Generation of Generalized-Gauss Laser Beams via a Spatial Light Modulator

Generalized-Gauss laser beams can be described as a continuous transition between the well-known Hermite-Gauss (HG) and Laguerre-Gauss (LG) laser beams. A spatial light modulator (SLM) was made by removing the liquid crystal display (LCD) from an overhead projector. The homemade SLM, encoded with a computer-generated hologram, was then used to convert a fundamental Gaussian beam from a small frame Helium-Neon (HeNe) laser into several different orders of Generalized-Gauss (GG) beams. The experimentally generated GG beam profiles matched the theoretically expected profiles

Young Children’s Understanding of Beliefs About Moral and Conventional Rule Violations

Children of ages 3–5 (N = 62) were assessed by using standard theory-of-mind tasks and unusual belief tasks related to false information and beliefs endorsing violations of moral (welfare and fairness) and social conventional (school rules) domains. Younger children (under 5 years) did not accurately attribute unusual factual beliefs or beliefs endorsing rule violations whether or not they passed the standard theory-of-mind tasks. Only participants over age 5 performed above chance in attributions of unusual beliefs. Domain differences indicated that beliefs endorsing harm were often most difficult for children, perhaps because the beliefs were the least plausible and most obligatory

Response of follicular dendritic cell sarcoma to gemcitabine and docetaxel: report of two cases and literature review

Follicular dendritic cell sarcoma is a rare malignancy arising from follicular dendritic cells, which form a meshwork within lymphoid follicles. Traditional treatment of metastatic disease with CHOP chemotherapy, the most commonly used regimen for lymphoid malignancies, has met with limited success. I report herein two cases of follicular dendritic cell sarcoma metastatic to the liver treated with the combination of gemcitabine and docetaxel showing unprecedented response in this disease. These observations coupled with recent evidence of a mesenchymal origin of follicular dendritic cells support the premise that this malignancy should be treated similar to other adult soft tissue sarcomas

Tribological Studies on Scuffing Due to the Influence of Carbon Dioxide Used as a Refrigerant in Compressors

The refrigeration and air conditioning industry has expressed a great interest in the use of carbon dioxide (CO2) as a refrigerant. CO2 is anticipated to replace HFC refrigerants, which are known to have a negative effect on the environment. The reason behind the interest in CO2 is the fact that it is a natural refrigerant, thus environmentally acceptable. Of course, such a replacement raises concerns regarding design criteria and performance due to the different thermodynamic properties of CO2 and the very different range of pressures required for the CO2 refrigeration cycle. So far, work related to CO2 has been done from a thermodynamics point of view and researchers have made significant progress developing automotive and portable air-conditioning systems that use the environmentally friendly carbon dioxide as a refrigerant. The purpose of this work is to develop an understanding of how CO2 plays a role from a tribology standpoint. More specifically, the goal of this work is to gain an understanding on how CO2 influences friction, lubrication, wear and scuffing of tribological pairs used in compressors. Work in the area of tribology related to CO2 is very limited. Preliminary work by Cusano and coworkers showed that consistent data for tests using CO2 could not be acquired nor could a satisfactory explanation be offered for the inconsistency. Their results triggered the initiation of the work presented here. In this first attempt to understand the tribological behavior of CO2 several problems were encountered. During this work we noted that its behavior, unlike conventional refrigerants, could not always be predicted. We believe that this can be attributed to the thermodynamic properties of CO2, which cannot be ignored when studying its tribological behavior. Thermodynamic Properties such as miscibility are very important when tribological testing is performed. A limiting factor with our tester was that it was not designed for CO2 testing, but for other conventional refrigerants and therefore made previously developed testing protocols non-applicable with CO2. Through a different approach and some modifications to our tester we were able to establish a protocol for testing under the presence of CO2. CO2 was then compared to R134a and the experimental results showed that it performs equally well.Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Project 13

Paired-angle-rotation scanning optical coherence tomography forward-imaging probe

We report a novel forward-imaging optical coherence tomography (OCT), needle-probe paired-angle-rotation scanning OCT (PARS-OCT) probe. The probe uses two rotating angled gradient-index lenses to scan the output OCT probe beam over a wide angular arc (∼19° half-angle) of the region forward of the probe. Among other advantages, this probe design is readily amenable to miniaturization and is capable of a variety of scan modes, including volumetric scans. To demonstrate the advantages of the probe design, we have constructed a prototype probe with an outer diameter of 1.65 mm and employed it to acquire four OCT images, with a 45° angle between adjacent images, of the gill structure of a Xenopus laevis tadpole. The system sensitivity was measured to be 93 dB by using the prototype probe with an illumination power of 450 μW on the sample. Moreover, the axial and the lateral resolutions of the probe are 9.3 and 10.3-12.5 μm, respectively

When should we stop mammography screening for breast cancer in elderly women?

There is insufficient evidence to recommend for or against routine screening mammography beyond the age of 69 years. The best candidates to stop screening are elderly women who have significant comorbidities, poor functional status, low bone mineral density (BMD), little interest in preventive care, or an unwillingness to accept the potential harm of screening. (Grade of Recommendation: C, based on retrospective cohort studies.

Quality of care and health professional burnout: narrative literature review.

PURPOSE: Quality of care and health professional burnout are important issues in their own right, however, relatively few studies have examined both. The purpose of this paper is to explore quality of care and health professional burnout in hospital settings. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: The paper is a narrative literature review of quality of care and health professional burnout in hospital settings published in peer-reviewed journals between January 2000 and March 2013. Papers were identified via a search of PsychInfo, PubMed, Embase and CINNAHL electronic databases. In total, 30 papers which measured and/or discussed both quality of care and health professional burnout were identified. FINDINGS: The paper provides insight into the key health workforce-planning issues, specifically staffing levels and workloads, which impact upon health professional burnout and quality of care. The evidence from the review literature suggests that health professionals face heavier and increasingly complex workloads, even when staffing levels and/or patient-staff ratios remain unchanged. ORIGINALITY/VALUE: The narrative literature review suggests that weak retention rates, high turnover, heavy workloads, low staffing levels and/or staffing shortages conspire to create a difficult working environment for health professionals, one in which they may struggle to provide high-quality care and which may also contribute to health professional burnout. The review demonstrates that health workforce planning concerns, such as these, impact on health professional burnout and on the ability of health professionals to deliver quality care. The review also demonstrates that most of the published papers published between 2000 and 2013 addressing health professional burnout and quality of care were nursing focused

A 10-year (2000-2010) systematic review of interventions to improve quality of care in hospitals.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Against a backdrop of rising healthcare costs, variability in care provision and an increased emphasis on patient satisfaction, the need for effective interventions to improve quality of care has come to the fore. This is the first ten year (2000--2010) systematic review of interventions which sought to improve quality of care in a hospital setting. This review moves beyond a broad assessment of outcome significance levels and makes recommendations for future effective and accessible interventions. METHODS: Two researchers independently screened a total of 13,195 English language articles from the databases PsychInfo, Medline, PubMed, EmBase and CinNahl. There were 120 potentially relevant full text articles examined and 20 of those articles met the inclusion criteria. RESULTS: Included studies were heterogeneous in terms of approach and scientific rigour and varied in scope from small scale improvements for specific patient groups to large scale quality improvement programmes across multiple settings. Interventions were broadly categorised as either technical (n = 11) or interpersonal (n = 9). Technical interventions were in the main implemented by physicians and concentrated on improving care for patients with heart disease or pneumonia. Interpersonal interventions focused on patient satisfaction and tended to be implemented by nursing staff. Technical interventions had a tendency to achieve more substantial improvements in quality of care. CONCLUSIONS: The rigorous application of inclusion criteria to studies established that despite the very large volume of literature on quality of care improvements, there is a paucity of hospital interventions with a theoretically based design or implementation. The screening process established that intervention studies to date have largely failed to identify their position along the quality of care spectrum. It is suggested that this lack of theoretical grounding may partly explain the minimal transfer of health research to date into policy. It is recommended that future interventions are established within a theoretical framework and that selected quality of care outcomes are assessed using this framework. Future interventions to improve quality of care will be most effective when they use a collaborative approach, involve multidisciplinary teams, utilise available resources, involve physicians and recognise the unique requirements of each patient group

Forbidden Fruit: Sexual Victimization of Migrant Workers in America\u27s Farmlands

There is a place in the booming agricultural fields of America\u27s farmlands that carries a terrible history. The fields de calzons, or fields of panties, are where female farmworkers, mostly migrant employees residing in the United States for the harvest, are systematically violated by foremen, colleagues, and other superiors. There are 1.4 million crop workers in the United States. Twenty-four percent of these workers are estimated to be female. A recent report suggests that as many as eighty percent of female farmworkers surveyed are regularly exposed to sexual harassment, assault, and trauma, ranging from continuous sexual advances over years of seasonal work to isolated, violent attacks. This note discusses the ways Title VII fails female farmworkers; it suggests a plan of action to implement stronger mechanisms protecting women and girls who face sexual violence in America\u27s farmlands and fields and grounds that call for broader federal protection in a proposed amendment to the legislation meant to safeguard this group of laborers, the Migrant and Seasonal Workers Protection Act ( AWPA )