The Dangerous Middle: Situational Awareness and Worker Perception of Beetle Kill

ABSTRACT

Forest workers, including loggers, foresters, and wildland firefighters, are regularly exposed to some of the most fatal occupational environments in the United States. These hazardous work environments may become even more complex and dynamic when subject to bark beetle outbreaks that have resulted in significant tree mortality. The impacts of tree death from bark beetles are significant, with the cumulative 17-year (2000–2016) footprint for bark beetle caused tree mortality estimated at 54 million acres. However, how workers think about and act in these environments is understudied. This study, therefore, approaches the issue of beetle kill and forest worker safety by examining the perspectives or workers themselves. Its contribution is to leverage ethnographic research to provide insights that can generate new research questions, better inform outreach, and ultimately improve worker safety outcomes. The resulting insights show that beetle kill was understood by workers as a hazard that increased the complexity and dynamism of the work environment, making situational awareness both more necessary and more difficult to maintain. While much research about situational awareness focuses on hazardous situations, it is suggested that building adequate situational awareness should also include broader considerations of organizational communication, as well as training and experience considered over the course of entire careers.     

Contextualizing the lived experience of quality of life for persons with spinal cord injury: A mixed-methods application of the response shift model

Objective: The objective of this study was to gain greater insight into individuals’ quality of life (QOL) definitions, appraisals, and adaptations following spinal cord injury (SCI).

Design: A mixed-methods design, applying the Schwartz and Sprangers response shift (RS) model. RS is a cognitive process wherein, in response to a change in health status, individuals change internal standards, values, or conceptualization of QOL

Setting: Community-dwelling participants who receive medical treatment at a major Midwestern medical system and nearby Veterans’ Affairs hospital.

Participants: A purposive sample of participants with SCI (N?=?40) completed semi-structured interviews and accompanying quantitative measures.

Interventions: Not applicable.

Outcome Measures: Qualitative data were analyzed using content analysis to identify themes. Analysis of variance were performed to detect differences based on themes and QOL, well-being, and demographic and injury characteristics.

Results: Four RS themes were identified, capturing the range of participant perceptions of QOL. The themes ranged from complete RS, indicating active engagement in maintaining QOL, to awareness and comparisons redefining QOL, to a relative lack of RS. Average QOL ratings differed as a function of response shift themes. PROMIS Global Health, Anxiety, and Depression also differed as a function of RS themes.

Conclusion: The RS model contextualizes differences in QOL definitions, appraisals, and adaptations in a way standardized QOL measures alone do not.     

Endothelial function,regulation of angiogenesis and embryonic central hemodynamics in ART-conceived pregnancies

Abstract

This study was undertaken to compare the concentrations of pro- and anti-angiogenic growth factors, nitric oxide (NO) stable metabolites in maternal serum and embryonic left ventricular (LV) isovolumic relaxation time (IRT, ms) during the first trimester in two groups of women: with pregnancy conceived by assisted reproductive technologies (ART, n?=?39) and normally conceived (control group, n?=?68) pregnancy. The concentration of vasoconstrictor endothelin 1 was 45.5 times more in ART than in control group. On the contrary, the concentrations of NO stable metabolites in ART were 1.9 times less than in control women. The assessment of angiogenic suppressors in ART women demonstrates the decrease in s-endoglin concentration was 1.6 times and in soluble receptor to vascular endothelial growth factor concentration was 2.0 times in comparison with control group. There was a significant increase in LV IRT in ART embryos in comparison to control ones. These data suggest significant changes in pro- anti-angiogenic factors balance and increase in vascular impedance in ART-conceived embryos.     

Effect of Tropicamide on Laser Flare Meter Measurements in Patients with Pseudoexfoliation

ABSTRACT

Purpose

To investigate the effect of 1% tropicamide on anterior chamber aqueous flare (ACAF) measurements acquired with laser flare meter in patients with pseudoexfoliation.     

Pharmacy in transition: A work sampling study of community pharmacists using smartphone technology

Introduction

The nature of community pharmacy is changing, shifting from the preparation and distribution of medicines to the provision of cognitive pharmaceutical services (CPS); however, often the provision of traditional services leaves little time for innovative services. This study investigated the time community pharmacists spend on the tasks and activities of daily practice and to what extent they are able to implement CPS-related services in daily practice.

Knowledge of the Brain Death Concept in Dominican Immigration Residents in Spain and Florida

The Latin American population has a double way of immigration, one toward the United States by proximity and another toward Spain by sociocultural affinity. This population increase is affecting organ donation and transplantation in receiving countries.

Five Year Trends in the Utilization of Robotic Bariatric Surgery Procedures,United States 2015–2019

Purpose

Robotic approaches have been steadily replacing laparoscopic approaches in metabolic and bariatric surgeries (MBS); however, their superiority has not been rigorously evaluated. The main goal of the study was to evaluate the 5-year utilization trends of robotic MBS and to compare to laparoscopic outcomes.

Methods

Retrospective analysis of 2015–2019 MBSAQIP data. Kruskal-Wallis test/Wilcoxon and Fisher’s exact/chi-square were used to compare continuous and categorical variables, respectively. Generalized linear models were used to compare surgery outcomes.

Results

The use of robotic MBS increased from 6.2% in 2015 to 13.5% in 2019 (N= 775,258). Robotic MBS patients had significantly higher age, BMI, and likelihood of 12 diseases compared to laparoscopic patients. After adjustment, robotic MBS patients showed higher 30-day interventions and 30-day readmissions alongside longer surgery time (26–38 min).

Conclusion

Robotic MBS shows higher intervention and readmission even after controlling for cofounding variables.

Graphical Abstract

     

Multi-day radon signals with a radioactive decay limb -- occurrence and geophysical significance.

Multi-day signals, generally with duration of 2-10 days, are a prominent temporal variation type of radon (Rn) in geogas in the unsaturated zone. Rare multi-day Rn signals have been found which are characterized by: (a) a declining limb lasting up to 10 days which conforms to the radioactive decay of Rn, (b) recurs at the same location and (c) is recorded in diverse situations-volcanic and seismogenic. It suggested that a Rn blob is injected at a lower level on a steady upward flow of geogas whereby the rise and final fall of the signal are attributed to the edges of the blob while the central Rn-decay segment records the passing of the decaying blob itself. Rn-decay signals are a small subset of multi-day Rn signals which are considered as highly irregular and unusable for the understanding of geophysical processes. In difference, it is concluded that multi-day Rn signals are probably proxies of subtle geodynamic processes at upper crustal levels and are therefore significant for studying such processes.