3,169 research outputs found
A survey of practices, procedures, and time allotments devoted to the National Lunch Program by the principals, teachers, and lunchroom workers of the elementary public schools of Essex County
Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit
Integrating Community-Based Interventions to Reverse the Convergent TB/HIV Epidemics in Rural South Africa.
The WHO recommends integrating interventions to address the devastating TB/HIV co-epidemics in South Africa, yet integration has been poorly implemented and TB/HIV control efforts need strengthening. Identifying infected individuals is particularly difficult in rural settings. We used mathematical modeling to predict the impact of community-based, integrated TB/HIV case finding and additional control strategies on South Africa's TB/HIV epidemics. We developed a model incorporating TB and HIV transmission to evaluate the effectiveness of integrating TB and HIV interventions in rural South Africa over 10 years. We modeled the impact of a novel screening program that integrates case finding for TB and HIV in the community, comparing it to status quo and recommended TB/HIV control strategies, including GeneXpert, MDR-TB treatment decentralization, improved first-line TB treatment cure rate, isoniazid preventive therapy, and expanded ART. Combining recommended interventions averted 27% of expected TB cases (95% CI 18-40%) 18% HIV (95% CI 13-24%), 60% MDR-TB (95% CI 34-83%), 69% XDR-TB (95% CI 34-90%), and 16% TB/HIV deaths (95% CI 12-29). Supplementing these interventions with annual community-based TB/HIV case finding averted a further 17% of TB cases (44% total; 95% CI 31-56%), 5% HIV (23% total; 95% CI 17-29%), 8% MDR-TB (68% total; 95% CI 40-88%), 4% XDR-TB (73% total; 95% CI 38-91%), and 8% TB/HIV deaths (24% total; 95% CI 16-39%). In addition to increasing screening frequency, we found that improving TB symptom questionnaire sensitivity, second-line TB treatment delays, default before initiating TB treatment or ART, and second-line TB drug efficacy were significantly associated with even greater reductions in TB and HIV cases. TB/HIV epidemics in South Africa were most effectively curtailed by simultaneously implementing interventions that integrated community-based TB/HIV control strategies and targeted drug-resistant TB. Strengthening existing TB and HIV treatment programs is needed to further reduce disease incidence
Embodying self-compassion within virtual reality and its effects on patients with depression
Background: Self-criticism is a ubiquitous feature of psychopathology and can be combatted by increasing levels of self-compassion. However, some patients are resistant to self-compassion.
Aims: To investigate whether the effects of self-identification with virtual bodies within immersive virtual reality could be exploited to increase self-compassion in patients with depression.
Method: We developed an 8-minute scenario in which 15 patients practised delivering compassion in one virtual body and then experienced receiving it from themselves in another virtual body.
Results: In an open trial, three repetitions of this scenario led to significant reductions in depression severity and self-criticism, as well as to a significant increase in self-compassion, from baseline to 4-week follow-up. Four patients showed clinically significant improvement.
Conclusions: The results indicate that interventions using immersive virtual reality may have considerable clinical potential and that further development of these methods preparatory to a controlled trial is now warranted
Commercial users panel
The discussions of motives and requirements for telerobotics application demonstrated that, in many cases, lack of progress was a result not of limited opportunities but of inadequate mechanisms and resources for promoting opportunities. Support for this conclusion came from Telerobotics, Inc., one of the few companies devoted primarily to telerobot systems. They have produced units for such diverse applications as nuclear fusion research, particle accelerators, cryogenics, firefighting, marine biology/undersea systems and nuclear mobile robotics. Mr. Flatau offered evidence that telerobotics research is only rarely supported by the private sector and that it often presents a difficult market. Questions on the mechanisms contained within the NASA technology transfer process for promoting commercial opportunities were fielded by Ray Gilbert and Tom Walters. A few points deserve emphasis: (1) NASA/industry technology transfer occurs in both directions and NASA recognizes the opportunity to learn a great deal from industry in the fields of automation and robotics; (2) promotion of technology transfer projects takes a demand side approach, with requests to industry for specific problem identification. NASA then proposes possible solutions; and (3) comittment ofmotivated and technically qualified people on each end of a technology transfer is essential
“Acting the part of an illiterate savage”: James Kelman and the question of postcolonial masculinity
Quantum spin pumping mediated by magnon
We theoretically propose quantum spin pumping mediated by magnons, under a
time-dependent transverse magnetic field, at the interface between a
ferromagnetic insulator and a non-magnetic metal. The generation of a spin
current under a thermal equilibrium condition is discussed by calculating the
spin transfer torque, which breaks the spin conservation law for conduction
electrons and operates the coherent magnon state. Localized spins lose spin
angular momentum by emitting magnons and conduction electrons flip from down to
up by absorbing the momentum. The spin transfer torque has a resonance
structure as a function of the angular frequency of the applied transverse
field. This fact is useful to enhance the spin pumping effect induced by
quantum fluctuations. We also discuss the distinction between our quantum spin
pumping theory and the one proposed by Tserkovnyak et al.Comment: 27 pages, 2 figures. v2; the detail of the calculation has been added
in Appendix. The distinction from the spin pumping theory proposed by
Tserkovnyak et al. has been clarified in section 5. v3; typos correcte
Recommended from our members
Fecal microbiota transplant rescues mice from human pathogen mediated sepsis by restoring systemic immunity.
Death due to sepsis remains a persistent threat to critically ill patients confined to the intensive care unit and is characterized by colonization with multi-drug-resistant healthcare-associated pathogens. Here we report that sepsis in mice caused by a defined four-member pathogen community isolated from a patient with lethal sepsis is associated with the systemic suppression of key elements of the host transcriptome required for pathogen clearance and decreased butyrate expression. More specifically, these pathogens directly suppress interferon regulatory factor 3. Fecal microbiota transplant (FMT) reverses the course of otherwise lethal sepsis by enhancing pathogen clearance via the restoration of host immunity in an interferon regulatory factor 3-dependent manner. This protective effect is linked to the expansion of butyrate-producing Bacteroidetes. Taken together these results suggest that fecal microbiota transplantation may be a treatment option in sepsis associated with immunosuppression
Beam Commissioning of the SPS-to-LHC Transfer Line TI 2
The transfer line for the LHC Ring 1 was successfully commissioned with beam in the autumn of 2007. After extraction from the SPS accelerator and about 2.7 km of new transfer line, the beam arrived at the temporarily installed beam dump, about 50 m before the start of the LHC tunnel, without the need of any beam threading. This paper gives an overview of the hardware commissioning period and the actual beam tests carried out. It summarises the results of the beam test optics measurements and the performance of the installed hardware
Modeling, Simulation, And Closed-Loop Control Of An Anesthesia Delivery System (Automatic Control).
- …
