Selected Hydrogeologic and Water-quality Data from Jones Beach Island, Long Island, New York

A data-collection site was instrumented on Jones Beach Island, a barrier island south of Long Island, N.Y., to study local freshwater/ saltwater relations in the shallow ground-water system. A geologic test boring revealed about 88 feet of well-sorted glacial outwash sand above about 15 feet of Gardiners Clay, which directly overlies silty sand of the Magothy Formation. Tidal effects on water levels in Great South Bay, the upper glacial aquifer, and the Magothy aquifer were observed and quantified with a tidal gage in the bay and analog water-level recorders in the wells.Chloride concentrations in the upper Magothy aquifer were higher than expected--about 270 mg/L (milligrams per liter), and those in the upper glacial aquifer were 17,000 to 19,000 mg/L, about the same as in Great South Bay. Estimates of pressure and freshwater equivalent heads indicate that, at the data-collection site, freshwater is discharging upward from the Magothy aquifer into the salty upper glacial aquifer, but dilution by this freshwater is undetectable. The reason for the elevated chloride concentration in the Magothy aquifer cannot be determined from available hydrogeologic information

“Don’t Knock the Rock”: Making Popular Music Collections a Part of Your Archives

Documenting and chronicling regional music scenes can be a difficult venture for an archival repository. Unlike records that originate from an individual or within an organization, those of music scenes are often ephemeral, scattered, and hidden from scholarly communities. Collectors and creators of these materials sometimes underestimate their enduring historical value. Or conversely, they may be unaware of the role that archival repositories play in their community and therefore be reluctant to donate their materials. Repositories themselves may be unprepared for the challenges associated with collecting these materials, including unique donor relations strategies and content in diverse media formats. The panelists in this session represent a diverse range of experience with musical materials and will explore the successes, failures, trials, and tribulations of their attempts to document popular and local music scenes in their respective archival repositories. In discussing their own attempts at documenting scenes in Champaign, Illinois; Dayton and Cleveland, Ohio; and Louisville, Kentucky, panelists will address the common concerns that arise in preservation efforts of this nature, including donor relations, community outreach, accessibility, documentation strategies, and making the case for collecting these materials to administration, peers, and library friends groups

Extended scope of nursing practice: a multicentre randomised controlled trial of appropriately trained nurses and pre-registration house officers in pre-operative assessment in elective general surgery

Aim/ Principal Research Question:1) To determine whether pre-operative assessment carried out by an appropriately trained nurse (ATN) is equivalent in quality to that carried out by a pre-registration house officer (PRHO).2) To assess whether pre-assessments carried out by ATNs and PRHOs are equivalent in terms of cost.3) To determine whether assessments carried out by ATNs are acceptable to patients.4) To investigate the quality of communication between senior medical staff and ATNs.Factors of Interest:The extended role of appropriately trained nurses and pre-registration house officers in pre-operative assessment in elective general surgery.Methods:The study design was principally a prospective randomised equivalence trial but was accompanied by additional qualitative assessment of patient and staff perceptions, and an economic evaluation.The intervention consisted of a pre-operative assessment carried out by either an ATN or a PRHO. Of the patients who completed the study with a full evaluation, 926 patients were randomised to the PRHO arm of the trial and 948 to the ATN arm. Three ATNs took part in the study, one from each centre, together with a total of 87 PRHOs.Immediately following the initial assessment of a patient by a PRHO or an ATN, one of a number of clinical research fellows, all specialist registrars in anaesthetics, repeated the assessment and recorded it on a study form, together with a list of investigations required. The clinical research fellow then evaluated the competency of the initial assessor by comparing the quality of their assessment with their own. Any deficiencies in ordering of investigations and referral to other specialities were met in order to maximise patient care.Sample groups:All patients attending at one site for assessment prior to general anaesthetic for elective general, vascular, urological or breast surgery were potentially included in the study. Of 1907 patients who were randomised, 1874 completed the study with a full evaluation.The study was carried out at four NHS hospitals, three of which were teaching hospitals, in three NHS Trusts in Southampton, Sheffield and Doncaster.Outcome measures:Three areas of ATN and PRHO performance were judged separately, history taking, examination and ordering of tests, and each was graded into one of four categories, the most important of which was under-assessment, which would possibly have affected peri-operative management. In the case of ordering of tests, it was possible to have both over- and under-assessed a patient on different tests.Findings:The pre-operative assessments carried out by the ATNs were essentially equivalent to those performed by the PRHOs in terms of under-assessment that might possibly have affected peri-operative management, although there was variation between the ATNs in terms of the quality of history taking. This may be related to the low number of patients seen at one study site.PRHOs ordered significantly more unnecessary tests than the ATNs. The substitution of ATNs for PRHOs was calculated to be cost neutral.The results of the qualitative assessment showed that the use of ATNs for pre-operative assessment was acceptable to patients; however, there was no evidence that communication between senior medical staff and those carrying out pre-operative assessments was improved by their introduction.Conclusions:This study demonstrated no reason to inhibit the development of fully nurse-led pre-operative assessment, provided that the nurses are appropriately trained and maintain sufficient workload to retain skills.Implications for Further Research:Further research is needed in the following areas:1) the extent and type of training needed for nurses undertaking the pre-operative assessment role2) the use, costs and benefits of routine pre-operative testing.<br/

Ferromagnetic Luttinger Liquids

We study weak itinerant ferromagnetism in one-dimensional Fermi systems using perturbation theory and bosonization. We find that longitudinal spin fluctuations propagate ballistically with velocity v_m << v_F, where v_F is the Fermi velocity. This leads to a large anomalous dimension in the spin-channel and strong algebraic singularities in the single-particle spectral function and in the transverse structure factor for momentum transfers q ~ 2 Delta/v_F, where 2 Delta is the exchange splitting.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Towards standard setting for patient-reported outcomes in the NHS homeopathic hospitals

We report findings from a pilot data collection study within a programme of quality assurance, improvement and development across all five homeopathic hospitals in the UK National Health Service (NHS).&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;b&gt;Aims&lt;/b&gt; (1) To pilot the collection of clinical data in the homeopathic hospital outpatient setting, recording patient-reported outcome since first appointment; (2) to sample the range of medical complaints that secondary-care doctors treat using homeopathy, and thus identify the nature and complexity of complaints most frequently treated nationally; (3) to present a cross section of outcome scores by appointment number, including that for the most frequently treated medical complaints; (4) to explore approaches to standard setting for homeopathic practice outcome in patients treated at the homeopathic hospitals.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;b&gt;Methods&lt;/b&gt; A total of 51 medical practitioners took part in data collection over a 4-week period. Consecutive patient appointments were recorded under the headings: (1) date of first appointment in the current series; (2) appointment number; (3) age of patient; (4) sex of patient; (5) main medical complaint being treated; (6) whether other main medical complaint(s); (7) patient-reported change in health, using Outcome Related to Impact on Daily Living (ORIDL) and its derivative, the ORIDL Profile Score (ORIDL-PS; range, –4 to +4, where a score &#8804;−2 or &#8805;+2 indicates an effect on the quality of a patient's daily life); (8) receipt of other complementary medicine for their main medical complaint.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;b&gt;Results&lt;/b&gt; The distribution of patient age was bimodal: main peak, 49 years; secondary peak, 6 years. Male:female ratio was 1:3.5. Data were recorded on a total of 1797 individual patients: 195 first appointments, 1602 follow-ups (FUs). Size of clinical service and proportion of patients who attended more than six visits varied between hospitals. A total of 235 different medical complaints were reported. The 30 most commonly treated complaints were (in decreasing order of frequency): eczema; chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS); menopausal disorder; osteoarthritis; depression; breast cancer; rheumatoid arthritis; asthma; anxiety; irritable bowel syndrome; multiple sclerosis; psoriasis; allergy (unspecified); fibromyalgia; migraine; premenstrual syndrome; chronic rhinitis; headache; vitiligo; seasonal allergic rhinitis; chronic intractable pain; insomnia; ulcerative colitis; acne; psoriatic arthropathy; urticaria; ovarian cancer; attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD); epilepsy; sinusitis. The proportion of patients with important co-morbidity was higher in those seen after visit 6 (56.9%) compared with those seen up to and including that point (40.7%; P &lt; 0.001). The proportion of FU patients reporting ORIDL-PS &#8805; +2 (improvement affecting daily living) increased overall with appointment number: 34.5% of patients at visit 2 and 59.3% of patients at visit 6, for example. Amongst the four most frequently treated complaints, the proportion of patients that reported ORIDL-PS &#8805; +2 at visit numbers greater than 6 varied between 59.3% (CFS) and 73.3% (menopausal disorder).&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;b&gt;Conclusions&lt;/b&gt; We have successfully piloted a process of national clinical data collection using patient-reported outcome in homeopathic hospital outpatients, identifying a wide range and complexity of medical complaints treated in that setting. After a series of homeopathy appointments, a high proportion of patients, often representing “effectiveness gaps” for conventional medical treatment, reported improvement in health affecting their daily living. These pilot findings are informing our developing programme of standard setting for homeopathic care in the hospital outpatient context

The Grizzly, November 3, 1978

Task Force Proposes Curricular Revisions: Faculty Discusses Broad Academic Changes • Computer Programs To Be Studied • Reed This Message • Liberal Education for a Modern World • Letters to the Editor • Campus Committees Graded • Springsteen Revisited • Halloween Horrors! • Annual Messiah Rehearsal • French Club Wined and Dined • GM: Looking Good For \u2779 • Soccer Trounces Widener • Founders\u27 Convocation • Harriers Cap 12-1 Season • Mermaids Anticipate Slick Season • Hockey J. V.s With No Losses • Zetans Take Intramural Football Championship • News in Brief: Egdon Heath to Rock T. G.; Forum Presents Workshop, Performance; Ursinus Appoints Band Directorhttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/grizzlynews/1005/thumbnail.jp