2,393 research outputs found
Caring for the caregiver during COVID-19 suspended visitation
During the 4th surge of COVID-19, August to November 2021, visitation was suspended in a hospital system in North Georgia. The Compassionate Connections Call Center (CCCC) was created to alleviate staff stress and to manage calls and communication. The goal of the initiative was to reduce interruptions to patient care caused by the increased number of calls to the clinical units by patients, families, loved ones and personal caregivers. The CCCC managed all incoming calls and communicated with the patientâs primary nurse through a coordinated process which limited interruptions. By caring for the caregiver, the aim was to improve the workplace experience of the nurses. Ninety-seven volunteers from over 13 departments across the organization worked in the CCCC and managed 3200 calls. With an average call time of roughly three minutes, the center freed up approximately 160 hours daily for nurses who might otherwise have paused patient care to answer calls. In addition, a family liaison role was created to proactively provide updates to families. This team of forty-six Registered Nurses worked a total of 2925 hours proactively updating families and facilitating virtual visits.
Experience Framework
This article is associated with the Staff & Provider Engagement lens of The Beryl Institute Experience Framework (https://www.theberylinstitute.org/ExperienceFramework). Access other PXJ articles related to this lens. Access other resources related to this lens
Lateral Separation of Macromolecules and Polyelectrolytes in Microlithographic Arrays
A new approach to separation of a variety of microscopic and mesoscopic
objects in dilute solution is presented. The approach takes advantage of unique
properties of a specially designed separation device (sieve), which can be
readily built using already developed microlithographic techniques. Due to the
broken reflection symmetry in its design, the direction of motion of an object
in the sieve varies as a function of its self-diffusion constant, causing
separation transverse to its direction of motion. This gives the device some
significant and unique advantages over existing fractionation methods based on
centrifugation and electrophoresis.Comment: 4 pages with 3 eps figures, needs RevTeX 3.0 and epsf, also available
in postscript form http://cmtw.harvard.edu/~deniz
Individual Entanglements in a Simulated Polymer Melt
We examine entanglements using monomer contacts between pairs of chains in a
Brownian-dynamics simulation of a polymer melt. A map of contact positions with
respect to the contacting monomer numbers (i,j) shows clustering in small
regions of (i,j) which persists in time, as expected for entanglements. Using
the ``space''-time correlation function of the aforementioned contacts, we show
that a pair of entangled chains exhibits a qualitatively different behavior
than a pair of distant chains when brought together. Quantitatively, about 50%
of the contacts between entangled chains are persistent contacts not present in
independently moving chains. In addition, we account for several observed
scaling properties of the contact correlation function.Comment: latex, 12 pages, 7 figures, postscript file available at
http://arnold.uchicago.edu/~ebn
Critical behaviour of the Rouse model for gelling polymers
It is shown that the traditionally accepted "Rouse values" for the critical
exponents at the gelation transition do not arise from the Rouse model for
gelling polymers. The true critical behaviour of the Rouse model for gelling
polymers is obtained from spectral properties of the connectivity matrix of the
fractal clusters that are formed by the molecules. The required spectral
properties are related to the return probability of a "blind ant"-random walk
on the critical percolating cluster. The resulting scaling relations express
the critical exponents of the shear-stress-relaxation function, and hence those
of the shear viscosity and of the first normal stress coefficient, in terms of
the spectral dimension of the critical percolating cluster and the
exponents and of the cluster-size distribution.Comment: 9 pages, slightly extended version, to appear in J. Phys.
The scattering of muons in low Z materials
This paper presents the measurement of the scattering of 172 MeV/c muons in
assorted materials, including liquid hydrogen, motivated by the need to
understand ionisation cooling for muon acceleration.
Data are compared with predictions from the Geant 4 simulation code and this
simulation is used to deconvolute detector effects. The scattering
distributions obtained are compared with the Moliere theory of multiple
scattering and, in the case of liquid hydrogen, with ELMS. With the exception
of ELMS, none of the models are found to provide a good description of the
data. The results suggest that ionisation cooling will work better than would
be predicted by Geant 4.7.0p01.Comment: pdfeTeX V 3.141592-1.21a-2.2, 30 pages with 22 figure
High and low molecular weight crossovers in the longest relaxation time dependence of linear cis-1,4 polyisoprene by dielectric relaxations
The dielectric relaxation of cis-1,4 Polyisoprene [PI] is sensitive not only to the local and segmental dynamics but also to the larger scale chain (end-to-end) fluctuations. We have performed a careful dielectric investigation on linear PI with various molecular weights in the range of 1 to 320 kg/mol. The broadband dielectric spectra of all samples were measured isothermally at the same temperature to avoid utilizing shift factors. For the low and medium molecular weight range, the comparisons were performed at 250 K to access both the segmental relaxation and normal mode peaks inside the available frequency window (1 mHzâ10 MHz). In this way, we were able to observe simultaneously the effect of molecular mass on the segmental dynamicsârelated with the glass transition processâand on the end-to-end relaxation time of PI and thus decouple the direct effect of molecular weight on the normal mode from that due to the effect on the monomeric friction coefficient. The latter effect is significant for low molecular weight (M wâ<â33 kg/mol), i.e., in the range where the crossover from Rouse dynamics to entanglement limited flow occurs. Despite the conductivity contribution at low frequency, careful experiments allowed us to access to the normal mode signal for molecular weights as high as M wâ=â320 kg/mol, i.e., into the range of high molecular weights where the pure reptation behavior could be valid, at least for the description of the slowest chain modes. The comparison between the dielectric relaxations of PI samples with medium and high molecular weight was performed at 320 K. We found two crossovers in the molecular weight dependence of the longest relaxation time, the first around a molecular weight of 6.5 ± 0.5 kg/mol corresponding to the end of the Rouse regime and the second around 75 ± 10 kg/mol. Above this latter value, we find a power law compatible with exponent 3 as predicted by the De Gennes theory
Molecular Dynamics Simulations
A tutorial introduction to the technique of Molecular Dynamics (MD) is given,
and some characteristic examples of applications are described. The purpose and
scope of these simulations and the relation to other simulation methods is
discussed, and the basic MD algorithms are described. The sampling of intensive
variables (temperature T, pressure p) in runs carried out in the microcanonical
(NVE) ensemble (N= particle number, V = volume, E = energy) is discussed, as
well as the realization of other ensembles (e.g. the NVT ensemble). For a
typical application example, molten SiO2, the estimation of various transport
coefficients (self-diffusion constants, viscosity, thermal conductivity) is
discussed. As an example of Non-Equilibrium Molecular Dynamics (NEMD), a study
of a glass-forming polymer melt under shear is mentioned.Comment: 38 pages, 11 figures, to appear in J. Phys.: Condens. Matte
Topology and Signature Changes in Braneworlds
It has been believed that topology and signature change of the universe can
only happen accompanied by singularities, in classical, or instantons, in
quantum, gravity. In this note, we point out however that in the braneworld
context, such an event can be understood as a classical, smooth event. We
supply some explicit examples of such cases, starting from the
Dirac-Born-Infeld action. Topology change of the brane universe can be realised
by allowing self-intersecting branes. Signature change in a braneworld is made
possible in an everywhere Lorentzian bulk spacetime. In our examples, the
boundary of the signature change is a curvature singularity from the brane
point of view, but nevertheless that event can be described in a completely
smooth manner from the bulk point of view.Comment: 26 pages, 8 figures, references and comments are added, minor
revisions and a number of additional footnotes added, error corrected, minor
corrections, to appear in Class. Quant. Gra
Screening by symmetry of long-range hydrodynamic interactions of polymers confined in sheets
Hydrodynamic forces may significantly affect the motion of polymers. In
sheet-like cavities, such as the cell's cytoplasm and microfluidic channels,
the hydrodynamic forces are long-range. It is therefore expected that that
hydrodynamic interactions will dominate the motion of polymers in sheets and
will be manifested by Zimm-like scaling. Quite the opposite, we note here that
although the hydrodynamic forces are long-range their overall effect on the
motion of polymers vanishes due to the symmetry of the two-dimensional flow. As
a result, the predicted scaling of experimental observables such as the
diffusion coefficient or the rotational diffusion time is Rouse-like, in accord
with recent experiments. The effective screening validates the use of the
non-interacting blobs picture for polymers confined in a sheet.Comment: http://www.weizmann.ac.il/complex/tlusty/papers/Macromolecules2006.pdf
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ma060251
Freezing of Spinodal Decompostion by Irreversible Chemical Growth Reaction
We present a description of the freezing of spinodal decomposition in
systems, which contain simultaneous irreversible chemical reactions, in the
hydrodynamic limit approximation. From own results we conclude, that the
chemical reaction leads to an onset of spinodal decomposition also in the case
of an initial system which is completely miscible and can lead to an extreme
retardation of the dynamics of the spinodal decomposition, with the probability
of a general freezing of this process, which can be experimetally observed in
simultaneous IPN formation.Comment: 10 page
- âŠ