11 research outputs found
A Regional Health Care System Partnership With Local Communities to Impact Chronic Disease
Regional health care systems have significant opportunities to adopt community-oriented approaches that impact the incidence and burden of chronic disease. In 1998, a vertically integrated, regional health care system established a community health institute to identify, understand, and respond to health needs from a community perspective. The project was implemented in four communities (two rural counties, a rural/urban transitional county, and an inner-city community) using five steps: 1) support or form a local community coalition; 2) hire and support a local coordinator; 3) prepare a formal community assessment; 4) fund locally designed interventions; and 5) evaluate each project. In four narrative case studies, we present the steps, challenges, and common principles faced at the local level by Carolinas Community Health Institute. The case studies were prepared using three data sources: reviews of written documents, interviews with the seven-member steering committee, and interviews with six key informants from each county. Data were coded and analyzed using standard qualitative software to identify common themes and sources of variance between cases. The project model was generally well accepted. Local autonomy and domain disputes were challenges in all four sites. Funding for local projects was the most frequently cited benefit. The project was successful in increasing local capacity and supporting well-designed interventions to prevent chronic disease. This approach can be used by large health care systems and by other organizations to better support local health initiatives
Semiconductor Spintronics
Spintronics refers commonly to phenomena in which the spin of electrons in a
solid state environment plays the determining role. In a more narrow sense
spintronics is an emerging research field of electronics: spintronics devices
are based on a spin control of electronics, or on an electrical and optical
control of spin or magnetism. This review presents selected themes of
semiconductor spintronics, introducing important concepts in spin transport,
spin injection, Silsbee-Johnson spin-charge coupling, and spindependent
tunneling, as well as spin relaxation and spin dynamics. The most fundamental
spin-dependent nteraction in nonmagnetic semiconductors is spin-orbit coupling.
Depending on the crystal symmetries of the material, as well as on the
structural properties of semiconductor based heterostructures, the spin-orbit
coupling takes on different functional forms, giving a nice playground of
effective spin-orbit Hamiltonians. The effective Hamiltonians for the most
relevant classes of materials and heterostructures are derived here from
realistic electronic band structure descriptions. Most semiconductor device
systems are still theoretical concepts, waiting for experimental
demonstrations. A review of selected proposed, and a few demonstrated devices
is presented, with detailed description of two important classes: magnetic
resonant tunnel structures and bipolar magnetic diodes and transistors. In most
cases the presentation is of tutorial style, introducing the essential
theoretical formalism at an accessible level, with case-study-like
illustrations of actual experimental results, as well as with brief reviews of
relevant recent achievements in the field.Comment: tutorial review; 342 pages, 132 figure