Reporting back environmental exposure data and free choice learning.

Reporting data back to study participants is increasingly being integrated into exposure and biomonitoring studies. Informal science learning opportunities are valuable in environmental health literacy efforts and report back efforts are filling an important gap in these efforts. Using the University of Arizona's Metals Exposure Study in Homes, this commentary reflects on how community-engaged exposure assessment studies, partnered with data report back efforts are providing a new informal education setting and stimulating free-choice learning. Participants are capitalizing on participating in research and leveraging their research experience to meet personal and community environmental health literacy goals. Observations from report back activities conducted in a mining community support the idea that reporting back biomonitoring data reinforces free-choice learning and this activity can lead to improvements in environmental health literacy. By linking the field of informal science education to the environmental health literacy concepts, this commentary demonstrates how reporting data back to participants is tapping into what an individual is intrinsically motivated to learn and how these efforts are successfully responding to community-identified education and research needs

Informational Video Gaming in the Waiting Room

This study is testing the potential of a gamified method of conveying information and the ability of the game to influence people’s sentiment towards immunization. The most popular way that medical information and awareness is spread is in the form of pamphlets or flyers, even though many people either ignore them or do not retain much information from them. Perhaps a game paired with intermittent quiz questions that influence the overall score will improve overall retention as compared with plain reading. To test this hypothesis, a game was designed to include identical information as a pamphlet commony handed out in an office to see if it is more impactful and persuasive when used by patients in a waiting room

La ratio de atención de usuarios geriátricos en el servicio de enfermería, de un hospital de ESSALUD, Lima 2023

El estudio de investigación tuvo como objetivo, determinar como la ratio influye en la atención de usuarios geriátricos en los servicios de enfermería, de un hospital de ESSALUD Lima 2023. El tipo de estudio es básico, de enfoque cuantitativo y diseño no experimental, correlacional causal; la muestra estuvo integrada por 80 profesionales; como instrumento se utilizaron dos cuestionarios estructurados con trece ítems para la variable ratio y doce ítems para la variable atención al usuario geriátrico, fueron sometidos a validación por jueces expertos, llegando a alcanzar una confiabilidad de 0,897 y 0,836 de Alfa de Cronbach. Los resultados obtenidos se observan que el porcentaje de Nagelkerke para la variable ratio está sometida en un 44,3%, sobre la atención al usuario geriátrico, puesto que existe un Wald 27,465>4 (Punto de corte), también una significancia de p=0,000< α: 0,005, motivo para aceptar la hipótesis alterna y rechazar la hipótesis nula, es decir que la ratio de enfermería influye directa y significativamente sobre la atención del usuario geriátrico de un Hospital Essalud, 2023; En conclusión, Se logró determinar que la ratio de enfermería, influye sobre la atención del usuario geriátrico de un Hospital Essalud, 2023

Simulation of Laser Cooling and Trapping in Engineering Applications

An advanced computer code is undergoing development for numerically simulating laser cooling and trapping of large numbers of atoms. The code is expected to be useful in practical engineering applications and to contribute to understanding of the roles that light, atomic collisions, background pressure, and numbers of particles play in experiments using laser-cooled and -trapped atoms. The code is based on semiclassical theories of the forces exerted on atoms by magnetic and optical fields. Whereas computer codes developed previously for the same purpose account for only a few physical mechanisms, this code incorporates many more physical mechanisms (including atomic collisions, sub-Doppler cooling mechanisms, Stark and Zeeman energy shifts, gravitation, and evanescent-wave phenomena) that affect laser-matter interactions and the cooling of atoms to submillikelvin temperatures. Moreover, whereas the prior codes can simulate the interactions of at most a few atoms with a resonant light field, the number of atoms that can be included in a simulation by the present code is limited only by computer memory. Hence, the present code represents more nearly completely the complex physics involved when using laser-cooled and -trapped atoms in engineering applications. Another advantage that the code incorporates is the possibility to analyze the interaction between cold atoms of different atomic number. Some properties that cold atoms of different atomic species have, like cross sections and the particular excited states they can occupy when interacting with each other and light fields, play important roles not yet completely understood in the new experiments that are under way in laboratories worldwide to form ultracold molecules. Other research efforts use cold atoms as holders of quantum information, and more recent developments in cavity quantum electrodynamics also use ultracold atoms to explore and expand new information-technology ideas. These experiments give a hint on the wide range of applications and technology developments that can be tackled using cold atoms and light fields. From more precise atomic clocks and gravity sensors to the development of quantum computers, there will be a need to completely understand the whole ensemble of physical mechanisms that play a role in the development of such technologies. The code also permits the study of the dynamic and steady-state operations of technologies that use cold atoms. The physical characteristics of lasers and fields can be time-controlled to give a realistic simulation of the processes involved such that the design process can determine the best control features to use. It is expected that with the features incorporated into the code it will become a tool for the useful application of ultracold atoms in engineering applications. Currently, the software is being used for the analysis and understanding of simple experiments using cold atoms, and for the design of a modular compact source of cold atoms to be used in future research and development projects. The results so far indicate that the code is a useful design instrument that shows good agreement with experimental measurements (see figure), and a Windows-based user-friendly interface is also under development

Field Instrumentation and Analysis of the Tuttle Creek Bridge

Fatigue cracking has been an extensive problem for many steel bridges designed prior to the identification of fatigue-prone details. Distortion in bridges coupled with stress concentrations within bridge components can eventually lead to crack initiation. The Tuttle Creek Bridge, built in 1962, has developed fatigue cracks like many older steel bridges. The structure is a 5,350 ft. long, plate-girder bridge with two girders supporting a non-composite concrete deck. The majority of the cracks on the bridge are found in the upper web-gap region, which lies between the vertical connection stiffener and the upper flange. Cracks also have occurred in the transverse welds attaching the lateral gusset plates to the lower flange. Both these crack types are believed to be caused by differential deflection of the two girders. In 1986, the bridge was retrofitted to prevent further cracking. Cracking, however, continued after the 1986 retrofit. In 2000, the Kansas Department of Transportation retained the services of the University of Kansas to investigate the fatigue cracking. Finite element models were created to estimate the stresses in the upper web-gap regions in order to determine a proper repair plan. The recommended repair scheme was to positively attach the connection stiffener to the upper flange, which was also successfully performed in similar web-gap repairs. The University of Kansas also was retained to perform two load tests on the bridge to investigate the effectiveness of the repair. The first load test, which this report entails, examined the stresses within the fatigued regions prior to retrofit. A second test will be conducted after the repairs have been performed. Measurements taken during both tests will be compared to determine the fatigue improvement within the structure. Also, information gathered during the first test will also provide insight to improving the finite element models. This report includes information about the Tuttle Creek Bridge and a summary of its structural deficiencies. Details of the gage installation and load testing are provided. Stresses induced by the truck loadings are presented in addition to the inferences from the measurements taken

Severe Brain Injury, Disability, and the Law: Achieving Justice for a Marginalized Population

Thousands of persons with severe brain injury who are minimally conscious or locked in are wrongly treated as if they are unconscious. Such individuals are unable to advocate for themselves and are typically segregated from society in hospitals or nursing homes. As a result, they constitute a class of persons who often lack access to adequate medical care, rehabilitation, and assistive devices that could aid them in communication and recovery. While this problem is often approached from a medical or scientific point of view, here we frame it as a legal issue amenable to legal remedies. This Article comprehensively explores and analyzes sources of federal, state, and international human rights law that can be leveraged- both in traditional and novel ways-to improve the lives and protect the rights of persons with severe brain injury. We argue that state laws may be the most promising basis for legal action to ameliorate the clinical marginalization and societal neglect faced by persons with severe brain injury, and to promote their recovery and reintegration into their communities

Severe Brain Injury, Disability, and the Law: Achieving Justice for a Marginalized Population

Thousands of persons with severe brain injury who are minimally conscious or locked in are wrongly treated as if they are unconscious. Such individuals are unable to advocate for themselves and are typically segregated from society in hospitals or nursing homes. As a result, they constitute a class of persons who often lack access to adequate medical care, rehabilitation, and assistive devices that could aid them in communication and recovery. While this problem is often approached from a medical or scientific point of view, here we frame it as a legal issue amenable to legal remedies. This Article comprehensively explores and analyzes sources of federal, state, and international human rights law that can be leveraged- both in traditional and novel ways-to improve the lives and protect the rights of persons with severe brain injury. We argue that state laws may be the most promising basis for legal action to ameliorate the clinical marginalization and societal neglect faced by persons with severe brain injury, and to promote their recovery and reintegration into their communities

Industrial Clusters in England

Research trialling a big data approach to identifying industry clusters, with case studies from each of the sectors studied