The Association Between Distances Traveled for Care and Treatment Choices for Pelvic Floor Disorders in a Rural Southwestern Population

OBJECTIVES: To determine if distance traveled for care influenced patient choice for conservative vs. surgical treatment for pelvic organ prolapse (POP) and/or stress urinary incontinence (SUI). METHODS: Retrospective chart review of all new patients seen in the Urogynecology clinic at the University of New Mexico Hospital (UNMH) from January 2007 through September 2011. Data collected included medical history, Pelvic Organ Prolapse Quantification (POPQ) examination, and validated quality of life questionnaires. RESULTS: 1384 women were identified with POP and/or SUI. Women traveled an average of 50 miles to receive care at UNMH. After multivariable analysis, greater distance traveled was associated with increased likelihood of choosing surgery, OR 1.45 [1.18-1.76]. More advanced disease as measured by higher stage of prolapse, OR 3.43 [2.30-5.11], and positive leak with empty supine cough test, OR 1.94 [1.45-2.59] were also associated with choosing surgical management. CONCLUSIONS: Women who travel further for care and women with more advanced pelvic organ prolapse and/or stress urinary incontinence are more likely to choose surgical management for pelvic floor disorders

Evaluation and Testing of Brick Dust as a Pozzolanic Additive to Lime Mortars for Architectural Conservation

The purpose of this research is to identify an optimal methodology for determining whether a given brick dust will produce a pozzolanic reaction when combined with lime. This property will be referred to as pozzolanicity. The research required a review of the properties of pozzolanic materials, the nature of the pozzolanic reaction, and a review of existing methods for determining pozzolanicity. A testing program performed at the Architectural Conservation Laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania was designed and executed to evaluate methods for testing pozzolanicity of brick dust to determine their efficacy. An evaluation of the tests was the final result of the research, along with recommendations for ways in which this immensely valuable resource can be tested and utilized economically and sustainably for conservation work in the future

The Ambient Horn: Designing a novel audio-based learning experience

The Ambient Horn is a novel handheld device designed to support children learning about habitat distributions and interdependencies in an outdoor woodland environment. The horn was designed to emit non-speech audio sounds representing ecological processes. Both symbolic and arbitrary mappings were used to represent the processes. The sounds are triggered in response to the children’s location in certain parts of the woodland. A main objective was to provoke children into interpreting and reflecting upon the significance of the sounds in the context in which they occur. Our study of the horn being used showed the sounds to be provocative, generating much discussion about what they signified in relation to what the children saw in the woodland. In addition, the children appropriated the horn in creative ways, trying to ‘scoop’ up new sounds as they walked in different parts of the woodland

Using "tangibles" to promote novel forms of playful learning

Tangibles, in the form of physical artefacts that are electronically augmented and enhanced to trigger various digital events to happen, have the potential for providing innovative ways for children to play and learn, through novel forms of interacting and discovering. They offer, too, the scope for bringing playfulness back into learning. To this end, we designed an adventure game, where pairs of children have to discover as much as they can about a virtual imaginary creature called the Snark, through collaboratively interacting with a suite of tangibles. Underlying the design of the tangibles is a variety of transforms, which the children have to understand and reflect upon in order to make the Snark come alive and show itself in a variety of morphological and synaesthesic forms. The paper also reports on the findings of a study of the Snark game and discusses what it means to be engrossed in playful learning

Implementation and Outcomes of an Education Focused Professional Development Series for Occupational Therapy Practitioners

As new educational programs emerge and student enrollment increases, the demand for new academicians, fieldwork educators, and capstone mentors is growing rapidly within the occupational therapy (OT) profession. Academic programs must prepare practitioners to teach and supervise their students who will become OTs and occupational therapy assistants (OTA). In conjunction with the state OT association, one university doctoral OT program created and implemented a free education-focused professional development series for community partners who were interested in developing their teaching knowledge and skills. The series covered unique aspects of OT and OTA education: fieldwork, the doctoral capstone experience and project, and how to become an academic educator. In total, 131 participants attended the three-part professional development series: 10% attended all three sessions, 12% attended two sessions, and 78% attended just one session. A post course evaluation found the majority of participants agreed they will apply the information learned into their practice, they valued the free professional development opportunities, and they were interested in attending future professional development opportunities. Participants had a high level of agreement that they achieved the specific learning objectives of the course. Not only did the community partners find the sessions to be beneficial, but the university OT program noted benefits to hosting it, with 83% of the participants reporting wanting to take a capstone student and 73% reporting a desire to become an academic educator. The purpose of this educational innovation article is to disseminate the content, objectives, and outcomes of the professional development series, in addition to sharing implications for OT and OTA educational programs

Exact solutions of the 3-wave resonant interaction equation

The Darboux--Dressing Transformations are applied to the Lax pair associated to the system of nonlinear equations describing the resonant interaction of three waves in 1+1 dimensions. We display explicit solutions featuring localized waves whose profile vanishes at the spacial boundary plus and minus infinity, and which are not pure soliton solutions. These solutions depend on an arbitrary function and allow to deal with collisions of waves with various profiles.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures, standard LaTeX2e, submitted for publication to Physica

Conflict Minerals

This presentation will include an extensive review of literature of Conflict Minerals, particularly situations occurring in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Conflict minerals, as defined by Salem Press Encyclopedia are raw minerals that derive from areas of armed conflict. The presentation will examine the history of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, conflict minerals and its intersection with militant groups and the recovery process. We seek to portray historical events that led to this conflict and discuss current initiatives to combat this important social issue. Our goal is to raise awareness of the far reaching impact of this conflict on the Congolese people and other nations. We also aim to educate about ways to affect change

Threats to Impartiality in Capital Jury Selection: Addressing Dead-Serious Falsifications

The American Bar Association (ABA) filed an amicus brief1 in the Boston Marathon bombing case that took direct aim at current jury selection procedures within the context of highly publicized capital trials. It strongly recommended that knowledge about the case, including pretrial publicity, be carefully investigated. Moreover, the brief flatly stated that assertions of fairness and impartiality by venirepersons are “not reliable.”2 Is this true? What can social science tell us about the objectivity, truthfulness, and personal perspectives (e.g., biases or viewpoints) of potential jurors—in general, and on a case-by-case basis