Also on today’s menu:
Dartmouth Prof Focusing On Neural Probes
Nursing Home Gamble
Jane Young, who has served as deputy attorney-general in New Hampshire since 2018, is among President Joe Biden’s nominees to serve as U.S. attorneys across the country.
Young, who served as an assistant county attorney in the Hillsborough County Attorney’s Office from 1990 to 1992, later served as director of the Division of Public Protection from 2017 to 2018, as chief of the Criminal Justice Bureau from 2007 to 2017, and as chief of the Drug Unit from 2006 to 2007.
Young earned a bachelor of arts degree from Saint Anselm College in 1986 and obtained a juris doctorate from the University of New Hampshire’s Franklin Pierce School of Law in 1989.
Dartmouth Prof Focusing On Neural Probes
Dartmouth engineering professor Hui Fang is co-leading a research project funded by a $2.8 million National Institutes of Health grant to focus on soft electronic neural probes.
The “Neuro-CROWN: Optimized Ultra-Flexible CMOS Electrode Arrays for 3D, Low-Noise Neural Interfaces” project will see Fang working with biomedical engineering professor Jonathan Viventi at Duke University to develop high-density, flexible electrode arrays to increase understanding of the brain and how it works, leading to possible biomedical applications.
“This device can actually be used as a surgical tool … you can guide where to dissect,” Fang told Meghan Pierce of the New Hampshire Union Leader. “Or you can use them as interventional devices, for instance, for brain stimulation.” It also could provide an interface for neuroprosthetic devices to help enable someone to control a robotic arm, for example, Fang said.
Nursing Home Gamble
The Belknap County Executive Committee declined the approval of a budget transfer to cover a contractual payment for dining services, creating a difficult situation for the commission overseeing the Belknap County Nursing Home. The commission had authorized the payment before seeking executive committee approval, so the money has been spent.
The executive committee also reduced the proposed budget for the nursing home from $13,452,140 to $12,076,103 amid questions of staff size and resident capacity. The federal vaccine mandate already led to the loss of several nurses who refused to get inoculated against the coronavirus and 60 percent of the remaining nurses have indicated they would quit rather than take a booster shot if the feds were to require that as part of the requirements for Medicaid and Medicare funding.
Currently, between 60 and 70 percent of the available beds at the nursing home are utilized, despite a waiting list, because of staff shortages, and losing more nurses could force the nursing home to seek other places to send patients. Doing so would reduce revenue to the nursing home while increasing expenses.
Describing the budget as a guessing game, Rep. Ray Howard said the budget they set now may need to be revisited in mid-year when they have a better idea of where things stand.
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