DISCOVERING THE IMPORTANCE OF ENGAGEMENT IN A VIRTUAL LEARNING EXPERIENCE FOR K-12 EDUCATORS

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to discover how a virtual learning opportunity using various digital tools influenced professional development for teachers in a rural school district. The qualitative study was conducted through virtual interviews and participant lesson plan submissions and was aligned with the Technology Integration Matrix. The case study included participation in a virtual professional learning opportunity for K-12 educators on the topic of digital tool use, with an interview at completion focusing on engagement and implementation of learned tools as a result of the virtual learning experience. Participant submission of lesson plans were reviewed to determine perceived implementation of technology in a K-12 classroom because of the virtual professional learning

¿Por qué no podemos ser amigos virtuales?

Se ofrece a continuación un capítulo del volumen colectivo Facebook and Philosophy: What’s on Your Mind?, publicado hace dos años en EEUU. Craig Condella, profesor de Filosofía, explica las diferencias entre la amistad real y la amistad virtual. Basándose en los análisis clásicos de Aristóteles, el autor repasa las ventajas de las redes sociales y la facilidad con la que permiten mantener amistades, sin obviar que fomentan relaciones poco profundas y con un marcado carácter temporal

Emergency Department Clinicians’ Attitudes Toward Opioid Use Disorder and Emergency Department-initiated Buprenorphine Treatment: A Mixed-Methods Study

Introduction: Emergency department (ED) visits related to opioid use disorder (OUD) have increased nearly twofold over the last decade. Treatment with buprenorphine has been demonstrated to decrease opioid-related overdose deaths. In this study, we aimed to better understand ED clinicians’ attitudes toward the initiation of buprenorphine treatment in the ED.Methods: We performed a mixed-methods study consisting of a survey of 174 ED clinicians (attending physicians, residents, and physician assistants) and semi-structured interviews with 17 attending emergency physicians at a tertiary-care academic hospital.Results: A total of 93 ED clinicians (53% of those contacted) completed the survey. While 80% of respondents agreed that buprenorphine should be administered in the ED for patients requesting treatment, only 44% felt that they were prepared to discuss medication for addiction treatment. Compared to clinicians with fewer than five years of practice, those with greater experience were less likely to approve of ED-initiated buprenorphine. In our qualitative analysis, physicians had differing perspectives on the role that the ED should play in treating OUD. Most physicians felt that a buprenorphine-based intervention in the ED would be feasible with institutional support, including training opportunities, protocol support within the electronic health record, counseling and support staff, and a robust referral system for outpatient follow-up.Conclusion: ED clinicians’ perception of buprenorphine varied by years of practice and training level. Most ED clinicians did not feel prepared to initiate buprenorphine in the ED. Qualitative interviews identified several addressable barriers to ED-initiated buprenorphine

QCD at a Finite Density of Static Quarks

Recently, cluster methods have been used to solve a variety of sign problems including those that arise in the presence of fermions. In all cases an analytic partial re-summation over a class of configurations in the path integral was necessary. Here the new ideas are illustrated using the example of QCD at a finite density of static quarks. In this limit the sign problem simplifies since the fermionic part decouples. Furthermore, the problem can be solved completely when the gauge dynamics is replaced by a Potts model. On the other hand in QCD with light quarks the solution will require a partial re-summation over both fermionic and gauge degrees of freedom. The new approach points to unexplored directions in the search for a solution to this more challenging sign problem.Comment: Lattice 2000 (Plenary

Worm algorithms for the 3-state Potts model with magnetic field and chemical potential

We discuss worm algorithms for the 3-state Potts model with external field and chemical potential. The complex phase problem of this system can be overcome by using a flux representation where the new degrees of freedom are dimer and monomer variables. Working with this representation we discuss two different generalizations of the conventional Prokof'ev-Svistunov algorithm suitable for Monte Carlo simulations of the model at arbitrary chemical potential and evaluate their performance.Comment: 23 pages, 8 figure

Optimizing Real-Time Wellness Intervention Studies in Healthcare Shift Workers: Outcomes from a Prospective, Single-subject Design Study of a Digital Sleep Aid

Sleep disorders associated with shift work impair alertness and increase risk of chronic physical and mental health disease. Though studying sleep aids in at-risk populations such as shift workers is critical to improving wellness, implementing robust studies to evaluate wellness interventions in live populations can be particularly challenging. We performed a prospective, single-subject design study in which we assessed the effect of noise-masking earbuds on sleep quality, sleepiness, and stress level in health care shift workers. Despite being gifted the technology at the end of the study, we faced poor participant accrual and study retention. Additionally, robust analysis of our intervention’s impact on post-shift alertness was underpowered due to variable participant scheduling. In order to make meaningful advances in improving wellness among such groups, studies emphasizing objective outcome measures while minimizing participant obligation to study protocols are ideal. Here, we discuss our experience studying a digital sleep intervention in a real-time setting and propose solutions for improving subject accrual, retention and methods for objective data collection in studies performed in a live shift worker population

Solution of the Complex Action Problem in the Potts Model for Dense QCD

Monte Carlo simulations of lattice QCD at non-zero baryon chemical potential $\mu$ suffer from the notorious complex action problem. We consider QCD with static quarks coupled to a large chemical potential. This leaves us with an SU(3) Yang-Mills theory with a complex action containing the Polyakov loop. Close to the deconfinement phase transition the qualitative features of this theory, in particular its Z(3) symmetry properties, are captured by the 3-d 3-state Potts model. We solve the complex action problem in the Potts model by using a cluster algorithm. The improved estimator for the $\mu$-dependent part of the Boltzmann factor is real and positive and is used for importance sampling. We localize the critical endpoint of the first order deconfinement phase transition line and find consistency with universal 3-d Ising behavior. We also calculate the static quark-quark, quark-anti-quark, and anti-quark-anti-quark potentials which show screening as expected for a system with non-zero baryon density.Comment: 28 pages, 7 figure

Potts Flux Tube Model at Nonzero Chemical Potential

We model the deconfinement phase transition in quantum chromodynamics at nonzero baryon number density and large quark mass by extending the flux tube model (three-state, three-dimensional Potts model) to nonzero chemical potential. In a direct numerical simulation we confirm mean-field-theory predictions that the deconfinement transition does not occur in a baryon-rich environment.Comment: 14 pp RevTeX, 10 Postscript figures, submitted to Phys. Rev D. (Corrected some typographical errors.

Monte Carlo simulation of the SU(3) spin model with chemical potential in a flux representation

We present a simulation of the SU(3) spin model with chemical potential using a recently proposed flux representation. In this representation the complex phase problem is avoided and a Monte Carlo simulation in terms of the fluxes becomes possible. We explore the phase diagram of the model as a function of temperature and chemical potential