Opioid Use Disorder: A Crisis of Concern

According to a statement from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, between 2000 and 2017, approximately 700,000 people died from drug overdoses in the United States. Approximately 128 persons lose their life each day from an opioid overdose. The data for this study were collected by the vice president of operations at the study site from a preexisting database for 2019 and 2020. The participants were inpatient patients, 18 and older, both male and female, and were from all ethnicities. The study facility was located in Western New York and offered a 30-bed inpatient treatment center with 24-hour care for individuals suffering from opioid use disorder (OUD). The healthcare team consisted of physicians, nurses, behavioral therapists, peer support specialists, and discharge planners. The objective of this descriptive, retrospective project was to investigate the following research questions: Research Question 1: During inpatient MAT treatment for OUD, is there a difference between treatments using buprenorphine/naloxone and those using Vivitrol in the length of stay of patients? Research Question 2: Is there a difference in these two MAT (buprenorphine and Vivitrol) outcomes when controlling for demographic variables of patients with OUD? Research Question 3: Does ethnicity moderate the relationship in MAT types and the length of stay among patients with OUD? The ability to implement the MAT program and experience the benefits is rewarding to the health care team, the patients, and their families. Further education is needed to assist in the fight against this deadly epidemic

“We Make Death Look Pretty”: A qualitative study analyzing reported effects of compassion fatigue on hospice nurse-patient communication

Rationale: Compassion fatigue is present in multiple nursing fields, but hospice poses a significant threat to nurses working within that specific environment. This is due to their consistent proximity with patient suffering, death and dying, and constant communication with patients regarding their death. The hospice nurse-patient relationship requires a deeper connection between nurse and patient which often results in consistent emotional labor for hospice nurses, further amplifying the threat of compassion fatigue. While the effects of compassion fatigue can manifest in many forms, it is typically characterized by a nurses’ decline in job satisfaction, which they do not tend to speak openly about. While research has been conducted concerning the effects compassion fatigue can have on the quality of care received by the patient, there has been very little research conducted analyzing the relationship between hospice nurse-patient communication and compassion fatigue. RQ1: What do hospice nurses report as the consequences of compassion fatigue for themselves, their colleagues, and their patients? RQ2: How do hospice nurses think compassion fatigue influences the way they communicate with their patients? Methodology: In order to understand the research questions under investigation, hospice nurses were interviewed using a semi-structured interview guide. Data was analyzed using the thematic consistent comparative method to identify common themes and trends in the data. Findings: Participants discussed the multiple roles in which they felt responsible engaging, unique challenges associated with hospice work, and effects of stress and fatigu

Dynamic Bradley–Terry modelling of sports tournaments

Summary.  In the course of national sports tournaments, usually lasting several months, it is expected that the abilities of teams taking part in the tournament will change over time. A dynamic extension of the Bradley–Terry model for paired comparison data is introduced to model the outcomes of sporting contests, allowing for time varying abilities. It is assumed that teams’ home and away abilities depend on past results through exponentially weighted moving average processes. The model proposed is applied to sports data with and without tied contests, namely the 2009–2010 regular season of the National Basketball Association tournament and the 2008–2009 Italian Serie A football season

Kaiser refractories environmental studies. Final Report: 1 June 1971

Document has 204 pages. Harville is edito

Inheritance of ear height and associated characters of corn (Zea mays L.)

A phenotypic recurrent selection program for low-ear placement in corn (Zea mays L.) was begun in 1961 in an early and a late maturing population involving several low-ear inbreds. Approximately 250 plants were grown in each generation of selection. The plants were divided into two equal size groups. Bulk pollen was collected from phenotypically low-ear plants of one group and used to pollinate phenotypically low-ear plants of the other group. Reciprocal pollinations were made in a similar manner. Minimum plant heights were imposed and plants flowering within a specific time span were pollinated. The total number of plants selected in each generation ranged from 15 percent to 25 percent of the total number of plants. The generations of selection were tested by regression analysis in a diallel set of crosses and in testcrosses to both high- and low-ear single cross testers. In addition, generation mean analysis was performed for two crosses involving high- and low-ear inbreds of white and yellow endosperm type. Data from the studies were obtained at Knoxville and Crossville, Tennessee during 1974 and 1975. Data obtained were ear and plant heights, plant/ear height ratio, number of leaves below and above the ear, number of days to silking and tasselling, and yield. Ear height was reduced approximately 1.25 inches per generation for both the early and late maturing synthetics. Plant height decreased only slightly resulting in an overall increase of plant/ear height ratios. There was a significant increase in the number of leaves below the ear and a significant increase in the number of leaves above the ear. The number of days from planting to silking and tasselling did not change throughout the generations of selection. Yield reductions were observed in the later generations. Significant general combining ability effects were noted for all characters indicating that selecting for lower ear placement was effective. The testcrosses showed less differences among the generations than did the generations of selection per se. Significant additive effects occurred for ear height, number of leaves below and above the ear, and plant/ear height ratio for the cross E199 X Mo18W. Significant dominance effects were noted in both crosses for plant height. Significant additive and dominance effects occurred for plant/ear height ratio in the cross T232 x T458R

A Study of the In-service Education Program in the Knoxville City Schools

Introduction: One of the most challenging problems confronting educators today is that of fostering continuous professional growth. School systems throughout the country are wanting to know more about new methods and techniques of improving their in-service education programs. The growth and development of in-service education in the United States is complicated by the influence of various factors contributing to the gradual structuring of the total educational program, of which the promotion of professional growth on the part of teachers has been only a small part. The growth and development of in-service education is further complicated by the fact that its development has not been uniform within the states. In the course of its development, in-service programs have reflected the differences in the educational programs of the forty-eight states, differences that arose from freedom of each state to shape its own educational program and from the efforts that were made by all states to meet the needs of different groups throughout the country

Addressing the Failure of Abstinence-only Sex Education Programs: An Emerging Leadership Perspective

Over the past 15 years, abstinence-only sex education has been the sole method of education supported by the federal government as it relates to adolescent sexual health. Despite the exponential increase offunding provided for abstinence-only sex education, few tangible positive results have surfaced. At high rates, teens still take part in risky sexual behaviors, and are at high risks for teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, and HIV/AIDS. As a result, it is necessary to take an alternative approach that provides adolescents with a comprehensive view of sex education in order to effectively reduce these negative outcomes. A comprehensive education will provide adolescents with the adequate knowledge about contraception, how to protect themselves, and the consequences of sexual activity, so they may be able to make informed and educated decisions about sex. This one-sided abstinence-only approach is an archaic view that needs to be changed by our state and federal legislators, and school administrators, so adolescents are prepared to lead healthy lives