Modelling Risk to US Military Populations from Stopping Blanket Mandatory Polio Vaccination

Objectives. Transmission of polio poses a threat to military forces when deploying to regions where such viruses are endemic. US-born soldiers generally enter service with immunity resulting from childhood immunization against polio; moreover, new recruits are routinely vaccinated with inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV), supplemented based upon deployment circumstances. Given residual protection from childhood vaccination, risk-based vaccination may sufficiently protect troops from polio transmission. Methods. This analysis employed a mathematical system for polio transmission within military populations interacting with locals in a polio-endemic region to evaluate changes in vaccination policy. Results. Removal of blanket immunization had no effect on simulated polio incidence among deployed military populations when risk-based immunization was employed; however, when these individuals reintegrated with their base populations, risk of transmission to nondeployed personnel increased by 19%. In the absence of both blanket- and risk-based immunization, transmission to nondeployed populations increased by 25%. The overall number of new infections among nondeployed populations was negligible for both scenarios due to high childhood immunization rates, partial protection against transmission conferred by IPV, and low global disease incidence levels. Conclusion. Risk-based immunization driven by deployment to polio-endemic regions is sufficient to prevent transmission among both deployed and nondeployed US military populations

Our Difference is Our Strength: Collaboration and Creativity in Co-Creating System Wide Information Literacy Learning Outcomes

As instruction librarians, we find ourselves siloed from our fellow teaching librarians and faculty in the design, delivery, and assessment of our instruction. We persevere in adopting a creative lens when asked to teach specific skills within limited time frames, we negotiate for more time with our students to engage in higher order thinking about research and Information Literacy (IL), and we attempt to convince faculty to allow us a sliver of a grade percentage to reinforce the value of the assignments we employ in-session. At Western Libraries we are attempting to switch this reactive stance we’ve often found ourselves in as instruction librarians supporting pre-developed courses by co-creating a set of system-wide learning outcomes (LOs) informed and inspired by the ACRL’s respective Framework and Standards documents, Ontario’s Undergraduate Degree Level Expectations, as well as our institution’s own undergraduate wide LOs. Drawing upon our differences and collective creativity, Western Librarians and those of the affiliated colleges have engaged in a collaborative consultative process in writing these LOs and wish to share our best practices that can be applied in a similar process at your home institution. In this session, members of the project team will discuss the process of developing a shared understanding of IL across a diverse system of instructing librarians, the challenges of collaboration with a large and diverse group of colleagues in the development of core LOs relevant across STEM, Health Sciences, A&H, SS, and Fine Arts programs of study, and the value of the document as a tool to leverage for more meaningful librarian/faculty teaching collaborations. Participants will: be able to understand and discuss the importance of embracing a complex process in order to invite diverse and dissenting voices to collaborate on the development of institutional IL learning outcomes. in light of the best practices shared, reflect on and articulate the opportunities and challenges of pursuing a similar process at their home institution

Stories of Active Teaching: Embedding Civic Engagement in our Practice

How do we move beyond the well-worn path of information discovery and evaluation in our instruction? Join librarians and archivists from Western University and Huron University College, as we share stories that explore teaching civic engagement as an IL learning outcome

Comparison of the effectiveness of traditional nursing medication administration with the Color Coding Kids system in a sample of undergraduate nursing students

The problem of medication errors in hospitals and the vulnerability of pediatric patients to adverse drug events (ADE) was investigated and well substantiated. The estimated additional cost of inpatient care for ADE’s in the hospital setting alone was conservatively estimated at an annual rate per incident of 400,000 preventable events each incurring an extra cost of approximately $5,857. The purpose of the researcher was to compare the effectiveness of traditional nursing medication administration with the Color Coding Kids (CCK) system (developed by Broselow and Luten for standardizing dosages) to reduce pediatric medication errors. A simulated pediatric rapid response scenario was used in a randomized clinical study to measure the effects of the CCK system to the traditional method of treatment using last semester nursing students. Safe medication administration, workflow turnaround time and hand-off communication were variables studied. A multivariate analysis of variance was used to reveal a significant difference between the groups on safe medication administration. No significant difference between the groups on time and communication was found. The researcher provides substantial evidence that the CCK system of medication administration is a promising technological breakthrough in the prevention of pediatric medication errors

Computational Modeling of Interventions and Protective Thresholds to Prevent Disease Transmission in Deploying Populations

Military personnel are deployed abroad for missions ranging from humanitarian relief efforts to combat actions; delay or interruption in these activities due to disease transmission can cause operational disruptions, significant economic loss, and stressed or exceeded military medical resources. Deployed troops function in environments favorable to the rapid and efficient transmission of many viruses particularly when levels of protection are suboptimal. When immunity among deployed military populations is low, the risk of vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks increases, impacting troop readiness and achievement of mission objectives. However, targeted vaccination and the optimization of preexisting immunity among deployed populations can decrease the threat of outbreaks among deployed troops. Here we describe methods for the computational modeling of disease transmission to explore how preexisting immunity compares with vaccination at the time of deployment as a means of preventing outbreaks and protecting troops and mission objectives during extended military deployment actions. These methods are illustrated with five modeling case studies for separate diseases common in many parts of the world, to show different approaches required in varying epidemiological settings

Detection of a Thermal Spectral Component in the Prompt Emission of GRB 100724B

Observations of GRB 100724B with the Fermi Gamma-Ray Burst Monitor (GBM) find that the spectrum is dominated by the typical Band functional form, which is usually taken to represent a non-thermal emission component, but also includes a statistically highly significant thermal spectral contribution. The simultaneous observation of the thermal and non-thermal components allows us to confidently identify the two emission components. The fact that these seem to vary independently favors the idea that the thermal component is of photospheric origin while the dominant non-thermal emission occurs at larger radii. Our results imply either a very high efficiency for the non-thermal process, or a very small size of the region at the base of the flow, both quite challenging for the standard fireball model. These problems are resolved if the jet is initially highly magnetized and has a substantial Poynting flux.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, 1 table, Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters November, 23 2010 (Submitted October, 20 2010

The 3rd Fermi GBM Gamma-Ray Burst Catalog: The First Six Years

Since its launch in 2008, the Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) has triggered and located on average approximately two gamma-ray bursts (GRB) every three days. Here we present the third of a series of catalogs of GRBs detected by GBM, extending the second catalog by two more years, through the middle of July 2014. The resulting list includes 1405 triggers identified as GRBs. The intention of the GBM GRB catalog is to provide information to the community on the most important observables of the GBM detected GRBs. For each GRB the location and main characteristics of the prompt emission, the duration, peak flux and fluence are derived. The latter two quantities are calculated for the 50-300~keV energy band, where the maximum energy release of GRBs in the instrument reference system is observed, and also for a broader energy band from 10-1000 keV, exploiting the full energy range of GBM's low-energy NaI(Tl) detectors. Using statistical methods to assess clustering, we find that the hardness and duration of GRBs are better fitted by a two-component model with short-hard and long-soft bursts, than by a model with three components. Furthermore, information is provided on the settings and modifications of the triggering criteria and exceptional operational conditions during years five and six in the mission. This third catalog is an official product of the Fermi GBM science team, and the data files containing the complete results are available from the High-Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC).Comment: 225 pages, 13 figures and 8 tables. Accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal Supplement 201

Temporal Deconvolution study of Long and Short Gamma-Ray Burst Light curves

The light curves of Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) are believed to result from internal shocks reflecting the activity of the GRB central engine. Their temporal deconvolution can reveal potential differences in the properties of the central engines in the two populations of GRBs which are believed to originate from the deaths of massive stars (long) and from mergers of compact objects (short). We present here the results of the temporal analysis of 42 GRBs detected with the Gamma-ray Burst Monitor onboard the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. We deconvolved the profiles into pulses, which we fit with lognormal functions. The distributions of the pulse shape parameters and intervals between neighboring pulses are distinct for both burst types and also fit with lognormal functions. We have studied the evolution of these parameters in different energy bands and found that they differ between long and short bursts. We discuss the implications of the differences in the temporal properties of long and short bursts within the framework of the internal shock model for GRB prompt emission.Comment: 38 pages, 11 figure