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Class of 2011 Abstract / OBJECTIVES: To compare pharmacists’ perceptions of patients’ health literacy levels to their measured health literacy levels. METHODS: This was descriptive study that included thirty patients from two independent pharmacies where they were administered a health literacy survey at random during their routine visit to the pharmacy. Each participant’s health literacy assessment was scored and assigned to a corresponding literacy level. Pharmacists from each store were then surveyed as to what they perceived each patient’s health literacy level to be. RESULTS: Twenty-eight of the thirty participants (93%) obtained the highest literacy score possible in the assessment. Two participants scored lower literacy levels and were both non-whites who were currently taking six or more medications and over the age of 50. No significant differences with respect to age, gender, education level, number of previous conversations with the pharmacist, or number of current medications were found as compared to measured literacy level. Actual literacy scores as well as perceived literacy levels between sites were also found to be insignificant (p=0.17 and p=0.58 respectively). With respect to race, there was a significant difference between whites vs. non-whites relative to REALM scores (p<0.001). Analysis of the difference between actual literacy scores and perceived scores were unable to be determined.       CONCLUSION: Based on the two participants who had lower literacy levels, this may suggest a disparity in health literacy with respect to race, age, and number of concurrent medications. However, due to lack of study variability, the significance of the difference was unable to be determined and conducting a larger study with more diverse settings, demographics, and larger sample size is suggested.

As the IEC 61850 digital substation standard becomes progressively adopted by utilities throughout the world, entirely computerized methods will completely replace traditional strategies for monitoring the power system. Although newer techniques offer enhanced efficiency and controllability, their reliability is not as established as that of conventional practices. Modern approaches require extensive validation and analysis before they can be implemented on a widespread basis. One specific area of interest is the performance of protection systems that utilize voltage and current samples digitized directly at their source. This research presents a complete test bench for evaluating sampled values-based protection schemes and measures their efficacy under several different operating conditions. It is shown that the novel system operates correctly for the situations it is expected to, with minimal latency compared to traditional practices. / Master of Science / Power system infrastrcutures are changing rapidly from analog arrangements to entirely digital methods. This offers numeous benefits such as increased efficiency, lower cost, higher accuracy, and even improved safety. However, digital implementations do not have an as proven track record as compared to conventional practices, leading to concerns about their reliaiblity. This research tests the performance an en entirely digital protection scheme by using various hardware components. The results are analyzed and show that the novel scheme operates correctly, albeit with a slight delay as compared to traditional methods.

This thesis is designed to establish bench marks which will facilitate the measurement of impacts of new crop and livestock extension practices on the rate of community development of the village of Achica Bajo, Bolivia. Successful agricultural extension and community development programs require adequate data at the farm and community level. In the absence of a real appreciation for the levels of income and financial needs of the campesinos, it is difficult to institute farm policies such as land tax measures which will have the desired impacts and consequences as well as peasant acceptance. The study examines human and agricultural resources available to the community. Then utilization of these resources as measured by consumption, production and resulting income levels are measured. All of the demographic cultural and resource data were developed through first-hand field surveys. The natural rate of population increase was calculated at nearly seven percent, all of which must absorbed by the present four hectares average sized farm unit available to the 129 cultivators of the village. Aggregate village income of about $36,00, during the bench mark year of 1967, was divided among these same producing units. Crop yields were found to be much below their potentials given proper irrigation and land cultivation practices. Part of the reasons for low agriculture productivity may also be attributed to the scale of individual farm activity for it was discovered that at least 40 percent of aggregate community income was derived from off-farm activities during 1967. Over 55 percent of the total value of private assets are accounted for by livestock holdings, but income from this sector accounted for only 29 percent of the aggregate. Again natural factors such as poor breeds, low nutritional content of natural pastures and inadequate management practices are the important contributors to low productivity. The rate of investment in the community is insignificant. Present income levels do not generate internal investment capacity. most transactions take place outside of the community, since commerce accounts fro only about 13 percent of aggregate community income. Thus, most of the value added in agriculture through community activities is captured by persons or groups outside the community. Per capita earnings in the community are less than one half the national average but are probably representative of the rural sector of Bolivia in general. Some 62 percent of the population, seven years of age or over, had received at least on year of schooling and about 58 percent of the population over age seven were classed as literate. Nevertheless, 47 percent of the children of school age years were not attending school. Greater outside employment or improvements in agriculture productivity levels must be achieved in order to maintain or improve income levels in the community. A listing of quantitative bench marks covering many aspects of social and economic activity for the community of Achica Bajo are presented at the end of the thesis.

No description available.

Meson production in proton-deuteron collisions has been studied using the WASA detector facility at the CELSIUS storage ring in Uppsala. Data were obtained at two different beam energies, 1360 MeV and 1450 MeV, slightly above threshold for η and ω mesons. The differential cross sections of pd → 3He ω constitute the first measurements of this reaction covering the whole angular range. The ω angular distributions are isotropic at 1360 MeV but have strong forward and backward enhancements at 1450 MeV. Theoretical calculations using a two-step model fail to reproduce the shapes of the angular distributions and underestimate the total cross sections. The tensor polarisation of the ω meson has been derived from the measured angular distributions of the ω decay products. The π+ π- π0 and the π0 γ decay channels gave consistent results, showing that the ω meson is produced unpolarised at both energies. This is in contrast to a recent MOMO measurement which showed that the Φ meson is produced almost completely polarised in the pd → 3HeΦ reaction. Different production dynamics of ω and Φ mesons close to threshold raises the question whether the Okubo-Zweig-Iizuka (OZI) rule is applicable in low-energy nucleon-nucleon reactions. The angular distributions of the η meson produced in the pd → 3He η reaction are strongly enhanced for forward going η mesons at both energies. The σ(pd → 3He π+ π- π0 )/σ(pd → 3He π0 π0 π0 ) ratio has been measured and discussed in terms of isospin amplitudes. A rough estimate of the pd → 3He π0 π0 π0 π0 cross sections has also been obtained and the pd → 3He η π0 reaction has been studied for the first time near threshold.

In the friction stir welding (FSW) process, a high-speed rotating tool, which consists of the probe and the shoulder, are employed to plunge into the faying surfaces. By using the friction heating and the stirring action of the material, the solid-state welding is accomplished to joint two pieces of metal by material diffusion to form a densification structure in the weld. According to the experimental results, the mechanism of friction stir welding is as follows: the probe plunge into the sample and the shoulder is in contact with the sample to generate a large amount of friction heat, which causes the materials soft. When the probe moves forward, the soft materials in front of the probe are scratched. The scratched materials are subjected to the rotational and squeeze actions of the shoulder so that they are refilled into the welded surface behind the probe. For the dissimilar metals joint (6061-T6 aluminum and C1100 copper plates), results show that when C1100 copper is located at the advancing side, the measured feed force appears drastic changes and it is also seen that the components of the force for the friction-stir welding of dissimilar metals become more unstable than those for the same metals joint, so that the structure which has been observed by optical microscopy appears to be open with pores and defects so that the welded quality becomes poor. According to the three components of the measured force during FSW process, the friction between the probe and the work piece can be computed. By using the friction theory, the hardness and the yield strength of the materials in front of the probe can be calculated, and then the faying surface temperature is approximately predicted to be 565.5 oC.

abstract: Energy performance and efficiency plays of major role in the operations of K-12 schools, as it is a significant expense and a source of budgetary pressure upon schools. Energy performance is tied to the physical infrastructure of schools, as well as the operational and behavioral patterns they accommodate. Little documentation exists within the existing literature on the measured post-occupancy performance of schools once they have begun measuring and tracking their energy performance. Further, little is known about the patterns of change over time in regard to energy performance and whether there is differentiation in these patterns between school districts. This paper examines the annual Energy Use Intensity (EUI) of 28 different K-12 schools within the Phoenix Metropolitan Region of Arizona over the span of five years and presents an analysis of changes in energy performance resulting from the measurement of energy use in K-12 schools. This paper also analyzes the patterns of change in energy use over time and provides a comparison of these patterns by school district. An analysis of the energy performance data for the selected schools revealed a significant positive impact on the ability for schools to improve their energy performance through ongoing performance measurement. However, while schools tend to be able to make energy improvements through the implementation of energy measurement and performance tracking, deviation may exist in their ability to maintain ongoing energy performance over time. The results suggest that implementation of ongoing measurement is likely to produce positive impacts on the energy performance of schools, however further research is recommended to enhance and refine these results. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Construction 2015

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