Older women play cards at the YWCA

General note: Title and date provided by Bettye Lane.

Photo of cards handed out by police to female students at Rutgers University

General note: Title and date provided by Bettye Lane.

Information Presentation Features and Comprehensibility of Hospital Report Cards: Design Analysis and Online Survey Among Users

Background: Improving the transparency of information about the quality of health care providers is one way to improve health care quality. It is assumed that Internet information steers patients toward better-performing health care providers and will motivate providers to improve quality. However, the effect of public reporting on hospital quality is still small. One of the reasons is that users find it difficult to understand the formats in which information is presented. Objective: We analyzed the presentation of risk-adjusted mortality rate (RAMR) for coronary angiography in the 10 most commonly used German public report cards to analyze the impact of information presentation features on their comprehensibility. We wanted to determine which information presentation features were utilized, were preferred by users, led to better comprehension, and had similar effects to those reported in evidence-based recommendations described in the literature. Methods: The study consisted of 5 steps: (1) identification of best-practice evidence about the presentation of information on hospital report cards; (2) selection of a single risk-adjusted quality indicator; (3) selection of a sample of designs adopted by German public report cards; (4) identification of the information presentation elements used in public reporting initiatives in Germany; and (5) an online panel completed an online questionnaire that was conducted to determine if respondents were able to identify the hospital with the lowest RAMR and if respondents’ hospital choices were associated with particular information design elements. Results: Evidence-based recommendations were made relating to the following information presentation features relevant to report cards: evaluative table with symbols, tables without symbols, bar charts, bar charts without symbols, bar charts with symbols, symbols, evaluative word labels, highlighting, order of providers, high values to indicate good performance, explicit statements of whether high or low values indicate good performance, and incomplete data (“N/A” as a value). When investigating the RAMR in a sample of 10 hospitals’ report cards, 7 of these information presentation features were identified. Of these, 5 information presentation features improved comprehensibility in a manner reported previously in literature. Conclusions: To our knowledge, this is the first study to systematically analyze the most commonly used public reporting card designs used in Germany. Best-practice evidence identified in international literature was in agreement with 5 findings about German report card designs: (1) avoid tables without symbols, (2) include bar charts with symbols, (3) state explicitly whether high or low values indicate good performance or provide a “good quality” range, (4) avoid incomplete data (N/A given as a value), and (5) rank hospitals by performance. However, these findings are preliminary and should be subject of further evaluation. The implementation of 4 of these recommendations should not present insurmountable obstacles. However, ranking hospitals by performance may present substantial difficulties.

Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program Recipe Cards

These are cards giving recipes for fruit and vegetable dishes. Recipes include: confetti bean salsa, Mediterranean quinoa salad, minty watermelon cucumber salad, quick refrigerator pickles, broccoli salad, apple, cranberry and almond coleslaw, farmers’ market pasta salad, roasted beet and butter bean hummus, spinach and strawberry pecan salad, okra, avocado and tomato salad, plum-berry mint smoothie and crispy baked vegetables.

Poliittisten ilmausten kääntäminen House of Cards -televisiosarjassa

Tässä pro gradu -tutkielmassani tutkin, miten Yhdysvaltain poliittiseen järjestelmään liittyvät ilmaukset on käännetty erään tv-sarjan ranskan- ja suomenkielisiin tekstityksiin. Tutkimusaineistona on amerikkalainen tv-sarja House of Cards, jonka on alun perin julkaissut suoratoistopalvelu Netflix. Suomenkieliset tekstitykset on kerätty Suomen Netflixistä, ranskankieliset amazon.com -sivulta ostetulta DVD:ltä. Tutkimuskohteena ovat ilmauksissa käytetyt käännösstrategiat. Oletan, että ilmaukset on käännetty joko virallisia vastineita hyväksi käyttäen tai yleistämällä. Pohjaan tutkimuksen Pedersenin (2011, 75) käännösstrategialuokitteluun. Valitsin aiheen, koska olen kiinnostunut poliittisista järjestelmistä ja halusin tietää, millä tavoin tietyn valtion politiikkaan liittyvät ilmaukset on käännetty hyvin perinteisen valtavirtaisen saippuasarjan tekstityksiin. Teoriaosuudessa esittelen tutkimukseen liittyvien maiden poliittiset järjestelmät tai lähinnä hieman niiden toimintaa sekä pääinstituutiot. Tämä auttaa lukijaa ymmärtämään paremmin tv-sarjassa käytettyjä ilmauksia. Poliittisten järjestelmien selvitys osoittaa myös itse tutkimuksessa, onko niiden eroilla vaikutusta käännöksiin. Lisäksi kerron audiovisuaalisesta kääntämisestä, vertailen dubbausta ja tekstittämistä sekä erittelen tekstittämisen haasteita. Varsinkin tekniikan luomat rajoitteet kuten tilanpuute vaikuttavat lopputulokseen. Lopulta käyn läpi, mitä ovat käännösstrategiat, millä tavoin ne vaikuttavat käännökseen ja miten niitä on luokiteltu. Lopuksi vertailen luokitteluja ja kerron, miksi pohjasin tutkimukseni Pedersenin (2011, 75) luokitteluun. Tutkimuksessa esittelen ilmausten kääntämistä käännösstrategioiden kautta. Kuten oletinkin, moniin ilmauksiin löytyy virallinen vastine. Mielenkiintoinen tulos oli kuitenkin, että sekä suomen- että ranskankielen kääntäjä on käyttänyt hyvin selkeästi tiettyä strategiaa tietyn ilmauksen kohdalla. Monesti tämä strategia on lisäksi ollut sama molemmissa käännöksissä. Tutkimuksesta tämä käy ilmi esimerkkirepliikeistä, joita olen kerännyt taulukoihin. Taulukoista näkyy kaikki tutkimukseen liittyvät kielet: englanti, suomi ja ranska. Mielenkiintoista olisi nähdä, onko esimerkiksi sarjan toisella kaudella ilmaukset käännetty samoja käännösstrategioita käyttäen tai millä tavoin politiikkaan liittyviä ilmauksia käsitellään muiden kielten tekstityksissä. Saattaa olla, että tämän kaltaisen valtavirtaan sopivan tv-sarjan tekstitykset ovat hyvin samanlaisia, jokin toisenlainen tv-ohjelma tai elokuva voisi käyttää täysin eri käännösstrategioita.

The devil's picture-books. A history of playing cards,

Mode of access: Internet.

Hoyle's games : illustrated edition. Embracing all the most modern modes of play, and the rules practised at the present time, in billiards, whist, draughts, cribbage, backgammon, and all other fashionable games; together with sixteen games adapted to the new Yankee-notion cards. Also the whole of Frer̀e's chess hand-book. Containing, besides elementary instruction and the laws of chess, about fifty select games by the first players, endings of games, and the defeat of the muzio gambit. Also, thirty-six of the choicest chess problems, and a description of, and rules for, four-handed chess /

Classified for chess; Frère's chess hand-book, p. 229-324.

The compleat gamester : or, Full and easy instructions for playing at above twenty several games upon the cards with variety of diverting fancies and tricks upon the same now first added ; as likewise at all the games on the tables, together with the royal game of chess and billiards.

Mode of access: Internet.

Improved Electronics for the Hall A Detectors at JLab: Summing Modules and VDC Amplifier/Discriminator Cards

Testing of summing electronics and VDC A/D Cards was performed to assure proper functioning and operation within defined parameters. In both the summing modules and the VDC A/D cards, testing for minimum threshold voltage for each channel and crosstalk between neighboring channels was performed. Additionally, the modules were installed in Hall A with input signals from shower detectors arranged to establish a trigger by summing signals together with the use of tested modules. Testing involved utilizing a pulser to mimic PMT signals, a discriminator, an attenuator, a scaler, a level translator, an oscilloscope, a high voltage power supply, and a special apparatus used to power and send signal to the A/D cards. After testing, modules were obtained that meet necessary criteria for use in the APEX experiment, and the A/D cards obtained were determined to have adequate specifications for their utilization, with specific results included in the appendix.

Exploring Calling Work Orientation: Construct Clarity and Organizational Implications

Employees maintain a personal view toward their work, which can be referred to as their work orientation. Some employees view their work as their life’s purpose (i.e., calling work orientation) and they tend to be 1) prosocially motivated, 2) derive meaning from work, and 3) feel that their purpose is from beyond the self. The purpose of the current dissertation was to differentiate calling work orientation from other similar workplace constructs, to investigate the most common covariates of calling work orientation, and to empirically test two possible moderators of the relationship between calling work orientation and work-related outcomes of job satisfaction, job performance, and work engagement. Two independent samples were collected for the purpose of testing hypotheses: data were collected from 520 working students and from 520 non-student employees. Participants from the student sample were recruited at Florida International University, and participants from the employee sample were recruited via the Amazon Mechanical Turk website. Participants from the student sample answered demographic questions and responded to self-report measures of job satisfaction, job performance, work engagement, spirituality, meaningful work, prosocial motivation, and work orientation. The procedure was similar for the employee sample, but their survey also included measures of counterproductive work behaviors, organizational citizenship behaviors, conscientiousness, and numerical ability. Additionally, employees were asked whether they would be willing to have a direct supervisor, peer, co-worker, client, or subordinate rate their job performance. Hierarchical regression findings suggest calling work orientation was predictive of overall job performance above and beyond two common predictors of performance, conscientiousness and numerical ability. The results for the covariate analyses provided evidence that prosocial motivation, meaningful work, and spirituality do play a significant role in the development of an employees’ work orientation. Perceived career opportunities moderated the relationship between calling work orientation and job performance for the employee sample. Core self-evaluations moderated the relationship between calling work orientation and job performance, and core self-evaluations moderated the relationship between calling work orientation and work engagement. Collectively, findings from the current study highlight the benefits of examining work orientation in the prediction of workplace outcomes.

Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program Recipe Cards

These are cards giving recipes for fruit and vegetable dishes. Recipes include: confetti bean salsa, Mediterranean quinoa salad, minty watermelon cucumber salad, quick refrigerator pickles, broccoli salad, apple, cranberry and almond coleslaw, farmers’ market pasta salad, roasted beet and butter bean hummus, spinach and strawberry pecan salad, okra, avocado and tomato salad, plum-berry mint smoothie and crispy baked vegetables.

Love’s Calling How eroticism encourages religious intentions in "Joseph and Aseneth" and the "AEthiopika"

Ce mémoire s’intéresse à l’emploi de l’érotisme et de l’amour comme outils littéraires dans deux romans de l’Antiquité. Le texte principal est un écrit dérivé de la Torah intitulé Joseph et Aséneth. Le second est le roman grec d’Héliodore d’Émèse, Les Éthiopiques. Puisque tout auteur, peu importe sa foi, avait une éducation hellénique semblable, on retrouve des motifs similaires dont les détails se distinguent et les buts sont aux antipodes dans ces textes. Dans le cas de cette recherche, il s’agit de deux oeuvres du genre romanesque écrites en grec qui emploient chacune une histoire romantique à des fins édifiantes. Les buts de cette analyse sont triples. Ce travail cherche à montrer que Joseph et Aseneth a droit au titre de « roman grec, » de qualifier les expériences religieuses présentées dans ces oeuvres et de participer au débat sur la datation de Joseph et Aseneth par une étude comparée. Cette recherche se divise en trois sections. D’abord, le topos bien connu des romans a été analysé : la maladie d’amour. Dans les deux cas, le coup de foudre et la maladie émotionnelle qui s’en suit ont été dévoilés comme moteur important de la trame narrative, ainsi qu’une manière d’introduire des thèmes religieux ou philosophiques. En second lieu, les paroles des personnages au sujet de l’amour et le mariage ont été considérées. Puisque les protagonistes refusent le mariage initialement, les raisons données pour ce refus ont été révélatrices encore une fois de soucis sociaux, soit religieux, soit politiques. En dernier lieu, la relation entre le couple romantique et les dieux présents dans ces récits a été analysée. Les deux romans témoignent de la croyance contemporaine du grand rôle des dieux dans la vie des humains. Cette implication divine dans la vie mortelle s’est manifestée de manières différentes, car elle relève des buts divergents des deux romans. Le parallèle qui se présente est un lien individuel avec les dieux qui est évident dans les romans d’amour.

ALT 2017 Trustee and Vice-Chair Nomination Form and AGM Calling Notice

The calling notice for the ALT 2017 AGM to be held on 6 September 2017, and the nomination form for: 1) Vice-Chair of the Association (who becomes Chair, then President in successive years) to serve three years; 2) Trustees to serve three years (two vacancies). All nominations should be marked "Nominations" and sent to arrive by Friday 9 June 2017. Items may be submitted by post, to Maren Deepwell, Chief Executive, ALT, Gipsy Lane, Headington, Oxford OX3 0BP, UK, or email to maren.deepwell@alt.ac.uk.

Integrating structural variant calling, annotation and prioritization into whole genome analysis workflows: a practical application in the molecular diagnosis of neurodevelopmental disorders

Background: WGS is increasingly used as a first-line diagnostic test for patients with rare genetic diseases such as neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD). Clinical applications require a robust infrastructure to support processing, storage and analysis of WGS data. The identification and interpretation of SVs from WGS data also needs to be improved. Finally, there is a need for a prioritization system that enables downstream clinical analysis and facilitates data interpretation. Here, we present the results of a clinical application of WGS in a cohort of patients with NDD. Methods: We developed highly portable workflows for processing WGS data, including alignment, quality control, and variant calling of SNVs and SVs. A benchmark analysis of state-of-the-art SV detection tools was performed to select the most accurate combination for SV calling. A gene-based prioritization system was also implemented to support variant interpretation. Results: Using a benchmark analysis, we selected the most accurate combination of tools to improve SV detection from WGS data and build a dedicated pipeline. Our workflows were used to process WGS data from 77 NDD patient-parent families. The prioritization system supported downstream analysis and enabled molecular diagnosis in 32% of patients, 25% of which were SVs and suggested a potential diagnosis in 20% of patients, requiring further investigation to achieve diagnostic certainty. Conclusion: Our data suggest that the integration of SNVs and SVs is a main factor that increases diagnostic yield by WGS and show that the adoption of a dedicated pipeline improves the process of variant detection and interpretation.