715 research outputs found
Self-Definition of Women Experiencing a Nontraditional Graduate Fellowship Program
Women continue to be underrepresented in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). One factor contributing to this underrepresentation is the graduate school experience. Graduate programs in STEM fields are constructed around assumptions that ignore the reality of womenâs lives; however, emerging opportunities may lead to experiences that are more compatible for women. One such opportunity is the Graduate Teaching Fellows in Kâ12 Education (GKâ12) Program, which was introduced by the National Science Foundation in 1999. Although this nontraditional graduate program was not designed explicitly for women, it provided an unprecedented context in which to research how changing some of the basic assumptions upon which a graduate school operates may impact women in science. This exploratory case study examines the self-definition of 8 women graduate students who participated in a GKâ12 program at a major research university. The findings from this case study contribute to higher educationâs understanding of the terrain women graduate students in the STEM areas must navigate as they participate in programs that are thought to be more conducive to their modes of self-definition while they continue to seek to be successful in the historically Eurocentric, masculine STEM fields
Pain Medication Management Processes Used by Oncology Outpatients and Family Caregivers Part II: Home and Lifestyle Contexts
ContextâDespite the increasing complexity of medication regimens for persistent cancer pain, little is known about how oncology outpatients and their family caregivers manage pain medications at home. ObjectivesâTo describe the day-to-day management of pain medications from the perspectives of oncology outpatients and their family caregivers who participated in a randomized clinical trial (RCT) of a psycho-educational intervention called the Pro-Self Š Plus Pain Control Program. In this article, we focus on pain medication management in the context of highly individualized home environments and lifestyles. MethodsâThis qualitative study was conducted as part of a RCT in which an embedded mixed methods research design was used. Audio-recorded dialogue among patients, family caregivers, and intervention nurses was analyzed using qualitative research methods. ResultsâHome and lifestyle contexts for managing pain medications included highly individualized home environments, work and recreational activities, personal routines, and family characteristics. Pain medication management processes particularly relevant in these contexts included understanding, organizing, storing, scheduling, remembering, and taking the medications. With the exception of their interactions with the intervention nurses, most study participants had little involvement with clinicians as they worked through these processes. ConclusionâPain medication management is an ongoing multidimensional process, each step of which has to be mastered by patients and family caregivers when cancer treatment and supportive care is provided on an outpatient basis. Realistic patient- and family-centered skill-building interventions are needed to achieve effective and safe pain medication management in the contexts of individual home environments and lifestyles
Pain Medication Management Processes Used by Oncology Outpatients and Family Caregivers Part I: Health Systems Contexts
ContextâOncology patients with persistent pain treated in outpatient settings and their family caregivers have significant responsibility for managing pain medications. However, little is known about their practical, day-to-day experiences with pain medication management. ObjectiveâTo describe day-to-day pain medication management from the perspectives of oncology outpatients and their family caregivers who participated in a randomized clinical trial of a psycho-educational intervention called the Pro-SelfŠ Plus Pain Control Program. In this article, we focus on pain medication management by patients and family caregivers in the context of multiple, complex health systems. MethodsâWe qualitatively analyzed audio-recorded intervention sessions that included extensive dialogue between patients, family caregivers, and nurses about pain medication management during the 10-week intervention. ResultsâThe health systems context for pain medication management included multiple complex systems for clinical care, reimbursement, and regulation of analgesic prescriptions. Pain medication management processes particularly relevant to this context were getting prescriptions and obtaining medications. Responsibilities that fell primarily to patients and family caregivers included facilitating communication and coordination among multiple clinicians, overcoming barriers to access, and serving as a final safety checkpoint. Significant effort was required of patients and family caregivers to insure safe and effective pain medication management. ConclusionâHealth systems issues related to access to needed analgesics, medication safety in outpatient settings, and the effort expended by oncology patients and their family caregivers require more attention in future research and healthcare reform initiatives
CP--odd Correlation in the Decay of Neutral Higgs Boson into , , or
We investigate the possibility of detecting CP--odd angular correlations in
the various decay modes of the neutral Higgs boson including the modes of a
pair, a pair, or a heavy quark pair. It is a natural way to probe
the CP character of the Higgs boson once it is identified. Final state
interactions (i.e. the absorptive decay amplitude) is not required in such
correlations. As an illustrative example we take the fundamental source of the
CP nonconservation to be in the Yukawa couplings of the Higgs boson to the
heavy fermions. A similar correlation in the process is
also proposed. Our analysis of these correlations will be useful for
experiments in future colliders such as LEP II, SSC, LHC or NLC.Comment: 16 pages, plus 8 postscript graphs not posted befor
Use of mixed methods designs in substance research: a methodological necessity in Nigeria
The utility of mixed methods (qualitative and quantitative) is becoming increasingly accepted in health sciences, but substance studies are yet to substantially benefit from such utilities. While there is a growing number of mixed methods alcohol articles concerning developed countries, developing nations are yet to embrace this method. In the Nigerian context, the importance of mixed methods research is yet to be acknowledged. This article therefore, draws on alcohol studies to argue that mixed methods designs will better equip scholars to understand, explore, describe and explain why alcohol consumption and its related problems are increasing in Nigeria. It argues that as motives for consuming alcohol in contemporary Nigeria are multiple, complex and evolving, mixed method approaches that provide multiple pathways for proffering solutions to problems should be embraced
A Search for Jet Handedness in Hadronic Decays
We have searched for signatures of polarization in hadronic jets from decays using the ``jet handedness'' method. The polar angle
asymmetry induced by the high SLC electron-beam polarization was used to
separate quark jets from antiquark jets, expected to be left- and
right-polarized, respectively. We find no evidence for jet handedness in our
global sample or in a sample of light quark jets and we set upper limits at the
95% C.L. of 0.063 and 0.099 respectively on the magnitude of the analyzing
power of the method proposed by Efremov {\it et al.}Comment: Revtex, 8 pages, 2 figure
Abnormal cognition, sleep, EEG and brain metabolism in a novel knock-in Alzheimer mouse, PLB1
Peer reviewedPublisher PD
Measurement of the branching ratios of the Z0 into heavy quarks
We measure the hadronic branching ratios of the Z0 boson into heavy quarks:
Rb=Gamma(Z0->bb)/Gamma(Z0->hadrons) and Rc=Gamma(Z0->cc/Gamma(Z0->hadrons)
using a multi-tag technique. The measurement was performed using about 400,000
hadronic Z0 events recorded in the SLD experiment at SLAC between 1996 and
1998. The small and stable SLC beam spot and the CCD-based vertex detector were
used to reconstruct bottom and charm hadron decay vertices with high efficiency
and purity, which enables us to measure most efficiencies from data. We obtain,
Rb=0.21604 +- 0.00098(stat.) +- 0.00073(syst.) -+ 0.00012(Rc) and, Rc= 0.1744
+- 0.0031(stat.) +- 0.0020(syst.) -+ 0.0006(Rb)Comment: 37 pages, 8 figures, to be submitted to Phys. Rev. D version 2:
changed title to ratios, used common D production fractions for Rb and Rc and
corrected Zgamma interference. Identical to PRD submissio
Direct Measurements of A_b and A_c using Vertex/Kaon Charge Tags at SLD
Exploiting the manipulation of the SLC electron-beam polarization, we present
precise direct measurements of the parity violation parameters A_c and A_b in
the Z boson - c quark and Z boson - b quark coupling. Quark/antiquark
discrimination is accomplished via a unique algorithm that takes advantage of
the precise SLD CCD vertex detector, employing the net charge of displaced
vertices as well as the charge of kaons that emanate from those vertices. From
the 1996-98 sample of 400,000 Z decays, produced with an average beam
polarization of 73.4%, we find A_c = 0.673 +/- 0.029 (stat.) +/- 0.023 (syst.)
and A_b = 0.919 +/- 0.018 (stat.) +/- 0.017 (syst.).Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures, 2 tables, to be submitted to Physical Review
Letters; version 2 reflects changes suggested by the refere
Standalone vertex ďŹnding in the ATLAS muon spectrometer
A dedicated reconstruction algorithm to find decay vertices in the ATLAS muon spectrometer is presented. The algorithm searches the region just upstream of or inside the muon spectrometer volume for multi-particle vertices that originate from the decay of particles with long decay paths. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated using both a sample of simulated Higgs boson events, in which the Higgs boson decays to long-lived neutral particles that in turn decay to bbar b final states, and pp collision data at âs = 7 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC during 2011
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