Research interests, experience, and training of Community Health Workers: a mixed Method Approach.

The Affordable Care Act includes a call for community health care workers (CHWs) to be integrated into health care delivery systems to improve health care quality. In recent years, there have been increasing calls for community-based participatory research (CBPR) and patient-centered outcomes research (PCOR), as such types of research hold much potential for identifying interventions to reduce health and health care disparities. Yet, little is known about the research training, knowledge, experience, and even interest of CHWs in these types of research or in health research in general (HR). Thus, the purposes of this study include determining if there are differences between participating CHWs (N = 202) in their levels of training, knowledge, experience, and interest in relation to CBPR, PCOR and HR. Findings suggest that certified CHWs, as compared to non-certified CHWs, have significantly higher knowledge levels across all three types of research (ß = 1.3, p = .007). Additionally, participants had significantly higher knowledge of HR compared to CBPR (ß = 0.5, p = .015), but not higher than their knowledge of PCOR (p > .5). Qualitative data analyses performed to determine research areas of interest among the participating CHWs resulted in eighteen major research interest themes. Examples of these major themes are chronic illness (n = 95), health promotion (n = 39), healthcare services and administration (n = 30), mental health (n = 29), and research evaluation and methodology (n = 26). Together, the findings suggest that though CHWs have an interest in a wide range of health research areas, they could benefit from research trainings tailored to their responsibilities and interests.

Analysis of traction-free assumption in high-resolution EBSD measurements.

The effects of using a traction-free (plane-stress) assumption to obtain the full distortion tensor from high-resolution EBSD measurements are analyzed. Equations are derived which bound the traction-free error arising from angular misorientation of the sample surface; the error in recovered distortion is shown to be quadratic with respect to that misorientation, and the maximum 'safe' angular misorientation is shown to be 2.7 degrees. The effects of localized stress fields on the traction-free assumption are then examined by a numerical case study, which uses the Boussinesq formalism to model stress fields near a free surface. Except in cases where localized stress field sources occur very close to sample points, the traction-free assumption appears to be admirably robust.

Managing ascites in patients with chronic liver disease.

This article discusses the pathophysiology of ascites, a complication associated with chronic liver disease. The diagnosis and grading of ascites and assessment of patients with the condition are explored. In addition, the nursing and medical management of ascites is discussed, and recommendations for interdisciplinary working and education are suggested. Nursing knowledge of this complication is essential to ensure that patients with ascites are cared for effectively and that their comfort is maximised.

The effect of length scale on the determination of geometrically necessary dislocations via EBSD continuum dislocation microscopy.

Electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) dislocation microscopy is an important, emerging field in metals characterization. Currently, calculation of geometrically necessary dislocation (GND) density is problematic because it has been shown to depend on the step size of the EBSD scan used to investigate the sample. This paper models the change in calculated GND density as a function of step size statistically. The model provides selection criteria for EBSD step size as well as an estimate of the total dislocation content. Evaluation of a heterogeneously deformed tantalum specimen is used to asses the method.

Estimations of bulk geometrically necessary dislocation density using high resolution EBSD.

Characterizing the content of geometrically necessary dislocations (GNDs) in crystalline materials is crucial to understanding plasticity. Electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) effectively recovers local crystal orientation, which is used to estimate the lattice distortion, components of the Nye dislocation density tensor (α), and subsequently the local bulk GND density of a material. This paper presents a complementary estimate of bulk GND density using measurements of local lattice curvature and strain gradients from more recent high resolution EBSD (HR-EBSD) methods. A continuum adaptation of classical equations for the distortion around a dislocation are developed and used to simulate random GND fields to validate the various available approximations of GND content.