Survey of Attitudes of Licensed Dental Hygienists Toward Continuing Education in a State with Mandatory Continuing Education Versus a State without Mandatory Continuing Education

The purpose of this research was to compare attitudes of licensed dental hygienists toward continuing education (CE) in two states: Kentucky, a state with mandatory continuing education (MCE) as a requirement for dental hygiene re-licensure and Virginia, a state without MCE for dental hygiene re-licensure. A self-designed, 28-item instrument, Continuing Education Attitudinal Questionnaire, was mailed to a stratified and random sample of 400 licensed dental hygienists in Kentucky and Virginia. Employing the chi-square test for independence, analysis of results revealed that Kentucky participants responded more affirmatively than Virginia participants to attitudinal statements regarding CE, particularly in areas of MCE, benefits of CE, and CE program administration. Virginia respondents recorded higher percentages of undecided responses, especially in areas of benefits of CE and optional methodologies for CE instruction. Therefore, increased exposure to CE courses through MCE may result in more favorable attitudes toward CE. The study also revealed that association members displayed more favorable attitudes toward CE than non-association members, and that graduation date did not appear related to attitudes toward CE

Dynamics of the Transition corona

Magnetic reconnection between open and closed magnetic field in the corona is believed to play a crucial role in the corona/heliosphere coupling. At large scale, the exchange of open/closed connectivity is expected to occur in pseudo-streamer structures. However, there is neither clear observational evidence of how such coupling occurs in pseudo-streamers, nor evidence for how the magnetic reconnection evolves. Using a newly-developed technique, we enhance the off-limb magnetic fine structures observed with AIA and identify a pseudo-streamer-like feature located close to the northern coronal hole. After extrapolating the magnetic field with the PFSS model, we obtain a pseudo-streamer magnetic topology, null-point related topology bounded by open field. We compare the magnetic configuration with the UV observations and identify the magnetic structures expected to be involved in the event. Using an 3D MHD simulation of interchange reconnection, we showed that the evolution of the UV structures follows the magnetic field dynamics and the UV emitting structures have a pattern very similar to the plasma emission derived from the simulation. Our results highlight that the exchange between open and closed in the pseudo-streamer topology related to an observed event occurs at least partially at the null-point, similarly to the interchange reconnection in a single null-point topology. However, our results also indicate that the interchange reconnection in pseudo-streamers is a gradual physical process which opposes to the impulsive reconnection of the solar-jet model

Situating Food Insecurity in a Historic Albuquerque Community: The Whorled Relationship between Food Insecurity and Place

This article examines conceptualizations of the relationship between food insecurity and place. We use an ethnographically inspired and community-engaged approach to situate our analysis of fluid dynamics at work in a community with high levels of food insecurity. We propose that the relationship between place and people’s experience of food insecurity is recursive, dialectical, and “whorled.” This relationship reflects complex, interconnected, and multidimensional processes with consequences for the health of residents. Our research demonstrates the key nature of the health-place nexus by exploring how food insecurity articulates with place in unexpected ways that go beyond discussions of food, food environments, food access, food practices or food systems that have become common in the literature