Learning Sustainable Development: Chimeneas de la Esperanza

Social inequality and environmental degradation are motivating informed young people into action and connecting impoverished regions of the world with students in more developed nations. This Social Sciences senior project is to analyze an alternative development model designed by a group of Californian university students. The project, named Chimeneas de la Esperanza, is designed to help impoverished Nicaraguan women start a ceramics business. The major hurdle of this mission is to establish a market for the ceramics product. Energy efficient ceramic stoves and smoke ventilating chimneys would benefit the community and avoid an impacted crafts market. The project encompasses ideas of cultural, social and environmental sustainability. In order to be holistically integrated, alternative development strategies focus on using local approaches to help the people empower themselves. This project resulted in the students gaining a greater sense of empathy and an increased interest in participating in volunteer tourism

Reconstructing the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to More Effectively Alleviate Food Insecurity in the United States

Although the central objective of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is to reduce food insecurity in the United States, the majority of SNAP households are food insecure. Higher benefits may lead these households to food security. To evaluate this possibility, we use a question from the Current Population Survey that asks respondents how much additional money they would need to be food secure. Food insecure SNAP households report needing an average of about $42 per week to become food secure. Under a set of assumptions about the measurement of benefits and behavioral responses, we find that an increase in weekly benefits of$42 for SNAP households would lead to a 62 percent decline in food insecurity at a cost of about $27 billion

Low cadence interval training at moderate intensity does not improve cycling performance in highly trained veteran cyclists

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Measurements of Anisotropy in the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation at 0.5 Degree Angular Scales Near the Star Gamma Ursae Minoris

We present results from a four frequency observation of a 6 x 0.6 degree strip of the sky centered near the star Gamma Ursae Minoris during the fourth flight of the Millimeter-wave Anisotropy eXperiment (MAX). The observation was made with a 1.4 degree peak-to-peak sinusoidal chop in all bands. The FWHM beam sizes were 0.55 +/- 0.05 degrees at 3.5 cm-1 and 0.75 +/-0.05 degrees at 6, 9, and 14 cm-1. During this observation significant correlated structure was observed at 3.5, 6 and 9 cm-1 with amplitudes similar to those observed in the GUM region during the second and third flights of MAX. The frequency spectrum is consistent with CMB and inconsistent with thermal emission from interstellar dust. The extrapolated amplitudes of synchrotron and free-free emission are too small to account for the amplitude of the observed structure. If all of the structure is attributed to CMB anisotropy with a Gaussian autocorrelation function and a coherence angle of 25', then the most probable values of DeltaT/TCMB in the 3.5, 6, and 9 cm-1 bands are 4.3 (+2.7, -1.6) x 10-5, 2.8 (+4.3, -1.1) x 10-5, and 3.5 (+3.0, -1.6) x 10-5 (95% confidence upper and lower limits), respectively.Comment: 16 pages, postscrip

Measurements of Anisotropy in the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation at Degree Angular Scales Near the Stars Sigma Hercules and Iota Draconis

We present results from two four-frequency observations centered near the stars Sigma Hercules and Iota Draconis during the fourth flight of the Millimeter-wave Anisotropy eXperiment (MAX). The observations were made of 6 x 0.6-degree strips of the sky with 1.4-degree peak to peak sinusoidal chop in all bands. The FWHM beam sizes were 0.55+/-0.05 degrees at 3.5 cm-1 and a 0.75+/-0.05 degrees at 6, 9, and 14 cm-1. Significant correlated structures were observed at 3.5, 6 and 9 cm-1. The spectra of these signals are inconsistent with thermal emission from known interstellar dust populations. The extrapolated amplitudes of synchrotron and free-free emission are too small to account for the amplitude of the observed structures. If the observed structures are attributed to CMB anisotropy with a Gaussian autocorrelation function and a coherence angle of 25', then the most probable values are DT/TCMB = (3.1 +1.7-1.3) x 10^-5 for the Sigma Hercules scan, and DT/TCMB = (3.3 +/- 1.1) x 10^-5 for the Iota Draconis scan (95% confidence upper and lower limits). Finally a comparison of all six MAX scans is presented.Comment: 13 pages, postscript file, 2 figure

Bedre nytteverdi av blodkultur ved sepsis

Tema/problemstilling: Vårt kvalitetsforbedringsprosjekt er rettet mot behandling av pasienter med sepsis ved en indremedisinsk avdeling. Målet er å øke nytteverdien av blodkultur for å redusere bredspektret antibiotikabehandling. Kunnskapsgrunnlag: Det er sammenheng mellom bruk av bredspektrede antibiotika og resistensutvikling. Deeskalering, endring av antibiotikabehandlingen til et mer smalspektret regime etter blodkultursvar, er en strategi for å redusere bruk av bredspektrede antibiotika. Deeskalering hos sepsispasienter der blodkultursvaret med resistensbestemmelse tillater det er trygg praksis og anbefales i nasjonale retningslinjer for antibiotikabehandling i sykehus. Tiltak/kvalitetsindikator: Samtaler med leger på Diakonhjemmet og Ullevål sykehus bekrefter at flere pasienter blir stående unødvendig på bredspektret antibiotikabehandling etter at man har blodkultursvar, og at det kan være potensial for å sette i gang forbedringstiltak. Vi innfører et tiltak som sikrer direkte kontakt mellom mikrobiolog og aktuell kliniker. Vi har valgt indikatorer for å vurdere i hvor stor grad tiltak gjennomføres og positive og negative effekter av tiltaket. Ledelse/organisering: Vi har brukt PUKK-sirkelen og Kotters åtte punkter som verktøy for å strukturere prosjektperioden. Slik kan vi sette fokus på de delene av prosjektet som trenger ekstra oppmerksomhet. Vi vil forankre prosjektet i ledelsen gjennom god informasjon og forankring i sykehusets strategiplan. For å oppnå varig endring i praksis, vil vi blant annet gjennomføre halvårlige målinger etter at prosjektperioden er avsluttet. Konklusjon: Tiltaket vi foreslår bygger på allerede gjeldende systemer og vil kreve lite opplæring og ressurser. Effekten er lett målbar. Kunnskapsgrunnlaget viser også at intervensjoner for formidling av dyrkningssvar ved sepsis kan redusere bruken av bredspektret antibiotika uten skadelige bieffekter. Med bakgrunn i dette vil vi anbefale at tiltaket gjennomføres