Attention! That's a precious resource

https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/148512/1/2017_Our_Planet_Attention.pd

The Complexities of Crankiness and Cortisol: Exploring the Association Between Irritability, Cortisol Reactivity, and Psychopathology

Irritability is an indicator and predictor of psychopathology, as well as a sign of acute and chronic stress. Cortisol reactivity (CR), a physiological index of psychological stress, is bidirectionally associated with and predictive of psychopathology. Research addressing irritability and CR together is limited. Participants were 156 children enrolled in a longitudinal study. At age three, saliva was collected in relation to a stressor task and parents reported on child psychopathology. Psychopathology reports were also completed for ages six, nine, and 12. Results showed CR to have a moderating effect on the association between irritability and psychopathology symptoms when sex was included as an additional moderator, indicating that this moderating effect occurred differently for males and females. These findings underscore the importance of considering both biological and psychological variables, as well as sex differences, in understanding future risk for psychopathology

Walmart\u27s Opioid Stewardship Initiative Rhetorically Constructed as an Act of Corporate Social Responsibility

Walmart is the largest publicly owned retailer in the world (Fishman, 2008). Walmart operates in a contested rhetorical environment because of an aggressive pricing strategy, low-paying wages, and discrimination claims made by women. This paper argues Walmart created several Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs to help improve corporate image and reputation. CSR encourages companies to consider a triple bottom line: people, the environment and profit. Consumers who practice socially responsible consumption choose to support companies they perceive give back to the community, participate in CSR initiatives to help people, and incorporate sustainable practices into the lifecycle of their products. This paper adds to the conversation about communicative functions of CSR and narrative creation. Walmart’s Opioid Stewardship Initiative appears to be a small part of a much larger overall goal of reputation repair. This paper explores the historical development of CSR from the viewpoint of proponents and critics of CSR, most notably this work frames Walmart’s Opioid Stewardship Initiative as an act of CSR. Lastly, the paper considers a rebirth of the new corporate image created by myriad CSR programs at Walmart

Subcultural Influences on Self-attitudes: The Expression of Low Self-esteem in Race/ethnicity-, Age-, Gender-, Social class-, and Generation-differentiated Subgroups

Self-esteem is conceptualized in terms of self-feelings that are evoked by self-evaluation of self-concept and that motivate self-enhancing or self-protective responses. Since (sub)cultural conventions and the self-esteem motive frequently invalidate self-report measures, it is argued that self-esteem should be measured as the confluence of self-evaluative statements and measures of subjective distress. In support of this, findings are presented from a longitudinal multigeneration study that demonstrate variation in the association between self-evaluative statements and reports of emotional distress between groups differentiated according to race/ethnicity, age, gender, social class, and generation. The results clearly indicate that prevalent self-report measures, whether considering total scores or component items, have differential emotional significance depending on groupings.

Influence of Fields on Grain Boundary Mobility in Alumina

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The influence of carbon on the microstructure of sintered alumina

Alumina is one of the most used ceramic materials, and as such understanding its sintering and densification processes is important. It is known that the sintering behavior is strongly affected by dopants, such as MgO, which promotes sintering and limits grain growth. The present study focuses on the influence of carbon on the sintering of alumina. Commercial ready-to-press (RTP) alumina specimens were sintered to full density (98%) at 1600°C for 2 h in air and in a graphite furnace using flowing He, a reducing atmosphere. The specimens sintered in graphite furnace resulted in a black color, an indication of the high carbon content originating from the large amount of organic compounds in RTP powders. In comparison, alumina specimens sintered in air, where the carbon decomposes during sintering at elevated temperatures, were white. Sintering with carbon in under He resulted in specimens with a finer microstructure. The presence of carbon retards grain growth, most probably by solute drag. A uniform segregation of carbon to the grain boundaries of alumina was shown by atom probe tomography [1]. In order to evaluate the wear resistance of the sintered alumina, the time (normalized by area) to section specimens with a diamond wafer blade was determined. The time to section specimens containing carbon was more than 40 times longer compared to the specimens sintered in air. The combination of reducing atmosphere and high carbon content has a positive effect on the microstructure and mechanical properties of alumina. [1] Marquis, E. A., Yahya, N. A., Larson, D. J., Miller, M. K. & Todd, R. I. Probing the improbable: imaging C atoms in alumina. Mater. Today 13, 34–36 (2010)

Preoperative and Intraoperative Opioid-Sparing Analgesic Techniques to Reduce Postoperative Opioid Consumption in Patients Undergoing Open, Non-Emergent Abdominal Surgeries: An Educational Module

Background: Opioids have long been considered the “gold standard” of pain management; however, the significant side effects associated with opioid use make opioid-sparing analgesic methods appealing for various reasons. Reducing postoperative opioid consumption without compromising pain management is an area requiring further exploration. Objective: This study seeks to assess healthcare providers’ knowledge and confidence regarding the use of various preoperative and perioperative interventions aimed at reducing postoperative opioid consumption following non-emergent open abdominal surgeries. Based on the systematic review performed, Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists were presented with a pre-assessment test, an educational video presentation, and a post-assessment test. Data Sources: Investigator used Pubmed, CINAHL, and EMBASE databases to answer the PICO (i.e., population, intervention, comparison, outcome) question: In patients undergoing open, nonemergent abdominal surgeries, does the use of multimodal, opioid-sparing pain management techniques during the preoperative and perioperative period reduce postoperative opioid consumption versus non-multimodal pain management? This question became the basis for the educational module by the same name. Pre-assessment and post-assessment testing were used to measure the effects of the intervention. Statistical analysis was applied to assess the effectiveness of the educational intervention. Study Selection: Nine articles were included in the systematic review and the findings were incorporated into the educational presentation. All found that their respective non-opioid interventions reduced postoperative opioid consumption to some degree. A majority reported secondary outcomes of reduced opioid-related side effects such as nausea and vomiting, decreased time to first meal, first ambulation, and foley removal, and increased patient satisfaction. Results: There were nine participants in the study and survey. The pre- and post-test gauged participants’ knowledge and confidence in non-opioid analgesic methods and implementing them in practice. The average number of correct answers in the pre-test was 4.22, compared to 7.44 in the post-test. Confidence for preoperative and intra-operative interventions improved from 44.44% and 33.33% to 88.89% and 100%, respectively. With education, participants were more likely to advocate for opioid-sparing analgesic interventions to improve postoperative outcomes for patients undergoing non-emergent abdominal surgery. All participants selected more correct answers in the post-test than pre-test. Conclusions: The evidence shows that several non-opioid analgesic interventions can reduce postoperative opioid consumption. The implementation of an educational module based on these findings led to a significant increase in providers’ knowledge and confidence of opioid-sparing analgesic methods in patients undergoing non-emergent open abdominal surgery and the benefits associated with non-opioid interventions

Solute-drag vs solute-acceleration during microstructural evolution of alumina

The role of dopants in processing ceramics has been an important issue for many years, especially given the contradicting reports of retarded or accelerated grain growth by key dopants and impurities. To fully understand these effects in terms of solute segregation versus enhanced grain boundary (GB) mobility due to liquid phase formation, an effort has been made to quantify the high temperature (1600°C) solubility limit of Mg, Ca, and Si in alumina. Using these values, samples doped below the solubility limit with Mg, or Ca, or C, or co-doped with Mg and Ca were prepared at concentrations which were measured using fully standardized wavelength dispersive spectroscopy. Measurements of GB mobility as a function of measured dopant concentration below the solubility limit has shown that Mg and carbon indeed retard GB mobility by solute-drag. However, Ca impurities increase the GB mobility of alumina at dopant values below the solubility limit (i.e. without forming liquid phases at the grain boundaries or triple junctions). The segregating dopants are associated with 2-D structural and compositional transitions at the GBs, and possible changes in the mechanism of GB migration. This presentation will review recent GB mobility measurements and the concept of 2-D GB transitions and their potential role on the mechanism of GB motion

The social values of forests and trees in urbanized societies

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/148494/1/2004_Social_value_IUFRO.pd