1,019 research outputs found
Advanced beaded and tubular structural panels
A program to develop lightweight beaded and tubular structural panels is described. Applications include external surfaces, where aerodynamically acceptable, and primary structure protected by heat shields. The design configurations were optimized and selected with a computer code which iterates geometric parameters to satisfy strength, stability, and weight constraints. Methods of fabricating these configurations are discussed. Nondestructive testing produced extensive combined compression, shear, and bending test data on local buckling specimens and large panels. The optimized design concepts offer 25 to 30% weight savings compared to conventional stiffened sheet construction
Nurse Preceptors\u27 Perceptions of Non-Traditional Education
Background: A preceptor is an experienced nurse who teaches and provides feedback to a new orientee on their professional practice for a designated time. The preceptor is the key educator for new nurses in their learning process. Continuing education for the nurse preceptor is necessary to foster the professional development of this complex role.
Aims: The purpose of this study is to determine if nurse preceptors perceive non traditional education as effective as in person instruction for preceptor professional development.
Methods: This descriptive study used a convenient sample. An educational journal was created covering a variety of topics that aide in the growth and development of the nurse preceptor. The education was sent electronically to nurse preceptors in a critical care setting. Preceptors were required to read the journal and complete a post test. Once completed, nurse preceptors were invited to participate in the study. A 25 item questionnaire, using a 5 point Likert scale, was sent via email. Nurse preceptors were given one month to voluntarily participate in the study. Responses to the survey were scored and averaged.
Findings: There were a total of 14 participants. Not all items were answered by each participant. Eighty six percent were BSN prepared, 14% were MSN prepared. The majority of participants (71%, n= 10) have been preceptors for 2 or more years in their current practice setting. Some participants did not attend the previous in person preceptor education (4 out of 14). All participants completed the non traditional (journal) education. Nearly all participants (92%, n=12 out of 13) believed that the non traditional educational journal had high impact. When responding to educational preferences, 61.5% preferred to receive preceptor education in a non traditional format while 38% preferred to receive education in both non traditional and traditional formats. The study results provide a better understating of the educational preferences of the nurse preceptor. This information is vital for the development for future preceptor education programs. Tailoring education to the learners preferred methods can make education more impactful. Providing meaningful education to preceptors will improve their practice, further benefiting the experience of the newly hired/transferred nurses. The study may be applicable to other practice areas and/or organizations.https://scholarlycommons.henryford.com/nursresconf2021/1010/thumbnail.jp
Improving Early Detection of C. difficile Infections
Background: Patients with C. difficile will have liquid, loose, mucous like, or non formed stools. These infections can occur in both the inpatient and community settings and can range from diarrhea to life threatening illness. C. difficile positive stool samples collected within the first three calendar days of hospital admission is considered community acquired. Positive stool samples for C. difficile calendar day 4 or greater are considered hospital acquired. In 2019 and 2020, the P4 surgical intensive care unit (SICU) at Henry Ford Hospital (HFH) experienced high rates of hospital acquired C. difficile infections (CDI).
Aim: The purpose of this project was to utilize an electronic health record (EHR) report to conduct early screening for patients to capture CDI during the community acquired timeframe rather than during the hospital acquired timeframe.
Methods: Pre-post quasi-experimental retrospective study. Institutional Review Board approval was obtained. Incidence and rate of hospital acquired CDI were tracked from 2019-2022. All community-acquired CDI identified using the stool report were tracked from 2021-2022.
Findings: Significant reductions occurred in unit incidence and rates of hospital acquired CDI (Table 2). During the study timeframe, 15 community acquired CDIs were successfully detected within the first 3 calendar days of hospital admission (7 in 2021, 8 in 2022). These infections were detected with the use of the stool report tool and CNS and/or IPC follow up. Without this tool, these CDIs may not have been identified during the community acquired infection timeline.
Discussion: October 2021: A Loose Stool Best Practice Alert (BPA) was implemented. This electronic health record BPA alerts nursing staff of potential CDI during the community acquired window. The stool report remains a useful monitoring tool in the event that the Loose Stool BPA is bypassed. The CNS and IPC continue with daily screening of the stool report and follow up with nursing for all potential CDI patients. This quality improvement project is in the process of being expanded to additional units at the hospital.
Implications: Delay in CDI detection can cause negative outcomes for patients and can result in inflated hospital acquired rates. Utilizing an electronic report in conjunction with clinical nurse specialist follow up, is an effective method for early screening for C. difficile.https://scholarlycommons.henryford.com/nursresconf2023/1000/thumbnail.jp
Using Interprofessional Collaboration to Reduce CLABSI Rates in an Intensive Care Setting
Background: Central line associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI) are preventable hospital-acquired infections associated with increased morbidity and mortality, and cost. CLABSIs are the most expensive healthcare associated infection (HAI) with a cost upwards of 1.6 million difference in healthcare costs.
Discussion: This project demonstrates that an interpersonal team reviewing potential CLABSIs and identifying alternative sources of BSI can decrease CLABSI rates, improve patient management and lead to better outcomes. In addition to being a safe and effective approach, this intervention had the additional benefit of cost savings for the health system. Healthcare institutions should consider implementing this intervention to reduce unnecessary CLABSI rates, as well as cost.https://scholarlycommons.henryford.com/nursresconf2023/1001/thumbnail.jp
Perceptions of Nurses Who Are Second Victims in a Hospital Setting
https://scholarlycommons.henryford.com/nursresconf2021/1004/thumbnail.jp
Neutron Capture Cross Sections for the Weak s Process
In past decades a lot of progress has been made towards understanding the
main s-process component that takes place in thermally pulsing Asymptotic Giant
Branch (AGB) stars. During this process about half of the heavy elements,
mainly between 90<=A<=209 are synthesized. Improvements were made in stellar
modeling as well as in measuring relevant nuclear data for a better description
of the main s process. The weak s process, which contributes to the production
of lighter nuclei in the mass range 56<=A<=90 operates in massive stars
(M>=8Msolar) and is much less understood. A better characterization of the weak
s component would help disentangle the various contributions to element
production in this region. For this purpose, a series of measurements of
neutron-capture cross sections have been performed on medium-mass nuclei at the
3.7-MV Van de Graaff accelerator at FZK using the activation method. Also,
neutron captures on abundant light elements with A<56 play an important role
for s-process nucleosynthesis, since they act as neutron poisons and affect the
stellar neutron balance. New results are presented for the (n,g) cross sections
of 41K and 45Sc, and revisions are reported for a number of cross sections
based on improved spectroscopic information
Playing with the future: social irrealism and the politics of aesthetics
In this paper we wish to explore the political possibilities of video games. Numerous scholars now take seriously the place of popular culture in the remaking of our geographies, but video games still lag behind. For us, this tendency reflects a general response to them as imaginary spaces that are separate from everyday life and 'real' politics. It is this disconnect between abstraction and lived experience that we complicate by defining play as an event of what Brian Massumi calls lived abstraction. We wish to short-circuit the barriers that prevent the aesthetic resonating with the political and argue that through their enactment, video games can animate fantastical futures that require the player to make, and reflect upon, profound ethical decisions that can be antagonistic to prevailing political imaginations. We refer to this as social irrealism to demonstrate that reality can be understood through the impossible and the imagined
Connecting
Connecting
Helen Walker - Teaching/Seeing Jesus
Jan Buley - The Realization
S. Rebecca Leigh - Celebrating Ways of Learning
Christopher M. Bache - The Opening Question
Bette B. Bauer - Teaching as a Spiritual Practice
Rachel Forrester - Appalachia Finally in the Spring
Laurence Musgrove - Syllabu
Reconnaissance of the Bedrock Aquifers and Groundwater Chemistry of Crawford, Franklin, and Sebastian Counties, Arkansas
A ground water reconnaissance of Crawford, Franklin, and Sebastian counties was performed utilizing 122 wells having drillers\u27 logs from bedrock aquifers. North of the Arkansas River, essentially all bedrock wells produce from the Atoka Formation. There are many low producing aquifers within the Atoka with a range in yield of 0.1 to 55 gpm, but having a median yield of only 2 gpm. Well depths range from 18 to 248 feet with a median of 122 feet. More water is generally obtained from the shale/siltstone aquifers than the sandstones due to more bedding-plane partings and more closely spaced fractures. Greater yields are also found in valleys. South of the Arkansas River, three additional bedrock aquifers are utilized. The aquifers and median yield are as follows: (1)Savannah Sandstone (11.7 gpm), (2) Hartshorne Sandstone (10 gpm), and (3) McAlester Shale (5.2 gpm). Well depths range from 40 to 300 feet. Seventeen wells in the Atoka were sampled and analyzed. The median iron concentration was 0.15, but four wells had over the 0.3 ppm health limit. Sulfate values ranged from31 to 125 ppm with a median of 45 ppm. Chloride concentrations ranged from 16 to 58 ppm with a median of 33 ppm. These relatively high values commonly give the water a bitter and strigent taste with some H₃S odor. The source of these ions may be from pyrite weathering or to contamination from the many gas fields in the area
UK Large-scale Wind Power Programme from 1970 to 1990: the Carmarthen Bay experiments and the Musgrove Vertical-Axis Turbines
This article describes the development of the Musgrove Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT)
concept, the UK ‘Carmarthen Bay’ wind turbine test programme, and UK government’s wind
power programme to 1990. One of the most significant developments in the story of British
wind power occurred during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, with the development of the
Musgrove vertical axis wind turbine and its inclusion within the UK Government’s wind
turbine test programme. Evolving from a supervisor’s idea for an undergraduate project at
Reading University, the Musgrove VAWT was once seen as an able competitor to the
horizontal axis wind systems that were also being encouraged at the time by both the UK
government and the Central Electricity Generating Board, the then nationalised electricity
utility for England and Wales. During the 1980s and 1990s the most developed Musgrove
VAWT system, along with three other commercial turbine designs was tested at
Carmarthen Bay, South Wales as part of a national wind power test programme. From these
developmental tests, operational data was collected and lessons learnt, which were
incorporated into subsequent wind power operations.http://dx.doi.org/10.1260/03095240677860621
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