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Crush the Monster : Homosexuality and Moral Panic in 1950s Idaho
Get PDFOn October 31, 1955, three men were arrested and accused of performing homosexual acts in the quiet, suburban community of Boise, Idaho. The arrests set off a sweeping investigation of Boise\u27s widespread homosexual underground that made national news and resulted in more than one thousand police interrogations and the conviction of fifteen homosexual Boiseans. Though Boise\u27s moral panic and the ensuing investigation are among the largest of the sex panics of the 1950s, the city\u27s 1955 homosexuality scandal has attracted relatively little scholarly attention. An in-depth analysis of the social, economic, and political forces that combined to produce hysteria in the community is necessary to properly situate the scandal\u27s victims in their historical context. Decades of public discourse that gradually supplanted pre-war notions of same-sex sexuality with the medicalized, nefarious figure of the homosexual primed Boise\u27s residents for a negative response to homosexuality in the city. Powerful post-World War II cultural imperatives concerning suburbanization and reproduction further contributed to Boise\u27s panic once news broke of the city\u27s ongoing homosexuality investigation. Additionally, a variety of factors unique to Boise, such as local economic concerns and Mormon advocacy groups, ensured the scandal\u27s longevity and massive scope. These overlapping historical forces and their role in Boise, Idaho\u27s 1955 sex scandal provide crucial insight into early American understandings of homosexuality and homophobia
Identifying Forms of After-Hours Information Communication Technology Use and Their Role in Psychological Detachment: an Episodic Approach
Get PDFEmployees increasingly conduct work outside of traditional work hours via information communication technologies (ICTs). There is a need to understand how after-hours ICT use relates to well-being, given that such connectivity has become unavoidable. We implement an episodic, event-contingent design to evaluate the association between different ICT media (i.e., e-mail, phone call, chat app, short message service) and the within-person outcomes of psychological detachment as partially mediated by task productivity. A daily diary survey was collected over three consecutive workdays to capture after-hours ICT use. Daily surveys were completed by 498 individuals, with a total of 1494 episodes being captured of after-hours work ICT engagement. Our results indicate that while engagement with any form of ICT after hours reduces psychological detachment, email and chat apps are associated with the lowest levels of psychological detachment. Moreover, whereas the use of asynchronous ICT has positive main effects on episode-related task productivity, the use of synchronous ICT (e.g., phone) only enhances episode-related task productivity when there are high organizational expectations for employees\u27 responsiveness after hours
Multimorbidity and Associated Informal Care Receiving Characteristics for US Older Adults: a Latent Class Analysis
Get PDFOlder adults with varying patterns of multimorbidity may require distinct types of care and rely on informal caregiving to meet their care needs. This study aims to identify groups of older adults with distinct, empirically-determined multimorbidity patterns and compare characteristics of informal care received among estimated classes. Methods Data are from the 2011 National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS). Ten chronic conditions were included to estimate multimorbidity patterns among 7532 individuals using latent class analysis. Multinomial logistic regression model was estimated to examine the association between sociodemographic characteristics, health status and lifestyle variables, care-receiving characteristics and latent class membership. Results A four-class solution identified the following multimorbidity groups: some somatic conditions with moderate cognitive impairment (30%), cardiometabolic (25%), musculoskeletal (24%), and multisystem (21%). Compared with those who reported receiving no help, care recipients who received help with household activities only (OR = 1.44, 95% CI 1.05–1.98), mobility but not self-care (OR = 1.63, 95% CI 1.05–2.53), or self-care but not mobility (OR = 2.07, 95% CI 1.29–3.31) had greater likelihood of being in the multisystem group versus the some-somatic group. Having more caregivers was associated with higher odds of being in the multisystem group compared with the some-somatic group (OR = 1.09, 95% CI 1.00-1.18), whereas receiving help from paid helpers was associated with lower odds of being in the multisystem group (OR = 0.36, 95% CI 0.19–0.77). Conclusions Results highlighted different care needs among persons with distinct combinations of multimorbidity, in particular the wide range of informal needs among older adults with multisystem multimorbidity. Policies and interventions should recognize the differential care needs associated with multimorbidity patterns to better provide person-centered care
Initial Look at Life-Long Learning Assessment in Engineering Education
No full textTeaching students to become life-long learners is generally taken to be one of the major outcomes of any university-level education. This is usually reflected in university-level mission or similarly labeled statements. In engineering education in the US this is formalized in the latest ABET update of their student outcomes. Life-long learning is specifically listed as outcome “7. an ability to acquire and apply new knowledge as needed, using appropriate learning strategies.” This has meant that any electrical, computer, or other engineering programs under ABET accreditation now must demonstrate that students are attaining this outcome. However, assessment tools and techniques for this outcome are not well developed. We present several examples for both direct and indirect assessments as well as our experiences in their implementation. Presented methods and instruments can be applied in different curricular settings and courses
Urgent Care Program Influences on an Integrated Health Care System
No full textThe Veterans Health Administration (VHA) is the most extensive integrated health care delivery system in the world with over 20,000 physicians, 1,600 facilities, and more than 400,000 employees, caring for nine million veterans. The health care provided covers traditional outpatient and hospital-based services such as primary care, surgery, critical care, mental health, orthopedics, pharmacy, radiology, and physical therapy. Most VHA facilities offer additional medical and surgical specialties such as audiology, speech pathology, dermatology, dental, geriatrics, urology, oncology, podiatry, prosthetics, and vision care. Some of the more extensive VHA facilities offer advanced health care services, such as organ transplants and plastic surgery (VA History, 2017).
VHA is a large federal organization governed by public policy. Over the past decade, VHA\u27s community care program has experienced a rapid pace of policy change starting with the passing of Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act (VACAA) in 2014, the Veterans Choice Program Extension and Improvement Act in 2017, and the Maintaining Internal Systems and Strengthening Integrated Outside Networks (MISSION) Act in 2018.
Each of these pieces of legislations had the goal of solving a public problem. In this context, a public problem is a usually undesirable situation that, according to people or interest groups, can be alleviated by government action. Over the past decade, VHA has experienced a continuous cycle of the public policy-making process and it was timely to conduct research to determine if some requirements of the MISSION Act were achieving their intended impacts.
One requirement of the MISSION Act was to implement a new community based urgent care (UC) program to increase health care access. The focus of this research was to better understand how these new community based UC locations may be influencing an integrated health care system. In this explanatory mixed method study a descriptive analysis, longitudinal primary care analysis, non-urgent Emergency Room (ER) analysis, and a medical records analysis were conducted. Semi-structured interviews with VHA senior leaders were then completed, which then informed VHA operational and policy recommendations.
The descriptive analysis found the UC program consistently grew with VHA recently recording over 48,000 UC visits per month. Overall, there was substantial uptake of the UC program across all levels of VHA\u27s health care system. It was found women use the UC program more often than men, those aged 25-34 use the program more often than other age groups, and those that live in rural locations use the program more than urban and highly rural veterans. Furthermore, most care is delivered at UC facilities as opposed to Walk-in Care (WiC) or retail care locations, and the largest CPT grouping was for New Patient Office or Other Outpatient Services.
The longitudinal primary care analysis found longitudinal primary care was not being delivered through VHA\u27s UC program and that most UC medical records were not making it back into VHA\u27s electronic health record (32%). The pre/post ER analysis found there were decreases in overall ER utilization with implementation of the UC program and this was found across all ER acuity levels. The largest ER reduction (33%) was found in the ESI Level 5 (non-urgent) category.
The semi-structured interviews revealed that VHA leaders perceived challenges with VHA\u27s dual role of operating as a health care provider and a health care purchaser, expressed concerns around the UC program\u27s impact on existing VHA care teams, and described VHA as spending inadequate time in each of the eight public policy-making steps. Overall, this research found that, utilizing the IOM Systems Framework and the concept of health care service coproduction, there are operational and policy improvements VHA should consider for their community based UC program
Yang-Baxter Equations
Get PDFMultiple equations in math, physics, quantum information, and elsewhere are referred to as the Yang-Baxter equation, in spite of being a broad family of equations. Most of the equations are nonlinear matrix equations, where the unknown variable is a matrix. This is the case for the so called braided, algebraic, and generalized forms of the equation, which are the primary focus of this dissertation. Finding solutions to the various forms of these equations has been the subject of much research. The equations in all their forms are largely considered intractable in high dimensions, and only in dimension 2 have the solutions been fully classified.
We begin with an introduction to quantum computation, with a focus on the topological model and its connection to the braid group. Next, we introduce the braided, algebraic, and generalized forms of the Yang-Baxter equation. We provide a full classification of diagonal solutions to each form. In particular, we show that any diagonal matrix is a solution to the algebraic form in any dimension, and each instance of the braided and generalized forms only have diagonal solutions that are scalar multiples of the identity. We exploit the relationship between the algebraic and braided forms to construct a solution in any dimension that is applicable to topological quantum computation as a universal gate. The generalized form of the equation is parameterized by three natural numbers, (d,m,l), and we show that the only invertible solutions when l ≥ m are scalar multiples of the identity. We completely classify all solutions arising from an X-shaped ansatz for five different choices of (d,m,l), and provide a complete classification of X-shaped solutions to every odd dimensional braided equation, where there are no X-shaped solutions in any dimension. We fully classify permutation solutions to each instance of the braided and algebraic equations that can be written as a product of 3 or fewer transpositions. We show that the problem of classifying all invertible upper triangular solutions to the 4-dimensional algebraic Yang-Baxter equation can be split into 48 cases, and fully classify one of the cases
The Nexus Between Revenue Decentralization Reforms and Economic Growth
Get PDFRevenue decentralization represents a framework that facilitates enhanced fiscal autonomy for subnational governments, thereby enabling the tailoring of services to meet local needs and potentially fostering economic growth. In Kenya, the ratification of the 2010 constitutional formalized novel revenue frameworks aimed at supporting the operations, management, and sustainability of devolved county governments. However, there remains a paucity of empirical analysis examining the relationship between the revenue decentralization reforms and county-level economic growth. We begin by identifying the main sources of county revenues within the decentralization frameworks, then investigate the dynamic interrelation with county economic growth. Through panel vector autoregression estimation techniques, our analysis reveals a positive and statistically significant association between own-source revenue and conditional grants with county-level economic growth. We discuss the implications of our findings and call for policymakers to reassess the fiscal instruments with the aim of strengthening the roles and responsibilities of counties
Multilevel Well Modeling in Aggregation-Based Nonlinear Multigrid for Multiphase Flow in Porous Media
No full textA full approximation scheme (FAS) nonlinear multigrid solver for two-phase flow and transport problems driven by wells with multiple perforations is developed. It is an extension to our previous work on FAS solvers for diffusion and transport problems. The solver is applicable to discrete problems defined on unstructured grids as the coarsening algorithm is aggregation-based and algebraic. To construct coarse basis that can better capture the radial flow near wells, coarse grids in which perforated well cells are not near the coarse-element interface are desired. This is achieved by an aggregation algorithm proposed in this paper that makes use of the location of well cells in the cell-connectivity graph. Numerical examples in which the FAS solver is compared against Newton\u27s method on benchmark problems are given. In particular, for a refined version of the SAIGUP model, the FAS solver is at least 35% faster than Newton\u27s method for time steps with a CFL number greater than 10
Looking at the Past to Change the Future: Showcasing Featured Collections, Building Communities, and Co-creating
Get PDFAcademic libraries have the opportunity and the responsibility to promote and advance content that creates transformative and iterative learning opportunities. To that end, and in an effort to build communities and facilitate co-creation, Portland State University showcases three main Featured Collections in our open access repository, PDXScholar: Climate Justice, COVID-19, and Racial and Gender Equity, with a fourth pilot collection—Student Work: An Open Showcase of Outstanding Student-Created Research & Creative Work—under development. The collections include a broad range of audiovisual materials, such as podcasts and webinar series, as well as sustainability and equity work, student-created content, and numerous future-focused multidisciplinary counter stories. By showcasing interdisciplinary projects and minority faculty scholarship, we provide a platform that helps elucidate complex problems like climate change, public health challenges, systemic racism, and student retention from a range of perspectives. Our Featured Collections program provides an example of how institutional repositories might be reorganized to spark ideas, ignite discoveries, and accelerate change.
Some of the content was presented at the first inaugural Innovation Summit: Libraries & Innovative Learning Environments, held at Cal Poly Humboldt September 14, 2023. The presentation of the same title appears below as an additional file
The Association of Vitamin D Levels and Dental Caries in Older Adults: A Cross-Sectional Study.
Get PDFMost research examining vitamin D and dental caries focuses on children and younger adults. This study investigated the association between vitamin D levels and dental caries in older adults using data from the United States National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 2011 to 2016