Preventive Priorities Survey 2015

The Center for Preventive Action's annual Preventive Priorities Survey (PPS) evaluates ongoing and potential conflicts based on their likelihood of occurring in the coming year and their impact on U.S. interests. The PPS aims to help the U.S. policymaking community prioritize competing conflict prevention and mitigation demands. Read the 2015 report to find out which conflicts were ranked the top preventive priorities for U.S. policymakers

Exploring audience perceptions of, and preferences for, online news videos

Journalism professionals and media experts have traditionally used normatively formed criteria to evaluate news quality. Although the digital news media environment has enabled journalists to respond at unprecedented speed to audience consumption patterns, little academic research has systematically addressed how audiences themselves perceive and evaluate news, and even less has focused on audio-visual news. To help fill this research gap, we conducted in-depth group interviews with 22 online news video consumers in the UK to explore their perceptions of online news videos—an increasingly popular news format. Thematic analyses suggest audiences evaluate online news videos using a complex and interwoven set of criteria, which we group under four headings: antecedents of perceptions, emotional impacts, news and editorial values and production characteristics. Some of these criteria can be positioned clearly in relation to the literature on news quality in general, while our documentation of the others contributes new, format-specific knowledge. Our findings offer journalists practical insights into how audiences perceive and evaluate a host of characteristics of online news videos, while our conceptual framework provides a foundation for further academic research on audience evaluations of online news videos, and even audio-visual news more generally

Public discomfort at the prospect of autonomous vehicles: Building on previous surveys to measure attitudes in 11 countries

There have been many surveys of public responses to Autonomous Vehicles (AVs), both reported in peer-reviewed journals and in the mainstream media. People anchor their representations of novel technological objects within their existing experience. What elements of such experience anchor AVs? We review academic English language survey studies from 2015 to 2017 and surveys publicised in UK National newspapers which typically reveal discomfort about the prospect of AVs. Against this background we report the results of our own survey of 11,827 drivers across 11 European countries, addressing attitudes to driving alongside AVs as well as to riding in them. We establish a composite indicator of perceptions of AVs that combines responses on using AVs and sharing the road with them, and analyse its relationship with a set of covariate measures. Respondents’ technological optimism and uptake of driving technology was associated with more positive perceptions of AVs, and measures of respondents’ enjoyment of driving, and how ‘sociable’ they were towards fellow road users, was associated with more negative perceptions. The negative association between driving ‘sociability’ and enthusiasm for AVs was attenuated by levels of general technological optimism. We discuss the difficulties in researching public responses to novel technological objects and make suggestions for improvement in future survey research on AVs

Social Entrepreneurship Education within Post-Secondary Institutions

Promoting health and wellness is a focus of social entrepreneurs within the health care professions. With the educational offerings of social entrepreneurship expanding within the health care programs of post-secondary institutions, assessing its current knowledge state is essential. Decisions about how and what to teach should be grounded in the best available evidence. The purpose of this preliminary scoping review was to provide an overview of best practices in curriculum content and methods of teaching social entrepreneurship for students in the health care professions

The Evolution of a Refereed Journal: The International Journal of Nursing Student Scholarship

The majority of students, both undergraduate and graduate, at post-secondary institutions find themselves having to write academic papers. They often ask what happens to the paper? Who reads it except for the marker, usually a faculty member? We hear that the paper gets filed in the “round bin”, never to be read again. Sometimes the faculty member might suggest publication, but students are often unsure of how or where to begin the publishing process, and perhaps do feel comfortable asking for advice from faculty members or fellow students. Several academic faculty members addressed these concerns by developing a journal designed to support students to move their course papers from ‘a who reads it approach to publishing’. The authors describe the evolution of The International Journal of Nursing Student Scholarship

Usinagem de parafusos implantáveis de P(L/DL)LA autorreforçados

Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro Tecnológico. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Engenharia MecânicaO objetivo final na área médica reconstrutiva é a restauração estrutural e funcional do tecido ao estado natural. Em cirurgias de fixação de fratura, uma fixação estável e confiável é uma condição absoluta para o sucesso. Implantes metálicos geralmente oferecem boa fixação. Entretanto, várias complicações e efeitos adversos têm sido descritos a respeito de seus usos. A ideia de desenvolver implantes que gradualmente perdem resistência e são reabsorvidos após cicatrização óssea tem estimulado diversas investigações na área dos biomateriais. Implantes biorreabsorvíveis podem ser produzidos a partir de polímeros cujas unidades monoméricas estão naturalmente presentes no organismo, permitindo sua degradação e reabsorção sem acúmulo de reações tóxicas. O processo de moldagem por compressão, tradicionalmente utilizado para a fabricação de dispositivos biorreabsorvíveis autorreforçados, tais como placas e parafusos, apresenta desvantagens em relação à qualidade final do produto e baixa flexibilidade de fabricação. O presente trabalho teve como objetivo o desenvolvimento de uma nova tecnologia para a fabricação de implantes biorreabsorvíveis. No contexto desta pesquisa, implantes tipo parafuso foram fabricados para aplicações em cirurgias de reparo do tecido ósseo. Inicialmente, barras circulares foram produzidas através de processo de injeção. Para o aumento dos níveis de resistência mecânica, as barras foram submetidas a um processo de autorreforço. Na sequência, utilizou-se a usinagem na obtenção da forma, da qualidade dimensional e da superfície adequada para a interação com o tecido ósseo. Os resultados desse conjunto de etapas e processos revelaram um produto com propriedades mecânicas, tolerâncias geométricas e características de superfície adequadas para uma fixação segura e com qualidade superior a apresentada por implantes moldados disponíveis no mercado