ASSOCIATIONS BETWEEN CLINICAL AND LABORATORY PARAMETERS IN PNEUMOCOCCAL PNEUMONIA FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS HOSPITAL DURING THE YEARS 1996 TO 2005

Pneumococcal pneumonia is a significant disease that requires rapid treatment with effective antibiotics. This study attempts to identify associations with clinical and laboratory parameters from pneumococcal pneumonia cases from the University of Kansas Hospital during the years 1996 to 2005 that can be used to identify appropriate antibiotic therapies. Antibiotic resistance profiles together with retrospective chart reviews were used to identify associations. This study found no association between multi-drug non-susceptibility and mortality and no association between classification of pneumonia acquisition in individual groups (CAP, HCAP, HAP, VAP) and mortality. This study did find an association between multi-antibiotic non-susceptibility in isolates from patients who acquired pneumonia in a healthcare setting (HCAP, HAP, VAP). These results suggest the possibility that patients who frequently need healthcare may be more likely to have empiric antibiotic therapy. This may then be associated with carriage of more antibiotic resistant SPN isolates. The empiric antibiotic therapy should be reviewed frequently to provide the best therapy for patients while reserving the other antibiotics for the more acute cases of resistant pneumococcal disease

Introduction: Rethinking Romanness, Provincializing Christendom

In histories of ancient Jews and Judaism, the Roman Empire looms large. For all the attention to the Jewish Revolt and other conflicts, however, there has been less concern for situating Jews within Roman imperial contexts; just as Jews are frequently dismissed as atypical by scholars of Roman history, so Rome remains invisible in many studies of rabbinic and other Jewish sources written under Roman rule. Jews, Christians, and the Roman Empire brings Jewish perspectives to bear on long-standing debates concerning Romanization, Christianization, and late antiquity. Focusing on the third to sixth centuries, it draws together specialists in Jewish and Christian history, law, literature, poetry, and art. Perspectives from rabbinic and patristic sources are juxtaposed with evidence from piyyutim, documentary papyri, and synagogue and church mosaics. Through these case studies, contributors highlight paradoxes, subtleties, and ironies of Romanness and imperial power

Effect of Ultra-High Pulse Frequency on the Resolution in the Electrochemical Deposition of Nickel

Using localized electrochemical deposition (LECD) as a mask-less direct writing methodology, metal shapes are printed. The electrochemical double-layer capacitance at ultra-high frequencies is hypothesized to cause a localized deposition and the effect of pulse frequency on the current density is modeled to predict the deposition resolution and rate of deposition. Experimental results confirm that the deposition resolution and efficiency of the LECD process increase with the increase of pulse frequency. Deposition resolution 80% smaller than the tool diameter is feasible in the LECD of nickel used with a ø 250 μm tool at 1 MHz pulsed power

Exploring the Benefits of a Parent Partner Mentoring Program in Child Welfare

Parent partner mentoring programs are an innovative strategy for child welfare agencies to engage families in case planning and service delivery. These programs recruit and train parents who have been involved in the system and have successfully resolved identified child abuse or neglect issues to work with families with current open cases in the child welfare system. Parent partner mentors can provide social and emotional support, advocacy, and practical advice for navigating this challenging system. Insofar as parent partners share similar experiences, and cultural and socioeconomic characteristics of families, they may be more successful in engaging families and building trusting supportive relationships. The current study presents qualitative data from interviews and case studies of families who were matched with a parent partner in a large county in a Midwestern state. Interviews with families, parent partner mentors, child welfare agency staff, and community partners and providers suggest that parent partner programs may be just as beneficial for parent partner mentors as they are for families being mentored. These programs can build professional skills, help improve self-esteem, provide an avenue for social support, and may potentially prevent recidivism. Parent Partner programs also provide a mechanism for amplifying family voice at all levels of the agency

The Effects of a High Fat Meal on Blood Flow Regulation during Arm Exercise

A diet high in saturated fats results in endothelial dysfunction and can lead to atherosclerosis, a precursor to cardiovascular disease. Exercise training is a potent stimulus though to mitigate the negative effects of a high saturated fat diet; however, it is unclear how high-saturated fat meal (HSFM) consumption impacts blood flow regulation during a single exercise session. PURPOSE: This study sought to examine the impact of a single HSFM on peripheral vascular function during an acute upper limb exercise bout. METHODS: Ten young healthy individuals completed two sessions of progressive handgrip exercise. Subjects either consumed a HSFM (0.84 g of fat/kg of body weight) 4 hours prior or remained fasted before the exercise bout. Progressive rhythmic handgrip exercise (6kg, 12kg, 18kg) was performed for 3 minutes per stage at rate of 1 Hz. The brachial artery (BA) diameter and blood velocity was obtained using Doppler Ultrasound (GE Logiq e) and BA blood flow was calculated with these values. RESULTS: BA blood flow and flow mediated dilation (normalized for shear rate) during the handgrip exercise significant increased from baseline in all workloads, but no differences were revealed in response to the HSFM consumption. CONCLUSION: Progressive handgrip exercise augmented BA blood flow and flow mediated dilation in both testing days; however, there was no significant differences following the HSFM consumption. This suggests that upper limb blood flow regulation during exercise is unaltered by a high fat meal in young healthy individuals.https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/gradposters/1060/thumbnail.jp

Proof-of-Concept of a Networked Validation Environment for Distributed Air/Ground NextGen Concepts

The National Airspace System (NAS) must be improved to increase capacity, reduce flight delays, and minimize environmental impacts of air travel. NASA has been tasked with aiding the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in NAS modernization. Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) is an enabling technology that is fundamental to realization of the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen). Despite the 2020 FAA mandate requiring ADS-B Out equipage, airspace users are lacking incentives to equip with the requisite ADS-B avionics. A need exists to validate in flight tests advanced concepts of operation (ConOps) that rely on ADS-B and other data links without requiring costly equipage. A potential solution is presented in this paper. It is possible to emulate future data link capabilities using the existing in-flight Internet and reduced-cost test equipment. To establish proof-of-concept, a high-fidelity traffic operations simulation was modified to include a module that simulated Internet transmission of ADS-B messages. An advanced NASA ConOp, Flight Deck Interval Management (FIM), was used to evaluate technical feasibility. A preliminary assessment of the effects of latency and dropout rate on FIM was performed. Flight hardware that would be used by proposed test environment was connected to the simulation so that data transfer from aircraft systems to test equipment could be verified. The results indicate that the FIM ConOp, and therefore, many other advanced ConOps with equal or lesser response characteristics and data requirements, can be evaluated in flight using the proposed concept

Citation

Northumbria University has developed Northumbria Research Link (NRL) to enable users to access the University's research output. Copyright © and moral rights for items on NRL are retained by the individual author(s) and/or other copyright owners. Single copies of full items can be reproduced, displayed or performed, and given to third parties in any format or medium for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge, provided the authors, title and full bibliographic details are given, as well as a hyperlink and/or URL to the original metadata page. The content must not be changed in any way. Full items must not be sold commercially in any format or medium without formal permission of the copyright holder. The full policy is available online: http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/policies.html This document may differ from the final, published version of the research and has been made available online in accordance with publisher policies. To read and/or cite from the published version of the research, please visit the publisher's website (a subscription may be required.) Submitted for Special Issue on Risk Older people maintaining mental health well-being through resilience: an appreciative inquiry study in four countries Abstract Aim. To explore the experience and strategies of mental health well-being through resilience in older people across the four participating countries. Background. While there is increasing evidence of the way older people maintain physica

Measurement of Residual Stresses Hole Drilling Method

Import 05/08/2014Diplomová práce se zabývá vyšetřováním zbytkových napětí po tloušťce zkušebního vzorku odvrtávací metodou. Z naměřených uvolněných deformací, které byly zjištěny experimentem, se dopočítaly výsledná zbytková napětí a to postupem uvedeným v americké normě ASTM E837-13a jak pro předpoklad homogenního rozložení po tloušťce, tak pro nehomogenní rozložení napětí po tloušťce. Poté byl sestrojen numerický model metodou konečných prvků, s kterým se experiment srovnával. Poslední část této práce porovnává výsledky zbytkových napětí vypočítaných dle kalibračních koeficientů uvedených v normě ASTM s napětími získanými pomocí nových koeficientů zjištěných z MKP modelu.This thesis deals with investigation of residual stress on the thickness of the test sample by hole drilling method. From the measured relaxed strains, which were found by experiment, we calculated resulting residual stress with procedure describe in ASTM E837-13a standard for linear and nonlinear stress distribution along the depth. After that was construct numerical model with final element method, which was used for comparison with experiment. Last part of this thesis compares the results of residual stress calculated according to the calibration coefficients listed in ASTM standard with stress obtained from new coefficients identified from the FEM model.339 - Katedra pružnosti a pevnostivýborn