THE NERD HOUR IS AT HAND: PORTRAYALS OF GEEKS AND NERDS IN YOUNG ADULT LITERATURE AD POPULAR MEDIA

Turn on the television, open a book, or even walk down the street and you will no doubt notice at least one geek or nerd. Most Americans today have heard these terms, and each individual probably has his own working definition of what they mean. Unpacking those definitions, however, is tricky. What is a nerd? What is a geek? How does one identify a person as belonging to these groups? To analyze how modern culture understands geeks and nerds, one must first understand the history behind these terms. While most Americans today recognize and use the words geek and nerd, there is a surprising lack of consensus as to what these terms mean. In his 2007 exploration of cultural perceptions of geeks and nerds, David Anderegg explores the varied perceptions of these terms, particularly among children, and his findings are fascinating. In speaking to children from early elementary school into adolescence, Anderegg found that while young people were intimately familiar with these terms, even to the point of fearing them, they could not articulate an actual definition. When asked to unpack what a geek or a nerd actually was, they gave incredibly varied answers, and sometimes gave no answers at all. So how then, without a concrete definition, does one become a geek or a nerd

Improving Restraint Feasibility through Ambulance Layout Redesign

This study examined the duties performed by emergency medical service workers with the goal of increasing the time EMS workers are restrained while providing patient care during transport. An optimal layout of equipment and materials in the rear patient cabin of an ambulance was created increase seatbelt restraint feasibility for working medics. Over 13,000 EMS agency call logs were evaluated to identify medical procedures frequently performed during patient transports, which were then filmed and analyzed using Pareto and link analysis to measure restraint feasibility. An alternative ambulance layout was developed following focus group meetings, and the adjusted tasks restraint feasibilities were calculated for the alternative layout. Restraint feasibility was significantly increased for the 5th percentile female, 50th percentile male, and 95th percentile male anthropometric populations. The proposed patient compartment design increased overall restraint feasibility from 47 percent to 90 percent. The proposed design would increase safety for medics and patients during patient transports by increasing the number of tasks that could be performed from a belted and seated position

Grant Application: Health Practitioners’ Perspective On Caring For Older Adults In Rural Maine – A Pilot Study

IPEC Mini-grant application for funding of UNE student project Health Practioners’ Perspective on Caring for Older Adults in Rural Maine. This pilot study was designed to identify challenges and determine potential solutions for Maine practitioners delivering health care to rural Maine’s aging population. UNE students from several healthcare professions partnered to interview physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, social workers, occupational therapists, and physical therapists caring for community-dwelling older adults in Rural Maine. The student researchers then analyzed the interviews and identified themes.https://dune.une.edu/minigrant_hppoa/1000/thumbnail.jp

The lattice preferred orientation of olivine in Beni Bousera Ultramafic Massif, Morocco

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, 2009.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 93-101).The roll of melt in deformation of the mantle is important for understanding mantle processes and evolution. The Beni Bousera Ultramafic Massif, northern Morocco, shows petrologic evidence that melt was an important part of its history. The massif, dominantly composed of spinel lherzolite with harzburgitic sections, has 10 to 100 meter scale zones which contain abundant pyroxenite dykes, dunite, harzburgite, and secondary lherzolite. These zones are interpreted as areas of focused melt percolation. Lattice preferred orientation (LPO) of olivine crystals from a sample transect across one of these zones was analyzed in comparison with LPO from the surrounding host lherzolite and harzburgite. The LPO from peridotites within the zone was slightly different from those outside the zone, and the LPO from the dunite analyzed was significantly different from the peridotites. Within the melt percolation zone, orientation of the olivine a-axis with respect to the mineral foliation indicates that strain increases towards the center of the zone and that shear sense changes across the zone. This suggests that focused melt flow can induce deformation in its host peridotite.by Jessica R. Stanley.S.M

Male involvement in reproductive, maternal and child health: a qualitative study of policymaker and practitioner perspectives in the Pacific

Background: The importance of involving men in reproductive, maternal and child health programs is increasingly recognised globally. In the Pacific region, most maternal and child health services do not actively engage expectant fathers and fathers of young children and few studies have been conducted on the challenges, benefits and opportunities for involving fathers. This study explores the attitudes and beliefs of maternal and child health policymakers and practitioners regarding the benefits, challenges, risks and approaches to increasing men\u27s involvement in maternal and child health education and clinical services in the Pacific. Methods: In-depth interviews were conducted with 17 senior maternal and child health policymakers and practitioners, including participants from five countries (Cook Island, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Island, and Vanuatu) and four regional organisations in the Pacific. Qualitative data generated were analysed thematically. Results: Policymakers and practitioners reported that greater men\u27s involvement would result in a range of benefits for maternal and child health, primarily through greater access to services and interventions for women and children. Perceived challenges to greater father involvement included sociocultural norms, difficulty engaging couples before first pregnancy, the physical layout of clinics, and health worker workloads and attitudes. Participants also suggested a range of strategies for increasing men\u27s involvement, including engaging boys and men early in the life-cycle, in community and clinic settings, and making health services more father-friendly through changes to clinic spaces and health worker recruitment and training. Conclusions: These findings suggest that increasing men\u27s involvement in maternal and child health services in the Pacific will require initiatives to engage men in community and clinic settings, engage boys and men of all ages, and improve health infrastructure and service delivery to include men. Our findings also suggest that while most maternal and child health officials consulted perceived many benefits of engaging fathers, perceived challenges to doing so may prevent the development of policies that explicitly direct health providers to routinely include fathers in maternal and child health services. Pilot studies assessing feasibility and acceptability of context-appropriate strategies for engaging fathers will be useful in addressing concerns regarding challenges to engaging fathers

Island Fox Spatial Ecology and Implications for Management of Disease

Disease, predation, and genetic isolation resulted in 4 of 6 island fox (Urocyon littoralis) subspecies being listed as endangered in 2004. Potential for disease outbreaks continues to pose a major threat to the persistence of these isolated, endemic populations. We examined how roads influence the spatial ecology of San Clemente Island foxes (U. l. clementae), particularly in regard to spread of disease, to provide management recommendations for preventing or minimizing a disease outbreak on San Clemente Island, California, USA. Home range areas (x=0.75 km2) and core areas (x=0.19 km2) of foxes on San Clemente Island were 0.36–1.23 and 2.17 times larger, respectively, than estimates from Santa Cruz Island foxes (U. l. santacruzae). Home ranges and core areas were 78% larger and 73% larger, respectively, for foxes near roads than for foxes away from roads. Home ranges were also largest when foxes were not caring for offspring (i.e., seasons of pup-independence and breeding). We did not detect any dispersal movements, but foxes living near roads moved 33% farther in 2-hour periods than foxes not living near roads. Foxes near roads move faster, range more widely, and could more rapidly spread a pathogen throughout the island; therefore, roads might serve as transmission corridors.We recommend reducing this risk by increasing widths of vaccination firewalls (areas where vaccination is used to induce a disease-resistant or immune population of foxes), ensuring these areas deliberately intersect roads, and vaccinating a higher proportion of foxes living near roads. Disease risk models incorporating these strategies could inform the lowest risk scenarios

reactions of p coumaryl alcohol model compounds with dimethyl carbonate towards the upgrading of lignin building blocks

Cinnamyl alcohol 1 and 4-(3-hydroxypropyl)phenol 2, two compounds resembling the lignin building block p-coumaryl alcohol, can be selectively transformed into different products by catalytic methodologies based on dimethyl carbonate (DMC) as a green solvent/reagent. Selectivity can be tuned as a function of the reaction temperature and of the nature of the catalyst. Basic catalysts such as K2CO3, trioctylmethylphosphonium methylcarbonate ([P8881][CH3OCOO]), and CsF/αAl2O3 promote selective transesterification of the aliphatic hydroxyl group at 90 °C. However, amphoteric solids such as alkali metal-exchanged faujasites, NaX and NaY, selectively yield the corresponding alkyl ethers at higher temperatures (165–180 °C). The phenolic hydroxyl group of 2 can be methylated similarly with the faujasites at high temperatures. This preliminary screening for selectivity illustrates reactivity trends and delineates some of what might be among the most promising synthetic pathways to upgrade lignin-derived chemical building blocks

Involving men to improve maternal and newborn health: A systematic review of the effectiveness of interventions

Background: Emerging evidence and program experience indicate that engaging men in maternal and newborn health can have considerable health benefits for women and children in low- and middle-income countries. Previous reviews have identified male involvement as a promising intervention, but with a complex evidence base and limited direct evidence of effectiveness for mortality and morbidity outcomes. Objective: To determine the effect of interventions to engage men during pregnancy, childbirth and infancy on mortality and morbidity, as well as effects on mechanisms by which male involvement is hypothesised to influence mortality and morbidity outcomes: home care practices, care-seeking, and couple relationships. Methods: Using a comprehensive, highly sensitive mapping of maternal health intervention studies conducted in low- and middle-income countries between 2000 and 2012, we identified interventions that have engaged men to improve maternal and newborn health. Primary outcomes were care-seeking for essential services, mortality and morbidity, and home care practices. Secondary outcomes relating to couple relationships were extracted from included studies. Results: Thirteen studies from nine countries were included. Interventions to engage men were associated with improved antenatal care attendance, skilled birth attendance, facility birth, postpartum care, birth and complications preparedness and maternal nutrition. The impact of interventions on mortality, morbidity and breastfeeding was less clear. Included interventions improved male partner support for women and increased couple communication and joint decision-making, with ambiguous effects on women\u27s autonomy. Conclusion: Interventions to engage men in maternal and newborn health can increase care-seeking, improve home care practices, and support more equitable couple communication and decision-making for maternal and newborn health. These findings support engaging men as a health promotion strategy, although evidence gaps remain around effects on mortality and morbidity. Findings also indicate that interventions to increase male involvement should be carefully designed and implemented to mitigate potential harmful effects on couple relationship dynamics