1,901 research outputs found

    Occupational Therapists’ Perspectives During the COVID-19 Pandemic

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    On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) as a global pandemic. Hospitals, nursing homes, and communities worldwide were flooded with patients diagnosed with COVID-19, resulting in the increased need for medical care and treatment by health care professionals, such as occupational therapists. This study analyzes output from a quantitative online survey design, which was created on SurveyMonkey and included 43 questions. Data from the survey were collected, categorized, and measured through the SurveyMonkey computer system and included information gathered from 204 occupational therapists from October 2020 to February 2020. Based on the survey results, occupational therapists believe that their profession has an ethical duty to provide skilled interventions to patients diagnosed with COVID-19. The majority of the occupational therapists were worried about their health and their family’s health as a result of COVID-19. In addition, many of the. therapists reported a close contact and subsequent positive test for COVID-19. Health care administrators and leaders should use the common perspectives among health care workers to guide them as they provide additional support and implement changes during the COVID-19 pandemic. Interventions that could be implemented by health care administrators include self-care training, psychological support, and safe opportunities to engage in meaningful activities

    Effect of W self-implantation and He plasma exposure on early-stage defect and bubble formation in tungsten

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    To determine the effect of pre-existing defects on helium-vacancy cluster nucleation and growth, tungsten samples were self-implanted with 1 MeV tungsten ions at varying fluences to induce radiation damage, then subsequently exposed to helium plasma in the MAGPIE linear plasma device. Positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy was performed both immediately after self-implantation, and again after plasma exposure. After self-implantation vacancies clusters were not observed near the sample surface (<30 nm). At greater depths (30-150 nm) vacancy clusters formed, and were found to increase in size with increasing W-ion fluence. After helium plasma exposure in the MAGPIE linear plasma device at ∼300 K with a fluence of 1023 He-m-2, deep (30-150 nm) vacancy clusters showed similar positron lifetimes, while shallow (<30 nm) clusters were not observed. The intensity of positron lifetime signals fell for most samples after plasma exposure, indicating that defects were filling with helium. The absence of shallow clusters indicates that helium requires pre-existing defects in order to drive vacancy cluster growth at 300 K. Further samples that had not been pre-damaged with W-ions were also exposed to helium plasma in MAGPIE across fluences from 1 × 1022 to 1.2 × 1024 He-m-2. Samples exposed to fluences up to 1 × 1023 He-m-2 showed no signs of damage. Fluences of 5 × 1023 He-m-2 and higher showed significant helium-cluster formation within the first 30 nm, with positron lifetimes in the vicinity 0.5-0.6 ns. The sample temperature was significantly higher for these higher fluence exposures (∼400 K) due to plasma heating. This higher temperature likely enhanced bubble formation by significantly increasing the rate interstitial helium clusters generate vacancies, which is we suspect is the rate-limiting step for helium-vacancy cluster/bubble nucleation in the absence of pre-existing defects.The authors are grateful to the technical assistance within the Australian Plasma Fusion Research Facility that is partly funded by the Australian Government under the Super Science Initiative, financed from the Education Investment Fund. GISAXS research was undertaken on the SAXS/WAXS beamline at the Australian Synchrotron, part of ANSTO. We gratefully acknowledge beamline scientists at the Australian Synchrotron for their assistance. PK acknowledges the Australian Research Council for financial support

    The H alpha Galaxy Survey VI. Star-forming companions of nearby field galaxies

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    We present a search for star-forming satellite galaxies that are close enough to their parent galaxies to be considered analogues of the Magellanic Clouds. Our search technique relied on the detection of the satellites in continuum-subtracted narrow-band H alpha imaging of the central galaxies, which removes most of the background and foreground line-of-sight companions, thus giving a high probability that we are detecting true satellites. The search was performed for 119 central galaxies at distances between 20 and 40 Mpc, although spatial incompleteness means that we have effectively searched 53 full satellite-containing volumes. We find only 9 probable star-forming satellites, around 9 different central galaxies, and 2 possible satellites. After incompleteness correction, this is equivalent to 0.17/0.21 satellites per central galaxy. The Small Magellanic Cloud is just below the median values of both star formation rate and R-band luminosity of the 9 probable satellites. The Large Magellanic Cloud, however, has a higher R-band luminosity than any of the 9 and is only exceeded in star formation rate by the one satellite that appears to be undergoing a tidally-induced starburst. Thus the Milky Way appears to be quite unusual, both in having two star-forming satellite galaxies and in the high luminosity of the Large Magellanic Cloud.Comment: 13 pages, accepted for publication in A&

    Editorial: small scale spatial and temporal patterns in particles, plankton, and other organisms

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    © The Author(s), 2021. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Nayak, A. R., Jiang, H., Byron, M. L., Sullivan, J. M., McFarland, M. N., & Murphy, D. W. Editorial: small scale spatial and temporal patterns in particles, plankton, and other organisms. Frontiers in Marine Science, 8, (2021): 669530, https://doi.org/10.3389./fmars.2021.669530Scientists have long known that small-scale interactions of aquatic particles, plankton, and other organisms with their immediate environment play an important role in diverse research areas, including marine ecology, ocean optics, and climate change (Guasto et al., 2012; Prairie et al., 2012). Typically, the distribution of particles and other organisms in the water column tends to be quite “patchy,” i.e., non-homogeneous, both spatially and temporally (Durham and Stocker, 2012). Patchiness can manifest itself through well-known phenomena such as harmful algal blooms (HABs), phytoplankton and zooplankton “thin layers,” deep scattering layers, and schooling of marine organisms such as krill and fish. This non-homogeneous distribution can significantly influence predator-prey encounters and outcomes, export fluxes, marine ecosystem health, and biological productivity (Sullivan et al., 2010; Durham et al., 2013). Thus, there is a continuing need to study and characterize the small-scale biological-physical interactions between particles/organisms and their local environment, as well as the scaled-up effects of these small-scale interactions on larger-scale dynamics. These studies are also directly linked to broader research topics listed as part of the future “grand challenges” in marine ecosystem ecology, as outlined in Borja et al. (2020).AN was supported through a National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) Gulf Research Program (GRP) Early Career Research Fellowship and a faculty start-up grant at Florida Atlantic University. HJ was supported by US National Science Foundation awards (OCE-1559062 and IOS-1353937). MB was supported by a faculty start-up grant at Penn State University. AN, JS, and MM were supported by US National Science Foundation awards (OCE-1634053 and OCE-1657332). DM was supported by the US National Science Foundation (CBET-1846925)

    Occupational Therapists’ Perspectives During the COVID-19 Pandemic

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    On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) as a global pandemic. Hospitals, nursing homes, and communities worldwide were flooded with patients diagnosed with COVID-19, resulting in the increased need for medical care and treatment by health care professionals, such as occupational therapists. This study analyzes output from a quantitative online survey design, which was created on SurveyMonkey and included 43 questions. Data from the survey were collected, categorized, and measured through the SurveyMonkey computer system and included information gathered from 204 occupational therapists from October 2020 to February 2020. Based on the survey results, occupational therapists believe that their profession has an ethical duty to provide skilled interventions to patients diagnosed with COVID-19. The majority of the occupational therapists were worried about their health and their family’s health as a result of COVID-19. In addition, many of the. therapists reported a close contact and subsequent positive test for COVID-19. Health care administrators and leaders should use the common perspectives among health care workers to guide them as they provide additional support and implement changes during the COVID-19 pandemic. Interventions that could be implemented by health care administrators include self-care training, psychological support, and safe opportunities to engage in meaningful activities

    PONV Prophylaxis Failure Disproportionately Affects Female Patients, Despite Intraoperative Computerized Decision Support Guidance

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    Objectives: To compare postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) prophylaxis treatment and outcomes based on patients’ sex, using a retrospective cohort. The setting was the operating room and post-anesthesia care unit of a tertiary care university medical center. Patients: A total of 678 adult male and female patients with American Society of Anesthesiologist (ASA) scores of 1-4 underwent surgery with general anesthesia. All patients received preoperative PONV risk assessment. PONV prophylaxis was administered at the discretion of the anesthesia care team members with guidance from a computerized decision support system. Measurements: Adequacy of prophylaxis was retrospectively determined based on individual patient risk factors and the observed treatment received, compared with guideline-based prophylaxis recommendations. Patient outcome was measured by diagnosis of PONV in recovery. Results: Comparing patients who received fewer than the guideline-recommended number of prophylactic antiemetics by sex, 94.6% were female and 5.4% were males (p \u3c 0.001). Patients who received fewer than guideline-recommended number of antiemetics had significantly higher rates of nausea or vomiting in the post-anesthesia care unit (30.4% vs 17.5%, p \u3c 0.001). Conclusion: This retrospective cohort study shows that female patients receiving general anesthesia are disproportionately affected by failure to adhere to PONV prevention guidelines

    Prospects for local co-governance

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    British local authorities and their partners are increasingly developing new ways of working together with local communities. The nature of this co-working, however, is complex, multi-faceted and little understood. This article argues for greater clarity of thinking on the topic, by analysing this co-working as a form of political co-governance, and drawing attention in particular to issues of scale and democracy. Using evidence from a study of 43 local authority areas, 16 authorities are identified where co-governance is practised, following three main types of approach: service-influencing, service-delivering and parish council developing. It is concluded that strengthening political co-governance is essential for a healthy democracy
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