LINK CONVERGENCE IMPROVEMENT IN RADIO-AWARE ROUTING

Techniques are described herein to reduce link flapping scenarios in existing Radio-Aware Routing (RAR) technology, on both the server side and the client side. Existing techniques provide no mechanism to prioritize vendor-based or reliable/preferred clients. In particular, Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) protocol and/or Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (EIGRP) often initiate a call based on link quality and other metrics at that moment in time, which may lead to constant link/session flapping. This is due to the limited set of link characteristics relied upon by existing techniques for computing session establishment to a Dynamic Link Exchange Routing (DLEP) client. The techniques described herein introduce added parameters for better convergence to enable prioritization of reliable clients, thereby enhancing existing RAR protocols (e.g., DLEP). Thus, latency and performance with wireless clients may be enhanced in the industrial Internet of Things (IoT) routing space

The anatomy of a hospital system merger: the patient did not respond well to treatment

Despite the continuing US hospital merger wave, it remains unclear how mergers change, or fail to change, hospital behavior and performance. We open the "black box" of hospital practices through a mega-merger between two for-profit chains. Benchmarking the merger's effects against the acquirer's stated aims, we show they achieved some of their goals, harmonizing electronic medical records and sending managers to target hospitals. Post-acquisition managerial processes were similar across the merged chain. However, these interventions failed to drive detectable gains in performance. Our findings demonstrate the importance of organizations for merger research in health care and the economy more generally

Mothers' intentions to vaccinate their children for COVID-19

Parents' intentions to vaccinate their children is an important area of investigation in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. There is a growing body of research examining factors that influence parents' vaccine intentions. The current study investigated factors that would influence maternal intent to vaccinate their children for COVID-19, shortly before the CDC approved vaccines for children 11 and younger. We had a sample of n = 176 mothers (Mchildage = 71.63 months, 52% White) from California fill out an online survey during February–April 2021. Our results suggest that perceived COVID-19 threat predicts mothers' intention to vaccinate their children (b = 0.370, p < 0.001), controlling for mothers' age, socioeconomic status, race, and child age. Child age (b = 0.027, p = 0.008), SES (b = 0.396, p = 0.018), and child previous flu shot (b = 0.725, p < 0.001) also positively predicted mothers' intention to vaccinate their children. Results are discussed in light of prior research on maternal vaccine intentions and hesitancy

What’s in your dabba? children’s evaluations of ethnic lunchbox foods

Previous research has indicated that school lunchboxes play an integral role in children’s food socialization, and children negatively judge those who bring nonnormative food to school. To our knowledge, no study has experimentally examined children’s evaluations of different ethnic lunchbox foods. Using a virtual video-chat method, this study examined n = 81 children between 5-12 years of age and a comparison adult dataset of n=151 participants who completed our survey. We assessed 1) participants’ understanding that people from different cultures stereotypically eat different foods, indexed through a face-to-food matching task, 2) examined their evaluations of foods from different cultures in terms of their messiness, taste, smell, and appropriateness to bring to school and 3) explored how neighborhood diversity would influence their performance on the tasks. Older children and adults were more likely to make stereotype-matches on the face-to-food matching task. For adults, having a higher proportion of racial outgroup members in their neighborhoods made these matches more likely. Within-subjects ordinal regressions revealed that participants rated all lunchboxes positively, though children rated Mexican, Chinese, and Indian lunchboxes less positively than the American lunchbox while adults rated the Chinese and Mexican lunchboxes as more positive. There were interactions between food and evaluation type, and neighborhood diversity did not predict participants’ food ratings. The implications of our findings as they relate to food choices and social judgments are discussed

Early mobilisation in critically ill COVID-19 patients: a subanalysis of the ESICM-initiated UNITE-COVID observational study

Background Early mobilisation (EM) is an intervention that may improve the outcome of critically ill patients. There is limited data on EM in COVID-19 patients and its use during the first pandemic wave. Methods This is a pre-planned subanalysis of the ESICM UNITE-COVID, an international multicenter observational study involving critically ill COVID-19 patients in the ICU between February 15th and May 15th, 2020. We analysed variables associated with the initiation of EM (within 72 h of ICU admission) and explored the impact of EM on mortality, ICU and hospital length of stay, as well as discharge location. Statistical analyses were done using (generalised) linear mixed-effect models and ANOVAs. Results Mobilisation data from 4190 patients from 280 ICUs in 45 countries were analysed. 1114 (26.6%) of these patients received mobilisation within 72 h after ICU admission; 3076 (73.4%) did not. In our analysis of factors associated with EM, mechanical ventilation at admission (OR 0.29; 95% CI 0.25, 0.35; p = 0.001), higher age (OR 0.99; 95% CI 0.98, 1.00; p ≤ 0.001), pre-existing asthma (OR 0.84; 95% CI 0.73, 0.98; p = 0.028), and pre-existing kidney disease (OR 0.84; 95% CI 0.71, 0.99; p = 0.036) were negatively associated with the initiation of EM. EM was associated with a higher chance of being discharged home (OR 1.31; 95% CI 1.08, 1.58; p = 0.007) but was not associated with length of stay in ICU (adj. difference 0.91 days; 95% CI − 0.47, 1.37, p = 0.34) and hospital (adj. difference 1.4 days; 95% CI − 0.62, 2.35, p = 0.24) or mortality (OR 0.88; 95% CI 0.7, 1.09, p = 0.24) when adjusted for covariates. Conclusions Our findings demonstrate that a quarter of COVID-19 patients received EM. There was no association found between EM in COVID-19 patients' ICU and hospital length of stay or mortality. However, EM in COVID-19 patients was associated with increased odds of being discharged home rather than to a care facility. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT04836065 (retrospectively registered April 8th 2021)

Towards project-based science learning : a Finnish class teacher’s conceptions and implementation

Previous implementation research on Project-based science learning (PBSL) has mostly focussed on teachers that were provided with training or in-practice support for the implementation of PBSL. Although teacher-initiated PBSL is the most common way students are introduced to projects, little is known about the quantity and quality of project implementation in the context of teacher-initiated PBSL. This in-depth case study of one Finnish elementary class teacher’s conceptions and implementation of PBSL seeks to understand how the teacher’s conceptions of PBSL relates to the implementation and how the teacher’s conceptions develop as a result of practical experience of implementing projects. This case study followed Yin’s (1994) recommendation for a case study design. Two interviews were conducted before and after the project implementation, they were analysed using Miles and Huberman’s (1994) interactive model for data analysis. The eight-week project observations were analysed using the critical incident analysis technique. The findings are based on a comparison of the interview and observation data. The findings show that the Finnish National board for Education’s (2016) recommendations for Environmental science and the teacher’s own experience formed the basis for the teacher’s conceptions of PBSL. The teacher encountered many dilemmas during the implementation and was seen to develop a new understanding of some aspects of PBSL. The research concludes by pointing directions for further research and by making some practical recommendations to improve PBSL implementation in the elementary school context in Finland

Show or tell: Children’s learning about food from action vs. verbal testimony

Background. Childhood obesity continues to be a critical health concern in the United States. Nonetheless, interventions that focus on delivering verbal lessons about food and health to children in preschool classrooms have had only modest effects. Objectives. The present study examines the relative effectiveness of showing vs. telling children about food to promote healthy eating, with a focus on unfamiliar foods and vegetables. Methods. 3- to 6-year-old children (n = 71) were tested in a laboratory study in which they watched videos of two people eating apple-broccoli puree. One person took 5 bites of the food; the other said they liked the food. Results. Children did not differentiate between the food they saw someone eat and the food they heard someone talk about. Children’s food intake was negatively associated with parent reports of children’s eating behavior on the Food Fussiness subscale of the Child Eating Behavior Questionnaire. We found similar patterns in an analogous toy task. In an unfamiliar object task, children selected the action demonstration as the right way to use the object. Conclusions. We find no evidence that action vs. verbal testimony is more persuasive in guiding children’s food choices, but action testimony may be persuasive in other domains. The associations between children’s food intake and pickiness provide growing evidence of alignment between parent assessments of their children’s typical eating behavior and children’s food choices in laboratory studies

<em>In vitro</em> immunomodulatory potential of macromolecular components derived from the aqueous extract of <em>ajowan</em> [<em>Trachyspermum ammi</em> (L.) Sprague]

506-513Ajowan [Trachyspermum ammi (L.) Sprague] has proven medicinal and nutritive properties. The role of ajowan within the intricate network of interaction of cells of the immune system has also been quite studied. In this present study, the immunomodulatory properties of polysaccharide/polysaccharide-protein complexes (PPCs) have been assessed.Ajowan aqueous extract was precipitated with ethanol followed by dialysis. The resultant dialyzed solution was subjected to DEAE-Cellulose column chromatography by stepwise elution with sodium chloride (0-0.5M); 0.4 M NaCl eluate showed effective mitogenic activity towards splenocytes and hence named as, ajowan immunomodulatory component (ImC). This component of interest comprised of acidic polysaccharides, glycoproteins and associated bound phenolics. ImC induced proliferation of murine splenocytes effectively at the concentration of 1 &mu;g mL&minus;1 (p &lt; 0.005). Pronase treated ImC (Imc-Pt) failed to elicit mitogenic effect towards splenocytes; however, it could activate peritoneal exudate cells for synthesis of nitric oxide and phagocytosis at the minimum concentration of 10 ng mL&minus;1 (p &lt; 0.005). From the above results it can be concluded that both protein and polysaccharide constituents of ImC have independent roles in its immunomodulation property, i.e., protein on B-lymphocyte proliferation and carbohydrates on macrophage activation