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This study compares the results of a developmental co-requisite program with those of a traditional pre-requisite program in an attempt to determine whether the two models provide equivalent levels of effectiveness and efficiency. The research focused on gateway course completion scores and final exam scores for undergraduate students enrolled in a college-level quantitative reasoning course at a public four-year university in the mid-west. The results of this study suggest student success may be improved through the implementation of co-requisite pathways. A learner-centered approach to teaching, one offering just-in-time support, is recommended in this study. The co-requisite model coupled with evidence-based instructional methods demonstrates a promising practice in developmental education worthy of further inquiry.

Rugby league carries a high injury incidence with 61% of injuries occurring at tackles. The ball carrier has a higher injury incidence than the defender, therefore understanding mechanisms occurring during injurious tackles are important. Given the dynamic, open nature of tackling, characteristics influencing tackle outcome likely encompass complex networks of dependencies. This study aims to identify important classifying characteristics of the tackle related to ball carrier injurious and non-injurious events in rugby league and identify the characteristics capability to correctly classify those events. Forty-one ball carrier injuries were identified and 205 matched non-injurious tackles were identified as controls. Each case and control were analysed retrospectively through video analysis. Random forest models were built to (1) filter tackle characteristics possessing relative importance for classifying tackles resulting in injurious/non-injurious outcomes and (2) determine sensitivity and specificity of tackle characteristics to classify injurious and non-injurious events. Six characteristics were identified to possess relative importance to classify injurious tackles. This included 'tackler twisted ball carrier's legs when legs were planted on ground', 'the tackler and ball carrier collide heads', 'the tackler used body weight to tackle ball carrier', 'the tackler has obvious control of the ball carrier' 'the tackler was approaching tackle sub-maximally' and 'tackler's arms were below shoulder level, elbows were flexed'. The study identified tackle characteristics that can be modified in attempt to reduce injury. Additional injury data are needed to establish relationship networks of characteristics and analyse specific injuries. Sensitivity and specificity results of the random forest were 0.995 and 0.525. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: We describe a novel analytical technique for determining instantaneous trends in body temperature data, which may assist clinicians in optimizing antimicrobial therapy in patients with febrile neutropenia. The paper presents a new algorithm, based on a modified second backward difference (M2BD) matrix filter for monitoring temperature response to anti-microbial chemotherapies in neutropenic patients and develops techniques for extracting accurate, instantaneous trend data from clinical time series data. Such an algorithm is needed because it is difficult to assess patient wellbeing in those who are neutropenic. Temperature data, a key indicator of response to antimicrobial therapy, are typically very noisy, with many fluctuations, making it very difficult to identify underlying trends in real time. Clinicians are therefore forced to make important decisions concerning drug therapy on imperfect data. Methods: In order to determine the underlying temperature trend, analysis of synthetic time series data (with a known underlying trend) was undertaken using both the CUSUM technique and the M2BD matrix filter. The CUSUM analysis was undertaken using four reference temperatures, 37.5°C, 38.0°C, 38.5°C and 39.0°C. A validation study was also undertaken using four sets of noisy synthetic temperature data to evaluate the performance of the M2BD filter. The M2BD filter was then used to analyse anonymized serial temperature data from a neutropenic patient undergoing chemotherapy. Results: For all four reference temperatures the CUSUM analysis failed to predict the underlying temperature trend. By comparison, the M2BD filter extracted, in real time, the underlying temperature trend with great accuracy and no time lag. In the validation study, the M2BD filter accurately extracted the underlying temperature trend for all four of the synthetic datasets. With regard to the anonymized patient data, the M2BD filter again performed well, accurately determining the underlying trend. Conclusion: The study demonstrated that the M2BD filter is capable of instantaneously extracting underlying trends from clinical time series data. This finding suggests that this algorithm has great potential as a tool for assisting clinicians in the management of patients with febrile neutropenia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Air ionizers have seen increasing use as devices for improving indoor air quality, including applications designed to reduce the transmission of infection in healthcare environments. However, little attention has been given to understanding and quantifying the physical behavior of ions in indoor air. This study presents experimental data and a theoretical model to examine the factors that influence the concentration of ions in a ventilated room. The results demonstrate how, with an ionizer in operation, the ion concentration is governed by ion-ion interactions and electrical deposition at the walls, with the ventilation rate having a minimal influence. The results also demonstrate that an ion concentration > 1010 ions·m-3 is necessary for these electrical effects to be significant, which has implications for the suitability of an ionizer for a particular location. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The installation of upper-room ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI) devices in ventilated rooms has the potential to reduce transmission of infections by an airborne route. However, the performance of such devices is dependant on several factors including the location of the lamp and the ventilation airflow in the room. This study uses a CFD model to evaluate the performance of UVGI devices by considering the cumulative UV-C dose received by the bulk room air in a ventilated room. By evaluating the UV dose rather than the resulting micro-organism inactivation the methodology can be used to optimise UVGI systems at the design stage, particularly when the source location of bioaerosol contaminants is not known. The study investigates the relationships between the lamp location, lamp power, ventilation system and room heating in a small, ventilated room. The results show that with ventilation air supplied at low level and extracted at high level the UVGI system performs better than with the air supplied at high level and extracted close to the floor. In addition the results show the presence of a heater in the room is unlikely to have a detrimental effect on performance and may promote mixing to increase the extent of disinfection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The high world-wide prevalence of tuberculosis (TB) and the increase in multi-drug resistant strains (MDRTB) have prompted increased interest in engineering control solutions such as ventilation system design and the use of ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI). This study considers the contribution of the ventilation airflow to the transmission of TB, and uses computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations to examine how changes in the design of a ward, in Hospital Nacional Dos de Mayo, Lima, Peru may reduce the transmission of TB from patients to health-care workers, visitors and other patients. The results of this study were used to advise the architects and engineers in the remodelling of the ward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although much hospital acquired infection is associated with person-to-person contact, there is increasing evidence that some nosocomial infections may be transmitted via the airborne route. However, the knowledge base concerning airborne microflora in hospitals is poor. In particular, there is a need for good quality data relating bioaerosol production to clinical activity in hospital wards. A short aerobiological survey was therefore undertaken by the authors on a respiratory ward at St James's University Hospital in Leeds in order to gain an understanding of the relationship between activity and bioaerosol production. This survey involved regular microbiological and particulate (0.3-5 μm) sampling of the ward air, together with an observational study of ward activity. Two identical four-bed ward bays were surveyed, one containing high dependency patients who regularly used noninvasive ventilators (NIVs), and the other containing patients who did not require mechanical ventilation. The survey found a correlation between activity and aerosol production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Infections associated with Acinetobacter spp. are an increasing problem in hospitals around the world, with many infections being multiply resistant to antibiotics. Acinetobacter spp. are particularly hardy and can survive on dry surfaces for long periods of time. They have also been cultured from the air on hospital wards. While it is known that environmental factors can contribute to the spread of infections caused by Acinetobacter spp., the precise role of the clinical environment in this process remains unclear. This review paper investigates this issue and seeks to identify environmental factors which may influence the spread of infections associated with Acinetobacter spp. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A comparison is made of the relative effectiveness of light quality and light quantity on the elongation growth of Sinapis alba hypocotyls. The results show that hypocotyl extension rate in plants which have not previously been exposed to light is controlled primarily by the prevailing photon fluence rate when the phytochrome photostationary state lies between ∼0.033 and ∼0.81. Below ∼0.033, changes in photostationary state also have a marked effect on extension rate. Elongation growth in light-adapted plants is controlled by both photon fluence rate and the spectral quality of the incident radiation at all photoequilibria. Photosynthesis can modify these responses but is not essential as a prior condition for a green plant to respond to changes in light quality and quantity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]