Improving Quality and Achieving Equity: A Guide for Hospital Leaders

Outlines the need to address racial/ethnic disparities in health care, highlights model practices, and makes step-by-step recommendations on creating a committee, collecting data, setting quality measures, evaluating, and implementing new strategies

On the importance of including vegetation dynamics in Budyko's hydrological model

The Budyko curve describes the patterns observed between between climate, evapotranspiration and run-off and has proven to be a useful model for predicting catchment energy and water balances. In this paper we review the Budyko curve's underlying framework and, based on the literature, present an argument for why it is important to include vegetation dynamics into the framework for some purposes. The Budyko framework assumes catchments are at steady-state and are driven by the macro-climate, two conditions dependent on the scales of application, such that the framework's reliability is greatest when applied using long-term averages (≫1 year) and to large catchments (> 10 000 km2). At these scales previous experience has shown that the hydrological role of vegetation does not need to be explicitly considered within the framework. By demonstrating how dynamics in the leaf area, photosynthetic capacity and rooting depth of vegetation affect not only annual and seasonal vegetation water use, but also steady-state conditions, we argue that it is necessary to explicitly include vegetation dynamics into the Budyko framework before it is applied at small scales. Such adaptations would extend the framework not only to applications at small timescales and/or small catchments but to operational activities relating to vegetation and water management

Impact of CO2 fertilization on maximum foliage cover across the globe's warm, arid environments

Satellite observations reveal a greening of the globe over recent decades. The role in this greening of the "CO2 fertilization" effect-the enhancement of photosynthesis due to rising CO2 levels-is yet to be established. The direct CO2 effect on vegetatio

Quantitative Flow Field Imaging about a Hydrophobic Sphere Impacting on a Free Surface

This fluid dynamics video shows the impact of a hydrophobic sphere impacting a water surface. The sphere has a mass ratio of m* = 1.15, a wetting angle of 110 degrees, a diameter of 9.5 mm, and impacts the surface with a Froude number of Fr = 9.2. The first sequence shows an impact of a sphere on the free surface illustrating the formation of the splash crown and air cavity. The cavity grows both in the axial and radial direction until it eventually collapses at a point roughly half of the distance from the free surface to the sphere, which is known as the pinch-off point. The second set of videos shows a sphere impacting the free surface under the same conditions using Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) to quantify the flow field. A laser sheet illuminates the mid-plane of the sphere, and the fluid is seeded with particles whose motion is captured by a high-speed video camera. Velocity fields are then calculated from the images. The video sequences from left to right depict the radial velocity, the axial velocity, and the vorticity respectively in the flow field. The color bar on the far left indicates the magnitude of the velocity and vorticity. All videos were taken at 2610 fps and the PIV data was processed using a 16 x 16 window with a 50% overlap.Comment: American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics 2008 Annual Meeting Replaced previous version because abstract had LaTex markup and was too long, missing periods on middle initial of first two name

A Clash of Fundamental Rights: Conflicts Between the Fifth and Sixth Amendments in Criminal Trials

The United States Constitution\u27s Fifth and Sixth Amendments protect the rights of criminal defendants and witnesses. The Fifth Amendment\u27s privilege against self-incrimination protects witnesses from forced self-incrimination, and the Sixth Amendment provides criminal defendants with the right to cross-examine prosecution witnesses and to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses. These fundamental rights conflict when a prosecution witness invokes the Fifth Amendment privilege on cross-examination or when a defense witness invokes the privilege on direct-examination. A grant of either use or transactional immunity would remove the potential for self-incrimination, but courts are split on whether they possess the authority to grant such immunity to defense witnesses. This Note examines the judicial approaches to resolving the conflicts between the Fifth and Sixth Amendment, and it analyzes the factors that favor and those that oppose a grant of immunity to defense witnesses. This Note concludes that defense witnesses should be granted use immunity whenever their testimony might be exculpatory

Pharisees, Jesus and the kingdom : Divine Royal Presence as exegetical key to Luke 17:20-21

The quest for the historical Jesus can be advanced by a consideration of disagreement scenarios recorded in the gospels. Such “conflicts” afford the opportunity not only to analyse the positions of the protagonists, but by comparing them, to better appreciate their relative stances. ¶ One area of disagreement that has remained largely unexplored is that between Jesus and the Pharisees over the “kingdom of God”. Indeed, “kingdom of God” formed the very foundation of Jesus’ preaching and thus ought to be the place where fundamental disagreements are to be found. As Luke 17:20-21 represents the only passage in the Gospels where the Pharisees show any interest in the kingdom of God, it forms the central hub of the thesis around which an account of the disparate beliefs of Jesus and the Pharisees on the kingdom of God is constructed. ¶ The main thesis is this. Luke 17:20-21 can best be explained, at the level of the Pharisees and Jesus, as betraying a fundamental disagreement, not in the identity of the kingdom of God, which they both regarded as primarily the Divine Royal Presence, i.e. God himself as king, but in the location of that kingdom. The Pharisees located the kingdom in the here-and-now, Jesus located it in heaven. Conversely, at later stages in the formation of the pericope, the pre-Lukan community identified the kingdom as the Holy Spirit located in individuals with faith in Jesus and the redactor identified the kingdom as Jesus, located both in the Historical Jesus and the Jesus now in heaven. ¶ Chapter 1, after the usual preliminary remarks, presents an analysis of Luke 17:20-21 as a chreia, a literary form ideally suited as the basis on which to compare the beliefs of the Pharisees and Jesus. The work of three scholars vital to the development of the main thesis is then reviewed and evaluated. By way of background, a portrait of the Pharisees is then presented, highlighting in particular, issues that will be of importance in later chapters. Finally, a section on the Aramaic Targums suggests that some targum traditions may be traced back prior to AD 70 and that these reflect the influence and beliefs of first century Palestinian Pharisees. ¶ Chapters 2 and 3 are a consideration of every instance of the explicit mention of God as king (or his kingship) and the Divine Kingdom respectively, in contemporary and earlier Jewish Palestinian literature and in Luke-Acts. A model of the kingdom of God is developed in these chapters that will be applied to Luke 17:20-21 in the next chapter. ¶ Chapter 4 presents a detailed exegesis of Luke 17:20-21, taking into account scholarship on the pericope since the last monograph (an unpublished dissertation of 1962) on the chreia. It offers a composition history of the pericope and measures previous exegesis against the view of the kingdom of God as developed in chapters 2 and 3. ¶ Chapter 5 presents a summary of the work that relates directly to Luke 17:20-21, some implications arising from the findings and, several possible avenues for future research

The High Arctic Wolf in the Jones Sound Region of the Canadian High Arctic

The high arctic wolf Canis lupus arctos, a white, medium-sized subspecies of the arctic wolf, and a considerable carnivore, ranges over the Queen Elizabeth Islands of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. … With the object of adding to the meagre literature on the high arctic wolf, I present in this paper the results of observations I made on it over a total period of 425 days spent in the field in the Jones Sound region, collecting information on the local wildlife and Inuit. … Little is actually known about the wolf's predatory behaviour in the eastern High Arctic, and much of what is attributed to the high arctic wolf is merely hearsay or speculation. For example, in the Jones Sound region muskox carcasses which bear signs of attention from wolves are usually referred to as wolf-kills. It is possible that some of these carcasses have simply been scavenged by wolves. … Over the years, some of the residents of Grise Fiord have attributed the decline of Peary's caribou Rangifer tarandus pearyi in the region to the predatory habits of wolves, in spite of the absence of any proof that they have a controlling effect upon the size of caribou populations. It appears in actual fact that man has been blaming his competitor, the wolf, for the problems he himself has created. … From data based on reports of members of the Grise Fiord Detachment of the R.C.M.P. I have been able to derive the following average numbers of wolves taken: 1956-57 to 1962-63: 1.7; 1963-64 to 1967-68: 4.4; 1968-69 to 1970-71: 9.6. The sharp increase from 1.7 to 4.4 was a result of the reintroduction in 1964 of bounty payments in the Northwest Territories for the capture of wolves. A hunter receives $40 for each animal captured, as well as the pelt which has a value ranging between$10 and $150. Some pelts are used locally for the trimming of parkas, for which they are however considered inferior to the pelts of dogs or imported wolverine. Most wolves taken up to 1968 were either poisoned, accidentally caught in fox traps, or shot as they approached hunters or their dogs out of curiosity. Since the coming into general use of snowmobiles in the area, however, hunters have usually followed any fresh wolf track in the hope of catching up with one of the animals. The fact that the average number caught over the three years ending in 1971 was as high as 9.6 per year was therefore the result of overhunting by snowmobile, and not of an increase in numbers of the animals. The overhunting which took place over the years 1968-71 is the presumable explanation of the fact that not one wolf was taken during the years 1971-72. … Wolf carcasses are not eaten either by Inuit or their dogs

The LSA Database to Drive the Accelerator Settings

The LHC Software Architecture (LSA), used to operate the particle accelerators at CERN, is dependent on an on-line database to manage both high and low level parameter settings, including their evolution over time. Accelerator optics models, control sequences, reference values, are amongst the other entities being managed within the database. The LSA database can be considered as being located between the operators and the accelerators; therefore performance, availability, and security of the service as well as data integrity are paramount. To meet these requirements the LSA database model has been carefully developed, all database access is tightly controlled and instrumented, business logic is implemented within the database, and there is a semi-automatic integration with other key accelerator databases. Currently 8.6 million settings for some 40 thousand devices of the LEIR, SPS, and LHC accelerators are being effectively managed

Adaptive synthetic Schlieren imaging

Thesis (S.B.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2009."June 2009." Vita. Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 20).Traditional schlieren photography has several important disadvantages when designing a system to image refractive index gradients including the relatively high cost of parabolic mirrors and the fact that the technique does not easily yield quantitative data. Both these issues are resolved by using synthetic Schileren photography, but this technique produces images with a lower resolution than traditional schlieren imaging. Synthetic schlieren imaging measures a refractive index gradient by comparing the distortion of two or more images with high frequency backgrounds. This method can either yield low-resolution quantitative data in two dimensions or high-resolution quantitative data in one dimension, but cannot give high-resolution data in two dimensions simultaneously. In order to yield high resolution imaging in two dimensions, a technique is described that based upon previously measured fields, adaptively modifies the high resolution background in order to maximize the resolution for a given flow field.by Roderick R. La Foy.S.B