Survey of the Knowledge and Confidence of Respiratory Therapy Students Regarding Tobacco Smoking and Respiratory Diseases

SURVEY OF THE KNOWLEDGE AND CONFIDENCE OF RESPIRATORY THERAPY STUDENTS REGARDING TOBACCO SMOKING AND RESPIRATORY DISEASES by Delano S. DuCasse INTRODUCTION: Tobacco abuse is the main cause of illness and avoidable death in the world (World Health Organization, 2010). Smoking-related diseases claim an estimated 443,000 American lives each year, including those affected indirectly, such as babies born prematurely due to prenatal maternal smoking and victims of secondhand exposure to tobacco’s carcinogens (American Lung Association, 2011). Of all healthcare providers, respiratory therapists are most often in contact with patients that are diagnosed with smoking related diseases. Therefore, students entering into the field should be well equipped with the knowledge, skills and attitude to educate patients about the importance of smoking prevention and cessation. The purpose of this study was to evaluate students’ knowledge and confidence regarding tobacco addiction and cessation following enrollment in a pulmonary disease course. METHODS: Students enrolled in a bachelor’s degree respiratory therapy program at a southeastern university were surveyed prior to and following a required pulmonary disease course. Participation was completely voluntary and no incentives to participate were offered. A total of 31 students participated in the pre-tobacco education survey on January 24, 2013 and 24 students participated in the post-tobacco survey on April 29, 2013. DATA ANALYSIS: The data was analyzed using SPSS 19.0. Descriptive statistics to include frequencies and percentages were used to evaluate the RT student’s responses to survey questions. RESULTS: Majority of the students only had 1 to 2 hours of lecture that focused on tobacco smoking. The actual tobacco education they received was not a clear cut topic within the pulmonary disease course itself; the topic tobacco smoking was only mentioned under diseases processes such as, COPD and Lung Cancer. The RT students’ confidence levels slightly improved after being enrolled in the pulmonary disease course. The pre surveyed RT students’ average was 55.5%, and the post surveyed average was 69.8%. CONCLUSIONS: Based on the results, the content of tobacco education within the school’s curriculum is inadequate. With respiratory therapists mostly coming in contact with patients suffering from smoking related diseases, topics that include tobacco smoking and cessation should be included more in respiratory therapy school’s curriculum

Untangling Fine-Grained Code Changes

After working for some time, developers commit their code changes to a version control system. When doing so, they often bundle unrelated changes (e.g., bug fix and refactoring) in a single commit, thus creating a so-called tangled commit. Sharing tangled commits is problematic because it makes review, reversion, and integration of these commits harder and historical analyses of the project less reliable. Researchers have worked at untangling existing commits, i.e., finding which part of a commit relates to which task. In this paper, we contribute to this line of work in two ways: (1) A publicly available dataset of untangled code changes, created with the help of two developers who accurately split their code changes into self contained tasks over a period of four months; (2) a novel approach, EpiceaUntangler, to help developers share untangled commits (aka. atomic commits) by using fine-grained code change information. EpiceaUntangler is based and tested on the publicly available dataset, and further evaluated by deploying it to 7 developers, who used it for 2 weeks. We recorded a median success rate of 91% and average one of 75%, in automatically creating clusters of untangled fine-grained code changes

Framework for software architecture visualization assessment.

In order to assess software architecture visualisation strategies, we qualitatively characterize then construct an assessment framework with 7 key areas and 31 features. The framework is used for evaluation and comparison of various strategies from multiple stakeholder perspectives. Six existing software architecture visualisation tools and a seventh research tool were evaluated. All tools exhibited shortcomings when evaluated in the framework

Microscopic Model for High-spin vs. Low-spin ground state in [Ni2M(CN)8][Ni_2{M(CN)_8]} (M=MoV,WV,NbIVM=Mo^V, W^V, Nb^{IV}) magnetic clusters

Conventional superexchange rules predict ferromagnetic exchange interaction between Ni(II) and M (M=Mo(V), W(V), Nb(IV)). Recent experiments show that in some systems this superexchange is antiferromagnetic. To understand this feature, in this paper we develop a microscopic model for Ni(II)-M systems and solve it exactly using a valence bond approach. We identify the direct exchange coupling, the splitting of the magnetic orbitals and the inter-orbital electron repulsions, on the M site as the parameters which control the ground state spin of various clusters of the Ni(II)-M system. We present quantum phase diagrams which delineate the high-spin and low-spin ground states in the parameter space. We fit the spin gap to a spin Hamiltonian and extract the effective exchange constant within the experimentally observed range, for reasonable parameter values. We also find a region in the parameter space where an intermediate spin state is the ground state. These results indicate that the spin spectrum of the microscopic model cannot be reproduced by a simple Heisenberg exchange Hamiltonian.Comment: 8 pages including 7 figure

Mechanical tests and definition of new indexes of grape berry firmness. Evolution of berry skin hardness during alcoholic fermentation

The mechanical strength or firmness of a fruit is considered an important parameter to characterise its state of ripeness or conservation, as well as other parameters such as sugar level or color. The mechanical hardness of grapes influences the integrity and sanitary quality of the harvest. In this study, the mechanical characteristics of grapevine berries were studied at harvest time in order to determine their rheological properties (firmness and hardness of the berry skin) during alcoholic fermentation. Special indexes were defined measuring the energy needed to crush the berries to 50 % of their initial diameter, and applied successively to two different varieties. The entire berry firmness and the skin hardness were both different. Mechanical indexes linked to grape firmness were defined. Using these indexes, a significant effect on the firmness behavior due to variety was recorded: the skin of 'Grenache Noir' was found firmer and harder than 'Carignan Noir'. Furthermore, during the alcoholic fermentation, no change in skin hardness was observed for both varieties, despite changes in the composition of the must. These results give new information on mechanical properties of berries and could be used as an aid in the winemaking process. Indeed, they would probably help the winemaker to better choose the type of fermentation and maceration adapted to his grapes according to the type of wine he wishes to produce

Insulator-Metal Transition in One Dimension Induced by Long-Range Electronic Interactions

The effects of a long range electronic potential on a one dimensional commensurate Charge Density Wave (CDW) state are investigated. Using numerical techniques it is shown that a transition to a metallic ground state is reached as the range of the electron-electron repulsion increases. In this metallic state, the optical conductivity exhibits a large Drude weight. Possible interpretations of our results are discussed.Comment: 5 pages, Revtex, minor misprints corrected and a reference to earlier work by V. Emery and C. Noguera adde

Transcriptome analysis of mycorrhizal and nonmycorrhizal soybean plantlets upon infection with Fusarium virguliforme, one causal agent of sudden death syndrome

Soilborne pathogens represent a threat to agriculture causing important yield losses. Sudden death syndrome (SDS) of soybean is a severe disease caused by a complex of Fusarium species. This pathosystem has been widely investigated and several strategies have been proposed to manage SDS. Although a decrease in symptoms and in the level of root tissue infection, particularly by F. virguliforme, was observed in the presence of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), biological control based on AMF has received less attention. Here, the results are reported of transcriptional analysis of mycorrhizal versus nonmycorrhizal soybean plantlets infected by F. virguliforme, grown under strict in vitro culture experimental conditions. Important transcriptional reprogramming was detected following infection by the pathogen. Results revealed 1768 and 967 differentially expressed genes in the AMF-colonized (+AMF+Fv) and noncolonized (−AMF+Fv) plants, respectively. Major transcriptional changes corresponded to defence response-related genes belonging to secondary metabolism, stress and signalling categories. The +AMF+Fv treatment showed the largest number of up-regulated genes related to defence, such as those encoding disease resistance proteins, WRKY transcription factors, auxins, receptors kinases and proteases. Only a few genes had primed expression in the +AMF+Fv treatment, such as those encoding a thaumatin-like protein (TLP) and a pleiotropic drug resistance (PDR) protein. Moreover, +AMF+Fv showed a significantly greater number of down-regulated genes related to cell wall modification and peroxidases than the –AMF+Fv treatment. This detailed investigation increases knowledge of transcriptional changes and potential metabolic pathways involved in the enhanced resistance or tolerance of mycorrhizal plants to infection by F. virguliforme.Fil: Marquez, Nathalie. Instituto Nacional de Tecnologia Agropecuaria. Centro de Investigaciones Agropecuarias. Unidad de Fitopatologia y Modelizacion Agricola. - Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas. Centro Cientifico Tecnologico Conicet - Cordoba. Unidad de Fitopatologia y Modelizacion Agricola.; ArgentinaFil: Giachero, María Lorena. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria. Centro de Investigación en Ciencias Veterinarias y Agronómicas. Instituto de Fitopatología y Fisiología Vegetal; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Gallou, A.. Centro Nacional de Referencia de Control Biológico; MéxicoFil: Debat, Humberto Julio. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria. Centro de Investigación en Ciencias Veterinarias y Agronómicas. Instituto de Fitopatología y Fisiología Vegetal; ArgentinaFil: Declerck, S,. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria. Centro Regional Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Ducasse, Daniel Adrián. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria. Centro de Investigaciones Agropecuarias. Instituto de Patología Vegetal; Argentin

Scissors resonance in the quasi-continuum of Th, Pa and U isotopes

The gamma-ray strength function in the quasi-continuum has been measured for 231-233Th, 232,233Pa and 237-239U using the Oslo method. All eight nuclei show a pronounced increase in gamma strength at omega_SR approx 2.4 MeV, which is interpreted as the low-energy M1 scissors resonance (SR). The total strength is found to be B_SR = 9-11 mu_N^2 when integrated over the 1 - 4 MeV gamma-energy region. The SR displays a double-hump structure that is theoretically not understood. Our results are compared with data from (gamma, gamma') experiments and theoretical sum-rule estimates for a nuclear rigid-body moment of inertia.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figure

Augmented Reality for People with Visual Impairments: Designing and Creating Audio-Tactile Content from Existing Objects

ISBN: 978-3-319-94273-5International audienceTactile maps and diagrams are widely used as accessible graphical media for people with visual impairments, in particular in the context of education. They can be made interactive by augmenting them with audio feedback. It is however complicated to create audio-tactile graphics that have rich and realistic tactile textures. To overcome these limitations, we propose a new augmented reality approach allowing novices to easily and quickly augment real objects with audio feedback. In our user study, six teachers created their own audio-augmentation of objects, such as a botanical atlas, within 30 minutes or less. Teachers found the tool easy to use and were confident about re-using it. The resulting augmented objects allow two modes: exploration mode provides feedback on demand about an element, while quiz mode provides questions and answers. We evaluated the resulting audio-tactile material with five visually impaired children. Participants found the resulting interactive graphics exciting to use independently of their mental imagery skills

Deducing correlation parameters from optical conductivity in the Bechgaard salts

Numerical calculations of the kinetic energy of various extensions of the one-dimensional Hubbard model including dimerization and repulsion between nearest neighbours are reported. Using the sum rule that relates the kinetic energy to the integral of the optical conductivity, one can determine which parameters are consistent with the reduction of the infrared oscillator strength that has been observed in the Bechgaard salts. This leads to improved estimates of the correlation parameters for both the TMTSF and TMTTF series.Comment: 12 pages, latex, figures available from the author