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#9437.
2321) Bachelor of Science in Nursing
Gist
The BSc Nursing course duration is a four-year undergraduate course that prepares candidates who wish to become registered nurses. BSc Nursing typically includes a combination of classroom instruction and clinical training in various healthcare settings.
Summary
B. Sc. Nursing is a four-year undergraduate programme focused on developing critical care advanced thinking skills proficiency and values necessary for the practice of professional nursing and midwifery as mentioned in the National Health Policy 2002. The programme is streamlined to enable students to address the health needs of the nation society and individuals.The programme prepares students to become responsible citizens by following a code of moral values and conduct at all times while fulfilling personal social and professional responsibilities to respond to national objectives
B.Sc Nursing also comprises a Post-Basic course which is further divided into 2 categories, viz Regular and Distance. B.Sc Nursing Post-Basic Regular course is of 2-year duration and requires 10+2 education along with General Nursing and Midwifery (G.N.M) whereas distance course is of 3-year duration and requires 10+2 level of education along with G.N.M and 2 years of experience.
B. Sc. Nursing is a four-year undergraduate programme focused on developing critical care advanced thinking skills proficiency and values necessary for the practice of professional nursing and midwifery as mentioned in the National Health Policy 2002. The programme is streamlined to enable students to address the health needs of the nation society and individuals.The programme prepares students to become responsible citizens by following a code of moral values and conduct at all times while fulfilling personal social and professional responsibilities to respond to national objectives
B.Sc Nursing also comprises a Post-Basic course which is further divided into 2 categories, viz Regular and Distance. B.Sc Nursing Post-Basic Regular course is of 2-year duration and requires 10+2 education along with General Nursing and Midwifery (G.N.M) whereas distance course is of 3-year duration and requires 10+2 level of education along with G.N.M and 2 years of experience.
Details
The Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN, BScN) also known in some countries as a Bachelor of Nursing (BN) or Bachelor of Science (BS) with a Major in Nursing is an academic degree in the science and principles of nursing, granted by an accredited tertiary education provider. The course of study is typically three or four years. The difference in degree designation may relate to the amount of basic science courses required as part of the degree, with BScN and BSN degree curriculums requiring completion of more courses on math and natural sciences that are more typical of BSc degrees (e.g. calculus, physics, chemistry, biology) and BN curriculums more focused on nursing theory, nursing process, and teaching versions of general science topics that are adapted to be more specific and relevant to nursing practice. Nursing school students are generally required to take courses in social and behavioral sciences and liberal arts, including nutrition, anatomy, chemistry, mathematics, and English. In addition to those courses, experience in physical and social sciences, communication, leadership, and critical thinking is required for a bachelor's degree. BSN programs typically last 2–4 years. Someone who holds a BSN can work in private or public medical and surgical hospitals, physician's offices, home health care services, and nursing facilities. Having a BSN can result in more opportunities and better salary than just an associate degree.
The bachelor's degree prepares nurses for a wide variety of professional roles and graduate study. Course work includes nursing science, research, leadership, and related areas that inform the practice of nursing. It also provides the student with general education in math, humanities and social sciences. An undergraduate degree affords opportunities for greater career advancement and higher salary options. It is often a prerequisite for teaching, administrative, consulting and research roles.
A Bachelor of Science in Nursing is not currently required for entry into professional nursing in all countries. In the US, there has been an effort for it to become the entry-level degree since 1964, when the American Nurses Association (ANA) advanced the position that the minimum preparation for beginning professional nursing practice should be a baccalaureate degree education in nursing. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) affirmed in 2010 that nurses should achieve higher levels of education and training through an improved education system that promotes seamless academic progression.
Accreditation
The Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE) and the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing (ACEN) are the accreditation bodies for Bachelor of Science in Nursing programs in the United States. Both Commissions are officially recognized as national accreditation agencies that ensure quality standards for undergraduate to graduate nursing programs by the United States Secretary of Education.
Accelerated BSN programs
Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing programs allow those who already have a bachelor's degree in a non-nursing field to obtain their nursing degree at an accelerated rate, which is why they are also commonly referred to as "Second Degree Nursing Programs." These programs usually have strict prerequisites because the program coursework focuses solely on nursing. Accelerated BSN programs are typically anywhere from 12 to 24 months.
BSN Completion or "RN to BSN" Programs
These programs are intended specifically for nurses with a diploma or associate degree in nursing who wish to "top-up" their current academic qualifications to a Bachelor of Science in Nursing. A majority of these RN to BSN programs are offered online through colleges, universities, or other e-learning providers. pro In order to keep the programs up-to-date and relevant to the current healthcare system, the course material is updated regularly with feedback from registered nurses, nurse managers, healthcare professionals and even patients.
BSN entry level into nursing in the future
In 2011, The Institute of Medicine recommended that by 2020, 80 percent of RNs hold a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree. This was also noted in a report titled: Institute of Medicine's report on the Future of Nursing, and has been followed by a campaign to implement its recommendations. In this report a 2nd recommendation was made to focus on increasing the proportion of registered nurses (RNs) with a baccalaureate degree to 80% by 2020. Towards that effort the report recommends that educational associations, colleges, delivery organizations, governmental organizations, and funders develop the resources necessary to support this goal. These recommendations are consistent with other policy initiatives currently underway; for example, legislation requiring that nurses receive a baccalaureate degree within 10 years of initial licensure has been considered in New York, New Jersey, and Rhode Island.
Many of these recommendations are being driven by recent studies regarding patient outcomes and nursing education. Hospitals employing higher percentages of BSN-prepared nurses have shown an associated decrease in morbidity, mortality, and failure-to-rescue rates. Increasing the percentage of BSN nurses employed decreases by 10 percent the 30-day inpatient mortality and failure-to-rescue rates. Studies that provide this type of evidence-based practice encompass the ultimate purpose of a higher level of educated nurse workforce. It adds to support the ultimate mission of the Texas Board of Nursing (BON or Board), which is to protect and promote the welfare of the people of Texas by ensuring that each person holding a license as a nurse in this state is competent to practice safely.
Many healthcare leaders and institutions have increased expectations for evidence-based practice (EBP). The Institute of Medicine (IOM) aim was for 90% of clinical decisions to be evidence-based by 2020 (IOM, 2010).
Additional Information
Nursing is a rewarding, in-demand profession ideal for anyone who wants to make a difference in health care. Nurses have many career options, including working in clinical or non-clinical settings. One way to achieve a career in nursing is to earn a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree.
While you can pursue various educational pathways in nursing, a BSN degree is the preferred educational qualification by many employers. It is also the base prerequisite for the Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) degree and many advanced certifications you may want to pursue as you progress through your career.
What is a bachelor's in nursing degree?
A Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree, also known as a BSN, is a four-year undergraduate degree intended for learners who want to pursue a career as a registered nurse (RN) or beyond. It’s the foundational undergraduate degree for most careers in clinical nursing. With a BSN, you'll prepare for a career in nursing with foundational skills in pharmacology, anatomy, ethics in health care, and microbiology. BSN degrees have a clinical component where learners complete a set number of clinical hours before graduation. BSN students may also choose to concentrate on a specific field of nursing.
BSN degree programs can be completed online or in person, depending on the school. Some schools also offer bridge programs and accelerated BSN programs that may not take the entire four years to complete. Admittance requirements for a BSN include a high school or associate degree. GPA requirements, coursework, and previous experience in health care vary by program. Be sure to choose a BSN program that is accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE).
What is the difference between an RN and a BSN?
RN (registered nurse) is a licensure that qualifies you to practice nursing. To become an RN, you need to graduate from an accredited nursing program and pass the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN).
BSN (Bachelor of Science in Nursing) is a four-year undergraduate degree that prepares students for registered nursing practice. While a BSN is not mandatory for becoming an RN, it is the preferred credential for most nursing employers and opens doors to a wider range of career opportunities.
In short, BSN is a degree, while RN is a license to practice nursing.
How long does it take to earn a bachelor's in nursing?
It takes four years to earn a traditional BSN degree. Other types of BSN degrees will not take a full four years. Accelerated BSN degrees allow students who hold a bachelor's degree in another discipline to earn a BSN in 11 to 18 months, depending on the program. Bridge programs may also be available to RNs who hold an associate degree and want to earn a BSN degree. These programs are called RN to BSN and typically take about the same as other accelerated programs to complete, between 11 and 18 months.
Typical requirements for a BSN degree program
Requirements vary by BSN program, but typical requirements include GPA, SAT scores, degree program application, personal references, and relevant experiences related to nursing. Some specific admittance requirements that are typical of a BSN degree program include:
* High school diploma or GED
* GPA of 3.00-3.25 or higher (depends on school and program type)
* Successful completion of prerequisite high school and college coursework (chemistry, biology, and other science and math courses)
* Passing the SAT or TEAS (score requirements vary by school)
* Submission of nursing school application, which may include varying components such as an essay, letters of recommendation, and volunteer experience
Research requirements for entry prior to applying. Prepare to explain to the admissions department why you want to become a nurse and how this program can help you with your personal and professional goals. Most programs include an essay component, which gives you the chance to show your personality.
How much does a BS in nursing cost?
The average total cost of tuition to attend a bachelor's in nursing program ranges from $89,556 to over $200,000, with an average annual cost of $30,884, according to the National Center for Education Statistics . Prepare to pay registration, application, and technology fees. Most BSN students pay for their books and supplies, scrubs/uniforms, immunizations and physical examinations, insurance, and room and board if living on campus.
Factors that impact the total tuition cost for a BSN degree include whether the school is in or out of state and whether it is a public or private university. Public schools typically have lower overall tuition costs and more financial aid opportunities. Financial aid opportunities may be available to students through scholarships, government-funded aid, school-funded aid, and military discounts.
Common BSN concentrations
You may be able to choose a specialization or concentration while pursuing a BSN degree. Concentration options vary by school. Choosing to specialize in a certain area of nursing can positively impact your earning potential after graduation. With your BSN degree concentration, you may pursue specific nursing careers that may require additional certification, education, or experience. Here are a few common concentrations to consider:
* Adult health nursing: This concentration focuses on providing nursing care to adults, including assessing and managing chronic illnesses, acute medical conditions, and other health problems.
* Pediatric nursing: You will provide nursing care to children and adolescents, including the assessment and management of common pediatric health conditions.
* Mental health nursing: You'll provide nursing care for patients with mental health conditions, including assessment, intervention, and prevention of mental health problems.
* Obstetrics and gynecology nursing: You'll focus on caring for women during pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum and addressing their health concerns throughout their lifespans.
* Community health nursing: This concentration focuses on health promotion and disease prevention in the community. You'll learn to work with populations to address public health concerns, such as health education, community outreach, and disease prevention.
* Geriatric nursing: You will provide nursing care to older adults, including assessing and managing the unique health challenges faced by the elderly population.
* Nursing leadership: This concentration focuses on developing the skills and knowledge needed to effectively manage nursing teams, including leadership strategies, budgeting, staffing, and organizational behavior.
* Critical care nursing: You will prepare to provide specialized nursing care to critically ill or injured patients, often in settings such as intensive care units (ICUs). Students in this concentration learn to manage complex medical devices, interpret lab results, and make quick and informed decisions.
* Oncology nursing: You will care for patients with cancer. Students in this concentration learn about cancer biology, treatments, symptom management, and patient education. They also learn to provide compassionate care and support to patients and their families.
* Emergency nursing: This concentration focuses on providing nursing care in emergency situations, such as trauma, cardiac arrest, or other life-threatening conditions. You'll have the opportunity to learn to work in fast-paced and high-stress environments and to assess and stabilize patients quickly.
Common BSN coursework
Coursework as part of a BSN program helps you gain the skills necessary to provide medical care in various settings and understand the health care system. This coursework focuses on the foundational skills every nurse needs, whether working as an RN or specialized nurse. Common core BSN coursework may include:
* Biology
* Chemistry
* Clinical reasoning
* Ethics
* Foundations of nursing practice
* Human development
* Mental health
* Microbiology
* Nursing management
* Nutrition and diet
* Psychology
* Science and technology of nursing
* Statistics
BSN nursing students also complete a set number of clinical hours. The amount of hours required depends on the program you attend and ranges from 300 and 700 hours. Where you complete your clinical experience depends on your concentration, among other factors like location and availability.
Benefits of a bachelor's in nursing degree
Nurses are a necessity in health care. BSN degrees are the foundational degree for several jobs in health care, even those outside of nursing, and the first step to pursuing a career in nursing. Nurses are generally well respected in health care and get the opportunity to help others daily. You can create a long-term career in health care and reap the benefits as a BSN degree graduate, which might include:
* Higher earnings
BSN degree holders earn more than associate degree holders in the same position. Eligibility requirements for higher-paying nursing jobs likely include a BSN degree. As you gain experience in nursing, you can pursue higher-paying positions in specialized fields of nursing and even leadership positions. Many of these positions pay more and include additional benefits like bonuses, profit sharing, paid time off, and insurance options.
* Career opportunities
BSN graduates who pass the NCLEX-RN are open to various bachelor in nursing career paths. RNs are needed in many different settings, which provide BSN degree holders the opportunity to work with diverse populations. RNs can work in physicians’ offices, hospitals, nursing homes, or patients' homes. Employers of nurses include nonprofit organizations, government agencies, educational organizations, and more.
Advanced career opportunities in nursing will likely require a BSN degree to enroll in a master’s degree program in nursing or earn advanced certifications. For example, all APRN positions require an MSN degree and certification. Leadership positions also require further education. A BSN degree is a core requirement before attaining either of these qualifications. While a BSN degree is a core requirement before achieving these qualifications, some schools offer direct MSN programs that allow students to earn a master's in nursing with a non-nursing bachelor's degree.
* Job security
Most employers prefer hiring candidates with a BSN degree over an associate in nursing or other qualifications. Hospitals and other health care providers seek highly trained professionals to meet the demands of health care needs in the US. When you earn a BSN degree, you’re improving your chances of being hired and increasing job security.
* Advanced skills
BSN degree programs prepare students for the reality of a nursing career, which likely involves a skill set balanced in technical and personal skills key to professional success. It’s critical to know technical skills like the dynamics of human anatomy, but it’s also important to learn effective patient communication, critical thinking, and leadership skills. The coursework and clinical experience part of an accredited BSN degree program specifically focus on in-demand skills nurses need, meaning BSN graduates leave with a more advanced skill set than other non-nursing or lesser degrees.
Better patient outcomes
Multiple reports have shown that BSN-educated nurses provide better-quality care to patients. Higher-quality care equates to better patient outcomes, ranging from lower mortality rates to fewer errors. Employers seek BSN graduates for the advanced education tailored to the nursing profession. With a BSN degree diploma comes the knowledge that this candidate has real-world experience in clinical nursing and the training necessary to offer a higher level of care to patients of varying needs.
BSN job outlook
A BSN degree sets you up for a career in the nursing field. When choosing a BSN job, prepare to have many directions to take after graduation. Non-clinical nursing jobs in administration or operations, specialized nursing positions that focus on a certain disorder, condition, or disease, and nursing jobs providing care to a specific population are all possible with a BSN degree.
Most BSN graduates take the NCLEX-RN exam, which means you're officially a registered nurse (RN). This licensure is the prerequisite if you plan to enroll in a master’s program in nursing or gain certain specialized certifications. Most specialized nursing positions beyond an RN require an MSN degree and certification.
The outlook for BSN jobs is optimistic, as the need for medical care is continual. Between 2022 and 2032, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) expects a 6 percent growth rate for RNs .
Is a bachelor's in nursing right for you?
If you see yourself working in nursing or health care long-term, a BSN degree can provide you with the qualifications and credentials you’ll need to advance your career in health care. Nurses who gain professional experience can become specialized nurses who deliver babies, administer anesthesia, and even create and implement hospital policies. With so many directions to take your nursing career, a BSN is an assurance that you meet the educational requirements to pursue more advanced degrees and credentials.
Q: Why do hamburgers go to the gym?
A: To get better buns.
* * *
Q: Why did the fish stop lifting weights?
A: He pulled a mussel.
* * *
Q: Why did the bodybuilder grab a new shirt?
A: Someone told him he was ripped.
* * *
Q: Why do oysters go to the gym?
A: It's good for the mussel.
* * *
I asked a bodybuilder what he does for cardio and he said "I lift weights faster" .
* * *
Hi,
2274.
Chosen Quotes - VI
1. My becoming a film actor was more a twist of tale than a chosen course because I dared not to think I could ever become an actor. I couldn't even walk up on a stage and say 'Thank you' when we were to receive trophies at our sports meets at college. - Dilip Kumar
2. I have chosen this job. If I didn't like it, I would have chosen something else. I can't go out and say that 'I don't like it.' - Disha Patani
3. As is the case with politicians, actors are chosen by people. - Rishi Kapoor
4. The government should promote community nurseries of mangrove species and other appropriate tree species chosen under the coastal bio-shield and agro-forestry programmes. - M. S. Swaminathan
5. If you told me as a ten-year-old kid, loving tennis as I did, that I'd be plagued by injuries and have to finish early I'd still have chosen this life. - Mark Philippoussis
6. I have always enjoyed my work and have chosen only what I thought was interesting by way of a role. - Zeenat Aman
7. It's so important to be chosen for the national team. For the Copa America, for the World Cup, or just friendly matches, it's such an honour to reach that stage and be chosen for the team. People expect players to wear Brazil's shirt, win the title with pride, and keep winning. You have to have the mental strength to get over this pressure. - Zico
8. I could be making a lot more money now if I had chosen a different kind of movie, but none of that matters to me... I've done the parts I wanted to do. - Jessica Lange.
2133) Brian Schmidt
Gist:
Life
Brian Schmidt grew up in Missoula, Montana, where his father worked as a fisheries biologist. His family later relocated to Anchorage, Alaska. Schmidt received a PhD from Harvard University in 1993 and, moved to Australia the following year, where he was involved in building the High-Z Supernova Search Team, as a part of which he conducted his Nobel Prize-awarded work. Schmidt is a Professor at the Australian National University in Weston Creek, Australia. He is married with two children.
Work
The universe’s stars and galaxies are moving away from one another; the universe is expanding. Up until recently, the majority of astrophysicists believed that this expansion would eventually wane, due to the effect of opposing gravitational forces. Saul Perlmutter, Brian Schmidt, and Adam Riess studied exploding stars, called supernovae. Because the light emitted by stars appears weaker from a larger distance and takes on a reddish hue as it moves further from the observer, the researchers were able to determine how the supernovae moved. In 1998 they reached a surprising result: the universe is expanding at an ever-increasing rate.
Summary
Brian P. Schmidt (born February 24, 1967, Missoula, Montana, U.S.) is an astronomer who was awarded the 2011 Nobel Prize for Physics for his discovery of dark energy, a repulsive force that is the dominant component (73 percent) of the universe. He shared the prize with American physicist Saul Perlmutter and astronomer Adam Riess. Schmidt holds dual citizenship in Australia and the United States.
Schmidt received bachelor’s degrees in physics and astronomy from the University of Arizona, Tucson, in 1989. He received a master’s (1992) and a doctoral degree (1993) in astronomy from Harvard University, where he shared an adviser, Robert Kirshner, with Riess. From 1993 to 1994 he had a postdoctoral fellowship at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1995 he received a postdoctoral fellowship at the Australian National University, Canberra, where he held various positions, eventually becoming a professor in 2010 and a naturalized Australian citizen.
Schmidt’s work involved using supernovae to determine distances to faraway galaxies. In 1994 he and American astronomer Nicholas Suntzeff formed the High-Z SN Search team, an international group of astronomers that searched for Type Ia supernovae. Because these objects have roughly the same brightness, they can be used to accurately determine the distances to faraway galaxies and, thus, the expansion rate of the universe. Schmidt, Riess, and the team found in 1998 that Type Ia supernovae that exploded when the universe was younger were fainter than expected. Thus, the supernovae were farther away than expected. This implied that the expansion rate of the universe is faster now than it was in the past, a result of the current dominance of the repulsive action of dark energy. A team headed by Perlmutter independently reached the same conclusion. The acceleration of the universe was a startling result that completely changed cosmology; the majority of the universe’s mass-energy was of a completely unknown nature.
Details
Brian Paul Schmidt (born 24 February 1967) is an American Australian astrophysicist at the Australian National University's Mount Stromlo Observatory and Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics. He was the Vice-Chancellor of the Australian National University (ANU) from January 2016 to January 2024. He is known for his research in using supernovae as cosmological probes. He previously held a Federation Fellowship and a Laureate Fellowship from the Australian Research Council, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2012. Schmidt shared both the 2006 Shaw Prize in Astronomy and the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics with Saul Perlmutter and Adam Riess for providing evidence that the expansion of the universe is accelerating.
Schmidt, an only child, was born in Missoula, Montana, where his father Dana C. Schmidt was a fisheries biologist. When he was 13, his family relocated to Anchorage, Alaska.
Schmidt attended Bartlett High School in Anchorage, Alaska, and graduated in 1985. He has said that he wanted to be a meteorologist "since I was about five-years-old [but] ... I did some work at the USA National Weather Service up in Anchorage and didn't enjoy it very much. It was less scientific, not as exciting as I thought it would be—there was a lot of routine. But I guess I was just a little naive about what being a meteorologist meant." His decision to study astronomy, which he had seen as "a minor pastime", was made just before he enrolled at university. Even then, he was not fully committed: he said "I'll do astronomy and change into something else later", and just never made that change.
He graduated with a BS (Physics) and BS (Astronomy) from the University of Arizona in 1989. He received his AM (Astronomy) in 1992 and then PhD (Astronomy) in 1993 from Harvard University. Schmidt's PhD thesis was supervised by Robert Kirshner and used Type II Supernovae to measure the Hubble Constant.
While at Harvard, he met his future wife, the Australian (Jenny) Jennifer M. Gordon who was a PhD student in economics. In 1994, they moved to Australia.
Research and career
Schmidt was a postdoctoral research Fellow at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (1993–1994) before moving on to the ANU's Mount Stromlo Observatory in 1995.
In 1994, Schmidt and Nicholas B. Suntzeff formed the High-Z Supernova Search Team to measure the expected deceleration of the universe and the deceleration parameter (q0) using distances to Type Ia supernovae. In 1995, the HZT at a meeting at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian elected Schmidt as the overall leader of the HZT. Schmidt led the team from Australia and in 1998 in the HZT paper with first author Adam Riess the first evidence was presented that the universe's expansion rate is not decelerating; it is accelerating. The team's observations were contrary to the then-current models, which predicted that the expansion of the universe should be slowing down, and when the preliminary results emerged Schmidt assumed it was an error and he spent the next six weeks trying to find the mistake. But there was no mistake: contrary to expectations, by monitoring the brightness and measuring the redshift of the supernovae, they discovered that these billion-year old exploding stars and their galaxies were accelerating away from our reference frame. This result was also found nearly simultaneously by the Supernova Cosmology Project, led by Saul Perlmutter. The corroborating evidence between the two competing studies led to the acceptance of the accelerating universe theory and initiated new research to understand the nature of the universe, such as the existence of dark energy. The discovery of the accelerating universe was named 'Breakthrough of the Year' by Science in 1998, and Schmidt was jointly awarded the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics along with Riess and Perlmutter for their groundbreaking work.
Schmidt is currently leading the SkyMapper telescope Project and the associated Southern Sky Survey, which will encompass billions of individual objects, enabling the team to pick out the most unusual objects. In 2014 they announced the discovery of the first star which did not contain any iron, indicating that it is a very primitive star, probably formed during the first rush of star formation following the Big Bang.
He is the chairman of the board of directors of Astronomy Australia Limited, and he serves on the management committee of the ARC Centre of Excellence for All-Sky Astrophysics (CAASTRO). In July 2012 Schmidt was given a three-year appointment to sit on the Questacon Advisory Council. As of March 2017, Schmidt serves as a member of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists' Board of Sponsors.
ANU Vice-Chancellor
On 24 June 2015 it was announced Schmidt would replace Ian Young as the 12th Vice-Chancellor of the Australian National University, to commence his tenure on 1 January 2016. The Chancellor of the ANU, Professor Gareth Evans, said, "Brian Schmidt is superbly placed to deliver on the ambition of ANU founders – to permanently secure our position among the great universities of the world, and as a crucial contributor to the nation ... We had a stellar field of international and Australian candidates, and have chosen an inspirational leader. ... Brian's vision, vitality, global stature and communication skills are going to take our national university to places it has never been before." On 2 February 2023, Schmidt announced that he would be stepping down as vice chancellor at the end of the year.
Science advocacy
The publicity that came with winning the Nobel Prize has given Schmidt the opportunity to help the public understand why science is important to society, and to champion associated causes.
Public education
One of his first acts after winning the Nobel Prize was to donate $100,000 out of his prize money to the PrimaryConnections program, an initiative of the Australian Academy of Science that assists primary school teachers. He has continued to press for improvements to the public school system, particularly in the sciences and mathematical literacy (numeracy). He sees the major problem is that so few of the teachers are trained in "STEM" (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) disciplines. He used the opportunity of delivering a speech at the National Press Club to call for more focus on the public education system, including holding principals more accountable and the proper use of standardised testing, concluding with the warning that otherwise "the fundamental tenet of Australian democracy, that we all deserve a fair go, is at risk of being eroded away along with our public school system." At the other end of the spectrum, he also raises the profile of the matter by visiting primary schools personally to answer children's questions.
Funding for scientific and medical research
Schmidt is a strong supporter of funding scientific and medical research on a long-term, non-partisan basis driven by a national research strategy. He has often voiced his concern that the current year-to-year uncertainty and lack of co-ordination make it difficult to establish and staff large facilities, or to participate in multi-national ventures, and that scientists spend too much time applying for funding instead of doing research. Interviewed by the Australian Financial Review, Schmidt was characteristically forthright: "It's unclear to me whether or not we will continue to be a great astronomy nation... If we're damaged it will take 20 years to fix ourselves. It only takes one year to cause 20 years of damage."
Climate change
He urges people to pay attention to the consensus of expert opinions, instead of basing their conclusions on the incomplete information which they personally know. Launching the Australian Academy of Science's report "The science of climate change: questions and answers", Schmidt commented that "Whenever this subject comes up, it never ceases to amaze me how each person I meet suddenly becomes an expert... More surprising is the supreme confidence that non-experts (scientists and non-scientists alike) have in their own understanding of the subject." He even put up $10,000 of his own money in a bet with Maurice Newman, who is the chairman of the Prime Minister's Business Council, that global temperatures will rise. In 2015, he presented the Mainau Declaration 2015 on Climate Change on the final day of the 65th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting, which was signed by 76 Nobel Laureates and handed to then President of the French Republic, François Hollande, as part of the successful COP21 climate summit in Paris.
Awards and honours
Schmidt has received the Australian Government's inaugural Malcolm McIntosh Prize for achievement in the Physical Sciences in 2000, Harvard University's Bok Prize in 2000, the Australian Academy of Science's Pawsey Medal Medal in 2001, and the Astronomical Society of India's Vainu Bappu Medal in 2002. He was the Marc Aaronson Memorial Lecturer in 2005, the same year he received an ARC Federation Fellowship, and in 2006 he shared the Shaw Prize in Astronomy with Adam Riess and Saul Perlmutter. In 2009, he was awarded an Australian Laureate Fellowship.
Schmidt and the other members of the High-Z Team (the set defined by the co-authors of Riess et al. 1998) shared the 2007 Gruber Cosmology Prize, a $500,000 award, with Saul Perlmutter of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Supernova Cosmology Project (the set defined by the co-authors of Perlmutter et al. 1999) for their discovery of the accelerating expansion of the universe.
Schmidt, along with Riess and Perlmutter, jointly won the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics for their observations which led to the discovery of the accelerating universe.
Schmidt was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia in the 2013 Australia Day Honours. He was called "Australian of the Year" for 2011 by The Australian newspaper. He is a Fellow and council member of the Australian Academy of Science, The United States National Academy of Sciences, the Royal Society, and Foreign Member of the Spanish Royal Academy of Sciences.
Schmidt, Adam Riess, and the High-Z Supernova Search Team shared in the 2015 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics.
Hi,
#10187. In which year did Anna Karenina, a novel by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy, first published in book form?
#10188. In which year did The Apple Cart: A Political Extravaganza, a play by George Bernard Shaw wrote? (It is a satirical comedy about several political philosophies which are expounded by the characters, often in lengthy monologues.)
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#5775. What does the adjective murky mean?
#5776. What does the noun musculature mean?
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#2777. What does the medical term Pivmecillinam mean?
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#9436.
Hi,
#5954.
Hi,
2273.
Hi,
#5953.
Hi,
#2776. What does the medical term Ileus mean?
Hi,
#9435.
Hi,
2272.
Q: Did you hear about the weightlifting vegetable?
A: He was a muscle sprout.
* * *
Q: What does a bodybuilder do for cardio?
A: He lifts weights faster.
* * *
I don't always take a rest day but when I do, It's to give the weights a day off.
* * *
Q: Why couldn't the bodybuilder get evicted?
A: Because he was squatting.
* * *
Q: What happened when the bodybuilder brought a lion to the gym?
A: He got ripped to shreds.
* * *
Chosen Quotes - V
1. There is a general notion that playing a bubbly girl is undemanding and less challenging. But that's not the case. You need oodles of energy to bring out the spirit of a lively character. Besides, no two bubbly girls are the same. Every character I have played is different from the other. I love being chosen for such lively roles. - Genelia D'Souza
2. I don't have a burning desire to act, strangely enough. I don't know that if I hadn't been an actor as a young person, I don't know that I ever would have chosen this because it's not really my personality. - Jodie Foster
3. You learn from things that you experience in life. I'd never want to say that I regret anything or that anything was a mistake. Honestly, that isn't how I have chosen to live my life. - Kate Winslet
4. The director respects what they've hired you for and chosen you for: to do the part and respect what you're doing. - Robert De Niro
5. In Denver, I was a homebody, and that's a life I'd chosen with great happiness. I wanted that break from the arc lights and focus on building a lovely home, have some fun, look after my kids and do things that I had missed out on while pursuing my dream. - Madhuri Dixit
6. I was brought to Hollywood by Gene Roddenberry and Michael Eisner, chosen from 600 hopefuls to star in the original 'Star Trek' motion picture. The success of the film, coupled with the allure that I had shaved my head for the role, put a spotlight on me. - Persis Khambatta
7. The principle of democracy is all about delegation of power by the vast majority of citizens through a few chosen representatives chosen on merit and competence. - N. R. Narayana Murthy
8. To me, patriotism is about working ethically and wholeheartedly in our chosen field. - N. R. Narayana Murthy.
2320) Liver Transplant
Gist
A liver transplant is surgery to remove your diseased or injured liver and replace it with a healthy liver from another person, called a donor. If your liver stops working properly, called liver failure, a liver transplant can save your life.
Summary:
What is a liver transplant?
A liver transplant is surgery to replace a diseased liver with a healthy liver from another person. A whole liver may be transplanted or just part of one.
In most cases the healthy liver will come from an organ donor who has just died (a deceased donor).
Sometimes a healthy living person will donate part of their liver. A living donor may be a family member. Or it may be someone who isn't related to you but whose blood type is a good match.
People who donate part of their liver can have healthy lives with the liver that is left.
The liver is the only organ in the body that can replace lost or injured tissue (regenerate). The donor’s liver will soon grow back to normal size after surgery. The part that you receive as a new liver will also grow to normal size in a few weeks.
Why might I need a liver transplant?
You can’t live without a working liver. If your liver stops working correctly, you may need a transplant.
A liver transplant may be advised if you have end-stage liver disease (chronic liver failure). This is a serious, life-threatening liver disease. It can be caused by several liver conditions.
Cirrhosis is a common cause of end-stage liver disease. It's a chronic liver disease. It happens when healthy liver tissue is replaced with scar tissue. This stops the liver from working correctly.
Other diseases that may lead to end-stage liver disease or other reasons for liver transplant include:
* Acute hepatic necrosis. This is when tissue in the liver dies. Possible reasons include acute infections and reactions to medicine, illegal drugs, or toxins. For instance, an overdose of acetaminophen.
* Biliary atresia. A rare disease of the liver and bile ducts that occurs in newborns.
* Viral hepatitis. Hepatitis B or C are common causes.
* Alcoholic hepatitis. This results from long-term alcohol use.
* NAFLD (nonalcoholic fatty liver disease) or NASH (nonalcoholic steatohepatitis). With NAFLD, too much fat builds up in the liver and damages it. This isn't caused by alcohol use. NASH is a form of NAFLD that includes fat buildup, hepatitis, and liver cell damage.
* Bile duct cancer. Transplant may be an option for some people in very specific circumstances.
* Metabolic diseases. Disorders that change the chemical activity in cells affected by the liver.
* Cancer of the liver. This includes primary liver cancer, which is when tumors start in the liver. Having cirrhosis puts you at risk of liver cancer.
* Autoimmune hepatitis. A redness or swelling (inflammation) of the liver. It happens when your body’s disease-fighting system (immune system) attacks your liver.
Details
Liver transplantation or hepatic transplantation is the replacement of a diseased liver with the healthy liver from another person (allograft). Liver transplantation is a treatment option for end-stage liver disease and acute liver failure, although availability of donor organs is a major limitation. Liver transplantation is highly regulated, and only performed at designated transplant medical centers by highly trained transplant physicians. Favorable outcomes require careful screening for eligible recipients, as well as a well-calibrated live or deceased donor match.
Medical uses
Liver transplantation is a potential treatment for acute or chronic conditions which cause irreversible and severe ("end-stage") liver dysfunction. Since the procedure carries relatively high risks, is resource-intensive, and requires major life modifications after surgery, it is reserved for dire circumstances.
Judging the appropriateness/effectiveness of liver transplant on case-by-case basis is critically important (see Contraindications), as outcomes are highly variable.
The Model for End Stage Liver Disease (MELD score) for adults and the Pediatric End Stage Liver Disease (PELD score) for children younger than 12 years old are clinical scoring tools that take various clinical criteria into consideration and are used to assess the need for a liver transplant. Higher scores for each clinical scoring tool indicates a higher severity of liver disease, and thus a greater need for a liver transplant. In those with chronic liver disease, a decompensating event such as hepatic encephalopathy, variceal bleeding, ascites, or spontaneous bacterial peritonitis may also signal a new need for a liver transplant.
Contraindications
Although liver transplantation is the most effective treatment for many forms of end-stage liver disease, the tremendous limitation in allograft (donor) availability and widely variable post-surgical outcomes make case selection critically important. Assessment of a person's transplant eligibility is made by a multi-disciplinary team that includes surgeons, medical doctors, psychologists and other providers.
The first step in evaluation is to determine whether the patient has irreversible liver-based disease which will be cured by getting a new liver. Thus, those with diseases which are primarily based outside the liver or have spread beyond the liver are generally considered poor candidates. Some examples include:
* someone with advanced liver cancer, with known/likely spread beyond the liver. Or those with cancer of any type, if the cancer cannot be treated successfully without rendering them unsuitable for transplant (other than skin cancers).
* active illicit substance use
* anatomic abnormalities that prevent liver transplantation
* severe heart/lung disease, whether it is primary heart/lung disease, or brought on by the liver disease (unless the team thinks they can still proceed)
* HIV/AIDS, especially if it is not well-managed (some persons with HIV/AIDS that have very low or undetectable viral loads could still be eligible)
Importantly, many contraindications to liver transplantation are considered reversible; a person initially deemed "transplant-ineligible" may later become a favorable candidate if the circumstances change. Some examples include:
* partial treatment of liver cancer, such that risk of spread beyond liver is decreased (for those with primary liver cancer or secondary spread to the liver, the medical team will likely rely heavily on the opinion of the patient's primary provider, the oncologist, and the radiologist)
* cessation of substance use (time period of abstinence is variable)
* improvement in heart function, e.g. by percutaneous coronary intervention or bypass surgery
* treated HIV infection
Other conditions, including hemodynamic instability requiring vasopressor support, large liver cancers or those with invasion to blood vessels, intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma, frailty, fulminant liver failure with suspected brain injury, alcohol use disorder with recent alcohol consumption, cigarette smoking, inadequate social support, and nonadherence to medical management may disqualify someone from liver transplantation, however these cases are usually evaluated by the multi-disciplinary transplant team on an individual basis.
Risks/complications:
Graft rejection
After a liver transplantation, immune-mediated rejection (also known as rejection) of the allograft may happen at any time. Rejection may present with lab findings: elevated AST, ALT, GGT; abnormal liver function values such as prothrombin time, ammonia level, bilirubin level, albumin concentration; and abnormal blood glucose. Physical findings may include encephalopathy, jaundice, bruising and bleeding tendency. Other nonspecific presentation may include malaise, anorexia, muscle ache, low fever, slight increase in white blood count and graft-site tenderness.
Three types of graft rejection may occur: hyperacute rejection, acute rejection, and chronic rejection.
* Hyperacute rejection is caused by preformed anti-donor antibodies. It is characterized by the binding of these antibodies to antige* ns on vascular endothelial cells. Complement activation is involved and the effect is usually profound. Hyperacute rejection happens within minutes to hours after the transplant procedure.
* Acute rejection is mediated by T cells (versus B-cell-mediated hyperacute rejection). It involves direct cytotoxicity and cytokine mediated pathways. Acute rejection is the most common and the primary target of immunosuppressive agents. Acute rejection is usually seen within days or weeks of the transplant.
* Chronic rejection is the presence of any sign and symptom of rejection after one year. The cause of chronic rejection is still unknown, but an acute rejection is a strong predictor of chronic rejections.
Biliary complications
Biliary complications include biliary stenosis, biliary leak, and ischemic cholangiopathy. The risk of ischemic cholangiopathy increases with longer durations of cold ischemia time, which is the time that the organ does not receive blood flow (after death/removal until graft placement). Biliary complications are routinely treated with Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangiopancreatography (ERCP), percutaneous drainage, or sometimes re-operation.
Vascular complications
Vascular complications include thrombosis, stenosis, pseudoaneurysm, and rupture of the hepatic artery. Venous complications occur less often compared with arterial complications, and include thrombosis or stenosis of the portal vein, hepatic vein, or vena cava.
Technique
Before transplantation, liver-support therapy might be indicated (bridging-to-transplantation). Artificial liver support like liver dialysis or bioartificial liver support concepts are currently under preclinical and clinical evaluation. Virtually all liver transplants are done in an orthotopic fashion; that is, the native liver is removed and the new liver is placed in the same anatomic location. The transplant operation can be conceptualized as consisting of the hepatectomy (liver removal) phase, the anhepatic (no liver) phase, and the postimplantation phase. The operation is done through a large incision in the upper abdomen. The hepatectomy involves division of all ligamentous attachments to the liver, as well as the common bile duct, hepatic artery, all three hepatic veins and portal vein. Usually, the retrohepatic portion of the inferior vena cava is removed along with the liver, although an alternative technique preserves the recipient's vena cava ("piggyback" technique).
The donor's blood in the liver will be replaced by an ice-cold organ storage solution, such as UW (Viaspan) or HTK, until the allograft liver is implanted. Implantation involves anastomoses (connections) of the inferior vena cava, portal vein, and hepatic artery. After blood flow is restored to the new liver, the biliary (bile duct) anastomosis is constructed, either to the recipient's own bile duct or to the small intestine. The surgery usually takes between five and six hours, but may be longer or shorter due to the difficulty of the operation and the experience of the surgeon.
The large majority of liver transplants use the entire liver from a non-living donor for the transplant, particularly for adult recipients. A major advance in pediatric liver transplantation was the development of reduced size liver transplantation, in which a portion of an adult liver is used for an infant or small child. Further developments in this area included split liver transplantation, in which one liver is used for transplants for two recipients, and living donor liver transplantation, in which a portion of a healthy person's liver is removed and used as the allograft. Living donor liver transplantation for pediatric recipients involves removal of approximately 20% of the liver (Couinaud segments 2 and 3).
Further advance in liver transplant involves only resection of the lobe of the liver involved in tumors and the tumor-free lobe remains within the recipient. This speeds up the recovery and the patient stay in the hospital quickly shortens to within 5–7 days.
Radiofrequency ablation of the liver tumor can be used as a bridge while awaiting liver transplantation.
Cooling
Between removal from donor and transplantation into the recipient, the allograft liver is stored in a temperature-cooled preservation solution. The reduced temperature slows down the process of deterioration from normal metabolic processes, and the storage solution itself is designed to counteract the unwanted effects of cold ischemia. Although "static" cold storage method has long been standard technique, various dynamic preservation methods are under investigation. For example, systems which use a machine to pump blood through the explanted liver (after it is harvested from the body) during a transfer have met some success.
Living donor transplantation
Living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) has emerged in recent decades as a critical surgical option for patients with end stage liver disease, such as cirrhosis and/or hepatocellular carcinoma often attributable to one or more of the following: long-term alcohol use disorder, long-term untreated hepatitis C infection, long-term untreated hepatitis B infection. The concept of LDLT is based on the remarkable regenerative capacities of the human liver and the widespread shortage of cadaveric livers for patients awaiting transplant. In LDLT, a piece of healthy liver is surgically removed from a living person and transplanted into a recipient, immediately after the recipient's diseased liver has been entirely removed.
Historically, LDLT began with terminal pediatric patients, whose parents were motivated to risk donating a portion of their compatible healthy livers to replace their children's failing ones. The first report of successful LDLT was by Silvano Raia at the University of São Paulo Faculty of Medicine in July 1989. It was followed by Christoph Broelsch at the University of Chicago Medical Center in November 1989, when two-year-old Alyssa Smith received a portion of her mother's liver. Surgeons eventually realized that adult-to-adult LDLT was also possible, and now the practice is common in a few reputable medical institutes. It is considered more technically demanding than even standard, cadaveric donor liver transplantation, and also poses the ethical problems underlying the indication of a major surgical operation (hemihepatectomy or related procedure) on a healthy human being. In various case series, the risk of complications in the donor is around 10%, and very occasionally a second operation is needed. Common problems are biliary fistula, gastric stasis and infections; they are more common after removal of the right lobe of the liver. Death after LDLT has been reported at 0% (Japan), 0.3% (USA) and <1% (Europe), with risks likely to decrease further as surgeons gain more experience in this procedure. Since the law was changed to permit altruistic non-directed living organ donations in the UK in 2006, the first altruistic living liver donation took place in Britain in December 2012.
In a typical adult recipient LDLT, 55 to 70% of the liver (the right lobe) is removed from a healthy living donor. The donor's liver will regenerate approaching 100% function within 4–6 weeks, and will almost reach full volumetric size with recapitulation of the normal structure soon thereafter. It may be possible to remove up to 70% of the liver from a healthy living donor without harm in most cases. The transplanted portion will reach full function and the appropriate size in the recipient as well, although it will take longer than for the donor.
Living donors are faced with risks and/or complications after the surgery. Blood clots and biliary problems have the possibility of arising in the donor post-op, but these issues are remedied fairly easily. Although death is a risk that a living donor must be willing to accept prior to the surgery, the mortality rate of living donors in the United States is low. The LDLT donor's immune system does diminish as a result of the liver regenerating, so certain foods which would normally cause an upset stomach could cause serious illness.
Donor requirements
CT scan performed for evaluation of a potential donor. The image shows an unusual variation of hepatic artery. The left hepatic artery supplies not only left lobe but also segment 8. The anatomy makes right lobe donation impossible. Even used as left lobe or lateral segment donation, it would be very technically challenging in anastomosing the small arteries.
Any member of the family, parent, sibling, child, spouse or a volunteer can donate their liver. The criteria for a liver donation include:
* Being in good health
* Having a blood type that matches or is compatible with the recipient's, although some centres now perform blood group incompatible transplants with special immunosuppression protocols.
* Having a charitable desire of donation without financial motivation
Being between 20 and 60 years old (18 to 60 years old in some places)
* Have an important personal relationship with the recipient
* Being of similar or larger size than the recipient
* Before one becomes a living donor, the donor must undergo testing to ensure that the individual is physically fit, in excellent health, and not having uncontrolled high blood pressure, liver disease, diabetes or heart disease. Sometimes CT scans or MRIs are done to image the liver. In most cases, the work up is done in 2–3 weeks.
Complications
Living donor surgery is done at a major center. Very few individuals require any blood transfusions during or after surgery. All potential donors should know there is a 0.5 to 1.0 percent chance of death. Other risks of donating a liver include bleeding, infection, painful incision, possibility of blood clots and a prolonged recovery. The vast majority of donors enjoy complete and full recovery within 2–3 months.
Pediatric transplantation
In children, due to their smaller abdominal cavity, there is only space for a partial segment of liver, usually the left lobe of the donor's liver. This is also known as a "split" liver transplant. There are four anastomoses required for a "split" liver transplant: hepaticojejunostomy (biliary drainage connecting to a roux limb of jejunum), portal venous anatomosis, hepatic arterial anastomosis, and inferior vena cava anastomosis.
In children, living liver donor transplantation has become very accepted. The accessibility of adult parents who want to donate a piece of the liver for their children/infants has reduced the number of children who would have otherwise died waiting for a transplant. Having a parent as a donor also has made it a lot easier for children – because both patients are in the same hospital and can help boost each other's morale.
Benefits
There are several advantages of living liver donor transplantation over cadaveric donor transplantation, including:
* Transplant can be done on an elective basis because the donor is readily available
* There are fewer possibilities for complications and death than there would be while waiting for a cadaveric organ donor
* Because of donor shortages, UNOS has placed limits on cadaveric organ allocation to foreigners who seek medical help in the USA. With the availability of living donor transplantation, this will now allow foreigners a new opportunity to seek medical care in the USA.
Screening for donors
Living donor transplantation is a multidisciplinary approach. All living liver donors undergo medical evaluation. Every hospital which performs transplants has dedicated nurses that provide specific information about the procedure and answer questions that families may have. During the evaluation process, confidentiality is assured on the potential donor. Every effort is made to ensure that organ donation is not made by coercion from other family members. The transplant team provides both the donor and family thorough counseling and support which continues until full recovery is made.
All donors are assessed medically to ensure that they can undergo the surgery. Blood type of the donor and recipient must be compatible but not always identical. Other things assessed prior to surgery include the anatomy of the donor liver. However, even with mild variations in blood vessels and bile duct, surgeons today are able to perform transplantation without problems. The most important criterion for a living liver donor is to be in excellent health.
Post-transplant immunosuppression
Like most other allografts, a liver transplant will be rejected by the recipient unless immunosuppressive drugs are used. The immunosuppressive regimens for all solid organ transplants are fairly similar, and a variety of agents are now available. Most liver transplant recipients receive corticosteroids plus a calcineurin inhibitor such as tacrolimus or ciclosporin, (also spelled cyclosporine and cyclosporin) plus a purine antagonist such as mycophenolate mofetil. Clinical outcome is better with tacrolimus than with ciclosporin during the first year of liver transplantation. If the patient has a co-morbidity such as active hepatitis B, high doses of hepatitis B immunoglubins are administered in liver transplant patients.
Due to both the pharmacological immunosuppression and the immunosuppression of underlying liver disease, vaccinations against vaccination-preventable diseases are highly recommended before and after liver transplantation. Vaccine hesitancy in transplant recipients is less than in the general population. Vaccinations are preferably administered to the recipient before the transplant, as post-transplant immunosuppression leads to reduced vaccine effectiveness.
Liver transplantation is unique in that the risk of chronic rejection also decreases over time, although the great majority of recipients need to take immunosuppressive medication for the rest of their lives. It is possible to be slowly taken off anti rejection medication but only in certain cases. It is theorized that the liver may play a yet-unknown role in the maturation of certain cells pertaining to the immune system. There is at least one study by Thomas E. Starzl's team at the University of Pittsburgh which consisted of bone marrow biopsies taken from such patients which demonstrate genotypic chimerism in the bone marrow of liver transplant recipients.
Recovery and outcomes
The prognosis following liver transplant is variable, depending on overall health, technical success of the surgery, and the underlying disease process affecting the liver. There is no exact model to predict survival rates; those with transplant have a 58% chance of surviving 15 years. Failure of the new liver (primary nonfunction in liver transplantation or PNF) occurs in 10% to 15% of all cases. These percentages are contributed to by many complications. Early graft failure is probably due to preexisting disease of the donated organ. Others include technical flaws during surgery such as revascularization that may lead to a nonfunctioning graft.
Additional Information:
Overview
* In a liver transplant, a donor liver connects to your portal vein and vena cava to replace your liver.
* You may need a liver transplant if you have liver cancer or liver failure. A liver transplant may save your life.
What is a liver transplant?
A liver transplant is surgery to replace an unhealthy liver with a healthy one. You may need a liver transplant if you have liver failure or liver cancer. Liver transplants are treatments for adults and children.
Liver transplants are the third most common type of organ donation. There were more than 10,000 liver transplants in the U.S. in 2023. Each week, between 200 and more than 300 people join the liver transplant waitlist. Almost all (94%) liver transplants involve whole livers from deceased donors. About 5% of people receive partial liver transplants from living donors.
Why would someone need a liver transplant?
Your liver is one of the most important internal organs. It manages essential tasks like removing toxins from your blood, metabolizing nutrients and making proteins, In short, you can’t live without a functioning liver. If your liver is failing, a liver transplant could save your life.
How hard is it to get a liver transplant?
It’s not easy. In general, more people are eligible for a liver transplant than there are donor livers. Unfortunately, in the wait for a donor liver, about 16% of people who meet the medical criteria for a liver transplant become too sick to go through surgery or die before they can be matched with a donor liver.
Who is not eligible for a liver transplant?
Not everyone who has liver failure or liver cancer will be a candidate. If you have certain medical conditions, you can’t have a liver transplant. Those include:
* Cancer that’s outside your liver. You may be able to have a liver transplant if cancer treatment cures the condition and follow-up tests show cancer hasn’t come back.
* Congestive heart failure.
* Infections that medication can’t control and that a liver transplant can’t cure.
* Dementia.
* Severe lung diseases.
* Severe pulmonary hypertension.
* Severe, unmanaged mental health disorders with psychosis.
2319) Flight Attendant
Gist
A Flight Attendant is a person whose job is to help passengers who are traveling in an airplane.
Flight attendants work for private and commercial airline companies to keep passengers safe and comfortable. They help passengers get seated, demonstrate how to use the plane's safety equipment, including seat belts, and provide snacks, beverages and other services.
Flight attendants typically need a high school diploma or the equivalent and work experience in customer service. Applicants must meet minimum age requirements, typically 18 or 21; be eligible to work in the United States; have a valid passport; and pass a background check and drug test.
Details
A flight attendant, also known as a steward (MASC) or stewardess (FEM), or air host (MASC) or hostess (FEM), is a member of the aircrew aboard commercial flights, many business jets and some government aircraft. Collectively called cabin crew, flight attendants are primarily responsible for passenger safety and comfort.
History
The role of a flight attendant derives from that of similar positions on passenger ships or passenger trains, but has more direct involvement with passengers because of the confined quarters on aircraft. Additionally, the job of a flight attendant revolves around safety to a much greater extent than those of similar staff on other forms of transportation. Flight attendants on board a flight collectively form a cabin crew, as distinguished from pilots and engineers in the front part of the aircraft, spacecfart, or submersible from which a pilot controls the vehicle.
The German Heinrich Kubis was the world's first flight attendant, in 1912 aboard a Zeppelin. Kubis first attended to the passengers on board the DELAG Zeppelin LZ 10 Schwaben. He also attended to the famous LZ 129 Hindenburg and was on board when it burst into flames. He survived by jumping out a window when it neared the ground.
Origins of the word "steward" in transportation are reflected in the term "chief steward" as used in maritime transport terminology. The term purser and chief steward are often used interchangeably describing personnel with similar duties among seafaring occupations. This lingual derivation results from the international British maritime tradition (i.e. chief mate) dating back to the 14th century and the civilian United States Merchant Marine on which U.S. aviation is somewhat modelled. Due to international law, conventions and agreements, in which all ships' personnel who sail internationally are similarly documented, see Merchant Mariner's Document, by their respective countries, the U.S. Merchant Marine assigns such duties to the chief steward in the overall rank and command structure of which pursers are not positionally represented or rostered.
Imperial Airways of the United Kingdom had "cabin boys" or "stewards"; in the 1920s. In the US, Stout Airways was the first to employ stewards in 1926, working on Ford Trimotor planes between Detroit and Grand Rapids, Michigan. Western Airlines (1928) and Pan American World Airways (Pan Am) (1929) were the first US carriers to employ stewards to serve food. Ten-passenger Fokker aircraft used in the Caribbean had stewards in the era of gambling trips to Havana, Cuba from Key West, Florida. Lead flight attendants would in many instances also perform the role of purser, steward, or chief steward in modern aviation terminology.
The first female flight attendant was a 25-year-old registered nurse named Ellen Church. Hired by United Airlines in 1930, she also first envisioned nurses on aircraft. Other airlines followed suit, hiring nurses to serve as flight attendants, then called "stewardesses" or "air hostesses", on most of their flights. In the United States, the job was one of only a few in the 1930s to permit women, which, coupled with the Great Depression, led to large numbers of applicants for the few positions available. Two thousand women applied for just 43 positions offered by Transcontinental and Western Airlines in December 1935.
Female flight attendants rapidly replaced male ones, and by 1936, they had all but taken over the role. They were selected not only for their knowledge but also for their physical characteristics. A 1936 article in The New York Times described the requirements:
The girls who qualify for hostesses must be petite; weight 100 to 118 pounds; height 5 feet to 5 feet 4 inches; age 20 to 26 years. Add to that the rigid physical examination each must undergo four times every year, and you are assured of the bloom that goes with perfect health.
Three decades later, a 1966 New York Times classified ad for stewardesses at Eastern Airlines listed these requirements:
A high school graduate, single (widows and divorcees with no children considered), 20 years of age (girls 191⁄2 may apply for future consideration). 5'2" but no more than 5'9 weight 105 to 135 in proportion to height and have at least 20/40 vision without glasses.
Appearance was considered one of the most important factors to become a stewardess. At that time, airlines believed that the exploitation of female sexuality would increase their profits; thus the uniforms of female flight attendants were often formfitting, complete with white gloves and high heels.
In the United States, they were required to be unmarried and were fired if they decided to marry. The requirement to be a registered nurse on an American airline was relaxed as more women were hired, and disappeared almost entirely during World War II as many nurses joined military nurse corps.
Ruth Carol Taylor was the first African-American flight attendant in the United States. Hired in December 1957, on 11 February 1958, Taylor was the flight attendant on a Mohawk Airlines flight from Ithaca to New York, the first time such a position had been held by an African American. She was let go within six months as a result of Mohawk's then-common marriage ban. Patricia Banks Edmiston became the first black flight attendant for Capitol Airlines in 1960 following a legal complaint which resulted in the airline being required to hire her.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's (EEOC) first complainants were female flight attendants complaining of age discrimination, weight requirements, and bans on marriage. (Originally female flight attendants were fired if they reached age 32 or 35 depending on the airline, were fired if they exceeded weight regulations, and were required to be single upon hiring and fired if they got married.) In 1968, the EEOC declared age restrictions on flight attendants' employment to be illegal gender discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Also in 1968, the EEOC ruled that gender was not a bona fide occupational requirement to be a flight attendant. The restriction of hiring only women was lifted at all airlines in 1971 due to the decisive court case of Diaz v. Pan Am. The Airline Deregulation Act was passed in 1978, and the no-marriage rule was eliminated throughout the US airline industry by the 1980s. The last such broad categorical discrimination, the weight restrictions, were relaxed in the 1990s through litigation and negotiations. Airlines still often have vision and height requirements and may require flight attendants to pass a medical evaluation.
Overview
The role of a flight attendant is to "provide routine services and respond to emergencies to ensure the safety and comfort of airline passengers".
Typically flight attendants require holding a high school diploma or equivalent, and in the United States, the median annual wage for flight attendants was $50,500 in May 2017, higher than the median for all workers of $37,690.
The number of flight attendants required on flights is mandated by each country's regulations. In the U.S., for light planes with 19 or fewer seats, or, if weighing more than 7,500 lb (3,400 kg), 9 or fewer seats, no flight attendant is needed; on larger aircraft, one flight attendant per 50 passenger seats is required.
The majority of flight attendants for most airlines are female, though a substantial number of males have entered the industry since 1980.
Responsibilities
Prior to each flight, flight attendants and pilots go over safety and emergency checklists, the locations of emergency equipment and other features specific to that aircraft type. Boarding particulars are verified, such as special needs passengers, small children travelling alone, or VIPs. Weather conditions are discussed including anticipated turbulence. A safety check is conducted to ensure equipment such as life-vests, torches (flash lights) and firefighting equipment are on board and in proper condition. They monitor the cabin for any unusual smells or situations. They assist with the loading of carry-on baggage, checking for weight, size and dangerous goods. They make sure those sitting in emergency exit rows are willing and able to assist in an evacuation. They then give a safety demonstration or monitor passengers as they watch a safety video. They then must "secure the cabin" ensuring tray tables are stowed, seats are in their upright positions, armrests down and carry-ons stowed correctly and seat belts are fastened prior to take-off.
Once up in the air, flight attendants will usually serve drinks and/or food to passengers using an airline service trolley. The duty has led to the mildly derogatory slang term "trolley dolly". When not performing customer service duties, flight attendants must periodically conduct cabin checks and listen for any unusual noises or situations. Checks must also be done on the lavatory to ensure the smoke detector has not been disabled or destroyed and to restock supplies as needed. Regular math checks must be done to ensure the health and safety of the pilot(s). They must also respond to call lights dealing with special requests. During turbulence, flight attendants must ensure the cabin is secure. Prior to landing, all loose items, trays and rubbish must be collected and secured along with service and galley equipment. All hot liquids must be disposed of. A final cabin check must then be completed prior to landing. It is vital that flight attendants remain aware as the majority of emergencies occur during take-off and landing. Upon landing, flight attendants must remain stationed at exits and monitor the aircraft and cabin as passengers disembark the plane. They also assist any special needs passengers and small children off the aeroplane and escort children, while following the proper paperwork and ID process to escort them to the designated person picking them up.
Flight attendants are trained to deal with a wide variety of emergencies, and are trained in first aid. More frequent situations may include a bleeding nose, illness, small injuries, intoxicated passengers, aggressive and anxiety stricken passengers. Emergency training includes rejected take-offs, emergency landings, cardiac and in-flight medical situations, smoke in the cabin, fires, depressurisation, on-board births and deaths, dangerous goods and spills in the cabin, emergency evacuations, hijackings, and water landings.
Cabin chimes and overhead panel lights
On most commercial airliners, flight attendants receive various forms of notification on board the aircraft in the form of audible chimes and coloured lights above their stations. While the colours and chimes are not universal and may vary between airlines and aircraft types, these colours and chimes are generally the most commonly used:
* Pink (Boeing) or Red (Airbus): interphone calls from the math to a flight attendant and/or interphone calls between two flight attendants, the latter case if a green light is not present or being used for the same purpose (steady with high-low chime), or all services emergency call (flashing with repeated high-low chime). On some airlines Airbus' aircraft (such as Delta Air Lines), this light is accompanied by a high-medium-low chime to call the purser. The Boeing 787 Dreamliner uses a separate red light to indicate a sterile flight deck while using pink for interphone calls from the area on the front part of an aircraft, spacecraft, or submersible, from which pilot controls the vehicle.
* Blue: call from passenger in seat (steady with single high chime).
* Amber: call from passenger in lavatory (steady with single high chime), or lavatory smoke detector set off (flashing with repeated high chime).
* Green: on some aircraft (some airlines Airbus aircraft, and the Boeing 787), this colour is used to indicate interphone calls between two flight attendants, distinguishing them from the pink or red light used for interphone calls made from the flight deck to a flight attendant, and is also accompanied with a high-low chime like the pink or red light. On the Boeing 787, a flashing green light with a repeated high-low chime is used to indicate a call to all flight attendant stations.
Chief purser
The chief purser (CP), also titled as in-flight service manager (ISM), flight service manager (FSM), customer service manager (CSM) or cabin service director (CSD) is the senior flight attendant in the chain of command of flight attendants. While not necessarily the most-senior crew members on a flight (in years of service to their respective carrier), chief pursers can have varying levels of "in-flight" or "on board" bidding seniority or tenure in relation to their flying partners. To reach this position, a crew member requires some minimum years of service as flight attendant. Further training is mandatory, and chief pursers typically earn a higher salary than flight attendants because of the added responsibility and managerial role.
Purser
The purser is in charge of the cabin crew, in a specific section of a larger aircraft, or the whole aircraft itself (if the purser is the highest ranking). On board a larger aircraft, pursers assist the chief purser in managing the cabin. Pursers are flight attendants or a related job, typically with an airline for several years prior to application for, and further training to become a purser, and normally earn a higher salary than flight attendants because of the added responsibility and supervisory role.
Qualifications:
Training
Minimum entry requirements for a career as a flight attendant is usually the completion of the final year of high school; e.g. the International Baccalaureate. Many prospective attendants have a post-secondary school diploma in an area such as tourism and a number hold degrees having worked in other occupations, often as teachers. Graduates holding degrees, including those with studies in one or more foreign languages, communication studies, business studies, public relations or nursing can be favoured by employers.
Flight attendants are normally trained in the hub or headquarters city of an airline over a period that may run from four weeks to six months, depending on the country and airline. The main focus of training is safety, and attendants are evaluated for each type of aircraft in which they work. One of the most elaborate training facilities was Breech Academy, which Trans World Airlines (TWA) opened in 1969 in Overland Park, Kansas. Other airlines also sent their attendants to the school. However, during the fare wars, the school's viability declined and it closed around 1988.
Safety training includes, but is not limited to: emergency passenger evacuation management, use of evacuation slides / life rafts, in-flight firefighting, first aid, CPR, defibrillation, ditching/emergency landing procedures, decompression emergencies, crew resource management, and security.
In the United States, the Federal Aviation Administration requires flight attendants on aircraft with 20 or more seats and used by an air carrier for transportation to hold a Certificate of Demonstrated Proficiency. It shows that a level of required training has been met. It is not limited to the air carrier at which the attendant is employed (although some initial documents showed the airlines where the holders were working), and is the attendant's personal property. It does have two ratings, Group 1 and Group 2 (listed on the certificate as "Group I" and "Group II"). Either or both of these may be earned depending upon the general type of aircraft, (propeller or turbojet), on which the holder has trained.
There are also training schools, not affiliated with any particular airline, where students generally not only undergo generic, though otherwise practically identical, training to flight attendants employed by an airline, but also take curriculum modules to help them gain employment. These schools often use actual airline equipment for their lessons, though some are equipped with full simulator cabins capable of replicating a number of emergency situations. In some countries, such as France, a degree is required, together with the Certificat de formation à la sécurité (Safety training certificate).
Language
Multilingual flight attendants are often in demand to accommodate international travellers. The languages most in demand, other than English, are French, Russian, Hindi, Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese, Bengali, Japanese, Arabic, German, Portuguese, Italian, and Turkish. In the United States, airlines with international routes pay an additional stipend for language skills on top of flight pay, and some airlines hire specifically for certain languages when launching international destinations. Carole Middleton recalled when interviewed in 2018 that "you had to be able to speak another language" when working in the industry in the 1970s.
Height
Most airlines have height requirements for safety reasons, making sure that all flight attendants can reach overhead safety equipment. Typically, the acceptable height for this is over 152 cm (60 in) but under 185 cm (73 in) tall. Regional carriers using small aircraft with low ceilings can have height restrictions. Some airlines, such as EVA Air, have height requirements for purely aesthetic purposes.
2132) Adam Riess
Gist:
Life
Adam Riess grew up in Warren, New Jersey, where his father ran a frozen-foods distribution company and his mother worked as a psychologist. After receiving his PhD from Harvard University in 1996, Riess was employed at the University of California, Berkeley, where he became a member of the High-Z Supernova Search Team, within which he conducted his Nobel Prize-awarded work. Riess moved to the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland in 1999. He has held a professorship at Johns Hopkins University since 2005. He is married with two children.
Work
The universe’s stars and galaxies are moving away from one another; the universe is expanding. Up until recently, the majority of astrophysicists believed that this expansion would eventually wane, due to the effect of opposing gravitational forces. Saul Perlmutter, Brian Schmidt, and Adam Riess studied exploding stars, called supernovae. Because the light emitted by stars appears weaker from a larger distance and takes on a reddish hue as it moves further from the observer, the researchers were able to determine how the supernovae moved. In 1998 they reached a surprising result: the universe is expanding at an ever-increasing rate.
Summary
Adam Riess (born December 16, 1969, Washington, D.C., U.S.) is an American astronomer who was awarded the 2011 Nobel Prize for Physics for his discovery of dark energy, a repulsive force that is the dominant component (73 percent) of the universe. He shared the prize with physicist Saul Perlmutter and astronomer Brian Schmidt. Riess wrote articles on dark energy and dark matter for the Encyclopædia Britannica.
Riess received a bachelor’s degree in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1992. He received a master’s (1994) and a doctoral degree (1996) in astrophysics from Harvard University, where he shared an adviser, Robert Kirshner, with Schmidt. In 1996 Riess became a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, and he then became an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore in 1999. He joined the department of physics and astronomy at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, as a professor in 2006.
Riess’s work concentrated on using Type Ia supernovae to measure the expansion rate of the universe. In his doctoral thesis, he accounted for the effects of distance, luminosity, and extinction by intervening dust on how the light received from a Type Ia supernova changed with time. These calculations allowed these supernovae to be used to measure accurate distances to faraway galaxies. He joined Schmidt’s High-Z SN Search team, an international group of astronomers that searched for Type Ia supernovae, in 1994. Riess, Schmidt, and the team found in 1998 that Type Ia supernovae that exploded when the universe was younger were fainter than expected. Thus, the supernovae were farther away than expected. This implied that the expansion rate of the universe is faster now than it was in the past, a result of the current dominance of the repulsive action of dark energy. A team headed by Perlmutter independently reached the same conclusion. The acceleration of the universe was a startling result that completely changed cosmology; the majority of the universe’s mass-energy was of a completely unknown nature.
In addition to the Nobel Prize, Riess received various honours. In 2020 he was among the American Astronomical Society’s inaugural fellows.
Details
Adam Guy Riess (born December 16, 1969) is an American astrophysicist and Bloomberg Distinguished Professor at Johns Hopkins University and the Space Telescope Science Institute. He is known for his research in using supernovae as cosmological probes. Riess shared both the 2006 Shaw Prize in Astronomy and the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics with Saul Perlmutter and Brian P. Schmidt for providing evidence that the expansion of the universe is accelerating.
Family
Riess was born in Washington, D.C., one of three children. He grew up in Warren, New Jersey, where his father (Naval engineer Michael Riess) owned a frozen-foods distribution company, Bistro International, and his mother (Doris Riess) worked as a clinical psychologist. Michael Riess (1931–2007) immigrated to the United States with his parents (journalist, war correspondent and author Curt Martin Riess and Ilse Posnansky)from Germany on the ship SS Europa (1928) in 1936. Riess is by birth Jewish. Adam Riess has two sisters – Gail Saltz, a psychiatrist, and Holly Hagerman, an artist. Riess married Nancy Joy Schondorf in 1998.
Education
He attended Watchung Hills Regional High School, graduating in the class of 1988. He also attended the prestigious New Jersey Governor's School in the Sciences in 1987. Riess then graduated Phi Beta Kappa from The Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1992 where he was a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity. He received his PhD from Harvard University in 1996; it resulted in measurements of over twenty new Type Ia supernovae and a method to utilize Type Ia supernovae as accurate distance indicators by correcting for intervening dust and intrinsic inhomogeneities. Riess's PhD thesis was supervised by Robert Kirshner and William H. Press and won the Robert J. Trumpler Award in 1999 for PhD theses of unusual importance to astronomy.
Research
Riess was a Miller Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1996 through 1999, during which period his first seminal paper on the discovery of an accelerating universe was published. In 1999, he moved to the Space Telescope Science Institute and took up a position at Johns Hopkins University in 2006. He also sits on the selection committee for the Astronomy award given under the auspices of the Shaw Prize. In July 2016, Riess was named a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor at Johns Hopkins University for his accomplishments as an interdisciplinary researcher and excellence in teaching the next generation of scholars. The Bloomberg Distinguished Professorships were established in 2013 by a gift from Michael Bloomberg.
Riess jointly led the study with Brian Schmidt in 1998 for the High-z Supernova Search Team which first reported evidence that the universe's expansion rate is accelerating through monitoring of Type Ia supernovae. The team's observations were contrary to the existing theory that the expansion of the universe was slowing down; instead, by monitoring the color shifts in the light from supernovae from Earth, they discovered that these billion-year old novae were still accelerating. This result was also found nearly simultaneously by the Supernova Cosmology Project, led by Saul Perlmutter. The corroborating evidence between the two competing studies led to the acceptance of the accelerating universe theory, and initiated new research to understand the nature of the universe, such as the existence of dark energy. The discovery of the accelerating universe was named 'Breakthrough of the Year' by Science magazine in 1998, and Riess was jointly awarded the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics along with Schmidt and Perlmutter for their groundbreaking work.
From 2002 to 2007 Riess led the Higher-Z SN Team which used the Hubble Space Telescope to find dozens of type Ia supernovae at z>1, first demonstrating that the expansion of the Universe was decelerating before it began accelerating and ruling out astrophysical contamination of SN Ia.
Riess is also known for his efforts to measure the local value of the Hubble constant while leading the SH0ES Team since 2005 with measurements that approach 1% precision and which indicate a discrepancy with the model-based prediction from the CMB, a problem widely known in cosmology as the Hubble tension.
Awards and honors
Riess received the Astronomical Society of the Pacific's Robert J. Trumpler Award in 1999 and Harvard University's Bok Prize in 2001. He won the American Astronomical Society's Helen B. Warner Prize in 2003 and the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Prize in Physics in 2004 for the discovery of cosmic acceleration.
In 2006, he shared the $1 million Shaw Prize in Astronomy with Saul Perlmutter and Brian P. Schmidt for contributions to the discovery of the acceleration of the universe.
Schmidt and all the members of the High-Z Team (as defined by the co-authors of Riess et al. 1998) shared the 2007 Gruber Cosmology Prize, a $500,000 award, with the Supernova Cosmology Project (the set defined by the co-authors of Perlmutter et al. 1999) for their discovery of the accelerating expansion of the universe. Riess was the winner of MacArthur "Genius" Grant in 2008. He was also elected in 2009 to the National Academy of Sciences.
Along with Perlmutter and Schmidt, he was awarded the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics for his contributions to the discovery of the acceleration of the expansion of the universe.
Riess, along with Brian P. Schmidt, and the High-Z Supernova Search Team shared in the 2015 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics.
In 2012, Riess received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.
In 2020, Riess was made fellow of the American Astronomical Society.
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