Suchergebnisse

Point-of-care diagnostics in the developing world and resource-limited areas require numerous special design considerations to provide effective early detection of disease. Of particular need for these contexts are diagnostic technologies featuring low costs, ease of use, and broad applicability. Here we present a nanoparticle-inkjet-printable microfluidics-based platform that fulfills these criteria and that we expect to significantly reduce the footprint, complexity, and cost of clinical diagnostics. This reusable $0.01 platform is miniaturized to handle small sample volumes and can perform numerous analyses. It can perform complex, minimally invasive analyses of single cells without specialized equipment and personnel. This inexpensive, accessible platform has broad applications in precision diagnostics and is a step toward the democratization of medical technologies.

Purpose
– This participatory health research project of researchers and women prisoners examined housing and homelessness as perceived by incarcerated women to understand this public health concern and help guide policy. The paper aims to discuss these issues.


Design/methodology/approach
– A participatory research team designed and conducted a survey of 83 incarcerated women in BC, Canada. Using descriptive statistics, the authors examined socio-demographic factors related to social support networks and family housing and women's housing preference upon release.


Findings
– In total, 44 percent of participants reported no family home upon release while 31 percent reported lost family ties due to their incarceration. Most vulnerable subpopulations were women aged 25-34, aboriginal women and those with multiple incarcerations. Housing preferences differed between participants suggesting needs for varied options. Further implementation, evaluation and appraisal of social programs are required.


Research limitations/implications
– This study surveyed one correctional facility: future research could utilize multiple centers.


Practical implications
– Addressing housing instability among released incarcerated individuals is important fiscally and from a public health lens. Improved discharge planning and housing stability is needed through policy changes and social programs. A social support network, "Women in2 Healing," has developed from the research group to address these issues.


Social implications
– Housing stability and recidivism are closely linked: providing stable housing options will lessen the social, fiscal and medical burden of individuals returning to crime, substance abuse, illness and poverty.


Originality/value
– Housing instability addresses an important social determinant of health and focussing on incarcerated women builds upon a small body of literature.

Objective: The current study is intended to evaluate the stability of a scissor lift and the performance of various fall-arrest harnesses/lanyards during drop/fall-arrest conditions and to quantify the dynamic loading to the head/neck caused by fall-arrest forces. Background: No data exist that establish the efficacy of fall-arrest systems for use on scissor lifts or the injury potential from the fall incidents using a fall-arrest system. Method: The authors developed a multibody dynamic model of the scissor lift and a human lift operator model using ADAMS™ and LifeMOD™ Bio-mechanics Human Modeler. They evaluated lift stability for four fall-arrest system products and quantified biomechanical impacts on operators during drop/fall arrest, using manikin drop tests. Test conditions were constrained to flat surfaces to isolate the effect of manikin-lanyard interaction. Results: The fully extended scissor lift maintained structural and dynamic stability for all manikin drop test conditions. The maximum arrest forces from the harnesses/lanyards were all within the limits of ANSI Z359.1. The dynamic loading in the lower neck during the fall impact reached a level that is typically observed in automobile crash tests, indicating a potential injury risk for vulnerable participants. Conclusion: Fall-arrest systems may function as an effective mechanism for fall injury protection for operators of scissor lifts. However, operators may be subjected to significant biomechanical loadings on the lower neck during fall impact. Application: Results suggest that scissor lifts retain stability under test conditions approximating human falls from predefined distances but injury could occur to vulnerable body structures.

A celebratory collection of essays on philosophy, rights and natural law, inspired by the work of Knud HaakonssenOver his long and illustrious career, Knud Haakonssen has explored the role of natural law in formulating doctrines of obligation and rights in accordance with the interests of early modern polities and churches. A hallmark of his approach has been to show how natural law in early modern Europe was not a unified doctrine, but a field of crosscutting idioms that prosecuted competing political and juridical programmes.The essays collected in this volume range across this exciting and contested field. These studies acknowledge Haakonssen's immense academic achievement and give us new insights into the cultural and political role of law and rights in a variety of historical contexts and circumstances. Key FeaturesCrosses national, disciplinary, intellectual and ideological bordersDeals with a wide range of contexts and aspects over a chronological period from the Reformation to the aftermath of the French RevolutionCovers an unusually wide range of questions at the intersection between natural law, religion and politicsContributors include Maria Rosa Antognazza, James Harris, Simone Zurbuchen and John Cairns"