Teaching for Thinking.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Keefe, James W., Ed.; Walberg, Herbert J., Ed.

This volume represents a variety of current efforts to incorporate thought-provoking methods into teaching. There are three sections. "Curriculum Developments" defines key curricular terms and offers a framework and general examples of teaching tactics. In this section, Barbara Presseisen distinguishes thinking from other cognitive…

I-States-as-Objects-Analysis (ISOA): Extensions of an Approach to Studying Short-Term Developmental Processes by Analyzing Typical Patterns

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bergman, Lars R.; Nurmi, Jari-Erik; von Eye, Alexander A.

2012-01-01

I-states-as-objects-analysis (ISOA) is a person-oriented methodology for studying short-term developmental stability and change in patterns of variable values. ISOA is based on longitudinal data with the same set of variables measured at all measurement occasions. A key concept is the "i-state," defined as a person's pattern of variable…

3.8 Proposed approach to uncertainty quantification and sensitivity analysis in the next PA

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

Flach, Greg; Wohlwend, Jen

2017-10-02

This memorandum builds upon Section 3.8 of SRNL (2016) and Flach (2017) by defining key error analysis, uncertainty quantification, and sensitivity analysis concepts and terms, in preparation for the next E-Area Performance Assessment (WSRC 2008) revision.

Microelectronics in Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Orton, Richard J. J.

2011-01-01

The history and meaning of the term "microelectronics" is reviewed, followed by a discussion of the key inventions of the Intel microprocessor in 1971 and the Texas Instruments electronic pocket calculator in 1975. The six characteristic features of microelectronic components are then defined. The UK prime minister Jim Callaghan's…

The symmetry of single-molecule conduction.

PubMed

Solomon, Gemma C; Gagliardi, Alessio; Pecchia, Alessandro; Frauenheim, Thomas; Di Carlo, Aldo; Reimers, Jeffrey R; Hush, Noel S

2006-11-14

We introduce the conductance point group which defines the symmetry of single-molecule conduction within the nonequilibrium Green's function formalism. It is shown, either rigorously or to within a very good approximation, to correspond to a molecular-conductance point group defined purely in terms of the properties of the conducting molecule. This enables single-molecule conductivity to be described in terms of key qualitative chemical descriptors that are independent of the nature of the molecule-conductor interfaces. We apply this to demonstrate how symmetry controls the conduction through 1,4-benzenedithiol chemisorbed to gold electrodes as an example system, listing also the molecular-conductance point groups for a range of molecules commonly used in molecular electronics research.

Case Studies of Non-Formal Education by Distance and Open Learning.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Siaciwena, Richard, Ed.

This document contains seven papers from a study of the role of distance learning approaches in enhancing the contribution of nonformal education to socioeconomic development in Africa. "Introduction" (Richard Siaciwena) presents an overview of the research project and defines key terms related to nonformal education. "Ghana: The…

Glossary for econometrics and epidemiology.

PubMed

Gunasekara, F Imlach; Carter, K; Blakely, T

2008-10-01

Epidemiologists and econometricians are often interested in similar topics-socioeconomic position and health outcomes-but the different languages that epidemiologists and economists use to interpret and discuss their results can create a barrier to mutual communication. This glossary defines key terms used in econometrics and epidemiology to assist in bridging this gap.

Psychological and Pedagogic Support of Children with Health Limitations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ezhovkina, Elena Vasilyevna; Ryabova, Natalia Vladimirovna

2015-01-01

The article represented theoretic analysis of the literature on the problem of psychological and pedagogic support of disabled children. It defined the following terms: a successfully adapting disabled child, a model, interaction of specialists, psychological and pedagogic support. The article also determined the key components of a successfully…

Schools (Students) Exchanging CAD/CAM Files over the Internet.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mahoney, Gary S.; Smallwood, James E.

This document discusses how students and schools can benefit from exchanging computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM) files over the Internet, explains how files are exchanged, and examines the problem of selected hardware/software incompatibility. Key terms associated with information search services are defined, and several…

Solar Concepts: A Background Text.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gorham, Jonathan W.

This text is designed to provide teachers, students, and the general public with an overview of key solar energy concepts. Various energy terms are defined and explained. Basic thermodynamic laws are discussed. Alternative energy production is described in the context of the present energy situation. Described are the principal contemporary solar…

Forum Guide to Core Finance Data Elements. NFES 2007-801

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Forum on Education Statistics, 2007

2007-01-01

This document provides an overview of key finance data terms and is designed to accompany the "Financial Accounting for Local and State School Systems: 2003 Edition" by identifying common reporting requirements and defining frequently used indicators and calculations using data elements from accounting and other data systems. It also…

Reader Theories and Educational Media Analysis.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Becker, Ann DeVaney

Post structural reader theories--i.e., theories that focus on the reader/viewer rather than the text as the creator of meaning--are considered in this paper in terms of their application to educational media research. Some key concepts of reader theories are defined as follows: (1) reading is the process of creating meaning while viewing an…

Career Education for Elementary Grades.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dianna, Michael A.

Information and activities are provided to help elementary school teachers develop a career education "environment" for children. Ten basic premises of career education are outlined, and the key ideas and terms that emerge from the premises are defined. The eight goals of career education are set forth to provide the teacher with a base from which…

Immigrant Youth in Canadian Health Promoting Schools: A Literature Review

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nyika, Lawrence; McPherson, Charmaine; Murray-Orr, Anne

2017-01-01

In this essay, we review empirical, theoretical, and substantial grey literature in relation to immigrant youth and health promoting schools (HPS). We examine the health promotion concept to consider how it may inform the HPS model. Using Canada as an example, we examine current immigrant youth demographics and define several key terms including…

Quality Guidance: A Sectoral Analysis. NICEC Project Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Watts, A. G.; Sadler, Jackie

This report reviews the structure of the guidance field and provides a sector-by-sector analysis of current quality assurance arrangements in the United Kingdom. Part 1 presents an outline of the guidance sector, including some key concepts, structures, and roles. It defines guidance and other terms; discusses the three main categories…

Integration of Computers in Education: A Curriculum Perspective.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Plomp, Tjeerd

This discussion of a major problem area in education--the curricular and implementation aspects of the application of the computer or new information technologies--focuses first on the use and integration of computers in existing courses or subjects in the curriculum, and defines some key terms. The next section considers issues in the…

Civics Education for Adult English Language Learners. ERIC Q & A.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Terrill, Lynda

This article provides a brief historical review of efforts to prepare immigrants to pass the U.S. citizenship test, defines key terms, discusses events that have shaped civics education, and offers suggestions, whatever the approach chosen, for integrating civics content with English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) skills development. Covered topics…

An unsupervised method for summarizing egocentric sport videos

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Habibi Aghdam, Hamed; Jahani Heravi, Elnaz; Puig, Domenec

2015-12-01

People are getting more interested to record their sport activities using head-worn or hand-held cameras. This type of videos which is called egocentric sport videos has different motion and appearance patterns compared with life-logging videos. While a life-logging video can be defined in terms of well-defined human-object interactions, notwithstanding, it is not trivial to describe egocentric sport videos using well-defined activities. For this reason, summarizing egocentric sport videos based on human-object interaction might fail to produce meaningful results. In this paper, we propose an unsupervised method for summarizing egocentric videos by identifying the key-frames of the video. Our method utilizes both appearance and motion information and it automatically finds the number of the key-frames. Our blind user study on the new dataset collected from YouTube shows that in 93:5% cases, the users choose the proposed method as their first video summary choice. In addition, our method is within the top 2 choices of the users in 99% of studies.

The name-locator guide: A new resource for technology transfer

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Clingman, W. H.

1974-01-01

A new transfer mechanism to facilitate technology transfer between aerospace technology and nonaerospace industries, was proposed with the following sequence of steps. First, the key technical problems in a given industry would be analyzed. The analysis will define the characteristics which relevant technology will have. Second, a limited list of subject terms will be developed using words familiar to those working in the industry. It is these which will be applied in subsequent steps to the NASA technology and used to locate technology relevant to a specific problem in the industry. Third, for each Required Technology Program, terms applicable to that program would be chosen from this list. Fourth, a name-locator guide would be provided to the Regional Dissemination Centers. This guide would be analogous to an index. The key words would be chosen from the special subject term list for the given industry.

40 CFR 370.66 - How are key words in this part defined?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... include: (1) Any food, food additive, color additive, drug, or cosmetic regulated by the Food and Drug... under 29 CFR 1910.1200) and other hazardous chemicals that cause an adverse effect to a target organ and which effect usually occurs rapidly as a result of short-term exposure and is of short duration; (2...

40 CFR 370.66 - How are key words in this part defined?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... include: (1) Any food, food additive, color additive, drug, or cosmetic regulated by the Food and Drug... under 29 CFR 1910.1200) and other hazardous chemicals that cause an adverse effect to a target organ and which effect usually occurs rapidly as a result of short-term exposure and is of short duration; (2...

40 CFR 370.66 - How are key words in this part defined?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... include: (1) Any food, food additive, color additive, drug, or cosmetic regulated by the Food and Drug... under 29 CFR 1910.1200) and other hazardous chemicals that cause an adverse effect to a target organ and which effect usually occurs rapidly as a result of short-term exposure and is of short duration; (2...

40 CFR 370.66 - How are key words in this part defined?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... include: (1) Any food, food additive, color additive, drug, or cosmetic regulated by the Food and Drug... under 29 CFR 1910.1200) and other hazardous chemicals that cause an adverse effect to a target organ and which effect usually occurs rapidly as a result of short-term exposure and is of short duration; (2...

Understanding key issues of sustainable wood production in the Pacific Northwest.

Treesearch

Robert L. Deal; Seth M. White

2005-01-01

Researchers involved with the Pacific Northwest (PNW) Research Station Sustainable Wood Production Initiative have outlined some of the barriers and opportunities for sustainable wood production in the region. Sustainable wood production is defined as the capacity of forests to produce wood, products, and services on a long-term basis and in the context of human...

Una Mejor Opportunidad para Aprender: La Educacion Bilingue Bicultural (A Better Chance to Learn: Bilingual-Bicultural Education).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Commission on Civil Rights, Washington, DC.

The effectiveness of bilingual bicultural education as a means of increasing the opportunities of language minority students is examined in this report, which is addressed to educators and the general public. First, an introduction defines key terms, briefly outlines controversies which surround bilingual education, and describes the contents of…

40 CFR 355.61 - How are key words in this part defined?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 1910.1200(c), except that this term does not include: (1) Any food, food additive, color additive, drug, or cosmetic regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. (2) Any substance present as a solid in..., including fish, which produced and sold, or normally would have produced and sold, $1,000 or more of...

The Public Community College in America: Its History, Present Condition, and Future Outlook with Special Reference to Finance.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Edwards, Nancy Joan

The development, current status, and future prospects of community colleges are examined in this study with special emphasis on finance and funding concerns. Introductory material outlines study objectives, methodology, and purposes; defines key terms; and emphasizes the importance of college planning. Chapter 1 presents a history of the community…

Where is the USA Corn Belt, and how is it changing?

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The “Corn Belt” is a commonly used term, but often referenced as a vaguely defined region in the Midwest USA. A few key studies have delineated synoptic maps of the Corn Belt boundaries going back to the early 20th century, but a modern flexible and accessible framework for mapping the Corn Belt in ...

The Functional Impact of the Intestinal Microbiome on Mucosal Immunity and Systemic Autoimmunity

PubMed Central

Longman, Randy S.; Littman, Dan R.

2016-01-01

Purpose of Review This review will highlight recent advances functionally linking the gut microbiome with mucosal and systemic immune cell activation potentially underlying autoimmunity. Recent Findings Dynamic interactions between the gut microbiome and environmental cues (including diet and medicines) shape the effector potential of the microbial organ. Key bacteria and viruses have emerged, that, in defined microenvironments, play a critical role in regulating effector lymphocyte functions. The coordinated interactions between these different microbial kingdoms—including bacteria, helminths, and viruses (termed transkingdom interactions)—play a critical role in shaping immunity. Emerging strategies to identify immunologically-relevant microbes with the potential to regulate immune cell functions both at mucosal sites and systemically will likely define key diagnostic and therapeutic targets. Summary The microbiome constitutes a critical microbial organ with coordinated interactions that shape host immunity. PMID:26002030

Emergency department operations dictionary: results of the second performance measures and benchmarking summit.

PubMed

Welch, Shari J; Stone-Griffith, Suzanne; Asplin, Brent; Davidson, Steven J; Augustine, James; Schuur, Jeremiah D

2011-05-01

The public, payers, hospitals, and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) are demanding that emergency departments (EDs) measure and improve performance, but this cannot be done unless we define the terms used in ED operations. On February 24, 2010, 32 stakeholders from 13 professional organizations met in Salt Lake City, Utah, to standardize ED operations metrics and definitions, which are presented in this consensus paper. Emergency medicine (EM) experts attending the Second Performance Measures and Benchmarking Summit reviewed, expanded, and updated key definitions for ED operations. Prior to the meeting, participants were provided with the definitions created at the first summit in 2006 and relevant documents from other organizations and asked to identify gaps and limitations in the original work. Those responses were used to devise a plan to revise and update the definitions. At the summit, attendees discussed and debated key terminology, and workgroups were created to draft a more comprehensive document. These results have been crafted into two reference documents, one for metrics and the operations dictionary presented here. The ED Operations Dictionary defines ED spaces, processes, patient populations, and new ED roles. Common definitions of key terms will improve the ability to compare ED operations research and practice and provide a common language for frontline practitioners, managers, and researchers. © 2011 by the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine.

Long-term movement patterns of a coral reef predator

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Heupel, M. R.; Simpfendorfer, C. A.

2015-06-01

Long-term monitoring is required to fully define periodicity and patterns in animal movement. This is particularly relevant for defining what factors are driving the presence, location, and movements of individuals. The long-term movement and space use patterns of grey reef sharks, Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos, were examined on a whole of reef scale in the southern Great Barrier Reef to define whether movement and activity space varied through time. Twenty-nine C. amblyrhynchos were tracked for over 2 years to define movement patterns. All individuals showed high residency within the study site, but also had high roaming indices. This indicated that individuals remained in the region and used all of the monitored habitat (i.e., the entire reef perimeter). Use of space was consistent through time with high reuse of areas most of the year. Therefore, individuals maintained discrete home ranges, but undertook broader movements around the reef at times. Mature males showed greatest variation in movement with larger activity spaces and movement into new regions during the mating season (August-September). Depth use patterns also differed, suggesting behaviour or resource requirements varied between sexes. Examination of the long-term, reef-scale movements of C. amblyrhynchos has revealed that reproductive activity may play a key role in space use and activity patterns. It was unclear whether mating behaviour or an increased need for food to sustain reproductive activity and development played a greater role in these patterns. Reef shark movement patterns are becoming more clearly defined, but research is still required to fully understand the biological drivers for the observed patterns.

Exploring Stakeholder Definitions within the Aerospace Industry: A Qualitative Case Study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hebert, Jonathan R.

A best practice in the discipline of project management is to identify all key project stakeholders prior to the execution of a project. When stakeholders are properly identified, they can be consulted to provide expert advice on project activities so that the project manager can ensure the project stays within the budget and schedule constraints. The problem addressed by this study is that managers fail to properly identify key project stakeholders when using stakeholder theory because there are multiple conflicting definitions for the term stakeholder. Poor stakeholder identification has been linked to multiple negative project outcomes such as budget and schedules overruns, and this problem is heightened in certain industries such as aerospace. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore project managers' and project stakeholders' perceptions of how they define and use the term stakeholder within the aerospace industry. This qualitative exploratory single-case study had two embedded units of analysis: project managers and project stakeholders. Six aerospace project managers and five aerospace project stakeholders were purposively selected for this study. Data were collected through individual semi-structured interviews with both project managers and project stakeholders. All data were analyzed using Yin's (2011) five-phased cycle approach for qualitative research. The results indicated that the aerospace project managers and project stakeholder define the term stakeholder as "those who do the work of a company." The participants build upon this well-known concept by adding that, "a company should list specific job titles" that correspond to their company specific-stakeholder definition. Results also indicated that the definition of the term stakeholder is used when management is assigning human resources to a project to mitigate or control project risk. Results showed that project managers tended to include the customer in their stakeholder definitions while project stakeholders included a wider range of stakeholders from young employees to union workers. Practical application recommendations, based on the study's findings, include that companies start to develop company-specific definitions of the term stakeholder. Recommendations for future research should focus on exploring how CEOs, executive members, new hires, and hourly workers define and use the term stakeholder in the aerospace industry.

78 FR 4307 - Current Good Manufacturing Practice Requirements for Combination Products

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-01-22

.... Rationale for the Rulemaking B. The Proposed Rule C. The Final Rule II. Comments on the Proposed Rule A. General B. What is the scope of this subpart? (Sec. 4.1) C. How does FDA define key terms and phrases in... Act (the PHS Act) (42 U.S.C. 262). All biological products regulated under the PHS Act meet the...

Using University Students' L1 as a Resource: Translanguaging in a Puerto Rican ESL Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carroll, Kevin S.; Sambolín Morales, Astrid N.

2016-01-01

Framed within Ruiz's language-as-resource orientation, this article uses data from a college ESL classroom where a translanguaging approach was used for the teaching of a novel. After defining key terms, the article describes the linguistic context of higher education in Puerto Rico and its influence on one instructor's Basic English course. Using…

Teaching Aids and Work with Models in E-Learning Environments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jancaríková, Katerina; Jancarík, Antonín

2017-01-01

PISA study has defined several key areas to be paid attention to by teachers. One of these areas is work with models. The term model can be understood very broadly, it can refer to a drawing of a chemical reaction, a plastic model, a permanent mount (taxidermy) to advanced 3D projections. Teachers are no longer confined to teaching materials and…

When Five Words Are Not Enough: A Conceptual and Terminological Discussion of English as a Lingua Franca

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Friedrich, Patricia; Matsuda, Aya

2010-01-01

The goal of this article is to (re)define key terminology in the study of English as a lingua franca (ELF). Although the diverse perspectives and ideological standpoints represented in competing definitions of terms is appreciated, a critical conversation on definition and interpretation of ELF and other related concepts is crucial in providing a…

The Applications of Computers in Education in Developing Countries--with Specific Reference to the Cost-Effectiveness of Computer-Assisted Instruction.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lai, Kwok-Wing

Designed to examine the application and cost-effectiveness of computer-assisted instruction (CAI) for secondary education in developing countries, this document is divided into eight chapters. A general introduction defines the research problem, describes the research methodology, and provides definitions of key terms used throughout the paper.…

Community perceptions of mental distress in a post-conflict setting: a qualitative study in Burundi.

PubMed

Familiar, Itziar; Sharma, Sonali; Ndayisaba, Herman; Munyentwari, Norbert; Sibomana, Seleus; Bass, Judith K

2013-01-01

There is scant documentation of the mental health characteristics of low-income communities recovering from armed conflict. To prepare for quantitative health surveys and health service planning in Burundi, we implemented a qualitative study to explore concepts related to mental distress and coping among adults. Mental distress was defined as problems related to feelings, thinking, behaviour and physical stress. Using free listing and key informant interviews with a range of community members, we triangulated data to identify salient issues. Thirty-eight free list respondents and 23 key informants were interviewed in 5 rural communities in Burundi using 2 interview guides from the WHO Toolkit for Mental Health Assessment in Humanitarian Settings. Based on these interviews, we identified four locally defined idioms/terms relating to mental distress: ihahamuka (anxiety spectrum illnesses), ukutiyemera (a mix of depression and anxiety-like syndrome), akabonge (depression/grief-like syndrome) and kwamana ubwoba burengeje (anxiety-like syndrome). Mental distress terms were perceived as important problems impacting community development. Affected individuals sought help from several sources within the community, including community leaders and traditional healers. We discuss how local expressions of distress can be used to tailor health research and service integration from the bottom up.

Psychoanalysis, Islam, and the other of Liberalism.

PubMed

Massad, Joseph

2009-01-01

This paper examines the terms and methods used by psychoanalytic authors to explain and understand something they other as "Islam." The paper engages critically and psycho-analytically with these authors' attempts to read "Islam" psychoanalytically, and finds that more often than not they subject it to liberal principles that are not defined in psychoanalytic terms. Focusing on the work of Tunisian author Fethi Benslama, the paper analyses and deconstructs certain key semantic and conceptual confusions of "Islam" and "Islamism" that are manifest in the general psychoanalytic literature on "Islam".

What is information?†

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

Information is a precise concept that can be defined mathematically, but its relationship to what we call ‘knowledge’ is not always made clear. Furthermore, the concepts ‘entropy’ and ‘information’, while deeply related, are distinct and must be used with care, something that is not always achieved in the literature. In this elementary introduction, the concepts of entropy and information are laid out one by one, explained intuitively, but defined rigorously. I argue that a proper understanding of information in terms of prediction is key to a number of disciplines beyond engineering, such as physics and biology. PMID:26857663

A novel performance monitoring framework for health research systems: experiences of the National Institute for Health Research in England

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Background The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) was established in 2006 with the aim of creating an applied health research system embedded within the English National Health Service (NHS). NIHR sought to implement an approach for monitoring its performance that effectively linked early indicators of performance with longer-term research impacts. We attempted to develop and apply a conceptual framework for defining appropriate key performance indicators for NIHR. Method Following a review of relevant literature, a conceptual framework for defining performance indicators for NIHR was developed, based on a hybridisation of the logic model and balanced scorecard approaches. This framework was validated through interviews with key NIHR stakeholders and a pilot in one division of NIHR, before being refined and applied more widely. Indicators were then selected and aggregated to create a basket of indicators aligned to NIHR's strategic goals, which could be reported to NIHR's leadership team on a quarterly basis via an oversight dashboard. Results Senior health research system managers and practitioners endorsed the conceptual framework developed and reported satisfaction with the breadth and balance of indicators selected for reporting. Conclusions The use of the hybrid conceptual framework provides a pragmatic approach to defining performance indicators that are aligned to the strategic aims of a health research system. The particular strength of this framework is its capacity to provide an empirical link, over time, between upstream activities of a health research system and its long-term strategic objectives. PMID:21435265

Defining food literacy: A scoping review.

PubMed

Truman, Emily; Lane, Daniel; Elliott, Charlene

2017-09-01

The term "food literacy" describes the idea of proficiency in food related skills and knowledge. This prevalent term is broadly applied, although its core elements vary from initiative to initiative. In light of its ubiquitous use-but varying definitions-this article establishes the scope of food literacy research by identifying all articles that define 'food literacy', analysing its key conceptualizations, and reporting outcomes/measures of this concept. A scoping review was conducted to identify all articles (academic and grey literature) using the term "food literacy". Databases included Medline, Pubmed, Embase, CAB Abstracts, CINAHL, Scopus, JSTOR, and Web of Science, and Google Scholar. Of 1049 abstracts, 67 studies were included. From these, data was extracted on country of origin, study type (methodological approach), primary target population, and the primary outcomes relating to food literacy. The majority of definitions of food literacy emphasize the acquisition of critical knowledge (information and understanding) (55%) over functional knowledge (skills, abilities and choices) (8%), although some incorporate both (37%). Thematic analysis of 38 novel definitions of food literacy reveals the prevalence of six themes: skills and behaviours, food/health choices, culture, knowledge, emotions, and food systems. Study outcomes largely focus on knowledge generating measures, with very few focusing on health related outcome measures. Current definitions of food literacy incorporate components of six key themes or domains and attributes of both critical and functional knowledge. Despite this broad definition of the term, most studies aiming to improve food literacy focus on knowledge related outcomes. Few articles address health outcomes, leaving an important gap (and opportunity) for future research in this field. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Choosing for Quality or Inequality: Current Perspectives on the Implementation of School Choice Policy in Sweden

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bunar, Nihad

2010-01-01

A policy of school choice has, in various shapes, been implemented in educational systems across the world during the last decades. Drawing on various empirical and theoretical sources, the aim of this article is to distinguish the key defining elements of the Swedish school choice policy and to present and discuss some of its outcomes in terms of…

LitMiner and WikiGene: identifying problem-related key players of gene regulation using publication abstracts.

PubMed

Maier, Holger; Döhr, Stefanie; Grote, Korbinian; O'Keeffe, Sean; Werner, Thomas; Hrabé de Angelis, Martin; Schneider, Ralf

2005-07-01

The LitMiner software is a literature data-mining tool that facilitates the identification of major gene regulation key players related to a user-defined field of interest in PubMed abstracts. The prediction of gene-regulatory relationships is based on co-occurrence analysis of key terms within the abstracts. LitMiner predicts relationships between key terms from the biomedical domain in four categories (genes, chemical compounds, diseases and tissues). Owing to the limitations (no direction, unverified automatic prediction) of the co-occurrence approach, the primary data in the LitMiner database represent postulated basic gene-gene relationships. The usefulness of the LitMiner system has been demonstrated recently in a study that reconstructed disease-related regulatory networks by promoter modelling that was initiated by a LitMiner generated primary gene list. To overcome the limitations and to verify and improve the data, we developed WikiGene, a Wiki-based curation tool that allows revision of the data by expert users over the Internet. LitMiner (http://andromeda.gsf.de/litminer) and WikiGene (http://andromeda.gsf.de/wiki) can be used unrestricted with any Internet browser.

Chaos and noise.

PubMed

He, Temple; Habib, Salman

2013-09-01

Simple dynamical systems--with a small number of degrees of freedom--can behave in a complex manner due to the presence of chaos. Such systems are most often (idealized) limiting cases of more realistic situations. Isolating a small number of dynamical degrees of freedom in a realistically coupled system generically yields reduced equations with terms that can have a stochastic interpretation. In situations where both noise and chaos can potentially exist, it is not immediately obvious how Lyapunov exponents, key to characterizing chaos, should be properly defined. In this paper, we show how to do this in a class of well-defined noise-driven dynamical systems, derived from an underlying Hamiltonian model.

Theoretical Underpinnings of the Other Social Effects Account

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-09-01

and to help focus on areas where capacity building is needed. The Civic Index focuses on 12 key themes of civic health and provides 363 example...be used in the emerging collaborative planning framework (also termed the four-account framework to stress the importance of all accounts), discusses ...conducting scoping workshops, generally as part of the EIS process Four-account framework defines problems more broadly and focuses on the full

The concept lens diagram: a new mechanism for presenting biochemistry content in terms of "big ideas".

PubMed

Rowland, Susan L; Smith, Christopher A; Gillam, Elizabeth M A; Wright, Tony

2011-07-01

A strong, recent movement in tertiary education is the development of conceptual, or "big idea" teaching. The emphasis in course design is now on promoting key understandings, core competencies, and an understanding of connections between different fields. In biochemistry teaching, this radical shift from the content-based tradition is being driven by the "omics" information explosion; we can no longer teach all the information we have available. Biochemistry is a core, enabling discipline for much of modern scientific research, and biochemistry teaching is in urgent need of a method for delivery of conceptual frameworks. In this project, we aimed to define the key concepts in biochemistry. We find that the key concepts we defined map well onto the core science concepts recommended by the Vision and Change project. We developed a new method to present biochemistry through the lenses of these concepts. This new method challenged the way we thought about biochemistry as teachers. It also stimulated the majority of the students to think more deeply about biochemistry and to make links between biochemistry and material in other courses. This method is applicable to the full spectrum of content usually taught in biochemistry. Copyright © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Mineral-associated organic matter: are we now on the right path to accurately measuring and modelling it?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cotrufo, M. F.

2017-12-01

Mineral-associated organic matter (MAOM) is the largest and most persistent pool of carbon in soil. Understanding and correctly modeling its dynamic is key to suggest management practices that can augment soil carbon storage for climate change mitigation, as well as increase soil organic matter (SOM) stocks to support soil health on the long-term. In the Microbial Efficiency Mineral Stabilization (MEMS) framework we proposed that, contrary to what originally thought, this form of persistent SOM is derived from the labile components of plant inputs, through their efficient microbial processing. I will present results from several experiments using dual isotope labeling of plant inputs that largely confirm this opinion, and point to the key role of dissolved organic matter in MAOM formation, and to the dynamic nature of the outer layer of MAOM. I will also show how we are incorporating this understanding in a new SOM model, which uses physically defined measurable pools rather than turnover-defined pools to forecast C cycling in soil.

A glossary for big data in population and public health: discussion and commentary on terminology and research methods.

PubMed

Fuller, Daniel; Buote, Richard; Stanley, Kevin

2017-11-01

The volume and velocity of data are growing rapidly and big data analytics are being applied to these data in many fields. Population and public health researchers may be unfamiliar with the terminology and statistical methods used in big data. This creates a barrier to the application of big data analytics. The purpose of this glossary is to define terms used in big data and big data analytics and to contextualise these terms. We define the five Vs of big data and provide definitions and distinctions for data mining, machine learning and deep learning, among other terms. We provide key distinctions between big data and statistical analysis methods applied to big data. We contextualise the glossary by providing examples where big data analysis methods have been applied to population and public health research problems and provide brief guidance on how to learn big data analysis methods. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2017. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

Conceptual Development of a National Volcanic Hazard Model for New Zealand

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stirling, Mark; Bebbington, Mark; Brenna, Marco; Cronin, Shane; Christophersen, Annemarie; Deligne, Natalia; Hurst, Tony; Jolly, Art; Jolly, Gill; Kennedy, Ben; Kereszturi, Gabor; Lindsay, Jan; Neall, Vince; Procter, Jonathan; Rhoades, David; Scott, Brad; Shane, Phil; Smith, Ian; Smith, Richard; Wang, Ting; White, James D. L.; Wilson, Colin J. N.; Wilson, Tom

2017-06-01

We provide a synthesis of a workshop held in February 2016 to define the goals, challenges and next steps for developing a national probabilistic volcanic hazard model for New Zealand. The workshop involved volcanologists, statisticians, and hazards scientists from GNS Science, Massey University, University of Otago, Victoria University of Wellington, University of Auckland, and University of Canterbury. We also outline key activities that will develop the model components, define procedures for periodic update of the model, and effectively articulate the model to end-users and stakeholders. The development of a National Volcanic Hazard Model is a formidable task that will require long-term stability in terms of team effort, collaboration and resources. Development of the model in stages or editions that are modular will make the process a manageable one that progressively incorporates additional volcanic hazards over time, and additional functionalities (e.g. short-term forecasting). The first edition is likely to be limited to updating and incorporating existing ashfall hazard models, with the other hazards associated with lahar, pyroclastic density currents, lava flow, ballistics, debris avalanche, and gases/aerosols being considered in subsequent updates.

Toward a general theory of conical intersections in systems of identical nuclei

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Keating, Sean P.; Mead, C. Alden

1987-02-01

It has been shown previously that the Herzberg-Longuet-Higgins sign change produced in Born-Oppenheimer electronic wave functions when the nuclei traverse a closed path around a conical intersection has implications for the symmetry of wave functions under permutations of identical nuclei. For systems of three or four identical nuclei, there are special features present which have facilitated the detailed analysis. The present paper reports progress toward a general theory for systems of n nuclei. For n=3 or 4, the two key functions which locate conical intersections and define compensating phase factors can conveniently be defined so as to transform under permutations according to a two-dimensional irreducible representation of the permutation group. Since such representations do not exist for n>4, we have chosen to develop a formalism in terms of lab-fixed electronic basis functions, and we show how to define the two key functions in principle. The functions so defined both turn out to be totally symmetric under permutations. We show how they can be used to define compensating phase factors so that all modified electronic wave functions are either totally symmetric or totally antisymmetric under permutations. A detailed analysis is made to cyclic permutations in the neighborhood of Dnh symmetry, which can be extended by continuity arguments to more general configurations, and criteria are obtained for sign changes. There is a qualitative discussion of the treatment of more general permutations.

Defining Soldier Intent in a Human-Robot Natural Language Interaction Context

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-10-01

this burden on the human and expand the scope of human–robot operations, this project investigates fundamental research issues in the autonomous...attempted to devise a quantitative metric for the Shared Interpretation of Commander’s Intent (SICI). The authors’ background research indicated that...Another interesting set of results were the cases where the battalion and company commanders disagreed on the meaning of key terms, such as “delay”, which

Blast-Induced Acceleration in a Shock Tube: Distinguishing Primary and Tertiary Blast Injury

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-10-01

objects of varied areal densities to define relations of blast flow conditions to acceleration and displacement , we have begun examination of the effects... displacement from other biomechanical components and effects of the shockwave. 15. SUBJECT TERMS Key words or phrases identifying major concepts in the...and total pressure, positive phase duration, and impulse) and acceleration and displacement of a wide range of inanimate objects, we have continued

Early Diagnosis and Intervention Strategies for Post-Traumatic Heterotopic Ossification in Severely Injured Extremities

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-10-01

so that therapies for prevention or mitigation of HO can be optimally targeted. This study seeks to contribute to advancement in each of these key...SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES 14. ABSTRACT This study will recruit wounded warriors with severe extremity trauma, which places them at high risk for...define potential therapies for prevention or mitigation of HO. 15. SUBJECT TERMS Wound healing 16. SECURITY CLASSIFICATION OF: 17. LIMITATION OF

Monitoring Ecological Resources within U.S. National Parks: Developing "Vital Signs" of Ecological Integrity for the Northeast Temperate Network

Treesearch

Don Faber-Langendoen; Geraldine Tierney; James Gibbs; Greg Shriver; Fred Dieffenbach; Pam Lombard

2006-01-01

The National Park Service (NPS) initiated a new “Vital Signs” program in 1998 to develop comprehensive, long-term monitoring of ecological resources within U.S. national parks. Vital signs (VS) are indicators, and are defined as key elements, processes or features of the environment that can be measured or estimated and that indicate the ecological integrity of an...

The SCIDIP-ES project - towards an international collaboration strategy for long term preservation of earth science data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Riddick, Andrew; Glaves, Helen; Marelli, Fulvio; Albani, Mirko; Tona, Calogera; Marketakis, Yannis; Tzitzikas, Yannis; Guarino, Raffaele; Giaretta, David; Di Giammatteo, Ugo

2013-04-01

The capability for long term preservation of earth science data is a key requirement to support on-going research and collaboration within and between many earth science disciplines. A number of critically important current research directions (e.g. understanding climate change, and ensuring sustainability of natural resources) rely on the preservation of data often collected over several decades in a form in which it can be accessed and used easily. Another key driver for strategic long term data preservation is that key research challenges (such as those described above) frequently require cross disciplinary research utilising raw and interpreted data from a number of earth science disciplines. Effective data preservation strategies can support this requirement for interoperability and collaboration, and thereby stimulate scientific innovation. The SCIDIP-ES project (EC FP7 grant agreement no. 283401) seeks to address these and other data preservation challenges by developing a Europe wide infrastructure for long term data preservation comprising appropriate software tools and infrastructure services to enable and promote long term preservation of earth science data. Because we define preservation in terms of continued usability of the digitally encoded information, the generic infrastructure services will allow a wide variety of data to be made usable by researchers from many different domains. This approach promotes international collaboration between researchers and will enable the cost for long-term usability across disciplines to be shared supporting the creation of strong business cases for the long term support of that data. This paper will describe our progress to date, including the results of community engagement and user consultation exercises designed to specify and scope the required tools and services. Our user engagement methodology, ensuring that we are capturing the views of a representative sample of institutional users, will be described. Key results of an in-depth user requirements exercise, and also the conclusions from a survey of existing technologies and policies for earth science data preservation involving almost five hundred respondents across Europe and beyond will also be outlined. A key aim of the project will also be to create harmonised data preservation and access policies for earth science data in Europe, taking into account the requirements of relevant earth science data users and archive providers across Europe, and liaising appropriately with other European data integration and e-infrastructure projects to ensure a collaborative strategy.

Defining an end state for CO2 sequestration and EOR in North America

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

Friedmann, S J

2006-04-20

CO{sub 2} capture and storage (CCS) presents a challenge to long-range planners, economic interests, regulators, law-makers, and other stakeholders and decision makers. To improve and optimize the use of limited resources and finances, it is important to define an end state for CCS. This ends state should be defined around desired goals and reasonable timelines for execution. While this definition may have substantial technology, policy or economic implications, it need not be prescriptive in terms of technology pathway, policy mechanism, or economic targets. To illustrate these concerns, this paper will present a credible vision of what an end state formore » North American might look like. From that, examples of key investment and planning decisions are provided to illustrate the value of end-state characterization.« less

Investigation of a high speed data handling system for use with multispectral aircraft scanners

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kelly, W. L.; Meredith, B. D.

1978-01-01

A buffer memory data handling technique for use with multispectral aircraft scanners is presented which allows digital data generated at high data rates to be recorded on magnetic tape. A digital memory is used to temporarily store the data for subsequent recording at slower rates during the passive time of the scan line, thereby increasing the maximum data rate recording capability over real-time recording. Three possible implementations are described and the maximum data rate capability is defined in terms of the speed capability of the key hardware components. The maximum data rates can be used to define the maximum ground resolution achievable by a multispectral aircraft scanner using conventional data handling techniques.

Analysis of a Preloaded Bolted Joint in a Ceramic Composite Combustor

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hissam, D. Andy; Bower, Mark V.

2003-01-01

This paper presents the detailed analysis of a preloaded bolted joint incorporating ceramic materials. The objective of this analysis is to determine the suitability of a joint design for a ceramic combustor. The analysis addresses critical factors in bolted joint design including preload, preload uncertainty, and load factor. The relationship between key joint variables is also investigated. The analysis is based on four key design criteria, each addressing an anticipated failure mode. The criteria are defined in terms of margin of safety, which must be greater than zero for the design criteria to be satisfied. Since the proposed joint has positive margins of safety, the design criteria are satisfied. Therefore, the joint design is acceptable.

Is a community still a community? Reviewing definitions of key terms in community ecology.

PubMed

Stroud, James T; Bush, Michael R; Ladd, Mark C; Nowicki, Robert J; Shantz, Andrew A; Sweatman, Jennifer

2015-11-01

Community ecology is an inherently complicated field, confounded by the conflicting use of fundamental terms. Nearly two decades ago, Fauth et al. (1996) demonstrated that imprecise language led to the virtual synonymy of important terms and so attempted to clearly define four keywords in community ecology; "community," "assemblage," "guild," and "ensemble". We revisit Fauth et al.'s conclusion and discuss how the use of these terms has changed over time since their review. An updated analysis of term definition from a selection of popular ecological textbooks suggests that definitions have drifted away from those encountered pre-1996, and slightly disagreed with results from a survey of 100 ecology professionals (comprising of academic professors, nonacademic PhDs, graduate and undergraduate biology students). Results suggest that confusion about these terms is still widespread in ecology. We conclude with clear suggestions for definitions of each term to be adopted hereafter to provide greater cohesion among research groups.

Sense-and-Avoid Equivalent Level of Safety Definition for Unmanned Aircraft Systems. Revision 9

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2005-01-01

Since unmanned aircraft do not have a pilot on-board the aircraft, they cannot literally comply with the "see and avoid" requirement beyond a short distance from the location of the unmanned pilot. No performance standards are presently defined for unmanned Sense and Avoid systems, and the FAA has no published approval criteria for a collision avoidance system. Before the FAA can develop the necessary guidance (rules / regulations / policy) regarding the see-and-avoid requirements for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), a concise understanding of the term "equivalent level of safety" must be attained. Since this term is open to interpretation, the UAS industry and FAA need to come to an agreement on how this term can be defined and applied for a safe and acceptable collision avoidance capability for unmanned aircraft. Defining an equivalent level of safety (ELOS) for sense and avoid is one of the first steps in understanding the requirement and developing a collision avoidance capability. This document provides a functional level definition of see-and-avoid as it applies to unmanned aircraft. The sense and avoid ELOS definition is intended as a bridge between the see and avoid requirement and the system level requirements for unmanned aircraft sense and avoid systems. Sense and avoid ELOS is defined in a rather abstract way, meaning that it is not technology or system specific, and the definition provides key parameters (and a context for those parameters) to focus the development of cooperative and non-cooperative sense and avoid system requirements.

The essence of 'community' within community nursing: a district nursing perspective.

PubMed

McGarry, Julie

2003-09-01

Over the past decade or so, there has been a marked shift in the location and nature of nursing care from the hospital setting to primary and community care. The past decade has also witnessed the development of a number of policy initiatives which indicate that the drive towards the community as a key location of nursing care is set to continue. Although notions of community have been explored extensively within the literature from a number of perspectives, there is an absence of a clear definition, and more particularly for the purposes of the present study, one from a nursing perspective. This lack of conceptual clarity is further compounded when notions of community and the place of nursing within the community are considered contemporaneously. The present pilot study, which was based on semi-structured interviews with district nurses, seeks to address this deficit and explore how district nurses define the nature of their role, both in terms of providing nursing care within the community and also in terms of defining community within the context of their work. The study illuminates the principal position of the home in defining the essence of community within community nursing and notions surrounding the nature of relationships which exist within this setting. This is highlighted through the identification of emerging themes: the maintenance of personal-professional boundaries, notions of holistic care and professional definitions of community. These observations raise important questions regarding the extent to which the location of care and the taken-for-granted assumptions surrounding community-based nursing care have been translated into practice to date. This also raises key issues regarding the tensions which exist for nurses trying to balance notions of community and community-based care within the parameters of organisational and professional boundaries.

A joint prevention and control mechanism for air pollution in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region in china based on long-term and massive data mining of pollutant concentration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Hongbo; Zhao, Laijun

2018-02-01

China's Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region suffers from the country's worst air pollution. The problem has caused widespread concern both at home and abroad. Based on long-term and massive data mining of PM2.5 and PM10 concentration, we found that these pollutants showed similar variations in four seasons, but the most severe pollution was in winter. Through cluster analysis of the winter daily average concentration (DAC) of the two pollutants, we defined regions with similar variations in pollutant concentrations in winter. For the most polluted cities in BTH, the relationship between correlation coefficients for winter DAC and the distance between cities revealed that PM2.5 has regional, large-scale characteristics, with concentrated outbreaks, whereas PM10 has local, small-scale characteristics, with outbreaks at multiple locations. By selecting the key cities with the strongest linear relationship between the pollutant's DAC of each city and the daily individual air quality index values of the BTH region and through cluster analysis on the correlations between the pollutant DACs of the key cities, we defined regional divisions suitable for Joint Prevention and Control of Atmospheric Pollution (JPCAP) program to control PM2.5 and PM10. Comprehensively considering the degree of influence of regional atmospheric pollution control (RAPC) on air quality in BTH, as well as the elasticity and urgency of RAPC, we defined the control grades of the JPCAP regions. We found both the regions and corresponding control grades were consistent for PM2.5 and PM10. The thinking and methods of atmospheric pollution control we proposed will have broad significance for implementation of RAPC in other regions around the world.

Toward a Glossary of Self-related Terms.

PubMed

Morin, Alain

2017-01-01

Some scholars have noted that an impressive number of self-related terms have been gradually introduced in the scientific literature. Several of these terms are either ill-defined or synonymous, creating confusion, and redundancy. In an effort to minimize this problem, I present a novel and systematic way of looking at possible relations between several key self-terms. I also propose a tentative classification scheme of self-terms as follows: (1) basic terms related to the overall process of self-perception (e.g., self-awareness), (2) non self-terms that are importantly associated to some other self-terms (e.g., consciousness and Theory of Mind), (3) processes related to the executive self and involving agency, volition, and self-control (e.g., self-regulation), and (4) self-views, that is, the content and feelings about the self (e.g., self-esteem). Three additional categories not discussed in this paper are self-biases, reactions to the self, and interpersonal style. Arguably unambiguous definitions for some of the most important and frequently used self-terms are suggested. These are presented in tables meant for the reader to search for definitions as well as related terms.

Defining Long Term Goals and Setting Priorities for Education and Outreach, 2003 to 2013 - Panel Report

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grier, J. A.; Atkinson, D. H.; Barlow, N.; Griffin, I.; Hoffman, J.; Kelly-Serrato, B.; Kesthelyi, L.; Klein, M.; Klug, S.; Kolvoord, B.; Lanagan, P.; Lebofsky, L. A.; Lindstrom, M.; Lopes, R.; Lowes, L.; Manifold, J.; Mastrapa, R.; Milazzo, M.; Miner, E.; Morris, P.; Runyon, C.; Sohus, A.; Urquhart, M.; Warasila, R. L.; Withers, P.; Wood, Chuck

2001-11-01

Education and Public Outreach (E/PO) activities are an integral part of NASA's mandated mission and detailed in its Strategic Plan. The Office of Space Science Solar System Exploration (OSS SSE) E/PO program has made great strides in defining priorities and achieving its goals in the last five years. The Education and Public Outreach panel for NASA's Decadal Survey has generated a list of key issues to be addressed for the years 2003-2013 to assist the OSS SSE in future prioritization and planning. Key issues under discussion include: improving the involvement of planetary science professionals in E/PO activities; combating scientific elitism; examining the association between E/PO programs and public relations; re-examining funding E/PO activities from an audience perspective as opposed to a mission-centered perspective; improving access to resources for scientists, educators, students and partner organizations; promoting communication between educational programs at NASA; and reaching traditionally underrepresented groups, women, minorities and the disabled with science education programs. The panel is developing a list of specific recommendations to be implemented to improve OSS SSE E/PO activities in the next decade. These recommendations deal with topics such as: the production of evaluated resource web sites for scientists and educators; the development of a policy of long-term funding for the maintenance of web sites and other tools after they are created; methods for reaching those who do not have computer access through television and public programs; and the development of a reward system to recognize and encourage scientist involvement in E/PO activities. Such key issues and recommendations will be presented, along with materials from current programs and initiatives for E/PO in the OSS SSE.

What kinds of things are psychiatric disorders?

PubMed

Kendler, K S; Zachar, P; Craver, C

2011-06-01

This essay explores four answers to the question 'What kinds of things are psychiatric disorders?' Essentialist kinds are classes whose members share an essence from which their defining features arise. Although elegant and appropriate for some physical (e.g. atomic elements) and medical (e.g. Mendelian disorders) phenomena, this model is inappropriate for psychiatric disorders, which are multi-factorial and 'fuzzy'. Socially constructed kinds are classes whose members are defined by the cultural context in which they arise. This model excludes the importance of shared physiological mechanisms by which the same disorder could be identified across different cultures. Advocates of practical kinds put off metaphysical questions about 'reality' and focus on defining classes that are useful. Practical kinds models for psychiatric disorders, implicit in the DSM nosologies, do not require that diagnoses be grounded in shared causal processes. If psychiatry seeks to tie disorders to etiology and underlying mechanisms, a model first proposed for biological species, mechanistic property cluster (MPC) kinds, can provide a useful framework. MPC kinds are defined not in terms of essences but in terms of complex, mutually reinforcing networks of causal mechanisms. We argue that psychiatric disorders are objectively grounded features of the causal structure of the mind/brain. MPC kinds are fuzzy sets defined by mechanisms at multiple levels that act and interact to produce the key features of the kind. Like species, psychiatric disorders are populations with central paradigmatic and more marginal members. The MPC view is the best current answer to 'What kinds of things are psychiatric disorders?'

Long-term Outcomes of Elective Surgery for Diverticular Disease: A Call for Standardization.

PubMed

Biondi, Alberto; Santullo, Francesco; Fico, Valeria; Persiani, Roberto

2016-10-01

To date, the appropriate management of diverticular disease is still controversial. The American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons declared that the decision between conservative or surgical approach should be taken by a case-by-case evaluation. There is still lack of evidence in literature about long-term outcomes after elective sigmoid resection for diverticular disease. Considering the potentially key role of the surgical technique in long-term outcomes, there is the need for surgeons to define strict rules to standardize the surgical technique. Currently there are 5 areas of debate in elective surgery for diverticular disease: laparoscopic versus open approach, the site of the proximal and distal colonic division, the vascular approach and the mobilization of the splenic flexure. The purpose of this paper is to review existing knowledge about technical aspects, which represent how the surgeon is able to affect the long-term results.

High-Resolution, Low-Cost Spectrometer-on-Chip

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-01-02

extracted for each PhCs for λ=400 and 500 nm, respectively; d) example of the spectral response of our prototype to two input filtered lights. aBeam...packed into the size of a USB key. Nano-spectrometers with a resolution down to 0.5 nm and a spectral range up to 229 nm were successfully demonstrated...Our miniaturized spectrometers are defining the state-of-the-art for on-chip spectroscopy, as well as in terms of spectral resolution and bandwidth

Research colloquium on occupational respiratory diseases: a conference in Cuba (1984)

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

Rosenstock, L.; Orris, P.

At an international conference in Havana, Cuba, March 19-21, 1984, health professional from the US, Canada, and Cuba participated in a research colloquium on occupational lung diseases. Participants and speakers discussed the state of the art of knowledge, research, and management of key occupational lung diseases, and suggested directions for future efforts. Differences among the three countries in terms of the medical, economic, and social aspects of defining, treating, and compensating occupational diseases were also considered.

Analysis of Partitioned Methods for the Biot System

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

Bukac, Martina; Layton, William; Moraiti, Marina

2015-02-18

In this work, we present a comprehensive study of several partitioned methods for the coupling of flow and mechanics. We derive energy estimates for each method for the fully-discrete problem. We write the obtained stability conditions in terms of a key control parameter defined as a ratio of the coupling strength and the speed of propagation. Depending on the parameters in the problem, give the choice of the partitioned method which allows the largest time step. (C) 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Managerial accounting applications in radiology.

PubMed

Lexa, Frank James; Mehta, Tushar; Seidmann, Abraham

2005-03-01

We review the core issues in managerial accounting for radiologists. We introduce the topic and then explore its application to diagnostic imaging. We define key terms such as fixed cost, variable cost, marginal cost, and marginal revenue and discuss their role in understanding the operational and financial implications for a radiology facility by using a cost-volume-profit model. Our work places particular emphasis on the role of managerial accounting in understanding service costs, as well as how it assists executive decision making.

[Current aspects of rehabilitation of stroke patients].

PubMed

Koval'chuk, V V; Bogatyreva, M D; Minullin, T I

2014-01-01

Based on the review of literature, the key aspects of stroke rehabilitation (medical, physical, psychological, professional and social) were singled out. Main principles of medical aspects were defined as following: early rehabilitation, systemic and long term measures, their complicity and disciplinary, adequacy of rehabilitation measures and providing the conditions for the active participation of the patient and his/her close friends and relatives. Measures directed to motor, speech and cognitive function recovery are considered. In conclusion, attention is drawn to pharmacological drugs, in particular nicergoline (sermion).

Analysis of a Decision Support System for CASE Tool Selection and the Specification of an Ada to SQL Abstract Interface

DTIC Science & Technology

1991-12-01

34 foreign keys" ,which are keys inherited from conlected entities, the keys would already be defined in the connected entity’s domain primiti le definition...defined for the rootnode re!ationship because all attributes are foreign keys and they are already defined in the connected entities domain primitive...can exchange data with other tools including other tools in the tool vendor’s tool 99 Upper CASE Tool Charactcrizcs set. The important attributes are

A scenario elicitation methodology to identify the drivers of electricity infrastructure cost in South America

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moksnes, Nandi; Taliotis, Constantinos; Broad, Oliver; de Moura, Gustavo; Howells, Mark

2017-04-01

Developing a set of scenarios to assess a proposed policy or future development pathways requires a certain level of information, as well as establishing the socio-economic context. As the future is difficult to predict, great care in defining the selected scenarios is needed. Even so it can be difficult to assess if the selected scenario is covering the possible solution space. Instead, this paper's methodology develops a large set of scenarios (324) in OSeMOSYS using the SAMBA 2.0 (South America Model Base) model to assess long-term electricity supply scenarios and applies a scenario-discovery statistical data mining algorithm, Patient Rule Induction Method (PRIM). By creating a multidimensional space, regions related to high and low cost can be identified as well as their key driver. The six key drivers are defined a priori in three (high, medium, low) or two levers (high, low): 1) Demand projected from GDP, population, urbanization and transport, 2) Fossil fuel price, 3) Climate change impact on hydropower, 4) Renewable technology learning rate, 5) Discount rate, 6) CO2 emission targets.

The SEDIBUD (Sediment Budgets in Cold Environments) Programme: Current activities and future key tasks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Beylich, A. A.; Lamoureux, S. F.; Decaulne, A.

2012-04-01

Projected climate change in cold regions is expected to alter melt season duration and intensity, along with the number of extreme rainfall events, total annual precipitation and the balance between snowfall and rainfall. Similarly, changes to the thermal balance are expected to reduce the extent of permafrost and seasonal ground frost and increase active layer depths. These effects will undoubtedly change surface environments in cold regions and alter the fluxes of sediments, nutrients and solutes, but the absence of quantitative data and coordinated process monitoring and analysis to understand the sensitivity of the Earth surface environment is acute in cold climate environments. The International Association of Geomorphologists (I.A.G./A.I.G.)SEDIBUD (Sediment Budgets in Cold Environments) Programme was formed in 2005 to address this existing key knowledge gap. SEDIBUD currently has about 400 members worldwide and the Steering Committee of this international programme is composed of ten scientists from eight different countries: Achim A. Beylich (Chair) (Norway), Armelle Decaulne (Secretary) (France), John C. Dixon (USA), Scott F. Lamoureux (Vice-Chair) (Canada), John F. Orwin (Canada), Jan-Christoph Otto (Austria), Irina Overeem (USA), Thorsteinn Saemundsson (Iceland), Jeff Warburton (UK), Zbigniew Zwolinski (Poland). The central research question of this global group of scientists is to: Assess and model the contemporary sedimentary fluxes in cold climates, with emphasis on both particulate and dissolved components. Initially formed as European Science Foundation (ESF) Network SEDIFLUX (2004-2006), SEDIBUD has further expanded to a global group of researchers with field research sites located in polar and alpine regions in the northern and southern hemisphere. Research carried out at each of the close to 50 defined SEDIBUD key test sites varies by programme, logistics and available resources, but typically represent interdisciplinary collaborations of geomorphologists, hydrologists, ecologists, permafrost scientists and glaciologists. SEDIBUD has developed manuals and protocols (SEDIFLUX Manual, available online, see below) with a key set of primary surface process monitoring and research data requirements to incorporate results from these diverse projects and allow coordinated quantitative analysis across the programme. Defined SEDIBUD key test sites provide data on annual climate conditions, total discharge and particulate and dissolved fluxes as well as information on other relevant surface processes. A number of selected key test sites is providing high-resolution data on climate conditions, runoff and sedimentary fluxes, which in addition to the annual data contribute to the SEDIBUD metadata database which is currently developed. Comparable datasets from different SEDIBUD key test sites are integrated and analysed to address key research questions as defined in the SEDIBUD Objective (available online, see below). Defined SEDIBUD key tasks for the coming years include (i) The continued generation and compilation of comparable longer-term datasets on contemporary sedimentary fluxes and sediment yields from SEDIBUD key test sites worldwide, (ii) The continued extension of the SEDIBUD metadata database with these datasets, (iii) The testing of defined SEDIBUD hypotheses (available online, see below) by using the datasets continuously compiled in the SEDIBUD metadata database. Detailed information on the I.A.G./A.I.G. SEDIBUD Programme, SEDIBUD meetings, SEDIBUD publications and SEDIBUD online documents and databases is available at the SEDIBUD website under http://www.geomorph.org/wg/wgsb.html.

Results and Analysis from Space Suit Joint Torque Testing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Matty, Jennifer E.; Aitchison, Lindsay

2009-01-01

A space suit s mobility is critical to an astronaut s ability to perform work efficiently. As mobility increases, the astronaut can perform tasks for longer durations with less fatigue. The term mobility, with respect to space suits, is defined in terms of two key components: joint range of motion and joint torque. Individually these measures describe the path which in which a joint travels and the force required to move it through that path. Previous space suits mobility requirements were defined as the collective result of these two measures and verified by the completion of discrete functional tasks. While a valid way to impose mobility requirements, such a method does necessitate a solid understanding of the operational scenarios in which the final suit will be performing. Because the Constellation space suit system requirements are being finalized with a relatively immature concept of operations, the Space Suit Element team elected to define mobility in terms of its constituent parts to increase the likelihood that the future pressure garment will be mobile enough to enable a broad scope of undefined exploration activities. The range of motion requirements were defined by measuring the ranges of motion test subjects achieved while performing a series of joint maximizing tasks in a variety of flight and prototype space suits. The definition of joint torque requirements has proved more elusive. NASA evaluated several different approaches to the problem before deciding to generate requirements based on unmanned joint torque evaluations of six different space suit configurations being articulated through 16 separate joint movements. This paper discusses the experiment design, data analysis and results, and the process used to determine the final values for the Constellation pressure garment joint torque requirements.

SCIDIP-ES - A science data e-infrastructure for preservation of earth science data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Riddick, Andrew; Glaves, Helen; Marelli, Fulvio; Albani, Mirko; Tona, Calogera; Marketakis, Yannis; Tzitzikas, Yannis; Guarino, Raffaele; Giaretta, David; Di Giammatteo, Ugo

2013-04-01

The capability for long term preservation of earth science data is a key requirement to support on-going research and collaboration within and between many earth science disciplines. A number of critically important current research directions (e.g. understanding climate change, and ensuring sustainability of natural resources) rely on the preservation of data often collected over several decades in a form in which it can be accessed and used easily. In many branches of the earth sciences the capture of key observational data may be difficult or impossible to repeat. For example, a specific geological exposure or subsurface borehole may be only temporarily available, and deriving earth observation data from a particular satellite mission is clearly often a unique opportunity. At the same time such unrepeatable observations may be a critical input to environmental, economic and political decision making. Another key driver for strategic long term data preservation is that key research challenges (such as those described above) frequently require cross disciplinary research utilising raw and interpreted data from a number of earth science disciplines. Effective data preservation strategies can support this requirement for interoperability, and thereby stimulate scientific innovation. The SCIDIP-ES project (EC FP7 grant agreement no. 283401) seeks to address these and other data preservation challenges by developing a Europe wide e-infrastructure for long term data preservation comprising appropriate software tools and infrastructure services to enable and promote long term preservation of earth science data. Because we define preservation in terms of continued usability of the digitally encoded information, the generic infrastructure services will allow a wide variety of data to be made usable by researchers from many different domains. This approach will enable the cost for long-term usability across disciplines to be shared supporting the creation of strong business cases for the long term support of that data. This paper will describe our progress to date, including the results of community engagement and user consultation exercises designed to specify and scope the required tools and services. Our user engagement methodology, ensuring that we are capturing the views of a representative sample of institutional users, will be described. Key results of an in-depth user requirements exercise, and also the conclusions from a survey of existing technologies and policies for earth science data preservation involving almost five hundred respondents across Europe and beyond will also be outlined. A key aim of the project will also be to create harmonised data preservation and access policies for earth science data in Europe, taking into account the requirements of relevant earth science data users and archive providers across Europe, liaising appropriately with other European e-infrastructure projects, and progress on this will be explained.

Toward a Glossary of Self-related Terms

PubMed Central

Morin, Alain

2017-01-01

Some scholars have noted that an impressive number of self-related terms have been gradually introduced in the scientific literature. Several of these terms are either ill-defined or synonymous, creating confusion, and redundancy. In an effort to minimize this problem, I present a novel and systematic way of looking at possible relations between several key self-terms. I also propose a tentative classification scheme of self-terms as follows: (1) basic terms related to the overall process of self-perception (e.g., self-awareness), (2) non self-terms that are importantly associated to some other self-terms (e.g., consciousness and Theory of Mind), (3) processes related to the executive self and involving agency, volition, and self-control (e.g., self-regulation), and (4) self-views, that is, the content and feelings about the self (e.g., self-esteem). Three additional categories not discussed in this paper are self-biases, reactions to the self, and interpersonal style. Arguably unambiguous definitions for some of the most important and frequently used self-terms are suggested. These are presented in tables meant for the reader to search for definitions as well as related terms. PMID:28293209

Considering context in quality improvement interventions and implementation: concepts, frameworks, and application.

PubMed

McDonald, Kathryn M

2013-01-01

Growing consensus within the health care field suggests that context matters and needs more concerted study for helping those who implement and conduct research on quality improvement interventions. Health care delivery system decision makers require information about whether an intervention tested in one context will work in another with some differences from the original site. We aimed to define key terms, enumerate candidate domains for the study of context, provide examples from the pediatric quality improvement literature, and identify potential measures for selected contexts. Key sources include the organizational literature, broad evaluation frameworks, and a recent project in the patient safety area on context sensitivity. The article concludes with limitations and next steps for developments in this area. Copyright © 2013 Academic Pediatric Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Building successful coalitions for promoting advance care planning.

PubMed

Marchand, Lucille; Fowler, Kathryn J; Kokanovic, Obrad

2006-01-01

Advance care planning (ACP) has had few successful initiatives. This qualitative study explores the challenges and successes of an advance care planning coalition in Wisconsin called Life Planning 2000 using key informant interviews (n = 24) and grounded theory. Major themes included: commitment (the need for leadership, recruitment of key members, and funding); cohesiveness (disparate groups collaborating toward a common purpose), and outcomes (shift in paradigm from signing documents to process of advanced care planning, new-found collaborative relationships, and educational tool development). Coalitions need to define short-, intermediate-, and long-term goals that result in measurable outcomes and an evaluation process. Resources must be commensurate with goals. Strong leadership, paid staff adequate funding, and the collaboration of diverse groups working toward common goals are the basic requirements of a successful coalition.

IMBLMS phase B4, additional tasks 5.0. Microbial identification system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1971-01-01

A laboratory study was undertaken to provide simplified procedures leading to the presumptive identification (I/D) of defined microorganisms on-board an orbiting spacecraft. Identifications were to be initiated by nonprofessional bacteriologists, (crew members) on a contingency basis only. Key objectives/constraints for this investigation were as follows:(1) I/D procedures based on limited, defined diagnostic tests, (2) testing oriented about ten selected microorganisms, (3) provide for definitive I/D key and procedures per selected organism, (4) define possible occurrences of false positives for the resulting I/D key by search of the appropriate literature, and (5) evaluation of the I/D key and procedure through a limited field trial on randomly selected subjects using the I/D key.

Phased implementation of spaced clinic visits for stable HIV-positive patients in Rwanda to support Treat All.

PubMed

Nsanzimana, Sabin; Remera, Eric; Ribakare, Muhayimpundu; Burns, Tracy; Dludlu, Sibongile; Mills, Edward J; Condo, Jeanine; Bucher, Heiner C; Ford, Nathan

2017-07-21

In 2016, Rwanda implemented "Treat All," requiring the national HIV programme to increase antiretroviral (ART) treatment coverage to all people living with HIV. Approximately half of the 164,262 patients on ART have been on treatment for more than five years, and long-term retention of patients in care is an increasing concern. To address these challenges, the Ministry of Health has introduced a differentiated service delivery approach to reduce the frequency of clinical visits and medication dispensing for eligible patients. This article draws on key policy documents and the views of technical experts involved in policy development to describe the process of implementation of differentiated service delivery in Rwanda. Implementation of differentiated service delivery followed a phased approach to ensure that all steps are clearly defined and agreed by all partners. Key steps included: definition of scope, including defining which patients were eligible for transition to the new model; definition of the key model components; preparation for patient enrolment; considerations for special patient groups; engagement of implementing partners; securing political and financial support; forecasting drug supply; revision, dissemination and implementation of ART guidelines; and monitoring and evaluation. Based on the outcomes of the evaluation of the new service delivery model, the Ministry of Health will review and strategically reduce costs to the national HIV program and to the patient by exploring and implementing adjustments to the service delivery model.

The I.A.G. / A.I.G. SEDIBUD (Sediment Budgets in Cold Environments) Programme: Current and future activities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Beylich, Achim A.; Lamoureux, Scott; Decaulne, Armelle

2013-04-01

Projected climate change in cold regions is expected to alter melt season duration and intensity, along with the number of extreme rainfall events, total annual precipitation and the balance between snowfall and rainfall. Similarly, changes to the thermal balance are expected to reduce the extent of permafrost and seasonal ground frost and increase active layer depths. These effects will undoubtedly change surface environments in cold regions and alter the fluxes of sediments, nutrients and solutes, but the absence of quantitative data and coordinated geomorphic process monitoring and analysis to understand the sensitivity of the Earth surface environment is acute in cold climate environments. The International Association of Geomorphologists (I.A.G. / A.I.G. ) SEDIBUD (Sediment Budgets in Cold Environments) Programme was formed in 2005 to address this existing key knowledge gap. SEDIBUD currently has about 400 members worldwide and the Steering Committee of this international programme is composed of ten scientists from eight different countries: Achim A. Beylich (Chair) (Norway), Armelle Decaulne (Secretary) (France), John C. Dixon (USA), Scott F. Lamoureux (Vice-Chair) (Canada), John F. Orwin (Canada), Jan-Christoph Otto (Austria), Irina Overeem (USA), Thorsteinn Sæmundsson (Iceland), Jeff Warburton (UK) and Zbigniew Zwolinski (Poland). The central research question of this global group of scientists is to: Assess and model the contemporary sedimentary fluxes in cold climates, with emphasis on both particulate and dissolved components. Initially formed as European Science Foundation (ESF) Network SEDIFLUX (Sedimentary Source-to-Sink Fluxes in Cold Environments) (2004 - ), SEDIBUD has further expanded to a global group of researchers with field research sites located in polar and alpine regions in the northern and southern hemisphere. Research carried out at each of the close to 50 defined SEDIBUD key test sites varies by programme, logistics and available resources, but typically represent interdisciplinary collaborations of geomorphologists, hydrologists, ecologists, permafrost scientists and glaciologists. SEDIBUD has developed manuals and protocols (SEDIFLUX Manual, available online, see below) with a key set of primary surface process monitoring and research data requirements to incorporate results from these diverse projects and allow coordinated quantitative analysis across the programme. Defined SEDIBUD key test sites provide data on annual climate conditions, total discharge and particulate and dissolved fluxes (yields) as well as information on other relevant surface processes. A number of selected key test sites is providing high-resolution data on climate conditions, runoff and sedimentary fluxes (yields), which in addition to the annual data contribute to the SEDIBUD metadata database. Comparable datasets from different SEDIBUD key test sites are integrated and analysed to address key research questions as defined in the SEDIBUD objective (available online, see below). Defined SEDIBUD key tasks for the coming years include (i) The continued generation and compilation of comparable longer-term datasets on contemporary sedimentary fluxes and sediment yields from SEDIBUD key test sites worldwide, (ii) The continued extension of the SEDIBUD metadata database with these datasets, (iii) The testing of defined SEDIBUD hypotheses (available online, see below) by using datasets continuously compiled in the SEDIBUD metadata database, (iv) The publication of a SEDIBUD book (synthesis book). Detailed information on the SEDIBUD Programme, SEDIBUD meetings, SEDIBUD publications and SEDIBUD online documents and databases is available at the SEDIBUD website under http://www.geomorph.org/wg/wgsb.html.

Partnerships for Policy Development: A Case Study From Uganda’s Costed Implementation Plan for Family Planning

PubMed Central

Lipsky, Alyson B; Gribble, James N; Cahaelen, Linda; Sharma, Suneeta

2016-01-01

ABSTRACT In global health, partnerships between practitioners and policy makers facilitate stakeholders in jointly addressing those issues that require multiple perspectives for developing, implementing, and evaluating plans, strategies, and programs. For family planning, costed implementation plans (CIPs) are developed through a strategic government-led consultative process that results in a detailed plan for program activities and an estimate of the funding required to achieve an established set of goals. Since 2009, many countries have developed CIPs. Conventionally, the CIP approach has not been defined with partnerships as a focal point; nevertheless, cooperation between key stakeholders is vital to CIP development and execution. Uganda launched a CIP in November 2014, thus providing an opportunity to examine the process through a partnership lens. This article describes Uganda’s CIP development process in detail, grounded in a framework for assessing partnerships, and provides the findings from 22 key informant interviews. Findings reveal strengths in Uganda’s CIP development process, such as willingness to adapt and strong senior management support. However, the evaluation also highlighted challenges, including district health officers (DHOs), who are a key group of implementers, feeling excluded from the development process. There was also a lack of planning around long-term partnership practices that could help address anticipated execution challenges. The authors recommend that future CIP development efforts use a long-term partnership strategy that fosters accountability by encompassing both the short-term goal of developing the CIP and the longer-term goal of achieving the CIP objectives. Although this study focused on Uganda’s CIP for family planning, its lessons have implications for any policy or strategy development efforts that require multiple stakeholders to ensure successful execution. PMID:27353621

Transition from in-hospital ventilation to home ventilation: process description and quality indicators

PubMed Central

Kastrup, Marc; Tittmann, Benjamin; Sawatzki, Tanja; Gersch, Martin; Vogt, Charlotte; Rosenthal, Max; Rosseau, Simone; Spies, Claudia

2017-01-01

The current demographic development of our society results in an increasing number of elderly patients with chronic diseases being treated in the intensive care unit. A possible long-term consequence of such a treatment is that patients remain dependent on certain invasive organ support systems, such as long-term ventilator dependency. The main goal of this project is to define the transition process between in-hospital and out of hospital (ambulatory) ventilator support. A further goal is to identify evidence-based quality indicators to help define and describe this process. This project describes an ideal sequence of processes (process chain), based on the current evidence from the literature. Besides the process chain, key data and quality indicators were described in detail. Due to the limited project timeline, these indicators were not extensively tested in the clinical environment. The results of this project may serve as a solid basis for proof of feasibility and proof of concept investigations, optimize the transition process of ventilator-dependent patients from a clinical to an ambulatory setting, as well as reduce the rate of emergency re-admissions. PMID:29308061

Human serum-derived protein removes the need for coating in defined human pluripotent stem cell culture

PubMed Central

Pijuan-Galitó, Sara; Tamm, Christoffer; Schuster, Jens; Sobol, Maria; Forsberg, Lars; Merry, Catherine L. R.; Annerén, Cecilia

2016-01-01

Reliable, scalable and time-efficient culture methods are required to fully realize the clinical and industrial applications of human pluripotent stem (hPS) cells. Here we present a completely defined, xeno-free medium that supports long-term propagation of hPS cells on uncoated tissue culture plastic. The medium consists of the Essential 8 (E8) formulation supplemented with inter-α-inhibitor (IαI), a human serum-derived protein, recently demonstrated to activate key pluripotency pathways in mouse PS cells. IαI efficiently induces attachment and long-term growth of both embryonic and induced hPS cell lines when added as a soluble protein to the medium at seeding. IαI supplementation efficiently supports adaptation of feeder-dependent hPS cells to xeno-free conditions, clonal growth as well as single-cell survival in the absence of Rho-associated kinase inhibitor (ROCKi). This time-efficient and simplified culture method paves the way for large-scale, high-throughput hPS cell culture, and will be valuable for both basic research and commercial applications. PMID:27405751

Glucose variability negatively impacts long-term functional outcome in patients with traumatic brain injury.

PubMed

Matsushima, Kazuhide; Peng, Monica; Velasco, Carlos; Schaefer, Eric; Diaz-Arrastia, Ramon; Frankel, Heidi

2012-04-01

Significant glycemic excursions (so-called glucose variability) affect the outcome of generic critically ill patients but has not been well studied in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of glucose variability on long-term functional outcome of patients with TBI. A noncomputerized tight glucose control protocol was used in our intensivist model surgical intensive care unit. The relationship between the glucose variability and long-term (a median of 6 months after injury) functional outcome defined by extended Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOSE) was analyzed using ordinal logistic regression models. Glucose variability was defined by SD and percentage of excursion (POE) from the preset range glucose level. A total of 109 patients with TBI under tight glucose control had long-term GOSE evaluated. In univariable analysis, there was a significant association between lower GOSE score and higher mean glucose, higher SD, POE more than 60, POE 80 to 150, and single episode of glucose less than 60 mg/dL but not POE 80 to 110. After adjusting for possible confounding variables in multivariable ordinal logistic regression models, higher SD, POE more than 60, POE 80 to 150, and single episode of glucose less than 60 mg/dL were significantly associated with lower GOSE score. Glucose variability was significantly associated with poorer long-term functional outcome in patients with TBI as measured by the GOSE score. Well-designed protocols to minimize glucose variability may be key in improving long-term functional outcome. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Glossary on the World Trade Organisation and public health: part 2.

PubMed

Labonte, Ronald; Sanger, Matthew

2006-09-01

Part 1 of this glossary introduced different health and trade arguments, overviewed the history of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), defined key "trade talk" terms, and reviewed three WTO treaties concerned with trade in goods (GATT 1994, the Agreement on Agriculture, and the Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures). Part 2 reviews five more agreements and the growing number of bilateral and regional trade agreements, and concludes with a commentary on different strategies proposed to ensure that health is not compromised by trade liberalization treaties.

On human health.

PubMed

van Spijk, Piet

2015-05-01

If it is true that health is a priority objective of medicine, then medical practice can only be successful if the meaning of the term "health" is known. Various attempts have been made over the years to define health. This paper proposes a new definition. In addition to current health concepts, it also takes into account the distinction between specifically human (great) health and health as the absence of disease and illness-i.e. small health. The feeling of leading a life that makes sense plays a key role in determining specifically human great health.

Implementing quantum Ricci curvature

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Klitgaard, N.; Loll, R.

2018-05-01

Quantum Ricci curvature has been introduced recently as a new, geometric observable characterizing the curvature properties of metric spaces, without the need for a smooth structure. Besides coordinate invariance, its key features are scalability, computability, and robustness. We demonstrate that these properties continue to hold in the context of nonperturbative quantum gravity, by evaluating the quantum Ricci curvature numerically in two-dimensional Euclidean quantum gravity, defined in terms of dynamical triangulations. Despite the well-known, highly nonclassical properties of the underlying quantum geometry, its Ricci curvature can be matched well to that of a five-dimensional round sphere.

Glossary on the World Trade Organisation and public health: part 2

PubMed Central

Labonte, Ronald; Sanger, Matthew

2006-01-01

Part 1 of this glossary introduced different health and trade arguments, overviewed the history of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), defined key “trade talk” terms, and reviewed three WTO treaties concerned with trade in goods (GATT 1994, the Agreement on Agriculture, and the Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures). Part 2 reviews five more agreements and the growing number of bilateral and regional trade agreements, and concludes with a commentary on different strategies proposed to ensure that health is not compromised by trade liberalisation treaties. PMID:16905715

Obtaining Reimbursement in France and Italy for New Diabetes Products

PubMed Central

Schaefer, Elmar; Sonsalla, Jessica

2015-01-01

Manufacturers launching next-generation or innovative medical devices in Europe face a very heterogeneous reimbursement landscape, with each country having its own pathways, timing, requirements and success factors. We selected 2 markets for a deeper look into the reimbursement landscape: France, representing a country with central decision making with defined processes, and Italy, which delegates reimbursement decisions to the regional level, resulting in a less transparent approach to reimbursement. Based on our experience in working on various new product launches and analyzing recent reimbursement decisions, we found that payers in both countries do not reward improved next-generation products with incremental reimbursement. Looking at innovations, we observe that manufacturers face a challenging and lengthy process to obtain reimbursement. In addition, requirements and key success factors differ by country: In France, comparative clinical evidence and budget impact very much drive reimbursement decisions in terms of pricing and restrictions, whereas in Italy, regional key opinion leader (KOL) support and additional local observational data are key. PMID:25550411

Obtaining reimbursement in France and Italy for new diabetes products.

PubMed

Schaefer, Elmar; Schnell, Gerald; Sonsalla, Jessica

2015-01-01

Manufacturers launching next-generation or innovative medical devices in Europe face a very heterogeneous reimbursement landscape, with each country having its own pathways, timing, requirements and success factors. We selected 2 markets for a deeper look into the reimbursement landscape: France, representing a country with central decision making with defined processes, and Italy, which delegates reimbursement decisions to the regional level, resulting in a less transparent approach to reimbursement. Based on our experience in working on various new product launches and analyzing recent reimbursement decisions, we found that payers in both countries do not reward improved next-generation products with incremental reimbursement. Looking at innovations, we observe that manufacturers face a challenging and lengthy process to obtain reimbursement. In addition, requirements and key success factors differ by country: In France, comparative clinical evidence and budget impact very much drive reimbursement decisions in terms of pricing and restrictions, whereas in Italy, regional key opinion leader (KOL) support and additional local observational data are key. © 2015 Diabetes Technology Society.

Wheeling and Banking Strategies for Optimal Renewable Energy Deployment. International Experiences

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

Heeter, Jenny; Vora, Ravi; Mathur, Shivani

This paper defines the principles of wheeling (i.e., transmission) tariffs and renewable energy (RE) banking provisions and their role in RE deployment in countries with plans for large-scale RE. It reviews experiences to date in the United States, Mexico, and India and discusses key policy and regulatory considerations for devising more effective wheeling and/or banking provisions for countries with ambitious RE deployment targets. The paper addresses the challenges of competing needs of stakeholders, especially those of RE generators, distribution utilities, and transmission network owners and operators. The importance of wheeling and banking and their effectiveness for financial viability of REmore » deployment is also explored. This paper aims to benefit policymakers and regulators as well as key renewable energy stakeholders. Key lessons for regulators include: creating long-term wheeling and banking policy certainty, considering incentivizing RE through discounted transmission access, and assessing the cost implications of such discounts, as well as expanding access to renewable energy customers.« less

Defining information need in health - assimilating complex theories derived from information science.

PubMed

Ormandy, Paula

2011-03-01

Key policy drivers worldwide include optimizing patients' roles in managing their care; focusing services around patients' needs and preferences; and providing information to support patients' contributions and choices. The term information need penetrates many policy documents. Information need is espoused as the foundation from which to develop patient-centred or patient-led services. Yet there is no clear definition as to what the term means or how patients' information needs inform and shape information provision and patient care. The assimilation of complex theories originating from information science has much to offer considerations of patient information need within the context of health care. Health-related research often focuses on the content of information patients prefer, not why they need information. This paper extends and applies knowledge of information behaviour to considerations of information need in health, exposing a working definition for patient information need that reiterates the importance of considering the patient's goals and understanding the patient's context/situation. A patient information need is defined as 'recognition that their knowledge is inadequate to satisfy a goal, within the context/situation that they find themselves at a specific point in the time'. This typifies the key concepts of national/international health policy, the centrality and importance of the patient. The proposed definition of patient information need provides a conceptual framework to guide health-care practitioners on what to consider and why when meeting the information needs of patients in practice. This creates a solid foundation from which to inform future research. © 2010 The Author. Health Expectations © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

The environmental controls that govern the end product of bacterial nitrate respiration

DOE PAGES

Kraft, Beate; Tegetmeyer, Halina E.; Sharma, Ritin; ...

2014-08-08

In the biogeochemical nitrogen cycle, microbial respiration processes compete for nitrate as an electron acceptor. Denitrification converts nitrate into nitrogenous gas and thus removes fixed nitrogen from the biosphere, whereas ammonification converts nitrate into ammonium, which is directly reusable by primary producers. In this paper, we combined multiple parallel long-term incubations of marine microbial nitrate-respiring communities with isotope labeling and metagenomics to unravel how specific environmental conditions select for either process. Microbial generation time, supply of nitrite relative to nitrate, and the carbon/nitrogen ratio were identified as key environmental controls that determine whether nitrite will be reduced to nitrogenous gasmore » or ammonium. Finally, our results define the microbial ecophysiology of a biogeochemical feedback loop that is key to global change, eutrophication, and wastewater treatment.« less

Aquatic snails (Gastropoda) of the Savannah River Plant, Aiken, South Carolina

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

Wood, D.H.

1982-04-01

A system of taxonomic aids to the snails of the Savannah River Plant (SRP) area is presented. The first part of the system is a dichotomous key. Descriptive terms not used in general ecology have been defined in a glossary. The second part of the system is a series of illustrated descriptions which will confirm identifications made using the key. Illustrations were prepared from specimens collected on the SRP or in the Savannah River on or near the SRP, with the exception of a few uncommon species which have been illustrated by using specimens from the Academy of Natural Sciencesmore » of Philadelphia (ANSP). The Academy collected those specimens in surveys of the Savannah River from 1952 through 1975. Ecological and distributional notes, where available, are included with the species descriptions.« less

Earth Observing Scanning Polarimeter (EOSP), phase B

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1990-01-01

Evaluations performed during a Phase B study directed towards defining an optimal design for the Earth Observing Scanning Polarimeter (EOSP) instrument is summarized. An overview of the experiment approach is included which provides a summary of the scientific objectives, the background of the measurement approach, and the measurement method. In the instrumentation section, details of the design are discussed starting with the key instrument features required to accomplish the scientific objectives and a system characterization in terms of the Stokes vector/Mueller matrix formalism. This is followed by a detailing of the instrument design concept, the design of the individual elements of the system, the predicted performance, and a summary of appropriate instrument testing and calibration. The selected design makes use of key features of predecessor polarimeters and is fully compatible with the Earth Observing System spacecraft requirements.

Key on demand (KoD) for software-defined optical networks secured by quantum key distribution (QKD).

PubMed

Cao, Yuan; Zhao, Yongli; Colman-Meixner, Carlos; Yu, Xiaosong; Zhang, Jie

2017-10-30

Software-defined optical networking (SDON) will become the next generation optical network architecture. However, the optical layer and control layer of SDON are vulnerable to cyberattacks. While, data encryption is an effective method to minimize the negative effects of cyberattacks, secure key interchange is its major challenge which can be addressed by the quantum key distribution (QKD) technique. Hence, in this paper we discuss the integration of QKD with WDM optical networks to secure the SDON architecture by introducing a novel key on demand (KoD) scheme which is enabled by a novel routing, wavelength and key assignment (RWKA) algorithm. The QKD over SDON with KoD model follows two steps to provide security: i) quantum key pools (QKPs) construction for securing the control channels (CChs) and data channels (DChs); ii) the KoD scheme uses RWKA algorithm to allocate and update secret keys for different security requirements. To test our model, we define a security probability index which measures the security gain in CChs and DChs. Simulation results indicate that the security performance of CChs and DChs can be enhanced by provisioning sufficient secret keys in QKPs and performing key-updating considering potential cyberattacks. Also, KoD is beneficial to achieve a positive balance between security requirements and key resource usage.

Publication analysis of the contact lens field: what are the current topics of interest?

PubMed

Cardona, Genís; Sanz, Joan P

2015-01-01

To determine the main current research interests of scientists working in the contact lens field. All articles published in the 2011 issues of all journals included in the Journal Citation Reports subject category Ophthalmology were inspected to expose those papers related to the contact lens field. Information regarding source journal was obtained and authorship details were recorded to determine the top most prolific authors, institutions and countries. A comprehensive list of key words was compiled to generate a two-dimensional term map in which the frequency of occurrence of a particular term is defined by label size and the distance between two terms is an indication of the relatedness of these terms, based on their co-occurrences within groups of key words. Clusters of related terms were also identified. Visual examination of all articles uncovered a total of 156 papers, published in 28 different journals. Contact Lens & Anterior Eye, Eye & Contact Lens and Optometry and Vision Science had 27 articles each. The most prolific authors and institutions revealed the predominance of countries with long research tradition in the contact lens field. Ten different word clusters or areas of interest were identified, including both traditional, yet unresolved issues (e.g., comfort or dry eye), and the latest research efforts (e.g., myopia control). These findings, which revealed contact lenses to be a fertile area of research, may be of relevance to new researchers as well as to those interested in exploring the latest research trends in this scientific discipline. Copyright © 2013 Spanish General Council of Optometry. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

Long-Term Planetary Habitability and the Carbonate-Silicate Cycle.

PubMed

Rushby, Andrew J; Johnson, Martin; Mills, Benjamin J W; Watson, Andrew J; Claire, Mark W

2018-05-01

The potential habitability of an exoplanet is traditionally assessed by determining whether its orbit falls within the circumstellar "habitable zone" of its star, defined as the distance at which water could be liquid on the surface of a planet (Kopparapu et al., 2013 ). Traditionally, these limits are determined by radiative-convective climate models, which are used to predict surface temperatures at user-specified levels of greenhouse gases. This approach ignores the vital question of the (bio)geochemical plausibility of the proposed chemical abundances. Carbon dioxide is the most important greenhouse gas in Earth's atmosphere in terms of regulating planetary temperature, with the long-term concentration controlled by the balance between volcanic outgassing and the sequestration of CO 2 via chemical weathering and sedimentation, as modulated by ocean chemistry, circulation, and biological (microbial) productivity. We developed a model that incorporates key aspects of Earth's short- and long-term biogeochemical carbon cycle to explore the potential changes in the CO 2 greenhouse due to variance in planet size and stellar insolation. We find that proposed changes in global topography, tectonics, and the hydrological cycle on larger planets result in proportionally greater surface temperatures for a given incident flux. For planets between 0.5 and 2 R ⊕ , the effect of these changes results in average global surface temperature deviations of up to 20 K, which suggests that these relationships must be considered in future studies of planetary habitability. Key Words: Planets-Atmospheres-Carbon dioxide-Biogeochemistry. Astrobiology 18, 469-480.

Energy-Saving Traffic Scheduling in Hybrid Software Defined Wireless Rechargeable Sensor Networks

PubMed Central

Wei, Yunkai; Ma, Xiaohui; Yang, Ning; Chen, Yijin

2017-01-01

Software Defined Wireless Rechargeable Sensor Networks (SDWRSNs) are an inexorable trend for Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), including Wireless Rechargeable Sensor Network (WRSNs). However, the traditional network devices cannot be completely substituted in the short term. Hybrid SDWRSNs, where software defined devices and traditional devices coexist, will last for a long time. Hybrid SDWRSNs bring new challenges as well as opportunities for energy saving issues, which is still a key problem considering that the wireless chargers are also exhaustible, especially in some rigid environment out of the main supply. Numerous energy saving schemes for WSNs, or even some works for WRSNs, are no longer suitable for the new features of hybrid SDWRSNs. To solve this problem, this paper puts forward an Energy-saving Traffic Scheduling (ETS) algorithm. The ETS algorithm adequately considers the new characters in hybrid SDWRSNs, and takes advantage of the Software Defined Networking (SDN) controller’s direct control ability on SDN nodes and indirect control ability on normal nodes. The simulation results show that, comparing with traditional Minimum Transmission Energy (MTE) protocol, ETS can substantially improve the energy efficiency in hybrid SDWRSNs for up to 20–40% while ensuring feasible data delay. PMID:28914816

Energy-Saving Traffic Scheduling in Hybrid Software Defined Wireless Rechargeable Sensor Networks.

PubMed

Wei, Yunkai; Ma, Xiaohui; Yang, Ning; Chen, Yijin

2017-09-15

Software Defined Wireless Rechargeable Sensor Networks (SDWRSNs) are an inexorable trend for Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), including Wireless Rechargeable Sensor Network (WRSNs). However, the traditional network devices cannot be completely substituted in the short term. Hybrid SDWRSNs, where software defined devices and traditional devices coexist, will last for a long time. Hybrid SDWRSNs bring new challenges as well as opportunities for energy saving issues, which is still a key problem considering that the wireless chargers are also exhaustible, especially in some rigid environment out of the main supply. Numerous energy saving schemes for WSNs, or even some works for WRSNs, are no longer suitable for the new features of hybrid SDWRSNs. To solve this problem, this paper puts forward an Energy-saving Traffic Scheduling (ETS) algorithm. The ETS algorithm adequately considers the new characters in hybrid SDWRSNs, and takes advantage of the Software Defined Networking (SDN) controller's direct control ability on SDN nodes and indirect control ability on normal nodes. The simulation results show that, comparing with traditional Minimum Transmission Energy (MTE) protocol, ETS can substantially improve the energy efficiency in hybrid SDWRSNs for up to 20-40% while ensuring feasible data delay.

Health economic assessment: a methodological primer.

PubMed

Simoens, Steven

2009-12-01

This review article aims to provide an introduction to the methodology of health economic assessment of a health technology. Attention is paid to defining the fundamental concepts and terms that are relevant to health economic assessments. The article describes the methodology underlying a cost study (identification, measurement and valuation of resource use, calculation of costs), an economic evaluation (type of economic evaluation, the cost-effectiveness plane, trial- and model-based economic evaluation, discounting, sensitivity analysis, incremental analysis), and a budget impact analysis. Key references are provided for those readers who wish a more advanced understanding of health economic assessments.

Thermal Control Working Group report

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Haslett, Robert; Mahefkey, E. Thomas

1986-01-01

The Thermal Control Working Group limited its evaluation to issues associated with Earth orbiting and planetary spacecraft with power levels up to 50 kW. It was concluded that the space station technology is a necessary precursor but does not meet S/C 2000 needs (life, high heat flux, long term cryogenics, and survivability). Additional basic and applied research are required (fluid/materials compatibility and two phase system modeling). Scaling, the key issue, must define accelerated life test criteria. The two phase systems require 0g to 1 g correlation. Additional ground test beds are required and combined space environment tests of materials.

Health Economic Assessment: A Methodological Primer

PubMed Central

Simoens, Steven

2009-01-01

This review article aims to provide an introduction to the methodology of health economic assessment of a health technology. Attention is paid to defining the fundamental concepts and terms that are relevant to health economic assessments. The article describes the methodology underlying a cost study (identification, measurement and valuation of resource use, calculation of costs), an economic evaluation (type of economic evaluation, the cost-effectiveness plane, trial- and model-based economic evaluation, discounting, sensitivity analysis, incremental analysis), and a budget impact analysis. Key references are provided for those readers who wish a more advanced understanding of health economic assessments. PMID:20049237

Expanding Midscale Solar: Examining the Economic Potential, Barriers, and Opportunities at Offices, Hotels, Warehouses, and Universities

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

Bird, Lori; Gagnon, Pieter; Heeter, Jenny

The midscale market for solar photovoltaics (PV), defined as behind-the-meter systems between 100 kW and 2 MW, has grown more slowly than other PV market segments in recent years. A number of key barriers have impeded growth, including tenant and landlord split incentives, contracting challenges, the mismatch in building lease and PV financing terms, and high transaction costs relative to project sizes. This report explores prospects for expansion of the midscale solar market, with a focus on four building segments: offices, hotels, warehouses, and universities.

[Neurohumoral mechanisms for vasovagal syncopes. Part II].

PubMed

Gajek, Jacek; Zyśko, Dorota

2003-04-01

Vasovagal syncope is defined as a reflex loss of consciousness related to reaction to various stimuli as orthostatic stress, pain or emotions connected with loss of muscle postural tone. In the second part of the paper the authors describe the possible role of the particular neurohumoral factors and autonomic nervous system in the development of vasovagal syncope. The studies on the involvement of neurohumoral factors in vasovagal syncope can play a key role in a more precise evaluation of affected patients, long term prophylaxis against syncopal events and may contribute to development of more reliable diagnostic tests.

Impact of peculiar features of construction of transport infrastructure on the choice of tools for reengineering of business processes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Khripko, Elena

2017-10-01

In the present article we study the issues of organizational resistance to reengineering of business processes in construction of transport infrastructure. Reengineering in a company of transport sector is, first and foremost, an innovative component of business strategy. We analyze the choice of forward and reverse reengineering tools and terms of their application in connection with organizational resistance. Reengineering is defined taking into account four aspects: fundamentality, radicality, abruptness, business process. We describe the stages of reengineering and analyze key requirements to newly created business processes.

Prolonged weaning: from the intensive care unit to home.

PubMed

Navalesi, P; Frigerio, P; Patzlaff, A; Häußermann, S; Henseke, P; Kubitschek, M

2014-01-01

Weaning is the process of withdrawing mechanical ventilation which starts with the first spontaneous breathing trial (SBT). Based on the degree of difficulty and duration, weaning is classified as simple, difficult and prolonged. Prolonged weaning, which includes patients who fail 3 SBTs or are still on mechanical ventilation 7 days after the first SBT, affects a relatively small fraction of mechanically ventilated ICU patients but these, however, requires disproportionate resources. There are several potential causes which can lead to prolonged weaning. It is nonetheless important to understand the problem from the point of view of each individual patient in order to adopt appropriate treatment and define precise prognosis. An otherwise stable patient who remains on mechanical ventilation will be considered for transfer to a specialized weaning unit (SWU). Though there is not a precise definition, SWU can be considered as highly specialized and protected environments for patients requiring mechanical ventilation despite resolution of the acute disorder. Proper staffing, well defined short-term and long-term goals, attention to psychological and social problems represent key determinants of SWU success. Some patients cannot be weaned, either partly or entirely, and may require long-term home mechanical ventilation. In these cases the logistics relating to caregivers and the equipment must be carefully considered and addressed. Copyright © 2014 Sociedade Portuguesa de Pneumologia. Published by Elsevier España. All rights reserved.

Catchment-scale herbicides transport: Theory and application

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bertuzzo, E.; Thomet, M.; Botter, G.; Rinaldo, A.

2013-02-01

This paper proposes and tests a model which couples the description of hydrologic flow and transport of herbicides at catchment scales. The model accounts for streamflow components' age to characterize short and long term fluctuations of herbicide flux concentrations in stream waters, whose peaks exceeding a toxic threshold are key to exposure risk of aquatic ecosystems. The model is based on a travel time formulation of transport embedding a source zone that describes near surface herbicide dynamics. To this aim we generalize a recently proposed scheme for the analytical derivation of travel time distributions to the case of solutes that can be partially taken up by transpiration and undergo chemical degradation. The framework developed is evaluated by comparing modeled hydrographs and atrazine chemographs with those measured in the Aabach agricultural catchment (Switzerland). The model proves reliable in defining complex transport features shaped by the interplay of long term processes, related to the persistence of solute components in soils, and short term dynamics related to storm inter-arrivals. The effects of stochasticity in rainfall patterns and application dates on concentrations and loads in runoff are assessed via Monte Carlo simulations, highlighting the crucial role played by the first rainfall event occurring after herbicide application. A probabilistic framework for critical determinants of exposure risk to aquatic communities is defined. Modeling of herbicides circulation at catchment scale thus emerges as essential tools for ecological risk assessment.

Orthogonal polynomials for refinable linear functionals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Laurie, Dirk; de Villiers, Johan

2006-12-01

A refinable linear functional is one that can be expressed as a convex combination and defined by a finite number of mask coefficients of certain stretched and shifted replicas of itself. The notion generalizes an integral weighted by a refinable function. The key to calculating a Gaussian quadrature formula for such a functional is to find the three-term recursion coefficients for the polynomials orthogonal with respect to that functional. We show how to obtain the recursion coefficients by using only the mask coefficients, and without the aid of modified moments. Our result implies the existence of the corresponding refinable functional whenever the mask coefficients are nonnegative, even when the same mask does not define a refinable function. The algorithm requires O(n^2) rational operations and, thus, can in principle deliver exact results. Numerical evidence suggests that it is also effective in floating-point arithmetic.

An Individual Perspective on Risk in a DC (Usually 401(k)) Environment.

PubMed

Rappaport, Anna M

2016-01-01

Traditional benefit packages once typically included defined benefit (DB) pension plans and focused on identifying the key financial risks facing employees, deciding which were more serious and developing strategies to protect employees from those risks. Today, defined contribution (DC) plans often are the primary retirement security vehicle, and much of the risk protection has been taken out of the benefits package. This article focuses on some of the risks facing employees, identifies which are covered by the typical 401(k) plan and which are not and provides ideas for managing risks not covered directly by the typical plan. There is substantial focus on long-term disability and longevity. The discussion spans savings and payout periods and suggests some ideas for the future, including greater integration of 401(k) plans with risk protection approaches. The article does not focus on investment risk and options.

Quality work in long-term care: the role of first-line leaders.

PubMed

Kjøs, Bente Ødegård; Botten, Grete; Gjevjon, Edith Roth; Romøren, Tor Inge

2010-10-01

To explore the first-line leaders' role in quality work in long-term care in Norway, in order to determine how that work is related to such success characteristics as leadership, staff, patients, performance, information and information technology. Cross-sectional telephone survey. The text was analysed using content analysis. Thirty-two Norwegian municipalities stratified according to region and population size. Sixty-four first-line leaders in nursing homes and home-based care. Main outcome measure The clinical microsystem approach is used as a framework by defining and designing measureable variables. Thirty-six leaders described how they initiated and motivated employees to be active in quality work; the remaining leaders indicated that they played a passive role. The first-line leaders played a key role in implementing national quality policies and regulations. The quantity of other success characteristics was low. The municipalities delegated the responsibility of implanting national policies to the first-line leaders. Missing were key quality success criteria such as macro- and meso-perspectives for the municipality as a whole and co-operation with other leaders in the organization and fostering of relevant learning. Quality work was fragmented rather than comprehensive and systematic.

Interoperability and information discovery

USGS Publications Warehouse

Christian, E.

2001-01-01

In the context of information systems, there is interoperability when the distinctions between separate information systems are not a barrier to accomplishing a task that spans those systems. Interoperability so defined implies that there are commonalities among the systems involved and that one can exploit such commonalities to achieve interoperability. The challenge of a particular interoperability task is to identify relevant commonalities among the systems involved and to devise mechanisms that exploit those commonalities. The present paper focuses on the particular interoperability task of information discovery. The Global Information Locator Service (GILS) is described as a policy, standards, and technology framework for addressing interoperable information discovery on a global and long-term basis. While there are many mechanisms for people to discover and use all manner of data and information resources, GILS initiatives exploit certain key commonalities that seem to be sufficient to realize useful information discovery interoperability at a global, long-term scale. This paper describes ten of the specific commonalities that are key to GILS initiatives. It presents some of the practical implications for organizations in various roles: content provider, system engineer, intermediary, and searcher. The paper also provides examples of interoperable information discovery as deployed using GILS in four types of information communities: bibliographic, geographic, environmental, and government.

16 CFR 300.1 - Terms defined.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... 16 Commercial Practices 1 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Terms defined. 300.1 Section 300.1 Commercial Practices FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION REGULATIONS UNDER SPECIFIC ACTS OF CONGRESS RULES AND REGULATIONS UNDER THE WOOL PRODUCTS LABELING ACT OF 1939 Definitions § 300.1 Terms defined. (a) The term Act...

Programmable multi-node quantum network design and simulation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dasari, Venkat R.; Sadlier, Ronald J.; Prout, Ryan; Williams, Brian P.; Humble, Travis S.

2016-05-01

Software-defined networking offers a device-agnostic programmable framework to encode new network functions. Externally centralized control plane intelligence allows programmers to write network applications and to build functional network designs. OpenFlow is a key protocol widely adopted to build programmable networks because of its programmability, flexibility and ability to interconnect heterogeneous network devices. We simulate the functional topology of a multi-node quantum network that uses programmable network principles to manage quantum metadata for protocols such as teleportation, superdense coding, and quantum key distribution. We first show how the OpenFlow protocol can manage the quantum metadata needed to control the quantum channel. We then use numerical simulation to demonstrate robust programmability of a quantum switch via the OpenFlow network controller while executing an application of superdense coding. We describe the software framework implemented to carry out these simulations and we discuss near-term efforts to realize these applications.

Defining the road ahead: thinking strategically in the new era of health care reform.

PubMed

Pudlowski, Edward M

2011-01-01

Understanding the implications of the new health care reform legislation, including those provisions that do not take effect for several years, will be critical in developing a successful strategic plan under the new environment of health care reform and avoiding unintended consequences of decisions made without the benefit of long-term thinking. Although this article is not a comprehensive assessment of the challenges and opportunities that exist under health care reform, nor a layout of all of the issues, it looks at some of the key areas in order to demonstrate why employers need to identify critical pathways and the associated risks and benefits of each decision. Key health care reform areas include insurance market reforms, grandfather rules, provisions that have the potential to influence the underlying cost of health care, the individual mandate, the employer mandate (including the free-choice voucher program) and the excise tax on high-cost plans.

Consensus Emerging from the Bottom-up: the Role of Cognitive Variables in Opinion Dynamics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Giardini, Francesca; Vilone, Daniele; Conte, Rosaria

2015-09-01

The study of opinions - e.g., their formation and change, and their effects on our society - by means of theoretical and numerical models has been one of the main goals of sociophysics until now, but it is one of the defining topics addressed by social psychology and complexity science. Despite the flourishing of different models and theories, several key questions still remain unanswered. The aim of this paper is to provide a cognitively grounded computational model of opinions in which they are described as mental representations and defined in terms of distinctive mental features. We also define how these representations change dynamically through different processes, describing the interplay between mental and social dynamics of opinions. We present two versions of the model, one with discrete opinions (voter model-like), and one with continuous ones (Deffuant-like). By means of numerical simulations, we compare the behaviour of our cognitive model with the classical sociophysical models, and we identify interesting differences in the dynamics of consensus for each of the models considered.

The fast-recycling receptor Megalin defines the apical recycling pathway of epithelial cells

PubMed Central

Perez Bay, Andres E.; Schreiner, Ryan; Benedicto, Ignacio; Paz Marzolo, Maria; Banfelder, Jason; Weinstein, Alan M.; Rodriguez-Boulan, Enrique J.

2016-01-01

The basolateral recycling and transcytotic pathways of epithelial cells were previously defined using markers such as transferrin (TfR) and polymeric IgA (pIgR) receptors. In contrast, our knowledge of the apical recycling pathway remains fragmentary. Here we utilize quantitative live-imaging and mathematical modelling to outline the recycling pathway of Megalin (LRP-2), an apical receptor with key developmental and renal functions, in MDCK cells. We show that, like TfR, Megalin is a long-lived and fast-recycling receptor. Megalin enters polarized MDCK cells through segregated apical sorting endosomes and subsequently intersects the TfR and pIgR pathways at a perinuclear Rab11-negative compartment termed common recycling endosomes (CRE). Whereas TfR recycles to the basolateral membrane from CRE, Megalin, like pIgR, traffics to subapical Rab11-positive apical recycling endosomes (ARE) and reaches the apical membrane in a microtubule- and Rab11-dependent manner. Hence, Megalin defines the apical recycling pathway of epithelia, with CRE as its apical sorting station. PMID:27180806

The sociogeometry of inequality: Part II

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Eliazar, Iddo

2015-05-01

The study of socioeconomic inequality is of prime economic and social importance, and the key quantitative gauges of socioeconomic inequality are Lorenz curves and inequality indices - the most notable of the latter being the popular Gini index. In this series of papers we present a sociogeometric framework to the study of socioeconomic inequality. In this part we focus on the gap between the rich and the poor, which is quantified by gauges termed disparity curves. We shift from disparity curves to disparity sets, define inequality indices in terms of disparity sets, and introduce and explore a collection of distance-based and width-based inequality indices stemming from the geometry of disparity sets. We conclude with mean-absolute-deviation (MAD) representations of the inequality indices established in this series of papers, and with a comparison of these indices to the popular Gini index.

Work–Life Imbalance and Musculoskeletal Disorders among South Korean Workers

PubMed Central

Kim, Young-Mee

2017-01-01

Employed workers often have family responsibilities such as childcare or homemaking. This dual burden may increase work-related health problems, particularly if there are conflicts between work and family responsibilities. This study assessed whether difficulty in work–life balance is associated with musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) among Korean employees. Data from the population-based Korean Working Conditions Survey of 2011, including 28,640 male and 21,392 female workers, were used. Men and women were analyzed separately to investigate gender differences. MSD were defined as pain in the back, neck, shoulder, or extremities during the past year. Self-assessed difficulty in work–life balance was defined as a work–life conflict (WLC). Adjustments for physical factors, as well as other occupational and socio-demographic variables, were made using multiple logistic regression analysis. Interaction terms including WLCs and key covariates were also incorporated. WLC was significantly associated with increased frequency of MSD in both men (OR: 1.49) and women (OR: 1.50). There were significant interaction effects between WLC and some key covariates (job stress for men and job stress, work hours, physical demand, and frequent overtime work for women). We suggest that having the flexibility to coordinate work and family life is important to prevent MSD among employees. PMID:29104228

Work-Life Imbalance and Musculoskeletal Disorders among South Korean Workers.

PubMed

Kim, Young-Mee; Cho, Sung-Il

2017-11-01

Employed workers often have family responsibilities such as childcare or homemaking. This dual burden may increase work-related health problems, particularly if there are conflicts between work and family responsibilities. This study assessed whether difficulty in work-life balance is associated with musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) among Korean employees. Data from the population-based Korean Working Conditions Survey of 2011, including 28,640 male and 21,392 female workers, were used. Men and women were analyzed separately to investigate gender differences. MSD were defined as pain in the back, neck, shoulder, or extremities during the past year. Self-assessed difficulty in work-life balance was defined as a work-life conflict (WLC). Adjustments for physical factors, as well as other occupational and socio-demographic variables, were made using multiple logistic regression analysis. Interaction terms including WLCs and key covariates were also incorporated. WLC was significantly associated with increased frequency of MSD in both men (OR: 1.49) and women (OR: 1.50). There were significant interaction effects between WLC and some key covariates (job stress for men and job stress, work hours, physical demand, and frequent overtime work for women). We suggest that having the flexibility to coordinate work and family life is important to prevent MSD among employees.

"Dermatitis" defined.

PubMed

Smith, Suzanne M; Nedorost, Susan T

2010-01-01

The term "dermatitis" can be defined narrowly or broadly, clinically or histologically. A common and costly condition, dermatitis is underresourced compared to other chronic skin conditions. The lack of a collectively understood definition of dermatitis and its subcategories could be the primary barrier. To investigate how dermatologists define the term "dermatitis" and determine if a consensus on the definition of this term and other related terms exists. A seven-question survey of dermatologists nationwide was conducted. Of respondents (n  =  122), half consider dermatitis to be any inflammation of the skin. Nearly half (47.5%) use the term interchangeably with "eczema." Virtually all (> 96%) endorse the subcategory "atopic" under the terms "dermatitis" and "eczema," but the subcategories "contact," "drug hypersensitivity," and "occupational" are more highly endorsed under the term "dermatitis" than under the term "eczema." Over half (55.7%) personally consider "dermatitis" to have a broad meaning, and even more (62.3%) believe that dermatologists as a whole define the term broadly. There is a lack of consensus among experts in defining dermatitis, eczema, and their related subcategories.

Concordance between European and US case definitions of healthcare-associated infections

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background Surveillance of healthcare-associated infections (HAI) is a valuable measure to decrease infection rates. Across Europe, inter-country comparisons of HAI rates seem limited because some countries use US definitions from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC/NHSN) while other countries use European definitions from the Hospitals in Europe Link for Infection Control through Surveillance (HELICS/IPSE) project. In this study, we analyzed the concordance between US and European definitions of HAI. Methods An international working group of experts from seven European countries was set up to identify differences between US and European definitions and then conduct surveillance using both sets of definitions during a three-month period (March 1st -May 31st, 2010). Concordance between case definitions was estimated with Cohen’s kappa statistic (κ). Results Differences in HAI definitions were found for bloodstream infection (BSI), pneumonia (PN), urinary tract infection (UTI) and the two key terms “intensive care unit (ICU)-acquired infection” and “mechanical ventilation”. Concordance was analyzed for these definitions and key terms with the exception of UTI. Surveillance was performed in 47 ICUs and 6,506 patients were assessed. One hundred and eighty PN and 123 BSI cases were identified. When all PN cases were considered, concordance for PN was κ = 0.99 [CI 95%: 0.98-1.00]. When PN cases were divided into subgroups, concordance was κ = 0.90 (CI 95%: 0.86-0.94) for clinically defined PN and κ = 0.72 (CI 95%: 0.63-0.82) for microbiologically defined PN. Concordance for BSI was κ = 0.73 [CI 95%: 0.66-0.80]. However, BSI cases secondary to another infection site (42% of all BSI cases) are excluded when using US definitions and concordance for BSI was κ = 1.00 when only primary BSI cases, i.e. Europe-defined BSI with ”catheter” or “unknown” origin and US-defined laboratory-confirmed BSI (LCBI), were considered. Conclusions Our study showed an excellent concordance between US and European definitions of PN and primary BSI. PN and primary BSI rates of countries using either US or European definitions can be compared if the points highlighted in this study are taken into account. PMID:22958646

A complete thermodynamic analysis of enzyme turnover links the free energy landscape to enzyme catalysis.

PubMed

Jones, Hannah B L; Wells, Stephen A; Prentice, Erica J; Kwok, Anthony; Liang, Liyin L; Arcus, Vickery L; Pudney, Christopher R

2017-09-01

Our understanding of how enzymes work is coloured by static structure depictions where the enzyme scaffold is presented as either immobile, or in equilibrium between well-defined static conformations. Proteins, however, exhibit a large degree of motion over a broad range of timescales and magnitudes and this is defined thermodynamically by the enzyme free energy landscape (FEL). The role and importance of enzyme motion is extremely contentious. Much of the challenge is in the experimental detection of so called 'conformational sampling' involved in enzyme turnover. Herein we apply combined pressure and temperature kinetics studies to elucidate the full suite of thermodynamic parameters defining an enzyme FEL as it relates to enzyme turnover. We find that the key thermodynamic parameters governing vibrational modes related to enzyme turnover are the isobaric expansivity term and the change in heat capacity for enzyme catalysis. Variation in the enzyme FEL affects these terms. Our analysis is supported by a range of biophysical and computational approaches that specifically capture information on protein vibrational modes and the FEL (all atom flexibility calculations, red edge excitation shift spectroscopy and viscosity studies) that provide independent evidence for our findings. Our data suggest that restricting the enzyme FEL may be a powerful strategy when attempting to rationally engineer enzymes, particularly to alter thermal activity. Moreover, we demonstrate how rational predictions can be made with a rapid computational approach. © 2017 Federation of European Biochemical Societies.

The historical Latin and etymology of selected anatomical terms of the larynx.

PubMed

Lydiatt, Daniel D; Bucher, Gregory S

2010-03-01

The etymological evolution of the anatomical terms larynx, cricoid, glottis, epiglottis, and thyroid (cartilage) dates to antiquity. Human dissection replaced animal in the 16th and 17th centuries and terms evolved. This evolution was recorded in the literature largely in Latin. We translated key studies of laryngeal anatomy from the 16th century to better understand this evolution. We present the Latin with our translations, and historical commentary as essential to this understanding. Vesalius favored the Latin scutiform (shield) for the thyroid cartilage, but recognized peltalis (shield). The Basle Nomina Anatomica (BNA) chose the Greek thyroid (theta upsilon rho epsilon omicron epsilon iota delta eta) for modern convention. Vesalius used the name "innominate" for the cricoid cartilage, but described its resemblance to a ring, drawn in the margin of the Fabrica. Krikoid, the Greek for ring shaped, was adopted by the BNA. Although the term arytenoid was used for centuries, Vesalius argued the Greek name referred to the spout of a cup or ladle. He recognized the human arytenoids as two separate cartilages as opposed to single in certain animals. The glottis was defined by Vesalius as the vocal fold or rima glottidis of today, and he advanced its function by understanding the paired, mobile arytenoid cartilages. He defined the function of the epiglottis and first described the pre-epiglottic space. Vesalius' student at Padua, Italy, Columbo contributed to anatomical knowledge, but animosity between them clouded the record. Harvey, working 75 years later in England, offers an evolutionary window from Vesalius. Harvey's laryngeal studies preceded by a decade his groundbreaking studies on the circulation of blood.

Development of hospital disaster resilience: conceptual framework and potential measurement.

PubMed

Zhong, Shuang; Clark, Michele; Hou, Xiang-Yu; Zang, Yu-Li; Fitzgerald, Gerard

2014-11-01

Despite 'hospital resilience' gaining prominence in recent years, it remains poorly defined. This article aims to define hospital resilience, build a preliminary conceptual framework and highlight possible approaches to measurement. Searches were conducted of the commonly used health databases to identify relevant literature and reports. Search terms included 'resilience and framework or model' or 'evaluation or assess or measure and hospital and disaster or emergency or mass casualty and resilience or capacity or preparedness or response or safety'. Articles were retrieved that focussed on disaster resilience frameworks and the evaluation of various hospital capacities. A total of 1480 potentially eligible publications were retrieved initially but the final analysis was conducted on 47 articles, which appeared to contribute to the study objectives. Four disaster resilience frameworks and 11 evaluation instruments of hospital disaster capacity were included. Hospital resilience is a comprehensive concept derived from existing disaster resilience frameworks. It has four key domains: hospital safety; disaster preparedness and resources; continuity of essential medical services; recovery and adaptation. These domains were categorised according to four criteria, namely, robustness, redundancy, resourcefulness and rapidity. A conceptual understanding of hospital resilience is essential for an intellectual basis for an integrated approach to system development. This article (1) defines hospital resilience; (2) constructs conceptual framework (including key domains); (3) proposes comprehensive measures for possible inclusion in an evaluation instrument; and (4) develops a matrix of critical issues to enhance hospital resilience to cope with future disasters. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

A framework for telehealth program evaluation.

PubMed

Nepal, Surya; Li, Jane; Jang-Jaccard, Julian; Alem, Leila

2014-04-01

Evaluating telehealth programs is a challenging task, yet it is the most sensible first step when embarking on a telehealth study. How can we frame and report on telehealth studies? What are the health services elements to select based on the application needs? What are the appropriate terms to use to refer to such elements? Various frameworks have been proposed in the literature to answer these questions, and each framework is defined by a set of properties covering different aspects of telehealth systems. The most common properties include application, technology, and functionality. With the proliferation of telehealth, it is important not only to understand these properties, but also to define new properties to account for a wider range of context of use and evaluation outcomes. This article presents a comprehensive framework for delivery design, implementation, and evaluation of telehealth services. We first survey existing frameworks proposed in the literature and then present our proposed comprehensive multidimensional framework for telehealth. Six key dimensions of the proposed framework include health domains, health services, delivery technologies, communication infrastructure, environment setting, and socioeconomic analysis. We define a set of example properties for each dimension. We then demonstrate how we have used our framework to evaluate telehealth programs in rural and remote Australia. A few major international studies have been also mapped to demonstrate the feasibility of the framework. The key characteristics of the framework are as follows: (a) loosely coupled and hence easy to use, (b) provides a basis for describing a wide range of telehealth programs, and (c) extensible to future developments and needs.

7 CFR 27.2 - Terms defined.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... CLASSIFICATION UNDER COTTON FUTURES LEGISLATION Regulations Definitions § 27.2 Terms defined. As used throughout... 7 Agriculture 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Terms defined. 27.2 Section 27.2 Agriculture...; performs final review of cotton classification. (i) Exchange. Exchange, board of trade, or similar...

7 CFR 27.2 - Terms defined.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... CLASSIFICATION UNDER COTTON FUTURES LEGISLATION Regulations Definitions § 27.2 Terms defined. As used throughout... 7 Agriculture 2 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Terms defined. 27.2 Section 27.2 Agriculture...; performs final review of cotton classification. (i) Exchange. Exchange, board of trade, or similar...

Cyber security and data collection approaches for smartphone sensor systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Turner, Hamilton; White, Jules

2012-06-01

In recent years the ubiquity and resources provided by smartphone devices have encouraged scientists to explore using these devices as remote sensing nodes. In addition, the United States Department of Defense has stated a mission of increasing persistent intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities or U.S. units. This paper presents a method of enabling large-scale, long-term smartphone-powered data collection. Key solutions discussed include the ability to directly allow domain experts to define and refine smartphone applications for data collection, technical advancements that allow rapid dissemination of a smartphone data collection application, and an algorithm for preserving the locational privacy of participating users.

Satellite Power Systems (SPS) concept definition study (exhibit C)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hanley, G. M.

1978-01-01

A coplanar satellite conceptual approach was defined. This effort included several trade studies related to satellite design and also construction approaches for this satellite. A transportation system, consistent with this concept, was also studied, including an electric orbit transfer vehicle and a parallel-burn heavy lift launch vehicle. Work on a solid state microwave concept continued and several alternative approaches were evaluated. Computer determination of an optimized transistor and circuit design was also continued. Experiment/verification planning resulted in the development of a total solar array and microwave technology development plan, as well as definition of near-term research to evaluate key technology issues.

Self-perceptions of well-being in professional helpers and volunteers operating in war contexts.

PubMed

Veronese, Guido

2013-07-01

We carried out qualitative research with 61 health professionals and volunteer workers to explore their perceptions of their own and their clients' well-being in a context of political violence. We applied content analysis to identify the themes emerging from 8 focus group and 11 individual interviews. Participants were found to define the concept of well-being in terms of three key areas: security, participation, and development. Palestinian health providers see promotion of economic development and professional growth, involvement in political and social life, and resistance to the occupation as factors required to enhance well-being and quality of life for themselves and their clients.

Mechanism of realization economic strategy of transport organization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Palkina, E. S.

2017-10-01

In modern conditions of economic globalization, high dynamism of external environment, economic strategy of transport organization plays an important role in maintaining its competitive advantages, long-term development. For effective achievement of set strategic goals it is necessary to use an adequate mechanism based on completeness and interrelation of its constituent instruments. The main objective of the study presented in this paper is to develop methodological provisions on formation the mechanism of realization economic strategy for transport organizations. The principles of its construction have been proposed, the key components have been defined. Finally, an attempt to implementation this mechanism into the transport organization management system has been realized.

The excludon: a new concept in bacterial antisense RNA-mediated gene regulation.

PubMed

Sesto, Nina; Wurtzel, Omri; Archambaud, Cristel; Sorek, Rotem; Cossart, Pascale

2013-02-01

In recent years, non-coding RNAs have emerged as key regulators of gene expression. Among these RNAs, the antisense RNAs (asRNAs) are particularly abundant, but in most cases the function and mechanism of action for a particular asRNA remains elusive. Here, we highlight a recently discovered paradigm termed the excludon, which defines a genomic locus encoding an unusually long asRNA that spans divergent genes or operons with related or opposing functions. Because these asRNAs can inhibit the expression of one operon while functioning as an mRNA for the adjacent operon, they act as fine-tuning regulatory switches in bacteria.

7 CFR 27.38 - Terms defined for purposes of classification.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Terms defined for purposes of classification. 27.38... CONTAINER REGULATIONS COTTON CLASSIFICATION UNDER COTTON FUTURES LEGISLATION Regulations Classification and Micronaire Determinations § 27.38 Terms defined for purposes of classification. For the purposes of...

7 CFR 27.38 - Terms defined for purposes of classification.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 2 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Terms defined for purposes of classification. 27.38... CONTAINER REGULATIONS COTTON CLASSIFICATION UNDER COTTON FUTURES LEGISLATION Regulations Classification and Micronaire Determinations § 27.38 Terms defined for purposes of classification. For the purposes of...

16 CFR 304.1 - Terms defined.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... 16 Commercial Practices 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Terms defined. 304.1 Section 304.1 Commercial Practices FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION REGULATIONS UNDER SPECIFIC ACTS OF CONGRESS RULES AND REGULATIONS UNDER THE HOBBY PROTECTION ACT § 304.1 Terms defined. (a) Act means the Hobby Protection Act...

Collaborative testing for key-term definitions under representative conditions: Efficiency costs and no learning benefits.

PubMed

Wissman, Kathryn T; Rawson, Katherine A

2018-01-01

Students are expected to learn key-term definitions across many different grade levels and academic disciplines. Thus, investigating ways to promote understanding of key-term definitions is of critical importance for applied purposes. A recent survey showed that learners report engaging in collaborative practice testing when learning key-term definitions, with outcomes also shedding light on the way in which learners report engaging in collaborative testing in real-world contexts (Wissman & Rawson, 2016, Memory, 24, 223-239). However, no research has directly explored the effectiveness of engaging in collaborative testing under representative conditions. Accordingly, the current research evaluates the costs (with respect to efficiency) and the benefits (with respect to learning) of collaborative testing for key-term definitions under representative conditions. In three experiments (ns = 94, 74, 95), learners individually studied key-term definitions and then completed retrieval practice, which occurred either individually or collaboratively (in dyads). Two days later, all learners completed a final individual test. Results from Experiments 1-2 showed a cost (with respect to efficiency) and no benefit (with respect to learning) of engaging in collaborative testing for key-term definitions. Experiment 3 evaluated a theoretical explanation for why collaborative benefits do not emerge under representative conditions. Collectively, outcomes indicate that collaborative testing versus individual testing is less effective and less efficient when learning key-term definitions under representative conditions.

12 CFR 567.1 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... assets means: (1) A savings association's total assets as that term is defined in this section; (2) Plus... advances as defined in this section are not direct credit substitutes; (7) Clean-up calls on third party...) The term equity securities does not include investments in a subsidiary as that term is defined in...

7 CFR 28.40 - Terms defined; cotton classification.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 2 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Terms defined; cotton classification. 28.40 Section 28... REGULATIONS COTTON CLASSING, TESTING, AND STANDARDS Regulations Under the United States Cotton Standards Act Classification § 28.40 Terms defined; cotton classification. For the purposes of classification of any cotton or...

7 CFR 28.40 - Terms defined; cotton classification.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Terms defined; cotton classification. 28.40 Section 28... REGULATIONS COTTON CLASSING, TESTING, AND STANDARDS Regulations Under the United States Cotton Standards Act Classification § 28.40 Terms defined; cotton classification. For the purposes of classification of any cotton or...

7 CFR 28.40 - Terms defined; cotton classification.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 2 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Terms defined; cotton classification. 28.40 Section 28... REGULATIONS COTTON CLASSING, TESTING, AND STANDARDS Regulations Under the United States Cotton Standards Act Classification § 28.40 Terms defined; cotton classification. For the purposes of classification of any cotton or...

7 CFR 28.40 - Terms defined; cotton classification.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 2 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Terms defined; cotton classification. 28.40 Section 28... REGULATIONS COTTON CLASSING, TESTING, AND STANDARDS Regulations Under the United States Cotton Standards Act Classification § 28.40 Terms defined; cotton classification. For the purposes of classification of any cotton or...

7 CFR 28.40 - Terms defined; cotton classification.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 2 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Terms defined; cotton classification. 28.40 Section 28... REGULATIONS COTTON CLASSING, TESTING, AND STANDARDS Regulations Under the United States Cotton Standards Act Classification § 28.40 Terms defined; cotton classification. For the purposes of classification of any cotton or...

Decommissioning strategy for liquid low-level radioactive waste surface storage water reservoir.

PubMed

Utkin, S S; Linge, I I

2016-11-22

The Techa Cascade of water reservoirs (TCR) is one of the most environmentally challenging facilities resulted from FSUE "PA "Mayak" operations. Its reservoirs hold over 360 mln m 3 of liquid radioactive waste with a total activity of some 5 × 10 15 Bq. A set of actions implemented under a special State program involving the development of a strategic plan aimed at complete elimination of TCR challenges (Strategic Master-Plan for the Techa Cascade of water reservoirs) resulted in considerable reduction of potential hazards associated with this facility. The paper summarizes the key elements of this master-plan: defining TCR final state, feasibility study of the main strategies aimed at its attainment, evaluation of relevant long-term decommissioning strategy, development of computational tools enabling the long-term forecast of TCR behavior depending on various engineering solutions and different weather conditions. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Demand-side management glossary

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

Isaksen, L.; Ignelzi, P.C.

1992-10-01

Demand-side management (DSM) plays an increasingly important role in helping utilities meet capacity needs while addressing important customer service issues. In implementing utility-specific programs, however, DSM professionals have created an entire vocabulary of words and phrases that are often used and interpreted in very different ways by people with similar utility planning backgrounds. Such inconsistent terminology can hamper the very communication DSM seeks to support. Thus, this report-the first of its kind-presents a glossary of DSM terms, grouped under five major categories: (1) utility systems, (2) programs and techniques, (3) costs, revenues, and rates, (4) modeling and analysis, and (5)more » marketing. An index facilitates the rapid search for key words. This glossary together with a complimentary report entitled, Electric Utility DSM Programs: Terminology and Reporting Formats attempts to define some of the most common terms used in DSM today.« less

Demand-side management glossary. Final report

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

Isaksen, L.; Ignelzi, P.C.

1992-10-01

Demand-side management (DSM) plays an increasingly important role in helping utilities meet capacity needs while addressing important customer service issues. In implementing utility-specific programs, however, DSM professionals have created an entire vocabulary of words and phrases that are often used and interpreted in very different ways by people with similar utility planning backgrounds. Such inconsistent terminology can hamper the very communication DSM seeks to support. Thus, this report-the first of its kind-presents a glossary of DSM terms, grouped under five major categories: (1) utility systems, (2) programs and techniques, (3) costs, revenues, and rates, (4) modeling and analysis, and (5)more » marketing. An index facilitates the rapid search for key words. This glossary together with a complimentary report entitled, Electric Utility DSM Programs: Terminology and Reporting Formats attempts to define some of the most common terms used in DSM today.« less

Use of fuzzy sets in modeling of GIS objects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mironova, Yu N.

2018-05-01

The paper discusses modeling and methods of data visualization in geographic information systems. Information processing in Geoinformatics is based on the use of models. Therefore, geoinformation modeling is a key in the chain of GEODATA processing. When solving problems, using geographic information systems often requires submission of the approximate or insufficient reliable information about the map features in the GIS database. Heterogeneous data of different origin and accuracy have some degree of uncertainty. In addition, not all information is accurate: already during the initial measurements, poorly defined terms and attributes (e.g., "soil, well-drained") are used. Therefore, there are necessary methods for working with uncertain requirements, classes, boundaries. The author proposes using spatial information fuzzy sets. In terms of a characteristic function, a fuzzy set is a natural generalization of ordinary sets, when one rejects the binary nature of this feature and assumes that it can take any value in the interval.

Sheep grazing in the North Atlantic region: A long-term perspective on environmental sustainability.

PubMed

Ross, Louise C; Austrheim, Gunnar; Asheim, Leif-Jarle; Bjarnason, Gunnar; Feilberg, Jon; Fosaa, Anna Maria; Hester, Alison J; Holand, Øystein; Jónsdóttir, Ingibjörg S; Mortensen, Lis E; Mysterud, Atle; Olsen, Erla; Skonhoft, Anders; Speed, James D M; Steinheim, Geir; Thompson, Des B A; Thórhallsdóttir, Anna Gudrún

2016-09-01

Sheep grazing is an important part of agriculture in the North Atlantic region, defined here as the Faroe Islands, Greenland, Iceland, Norway and Scotland. This process has played a key role in shaping the landscape and biodiversity of the region, sometimes with major environmental consequences, and has also been instrumental in the development of its rural economy and culture. In this review, we present results of the first interdisciplinary study taking a long-term perspective on sheep management, resource economy and the ecological impacts of sheep grazing, showing that sustainability boundaries are most likely to be exceeded in fragile environments where financial support is linked to the number of sheep produced. The sustainability of sheep grazing can be enhanced by a management regime that promotes grazing densities appropriate to the site and supported by area-based subsidy systems, thus minimizing environmental degradation, encouraging biodiversity and preserving the integrity of ecosystem processes.

Elliptic polylogarithms and iterated integrals on elliptic curves. II. An application to the sunrise integral

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Broedel, Johannes; Duhr, Claude; Dulat, Falko; Tancredi, Lorenzo

2018-06-01

We introduce a class of iterated integrals that generalize multiple polylogarithms to elliptic curves. These elliptic multiple polylogarithms are closely related to similar functions defined in pure mathematics and string theory. We then focus on the equal-mass and non-equal-mass sunrise integrals, and we develop a formalism that enables us to compute these Feynman integrals in terms of our iterated integrals on elliptic curves. The key idea is to use integration-by-parts identities to identify a set of integral kernels, whose precise form is determined by the branch points of the integral in question. These kernels allow us to express all iterated integrals on an elliptic curve in terms of them. The flexibility of our approach leads us to expect that it will be applicable to a large variety of integrals in high-energy physics.

Syncope: risk stratification and clinical decision making.

PubMed

Peeters, Suzanne Y G; Hoek, Amber E; Mollink, Susan M; Huff, J Stephen

2014-04-01

Syncope is a common occurrence in the emergency department, accounting for approximately 1% to 3% of presentations. Syncope is best defined as a brief loss of consciousness and postural tone followed by spontaneous and complete recovery. The spectrum of etiologies ranges from benign to life threatening, and a structured approach to evaluating these patients is key to providing care that is thorough, yet cost-effective. This issue reviews the most relevant evidence for managing and risk stratifying the syncope patient, beginning with a focused history, physical examination, electrocardiogram, and tailored diagnostic testing. Several risk stratification decision rules are compared for performance in various scenarios, including how age and associated comorbidities may predict short-term and long-term adverse events. An algorithm for structured, evidence-based care of the syncope patient is included to ensure that patients requiring hospitalization are managed appropriately and those with benign causes are discharged safely.

The evaluation and enhancement of quality, environmental protection and seaport safety by using FAHP

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tadic, Danijela; Aleksic, Aleksandar; Popovic, Pavle; Arsovski, Slavko; Castelli, Ana; Joksimovic, Danijela; Stefanovic, Miladin

2017-02-01

The evaluation and enhancement of business processes in any organization in an uncertain environment presents one of the main requirements of ISO 9000:2008 and has a key effect on competitive advantage and long-term sustainability. The aim of this paper can be defined as the identification and discussion of some of the most important business processes of seaports and the performances of business processes and their key performance indicators (KPIs). The complexity and importance of the treated problem call for analytic methods rather than intuitive decisions. The existing decision variables of the considered problem are described by linguistic expressions which are modelled by triangular fuzzy numbers (TFNs). In this paper, the modified fuzzy extended analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) is proposed. The assessment of the relative importance of each pair of performances and their key performance indicators are stated as a fuzzy group decision-making problem. By using the modified fuzzy extended analytic hierarchy process, the fuzzy rank of business processes of a seaport is obtained. The model is tested through an illustrative example with real-life data, where the obtained data suggest measures which should enhance business strategy and improve key performance indicators. The future improvement is based on benchmark and knowledge sharing.

Early nutrition programming of long-term health.

PubMed

Koletzko, Berthold; Brands, Brigitte; Poston, Lucilla; Godfrey, Keith; Demmelmair, Hans

2012-08-01

Increasing evidence from the EU Project EARNEST and many other investigators demonstrates that early nutrition and lifestyle have long-term effects on later health and the risk of common non-communicable diseases (known as 'developmental programming'). Because of the increasing public health importance and the transgenerational nature of the problem, obesity and associated disorders are the focus of the new EU funded project 'EarlyNutrition'. Currently, three key hypotheses have been defined: the fuel mediated 'in utero' hypothesis suggests that intrauterine exposure to an excess of fuels, most notably glucose, causes permanent changes of the fetus that lead to obesity in postnatal life; the accelerated postnatal weight gain hypothesis proposes an association between rapid weight gain in infancy and an increased risk of later obesity and adverse outcomes; and the mismatch hypothesis suggests that experiencing a developmental 'mismatch' between a sub-optimal perinatal and an obesogenic childhood environment is related to a particular predisposition to obesity and corresponding co-morbidities. Using existing cohort studies, ongoing and novel intervention studies and a basic science programme to investigate those key hypotheses, project EarlyNutrition will provide the scientific foundations for evidence-based recommendations for optimal nutrition considering long-term health outcomes, with a focus on obesity and related disorders. Scientific and technical expertise in placental biology, epigenetics and metabolomics will provide understanding at the cellular and molecular level of the relationships between early life nutritional status and the risk of later adiposity. This will help refine strategies for intervention in early life to prevent obesity.

Topology of Surface Ligands on Liposomes: Characterization Based on the Terms, Incorporation Ratio, Surface Anchor Density, and Reaction Yield.

PubMed

Lee, Shang-Hsuan; Sato, Yusuke; Hyodo, Mamoru; Harashima, Hideyoshi

2016-01-01

The surface topology of ligands on liposomes is an important factor in active targeting in drug delivery systems. Accurately evaluating the density of anchors and bioactive functional ligands on a liposomal surface is critical for ensuring the efficient delivery of liposomes. For evaluating surface ligand density, it is necessary to clarify that on the ligand-modified liposomal surfaces, some anchors are attached to ligands but some are not. To distinguish between these situations, a key parameter, surface anchor density, was introduced to specify amount of total anchors on the liposomal surface. Second, the parameter reaction yield was introduced to identify the amount of ligand-attached anchors among total anchors, since the conjugation efficiency is not always the same nor 100%. Combining these independent parameters, we derived: incorporation ratio=surface anchor density×reaction yield. The term incorporation ratio defines the surface ligand density. Since the surface anchor density represents the density of polyethylene glycol (PEG) on the surfaces in most cases, it also determines liposomal function. It is possible to accurately characterize various PEG and ligand densities and to define the surface topologies. In conclusion, this quantitative methodology can standardize the liposome preparation process and qualify the modified liposomal surfaces.

21 CFR 803.3 - How does FDA define the terms used in this part?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... 21 Food and Drugs 8 2014-04-01 2014-04-01 false How does FDA define the terms used in this part... § 803.3 How does FDA define the terms used in this part? Some of the terms we use in this part are..., repairs, or upgrades, for an estimated period of time. FDA, we, or us means the Food and Drug...

Transforming revenue management.

PubMed

Silveria, Richard; Alliegro, Debra; Nudd, Steven

2008-11-01

Healthcare organizations that want to undertake a patient administrative/revenue management transformation should: Define the vision with underlying business objectives and key performance measures. Strategically partner with key vendors for business process development and technology design. Create a program organization and governance infrastructure. Develop a corporate design model that defines the standards for operationalizing the vision. Execute the vision through technology deployment and corporate design model implementation.

Oxygenated thawing and rewarming alleviate rewarming injury of cryopreserved pancreatic islets.

PubMed

Komatsu, Hirotake; Barriga, Alyssa; Medrano, Leonard; Omori, Keiko; Kandeel, Fouad; Mullen, Yoko

2017-05-06

Pancreatic islet transplantation is an effective treatment for Type 1 diabetic patients to eliminate insulin injections; however, a shortage of donor organs hinders the widespread use. Although long-term islet storage, such as cryopreservation, is considered one of the key solutions, transplantation of cryopreserved islets is still not practical due to the extensive loss during the cryopreservation-rewarming process. We have previously reported that culturing islets in a hyperoxic environment is an effective treatment to prevent islet death from the hypoxic injury during culture. In this study, we explored the effectiveness of thawing and rewarming cryopreserved islets in a hyperoxic environment. Following cryopreservation of isolated human islets, the thawing solution and culture media were prepared with or without pre-equilibration to 50% oxygen. Thawing/rewarming and the pursuant two-day culture were performed with or without oxygenation. Short-term recovery rate, defined as the volume change during cryopreservation and thawing/rewarming, was assessed. Ischemia-associated and inflammation-associated gene expressions were examined using qPCR after the initial rewarming period. Long-term recovery rate, defined as the volume change during the two-day culture after the thawing/rewarming, was also examined. Islet metabolism and function were assessed by basal oxygen consumption rate and glucose stimulated insulin secretion after long-term recovery. Oxygenated thawing/rewarming did not alter the short-term recovery rate. Inflammation-associated gene expressions were elevated by the conventional thawing/rewarming method and suppressed by the oxygenated thawing/rewarming, whereas ischemia-associated gene expressions did not change between the thawing/rewarming methods. Long-term recovery rate experiments revealed that only the combination therapy of oxygenated thawing/rewarming and oxygenated culture alleviated islet volume loss. These islets showed higher metabolism and better function among the conditions examined. Oxygenated thawing/rewarming alleviated islet volume loss, with the help of oxygenated culture. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Development of a methodology to evaluate material accountability in pyroprocess

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Woo, Seungmin

This study investigates the effect of the non-uniform nuclide composition in spent fuel on material accountancy in the pyroprocess. High-fidelity depletion simulations are performed using the Monte Carlo code SERPENT in order to determine nuclide composition as a function of axial and radial position within fuel rods and assemblies, and burnup. For improved accuracy, the simulations use short burnups step (25 days or less), Xe-equilibrium treatment (to avoid oscillations over burnup steps), axial moderator temperature distribution, and 30 axial meshes. Analytical solutions of the simplified depletion equations are built to understand the axial non-uniformity of nuclide composition in spent fuel. The cosine shape of axial neutron flux distribution dominates the axial non-uniformity of the nuclide composition. Combined cross sections and time also generate axial non-uniformity, as the exponential term in the analytical solution consists of the neutron flux, cross section and time. The axial concentration distribution for a nuclide having the small cross section gets steeper than that for another nuclide having the great cross section because the axial flux is weighted by the cross section in the exponential term in the analytical solution. Similarly, the non-uniformity becomes flatter as increasing burnup, because the time term in the exponential increases. Based on the developed numerical recipes and decoupling of the results between the axial distributions and the predetermined representative radial distributions by matching the axial height, the axial and radial composition distributions for representative spent nuclear fuel assemblies, the Type-0, -1, and -2 assemblies after 1, 2, and 3 depletion cycles, is obtained. These data are appropriately modified to depict processing for materials in the head-end process of pyroprocess that is chopping, voloxidation and granulation. The expectation and standard deviation of the Pu-to-244Cm-ratio by the single granule sampling calculated by the central limit theorem and the Geary-Hinkley transformation. Then, the uncertainty propagation through the key-pyroprocess is conducted to analyze the Material Unaccounted For (MUF), which is a random variable defined as a receipt minus a shipment of a process, in the system. The random variable, LOPu, is defined for evaluating the non-detection probability at each Key Measurement Point (KMP) as the original Pu mass minus the Pu mass after a missing scenario. A number of assemblies for the LOPu to be 8 kg is considered in this calculation. The probability of detection for the 8 kg LOPu is evaluated with respect the size of granule and powder using the event tree analysis and the hypothesis testing method. We can observe there are possible cases showing the probability of detection for the 8 kg LOPu less than 95%. In order to enhance the detection rate, a new Material Balance Area (MBA) model is defined for the key-pyroprocess. The probabilities of detection for all spent fuel types based on the new MBA model are greater than 99%. Furthermore, it is observed that the probability of detection significantly increases by increasing granule sample sizes to evaluate the Pu-to-244Cm-ratio before the key-pyroprocess. Based on these observations, even though the Pu material accountability in pyroprocess is affected by the non-uniformity of nuclide composition when the Pu-to-244Cm-ratio method is being applied, that is surmounted by decreasing the uncertainty of measured ratio by increasing sample sizes and modifying the MBAs and KMPs. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.).

Gut Microbiota Profiling: Metabolomics Based Approach to Unravel Compounds Affecting Human Health

PubMed Central

Vernocchi, Pamela; Del Chierico, Federica; Putignani, Lorenza

2016-01-01

The gut microbiota is composed of a huge number of different bacteria, that produce a large amount of compounds playing a key role in microbe selection and in the construction of a metabolic signaling network. The microbial activities are affected by environmental stimuli leading to the generation of a wide number of compounds, that influence the host metabolome and human health. Indeed, metabolite profiles related to the gut microbiota can offer deep insights on the impact of lifestyle and dietary factors on chronic and acute diseases. Metagenomics, metaproteomics and metabolomics are some of the meta-omics approaches to study the modulation of the gut microbiota. Metabolomic research applied to biofluids allows to: define the metabolic profile; identify and quantify classes and compounds of interest; characterize small molecules produced by intestinal microbes; and define the biochemical pathways of metabolites. Mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy are the principal technologies applied to metabolomics in terms of coverage, sensitivity and quantification. Moreover, the use of biostatistics and mathematical approaches coupled with metabolomics play a key role in the extraction of biologically meaningful information from wide datasets. Metabolomic studies in gut microbiota-related research have increased, focusing on the generation of novel biomarkers, which could lead to the development of mechanistic hypotheses potentially applicable to the development of nutritional and personalized therapies. PMID:27507964

Defining the impact of non-native species.

PubMed

Jeschke, Jonathan M; Bacher, Sven; Blackburn, Tim M; Dick, Jaimie T A; Essl, Franz; Evans, Thomas; Gaertner, Mirijam; Hulme, Philip E; Kühn, Ingolf; Mrugała, Agata; Pergl, Jan; Pyšek, Petr; Rabitsch, Wolfgang; Ricciardi, Anthony; Richardson, David M; Sendek, Agnieszka; Vilà, Montserrat; Winter, Marten; Kumschick, Sabrina

2014-10-01

Non-native species cause changes in the ecosystems to which they are introduced. These changes, or some of them, are usually termed impacts; they can be manifold and potentially damaging to ecosystems and biodiversity. However, the impacts of most non-native species are poorly understood, and a synthesis of available information is being hindered because authors often do not clearly define impact. We argue that explicitly defining the impact of non-native species will promote progress toward a better understanding of the implications of changes to biodiversity and ecosystems caused by non-native species; help disentangle which aspects of scientific debates about non-native species are due to disparate definitions and which represent true scientific discord; and improve communication between scientists from different research disciplines and between scientists, managers, and policy makers. For these reasons and based on examples from the literature, we devised seven key questions that fall into 4 categories: directionality, classification and measurement, ecological or socio-economic changes, and scale. These questions should help in formulating clear and practical definitions of impact to suit specific scientific, stakeholder, or legislative contexts. © 2014 The Authors. Conservation Biology published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc., on behalf of the Society for Conservation Biology.

Operationalizing sustainability in urban coastal systems: a system dynamics analysis.

PubMed

Mavrommati, Georgia; Bithas, Kostas; Panayiotidis, Panayiotis

2013-12-15

We propose a system dynamics approach for Ecologically Sustainable Development (ESD) in urban coastal systems. A systematic analysis based on theoretical considerations, policy analysis and experts' knowledge is followed in order to define the concept of ESD. The principles underlying ESD feed the development of a System Dynamics Model (SDM) that connects the pollutant loads produced by urban systems' socioeconomic activities with the ecological condition of the coastal ecosystem that it is delineated in operational terms through key biological elements defined by the EU Water Framework Directive. The receiving waters of the Athens Metropolitan area, which bears the elements of typical high population density Mediterranean coastal city but which currently has also new dynamics induced by the ongoing financial crisis, are used as an experimental system for testing a system dynamics approach to apply the concept of ESD. Systems' thinking is employed to represent the complex relationships among the components of the system. Interconnections and dependencies that determine the potentials for achieving ESD are revealed. The proposed system dynamics analysis can facilitate decision makers to define paths of development that comply with the principles of ESD. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

What makes a problem an ethical problem? An empirical perspective on the nature of ethical problems in general practice

PubMed Central

Braunack-Mayer, A. J.

2001-01-01

Whilst there has been considerable debate about the fit between moral theory and moral reasoning in everyday life, the way in which moral problems are defined has rarely been questioned. This paper presents a qualitative analysis of interviews conducted with 15 general practitioners (GPs) in South Australia to argue that the way in which the bioethics literature defines an ethical dilemma captures only some of the range of lay views about the nature of ethical problems. The bioethics literature has defined ethical dilemmas in terms of conflict and choice between values, beliefs and options for action. While some of the views of some of the GPs in this study about the nature of their ethical dilemmas certainly accorded with this definition, other explanations of the ethical nature of their problems revolved around the publicity associated with the issues they were discussing, concern about their relationships with patients, and anxiety about threats to their integrity and reputation. The variety of views about what makes a problem a moral problem indicates that the moral domain is perhaps wider and richer than mainstream bioethics would generally allow. Key Words: Empirical ethics • general practice • qualitative research PMID:11314166

29 CFR 1626.2 - Terms defined in the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, as amended.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 29 Labor 4 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Terms defined in the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, as amended. 1626.2 Section 1626.2 Labor Regulations Relating to Labor (Continued) EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION PROCEDURES-AGE DISCRIMINATION IN EMPLOYMENT ACT § 1626.2 Terms defined in...

29 CFR 1626.2 - Terms defined in the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, as amended.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... 29 Labor 4 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false Terms defined in the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, as amended. 1626.2 Section 1626.2 Labor Regulations Relating to Labor (Continued) EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION PROCEDURES-AGE DISCRIMINATION IN EMPLOYMENT ACT § 1626.2 Terms defined in...

29 CFR 1626.2 - Terms defined in the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, as amended.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... 29 Labor 4 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false Terms defined in the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, as amended. 1626.2 Section 1626.2 Labor Regulations Relating to Labor (Continued) EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION PROCEDURES-AGE DISCRIMINATION IN EMPLOYMENT ACT § 1626.2 Terms defined in...

29 CFR 1626.2 - Terms defined in the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, as amended.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 29 Labor 4 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Terms defined in the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, as amended. 1626.2 Section 1626.2 Labor Regulations Relating to Labor (Continued) EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION PROCEDURES-AGE DISCRIMINATION IN EMPLOYMENT ACT § 1626.2 Terms defined in...

29 CFR 1626.2 - Terms defined in the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, as amended.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... 29 Labor 4 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false Terms defined in the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, as amended. 1626.2 Section 1626.2 Labor Regulations Relating to Labor (Continued) EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION PROCEDURES-AGE DISCRIMINATION IN EMPLOYMENT ACT § 1626.2 Terms defined in...

Principles of Refrigeration. Automotive Mechanics. Air Conditioning. Instructor's Guide [and] Student Guide.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Spignesi, B.

This instructional package, one in a series of individualized instructional units on automobile air conditioning, consists of a student guide and an instructor guide dealing with the principles of refrigeration. Covered in the module are defining the term heat, defining the term British Thermal Unit (BTU), defining the term latent heat, listing…

9 CFR 592.2 - Terms defined.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... 9 Animals and Animal Products 2 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Terms defined. 592.2 Section 592.2 Animals and Animal Products FOOD SAFETY AND INSPECTION SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE EGG PRODUCTS INSPECTION VOLUNTARY INSPECTION OF EGG PRODUCTS Definitions § 592.2 Terms defined. For the purpose of the regulations in this part, unless the contex...

9 CFR 592.2 - Terms defined.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... 9 Animals and Animal Products 2 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Terms defined. 592.2 Section 592.2 Animals and Animal Products FOOD SAFETY AND INSPECTION SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE EGG PRODUCTS INSPECTION VOLUNTARY INSPECTION OF EGG PRODUCTS Definitions § 592.2 Terms defined. For the purpose of the regulations in this part, unless the contex...

9 CFR 592.2 - Terms defined.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... 9 Animals and Animal Products 2 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Terms defined. 592.2 Section 592.2 Animals and Animal Products FOOD SAFETY AND INSPECTION SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE EGG PRODUCTS INSPECTION VOLUNTARY INSPECTION OF EGG PRODUCTS Definitions § 592.2 Terms defined. For the purpose of the regulations in this part, unless the contex...

9 CFR 592.2 - Terms defined.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... 9 Animals and Animal Products 2 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Terms defined. 592.2 Section 592.2 Animals and Animal Products FOOD SAFETY AND INSPECTION SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE EGG PRODUCTS INSPECTION VOLUNTARY INSPECTION OF EGG PRODUCTS Definitions § 592.2 Terms defined. For the purpose of the regulations in this part, unless the contex...

Emergency preparedness: community-based short-term eruption forecasting at Campi Flegrei

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Selva, Jacopo; Marzocchi, Warner; Civetta, Lucia; Del Pezzo, Edoardo; Papale, Paolo

2010-05-01

A key element in emergency preparedness is to define advance tools to assist decision makers and emergency management groups during crises. Such tools must be prepared in advance, accounting for all of expertise and scientific knowledge accumulated through time. During a pre-eruptive phase, the key for sound short-term eruption forecasting is the analysis of the monitoring signals. This involves the capability (i) to recognize anomalous signals and to relate single or combined anomalies to physical processes, assigning them probability values, and (ii) to quickly provide an answer to the observed phenomena even when unexpected. Here we present a > 4 years long process devoted to define the pre-eruptive Event Tree (ET) for Campi Flegrei. A community of about 40 experts in volcanology and volcano monitoring participating to two Italian Projects on Campi Flegrei funded by the Italian Civil Protection, has been constituted and trained during periodic meetings on the statistical methods and the model BET_EF (Marzocchi et al., 2008) that forms the statistical package tool for ET definition. Model calibration has been carried out through public elicitation sessions, preceded and followed by devoted meetings and web forum discussion on the monitoring parameters, their accuracy and relevance, and their potential meanings. The calibrated ET allows anomalies in the monitored parameters to be recognized and interpreted, assigning probability values to each set of data. This process de-personalizes the difficult task of interpreting multi-parametric sets of data during on-going emergencies, and provides a view of the observed variations that accounts for the averaged, weighted opinion of the scientific community. An additional positive outcome of the described ET calibration process is that of providing a picture of the degree of confidence by the expert community on the capability of the many different monitored quantities of recognizing significant variations in the state of the volcano. This picture is particularly useful since it can be used to guide future implementations in the monitoring network, as well as research investments aimed at substantially improving the capability to forecast the short-term volcanic hazard.

INVESTIGATING ALTERNATIVES TO THE FISH EARLY-LIFE STAGE TEST: A STRATEGY FOR DISCOVERING AND ANNOTATING ADVERSE OUTCOME PATHWAYS FOR EARLY FISH DEVELOPMENT

PubMed Central

Villeneuve, Daniel; Volz, David C; Embry, Michelle R; Ankley, Gerald T; Belanger, Scott E; Léonard, Marc; Schirmer, Kristin; Tanguay, Robert; Truong, Lisa; Wehmas, Leah

2014-01-01

The fish early-life stage (FELS) test (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD] test guideline 210) is the primary test used internationally to estimate chronic fish toxicity in support of ecological risk assessments and chemical management programs. As part of an ongoing effort to develop efficient and cost-effective alternatives to the FELS test, there is a need to identify and describe potential adverse outcome pathways (AOPs) relevant to FELS toxicity. To support this endeavor, the authors outline and illustrate an overall strategy for the discovery and annotation of FELS AOPs. Key events represented by major developmental landmarks were organized into a preliminary conceptual model of fish development. Using swim bladder inflation as an example, a weight-of-evidence–based approach was used to support linkage of key molecular initiating events to adverse phenotypic outcomes and reduced young-of-year survival. Based on an iterative approach, the feasibility of using key events as the foundation for expanding a network of plausible linkages and AOP knowledge was explored and, in the process, important knowledge gaps were identified. Given the scope and scale of the task, prioritization of AOP development was recommended and key research objectives were defined relative to factors such as current animal-use restrictions in the European Union and increased demands for fish toxicity data in chemical management programs globally. The example and strategy described are intended to guide collective efforts to define FELS-related AOPs and develop resource-efficient predictive assays that address the toxicological domain of the OECD 210 test. Environ Toxicol Chem 2014;33:158–169. © 2013 The Authors. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of SETAC. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. PMID:24115264

Generating relevant climate adaptation science tools in concert with local natural resource agencies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Micheli, L.; Flint, L. E.; Veloz, S.; Heller, N. E.

2015-12-01

To create a framework for adapting to climate change, decision makers operating at the urban-wildland interface need to define climate vulnerabilities in the context of site-specific opportunities and constraints relative to water supply, land use suitability, wildfire risks, ecosystem services and quality of life. Pepperwood's TBC3.org is crafting customized climate vulnerability assessments with selected water and natural resource agencies of California's Sonoma, Marin, Napa and Mendocino counties under the auspices of Climate Ready North Bay, a public-private partnership funded by the California Coastal Conservancy. Working directly with managers from the very start of the process to define resource-specific information needs, we are developing high-resolution, spatially-explicit data products to help local governments and agency staff implement informed and effective climate adaptation strategies. Key preliminary findings for the region using the USGS' Basin Characterization Model (at a 270 m spatial resolution) include a unidirectional trend, independent of greater or lesser precipitation, towards increasing climatic water deficits across model scenarios. Therefore a key message is that managers will be facing an increasingly arid environment. Companion models translate the impacts of shifting climate and hydrology on vegetation composition and fire risks. The combination of drought stress on water supplies and native vegetation with an approximate doubling of fire risks may demand new approaches to watershed planning. Working with agencies we are exploring how to build capacity for protection and enhancement of key watershed functions with a focus on groundwater recharge, facilitating greater drought tolerance in forest and rangeland systems, and considering more aggressive approaches to management of fuel loads. Lessons learned about effective engagement include the need for extended in-depth dialog, translation of key climate adaptation questions into deliverable metrics and indicators, and the need to take time to digest and formulate results in terms of adaptive management actions. Agencies also express a benefit in using Climate Ready results to raise public awareness of the resource challenges that may lay ahead.

Debt-maturity structures should match risk preferences.

PubMed

Gapenski, L C

1999-12-01

Key to any debt-maturity matching strategy is financing assets with the appropriate debt structure. Financial managers need to establish an optimal capital structure and then choose the best maturity-matching structure for their debt. Two maturity-matching strategies that are available to healthcare financial managers are the accounting approach and the finance approach. The accounting approach, which defines asset maturities as current or fixed, is a riskier financing strategy than the finance approach, which defines asset maturities as permanent or temporary. The added risk occurs because of the accounting approach's heavy reliance on short-term debt. The accounting approach offers the potential for lower costs at the expense of higher risk. Healthcare financial managers who believe the financing function should support the organization's operations without adding undue risk should use the finance approach to maturity matching. Asset maturities in those organizations then should be considered permanent or temporary rather than current or fixed, and the debt-maturity structure should reflect this.

Requirements for plug and play information infrastructure frameworks and architectures to enable virtual enterprises

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bolton, Richard W.; Dewey, Allen; Horstmann, Paul W.; Laurentiev, John

1997-01-01

This paper examines the role virtual enterprises will have in supporting future business engagements and resulting technology requirements. Two representative end-user scenarios are proposed that define the requirements for 'plug-and-play' information infrastructure frameworks and architectures necessary to enable 'virtual enterprises' in US manufacturing industries. The scenarios provide a high- level 'needs analysis' for identifying key technologies, defining a reference architecture, and developing compliant reference implementations. Virtual enterprises are short- term consortia or alliances of companies formed to address fast-changing opportunities. Members of a virtual enterprise carry out their tasks as if they all worked for a single organization under 'one roof', using 'plug-and-play' information infrastructure frameworks and architectures to access and manage all information needed to support the product cycle. 'Plug-and-play' information infrastructure frameworks and architectures are required to enhance collaboration between companies corking together on different aspects of a manufacturing process. This new form of collaborative computing will decrease cycle-time and increase responsiveness to change.

Quasi-programmed aging of budding yeast: a trade-off between programmed processes of cell proliferation, differentiation, stress response, survival and death defines yeast lifespan

PubMed Central

Arlia-Ciommo, Anthony; Piano, Amanda; Leonov, Anna; Svistkova, Veronika; Titorenko, Vladimir I

2014-01-01

Recent findings suggest that evolutionarily distant organisms share the key features of the aging process and exhibit similar mechanisms of its modulation by certain genetic, dietary and pharmacological interventions. The scope of this review is to analyze mechanisms that in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae underlie: (1) the replicative and chronological modes of aging; (2) the convergence of these 2 modes of aging into a single aging process; (3) a programmed differentiation of aging cell communities in liquid media and on solid surfaces; and (4) longevity-defining responses of cells to some chemical compounds released to an ecosystem by other organisms populating it. Based on such analysis, we conclude that all these mechanisms are programs for upholding the long-term survival of the entire yeast population inhabiting an ecological niche; however, none of these mechanisms is a ʺprogram of agingʺ - i.e., a program for progressing through consecutive steps of the aging process. PMID:25485579

Distributed Space Mission Design for Earth Observation Using Model-Based Performance Evaluation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nag, Sreeja; LeMoigne-Stewart, Jacqueline; Cervantes, Ben; DeWeck, Oliver

2015-01-01

Distributed Space Missions (DSMs) are gaining momentum in their application to earth observation missions owing to their unique ability to increase observation sampling in multiple dimensions. DSM design is a complex problem with many design variables, multiple objectives determining performance and cost and emergent, often unexpected, behaviors. There are very few open-access tools available to explore the tradespace of variables, minimize cost and maximize performance for pre-defined science goals, and therefore select the most optimal design. This paper presents a software tool that can multiple DSM architectures based on pre-defined design variable ranges and size those architectures in terms of predefined science and cost metrics. The tool will help a user select Pareto optimal DSM designs based on design of experiments techniques. The tool will be applied to some earth observation examples to demonstrate its applicability in making some key decisions between different performance metrics and cost metrics early in the design lifecycle.

Defining the molecular structure of teixobactin analogues and understanding their role in antibacterial activities.

PubMed

Parmar, Anish; Prior, Stephen H; Iyer, Abhishek; Vincent, Charlotte S; Van Lysebetten, Dorien; Breukink, Eefjan; Madder, Annemieke; Taylor, Edward J; Singh, Ishwar

2017-02-07

The discovery of the highly potent antibiotic teixobactin, which kills the bacteria without any detectable resistance, has stimulated interest in its structure-activity relationship. However, a molecular structure-activity relationship has not been established so far for teixobactin. Moreover, the importance of the individual amino acids in terms of their l/d configuration and their contribution to the molecular structure and biological activity are still unknown. For the first time, we have defined the molecular structure of seven teixobactin analogues through the variation of the d/l configuration of its key residues, namely N-Me-d-Phe, d-Gln, d-allo-Ile and d-Thr. Furthermore, we have established the role of the individual d amino acids and correlated this with the molecular structure and biological activity. Through extensive NMR and structural calculations, including molecular dynamics simulations, we have revealed the residues for maintaining a reasonably unstructured teixobactin which is imperative for biological activity.

Animal and human innovation: novel problems and novel solutions.

PubMed

Reader, Simon M; Morand-Ferron, Julie; Flynn, Emma

2016-03-19

This theme issue explores how and why behavioural innovation occurs, and the consequences of innovation for individuals, groups and populations. A vast literature on human innovation exists, from the development of problem-solving in children, to the evolution of technology, to the cultural systems supporting innovation. A more recent development is a growing literature on animal innovation, which has demonstrated links between innovation and personality traits, cognitive traits, neural measures, changing conditions, and the current state of the social and physical environment. Here, we introduce these fields, define key terms and discuss the potential for fruitful exchange between the diverse fields researching innovation. Comparisons of innovation between human and non-human animals provide opportunities, but also pitfalls. We also summarize some key findings specifying the circumstances in which innovation occurs, discussing factors such as the intrinsic nature of innovative individuals and the environmental and socio-ecological conditions that promote innovation, such as necessity, opportunity and free resources. We also highlight key controversies, including the relationship between innovation and intelligence, and the notion of innovativeness as an individual-level trait. Finally, we discuss current research methods and suggest some novel approaches that could fruitfully be deployed. © 2016 The Authors.

Animal and human innovation: novel problems and novel solutions

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

This theme issue explores how and why behavioural innovation occurs, and the consequences of innovation for individuals, groups and populations. A vast literature on human innovation exists, from the development of problem-solving in children, to the evolution of technology, to the cultural systems supporting innovation. A more recent development is a growing literature on animal innovation, which has demonstrated links between innovation and personality traits, cognitive traits, neural measures, changing conditions, and the current state of the social and physical environment. Here, we introduce these fields, define key terms and discuss the potential for fruitful exchange between the diverse fields researching innovation. Comparisons of innovation between human and non-human animals provide opportunities, but also pitfalls. We also summarize some key findings specifying the circumstances in which innovation occurs, discussing factors such as the intrinsic nature of innovative individuals and the environmental and socio-ecological conditions that promote innovation, such as necessity, opportunity and free resources. We also highlight key controversies, including the relationship between innovation and intelligence, and the notion of innovativeness as an individual-level trait. Finally, we discuss current research methods and suggest some novel approaches that could fruitfully be deployed. PMID:26926273

Back to basics: hand hygiene and isolation

PubMed Central

Lin Huang, G. Khai; Stewardson, Andrew J.; Lindsay Grayson, M.

2014-01-01

Purpose of review Hand hygiene and isolation are basic, but very effective, means of preventing the spread of pathogens in healthcare. Although the principle may be straightforward, this review highlights some of the controversies regarding the implementation and efficacy of these interventions. Recent findings Hand hygiene compliance is an accepted measure of quality and safety in many countries. The evidence for the efficacy of hand hygiene in directly reducing rates of hospital-acquired infections has strengthened in recent years, particularly in terms of reduced rates of staphylococcal sepsis. Defining the key components of effective implementation strategies and the ideal method(s) of assessing hand hygiene compliance are dependent on a range of factors associated with the healthcare system. Although patient isolation continues to be an important strategy, particularly in outbreaks, it also has some limitations and can be associated with negative effects. Recent detailed molecular epidemiology studies of key healthcare-acquired pathogens have questioned the true efficacy of isolation, alone as an effective method for the routine prevention of disease transmission. Summary Hand hygiene and isolation are key components of basic infection control. Recent insights into the benefits, limitations and even adverse effects of these interventions are important for their optimal implementation. PMID:24945613

Is an ecosystem services-based approach developed for setting specific protection goals for plant protection products applicable to other chemicals?

PubMed

Maltby, Lorraine; Jackson, Mathew; Whale, Graham; Brown, A Ross; Hamer, Mick; Solga, Andreas; Kabouw, Patrick; Woods, Richard; Marshall, Stuart

2017-02-15

Clearly defined protection goals specifying what to protect, where and when, are required for designing scientifically sound risk assessments and effective risk management of chemicals. Environmental protection goals specified in EU legislation are defined in general terms, resulting in uncertainty in how to achieve them. In 2010, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) published a framework to identify more specific protection goals based on ecosystem services potentially affected by plant protection products. But how applicable is this framework to chemicals with different emission scenarios and receptor ecosystems? Four case studies used to address this question were: (i) oil refinery waste water exposure in estuarine environments; (ii) oil dispersant exposure in aquatic environments; (iii) down the drain chemicals exposure in a wide range of ecosystems (terrestrial and aquatic); (iv) persistent organic pollutant exposure in remote (pristine) Arctic environments. A four-step process was followed to identify ecosystems and services potentially impacted by chemical emissions and to define specific protection goals. Case studies demonstrated that, in principle, the ecosystem services concept and the EFSA framework can be applied to derive specific protection goals for a broad range of chemical exposure scenarios. By identifying key habitats and ecosystem services of concern, the approach offers the potential for greater spatial and temporal resolution, together with increased environmental relevance, in chemical risk assessments. With modifications including improved clarity on terminology/definitions and further development/refinement of the key concepts, we believe the principles of the EFSA framework could provide a methodical approach to the identification and prioritization of ecosystems, ecosystem services and the service providing units that are most at risk from chemical exposure. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Building Blocks for Transport-Class Hybrid and Turboelectric Vehicles

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jankovsky, Amy; Bowman, Cheryl; Jansen, Ralph

2016-01-01

NASA has been investing in research efforts to define potential vehicles that use hybrid and turboelectric propulsion to enable savings in fuel burn and carbon usage. This paper overviews the fundamental building blocks that have been derived from those studies and details what key performance parameters have been defined, what key ground and flight tests need to occur, and highlights progress toward each.

Optimization and planning of operating theatre activities: an original definition of pathways and process modeling.

PubMed

Barbagallo, Simone; Corradi, Luca; de Ville de Goyet, Jean; Iannucci, Marina; Porro, Ivan; Rosso, Nicola; Tanfani, Elena; Testi, Angela

2015-05-17

The Operating Room (OR) is a key resource of all major hospitals, but it also accounts for up 40% of resource costs. Improving cost effectiveness, while maintaining a quality of care, is a universal objective. These goals imply an optimization of planning and a scheduling of the activities involved. This is highly challenging due to the inherent variable and unpredictable nature of surgery. A Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN 2.0) was used for the representation of the "OR Process" (being defined as the sequence of all of the elementary steps between "patient ready for surgery" to "patient operated upon") as a general pathway ("path"). The path was then both further standardized as much as possible and, at the same time, keeping all of the key-elements that would allow one to address or define the other steps of planning, and the inherent and wide variability in terms of patient specificity. The path was used to schedule OR activity, room-by-room, and day-by-day, feeding the process from a "waiting list database" and using a mathematical optimization model with the objective of ending up in an optimized planning. The OR process was defined with special attention paid to flows, timing and resource involvement. Standardization involved a dynamics operation and defined an expected operating time for each operation. The optimization model has been implemented and tested on real clinical data. The comparison of the results reported with the real data, shows that by using the optimization model, allows for the scheduling of about 30% more patients than in actual practice, as well as to better exploit the OR efficiency, increasing the average operating room utilization rate up to 20%. The optimization of OR activity planning is essential in order to manage the hospital's waiting list. Optimal planning is facilitated by defining the operation as a standard pathway where all variables are taken into account. By allowing a precise scheduling, it feeds the process of planning and, further up-stream, the management of a waiting list in an interactive and bi-directional dynamic process.

Leveraging the real value of laboratory medicine with the value proposition.

PubMed

Price, Christopher P; John, Andrew St; Christenson, Robert; Scharnhorst, Volker; Oellerich, Michael; Jones, Patricia; Morris, Howard A

2016-11-01

Improving quality and patient safety, containing costs and delivering value-for-money are the key drivers of change in the delivery of healthcare and have stimulated a shift from an activity-based service to a service based on patient-outcomes. The delivery of an outcomes-based healthcare agenda requires that the real value of laboratory medicine to all stakeholders be understood, effectively defined and communicated. The value proposition of any product or service is the link between the provider and the needs of the customer describing the utility of the product or service in terms of benefit to the customer. The framework of a value proposition for laboratory medicine provides the core business case that drives key activities in the evolution and maintenance of high quality healthcare from research through to adoption and quality improvement in an established service. The framework of a value proposition for laboratory medicine is described. The content is endorsed by IFCC and WASPaLM. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

[Quality management in a clinical research facility: Evaluation of changes in quality in-house figures and the appraisal of in-house quality indicators].

PubMed

Aden, Bile; Allekotte, Silke; Mösges, Ralph

2016-12-01

For long-term maintenance and improvement of quality within a clinical research institute, the implementation and certification of a quality management system is suitable. Due to the implemented quality management system according to the still valid DIN EN ISO 9001:2008 desired quality objectives are achieved effectively. The evaluation of quality scores and the appraisal of in-house quality indicators make an important contribution in this regard. In order to achieve this and draw quality assurance conclusions, quality indicators as sensible and sensitive as possible are developed. For this, own key objectives, the retrospective evaluation of quality scores, a prospective follow-up and also discussions establish the basis. In the in-house clinical research institute the measures introduced by the quality management led to higher efficiency in work processes, improved staff skills, higher customer satisfaction and overall to more successful outcomes in relation to the self-defined key objectives. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier GmbH.

A case for redefining the boundaries of the Mesoamerican Reef Ecoregion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chollett, Iliana; Garavelli, Lysel; Holstein, Daniel; Cherubin, Laurent; Fulton, Stuart; Box, Stephen J.

2017-12-01

The Mesoamerican Reef (MAR) is an interconnected system that supports the local economies of four countries through the provision of seafood and tourism. Considerable financial, research and management effort has been invested in this priority ecoregion, whose boundaries were defined more than 18 yr ago based on best available data on oceanographic patterns, reef and watershed distribution. The long-term persistence of the MAR depends, however, on ensuring that all of its constituent parts are appropriately managed, and the current boundaries may not respond to this need. Here we assess the suitability of the current boundaries of the MAR using information on physical environments and larval connectivity of three key species. Our research indicates the boundaries of the ecoregion require an adjustment, as the exclusion of key areas in eastern Honduras might jeopardize the persistence of the entire network of connected reefs, and areas in northern Yucatan belong to a different environmental regime and may require different management strategies.

Assessing Key Competences across the Curriculum--And Europe

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pepper, David

2011-01-01

The development of key competences for lifelong learning has been an important policy imperative for EU Member States. The European Reference Framework of key competences (2006) built on previous developments by the OECD, UNESCO and Member States themselves. It defined key competences as knowledge, skills and attitudes applied appropriately to…

A literature review of disaster nursing competencies in Japanese nursing journals.

PubMed

Kako, Mayumi; Mitani, Satoko

2010-01-01

Competencies is an important concept used for assessing health professionals' capability to perform their role. By means of a literature review of Japanese professional journals this paper will investigate the competencies concept, particularly with relation to disaster nursing. The literature research was conducted using the database ichu-shi (ver. 4). All literature is written and published in Japanese and was published between 2001 and 2008. Due to an unfamiliarity of the term 'competencies' in Japanese, the key words were sought while deconstructing the meaning and concepts of 'competencies' into terms more recognisable in the Japanese context. Twelve key words: disaster, capability, education, practice, licensure, ability, function, prevention, response, planning, emergency, and disaster nursing were chosen as being most likely to find literature relevant to the English Language concept of competencies. The searched articles were then written into the disaster nursing competencies review worksheet for analysis. One hundred and twenty articles were found by searching a combination of these key words. Of these articles, those that were not in the context of disaster nursing were eliminated. As a result, 43 articles were chosen as being suitable for analysis of the context. These articles are classified into four themes. These theme groups indicated a foundation for competencies in disaster nursing. The definition of competencies in Japanese nursing journals was quite varied and cannot be easily defined as common disaster nursing competencies. Given the variety of areas and the distinct phases in disaster nursing, as well as the 'what for' and 'who governs', disaster nursing competencies will need its own discussion in order to establish the common competencies internationally.

Making processes reliable: a validated pubmed search strategy for identifying new or emerging technologies.

PubMed

Varela-Lema, Leonora; Punal-Riobóo, Jeanette; Acción, Beatriz Casal; Ruano-Ravina, Alberto; García, Marisa López

2012-10-01

Horizon scanning systems need to handle a wide range of sources to identify new or emerging health technologies. The objective of this study is to develop a validated Medline bibliographic search strategy (PubMed search engine) to systematically identify new or emerging health technologies. The proposed Medline search strategy combines free text terms commonly used in article titles to denote innovation within index terms that make reference to the specific fields of interest. Efficacy was assessed by running the search over a period of 1 year (2009) and analyzing its retrieval performance (number and characteristics). For comparison purposes, all article abstracts published during 2009 in six preselected key research journals and eight high impact surgery journals were scanned. Sensitivity was defined as the proportion of relevant new or emerging technologies published in key journals that would be identified in the search strategy within the first 2 years of publication. The search yielded 6,228 abstracts of potentially new or emerging technologies. Of these, 459 were classified as new or emerging (383 truly new or emerging and 76 new indications). The scanning of 12,061 journal abstracts identified 35 relevant new or emerging technologies. Of these, twenty-nine were located within the Medline search strategy during the first 2 years of publication (sensitivity = 83 percent). The current search strategy, validated against key journals, has demonstrated to be effective for horizon scanning. Even though it can require adaptations depending on the scope of the horizon scanning system, it could serve to simplify and standardize scanning processes.

7 CFR 56.1 - Meaning of words and terms defined.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 3 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Meaning of words and terms defined. 56.1 Section 56.1... EGGS Grading of Shell Eggs Definitions § 56.1 Meaning of words and terms defined. For the purpose of the regulations in this part, words in the singular shall be deemed to import the plural and vice...

76 FR 41032 - Medicaid Program; Face-to-Face Requirements for Home Health Services; Policy Changes and...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-07-12

... practitioner or clinical nurse specialist (as those terms are defined in section 1861(aa)(5) of the Act) who is...-to-face encounter as a nurse practitioner or clinical nurse specialist, as those terms are defined in... following NPPs: A nurse practitioner or clinical nurse specialist (as those terms are defined in section...

Exploring the impacts of personal factors on self-leadership in a hospital setting.

PubMed

Ugurluoglu, Ozgur; Saygılı, Meltem; Ozer, Ozlem; Santas, Fatih

2015-01-01

Self-leadership may be defined as a self-effecting process that individuals experience by maintaining the motivation they require for fulfilling their roles and duties. The self-leadership process comprises three key strategies: behaviour-oriented strategies, natural reward strategies and constructive thought pattern strategies. What is intended herein is to inquire about the implementation of self-leadership within organisations and to examine the effects of such variables as age, gender, total terms of employment, marital status and education on self-leadership strategies. The primary data collection instrument was a survey distributed to 450 personnel working at a state hospital in Kırıkkale, Turkey, and feedback thereto was received from 308 (68.4%) of those surveyed. As a result of the findings taken from the analyses, age, total terms of employment and receipt of education in leadership affect the use of self-leadership strategies. Although age and total terms of employment display a negative-directional correlation with the self-leadership strategies, female employees and those who receive education in leadership are more inclined towards self-leadership strategies. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A Potentially Useful for Airborne Separation in 4D-Trajectory ATM Operations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wing, David J.

2005-01-01

An aircraft equipped with Airborne Separation Assistance System functions and 4- dimensional trajectory management capabilities can have significant, potentially transforming, value to Air Traffic Management at the local and system levels. This paper discusses how certain vital characteristics envisioned in the Next Generation Air Transportation System enable some Air Traffic Management functions to be distributed to properly equipped aircraft, and it defines and illustrates this equipage level in a potential application. The new equipage level, perhaps the most capable of many levels permitted, enables an effective implementation of both near- and long-term 4-dimensional trajectory operations in complex airspace, with the aircraft providing the near-term tactical functions and conforming to the long-term trajectory attributes coordinated with ground-based Traffic Flow Management authorities. NASA s recent research and development of this proposed aircraft equipage for en-route and terminal-arrival operations is summarized. The role the equipage level may play in addressing key implementation challenges of reducing ground infrastructure cost, building in security and safety, and scaling to traffic demand is discussed.

On the origin of microparticles: From “platelet dust” to mediators of intercellular communication

PubMed Central

Hargett, Leslie A.; Bauer, Natalie N.

2013-01-01

Microparticles are submicron vesicles shed from a variety of cells. Peter Wolf first identified microparticles in the midst of ongoing blood coagulation research in 1967 as a product of platelets. He termed them platelet dust. Although initially thought to be useless cellular trash, decades of research focused on the tiny vesicles have defined their roles as participators in coagulation, cellular signaling, vascular injury, and homeostasis. The purpose of this review is to highlight the science leading up to the discovery of microparticles, feature discoveries made by key contributors to the field of microparticle research, and discuss their positive and negative impact on the pulmonary circulation. PMID:24015332

Determining Water Content and Distribution in PEMFCs to Predict Aging While in Storage

DOE PAGES

Stariha, Sarah; Wilson, Mahlon Scott; LaManna, Jacob M.; ...

2017-08-24

Proton membrane exchange fuel cells (PEMFCs) have the potential to be long term backup power sources with a startup time on the order of seconds. Water management is the key issue in being able to successfully store PEMFCs for extended periods of time. In this work custom made PEMFCs were humidified at various relative humidities (%RH) and subsequently stored for different lengths of time. The fuel cell’s water content was then imaged at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) neutron imaging facility. In conclusion, the cells’ startup performances were measured simulating quick startup conditions to define the effectmore » of different water distributions.« less

A simple device for long-term radar cross section recordings.

PubMed

Eskelinen, Pekka; Ruoskanen, Jukka; Peltonen, Jouni

2009-05-01

A sample and hold circuit with settable delay can be used for recording of radar echo amplitude variations having time scales up to 100 s at the selected range bin in systems utilizing short rf pulses. The design is based on two integrated circuits and gives 1% uncertainty for 70 ns pulses. The key benefit is a real-time display of lengthy amplitude variations because the sample rate is defined by the radar pulse repetition frequency. Additionally we get a reduction in file size at least by the inverse of the radar's duty cycle. Examples of 10 and 100 s recordings with a Ka-band short pulse radar are described.

A social marketing approach to changing mental health practices directed at youth and adolescents.

PubMed

Andreason, Alan R

2004-01-01

The mental health problems of children are of increasing social concern. Many best practices have been developed but often not implemented. Social marketing has been suggested as an innovative, useful approach to this challenge-along with others in the health care field. However, much confusion exists over what the approach entails, where it has been applied and how it can be adapted to significant social challenges such as changing mental health practices directed at youth and adolescents. This article defines key terms, offers historical perspective and provides a specific approach and set of models to implement an effective social marketing strategy in a range of contexts.

Large Cellular Inclusions Accumulate in Arabidopsis Roots Exposed to Low-Sulfur Conditions1[OPEN

PubMed Central

Popov, Vladimir A.; Mathur, Jaideep; Benfey, Philip N.

2015-01-01

Sulfur is vital for primary and secondary metabolism in plant roots. To understand the molecular and morphogenetic changes associated with loss of this key macronutrient, we grew Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) seedlings in low-sulfur conditions. These conditions induced a cascade of cellular events that converged to produce a profound intracellular phenotype defined by large cytoplasmic inclusions. The inclusions, termed low-sulfur Pox, show cell type- and developmental zone-specific localization. Transcriptome analysis suggested that low sulfur causes dysfunction of the glutathione/ascorbate cycle, which reduces flavonoids. Genetic and biochemical evidence indicated that low-sulfur Pox are the result of peroxidase-catalyzed oxidation of quercetin in roots grown under sulfur-depleted conditions. PMID:26099270

Antibodies and antimatter: the resurgence of immuno-PET.

PubMed

Wu, Anna M

2009-01-01

The completion of the human genome, coupled with parallel major research efforts in proteomics and systems biology, has led to a flood of information on the roles of individual genes and proteins in normal physiologic processes and their disruptions in disease. In practical terms, this information has opened the door to increasingly targeted therapies as specific molecular markers are identified and validated. The ongoing transition from empiric to molecular medicine has engendered a need for corresponding molecular diagnostics, including noninvasive molecular imaging. Convergence of knowledge regarding key biomarkers that define normal biologic processes and disease with protein and imaging technology makes this an opportune time to revisit the combination of antibodies and PET, or immuno-PET.

Determining Water Content and Distribution in PEMFCs to Predict Aging While in Storage

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

Stariha, Sarah; Wilson, Mahlon Scott; LaManna, Jacob M.

Proton membrane exchange fuel cells (PEMFCs) have the potential to be long term backup power sources with a startup time on the order of seconds. Water management is the key issue in being able to successfully store PEMFCs for extended periods of time. In this work custom made PEMFCs were humidified at various relative humidities (%RH) and subsequently stored for different lengths of time. The fuel cell’s water content was then imaged at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) neutron imaging facility. In conclusion, the cells’ startup performances were measured simulating quick startup conditions to define the effectmore » of different water distributions.« less

How do we define the policy impact of public health research? A systematic review.

PubMed

Alla, Kristel; Hall, Wayne D; Whiteford, Harvey A; Head, Brian W; Meurk, Carla S

2017-10-02

In order to understand and measure the policy impact of research we need a definition of research impact that is suited to the task. This article systematically reviewed both peer-reviewed and grey literature for definitions of research impact to develop a definition of research impact that can be used to investigate how public health research influences policy. Keyword searches of the electronic databases Web of Science, ProQuest, PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL, Informit, PsycINFO, The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews and Google Scholar were conducted between August 2015 and April 2016. Keywords included 'definition' and 'policy' and 'research impact' or 'research evidence'. The search terms 'health', public health' or 'mental health' and 'knowledge transfer' or 'research translation' were used to focus the search on relevant health discipline approaches. Studies included in the review described processes, theories or frameworks associated with public health, health services or mental health policy. We identified 108 definitions in 83 publications. The key findings were that literature on research impact is growing, but only 23% of peer-reviewed publications on the topic explicitly defined the term and that the majority (76%) of definitions were derived from research organisations and funding institutions. We identified four main types of definition, namely (1) definitions that conceptualise research impacts in terms of positive changes or effects that evidence can bring about when transferred into policies (example Research Excellence Framework definition), (2) definitions that interpret research impacts as measurable outcomes (Research Councils UK), and (3) bibliometric and (4) use-based definitions. We identified four constructs underpinning these definitions that related to concepts of contribution, change, avenues and levels of impact. The dominance of bureaucratic definitions, the tendency to discuss but not define the concept of research impact, and the heterogeneity of definitions confirm the need for conceptual clarity in this area. We propose a working definition of research impact that can be used in a range of health policy contexts.

26 CFR 1.412(c)(1)-1 - Determinations to be made under funding method-terms defined.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

...-terms defined. 1.412(c)(1)-1 Section 1.412(c)(1)-1 Internal Revenue INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE, DEPARTMENT... Plans, Etc. § 1.412(c)(1)-1 Determinations to be made under funding method—terms defined. (a) Actuarial... bargained plans, see § 1.412(c)(1)-2; for principles applicable to funding methods in general, see...

26 CFR 1.412(c)(1)-1 - Determinations to be made under funding method-terms defined.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

...-terms defined. 1.412(c)(1)-1 Section 1.412(c)(1)-1 Internal Revenue INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE, DEPARTMENT..., Stock Bonus Plans, Etc. § 1.412(c)(1)-1 Determinations to be made under funding method—terms defined. (a... collectively bargained plans, see § 1.412(c)(1)-2; for principles applicable to funding methods in general, see...

26 CFR 1.993-1 - Definition of qualified export receipts.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

...) Gross receipts. The term “gross receipts” is defined by section 993(f) and § 1.993-6. (4) Qualified export assets. The term “qualified export assests” is defined by section 993(b) and § 1.993-2. (5) Export property. The term “export property” is defined by section 993(c) and § 1.993-3. (6) Related person. The...

26 CFR 1.412(c)(1)-1 - Determinations to be made under funding method-terms defined.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

...-terms defined. 1.412(c)(1)-1 Section 1.412(c)(1)-1 Internal Revenue INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE, DEPARTMENT..., Stock Bonus Plans, Etc. § 1.412(c)(1)-1 Determinations to be made under funding method—terms defined. (a... collectively bargained plans, see § 1.412(c)(1)-2; for principles applicable to funding methods in general, see...

26 CFR 1.412(c)(1)-1 - Determinations to be made under funding method-terms defined.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

...-terms defined. 1.412(c)(1)-1 Section 1.412(c)(1)-1 Internal Revenue INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE, DEPARTMENT..., Stock Bonus Plans, Etc. § 1.412(c)(1)-1 Determinations to be made under funding method—terms defined. (a... collectively bargained plans, see § 1.412(c)(1)-2; for principles applicable to funding methods in general, see...

26 CFR 1.412(c)(1)-1 - Determinations to be made under funding method-terms defined.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

...-terms defined. 1.412(c)(1)-1 Section 1.412(c)(1)-1 Internal Revenue INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE, DEPARTMENT..., Stock Bonus Plans, Etc. § 1.412(c)(1)-1 Determinations to be made under funding method—terms defined. (a... collectively bargained plans, see § 1.412(c)(1)-2; for principles applicable to funding methods in general, see...

77 FR 58499 - Substitution of Term in a Definition; Addition and Adoption of the Use of Specific...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-09-21

.... The Committee is substituting the term ``disabled'' for ``handicapped'' in a term defined in its..., the terms other severely handicapped and severely handicapped individuals are used to define persons... remove references to ``handicap'' or ``handicapped'' in the list of definitions. Additionally, the...

Learning at different satiation levels reveals parallel functions for the cAMP-protein kinase A cascade in formation of long-term memory.

PubMed

Friedrich, Anke; Thomas, Ulf; Müller, Uli

2004-05-05

Learning and memory formation in intact animals is generally studied under defined parameters, including the control of feeding. We used associative olfactory conditioning of the proboscis extension response in honeybees to address effects of feeding status on processes of learning and memory formation. Comparing groups of animals with different but defined feeding status at the time of conditioning reveals new and characteristic features in memory formation. In animals fed 18 hr earlier, three-trial conditioning induces a stable memory that consists of different phases: a mid-term memory (MTM), translation-dependent early long-term memory (eLTM; 1-2 d), and a transcription-dependent late LTM (lLTM; > or =3 d). Additional feeding of a small amount of sucrose 4 hr before conditioning leads to a loss of all of these memory phases. Interestingly, the basal activity of the cAMP-dependent protein kinase A (PKA), a key player in LTM formation, differs in animals with different satiation levels. Pharmacological rescue of the low basal PKA activity in animals fed 4 hr before conditioning points to a specific function of cAMP-PKA cascade in mediating satiation-dependent memory formation. An increase in PKA activity during conditioning rescues only transcription-dependent lLTM; acquisition, MTM, and eLTM are still impaired. Thus, during conditioning, the cAMP-PKA cascade mediates the induction of the transcription-dependent lLTM, depending on the satiation level. This result provides the first evidence for a central and distinct function of the cAMP-PKA cascade connecting satiation level with learning.

Harnessing pluralism for better health in Bangladesh.

PubMed

Ahmed, Syed Masud; Evans, Timothy G; Standing, Hilary; Mahmud, Simeen

2013-11-23

How do we explain the paradox that Bangladesh has made remarkable progress in health and human development, yet its achievements have taken place within a health system that is frequently characterised as weak, in terms of inadequate physical and human infrastructure and logistics, and low performing? We argue that the development of a highly pluralistic health system environment, defined by the participation of a multiplicity of different stakeholders and agents and by ad hoc, diffused forms of management has contributed to these outcomes by creating conditions for rapid change. We use a combination of data from official sources, research studies, case studies of specific innovations, and in-depth knowledge from our own long-term engagement with health sector issues in Bangladesh to lay out a conceptual framework for understanding pluralism and its outcomes. Although we argue that pluralism has had positive effects in terms of stimulating change and innovation, we also note its association with poor health systems governance and regulation, resulting in endemic problems such as overuse and misuse of drugs. Pluralism therefore requires active management that acknowledges and works with its polycentric nature. We identify four key areas where this management is needed: participatory governance, accountability and regulation, information systems, and capacity development. This approach challenges some mainstream frameworks for managing health systems, such as the building blocks approach of the WHO Health Systems Framework. However, as pluralism increasingly defines the nature and the challenge of 21st century health systems, the experience of Bangladesh is relevant to many countries across the world. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Why Synchrony Matters during Mother-Child Interactions: A Systematic Review

PubMed Central

Leclère, Chloë; Viaux, Sylvie; Avril, Marie; Achard, Catherine; Chetouani, Mohamed; Missonnier, Sylvain; Cohen, David

2014-01-01

Background Assessment of mother-child interactions is a core issue of early child development and psychopathology. This paper focuses on the concept of “synchrony” and examines (1) how synchrony in mother-child interaction is defined and operationalized; (2) the contribution that the concept of synchrony has brought to understanding the nature of mother-child interactions. Method Between 1977 and 2013, we searched several databases using the following key-words: « synchrony » « interaction » and « mother-child ». We focused on studies examining parent-child interactions among children aged 2 months to 5 years. From the 63 relevant studies, we extracted study description variables (authors, year, design, number of subjects, age); assessment conditions and modalities; and main findings. Results The most common terms referring to synchrony were mutuality, reciprocity, rhythmicity, harmonious interaction, turn-taking and shared affect; all terms were used to characterize the mother-child dyad. As a consequence, we propose defining synchrony as a dynamic and reciprocal adaptation of the temporal structure of behaviors and shared affect between interactive partners. Three main types of assessment methods for studying synchrony emerged: (1) global interaction scales with dyadic items; (2) specific synchrony scales; and (3) micro-coded time-series analyses. It appears that synchrony should be regarded as a social signal per se as it has been shown to be valid in both normal and pathological populations. Better mother-child synchrony is associated with familiarity (vs. unknown partner), a healthy mother (vs. pathological mother), typical development (vs. psychopathological development), and a more positive child outcomes. Discussion Synchrony is a key feature of mother-infant interactions. Adopting an objective approach in studying synchrony is not a simple task given available assessment tools and due to its temporality and multimodal expression. We propose an integrative approach combining clinical observation and engineering techniques to improve the quality of synchrony analysis. PMID:25469637

The three paradoxes of patient flow: an explanatory case study.

PubMed

Kreindler, Sara A

2017-07-12

Health systems in many jurisdictions struggle to reduce Emergency Department congestion and improve patient flow across the continuum of care. Flow is often described as a systemic issue requiring a "system approach"; however, the implications of this idea remain poorly understood. Focusing on a Canadian regional health system whose flow problems have been particularly intractable, this study sought to determine what system-level flaws impede healthcare organizations from improving flow. This study drew primarily on qualitative data from in-depth interviews with 62 senior, middle and departmental managers representing the Region, its programs and sites; quantitative analysis of key flow indicators (1999-2012) and review of ~700 documents furnished important context. Examination of the interview data revealed that the most striking feature of the dataset was contradiction; accordingly, a technique of dialectical analysis was developed to examine observed contradictions at successively deeper levels. Analysis uncovered three paradoxes: "Many Small Successes and One Big Failure" (initiatives improve parts of the system but fail to fix underlying system constraints); "Your Innovation Is My Aggravation" (local innovation clashes with regional integration); and most critically, "Your Order Is My Chaos" (rules that improve service organization for my patients create obstacles for yours). This last emerges when some entities (sites/hospitals) define their patients in terms of their location in the system, while others (regional programs) define them in terms of their needs/characteristics. As accountability for improving flow was distributed among groups that thus variously defined their patients, local efforts achieved little for the overall system, and often clashed with each other. These paradoxes are indicative of a fundamental antagonism between the system's parts and the whole. An accretion of flow initiatives in all parts of the system will never add up to a system approach, and may indeed perpetuate the paradoxes. What is needed is a coherent strategy of defining patient populations by needs, analyzing their entire trajectories of care, and developing consistent processes to better meet those needs.

Principles of visual key construction-with a visual identification key to the Fagaceae of the southeastern United States.

PubMed

Kirchoff, Bruce K; Leggett, Roxanne; Her, Va; Moua, Chue; Morrison, Jessica; Poole, Chamika

2011-01-01

Advances in digital imaging have made possible the creation of completely visual keys. By a visual key we mean a key based primarily on images, and that contains a minimal amount of text. Characters in visual keys are visually, not verbally defined. In this paper we create the first primarily visual key to a group of taxa, in this case the Fagaceae of the southeastern USA. We also modify our recently published set of best practices for image use in illustrated keys to make them applicable to visual keys. Photographs of the Fagaceae were obtained from internet and herbarium databases or were taken specifically for this project. The images were printed and then sorted into hierarchical groups. These hierarchical groups of images were used to create the 'couplets' in the key. A reciprocal process of key creation and testing was used to produce the final keys. Four keys were created, one for each of the parts-leaves, buds, fruits and bark. Species description pages consisting of multiple images were also created for each of the species in the key. Creation and testing of the key resulted in a modified list of best practices for image use visual keys. The inclusion of images into paper and electronic keys has greatly increased their ease of use. However, virtually all of these keys are still based upon verbally defined, atomistic characters. The creation of primarily visual keys allows us to overcome the well-known limitations of linguistic-based characters and create keys that are much easier to use, especially for botanical novices.

Defining resilience within a risk-informed assessment framework

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

Coles, Garill A.; Unwin, Stephen D.; Holter, Gregory M.

2011-08-01

The concept of resilience is the subject of considerable discussion in academic, business, and governmental circles. The United States Department of Homeland Security for one has emphasised the need to consider resilience in safeguarding critical infrastructure and key resources. The concept of resilience is complex, multidimensional, and defined differently by different stakeholders. The authors contend that there is a benefit in moving from discussing resilience as an abstraction to defining resilience as a measurable characteristic of a system. This paper proposes defining resilience measures using elements of a traditional risk assessment framework to help clarify the concept of resilience andmore » as a way to provide non-traditional risk information. The authors show various, diverse dimensions of resilience can be quantitatively defined in a common risk assessment framework based on the concept of loss of service. This allows the comparison of options for improving the resilience of infrastructure and presents a means to perform cost-benefit analysis. This paper discusses definitions and key aspects of resilience, presents equations for the risk of loss of infrastructure function that incorporate four key aspects of resilience that could prevent or mitigate that loss, describes proposed resilience factor definitions based on those risk impacts, and provides an example that illustrates how resilience factors would be calculated using a hypothetical scenario.« less

Legislation on violence against women: overview of key components.

PubMed

Ortiz-Barreda, Gaby; Vives-Cases, Carmen

2013-01-01

This study aimed to determine if legislation on violence against women (VAW) worldwide contains key components recommended by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the United Nations (UN) to help strengthen VAW prevention and provide better integrated victim protection, support, and care. A systematic search for VAW legislation using international legal databases and other electronic sources plus data from previous research identified 124 countries/territories with some type of VAW legislation. Full legal texts were found for legislation from 104 countries/territories. Those available in English, Portuguese, and Spanish were downloaded and compiled and the selection criteria applied (use of any of the common terms related to VAW, including intimate partner violence (IPV), and reference to at least two of six sectors (education, health, judicial system, mass media, police, and social services) with regard to VAW interventions (protection, support, and care). A final sample from 80 countries/territories was selected and analyzed for the presence of key components recommended by PAHO and the UN (reference to the term "violence against women" in the title; definitions of different types of VAW; identification of women as beneficiaries; and promotion of (reference to) the participation of multiple sectors in VAW interventions). Few countries/territories specifically identified women as the beneficiaries of their VAW legislation, including those that labeled their legislation "domestic violence" law ( n = 51), of which only two explicitly mentioned women as complainants/survivors. Only 28 countries/territories defined the main forms of VAW (economic, physical, psychological, and sexual) in their VAW legislation. Most highlighted the role of the judicial system, followed by that of social services and the police. Only 28 mentioned the health sector. Despite considerable efforts worldwide to strengthen VAW legislation, most VAW laws do not incorporate the key recommended components. Significant limitations were found in the legislative content, its application, and the extent to which it provided women with integrated protection, support, and care. In developing new VAW legislation, policymakers should consider the vital role of health services.

Evaluation of information technology impact on effective internal control in the University system

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

Sanusi Fasilat, A., E-mail: Fasilat17@gmail.com; Hassan, Haslinda, E-mail: lynn@uum.edu.my

Information Technology (IT) plays a key role in internal control system in various organizations in terms of maintaining records and other internal services. Internal control system is defined as an efficient control procedures set up by firm to safeguard resources and to assure the reliability and accuracy of both financial and non-financial records in line with applicable governance and procedure to acquire the established goal and objectives. This paper focuses on the impact of IT on internal control system in the Nigerian universities. Data are collected from three different universities via questionnaire. Descriptive statistics is used to analyze the data;more » Chi-square is performed to test the hypothesis. The results of the hypothesis showed that IT has a positive relationship with the effective internal control activities in the University system. It is concluded that the adoption of IT will significantly improve the effectiveness of the internal control system operations in the University in terms of quality service delivery.« less

Sustainable development and next generation's health: a long-term perspective about the consequences of today's activities for food safety.

PubMed

Frazzoli, Chiara; Petrini, Carlo; Mantovani, Alberto

2009-01-01

Development is defined sustainable when it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Pivoting on social, environmental and economic aspects of food chain sustainability, this paper presents the concept of sustainable food safety based on the prevention of risks and burden of poor health for generations to come. Under this respect, the assessment of long-term, transgenerational risks is still hampered by serious scientific uncertainties. Critical issues to the development of a sustainable food safety framework may include: endocrine disrupters as emerging contaminants that specifically target developing organisms; toxicological risks assessment in Countries at the turning point of development; translating knowledge into toxicity indexes to support risk management approaches, such as hazard analysis and critical control points (HACCP); the interplay between chemical hazards and social determinants. Efforts towards the comprehensive knowledge and management of key factors of sustainable food safety appear critical to the effectiveness of the overall sustainability policies.

Resolution of inflammation: state of the art, definitions and terms

PubMed Central

Serhan, Charles N.; Brain, Sue D.; Buckley, Christopher D.; Gilroy, Derek W.; Haslett, Christopher; O’Neill, Luke A. J.; Perretti, Mauro; Rossi, Adriano G.; Wallace, John L.

2011-01-01

A recent focus meeting on Controlling Acute Inflammation was held in London, April 27-28, 2006, organized by D.W. Gilroy and S.D. Brain for the British Pharmacology Society. We concluded at the meeting that a consensus report was needed that addresses the rapid progress in this emerging field and details how the specific study of resolution of acute inflammation provides leads for novel anti-inflammatory therapeutics, as well as defines the terms and key components of interest in the resolution process within tissues as appreciated today. The inflammatory response protects the body against infection and injury but can itself become dysregulated with deleterious consequences to the host. It is now evident that endogenous biochemical pathways activated during defense reactions can counter-regulate inflammation and promote resolution. Hence, resolution is an active rather than a passive process, as once believed, which now promises novel approaches for the treatment of inflammation-associated diseases based on endogenous agonists of resolution. PMID:17267386

Evaluation of information technology impact on effective internal control in the University system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sanusi Fasilat, A.; Hassan, Haslinda

2015-12-01

Information Technology (IT) plays a key role in internal control system in various organizations in terms of maintaining records and other internal services. Internal control system is defined as an efficient control procedures set up by firm to safeguard resources and to assure the reliability and accuracy of both financial and non-financial records in line with applicable governance and procedure to acquire the established goal and objectives. This paper focuses on the impact of IT on internal control system in the Nigerian universities. Data are collected from three different universities via questionnaire. Descriptive statistics is used to analyze the data; Chi-square is performed to test the hypothesis. The results of the hypothesis showed that IT has a positive relationship with the effective internal control activities in the University system. It is concluded that the adoption of IT will significantly improve the effectiveness of the internal control system operations in the University in terms of quality service delivery.

ClueConnect: a word array game to promote student comprehension of key terminology in an introductory anatomy and physiology course.

PubMed

Burleson, Kathryn M; Olimpo, Jeffrey T

2016-06-01

The sheer amount of terminology and conceptual knowledge required for anatomy and physiology can be overwhelming for students. Educational games are one approach to reinforce such knowledge. In this activity, students worked collaboratively to review anatomy and physiology concepts by creating arrays of descriptive tiles to define a term. Once guessed, students located the structure or process within diagrams of the body. The game challenged students to think about course vocabulary in novel ways and to use their collective knowledge to get their classmates to guess the terms. Comparison of pretest/posttest/delayed posttest data revealed that students achieved statistically significant learning gains for each unit after playing the game, and a survey of student perceptions demonstrated that the game was helpful for learning vocabulary as well as fun to play. The game is easily adaptable for a variety of lower- and upper-division courses. Copyright © 2016 The American Physiological Society.

Mechanisms of motivation–cognition interaction: challenges and opportunities

PubMed Central

Krug, Marie K.; Chiew, Kimberly S.; Kool, Wouter; Westbrook, J. Andrew; Clement, Nathan J.; Adcock, R. Alison; Barch, Deanna M.; Botvinick, Matthew M.; Carver, Charles S.; Cools, Roshan; Custers, Ruud; Dickinson, Anthony; Dweck, Carol S.; Fishbach, Ayelet; Gollwitzer, Peter M.; Hess, Thomas M.; Isaacowitz, Derek M.; Mather, Mara; Murayama, Kou; Pessoa, Luiz; Samanez-Larkin, Gregory R.; Somerville, Leah H.

2016-01-01

Recent years have seen a rejuvenation of interest in studies of motivation–cognition interactions arising from many different areas of psychology and neuroscience. The present issue of Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience provides a sampling of some of the latest research from a number of these different areas. In this introductory article, we provide an overview of the current state of the field, in terms of key research developments and candidate neural mechanisms receiving focused investigation as potential sources of motivation–cognition interaction. However, our primary goal is conceptual: to highlight the distinct perspectives taken by different research areas, in terms of how motivation is defined, the relevant dimensions and dissociations that are emphasized, and the theoretical questions being targeted. Together, these distinctions present both challenges and opportunities for efforts aiming toward a more unified and cross-disciplinary approach. We identify a set of pressing research questions calling for this sort of cross-disciplinary approach, with the explicit goal of encouraging integrative and collaborative investigations directed toward them. PMID:24920442

Creating Clinical Fuzzy Automata with Fuzzy Arden Syntax.

PubMed

de Bruin, Jeroen S; Steltzer, Heinz; Rappelsberger, Andrea; Adlassnig, Klaus-Peter

2017-01-01

Formal constructs for fuzzy sets and fuzzy logic are incorporated into Arden Syntax version 2.9 (Fuzzy Arden Syntax). With fuzzy sets, the relationships between measured or observed data and linguistic terms are expressed as degrees of compatibility that model the unsharpness of the boundaries of linguistic terms. Propositional uncertainty due to incomplete knowledge of relationships between clinical linguistic concepts is modeled with fuzzy logic. Fuzzy Arden Syntax also supports the construction of fuzzy state monitors. The latter are defined as monitors that employ fuzzy automata to observe gradual transitions between different stages of disease. As a use case, we re-implemented FuzzyARDS, a previously published clinical monitoring system for patients suffering from acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Using the re-implementation as an example, we show how key concepts of fuzzy automata, i.e., fuzzy states and parallel fuzzy state transitions, can be implemented in Fuzzy Arden Syntax. The results showed that fuzzy state monitors can be implemented in a straightforward manner.

Many-body perturbation theory and non-perturbative approaches: screened interaction as the key ingredient

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tarantino, Walter; Mendoza, Bernardo S.; Romaniello, Pina; Berger, J. A.; Reining, Lucia

2018-04-01

Many-body perturbation theory is often formulated in terms of an expansion in the dressed instead of the bare Green’s function, and in the screened instead of the bare Coulomb interaction. However, screening can be calculated on different levels of approximation, and it is important to define what is the most appropriate choice. We explore this question by studying a zero-dimensional model (so called ‘one-point model’) that retains the structure of the full equations. We study both linear and non-linear response approximations to the screening. We find that an expansion in terms of the screening in the random phase approximation is the most promising way for an application in real systems. Moreover, by making use of the nonperturbative features of the Kadanoff-Baym equation for the one-body Green’s function, we obtain an approximate solution in our model that is very promising, although its applicability to real systems has still to be explored.

A new comprehension and communication tool: a valuable resource for internationally educated occupational therapists.

PubMed

Nguyen, Tram; Baptiste, Sue; Jung, Bonny; Wilkins, Seanne

2014-06-01

The need was identified for a way to assess internationally educated occupational therapists’ skills in understanding and communicating professional terminology used in occupational therapy practice. The project aim was to develop and validate such a resource. A scenario-based assessment was developed using a three-phase process for tool development. The development process involved completion of a literature scan of professional terminology used in occupational therapy practice; selection of terms and concepts commonly used in occupational therapy practice; and, creation of practice-based scenarios illustrating key concepts complete with rating rubrics. An advisory group provided oversight, and a sample of internationally educated occupational therapists completed pilot and validity testing. The initial findings showed the assessment to be easy to complete and sensitive to testing understanding of the defined terms. The final outcome is an assessment tool that has broad application for occupational therapists wishing to enter professional practice in a new country. © 2013 Occupational Therapy Australia.

Status of integrated multidisciplinary rotorcraft optimization research at the Langley Research Center

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mantay, Wayne R.; Adelman, Howard M.

1990-01-01

This paper describes a joint NASA/Army research activity at the Langley Research Center to develop optimization procedures aimed at improving the rotor blade design process by integrating appropriate disciplines and accounting for important interactions among the disciplines. The activity is being guided by a Steering Committee made up of key NASA and Army researchers and managers. The paper describes the optimization formulation in terms of the objective function, design variables, and constraints. The analysis aspects are discussed, and the interdisciplinary interactions are defined in terms of the information that must be transferred among disciplinary analyses as well as the trade-offs between disciplines in determining the details of the design. At this writing, some significant progress has been made. Results given in the paper represent accomplishments in rotor aerodynamic performance optimization for minimum horsepower, rotor dynamic optimization for vibration reduction, approximate analysis of frequencies and mode shapes, rotor structural optimization for minimum weight, and integrated aerodynamic load/dynamics optimization for minimum vibration and weight.

Research to practice in addiction treatment: key terms and a field-driven model of technology transfer.

PubMed

2011-09-01

The transfer of new technologies (e.g., evidence-based practices) into substance abuse treatment organizations often occurs long after they have been developed and shown to be effective. Transfer is slowed, in part, due to a lack of clear understanding about all that is needed to achieve full implementation of these technologies. Such misunderstanding is exacerbated by inconsistent terminology and overlapping models of an innovation, including its development and validation, dissemination to the public, and implementation or use in the field. For this reason, a workgroup of the Addiction Technology Transfer Center (ATTC) Network developed a field-driven conceptual model of the innovation process that more precisely defines relevant terms and concepts and integrates them into a comprehensive taxonomy. The proposed definitions and conceptual framework will allow for improved understanding and consensus regarding the distinct meaning and conceptual relationships between dimensions of the technology transfer process and accelerate the use of evidence-based practices. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Software Defined Radio Standard Architecture and its Application to NASA Space Missions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Andro, Monty; Reinhart, Richard C.

2006-01-01

A software defined radio (SDR) architecture used in space-based platforms proposes to standardize certain aspects of radio development such as interface definitions, functional control and execution, and application software and firmware development. NASA has charted a team to develop an open software defined radio hardware and software architecture to support NASA missions and determine the viability of an Agency-wide Standard. A draft concept of the proposed standard has been released and discussed among organizations in the SDR community. Appropriate leveraging of the JTRS SCA, OMG's SWRadio Architecture and other aspects are considered. A standard radio architecture offers potential value by employing common waveform software instantiation, operation, testing and software maintenance. While software defined radios offer greater flexibility, they also poses challenges to the radio development for the space environment in terms of size, mass and power consumption and available technology. An SDR architecture for space must recognize and address the constraints of space flight hardware, and systems along with flight heritage and culture. NASA is actively participating in the development of technology and standards related to software defined radios. As NASA considers a standard radio architecture for space communications, input and coordination from government agencies, the industry, academia, and standards bodies is key to a successful architecture. The unique aspects of space require thorough investigation of relevant terrestrial technologies properly adapted to space. The talk will describe NASA's current effort to investigate SDR applications to space missions and a brief overview of a candidate architecture under consideration for space based platforms.

Defining quality of care.

PubMed

Campbell, S M; Roland, M O; Buetow, S A

2000-12-01

This paper defines quality of health care. We suggest that there are two principal dimensions of quality of care for individual patients; access and effectiveness. In essence, do users get the care they need, and is the care effective when they get it? Within effectiveness, we define two key components--effectiveness of clinical care and effectiveness of inter-personal care. These elements are discussed in terms of the structure of the health care system, processes of care, and outcomes resulting from care. The framework relates quality of care to individual patients and we suggest that quality of care is a concept that is at its most meaningful when applied to the individual user of health care. However, care for individuals must placed in the context of providing health care for populations which introduces additional notions of equity and efficiency. We show how this framework can be of practical value by applying the concepts to a set of quality indicators contained within the UK National Performance Assessment Framework and to a set of widely used indicators in the US (HEDIS). In so doing we emphasise the differences between US and UK measures of quality. Using a conceptual framework to describe the totality of quality of care shows which aspects of care any set of quality indicators actually includes and measures and, and which are not included.

Using high-resolution phosphorus data to investigate mitigation measures in headwater river catchments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Campbell, J. M.; Jordan, P.; Arnscheidt, J.

2015-01-01

This study reports the use of high-resolution water quality monitoring to assess the influence of changes in land use management on total phosphorus (TP) transfers in two 5 km2 agricultural sub-catchments. Specifically, the work investigates the issue of agricultural soil P management and subsequent diffuse transfers at high river flows over a 5-year timescale. The work also investigates the phenomenon of low flow P pollution from septic tank systems (STSs) and mitigation efforts - a key concern for catchment management. Results showed an inconsistent response to soil P management over 5 years with one catchment showing a convergence to optimum P concentrations and the other an overall increase. Both catchments indicated an overall increase in P concentration in defined high flow ranges. Low flow P concentration showed little change or higher P concentrations in defined low flow ranges despite replacement of defective systems and this is possibly due to a number of confounding reasons including increased housing densities due to new-builds. The work indicates fractured responses to catchment management advice and mitigation and that the short to medium term may be an insufficient time to expect the full implementation of policies (here defined as convergence to optimum soil P concentration and mitigation of STSs) and also to gauge their effectiveness.

Identifying nontechnical skills associated with safety in the emergency department: a scoping review of the literature.

PubMed

Flowerdew, Lynsey; Brown, Ruth; Vincent, Charles; Woloshynowych, Maria

2012-05-01

Understanding the nontechnical skills specifically applicable to the emergency department (ED) is essential to facilitate training and more broadly consider interventions to reduce error. The aim of this scoping review is to first identify and then explore in depth the nontechnical skills linked to safety in the ED. The review was conducted in 2 stages. In stage 1, online databases were searched for published empirical studies linking nontechnical skills to safety and performance in the ED. Articles were analyzed to identify key ED nontechnical skills. In stage 2, these key skills were used to generate additional key words, which enabled a second search of the literature to be undertaken and expand on the evidence available for review. In stage 1, 11 articles were retrieved for data analysis and 9 core emergency medicine nontechnical skills were identified. These were communicating, managing workload, anticipating, situational awareness, supervising and providing feedback, leadership, maintaining standards, using assertiveness, and decisionmaking. In stage 2, a secondary search, using these 9 skills and related terms, uncovered a further 21 relevant articles. Therefore, 32 articles were used to describe the main nontechnical skills linked to safety in the ED. This article highlights the challenges of reviewing a topic for which the terms are not clearly defined in the literature. A novel methodological approach is described that provides a structured and transparent process for reviewing the literature in emerging areas of interest. A series of literature reviews focusing on individual nontechnical skills will provide a clearer understanding of how the skills identified contribute to safety in the ED. Copyright © 2011 American College of Emergency Physicians. Published by Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.

The sociogeometry of inequality: Part I

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Eliazar, Iddo

2015-05-01

The study of socioeconomic inequality is of prime economic and social importance, and the key quantitative gauges of socioeconomic inequality are Lorenz curves and inequality indices-the most notable of the latter being the popular Gini index. In this series of papers we present a sociogeometric framework to the study of socioeconomic inequality. In this part we shift from the notion of Lorenz curves to the notion of Lorenz sets, define inequality indices in terms of Lorenz sets, and introduce and explore a collection of distance-based and width-based inequality indices stemming from the geometry of Lorenz sets. In particular, three principle diameters of Lorenz sets are established as meaningful quantitative gauges of socioeconomic inequality-thus indeed providing a geometric quantification of socioeconomic inequality.

Physical examination of the hemodialysis arteriovenous fistula to detect early dysfunction.

PubMed

Abreo, Kenneth; Amin, Bakhtiar M; Abreo, Adrian P

2018-04-01

The maintenance of vascular access patency for end-stage renal disease patients on hemodialysis is necessary for survival. Many nephrologists, nurse practitioners, and nurses have limited experience with the physical examination of the arteriovenous fistula. In this review, we define key terms used in the assessment of an arteriovenous fistula. We discuss the arteriovenous fistula physical exam, including details of inspection, palpation, and auscultation. Using these concepts, we review the abnormal findings that can assist practitioners in determining the location of a stenosis. We review the existing literature that validates physical exam findings with gold standard tests such as ultrasound and angiography. Finally, we review data supporting the value of training physicians and nurses in arteriovenous fistula physical examination.

Learning the Language of Copernicus.

PubMed

Lubowitz, James H; Provencher, Matthew T; Brand, Jefferson C; Rossi, Michael J

2015-08-01

The Copernicus Initiative was a bold and important undertaking by the Arthroscopy Association of North America to help further our learning the art of arthroscopy in a controlled setting. Understanding arthroscopic learning, training, and simulation research requires mastery of a lexicon of new terms, which AANA Copernicus researchers define in a glossary. Learning requires practice to develop proficiency. Developing new ability is a rewarding challenge. Metrics may be used to quantitatively measure objective performance, and is a key component of the Copernicus Initiative. A dedicated group of AANA researchers and educators have taken on an important and challenging task to help us improve in the realm of surgical education. Copyright © 2015 Arthroscopy Association of North America. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Involving vendors in continuous quality improvement efforts.

PubMed

McDevitt, M C

1995-03-01

In the hospital environment, vendors supply a wide range of items, from surgical sutures to the latest in high-cost technological equipment. Also, many clinical and support services, such as respiratory therapy, transcription, and computer databanks are now outsourced to commercial vendors. Interaction with such vendors is often less than satisfactory, with prolonged timelines and disruption of an important process that is being computerized. Although hospitals deal with very few vendors in long-term relationships, such as those seen in manufacturing, this should not preclude the formation of a supplier-customer relationship that goes beyond management's interaction with the sales representative in response to a request for proposal. This is especially true when a process improvement team has studied an internal process and defined a key quality characteristic.

Preparing for Human Exploration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Drake, Bret G.; Joosten, B. Kent

1998-01-01

NASA's Human Exploration and Development of Space (HEDS) Enterprise is defining architectures and requirements for human exploration that radically reduce the costs of such missions through the use of advanced technologies, commercial partnerships and innovative systems strategies. In addition, the HEDS Enterprise is collaborating with the Space Science Enterprise to acquire needed early knowledge about Mars and to demonstrate critical technologies via robotic missions. This paper provides an overview of the technological challenges facing NASA as it prepares for human exploration. Emphasis is placed on identifying the key technologies including those which will provide the most return in terms of reducing total mission cost and/or reducing potential risk to the mission crew. Top-level requirements are provided for those critical enabling technology options currently under consideration.

Functional Rarity: The Ecology of Outliers.

PubMed

Violle, Cyrille; Thuiller, Wilfried; Mouquet, Nicolas; Munoz, François; Kraft, Nathan J B; Cadotte, Marc W; Livingstone, Stuart W; Mouillot, David

2017-05-01

Rarity has been a central topic for conservation and evolutionary biologists aiming to determine the species characteristics that cause extinction risk. More recently, beyond the rarity of species, the rarity of functions or functional traits, called functional rarity, has gained momentum in helping to understand the impact of biodiversity decline on ecosystem functioning. However, a conceptual framework for defining and quantifying functional rarity is still lacking. We introduce 12 different forms of functional rarity along gradients of species scarcity and trait distinctiveness. We then highlight the potential key role of functional rarity in the long-term and large-scale maintenance of ecosystem processes, as well as the necessary linkage between functional and evolutionary rarity. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Multipartite Gaussian steering: Monogamy constraints and quantum cryptography applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xiang, Yu; Kogias, Ioannis; Adesso, Gerardo; He, Qiongyi

2017-01-01

We derive laws for the distribution of quantum steering among different parties in multipartite Gaussian states under Gaussian measurements. We prove that a monogamy relation akin to the generalized Coffman-Kundu-Wootters inequality holds quantitatively for a recently introduced measure of Gaussian steering. We then define the residual Gaussian steering, stemming from the monogamy inequality, as an indicator of collective steering-type correlations. For pure three-mode Gaussian states, the residual acts as a quantifier of genuine multipartite steering, and is interpreted operationally in terms of the guaranteed key rate in the task of secure quantum secret sharing. Optimal resource states for the latter protocol are identified, and their possible experimental implementation discussed. Our results pin down the role of multipartite steering for quantum communication.

7 CFR 29.12 - Terms defined.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... INSPECTION Regulations Definitions § 29.12 Terms defined. As used in this subpart and in all instructions... indicated meanings so assigned unless the context or subject matter otherwise requires. ...

7 CFR 29.12 - Terms defined.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... INSPECTION Regulations Definitions § 29.12 Terms defined. As used in this subpart and in all instructions... indicated meanings so assigned unless the context or subject matter otherwise requires. ...

7 CFR 29.12 - Terms defined.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... INSPECTION Regulations Definitions § 29.12 Terms defined. As used in this subpart and in all instructions... indicated meanings so assigned unless the context or subject matter otherwise requires. ...

7 CFR 29.12 - Terms defined.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... INSPECTION Regulations Definitions § 29.12 Terms defined. As used in this subpart and in all instructions... indicated meanings so assigned unless the context or subject matter otherwise requires. ...

7 CFR 29.12 - Terms defined.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... INSPECTION Regulations Definitions § 29.12 Terms defined. As used in this subpart and in all instructions... indicated meanings so assigned unless the context or subject matter otherwise requires. ...

Conceptualizing Autism: The Role for Emergence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anderson, George M.

2009-01-01

The establishment of a criterion for operationally defining emergent phenomena in autism is needed. Key initial questions for autism researchers include how to define emergent phenomena in order to better diagnosis the condition.

49 CFR 579.4 - Terminology.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

..., motor vehicle equipment, and State are used as defined in 49 U.S.C. 30102. (b) Regulatory terms. The term Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) is used as defined in § 565.3(o) of this chapter. The terms bus, Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (GVWR), motorcycle, multipurpose passenger vehicle, passenger car...

Paper recycling framework, the "Wheel of Fiber".

PubMed

Ervasti, Ilpo; Miranda, Ruben; Kauranen, Ilkka

2016-06-01

At present, there is no reliable method in use that unequivocally describes paper industry material flows and makes it possible to compare geographical regions with each other. A functioning paper industry Material Flow Account (MFA) that uses uniform terminology and standard definitions for terms and structures is necessary. Many of the presently used general level MFAs, which are called frameworks in this article, stress the importance of input and output flows but do not provide a uniform picture of material recycling. Paper industry is an example of a field in which recycling plays a key role. Additionally, terms related to paper industry recycling, such as collection rate, recycling rate, and utilization rate, are not defined uniformly across regions and time. Thus, reliably comparing material recycling activity between geographical regions or calculating any regional summaries is difficult or even impossible. The objective of this study is to give a partial solution to the problem of not having a reliable method in use that unequivocally describes paper industry material flows. This is done by introducing a new material flow framework for paper industry in which the flow and stage structure supports the use of uniform definitions for terms related to paper recycling. This new framework is termed the Detailed Wheel of Fiber. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Soil Organic Matter in Its Native State: Unravelling the Most Complex Biomaterial on Earth.

PubMed

Masoom, Hussain; Courtier-Murias, Denis; Farooq, Hashim; Soong, Ronald; Kelleher, Brian P; Zhang, Chao; Maas, Werner E; Fey, Michael; Kumar, Rajeev; Monette, Martine; Stronks, Henry J; Simpson, Myrna J; Simpson, André J

2016-02-16

Since the isolation of soil organic matter in 1786, tens of thousands of publications have searched for its structure. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy has played a critical role in defining soil organic matter but traditional approaches remove key information such as the distribution of components at the soil-water interface and conformational information. Here a novel form of NMR with capabilities to study all physical phases termed Comprehensive Multiphase NMR, is applied to analyze soil in its natural swollen-state. The key structural components in soil organic matter are identified to be largely composed of macromolecular inputs from degrading biomass. Polar lipid heads and carbohydrates dominate the soil-water interface while lignin and microbes are arranged in a more hydrophobic interior. Lignin domains cannot be penetrated by aqueous solvents even at extreme pH indicating they are the most hydrophobic environment in soil and are ideal for sequestering hydrophobic contaminants. Here, for the first time, a complete range of physical states of a whole soil can be studied. This provides a more detailed understanding of soil organic matter at the molecular level itself key to develop the most efficient soil remediation and agricultural techniques, and better predict carbon sequestration and climate change.

Adaptive Quadrature Detection for Multicarrier Continuous-Variable Quantum Key Distribution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gyongyosi, Laszlo; Imre, Sandor

2015-03-01

We propose the adaptive quadrature detection for multicarrier continuous-variable quantum key distribution (CVQKD). A multicarrier CVQKD scheme uses Gaussian subcarrier continuous variables for the information conveying and Gaussian sub-channels for the transmission. The proposed multicarrier detection scheme dynamically adapts to the sub-channel conditions using a corresponding statistics which is provided by our sophisticated sub-channel estimation procedure. The sub-channel estimation phase determines the transmittance coefficients of the sub-channels, which information are used further in the adaptive quadrature decoding process. We define the technique called subcarrier spreading to estimate the transmittance conditions of the sub-channels with a theoretical error-minimum in the presence of a Gaussian noise. We introduce the terms of single and collective adaptive quadrature detection. We also extend the results for a multiuser multicarrier CVQKD scenario. We prove the achievable error probabilities, the signal-to-noise ratios, and quantify the attributes of the framework. The adaptive detection scheme allows to utilize the extra resources of multicarrier CVQKD and to maximize the amount of transmittable information. This work was partially supported by the GOP-1.1.1-11-2012-0092 (Secure quantum key distribution between two units on optical fiber network) project sponsored by the EU and European Structural Fund, and by the COST Action MP1006.

Advances in Cryptology - EUROCRYPT’ 97

DTIC Science & Technology

1998-05-03

public keys is about T/102. For example, one can choose T ~ 227.67 and M ~ 2 35.65. To obtain the secret session key from the determined internal state...scenario, where the objective is to reconstruct the secret key controlled LFSR initial states from the known keystream sequence, for a survey see... the secret message keys defining different initial internal states. This may open new possibilities for the secret key recovery cryptanalytic attacks

[Indicators monitoring the process of specialized nutritional support. Grupo de Nutrición de la SEFH].

PubMed

Sirvent, Mariola; Victoria Calvo, María; Sagalés, María; Rodríguez-Penin, Isaura; Cervera, Mercedes; Piñeiro, Guadalupe; García-Rodicio, Sonsoles; Gomis, Pilar; Caba, Isabel; Vazquez, Amparo; Gomez, María E; Pedraza, Luis

2013-01-01

To identify and develop monitoring indicators of the process of specialized nutritional support that will allow measuring the level of adherence to the established practice standards. Those practice standards considered to be key elements of the process were selected to develop performance indicators. The construction of these indicators combined the scientific evidence with expert opinion. Key goals were identified within each standard provided that its consecution would allow increasing the achievement of the standard. Particular improvement initiatives associated to each key goal were generated. Lastly, monitoring indicators were defined allowing undertaking a follow-up of the implementation of the improvement initiatives or either to assess the level of achievement of the key goals identified. Nineteen practice standards were selected representative of the critical points of the process. The strategic map for each standard has been defined, with the identification of 43 key goals. In order to achieve these key goals, a portfolio of improvements has been generated comprising 56 actions. Finally, 44 monitoring indicators have been defined grouped into three categories: 1. Numeric: they assess the level of goal achievement; 2. Dichotomic (yes/no): they inform on the execution of the improvement actions; 3. Results of the practice audits. We have made available monitoring indicators that allow assessing the level of adherence to the practice standards of the process of specialized nutritional support and the impact of the implementation of improvement actions within this process. Copyright © 2013 SEFH. Published by AULA MEDICA. All rights reserved.

16 CFR 1611.31 - Terms defined.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... FLAMMABILITY OF VINYL PLASTIC FILM Rules and Regulations § 1611.31 Terms defined. As used in this part, unless... material subject to the act, except film and fabrics having a nitro-cellulose fiber, finish, or coating... pile, nap, or tufting. (i) The term film means any nonrigid, unsupported plastic, rubber or other...

16 CFR 1611.31 - Terms defined.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... FLAMMABILITY OF VINYL PLASTIC FILM Rules and Regulations § 1611.31 Terms defined. As used in this part, unless... material subject to the act, except film and fabrics having a nitro-cellulose fiber, finish, or coating... pile, nap, or tufting. (i) The term film means any nonrigid, unsupported plastic, rubber or other...

16 CFR 1611.31 - Terms defined.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... FLAMMABILITY OF VINYL PLASTIC FILM Rules and Regulations § 1611.31 Terms defined. As used in this part, unless... material subject to the act, except film and fabrics having a nitro-cellulose fiber, finish, or coating... pile, nap, or tufting. (i) The term film means any nonrigid, unsupported plastic, rubber or other...

The Centre for Early Human Behaviour (EHB) at the University of Bergen: A transdisciplinary exploration into the evolution of homo sapiens behaviour

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sobolowski, Stefan; Henshilwood, Christopher; Jansen, Eystein

2017-04-01

Homo sapiens was anatomically modern by 200 000 years ago in Africa, but there is no archaeological evidence to demonstrate that behaviour was modern at the time. Attributes of modern behaviour, perhaps inspired by changes in the human brain, are only recognizable after 100 000 years ago. Before we can study the process, we must critically define the criteria for the term 'modern behaviour' and then find a means to recognize such behavior in the record. This seemingly simple research statement involves complex exploration by a team of specialists. In this highly competitive research field our centre will, for the first time, be able to rise to the challenge by combining the skills of cutting-edge scientists in archaeology, climate reconstruction and modelling, and the cognitive and social sciences. Over the next decade we will integrate knowledge and methods from different disciplines to synthesize approaches and contribute to a sophisticated understanding of early human behaviour. Our highly ambitious research program will focus explicitly on rare, well preserved archaeological sites occupied in the period between 100-50 000 years ago because these contain the 'keys' for unlocking the past. A major competitive edge is the EHB Director's 25 years of archaeological experience and his long-term exclusive access, with permits, to a number of the best-preserved sites in the southern Cape, South Africa - a region regarded as a major locus for vital evidence that could inform on the behaviour of early humans. Our planned excavations at existing and new sites and our ground-breaking and innovative interdisciplinary approaches, including climate (The Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research) and cognitive research, to understanding the processes that shaped human cultures. Primarily, EHB will directly address unanswered, first order questions about Homo sapiens: a) what defines the switch to 'modern behaviour', exactly how should this term be defined and then, when, why and how did the 'switch' occur; b) were there changes in the human brain at that time that accelerated behavioural variability and how can these be measured now? Secondary linked tasks address the social organization of these early humans: was social cohesion enhanced by symbolic material culture or vice-versa and did it lead to innovation; what cognitive skills had to be in place in order for other skills to develop; how adaptable were humans to environmental change and did climate act as a driver for technological innovation, social change and subsistence adaptations? This presentation will introduce the recently awarded center, its key objectives and ambitions, and serve as an open invitation to collaboration and intellectual engagement on this exciting topic.

Detecting unexpected variables in the MMPI 2 Social Introversion scale.

PubMed

Chang, C H; Wright, B D

2001-01-01

The standard scoring structure of the revised Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2) Social Introversion (Si) scale was reexamined with Rasch Measurement. The 69-item Si scale split into two distinct dimensions when their standardized residuals were factor analyzed. Items keyed "true" to Si defined one dimension and items keyed "false" defined another. Relationships between Lexile values (an index of reading difficulty and comprehension) and item difficulties were also explored. The article shows how to use Rasch Measurement to understand and improve personality assessment.

An initiative in multidisciplinary optimization of rotorcraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Adelman, Howard M.; Mantay, Wayne R.

1989-01-01

Described is a joint NASA/Army initiative at the Langley Research Center to develop optimization procedures aimed at improving the rotor blade design process by integrating appropriate disciplines and accounting for important interactions among the disciplines. The activity is being guided by a Steering Committee made up of key NASA and Army researchers and managers. The committee, which has been named IRASC (Integrated Rotorcraft Analysis Steering Committee), has defined two principal foci for the activity: a white paper which sets forth the goals and plans of the effort; and a rotor design project which will validate the basic constituents, as well as the overall design methodology for multidisciplinary optimization. The optimization formulation is described in terms of the objective function, design variables, and constraints. Additionally, some of the analysis aspects are discussed and an initial attempt at defining the interdisciplinary couplings is summarized. At this writing, some significant progress has been made, principally in the areas of single discipline optimization. Results are given which represent accomplishments in rotor aerodynamic performance optimization for minimum hover horsepower, rotor dynamic optimization for vibration reduction, and rotor structural optimization for minimum weight.

An initiative in multidisciplinary optimization of rotorcraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Adelman, Howard M.; Mantay, Wayne R.

1988-01-01

Described is a joint NASA/Army initiative at the Langley Research Center to develop optimization procedures aimed at improving the rotor blade design process by integrating appropriate disciplines and accounting for important interactions among the disciplines. The activity is being guided by a Steering Committee made up of key NASA and Army researchers and managers. The committee, which has been named IRASC (Integrated Rotorcraft Analysis Steering Committee), has defined two principal foci for the activity: a white paper which sets forth the goals and plans of the effort; and a rotor design project which will validate the basic constituents, as well as the overall design methodology for multidisciplinary optimization. The paper describes the optimization formulation in terms of the objective function, design variables, and constraints. Additionally, some of the analysis aspects are discussed and an initial attempt at defining the interdisciplinary couplings is summarized. At this writing, some significant progress has been made, principally in the areas of single discipline optimization. Results are given which represent accomplishments in rotor aerodynamic performance optimization for minimum hover horsepower, rotor dynamic optimization for vibration reduction, and rotor structural optimization for minimum weight.

E-learning: Web-based education.

PubMed

Sajeva, Marco

2006-12-01

This review introduces state-of-the-art Web-based education and shows how the e-learning model can be applied to an anaesthesia department using Open Source solutions, as well as lifelong learning programs, which is happening in several European research projects. The definition of the term e-learning is still a work in progress due to the fact that technologies are evolving every day and it is difficult to improve teaching methodologies or to adapt traditional methods to a new or already existing educational model. The European Community is funding several research projects to define the new common market place for tomorrow's educational system; this is leading to new frontiers like virtual Erasmus inter-exchange programs based on e-learning. The first step when adapting a course to e-learning is to re-define the educational/learning model adopted: cooperative learning and tutoring are the two key concepts. This means that traditional lecture notes, books and exercises are no longer effective; teaching files must use rich multimedia content and have to be developed using the new media. This can lead to several pitfalls that can be avoided with an accurate design phase.

Neuropathology and Animal Models of Autism: Genetic and Environmental Factors

PubMed Central

Gadad, Bharathi S.; Young, Keith A.; German, Dwight C.

2013-01-01

Autism is a heterogeneous behaviorally defined neurodevelopmental disorder. It is defined by the presence of marked social deficits, specific language abnormalities, and stereotyped repetitive patterns of behavior. Because of the variability in the behavioral phenotype of the disorder among patients, the term autism spectrum disorder has been established. In the first part of this review, we provide an overview of neuropathological findings from studies of autism postmortem brains and identify the cerebellum as one of the key brain regions that can play a role in the autism phenotype. We review research findings that indicate possible links between the environment and autism including the role of mercury and immune-related factors. Because both genes and environment can alter the structure of the developing brain in different ways, it is not surprising that there is heterogeneity in the behavioral and neuropathological phenotypes of autism spectrum disorders. Finally, we describe animal models of autism that occur following insertion of different autism-related genes and exposure to environmental factors, highlighting those models which exhibit both autism-like behavior and neuropathology. PMID:24151553

Development of Endoscopic Diagnosis and Treatment for Chronic Unilateral Hematuria: 35 Years Experience.

PubMed

Tanimoto, Ryuta; Kumon, Hiromi; Bagley, Demetrius H

2017-04-01

Chronic unilateral hematuria (CUH) is also called lateralizing essential hematuria, benign essential hematuria, and benign lateralizing hematuria, which was defined as intermittent or continuous gross hematuria that cannot be diagnosed with standard radiology and hematology studies, together with unilateral bloody efflux by cystoscopy. CUH is rare, but sometimes confused with malignancy or life-threatening hemorrhage. Therefore, it can cause considerable anxiety to not only patients but also urologists. For this study, we summarized articles about endoscopic diagnosis and treatment of CUH, and discussed the development of endourology for CUH. We searched articles related to CUH that were indexed in the PubMed database and published in English. Key terms used were "unilateral," "lateralizing," "chronic," "benign," and "idiopathic" hematuria. We found 15 pertinent articles reporting CUH. Endoscopically, CUH can be classified into three categories: discrete lesion, diffuse lesion, or no (unidentified) lesion. Currently, endoscopic techniques for CUH are similar to the techniques for upper tract urothelial carcinoma, using semi-rigid and flexible ureteroscopes with diathermy fulguration or laser ablation for treatment. The overall success rate of endoscopic treatment for CUH, defined as resolution of gross hematuria after treatment, was 93% (190/205). The recurrence rate, defined as recurrent gross hematuria after treatment, was 10% (19/189). Advancements in endoscopic devices and techniques have enabled more accurate and less invasive diagnosis and treatment of CUH. Once CUH is defined, flexible ureteroscopy is the diagnostic and therapeutic technique of choice.

Feeling safe during an inpatient hospitalization: a concept analysis.

PubMed

Mollon, Deene

2014-08-01

This paper aims to explore the critical attributes of the concept feeling safe. The safe delivery of care is a high priority; however; it is not really known what it means to the patient to 'feel safe' during an inpatient hospitalization. This analysis explores the topic of safety from the patient's perspective. Concept analysis. The data bases of CINAHL, Medline, PsychInfo and Google Scholar for the years 1995-2012 were searched using the terms safe and feeling safe. The eight-step concept analysis method of Walker and Avant was used to analyse the concept of feeling safe. Uses and defining attributes, as well as identified antecedents, consequences and empirical referents, are presented. Case examples are provided to assist in the understanding of defining attributes. Feeling safe is defined as an emotional state where perceptions of care contribute to a sense of security and freedom from harm. Four attributes were identified: trust, cared for, presence and knowledge. Relationship, environment and suffering are the antecedents of feeling safe, while control, hope and relaxed or calm are the consequences. Empirical referents and early development of a theory of feeling safe are explored. This analysis begins the work of synthesizing qualitative research already completed around the concept of feeling safe by defining the key attributes of the concept. Support for the importance of developing patient-centred models of care and creating positive environments where patients receive high-quality care and feel safe is provided. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Space Telecommunications Radio Architecture (STRS)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Reinhart, Richard C.

2006-01-01

A software defined radio (SDR) architecture used in space-based platforms proposes to standardize certain aspects of radio development such as interface definitions, functional control and execution, and application software and firmware development. NASA has charted a team to develop an open software defined radio hardware and software architecture to support NASA missions and determine the viability of an Agency-wide Standard. A draft concept of the proposed standard has been released and discussed among organizations in the SDR community. Appropriate leveraging of the JTRS SCA, OMG's SWRadio Architecture and other aspects are considered. A standard radio architecture offers potential value by employing common waveform software instantiation, operation, testing and software maintenance. While software defined radios offer greater flexibility, they also poses challenges to the radio development for the space environment in terms of size, mass and power consumption and available technology. An SDR architecture for space must recognize and address the constraints of space flight hardware, and systems along with flight heritage and culture. NASA is actively participating in the development of technology and standards related to software defined radios. As NASA considers a standard radio architecture for space communications, input and coordination from government agencies, the industry, academia, and standards bodies is key to a successful architecture. The unique aspects of space require thorough investigation of relevant terrestrial technologies properly adapted to space. The talk will describe NASA s current effort to investigate SDR applications to space missions and a brief overview of a candidate architecture under consideration for space based platforms.

Space Telecommunications Radio Architecture (STRS): Technical Overview

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Reinhart, Richard C.

2006-01-01

A software defined radio (SDR) architecture used in space-based platforms proposes to standardize certain aspects of radio development such as interface definitions, functional control and execution, and application software and firmware development. NASA has charted a team to develop an open software defined radio hardware and software architecture to support NASA missions and determine the viability of an Agency-wide Standard. A draft concept of the proposed standard has been released and discussed among organizations in the SDR community. Appropriate leveraging of the JTRS SCA, OMG s SWRadio Architecture and other aspects are considered. A standard radio architecture offers potential value by employing common waveform software instantiation, operation, testing and software maintenance. While software defined radios offer greater flexibility, they also poses challenges to the radio development for the space environment in terms of size, mass and power consumption and available technology. An SDR architecture for space must recognize and address the constraints of space flight hardware, and systems along with flight heritage and culture. NASA is actively participating in the development of technology and standards related to software defined radios. As NASA considers a standard radio architecture for space communications, input and coordination from government agencies, the industry, academia, and standards bodies is key to a successful architecture. The unique aspects of space require thorough investigation of relevant terrestrial technologies properly adapted to space. The talk will describe NASA's current effort to investigate SDR applications to space missions and a brief overview of a candidate architecture under consideration for space based platforms.

NASA's SDR Standard: Space Telecommunications Radio System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Reinhart, Richard C.; Johnson, Sandra K.

2007-01-01

A software defined radio (SDR) architecture used in space-based platforms proposes to standardize certain aspects of radio development such as interface definitions, functional control and execution, and application software and firmware development. NASA has charted a team to develop an open software defined radio hardware and software architecture to support NASA missions and determine the viability of an Agency-wide Standard. A draft concept of the proposed standard has been released and discussed among organizations in the SDR community. Appropriate leveraging of the JTRS SCA, OMG s SWRadio Architecture and other aspects are considered. A standard radio architecture offers potential value by employing common waveform software instantiation, operation, testing and software maintenance. While software defined radios offer greater flexibility, they also poses challenges to the radio development for the space environment in terms of size, mass and power consumption and available technology. An SDR architecture for space must recognize and address the constraints of space flight hardware, and systems along with flight heritage and culture. NASA is actively participating in the development of technology and standards related to software defined radios. As NASA considers a standard radio architecture for space communications, input and coordination from government agencies, the industry, academia, and standards bodies is key to a successful architecture. The unique aspects of space require thorough investigation of relevant terrestrial technologies properly adapted to space. The talk will describe NASA s current effort to investigate SDR applications to space missions and a brief overview of a candidate architecture under consideration for space based platforms.

Long-term behavior understanding based on the expert-based combination of short-term observations in high-resolution CCTV

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schutte, Klamer; Burghouts, Gertjan; van der Stap, Nanda; Westerwoudt, Victor; Bouma, Henri; Kruithof, Maarten; Baan, Jan; ten Hove, Johan-Martijn

2016-10-01

The bottleneck in situation awareness is no longer in the sensing domain but rather in the data interpretation domain, since the number of sensors is rapidly increasing and it is not affordable to increase human data-analysis capacity at the same rate. Automatic image analysis can assist a human analyst by alerting when an event of interest occurs. However, common state-of-the-art image recognition systems learn representations in high-dimensional feature spaces, which makes them less suitable to generate a user-comprehensive message. Such data-driven approaches rely on large amounts of training data, which is often not available for quite rare but high-impact incidents in the security domain. The key contribution of this paper is that we present a novel real-time system for image understanding based on generic instantaneous low-level processing components (symbols) and flexible user-definable and user-understandable combinations of these components (sentences) at a higher level for the recognition of specific relevant events in the security domain. We show that the detection of an event of interest can be enhanced by utilizing recognition of multiple short-term preparatory actions.

Epidemicity thresholds for water-borne and water-related diseases.

PubMed

Mari, Lorenzo; Casagrandi, Renato; Rinaldo, Andrea; Gatto, Marino

2018-06-14

Determining the conditions that favor pathogen establishment in a host community is key to disease control and eradication. However, focusing on long-term dynamics alone may lead to an underestimation of the threats imposed by outbreaks triggered by short-term transient phenomena. Achieving an effective epidemiological response thus requires to look at different timescales, each of which may be endowed with specific management objectives. In this work we aim to determine epidemicity thresholds for some prototypical examples of water-borne and water-related diseases, a diverse family of infections transmitted either directly through water infested with pathogens or by vectors whose lifecycles are closely associated with water. From a technical perspective, while conditions for endemicity are determined via stability analysis, epidemicity thresholds are defined through generalized reactivity analysis, a recently proposed method that allows the study of the short-term instability properties of ecological systems. Understanding the drivers of water-borne and water-related disease dynamics over timescales that may be relevant to epidemic and/or endemic transmission is a challenge of the utmost importance, as large portions of the developing world are still struggling with the burden imposed by these infections. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A concept analysis of forensic risk.

PubMed

Kettles, A M

2004-08-01

Forensic risk is a term used in relation to many forms of clinical practice, such as assessment, intervention and management. Rarely is the term defined in the literature and as a concept it is multifaceted. Concept analysis is a method for exploring and evaluating the meaning of words. It gives precise definitions, both theoretical and operational, for use in theory, clinical practice and research. A concept analysis provides a logical basis for defining terms through providing defining attributes, case examples (model, contrary, borderline, related), antecedents and consequences and the implications for nursing. Concept analysis helps us to refine and define a concept that derives from practice, research or theory. This paper will use the strategy of concept analysis to find a working definition for the concept of forensic risk. In conclusion, the historical background and literature are reviewed using concept analysis to bring the term into focus and to define it more clearly. Forensic risk is found to derive both from forensic practice and from risk theory. A proposed definition of forensic risk is given.

Evidence for Intensive Aphasia Therapy: Consideration of Theories From Neuroscience and Cognitive Psychology.

PubMed

Dignam, Jade K; Rodriguez, Amy D; Copland, David A

2016-03-01

Treatment intensity is a critical component to the delivery of speech-language pathology and rehabilitation services. Within aphasia rehabilitation, however, insufficient evidence currently exists to guide clinical decision making with respect to the optimal treatment intensity. This review considers perspectives from 2 key bodies of research, the neuroscience and cognitive psychology literature, with respect to the scheduling of aphasia rehabilitation services. Neuroscience research suggests that intensive training is a key element of rehabilitation and is necessary to achieve functional and neurologic changes after a stroke occurs. In contrast, the cognitive psychology literature suggests that optimal long-term learning is achieved when training is provided in a distributed or nonintensive schedule. These perspectives are evaluated and discussed with respect to the current evidence for treatment intensity in aphasia rehabilitation. In addition, directions for future research are identified, including study design, methods of defining and measuring treatment intensity, and selection of outcome measures in aphasia rehabilitation. Copyright © 2016 American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Vigilance. Evolution and definition for caregivers of family members with Alzheimer's disease.

PubMed

Mahoney, Diane Feeney

2003-08-01

The language of caregiving relies heavily on terms that are frequently negative such as caregiver stress and burden, but these are not universally accepted phenomenon. The purpose of this article is to report on the development of caregiver vigilance and to suggest it offers both neutral terminology and a means to include caregivers' perceptions of their supervisory role. The concept of vigilance emerged from a qualitative study of caregivers of family members with Alzheimer's disease. Vigilance is defined as the caregivers' continual oversight of their care recipients' activities. The five key components of vigilance were watchful supervision, protective intervening, anticipating, always on duty, and being there. Vigilant caregivers saw themselves as "on duty" even when they were not "doing things." The findings of this study support caregivers' perceptions of 24-hour-a-day responsibility. Nurses need to realize that caregiver vigilance is not necessarily diminished when professional caregivers intervene or institutionalization occurs. Debriefing caregivers about their unique family caregiving knowledge and incorporating it into caregiving is a key strategy for nurses to use to build caregiver trust and reduce their vigilance time.

17 CFR 1.3 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... from, for, or on behalf of foreign futures or foreign options customers as defined in § 30.1 of this.... This term means a customer that is an eligible contract participant, as defined in section 1a(12) of... customer shall be a customer as defined in § 1.3(k). (vv) Futures account. This term means an account that...

Characteristics of Teacher-Identified Students with Special Educational Needs in Dutch Mainstream Primary Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bruggink, M.; Goei, S. L.; Koot, H. M.

2013-01-01

Background: Traditionally, special educational needs (SEN) were often defined in terms of child deficits. Recently, there has been a tendency to define SEN in terms of (additional) support needed in the classroom. However, little is known about how teachers define students with special educational needs. To close this gap, characteristics of…

Another Strategy for Teaching Histology to A&P Students: Classification versus Memorization.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bavis, Ryan W.; Seveyka, Jerred; Shigeoka, Cassie A.

2000-01-01

Defines dichotomous keys as common learning tools based on identification rather than memorization. Provides an example of a dichotomous key developed for introducing histology in human anatomy and physiology (A&P) courses and explains how students can use the dichotomous key. Discusses the goals of the exercises and the process of…

Re-defining the characteristics of environmental volunteering: Creating a typology of community-scale green infrastructure.

PubMed

Jerome, Gemma; Mell, Ian; Shaw, Dave

2017-10-01

One way to engage people with green infrastructure (GI) is as environmental volunteers. Previous studies explored the nature of such groups/projects in terms of the benefits they deliver such as their impact on levels of social capital within a pre-defined community. However, existing literature contributes little to our understanding of the composition, characteristics and mechanisms used to form and maintain these groups. As such, it is difficult to establish the influencing factors determining the capacity of a group to sustain its provision over time. This paper serves to offer a more nuanced understanding of local-scale environmental stewardship by outlining the diversity of volunteer-led GI activities observed at the community-scale. Evidence presented from a desk-based examination of observable activity within The Mersey area Forest in North-West England represents a re-conceptualisation of existing definitions of Community-Scale GI (CSGI). Using thematic criteria, the paper clusters characteristics into key classification affecting group dynamics, composition and objectives. Initial findings identified the following categories as being significant descriptors for community-scale green infrastructure: status, location, timeframe, membership, activity focus, governance, resources and recognition, and communications. Thus, we classify four distinct types of group engaged in voluntary activity contributing to local level GI creation and long-term management: 'Formal Group (Active), Formal Group (Inactive), Formal Project and Informal Group. Creating a nuanced typology of CSGI provides further opportunities to analysis the creation and long-term management of GI at a site, neighbourhood and city-scale. In turn, this contributes to our understanding of how multiple actors remain engaged in the decision-making processes of GI management and maintenance. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Novel antipsychotics: issues and controversies. Typicality of atypical antipsychotics.

PubMed Central

Stip, E

2000-01-01

The typicality of atypical antipsychotic drugs remains debatable. Preclinical studies and findings from randomized, controlled and open trials of clozapine, olanzapine, risperidone, quetiapine, sertindole, ziprasidone and a substituted benzamide were examined. A MEDLINE search was conducted using key words, including "extrapyramidal side effects," "cognition," "schizophrenia" and the generic drug names. Over 140 articles from peer-reviewed journals were reviewed, some of which were based on a meta-analysis. New-generation neuroleptic agents were found to have greater efficacy on the negative symptoms of schizophrenia and to cause fewer unwanted extrapyramidal side effects (EPS) than the traditional antipsychotic drugs. On one hand, atypical neuroleptic agents could be strictly defined as any neuroleptic agent with antipsychotic effects at a dosage that does not cause extrapyramidal side effects. Thus, clozapine is regarded as the "standard" atypical antipsychotic drug. On the other hand, typicality is about dimension rather than category, and we suggest the use of the term "spectrum of atypicality." For example, an emphasis is placed on quetiapine to illustrate where a new compound fits in this spectrum. Although dose-related, atypicality may be more a question of prescription attitude than of a specific characteristic of a compound. The degree to which a new compound is clinically superior to another atypical antipsychotic drug, in terms of improving positive, negative or affective symptoms, cognitive function and long-term outcome, will require further a priori hypotheses based on conceptual frameworks that are clinically meaningful. In addition, the results from industry-sponsored trials should be more comparable to those obtained from investigator-leading trials. Finally, the patient characteristics that define a patient's response to a specific antipsychotic drug are unknown. PMID:10740987

A concept analysis of situational awareness in nursing.

PubMed

Fore, Amanda M; Sculli, Gary L

2013-12-01

This article reports an analysis of the concept of situational awareness in nursing. Situational awareness is a fundamental and well-understood concept used to maintain operational safety in high reliability organizations; however, it has not been studied in nursing. Nurses play a critical role in providing vigilance in health care and what they do or fail to do is directly related to patient outcomes. Multiple databases, including PubMed, CINAHL, JSTOR, and Google Scholar, were searched with the term, 'situational awareness'. The primary search, used to identify all uses of the concept, did not employ date criteria. A secondary search for articles measuring situational awareness as an independent or dependent variable was completed using 2009-2011 articles. Concept Analysis. The concept of situational awareness was examined using Walker and Avant's eight step method of analysis. Three defining attributes of situational awareness include perception, comprehension, and projection. Situational awareness is defined as the perception of the elements in the environment in a volume of time and space, the comprehension of their meaning and the projection of their status in the near future. Although situational awareness is related to other terms in nursing, there is increasing recognition that the concept, which is likely a consolidation of the related terms, has an impact on healthcare professionals. Failures in perception, comprehension, and/or projection can significantly reduce the accuracy and appropriateness of patient care decisions. Therefore, as a precursor to decision making, poor or inadequate levels of situational awareness present serious threats to patient safety. Situational awareness needs to be examined in a theoretical context, studied systematically and openly recognized as a key factor in the delivery of safe patient care. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Immunology and immunity against infection: General rules

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zinkernagel, Rolf M.

2005-12-01

Simplified and generalizable rules of immune responses against infections or vaccines have been summarized into 20 statements previously (Scand. J. Immunol. 60 (2004) 9-13) and are restated in a slightly different form here. The key terms of immunology (e.g. specificity, tolerance and memory) are explained in terms of their co-evolutionary importance in the equilibrium between infectious agents and diseases with higher vertebrate hosts. Specificity is best defined by protective antibodies or protective activated T cells; e.g. serotype specific neutralizing antibodies against polio viruses represent the discriminatory power of an immune response very well indeed. Tolerance is reviewed in terms of reactivity rather than self-nonself discrimination. Immune respones are deleted against antigens expressed at sufficient levels within the lymphoheamopoetic system, but may well exist at both, the T and the B cell level against antigens strictly outside of secondary lymphatic organs. In this respect the immune system behaves identically against virus infections and against self antigens. Persistent virus infections delete responsive T cells, once eliminated immune T cell responses wane, if a virus keeps outside of secondary lymphatic tissues no immune response is induced. Immunological memory is usually defined as earlier and greater responses but this does not correlate with protective immunity stringently. It is summarized here that pre-existing titers of protective neutralizing antibodies or pre-existence of activated T cells are the correlates of protection acute cytopathic lethal infections and toxins or against intracellular parasites. It is concluded that many discrepancies and uncertainties in immunological research derive from model situations and experimental results that are correctly measured but cannot be related to co-evolutionary contexts, i.e. survival.

Exploiting domain information for Word Sense Disambiguation of medical documents.

PubMed

Stevenson, Mark; Agirre, Eneko; Soroa, Aitor

2012-01-01

Current techniques for knowledge-based Word Sense Disambiguation (WSD) of ambiguous biomedical terms rely on relations in the Unified Medical Language System Metathesaurus but do not take into account the domain of the target documents. The authors' goal is to improve these methods by using information about the topic of the document in which the ambiguous term appears. The authors proposed and implemented several methods to extract lists of key terms associated with Medical Subject Heading terms. These key terms are used to represent the document topic in a knowledge-based WSD system. They are applied both alone and in combination with local context. A standard measure of accuracy was calculated over the set of target words in the widely used National Library of Medicine WSD dataset. The authors report a significant improvement when combining those key terms with local context, showing that domain information improves the results of a WSD system based on the Unified Medical Language System Metathesaurus alone. The best results were obtained using key terms obtained by relevance feedback and weighted by inverse document frequency.

Exploiting domain information for Word Sense Disambiguation of medical documents

PubMed Central

Agirre, Eneko; Soroa, Aitor

2011-01-01

Objective Current techniques for knowledge-based Word Sense Disambiguation (WSD) of ambiguous biomedical terms rely on relations in the Unified Medical Language System Metathesaurus but do not take into account the domain of the target documents. The authors' goal is to improve these methods by using information about the topic of the document in which the ambiguous term appears. Design The authors proposed and implemented several methods to extract lists of key terms associated with Medical Subject Heading terms. These key terms are used to represent the document topic in a knowledge-based WSD system. They are applied both alone and in combination with local context. Measurements A standard measure of accuracy was calculated over the set of target words in the widely used National Library of Medicine WSD dataset. Results and discussion The authors report a significant improvement when combining those key terms with local context, showing that domain information improves the results of a WSD system based on the Unified Medical Language System Metathesaurus alone. The best results were obtained using key terms obtained by relevance feedback and weighted by inverse document frequency. PMID:21900701

US National Climate Assessment (NCA) Scenarios for Assessing Our Climate Future: Issues and Methodological Perspectives Background Whitepaper for Participants

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

Moss, Richard H.; Engle, Nathan L.; Hall, John

This whitepaper is intended to provide a starting point for discussion at a workshop for the National Climate Assessment (NCA) that focuses on the use and development of scenarios. The paper will provide background needed by participants in the workshop in order to review options for developing and using scenarios in NCA. The paper briefly defines key terms and establishes a conceptual framework for developing consistent scenarios across different end uses and spatial scales. It reviews uses of scenarios in past U.S. national assessments and identifies potential users of and needs for scenarios for both the report scheduled for releasemore » in June 2013 and to support an ongoing distributed assessment process in sectors and regions around the country. Because scenarios prepared for the NCA will need to leverage existing research, the paper takes account of recent scientific advances and activities that could provide needed inputs. Finally, it considers potential approaches for providing methods, data, and other tools for assessment participants. We note that the term 'scenarios' has many meanings. An important goal of the whitepaper (and portions of the workshop agenda) is pedagogical (i.e., to compare different meanings and uses of the term and make assessment participants aware of the need to be explicit about types and uses of scenarios). In climate change research, scenarios have been used to establish bounds for future climate conditions and resulting effects on human and natural systems, given a defined level of greenhouse gas emissions. This quasi-predictive use contrasts with the way decision analysts typically use scenarios (i.e., to consider how robust alternative decisions or strategies may be to variation in key aspects of the future that are uncertain). As will be discussed, in climate change research and assessment, scenarios describe a range of aspects of the future, including major driving forces (both human activities and natural processes), changes in climate and related environmental conditions (e.g., sea level), and evolution of societal capability to respond to climate change. This wide range of scenarios is needed because the implications of climate change for the environment and society depend not only on changes in climate themselves, but also on human responses. This degree of breadth introduces and number of challenges for communication and research.« less

'Language is the source of misunderstandings'--impact of terminology on public perceptions of health promotion messages.

PubMed

Buckton, Christina H; Lean, Michael E J; Combet, Emilie

2015-06-23

The high level of premature death due to non-communicable diseases has been associated with unhealthful lifestyles, including poor diet. The effectiveness of public health strategies designed to promote health via messages focusing on food and diets depends largely on the perception of the messages by the public. The aim of this study was to explore public perceptions of language commonly used to communicate concepts linking health, food and the diet. This study is a qualitative and semi-quantitative cross-sectional survey exploring public perceptions of terms used to improve eating habits within public health strategies. We recruited adults with no background in nutrition or health-care, from May to July 2013, from urban areas of varying deprivation (n = 12) in Glasgow and Edinburgh, UK. Four key prompt-terms used to convey the idea of improving health through diet were selected for testing: Healthy Eating, Eating for Health, Balanced Diet and Nutritional Balance. Consumer understanding of these terms was explored using mixed-methods, including qualitative focus groups (n = 17) and an interviewer-led word-association exercise (n = 270). The word-association exercise produced 1,386 individual responses from the four prompt-terms, with 130 unique responses associated with a single term. Cluster analysis revealed 16 key themes, with responses affected by prompt-term used, age, gender and socio-economic status. Healthy Eating was associated with foods considered 'healthy' (p <0.05); Eating for Health and Balanced Diet with negative connotations of foods to avoid (both p <0.001) and Nutritional Balance with the benefits of eating healthily (p <0.01). Focus groups revealed clear differences in perceptions: Eating for Health = positive action one takes to manage existing medical conditions, Healthy Eating = passive aspirational term associated with weight management, Balanced Diet = old fashioned, also dieting for weight loss, Nutritional Balance = maximising physical performance. Food suppliers use Healthy Eating terminology to promote weight management products. Focus group participants welcomed product reformulation to enhance food health properties as a strategy to overcome desensitisation to health-messages. Public perceptions of messages communicating concepts linking health, food and the diet are influenced by terminology, resulting in confusion. To increase individual commitment to change eating habits in the long term, public health campaigns need strengthening, potentially by investing in tailored approaches to meet the needs of defined groups of consumers.

16 CFR § 1611.31 - Terms defined.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... FLAMMABILITY OF VINYL PLASTIC FILM Rules and Regulations § 1611.31 Terms defined. As used in this part, unless... material subject to the act, except film and fabrics having a nitro-cellulose fiber, finish, or coating... pile, nap, or tufting. (i) The term film means any nonrigid, unsupported plastic, rubber or other...

40 CFR 52.1960 - Original Identification of plan section.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... Terms Used in Oklahoma Air Pollution Control Regulations (i.e., Table II) and on April 12, 1982, and on... Oklahoma Air Pollution Control Regulation (OAPCR) 1.1 “Defining Terms Used in Oklahoma Air Pollution... submitted revisions to Oklahoma Air Pollution Control Regulation (Regulation) 1.1 “Defining Terms Used in...

16 CFR 303.1 - Terms defined.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... REGULATIONS UNDER THE TEXTILE FIBER PRODUCTS IDENTIFICATION ACT § 303.1 Terms defined. As used in this part... apparel means any costume or article of clothing or covering for any part of the body worn or intended to... face by individuals. (m) The term backings, when applied to floor coverings, means that part of a floor...

26 CFR 1.1092(b)-5T - Definitions (temporary).

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... defined in sections 1092(d)(4) (B) and (C) respectively. (k) Section 1256 contract. The term section 1256... referred to in paragraph (n)(1) of this section. (o) Unrecognized gain. The term unrecognized gain means unrecognized gain as defined in section 1092(a)(3)(A). (p) Substantially identical. The term substantially...

26 CFR 1.1092(b)-5T - Definitions (temporary).

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... defined in sections 1092(d)(4) (B) and (C) respectively. (k) Section 1256 contract. The term section 1256... referred to in paragraph (n)(1) of this section. (o) Unrecognized gain. The term unrecognized gain means unrecognized gain as defined in section 1092(a)(3)(A). (p) Substantially identical. The term substantially...

26 CFR 1.1092(b)-5T - Definitions (temporary).

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... defined in sections 1092(d)(4) (B) and (C) respectively. (k) Section 1256 contract. The term section 1256... referred to in paragraph (n)(1) of this section. (o) Unrecognized gain. The term unrecognized gain means unrecognized gain as defined in section 1092(a)(3)(A). (p) Substantially identical. The term substantially...

26 CFR 1.1092(b)-5T - Definitions (temporary).

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... defined in sections 1092(d)(4) (B) and (C) respectively. (k) Section 1256 contract. The term section 1256... referred to in paragraph (n)(1) of this section. (o) Unrecognized gain. The term unrecognized gain means unrecognized gain as defined in section 1092(a)(3)(A). (p) Substantially identical. The term substantially...

26 CFR 1.1092(b)-5T - Definitions (temporary).

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... defined in sections 1092(d)(4) (B) and (C) respectively. (k) Section 1256 contract. The term section 1256... referred to in paragraph (n)(1) of this section. (o) Unrecognized gain. The term unrecognized gain means unrecognized gain as defined in section 1092(a)(3)(A). (p) Substantially identical. The term substantially...

Australia's TERN: Building, Sustaining and Advancing Collaborative Long Term Ecosystem Research Networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

HEld, A. A.; Phinn, S. R.

2012-12-01

TERN is Australia's Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (www.tern.org.au) is one of several environmental data collection, storage and sharing projects developed through the government's research infrastructure programs 2008-2014. This includes terrestrial and coastal ecosystem data collection infrastructure across multiple disciplines, hardware, software and processes used to store, analyse and integrate data sets. TERN's overall objective is to build the collaborations, infrastructure and programs to meet the needs of ecosystem science communities in Australia in the long term, through institutional frameworks necessary to establish a national terrestrial ecosystem site and observational network, coordinated networks enabling cooperation and operational experience; public access to quality assured and appropriately licensed data; and allowing the terrestrial ecosystem research community to define and sustain the terrestrial observing paradigm into the longer term. This paper explains how TERN was originally established, and now operates, along with plans to sustain itself in the future. TERN is implemented through discipline/technical groups referred to as "TERN Facilities". Combined, the facilities provide observations of surface mass and energy fluxes over key ecosystems, biophysical remote sensing data, ecological survey plots, soils information, and coastal ecosystems and associated water quality variables across Australia. Additional integrative facilities cover elements of ecoinformatics, data-scaling and modelling, and linking science to management. A central coordination and portal facility provides meta-data storage, data identification, legal and licensing support. Data access, uploading, meta-data generation, DOI attachment and licensing is completed at each facility's own portal level. TERN also acts as the open-data repository of choice for Australian scientists required to publish their data. Several key lessons we have learnt, will be presented during the talk.

40 CFR 370.66 - How are key words in this part defined?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... unstable reactive, organic peroxide, and water reactive (as defined under 29 CFR 1910.1200). Hazardous... agricultural operations or is a fertilizer held for sale by a retailer to the ultimate customer. Indian Country...

12 CFR 370.3 - Debt Guarantee Program.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... funds purchased” as that term is used in defining “Federal Funds Transactions” in the Glossary of the... file Thrift Financial Reports, “Federal Funds” as that term is defined in the Glossary of the 2008...

12 CFR 370.3 - Debt Guarantee Program.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... funds purchased” as that term is used in defining “Federal Funds Transactions” in the Glossary of the... file Thrift Financial Reports, “Federal Funds” as that term is defined in the Glossary of the 2008...

12 CFR 370.3 - Debt Guarantee Program.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... funds purchased” as that term is used in defining “Federal Funds Transactions” in the Glossary of the... file Thrift Financial Reports, “Federal Funds” as that term is defined in the Glossary of the 2008...

12 CFR 370.3 - Debt Guarantee Program.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... funds purchased” as that term is used in defining “Federal Funds Transactions” in the Glossary of the... file Thrift Financial Reports, “Federal Funds” as that term is defined in the Glossary of the 2008...

A Note on "Accuracy" and "Precision"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stallings, William M.; Gillmore, Gerald M.

1971-01-01

Advocates the use of precision" rather than accuracy" in defining reliability. These terms are consistently differentiated in certain sciences. Review of psychological and measurement literature reveals, however, interchangeable usage of the terms in defining reliability. (Author/GS)

Reciprocal Feedback Between miR-181a and E2/ERα in Myometrium Enhances Inflammation Leading to Labor

PubMed Central

Wang, Gang; Liu, Wei-Na; Kinser, Holly; Franco, Hector L.

2016-01-01

Context: The initiation of term and preterm labor is associated with an up-regulated inflammatory response in myometrium; however, the underlying signaling pathways remain incompletely defined. Objective: To define the regulatory mechanisms that mediate the increased myometrial inflammatory response leading to labor, we investigated the roles of microRNAs (miRNA/miR). Design and Setting: Human myometrial tissues, isolated smooth muscle cells, and animal models were used to study miR-181a regulation of uterine inflammatory pathways and contractility. Patients: Myometrial tissues from 15 term pregnant women undergoing elective cesarean section (not in labor) and 10 term pregnant women undergoing emergency cesarean section (in labor) were used. Results: Expression of the highly conserved microRNA, miR-181a, was significantly decreased in mouse and human myometrium during late gestation. By contrast, the putative miR-181a targets, TNF-α, and estrogen receptor (ER)-α, and the validated target, c-Fos, key factors in the inflammatory response leading to parturition, were coordinately up-regulated. In studies using human myometrial cells, overexpression of miR-181a mimics repressed basal as well as IL-1β-induced TNF-α, C-C motif chemokine ligand 2 and 8 expression, whereas the expression of the antiinflammatory cytokine, IL-10, was increased. Overexpression of miR-181a dramatically inhibited both spontaneous and IL-1β-induced contraction of human myometrial cells. Notably, miR-181a directly targeted ERα and decreased its expression, whereas estradiol-17β reciprocally inhibited expression of mature miR-181a in myometrial cells. Conclusions: Thus, increased estradiol-17β/ERα signaling in myometrium near term inhibits miR-181a, resulting in a further increase in ERα and proinflammatory signaling. This escalating feedback loop provides novel targets and therapeutic strategies for the prevention of preterm labor and its consequences. PMID:27459534

Contributing to the ICNP: validating the term cultural diversity.

PubMed

Geyer, N; Peu, M D; Roussouw, S; Morudi, J; Uys, E

2005-05-01

The specific aims of this study were to: Propose a definition of the term cultural diversity; Validate the term cultural diversity; and Submit a term and definition for international utilisation to the International Council of Nurses (ICN) for consideration for inclusion in the ICNP. South Africa was one of four African countries (Botswana, South Africa, Swaziland, and Zimbabwe) funded by the WK Kellogg Foundation to participate in the ICNP project. South Africa had 2 research groups. One of the research groups identified the term cultural diversity to define. This was a qualitative study where a philosophical perspective was used to explore, explain and describe nursing practice. The combined method proposed by the International Council of Nurses (ICN) was utilised to define and validate the term cultural diversity. Validation and literature review provided sufficient support for the defined characteristics and the term was finally defined and submitted to ICN in November 2002 as: CULTURAL DIVERSITY is a type of CULTURE with the specific characteristics: co-existence of different groups, e.g. ethnic, religious, linguistic and other groups each with their own values and belief systems, traditions and different lifestyles. The research group was informed in December 2003 of the ICNP Evaluation Committee recommendation that the term cultural diversity will be included in the ICNP.

Constructivist Learning Environments and Defining the Online Learning Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brown, Loren

2014-01-01

The online learning community is frequently referred to, but ill defined. The constructivist philosophy and approach to teaching and learning is both an effective means of constructing an online learning community and it is a tool by which to define key elements of the learning community. In order to build a nurturing, self-sustaining online…

Defining Sex and Abstinence: Dialogue Is the Key

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hamill, Shelley D.; Chepko, Stevie

2005-01-01

When does abstinence end and sexual activity begin? In previous generations, the continuum of sexual activity was well-defined in the old baseball analogy. Teens, parents, and teachers knew what going to first, second, or third base involved. For the current generation of young people, sex and abstinence are not so well-defined. As parents and…

How do general practitioners contribute to preventing long-term work disability of their patients suffering from depressive disorders? A qualitative study.

PubMed

Sylvain, Chantal; Durand, Marie-José; Maillette, Pascale; Lamothe, Lise

2016-06-07

Depression is a major cause of work absenteeism that general practitioners (GPs) face directly since they are responsible for sickness certification and for supervising the return to work (RTW). These activities give GPs a key role in preventing long-term work disability, yet their practices in this regard remain poorly documented. The objectives of this study were therefore to describe GPs' practices with people experiencing work disability due to depressive disorders and explore how GPs' work context may impact on their practices. We conducted semi-structured individual interviews with 13 GPs and six mental healthcare professionals in two sub-regions of Quebec. The sub-regions differed in terms of availability of specialized resources offering public mental health services. Data were anonymized and transcribed verbatim. Thematic analysis was performed to identify patterns in the GPs' practices and highlight impacting factors in their work context. Our results identified a set of practices common to all the GPs and other practices that differentiated them. Two profiles were defined on the basis of the various practices documented. The first is characterized by the integration of the RTW goal into the treatment goal right from sickness certification and by interventions that include the workplace, albeit indirectly. The second is characterized by a lack of early RTW-oriented action and by interventions that include little workplace involvement. Regardless of the practice profile, actions intended to improve collaboration with key stakeholders remain the exception. However, two characteristics of the work context appear to have an impact: the availability of a dedicated mental health nurse and the regular provision of clinical information by psychotherapists. These conditions are rarely present but tend to make a significant difference for the GPs. Our results highlight the significant role of GPs in the prevention of long-term work disability and their need for support through the organization of mental health services at the primary care level.

A Model of Twice-Exceptionality: Explaining and Defining the Apparent Paradoxical Combination of Disability and Giftedness in Childhood

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ronksley-Pavia, Michelle

2015-01-01

The literature on twice-exceptionality suggests one of the main problems facing twice-exceptional children is that there is no consensus on the definition of the terms "disability" or "giftedness" and, consequently, the term "twice-exceptional". Endeavoring to define these specific terms loops back on itself to…

Defining terms for proactive management of resistance to Bt crops and pesticides.

PubMed

Tabashnik, Bruce E; Mota-Sanchez, David; Whalon, Mark E; Hollingworth, Robert M; Carrière, Yves

2014-04-01

Evolution of pest resistance to pesticides is an urgent global problem with resistance recorded in at least 954 species of pests, including 546 arthropods, 218 weeds, and 190 plant pathogens. To facilitate understanding and management of resistance, we provide definitions of 50 key terms related to resistance. We confirm the broad, long-standing definition of resistance, which is a genetically based decrease in susceptibility to a pesticide, and the definition of "field-evolved resistance," which is a genetically based decrease in susceptibility to a pesticide in a population caused by exposure to the pesticide in the field. The impact of field-evolved resistance on pest control can vary from none to severe. We define "practical resistance" as field-evolved resistance that reduces pesticide efficacy and has practical consequences for pest control. Recognizing that resistance is not "all or none" and that intermediate levels of resistance can have a continuum of effects on pest control, we describe five categories of field-evolved resistance and use them to classify 13 cases of field-evolved resistance to five Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) toxins in transgenic corn and cotton based on monitoring data from five continents for nine major pest species. We urge researchers to publish and analyze their resistance monitoring data in conjunction with data on management practices to accelerate progress in determining which actions will be most useful in response to specific data on the magnitude, distribution, and impact of resistance.

Enhanced Recovery after Urological Surgery: A Contemporary Systematic Review of Outcomes, Key Elements, and Research Needs.

PubMed

Azhar, Raed A; Bochner, Bernard; Catto, James; Goh, Alvin C; Kelly, John; Patel, Hiten D; Pruthi, Raj S; Thalmann, George N; Desai, Mihir

2016-07-01

Enhanced Recovery after Surgery (ERAS) programs are multimodal care pathways that aim to decrease intra-operative blood loss, decrease postoperative complications, and reduce recovery times. To overview the use and key elements of ERAS pathways, and define needs for future clinical trials. A comprehensive systematic MEDLINE search was performed for English language reports published before May 2015 using the terms "postoperative period," "postoperative care," "enhanced recovery after surgery," "enhanced recovery," "accelerated recovery," "fast track recovery," "recovery program," "recovery pathway", "ERAS," and "urology" or "cystectomy" or "urologic surgery." We identified 18 eligible articles. Patient counseling, physical conditioning, avoiding excessive alcohol and smoking, and good nutrition appeared to protect against postoperative complications. Fasting from solid food for only 6h and perioperative liquid-carbohydrate loading up to 2h prior to surgery appeared to be safe and reduced recovery times. Restricted, balanced, and goal-directed fluid replacement is effective when individualized, depending on patient morbidity and surgical procedure. Decreased intraoperative blood loss may be achieved by several measures. Deep vein thrombosis prophylaxis, antibiotic prophylaxis, and thermoregulation were found to help reduce postsurgical complications, as was a multimodal approach to postoperative nausea, vomiting, and analgesia. Chewing gum, prokinetic agents, oral laxatives, and an early resumption to normal diet appear to aid faster return to normal bowel function. Further studies should compare anesthetic protocols, refine analgesia, and evaluate the importance of robot-assisted surgery and the need/timing for drains and catheters. ERAS regimens are multidisciplinary, multimodal pathways that optimize postoperative recovery. This review provides an overview of the use and key elements of Enhanced Recovery after Surgery programs, which are multimodal, multidisciplinary care pathways that aim to optimize postoperative recovery. Additional conclusions include identifying effective procedures within Enhanced Recovery after Surgery programs and defining needs for future clinical trials. Copyright © 2016 European Association of Urology. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The concept of ''equity'' in health-promotion articles by Nordic authors - a matter of some confusion and misconception.

PubMed

Povlsen, Lene; Borup, Ina K; Fosse, Elisabeth

2011-03-01

This paper focuses on equity in health, one of the key principles of the Ottawa Charter. It aims at analysing and discussing how the concept was defined, applied, and integrated in health-promotion articles by authors with a Nordic affiliation. Abstracts were first identified by the search word ''health promotion'' as a key word. The search was limited to 1986-2008 and abstracts written in English by authors with a Nordic affiliation. Abstracts/articles for the present study were subsequently selected from these abstracts using the search word ''equity'' and analysed by quantitative and qualitative content analysis. A majority of the 18 articles in the study did not include any proper definition of the term ''equity in health''. Most articles dealt with health in general or ''Health for All'' aspects and did not focus on specific strategies for vulnerable individuals or groups. The theoretical papers had a clear focus on equity aspects even though the concept of equity was sometimes included in an implicit way. In contrast, most papers reporting empirical studies did not specifically target equity aspects. Instead, the analysis gave the impression that many authors used the term ''equity'' synonymously with ''equality in health''. The findings may indicate that the concept of ''equity in health'' has been attenuated or even forgotten by Nordic health-promotion researchers and needs to be re-established as a strong concern within health promotion.

Evaluating Digital Health Interventions: Key Questions and Approaches.

PubMed

Murray, Elizabeth; Hekler, Eric B; Andersson, Gerhard; Collins, Linda M; Doherty, Aiden; Hollis, Chris; Rivera, Daniel E; West, Robert; Wyatt, Jeremy C

2016-11-01

Digital health interventions have enormous potential as scalable tools to improve health and healthcare delivery by improving effectiveness, efficiency, accessibility, safety, and personalization. Achieving these improvements requires a cumulative knowledge base to inform development and deployment of digital health interventions. However, evaluations of digital health interventions present special challenges. This paper aims to examine these challenges and outline an evaluation strategy in terms of the research questions needed to appraise such interventions. As they are at the intersection of biomedical, behavioral, computing, and engineering research, methods drawn from all of these disciplines are required. Relevant research questions include defining the problem and the likely benefit of the digital health intervention, which in turn requires establishing the likely reach and uptake of the intervention, the causal model describing how the intervention will achieve its intended benefit, key components, and how they interact with one another, and estimating overall benefit in terms of effectiveness, cost effectiveness, and harms. Although RCTs are important for evaluation of effectiveness and cost effectiveness, they are best undertaken only when: (1) the intervention and its delivery package are stable; (2) these can be implemented with high fidelity; and (3) there is a reasonable likelihood that the overall benefits will be clinically meaningful (improved outcomes or equivalent outcomes at lower cost). Broadening the portfolio of research questions and evaluation methods will help with developing the necessary knowledge base to inform decisions on policy, practice, and research. Copyright © 2016 American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Urban plant physiology: adaptation-mitigation strategies under permanent stress.

PubMed

Calfapietra, Carlo; Peñuelas, Josep; Niinemets, Ülo

2015-02-01

Urban environments that are stressful for plant function and growth will become increasingly widespread in future. In this opinion article, we define the concept of 'urban plant physiology', which focuses on plant responses and long term adaptations to urban conditions and on the capacity of urban vegetation to mitigate environmental hazards in urbanized settings such as air and soil pollution. Use of appropriate control treatments would allow for studies in urban environments to be comparable to expensive manipulative experiments. In this opinion article, we propose to couple two approaches, based either on environmental gradients or manipulated gradients, to develop the concept of urban plant physiology for assessing how single or multiple environmental factors affect the key environmental services provided by urban forests. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Issues of medical necessity: a medical director's guide to good faith adjudication.

PubMed

Quinn, C

1997-06-01

The term medical necessity is difficult to define, a problem for insurers who need to clearly describe what is and is not covered in their contracts with subscribers. An unclear, vague definition of medical necessity leaves insurers vulnerable to litigation by subscribers denied care deemed medically unnecessary. To avoid lawsuits, insurers must make every effort to educate their subscribers about their medical coverage, going beyond merely providing a lengthy subscriber handbook. In decisions on medical necessity, medical directors at insurance companies play a key role. They can bolster the insurer's position in denial-of-care cases in numerous ways, including keeping meticulous records, eliminating unreasonable financial incentives, maintaining a claims denial database, and consulting with other insurers to achieve a consensus on medical necessity.

Enhanced performance of a filter-sensor system.

PubMed

Sasaki, Isao; Josowicz, Mira; Janata, Jirí; Glezer, Ari

2006-06-01

In this paper are addressed two important, but seemingly unrelated issues: long term performance of a gas sensing array and performance of an air purification unit. It is shown that when considered together, the system can be regarded as a "smart filter". The enhancement is achieved by periodic differential sampling and measurement of the "upstream" and "downstream" gases of a filter. The correctly functioning filter supplies the "zero gas" from the downstream for the continuous sensor baseline correction. A key element in this scheme is the synthetic jet that delivers well-defined pulses of the two gases. The deterioration of the performance of the "smart filter" can be diagnosed from the response pattern of the sensor. The approach has been demonstrated on removal/sensing of ammonia gas from air.

Pharmacovigilance and post-black market surveillance.

PubMed

Langlitz, Nicolas

2009-06-01

Pharmacovigilance can be defined as a set of practices aiming at the detection, understanding and assessment of risks related to the use of drugs in a population, and the prevention of consequential adverse effects. In a narrower sense, the term refers exclusively to postmarket surveillance. This paper briefly outlines how pharmacovigilance has come to play a central role in the regulation of novel pharmaceuticals. However, the focus of the text is on mechanisms emerging in an experimental drug scene that aim at dealing with the risks posed by 'designer drugs' newly introduced to the black market. This discussion of pharmacovigilance and 'post-black market surveillance' is situated in the broader context of the more recent dissemination of vigilance as a key element of government in a world too complex for legal and disciplinary measures alone.

Appraisal of the papers of biomedical scientists and physicians for a medical archives.

PubMed Central

Anderson, P G

1985-01-01

Numerous medical libraries house archival collections. This article discusses criteria for selecting personal papers of biomedical scientists and physicians for a medical archives and defines key terms, such as appraisal, manuscripts, papers, records, and series. Appraisal focuses on both collection and series levels. Collection-level criteria include the significance of a scientist's career and the uniqueness, coverage, and accessibility of the manuscripts. Series frequently found among medically related manuscripts are enumerated and discussed. Types of organizational records and the desirability of accessioning them along with manuscripts are considered. Advantages of direct communication with creators of manuscripts are described. The initial appraisal process is not the last word: reevaluation of materials must take place during processing and can be resumed long afterwards. PMID:4052673

Hamilton's rule, inclusive fitness maximization, and the goal of individual behaviour in symmetric two-player games.

PubMed

Okasha, S; Martens, J

2016-03-01

Hamilton's original work on inclusive fitness theory assumed additivity of costs and benefits. Recently, it has been argued that an exact version of Hamilton's rule for the spread of a pro-social allele (rb > c) holds under nonadditive pay-offs, so long as the cost and benefit terms are defined as partial regression coefficients rather than pay-off parameters. This article examines whether one of the key components of Hamilton's original theory can be preserved when the rule is generalized to the nonadditive case in this way, namely that evolved organisms will behave as if trying to maximize their inclusive fitness in social encounters. © 2015 European Society For Evolutionary Biology. Journal of Evolutionary Biology © 2015 European Society For Evolutionary Biology.

Equity - some theory and its policy implications

PubMed Central

Culyer, A.

2001-01-01

This essay seeks to characterise the essential features of an equitable health care system in terms of the classical Aristotelian concepts of horizontal and vertical equity, the common (but ill-defined) language of "need" and the economic notion of cost-effectiveness as a prelude to identifying some of the more important issues of value that policy-makers will have to decide for themselves; the characteristics of health (and what determines it) that can cause policy to be ineffective (or have undesired consequences); the information base that is required to support a policy directed at securing greater equity, and the kinds of research (theoretical and empirical) that are needed to underpin such a policy. Key Words: Health care systems • equity • horizontal equity • vertical equity • cost-effectiveness PMID:11479360

PomBase: a comprehensive online resource for fission yeast

PubMed Central

Wood, Valerie; Harris, Midori A.; McDowall, Mark D.; Rutherford, Kim; Vaughan, Brendan W.; Staines, Daniel M.; Aslett, Martin; Lock, Antonia; Bähler, Jürg; Kersey, Paul J.; Oliver, Stephen G.

2012-01-01

PomBase (www.pombase.org) is a new model organism database established to provide access to comprehensive, accurate, and up-to-date molecular data and biological information for the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe to effectively support both exploratory and hypothesis-driven research. PomBase encompasses annotation of genomic sequence and features, comprehensive manual literature curation and genome-wide data sets, and supports sophisticated user-defined queries. The implementation of PomBase integrates a Chado relational database that houses manually curated data with Ensembl software that supports sequence-based annotation and web access. PomBase will provide user-friendly tools to promote curation by experts within the fission yeast community. This will make a key contribution to shaping its content and ensuring its comprehensiveness and long-term relevance. PMID:22039153

Thunder among the pines: defining a pan-Asian soma.

PubMed

Dannaway, Frederick

2009-03-01

Many ancient cultures and religions engaged in various techniques and used various substances to instigate religious experience and to alter perception. These techniques of psycho-sexual drug yoga reached an unparalleled level of sophistication that arose and was often cloaked in practical terms of alchemy and metallurgy. The Vedic tradition describes this plant-based ritualism as soma, which has been identified by Gordon Wasson as the mushroom Amanita muscaria. This article traces these soma-influenced sects of esoteric Buddhism that exerted influences from India, China and Tibet to Japan. Some of the key components, practices and symbolism are retained despite numerous cultural filters. Japan's tradition of esoteric Buddhism can thus be seen to have preserved and incorporated the soma/amrita mushroom lore into its own traditions of mountain ascetic mystics.

Structural correlation between lipophilicity and lipopolysaccharide-sequestering activity in spermine-sulfonamide analogs.

PubMed

Burns, Mark R; Jenkins, Scott A; Vermeulen, Nicolas M; Balakrishna, Rajalakshmi; Nguyen, Thuan B; Kimbrell, Matthew R; David, Sunil A

2006-12-15

Lipopolysaccharides (LPS), otherwise termed 'endotoxins', are outer-membrane constituents of Gram-negative bacteria, and play a key role in the pathogenesis of 'Septic Shock', a major cause of mortality in the critically ill patient. We had previously defined the pharmacophore necessary for small molecules to specifically bind and neutralize this complex carbohydrate. A series of aryl and aliphatic spermine-sulfonamide analogs were synthesized and tested in a series of binding and cell-based assays in order to probe the effect of lipophilicity on sequestration ability. A strong correlation was indeed found, supporting the hypothesis that endotoxin-neutralizing ability involves a lipophilic or membrane attachment event. The research discussed herein may be useful for the design of additional carbohydrate recognizing molecules and endotoxin-neutralizing drugs.

SAM-CAAM: A Concept for Acquiring Systematic Aircraft Measurements to Characterize Aerosol Air Masses.

PubMed

Kahn, Ralph A; Berkoff, Tim A; Brock, Charles; Chen, Gao; Ferrare, Richard A; Ghan, Steven; Hansico, Thomas F; Hegg, Dean A; Martins, J Vanderlei; McNaughton, Cameron S; Murphy, Daniel M; Ogren, John A; Penner, Joyce E; Pilewskie, Peter; Seinfeld, John H; Worsnop, Douglas R

2017-10-01

A modest operational program of systematic aircraft measurements can resolve key satellite-aerosol-data-record limitations. Satellite observations provide frequent, global aerosol-amount maps, but offer only loose aerosol property constraints needed for climate and air quality applications. We define and illustrate the feasibility of flying an aircraft payload to measure key aerosol optical, microphysical, and chemical properties in situ . The flight program could characterize major aerosol air-mass types statistically, at a level-of-detail unobtainable from space. It would: (1) enhance satellite aerosol retrieval products with better climatology assumptions, and (2) improve translation between satellite-retrieved optical properties and species-specific aerosol mass and size simulated in climate models to assess aerosol forcing, its anthropogenic components, and other environmental impacts. As such, Systematic Aircraft Measurements to Characterize Aerosol Air Masses (SAM-CAAM) could add value to data records representing several decades of aerosol observations from space, improve aerosol constraints on climate modeling , help interrelate remote-sensing, in situ, and modeling aerosol-type definitions , and contribute to future satellite aerosol missions. Fifteen Required Variables are identified, and four Payload Options of increasing ambition are defined, to constrain these quantities. "Option C" could meet all the SAM-CAAM objectives with about 20 instruments, most of which have flown before, but never routinely several times per week, and never as a group. Aircraft integration, and approaches to data handling, payload support, and logistical considerations for a long-term, operational mission are discussed. SAM-CAAM is feasible because, for most aerosol sources and specified seasons, particle properties tend to be repeatable , even if aerosol loading varies.

29 CFR 553.220 - “Tour of duty” defined.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... duty” defined. (a) The term “tour of duty” is a unique concept applicable only to employees for whom... take place under the terms of a mutual aid agreement in the jurisdiction in which the employee is...

7 CFR 1220.301 - Terms defined.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 10 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Terms defined. 1220.301 Section 1220.301 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE (MARKETING AGREEMENTS AND ORDERS; MISCELLANEOUS COMMODITIES), DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE SOYBEAN PROMOTION, RESEARCH, AND...

7 CFR 1220.301 - Terms defined.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 10 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Terms defined. 1220.301 Section 1220.301 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE (MARKETING AGREEMENTS AND ORDERS; MISCELLANEOUS COMMODITIES), DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE SOYBEAN PROMOTION, RESEARCH, AND...

7 CFR 1280.401 - Terms defined.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 10 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Terms defined. 1280.401 Section 1280.401 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE (MARKETING AGREEMENTS AND ORDERS; MISCELLANEOUS COMMODITIES), DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE LAMB PROMOTION, RESEARCH, AND...

A Round-Efficient Authenticated Key Agreement Scheme Based on Extended Chaotic Maps for Group Cloud Meeting.

PubMed

Lin, Tsung-Hung; Tsung, Chen-Kun; Lee, Tian-Fu; Wang, Zeng-Bo

2017-12-03

The security is a critical issue for business purposes. For example, the cloud meeting must consider strong security to maintain the communication privacy. Considering the scenario with cloud meeting, we apply extended chaotic map to present passwordless group authentication key agreement, termed as Passwordless Group Authentication Key Agreement (PL-GAKA). PL-GAKA improves the computation efficiency for the simple group password-based authenticated key agreement (SGPAKE) proposed by Lee et al. in terms of computing the session key. Since the extended chaotic map has equivalent security level to the Diffie-Hellman key exchange scheme applied by SGPAKE, the security of PL-GAKA is not sacrificed when improving the computation efficiency. Moreover, PL-GAKA is a passwordless scheme, so the password maintenance is not necessary. Short-term authentication is considered, hence the communication security is stronger than other protocols by dynamically generating session key in each cloud meeting. In our analysis, we first prove that each meeting member can get the correct information during the meeting. We analyze common security issues for the proposed PL-GAKA in terms of session key security, mutual authentication, perfect forward security, and data integrity. Moreover, we also demonstrate that communicating in PL-GAKA is secure when suffering replay attacks, impersonation attacks, privileged insider attacks, and stolen-verifier attacks. Eventually, an overall comparison is given to show the performance between PL-GAKA, SGPAKE and related solutions.

Military Service Member and Veteran Reintegration: A Conceptual Analysis, Unified Definition, and Key Domains

PubMed Central

Elnitsky, Christine A.; Fisher, Michael P.; Blevins, Cara L.

2017-01-01

Returning military service members and veterans (MSMVs) may experience a variety of stress-related disorders and challenges when reintegrating from the military to the community. Facilitating the reintegration, transition, readjustment and coping, and community integration, of MSMVs is a societal priority. To date, research addressing MSMV reintegration has not identified a comprehensive definition of the term or defined the broader context within which the process of reintegration occurs although both are needed to promote valid and reliable measurement of reintegration and clarify related challenges, processes, and their impact on outcomes. Therefore, this principle-based concept analysis sought to review existing empirical reintegration measurement instruments and identify the problems and needs of MSMV reintegration to provide a unified definition of reintegration to guide future research, clinical practice, and related services. We identified 1,459 articles in the health and social sciences literature, published between 1990 and 2015, by searching multiple electronic databases. Screening of abstracts and full text review based on our inclusion/exclusion criteria, yielded 117 articles for review. Two investigators used constant conceptual comparison to evaluate relevant articles independently. We examined the term reintegration and related terms (i.e., transition, readjustment, community integration) identifying trends in their use over time, analyzed the eight reintegration survey instruments, and synthesized service member and veteran self-reported challenges and needs for reintegration. More reintegration research was published during the last 5 years (n = 373) than in the previous 10 years combined (n = 130). The research suggests coping with life stresses plays an integral role in military service member and veteran post-deployment reintegration. Key domains of reintegration include individual, interpersonal, community organizations, and societal factors that may facilitate or challenge successful reintegration, and results suggest that successful coping with life stressors plays an integral role in post-deployment reintegration. Overall, the literature does not provide a comprehensive representation of reintegration among MSMVs. Although, previous research describes military service member and veteran reintegration challenges, this concept analysis provides a unified definition of the phenomenon and identifies key domains of reintegration that may broaden our understanding and guide reintegration research and practice. PMID:28352240

Military Service Member and Veteran Reintegration: A Conceptual Analysis, Unified Definition, and Key Domains.

PubMed

Elnitsky, Christine A; Fisher, Michael P; Blevins, Cara L

2017-01-01

Returning military service members and veterans (MSMVs) may experience a variety of stress-related disorders and challenges when reintegrating from the military to the community. Facilitating the reintegration, transition, readjustment and coping, and community integration, of MSMVs is a societal priority. To date, research addressing MSMV reintegration has not identified a comprehensive definition of the term or defined the broader context within which the process of reintegration occurs although both are needed to promote valid and reliable measurement of reintegration and clarify related challenges, processes, and their impact on outcomes. Therefore, this principle-based concept analysis sought to review existing empirical reintegration measurement instruments and identify the problems and needs of MSMV reintegration to provide a unified definition of reintegration to guide future research, clinical practice, and related services. We identified 1,459 articles in the health and social sciences literature, published between 1990 and 2015, by searching multiple electronic databases. Screening of abstracts and full text review based on our inclusion/exclusion criteria, yielded 117 articles for review. Two investigators used constant conceptual comparison to evaluate relevant articles independently. We examined the term reintegration and related terms (i.e., transition, readjustment, community integration) identifying trends in their use over time, analyzed the eight reintegration survey instruments, and synthesized service member and veteran self-reported challenges and needs for reintegration. More reintegration research was published during the last 5 years ( n = 373) than in the previous 10 years combined ( n = 130). The research suggests coping with life stresses plays an integral role in military service member and veteran post-deployment reintegration. Key domains of reintegration include individual, interpersonal, community organizations, and societal factors that may facilitate or challenge successful reintegration, and results suggest that successful coping with life stressors plays an integral role in post-deployment reintegration. Overall, the literature does not provide a comprehensive representation of reintegration among MSMVs. Although, previous research describes military service member and veteran reintegration challenges, this concept analysis provides a unified definition of the phenomenon and identifies key domains of reintegration that may broaden our understanding and guide reintegration research and practice.

Definition of the Mediterranean Diet; a Literature Review.

PubMed

Davis, Courtney; Bryan, Janet; Hodgson, Jonathan; Murphy, Karen

2015-11-05

Numerous studies over several decades suggest that following the Mediterranean diet (MedDiet) can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer, and improve cognitive health. However, there are inconsistencies among methods used for evaluating and defining the MedDiet. Through a review of the literature, we aimed to quantitatively define the MedDiet by food groups and nutrients. Databases PubMed, MEDLINE, Science Direct, Academic Search Premier and the University of South Australia Library Catalogue were searched. Articles were included if they defined the MedDiet in at least two of the following ways: (1) general descriptive definitions; (2) diet pyramids/numbers of servings of key foods; (3) grams of key foods/food groups; and (4) nutrient and flavonoid content. Quantity of key foods and nutrient content was recorded and the mean was calculated. The MedDiet contained three to nine serves of vegetables, half to two serves of fruit, one to 13 serves of cereals and up to eight serves of olive oil daily. It contained approximately 9300 kJ, 37% as total fat, 18% as monounsaturated and 9% as saturated, and 33 g of fibre per day. Our results provide a defined nutrient content and range of servings for the MedDiet based on past and current literature. More detailed reporting amongst studies could refine the definition further.

Invasion and Persistence of Infectious Agents in Fragmented Host Populations

PubMed Central

Jesse, Marieke; Mazzucco, Rupert; Dieckmann, Ulf; Heesterbeek, Hans; Metz, Johan A. J.

2011-01-01

One of the important questions in understanding infectious diseases and their prevention and control is how infectious agents can invade and become endemic in a host population. A ubiquitous feature of natural populations is that they are spatially fragmented, resulting in relatively homogeneous local populations inhabiting patches connected by the migration of hosts. Such fragmented population structures are studied extensively with metapopulation models. Being able to define and calculate an indicator for the success of invasion and persistence of an infectious agent is essential for obtaining general qualitative insights into infection dynamics, for the comparison of prevention and control scenarios, and for quantitative insights into specific systems. For homogeneous populations, the basic reproduction ratio plays this role. For metapopulations, defining such an ‘invasion indicator’ is not straightforward. Some indicators have been defined for specific situations, e.g., the household reproduction number . However, these existing indicators often fail to account for host demography and especially host migration. Here we show how to calculate a more broadly applicable indicator for the invasion and persistence of infectious agents in a host metapopulation of equally connected patches, for a wide range of possible epidemiological models. A strong feature of our method is that it explicitly accounts for host demography and host migration. Using a simple compartmental system as an example, we illustrate how can be calculated and expressed in terms of the key determinants of epidemiological dynamics. PMID:21980339

7 CFR 90.2 - General terms defined.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 3 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false General terms defined. 90.2 Section 90.2 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE (Standards, Inspections, Marketing Practices), DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE (CONTINUED) COMMODITY LABORATORY TESTING PROGRAMS...

Defining the public, defining sociology: hybrid science-public relations and boundary-work in early American sociology.

PubMed

Evans, Michael S

2009-01-01

In this paper, I examine how scientific disciplines define their boundaries by defining the publics with whom they engage. The case study is an episode in the development of early American sociology. In response to the dual challenge of credibility set up by the conflict between religious Baconian science and secular positivist science, key actors engaged in specific strategies of boundary-work to create their desired "sociological public"--a hybrid form of science-public relations that appealed to hostile university scientists while excluding a supportive religious audience from participation in the production of scientific knowledge. Using this case, I offer two specific insights. First I illustrate how, in the pursuit of scientific credibility, actors engage in boundary-work to differentiate audiences, not just practitioners. Such defining of publics is constitutive of scientific disciplines in their formative stage. Second, I demonstrate how audience boundaries can be redefined through the capture of existing boundary objects. Specifically, the removal of informational content in key boundary objects creates durable boundaries that are difficult to overcome.

Long-Term Planetary Habitability and the Carbonate-Silicate Cycle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rushby, Andrew J.; Johnson, Martin; Mills, Benjamin J. W.; Watson, Andrew J.; Claire, Mark W.

2018-05-01

The potential habitability of an exoplanet is traditionally assessed by determining if its orbit falls within the circumstellar `habitable zone' of its star, defined as the distance at which water could be liquid on the surface of a planet (Kopparapu et al., 2013). Traditionally, these limits are determined by radiative-convective climate models, which are used to predict surface temperatures at user-specified levels of greenhouse gases. This approach ignores the vital question of the (bio)geochemical plausibility of the proposed chemical abundances. Carbon dioxide is the most important greenhouse gas in Earth's atmosphere in terms of regulating planetary temperature, with the long term concentration controlled by the balance between volcanic outgassing and the sequestration of CO2 via chemical weathering and sedimentation, as modulated by ocean chemistry, circulation and biological (microbial) productivity. We develop a model incorporating key aspects of Earth's short and long-term biogeochemical carbon cycle to explore the potential changes in the CO2 greenhouse due to variance in planet size and stellar insolation. We find that proposed changes in global topography, tectonics, and the hydrological cycle on larger planets results in proportionally greater surface temperatures for a given incident flux. For planets between 0.5 to 2 R_earth the effect of these changes results in average global surface temperature deviations of up to 20 K, which suggests that these relationships must be considered in future studies of planetary habitability.

Technological integration and hyperconnectivity: Tools for promoting extreme human lifespans

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kyriazis, Marios

2015-07-01

Artificial, neurobiological, and social networks are three distinct complex adaptive systems (CAS), each containing discrete processing units (nodes, neurons, and humans respectively). Despite the apparent differences, these three networks are bound by common underlying principles which describe the behaviour of the system in terms of the connections of its components, and its emergent properties. The longevity (long-term retention and functionality) of the components of each of these systems is also defined by common principles. Here, I will examine some properties of the longevity and function of the components of artificial and neurobiological systems, and generalise these to the longevity and function of the components of social CAS. In other words, I will show that principles governing the long-term functionality of computer nodes and of neurons, may be extrapolated to the study of the long-term functionality of humans (or more precisely, of the noemes, an abstract combination of existence and digital fame). The study of these phenomena can provide useful insights regarding practical ways that can be used in order to maximize human longevity. The basic law governing these behaviours is the Law of Requisite Usefulness, which states that the length of retention of an agent within a CAS is proportional to the contribution of the agent to the overall adaptability of the system. Key Words: Complex Adaptive Systems, Hyper-connectivity, Human Longevity, Adaptability and Evolution, Noeme

Effects of Popular Diets without Specific Calorie Targets on Weight Loss Outcomes: Systematic Review of Findings from Clinical Trials

PubMed Central

Anton, Stephen D.; Hida, Azumi; Heekin, Kacey; Sowalsky, Kristen; Karabetian, Christy; Mutchie, Heather; Leeuwenburgh, Christiaan; Manini, Todd M.; Barnett, Tracey E.

2017-01-01

The present review examined the evidence base for current popular diets, as listed in the 2016 U.S. News & World Report, on short-term (≤six months) and long-term (≥one year) weight loss outcomes in overweight and obese adults. For the present review, all diets in the 2016 U.S. News & World Report Rankings for “Best Weight-Loss Diets”, which did not involve specific calorie targets, meal replacements, supplementation with commercial products, and/or were not categorized as “low-calorie” diets were examined. Of the 38 popular diets listed in the U.S. News & World Report, 20 met our pre-defined criteria. Literature searches were conducted through PubMed, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science using preset key terms to identify all relevant clinical trials for these 20 diets. A total of 16 articles were identified which reported findings of clinical trials for seven of these 20 diets: (1) Atkins; (2) Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH); (3) Glycemic-Index; (4) Mediterranean; (5) Ornish; (6) Paleolithic; and (7) Zone. Of the diets evaluated, the Atkins Diet showed the most evidence in producing clinically meaningful short-term (≤six months) and long-term (≥one-year) weight loss. Other popular diets may be equally or even more effective at producing weight loss, but this is unknown at the present time since there is a paucity of studies on these diets. PMID:28758964

A new image for long-term care.

PubMed

Wager, Richard; Creelman, William

2004-04-01

To counter widely held negative images of long-term care, managers in the industry should implement quality-improvement initiatives that include six key strategies: Manage the expectations of residents and their families. Address customers' concerns early. Build long-term customer satisfaction. Allocate resources to achieve exceptional outcomes in key areas. Respond to adverse events with compassion. Reinforce the facility's credibility.

A Framework for Empirical Discovery.

DTIC Science & Technology

1986-09-24

history of science reveal distinct classes of defined terms. Some systems have focused on one subset of these classes, while other programs have...the operators in detail, presenting examples of each from the history of science . 2.1 Defining Numeric Terms The most obvious operator for defining...laws; they can also simplify the process of discovering such laws. Let us consider some examples from the history of science in which the definition of

Dose and Effect Thresholds for Early Key Events in a Mode of ...

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

ABSTRACT Strategies for predicting adverse health outcomes of environmental chemicals are centered on early key events in toxicity pathways. However, quantitative relationships between early molecular changes in a given pathway and later health effects are often poorly defined. The goal of this study was to evaluate short-term key event indicators using qualitative and quantitative methods in an established pathway of mouse liver tumorigenesis mediated by peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-alpha (PPARα). Male B6C3F1 mice were exposed for 7 days to di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), di-n-octyl phthalate (DNOP), and n-butyl benzyl phthalate (BBP), which vary in PPARα activity and liver tumorigenicity. Each phthalate increased expression of select PPARα target genes at 7 days, while only DEHP significantly increased liver cell proliferation labeling index (LI). Transcriptional benchmark dose (BMDT) estimates for dose-related genomic markers stratified phthalates according to hypothetical tumorigenic potencies, unlike BMDs for non-genomic endpoints (liver weights or proliferation). The 7-day BMDT values for Acot1 as a surrogate measure for PPARα activation were 29, 370, and 676 mg/kg-d for DEHP, DNOP, and BBP, respectively, distinguishing DEHP (liver tumor BMD of 35 mg/kg-d) from non-tumorigenic DNOP and BBP. Effect thresholds were generated using linear regression of DEHP effects at 7 days and 2-year tumor incidence values to anchor early response molec

DNA Cryptography and Deep Learning using Genetic Algorithm with NW algorithm for Key Generation.

PubMed

Kalsi, Shruti; Kaur, Harleen; Chang, Victor

2017-12-05

Cryptography is not only a science of applying complex mathematics and logic to design strong methods to hide data called as encryption, but also to retrieve the original data back, called decryption. The purpose of cryptography is to transmit a message between a sender and receiver such that an eavesdropper is unable to comprehend it. To accomplish this, not only we need a strong algorithm, but a strong key and a strong concept for encryption and decryption process. We have introduced a concept of DNA Deep Learning Cryptography which is defined as a technique of concealing data in terms of DNA sequence and deep learning. In the cryptographic technique, each alphabet of a letter is converted into a different combination of the four bases, namely; Adenine (A), Cytosine (C), Guanine (G) and Thymine (T), which make up the human deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). Actual implementations with the DNA don't exceed laboratory level and are expensive. To bring DNA computing on a digital level, easy and effective algorithms are proposed in this paper. In proposed work we have introduced firstly, a method and its implementation for key generation based on the theory of natural selection using Genetic Algorithm with Needleman-Wunsch (NW) algorithm and Secondly, a method for implementation of encryption and decryption based on DNA computing using biological operations Transcription, Translation, DNA Sequencing and Deep Learning.

Optimization of Second Fault Detection Thresholds to Maximize Mission POS

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Anzalone, Evan

2018-01-01

In order to support manned spaceflight safety requirements, the Space Launch System (SLS) has defined program-level requirements for key systems to ensure successful operation under single fault conditions. To accommodate this with regards to Navigation, the SLS utilizes an internally redundant Inertial Navigation System (INS) with built-in capability to detect, isolate, and recover from first failure conditions and still maintain adherence to performance requirements. The unit utilizes multiple hardware- and software-level techniques to enable detection, isolation, and recovery from these events in terms of its built-in Fault Detection, Isolation, and Recovery (FDIR) algorithms. Successful operation is defined in terms of sufficient navigation accuracy at insertion while operating under worst case single sensor outages (gyroscope and accelerometer faults at launch). In addition to first fault detection and recovery, the SLS program has also levied requirements relating to the capability of the INS to detect a second fault, tracking any unacceptable uncertainty in knowledge of the vehicle's state. This detection functionality is required in order to feed abort analysis and ensure crew safety. Increases in navigation state error and sensor faults can drive the vehicle outside of its operational as-designed environments and outside of its performance envelope causing loss of mission, or worse, loss of crew. The criteria for operation under second faults allows for a larger set of achievable missions in terms of potential fault conditions, due to the INS operating at the edge of its capability. As this performance is defined and controlled at the vehicle level, it allows for the use of system level margins to increase probability of mission success on the operational edges of the design space. Due to the implications of the vehicle response to abort conditions (such as a potentially failed INS), it is important to consider a wide range of failure scenarios in terms of both magnitude and time. As such, the Navigation team is taking advantage of the INS's capability to schedule and change fault detection thresholds in flight. These values are optimized along a nominal trajectory in order to maximize probability of mission success, and reducing the probability of false positives (defined as when the INS would report a second fault condition resulting in loss of mission, but the vehicle would still meet insertion requirements within system-level margins). This paper will describe an optimization approach using Genetic Algorithms to tune the threshold parameters to maximize vehicle resilience to second fault events as a function of potential fault magnitude and time of fault over an ascent mission profile. The analysis approach, and performance assessment of the results will be presented to demonstrate the applicability of this process to second fault detection to maximize mission probability of success.

The Study of High-Speed Surface Dynamics Using a Pulsed Proton Beam

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Buttler, William; Stone, Benjamin; Oro, David; Dimonte, Guy; Preston, Dean; Cherne, Frank; Germann, Timothy; Terrones, Guillermo; Tupa, Dale

2011-06-01

Los Alamos National Laboratory is presently engaged in development and implementation of ejecta source term and transport models for integration into LANL hydrodynamic computer codes. Experimental support for the effort spans a broad array of activities, including ejecta source term measurements from machine roughened Sn surfaces shocked by HE or flyer plates. Because the underlying postulate for ejecta formation is that ejecta are characterized by Richtmyer-Meshkov instability (RMI) phenomena, a key element of the theory and modeling effort centers on validation and verification RMI experiments at the LANSCE Proton Radiography Facility (pRad) to compare with modeled ejecta measurements. Here we present experimental results used to define and validate a physics based ejecta model together with remarkable, unexpected results of Sn instability growth in vacuum and gasses, and Sn and Cu RM growth that reveals the sensitivity of the RM instability to the yield strength of the material, Cu. The motivation of this last subject, RM growth linked to material strength, is to probe the shock pressure regions over which ejecta begins to form. Presenter

Materials Safety Data Sheets: the basis for control of toxic chemicals

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

Ketchen, E.E.; Porter, W.E.

1979-09-01

The Material Safety Data Sheets contained in this volume are the basis for the Toxic Chemical Control Program developed by the Industrial Hygiene Department, Health Division, ORNL. The three volumes are the update and expansion of ORNL/TM-5721 and ORNL/TM-5722 Material Safety Data Sheets: The Basis for Control of Toxic Chemicals, Volume I and Volume II. As such, they are a valuable adjunct to the data cards issued with specific chemicals. The chemicals are identified by name, stores catalog number where appropriate, and sequence numbers from the NIOSH Registry of Toxic Effects of Chemical Substances, 1977 Edition, if available. The datamore » sheets were developed and compiled to aid in apprising the employees of hazards peculiar to the handling and/or use of specific toxic chemicals. Space limitation necessitate the use of descriptive medical terms and toxicological abbreviations. A glossary and an abbreviation list were developed to define some of those sometimes unfamiliar terms and abbreviations. The page numbers are keyed to the catalog number in the chemical stores at ORNL.« less

Materials Safety Data Sheets: the basis for control of toxic chemicals

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

Ketchen, E.E.; Porter, W.E.

The Material Safety Data Sheets contained in this volume are the basis for the Toxic Chemical Control Program developed by the Industrial Hygiene Department, Health Division, ORNL. The three volumes are the update and expansion of ORNL/TM-5721 and ORNL/TM-5722 Material Safety Data Sheets: The Basis for Control of Toxic Chemicals, Volume I and Volume II. As such, they are a valuable adjunct to the data cards issued with specific chemicals. The chemicals are identified by name, stores catalog number where appropriate, and sequence numbers from the NIOSH Registry of Toxic Effects of Chemical Substances, 1977 Edition, if available. The datamore » sheets were developed and compiled to aid in apprising the employees of hazards peculiar to the handling and/or use of specific toxic chemicals. Space limitation necessitate the use of descriptive medical terms and toxicological abbreviations. A glossary and an abbreviation list were developed to define some of those sometimes unfamiliar terms and abbreviations. The page numbers are keyed to the catalog number in the chemical stores at ORNL.« less

Supramolecular chemistry-general principles and selected examples from anion recognition and metallosupramolecular chemistry.

PubMed

Albrecht, Markus

2007-12-01

This review gives an introduction into supramolecular chemistry describing in the first part general principles, focusing on terms like noncovalent interaction, molecular recognition, self-assembly, and supramolecular function. In the second part those will be illustrated by simple examples from our laboratories. Supramolecular chemistry is the science that bridges the gap between the world of molecules and nanotechnology. In supramolecular chemistry noncovalent interactions occur between molecular building blocks, which by molecular recognition and self-assembly form (functional) supramolecular entities. It is also termed the "chemistry of the noncovalent bond." Molecular recognition is based on geometrical complementarity based on the "key-and-lock" principle with nonshape-dependent effects, e.g., solvatization, being also highly influential. Self-assembly leads to the formation of well-defined aggregates. Hereby the overall structure of the target ensemble is controlled by the symmetry features of the certain building blocks. Finally, the aggregates can possess special properties or supramolecular functions, which are only found in the ensemble but not in the participating molecules. This review gives an introduction on supramolecular chemistry and illustrates the fundamental principles by recent examples from our group.

Epigenetics: Beyond Chromatin Modifications and Complex Genetic Regulation1

PubMed Central

Eichten, Steven R.; Schmitz, Robert J.; Springer, Nathan M.

2014-01-01

Chromatin modifications and epigenetics may play important roles in many plant processes, including developmental regulation, responses to environmental stimuli, and local adaptation. Chromatin modifications describe biochemical changes to chromatin state, such as alterations in the specific type or placement of histones, modifications of DNA or histones, or changes in the specific proteins or RNAs that associate with a genomic region. The term epigenetic is often used to describe a variety of unexpected patterns of gene regulation or inheritance. Here, we specifically define epigenetics to include the key aspects of heritability (stable transmission of gene expression states through mitotic or meiotic cell divisions) and independence from DNA sequence changes. We argue against generically equating chromatin and epigenetics; although many examples of epigenetics involve chromatin changes, those chromatin changes are not always heritable or may be influenced by genetic changes. Careful use of the terms chromatin modifications and epigenetics can help separate the biochemical mechanisms of regulation from the inheritance patterns of altered chromatin states. Here, we also highlight examples in which chromatin modifications and epigenetics affect important plant processes. PMID:24872382

Protein Structure Prediction by Protein Threading

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xu, Ying; Liu, Zhijie; Cai, Liming; Xu, Dong

The seminal work of Bowie, Lüthy, and Eisenberg (Bowie et al., 1991) on "the inverse protein folding problem" laid the foundation of protein structure prediction by protein threading. By using simple measures for fitness of different amino acid types to local structural environments defined in terms of solvent accessibility and protein secondary structure, the authors derived a simple and yet profoundly novel approach to assessing if a protein sequence fits well with a given protein structural fold. Their follow-up work (Elofsson et al., 1996; Fischer and Eisenberg, 1996; Fischer et al., 1996a,b) and the work by Jones, Taylor, and Thornton (Jones et al., 1992) on protein fold recognition led to the development of a new brand of powerful tools for protein structure prediction, which we now term "protein threading." These computational tools have played a key role in extending the utility of all the experimentally solved structures by X-ray crystallography and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), providing structural models and functional predictions for many of the proteins encoded in the hundreds of genomes that have been sequenced up to now.

An overview of applied visibility fundamentals: Survey and synthesis of a visibility literature

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

1982-06-01

The concept of visibility has been defined in numerous ways. One source that is widely used in the United States describes visibility as the greatest distance at which it is just possible to see and identify selected objects or light sources with the unaided eye, or, it may be considered the distance an observer would have to back away from a target before it disappears. The process by which we see distant objects is based on the characteristics of the target, its immediate surroundings, air quality, illumination of the sight path, and the eyes and brain of the observer. Thus, four components of visibility have been noted: (1) target, (2) background, (3) atmosphere, and (4) observer. Most definitions of visibility include the observer as a key element, but it is also possible to measure visibility without the immediate presence of humans by means of instruments such as telephotometers, transmissometers, or nephelometers. Such measurements can be kept in non-dimensional terms and can be compared without human intervention. When used in the field, however, visibility sensors must be calibrated in human terms of visibility measurement.

A Moiré Pattern-Based Thread Counter

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reich, Gary

2017-10-01

Thread count is a term used in the textile industry as a measure of how closely woven a fabric is. It is usually defined as the sum of the number of warp threads per inch (or cm) and the number of weft threads per inch. (It is sometimes confusingly described as the number of threads per square inch.) In recent years it has also become a subject of considerable interest and some controversy among consumers. Many consumers consider thread count to be a key measure of the quality or fineness of a fabric, especially bed sheets, and they seek out fabrics that advertise high counts. Manufacturers in turn have responded to this interest by offering fabrics with ever higher claimed thread counts (sold at ever higher prices), sometime achieving the higher counts by distorting the definition of the term with some "creative math." In 2005 the Federal Trade Commission noted the growing use of thread count in advertising at the retail level and warned of the potential for consumers to be misled by distortions of the definition.

Quantum formalism as an optimisation procedure of information flows for physical and biological systems.

PubMed

Baladrón, Carlos; Khrennikov, Andrei

2016-12-01

The similarities between biological and physical systems as respectively defined in quantum information biology (QIB) and in a Darwinian approach to quantum mechanics (DAQM) have been analysed. In both theories the processing of information is a central feature characterising the systems. The analysis highlights a mutual support on the thesis contended by each theory. On the one hand, DAQM provides a physical basis that might explain the key role played by quantum information at the macroscopic level for bio-systems in QIB. On the other hand, QIB offers the possibility, acting as a macroscopic testing ground, to analyse the emergence of quantumness from classicality in the terms held by DAQM. As an added result of the comparison, a tentative definition of quantum information in terms of classical information flows has been proposed. The quantum formalism would appear from this comparative analysis between QIB and DAQM as an optimal information scheme that would maximise the stability of biological and physical systems at any scale. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Subtypes and comorbidity in mathematical learning disabilities: Multidimensional study of verbal and visual memory processes is key to understanding.

PubMed

Szűcs, D

2016-01-01

A large body of research suggests that mathematical learning disability (MLD) is related to working memory impairment. Here, I organize part of this literature through a meta-analysis of 36 studies with 665 MLD and 1049 control participants. I demonstrate that one subtype of MLD is associated with reading problems and weak verbal short-term and working memory. Another subtype of MLD does not have associated reading problems and is linked to weak visuospatial short-term and working memory. In order to better understand MLD we need to precisely define potentially modality-specific memory subprocesses and supporting executive functions, relevant for mathematical learning. This can be achieved by taking a multidimensional parametric approach systematically probing an extended network of cognitive functions. Rather than creating arbitrary subgroups and/or focus on a single factor, highly powered studies need to position individuals in a multidimensional parametric space. This will allow us to understand the multidimensional structure of cognitive functions and their relationship to mathematical performance. © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Capturing neutral and adaptive genetic diversity for conservation in a highly structured tree species.

PubMed

Rodríguez-Quilón, Isabel; Santos-Del-Blanco, Luis; Serra-Varela, María Jesús; Koskela, Jarkko; González-Martínez, Santiago C; Alía, Ricardo

2016-10-01

Preserving intraspecific genetic diversity is essential for long-term forest sustainability in a climate change scenario. Despite that, genetic information is largely neglected in conservation planning, and how conservation units should be defined is still heatedly debated. Here, we use maritime pine (Pinus pinaster Ait.), an outcrossing long-lived tree with a highly fragmented distribution in the Mediterranean biodiversity hotspot, to prove the importance of accounting for genetic variation, of both neutral molecular markers and quantitative traits, to define useful conservation units. Six gene pools associated to distinct evolutionary histories were identified within the species using 12 microsatellites and 266 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). In addition, height and survival standing variation, their genetic control, and plasticity were assessed in a multisite clonal common garden experiment (16 544 trees). We found high levels of quantitative genetic differentiation within previously defined neutral gene pools. Subsequent cluster analysis and post hoc trait distribution comparisons allowed us to define 10 genetically homogeneous population groups with high evolutionary potential. They constitute the minimum number of units to be represented in a maritime pine dynamic conservation program. Our results uphold that the identification of conservation units below the species level should account for key neutral and adaptive components of genetic diversity, especially in species with strong population structure and complex evolutionary histories. The environmental zonation approach currently used by the pan-European genetic conservation strategy for forest trees would be largely improved by gradually integrating molecular and quantitative trait information, as data become available. © 2016 by the Ecological Society of America.

Definition of Ignition in Inertial Confinement Fusion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Christopherson, A. R.; Betti, R.

2017-10-01

Defining ignition in inertial confinement fusion (ICF) is an unresolved problem. In ICF, a distinction must be made between the ignition of the hot spot and the propagation of the burn wave in the surrounding dense fuel. Burn propagation requires that the hot spot is robustly ignited and the dense shell exhibits enough areal density. Since most of the energy gain comes from burning the dense shell, in a scale of increasing yields, hot-spot ignition comes before high gains. Identifying this transition from hot-spot ignition to burn-wave propagation is key to defining ignition in general terms applicable to all fusion approaches that use solid DT fuel. Ad hoc definitions such as gain = 1 or doubling the temperature are not generally valid. In this work, we show that it is possible to identify the onset of ignition through a unique value of the yield amplification defined as the ratio of the fusion yield including alpha-particle deposition to the fusion yield without alphas. Since the yield amplification is a function of the fractional alpha energy fα =EαEα 2Ehs 2Ehs (a measurable quantity), it appears possible not only to define ignition but also to measure the onset of ignition by the experimental inference of the fractional alpha energy and yield amplification. This material is based upon work supported by the Department of Energy Office of Fusion Energy Services under Award Number DE-FC02-04ER54789 and National Nuclear Security Administration under Award Number DE-NA0001944.

7 CFR 205.2 - Terms defined.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

..., Inspections, Marketing Practices), DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE (CONTINUED) ORGANIC FOODS PRODUCTION ACT PROVISIONS NATIONAL ORGANIC PROGRAM Definitions § 205.2 Terms defined. Accreditation. A determination made by... as a certifying agent under this part. Act. The Organic Foods Production Act of 1990, as amended (7 U...

49 CFR 325.5 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

..., DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION GENERAL REGULATIONS COMPLIANCE WITH INTERSTATE MOTOR CARRIER NOISE EMISSION STANDARDS General Provisions § 325.5 Definitions. (a) Statutory definitions. All terms defined in the Noise...) Definitions in standards. All terms defined in § 202.10 of the Interstate Motor Carrier Noise Emission...

49 CFR 325.5 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

..., DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION GENERAL REGULATIONS COMPLIANCE WITH INTERSTATE MOTOR CARRIER NOISE EMISSION STANDARDS General Provisions § 325.5 Definitions. (a) Statutory definitions. All terms defined in the Noise...) Definitions in standards. All terms defined in § 202.10 of the Interstate Motor Carrier Noise Emission...

NASA thesaurus. Volume 3: Definitions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1988-01-01

Publication of NASA Thesaurus definitions began with Supplement 1 to the 1985 NASA Thesaurus. The definitions given here represent the complete file of over 3,200 definitions, complimented by nearly 1,000 use references. Definitions of more common or general scientific terms are given a NASA slant if one exists. Certain terms are not defined as a matter of policy: common names, chemical elements, specific models of computers, and nontechnical terms. The NASA Thesaurus predates by a number of years the systematic effort to define terms, therefore not all Thesaurus terms have been defined. Nevertheless, definitions of older terms are continually being added. The following data are provided for each entry: term in uppercase/lowercase form, definition, source, and year the term (not the definition) was added to the NASA Thesaurus. The NASA History Office is the authority for capitalization in satellite and spacecraft names. Definitions with no source given were constructed by lexicographers at the NASA Scientific and Technical Information (STI) Facility who rely on the following sources for their information: experts in the field, literature searches from the NASA STI database, and specialized references.

The national strategy for the physical protection of critical infrastructures and key assets

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2003-02-01

This document defines the road ahead for a core mission area identified in the President's National Strategy for Homeland Security-reducing the Nation's vulnerability to acts of terrorism by protecting our critical infrastructures and key assets from...

Improvement of non-key traits in radiata pine breeding programme when long-term economic importance is uncertain.

PubMed

Li, Yongjun; Dungey, Heidi; Yanchuk, Alvin; Apiolaza, Luis A

2017-01-01

Diameter at breast height (DBH), wood density (DEN) and predicted modulus of elasticity (PME) are considered as 'key traits' (KT) in the improvement in radiata pine breeding programmes in New Zealand. Any other traits which are also of interest to radiata pine breeders and forest growers are called 'non-key traits' (NKTs). External resin bleeding (ERB), internal checking (IC), number of heartwood rings (NHR) are three such non-key traits which affect wood quality of radiata pine timber. Economic importance of the KTs and NKTs is hard to define in radiata pine breeding programmes due to long rotation period. Desired-gain index (DGIs) and robust selection were proposed to incorporate NKTs into radiata pine breeding programme in order to deal with the uncertainty of economic importance. Four desired-gain indices A-D were proposed in this study. The desired-gain index A (DGI-A) emphasized growth and led to small decrease in ERB and small increase in IC and NHR. The expected genetic gains of all traits in the desired-gain index B (DGI-B) were in the favourable directions (positive genetic gains in the key traits and negative genetic gains in the non-key traits). The desired-gain index C (DGI-C) placed emphasis on wood density, leading to favourable genetic gain in the NKTs but reduced genetic gains for DBH and PME. The desired-gain index D (DGI-D) exerted a bit more emphasis on the non-key traits, leading large favourable reduction in the non-key traits and lower increase in the key traits compared with the other DGIs. When selecting both the key traits and the non-key traits, the average EBVs of six traits were all in the same directions as the expected genetic gains except for DBH in the DGI-D. When the key traits were measured and selected, internal checking always had a negative (favourable) genetic gain but ERB and NHR had unfavourable genetic gain in the most of time. After removing some individuals with high sensitivity to the change of economic weights, robust desired-gain selection made genetic gains of all the key and non-key traits to move a little bit toward unfavourable directions in the four indices. It is concluded that desired-gain index combined with robust selection concept is an efficient way for selecting the key and non-key traits in radiata pine breeding programmes.

Cultural competence in end-of-life care: terms, definitions, and conceptual models from the British literature.

PubMed

Evans, Natalie; Meñaca, Arantza; Koffman, Jonathan; Harding, Richard; Higginson, Irene J; Pool, Robert; Gysels, Marjolein

2012-07-01

Cultural competency is increasingly recommended in policy and practice to improve end-of-life (EoL) care for minority ethnic groups in multicultural societies. It is imperative to critically analyze this approach to understand its underlying concepts. Our aim was to appraise cultural competency approaches described in the British literature on EoL care and minority ethnic groups. This is a critical review. Articles on cultural competency were identified from a systematic review of the literature on minority ethnic groups and EoL care in the United Kingdom. Terms, definitions, and conceptual models of cultural competency approaches were identified and situated according to purpose, components, and origin. Content analysis of definitions and models was carried out to identify key components. One-hundred thirteen articles on minority ethnic groups and EoL care in the United Kingdom were identified. Over half (n=60) contained a term, definition, or model for cultural competency. In all, 17 terms, 17 definitions, and 8 models were identified. The most frequently used term was "culturally sensitive," though "cultural competence" was defined more often. Definitions contained one or more of the components: "cognitive," "implementation," or "outcome." Models were categorized for teaching or use in patient assessment. Approaches were predominantly of American origin. The variety of terms, definitions, and models underpinning cultural competency approaches demonstrates a lack of conceptual clarity, and potentially complicates implementation. Further research is needed to compare the use of cultural competency approaches in diverse cultures and settings, and to assess the impact of such approaches on patient outcomes.

Did You Remember to DID

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-04-01

threats (also known as a SWOT analysis) is a very useful method in identifying potential issues, hidden agendas, and competing egos. • Defining a...comprehensive communications plan uses what’s been defined and informs (the second key component to DID) government and con - tractor teams of the essential...program execution strategies. Inform Inform means communicating to internal and external stake- holders what was defined, expected, discovered, con

A Round-Efficient Authenticated Key Agreement Scheme Based on Extended Chaotic Maps for Group Cloud Meeting

PubMed Central

Lee, Tian-Fu; Wang, Zeng-Bo

2017-01-01

The security is a critical issue for business purposes. For example, the cloud meeting must consider strong security to maintain the communication privacy. Considering the scenario with cloud meeting, we apply extended chaotic map to present passwordless group authentication key agreement, termed as Passwordless Group Authentication Key Agreement (PL-GAKA). PL-GAKA improves the computation efficiency for the simple group password-based authenticated key agreement (SGPAKE) proposed by Lee et al. in terms of computing the session key. Since the extended chaotic map has equivalent security level to the Diffie–Hellman key exchange scheme applied by SGPAKE, the security of PL-GAKA is not sacrificed when improving the computation efficiency. Moreover, PL-GAKA is a passwordless scheme, so the password maintenance is not necessary. Short-term authentication is considered, hence the communication security is stronger than other protocols by dynamically generating session key in each cloud meeting. In our analysis, we first prove that each meeting member can get the correct information during the meeting. We analyze common security issues for the proposed PL-GAKA in terms of session key security, mutual authentication, perfect forward security, and data integrity. Moreover, we also demonstrate that communicating in PL-GAKA is secure when suffering replay attacks, impersonation attacks, privileged insider attacks, and stolen-verifier attacks. Eventually, an overall comparison is given to show the performance between PL-GAKA, SGPAKE and related solutions. PMID:29207509

9 CFR 351.2 - Terms defined.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... 9 Animals and Animal Products 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Terms defined. 351.2 Section 351.2 Animals and Animal Products FOOD SAFETY AND INSPECTION SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AGENCY ORGANIZATION AND TERMINOLOGY; MANDATORY MEAT AND POULTRY PRODUCTS INSPECTION AND VOLUNTARY INSPECTION AND...

Newspaper Activities for Young Consumers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Greenup, Tess

Designed for intermediate and junior high level students, the handbook gives 11 lessons using newspaper activities for teaching consumer education. The activities help students (1) define consumer education terms and distinguish between wants and needs; (2) define the term "caveat emptor" and understand the concept of consumer…

Long-term outcome from a medium secure service for people with intellectual disability.

PubMed

Alexander, R T; Crouch, K; Halstead, S; Piachaud, J

2006-04-01

The purpose of this paper is to describe long-term outcomes for patients discharged over a 12-year period from a medium secure service for people with intellectual disabilities (ID). A cohort study using case-notes analysis and a structured interview of current key informants. Eleven per cent of the sample was reconvicted. Fifty-eight per cent of the sample showed offending-like behaviour that did not lead to police contact. Twenty-eight per cent of the sample was currently detained in hospital under the Mental Health Act. The presence of a personality disorder, a history of theft or burglary, and young age increased the risk of reconviction. Contact with the police was less likely in those with schizophrenia. Re-admission to hospital was associated with the presence of offending-like behaviours, rather than any specific diagnosis. In terms of reconviction, these results are good compared with those from general forensic services; however, behavioural problems continue for many years and are managed without recourse to the criminal justice system. There is a borderline group whose needs are poorly defined and serviced. Declaration of interests Horizon National Health Service Trust, the managing authority of the service, gave the grant for this study; the corresponding author was working in the service.

Application of long-term microdialysis in circadian rhythm research

PubMed Central

Borjigin, Jimo; Liu, Tiecheng

2008-01-01

Our laboratory has pioneered long-term microdialysis to monitor pineal melatonin secretion in living animals across multiple circadian cycles. There are numerous advantages of this approach for rhythm analysis: (1) we can precisely define melatonin onset and offset phases; (2) melatonin is a reliable and stable neuroendocrine output of the circadian clock (versus behavioral output which is sensitive to stress or other factors); (3) melatonin measurements can be performed extremely frequently, permitting high temporal resolution (10 min sampling intervals), which allows detection of slight changes in phase; (4) the measurements can be performed for more than four weeks, allowing perturbations of the circadian clock to be followed long-term in the same animals; (5) this is an automated process (microdialysis coupled with on-line HPLC analysis), which increases accuracy and bypasses the labor-intensive and error-prone manual handling of dialysis samples; and (6) our approach allows real-time investigation of circadian rhythm function and permits appropriate timely adjustments of experimental conditions. The longevity of microdialysis probes, the key to the success of this approach, depends at least in part on the methods of the construction and implantation of dialysis probes. In this article, we have detailed the procedures of construction and surgical implantation of microdialysis probes used currently in our laboratory, which are significantly improved from our previous methods. PMID:18045670

Clay illuviation provides a long-term sink for C sequestration in subsoils

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Torres-Sallan, Gemma; Schulte, Rogier P. O.; Lanigan, Gary J.; Byrne, Kenneth A.; Reidy, Brian; Simó, Iolanda; Six, Johan; Creamer, Rachel E.

2017-04-01

Soil plays a key role in the global carbon (C) cycle. Most current assessments of SOC stocks and the guidelines given by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) focus on the top 30 cm of soil. Our research shows that, when considering only total quantities, most of the SOC stocks are found in this top layer. However, not all forms of SOC are equally valuable as long-term stable stores of carbon: the majority of SOC is available for mineralisation and can potentially be re-emitted to the atmosphere. SOC associated with micro-aggregates and silt plus clay fractions is more stable and therefore represents a long-term carbon store. Our research shows that most of this stable carbon is located at depths below 30 cm (42% of subsoil SOC is located in microaggregates and silt and clay, compared to 16% in the topsoil), specifically in soils that are subject to clay illuviation. This has implications for land management decisions in temperate grassland regions, defining the trade-offs between primary productivity and C emissions in clay-illuviated soils, as a result of drainage. Therefore, climate smart land management should consider the balance between SOC stabilisation in topsoils for productivity versus sequestration in subsoils for climate mitigation.

Redefining neighborhoods using common destinations: social characteristics of activity spaces and home census tracts compared.

PubMed

Jones, Malia; Pebley, Anne R

2014-06-01

Research on neighborhood effects has focused largely on residential neighborhoods, but people are exposed to many other places in the course of their daily lives-at school, at work, when shopping, and so on. Thus, studies of residential neighborhoods consider only a subset of the social-spatial environment affecting individuals. In this article, we examine the characteristics of adults' "activity spaces"-spaces defined by locations that individuals visit regularly-in Los Angeles County, California. Using geographic information system (GIS) methods, we define activity spaces in two ways and estimate their socioeconomic characteristics. Our research has two goals. First, we determine whether residential neighborhoods represent the social conditions to which adults are exposed in the course of their regular activities. Second, we evaluate whether particular groups are exposed to a broader or narrower range of social contexts in the course of their daily activities. We find that activity spaces are substantially more heterogeneous in terms of key social characteristics, compared to residential neighborhoods. However, the characteristics of both home neighborhoods and activity spaces are closely associated with individual characteristics. Our results suggest that most people experience substantial segregation across the range of spaces in their daily lives, not just at home.

Functional and evolutionary insights from the Ciona notochord transcriptome.

PubMed

Reeves, Wendy M; Wu, Yuye; Harder, Matthew J; Veeman, Michael T

2017-09-15

The notochord of the ascidian Ciona consists of only 40 cells, and is a longstanding model for studying organogenesis in a small, simple embryo. Here, we perform RNAseq on flow-sorted notochord cells from multiple stages to define a comprehensive Ciona notochord transcriptome. We identify 1364 genes with enriched expression and extensively validate the results by in situ hybridization. These genes are highly enriched for Gene Ontology terms related to the extracellular matrix, cell adhesion and cytoskeleton. Orthologs of 112 of the Ciona notochord genes have known notochord expression in vertebrates, more than twice as many as predicted by chance alone. This set of putative effector genes with notochord expression conserved from tunicates to vertebrates will be invaluable for testing hypotheses about notochord evolution. The full set of Ciona notochord genes provides a foundation for systems-level studies of notochord gene regulation and morphogenesis. We find only modest overlap between this set of notochord-enriched transcripts and the genes upregulated by ectopic expression of the key notochord transcription factor Brachyury, indicating that Brachyury is not a notochord master regulator gene as strictly defined. © 2017. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd.

Integrative Understanding of Emergent Brain Properties, Quantum Brain Hypotheses, and Connectome Alterations in Dementia are Key Challenges to Conquer Alzheimer's Disease.

PubMed

Kuljiš, Rodrigo O

2010-01-01

The biological substrate for cognition remains a challenge as much as defining this function of living beings. Here, we examine some of the difficulties to understand normal and disordered cognition in humans. We use aspects of Alzheimer's disease and related disorders to illustrate how the wealth of information at many conceptually separate, even intellectually decoupled, physical scales - in particular at the Molecular Neuroscience versus Systems Neuroscience/Neuropsychology levels - presents a challenge in terms of true interdisciplinary integration towards a coherent understanding. These unresolved dilemmas include critically the as yet untested quantum brain hypothesis, and the embryonic attempts to develop and define the so-called connectome in humans and in non-human models of disease. To mitigate these challenges, we propose a scheme incorporating the vast array of scales of the space and time (space-time) manifold from at least the subatomic through cognitive-behavioral dimensions of inquiry, to achieve a new understanding of both normal and disordered cognition, that is essential for a new era of progress in the Generative Sciences and its application to translational efforts for disease prevention and treatment.

The prevalence of vegetative and minimally conscious states: a systematic review and methodological appraisal.

PubMed

Pisa, Federica Edith; Biasutti, Emanuele; Drigo, Daniela; Barbone, Fabio

2014-01-01

To systematically review prevalence studies of vegetative state (VS) and minimally conscious state (MCS) in geographically defined populations, to appraise study methods and assess sources of heterogeneity. MEDLINE, EBM Reviews, and EMBASE databases were searched using key terms. Two reviewers independently identified pertinent articles and screened the references for additional studies. Studies measuring the prevalence of VS and/or MCS in a defined population were included, and information on characteristics, methods, and results was extracted. Heterogeneity was quantified through the statistic I. We identified 5 cross-sectional prevalence surveys of VS and 1 of MCS. Prevalence ranged from 0.2 cases per 100,000 inhabitants to 3.4 for VS and was 1.5 per 100,000 for MCS. Relevant heterogeneity (I = 99.0%) prevented us from calculating a summary estimate. The prevalence of trauma cases varied from 21.9% to 53.8%. Variability pertaining to diagnostic criteria, definition of case, and methods of ascertainment was found. In the few prevalence studies of VS and MCS that were identified, the estimates showed high variability and could not be pooled. Future studies should consider using comparable methods for the definition, ascertainment, and confirmation of cases.

Direct and reverse secret-key capacities of a quantum channel.

PubMed

Pirandola, Stefano; García-Patrón, Raul; Braunstein, Samuel L; Lloyd, Seth

2009-02-06

We define the direct and reverse secret-key capacities of a memoryless quantum channel as the optimal rates that entanglement-based quantum-key-distribution protocols can reach by using a single forward classical communication (direct reconciliation) or a single feedback classical communication (reverse reconciliation). In particular, the reverse secret-key capacity can be positive for antidegradable channels, where no forward strategy is known to be secure. This property is explicitly shown in the continuous variable framework by considering arbitrary one-mode Gaussian channels.

Contributing to the ICNP: validating the term 'informal settlement'.

PubMed

Geyer, N; Mmuwe-Hlahane, S; Shongwe-Magongo, R G; Uys, E

2005-12-01

The specific aims of this study were to propose a definition of the term informal settlement, validate the term informal settlement, and submit a term and definition for international utilization to the International Council of Nurses (ICN) for consideration for inclusion in the International Classification of Nursing Practice (ICNP). South Africa was one of four African countries (Botswana, South Africa, Swaziland and Zimbabwe) funded by the WK Kellogg Foundation to participate in the ICNP project. South Africa had two research groups. One of the research groups identified the term informal settlement to define. This was a qualitative study where a philosophical perspective was used to explore, explain and describe nursing practice. The combined method proposed by the ICN was utilized to define and validate the term informal settlement. Validation and literature review provided sufficient support for the defined characteristics and the term was finally defined and submitted to ICN on 12 April 2001 as informal settlement is a type of residential development with the specific characteristics--temporary residential structures, erected with limited or no formal infrastructure, densely populated, no secure tenure for occupants, no property demarcations, often associated with overcrowding/limited or no privacy, and low standard of living, being situated in high risk areas with an increased risk for disease and disasters. The ICNP Evaluation Committee recommended inclusion in the ICNP with minor changes in February 2003.

7 CFR 90.2 - General terms defined.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... agency, or other agency, organization or person that defines in the general terms the basis on which the... analytical data using proficiency check sample or analyte recovery techniques. In addition, the certainty.... Quality control. The system of close examination of the critical details of an analytical procedure in...

7 CFR 75.2 - Terms defined.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 3 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Terms defined. 75.2 Section 75.2 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE (Standards, Inspections, Marketing Practices), DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE (CONTINUED) REGULATIONS AND STANDARDS UNDER THE AGRICULTURAL MARKETING ACT OF 1946 AND THE EGG...

7 CFR 75.2 - Terms defined.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 3 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Terms defined. 75.2 Section 75.2 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE (Standards, Inspections, Marketing Practices), DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE (CONTINUED) REGULATIONS AND STANDARDS UNDER THE AGRICULTURAL MARKETING ACT OF 1946 AND THE EGG...

7 CFR 75.2 - Terms defined.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 3 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Terms defined. 75.2 Section 75.2 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE (Standards, Inspections, Marketing Practices), DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE (CONTINUED) REGULATIONS AND STANDARDS UNDER THE AGRICULTURAL MARKETING ACT OF 1946 AND THE EGG...

7 CFR 75.2 - Terms defined.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 3 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Terms defined. 75.2 Section 75.2 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE (Standards, Inspections, Marketing Practices), DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE (CONTINUED) REGULATIONS AND STANDARDS UNDER THE AGRICULTURAL MARKETING ACT OF 1946 AND THE EGG...

7 CFR 75.2 - Terms defined.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 3 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Terms defined. 75.2 Section 75.2 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE (Standards, Inspections, Marketing Practices), DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE (CONTINUED) REGULATIONS AND STANDARDS UNDER THE AGRICULTURAL MARKETING ACT OF 1946 AND THE EGG...

An organizing framework for wilderness values

Treesearch

John C. Bergstrom; J. Michael Bowker; H. Ken Cordell

2005-01-01

Scientists, philosophers, poets, and politicians have defined wilderness in various physical, biological, and metaphysical terms. Following a metaphysical line of thought, wilderness has been described as a subjective "idea" in the mind of the beholder (Oelschlaeger, 1991). The Wilderness Act uses many physical and biological terms to define statutory...

An Essential Interrelationship: Healthy Self-Esteem and Productive Creativity.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yau, Cecilia

1991-01-01

This paper defines the term "self-image" or "self-esteem" and defines the term "creativity" from psychoanalytic and humanist interpretations. It then proposes the theory that a positive self-image enhances the possibilities for creative productivity or lifestyle. Practical implications for child rearing are offered. (JDD)

Defining indoor heat thresholds for health in the UK.

PubMed

Anderson, Mindy; Carmichael, Catriona; Murray, Virginia; Dengel, Andy; Swainson, Michael

2013-05-01

It has been recognised that as outdoor ambient temperatures increase past a particular threshold, so do mortality/morbidity rates. However, similar thresholds for indoor temperatures have not yet been identified. Due to a warming climate, the non-sustainability of air conditioning as a solution, and the desire for more energy-efficient airtight homes, thresholds for indoor temperature should be defined as a public health issue. The aim of this paper is to outline the need for indoor heat thresholds and to establish if they can be identified. Our objectives include: describing how indoor temperature is measured; highlighting threshold measurements and indices; describing adaptation to heat; summary of the risk of susceptible groups to heat; reviewing the current evidence on the link between sleep, heat and health; exploring current heat and health warning systems and thresholds; exploring the built environment and the risk of overheating; and identifying the gaps in current knowledge and research. A global literature search of key databases was conducted using a pre-defined set of keywords to retrieve peer-reviewed and grey literature. The paper will apply the findings to the context of the UK. A summary of 96 articles, reports, government documents and textbooks were analysed and a gap analysis was conducted. Evidence on the effects of indoor heat on health implies that buildings are modifiers of the effect of climate on health outcomes. Personal exposure and place-based heat studies showed the most significant correlations between indoor heat and health outcomes. However, the data are sparse and inconclusive in terms of identifying evidence-based definitions for thresholds. Further research needs to be conducted in order to provide an evidence base for threshold determination. Indoor and outdoor heat are related but are different in terms of language and measurement. Future collaboration between the health and building sectors is needed to develop a common language and an index for indoor heat and health thresholds in a changing climate.

Advancing the application of systems thinking in health: sustainability evaluation as learning and sense-making in a complex urban health system in Northern Bangladesh.

PubMed

Sarriot, Eric G; Kouletio, Michelle; Jahan, Dr Shamim; Rasul, Izaz; Musha, Akm

2014-08-26

Starting in 1999, Concern Worldwide Inc. (Concern) worked with two Bangladeshi municipal health departments to support delivery of maternal and child health preventive services. A mid-term evaluation identified sustainability challenges. Concern relied on systems thinking implicitly to re-prioritize sustainability, but stakeholders also required a method, an explicit set of processes, to guide their decisions and choices during and after the project. Concern chose the Sustainability Framework method to generate creative thinking from stakeholders, create a common vision, and monitor progress. The Framework is based on participatory and iterative steps: defining (mapping) the local system and articulating a long-term vision, describing scenarios for achieving the vision, defining the elements of the model, and selecting corresponding indicators, setting and executing an assessment plan,, and repeated stakeholder engagement in analysis and decisions . Formal assessments took place up to 5 years post-project (2009). Strategic choices for the project were guided by articulating a collective vision for sustainable health, mapping the system of actors required to effect and sustain change, and defining different components of analysis. Municipal authorities oriented health teams toward equity-oriented service delivery efforts, strengthening of the functionality of Ward Health Committees, resource leveraging between municipalities and the Ministry of Health, and mitigation of contextual risks. Regular reference to a vision (and set of metrics (population health, organizational and community capacity) mitigated political factors. Key structures and processes were maintained following elections and political changes. Post-project achievements included the maintenance or improvement 5 years post-project (2009) in 9 of the 11 health indicator gains realized during the project (1999-2004). Some elements of performance and capacity weakened, but reductions in the equity gap achieved during the project were largely maintained post-project. Sustainability is dynamic and results from local systems processes, which can be strengthened through both implicit and explicit systems thinking steps applied with constancy of purpose.

A Review of Supplementary Medical Aspects of Post-Cold War UN Peacekeeping Operations: Trends, Lessons Learned, Courses of Action, and Recommendations.

PubMed

Johnson, Ralph J

2015-01-01

Post-Cold War United Nations Peace Keeping Operations (UN PKOs) have been increasingly involved in dangerous areas with ill-defined boundaries, harsh and remote geographies, simmering internecine armed conflict, and disregard on the part of some local parties for peacekeepers' security and role. In the interest of force protection and optimizing operations, a key component of UN PKOs is healthcare and medical treatment. The expectation is that UN PKO medical support will adjust to the general intent and structure of UN PKOs. To do so requires effective policies and planning informed by a review of all medical aspects of UN PKO operations, including those considered supplementary, that is, less crucial but contributing nonetheless. Medical aspects considered paramount and key to UN PKOs have received relatively thorough treatment elsewhere. The intent of this article is to report on ancillary and supplemental medical aspects practical to post-Cold War UN PKO operations assembled through an iterative inquiry of open-source articles. Recommendations are made about possible courses of action in terms of addressing trends found in such medical aspects of PKOs and relevance of US/NATO/European Union models and research.

Helicity within the vortex filament model.

PubMed

Hänninen, R; Hietala, N; Salman, H

2016-11-24

Kinetic helicity is one of the invariants of the Euler equations that is associated with the topology of vortex lines within the fluid. In superfluids, the vorticity is concentrated along vortex filaments. In this setting, helicity would be expected to acquire its simplest form. However, the lack of a core structure for vortex filaments appears to result in a helicity that does not retain its key attribute as a quadratic invariant. By defining a spanwise vector to the vortex through the use of a Seifert framing, we are able to introduce twist and henceforth recover the key properties of helicity. We present several examples for calculating internal twist to illustrate why the centreline helicity alone will lead to ambiguous results if a twist contribution is not introduced. Our choice of the spanwise vector can be expressed in terms of the tangential component of velocity along the filament. Since the tangential velocity does not alter the configuration of the vortex at later times, we are able to recover a similar equation for the internal twist angle to that of classical vortex tubes. Our results allow us to explain how a quasi-classical limit of helicity emerges from helicity considerations for individual superfluid vortex filaments.

Helicity within the vortex filament model

PubMed Central

Hänninen, R.; Hietala, N.; Salman, H.

2016-01-01

Kinetic helicity is one of the invariants of the Euler equations that is associated with the topology of vortex lines within the fluid. In superfluids, the vorticity is concentrated along vortex filaments. In this setting, helicity would be expected to acquire its simplest form. However, the lack of a core structure for vortex filaments appears to result in a helicity that does not retain its key attribute as a quadratic invariant. By defining a spanwise vector to the vortex through the use of a Seifert framing, we are able to introduce twist and henceforth recover the key properties of helicity. We present several examples for calculating internal twist to illustrate why the centreline helicity alone will lead to ambiguous results if a twist contribution is not introduced. Our choice of the spanwise vector can be expressed in terms of the tangential component of velocity along the filament. Since the tangential velocity does not alter the configuration of the vortex at later times, we are able to recover a similar equation for the internal twist angle to that of classical vortex tubes. Our results allow us to explain how a quasi-classical limit of helicity emerges from helicity considerations for individual superfluid vortex filaments. PMID:27883029

Mitochondrial Dysfunction in Cancer

PubMed Central

Boland, Michelle L.; Chourasia, Aparajita H.; Macleod, Kay F.

2013-01-01

A mechanistic understanding of how mitochondrial dysfunction contributes to cell growth and tumorigenesis is emerging beyond Warburg as an area of research that is under-explored in terms of its significance for clinical management of cancer. Work discussed in this review focuses less on the Warburg effect and more on mitochondria and how dysfunctional mitochondria modulate cell cycle, gene expression, metabolism, cell viability, and other established aspects of cell growth and stress responses. There is increasing evidence that key oncogenes and tumor suppressors modulate mitochondrial dynamics through important signaling pathways and that mitochondrial mass and function vary between tumors and individuals but the significance of these events for cancer are not fully appreciated. We explore the interplay between key molecules involved in mitochondrial fission and fusion and in apoptosis, as well as in mitophagy, biogenesis, and spatial dynamics of mitochondria and consider how these distinct mechanisms are coordinated in response to physiological stresses such as hypoxia and nutrient deprivation. Importantly, we examine how deregulation of these processes in cancer has knock on effects for cell proliferation and growth. We define major forms of mitochondrial dysfunction and address the extent to which the functional consequences of such dysfunction can be determined and exploited for cancer diagnosis and treatment. PMID:24350057

RUBE: an XML-based architecture for 3D process modeling and model fusion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fishwick, Paul A.

2002-07-01

Information fusion is a critical problem for science and engineering. There is a need to fuse information content specified as either data or model. We frame our work in terms of fusing dynamic and geometric models, to create an immersive environment where these models can be juxtaposed in 3D, within the same interface. The method by which this is accomplished fits well into other eXtensible Markup Language (XML) approaches to fusion in general. The task of modeling lies at the heart of the human-computer interface, joining the human to the system under study through a variety of sensory modalities. I overview modeling as a key concern for the Defense Department and the Air Force, and then follow with a discussion of past, current, and future work. Past work began with a package with C and has progressed, in current work, to an implementation in XML. Our current work is defined within the RUBE architecture, which is detailed in subsequent papers devoted to key components. We have built RUBE as a next generation modeling framework using our prior software, with research opportunities in immersive 3D and tangible user interfaces.

A nicotine delivery device without the nicotine? Tobacco industry development of low nicotine cigarettes.

PubMed

Dunsby, J; Bero, L

2004-12-01

Defining harm reduction and regulating potentially reduced exposure products (PREPs), including low nicotine products, are key issues in tobacco control policy. The US Congress has been considering legislation authorising the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to regulate tobacco products. To investigate tobacco industry perceptions, interests, motivations, and knowledge regarding the marketability of low nicotine tobacco products. Qualitative analysis of internal tobacco industry documents identified in the Legacy Tobacco Documents Library between February 2002 and June 2004. Search terms included low-, no-, reduced-nicotine; denicotinization; low-, reduced- alkaloids; Next; de-nic; and key names of people, organisations, projects, and their common abbreviations and acronyms. The tobacco industry has made repeated efforts to develop low nicotine cigarettes. Reasons for doing so include consumer appeal and economic importance in a highly competitive cigarette market for "healthier" products. The industry considered the development of a new "denic" market segment a critical challenge. The tobacco industry exploits consumer misunderstanding of the health effects of nicotine in development and marketing efforts. The industry has risked the development of a less addictive product to expand the market reach of tobacco products based on perceived health benefits and appeal to quitters.

Machine actionable information about observed environments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stocker, Markus; Nativi, Stefano; Pearlman, Jay

2017-04-01

Data, information, and knowledge are terms commonly used in earth and environmental sciences, as well as in informatics supporting these sciences. The Lindstrom et al. Framework for Ocean Observing highlights the "challenge of delivering ocean information for societal benefit" and suggests that a key framework concept is to promote the "transformation of observational data organized in [Essential Ocean Variables] into information." A flyer presenting the Integrated Carbon Observation System says "Knowledge through observations." Writing about Oceans 2.0, Ocean Networks Canada highlights that the system is able to mine "data streams to detect trends, classify content and extract features [...] thereby turning raw data into information and setting the stage to allow the information to be transformed into knowledge." At 2016 AGU Fall Meeting, Rebecca Moore presented the vision of monitoring a changing planet and "generating precise, actionable information and knowledge." Yet, what exactly are these entities in the context of earth sciences and environmental research infrastructures? Can they be defined? To which processes are they input and output? How are they represented and managed? Can we extend Moore's vision to machine actionable information and knowledge? Information Systems research has for long struggled with defining data, information, and knowledge. Literature on the Data, Information, Knowledge, Wisdom (DIKW) hierarchy underscores the challenge of defining these terms. Some scholars have even suggested that providing general definitions is beyond the scope of the discipline. This may be particularly true at the higher levels, where wisdom should be considered in the context of the societal environment and may not be quantifiable out of context. While reaching consensus is hard, to obtain a better understanding for what the terms mean, how they are applied, and to what processes they are relevant in the context of earth sciences and environmental research infrastructures is arguably worthwhile. This can be done in some situations through the examination of exemplars or use cases, particularly addressing processing for translation of data to knowledge. In this talk, we will not attempt to define what data, information, and knowledge are in the context of earth sciences and environmental research infrastructures. Rather, in the particular context of a concrete use case in aerosol science - namely for the study of atmospheric new particle formation events on concentration of polydisperse aerosol - we present how observational data on concentration evolve to but are different from information about events, and how these entities are input and output, respectively, to the process of interpretation. The presentation involves technologies that enable the formal representation and management of information. Information about new particle formation events is thus machine actionable.

Lifelong Learning Key Competence Levels of Graduate Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Adabas, Abdurrahman; Kaygin, Hüseyin

2016-01-01

The European Union defines lifelong learning as all activities aimed at improving an individual's knowledge, skills and competences individually, socially or vocationally throughout his/her life. In 2007, eight key competences necessary for lifelong learning were identified by the European Union Education and Culture Commission. These competences…

Dose and Effect Thresholds for Early Key Events in a Mode of PPARa-Mediated Action

EPA Science Inventory

ABSTRACT Strategies for predicting adverse health outcomes of environmental chemicals are centered on early key events in toxicity pathways. However, quantitative relationships between early molecular changes in a given pathway and later health effects are often poorly defined. T...

Defining 'nutraceuticals': neither nutritious nor pharmaceutical.

PubMed

Aronson, Jeffrey K

2017-01-01

There are widespread inconsistencies and contradictions in the many published definitions of 'nutraceuticals' and 'functional foods', demonstrating wholesale uncertainty about what they actually are. Furthermore, in a 2014 lecture, the inventor of the term 'nutraceutical', confessing that nutraceuticals do not work, said that 'the quest to demonstrate whether … long-term supplementation [with nutraceuticals] can prevent serious diseases … has come to an end'. Definitions of 'nutraceuticals' and related terms, still widely used, should therefore be explored systematically. There are no internationally agreed definitions of 'nutraceuticals' and 'functional foods', or of similar terms, such as 'health foods', or of terms related to herbal products, which are sometimes referred to as 'nutraceuticals', compounding the confusion. 'Nutraceuticals' and 'functional foods' are vague, nondiscriminatory, unhelpful terms; the evidence suggests that they should be abandoned in favour of more precise terms. The term 'dietary supplement' is widely used to designate formulations that are also called 'nutraceuticals' but it would be better restricted to individual compounds used to treat or prevent deficiencies. 'Fortified foods', sometimes called 'designer foods', are foods to which compounds of proven therapeutic or preventive efficacy (e.g. folic acid) have been added. Other terms, such as 'food', 'foodstuffs', 'eat', 'drink', and 'nutrition', are well defined, as are 'medicinal products' and 'pharmaceutical formulations'. Dietary regimens, such as Mediterranean or nitrate-rich diets or vegetarianism, can affect health. A dietary regimen of this kind can be defined as a programme of food, of a defined kind and/or quantity, prescribed or adopted for the restoration or preservation of health. © 2016 The British Pharmacological Society.

Optimising diagnosis of viraemic hepatitis C infection: the development of a target product profile.

PubMed

Ivanova Reipold, Elena; Easterbrook, Philippa; Trianni, Alessandra; Panneer, Nivedha; Krakower, Douglas; Ongarello, Stefano; Roberts, Teri; Miller, Veronica; Denkinger, Claudia

2017-11-01

The current low access to virological testing to confirm chronic viraemic HCV infection in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) is limiting the rollout of hepatitis C (HCV) care. Existing tests are complex, costly and require sophisticated laboratory infrastructure. Diagnostic manufacturers need guidance on the optimal characteristics a virological test needs to have to ensure the greatest impact on HCV diagnosis and treatment in LMIC. Our objective was to develop a target product profile (TPP) for diagnosis of HCV viraemia using a global stakeholder consensus-based approach. Based on the standardised process established to develop consensus-based TPPs, we followed five key steps. (i) Identifying key potential global stakeholders for consultation and input into the TPP development process. (ii) Informal priority-setting exercise with key experts to identify the needs that should be the highest priority for the TPP development; (iii) Defining the key TPP domains (scope, performance and operational characteristics and price). (iv) Delphi-like process with larger group of key stakeholder to facilitate feedback on the key TPP criteria and consensus building based on pre-defined consensus criteria. (v) A final consensus-gathering meeting for discussions around disputed criteria. A complementary values and preferences survey helped to assess trade-offs between different key characteristics. The following key attributes for the TPP for a test to confirm HCV viraemic infection were identified: The scope defined is for both HCV detection as well as confirmation of cure. The timeline of development for tests envisioned in the TPP is 5 years. The test should be developed for use by health-care workers or laboratory technicians with limited training in countries with a medium to high prevalence of HCV (1.5-3.5% and >3.5%) and in high-risk populations in low prevalence settings (<1.5%). A clinical sensitivity at a minimum of 90% is considered sufficient (analytical sensitivity of the equivalent of 3000 IU/ml), particularly if the test increases access to testing through an affordable price, increase ease-of-use and feasibility on capillary blood. Polyvalency would be optimal (i.e. ability to test for HIV and others). The only characteristic that full agreement could not be achieved on was the price for a virological test. Discussants felt that to reach the optimal target price substantial trade-offs had to be made (e.g. in regards to sensitivity and integration). The TPP and V&P survey results define the need for an easy-to-use, low cost test to increase access to diagnosis and linkage to care in LMIC.

[The benefits of doing excercise in the elderly].

PubMed

Avila-Funes, José Alberto; García-Mayo, Emilio José

2004-01-01

Advanced age is associated with changes in body composition such as muscular mass loss, which is defined as sarcopenia. The former term plays a key role in the frailty model, although its source is unknown. Myriad strategies have been used to improve and increase muscular mass and function in older persons. The muscle is a versatile system that owes its great capacity to adaption to regular exercise programs. Aerobic exercise and resistance training improve muscular function and can minimize and even reverse sarcopenia in the elderly (healthy, very elderly or frail). The main difference in prescribing exercise for healthy adults and elderly individuals is that intensity of training program is lower for the latter. This review is aimed toward the physiopathologic aspects and clinical implications regarding muscular mass loss and to programs directed toward increasing strength and/or endurance in the elderly.

Abnormal Uterine Bleeding: American College of Nurse-Midwives.

PubMed

2016-07-01

Variations in uterine bleeding, termed abnormal uterine bleeding, occur commonly among women and often are physiologic in nature with no significant consequences. However, abnormal uterine bleeding can cause significant distress to women or may signify an underlying pathologic condition. Most women experience variations in menstrual and perimenstrual bleeding in their lifetimes; therefore, the ability of the midwife to differentiate between normal and abnormal bleeding is a key diagnostic skill. A comprehensive history and use of the PALM-COEIN classification system will provide clear guidelines for clinical management, evidence-based treatment, and an individualized plan of care. The purpose of this Clinical Bulletin is to define and describe classifications of abnormal uterine bleeding, review updated terminology, and identify methods of assessment and treatment using a woman-centered approach. © 2016 by the American College of Nurse-Midwives.

Innovation: an emerging focus from cells to societies.

PubMed

Hochberg, Michael E; Marquet, Pablo A; Boyd, Robert; Wagner, Andreas

2017-12-05

Innovations are generally unexpected, often spectacular changes in phenotypes and ecological functions. The contributions to this theme issue are the latest conceptual, theoretical and experimental developments, addressing how ecology, environment, ontogeny and evolution are central to understanding the complexity of the processes underlying innovations. Here, we set the stage by introducing and defining key terms relating to innovation and discuss their relevance to biological, cultural and technological change. Discovering how the generation and transmission of novel biological information, environmental interactions and selective evolutionary processes contribute to innovation as an ecosystem will shed light on how the dominant features across life come to be, generalize to social, cultural and technological evolution, and have applications in the health sciences and sustainability.This article is part of the theme issue 'Process and pattern in innovations from cells to societies'. © 2017 The Author(s).

Innovation: an emerging focus from cells to societies

PubMed Central

Boyd, Robert

2017-01-01

Innovations are generally unexpected, often spectacular changes in phenotypes and ecological functions. The contributions to this theme issue are the latest conceptual, theoretical and experimental developments, addressing how ecology, environment, ontogeny and evolution are central to understanding the complexity of the processes underlying innovations. Here, we set the stage by introducing and defining key terms relating to innovation and discuss their relevance to biological, cultural and technological change. Discovering how the generation and transmission of novel biological information, environmental interactions and selective evolutionary processes contribute to innovation as an ecosystem will shed light on how the dominant features across life come to be, generalize to social, cultural and technological evolution, and have applications in the health sciences and sustainability. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Process and pattern in innovations from cells to societies’. PMID:29061887

The Development of Dynamic Human Reliability Analysis Simulations for Inclusion in Risk Informed Safety Margin Characterization Frameworks

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

Jeffrey C. Joe; Diego Mandelli; Ronald L. Boring

2015-07-01

The United States Department of Energy is sponsoring the Light Water Reactor Sustainability program, which has the overall objective of supporting the near-term and the extended operation of commercial nuclear power plants. One key research and development (R&D) area in this program is the Risk-Informed Safety Margin Characterization pathway, which combines probabilistic risk simulation with thermohydraulic simulation codes to define and manage safety margins. The R&D efforts to date, however, have not included robust simulations of human operators, and how the reliability of human performance or lack thereof (i.e., human errors) can affect risk-margins and plant performance. This paper describesmore » current and planned research efforts to address the absence of robust human reliability simulations and thereby increase the fidelity of simulated accident scenarios.« less

Bethe/Gauge correspondence in odd dimension: modular double, non-perturbative corrections and open topological strings

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sciarappa, Antonio

2016-10-01

Bethe/Gauge correspondence as it is usually stated is ill-defined in five dimensions and needs a "non-perturbative" completion; a related problem also appears in three dimensions. It has been suggested that this problem, probably due to incompleteness of Omega background regularization in odd dimension, may be solved if we consider gauge theory on compact S 5 and S 3 geometries. We will develop this idea further by giving a full Bethe/Gauge correspondence dictionary on S 5 and S 3 focussing mainly on the eigenfunctions of (open and closed) relativistic 2-particle Toda chain and its quantized spectral curve: these are most properly written in terms of non-perturbatively completed NS open topological strings. A key ingredient is Faddeev's modular double structure which is naturally implemented by the S 5 and S 3 geometries.

75 FR 64642 - Indexed Annuities

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-10-20

... under the Securities Act of 1933, which defines the terms ``annuity contract'' and ``optional annuity contract'' under the Act. On July 12, 2010, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia... under the Securities Act of 1933.\\1\\ Rule 151A defines the terms ``annuity contract'' and ``optional...

7 CFR 1738.19 - Facilities financed.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... broadband loans to finance broadband facilities leased under the terms of a capital lease as defined in... under the terms of an operating lease as defined in generally accepted accounting principles. (c) RUS... applicant. (e) RUS will not make a broadband loan to finance the following items: (1) Customer terminal...

Curriculum Development and Alignment in Radiologic Technology.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dowd, Steven B.

Before developing a curriculum for radiologic technology, one must first attempt to define the term "curriculum." The term is not easy to define precisely, although it does imply the necessity of a master plan that outlines institutional philosophy and goals, course descriptions, description of competency-based evaluation, performance objectives,…

On the Relationships between (Relatively) Advanced Mathematical Knowledge and (Relatively) Advanced Problem-Solving Behaviours

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Koichu, Boris

2010-01-01

This article discusses an issue of inserting mathematical knowledge within the problem-solving processes. Relatively advanced mathematical knowledge is defined in terms of "three mathematical worlds"; relatively advanced problem-solving behaviours are defined in terms of taxonomies of "proof schemes" and "heuristic behaviours". The relationships…

20 CFR 336.1 - Introduction.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... long a qualified employee may receive normal unemployment or sickness benefits under the Railroad... conditions set forth in subpart B of this part. (b) Definitions. The terms “benefit year”, “base year”, and “compensation” are defined in part 302 of this chapter. The term “registration period” is defined in parts 325...

20 CFR 336.1 - Introduction.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... long a qualified employee may receive normal unemployment or sickness benefits under the Railroad... conditions set forth in subpart B of this part. (b) Definitions. The terms “benefit year”, “base year”, and “compensation” are defined in part 302 of this chapter. The term “registration period” is defined in parts 325...

20 CFR 336.1 - Introduction.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... long a qualified employee may receive normal unemployment or sickness benefits under the Railroad... conditions set forth in subpart B of this part. (b) Definitions. The terms “benefit year”, “base year”, and “compensation” are defined in part 302 of this chapter. The term “registration period” is defined in parts 325...

20 CFR 336.1 - Introduction.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... long a qualified employee may receive normal unemployment or sickness benefits under the Railroad... conditions set forth in subpart B of this part. (b) Definitions. The terms “benefit year”, “base year”, and “compensation” are defined in part 302 of this chapter. The term “registration period” is defined in parts 325...

20 CFR 336.1 - Introduction.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... long a qualified employee may receive normal unemployment or sickness benefits under the Railroad... conditions set forth in subpart B of this part. (b) Definitions. The terms “benefit year”, “base year”, and “compensation” are defined in part 302 of this chapter. The term “registration period” is defined in parts 325...

33 CFR 137.10 - How are terms used in this part defined?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... 33 Navigation and Navigable Waters 2 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false How are terms used in this part defined? 137.10 Section 137.10 Navigation and Navigable Waters COAST GUARD, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY (CONTINUED) MARINE POLLUTION FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND COMPENSATION OIL SPILL LIABILITY...

33 CFR 137.10 - How are terms used in this part defined?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 33 Navigation and Navigable Waters 2 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false How are terms used in this part defined? 137.10 Section 137.10 Navigation and Navigable Waters COAST GUARD, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY (CONTINUED) MARINE POLLUTION FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND COMPENSATION OIL SPILL LIABILITY...

33 CFR 137.10 - How are terms used in this part defined?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... 33 Navigation and Navigable Waters 2 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false How are terms used in this part defined? 137.10 Section 137.10 Navigation and Navigable Waters COAST GUARD, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY (CONTINUED) MARINE POLLUTION FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND COMPENSATION OIL SPILL LIABILITY...

33 CFR 137.10 - How are terms used in this part defined?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... 33 Navigation and Navigable Waters 2 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false How are terms used in this part defined? 137.10 Section 137.10 Navigation and Navigable Waters COAST GUARD, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY (CONTINUED) MARINE POLLUTION FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND COMPENSATION OIL SPILL LIABILITY...

33 CFR 137.10 - How are terms used in this part defined?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 33 Navigation and Navigable Waters 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false How are terms used in this part defined? 137.10 Section 137.10 Navigation and Navigable Waters COAST GUARD, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY (CONTINUED) MARINE POLLUTION FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND COMPENSATION OIL SPILL LIABILITY...

Keywords in Composition Studies: Intertextuality.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vandenberg, Peter

Intertextuality is a term that is defined variously and, in a sense, cannot be defined categorically and should not be. The term serves as a point of departure for engaging in an academic discourse grounded in differing theoretical and institutional frames. In the wake of poststructuralism, the classical notion of a "definition," a…

9 CFR 351.2 - Terms defined.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... CERTIFICATION CERTIFICATION OF TECHNICAL ANIMAL FATS FOR EXPORT Definitions § 351.2 Terms defined. When used in..., horses, mules and other equines. (k) Technical animal fat means animal fat eligible for exportation, or storage for exportation, in accordance with § 325.11 of this chapter. (l) Certified technical animal fat...

9 CFR 351.2 - Terms defined.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... CERTIFICATION CERTIFICATION OF TECHNICAL ANIMAL FATS FOR EXPORT Definitions § 351.2 Terms defined. When used in..., horses, mules and other equines. (k) Technical animal fat means animal fat eligible for exportation, or storage for exportation, in accordance with § 325.11 of this chapter. (l) Certified technical animal fat...

9 CFR 351.2 - Terms defined.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... CERTIFICATION CERTIFICATION OF TECHNICAL ANIMAL FATS FOR EXPORT Definitions § 351.2 Terms defined. When used in..., horses, mules and other equines. (k) Technical animal fat means animal fat eligible for exportation, or storage for exportation, in accordance with § 325.11 of this chapter. (l) Certified technical animal fat...

9 CFR 351.2 - Terms defined.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... CERTIFICATION CERTIFICATION OF TECHNICAL ANIMAL FATS FOR EXPORT Definitions § 351.2 Terms defined. When used in..., horses, mules and other equines. (k) Technical animal fat means animal fat eligible for exportation, or storage for exportation, in accordance with § 325.11 of this chapter. (l) Certified technical animal fat...

Measurement Invariance versus Selection Invariance: Is Fair Selection Possible?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Borsman, Denny; Romeijn, Jan-Willem; Wicherts, Jelte M.

2008-01-01

This article shows that measurement invariance (defined in terms of an invariant measurement model in different groups) is generally inconsistent with selection invariance (defined in terms of equal sensitivity and specificity across groups). In particular, when a unidimensional measurement instrument is used and group differences are present in…

48 CFR 252.227-7016 - Rights in bid or proposal information.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... terms “technical data” and “computer software” are defined in the Rights in Technical Data—Noncommercial... delivery of technical data, the term “computer software” is defined in the Rights in Noncommercial Computer... Research Program, the Rights in Noncommercial Technical Data and Computer Software—Small Business...

48 CFR 252.227-7016 - Rights in bid or proposal information.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... terms “technical data” and “computer software” are defined in the Rights in Technical Data—Noncommercial... delivery of technical data, the term “computer software” is defined in the Rights in Noncommercial Computer... Research Program, the Rights in Noncommercial Technical Data and Computer Software—Small Business...

48 CFR 252.227-7016 - Rights in bid or proposal information.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... terms “technical data” and “computer software” are defined in the Rights in Technical Data—Noncommercial... delivery of technical data, the term “computer software” is defined in the Rights in Noncommercial Computer... Research Program, the Rights in Noncommercial Technical Data and Computer Software—Small Business...

48 CFR 252.227-7016 - Rights in bid or proposal information.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... terms “technical data” and “computer software” are defined in the Rights in Technical Data—Noncommercial... delivery of technical data, the term “computer software” is defined in the Rights in Noncommercial Computer... Research Program, the Rights in Noncommercial Technical Data and Computer Software—Small Business...

48 CFR 252.227-7016 - Rights in bid or proposal information.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... terms “technical data” and “computer software” are defined in the Rights in Technical Data—Noncommercial... delivery of technical data, the term “computer software” is defined in the Rights in Noncommercial Computer... Research Program, the Rights in Noncommercial Technical Data and Computer Software—Small Business...

Defining the Terms of Go-between Process.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bambrick, Andrew F.

1980-01-01

Defines terms and operations of Zuk's Go-between Process, in which the therapist manages roles of go-between, side-taker, or celebrant in family therapy interviews. This technique is contrasted with Structural-Strategic Family Therapy in which supervisors phone instructions to trainees while observing through a one-way mirror. (JAC)

Examining sustainability in a hospital setting: case of smoking cessation.

PubMed

Campbell, Sharon; Pieters, Karen; Mullen, Kerri-Anne; Reece, Robin; Reid, Robert D

2011-09-14

The Ottawa Model of Smoking Cessation (OMSC) is a hospital-based smoking cessation program that is expanding across Canada. While the short-term effectiveness of hospital cessation programs has been documented, less is known about long-term sustainability. The purpose of this exploratory study was to understand how hospitals using the OMSC were addressing sustainability and determine if there were critical factors or issues that should be addressed as the program expanded. Six hospitals that differed on OMSC program activities (identify and document smokers, advise quitting, provide medication, and offer follow-up) were intentionally selected, and two key informants per hospital were interviewed using a semi-structured interview guide. Key informants were asked to reflect on the initial decision to implement the OMSC, the current implementation process, and perceived sustainability of the program. Qualitative analysis of the interview transcripts was conducted and themes related to problem definition, stakeholder influence, and program features emerged. Sustainability was operationalized as higher performance of OMSC activities than at baseline. Factors identified in the literature as important for sustainability, such as program design, differences in implementation, organizational characteristics, and the community environment did not explain differences in program sustainability. Instead, key informants identified factors that reflected the interaction between how the health problem was defined by stakeholders, how priorities and concerns were addressed, features of the program itself, and fit within the hospital context and resources as being influential to the sustainability of the program. Applying a sustainability model to a hospital smoking cessation program allowed for an examination of how decisions made during implementation may impact sustainability. Examining these factors during implementation may provide insight into issues affecting program sustainability, and foster development of a sustainability plan. Based on this study, we suggest that sustainability plans should focus on enhancing interactions between the health problem, program features, and stakeholder influence.

Examining sustainability in a hospital setting: Case of smoking cessation

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Background The Ottawa Model of Smoking Cessation (OMSC) is a hospital-based smoking cessation program that is expanding across Canada. While the short-term effectiveness of hospital cessation programs has been documented, less is known about long-term sustainability. The purpose of this exploratory study was to understand how hospitals using the OMSC were addressing sustainability and determine if there were critical factors or issues that should be addressed as the program expanded. Methods Six hospitals that differed on OMSC program activities (identify and document smokers, advise quitting, provide medication, and offer follow-up) were intentionally selected, and two key informants per hospital were interviewed using a semi-structured interview guide. Key informants were asked to reflect on the initial decision to implement the OMSC, the current implementation process, and perceived sustainability of the program. Qualitative analysis of the interview transcripts was conducted and themes related to problem definition, stakeholder influence, and program features emerged. Results Sustainability was operationalized as higher performance of OMSC activities than at baseline. Factors identified in the literature as important for sustainability, such as program design, differences in implementation, organizational characteristics, and the community environment did not explain differences in program sustainability. Instead, key informants identified factors that reflected the interaction between how the health problem was defined by stakeholders, how priorities and concerns were addressed, features of the program itself, and fit within the hospital context and resources as being influential to the sustainability of the program. Conclusions Applying a sustainability model to a hospital smoking cessation program allowed for an examination of how decisions made during implementation may impact sustainability. Examining these factors during implementation may provide insight into issues affecting program sustainability, and foster development of a sustainability plan. Based on this study, we suggest that sustainability plans should focus on enhancing interactions between the health problem, program features, and stakeholder influence. PMID:21917156

Understanding the Emergence of Disruptive Innovation in Air Force Science and Technology Organizations

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-03-01

respect to various key attributes. Although the principles of low-end and new market disruption play the most significant role in the fluid and...crucial role in the emergence of breakthrough and game changing ideas. By examining these key elements with regard to industry innovation, a base...that help define the key characteristics of an innovative culture: strong customer focus, collaboration, effective processes , creative people

Key-and-keyway coupling for transmitting torque

DOEpatents

Blue, S.C.; Curtis, M.T.; Orthwein, W.C.; Stitt, D.H.

1975-11-18

The design of an improved key-and-keyway coupling for the transmission of torque is given. The coupling provides significant reductions in stress concentrations in the vicinity of the key and keyway. The keyway is designed with a flat-bottomed u-shaped portion whose inboard end terminates in a ramp which is dished transversely, so that the surface of the ramp as viewed in transverse section defines an outwardly concave arc.

Why and how might genetic and phylogenetic diversity be reflected in the identification of key biodiversity areas?

PubMed

Brooks, T M; Cuttelod, A; Faith, D P; Garcia-Moreno, J; Langhammer, P; Pérez-Espona, S

2015-02-19

'Key biodiversity areas' are defined as sites contributing significantly to the global persistence of biodiversity. The identification of these sites builds from existing approaches based on measures of species and ecosystem diversity and process. Here, we therefore build from the work of Sgró et al. (2011 Evol. Appl. 4, 326-337. (doi:10.1111/j.1752-4571.2010.00157.x)) to extend a framework for how components of genetic diversity might be considered in the identification of key biodiversity areas. We make three recommendations to inform the ongoing process of consolidating a key biodiversity areas standard: (i) thresholds for the threatened species criterion currently consider a site's share of a threatened species' population; expand these to include the proportion of the species' genetic diversity unique to a site; (ii) expand criterion for 'threatened species' to consider 'threatened taxa' and (iii) expand the centre of endemism criterion to identify as key biodiversity areas those sites holding a threshold proportion of the compositional or phylogenetic diversity of species (within a taxonomic group) whose restricted ranges collectively define a centre of endemism. We also recommend consideration of occurrence of EDGE species (i.e. threatened phylogenetic diversity) in key biodiversity areas to prioritize species-specific conservation actions among sites.

Patients’ Data Management System Protected by Identity-Based Authentication and Key Exchange

PubMed Central

Rivero-García, Alexandra; Santos-González, Iván; Hernández-Goya, Candelaria; Caballero-Gil, Pino; Yung, Moti

2017-01-01

A secure and distributed framework for the management of patients’ information in emergency and hospitalization services is proposed here in order to seek improvements in efficiency and security in this important area. In particular, confidentiality protection, mutual authentication, and automatic identification of patients are provided. The proposed system is based on two types of devices: Near Field Communication (NFC) wristbands assigned to patients, and mobile devices assigned to medical staff. Two other main elements of the system are an intermediate server to manage the involved data, and a second server with a private key generator to define the information required to protect communications. An identity-based authentication and key exchange scheme is essential to provide confidential communication and mutual authentication between the medical staff and the private key generator through an intermediate server. The identification of patients is carried out through a keyed-hash message authentication code. Thanks to the combination of the aforementioned tools, a secure alternative mobile health (mHealth) scheme for managing patients’ data is defined for emergency and hospitalization services. Different parts of the proposed system have been implemented, including mobile application, intermediate server, private key generator and communication channels. Apart from that, several simulations have been performed, and, compared with the current system, significant improvements in efficiency have been observed. PMID:28362328

Why and how might genetic and phylogenetic diversity be reflected in the identification of key biodiversity areas?

PubMed Central

Brooks, T. M.; Cuttelod, A.; Faith, D. P.; Garcia-Moreno, J.; Langhammer, P.; Pérez-Espona, S.

2015-01-01

‘Key biodiversity areas' are defined as sites contributing significantly to the global persistence of biodiversity. The identification of these sites builds from existing approaches based on measures of species and ecosystem diversity and process. Here, we therefore build from the work of Sgró et al. (2011 Evol. Appl. 4, 326–337. (doi:10.1111/j.1752-4571.2010.00157.x)) to extend a framework for how components of genetic diversity might be considered in the identification of key biodiversity areas. We make three recommendations to inform the ongoing process of consolidating a key biodiversity areas standard: (i) thresholds for the threatened species criterion currently consider a site's share of a threatened species' population; expand these to include the proportion of the species' genetic diversity unique to a site; (ii) expand criterion for ‘threatened species' to consider ‘threatened taxa’ and (iii) expand the centre of endemism criterion to identify as key biodiversity areas those sites holding a threshold proportion of the compositional or phylogenetic diversity of species (within a taxonomic group) whose restricted ranges collectively define a centre of endemism. We also recommend consideration of occurrence of EDGE species (i.e. threatened phylogenetic diversity) in key biodiversity areas to prioritize species-specific conservation actions among sites. PMID:25561678

Patients' Data Management System Protected by Identity-Based Authentication and Key Exchange.

PubMed

Rivero-García, Alexandra; Santos-González, Iván; Hernández-Goya, Candelaria; Caballero-Gil, Pino; Yung, Moti

2017-03-31

A secure and distributed framework for the management of patients' information in emergency and hospitalization services is proposed here in order to seek improvements in efficiency and security in this important area. In particular, confidentiality protection, mutual authentication, and automatic identification of patients are provided. The proposed system is based on two types of devices: Near Field Communication (NFC) wristbands assigned to patients, and mobile devices assigned to medical staff. Two other main elements of the system are an intermediate server to manage the involved data, and a second server with a private key generator to define the information required to protect communications. An identity-based authentication and key exchange scheme is essential to provide confidential communication and mutual authentication between the medical staff and the private key generator through an intermediate server. The identification of patients is carried out through a keyed-hash message authentication code. Thanks to the combination of the aforementioned tools, a secure alternative mobile health (mHealth) scheme for managing patients' data is defined for emergency and hospitalization services. Different parts of the proposed system have been implemented, including mobile application, intermediate server, private key generator and communication channels. Apart from that, several simulations have been performed, and, compared with the current system, significant improvements in efficiency have been observed.

[Medical habilitation in German-speaking countries : Quantitative assessment of content and elaboration of habilitation guidelines].

PubMed

Weineck, S B; Koelblinger, D; Kiesslich, T

2015-04-01

Habilitation defines the qualification to conduct self-contained university teaching and is the key for access to a professorship at German, Austrian and Swiss universities. Despite all changes implemented in the European higher education systems during the Bologna process, it is the highest qualification level issued through the process of an university examination and remains the core concept of scientific careers in these countries. In the field of medicine, this applies not only to scientific staff at the universities but also to those medical doctors aiming at a clinical career track. To provide a quantitative analysis of the scientific, didactic, and procedural criteria for medical habilitation in German-speaking countries. Based on the guidelines of all 43 medical academic institutions, the criteria which candidates are required to fulfil prior to habilitation as well as formal requirements related to the habilitation procedure itself have been acquired and quantitatively analyzed. Having evaluated all habilitation guidelines by means of 87 items, the quantitative analysis revealed significant differences in terms of number, kind and scale of criteria stated therein. Most habilitation guidelines scarcely define the capabilities applicants have to prove: concerning the scientific qualifications on types of publications for instance, no item was mentioned in more than half of all habilitation guidelines. Based on this data analysis, the authors discuss the related literature and describe five main distinguishing areas of habilitation guidelines in terms of the set of the formal and procedural framework as well as the prequalification and postqualification criteria imposed on habilitation candidates. There are therefore substantial differences in the organization of the habilitation for medicine.

40 CFR 355.61 - How are key words in this part defined?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... includes manmade structures, as well as all natural structures in which chemicals are purposefully placed... agricultural products during a year. Hazardous chemical means any hazardous chemical as defined under 29 CFR... of a technically qualified individual; or (iii) In routine agricultural operations or is a fertilizer...

40 CFR 355.61 - How are key words in this part defined?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... includes manmade structures, as well as all natural structures in which chemicals are purposefully placed... agricultural products during a year. Hazardous chemical means any hazardous chemical as defined under 29 CFR... of a technically qualified individual; or (iii) In routine agricultural operations or is a fertilizer...

14 CFR 1216.203 - Definition of key terms.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... Floodplain and Wetlands Management § 1216.203 Definition of key terms. (a) Action—any NASA activity including... buildings, structures and utility items, marine structures, bridges and other land development items, such... wetlands. (i) Floodproofing—the modification of individual structures and facilities, their sites, and...

Results of availability imposed configuration details developed for K-DEMO

DOE PAGES

Brown, Tom; Titus, Peter; Brooks, Art; ...

2016-02-05

We completed a two year study using the Korean fusion demonstration reactor (K-DEMO) where we looked at key Tokamak components and configuration options in preparation of a conceptual design phase. A key part of a device configuration centers on defining an arrangement that enhances the ability to reach high availability values by defining design solutions that foster simplified maintenance operations. In order to maximize the size and minimize the number of in-vessel components enlarged TF coils were defined that incorporate a pair of windings within each coil to mitigate pressure drop issues and to reduce the cost of the coils.more » Furthermore, we defined a semi-permanent shield structure in order to develop labyrinth interfaces between double-null plasma contoured shield modules, provide an entity to align blanket components and provide support against disruption loads—with a load path that equilibrates blanket, TF and PF loads through a base structure. Blanket piping services and auxiliary systems that interface with in-vessel components have played a major role in defining the overall device arrangement—concept details will be presented along with general arrangement features and preliminary results obtained from disruption analysis.« less

The Successes and Failures of Democracy in the Post-Soviet Republics

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-09-01

concepts and terms must be defined and qualified. To start at the beginning, what is meant by the term democracy? How is this term defined and...established a baseline definition for research and analysis.10 Although minimalist , and perhaps seemingly devoid of valuable information, this...republics in 2002 can be used as a starting point for investigation. Returning to Figure 1 and McFaul’s Balance of Leadership Theory, the data show

Delay and cost performance analysis of the diffie-hellman key exchange protocol in opportunistic mobile networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Soelistijanto, B.; Muliadi, V.

2018-03-01

Diffie-Hellman (DH) provides an efficient key exchange system by reducing the number of cryptographic keys distributed in the network. In this method, a node broadcasts a single public key to all nodes in the network, and in turn each peer uses this key to establish a shared secret key which then can be utilized to encrypt and decrypt traffic between the peer and the given node. In this paper, we evaluate the key transfer delay and cost performance of DH in opportunistic mobile networks, a specific scenario of MANETs where complete end-to-end paths rarely exist between sources and destinations; consequently, the end-to-end delays in these networks are much greater than typical MANETs. Simulation results, driven by a random node movement model and real human mobility traces, showed that DH outperforms a typical key distribution scheme based on the RSA algorithm in terms of key transfer delay, measured by average key convergence time; however, DH performs as well as the benchmark in terms of key transfer cost, evaluated by total key (copies) forwards.

The I.A.G. / A.I.G. SEDIBUD Book Project: Source-to-Sink Fluxes in Undisturbed Cold Environments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Beylich, Achim A.; Dixon, John C.; Zwolinski, Zbigniew

2015-04-01

The currently prepared SEDIBUD Book on "Source-to-Sink Fluxes in Undisturbed Cold Environments" (edited by Achim A. Beylich, John C. Dixon and Zbigniew Zwolinski and published by Cambridge University Press) is summarizing and synthesizing the achievements of the International Association of Geomorphologists` (I.A.G./A.I.G.) Working Group SEDIBUD (Sediment Budgets in Cold Environments), which has been active since 2005 (http://www.geomorph.org/wg/wgsb.html). Amplified climate change and ecological sensitivity of largely undisturbed polar and high-altitude cold climate environments have been highlighted as key global environmental issues. The effects of projected climate change will change surface environments in cold regions and will alter the fluxes of sediments, nutrients and solutes, but the absence of quantitative data and coordinated geomorphic process monitoring and analysis to understand the sensitivity of the Earth surface environment in these largely undisturbed environments is acute. Our book addresses this existing key knowledge gap. The applied approach of integrating comparable and longer-term field datasets on contemporary solute and sedimentary fluxes from a number of different defined cold climate catchment geosystems for better understanding (i) the environmental drivers and rates of contemporary denudational surface processes and (ii) possible effects of projected climate change in cold regions is unique in the field of geomorphology. Largely undisturbed cold climate environments can provide baseline data for modeling the effects of environmental change. The book synthesizes work carried out by numerous SEDIBUD Members over the last decade in numerous cold climate catchment geosystems worldwide. For reaching a global cover of different cold climate environments the book is - after providing an introduction part and a basic part on climate change in cold environments and general implications for solute and sedimentary fluxes - dealing in different defined parts with Sub-Arctic and Arctic Environments, Sub-Antarctic and Antarctic Environments, and Alpine / Mountain Environments. The book includes a synthesis key chapter where comparable datasets on contemporary solute and sedimentary fluxes generated during the conducted coordinated research efforts in different cold climate catchment geosystems are integrated with the key goals to (i) identify the main environmental drivers and rates of contemporary solute and sedimentary fluxes, and (ii) model possible effects of projected climate change on solute and sedimentary fluxes in cold climate environments. The SEDIBUD Book provides new key findings on environmental drivers and rates of contemporary solute and sedimentary fluxes, and on spatial variability within global cold climate environments. The book will go in production in July 2015.

Key Data on Education in Europe 2009

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ranguelov, Stanislav; de Coster, Isabelle; Forsthuber, Bernadette; Noorani, Sogol; Ruffio, Philippe

2009-01-01

This seventh edition of "Key Data on Education in Europe" retains its main special feature which is the combination of statistical data and qualitative information to describe the organisation and functioning of education systems in Europe. The present 2009 edition maintains the subject-based structure defined by the previous one but…

Identifying the Key Concerns of Irish Persons with Intellectual Disability

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

García Iriarte, Edurne; O'Brien, Patricia; McConkey, Roy; Wolfe, Marie; O'Doherty, Siobhain

2014-01-01

Background: Internationally, people with intellectual disability are socially marginalized, and their rights under the United Nations Convention for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) are often ignored. Aims: This paper aims to define the key concerns of adults with an intellectual disability in relation to their participation in…

Keys to Success in Raising Funds: An Exchange Classic.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Neugebauer, Roger

2001-01-01

Details survey of over 100 child care centers about successful and unsuccessful fundraising projects. Highlights ten key factors contributing to success: defining the purpose for fundraising, setting a goal, knowing the audience, making it fun, building on strengths, looking for repeated fundraisers, being cost effective, publicizing aggressively,…

Using Key Performance Indicators to Drive Strategic Decision Making.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dolence, Michael G.; Norris, Donald M.

1994-01-01

A nine-step method for defining and pursuing key performance indicators (KPIs), derived from a strategic planning process, is outlined, and its applications at the University of Northern Colorado and Illinois Benedictine College are described and tabulated. A chart summarizes current and projected KPIs for Illinois Benedictine College for each…

Russian Quality Assessment System in Education: Key Lessons

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bolotov, V.; Valdman, I.; Kovaleva, G.; Pinskaya, M.

2015-01-01

This article examines key lessons learned by Russia while developing national assessment system in education. It shows that reforms are more likely to succeed backed with sustained political support, clearly defined goals or priorities, gradual introduction, and open discussion with stakeholders. [This article was translated by Lucy Gunderson.

49 CFR 236.1033 - Communications and security requirements.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... shall: (1) Use an algorithm approved by the National Institute of Standards (NIST) or a similarly...; or (ii) When the key algorithm reaches its lifespan as defined by the standards body responsible for approval of the algorithm. (c) The cleartext form of the cryptographic keys shall be protected from...

49 CFR 236.1033 - Communications and security requirements.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... shall: (1) Use an algorithm approved by the National Institute of Standards (NIST) or a similarly...; or (ii) When the key algorithm reaches its lifespan as defined by the standards body responsible for approval of the algorithm. (c) The cleartext form of the cryptographic keys shall be protected from...

49 CFR 236.1033 - Communications and security requirements.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... shall: (1) Use an algorithm approved by the National Institute of Standards (NIST) or a similarly...; or (ii) When the key algorithm reaches its lifespan as defined by the standards body responsible for approval of the algorithm. (c) The cleartext form of the cryptographic keys shall be protected from...

49 CFR 236.1033 - Communications and security requirements.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... shall: (1) Use an algorithm approved by the National Institute of Standards (NIST) or a similarly...; or (ii) When the key algorithm reaches its lifespan as defined by the standards body responsible for approval of the algorithm. (c) The cleartext form of the cryptographic keys shall be protected from...

49 CFR 236.1033 - Communications and security requirements.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... shall: (1) Use an algorithm approved by the National Institute of Standards (NIST) or a similarly...; or (ii) When the key algorithm reaches its lifespan as defined by the standards body responsible for approval of the algorithm. (c) The cleartext form of the cryptographic keys shall be protected from...

SAM-CAAM: A Concept for Acquiring Systematic Aircraft Measurements to Characterize Aerosol Air Masses

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

Kahn, Ralph A.; Berkoff, Tim A.; Brock, Charles

A modest operational program of systematic aircraft measurements can resolve key satellite aerosol data record limitations. Satellite observations provide frequent global aerosol amount maps but offer only loose aerosol property constraints needed for climate and air quality applications. In this paper, we define and illustrate the feasibility of flying an aircraft payload to measure key aerosol optical, microphysical, and chemical properties in situ. The flight program could characterize major aerosol airmass types statistically, at a level of detail unobtainable from space. It would 1) enhance satellite aerosol retrieval products with better climatology assumptions and 2) improve translation between satellite-retrieved opticalmore » properties and species-specific aerosol mass and size simulated in climate models to assess aerosol forcing, its anthropogenic components, and other environmental impacts. As such, Systematic Aircraft Measurements to Characterize Aerosol Air Masses (SAM-CAAM) could add value to data records representing several decades of aerosol observations from space; improve aerosol constraints on climate modeling; help interrelate remote sensing, in situ, and modeling aerosol-type definitions; and contribute to future satellite aerosol missions. Fifteen required variables are identified and four payload options of increasing ambition are defined to constrain these quantities. “Option C” could meet all the SAM-CAAM objectives with about 20 instruments, most of which have flown before, but never routinely several times per week, and never as a group. Aircraft integration and approaches to data handling, payload support, and logistical considerations for a long-term, operational mission are discussed. Finally, SAM-CAAM is feasible because, for most aerosol sources and specified seasons, particle properties tend to be repeatable, even if aerosol loading varies.« less

SAM-CAAM: A Concept for Acquiring Systematic Aircraft Measurements to Characterize Aerosol Air Masses

DOE PAGES

Kahn, Ralph A.; Berkoff, Tim A.; Brock, Charles; ...

2017-10-30

A modest operational program of systematic aircraft measurements can resolve key satellite aerosol data record limitations. Satellite observations provide frequent global aerosol amount maps but offer only loose aerosol property constraints needed for climate and air quality applications. In this paper, we define and illustrate the feasibility of flying an aircraft payload to measure key aerosol optical, microphysical, and chemical properties in situ. The flight program could characterize major aerosol airmass types statistically, at a level of detail unobtainable from space. It would 1) enhance satellite aerosol retrieval products with better climatology assumptions and 2) improve translation between satellite-retrieved opticalmore » properties and species-specific aerosol mass and size simulated in climate models to assess aerosol forcing, its anthropogenic components, and other environmental impacts. As such, Systematic Aircraft Measurements to Characterize Aerosol Air Masses (SAM-CAAM) could add value to data records representing several decades of aerosol observations from space; improve aerosol constraints on climate modeling; help interrelate remote sensing, in situ, and modeling aerosol-type definitions; and contribute to future satellite aerosol missions. Fifteen required variables are identified and four payload options of increasing ambition are defined to constrain these quantities. “Option C” could meet all the SAM-CAAM objectives with about 20 instruments, most of which have flown before, but never routinely several times per week, and never as a group. Aircraft integration and approaches to data handling, payload support, and logistical considerations for a long-term, operational mission are discussed. Finally, SAM-CAAM is feasible because, for most aerosol sources and specified seasons, particle properties tend to be repeatable, even if aerosol loading varies.« less

The geomorphology of wetlands in drylands: Resilience, nonresilience, or …?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tooth, Stephen

2018-03-01

Over the last decade, much attention has focused on wetland resilience to disturbances such as extreme weather events, longer climate change, and human activities. In geomorphology and cognate disciplines, resilience is defined in various ways and has physical and socioeconomic dimensions but commonly is taken to mean the ability of a system to (A) withstand disturbance, (B) recover from disturbance, or (C) adapt and evolve in response to disturbance to a more desirable (e.g., stable) configuration. Most studies of wetland resilience have tended to focus on the more-or-less permanently saturated humid region wetlands, but whether the findings can be readily transferred to wetlands in drylands remains unclear. Given the natural climatic variability and overall strong moisture deficit characteristic of drylands, are such wetlands likely to be more resilient or less resilient? Focusing on wetlands in the South African drylands, this paper uses existing geomorphological, sedimentological, and geochronological data sets to provide the spatial (up to 50 km2) and temporal (late Quaternary) framework for an assessment of geomorphological resilience. Some wetlands have been highly resilient to environmental (especially climate) change, but others have been nonresilient with marked transformations in channel-floodplain structure and process connectivity having been driven by natural factors (e.g., local base-level fall, drought) or human activities (e.g., channel excavation, floodplain drainage). Key issues related to the assessment of wetland resilience include channel-floodplain dynamics in relation to geomorphological thresholds, wetland geomorphological 'life cycles', and the relative roles of natural and human activities. These issues raise challenges for the involvement of geomorphologists in the practical application of the resilience concept in wetland management. A key consideration is how geomorphological resilience interfaces with other dimensions of resilience, especially ecological resilience and socioeconomic resilience, the latter commonly being defined in terms of ecosystem service delivery.

Variable partitioning of flow and sediment transfer through a large river diffluence-confluence unit across a monsoonal flood pulse

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hackney, C. R.; Aalto, R. E.; Darby, S. E.; Parsons, D. R.; Leyland, J.; Nicholas, A. P.; Best, J.

2016-12-01

Bifurcations represent key morphological nodes within the channel networks of anabranching and braided fluvial channels, playing an important role in controlling local bed morphology, the routing of sediment and water, and defining the stability of the downstream reaches. Herein, we detail field observations of the three-dimensional flow structure, bed morphological changes and partitioning of both flow discharge and suspended sediment through a large diffluence-confluence unit on the Mekong River, Cambodia, across a range of flow stages (from 13,500 m3 s-1 to 27,000 m3 s-1) over the monsoonal flood-pulse cycle. We show that the discharge asymmetry (a measure of the disparity between discharges distributed down the left and right branches of the bifurcation) varies with flow discharge and that the influence of upstream curvature-induced cross-stream water surface slope and bed morphological changes are first-order controls in modulating the asymmetry in bifurcation discharge. Flow discharge is shown to play a key role in defining the morphodynamics of the diffluence-confluence unit downstream of the bifurcation. Our data show that during peak flows (Q 27,000 m3 s-1), the downstream island complex acts as a net sink of suspended sediment (with 2600 kg s-1 being deposited between the diffluence and confluence), whereas during lower flows, on both the rising and falling limbs of the flood wave, the sediment balance is in quasi-equilibrium. We propose a new conceptual model of bifurcation stability that incorporates varying flood discharge and in which the long term stability of the bifurcation, as well as the larger channel planform and morphology of the diffluence-confluence unit, are controlled by the variations in flood discharge.

The influence of flow discharge variations on the morphodynamics of a diffluence-confluence unit on the Mekong River

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hackney, Christopher; Darby, Stephen; Parsons, Daniel; Leyland, Julian; Aalto, Rolf; Nicholas, Andrew; Best, Jim

2017-04-01

Bifurcations represent key morphological nodes within the channel networks of anabranching and braided fluvial channels, playing an important role in controlling local bed morphology, the routing of sediment and water, and defining the stability of the downstream reaches. Herein, we detail field observations of the three-dimensional flow structure, bed morphological changes and partitioning of both flow discharge and suspended sediment through a large diffluence-confluence unit on the Mekong River, Cambodia, across a range of flow stages (from 13,500 m3 s-1 to 27,000 m3 s-1) over the monsoonal flood-pulse cycle. We show that the discharge asymmetry (a measure of the disparity between discharges distributed down the left and right branches of the bifurcation) varies with flow discharge and that the influence of upstream curvature-induced cross-stream water surface slope and bed morphological changes are first-order controls in modulating the asymmetry in bifurcation discharge. Flow discharge is shown to play a key role in defining the morphodynamics of the diffluence-confluence unit downstream of the bifurcation. Our data show that during high flows (Q 27,000 m3 s-1), the downstream island complex acts as a net sink of suspended sediment (with 2600 kg s-1 being deposited between the diffluence and confluence), whereas during lower flows, on both the rising and falling limbs of the flood wave, the sediment balance is in quasi-equilibrium. We propose, therefore, that the long term stability of the bifurcation, as well as the larger channel planform and morphology of the diffluence-confluence unit, is therefore controlled by annual monsoonal flood pulses and the associated variations in discharge.

Beyond the rhetoric: what do we mean by a 'model of care'?

PubMed

Davidson, Patricia; Halcomb, Elizabeth; Hickman, L; Phillips, J; Graham, B

2006-01-01

Contemporary health care systems are constantly challenged to revise traditional methods of health care delivery. These challenges are multifaceted and stem from: (1) novel pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments; (2) changes in consumer demands and expectations; (3) fiscal and resource constraints; (4) changes in societal demographics in particular the ageing of society; (5) an increasing burden of chronic disease; (6) documentation of limitations in traditional health care delivery; (7) increased emphasis on transparency, accountability, evidence-based practice (EBP) and clinical governance structures; and (8) the increasing cultural diversity of the community. These challenges provoke discussion of potential alternative models of care, with scant reference to defining what constitutes a model of care. This paper aims to define what is meant by the term 'model of care' and document the pragmatic systems and processes necessary to develop, plan, implement and evaluate novel models of care delivery. Searches of electronic databases, the reference lists of published materials, policy documents and the Internet were conducted using key words including 'model*', 'framework*', 'models, theoretical' and 'nursing models, theoretical'. The collated material was then analysed and synthesised into this review. This review determined that in addition to key conceptual and theoretical perspectives, quality improvement theory (eg. collaborative methodology), project management methods and change management theory inform both pragmatic and conceptual elements of a model of care. Crucial elements in changing health care delivery through the development of innovative models of care include the planning, development, implementation, evaluation and assessment of the sustainability of the new model. Regardless of whether change in health care delivery is attempted on a micro basis (eg. ward level) or macro basis (eg. national or state system) in order to achieve sustainable, effective and efficient changes a well-planned, systematic process is essential.

Public health practice vs research: implications for preparedness and disaster research review by State Health Department IRBs.

PubMed

Perlman, David

2008-10-01

Under the current US Department of Health and Human Services regulatory and ethical system for research involving human subjects, research is defined in terms of several key concepts: intent, systematic investigation, and generalizability. If an investigator engages in a systematic investigation designed or intended to contribute to generalizable knowledge, then he or she is engaged in research. If that research involves living individuals and the investigator will either interact or intervene with people or obtain their identifiable personal information, then the research must be prospectively reviewed by an institutional review board (IRB), a federally mandated committee that ensures the ethical and regulatory appropriateness of proposed research. In public health institutions, and especially at state departments of health, this definition of research may prove vexing for determining when particular public health activities must be reviewed by IRBs. This article outlines several reasons for such vexation and 2 key responses from major public health stakeholders. In the current climate of public health preparedness initiatives at state health departments for disasters and bioterrorism, how research is defined vis-à-vis public health interventions may add even more confusion to preparedness initiatives and pose difficulties in determining when IRB review and the added protections it affords are appropriate. This article suggests several practical ways to avoid confusion and attempts to strike a balance between the need for expeditious approvals of research-based responses to public health disasters and to ensure proper protections for human subjects at state health departments. It is hoped that these suggestions can assist not only state health departments but also academically based researchers who either collaborate with those departments or whose research will need to be reviewed by their IRBs.

Motivation to learn: an overview of contemporary theories.

PubMed

Cook, David A; Artino, Anthony R

2016-10-01

To succinctly summarise five contemporary theories about motivation to learn, articulate key intersections and distinctions among these theories, and identify important considerations for future research. Motivation has been defined as the process whereby goal-directed activities are initiated and sustained. In expectancy-value theory, motivation is a function of the expectation of success and perceived value. Attribution theory focuses on the causal attributions learners create to explain the results of an activity, and classifies these in terms of their locus, stability and controllability. Social- cognitive theory emphasises self-efficacy as the primary driver of motivated action, and also identifies cues that influence future self-efficacy and support self-regulated learning. Goal orientation theory suggests that learners tend to engage in tasks with concerns about mastering the content (mastery goal, arising from a 'growth' mindset regarding intelligence and learning) or about doing better than others or avoiding failure (performance goals, arising from a 'fixed' mindset). Finally, self-determination theory proposes that optimal performance results from actions motivated by intrinsic interests or by extrinsic values that have become integrated and internalised. Satisfying basic psychosocial needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness promotes such motivation. Looking across all five theories, we note recurrent themes of competence, value, attributions, and interactions between individuals and the learning context. To avoid conceptual confusion, and perhaps more importantly to maximise the theory-building potential of their work, researchers must be careful (and precise) in how they define, operationalise and measure different motivational constructs. We suggest that motivation research continue to build theory and extend it to health professions domains, identify key outcomes and outcome measures, and test practical educational applications of the principles thus derived. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd and The Association for the Study of Medical Education.

Efficacy of cognitive rehabilitation therapies for mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in older adults: Working toward a theoretical model and evidence-based interventions

PubMed Central

Huckans, Marilyn; Hutson, Lee; Twamley, Elizabeth; Jak, Amy; Kaye, Jeffrey; Storzbach, Daniel

2013-01-01

Objective To evaluate the efficacy of cognitive rehabilitation therapies (CRTs) for mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Our review revealed a need for evidence-based treatments for MCI and a lack of a theoretical rehabilitation model to guide the development and evaluation of these interventions. We have thus proposed a theoretical rehabilitation model of MCI that yields key intervention targets - cognitive compromise, functional compromise, neuropsychiatric symptoms, and modifiable risk and protective factors known to be associated with MCI and dementia. Our model additionally defines specific cognitive rehabilitation approaches that may directly or indirectly target key outcomes - restorative cognitive training, compensatory cognitive training, lifestyle interventions, and psychotherapeutic techniques. Methods Fourteen randomized controlled trials met inclusion criteria and were reviewed. Results Studies markedly varied in terms of intervention approaches and selected outcome measures and were frequently hampered by design limitations. The bulk of the evidence suggested that CRTs can change targeted behaviors in individuals with MCI and that CRTs are associated with improvements in objective cognitive performance, but the pattern of effects on specific cognitive domains was inconsistent across studies. Other important outcomes (i.e., daily functioning, quality of life, neuropsychiatric symptom severity) were infrequently assessed across studies. Few studies evaluated long-term outcomes or the impact of CRTs on conversion rates from MCI to dementia or normal cognition. Conclusions Overall, results from trials are promising but inconclusive. Additional well-designed and adequately powered trials are warranted and required before CRTs for MCI can be considered evidence based. PMID:23471631

Müllerian and Batesian mimicry out, Darwinian and Wallacian mimicry in, for rewarding/rewardless flowers.

PubMed

Lev-Yadun, Simcha

2018-06-11

Müllerian and Batesian mimicry were originally defined in defensive (anti-predetory) animal systems. Later these terms were adopted by botanists studying pollination that defined rewarding flowers as Müllerian mimics and rewardless flowers as Batesian mimics. The use of these terms concerning pollination predated our recent understanding of how common plant aposematism is and the related defensive Müllerian and Batesian mimicry types. Being non-defensive, using the terms Müllerian and Batesian mimicry for rewarding/rewardless flowers is, however, confusing if not misleading, and is also logically inappropriate. I suggest to first stop using the terms Batesian and Müllerian mimicry concerning rewarding/rewardless flowers and pollination, and second, to define the guild of flowers that reward pollinatiors as Darwinian mimics and those that do not reward pollinators as Wallacian mimics.

Making sense of "alternative", "complementary", "unconventional" and "integrative" medicine: exploring the terms and meanings through a textual analysis.

PubMed

Ng, Jeremy Y; Boon, Heather S; Thompson, Alison K; Whitehead, Cynthia R

2016-05-20

Medical pluralism has flourished throughout the Western world in spite of efforts to legitimize Western biomedical healthcare as "conventional medicine" and thereby relegate all non-physician-related forms of healthcare to an "other" category. These "other" practitioners have been referred to as "unconventional", "alternative" and "complementary", among other terms throughout the past half century. This study investigates the discourses surrounding the changes in the terms, and their meanings, used to describe unconventional medicine in North America. Terms identified by the literature as synonymous to unconventional medicine were searched using the Scopus database. A textual analysis following the method described by Kripendorff 2013 was subsequently performed on the five most highly-cited unconventional medicine-related peer-reviewed literature published between 1970 and 2013. Five commonly-used, unconventional medicine-related terms were identified. Authors using "complementary and alternative", "complementary", "alternative", or "unconventional" tended to define them by what they are not (e.g., therapies not taught/used in conventional medicine, therapy demands not met by conventional medicine, and therapies that lack research on safety, efficacy and effectiveness). Authors defined "integrated/integrative" medicine by what it is (e.g., a new model of healthcare, the combining of both conventional and unconventional therapies, accounting for the whole person, and preventative maintenance of health). Authors who defined terms by "what is not" stressed that the purpose of conducting research in this area was solely to create knowledge. Comparatively, authors who defined terms by "what is" sought to advocate for the evidence-based combination of unconventional and conventional medicines. Both author groups used scientific rhetoric to define unconventional medical practices. This emergence of two groups of authors who used two different sets of terms to refer to the concept of "unconventional medicine" may explain why some journals, practitioner associations and research/practice centres may choose to use both "what is not" and "what is" terms in their discourse to attract interest from both groups. Since each of the two groups of terms (and authors who use them) has different meanings and goals, the evolution of this discourse will continue to be an interesting phenomenon to explore in the future.

17 CFR 240.15d-20 - Plain English presentation of specified information.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... terminology; (9) Avoid frequent reliance on glossaries or defined terms as the primary means of explaining information. Define terms in a glossary or other section of the document only if the meaning is unclear from the context. Use a glossary only if it facilitates understanding of the disclosure; and (10) In...

17 CFR 230.421 - Presentation of information in prospectuses.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... bullet lists; (2) Use descriptive headings and subheadings; (3) Avoid frequent reliance on glossaries or defined terms as the primary means of explaining information in the prospectus. Define terms in a glossary or other section of the document only if the meaning is unclear from the context. Use a glossary only...

17 CFR 240.15d-20 - Plain English presentation of specified information.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... terminology; (9) Avoid frequent reliance on glossaries or defined terms as the primary means of explaining information. Define terms in a glossary or other section of the document only if the meaning is unclear from the context. Use a glossary only if it facilitates understanding of the disclosure; and (10) In...

17 CFR 240.15d-20 - Plain English presentation of specified information.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... terminology; (9) Avoid frequent reliance on glossaries or defined terms as the primary means of explaining information. Define terms in a glossary or other section of the document only if the meaning is unclear from the context. Use a glossary only if it facilitates understanding of the disclosure; and (10) In...

17 CFR 230.421 - Presentation of information in prospectuses.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... bullet lists; (2) Use descriptive headings and subheadings; (3) Avoid frequent reliance on glossaries or defined terms as the primary means of explaining information in the prospectus. Define terms in a glossary or other section of the document only if the meaning is unclear from the context. Use a glossary only...

17 CFR 240.15d-20 - Plain English presentation of specified information.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... terminology; (9) Avoid frequent reliance on glossaries or defined terms as the primary means of explaining information. Define terms in a glossary or other section of the document only if the meaning is unclear from the context. Use a glossary only if it facilitates understanding of the disclosure; and (10) In...

17 CFR 240.13a-20 - Plain English presentation of specified information.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... terminology; (9) Avoid frequent reliance on glossaries or defined terms as the primary means of explaining information. Define terms in a glossary or other section of the document only if the meaning is unclear from the context. Use a glossary only if it facilitates understanding of the disclosure; and (10) In...

17 CFR 230.421 - Presentation of information in prospectuses.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... bullet lists; (2) Use descriptive headings and subheadings; (3) Avoid frequent reliance on glossaries or defined terms as the primary means of explaining information in the prospectus. Define terms in a glossary or other section of the document only if the meaning is unclear from the context. Use a glossary only...

17 CFR 240.13a-20 - Plain English presentation of specified information.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... terminology; (9) Avoid frequent reliance on glossaries or defined terms as the primary means of explaining information. Define terms in a glossary or other section of the document only if the meaning is unclear from the context. Use a glossary only if it facilitates understanding of the disclosure; and (10) In...

17 CFR 240.13a-20 - Plain English presentation of specified information.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... terminology; (9) Avoid frequent reliance on glossaries or defined terms as the primary means of explaining information. Define terms in a glossary or other section of the document only if the meaning is unclear from the context. Use a glossary only if it facilitates understanding of the disclosure; and (10) In...

17 CFR 240.13a-20 - Plain English presentation of specified information.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... terminology; (9) Avoid frequent reliance on glossaries or defined terms as the primary means of explaining information. Define terms in a glossary or other section of the document only if the meaning is unclear from the context. Use a glossary only if it facilitates understanding of the disclosure; and (10) In...

7 CFR 56.1 - Meaning of words and terms defined.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... AGRICULTURAL MARKETING ACT OF 1946 AND THE EGG PRODUCTS INSPECTION ACT (CONTINUED) VOLUNTARY GRADING OF SHELL EGGS Grading of Shell Eggs Definitions § 56.1 Meaning of words and terms defined. For the purpose of... distribution of shell eggs. Auditing services are performed by graders authorized by the Secretary to perform...

17 CFR 31.9 - Minimum financial requirements.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... term “customer” means customer as defined in § 31.4(d); (ii) The term “proprietary account” means a... the definition of customer (as defined in paragraph (b)(2)(i) of this section) or proprietary account... demonstrates to the satisfaction of the Commission that it complies with the financial requirements of this...

75 FR 47738 - Acknowledgment Letters for Customer Funds and Secured Amount Funds

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-08-09

... of foreign futures or foreign options customers, and certain technical changes. DATES: Submit... foreign futures and foreign options customers. \\1\\ See 17 CFR 1.3(gg) (defining the term ``customer funds...-199. \\5\\ See 17 CFR 1.3(rr) (defining the term ``foreign futures or foreign options secured amount...

30 CFR 253.3 - How are the terms used in this regulation defined?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false How are the terms used in this regulation defined? 253.3 Section 253.3 Mineral Resources BUREAU OF OCEAN ENERGY MANAGEMENT, REGULATION, AND...

48 CFR 52.202-1 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... solicitation provision or contract clause uses a word or term that is defined in the Federal Acquisition... word or term is defined in FAR Part 31, for use in the cost principles and procedures. (b) The FAR... Index is available via the Internet at http://www.acqnet.gov at the end of the FAR, after the FAR...

36 CFR 51.3 - How are terms defined in this part?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... 36 Parks, Forests, and Public Property 1 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false How are terms defined in this part? 51.3 Section 51.3 Parks, Forests, and Public Property NATIONAL PARK SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF THE... services to guests). Visitor services may include, but are not limited to, lodging, campgrounds, food...

36 CFR 51.3 - How are terms defined in this part?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... 36 Parks, Forests, and Public Property 1 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false How are terms defined in this part? 51.3 Section 51.3 Parks, Forests, and Public Property NATIONAL PARK SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF THE... services to guests). Visitor services may include, but are not limited to, lodging, campgrounds, food...

36 CFR 51.3 - How are terms defined in this part?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... 36 Parks, Forests, and Public Property 1 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false How are terms defined in this part? 51.3 Section 51.3 Parks, Forests, and Public Property NATIONAL PARK SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF THE... services to guests). Visitor services may include, but are not limited to, lodging, campgrounds, food...