Individual and Work Related Factors of Burnout Among Direct Care Staff

Burnout is the response to prolonged emotional, situational, and interpersonal stress of one\u27s job. Direct care staff, who work with challenging populations, are at increased risk for burnout. Maslach\u27s and Leiter\u27s multidimensional model of burnout posits that the relationship between an individual and his or her occupation leads to either engagement or burnout. This study aimed to determine if the associations between the 6 areas of worklife (workload, control, community, reward, fairness, and values) and the 3 aspects of burnout (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment) identified in this model are moderated by age and gender. The study included 117 direct care staff who completed self-administered online questionnaires. Linear regression analyses indicated that workload was positively and reward negatively associated with emotional exhaustion. Age moderated the associated between workload and emotional exhaustion. An increase in workload was associated with increased emotional exhaustion more so for older than younger employees. Values and reward were negatively associated with depersonalization and community and values were positively associated with personal accomplishment. Age and gender did not moderate any of these associations. These findings suggest that burnout is highly complex, but age and gender do not seem to change the association between work areas and burnout to a large degree. Additional research is needed to determine the role of other demographic factors in burnout. The social change implications include the significance of understanding ways to reduce burnout, increase engagement, and provide support and training for employees based on individual characteristics

Investigating Specimen Preparation and Characterization Methods of Semiconductor Material

The ability to prepare and characterize semiconductor material has wide implications for research to improve solar cell and device efficiencies. The variety of preparation techniques and characterization methods available allow us to explore materials in ways that were once not possible. However, the ability to obtain statistical information from prepared specimens is limited by residue caused by the specimen preparation process, the amount of volume or surface area that can be made accessible to characterization techniques, and the need for human pattern recognition to identify each structure, often given information on data obtained at more than one specimen orientation. This project explores some of those limitations through specimen preparation methods and characterization techniques. The research shows epitaxial lift-off in GaSb thin films is possible, that red, green and blue (RGB) pixel values can be used to measure thickness (within certain limitations including specimen image grey value and ambient lighting), and that oxygen cluster nucleation has a thermal history dependence that contributes to differences in oxygen precipitation (which correlates to functionality differences in device properties). These results contribute to advancements for semiconductor research and allow material advancements for more efficient solar and device performance in the future

A note on the union-closed sets conjecture

A collection A of finite sets is closed under union if A, B ∈ A implies that A ∪ B ∈ A. The Union-Closed Sets Conjecture states that if A is a union-closed collection of sets, containing at least one non-empty set, then there is an element which belongs to at least half of the sets in A. We show that if q is the minimum cardinality of ∪A taken over allcounterexamples A, then any counterexample A has cardinality at least 4q − 1

Lazy Evaluation of Negative Preconditions in Planning Domains (Extended Abstract)

AI planning technology faces performance issues with large-scale problems with negative preconditions. In this extended abstract, we show how to leverage the power of the Finite Domain Representation (FDR) used by the popular Fast Downward planner for such domains. FDR improves scalability thanks to its use of multi-valued state variables. However, it scales poorly when dealing with negative preconditions. We propose an alternative hybrid approach that evaluates negative preconditions on the fly during search but only when strictly needed. This is compared to the traditional use of PDDL bookmark predicates, which increases memory usage

Rule Generalisation in Intrusion Detection Systems using Snort

Intrusion Detection Systems (IDSs) provide an important layer of security for computer systems and networks, and are becoming more and more necessary as reliance on Internet services increases and systems with sensitive data are more commonly open to Internet access. An IDS’s responsibility is to detect suspicious or unacceptable system and network activity and to alert a systems administrator to this activity. The majority of IDSs use a set of signatures that define what suspicious traffic is, and Snort is one popular and actively developing open-source IDS that uses such a set of signatures known as Snort rules. Our aim is to identify a way in which Snort could be developed further by generalising rules to identify novel attacks. In particular, we attempted to relax and vary the conditions and parameters of current Snort rules, using a similar approach to classic rule learning operators such as generalisation and specialisation. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach through experiments with standard datasets and show that we are able to detect previously undetected variants of various attacks. We conclude by discussing the general effectiveness and appropriateness of generalisation in Snort based IDS rule processing. Keywords: anomaly detection, intrusion detection, Snort, Snort rule

Major histocompatibility complex-associated odour preferences and human mate choice: near and far horizons

The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) is a core part of the adaptive immune system. As in other vertebrate taxa, it may also affect human chemical communication via odour-based mate preferences, with greater attraction towards MHC-dissimilar partners. However, despite some well-known findings, the available evidence is equivocal and made complicated by varied approaches to quantifying human mate choice. To address this, we here conduct comprehensive meta-analyses focusing on studies assessing i] genomic mate selection, ii] relationship satisfaction and iii] odour preference. Analysis of genomic studies reveals no association between MHC-dissimilarity and mate choice in actual couples; however, MHC effects appear to be independent of genomic background. The effect of MHC-dissimilarity on relationship satisfaction was not significant and we found evidence for publication bias in studies on this area. There was also no significant association between MHC-dissimilarity and odour preferences. Finally, combining effect sizes from all genomic, relationship satisfaction, odour preference and previous mate choice studies into an overall estimate showed no overall significant effect of MHC similarity on human mate selection. Based on these findings, we make a set of recommendations for future studies, focusing both on aspects that should be implemented immediately and those that lurk on the far horizon. We need larger samples with greater geographical and cultural diversity, that control for genome-wide similarity. We also need more focus on mechanisms of MHC-associated odour preferences and on MHC-associated pregnancy loss

Bio-assessment and Monitoring at Beautiful Eagle Creek

Bio-assessment and Monitoring at Beautiful Eagle Creek Dr. Checo Colón-Gaud, Dr. Jamie Roberts, Dr. Abid Shaikh, Departments of Biology and Chemistry ($31,787) They proposed research/monitoring and education/outreach efforts at Beautiful Eagle Creek with emphasis on 4 key elements geared to (1) enhance riparian and in-stream habitats (2) implement environmental outreach, education and training projects that integrate university students, local area schools, and community groups (3) provide measurable results including guidelines for ecological restoration of the site, student training and the development of yearly programs that foster citizen science and environmental sustainability (4) fostering partnerships that engage a diverse group of university and community entities to achieve ecological and educational outcomes. They created a structured research/education program designed to monitor conditions at the site, primarily focusing on metrics of biological integrity. They further strengthened the preparation of our students and the efforts of community-based advocacy groups by providing education and outreach opportunities that focus on natural resources in the region, particularly the conservation of freshwater habitats

Facilitators and barriers to the successful implementation of pediatric antibacterial drug trials: Findings from CTTI's survey of investigators.

An urgent need exists to develop new antibacterial drugs for children. We conducted research with investigators of pediatric antibacterial drug trials to identify facilitators and barriers in the conduct of these trials. Seventy-three investigators completed an online survey assessing the importance of 15 facilitators (grouped in 5 topical categories) and the severity of 36 barriers (grouped in 6 topical categories) to implementing pediatric antibacterial drug trials. Analysis focused on the identification of key factors that facilitate the successful implementation of pediatric antibacterial drug trials and the key barriers to implementation. Almost all investigators identified two factors as very important facilitators: having site personnel for enrollment and having adequate funding. Other top factors were related to staffing. Among the barriers, factors related to parent concerns and consent were prominent, particularly obtaining parental consent when there was disagreement between parents, concerns about the number of blood draws, and concerns about the number of invasive procedures. Having overly narrow eligibility criteria was also identified as a major barrier. The survey findings suggest three areas in which to focus efforts to help facilitate ongoing drug development: (1) improving engagement with parents of children who may be eligible to enroll in a pediatric antibacterial drug trial, (2) broadening inclusion criteria to allow more participants to enroll, and (3) ensuring adequate staffing and establishing sustainable financial strategies, such as funding pediatric trial networks. The pediatric antibacterial drug trials enterprise is likely to benefit from focused efforts by all stakeholders to remove barriers and enhance facilitation

Carbon Finance II: Investing in Forests for Climate Protection

Carbon Finance II: Investing in Forests for Climate Protection is a collection of lectures given during the 2008-2009 Carbon Finance Speaker Series at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. The annual series is hosted by the Center for Business and the Environment at Yale and supported by the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation and the Henry P. Kendall Foundation. The 2008-2009 speaker series focused on forest carbon and the opportunities and obstacles to including forests in greenhouse gas emission reduction policies, carbon markets, and cap-and-trade systems