Politics on a Human Scale: The American Tradition of Decentralism (Book Review)

Reviewed Title: Politics on a Human Scale: The American Tradition of Decentralism. Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books, 2013. 648 pp. ISBN 978-0-73918-67-49

Simulating Fluids: Testing a New Grand Canonical Histogram Method on the Square-Well Fluid

Monte Carlo methods are used to explore vapor-liquid phase transitions. However, current models are computationally expensive when identifying these phase transitions. Traditionally, Monte Carlo simulations are run across a range of temperatures at a fixed number of atoms/molecules. The Number Monte Carlo method (NMC), our proposed Monte Carlo method, runs simulations at a constant temperature across a range of atoms/molecules. In this thesis, NMC was run using a modified version of Stochastic Approximation Monte Carlo (SAMC). NMC was able to simulate the square-well fluid at a reduced volume of 100 across a range of four reduced temperatures (0.8, 0.9, 1, 1.1). The liquid-to-vapor phase transition was observed at all temperatures except the reduced temperature of 0.8. Using the NMC phase transitions, a phase diagram was constructed and compared to one built from National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST) data. The comparison revealed that the two phase diagrams roughly agree. The simulations demonstrate the validity of NMC as a faster method of finding a single-phase transition. However, simulations with a higher volume are needed to test the accuracy of the model. Additionally, NMC is not found to yield any improvement in constructing a phase diagram

Novice nursing clinical instructors : the lived experience / Tara Vande Griend

viii, 118 leaves ; 29 cmA constructivist philosophical paradigm and van Manen's phenomenological method were used to understand the lived experience of a purposeful sample of nine novice nursing clinical instructors in the Nursing Education in Southwestern Alberta program in Lethbridge, Alberta. Data were collected using in-depth, semi-structured, open-ended interview questions and were analyzed using van Manen's approach to thematic analysis. The findings revealed how novice nursing clinical nursing instructors experienced this new role; the meaning instructors ascribed to their experience; and how instructors learned about the clinical instructor role. The lived experience of novice nursing clinical instructors was likened to a journey. Three major themes emerged within The Journey: Endeavoring Amid Strife, Enacting Understanding of the Clinical Instructor Role, and Evolving as a Clinical Instructor. Implications included: valuing the lived experience, appreciating struggles, and improving supports and learning resources in the areas of orientation, mentorship, peer support, instructor inclusion in academia, and work-life balance

Investigating Rurality as a Risk Factor for State and Trait Hopelessness in Hospitalized Patients with Ischemic Heart Disease

Background Rurality and hopelessness are each associated with increased mortality in adults with ischemic heart disease (IHD), yet there is no known research examining rurality as a risk factor for hopelessness in patients with IHD. This study evaluated rurality as a risk factor for state and trait hopelessness in adults hospitalized with IHD in samples drawn from the Great Lakes and Great Plains regions of the United States. Methods and Results A descriptive cross‐sectional design was used. Data were collected from 628 patients hospitalized for IHD in the Great Lakes (n=516) and Great Plains (n=112). Rural–Urban Commuting Area codes were used to stratify study participants by level of rurality. Levels of state hopelessness (measured by the State‐Trait Hopelessness Scale) were higher in rural patients (58.8% versus 48.8%; odds ratio [OR], 1.50; 95% CI, 1.03–2.18), a difference that remained statistically significant after adjusting for demographics, depression severity (measured by the Patient Health Questionnaire–8), and physical functioning (measured by the Duke Activity Status Index; OR, 1.59; 95% CI, 1.06–2.40; P=0.026). There was evidence of an interaction between marital status and rurality on state hopelessness after accounting for covariates (P=0.02). Nonmarried individuals had an increased prevalence of state hopelessness (nonmarried 72.0% versus married 52.0%) in rural areas (P=0.03). Conclusions Rural patients with IHD, particularly those who are nonmarried, may be at higher risk for state hopelessness compared with patients with IHD living in urban settings. Understanding rurality differences is important in identifying subgroups most at risk for hopelessness

Divalent and Multivalent Activation in Phosphate Triesters: A Versatile Method for the Synthesis of Advanced Polyol Synthons

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Thomas, C. D., McParland, J. P. and Hanson, P. R. (2009), Divalent and Multivalent Activation in Phosphate Triesters: A Versatile Method for the Synthesis of Advanced Polyol Synthons. Eur. J. Org. Chem., 2009: 5487–5500. doi:10.1002/ejoc.200900560, which has been published in final form at http://doi.org/10.1002/ejoc.200900560. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.The construction of mono- and bicyclic phosphate trimesters possessing divalent and multivalent activation and their subsequent use in the production of advanced polyol synthons is presented. The method highlights efforts to employ phosphate tethers as removable, functionally active tethers capable of multipositional activation and their subsequent role as leaving groups in selective cleavage reactions. The development of phosphate tethers represents an integrated platform for a new and versatile tether for natural product synthesis and sheds light on new approaches to the facile construction of small molecules