5 research outputs found
Understanding the emergence of social protocols on MySpace: impact and its ramifications
Full text linkOver the recent years, MySpace has been vital to fostering the growth of independent musicians’ followings and have played critical roles in helping mainstream artists maintain fan communities. The popularity of MySpace has been accompanied by the establishment of social protocols which allow musicians to network with one another in an efficient and successful way. These protocols have inspired the publication of various books (such as «MySpace Music Profit Monster!: Proven Online Marketing Strategies!» by Nicky Kalliongis devoted to providing tips and strategies for musicians. While some of these protocols pertain to being savvy with the technological aspect of MySpace, other protocols are directly related to learning a particular manner to network on MySpace. Furthermore, these practices are considered a serious work as they require a lot of time and networking skills to achieve a certain level of success, i.e. increasing the number of friends on one’s network. Thus, this article examines the emerging social protocols on MySpace as a form of affective and immaterial labor. The author argues that the implementation of various tips as provided by MySpace expert will possibly have a regressive effect on musicians’ social networking practices as these could become a standardized and repetitive practice. As a whole, this article traces the evolution of MySpace, especially in regards to the decreasing popularity of the site as a current trend
Increasing Awareness and Referral Rates of Palliative Care for Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT) Inpatients
No full textPOSTE
Increasing Awareness and Consult Rates of Palliative Care for Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT) Patients
No full textBone marrow transplant (BMT) patients often experience complex, high-burden symptoms, including pain, fatigue, and emotional distress, which can significantly impact their quality of life. Palliative care, provided by Supportive Oncology Services (SOS), is specialized medical care that focuses on improving symptom management, enhancing patient and family support, and facilitating goals-of-care discussions alongside curative treatments. Despite its well-documented benefits in oncology, BMT patients receive palliative care at significantly lower rates than those with solid tumors, often due to provider misconceptions that it is only for end-of-life care. Enhancing BMT provider awareness of SOS and its role in comprehensive patient management is essential to ensuring timely and appropriate consults, improving patient outcomes, reducing unnecessary suffering, and fostering better communication between patients, families, and their care teams. Local Problem: Before the intervention, registered nurses (RNs) and advanced practice clinicians (APCs) demonstrated limited awareness and confidence in initiating SOS consults and recognizing patients who could benefit from SOS involvement. Additionally, there was minimal engagement from physicians and challenges in implementing an IT-driven trigger tool further complicated comprehensive screening efforts. Guided by the PDSA cycle and the Johns Hopkins Evidence-Based Practice Model, the project used an iterative process to improve awareness of SOS and increase consults. A pre-and post intervention survey design was utilized to assess changes in RN/APC awareness, confidence, and consult behaviors related to SOS. The study measured outcomes, including the rate of initiating palliative care consults, the confidence in identifying suitable patients for SOS consults, and the overall belief in the benefits of enhanced SOS involvement. Interventions: A structured education session focusing on the role of SOS in managing BMT patients across various stages of disease was developed and delivered to RNs/APCs. Although an IT-driven trigger tool was planned to automate screening and trigger consults, its deployment was delayed due to interdepartmental and IT-related challenges. The education session was designed to empower frontline providers with the knowledge and skills to integrate SOS involvement more effectively into their practice. Post-intervention survey results indicated a 16.4% increase in the RN/APC self-reported initiation of SOS consults, a 19.8% increase in confidence in recognizing patients who might benefit from SOS consults, and a 2.5% increase in the belief that patients would benefit from enhanced SOS involvement. These improvements highlight the positive impact of the educational intervention on RN/APC practices. However, the project faced challenges, including the non-implementation of the IT tool and limited physician engagement, which suggests that further refinement and targeted strategies are necessary to achieve broader implementation. The structured education session enhanced RN/APC awareness and confidence in utilizing SOS services for BMT patient care, leading to measurable improvement in consult behaviors. While the intervention shows promise in improving patient management, addressing IT integration challenges and increasing physician engagement will be critical for sustainable impact and broader applicability. Future initiatives should focus on these areas to optimize provider workflows and extend the benefits of the intervention across diverse clinical settings
Theoretical and Computational Study of the Role of Hyperconjugation in Chemical Systems
No full textThe author has granted permission for their work to be available to the general public.Orbital interactions, including hyperconjugation (HC), have been used to great extent to explain or support structural and conformational phenomena in organic molecules. In many instances, these interactions can be quantified and further understood using computational methods. With hyperconjugation, experimental evaluation is complicated by the difficulty of isolating hyperconjugative effects from other contributing factors such as steric, normal conjugation and resonance. In this dissertation, we describe the role played by hyperconjugation in stabilizing several organic molecules and ions through computational means. To address this goal, three different approaches were pursued. In the first approach, an analysis of HC in benzene versus benzenium and toluene versus toluenium was evaluated by examining bong lengths, dipole moments, and other molecular properties using self-consistent field (SCF), coupled-cluster theory (CCSD(T)), and configuration interaction (CISD) calculations, as well as density functional theory (DFT). The different properties examined demonstrate that HC is a major contributor to the stability in the benzenium and toluenium molecules. In the second approach, the impact of HC on the stability of butenolide molecules was studied. Here, the results of DFT calculations on αbutenolide and β-butenolide showed that the preference for α-butenolide is due to the presence of stronger HC in the α -isomer. In the third approach, quantum mechanical methods for the calibration of HC were developed that reveal the characteristic behavior of HC in substituent-aromatic carbonium ion molecules are a combination of Mulliken overlap populations, electric field gradients, and the delocalized dipole polarizabilities.Chemistr
A roadmap for the functional annotation of protein families: a community perspective
Full text linkOver the last 25 years, biology has entered the genomic era and is becoming a science of 'big data'. Most interpretations of genomic analyses rely on accurate functional annotations of the proteins encoded by more than 500 000 genomes sequenced to date. By different estimates, only half the predicted sequenced proteins carry an accurate functional annotation, and this percentage varies drastically between different organismal lineages. Such a large gap in knowledge hampers all aspects of biological enterprise and, thereby, is standing in the way of genomic biology reaching its full potential. A brainstorming meeting to address this issue funded by the National Science Foundation was held during 3-4 February 2022. Bringing together data scientists, biocurators, computational biologists and experimentalists within the same venue allowed for a comprehensive assessment of the current state of functional annotations of protein families. Further, major issues that were obstructing the field were identified and discussed, which ultimately allowed for the proposal of solutions on how to move forward
