Perceived Roles of Vice President of Student Affairs in U.S. Colleges and Universities

Literature describing the role of the Vice President for Student Affairs (VPSA) is plentiful, but research studies describing the perceptions of those serving as VPSA with regard to the nature of the position and its changes have proven to be fewer in quantity. This study developed a deeper understanding of the perceived role of the VPSA by exploring how its role is construed by current, experienced VPSAs. Q-Methodology was employed to elicit personal constructs from VPSAs as a means of identifying a set of shared viewpoints about the VPSA role. Background information on the participants was collected and was associated with the model viewpoints, which serve to describe their individual conceptions of the VPSA role

The epidemiology of regular opioid use and its association with mortality : Prospective cohort study of 466 486 UK biobank participants

Acknowledgments This work did not receive any external sources of funding. Data was supplied by UK Biobank under the terms of application reference number 1144. Data sharing agreement On acceptance of a manuscript using UK Biobank data, the authors are required to submit the dataset (including any derived variables) and the analysis programs to UK Biobank. Data are available to researchers by application.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Microstructural and environmental effects on stress corrosion and corrosion fatigue of 7075 aluminum alloy

The design and development of high performance structural materials requires a thorough understanding of the relationship between environment, mechanical stresses, microstructure, and properties. The corrosion and fatigue behavior of aluminum alloys is greatly influenced by environment and precipitate structure. A comprehensive, mechanistic understanding of the role of environment on cyclic fatigue of Al alloys is needed. The relationship between environmental and mechanical effects is not well understood. The driving force at the crack tip is clearly a combination of chemical and mechanical processes operating together. A synergy between these processes is also present. In this talk, the role of moisture on stress corrosion and corrosion-fatigue of 7075 Al alloy will be presented. Rolled 7075 Al alloy was heat-treated to underaged, peak-aged, and overaged conditions. To investigate the effects of corrosion and fatigue on peak-aged 7075 aluminum alloy, corroded samples were tested via in situ x-Ray tomography. The samples were mechanically polished, then soaked in covered 3.5 wt.% NaCl for fifteen days to allow for significant corrosion to occur. Then, they were fatigue tested in situ in 3.5 wt.% NaCl using synchrotron x-ray tomography to analyze the fatigue crack initiation and growth characteristics. Hydrogen bubbles were observed between the sample and the fluid upon crack initiation, indicating chemical changes in the sample during in situ corrosion fatigue. The effect of oxide layers forming during corrosion and 2nd phase inclusions, on fatigue initiation and propagation, will be discussed. The microstructure and morphology of the fracture surfaces were examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and correlated with the crack growth behavior. The crack initiation, growth, and damage were also quantified by sophisticated three dimensional (3D) in situ x-ray synchrotron tomography technique. This technique provided interesting insights into the onset of crack initiation and growt

4D microstructural and electrochemical characterization of dissimilar metal corrosion in naval structural Joints

Dissimilar metal corrosion in aircraft and naval structures has proven to be a persistent challenge. Decades of research in the area have shown that such complex contact surfaces are subject to a combination of corrosive environments and mechanical loads. Hence, this multi-faceted problem must be understood from electrochemical, microstructural and mechanical standpoints to comprehensively understand corrosion damage in these systems. Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract

Competition of stress corrosion crack branches observed in-situ using time-lapse 3D x-ray synchrotron computed tomography

The progress of a stress corrosion crack in a sensitized AA7075 alloy was studied by in-situ x-ray synchrotron computed tomography. A load was applied to a pre-cracked specimen inside an environmental cell containing moist air and the propagation of the stress corrosion crack was observed. Measurements from the 3D image of the crack have already been shown to provide better quantification compared to observations of the crack from the outer surface. In this paper we study in detail the progress of the stress corrosion crack as it propagates through the material. We reveal how the formation of metal ligaments occurs and the competition of the ‘main’ crack and its branches. We have visualized these features to show the complexity of the local variation in crack morphology in a way that brings new insight into the interaction of the stress corrosion crack with the microstructure of the material

Epidemiology of musculoskeletal injury in military recruits: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: Injuries are a common occurrence in military recruit training, however due to differences in the capture of training exposure, injury incidence rates are rarely reported. Our aim was to determine the musculoskeletal injury epidemiology of military recruits, including a standardised injury incidence rate. Methods: Epidemiological systematic review following the PRISMA 2020 guidelines. Five online databases were searched from database inception to 5th May 2021. Prospective and retrospective studies that reported data on musculoskeletal injuries sustained by military recruits after the year 2000 were included. We reported on the frequency, prevalence and injury incidence rate. Incidence rate per 1000 training days (Exact 95% CI) was calculated using meta-analysis to allow comparisons between studies. Observed heterogeneity (e.g., training duration) precluded pooling of results across countries. The Joanna Briggs Institute Quality Assessment Checklist for Prevalence Studies assessed study quality. Results: This review identified 41 studies comprising 451,782 recruits. Most studies (n = 26; 63%) reported the number of injured recruits, and the majority of studies (n = 27; 66%) reported the number of injuries to recruits. The prevalence of recruits with medical attention injuries or time-loss injuries was 22.8% and 31.4%, respectively. Meta-analysis revealed the injury incidence rate for recruits with a medical attention injury may be as high as 19.52 injuries per 1000 training days; and time-loss injury may be as high as 3.97 injuries per 1000 training days. Longer recruit training programs were associated with a reduced injury incidence rate (p = 0.003). The overall certainty of the evidence was low per a modified GRADE approach. Conclusion: This systematic review with meta-analysis highlights a high musculoskeletal injury prevalence and injury incidence rate within military recruits undergoing basic training with minimal improvement observed over the past 20 years. Longer training program, which may decrease the degree of overload experienced by recruit, may reduce injury incidence rates. Unfortunately, reporting standards and reporting consistency remain a barrier to generalisability. Trial registration: PROSPERO (Registration number: CRD42021251080)

The dose of hemodialysis and patient mortality

The dose of hemodialysis and patient mortality. The relationship between the delivered dose of hemodialysis and patient mortality remains somewhat controversial. Several observational studies have shown improved patient survival with higher levels of delivered dialysis dose. However, several other unmeasured variables, changes in patient mix or medical management may have impacted on this reported difference in mortality. The current study of a U.S. national sample of 2,311 patients from 347 dialysis units estimates the relationship of delivered hemodialysis dose to mortality, with a statistical adjustment for an extensive list of comorbidity/risk factors. Additionally this study investigated the existence of a dose beyond which more dialysis does not appear to lower mortality. We estimated patient survival using proportional hazards regression techniques, adjusting for 21 patient comorbidity/risk factors with stratification for nine Census regions. The patient sample was 2,311 Medicare hemodialysis patients treated with bicarbonate dialysate as of 12/31/90 who had end-stage renal disease for at least one year. Patient follow-up ranged between 1.5 and 2.4 years. The measurement of delivered therapy was based on two alternative measures of intradialytic urea reduction, the urea reduction ratio (URR) and Kt/V (with adjustment for urea generation and ultrafiltration). Hemodialysis patient mortality showed a strong and robust inverse correlation with delivered hemodialysis dose whether measured by Kt/V or by URR. Mortality risk was lower by 7% (P = 0.001) with each 0.1 higher level of delivered Kt/V. (Expressed in terms of URR, mortality was lower by 11% with each 5 percentage point higher URR; P = 0.001). Above a URR of 70% or a Kt/V of 1.3 these data did not provide statistical evidence of further reductions in mortality. In conclusion, the delivered dose of hemodialysis therapy is an important predictor of patient mortality. In a population of dialysis patients with a very high mortality rate, it appears that increasing the level of delivered therapy offers a practical and efficient means of lowering the mortality rate. The level of hemodialysis dose measured by URR or Kt/V beyond which the mortality rate does not continue to decrease, though not well defined with this study, appears to be above current levels of typical treatment of hemodialysis patients in the U.S

Schroedinger equation for joint bidirectional motion in time

The conventional, time-dependent Schroedinger equation describes only unidirectional time evolution of the state of a physical system, i.e., forward or, less commonly, backward. This paper proposes a generalized quantum dynamics for the description of joint, and interactive, forward and backward time evolution within a physical system. [...] Three applications are studied: (1) a formal theory of collisions in terms of perturbation theory; (2) a relativistically invariant quantum field theory for a system that kinematically comprises the direct sum of two quantized real scalar fields, such that one field evolves forward and the other backward in time, and such that there is dynamical coupling between the subfields; (3) an argument that in the latter field theory, the dynamics predicts that in a range of values of the coupling constants, the expectation value of the vacuum energy of the universe is forced to be zero to high accuracy. [...]Comment: 30 pages, no figures. Related material is in quant-ph/0404012. Differs from published version by a few added remarks on the possibility of a large-scale-average negative energy density in spac