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Student nurse perceptions of an innovative role to support clinical practices during a pandemic: A qualitative study.
No full textIntroductionDuring the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare systems needed to quickly identify personnel to provide symptom screening and PPE observations. Through an established academic-practice partnership, pre-licensure nursing students were able to fill this new Patient Services Aid role. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the students' experiences in this mutually beneficial innovative role.MethodsElectronic surveys and qualitative focus groups were used to evaluate the students' experiences.ResultsA total of 34 students were employed at the health system as PSAs. Focus groups (n = 16) analysis showed that, while the role was not a substitute for academic clinical experiences, they did improve the students' confidence in the clinical setting and helped teach necessary non-technical skills. Students appreciated the ability to network with multiple disciplines while working as PSAs.ConclusionsThis role was developed to assist with immediate COVID-19 needs; however, this model of using pre-licensure students in non-clinical roles can improve students' non-technical skills and confidence in the clinical setting. The success of the activity was due to the strong relationships between the School of Nursing and health system. Other schools of nursing could benefit from developing collaborative partnerships with local healthcare systems
American-Born “Confused” Desi?: An Exploration of Indian-American Biculturalism and Bilingualism
No full textOur feelings of social connectedness play a major role in our psychological wellbeing. For immigrants and ethnic minorities, cultural communities assist in developing positive social connections and social identities around ethnicity. Ethnic identity has rarely been studied in second-generation immigrants, who experience biculturalism due to internalizing two cultures from a young age. Even less research has been conducted on Indian-Americans, who are often grouped with other Asian-Americans, despite having extensive ethnolinguistic differences and numbering over four million people in the U.S. The current study aimed to explore the relationships between language proficiency, social connectedness, ethnic identity, bicultural identity integration, and psychological wellbeing in Indian-Americans using validated survey measures (Study 1). The findings revealed that only social connectedness was significantly predictive of psychological wellbeing overall. However, bicultural blendedness and belonging to one’s ethnic group were together significantly predictive of personal growth. Interestingly, Indian language proficiency was unrelated to other measures. Thus, the current study also aimed to explore how cultural experiences are communicated via language (Study 2). Indian-American bilinguals who were proficient in Hindi and English were prompted for cultural and emotional narratives, which were assessed for differences in linguistic structure and themes. The findings revealed that participants spontaneously changed the structure of their narratives based on the language in which it was told. For example, in Hindi, bilinguals used more descriptions and evaluations, but in English, they used more orientations. Hindi narratives also contained more intensifiers (e.g., “very”, “really”) and fewer mental state terms (e.g., “think”, “feel”). Qualitative analysis revealed common themes across narratives, such as action-based expressions of emotions (e.g. offerings of food as apologies) and conflict in reconciling Indian and American values (e.g. family vs. independence). It may be that Indian-American bilinguals process and remember things differently as a function of language. Furthermore, our findings suggest that Indian-American bilinguals may experience different specific benefits for psychological wellbeing as a result of being bicultural and/or bilingual. Future directions and implications for language and culture study in this population are discussed
Some Advances in Nonparametric Statistics
No full textNonparametric statistics is an important branch of statistics that utilize infinite dimensional modelsto achieve great flexibility. However, such flexibility often comes with difficulties in computations
and convergent properties. One approach is to study the natural patterns for one type of datasets
and summarize such patterns into mathematical assumptions that can potentially provide computational and theoretical benefits.
I carried out the above idea on three different problems. The first problem is the classification
trees for imbalanced datasets, where I formulate the regularity of shapes into surface-to-volumeratio and develop satisfactory theory and methodology using this ratio. The second problem is the
approximation of Gaussian process, where I observe the critical role of spatial decaying covariance
function in Gaussian process approximations and use such decaying properties to prove the approximation error for my proposed method. The last problem is the posterior contraction rates in
Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergence, where I am motivated by the dismatch between KL divergence
and Hellinger distance and develop a posterior contraction theory entirely based on KL divergence</p
Type-2 diabetes, pancreatic amylin and neuronal metabolic remodeling in Alzheimer's Disease.
No full textType-2 diabetes raises the risk for Alzheimer's disease (AD)-type dementia and the conversion from mild cognitive impairment to dementia, yet mechanisms connecting type-2 diabetes to AD remain largely unknown. Amylin, a pancreatic β-cell hormone co-secreted with insulin, participates in the central regulation of satiation, but also forms pancreatic amyloid in persons with type-2 diabetes and synergistically interacts with brain amyloid β (Aβ) pathology, in both sporadic and familial Alzheimer's disease (AD). Growing evidence from studies of tumor growth, together with early observations in skeletal muscle, indicate amylin as a potential trigger of cellular metabolic reprogramming. Because the blood, cerebrospinal fluid, and brain parenchyma in humans with AD have increased concentrations of amylin, amylin-mediated pathological processes in the brain may involve neuronal metabolic remodeling. We summarize recent progress in understanding the link between prediabetic hypersecretion of amylin and risk of neuronal metabolic remodeling and AD and suggest nutritional and medical effects of food constituents that might prevent and/or ameliorate amylin-mediated neuronal metabolic remodeling. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved
Oral pre-exposure prophylaxis uptake, adherence, and adverse events among South African men who have sex with men and transgender women.
No full textBackgroundHIV prevention programmes that include pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender women (TGW) in South Africa have not been widely implemented.ObjectivesThe authors examined oral PrEP uptake, adherence, and adverse events among HIV-uninfected MSM and TGW to inform intervention acceptability and feasibility.MethodIn 2015, MSM and TGW in two South African cities were offered a comprehensive package of HIV prevention services, including daily oral PrEP, and were followed for one year. Different models of PrEP delivery were used at each site. Adherence was measured using self-report and pill-count data and tenofovir-diphosphate (TFV-DP) concentrations.ResultsAmong 135 participants who were eligible for PrEP, 82 (61%) initiated PrEP, of whom 67 (82%) were on PrEP at study end. Participants were on PrEP for a median of 294 out of 314.5 possible days (93% protected days). The median time from PrEP initiation to discontinuation or study end was 305 days (interquartile range: 232-325 days). Across the follow-up time points, 57% - 72% of participants self-reported taking protective levels of PrEP and 59% - 74% were adherent to PrEP as indicated by pill counts. Fewer (≤ 18%) achieved protective TFV-DP concentrations of ≥ 700 fmol/punch in dried blood spots. Side effects, while typically mild, were the most commonly cited reason by participants for early PrEP discontinuation.ConclusionMany MSM and TGW initiated and maintained PrEP, demonstrating that PrEP can be successfully delivered to South African MSM and TGW in diverse programmatic contexts. Biologic adherence measures suggest MSM and TGW may experience challenges taking PrEP regularly. Counselling for coping with side effects and motivating daily pill taking is recommended to support South African MSM and TGW in achieving protection with PrEP
From Higher Aims to Hired Hands: The Social Transformation of American Business Schools and the Unfulfilled Promise of Management as a Profession
No full textThe Poisson–Boltzmann equation and the charge separation phenomenon at the silica-water interface: A holistic approach
No full textTask-informed Metrologies for Characterization and Optimization in Spectral CT
No full textThe purpose of this dissertation was to develop methods for characterization and optimization of spectral CT for clinical usage. This was done by focusing on the information content in spectral CT image datasets and how that information is understood within each image and between images. This purpose was carried out in three stages. First, conventional task-based metrologies were applied to photon-counting CT to assess the improvements offered by the technological advancement over energy-integrating detector CT systems for a series of specific clinical applications. Second, task-based metrologies were developed for spectral CT by focusing on the multi-dimensional nature of signal and information in multi-energy imaging. Third, the utility of the developed metrologies was demonstrated by application to questions of material characterization and decomposition.In part 1, a prototype photon-counting CT system was compared to clinical energy integrating CT for a range of clinical tasks. Using a multi-tiered image quality phantom, both systems were compared for performance for soft tissue, vascular, and high-resolution imaging. In another study, an image quality phantom and vials of iodine contrast were imaged with both systems to characterize reduced dose performance. Finally, a coronary plaque and stent phantom was imaged with both systems and evaluated with qualitative and quantitative methods for cardiac imaging tasks. Across the requirements for each clinical tasks, the benefits of photon-counting CT suggested comparable or superior performance compared to conventional energy integrating CT.
In part 2, two metrologies were developed by incorporating the multi-dimensional nature of information in spectral CT. The first metrology was an extension of the signal-to-noise ratio, a task generic conventional metric, into the multivariate domain. The multivariate signal-to-noise ratio characterized image quality within energy channels by including the conventional term and characterized the influence of channels on one another with a covariance weighted signal-to-noise ratio term. The second metrology was a method to measure the overlap between two signals of interest which were defined over multiple energy levels. The separability index provided a task specific method to characterize the separability of signals in spectral CT image datasets. Both metrologies provided additional characterization of spectral CT performance that was not possible with conventional image quality metrics.
In part 3, the two metrologies were applied to answer questions regarding material characterization and material decomposition within spectral CT using simulated data. A series of materials, including candidate contrast agents and nanomaterials, were imaged across a range of energy threshold measures. The relationship between signal and separability with energy threshold was characterized between materials. Another dataset containing iodine and gadolinium was generated across a range of image formation parameters. Both metrologies were applied to this dataset and compared to material decomposition performance across the dataspace. Finally, a deep learning approach to material decomposition was trained and validated using simulated data. The algorithm showed excellent performance for quantification of iodine and gadolinium. Both metrologies were shown to be useful to characterize the relationship between image formation factors and material signal properties and how those considerations can shape development of material decomposition algorithms.
In conclusion, this dissertation provides task-informed metrologies that can be used for characterization, evaluation, and optimization of spectral CT systems for signal dependent processing tasks including material identification and quantification.
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Recruitment through Rule Breaking: Establishing Social Ties with Gang Members
No full textMany contemporary violence prevention programs direct concentrated law enforcement, social service, or educational attention toward individuals engaged in violence, and yet, this population is often avoiding this precise attention. Drawing on 18 months of ethnographic data, this case study asks: How do street outreach workers form social ties with active gang members? This study identifies three key mechanisms of social tie formation that break organizational rules, but account for how new social relations are formed with street savvy gang youth: (1) Network Targeting: identifying, entering, and extending services to the package of preexisting social ties beyond the eligible gang member; (2) Gift Giving: navigating those social ties when transferring out of pocket gifts to the target to elicit trust and demonstrate genuine investment; and (3) Transportation Brokerage: expanding clients’ social networks by literally driving them to prosocial influences and activities. Discussion of the value and limitations of each mechanism offers insights to urban sociologists interested in the origins of social ties in disadvantaged communities, as well as policymakers designing social interventions for hard to reach populations.</jats:p
