A Behavior-Focused Hand Hygiene Quality Improvement Project

The purpose of this quality improvement (QI) project was to improve hand hygiene (HH) compliance rates among healthcare workers on a medical-surgical microsystem. Hand hygiene is globally recognized as the single best practice for reducing the spread of unwanted and harmful diseases. Despite its simplicity, literature indicates HH compliance as an endemic healthcare concern with observations that reflect insufficient or disregardable behavior. Understanding factors that contribute to poor compliance can inform education and training for healthcare workers. Hand hygiene practices are largely a behavioral practice, and recent literature supports ongoing training and education that facilitates behavior barrier identification and positive reinforcement. Standard practice HH observation tool reports for the facility reflect poor compliance rates specific to the microsystem. The CNL student conducted direct observation of healthcare workers’ HH behaviors using a HH observation application on a handheld electronic device. Pre- and post-surveys were created and adapted from the World Health Organization (WHO) and Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) questionnaires. Results from the pre-survey and direct observation were used to inform microsystem-specific education targeting HH practice barriers. Barriers to HH compliance were identified from direct observation and the pre-survey. Hand hygiene education was conducted to promote facility standards and recognize microsystem specific barriers and any alterations that transpired as a result of uncovered barriers. A post-survey was used to reflect any knowledge changes within the microsystem population. Continued direct observation after staff education reflected healthcare workers’ improved HH behaviors and compliance

Using Critical Race Theory to Read Fantasy Football

Fantasy sports are the latest addition to the sports industry. Fantasy sports (FS) participants compete against one another by using players from the “real” world to create a virtual team. FS simulates the structures of the real sporting world. The most popular FS is football, due to the success of the National Football League (NFL) (World Fantasy Games, 2009). Black males represent a vast majority of the athletes in the NFL and are often bought and sold by white participants who represent a critical mass of FS players. The purpose of this dissertation is to read fantasy football participation and consider the un/conscious commodification, fetishization of black masculinity, which is used for cultural transmission. Using Critical Race Theory (CRT) to analyze interdisciplinary literature enhances the discourse surrounding the intersectionalties of race, gender, sexuality, and sport. Critically reading FS, employing bricolage has made it possible to pragmatically analyze FS. I argue race is central to the acquisition, maintenance, and exposition of power that is paramount in sport, and evidenced within FS. The paradox of allowing the masses of white sport consumers to exercise virtual control over black bodies via FS is that it reveals cultural dogma of racialized masculinity with psychosocial links to fetish

Appalachian and Pacific Crest Trail Hikers: A Comparison of Benefits and Motivations

The Appalachian Trail (AT) and Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) are two scenic trails named in the National Trails System Act of 1968. Recently, trails and footpaths have been used to promote such benefits as healthy lifestyles, sense of community, and an increased quality of life. The purpose of this study was to compare the motivations and benefits from hikers of the AT and the PCT. Grounded in Driver’s benefits model and means-end theory, and using an Internet questionnaire, 766 usable questionnaires were collected. Significant differences were found between AT and PCT users who: hike to prevent a worse health condition; seek motivational attributes (e.g. scenic beauty); pursue motivational consequences (e.g. physical activity); and perceive motivational values (e.g. increasing self-esteem)

Frequency/Magnitude Analysis of Wave Events at Duck, North Carolina

There is a great need for predicting shoreline and beach change due to storms. Firstly, shoreline erosion rates along the East Coast are as high as 70%. And more importantly, people live along the coast. Between 1980-2003 33 million people moved to the coast. Previous research includes looking at successive before and after storm profiles and the application of the partial duration approach for classifying storms events. Storm scales and indicators are widely created but most are qualitative in nature, therefore making them not useful for predicting future events.    Frequency/magnitude in geomorphology quantifies events and puts them into context with regards to integrated landscape change. Past research has concluded that events of moderate frequency/magnitude transport the most sediment along a beach profile. Wave data from the USACE Field Research Facility (FRF) at Duck, North Carolina are used to perform a partial duration series analysis for determining wave events. The standard energy equation along with a duration component is used to quantify event magnitude and the total event energy is standardized into a storm index, based 0-10. Profile data was acquired to determine the beach change associated with these wave events.   It was found that events of low magnitude produced the most change on the beach. There was a great amount of volumetric variability between the profiles suggesting the need to incorporate wave angle to account for alongshore transport of sediment. There is also a need to extend profiles past the 8m depth to fully account for total volumetric change.  M.A

A study on episodic memory reconsolidation that tells us more about consolidation

Awake quiescence immediately after encoding is conducive to episodic memory consolidation. Retrieval can render episodic memories labile again, but reconsolidation can modify and re-strengthen them. It remained unknown whether awake quiescence after retrieval supports episodic memory reconsolidation. We sought to examine this question via an object-location memory paradigm. We failed to probe the effect of quiescence on reconsolidation, but we did observe an unforeseen ‘delayed’ effect of quiescence on consolidation. Our findings reveal that the beneficial effect of quiescence on episodic memory consolidation is not restricted to immediately following encoding but can be achieved at a delayed stage and even following a period of task engagement

Laughing at the Looking Glass: Does Humor Style Serve as an Interpersonal Signal?

Objective: The provision of information appears to be an important feature of humor. The present studies examined whether humor serves as an interpersonal signal such that an individual\u27s style of humor is associated with how the individual is perceived by others. Method: We examined this issue across two studies. In Study 1, undergraduate participants (257 targets) were rated more positively by their friends and family members (1194 perceivers) when they possessed more benign humor styles. In Study 2, 1190 community participants rated the romantic desirability of targets ostensibly possessing different humor styles. Results: Across both studies, our results were consistent with the possibility that humor serves as a signal. More specifically, individuals with benign humor styles (affiliative and self-enhancing humor styles) were evaluated more positively than those targets with injurious humor styles (aggressive and self-defeating humor styles). Conclusion: These findings are discussed in terms of the role that humor may play in interpersonal perception and relationships

Presynchronizing PGF2α and GnRH injections before timed artificial insemination CO-Synch + CIDR program

Fixed-time artificial insemination is an effective management tool that reduces the labor associated with more conventional artificial insemination programs requiring detection of estrus. The 7-day CO-Synch + controlled internal drug release (CIDR) insert protocol has been shown to effectively initiate estrus and ovulation in cycling and non-cycling suckled beef cows, producing pregnancy rates at or greater than 50% in beef cows. The gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) injection that begins the CO-Synch + CIDR program initiates ovulation in a large proportion of cows, particularly anestrous cows. The CIDR, which releases progesterone intravaginally, prevents short estrous cycles that usually follow the first postpartum ovulation in beef cows. Our hypothesis was that inducing estrus with a prostaglandin injection followed 3 days later with a GnRH injection, 7 days before applying the 7-day CO-Synch + CIDR protocol, might increase the percentage of cycling cows that would exhibit synchronous follicular waves after the onset of the CO-Synch + CIDR protocol. We also hypothesized that the additional GnRH injection would increase the percentage of anestrous cows that would ovulate, thereby increasing pregnancy outcomes

Nineteen Years of Public Opinion: The Boise State University Annual Public Policy Survey

Evidence suggests that public opinion has a significant and measurable impact on legislative, executive, and citizen interaction. The state of Idaho is no exception. In this white paper, we examine a sample of the opinions of Idahoans, as expressed in the Public Policy Survey, over the past nineteen years

Ubiquity of ice nucleation in lichen – possible atmospheric implications

Ice nucleation has previously been described in only a few lichens from a single location. Here we greatly extend this work and suggest that in lichens ice nucleation is a water harvesting adaption. Fifty-seven lichen samples from a variety of widespread locations were tested for ice nucleation by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Samples initiated freezing in the range –5.1° to –20°C and the median freezing temperature was –7.2°C. The vapour pressure difference between ice and water is significant at this temperature, and so ice grows at the expense of water (Bergeron–Findeisen process). Therefore, the ability to form ice at these temperatures provides a useful water-harvesting mechanism for lichens. Ice nucleation appears to be ubiquitous in lichens and is more likely to be associated with the mycobiont and may influence atmospheric processes

Luteolysis and pregnancy outcomes after change in dose delivery of prostaglandin F2α in a 5-day timed artificial insemination program in dairy cows

Dairy Research, 2014 is known as Dairy Day, 2014Three experiments were conducted to determine if a larger dose of prostaglandin F2α (PG) administered on day 6 of a 5-day Ovsynch timed artificial insemination (AI) program would induce regression of the corpus luteum to facilitate AI and pregnancy outcomes similar to a traditional 5-day program with two doses of PG. When applying a 5-day program, cows that ovulate in response to the first GnRH injection have a new corpus luteum (CL) that is 2 days younger when PG is administered in a 5- versus 7-day program. To regress successfully the younger CL, a second injection of PG must be given 24 hours after the first PG injection to prevent reduced pregnancy rate after the timed AI. These experiments demonstrated that administering 50 mg PG (10 mL Lutalyse) on day 6 produced luteolysis as efficiently as 25 mg PG (5 mL Lutalyse) administered on days 5 and 6 when the cut point for progesterone was 1 ng/mL 72 hours after the first PG injection or 48 hours after the larger PG dose. In contrast, when the cut point was 0.5 ng/mL, the larger dose of PG was less effective. Pregnancy outcomes in cows did not differ between treatment doses except in one herd (Exp. 3). Although pregnancy outcomes were reduced only in one herd with the larger PG dose, this difference may be confounded with the earlier injection of the second GnRH injection 16 hours before timed AI, rather than failure of luteolysis in response to the larger dose of PG. Delaying the timing of AI, injection of the second GnRH, or both may be warranted to allow sufficient time for progesterone to decrease to basal concentrations in response to a larger dose of PG on day 6 to prevent a reduction in fertility