Hours Of Service Research Articles

Training University Students in Social Responsibility. A Qualitative Study on a Practicum of a Social Subject

The subject "Social Responsibility" is designed to instil a commitment to Sustainable Development Goals among future professionals. The social practicum of the subject consists of 50 hours of service at associations attending the most vulnerable. The aim of this study is to analyse the meaning of this practicum on the lives of alumni who are now working professions. A phenomenological qualitative study was conducted with the participation of 20 people who met the inclusion criteria. The sample was collected using convenience and snowball sampling. The average age was 32 and 60% of the participants were women. Data analysis was carried out in line with Giorgi's (1997) proposal and according to COREQ (2007) guidelines to ensure the quality of the study. The participants indicated that the practicum was a very significant experience in their lives, in which they discovered values such as empathy, justice and respect. They also developed greater social awareness, especially their sensitivity towards the vulnerable or those with disabilities, while also helping them to be more open-minded towards other realities and, in general, to mature. Finally, the participants noted that they learned to regard their profession as a service to society.

The ambivalent relationship of e-scooters and public transport: Evidence from France

This paper aims at assessing competitiveness of shared e-scooters relative to public transport proposing a methodology that uses empirical data at the individual trip level and comparing e-scooter trips with the alternative public transit route available to the traveler at the time of the trip, as estimated by a navigation and public transit application. This allows us to obtain information at the individual transit trip level, such as in-vehicle time, walking, waiting, and other. We then explore the competitiveness between the two alternatives using two performance measures – travel time (TT) and an estimation of the generalized cost (GC) of a trip – for different levels of aggregation. Results show that in general, e-scooters are more competitive in terms of travel time. However, due to the higher pricing, generalized cost of transit is generally lower than that of e-scooter. In 60% of the cases users would lower their generalized cost by using public transport instead of e-scooter. On average, e-scooter is a better option for trips up to 15min, while public transit is better for longer trips. They are also more competitive during hours when transit frequency is reduced, as well as in areas with reduced service. Finally, we also find that one in five trips complement public transport service offering transportation outside of transit service hours or between areas with no connectivity. Further research should include surveys in order to obtain more details on the psychological constructs of the users.

Barriers and facilitators for adherence to follow-up by HR-HPV-positive women with premalignant cervical lesions: a mixed-design study in Mexico

BackgroundMexico reports low follow-up completion rates among women with abnormal cervical cancer screenings. This study aimed to identify barriers and facilitators to follow-up adherence among women with human papillomavirus (HPV) infection and premalignant cervical lesions in Mexico.MethodsA mixed-methods study was conducted from February to April 2019. Participants included women undergoing follow-up care for high-risk human papillomavirus (HR-HPV) and premalignant lesions, along with health personnel from the Women’s Healthcare Center (CAPASAM) in Mexico. Quantitative data were obtained from the Women’s Cancer Information System and through a questionnaire about factors affecting follow-up adherence. Additionally, the health personnel involved completed a compliance checklist regarding care regulations. Descriptive statistics were used for analysis. Qualitative data were collected via semi-structured interviews with both groups, followed by a content analysis based on identified categories. The Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point System confirmed care process risks. Proposals to enhance the Early Detection Program for Prevention and Control of Cervical Cancer were collected from a CAPASAM health personnel nominal group.ResultsIdentified barriers to follow-up included low income among CAPASAM users, family provider roles limiting time for appointments, long waits for testing and results delivery, distant facilities, insufficient service hour communication, inadequate health personnel training, and a lack of systematic counseling. Hesitation toward follow-up was also linked to shame, apprehension, uncertainty, test aversion, fear of positive results, and limited cervical cancer and screening knowledge. Patriarchal attitudes of partners and limited access to the now-discontinued PROSPERA government program further discouraged follow-up. Facilitators comprised respectful treatment by CAPASAM staff, no-cost services, health campaigns, and positive user attitudes.ConclusionsThe study found more barriers than facilitators to follow-up adherence, highlighting the need for strategies to bolster the Early Detection Program. Future strategies must address the comprehensive array of factors and incorporate stakeholder perspectives.

Factors influencing adherence to antiretroviral treatment among people living with HIV aged 15 – 60 years at Cité des Palmiers District Hospital, Cameroon

Antiretroviral therapy (ART), essential for halting the progression of human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) infection and restoring immunity, should be taken regularly to be effective. This study aimed to assess the factors that may affect adherence to ART among people living with HIV (PLHIV) aged between 15 and 60 years at the Cité des Palmiers District Hospital. Thus, we conducted a descriptive and analytical cross-sectional study using a non-probabilistic, convenience survey. Data were collected using a questionnaire administered to PLHIV aged between 15 and 65 years (n = 309). These factors affecting adherence were established by determining relative and absolute frequencies, and associations were estimated by calculating the odds ratios, confidence intervals, and P-values. Subsequently, 48.5% of participants were found to comply with ART and 51.5% were not. The independent predictors of poor adherence to ART were missed appointments at the HIV unit, occasional use of excitants/cigarettes, fear of disclosing HIV status, perceived limited opening hours of HIV-related services, discomfort with medication, recent initiation of treatment, and use of therapy reminders. Our study results are essential to orient public health policies and measures toward PLHIV non-adherents to ART treatment and mitigate the social, economic, and health impact of HIV threats on developing countries by focusing on good adherence.

An inpatient mental health placement for paramedic undergraduate students: a pilot study

BackgroundThe prevalence of mental and behavioural illnesses in the Australian community is increasing. Paramedics are frequently the first health responders to a mental health crisis, and their workload associated with mental health presentations is also increasing. The present study explored the experience and perspectives of undergraduate paramedic students who participated in a pilot mental health placement.MethodsA pilot workplace learning opportunity was established in which students completed a portion of their community service hours in an inpatient mental health setting at Port Macquarie Base Hospital. Eight students attended and completed the placement and were administered the Clinical Placement Evaluation Questionnaire.ResultsStudent responses to this placement experience were overwhelmingly positive. The data showed that all the students responded “Strongly Agree” or “Agree” to each of the survey items. Thematic analysis of the qualitative data yielded four central themes related to benefits, additional training and education, nursing staff, and improvements.ConclusionsThis pilot study suggests that mental health placements for paramedics have meaningful educational value and can impact student learning. Since this pilot study, mental health placements have been permanently included as part of the undergraduate curriculum in our institution.

It Takes a Village

The introduction of Large Language Models (LLM) to the chatbot landscape has opened intriguing possibilities for academic libraries to offer more responsive and institutionally contextualized support to users, especially outside of regular service hours. While a few academic libraries currently employ AI-based chatbots on their websites, this service has not yet become the norm and there are no best practices in place for how academic libraries should launch, train, and assess the usefulness of a chatbot. In summer 2023, staff from the University of Delaware’s Morris Library information technology (IT) and reference departments came together in a unique partnership to pilot a low-cost AI-powered chatbot called UDStax. The goals of the pilot were to learn more about the campus community’s interest in engaging with this tool and to better understand the labor required on the staff side to maintain the bot. After researching six different options, the team selected Chatbase, a subscription-model product based on ChatGPT 3.5 that provides user-friendly training methods for an AI model using website URLs and uploaded source material. Chatbase removed the need to utilize the OpenAI API directly to code processes for submitting information to the AI engine to train the model, cutting down the amount of work for library information technology and making it possible to leverage the expertise of reference librarians and other public-facing staff, including student workers, to distribute the work of developing, refining, and reviewing training materials. This article will discuss the development of prompts, leveraging of existing data sources for training materials, and workflows involved in the pilot. It will argue that, when implementing AI-based tools in the academic library, involving staff from across the organization is essential to ensure buy-in and success. Although chatbots are designed to hide the effort of the people behind them, that labor is substantial and needs to be recognized.

Examining the Care Experiences of People Experiencing Homelessness in Kingston

Background Across Canada, approximately 235,000 individuals face housing instability, and homelessness has been associated with an increased use of emergency department (ED) care. EDs are a safety net for people experiencing homelessness (PEH), when faced with limitations to primary care access, such as limited service hours and locations. PEH have reported negative ED care experiences, including feeling judged, not having health concerns taken seriously, and experiencing stigmatizing behaviour. Prior negative experiences contribute to the avoidance of care services, exacerbating issues for PEH. Objective This study examines the experiences of unhoused populations accessing ED services, to better understand the adversity they face. Methods The study is participatory and cross-sectional, using the sensemaking Spryng.io platform to survey patients at the Kingston Health Sciences Centre EDs. Sensemaking methodology (SM) uses a mixed-methods research approach that collects data through storytelling. This enables individuals to naturally convey complex information and make sense of their experiences. Within the sensemaking survey, individuals who self-identified as a PEH answered an additional subset of questions about their experiences accessing care. Follow-up focus group discussions (FGDs) will take place at St. Vincent de Paul, an organization that supports people in Kingston with resources such as food, clothes, and housing. FGDs will be used to validate the sensemaking results and co-create care improvement strategies. Conclusion By engaging PEH, our results can lead to actionable care improvement strategies. The study is also a foundation for future research collaborating with PEH and community partners, to mitigate negative care experiences.

Accessibility of methadone treatment via public transit for syringe services program participants in Miami-Dade County, Florida.

Methadone is an opioid receptor agonist medication used in the treatment of opioid use disorder (OUD). Geographic distance to opioid treatment programs (OTPs) is a major barrier to treatment, given requirements for direct observation of dosing and periodic drug screens, and 'methadone treatment deserts' are defined as a public transit threshold of 30 minutes. The purpose of this study was to examine public transit access to methadone treatment for participants of a syringe services program (SSP) in Miami-Dade County, Florida. Public transit times were calculated using the R library r5r, which facilitates multi-modal transportation network routing. General Transit Feed Specification data was combined with street network data from OpenStreetMap for Miami-Dade County. Transit times were estimated from the population-weighted centroid of each zip code (n=79) with participants of Miami's only SSP (n=1597) to the nearest OTP (n=4) using 10 departure windows aligned with OTP service hours. The mean one-way transit time from zip codes with SSP participants in Miami-Dade County to the nearest OTP was 80 minutes. 75 of the 79 (95%) zip codes with SSP participants in Miami-Dade County have a mean transit time to the closest OTP greater than 30 minutes. Transit times differ substantially between zip codes with different numbers of SSP participants, but not between departure windows. Nearly all zip codes with SSP participants in Miami-Dade County can be classified as 'methadone treatment deserts'. Geographic isolation of methadone treatment from public transit routes represents a significant barrier to equitable OUD treatment.

Predicting a Risk of Transition to a Higher Level of Care for Home Support Service Recipients.

This longitudinal, non-randomized, retrospective study uses the Kaplan-Meier estimates method and the Cox Proportional Hazard model to assess the risk of home support recipients' transitioning to a higher level of care after being hospitalized. The Kaplan-Meier survival analysis revealed that 50% of home support recipients were expected to move on to a higher level of care by day 1,374. The Cox Proportional Hazard model indicated that the risk of transitioning to a higher level of care increases by about 2% as a client ages by one year, and by about 10% if there were no emergency room visits in the last 12 months. Also, the risk will decrease by about 13% if an individual is getting more than one hour of home support service per visit on average, compared to those who are receiving less than one hour of home support services per visit. These results will help project long term home support demand and resource planning for home support and the health care system.

Communication Practices for Families With Languages Other Than English in US Neonatal Care Units.

The lack of provision of culturally and linguistically appropriate services (CLAS) to families with languages other than English (LOE) is a highly modifiable driver of health care inequities. In a nationally representative sample of level 2 to 4 US NICUs, we examined patterns and predictors of communication practices for families with LOE and ascertained clinical leaders' beliefs about barriers to CLAS provision. We surveyed clinical leaders from 500 randomly selected US NICUs. Responses were weighted by the number of eligible NICUs per region and nonresponse rates. Outcomes included: consistent parental language documentation (≥75% of the time versus <75%) and consistent professional interpreter use (in-person or remote interpretation ≥75% of the time versus <75%). We used logistic regression to examine the associations of predictors (region, hospital characteristics, and the proportion of racial and ethnic minority and families with LOE served) with outcomes. The overall response rate was 34%. A total of 63% of NICUs collected parental language data consistently, and 41% used interpreters consistently. Patterns of interpreter use varied by service hours and type of communication event. Teaching status, highest level of neonatal care, and larger NICU size were associated with consistent language documentation. Only a larger NICU size was associated with consistent interpreter use. Barriers to CLAS provision included untimely access to interpreter services and suboptimal quality of certain interpretation modalities. Implementation guidance, accountability for compliance with existing mandates, and interventions tailored to the NICU context are needed to reduce linguistic disparities.

Zero-Emission Heavy-Duty, Long-Haul Trucking: Obstacles and Opportunities for Logistics in North America

Background: Pressure is growing in North America for heavy-duty, long-haul trucking to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, ultimately to zero. With freight volumes rising, improvement depends on zero-emissions technologies, e.g., battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs). However, emissions reductions are constrained by technological and commercial realities. BEVs and FCEVs are expensive. Further, BEVs depend on existing electricity grids and FCEVs rely on steam–methane reforming (SMR) or electrolysis using existing grids to produce hydrogen. Methods: This study assembles publicly available data from reputable sources to estimate breakeven vehicle purchase prices under various conditions to match conventional (diesel) truck prices. It also estimates GHG emissions reductions. Results: BEVs face numerous obstacles, including (1) limited range; (2) heavy batteries and reduced cargo capacity; (3) long recharging time; and (4) uncertain hours-of-service (HOS) implications. On the other hand, FCEVs face two primary obstacles: (1) cost and availability of hydrogen and (2) cost of fuel cells. Conclusions: In estimating emissions reductions and economic feasibility of BEVs and FCEVs versus diesel trucks, the primary contributions of this study involve its consideration of vehicle prices, carbon taxes, and electricity grid capacity constraints and demand fees. As electricity grids reduce their emissions intensity, grid congestion and capacity constraints, opportunities arise for BEVs. On the other hand, rising electricity demand fees benefit FCEVs, with SMR-produced hydrogen a logical starting point. Further, carbon taxation appears to be less important than other factors in the transition to zero-emission trucking.

Determinants of successful ictal SPECT injection in phase 1 epilepsy presurgical evaluation: Findings from the pediatric epilepsy research consortium surgery database project.

The main goal of presurgical evaluation in drug-resistant focal epilepsy is to identify a seizure onset zone (SOZ). Of the noninvasive, yet resource-intensive tests available, ictal single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) aids SOZ localization by measuring focal increases in blood flow within the SOZ via intravenous peri-ictal radionuclide administration. Recent studies indicate that geographic and center-specific factors impact utilization of these diagnostic procedures. Our study analyzed successful ictal SPECT acquisition (defined as peri-ictal injection during inpatient admission) using surgery-related data from the Pediatric Epilepsy Research Consortium (PERC) surgery database. We hypothesized that a high seizure burden, longer duration of video EEG monitoring (VEEG), and more center-specific hours of SPECT availability would increase the likelihood of successful ictal SPECT. We identified study participants (≤18 years of age) who underwent SPECT as part of their phase 1 VEEG from January 2018 to June 2022. We assessed association between ictal SPECT outcomes (success vs. failure) and variables including patient demographics, epilepsy history, and center-specific SPECT practices. Phase 1 VEEG monitoring with ictal SPECT injection was planned in 297 participants and successful in 255 participants (85.86%). On multivariable analysis, the likelihood of a successful SPECT injection was higher in patients of non-Hispanic ethnicity (p = 0.040), shorter duration VEEG (p = 0.004), and higher hours of available SPECT services (p < 0.001). Higher seizure frequency (p = 0.033) was significant only in bivariate analysis. Patients treated at centers with more operational hours were more likely to experience pre-admission protocols prior to VEEG (p = 0.002). There is inter-center variability in protocols and SPECT acquisition capabilities. Shorter duration of EEG monitoring, non-Hispanic ethnicity (when on private insurance), extended operational hours of nuclear medicine as noted on multivariate analysis and higher seizure frequency in bivariate analysis are strongly associated with successful ictal SPECT injection. In pediatric patients with drug-resistant epilepsy, single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) scans can be helpful in localizing seizure onset zone. However, due to many logistical challenges described below, which include not only the half-life of the technetium isotope used to inject intravenously during a seizure (called the ictal SPECT scan) but also available nuclear scanner time in addition to the unpredictability of seizures, obtaining an ictal SPECT during a planned elective inpatient hospital stay is not guaranteed. Thus, as healthcare costs increase, planning a prolonged hospital stay during which an ictal SPECT scan is not feasible is not optimal. We leveraged our prospective surgery database to look at center-specific factors and patient-specific factors associated with an ictal SPECT injection in the first, pediatric-focussed, large-scale, multicenter, prospective, SPECT feasibility study. We found that longer availability of the scanner is the most important center-specific factor in assuring ictal SPECT injection. Although seizure frequency is an important patient-specific factor on bivariate analysis, this factor lost statistical significance when other factors like patient insurance status and video EEG duration were also considered in our multivariable logistical model.

Improving truck stop environments to support long-haul truck driver safety and health: A scoping review

BackgroundLong-haul truck drivers (LHTD) are required to drive long distances to transport essential goods and products in a timely manner, which can leadto roadway safety risks, an unbalanced lifestyle, and poor health and wellbeing. While truck stops are designed for LHTD to park, refuel, eat, shower, and sleep, the lack of amenities (e.g., unavailable parking, poor food choices) contributes to poor safety and health outcomes. ObjectiveThis scoping review synthesized the evidence on the current amenities offered at truck stops and how they can be improved to support LHTD safety and health. MethodsResearch databases (e.g., EMBASE, Global Health, Medline) and online sources (e.g., transportation research websites) were searched for publications in English from 2006 to 2023. A total of 5,377 unique sources were identified. Two reviewers independently screened the 5,377 titles and abstracts and then the full texts of 59 sources. Three sources were included through searching reference lists of 13 full-texts included, totaling 16 sources included in the scoping review. ResultsParking and basic truck stop amenities (e.g., fuel, food, restrooms, and showers) are most important to LHTD. However, there is currently a lack of available, accessible, affordable, or safe parking at truck stops which preclude LHTD from parking overnight. There is also a lack of food options to meet LHTD preferences for different cuisines, healthier choices, and options that accommodate food allergies. Moreover, LHTD expect parking, restrooms, and showers to be free when purchasing fuel. Conclusion/ImplicationsThe current state of parking and basic truck-stop amenities should be improved to prevent safety-adverse LHTD behaviors (e.g., driving beyond their hours of service and increasing their risk of driving fatigued, falling asleep, or getting into an accident). Thereis a high demand among LHTD to improve and expand the availability, accessibility, security, and cost of these truck stop amenities. Improvements to truck stop amenities may improve the resilience of supply chains and constitute public health interventions to reduce longstanding safety and health disparities.

Association Between Demographic Characteristics of Users’ and Overall Satisfaction with Water Supply Service

Water constitutes an indispensable resource for various aspects of daily life, encompassing essential needs such as drinking, cooking, sanitation, and irrigation. Beyond household applications, diverse livelihood activities, including livestock management, gardening, crop cultivation, food processing, aquaculture, and fisheries, also rely on water. The assessment of customer satisfaction holds paramount significance in driving performance enhancements for service providers, even within government-owned entities offering critical services like water supply. This research aims to scrutinize the interplay between overall satisfaction with water services and its determinants, including satisfaction with water quality, and various parameters such as water supply hours, tap pressure, supplied water quantity, management responsiveness and communication, and water tariff. Anticipatedly, water supply hours, quantity, and quality are expected to exert a crucial influence on user satisfaction. Although users express a satisfaction level above neutral, it falls short of reaching a fully satisfactory level. Key contributors to user satisfaction involve aspects such as water supply hours, pressure, quantity, and quality, while complaints about water supply yield slightly lower satisfaction. Satisfaction with water service hours, quantity, and quality emerges as a driving force for overall satisfaction. The analysis reveals no significant association between overall satisfaction and demographic variables such as occupation, gender, age, education, and the main income source. However, a noteworthy association exists between satisfaction with water pressure and the water collection method, and a robust link is observed between satisfaction with water quality and respondents&amp;apos; water treatment practices. The provision for complaints is significantly associated with satisfaction regarding management responsiveness and communication. Multiple regression analysis underscores a positive relationship between overall satisfaction with water services and satisfaction with water quality and supply hours, indicating that higher satisfaction with these factors enhances overall satisfaction with water services.

Factors influencing the selection of outstanding craftsmen in art and design education

The purpose of this research is to explore the influencing factors in the selection of outstanding craftsmen among vocational college art and design students. This paper selected the case studies of art majors and collected data on the school performance of 222 students majoring in art and design. Convenience sampling was used to select the sample, which was grouped based on whether or not they had been selected as school-level outstanding craftsmen. The study compares the mean values of variables such as entrance exam scores, in-school comprehensive assessment scores, volunteer service hours, possession of vocational qualifications, gender, single-child status, party membership, and employment rates between the two groups of students. Interviews were also conducted, and SPSS software was used for the data analysis. The research found significant differences between the student group selected as school-level outstanding craftsmen and the student group not selected as school-level outstanding craftsmen regarding the in-school comprehensive assessment scores, volunteer service hours, gender, and party membership. These findings provide support for further optimizing the selection criteria and offer empirical references for the cultivation path and evaluation system of craftsmanship spirit among art students.

Cost-avoidance associated with implementation of an overnight emergency medicine pharmacist at a Level I Trauma, Comprehensive Stroke Center

AimTo investigate the cost-avoidance associated with implementation of an overnight emergency medicine pharmacist (EMP) through documented clinical interventions. DesignRetrospective evaluation of prospectively tracked interventions in a single Level I Trauma, Comprehensive Stroke Center, from November 25, 2020 through March 12, 2021 during expanded emergency medicine service hours (2300–0700). InterventionsOne of 45 clinical patient-care recommendations associated with cost-avoidance were available to be selected and documented by the EMP; more than one intervention was allowed per patient, though one clinical intervention could not be counted as multiple items. Documented services were associated with monetary cost avoidance based upon available literature assessing pharmacy clinical interventions. Differences in time from imaging to systemic thrombolytics and percentage of patients meeting door-to-alteplase benchmarks were compared with and without the availability of EMPs. ResultsOvernight EMPs documented 820 interventions during 107 overnight shifts with a cost avoidance of $612,974. The most common interventions were bedside monitoring (n = 127; $50,694), drug information consultation (97; $11,269), and antimicrobial therapy initiation and streamlining (95; $60,101). When categorizing interventions, 378 (46%; $292,484) were input as hands-on care, 216 (26%; $94,899) as individualization of patient care, 135 (17%; $25,897) as administrative and supportive tasks, 84 (10%; $121,746) as adverse drug event prevention, and 7 (1%; $77,964) as resource utilization. All patients (n = 6) with an acute ischemic stroke during the evaluation period received systemic thrombolytics ≤45 min in the presence of EMPs compared with 50% receiving thrombolytics ≤45 min without EMPs. ConclusionsExpanded overnight coverage by EMPs provided clinical bedside pharmacotherapy expertise to critically ill patients otherwise not available prior to study implementation. Clinical interventions were associated with substantial cost-avoidance.

Thermal creep properties of virgin and irradiated cladding tubes made of Ti-stabilised DIN 1.4970 (15-15Ti) austenitic stainless steel

ABSTRACT This paper presents assessments performed on a large database of virgin material and irradiated material thermal creep data from uniaxial and pressurised DIN 1.4970 Ti-stabilised austenitic stainless steel i.e. EN X10NiCrMoTiB15–15 or ‘15-15Ti’ cladding tubes. The data base incorporates multi-heat data from uniaxial and bi-axial (internal pressure) creep tests conducted during the fast reactor R&D program of the DeBeNe (Deutschland-Belgium-Netherlands) consortium between the 1960s to the late 1980s together with more recent data, for example, from the European projects MATTER and PATRICIA and the EERA JPNM pilot project TASTE. The data comprises of a virgin material data base and a data base with irradiated creep data. The virgin material data comprises of time-to-rupture and time-to-0.2% creep strain in a temperature range of 600–800°C and covers a large range of stresses. The irradiated data base has less data and does not cover all material heats tested for the virgin material properties. The irradiation conditions are also different depending on the test reactor specifics and the irradiation campaign targets. The attained ‘irradiation damage’ in displacements per atom (DPA) for the irradiated materials range from 0.1 up to 38.1. Un-irradiated ‘reference material’ models for tensile strength and creep strength are constructed from the current-state of the art literature data and more recent results from the Sandvik 24% cold worked 1515–Ti cladding tube currently used as the main material batch studied at SCK CEN. The tensile strength model is used throughout the paper for normalizing creep strengths by the tensile properties, needed when applying the Wilshire (WE) creep model. Time factors (TF), stress factors (SF) and temperature ratio factors (TRF) are calculated for different material states for describing the impact of heat treatments, (virgin and irradiated) and irradiation conditions. This initial study targets to give estimates for the thermal creep properties of cladding tubes with a cold work range of 16–24% in a non-annealed state, as it is the preferred option for future designs according to the state-of-the art knowledge base. However, the main bulk of the available data on irradiated material is on claddings with a cold work range of 0-16% with and without annealing and at various levels of irradiation damage, thus leading to the need for estimation by interpolation and extrapolation assuming that irradiation damage levels and trends, e.g. time reduction factors found on a lower cold worked material can also be applied on materials with higher cold work levels. The results of the assessments clearly show relative strength differences between chosen material heats and heat treatments and has enabled constructing simple multilinear models for estimating the life of irradiated material. The models show that low creep test temperatures (and irradiation temperatures), low stress levels, low levels of cold work and high irradiation doses are increasing the detrimental difference between the specific material condition and the reference material. Also, it was found that the general level of life reduction (time factor TF and stress factor SF) for irradiation damaged material failure, in relation to the reference material failure, roughly coincides the corresponding values of time to 0.2% creep strain for virgin material. The estimated ‘failure creep temperature limits’ for 30 000 hours of service are studied and compared for both virgin and irradiated materials at a reference stress level of 1/3 of the tensile strength (at temperature).

Valoración económica ambiental del recurso hídrico de la cuenca del río Chirimayo, en los distritos de Chadín y Paccha - Perú

The economic environmental valuation is a tool that assigns monetary value to ecosystem services, regardless of whether they have market prices or not. The aim of this research was to evaluate the influence of socioeconomic and environmental factors on the economic environmental valuation of water resources from the Chirimayo River basin in the districts of Chadín and Paccha (Cajamarca - Peru), and to estimate the average monthly willingness to pay by users. The contingent valuation method and Logit econometric model were used, with questionnaires and interviews administered to 285 users out of a population of 1104. Results show that the majority of users are between 46 and 60 years old, male, married, with 4 family members, primary education, farmers, with incomes between 200 and 500 soles; they use the water resource for human consumption, which is of good quality, available 24 hours a day, although the volume has decreased, and they are willing to pay for it. It is concluded that economic valuation is positively influenced by gender, level of education, and hours of service; thus, an increase in one unit of these factors leads to a greater willingness to pay. However, age and marital status have a negative influence, as an increase in age decreases the willingness to pay, and singles show less willingness. On average, 75.8% of the population is willing to pay 1.60 soles per month.

A New Model for Volunteerism

ABSTRACT As with many Volunteer Programs, volunteerism at Filoli began in support of a fledgling organization in 1975. Initially a separate nonprofit, Friends of Filoli was created with the purpose of fundraising and other support, but was dissolved in 1989 as it was not self-sufficient. The leadership structure, however, remained and later merged with the Board of Directors, creating confusion and discontent. The program peaked at 1,500 volunteers, and was outsizing service needs, not aligned with Filoli’s strategic direction, and a considerable investment of time and management. Volunteers were largely self-managed, but were not following industry best practices and were unsupportive of needed changes for the organization to be viable. As staff implemented best practices, volunteers responded negatively and publicly. Based on staff investment, diminished returns, and negative culture, the model was unsustainable, so the organization took action to assess the needs through a professional consultant to reframe volunteerism. In 2022 Filoli launched Service Learning, a new project-based program that provides an opportunity for learning and volunteerism. Now, Filoli has no dedicated volunteer coordinator, no docents, and no dedicated volunteer database. Yet there is still a robust program for volunteerism, with 650 participants and 2,400 service hours in 2023 alone.

Pekan Sagu Innovation Regains the Public Service Moment of Truth

The digital era has influenced public service innovation. Many districts/cities in Indonesia use digital service innovation to overcome the maladministration problem in civil registration services, however, Seluma regency government has chosen to maintain physical moment of truth through the Pekan Sagu innovation. This innovation is in the form of increasing service hours on Saturdays and Sundays through door-todoor service. The researcher chose a qualitative paradigm in order to reveal the natural conditions of the unit of analysis with a case study design. Primary and secondary data were collected through interviews, observation, and documentation studies, with triangulation of sources, time, and methods. The research results show that Pekan Sagu has the dimensions of compatibility, complexity, trialability and observability. This innovation maintains the public service moment of truth which is actually the weak point of previous problems of public service because of maladministration. A direct in-touch service policy with an extension of service time can be a short-term solution to overcome some target groups’ problem who are not yet technologically literate, however, the government still has to educate citizens and prepare the need for digital-based services to meet the demands of long-term civil registration services.&#x0D; Keywords: innovation, public service