The focus of this study was to explore women’s experiences with follow-up after an abnormal mammogram, and factors that influence follow-up. Factors, including health status, found in the cancer screening and treatment literature, are necessary in identifying variables which have the potential to affect a person’s perception, and promote or deter follow-up. Protection Motivation Theory constructs utilized in this study are found in the literature to improve diagnostic health behaviors such as performing breast self-examination and complying with diagnostic tests. A non-experimental, descriptive, cross-sectional design was used to identify the barriers to follow-up after an abnormal mammogram by: 1) determining the noncompliance rate of follow-up mammograms among women screened at an urban hospital’s mammography mobile unit in North Texas (October 1, 2004, to September 31, 2005) who were found to need further evaluation for suspected abnormal findings; and 2) identifying factors associated with noncompliance and perceived barriers to noncompliance. The sample consisted of 262 participants, 136 (52%) women whom the hospital reported had not returned for follow-up and 126 (48%) women who were reported to have returned. A logistic regression model was performed using follow-up as the dependent variable. The variables most related to follow-up were (1) number of mammograms in the last 5 years; (2) having health insurance; (3) having problems receiving abnormal mammogram results; (4) having problems receiving or making a follow-up appointment; (5) taking off from work for the follow-up appointment; (6) not having transportation to follow-up appointment; and (7) waiting a long time to receive the follow-up appointment. Non-compliance to recommended follow-up after an abnormal mammogram is a serious public health concern, since breast cancer screening can improve breast cancer outcomes only if prompt diagnostic resolution and access to state-of-the-art care is available to all screening participants. This study adds to the literature on predictors of follow-up after an abnormal mammogram, as well as the to the health disparities literature.

At the beginning of the 2004-2005 school year, school librarians participated in a face-to-face workshop during in-service training. The workshop dealt with the process of creating a TAKS Support Plan, a plan for the library to remediate deficiencies on the TAKS at their school. At the conclusion of the workshop, school librarians were given the opportunity to participate in an eight-week online follow-up course that supported implementation of in-service themes. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of online follow-up and collaboration on participant attitudes, quality of course product, and course completion in an online professional development course for librarians in 12 Texas school districts. This study used a posttest-only control group experimental design with self-selected participants. School librarians were stratified by level of service and socioeconomic school status and were randomly assigned to one of three environments. Two experimental environments were used: (a) Collaborative Follow-up and (b) Noncollaborative Follow-up and a control environment, Noncollaborative/No Follow up. The experimental environments were given additional information and support in an online course to aid the creation of their TAKS Support Plan. Results indicate that the professional development program that included online collaboration and follow-up produced more positive attitudes towards the professional development program than the professional development program with no collaboration or follow-up. Attitudes towards the online professional development experience from the two experimental environments were mildly positive with no significant difference across groups. Attitudes towards the professional development experience in the control environment were significantly less positive than the experimental environments. Logistic regression revealed that the likelihood of completion could be predicted by membership in professional development environment. The likelihood of completion by participants in the Collaborative Followup environment was significantly greater than participants in the Noncollaborative Follow-up and Noncollaborative/No Follow-up environments. No difference was found in completion rates between the other two environments. Credential proved to effect TAKS Support Plan completion. Master's degree holders in the Noncollaborative Follow-up environment and master's and bachelor's degree holders in the Noncollaborative/No Follow-up environment were less likely to complete than these levels in the Collaborative Follow-up environment.

It is important to estimate the quantity of wave run-up and overtopping in seawall design. Previous study on the investigations of run-up is carried out mostly in the laboratories, it seldom perform in field measurements. About previous wave run-up equation can¡¦t accurately estimate run-up elevation. According to run-up data, this study hope that it can make the formula to meet the actual local situation. It can have a better reference by designing coastal structures. This paper study wave run-up during five typhoons by Kalmaegi ,Fung-Wong,Nuri, Hagupit,and Jangmi. It measuring wave height , water level,and topography. These data show that the run-up elevation in bay higher than in breakwater. It shows that wave pass through a submerged breakwater can decay wave height. Analysis of measured data and found that when the wave height is about 1~4 meter with 1/(H0/L0)0.5 has a good correlation. It similar to some past researchers. Experience equations close to measured value when wave height smaller than 4 meter. When wave height more than 4 meter, the empirical prediction value is larger than measured value. Wave run-up doesn¡¦t have good theory, and experience equations different about every field. The empirical equations depends on the scene to investigate the effects of various parameter.

I grew up in the suburbs, and perhaps I am embarrassed to admit it. But there is no use denying it. It???s written all over my face. Even though I have been away for nearly a decade, the residue of that past life still lingers. I am civilized, programmed to perform in a manner that best suits society at this present time. I move in unison with the other bodies around me, abiding by the unwritten suburban rules of conduct to avoid any confrontation, as our daily routines follow our individual agendas. Suburbia follows me wherever I go. It is the only kind of person I know how to be. For fear of breaking any rules I retaliate only in my dreams. I hate this life. I was Growing Up Absurd, like all the young boys, and all the young men social critic, Paul Goodman, describes in his book of the same title; a dilemma preventing these young boys from growing into real men with honor, purpose, without a real understanding of the society in which he is living, but rather, is conditioned to participate in a way that best suites his society. In Walden, Henry David Thoreau states, ???The greater part of what my neighbors call good I believe in my soul to be bad, and if I repent of anything, it is very likely to be my good behavior. What demon possessed me that I behaved so well???? What demon indeed. The suburb, an invention of postwar culture that articulated a generation???s need for security, peace, and privacy after a time of great tragedy, embodied a marketable product based on an illusion, the Dream Life, an artificial empire that has suppressed the imaginative possibilities for human existence. As an instrument to understand my own dissatisfaction with the suburbs, this thesis investigates the Psychogeography of this suburban landscape. It is as much a reflection of my own struggle to cope with such a lifestyle as it is an account of how the behavior of a suburban population can be conditioned to submit to the authority of their immediate built environment.

No description available.

Zugl.: Mainz, Univ., Diss., 2008

No description available.

A study on the effects of increased ignition energy on cold start hydrocarbon emissions was conducted. The tests were conducted on a single cylinder ASTM-CFR engine. The engine was outfitted with EFI, exhaust analyzers, and temperature probes. The engine was also modified to produce cold start conditions rapidly after each run. For the experiment the engine was started from 18° C using three increasing ignition energy levels. The first level of ignition energy was the ignition energy produced by the stock CFR engine's ignition system. The second and third increased ignition energy levels were obtained by adding 0.387 joules and 1.187 joules to the stock output through a supplementary ignition system. Startup emissions and the number of cycles until the first successful fire were measured. The results of the tests show a 14% decrease in the average peak hydrocarbon (HC) concentration levels at the highest ignition energy. Overall reduction in HC was less. The variance in the peak HC levels was reduced at the highest ignition energy setting. CO production was increased in response to the increase in HC consumption. The spread in measured number of cycles until first fire was decreased at the highest ignition energy level. Although positive results were obtained, the test apparatus had some problem areas that may have reduced the effectiveness of the high energy ignition system. Based on what was learned recommendations on apparatus refinements and further tests were included. / Master of Science

Hasta el 2012, con la digitalización de las señales de televisión por satélite, por cable y últimamente también de la televisión terrestre, se vienen presentando en el país requerimientos técnicos similares a los de países denominados desarrollados, con un dinamismo cada vez mayor que ha obligado la creación de empresas locales altamente especializadas en la implementación de Up Links para DTH, transmisiones deportivas con tecnología digital de última generación, inserción de nuevos canales en las grandes cabeceras CATV, la centralización de canales en las mismas, etc. El día a día de éste tipo de empresas es la configuración en planta y la instalación de complejos sistemas que incluyen encoders, multiplexers, amplificadores, decoders, módems, routers, antenas parabólicas con diámetros que van desde 1.2m hasta 9m. Los cálculos de enlace (link budget) son realizados ahora localmente sin depender ya de los cálculos de los operadores satelitales, para lo cual se emplean programas de computador avanzados y precisos.

O filme Blow-up desloca os seus espectadores para uma situação de aporia: nossos sentidos são capazes de apreender o real tal como ele é, ou, pelo contrário, falseiam a realidade? O nosso conhecimento do mundo possibilita somente uma percepção limitada e carregada de valores? Este relativismo acompanhou o debate acerca da epistemologia e as ciências ao longo do tempo e passou por um afunilamento agudo na contemporaneidade. Para lançar luz sobre o tema, Nietzsche é um autor privilegiado e incontornável no sentido de elaborar uma perspectiva a respeito do conhecimento histórico. Ao mesmo tempo, Blow-up é uma metáfora epistemológica da filosofia nietzscheana. Logo, essa relação entre ficção, história e filosofia vai muito além do mero espelhamento e incide diretamente na maneira que se compreende as condições metodológicas e teóricas de pesquisa do historiador e, por conseguinte, da escrita da história. / Blow-up is a film that brings its viewers into contact with a situation of aporia: are our faculties capable to grasp what is real as it really is, or, do they distort reality? Does our knowledge about the world only permit a limited perception charged with values? This relativism accompanied the debate about epistemology and the sciences over time and went through a severe process of change in contemporaneity. Therefore, Nietzsche is a privileged and an unavoidable author, in the sense of elaborating a perspective on historical knowledge, to cast light on the subject. At the same time, Blow-up is an epistemology metaphor of the nietzschean philosophy. Consequently, the relationship among fiction, history and philosophy goes beyond reflecting because it affects directly on how research methodological and theoretical circumstances of the historians are understood, as well as how history is written.