A fixed terrestrial broadband wireless system such as MMDS (Multipoint Microwave Distribution System) is a cost effective solution for cable coverage to the immediate surrounding rural area. This ...wireless system can be operated with the existing cable headend and the same subscriber-end cable modem. Such a system works well with clear line-of-sight transmit/receive antennas. However, in near-line-of-sight transmission where a few foliated trees block the line-of-sight, signal distortion can occur, especially under conditions of high wind. The motion of the trees causes large and rapid signal fading. Measurements were taken on fixed wireless paths blocked with a few trees in the vicinity of the receive antenna. Fading characteristics of a 6 MHz channel centered at 2.545 GHz are provided. The fades are largely flat across the band but with some frequency selective fading. Fading rates under windy conditions ranged from 0.5 to 2 fades/second. The slope of the fades occasionally reached 50 dB/second.
Natural disasters, such as Hurricane Harvey, can provide unique hands-on learning experiences for nursing students.
The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio School of Nursing ...deployed teams of faculty and students to Rockport, Texas, two to three times per week to provide post-disaster relief following Hurricane Harvey. Each team included a minimum of 10 students and two faculty to provide primary care, prevention, and door-to-door canvassing. Nursing students provided physical examinations, urgent care, vaccines, first aid training, and education.
Across 6 months and more than 60 trips, over 200 students (supervised by 12 faculty) successfully delivered care to Rockport residents. This learning experience was invaluable for the nursing students, who expressed that "I felt like a real nurse" and "This is the best experience I have had since I decided to become a nurse."
This intervention highlights the potential of disaster relief as a unique hands-on educational experience for nursing students. J Nurs Educ. 2020;59(1):30-33..
The gas phase of bread, which makes up more than 70% of the final volume of a loaf, has a major influence on its textural and sensory attributes. Controlling the gas phase volume is a major challenge ...as during proving and early stages of baking gas must be captured within bread dough, only being released at the end of baking. The factors important in determining the gas cell structure are discussed, treating the system as a foam. These include (1) the formation of the initial foam structure during mixing, and (2) stabilization of the foam structure, including those factors governing bubble disproportionation and coalescence. There is particular focus on the role that thin films lining the bubbles may play in stabilizing the foam structure of a risen dough. Despite its potential importance, little is known about the surface properties or composition of the aqueous phase of doughs from which the films are thought to form. We summarize current understanding of the role surface properties may play in determining the aerated structure of dough, and hence the textural characteristics of bread as well as its implications for process engineering aspects of the mixing and proving stages of bread production.
Purpose: The purpose of this ethnographic study was to explore and describe women's participation in a U.S. microcredit program in the Pacific Northwest and to examine the relationship between the ...participants’ businesses and their health.
Design and Methodology: In 2006, an ethnographic study was conducted with a microcredit organization in the Pacific Northwest using the following methods: (a) 10 audiotaped, semistructured interviews with clientele; (b) observation of microcredit groups four times a month for 6 months; (c) conversations with organization executive directors; and (d) review of organizational documents. The participants were women 32 to 64 years of age who had received one or more loans from the microcredit organization.
Findings: Four broad themes emerged from the data: (a) Microcredit: The introduction; (b) Microcredit: The place; (c) Stereotypes; and (d) Health. Despite the challenges associated with participation, all of the study participants were enthusiastic about the advantages of microcredit and would recommend it to others.
Conclusions: Many international microcredit organizations have incorporated health care and health education into their programs and have reported successful economic and social outcomes for women. In the United States (US), reports are varied, and there is a lack of literature that explores the economic and health link that is addressed in some international microcredit literature. The findings from this study might be used to initiate discussions around conjoint health education programs and microcredit as a health intervention.
Clinical Relevance: Nurses, as a trusted presence in the community, are in a position to partner with microcredit organizations to improve the health of clientele.
Background
On August 25th 2017 Harvey, a category 4 hurricane, made landfall on the south coast of Texas with heavy winds and rain that severely damaged the seaside town of Rockport. The challenge ...facing healthcare providers following a natural disaster is timely assessments of community need and available resources. One week later, faculty at the University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio, School of Nursing (SON) completed a community assessment and developed valuable partnerships.
Aims
Eighteen days after the initial assessment, faculty had secured support from The Children’s Health Fund and operationalized strategies to provide disaster relief and experiential learning opportunities for the SON Population Focused Health undergraduate students.
Materials & Methods
The community‐as‐partner model served as the framework to apply the nursing process to a community in crisis. As the focus shifted to recovery, the team prioritized the need to address long‐term consequences for children after a natural disaster.
Results
Two educational sessions were designed using an interactive and instructional approach to discuss parental strategies to assess and support children as they navigated through loss after Harvey.
Discussion
This community‐nurse partnership has endured, and the SON faculty and students continue to travel to Rockport to promote health and provide education to the community.
This paper proposes a near-optimal procedure to localize a single stationary source in a two-path underwater acoustic environment. The investigation is for an M-element vertical array with ...omnidirectional sensors. The range and depth estimators are developed using a linear least-squares technique when a set of auto- and cross-correlators is used for time difference of arrival (TDOA) estimates. A weighting matrix is derived to achieve the approximate maximum likelihood (ML) performance of the weighted least-squares range and depth estimators. The expressions for error variances and covariances of the range and depth estimates are derived with a small error analysis technique. It is verified analytically that the error covariance matrix of the weighted least-squares solutions reaches the Cramer-Rao lower bound in the small error region. The correlation of the range and depth estimation errors is investigated. Results show that the range and depth estimation errors are highly correlated in a multipath environment. The accuracy properties of the proposed multipath localization procedure are analyzed using different array configurations. The results show that the performances of the range and depth estimators are significantly improved if the linear-dependent TDOA estimates are included for localizing and that the unweighted range and depth estimators, using the entire set of TDOAs, are approximately optimal for most of the applications. The theoretical development of error variance and covariance expressions of the range and depth estimates, which incorporates the correlation in the TDOA estimates, is corroborated with Monte Carlo simulations.
The computing model of the ATLAS experiment at the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) is based on a tiered hierarchy that ranges from Tier0 (CERN) down to end-user's own resources (Tier3). According to the ...same computing model, the role of the Tier2s is to provide computing resources for event simulation processing and distributed data analysis. Tier3 centers, on the other hand, are the responsibility of individual institutions to define, fund, deploy and support. In this contribution we report on the operations of the ATLAS Iberian Cloud centers facing data taking and we describe some of the Tier3 facilities currently deployed at the Cloud.
Involving research users in setting priorities for research is essential to ensure the outcomes are patient-centred and maximise its value and impact. The Musculoskeletal Disorders Research Advisory ...Group Versus Arthritis led a research priority setting exercise across musculoskeletal disorders. The Child Health and Nutrition Research Initiative (CHNRI) method of setting research priorities with a range of stakeholders was used, involving four stages and two surveys, to: (1) gather research uncertainties, (2) consolidate these, (3) score uncertainties against importance and impact, and (4) analyse scoring for prioritisation. 213 people responded to the first survey and 285 people to the second, representing clinicians, researchers, and people with musculoskeletal disorders. Key priorities included developing and testing new treatments, better treatment targeting, early diagnosis, prevention, and better understanding and management of pain, with an emphasis on understanding underpinning mechanisms. We present a call to action to researchers and funders to target these priorities.
In this paper, the asymptotic performance of a precoded bit-interleaved coded modulation with multiple-input multiple-output (BICM-MIMO) system in a block-fading environment is first evaluated. ...Specifically, the asymptotic pairwise error probability is derived for imperfect channel state information (CSI) and of the minimum mean squared-error (MMSE) detector. The analysis is then used to evaluate the impact of two different training schemes. It is shown that inserting training symbols before precoder is a better option than multiplexing training symbols with data symbols after the precoder. The theoretical result is verified by simulation.
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