Through triage, patients are placed into one of a limited number of categories using a subset of diagnostic information. To facilitate this task and standardize the triage decision process, triage guidelines have been implemented. However, these protocols are interpreted differently by highly experienced (expert) nurses and less experienced (novice) nurses. This study investigates the process of triage; the factors that influence triage decision-making, and how the guidelines are used in the process. Using observations and semi-structured interviews of triage nurses, data was collected in the pediatric emergency department of a large Canadian teaching hospital. Results show that in emergency situations (1) triage decisions were often non-analytic and based on intuition, particularly with increasing expertise, and (2) guidelines were used differently by nurses during the triage process. These results suggest that explicit guideline information becomes internalized and implicitly used in emergency triage practice as nurses gain experience. Implications of these results for nursing education and training, and guideline development for emergency care are discussed

EquiTect: Solving the Lack of Internet and Computer Access During Online Learning

Around the world, nearly 1.3 billion children are unable to access the internet, hindering their ability to engage with digital learning and converse with one another (US Census Bureau, 2020). This problem has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, where most students were forced to move online to learn. The problem presents itself in three ways. First, a lack of accessible connection — traditional internet connections are far too expensive, costing thousands of dollars on average. Second, a lack of internet access — certain locations, specifically rural entities, do not have reliable internet access available, and even if they do, connections are oftentimes weak and lackluster. Students are often provided with computers from schools, but not with access to the internet. This problem is also a problem in equity, with the need for internet and computer access varying greatly amongst different family incomes. Families making under $10,000 in income have the greatest need for computer and internet access (about 45$100,000 or more have about 8 times less need for internet and computer access. In addition, around 35% of American Indian/Native Alaskan individuals and 20-30% of African Americans lack access to computers and reliable internet, while around 1/3 of White individuals lack access. EquiTect works to battle these imbalances and create equity in the online learning environment by providing all students, especially those who cannot afford their own internet or computer, proper internet and computer access. Our idea utilizes white space technology, social enterprise, and philanthropy. We plan to balance both our business goals and our social ones, pursue partnerships with internet service providers as well as other companies who specialize in white space connectivity, and hold fundraisers for schools or areas that could not otherwise afford our product/services. White space is essential the radio band that lays in between the unused frequencies normally used by Television providers. These frequencies are long-range, stable, and also almost never obstructed as there is very little activity happening in those frequencies. The novel technology provides promise in solving the equity problem in internet and computer access. Compared to MiFi, both MiFi and Equitect are accessible because they easily allow users to access the internet cheaply and efficiently. EquiTect will work similarly to Mifi in the sense that it will allow multiple users to access the internet. This will be very efficient since oftentimes, an entire family with multiple students needs internet and computer access. At the moment, most MiFi mobile broadband provides standard 3G or 4G connection speeds, depending upon network coverage, with 5G options just entering the market. On 3G and 4G connections, there can be a considerable slowdown when sharing MiFi connections across multiple devices and users. In contrast, white space relies on stable, long-range frequencies which is far more reliable. Finally, with MiFi, when more devices connect, the speed gets reduced and the battery drains faster, which causes the frequency of the wifi to get poor. This is a disadvantage that EquiTect must also battle. In the future, we plan to branch out to adult remote workers, satellite connectivity, and optimizing our devices

Association of Self-reported High-Risk Allergy History With Allergy Symptoms After COVID-19 Vaccination

Allergic history in individuals with confirmed anaphylaxis to a messenger RNA (mRNA) COVID-19 vaccine is common. However, the risk factors for allergy symptoms after receiving the vaccine are unknown

Characterization of Ti-6Al-4V Bar for Aerospace Fastener Pin Axial Forging

Ti-6Al-4V warm forged fasteners are a critical part of the aerospace industry, as they are used in vast quantities for mechanical joining of components for the fuselage, wing-skin and aero-engine. These components are produced in vast quantities at rapid production rates through multi-blow axial forging However the rate that they are manufactured means that manufacturers rely upon periodic part conformance testing to understand if the part is within tolerance or if any undesirable manufacturing defects such as cracks or underfilling are present. Thus, a right-first-time manufacturing approach is essential to minimize non-conformant scrap. An analysis of the Ti-6Al-4V supplied raw material for axial forging, in a variety of different bar diameter sizes and from different industrial suppliers, was conducted. This was to attempt to understand whether material property variation or operator variation was the root cause for some material behaving differently during the manufacture route. Experimental testing was performed through microstructure characterization and mechanical testing methods. The volume fraction of the β-phase was noted to be marginally higher in material with good forgeability. The hardness of the inner core of the bar appears to be a critical material property for the Ti-6Al4V bar, with an overly hard bar-core hindering forgeability of the bar. This is believed to be due to the hotter central region malleability being key for forgeability. Micro-void porosity was also noted which could lead to stress concentration locations, or crack initiation, and as such is a deleterious property for forgeability. The experienced forgeability of the Ti-6Al-4V bars have been demonstrated to be sensitive to rather small variation in measured microstructure and mechanical property. It is believed that cumulative impacts of small differences, 1% variation in α-phase volume fraction, small variations in elongation to failure, 1% variation in elastic modulus and microhardness profile variation at the center of the bar of less than 10 HV0.3, can combine to significantly impact the forgeability of Ti-6Al-4V bar

The Incompatibility of Materialism and the Desire for Children: Psychological Insights into the Fertility Discrepancy Among Modern Countries

Singapore Management University Office of Researc

Advancing research on emergency care systems in low-income and middle-income countries: ensuring high-quality care delivery systems

Emergency care systems (ECS) address a wide range of acute conditions, including emergent conditions from communicable diseases, non-communicable diseases, pregnancy and injury. Together, ECS represent an area of great potential for reducing morbidity and mortality in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). It is estimated that up to 54% of annual deaths in LMICs could be addressed by improved prehospital and facility-based emergency care. Research is needed to identify strategies for enhancing ECS to optimise prevention and treatment of conditions presenting in this context, yet significant gaps persist in defining critical research questions for ECS studies in LMICs. The Collaborative on Enhancing Emergency Care Research in LMICs seeks to promote research that improves immediate and long-term outcomes for clients and populations with emergent conditions. The objective of this paper is to describe systems approaches and research strategies for ECS in LMICs, elucidate priority research questions and methodology, and present a selection of studies addressing the operational, implementation, policy and health systems domains of health systems research as an approach to studying ECS. Finally, we briefly discuss limitations and the next steps in developing ECS-oriented interventions and research

Treating latent TB in primary care: a survey of enablers and barriers among UK General Practitioners.

BACKGROUND: Treating latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) is an important public health intervention. In the UK, LTBI treatment is delivered in secondary care. Treating LTBI in the community would move care closer to home and could increase uptake and treatment completion rates. However, healthcare providers' views about the feasibility of this in the UK are unknown. This is the first study to investigate perceived barriers and enablers to primary care-based LTBI treatment among UK general practitioners (GPs). METHODS: A national survey amongst 140 randomly sampled UK GPs practising in areas of high TB incidence was performed. GPs' experience and perceived confidence, barriers and enablers of primary care-based LTBI treatment were explored and multivariable logistic regression was used to determine whether these were associated with a GP's willingness to deliver LTBI treatment. RESULTS: One hundred and twelve (80 %) GPs responded. Ninety-three (83 %; 95 % CI 75 %-89 %) GPs said they would be willing to deliver LTBI treatment in primary care, if key perceived barriers were addressed during service development. The major perceived barriers to delivering primary care-based LTBI treatment were insufficient experience among GPs of screening and treating LTBI, lack of timely specialist support and lack of allied healthcare staff. In addition, GPs felt that appropriate resourcing was key to the successful and sustainable delivery of the service. GPs who reported previous experience of screening or treatment of patients with active or latent TB were almost ten times more likely to be willing to deliver LTBI treatment in primary care compared to GPs with no experience (OR: 9.98; 95 % CI 1.22-81.51). CONCLUSIONS: UK GPs support primary care-based LTBI treatment, provided they are given appropriate training, specialist support, staffing and financing