Raising Awareness for Interventions to Reduce Acute Care Transfers (INTERACT): Implementation of “STOP and WATCH” Tool

Challenges in meeting the healthcare needs of the aging population have led to an increased rate of preventable hospitalizations, which are reported to be costly and detrimental to the health of the elderly, especially for those in Skilled Nursing Facilities (SNFs). Quality improvement initiatives have been proposed as an intervention to improve quality of care of individuals and populations. The purpose of this project was to raise awareness and set the foundation for staff engagement and empowerment in the use of INTERACT (Interventions to Reduce Acute Care Transfers) tools in a SNF. INTERACT is designed to improve quality of care of SNF residents by reducing potentially preventable hospitalizations through interventions made possible by early identification, assessment, documentation, and communication about changes in condition of residents. The Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) framework structured the project. The foundation of this project centered on intense educational sessions on staff role and the project tools. Anticipated short-term outcomes were increasing staff awareness and empowerment of their key role in reducing preventable hospitalizations

Fluctuations of g-factors in metal nanoparticles: Effects of electron-electron interaction and spin-orbit scattering

We investigate the combined effect of spin-orbit scattering and electron-electron interactions on the probability distribution of $g$-factors of metal nanoparticles. Using random matrix theory, we find that even a relatively small interaction strength %(ratio of exchange constant $J$ and mean level %spacing \spacing $\simeq 0.3$) significantly increases $g$-factor fluctuations for not-too-strong spin-orbit scattering (ratio of spin-orbit rate and single-electron level spacing 1/\tau_{\rm so} \spacing \lesssim 1), and leads to the possibility to observe $g$-factors larger than two.Comment: RevTex, 2 figures inserte

Glial Cell Lineage Expression of Mutant Ataxin-1 and Huntingtin Induces Developmental and Late-Onset Neuronal Pathologies in Drosophila Models

In several neurodegenerative disorders, toxic effects of glial cells on neurons are implicated. However the generality of the non-cell autonomous pathologies derived from glial cells has not been established, and the specificity among different neurodegenerative disorders remains unknown.We newly generated Drosophila models expressing human mutant huntingtin (hHtt103Q) or ataxin-1 (hAtx1-82Q) in the glial cell lineage at different stages of differentiation, and analyzed their morphological and behavioral phenotypes. To express hHtt103Q and hAtx1-82Q, we used 2 different Gal4 drivers, gcm-Gal4 and repo-Gal4. Gcm-Gal4 is known to be a neuroglioblast/glioblast-specific driver whose effect is limited to development. Repo-Gal4 is known to be a pan-glial driver and the expression starts at glioblasts and continues after terminal differentiation. Gcm-Gal4-induced hHtt103Q was more toxic than repo-Gal4-induced hHtt103Q from the aspects of development, locomotive activity and survival of flies. When hAtx1-82Q was expressed by gcm- or repo-Gal4 driver, no fly became adult. Interestingly, the head and brain sizes were markedly reduced in a part of pupae expressing hAtx1-82Q under the control of gcm-Gal4, and these pupae showed extreme destruction of the brain structure. The other pupae expressing hAtx1-82Q also showed brain shrinkage and abnormal connections of neurons. These results suggested that expression of polyQ proteins in neuroglioblasts provided a remarkable effect on the developmental and adult brains, and that glial cell lineage expression of hAtx1-82Q was more toxic than that of hHtt103Q in our assays.All these studies suggested that the non-cell autonomous effect of glial cells might be a common pathology shared by multiple neurodegenerative disorders. In addition, the fly models would be available for analyzing molecular pathologies and developing novel therapeutics against the non-cell autonomous polyQ pathology. In conclusion, our novel fly models have extended the non-cell autonomous pathology hypothesis as well as the developmental effect hypothesis to multiple polyQ diseases. The two pathologies might be generally shared in neurodegeneration

Knudsen Effect in a Nonequilibrium Gas

From the molecular dynamics simulation of a system of hard-core disks in which an equilibrium cell is connected with a nonequilibrium cell, it is confirmed that the pressure difference between two cells depends on the direction of the heat flux. From the boundary layer analysis, the velocity distribution function in the boundary layer is obtained. The agreement between the theoretical result and the numerical result is fairly good.Comment: 4pages, 4figure

Dynamique de croissance et taux de mortalité de Rhizophora spp. dans les mangroves de l'estuaire du Rio del Rey: Site de Bamusso (Sud-Ouest Cameroun)

Objectifs : L’objectif des présents travaux est de clarifier le stock du peuplement de Rhizophora ssp. du site par la détermination de ses paramètres de structure spatiale et d'évaluer sa croissance annuelle.Méthodologie et résultats : La méthode d'étude est celle des transects. Deux transects de 100mx10m distantes de 5km orientés WNW-ESE et perpendiculaires au principal chenal ont été établis au hasard .Chaque transect était subdivisé en trois placettes de 20mx10m et chaque placettes scindé en deux sous placettes de 20mx5m. Les mesures (Diamètre et hauteur) ont été effectuées à l'intérieur de chaque sous placette pendant trois campagnes (2009, 2012, 2014). Les résultats montrent que les diamètres moyens pour le transect1(T1) sont de 4,76 ± 0,23cm; 5,09± 0,25cm et 5,43±0,28cm contre 26,53 ± 1,72cm; 24,66 ± 1,90cm et 25,26 ± 1,93cm pour le transect2 (T2) respectivement pour 2009; 2012 et 2014. Les hauteurs moyennes varient de 4,51 ± 0,16 m (2009); 4,74 ± 0,18m (2012) et 4,98 ± 0,2m (2014) pour T1 contre 20,20± 1,22m; 18,86 ± 1,35 m et 19,29 ±1,39m pour T2. L'analyse de la croissance du peuplement montre que les diamètres d'exploitation du bois de la mangrove  affectionnée par les riverains se situent dans l'intervalle (5-30cm). Le test d'ANOVA montre une différence significative (P<0,05) pour les paramètres, de structure et une différence non significative (P>0,05) de la croissance annuelle entre T1 et T2.Conclusion et application des résultats : Cette étude a montré un taux de mortalité relativement faible (m=2,27%) qui présage d'une pression anthropique faible sur cet écosystème. L'étude de la dynamique réalisée permet de recommander ce site dans le processus REDD+ pour le calcul du carbone bleu indispensable dans la lutte contre le phénomène de changement climatique. Mots clés: Transect, Diamètre; Hauteur; Nombre d'individus, BamussoGrowth dynamic and death rate of Rhizophora spp. within mangrove's forest of Rio del Rey estuary (South-West Cameroon)Objective: This study was conducted to clarify the stock of Rhizophora ssp and to assess its growth within the study area.Methodology and results: Transect method was carried out during this study. So, two transects of 100 m in length, 10 m in width and 0.1 ha in area each distance to 5km oriented WNW-ESE and perpendicular to themain channel were established randomly . Each transect was divided in three plots of 20mx10m each and each plot separated in two subplots of 20mx5m each. Measures (Diameter and height) were collected within each subplot during three data collections campaigns (2009,2012,and 2014). The results show that mean diameters of transect1(T1) were 4.76 ± 0.23cm; 5.09± 0.25cm and 5.43±0.28cm to 26.53 ± 1.72cm; 24.66 ± 1.90cm and 25.26 ± 1.93cm for transect2 (T2) respectively in 2009; 2012 et 2014. Mean height values were 4.51 ± 0.16 m (2009); 4.74 ± 0.18m (2012) and 4.98 ± 0.2m (2014) for T1 to 20.20± 1.22m; 18.86 ± 1.35 m and 19.29 ±1.39m for T2. Study of growth show that used diameters of mangrove woods by neighborhood are inside class 5-30cm. The one-way ANOVA test showed a significant difference (P<0.05) for structure  parameters and no significant difference (P>0,05) for annual growth between T1 and T2.Conclusion and application of findings: This study showed a relatively weak annual death rate of trees (m=2.27%) dues to a weak anthropogenic pressure in this ecosystem. This dynamic study will recommend the site to the REDD+ process in order to estimate its blue carbon stock important to fight against climate change.Key words: Transect, Diameter, Height, Number of individuals, Bamuss

A hierarchy of models related to nanoflows and surface diffusion

In last years a great interest was brought to molecular transport problems at nanoscales, such as surface diffusion or molecular flows in nano or sub-nano-channels. In a series of papers V. D. Borman, S. Y. Krylov, A. V. Prosyanov and J. J. M. Beenakker proposed to use kinetic theory in order to analyze the mechanisms that determine mobility of molecules in nanoscale channels. This approach proved to be remarkably useful to give new insight on these issues, such as density dependence of the diffusion coefficient. In this paper we revisit these works to derive the kinetic and diffusion models introduced by V. D. Borman, S. Y. Krylov, A. V. Prosyanov and J. J. M. Beenakker by using classical tools of kinetic theory such as scaling and systematic asymptotic analysis. Some results are extended to less restrictive hypothesis