Telecontraception – A Way to Address A Health Care Disparity A Preliminary Literature Review

Unintended pregnancy continues to be a significant personal and public health concern in all countries. In 2015-2019 there were 121 million unintended pregnancies annually, corresponding to a global rate of 64 unintended pregnancies per 1000 women aged 15-49 years. While there are multiple contraception options available in general, access to them can be limited by a myriad of factors. Over the past two decades there has been an increase in mail order services for contraception that bypasses the traditional clinician office visit-examination-pharmacy model, thus increasing access for many women (and men). These companies have been proven to provide safe, convenient and economical contraception, thereby decreasing access burden for women throughout the world. This paper reviews the literature on evolution of mail order contraception, safety concerns, and technologic advances that facilitate provision of these services

ENHANCING QUALITY OF LIFE ON URBAN RESIDENTIAL STREETS BY CREATING PLACES FOR PEOPLE AND TREES

Lower income urban rowhouse neighborhoods are often treeless with only narrow sidewalks separating the front door from the street. This thesis explores the opportunity to capitalize on the predicted shift from private automobile ownership to fleets of autonomous vehicles and the subsequent significant drop in parking demand. Space previously designated as parking lanes can be converted into continuous tree planting strips and social spaces along inner-city residential streets. In this thesis, I propose three streetscape models utilizing the space no longer needed for parking: 1) the James Street Private Model that designs a 10’ wide continuous tree planting strip, allowing trees, gardens and patios to be installed along the foot of the rowhouse steps; 2) the James Street Public Model that creates the same tree strip design but positions it between the sidewalk and the street; and 3) the Shared Street Model, set along a narrower alley street, that forms a meandering road shared with pedestrians, public spaces and trees. These streetscape improvements directly address the quality of life of the residents by enhancing their safety and security, physical surroundings, social relations and health

The impact of specialty settings on the perceived quality of medical ultrasound video

Health care professionals are increasingly viewing medical images and videos in a variety of environments. The perception of medical visual information across all specialties, career stages, and practice settings are critical to patient care and patient safety. Visual signal distortions, such as various types of noise and artifacts arising in medical imaging, affect the perceptual quality of visual content and potentially impact diagnoses. To optimize clinical practice, it is of fundamental importance to understand the way medical experts perceive visual quality. Psychophysical studies have been undertaken to evaluate the impact of visual distortions on the perceived quality of medical images and videos. However, very little research has been conducted on how speciality settings affect the perception of visual quality. In this paper, we investigate whether and how radiologists and sonographers differently perceive the quality of compressed ultrasound videos, via a dedicated subjective experiment. The findings can be used to develop useful solutions for improved visual experience and better image-based diagnoses

Preparing for Storms in Louisiana: The Facilitator\u27s Guide

The facilitator\u27s guide helps educators navigate through the risk literacy student manual, Preparing for Storms in Louisiana, and teach its contents to his or her class

Evaluating the Role of Ultrasound in Prostate cancer (ERUP) trial – Phase 1 early experience of micro-ultrasound in the UK

Purpose: To evaluate if the use of micro-ultrasound (microUS) can detect significant prostate (csPCa) pathology when compared to histology obtained during a transperineal prostate biopsy.Methods: Patients suspected of having prostate cancer, who had a prebiopsy MRI and could tolerate a transrectal examination were prospectively recruited. All patients had a microUS scan prior to their biopsy. The findings of MRI, microUS, and histology were risk stratified in accordance with local pathways. Comparison of assigned risk scores were made using histology as the reference standard.Results: Data from 101 patients were evaluated. Histology showed that csPCa was detected in 48.5% (n = 49/101) of patients. Moderate inter-rater agreement was found in both MRI and MicroUS with К of 0.31 in both modalities. High risk findings were identified in 81% (n = 82/101) patients at MRI and in 66% (n = 67/101) patients at microUS. Sensitivity and specificity of MRI was found to be 87% and 34.6% and for microUS 73.3% and 53.8% respectively.Conclusion: A limitation of this study was that the biopsy was not performed with microUS which may have resulted in unidentified cancers and lowered the apparent accuracy of the technique. However, we conclude that whilst microUS was diagnostic, MRI demonstrated higher sensitivity in our local population and remains the pre-biopsy imaging modality of choice. However, the higher specificity of microUS identified does indicate that it may be of value when MRI is contraindicated. The role of microUS, within an active surveillance pathway for prostate cancer, warrants further investigation

Preparing for Storms in Louisiana: The Facilitator\u27s Guide

The facilitator\u27s guide helps educators navigate through the risk literacy student manual, Preparing for Storms in Louisiana, and teach its contents to his or her class

“You Can Sort of Feel It”: Exploring Metacognition and the Feeling of Knowing Among Undergraduate Students

Traditional research on the metacognitive practice of calibration has been primarily investigated within the realm of quantitative experimental methodologies. This article expands the research scope of metacognitive calibration by offering a qualitative approach to the growing body of literature. More specifically, the current study investigates the learners’ perspective on the calibration process. Ten undergraduate students were selected to participate in a structured interview on their previous calibration performances (five students low in calibration processing and five proficient in calibration processing). Ultimately nine students (N=9) participated in individual interviews. Participant interviews are qualitatively assessed through the mediums of (1) Serra and Matcalfe’s original work on the “feelings of knowing” and (2) self-regulated learning theory (SRL). Results indicate a difference in feelings of knowing between low and proficient calibrators across a battery of themes: effort, strategies, planning, and evaluation. Implications of the results and direction for future research are explored