Diverse Facilities Research Articles

Hand dominance and hand use behaviour reported in a survey of 2437 Koreans

Most tools, utensils, office equipment, home appliances, clothes, medical instruments, sporting goods, weapons and public facilities are made for people who are right-handed. Many left-handed people have to endure a certain amount of inconvenience or difficulty in carrying out daily activities in such an environment. In this study, 2437 Korean male and female participants were randomly selected to collect a variety of data on hand dominance and hand preference when handling diverse products and facilities. Their responses in a questionnaire survey revealed that 5.8% were left-handed and 7.9% were ambidextrous. The younger participants who were from teens to 39 years reported higher percentages of left-handedness than those over 40 years, with those in their thirties reporting the highest proportion of left-handedness (7.3–7.6%) for both men and women. A slightly higher percentage of the male participants (5.9%) said that they were left-handed than did the female participants (5.6%). However, the percentage who were ambidextrous varied with age group, but overall there was a higher percentage of women (8.3%) than of men (7.6%). The analysis of hand use behaviour revealed that the right-handed and ambidextrous people had a tendency to use their right hands more for actions that required accuracy than those that required force. The left-handed people had a strong tendency to use their left hands more often when making a forceful action than for one that required accuracy. Derived from these results, the conclusion is that, depending on their hand dominance, people seem to use their hands differently when they handle objects or use facilities, which should be considered in the design of hand-controlled devices. Depending on which hand is the dominant one, people seem to use their hands differently when they handle objects or use facilities. The left-handed tend to use their left hands more with force-required motions than with accuracy-required motions, while ambidextrous and right-handed people use their right hands more with accuracy-required motions than with force-required motions. Designers of products and facilities will find the results of this study useful for developing hand-controlled devices and systems.

Accurate measurements of laser-induced bulk damage density

The laser damage community has long been searching for the reproducibility of damage measurements in the nanosecond (ns) regime. Here we show that laser-induced bulk damage density of frequency conversion crystals can be measured with high accuracy and repeatability in the range from 2 to 20 ns. The rasterscan test procedure (Lamaignère et al 2007 Rev. Sci. Instrum. 78 103105), previously developed in order to determine laser damage density of large aperture UV fused silica optics, has been adapted to bulk damage measurement. The large volume scanned during tests permits us to measure very low damage densities. For smaller optical components, small volumes are tested using the normalized 1/1 test procedure. Whatever test procedures, accuracy and repeatability are obtained by means of a suitable data reduction. For comparison between different procedures, the classical damage probability plot has to be converted in terms of damage density. The consideration of error bars on damage site distributions is compulsory to compare experimental data. A special emphasis is put on damage detection tools. When tests are carried out on diverse facilities, pulse duration, spatial distribution and beam overlap are the key parameters which are to be taken into account to compare experimental data. We describe the equipment, test procedures and data analysis to perform these damage tests with small beams (Gaussian beams, about 1 mm @1/e, and top-hat beams). Other tests are realized with larger beams (cm sized) which are compared with small beam results. The consistency of all the results gives confidence in the measurements. Reproducibility of measures is discussed in connection with current theoretical understanding of laser damage.

An Examination of Policies Addressing Resident Smoking in Nursing Homes

To report findings of a nationwide project that examined nursing homes' tobacco policies for residents. A random selection procedure was used to sample nursing homes proportional to the geographic distribution of nursing homes in the United States. Rubrics were developed to objectively describe and compare policies. Policies were obtained from 4 types of facilities: (1) facilities that allow smoking indoors and outdoors (I/O-SFs), (2) facilities that allow residents to smoke outdoors only (O-SFs), (3) facilities that do not allow residents to smoke indoors or out of doors (NSFs), and (4) facilities in transition (TFs) from a smoking facility to an NSF. Rubrics used to score policies had common categories: administrative/authority issues, notification, resident smoking, safety, cessation assistance/encouragement, and smoking areas. Criteria within each category varied to reflect the smoking regulations of each type of facility (eg, policies of facilities that do not allow smoking indoors were not examined for inclusion of issues related to ventilation). Facilities' policies from geographically diverse facilities are described. Across all facilities, mean percentages reflecting policies' overall comprehensiveness were low, and when examining specific components of the policies, few areas were consistently addressed across facilities. Considerable gaps were found in written policies regarding smoking. Although nursing homes may in fact have practices that are more extensive than their policies portray, creating policies that guide practice can assist these long-term care facilities to promote an environment that aligns with their goals and desired practices to protect the health of residents and staff.

The effect of avoidance behavior on predicting fish passage rates through water diversion structures

Conserving fish populations within lotic ecosystems requires an understanding of the mechanisms that impede fish movement through a river. For rivers with diversions, negative fish population effects are ameliorated by barriers whose effectiveness is based on individual fish avoidance responses. Here, we evaluate two alternative avoidance models using new algorithms and videotape analyses. We tested the effects of a directed “danger-minimizing” behavior compared to “random avoidance” on predictions of fish passage rates at water diversion facilities using individual-based models. Validation data were collected using a two-dimensional analysis of fish swimming behavior in a small-scale channel with a louver diversion barrier. While the danger-minimizing model adequately captured the range of swimming behavior, it underestimated swimming exertion and the time exposed to the barrier. The random avoidance model produced significantly higher passage rates compared to the danger-minimizing model, yet it also resulted in a significant rise in oxygen consumption rate. Given departures between predicted and observed swimming behaviors we included an a posteriori evaluation of adding behavioral complexity to the movement rules. These evaluations demonstrated that positive system level predictions of high passage rates can obscure significant differences in individual level energetic costs. Our study emphasizes the value of examining multiple models at the individual level when extrapolating to the population level effects of fish encountering artificial barriers.

Managing Water to Protect Fish: A Review of California’s Environmental Water Account, 2001–2005

The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the landward reach of the San Francisco Estuary, provides habitat for threatened delta smelt, endangered winter-run Chinook salmon, and other species of concern. It is also the location of huge freshwater diversion facilities that entrain large numbers of fish. Reducing the entrainment of listed fishes into these facilities has required curtailment of pumping, reducing the reliability of water deliveries. We reviewed the first 5 years (2001-2005) of the Environmental Water Account (EWA), a program instituted to resolve conflicts between protecting listed fishes and providing a reliable water supply. The EWA provided fishery agencies with control over 0.2-0.4 km(3) of water to be used for fish protection at no cost to users of exported water, and fish agencies guaranteed no disruption of water supply for fish protection. The EWA was successful in reducing uncertainty in water supply; however, its contribution to the recovery of listed fishes was unclear. We estimated the effectiveness of the EWA to be modest, increasing the survival of winter-run Chinook salmon by 0-6% (dependent on prescreen mortality), adult delta smelt by 0-1%, and juvenile delta smelt by 2-4%. Allocating EWA water for a single life stage of one species could provide larger gains in survival. An optimally allocated EWA of equal size to the median of the first 5 years could increase abundance of juvenile delta smelt up to 7% in the springs of dry years. If the EWA is to become a long-term program, estimates of efficacy should be refined. If the program is to be held accountable for quantitative increases in fish populations, it will be necessary to integrate scientific, possibly experimental, approaches.

The fire stones carry: Ethnographic records and archaeological expectations for hot-rock cookery in western North America

Ethnographic data from Kalispel elders in the 1930s attest to use of wild root foods, rock-filled earth ovens, steaming and boiling pits, and hot-rock griddles during the 1800s in forested montane regions of the interior Northwest. Cabeza de Vaca’s narrative of his 1528–1536 travels across the Gulf Coastal Plain of Texas and deserts of northern Mexico illustrates the importance of root foods, earth ovens, and stone boiling in aboriginal Southwest North America. These and other accounts, results of actualistic experiments, and knowledge of cooking requirements afford reliable bases for generating archaeological expectations about fire-cracked-rock assemblages representative of diverse cook-stone facilities.

Job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB)

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to propose a model in which team commitment in self‐directed teams moderates the relationship between job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB).Design/methodology/approachSurvey questionnaires measuring team commitment, OCB, and job satisfaction were administered to 242 full‐time employees who were involved in self‐directed teams at three geographically diverse manufacturing facilities. After carefully testing the psychometric properties of the scales, hierarchical multiple regression was used to test hypotheses.FindingsThe relationship between job satisfaction and OCB was shown to be significant, as was the relationship between team commitment and OCB. Most importantly, the relationship between job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behavior was moderated by team commitment, such that the relationship was stronger when team commitment was high.Research limitations/implicationsDue to heightened salience of self‐directed team functioning in our sample, generalization of results may be limited.Practical implicationsThe findings indicate that the usefulness of self‐directed work teams may be limited in situations where employees lack team commitment. Besides implementing self‐directed teams and assigning performance goals, researchers and practitioners need to identify efforts that work toward increasing commitment of team members, thereby increasing organizational citizenship behavior in the organization.Originality/valueIt is believed that this research makes a significant contribution to understanding the relationship between job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behavior, a relationship that has long been known but not well defined. Moreover, the paper develops what appears to be a valid and reliable measure of team commitment, based on goodness of fit using cross‐validation, confirmatory factor analysis, and reliability tests.

A Team Training Program Using Human Factors to Enhance Patient Safety

Beginning in 2005, the aorn foundation and Safer Healthcare implemented a human factors program based on Crew Resource Management training in five diverse surgical facilities across the United States. Highly interactive, customized training sessions were designed to help clinicians standardize communication, enhance teamwork, implement preprocedure briefings and postprocedure debriefings, maintain situational awareness, and recognize red flags in the workplace. Pretraining and post-training surveys were used to determine the effectiveness of the program. Brief overviews from the participating facilities detail specific issues encountered in each setting.

보행자의 선호 보행방향에 관한 조사 및 분석

Why do some countries walk on the right and others on the left? People have a dominant hand which leads to a natural tendency to favor one side of the road or another depending on the means of transportation being used. The primary objective of this study was to investigate the stereotype of Korean regarding preferred walking direction in encountering various facilities and provide the appropriate information to traffic policy makers. Six hundred Korean male and female subjects aging from 12 to 83 were selected to investigate the various statistics about their preferred walking direction and their employment characteristics on walking diverse facilities. The walking directions of eleven different facilities were asked along with other relative subjects' characteristics(e.g., age, gender, hand and foot dominance) to determine the relationship among these obtained data. The descriptive statistics showed that 73.7% and 26.3% were preferred walking right and left direction respectively. Moreover, various statistical analysis revealed that general tendency of walking direction was varied by hand and foot dominances. There were strong tendency that right-handed people prefer walking right side of the road and vise versa, hence this should be considered in setting up traffic policies. As a concluding remark, it is better to design traffic policies and regulations in the way that peoples' preference and expectation.

Effects of Water Velocity and Trash Rack Architecture on Juvenile Fish Passage and Interactions: A Simulation

AbstractMany resident and migratory fish species have experienced population declines due to modification of estuarine ecosystems. Fish screens (or louvers) have been designed to guide fish away from the diversion pumps, and trash racks have been placed upstream of the screens to intercept aquatic plants and debris. Although small fish may aggregate around these structures, potentially increasing their vulnerability to predators, we know little about the behavior, performance, and survival of fish near trash racks. To determine how trash rack flow regime and architecture influence fish behavior, we exposed juvenile threadfin shad Dorosoma petenense and winter‐run Chinook salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha to three water velocities and two bar‐spacing treatments in a circular tank bisected by a simulated trash rack. Our results suggest that relatively small increases in water velocity at diversion facilities will result in the aggregation of juvenile fish near trash racks. In contrast, bar spacing did not influence fish passage frequency or interaction in this study. We also found that threadfin shad selected higher velocities as water current increased, whereas Chinook salmon consistently showed a preference for moderate to low water velocities.

Investigation of carbonyl compounds in air from various industrial emission sources

The emission concentrations of carbonyl compounds in air were quantified from a total of 195 man-made source units within 77 individual companies at a large industrial complex in Korea. The measurement data were evaluated both by absolute magnitude of concentration and by their relative contribution to malodor formation such as malodor degree (MD) derived from empirical formula. It was found that formaldehyde exhibited the highest mean concentration of 323 ppb with a median value of 28.2 ppb, while butyraldehyde recorded the highest contribution to odor formation with an MD value of 3.5 (186 (mean) and 9.8 ppb (median)). The relative intensity of carbonyl emission, when compared by the sum of MD, showed the highest source strength from the food and beverage (industry sector) and scrubber (source unit). A comprehensive evaluation of the carbonyl data from diverse industrial facilities thus allowed us to describe the fundamental patterns of their emission.

The Behavioral Assessment Scale: A Measure of Community Living Skills

This study reports the development of a community living skills measure of long-term care AIDS residents. Community living skills impact numbers and types of care providers needed. The Behavioral Assessment Scale (BAS) used multiple sources of validity evidence to ensure community living skills construct representation. The BAS was piloted in four diverse long-term care facilities. Nurses rated residents using the BAS and the Nurse Perception Scale (NPS)-another community living skills measure. Researchers rated residents' community living skills through medical record notations (Interdisciplinary Notation Scale [INS]). Reliability coefficients over .6 (p < .001) were reported for the BAS in both the total sample and the individual samples. Evidence-based validity of the BAS was obtained via coefficients from the total sample (.422 [BAS and INS] and .526 [BAS and NPS], with p < .001 for both relationships), Cronbach's alpha (.851 for all community living skills tools), analysis of variance, and regression results. The BAS was substantiated for long-term care practice with AIDS residents.

Life-Long Well Being: Applying Animal Welfare Science to Nonhuman Primates in Sanctuaries

Nonhuman primates have become common in sanctuaries, and a few such facilities even specialize in their care. Sanctuaries can improve the well being of many unwanted primates, especially in terms of housing and socialization. However, diverse facilities call themselves sanctuaries, and they have varying conditions, care programs, and restrictions. In addition, a general lack of regulation of sanctuaries for nonhuman animals creates problems in enforcing even minimal standards. The application of animal welfare science in the sanctuary setting can help foster high standards and empirically based decision making. Sanctuaries offer excellent environments for studying primates without the limitations inherent in breeding, exhibition, and medical research facilities. However, some sanctuaries avoid scientific study. Many sanctuaries have little opportunity to study animal welfare in a systematic manner due to financial considerations or a lack of specific expertise among staff and volunteers. Most published sanctuary research involves reintroduction procedures at sanctuaries in source countries. Nevertheless, one chimpanzee sanctuary's successes in performing long-term studies and using simple evaluation methods, such as check sheets, have demonstrated the benefits of applying animal welfare science to sanctuary-housed nonhuman primates.

Safety of fry in diversion facilities

Safety of fry in diversion facilities

An Empirical Typology of Residential Care/Assisted Living Based on a Four-State Study

Residential care/assisted living describes diverse facilities providing non-nursing home care to a heterogeneous group of primarily elderly residents. This article derives typologies of assisted living based on theoretically and practically grounded evidence. We obtained data from the Collaborative Studies of Long-Term Care, which examined 193 assisted living facilities in four states: Florida, Maryland, New Jersey, and North Carolina. By using mixture modeling, we derived typologies in five different ways, based on: structure; process; resident case-mix; structure and process; and structure, process, and resident case-mix. Although configurations of typologies varied as a function of criterion variables used, common themes emerged from different cluster solutions. A typology based on resident case-mix yielded a five-cluster solution, whereas a typology based on structure, process, and resident case-mix resulted in six distinct clusters. Medicaid case-mix/psychiatric illness and high resident impairment were two clusters identified by both strategies. Because of the wide variation in structure, residents, and services within assisted living facilities, typologies such as those described here may be useful in clinical practice, research, and policy. To the extent that public payment defines its own cluster, the potential for inequities in care merits careful attention.

95: Advances in Hysteroscopic Sterilization: Report on 600 Patients Enrolled in the Adiana Ease Pivotal Trial

To assess the safety and efficacy of innovative, permanent, transcervical sterilization (TCS) system. Multi-center, prospective trial with 4,000 women-months of follow up. Sixteen geographically diverse treatment facilities. Six hundred four parous, healthy reproductive-age women, at risk for pregnancy, and desiring permanent sterilization. Hysteroscopic sterilization with Adiana TCS System (Redwood City, CA, USA); 3 months alternative contraception; documented tubal occlusion by HSG; withdrawal of alternative contraception. After screening, 509 patients were brought to hysteroscopy. Four hundred ninety-nine patients had attempted catheter placement with bilateral success in 473 patients (94.8%). Six centers performed treatments solely in an office environment; 10 centers performed treatments in ambulatory surgery; two centers moved their treatments from the O.R. to the office as the study progressed. Oral or parenteral NSAIDs were routinely used. Local anesthesia without IV sedation was used in 48.8% of patients. Local anesthesia was supplemented with IV sedation in 51.2% of patients. Mean procedure time (“scope in to scope out”) was 12 minutes + 8 minutes. One pregnancy occurred in a re-treated patient relying on the device whose implant placement was subsequently determined to be unilateral. The observed one-year pregnancy prevention rate was 99.7%. There have been no serious device-related adverse events in the trial. These data suggest that the Adiana TCS System is easy to use, safe, and effective. Because the non-metallic implant remains fully outside the uterine cavity, advantages over other systems may include easier insertion and future access to intracavitary diagnostic or therapeutic interventions should they become necessary, possibly including IVF. Patient follow-up is ongoing.

A Collaborative Approach to Expand Clinical Experiences and Cultural Awareness Among Undergraduate Nursing Students

Nurse educators are constantly seeking opportunities to expose undergraduate students to different cultures. This requirement is essential to prepare tomorrow's nursing professionals to practice culturally component care in diverse health care environments. This article describes a unique collaborative experience between the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing and the Miami Children's Hospital that offers senior baccalaureate students the opportunity to complete one term of clinical experience in a culturally diverse health care facility.

The impact of corporate memory loss

PurposeThe author is a nursing management practitioner, whose purpose in writing this paper is twofold: to examine the impact of corporate memory loss on a health care institution, caused by increasing retirement rates of senior executives; and to use this research as an opportunity for action learning where both the author and the institution can benefit from the learning outcomes.Design/methodology/approachUsing qualitative research methods based on ethnographic interviewing techniques and grounded theory, the author interviews 12 senior executives from four diverse health care facilities. The purpose is to determine the point at which corporate memory loss, in the form of tacit knowledge in the heads of departing executives, becomes a problem for the institution.FindingsThe research determined that the requisite managerial competencies normally assumed for senior management positions are insufficient to minimize the negative impacts of corporate memory loss caused by departing senior executives. Effective knowledge management and knowledge transfer within the organization are fundamental for ongoing organizational effectiveness.Research limitations/implicationsThe research is limited to 12 senior executives. The grounded theory nature of the research provides a framework for more research in other institutions to test and further explore some of the findings.Practical implicationsOne of the most significant threats facing the majority of health care organizations related to the aging workforce is the greater number of staff who are retiring from all levels within the organization. The development of techniques to reducing the impact of corporate memory loss on the culture of an organization will increase its effectiveness, help build continuity, and provide a more secure footing for the workforce of the future.Originality/valueThe exit of knowledge workers is causing a major problem for Canada's health care organizations. This study throws more light on to this problem from the point of view of senior executives who have been specifically impacted by the problem of corporate memory loss.

Integrating Surface Water Into Distribution Systems

This article discusses Tacoma (Washington) Water's Second Supply Project (SSP) that involved installing a new 34 mile long steel transmission water main and a new chemical feed facility, improvements to Tacoma's Green River diversion facilities, adding additional water storage capacity behind the Howard Hanson Dam, and numerous environmental enhancement projects. This article discusses the hydraulic considerations associated with the new pipeline and the water quality and aesthetic issues in preparation for distributing the new blended supplies to customers.

Patients’ Rights at Different Health Facilities in Alexandria

Patients’ rights are universal values that we have to adopt. However, it is not so easy to put such values and principles into effect. This study aims at determining the extent of implementation of patients’ rights at different health facilities and the degree of parents’ preferences for these rights. A household interview survey was conducted and 205 participants were willing to participate. The survey was chosen to be carried out at Toson region, Montaza District, in Alexandria due to the availability of diverse health facilities. Results revealed that explanation of illness, procedures, and benefits and side effects of medication were implemented to a higher extent in the family health unit & center than in the other facilities (97.7%, 86.4% & 97.7%, respectively). The possibility of choosing a named physician and of taking a second opinion were nil (0.0%) in the Health Insurance facilities, the Maternal & Child Health center, and the Ministry of Health and Population general hospital. Participation in decision making was implemented for only 22.0% of cases. However, it had a high degree of preference especially among secondary and university educated persons (90.8%). Getting a summary report on discharge was preferred by 89.8% of participants, although it was exercised by only 3.9% of them. It was recommended that explanation of illness and procedures must be implemented in Health Insurance facilities, Maternal & Child Health center and Ministry of Health and Population hospital. Physicians should learn to involve patients in decision making, and health care planners have to investigate the applicability of choosing a named physician and of taking a second opinion as they were associated with high levels of patients’ preferences.