963 research outputs found
Contributors to the Development of Intercultural Competence in Nursing Students
Nurses deal more effectively with cultural diversity when they have an ethnorelative orientation toward cultural difference and commonality on the Intercultural Development Continuum, which was the theoretical framework of this study. Scholarly literature shows limited knowledge on what fosters nurses\u27 intercultural development. Thus, this quantitative, retrospective study was the first investigation in health care in Switzerland conducted on nursing students\u27 orientation on the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) and the relationship to student demographic variables. The sample for this secondary data analysis consisted of the IDI results from nursing students enrolled between 2010 and 2016 at the largest nursing college in Switzerland (N = 3,410) where the systematic integration of the development of intercultural competence into the curriculum began in 2010. Descriptive statistical analysis indicated that the students\u27 developmental orientation (DO) toward cultural difference and commonality represented a mindset of minimization (M = 86.3, SD = 13.7), whereas the orientation gap between the DO and the students\u27 perceived orientation (PO) was high (M = 32.5), indicating that students believe they have higher intercultural competence than they have. Chi-square-tests revealed significant relationships between gender, age, and time living in another country and the students\u27 PO and DO. The paired samples t test demonstrated a higher end of program DO (p = .01) compared to beginning DO scores, suggesting the program provided challenges that met the students\u27 level of readiness for cultural development. The findings may affect positive social change by providing knowledge on contributors to development of intercultural competence that educators can use
Chip-to-chip ODDM network with optically enabled equalization
We propose and model an optical communication scheme for short distance
datacom links based on the distribution of information across a wide comb
spectrum. This modulation format, orthogonal delay division multiplexing,
allows the multiplexing of data streams from multiple modulators, as well as
the deserialization and equalization of the data in the optical domain. A
concrete communication system, that allows the transport of 400 Gb/s across a
single CWDM channel with a single 80 GHz cutoff lithium niobate on insulator
modulator, is modeled under consideration of all noise sources present in the
system and its sensitivity to group velocity dispersion is analyzed. Data is
deserialized and equalized at the receiver with a 5-tap optical equalizer. This
communication architecture may provide a path forward to implement
high-baud-rate signaling in short-reach optical links without requiring
high-speed ADCs and electronic deserializers at the receiver, thus maintaining
the in-package power consumption at manageable levels
Beyond Sparsity: Tree Regularization of Deep Models for Interpretability
The lack of interpretability remains a key barrier to the adoption of deep
models in many applications. In this work, we explicitly regularize deep models
so human users might step through the process behind their predictions in
little time. Specifically, we train deep time-series models so their
class-probability predictions have high accuracy while being closely modeled by
decision trees with few nodes. Using intuitive toy examples as well as medical
tasks for treating sepsis and HIV, we demonstrate that this new tree
regularization yields models that are easier for humans to simulate than
simpler L1 or L2 penalties without sacrificing predictive power.Comment: To appear in AAAI 2018. Contains 9-page main paper and appendix with
supplementary materia
Urban imperviousness effects on summer surface temperatures nearby residential buildings in different urban zones of Parma
Rapid and unplanned urban growth is responsible for the continuous conversion of green or generally natural spaces into artificial surfaces. The high degree of imperviousness modifies the urban microclimate and no studies have quantified its influence on the surface temperature (ST) nearby residential building. This topic represents the aim of this study carried out during summer in different urban zones (densely urbanized or park/rural areas) of Parma (Northern Italy). Daytime and nighttime ASTER images, the local urban cartography and the Italian imperviousness databases were used. A reproducible/replicable framework was implemented named "Building Thermal Functional Area" (BTFA) useful to lead building-proxy thermal analyses by using remote sensing data. For each residential building (n = 8898), the BTFA was assessed and the correspondent ASTER-LST value (ST_BTFA) and the imperviousness density were calculated. Both daytime and nighttime ST_BTFA significantly (p < 0.001) increased when high levels of imperviousness density surrounded the residential buildings. These relationships were mostly consistent during daytime and in densely urbanized areas. ST_BTFA differences between urban and park/rural areas were higher during nighttime (above 1 °C) than daytime (about 0.5 °C). These results could help to identify "urban thermal Hot-Spots" that would benefit most from mitigation actions
Urban Heat Island (UHI) risk maps as innovative tool for urban regeneration strategies. The case of Parma
For the purposes of regeneration of the consolidated city it is increasingly important
to have the knowledge of the micro-scale distribution of the vulnerability of the population to
the consequences of climate change and increasing urbanization. The work to be presented starts
with the creation of maps of the risk classification induced by the heat islands in the city of
Parma, and aims to investigate which are the most effective strategies that a Public
Administration can adopt. The maps that have been created allow to assess the risk for the fragile
population at the level of the single building. They relate the climatic datum of thermal variation
with the population residing within each building, and verify the causal relationship with the soil
sealing and with the morphology of the urban fabric. The results of the study can help to identify
the thermal hot spot, receivers of specific mitigation actions. The risk map is itself a tool to
develop multilevel actions, designed according to the peculiarities of the sites, where the possible
adaptive solutions are compared with the physical and morphological characteristics of the
places. The positive function of green infrastructures (contrast of overheating, flood mitigation,
creation of places and services with a recreational function) is acquired by research and urban
planning practice. It is equally well known the difficulty faced by Local Authorities in the
maintenance and increase of unbuilt public areas, fundamental for the connection of ecological
networks
The global burden of HIV-1 drug resistance in the past 20 years
Genotypic drug resistance testing has been an integral part of the clinical management of HIV patients for almost 20 years, not only assisting treatment choices but also informing drug development. Accurate estimations on the worldwide circulation of drug resistance are difficult to obtain, particularly in low/middle-income countries. In this work, we queried two of the largest public HIV sequence repositories in the world-Los Alamos and Stanford HIVdb-to derive global prevalence, time trends and geodemographic predictors of HIV drug resistance. Different genotypic interpretation systems were used to ascertain resistance to reverse transcriptase and protease inhibitors. Continental, subtype-specific (including circulating recombinant forms) stratification as well as analysis on drug-naĂŻve isolates were performed. Geographic information system analysis correlated country-specific drug resistance to sociodemographic and health indicators obtained from the World Bank. By looking at over 33,000 sequences worldwide between 1996 and 2016, increasing drug resistance trends with non-B subtypes and recombinants were found; transmitted drug resistance appeared to remain stable in the last decade. While an increase in drug resistance is expected with antiretroviral therapy rollout in resource-constrained areas, the plateau effect in areas covered by the most modern drug regimens warns against the downgrading of the resistance issue
From urban planning techniques to 15-minute neighbourhoods. A theoretical framework and GIS-based analysis of pedestrian accessibility to public services
The enthusiasm with which several metropolises have promoted and embraced the idea of the '15-minute city' may now provide a useful opportunity to reflect once again on the well-known relationship between urban planning and mobility planning. Urban policies and plans are recently rediscovering a new focus on the proximity dimension and active mobility, progressively excluding the obsolete car-centric model. In this perspective, the paper aims at assessing 15-minute neighbourhoods through a GIS-based model to evaluate pedestrian accessibility to urban services and spaces. The implemented methodology integrates the assessment of walking distances and the mapping of the resident population distribution. The method is then applied to measure the current performance of an existing neighbourhood in Parma, assessing accessibility based on home-facility travel times and the resident population within reach. A reflection is proposed on what has been learned and on the possible contribution that the method can bring to urban
monitoring and planning
Widespread Urban Regeneration of Existing Residential Areas in European Medium-Sized Cities. A Framework to Locate Redevelopment Interventions
Within the scientific debate on urban regeneration, this paper intends to question possible planning techniques to address the implementation of widespread regeneration interventions in obsolete residential areas within medium-sized European cities, with particular attention to constructing a cognitive framework to locate redevelopment interventions. The widespread urban regeneration approach has yet to be sufficiently explored in the scientific literature, which focuses much more on replacing large derelict areas, though it seems particularly relevant for research and urban practice. This paper aims to illustrate a methodological framework for defining obsolete and degraded areas (at the block scale) suitable for redevelopment. Various criteria are considered, e.g., land use, buildings’ dating, state of preservation, population density, public spaces, and facility provision, and degree of accessibility. The methodological framework is then tested in the medium-sized Italian city of Parma. Data set parameters and threshold values to quantify the previously introduced criteria and perform GIS-based statistical and spatial analysis. The results show 96 areas potentially in need of regeneration, providing an opportunity to reflect on the criteria of suitability and priority for transformation and the framework of past and future planning scenarios
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