Old Math, New Math: Parents' Experiences with Standards-Based Reform

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Remillard, Janine T.; Jackson, Kara

2006-01-01

We focus on how African American parents in a low-income neighborhood experience, interpret, and respond to current reform efforts as implemented in their children's school. As part of a larger project on parent-child numeracy connections in an elementary school, we interviewed 10 parents and held 2 focus group meetings, during which parents…

The Evidence Informed School System in England: Where Should School Leaders Be Focusing Their Efforts?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Greany, Toby; Brown, Chris

2017-01-01

This article examines the impetus for schools to engage both in and with evidence in England's self-improving school system. It begins with an examination of how the education policy environment has changed, shifting from predominantly top down approaches to school improvement to the current government's focus on schools themselves sourcing and…

The Evidence-Informed School System in England: Where Should School Leaders Be Focusing Their Efforts?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brown, Chris; Greany, Toby

2018-01-01

This article examines the impetus for schools to engage in and with evidence in England's self-improving school system. It begins with an examination of how the education policy environment has changed, shifting from predominantly top-down approaches to school improvement to the current government's focus on schools themselves sourcing and sharing…

Peer Acceptance and Social Behavior during Childhood and Adolescence: How Important Are Appearance, Athleticism, and Academic Competence?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vannatta, Kathryn; Gartstein, Maria A.; Zeller, Meg; Noll, Robert B.

2009-01-01

Efforts to identify factors associated with peer acceptance have historically focused on behavioral and social cognitive processes, whereas less empirical attention has focused on the impact of children's other personal attributes and competencies that are not inherently a component of social competence. The current study examined the association…

Health and safety implications of occupational exposure to engineered nanomaterials.

PubMed

Stebounova, Larissa V; Morgan, Hallie; Grassian, Vicki H; Brenner, Sara

2012-01-01

The rapid growth and commercialization of nanotechnology are currently outpacing health and safety recommendations for engineered nanomaterials. As the production and use of nanomaterials increase, so does the possibility that there will be exposure of workers and the public to these materials. This review provides a summary of current research and regulatory efforts related to occupational exposure and medical surveillance for the nanotechnology workforce, focusing on the most prevalent industrial nanomaterials currently moving through the research, development, and manufacturing pipelines. Their applications and usage precedes a discussion of occupational health and safety efforts, including exposure assessment, occupational health surveillance, and regulatory considerations for these nanomaterials. Copyright © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Now--To Achieve the Goals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gleazer, Edmund J., Jr.

1972-01-01

An overview of the information gathered from Project Focus, an effort by the American Association of Junior Colleges to determine the perceptions of many people concerning the current and future trends in the community college, is discussed. (NF)

Description of Data Acquisition Efforts

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1999-09-01

As part of the overall strategy of refining and improving the existing transportation and air-quality modeling framework, the current project focuses extensively on acquiring disaggregate and reliable data for analysis. In this report, we discuss the...

An Investigation of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Focused High Schools in the U.S.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scott, Catherine

2012-01-01

This study examined the characteristics of 10 science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) focused high schools that were selected from various regions across the United States. In an effort to better prepare students for careers in STEM fields, many schools have been designed and are currently operational, while even more are in the…

Collaborative Creativity in STEAM: Narratives of Art Education Students' Experiences in Transdisciplinary Spaces

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Guyotte, Kelly W.; Sochacka, Nicola W.; Costantino, Tracie E.; Kellam, Nadia N.; Walther, Joachim

2015-01-01

Current efforts to promote STEAM (STEM + Arts) education focus predominantly on how partnering with the arts provides a range of benefits to STEM students. Here we take a different approach and focus on what art and art education students stand to gain from collaborating with STEM students. Drawing on a variety of student field texts, we present…

Hit Generation in TB Drug Discovery: From Genome to Granuloma

PubMed Central

2018-01-01

Current tuberculosis (TB) drug development efforts are not sufficient to end the global TB epidemic. Recent efforts have focused on the development of whole-cell screening assays because biochemical, target-based inhibitor screens during the last two decades have not delivered new TB drugs. Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), the causative agent of TB, encounters diverse microenvironments and can be found in a variety of metabolic states in the human host. Due to the complexity and heterogeneity of Mtb infection, no single model can fully recapitulate the in vivo conditions in which Mtb is found in TB patients, and there is no single “standard” screening condition to generate hit compounds for TB drug development. However, current screening assays have become more sophisticated as researchers attempt to mirror the complexity of TB disease in the laboratory. In this review, we describe efforts using surrogates and engineered strains of Mtb to focus screens on specific targets. We explain model culture systems ranging from carbon starvation to hypoxia, and combinations thereof, designed to represent the microenvironment which Mtb encounters in the human body. We outline ongoing efforts to model Mtb infection in the lung granuloma. We assess these different models, their ability to generate hit compounds, and needs for further TB drug development, to provide direction for future TB drug discovery. PMID:29384369

Mobile Source Mitigation Opportunities

EPA Science Inventory

For Frank Princiotta’s book, Global Climate Change—The Technology Challenge The objective of this chapter is to review this history, focusing initially on the historical growth patterns and the resulting environmental consequences; then on the current control efforts around the ...

Overcoming translational barriers impeding development of Alzheimer's disease modifying therapies.

PubMed

Golde, Todd E

2016-10-01

It has now been ~ 30 years since the Alzheimer's disease (AD) research entered what may be termed the 'molecular era' that began with the identification of the amyloid β protein (Aβ) as the primary component of amyloid within senile plaques and cerebrovascular amyloid and the microtubule-associated protein tau as the primary component of neurofibrillary tangles in the AD brain. These pivotal discoveries and the subsequent genetic, pathological, and modeling studies supporting pivotal roles for tau and Aβ aggregation and accumulation have provided firm rationale for a new generation of AD therapies designed not to just provide symptomatic benefit, but as disease modifying agents that would slow or even reverse the disease course. Indeed, over the last 20 years numerous therapeutic strategies for disease modification have emerged, been preclinically validated, and advanced through various stages of clinical testing. Unfortunately, no therapy has yet to show significant clinical disease modification. In this review, I describe 10 translational barriers to successful disease modification, highlight current efforts addressing some of these barriers, and discuss how the field could focus future efforts to overcome barriers that are not major foci of current research efforts. Seminal discoveries made over the past 25 years have provided firm rationale for a new generation of Alzheimer's disease (AD) therapies designed as disease modifying agents that would slow or even reverse the disease course. Unfortunately, no therapy has yet to show significant clinical disease modification. In this review, I describe 10 translational barriers to successful AD disease modification, highlight current efforts addressing some of these barriers, and discuss how the field could focus future efforts to overcome these barriers. This article is part of the 60th Anniversary special issue. © 2016 International Society for Neurochemistry.

Integrating multiple distribution models to guide conservation efforts of an endangered toad

USGS Publications Warehouse

Treglia, Michael L.; Fisher, Robert N.; Fitzgerald, Lee A.

2015-01-01

Species distribution models are used for numerous purposes such as predicting changes in species’ ranges and identifying biodiversity hotspots. Although implications of distribution models for conservation are often implicit, few studies use these tools explicitly to inform conservation efforts. Herein, we illustrate how multiple distribution models developed using distinct sets of environmental variables can be integrated to aid in identification sites for use in conservation. We focus on the endangered arroyo toad (Anaxyrus californicus), which relies on open, sandy streams and surrounding floodplains in southern California, USA, and northern Baja California, Mexico. Declines of the species are largely attributed to habitat degradation associated with vegetation encroachment, invasive predators, and altered hydrologic regimes. We had three main goals: 1) develop a model of potential habitat for arroyo toads, based on long-term environmental variables and all available locality data; 2) develop a model of the species’ current habitat by incorporating recent remotely-sensed variables and only using recent locality data; and 3) integrate results of both models to identify sites that may be employed in conservation efforts. We used a machine learning technique, Random Forests, to develop the models, focused on riparian zones in southern California. We identified 14.37% and 10.50% of our study area as potential and current habitat for the arroyo toad, respectively. Generally, inclusion of remotely-sensed variables reduced modeled suitability of sites, thus many areas modeled as potential habitat were not modeled as current habitat. We propose such sites could be made suitable for arroyo toads through active management, increasing current habitat by up to 67.02%. Our general approach can be employed to guide conservation efforts of virtually any species with sufficient data necessary to develop appropriate distribution models.

AN INTEGRATED WATERSHED APPROACH LINKING SALMONID PRODUCTIVITY TO FRESHWATER HABITAT

EPA Science Inventory

EPA's Western Ecology Division is undertaking research addressing catchment-scale dynamics of freshwater habitat productivity for native fishes. Through partnerships with state and federal agencies and private landowners, current field efforts focus on linkages among stream chemi...

Hypersonic Experimental and Computational Capability, Improvement and Validation. Volume 2

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Muylaert, Jean (Editor); Kumar, Ajay (Editor); Dujarric, Christian (Editor)

1998-01-01

The results of the phase 2 effort conducted under AGARD Working Group 18 on Hypersonic Experimental and Computational Capability, Improvement and Validation are presented in this report. The first volume, published in May 1996, mainly focused on the design methodology, plans and some initial results of experiments that had been conducted to serve as validation benchmarks. The current volume presents the detailed experimental and computational data base developed during this effort.

Commercial Research and Development: Power to Explore, Opportunities from Discovery

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Casas, Joseph C.; Nall, Mark; Powers, C. Blake; Henderson, Robin N. (Technical Monitor)

2002-01-01

The technical and economic goals of commercial use of space are laudable, and are addressed as a high priority by almost every national space program and most major aerospace companies the world over. Yet, the focus of most organizational agendas and discussions tends to focus on one or two very narrow enabling aspects of this potentially large technological and economic opportunity. While government sponsored commercial launch activities and private space platforms are an integral part of efforts to leverage the commercial use of space, these activities are possibly one of the smallest parts of creating, a viable and sustainable market for the commercial use of space. Most of the current programs usually do not appropriately address some of the critical issues of the current, already interested, potential space user communities. Current programs place the focus of the majority of the user requirements on the vehicle payload weight and mass performance considerations as the primary payload economical factor in providing a commercial market with a stimulating price for gaining access to the space environment. The larger user challenges of transformation from Earth-based research and development approaches to space environment approaches are not addressed early enough in programs to impact the new business considerations of potential users. Currently, space-based research and development user activities require a large user investment in time, in development of new areas of support expertise, in development of new systems, in risk of schedule to completion, and in long term capital positioning. The larger opportunities for stimulating a strong market driven interest in commercial use of space that could result from the development of vehicle payload "leap ahead technologies" for users are being missed, and there is a real risk of limiting the potentially broader market base to support a more technologically advanced and economically lucrative outcome. A major driving force for strengthening the commercial space activities is not only the technological advances in launch vehicle, or newer satellites, but the myriad of enabling payloads technologies that could, as a goal, result in an almost transparent facilitation to regular CD a, -n access to space and microgravity environments by the future users from the existing Earth-based research and development organizations market segments. Rather than focusing only on developing high lift performance launch vehicles and then developing payloads to fit them, the real focus from a business model perspective should to be on the customer payloads requirements, and on designing launch vehicles and platforms systems for a space transportation and facility infrastructure to support all aspects of the business model for the user market. To harness the full potential of space commercialization, new efforts need to be made to comprehensively examine all the critical business model areas for commercial research, development, and manufacturing in space so as to identify specific products and efforts; to determine how such operations must be both similar to and different from current Earth-based activities; to evaluate the enabling technological devices, processes and efforts so that like efforts can be addressed in a synergistic fashion for maximum user cost effectiveness; to delineate the services that are both needed and can be provided by such activities; and to use this information to drive design and development of space commercialization efforts and policy.

Polyurethane foam infill for fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) bridge deck panels.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2014-05-01

The objective of the proposed research is to develop, test, and evaluate fiber-reinforced, polyurethane foams to replace the costly : honeycomb construction currently used to manufacture FRP bridge deck panels. The effort will focus on developing an ...

American Society of Clinical Oncology Summit on Addressing Obesity Through Multidisciplinary Provider Collaboration: Key Findings and Recommendations for Action.

PubMed

Ligibel, Jennifer A; Alfano, Catherine M; Hershman, Dawn L; Merrill, Janette K; Basen-Engquist, Karen; Bloomgarden, Zachary T; Demark-Wahnefried, Wendy; Dixon, Suzanne; Hassink, Sandra G; Jakicic, John M; Morton, John Magaña; Okwuosa, Tochi M; Powell-Wiley, Tiffany M; Rothberg, Amy E; Stephens, Mark; Streett, Sarah E; Wild, Robert A; Westman, Eric A; Williams, Ronald J; Wollins, Dana S; Hudis, Clifford A

2017-11-01

Given the increasing evidence that obesity increases the risk of developing and dying from malignancy, the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) launched an Obesity Initiative in 2013 that was designed to increase awareness among oncology providers and the general public of the relationship between obesity and cancer and to promote research in this area. Recognizing that the type of societal change required to impact the obesity epidemic will require a broad-based effort, ASCO hosted the "Summit on Addressing Obesity through Multidisciplinary Collaboration" in 2016. This meeting was held to review current challenges in addressing obesity within the respective health care provider communities and to identify priorities that would most benefit from a collective and cross-disciplinary approach. Efforts focused on four key areas: provider education and training; public education and activation; research; and policy and advocacy. Summit attendees discussed current challenges in addressing obesity within their provider communities and identified priorities that would most benefit from multidisciplinary collaboration. A synopsis of recommendations to facilitate future collaboration, as well as examples of ongoing cooperative efforts, provides a blueprint for multidisciplinary provider collaboration focused on obesity prevention and treatment. © 2017 The Obesity Society.

Q&A: How do gene regulatory networks control environmental responses in plants?

PubMed

Sun, Ying; Dinneny, José R

2018-04-11

A gene regulatory network (GRN) describes the hierarchical relationship between transcription factors, associated proteins, and their target genes. Studying GRNs allows us to understand how a plant's genotype and environment are integrated to regulate downstream physiological responses. Current efforts in plants have focused on defining the GRNs that regulate functions such as development and stress response and have been performed primarily in genetically tractable model plant species such as Arabidopsis thaliana. Future studies will likely focus on how GRNs function in non-model plants and change over evolutionary time to allow for adaptation to extreme environments. This broader understanding will inform efforts to engineer GRNs to create tailored crop traits.

Design Guidelines and Criteria for User/Operator Transactions with Battlefield Automated Systems. Volume 5. Background Literature

DTIC Science & Technology

1981-02-01

the machine . ARI’s efforts in this area focus on human perfor- mance problems related to interactions with command and control centers, and on issues...improvement of the user- machine interface. Lacking consistent design principles, current practice results in a fragmented and unsystematic approach to system...complexity in the user- machine interface of BAS, ARI supported this effort for develop- me:nt of an online language for Army tactical intelligence

Development and application of optimum sensitivity analysis of structures

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Barthelemy, J. F. M.; Hallauer, W. L., Jr.

1984-01-01

The research focused on developing an algorithm applying optimum sensitivity analysis for multilevel optimization. The research efforts have been devoted to assisting NASA Langley's Interdisciplinary Research Office (IRO) in the development of a mature methodology for a multilevel approach to the design of complex (large and multidisciplinary) engineering systems. An effort was undertaken to identify promising multilevel optimization algorithms. In the current reporting period, the computer program generating baseline single level solutions was completed and tested out.

Engineering youth service system infrastructure: Hawaii's continued efforts at large-scale implementation through knowledge management strategies.

PubMed

Nakamura, Brad J; Mueller, Charles W; Higa-McMillan, Charmaine; Okamura, Kelsie H; Chang, Jaime P; Slavin, Lesley; Shimabukuro, Scott

2014-01-01

Hawaii's Child and Adolescent Mental Health Division provides a unique illustration of a youth public mental health system with a long and successful history of large-scale quality improvement initiatives. Many advances are linked to flexibly organizing and applying knowledge gained from the scientific literature and move beyond installing a limited number of brand-named treatment approaches that might be directly relevant only to a small handful of system youth. This article takes a knowledge-to-action perspective and outlines five knowledge management strategies currently under way in Hawaii. Each strategy represents one component of a larger coordinated effort at engineering a service system focused on delivering both brand-named treatment approaches and complimentary strategies informed by the evidence base. The five knowledge management examples are (a) a set of modular-based professional training activities for currently practicing therapists, (b) an outreach initiative for supporting youth evidence-based practices training at Hawaii's mental health-related professional programs, (c) an effort to increase consumer knowledge of and demand for youth evidence-based practices, (d) a practice and progress agency performance feedback system, and (e) a sampling of system-level research studies focused on understanding treatment as usual. We end by outlining a small set of lessons learned and a longer term vision for embedding these efforts into the system's infrastructure.

Help! Our Camp Enrollment Is Down.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Post, Peter

1993-01-01

Describes a marketing plan to increase enrollment in summer camps. Includes analyzing enrollment statistics, implementing marketing strategies that focus on retaining current campers, establishing a ranking system to concentrate efforts on inquiries most likely to enroll, and analyzing the effectiveness of marketing strategies. (LP)

Optimizing regional collaborative efforts to achieve long-term discipline-specific objectives

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Current funding programs focused on multi-disciplinary, multi-agency approaches to regional issues can provide opportunities to address discipline-specific advancements in scientific knowledge. Projects funded through the Agricultural Research Service, Joint Fire Science Program, and the Natural Re...

Sorbent Structural Impacts Due to Humidity on Carbon Dioxide Removal Sorbents for Advanced Exploration Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Watson, David; Knox, James C.; West, Phillip; Stanley, Christine M.; Bush, Richard

2015-01-01

The Life Support Systems Project (LSSP) under the Advanced Exploration Systems (AES) program builds upon the work performed under the AES Atmosphere Resource Recovery and Environmental Monitoring (ARREM) project focusing on the numerous technology development areas. The CO2 removal and associated air drying development efforts are focused on improving the current state-of-the-art system on the International Space Station (ISS) utilizing fixed beds of sorbent pellets by seeking more robust pelletized sorbents, evaluating structured sorbents, and examining alternate bed configurations to improve system efficiency and reliability. A component of the CO2 removal effort encompasses structural stability testing of existing and emerging sorbents. Testing will be performed on dry sorbents and sorbents that have been conditioned to three humidity levels. This paper describes the sorbent structural stability screening efforts in support of the LSS Project within the AES Program.

Using CFD as a Rocket Injector Design Tool: Recent Progress at Marshall Space Flight Center

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tucker, Kevin; West, Jeff; Williams, Robert; Lin, Jeff; Canabal, Francisco; Rocker, marvin; Robles, Bryan; Garcia, Robert; Chenoweth, James

2005-01-01

New programs are forcing American propulsion system designers into unfamiliar territory. For instance, industry s answer to the cost and reliability goals set out by the Next Generation Launch Technology Program are engine concepts based on the Oxygen- Rich Staged Combustion Cycle. Historical injector design tools are not well suited for this new task. The empirical correlations do not apply directly to the injector concepts associated with the ORSC cycle. These legacy tools focus primarily on performance with environment evaluation a secondary objective. Additionally, the environmental capability of these tools is usually one-dimensional while the actual environments are at least two- and often three-dimensional. CFD has the potential to calculate performance and multi-dimensional environments but its use in the injector design process has been retarded by long solution turnaround times and insufficient demonstrated accuracy. This paper has documented the parallel paths of program support and technology development currently employed at Marshall Space Flight Center in an effort to move CFD to the forefront of injector design. MSFC has established a long-term goal for use of CFD for combustion devices design. The work on injector design is the heart of that vision and the Combustion Devices CFD Simulation Capability Roadmap that focuses the vision. The SRL concept, combining solution fidelity, robustness and accuracy, has been established as a quantitative gauge of current and desired capability. Three examples of current injector analysis for program support have been presented and discussed. These examples are used to establish the current capability at MSFC for these problems. Shortcomings identified from this experience are being used as inputs to the Roadmap process. The SRL evaluation identified lack of demonstrated solution accuracy as a major issue. Accordingly, the MSFC view of code validation and current MSFC-funded validation efforts were discussed in some detail. The objectives of each effort were noted. Issues relative to code validation for injector design were discussed in some detail. The requirement for CFD support during the design of the experiment was noted and discussed in terms of instrumentation placement and experimental rig uncertainty. In conclusion, MSFC has made significant progress in the last two years in advancing CFD toward the goal of application to injector design. A parallel effort focused on program support and technology development via the SCIT Task have enabled the progress.

A haphazard reading of McHugh and Barlow (2010).

PubMed

McHugh, R Kathryn; Barlow, David H

2010-12-01

Replies to comments on Do haphazard reviews provide sound directions for dissemination efforts? (see record 2010-24768-012) by Eileen Gambrill and Julia H. Littell on the current authors' article The dissemination and implementation of evidence-based psychological treatments: A review of current efforts (see record 2010-02208-010) by Kathryn R. McHugh and David H. Barlow. In their commentary, Gambrill and Littell (2010, this issue) suggested that we provided misleading guidance on the selection of treatments for dissemination in our recent article (McHugh & Barlow, February- March 2010) on the dissemination and implementation of evidence-based treatments. These authors misread our article as an affirmation of the evidence base of the treatments involved in the dissemination and implementation efforts we described. In fact, we explicitly disclaimed in the third paragraph that "we do not revisit controversies surrounding the identification or appropriateness of [evidence-based psychological treatments] . . . rather, we focus on the status and adequacy of [dissemination and implementation] efforts currently under way (McHugh & Barlow, 2010, p. 73). Thus, our review was not intended as a guideline for which treatments to disseminate, nor was it a thorough review of the evidence base for the treatments included in the efforts we reviewed. We chose several programs for illustrative purposes as representative efforts from three general domains: national, state, and investigator initiated. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved.

The Blackhole in Chemical Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zuur, Aad; van Santen, Jacques

1983-01-01

Discusses challenges that should be implemented in chemistry teaching during the 1980s/1990s. These include a focus on social relevance and orientation to student (considering developmental stages, way of thinking, and direct environment). These efforts may change the current negative public image of chemistry. (JN)

Preparation of School/Educational Psychologists in Romania

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Negovan, Valeria; Dinca, Margareta

2014-01-01

This article focuses on the academic and professional training of educational/school psychologists in Romania. Their training mirrors the country's history, legal provisions, social qualities, and current professional status of psychologists and their specialization. Efforts to increase the quality of training for educational/school psychologists…

Knowing What Teachers Know

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gitomer, Drew H.; Zisk, Robert C.

2015-01-01

The current chapter focuses on philosophical and scientific developments in the assessment of teacher knowledge. The goal is to provide an overview of major developments in the assessment of teacher knowledge and to illustrate those developments with representative and significant efforts. The authors made evaluative judgments of importance based…

From Dayton to Little Rock: Creationism Evolves.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nelkin, Dorothy

1982-01-01

Traces origins of present-day creationists from their 19th-century fundamentalist beginnings, focusing on past and current objections to the teaching of evolution and efforts to require the teaching of creationism in public schools. Discusses creationist arguments and strategies to accomplish their aims. (JN)

Interim report deliverable 3.2 : focus group management process of the restricted use technology study

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2005-09-30

The Altarum Institute, under contract to the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT), currently is engaged in a project called the Altarum Restricted Use Technology Study. This study, an 18-month effort, seeks to apply restricted use techn...

NASA Open Rotor Noise Research

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Envia, Ed

2010-01-01

Owing to their inherent fuel burn efficiency advantage compared with the current generation high bypass ratio turbofan engines, there is resurgent interest in developing open rotor propulsion systems for powering the next generation commercial aircraft. However, to make open rotor systems truly competitive, they must be made to be acoustically acceptable too. To address this challenge, NASA in collaboration with industry is exploring the design space for low-noise open rotor propulsion systems. The focus is on the system level assessment of the open rotors compared with other candidate concepts like the ultra high bypass ratio cycle engines. To that end there is an extensive research effort at NASA focused on component testing and diagnostics of the open rotor acoustic performance as well as assessment and improvement of open rotor noise prediction tools. In this presentation and overview of the current NASA research on open rotor noise will be provided. Two NASA projects, the Environmentally Responsible Aviation Project and the Subsonic Fixed Wing Project, have been funding this research effort.

Update to permeable pavement research at the Edison ...

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Abstract: The EPA’s Urban Watershed Management Branch (UWMB) has been monitoring the permeable pavement demonstration site at the Edison Environmental Center, NJ since 2010. This site has three different types of permeable pavement including: interlocking concrete permeable pavers; porous concrete; and permeable asphalt. The parking lot is instrumented with water content reflectometers and thermistors for continuous monitoring and has four lined sections for each surface to capture permeable pavement infiltrate for water quality analyses.Previous technical releases concerning the demonstration site focused on monitoring techniques, observed chloride and nutrient concentrations, and infiltration and evaporation rates. Thispresentation summarizes past findings and addresses current water quality efforts. This presentation summarizes past findings and addresses current water quality efforts.

Wind tunnel wall interference

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Newman, Perry A.; Mineck, Raymond E.; Barnwell, Richard W.; Kemp, William B., Jr.

1986-01-01

About a decade ago, interest in alleviating wind tunnel wall interference was renewed by advances in computational aerodynamics, concepts of adaptive test section walls, and plans for high Reynolds number transonic test facilities. Selection of NASA Langley cryogenic concept for the National Transonic Facility (NTF) tended to focus the renewed wall interference efforts. A brief overview and current status of some Langley sponsored transonic wind tunnel wall interference research are presented. Included are continuing efforts in basic wall flow studies, wall interference assessment/correction procedures, and adaptive wall technology.

Effective Coping With Supervisor Conflict Depends on Control: Implications for Work Strains.

PubMed

Eatough, Erin M; Chang, Chu-Hsiang

2018-01-11

This study examined the interactive effects of interpersonal conflict at work, coping strategy, and perceived control specific to the conflict on employee work strain using multisource and time-lagged data across two samples. In Sample 1, multisource data was collected from 438 employees as well as data from participant-identified secondary sources (e.g., significant others, best friends). In Sample 2, time-lagged data from 100 full-time employees was collected in a constructive replication. Overall, findings suggested that the success of coping efforts as indicated by lower strains hinges on the combination of the severity of the stressor, perceived control over the stressor, and coping strategy used (problem-focused vs. emotion-focused coping). Results from the current study provide insights for why previous efforts to document the moderating effects of coping have been inconsistent, especially with regards to emotion-focused coping. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Exemplar for simulation challenges: Large-deformation micromechanics of Sylgard 184/glass microballoon syntactic foams.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Brown, Judith Alice; Long, Kevin Nicholas

2018-05-01

Sylgard® 184/Glass Microballoon (GMB) potting material is currently used in many NW systems. Analysts need a macroscale constitutive model that can predict material behavior under complex loading and damage evolution. To address this need, ongoing modeling and experimental efforts have focused on study of damage evolution in these materials. Micromechanical finite element simulations that resolve individual GMB and matrix components promote discovery and better understanding of the material behavior. With these simulations, we can study the role of the GMB volume fraction, time-dependent damage, behavior under confined vs. unconfined compression, and the effects of partial damage. These simulations are challengingmore » and push the boundaries of capability even with the high performance computing tools available at Sandia. We summarize the major challenges and the current state of this modeling effort, as an exemplar of micromechanical modeling needs that can motivate advances in future computing efforts.« less

Border-wide assessment of intelligent transportation system (ITS) technology : current and future concepts.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2012-07-01

The purpose of this effort was to conduct a border-wide assessment of the use of intelligent transportation systems (ITS) technologies and operational concepts at and near land border crossings between the U.S. and Mexico. The work focused on tolling...

Text Mining.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Trybula, Walter J.

1999-01-01

Reviews the state of research in text mining, focusing on newer developments. The intent is to describe the disparate investigations currently included under the term text mining and provide a cohesive structure for these efforts. A summary of research identifies key organizations responsible for pushing the development of text mining. A section…

INFLUENCE OF STREAM NETWORK-SCALE HABITAT OF A COASTAL OREGON WATERSHED ON COHO SALMON AND OTHER NATIVE FISH

EPA Science Inventory

EPA's Western Ecology Division is undertaking research addressing catchment-scale dynamics of freshwater habitat productivity for native fishes. Through partnerships with state and federal agencies and private landowners, current field efforts focus on linkages among stream chemi...

Prospective Teachers' Understandings: Function and Composite Function.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Meel, David E.

2003-01-01

The current education reform efforts place greater emphasis on conceptual understanding and focus attention on teacher preparation, especially on the adequacy of teachers' mathematical knowledge of the material they will be teaching. This paper discusses the responses of 20 prospective elementary and special education mathematics specialists to…

Preparing Educators to Partner with Families

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miller, Gloria E.; Lines, Cathy; Sullivan, Erin; Hermanutz, Kirsten

2013-01-01

The present study focuses on current efforts underway in one western US state to prepare educators' for meaningful participation with families. Directors and faculty from 43 accredited Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) preparing pre-service teachers, administrators, and student support personnel were asked to complete an online survey…

Pavement Distress Evaluation Using 3D Depth Information from Stereo Vision

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2012-07-01

The focus of the current project funded by MIOH-UTC for the period 9/1/2010-8/31/2011 is to : enhance our earlier effort in providing a more robust image processing based pavement distress : detection and classification system. During the last few de...

LDRD Annual Report.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Sweany, Melinda

2017-10-01

This is a high-risk effort to leverage knowledge gained from previous work, which focused on detector development leading to better energy resolution and reconstruction errors. This work seeks to enable applications that require precise elemental characterization of materials, such as chemical munitions remediation, offering the potential to close current detection gaps.

Global status of and prospects for protection of terrestrial geophysical diversity.

PubMed

Sanderson, Eric W; Segan, Daniel B; Watson, James E M

2015-06-01

Conservation of representative facets of geophysical diversity may help conserve biological diversity as the climate changes. We conducted a global classification of terrestrial geophysical diversity and analyzed how land protection varies across geophysical diversity types. Geophysical diversity was classified in terms of soil type, elevation, and biogeographic realm and then compared to the global distribution of protected areas in 2012. We found that 300 (45%) of 672 broad geophysical diversity types currently meet the Convention on Biological Diversity's Aichi Target 11 of 17% terrestrial areal protection, which suggested that efforts to implement geophysical diversity conservation have a substantive basis on which to build. However, current protected areas were heavily biased toward high elevation and low fertility soils. We assessed 3 scenarios of protected area expansion and found that protection focused on threatened species, if fully implemented, would also protect an additional 29% of geophysical diversity types, ecoregional-focused protection would protect an additional 24%, and a combined scenario would protect an additional 42%. Future efforts need to specifically target low-elevation sites with productive soils for protection and manage for connectivity among geophysical diversity types. These efforts may be hampered by the sheer number of geophysical diversity facets that the world contains, which makes clear target setting and prioritization an important next step. © 2015 Society for Conservation Biology.

Intervening to Improve Outcomes for Siblings in Foster Care: Conceptual, Substantive, and Methodological Dimensions of a Prevention Science Framework

PubMed Central

Kothari, Brianne H.; Blakeslee, Jennifer; Lamson-Siu, Emilie; Bank, Lew; Linares, L. Oriana; Waid, Jeffrey; Sorenson, Paul; Jimenez, Jessica; Pearson, Eva; Shlonsky, Aron

2014-01-01

In recent years, the child welfare field has devoted significant attention to siblings in foster care. Policymakers and practitioners have supported efforts to connect siblings via shared foster placements and visitation while researchers have focused on illuminating the empirical foundations of sibling placement and sibling intervention in child welfare. The current paper synthesizes literature on sibling relationship development and sibling issues in child welfare in the service of presenting a typology of sibling-focused interventions for use with foster youth. The paper provides two examples of current intervention research studies focused on enhancing sibling developmental processes and understanding their connection to child welfare outcomes. The paper concludes by presenting an emerging agenda informing policy, practice, and research on siblings in foster care. PMID:24634558

Non-wadeable river bioassessment: spatial variation of benthic diatom assemblages in Pacific Northwest rivers, USA

EPA Science Inventory

Current bioassessment efforts are focused on small wadeable streams, at least partly because assessing ecological conditions in non-wadeable large rivers poses many additional challenges. In this study, we sampled 20 sites in each of seven large rivers in the Pacific Northwest, U...

Liquid crystal television custom drive circuit

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Loudin, Jeffrey A.

1994-03-01

A new drive circuit for the liquid crystal display (LCD) of the InFocus TVT-6000TM video projector is currently under development at the U.S. Army Missile Command. The new circuit will allow individual pixel control of the LCD. This paper will discuss results of the effort to date.

Educational Development and Reformation in Malaysia: Past, Present, and Future.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ahmad, Rahimah Haji

1998-01-01

Discusses educational development in Malaysia, focusing on curriculum changes, issues, and future perspectives. Discusses the development of values education, its importance in the curriculum, and the government's efforts to mold a united nation with Malaysian values. Current reforms target tertiary education. The school curriculum has not been…

Functional Assessment of Alaska Peatlands in Cook Inlet Basin, Region 10 Regional Applied Research Effort (RARE)

EPA Science Inventory

Peatlands in south central Alaska are the dominant wetland class in the lowlands of the Cook Inlet Basin. Currently Alaska peatlands are extensive and largely pristine but these areas are facing increasing human development. This study focused on obtaining measures of ecologica...

Models of Shared Leadership: Evolving Structures and Relationships.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hallinger, Philip; Richardson, Don

Current reform efforts, focusing on teacher empowerment, are based on the belief that lasting school improvement will occur when teachers become more involved in professional decision-making at the school site. Presented in this document are four conceptually distinct models of teacher involvement in schoolwide decision-making, identified on the…

Nutrition Education Research: Directions for the Future. [Proceedings].

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brun, Judy K., Ed.

A Nutrition Education Research Conference was hosted by the National Dairy Council on December 4-6, 1978. Specific purposes of the conference were to: (1) examine historical foundations; (2) analyze governmental activities; (3) determine current status; and (4) identify priorities for future efforts. The conference's general sessions focused on…

Health Insurance for Children. The Future for Children.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Behrman, Richard E., Ed.

2003-01-01

This issue of "The Future of Children" focuses on efforts to provide publicly funded health insurance to low-income children in the United States through Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). The articles summarize current knowledge and research about which children are uninsured and why, discuss ways to…

Reforming Middle Schools: Focus on Continuity, Social Connectedness, and Engagement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Juvonen, Jaana

2007-01-01

This article provides a brief historical context and analysis of current middle school reform efforts to promote student engagement by facilitating social relationships. International comparisons of perceived social climate are presented to assess whether sense of belonging and support are lacking in American schools. Research documenting…

Exploring Parental Perspectives on Parent-Child Sexual Communication

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ballard, Sharon M.; Gross, Kevin H.

2009-01-01

We examined parental perspectives about parent-child sexual communication through four focus groups conducted with 25 parents of young children. Participant comments fell into six areas: 1) personal experience with sexuality education, 2) current sexuality education efforts, 3) comfort and confidence, 4) content and timing, 5) importance of a…

Programa Actual 1991 (Current Programme 1991).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bernard Van Leer Foundation, The Hague (Netherlands).

This annual report for the Bernard van Leer Foundation describes the foundation's activities during 1990. The foundation seeks to promote the development of human resources in communities with social, economic, and cultural problems, focusing its efforts on the needs of young children. The first part of the publication contains a general…

Programs/Plans for the 21st Century.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

COMBASE, Stockton, CA.

This collection of brief program descriptions focuses on the efforts of 10 community colleges to meet the current and future needs of their communities in the areas of economic development, worker training and retraining, and literacy education. The 10 colleges highlighted are: (1) Central Arizona College, which offers a highway maintenance worker…

Corrective Strategies in Reading for At-Risk Community College Students.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yevoli, Carole

Focusing on corrective strategies for improving reading skills of at-risk community college students, this document reviews the history of such strategies, highlights current efforts, and assesses future needs. The first section traces the history of remedial reading programs at community colleges, beginning with small individualized sections…

Knowledge Management Analysis: A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mecha, Ezi I.; Desai, Mayur S.; Richards, Thomas C.

2009-01-01

It is imperative for businesses to manage knowledge and stay competitive in the marketplace. Knowledge management is critical and is a key to prevent organizations from duplicating their efforts with a subsequent improvement in their efficiency. This study focuses on overview of knowledge management, analyzes the current knowledge management in…

Coalition Building for Adult Literacy: Historical and Organizational Perspectives.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Newman, Anabel P.; Lehman, Bernadette

Selected successful literacy coalitions were examined to identify key issues and trends in coalition building. The six key issues identified (focus and functions, funding, governance, membership, key figures, and evaluation) were used as a framework to review the early efforts, current activities, and future visions of literacy coalitions…

Water: Social Issues and Contemporary Art Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cornelius, Angela; Sherow, Ernie; Carpenter, B. Stephen, II

2010-01-01

This Instructional Resource is based on the authors' current efforts as part of an interdisciplinary project where artists, community members, engineers, social activists, and educators are working together to make positive change in people's lives. Water, as a subject, symbol, and life-sustaining substance, is the focus of their work and the…

Exploring the Relationships between Dialogue and Inclusive School Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Orzel, Courtney Leigh

2012-01-01

High standards and expectations for all students drive current school reform efforts which target accountability measures and focus on standardized tests, leaving many American students, particularly those who have been traditionally underserved and marginalized, feeling excluded and silenced in school. Thus, it is important for school leaders to…

Mexico’s Drug War and Its Unintended Regional Consequences

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-03-01

multiple approaches are designed to solve the problem.9 Analysis of the current strategic environment, relying on the environmental assessment model...current environmental assessment, this paper will provide a brief description of a more desired environment and also a problem statement that depicts...the 1980s the U.S. focused its counter drug efforts in Peru and Bolivia, then the world’s leaders in coca leaf supply. In the meantime, Colombian

Current applications and future potential for bioinorganic chemistry in the development of anticancer drugs

PubMed Central

van Rijt, Sabine H.; Sadler, Peter J.

2010-01-01

This review illustrates notable recent progress in the field of medicinal bioinorganic chemistry with many new approaches to the design of innovative metal-based anticancer drugs emerging. Current research addressing the problems associated with platinum drugs has focused on other metal-based therapeutics that have different modes of action, and on prodrug and targeting strategies in an effort to diminish the side-effects of cisplatin chemotherapy. PMID:19782150

NASA's Earth Science Enterprise's Water and Energy Cycle Focus Area

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Entin, J. K.

2004-05-01

Understanding the Water and Energy cycles is critical towards improving our understanding of climate change, as well as the consequences of climate change. In addition, using results from water and energy cycle research can help improve water resource management, agricultural efficiency, disaster management, and public health. To address this, NASA's Earth Science Enterprise (ESE) has an end-to-end Water and Energy Cycle Focus Area, which along with the ESE's other five focus areas will help NASA answer key Earth Science questions. In an effort to build upon the pre-existing discipline programs, which focus on precipitation, radiation sciences, and terrestrial hydrology, NASA has begun planning efforts to create an implementation plan for integrative research to improve our understanding of the water and energy cycles. The basics of this planning process and the core aspects of the implementation plan will be discussed. Roadmaps will also be used to show the future direction for the entire focus area. Included in the discussion, will be aspects of the end-to-end nature of the Focus Area that encompass current and potential actives to extend research results to operational agencies to enable improved performance of policy and management decision support systems.

Development of a comprehensive software engineering environment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hartrum, Thomas C.; Lamont, Gary B.

1987-01-01

The generation of a set of tools for software lifecycle is a recurring theme in the software engineering literature. The development of such tools and their integration into a software development environment is a difficult task because of the magnitude (number of variables) and the complexity (combinatorics) of the software lifecycle process. An initial development of a global approach was initiated in 1982 as the Software Development Workbench (SDW). Continuing efforts focus on tool development, tool integration, human interfacing, data dictionaries, and testing algorithms. Current efforts are emphasizing natural language interfaces, expert system software development associates and distributed environments with Ada as the target language. The current implementation of the SDW is on a VAX-11/780. Other software development tools are being networked through engineering workstations.

Optical Sensors Based on Single Arm Thin Film Waveguide Interferometer

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sarkisov, Sergey S.

1997-01-01

All the goals of the research effort for the first year were met by the accomplishments. Additional efforts were done to speed up the process of development and construction of the experimental gas chamber which will be completed by the end of 1997. This chamber incorporates vacuum sealed multimode optical fiber lines which connect the sensor to the remote light source and signal processing equipment. This optical fiber line is a prototype of actual optical communication links connecting real sensors to a control unit within an aircraft or spacecraft. An important problem which we are planning to focus on during the second year is coupling of optical fiber line to the sensor. Currently this problem is solved using focusing optics and prism couplers. More reliable solutions are planned to be investigated.

Concussions in American Football.

PubMed

Womble, Melissa N; Collins, Michael W

Major advancements in sport-related concussion (SRC) management have been made across time to improve the safety of contact sports, including football. Nevertheless, these advances are often overlooked due to concerns regarding the potential long-term effects of SRC. Although further research is needed, it is critical that current efforts are focused on better understanding SRC in order to recognize and change ongoing factors leading to prolonged recoveries, increased risk for injury, and potentially long-term effects. To reduce risk for these outcomes, future focus must be placed on increased education efforts, immediate reporting of injury, prevention techniques, targeted treatment, and the development of multidisciplinary treatment teams nationwide. Finally, with the progress in understanding concussion, it is important to remain vigilant of additional advances that will help to further improve the safety of contact sports, including football.

Quality Indicators in Radiation Oncology

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Albert, Jeffrey M.; Das, Prajnan, E-mail: prajdas@mdanderson.org

Oncologic specialty societies and multidisciplinary collaborative groups have dedicated considerable effort to developing evidence-based quality indicators (QIs) to facilitate quality improvement, accreditation, benchmarking, reimbursement, maintenance of certification, and regulatory reporting. In particular, the field of radiation oncology has a long history of organized quality assessment efforts and continues to work toward developing consensus quality standards in the face of continually evolving technologies and standards of care. This report provides a comprehensive review of the current state of quality assessment in radiation oncology. Specifically, this report highlights implications of the healthcare quality movement for radiation oncology and reviews existing efforts tomore » define and measure quality in the field, with focus on dimensions of quality specific to radiation oncology within the “big picture” of oncologic quality assessment efforts.« less

Moonshot Science-Risks and Benefits.

PubMed

Casadevall, Arturo; Fang, Ferric C

2016-08-30

Ever since the successful Apollo 11 Moon landing in 1969, a "moonshot" has come to signify a bold effort to achieve a seemingly impossible task. The Obama administration recently called for a moonshot to cure cancer, an initiative that has elicited mixed responses from researchers who welcome additional funding but worry about raising expectations. We suggest that a successful moonshot requires a sufficient understanding of the basic science underlying a problem in question so that efforts can be focused on engineering a solution. Current gaps in our basic knowledge of cancer biology make the cancer moonshot a uniquely challenging endeavor. Nevertheless, history has shown that intensive research efforts have frequently yielded conceptual and technological breakthroughs with unanticipated benefits for society. We expect that this effort will be no different. Copyright © 2016 Casadevall and Fang.

Low-cost manufacturing of the point focus concentrating module and its key component, the Fresnel lens. Final subcontract report, 31 January 1991--6 May 1991

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Saifee, T.; Konnerth, A. III

1991-11-01

Solar Kinetics, Inc. (SKI) has been developing point-focus concentrating PV modules since 1986. SKI is currently in position to manufacture between 200 to 600 kilowatts annually of the current design by a combination of manual and semi-automated methods. This report reviews the current status of module manufacture and specifies the required approach to achieve a high-volume manufacturing capability and low cost. The approach taken will include process development concurrent with module design for automated manufacturing. The current effort reviews the major manufacturing costs and identifies components and processes whose improvements would produce the greatest effect on manufacturability and cost reduction.more » The Fresnel lens is one such key component. Investigating specific alternative manufacturing methods and sources has substantially reduced the lens costs and has exceeded the DOE cost-reduction goals. 15 refs.« less

Developing the JPL Engineering Processes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Linick, Dave; Briggs, Clark

2004-01-01

This paper briefly recounts the recent history of process reengineering at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, with a focus on the engineering processes. The JPL process structure is described and the process development activities of the past several years outlined. The main focus of the paper is on the current process structure, the emphasis on the flight project life cycle, the governance approach that lead to Flight Project Practices, and the remaining effort to capture process knowledge at the detail level of the work group.

The Visible and the Invisible: Mathematics as Revelation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roth, Wolff-Michael; Maheux, Jean-François

2015-01-01

Mathematics educators have shown increasing interest in theorizing knowing and learning as something alive or as something that comes alive through the involvement of the body. Almost all current efforts attempt doing so by focusing on the body in which the otherwise invisible living being exhibits itself, thereby failing to consider everything…

Mathematics & Science in the Real World.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thorson, Annette, Ed.

2000-01-01

This issue of ENC Focus is organized around the theme of mathematics and science in the real world. It intends to provide teachers with practical resources and suggestions for science and mathematics education. Featured articles include: (1) "Real-World Learning: A Necessity for the Success of Current Reform Efforts" (Robert E. Yager); (2)…

How to Sustainably Increase Students' Willingness to Protect Pollinators

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schönfelder, Mona L.; Bogner, Franz X.

2018-01-01

The current loss of biodiversity requires efforts to increase awareness of pollinator conservation. An important tool is education which often uses the honeybee ("Apis mellifera") as an exemplary organism to reach this goal. Any successful module needs to focus on reducing the perceived danger associated with fear, in order to support…

Setting the Mood for Critical Thinking in the Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lewine, Rich; Sommers, Alison; Waford, Rachel; Robertson, Catherine

2015-01-01

Most current efforts to enhance critical thinking focus on skills practice and training. The empirical research from the fields of cognition and affect sciences suggest that positive mood, even when transiently induced, can have beneficial effects on cognitive flexibility and problem solving. We undertook this study to test this hypothesis in a…

Florida's Class Size Amendment and Co-Teaching: An Uneasy Partnership

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sutton, Lenford C.; Jones, Phyllis; White, Julia

2008-01-01

For nearly four decades, school finance has become progressively more central in school reform efforts aimed at improving student performance. At the same time, the focus of many school business officials and policymakers has turned to efficient uses of current resources in lieu of uniform increases in school funding. With regard to improving…

The Value of ERP Curriculum Integration: Perspectives from the Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hepner, Michelle; Dickson, Warren

2013-01-01

In the current economic conditions, many institutions face dwindling budgets and an increased focus on proving the value of the education provided. The effort and costs required to integrate Enterprise Resource Planning systems into course curricula are a significant investment of resources for any university. This paper examines the expense of…

Placing Parent Education in Conceptual and Empirical Context.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dunst, Carl J.

1999-01-01

This response to Mahoney et al. (EC 623 392), although agreeing that parent education needs to be reemphasized, disagrees with the reasons offered for why parent education is not a more explicit focus of current early-intervention efforts. Alternative approaches, such as family-centered practices and family support, are described. A model that…

NASA Langley/CNU Distance Learning Programs.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Caton, Randall; Pinelli, Thomas E.

NASA Langley Research Center and Christopher Newport University (CNU) provide, free to the public, distance learning programs that focus on math, science, and/or technology over a spectrum of education levels from K-adult. The effort started in 1997, and currently there are a suite of five distance-learning programs. This paper presents the major…

Self-Injury in a Statewide Sample of Young Children with Developmental Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

MacLean, William E.; Dornbush, Kylee

2012-01-01

Self-injurious behavior (SIB) is a devastating condition associated with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Efforts to understand its development are focused on early childhood when the behavior first emerges. Limited prevalence data on SIB during early childhood are currently available. The purpose of this study was to determine…

Rethinking Teacher Workforce Development: A Strategic Human Resource Management Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smylie, Mark A.; Miretzky, Debra; Konkol, Pamela

2004-01-01

In this chapter, the authors focus on teacher development as a collective and organizational issue. They begin with a brief review of conventional approaches to teacher workforce development and management, including current critiques of these efforts, their possible consequences, and an overview of the recent calls for more comprehensive,…

Intervention for Maltreating Fathers: Statistically and Clinically Significant Change

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scott, Katreena L.; Lishak, Vicky

2012-01-01

Objective: Fathers are seldom the focus of efforts to address child maltreatment and little is currently known about the effectiveness of intervention for this population. To address this gap, we examined the efficacy of a community-based group treatment program for fathers who had abused or neglected their children or exposed their children to…

Social Networks and Parent Motivational Beliefs: Evidence from an Urban School District

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Curry, Katherine A.; Jean-Marie, Gaëtane; Adams, Curt M.

2016-01-01

Background: Despite devotion of substantial resources and effort to increase parent/school partnerships, gaps remain between policy rhetoric and practice, especially in high-poverty communities. Current research focuses on parent involvement or effects of parent motivational beliefs on parent choice for behavior; however, it does not address the…

Forbs: Foundation for restoration of monarch butterflies, other pollinators, and greater sage-grouse in the western United States

Treesearch

Kas Dumroese; Tara Luna; Jeremy Pinto; Thomas D. Landis

2016-01-01

Monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus), other pollinators, and Greater Sage-Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) are currently the focus of increased conservation efforts. Federal attention on these fauna is encouraging land managers to develop conservation strategies, often without corresponding financial resources. This could foster a myopic approach when...

Early Childhood Teachers' Perceptions of the Educational Needs of Military Dependent Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stites, Michele Lee

2012-01-01

Military dependent children remain a largely unexplored subject, particularly in early childhood education. In an effort to fill the gap in the current literature, this research study focuses on how early childhood teachers perceive the educational needs of military dependent children. Previous research in the areas of geographic mobility,…

Protective Factors as Barriers to Depression in Gifted and Nongifted Adolescents

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mueller, Christian E.

2009-01-01

Despite continued efforts by researchers, a gap still exists in our understanding of the psychological, social, and emotional adjustment of gifted students. Historically, research and education of the gifted has focused on cognitive variables, with less attention given to the social and emotional needs of these students. The current study used…

Probing High School Physics Students' Views and Concerns about Learning Activities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Langley, Dorothy; Eylon, Bat-Sheva

2006-01-01

The current study is framed within an ongoing effort of probing students' attitudes and expectations about knowing and learning physics, which has driven several investigations during the past decade. The questionnaire we developed focuses on physics students' views regarding a variety of specific learning activities, which are presented by title…

Stakeholders Perceptions of a Universal Sustainability Assessment in Higher Education--A Review of Empirical Evidence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Maragakis, Antonios; van den Dobbelsteen, Andy; Maragakis, Alexandros

2016-01-01

The progress of sustainability within higher education has steadily increased in focus over the last decade and has increasingly become a topic of academic research. As institutions investigate, implement and market sustainability efforts, there is a myriad of sustainability assessment methodologies currently available. This assortment of…

77 FR 28399 - Agency Information Collection Activities: Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request, National...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-05-14

... standardized reporting methods to collect and analyze fire incident data at the Federal, State, and local levels. Data analysis helps local fire departments and States to focus on current problems, predict..., effort and resources used by respondents to respond) and cost, and the actual data collection instruments...

Friends of Survivors: The Community Impact of Unwanted Sexual Experiences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Banyard, Victoria L.; Moynihan, Mary M.; Walsh, Wendy A.; Cohn, Ellen S.; Ward, Sally

2010-01-01

Since sexual assault survivors are most likely to disclose their experiences to a friend; prevention efforts increasingly focus on friends as informal helpers. The current study examined friends' perceptions of the disclosure experience. Undergraduates (N = 1,241) at the University of New Hampshire completed a shortened version of the Ahrens and…

How Early Childhood Teachers Perceive the Educational Needs of Military Dependent Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stites, Michele L.

2016-01-01

Military dependent children remain a largely unexplored subject, particularly in early childhood education. In an effort to fill the gap in the current literature, this research study focuses on how early childhood teachers perceive the educational needs of military dependent children. Previous research in the areas of geographic mobility,…

Pharmaceutical Biotechnology: A New Graduate Course at the University of Florida College of Pharmacy.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schreier, Hans; And Others

1990-01-01

The University of Florida's efforts to include aspects of genetically engineered drugs into undergraduate teaching and develop a graduate program focusing on the pharmaceutical aspects of technology are outlined, including constituent contributions, attendance, and evaluation. The program's current status and plans for a lab course are discussed.…

Cool Tools, Tough Times: Maintaining a Focus on Technology Infusion

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Britten, Jody S.; Clausen, Jon M.

2009-01-01

Nationwide the effects of the current economic situation are trickling down to impact our schools. School transportation options are narrowing, the housing market is impacting property taxes, and efforts in technology are at a stand still (Bobkoff, 2009; Hopkinson, 2009; Mummolo, 2008). Simultaneously there is a need for schools to meet society's…

Harnessing the power of big data: infusing the scientific method with machine learning to transform ecology

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Most efforts to harness the power of big data for ecology and environmental sciences focus on data and metadata sharing, standardization, and accuracy. However, many scientists have not accepted the data deluge as an integral part of their research because the current scientific method is not scalab...

Databases post-processing in Tensoral

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dresselhaus, Eliot

1994-01-01

The Center for Turbulent Research (CTR) post-processing effort aims to make turbulence simulations and data more readily and usefully available to the research and industrial communities. The Tensoral language, introduced in this document and currently existing in prototype form, is the foundation of this effort. Tensoral provides a convenient and powerful protocol to connect users who wish to analyze fluids databases with the authors who generate them. In this document we introduce Tensoral and its prototype implementation in the form of a user's guide. This guide focuses on use of Tensoral for post-processing turbulence databases. The corresponding document - the Tensoral 'author's guide' - which focuses on how authors can make databases available to users via the Tensoral system - is currently unwritten. Section 1 of this user's guide defines Tensoral's basic notions: we explain the class of problems at hand and how Tensoral abstracts them. Section 2 defines Tensoral syntax for mathematical expressions. Section 3 shows how these expressions make up Tensoral statements. Section 4 shows how Tensoral statements and expressions are embedded into other computer languages (such as C or Vectoral) to make Tensoral programs. We conclude with a complete example program.

A Manual to Identify Sources of Fluvial Sediment | Science ...

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Sedimentation is one of the main causes of stream/river aquatic life use impairments in R3. Currently states lack standard guidance on appropriate tools available to quantify sediment sources and develop sediment budgets in TMDL Development. Methods for distinguishing sediment types for TMDL development will focus stream restoration and soil conservation efforts in strategic locations in a watershed and may better target appropriate BMPs to achieve sediment load reductions. Properly identifying sediment sources in a TMDL will also help focus NPDES permitting, stream restoration activities and other TMDL implementation efforts. This project will focus on developing a framework that will be published as a guidance document that outlines steps and approaches to identify the significant sources of fine-grained sediment in 303D listed watersheds. In this framework, the sediment-fingerprinting and sediment budget approaches will be emphasized. This project will focus on developing a framework that will be published as a guidance document that outlines steps and approaches to identify the significant sources of fine-grained sediment in 303D listed watersheds. In this framework, the sediment-fingerprinting and sediment budget approaches will be emphasized.

NASA's Hall Thruster Program

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jankovsky, Robert S.; Jacobson, David T.; Rawlin, Vincent K.; Mason, Lee S.; Mantenieks, Maris A.; Manzella, David H.; Hofer, Richard R.; Peterson, Peter Y.

2001-01-01

NASA's Hall thruster program has base research and focused development efforts in support of the Advanced Space Transportation Program, Space-Based Program, and various other programs. The objective of the base research is to gain an improved understanding of the physical processes and engineering constraints of Hall thrusters to enable development of advanced Hall thruster designs. Specific technical questions that are current priorities of the base effort are: (1) How does thruster life vary with operating point? (2) How can thruster lifetime and wear rate be most efficiently evaluated? (3) What are the practical limitations for discharge voltage as it pertains to high specific impulse operation (high discharge voltage) and high thrust operation (low discharge voltage)? (4) What are the practical limits for extending Hall thrusters to very high input powers? and (5) What can be done during thruster design to reduce cost and integration concerns? The objective of the focused development effort is to develop a 50 kW-class Hall propulsion system, with a milestone of a 50 kW engineering model thruster/system by the end of program year 2006. Specific program wear 2001 efforts, along with the corporate and academic participation, are described.

Focusing on Prevention: The Social and Economic Rights of Children Vulnerable to Sex Trafficking.

PubMed

Duger, Angela

2015-06-11

The commercial sexual exploitation of children ("CSEC") is an egregious human rights and public health violation that occurs every day across the US. Although there has been positive change in the US to bring attention to CSEC and to reform laws and policies to assist CSEC victims, scant attention and resources have been dedicated to prevention efforts. This paper critiques current US strategies to address CSEC and highlights the limitations of an interventionist framework that narrows its focus to anti-trafficking efforts. As an alternative, the paper proposes a human rights-based approach focusing on the fulfillment of economic and social rights of children as a prevention strategy in the U.S. Copyright 2015 Duger. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Lateral and vertical distribution of downstream migrating juvenile sea lamprey

USGS Publications Warehouse

Sotola, V. Alex; Miehls, Scott M.; Simard, Lee G.; Marsden, J. Ellen

2018-01-01

Sea lamprey is considered an invasive and nuisance species in the Laurentian Great Lakes, Lake Champlain, and the Finger Lakes of New York and is a major focus of control efforts. Currently, management practices focus on limiting the area of infestation using barriers to block migratory adults, and lampricides to kill ammocoetes in infested tributaries. No control efforts currently target the downstream-migrating post-metamorphic life stage which could provide another management opportunity. In order to apply control methods to this life stage, a better understanding of their downstream movement patterns is needed. To quantify spatial distribution of downstream migrants, we deployed fyke and drift nets laterally and vertically across the stream channel in two tributaries of Lake Champlain. Sea lamprey was not randomly distributed across the stream width and lateral distribution showed a significant association with discharge. Results indicated that juvenile sea lamprey is most likely to be present in the thalweg and at midwater depths of the stream channel. Further, a majority of the catch occurred during high flow events, suggesting an increase in downstream movement activity when water levels are higher than base flow. Discharge and flow are strong predictors of the distribution of out-migrating sea lamprey, thus managers will need to either target capture efforts in high discharge areas of streams or develop means to guide sea lamprey away from these areas.

Focus on flaviviruses: current and future drug targets.

PubMed

Geiss, Brian J; Stahla, Hillary; Hannah, Amanda M; Gari, Amanda M; Keenan, Susan M

2009-05-01

Infection by mosquito-borne flaviviruses (family Flaviviridae) is increasing in prevalence worldwide. The vast global, social and economic impact due to the morbidity and mortality associated with the diseases caused by these viruses necessitates therapeutic intervention. There is currently no effective clinical treatment for any flaviviral infection. Therefore, there is a great need for the identification of novel inhibitors to target the virus life cycle. In this article, we discuss structural and nonstructural viral proteins that are the focus of current target validation and drug discovery efforts. Both inhibition of essential enzymatic activities and disruption of necessary protein–protein interactions are considered. In addition, we address promising new targets for future research. As our molecular and biochemical understanding of the flavivirus life cycle increases, the number of targets for antiviral therapeutic discovery grows and the possibility for novel drug discovery continues to strengthen.

Direct-to-consumer marketing of evidence-based psychological interventions: introduction.

PubMed

Santucci, Lauren C; McHugh, R Kathryn; Barlow, David H

2012-06-01

The dissemination and implementation of evidence-based psychological interventions (EBPIs) to service provision settings has been a major challenge. Most efforts to disseminate and implement EBPIs have focused on clinicians and clinical systems as the consumers of these treatments and thus have targeted efforts to these groups. An alternative, complementary approach to achieve more widespread utilization of EBPIs is to disseminate directly to patients themselves. The aim of this special section is to explore several direct-to-consumer (i.e., patient) dissemination and education efforts currently underway. This manuscript highlights the rationale for direct-to-patient dissemination strategies as well as the application of marketing science to dissemination efforts. Achieving greater access to EBPIs will require the use of multiple approaches to overcome the many and varied barriers to successful dissemination and implementation. Copyright © 2011. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Quality measurement in diabetes care.

PubMed

Leas, Brian F; Berman, Bettina; Kash, Kathryn M; Crawford, Albert G; Toner, Richard W; Goldfarb, Neil I; Nash, David B

2009-10-01

This study aimed to evaluate diabetes quality measurement efforts, assess their strengths and areas for improvement, and identify gaps not adequately addressed by these measures. We conducted an environmental scan of diabetes quality measures, focusing on metrics included in the National Quality Measures Clearinghouse or promulgated by leading measurement organizations. Key informant interviews were also completed with thought leaders who develop, promote, and use quality measures. The environmental scan identified 146 distinct measures spanning 31 clinical processes or outcomes. This suggests a measurement system that is both redundant and inconsistent, with many different measures assessing the same clinical indicators. Interviewees believe that current diabetes measurement efforts are excessively broad and complex and expressed a need for better harmonization of these measures. Several gaps were also found, including a lack of measures focusing on population health, structural elements of health care, and prevention of diabetes.

Overview of chemical vapor infiltration

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Besmann, T.M.; Stinton, D.P.; Lowden, R.A.

1993-06-01

Chemical vapor infiltration (CVI) is developing into a commercially important method for the fabrication of continuous filament ceramic composites. Current efforts are focused on the development of an improved understanding of the various processes in CVI and its modeling. New approaches to CVI are being explored, including pressure pulse infiltration and microwave heating. Material development is also proceeding with emphasis on improving the oxidation resistance of the interfacial layer between the fiber and matrix. This paper briefly reviews these subjects, indicating the current state of the science and technology.

Sensor Technology for Integrated Vehicle Health Management of Aerospace Vehicles

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Prosser, W. H.; Brown, T. L.; Woodard, S. E.; Fleming, G. A.; Cooper, E. G.

2002-01-01

NASA is focusing considerable efforts on technology development for Integrated Vehicle Health Management systems. The research in this area is targeted toward increasing aerospace vehicle safety and reliability, while reducing vehicle operating and maintenance costs. Onboard, real-time sensing technologies that can provide detailed information on structural integrity are central to such a health management system. This paper describes a number of sensor technologies currently under development for integrated vehicle health management. The capabilities, current limitations, and future research needs of these technologies are addressed.

Emerging Community Noise Reduction Approaches

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Envia, Edmane

2012-01-01

An overview of the current NASA research portfolio in the area of aircraft noise reduction is presented. The emphasis of the research described herein is on meeting the aggressive near- and mid-term national goals for reducing aircraft noise emissions, which NASA internal studies have shown to be feasible using noise reduction technologies currently being developed in-house or in partnership with NASA s industry and academic partners. While NASA has an active research effort in airframe noise reduction, this overview focuses on propulsion noise reduction only.

The Economics of Reduced Impact Logging in the American Tropics: A Review of Recent Initiatives

Treesearch

Frederick Boltz; Thomas P. Holmes; Douglas R. Carter

1999-01-01

Programs aimed at developing and implementing reduced-impact logging (RIL) techniques are currently underway in important forest regions of Latin America, given the importance of timber production in the American tropics to national and global markets. RIL efforts focus upon planning and extraction methods which lessen harvest impact on residual commercial timber...

Designing Nutrition Education Programs for Somali Audiences: The Role of Cultural and Religious Practices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Van Offelen, Sara; Sherman, Shelley; May, Jill; Rhodes, Felisha

2011-01-01

A focus group of Somali immigrants was conducted as part of a larger study of underserved communities in Minnesota. The goal was to capture Somali women's personal experiences and views on nutrition. This understanding assists Health and Nutrition educators in assessing the quality and effectiveness of current programming efforts and making…

Modeling Responses of Dryland Spring Triticale, Proso Millet and Foxtail Millet to Initial Soil Water in the High Plains

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Dryland farming strategies in the High Plains must make efficient use of limited and variable precipitation and stored water in the soil profile for stable and sustainable farm productivity. Current research efforts focus on replacing summer fallow in the region with more profitable and environmenta...

Adult Education Association of the U.S.A.; Adult Basic Education Study 1965-66.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Firoza, Ahmed, Ed.

The adult basic education (ABE) programs currently conducted by non-governmental organizations in the United States, are reviewed in this document. Attention is focused on the significance of voluntary efforts in adult basic education programs; and strengths and weaknesses, gaps between needs and resources, and limiting factors are identified.…

Early Steps to School Success (ESSS): Examining Pathways Linking Home Visiting and Language Outcomes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Iruka, Iheoma U.; Brown, Deborah; Jerald, Judith; Blitch, Kimberly

2018-01-01

Background: Improving the home environment and parenting practices to support children's early development and learning is a key focus of many. Home visiting is one potential strategy to improve the home environment and parenting; however, more data about current programmatic efforts is needed, especially for children with multiple risks living in…

Tax Strategies for Community Economic Development.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pryde, Paul, Jr.

Critical to the success of current efforts to reform and restructure education and other community supports and services to improve the lives of children and their families is the way in which they are financed. This report of The Finance Project focuses on ways of using tax policies to help build strong local communities that can support families…

Expanding Computer Science Education in Schools: Understanding Teacher Experiences and Challenges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yadav, Aman; Gretter, Sarah; Hambrusch, Susanne; Sands, Phil

2017-01-01

The increased push for teaching computer science (CS) in schools in the United States requires training a large number of new K-12 teachers. The current efforts to increase the number of CS teachers have predominantly focused on training teachers from other content areas. In order to support these beginning CS teachers, we need to better…

The Provision of Counseling Services among School Psychologists: An Exploration of Training, Current Practices, and Perceptions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hanchon, Timothy A.; Fernald, Lori N.

2013-01-01

Although school psychologists have been called on in recent literature to assume a leadership role in a collective and comprehensive effort to address students' mental health needs, many practitioners find that their professional roles continue to be narrowly focused on special education-related activities, such as individualized assessment…

The effects of partial cutting practices on forest stand structure in Appalachian hardwood forests

Treesearch

Mary Ann Fajvan; Shawn T. Grushecky

1997-01-01

Eastern hardwood forests originated after catastrophic disturbances around the turn of the century and are currently an even-aged, maturing resource. The increasing value of sawlogs, especially those of particular species and quality, has prompted many forest landowners to increase their harvesting efforts. Most harvesting appears to be economically driven, focusing on...

A Framework for Understanding and Cultivating the Transition from Arithmetic to Algebraic Reasoning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nathan, Mitchell J.; Koellner, Karen

2007-01-01

Algebraic reasoning stands as a formidable gatekeeper for students in their efforts to progress in mathematics and science, and to obtain economic opportunities (Ladson-Billings, 1998; RAND, 2003). Currently, mathematics education research has focused on algebra in order to provide access and opportunities for more students. There is now a growing…

Inhibition of Ras for cancer treatment: the search continues

PubMed Central

Baines, Antonio T.; Xu, Dapeng; Der, Channing J.

2012-01-01

Background The RAS oncogenes (HRAS, NRAS and KRAS) comprise the most frequently mutated class of oncogenes in human cancers (33%), stimulating intensive effort in developing anti-Ras inhibitors for cancer treatment. Discussion Despite intensive effort, to date no effective anti-Ras strategies have successfully made it to the clinic. We present an overview of past and ongoing strategies to inhibit oncogenic Ras in cancer. Conclusions Since approaches to directly target mutant Ras have not been successful, most efforts have focused on indirect approaches to block Ras membrane association or downstream effector signaling. While inhibitors of effector signaling are currently under clinical evaluation, genome-wide unbiased genetic screens have identified novel directions for future anti-Ras drug discovery. PMID:22004085

Advanced Combustion Numerics and Modeling - FY18 First Quarter Report

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Whitesides, R. A.; Killingsworth, N. J.; McNenly, M. J.

This project is focused on early stage research and development of numerical methods and models to improve advanced engine combustion concepts and systems. The current focus is on development of new mathematics and algorithms to reduce the time to solution for advanced combustion engine design using detailed fuel chemistry. The research is prioritized towards the most time-consuming workflow bottlenecks (computer and human) and accuracy gaps that slow ACS program members. Zero-RK, the fast and accurate chemical kinetics solver software developed in this project, is central to the research efforts and continues to be developed to address the current and emergingmore » needs of the engine designers, engine modelers and fuel mechanism developers.« less

Introducing embedded indigenous psychological support teams: a suggested addition to psychological first aid in an international context.

PubMed

Edwards-Stewart, Amanda; Ahmad, Zeba S; Thoburn, John W; Furman, Rich; Lambert, Ashly J; Shelly, Lauren; Gunn, Ginger

2012-01-01

The current article introduces Embedded Indigenous Psychological Support Teams (IPST) as a possible addition to current disaster relief efforts. This article highlights psychological first aid in an international context by drawing on mainstream disaster relief models such as The American Red Cross, Critical Incident Stress Management, and Flexible Psychological First Aid. IPST are explained as teams utilizing techniques from both CISM and FPFA with a focus on resiliency. It is currently theorized that in utilizing IPST existing disaster relief models may be more effective in mitigating negative physical or mental health consequences post-disaster.

Telecommunication service markets through the year 2000 in relation to millimeter wave satellite systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stevenson, S. M.

1979-01-01

NASA is currently conducting a series of millimeter wave satellite system market studies to develop 30/20 GHz satellite system concepts that have commercial potential. Four contractual efforts were undertaken: two parallel and independent system studies and two parallel and independent market studies. The marketing efforts are focused on forecasting the total domestic demand for long haul telecommunications services for the 1980-2000 period. Work completed to date and reported in this paper include projections of: geographical distribution of traffic; traffic volume as a function of urban area size; and user identification and forecasted demand.

Why bother about wildlife disease?

USGS Publications Warehouse

Friend, Milton

2014-01-01

In most developed countries, the maintenance of the numbers of wildlife1 is vested in the natural resource agencies of those countries. During earlier times, game species were the primary focus of natural resource agencies2,3 however, current wildlife conservation continues to transition towards a more holistic focus on biodiversity4 and environmental health5,6. Nevertheless, that transition lags behind in addressing wildlife disease in “…the struggle for existence between different forms of life…”.7 Thus, the primary objective of this presentation is to provide a pragmatic assessment of wildlife disease that is irrespective of one’s orientation towards wildlife conservation. A secondary objective is to highlight the changing role of disease over time as a wildlife conservation factor. That transition is relevant to the insights provided for current and future efforts focused on sustaining global biodiversity and desired levels of wildlife populations in nature.

Atmospheric Infrasound during a Large Wildfire

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vance, Alexis; Elbing, Brian

2017-11-01

Numerous natural and manmade sources generate infrasound, including tornado producing storms, human heart, hurricanes, and volcanoes. Infrasound is currently being studied as part of Collaboration Leading Operational UAS Development for Meteorology and Atmospheric Physics (CLOUD MAP), which is a multi-university collaboration focused on development and implementation of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and integration with sensors for atmospheric measurements. To support this effort a fixed infrasonic microphone located in Stillwater, Oklahoma has been monitoring atmospheric emissions since September of 2016. While severe storm systems is the primary focus of this work, the system also captures a wide range of infrasonic sources from distances in excess of 300 miles due to an acoustic ceiling and weak atmospheric absorption. The current presentation will focus on atmospheric infrasound observations during a large wildfire on the Kansas-Oklahoma border that occurred between March 6-22, 2017. This work was supported by NSF Grant 1539070.

Parallel computing for automated model calibration

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Burke, John S.; Danielson, Gary R.; Schulz, Douglas A.

2002-07-29

Natural resources model calibration is a significant burden on computing and staff resources in modeling efforts. Most assessments must consider multiple calibration objectives (for example magnitude and timing of stream flow peak). An automated calibration process that allows real time updating of data/models, allowing scientists to focus effort on improving models is needed. We are in the process of building a fully featured multi objective calibration tool capable of processing multiple models cheaply and efficiently using null cycle computing. Our parallel processing and calibration software routines have been generically, but our focus has been on natural resources model calibration. Somore » far, the natural resources models have been friendly to parallel calibration efforts in that they require no inter-process communication, only need a small amount of input data and only output a small amount of statistical information for each calibration run. A typical auto calibration run might involve running a model 10,000 times with a variety of input parameters and summary statistical output. In the past model calibration has been done against individual models for each data set. The individual model runs are relatively fast, ranging from seconds to minutes. The process was run on a single computer using a simple iterative process. We have completed two Auto Calibration prototypes and are currently designing a more feature rich tool. Our prototypes have focused on running the calibration in a distributed computing cross platform environment. They allow incorporation of?smart? calibration parameter generation (using artificial intelligence processing techniques). Null cycle computing similar to SETI@Home has also been a focus of our efforts. This paper details the design of the latest prototype and discusses our plans for the next revision of the software.« less

Academic and Government Partnerships to Address Diabetes in the USA: a Narrative Review.

PubMed

Yi, Stella S; Chamany, Shadi; Thorpe, Lorna

2017-09-01

Multi-sector partnerships are broadly considered to be of value for diabetes prevention and management. The purpose of this article is to summarize academic and government collaborations focused on diabetes prevention and management. Using a narrative review approach, we identified 17 articles describing 10 academic and government partnerships for diabetes management and surveillance. Challenges and gaps in the literature include complexity of diabetes management vis a vis current healthcare infrastructure; a paucity of racial/ethnic diversity in translational efforts; and the time/effort needed to maintain strong relationships across partner institutions. Academic and government partnerships are of value for diabetes prevention and management activities. Acknowledgment that the key priorities of government programming are often costs and feasibility is critical for collaborations to be successful. Future translational efforts of diabetes prevention and management programs should focus on the following: (1) expansion of partnerships between academia and local health departments; (2) increased utilization of implementation science for enhanced and efficient implementation and dissemination; and (3) harnessing of technological advances for data analysis, patient communication, and report generation.

Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator Ground Test Development

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Del Corso, Jospeh A.; Hughes, Stephen; Cheatwood, Neil; Johnson, Keith; Calomino, Anthony

2015-01-01

Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (HIAD) technology readiness levels have been incrementally matured by NASA over the last thirteen years, with most recent support from NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) Game Changing Development Program (GCDP). Recently STMD GCDP has authorized funding and support through fiscal year 2015 (FY15) for continued HIAD ground developments which support a Mars Entry, Descent, and Landing (EDL) study. The Mars study will assess the viability of various EDL architectures to enable a Mars human architecture pathfinder mission planned for mid-2020. At its conclusion in November 2014, NASA's first HIAD ground development effort had demonstrated success with fabricating a 50 W/cm2 modular thermal protection system, a 400 C capable inflatable structure, a 10-meter scale aeroshell manufacturing capability, together with calibrated thermal and structural models. Despite the unquestionable success of the first HIAD ground development effort, it was recognized that additional investment was needed in order to realize the full potential of the HIAD technology capability to enable future flight opportunities. The second HIAD ground development effort will focus on extending performance capability in key technology areas that include thermal protection system, lifting-body structures, inflation systems, flight control, stage transitions, and 15-meter aeroshell scalability. This paper presents an overview of the accomplishments under the baseline HIAD development effort and current plans for a follow-on development effort focused on extending those critical technologies needed to enable a Mars Pathfinder mission.

SF6-alternative gases for application in gas-insulated switchgear

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Xingwen; Zhao, Hu; Murphy, Anthony B.

2018-04-01

The environmental problems caused by greenhouse gases have received unprecedented attention. Sulfur hexafluoride (SF6), which is the preferred gas for use in gas-insulated switchgear (circuit breakers, disconnect switches, etc. for high-voltage electrical circuits), has a very high global warming potential, and there is a large international effort to find alternative gases. Recently, this effort has made important progress, with promising alternative gases being identified and tested. An overview, in particular the current state of the art, of the study of SF6-alternative gases is presented in the paper. The review focuses on the application of the SF6-alternative gases in gas-insulated switchgear, with detailed analysis of calculations and measurements of their basic physical properties, dielectric strengths, and arc-quenching capabilities. Finally, a discussion of and perspectives on current research and future research directions are presented.

Requirement Metrics for Risk Identification

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hammer, Theodore; Huffman, Lenore; Wilson, William; Rosenberg, Linda; Hyatt, Lawrence

1996-01-01

The Software Assurance Technology Center (SATC) is part of the Office of Mission Assurance of the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). The SATC's mission is to assist National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) projects to improve the quality of software which they acquire or develop. The SATC's efforts are currently focused on the development and use of metric methodologies and tools that identify and assess risks associated with software performance and scheduled delivery. This starts at the requirements phase, where the SATC, in conjunction with software projects at GSFC and other NASA centers is working to identify tools and metric methodologies to assist project managers in identifying and mitigating risks. This paper discusses requirement metrics currently being used at NASA in a collaborative effort between the SATC and the Quality Assurance Office at GSFC to utilize the information available through the application of requirements management tools.

Direct Current as an Integrating Platform for ZNE Buildings with EVs and Storage: DC Direct Systems – A Bridge to a Low Carbon Future?

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Johnson, Karl; Vossos, Vagelis; Kloss, Margarita

2016-09-01

Cost effective zero net energy (ZNE) schemes exist for many types of residential and commercial buildings. Yet, today’s alternating current (AC) based ZNE designs may be as much as 10% to 20% less efficient, more costly, and more complicated than a design based on direct current (DC) technologies. An increasing number of research organizations and manufacturers are just starting the process of developing products and conducting research and development (R&D) efforts. These early R&D efforts indicate that the use of DC technologies may deliver many energy and non-energy benefits relative to AC-based typologies. DC ZNE schemes may provide for anmore » ideal integrating platform for natively DC-based onsite generation, storage, electric vehicle (EV) charging and end-use loads. Emerging empirical data suggest that DC end-use appliances are more efficient, simpler, more durable, and lower cost. DC technologies appear to provide ratepayers a lower cost pathway to achieve resilient ZNE buildings, and simultaneously yield a plethora of benefits. This paper draws from the current research effort entitled "Direct Current as an Integrating and Enabling Platform," co-led by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), the California Institute for Energy and the Environment (CIEE), the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and funded under the California Energy Commission’s Energy Program Investment Charge (CEC EPIC). The first phase of this EPIC research is focused on assembling and summarizing known global performance information on DC and DC-AC hybrid end-use appliances and power systems. This paper summarizes the information and insights gained from this research effort.« less

Surveillance Systems to Track and Evaluate Obesity Prevention Efforts.

PubMed

Hoelscher, Deanna M; Ranjit, Nalini; Pérez, Adriana

2017-03-20

To address the obesity epidemic, the public health community must develop surveillance systems that capture data at levels through which obesity prevention efforts are conducted. Current systems assess body mass index (BMI), diet, and physical activity behaviors at the individual level, but environmental and policy-related data are often lacking. The goal of this review is to describe US surveillance systems that evaluate obesity prevention efforts within the context of international trends in obesity monitoring, to identify potential data gaps, and to present recommendations to improve the evaluation of population-level initiatives. Our recommendations include adding environmental and policy measures to surveillance efforts with a focus on addressing underserved populations, harmonizing existing surveillance systems, including more sensitive measures of obesity outcomes, and developing a knowledgeable workforce. In addition, the widespread use of electronic health records and new technologies that allow self-quantification of behaviors offers opportunities for innovative surveillance methods.

Chemical education experiences from the English language learner perspective

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Flores, Annette

2011-12-01

The Rio Grande Valley (RGV) is a region populated by Spanish-speaking immigrants and their descendants producing a large English Language Learner (ELL) student population. ELLs have historically had low literacy rates and achievement levels when compared to their counterparts. In order to address this achievement gap, previous research efforts and curriculum interventions have focused on language acquisition as being the determining factor in ELL education, with little attention given to academic content acquisition. More current research efforts have transitioned into English language acquisition through academic content instruction; this present research study specifically focuses on ELL experiences in chemistry. Participants were high school chemistry students who identified as ELL or had recently exited out of ELL status. Students were interviewed to identify factors that attributed to their experiences in chemistry. Findings indicate code-switching as a key to learning chemistry in English but also the deterrent in English language acquisition.

A review of protocols for monitoring streams and juvenile fish in forested regions of the Pacific Northwest.

Treesearch

Scott A. Stolnack; Mason D. Bryant; Robert C. Wissmar

2005-01-01

This document reviews existing and proposed protocols used to monitor stream ecosystem conditions and responses to land management activities in the Pacific Northwest. Because of recent work aimed at improving the utility of habitat survey and fish abundance assessment methods, this review focuses on current (since 1993) monitoring efforts that assess stream habitat...

Effects of phosphorus and nitrogen manipulations on tallgrass prairie restoration

Treesearch

Patrick Kincaid; Val H. Smith; Bryan L. Foster; Venessa L. Madden

2002-01-01

The tallgrass prairie biome of North America once extended from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. Only an estimated 1% of this important ecosystem remains today (Diamond and Smeins 1988; Samson and Knopf 1994), and these remnant prairie tracts are currently the focus of intense restoration and conservation efforts (Bock and Bock 1995; Kindscher and Tieszen 1998). In...

Learning Together: A Study of Six B.A. Completion Cohort Programs in Early Care and Education--Year 4

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kipnis, F.; Whitebook, M.; Almaraz, M.; Sakai, L.; Austin, L. J. E.

2012-01-01

The Learning Together longitudinal study focuses on four counties' efforts to expand bachelor's degree opportunities in early care and education (ECE) for adults currently working in the field. The "student cohort" model--in which small groups of ECE students with similar interests and characteristics pursue a bachelor's degree together,…

Situating Programs of Study within Current and Historical Career and Technical Educational Reform Efforts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stipanovic, Natalie; Lewis, Morgan V.; Stringfield, Sam

2012-01-01

This article provides a broad overview of the history of career-focused education in the United States and the reauthorization of the federal Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Improvement Act of 2006. The Perkins act required that the recipients of its funding offer at least one program of study, and this reauthorization included four…

Mobile Learning in Pre-Kindergarten: Using Student Feedback to Inform Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reeves, Jennifer L.; Gunter, Glenda A.; Lacey, Candace

2017-01-01

There is a trend to use mobile devices in K-12 classrooms and create 1:1 learning experiences. Current research has focused on creating student collaborative efforts and increasing engagement when learning using the iPad, as well as the user-friendly characteristics and the tremendous number of apps available. There continues to be a need for…

Learning Analytics in Small-Scale Teacher-Led Innovations: Ethical and Data Privacy Issues

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rodríguez-Triana, María Jesús; Martínez-Monés, Alejandra; Villagrá-Sobrino, Sara

2016-01-01

As a further step towards maturity, the field of learning analytics (LA) is working on the definition of frameworks that structure the legal and ethical issues that scholars and practitioners must take into account when planning and applying LA solutions to their learning contexts. However, current efforts in this direction tend to be focused on…

Data Storage Hierarchy Systems for Data Base Computers

DTIC Science & Technology

1979-08-01

Thesis Supervisor Accepted by ................................................ Chairman, Department Committee - /-111 Report...failing to comply with a collection of information if it does not display a currently valid OMB control number. 1. REPORT DATE AUG 1979 2. REPORT...with very large capacity and small access time. As part of the INFOPLEX research effort, this thesis is focused on the study of high performance, highly

Participation and Cognitive Demand: Linking the Enacted Curriculum and Student Learning in Middle School Algebra

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Otten, Samuel

2012-01-01

Many current policy initiatives focus on teacher qualifications and high-stakes assessments for students as a means to improve mathematics education in the United States, but this approach ignores the actual practice of teaching through which students have opportunities to learn mathematics. The present study is an effort to answer scholars'…

A review of liquid rocket propulsion programs in Japan

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Merkle, Charles L.

1991-01-01

An assessment of Japan's current capabilities in the areas of space and transatmospheric propulsion is presented. The primary focus is upon Japan's programs in liquid rocket propulsion and in space plane and related transatmospheric areas. Brief reference is also made to their solid rocket programs, as well as to their supersonic air breathing propulsion efforts that are just getting underway.

Using Sources to Teach History for the Common Good: A Case of One Teacher's Purpose

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gradwell, Jill M.

2010-01-01

The teacher who is the focus of this interpretive case study, uses primary sources regularly with her students in ambitious ways but does so less from the current reform efforts, recent history education scholarship, or the climate of accountability and more from her individual goals for history education, most significantly, to prepare her…

Male Student-Athlete Perceptions of University Academic Staff Expectations: A Qualitative Analysis of Perceptions, Value and Academic Motivation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Verbeck, Teresa A.

2010-01-01

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 male collegiate student-athletes in a revenue-generating sport in an effort to better inform current academic support practitioners how to best serve this population. The inquiry focused on student-athlete perceptions of two areas: (1) perceptions regarding the expectations academic personnel have…

Exogenous application of the plant signalers methyl jasmonate & salicylic acid induces changes in volatile emissions from citrus foliage & influences the aggregation behavior of ACP (Diaphorina citri), vector of Huanglongbing

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Huanglongbing or citrus greening is a destructive disease that threatens citrus production worldwide; it is putatively caused by the phloem-limited bacterium Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus (Las). Currently the disease is untreatable and control efforts focus on intensive insecticide use to contro...

Assessing anhedonia in depression: Potentials and pitfalls

PubMed Central

Rizvi, Sakina J.; Pizzagalli, Diego A.; Sproule, Beth A.; Kennedy, Sidney H.

2016-01-01

The resurgence of interest in anhedonia within major depression has been fuelled by clinical trials demonstrating its utility in predicting antidepressant response as well as recent conceptualizations focused on the role and manifestation of anhedonia in depression. Historically, anhedonia has been conceptualized as a “loss of pleasure”, yet neuropsychological and neurobiological studies reveal a multifaceted reconceptualization that emphasizes different facets of hedonic function, including desire, effort/motivation, anticipation and consummatory pleasure. To ensure generalizability across studies, evaluation of the available subjective and objective methods to assess anhedonia is necessary. The majority of research regarding anhedonia and its neurobiological underpinnings comes from preclinical research, which uses primary reward (e.g. food) to probe hedonic responding. In contrast, behavioural studies in humans primarily use secondary reward (e.g. money) to measure many aspects of reward responding, including delay discounting, response bias, prediction error, probabilistic reversal learning, effort, anticipation and consummatory pleasure. The development of subjective scales to measure anhedonia has also increased in the last decade. This review will assess the current methodology to measure anhedonia, with a focus on scales and behavioural tasks in humans. Limitations of current work and recommendations for future studies are discussed. PMID:26959336

MO-E-12A-01: Quantitative Imaging: Techniques, Applications, and Challenges

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Jackson, E; Jeraj, R; McNitt-Gray, M

The first symposium in the Quantitative Imaging Track focused on the introduction of quantitative imaging (QI) by illustrating the potential of QI in diagnostic and therapeutic applications in research and patient care, highlighting key challenges in implementation of such QI applications, and reviewing QI efforts of selected national and international agencies and organizations, including the FDA, NCI, NIST, and RSNA. This second QI symposium will focus more specifically on the techniques, applications, and challenges of QI. The first talk of the session will focus on modalityagnostic challenges of QI, beginning with challenges of the development and implementation of QI applicationsmore » in single-center, single-vendor settings and progressing to the challenges encountered in the most general setting of multi-center, multi-vendor settings. The subsequent three talks will focus on specific QI challenges and opportunities in the modalityspecific settings of CT, PET/CT, and MR. Each talk will provide information on modality-specific QI techniques, applications, and challenges, including current efforts focused on solutions to such challenges. Learning Objectives: Understand key general challenges of QI application development and implementation, regardless of modality. Understand selected QI techniques and applications in CT, PET/CT, and MR. Understand challenges, and potential solutions for such challenges, for the applications presented for each modality.« less

The neural correlates of impaired attentional control in social anxiety: an ERP study of inhibition and shifting.

PubMed

Judah, Matt R; Grant, DeMond M; Mills, Adam C; Lechner, William V

2013-12-01

Cognitive models of social anxiety disorder posit that maladaptive thought processes play an etiological role in symptoms. The current study tested whether socially anxious individuals (HSAs) demonstrated impaired processing efficiency at the neural and behavioral level, and whether this was exacerbated by self-focused attention. Thirty-two (16 socially anxious, 16 nonanxious controls) subjects completed a mixed-antisaccade task with an oddball instructional cue. To manipulate self-focus, participants were told that the oddball cue indicated elevated heart rate. The HSA group demonstrated delayed saccade onset compared with controls, but made fewer errors. HSAs also had lower P3b amplitude compared with controls, suggesting reduced availability of resources for discriminating cues, and later P3b latency during self-focus trials, suggesting delayed cue categorization. Additionally, HSAs had greater CNV negativity compared with controls, suggesting greater effort in response preparation, and this negativity was reduced during self-focus trials, supporting the hypothesis that self-focused attention preoccupies executive resources. The current study supports and expands cognitive theories by documenting impaired neural and behavioral functioning in social anxiety and the role of self-focused attention in these deficits.

The Role of the Food Industry in Obesity Prevention.

PubMed

Binks, Martin

2016-06-01

Obesity is a complex disease of diverse etiology. Among the potential influences in the development of obesity, the food supply chain remains an important influence. We provide a conceptual overview related to the food industry's role in obesity prevention. We first discuss some limitations of current public health efforts. We then describe how a model that attends to personal autonomy in the context of supportive policy intervention can empower individuals in their efforts to navigate the food supply chain. We then provide an evidence informed overview of key areas where continued efforts to collaboratively engage the food industry, through solution-focused dialogue and action, have the potential to contribute to obesity prevention. While challenging, appropriately transparent, well-governed public-private partnerships have the demonstrated potential to benefit the communities we serve.

2006 Status of the Momentum eXchange Electrodynamic Re-Boost (MXER) Tether Development

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bonometti, Joseph A.; Sorensen, Kirk F.; Dankanich, John W.; Frame, Kyle L.

2006-01-01

The MXER Tether technology development is a high-payoff/high-risk investment area within the NASA In-Space Propulsion Technology (ISPT) Program. The ISPT program is managed by the NASA Headquarters Science Mission Directorate and implemented by the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The MXER concept was identified and competitively ranked within NASA's comprehensive Integrated In-Space Transportation Plan (IISTP); an agency-wide technology assessment activity. The objective of the MXER tether project within ISPT is to advance the technological maturation level for the MXER system, and its subsystems, as well as other space and terrestrial tether applications. Recent hardware efforts have focused on the manufacturability of space-survivable high-strength tether material and coatings, high-current electrodynamic tether, lightweight catch mechanism, high-accuracy propagator/predictor code, and efficient electron collection/current generation. Significant technical progress has been achieved with modest ISPT funding to the extent that MXER has evolved to a well-characterized system with greater capability as the design has been matured. Synergistic efforts in high-current electrodynamic tethers and efficient electron collection/current generation have been made possible through SBIR and STTR support. The entire development endeavor was orchestrated as a collaborative team effort across multiple individual contracts and has established a solid technology resource base, which permits a wide variety of future space cable/tether applications to be realized.

Establishing a Framework for Community Modeling in Hydrologic Science: Recommendations from the CUAHSI CHyMP Initiative

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Arrigo, J. S.; Famiglietti, J. S.; Murdoch, L. C.; Lakshmi, V.; Hooper, R. P.

2012-12-01

The Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc. (CUAHSI) continues a major effort towards supporting Community Hydrologic Modeling. From 2009 - 2011, the Community Hydrologic Modeling Platform (CHyMP) initiative held three workshops, the ultimate goal of which was to produce recommendations and an implementation plan to establish a community modeling program that enables comprehensive simulation of water anywhere on the North American continent. Such an effort would include connections to and advances in global climate models, biogeochemistry, and efforts of other disciplines that require an understanding of water patterns and processes in the environment. To achieve such a vision will require substantial investment in human and cyber-infrastructure and significant advances in the science of hydrologic modeling and spatial scaling. CHyMP concluded with a final workshop, held March 2011, and produced several recommendations. CUAHSI and the university community continue to advance community modeling and implement these recommendations through several related and follow on efforts. Key results from the final 2011 workshop included agreement among participants that the community is ready to move forward with implementation. It is recognized that initial implementation of this larger effort can begin with simulation capabilities that currently exist, or that can be easily developed. CHyMP identified four key activities in support of community modeling: benchmarking, dataset evaluation and development, platform evaluation, and developing a national water model framework. Key findings included: 1) The community supported the idea of a National Water Model framework; a community effort is needed to explore what the ultimate implementation of a National Water Model is. A true community modeling effort would support the modeling of "water anywhere" and would include all relevant scales and processes. 2) Implementation of a community modeling program could initially focus on continental scale modeling of water quantity (rather than quality). The goal of this initial model is the comprehensive description of water stores and fluxes in such a way to permit linkage to GCM's, biogeochemical, ecological, and geomorphic models. This continental scale focus allows systematic evaluation of our current state of knowledge and data, leverages existing efforts done by large scale modelers, contributes to scientific discovery that informs globally and societal relevant questions, and provides an initial framework to evaluate hydrologic information relevant to other disciplines and a structure into which to incorporate other classes of hydrologic models. 3) Dataset development will be a key aspect of any successful national water model implementation. Our current knowledge of the subsurface is limiting our ability to truly integrate soil and groundwater into large scale models, and to answering critical science questions with societal relevance (i.e. groundwater's influence on climate). 4) The CHyMP workshops and efforts to date have achieved collaboration between university scientists, government agencies and the private sector that must be maintained. Follow on efforts in community modeling should aim at leveraging and maintaining this collaboration for maximum scientific and societal benefit.

NASA Glenn Research Center Electrochemistry Branch Overview

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Manzo, Michelle A.; Hoberecht, Mark; Reid, Concha

2010-01-01

This presentation covers an overview of NASA Glenn's history and heritage in the development of electrochemical systems for aerospace applications. Current programs related to batteries and fuel cells are addressed. Specific areas of focus are Li-ion batteries and Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel cells systems and their development for future Exploration missions. The presentation covers details of current component development efforts for high energy and ultra high energy Li-ion batteries and non-flow-through fuel cell stack and balance of plant development. Electrochemistry Branch capabilities and facilities are also addressed.

Magnetic Resonance Techniques Applied to the Diagnosis and Treatment of Parkinson’s Disease

PubMed Central

de Celis Alonso, Benito; Hidalgo-Tobón, Silvia S.; Menéndez-González, Manuel; Salas-Pacheco, José; Arias-Carrión, Oscar

2015-01-01

Parkinson’s disease (PD) affects at least 10 million people worldwide. It is a neurodegenerative disease, which is currently diagnosed by neurological examination. No neuroimaging investigation or blood biomarker is available to aid diagnosis and prognosis. Most effort toward diagnosis using magnetic resonance (MR) has been focused on the use of structural/anatomical neuroimaging and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). However, deep brain stimulation, a current strategy for treating PD, is guided by MR imaging (MRI). For clinical prognosis, diagnosis, and follow-up investigations, blood oxygen level-dependent MRI, DTI, spectroscopy, and transcranial magnetic stimulation have been used. These techniques represent the state of the art in the last 5 years. Here, we focus on MR techniques for the diagnosis and treatment of Parkinson’s disease. PMID:26191037

The reductionist paradox: are the laws of chemistry and physics sufficient for the discovery of new drugs?

PubMed

Maggiora, Gerald M

2011-08-01

Reductionism is alive and well in drug-discovery research. In that tradition, we continually improve experimental and computational methods for studying smaller and smaller aspects of biological systems. Although significant improvements continue to be made, are our efforts too narrowly focused? Suppose all error could be removed from these methods, would we then understand biological systems sufficiently well to design effective drugs? Currently, almost all drug research focuses on single targets. Should the process be expanded to include multiple targets? Recent efforts in this direction have lead to the emerging field of polypharmacology. This appears to be a move in the right direction, but how much polypharmacology is enough? As the complexity of the processes underlying polypharmacology increase will we be able to understand them and their inter-relationships? Is "new" mathematics unfamiliar in much of physics and chemistry research needed to accomplish this task? A number of these questions will be addressed in this paper, which focuses on issues and questions not answers to the drug-discovery conundrum.

NASA's current activities in free space optical communications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Edwards, Bernard L.

2017-11-01

NASA and other space agencies around the world are currently developing free space optical communication systems for both space-to-ground links and space-to-space links. This paper provides an overview of NASA's current activities in free space optical communications with a focus on Near Earth applications. Activities to be discussed include the Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration, the Laser Communications Relay Demonstration, and the commercialization of the underlying technology. The paper will also briefly discuss ongoing efforts and studies for Deep Space optical communications. Finally the paper will discuss the development of international optical communication standards within the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems.

Clinical endpoints for developing pharmaceuticals to manage patients with sporadic or genetic risk of colorectal cancer

PubMed Central

Rial, Nathaniel S.; Zell, Jason A.; Cohen, Alfred M.; Gerner, Eugene W.

2013-01-01

To reduce the morbidity and mortality from colorectal cancer, current clinical practice focuses on screening for early detection and polypectomy as a form of secondary prevention, complemented with surgical interventions when appropriate. No pharmaceutical agent is currently approved for use in clinical practice for the management of patients with risk of colorectal cancer. This article will review earlier attempts to develop pharmaceuticals for use in managing patients with sporadic or genetic risk of colorectal cancer. It will also discuss therapeutic endpoints under evaluation in current efforts to develop drugs for treating colorectal cancer risk factors. PMID:22928902

The Evolution of Prognostic Factors in Multiple Myeloma

PubMed Central

Hassanein, Mona; Rasheed, Walid; Aljurf, Mahmoud; Alsharif, Fahad

2017-01-01

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a heterogeneous hematologic malignancy involving the proliferation of plasma cells derived by different genetic events contributing to the development, progression, and prognosis of this disease. Despite improvement in treatment strategies of MM over the last decade, the disease remains incurable. All efforts are currently focused on understanding the prognostic markers of the disease hoping to incorporate the new therapeutic modalities to convert the disease into curable one. We present this comprehensive review to summarize the current standard prognostic markers used in MM along with novel techniques that are still in development and highlight their implications in current clinical practice. PMID:28321258

Climate change: Evolving technologies, U.S. business, and the world economy in the 21. century

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Harter, J.J.

1996-12-31

The International Climate Change Partnership presents this report as one of its efforts to present current information on climate change to the public. One often hears about the expenses entailed in protecting the environment. Unfortunately, one hears less about the economic benefits that may be associated with prudent actions to counter environmental threats. This conference is particularly useful because it focuses attention on profitable business opportunities in the United States and elsewhere that arise from practical efforts to mitigate the risks of climate change. The report contains a brief synopsis of each speaker`s address on climate change.

The evolution of CMS software performance studies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kortelainen, M. J.; Elmer, P.; Eulisse, G.; Innocente, V.; Jones, C. D.; Tuura, L.

2011-12-01

CMS has had an ongoing and dedicated effort to optimize software performance for several years. Initially this effort focused primarily on the cleanup of many issues coming from basic C++ errors, namely reducing dynamic memory churn, unnecessary copies/temporaries and tools to routinely monitor these things. Over the past 1.5 years, however, the transition to 64bit, newer versions of the gcc compiler, newer tools and the enabling of techniques like vectorization have made possible more sophisticated improvements to the software performance. This presentation will cover this evolution and describe the current avenues being pursued for software performance, as well as the corresponding gains.

Treating the Capability for Suicide: A Vital and Understudied Frontier in Suicide Prevention.

PubMed

Anestis, Michael D; Law, Keyne C; Jin, Hyejin; Houtsma, Claire; Khazem, Lauren R; Assavedo, Brittney L

2017-10-01

Current efforts at suicide prevention center largely on reducing suicidal desire among individuals hospitalized for suicidality or being treated for related psychopathology. Such efforts have yielded evidence-based treatments, and yet the national suicide rate has continued to climb. We propose that this disconnect is heavily influenced by an unmet need to consider population-level interventions aimed at reducing the capability for suicide. Drawing on lessons learned from other public health phenomena that have seen drastic declines in frequency in recent decades (HIV, lung cancer, motor vehicle accidents), we propose that current suicidality treatment efforts trail current suicidality theories in their lack of focus on the extent to which individuals thinking about suicide are capable of transitioning from ideation to attempt. We summarize extant evidence for specific capability-centered approaches (e.g., means safety) and propose other options for improving our ability to address this largely overlooked variable. We also note that population-level approaches in this regard would represent an important opportunity to decrease risk in individuals who either lack access to evidence-based care or underreport suicidal ideation, as a reduced capability for suicide would theoretically diminish the potency of suicidal desire and, in this sense, lower the odds of a transition from ideation to attempt. © 2016 The American Association of Suicidology.

Capabilities Development for Transient Testing of Advanced Nuclear Fuels at TREAT

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Woolstenhulme, N. E.; Baker, C. C.; Bess, J. D.

2016-09-01

The TREAT facility is a unique capability at the Idaho National Laboratory currently being prepared for resumption of nuclear transient testing. Accordingly, designs for several transient irradiation tests are being pursued to enable development of advanced nuclear fuels and materials. In addition to the reactor itself, the foundation for TREAT’s capabilities also include a suite of irradiation vehicles and supporting infrastructure to provide the desired specimen boundary conditions while supporting a variety of instrumentation needs. The challenge of creating these vehicles, especially since many of the modern data needs were not historically addressed in TREAT experiment vehicles, has necessitated amore » sizeable engineering effort. This effort is currently underway and maturing rapidly. This paper summarizes the status, future plans, and rationale for TREAT experiment vehicle capabilities. Much of the current progress is focused around understanding and demonstrating the behavior of fuel design with enhanced accident tolerance in water-cooled reactors. Additionally, several related efforts are underway to facilitate transient testing in liquid sodium, inert gas, and steam environments. This paper discusses why such a variety of capabilities are needed, outlines plans to accomplish them, and describes the relationship between transient data needs and the irradiation hardware that will support the gathering of this information.« less

The Majorana Double Beta Decay Experiment:. Present Status

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aguayo, E.; Avignone, F. T.; Back, H. O.; Barabash, A. S.; Beene, J. R.; Bergevin, M.; Bertrand, F. E.; Boswell, M.; Brudanin, V.; Busch, M.; Chan, Y.-D.; Christofferson, C. D.; Collar, J. I.; Combs, D. C.; Cooper, R. J.; Detwiler, J. A.; Doe, P. J.; Efremenko, Yu.; Egorov, V.; Ejiri, H.; Elliott, S. R.; Esterline, J.; Fast, J. E.; Fields, N.; Finnerty, P.; Fraenkle, F. M.; Gehman, V. M.; Giovanetti, G. K.; Green, M. P.; Guiseppe, V. E.; Gusey, K.; Hallin, A. L.; Hazama, R.; Henning, R.; Hime, A.; Hoppe, E. W.; Horton, M.; Howard, S.; Howe, M. A.; Johnson, R. A.; Keeter, K. J.; Keller, C.; Kidd, M. F.; Knecht, A.; Kochetov, O.; Konovalov, S. I.; Kouzes, R. T.; Laferriere, B. D.; Laroque, B. H.; Leon, J.; Leviner, L. E.; Loach, J. C.; Macmullin, S.; Marino, M. G.; Martin, R. D.; Mei, D.-M.; Merriman, J. H.; Miller, M. L.; Mizouni, L.; Nomachi, M.; Orrell, J. L.; Overman, N. R.; Phillips, D. G.; Poon, A. W. P.; Perumpilly, G.; Prior, G.; Radford, D. C.; Rielage, K.; Robertson, R. G. H.; Ronquest, M. C.; Schubert, A. G.; Shima, T.; Shirchenko, M.; Snavely, K. J.; Steele, D.; Strain, J.; Thomas, K.; Timkin, V.; Tornow, W.; Vanyushin, I.; Varner, R. L.; Vetter, K.; Vorren, K.; Wilkerson, J. F.; Yakushev, E.; Young, A. R.; Yu, C.-H.; Yumatov, V. I.; Zhang, C.

2013-11-01

The Majorana collaboration is actively pursuing research and development aimed at a tonne-scale 76Ge neutrinoless double-beta decay (0νββ) experiment. The current, primary focus is the construction of the Majorana Demonstrator experiment, an R&D effort that will field approximately 40 kg of germanium detectors with mixed enrichment levels. This article provides a status update on the construction of the Demonstrator.

Lignocellulosic feedstock resource assessment

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Rooney, T.

This report provides overall state and national information on the quantity, availability, and costs of current and potential feedstocks for ethanol production in the United States. It characterizes end uses and physical characteristics of feedstocks, and presents relevant information that affects the economic and technical feasibility of ethanol production from these feedstocks. The data can help researchers focus ethanol conversion research efforts on feedstocks that are compatible with the resource base.

MIT Lincoln Laboratory Facts 2015

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-01-01

this technology to industry for deployment in operational systems. Current efforts focus on radio - frequency (RF) military satellite communications ... frequency submarine communications demonstration ■■ Continuous-wave diode laser developed in InGaAsP/InP alloy ■■ Ground-based Electro-Optical Deep...Radar upgrade ■■ Miniaturized radio - frequency receiver ■■ Missile Alternative Range Target Instrument payloads ■■ Multifunction phased array radar

Basic aerodynamic research facility for comparative studies of flow diagnostic techniques

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jones, Gregory S.; Gartrell, Luther R.; Stainback, P. Calvin

1987-01-01

Current flow diagnostic research efforts are focusing on higher order flow field data bases, such as those generated by laser velocimetry (LV), hot-wire anemometry, and multi-hole pressure probes. Recent low-speed comparisons of results obtained with LV and hot wires have revealed strengths and weaknesses of each instrument. A seeding study will be initiated to determine particulate tracking ability.

Turning up the heat on aircraft structures. [design and analysis for high-temperature conditions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dobyns, Alan; Saff, Charles; Johns, Robert

1992-01-01

An overview is presented of the current effort in design and development of aircraft structures to achieve the lowest cost for best performance. Enhancements in this area are focused on integrated design, improved design analysis tools, low-cost fabrication techniques, and more sophisticated test methods. 3D CAD/CAM data are becoming the method through which design, manufacturing, and engineering communicate.

Evolution in Clinical Knowledge Management Strategy at Intermountain Healthcare

PubMed Central

Hulse, Nathan C.; Galland, Joel; Borsato, Emerson P.

2012-01-01

In this manuscript, we present an overview of the clinical knowledge management strategy at Intermountain Healthcare in support of our electronic medical record systems. Intermountain first initiated efforts in developing a centralized enterprise knowledge repository in 2001. Applications developed, areas of emphasis served, and key areas of focus are presented. We also detail historical and current areas of emphasis, in response to business needs. PMID:23304309

Towards an Autonomous Space In-Situ Marine Sensorweb

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chien, S.; Doubleday, J.; Tran, D.; Thompson, D.; Mahoney, G.; Chao, Y.; Castano, R.; Ryan, J.; Kudela, R.; Palacios, S.;

Psychological Sciences Division 1979 Programs.

DTIC Science & Technology

1979-11-01

the potential for substantially improving the ONR effectiveness of Navy undersea manipulator sys- tems. Computer aided controls can be used to Report...OPERATOR VIEWING AND CONTROL OF the operator enters control orders) to determine UNDERSEA VEHICLE AND WORK SYS- ihe structure and mode of command inputs...efforts focus upon a class of control-display ele- Current Navy submersible work systems, such as ments common to general purpose undersea work CURV

Delay/Disruption Tolerant Networks for Human Space Flight Video Project

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fink, Patrick W.; Ngo, Phong; Schlesinger, Adam

2010-01-01

The movie describes collaboration between NASA and Vint Cerf on the development of Disruption Tolerant Networks (DTN) for use in space exploration. Current evaluation efforts at Johnson Space Center are focused on the use of DTNs in space communications. Tests include the ability of rovers to store data for later display, tracking local and remote habitat inventory using radio-frequency identification tags, and merging networks.

Veterans’ Preferences for Exchanging Information Using Veterans Affairs Health Information Technologies: Focus Group Results and Modeling Simulations

PubMed Central

Chavez, Margeaux; Nazi, Kim; Antinori, Nicole; Melillo, Christine; Cotner, Bridget A; Hathaway, Wendy; Cook, Ashley; Wilck, Nancy; Noonan, Abigail

2017-01-01

Background The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has multiple health information technology (HIT) resources for veterans to support their health care management. These include a patient portal, VetLink Kiosks, mobile apps, and telehealth services. The veteran patient population has a variety of needs and preferences that can inform current VA HIT redesign efforts to meet consumer needs. Objective This study aimed to describe veterans’ experiences using the current VA HIT and identify their vision for the future of an integrated VA HIT system. Methods Two rounds of focus group interviews were conducted with a single cohort of 47 veterans and one female caregiver recruited from Bedford, Massachusetts, and Tampa, Florida. Focus group interviews included simulation modeling activities and a self-administered survey. This study also used an expert panel group to provide data and input throughout the study process. High-fidelity, interactive simulations were created and used to facilitate collection of qualitative data. The simulations were developed based on system requirements, data collected through operational efforts, and participants' reported preferences for using VA HIT. Pairwise comparison activities of HIT resources were conducted with both focus groups and the expert panel. Rapid iterative content analysis was used to analyze qualitative data. Descriptive statistics summarized quantitative data. Results Data themes included (1) current use of VA HIT, (2) non-VA HIT use, and (3) preferences for future use of VA HIT. Data indicated that, although the Secure Messaging feature was often preferred, a full range of HIT options are needed. These data were then used to develop veteran-driven simulations that illustrate user needs and expectations when using a HIT system and services to access VA health care services. Conclusions Patient participant redesign processes present critical opportunities for creating a human-centered design. Veterans value virtual health care options and prefer standardized, integrated, and synchronized user-friendly interface designs. PMID:29061553

Japan's efforts to promote global health using satellite remote sensing data from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency for prediction of infectious diseases and air quality.

PubMed

Igarashi, Tamotsu; Kuze, Akihiko; Sobue, Shinichi; Yamamoto, Aya; Yamamoto, Kazuhide; Oyoshi, Kei; Imaoka, Keiji; Fukuda, Toru

2014-12-01

In this paper we review the status of new applications research of the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) for global health promotion using information derived from Earth observation data by satellites in cooperation with inter-disciplinary collaborators. Current research effort at JAXA to promote global public health is focused primarily on the use of remote sensing to address two themes: (i) prediction models for malaria and cholera in Kenya, Africa; and (ii) air quality assessment of small, particulate matter (PM2.5), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and ozone (O3). Respiratory and cardivascular diseases constitute cross-boundary public health risk issues on a global scale. The authors report here on results of current of a collaborative research to call attention to the need to take preventive measures against threats to public health using newly arising remote sensing information from space.

Vaccines Against Malaria

PubMed Central

Ouattara, Amed; Laurens, Matthew B.

2015-01-01

Despite global efforts to control malaria, the illness remains a significant public health threat. Currently, there is no licensed vaccine against malaria, but an efficacious vaccine would represent an important public health tool for successful malaria elimination. Malaria vaccine development continues to be hindered by a poor understanding of antimalarial immunity, a lack of an immune correlate of protection, and the genetic diversity of malaria parasites. Current vaccine development efforts largely target Plasmodium falciparum parasites in the pre-erythrocytic and erythrocytic stages, with some research on transmission-blocking vaccines against asexual stages and vaccines against pregnancy-associated malaria. The leading pre-erythrocytic vaccine candidate is RTS,S, and early results of ongoing Phase 3 testing show overall efficacy of 46% against clinical malaria. The next steps for malaria vaccine development will focus on the design of a product that is efficacious against the highly diverse strains of malaria and the identification of a correlate of protection against disease. PMID:25452593

Integrated optomechanical analysis and testing software development at MIT Lincoln Laboratory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stoeckel, Gerhard P.; Doyle, Keith B.

2013-09-01

Advanced analytical software capabilities are being developed to advance the design of prototypical hardware in the Engineering Division at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. The current effort is focused on the integration of analysis tools tailored to the work flow, organizational structure, and current technology demands. These tools are being designed to provide superior insight into the interdisciplinary behavior of optical systems and enable rapid assessment and execution of design trades to optimize the design of optomechanical systems. The custom software architecture is designed to exploit and enhance the functionality of existing industry standard commercial software, provide a framework for centralizing internally developed tools, and deliver greater efficiency, productivity, and accuracy through standardization, automation, and integration. Specific efforts have included the development of a feature-rich software package for Structural-Thermal-Optical Performance (STOP) modeling, advanced Line Of Sight (LOS) jitter simulations, and improved integration of dynamic testing and structural modeling.

Status of commercial fuel cell powerplant system development

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Warshay, Marvin

1987-01-01

The primary focus is on the development of commercial Phosphoric Acid Fuel Cell (PAFC) powerplant systems because the PAFC, which has undergone extensive development, is currently the closest fuel cell system to commercialization. Shorter discussions are included on the high temperature fuel cell systems which are not as mature in their development, such as the Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell (MCFC) and the Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC). The alkaline and the Solid Polymer Electrolyte (SPE) fuel cell systems, are also included, but their discussions are limited to their prospects for commercial development. Currently, although the alkaline fuel cell continues to be used for important space applications there are no commercial development programs of significant size in the USA and only small efforts outside. The market place for fuel cells and the status of fuel cell programs in the USA receive extensive treatment. The fuel cell efforts outside the USA, especially the large Japanese programs, are also discussed.

Vaccines: an ongoing promise?

PubMed

Alsahli, M; Farrell, R J; Michetti, P

2001-01-01

Over the past decade, intensive research has focused on developing a vaccine therapy for Helicobacter pylori. Substantial unresolved questions cloud the current approach, and the development of a vaccine against this unique organism has proved very challenging. Many candidate vaccines have been tested in animal models. The immunogenicity and the safety of some vaccine formulations have been recently evaluated through clinical trials, and the efficacy of these vaccine therapies in humans will be determined in the near future. This article will provide an overview of the current knowledge of natural and vaccine-induced immune responses to H. pylori infection. It will also review past vaccine successes and failures in animal models and the limited experience to date in using vaccine therapy in humans. Several obstacles to H. pylori vaccine development efforts along with the future direction of these efforts will be discussed. Copyright 2001 S. Karger AG, Basel

Newspaper coverage of youth and tobacco: implications for public health.

PubMed

Smith, Katherine Clegg; Wakefield, Melanie

2006-01-01

The presentation of smoking as a "youth" issue is a powerful component of current tobacco-control efforts. Agenda setting theory demonstrates that the media serve as a potent forum in which the consideration and presentation of perspectives of social problems take place. This analysis of 643 U.S. youth-focused newspaper articles examines the messages being conveyed to the public and policymakers through coverage of tobacco issues focused on youth. Data illustrate that the issue of youth tobacco use is newsworthy but also suggest that youth-focused issues garner little commentary coverage. Rather, straightforward reports of "feel good" stories dominate the coverage, and youth-focused articles tend to conceptualize the problem of tobacco as being one of a need for greater individual-level education rather than structural or policy changes.

Mirrors, masks, and motivation: implicit and explicit self-focused attention influence effort-related cardiovascular reactivity.

PubMed

Silvia, Paul J

2012-07-01

Using motivational intensity theory as a framework, three experiments examined how implicit self-focus (manipulated with masked first-name priming) and explicit self-focus (manipulated with a large mirror) influence effort-related cardiovascular activity, particularly systolic blood pressure reactivity. Theories of self-focused attention suggest that both implicit and explicit self-focus bring about self-evaluation and thus make meeting a goal more important. For a "do your best" task of unfixed difficulty, implicit and explicit self-focus both increased effort (Experiment 1) compared to a control condition. For a task that varied in difficulty, implicit and explicit self-focus promoted more effort as the task became increasingly hard (Experiments 2 and 3). Taken together, the findings suggest that implicit and explicit self-processes share a similar motivational architecture. The discussion explores the value of integrating motivational intensity theory with self-awareness theory and considers the emerging interest in implicit aspects of effort regulation. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The role of Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine in training of health professionals.

PubMed

Ford, Carol A

2016-08-01

The Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine (SAHM) was created by health professionals committed to identifying and better addressing the health needs of adolescents and young adults, and this work has continued for nearly 50 years. The society initially focused primarily on clinical education, but has evolved to include educational activities providing clinical, research, policy, advocacy, and professional development content. Strategies have included high-quality annual meetings designed to meet the educational needs of its multi-disciplinary membership, publishing an internationally recognized journal, and developing strategic collaborations to advocate for legitimacy of the field and reform in health profession education. Historically, SAHM has been most successful at increasing specialized training in the United States among physicians, and primarily pediatricians, likely driven by the nuances of the development of adolescent medicine in this country. Successes are often linked to strategic collaborations with other professional organizations, and have been facilitated by federally funded initiatives to improve adolescent and young adult health. Recent efforts to improve professional training are focused on the use of technology, and SAHM is also currently exploring strategies to directly reach adolescents, young adults, and their parents. As the society becomes increasingly multidisciplinary and international, members have extraordinary opportunities to learn from each other, build upon lessons learned, and collaborate. Descriptions of the history of SAHM's training-focused efforts, selected highlights, and current priorities will be used to illustrate this long-standing commitment to the training of health professionals.

Big Data and Population Health: Focusing on the Health Impacts of the Social, Physical, and Economic Environment.

PubMed

Hu, Howard; Galea, Sandro; Rosella, Laura; Henry, David

2017-11-01

We are at the dawn of a data deluge in health that carries extraordinary promise for improving the health of populations. However, current associated efforts, which generally center on the 'precision medicine' agenda, may well fall short in terms of its overall impact. The main challenges, it is argued, are less technical than the following: (1) identifying the data that matter most; (2) ensuring that we make better use of existing data; and (3) extending our efforts from the individual to the population by exploiting new, complex, and sometimes unstructured, data sources. Advances in Epidemiology have shown that policies, features of institutions, characteristics of communities, living and environmental conditions, and social relationships all contribute, together with individual behaviors and factors such as poverty and race, to the production of health. Examples are discussed, leading to recommendations that focus on core priorities for data linkage, including those relating to marginalized populations, better data on socioeconomic status, micro- and macro-environments, collaborating with researchers in the fields of education, environment, and social sciences to ensure the validity and accuracy of multilevel data, aligning research aims with policy decisions that must be made, and heightening efforts to protect privacy.

Attentional focus and performance anxiety: effects on simulated race-driving performance and heart rate variability.

PubMed

Mullen, Richard; Faull, Andrea; Jones, Eleri S; Kingston, Kieran

2012-01-01

Previous studies have demonstrated that an external focus can enhance motor learning compared to an internal focus. The benefits of adopting an external focus are attributed to the use of less effortful automatic control processes, while an internal focus relies upon more effort-intensive consciously controlled processes. The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of a distal external focus with an internal focus in the acquisition of a simulated driving task and subsequent performance in a competitive condition designed to increase state anxiety. To provide further evidence for the automatic nature of externally controlled movements, the study included heart rate variability (HRV) as an index of mental effort. Sixteen participants completed eight blocks of four laps in either a distal external or internal focus condition, followed by two blocks of four laps in the competitive condition. During acquisition, the performance of both groups improved; however, the distal external focus group outperformed the internal focus group. The poorer performance of the internal focus group was accompanied by a larger reduction in HRV, indicating a greater investment of mental effort. In the competition condition, state anxiety increased, and for both groups, performance improved as a function of the increased anxiety. Increased heart rate and self-reported mental effort accompanied the performance improvement. The distal external focus group also outperformed the internal focus group across both neutral and competitive conditions and this more effective performance was again associated with lower levels of HRV. Overall, the results offer support for the suggestion that an external focus promotes a more automatic mode of functioning. In the competitive condition, both foci enhanced performance and while the improved performance may have been achieved at the expense of greater compensatory mental effort, this was not reflected in HRV scores.

Examining human resources' efforts to develop a culturally competent workforce.

PubMed

Whitman, Marilyn V; Valpuesta, Domingo

2010-01-01

The increasing diversification of the nation's population poses significant challenges in providing care that meets the needs of culturally diverse patients. Human resource management plays a vital role in developing a more culturally competent workforce. This exploratory study examines current efforts by human resource directors (HRDs) in Alabama's general hospitals to recruit more diverse candidates, train staff, and make language access resources available. A questionnaire was developed based on the Office of Minority Health's Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services standards. The HRDs of the 101 Alabama general hospitals served as the study's target population. A sample of 61 responses, or 60.4% of the population, was obtained. The findings indicate that most HRDs are focusing their efforts on recruiting racially/ethnically diverse candidates and training clerical and nursing staff to care for culturally and linguistically diverse patients. Less effort is being focused on recruiting candidates who speak a different language, and only 44.3% have a trained interpreter on the staff. The HRDs who indicated that they work closely with organizations that provide support to diverse groups were more likely to recruit diverse employees and have racially/ethnically and linguistically diverse individuals in leadership positions. It is crucial that health care organizations take the necessary steps to diversify their workforce to broaden access, improve the quality and equity of care, and capture a greater market share.

Screening for colorectal cancer.

PubMed

Ross, C C

1988-12-01

Efforts to decrease the number of deaths from colorectal cancer have focused on screening techniques, since no etiologic agent has been identified. Current screening regimens are designed to detect colorectal cancer in a large population in a cost-efficient manner and to minimize the risks associated with work-ups for false-positive tests. A two-part screening questionnaire for colorectal cancer helps identify patients who are at moderate risk for this cancer.

Liquid crystal display (LCD) drive electronics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Loudin, Jeffrey A.; Duffey, Jason N.; Booth, Joseph J.; Jones, Brian K.

1995-03-01

A new drive circuit for the liquid crystal display (LCD) of the InFocus TVT-6000 video projector is currently under development at the U.S. Army Missile Command. The new circuit will allow individual pixel control of the LCD and increase the frame rate by a factor of two while yielding a major reduction in space and power requirements. This paper will discuss results of the effort to date.

European Science Notes Information Bulletin Reports on Current European/ Middle Eastern Science

DTIC Science & Technology

1990-01-01

because they permit a high degree of error then converted into system-specific data by coupling tolerance. Other knowledge- based approaches offer the...Reducing development costs and development time ing an increasingly powerful focus for business activities . " Simplifying the design process In the...systems. Sie- The immediate goal of telecommunications efforts is a mens is actively involved in defining and implementing configuration based on ISDN and

Student Retention and Persistence: A Quantitative Study of the Relationship of Non-Academic Barriers on Community College Students in Northern New York

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Troester-Trate, Katy Elizabeth

2017-01-01

As higher education enrollment patterns have changed, so too has the focus for institutional administrators. The community schools model is currently being piloted in New York State in an effort to increase the bleak retention and persistence rates of community college students. College students have been shown to be retained at higher rates when…

Breaking Barriers to Low-Cost Modular Inverter Production & Use

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bogdan Borowy; Leo Casey; Jerry Foshage

2005-05-31

The goal of this cost share contract is to advance key technologies to reduce size, weight and cost while enhancing performance and reliability of Modular Inverter Product for Distributed Energy Resources (DER). Efforts address technology development to meet technical needs of DER market protection, isolation, reliability, and quality. Program activities build on SatCon Technology Corporation inverter experience (e.g., AIPM, Starsine, PowerGate) for Photovoltaic, Fuel Cell, Energy Storage applications. Efforts focused four technical areas, Capacitors, Cooling, Voltage Sensing and Control of Parallel Inverters. Capacitor efforts developed a hybrid capacitor approach for conditioning SatCon's AIPM unit supply voltages by incorporating several typesmore » and sizes to store energy and filter at high, medium and low frequencies while minimizing parasitics (ESR and ESL). Cooling efforts converted the liquid cooled AIPM module to an air-cooled unit using augmented fin, impingement flow cooling. Voltage sensing efforts successfully modified the existing AIPM sensor board to allow several, application dependent configurations and enabling voltage sensor galvanic isolation. Parallel inverter control efforts realized a reliable technique to control individual inverters, connected in a parallel configuration, without a communication link. Individual inverter currents, AC and DC, were balanced in the paralleled modules by introducing a delay to the individual PWM gate pulses. The load current sharing is robust and independent of load types (i.e., linear and nonlinear, resistive and/or inductive). It is a simple yet powerful method for paralleling both individual devices dramatically improves reliability and fault tolerance of parallel inverter power systems. A patent application has been made based on this control technology.« less

Ethics for pandemics beyond influenza: Ebola, drug-resistant tuberculosis, and anticipating future ethical challenges in pandemic preparedness and response.

PubMed

Smith, Maxwell J; Silva, Diego S

2015-01-01

The unprecedented outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in West Africa has raised several novel ethical issues for global outbreak preparedness. It has also illustrated that familiar ethical issues in infectious disease management endure despite considerable efforts to understand and mitigate such issues in the wake of past outbreaks. To improve future global outbreak preparedness and response, we must examine these shortcomings and reflect upon the current state of ethical preparedness. To this end, we focus our efforts in this article on the examination of one substantial area: ethical guidance in pandemic plans. We argue that, due in part to their focus on considerations arising specifically in relation to pandemics of influenza origin, pandemic plans and their existing ethical guidance are ill-equipped to anticipate and facilitate the navigation of unique ethical challenges that may arise in other infectious disease pandemics. We proceed by outlining three reasons why this is so, and situate our analysis in the context of the EVD outbreak and the threat posed by drug-resistant tuberculosis: (1) different infectious diseases have distinct characteristics that challenge anticipated or existing modes of pandemic prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery, (2) clear, transparent, context-specific ethical reasoning and justification within current influenza pandemic plans are lacking, and (3) current plans neglect the context of how other significant pandemics may manifest. We conclude the article with several options for reflecting upon and ultimately addressing ethical issues that may emerge with different infectious disease pandemics.

Relapsed or refractory pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia: current and emerging treatments.

PubMed

Martin, Alissa; Morgan, Elaine; Hijiya, Nobuko

2012-12-01

Relapsed acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) represents a major cause of morbidity and mortality in pediatrics. With contemporary chemotherapy, >85% of patients with newly diagnosed ALL survive. Unfortunately, 20% of these patients will relapse and for these children, outcomes remain poor despite our best known chemotherapy protocols. Most of these children will achieve a second complete remission, but maintaining this remission remains difficult. Because relapsed ALL is such a significant cause of morbidity and mortality, it is the focus of much research interest. Efforts have been made and continue to focus on understanding the underlying biology that drives relapse. The role of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in relapsed ALL remains unclear, but many clinicians still favor this for high-risk patients given the poor prognosis with current chemotherapy alone. It is important to use new drugs with little cross-resistance in the treatment of relapsed ALL. New classes of agents are currently being studied. We also discuss prognostic factors and the biology of relapsed ALL.

Development of a Modeling Framework to Support Control Investigations of Sailcraft Missions A First Cut: ABLE Sailcraft Dynamics Model

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sarathy, Sriprakash

2005-01-01

Solar Sailcraft, the stuff of dreams of the H.G. Wells generation, is now a rapidly maturing reality. The promise of unlimited propulsive power by harnessing stellar radiation is close to realization. Currently, efforts are underway to build, prototype and test two configurations. These sails are designed to meet a 20m sail requirement, under guidance of the In-Space Propulsion (ISP) technology program office at MSFC. While these sails will not fly , they are the first steps in improving our understanding of the processes and phenomena at work. As part of the New Millennium Program (NMP) the ST9 technology validation mission hopes to launch and fly a solar sail by 2010 or sooner. Though the Solar Sail community has been studying and validating various concepts over two decades, it was not until recent breakthroughs in structural and material technology, has made possible to build sails that could be launched. With real sails that can be tested (albeit under earth conditions), the real task of engineering a viable spacecraft has finally commenced. Since it is not possible to accurately or practically recreate the actual operating conditions of the sailcraft (zero-G, vacuum and extremely low temperatures), much of the work has focused on developing accurate models that can be used to predict behavior in space, and for sails that are 6-10 times the size of currently existing sails. Since these models can be validated only with real test data under "earth" conditions, the process of modeling and the identification of uncertainty due to model assumptions and scope need to be closely considered. Sailcraft models that exist currently, are primarily focused on detailed physical representations at the component level, these are intended to support prototyping efforts. System level models that cut across different sail configurations and control concepts while maintaining a consistent approach are non-existent. Much effort has been focused on the areas of thrust performance, solar radiation prediction, and sail membrane behavior vis-a-vis their reflective geometry, such as wrinkling/folding/furling as it pertains to thrust prediction. A parallel effort has been conducted on developing usable models for developing attitude control systems (ACS), for different sail configurations in different regimes. There has been very little by way of a system wide exploration of the impact of the various control schemes, thrust prediction models for different sail configurations being considered.

Current Barriers to Large-scale Interoperability of Traceability Technology in the Seafood Sector.

PubMed

Hardt, Marah J; Flett, Keith; Howell, Colleen J

2017-08-01

Interoperability is a critical component of full-chain digital traceability, but is almost nonexistent in the seafood industry. Using both quantitative and qualitative methodology, this study explores the barriers impeding progress toward large-scale interoperability among digital traceability systems in the seafood sector from the perspectives of seafood companies, technology vendors, and supply chains as a whole. We highlight lessons from recent research and field work focused on implementing traceability across full supply chains and make some recommendations for next steps in terms of overcoming challenges and scaling current efforts. © 2017 Institute of Food Technologists®.

Thin-film sensors for reusable space propulsion systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hepp, Aloysius F.; Kim, Walter S.

1989-01-01

Thin-film thermocouples (TFTCs) were developed for aircraft gas turbine engines and are in use for temperature measurement on turbine blades up to 1800 F. Established aircraft engine gas turbine technology is currently being adapted to turbine engine blade materials and the environment encountered in the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME)-severe thermal shock from cryogenic fuel to combustion temperatures. Initial results with coupons of MAR M-246 (+Hf) and PWA 1480 were followed by fabrication of TFTC on SSME turbine blades. Current efforts are focused on preparation for testing in the Turbine Blade Tester at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center.

Racializing drug design: implications of pharmacogenomics for health disparities.

PubMed

Lee, Sandra Soo-Jin

2005-12-01

Current practices of using "race" in pharmacogenomics research demands consideration of the ethical and social implications for understandings of group difference and for efforts to eliminate health disparities. This discussion focuses on an "infrastructure of racialization" created by current trajectories of research on genetic differences among racially identified groups, the use of race as a proxy for risk in clinical practice, and increasing interest in new market niches by the pharmaceutical industry. The confluence of these factors has resulted in the conflation of genes, disease, and race. I argue that public investment in pharmacogenomics requires careful consideration of current inequities in health status and social and ethical concerns over reifying race and issues of distributive justice.

Strategies to support drug discovery through integration of systems and data.

PubMed

Waller, Chris L; Shah, Ajay; Nolte, Matthias

2007-08-01

Much progress has been made over the past several years to provide technologies for the integration of drug discovery software applications and the underlying data bits. Integration at the application layer has focused primarily on developing and delivering applications that support specific workflows within the drug discovery arena. A fine balance between creating behemoth applications and providing business value must be maintained. Heterogeneous data sources have typically been integrated at the data level in an effort to provide a more holistic view of the data packages supporting key decision points. This review will highlight past attempts, current status, and potential future directions for systems and data integration strategies in support of drug discovery efforts.

Tick microbiome: the force within

PubMed Central

Narasimhan, Sukanya; Fikrig, Erol

2015-01-01

Ticks are obligate blood-feeders and serve as vectors of human and livestock pathogens worldwide. Defining the tick microbiome and deciphering the interactions between the tick and its symbiotic bacteria in the context of tick development and pathogen transmission, will likely reveal new insights and spawn new paradigms to control tick-borne diseases. Descriptive observations on the tick microbiome that began almost a century ago serve as forerunners to the gathering momentum to define the tick microbiome in greater detail. This review will focus on the current efforts to address the microbiomes of diverse ticks, and the evolving understanding of tick microbiomes. There is hope that these efforts will bring a holistic understanding of pathogen transmission by ticks. PMID:25936226

Goals and Status of the NASA Juncture Flow Experiment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rumsey, Christopher L.; Morrison, Joseph H.

2016-01-01

The NASA Juncture Flow experiment is a new effort whose focus is attaining validation data in the juncture region of a wing-body configuration. The experiment is designed specifically for the purpose of CFD validation. Current turbulence models routinely employed by Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes CFD are inconsistent in their prediction of corner flow separation in aircraft juncture regions, so experimental data in the near-wall region of such a configuration will be useful both for assessment as well as for turbulence model improvement. This paper summarizes the Juncture Flow effort to date, including preliminary risk-reduction experiments already conducted and planned future experiments. The requirements and challenges associated with conducting a quality validation test are discussed.

Conceptual design studies of control and instrumentation systems for ignition experiments

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Nicholson, P.J.; Dewolf, J.B.; Heinemann, P.C.

1978-03-01

Studies at the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory in the past year were a continuation of prior studies of control and instrumentation systems for current and next generation Tokomaks. Specifically, the FY 77 effort has focused on the following two main efforts: (1) control requirements--(a) defining and evolving control requirements/concepts for a prototype experimental power reactor(s), and (b) defining control requirements for diverters and mirror machines, specifically the MX; and (2) defining requirements and scoping design for a functional control simulator. Later in the year, a small additional task was added: (3) providing analysis and design support to INESCO for itsmore » low cost fusion power system, FPC/DMT.« less

Removing environmental organic pollutants with bioremediation and phytoremediation.

PubMed

Kang, Jun Won

2014-06-01

Hazardous organic pollutants represent a threat to human, animal, and environmental health. If left unmanaged, these pollutants could cause concern. Many researchers have stepped up efforts to find more sustainable and cost-effective alternatives to using hazardous chemicals and treatments to remove existing harmful pollutants. Environmental biotechnology, such as bioremediation and phytoremediation, is a promising field that utilizes natural resources including microbes and plants to eliminate toxic organic contaminants. This technology offers an attractive alternative to other conventional remediation processes because of its relatively low cost and environmentally-friendly method. This review discusses current biological technologies for the removal of organic contaminants, including chlorinated hydrocarbons, focusing on their limitation and recent efforts to correct the drawbacks.

Responding to Emotional Stress in Pediatric Hospitals: Results From a National Survey of Chief Nursing Officers.

PubMed

Huetsch, Michael; Green, Jeremy

2016-01-01

The aim of this study was to identify leadership awareness of emotional stress and employee support efforts in pediatric hospitals. The current pediatric environment has seen increases in treatment intensity, care duration, and acuity of patients resulting in increased likelihood of being exposed to emotional events. Mail survey was sent to chief nursing officers at 87 pediatric hospitals. A total of 49 responses (56%) were received. Hospitals with less than 250 beds were significantly more likely to rate emotional stress as a large to very large problem, whereas ANCC Magnet® hospitals felt better about support efforts after patient deaths. Most commonly used support offerings focused on staff recovery after a traumatic event as opposed to training for prevention of emotional stress. Emotional stress is a well-recognized issue in pediatric hospitals with comparatively large resource commitment. Further focus on caregiver prevention training and unit leadership recognition of stress may be needed.

Current Trends in Robot-Assisted Upper-Limb Stroke Rehabilitation: Promoting Patient Engagement in Therapy.

PubMed

Blank, Amy A; French, James A; Pehlivan, Ali Utku; O'Malley, Marcia K

2014-09-01

Stroke is one of the leading causes of long-term disability today; therefore, many research efforts are focused on designing maximally effective and efficient treatment methods. In particular, robotic stroke rehabilitation has received significant attention for upper-limb therapy due to its ability to provide high-intensity repetitive movement therapy with less effort than would be required for traditional methods. Recent research has focused on increasing patient engagement in therapy, which has been shown to be important for inducing neural plasticity to facilitate recovery. Robotic therapy devices enable unique methods for promoting patient engagement by providing assistance only as needed and by detecting patient movement intent to drive to the device. Use of these methods has demonstrated improvements in functional outcomes, but careful comparisons between methods remain to be done. Future work should include controlled clinical trials and comparisons of effectiveness of different methods for patients with different abilities and needs in order to inform future development of patient-specific therapeutic protocols.

A Research Agenda for Malaria Eradication: Vaccines

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Vaccines could be a crucial component of efforts to eradicate malaria. Current attempts to develop malaria vaccines are primarily focused on Plasmodium falciparum and are directed towards reducing morbidity and mortality. Continued support for these efforts is essential, but if malaria vaccines are to be used as part of a repertoire of tools for elimination or eradication of malaria, they will need to have an impact on malaria transmission. We introduce the concept of “vaccines that interrupt malaria transmission” (VIMT), which includes not only “classical” transmission-blocking vaccines that target the sexual and mosquito stages but also pre-erythrocytic and asexual stage vaccines that have an effect on transmission. VIMT may also include vaccines that target the vector to disrupt parasite development in the mosquito. Importantly, if eradication is to be achieved, malaria vaccine development efforts will need to target other malaria parasite species, especially Plasmodium vivax, where novel therapeutic vaccines against hypnozoites or preventive vaccines with effect against multiple stages could have enormous impact. A target product profile (TPP) for VIMT is proposed and a research agenda to address current knowledge gaps and develop tools necessary for design and development of VIMT is presented. PMID:21311586

Emotion malleability beliefs, emotion regulation, and psychopathology: Integrating affective and clinical science.

PubMed

Kneeland, Elizabeth T; Dovidio, John F; Joormann, Jutta; Clark, Margaret S

2016-04-01

Beliefs that individuals hold about whether emotions are malleable or fixed, also referred to as emotion malleability beliefs, may play a crucial role in individuals' emotional experiences and their engagement in changing their emotions. The current review integrates affective science and clinical science perspectives to provide a comprehensive review of how emotion malleability beliefs relate to emotionality, emotion regulation, and specific clinical disorders and treatment. Specifically, we discuss how holding more malleable views of emotion could be associated with more active emotion regulation efforts, greater motivation to engage in active regulatory efforts, more effort expended regulating emotions, and lower levels of pathological distress. In addition, we explain how extending emotion malleability beliefs into the clinical domain can complement and extend current conceptualizations of major depressive disorder, social anxiety disorder, and generalized anxiety disorder. This may prove important given the increasingly central role emotion dysregulation has been given in conceptualization and intervention for these psychiatric conditions. Additionally, discussion focuses on how emotion beliefs could be more explicitly addressed in existing cognitive therapies. Promising future directions for research are identified throughout the review. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A research agenda for malaria eradication: vaccines.

PubMed

2011-01-25

Vaccines could be a crucial component of efforts to eradicate malaria. Current attempts to develop malaria vaccines are primarily focused on Plasmodium falciparum and are directed towards reducing morbidity and mortality. Continued support for these efforts is essential, but if malaria vaccines are to be used as part of a repertoire of tools for elimination or eradication of malaria, they will need to have an impact on malaria transmission. We introduce the concept of "vaccines that interrupt malaria transmission" (VIMT), which includes not only "classical" transmission-blocking vaccines that target the sexual and mosquito stages but also pre-erythrocytic and asexual stage vaccines that have an effect on transmission. VIMT may also include vaccines that target the vector to disrupt parasite development in the mosquito. Importantly, if eradication is to be achieved, malaria vaccine development efforts will need to target other malaria parasite species, especially Plasmodium vivax, where novel therapeutic vaccines against hypnozoites or preventive vaccines with effect against multiple stages could have enormous impact. A target product profile (TPP) for VIMT is proposed and a research agenda to address current knowledge gaps and develop tools necessary for design and development of VIMT is presented.

Parent-focused child maltreatment prevention: improving assessment, intervention, and dissemination with technology.

PubMed

Self-Brown, Shannon; Whitaker, Daniel J

2008-11-01

The goal of this article is to examine how technology has been and can be utilized to enhance parent-focused child maltreatment (CM) prevention efforts. The authors begin with a brief discussion of the current state of the CM prevention field. In the sections that follow, they review studies that have examined the use of technology across three facets of prevention: identification of CM, administration/augmentation of CM prevention programs, and broad dissemination and implementation of evidenced-based CM prevention programs. They conclude with a discussion of limitations and problems related to the use of technology as a tool to enhance CM prevention and future directions.

Built Environment and Elderly Population Health: A Comprehensive Literature Review

PubMed Central

Garin, Noe; Olaya, Beatriz; Miret, Marta; Ayuso-Mateos, Jose Luis; Power, Michael; Bucciarelli, Paola; Haro, Josep Maria

2014-01-01

Global population aging over recent years has been linked to poorer health outcomes and higher healthcare expenditure. Policies focusing on healthy aging are currently being developed but a complete understanding of health determinants is needed to guide these efforts. The built environment and other external factors have been added to the International Classification of Functioning as important determinants of health and disability. Although the relationship between the built environment and health has been widely examined in working age adults, research focusing on elderly people is relatively recent. In this review, we provide a comprehensive synthesis of the evidence on the built environment and health in the elderly. PMID:25356084

Defending Against Smallpox: a Focus on Vaccines

PubMed Central

Voigt, Emily A.; Kennedy, Richard B.; Poland, Gregory A.

2016-01-01

Smallpox has shaped human history, from the earliest human civilizations well into the 20th century. With high mortality rates, rapid transmission, and serious long-term effects on survivors, smallpox was a much-feared disease. The eradication of smallpox represents an unprecedented medical victory for the lasting benefit of human health and prosperity. Concerns remain, however, about the development and use of the smallpox virus as a biological weapon, which necessitates the need for continued vaccine development. Smallpox vaccine development is thus a much-reviewed topic of high interest. This review focuses on the current state of smallpox vaccines and their context in biodefense efforts. PMID:27049653

Defending against smallpox: a focus on vaccines.

PubMed

Voigt, Emily A; Kennedy, Richard B; Poland, Gregory A

2016-09-01

Smallpox has shaped human history, from the earliest human civilizations well into the 20th century. With high mortality rates, rapid transmission, and serious long-term effects on survivors, smallpox was a much-feared disease. The eradication of smallpox represents an unprecedented medical victory for the lasting benefit of human health and prosperity. Concerns remain, however, about the development and use of the smallpox virus as a biological weapon, which necessitates the need for continued vaccine development. Smallpox vaccine development is thus a much-reviewed topic of high interest. This review focuses on the current state of smallpox vaccines and their context in biodefense efforts.

Emerald ash borer invasion of North America: history, biology, ecology, impacts, and management.

PubMed

Herms, Daniel A; McCullough, Deborah G

2014-01-01

Since its accidental introduction from Asia, emerald ash borer (EAB), Agrilus planipennis Fairmaire (Coleoptera: Buprestidae), has killed millions of ash trees in North America. As it continues to spread, it could functionally extirpate ash with devastating economic and ecological impacts. Little was known about EAB when it was first discovered in North America in 2002, but substantial advances in understanding of EAB biology, ecology, and management have occurred since. Ash species indigenous to China are generally resistant to EAB and may eventually provide resistance genes for introgression into North American species. EAB is characterized by stratified dispersal resulting from natural and human-assisted spread, and substantial effort has been devoted to the development of survey methods. Early eradication efforts were abandoned largely because of the difficulty of detecting and delineating infestations. Current management is focused on biological control, insecticide protection of high-value trees, and integrated efforts to slow ash mortality.

Brazilian pharmaceutical diplomacy: social democratic principles versus soft power interests.

PubMed

Flynn, Matthew

2013-01-01

Current debates concerning the rise of health diplomacy are polarized between competing international relations theories of realism, based on power politics, and constructivist approaches, which emphasize the norms, values, and identities shaping foreign policies. A case study of Brazil's health diplomacy over the past 10 years, focusing on issues related to pharmaceuticals, seeks to provide data to assess these theories. The country's intellectual property disputes, multilateral lobbying efforts, and foreign assistance programs are contrasted with those of the United States, Mexico, and other countries. Instead of viewing Brazilian efforts as a form of soft power, the evidence suggests that the origins of Brazil's involvement and continued efforts in this arena stem more from values based on human rights and social democratic principles. A close examination of domestic political considerations leads to a more nuanced understanding of the drivers behind a country's health diplomacy.

How do different components of Effortful Control contribute to children's mathematics achievement?

PubMed

Sánchez-Pérez, Noelia; Fuentes, Luis J; Pina, Violeta; López-López, Jose A; González-Salinas, Carmen

2015-01-01

This work sought to investigate the specific contribution of two different components of Effortful Control (EC) -attentional focusing (AF) and inhibitory control- to children's mathematics achievement. The sample was composed of 142 children aged 9-12 year-old. EC components were measured through the Temperament in Middle Childhood Questionnaire (TMCQ; parent's report); math achievement was measured via teacher's report and through the standard Woodcock-Johnson test. Additionally, the contribution of other cognitive and socio-emotional processes was taken into account. Our results showed that only AF significantly contributed to the variance of children's mathematics achievement; interestingly, mediational models showed that the relationship between effortful attentional self-regulation and mathematics achievement was mediated by academic peer popularity, as well as by intelligence and study skills. Results are discussed in the light of the current theories on the role of children's self-regulation abilities in the context of school.

Integrated simulations for fusion research in the 2030's time frame (white paper outline)

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Friedman, Alex; LoDestro, Lynda L.; Parker, Jeffrey B.

This white paper presents the rationale for developing a community-wide capability for whole-device modeling, and advocates for an effort with the expectation of persistence: a long-term programmatic commitment, and support for community efforts. Statement of 2030 goal (two suggestions): (a) Robust integrated simulation tools to aid real-time experimental discharges and reactor designs by employing a hierarchy in fidelity of physics models. (b) To produce by the early 2030s a capability for validated, predictive simulation via integration of a suite of physics models from moderate through high fidelity, to understand and plan full plasma discharges, aid in data interpretation, carry outmore » discovery science, and optimize future machine designs. We can achieve this goal via a focused effort to extend current scientific capabilities and rigorously integrate simulations of disparate physics into a comprehensive set of workflows.« less

LANDFIRE Remap: A New National Baseline Product Suite

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dockter, D.; Peterson, B.; Picotte, J. J.; Long, J.; Tolk, B.; Callahan, K.; Davidson, A.; Earnhardt, T.

2017-12-01

LANDFIRE, also known as the Landscape Fire and Resource Management Planning Tools Program, is a vegetation, fire, and fuel characteristic data creation program managed by both the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service and the U.S. Department of the Interior with involvement from The Nature Conservancy. LANDFIRE represents the first and only complete, nationally consistent collection of over 20 geo-spatial layers (e.g., vegetation type and structure, fuels, fire regimes), databases, and ecological models that can be used across multiple disciplines to support cross-boundary planning, management, and operations across all lands of the United States and insular areas. Since 2004, LANDFIRE has produced comprehensive, consistent, and scientifically based suites of mapped products and associated databases for the United States and affiliated territories. These products depict the nation's major ecosystems and wildlife habitats. Over a decade has passed since the development of the first LANDFIRE base map, and an overhaul of the data products, i.e., a "Remap", is needed to maintain their functionality and relevance. To prepare for Remap production LANDFIRE has invested in a prototyping phase that focused on exploring various input data sources and new modeling and mapping techniques. While still grounded in a solid base consisting of Landsat imagery and high-quality field observations, the prototyping efforts explored different image compositing techniques, the integration of lidar data, modeling approaches as well as other factors that will inform Remap production. Several of these various research efforts are highlighted here and are currently being integrated into an end-to-end data processing flow that will drive the Remap production. The current Remap prototype effort has focused on several study areas throughout CONUS, with additional studies anticipated for Alaska, Hawaii and the territories. The LANDFIRE Remap effort is expected to take three to four years, with production commencing in northwestern CONUS.

BrainSnail: A dynamic information display system for the Sciences

PubMed Central

Telefont, Martin; Asaithambi, Asai

2009-01-01

Scientific reference management has become crucial in rapidly expanding fields of biology. Many of the reference management systems currently employed are reference centric and not object/process focused. BrainSnail is a reference management/knowledge representation application that tries to bridge disconnect between subject and reference in the fields of neuropharmacology, neuroanatomy and neurophysiology. BrainSnail has been developed with considering both individual researcher and research group efforts. PMID:19293992

Military Relevant Infectious Diseases Endemic to Kenya: Vaccine and Clinical Trials and Entomology

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-04-01

of Research (WRAIR) and its Special Foreign Activity (SFA) the U.S. Army Medical Research Unit Kenya (USAMRU-K). Previous support was provided under...Kisumu and its environs. Current efforts focus on drug sensitivity testing for antimalarials , vaccine trials and field research to determine vector...prophylaxis. Antimalarial drug sensitivity of isolates from defined populations in the region will continue to be monitored and data used to map the

Acquisition Reform in House and Senate Passed Versions of the FY2016 National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 1735)

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-07-02

defense acquisitions may depend less on the extent to which provisions of the bill make substantive changes to acquisitions...1 Because the House Armed Services Committee’s focus on small business predates the current reform effort, and because small... business provisions also affect only a specific segment of the industrial base, not the overall acquisition system, such sections were excluded from

The Role of Academic Motivation in High School Students’ Current and Lifetime Alcohol Consumption: Adopting a Self-Determination Theory Perspective*

PubMed Central

Wormington, Stephanie V.; Anderson, Kristen G.; Corpus, Jennifer Henderlong

2011-01-01

Objective: The current study investigated the relationship between different types of academic motives—specifically, intrinsic motivation, introjected regulation, and external regulation—and high school students' current and lifetime alcohol consumption. Method: One thousand sixty-seven high school students completed measures of academic motivation, other school-related factors, and lifetime and current alcohol consumption. Results: Using structural equation modeling, different types of motivation and school-related factors were differentially related to student drinking. Specifically, intrinsic motivation was negatively related to lifetime and current alcohol consumption. External regulation, on the other hand, was positively associated with current drinking. Grade point average was the only school-related factor related to student alcohol use. Conclusions: These findings suggest that motivation is an important construct to consider in predicting students’ alcohol use, even when other more commonly studied educational variables are considered. In addition, it supports the adoption of a motivation framework that considers different types of motivation in understanding the relationship between academic motivation and alcohol use. Suggestions for incorporating the self-determination model of motivation into studies of alcohol and substance use, as well as potential impacts on intervention efforts, are discussed. In particular, it may be important to foster only certain types of motivation, rather than all types of academically-focused motives, in efforts to deter alcohol use. PMID:22051210

The role of academic motivation in high school students' current and lifetime alcohol consumption: adopting a self-determination theory perspective.

PubMed

Wormington, Stephanie V; Anderson, Kristen G; Corpus, Jennifer Henderlong

2011-11-01

The current study investigated the relationship between different types of academic motives-specifically, intrinsic motivation, introjected regulation, and external regulation-and high school students' current and lifetime alcohol consumption. One thousand sixty-seven high school students completed measures of academic motivation, other school-related factors, and lifetime and current alcohol consumption. Using structural equation modeling, different types of motivation and school-related factors were differentially related to student drinking. Specifically, intrinsic motivation was negatively related to lifetime and current alcohol consumption. External regulation, on the other hand, was positively associated with current drinking. Grade point average was the only school-related factor related to student alcohol use. These findings suggest that motivation is an important construct to consider in predicting students' alcohol use, even when other more commonly studied educational variables are considered. In addition, it supports the adoption of a motivation framework that considers different types of motivation in understanding the relationship between academic motivation and alcohol use. Suggestions for incorporating the self-determination model of motivation into studies of alcohol and substance use, as well as potential impacts on intervention efforts, are discussed. In particular, it may be important to foster only certain types of motivation, rather than all types of academically-focused motives, in efforts to deter alcohol use.

Application of robotics in gastrointestinal endoscopy: A review

PubMed Central

Yeung, Baldwin Po Man; Chiu, Philip Wai Yan

2016-01-01

Multiple robotic flexible endoscope platforms have been developed based on cross specialty collaboration between engineers and medical doctors. However, significant number of these platforms have been developed for the natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery paradigm. Increasing amount of evidence suggest the focus of development should be placed on advanced endolumenal procedures such as endoscopic submucosal dissection instead. A thorough literature analysis was performed to assess the current status of robotic flexible endoscopic platforms designed for advanced endolumenal procedures. Current efforts are mainly focused on robotic locomotion and robotic instrument control. In the future, advances in actuation and servoing technology, optical analysis, augmented reality and wireless power transmission technology will no doubt further advance the field of robotic endoscopy. Globally, health systems have become increasingly budget conscious; widespread acceptance of robotic endoscopy will depend on careful design to ensure its delivery of a cost effective service. PMID:26855540

Qualitative ergonomics/human factors research in health care: Current state and future directions.

PubMed

Valdez, Rupa Sheth; McGuire, Kerry Margaret; Rivera, A Joy

2017-07-01

The objective of this systematic review was to understand the current state of Ergonomics/Human Factors (E/HF) qualitative research in health care and to draw implications for future efforts. This systematic review identified 98 qualitative research papers published between January 2005 and August 2015 in the seven journals endorsed by the International Ergonomics Association with an impact factor over 1.0. The majority of the studies were conducted in hospitals and outpatient clinics, were focused on the work of formal health care professionals, and were classified as cognitive or organizational ergonomics. Interviews, focus groups, and observations were the most prevalent forms of data collection. Triangulation and data archiving were the dominant approaches to ensuring rigor. Few studies employed a formal approach to qualitative inquiry. Significant opportunities remain to enhance the use of qualitative research to advance systems thinking within health care. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Advancing Genomics through the Global Invertebrate Genomics Alliance (GIGA)

PubMed Central

Voolstra, Christian R.; Wörheide, Gert; Lopez, Jose V.

2017-01-01

The Global Invertebrate Genomics Alliance (GIGA), a collaborative network of diverse scientists, marked its second anniversary with a workshop in Munich, Germany, where international attendees focused on discussing current progress, milestones and bioinformatics resources. The community determined the recruitment and training talented researchers as one of the most pressing future needs and identified opportunities for network funding. GIGA also promotes future research efforts to prioritize taxonomic diversity and create new synergies. Here, we announce the generation of a central and simple data repository portal with a wide coverage of available sequence data, via the compagen platform, in parallel with more focused and specialized organism databases to globally advance invertebrate genomics. Therefore this article serves the objectives of GIGA by disseminating current progress and future prospects in the science of invertebrate genomics with the aim of promotion and facilitation of interdisciplinary and international research. PMID:28603454

Advancing Genomics through the Global Invertebrate Genomics Alliance (GIGA).

PubMed

Voolstra, Christian R; Wörheide, Gert; Lopez, Jose V

2017-03-01

The Global Invertebrate Genomics Alliance (GIGA), a collaborative network of diverse scientists, marked its second anniversary with a workshop in Munich, Germany, where international attendees focused on discussing current progress, milestones and bioinformatics resources. The community determined the recruitment and training talented researchers as one of the most pressing future needs and identified opportunities for network funding. GIGA also promotes future research efforts to prioritize taxonomic diversity and create new synergies. Here, we announce the generation of a central and simple data repository portal with a wide coverage of available sequence data, via the compagen platform, in parallel with more focused and specialized organism databases to globally advance invertebrate genomics. Therefore this article serves the objectives of GIGA by disseminating current progress and future prospects in the science of invertebrate genomics with the aim of promotion and facilitation of interdisciplinary and international research.

Testing and Analysis of NEXT Ion Engine Discharge Cathode Assembly Wear

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Domonkos, Matthew T.; Foster, John E.; Soulas, George C.; Nakles, Michael

2003-01-01

Experimental and analytical investigations were conducted to predict the wear of the discharge cathode keeper in the NASA Evolutionary Xenon Thruster. The ion current to the keeper was found to be highly dependent upon the beam current, and the average beam current density was nearly identical to that of the NSTAR thruster for comparable beam current density. The ion current distribution was highly peaked toward the keeper orifice. A deterministic wear assessment predicted keeper orifice erosion to the same diameter as the cathode tube after processing 375 kg of xenon. A rough estimate of discharge cathode assembly life limit due to sputtering indicated that the current design exceeds the qualification goal of 405 kg. Probabilistic wear analysis showed that the plasma potential and the sputter yield contributed most to the uncertainty in the wear assessment. It was recommended that fundamental experimental and modeling efforts focus on accurately describing the plasma potential and the sputtering yield.

A Four Channel Beam Current Monitor Data Acquisition System Using Embedded Processors

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wheat, Jr., Robert Mitchell; Dalmas, Dale A.; Dale, Gregory E.

2015-08-11

Data acquisition from multiple beam current monitors is required for electron accelerator production of Mo-99. A two channel system capable of recording data from two beam current monitors has been developed, is currently in use, and is discussed below. The development of a cost-effective method of extending this system to more than two channels and integrating of these measurements into an accelerator control system is the main focus of this report. Data from these current monitors is digitized, processed, and stored by a digital data acquisition system. Limitations and drawbacks with the currently deployed digital data acquisition system have beenmore » identified as have been potential solutions, or at least improvements, to these problems. This report will discuss and document the efforts we've made in improving the flexibility and lowering the cost of the data acquisition system while maintaining the minimum requirements.« less

Advanced development of TFA-MOD coated conductors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rupich, M. W.; Li, X.; Sathyamurthy, S.; Thieme, C.; Fleshler, S.

2011-11-01

American Superconductor is manufacturing 2G wire for initial commercial applications. The 2G wire properties satisfy the requirements for these initial projects; however, improvements in the critical current, field performance and cost are required to address the broad range of potential commercial and military applications. In order to meet the anticipated the performance and cost requirements, AMSC's R&D effort is focused on two major areas: (1) higher critical current and (2) enhanced flux pinning. AMSC's current 2G production wire, designed around a 0.8 μm thick YBCO layer deposited by a Metal Organic Deposition (MOD) process, carries a critical current in the range of 200-300 A/cm-w (77 K, sf). Achieving higher critical current requires increasing the thickness of the YBCO layer. This paper describes recent progress at AMSC on increasing the critical current of MOD-YBCO films using processes compatible with low-cost, high-rate manufacturing.

R&D investments for neglected diseases can be sensitive to the economic goal of pharmaceutical companies.

PubMed

Dimitri, Nicola

2012-08-01

A fundamental problem with neglected diseases is how to induce pharmaceutical companies to invest resources for developing effective treatments. A recent debate focused on the role of economic incentives represented by monetary transfers to the firms. In this article I focus on the economic goals of pharmaceutical companies, as determinants for R&D effort. In particular, within a stylized framework, the work compares expected profit and expected productivity maximization, arguing that the former in general induces higher R&D investments than the latter. Therefore, as it is currently the case, when pharmaceutical firms focus on productivity, appropriate economic incentives might be needed for them to invest in R&D for neglected diseases. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Social Connectedness and Perceived Listening Effort in Adult Cochlear Implant Users: A Grounded Theory to Establish Content Validity for a New Patient-Reported Outcome Measure.

PubMed

Hughes, Sarah E; Hutchings, Hayley A; Rapport, Frances L; McMahon, Catherine M; Boisvert, Isabelle

2018-02-08

Individuals with hearing loss often report a need for increased effort when listening, particularly in challenging acoustic environments. Despite audiologists' recognition of the impact of listening effort on individuals' quality of life, there are currently no standardized clinical measures of listening effort, including patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs). To generate items and content for a new PROM, this qualitative study explored the perceptions, understanding, and experiences of listening effort in adults with severe-profound sensorineural hearing loss before and after cochlear implantation. Three focus groups (1 to 3) were conducted. Purposive sampling was used to recruit 17 participants from a cochlear implant (CI) center in the United Kingdom. The participants included adults (n = 15, mean age = 64.1 years, range 42 to 84 years) with acquired severe-profound sensorineural hearing loss who satisfied the UK's national candidacy criteria for cochlear implantation and their normal-hearing significant others (n = 2). Participants were CI candidates who used hearing aids (HAs) and were awaiting CI surgery or CI recipients who used a unilateral CI or a CI and contralateral HA (CI + HA). Data from a pilot focus group conducted with 2 CI recipients were included in the analysis. The data, verbatim transcripts of the focus group proceedings, were analyzed qualitatively using constructivist grounded theory (GT) methodology. A GT of listening effort in cochlear implantation was developed from participants' accounts. The participants provided rich, nuanced descriptions of the complex and multidimensional nature of their listening effort. Interpreting and integrating these descriptions through GT methodology, listening effort was described as the mental energy required to attend to and process the auditory signal, as well as the effort required to adapt to, and compensate for, a hearing loss. Analyses also suggested that listening effort for most participants was motivated by a need to maintain a sense of social connectedness (i.e., the subjective awareness of being in touch with one's social world). Before implantation, low social connectedness in the presence of high listening effort encouraged self-alienating behaviors and resulted in social isolation with adverse effects for participant's well-being and quality of life. A CI moderated but did not remove the requirement for listening effort. Listening effort, in combination with the improved auditory signal supplied by the CI, enabled most participants to listen and communicate more effectively. These participants reported a restored sense of social connectedness and an acceptance of the continued need for listening effort. Social connectedness, effort-reward balance, and listening effort as a multidimensional phenomenon were the core constructs identified as important to participants' experiences and understanding of listening effort. The study's findings suggest: (1) perceived listening effort is related to social and psychological factors and (2) these factors may influence how individuals with hearing loss report on the actual cognitive processing demands of listening. These findings provide evidence in support of the Framework for Understanding Effortful Listening a heuristic that describes listening effort as a function of both motivation and demands on cognitive capacity. This GT will inform item development and establish the content validity for a new PROM for measuring listening effort.

Biomolecular damage induced by ionizing radiation: the direct and indirect effects of low-energy electrons on DNA.

PubMed

Alizadeh, Elahe; Orlando, Thomas M; Sanche, Léon

2015-04-01

Many experimental and theoretical advances have recently allowed the study of direct and indirect effects of low-energy electrons (LEEs) on DNA damage. In an effort to explain how LEEs damage the human genome, researchers have focused efforts on LEE interactions with bacterial plasmids, DNA bases, sugar analogs, phosphate groups, and longer DNA moieties. Here, we summarize the current understanding of the fundamental mechanisms involved in LEE-induced damage of DNA and complex biomolecule films. Results obtained by several laboratories on films prepared and analyzed by different methods and irradiated with different electron-beam current densities and fluencies are presented. Despite varied conditions (e.g., film thicknesses and morphologies, intrinsic water content, substrate interactions, and extrinsic atmospheric compositions), comparisons show a striking resemblance in the types of damage produced and their yield functions. The potential of controlling this damage using molecular and nanoparticle targets with high LEE yields in targeted radiation-based cancer therapies is also discussed.

Miss-distance indicator for tank main guns

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bornstein, Jonathan A.; Hillis, David B.

1996-06-01

Tank main gun systems must possess extremely high levels of accuracy to perform successfully in battle. Under some circumstances, the first round fired in an engagement may miss the intended target, and it becomes necessary to rapidly correct fire. A breadboard automatic miss-distance indicator system was previously developed to assist in this process. The system, which would be mounted on a 'wingman' tank, consists of a charged-coupled device (CCD) camera and computer-based image-processing system, coupled with a separate infrared sensor to detect muzzle flash. For the system to be successfully employed with current generation tanks, it must be reliable, be relatively low cost, and respond rapidly maintaining current firing rates. Recently, the original indicator system was developed further in an effort to assist in achieving these goals. Efforts have focused primarily upon enhanced image-processing algorithms, both to improve system reliability and to reduce processing requirements. Intelligent application of newly refined trajectory models has permitted examination of reduced areas of interest and enhanced rejection of false alarms, significantly improving system performance.

Industrialization of mAb production technology The bioprocessing industry at a crossroads

PubMed Central

2009-01-01

Manufacturing processes for therapeutic monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) have evolved tremendously since the first licensed mAb product in 1986. The rapid growth in product demand for mAbs triggered parallel efforts to increase production capacity through construction of large bulk manufacturing plants as well as improvements in cell culture processes to raise product titers. This combination has led to an excess of manufacturing capacity, and together with improvements in conventional purification technologies, promises nearly unlimited production capacity in the foreseeable future. The increase in titers has also led to a marked reduction in production costs, which could then become a relatively small fraction of sales price for future products which are sold at prices at or near current levels. The reduction of capacity and cost pressures for current state-of-the-art bulk production processes may shift the focus of process development efforts and have important implications for both plant design and product development strategies for both biopharmaceutical and contract manufacturing companies. PMID:20065641

The status of masked bobwhite recovery in the United States and Mexico

USGS Publications Warehouse

Kuvlesky, W.P.; Gall, S.A.; Dobrott, S.J.; Tolley, S.; Guthery, F.S.; DeStefano, S.A.; King, N.; Nolte, K.R.; Silvy, N.J.; Lewis, J.C.; Gee, G.; Camou Luders, G.; Engel-Wilson, R.; Brennan, Leonard A.; Palmer, William E.; Burger, Loren W.; Pruden, Teresa L.

2000-01-01

The masked bobwhite (Colinus virginianus ridgwayi) is an endangered species currently numbering < 1500 individuals and restricted to 2 locales in southeastern Arizona and northcentral Sonora, Mexico. The subspecies' endangered status is attributed to overgrazing of Sonora savanna grassland that began during the late 1880's and continued well into the 20th century. This overgrazing resulted in the conversion of many native grass pastures to the exotic bufflegrass (Cenchrus ciliaris). The Arizona masked bobwhite population was extirpated around the turn of the century, and the Sonoran population was thought to have disappeared during the 1940's until a small remnant population was discovered on a ranch near Benjamin Hill, Sonora, in 1964. Masked bobwhite recovery efforts have a dynamic, long history of nearly six decades. Current masked bobwhite recovery efforts focus on reestablishing a self-sustainlng population on the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge (BANWR) in the United States, as well as 2 remnant wild populations located on privately owned ranches in northcentral Sonora.

Robotics and telepresence for moon missions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sallaberger, Christian

1994-01-01

An integrated moon program has often been proposed as a logical next step for today's space efforts. In the context of preparing for the possibility of launching a moon program, the European Space Agency is currently conducting an internal study effort which is focusing on the assessment of key technologies. Current thinking has this moon program organized into four phases. Phase 1 will deal with lunar resource exploration. The goal would be to produce a complete chemical inventory of the moon, including oxygen, water, other volatiles, carbon, silicon, and other resources. Phase 2 will establish a permanent robotic presence on the moon via a number of landers and surface rovers. Phase 3 will extend the second phase and concentrate on the use and exploitation of local lunar resources. Phase 4 will be the establishment of a first human outpost. Some preliminary work such as the building of the outpost and the installation of scientific equipment will be done by unmanned systems before a human crew is sent to the moon.

A review of the key genetic tools to assist imperiled species conservation: analyzing West Indian manatee populations

USGS Publications Warehouse

Bonde, Robert K.; McGuire, Peter M.; Hunter, Margaret E.

2012-01-01

Managers faced with decisions on threatened and endangered wildlife populations often are lacking detailed information about the species of concern. Integration of genetic applications will provide management teams with a better ability to assess and monitor recovery efforts on imperiled species. The field of molecular biology continues to progress rapidly and many tools are currently available. Presently, little guidance is available to assist researchers and managers with the appropriate selection of genetic tools to study the status of wild manatee populations. We discuss several genetic tools currently employed in the application of conservation genetics, and address the utility of using these tools to determine population status to aid in conservation efforts. As an example, special emphasis is focused on the endangered West Indian manatee (Order Sirenia). All four extant species of sirenians are imperiled throughout their range, predominately due to anthropogenic sources; therefore, the need for genetic information on their population status is direly needed.

Environmental management of construction and demolition waste in Kuwait.

PubMed

Kartam, Nabil; Al-Mutairi, Nayef; Al-Ghusain, Ibrahim; Al-Humoud, Jasem

2004-01-01

There is an increasing pressure on the construction industry to reduce costs and improve the quality of our environment. The fact is that both of these goals can be achieved at the same time. Although construction and demolition (C&D) constitutes a major source of waste in terms of volume and weight, its management and recycling efforts have not yet seen the light in Kuwait. This study focuses on recycling efforts leading to the minimization of the total C&D waste that is currently landfilled in Kuwait. This paper presents the current status of C&D waste disposal system in Kuwait and identifies the potential problems to the environment, people and economy. Then, it investigates alternative solutions to manage and control this major type of waste in an economically efficient and environmentally safe manner. Next, the paper describes the feasibility of establishing a C&D waste recycling facility in Kuwait. It concludes by highlighting the major benefits and bottleneck problems with such a recycling facility.

Racializing Drug Design: Implications of Pharmacogenomics for Health Disparities

PubMed Central

Lee, Sandra Soo-Jin

2005-01-01

Current practices of using “race” in pharmacogenomics research demands consideration of the ethical and social implications for understandings of group difference and for efforts to eliminate health disparities. This discussion focuses on an “infrastructure of racialization” created by current trajectories of research on genetic differences among racially identified groups, the use of race as a proxy for risk in clinical practice, and increasing interest in new market niches by the pharmaceutical industry. The confluence of these factors has resulted in the conflation of genes, disease, and race. I argue that public investment in pharmacogenomics requires careful consideration of current inequities in health status and social and ethical concerns over reifying race and issues of distributive justice. PMID:16257939

Do People with Schizophrenia Have Difficulty Anticipating Pleasure, Engaging in Effortful Behavior, or Both?

PubMed Central

Gard, David E.; Sanchez, Amy H.; Cooper, Kathryn; Fisher, Melissa; Garrett, Coleman; Vinogradov, Sophia

2014-01-01

Motivation deficits are common in schizophrenia, but little is known about underlying mechanisms, or the specific goals that people with schizophrenia set in daily life. Using neurobiological heuristics of pleasure anticipation and effort assessment, we examined the quality of activities and goals of 47 people with and 41 people without schizophrenia, utilizing Ecological Momentary Assessment. Participants were provided cell phones and called four times a day for seven days, and were asked about their current activities and anticipation of upcoming goals. Activities and goals were later coded by independent raters on pleasure and effort. In line with recent laboratory findings on effort computation deficits in schizophrenia, relative to healthy participants, people with schizophrenia reported engaging in less effortful activities and setting less effortful goals, which were related to patient functioning. In addition, patients showed some inaccuracy in estimating how difficult an effortful goal would be, which in turn was associated with lower neurocognition. In contrast to previous research, people with schizophrenia engaged in activities and set goals that were more pleasure-based, and anticipated goals as being more pleasurable than controls. Thus, this study provided evidence for difficulty with effortful behavior and not anticipation of pleasure. These findings may have psychosocial treatment implications, focusing on effort assessment/effort expenditure. For example, in order to help people with schizophrenia engage in more meaningful goal pursuits, treatment providers may leverage low-effort pleasurable goals by helping patients to break down larger, more complex goals into smaller, lower-effort steps that are associated with specific pleasurable rewards. PMID:25133986

Phase I (Year 1) Summary of Research--Establishing the Relationship between Fracture-Related Dolomite and Primary Rock Fabric on the Distribution of Reservoirs in the Michigan Basin

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

G. Michael Grammer

2005-11-09

This topical report covers the first 12 months of the subject 3-year grant, evaluating the relationship between fracture-related dolomite and dolomite constrained by primary rock fabric in the 3 most prolific reservoir intervals in the Michigan Basin (Ordovician Trenton-Black River Formations; Silurian Niagara Group; and the Devonian Dundee Formation). Phase I tasks, including Developing a Reservoir Catalog for selected dolomite reservoirs in the Michigan Basin, Characterization of Dolomite Reservoirs in Representative Fields and Technology Transfer have all been initiated and progress is consistent with our original scheduling. The development of a reservoir catalog for the 3 subject formations in themore » Michigan Basin has been a primary focus of our efforts during Phase I. As part of this effort, we currently have scanned some 13,000 wireline logs, and compiled in excess of 940 key references and 275 reprints that cover reservoir aspects of the 3 intervals in the Michigan Basin. A summary evaluation of the data in these publications is currently ongoing, with the Silurian Niagara Group being handled as a first priority. In addition, full production and reservoir parameter data bases obtained from available data sources have been developed for the 3 intervals in Excel and Microsoft Access data bases. We currently have an excess of 25 million cells of data for wells in the Basin. All Task 2 objectives are on time and on target for Phase I per our original proposal. Our mapping efforts to date, which have focused in large part on the Devonian Dundee Formation, have important implications for both new exploration plays and improved enhanced recovery methods in the Dundee ''play'' in Michigan--i.e. the interpreted fracture-related dolomitization control on the distribution of hydrocarbon reservoirs. In an exploration context, high-resolution structure mapping using quality-controlled well data should provide leads to convergence zones of fault/fracture trends that are not necessarily related to structural elevation. Further work in Phase II will be focused on delineating the relative contribution to fracture-only dolomitization to that which occurs in conjunction with primary facies and/or sequence stratigraphic framework.« less

The NASA Hyper-X Program

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Freeman, Delman C., Jr.; Reubush, Daivd E.; McClinton, Charles R.; Rausch, Vincent L.; Crawford, J. Larry

1997-01-01

This paper provides an overview of NASA's Hyper-X Program; a focused hypersonic technology effort designed to move hypersonic, airbreathing vehicle technology from the laboratory environment to the flight environment. This paper presents an overview of the flight test program, research objectives, approach, schedule and status. Substantial experimental database and concept validation have been completed. The program is currently concentrating on the first, Mach 7, vehicle development, verification and validation in preparation for wind-tunnel testing in 1998 and flight testing in 1999. Parallel to this effort the Mach 5 and 10 vehicle designs are being finalized. Detailed analytical and experimental evaluation of the Mach 7 vehicle at the flight conditions is nearing completion, and will provide a database for validation of design methods once flight test data are available.

Employment-related health insurance: federal agencies' roles in meeting data needs.

PubMed

Wiatrowski, William; Harvey, Holly; Levit, Katharine R

2002-01-01

Employer-sponsored health insurance accounts for almost one-third of all health care spending. As health care cost growth accelerates affecting the availability of employer-sponsored insurance and depth of coverage, the importance of timely and accurate information for measuring and monitoring these changes and formulating policy options increases. Identifying a growing gap between the need for and availability of data to inform policy on employment-related health insurance issues, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) established a committee of Federal agency representatives to evaluate and advise data collection efforts. This article reports on the committee's current efforts, focusing on evaluation of results from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey-Insurance Component (MEPS-IC) and the National Compensation Survey (NCS).

NASA Thermal Control Technologies for Robotic Spacecraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Swanson, Theodore D.; Birur, Gajanana C.

2003-01-01

Technology development is inevitably a dynamic process in search of an elusive goal. It is never truly clear whether the need for a particular technology drives its development, or the existence of a new capability initiates new applications. Technology development for the thermal control of spacecraft presents an excellent example of this situation. Nevertheless, it is imperative to have a basic plan to help guide and focus such an effort. Although this plan will be a living document that changes with time to reflect technological developments, perceived needs, perceived opportunities, and the ever-changing funding environment, it is still a very useful tool. This presentation summarizes the current efforts at NASA/Goddard and NASA/JPL to develop new thermal control technology for future robotic NASA missions.

Employment-Related Health Insurance: Federal Agencies' Roles in Meeting Data Needs

PubMed Central

Wiatrowski, William; Harvey, Holly; Levit, Katharine R.

2002-01-01

Employer-sponsored health insurance accounts for almost one-third of all health care spending. As health care cost growth accelerates affecting the availability of employer-sponsored insurance and depth of coverage, the importance of timely and accurate information for measuring and monitoring these changes and formulating policy options increases. Identifying a growing gap between the need for and availability of data to inform policy on employment-related health insurance issues, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) established a committee of Federal agency representatives to evaluate and advise data collection efforts. This article reports on the committee's current efforts, focusing on evaluation of results from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey-Insurance Component (MEPS-IC) and the National Compensation Survey (NCS). PMID:12500352

Autonomy, Paternalism, and Justice: Ethical Priorities in Public Health

PubMed Central

Buchanan, David R.

2008-01-01

With attention to the field of public health ethics growing, significant time has been devoted to identifying a sound ethical justification for paternalistic interventions that override individual autonomy to prevent people from adopting unhealthy behaviors. Efforts focused on specifying the conditions that warrant paternalism, however, are largely misplaced. On empirical and ethical grounds, public health should seek instead to expand individual autonomy to improve population health. To promote autonomy, the field should redirect current efforts toward clarifying principles of justice. Although public health’s most highly visible stance is associated with an egalitarian conception of “social justice,” it is imperative that public health professionals address gaping divisions in public understandings of justice. I present recommendations for initiating this process. PMID:18048780

Reliability of Current U.S. Modeling of Atmospheric Plumes Questioned

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Showstack, Randy

The deficiencies of atmospheric modeling used to determine the dispersion of chemical, radiological, or biological plumes came under fire during a 2 June hearing in the U.S. House of Representative. Several members of Congress said at that time that current modeling efforts provide inadequate information to assess plumes that could result from a terrorist incident, warfare, or some other cause. Part of the hearing, held by the House Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats, and International Relations, focused on two reports released just that day: one by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS), and the other by the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO).

Modern Warfare: An M and S Examination of the Dynamic Impact of Warlords and Insurgents on State Stability

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jones, Phillip N.; Drucker, Nick; Schwartz, Noah

2012-01-01

9/11 changed the world as we knew it. Part of this change was to redirect the military of the United States away from focusing primarily on conventional conflict to a primary focus on unconventional or irregular conflict. This change required a tremendous learning effort by the military and their supporting research and development community. This learning effort included relearning of old but largely forgotten lessons as well as acquiring newly discovered knowledge. During the process of our immediate 9/11 response, we identified that we were engaged in Iraq and Afghanistan in an insurgency. Subsequently, our focus converged upon the description of insurgencies and the requirements for counterinsurgency. This paper argues that emerging conditions now allow the re-evaluation of the type of conflict occurring today and into the foreseeable future: that we, including the modeling and simulation world, emerge from a singular focus on orthodox insurgencies and start to consider the consequences and opportunities of the complexity of current conflicts. As an example of complexity, this paper will use the relatively common phenomenon of the Warlord or Warlordism. The paper will provide a definition of this phenomenon and then describe the implications for modelers. The paper will conclude by demonstrating the impact of incorporating this one rather prosaic complexity into an insurgency model, using agent based modeling (ABM).

Veterans' Preferences for Exchanging Information Using Veterans Affairs Health Information Technologies: Focus Group Results and Modeling Simulations.

PubMed

Haun, Jolie N; Chavez, Margeaux; Nazi, Kim; Antinori, Nicole; Melillo, Christine; Cotner, Bridget A; Hathaway, Wendy; Cook, Ashley; Wilck, Nancy; Noonan, Abigail

2017-10-23

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has multiple health information technology (HIT) resources for veterans to support their health care management. These include a patient portal, VetLink Kiosks, mobile apps, and telehealth services. The veteran patient population has a variety of needs and preferences that can inform current VA HIT redesign efforts to meet consumer needs. This study aimed to describe veterans' experiences using the current VA HIT and identify their vision for the future of an integrated VA HIT system. Two rounds of focus group interviews were conducted with a single cohort of 47 veterans and one female caregiver recruited from Bedford, Massachusetts, and Tampa, Florida. Focus group interviews included simulation modeling activities and a self-administered survey. This study also used an expert panel group to provide data and input throughout the study process. High-fidelity, interactive simulations were created and used to facilitate collection of qualitative data. The simulations were developed based on system requirements, data collected through operational efforts, and participants' reported preferences for using VA HIT. Pairwise comparison activities of HIT resources were conducted with both focus groups and the expert panel. Rapid iterative content analysis was used to analyze qualitative data. Descriptive statistics summarized quantitative data. Data themes included (1) current use of VA HIT, (2) non-VA HIT use, and (3) preferences for future use of VA HIT. Data indicated that, although the Secure Messaging feature was often preferred, a full range of HIT options are needed. These data were then used to develop veteran-driven simulations that illustrate user needs and expectations when using a HIT system and services to access VA health care services. Patient participant redesign processes present critical opportunities for creating a human-centered design. Veterans value virtual health care options and prefer standardized, integrated, and synchronized user-friendly interface designs. ©Jolie N. Haun, Margeaux Chavez, Kim Nazi, Nicole Antinori, Christine Melillo, Bridget A Cotner, Wendy Hathaway, Ashley Cook, Nancy Wilck, Abigail Noonan. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (http://www.jmir.org), 23.10.2017.

College Student Drinking Research From the 1940s to the Future: Where We Have Been and Where We Are Going

PubMed Central

Kilmer, Jason R.; Cronce, Jessica M.; Larimer, Mary E.

2014-01-01

Objective: College student drinking is not a new phenomenon, yet the field of research studying college student drinking is relatively young. In recognition of the 75th anniversary of what is now the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, this article reviews the path from the first article to focus exclusively on college student drinking as the topic (published in 1945) to the current state of the science and attempts to look forward to the next steps in the field’s research agenda. Method: Articles were selected by consensus of the authors from incarnations of the journal and other academic journals based on their relevance to the genesis of current best practices regarding college student drinking prevention. Results: Major eras and themes include (a) early efforts to describe and understand college student drinking; (b) building foundations for prevention and intervention efforts in response to growing concerns about high-risk drinking; (c) the emergence of harm-reduction efforts, normative interventions, and efforts to document campus strategies; (d) efficacious prevention efforts and high-risk drinking; (e) the “Call to Action” Task Force Report from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism; and (f) updates to the science (including emerging technology). Conclusions: Understanding the rich history of science related to college drinking prevention should prepare and guide our field for the next 75 years of scientific advances, leading to even greater understanding of the etiology and topology of college student drinking as well as more effective methods to reduce alcohol-related harms. PMID:24565309

College student drinking research from the 1940s to the future: where we have been and where we are going.

PubMed

Kilmer, Jason R; Cronce, Jessica M; Larimer, Mary E

2014-01-01

College student drinking is not a new phenomenon, yet the field of research studying college student drinking is relatively young. In recognition of the 75th anniversary of what is now the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, this article reviews the path from the first article to focus exclusively on college student drinking as the topic (published in 1945) to the current state of the science and attempts to look forward to the next steps in the field's research agenda. Articles were selected by consensus of the authors from incarnations of the journal and other academic journals based on their relevance to the genesis of current best practices regarding college student drinking prevention. Major eras and themes include (a) early efforts to describe and understand college student drinking; (b) building foundations for prevention and intervention efforts in response to growing concerns about high-risk drinking; (c) the emergence of harm-reduction efforts, normative interventions, and efforts to document campus strategies; (d) efficacious prevention efforts and high-risk drinking; (e) the "Call to Action" Task Force Report from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism; and (f) updates to the science (including emerging technology). Understanding the rich history of science related to college drinking prevention should prepare and guide our field for the next 75 years of scientific advances, leading to even greater understanding of the etiology and topology of college student drinking as well as more effective methods to reduce alcohol-related harms.

Climate risks workshop

NASA Image and Video Library

2012-10-16

Participants in an Oct. 16-18 workshop at John C. Stennis Space Center focused on identifying current and future climate risks and developing strategies to address them. NASA Headquarters sponsored the Resilience and Adaptation to Climate Risks Workshop to understand climate change risks and adaptation strategies. The workshop was part of an effort that joins the science and operations arms of the agency in a coordinated response to climate change. NASA Headquarters is holding workshops on the subject at all NASA centers.

Replenishable food supply on Mars

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1990-01-01

The design team's present objective is to design a facility which will provide an environment to grow plants on the surface of Mars for a continuous supply of food for a ten-man crew. The main focus of the project is the design of a greenhouse. Concentration of the current design effort is on the outer structure, internal layout, and construction methods. The project was conducted by undergraduate students at Prairie View A&M University during Fall 1989 and Spring 1990.

Nonlinear mixing of electromagnetic waves in plasmas.

PubMed

Stefan, V; Cohen, B I; Joshi, C

1989-01-27

Recently, a strong research effort has been focused on applications of beat waves in plasma interactions. This research has important implications for various aspects of plasma physics and plasma technology. This article reviews the present status of the field and comments on plasma probing, heating of magnetically confined and laser plasmas, ionospheric plasma modification, beat-wave particle acceleration, beat-wave current drive in toroidal devices, beat wave-driven free-electron lasers, and phase conjugation with beat waves.

Development of computational methods for unsteady aerodynamics at the NASA Langley Research Center

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Yates, E. Carson, Jr.; Whitlow, Woodrow, Jr.

1987-01-01

The current scope, recent progress, and plans for research and development of computational methods for unsteady aerodynamics at the NASA Langley Research Center are reviewed. Both integral equations and finite difference methods for inviscid and viscous flows are discussed. Although the great bulk of the effort has focused on finite difference solution of the transonic small perturbation equation, the integral equation program is given primary emphasis here because it is less well known.

Development of computational methods for unsteady aerodynamics at the NASA Langley Research Center

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Yates, E. Carson, Jr.; Whitlow, Woodrow, Jr.

1987-01-01

The current scope, recent progress, and plans for research and development of computational methods for unsteady aerodynamics at the NASA Langley Research Center are reviewed. Both integral-equations and finite-difference method for inviscid and viscous flows are discussed. Although the great bulk of the effort has focused on finite-difference solution of the transonic small-perturbation equation, the integral-equation program is given primary emphasis here because it is less well known.

The Analysis of Crack Growth Initiation, Propagation, and Arrest in Flawed Ship Structures Subjected to Dynamic Loading

DTIC Science & Technology

1984-08-10

most current efforts in EPFM are focused on the application of the J-resistance curve to predict crack initiation and fracture instability. However...element code FRACDYN, which has since been used to solve a variety of problems related to the Navy, NRC, and several industrial applications . Of...that this parameter remains constant during elastic-plastic stable crack growth--see Reference (9). This fact, together with its ease of application

Constraints on JP-900 Jet Fuel Production Concepts

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-01-01

most of this research effort has focused on a coal-tar blending process. Penn State currently plans to build a one-barrel- per-day pilot plant and...which a mixture of solid coal and a refinery intermediate, decant oil, is used to pro- duce a combination of liquid fuels and coke. The findings and...petroleum refinery intermedi- ate (specifically, light cycle oil). More recently, attention has been directed toward a co-coking process, in which a

Crew Exercise Fact Sheet

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rafalik, Kerrie

2017-01-01

Johnson Space Center (JSC) provides research, engineering, development, integration, and testing of hardware and software technologies for exercise systems applications in support of human spaceflight. This includes sustaining the current suite of on-orbit exercise devices by reducing maintenance, addressing obsolescence, and increasing reliability through creative engineering solutions. Advanced exercise systems technology development efforts focus on the sustainment of crew's physical condition beyond Low Earth Orbit for extended mission durations with significantly reduced mass, volume, and power consumption when compared to the ISS.

Crew Exercise

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rafalik, Kerrie K.

2017-01-01

Johnson Space Center (JSC) provides research, engineering, development, integration, and testing of hardware and software technologies for exercise systems applications in support of human spaceflight. This includes sustaining the current suite of on-orbit exercise devices by reducing maintenance, addressing obsolescence, and increasing reliability through creative engineering solutions. Advanced exercise systems technology development efforts focus on the sustainment of crew's physical condition beyond Low Earth Orbit for extended mission durations with significantly reduced mass, volume, and power consumption when compared to the ISS.

Parts on Demand: Evaluation of Approaches to Achieve Flexible Manufacturing Systems for Navy Partson Demand. Volume 1

DTIC Science & Technology

1984-02-01

measurable impact if changed. The following items were included in the sample: * Mark Zero Items -Low demand insurance items which represent about three...R&D efforts reviewed. The resulting assessment highlighted the generic enabling technologies and cross- cutting R&D projects required to focus current...supplied by spot buys, and which may generate Navy Inventory Control Numbers (NICN). Random samples of data were extracted from the Master Data File ( MDF

Gesture-Based Controls for Robots: Overview and Implications for Use by Soldiers

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-07-01

to go somewhere but you did not say where”), (Kennedy et al. 2007; Perzanowski et al 2000a, 2000b). Many efforts are currently focused on developing...start/end of a gesture. They reported a 98% accuracy using a modified handwriting recognition statistical algorithm. The same algorithm was tested...to the device (light switch, music player) and saying “lights on” or “volume up” (Wilson and Shafer 2003). The Nintendo Wii remote controller has

The Fall of Oil Prices and the Effects on Biofuels.

PubMed

Reboredo, Fernando H; Lidon, Fernando; Pessoa, Fernanda; Ramalho, José C

2016-01-01

This analysis is focused on the effect of the abrupt decline of oil prices on biofuels, particularly second-generation ethanol. The efforts to decrease the production costs of biofuels, especially cellulosic ethanol (CE), will be greatly threatened if current oil prices remain low, especially since production is not slowing. Only huge state subsidies could alleviate this threat, but the challenge is to persuade citizens that this sacrifice is worthwhile. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Structural dynamics and control of large space structures. [conference

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lightner, E. B. (Compiler)

1981-01-01

The focus of the workshop was the basic research program assembled by LaRC to address the fundamental technology deficiencies that were identified in several studies on large space systems (LSS) conducted by NASA in the last several years. The staffs of the respective participants were assembled at the workshop to review the current state of research in the control technology for large structural systems and to plan the efforts that would be pursued by their respective organizations.

Recent Progress at NASA in LlSA Formulation and Technology Development

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stebbins, Robin

2007-01-01

Over the last year, the NASA portion of the LISA team has been focused its effort on advancing the formulation of the mission and responding to a major National Academy review. This talk will describe advances in, and the current state of: the baseline mission architecture, the performance requirements, the technology development and plans for final integration and test. Interesting results stimulated by the NASINRC Beyond Einstein Program Assessment Review will also be described.

Mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling in the heart: angels versus demons in a heart-breaking tale.

PubMed

Rose, Beth A; Force, Thomas; Wang, Yibin

2010-10-01

Among the myriad of intracellular signaling networks that govern the cardiac development and pathogenesis, mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) are prominent players that have been the focus of extensive investigations in the past decades. The four best characterized MAPK subfamilies, ERK1/2, JNK, p38, and ERK5, are the targets of pharmacological and genetic manipulations to uncover their roles in cardiac development, function, and diseases. However, information reported in the literature from these efforts has not yet resulted in a clear view about the roles of specific MAPK pathways in heart. Rather, controversies from contradictive results have led to a perception that MAPKs are ambiguous characters in heart with both protective and detrimental effects. The primary object of this review is to provide a comprehensive overview of the current progress, in an effort to highlight the areas where consensus is established verses the ones where controversy remains. MAPKs in cardiac development, cardiac hypertrophy, ischemia/reperfusion injury, and pathological remodeling are the main focuses of this review as these represent the most critical issues for evaluating MAPKs as viable targets of therapeutic development. The studies presented in this review will help to reveal the major challenges in the field and the limitations of current approaches and point to a critical need in future studies to gain better understanding of the fundamental mechanisms of MAPK function and regulation in the heart.

Sustainable development, demography and sexual and reproductive health: inseparable linkages and their policy implications.

PubMed

Herrmann, Michael

2014-05-01

The greatest challenge today is to meet the needs of current and future generations, of a large and growing world population, without imposing catastrophic pressures on the natural environment. Meeting this challenge depends on decisive policy changes in three areas: more inclusive economic growth, greener economic growth, and population policies. This article focuses on efforts to address and harness demographic changes for sustainable development, which are largely outside the purview of the current debate. Efforts to this end must be based on the recognition that demographic changes are the cumulative result of individual choices and opportunities, and that demographic changes are best addressed through policies that enlarge these choices and opportunities, with a focus on ensuring unrestricted and universal access to sexual and reproductive health information and services, empowering women to fully participate in social, economic and political life, and investing in the education of the younger generation beyond the primary level. The article provides a strong argument for why the Programme of Action that was agreed at the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) 20 years ago continues to hold important implications and lessons for the formulation of the post-2015 development agenda, which is expected to supersede the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Copyright © 2014 Reproductive Health Matters. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Case Study Approaches for Implementing the 2007 NRC Report “Toxicity Testing in the 21st Century: A Vision and A Strategy”

PubMed Central

Andersen, Melvin E.; Clewell, Harvey J.; Carmichael, Paul L.; Boekelheide, Kim

2013-01-01

The 2007 report “Toxicity Testing in the 21st Century: A Vision and A Strategy” argued for a change in toxicity testing for environmental agents and discussed federal funding mechanisms that could be used to support this transformation within the USA. The new approach would test for in vitro perturbations of toxicity pathways using human cells with high throughput testing platforms. The NRC report proposed a deliberate timeline, spanning about 20 years, to implement a wholesale replacement of current in-life toxicity test approaches focused on apical responses with in vitro assays. One approach to accelerating implementation is to focus on well-studied prototype compounds with known toxicity pathway targets. Through a series of carefully executed case studies with four or five pathway prototypes, the various steps required for implementation of an in vitro toxicity pathway approach to risk assessment could be developed and refined. In this article, we discuss alternative approaches for implementation and also outline advantages of a case study approach and the manner in which the cases studies could be pursued using current methodologies. A case study approach would be complementary to recently proposed efforts to map the human toxome, while representing a significant extension toward more formal risk assessment compared to the profiling and prioritization approaches offered by programs such as the EPA’s ToxCast effort. PMID:21993955

Biotechnology to harness the benefits of dietary phenolics; focus on Lamiaceae.

PubMed

Shetty, K

1997-09-01

Phytochemicals from herbs and fermented legumes are excellent dietary sources of phenolic metabolites. These phenolics have importance not only as food preservatives but increasingly have therapeutic and pharmaceutical applications. The long-term research objecitves of the food biotechnology program at the University of Massachusetts are to elucidate the molecular and physiological mechanisms associated with synthesis of important health-related, therapeutic phenolic metabolites in food-related plants and fermented plant foods. Current efforts focus on elucidation of the role of the proline-linked pentose phosphate pathway in regulating the synthesis of anti-inflammatory compound, rosmarinic acid (RA). Specific aims of the current research efforts are: (i) To develop novel tissue culture-based selection techniques to isolate high RA-producing, shoot-based clonal lines from genetically heterogeneous, cross-pollinating species in the family Lamiaceae; (ii) To target genetically uniform, regenerated shoot-based clonal lines for: (a) preliminary characterization of key enzymes associated with the pentose phosphate pathway and linked to RA synthesis; (b) development of genetic transformation techniques for subsequent engineering of metabolic pathways associated with RA synthesis. These research objectives have substantial implications for harnessing the genetic and biochemical potential of genetically heterogeneous, food-related medicinal plant species. The success of this research also provides novel methods and strategies to gain access to metabolic pathways of pharmaceutically important metabolites from ginger, curcuma, chili peppers, melon or other food-related species with novel phenolics.

Current status of the EPOS WG4 - GNSS and Other Geodetic Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fernandes, Rui; Bastos, Luisa; Bruyninx, Carine; D'Agostino, Nicola; Dousa, Jan; Ganas, Athanassios; Lidberg, Martin; Nocquet, Jean-Mathieu

2014-05-01

WG4 - "EPOS Geodetic Data and Other Geodetic Data" is the Working Group of the EPOS project in charge of defining and preparing the integration of the existing Pan-European Geodetic Infrastructures that will support European Geosciences, which is the ultimate goal of the EPOS project. The WG4 is formed by representatives of the participating EPOS countries (23) but it is also open to the entire geodetic community. In fact, WG4 also already includes members from countries that formally are not integrating EPOS in this first step. The geodetic component of EPOS (WG4) is dealing essentially with Research Infrastructures focused on continuous operating GNSS (cGNSS) in the current phase. The option of concentrating the efforts on the presently most generalized geodetic tool supporting research on Solid Earth was decided in order to optimize the existing resources. Nevertheless, WG4 will continue to pursue the development of tools and methodologies that permit the access of the EPOS community to other geodetic information (e.g., gravimetry). Furthermore, although the focus is on Solid Earth applications, other research and technical applications (e.g., reference frames, meteorology, space weather) can also benefit from the efforts of WG4 EPOS towards the optimization of the geodetic resources in Europe. We will present and discuss the plans for the implementation of the thematic and core services (TCS) for geodetic data within EPOS and the related business plan. We will focus on strategies towards the implementation of the best solutions that will permit to the end-users, and in particular geo-scientists, to access the geodetic data, derived solutions, and associated metadata using transparent and uniform processes. Five pillars have been defined proposed for the TCS: Dissemination, Preservation, Monitoring, and Analysis of geodetic data plus the Support and Governance Infrastructure. Current proposals and remaining open questions will be discussed.

Joint China-United States Report for Year 1 Insulation Materials and Systems Project Area Clean Energy Research Center Building Energy Efficiency (CERC-BEE)

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Stovall, Therese K; Biswas, Kaushik; Song, Bo

In November of 2009, the presidents of China and the U.S. announced the establishment of the Clean Energy Research Center (CERC). This broad research effort is co-funded by both countries and involves a large number of research centers and universities in both countries. One part of this program is focused on improving the energy efficiency of buildings. One portion of the CERC-BEE was focused on building insulation systems. The research objective of this effort was to Identify and investigate candidate high performance fire resistant building insulation technologies that meet the goal of building code compliance for exterior wall applications inmore » green buildings in multiple climate zones. A Joint Work Plan was established between researchers at the China Academy of Building Research and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Efforts in the first year under this plan focused on information gathering. The objective of this research program is to reduce building energy use in China via improved building insulation technology. In cold regions in China, residents often use inefficient heating systems to provide a minimal comfort level within inefficient buildings. In warmer regions, air conditioning has not been commonly used. As living standards rise, energy consumption in these regions will increase dramatically unless significant improvements are made in building energy performance. Previous efforts that defined the current state of the built environment in China and in the U.S. will be used in this research. In countries around the world, building improvements have typically followed the implementation of more stringent building codes. There have been several changes in building codes in both the U.S. and China within the last few years. New U.S. building codes have increased the amount of wall insulation required in new buildings. New government statements from multiple agencies in China have recently changed the requirements for buildings in terms of energy efficiency and fire safety. A related issue is the degree to which new standards are adopted and enforced. In the U.S., standards are developed using a consensus process, and local government agencies are free to implement these standards or to ignore them. For example, some U.S. states are still using 2003 versions of the building efficiency standards. There is also a great variation in the degree to which the locally adopted standards are enforced in different U.S. cities and states. With a more central process in China, these issues are different, but possible impacts of variable enforcement efficacy may also exist. Therefore, current building codes in China will be compared to the current state of building fire-safety and energy-efficiency codes in the U.S. and areas for possible improvements in both countries will be explored. In particular, the focus of the applications in China will be on green buildings. The terminology of 'green buildings' has different meanings to different audiences. The U.S. research is interested in both new, green buildings, and on retrofitting existing inefficient buildings. An initial effort will be made to clarify the scope of the pertinent wall insulation systems for these applications.« less

Co-Optimization of Fuels and Engines (Co-Optima) -- Introduction

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Farrell, John T; Wagner, Robert; Holladay, John

The Co-Optimization of Fuels and Engines (Co-Optima) initiative is a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) effort funded by both the Vehicle and Bioenergy Technology Offices. The overall goal of the effort is to identify the combinations of fuel properties and engine characteristics that maximize efficiency, independent of production pathway or fuel composition, and accelerate commercialization of these technologies. Multiple research efforts are underway focused on both spark-ignition and compression-ignition strategies applicable across the entire light, medium, and heavy-duty fleet. A key objective of Co-Optima's research is to identify new blendstocks that enhance current petroleum blending components, increase blendstock diversity, andmore » provide refiners with increased flexibility to blend fuels with the key properties required to optimize advanced internal combustion engines. In addition to fuels and engines R&D, the initiative is guided by analyses assessing the near-term commercial feasibility of new blendstocks based on economics, environmental performance, compatibility, and large-scale production viability. This talk will provide an overview of the Co-Optima effort.« less

Phragmites australis management in the United States: 40 years of methods and outcomes

PubMed Central

Hazelton, Eric L. G.; Mozdzer, Thomas J.; Burdick, David M.; Kettenring, Karin M.; Whigham, Dennis F.

2014-01-01

Studies on invasive plant management are often short in duration and limited in the methods tested, and lack an adequate description of plant communities that replace the invader following removal. Here we present a comprehensive review of management studies on a single species, in an effort to elucidate future directions for research in invasive plant management. We reviewed the literature on Phragmites management in North America in an effort to synthesize our understanding of management efforts, identify gaps in knowledge and improve the efficacy of management. Additionally, we assessed recent ecological findings concerning Phragmites mechanisms of invasion and integrated these findings into our recommendations for more effective management. Our overall goal is to examine whether or not current management approaches can be improved and whether they promote reestablishment of native plant communities. We found: (i) little information on community-level recovery of vegetation following removal of Phragmites; and (ii) most management approaches focus on the removal of Phragmites from individual stands or groups of stands over a relatively small area. With a few exceptions, recovery studies did not monitor vegetation for substantial durations, thus limiting adequate evaluation of the recovery trajectory. We also found that none of the recovery studies were conducted in a landscape context, even though it is now well documented that land-use patterns on adjacent habitats influence the structure and function of wetlands, including the expansion of Phragmites. We suggest that Phragmites management needs to shift to watershed-scale efforts in coastal regions, or larger management units inland. In addition, management efforts should focus on restoring native plant communities, rather than simply eradicating Phragmites stands. Wetlands and watersheds should be prioritized to identify ecosystems that would benefit most from Phragmites management and those where the negative impact of management would be minimal. PMID:24790122

USDA Biochar Research: Land Application Advances to Reap Its Multifunctional Abilities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ippolito, J.; Spokas, K.; Novak, J.; Lentz, R. D.; Stromberger, M.; Ducey, T.; Johnson, M.

2014-12-01

Biochar is the solid byproduct from the pyrolysis of agricultural crop residues, manures, green wastes and wood-based materials. Pyrolyzing biomass causes inorganic and organic compounds to be concentrated within the carbonized remains of the original lignin and cellulose structure. It is through this complex mixture of organic aromatic structures and inorganic elements that potentially imparts biochars with special multi-functional capabilities. Our current research has focused on developing biochar to simultaneously sequester soil carbon and remediate degraded soils. This is accomplished by directly improving soil nutrient and moisture contents, sorbing pollutants, as well as altering microbial signaling. Maintaining these improvements needs to account for biochar physical degradation, which may be overcome by biochar-mineral associations. Additional research is focused on biochar use that minimizes soil microorganism population shifts in order to maintain current ecosystem services. Future USDA research involves more evaluations to understand the multifunctional role of biochar in the agricultural and environmental sectors (e.g., USEPA superfund locations). This presentation will provide highlights of current and future coordinated biochar research efforts from several key laboratory locations across the US.

A Review of Engine Seal Performance and Requirements for Current and Future Army Engine Platforms

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Delgado, Irebert R.; Proctor, Margaret P.

2008-01-01

Sand ingestion continues to impact combat ground and air vehicles in military operations in the Middle East. The T-700 engine used in Apache and Blackhawk helicopters has been subjected to increased overhauls due to sand and dust ingestion during desert operations. Engine component wear includes compressor and turbine blades/vanes resulting in decreased engine power and efficiency. Engine labyrinth seals have also been subjected to sand and dust erosion resulting in tooth tip wear, increased clearances, and loss in efficiency. For the current investigation, a brief overview is given of the history of the T-700 engine development with respect to sand and dust ingestion requirements. The operational condition of labyrinth seals taken out of service from 4 different locations of the T-700 engine during engine overhauls are examined. Collaborative efforts between the Army and NASA to improve turbine engine seal leakage and life capability are currently focused on noncontacting, low leakage, compliant designs. These new concepts should be evaluated for their tolerance to sand laden air. Future R&D efforts to improve seal erosion resistance and operation in desert environments are recommended

Time is muscle: translation into practice.

PubMed

Antman, Elliott M

2008-10-07

In the future, advances in the care of patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) will not come from the analysis of trials that do not reflect current practice in an effort to rationalize extending the percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI)-related delay time. We must move beyond such arguments and find ways to shorten total ischemic time. With the launching of the American College of Cardiology's D2B Alliance and the American Heart Association's Mission: Lifeline programs, the focus is now on systems improvement for reperfusion in patients with STEMI. The D2B Alliance was developed to focus on improvement in door-to-balloon times for patients with STEMI who are undergoing primary PCI. The American Heart Association Mission: Lifeline program is a broad, comprehensive national initiative to improve the quality of care and outcomes of patients with STEMI by improving health care system readiness and response to STEMI. Improvements in access to timely care for patients with STEMI will require a multifaceted approach involving patient education, improvements in the Emergency Medical Services and emergency department components of care, the establishment of networks of STEMI-referral hospitals (not PCI capable) and STEMI-receiving hospitals (PCI capable), as well as coordinated advocacy efforts to work with payers and policy makers to implement a much-needed health care system redesign. By focusing now on system efforts for improvements in timely care for STEMI, we will complete the cycle of research initiated by Reimer and Jennings 30 years ago. Time is muscle ... we must translate that into practice.

Micromachined microfluidic chemiluminescent system for explosives detection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Park, Yoon; Neikirk, Dean P.; Anslyn, Eric V.

2007-04-01

Results will be reported from efforts to develop a self-contained micromachined microfluidic detection system for the presence of specific target analytes under the US Office of Naval Research Counter IED Basic Research Program. Our efforts include improving/optimizing a dedicated micromachined sensor array with integrated photodetectors and the synthesis of chemiluminescent receptors for nitramine residues. Our strategy for developing chemiluminescent synthetic receptors is to use quenched peroxyoxalate chemiluminescence; the presence of the target analyte would then trigger chemiluminescence. Preliminary results are encouraging as we have been able to measure large photo-currents from the reaction. We have also fabricated and demonstrated the feasibility of integrating photodiodes within an array of micromachined silicon pyramidal cavities. One particular advantage of such approach over a conventional planar photodiode would be its collection efficiency without the use of external optical components. Unlike the case of a normal photodetector coupled to a focused or collimated light source, the photodetector for such a purpose must couple to an emitting source that is approximately hemispherical; hence, using the full sidewalls of the bead's confining cavity as the detector allows the entire structure to act as its own integrating sphere. At the present time, our efforts are concentrating on improving the signal-to-noise ratio by reducing the leakage current by optimizing the fabrication sequence and the design.

Alcohol-related aggression during the college years: theories, risk factors and policy implications.

PubMed

Giancola, Peter R

2002-03-01

The purpose of this article is to present an overview of the research literature on alcohol-related aggression with a focus on college students. Data from both survey studies and experimental laboratory investigations conducted on college students are reviewed. Various methodological approaches to studying the alcohol-aggression relation, and their associated limitations, are then presented and discussed. The literature indicates that alcohol consumption facilitates aggressive behavior and increases the risk of being the victim of a violent act, particularly in heavy drinkers. Results from these studies are then placed into a context by reviewing 12 influential theories of aggression and alcohol-related aggression. On the basis of these theories and empirical data, a preliminary risk profile is presented to help identify which factors are likely to be important in predicting who will and who will not become aggressive after drinking alcohol. Although much research is still needed to elucidate the intricate causes of alcohol-related aggression, current prevention efforts might focus on modifying key risk factors such as poor cognitive functioning and inaccurate expectations about the effects of alcohol. Other prevention efforts directed specifically at college students might focus on helping them to identify risky situations that might facilitate the expression of intoxicated aggression.

Perceptions of earthquake and tsunami issues in U.S. Pacific Northwest port and harbor communities

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wood, Nathan J.; Good, James W.

2005-01-01

Although there is considerable energy focused on assessing natural hazards associated with earthquakes and tsunamis in the U.S. Pacific Northwest, little has been done to understand societal vulnerability to these hazards. Part of understanding societal vulnerability includes assessing the perceptions and priorities of public sector individuals with traditional emergency management responsibilities and of private citizens who could play key roles in community recovery. In response to this knowledge gap, we examine earthquake and tsunami perceptions of stakeholders and decision makers from coastal communities in the U.S. Pacific Northwest, focusing on perceptions of (1) regional hazards and societal vulnerability, (2) the current state of readiness, and (3) priorities for future hazard adjustment efforts. Results of a mailed survey suggest that survey participants believe that earthquakes and tsunamis are credible community threats. Most communities are focusing on regional mitigation and response planning, with less effort devoted to recovery plans or to making individual organizations more resilient. Significant differences in expressed perceptions and priorities were observed between Oregon and Washington respondents, mainly on tsunami issues. Significant perception differences were also observed between private and public sector respondents. Our results suggest the need for further research and for outreach and planning initiatives in the Pacific Northwest to address significant gaps in earthquake and tsunami hazard awareness and readiness.

Thermal Performance of a Cryogenic Fluid Management Cubesat Mission

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Berg, J. J.; Oliveira, J. M.; Congiardo, J. F.; Walls, L. K.; Putman, P. T.; Haberbusch, M. S.

2013-01-01

Development for an in-space demonstration of a CubeS at as a Cryogenic Fluid Management (CFM) test bed is currently underway. The favorable economics of CubeSats make them appealing for technology development activity. While their size limits testing to smaller scales, many of the regimes relevant to CFM can still be achieved. The first demo flight of this concept, CryoCube®-1, will focus on oxygen liquefaction and low-gravity level sensing using Reduced Gravity CryoTracker®. An extensive thermal modeling effort has been underway to both demonstrate concept feasibility and drive the prototype design. The satellite will utilize both a sun- and earth-shield to passively cool its experimental tank below 115 K. An on-board gas generator will create high pressure gaseous oxygen, which will be throttled into a bottle in the experimental node and condensed. The resulting liquid will be used to perform various experiments related to level sensing. Modeling efforts have focused on the spacecraft thermal performance and its effects on condensation in the experimental node. Parametric analyses for both optimal and suboptimal conditions have been considered and are presented herein.

OPC model generation procedure for different reticle vendors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jost, Andrew M.; Belova, Nadya; Callan, Neal P.

2003-12-01

The challenge of delivering acceptable semiconductor products to customers in timely fashion becomes more difficult as design complexity increases. The requirements of current generation designs tax OPC engineers greater than ever before since the readiness of high-quality OPC models can delay new process qualifications or lead to respins, which add to the upward-spiraling costs of new reticle sets, extend time-to-market, and disappoint customers. In their efforts to extend the printability of new designs, OPC engineers generally focus on the data-to-wafer path, ignoring data-to-mask effects almost entirely. However, it is unknown whether reticle makers' disparate processes truly yield comparable reticles, even with identical tools. This approach raises the question of whether a single OPC model is applicable to all reticle vendors. LSI Logic has developed a methodology for quantifying vendor-to-vendor reticle manufacturing differences and adapting OPC models for use at several reticle vendors. This approach allows LSI Logic to easily adapt existing OPC models for use with several reticle vendors and obviates the generation of unnecessary models, allowing OPC engineers to focus their efforts on the most critical layers.

Correlates of chilean adolescents' negative attitudes toward cigarettes: the role of gender, peer, parental, and environmental factors.

PubMed

Lorenzo-Blanco, Elma I; Bares, Cristina; Delva, Jorge

2012-02-01

We examined the association of peer, parental, and environmental factors with negative attitudes toward cigarettes among youth from Santiago, Chile. A total of 860 youth from Santiago, Chile, completed questions regarding their lifetime use of cigarettes, intentions to smoke, attitudes toward cigarettes, and questions that assessed peer, parental, and environmental factors. For both boys and girls, peer disapproval of smoking was associated with more negative attitudes toward cigarettes and peer smoking was associated with less negative attitudes toward cigarettes. Peer pressure was significantly associated with more negative attitudes toward cigarettes for girls only. Parental smoking was associated with less negative attitudes and parental control with more negative attitudes, but these associations were significant in the overall sample only. School prevention efforts and exposure to cigarette ads were not associated with cigarette attitudes. Difficulty in accessing cigarettes was positively associated with negative attitudes for boys and girls. Smoking prevention efforts focus on attitude change, but scant information is available about the experiences that influence Chilean youth's attitudes toward cigarettes. Results from the current study suggest that prevention efforts could benefit from gender-specific strategies. Girls' but not boys' attitudes were influenced by peer pressure. Moreover, negative attitudes toward cigarettes were associated with lower current smoking in girls only. Parental smoking was an important influence on youth's attitudes toward cigarettes. Efforts to reduce smoking among Chilean youth may benefit from concurrently reducing parental smoking.

Utilizing toxicogenomic data to understand chemical mechanism of action in risk assessment

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wilson, Vickie S., E-mail: wilson.vickie@epa.gov; Keshava, Nagalakshmi; Hester, Susan

2013-09-15

The predominant role of toxicogenomic data in risk assessment, thus far, has been one of augmentation of more traditional in vitro and in vivo toxicology data. This article focuses on the current available examples of instances where toxicogenomic data has been evaluated in human health risk assessment (e.g., acetochlor and arsenicals) which have been limited to the application of toxicogenomic data to inform mechanism of action. This article reviews the regulatory policy backdrop and highlights important efforts to ultimately achieve regulatory acceptance. A number of research efforts on specific chemicals that were designed for risk assessment purposes have employed mechanismmore » or mode of action hypothesis testing and generating strategies. The strides made by large scale efforts to utilize toxicogenomic data in screening, testing, and risk assessment are also discussed. These efforts include both the refinement of methodologies for performing toxicogenomics studies and analysis of the resultant data sets. The current issues limiting the application of toxicogenomics to define mode or mechanism of action in risk assessment are discussed together with interrelated research needs. In summary, as chemical risk assessment moves away from a single mechanism of action approach toward a toxicity pathway-based paradigm, we envision that toxicogenomic data from multiple technologies (e.g., proteomics, metabolomics, transcriptomics, supportive RT-PCR studies) can be used in conjunction with one another to understand the complexities of multiple, and possibly interacting, pathways affected by chemicals which will impact human health risk assessment.« less

Promise and problems with supply chain management approaches to health care purchasing.

PubMed

Ford, Eric W; Scanlon, Dennis P

2007-01-01

Double-digit health care inflation, coupled with widespread reports of poor care quality and deadly medical errors, has caused private sector employers to reevaluate their health benefits purchasing strategies, with a focus on supply chain management approaches. In other industries, this strategy has proven to be an effective method for simultaneously reducing costs and increasing quality. This article describes four current applications of supply chain management network methodologies to health care systems and identifies potential ways to improve purchasers' return on investment. In particular, information exchanges, purchase decision, and payment agreement components of integrated supply chains are described. First, visual depictions of the health care supply chain are developed from a purchaser's perspective. Next, five nationwide programs designed to realign incentives and rewards across the health care supply chain are described. Although several nationwide efforts are gaining traction in the marketplace, at this time, no cost reduction and quality improvement program initiative appears to systematically align the entire health care supply chain from providers to purchasers, raising doubt about the ability of supply chain management network techniques to significantly impact the health care marketplace in the short run. Current individual efforts to coordinate the health care supply chain do not act on all of the actors necessary to improve outcomes, promote safety, and control costs. Nevertheless, there are indications that several of the individual efforts are coming together. If national efforts touching on all critical elements can coordinate with purchasers, then the health care supply chain's performance may improve significantly.

Correlates of Chilean Adolescents’ Negative Attitudes Toward Cigarettes: The Role of Gender, Peer, Parental, and Environmental Factors

PubMed Central

Bares, Cristina; Delva, Jorge

2012-01-01

Introduction: We examined the association of peer, parental, and environmental factors with negative attitudes toward cigarettes among youth from Santiago, Chile. Methods: A total of 860 youth from Santiago, Chile, completed questions regarding their lifetime use of cigarettes, intentions to smoke, attitudes toward cigarettes, and questions that assessed peer, parental, and environmental factors. Results: For both boys and girls, peer disapproval of smoking was associated with more negative attitudes toward cigarettes and peer smoking was associated with less negative attitudes toward cigarettes. Peer pressure was significantly associated with more negative attitudes toward cigarettes for girls only. Parental smoking was associated with less negative attitudes and parental control with more negative attitudes, but these associations were significant in the overall sample only. School prevention efforts and exposure to cigarette ads were not associated with cigarette attitudes. Difficulty in accessing cigarettes was positively associated with negative attitudes for boys and girls. Conclusion: Smoking prevention efforts focus on attitude change, but scant information is available about the experiences that influence Chilean youth’s attitudes toward cigarettes. Results from the current study suggest that prevention efforts could benefit from gender-specific strategies. Girls’ but not boys’ attitudes were influenced by peer pressure. Moreover, negative attitudes toward cigarettes were associated with lower current smoking in girls only. Parental smoking was an important influence on youth’s attitudes toward cigarettes. Efforts to reduce smoking among Chilean youth may benefit from concurrently reducing parental smoking. PMID:22157230

Occurrence and distribution of Indian primates

USGS Publications Warehouse

Karanth, K.K.; Nichols, J.D.; Hines, J.E.

2010-01-01

Global and regional species conservation efforts are hindered by poor distribution data and range maps. Many Indian primates face extinction, but assessments of population status are hindered by lack of reliable distribution data. We estimated the current occurrence and distribution of 15 Indian primates by applying occupancy models to field data from a country-wide survey of local experts. We modeled species occurrence in relation to ecological and social covariates (protected areas, landscape characteristics, and human influences), which we believe are critical to determining species occurrence in India. We found evidence that protected areas positively influence occurrence of seven species and for some species are their only refuge. We found evergreen forests to be more critical for some primates along with temperate and deciduous forests. Elevation negatively influenced occurrence of three species. Lower human population density was positively associated with occurrence of five species, and higher cultural tolerance was positively associated with occurrence of three species. We find that 11 primates occupy less than 15% of the total land area of India. Vulnerable primates with restricted ranges are Golden langur, Arunachal macaque, Pig-tailed macaque, stump-tailed macaque, Phayre's leaf monkey, Nilgiri langur and Lion-tailed macaque. Only Hanuman langur and rhesus macaque are widely distributed. We find occupancy modeling to be useful in determining species ranges, and in agreement with current species ranking and IUCN status. In landscapes where monitoring efforts require optimizing cost, effort and time, we used ecological and social covariates to reliably estimate species occurrence and focus species conservation efforts. ?? Elsevier Ltd.

Hydrodynamic observations in support of Moored Autonomous pCO2 buoy efforts at La Parguera Marine Reserve

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rodriguez-Abudo, S.; Melendez, M.; Morell, J. M.; Padilla, A.; Salisbury, J.

2016-02-01

Time series of near-reef carbonate chemistry obtained through the National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP) at La Parguera Marine Reserve, Puerto Rico exhibit seasonal and diurnal variations modulated by diverse processes including coral community metabolism, thermodynamics and hydrodynamics. While surface CO2 dynamics have been fairly well characterized with moored pCO2 efforts, detailed hydrodynamic information resulting from La Parguera's complex morphological, meteorological, and oceanographic processes is currently lacking. This project focuses on a one-month-long hydrodynamic assessment near a fore reef site located within 100 m of the NCRMP pCO2 buoy. Current profiles spanning 12 m of depth were resolved with a bottom-mounted ADCP. Preliminary results show that under no wind conditions, dominant currents are tidally driven and aligned with the reef channel. Depth-averaged currents exhibit diurnal and semidiurnal peaks, not inconsistent with tidal and wind forcing. The analysis also shows that at times surface current direction can differ from near-reef currents by as much as 200 degrees, suggesting a possible mismatch between carbonate chemistry resolved at the surface and that felt by the reef structure. Moreover, buoy measurements are potentially resolving carbonate chemistry from both, oceanic and inshore water masses. Our findings suggest that monitoring and potentially predicting near-reef CO2 dynamics require interdisciplinary expertise and integrated approaches. This project provides new insights into the effects of tidal and meteorological forcing on the carbonate chemistry of near-reef coral ecosystems.

Youth tobacco prevention mass media campaigns: past, present, and future directions.

PubMed

Farrelly, M C; Niederdeppe, J; Yarsevich, J

2003-06-01

This paper focuses on countermarketing efforts aimed at curbing youth smoking. We review the literature on the effectiveness of tobacco countermarketing campaigns, characterise current state and national campaign approaches, present findings from qualitative approaches and laboratory experiments that explore a variety of messages (for example, health consequences, industry manipulation), and discuss newer, non-traditional approaches to countermarketing. In conclusion, we outline research needed to fill gaps in our existing knowledge and discuss future directions in tobacco countermarketing aimed at youth.

al-Qaida Strategy, Ideology, Doctrine, and Media

ScienceCinema

Dr. Jarret Brachman

2017-12-09

Dr. Jarret Brachman, an internationally recognized al-Qaida specialist, author and public lecturer, shares his thoughts on a range of topics, including the differences involved in fighting insurgent groups versus terrorist organizations, the future of the global al-Qaida movement, and assessing America's efforts to combat al-Qaida. In his talk, Brachman focuses specifically on current trends in al-Qaida's military and messaging strategies, both from the perspective of the group's senior leadership and its regional commands. Presented on June 17, 2010.

Electronic cigarette use and exposure in the pediatric population.

PubMed

Collaco, Joseph M; Drummond, M Bradley; McGrath-Morrow, Sharon A

2015-02-01

Electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) use has gained recent widespread popularity and acceptance in the general population. What effect e-cigarettes may have on pediatric health remains unknown. Although many jurisdictions have laws that prevent the sale of e-cigarettes to minors and the use of e-cigarettes in public places, infants, children, and adolescents are increasingly exposed to them. In this pediatric-focused review, we discuss the history of these devices, user demographics, known health effects, and current legislative efforts to protect minors from exposure.

Microgravity metal processing: from undercooled liquids to bulk metallic glasses

PubMed Central

Hofmann, Douglas C; Roberts, Scott N

2015-01-01

Bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) are a novel class of metal alloys that are poised for widespread commercialization. Over 30 years of NASA and ESA (as well as other space agency) funding for both ground-based and microgravity experiments has resulted in fundamental science data that have enabled commercial production. This review focuses on the history of microgravity BMG research, which includes experiments on the space shuttle, the ISS, ground-based experiments, commercial fabrication and currently funded efforts. PMID:28725709

Frameworks and Tools for High-Confidence Design of Adaptive, Distributed Embedded Control Systems. Multi-University Research Initiative on High-Confidence Design for Distributed Embedded Systems

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-01-01

controllers (currently using the Robostix+Gumstix pair ). The interface between the plant simulator and the controller is ‘hard real-time’, and the xPC box... simulation ) on aerobatic maneuver design for the STARMAC quadrotor helicopter testbed. In related work, we have developed a new optimization scheme...for scheduling hybrid systems, and have demonstrated the results on an autonomous car simulation testbed. We are focusing efforts this summer for

al-Qaida Strategy, Ideology, Doctrine, and Media

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Dr. Jarret Brachman

Dr. Jarret Brachman, an internationally recognized al-Qaida specialist, author and public lecturer, shares his thoughts on a range of topics, including the differences involved in fighting insurgent groups versus terrorist organizations, the future of the global al-Qaida movement, and assessing America's efforts to combat al-Qaida. In his talk, Brachman focuses specifically on current trends in al-Qaida's military and messaging strategies, both from the perspective of the group's senior leadership and its regional commands. Presented on June 17, 2010.

The habits of roots: what's up down under?

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Feldman, L. J.

1988-01-01

Defining interactions of roots with the surrounding soil environment has been the focus of many recent investigations. As a result of these efforts, we are gaining an appreciation of the varied and often surprising strategies whereby roots adjust to and condition their soil environment for optimal growth and development. This article summarizes current knowledge of the often complex interactions between roots and biotic and abiotic factors within the soil. These interactions are interpreted in terms of modifications in the development or the physiology of the root.

Etiology of Esophageal Atresia and Tracheoesophageal Fistula: “Mind the Gap”

PubMed Central

de Jong, Elisabeth M.; Felix, Janine F.; de Klein, Annelies

2010-01-01

Esophageal atresia and tracheoesophageal fistula (EA/TEF) are major congenital malformations affecting 1:3500 live births. Current research efforts are focused on understanding the etiology of these defects. We describe well-known animal models, human syndromes, and associations involving EA/TEF, indicating its etiologically heterogeneous nature. Recent advances in genotyping technology and in knowledge of human genetic variation will improve clinical counseling on etiologic factors. This review provides a clinical summary of environmental and genetic factors involved in EA/TEF. PMID:20425471

Hyper-X Stage Separation: Background and Status

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Reubush, David E.

1999-01-01

This paper provides an overview of stage separation activities for NASA's Hyper-X program; a focused hypersonic technology effort designed to move hypersonic, airbreathing vehicle technology from the laboratory environment to the flight environment. This paper presents an account of the development of the current stage separation concept, highlights of wind tunnel experiments and computational fluid dynamics investigations being conducted to define the separation event, results from ground tests of separation hardware, schedule and status. Substantial work has been completed toward reducing the risk associated with stage separation.

Solar Occultation Retrieval Algorithm Development

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lumpe, Jerry D.

2004-01-01

This effort addresses the comparison and validation of currently operational solar occultation retrieval algorithms, and the development of generalized algorithms for future application to multiple platforms. initial development of generalized forward model algorithms capable of simulating transmission data from of the POAM II/III and SAGE II/III instruments. Work in the 2" quarter will focus on: completion of forward model algorithms, including accurate spectral characteristics for all instruments, and comparison of simulated transmission data with actual level 1 instrument data for specific occultation events.

NASA Stennis Space Center Test Technology Branch Activities

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Solano, Wanda M.

2000-01-01

This paper provides a short history of NASA Stennis Space Center's Test Technology Laboratory and briefly describes the variety of engine test technology activities and developmental project initiatives. Theoretical rocket exhaust plume modeling, acoustic monitoring and analysis, hand held fire imaging, heat flux radiometry, thermal imaging and exhaust plume spectroscopy are all examples of current and past test activities that are briefly described. In addition, recent efforts and visions focused on accomodating second, third, and fourth generation flight vehicle engine test requirements are discussed.

Miniature Biosensor with Health Risk Assessment Feedback

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hanson, Andrea; Downs, Meghan; Kalogera, Kent; Buxton, Roxanne; Cooper, Tommy; Cooper, Alan; Cooper, Ross

2016-01-01

Heart rate (HR) monitoring is a medical requirement during exercise on the International Space Station (ISS), fitness tests, and extravehicular activity (EVA); however, NASA does not currently have the technology to consistently and accurately monitor HR and other physiological data during these activities. Performance of currently available HR monitor technologies is dependent on uninterrupted contact with the torso and are prone to data drop-out and motion artifact. Here, we seek an alternative to the chest strap and electrode based sensors currently in use on ISS today. This project aims to develop a high performance, robust earbud based biosensor with focused efforts on improved HR data quality during exercise or EVA. A health risk assessment algorithm will further advance the goals of autonomous crew health care for exploration missions.

Platinum, palladium, gold and ruthenium complexes as anticancer agents: Current clinical uses, cytotoxicity studies and future perspectives.

PubMed

Lazarević, Tatjana; Rilak, Ana; Bugarčić, Živadin D

2017-12-15

Metallodrugs offer potential for unique mechanism of drug action based on the choice of the metal, its oxidation state, the types and number of coordinated ligands and the coordination geometry. This review illustrates notable recent progress in the field of medicinal bioinorganic chemistry as many new approaches to the design of innovative metal-based anticancer drugs are emerging. Current research addressing the problems associated with platinum drugs has focused on other metal-based therapeutics that have different modes of action and on prodrug and targeting strategies in an effort to diminish the side-effects of cisplatin chemotherapy. Examples of metal compounds and chelating agents currently in clinical use, clinical trials or preclinical development are highlighted. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Current insights into phage biodiversity and biogeography.

PubMed

Thurber, Rebecca Vega

2009-10-01

Phages exert tremendous ecological and evolutionary forces directly on their bacterial hosts. Phage induced cell lysis also indirectly contributes to organic and inorganic nutrient recycling. Phage abundance, diversity, and distribution are therefore important parameters in ecosystem function. The assumption that phage consortia are ubiquitous and homogenous across habitats (everything is everywhere) is currently being re-evaluated. New studies on phage biogeography have found that some phages are globally distributed while others are unique and perhaps endemic to specific environments. Furthermore, advances in technology have allowed scientists to conduct experiments aimed at analyzing phage consortia over temporal scales, and surprisingly have found reoccurring patterns. This review discusses currents in the field of phage ecology with particular focus on efforts to characterize phage diversity and biogeography across various spatial and temporal scales.

The neurobiological impact of postpartum maternal depression: prevention and intervention approaches

PubMed Central

Scaramella, Laura; Zeanah, Charles H.

2016-01-01

The lasting negative impact of postpartum depression (PPD) on offspring is well established. PDD appears to impact neurobiological pathways linked to socio-emotional regulation, cognitive and executive function, and physiologic stress response systems, systems also associated with toxic stress and negative health trajectories across the life course. Perinatal depression is expected to have significant consequences for offspring given the shared biological processes during pregnancy and the subsequent primacy of the early maternal-child relationship in shaping the child’s neurobiological development. A substantial body of literature has examined prevention and intervention efforts during the prenatal period, including the challenges associated with the medication use during pregnancy. 1,2 Recognizing the expansive nature of the existing literature, this review take a novel focus, specifically examining the current state of research defining the effect of universal, selected and indicated interventions for PDD on infant neurodevelopment. This focus was selected because of the unique nature of this time-period for the interaction of maternal psychopathology and infant development, acknowledging that both prenatal and parental depression at later developmental times points can influence child outcomes. We begin by providing a general overview of PPD and the rapid neurodevelopmental changes occurring during the first years of life. Building upon this foundation, we then discuss the specific evidence linking postpartum depression to neurobiological consequences in the offspring. We focus on the development of neural pathways with established associations those aspects of maternal caregiving most impacted by depression, including feeding and nutrition, sleep, health monitoring, play and language, and maternal sensitivity and engagement. Lastly, we discuss specific evidence related to the efficacy of current PPD efforts on infant neurobiological outcomes, highlighting existing research gaps as well as the utility of research in this area to impact long-term health trajectories. Given the established lasting, and potentially intergenerational, negative implications of maternal depression enhanced efforts targeting increased identification and early intervention approaches for PDD that impact health outcomes in both infants and mothers represents a critical public health concern. PMID:26980123

Workshop on the Development of an Experimental Global Drought Information System (GDIS): Overview of Workshop Goals

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schubert, Siegfried

2012-01-01

Among the key recommendations of a recent WCRP Workshop on Drought Predictability and Prediction in a Changing Climate is the development of an experimental global drought information system (GDIS). The timeliness of such an effort is evidenced by the wide aITay of relevant ongoing national and international (as well as regional and continental scale) efforts to provide drought information, including the US and North American drought monitors, and various integrating activities such as GEO and the Global Drought Portal. The workshop will review current capabilities and needs, and focus on the steps necessary to develop a GDIS that will build upon the extensive worldwide investments that have already been made in developing drought monitoring (including new space-based observations), drought risk management, and climate prediction capahilities.

Nd:YAG Laser-Based Dual-Line Detection Rayleigh Scattering and Current Efforts on UV, Filtered Rayleigh Scattering

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Otugen, M. Volkan; Popovic, Svetozar

1996-01-01

Ongoing research in Rayleigh scattering diagnostics for variable density low speed flow applications and for supersonic flow measurements are described. During the past several years, the focus has been on the development and use of a Nd:YAG-based Rayleigh scattering system with improved signal-to-noise characteristics and with applicability to complex, confined flows. This activity serves other research projects in the Aerodynamics Laboratory which require the non-contact, accurate, time-frozen measurement of gas density, pressure, and temperature (each separately), in a fairly wide dynamic range of each parameter. Recently, with the acquisition of a new seed-injected Nd:YAG laser, effort also has been directed to the development of a high-speed velocity probe based on a spectrally resolved Rayleigh scattering technique.

Reducing recurrent preterm births: best evidence for transitioning to predictive and preventative strategies.

PubMed

Cypher, Rebecca L

2012-01-01

Women who have delivered an infant between 16 and 36 weeks' gestation have an increased risk of preterm birth (PTB) in a subsequent pregnancy. The high incidence of recurrent PTB remains relatively unchanged despite intensive research efforts and advances in perinatal care. Attempts to decrease the incidence of recurrent PTB have not always been successful, with research efforts being focused on clinical, pharmacotherapy and biochemical, and ultrasound strategies. Fortunately, there is adequate evidence in the literature to justify clinical management guidelines that may impact the PTB rate: smoking cessation, treatment of asymptomatic bacteriuria, transvaginal ultrasonography of the cervix, administration of vaginal progesterone or 17α-hydroxyprogesterone caproate, cerclage, and fetal fibronectin. This article is intended to give brief highlights of these strategies and the current science that supports their conclusions.

Development and application of dynamic simulations of a subsonic wind tunnel

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Szuch, J. R.; Cole, G. L.; Seidel, R. C.; Arpasi, D. J.

1986-01-01

Efforts are currently underway at NASA Lewis to improve and expand ground test facilities and to develop supporting technologies to meet anticipated aeropropulsion research needs. Many of these efforts have been focused on a proposed rehabilitation of the Altitude Wind Tunnel (AWT). In order to insure a technically sound design, an AWT modeling program (both analytical and physical) was initiated to provide input to the AWT final design process. This paper describes the approach taken to develop analytical, dynamic computer simulations of the AWT, and the use of these simulations as test-beds for: (1) predicting the dynamic response characteristics of the AWT, and (2) evaluating proposed AWT control concepts. Plans for developing a portable, real-time simulator for the AWT facility are also described.

Assessing Ethanol's Actions in the Suprachiasmatic Circadian Clock Using In vivo and In vitro Approaches

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Research over the past decade has demonstrated substantial interactions between the circadian system and the processes through which alcohol affects behavior and physiology. Here we summarize the results of our collaborative efforts focused on this intersection. Using a combination of in vivo and in vitro approaches, we have shown that ethanol affects many aspects of the mammalian circadian system, both acutely as well as after chronic administration. Conversely, we have shown circadian influences on ethanol consumption. Importantly, we are beginning to delve into the cellular mechanisms associated with these effects. We are also starting to form a picture of the neuroanatomical bases for many of these actions. Finally, we put our current findings into perspective by suggesting new avenues of inquiry for our future efforts. PMID:25457753

The Environment in International Relations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Young, Oran R.

2009-11-01

In this lucid and well-organized text, Kate O'Neill provides a survey of current thinking in the field of international environmental politics. To make her effort manageable, she approaches this task as an analysis of the “politics of global environmental governance” (p. 1). This approach has the effect of orienting the survey toward research on efforts to develop cooperative and lasting solutions to a variety of environmental problems. The downside of this approach is a relative lack of emphasis on various forms of environmental conflict that lead to outcomes such as growth in the number of environmental refugees and the destruction of important ecosystems. But the virtue of the decision to focus on environmental governance is that it provides a coherent and easily understandable framework for the chapters that follow.

Pharmacology of manipulating lean body mass

PubMed Central

Sepulveda, Patricio V; Bush, Ernest D; Baar, Keith

2015-01-01

Summary Dysfunction and wasting of skeletal muscle as a consequence of illness decreases the length and quality of life. Currently, there are few, if any, effective treatments available to address these conditions. Hence, the existence of this unmet medical need has fuelled large scientific efforts.Fortunately, these efforts have shown many of the underlying mechanisms adversely affecting skeletal muscle health.With increased understanding have come breakthrough disease-specific and broad spectrum interventions, some progressing through clinical development.The present review focuses its attention on the role of the antagonistic process regulating skeletal muscle mass before branching into prospective promising therapeutic targets and interventions. Special attention is given to therapies in development against cancer cachexia and Duchenne muscular dystrophy before closing remarks on design and conceptualization of future therapies are presented to the reader. PMID:25311629

How do different components of Effortful Control contribute to children’s mathematics achievement?

PubMed Central

Sánchez-Pérez, Noelia; Fuentes, Luis J.; Pina, Violeta; López-López, Jose A.; González-Salinas, Carmen

2015-01-01

This work sought to investigate the specific contribution of two different components of Effortful Control (EC) -attentional focusing (AF) and inhibitory control- to children’s mathematics achievement. The sample was composed of 142 children aged 9–12 year-old. EC components were measured through the Temperament in Middle Childhood Questionnaire (TMCQ; parent’s report); math achievement was measured via teacher’s report and through the standard Woodcock–Johnson test. Additionally, the contribution of other cognitive and socio-emotional processes was taken into account. Our results showed that only AF significantly contributed to the variance of children’s mathematics achievement; interestingly, mediational models showed that the relationship between effortful attentional self-regulation and mathematics achievement was mediated by academic peer popularity, as well as by intelligence and study skills. Results are discussed in the light of the current theories on the role of children’s self-regulation abilities in the context of school. PMID:26441758

Climate resilient crops for improving global food security and safety.

PubMed

Dhankher, Om Parkash; Foyer, Christine H

2018-05-01

Food security and the protection of the environment are urgent issues for global society, particularly with the uncertainties of climate change. Changing climate is predicted to have a wide range of negative impacts on plant physiology metabolism, soil fertility and carbon sequestration, microbial activity and diversity that will limit plant growth and productivity, and ultimately food production. Ensuring global food security and food safety will require an intensive research effort across the food chain, starting with crop production and the nutritional quality of the food products. Much uncertainty remains concerning the resilience of plants, soils, and associated microbes to climate change. Intensive efforts are currently underway to improve crop yields with lower input requirements and enhance the sustainability of yield through improved biotic and abiotic stress tolerance traits. In addition, significant efforts are focused on gaining a better understanding of the root/soil interface and associated microbiomes, as well as enhancing soil properties. © 2018 The Authors Plant, Cell & Environment Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Coping Mediates the Association Between Marital Instability and Depression, but Not Marital Satisfaction and Depression

PubMed Central

Fink, Brandi C.; Shapiro, Alyson F.

2014-01-01

The association between marital discord and depression is well established. Marital discord is hypothesized to be a stressful life event that would evoke one’s efforts to cope with it. In an effort to further understand the nature of this association, the current study investigated coping as a mediating variable between marital dissatisfaction and depression and between marital instability and depression. Both marital dissatisfaction and instability, reflecting orthogonal dimensions of marital discord, were included in the model examined to elucidate a more complete picture of marital functioning. Structural Equation Modeling analyses revealed that coping mediated the association between marital instability and depression, but not marital dissatisfaction and depression, suggesting that coping traditionally considered adaptive for individuals in the context of controllable stressors may not be adaptive in the context of couple relationship instability. The findings also have implications for interventions focusing on decreasing maladaptive coping strategies in couples presenting for marital therapy or depression in addition to efforts directed at improving marital quality. PMID:25032063

Key opinion leaders and the corruption of medical knowledge: what the Sunshine Act will and won't cast light on.

PubMed

Sismondo, Sergio

2013-01-01

The pharmaceutical industry, in its marketing efforts, often turns to "key opinion leaders" or "KOLs" to disseminate scientific information. Drawing on the author's fieldwork, this article documents and examines the use of KOLs in pharmaceutical companies' marketing efforts. Partly due to the use of KOLs, a small number of companies with well-defined and narrow interests have inordinate influence over how medical knowledge is produced, circulated, and consumed. The issue here, as in many other cases of institutional corruption, is that a few actors have accumulated the power to shape the information on which many others base their decisions. Efforts to address this corruption should focus on correcting large imbalances in the current political economy of medical knowledge. A sequestration of pharmaceutical research and development on one hand from pharmaceutical marketing on the other, though difficult to achieve, would address this and many other problems. © 2013 American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics, Inc.

Urbanization and the Carbon Cycle: Synthesis of Ongoing Research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gurney, K. R.; Duren, R. M.; Hutyra, L.; Ehleringer, J. R.; Patarasuk, R.; Song, Y.; Huang, J.; Davis, K.; Kort, E. A.; Shepson, P. B.; Turnbull, J. C.; Lauvaux, T.; Rao, P.; Eldering, A.; Miller, C. E.; Wofsy, S.; McKain, K.; Mendoza, D. L.; Lin, J. C.; Sweeney, C.; Miles, N. L.; Richardson, S.; Cambaliza, M. O. L.

2015-12-01

Given the explosive growth in urbanization and its dominant role in current and future global greenhouse gas emissions, urban areas have received increasing research attention from the carbon cycle science community. The emerging focus is driven by the increasingly dense atmospheric observing capabilities - ground and space-based - in addition to the rising profile of cities within international climate change policymaking. Dominated by anthropogenic emissions, urban carbon cycle research requires a cross-disciplinary perspective with contributions from disciplines such as engineering, economics, social theory, and atmospheric science. We review the recent results from a sample of the active urban carbon research efforts including the INFLUX experiment (Indianapolis), the Megacity carbon project (Los Angeles), Salt Lake City, and Boston. Each of these efforts represent unique approaches in pursuit of different scientific and policy questions and assist in setting priorities for future research. From top-down atmospheric measurement systems to bottom-up estimation, these research efforts offer a view of the challenges and opportunities in urban carbon cycle research.

The Dynamics of Miscible Interfaces: Simulations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Meiburg, Eckart

2005-01-01

This research project focuses on the dynamics of interfacial regions between miscible fluids. While much attention has focused on immiscible interfaces in the past, miscible interfaces have been explored to a much lesser degree, so that there are many open questions regarding their dynamics at this time. Among the more pressing issues is the role that nonconventional stresses can play in such interfacial regions. Such stresses are typically not accounted for in efforts to model the dynamics of miscible flows. Our research aims to clarify under which circumstances these stresses do have to be taken into account, and what quantitative approaches are most suitable in this regard. In order to address these issues, we have focused on conducting linear stability analyses and nonlinear simulations for capillary tube and Hele-Shaw flows, and to compare the results with corresponding experiments performed in the labs of our co-investigators Prof. Maxworthy at USC, and Dr. Balasubramaniam at NASA. Over the duration of the project we have, among other things, focused on the effects of variable diffusion coefficients in such flows, and specifically on their influence in the growth of instabilities. Furthermore, our three-dimensional spectral element simulations have made good progress, so that we have come to a point where we can conduct more detailed comparisons with experimental observations. We are currently focusing our efforts on reproducing the tip-splitting instability observed by Maxworthy. Finally, we have discovered a new core-annular flow instability in the Stokes flow regime during the last year. This represents a significant finding, as this instability does not have an immiscible counterpart.

Improved NDI techniques for aircraft inspections

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hagemaier, Donald J.; Wilson, Dwight

1996-11-01

Through the use of an 'integrated product team' approach and new inspection techniques incorporating the latest in imaging capabilities and automation, the costs of some man- power intensive tasks can now be drastically reduced. Also, through the use of advanced eddy current techniques, the detectable size of cracks under flush-head fasteners can be reduced while maintaining a reliable inspection. Early in this decade, the FAA Technical Center and NASA LaRC formulated an aging aircraft research plan. The unique aspect about the research is that it is driven by the aircraft manufacturers and airlines in order to center only on those areas in which help is needed and to keep it focused. Once developed, the manufacturer works with the FAA Validation Center at Sandia National Labs., the airline, and the researcher to transfer technology to the field. This article describes the evaluation and results obtained using eddy current technology to determine the minimum detectable crack size under installed flush-head fasteners. Secondly, it describes the integrated efforts of engineers at McDonnell Douglas Aerospace and Northwest Airlines in the successful application of MAUS eddy current C-scanning of the DC-10 circumferential and axial crown splices. The eddy current C-scanning greatly reduced the man-hour effort required for the existing radiographic inspection. Thirdly, it describes the use of a novel ultrasonic technique coupled to a scanner and graphics for the detection and quantification of corrosion thinning and stress corrosion cracking of the DC-9 lower wing tee cap. This successful effort resulted from a rather large integrated task team. It also results in a vast man-hour savings over the existing internal visual inspection.

Current trends in the use of liposomes for tumor targeting

PubMed Central

Deshpande, Pranali P; Biswas, Swati; Torchilin, Vladimir P

2013-01-01

The use of liposomes for drug delivery began early in the history of pharmaceutical nanocarriers. These nanosized, lipid bilayered vesicles have become popular as drug delivery systems owing to their efficiency, biocompatibility, nonimmunogenicity, enhanced solubility of chemotherapeutic agents and their ability to encapsulate a wide array of drugs. Passive and ligand-mediated active targeting promote tumor specificity with diminished adverse off-target effects. The current field of liposomes focuses on both clinical and diagnostic applications. Recent efforts have concentrated on the development of multifunctional liposomes that target cells and cellular organelles with a single delivery system. This review discusses the recent advances in liposome research in tumor targeting. PMID:23914966

A New All Solid State Approach to Gaseous Pollutant Detection

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Brown, V.; Tamstorf, K.

1971-01-01

Recent efforts in our laboratories have concentrated on the development of an all solid state gas sensor, by combining solid electrolyte (ion exchange membrane) technology with advanced thin film deposition processes. With the proper bias magnitude and polarity these miniature electro-chemical,cells show remarkable current responses for many common pollution gases. Current activity is now focused on complementing a multiple array (matrix) of these solid state sensors, with a digital electronic scanner device possessing "scan-compare-identify-alarm: capability. This innovative approach to multi-component pollutant gas analysis may indeed be the advanced prototype for the "third generation" class of pollution analysis instrumentation so urgently needed in the decade ahead.

Glanders: off to the races with Burkholderia mallei.

PubMed

Whitlock, Gregory C; Estes, D Mark; Torres, Alfredo G

2007-12-01

Burkholderia mallei, the etiologic agent of the disease known as glanders, is primarily a disease affecting horses and is transmitted to humans by direct contact with infected animals. The use of B. mallei as a biological weapon has been reported and currently, there is no vaccine available for either humans or animals. Despite the history and highly infective nature of B. mallei, as well as its potential use as a bio-weapon, B. mallei research to understand the pathogenesis and the host responses to infection remains limited. Therefore, this minireview will focus on current efforts to elucidate B. mallei virulence, the associated host immune responses elicited during infection and discuss the feasibility of vaccine development.

A review of currently used pesticides (CUPs) in Canadian air and precipitation: Part 1: Lindane and endosulfans

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tuduri, Ludovic; Harner, Tom; Blanchard, Pierrette; Li, Yi-Fan; Poissant, Laurier; Waite, Don T.; Murphy, Clair; Belzer, Wayne

This paper, and its companion, review available data on the presence of currently used pesticides (CUPs) in air and precipitation of Canada, since the late 1980s. Pesticides usage/sales are also given when available. Two older CUPs—lindane, which shows a wealth of data, and endosulfan, one of the most abundant and ubiquitous organochlorine pesticides in the North American atmosphere today—are the focus of this first part. Data from local process studies, monitoring work in source and receptor regions, and modelling efforts are compiled to give an overall picture of the atmospheric levels and deposition and how this varies between regions and with time.

Looking Under the Streetlight? A Framework for Differentiating Performance Measures by Level of Care in a Value-Based Payment Environment

PubMed Central

Van Such, Monica B.; Nesse, Robert E.; Dilling, James A.; Swensen, Stephen J.; Thompson, Kristine M.; Orlowski, Janis M.; Santrach, Paula J.

2017-01-01

The majority of quality measures used to assess providers and hospitals are based on easily obtained data, focused on a few dimensions of quality, and developed mainly for primary/community care and population health. While this approach supports efforts focused on addressing the triple aim of health care, many current quality report cards and assessments do not reflect the breadth or complexity of many referral center practices. In this article, the authors highlight the differences between population health efforts and referral care and address issues related to value measurement and performance assessment. They discuss why measures may need to differ across the three levels of care (primary/community care, secondary care, complex care) and illustrate the need for further risk adjustment to eliminate referral bias. With continued movement toward value-based purchasing, performance measures and reimbursement schemes need to reflect the increased level of intensity required to provide complex care. The authors propose a framework to operationalize value measurement and payment for specialty care, and they make specific recommendations to improve performance measurement for complex patients. Implementing such a framework to differentiate performance measures by level of care involves coordinated efforts to change both policy and operational platforms. An essential component of this framework is a new model that defines the characteristics of patients who require complex care and standardizes metrics that incorporate those definitions. PMID:28353502

Principles of Public Reason in the UNFCCC: Rethinking the Equity Framework.

PubMed

Boran, Idil

2017-10-01

Since 2011, the focus of international negotiations under the UNFCCC has been on producing a new climate agreement to be adopted in 2015. This phase of negotiations is known as the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action. The goal has been to update the global effort on climate for long-term cooperation. In this period, various changes have been contemplated on the design of the architecture of the global climate effort. Whereas previously, the negotiation process consisted of setting mandated targets exclusively for developed countries, the current setting requests of each country to pledge its contribution to the climate effort in the form of Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs). The shift away from establishing negotiated targets for rich countries alone towards a universal system of participation through intended contributions raised persistent questions on how exactly the new agreement can ensure equitable terms. How to conceptualize equity within the 2015 climate agreement, and beyond, is the focus of this paper. The paper advances a framework on equity, which moves away from substantive moral conceptions of burden allocation toward refining principles of public reason specially designed for the negotiation process under the UNFCCC. The paper outlines the framework's main features and discusses how it can serve a facilitating role for multilateral discussion on equity on a long-term basis capable of adapting to changing circumstances.

Looking Under the Streetlight? A Framework for Differentiating Performance Measures by Level of Care in a Value-Based Payment Environment.

PubMed

Naessens, James M; Van Such, Monica B; Nesse, Robert E; Dilling, James A; Swensen, Stephen J; Thompson, Kristine M; Orlowski, Janis M; Santrach, Paula J

2017-07-01

The majority of quality measures used to assess providers and hospitals are based on easily obtained data, focused on a few dimensions of quality, and developed mainly for primary/community care and population health. While this approach supports efforts focused on addressing the triple aim of health care, many current quality report cards and assessments do not reflect the breadth or complexity of many referral center practices.In this article, the authors highlight the differences between population health efforts and referral care and address issues related to value measurement and performance assessment. They discuss why measures may need to differ across the three levels of care (primary/community care, secondary care, complex care) and illustrate the need for further risk adjustment to eliminate referral bias.With continued movement toward value-based purchasing, performance measures and reimbursement schemes need to reflect the increased level of intensity required to provide complex care. The authors propose a framework to operationalize value measurement and payment for specialty care, and they make specific recommendations to improve performance measurement for complex patients. Implementing such a framework to differentiate performance measures by level of care involves coordinated efforts to change both policy and operational platforms. An essential component of this framework is a new model that defines the characteristics of patients who require complex care and standardizes metrics that incorporate those definitions.

Regeneration of the lung: Lung stem cells and the development of lung mimicking devices.

PubMed

Schilders, Kim A A; Eenjes, Evelien; van Riet, Sander; Poot, André A; Stamatialis, Dimitrios; Truckenmüller, Roman; Hiemstra, Pieter S; Rottier, Robbert J

2016-04-23

Inspired by the increasing burden of lung associated diseases in society and an growing demand to accommodate patients, great efforts by the scientific community produce an increasing stream of data that are focused on delineating the basic principles of lung development and growth, as well as understanding the biomechanical properties to build artificial lung devices. In addition, the continuing efforts to better define the disease origin, progression and pathology by basic scientists and clinicians contributes to insights in the basic principles of lung biology. However, the use of different model systems, experimental approaches and readout systems may generate somewhat conflicting or contradictory results. In an effort to summarize the latest developments in the lung epithelial stem cell biology, we provide an overview of the current status of the field. We first describe the different stem cells, or progenitor cells, residing in the homeostatic lung. Next, we focus on the plasticity of the different cell types upon several injury-induced activation or repair models, and highlight the regenerative capacity of lung cells. Lastly, we summarize the generation of lung mimics, such as air-liquid interface cultures, organoids and lung on a chip, that are required to test emerging hypotheses. Moreover, the increasing collaboration between distinct specializations will contribute to the eventual development of an artificial lung device capable of assisting reduced lung function and capacity in human patients.

Nuclear Explosion Monitoring Advances and Challenges

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baker, G. E.

2015-12-01

We address the state-of-the-art in areas important to monitoring, current challenges, specific efforts that illustrate approaches addressing shortcomings in capabilities, and additional approaches that might be helpful. The exponential increase in the number of events that must be screened as magnitude thresholds decrease presents one of the greatest challenges. Ongoing efforts to exploit repeat seismic events using waveform correlation, subspace methods, and empirical matched field processing holds as much "game-changing" promise as anything being done, and further efforts to develop and apply such methods efficiently are critical. Greater accuracy of travel time, signal loss, and full waveform predictions are still needed to better locate and discriminate seismic events. Important developments include methods to model velocities using multiple types of data; to model attenuation with better separation of source, path, and site effects; and to model focusing and defocusing of surface waves. Current efforts to model higher frequency full waveforms are likely to improve source characterization while more effective estimation of attenuation from ambient noise holds promise for filling in gaps. Censoring in attenuation modeling is a critical problem to address. Quantifying uncertainty of discriminants is key to their operational use. Efforts to do so for moment tensor (MT) inversion are particularly important, and fundamental progress on the statistics of MT distributions is the most important advance needed in the near term in this area. Source physics is seeing great progress through theoretical, experimental, and simulation studies. The biggest need is to accurately predict the effects of source conditions on seismic generation. Uniqueness is the challenge here. Progress will depend on studies that probe what distinguishes mechanisms, rather than whether one of many possible mechanisms is consistent with some set of observations.

Examining Longitudinal Relationship among Effort Reward Imbalance, Coping Strategies and Academic Burnout in Korean Middle School Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Boyoung; Kim, Eunjoo; Lee, Sang Min

2017-01-01

The present study examined the longitudinal relationship between effort-reward imbalance as a stressor and academic burnout as a strain. The study also examined the moderation effect of coping strategies, a problem-focused coping and an emotion-focused coping, in the relationship between effort-reward imbalance as a stressor and middle school…

Early intervention for substance abuse among youth and young adults with mental health conditions: an exploration of community mental health practices.

PubMed

Anthony, Elizabeth K; Taylor, Sarah A; Raffo, Zulma

2011-05-01

This mixed method study examined current practices and barriers for screening and assessing substance use among youth/young adults in community mental health systems. Substance use rates remain high among youth/young adults in the general population and substance use disorders are prevalent among young people involved in public service systems such as mental health. In an effort to understand the dynamics for early intervention, 64 case managers and/or clinical directors from children's mental health systems in two states participated in an online survey or focus group in fall 2008. Quantitative survey questions and qualitative focus group questions explored attitudes and perspectives about screening and early intervention for substance use among youth/young adults involved in the mental health system and current agency practices. Mixed method results suggest a number of barriers to substance use screening and early intervention and point to innovations that could be more effectively supported.

Current scenario of peptide-based drugs: the key roles of cationic antitumor and antiviral peptides

PubMed Central

Mulder, Kelly C. L.; Lima, Loiane A.; Miranda, Vivian J.; Dias, Simoni C.; Franco, Octávio L.

2013-01-01

Cationic antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) and host defense peptides (HDPs) show vast potential as peptide-based drugs. Great effort has been made in order to exploit their mechanisms of action, aiming to identify their targets as well as to enhance their activity and bioavailability. In this review, we will focus on both naturally occurring and designed antiviral and antitumor cationic peptides, including those here called promiscuous, in which multiple targets are associated with a single peptide structure. Emphasis will be given to their biochemical features, selectivity against extra targets, and molecular mechanisms. Peptides which possess antitumor activity against different cancer cell lines will be discussed, as well as peptides which inhibit virus replication, focusing on their applications for human health, animal health and agriculture, and their potential as new therapeutic drugs. Moreover, the current scenario for production and the use of nanotechnology as delivery tool for both classes of cationic peptides, as well as the perspectives on improving them is considered. PMID:24198814

[Oncofertility: a new focus in women health-care...].

PubMed

Chevalier, N; Dewailly, Didier; Fenichel, Patrick

2009-09-01

Although treatment and survival are the primary focus of health-care patients, with cancer survivors living longer it is now appropriate to consider their quality of life after treatment, including the possibility of becoming parents. There are several options for fertility preservation in cancer patients. Even though most of them are still experimental and their efficacy and reliability have not been determined, especially in women. The most successful alternative for female survivors is embryo cryopreservation, an approach not suitable for many single or virgin women or even possible for prepubertal girls. Reports of live birth after transplantation of human ovarian tissue have reinforced the clinical potential of ovarian tissue banking for fertility preservation. Many exciting studies are underway to improve the efficacy and solve the problems with current fertility preservation strategies, especially for in vitro culture of cryopreserved tissue or follicles. Continuous efforts to improve current strategies and to develop new strategies will benefit many women and children who are facing premature ovarian failure and sterility.

Focus: new perspectives on science and the Cold War. Introduction.

PubMed

Heyck, Hunter; Kaiser, David

2010-06-01

Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Cold War looks ever more like a slice of history rather than a contemporary reality. During those same twenty years, scholarship on science, technology, and the state during the Cold War era has expanded dramatically. Building on major studies of physics in the American context--often couched in terms of "big science"--recent work has broached scientific efforts in other domains as well, scrutinizing Cold War scholarship in increasingly international and comparative frameworks. The essays in this Focus section take stock of current thinking about science and the Cold War, revisiting the question of how best to understand tangled (and sometimes surprising) relationships between government patronage and the world of ideas.

An innovative program for multihandicapped deaf students using the FSSI.

PubMed

Garner, D; Becker, H; Schur, S; Hammer, E

1991-07-01

Teachers in public schools now have more students with more severe disabilities than they did in the past. Unfortunately, efforts to provide them with a quality education have been hampered by a lack of focused instructional planning. This article describes an innovative program developed for deaf multihandicapped students that has created an integrated focus for instruction. The organizing framework for the program incorporates the Functional Skills Screening Inventory, a domain referenced assessment of living and working skills. This structured approach enables teachers to identify current functional levels, develop meaningful short- and long-term objectives, and monitor student progress throughout their educational programs. It also facilitates long-range planning and evaluation of the instructional program on an ongoing basis.

Can pharmacogenetics explain efficacy and safety of cisplatin pharmacotherapy?

PubMed Central

Roco, Ángela; Cayún, Juan; Contreras, Stephania; Stojanova, Jana; Quiñones, Luis

2014-01-01

Several recent pharmacogenetic studies have investigated the variability in both outcome and toxicity in cisplatin-based therapies. These studies have focused on the genetic variability of therapeutic targets that could affect cisplatin response and toxicity in diverse type of cancer including lung, gastric, ovarian, testicular, and esophageal cancer. In this review, we seek to update the reader in this area of investigation, focusing primarily on DNA reparation enzymes and cisplatin metabolism through Glutathione S-Transferases (GSTs). Current evidence indicates a potential application of pharmacogenetics in therapeutic schemes in which cisplatin is the cornerstone of these treatments. Therefore, a collaborative effort is required to study these molecular characteristics in order to generate a genetic panel with clinical utility. PMID:25452763

The Fundamental Uncertainty of Business: Real Options

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dyer, James S.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the manner in which uncertainty is currently evaluated in business, with an emphasis on economic measures. In recent years, the accepted approach for the valuation of capital investment decisions has become one based on the theory of real options. From the standpoint of this workshop, the interesting aspect of real options is its focus on the flexibility of management to respond to changes in the environment as a feature of an alternative that has unique value, known as "option value." While this may not be surprising to most participants in this workshop, it does represent a radical change in traditional thinking about risk in business, where efforts have primarily been focused on the elimination of risk when possible.

Integrated delivery systems focus on service delivery after capitation efforts stall.

PubMed

2005-03-01

Integrated delivery systems focus on service delivery after capitation efforts stall. Integrated delivery systems are going through changes that are focusing the provider organizations more on delivering care than managing risk, says Dean C. Coddington, one of the leading researchers into capitated organizations and a senior consultant with McManis Consulting in Denver.

Vaccines against malaria.

PubMed

Ouattara, Amed; Laurens, Matthew B

2015-03-15

Despite global efforts to control malaria, the illness remains a significant public health threat. Currently, there is no licensed vaccine against malaria, but an efficacious vaccine would represent an important public health tool for successful malaria elimination. Malaria vaccine development continues to be hindered by a poor understanding of antimalarial immunity, a lack of an immune correlate of protection, and the genetic diversity of malaria parasites. Current vaccine development efforts largely target Plasmodium falciparum parasites in the pre-erythrocytic and erythrocytic stages, with some research on transmission-blocking vaccines against asexual stages and vaccines against pregnancy-associated malaria. The leading pre-erythrocytic vaccine candidate is RTS,S, and early results of ongoing Phase 3 testing show overall efficacy of 46% against clinical malaria. The next steps for malaria vaccine development will focus on the design of a product that is efficacious against the highly diverse strains of malaria and the identification of a correlate of protection against disease. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Characterization of a CMOS sensing core for ultra-miniature wireless implantable temperature sensors with application to cryomedicine.

PubMed

Khairi, Ahmad; Thaokar, Chandrajit; Fedder, Gary; Paramesh, Jeyanandh; Rabin, Yoed

2014-09-01

In effort to improve thermal control in minimally invasive cryosurgery, the concept of a miniature, wireless, implantable sensing unit has been developed recently. The sensing unit integrates a wireless power delivery mechanism, wireless communication means, and a sensing core-the subject matter of the current study. The current study presents a CMOS ultra-miniature PTAT temperature sensing core and focuses on design principles, fabrication of a proof-of-concept, and characterization in a cryogenic environment. For this purpose, a 100 μm × 400 μm sensing core prototype has been fabricated using a 130 nm CMOS process. The senor has shown to operate between -180°C and room temperature, to consume power of less than 1 μW, and to have an uncertainty range of 1.4°C and non-linearity of 1.1%. Results of this study suggest that the sensing core is ready to be integrated in the sensing unit, where system integration is the subject matter of a parallel effort. Copyright © 2014 IPEM. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

X-ray diagnostic development for measurement of electron deposition to the SABRE anode

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lash, J.S.; Derzon, M.S.; Cuneo, M.E.

Extraction applied-B ion diodes are under development on the SABRE (6 MV, 250 kA) accelerator at Sandia. The authors are assessing this technology for the production of high brightness lithium ion beams for inertial confinement fusion. Electron loss physics is a focus of effort since electron sheath physics affects ion beam divergence, ion beam purity, and diode impedance. An x-ray slit-imaging diagnostic is under development for detection of x-rays produced during electron deposition to the anode. This diagnostic will aid in the correlation of electron deposition to ion production to better understand the ion diode physics. The x-ray detector consistsmore » of a filter pack, scintillator and optical fiber array that is streaked onto a CCD camera. Current orientation of the diagnostic provides spatial information across the anode radius at three different azimuths or at three different x-ray energy cuts. The observed x-ray emission spectrum can then be compared to current modeling efforts examining electron deposition to the anode.« less

The Built Environment and Child Health: An Overview of Current Evidence.

PubMed

Gascon, Mireia; Vrijheid, Martine; Nieuwenhuijsen, Mark J

2016-09-01

Urbanization and the shaping of the built environment have provided a number of socioeconomic benefits, but they have also brought unwanted side effects on health. We aimed to review the current epidemiological evidence of the associations between the built environment, closely related exposures, and child health. We focused on growth and obesity, neuropsychological development, and respiratory and immune health. We used existing review articles and supplemented these with relevant work published and not included in existing reviews. The present review shows that there is good evidence for an association between air pollution and fetal growth restriction and respiratory health, whereas for other exposure and outcome combinations, further evidence is needed. Future studies should make efforts to integrate the different built environment features and to include the evaluation of environments other than home, as well as accessibility, qualitative and perception assessment of the built environment, and, if possible, with improved and standardized tools to facilitate comparability between studies. Efforts are also needed to conduct longitudinal and intervention studies and to understand potential mechanisms behind the associations observed. Finally, studies in low- and middle-income countries are needed.

Concordium 2016: Data and Knowledge Transforming Health.

PubMed

Devine, Beth

2017-04-20

Concordium 2016 celebrated the potential for data and knowledge to transform health. Through a series of plenaries, presentations, workshops and demonstrations, the conference highlighted projects among four themes: effectiveness and outcomes research, health care analytics and operations, public and population health, and quality improvement. The eight papers that comprise this special issue of eGEMs provide exemplars of solutions to the Big Data problems faced in today's healthcare environment. Several of the papers contain elements of multiple overlapping themes. We integrate these into five overlapping themes: telehealth, user-centered design/usability, clinic workflow, patient-centered care, and population health management through prediction modeling and risk adjustment. The effort to leverage all types of Big Data to improve health and healthcare is a monumental effort that will require the work of numerous stakeholders, and one that will unfold incrementally over time. This collection of eight papers reflects the current state of the art. Concordium 2017 will take a different form, inviting a small set of leaders in the field to focus on the next round of exciting and provocative research currently underway to improve the nation's health.

Mitigation of methane emissions in cities: How new measurements and partnerships can contribute to emissions reduction strategies

DOE PAGES

Hopkins, Francesca M.; Ehleringer, James R.; Bush, Susan E.; ...

2016-09-10

Cities generate 70% of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, a fraction that is grow-ing with global urbanization. While cities play an important role in climate change mitigation, there has been little focus on reducing urban methane (CH4) emissions. Here, we develop a conceptual framework for CH 4 mitigation in cities by describing emission processes, the role of measurements, and a need for new institutional partnerships. Urban CH 4 emissions are likely to grow with expanding use of natural gas and organic waste disposal systems in growing population centers; however, we currently lack the ability to quantify this increase. We also lackmore » systematic knowledge of the relative contribution of these distinct source sectors on emissions. We present new observations from four North American cities to demonstrate that CH4 emissions vary in magnitude and sector from city to city and hence require different mitigation strategies. Detections of fugitive emissions from these systems suggest that current mitiga- tion approaches are absent or ineffective. These findings illustrate that tackling urban CH 4 emissions will require research efforts to identify mitigation targets, develop and implement new mitigation strategies, and monitor atmospheric CH 4 levels to ensure the success of mitigation efforts. This research will require a variety of techniques to achieve these objectives and should be deployed in cities globally. In conclusion, we suggest that metropolitan scale partnerships may effectively coordinate systematic measurements and actions focused on emission reduction goals.« less

Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase Signaling in the Heart: Angels Versus Demons in a Heart-Breaking Tale

PubMed Central

ROSE, BETH A.; FORCE, THOMAS; WANG, YIBIN

2013-01-01

Among the myriad of intra-cellular signaling networks that govern the cardiac development and pathogenesis, mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) are prominent players that have been the focus of extensive investigations in the past decades. The four best characterized MAPK subfamilies, ERK1/2, JNK, p38, and ERK5, are the targets of pharmacological and genetic manipulations to uncover their roles in cardiac development, function, and diseases. However, information reported in the literature from these efforts has not yet resulted in a clear view about the roles of specific MAPK pathways in heart. Rather, controversies from contradictive results have led to a perception that MAPKs are ambiguous characters in heart with both protective and detrimental effects. The primary object of this review is to provide a comprehensive overview of the current progress, in an effort to highlight the areas where consensus is established verses the ones where controversy remains. MAPKs in cardiac development, cardiac hypertrophy, ischemia/reperfusion injury, and pathological remodeling are the main focuses of this review as these represent the most critical issues for evaluating MAPKs as viable targets of therapeutic development. The studies presented in this review will help to reveal the major challenges in the field and the limitations of current approaches and point to a critical need in future studies to gain better understanding of the fundamental mechanisms of MAPK function and regulation in the heart. PMID:20959622

Operations and support cost modeling of conceptual space vehicles

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ebeling, Charles

1994-01-01

The University of Dayton is pleased to submit this annual report to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Langley Research Center which documents the development of an operations and support (O&S) cost model as part of a larger life cycle cost (LCC) structure. It is intended for use during the conceptual design of new launch vehicles and spacecraft. This research is being conducted under NASA Research Grant NAG-1-1327. This research effort changes the focus from that of the first two years in which a reliability and maintainability model was developed to the initial development of an operations and support life cycle cost model. Cost categories were initially patterned after NASA's three axis work breakdown structure consisting of a configuration axis (vehicle), a function axis, and a cost axis. A revised cost element structure (CES), which is currently under study by NASA, was used to established the basic cost elements used in the model. While the focus of the effort was on operations and maintenance costs and other recurring costs, the computerized model allowed for other cost categories such as RDT&E and production costs to be addressed. Secondary tasks performed concurrent with the development of the costing model included support and upgrades to the reliability and maintainability (R&M) model. The primary result of the current research has been a methodology and a computer implementation of the methodology to provide for timely operations and support cost analysis during the conceptual design activities.

Mitigation of methane emissions in cities: How new measurements and partnerships can contribute to emissions reduction strategies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hopkins, Francesca M.; Ehleringer, James R.; Bush, Susan E.; Duren, Riley M.; Miller, Charles E.; Lai, Chun-Ta; Hsu, Ying-Kuang; Carranza, Valerie; Randerson, James T.

2016-09-01

Cities generate 70% of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, a fraction that is growing with global urbanization. While cities play an important role in climate change mitigation, there has been little focus on reducing urban methane (CH4) emissions. Here, we develop a conceptual framework for CH4 mitigation in cities by describing emission processes, the role of measurements, and a need for new institutional partnerships. Urban CH4 emissions are likely to grow with expanding use of natural gas and organic waste disposal systems in growing population centers; however, we currently lack the ability to quantify this increase. We also lack systematic knowledge of the relative contribution of these distinct source sectors on emissions. We present new observations from four North American cities to demonstrate that CH4 emissions vary in magnitude and sector from city to city and hence require different mitigation strategies. Detections of fugitive emissions from these systems suggest that current mitigation approaches are absent or ineffective. These findings illustrate that tackling urban CH4 emissions will require research efforts to identify mitigation targets, develop and implement new mitigation strategies, and monitor atmospheric CH4 levels to ensure the success of mitigation efforts. This research will require a variety of techniques to achieve these objectives and should be deployed in cities globally. We suggest that metropolitan scale partnerships may effectively coordinate systematic measurements and actions focused on emission reduction goals.

Coherent Pulsed Lidar Sensing of Wake Vortex Position and Strength, Winds and Turbulence in the Terminal Area

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Brockman, Philip; Barker, Ben C., Jr.; Koch, Grady J.; Nguyen, Dung Phu Chi; Britt, Charles L., Jr.; Petros, Mulugeta

1999-01-01

NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) has field tested a 2.0 gm, 100 Hertz, pulsed coherent lidar to detect and characterize wake vortices and to measure atmospheric winds and turbulence. The quantification of aircraft wake-vortex hazards is being addressed by the Wake Vortex Lidar (WVL) Project as part of Aircraft Vortex Spacing System (AVOSS), which is under the Reduced Spacing Operations Element of the Terminal Area Productivity (TAP) Program. These hazards currently set the minimum, fixed separation distance between two aircraft and affect the number of takeoff and landing operations on a single runway under Instrument Meteorological Conditions (IMC). The AVOSS concept seeks to safely reduce aircraft separation distances, when weather conditions permit, to increase the operational capacity of major airports. The current NASA wake-vortex research efforts focus on developing and validating wake vortex encounter models, wake decay and advection models, and wake sensing technologies. These technologies will be incorporated into an automated AVOSS that can properly select safe separation distances for different weather conditions, based on the aircraft pair and predicted/measured vortex behavior. The sensor subsystem efforts focus on developing and validating wake sensing technologies. The lidar system has been field-tested to provide real-time wake vortex trajectory and strength data to AVOSS for wake prediction verification. Wake vortices, atmospheric winds, and turbulence products have been generated from processing the lidar data collected during deployments to Norfolk (ORF), John F. Kennedy (JFK), and Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) International Airports.

Mitigation of methane emissions in cities: How new measurements and partnerships can contribute to emissions reduction strategies

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hopkins, Francesca M.; Ehleringer, James R.; Bush, Susan E.

Cities generate 70% of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, a fraction that is grow-ing with global urbanization. While cities play an important role in climate change mitigation, there has been little focus on reducing urban methane (CH4) emissions. Here, we develop a conceptual framework for CH 4 mitigation in cities by describing emission processes, the role of measurements, and a need for new institutional partnerships. Urban CH 4 emissions are likely to grow with expanding use of natural gas and organic waste disposal systems in growing population centers; however, we currently lack the ability to quantify this increase. We also lackmore » systematic knowledge of the relative contribution of these distinct source sectors on emissions. We present new observations from four North American cities to demonstrate that CH4 emissions vary in magnitude and sector from city to city and hence require different mitigation strategies. Detections of fugitive emissions from these systems suggest that current mitiga- tion approaches are absent or ineffective. These findings illustrate that tackling urban CH 4 emissions will require research efforts to identify mitigation targets, develop and implement new mitigation strategies, and monitor atmospheric CH 4 levels to ensure the success of mitigation efforts. This research will require a variety of techniques to achieve these objectives and should be deployed in cities globally. In conclusion, we suggest that metropolitan scale partnerships may effectively coordinate systematic measurements and actions focused on emission reduction goals.« less

Work-life balance of nursing faculty in research- and practice-focused doctoral programs.

PubMed

Smeltzer, Suzanne C; Sharts-Hopko, Nancy C; Cantrell, Mary Ann; Heverly, Mary Ann; Jenkinson, Amanda; Nthenge, Serah

2015-01-01

The growing shortage of nursing faculty and the need for faculty to teach doctoral students to address the shortage call for examination of factors that may contribute to the shortage, including those that are potentially modifiable, including work-life balance.This descriptive study examined work-life balance of a national sample of nursing faculty teaching in research-focused and practice-focused doctoral programs. Data were collected through an online survey of 554 doctoral program faculty members to identify their perceptions of work-life balance and predictors of work-life balance. Work-life balance scores indicated better work-life balance than expected. Factors associated with good work-life balance included higher academic rank, having tenure, older age, years in education, current faculty position, and no involvement in clinical practice. Current faculty position was the best predictor of work-life balance. Although work-life balance was viewed positively by study participants, efforts are needed to strengthen factors related to positive work/life in view of the increasing workload of doctoral faculty as the numbers of doctoral students increase and the number of seasoned faculty decrease with anticipated waves of retirements. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Techniques for hot structures testing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Deangelis, V. Michael; Fields, Roger A.

1990-01-01

Hot structures testing have been going on since the early 1960's beginning with the Mach 6, X-15 airplane. Early hot structures test programs at NASA-Ames-Dryden focused on operational testing required to support the X-15 flight test program, and early hot structures research projects focused on developing lab test techniques to simulate flight thermal profiles. More recent efforts involved numerous large and small hot structures test programs that served to develop test methods and measurement techniques to provide data that promoted the correlation of test data with results from analytical codes. In Nov. 1988 a workshop was sponsored that focused on the correlation of hot structures test data with analysis. Limited material is drawn from the workshop and a more formal documentation is provided of topics that focus on hot structures test techniques used at NASA-Ames-Dryden. Topics covered include the data acquisition and control of testing, the quartz lamp heater systems, current strain and temperature sensors, and hot structures test techniques used to simulate the flight thermal environment in the lab.

The pathways of high school science teachers and policy efforts to alter the pipeline

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sass, Tim

2012-03-01

There is currently much interest in improving the quality of science education in K-12 schools and encouraging more students, particularly minorities and women, to pursue careers in STEM fields. Two interrelated issues are at the forefront: the quality of science teachers and the supply of science teachers. Education research in general finds that the single most important school-based factor affecting student achievement is teacher quality. While there is little evidence that teacher credentials matter for student achievement in the lower grades, there is at least some evidence that content knowledge is an important determinant of teacher quality in middle and secondary schools. However, little is known about the pre-service preparation of high school science teachers and how the training of science teachers affects their performance in the classroom. While there are many efforts underway to increase the supply of science teachers, little is known about the supply of science teachers from different pathways and the factors that lead science teachers to leave the profession. In this presentation I discuss recent work on the supply of teachers from alternative pathways, focusing on high school science teachers. I also summarize the literature on teacher quality and attrition, emphasizing the current state of knowledge on secondary school teachers. Finally, I present current policy initiatives and discuss the likelihood of their success given current research findings.

Perspectives and Peptides of the Next Generation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brogden, Kim A.

Shortly after their discovery, antimicrobial peptides from prokaryotes and eukaryotes were recognized as the next potential generation of pharmaceuticals to treat antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections and septic shock, to preserve food, or to sanitize surfaces. Initial research focused on identifying the spectrum of antimicrobial agents, determining the range of antimicrobial activities against bacterial, fungal, and viral pathogens, and assessing the antimicrobial activity of synthetic peptides versus their natural counterparts. Subsequent research then focused on the mechanisms of antimicrobial peptide activity in model membrane systems not only to identify the mechanisms of antimicrobial peptide activity in microorganisms but also to discern differences in cytotoxicity for prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells. Recent, contemporary work now focuses on current and future efforts to construct hybrid peptides, peptide congeners, stabilized peptides, peptide conjugates, and immobilized peptides for unique and specific applications to control the growth of microorganisms in vitro and in vivo.

Expert system verification and validation study. Delivery 3A and 3B: Trip summaries

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

French, Scott

1991-01-01

Key results are documented from attending the 4th workshop on verification, validation, and testing. The most interesting part of the workshop was when representatives from the U.S., Japan, and Europe presented surveys of VV&T within their respective regions. Another interesting part focused on current efforts to define industry standards for artificial intelligence and how that might affect approaches to VV&T of expert systems. The next part of the workshop focused on VV&T methods of applying mathematical techniques to verification of rule bases and techniques for capturing information relating to the process of developing software. The final part focused on software tools. A summary is also presented of the EPRI conference on 'Methodologies, Tools, and Standards for Cost Effective Reliable Software Verification and Validation. The conference was divided into discussion sessions on the following issues: development process, automated tools, software reliability, methods, standards, and cost/benefit considerations.

International cancer seminars: a focus on esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

PubMed

Murphy, G; McCormack, V; Abedi-Ardekani, B; Arnold, M; Camargo, M C; Dar, N A; Dawsey, S M; Etemadi, A; Fitzgerald, R C; Fleischer, D E; Freedman, N D; Goldstein, A M; Gopal, S; Hashemian, M; Hu, N; Hyland, P L; Kaimila, B; Kamangar, F; Malekzadeh, R; Mathew, C G; Menya, D; Mulima, G; Mwachiro, M M; Mwasamwaja, A; Pritchett, N; Qiao, Y-L; Ribeiro-Pinto, L F; Ricciardone, M; Schüz, J; Sitas, F; Taylor, P R; Van Loon, K; Wang, S-M; Wei, W-Q; Wild, C P; Wu, C; Abnet, C C; Chanock, S J; Brennan, P

2017-09-01

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and the US National Cancer Institute (NCI) have initiated a series of cancer-focused seminars [Scelo G, Hofmann JN, Banks RE et al. International cancer seminars: a focus on kidney cancer. Ann Oncol 2016; 27(8): 1382-1385]. In this, the second seminar, IARC and NCI convened a workshop in order to examine the state of the current science on esophageal squamous cell carcinoma etiology, genetics, early detection, treatment, and palliation, was reviewed to identify the most critical open research questions. The results of these discussions were summarized by formulating a series of 'difficult questions', which should inform and prioritize future research efforts. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society for Medical Oncology 2017. This work is written by US Government employees and is in the public domain in the US.

Health Reform: A Community Experience Using Design Research as a Guide

PubMed Central

Severson, Mary A.; Wood, Douglas L.; Chastain, Christine N.; Lee, Laura G.; Rees, Adam C.; Agerter, David C.; Holtz, Carol P.; Broers, Joan K.; Savoleinen, Kimberly H.; Spurrier, Barbara R.; LaRusso, Nicholas F.

2011-01-01

Meaningful health reform in the United States must improve the health of the population while lowering costs. In an effort to provide a framework for doing so, the Institute of Health Care Improvement created the triple aim, which encompasses the goals of (1) improving individual health and experience with the health care system, (2) improving population health, and (3) decreasing the rate of per capita health care costs. Current reform efforts have focused on the development of Patient-Centered Medical Homes (an innovative team-based model of care that facilitates a partnership between the patient’s personal physician coordinating care throughout a patient’s lifetime to maximize health outcomes), but these relatively narrow efforts are focused on office practice and payment methods and are not generally oriented toward community needs. We sought to apply design research in assessing a community opportunity to apply the triple aim as a strategy to transform health care delivery. Mixed methodology provides greater insight into the unexpressed health needs of individuals and into the creation of delivery systems more likely to achieve the triple aim. In a small, midwestern town, a mixed methods approach was used to assess community health needs to facilitate design and implementation of care delivery systems. The research findings suggest that health system design concepts should focus on the creation of health, not health care; foster simplicity; create nurturing relationships; eliminate user fear; and contain costs. These observations can be helpful to health care professionals who are developing new methods of care delivery and policymakers and payers contemplating new payment systems to achieve the goals of the triple aim. PMID:21964174

Neonatal abstinence syndrome: Historical perspective, current focus, future directions.

PubMed

Jones, Hendrée E; Fielder, Andrea

2015-11-01

Neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) occurs following prenatal opioid exposure. It is characterized by signs and symptoms indicating central nervous system hyperirritability and autonomic nervous system, gastrointestinal tract, and respiratory system dysfunction. This article: (1) briefly reviews NAS history, including initial identification, assessment, and treatment efforts; (2) summarizes the current status of and current issues surrounding recent NAS assessment and treatment, and (3) details future directions in NAS conceptualization, measurement, and treatment. Mortality rate estimates in neonates treated for NAS exceeded 33%, and surpassed 90% for un-treated infants during the late-1800s until the mid-1900s. The focus of both assessment and treatment over the past 50years is predominantly due to two forces. First, methadone pharmacotherapy for "heroin addiction" led to women in methadone maintenance programs who were, or became pregnant. The second was defining NAS and developing a measure of neonatal withdrawal, the Neonatal Abstinence Scoring System (NASS). Various NAS treatment protocols were based on the NASS as well as other NAS measures. Future research must focus on psychometrically sound screening and assessment measures of neonatal opioid withdrawal for premature, term and older infants, measuring and treating possible withdrawal from non-opioids, particularly benzodiazepines, integrated non-pharmacological treatment of NAS, weight-based versus symptom-based treatment of NAS, and second-line treatment for NAS. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Unsteady Three-Dimensional Simulation of a Shear Coaxial GO2/GH2 Rocket Injector with RANS and Hybrid-RAN-LES/DES Using Flamelet Models

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Westra, Doug G.; West, Jeffrey S.; Richardson, Brian R.

2015-01-01

Historically, the analysis and design of liquid rocket engines (LREs) has relied on full-scale testing and one-dimensional empirical tools. The testing is extremely expensive and the one-dimensional tools are not designed to capture the highly complex, and multi-dimensional features that are inherent to LREs. Recent advances in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tools have made it possible to predict liquid rocket engine performance, stability, to assess the effect of complex flow features, and to evaluate injector-driven thermal environments, to mitigate the cost of testing. Extensive efforts to verify and validate these CFD tools have been conducted, to provide confidence for using them during the design cycle. Previous validation efforts have documented comparisons of predicted heat flux thermal environments with test data for a single element gaseous oxygen (GO2) and gaseous hydrogen (GH2) injector. The most notable validation effort was a comprehensive validation effort conducted by Tucker et al. [1], in which a number of different groups modeled a GO2/GH2 single element configuration by Pal et al [2]. The tools used for this validation comparison employed a range of algorithms, from both steady and unsteady Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (U/RANS) calculations, large-eddy simulations (LES), detached eddy simulations (DES), and various combinations. A more recent effort by Thakur et al. [3] focused on using a state-of-the-art CFD simulation tool, Loci/STREAM, on a two-dimensional grid. Loci/STREAM was chosen because it has a unique, very efficient flamelet parameterization of combustion reactions that are too computationally expensive to simulate with conventional finite-rate chemistry calculations. The current effort focuses on further advancement of validation efforts, again using the Loci/STREAM tool with the flamelet parameterization, but this time with a three-dimensional grid. Comparisons to the Pal et al. heat flux data will be made for both RANS and Hybrid RANSLES/ Detached Eddy simulations (DES). Computation costs will be reported, along with comparison of accuracy and cost to much less expensive two-dimensional RANS simulations of the same geometry.

Translating Cough Mechanisms Into Better Cough Suppressants.

PubMed

Keller, Jennifer A; McGovern, Alice E; Mazzone, Stuart B

2017-10-01

Chronic cough is a significant problem, and in many patients cough remains refractive to both disease-specific therapies and current cough-suppressing medicines, creating a need for improved antitussive therapies. Most patients with chronic cough also display heightened sensitivity so that they experience a persistent sense of the need to cough, and often innocuous stimuli can trigger their coughing. This hypersensitivity underpins the newly described concept of cough hypersensitivity syndrome (CHS), a term that encapsulates the notion of common underlying mechanisms producing neuronal activation, sensitization and/or dysfunction, which are at the core of excessive coughing. Understanding these mechanisms has been a focus of recent research efforts in the field in the hope that new therapies can be developed to selectively target sensitized unproductive cough while maintaining the reflexive cough essential for airway protection. However, efforts to achieve this have been slower than expected, in part because of some significant challenges and limitations translating current cough models. In this review, we summarize recent advances in our understanding of the sensory circuits innervating the respiratory system that are important for cough, how cough sensory pathways become hypersensitive, and some of the recently described neural targets under development for treating chronic cough. We present the case that better use of current cough models or the development of new models, or both, is ultimately needed to advance our efforts to translate the discovery of basic cough mechanisms into effective medicines for treating patients with chronic cough. Copyright © 2017 American College of Chest Physicians. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

An Overview of the NOAA Drought Task Force

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schubert, S.; Mo, K.; Peters-Lidard, C.; Wood, A.

2012-01-01

The charge of the NOAA Drought Task Force is to coordinate and facilitate the various MAPP-funded research efforts with the overall goal of achieving significant advances in understanding and in the ability to monitor and predict drought over North America. In order to achieve this, the task force has developed a Drought Test-bed that individual research groups can use to test/evaluate methods and ideas. Central to this is a focus on three high profile North American droughts (1998-2004 western US drought, 2006-2007 SE US drought, 2011- current Tex-Mex drought) to facilitate collaboration among projects, including the development of metrics to assess the quality of monitoring and prediction products, and the development of an experimental drought monitoring and prediction system that incorporates and assesses recent advances. This talk will review the progress and plans of the task force, including efforts to help advance official national drought products, and the development of early warning systems by the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS). Coordination with other relevant national and international efforts such as the emerging NMME capabilities and the international effort to develop a Global Drought Information System (GDIS) will be discussed.

Interdisciplinary modeling and analysis to reduce loss of life from tsunamis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wood, N. J.

2016-12-01

Recent disasters have demonstrated the significant loss of life and community impacts that can occur from tsunamis. Minimizing future losses requires an integrated understanding of the range of potential tsunami threats, how individuals are specifically vulnerable to these threats, what is currently in place to improve their chances of survival, and what risk-reduction efforts could be implemented. This presentation will provide a holistic perspective of USGS research enabled by recent advances in geospatial modeling to assess and communicate population vulnerability to tsunamis and the range of possible interventions to reduce it. Integrated research includes efforts to characterize the magnitude and demography of at-risk individuals in tsunami-hazard zones, their evacuation potential based on landscape conditions, nature-based mitigation to improve evacuation potential, evacuation pathways and population demand at assembly areas, siting considerations for vertical-evacuation refuges, community implications of multiple evacuation zones, car-based evacuation modeling for distant tsunamis, and projected changes in population exposure to tsunamis over time. Collectively, this interdisciplinary research supports emergency managers in their efforts to implement targeted risk-reduction efforts based on local conditions and needs, instead of generic regional strategies that only focus on hazard attributes.

Qualitative validation of the reduction from two reciprocally coupled neurons to one self-coupled neuron in a respiratory network model.

PubMed

Dunmyre, Justin R

2011-06-01

The pre-Bötzinger complex of the mammalian brainstem is a heterogeneous neuronal network, and individual neurons within the network have varying strengths of the persistent sodium and calcium-activated nonspecific cationic currents. Individually, these currents have been the focus of modeling efforts. Previously, Dunmyre et al. (J Comput Neurosci 1-24, 2011) proposed a model and studied the interactions of these currents within one self-coupled neuron. In this work, I consider two identical, reciprocally coupled model neurons and validate the reduction to the self-coupled case. I find that all of the dynamics of the two model neuron network and the regions of parameter space where these distinct dynamics are found are qualitatively preserved in the reduction to the self-coupled case.

Progress towards personalized therapeutics: biologic- and risk-directed therapy for neuroblastoma.

PubMed

Gustafson, William Clay; Matthay, Katherine K

2011-10-01

Neuroblastoma, a tumor of the developing peripheral sympathetic nervous system, is the most common and deadly extracranial solid tumor of childhood. Risk-stratification and risk-adapted therapy play a large role in the modern treatment of neuroblastoma. Recently, through extensive international collaboration, new guidelines for risk stratification have emerged that will aid in international cooperative studies, as well as clarifying therapeutic options for patients. Current therapies for low- and intermediate-risk neuroblastoma have resulted in excellent prognoses for these risk strata, and current efforts are concentrated on chemotherapy reduction. By contrast, much more gradual progress has been made in improving survival for high-risk neuroblastoma patients, despite significant chemotherapy intensification. Current investigations focus on overcoming resistance by elucidating the molecular/genetic causes of neuroblastoma tumorigenesis and progression, with the aim of developing more effective biologically targeted therapies for this disease.

Treatment Perspectives Based on Our Current Understanding of Concussion.

PubMed

Gay, Michael

2016-09-01

Sports-related concussion also referred to in the literature as mild traumatic brain injury remains a popular area of study for physicians, neurologists, neuropsychologists, neuroimaging, athletic trainers, and researchers across the other areas of brain sciences. Treatment for concussion is an emerging area of focus with investigators seeking to improve outcomes and protect patients from the deleterious short-term and long-term consequences which have been extensively studied and identified. Broadly, current treatment strategies for athletes recovering from concussion have remained largely unchanged since early 2000s. Knowledge of the complex pathophysiology surrounding injury should improve or advance our ability to identify processes which may serve as targets for therapeutic intervention. Clinicians working with athletes recovering from sports-related concussion should have an advanced understanding of the injury cascade and also be aware of the current efforts within the research to treat concussion. In addition, how clinicians use the word "treatment" should be carefully defined and promoted so the patient is aware of the level of intervention and what stage of recovery or healing is being affected by a specific intervention. The purpose of this review is to bring together efforts across disciplines of brain science into 1 platform where clinicians can assimilate this information before making best practices decisions regarding the treatment of patients and athletes under their care.

Women and the family of the future.

PubMed

Quimby, C H

1994-02-01

The complexities of current societal trends impose a daunting challenge to providers of maternal child health services. Demographers, anthropologists, sociologists, policy makers, and health care providers struggle to grasp the multiple issues in an effort to create useful strategies for the 21st century. The 1990s have been labeled the decade of women's health. Legislative and policy efforts have focused new and much-needed attention on women as recipients and providers of health care. The realities of mothers in the work force, the epidemic of adolescent pregnancy, the swelling ranks of women and children in poverty, the increasing number of women with acquired immune deficiency syndrome, the new advances in reproductive technology, and the effect of population and immigration trends greatly influence the childbearing client of the future and create enormous pressures for critical problem solving.

Changing the focus of Brownfields cleanups

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Cichon, E.

The Brownfields Tax Incentive proposed by President Clinton illustrates the remarkable evolution in the government`s view of contaminated property remediation. The current program, spearheaded by the president`s Brownfields Initiative, reflects a significant shift of emphasis. Remedial programs now pinpoint the end use of the affected property as the ultimate objective, with the required cleanup of impacted media regarded as only one of several elements. In place of enforcement, government now is employing incentives--from federal policies limiting landowner liability to proposed tax incentives--to eliminate traditional obstacles to the remediation and reuse of contaminated land. Some three dozen Brownfields Initiative pilot projectsmore » have been launched across the country. These first-generation brownfields remediation efforts demonstrate that to realize the program`s regulatory and economic advantages, practical and cost-effective remedial efforts are required.« less

Antiviral strategies to eliminate hepatitis B virus covalently closed circular DNA (cccDNA).

PubMed

Revill, Peter; Locarnini, Stephen

2016-10-01

It has been over 50 years since the discovery of hepatitis B virus (HBV), yet 240 million people worldwide live with chronic HBV, resulting in up to 800000 deaths per year. A cure is yet to be achieved, due largely to a viral nuclear reservoir of transcriptionally active covalently closed circular DNA (cccDNA). While current antiviral therapies are effective at reducing viral replication, they have no impact on the existing cccDNA reservoir. Identifying mechanisms to either eliminate (complete cure) or inactivate (functional cure) HBV cccDNA are a major focus of HBV research worldwide. This review discusses recent advances in efforts to eliminate and/or regulate cccDNA, as well as future directions that may be considered in efforts to cure chronic HBV. Crown Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Experimental therapies for yellow fever

PubMed Central

Julander, Justin G.

2013-01-01

A number of viruses in the family Flaviviridae are the focus of efforts to develop effective antiviral therapies. Success has been achieved with inhibitors for the treatment of hepatitis C, and there is interest in clinical trials of drugs against dengue fever. Antiviral therapies have also been evaluated in patients with Japanese encephalitis and West Nile encephalitis. However, no treatment has been developed against the prototype flavivirus, yellow fever virus (YFV). Despite the availability of the live, attenuated 17D vaccine, thousands of cases of YF continue to occur each year in Africa and South America, with a significant mortality rate. In addition, a small number of vaccinees develop severe systemic infections with the 17D virus. This paper reviews current efforts to develop antiviral therapies, either directly targeting the virus or blocking detrimental host responses to infection. PMID:23237991

NASA Space Radiation Risk Project: Overview and Recent Results

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Blattnig, Steve R.; Chappell, Lori J.; George, Kerry A.; Hada, Megumi; Hu, Shaowen; Kidane, Yared H.; Kim, Myung-Hee Y.; Kovyrshina, Tatiana; Norman, Ryan B.; Nounu, Hatem N.;

Terminology development towards harmonizing multiple clinical neuroimaging research repositories.

PubMed

Turner, Jessica A; Pasquerello, Danielle; Turner, Matthew D; Keator, David B; Alpert, Kathryn; King, Margaret; Landis, Drew; Calhoun, Vince D; Potkin, Steven G; Tallis, Marcelo; Ambite, Jose Luis; Wang, Lei

2015-07-01

Data sharing and mediation across disparate neuroimaging repositories requires extensive effort to ensure that the different domains of data types are referred to by commonly agreed upon terms. Within the SchizConnect project, which enables querying across decentralized databases of neuroimaging, clinical, and cognitive data from various studies of schizophrenia, we developed a model for each data domain, identified common usable terms that could be agreed upon across the repositories, and linked them to standard ontological terms where possible. We had the goal of facilitating both the current user experience in querying and future automated computations and reasoning regarding the data. We found that existing terminologies are incomplete for these purposes, even with the history of neuroimaging data sharing in the field; and we provide a model for efforts focused on querying multiple clinical neuroimaging repositories.

Terminology development towards harmonizing multiple clinical neuroimaging research repositories

PubMed Central

Turner, Jessica A.; Pasquerello, Danielle; Turner, Matthew D.; Keator, David B.; Alpert, Kathryn; King, Margaret; Landis, Drew; Calhoun, Vince D.; Potkin, Steven G.; Tallis, Marcelo; Ambite, Jose Luis; Wang, Lei

2015-01-01

Data sharing and mediation across disparate neuroimaging repositories requires extensive effort to ensure that the different domains of data types are referred to by commonly agreed upon terms. Within the SchizConnect project, which enables querying across decentralized databases of neuroimaging, clinical, and cognitive data from various studies of schizophrenia, we developed a model for each data domain, identified common usable terms that could be agreed upon across the repositories, and linked them to standard ontological terms where possible. We had the goal of facilitating both the current user experience in querying and future automated computations and reasoning regarding the data. We found that existing terminologies are incomplete for these purposes, even with the history of neuroimaging data sharing in the field; and we provide a model for efforts focused on querying multiple clinical neuroimaging repositories. PMID:26688838

Sex Trafficking: Policies, Programs, and Services.

PubMed

Orme, Julie; Ross-Sheriff, Fariyal

2015-10-01

Sex trafficking (ST), a contemporary form of female slavery, is a human rights issue of critical concern to social work. The global response to ST has been substantial, and 166 countries have adopted anti-ST legislation. Despite considerable efforts to combat ST, the magnitude is increasing. To date, the majority of anti-ST efforts have focused on criminalization policies that target traffickers or purchasers of sexual services, who are predominantly male; prevention programming and services for predominantly female victims have received less support. Therapeutic services to assist pornography addicts and purchasers of sexual services are also necessary. In this article, authors examine current anti-ST policies, programs, and services, both domestically and globally, and present an innovative paradigm that addresses social inequities and emphasizes prevention programming. They conclude with a discussion of the paradigm's implications for social work policies, practices, and services.

Basic Science and Public Policy: Informed Regulation for Nicotine and Tobacco Products.

PubMed

Fowler, Christie D; Gipson, Cassandra D; Kleykamp, Bethea A; Rupprecht, Laura E; Harrell, Paul T; Rees, Vaughan W; Gould, Thomas J; Oliver, Jason; Bagdas, Deniz; Damaj, M Imad; Schmidt, Heath D; Duncan, Alexander; De Biasi, Mariella

2018-06-07

Scientific discoveries over the past few decades have provided significant insight into the abuse liability and negative health consequences associated with tobacco and nicotine-containing products. While many of these advances have led to the development of policies and laws that regulate access to and formulations of these products, further research is critical to guide future regulatory efforts, especially as novel nicotine-containing products are introduced and selectively marketed to vulnerable populations. In this narrative review, we provide an overview of the scientific findings that have impacted regulatory policy and discuss considerations for further translation of science into policy decisions. We propose that open, bidirectional communication between scientists and policy makers is essential to develop transformative preventive- and intervention-focused policies and programs to reduce appeal, abuse liability, and toxicity of the products. Through these types of interactions, collaborative efforts to inform and modify policy have the potential to significantly decrease the use of tobacco and alternative nicotine products and thus enhance health outcomes for individuals. This work addresses current topics in the nicotine and tobacco research field to emphasize the importance of basic science research and provide examples of how it can be utilized to inform public policy. In addition to relaying current thoughts on the topic from experts in the field, the article encourages continued efforts and communication between basic scientists and policy officials.

Student Service Members/Veterans on Campus: Challenges for Reintegration

PubMed Central

Borsari, Brian; Yurasek, Ali; Miller, Mary Beth; Murphy, James G.; McDevitt-Murphy, Meghan E.; Martens, Matthew P.; Darcy, Monica G.; Carey, Kate B.

2016-01-01

Many returning OIF/OEF/OND Veterans are seeking higher education in an effort to develop a meaningful career and financial stability. Evidence suggests that student service members/Veterans (SSM/Vs) are experiencing less academic success than other students. The purpose of this review is to identify the unique challenges of SSM/Vs and evaluate current campus efforts to facilitate their retention and academic performance. With a focus on SSM/Vs attending colleges and universities, we obtained 57 peer-reviewed and 73 grey literature records published between 2001 and 2015. The current SSM/V literature contains an abundance of grey literature, and the empirical research tends to be limited by cross-sectional design and small sample sizes. SSM/Vs encounter significant personal and environmental challenges when transitioning from the military to college campuses. A variety of services have been developed to address the needs of the SSM/V population, but the efficacy of these services remains largely unknown. In conclusion, there is a clear need to provide education to faculty, students and staff regarding the experiences of SSM/Vs. Efforts to enhance screening for, availability of, and SSM/V engagement in mental health services would also be beneficial, as would improved availability of and SSM/V access to academic support. All future programs designed to address the unique challenges of SSM/Vs in the academic environment should also be systematically implemented and evaluated. PMID:28206804

Metrics for building performance assurance

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Koles, G.; Hitchcock, R.; Sherman, M.

This report documents part of the work performed in phase I of a Laboratory Directors Research and Development (LDRD) funded project entitled Building Performance Assurances (BPA). The focus of the BPA effort is to transform the way buildings are built and operated in order to improve building performance by facilitating or providing tools, infrastructure, and information. The efforts described herein focus on the development of metrics with which to evaluate building performance and for which information and optimization tools need to be developed. The classes of building performance metrics reviewed are (1) Building Services (2) First Costs, (3) Operating Costs,more » (4) Maintenance Costs, and (5) Energy and Environmental Factors. The first category defines the direct benefits associated with buildings; the next three are different kinds of costs associated with providing those benefits; the last category includes concerns that are broader than direct costs and benefits to the building owner and building occupants. The level of detail of the various issues reflect the current state of knowledge in those scientific areas and the ability of the to determine that state of knowledge, rather than directly reflecting the importance of these issues; it intentionally does not specifically focus on energy issues. The report describes work in progress and is intended as a resource and can be used to indicate the areas needing more investigation. Other reports on BPA activities are also available.« less

Advances in graphene-related technologies: synthesis, devices and outlook.

PubMed

Frazier, R M; Hough, W L; Chopra, N; Hathcock, K W

2012-06-01

Graphene has been the subject of many scientific investigations since exfoliation methods facilitated isolation of the two-dimensional material. During this time, new synthesis methods have been developed which have opened technological opportunities previously hindered by synthetic constraints. An update on the recent advances in graphene-based technologies, including synthesis and applications into electrical, mechanical and thermal uses will be covered. A special focus on the patent space and commercial landscape will be given in an effort to identify current trends and future commercialization of graphene-related technologies.

Wind and Solar Data Projections from the U.S. Energy Information Administration: Past Performance and Planned Enhancements

EIA Publications

2016-01-01

In an effort to improve EIA's approach to providing accurate, comprehensive data, and useful projections for policy analysis, EIA has conducted a review of its historical data and projections of capacity, generation, and cost projections for wind and solar technologies. While EIA's internal processes and engagement with stakeholders are both continuing, this paper shares some early findings of EIA's current review of our wind and solar data and projections, focusing in part on some of the issues that have been publicly raised by EIA's critics.

Stack developments in a kW class all vanadium mixed acid redox flow battery at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

DOE PAGES

Reed, David M.; Thomsen, Edwin C.; Li, Bin; ...

2015-11-21

Over the past several years, efforts have been focused on improving the performance of kW class stacks with increasing current density. The influence of the Nafion membrane resistance, an interdigitated design to reduce the pressure drop in the electrolyte circuit, the temperature of the electrolyte, and the electrode structure will be discussed and correlated to the electrical performance. Furthermore, improvements to the stack energy efficiency and how those translate to the overall system efficiency will also be discussed.

Creating Accountable Care Organizations: The Extended Hospital Medical Staff

PubMed Central

Fisher, Elliott S.; Staiger, Douglas O.; Bynum, Julie P.W.; Gottlieb, Daniel J.

2007-01-01

Many current policies and approaches to performance measurement and payment reform focus on individual providers; they risk reinforcing the fragmented care and lack of coordination experienced by patients with serious illness. In this paper we show that Medicare beneficiaries receive most of their care from relatively coherent local delivery systems comprising physicians and the hospitals where they work or admit their patients. Efforts to create accountable care organizations at this level—the extended hospital medical staff—deserve consideration as a potential means of improving the quality and lowering the cost of care. PMID:17148490

Survival of adult murres and kittiwakes in relation to forage fish abundance

USGS Publications Warehouse

Piatt, John F.

2000-01-01

Some seabird populations damaged by the Exxon Valdez oil spill continue to decline or are not recovering. In order to understand the ultimate cause of seabird population fluctuations, we must measure productivity, recruitment, and adult survival. Recent APEX studies focused on measuring productivity only. Recruitment measurement demands an unrealistic study duration. We propose to augment current studies in lower Cook Inlet that relate breeding success and foraging effort to fluctuations in forage fish density by using banding and resighting to quantify the survival of adult common murres and black-legged kittiwakes.

Evaluation of clinical practice guidelines.

PubMed Central

Basinski, A S

1995-01-01

Compared with the current focus on the development of clinical practice guidelines the effort devoted to their evaluation is meagre. Yet the ultimate success of guidelines depends on routine evaluation. Three types of evaluation are identified: evaluation of guidelines under development and before dissemination and implementation, evaluation of health care programs in which guidelines play a central role, and scientific evaluation, through studies that provide the scientific knowledge base for further evolution of guidelines. Identification of evaluation and program goals, evaluation design and a framework for evaluation planning are discussed. PMID:7489550

Achieving Workplace Health through Application of Wellness Strategies

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Robinson, Judith L.

2008-01-01

Purpose: 1) Understand and measure JSC workplace health: a) levels, sources, indicators & effects of negative, work-related stress; b) define leading indicators of emerging issues. 2 Provide linkage to outcomes: a) Focus application of wellness strategies & HR tools; b) Increase quality of work life and productivity. 3) Current effort will result in: a) Online assessment tool; b) Assessment of total JSC population (civil service & contractors); c) Application of mitigation tools and strategies. 4) Product of the JSC Employee Wellness Program. 5) Collaboration with Corporate Health Improvement Program/University of Arizona.

Recent progress of TAMA300

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Arai, K.; TAMA Collaboration

2008-07-01

Current effort of the TAMA project is focused on establishment of the interferometer operation with a new vibration isolation system, called 'Seismic Attenuation System' (SAS). The SAS employs a multiple stage structure to realize soft spring for all of directions, as well as utilizes active control systems to stabilize mechanical resonances in the low frequency region below 1 Hz. The SASs were installed for four test masses, resulting in improvement of cavity length fluctuation below 150 Hz. We describe the structure of the SAS and its local active control system, and the status of the interferometer.

Development and applications of single particle orientation and rotational tracking in dynamic systems

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Chen, Kuangcai

The goal of this study is to help with future data analysis and experiment designs in rotational dynamics research using DIC-based SPORT technique. Most of the current studies using DIC-based SPORT techniques are technical demonstrations. Understanding the mechanisms behind the observed rotational behaviors of the imaging probes should be the focus of the future SPORT studies. More efforts are still needed in the development of new imaging probes, particle tracking methods, instrumentations, and advanced data analysis methods to further extend the potential of DIC-based SPORT technique.

Solar Drivers for Space Weather Operations (Invited)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

White, S. M.

2013-12-01

Most space weather effects can be tied back to the Sun, and major research efforts are devoted to understanding the physics of the relevant phenomena with a long-term view of predicting their occurrence. This talk will focus on the current state of knowledge regarding the solar drivers of space weather, and in particular the connection between the science and operational needs. Topics covered will include the effects of solar ionizing flux on communications and navigation, radio interference, flare forecasting, the solar wind and the arrival of coronal mass ejections at Earth.

Electronic Cigarette Use and Exposure in the Pediatric Population

PubMed Central

Collaco, Joseph M.; Drummond, M. Bradley; McGrath-Morrow, Sharon A.

2017-01-01

Electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) use has gained recent widespread popularity and acceptance in the general population. What effect e-cigarettes may have on pediatric health remains unknown. Although many jurisdictions have laws that prevent the sale of e-cigarettes to minors and the use of e-cigarettes in public places, infants, children, and adolescents are increasingly exposed to them. In this pediatric-focused review, we discuss the history of these devices, user demographics, known health effects, and current legislative efforts to protect minors from exposure. PMID:25546699

Regeneration and replacement in the vertebrate inner ear.

PubMed

Matsui, Jonathan I; Parker, Mark A; Ryals, Brenda M; Cotanche, Douglas A

2005-10-01

Deafness affects more than 40 million people in the UK and the USA, and many more world-wide. The primary cause of hearing loss is damage to or death of the sensory receptor cells in the inner ear, the hair cells. Birds can readily regenerate their cochlear hair cells but the mammalian cochlea has shown no ability to regenerate after damage. Current research efforts are focusing on gene manipulation, gene therapy and stem cell transplantation for repairing or replacing damaged mammalian cochlear hair cells, which could lead to therapies for treating deafness in humans.

One Size Fits All Assessment of the National Space based Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Strategy

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-06-01

segregation. By reframing the problem to focus on competition’s impacts and by assessing the admissibility of solutions in the context of system...community and the joint force commanders. I believe this approach is posing problems , and those problems are going to get worse as we look to the... problems ” which will only “get worse as we look to the future?”14 This work began as an effort to assess the extent to which the current national overhead

Progress in amorphous silicon based large-area multijunction modules

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Carlson, D. E.; Arya, R. R.; Bennett, M.; Chen, L.-F.; Jansen, K.; Li, Y.-M.; Maley, N.; Morris, J.; Newton, J.; Oswald, R. S.; Rajan, K.; Vezzetti, D.; Willing, F.; Yang, L.

1996-01-01

Solarex, a business unit of Amoco/Enron Solar, is scaling up its a-Si:H/a-SiGe:H tandem device technology for the production of 8 ft2 modules. The current R&D effort is focused on improving the performance, reliability and cost-effectiveness of the tandem junction technology by systematically optimizing the materials and interfaces in small-area single- and tandem junction cells. Average initial conversion efficiencies of 8.8% at 85% yield have been obtained in pilot production runs with 4 ft2 tandem modules.

A Variable Diameter Short Haul Civil Tiltrotor

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wang, James M.; Jones, Christopher T.; Nixon, Mark W.

1999-01-01

The Short-Haul-Civil-tiltrotor (SHCT) component of the NASA Aviation System Capacity Program is an effort to develop the technologies needed for a potential 40-passenger civil tiltrotor. The variable diameter tiltrotor (VDTR) is a Sikorsky concept aimed at improving tiltrotor hover and cruise performance currently limited by disk loading that is much higher in hover than conventional helicopter, and much lower in cruise than turbo-prop systems. This paper describes the technical merits of using a VDTR on a SHCT aircraft. The focus will be the rotor design.

Physiology of Hyperuricemia and Urate-Lowering Treatments.

PubMed

Benn, Caroline L; Dua, Pinky; Gurrell, Rachel; Loudon, Peter; Pike, Andrew; Storer, R Ian; Vangjeli, Ciara

2018-01-01

Gout is the most common form of inflammatory arthritis and is a multifactorial disease typically characterized by hyperuricemia and monosodium urate crystal deposition predominantly in, but not limited to, the joints and the urinary tract. The prevalence of gout and hyperuricemia has increased in developed countries over the past two decades and research into the area has become progressively more active. We review the current field of knowledge with emphasis on active areas of hyperuricemia research including the underlying physiology, genetics and epidemiology, with a focus on studies which suggest association of hyperuricemia with common comorbidities including cardiovascular disease, renal insufficiency, metabolic syndrome and diabetes. Finally, we discuss current therapies and emerging drug discovery efforts aimed at delivering an optimized clinical treatment strategy.

The effects of bariatric surgery: will understanding its mechanism render the knife unnecessary?

PubMed

Browning, Kirsteen N; Hajnal, Andras

2014-01-01

The incidence of obesity is increasing worldwide at a dramatic rate, accompanied by an associated increase in comorbid conditions. Bariatric surgery is the most effective treatment for morbid obesity with Roux-en-Y gastric bypass being the most commonly performed procedure, yet the underlying mechanisms by which it induces a wide-array of beneficial effects remains obscure. From basic science as well as clinical standpoints, there are several areas of current interest that warrant continued investigation. Several major focus areas have also emerged in current research that may guide future efforts in this field, particularly with regards to using novel, non-surgical approaches to mimic the success of bariatric surgery while minimizing its adverse side effects.

Host-Directed Therapeutics as a Novel Approach for Tuberculosis Treatment.

PubMed

Kim, Ye-Ram; Yang, Chul-Su

2017-09-28

Despite significant efforts to improve the treatment of tuberculosis (TB), it remains a prevalent infectious disease worldwide owing to the limitations of current TB therapeutic regimens. Recent work on novel TB treatment strategies has suggested that directly targeting host factors may be beneficial for TB treatment. Such strategies, termed host-directed therapeutics (HDTs), focus on host-pathogen interactions. HDTs may be more effective than the currently approved TB drugs, which are limited by the long durations of treatment needed and the emergence of drug-resistant strains. Targets of HDTs include host factors such as cytokines, immune checkpoints, immune cell functions, and essential enzyme activities. This review article discusses examples of potentially promising HDTs and introduces novel approaches for their development.

Shuttle Gaseous Hydrogen Venting Risk from Flow Control Valve Failure

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Drummond, J. Philip; Baurle, Robert A.; Gafney, Richard L.; Norris, Andrew T.; Pellett, Gerald L.; Rock, Kenneth E.

2009-01-01

This paper describes a series of studies to assess the potential risk associated with the failure of one of three gaseous hydrogen flow control valves in the orbiter's main propulsion system during the launch of Shuttle Endeavour (STS-126) in November 2008. The studies focused on critical issues associated with the possibility of combustion resulting from release of gaseous hydrogen from the external tank into the atmosphere during assent. The Shuttle Program currently assumes hydrogen venting from the external tank will result in a critical failure. The current effort was conducted to increase understanding of the risk associated with venting hydrogen given the flow control valve failure scenarios being considered in the Integrated In-Flight Anomaly Investigation being conducted by NASA.

Miniature Biometric Sensor Project

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Falker, John; Terrier, Douglas; Clayton, Ronald; Hanson, Andrea; Cooper, Tommy; Downs, Meghan; Flint, Stephanie; Reyna, Baraquiel; Simon, Cory; Wilt, Grier

2015-01-01

Heart rate monitoring (HRM) is a critical need during exploration missions. Unlike the four separate systems used on ISS today, the single HRM system should perform as a diagnostic tool, perform well during exercise or high level activity, and be suitable for use during EVA. Currently available HRM technologies are dependent on uninterrupted contact with the skin and are prone to data drop-out and motion artifact when worn in the spacesuit or during exercise. Here, we seek an alternative to the chest strap and electrode based sensors currently in use on ISS today. This project aims to develop a single, high performance, robust biosensor with focused efforts on improved heart rate data quality collection during high intensity activity such as exercise or EVA.

Validation Test Results for Orthogonal Probe Eddy Current Thruster Inspection System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wincheski, Russell A.

2007-01-01

Recent nondestructive evaluation efforts within NASA have focused on an inspection system for the detection of intergranular cracking originating in the relief radius of Primary Reaction Control System (PCRS) Thrusters. Of particular concern is deep cracking in this area which could lead to combustion leakage in the event of through wall cracking from the relief radius into an acoustic cavity of the combustion chamber. In order to reliably detect such defects while ensuring minimal false positives during inspection, the Orthogonal Probe Eddy Current (OPEC) system has been developed and an extensive validation study performed. This report describes the validation procedure, sample set, and inspection results as well as comparing validation flaws with the response from naturally occuring damage.

Scenarios, personas and user stories from design ethnography: Evidence-based design representations of communicable disease investigations

PubMed Central

Turner, Anne M; Reeder, Blaine; Ramey, Judith

2014-01-01

Purpose Despite years of effort and millions of dollars spent to create a unified electronic communicable disease reporting systems, the goal remains elusive. A major barrier has been a lack of understanding by system designers of communicable disease (CD) work and the public health workers who perform this work. This study reports on the application of User Center Design representations, traditionally used for improving interface design, to translate the complex CD work identified through ethnographic studies to guide designers and developers of CD systems. The purpose of this work is to: (1) better understand public health practitioners and their information workflow with respect to communicable disease (CD) monitoring and control at a local health department, and (2) to develop evidence-based design representations that model this CD work to inform the design of future disease surveillance systems. Methods We performed extensive onsite semi-structured interviews, targeted work shadowing and a focus group to characterize local health department communicable disease workflow. Informed by principles of design ethnography and user-centered design (UCD) we created persona, scenarios and user stories to accurately represent the user to system designers. Results We sought to convey to designers the key findings from ethnographic studies: 1) that public health CD work is mobile and episodic, in contrast to current CD reporting systems, which are stationary and fixed 2) health department efforts are focused on CD investigation and response rather than reporting and 3) current CD information systems must conform to PH workflow to ensure their usefulness. In an effort to illustrate our findings to designers, we developed three contemporary design-support representations: persona, scenario, and user story. Conclusions Through application of user centered design principles, we were able to create design representations that illustrate complex public health communicable disease workflow and key user characteristics to inform the design of CD information systems for public health. PMID:23618996

Scenarios, personas and user stories: user-centered evidence-based design representations of communicable disease investigations.

PubMed

Turner, Anne M; Reeder, Blaine; Ramey, Judith

2013-08-01

Despite years of effort and millions of dollars spent to create unified electronic communicable disease reporting systems, the goal remains elusive. A major barrier has been a lack of understanding by system designers of communicable disease (CD) work and the public health workers who perform this work. This study reports on the application of user-centered design representations, traditionally used for improving interface design, to translate the complex CD work identified through ethnographic studies to guide designers and developers of CD systems. The purpose of this work is to: (1) better understand public health practitioners and their information workflow with respect to CD monitoring and control at a local health agency, and (2) to develop evidence-based design representations that model this CD work to inform the design of future disease surveillance systems. We performed extensive onsite semi-structured interviews, targeted work shadowing and a focus group to characterize local health agency CD workflow. Informed by principles of design ethnography and user-centered design we created persona, scenarios and user stories to accurately represent the user to system designers. We sought to convey to designers the key findings from ethnographic studies: (1) public health CD work is mobile and episodic, in contrast to current CD reporting systems, which are stationary and fixed, (2) health agency efforts are focused on CD investigation and response rather than reporting and (3) current CD information systems must conform to public health workflow to ensure their usefulness. In an effort to illustrate our findings to designers, we developed three contemporary design-support representations: persona, scenario, and user story. Through application of user-centered design principles, we were able to create design representations that illustrate complex public health communicable disease workflow and key user characteristics to inform the design of CD information systems for public health. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

MO-C-12A-01: Quantitative Imaging Initiatives: Why, Who, What, and How?

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Sullivan, D; Jackson, E; Clarke, L

Over the past decade, there has been an increasing focus on quantitative imaging (QI), which, according to one definition, is “the extraction of quantifiable features from medical images for the assessment of normal or the severity, degree of change, or status of a disease, injury, or chronic condition relative to normal” ( www.rsna.org/QIBA ). To achieve the goals of QI requires the development and standardization of data acquisition, data analysis, and data display techniques, as well as appropriate reporting structures. As such, successful implementation of QI relies heavily on expertise from the fields of medical physics, radiology, statistics, and informaticsmore » as well as collaboration from vendors of imaging acquisition, analysis, and reporting systems. When successfully implemented, QI techniques will provide image-derived metrics with known bias and variance that can be validated with anatomically and physiologically relevant measures, including treatment response, and the heterogeneity of that response, and outcome. Such non-invasive measures can then be used effectively in clinical and translational research as well as patient care. In addition to modality-specific QI efforts implemented by individual scientific organizations, national and international organizations, including the NCI, RSNA, FDA, and NIST, appreciating the tremendous potential of QI but also understanding the associated challenges, have become increasingly involved. This symposium session will focus on 1) introducing QI and illustrating why it is important, even though challenging, in both research and clinical applications, and 2) providing overviews of QI efforts from national and international organizations, including the RSNA, NCI, FDA, and NIST. Learning Objectives: Understand the importance and potential of QI in research and clinical applications. Understand key challenges of QI and current barriers to implementation. Understand the current QI efforts of several national and international agencies and organizations, including the FDA, NCI, NIST, and RSNA.« less

The NASA Constellation University Institutes Project: Thrust Chamber Assembly Virtual Institute

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tucker, P. Kevin; Rybak, Jeffry A.; Hulka, James R.; Jones, Gregg W.; Nesman, Tomas; West, Jeffrey S.

2006-01-01

This paper documents key aspects of the Constellation University Institutes Project (CUIP) Thrust Chamber Assembly (TCA) Virtual Institute (VI). Specifically, the paper details the TCA VI organizational and functional aspects relative to providing support for Constellation Systems. The TCA VI vision is put forth and discussed in detail. The vision provides the objective and approach for improving thrust chamber assembly design methodologies by replacing the current empirical tools with verified and validated CFD codes. The vision also sets out ignition, performance, thermal environments and combustion stability as focus areas where application of these improved tools is required. Flow physics and a study of the Space Shuttle Main Engine development program are used to conclude that the injector is the key to robust TCA design. Requirements are set out in terms of fidelity, robustness and demonstrated accuracy of the design tool. Lack of demonstrated accuracy is noted as the most significant obstacle to realizing the potential of CFD to be widely used as an injector design tool. A hierarchical decomposition process is outlined to facilitate the validation process. A simulation readiness level tool used to gauge progress toward the goal is described. Finally, there is a description of the current efforts in each focus area. The background of each focus area is discussed. The state of the art in each focus area is noted along with the TCA VI research focus in the area. Brief highlights of work in the area are also included.

The Heliopause Electrostatic Rapid Transit System (HERTS) Design, Trades, and Analyses Performed in the First Year of a Two Year Investigation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wiegmann, Bruce M.

2016-01-01

The Heliopause Electrostatic Rapid Transit System (HERTS)1 was one of the seven total Phase II NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) that was down-selected in 2015 for continued funding and research. In Phase I we learned that a spacecraft propelled by an Electric Sail (E-Sail) can travel great astronomical distances, such as to the Heliopause region of the solar system (approx.100 to 120 AU) in approximately one quarter of the time (10 years) versus the time it took the Voyager spacecraft launched in 1977 (36 years). The current work within the Phase II NIAC effort builds upon the work that was done in the Phase I NIAC and is focused on: 1) Testing of plasma interaction with a charged wire in a unique MSFC test chamber, 2) Development of a Particle-in-Cell (PIC) models that are validated in the plasma testing and used to extrapolate to the E-Sail propulsion system design. 3) Further down select of a wire deployment and control approach from those narrowed down in the Phase I effort. This paper will document the findings to date (June, 2016) of the above focused areas.

The Environmental Protection Agency's Community-Focused Exposure and Risk Screening Tool (C-FERST) and its potential use for environmental justice efforts.

PubMed

Zartarian, Valerie G; Schultz, Bradley D; Barzyk, Timothy M; Smuts, Marybeth; Hammond, Davyda M; Medina-Vera, Myriam; Geller, Andrew M

2011-12-01

Our primary objective was to provide higher quality, more accessible science to address challenges of characterizing local-scale exposures and risks for enhanced community-based assessments and environmental decision-making. After identifying community needs, priority environmental issues, and current tools, we designed and populated the Community-Focused Exposure and Risk Screening Tool (C-FERST) in collaboration with stakeholders, following a set of defined principles, and considered it in the context of environmental justice. C-FERST is a geographic information system and resource access Web tool under development for supporting multimedia community assessments. Community-level exposure and risk research is being conducted to address specific local issues through case studies. C-FERST can be applied to support environmental justice efforts. It incorporates research to develop community-level data and modeled estimates for priority environmental issues, and other relevant information identified by communities. Initial case studies are under way to refine and test the tool to expand its applicability and transferability. Opportunities exist for scientists to address the many research needs in characterizing local cumulative exposures and risks and for community partners to apply and refine C-FERST.

How do feelings influence effort? An empirical study of entrepreneurs' affect and venture effort.

PubMed

Foo, Maw-Der; Uy, Marilyn A; Baron, Robert A

2009-07-01

How do feelings influence the effort of entrepreneurs? To obtain data on this issue, the authors implemented experience sampling methodology in which 46 entrepreneurs used cell phones to provide reports on their affect, future temporal focus, and venture effort twice daily for 24 days. Drawing on the affect-as-information theory, the study found that entrepreneurs' negative affect directly predicts entrepreneurs' effort toward tasks that are required immediately. Results were consistent for within-day and next-day time lags. Extending the theory, the study found that positive affect predicts venture effort beyond what is immediately required and that this relationship is mediated by future temporal focus. The mediating effects were significant only for next-day outcomes. Implications of findings on the nature of the affect-effort relationship for different time lags are discussed.

MASTODON: A geosciences simulation tool built using the open-source framework MOOSE

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Slaughter, A.

2017-12-01

The Department of Energy (DOE) is currently investing millions of dollars annually into various modeling and simulation tools for all aspects of nuclear energy. An important part of this effort includes developing applications based on the open-source Multiphysics Object Oriented Simulation Environment (MOOSE; mooseframework.org) from Idaho National Laboratory (INL).Thanks to the efforts of the DOE and outside collaborators, MOOSE currently contains a large set of physics modules, including phase field, level set, heat conduction, tensor mechanics, Navier-Stokes, fracture (extended finite-element method), and porous media, among others. The tensor mechanics and contact modules, in particular, are well suited for nonlinear geosciences problems. Multi-hazard Analysis for STOchastic time-DOmaiN phenomena (MASTODON; https://seismic-research.inl.gov/SitePages/Mastodon.aspx)--a MOOSE-based application--is capable of analyzing the response of 3D soil-structure systems to external hazards with current development focused on earthquakes. It is capable of simulating seismic events and can perform extensive "source-to-site" simulations including earthquake fault rupture, nonlinear wave propagation, and nonlinear soil-structure interaction analysis. MASTODON also includes a dynamic probabilistic risk assessment capability that enables analysts to not only perform deterministic analyses, but also easily perform probabilistic or stochastic simulations for the purpose of risk assessment. Although MASTODON has been developed for the nuclear industry, it can be used to assess the risk for any structure subjected to earthquakes.The geosciences community can learn from the nuclear industry and harness the enormous effort underway to build simulation tools that are open, modular, and share a common framework. In particular, MOOSE-based multiphysics solvers are inherently parallel, dimension agnostic, adaptive in time and space, fully coupled, and capable of interacting with other applications. The geosciences community could benefit from existing tools by enabling collaboration between researchers and practitioners throughout the world and advance the state-of-the-art in line with other scientific research efforts.

Using aquatic vegetation to remediate nitrate, ammonium, and soluble reactive phosphorus in simulated runoff

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Within the agriculturally-intensive Mississippi River Basin of the United States, significant conservation efforts have focused on management practices that reduce nutrient runoff into receiving aquatic ecosystems. Only a small fraction of those efforts have focused on phytoremediation techniques. ...

DOD Financial Management: Improvements Needed in the Navys Audit Readiness Efforts for Fund Balance with Treasury

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-08-01

prioritization of key information technology limits management’s ability to focus audit readiness efforts on the systems with the highest risk...corrective actions for the higher-risk systems first. For an audit readiness plan for key information technology systems, the Navy provided a schedule...prioritization of key information technology systems used in the FBWT process limits management’s ability to focus audit readiness efforts on the most

Early Warning/Track-and-Trigger Systems to Detect Deterioration and Improve Outcomes in Hospitalized Patients.

PubMed

Shiloh, Ariel L; Lominadze, George; Gong, Michelle N; Savel, Richard H

2016-02-01

As a global effort toward improving patient safety, a specific area of focus has been the early recognition and rapid intervention in deteriorating ward patients. This focus on "failure to rescue" has led to the construction of early warning/track-and-trigger systems. In this review article, we present a description of the data behind the creation and implementation of such systems, including multiple algorithms and strategies for deployment. Additionally, the strengths and weaknesses of the various systems and their evaluation in the literature are emphasized. Despite the limitations of the current literature, the potential benefit of these early warning/track-and-trigger systems to improve patient outcomes remains significant. Thieme Medical Publishers 333 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10001, USA.

Amperometric IFN-γ immunosensors with commercially fabricated PCB sensing electrodes.

PubMed

Moschou, Despina; Greathead, Louise; Pantelidis, Panagiotis; Kelleher, Peter; Morgan, Hywel; Prodromakis, Themistoklis

2016-12-15

Lab-on-a-Chip (LoC) technology has the potential to revolutionize medical Point-of-Care diagnostics. Currently, considerable research efforts are focused on innovative production technologies that will make commercial upscaling of lab-on-chip products financially viable. Printed circuit board (PCB) manufacturing techniques have several advantages in this field. In this paper we focus on transferring a complete IFN-γ enzyme-linked immune-sorbent assay (ELISA) onto a commercial PCB electrochemical biosensing platform, We adapted a commercially available ELISA to detect the enzyme product TMB/H2O2 using amperometry, successfully reproducing the colorimetry-obtained ELISA standard curve. The results demonstrate the potential for the integration of these components into an automated, disposable, electronic ELISA Lab-on-PCB diagnostic platform. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Overview of NASA Iodine Hall Thruster Propulsion System Development

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Smith, Timothy D.; Kamhawi, Hani; Hickman, Tyler; Haag, Thomas; Dankanich, John; Polzin, Kurt; Byrne, Lawrence; Szabo, James

2016-01-01

NASA is continuing to invest in advancing Hall thruster technologies for implementation in commercial and government missions. The most recent focus has been on increasing the power level for large-scale exploration applications. However, there has also been a similar push to examine applications of electric propulsion for small spacecraft in the range of 300 kg or less. There have been several recent iodine Hall propulsion system development activities performed by the team of the NASA Glenn Research Center, the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, and Busek Co. Inc. In particular, the work focused on qualification of the Busek 200-W BHT-200-I and development of the 600-W BHT-600-I systems. This paper discusses the current status of iodine Hall propulsion system developments along with supporting technology development efforts.

Health financing options for Fiji's health system.

PubMed

Pande, Madhukar

2003-09-01

Fiji is currently implementing health care reforms with the first phase of reforms focusing on decentralization of the health system. Part of this effort focuses on looking at financing options. Some options for financing health care include private health insurance, social insurance, community financing, user-pays system (out-of-pocket), health savings accounts, government taxation and subsidies, and overseas loans and aid funding. This paper addresses all these options in detail and provides an analysis into each of these options relevance to Fiji and in some instances to other nations in the South Pacific region. Given the relative small populations of Fiji and its neighbouring nations, a regional approach to financing could prove more viable in the longer-term, however political, social, economic, legal and cultural issues will need to seriously explored.

The Pathologist Workforce in the United States: II. An Interactive Modeling Tool for Analyzing Future Qualitative and Quantitative Staffing Demands for Services.

PubMed

Robboy, Stanley J; Gupta, Saurabh; Crawford, James M; Cohen, Michael B; Karcher, Donald S; Leonard, Debra G B; Magnani, Barbarajean; Novis, David A; Prystowsky, Michael B; Powell, Suzanne Z; Gross, David J; Black-Schaffer, W Stephen

2015-11-01

Pathologists are physicians who make diagnoses based on interpretation of tissue and cellular specimens (surgical/cytopathology, molecular/genomic pathology, autopsy), provide medical leadership and consultation for laboratory medicine, and are integral members of their institutions' interdisciplinary patient care teams. To develop a dynamic modeling tool to examine how individual factors and practice variables can forecast demand for pathologist services. Build and test a computer-based software model populated with data from surveys and best estimates about current and new pathologist efforts. Most pathologists' efforts focus on anatomic (52%), laboratory (14%), and other direct services (8%) for individual patients. Population-focused services (12%) (eg, laboratory medical direction) and other professional responsibilities (14%) (eg, teaching, research, and hospital committees) consume the rest of their time. Modeling scenarios were used to assess the need to increase or decrease efforts related globally to the Affordable Care Act, and specifically, to genomic medicine, laboratory consolidation, laboratory medical direction, and new areas where pathologists' expertise can add value. Our modeling tool allows pathologists, educators, and policy experts to assess how various factors may affect demand for pathologists' services. These factors include an aging population, advances in biomedical technology, and changing roles in capitated, value-based, and team-based medical care systems. In the future, pathologists will likely have to assume new roles, develop new expertise, and become more efficient in practicing medicine to accommodate new value-based delivery models.

Defining Team Effort Involved in Patient Care from the Primary Care Physician's Perspective.

PubMed

Hwang, Andrew S; Atlas, Steven J; Hong, Johan; Ashburner, Jeffrey M; Zai, Adrian H; Grant, Richard W; Hong, Clemens S

2017-03-01

A better understanding of the attributes of patients who require more effort to manage may improve risk adjustment approaches and lead to more efficient resource allocation, improved patient care and health outcomes, and reduced burnout in primary care clinicians. To identify and characterize high-effort patients from the physician's perspective. Cohort study. Ninety-nine primary care physicians in an academic primary care network. From a list of 100 randomly selected patients in their panels, PCPs identified patients who required a high level of team-based effort and patients they considered complex. For high-effort patients, PCPs indicated which factors influenced their decision: medical/care coordination, behavioral health, and/or socioeconomic factors. We examined differences in patient characteristics based on PCP-defined effort and complexity. Among 9594 eligible patients, PCPs classified 2277 (23.7 %) as high-effort and 2676 (27.9 %) as complex. Behavioral health issues were the major driver of effort in younger patients, while medical/care coordination issues predominated in older patients. Compared to low-effort patients, high-effort patients were significantly (P < 0.01 for all) more likely to have higher rates of medical (e.g. 23.2 % vs. 6.3 % for diabetes) and behavioral health problems (e.g. 9.8 % vs. 2.9 % for substance use disorder), more frequent primary care visits (10.9 vs. 6.0 visits), and higher acute care utilization rates (25.8 % vs. 7.7 % for emergency department [ED] visits and 15.0 % vs. 3.9 % for hospitalization). Almost one in five (18 %) patients who were considered high-effort were not deemed complex by the same PCPs. Patients defined as high-effort by their primary care physicians, not all of whom were medically complex, appear to have a high burden of psychosocial issues that may not be accounted for in current chronic disease-focused risk adjustment approaches.

Overview of NASA GRC Stirling Technology Development

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schreiber, Jeffrey; Thieme, Lanny

2003-01-01

The Stirling Radioisotope Generator (SRG) is currently being developed by Lockheed Martin Astronautics (LMA) under contract to the Depar1ment of Energy (DOE). The generator will be a high efficiency electric power source for NASA Space Science missions with the capability to operate in the vacuum of deep space or in an atmosphere such as on the surface of Mars. High system efficiency is obtained through the use of free-piston Stirling power conversion technology. Power output of the generator will be greater than 100 watts at the beginning of life with the decline in power being largely due to the decay of the plutonium heat source. In suppOl1 of the DOE SRG project, the NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) has established a near-term technology effort to provide some of the critical data to ensure a successful transition to flight for what will be the first dynamic power system used in space. Initially, a limited number of technical areas were selected for the GRC effort, however this is now being expanded to more thoroughly cover a range of technical issues. The tasks include in-house testing of Stirling convertors and controllers, materials evaluation and heater head life assessment, structural dynamics, electromagnetic interference, organics evaluation, and reliability analysis. Most of these high-level tasks have several subtasks within. There is also an advanced technology effort that is complementary near-term technology effort. Many of the tests make use of the 55-We Technology Demonstration Convel10r (TDC). There have been multiple controller tests to support the LMA flight controller design effort. Preparation is continuing for a thermal/vacuum system demonstration. A pair of flight prototype TDC's have recently been placed on an extended test with unattended, continuous operation. Heater head life assessment efforts continue, with the material data being refined and the analysis moving toward the system perspective. Long-term magnet aging tests are continuing to characterize any possible aging in the strength or demagnetization resistance of the permanent magnets used in the linear alternator. In a parallel effort, higher performance magnets are also being evaluated. A reliability effort is being initiated that will help to guide the development activities with an increased focus on the necessary components and subsystems. Some other disciplines that are active in the GRC technology effort include structural dynamics, linear alternator analysis, EMI/EMC, controls, and mechanical design evaluation. This paper will provide an overview of some of the GRC technical efforts, including the current status, and a description of future efforts.

Collaborative Efforts Driving Progress in Pediatric Acute Myeloid Leukemia

PubMed Central

Zwaan, C. Michel; Kolb, Edward A.; Reinhardt, Dirk; Abrahamsson, Jonas; Adachi, Souichi; Aplenc, Richard; De Bont, Eveline S.J.M.; De Moerloose, Barbara; Dworzak, Michael; Gibson, Brenda E.S.; Hasle, Henrik; Leverger, Guy; Locatelli, Franco; Ragu, Christine; Ribeiro, Raul C.; Rizzari, Carmelo; Rubnitz, Jeffrey E.; Smith, Owen P.; Sung, Lillian; Tomizawa, Daisuke; van den Heuvel-Eibrink, Marry M.; Creutzig, Ursula; Kaspers, Gertjan J.L.

2015-01-01

Diagnosis, treatment, response monitoring, and outcome of pediatric acute myeloid leukemia (AML) have made enormous progress during the past decades. Because AML is a rare type of childhood cancer, with an incidence of approximately seven occurrences per 1 million children annually, national and international collaborative efforts have evolved. This overview describes these efforts and includes a summary of the history and contributions of each of the main collaborative pediatric AML groups worldwide. The focus is on translational and clinical research, which includes past, current, and future clinical trials. Separate sections concern acute promyelocytic leukemia, myeloid leukemia of Down syndrome, and relapsed AML. A plethora of novel antileukemic agents that have emerged, including new classes of drugs, are summarized as well. Finally, an important aspect of the treatment of pediatric AML—supportive care—and late effects are discussed. The future is bright, with a wide range of emerging innovative therapies and with more and more international collaboration that ultimately aim to cure all children with AML, with fewer adverse effects and without late effects. PMID:26304895

Teaching adaptive leadership to family medicine residents: what? why? how?

PubMed

Eubank, Daniel; Geffken, Dominic; Orzano, John; Ricci, Rocco

2012-09-01

Health care reform calls for patient-centered medical homes built around whole person care and healing relationships. Efforts to transform primary care practices and deliver these qualities have been challenging. This study describes one Family Medicine residency's efforts to develop an adaptive leadership curriculum and use coaching as a teaching method to address this challenge. We review literature that describes a parallel between the skills underlying such care and those required for adaptive leadership. We address two questions: What is leadership? Why focus on adaptive leadership? We then present a synthesis of leadership theories as a set of process skills that lead to organization learning through effective work relationships and adaptive leadership. Four models of the learning process needed to acquire such skills are explored. Coaching is proposed as a teaching method useful for going beyond information transfer to create the experiential learning necessary to acquire the process skills. Evaluations of our efforts to date are summarized. We discuss key challenges to implementing such a curriculum and propose that teaching adaptive leadership is feasible but difficult in the current medical education and practice contexts.

Taking innovative vector control interventions in urban Latin America to scale: lessons learnt from multi-country implementation research.

PubMed

Quintero, Juliana; García-Betancourt, Tatiana; Caprara, Andrea; Basso, Cesar; Garcia da Rosa, Elsa; Manrique-Saide, Pablo; Coelho, Giovanini; Sánchez-Tejeda, Gustavo; Dzul-Manzanilla, Felipe; García, Diego Alejandro; Carrasquilla, Gabriel; Alfonso-Sierra, Eduardo; Monteiro Vasconcelos Motta, Cyntia; Sommerfeld, Johannes; Kroeger, Axel

2017-09-01

Prior to the current public health emergency following the emergence of chikungunya and Zika Virus Disease in the Americas during 2014 and 2015, multi-country research investigated between 2011 and 2013 the efficacy of novel Aedes aegypti intervention packages through cluster randomised controlled trials in four Latin-American cities: Fortaleza (Brazil); Girardot (Colombia), Acapulco (Mexico) and Salto (Uruguay). Results from the trials led to a scaling up effort of the interventions at city levels. Scaling up refers to deliberate efforts to increase the impact of successfully tested health interventions to benefit more people and foster policy and program development in a sustainable way. The different scenarios represent examples for  a 'vertical approach' and a 'horizontal approach'. This paper presents the analysis of a preliminary process evaluation of the scaling up efforts in the mentioned cites, with a focus on challenges and enabling factors encountered by the research teams, analysing the main social, political, administrative, financial and acceptance factors.

Collaborative Efforts Driving Progress in Pediatric Acute Myeloid Leukemia.

PubMed

Zwaan, C Michel; Kolb, Edward A; Reinhardt, Dirk; Abrahamsson, Jonas; Adachi, Souichi; Aplenc, Richard; De Bont, Eveline S J M; De Moerloose, Barbara; Dworzak, Michael; Gibson, Brenda E S; Hasle, Henrik; Leverger, Guy; Locatelli, Franco; Ragu, Christine; Ribeiro, Raul C; Rizzari, Carmelo; Rubnitz, Jeffrey E; Smith, Owen P; Sung, Lillian; Tomizawa, Daisuke; van den Heuvel-Eibrink, Marry M; Creutzig, Ursula; Kaspers, Gertjan J L

2015-09-20

Diagnosis, treatment, response monitoring, and outcome of pediatric acute myeloid leukemia (AML) have made enormous progress during the past decades. Because AML is a rare type of childhood cancer, with an incidence of approximately seven occurrences per 1 million children annually, national and international collaborative efforts have evolved. This overview describes these efforts and includes a summary of the history and contributions of each of the main collaborative pediatric AML groups worldwide. The focus is on translational and clinical research, which includes past, current, and future clinical trials. Separate sections concern acute promyelocytic leukemia, myeloid leukemia of Down syndrome, and relapsed AML. A plethora of novel antileukemic agents that have emerged, including new classes of drugs, are summarized as well. Finally, an important aspect of the treatment of pediatric AML--supportive care--and late effects are discussed. The future is bright, with a wide range of emerging innovative therapies and with more and more international collaboration that ultimately aim to cure all children with AML, with fewer adverse effects and without late effects. © 2015 by American Society of Clinical Oncology.

Chlamydia trachomatis screening in young women.

PubMed

Baraitser, Paula; Alexander, Sarah; Sheringham, Jessica

2011-10-01

As the number of chlamydia screening programmes implemented worldwide increases, we summarize current understanding of the epidemiology, natural history, and management of chlamydia, focusing on screening in young women. Chlamydia diagnoses continue to rise, with young women at high risk. Recently published trials show that the risk of serious reproductive health outcomes is lower than previously thought. They illustrate that significant barriers - both practical and cultural - remain to engaging young people and health professionals in routine testing for sexually transmitted infections. Chlamydia control efforts have driven innovative approaches to testing including new approaches to engaging young people in discussions of sexual health and screening accessed via the Internet. Chlamydia is highly prevalent among young women and may cause serious reproductive sequelae. Gaps in our knowledge of the epidemiology, natural history and immunology of this organism continue to hamper efforts to control it. Sexual health promotion and screening of young people remain the mainstay of population control, although there is as yet no strong evidence of health screening benefits. Control efforts will require new strategies to engage young people and health professionals to normalize sexual health testing. (C) 2011 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Inc.

Design and Preliminary Testing of a High Performance Antiproton Trap (HiPAT)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Martin, James; Meyer, Kirby; Kramer, Kevin; Smith, Gerald; Lewis, Raymond; Rodgers, Stephen L. (Technical Monitor)

2000-01-01

Antimatter represents the pinnacle of energy density, offering the potential to enhance current fusion/fission concepts enabling various classes of deep space missions. Current production rates are sufficient to support proof-of-concept evaluation of many key technologies associated with antimatter-derived propulsion. Storage has been identified as a key enabling technology for all antimatter-related operations, and as such is the current focus of this NASA-MSFC effort to design and fabricate a portable device capable of holding up to 10(exp 12) particles. Hardware has been assembled and initial tests are underway to evaluate the trap behavior using electron gun generated, positive hydrogen ions. Ions have been stored for tens of minutes, limited by observed interaction with background gas. Additionally, radio frequency manipulation is being tested to increase lifetime by stabilizing the stored particles, potentially reducing their interaction with background gas, easing requirements on ultimate trap vacuum and precision mechanical alignment.

Lipids: From Chemical Structures, Biosynthesis, and Analyses to Industrial Applications.

PubMed

Li-Beisson, Yonghua; Nakamura, Yuki; Harwood, John

2016-01-01

Lipids are one of the major subcellular components, and play numerous essential functions. As well as their physiological roles, oils stored in biomass are useful commodities for a variety of biotechnological applications including food, chemical feedstocks, and fuel. Due to their agronomic as well as economic and societal importance, lipids have historically been subjected to intensive studies. Major current efforts are to increase the energy density of cell biomass, and/or create designer oils suitable for specific applications. This chapter covers some basic aspects of what one needs to know about lipids: definition, structure, function, metabolism and focus is also given on the development of modern lipid analytical tools and major current engineering approaches for biotechnological applications. This introductory chapter is intended to serve as a primer for all subsequent chapters in this book outlining current development in specific areas of lipids and their metabolism.

Water in exoplanets.

PubMed

Tinetti, Giovanna; Tennyson, Jonathan; Griffith, Caitlin A; Waldmann, Ingo

2012-06-13

Exoplanets--planets orbiting around stars other than our own Sun--appear to be common. Significant research effort is now focused on the observation and characterization of exoplanet atmospheres. Species such as water vapour, methane, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide have been observed in a handful of hot, giant, gaseous planets, but cooler, smaller planets such as Gliese 1214b are now analysable with current telescopes. Water is the key chemical dictating habitability. The current observations of water in exoplanets from both space and the ground are reviewed. Controversies surrounding the interpretation of these observations are discussed. Detailed consideration of available radiative transfer models and linelists are used to analyse these differences in interpretation. Models suggest that there is a clear need for data on the pressure broadening of water transitions by H(2) at high temperatures. The reported detections of water appear to be robust, although final confirmation will have to await the better quality observational data provided by currently planned dedicated space missions.

(U) Equation of State and Compaction Modeling for CeO 2

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Fredenburg, David A.; Chisolm, Eric D.

2014-10-20

Recent efforts have focused on developing a solid-liquid and three-phase equation of state (EOS) for CeO 2, while parallel experimental efforts have focused on obtaining high-fidelity Hugoniot measurements on CeO 2 in the porous state. The current work examines the robustness of two CeO 2 SESAME equations of state, a solid-liquid EOS, 96170, and a three-phase EOS, 96171, by validating the EOS against a suite of high-pressure shock compression experiments on initially porous CeO 2. At lower pressures compaction is considered by incorporating a two-term exponential form of the P-compaction model, using three separate definitions for α(P). Simulations are executedmore » spanning the partially compacted and fully compacted EOS regimes over the pressure range 0.5 - 109 GPa. Comparison of calculated Hugoniot results with those obtained experimentally indicate good agreement for all definitions of α(P) with both the solid-liquid and three-phase EOS in the low-pressure compaction regime. At higher pressures the three-phase EOS does a better job at predicting the measured Hugoniot response, though at the highest pressures EOS 96171 predicts a less compliant response than is observed experimentally. Measured material velocity profiles of the shock-wave after it has transmitted through the powder are also compared with those simulated using with solid-liquid and three-phase EOS. Profiles lend insight into limits of the current experimental design, as well as the threshold conditions for the shock-induced phase transition in CeO 2.« less

The Canadian Preterm Birth Network: a study protocol for improving outcomes for preterm infants and their families

PubMed Central

Shah, Prakesh S.; McDonald, Sarah D.; Barrett, Jon; Synnes, Anne; Robson, Kate; Foster, Jonathan; Pasquier, Jean-Charles; Joseph, K.S.; Piedboeuf, Bruno; Lacaze-Masmonteil, Thierry; O'Brien, Karel; Shivananda, Sandesh; Chaillet, Nils; Pechlivanoglou, Petros

2018-01-01

Background: Preterm birth (birth before 37 wk of gestation) occurs in about 8% of pregnancies in Canada and is associated with high mortality and morbidity rates that substantially affect infants, their families and the health care system. Our overall goal is to create a transdisciplinary platform, the Canadian Preterm Birth Network (CPTBN), where investigators, stakeholders and families will work together to improve childhood outcomes of preterm neonates. Methods: Our national cohort will include 24 maternal-fetal/obstetrical units, 31 neonatal intensive care units and 26 neonatal follow-up programs across Canada with planned linkages to provincial health information systems. Three broad clusters of projects will be undertaken. Cluster 1 will focus on quality-improvement efforts that use the Evidence-based Practice for Improving Quality method to evaluate information from the CPTBN database and review the current literature, then identify potentially better health care practices and implement identified strategies. Cluster 2 will assess the impact of current practices and practice changes in maternal, perinatal and neonatal care on maternal, neonatal and neurodevelopmental outcomes. Cluster 3 will evaluate the effect of preterm birth on babies, their families and the health care system by integrating CPTBN data, parent feedback, and national and provincial database information in order to identify areas where more parental support is needed, and also generate robust estimates of resource use, cost and cost-effectiveness around preterm neonatal care. Interpretation: These collaborative efforts will create a flexible, transdisciplinary, evaluable and informative research and quality-improvement platform that supports programs, projects and partnerships focused on improving outcomes of preterm neonates. PMID:29348260

The elderly on dialysis: some considerations in compliance.

PubMed

McKevitt, P M; Jones, J F; Lane, D A; Marion, R R

1990-10-01

Compliance with scheduled treatments, dietary and fluid restrictions, and multiple medications is an important component in the care and well-being of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients. Given the rigorus and complex demands of dialysis, it is important to examine the issue of compliance, focusing on a large and ever-increasing segment of our patient population, the elderly. The ESRD literature reflects efforts to define and measure levels of compliance, identify factors that influence and predict compliance, and develop intervention strategies to improve adherence to treatment regimens. While limited attention has been focused specifically on the elderly, there are studies suggesting that age may be a factor associated with improved adherence and that social support may be a significant contributor to compliance in this patient group. In an effort to examine the current status and needs of the dialysis elderly, research is in progress at Chromalloy American Kidney Center, Washington University, which replicates a study of 5 years ago. Eighty-four patients age 60 and over, on dialysis for a minimum of 6 months, were identified. Sociodemographic, treatment, compliance, and functional capacity data were collected; additional mental and psychological testing was completed on patients willing and able to participate. Preliminary data suggest the current elderly population is larger and significantly older than that of 5 years ago. Other sociodemographic data indicate the population is increasingly female, black, and more socioeconomically disadvantaged. In regard to compliance, the vast majority of elderly demonstrate good compliance as measured by serum potassium, fair to good compliance with phosphorus, and fair to poor compliance with fluid restrictions.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Vulnerability of breeding waterbirds to climate change in the Prairie Pothole Region, U.S.A.

PubMed

Steen, Valerie; Skagen, Susan K; Noon, Barry R

2014-01-01

The Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) of the north-central U.S. and south-central Canada contains millions of small prairie wetlands that provide critical habitat to many migrating and breeding waterbirds. Due to their small size and the relatively dry climate of the region, these wetlands are considered at high risk for negative climate change effects as temperatures increase. To estimate the potential impacts of climate change on breeding waterbirds, we predicted current and future distributions of species common in the PPR using species distribution models (SDMs). We created regional-scale SDMs for the U.S. PPR using Breeding Bird Survey occurrence records for 1971-2011 and wetland, upland, and climate variables. For each species, we predicted current distribution based on climate records for 1981-2000 and projected future distributions to climate scenarios for 2040-2049. Species were projected to, on average, lose almost half their current habitat (-46%). However, individual species projections varied widely, from +8% (Upland Sandpiper) to -100% (Wilson's Snipe). Variable importance ranks indicated that land cover (wetland and upland) variables were generally more important than climate variables in predicting species distributions. However, climate variables were relatively more important during a drought period. Projected distributions of species responses to climate change contracted within current areas of distribution rather than shifting. Given the large variation in species-level impacts, we suggest that climate change mitigation efforts focus on species projected to be the most vulnerable by enacting targeted wetland management, easement acquisition, and restoration efforts.

Gene Therapy Models of Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Dementias

PubMed Central

Combs, Benjamin; Kneynsberg, Andrew; Kanaan, Nicholas M.

2016-01-01

Dementias are among the most common neurological disorders, and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia worldwide. AD remains a looming health crisis despite great efforts to learn the mechanisms surrounding the neuron dysfunction and neurodegeneration that accompanies AD primarily in the medial temporal lobe. In addition to AD, a group of diseases known as frontotemporal dementias (FTDs) are degenerative diseases involving atrophy and degeneration in the frontal and temporal lobe regions. Importantly, AD and a number of FTDs are collectively known as tauopathies due to the abundant accumulation of pathological tau inclusions in the brain. The precise role tau plays in disease pathogenesis remains an area of strong research focus. A critical component to effectively study any human disease is the availability of models that recapitulate key features of the disease. Accordingly, a number of animal models are currently being pursued to fill the current gaps in our knowledge of the causes of dementias and to develop effective therapeutics. Recent developments in gene therapy-based approaches, particularly in recombinant adeno-associated viruses (rAAVs), have provided new tools to study AD and other related neurodegenerative disorders. Additionally, gene therapy approaches have emerged as an intriguing possibility for treating these diseases in humans. This chapter explores the current state of rAAV models of AD and other dementias, discuss recent efforts to improve these models, and describe current and future possibilities in the use of rAAVs and other viruses in treatments of disease. PMID:26611599

Understanding current causes of women's underrepresentation in science.

PubMed

Ceci, Stephen J; Williams, Wendy M

2011-02-22

Explanations for women's underrepresentation in math-intensive fields of science often focus on sex discrimination in grant and manuscript reviewing, interviewing, and hiring. Claims that women scientists suffer discrimination in these arenas rest on a set of studies undergirding policies and programs aimed at remediation. More recent and robust empiricism, however, fails to support assertions of discrimination in these domains. To better understand women's underrepresentation in math-intensive fields and its causes, we reprise claims of discrimination and their evidentiary bases. Based on a review of the past 20 y of data, we suggest that some of these claims are no longer valid and, if uncritically accepted as current causes of women's lack of progress, can delay or prevent understanding of contemporary determinants of women's underrepresentation. We conclude that differential gendered outcomes in the real world result from differences in resources attributable to choices, whether free or constrained, and that such choices could be influenced and better informed through education if resources were so directed. Thus, the ongoing focus on sex discrimination in reviewing, interviewing, and hiring represents costly, misplaced effort: Society is engaged in the present in solving problems of the past, rather than in addressing meaningful limitations deterring women's participation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics careers today. Addressing today's causes of underrepresentation requires focusing on education and policy changes that will make institutions responsive to differing biological realities of the sexes. Finally, we suggest potential avenues of intervention to increase gender fairness that accord with current, as opposed to historical, findings.

Overview of NASA GRC Stirling Technology Development

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schreiber, Jeffrey G.; Thieme, Lanny G.

2004-01-01

The Stirling Radioisotope Generator (SRG) is currently being developed by Lockheed Martin Astronautics (LMA) under contract to the Department of Energy (DOE). The generator will be a high efficiency electric power source for NASA Space Science missions with the ability to operate in vacuum or in an atmosphere such as on Mars. High efficiency is obtained through the use of free-piston Stirling power conversion. Power output will be greater than 100 watts at the beginning of life with the decline in power largely due to the decay of the plutonium heat source. In support of the DOE SRG project, the NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) has established a technology effort to provide data to ensure a successful transition to flight for what will be the first dynamic power system in space. Initially, a limited number of areas were selected for the effort, however this is now being expanded to more thoroughly cover key technical issues. There is also an advanced technology effort that is complementary to the near-term technology effort. Many of the tests use the 55-We Technology Demonstration Convertor (TDC). There have been multiple controller tests to support the LMA flight controller design effort. Preparation is continuing for a thermal/vacuum system demonstration. A pair of flight prototype TDC s have been placed on continuous operation. Heater head life assessment continues, with the material data being refined and the analysis moving toward the system perspective. Magnet aging tests continue to characterize any possible aging in the strength or demagnetization resistance of the magnets in the linear alternator. A reliability effort has been initiated to help guide the development activities with focus on the key components and subsystems. This paper will provide an overview of some of the GRC technical efforts, including the status, and a description of future efforts.

U.S. Congress Considers Hurricane Research Bills

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Von Holle, Kate

2007-07-01

Legislation currently being considered by both the U.S. House and Senate would create a National Hurricane Research Initiative. The legislation was developed in response to a January 2007 U.S. National Science Board report,"Hurricane warning: The critical need for a National Hurricane Research Initiative." Both bills require the hurricane research initiative to set objectives in order to make recommendations to the National Science Board and to assemble U.S. science and engineering expertise through an interagency effort designed to bring together the latest research focusing on infrastructure, forecasting, and mitigating impacts on coastal populations. The bills also require the initiative to set objectives for making grants for hurricane research on a variety of topics, ranging from hurricane dynamics to improving emergency communications networks. Coordination of the interagency effort would fall under the jurisdiction of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Development of quality measures for monitoring and improving care in gastroenterology.

PubMed

Germansky, Katharine A; Leffler, Daniel A

2011-06-01

Over the past decade, most quality assurance (QA) efforts in gastroenterology have been aimed at endoscopy. Endoscopic quality improvement was the rational area to begin QA work in gastroenterology due to the relatively acute nature of complications and the high volume of procedures performed. While endoscopy is currently the focus of most quality assurance (QA) measures in gastroenterology, more recent efforts have begun to address clinical gastroenterology practices both in the outpatient and inpatient settings. Clinical outpatient and inpatient gastroenterology is laden with areas where standardization could benefit patient care. While data and experience in clinical gastroenterology QA is relatively limited, it is clear that inconsistent use of guidelines and practice variations in gastroenterology can lead to lower quality care. In this review, we review a variety of areas in clinical gastroenterology where existing guidelines and published data suggest both the need and practicality of active QA measures. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Evaluation of routine depopulation, cleaning, and disinfection procedures in the live bird markets, New York.

PubMed

Trock, Susan C; Gaeta, Michelle; Gonzalez, Annette; Pederson, Janice C; Senne, Dennis A

2008-03-01

During the past years surveillance for avian influenza has been conducted in the live bird markets (LBMs) in New York as well as other states along the east coast. Repeated attempts to eradicate H5 and H7 influenza from the New York markets have focused efforts on the LBMs themselves. Despite repeated mandatory market closures accompanied by cleaning and disinfecting (C/D) procedures, avian influenza virus continued to be isolated. In an effort to assess the adequacy of the C/D procedure, samples were collected in temporal proximity to the depopulation and C/D. Comparison of the pre-C/D (83% virus positive), at C/D approval (1.6% positive) and post-C/D testing (33% positive) indicate that the current procedures of C/D can be effective at eliminating these influenza viruses. However, reinfection via introduction of influenza-virus-positive birds can occur shortly after the market reopens.

Emerging issues in public health genomics

PubMed Central

Roberts, J. Scott

2014-01-01

This review highlights emerging areas of interest in public health genomics. First, recent advances in newborn screening (NBS) are described, with a focus on practice and policy implications of current and future efforts to expand NBS programs (e.g., via next-generation sequencing). Next, research findings from the rapidly progressing field of epigenetics and epigenomics are detailed, highlighting ways in which our emerging understanding in these areas could guide future intervention and research efforts in public health. We close by considering various ethical, legal and social issues posed by recent developments in public health genomics; these include policies to regulate access to personal genomic information; the need to enhance genetic literacy in both health professionals and the public; and challenges in ensuring that the benefits (and burdens) from genomic discoveries and applications are equitably distributed. Needs for future genomics research that integrates across basic and social sciences are also noted. PMID:25184533

KANSAS WIND POWERING AMERICAN STATE OUTREACH: KANSAS WIND WORKING GROUP

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

HAMMARLUND, RAY

2010-10-27

The Kansas Wind Working Group (WWG) is a 33-member group announced by former Governor Kathleen Sebelius on Jan. 7, 2008. Formed through Executive Order 08-01, the WWG will educate stakeholder groups with the current information on wind energy markets, technologies, economics, policies, prospects and issues. Governor Mark Parkinson serves as chair of the Kansas Wind Working Group. The group has been instrumental in focusing on the elements of government and coordinating government and private sector efforts in wind energy development. Those efforts have moved Kansas from 364 MW of wind three years ago to over 1000 MW today. Further, themore » Wind Working Group was instrumental in fleshing out issues such as a state RES and net metering, fundamental parts of HB 2369 that was passed and is now law in Kansas. This represents the first mandatory RES and net metering in Kansas history.« less

Cardiovascular Disease Prevention: Training Opportunities, the Challenges, and Future Directions.

PubMed

Saeed, Anum; Dabhadkar, Kaustubh; Virani, Salim S; Jones, Peter H; Ballantyne, Christie M; Nambi, Vijay

2018-05-21

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, necessitating major efforts in prevention. This review summarizes the currently available training opportunities in CVD prevention for fellows-in-training (FITs) and residents. We also highlight the challenges and future directions for CVD prevention as a field and propose a structure for an inclusive CVD prevention training program. At present, there is a lack of centralized training resources for FITs and residents interested in pursuing a career in CVD prevention. Training in CVD prevention is not an accredited subspecialty fellowship by the American Council of Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). Although there are several independent training programs under the broad umbrella of CVD prevention focusing on different aspects of prevention, there is no unified curriculum or training. More collaborative efforts are needed to identify CVD prevention as an ACGME-accredited subspecialty fellowship. Providing more resources can encourage and produce more leaders in this essential field.

NASA-DoD Lower Process Temperature Lead-Free Solder Project Overview

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kessel, Kurt R.

2014-01-01

This project is a follow-on effort to the Joint Council on Aging AircraftJoint Group on Pollution Prevention (JCAAJG-PP) Pb-free Solder Project and NASA-DoD Lead-Free Electronics Project which were the first projects to test the reliability of Pb-free solder joints against the requirements of the aerospace and military community. This effort would continue to build on the results from the JCAAJG-PP Lead-Free Solder Project and NASA-DoD Lead-Free Electronics Project while focusing on a particular failure mechanism currently plaguing Pb-free assemblies, pad cratering.The NASA-DoD Lead-Free Electronics Project confirmed that pad cratering is one of the dominant failure modes that occur in various board level reliability tests, especially under dynamic loading. Pad Cratering is a latent defect that may occur during assembly, rework, and post assembly handling and testing.

Family violence.

PubMed

Emery, R E

1989-02-01

Researchers and policymakers have begun to recognize the extent and severity of family violence in recent years, particularly its effects on children. Despite a flurry of research, however, there is much disagreement about the definition of violence, its development, the consequences for victims, and the most effective avenues for intervention. Similar conceptual, methodological, and practical problems are faced by those working in the areas of physical child abuse, child sex abuse, and child witnesses to spouse abuse. In further research on these complex problems, researchers are encouraged to use operational definitions that avoid terms like abuse and violence, to focus new efforts on emotional mediators of violent actions, to evaluate the effects of violence on the entire family system, and to redouble efforts to conduct systematic outcome research. Those professionals who are currently responsible for intervention are encouraged to use definitions of and responses to family violence that match those used for assaults between strangers.

THE CHALLENGING ROLE OF A READING COACH, A CAUTIONARY TALE.

PubMed

Al Otaiba, Stephanie; Hosp, John L; Smartt, Susan; Dole, Janice A

2008-04-01

The purpose of this case study is to describe the challenges one coach faced during the initial implementation of a coaching initiative involving 33 teachers in an urban, high-poverty elementary school. Reading coaches are increasingly expected to play a key role in the professional development efforts to improve reading instruction in order to improve reading achievement for struggling readers. Data sources included initial reading scores for kindergarten and first-graders, pretest and posttest scores of teachers' knowledge, a teacher survey, focus group interviews, project documents, and field notes. Data were analyzed using a mixed methods approach. Findings revealed several challenges that have important implications for research and practice: that teachers encountered new information about teaching early reading that conflicted with their current knowledge, this new information conflicted with their core reading program, teachers had differing perceptions of the role of the reading coach that affected their feelings about the project, and reform efforts are time-intensive.

A strategy to improve priority setting in developing countries.

PubMed

Kapiriri, Lydia; Martin, Douglas K

2007-09-01

Because the demand for health services outstrips the available resources, priority setting is one of the most difficult issues faced by health policy makers, particularly those in developing countries. Priority setting in developing countries is fraught with uncertainty due to lack of credible information, weak priority setting institutions, and unclear priority setting processes. Efforts to improve priority setting in these contexts have focused on providing information and tools. In this paper we argue that priority setting is a value laden and political process, and although important, the available information and tools are not sufficient to address the priority setting challenges in developing countries. Additional complementary efforts are required. Hence, a strategy to improve priority setting in developing countries should also include: (i) capturing current priority setting practices, (ii) improving the legitimacy and capacity of institutions that set priorities, and (iii) developing fair priority setting processes.

Potential External (non-DOE) Constraints on U.S. Fuel Cycle Options

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Steven J. Piet

2012-07-01

The DOE Fuel Cycle Technologies (FCT) Program will be conducting a screening of fuel cycle options in FY2013 to help focus fuel cycle R&D activities. As part of this screening, performance criteria and go/no-go criteria are being identified. To help ensure that these criteria are consistent with current policy, an effort was initiated to identify the status and basis of potentially relevant regulations, laws, and policies that have been established external to DOE. As such regulations, laws, and policies may be beyond DOE’s control to change, they may constrain the screening criteria and internally-developed policy. This report contains a historicalmore » survey and analysis of publically available domestic documents that could pertain to external constraints on advanced nuclear fuel cycles. “External” is defined as public documents outside DOE. This effort did not include survey and analysis of constraints established internal to DOE.« less

Safety and health in biomass production, transportation, and storage: a commentary based on the biomass and biofuels session at the 2013 North American Agricultural Safety Summit.

PubMed

Yoder, Aaron M; Schwab, Charles; Gunderson, Paul; Murphy, Dennis

2014-01-01

There is significant interest in biomass production ranging from government agencies to the private sector, both inside and outside of the traditional production agricultural setting. This interest has led to an increase in the development and production of biomass crops. Much of this effort has focused on specific segments of the process, and more specifically on the mechanics of these individual segments. From a review of scientific literature, it is seen that little effort has been put into identifying, classifying and preventing safety hazards in on-farm biomass production systems. This commentary describes the current status of the knowledge pertaining to health and safety factors of biomass production and storage in the US and identifies areas of standards development that the biomass industry needs from the agricultural safety and health community.

Integrated Science: Florida Manatees and Everglades Hydrology

USGS Publications Warehouse

Langtimm, Catherine A.; Swain, Eric D.; Stith, Bradley M.; Reid, James P.; Slone, Daniel H.; Decker, Jeremy; Butler, Susan M.; Doyle, Terry; Snow, R.W.

2009-01-01

Predicting and monitoring restoration effects on Florida manatees, which are known to make extended movements, will be incomplete if modeling and monitoring are limited to the smaller areas defined by the various res-toration components. U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) efforts, thus far, have focused on (1) collecting manatee movement data throughout the Ten Thousand Islands (TTI) region, and (2) developing an individual-based model for manatees to illustrate manatee responses to changes in hydrology related to the Picayune Strand Restoration Project (PSRP). In 2006, new regional research was begun to extend an Everglades hydrology model into the TTI region; extend the manatee movement model into the southern estuaries of Everglades National Park (ENP); and integrate hydrology and manatee data, models, and monitoring across the TTI region and ENP. Currently (2008), three research tasks are underway to develop the necessary modeling components to assess restoration efforts across the Greater Everglades Ecosystem.

Building an outpatient imaging center: A case study at genesis healthcare system, part 2.

PubMed

Yanci, Jim

2006-01-01

In the second of 2 parts, this article will focus on process improvement projects utilizing a case study at Genesis HealthCare System located in Zanesville, OH. Operational efficiency is a key step in developing a freestanding diagnostic imaging center. The process improvement projects began with an Expert Improvement Session (EIS) on the scheduling process. An EIS session is a facilitated meeting that can last anywhere from 3 hours to 2 days. Its intention is to take a group of people involved with the problem or operational process and work to understand current failures or breakdowns in the process. Recommendations are jointly developed to overcome any current deficiencies, and a work plan is structured to create ownership over the changes. A total of 11 EIS sessions occurred over the course of this project, covering 5 sections: Scheduling/telephone call process, Pre-registration, Verification/pre-certification, MRI throughput, CT throughput. Following is a single example of a project focused on the process improvement efforts. All of the process improvement projects utilized a quasi methodology of "DMAIC" (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control).

Painting a new picture of personalised medicine for diabetes.

PubMed

McCarthy, Mark I

2017-05-01

The current focus on delivery of personalised (or precision) medicine reflects the expectation that developments in genomics, imaging and other domains will extend our diagnostic and prognostic capabilities, and enable more effective targeting of current and future preventative and therapeutic options. The clinical benefits of this approach are already being realised in rare diseases and cancer but the impact on management of complex diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, remains limited. This may reflect reliance on inappropriate models of disease architecture, based around rare, high-impact genetic and environmental exposures that are poorly suited to our emerging understanding of type 2 diabetes. This review proposes an alternative 'palette' model, centred on a molecular taxonomy that focuses on positioning an individual with respect to the major pathophysiological processes that contribute to diabetes risk and progression. This model anticipates that many individuals with diabetes will have multiple parallel defects that affect several of these processes. One corollary of this model is that research efforts should, at least initially, be targeted towards identifying and characterising individuals whose adverse metabolic trajectory is dominated by perturbation in a restricted set of processes.

Summary of Work for Joint Research Interchanges with DARWIN Integrated Product Team 1998

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hesselink, Lambertus

1999-01-01

The intent of Stanford University's SciVis group is to develop technologies that enabled comparative analysis and visualization techniques for simulated and experimental flow fields. These techniques would then be made available under the Joint Research Interchange for potential injection into the DARWIN Workspace Environment (DWE). In the past, we have focused on techniques that exploited feature based comparisons such as shock and vortex extractions. Our current research effort focuses on finding a quantitative comparison of general vector fields based on topological features. Since the method relies on topological information, grid matching and vector alignment is not needed in the comparison. This is often a problem with many data comparison techniques. In addition, since only topology based information is stored and compared for each field, there is a significant compression of information that enables large databases to be quickly searched. This report will briefly (1) describe current technologies in the area of comparison techniques, (2) will describe the theory of our new method and finally (3) summarize a few of the results.

Summary of Work for Joint Research Interchanges with DARWIN Integrated Product Team

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hesselink, Lambertus

1999-01-01

The intent of Stanford University's SciVis group is to develop technologies that enabled comparative analysis and visualization techniques for simulated and experimental flow fields. These techniques would then be made available un- der the Joint Research Interchange for potential injection into the DARWIN Workspace Environment (DWE). In the past, we have focused on techniques that exploited feature based comparisons such as shock and vortex extractions. Our current research effort focuses on finding a quantitative comparison of general vector fields based on topological features. Since the method relies on topological information, grid matching an@ vector alignment is not needed in the comparison. This is often a problem with many data comparison techniques. In addition, since only topology based information is stored and compared for each field, there is a significant compression of information that enables large databases to be quickly searched. This report will briefly (1) describe current technologies in the area of comparison techniques, (2) will describe the theory of our new method and finally (3) summarize a few of the results.

Implementation of Trauma-Informed Care and Brief Solution-Focused Therapy: A Quality Improvement Project Aimed at Increasing Engagement on an Inpatient Psychiatric Unit.

PubMed

Aremu, Babatunde; Hill, Pamela D; McNeal, Joanne M; Petersen, Mary A; Swanberg, Debbie; Delaney, Kathleen R

2018-03-14

Addressing tense and escalating situations with noncoercive measures is an important element of inpatient psychiatric treatment. Although restraint rates are frequently monitored, the use of pro re nata (PRN) intramuscular (IM) injections to address agitation is also an important indicator. In 2015, at the current study site, a significant increase was noted in PRN IM medication use despite unit leadership's efforts to build a culture of trauma-informed care (TIC). The purpose of the current quality improvement project was to educate staff on methods to incorporate TIC into daily practice and the use of brief solution-focused therapy techniques in escalating situations. Measurement of attitudes toward patient aggression and engagement with patients followed two waves of staff education. Upon completion of the project, a decrease in PRN IM medications, improvement in staff attitudes toward patient aggression, and improved sense of staff competency in handling tense situations were noted. [Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health Services, xx(x), xx-xx.]. Copyright 2018, SLACK Incorporated.

The Structural Heat Intercept-Insulation-Vibration Evaluation Rig (SHIVER)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Johnson, W. L.; Zoeckler, J. G.; Best-Ameen, L. M.

2015-01-01

NASA is currently investigating methods to reduce the boil-off rate on large cryogenic upper stages. Two such methods to reduce the total heat load on existing upper stages are vapor cooling of the cryogenic tank support structure and integration of thick multilayer insulation systems to the upper stage of a launch vehicle. Previous efforts have flown a 2-layer MLI blanket and shown an improved thermal performance, and other efforts have ground-tested blankets up to 70 layers thick on tanks with diameters between 2 3 meters. However, thick multilayer insulation installation and testing in both thermal and structural modes has not been completed on a large scale tank. Similarly, multiple vapor cooled shields are common place on science payload helium dewars; however, minimal effort has gone into intercepting heat on large structural surfaces associated with rocket stages. A majority of the vapor cooling effort focuses on metallic cylinders called skirts, which are the most common structural components for launch vehicles. In order to provide test data for comparison with analytical models, a representative test tank is currently being designed to include skirt structural systems with integral vapor cooling. The tank is 4 m in diameter and 6.8 m tall to contain 5000 kg of liquid hydrogen. A multilayer insulation system will be designed to insulate the tank and structure while being installed in a representative manner that can be extended to tanks up to 10 meters in diameter. In order to prove that the insulation system and vapor cooling attachment methods are structurally sound, acoustic testing will also be performed on the system. The test tank with insulation and vapor cooled shield installed will be tested thermally in the B2 test facility at NASAs Plumbrook Station both before and after being vibration tested at Plumbrooks Space Power Facility.

International Arctic Research Collaborations: Past, Present and Future

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kintisch, E. S.

2015-12-01

International cooperation on Arctic research has a long and storied history, predating even the first International Polar Year in 1881. But scientists want to improve and expand current efforts to conduct international Arctic research, despite politcal and legal barriers that can hamper it. A review of the past and present aspects of such research can inform that effort. As part of a six month fellowship at the Center for Science Diplomacy at the American Association for the Advancement of Science I studied the history and current status of international cooperation in the Arctic. I will report on my findings, which include the fact that some of the first substantial international environmental research and regulatory cooperation began in the far North. My session will identify the elements that make international research collaborations successful, for example more than a century of cooperative work by Russian and Norwegian fishery scientists to monitor and regulate the cod trade in the Barents Sea. And it will explore the challenges that can threaten such collaborations. These can include rules that stymie data collection, block the import of certain analytical equipment across national boundaries, and bar the export of soil or water samples. I will mention specific complications to recent international arctic research projects. These include the SWERUS cruise, a joint effort between Sweden, Russia and the US, an effort to study carbon fluxes over the East Siberian Arctic Shelf in 2014. The session will also review progress towards a new international agreeement, first proposed by the US, on improving arctic research cooperation. That deal is focused on removing the bureacratic and legal barriers to scientists seeking to conduct arctic research on foreign waters and land.

SHARP pre-release v1.0 - Current Status and Documentation

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Mahadevan, Vijay S.; Rahaman, Ronald O.

The NEAMS Reactor Product Line effort aims to develop an integrated multiphysics simulation capability for the design and analysis of future generations of nuclear power plants. The Reactor Product Line code suite’s multi-resolution hierarchy is being designed to ultimately span the full range of length and time scales present in relevant reactor design and safety analyses, as well as scale from desktop to petaflop computing platforms. In this report, building on a several previous report issued in September 2014, we describe our continued efforts to integrate thermal/hydraulics, neutronics, and structural mechanics modeling codes to perform coupled analysis of a representativemore » fast sodium-cooled reactor core in preparation for a unified release of the toolkit. The work reported in the current document covers the software engineering aspects of managing the entire stack of components in the SHARP toolkit and the continuous integration efforts ongoing to prepare a release candidate for interested reactor analysis users. Here we report on the continued integration effort of PROTEUS/Nek5000 and Diablo into the NEAMS framework and the software processes that enable users to utilize the capabilities without losing scientific productivity. Due to the complexity of the individual modules and their necessary/optional dependency library chain, we focus on the configuration and build aspects for the SHARP toolkit, which includes capability to autodownload dependencies and configure/install with optimal flags in an architecture-aware fashion. Such complexity is untenable without strong software engineering processes such as source management, source control, change reviews, unit tests, integration tests and continuous test suites. Details on these processes are provided in the report as a building step for a SHARP user guide that will accompany the first release, expected by Mar 2016.« less

Assessing behavioural and cognitive domains of autism spectrum disorders in rodents: current status and future perspectives.

PubMed

Kas, Martien J; Glennon, Jeffrey C; Buitelaar, Jan; Ey, Elodie; Biemans, Barbara; Crawley, Jacqueline; Ring, Robert H; Lajonchere, Clara; Esclassan, Frederic; Talpos, John; Noldus, Lucas P J J; Burbach, J Peter H; Steckler, Thomas

2014-03-01

The establishment of robust and replicable behavioural testing paradigms with translational value for psychiatric diseases is a major step forward in developing and testing etiology-directed treatment for these complex disorders. Based on the existing literature, we have generated an inventory of applied rodent behavioural testing paradigms relevant to autism spectrum disorders (ASD). This inventory focused on previously used paradigms that assess behavioural domains that are affected in ASD, such as social interaction, social communication, repetitive behaviours and behavioural inflexibility, cognition as well as anxiety behaviour. A wide range of behavioural testing paradigms for rodents were identified. However, the level of face and construct validity is highly variable. The predictive validity of these paradigms is unknown, as etiology-directed treatments for ASD are currently not on the market. To optimise these studies, future efforts should address aspects of reproducibility and take into account data about the neurodevelopmental underpinnings and trajectory of ASD. In addition, with the increasing knowledge of processes underlying ASD, such as sensory information processes and synaptic plasticity, phenotyping efforts should include multi-level automated analysis of, for example, representative task-related behavioural and electrophysiological read-outs.

Additional Developments in Atmosphere Revitalization Modeling and Simulation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Coker, Robert F.; Knox, James C.; Cummings, Ramona; Brooks, Thomas; Schunk, Richard G.

2013-01-01

NASA's Advanced Exploration Systems (AES) program is developing prototype systems, demonstrating key capabilities, and validating operational concepts for future human missions beyond Earth orbit. These forays beyond the confines of earth's gravity will place unprecedented demands on launch systems. They must launch the supplies needed to sustain a crew over longer periods for exploration missions beyond earth's moon. Thus all spacecraft systems, including those for the separation of metabolic carbon dioxide and water from a crewed vehicle, must be minimized with respect to mass, power, and volume. Emphasis is also placed on system robustness both to minimize replacement parts and ensure crew safety when a quick return to earth is not possible. Current efforts are focused on improving the current state-of-the-art systems utilizing fixed beds of sorbent pellets by evaluating structured sorbents, seeking more robust pelletized sorbents, and examining alternate bed configurations to improve system efficiency and reliability. These development efforts combine testing of sub-scale systems and multi-physics computer simulations to evaluate candidate approaches, select the best performing options, and optimize the configuration of the selected approach. This paper describes the continuing development of atmosphere revitalization models and simulations in support of the Atmosphere Revitalization Recovery and Environmental Monitoring (ARREM)

Magnetic Suspension Technology Development

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Britcher, Colin

1998-01-01

This Cooperative Agreement, intended to support focused research efforts in the area of magnetic suspension systems, was initiated between NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) and Old Dominion University (ODU) starting January 1, 1997. The original proposal called for a three-year effort, but funding for the second year proved to be unavailable, leading to termination of the agreement following a 5-month no-cost extension. This report covers work completed during the entire 17-month period of the award. This research built on work that had taken place over recent years involving both NASA LARC and the Principal Investigator (PI). The research was of a rather fundamental nature, although specific applications were kept in mind at all times, such as wind tunnel Magnetic Suspension and Balance Systems (MSBS), space payload pointing and vibration isolation systems, magnetic bearings for unconventional applications, magnetically levitated ground transportation and electromagnetic launch systems. Fundamental work was undertaken in areas such as the development of optimized magnetic configurations, analysis and modelling of eddy current effects, control strategies for magnetically levitated wind tunnel models and system calibration procedures. Despite the termination of this Cooperative Agreement, several aspects of the research work are currently continuing with alternative forms of support.

WISE: Automated support for software project management and measurement. M.S. Thesis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ramakrishnan, Sudhakar

1995-01-01

One important aspect of software development and IV&V is measurement. Unless a software development effort is measured in some way, it is difficult to judge the effectiveness of current efforts and predict future performances. Collection of metrics and adherence to a process are difficult tasks in a software project. Change activity is a powerful indicator of project status. Automated systems that can handle change requests, issues, and other process documents provide an excellent platform for tracking the status of the project. A World Wide Web based architecture is developed for (a) making metrics collection an implicit part of the software process, (b) providing metric analysis dynamically, (c) supporting automated tools that can complement current practices of in-process improvement, and (d) overcoming geographical barrier. An operational system (WISE) instantiates this architecture allowing for the improvement of software process in a realistic environment. The tool tracks issues in software development process, provides informal communication between the users with different roles, supports to-do lists (TDL), and helps in software process improvement. WISE minimizes the time devoted to metrics collection, analysis, and captures software change data. Automated tools like WISE focus on understanding and managing the software process. The goal is improvement through measurement.

Smoking Trends and Disparities Among Black and Non-Hispanic Whites in California

PubMed Central

Felicitas, Jamie; Fagan, Pebbles; Gruder, Charles L.; Blanco, Lyzette; Cappelli, Christopher; Trinidad, Dennis R.

2015-01-01

Objectives: The current study examined disparities in smoking trends across Blacks and non-Hispanic Whites in California. Methods: Data from the 1996 to 2008 California Tobacco Survey were analyzed to examine trends in smoking behaviors and cessation across Blacks and non-Hispanic Whites. Results: A decrease in overall ever and current smoking was observed for both Black and non-Hispanic Whites across the 12-year time period. A striking decrease in proportions of heavy daily smokers for both Black and non-Hispanic Whites were observed. Proportions of light and intermittent smokers and moderate daily smokers displayed modest increases for Blacks, but large increases for non-Hispanic Whites. Increases in successful cessation were also observed for Blacks and, to a lesser extent, for non-Hispanic Whites. Discussion: Smoking behavior and cessation trends across Blacks and non-Hispanic Whites were revealing. The decline in heavy daily and former smokers may demonstrate the success and effectiveness of tobacco control efforts in California. However, the increase in proportions of light and intermittent smokers and moderate daily smokers for both Blacks and non-Hispanic Whites demonstrates a need for tobacco cessation efforts focused on lighter smokers. PMID:25666813

Domestication and Breeding of Tomatoes: What have We Gained and What Can We Gain in the Future?

PubMed Central

Bai, Yuling; Lindhout, Pim

2007-01-01

Background It has been shown that a large variation is present and exploitable from wild Solanum species but most of it is still untapped. Considering the thousands of Solanum accessions in different gene banks and probably even more that are still untouched in the Andes, it is a challenge to exploit the diversity of tomato. What have we gained from tomato domestication and breeding and what can we gain in the future? Scope This review summarizes progress on tomato domestication and breeding and current efforts in tomato genome research. Also, it points out potential challenges in exploiting tomato biodiversity and depicts future perspectives in tomato breeding with the emerging knowledge from tomato-omics. Conclusions From first domestication to modern breeding, the tomato has been continually subjected to human selection for a wide array of applications in both science and commerce. Current efforts in tomato breeding are focused on discovering and exploiting genes for the most important traits in tomato germplasm. In the future, breeders will design cultivars by a process named ‘breeding by design’ based on the combination of science and technologies from the genomic era as well as their practical skills. PMID:17717024

Doping in the recombinant era: strategies and counterstrategies.

PubMed

Azzazy, Hassan M E; Mansour, Mai M H; Christenson, Robert H

2005-11-01

Advances in recombinant DNA technology have created one of the most powerful weapons in the current doping arsenal: recombinant proteins [Sweeney HL. Gene doping. Sci Am 2004;291:62-9; Unal M, Ozer Unal D. Gene doping in sports. Sports Med 2004;34:357-62]. Recombinant erythropoietin (EPO) and human growth hormone (hGH) are currently being abused but are fortunately detectable either directly by employing isoelectric focusing and immunoassays or indirectly by assessing changes in selected hematopoietic parameters. The detection is technically demanding due to the extent of similarity between the recombinant proteins and their endogenous counterparts. Another issue facing detection efforts is the speed and conditions at which blood samples are collected and analyzed in a sports setting. Recently, gene doping, which stemmed out of legitimate gene therapy trials, has emerged as the next level of doping. Erythropoietin (EPO), human growth hormone (hGH), insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-delta (PPAR delta), and myostatin inhibitor genes have been identified as primary targets for doping. Sports clinical scientists today are racing against the clock because assuring the continued integrity of sports competition depends on their ability to outpace the efforts of dopers by developing new detection strategies.

Human engineered heart tissue as a model system for drug testing.

PubMed

Eder, Alexandra; Vollert, Ingra; Hansen, Arne; Eschenhagen, Thomas

2016-01-15

Drug development is time- and cost-intensive and, despite extensive efforts, still hampered by the limited value of current preclinical test systems to predict side effects, including proarrhythmic and cardiotoxic effects in clinical practice. Part of the problem may be related to species-dependent differences in cardiomyocyte biology. Therefore, the event of readily available human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC)-derived cardiomyocytes (CM) has raised hopes that this human test bed could improve preclinical safety pharmacology as well as drug discovery approaches. However, hiPSC-CM are immature and exhibit peculiarities in terms of ion channel function, gene expression, structural organization and functional responses to drugs that limit their present usefulness. Current efforts are thus directed towards improving hiPSC-CM maturity and high-content readouts. Culturing hiPSC-CM as 3-dimensional engineered heart tissue (EHT) improves CM maturity and anisotropy and, in a 24-well format using silicone racks, enables automated, multiplexed high content readout of contractile function. This review summarizes the principal technology and focuses on advantages and disadvantages of this technology and its potential for preclinical drug screening. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Integrated Computational System for Aerodynamic Steering and Visualization

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hesselink, Lambertus

1999-01-01

In February of 1994, an effort from the Fluid Dynamics and Information Sciences Divisions at NASA Ames Research Center with McDonnel Douglas Aerospace Company and Stanford University was initiated to develop, demonstrate, validate and disseminate automated software for numerical aerodynamic simulation. The goal of the initiative was to develop a tri-discipline approach encompassing CFD, Intelligent Systems, and Automated Flow Feature Recognition to improve the utility of CFD in the design cycle. This approach would then be represented through an intelligent computational system which could accept an engineer's definition of a problem and construct an optimal and reliable CFD solution. Stanford University's role focused on developing technologies that advance visualization capabilities for analysis of CFD data, extract specific flow features useful for the design process, and compare CFD data with experimental data. During the years 1995-1997, Stanford University focused on developing techniques in the area of tensor visualization and flow feature extraction. Software libraries were created enabling feature extraction and exploration of tensor fields. As a proof of concept, a prototype system called the Integrated Computational System (ICS) was developed to demonstrate CFD design cycle. The current research effort focuses on finding a quantitative comparison of general vector fields based on topological features. Since the method relies on topological information, grid matching and vector alignment is not needed in the comparison. This is often a problem with many data comparison techniques. In addition, since only topology based information is stored and compared for each field, there is a significant compression of information that enables large databases to be quickly searched. This report will (1) briefly review the technologies developed during 1995-1997 (2) describe current technologies in the area of comparison techniques, (4) describe the theory of our new method researched during the grant year (5) summarize a few of the results and finally (6) discuss work within the last 6 months that are direct extensions from the grant.

Current Concepts in Tissue Engineering: Skin and Wound.

PubMed

Tenenhaus, Mayer; Rennekampff, Hans-Oliver

2016-09-01

Pure regenerative healing with little to no donor morbidity remains an elusive goal for both surgeon and patient. The ability to engineer and promote the development of like tissue holds so much promise, and efforts in this direction are slowly but steadily advancing. Products selected and reviewed reflect historical precedence and importance and focus on current clinically available products in use. Emerging technologies we anticipate will further expand our therapeutic options are introduced. The topic of tissue engineering is incredibly broad in scope, and as such the authors have focused their review on that of constructs specifically designed for skin and wound healing. A review of pertinent and current clinically related literature is included. Products such as biosynthetics, biologics, cellular promoting factors, and commercially available matrices can be routinely found in most modern health care centers. Although to date no complete regenerative or direct identical soft-tissue replacement exists, currently available commercial components have proven beneficial in augmenting and improving some types of wound healing scenarios. Cost, directed specificity, biocompatibility, and bioburden tolerance are just some of the impending challenges to adoption. Quality of life and in fact the ability to sustain life is dependent on our most complex and remarkable organ, skin. Although pure regenerative healing and engineered soft-tissue constructs elude us, surgeons and health care providers are slowly gaining comfort and experience with concepts and strategies to improve the healing of wounds.

Integrating Mercury Science and Policy in the Marine Context: Challenges and Opportunities

PubMed Central

Lambert, Kathleen F.; Evers, David C.; Warner, Kimberly A.; King, Susannah L.; Selin, Noelle E.

2014-01-01

Mercury is a global pollutant and presents policy challenges at local, regional, and global scales. Mercury poses risks to the health of people, fish, and wildlife exposed to elevated levels of mercury, most commonly from the consumption of methylmercury in marine and estuarine fish. The patchwork of current mercury abatement efforts limits the effectiveness of national and multi-national policies. This paper provides an overview of the major policy challenges and opportunities related to mercury in coastal and marine environments, and highlights science and policy linkages of the past several decades. The U.S. policy examples explored here point to the need for a full life cycle approach to mercury policy with a focus on source reduction and increased attention to: (1) the transboundary movement of mercury in air, water, and biota; (2) the coordination of policy efforts across multiple environmental media; (3) the cross-cutting issues related to pollutant interactions, mitigation of legacy sources, and adaptation to elevated mercury via improved communication efforts; and (4) the integration of recent research on human and ecological health effects into benefits analyses for regulatory purposes. Stronger science and policy integration will benefit national and international efforts to prevent, control, and minimize exposure to methylmercury. PMID:22901766

Soil Carbon Variability and Change Detection in the Forest Inventory Analysis Database of the United States

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, A. M.; Nater, E. A.; Dalzell, B. J.; Perry, C. H.

2014-12-01

The USDA Forest Service's Forest Inventory Analysis (FIA) program is a national effort assessing current forest resources to ensure sustainable management practices, to assist planning activities, and to report critical status and trends. For example, estimates of carbon stocks and stock change in FIA are reported as the official United States submission to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. While the main effort in FIA has been focused on aboveground biomass, soil is a critical component of this system. FIA sampled forest soils in the early 2000s and has remeasurement now underway. However, soil sampling is repeated on a 10-year interval (or longer), and it is uncertain what magnitude of changes in soil organic carbon (SOC) may be detectable with the current sampling protocol. We aim to identify the sensitivity and variability of SOC in the FIA database, and to determine the amount of SOC change that can be detected with the current sampling scheme. For this analysis, we attempt to answer the following questions: 1) What is the sensitivity (power) of SOC data in the current FIA database? 2) How does the minimum detectable change in forest SOC respond to changes in sampling intervals and/or sample point density? Soil samples in the FIA database represent 0-10 cm and 10-20 cm depth increments with a 10-year sampling interval. We are investigating the variability of SOC and its change over time for composite soil data in each FIA region (Pacific Northwest, Interior West, Northern, and Southern). To guide future sampling efforts, we are employing statistical power analysis to examine the minimum detectable change in SOC storage. We are also investigating the sensitivity of SOC storage changes under various scenarios of sample size and/or sample frequency. This research will inform the design of future FIA soil sampling schemes and improve the information available to international policy makers, university and industry partners, and the public.

The Role of IT in Campus Sustainability Efforts. An EDUCAUSE White Paper

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Page, Carie

2009-01-01

As the impact of worldwide carbon emissions comes into sharper focus, college and university sustainability efforts are increasingly turning green, focusing on ways to use resources more efficiently, consume less, and reduce campus carbon footprints. Yet, despite the direct impact of IT on institutional carbon levels and the potential for new…

Neural Network Research: A Personal Perspective,

DTIC Science & Technology

1988-03-01

problems in computer science and technology today. Still others do both. Whatever the focus, here isafidred to adre efforts of a wide variety of gifted ...Still others do both. Whatever the focus, here is a field ready to challenge and reward the sustained efforts of a wide variety of gifted people. 14 7eN. a rcb

Community-University Partnerships in University Internship Programs in Indonesia: What Can We Learn from Universities with International Curricula?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anantadjaya, Sam P. D.

2011-01-01

As Indonesian higher education strives to achieve educational excellence, universities with international curricula have become a focus of improvement efforts. Many of these university efforts involve business schools forming partnerships built around internships. Yet, as this focus on internship partnerships becomes more pronounced, many…

77 FR 26511 - Announcing a National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) Workshop

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-05-04

... possible case studies that are expected to form a central focus of collaborative efforts. The workshop will... possible case studies that are expected to form a central focus of collaborative efforts. The workshop will... together experts from industry, government and academia under one roof to develop practical, interoperable...

Restructuring Vocational Special Needs Education through Interdisciplinary Team Effort: Local Motion in the Pacific Basin.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Garnett J.; Stodden, Robert A.

1994-01-01

The Restructuring through Interdisciplinary Team Effort project focuses on changing the culture and structure of vocational special needs education in the Pacific Basin. Its three dimensions are cognitive core (best practices, outcome-focused design, strategic planning); team network of stakeholders; and systemic renewal (school-to-work…

Geometric modeling for computer aided design

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schwing, James L.

1988-01-01

Research focused on two major areas. The first effort addressed the design and implementation of a technique that allows for the visualization of the real time variation of physical properties. The second effort focused on the design and implementation of an on-line help system with components designed for both authors and users of help information.

Clinical Trial Enrollment of Adolescents and Young Adults With Sarcoma

PubMed Central

Davis, Lara E.; Janeway, Katherine A.; Weiss, Aaron R.; Chen, Yen-Lin E.; Scharschmidt, Thomas J.; Krailo, Mark; Glade Bender, Julia L.; Kopp, Lisa M.; Patel, Shreyaskumar R.; Schwartz, Gary K.; Horvath, L. Elise; Hawkins, Douglas S.; Chuk, Meredith K.; Reinke, Denise K.; Gorlick, Richard G.; Randall, R. Lor

2017-01-01

More than half of all sarcomas occur in adolescents and young adults (AYAs) aged 15 to 39 years. After the publication of the AYA series in the April 1, 2016 issue of Cancer, several leaders in the field of sarcoma across disciplines gathered to discuss the status of sarcoma clinical research in AYAs. They determined that a focused effort to include the underrepresented and understudied AYA population in current and future sarcoma clinical trials is overdue. Trial enrichment for AYA-aged sarcoma patients will produce more meaningful results that better represent the disease's biology, epidemiology, and treatment environment. To address the current deficit, this commentary outlines changes believed to be necessary to expediently achieve an increase in the enrollment of AYAs in sarcoma clinical trials. PMID:28493547

Microbial biocatalyst developments to upgrade fossil fuels.

PubMed

Kilbane, John J

2006-06-01

Steady increases in the average sulfur content of petroleum and stricter environmental regulations concerning the sulfur content have promoted studies of bioprocessing to upgrade fossil fuels. Bioprocesses can potentially provide a solution to the need for improved and expanded fuel upgrading worldwide, because bioprocesses for fuel upgrading do not require hydrogen and produce far less carbon dioxide than thermochemical processes. Recent advances have demonstrated that biodesulfurization is capable of removing sulfur from hydrotreated diesel to yield a product with an ultra-low sulfur concentration that meets current environmental regulations. However, the technology has not yet progressed beyond laboratory-scale testing, as more efficient biocatalysts are needed. Genetic studies to obtain improved biocatalysts for the selective removal of sulfur and nitrogen from petroleum provide the focus of current research efforts.

Pharmacogenomics of Cisplatin Sensitivity in Non-small Cell Lung Cancer

PubMed Central

Rose, Maimon C.; Kostyanovskaya, Elina; Huang, R. Stephanie

2014-01-01

Cisplatin, a platinum-based chemotherapeutic drug, has been used for over 30 years in a wide variety of cancers with varying degrees of success. In particular, cisplatin has been used to treat late stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) as the standard of care. However, therapeutic outcomes vary from patient to patient. Considerable efforts have been invested to identify biomarkers that can be used to predict cisplatin sensitivity in NSCLC. Here we reviewed current evidence for cisplatin sensitivity biomarkers in NSCLC. We focused on several key pathways, including nucleotide excision repair, drug transport and metabolism. Both expression and germline DNA variation were evaluated in these key pathways. Current evidence suggests that cisplatin-based treatment could be improved by the use of these biomarkers. PMID:25449594

Neurotechnology for intelligence analysts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kruse, Amy A.; Boyd, Karen C.; Schulman, Joshua J.

2006-05-01

Geospatial Intelligence Analysts are currently faced with an enormous volume of imagery, only a fraction of which can be processed or reviewed in a timely operational manner. Computer-based target detection efforts have failed to yield the speed, flexibility and accuracy of the human visual system. Rather than focus solely on artificial systems, we hypothesize that the human visual system is still the best target detection apparatus currently in use, and with the addition of neuroscience-based measurement capabilities it can surpass the throughput of the unaided human severalfold. Using electroencephalography (EEG), Thorpe et al1 described a fast signal in the brain associated with the early detection of targets in static imagery using a Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP) paradigm. This finding suggests that it may be possible to extract target detection signals from complex imagery in real time utilizing non-invasive neurophysiological assessment tools. To transform this phenomenon into a capability for defense applications, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) currently is sponsoring an effort titled Neurotechnology for Intelligence Analysts (NIA). The vision of the NIA program is to revolutionize the way that analysts handle intelligence imagery, increasing both the throughput of imagery to the analyst and overall accuracy of the assessments. Successful development of a neurobiologically-based image triage system will enable image analysts to train more effectively and process imagery with greater speed and precision.

An Improved Neutron Transport Algorithm for HZETRN2006

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Slaba, Tony

NASA's new space exploration initiative includes plans for long term human presence in space thereby placing new emphasis on space radiation analyses. In particular, a systematic effort of verification, validation and uncertainty quantification of the tools commonly used for radiation analysis for vehicle design and mission planning has begun. In this paper, the numerical error associated with energy discretization in HZETRN2006 is addressed; large errors in the low-energy portion of the neutron fluence spectrum are produced due to a numerical truncation error in the transport algorithm. It is shown that the truncation error results from the narrow energy domain of the neutron elastic spectral distributions, and that an extremely fine energy grid is required in order to adequately resolve the problem under the current formulation. Since adding a sufficient number of energy points will render the code computationally inefficient, we revisit the light-ion transport theory developed for HZETRN2006 and focus on neutron elastic interactions. The new approach that is developed numerically integrates with adequate resolution in the energy domain without affecting the run-time of the code and is easily incorporated into the current code. Efforts were also made to optimize the computational efficiency of the light-ion propagator; a brief discussion of the efforts is given along with run-time comparisons between the original and updated codes. Convergence testing is then completed by running the code for various environments and shielding materials with many different energy grids to ensure stability of the proposed method.

Student service members/veterans on campus: Challenges for reintegration.

PubMed

Borsari, Brian; Yurasek, Ali; Miller, Mary Beth; Murphy, James G; McDevitt-Murphy, Meghan E; Martens, Matthew P; Darcy, Monica G; Carey, Kate B

2017-01-01

Many returning OIF/OEF/OND Veterans are seeking higher education in an effort to develop a meaningful career and financial stability. Evidence suggests that student service members/veterans (SSM/Vs) are experiencing less academic success than other students. The purpose of this review is to identify the unique challenges of SSM/Vs and evaluate current campus efforts to facilitate their retention and academic performance. With a focus on SSM/Vs attending colleges and universities, we obtained 57 peer-reviewed and 73 gray literature records published between 2001 and 2015. The current SSM/V literature contains an abundance of gray literature, and the empirical research tends to be limited by cross-sectional design and small sample sizes. SSM/Vs encounter significant personal and environmental challenges when transitioning from the military to college campuses. A variety of services have been developed to address the needs of the SSM/V population, but the efficacy of these services remains largely unknown. In conclusion, there is a clear need to provide education to faculty, students, and staff regarding the experiences of SSM/Vs. Efforts to enhance screening for, availability of, and SSM/V engagement in mental health services would also be beneficial, as would improved availability of and SSM/V access to academic support. All future programs designed to address the unique challenges of SSM/Vs in the academic environment should also be systematically implemented and evaluated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Building the foundation to generate a fundamental care standardised data set.

PubMed

Jeffs, Lianne; Muntlin Athlin, Asa; Needleman, Jack; Jackson, Debra; Kitson, Alison

2018-06-01

This paper provides an overview of the current state of performance measurement, key trends and a methodological approach to leverage in efforts to generate a standardised data set for fundamental care. Considerable transformation is occurring in health care globally with organisations focusing on achieving the quadruple aim of improving the experience of care, the health of populations, and the experience of providing care while reducing per capita costs of health care. In response, healthcare organisations are employing performance measurement and quality improvement methods to achieve the quadruple aim. Despite the plethora of measures available to health managers, there is no standardised data set and virtually no indicators reflecting how patients actually experience the delivery of fundamental care, such as nutrition, hydration, mobility, respect, education and psychosocial support. Given the linkages of fundamental care to safety and quality metrics, efforts to build the evidence base and knowledge that captures the impact of enacting fundamental care across the healthcare continuum and lifespan should include generating a routinely collected data set of relevant measures. This paper provides an overview of the current state of performance measurement, key trends and a methodological approach to leverage in efforts to generate a standardised data set for fundamental care. Standardised data sets enable comparability of data across clinical populations, healthcare sectors, geographic locations and time and provide data about care to support clinical, administrative and health policy decision-making. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

"Our lives aren't over": A strengths-based perspective on stigma, discrimination, and coping among young parents.

PubMed

Conn, Bridgid Mariko; de Figueiredo, Sophie; Sherer, Sara; Mankerian, Meray; Iverson, Ellen

2018-05-23

The current study conducted interviews and focus groups with twenty-four diverse 16-25 year-old parents to elicit in-depth narratives about experiences related to parenting status. Parents were recruited from a case management program in the Southwestern United States supporting high school graduation and workforce employment (for mothers and fathers, respectively). Young parents disclosed experiences of shame, stigma, and discrimination associated with perceptions about their "fitness" to be a parent and moral judgment. Themes arose that revealed the positive, adaptive ways that participants coped with potentially deleterious experiences with a focus on their role as a parent and role model for their children. Our findings highlight positive meaning-making and resiliency of young parents when confronted with discrimination and systemic barriers, with many participants focusing on the benefits of parenthood within a unique developmental context. Further, implications for program development, provider trainings, and public policy and advocacy efforts for young parents are discussed. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Assessing the acceptability of NORPLANT implants in four countries: findings from focus group research.

PubMed

Zimmerman, M; Haffey, J; Crane, E; Szumowski, D; Alvarez, F; Bhiromrut, P; Brache, V; Lubis, F; Salah, M; Shaaban, M

1990-01-01

In 1986-87, a qualitative research project was conducted in the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Indonesia, and Thailand to expand understanding of the acceptability of NORPLANT contraceptive implants beyond inferences made on the basis of continuation rates. In each of the four study sites, focus group discussions or in-depth interviews were held with potential acceptors, current NORPLANT users, discontinuers, husbands of women in these three groups, and service providers. Nonclinical participants generally had little formal education and lived primarily in urban or semi-urban areas where NORPLANT has been available for at least five years. The study focused on attitudes, perceptions, and experiences of each group regarding NORPLANT implants. Results suggest that factors having an impact on the acceptability of NORPLANT implants fall into three general categories: medical/technical, cultural/religious, and informational/educational. This article discusses each of these categories, including programmatic implications of the findings, and puts forward recommendations for enhancing NORPLANT introduction efforts on the basis of these findings.

Balancing emotion and cognition: a case for decision aiding in conservation efforts.

PubMed

Wilson, Robyn S

2008-12-01

Despite advances in the quality of participatory decision making for conservation, many current efforts still suffer from an inability to bridge the gap between science and policy. Judgment and decision-making research suggests this gap may result from a person's reliance on affect-based shortcuts in complex decision contexts. I examined the results from 3 experiments that demonstrate how affect (i.e., the instantaneous reaction one has to a stimulus) influences individual judgments in these contexts and identified techniques from the decision-aiding literature that help encourage a balance between affect-based emotion and cognition in complex decision processes. In the first study, subjects displayed a lack of focus on their stated conservation objectives and made decisions that reflected their initial affective impressions. Value-focused approaches may help individuals incorporate all the decision-relevant objectives by making the technical and value-based objectives more salient. In the second study, subjects displayed a lack of focus on statistical risk and again made affect-based decisions. Trade-off techniques may help individuals incorporate relevant technical data, even when it conflicts with their initial affective impressions or other value-based objectives. In the third study, subjects displayed a lack of trust in decision-making authorities when the decision involved a negatively affect-rich outcome (i.e., a loss). Identifying shared salient values and increasing procedural fairness may help build social trust in both decision-making authorities and the decision process.

In Vitro Developmental Toxicology Screens: A Report on the Progress of the Methodology and Future Applications.

PubMed

Zhang, Cindy; Ball, Jonathan; Panzica-Kelly, Julie; Augustine-Rauch, Karen

2016-04-18

There has been increasing focus on generation and assessment of in vitro developmental toxicology models for assessing teratogenic liability of chemicals. The driver for this focus has been to find reliable in vitro assays that will reduce or replace the use of in vivo tests for assessing teratogenicity. Such efforts may be eventually applied in testing pharmaceutical agents where a developmental toxicology assay or battery of assays may be incorporated into regulatory testing to replace one of the two species currently used in teratogenic assessment. Such assays may be eventually applied in testing a broader spectrum of chemicals, supporting efforts aligned with Tox21 strategies and responding to REACH legislation. This review describes the developmental toxicology assays that are of focus in these assessments: rodent whole embryo culture, zebrafish embryo assays, and embryonic stem cell assays. Progress on assay development as well as future directions of how these assays are envisioned to be applied for broader safety testing of chemicals are discussed. Altogether, the developmental model systems described in this review provide rich biological systems that can be utilized in better understanding teratogenic mechanisms of action of chemotypes and are promising in providing proactive safety assessment related to developmental toxicity. Continual advancements in refining/optimizing these in vitro assays are anticipated to provide a robust data set to provide thoughtful assessment of how whole animal teratogenicity evaluations can be reduced/refined in the future.

Enhancing the Evidence for Behavioral Counseling

PubMed Central

Alcántara, Carmela; Klesges, Lisa M.; Resnicow, Ken; Stone, Amy; Davidson, Karina W.

2015-01-01

U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) clinical guidelines at present rarely assign the highest grade recommendation to behavioral counseling interventions for chronic disease prevention or risk reduction because of concerns about the certainty and quality of the evidence base. As a result, the broad integration of behavioral counseling interventions in primary care remains elusive. Thus, there is an urgent need for novel perspectives on how to generate the highest-quality and -certainty evidence for primary care–focused behavioral counseling interventions. As members of the Society of Behavioral Medicine (SBM)—a multidisciplinary scientific organization committed to improving population health through behavior change—we review the USPSTF mandate and current recommendations for behavioral counseling interventions, and provide a perspective for the future that calls for concerted and coordinated efforts among SBM, USPSTF, and other organizations invested in the rapid and wider uptake of beneficial, feasible, and referable primary care–focused behavioral counseling interventions. This perspective highlights five areas for further development, including: (1) behavioral counseling–focused practice-based research networks; (2) promotion of USPSTF evidence standards and the increased use of pragmatic RCT design; (3) quality control and improvement procedures for behavioral counseling training; (4) systematic research on effective primary care–based collaborative care models; and (5) methodologic innovations that capitalize on disruptive technologies and healthcare transformation. Collective efforts to improve the health of all Americans in the 21st century and beyond must ensure that effective, feasible, and referable behavioral counseling interventions are embedded in modern primary care practice. PMID:26296553

Learning the landscape: implementation challenges of primary care innovators around cancer survivorship care.

PubMed

O'Malley, Denalee; Hudson, Shawna V; Nekhlyudov, Larissa; Howard, Jenna; Rubinstein, Ellen; Lee, Heather S; Overholser, Linda S; Shaw, Amy; Givens, Sarah; Burton, Jay S; Grunfeld, Eva; Parry, Carly; Crabtree, Benjamin F

2017-02-01

This study describes the experiences of early implementers of primary care-focused cancer survivorship delivery models. Snowball sampling was used to identify innovators. Twelve participants (five cancer survivorship primary care innovators and seven content experts) attended a working conference focused on cancer survivorship population strategies and primary care transformation. Data included meeting discussion transcripts/field notes, transcribed in-depth innovator interviews, and innovators' summaries of care models. We used a multistep immersion/crystallization analytic approach, guided by a primary care organizational change model. Innovative practice models included: (1) a consultative model in a primary care setting; (2) a primary care physician (PCP)-led, blended consultative/panel-based model in an oncology setting; (3) an oncology nurse navigator in a primary care practice; and (4) two subspecialty models where PCPs in a general medical practice dedicated part of their patient panel to cancer survivors. Implementation challenges included (1) lack of key stakeholder buy-in; (2) practice resources allocated to competing (non-survivorship) change efforts; and (3) competition with higher priority initiatives incentivized by payers. Cancer survivorship delivery models are potentially feasible in primary care; however, significant barriers to widespread implementation exist. Implementation efforts would benefit from increasing the awareness and potential value-add of primary care-focused strategies to address survivors' needs. Current models of primary care-based cancer survivorship care may not be sustainable. Innovative strategies to provide quality care to this growing population of survivors need to be developed and integrated into primary care settings.

Coastal circulation and sediment dynamics in Pelekane and Kawaihae Bays, Hawaii--measurements of waves, currents, temperature, salinity, turbidity, and geochronology: November 2010--March 2011

USGS Publications Warehouse

Storlazzi, Curt D.; Field, Michael E.; Presto, M. Katherine; Swarzenski, Peter W.; Logan, Joshua B.; Reiss, Thomas E.; Elfers, Timothy C.; Cochran, Susan A.; Torresan, Michael E.; Chezar, Hank

2012-01-01

Coral reef communities on the Island of Hawaii have been heavily affected by the construction of Kawaihae Harbor in the 1950s and by subsequent changes in land use in the adjacent watershed. Sedimentation and other forms of land-based pollution have led to declines in water quality and coral reef health over the past two decades (Tissot, 1998). Erosion mitigation efforts are underway on land, and there is a need to evaluate the impact of these actions on the adjacent coastal ecosystem. The Kohala Center and Kohala Watershed Partnership was awarded $2.69 million from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Restoration Center as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to stabilize soil and improve land-use practices in the Pelekane Bay watershed. The grant allowed the Kohala Watershed Partnership to implement various upland watershed management activities to reduce land-based sources of pollution into Pelekane Bay. However, a number of questions must be answered in order to: (1) evaluate the effectiveness of the terrestrial watershed remediation efforts; (2) understand the potential of the local marine ecosystem to recover; and (3) understand the potential threat that existing mud deposits in the bay pose to adjacent, relatively pristine coral reef ecosystems. The goal of this experiment was to help address these questions and establish a framework to evaluate the success of the Kohala Watershed Partnership restoration efforts. This research program will also provide resource managers with information relevant to other watershed restoration efforts currently being planned in neighboring watersheds. This project involved an interdisciplinary team of coral reef biologists from the University of Hawaii Coral Reef Assessment and Monitoring Program, who focused on the impact of sedimentation on the biota of Pelekane Bay, and a team of geologists and oceanographers from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), who focused on the circulation and sediment dynamics in Pelekane and Kawaihae Bays. The initial findings from the USGS research program are described in this report. These measurements support the ongoing studies being conducted as part of the USGS Coastal and Marine Geology Program’s Pacific Coral Reef Project to better understand the effect of geologic and oceanographic processes on coral reef systems.

Lost in translation. New unexplored avenues for neuropsychopharmacology: epigenetics and microRNAs.

PubMed

Tardito, Daniela; Mallei, Alessandra; Popoli, Maurizio

2013-02-01

Mood and anxiety disorders are among the major causes of disability worldwide. Despite clear need for better therapies, efforts to develop novel drugs have been relatively unsuccessful. One major reason is lack of translation into neuropsychopharmacology of the impressive recent array of knowledge accrued by clinical and preclinical researches on the brain. Here focus is on epigenetics mechanisms, including microRNAs, which seem particularly promising for the identification of new targets for alternative pharmacological approaches. First, the current knowledge about epigenetic mechanisms, including DNA methylation, posttranslational modification of histone proteins, focusing on histone methylation and acetylation, and posttranscriptional modulation of gene expression by microRNAs is described. Then evidence showing involvement of epigenetics and microRNAs in the pathophysiology of mood and anxiety disorders as well as evidence showing that some of the currently employed antidepressants and mood stabilizers also affect epigenetic and microRNA mechanisms are reviewed. Finally current evidence and novel approaches in favor of drugs regulating epigenetic and microRNA mechanisms as potential therapeutics for these disorders are discussed. Although still in its infancy, research investigating the effects of pharmacological modulation of epigenetic and microRNA mechanisms in neuropsychiatric disorders continues to provide encouraging findings, suggesting new avenues for treatment of mood and anxiety disorders.

Evaluation of Roadmap to Achieve Energy Delivery Systems Cybersecurity

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Chavez, Adrian R.

The Department of Energy/Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability (DOE/OE) Cybersecurity for Energy Delivery Systems (CEDS) program is currently evaluating the Roadmap to Achieve Energy Delivery Systems Cybersecurity document that sets a vision and outlines a set of milestones. The milestones are divided into five strategic focus areas that include: 1. Build a Culture of Security; 2. Assess and Monitor Risk; 3. Develop and Implement New Protective Measures to Reduce Risk; 4. Manage Incidents; and 5. Sustain Security Improvements. The most current version of the roadmap was last updated in September of 2016. Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) has beenmore » tasked with revisiting the roadmap to update the current state of energy delivery systems cybersecurity protections. SNL is currently working with previous and current partners to provide feedback on which of the roadmap milestones have been met and to identify any preexisting or new gaps that are not addressed by the roadmap. The specific focus areas SNL was asked to evaluate are: 1. Develop and Implement New Protective Measures to Reduce Risk and 2. Sustain Security Improvements. SNL has formed an Industry Advisory Board (IAB) to assist in answering these questions. The IAB consists of previous partners on past CEDS funded efforts as well as new collaborators that have unique insights into the current state of cybersecurity within energy delivery systems. The IAB includes asset owners, utilities and vendors of control systems. SNL will continue to maintain regular communications with the IAB to provide various perspectives on potential future updates to further improve the breadth of cybersecurity coverage of the roadmap.« less

Improving X-Ray Optics via Differential Deposition

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kilaru, Kiranmayee; Ramsey, Brian D.; Atkins, Carolyn

2017-01-01

Differential deposition, a post-fabrication figure correction technique, has the potential to significantly improve the imaging quality of grazing-incidence X-ray optics. DC magnetron sputtering is used to selectively coat the mirror in order to minimize the figure deviations. Custom vacuum chambers have been developed at NASA MSFC that will enable the implementation of the deposition on X-ray optics. A factor of two improvement has been achieved in the angular resolution of the full-shell X-ray optics with first stage correction of differential deposition. Current efforts are focused on achieving higher improvements through efficient implementation of differential deposition.

Nuclear Propulsion through Direct Conversion of Fusion Energy: The Fusion Driven Rocket

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Slough, John; Pancotti, Anthony; Kirtley, David; Pihl, Christopher; Pfaff, Michael

2012-01-01

The future of manned space exploration and development of space depends critically on the creation of a dramatically more proficient propulsion architecture for in-space transportation. A very persuasive reason for investigating the applicability of nuclear power in rockets is the vast energy density gain of nuclear fuel when compared to chemical combustion energy. Current nuclear fusion efforts have focused on the generation of electric grid power and are wholly inappropriate for space transportation as the application of a reactor based fusion-electric system creates a colossal mass and heat rejection problem for space application.

CNF Re-Inforced Polymer Composites

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lake, Max L.; Tibbetts, Gary G.; Glasgow, D. Gerald

2004-09-01

In properties of physical size, performance improvement, and production cost, carbon nanofiber (CNF) lies in a spectrum of materials bounded by carbon black, fullerenes, and single wall to multi-wall carbon nanotubes on one end and continuous carbon fiber on the other. Results show promise for use of CNF for modified electrical conductivity of polymer composites. Current compounding efforts focus on techniques for nanofiber dispersion designed to retain nanofiber length, including de-bulking methods and low shear melt processing. Heat treatment of CNF as a postproduction process has also been evaluated for its influence on electrical properties of CNF-reinforced polymer composites.

Clostridium difficile infection: Early history, diagnosis and molecular strain typing methods.

PubMed

Rodriguez, C; Van Broeck, J; Taminiau, B; Delmée, M; Daube, G

2016-08-01

Recognised as the leading cause of nosocomial antibiotic-associated diarrhoea, the incidence of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) remains high despite efforts to improve prevention and reduce the spread of the bacterium in healthcare settings. In the last decade, many studies have focused on the epidemiology and rapid diagnosis of CDI. In addition, different typing methods have been developed for epidemiological studies. This review explores the history of C. difficile and the current scope of the infection. The variety of available laboratory tests for CDI diagnosis and strain typing methods are also examined. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Assessment team report on flight-critical systems research at NASA Langley Research Center

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Siewiorek, Daniel P. (Compiler); Dunham, Janet R. (Compiler)

1989-01-01

The quality, coverage, and distribution of effort of the flight-critical systems research program at NASA Langley Research Center was assessed. Within the scope of the Assessment Team's review, the research program was found to be very sound. All tasks under the current research program were at least partially addressing the industry needs. General recommendations made were to expand the program resources to provide additional coverage of high priority industry needs, including operations and maintenance, and to focus the program on an actual hardware and software system that is under development.

[Ten years of child and adolescent psychiatry in Austria: a new medical speciality within the structures of public health services].

PubMed

Hartl, Charlotte; Karwautz, Andreas

2017-09-01

We discuss the comprehensive work for the development of child and adolescent psychiatry in Austria, summarize the current status of care in various settings and focus on further developments. Intramural care offers about 50% of the places needed and is heterogeneously distributed over the country, extramural care offers already around one quarter of care in need. We calculated a fully developed extramural care system from about 2033. Further development of the Austrian care system in child and adolescent psychiatry needs collaborative efforts of all responsible players.

Enzymatic desulfurization of coal: Third quarterly report

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Marquis, Judith K.; Kitchell, Judith P.

Our current efforts to develop clean coal technology emphasize the advantages of enzymatic desulfurization techniques and have specifically addressed the potential of using partially-purified extracellular microbial enzymes or commercially available enzymes. Our work is focused on the treatment of ''model'' organic sulfur compounds such as dibenzothiophene (DBT) and ethylphenylsulfide (EPS). Furthermore, we are designing experiments to facilitate the enzymatic process by means of a hydrated organic solvent matrix. In this quarter we obtained important results both with the development of our understanding of the enzyme reaction systems and also with the microbial work at Woods Hole. 12 figs., 11 tabs.

Hyper-X Stage Separation: Simulation Development and Results

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Reubush, David E.; Martin, John G.; Robinson, Jeffrey S.; Bose, David M.; Strovers, Brian K.

2001-01-01

This paper provides an overview of stage separation simulation development and results for NASA's Hyper-X program; a focused hypersonic technology effort designed to move hypersonic, airbreathing vehicle technology from the laboratory environment to the flight environment. This paper presents an account of the development of the current 14 degree of freedom stage separation simulation tool (SepSim) and results from use of the tool in a Monte Carlo analysis to evaluate the risk of failure for the separation event. Results from use of the tool show that there is only a very small risk of failure in the separation event.

The devil is in the details: the pharmaceutical industry's use of gifts to physicians as marketing strategy.

PubMed

McFadden, David W; Calvario, Elizabeth; Graves, Cynthia

2007-06-01

Marketing costs exceed 30% of revenues for the pharmaceutical industry, with over 90% of the effort aimed at physicians. Although there are currently unprecedented numbers of regulatory activities focusing on relationships between the pharmaceutical industry and the medical profession, such legislation is often unrecognized or flouted. The potential influence, although minimized by both parties, must not be ignored. Physicians and drug companies will need to re-evaluate their responsibilities to their patients and their shareholders, and both groups should assume proactive and guidance roles in the transformation.