75 FR 61168 - Notice of Availability: Notice of Funding Availability for HUD's Fiscal Year 2010 Healthy Homes...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-10-04

... requirements can be found using the Department of Housing and Urban Development agency link on the Grants.gov/Find Web site at http://www.grants.gov/search/agency.do . A link to Grants.gov is also available on the HUD Web site at http://www.hud.gov/offices/adm/grants/fundsavail.cfm . The Catalogue of Federal...

76 FR 13427 - Notice of Availability: Notice of Funding Availability for HUD's Fiscal Year (FY) 2010 Section...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-03-11

... be found using the Department of Housing and Urban Development agency link on the Grants.gov/Find Web site at http://www.grants.gov/search/agency.do . A link to Grants.gov is also available on the HUD Web site at http://www.hud.gov/offices/adm/grants/fundsavail.cfm . The Catalogue of Federal Domestic...

76 FR 10054 - Notice of Availability: Notice of Technical Correction to the Notice of Funding Availability for...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-02-23

...: Notice. SUMMARY: On January 20, 2011, HUD posted on http://www.Grants.gov , a Notice of Funding... Housing and Urban Development agency link on the Grants.gov/Find Web site at http://www.grants.gov/search/agency.do . A link to Grants.gov is also available on the HUD Web site at http://www.hud.gov/offices/adm...

75 FR 63196 - Notice of Availability: Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2010 Family...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-10-14

... Housing and Urban Development agency link on the Grants.gov/Find Web site at http://www.grants.gov/search/agency.do . A link to Grants.gov is also available on the HUD Web site at http://www.hud.gov/offices/adm... Unification Program is 14.880. Applications must be submitted electronically through Grants.gov . FOR FURTHER...

75 FR 54899 - Notice of Availability: Notice of Funding Availability for HUD's Fiscal Year (FY) 2010 Lead-Based...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-09-09

... Department of Housing and Urban Development agency link on the Grants.gov/Find Web site at http://www.grants.gov/search/agency.do . A link to Grants.gov is also available on the HUD Web site at http://www.hud.gov/offices/adm/grants/fundsavail.cfm . The Catalogue of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) number for...

75 FR 70020 - Notice of Availability: Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) for HUD's Fiscal Year (FY) NOFA for...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-11-16

... notice on Grants.gov that describes changes to the NOFA and sets December 9, 2010, as the new deadline... Department of Housing and Urban Development agency link on the Grants.gov/Find Web site at http://www.grants.gov/search/agency.do . A link to Grants.gov is also available on the HUD Web site at http://www.hud...

Commentary: Special Issue on Adolescents in the Majority World

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ignatowski, Clare A.

2013-01-01

This collection of nuanced, insightful papers is a welcome contribution to research and policy dialogue around international youth development. At the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the lead government agency for foreign assistance, a growing understanding of the profound links between the well-being of youth and…

Agency, Values, and Well-Being: A Human Development Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Welzel, Christian; Inglehart, Ronald

2010-01-01

This paper argues that feelings of agency are linked to human well-being through a sequence of adaptive mechanisms that promote human development, once existential conditions become permissive. In the first part, we elaborate on the evolutionary logic of this model and outline why an evolutionary perspective is helpful to understand changes in…

Identity and Agency: Pleasures and Collegiality among the Challenges of the Doctoral Journey

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McAlpine, Lynn; Amundsen, Cheryl

2009-01-01

How do doctoral students develop their identities as academics? In this analysis, we explore identity from the perspective of agency--humans as active agents. The analysis was based on the collective data from three earlier studies in different contexts. Embedded in the data were expressions of agency linked to affect--both positive and…

Contributing to operations of community agencies through integrated fieldwork experiences.

PubMed

Klinger, Lisa; Bossers, Ann

2009-06-01

Occupational therapists are change agents who are well equipped to participate in community development. Community development projects can help agencies in many ways, including determining needs, educating stakeholders, developing novel programs, finding and creating resources, marketing the agency, and creating or implementing policy. In order for service agencies to profit, they need an understanding of the skills occupational therapists can offer. The best way to gain that knowledge may be through direct experience. This paper describes the benefits that flow to community agency partners and to occupational therapy students from an innovative, integrated fieldwork model that links students with service agencies. This approach has demonstrated many benefits to community partners, while allowing all students in an occupational therapy program to have community development experience. This is a cost-effective way to demonstrate the value of occupational therapy and to deliver multiple community development projects.

Modulation and Coding for NASA's New Space Communications Architecture

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Deutsch, Leslie J.; Stocklin, Frank J.; Rush, John J.

2008-01-01

With the release in 2006 of NASA's Space Communications and Navigation Architecture, the agency defined its vision for the future in these areas. The results reported in this paper help define the myriad communications links included in this architecture through the year 2030. While these results represent the work of multiple NASA Centers and some of the best experts in the Agency, this is only a first step toward developing international telecommunication link standards that will take the world into the next era of space exploration.

Service-Learning Linking Family Child Care Providers, Community Partners, and Preservice Professionals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Garner, Pamela W.; Parker, Tameka S.

2016-01-01

This article describes the implementation of a service-learning project, which was infused into a child development course. The project linked family child care providers, their licensing agency, and 39 preservice teachers in a joint effort to develop a parent handbook to be used by the providers in their child care businesses and to support…

Story Links: Working with Parents of Pupils at Risk of Exclusion

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Waters, Trisha

2014-01-01

This paper presents the results of the evaluation of the 20-month Story Links project delivered by the University of Chichester in collaboration with the Centre for Therapeutic Storywriting and funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA). Story Links is a ten-week intervention that involves…

Agency as a Construct for Guiding the Establishment of Communication-Friendly Classrooms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alper, Rebecca M.; McGregor, Karla K.

2015-01-01

Educators face the challenge of creating classroom environments that are physically, socially, and didactically "communication friendly" for children with diverse communication needs and differences. In this article we propose that (1) communication and the development of agency are bi-directionally linked and, therefore, (2) the…

ParentLink: A Model of Integration and Support for Parents.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mertensmeyer, Carol; Fine, Mark

2000-01-01

Discusses ParentLink, a collective of Missouri organizations and agencies striving to simplify parents' access to research-based information, services, and problem-solving support pertaining to parenting. It is based on systems theory, specifically the ecology of human development. A comprehensive array of technologies augments ParentLink…

A Drug and Alcohol Aftercare Service: Linking Adolescents, Families and Schools.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fertman, Carl I.; Toca, Olivia A.

1988-01-01

Describes first-year service process and implementation evaluation of aftercare service for adolescents who had completed drug and alcohol treatment programs. Results showed that aftercare service, developed cooperatively by schools and community agencies to support and link adolescents, parents, and schools during adolescents' recovery, helped…

Sweet Rejuvenation: Linking In-Service and Teacher Induction.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McNair, Veda; And Others

This paper describes a collaborative effort between a local education agency (LEA) and an institution of higher education to link inservice education with induction--teachers teaching teachers. The program, based on the Joyce coaching paradigm and recent cognitive development research, posits that long-term training conducted by trained teachers…

Making and Shaping Participatory Spaces: Resemiotization and Citizenship Agency in South Africa

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kerfoot, Caroline

2011-01-01

In South Africa, democratic consolidation involves not only building a new state, but also new interfaces between state and society. To strengthen the agency of citizens at these interfaces, recent approaches to development stress the notion of "participatory citizenship." The purpose of this article is to explore the links, rarely…

Lobbying for international health: the link between good ideas and funded programs: Bread for the World and the Agency for International Development.

PubMed

Quinley, J C; Baker, T D

1986-07-01

Historically, the Agency for International Development (AIDS) health budget has been closely tied to overall development spending. A large increase in the international health appropriations in 1984 broke this pattern. Investigation shows that active grass roots organizing and congressional lobbying are the most likely responsible factors in the increase. Maintenance and expansion of this success will require increased recognition of and participation in these activities by individuals and organizations involved in international health.

Cross support overview and operations concept for future space missions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stallings, William; Kaufeler, Jean-Francois

1994-01-01

Ground networks must respond to the requirements of future missions, which include smaller sizes, tighter budgets, increased numbers, and shorter development schedules. The Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) is meeting these challenges by developing a general cross support concept, reference model, and service specifications for Space Link Extension services for space missions involving cross support among Space Agencies. This paper identifies and bounds the problem, describes the need to extend Space Link services, gives an overview of the operations concept, and introduces complimentary CCSDS work on standardizing Space Link Extension services.

Immigrant Students' Development of Musical Agency--Exploring Democracy in Music Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Karlsen, Sidsel; Westerlund, Heidi

2010-01-01

In this article, we argue that the musical schooling of immigrant students could be seen as forming a healthy test for any educational context in terms of how democracy is enacted. We engage in a discussion linking music education, agency, pluralism and democracy. In our theoretical reconstruction of multicultural music education we first make a…

78 FR 20120 - Cooperative Research and Development Agreement: Joint Technical Demonstration of Tactical Data...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-04-03

... Development Agreement: Joint Technical Demonstration of Tactical Data Link Range Enhancement Software AGENCY... (TDL) range enhancement software technologies to improve operational effectiveness and communications... Range Enhancement Software Technologies, U.S. Coast Guard Research and Development Center, 1 Chelsea...

Lobbying for international health: the link between good ideas and funded programs: Bread for the World and the Agency for International Development.

PubMed Central

Quinley, J C; Baker, T D

1986-01-01

Historically, the Agency for International Development (AIDS) health budget has been closely tied to overall development spending. A large increase in the international health appropriations in 1984 broke this pattern. Investigation shows that active grass roots organizing and congressional lobbying are the most likely responsible factors in the increase. Maintenance and expansion of this success will require increased recognition of and participation in these activities by individuals and organizations involved in international health. PMID:3717466

Optical satellite communications in Europe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sodnik, Zoran; Lutz, Hanspeter; Furch, Bernhard; Meyer, Rolf

2010-02-01

This paper describes optical satellite communication activities based on technology developments, which started in Europe more than 30 years ago and led in 2001 to the world-first optical inter-satellite communication link experiment (SILEX). SILEX proved that optical communication technologies can be reliably mastered in space and in 2006 the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) joined the optical inter-satellite experiment from their own satellite. Since 2008 the German Space Agency (DLR) is operating an inter-satellite link between the NFIRE and TerraSAR-X satellites based on a second generation of laser communication technology, which will be used for the new European Data Relay Satellite (EDRS) system to be deployed in 2013.

Japan Link Center (JaLC): link management and DOI assignment for Japanese electronic scholarly contents

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kato, Takafumi; Tsuchiya, Eri; Kubota, Soichi; Miyagawa, Yoshiyuki

JST, cooperated with several national institutes, is currently developing “Japan Link Center”, which manages Japanese electronic scholarly contents (journal articles, books, dissertations etc.) in an integrated fashion using Digital Object Identifier (DOI). Japan Link Center will manage metadata and whereabouts information of the contents in the digital environment and provide domestic and international linking information, cite/cited information to activate dissemination of S&T information, furthermore, to strengthen transmission of S&T information from Japan. Japan Link Center is expected to be appointed as the 9th DOI registration agency (RA) in the world by the International DOI Foundation (IDF) this spring.

Amartya Sen's Capability Approach and Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Walker, Melanie

2005-01-01

The human capabilities approach developed by the economist Amartya Sen links development, quality of life and freedom. This article explores the key ideas in the capability approach of: capability, functioning, agency, human diversity and public participation in generating valued capabilities. It then considers how these ideas relate specifically…

THE ART OF DATA MINING THE MINEFIELDS OF TOXICITY DATABASES TO LINK CHEMISTRY TO BIOLOGY

EPA Science Inventory

Toxicity databases have a special role in predictive toxicology, providing ready access to historical information throughout the workflow of discovery, development, and product safety processes in drug development as well as in review by regulatory agencies. To provide accurate i...

Focused Logistics; What the Air Force Brings to the Fight

DTIC Science & Technology

2002-04-09

Agency partnered to develop a Strategic Distribution Management Initiative that support the Air Force’s logistics transformation and is linked by Global Command and Control System and Global Combat Support System-Air Force.

Vocational Education in Developing Countries. A Review of Studies and Project Experience. Education Division Documents No. 34.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hultin, Mats

This paper looks at the position taken in available literature and evaluation reports of multinational and bilateral agencies in regard to vocational education in developing countries. Section 1 provides background on such topics as links between education and development, support of vocational education, diversified secondary education, foreign…

75 FR 43196 - Notice of Availability: Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2010 the...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-07-23

... be found using the Department of Housing and Urban Development agency link on the Grants.gov/Find Web... DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT [Docket No. FR-5415-N-05] Notice of Availability... Development and Research, HUD. ACTION: Notice. SUMMARY: Through this notice, HUD announces the availability on...

48 CFR 3.1004 - Contract clauses.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... of Hotline Poster(s), if— (i) The contract exceeds $5,000,000 or a lesser amount established by the agency; and (ii)(A) The agency has a fraud hotline poster; or (B) The contract is funded with disaster... applicable posters; and (ii) Insert the website link(s) or other contact information for obtaining the agency...

48 CFR 3.1004 - Contract clauses.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... of Hotline Poster(s), if— (i) The contract exceeds $5,000,000 or a lesser amount established by the agency; and (ii)(A) The agency has a fraud hotline poster; or (B) The contract is funded with disaster... applicable posters; and (ii) Insert the website link(s) or other contact information for obtaining the agency...

48 CFR 3.1004 - Contract clauses.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... of Hotline Poster(s), if— (i) The contract exceeds $5,000,000 or a lesser amount established by the agency; and (ii)(A) The agency has a fraud hotline poster; or (B) The contract is funded with disaster... applicable posters; and (ii) Insert the website link(s) or other contact information for obtaining the agency...

48 CFR 3.1004 - Contract clauses.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... of Hotline Poster(s), if— (i) The contract exceeds $5,000,000 or a lesser amount established by the agency; and (ii)(A) The agency has a fraud hotline poster; or (B) The contract is funded with disaster... applicable posters; and (ii) Insert the website link(s) or other contact information for obtaining the agency...

48 CFR 3.1004 - Contract clauses.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... of Hotline Poster(s), if— (i) The contract exceeds $5,000,000 or a lesser amount established by the agency; and (ii)(A) The agency has a fraud hotline poster; or (B) The contract is funded with disaster... applicable posters; and (ii) Insert the website link(s) or other contact information for obtaining the agency...

Interface between authorship, industry and science in the domain of therapeutics.

PubMed

Healy, David; Cattell, Dinah

2003-07-01

Changes in the character of medical authorship. Aims To compare the impact of industry-linked and non-industry linked articles. We compared articles on sertraline being coordinated by a medical writing agency with articles not coordinated in this way. We calculated numbers of Medline-listed articles per author, journal impact factors, literature profiles and citation rates of both sets of articles. Non-agency-linked articles on sertraline had an average of 2.95 authors per article, a mean length of 3.4 pages, a mean Medline listing of 37 articles per author (95% CI 27-47) and a mean literature profile of 283 per article (95% CI 130-435). Agency-linked articles on sertraline had an average of 6.6 authors per article, a mean length of 10.7 pages, a mean Medline listing of 70 articles per author (95% CI 62-79) and a mean literature profile of 1839 per article (95% CI 1076-2602). The citation rate for agency articles was 20.2 (95% CI 13.4-27.0) and for non-agency articles it was 3.7 (95% CI 3.3-8.1). The literature profiles and citation rates of industry-linked and non-industry-linked articles differ. The emerging style of authorship in industry-linked articles can deliver good-quality articles, but it raises concerns for the scientific base of therapeutics.

National Take-Back Initiative

MedlinePlus

... Disposal Information Drug and Chemical Information E-commerce Initiatives Federal Agencies & Related Links Federal Register Notices National ... Disposal Information Drug and Chemical Information E-commerce Initiatives Federal Agencies & Related Links Federal Register Notices National ...

Peer Review Documents Related to the Evaluation of ...

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

BMDS is one of the Agency's premier tools for estimating risk assessments, therefore the validity and reliability of its statistical models are of paramount importance. This page provides links to peer review and expert summaries of the BMDS application and its models as they were developed and eventually released documenting the rigorous review process taken to provide the best science tools available for statistical modeling. This page provides links to peer reviews and expert summaries of the BMDS applications and its models as they were developed and eventually released.

Economic competitiveness : performance measures for transportation : review of literature and best practices.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2008-11-01

The New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) is developing a comprehensive set of measures that link investments in transportation to the general economic performance of the New York State Economy. The agency would like to understand in p...

Planning and environment linkages program : a guide to measuring progress in linking transportation planning and environmental analysis

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2009-12-01

Transportation agencies use a variety of metrics to document progress toward achieving specific goals and objectives. This guide, developed by Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Planning and Environmental Linkages (PEL) program, is intended to hel...

Connecting the Links: The Career Development Networking Directory.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Azer, Sheri L.; Newman, Elizabeth

This directory includes lists of people, agencies, and organizations that represent many of the key stakeholders in early childhood education career development and training work. It is intended to give activists from all walks of the early care and education field a place to start and a way to know to whom they should be talking both within and…

A Record of Experience. Catalogue of FFHC/Action for Development Documents, 1971-1976.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Freedom from Hunger Campaign, Rome (Italy).

The FFHC/AD (Freedom From Hunger Campaign/Action for Development) is the Food and Agriculture Organization's (FAO) link with peoples' organizations in the world's poor and rich countries. During its 18 years of activities, FFHC/AD has channelled additional funds collected by private financing agencies in the industrialized countries to rural…

75 FR 53324 - Notice of Availability: Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) for HUD's Fiscal Year (FY) 2010...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-08-31

... DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT [Docket No. FR-5415-N-07] Notice of Availability... purpose of HOPE VI Revitalization grants is to: (1) Assist PHAs to improve the living environment for... eligibility requirements can be found using the Department of Housing and Urban Development agency link on the...

Peer Review of EPA's Draft BMDS Document: Exponential ...

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

BMDS is one of the Agency's premier tools for estimating risk assessments, therefore the validity and reliability of its statistical models are of paramount importance. This page provides links to peer review of the BMDS applications and its models as they were developed and eventually released documenting the rigorous review process taken to provide the best science tools available for statistical modeling. This page provides links to peer review of the BMDS applications and its models as they were developed and eventually released documenting the rigorous review process taken to provide the best science tools available for statistical modeling.

The Role of the Linked Learning Approach in Student Self-Efficacy (Personal Agency) and Motivation in Low, Mid-Low, Mid-High, and High Poverty School Settings

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Solian, Cherie A.

2017-01-01

This study explored personal agency and motivation of students enrolled in Linked Learning Pathways across low, mid-low, mid-high, and high poverty school settings. Specifically, the study examined student personal agency beliefs, goal setting practices, and student emotional connectedness. The researcher aimed to examine student perceptions of…

Teen Pregnancy Prevention Programs: Linking Research and Practice.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johns, Marilyn J.; Moncloa, Fe; Gong, Elizabeth J.

2000-01-01

Assessments of schools and community agencies with teen pregnancy prevention programs (n=23) in three California counties were conducted using surveys, interviews, and site visits. Best practices identified included youth development programs, Involvement of family and other caring adults, and culturally appropriate and locally relevant…

Linking Data Access to Data Models to Applications: The Estuary Data Mapper

EPA Science Inventory

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) is developing e-Estuary, a decision-support system for coastal management. E-Estuary has three elements: an estuarine geo-referenced relational database, watershed GIS coverages, and tools to support decision-making. To facilita...

76 FR 35460 - Notice of Web Availability: Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) for HUD's Fiscal Year (FY) 2011...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-06-17

... DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT [Docket No. FR-5500-N-05] Notice of Web Availability...: Notice. SUMMARY: HUD announces the availability on its Web site and Grants.gov , applicant information... Department of Housing and Urban Development agency link on the Grants.gov/Find Web site at http://www.grants...

Tracking Our Progress: A Global Monitoring and Evaluation Framework for the UN DESD

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tilbury, Daniella

2009-01-01

The sustainability agenda is a concern of several UN agencies that appreciate how well-being, social justice, human development and the health of our planet are inextricably linked. This remit underpinned the launch of the UN Decade in Education for Sustainable Development (DESD) in 2005. As the DESD reaches its mid-point, mechanisms for assessing…

FEDIX: The on-line database retrieval service of government information for colleges, universities, and other organizations. User`s guide: Version 4.0/Release 2.0

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

Not Available

FEDIX is an on-line information service that links the higher education community and the federal government to facilitate research, education, and services. The system provides accurate and timely federal agency information to colleges, universities, and other research organizations. There are no registration fees and no access charges for using FEDIX. Agencies participating in the FEDIX system include: Department of Energy (DOE), Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Office of Naval Research (ONR), Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), National Science Foundation (NSF), National Security Agency (NSA), Department of Commerce (DOC), Department of Education (DOEd), Departmentmore » of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and Agency for International Development (AID). Additional government agencies are expected to join FEDIX in the near future. This guide is intended to help users access and utilize the FEDIX system. Because the system is frequently updated, however, some menus and tables used as examples in this text may not exactly match those displayed on the live system.« less

The impact of illicit drug market changes on health agency operations in Sydney, Australia.

PubMed

Gibson, Amy; Day, Carolyn; Degenhardt, Louisa

2005-01-01

At the end of 2000, in Sydney, Australia, there was a dramatic reduction in heroin availability. This study examines how health agencies treating clients for drug and alcohol related issues were able to respond to the changes that took place in their clients and their treatment needs. Key informant interviews were conducted with 48 staff from a wide range of health services in Sydney to provide the data for a thematic analysis. Changes experienced by health agencies included changed patterns of drug use in their clients, increased aggressive incidents, changed numbers of clients accessing treatment services, and a need for more assistance from outside agencies. A strong evidence base for a range of drug treatment options, support of staff development in aggression management skills, and development of good interagency links between mental health, drug and alcohol, and law enforcement services would make health services better prepared for future changes in the drug use of their clients.

77 FR 54783 - Improving Access to Mental Health Services for Veterans, Service Members, and Military Families

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-09-05

... addition, the Department of Veterans Affairs shall update its management performance evaluation system to link performance to meeting mental health service demand. Sec. 5. Improved Research and Development. (a... sharing between agencies and academic and industry researchers to accelerate progress and reduce redundant...

Early Career Teachers' Resilience and Positive Adaptive Change Capabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bowles, Terry; Arnup, Jessica L.

2016-01-01

This research is an investigation of the link between adaptive functioning and resilience in early career teachers (ECT). Resilience is considered an important capability of teachers and research has shown that teachers who are resourceful, demonstrate agency and develop positive management strategies overcome adversity. In this research, we aim…

Early Intervention: Parental Involvement, Child Agency and Participation in Creative Play

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Matthews, Alice; Rix, Jonathan

2013-01-01

Early intervention activities for very young disabled children are frequently linked to developmental targets and goals. A key challenge for parents and practitioners involved in early intervention programmes is to encourage their child to play and develop creatively through enjoyable, everyday childhood experiences. This paper reports on a…

Development and evaluation of an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for use in the detection bovine tuberculosis in cattle

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

As a consequence of continued spillover of Mycobacterium bovis into cattle from wildlife reservoirs and increased globalization of cattle trade with associated transmission risks, new approaches such as vaccination and novel testing algorithms are seriously being considered by regulatory agencies fo...

Model Special Education Manpower Information and Management System. Final Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gilles, Cynthia

The Massachusetts Special Education Manpower Planning Project is described. Relying on cooperative planning, the project developed a system to provide information on manpower planning, a system to link other agencies with the project, and annual statements of state special education training priorities. The project also collaborated with six other…

A GIS APPLICATION AND RESOURCE TOOL FOR USE ON STUDIES OF THE LAKE TEXOMA ECOLOGICAL SYSTEM

EPA Science Inventory

Investigations are underway at Lake Texoma to develop tools and information needed to evaluate the transport and attenuation of contaminants and stressors in a lake ecosystem, and link them to observable ecological effects. The U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA),
...

Research needs and prioritizations for studies linking dietary sugars and potentially related health outcomes

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

An approach developed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) for assessing future research needs (FRN) regarding dietary sugars was implemented. A panel of 14 stakeholders across 7 pre-defined areas of expertise (lay audience, policy maker, health provider, research funder, evidenc...

A Macroecological Approach to Forecasting Fisheries Services: How much Energy Does it Take to Catch a Fish?

EPA Science Inventory

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is currently developing methods to quantify freshwater fisheries services (e.g., standing-stock abundance and/or biomass) at multiple spatial scales, and to forecast their future distributions. One approach uses linked, ecosystem process ...

77 FR 27539 - Reports, Forms, and Recordkeeping Requirements; Agency Information Collection Activity Under OMB...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-05-10

... risk is crucial to developing effective countermeasures to reduce motorcycle crashes and fatalities... history, self-reported behavior, and perceptions. After completing the on-road study, participants will be... characteristics, riding history, self-reported behavior, and perceptions are linked to his or her behavior on the...

Satellite communications provisions on NASA Ames instrumented aircraft platforms for Earth science research/applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shameson, L.; Brass, J. A.; Hanratty, J. J.; Roberts, A. C.; Wegener, S. S.

1995-01-01

Earth science activities at NASA Ames are research in atmospheric and ecosystem science, development of remote sensing and in situ sampling instruments, and their integration into scientific research platform aircraft. The use of satellite communications can greatly extend the capability of these agency research platform aircraft. Current projects and plans involve satellite links on the Perseus UAV and the ER-2 via TDRSS and a proposed experiment on the NASA Advanced Communications Technology Satellite. Provisions for data links on the Perseus research platform, via TDRSS S-band multiple access service, have been developed and are being tested. Test flights at Dryden are planned to demonstrate successful end-to-end data transfer. A Unisys Corp. airborne satcom STARLink system is being integrated into an Ames ER-2 aircraft. This equipment will support multiple data rates up to 43 Mb/s each via the TDRS S Ku-band single access service. The first flight mission for this high-rate link is planned for August 1995. Ames and JPL have proposed an ACTS experiment to use real-time satellite communications to improve wildfire research campaigns. Researchers and fire management teams making use of instrumented aircraft platforms at a prescribed burn site will be able to communicate with experts at Ames, the U.S. Forest Service, and emergency response agencies.

NASA's current activities in free space optical communications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Edwards, Bernard L.

2017-11-01

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

The influence of social-developmental context and nurse visitation intervention on self-agency change in unmarried adolescent mothers.

PubMed

DeSocio, Janiece E; Holland, Margaret L; Kitzman, Harriet J; Cole, Robert E

2013-04-01

Pregnancy among unmarried adolescents has been linked to negative personal control beliefs. In contrast, self-agency beliefs about control over future possibilities have been linked to delay in subsequent childbearing. In this secondary analysis, we examined factors associated with self-agency change in 429 unmarried adolescent mothers from intervention and control groups of a nurse home visitation study. Adolescent mothers who participated in a sustained relationship with a nurse made greater gains in self-agency than did control group mothers (p = .034). Adolescents with lower cognitive ability who were behind their age-appropriate grade level in school made the greatest self-agency gains. Copyright © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Quest for Quality. Proceedings of National Research Conference on Human Resource Development (College Station, Texas, April 22-24, 1993).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mathis, Laura, Ed.; Mizer, Kaye, Ed.

Papers on the theme of quality in human resource development include the following: "Missing Link to Quality: An Examination of the Use of Steven Covey's '7 Habits of Highly Effective People' in State Agencies" (Adair et al.); "Executive Women in Business in the United States" (Bierema); "Extent and Nature of Employee Initiated Learning in the…

The International Planetary Data Alliance (IPDA): Activities in 2010-2012

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Crichton, Daniel; Beebe, Reta; Kasaba, Yasumasa; Sarkissian, Alain; Capria, Maria Teresa; Hughes, Steven; Osuna, Pedro

2012-07-01

The IPDA is an international collaboration of space agencies with a mission of providing access to scientific data returned from solar system missions archived at international data centers. In order to improve access and share scientific data, the IPDA was founded to develop data and software standards. The IPDA has focused on promoting standards that drive common methods for collecting and describing planetary science data. An initial starting point for developing such a standard has been the internationalization of NASA's Planetary Data System (PDS) standard, which has become a de-facto standard. The IPDA has also focused on developing software standards that promote interoperability through the use of common software protocols allowing agencies to link their systems together. The IPDA has made significant progress since its inaugural meeting in 2006 adopting standards and developing collaborations across agencies to ensure data is captured in common formats. It has also grown to approximately eight agencies represented by a number of different groups through the IPDA Steering Committee [1]. The IPDA Steering Committee oversees the execution of projects. Over the past two years, the IPDA Steering Committee has conducted a number of focused projects around the development of these standards to enable interoperability, construction of compatible archives, and the operation of the IPDA as a whole. These projects have helped to establish the IPDA and to bring together the collaboration. Two key projects have been: development of a common protocol for data exchange, the Planetary Data Access Protocol (PDAP); and collaboration with the NASA Planetary Data System (PDS) on the next generation PDS standards, PDS4.. Both of these are progressing well and have draft standards that are now being tested. More recently, the IPDA has formed a Technical Experts Group (TEG) that is responsible for the technical architecture and implementation of the projects. As agencies implement archive systems, it is essential that the standards and software support exists and provide guidance to ensure that agencies can develop IPDA compatible archives. This talk will cover the results of the IPDA projects over the 2010-2012 timeframe. It will also discuss the plans for the next two years including the focus on ensuring that the IPDA standards for both the system and data are accessible for use by the international planetary science community. Finally, it will discuss progress on linking planetary archive systems together so scientists can access archived data regardless of the location. [1] http://planetarydata.org/members

Water resources planning under the Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act

USGS Publications Warehouse

Stutzman, Karl F.

1980-01-01

This paper briefly discusses the more significant provisions of the Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act (1958). It covers pertinent aspects of legislative history, the development and current status (April 1980) of certain policies relevant to administering the Act, and other matters. It is directed primarily to practicing fish and wildlife agency field biologists, planners, and decisionmakers engaged in water resources development activities under the Act. It is not intended to be exhaustive in its treatment. The Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act provides a basic procedural framework for the orderly consideration of fish and wildlife conservation measures to be incorporated into Federal and Federally permitted or licensed water development projects. The principal provisions of the Act include: 1. a statement of Congressional purpose that fish and wildlife conservation shall receive equal consideration with other project features; 2. mandatory consultation with wildlife agencies with a view to achieving such conservation; 3. full consideration by action of the recommendations stemming from consultation; 4. authority for action agencies to implement such recommendations as they find acceptable. The FWCA in effect amends, conditions, or supplements other Federal laws and is thus closely linked in its application and interpretation. It is similarly linked to Federal planning standards and procedures. Because of this, interpretations tend to be flexible and evolve, adapting to changing situations. The following reference matrix outlines selected sections of the Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act which are of particular relevance to planners.

The Adolescent Mentalization-based Integrative Treatment (AMBIT) approach to outcome evaluation and manualization: adopting a learning organization approach.

PubMed

Fuggle, Peter; Bevington, Dickon; Cracknell, Liz; Hanley, James; Hare, Suzanne; Lincoln, John; Richardson, Garry; Stevens, Nina; Tovey, Heather; Zlotowitz, Sally

2015-07-01

AMBIT (Adolescent Mentalization-Based Integrative Treatment) is a developing team approach to working with hard-to-reach adolescents. The approach applies the principle of mentalization to relationships with clients, team relationships and working across agencies. It places a high priority on the need for locally developed evidence-based practice, and proposes that outcome evaluation needs to be explicitly linked with processes of team learning using a learning organization framework. A number of innovative methods of team learning are incorporated into the AMBIT approach, particularly a system of web-based wiki-formatted AMBIT manuals individualized for each participating team. The paper describes early development work of the model and illustrates ways of establishing explicit links between outcome evaluation, team learning and manualization by describing these methods as applied to two AMBIT-trained teams; one team working with young people on the edge of care (AMASS - the Adolescent Multi-Agency Support Service) and another working with substance use (CASUS - Child and Adolescent Substance Use Service in Cambridgeshire). Measurement of the primary outcomes for each team (which were generally very positive) facilitated team learning and adaptations of methods of practice that were consolidated through manualization. © The Author(s) 2014.

An Update on the CCSDS Optical Communications Working Group

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Edwards, Bernard L.; Schulz, Klaus-Juergen; Hamkins, Jonathan; Robinson, Bryan; Alliss, Randall; Daddato, Robert; Schmidt, Christopher; Giggebach, Dirk; Braatz, Lena

2017-01-01

International space agencies around the world are currently developing optical communication systems for Near Earth and Deep Space applications for both robotic and human rated spacecraft. These applications include both links between spacecraft and links between spacecraft and ground. The Interagency Operation Advisory Group (IOAG) has stated that there is a strong business case for international cross support of spacecraft optical links. It further concluded that in order to enable cross support the links must be standardized. This paper will overview the history and structure of the space communications international standards body, the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS), that will develop the standards and provide an update on the proceedings of the Optical Communications Working Group within CCSDS. This paper will also describe the set of optical communications standards being developed and outline some of the issues that must be addressed in the next few years. The paper will address in particular the ongoing work on application scenarios for deep space to ground called High Photon Efficiency, for LEO to ground called Low Complexity, for inter-satellite and near Earth to ground called High Data Rate, as well as associated atmospheric measurement techniques and link operations concepts.

Advancing Sexuality Studies: A Short Course on Sexuality Theory and Research Methodologies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fletcher, Gillian; Dowsett, Gary W.; Duncan, Duane; Slavin, Sean; Corboz, Julienne

2013-01-01

Critical Sexuality Studies is an emerging field of academic enquiry linked to an international network of advocacy agencies, activists, and political issues. This paper reports on the development of an advanced short course in sexuality theory and research, drawing on Critical Sexuality Studies and aiming directly at academics in developing…

Linking Data Access to Geospatial Data Models to Applications at Local to National Scales: The Estuary Data Mapper

EPA Science Inventory

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) is developing e-Estuary, a decision-support system for Clean Water Act applications in coastal management. E-Estuary has three elements: an estuarine geo-referenced relational database, watershed GIS coverages, and tools to suppo...

Europe PMC: a full-text literature database for the life sciences and platform for innovation

PubMed Central

2015-01-01

This article describes recent developments of Europe PMC (http://europepmc.org), the leading database for life science literature. Formerly known as UKPMC, the service was rebranded in November 2012 as Europe PMC to reflect the scope of the funding agencies that support it. Several new developments have enriched Europe PMC considerably since then. Europe PMC now offers RESTful web services to access both articles and grants, powerful search tools such as citation-count sort order and data citation features, a service to add publications to your ORCID, a variety of export formats, and an External Links service that enables any related resource to be linked from Europe PMC content. PMID:25378340

Federal Facilities Reports About Underground Storage Tank Compliance - 2005 Energy Policy Act

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Find links to reports from 24 federal agencies regarding the compliance status of underground storage tanks owned or operated by the federal agencies or located on land managed by the federal agencies.

76 FR 375 - Notice of Availability: Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) for Fiscal Year 2010; Historically...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-01-04

... agency link on the Grants.gov/Find Web site at http://www.grants.gov/search/agency.do . A link to Grants.gov is also available on the HUD Web site at http://www.hud.gov/offices/adm/grants/fundsavail.cfm... must be submitted electronically through Grants.gov . FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Questions...

76 FR 5606 - Notice of Availability: Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2010 Service...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-02-01

... agency link on the Grants.gov/Find Web site at http://www.grants.gov/search/agency.do . A link to Grants.gov is also available on the HUD Web site at http://www.hud.gov/offices/adm/grants/fundsavail.cfm... must be submitted electronically through Grants.gov . FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Questions...

Smart repeater system for communications interoperability during multiagency law enforcement operations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Crutcher, Richard I.; Jones, R. W.; Moore, Michael R.; Smith, S. F.; Tolley, Alan L.; Rochelle, Robert W.

1997-02-01

A prototype 'smart' repeater that provides interoperability capabilities for radio communication systems in multi-agency and multi-user scenarios is being developed by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The smart repeater functions as a deployable communications platform that can be dynamically reconfigured to cross-link the radios of participating federal, state, and local government agencies. This interconnection capability improves the coordination and execution of multi-agency operations, including coordinated law enforcement activities and general emergency or disaster response scenarios. The repeater provides multiple channels of operation in the 30-50, 118-136, 138-174, and 403-512 MHz land mobile communications and aircraft bands while providing the ability to cross-connect among multiple frequencies, bands, modulation types, and encryption formats. Additionally, two telephone interconnects provide links to the fixed and cellular telephone networks. The 800- and 900-MHz bands are not supported by the prototype, but the modular design of the system accommodates future retrofits to extend frequency capabilities with minimal impact to the system. Configuration of the repeater is through a portable personal computer with a Windows-based graphical interface control screen that provides dynamic reconfiguration of network interconnections and formats.

75 FR 54163 - Notice of Availability: Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) for the Fiscal Year (FY) 2009...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-09-03

... the availability on its Web site of the applicant information, submission deadlines, funding criteria... funding for architectural and engineering work, site control, and other planning related expenses that are... using the Department of Housing and Urban Development agency link on the Grants.gov/Find Web site at...

76 FR 63278 - Bayer CropScience LP; Determination of Nonregulated Status for Cotton Genetically Engineered for...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-10-12

... for Cotton Genetically Engineered for Insect Resistance and Herbicide Tolerance AGENCY: Animal and... determination that a genetically engineered cotton developed by Bayer CropScience LP, designated as TwinLink TM cotton (events T304-40 and GHB119), which has been genetically engineered to be tolerant to the herbicide...

Erosion of trust in humanitarian agencies: what strategies might help?

PubMed

Jayasinghe, Saroj

2011-01-01

Aid agencies (AAs) provide a range of humanitarian and health related assistance globally. However, the trust placed on them is eroding. Evidence for this includes accusations of a decline in their humanitarianism, and the increasing number of conflicts with host states. An analysis of the concerns expressed yields two possible reasons: a relative lack of transparency of their work and weak accountability mechanisms. This is further supported by the existing milieu: an absence of internationally accepted instrument or mechanism to check the credentials of INGOs and an opaque system of close links between some of the INGOs and their donors. The article suggests two global strategies to tackle these issues: (a) Increase transparency by establishing a global register of aid agencies. This should have basic information: their main goals and activities, countries they are active in, number of employees, annual turnover of funds (updated regularly), principal financing sources and nature of links with donors. This could also be available as printed manual that should be freely available to client countries. (b) Ensure accountability by developing templates of fair legal instruments (to facilitate and regulate work), and a set of generic rules and procedures of engagement for the interactions between agencies and client states. These should be institutionalized within the regulatory frameworks of countries and included in the Codes of Conduct of NGOs.

Erosion of trust in humanitarian agencies: what strategies might help?

PubMed Central

Jayasinghe, Saroj

2011-01-01

Aid agencies (AAs) provide a range of humanitarian and health related assistance globally. However, the trust placed on them is eroding. Evidence for this includes accusations of a decline in their humanitarianism, and the increasing number of conflicts with host states. An analysis of the concerns expressed yields two possible reasons: a relative lack of transparency of their work and weak accountability mechanisms. This is further supported by the existing milieu: an absence of internationally accepted instrument or mechanism to check the credentials of INGOs and an opaque system of close links between some of the INGOs and their donors. The article suggests two global strategies to tackle these issues: (a) Increase transparency by establishing a global register of aid agencies. This should have basic information: their main goals and activities, countries they are active in, number of employees, annual turnover of funds (updated regularly), principal financing sources and nature of links with donors. This could also be available as printed manual that should be freely available to client countries. (b) Ensure accountability by developing templates of fair legal instruments (to facilitate and regulate work), and a set of generic rules and procedures of engagement for the interactions between agencies and client states. These should be institutionalized within the regulatory frameworks of countries and included in the Codes of Conduct of NGOs. PMID:22110413

Experiences from regional public funding agencies

PubMed Central

Alonso-Trujillo, Federico

2009-01-01

Introduction There is an increasing demand of social and health services by persons with long-term care (LTC) needs. On the other hand the devolution process has shifted governance and funding to regional agencies in many EU countries. Regional agencies are getting an increasing role in funding LTC. Knowledge transfer (KT) plays a key role in the development of regional funding agencies, as they should cooperate with both local and national agencies as well as several European organisations and companies operating in their regions. The communication barriers between social and health services play a particular role at regional level. Description of care or policy practice In Spain the 17 regions have full government autonomy in health and social care. These regions have developed different approaches to coordination of care and KT. Andalusia is the larger region in Spain. In order to coordinate provision and planning, the regional government has developed a network of cross-sectional agencies in specific areas such as Mental Health (FAISEM), Social Services in Ageing, Disabilities, Poverty and TICs (FASS), Emergency care (EPES), care related to gender (Instituto Andaluz de la Mujer), Health Care for the Elderly in the community (Living Lab and IAVANTE Foundation) or innovation in new technologies applied to social care (I2BC); among several others. A number of these public organisations are privately run. Discussion Coordination and links across these organisations as well as funding issues are discussed here. The relationship or coordination agencies with citizens and other stakeholders deserve special attention as well. Andalusia provides an interesting case of cross-sectorial coordination within the European context.

Home healthcare nurse retention and patient outcome model: discussion and model development.

PubMed

Ellenbecker, Carol Hall; Cushman, Margaret

2012-08-01

This paper discusses additions to an empirically tested model of home healthcare nurse retention. An argument is made that the variables of shared decision-making and organizational commitment be added to the model based on the authors' previous research and additional evidence from the literature. Previous research testing the home healthcare nurse retention model established empirical relationships between nurse, agency, and area characteristics to nurse job satisfaction, intent to stay, and retention. Unexplained model variance prompted a new literature search to augment understanding of nurse retention and patient and agency outcomes. Data come from the authors' previous research, and a literature search from 1990 to 2011 on the topics organizational commitment, shared decision-making, nurse retention, patient outcomes and agency performance. The literature provides a rationale for the additional variables of shared decision-making and affective and continuous organizational commitment, linking these variables to nurse job satisfaction, nurse intent to stay, nurse retention and patient outcomes and agency performance. Implications for nursing.  The new variables in the model suggest that all agencies, even those not struggling to retain nurses, should develop interventions to enhance nurse job satisfaction to assure quality patient outcomes. The new nurse retention and patient outcome model increases our understanding of nurse retention. An understanding of the relationship among these variables will guide future research and the development of interventions to create and maintain nursing work environments that contribute to nurse affective agency commitment, nurse retention and quality of patient outcomes. © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Linking International Development Actors to Geophysical Infrastructure: Exploring an IRIS Community Role in Bridging a Communications Gap

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lerner-Lam, A.; Aster, R.; Beck, S.; Ekstrom, G.; Fisher, K.; Meltzer, A.; Nyblade, A.; Sandvol, E.; Willemann, R.

2008-12-01

Over the past quarter century, national investments in high-fidelity digital seismograph networks have resulted in a global infrastructure for real-time in situ earthquake monitoring. Many network operators adhere to community-developed standards, with the result that there are few technical impediments to data sharing and real-time information exchange. Two unanswered questions, however, are whether the existing models of international collaboration will ensure the stability and sustainability of global earthquake monitoring, and whether the participating institutions can work with international development agencies and non- governmental organizations in meeting linked development and natural hazard risk reduction goals. Since the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, many of these actors are enlarging their commitments to natural hazard risk reduction and building national technical capacities, among broader programs in poverty alleviation and adaptation to environmental stress. Despite this renewed commitment, international development organizations, with notable exceptions, have been relatively passive in discussions of how the existing earthquake monitoring infrastructure could be leveraged to support risk-reduction programs and meet sustainable development goals. At the same time, the international seismological community - comprising universities and government seismological surveys - has built research and education initiatives such as EarthScope, AfricaArray, and similar programs in China, Europe and South America, that use innovative instrumentation technologies and deployment strategies to enable new science and applications, and promote education and training in critical sectors. Can these developments be combined? Recognizing this communication or knowledge gap, the IRIS International Working Group (IWG) explores the link between the activities of IRIS Members using IRIS facilities and the missions of international development agencies, such as US AID, the World Bank, other international development banks, and agencies of the United Nations. Interests of US seismologists are served by encouraging development of modern seismographic systems in countries around the world to collect data that are useful in research as well as hazard mitigation and other national interests. Activities of the IWG to date include communicating the benefits of geophysical infrastructure and training to disaster risk reduction programs within the United Nations and development banks, coordinating an initiative to leverage retired PASSCAL data loggers through long-term loans to network operators in foreign countries, preparing a white paper outlining IRIS capabilities relevant to international development, and conducting a workshop, "Out of Africa", on modernizing geophysical infrastructure in the Americas and Southeast Asia through projects that are closely tied to university education and academic research.

Laser Communication Experiments with Artemis Satellite

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kuzkov, Sergii; Sodnik, Zoran; Kuzkov, Volodymyr

2013-10-01

In November 2001, the European Space Agency (ESA) established the world-first inter-satellite laser communication link between the geostationary ARTEMIS satellite and the low Earth orbiting (LEO) SPOT-4 Earth observation satellite, demonstrating data rates of 50 Mbps. In 2006, the Japanese Space Agency launched the KIRARI (OICETS) LEO satellite with a compatible laser communication terminal and bidirectional laser communication links (50 Mbps and 2 Mbps) were successfully realized between KIRARI and ARTEMIS. ESA is now developing the European Data Relay Satellite (EDRS) system, which will use laser communication technology to transmit data between the Sentinel 1 and 2 satellites in LEO to two geostationary satellites (EDRS-A and EDRS-C) at data rates of 1.8 Gbps. As the data handling capabilities of state-of-the-art telecommunication satellites in GEO increase so is the demand for the feeder-link bandwidth to be transmitted from ground. This is why there is an increasing interest in developing high bandwidth ground-to-space laser communication systems working through atmosphere. In 2002, the Main Astronomical Observatory (MAO) started the development of its own laser communication system for its 0.7m AZT-2 telescope, located in Kyiv, Ukraine. The work was supported by the National Space Agency of Ukraine and by ESA. MAO developed a highly accurate computerized tracking system for AZT-2 telescope and a compact laser communication package called LACES (Laser Atmosphere and Communication Experiments with Satellites). The LACES instrument includes a camera of the pointing and tracking subsystems, a receiver module, a laser transmitter module, a tip/tilt atmospheric turbulence compensation subsystem, a bit error rate tester module and other optical and electronic components. The principal subsystems are mounted on a platform, which is located at the Cassegrain focus of the AZT-2 telescope. All systems were tested with the laser communication payload on-board ARTEMIS and the data analysis was supported by the telemetry received from the ARTEMIS payload control centre in Redu (Belgium). Special attention was focused on the investigation of the impact of atmosphere turbulence on laser beam propagation, especially in cloudy conditions. A description of our telescope and ground based laser system as well as the experimental results will be presented.

76 FR 35233 - Notice of Web Availability; Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) for HUD's Fiscal Year (FY) 2011...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-06-16

...: HUD announces the availability on its Web site and Grants.gov of the applicant information, submission... agency link on the Grants.gov /Find Web site at http://www.grants.gov/search/agency.do . A link to the funding opportunity is also available on the HUD Web site at http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src...

Quality target negotiation in health care: evidence from the English NHS.

PubMed

Fichera, Eleonora; Gravelle, Hugh; Pezzino, Mario; Sutton, Matt

2016-09-01

We examine how public sector third-party purchasers and hospitals negotiate quality targets when a fixed proportion of hospital revenue is required to be linked to quality. We develop a bargaining model linking the number of quality targets to purchaser and hospital characteristics. Using data extracted from 153 contracts for acute hospital services in England in 2010/2011, we find that the number of quality targets is associated with the purchaser's population health and its budget, the hospital type, whether the purchaser delegated negotiation to an agency, and the quality targets imposed by the supervising regional health authority.

How Can Data Drive Policy and Practice in Child Welfare? Making the Link in Canada.

PubMed

Fallon, Barbara; Filippelli, Joanne; Black, Tara; Trocmé, Nico; Esposito, Tonino

2017-10-14

Formal university-child welfare partnerships offer a unique opportunity to begin to fill the gaps in the child welfare knowledge base and link child welfare services to the realities of practice. With resources from a knowledge mobilization grant, a formal partnership was developed between the University of Toronto, clinicians, policy analysts, and researchers from child welfare agencies across Ontario. The key objectives of the grant included: (1) enhancing the capacity of service providers to access and analyze child welfare data to inform service and policy decisions; (2) integrating clinical expertise in service and policy decisions; and (3) developing a joint research agenda addressing high-priority knowledge gaps. This partnership was an opportunity to advance the evidence base with respect to service provision in Ontario and to create a culture of knowledge and evidence that would eventually support more complex research initiatives. Administrative data was analyzed for this partnership through the Ontario Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (OCANDS)-the first child welfare data system in Ontario to track child welfare-involved children and their families. Child welfare agencies identified recurrence as an important priority and agency-driven analyses were subsequently conducted on OCANDS generated recurrence Service Performance Indicators (SPI's). Using an urgent versus chronic investigative taxonomy for analyses, findings revealed that the majority of cases did not recur within 12 months and cases identified as chronic needs are more likely to return to the attention of child welfare authorities. One of the key outcomes of the partnership - helping agencies to understand their administrative data is described, as are considerations for next steps for future partnerships and research.

Decision-making contexts involving Earth observations in federal and state government agencies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kuwayama, Y.; Thompson, A.

2017-12-01

National and international organizations are placing greater emphasis on the societal and economic benefits that can be derived from applications of Earth observations, yet improvements are needed to connect to the decision processes that produce actions with direct societal benefits. The Consortium for the Valuation of Applications Benefits Linked with Earth Science (VALUABLES), a cooperative agreement between Resources for the Future (RFF) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), has the goal of advancing methods for the valuation and communication of the applied benefits linked with Earth observations. One of the Consortium's activities is a set of Policy Briefs that document the use of Earth observations for decision making in federal and state government agencies. In developing these Policy Briefs, we pay special attention to documenting the entire information value chain associated with the use of Earth observations in government decision making, namely (a) the specific data product, modeling capability, or information system used by the agency, (b) the decision context that employs the Earth observation information and translates it into an agency action, (c) the outcomes that are realized as a result of the action, and (d) the beneficiaries associated with the outcomes of the decision. Two key examples include the use of satellite data for informing the US Drought Monitor (USDM), which is used to determine the eligibility of agricultural communities for drought disaster assistance programs housed at the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the use of satellite data by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to develop numeric nutrient water quality standards and monitoring methods for chlorophyll-a, which is codified in Florida state code (62-302.532).

How Can Data Drive Policy and Practice in Child Welfare? Making the Link in Canada

PubMed Central

Filippelli, Joanne; Black, Tara; Trocmé, Nico; Esposito, Tonino

2017-01-01

Formal university–child welfare partnerships offer a unique opportunity to begin to fill the gaps in the child welfare knowledge base and link child welfare services to the realities of practice. With resources from a knowledge mobilization grant, a formal partnership was developed between the University of Toronto, clinicians, policy analysts, and researchers from child welfare agencies across Ontario. The key objectives of the grant included: (1) enhancing the capacity of service providers to access and analyze child welfare data to inform service and policy decisions; (2) integrating clinical expertise in service and policy decisions; and (3) developing a joint research agenda addressing high-priority knowledge gaps. This partnership was an opportunity to advance the evidence base with respect to service provision in Ontario and to create a culture of knowledge and evidence that would eventually support more complex research initiatives. Administrative data was analyzed for this partnership through the Ontario Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (OCANDS)—the first child welfare data system in Ontario to track child welfare-involved children and their families. Child welfare agencies identified recurrence as an important priority and agency-driven analyses were subsequently conducted on OCANDS generated recurrence Service Performance Indicators (SPI’s). Using an urgent versus chronic investigative taxonomy for analyses, findings revealed that the majority of cases did not recur within 12 months and cases identified as chronic needs are more likely to return to the attention of child welfare authorities. One of the key outcomes of the partnership — helping agencies to understand their administrative data is described, as are considerations for next steps for future partnerships and research. PMID:29036894

Principals' Moral Agency and Ethical Decision-Making: Toward a Transformational Ethics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cherkowski, Sabre; Walker, Keith D.; Kutsyuruba, Benjamin

2015-01-01

This descriptive study provides a rich portrait of moral agency and ethical decision-making processes among a sample of Canadian school principals. Using an ethical responsibility framework linking moral agency and transformational leadership, the researchers found that (1) modeling moral agency is important for encouraging others to engage their…

"Agency in Mobility": Towards a Conceptualisation of International Student Agency in Transnational Mobility

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tran, Ly Thi; Vu, Thao Thi Phuong

2018-01-01

Student mobility is becoming a prominent phenomenon of tertiary education in the twenty-first century. Internationally mobile students' lived experiences are intimately linked to their potential to exercise agency in transnational mobility. However, the notion of agency within the context of student mobility has not been the explicit focus of…

75 FR 30013 - South Feather Water and Power Agency; Notice of Availability of Environmental Assessment

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-05-28

... modify the spillway at Sly Creek Dam, part of the Sly Creek development of the South Feather Power... federal action significantly affecting the quality of the human environment. A copy of the EA is available... at http://www.ferc.gov using the ``eLibrary'' link. Enter the docket number (P-2088) in the docket...

Towards a Human Rights Culture in Social Work Education

PubMed Central

Werkmeister Rozas, Lisa; Garran, Ann Marie

2016-01-01

A human rights perspective must be embedded in the institutions, organisations or agencies where social work students find themselves. This paper will focus on one particular strategy that could be helpful to the process of solidifying a commitment to human rights for our students. Using a pedagogical tool from a school of social work in the USA originally developed to combat the social injustice of racism, the example transcends the academic institution and offers a solid link in connecting human rights, social justice and social work. Using the construct of critical realism, we argue that, for social work programmes to take steps towards an explicit commitment to human rights, not only must human rights be infused throughout the curriculum, but educators must provide opportunities for making more overt the links between human rights principles, social justice and social work. By addressing behaviours, tendencies and attitudes, students then acquire not only the skills and deeper understanding, but they internalise the motivation and commitment to broaden their human rights frame. In the process of developing a more firm commitment to human rights, we must not be limited to the walls of the academy, but rather extend beyond to our field agencies, organisations and communities. PMID:27559204

Towards a Human Rights Culture in Social Work Education.

PubMed

Werkmeister Rozas, Lisa; Garran, Ann Marie

2016-06-01

A human rights perspective must be embedded in the institutions, organisations or agencies where social work students find themselves. This paper will focus on one particular strategy that could be helpful to the process of solidifying a commitment to human rights for our students. Using a pedagogical tool from a school of social work in the USA originally developed to combat the social injustice of racism, the example transcends the academic institution and offers a solid link in connecting human rights, social justice and social work. Using the construct of critical realism, we argue that, for social work programmes to take steps towards an explicit commitment to human rights, not only must human rights be infused throughout the curriculum, but educators must provide opportunities for making more overt the links between human rights principles, social justice and social work. By addressing behaviours, tendencies and attitudes, students then acquire not only the skills and deeper understanding, but they internalise the motivation and commitment to broaden their human rights frame. In the process of developing a more firm commitment to human rights, we must not be limited to the walls of the academy, but rather extend beyond to our field agencies, organisations and communities.

78 FR 5242 - 32nd Meeting: RTCA Special Committee 206, Aeronautical Information and Meteorological Data Link...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-01-24

... 206, Aeronautical Information and Meteorological Data Link Services AGENCY: Federal Aviation... 206, Aeronautical Information and Meteorological Data Link Services. SUMMARY: The FAA is issuing this... Information and Meteorological Data Link Services. DATES: The meeting will be held February 11-15, 2013 from 8...

Glenn's Strategic Partnerships With HBCUs and OMUs

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kankam, M. David

2003-01-01

NASA senior management has identified the need to develop a strategy for increased contracting with the historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and other minority universities (OMUs). The benefits to the institutions, by partnering with NASA, include developing their industrial base via NASA-industry partnerships, strong competitive advantage in technology-based research opportunities, and improved research capabilities. NASA gains increased contributed value to the Agency missions and programs as well as potential future recruits from technology-trained students who also constitute a pool for the nation s workforce. This report documents synergistic links between Glenn Research Center research and technology programs and faculty expertise at HBCUs and OMUs. The links are derived, based on Glenn technologies in the various directorates, program offices, and project offices. Such links readily identify universities with faculty members who are knowledgeable or have backgrounds in the listed technologies for possible collaboration. Recommendations are made to use the links as opportunities for Glenn and NASA, as well as industry collaborators, to cultivate stronger partnerships with the universities. It is concluded that Glenn and its partners and collaborators can expect to mutually benefit from leveraging NASA s cutting-edge and challenging research and technologies; industry's high technology development, research and development facilities, system design capabilities and market awareness; and academia s expertise in basic research and relatively low overhead cost. Reduced cost, accelerated technology development, technology transfer, and infrastructure development constitute some of the derived benefits.

Satellite Communications Using Commercial Protocols

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ivancic, William D.; Griner, James H.; Dimond, Robert; Frantz, Brian D.; Kachmar, Brian; Shell, Dan

2000-01-01

NASA Glenn Research Center has been working with industry, academia, and other government agencies in assessing commercial communications protocols for satellite and space-based applications. In addition, NASA Glenn has been developing and advocating new satellite-friendly modifications to existing communications protocol standards. This paper summarizes recent research into the applicability of various commercial standard protocols for use over satellite and space- based communications networks as well as expectations for future protocol development. It serves as a reference point from which the detailed work can be readily accessed. Areas that will be addressed include asynchronous-transfer-mode quality of service; completed and ongoing work of the Internet Engineering Task Force; data-link-layer protocol development for unidirectional link routing; and protocols for aeronautical applications, including mobile Internet protocol routing for wireless/mobile hosts and the aeronautical telecommunications network protocol.

Which Basic Rules Underlie Social Judgments? Agency Follows a Zero-Sum Principle and Communion Follows a Non-Zero-Sum Principle.

PubMed

Dufner, Michael; Leising, Daniel; Gebauer, Jochen E

2016-05-01

How are people who generally see others positively evaluated themselves? We propose that the answer to this question crucially hinges on the content domain: We hypothesize that Agency follows a "zero-sum principle" and therefore people who see others ashighin Agency are perceived aslowin Agency themselves. In contrast, we hypothesize that Communion follows a "non-zero-sum principle" and therefore people who see others ashighin Communion are perceived ashighin Communion themselves. We tested these hypotheses in a round-robin and a half-block study. Perceiving others as agentic was indeed linked to being perceived as low in Agency. To the contrary, perceiving others as communal was linked to being perceived as high in Communion, but only when people directly interacted with each other. These results help to clarify the nature of Agency and Communion and offer explanations for divergent findings in the literature. © 2016 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.

Health protection--a strategy and a national agency.

PubMed

Nicoll, A; Murray, V

2002-05-01

The Chief Medical Officer for England has published a strategy for health protection and announced the formation of a new body, the Health Protection Agency, to deal with the threats to health from infectious disease, chemicals, toxins and radiation hazards. This reflects international recognition of the need to combat threats to health from the likes of tuberculosis, HIV, influenza, anti-microbial resistance, chemical accidents and bio-terrorism, and the risks to health associated with increased movements of people, animals and goods, climate change and industrialisation. The strategy will strengthen surveillance and response linking contributions from clinical specialities with public health, microbiology, toxicology and radiation science within the health protection family. The Agency will be formed by combining a number of national and specialist public bodies and personnel delivering local protection services. The strategy represents a unique opportunity to strengthen local and national structures and develop a world-class health protection service. Detailed plans are being developed by the Department of Health with a variety of stakeholders for the launch of the Agency in 2003. A number of challenges will have to be met including developing and training the workforce in health protection, providing career structures for public health scientists and nurses, strengthening electronic communications and developing health protection networks within broader public health structures. Health protection should now be recognised as a sub-speciality of public health.

76 FR 5355 - Notice of Submission for OMB Review

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-01-31

... Grants (1894-0001). OMB Control Number: Pending. Agency Form Number(s): 1810-NEW. Frequency of Responses... Educational Agencies or Local Educational Agencies. Total Estimated Number of Annual Responses: 5. Total... Website at http://edicsweb.ed.gov , by selecting the ``Browse Pending Collections'' link and by clicking...

Development of a water-use data system in Minnesota

USGS Publications Warehouse

Horn, M.A.

1986-01-01

The Minnesota Water-Use Data System stores data on the quantity of individual annual water withdrawals and discharges in relation to the water resources affected, provides descriptors for aggregation of data and trend analysis, and enables access to additional data contained in other data bases. MWUDS is stored on a computer at the Land Management Information Center, an agency associated with the State Planning Agency. Interactive menu-driven programs simplify data entry, update, and retrieval and are easy to use. Estimates of unreported water use supplement reported water use to completely describe the stress on the hydrologic system. Links or common elements developed in the MWUDS enable access to data available in other State waterrelated data bases, forming a water-resource information system. Water-use information can be improved by developing methods for increasing accuracy of reported water use and refining methods for estimating unreported water use.

Academic Library-State Library Agency Relationships: The Pennsylvania Needs Assessment.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Townley, Charles T.; And Others

1988-01-01

Discusses the interdependency between academic libraries and state library agencies, and describes a survey which assessed the needs of Pennsylvania's academic libraries that could be addressed by state library agencies. The needs discussed include advocacy of academic libraries, linked systems protocols, telecommunications, and new technologies.…

Building a Full Service School: Florida's Model of Collaboration for School-Based and School-Linked Services.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Calfee, Carol; Meredith, Mimi, Ed.; Wittwer, Frank

This book is designed to guide readers as they consider establishing a full-service school in their community. Drawing on a working model with a 5-year history of development and implementation, the book shows how schools and community social, welfare, and health agencies can work together to deliver services to children and their families. After…

76 FR 28804 - Notice of Availability: Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) for HUD's Fiscal Year (FY) 2011...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-05-18

... the Fiscal Year (FY) 2011 Healthy Homes Production NOFA to Grants.gov . The NOFA was posted as FR-5500....gov as a modification to the NOFA. The purpose of the Healthy Homes Production Grant Program is to... Department of Housing and Urban Development agency link on the Grants.gov/Find Web site at http://www.grants...

The Legacy of Rational Budgeting Models in Education and a Proposal for the Future. Project Report No. 83-A21.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brackett, John; And Others

This paper represents a backdrop from which to consider the development of a planning and budgeting model for local education agencies. The first part of the presentation describes the demands and external pressures that affect resource allocation decisions in school districts. The ability of local school officials to link the cost consequences…

76 FR 54526 - 26th Meeting: RTCA Special Committee 206: Aeronautical Information and Meteorological Data Link

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-09-01

... 206: Aeronautical Information and Meteorological Data Link AGENCY: Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), DOT. ACTION: Notice of RTCA Special Committee 206: Aeronautical Information and Meteorological... of RTCA Special Committee 206: Aeronautical Information and Meteorological Data Link Services. DATES...

Theorising big IT programmes in healthcare: strong structuration theory meets actor-network theory.

PubMed

Greenhalgh, Trisha; Stones, Rob

2010-05-01

The UK National Health Service is grappling with various large and controversial IT programmes. We sought to develop a sharper theoretical perspective on the question "What happens - at macro-, meso- and micro-level - when government tries to modernise a health service with the help of big IT?" Using examples from data fragments at the micro-level of clinical work, we considered how structuration theory and actor-network theory (ANT) might be combined to inform empirical investigation. Giddens (1984) argued that social structures and human agency are recursively linked and co-evolve. ANT studies the relationships that link people and technologies in dynamic networks. It considers how discourses become inscribed in data structures and decision models of software, making certain network relations irreversible. Stones' (2005) strong structuration theory (SST) is a refinement of Giddens' work, systematically concerned with empirical research. It views human agents as linked in dynamic networks of position-practices. A quadripartite approcach considers [a] external social structures (conditions for action); [b] internal social structures (agents' capabilities and what they 'know' about the social world); [c] active agency and actions and [d] outcomes as they feed back on the position-practice network. In contrast to early structuration theory and ANT, SST insists on disciplined conceptual methodology and linking this with empirical evidence. In this paper, we adapt SST for the study of technology programmes, integrating elements from material interactionism and ANT. We argue, for example, that the position-practice network can be a socio-technical one in which technologies in conjunction with humans can be studied as 'actants'. Human agents, with their complex socio-cultural frames, are required to instantiate technology in social practices. Structurally relevant properties inscribed and embedded in technological artefacts constrain and enable human agency. The fortunes of healthcare IT programmes might be studied in terms of the interplay between these factors. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

75 FR 341 - FY 2010-FY 2011 Broad Agency Announcement

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-01-05

... Agency's strategic plan and mission goals, as well as to provide the general public with information and... and programs associated with the Agency's strategic plan and mission goals, as well as to provide the... systematic approach that links our strategic goals through multi-year plans to the daily activities of our...

Constructing Teacher Agency in Response to the Constraints of Education Policy: Adoption and Adaptation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Robinson, Sarah

2012-01-01

Drawing on agency literature, this paper demonstrates how teachers' professional agency emerged when seemingly conflicting strategies were imposed on them in policy reform. Policy discourse is often linked to performance and accountability measures, which teachers respond to in a number of ways. Some education researchers identify tensions caused…

Croup: MedlinePlus Health Topic

MedlinePlus

... federal government agencies. MedlinePlus also links to health information from non-government Web sites. See our disclaimer about external links and our quality guidelines . About MedlinePlus Site Map FAQs Customer Support ...

Development of a toolkit and glossary to aid in the adaptation of health technology assessment (HTA) reports for use in different contexts.

PubMed

Chase, D; Rosten, C; Turner, S; Hicks, N; Milne, R

2009-11-01

To develop a health technology assessment (HTA) adaptation toolkit and glossary of adaptation terms for use by HTA agencies within EU member states to support them in adapting HTA reports written for other contexts. The toolkit and glossary were developed by a partnership of 28 HTA agencies and networks across Europe (EUnetHTA work package 5), led by the UK National Coordinating Centre for Health Technology Assessment (NCCHTA). Methods employed for the two resources were literature searching, a survey of adaptation experience, two rounds of a Delphi survey, meetings of the partnership and drawing on the expertise and experience of the partnership, two rounds of review, and two rounds of quality assurance testing. All partners were requested to provide input into each stage of development. The resulting toolkit is a collection of resources, in the form of checklists of questions on relevance, reliability and transferability of data and information, and links to useful websites, that help the user assess whether data and information in existing HTA reports can be adapted for a different setting. The toolkit is designed for the adaptation of evidence synthesis rather than primary research. The accompanying glossary provides descriptions of meanings for HTA adaptation terms from HTA agencies across Europe. It seeks to highlight differences in the use and understanding of each word by HTA agencies. The toolkit and glossary are available for use by all HTA agencies and can be accessed via www.eunethta.net/. These resources have been developed to help HTA agencies make better use of HTA reports produced elsewhere. They can be used by policy-makers and clinicians to aid in understanding HTA reports written for other contexts. The main implication of this work is that there is the potential for the adaptation of HTA reports and, if utilised, this should release resources to enable the development of further HTA reports. Recommendations for the further development of the toolkit include the potential to develop an interactive web-based version and to extend the toolkit to facilitate the adaptation of HTA reports on diagnostic testing and screening.

Population Issues: From Obscurity to Worldwide Interest. Population: Before and after Bucharest [And] Ford Foundation Programs: Review and Projection. A Ford Foundation Reprint.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Saunders, Lyle; Harkavy, Oscar

This essay traces the actions taken by governments and private agencies in the past two decades to limit population growth and examines the growing emphasis on linking population and development concerns. It was presented to the annual conference of the Ford Foundation's International Division on September 22, 1975. The time between the end of…

Asian Transnational Security Challenge: Emerging Trends, Regional Visions

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-10-01

the official policy or position of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, the Department of Defense, or the United States Government . This report...the terrorist threat as seen through Southeast Asian eyes. IDA drew on its extensive network of academic and government contacts across Asia to...Asia would advance both government and non- government efforts to develop a better understanding of the roots of the terrorist threat and its links

Law Library - Alaska Court System

Science.gov Websites

, Federal Info, US Supreme Court, State Links, 9th Circuit Links Library Databases & eBooks WestlawNext state agencies Alaska Supreme Court briefs (1960-current) Alaska Court of Appeals briefs (1980-current

GLCF: Shuttle Radar Topography Mission

Science.gov Websites

Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), NASA, the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and the German Aerospace Center * Gallery Quick Links *SRTM at NASA *SRTM at USGS *SRTM at NGA *SRTM at DLR *SRTM at ASI *UTM Projection e

Water Quality Monitor

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1982-01-01

An automated water quality monitoring system was developed by Langley Research Center to meet a need of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Designed for unattended operation in water depths up to 100 feet, the system consists of a subsurface buoy anchored in the water, a surface control unit (SCU) and a hydrophone link for acoustic communication between buoy and SCU. Primary functional unit is the subsurface buoy. It incorporates 16 cells for water sampling, plus sensors for eight water quality measurements. Buoy contains all the electronic equipment needed for collecting and storing sensor data, including a microcomputer and a memory unit. Power for the electronics is supplied by a rechargeable nickel cadmium battery that is designed to operate for about two weeks. Through hydrophone link the subsurface buoy reports its data to the SCU, which relays it to land stations. Link allows two-way communications. If system encounters a problem, it automatically shuts down and sends alert signal. Sequence of commands sent via hydrophone link causes buoy to release from anchor and float to the surface for recovery.

Emergence of multilateral proto-institutions in global health and new approaches to governance: analysis using path dependency and institutional theory.

PubMed

Gómez, Eduardo J; Atun, Rifat

2013-05-10

The role of multilateral donor agencies in global health is a new area of research, with limited research on how these agencies differ in terms of their governance arrangements, especially in relation to transparency, inclusiveness, accountability, and responsiveness to civil society. We argue that historical analysis of the origins of these agencies and their coalition formation processes can help to explain these differences. We propose an analytical approach that links the theoretical literature discussing institutional origins to path dependency and institutional theory relating to proto institutions in order to illustrate the differences in coalition formation processes that shape governance within four multilateral agencies involved in global health. We find that two new multilateral donor agencies that were created by a diverse coalition of state and non-state actors, such as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and GAVI, what we call proto-institutions, were more adaptive in strengthening their governance processes. This contrasts with two well-established multilateral donor agencies, such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, what we call Bretton Woods (BW) institutions, which were created by nation states alone; and hence, have different origins and consequently different path dependent processes.

Emergence of multilateral proto-institutions in global health and new approaches to governance: analysis using path dependency and institutional theory

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

The role of multilateral donor agencies in global health is a new area of research, with limited research on how these agencies differ in terms of their governance arrangements, especially in relation to transparency, inclusiveness, accountability, and responsiveness to civil society. We argue that historical analysis of the origins of these agencies and their coalition formation processes can help to explain these differences. We propose an analytical approach that links the theoretical literature discussing institutional origins to path dependency and institutional theory relating to proto institutions in order to illustrate the differences in coalition formation processes that shape governance within four multilateral agencies involved in global health. We find that two new multilateral donor agencies that were created by a diverse coalition of state and non-state actors, such as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and GAVI, what we call proto-institutions, were more adaptive in strengthening their governance processes. This contrasts with two well-established multilateral donor agencies, such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, what we call Bretton Woods (BW) institutions, which were created by nation states alone; and hence, have different origins and consequently different path dependent processes. PMID:23663485

NASA Educational Product Development and Post-Secondary Program Assessment Planning

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Salmons, Phyllis A.

1999-01-01

Producing "value-added students" involves proactively addressing how successfully students develop their skills, knowledge, and personal, social, and ethical growth due to their association with a program. NASA programs for higher education can certainly be responsive in aiding the academic community strive for quality in terms of "valueadded" students. By identifying essential characteristics of exemplary assessment practices, the standards developed by accrediting agencies serve as guides for developing quality practices and policies. Such a process is an effective tool for communicating the expectations of the educational components of a program to all concerned with the program and its expected results. When standards are connected to student performance, they provide a very compelling argument for refocusing the definition of quality in higher education. By linking standards and performance, student learning and development becomes the starting point for examining program quality. If the multiple stakeholders - faculty, peers, the professional community, addressed assessment issues, then accreditation can be a link among various constituencies, the parties can better understand the needs of each other and develop the necessary trust needed for understanding and support.

Reconfiguring Interactivity, Agency and Pleasure in the Education and Computer Games Debate--Using Zizek's Concept of Interpassivity to Analyse Educational Play

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pelletier, Caroline

2005-01-01

Digital or computer games have recently attracted the interest of education researchers and policy-makers for two main reasons: their interactivity, which is said to allow greater agency, and their inherent pleasures, which are linked to increased motivation to learn. However, the relationship between pleasure, agency and motivation in educational…

Health research in the developing world: a gastroenterological view from Bangladesh.

PubMed

Hamilton, J R

1997-01-01

Ill health is a serious impediment to progress in most poor countries, yet health is not a high priority on foreign aid agendas. Health research, which provides the essential base for sustainable progressive health programs, is barely visible in developing countries. For example, in Bangladesh, one finds unacceptably high morbidity and mortality rates among infants and children, health programs that are struggling and a rudimentary health research establishment; for the huge foreign donor community in that country, health programs and research do not appear to warrant major investments. Diarrheal diseases are at the top of the list of killers in many poor nations including Bangladesh. Recent advances in our understanding of diarrhea suggest that when prevention may not be possible soon, improved active treatment can evolve from an aggressive research effort centered in a developing country and linked to appropriate international partners. Global agencies such as the World Health Organization have demonstrated a declining interest in health research, as reflected in the policies of their Diarrhoeal Disease Control Programme. Major donors to the developing world, the Canadian International Development Agency for example, have had a relatively minor involvement in health and little commitment to health research. University links with the west, private enterprises and specially targeted programs are involved in developing world health research but they have not been able to foster and leave behind sustainable, high quality research programs. The problem should be attacked directly by supporting focused, relevant health research centres in regions of the world where the burden of disease continues to impede progress and where the environment is conducive to high quality research that is well integrated with care delivery programs. An instructive model of this approach is the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

32 CFR 320.12 - Exemptions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... NATIONAL GEOSPATIAL-INTELLIGENCE AGENCY (NGA) PRIVACY § 320.12 Exemptions. Link to an amendment published... intelligence agencies which may be exempt from certain provisions of the Privacy Act. However, NGA does not... in this system, including law enforcement counterterrorism, investigatory and intelligence records...

In and out of control: brain mechanisms linking fluency of action selection to self-agency in patients with schizophrenia.

PubMed

Voss, Martin; Chambon, Valérian; Wenke, Dorit; Kühn, Simone; Haggard, Patrick

2017-08-01

Sense of agency refers to the feeling of control over one's actions, and their consequences. It involves both predictive processes linked to action control, and retrospective 'sense-making' causal inferences. Schizophrenia has been associated with impaired predictive processing, but the underlying mechanisms that impair patients' sense of agency remain unclear. We introduce a new 'prospective' aspect of agency and show that subliminally priming an action not only influences response times, but also influences reported sense of agency over subsequent action outcomes. This effect of priming was associated with altered connectivity between frontal areas and the angular gyrus. The effects on response times and on frontal action selection mechanisms were similar in patients with schizophrenia and in healthy volunteers. However, patients showed no effects of priming on sense of agency, no priming-related activation of angular gyrus, and no priming-related changes in fronto-parietal connectivity. We suggest angular gyrus activation reflects the experiences of agency, or non-agency, in part by processing action selection signals generated in the frontal lobes. The altered action awareness that characterizes schizophrenia may be due to impaired communication between these areas. © The Author (2017). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Guarantors of Brain. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Agency-communion and self-esteem relations are moderated by culture, religiosity, age, and sex: evidence for the "self-centrality breeds self-enhancement" principle.

PubMed

Gebauer, Jochen E; Wagner, Jenny; Sedikides, Constantine; Neberich, Wiebke

2013-06-01

Who has high self-esteem? Is it ambitious, competitive, outgoing people-agentic personalities? Or is it caring, honest, understanding people-communal personalities? The literature on agency-communion and self-esteem is sparse, indirect, and inconsistent. Based on William James's theorizing, we propose the "self-centrality breeds self-enhancement" principle. Accordingly, agency will be linked to self-esteem, if agency is self-central. Conversely, communion will be linked to self-esteem, if communion is self-central. But what determines the self-centrality of agency and communion? The literature suggests that agency is self-central in agentic cultures, as well as among nonreligious individuals, men, and younger adults. Communion is self-central in communal cultures, as well as among religious individuals, women, and older adults. This study examined 187,957 people (47% female; mean age = 37.49 years, SD = 12.22) from 11 cultures. The large sample size afforded us the opportunity to test simultaneously the effect of all four moderators in a single two-level model (participants nested in cultures). Results supported the unique moderating effect of culture, religiosity, age, and sex on the relation between agency-communion and self-esteem. Agentic and communal people can both have high self-esteem, depending on self-centrality of agency and communion. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Strengthening the public health system.

PubMed

Roper, W L; Baker, E L; Dyal, W W; Nicola, R M

1992-01-01

Although the American public health system has made major contributions to life expectancy for residents of this country over the past century, the system now faces more complex health problems that require comprehensive approaches and increased capacity, particularly in local and State public health agencies. To strengthen the public health system, concerted action is needed to meet these five critical needs: First, the knowledge base of public health workers needs to be supplemented through on-the-job training and continuing education programs. To this end, self-study courses will be expanded, and a network of regional training centers will be established throughout the country. Second, communities need dynamic leadership from public health officials and their agencies. To enhance leadership skills and expand the leadership role of public health agencies, focused personal leadership development activities, including a Public Health Leadership Institute, and national conferences will provide a vision of the future role of public health agencies. Third, local and State public health agencies need access to data on the current health status of the people in their communities and guidance from the nation's public health experts. To improve access to information resources, state-of-the-art technologies will be deployed to create integrated information and communication systems linking all components of the public health system. Fourth, local and State agencies need disease prevention and health promotion plans that target problems and develop strategies and the capacity to address them. To provide communities with structured approaches to this process, planning tools have been developed and distributed, and technical assistance will be provided to local and State health agencies to involve each community in planning,priority setting, and constituency building.Finally, public health agencies need adequate resources to fund prevention programs. To improve the use of existing Federal support and enhance the availability of new community resources, grant programs will be modified, and innovative approaches to local resource enhancement will be developed and shared.Activities in these five key areas are designed to improve the infrastructure of the public health system and its capacity to carry out effectively the core functions of public health assessment, policy development, and assurance of the availability of the benefits of public health. If the nation is to achieve the health objectives for the year 2000, the public health system-the individuals and institutions that, when working effectively together, promote and protect the health of the people-must be strengthened.

DMPTool: New Guidance, Resources, and Outreach for Quality Data Management Plans

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cruse, P.; Sallans, A.

2013-12-01

A growing number of US federal funding agencies require data management plans (DMP) as part of new research grant proposals. To help researchers with this requirement, several organizations (the California Digital Library, University of Illinois, University of Virginia, Smithsonian Institution, the DataONE consortium and the (UK) Digital Curation Centre) came together to develop the DMPTool in 2011. The goal of the DMPTool is to provide researchers with guidance, links to resources and help with writing data management plans. Thanks to a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, these organizations have been able to develop DMPTool2, adding new features and functionality, while aiming to grow the number of users and funding requirements and build a community around DMP best practices. Researchers create plans in the tool by selecting their desired funding agency. The tool provides specific requirements from the selected agency as well as detailed help with each area of the plan. Users have access to complete DMP life cycle management, tracking changes through creation, editing, submission, evaluation, and publication. They may also perform enhanced keyword searches and view publicly available plans. With role-based user authorization, users may hold various roles within the interface: creators, collaborators, institutional administrators, and tool administrators. Furthermore, partner institutions can add significant value to the process with several special tool features. Along with institutional branding in the interface, they can provide links to resources they provide to users, such as to preservation repositories, consultation services, or news and event items. In addition, partner institutions can provide help with specific plan questions, and even suggest responses. Institutional administrators can also mine data on plans in order to better support researchers. Institutions may be represented in different roles: as a funder, a researcher's affiliate, or as an institution with its own DMP requirements.

International Virtual Observatory System for Water Resources Information

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Leinenweber, Lewis; Bermudez, Luis

2013-04-01

Sharing, accessing, and integrating hydrologic and climatic data have been identified as a critical need for some time. The current state of data portals, standards, technologies, activities, and expertise can be leverage to develop an initial operational capability for a virtual observatory system. This system will allow to link observations data with stream networks and models, and to solve semantic inconsistencies among communities. Prototyping a virtual observatory system is an inter-disciplinary, inter-agency and international endeavor. The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) within the OGC Interoperability Program provides the process and expertise to run such collaborative effort. The OGC serves as a global forum for the collaboration of developers and users of spatial data products and services, and to advance the development of international standards for geospatial interoperability. The project coordinated by OGC that is advancing an international virtual observatory system for water resources information is called Climatology-Hydrology Information Sharing Pilot, Phase 1 (CHISP-1). It includes observations and forecasts in the U.S. and Canada levering current networks and capabilities. It is designed to support the following use cases: 1) Hydrologic modeling for historical and near-future stream flow and groundwater conditions. Requires the integration of trans-boundary stream flow and groundwater well data, as well as national river networks (US NHD and Canada NHN) from multiple agencies. Emphasis will be on time series data and real-time flood monitoring. 2) Modeling and assessment of nutrient load into the lakes. Requires accessing water-quality data from multiple agencies and integrating with stream flow information for calculating loads. Emphasis on discrete sampled water quality observations, linking those to specific NHD stream reaches and catchments, and additional metadata for sampled data. The key objectives of these use cases are: 1) To link observations data to the stream network, enabling queries of conditions upstream from a given location to return all relevant gages and well locations. This is currently not practical with the data sources available. 2) To bridge differences in semantics across information models and processes used by the various data producers, to improve the hydrologic and water quality modeling capabilities. Other expected benefits to be derived from this project include: - Leverage a large body of existing data holdings and related activities of multiple agencies in the US and Canada. - Influence data and metadata standards used internationally for web-based information sharing, through multiple agency cooperation and OGC standards setting process. - Reduction of procurement risk through partnership-based development of an initial operating capability verses the cost for building a fully operational system using a traditional "waterfall approach". - Identification and clarification of what is possible, and of the key technical and non-technical barriers to continued progress in sharing and integrating hydrologic and climatic information. - Promote understanding and strengthen ties within the hydro-climatic community. This is anticipated to be the first phase of a multi-phase project, with future work on forecasting the hydrologic consequences of extreme weather events, and enabling more sophisticated water quality modeling.

IGSN at Work in the Land Down Under: Exploiting an International Sample Identifier System to Enhance Reproducibility of Australian Geochemcial and Geochronological Data.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bastrakova, I.; Klump, J. F.; McInnes, B.; Wyborn, L. A.; Brown, A.

2015-12-01

The International Geo-Sample Number (IGSN) provides a globally unique identifier for physical samples used to generate analytical data. This unique identifier provides the ability to link each physical sample to any analytical data undertaken on that sample, as well as to any publications derived from any data derived on the sample. IGSN is particularly important for geochemical and geochronological data, where numerous analytical techniques can be undertaken at multiple analytical facilities not only on the parent rock sample itself, but also on derived sample splits and mineral separates. Australia now has three agencies implementing IGSN: Geoscience Australia, CSIRO and Curtin University. All three have now combined into a single project, funded by the Australian Research Data Services program, to better coordinate the implementation of IGSN in Australia, in particular how these agencies allocate IGSN identifiers. The project will register samples from pilot applications in each agency including the CSIRO National Collection of Mineral Spectra database, the Geoscience Australia sample collection, and the Digital Mineral Library of the John De Laeter Centre for Isotope Research at Curtin University. These local agency catalogues will then be aggregated into an Australian portal, which will ultimately be expanded for all geoscience specimens. The development of this portal will also involve developing a common core metadata schema for the description of Australian geoscience specimens, as well as formulating agreed governance models for registering Australian samples. These developments aim to enable a common approach across Australian academic, research organisations and government agencies for the unique identification of geoscience specimens and any analytical data and/or publications derived from them. The emerging pattern of governance and technical collaboration established in Australia may also serve as a blueprint for similar collaborations internationally.

User-Driven Workflow for Modeling, Monitoring, Product Development, and Flood Map Delivery Using Satellites for Daily Coverage Over Texas May-June 2015

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Green, D. S.; Frye, S. W.; Wells, G. L.; Adler, R. F.; Brakenridge, R.; Bolten, J. D.; Murray, J. J.; Slayback, D. A.; Kirschbaum, D.; Wu, H.; Cappelaere, P. G.; Schumann, G.; Howard, T.; Flamig, Z.; Clark, R. A.; Stough, T.; Chini, M.; Matgen, P.

2015-12-01

Intense rainfall during late April and early May 2015 in Texas and Oklahoma led to widespread flooding in several river basins in that region. Texas state agencies were activated for the May-June floods and severe weather event that ensued for six weeks from May 8 until June 19 following Tropical Storm Bill. This poster depicts a case study where modeling flood potential informed decision making authorities for user-driven high resolution satellite acquisitions over the most critical areas and how experimental flood mapping techniques provided the capability for daily on-going monitoring of these events through the use of increased automation. Recent improvements in flood models resulting from higher frequency updates, better spatial resolution, and increased accuracy of now cast and forecast precipitation products coupled with advanced technology to improve situational awareness for decision makers. These advances enabled satellites to be tasked, data products to be developed and distributed, and feedback loops between the emergency authorities, satellite operators, and mapping researchers to deliver a daily stream of relevant products that informed deployment of emergency resources and improved management of the large-scale event across the local, state, and national levels. This collaboration was made possible through inter-agency cooperation on an international scale through the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites Flood Pilot activity that is supported in the USA by NASA, NOAA, and USGS and includes numerous civilian space agency assets from the European Space Agency along with national agencies from Italy, France, Germany, Japan, and others. The poster describes the inter-linking technology infrastructure, the development and delivery of mapping products, and the lessons learned for product improvement in the future.

Linking brain, mind and behavior.

PubMed

Makeig, Scott; Gramann, Klaus; Jung, Tzyy-Ping; Sejnowski, Terrence J; Poizner, Howard

2009-08-01

Cortical brain areas and dynamics evolved to organize motor behavior in our three-dimensional environment also support more general human cognitive processes. Yet traditional brain imaging paradigms typically allow and record only minimal participant behavior, then reduce the recorded data to single map features of averaged responses. To more fully investigate the complex links between distributed brain dynamics and motivated natural behavior, we propose the development of wearable mobile brain/body imaging (MoBI) systems that continuously capture the wearer's high-density electrical brain and muscle signals, three-dimensional body movements, audiovisual scene and point of regard, plus new data-driven analysis methods to model their interrelationships. The new imaging modality should allow new insights into how spatially distributed brain dynamics support natural human cognition and agency.

Linking the Regulatory and Reimbursement Processes for Medical Devices: The Need for Integrated Assessments.

PubMed

Ciani, Oriana; Wilcher, Britni; van Giessen, Anoukh; Taylor, Rod S

2017-02-01

Much criticism has been directed at the licencing requirements for medical devices (MDs) as they often result in a lack of robust evidence to inform health technology assessment (HTA) decisions. To better understand the current international decisional framework on MD technologies, we undertook three linked research studies: a review of the device regulatory procedures, a survey of current HTA practices and an empirical comparison of HTA reports of drugs versus MDs. Our review confirms that current device regulatory processes across the globe are substantially less stringent than drugs. As a result, international HTA agencies report that they face a number of challenges when assessing MDs, including reliance on suboptimal data to make clinical and cost-effectiveness decisions. Whilst many HTA agencies have adapted their processes and procedures to handle MD technology submissions, in our comparison of HTA reports we found little evidence of the application of methodologies that take account of device-specific issues, such as incremental development. Overall, our research reinforces the need for better linkage between licencing and HTA and the development and application of innovative HTA methodologies with the objective of securing faster patient access for those technologies that can be shown to represent good value for money. © 2017 The Authors. Health Economics Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. © 2017 The Authors. Health Economics Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

75 FR 35457 - Draft of the 2010 Causal Analysis/Diagnosis Decision Information System (CADDIS)

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-06-22

... Causal Analysis/Diagnosis Decision Information System (CADDIS) AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency... site, ``2010 release of the Causal Analysis/Diagnosis Decision Information System (CADDIS).'' The... analyses, downloadable software tools, and links to outside information sources. II. How to Submit Comments...

Mapping of Florida's Coastal and Marine Resources: Setting Priorities Workshop

USGS Publications Warehouse

Robbins, Lisa; Wolfe, Steven; Raabe, Ellen

2008-01-01

The importance of mapping habitats and bioregions as a means to improve resource management has become increasingly clear. Large areas of the waters surrounding Florida are unmapped or incompletely mapped, possibly hindering proper management and good decisionmaking. Mapping of these ecosystems is among the top priorities identified by the Florida Oceans and Coastal Council in their Annual Science Research Plan. However, lack of prioritization among the coastal and marine areas and lack of coordination of agency efforts impede efficient, cost-effective mapping. A workshop on Mapping of Florida's Coastal and Marine Resources was sponsored by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP), and Southeastern Regional Partnership for Planning and Sustainability (SERPPAS). The workshop was held at the USGS Florida Integrated Science Center (FISC) in St. Petersburg, FL, on February 7-8, 2007. The workshop was designed to provide State, Federal, university, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) the opportunity to discuss their existing data coverage and create a prioritization of areas for new mapping data in Florida. Specific goals of the workshop were multifold, including to: * provide information to agencies on state-of-the-art technology for collecting data; * inform participants of the ongoing mapping programs in waters off Florida; * present the mapping needs and priorities of the State and Federal agencies and entities operating in Florida; * work with State of Florida agencies to establish an overall priority for areas needing mapping; * initiate discussion of a unified classification of habitat and bioregions; * discuss and examine the need to standardize terminology and data collection/storage so that data, in particular habitat data, can be shared; 9 identify opportunities for partnering and leveraging mapping efforts among agencies and entities; * identify impediments and organizational gaps that hinder collection of data for mapping; * seek innovative solutions to the primary obstacles identified; * identify the steps needed to move mapping of Florida's oceans and coasts forward, in preparation for a better coordinated, more cost-effective mapping program to allow State and Federal agencies to make better decisions on coastal-resource issues. Over 90 invited participants representing more than 30 State and Federal agencies, universities, NGOs, and private industries played a large role in the success of this two-day workshop. State of Florida agency participants created a ranked priority order for mapping 13 different regions around Florida. The data needed for each of the 13 priority regions were outlined. A matrix considering State and Federal priorities was created, utilizing input from all agencies. The matrix showed overlapping interests of the entities and will allow for partnering and leveraging of resources. The five most basic mapping needs were determined to be bathymetry, high-vertical resolution coastline for sea-level rise scenarios, shoreline change, subsurface geology, and benthic habitats at sufficient scale. There was a clear convergence on the need to coordinate mapping activities around the state. Suggestions for coordination included: * creating a glossary of terms: a standard for specifying agency data-mapping needs; * creating a geographic information officer (GIO) position or permanent organizing group to maintain communications established at this workshop and to maintain progress on the issues identified during the workshop. The person or group could develop a website, maintain a project-status matrix, develop a list of contacts, create links to legislative updates and links to funding sources; * developing a web portal and one-stop/clearinghouse of data. There was general consensus on the need to adopt a single habitat classification system and a strategy to accommodate existing systems smoothly. Unresolve

LINKING WATERFOWL WITH CONTAMINANT SPECIATION IN RIPARIAN SOILS

EPA Science Inventory

This report summarizes the results of Mine Waste Technology Program (MWTP) Activity III, Project 38, Linking Waterfowl with Contaminant Speciation in Riparian Soils, implemented and funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and jointly administered by EPA and the U...

Linking community, parenting, and depressive symptom trajectories: testing resilience models of adolescent agency based on race/ethnicity and gender.

PubMed

Williams, Amanda L; Merten, Michael J

2014-09-01

Family stress models illustrate how communities affect youth outcomes through effects on parents and studies consistently show the enduring effects of early community context. The present study takes a different approach identifying human agency during adolescence as a potentially significant promotive factor mediating the relationship between community, parenting, and mental health. While agency is an important part of resilience, its longitudinal effects are unknown, particularly based on gender and race/ethnicity. The purpose of this research was to model the long-term effects of community structural adversity and social resources as predictors of adolescent depressive symptom trajectories via indirect effects of parental happiness, parent-child relationships, and human agency. Latent growth analyses were conducted with 1,796 participants (53% female; 56% White) across four waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health spanning adolescence (Wave 1) through adulthood (Wave 4). The results identified agency as an important promotive factor during adolescence with long-term mental health benefits, but only for White and male participants. For these individuals, community social resources and the quality of the parent-child relationship were related to higher levels of agency and more positive mental health trajectories. Although community social resources similarly benefitted parenting and agency among females and non-White participants, there were no significant links between agency and depressive symptoms for these youth. The results suggest that agency remains an important, but poorly understood concept and additional work is necessary to continue unpacking its meaning for diverse groups of youth.

Building Synergy between Regulatory and HTA Agencies beyond Processes and Procedures-Can We Effectively Align the Evidentiary Requirements? A Survey of Stakeholder Perceptions.

PubMed

Wang, Ting; McAuslane, Neil; Liberti, Lawrence; Leufkens, Hubert; Hövels, Anke

2018-06-01

To evaluate the current practice of companies and agencies to assess the changes made in aligning regulatory and health technology assessment (HTA) stakeholders; to identify areas of commonality of evidentiary requirements that could occur; and to identify strategic issues and trends of regulatory and HTA synergy. Two separate questionnaires were developed to assess stakeholders' perceptions on regulatory and HTA alignment, one for pharmaceutical companies and the other for regulatory and HTA agencies. The responses were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Seven regulatory and 8 HTA agencies from Australia, Canada, and Europe and 19 international companies developing innovative medicine responded to the survey. This study provided a snapshot of the current regulatory and HTA landscape. Changes made over the past 5 years were reflected in three main areas: there is an increasing interaction between regulatory and HTA agencies; current conditional regulatory approvals are not always linked with flexible HTA approaches; and companies are more supportive of joint scientific advice. Four types of evidentiary requirements were identified as building blocks for better alignment: acceptable primary end points, inclusion of an active comparator, use of patient-reported outcomes, and choice and use of surrogate end point. The study showed that the gap between regulatory and HTA requirements has narrowed over the past 5 years. All respondents supported synergy between regulatory and HTA stakeholders, and the study provided several recommendations on how to further improve evidentiary alignment including the provision of joint scientific advice, which was rated as a key strategy by both agencies and companies. Copyright © 2018 International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Extending experiences of voluntary action by association

PubMed Central

Khalighinejad, Nima; Haggard, Patrick

2016-01-01

“Sense of agency” refers to the experience that links one’s voluntary actions to their external outcomes. It remains unclear whether this ubiquitous experience is hardwired, arising from specific signals within the brain’s motor systems, or rather depends on associative learning, through repeated cooccurrence of voluntary movements and their outcomes. To distinguish these two models, we asked participants to trigger a tone by a voluntary keypress action. The voluntary action was always associated with an involuntary movement of the other hand. We then tested whether the combination of the involuntary movement and tone alone might now suffice to produce a sense of agency, even when the voluntary action was omitted. Sense of agency was measured using an implicit marker based on time perception, namely a shift in the perceived time of the outcome toward the action that caused it. Across two experiments, repeatedly pairing an involuntary movement with a voluntary action induced key temporal features of agency, with the outcome now perceived as shifted toward the involuntary movement. This shift required involuntary movements to have been previously associated with voluntary actions. We show that some key aspects of agency may be transferred from voluntary actions to involuntary movements. An internal volitional signal is required for the primary acquisition of agency but, with repeated association, the involuntary movement in itself comes to produce some key temporal features of agency over the subsequent outcome. This finding may explain how humans can develop an enduring sense of agency in nonnatural cases, like brain–machine interfaces. PMID:27436902

The Future of Nearshore Processes Research: U.S. Integrated Coastal Research Program

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Elko, N.; Feddersen, F.; Foster, D. L.; Hapke, C. J.; Holman, R. A.; McNinch, J.; Mulligan, R. P.; Ozkan-Haller, H. T.; Plant, N. G.; Raubenheimer, B.

2016-02-01

The authors, representing the acting Nearshore Advisory Council, have developed an implementation plan for a U.S. Nearshore Research Program based on the 2015 Future of Nearshore Processes report that was authored by the nearshore community. The objectives of the plan are to link research programs across federal agencies, NGOs, industry, and academia into an integrated national program and to increase academic and NGO participation in federal agency nearshore processes research. A primary recommendation is interagency collaboration to build a research program that will coordinate and fund U.S. nearshore processes research across three broad research themes: 1) long-term coastal evolution due to natural and anthropogenic processes; 2) extreme events; and 3) physical, biological and chemical processes impacting human and ecosystem health. The plan calls for a new program to be developed by an executive committee of federal agency leaders, NGOs, and an academic representative, created similarly to the existing NOPP program. This leadership will be established prior to the 2016 Ocean Sciences meeting and will have agreed on responsibilities and a schedule for development of the research program. To begin to understand the scope of today's U.S. coastal research investment, a survey was distributed to ten federal agency R&D program heads. Six of the ten agencies indicated that they fund coastal research, with a combined annual coastal research budget of nearly 100 million (NSF has not responded). The priority of the three research themes were ranked nearly equally and potential research support ranged from 15-19 million for each theme, with approximately 12 million as direct contribution to academic research. Beyond addressing our fundamental science questions, it is critical that the nearshore community stay organized to represent academic interests on the new executive committee. The program goal is the integration of academic, NGO, and federal agencies.

ACHP | News | Nine Federal Agencies Enter into a Memorandum of

Science.gov Websites

Understanding Regarding Transmission Siting on Federal Lands skip general nav links ACHP home News arrow Nine Federal Agencies Enter into a Memorandum of Understanding Regarding Transmission Siting Transmission Siting on Federal Lands The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation and eight other federal

Linking Decisions to Stakeholder Values in the Guanica Bay Watershed, Puerto Rico

EPA Science Inventory

This presentation lays the foundation for the session by introducing the Structured Decision-Making (SDM) approach that is being used by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the Guánica Bay watershed of southwestern Puerto Rico. EPA is working with other agencies i...

32 CFR 320.12 - Exemptions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... NATIONAL GEOSPATIAL-INTELLIGENCE AGENCY (NGA) PRIVACY § 320.12 Exemptions. Link to an amendment published... NGA and its components shall be exempt from the requirements of 5 U.S.C. 552a(d) pursuant to 5 U.S.C... or prosecutable interest by the NGA or other agencies. This could seriously compromise case...

New Campus Crime Prevention Resources Available

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Campus Law Enforcement Journal, 2012

2012-01-01

The Campus Crime Prevention Committee has compiled a list of university and college crime prevention agencies and resources, which includes contact information, links to agency crime prevention web pages, and a list of resources they offer (i.e., brochures, guides, PowerPoint programs, videos, etc.) as well as a spreadsheet showing organizations…

Space and Missile Defense Acquisitions: Periodic Assessment Needed to Correct Parts Quality Problems in Major Programs

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-06-01

understanding of the global water cycle and the accuracy of precipitation forecasts. GPM is composed of a core spacecraft carrying two main instruments: a dual...developed by NASA and the Space Agency of Argentina (Comisión Nacional de Actividades Espaciales) to investigate the links between the global water ... cycle , ocean circulation, and the climate. It will measure global sea surface salinity. The Aquarius science goals are to observe and model the

[Guidelines 2.0: systematic development of a comprehensive checklist for a successful guideline enterprise].

PubMed

Morgano, Gian Paolo; Davoli, Marina; Moja, Lorenzo; Amato, Laura; Ferroni, Eliana; Tirani, Marcello

2015-06-01

Guideline developers worldwide are struggling with the lack of guidance for the practical steps in the guideline enterprise. Our objective was to systematically compile a comprehensive checklist of items linked to relevant resources and tools that guideline developers would consider for development and support of implementation. Data sources included manuals of international guideline developers, literature on guidelines for guidelines with a focus on international and national guideline agencies, professional societies, and recent systematic guidance articles. We reviewed these sources in duplicate, extracted items using a sensitive approach and developed overarching topics that are relevant to guidelines. In an iterative process, we reviewed items for duplication and omissions and involved experts in guideline development for revisions. We developed a checklist with 18 topics and 146 items and a webpage to facilitate its use by guideline developers (http://cebgrade.mcmaster.ca/guidecheck.html). The topics and items included cover all stages of the guideline enterprise, from planning to formulating recommendations, to dissemination and evaluation. The final itemized guideline development checklist (GDC) includes links to training material and resources for methodology. The GDC will serve as a resource for those involved in guideline development and we will use crowdsourcing to keep the checklist up to date and enhance it.

34 CFR 602.10 - Link to Federal programs.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 34 Education 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Link to Federal programs. 602.10 Section 602.10 Education Regulations of the Offices of the Department of Education (Continued) OFFICE OF POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION, DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION THE SECRETARY'S RECOGNITION OF ACCREDITING AGENCIES The Criteria for...

HEALTH TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT OF MEDICAL DEVICES IN EUROPE: PROCESSES, PRACTICES, AND METHODS.

PubMed

Fuchs, Sabine; Olberg, Britta; Panteli, Dimitra; Busse, Reinhard

2016-01-01

To review and compare current Health Technology Assessment (HTA) activities for medical devices (MDs) across European HTA institutions. A comprehensive approach was adopted to identify institutions involved in HTA in European countries. We systematically searched institutional Web sites and other online sources by using a structured tool to extract information on the role and link to decision making, structure, scope, process, methodological approach, and available HTA reports for each included institution. Information was obtained from eighty-four institutions, forty-seven of which were analyzed. Fifty-four methodological documents from twenty-three agencies in eighteen countries were identified. Only five agencies had separate documents for the assessment of MDs. A few agencies made separate provisions for the assessment of MDs in their general methods. The amount of publicly available HTA reports on MDs varied by device category and agency remit. Despite growing consensus on their importance and international initiatives, such as the EUnetHTA Core Model®, specific tools for the assessment of MDs are rarely developed and implemented at the national level. Separate additional signposts incorporated in existing general methods guides may be sufficient for the evaluation of MDs.

Agenda 21 goes electronic.

PubMed

Carter, D

1996-01-01

The Canada Center for Remote Sensing, in collaboration with the International Development Research Center, is developing an electronic atlas of Agenda 21, the Earth Summit action plan. This initiative promises to ease access for researchers and practitioners to implement the Agenda 21-action plan, which in its pilot study will focus on biological diversity. Known as the Biodiversity Volume of the Electronic Atlas of Agenda 21 (ELADA 21), this computer software technology will contain information and data on biodiversity, genetics, species, ecosystems, and ecosystem services. Specifically, it includes several country studies, documentation, as well as interactive scenarios linking biodiversity to socioeconomic issues. ELADA 21 will empower countries and agencies to report on and better manage biodiversity and related information. The atlas can be used to develop and test various scenarios and to exchange information within the South and with industrialized countries. At present, ELADA 21 has generated interest and becomes more available in the market. The challenge confronting the project team, however, is to find the atlas a permanent home, a country or agency willing to assume responsibility for maintaining, upgrading, and updating the software.

SpaceFibre: The Standard, Simulation, IP Cores and Test Equipment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Parkes, Steve; McClements, Chris; McLaren, David; Ferrer Florit, Albert; Gonzalez Villafranca, Alberto

2015-09-01

SpaceFibre is an emerging new standard for spacecraft on-board data-handling networks. Initially targeted to deliver multi-Gbit/s data rates for synthetic aperture radar and high-resolution, multi-spectral imaging instruments, SpaceFibre has developed into a unified network technology that integrates high bandwidth, with low latency, quality of service (QoS) and fault detection, isolation and recovery (FDIR). Furthermore SpaceFibre is backwards compatible with the widely used SpaceWire standard at the network level allowing simple interconnection of existing SpaceWire equipment to a SpaceFibre link or network. Developed by the University of Dundee for the European Space Agency (ESA) SpaceFibre is able to operate over fibre-optic and electrical cable and supports data rates of 2 Gbit/s in the near future and up to 5 Gbit/s long-term. Multi-laning improves the data-rate further to well over 20 Gbits/s. This paper details the current state of SpaceFibre which is now in the process of formal standardisation by the European Cooperation for Space Standardization (ECSS). It describes the SpaceFibre IP core being developed for ESA. The design of a SpaceFibre demonstration board is introduced and available SpaceFibre test and development equipment is described. The way in which several SpaceWire links can be concentrated over a single SpaceFibre link will be explained.

Let your preference be your guide? Preferences and choices are more tightly linked for North Americans than for Indians.

PubMed

Savani, Krishna; Markus, Hazel Rose; Conner, Alana L

2008-10-01

Using experimental paradigms from economics and social psychology, the authors examined the cross-cultural applicability of 3 widely held assumptions about preference and choice: People (a) recruit or construct preferences to make choices; (b) choose according to their preferences; and (c) are motivated to express their preferences in their choices. In 6 studies, they compared how middle-class North American and Indian participants choose among consumer products. Participants in both contexts construct nonrandom preferences at similar speeds. Those in Indian contexts, however, are slower to make choices, less likely to choose according to their personal preferences, and less motivated to express their preferences in their choices. The authors infer that the strong link between preferences and choices observed among North Americans is not a universal feature of human nature. Instead, this link reflects the disjoint model of agency, which prescribes that people should choose freely on the basis of their preferences. In contrast, Indian contexts reflect and promote a conjoint model of agency, according to which agency is responsive to the desires and expectations of important others and may require restraining one's preferences.

Predictors of Intent to Leave the Job Among Home Health Workers: Analysis of the National Home Health Aide Survey.

PubMed

Stone, Robyn; Wilhelm, Jess; Bishop, Christine E; Bryant, Natasha S; Hermer, Linda; Squillace, Marie R

2017-10-01

To identify agency policies and workplace characteristics that are associated with intent to leave the job among home health workers employed by certified agencies. Data are from the 2007 National Home and Hospice Care Survey/National Home Health Aide Survey, a nationally representative, linked data set of home health and hospice agencies and their workers. Logistic regression with survey weights was conducted to identify agency and workplace factors associated with intent to leave the job, controlling for worker, agency, and labor market characteristics. Job satisfaction, consistent patient assignment, and provision of health insurance were associated with lower intent to leave the job. By contrast, being assigned insufficient work hours and on-the-job injuries were associated with greater intent to leave the job after controlling for fixed worker, agency, and labor market characteristics. African American workers and workers with a higher household income also expressed greater intent to leave the job. This is the first analysis to use a weighted, nationally representative sample of home health workers linked with agency-level data. The findings suggest that intention to leave the job may be reduced through policies that prevent injuries, improve consistency of client assignment, improve experiences among African American workers, and offer sufficient hours to workers who want them. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Mutagenic Potential of Nitroguanidine in the Drosophila melanogaster Sex-Linked Recessive Lethal Test

DTIC Science & Technology

1988-07-01

Security Classification) Mtutagenic potential of nitroguan idine in the Drosophila melano- gaster sex-linked recessive lethal test 12. PERSONAL AUTHOR(S...Frederick, MD 21701-5012 Commander Commandant US Army Environmental Hygine Academy of Health Sciences. US Army Agency ATTN: AHS-CDM ATTN: Librarian, HSDH

Air Force Historical Research Agency

Science.gov Websites

Command Capt Joseph J Merhar Jr collection Early Wright Brothers Flying Machines History of the 3rd Organizations Wings and Groups Squadrons and Flights Studies Documents Personal Papers Oral History Catalogue S. Fairchild Research Information Center Military Sites Air Force Link DefenseLINK Air Force History

Proceedings: linking healthy forests and communities—successful strategies and future directions.

Treesearch

David L. Nicholls

2005-01-01

The Linking Healthy Forests and Communities conference brought together a diverse group representing government agencies, traditional forest users, landholders, scientists, and small enterprises and other businesses related to nontimber forest products. The purpose was to exchange information, encourage cooperation, and raise awareness of environmentally and...

Florida Information Resource Network.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Watson, Francis C.

1986-01-01

The Florida Information Resource Network (FIRN) is an effort by the Florida education community and the Florida Legislature to provide an electronic link among all agencies, institutions, and schools in the public education system. The communications link, perhaps one of the most advanced in the nation, has three purposes: (1) to provide equal…

78 FR 76144 - Agency Information Collection Activities: Announcement of Board Approval Under Delegated...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-12-16

... requested that derivative `market-linked' CDs be excluded from the report since (1) the actual embedded... Federal Reserve will exclude derivative `market-linked' CDs from the report. F. Newly-Acquired Businesses... implementation of the following information collection: Report title: Report of Selected Money Market Rates...

[Using Community Resources to Re-Integrate Ex-Offenders into Society].

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carlson, Norman A.

A criminal justice system cannot be stronger than its weakest link, and corrections has been the weakest component in our system for far too long. Today's challenge is that of bringing together concerned citizens, public agencies, and private agencies in an effort to create a correctional system that works. Correctional programs can accomplish…

A Four-Part Model of Autonomy during Emerging Adulthood: Associations with Adjustment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lamborn, Susie D.; Groh, Kelly

2009-01-01

We found support for a four-part model of autonomy that links connectedness, separation, detachment, and agency to adjustment during emerging adulthood. Based on self-report surveys of 285 American college students, expected associations among the autonomy variables were found. In addition, agency, as measured by self-reliance, predicted lower…

Leveraging the NSF Broader-Impacts Criterion for Change in STEM Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mathieu, Robert D.; Pfund, Christine; Gillian-Daniel, Don

2009-01-01

In an attempt to move, if not balance, the scales of activity toward increasing scientific capability across a diverse national population, U.S. federal funding agencies are purposefully linking research funding to broad national impact. Among United States federal agencies, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has led the way in the integration…

Linked Open Data in the Global Change Information System (GCIS)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tilmes, Curt A.

2012-01-01

The U.S. Global Change Research Program (http://globalchange.gov) coordinates and integrates federal research on changes in the global environment and their implications for society. The USGCRP is developing a Global Change Information System (GCIS) that will centralize access to data and information related to global change across the U.S. federal government. The first implementation will focus on the 2013 National Climate Assessment (NCA) . (http://assessment.globalchange.gov) The NCA integrates, evaluates, and interprets the findings of the USGCRP; analyzes the effects of global change on the natural environment, agriculture, energy production and use, land and water resources, transportation, human health and welfare, human social systems, and biological diversity; and analyzes current trends in global change, both human-induced and natural, and projects major trends for the subsequent 25 to 100 years. The NCA has received over 500 distinct technical inputs to the process, many of which are reports distilling and synthesizing even more information, coming from thousands of individuals around the federal, state and local governments, academic institutions and non-governmental organizations. The GCIS will present a web-based version of the NCA including annotations linking the findings and content of the NCA with the scientific research, datasets, models, observations, etc. that led to its conclusions. It will use semantic tagging and a linked data approach, assigning globally unique, persistent, resolvable identifiers to all of the related entities and capturing and presenting the relationships between them, both internally and referencing out to other linked data sources and back to agency data centers. The developing W3C PROV Data Model and ontology will be used to capture the provenance trail and present it in both human readable web pages and machine readable formats such as RDF and SPARQL. This will improve visibility into the assessment process, increase understanding and reproducibility, and ultimately increase credibility and trust of the resulting report. Building on the foundation of the NCA, longer term plans for the GCIS include extending these capabilities throughout the U.S. Global Change Research Program, centralizing access to global change data and information across the thirteen agencies that comprise the program.

Cognition and norms: toward a developmental account of moral agency in social dilemmas.

PubMed

Meyer, Leandro F F; Braga, Marcelo J

2014-01-01

Most recent developments in the study of social dilemmas give an increasing amount of attention to cognition, belief systems, valuations, and language. However, developments in this field operate almost entirely under epistemological assumptions which only recognize the instrumental form of rationality and deny that "value judgments" or "moral questions" have cognitive content. This standpoint erodes the moral aspect of the choice situation and obstructs acknowledgment of the links connecting cognition, inner growth, and moral reasoning, and the significance of such links in reaching cooperative solutions to many social dilemmas. Concurrently, this standpoint places the role of communication and mutual understanding in promoting cooperation in morally relevant conflicts of action in a rather mysterious situation. This paper draws on Habermas's critique of instrumental action, and on the most recent developments in institutional and behavioral economics with a view to enhancing our knowledge of the interventions used to cope with social dilemmas. We conclude the paper with a brief presentation of a research strategy for examining the capacity of alternative developmental models to predict dissimilar choices under similar incentive conditions in social dilemmas.

Cognition and norms: toward a developmental account of moral agency in social dilemmas

PubMed Central

Meyer, Leandro F. F.; Braga, Marcelo J.

2015-01-01

Most recent developments in the study of social dilemmas give an increasing amount of attention to cognition, belief systems, valuations, and language. However, developments in this field operate almost entirely under epistemological assumptions which only recognize the instrumental form of rationality and deny that “value judgments” or “moral questions” have cognitive content. This standpoint erodes the moral aspect of the choice situation and obstructs acknowledgment of the links connecting cognition, inner growth, and moral reasoning, and the significance of such links in reaching cooperative solutions to many social dilemmas. Concurrently, this standpoint places the role of communication and mutual understanding in promoting cooperation in morally relevant conflicts of action in a rather mysterious situation. This paper draws on Habermas’s critique of instrumental action, and on the most recent developments in institutional and behavioral economics with a view to enhancing our knowledge of the interventions used to cope with social dilemmas. We conclude the paper with a brief presentation of a research strategy for examining the capacity of alternative developmental models to predict dissimilar choices under similar incentive conditions in social dilemmas. PMID:25610414

Self-help groups and mental health/substance use agencies: the benefits of organizational exchange.

PubMed

Powell, Thomas; Perron, Brian Edward

2010-02-01

Self-help groups benefit clients by linking them to people who have "been there" and are successfully coping with their situations. Mental health/substance use agencies can increase access to evidence-based benefits of self-help groups by engaging them in organizational exchanges. Organizational theories are used to frame beneficial exchanges with self-help groups. Adaptational theory is used to frame exchanges with self-help groups and various service agency subunits, e.g., board, practitioner, and client units. Institutional theory is used to frame joint agency/self-help initiatives to promote community acceptance of self-help groups, which in turn may enhance the credibility of the professional agency.

75 FR 41767 - Amendment of the Commission's Rules To Accommodate 30 Megahertz Channels in the 6525-6875 MHz...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-07-19

... FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION 47 CFR Part 101 [WT Docket No. 09-114; RM-11417; FCC 10-109... AGENCY: Federal Communications Commission. ACTION: Final rule. SUMMARY: In this document, the Commission... microwave links more quickly, including links involved in critical commercial, backhaul, and public safety...

77 FR 2439 - Airworthiness Directives; Hawker Beechcraft Corporation Models 1900, 1900C, and 1900D Airplanes

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2012-01-18

... down position (control column forward), the link must form an angle between the link attachment point... Airworthiness Directives; Hawker Beechcraft Corporation Models 1900, 1900C, and 1900D Airplanes AGENCY: Federal... new airworthiness directive (AD) for certain Hawker Beechcraft Corporation Models 1900, 1900C, and...

77 FR 28860 - Notice of Proposed Information Collection Requests; Federal Student Aid; Federal Perkins Loan...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-05-16

... comments on or before July 16, 2012. ADDRESSES: Written comments regarding burden and/or the collection... Collections'' link and by clicking on link number 04850. When you access the information collection, click on... that Federal agencies provide interested parties an early opportunity to comment on information...

77 FR 71712 - Lifeline and Link Up Reform and Modernization, Advancing Broadband Availability Through Digital...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-12-04

... FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION 47 CFR Part 54 [WC Docket Nos. 11-42; 03-109; 12-23 and CC Docket No. 96-45; FCC 12- 11] Lifeline and Link Up Reform and Modernization, Advancing Broadband Availability Through Digital Literacy Training AGENCY: Federal Communications Commission. ACTION: Final rule...

77 FR 25609 - Lifeline and Link Up Reform and Modernization, Advancing Broadband Availability Through Digital...

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2012-05-01

... FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION 47 CFR Part 54 [WC Docket Nos. 11-42, 03-109, 12-23 and CC Docket No. 96-45; FCC 12- 11] Lifeline and Link Up Reform and Modernization, Advancing Broadband Availability Through Digital Literacy Training AGENCY: Federal Communications Commission. ACTION: Final rule...

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2012-06-28

... FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION 47 CFR Part 54 [WC Docket Nos. 11-42, 03-109, 12-23 and CC Docket No. 96-45; FCC 12- 11] Lifeline and Link Up Reform and Modernization, Advancing Broadband Availability Through Digital Literacy Training AGENCY: Federal Communications Commission. ACTION: Correcting...

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Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-03-30

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Environmental stewardship footprint research: linking human agency and ecosystem health in the Puget Sound region

Treesearch

Kathleen L. Wolf; Dale J. Blahna; Weston Brinkley; Michele Romolini

2013-01-01

Urbanization processes challenge ecosystem health in many metropolitan areas. New policy and program approaches are needed to restore and sustain natural systems as public agencies and organizations face greater demands and declining budgets. Environmental stewardship is an often overlooked intervention strategy, and the full potential of civic engagement by citizens...

78 FR 39163 - Navigation and Navigable Waters; Technical, Organizational, and Conforming Amendments

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-07-01

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The CCSDS Next Generation Space Data Link Protocol (NGSLP)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kazz, Greg J.; Greenberg, Edward

2014-01-01

The CCSDS space link protocols i.e., Telemetry (TM), Telecommand (TC), Advanced Orbiting Systems (AOS) were developed in the early growth period of the space program. They were designed to meet the needs of the early missions, be compatible with the available technology and focused on the specific link environments. Digital technology was in its infancy and spacecraft power and mass issues enforced severe constraints on flight implementations. Therefore the Telecommand protocol was designed around a simple Bose, Hocquenghem, Chaudhuri (BCH) code that provided little coding gain and limited error detection but was relatively simple to decode on board. The infusion of the concatenated Convolutional and Reed-Solomon codes5 for telemetry was a major milestone and transformed telemetry applications by providing them the ability to more efficiently utilize the telemetry link and its ability to deliver user data. The ability to significantly lower the error rates on the telemetry links enabled the use of packet telemetry and data compression. The infusion of the high performance codes for telemetry was enabled by the advent of digital processing, but it was limited to earth based systems supporting telemetry. The latest CCSDS space link protocol, Proximity-1 was developed in early 2000 to meet the needs of short-range, bi-directional, fixed or mobile radio links characterized by short time delays, moderate but not weak signals, and short independent sessions. Proximity-1 has been successfully deployed on both NASA and ESA missions at Mars and is planned to be utilized by all Mars missions in development. A new age has arisen, one that now provides the means to perform advanced digital processing in spacecraft systems enabling the use of improved transponders, digital correlators, and high performance forward error correcting codes for all communications links. Flight transponders utilizing digital technology have emerged and can efficiently provide the means to make the next leap in performance for space link communications. Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) provide the capability to incorporate high performance forward error correcting codes implemented within software transponders providing improved performance in data transfer, ranging, link security, and time correlation. Given these synergistic technological breakthroughs, the time has come to take advantage of them in applying them to both on going (e.g., command, telemetry) and emerging (e.g., space link security, optical communication) space link applications. However one of the constraining factors within the Data Link Layer in realizing these performance gains is the lack of a generic transfer frame format and common supporting services amongst the existing CCSDS link layer protocols. Currently each of the four CCSDS link layer protocols (TM, TC, AOS, and Proximity-1) have unique formats and services which prohibits their reuse across the totality of all space link applications of CCSDS member space agencies. For example, Mars missions. These missions implement their proximity data link layer using the Proximity-1 frame format and the services it supports but is still required to support the direct from Earth (TC) protocols and the Direct To Earth (AOS/TM) protocols. The prime purpose of this paper, is to describe a new general purpose CCSDS Data Link layer protocol, the NGSLP that will provide the required services along with a common transfer frame format for all the CCSDS space links (ground to/from space and space to space links) targeted for emerging missions after a CCSDS agency-wide coordinated date. This paper will also describe related options that can be included for the Coding and Synchronization sub-layer of the Data Link layer to extend the capacities of the link and additionally provide an independence of the transfer frame sub-layer from the coding sublayer. This feature will provide missions the option of running either the currently performed synchronous coding and transfer frame data link or an asynchronous coding/frame data link, in which the transfer frame length is independent of the block size of the code. The benefits from the elimination of this constraint (frame synchronized to the code block) will simplify the interface between the transponder and the data handling equipment and reduce implementation costs and complexities. The benefits include: inclusion of encoders/decoders into transmitters and receivers without regard to data link protocols, providing the ability to insert latency sensitive messages into the link to support launch, landing/docking, telerobotics. and Variable Coded Modulation (VCM). In addition the ability to transfer different sized frames can provide a backup for delivering stored anomaly engineering data simultaneously with real time data, or relaying of frames from various sources onto a trunk line for delivery to Earth.

Documentary of MFENET, a national computer network

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

Shuttleworth, B.O.

1977-06-01

The national Magnetic Fusion Energy Computer Network (MFENET) is a newly operational star network of geographically separated heterogeneous hosts and a communications subnetwork of PDP-11 processors. Host processors interfaced to the subnetwork currently include a CDC 7600 at the Central Computer Center (CCC) and several DECsystem-10's at User Service Centers (USC's). The network was funded by a U.S. government agency (ERDA) to provide in an economical manner the needed computational resources to magnetic confinement fusion researchers. Phase I operation of MFENET distributed the processing power of the CDC 7600 among the USC's through the provision of file transport between anymore » two hosts and remote job entry to the 7600. Extending the capabilities of Phase I, MFENET Phase II provided interactive terminal access to the CDC 7600 from the USC's. A file management system is maintained at the CCC for all network users. The history and development of MFENET are discussed, with emphasis on the protocols used to link the host computers and the USC software. Comparisons are made of MFENET versus ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Computer Network) and DECNET (Digital Distributed Network Architecture). DECNET and MFENET host-to host, host-to-CCP, and link protocols are discussed in detail. The USC--CCP interface is described briefly. 43 figures, 2 tables.« less

Development and evaluation of a blocking enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and virus neutralization assay to detect antibodies to viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wilson, Anna; Goldberg, Tony; Marcquenski, Susan; Olson, Wendy; Goetz, Frederick; Hershberger, Paul; Hart, Lucas M.; Toohey-Kurth, Kathy

2014-01-01

Viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus (VHSV) is a target of surveillance by many state and federal agencies in the United States. Currently, the detection of VHSV relies on virus isolation, which is lethal to fish and indicates only the current infection status. A serological method is required to ascertain prior exposure. Here, we report two serologic tests for VHSV that are nonlethal, rapid, and species independent, a virus neutralization (VN) assay and a blocking enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The results show that the VN assay had a specificity of 100% and sensitivity of 42.9%; the anti-nucleocapsid-blocking ELISA detected nonneutralizing VHSV antibodies at a specificity of 88.2% and a sensitivity of 96.4%. The VN assay and ELISA are valuable tools for assessing exposure to VHSV.

Tribal Colleges and Universities: Education as the Engine for Economic Development in Indian Country. A Report to the President. 2004-05 Annual Performance Report on the Results of Federal Agency Actions to Assist Tribal Colleges and Universities and Recommendations to Strengthen Implementation of Executive Order 13270

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

US Department of Education, 2007

2007-01-01

Tribal colleges and universities (TCUs) are unique institutions of postsecondary education. They serve specific Native American communities that have unique social and cultural ways of relating to each other, while they also provide valuable links to the mainstream society. In arguably the richest nation in the world, many Native Americans remain…

CANOPEN Controller IP Core

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Caramia, Maurizio; Montagna, Mario; Furano, Gianluca; Winton, Alistair

2010-08-01

This paper will describe the activities performed by Thales Alenia Space Italia supported by the European Space Agency in the definition of a CAN bus interface to be used on Exomars. The final goal of this activity is the development of an IP core, to be used in a slave node, able to manage both the CAN bus Data Link and Application Layer totally in hardware. The activity has been focused on the needs of the EXOMARS mission where devices with different computational performances are all managed by the onboard computer through the CAN bus.

EcoPrinciples Connect: A Pilot Project Matching Ecological Principles with Available Data to Promote Ecosystem-Based Management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Martone, R. G.; Erickson, A.; Mach, M.; Hale, T.; McGregor, A.; Prahler, E. E.; Foley, M.; Caldwell, M.; Hartge, E. H.

2016-02-01

Ocean and coastal practitioners work within existing financial constraints, jurisdictions, and legislative authorities to manage coastal and marine resources while seeking to promote and maintain a healthy and productive coastal economy. Fulfilling this mandate necessitates incorporation of best available science, including ecosystem-based management (EBM) into coastal and ocean management decisions. To do this, many agencies seek ways to apply lessons from ecological theory into their decision processes. However, making direct connections between science and management can be challenging, in part because there is no process for linking ecological principles (e.g., maintaining species diversity, habitat diversity, connectivity and populations of key species) with available data. Here we explore how incorporating emerging data and methods into resource management at a local scale can improve the overall health of our coastal and marine ecosystems. We introduce a new web-based interface, EcoPrinciples Connect, that links marine managers to scientific and geospatial information through the lens of these ecological principles, ultimately helping managers become more efficient, more consistent, and advance the integration of EBM. The EcoPrinciples Connect tool grew directly out of needs identified in response to a Center for Ocean Solutions reference guide, Incorporating Ecological Principles into California Ocean and Coastal Management: Examples from Practice. Here we illustrate how we have worked to translate the information in this guide into a co-developed, user-centric tool for agency staff. Specifically, we present a pilot project where we match publicly available data to the ecological principles for the California San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission. We will share early lessons learned from pilot development and highlight opportunities for future transferability to an expanded group of practitioners.

EcoPrinciples Connect: A Pilot Project Matching Ecological Principles with Available Data to Promote Ecosystem-Based Management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Martone, R. G.; Erickson, A.; Mach, M.; Hale, T.; McGregor, A.; Prahler, E. E.; Foley, M.; Caldwell, M.; Hartge, E. H.

2016-12-01

Ocean and coastal practitioners work within existing financial constraints, jurisdictions, and legislative authorities to manage coastal and marine resources while seeking to promote and maintain a healthy and productive coastal economy. Fulfilling this mandate necessitates incorporation of best available science, including ecosystem-based management (EBM) into coastal and ocean management decisions. To do this, many agencies seek ways to apply lessons from ecological theory into their decision processes. However, making direct connections between science and management can be challenging, in part because there is no process for linking ecological principles (e.g., maintaining species diversity, habitat diversity, connectivity and populations of key species) with available data. Here we explore how incorporating emerging data and methods into resource management at a local scale can improve the overall health of our coastal and marine ecosystems. We introduce a new web-based interface, EcoPrinciples Connect, that links marine managers to scientific and geospatial information through the lens of these ecological principles, ultimately helping managers become more efficient, more consistent, and advance the integration of EBM. The EcoPrinciples Connect tool grew directly out of needs identified in response to a Center for Ocean Solutions reference guide, Incorporating Ecological Principles into California Ocean and Coastal Management: Examples from Practice. Here we illustrate how we have worked to translate the information in this guide into a co-developed, user-centric tool for agency staff. Specifically, we present a pilot project where we match publicly available data to the ecological principles for the California San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission. We will share early lessons learned from pilot development and highlight opportunities for future transferability to an expanded group of practitioners.

A Conceptual Model to be Used for Community-based Drinking-water Improvements

PubMed Central

Ahmed, Mushfique

2006-01-01

A conceptual model that can be applied to improve community-based drinking-water in crisis-type situations has been developed from the original general science and technology/development bridging concept and from a case study in Northwest Bangladesh. The main feature of this model is the strengthened role of communities in identifying and implementing appropriate drinking-water improvements with facilitation by multi-disciplinary collaborative regional agency networks. These combined representative community/regional agency networks make decisions and take actions that involve environmental and health data, related capacity factors, and appropriateness of drinking-water improvements. They also progressively link regional decisions and actions together, expanding them nationally and preferably within a sustainable national policy-umbrella. This use of the model reflects stronger community control and input with more appropriate solutions to such drinking-water crisis situations and minimization of risk from potentially-inappropriate ‘externally-imposed’ processes. The application here is not intended as a generic or complete poverty-alleviation strategy by itself but as a crisis-solving intervention, complementary to existing and developing sustainable national policies and to introduce how key principles and concepts can relate in the wider context. In terms of the Bangladesh arsenic crisis, this translates into community/regional networks in geographic regions making assessments on the appropriateness of their drinking-water configuration. Preferred improvement options are decided and acted upon in a technological framework. Options include: pond-sand filters, rainwater harvesting, dugwell, deep-protected tubewell, and shallow tubewell with treatment devices. Bedding in the regional drinking-water improvement configuration protocols then occurs. This involves establishing ongoing representative monitoring and screening, clear delineation of arsenic-contaminated wells with inter-regional linking, and national expansion within national drinking-water policy frameworks. PMID:17366766

A conceptual model to be used for community-based drinking-water improvements.

PubMed

Anstiss, Richard G; Ahmed, Mushfique

2006-09-01

A conceptual model that can be applied to improve community-based drinking-water in crisis-type situations has been developed from the original general science and technology/development bridging concept and from a case study in Northwest Bangladesh. The main feature of this model is the strengthened role of communities in identifying and implementing appropriate drinking-water improvements with facilitation by multi-disciplinary collaborative regional agency networks. These combined representative community/regional agency networks make decisions and take actions that involve environmental and health data, related capacity factors, and appropriateness of drinking-water improvements. They also progressively link regional decisions and actions together, expanding them nationally and preferably within a sustainable national policy-umbrella. This use of the model reflects stronger community control and input with more appropriate solutions to such drinking-water crisis situations and minimization of risk from potentially-inappropriate 'externally-imposed' processes. The application here is not intended as a generic or complete poverty-alleviation strategy by itself but as a crisis-solving intervention, complementary to existing and developing sustainable national policies and to introduce how key principles and concepts can relate in the wider context. In terms of the Bangladesh arsenic crisis, this translates into community/regional networks in geographic regions making assessments on the appropriateness of their drinking-water configuration. Preferred improvement options are decided and acted upon in a technological framework. Options include: pond-sand filters, rainwater harvesting, dugwell, deep-protected tubewell, and shallow tubewell with treatment devices. Bedding in the regional drinking-water improvement configuration protocols then occurs. This involves establishing ongoing representative monitoring and screening, clear delineation of arsenic-contaminated wells with inter-regional linking, and national expansion within national drinking-water policy frameworks.

Building an International Collaboration for GeoInformatics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Snyder, W. S.; Lehnert, K.; Klump, J.

2005-12-01

Geoinformatics (cyberinfrastructure for the geosciences) is being developed as a linked system of sites that provide to the Earth science community a library of research data research-grade tools to manipulate, mine, analyze and model interdisciplinary data, and mechanisms to provide the necessary computational resources for these activities. Our science is global in scope and hence, geoinformatics (GI) must be an international effort. How do we build this international GI? What are the main challenges presented by the political, cultural, organizational, and technical diversity of the global science community that we need to address to achieve a truly global cyberinfrastructure for the Geosciences? GI needs to be developed in an internet-like fashion establishing connections among independent globally distributed sites (`nodes') that will share, link, and integrate their data holdings and services. Independence of the GI pieces with respect to goals, scope, and approaches is critical to sustain commitment from people to build a GI node for which they feel ownership and get credit. This should not be fought by funding agencies - and certainly not by state and federal agencies. Communication, coordination, and collaboration are the core efforts to build the connections, but incentives and resources are required to advance and support them. Part of the coordination effort is development and maintenance of standards. Who should set these standards and govern their modification? Do we need an official international body to do so, and should this be a "governing body" or an "advisory body"? What role should international commissions and bodies such as CODATA/ICSU or IUGS-CGI, international societies and unions, the national geological surveys and other federal agencies play? Guidance from the science community is key to construct a system that geo-researchers will want to use, and that meets their needs. Only when the community endorses GI as a fundamental platform to support science research will we be able to address the challenging question how to insure sustained funding of GI which will undoubtly be a costly effort, convincing governments and funding agencies to invest in a global effort. Perhaps the most challenging problems are cultural ones such as the "my data" issue, the reluctance to share data even if they were generated with public funding. This is slowly being resolved by some funding agencies through moratorium periods for use of data before they are available to everyone, but will require a sustained "education" effort of the geoscience research community. Geoinformatics is the platform for a new paradigm in how we conduct our research. The challenges to building an international GI are quite serious, some might say daunting, but the conveners of this session feel that the effort is not only worth it, but required for the sake of our science research.

My action lasts longer: Potential link between subjective time and agency during voluntary action.

PubMed

Imaizumi, Shu; Asai, Tomohisa

2017-05-01

Time perception distorts across different phases of bodily movement. During motor execution, sensory feedback matching an internal sensorimotor prediction is perceived to last longer. The sensorimotor prediction also underlies sense of agency. We investigated association between subjective time and agency during voluntary action. Participants performed hand action while watching a video feedback of their hand with various delays to manipulate agency. The perceived duration and agency over the video feedback were judged. Minimal delay of the video feedback resulted in longer perceived duration than the actual duration and stronger agency, while substantial feedback delay resulted in shorter perceived duration and weaker agency. These fluctuations of perceived duration and agency were nullified by the feedback of other's hand instead of their own, but not by inverted feedback from a third-person perspective. Subjective time during action might be associated with agency stemming from sensorimotor prediction, and self-other distinction based on bodily appearance. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

An Investigation of Strategies for Preparing Teenagers for Cross-Age and Peer Teaching Roles: Implications for Linking Research and Practice.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Faye C. H.; Murdock, Shelley; Paterson, Carole

In the San Francisco Bay Area (California), community agencies and organizations routinely use teenagers as mentors and teachers of peers and younger children. Despite the literature indicating that teens should derive many benefits from these roles, agency staff have observed teen teachers who appear frustrated, bored, or disengaged, or who have…

Three years coherent space to ground links: performance results and outlook for the optical ground station equipped with adaptive optics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gregory, M.; Troendle, D.; Muehlnikel, G.; Heine, F.; Meyer, R.; Lutzer, M.; Czichy, R.

2013-03-01

Tesat is performing inter-satellite links (ISLs) for over 5 years now. Besides the successful demonstration of the suitability of coherent laser communication for high speed data transmission in space, Tesat has also conducted two major satellite to ground link (SGL) campaigns during the last 3 years. A transportable ground station has been developed to measure the impact of atmospheric turbulence to the coherent system. The SGLs have been performed between the Tesat optical ground station and the two LEO satellites TerraSAR-X and NFIRE, both equipped with a Tesat LCT. The capability of the LCTs of measuring the signal intensity on a direct detection sensor and on a coherent sensor simultaneously makes the system unique for investigating the atmospheric distortion impacts. In this paper the main results of the SGL campaigns are presented, including BER performance for the uplink and downlink. Measured scintillation profiles versus elevation angles at different weather conditions are illustrated. Finally preliminary results of an adaptive optics system are presented that has been developed to be used in the transportable adaptive optical ground station (T-AOGS) acting as the counter terminal for the LCT mounted on Alphasat, a geostationary satellite of the European Space Agency (ESA), in autumn 2013.

Algal toxins in Upper Klamath Lake, Oregon: Linking water quality to juvenile sucker health

USGS Publications Warehouse

VanderKooi, S.P.; Burdick, S.M.; Echols, K.R.; Ottinger, C.A.; Rosen, B.H.; Wood, T.M.

2010-01-01

As the lead science agency for the Department of Interior, the U.S. Geological Survey is actively involved in resource issues in the Klamath River basin. Activities include research projects on endangered Lost River and shortnose suckers, threatened coho salmon, groundwater resources, seasonal runoff forecasting, water quality in Upper Klamath Lake and the Klamath River, nutrient cycling in wetlands, and assessment of land idling programs to reduce water consumption. Many of these studies are collaborations with various partners including Department of Interior agencies, Indian Tribes, and State agencies.

Community size as a factor in health partnerships in community parks and recreation, 2007.

PubMed

Payne, Laura L; Zimmermann, Jo An M; Mowen, Andrew J; Orsega-Smith, Elizabeth; Godbey, Geoffrey C

2013-07-25

Although partnerships between park and recreation agencies and health agencies are prevalent, little research has examined partnership characteristics and effectiveness among communities of different sizes. The objective of this study was to determine whether park and recreation leaders' perceptions of partnership characteristics, effectiveness, and outcomes vary by community size. A web-based survey was completed in 2007 by 1,217 National Recreation and Park Association members. Community size was divided into 4 categories: very small, small, medium, and large. Questions measured agencies' recognition of the need for partnerships, their level of experience, and the effectiveness and outcomes of partnerships. Larger communities were significantly more likely to recognize the need for and have more experience with partnerships than smaller communities. Very small and large communities partnered significantly more often with senior services, nonprofit health promotion agencies, and public health agencies than did small and medium ones. Large and small communities were significantly more likely than very small and medium communities to agree that their decision making in partnerships is inclusive and that they have clearly defined goals and objectives. Large communities were significantly more likely than very small communities to report that their partnership helped leverage resources, make policy changes, meet their mission statement, and link to funding opportunities. Community size shapes partnership practices, effectiveness, and outcomes. Very small communities are disadvantaged in developing and managing health partnerships. Increasing education, training, and funding opportunities for small and rural park and recreation agencies may enable them to more effectively partner with organizations to address community health concerns.

Religious Belonging, Religious Agency, and Women’s Autonomy in Mozambique

PubMed Central

Agadjanian, Victor; Yabiku, Scott T.

2016-01-01

Women’s autonomy has frequently been linked with women’s opportunities and investments, such as education, employment, and reproductive control. The association between women’s autonomy and religion in the developing world, however, has received less attention, and the few existing studies make comparisons across major religious traditions. In this study, we focus on variations in levels of female decision-making autonomy within a single religious tradition—Christianity. Using unique survey data from a predominantly Christian area in Mozambique, we devise an autonomy scale and apply it to compare women affiliated to different Christian denominations as well as unaffiliated women. In addition to affiliation, we examine the relationship between autonomy and women’s religious agency both within and outside their churches. Multivariate analyses show that women belonging to more liberal religious traditions (such as Catholicism and mainline Protestantism) and tend to have higher autonomy levels, regardless of other factors. These results are situated within the cross-national scholarship on religion and women’s empowerment and are interpreted in the context of gendered religious dynamics in Mozambique and similar developing settings. PMID:26973353

Religious Belonging, Religious Agency, and Women's Autonomy in Mozambique.

PubMed

Agadjanian, Victor; Yabiku, Scott T

2015-09-01

Women's autonomy has frequently been linked with women's opportunities and investments, such as education, employment, and reproductive control. The association between women's autonomy and religion in the developing world, however, has received less attention, and the few existing studies make comparisons across major religious traditions. In this study, we focus on variations in levels of female decision-making autonomy within a single religious tradition-Christianity. Using unique survey data from a predominantly Christian area in Mozambique, we devise an autonomy scale and apply it to compare women affiliated to different Christian denominations as well as unaffiliated women. In addition to affiliation, we examine the relationship between autonomy and women's religious agency both within and outside their churches. Multivariate analyses show that women belonging to more liberal religious traditions (such as Catholicism and mainline Protestantism) and tend to have higher autonomy levels, regardless of other factors. These results are situated within the cross-national scholarship on religion and women's empowerment and are interpreted in the context of gendered religious dynamics in Mozambique and similar developing settings.

'I'm a consumer, I'm not a scientist': Cultivating Student Domain Identification, Agency, and Affect through Engagement in Scientific Practices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Scalone, Giovanna

This study investigates the potential benefits of redesigning hands-on, commercial inquiry science kits for fifth grade that afford agency and the development of science identities by leveraging youth's interests, personal or shared concerns, challenges or desires. Science identification is considered in relation to learning processes of being, becoming, knowing and doing. As identities are constructed dialogically through engagement, emotion, intentionality, innovation, and solidarity, students' agency is mediated and conceptualized as it develops in practice. The study is introduced in Chapter 1 by acknowledging how agency and identity are constructed from an ideological frame, thus problematizing the current neo-liberal policies undergirding educational reform. The conceptual argument in Chapter 2 outlines a theoretical synthesis of agency and learning. Subsequently, I leveraged a theory of semiosis to highlight how these perspectives on agency and identity contribute to the meaning-making processes of language, culture, and mind. Finally, conceptualizations of agency and identity are mapped to the sociology of scientific knowledge perspective. Chapter 3 situates the study context within a design-based implementation research model where the existing science curriculum units serve as comparisons (Inquiry group) to the experimental units (Agency group). The findings first demonstrate how student and teacher positioning are revealed during the turns of exchange by using functional grammar as a method to analyze how discourse works to construe experience and enact social relationships. Secondly, I analyze youth positioning across conditions highlighting the importance of raising student consciousness to the variegated ways scientists practice science and inducts students into how scientists intentionally and purposefully employ genres to engage in scientific ways of communicating. Student's perspectives, positioning, and emotional investments are then analyzed using appraisal analysis to show how students talking about their images of science yield different ways of knowing and dispositions in science. Thirdly, by tracing the inclination and obligation of doing science, I illustrate how subjectivity versus materiality/objectivity in science impact how students perceive science. Fourth, student images of science, ways of identifying with science and having agency in science are analyzed using a thematic analysis to identify patterns and emerging themes. Next, I assess students' developing understanding of scientific inquiry using HLM to determine whether the Agency units versus the Inquiry units predicted students' learning outcomes based on the inquiry assessment. Finally, I discuss the implications of these analyses. This study accounts for how youth develop practice-linked identities in science entails the fleeting identity performances and language choices made for and by youth in the science classroom. Central to this notion of identity is agency where positionality as well as material and symbolic, interactional and situational resources constrain or enable identity development. In a learning context, these choices and values inherent in language use are relational to learner agency outside of language, but ensouled in performative curating where solidarity, intention, creativity, emotion, accountability, anticipation, cognition, and rewards enable the capacity to transform the self, others, and communities. This dissertation demonstrates how design features embedded in curriculum related to personal relevance and the societal context for science affords teachers to engage youth in agentic science learning in the classroom in ways that become more meaningful and supportive of science identification than traditional inquiry approaches to teaching science.

The SILEX experiment system operations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Demelenne, B.

1994-01-01

The European Space Agency is going to conduct an inter orbit link experiment which will connect a low Earth orbiting satellite and a Geostationary satellite via optical terminals. This experiment has been called SILEX (Semiconductor Inter satellite Link EXperiment). Two payloads will be built. One called PASTEL (PASsager de TELecommunication) will be embarked on the French Earth observation satellite SPOT4. The future European experimental data relay satellite ARTEMIS (Advanced Relay and TEchnology MISsion) will carry the OPALE terminal (Optical PAyload Experiment). The principal characteristic of the mission is a 50 Megabits flow of data transmitted via the optical satellite link. The relay satellite will route the data via its feeder link thus permitting a real time reception in the European region of images taken by the observation satellite. The PASTEL terminal has been designed to cover up to 9 communication sessions per day with an average of 5. The number of daily contact opportunities with the low earth orbiting satellite will be increased and the duration will be much longer than the traditional passes over a ground station. The terminals have an autonomy of 24 hours with respect to ground control. Each terminal will contain its own orbit model and that of its counter terminal for orbit prediction and for precise computation of pointing direction. Due to the very narrow field of view of the communication laser beam, the orbit propagation calculation needs to be done with a very high accuracy. The European Space Agency is responsible for the operation of both terminals. A PASTEL Mission Control System (PMCS) is being developed to control the PASTEL terminal on board SPOT4. The PMCS will interface with the SPOT4 Control Centre for the execution of the PASTEL operations. The PMCS will also interface with the ARTEMIS Mission Control System for the planning and the coordination of the operation. It is the first time that laser technology will be used to support inter-satellite links in Europe. Due to the complexity and experimental character of this new optical technology, the SILEX experiment control facilities will be designed to allow as much operational flexibility as possible.

The experience of agency in sequence production with altered auditory feedback.

PubMed

Couchman, Justin J; Beasley, Robertson; Pfordresher, Peter Q

2012-03-01

When speaking or producing music, people rely in part on auditory feedback - the sounds associated with the performed action. Three experiments investigated the degree to which alterations of auditory feedback (AAF) during music performances influence the experience of agency (i.e., the sense that your actions led to auditory events) and the possible link between agency and the disruptive effect of AAF on production. Participants performed short novel melodies from memory on a keyboard. Auditory feedback during performances was manipulated with respect to its pitch contents and/or its synchrony with actions. Participants rated their experience of agency after each trial. In all experiments, AAF reduced judgments of agency across conditions. Performance was most disrupted (measured by error rates and slowing) when AAF led to an ambiguous experience of agency, suggesting that there may be some causal relationship between agency and disruption. However, analyses revealed that these two effects were probably independent. A control experiment verified that performers can make veridical judgments of agency. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Home health agency work environments and hospitalizations.

PubMed

Jarrín, Olga; Flynn, Linda; Lake, Eileen T; Aiken, Linda H

2014-10-01

An important goal of home health care is to assist patients to remain in community living arrangements. Yet home care often fails to prevent hospitalizations and to facilitate discharges to community living, thus putting patients at risk of additional health challenges and increasing care costs. To determine the relationship between home health agency work environments and agency-level rates of acute hospitalization and discharges to community living. Analysis of linked Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services Home Health Compare data and nurse survey data from 118 home health agencies. Robust regression models were used to estimate the effect of work environment ratings on between-agency variation in rates of acute hospitalization and community discharge. Home health agencies with good work environments had lower rates of acute hospitalizations and higher rates of patient discharges to community living arrangements compared with home health agencies with poor work environments. Improved work environments in home health agencies hold promise for optimizing patient outcomes and reducing use of expensive hospital and institutional care.

In Brief: Red tide Web site

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Showstack, Randy; Kumar, Mohi

2008-06-01

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has established the NOAA New England Red Tide Information Center to help people understand the significant red tides that are predicted to form there later this spring. The site (http://www.oceanservice.noaa.gov/redtide) will provide a summary of the current red tide situation and its potential harmful impacts on humans and animals and will serve as a central repository of information. The site also will have direct links to news releases, changes to relevant federal fishing regulations, links to closures of shellfish waters, and links to state agency Web sites with localized information. In addition, the site will have information about NOAA's scientific response effort as well as information from several other sources including NOAA's major response partner, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). On 24 April, WHOI scientists, using forecast models developed with NOAA funding support, predicted ``that excess winter precipitation has set the stage for a harmful algal bloom similar to the historic red tide of 2005.'' That bloom shut down shellfish beds from the Bay of Fundy to Martha's Vineyard for several months.

What's the Link? New Organization To Promote Nationwide Environmental Health Tracking.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Hara, Jim

2000-01-01

Reports that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been tracking the levels of lead, which is linked to increased behavioral disorders, retardation, and anemia in children, in the United States since the 1970s. Provides statistics on the current state of chronic diseases in the U.S. and asserts that there is a need for a nationwide heath…

Fulfilling the Potential of NYC-2. Linking the Neighborhood Youth Corps and MA-JOBS Program into a Sequential Training-Employment Model.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lorber, Fred; Feifer, Irwin

Although Neighborhood Youth Corps (NYC) training is conducted either in NYC centers, governmental and non-profit agencies or private industry, there is no commitment for employment after training. The Mobilization for Youth-Experimental Manpower Laboratory (MFY-EML) is exploring the feasibility of linking NYC to other government manpower training…

Access State Websites | ECHO | US EPA

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

State environmental agencies often maintain additional information about compliance and enforcement (beyond what is reported to EPA systems). Access direct links to state enforcement and compliance data.

Integrated Modelling - the next steps (Invited)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moore, R. V.

2010-12-01

Integrated modelling (IM) has made considerable advances over the past decade but it has not yet been taken up as an operational tool in the way that its proponents had hoped. The reasons why will be discussed in Session U17. This talk will propose topics for a research and development programme and suggest an institutional structure which, together, could overcome the present obstacles. Their combined aim would be first to make IM into an operational tool useable by competent public authorities and commercial companies and, in time, to see it evolve into the modelling equivalent of Google Maps, something accessible and useable by anyone with a PC or an iphone and an internet connection. In a recent study, a number of government agencies, water authorities and utilities applied integrated modelling to operational problems. While the project demonstrated that IM could be used in an operational setting and had benefit, it also highlighted the advances that would be required for its widespread uptake. These were: greatly improving the ease with which models could be a) made linkable, b) linked and c) run; developing a methodology for applying integrated modelling; developing practical options for calibrating and validating linked models; addressing the science issues that arise when models are linked; extending the range of modelling concepts that can be linked; enabling interface standards to pass uncertainty information; making the interface standards platform independent; extending the range of platforms to include those for high performance computing; developing the concept of modelling components as web services; separating simulation code from the model’s GUI, so that all the results from the linked models can be viewed through a single GUI; developing scenario management systems so that that there is an audit trail of the version of each model and dataset used in each linked model run. In addition to the above, there is a need to build a set of integrated modelling demonstrations and to achieve a critical mass of accessible linkable models. These models will be spread across the world and there will need to be a search mechanism to find them. If the benefits of integrated modelling are to become widely available, ways will have to be found to automate and hide the linking process. All the above will require considerable resources. It is proposed to build these resources by creating an international community of practice based upon the open source model. The talk will expand upon the research and development required.

Examining the social and scientific roles of invention in science education

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Calabrese-Barton, Angela

1998-03-01

I have been drawn to the construct of “invention” and “inventive acts” because in my research involving how homeless children construct science and the self-in-science, an overwhelming theme has been the multiple ways in which self-identity in science has been described by the children through a language of invention. Using post-modern feminism and science and technologies studies, I examine the multiple uses and definitions of “invention” in science in order to develop a theory of invention and inventive acts around the themes: invention as a social act, invention as a recursive and socially linked process, and embodied agency. I use this framework to examine the construct of “invention” in two different case studies involving the science education of urban homeless children. Finally, I link this discussion of invention and inventive acts with current international reform initiatives revolving around constructivist science teaching and learning.

Development and Evaluation of a Blocking Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay and Virus Neutralization Assay To Detect Antibodies to Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia Virus

PubMed Central

Wilson, Anna; Goldberg, Tony; Marcquenski, Susan; Olson, Wendy; Goetz, Frederick; Hershberger, Paul; Hart, Lucas

2014-01-01

Viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus (VHSV) is a target of surveillance by many state and federal agencies in the United States. Currently, the detection of VHSV relies on virus isolation, which is lethal to fish and indicates only the current infection status. A serological method is required to ascertain prior exposure. Here, we report two serologic tests for VHSV that are nonlethal, rapid, and species independent, a virus neutralization (VN) assay and a blocking enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The results show that the VN assay had a specificity of 100% and sensitivity of 42.9%; the anti-nucleocapsid-blocking ELISA detected nonneutralizing VHSV antibodies at a specificity of 88.2% and a sensitivity of 96.4%. The VN assay and ELISA are valuable tools for assessing exposure to VHSV. PMID:24429071

MAFL experiment: development of photonic devices for a space-based multiaperture fiber-linked interferometer.

PubMed

Olivier, Serge; Delage, Laurent; Reynaud, Francois; Collomb, Virginie; Trouillon, Michel; Grelin, Jerome; Schanen, Isabelle; Minier, Vincent; Broquin, Jean-Emmanuel; Ruilier, Cyril; Leone, Bruno

2007-02-20

We present a three-telescope space-based interferometer prototype dedicated to high-resolution imaging. This project, named multiaperture fiber-linked interferometer (MAFL), was founded by the European Space Agency. The aim of the MAFL project is to propose, design, and implement for the first time to the best of our knowledge all the optical functions required for the global instrument on the same integrated optics (IO) component for controlling a three-arm interferometer and to obtain reliable science data. The coherent transport from telescopes to the IO component is achieved by means of highly birefringent optical fiber. The laboratory bench is presented, and the results are reported allowing us to validate the optical potentiality of the IO component in this frame. The validation measurements consist of the throughput of this optical device, the performances of metrological servoloop, and the instrumental contrasts and phase closure of the science fringes.

Links Related to Northwest Indiana Area (Indiana)

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Northwest Indiana of the Urban Waters Federal Partnership (UWFP) reconnects urban communities with their waterways by improving coordination among federal agencies and collaborating with community-led efforts.

A Complex Systems Model Approach to Quantified Mineral Resource Appraisal

USGS Publications Warehouse

Gettings, M.E.; Bultman, M.W.; Fisher, F.S.

2004-01-01

For federal and state land management agencies, mineral resource appraisal has evolved from value-based to outcome-based procedures wherein the consequences of resource development are compared with those of other management options. Complex systems modeling is proposed as a general framework in which to build models that can evaluate outcomes. Three frequently used methods of mineral resource appraisal (subjective probabilistic estimates, weights of evidence modeling, and fuzzy logic modeling) are discussed to obtain insight into methods of incorporating complexity into mineral resource appraisal models. Fuzzy logic and weights of evidence are most easily utilized in complex systems models. A fundamental product of new appraisals is the production of reusable, accessible databases and methodologies so that appraisals can easily be repeated with new or refined data. The data are representations of complex systems and must be so regarded if all of their information content is to be utilized. The proposed generalized model framework is applicable to mineral assessment and other geoscience problems. We begin with a (fuzzy) cognitive map using (+1,0,-1) values for the links and evaluate the map for various scenarios to obtain a ranking of the importance of various links. Fieldwork and modeling studies identify important links and help identify unanticipated links. Next, the links are given membership functions in accordance with the data. Finally, processes are associated with the links; ideally, the controlling physical and chemical events and equations are found for each link. After calibration and testing, this complex systems model is used for predictions under various scenarios.

"I am witness to": a profile of Sakshi Violence Intervention Centre in New Delhi, India.

PubMed

Kapur, A

1998-11-01

Sakshi, a group formed in New Delhi, India, in 1992, seeks to create awareness of violence against women and promote justice for its victims. Its creation was spurred by the gang rape by police officers of a girl in custody and the subsequent minimization on the part of the Supreme Court of India of the seriousness of the crime. Program activities have included informational workshops for governmental and nongovernmental organizations, feminist legal research into violations of women's human rights, counseling for victims of violence, and sensitization programs for police and the judiciary. As a result of Sakshi's lobbying, the Supreme Court passed a set of Guidelines on Sexual Harassment at the Workplace in 1997. An ongoing problem has been Sakshi's dependence on donor funding and the related requirement of adopting development agencies' agendas rather than allowing development to be a demand-driven, needs-based process. Sakshi's experience has led to the awareness that violence cannot be countered by intervention measures alone; rather, program activities must be linked with other forms of gender development. The group has adopted use of the term "substantive equality" to form links between different systems in society and to empower women.

Redesigning community mental health services for urban children: Supporting schooling to promote mental health.

PubMed

Atkins, Marc S; Shernoff, Elisa S; Frazier, Stacy L; Schoenwald, Sonja K; Cappella, Elise; Marinez-Lora, Ane; Mehta, Tara G; Lakind, Davielle; Cua, Grace; Bhaumik, Runa; Bhaumik, Dulal

2015-10-01

This study examined a school- and home-based mental health service model, Links to Learning, focused on empirical predictors of learning as primary goals for services in high-poverty urban communities. Teacher key opinion leaders were identified through sociometric surveys and trained, with mental health providers and parent advocates, on evidence-based practices to enhance children's learning. Teacher key opinion leaders and mental health providers cofacilitated professional development sessions for classroom teachers to disseminate 2 universal (Good Behavior Game, peer-assisted learning) and 2 targeted (Good News Notes, Daily Report Card) interventions. Group-based and home-based family education and support were delivered by mental health providers and parent advocates for children in kindergarten through 4th grade diagnosed with 1 or more disruptive behavior disorders. Services were Medicaid-funded through 4 social service agencies (N = 17 providers) in 7 schools (N = 136 teachers, 171 children) in a 2 (Links to Learning vs. services as usual) × 6 (pre- and posttests for 3 years) longitudinal design with random assignment of schools to conditions. Services as usual consisted of supported referral to a nearby social service agency. Mixed effects regression models indicated significant positive effects of Links to Learning on mental health service use, classroom observations of academic engagement, teacher report of academic competence and social skills, and parent report of social skills. Nonsignificant between-groups effects were found on teacher and parent report of problem behaviors, daily hassles, and curriculum-based measures. Effects were strongest for young children, girls, and children with fewer symptoms. Community mental health services targeting empirical predictors of learning can improve school and home behavior for children living in high-poverty urban communities. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Kagawa Satellite “STARS” in Shikoku

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nohmi, Masahiro; Yamamoto, Takeshi; Andatsu, Akira; Takagi, Yohei; Nishikawa, Yusuke; Kaneko, Takashi; Kunitom, Daisuke

The Space Tethered Autonomous Robotic Satellite (STARS) is being developed in Kagawa University, and it will be launched by the H-IIA rocket by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) in summer 2008. STARS is the first satellite developed in Shikoku, and its specific characteristics are: (i) mother and daughter satellites, which have basic satellite system respectively, and those are launched at the same time; (ii) large space system more than 5m by extending tether; (iii) robotic system, the daughter satellite controls its arm link and the mother satellite controls tether extension. Development of STARS in Kagawa University demonstrates space technology in local community, which has been considered to be a national project. Also, it promotes popularization, enlightenment, and understanding of space technology in local area of the Kagawa prefecture and around it.

The Mathematics of the Brain

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-05-27

should not be interpreted as representing the official policies, either expressed or implied, of the Defence Advanced Research Project Agency or the... neurobiological interpretation of E-states? 36 8.5 The statistical molecular dynamics of E-states 37 8.6 The C++ program EPMM 40 9 Promising...have an intuitive link between E-machines and neural networks. Such a link provides a source of neurobiological heuristic considerations for the design

Awe, uncertainty, and agency detection.

PubMed

Valdesolo, Piercarlo; Graham, Jesse

2014-01-01

Across five studies, we found that awe increases both supernatural belief (Studies 1, 2, and 5) and intentional-pattern perception (Studies 3 and 4)-two phenomena that have been linked to agency detection, or the tendency to interpret events as the consequence of intentional and purpose-driven agents. Effects were both directly and conceptually replicated, and mediational analyses revealed that these effects were driven by the influence of awe on tolerance for uncertainty. Experiences of awe decreased tolerance for uncertainty, which, in turn, increased the tendency to believe in nonhuman agents and to perceive human agency in random events.

Fiscal loss and program fidelity: impact of the economic downturn on HIV/STI prevention program fidelity.

PubMed

Catania, Joseph A; Dolcini, M Margaret; Gandelman, Alice A; Narayanan, Vasudha; McKay, Virginia R

2014-03-01

The economic downturn of 2007 created significant fiscal losses for public and private agencies conducting behavioral prevention. Such macro-economic changes may influence program implementation and sustainability. We examined how public and private agencies conducting RESPECT, a brief HIV/STI (sexually transmitted infection) counseling and testing intervention, adapted to fiscal loss and how these adaptations impacted program fidelity. We collected qualitative and quantitative data in a national sample of 15 agencies experiencing fiscal loss. Using qualitative analyses, we examined how program fidelity varied with different types of adaptations. Agencies reported three levels of adaptation: agency-level, program-level, and direct fiscal remedies. Private agencies tended to use direct fiscal remedies, which were associated with higher fidelity. Some agency-level adaptations contributed to reductions in procedural fit, leading to negative staff morale and decreased confidence in program effectiveness, which in turn, contributed to poor fidelity. Findings describe a "work stress pathway" that links program fiscal losses to poor staff morale and low program fidelity.

Guidelines 2.0: systematic development of a comprehensive checklist for a successful guideline enterprise.

PubMed

Schünemann, Holger J; Wiercioch, Wojtek; Etxeandia, Itziar; Falavigna, Maicon; Santesso, Nancy; Mustafa, Reem; Ventresca, Matthew; Brignardello-Petersen, Romina; Laisaar, Kaja-Triin; Kowalski, Sérgio; Baldeh, Tejan; Zhang, Yuan; Raid, Ulla; Neumann, Ignacio; Norris, Susan L; Thornton, Judith; Harbour, Robin; Treweek, Shaun; Guyatt, Gordon; Alonso-Coello, Pablo; Reinap, Marge; Brozek, Jan; Oxman, Andrew; Akl, Elie A

2014-02-18

Although several tools to evaluate the credibility of health care guidelines exist, guidance on practical steps for developing guidelines is lacking. We systematically compiled a comprehensive checklist of items linked to relevant resources and tools that guideline developers could consider, without the expectation that every guideline would address each item. We searched data sources, including manuals of international guideline developers, literature on guidelines for guidelines (with a focus on methodology reports from international and national agencies, and professional societies) and recent articles providing systematic guidance. We reviewed these sources in duplicate, extracted items for the checklist using a sensitive approach and developed overarching topics relevant to guidelines. In an iterative process, we reviewed items for duplication and omissions and involved experts in guideline development for revisions and suggestions for items to be added. We developed a checklist with 18 topics and 146 items and a webpage to facilitate its use by guideline developers. The topics and included items cover all stages of the guideline enterprise, from the planning and formulation of guidelines, to their implementation and evaluation. The final checklist includes links to training materials as well as resources with suggested methodology for applying the items. The checklist will serve as a resource for guideline developers. Consideration of items on the checklist will support the development, implementation and evaluation of guidelines. We will use crowdsourcing to revise the checklist and keep it up to date.

Guidelines 2.0: systematic development of a comprehensive checklist for a successful guideline enterprise

PubMed Central

Schünemann, Holger J.; Wiercioch, Wojtek; Etxeandia, Itziar; Falavigna, Maicon; Santesso, Nancy; Mustafa, Reem; Ventresca, Matthew; Brignardello-Petersen, Romina; Laisaar, Kaja-Triin; Kowalski, Sérgio; Baldeh, Tejan; Zhang, Yuan; Raid, Ulla; Neumann, Ignacio; Norris, Susan L.; Thornton, Judith; Harbour, Robin; Treweek, Shaun; Guyatt, Gordon; Alonso-Coello, Pablo; Reinap, Marge; Brožek, Jan; Oxman, Andrew; Akl, Elie A.

2014-01-01

Background: Although several tools to evaluate the credibility of health care guidelines exist, guidance on practical steps for developing guidelines is lacking. We systematically compiled a comprehensive checklist of items linked to relevant resources and tools that guideline developers could consider, without the expectation that every guideline would address each item. Methods: We searched data sources, including manuals of international guideline developers, literature on guidelines for guidelines (with a focus on methodology reports from international and national agencies, and professional societies) and recent articles providing systematic guidance. We reviewed these sources in duplicate, extracted items for the checklist using a sensitive approach and developed overarching topics relevant to guidelines. In an iterative process, we reviewed items for duplication and omissions and involved experts in guideline development for revisions and suggestions for items to be added. Results: We developed a checklist with 18 topics and 146 items and a webpage to facilitate its use by guideline developers. The topics and included items cover all stages of the guideline enterprise, from the planning and formulation of guidelines, to their implementation and evaluation. The final checklist includes links to training materials as well as resources with suggested methodology for applying the items. Interpretation: The checklist will serve as a resource for guideline developers. Consideration of items on the checklist will support the development, implementation and evaluation of guidelines. We will use crowdsourcing to revise the checklist and keep it up to date. PMID:24344144

The Early Growth and Development Study: Using the Prospective Adoption Design to Examine Genotype–Environment Interplay

PubMed Central

Leve, Leslie D.; Neiderhiser, Jenae M.; Scaramella, Laura V.; Reiss, David

2009-01-01

The Early Growth and Development Study (EGDS) is a prospective adoption design consisting of 360 linked sets of birth parents, adoptive parents, and adopted children followed from 3 months postpartum through child age 7 years, and an additional 200 linked sets for whom recruitment is underway. The EGDS brings together the study of genotype–environment correlation (rGE) and Genotype x Environment (GxE) interaction to inform intervention development by examining mechanisms whereby family processes mediate or moderate the expression of genetic influences. Participants in the EGDS are recruited through domestic adoption agencies located throughout the United States of America. The assessments occur at 6-month intervals until child age 4-½ years and at ages 6 and 7, when the children are in their 1st and 2nd years of formal schooling (kindergarten and first grade). The data collection includes measures of child characteristics, birth and adoptive parent characteristics, adoptive parenting, prenatal exposure to drugs and maternal stress, birth parent and adopted child salivary cortisol reactivity, and DNA from all participants. The preliminary analyses suggest evidence for GxE interaction beginning in infancy. An intervention perspective on future developments in the field of behavioral genetics is described. PMID:19458782

The Early Growth and Development Study: Using the Prospective Adoption Design to Examine Genotype–Environment Interplay

PubMed Central

Neiderhiser, Jenae M.; Scaramella, Laura V.; Reiss, David

2017-01-01

The Early Growth and Development Study (EGDS) is a prospective adoption design consisting of 360 linked sets of birth parents, adoptive parents, and adopted children followed from 3 months postpartum through child age 7 years and an additional 200 linked sets for whom recruitment is underway. The EGDS brings together the study of genotype–environment correlation and Genotype × Environment (G × E) interaction to inform intervention development by examining mechanisms whereby family processes mediate or moderate the expression of genetic influences. Participants in the EGDS are recruited through domestic adoption agencies located throughout the United States of America. The assessments occur at 6-month intervals until child age 4-½ years and at ages 6 and 7, when the children are in their 1st and 2nd years of formal schooling (kindergarten and first grade). The data collection includes measures of child characteristics, birth and adoptive parent characteristics, adoptive parenting, prenatal exposure to drugs and maternal stress, birth parent and adopted child salivary cortisol reactivity, and DNA from all participants. The preliminary analyses suggest evidence for G×E interaction beginning in infancy. An intervention perspective on future developments in the field of behavioral genetics is described. PMID:20358398

Federal Guidance for Radiation Protection

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

EPA produces federal guidance technical reports, which standardize dose and risk assessment and issues radiation protection guidance to federal agencies. This page provides links to federal guidance policy recommendations and technical reports.

A survey of potential users of the High Altitude Powered Platform (HAPP) in the ocean/coastal zone community

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Escoe, D.; Rigternik, P.

1979-01-01

The results of a survey of the ocean/coastal zone community to determine potential applications of a High Altitude Powered Platform (HAPP) are reported. Such a platform, capable of stationkeeping for periods up to a year over a given location, could make frequent and repeated high resolution observations over a given region or serve as a high-altitude regional communications link. Users were surveyed in person and via a questionnaire to determine the desirability of the HAPP within the ocean/coastal zone community. The results of the survey indicated that there is strong interest in all areas of the user community (research and development, operational agencies, and private industry) in having NASA develop the HAPP.

When Membership Gives Strength to Act: Inclusion of the Group Into the Self and Feeling of Personal Agency.

PubMed

Besta, Tomasz; Mattingly, Brent; Błażek, Magdalena

2016-01-01

Identity fusion theory suggests that merging groups into one's personal identity should result in heightened levels of group agency. Research on the self-expansion model complementarily indicates that including others into the self is linked to a greater feeling of self-efficacy. Across three correlational studies, we examined whether personal and group identity fusion is associated with stronger feelings of personal agency, and we propose that relatively stable feelings of clarity of self-concept would mediate this association. Individuals strongly fused with a country (Studies 1-3) and family (Study 2) exhibited greater feelings of agency and goal-adherence, and self-concept clarity emerged as a significant mediator of this association when controlling for group identification measures.

Links Related to Anacostia Watershed (Washington, DC/Maryland)

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Anacostia Watershed (Washington, DC/Maryland) of the Urban Waters Federal Partnership (UWFP) reconnects urban communities with their waterways by improving coordination among federal agencies and collaborating with community-led efforts.

Home Health Agency Work Environments and Hospitalizations

PubMed Central

Flynn, Linda; Lake, Eileen T.; Aiken, Linda H.

2014-01-01

Background: An important goal of home health care is to assist patients to remain in community living arrangements. Yet home care often fails to prevent hospitalizations and to facilitate discharges to community living, thus putting patients at risk of additional health challenges and increasing care costs. Objectives: To determine the relationship between home health agency work environments and agency-level rates of acute hospitalization and discharges to community living. Methods and Design: Analysis of linked Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services Home Health Compare data and nurse survey data from 118 home health agencies. Robust regression models were used to estimate the effect of work environment ratings on between-agency variation in rates of acute hospitalization and community discharge. Results: Home health agencies with good work environments had lower rates of acute hospitalizations and higher rates of patient discharges to community living arrangements compared with home health agencies with poor work environments. Conclusion: Improved work environments in home health agencies hold promise for optimizing patient outcomes and reducing use of expensive hospital and institutional care. PMID:25215647

Programming Methodology for High Performance Applications on Tiled Architectures

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-06-01

members, both voting and non- voting ; • A page of links, including links to all available PCA home pages, the home pages of other DARPA programs of...HPEC-SI); and • Organizational information on the Morphware Forum, such as membership requirements and voting procedures. The web site was the...The following organizations are voting members of the Morphware Forum at this writing: o Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency o Georgia

Links from South Platte Watershed Partners

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

South Platte Watershed from the Headwaters to the Denver Metropolitan Area (Colorado) of the Urban Waters Federal Partnership (UWFP) reconnects urban communities with their waterways by improving coordination among federal agencies and collaborating.

Transportation Safety Resource Center (TSRC) 2007.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2009-11-01

The Transportation Safety Resource Center (TSRC) is the vital link in a collaborative : partnership created among federal and state transportation agencies, local stakeholders, : academic institutions, and the private sector to provide resources and ...

A Survey of Online and Mobile Technology Use at Peer Support Agencies.

PubMed

Aschbrenner, Kelly A; Naslund, John A; Grinley, Thomas; Bienvenida, John Carlo M; Bartels, Stephen J; Brunette, Mary

2018-01-04

Understanding how individuals with mental illness who receive services at peer support agencies use technology can inform the development of online and mobile health interventions tailored for users in these non-traditional mental health settings. The purpose of this study was to assess the use of technology among individuals with mental illness at peer support agencies. A survey delivered within peer support agencies (PSAs) in one state assessed technology use among individuals ages 18 and over with a self-identified mental illness receiving services at these agencies. In total, 195 individuals from 10 PSAs completed the survey. Eighty-two percent of respondents used the internet, with 63% of respondents connected to the internet at the PSAs. Eighty one percent of respondents owned a cell phone, 70% used text messaging, 58% owned smartphones, 61% used mobile applications, and 72% used social media. PSA users under age 55 were significantly more likely to own a smartphone than PSA users age 55 and older. Among internet users, 71% had searched for health information online and 57% had searched for mental health information online. Many individuals who receive services at PSAs have access to online and mobile technologies. These technologies may be leveraged to expand the reach of evidence-based health and mental health programs to individuals in these non-traditional mental health settings. Future research should explore the feasibility of intervention strategies that involve PSAs as a resource for linking people with mental illness to online and mobile support for their health and wellness goals.

Community Size as a Factor in Health Partnerships in Community Parks and Recreation, 2007

PubMed Central

Zimmermann, Jo An M.; Mowen, Andrew J.; Orsega-Smith, Elizabeth; Godbey, Geoffrey C.

2013-01-01

Introduction Although partnerships between park and recreation agencies and health agencies are prevalent, little research has examined partnership characteristics and effectiveness among communities of different sizes. The objective of this study was to determine whether park and recreation leaders’ perceptions of partnership characteristics, effectiveness, and outcomes vary by community size. Methods A web-based survey was completed in 2007 by 1,217 National Recreation and Park Association members. Community size was divided into 4 categories: very small, small, medium, and large. Questions measured agencies’ recognition of the need for partnerships, their level of experience, and the effectiveness and outcomes of partnerships. Results Larger communities were significantly more likely to recognize the need for and have more experience with partnerships than smaller communities. Very small and large communities partnered significantly more often with senior services, nonprofit health promotion agencies, and public health agencies than did small and medium ones. Large and small communities were significantly more likely than very small and medium communities to agree that their decision making in partnerships is inclusive and that they have clearly defined goals and objectives. Large communities were significantly more likely than very small communities to report that their partnership helped leverage resources, make policy changes, meet their mission statement, and link to funding opportunities. Conclusion Community size shapes partnership practices, effectiveness, and outcomes. Very small communities are disadvantaged in developing and managing health partnerships. Increasing education, training, and funding opportunities for small and rural park and recreation agencies may enable them to more effectively partner with organizations to address community health concerns. PMID:23886043

Expansion and Enhacement of the Wyoming Coalbed Methane Clearinghouse Website to the Wyoming Energy Resources Information Clearinghouse.

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

Hulme, Diana; Hamerlinck, Jeffrey; Bergman, Harold

Energy development is expanding across the United States, particularly in western states like Wyoming. Federal and state land management agencies, local governments, industry and non-governmental organizations have realized the need to access spatially-referenced data and other non-spatial information to determine the geographical extent and cumulative impacts of expanding energy development. The Wyoming Energy Resources Information Clearinghouse (WERIC) is a web-based portal which centralizes access to news, data, maps, reports and other information related to the development, management and conservation of Wyoming's diverse energy resources. WERIC was established in 2006 by the University of Wyoming's Ruckelshaus Institute of Environment and Naturalmore » Resources (ENR) and the Wyoming Geographic Information Science Center (WyGISC) with funding from the US Department of Energy (DOE) and the US Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The WERIC web portal originated in concept from a more specifically focused website, the Coalbed Methane (CBM) Clearinghouse. The CBM Clearinghouse effort focused only on coalbed methane production within the Powder River Basin of northeast Wyoming. The CBM Clearinghouse demonstrated a need to expand the effort statewide with a comprehensive energy focus, including fossil fuels and renewable and alternative energy resources produced and/or developed in Wyoming. WERIC serves spatial data to the greater Wyoming geospatial community through the Wyoming GeoLibrary, the WyGISC Data Server and the Wyoming Energy Map. These applications are critical components that support the Wyoming Energy Resources Information Clearinghouse (WERIC). The Wyoming GeoLibrary is a tool for searching and browsing a central repository for metadata. It provides the ability to publish and maintain metadata and geospatial data in a distributed environment. The WyGISC Data Server is an internet mapping application that provides traditional GIS mapping and analysis functionality via the web. It is linked into various state and federal agency spatial data servers allowing users to visualize multiple themes, such as well locations and core sage grouse areas, in one domain. Additionally, this application gives users the ability to download any of the data being displayed within the web map. The Wyoming Energy Map is the newest mapping application developed directly from this effort. With over a 100 different layers accessible via this mapping application, it is the most comprehensive Wyoming energy mapping application available. This application also provides the public with the ability to create cultural and wildlife reports based on any location throughout Wyoming and at multiple scales. The WERIC website also allows users to access links to federal, state, and local natural resource agency websites and map servers; research documents about energy; and educational information, including information on upcoming energy-relate conferences. The WERIC website has seen significant use by energy industry consultants, land management agencies, state and local decision-makers, non-governmental organizations and the public. Continued service to these sectors is desirable but some challenges remain in keeping the WERIC site viable. The most pressing issue is finding the human and financial resources to keep the site continually updated. Initially, the concept included offering users the ability to maintain the site themselves; however, this has proven not to be a viable option since very few people contributed. Without user contributions, the web page relied on already committed university staff to publish and link to the appropriate documents and web-pages. An option that is currently being explored to address this issue is development of a partnership with the University of Wyoming, School of Energy Resources (SER). As part of their outreach program, SER may be able to contribute funding for a full-time position dedicated to maintenance of WERIC.« less

Social Inequality, Life Course Transitions, and Adolescent Development: Introduction to the Special Issue.

PubMed

Buchmann, Marlis; Steinhoff, Annekatrin

2017-10-01

Conceptualizing adolescent development within a life course framework that links the perspectives on social inequality and early life course transitions has largely been absent from previous research. Such a conceptual model is needed, however, in order to understand how the individual development of agentic capacities and the opportunities and constraints inherent in the social contexts of growing up interact and jointly affect young people's trajectories across the adolescent life stage. We present the corner stones of the conceptual "trident" of social inequality, life course transitions, and adolescent development and identify three major themes the eleven contributions to this special issue address within this conceptual framework: social and individual prerequisites and consequences of coping with life course transitions; intergenerational transmission belts of social inequality; socialization of agency in and outside the family home. These three themes exemplify the great analytical potential inherent in this framework.

Adoption: biological and social processes linked to adaptation.

PubMed

Grotevant, Harold D; McDermott, Jennifer M

2014-01-01

Children join adoptive families through domestic adoption from the public child welfare system, infant adoption through private agencies, and international adoption. Each pathway presents distinctive developmental opportunities and challenges. Adopted children are at higher risk than the general population for problems with adaptation, especially externalizing, internalizing, and attention problems. This review moves beyond the field's emphasis on adoptee-nonadoptee differences to highlight biological and social processes that affect adaptation of adoptees across time. The experience of stress, whether prenatal, postnatal/preadoption, or during the adoption transition, can have significant impacts on the developing neuroendocrine system. These effects can contribute to problems with physical growth, brain development, and sleep, activating cascading effects on social, emotional, and cognitive development. Family processes involving contact between adoptive and birth family members, co-parenting in gay and lesbian adoptive families, and racial socialization in transracially adoptive families affect social development of adopted children into adulthood.

FEDFacts: Information about the Federal Electronic Docket Facilities

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Cleanup status information related to Federal Facilities contained in EPA's Federal Agency Hazardous Waste Compliance Docket. Information includes maps, lists of facilities, dashboard view with graphs, links to community resources, and news items.

Picturing the Heart

MedlinePlus

... Links for Students Glossary Government Resources Kids.gov – Science Information and services on the web from government agencies, ... and educational organizations. Science.gov Gateway to government science information and research results. PubMed Central Free full-text ...

Links related to the Western Lake Erie Basin

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Western Lake Erie Basin, near Toledo (Ohio) of the Urban Waters Federal Partnership (UWFP) reconnects urban communities with their waterways by improving coordination among federal agencies and collaborating with community-led efforts

Links Related to Middle Rio Grande/Albuquerque (New Mexico)

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Middle Rio Grande/Albuquerque (New Mexico) of the Urban Waters Federal Partnership (UWFP) reconnects urban communities with their waterways by improving coordination among federal agencies and collaborating with community-led efforts.

Links Related to Lake Pontchartrain Area/New Orleans (Louisiana)

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Lake Pontchartrain Area/New Orleans (Louisiana) of the Urban Waters Federal Partnership (UWFP) reconnects urban communities with their waterways by improving coordination among federal agencies and collaborating with community-led efforts

Radiation Resources Outside of EPA

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

EPA does not license nuclear power plants or regulate the non-ionizing radiation from cell phones, smart meters or power lines. This page provides links to the state and federal agencies that regulate these matters.

ACHP | ACHP Native American Program: Guidance for Federal Agencies

Science.gov Websites

Working with Section 106 Federal, State, & Tribal Programs Training & Education Publications Search skip specific nav links Home arrow Working with Section 106 arrow ACHP Native American Program

Communications between local health departments and the public during emergencies: the importance of standardized web sites.

PubMed

Fallon, L Fleming; Schmalzried, Hans D; Hasan, Nausheen

2011-01-01

Of the 2790 local health departments (LHDs) in the United States, Internet homepages were located for 1986. We reviewed each homepage to document the presence of 9 elements deemed to be critical for effective communications during emergency or disaster situations. LHD Web site homepages had a mean of 4.1 (±1.4) elements. Among the findings, this review revealed that 4 of 5 (80.5%) of the LHDs included the agency phone number, half (49.4%) provided links to emergency information, and about 1 in 5 (19.6%) listed an agency e-mail address. Fewer than 1 in 20 (4.3%) of the LHD homepages reviewed allowed visitors to sign up for automatic alerts or notifications. We suggest that these results be used as a starting point in developing a standardized template containing the 9 homepage elements. Such a template complements National Incident Management System protocols and can provide a recognizable source of consistent and reliable information for people during a public health emergency or disaster.

Democratizing the world health organization.

PubMed

van de Pas, R; van Schaik, L G

2014-02-01

A progressive erosion of the democratic space appears as one of the emerging challenges in global health today. Such delimitation of the political interplay has a particularly evident impact on the unique public interest function of the World Health Organization (WHO). This paper aims to identify some obstacles for a truly democratic functioning of the UN specialized agency for health. The development of civil society's engagement with the WHO, including in the current reform proposals, is described. The paper also analyses how today's financing of the WHO--primarily through multi-bi financing mechanisms--risks to choke the agency's role in global health. Democratizing the public debate on global health, and therefore the role of the WHO, requires a debate on its future role and engagement at the country level. This desirable process can only be linked to national debates on public health, and the re-definition of health as a primary political and societal concern. Copyright © 2013 The Royal Society for Public Health. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Learning autonomy in two or three steps: linking open-ended development, authority, and agency to motivation

PubMed Central

Andringa, Tjeerd C.; van den Bosch, Kirsten A.; Vlaskamp, Carla

2013-01-01

In this paper we connect open-ended development, authority, agency, and motivation through (1) an analysis of the demands of existing in a complex world and (2) environmental appraisal in terms of affordance content and the complexity to select appropriate behavior. We do this by identifying a coherent core from a wide range of contributing fields. Open-ended development is a structured three-step process in which the agent first learns to master the body and then aims to make the mind into a reliable tool. Preconditioned on success in step two, step three aims to effectively co-create an optimal living environment. We argue that these steps correspond to right-left-right hemispheric dominance, where the left hemisphere specializes in control and the right hemisphere in exploration. Control (e.g., problem solving) requires a closed and stable world that must be maintained by external authorities or, in step three, by the right hemisphere acting as internal authority. The three-step progression therefore corresponds to increasing autonomy and agency. Depending on how we appraise the environment, we formulate four qualitatively different motivational states: submission, control, exploration, and consolidation. Each of these four motivational states has associated reward signals of which the last three—successful control, discovery of novelty, and establishing new relations—form an open-ended development loop that, the more it is executed, helps the agent to become progressively more agentic and more able to co-create a pleasant-to-live-in world. We conclude that for autonomy to arise, the agent must exist in a (broad) transition region between order and disorder in which both danger and opportunity (and with that open-ended development and motivation) are defined. We conclude that a research agenda for artificial cognitive system research should include open-ended development through intrinsic motivations and ascribing more prominence to right hemispheric strengths. PMID:24155734

Learning autonomy in two or three steps: linking open-ended development, authority, and agency to motivation.

PubMed

Andringa, Tjeerd C; van den Bosch, Kirsten A; Vlaskamp, Carla

2013-01-01

In this paper we connect open-ended development, authority, agency, and motivation through (1) an analysis of the demands of existing in a complex world and (2) environmental appraisal in terms of affordance content and the complexity to select appropriate behavior. We do this by identifying a coherent core from a wide range of contributing fields. Open-ended development is a structured three-step process in which the agent first learns to master the body and then aims to make the mind into a reliable tool. Preconditioned on success in step two, step three aims to effectively co-create an optimal living environment. We argue that these steps correspond to right-left-right hemispheric dominance, where the left hemisphere specializes in control and the right hemisphere in exploration. Control (e.g., problem solving) requires a closed and stable world that must be maintained by external authorities or, in step three, by the right hemisphere acting as internal authority. The three-step progression therefore corresponds to increasing autonomy and agency. Depending on how we appraise the environment, we formulate four qualitatively different motivational states: submission, control, exploration, and consolidation. Each of these four motivational states has associated reward signals of which the last three-successful control, discovery of novelty, and establishing new relations-form an open-ended development loop that, the more it is executed, helps the agent to become progressively more agentic and more able to co-create a pleasant-to-live-in world. We conclude that for autonomy to arise, the agent must exist in a (broad) transition region between order and disorder in which both danger and opportunity (and with that open-ended development and motivation) are defined. We conclude that a research agenda for artificial cognitive system research should include open-ended development through intrinsic motivations and ascribing more prominence to right hemispheric strengths.

Management of Guidance, Navigation and Control Technologies for Spacecraft Formations under the NASA Cross-Enterprise Technology Development Program (CETDP)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hartman, Kathy; Weidow, David; Hadaegh, Fred

1999-01-01

Breakthrough technology development is critical to securing the future of our space industry. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Cross-Enterprise Technology Development Program (CETDP) is developing critical space technologies that enable innovative and less costly missions, and spawn new mission opportunities through revolutionary, long-term, high-risk, high-payoff technology advances. The CETDP is a NASA-wide activity managed by the Advanced Technology and Mission Studies Division (AT&MS) at Headquarters Office of Space Science. Program management for CETDP is distributed across the multiple NASA Centers and draws on expertise throughout the Agency. The technology research activities are organized along Project-level divisions called thrust areas that are directly linked to the Agency's goals and objectives of the Enterprises: Earth Science, Space Science, Human Exploration and Development of Space; and the Office of the Chief Technologist's (OCT) strategic technology areas. Cross-Enterprise technology is defined as long-range strategic technologies that have broad potential to span the needs of more than one Enterprise. Technology needs are identified and prioritized by each of the primary customers. The thrust area manager (TAM) for each division is responsible for the ultimate success of technologies within their area, and can draw from industry, academia, other government agencies, other CETDP thrust areas, and other NASA Centers to accomplish the goals of the thrust area. An overview of the CETDP and description of the future directions of the thrust area called Distributed Spacecraft are presented in this paper. Revolutionary technologies developed within this thrust area will enable the implementation of a spatially distributed network of individual vehicles, or assets, collaborating as a single collective unit, and exhibiting a common system-wide capability to accomplish a shared objective. With such a capability, new Earth and space science measurement concepts become a reality.

Management of Guidance, Navigation, and Control Technologies for Spacecraft Formations Under the NASA Cross Enterprise Technology Development Program (CETDP)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hartman, Kathy; Weidow, David; Hadaegh, Fred

1999-01-01

Breakthrough technology development is critical to securing the future of our space industry. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Cross-Enterprise Technology Development Program (CETDP) is developing critical space technologies that enable innovative and less costly missions, and spawn new mission opportunities through revolutionary, long-term, high-risk, high-payoff technology advances. The CETDP is a NASA-wide activity managed by the Advanced Technology and Mission Studies Division (AT&MS) at Headquarters Office of Space Science. Program management for CETDP is distributed across the multiple NASA Centers and draws on expertise throughout the Agency. The technology research activities are organized along Project-level divisions called thrust areas that are directly linked to the Agency's goals and objectives of the Enterprises: Earth Science, Space Science, Human Exploration and Development of Space; and the Office of the Chief Technologist's (OCT) strategic technology areas. Cross-Enterprise technology is defined as long-range strategic technologies that have broad potential to span the needs of more than one Enterprise. Technology needs are identified and prioritized by each of the primary customers. The thrust area manager (TAM) for each division is responsible for the ultimate success of technologies within their area, and can draw from industry, academia, other government agencies, other CETDP thrust areas, and other NASA Centers to accomplish the goals of the thrust area. An overview of the CETDP and description of the future directions of the thrust area called Distributed Spacecraft are presented in this paper. Revolutionary technologies developed within this thrust area will enable the implementation of a spatially distributed network of individual vehicles, or assets, collaborating as a single collective unit, and exhibiting a common system-wide capability to accomplish a shared objective. With such a capability, new Earth and space science measurement concepts become a reality.

Geologic report and recommendations for the cobalt mission to Morocco sponsored by The Trade and Development Program of the International Development Cooperation Agency

USGS Publications Warehouse

Foose, M.P.; Rossman, D.L.

1982-01-01

A mission sponsored by the Trade and Development Program (TDP) of the International Development Cooperation Agency (IDCA) went to Morocco to evaluate the possibility of finding additional sources of cobalt in that country, as well as other types of mineralization. Information obtained during this trip shows Morocco to be a country for which much geologic information is available and in which there are many favorable target areas for future exploration. Work in the Bou Azzer district (Morocco's principal cobalt district) shows that much excellent geologic work has been done in searching for additional deposits. However, a number of useful approaches to locate cobalt have not been tried, and their use might be successful. The potential for undiscovered deposits in the Bou Azzer region seems very high. The cobalt mineralization in the Siroua uplift is different from that in the Bou Azzer district. However, geologic similarities between the two areas suggest that a genetic link may exist between the two types of mineralization. This further indicates that cobalt deposits of the Bou Azzer types might be present in the Siroua region. Examination of the Bleida copper mine shows it to be a well-exposed volcanic hosted stratabound copper deposit. Large unexplored areas containing similar rocks occur near this deposit and may contain as yet undiscovered copper mineralization.

The experience of agency in human-computer interactions: a review

PubMed Central

Limerick, Hannah; Coyle, David; Moore, James W.

2014-01-01

The sense of agency is the experience of controlling both one’s body and the external environment. Although the sense of agency has been studied extensively, there is a paucity of studies in applied “real-life” situations. One applied domain that seems highly relevant is human-computer-interaction (HCI), as an increasing number of our everyday agentive interactions involve technology. Indeed, HCI has long recognized the feeling of control as a key factor in how people experience interactions with technology. The aim of this review is to summarize and examine the possible links between sense of agency and understanding control in HCI. We explore the overlap between HCI and sense of agency for computer input modalities and system feedback, computer assistance, and joint actions between humans and computers. An overarching consideration is how agency research can inform HCI and vice versa. Finally, we discuss the potential ethical implications of personal responsibility in an ever-increasing society of technology users and intelligent machine interfaces. PMID:25191256

Linking an agency strategic review to increase knowledge management: San Francisco County Human Service Agency.

PubMed

Harrison, Lindsay

2012-01-01

Led by the agency director, the agency engaged in a Strategic Review, based on a comprehensive assessment of agency performance that identified strategies to improve organizational effectiveness through increased data-informed practice and knowledge management. The Strategic Review gathered information on staff perceptions, perceptions of external stakeholders, changing citywide and neighborhood demographics, policy mandates, and budget and workload issues. The need for the review was based upon multiple, substantial changes not addressed in the 2000 Strategic Plan, including the 2004 merger of the Department of Human Services and the Department of Aging and Adult Services, changes among the executive management team, transitions among key political entities, new policy mandates and changing budget allocations. This case study describes the Strategic Review process and content, summarizing key challenges and lessons related to addressing workload demands, fostering positive staff attitudes, balancing internal and external information needs, and integrating data use and planning processes across the agency. Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

Building an Open Data Portal for the European Space Agency Climate Change Initiative based on an Iterative Development Methodology and Linked Data Technologies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kershaw, P.; Bennett, V. L.; Stephens, A.; Wilson, A.; Waterfall, A. M.; Petrie, R.; Iwi, A.; Donegan, S.; Juckes, M. N.; Parton, G.

2016-12-01

The Climate Change Initiative (CCI) programme was initiated by the European Space Agency (ESA) in 2009 to address the GCOS Essential Climate Variable (ECV) requirements to provide stable, long-term, satellite-based data products to characterise the climate system and its changes. CEDA, working as part of a project consortium, were awarded the contract to build the Open Data Portal, consisting collectively of a central archive and single point of access for dissemination of the data to the international user community. Reflecting climate and earth observation community requirements, the system needed to support a range of access services in use by this domain and specifically, to integrate into existing infrastructure in the form of the Earth System Grid Federation (ESGF). This range of requirements together with the heterogeneity of the ECV datasets presented significant challenges. However, the use of Linked Data technologies and an iterative approach to data model development and data publishing have been instrumental in meeting the objectives and building a cohesive system. The portal supports data discovery based on the OGC CSW specification and on ESGF's powerful faceted search. These services provide complementary content at different levels of granularity and it therefore became clear that a common data model was needed. Key terms are defined in vocabularies serialised in SKOS and OWL and are accessible from a central vocabulary server to provide a single authoritative source for applications consuming metadata content. Exploiting the vocabulary service therefore, it has been possible to develop an innovative solution tagging ISO 19115 records for the CSW with the equivalent vocabulary terms used for the ESGF faceted search system. In this way it has been possible to create a rich user interface for the portal combining search results from both search services and the ability to dynamically populate facet selection and context-based help information from the vocabulary service.

Symmetric Link Key Management for Secure Neighbor Discovery in a Decentralized Wireless Sensor Network

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-09-01

and to the Office of Management and Budget, Paperwork Reduction Project (0704-0188) Washington, DC 20503. 1. AGENCY USE ONLY (Leave blank) 2. REPORT...KEY MANAGEMENT FOR SECURE NEIGHBOR DISCOVERY IN A DECENTRALIZED WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORK by Kelvin T. Chew September 2017 Thesis Advisor...DATE September 2017 3. REPORT TYPE AND DATES COVERED Master’s thesis 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE SYMMETRIC LINK KEY MANAGEMENT FOR SECURE NEIGHBOR

The role of schools in promoting inclusive communities in contexts of diversity.

PubMed

Andreouli, Eleni; Howarth, Caroline; Sonn, Christopher

2014-01-01

Against the background of evidence for links between ill-health and prejudice, in this article we discuss how to promote inclusive communities in contexts of diversity. A brief critical overview of dominant psychological approaches to prejudice reduction reveals the apolitical nature of these approaches, and thus, we argue for a more contextual and political model on how to promote inclusive communities. Drawing on examples of different school practices on cultural diversity from across England, we argue that we need to develop a perspective that connects local contexts of everyday practice, resistance and agency to the institutional and structural realities of prejudice.

The Italian Optical Telecommunications Payload: Breadboard Results

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bonino, L.; Caramia, M.; Catalano, V.; Ferrero, V.; Mata Calvo, R.

2008-08-01

The interest in satellite optical communication link has grown in the last years driven by the increasing demand in data downlink for scientific, planetary exploration and earth observation missions; in addition particular interest is also demonstrated by military market. In this context, the Italian Space Agency (ASI) is developing a program for feasibility demonstration of optical communication system with the goal of a prototype flight mission in the next future. The Paper intends to present the overall program plan and it is particularly focused on the activities performed during the Phase A2, relevant to stratospheric mission design and test campaign with an open field demonstrator of free space communications.

International cooperation in the field of space life sciences: European Space Agency's (ESA) perspectives.

PubMed

Oser, H

1989-08-01

International cooperation in life sciences, as in any other of the space research fields, takes place at two distinct levels: scientist to scientist, or agency to agency. This article is more concerned with the agency to agency level, which involves the arrangements made between two partners for the flying of experiments and/or hardware on space missions. International cooperation is inherent to the European Space Agency (ESA), since it consists of 13 member states (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and West Germany) and one associated member, Finland. ESA also has special cooperative arrangements with Canada. Life sciences research in ESA is carried out within the Microgravity Research Program, an optional program to which member states (in this case all but Austria and Ireland) contribute "a la carte," and receive their "share" accordingly. Therefore, many of the activities are naturally linked to international arrangements within the member states, and also to arrangements between the agencies, with life sciences being the dominant activity between NASA and ESA.

1996 Olympic and Paralympic Games : event study

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1997-05-02

The Atlanta metropolitan region is the location of one of the most ambitious intelligent transportation system (ITS) deployments in the United States. The system links eight regional agencies and includes a transportation management center (TMC), six...

Keynote Address: Use of telecommunications to meet health needs of rural, remote and isolated communities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

House, Max

1990-06-01

Difficulties in delivering health and education services to isolated remote and underserviced areas have stimulated the application of telecommunications including satellite and ground-based systems to meet health care and education needs. Over a 12-year period Memorial University Telemedicine Centre has developed a number of telemedicine and distance education projects in the Province of Newfoundland in other Canadian provinces and internationally. Early experiences included a one-way television two-way voice system linking remote provincial sites to St. John''s by satellite. Following this emphasis was placed on the development of a major Province-wide terrestrially based dedicated 4-wire audio teleconference system which now has five separate divisions and an associated 30-port 2-wire teleconference bridge. The Teleconference System (TCS) is used by about 50 user groups in the fields of health education and community programming in 1989. Medical and educational data are transmitted using telewriters slow scan television and electroencephalograph and electrocardiograph transmission equipment. Research and development activities have included an offshore satellite telemedicine project several teleradiology experiments using slow scan and intercontinental X-ray transmission trials. International projects have included (1) satellite links to East Africa (Kenya and Canada/- European satellite trial using the European Space Agency (ESA) satellite Olympus (hybrid 14/12 and 20/30 Geighz) which was launched in July 1989 (2) the use of a low orbit packet radio satellite in cooperation with SatelLife (an international telemedicine organization) to link Memorial University in Newfoundland with and Uganda in order to support remote health care endeavours (3) a provincial teleradiology experiment using digital slow scan equipment. This presentation will also discuss guidelines followed in the development of a successful telemedicine project. 1.

Progress Toward Standards for the Seamless Interoperability of Broadband Satellite Communication Networks

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ivancic, William D.; Glover, Daniel R.; vonDeak, Thomas C.; Bhasin, Kul B.

1998-01-01

The realization of the full potential of the National Information Infrastructure (NH) and Global Information Infrastructure (GII) requires seamless interoperability of emerging satellite networks with terrestrial networks. This requires a cooperative effort between industry, academia and government agencies to develop and advocate new, satellite-friendly communication protocols and modifications to existing communication protocol standards. These groups have recently come together to actively participating in a number of standards making bodies including: the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) Forum, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the Telecommunication Industry Association MA) to ensure that issues regarding efficient use of these protocols over satellite links are not overlooked. This paper will summarize the progress made toward standards development to achieve seamless integration and accelerate the deployment of multimedia applications.

A case study illustrating the use of an attachment video-feedback intervention strategy.

PubMed

Tarabulsy, George M; Dubois-Comtois, Karine; Baudry, Claire; Moss, Ellen; Roberge, Annie; Savage, Laura-Emilie; Cyr, Chantal; St-Laurent, Diane; Bernier, Annie

2018-05-21

Children from high-risk environments are more likely to experience problems in development. Many difficulties are linked to early experiences in the context of the emerging attachment relationship. Over the past 20 years, our group has collaborated with government agencies to develop and implement an attachment-based video-feedback intervention strategy (AVI) that targets parental sensitivity and attachment. This case study presents the manner in which a young mother and her 6-month-old son experienced AVI. The study shows how the absence of maternal sensitivity and responsiveness to infant signals, difficulties in helping the child regulate affect, and problems in autonomy support are addressed via eight semi-structured mentoring visits. Discussion focuses on how AVI may be a helpful addition to primary prevention programs. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Mining Software Usage with the Automatic Library Tracking Database (ALTD)

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

Hadri, Bilel; Fahey, Mark R

2013-01-01

Tracking software usage is important for HPC centers, computer vendors, code developers and funding agencies to provide more efficient and targeted software support, and to forecast needs and guide HPC software effort towards the Exascale era. However, accurately tracking software usage on HPC systems has been a challenging task. In this paper, we present a tool called Automatic Library Tracking Database (ALTD) that has been developed and put in production on several Cray systems. The ALTD infrastructure prototype automatically and transparently stores information about libraries linked into an application at compilation time and also the executables launched in a batchmore » job. We will illustrate the usage of libraries, compilers and third party software applications on a system managed by the National Institute for Computational Sciences.« less

NIEHS/FDA CLARITY-BPA research program update.

PubMed

Heindel, Jerrold J; Newbold, Retha R; Bucher, John R; Camacho, Luísa; Delclos, K Barry; Lewis, Sherry M; Vanlandingham, Michelle; Churchwell, Mona I; Twaddle, Nathan C; McLellen, Michelle; Chidambaram, Mani; Bryant, Matthew; Woodling, Kellie; Gamboa da Costa, Gonçalo; Ferguson, Sherry A; Flaws, Jodi; Howard, Paul C; Walker, Nigel J; Zoeller, R Thomas; Fostel, Jennifer; Favaro, Carolyn; Schug, Thaddeus T

2015-12-01

Bisphenol A (BPA) is a chemical used in the production of numerous consumer products resulting in potential daily human exposure to this chemical. The FDA previously evaluated the body of BPA toxicology data and determined that BPA is safe at current exposure levels. Although consistent with the assessment of some other regulatory agencies around the world, this determination of BPA safety continues to be debated in scientific and popular publications, resulting in conflicting messages to the public. Thus, the National Toxicology Program (NTP), National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), and U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) developed a consortium-based research program to link more effectively a variety of hypothesis-based research investigations and guideline-compliant safety testing with BPA. This collaboration is known as the Consortium Linking Academic and Regulatory Insights on BPA Toxicity (CLARITY-BPA). This paper provides a detailed description of the conduct of the study and a midterm update on progress of the CLARITY-BPA research program. Published by Elsevier Inc.

NIEHS/FDA CLARITY-BPA research program update

PubMed Central

Heindel, Jerrold J.; Newbold, Retha R.; Bucher, John R.; Camacho, Luísa; Delclos, K. Barry; Lewis, Sherry M.; Vanlandingham, Michelle; Churchwell, Mona I.; Twaddle, Nathan C.; McLellen, Michelle; Chidambaram, Mani; Bryant, Matthew; Woodling, Kellie; Gamboa da Costa, Gonçalo; Ferguson, Sherry A.; Flaws, Jodi; Howard, Paul C.; Walker, Nigel J.; Zoeller, R. Thomas; Fostel, Jennifer; Favaro, Carolyn; Schug, Thaddeus T.

2016-01-01

Bisphenol A (BPA) is a chemical used in the production of numerous consumer products resulting in potential daily human exposure to this chemical. The FDA previously evaluated the body of BPA toxicology data and determined that BPA is safe at current exposure levels. Although consistent with the assessment of some other regulatory agencies around the world, this determination of BPA safety continues to be debated in scientific and popular publications, resulting in conflicting messages to the public. Thus, the National Toxicology Program (NTP), National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), and U.S Food and Drug Administration (FDA) developed a consortium-based research program to link more effectively a variety of hypothesis-based research investigations and guideline-compliant safety testing with BPA. This collaboration is known as the Consortium Linking Academic and Regulatory Insights on BPA Toxicity (CLARITY-BPA). This paper provides a detailed description of the conduct of the study and a midterm update on progress of the CLARITY-BPA research program. PMID:26232693

FRAMEWORK FOR ASSESSING RISKS OF ...

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

The Framework for Children's Health Risk Assessment report can serve as a resource on children's health risk assessment and it addresses the need to provide a comprehensive and consistent framework for considering children in risk assessments at EPA. This framework lays out the process, points to existing published sources for more detailed information on life stage-specific considerations, and includes web links to specific online publications and relevant Agency science policy papers, guidelines and guidance. The document emphasizes the need to take into account the potential exposures to environmental agents during preconception and all stages of development and focuses on the relevant adverse health outcomes that may occur as a result of such exposures. This framework is not an Agency guideline, but rather describes the overall structure and the components considered important for children's health risk assessment. The document describes an approach that includes problem formulation, analysis, and risk characterization, and also builds on Agency experience assessing risk to susceptible populations. The problem formulation step focuses on the life stage-specific nature of the analysis to include scoping and screening level questions for hazard characterization, dose response and exposure assessment. The risk characterization step recognizes the need to consider life stage-specific risks and explicitly describes the uncertainties and variability in the d

Estimating cost per lane mile for routine highway operations and maintenance

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2011-01-01

The disparity between maintenance budgets and maintenance requirements causes agencies to make difficult choices : about maintenance priorities. There is a growing need to effectively link maintenance costs and condition to provide clear : evidence o...

1996 Olympic and Paralympic Games event study : executive summary

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1997-05-01

The Atlanta metropolitan region is the location of one of the most ambitious intelligent transportation system (ITS) deployments in the United States. The system links eight regional agencies and includes a transportation management center (TMC), six...

36 CFR 1236.14 - What must agencies do to protect records against technological obsolescence?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

...) Maintaining a link between records and their metadata through conversion or migration, including capture of all relevant associated metadata at the point of migration (for both the records and the migration...

36 CFR 1236.14 - What must agencies do to protect records against technological obsolescence?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

...) Maintaining a link between records and their metadata through conversion or migration, including capture of all relevant associated metadata at the point of migration (for both the records and the migration...

36 CFR 1236.14 - What must agencies do to protect records against technological obsolescence?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

...) Maintaining a link between records and their metadata through conversion or migration, including capture of all relevant associated metadata at the point of migration (for both the records and the migration...

36 CFR 1236.14 - What must agencies do to protect records against technological obsolescence?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

...) Maintaining a link between records and their metadata through conversion or migration, including capture of all relevant associated metadata at the point of migration (for both the records and the migration...

Local Government GIS and Geospatial Capabilities : Suitability for Integrated Transportation & Land Use Planning (California SB 375)

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2009-11-01

This report examines two linked phenomena in transportation planning: the geospatial analysis capabilities of local planning agencies and the increasing demands on such capabilities imposed by comprehensive planning mandates.

Distributed Network Protocols

DTIC Science & Technology

1980-07-01

MONITORING AGENCY NAME & ADDRESS(II different from Controlting Office) IS. SECURITY CLASS. (of this report) S Office of Naval Research Unclassified...All protocols are extended to networks with changing. topology. S80 8 4 246 DD0I iA 1473 EDITION OF INOV 65 IS OBSOLETE 8 0 24 SECURITY CLASSIFICATION...to the netowrk . f) Each node knows its adjacent links, but not necessarily the identity of its neighbors, i.e. the nodes at the other end of the links

Agency and Market Area Factors Affecting Home Health Agency Supply Changes

PubMed Central

Porell, Frank W; Liu, Korbin; Brungo, David P

2006-01-01

Objective To use the natural experiment created by the Medicare interim payment system (IPS) to study supply change behavior of home health agencies (HHAs) in local market areas. Data Sources One hundred percent Medicare home health claims for 1996 and 1999, linked with Medicare Provider of Service and Denominator files, and the Area Resource File. Study Design Medicare home health care (HHC) claims data were used to distinguish HHAs that changed the local market supply of Medicare HHC by their market exit or by significant expansion or contraction of their geographic service area between 1996 and 1999 from other HHAs. Multinomial logit models were estimated to analyze how characteristics of agencies and the market areas in which they served were associated with these different agency-level supply changes. Principal Findings Changes in local HHA supply stemming from geographic service area expansions and contractions rivaled those owing to agency closures and market entries. Agencies at greater risk of closure and service area contraction tended to be smaller, newer, freestanding agencies, operating with more visit-intensive practice styles in markets with more competitor agencies. Except for having much less visit-intensive practice styles, similar attributes characterized agencies that increased local supply through service area expansion. Conclusions Supply changes by HHAs largely reflected rational market responses by agencies to significant changes in financial incentives associated with the Medicare IPS. Recently certified agencies were among the most dynamic providers. Supply changes were more likely among agencies operating in more competitive market environments. PMID:16987305

Agency and market area factors affecting home health agency supply changes.

PubMed

Porell, Frank W; Liu, Korbin; Brungo, David P

2006-10-01

To use the natural experiment created by the Medicare interim payment system (IPS) to study supply change behavior of home health agencies (HHAs) in local market areas. One hundred percent Medicare home health claims for 1996 and 1999, linked with Medicare Provider of Service and Denominator files, and the Area Resource File. Medicare home health care (HHC) claims data were used to distinguish HHAs that changed the local market supply of Medicare HHC by their market exit or by significant expansion or contraction of their geographic service area between 1996 and 1999 from other HHAs. Multinomial logit models were estimated to analyze how characteristics of agencies and the market areas in which they served were associated with these different agency-level supply changes. Changes in local HHA supply stemming from geographic service area expansions and contractions rivaled those owing to agency closures and market entries. Agencies at greater risk of closure and service area contraction tended to be smaller, newer, freestanding agencies, operating with more visit-intensive practice styles in markets with more competitor agencies. Except for having much less visit-intensive practice styles, similar attributes characterized agencies that increased local supply through service area expansion. Supply changes by HHAs largely reflected rational market responses by agencies to significant changes in financial incentives associated with the Medicare IPS. Recently certified agencies were among the most dynamic providers. Supply changes were more likely among agencies operating in more competitive market environments.

Leadership and productivity in planning organizations: a case study.

PubMed

Whitcomb, G R; Williams, E G

1978-01-01

This paper presents the findings of a case study dealing mainly with the effects of two divergent leadership styles on the productivity of a planning organization. Changes in various kinds of participation in the agency's activities--an important side effect--are also linked to the two leadership patterns. The agency studied, a private health and welfare council in a medium-sized American city, varied considerably in its output of planning activities and decision making depending on whether it had a participative or a directive leader. The results indicated that there was a trade-off between such highly revered social values as leadership and the extent of participation by staff, board members, and local agency administrators. Implications focus on ways to achieve diversity in communication style among managers and the role of productivity measures in determining the overall effectiveness of planning agencies.

AN INTEGRATED WATERSHED APPROACH LINKING SALMONID PRODUCTIVITY TO FRESHWATER HABITAT

EPA Science Inventory

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

36 CFR § 1236.14 - What must agencies do to protect records against technological obsolescence?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

...) Maintaining a link between records and their metadata through conversion or migration, including capture of all relevant associated metadata at the point of migration (for both the records and the migration...

Intersectoral planning for city health development.

PubMed

Green, Geoff

2012-04-01

The article reviews the evolution and process of city health development planning (CHDP) in municipalities participating in the European Network of Healthy Cities organized by the European Region of the World Health Organization. The concept of CHDP combines elements from three theoretical domains: (a) health development, (b) city governance, and (c) urban planning. The setting was the 77 cities which participated in Phase IV (2003-2008) of the network. Evidence was gathered principally from a general evaluation questionnaire sent to all network cities. CHDPs are strategic documents giving direction to municipalities and partner agencies. Analysis revealed a trend away from "classic" CHDPs with a primary focus on health development towards ensuring a health dimension to other sector plans, and into the overarching strategies of city governments. Linked to the Phase IV priority themes of Healthy aging and healthy urban planning, cities further developed the concept and application of human-centered sustainability. More work is required to utilize cost-benefit analysis and health impact assessment to unmask the synergies between health and economic prosperity.

Spinoff 2007

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2007-01-01

In accordance with congressional mandates cited in the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 and the Technology Utilization Act of 1962, NASA was directed to encourage greater use of the Agency's knowledge by providing a link between the NASA research community and those who might use the research for commercial or industrial products. For more than 40 years, NASA has nurtured partnerships with the private sector to facilitate the transfer of NASA-developed technologies. The benefits of these partnerships have reached throughout the economy and around the globe, as the resulting commercial products contributed to the development of services and technologies in the fields of health and medicine, transportation, public safety, consumer goods, environmental resources, computer technology, and industry. Since 1976, NASA Spinoff has profiled more than 1,500 of the most compelling of these technologies, annually highlighting the best and brightest of partnerships and innovations. Building on this dynamic history, NASA partnerships with the private sector continue to seek avenues by which technological achievements and innovations gleaned among the stars can be brought down to benefit our lives on Earth. NASA Spinoff highlights the Agency's most significant research and development activities and the successful transfer of NASA technology, showcasing the cutting-edge research being done by the Nation's top technologies and the practical benefits that come back down to Earth in the form of tangible products that make our lives better.

Geoscience Australia's enterprise application of provenance standards and systems for physical and digital objects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kemp, C.; Car, N. J.

2016-12-01

Geoscience Australia (GA) is a government agency that provides advice on the geology and geography of Australia. It is the custodian of many digital and physical datasets of national significance. For several years GA has been implementing an enterprise approach to provenance management. The goal for transparency and reproducibility for all of GA's information products; an objective supported at the highest levels and explicitly listed in its Science Principles. Currently GA is finalising a set of enterprise tools to assist with provenance management and rolling out provenance reporting to different science areas. GA has adopted or developed: provenance storage systems; provenance collection code libraries (for use within automated systems); reporting interfaces (for manual use) and provenance representation capability within legacy catalogues. Using these tools within GA's science areas involves modelling the scenario first and then assessing whether the area has its data managed in such a way that allows links to data within provenance to be resolvable in perpetuity. We don't just want to represent provenance (demonstrating transparency), we want to access data via provenance (allowing for reproducibility). A subtask of GA's current work is to link physical samples to information products (datasets, reports, papers) by uniquely and persistently identifying samples using International GeoSample Numbers and then modelling automated & manual laboratory workflows and associated tasks, such as data delivery to corporate databases using the W3C's PROV Data Model. We use PROV DM throughout our modelling and systems. We are also moving to deliver all sample and digital dataset metadata across the agency in the Web Ontology Language (OWL) and exposing it via Linked Data methods in order to allow Semantic Web querying of multiple systems allowing provenance to be leveraged using as a single method and query point. Through the Science First Transformation Program GA is undergoing a significant rethinking of its data architecture, curation and access to support the Digital Science capability for which Provenance management is an output.

Mind the Costs: Rescaling and Multi-Level Environmental Governance in Venice Lagoon

PubMed Central

Fritsch, Oliver

2010-01-01

Competences over environmental matters are distributed across agencies at different scales on a national-to-local continuum. This article adopts a transaction costs economics perspective in order to explore the question whether, in the light of a particular problem, the scale at which a certain competence is attributed can be reconsidered. Specifically, it tests whether a presumption of least-cost operation concerning an agency at a given scale can hold. By doing so, it investigates whether the rescaling of certain tasks, aiming at solving a scale-related problem, is likely to produce an increase in costs for day-to-day agency operations as compared to the status quo. The article explores such a perspective for the case of Venice Lagoon. The negative aspects of the present arrangement concerning fishery management and morphological remediation are directly linked to the scale of the agencies involved. The analysis suggests that scales have been chosen correctly, at least from the point of view of the costs incurred to the agencies involved. Consequently, a rescaling of those agencies does not represent a viable option. PMID:20162274

Mind the Costs: Rescaling and Multi-Level Environmental Governance in Venice Lagoon

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Roggero, Matteo; Fritsch, Oliver

2010-07-01

Competences over environmental matters are distributed across agencies at different scales on a national-to-local continuum. This article adopts a transaction costs economics perspective in order to explore the question whether, in the light of a particular problem, the scale at which a certain competence is attributed can be reconsidered. Specifically, it tests whether a presumption of least-cost operation concerning an agency at a given scale can hold. By doing so, it investigates whether the rescaling of certain tasks, aiming at solving a scale-related problem, is likely to produce an increase in costs for day-to-day agency operations as compared to the status quo. The article explores such a perspective for the case of Venice Lagoon. The negative aspects of the present arrangement concerning fishery management and morphological remediation are directly linked to the scale of the agencies involved. The analysis suggests that scales have been chosen correctly, at least from the point of view of the costs incurred to the agencies involved. Consequently, a rescaling of those agencies does not represent a viable option.

Mind the costs: rescaling and multi-level environmental governance in Venice lagoon.

PubMed

Roggero, Matteo; Fritsch, Oliver

2010-07-01

Competences over environmental matters are distributed across agencies at different scales on a national-to-local continuum. This article adopts a transaction costs economics perspective in order to explore the question whether, in the light of a particular problem, the scale at which a certain competence is attributed can be reconsidered. Specifically, it tests whether a presumption of least-cost operation concerning an agency at a given scale can hold. By doing so, it investigates whether the rescaling of certain tasks, aiming at solving a scale-related problem, is likely to produce an increase in costs for day-to-day agency operations as compared to the status quo. The article explores such a perspective for the case of Venice Lagoon. The negative aspects of the present arrangement concerning fishery management and morphological remediation are directly linked to the scale of the agencies involved. The analysis suggests that scales have been chosen correctly, at least from the point of view of the costs incurred to the agencies involved. Consequently, a rescaling of those agencies does not represent a viable option.

From action intentions to action effects: how does the sense of agency come about?

PubMed Central

Chambon, Valérian; Sidarus, Nura; Haggard, Patrick

2014-01-01

Sense of agency refers to the feeling of controlling an external event through one’s own action. On one influential view, agency depends on how predictable the consequences of one’s action are, getting stronger as the match between predicted and actual effect of an action gets closer. Thus, sense of agency arises when external events that follow our action are consistent with predictions of action effects made by the motor system while we perform or simply intend to perform an action. According to this view, agency is inferred retrospectively, after an action has been performed and its consequences are known. In contrast, little is known about whether and how internal processes involved in the selection of actions may influence subjective sense of control, in advance of the action itself, and irrespective of effect predictability. In this article, we review several classes of behavioral and neuroimaging data suggesting that earlier processes, linked to fluency of action selection, prospectively contribute to sense of agency. These findings have important implications for better understanding human volition and abnormalities of action experience. PMID:24860486

Balancing risk, interpersonal intimacy and agency: perspectives from marginalised women in Zambia.

PubMed

Davis, Lwendo Moonzwe; Kostick, Kristin Marie

2018-05-15

Women are most exposed to sexual health risks within their marital relationships, primarily due to the sexually risky behaviours of their spouses. Studies show that expanding agency is critical for women to mitigate both physical and sexual health risks and is linked to increased psycho-social well-being and economic independence. Drawing on qualitative and quantitative primary data collected from a peri-urban community in Zambia, this paper explores how women exert agency in a community where few educational and economic opportunities and substantial food insecurity exacerbate women's risk for HIV within their marital relationships. It also examines how expressions of agency within marital unions can reduce HIV risk exposure and lead to socio-economic benefits. However, expressions of agency can also create physical, psycho-social and sexual health risks, particularly when spouses do not support independent decision-making and actions that women consider necessary to support the household and maintain intimacy. Findings highlight the importance of community involvement and addressing harmful socio-cultural norms to foster the realisation of women's agency.

Interprofessional support of mental well-being in schools: a Bourdieuan perspective.

PubMed

Spratt, Jennifer; Shucksmith, Janet; Philip, Kate; Watson, Cate

2006-08-01

There is increasing international concern about the mental health and well-being of school-aged children, and the school is often seen as the optimum setting to deliver interagency interventions. This paper draws on a Scottish study examining the responses of local authorities, schools and other agencies to challenging behaviour related to poor mental health. It explores the ways in which the presence of workers from other agencies had an impact on the capacity of schools to respond to such issues. In Bourdieuan terms, the study showed that non-teaching workers imported into school developed new forms of 'habitus' leading to effective team work to support vulnerable pupils, but that they often operated in isolation from the wider teaching staff. Different professional cultures created significant barriers, which could be exacerbated by active resistance to meaningful engagement. Consequently, parallel working evolved, where staff from agencies other than education supported pupils experiencing difficulties, but there was little evidence of corresponding changes to ethos or pedagogy to meet the needs of pupils in school. Expertise pertaining to the mental well-being of pupils thus tended to be compartmentalized and was not readily transferred elsewhere, and this led to a disjointed experience for pupils. Our evidence strongly suggested that teachers preferred to learn from other teachers. This served to reinforce existing habitus and to isolate them from new ways of thinking. Potential ways of effecting culture change are suggested, through innovative training and development, linked to accountability, to challenge the new mode of parallel working before it becomes the status quo.

Time, action and psychosis: Using subjective time to investigate the effects of ketamine on sense of agency

PubMed Central

Moore, J.W.; Cambridge, V.C.; Morgan, H.; Giorlando, F.; Adapa, R.; Fletcher, P.C.

2013-01-01

Sense of agency refers to the experience of initiating and controlling actions in order to influence events in the outside world. A disturbed sense of agency is found in certain psychiatric and neurological disorders, most notably schizophrenia. Sense of agency is associated with a subjective compression of time: actions and their outcomes are perceived as bound together in time. This is known as ‘intentional binding’ and, in healthy adults, depends partly on advance prediction of action outcomes. Notably, this predictive contribution is disrupted in patients with schizophrenia. In the present study we aimed to characterise the psychotomimetic effect of ketamine, a drug model for psychosis, on the predictive contribution to intentional binding. It was shown that ketamine produced a disruption that closely resembled previous data from patients in the early, prodromal, stage of schizophrenic illness. These results are discussed in terms of established models of delusion formation in schizophrenia. The link between time and agency, more generally, is also considered. PMID:22813429

48 CFR 970.2304-2 - Contract clause.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

...-2 Section 970.2304-2 Federal Acquisition Regulations System DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY AGENCY SUPPLEMENTARY REGULATIONS DOE MANAGEMENT AND OPERATING CONTRACTS Environment, Energy and Water Efficiency, Renewable Energy Technologies, Occupational Safety and Drug-Free Work Place 970.2304-2 Contract clause. Link...

48 CFR 970.2304-1 - General.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... Section 970.2304-1 Federal Acquisition Regulations System DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY AGENCY SUPPLEMENTARY REGULATIONS DOE MANAGEMENT AND OPERATING CONTRACTS Environment, Energy and Water Efficiency, Renewable Energy Technologies, Occupational Safety and Drug-Free Work Place 970.2304-1 General. Link to an amendment published...

48 CFR 970.2307-2 - Contract clause.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

...-2 Section 970.2307-2 Federal Acquisition Regulations System DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY AGENCY SUPPLEMENTARY REGULATIONS DOE MANAGEMENT AND OPERATING CONTRACTS Environment, Energy and Water Efficiency, Renewable Energy Technologies, Occupational Safety and Drug-Free Work Place 970.2307-2 Contract clause. Link...

Evaluation strategy : Puget Sound regional fare card : FY01 earmark evaluation

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2003-06-24

King County Metro Transit is the lead agency responsible for implementing the Central Puget Sound Regional Fare Coordination Project (RFC Project). The project features a smart card technology that will support and link the fare collection systems of...

Archived data management systems : a cross-cutting study : linking operations and planning data

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2005-12-01

This report examines five transportation agencies that have established and are operating successful ADMSs (Archived Data Management Systems), and one that is on the verge of becoming fully operational. This study discusses the design choices, operat...

78 FR 72686 - Agency Information Collection Activities: Application to Extend/Change Nonimmigrant Status; Form...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-12-03

...- 0038. When submitting comments by email, please make sure to add [Insert OMB Control Number 1615-0003... via the link in the footer of http://www.regulations.gov . Note: The address listed in this notice...

77 FR 59410 - Agency Information Collection Activities: National Interest Waivers, Supplemental Evidence to I...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-09-27

... to add [Insert OMB Control Number] in the subject box. All submissions received must include the... Act notice that is available via the link in the footer of http://www.regulations.gov . Note: The...

78 FR 21387 - Agency Information Collection Activities: E-Verify Program Data Collections. New Information...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-04-10

...- 0017. When submitting comments by email, please make sure to add [Insert OMB Control Number 1615-NEW... via the link in the footer of http://www.regulations.gov . Note: The address listed in this notice...

Local government GIS and geospatial capabilities : suitability for integrated transportation and land use planning (California SB 375).

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2009-11-01

This report examines two linked phenomena in transportation planning: the geospatial analysis capabilities of local planning agencies and the increasing demands on such capabilities imposed by comprehensive planning mandates. The particular examples ...

Acronyms & Resource Guide

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Association of American Universities, 2011

2011-01-01

This guide includes the following: higher education and related associations; advocacy organizations and coalitions of interest to research universities; explanations of acronyms and terms commonly used in the university community; web links to government resources and agencies; Executive and Legislative Branch offices; and key federal…

Occurrence and Control of Legionella in Recycled Water Systems

PubMed Central

Jjemba, Patrick K.; Johnson, William; Bukhari, Zia; LeChevallier, Mark W.

2015-01-01

Legionella pneumophila is on the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) Candidate Contaminant list (CCL) as an important pathogen. It is commonly encountered in recycled water and is typically associated with amoeba, notably Naegleria fowleri (also on the CCL) and Acanthamoeba sp. No legionellosis outbreak has been linked to recycled water and it is important for the industry to proactively keep things that way. A review was conducted examine the occurrence of Legionella and its protozoa symbionts in recycled water with the aim of developing a risk management strategy. The review considered the intricate ecological relationships between Legionella and protozoa, methods for detecting both symbionts, and the efficacy of various disinfectants. PMID:26140674

Snuffing tobacco out of sport.

PubMed Central

Connolly, G N; Orleans, C T; Blum, A

1992-01-01

Use of oral snuff has risen sharply among baseball players following a tobacco industry marketing campaign that linked smokeless tobacco with athletic performance and virility. Millions of adolescents have copied these professional role models and, today, are at risk of developing oral cancer and other mouth disorders. New policies and programs are needed to break the powerful grip that the tobacco industry has on professional sport. Health agencies, including the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute for Dental Research, have teamed up with major league baseball to help players quit and reduce public use of oral tobacco. If these efforts are successful, our national pastime will once again become America's classroom for teaching health and fitness, not nicotine addiction. PMID:1536348

Realizing the potential of ecosystem services: a framework for relating ecological changes to economic benefits.

PubMed

Wainger, Lisa; Mazzotta, Marisa

2011-10-01

Increasingly government agencies are seeking to quantify the outcomes of proposed policy options in terms of ecosystem service benefits, yet conflicting definitions and ad hoc approaches to measuring ecosystem services have created confusion regarding how to rigorously link ecological change to changes in human well-being. Here, we describe a step-by-step framework for producing ecological models and metrics that can effectively serve an economic-benefits assessment of a proposed change in policy or management. A focus of the framework is developing comparable units of ecosystem goods and services to support decision-making, even if outcomes cannot be monetized. Because the challenges to translating ecological changes to outcomes appropriate for economic analyses are many, we discuss examples that demonstrate practical methods and approaches to overcoming data limitations. The numerous difficult decisions that government agencies must make to fairly use and allocate natural resources provides ample opportunity for interdisciplinary teams of natural and social scientists to improve methods for quantifying changes in ecosystem services and their effects on human well-being. This framework is offered with the intent of promoting the success of such teams as they support managers in evaluating the equivalency of ecosystem service offsets and trades, establishing restoration and preservation priorities, and more generally, in developing environmental policy that effectively balances multiple perspectives.

The technology management process at the European space agency

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guglielmi, M.; Williams, E.; Groepper, P.; Lascar, S.

2010-03-01

Technology is developed at the European Space Agency (ESA) under several programmes: corporate and domain specific, mandatory and optional, with different time horizons and covering different levels of the TRL scale. To improve the transparency and efficiency of the complete process, it was felt necessary to establish an agreed end to end process for the management of all technology R&D activity that could: Include all ESA programmes and consider the requirements of European users Lead to coordinated multi-year work plan and yearly procurement plans Prepare and enable future European space programmes Be harmonized with national initiatives in Europe Thereby establishing the basis for a product policy to reduce risks to technology users, reduce costs and delays, and enhance industrial competitiveness and non-dependence. In response to the above needs, ESA has developed a technology management process called the ESA End-to-End process (E2E), from establishment of the strategy to the monitoring and evaluation of R&D results. In this paper, the complete process will be described in detail including a discussion on its strengths and limitations, and its links to the wider European Harmonization process. The paper will be concluded with the introduction of the ESA Technology Tree: a basic tool to structure and facilitate communication about technology issues.

EPA Scientific Knowledge Management Assessment and ...

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

A series of activities have been conducted by a core group of EPA scientists from across the Agency. The activities were initiated in 2012 and the focus was to increase the reuse and interoperability of science software at EPA. The need for increased reuse and interoperability is linked to the increased complexity of environmental assessments in the 21st century. This complexity is manifest in the form of problems that require integrated multi-disciplinary solutions. To enable the means to develop these solutions (i.e., science software systems) it is necessary to integrate software developed by disparate groups representing a variety of science domains. Thus, reuse and interoperability becomes imperative. This report briefly describes the chronology of activities conducted by the group of scientists to provide context for the primary purpose of this report, that is, to describe the proceedings and outcomes of the latest activity, a workshop entitled “Workshop on Advancing US EPA integration of environmental and information sciences”. The EPA has been lagging in digital maturity relative to the private sector and even other government agencies. This report helps begin the process of improving the agency’s use of digital technologies, especially in the areas of efficiency and transparency. This report contributes to SHC 1.61.2.

Freedom, choice, and the sense of agency

PubMed Central

Barlas, Zeynep; Obhi, Sukhvinder S.

2013-01-01

The sense of agency is an intriguing aspect of human consciousness and is commonly defined as the sense that one is the author of their own actions and their consequences. In the current study, we varied the number of action alternatives (one, three, seven) that participants could select from and determined the effects on intentional binding which is believed to index the low-level sense of agency. Participants made self-paced button presses while viewing a conventional Libet clock and reported the perceived onset time of either the button presses or consequent auditory tones. We found that the binding effect was strongest when participants had the maximum number of alternatives, intermediate when they had medium level of action choice and lowest when they had no choice. We interpret our results in relation to the potential link between agency and the freedom to choose one’s actions. PMID:24009575

Environmental Public Health Survelliance for Exposure to Respiratory Health Hazards: A Joint NASA/CDC Project to Use Remote Sensing Data for Estimating Airborne Particulate Matter Over the Atlanta, Georgia Metropolitan Area

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Quattrochi, Dale A.; Rickman, Douglas; Mohammad, Al-Hamdan; Crosson, William; Estes, Maurice, Jr.; Limaye, Ashutosh; Qualters, Judith

2008-01-01

Describes the public health surveillance efforts of NASA, in a joint effort with the Center for Disease Control (CDC). NASA/MSFC and the CDC are partners in linking nvironmental and health data to enhance public health surveillance. The use of NASA technology creates value - added geospatial products from existing environmental data sources to facilitate public health linkages. The venture sought to provide remote sensing data for the 5-country Metro-Atlanta area and to integrate this environmental data with public health data into a local network, in an effort to prevent and control environmentally related health effects. Remote sensing data used environmental data (Environmental Protection Agency [EPA] Air Quality System [AQS] ground measurements and MODIS Aerosol Optical Depth [AOD]) to estimate airborne particulate matter over Atlanta, and linked this data with health data related to asthma. The study proved the feasibility of linking environmental data (MODIS particular matter estimates and AQS) with health data (asthma). Algorithms were developed for QC, bias removal, merging MODIS and AQS particulate matter data, as well as for other applications. Additionally, a Business Associate Agreement was negotiated for a health care provider to enable sharing of Protected Health Information.

FEDIX: The on-line database retrieval service of government information for colleges, universities, and other organizations. User`s guide, Version 4.0/Release 2.1

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

Not Available

FEDIX is an on-line information service that links the higher education community and the federal government to facilitate research, education, and services. The system provides accurate, timely federal agency information to colleges, universities, and other research organizations. There are no registration fees or access charges. Participating agencies include DOE, FAA, NASA, ONR, AFOSR, NSF, NSA, DOE, DOEd, HUD, and AID. This guide is intended to help users access and utilize FEDIX.

Our Deming Users' Group.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dinklocker, Christina

1992-01-01

After training in the Total Quality Management concept, a suburban Ohio school district created a Deming Users' Group to link agencies, individuals, and ideas. The group has facilitated ongoing school/business collaboration, networking among individuals from diverse school systems, mentoring and cooperative learning activities, and resource…

40 CFR 1.27 - Offices of the Associate Administrators.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... Agency decision-making processes, assessing the impact of Headquarters actions on Regional operations... Regional Operations. The Office of Regional Operations, under the supervision of an Associate Administrator... communications link between the Administrator/Deputy Administrator and the Regional Administrators. It provides a...

77 FR 60453 - Agency Information Collection Activities: Sponsor's Notice of Change of Address, Form Number I...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-10-03

... submitting comments by email, please make sure to add [Insert OMB Control Number 1615-0076] in the subject.... For additional information please read the Privacy Act notice that is available via the link in the...

78 FR 13369 - Agency Information Collection Activities: E-Verify Program; Revision of a Currently Approved...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-02-27

..., please make sure to add [Insert OMB Control Number 1615-0092] in the subject box. All submissions... additional information please read the Privacy Act notice that is available via the link in the footer of...

40 CFR 87.61 - Turbine fuel specifications.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 21 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false Turbine fuel specifications. 87.61 Section 87.61 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR PROGRAMS (CONTINUED) Definitions. Test Procedures § 87.61 Turbine fuel specifications. Link to an amendment published...

AN ELECTRIFYING NEW SOLUTION TO AN OLD PROBLEM?

EPA Science Inventory

The adverse health effects of particles have been linked to many factors, including particle size. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) first issued National Ambient Air QualityStandards (NAAQS) for particular matter (PM) in 1971, amended the standards in 1987 for part...

BAYESIAN ENTROPY FOR SPATIAL SAMPLING DESIGN OF ENVIRONMENTAL DATA

EPA Science Inventory

Particulate Matter (PM) has been linked to widespread public health effects, including a range of serious respiratory and cardiovascular problems, and to reduced visibility in may parts of the United States, see the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report (2004) and relevant...

Metabolic Panel: MedlinePlus Health Topic

MedlinePlus

... as tests of your cholesterol , protein levels, and liver function . You probably need to fast (not eat any ... What's this? GO National Institutes of Health ... government agencies. MedlinePlus also links to health information from non-government Web sites. See our disclaimer about external ...

A synthesis of the "state-of-the-practice for advancing planning and operations integration opportunities within transportation agencies".

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2014-12-01

Linking Planning and Operations is vital to improving transportation decision-making and overall : efficiency of transportation systems management. This synthesis summarizes current state of : knowledge and practices in Planning and Operations Integr...

40 CFR 52.479 - Source surveillance.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 3 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false Source surveillance. 52.479 Section 52.479 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR PROGRAMS (CONTINUED) APPROVAL AND PROMULGATION OF IMPLEMENTATION PLANS District of Columbia § 52.479 Source surveillance. Link...

WIND TUNNEL EVALUATION OF AN AIRCRAFT-BORNE SAMPLING SYSTEM

EPA Science Inventory

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FLDEP), and Texas A&M University collaborated in the design, construction, and testing of a unique highly cross-linked Teflon coated inlet and manifold gas and aerosol sampling syste...

Rural Passenger Mobility in the 1990s: Emerging Local Solutions.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stommes, Eileen S.

1990-01-01

Describes current changes in rural transportation services. Describes general thrust of innovative efforts to provide rural passenger transportation despite declining resources. Describes public-private transportation cooperation, human-service agency coordination, linking state and local bus services, mixed passenger-package functions, community…

78 FR 11164 - Policy on Contractor Profits

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-02-15

... DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE Defense Acquisition Regulations System Policy on Contractor Profits AGENCY... Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013. Section 804, Department of Defense Policy on Contractor Profits... modifications to such guidelines that are necessary to ensure an appropriate link between contractor profit and...

Out-of-hospital stroke screen accuracy in a state with an emergency medical services protocol for routing patients to acute stroke centers.

PubMed

Asimos, Andrew W; Ward, Shana; Brice, Jane H; Rosamond, Wayne D; Goldstein, Larry B; Studnek, Jonathan

2014-11-01

Emergency medical services (EMS) protocols, which route patients with suspected stroke to stroke centers, rely on the use of accurate stroke screening criteria. Our goal is to conduct a statewide EMS agency evaluation of the accuracies of the Cincinnati Prehospital Stroke Scale (CPSS) and the Los Angeles Prehospital Stroke Screen (LAPSS) for identifying acute stroke patients. We conducted a retrospective study in North Carolina by linking a statewide EMS database to a hospital database, using validated deterministic matching. We compared EMS CPSS or LAPSS results (positive or negative) to the emergency department diagnosis International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision codes. We calculated sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative likelihood ratios for the EMS diagnosis of stroke, using each screening tool. We included 1,217 CPSS patients and 1,225 LAPSS patients evaluated by 117 EMS agencies from 94 North Carolina counties. Most EMS agencies contributing data had high annual patient volumes and were governmental agencies with nonvolunteer, emergency medical technician-paramedic service level providers. The CPSS had a sensitivity of 80% (95% confidence interval [CI] 77% to 83%) versus 74% (95% CI 71% to 77%) for the LAPSS. Each had a specificity of 48% (CPSS 95% CI 44% to 52%; LAPSS 95% CI 43% to 53%). The CPSS and LAPSS had similar test characteristics, with each having only limited specificity. Development of stroke screening scales that optimize both sensitivity and specificity is required if these are to be used to determine transport diversion to acute stroke centers. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Self- and other-agency in people with passivity (first rank) symptoms in schizophrenia.

PubMed

Graham-Schmidt, Kyran T; Martin-Iverson, Mathew T; Waters, Flavie A V

2018-02-01

Individuals with passivity (first-rank) symptoms report that their actions, thoughts and sensations are influenced or controlled by an external (non-self) agent. Passivity symptoms are closely linked to schizophrenia and related disorders yet they remain poorly understood. One dominant framework posits a role for deficits in the sense of agency. An important question is whether deficits in self-agency can be differentiated from other-agency in schizophrenia and passivity symptoms. This study aimed to evaluate self- and other-agency in 51 people with schizophrenia (n=20 current, 10 past, 21 no history of passivity symptoms), and 48 healthy controls. Participants completed the projected hand illusion (PHI) with active and passive movements, as well as immediate and delayed visual feedback. Experiences of agency and loss of agency over the participant's hand and the image ('the other hand') were assessed with a self-report questionnaire. Those with passivity symptoms (current and past) reported less difference in agency between active and passive movements on items assessing agency over their own hand (but not agency over the other hand). Relative to the healthy controls, the current and never groups continued to experience the illusion with delayed visual feedback suggesting impaired timing mechanisms regardless of symptom profile. These findings are consistent with a reduced contribution of proprioceptive predictive cues to agency judgements specific to self representations in people with passivity symptoms, and a subsequent reliance on external visual cues in these judgements. Altogether, these findings emphasise the multifactorial nature of agency and the contribution of multiple impairments to passivity symptoms. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Health technology assessment agencies: an international overview of organizational aspects.

PubMed

Martelli, Francesco; La Torre, Giuseppe; Di Ghionno, Elena; Staniscia, Tommaso; Neroni, Massimo; Cicchetti, Americo; Von Bremen, Konrade; Ricciardi, Walter

2007-01-01

The aim of the study is to make an international comparison of Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Agencies, to show their similarities and differences. An e-mail questionnaire was sent to thirty HTA agencies internationally. Questions related to the structure of the agency, the relationship with health-related institutions, the prescriptiveness of the decisions taken, the main core and the modalities to spread the assessment, and the type of funding. Twenty-four HTA Agencies answered the questionnaire: 25 percent in America, 4.2 percent in Australia, and 70.8 percent in Europe. Fifty-four percent of HTA Agencies are governmental institutions (83.3 percent have central government funding), while 62.5 percent have relationships with health-related governmental institutions. Of the agencies, 87 percent reported that their decisions are not prescriptive, while for 20.8 percent and 8.3 percent of them stated that this was the case totally or partially, respectively, especially for the governmental and American Agencies. Seventeen agencies (70.8 percent) declared their work on multiannual programs (77 percent of the governmental HTA Agencies and 100 percent of the American ones). The assessments mainly addressed diagnostic procedures (85.7 percent) and pharmaceuticals (25 percent). The most common way to disseminate results is by means of paper report (91.7 percent), followed by the Internet (16.7 percent), and seminars to expert audiences (12.5 percent). The comparative analysis of HTA Agencies showed that governmental and American Agencies have a profound impact on the prescriptiveness of their assessment, and this could be linked to the fact that these types of Agencies work on multiannual programs. European and American HTA Agencies have many similarities in terms of type of assessment, funding, and dissemination of results.

Web Based Decision Support Tools for Selection of Condition ...

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Abstract: It has been observed that the majority of older sewer laterals made of concrete or terracotta pipe are deteriorating rapidly. Wastewater agencies, typically responsible for maintaining the portion of the sewer lateral located in the public right-of-way, and property owners, typically responsible for the portion of the lateral located within the private property,face the dilemma of whether to replace or rehabilitate deteriorated laterals at significant expense. Deferment of needed rehabilitation translates to increase in the wastewater agency annual operation and maintenance budget and increased risk to the property owner. Sewer lateral deterioration leads to pipe collapse and costly sewer backup. Increase in transmission and treatment costs due to inflow and infiltration (I/I) into the public sewer system is inevitably borne by the ratepayer. [NOTE: The link below connects to a WERF site where the Final Report can be downloaded for free, after registering at the WERF site. For some projects the Executive Summary is available and can be downloaded for free without registering on the WERF site.] A new web portal has been developed that provides wastewater agencies and property owners with up to date information on sewer lateral inspection techniques, repair and rehabilitation methods, as well as relevant legal and financial issues. The site also offers a discussion forum for sharing knowledge and experiences on this topic. The portal is hosted on

Ebb and Flow in Parent-Child Interactions: Shifts from Early through Middle Childhood

PubMed Central

Bradley, Robert H.; Pennar, Amy; Iida, Masumi

2015-01-01

Objective This study documents the strength of relations between key parent and child behaviors as they occur during typical encounters for both mothers and fathers and determines whether there were shifts in the strength of relations between parent and child behaviors during early and middle childhood. Design Multivariate multi-level modeling was used to examine associations between three parent behaviors (respect for autonomy, stimulation of development, hostility) and two child behaviors (agency, negativity) as they occurred in typical parent-child activities at four time points from 54 months through 5th grade for 817 families. Results For mothers and fathers, respect for autonomy and stimulation were associated with child agency. Paternal hostility was negatively associated with child agency, but for mothers the relation became more positive with age. Parental respect for autonomy and hostility were associated with child negativity for both mothers and fathers; however, for mothers, relations between autonomy support and child negativity became more positive, and relations between hostility and child negativity became less positive. Conclusions There are clear shifts in the strength of relations between some parenting behaviors and child behaviors from early to middle childhood, indicative of a changing dialectic as children become more independent and different dialectics for mothers and fathers. Parenting behavior links to child competence and adaptive behavior, and the findings may help resolve some uncertainties about relations between parental behavior and children's developmental trajectories. PMID:26877717

A PRELIMINARY EVALUATION OF MODELS-3 CMAQ USING VISIBILITY PARAMETERS

EPA Science Inventory

Ambient air concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM 2.5) continue to be a major concern for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. High concentrations of fine particles have been linked to detrimental health effects (including an increase in mortality) and visibility ...

40 CFR 87.62 - Test procedure (propulsion engines).

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 21 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false Test procedure (propulsion engines). 87.62 Section 87.62 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR PROGRAMS (CONTINUED) Definitions. Test Procedures § 87.62 Test procedure (propulsion engines). Link to an...

78 FR 2415 - Agency Information Collection Activities: Application for Family Unity Benefits, Form Number I...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-01-11

... comments by email, please make sure to add [Insert OMB Control Number 1615-0005] in the subject box. All... additional information please read the Privacy Act notice that is available via the link in the footer of...

76 FR 28233 - Agency Forms Undergoing Paperwork Reduction Act Review

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-05-16

... basis for research, design, and evaluation of interventions for schools seeking to prevent or reduce the.... Proposed Project Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design: Linking Observed School Environments with... priorities included in the Center's published research agenda focus on studying how physical environments...

Land and Sea: Linking Ecosystem Services with Local Concerns in Guanica Bay Watershed, Puerto Rico

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

The United States Coral Reef Task Force—comprised of leaders from EPA and 11 other federal agencies along with select States, Territories, and Commonwealths—was established in 1998 to stem loses and preserve and protect coral reef ecosystems.

These Doors Are Open!

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Achinstein, Betty; Athanases, Steven Z.; Curry, Marnie W.; Ogawa, Rodney T.; de Oliveira, Luciana C.

2013-01-01

Lower-income students of color in California are often underserved, as evidenced by low-resourced schools, an achievement gap, and low college-going rates. Educators increasingly call for "community schools" that link schools with community members and agencies to promote educational achievement and to access communities as resources for…

Air Quality and Heart Health: Managing an Emerging Cardiovascular Risk Factor

EPA Science Inventory

Dr. Cascio will share with a broad range of federal agencies current understanding of the links between air quality and cardiovascular health. The key facts include that air pollution contributes a high attributable health burden. That certain well-defined vulnerable subpopulat...

75 FR 65356 - Proposed Agency Information Collection Act

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-10-22

..., Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention (NCHHSTP), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC... Health Service for the prevention and control of HIV infection, viral hepatitis, sexually transmitted... information on HIV/ AIDS, viral hepatitis, STDs, and TB, supporting NCHHSTP's mission to link Americans to...

40 CFR 85.1902 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR PROGRAMS (CONTINUED) CONTROL OF AIR POLLUTION FROM MOBILE SOURCES Emission Defect Reporting Requirements § 85.1902 Definitions. Link to an...: (a) Act shall mean the Clean Air Act, 42 U.S.C. 1857, as amended. (b) The phrase emission-related...

A research on polyether glycol replaced APCP rocket propellant

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lou, Tianyou; Bao, Chun Jia; Wang, Yiyang

2017-08-01

Ammonium perchlorate composite propellant (APCP) is a modern solid rocket propellant used in rocket vehicles. It differs from many traditional solid rocket propellants by the nature of how it is processed. APCP is cast into shape, as opposed to powder pressing it with black powder. This provides manufacturing regularity and repeatability, which are necessary requirements for use in the aerospace industry. For traditional APCP, ingredients normally used are ammonium peroxide, aluminum, Hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene(HTPB), curing agency and other additives, the greatest disadvantage is that the fuel is too expensive. According to the price we collected in our country, a single kilogram of this fuel will cost 200 Yuan, which is about 35 dollars, for a fan who may use tons of the fuel in a single year, it definitely is a great deal of money. For this reason, we invented a new kind of APCP fuel. Changing adhesive agency from cross-linked htpb to cross linked polyether glycol gives a similar specific thrust, density and mechanical property while costs a lower price.

Description of a method to support public health information management: organizational network analysis

PubMed Central

Merrill, Jacqueline; Bakken, Suzanne; Rockoff, Maxine; Gebbie, Kristine; Carley, Kathleen

2007-01-01

In this case study we describe a method that has potential to provide systematic support for public health information management. Public health agencies depend on specialized information that travels throughout an organization via communication networks among employees. Interactions that occur within these networks are poorly understood and are generally unmanaged. We applied organizational network analysis, a method for studying communication networks, to assess the method’s utility to support decision making for public health managers, and to determine what links existed between information use and agency processes. Data on communication links among a health department’s staff was obtained via survey with a 93% response rate, and analyzed using Organizational Risk Analyzer (ORA) software. The findings described the structure of information flow in the department’s communication networks. The analysis succeeded in providing insights into organizational processes which informed public health managers’ strategies to address problems and to take advantage of network strengths. PMID:17098480

Big two personality and big three mate preferences: similarity attracts, but country-level mate preferences crucially matter.

PubMed

Gebauer, Jochen E; Leary, Mark R; Neberich, Wiebke

2012-12-01

People differ regarding their "Big Three" mate preferences of attractiveness, status, and interpersonal warmth. We explain these differences by linking them to the "Big Two" personality dimensions of agency/competence and communion/warmth. The similarity-attracts hypothesis predicts that people high in agency prefer attractiveness and status in mates, whereas those high in communion prefer warmth. However, these effects may be moderated by agentics' tendency to contrast from ambient culture, and communals' tendency to assimilate to ambient culture. Attending to such agentic-cultural-contrast and communal-cultural-assimilation crucially qualifies the similarity-attracts hypothesis. Data from 187,957 online-daters across 11 countries supported this model for each of the Big Three. For example, agentics-more so than communals-preferred attractiveness, but this similarity-attracts effect virtually vanished in attractiveness-valuing countries. This research may reconcile inconsistencies in the literature while utilizing nonhypothetical and consequential mate preference reports that, for the first time, were directly linked to mate choice.

Anticipated uncertainty budgets of PRARETIME and T2L2 techniques as applied to ExTRAS

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Thomas, Claudine; Wolf, Peter; Uhrich, Pierre J. M.; Schaefer, W.; Nau, H.; Veillet, Christian

1995-01-01

The Experiment on Timing Ranging and Atmospheric Soundings, ExTRAS, was conceived jointly by the European Space Agency, ESA, and the Russian Space Agency, RSA. It is also designated the 'Hydrogen-maser in Space/Meteor-3M project'. The launch of the satellite is scheduled for early 1997. The package, to be flown on board a Russian meteorological satellite includes ultra-stable frequency and time sources, namely two active and auto-tuned hydrogen masers. Communication between the on-board hydrogen masers and the ground station clocks is effected by means of a microwave link using the modified version for time transfer of the Precise Range And Range-rate Equipment, PRARETIME, technique, and an optical link which uses the Time Transfer by Laser Link, T2L2, method. Both the PRARETIME and T2L2 techniques operate in a two-directional mode, which makes it possible to carry out accurate transmissions without precise knowledge of the satellite and station positions. Due to the exceptional quality of the on-board clocks and to the high performance of the communication techniques with the satellite, satellite clock monitoring and ground clocks synchronization are anticipated to be performed with uncertainties below 0.5 ns (1 sigma). Uncertainty budgets and related comments are presented.

Using NASA Remotely Sensed Data to Help Characterize Environmental Risk Factors for National Public Health Applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Al-Hamdan, Mohammad; Crosson, William; Economou, Sigrid; Estes, Maurice, Jr.; Estes, Sue; Hemmings, Sarah; Kent, Shia; Quattrochi, Dale; Wade, Gina; McClure, Leslie

2011-01-01

NASA Marshall Space Flight Center is collaborating with the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) School of Public Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Center for Public Health Informatics to address issues of environmental health and enhance public health decision making by utilizing NASA remotely sensed data and products. The objectives of this study are to develop high-quality spatial data sets of environmental variables, link these with public health data from a national cohort study, and deliver the linked data sets and associated analyses to local, state and federal end-user groups. Three daily environmental data sets will be developed for the conterminous U.S. on different spatial resolutions for the period 2003-2008: (1) spatial surfaces of estimated fine particulate matter (PM2.5) exposures on a 10-km grid utilizing the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ground observations and NASA's MODerate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data; (2) a 1-km grid of Land Surface Temperature (LST) using MODIS data; and (3) a 12-km grid of daily Solar Insolation (SI) using the North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS) forcing data. These environmental data sets will be linked with public health data from the UAB REasons for Geographic And Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) national cohort study to determine whether exposures to these environmental risk factors are related to cognitive decline and other health outcomes. These environmental datasets and public health linkage analyses will be disseminated to end-users for decision making through the CDC Wide-ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research (WONDER) system.

Challenges in linking health research to policy: a commentary on developing a multi-stakeholder response to orphans and vulnerable children in Ghana.

PubMed

Gyapong, John Owusu; Selby, Richmond Ato; Anakwah, Kwadwo Antwi

2011-06-16

The Research and Development Division (RDD) of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) has a remit to build research capacity and conduct policy relevant research. By being situated within the GHS, RDD has good access to directors and programme managers, within and beyond the Ministry of Health. This structure has been facilitating collaboration through research cycles for 20 years, from agenda setting to discussions on policy relevance.This approach has been applied to research activities within the Addressing the Balance of Burden in AIDS (ABBA) Research Programme Consortium to tackle the challenges facing HIV affected orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs). The government strategy on OVCs recommends they should be encouraged to live in their home communities rather than in institutions. We present lessons here on efforts to use research to build a response across different agencies to address the problems that communities and families face in caring for these children in their communities.This approach to building consensus on research priorities points to the value of collaboration and dialogue with multiple stakeholders as a means of fostering ownership of a research process and supporting the relevance of research to different groups. Our experience has shown that if the context within which researchers, policy makers and stakeholders work were better understood, the links between them were improved and research were communicated more effectively, then better policy making which links across different sectors may follow. At the same time, collaboration among these different stakeholders to ensure that research meets social needs, must also satisfy the requirements of scientific rigour.

Laser Ground System for Communication Experiments with ARTEMIS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kuzkov, Volodymyr; Volovyk, Dmytro; Kuzkov, Sergii; Sodnik, Zoran; Pukha, Sergii; Caramia, Vincenzo

2012-10-01

The ARTEMIS satellite with the OPALE laser communication terminal on-board was launched on 12 July, 2001. 1789 laser communications sessions were performed between ARTEMIS and SPOT-4 (PASTEL) from 01 April 2003 to 09 January 2008 with total duration of 378 hours. Regular laser communication experiments between ESA's Optical Ground Station (OGS - altitude 2400 m above see level) and ARTEMIS in various atmosphere conditions were also performed. The Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) launched the KIRARI (OICETS) satellite with laser communication terminal called LUCE. Laser communication links between KIRARI and ARTEMIS were successfully realized and international laser communications experiments from the KIRARI satellite were also successfully performed with optical ground stations located in the USA (JPL), Spain (ESA OGS), Germany (DLR), and Japan (NICT). The German Space Agency (DLR) performed laser communication links between two LEO satellites (TerraSAR-X and NFIRE), demonstrating data transfer rates of 5.6Gbit/s and performed laser communication experiments between the satellites and the ESA optical ground station. To reduce the influence of weather conditions on laser communication between satellites and ground stations, a network of optical stations situated in different atmosphere regions needs to be created. In 2002, the Main Astronomical Observatory (MAO) started the development of its own laser communication system to be placed into the Cassegrain focus of its 0.7m AZT-2 telescope (Fe = 10.5m), located in Kyiv 190 meters above sea level. The work was supported by the National Space Agency of Ukraine and by ESA ARTEMIS has an orbital position of 21.4° E and an orbital inclination of more than 9.75°. As a result we developed a precise tracking system for AZT-2 telescope (weighing more than 2 tons) using micro-step motors. Software was developed for computer control of the telescope to track the satellite's orbit and a tracking accuracy of 0.6 arcsec was achieved. A compact terminal for Laser Atmosphere and Communication Experiments with Satellite (LACES) has been produced. The LACES terminal includes: A CMOS camera of the pointing subsystem, a CCD camera of the tracking subsystem, an avalanche photodiode receiver module with thermoelectric cooling, a laser transmitter module with thermoelectric temperature control, a tip/tilt atmospheric turbulence compensation subsystem with movable mirrors, a four-quadrant photo-detector, a bit error rate tester module and other optical and electronic components. The principal subsystems and optical elements are mounted on a platform (weight < 20kg), which is located in the Cassegrain focus of the telescope. All systems were tested with ARTEMIS. The telemetry and dump buffer information from OPALE received by the control center in Redu (Belgium) was analyzed. During the beacon scan, the acquisition phase of laser link between OPALE laser terminal of ARTEMIS and LACES laser terminal started and laser signals from AZT-2 were detected by acquisition and tracking CCD sensors of OPALE. Some of the tests were performed in cloudy conditions. A description of our laser ground system and the experimental results will be presented in the report.

Geographic variation in public health spending: correlates and consequences.

PubMed

Mays, Glen P; Smith, Sharla A

2009-10-01

To examine the extent of variation in public health agency spending levels across communities and over time, and to identify institutional and community correlates of this variation. Three cross-sectional surveys of the nation's 2,900 local public health agencies conducted by the National Association of County and City Health Officials in 1993, 1997, and 2005, linked with contemporaneous information on population demographics, socioeconomic characteristics, and health resources. A longitudinal cohort design was used to analyze community-level variation and change in per-capita public health agency spending between 1993 and 2005. Multivariate regression models for panel data were used to estimate associations between spending, institutional characteristics, health resources, and population characteristics. The top 20 percent of communities had public health agency spending levels >13 times higher than communities in the lowest quintile, and most of this variation persisted after adjusting for differences in demographics and service mix. Local boards of health and decentralized state-local administrative structures were associated with higher spending levels and lower risks of spending reductions. Local public health agency spending was inversely associated with local-area medical spending. The mechanisms that determine funding flows to local agencies may place some communities at a disadvantage in securing resources for public health activities.

Advanced communications technology satellite high burst rate link evaluation terminal experiment control and monitor software user's guide, version 1.0

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Reinhart, Richard C.

1992-01-01

The Experiment Control and Monitor (EC&M) software was developed at NASA Lewis Research Center to support the Advanced Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS) High Burst Rate Link Evaluation Terminal (HBR-LET). The HBR-LET is an experimenter's terminal to communicate with the ACTS for various investigations by government agencies, universities, and industry. The EC&M software is one segment of the Control and Performance Monitoring (C&PM) software system of the HBR-LET. The EC&M software allows users to initialize, control, and monitor the instrumentation within the HBR-LET using a predefined sequence of commands. Besides instrument control, the C&PM software system is also responsible for computer communication between the HBR-LET and the ACTS NASA Ground Station and for uplink power control of the HBR-LET to demonstrate power augmentation during rain fade events. The EC&M Software User's Guide, Version 1.0 (NASA-CR-189160) outlines the commands required to install and operate the EC&M software. Input and output file descriptions, operator commands, and error recovery procedures are discussed in the document.

Sense of agency and mentalizing: dissociation of subdomains of social cognition in patients with schizophrenia.

PubMed

Schimansky, Jenny; David, Nicole; Rössler, Wulf; Haker, Helene

2010-06-30

The sense of agency, i.e., the sense that "I am the one who is causing an action", and mentalizing, the ability to understand the mental states of other individuals, are key domains of social cognition. It has been hypothesized that an intact sense of agency is an important precondition for higher-level mentalizing abilities. A substantial body of evidence shows that both processes rely on similar brain areas and are severely impaired in schizophrenia, suggesting a close link between agency and mentalizing. Yet this relationship has not been explicitly tested. We investigated 40 individuals with schizophrenia and 40 healthy controls on an agency and mentalizing task. On the agency task, participants carried out simple mouse movements and judged the partially manipulated visual feedback as either self- or other-generated. On the mentalizing task, participants inferred mental states from pictures that depicted others' eyes ("Reading the mind in the eyes test"). Neuropsychological, psychopathological and social functioning levels were also evaluated. Both sense of agency and mentalizing were impaired in schizophrenia patients compared to healthy controls. However, testing for a relationship revealed no significant correlations between the two processes, either in the schizophrenia or the control group. The present findings demonstrate a dissociation of agency and mentalizing deficits in schizophrenia, suggesting that the multifaceted construct of social cognition consists of independent subdomains in healthy and psychiatrically ill individuals.

Linking Geophysical Networks to International Economic Development Through Integration of Global and National Monitoring

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lerner-Lam, A.

2007-05-01

Outside of the research community and mission agencies, global geophysical monitoring rarely receives sustained attention except in the aftermath of a humanitarian disaster. The recovery and rebuilding period focuses attention and resources for a short time on regional needs for geophysical observation, often at the national or sub-national level. This can result in the rapid deployment of national monitoring networks, but may overlook the longer-term benefits of integration with global networks. Even in the case of multinational disasters, such as the Indian Ocean tsunami, it has proved difficult to promote the integration of national solutions with global monitoring, research and operations infrastructure. More importantly, continuing operations at the national or sub-national scale are difficult to sustain once the resources associated with recovery and rebuilding are depleted. Except for some notable examples, the vast infrastructure associated with global geophysical monitoring is not utilized constructively to promote the integration of national networks with international efforts. This represents a missed opportunity not only for monitoring, but for developing the international research and educational collaborations necessary for technological transfer and capacity building. The recent confluence of highly visible disasters, global multi-hazard risk assessments, evaluations of the relationships between natural disasters and socio-economic development, and shifts in development agency policies, provides an opportunity to link global geophysical monitoring initiatives to central issues in international development. Natural hazard risk reduction has not been the first priority of international development agendas for understandable, mainly humanitarian reasons. However, it is now recognized that the so-called risk premium associated with making development projects more risk conscious or risk resilient is relatively small relative to potential losses. Thus there is an attitudinal shift emerging whereby disaster risk management can be "mainstreamed" into the sustainable development programs in many countries. Consequently, it is incumbent to demonstrate that multi-scale geophysical monitoring, comprising integration of global networks with national and sub-national operations, is a foundational component of sustainable development infrastructure. This suggests even greater emphasis on developing dynamic and adaptive multi- hazard risk assessments, encompassing valid estimates of social and physical vulnerabilities; designing multi- scale network integration strategies that consider risk as well as hazard; providing operational and flexible templates for developing national networks in a global context; emphasizing the backbone characteristics of global geophysical monitoring to nations seeking to develop their own monitoring capacity; promoting sustained international research, education and training collaborations coinciding with the development of monitoring capacity; and continuing to promote the free and open exchange of data as a necessary component of sustained intellectual interest in monitoring. A combination of these strategies may counteract the decay of interest in regional geophysical monitoring after a disaster.

40 CFR 52.975 - Redesignations and maintenance plans; ozone.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

...; ozone. 52.975 Section 52.975 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR... and maintenance plans; ozone. Link to an amendment published at 78 FR 27062, May 9, 2013. (a) Approval..., however. The LDEQ addressed these approvability issues in supplemental ozone redesignation requests and...

Working Partnerships: A Joint Venture in Vocational Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Campbell, Clifton P.

Joint Ventures in Vocational Education projects link participating businesses with secondary vocational programs in a cooperative relationship. These are voluntary arrangements between vocational programs and a public or private sector agency that combine the energies and resources of the partners to enrich various aspects of the vocational…

ACHP | Heritage Tourism

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40 CFR 52.432 - Significant deterioration of air quality.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... quality. 52.432 Section 52.432 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR... deterioration of air quality. Link to an amendment published at 78 FR 33984, June 6, 2013. (a) The requirements... approvable procedures for preventing the significant deterioration of air quality. (b) Regulation for...

Readers in Search of Authors: The Changing Face of the Middleman.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Potter, William

1986-01-01

Discusses new information technologies which offer libraries increased opportunities to provide innovative services: linking automated technical processing systems with public systems to provide more timely information; using the expanding services of subscription agencies as a channel for electronic publications delivery; online catalogs; and…

Defense Threat Reduction Agency > Research > DTRIAC > Links

Science.gov Websites

FOIA Electronic Reading Room Privacy Impact Assessment DTRA No Fear Act Reporting Nuclear Test Personnel Review NTPR Fact Sheets NTPR Radiation Dose Assessment Documents US Atmospheric Nuclear Test History Documents US Underground Nuclear Test History Reports NTPR Radiation Exposure Reports Enewetak

76 FR 4910 - Agency Forms Undergoing Paperwork Reduction Act Review

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-01-27

..., Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention (NCHHSTP), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC... Health Service for the prevention and control of HIV infection, viral hepatitis, sexually transmitted... information on HIV/ AIDS, viral hepatitis, STDs, and TB, supporting NCHHSTP's mission to link Americans to...

Innovation and the burden of disease: retrospective observational study of new and emerging health technologies reported by the EuroScan Network from 2000 to 2009.

PubMed

Martino, Orsolina I; Ward, Derek J; Packer, Claire; Simpson, Sue; Stevens, Andrew

2012-01-01

Medical innovation in developed countries has been linked to burden of disease, with more innovation in areas representing greater investment return. This study used horizon scanning or early awareness and alert activity as a novel measure of innovation to determine whether new and emerging health technologies reported by international horizon scanning agencies reflected diseases constituting the greatest burden. This was a retrospective observational study of the 20 member agencies of EuroScan (the International Information Network on New and Emerging Health Technologies), representing 17 developed countries. Burden of disease was defined as disability-adjusted life-years, taken from the 2004 World Health Organization Global Burden of Disease estimates. This analysis focused on 102 specific diseases within 21 broader groups. Horizon scanning output was measured as the number of technologies reported by EuroScan member agencies between 2000 and 2009. At best there was a weak association between innovation and burden of disease. An apparent high-level association was dependent on just three high-prevalence disease groups: malignant neoplasms, neuropsychiatric conditions, and cardiovascular disease. Disaggregating broader groups into specific diseases further weakened the association. Innovation is disproportionately strong in cancer and nonischemic heart disease and disproportionately weak in mental health. Innovations reported by early awareness and alert systems do not always reflect conditions accounting for the highest morbidity and mortality. The results do not support previous reports of a positive relationship between burden of disease and innovation, but accord with evidence of notable discrepancies among key groups. Factors other than disease burden drive innovation. Copyright © 2012 International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Digital Mapping and Environmental Characterization of National Wild and Scenic River Systems

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

McManamay, Ryan A; Bosnall, Peter; Hetrick, Shelaine L

2013-09-01

Spatially accurate geospatial information is required to support decision-making regarding sustainable future hydropower development. Under a memorandum of understanding among several federal agencies, a pilot study was conducted to map a subset of National Wild and Scenic Rivers (WSRs) at a higher resolution and provide a consistent methodology for mapping WSRs across the United States and across agency jurisdictions. A subset of rivers (segments falling under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service) were mapped at a high resolution using the National Hydrography Dataset (NHD). The spatial extent and representation of river segments mapped at NHD scale were compared withmore » the prevailing geospatial coverage mapped at a coarser scale. Accurately digitized river segments were linked to environmental attribution datasets housed within the Oak Ridge National Laboratory s National Hydropower Asset Assessment Program database to characterize the environmental context of WSR segments. The results suggest that both the spatial scale of hydrography datasets and the adherence to written policy descriptions are critical to accurately mapping WSRs. The environmental characterization provided information to deduce generalized trends in either the uniqueness or the commonness of environmental variables associated with WSRs. Although WSRs occur in a wide range of human-modified landscapes, environmental data layers suggest that they provide habitats important to terrestrial and aquatic organisms and recreation important to humans. Ultimately, the research findings herein suggest that there is a need for accurate, consistent, mapping of the National WSRs across the agencies responsible for administering each river. Geospatial applications examining potential landscape and energy development require accurate sources of information, such as data layers that portray realistic spatial representations.« less

Considerations regarding the deployment of hypermedia at JSC

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kacmar, Charles J.

1993-01-01

Electronic documents and systems are becoming the primary means of managing information for ground and space operations at NASA. These documents will utilize hypertext and hypermedia technologies to aid users in structuring and accessing information. Documents will be composed of static and dynamic data consisting of user-defined annotations and hypermedia links. The report consists of three major sections. First, it provides an overview of hypermedia and surveys the use of hypermedia throughout JSC. Second, it briefly describes a prototypical hypermedia system that was developed in conjunction with this work. This system was constructed to demonstrate various hypermedia features and to serve as a platform for supporting the electronic documentation needs for the MIDAS system developed by the Intelligent Systems Branch of the Automation and Robotics Division (Pac92). Third, it discusses emerging hypermedia technologies which have either been untapped by vendors or present significant challenges to the Agency.

Investigating the respiratory health of deployed military personnel.

PubMed

Morris, Michael J; Zacher, Lisa L; Jackson, David A

2011-10-01

Recent news media articles have implied a direct relationship between environmental exposures such as burn pits during current deployments and the development of serious and debilitating chronic pulmonary disease. These articles suggest that the military is superficially investigating evidence that establishes a link between deployment and development of chronic lung disease. Anecdotal cases of military personnel with lung disease are detailed to suggest a systemic problem with undiagnosed and untreated pulmonary disease in deployed service members. Despite these contentions, the U.S. Army Medical Department and other agencies have been actively pursuing numerous scientific investigations into deployment-related lung disease to define the severity and prevalence of the issue. This article will review relevant research efforts by the U.S. military in the existing medical literature and address the current efforts planned by the services to systematically investigate the possibility of deployment-related pulmonary disease.

A comparative study of SAR data compression schemes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lambert-Nebout, C.; Besson, O.; Massonnet, D.; Rogron, B.

1994-01-01

The amount of data collected from spaceborne remote sensing has substantially increased in the last years. During same time period, the ability to store or transmit data has not increased as quickly. At this time, there is a growing interest in developing compression schemes that could provide both higher compression ratios and lower encoding/decoding errors. In the case of the spaceborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) earth observation system developed by the French Space Agency (CNES), the volume of data to be processed will exceed both the on-board storage capacities and the telecommunication link. The objective of this paper is twofold: to present various compression schemes adapted to SAR data; and to define a set of evaluation criteria and compare the algorithms on SAR data. In this paper, we review two classical methods of SAR data compression and propose novel approaches based on Fourier Transforms and spectrum coding.

76 FR 33245 - National Advisory Council on Minority Business Enterprises; Meeting

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-06-08

... DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE Minority Business Development Agency National Advisory Council on Minority Business Enterprises; Meeting AGENCY: Minority Business Development Agency, U.S. Department of Commerce... Development Agency, U.S. Department of Commerce at (202) 482-1624; e-mail: mbda.gov ">[email protected] mbda.gov...

The CCSDS return all frames Space Link Extension service

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Uhrig, Hans; Pietras, John; Stoloff, Michael

1994-01-01

Existing Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) Recommendations for Telemetry Channel Coding, Packet Telemetry, Advanced Orbiting Systems, and Telecommand have facilitated cross-support between Agencies by standardizing the link between spacecraft and ground terminal. CCSDS is currently defining a set of Space Link Extension (SLE) services that will enable remote science and mission operations facilities to access the ground termination of the Space Link services in a standard manner. The first SLE service to be defined is the Return All Frames (RAF) service. The RAF service delivers all CCSDS link-layer frames received on a single space link physical channel. The service provides both on-line and off-line data transfer modes to accommodate the variety of access methods typical of space mission operations. This paper describes the RAF service as of the Summer of 1994. It characterizes the behavior of the service as seen across the interface between the user and the service and gives an overview of the interactions involved in setting up and operating the service in a cross-support environment.

"Risk, respect, responsibility": educational strategies to promote safe medicine use.

PubMed

Rucker, N Lee

2003-12-01

Nearly four billion outpatient prescriptions will be dispensed in the United States by 2005. Many people using these medicines will be targeted for educational programs promoting their safe, appropriate use. Such programs have been, or soon will be, developed by virtually all major health care system stakeholders, including: government agencies, the pharmaceutical industry, non-profit organizations and coalitions. After examining changes in 1) health professionals' communication of patient medicine information, and 2) consumers' roles and attitudes, an overview of recent U.S. and international consumer education programs is presented. Despite the proliferation of these programs, most share a weak link in evaluating success and in affecting behavior change. Finally, suggestions for future initiatives are offered, particularly regarding improving evaluation methods.

New and improved proteomics technologies for understanding complex biological systems: Addressing a grand challenge in the life sciences

PubMed Central

Hood, Leroy E.; Omenn, Gilbert S.; Moritz, Robert L.; Aebersold, Ruedi; Yamamoto, Keith R.; Amos, Michael; Hunter-Cevera, Jennie; Locascio, Laurie

2014-01-01

This White Paper sets out a Life Sciences Grand Challenge for Proteomics Technologies to enhance our understanding of complex biological systems, link genomes with phenotypes, and bring broad benefits to the biosciences and the US economy. The paper is based on a workshop hosted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg, MD, 14–15 February 2011, with participants from many federal R&D agencies and research communities, under the aegis of the US National Science and Technology Council (NSTC). Opportunities are identified for a coordinated R&D effort to achieve major technology-based goals and address societal challenges in health, agriculture, nutrition, energy, environment, national security, and economic development. PMID:22807061

ISS As A National Lab

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-07-17

In an effort to expand the research opportunities of this unparalleled platform, the International Space Station was designated as a U.S. National Laboratory in 2005 by Congress, enabling space research and development access to a broad range of commercial, academic, and government users. Now, this unique microgravity research platform is available to U.S. researchers from small companies, research institutions, Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, and others, all interested in leveraging microgravity to solve complex problems on Earth. Get more research news and updates on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ISS_Research HD download link: https://archive.org/details/jsc2017m000681_ISS As A National Lab _______________________________________ FOLLOW THE SPACE STATION! Twitter: https://twitter.com/Space_Station Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ISS Instagram: https://instagram.com/iss/

Completing the circle: providing comprehensive care to children with special healthcare needs.

PubMed

Kondrad, Monica

2009-01-01

Providing a medical home for children with special healthcare needs presents challenges such as allowing time during the office visit to address the child's and parent's concerns, the provision of comprehensive medical care, and identifying resources to support these children in the community. The care coordinator serves as a link between the child/family, physician, school, and community resource to promote communication and prevent duplication of services to ensure optimal outcomes for these children. A plan of care or medical summary is developed by the care coordinator with input from the parent/child, pediatrician, specialists, and allied healthcare personnel to use as a communication tool with staff/physicians in the emergency room, new specialists, schools, and community agencies to promote access to services.

48 CFR 719.273 - The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Mentor-Protégé Program.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... International Development (USAID) Mentor-Protégé Program. 719.273 Section 719.273 Federal Acquisition Regulations System AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT SOCIOECONOMIC PROGRAMS SMALL BUSINESS PROGRAMS The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Mentor-Protégé Program 719.273 The U.S. Agency for...

NASA's Student Launch Projects: A Government Education Program for Science and Engineering

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shepherd, Christena C.

2009-01-01

Among the many NASA education activities, the Student Launch projects are examples of how one agency has been working with students to inspire math, science and engineering interest. There are two Student Launch projects: Student Launch Initiative (SLI) for middle and high school students and the University Student Launch Initiative (USLI) for college students. The programs are described and website links are provided for further information. This document presents an example of how an agency can work with its unique resources in partnership with schools and communities to bring excitement to the classroom.

Finalizing the CCSDS Space-Data Link Layer Security Protocol: Setup and Execution of the Interoperability Testing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fischer, Daniel; Aguilar-Sanchez, Ignacio; Saba, Bruno; Moury, Gilles; Biggerstaff, Craig; Bailey, Brandon; Weiss, Howard; Pilgram, Martin; Richter, Dorothea

2015-01-01

The protection of data transmitted over the space-link is an issue of growing importance also for civilian space missions. Through the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS), space agencies have reacted to this need by specifying the Space Data-Link Layer Security (SDLS) protocol which provides confidentiality and integrity services for the CCSDS Telemetry (TM), Telecommand (TC) and Advanced Orbiting Services (AOS) space data-link protocols. This paper describes the approach of the CCSDS SDLS working group to specify and execute the necessary interoperability tests. It first details the individual SDLS implementations that have been produced by ESA, NASA, and CNES and then the overall architecture that allows the interoperability tests between them. The paper reports on the results of the interoperability tests and identifies relevant aspects for the evolution of the test environment.

Sequential development of hepatocellular carcinoma and liver angiosarcoma in a vinyl chloride-exposed worker.

PubMed

Guido, Maria; Sarcognato, Samantha; Pelletti, Guido; Fassan, Matteo; Murer, Bruno; Snenghi, Rossella

2016-11-01

Strong experimental and clinical evidences have definitely linked occupational vinyl chloride exposure to development of angiosarcoma of the liver. In contrast, despite the International Agency for Research on Cancer having included vinyl chloride among the causes of hepatocellular carcinoma, the association between vinyl chloride exposure and hepatocellular carcinoma remains debated. This issue is relevant, because occupational exposure to high levels of vinyl chloride may still occur. We report a unique case of sequential occurrences of hepatocellular carcinoma and angiosarcoma of the liver, in a vinyl chloride-exposed worker without cirrhosis and any known risk factor for chronic liver disease. Both the hepatocellular carcinoma and the surrounding normal liver showed micronucleus formation, which reflects genotoxic effect of vinyl chloride. Angiosarcoma showed a KRAS G12D point mutation, which is considered to be characteristic of vinyl chloride-induced angiosarcoma. This case supports the pathogenic role of vinyl chloride in both hepatocellular carcinoma and angiosarcoma development. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Optimal Wastewater Loading under Conflicting Goals and Technology Limitations in a Riverine System.

PubMed

Rafiee, Mojtaba; Lyon, Steve W; Zahraie, Banafsheh; Destouni, Georgia; Jaafarzadeh, Nemat

2017-03-01

  This paper investigates a novel simulation-optimization (S-O) framework for identifying optimal treatment levels and treatment processes for multiple wastewater dischargers to rivers. A commonly used water quality simulation model, Qual2K, was linked to a Genetic Algorithm optimization model for exploration of relevant fuzzy objective-function formulations for addressing imprecision and conflicting goals of pollution control agencies and various dischargers. Results showed a dynamic flow dependence of optimal wastewater loading with good convergence to near global optimum. Explicit considerations of real-world technological limitations, which were developed here in a new S-O framework, led to better compromise solutions between conflicting goals than those identified within traditional S-O frameworks. The newly developed framework, in addition to being more technologically realistic, is also less complicated and converges on solutions more rapidly than traditional frameworks. This technique marks a significant step forward for development of holistic, riverscape-based approaches that balance the conflicting needs of the stakeholders.

Building organizational supports for research-minded practitioners.

PubMed

Austin, Michael J; Dal Santo, Teresa S; Lee, Chris

2012-01-01

One of the biggest challenges facing human service organizations is the proliferation of information from inside and outside the agency that needs to be managed if it is to be of use. The concepts of tacit and explicit knowledge can inform an approach to this challenge. Tacit knowledge is stored in the minds of practitioners (often called practice wisdom) and the explicit knowledge is often found in organizational procedure manuals and educational and training materials. Building on this perspective, this analysis provides a preliminary definition of research-minded practitioners by explicating the elements of curiosity, critical reflection, and critical thinking. The organizational implications of developing a cadre of research-minded practitioners include the commitment of top management to support "link officers", evidence request services, research and development units, and service standards. The challenges include the capacity to identify/support research-minded practitioners, promote an organizational culture of evidence-informed practice, redefine staff development and training, redefine job descriptions, and specify the nature of managerial leadership. Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

Gender issues in reproductive health: a review.

PubMed

Adinma, Echendu D; Adinma, Brian-D J I

2011-01-01

Gender, for its impact on virtually every contemporary life issue, can rightly be regarded as a foremost component of reproductive health. Reproductive health basically emphasises on people and their rights to sexuality, reproduction, and family planning, and the information to actualize these right, which has been inextricably linked to development at the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) held in Cairo, Egypt, in 1994. Women's sexual and reproductive rights became recognised as universal human right, violations of which occur in some reproductive health areas including gender concerns. Gender inequality and inequity encompass gender based violence as well as gender discrimination which cuts across the life cycle of the woman; attitudes, religious and cultural practices of various nations; and issues related to employment, economy, politics, and development. The redress of gender inequality is a collective responsibility of nations and supranational agencies. Nations should adopt a framework hinged on three pedestals--legal, institutional and policy, employing the three recommended approaches of equal treatment, positive action, and gender mainstreaming.

Registering medicines for low-income countries: how suitable are the stringent review procedures of the World Health Organisation, the US Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency?

PubMed

Doua, Joachim Y; Van Geertruyden, Jean-Pierre

2014-01-01

New medicines are registered after a resource-demanding process. Unfortunately, in low-income countries (LICs), demand outweighs resources. To facilitate registration in LICs, stringent review procedures of the European Medicines Agency (EMA Article-58), Food and Drug Administration (FDA PEPFAR-linked review) and WHO Prequalification programme have been established. Only the PEPFAR-linked review gives approval, while the others make recommendations for approval. This study assessed the performance and discussed the challenges of these three stringent review procedures. Data from WHO, FDA, EMA, Medline and Internet were analysed. Over 60% of medicines reviewed by stringent review procedures are manufactured in India. Until 2012, WHO prequalified 400 medicines (211 vaccines, 130 antiretrovirals, 29 tuberculostatics, 15 antimalarials and 15 others). PEPFAR-linked review approved 156 antiretrovirals, while EMA Article 58 recommended approval of 3 antiretrovirals, 1 vaccine and 1 antimalarial. WHO Prequalification and PEPFAR-linked review are free of charge and as a result have accelerated access to antiretrovirals. They both built capacity in sub-Saharan Africa, although WHO prequalification relies technically on stringent regulatory authorities and financially on donors. Article-58 offers the largest disease coverage and strongest technical capacities, is costly and involves fewer LICs. To meet the high demand for quality medicines in LICs, these stringent review procedures need to enlarge their disease coverage. To improve registration, EMA Article 58 should actively involve LICs. Furthermore, LIC regulatory activities must not be fully resigned to stringent review procedure. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Identity, Motivation and Autonomy in Language Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lamb, Terry; Murray, Garold; Gao, Xuesong

2011-01-01

In this volume researchers from Asia, Europe, the Middle East and North and South America employ a variety of theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches in their exploration of the links between identity, motivation, and autonomy in language learning. On a conceptual level the authors explore issues related to agency, metacognition,…

77 FR 23630 - Lifeline and Link Up Reform and Modernization; Advancing Broadband Availability Through Digital...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-04-20

... Broadband Availability Through Digital Literacy Training, et al. AGENCY: Federal Communications Commission...: Federal Communications Commission, 445 12th Street SW., Washington, DC 20554. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION.... SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This is a summary of Commission's document, Report No. 2948, released April 5, 2012...

Additive Manufactured Product Integrity

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Waller, Jess; Wells, Doug; James, Steve; Nichols, Charles

2017-01-01

NASA is providing key leadership in an international effort linking NASA and non-NASA resources to speed adoption of additive manufacturing (AM) to meet NASA's mission goals. Participants include industry, NASA's space partners, other government agencies, standards organizations and academia. Nondestructive Evaluation (NDE) is identified as a universal need for all aspects of additive manufacturing.

40 CFR 81.305 - California.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 17 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false California. 81.305 Section 81.305 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR PROGRAMS (CONTINUED) DESIGNATION OF AREAS FOR AIR QUALITY PLANNING PURPOSES Section 107 Attainment Status Designations § 81.305 California. Link to an amendment published at 75 FR...

40 CFR 52.281 - Visibility protection.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 3 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Visibility protection. 52.281 Section 52.281 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR PROGRAMS (CONTINUED) APPROVAL AND PROMULGATION OF IMPLEMENTATION PLANS California § 52.281 Visibility protection. Link to an amendment published at 76 FR 34611, June 14,...

40 CFR 81.305 - California.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 18 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false California. 81.305 Section 81.305 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR PROGRAMS (CONTINUED) DESIGNATION OF AREAS FOR AIR QUALITY PLANNING PURPOSES Section 107 Attainment Status Designations § 81.305 California. Link to an amendment published at 78 FR...

Adaptive ecosystem management in the Pacific Northwest.

Treesearch

B.T. Bormann; P.G. Cunningham; M.H. Brookes; V.W. Manning; M.W. Collopy

1994-01-01

A systematic approach to adaptive management is proposed to simultaneously manage at the regional, provincial, and watershed scales and to reorganize the activity of agencies to better support the concepts of adaptive management. Reorganizing management activities into these four groupings is recommended: adjustment (expanded decisionmaking); linked, not single actions...

76 FR 17139 - Agency Information Collection Activities: Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-03-28

... programs to support the provision of oral health services for HIV-positive individuals. Institutions... programs use to apply for funding of non-reimbursed costs, incurred in providing oral health care to... their links and collaboration with community-based providers of oral health services. The primary...

76 FR 54737 - Proposed Information Collection; Comment Request; Southeast Region Gear Identification Requirements

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-09-02

... Collection; Comment Request; Southeast Region Gear Identification Requirements AGENCY: National Oceanic and... gear be marked are essential to facilitate enforcement. The ability to link fishing gear to the vessel... fishing gear is also valuable in actions concerning damage, loss, and civil proceedings. The requirements...

76 FR 6162 - Public Availability of the National Science Foundation FY 2010 Service Contract Inventory

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-02-03

... National Science Foundation homepage at the following link: http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp... NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION Public Availability of the National Science Foundation FY 2010 Service Contract Inventory AGENCY: National Science Foundation. ACTION: Notice of Public Availability of FY 2010...

GINSU: Guaranteed Internet Stack Utilization

DTIC Science & Technology

2005-11-01

Computer Architecture Data Links, Internet , Protocol Stacks 16. PRICE CODE 17. SECURITY CLASSIFICATION OF REPORT UNCLASSIFIED 18. SECURITY...AFRL-IF-RS-TR-2005-383 Final Technical Report November 2005 GINSU: GUARANTEED INTERNET STACK UTILIZATION Trusted... Information Systems, Inc. Sponsored by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency DARPA Order No. ARPS APPROVED FOR PUBLIC

School, Work and Family Planning. Interim Impacts in Project Redirection.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Polit, Denise F.; And Others

Project Redirection was designed to help pregnant and parenting adolescents progress toward eventual self-sufficiency by linking them with community agencies and volunteers at four geographically and ethnically diverse sites in the United States. Distinctive features of the program include: (1) a broad scope of services including employability…

78 FR 17140 - Upholstered Furniture Fire Safety Technology; Meeting and Request for Comments

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-03-20

... Furniture Fire Safety Technology; Meeting and Request for Comments AGENCY: Consumer Product Safety... Commission (CPSC, Commission, or we) is announcing its intent to hold a meeting on upholstered furniture fire... http://www.cpsc.gov/meetingsignup.html and click on the link titled, ``Upholstered Furniture Fire...

Ohio Water Resources Council

Science.gov Websites

Salt Storage Fact Sheet QUICK LINKS 2015-2019 Strategic Action Plan 2010-2014 Strategic Action Plan 2006 Strategic Action Plan OWRC Bylaws For More Information Brian Hall OWRC - State Agency Coordinating Program (Indirect Discharge) Primary Headwater Habitat Streams Remedial Action Plans (RAP) River Mile Maps

77 FR 6803 - Agency Forms Undergoing Paperwork Reduction Act Review

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-02-09

...) 1999- 2010 Birth Certificate Linkage Study--Pregnant Women--New--National Center for Health Statistics... and ask permission to link their data to the child's birth certificate data, for the birth that... about the pregnant women at the time of interview. Having information on their children's birth...

MUTAGENIC AND CARCINOGENIC POTENCY OF EXTRACTS OF DIESEL AND RELATED ENVIRONMENTAL EMISSIONS: SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION OF THE RESULTS

EPA Science Inventory

The proposed conversion from gasoline powered automobiles to diesel powered vehicles has prompted the Environmental Protection Agency to evaluate the potential health effects associated with exposure to diesel emissions. At present, there is no direct epidemiological link between...

Proceedings: linking healthy forests and communities through Alaska value-added forest products.

Treesearch

Theodore L. Laufenberg; Bridget K. Brady

2000-01-01

The Alaska forest products industry is experiencing significant changes in its structure due to economic, ecological, and social pressures. Papers presented at this workshop brought together technical specialists and exhibitors from forest products industry, associations, universities, and private, state, and federal land management agencies. Topics included: policy...

Army Communicator. Volume 31, Number 1, Winter 2006

DTIC Science & Technology

2006-01-01

material does not represent official policy, thinking, or endorsement by an agency of the U.S. Army. This publication contains no advertising . U.S...exercise, to simu- late the bandwidth capacity of a Joint Node Network command post node or an ATM Moblie Subscriber Equipment node. These links were

75 FR 43579 - Privacy Act of 1974; Computer Matching Program Between the Office of Personnel Management and...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-07-26

... safeguards for disclosure of Social Security benefit information to OPM via direct computer link for the... OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT Privacy Act of 1974; Computer Matching Program Between the Office of Personnel Management and Social Security Administration AGENCY: Office of Personnel Management...

78 FR 3474 - Privacy Act of 1974; Computer Matching Program Between the Office Of Personnel Management and...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-01-16

... Security benefit information to OPM via direct computer link for the administration of certain programs by... OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT Privacy Act of 1974; Computer Matching Program Between the Office Of Personnel Management and Social Security Administration AGENCY: Office of Personnel Management...

75 FR 47346 - Draft Strategic Plan for FY 2010-2015

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-08-05

...://www.treas.gov/offices/management/budget/strategic-plan/2007-2012/strategic-plan2007-2012.pdf . The....ustreas.gov/offices/management/budget/strategic-plan/ and by clicking on the comment link. Comments may... DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY Draft Strategic Plan for FY 2010-2015 AGENCY: United States Department...

Linking Schools with Human Service Agencies. ERIC/CUE Digest No. 62.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ascher, Carol

A number of factors put pressure on schools to work more closely with health, social service, and other youth-serving institutions but poor communications, program redundancies, fear for job security, and concerns about parent and community support for controversial services inhibit close collaboration. Recent successful collaborative school,…

3 CFR 13520 - Executive Order 13520 of November 20, 2009. Reducing Improper Payments

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... General and the Director of OMB, shall publish on the Internet information about improper payments under... Internet-based method to collect from the public information concerning suspected incidents of waste, fraud... Federal Government. (d) Agencies shall place a prominently displayed link to Internet-based resources for...

78 FR 73190 - Sunshine Act Meeting

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-12-05

... FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM Sunshine Act Meeting Agency Holding the Meeting: Board of Governors of the...., Washington, DC 20551. STATUS: Open. On the day of the meeting, you will be able to view the meeting via... webcast of the meeting. A link to the meeting documentation will also be available approximately 20...

Rolling Deck to Repository (R2R): Standards and Semantics for Open Access to Research Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Arko, Robert; Carbotte, Suzanne; Chandler, Cynthia; Smith, Shawn; Stocks, Karen

2015-04-01

In recent years, a growing number of funding agencies and professional societies have issued policies calling for open access to research data. The Rolling Deck to Repository (R2R) program is working to ensure open access to the environmental sensor data routinely acquired by the U.S. academic research fleet. Currently 25 vessels deliver 7 terabytes of data to R2R each year, acquired from a suite of geophysical, oceanographic, meteorological, and navigational sensors on over 400 cruises worldwide. R2R is working to ensure these data are preserved in trusted repositories, discoverable via standard protocols, and adequately documented for reuse. R2R maintains a master catalog of cruises for the U.S. academic research fleet, currently holding essential documentation for over 3,800 expeditions including vessel and cruise identifiers, start/end dates and ports, project titles and funding awards, science parties, dataset inventories with instrument types and file formats, data quality assessments, and links to related content at other repositories. A Digital Object Identifier (DOI) is published for 1) each cruise, 2) each original field sensor dataset, 3) each post-field data product such as quality-controlled shiptrack navigation produced by the R2R program, and 4) each document such as a cruise report submitted by the science party. Scientists are linked to personal identifiers, such as the Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID), where known. Using standard global identifiers such as DOIs and ORCIDs facilitates linking with journal publications and generation of citation metrics. Since its inception, the R2R program has worked in close collaboration with other data repositories in the development of shared semantics for oceanographic research. The R2R cruise catalog uses community-standard terms and definitions hosted by the NERC Vocabulary Server, and publishes ISO metadata records for each cruise that use community-standard profiles developed with the NOAA Data Centers and the EU SeaDataNet project. R2R is a partner in the Ocean Data Interoperability Platform (ODIP), working to strengthen links among regional and national data systems, as well as a lead partner in the EarthCube "GeoLink" project, developing a standard set of ontology design patterns for publishing research data using Semantic Web protocols.

The complications of controlling agency time discretion: FDA review deadlines and postmarket drug safety.

PubMed

Carpenter, Daniel; Chattopadhyay, Jacqueline; Moffitt, Susan; Nall, Clayton

2012-01-01

Public agencies have discretion on the time domain, and politicians deploy numerous policy instruments to constrain it. Yet little is known about how administrative procedures that affect timing also affect the quality of agency decisions. We examine whether administrative deadlines shape decision timing and the observed quality of decisions. Using a unique and rich dataset of FDA drug approvals that allows us to examine decision timing and quality, we find that this administrative tool induces a piling of decisions before deadlines, and that these “just-before-deadline” approvals are linked with higher rates of postmarket safety problems (market withdrawals, severe safety warnings, safety alerts). Examination of data from FDA advisory committees suggests that the deadlines may impede quality by impairing late-stage deliberation and agency risk communication. Our results both support and challenge reigning theories about administrative procedures, suggesting they embody expected control-expertise trade-offs, but may also create unanticipated constituency losses.

[Health education in the French Regional Health Agencies in 2012: observations and analysis].

PubMed

Baudier, François; Destaing, Lara; Michaud, Claude

2013-01-01

This paper examines the role of health education in the French Agences régionales de santé (ARS, Regional Health Agencies) in 2012. A survey was conducted among public health managers working in the ARS. Most of the participants reported that health education plays an important role in their agency, notably through their regional health plan and the activities of the organizations responsible for promoting democracy in health care. This is also true of the links with the Institut national de prévention et d'education pour la santé (INPES, the National Institute for Health Prevention and Education) and the network of Instances régionales d'éducation et de promotion de la santé (IREPS, the Regional Authorities for Health Education and Promotion). However, the answers to the open-ended questions and the results of the interviews suggest that these results must be interpreted with caution. The study focuses on a number of factors that must be taken into account when considering the results of the quantitative analysis. These factors include: the subjective (or interpretive) dimension of the term "health education" emphasized by many of the participants (a term involving an emphasis on either health promotion or preventive medicine); the limited emphasis on health education in the ARS (beyond therapeutic patient education) compared to other issues such as health monitoring and security, health care and medico-social problems; the limited resources allocated to health education and the bleak budget outlook; the relationships with the main operators; and the need to develop, promote and apply knowledge of good practice. Finally, the study shows that the role of health education is dependent on individuals' willingness to promote it and, in particular, on the commitment of ARS managers.

The interplay of structure and agency in health promotion: integrating a concept of structural change and the policy dimension into a multi-level model and applying it to health promotion principles and practice.

PubMed

Rütten, Alfred; Gelius, Peter

2011-10-01

The recent debate in public health about the "inequality paradox" mirrors a long-standing dispute between proponents of structuralist approaches and advocates of action theory. Both views are genuine perspectives of health promotion, but so far they have not been adequately linked by health promotion theory. Using Anthony Giddens's concepts of structure and agency seems promising, but his theory has a number of shortcomings that need to be amended if it is to be applied successfully to health promotion. After briefly assessing Giddens's theory of structuration, this paper proposes to add to it both the concept of structural change as proposed by William Sewell and the policy dimension as described by Elinor Ostrom in her distinction between "operational" and "collective choice" level. On this basis, a multi-level model of the interaction of structure and agency in health promotion is proposed. This model is then connected to central claims of the Ottawa Charter, i.e. "build healthy public policy", "create supportive environments", "strengthen community actions", and "develop personal skills". A case study from a local-level health promotion project in Germany is used to illustrate the explanatory power of the model, showing how interaction between structure and agency on the operational and on the collective choice level led to the establishment of women-only hours at the municipal indoor swimming pool as well as to increased physical activity levels and improved general self-efficacy among members of the target group. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Trends in Regionalization of Care for ST-Segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction.

PubMed

Hsia, Renee Y; Sabbagh, Sarah; Sarkar, Nandita; Sporer, Karl; Rokos, Ivan C; Brown, John F; Brindis, Ralph G; Guo, Joanna; Shen, Yu-Chu

2017-10-01

California has led successful regionalized efforts for several time-critical medical conditions, including ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), but no specific mandated protocols exist to define regionalization of care. We aimed to study the trends in regionalization of care for STEMI patients in the state of California and to examine the differences in patient demographic, hospital, and county trends. Using survey responses collected from all California emergency medical services (EMS) agencies, we developed four categories - no, partial, substantial, and complete regionalization - to capture prehospital and inter-hospital components of regionalization in each EMS agency's jurisdiction between 2005-2014. We linked the survey responses to 2006 California non-public hospital discharge data to study the patient distribution at baseline. STEMI regionalization-of-care networks steadily developed across California. Only 14% of counties were regionalized in 2006, accounting for 42% of California's STEMI patient population, but over half of these counties, representing 86% of California's STEMI patient population, reached complete regionalization in 2014. We did not find any dramatic differences in underlying patient characteristics based on regionalization status; however, differences in hospital characteristics were relatively substantial. Potential barriers to achieving regionalization included competition, hospital ownership, population density, and financial challenges. Minimal differences in patient characteristics can establish that patient differences unlikely played any role in influencing earlier or later regionalization and can provide a framework for future analyses evaluating the impact of regionalization on patient outcomes.

Linking Public Health, Housing, and Indoor Environmental Policy: Successes and Challenges at Local and Federal Agencies in the United States

PubMed Central

Jacobs, David E.; Kelly, Tom; Sobolewski, John

2007-01-01

We describe the successes and challenges faced by federal and local government agencies in the United States as they have attempted in recent years to connect public and environmental health, housing, community development, and building design with environmental, housing, and building laws, codes, and policies. These policies can either contribute to or adversely affect human physical and mental health, with important implications for economic viability, research, policy development, and overall social stability and progress. Policy impediments include tension between housing affordability and health investment that causes inefficient cost-shifting, privacy issues, unclear statutory authority, and resulting gaps in responsibility for housing, indoor air, and the built environment. We contrast this with other environmental frameworks such as ambient air and water quality statutes where the concept of “shared commons” and the “polluter pays” is more robust. The U.S. experiences in childhood lead poisoning prevention, indoor air, and mold provide useful policy insights. Local programs can effectively build healthy homes capacity through local laws and housing codes. The experience of coordinating remediation for mold, asthma triggers, weatherization, and other healthy housing improvements in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, is highlighted. The U.S. experience shows that policymakers should adopt a prevention-oriented, comprehensive multi-disciplinary approach at all levels of government to prevent unhealthy buildings, houses, and communities. PMID:17589610

Helping Educators Find Visualizations and Teaching Materials Just-in-Time

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McDaris, J.; Manduca, C. A.; MacDonald, R. H.

2005-12-01

Major events and natural disasters like hurricanes and tsunamis provide geoscience educators with powerful teachable moments to engage their students with class content. In order to take advantage of these opportunities, educators need quality topical resources related to current earth science events. The web has become an excellent vehicle for disseminating this type of resource. In response to the 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake and to Hurricane Katrina's devastating impact on the US Gulf Coast, the On the Cutting Edge professional development program developed collections of visualizations for use in teaching. (serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/visualization/collections/ tsunami.html,serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/visualization/ collections/hurricanes.html). These sites are collections of links to visualizations and other materials that can support the efforts of faculty, teachers, and those engaged in public outreach. They bring together resources created by researchers, government agencies and respected media sources and organize them for easy use by educators. Links are selected to provide a variety of different types of visualizations (e.g photographic images, animations, satellite imagery) and to assist educators in teaching about the geologic event reported in the news, associated Earth science concepts, and related topics of high interest. The cited links are selected from quality sources and are reviewed by SERC staff before being included on the page. Geoscience educators are encouraged to recommend links and supporting materials and to comment on the available resources. In this way the collection becomes more complete and its quality is enhanced.. These sites have received substantial use (Tsunami - 77,000 visitors in the first 3 months, Hurricanes - 2500 visitors in the first week) indicating that in addition to use by educators, they are being used by the general public seeking information about the events. Thus they provide an effective mechanism for guiding the public to quality resources created by geoscience researchers and facilities, in addition to supporting incorporation of geoscience research in education.

Understanding the experiences of racialized older people through an intersectional life course perspective.

PubMed

Ferrer, Ilyan; Grenier, Amanda; Brotman, Shari; Koehn, Sharon

2017-04-01

This article proposes the development of an intersectional life course perspective that is capable of exploring the links between structural inequalities and the lived experience of aging among racialized older people. Merging key concepts from intersectionality and life course perspectives, the authors suggest an analytic approach to better account for the connections between individual narratives and systems of domination that impinge upon the everyday lives of racialized older people. Our proposed intersectional life course perspective includes four dimensions: 1) identifying key events and their timing, 2) examining locally and globally linked lives, 3) exploring categories of difference and how they shape identities, 4) and assessing how processes of differentiation, and systems of domination shape the lives, agency and resistance among older people. Although applicable to various forms of marginalization, we examine the interplay of racialization, immigration, labour and care in later life to highlight relationships between systems, events, trajectories, and linked lives. The illustrative case example used in this paper emerged from a larger critical ethnographic study of aging in the Filipino community in Montreal, Canada. We suggest that an intersectional life course perspective has the potential to facilitate a deeper understanding of the nexus of structural, personal and relational processes that are experienced by diverse groups of older people across the life course and into late life. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Short-term effects of the 2008 Great Recession on the health of the Italian population: an ecological study.

PubMed

Mattei, Giorgio; Ferrari, Silvia; Pingani, Luca; Rigatelli, Marco

2014-06-01

To report on the effects on health that the 2008 Great Recession is producing in Italy, by comparing the consistency of Italian data with general observations reported in the scientific literature, and by pointing out consequences on the rates of all-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality, male suicidal behaviours, daytime alcohol drinking and traffic fatalities. This is an ecological study in which MEDLINE, PsycINFO and PubMed were searched for the literature with combinations of the following keywords: economic recession, financial crisis, unemployment, health, suicide and mental health. Data from two Italian government agencies (Italian Institute of Statistics, ISTAT, and Italian Agency of Drugs, AIFA) in the years from 2000 to 2010 were obtained and analysed, by producing models of multiple linear regressions. After the recession onset, all-cause mortality remained stable, and was not associated with the economic fluctuations. Differently, cardiovascular mortality was associated with the rate of unemployment, and showed a significant increase in 2010. Alcohol consumption increased in 2009, the year with the worst real GDP decrease (-5.1 %). Though the total rate of suicide was not associated with the economic situation, male completed and attempted suicides due to financial crisis were significantly associated with the rate of unemployment and the real GDP. The increasing diffusion of antidepressants was not associated with a lowering of the rate of suicide. The data on the Italian situation here discussed are sufficiently reliable to conclude that a link exists between the ongoing economic recession and health and mental health of Italians. Further research is needed to understand more in detail and with stronger reliability such link, to support primary and secondary preventive interventions and orient the development of effective sociopolitical interventions.

Hearts and minds: Agency and discourse on distress.

PubMed

Kemp, Martin

2003-01-01

This paper is based on ethnographic fieldwork in south Bristol, United Kingdom, and on the south Atlantic island of St Helena. It addresses the relationship between the experience of psychosocial distress, the language used to express such distress and the socio-cultural constraints on both language and experience. Accounts of emotional distress were obtained from interviews with 36 informants in south Bristol and with 40 informants on St Helena. Informants in both settings shared a Euro-American discourse on the self in which emotional distress is conceived as a breakdown in human agency. This discourse is linked to narrative as a way of depicting and re-affirming individual agency. A prototypical concept of narrative is used in this paper to interpret accounts of emotional distress. This interpretation demonstrates the usefulness of the idea of narrative for understanding such experiences.

Targeting Adults Who Provide Alcohol to Underage Youth: Results from a National Survey of Local Law Enforcement Agencies

PubMed Central

Jones-Webb, Rhonda; Toomey, Traci L.; Lenk, Kathleen M.; Nelson, Toben F.; Erickson, Darin J.

2014-01-01

Objective We investigated what local enforcement agencies are doing to target adults who provide alcohol to underage youth; what types of enforcement activities are being conducted to target adult providers; and factors that encourage enforcement activities that target adult providers. Method We surveyed 1056 local law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and measured whether or not the agency conducted enforcement activities that target adults who provide alcohol to underage youth. We also measured whether certain agency and jurisdiction characteristics were associated with enforcement activities that target adults who provide alcohol to underage youth. Results Less than half (42%) of local enforcement agencies conducted enforcement efforts targeting adults who provide alcohol to underage youth. Agencies that conducted the enforcement activities targeting adult providers were significantly more likely to have a full time officer specific to alcohol enforcement, a division specific to alcohol enforcement, a social host law, and to perceive underage drinking was very common. Conclusions Results suggest that targeting social providers (i.e., adults over 21 years of age) will require greater law enforcement resources, implementation of underage drinking laws (e.g., social host policies), and changing perceptions among law enforcement regarding underage drinking. Future studies are needed to identify the most effective enforcement efforts and to examine how enforcement efforts are prospectively linked to alcohol consumption. PMID:25466432

Targeting adults who provide alcohol to underage youth: results from a national survey of local law enforcement agencies.

PubMed

Jones-Webb, Rhonda; Toomey, Traci L; Lenk, Kathleen M; Nelson, Toben F; Erickson, Darin J

2015-06-01

We investigated what local enforcement agencies are doing to target adults who provide alcohol to underage youth; what types of enforcement activities are being conducted to target adult providers; and factors that encourage enforcement activities that target adult providers. We surveyed 1,056 local law enforcement agencies in the US and measured whether or not the agency conducted enforcement activities that target adults who provide alcohol to underage youth. We also measured whether certain agency and jurisdiction characteristics were associated with enforcement activities that target adults who provide alcohol to underage youth. Less than half (42%) of local enforcement agencies conducted enforcement efforts targeting adults who provide alcohol to underage youth. Agencies that conducted the enforcement activities targeting adult providers were significantly more likely to have a full time officer specific to alcohol enforcement, a division specific to alcohol enforcement, a social host law, and to perceive underage drinking was very common. Results suggest that targeting social providers (i.e., adults over 21 years of age) will require greater law enforcement resources, implementation of underage drinking laws (e.g., social host policies), and changing perceptions among law enforcement regarding underage drinking. Future studies are needed to identify the most effective enforcement efforts and to examine how enforcement efforts are prospectively linked to alcohol consumption.

Evaluation of an Organizational Development Program for Social Service Agencies. Final Report 77-2.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Olmstead, Joseph A.

This report describes and evaluates an agency development program designed to aid administrators and supervisors of local social services to achieve effective agency performance. The program was conducted for a period of one year within four local agencies; two additional agencies were used as control groups. Assistance was provided through…

48 CFR 715.604 - Agency points of contact.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

.... 715.604 Section 715.604 Federal Acquisition Regulations System AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT CONTRACTING METHODS AND CONTRACT TYPES CONTRACTING BY NEGOTIATION Unsolicited Proposals 715.604 Agency points... the U.S. Agency for International Development, Evaluation Division, Room 7.08-005, 1300 Pennsylvania...

JICA support of NGO project succeeds.

PubMed

2000-05-01

In 1997, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) started the Community Empowerment Program (CEP) to directly help people at the grassroots level in developing countries. It was created to directly benefit people in developing countries by improving their livelihood and welfare. Under the program, model projects are implemented together with local nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). The Capacity Building for Sustainable Reproductive Health Care Project in Jessore District in Bangladesh, is a pioneer of JICA and NGO cooperation under CEP, and it aims to develop the capacity of service providers to deliver sustainable reproductive health (RH) services in rural areas through community involvement. To achieve this, training for community health promoters (CHPs) is provided to enable them to deliver an Essential Services Package (ESP) of integrated health and RH services to rural beneficiaries. So far, a total of 125 people have been trained, including 75 CHPs, 10 health assistants, and 40 family welfare assistants. Midterm evaluation of the project indicated that the project had pioneered the development of 17 ESP modules and has established the strong potential to link with government programs for future sustainability.

Charting a course to competency: an approach to mapping public health core competencies to existing trainings.

PubMed

Neiworth, Latrissa L; Allan, Susan; D'Ambrosio, Luann; Coplen-Abrahamson, Marlene

2014-03-01

Consistent with other professional fields, the goals of public health training have moved from a focus on knowledge transfer to the development of skills or competencies. At least six national competency sets have been developed in the past decade pertaining to public health professionals. State and local public health agencies are increasingly using competency sets as frameworks for staff development and assessment. Mapping competencies to training has potential for enhancing the value of public health training during resource-constrained times by directly linking training content to the desired skills. For existing public health trainings, the challenge is how to identify competencies addressed in those courses in a manner that is not burdensome and that produces valid results. This article describes a process for mapping competencies to the learning objectives, assignments, and assessments of existing trainings. The process presented could be used by any training center or organization that seeks to connect public health workforce competencies to previously developed instruction. Public health practice can be strengthened more effectively if trainings can be selected for the desired practice skills or competencies.

Use of remotely sensed data to evaluate the relationship between living environment and blood pressure.

PubMed

Estes, Maurice G; Al-Hamdan, Mohammad Z; Crosson, William; Estes, Sue M; Quattrochi, Dale; Kent, Shia; McClure, Leslie Ain

2009-12-01

Urbanization has been correlated with hypertension (HTN) in developing countries undergoing rapid economic and environmental transitions. We examined the relationships among living environment (urban, suburban, and rural), day/night land surface temperatures (LST), and blood pressure in selected regions from the REasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) cohort. Also, the linking of data on blood pressure from REGARDS with National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) science data is relevant to NASA's strategic goals and missions, particularly as a primary focus of the agency's Applied Sciences Program. REGARDS is a national cohort of 30,228 people from the 48 contiguous United States with self-reported and measured blood pressure levels. Four metropolitan regions (Philadelphia, PA; Atlanta, GA; Minneapolis, MN; and Chicago, IL) with varying geographic and health characteristics were selected for study. Satellite remotely sensed data were used to characterize the LST and land cover/land use (LCLU) environment for each area. We developed a method for characterizing participants as living in urban, suburban, or rural living environments, using the LCLU data. These data were compiled on a 1-km grid for each region and linked with the REGARDS data via an algorithm using geocoding information. REGARDS participants in urban areas have higher systolic and diastolic blood pressure than do those in suburban or rural areas, and also a higher incidence of HTN. In univariate models, living environment is associated with HTN, but after adjustment for known HTN risk factors, the relationship was no longer present. Further study regarding the relationship between HTN and living environment should focus on additional environmental characteristics, such as air pollution. The living environment classification method using remotely sensed data has the potential to facilitate additional research linking environmental variables to public health concerns.

77 FR 71288 - Revisions to Electric Quarterly Report Filing Process

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-11-30

... its regulations to change the process for filing Electric Quarterly Reports (EQR). Due to technology... option.\\80\\ \\78\\ See, e.g., EEI at 8; Links Technology Solutions at 2; Pacific Gas and Electric at 6. \\79...; Order No. 770] Revisions to Electric Quarterly Report Filing Process AGENCY: Federal Energy Regulatory...

Health care's 100 most wired.

PubMed

Solovy, A; Serb, C

1999-02-01

They're wired all right, and America's 100 most techno-savvy hospitals and health systems share one more thing: a commitment to using technology to link with employees, patients, suppliers, and insurers. "We want to be a health care travel agency for our community," says one chief information officer. "And we see Internet technology as a key."

NASA OSMA NDE Program Additive Manufacturing Foundational Effort

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Waller, Jess; Walker, James; Burke, Eric; Wells, Douglas

2016-01-01

NASA is providing key leadership in an international effort linking NASA and non-NASA resources to speed adoption of additive manufacturing (AM) to meet NASA's mission goals. Participants include industry, NASA's space partners, other government agencies, standards organizations and academia. Nondestructive Evaluation (NDE) is identified as a universal need for all aspects of additive manufacturing.

Students' Evaluation of the Use of Online Summative Assessment on an Undergraduate Financial Accounting Module

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marriott, Pru

2009-01-01

According to the Quality Assurance Agency, "Assessment describes any processes that appraise an individual's knowledge, understanding, abilities or skills", and is inextricably linked to a course or programme's intended learning outcomes. It also has a fundamental effect on students' learning where it serves a variety of purposes including…

77 FR 65552 - Agency Forms Undergoing Paperwork Reduction Act Review

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-10-29

... workload and low job control) which have traditionally linked to a variety of stress-related health and... that may or may not buffer them from the adverse effects of work-related stressors. Respondents will be...), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Background and Brief Description Stress is one of the...

77 FR 27763 - East Cheyenne Gas Storage, LLC; Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Assessment for the...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-05-11

... general headings: Geology and soils; Land use; Water resources, fisheries, and wetlands; Cultural... and agencies; elected officials; environmental and public interest groups; Native American Tribes... becoming an intervenor are included in the User's Guide under the ``e-filing'' link on the Commission's Web...

78 FR 56592 - Airworthiness Directives; Bell Helicopter Textron, Inc. (Bell) Helicopters

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-09-13

... Airworthiness Directives; Bell Helicopter Textron, Inc. (Bell) Helicopters AGENCY: Federal Aviation...) 76-12- 07 for all Bell Model 204B and certain serial-numbered Model 205A-1 helicopters with a certain... detect a crack in the link segments and, for affected Model 205A-1 helicopters, replacing the chain and...

40 CFR 52.370 - Identification of plan.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 3 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false Identification of plan. 52.370 Section 52.370 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR PROGRAMS (CONTINUED) APPROVAL AND PROMULGATION OF IMPLEMENTATION PLANS Connecticut § 52.370 Identification of plan. Link to an amendment published at 78 FR 38591, 2013....

40 CFR 52.370 - Identification of plan.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 3 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false Identification of plan. 52.370 Section 52.370 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR PROGRAMS (CONTINUED) APPROVAL AND PROMULGATION OF IMPLEMENTATION PLANS Connecticut § 52.370 Identification of plan. Link to an amendment published at 79 FR 32875, June ...

78 FR 34346 - Proposed Information Collection; Comment Request; NIST MEP Advanced Manufacturing Jobs and...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-06-07

... suppliers with large companies, link research with start-up companies that can commercialize new ideas, and... . SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: I. Abstract This is a request for a new information collection. The purpose of the... National Science Foundation. Ten Award Recipients were selected though a competitive multi- agency grant...

A Room of One's Own: Power and Agency in Feminist Therapy.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marecek, Jeanne; Kravetz, Diane

Feminist therapy, born of activism and opposition to the bias within conventional psychotherapy, is most often defined by its emancipatory goals for women and its approach to treatment which examines the link between the patient's problem and systemic discrimination. In this study, 20 feminist therapists were interviewed in order to explore the…

Stronger Links: New Ways To Connect Low-Skilled Workers to Better Jobs.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gibson, Cynthia M.

The Jobs Initiative, an eight-year demonstration, helps low-income residents find jobs that pay family-supporting wages in Denver, Milwaukee, New Orleans, Philadelphia, St. Louis, and Seattle. "Entrepreneurial intermediaries," ranging from a private foundation to a city agency, manage six sites that take a dramatically different,…

FoxP3 as a Missing Link Between Inflammation and Breast Cancer

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-09-01

CONTRACTING ORGANIZATION : The...PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES) 8. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION REPORT NUMBER 9. SPONSORING / MONITORING AGENCY NAME(S...sequenced exons 2 and 6 of human YAP, which encodes amino acid sequence encompassing S127 and S347 (S381) sites, respectively. DNA were prepared from

Linking Temporal-Optimization and Spatial-Simulation Models for Forest Planning

Treesearch

Larry A. Leefers; Eric J. Gustafson; Phillip Freeman

2003-01-01

Increasingly, resource management agencies and researchers have turned their analysis and modeling efforts towards spatial and temporal information. This is driven by the need to address wildlife concerns, landscape issues, and social/economic questions. Historically, the USDA Forest Service has used optimization models (i.e., FORPLAN and Spectrum) for timber harvest...

U.S. NIC

Science.gov Websites

U. S. National Ice Center HOME ORGANIZATION SERVICES PRODUCTS OUTSIDE LINKS CONTACT US MISSION STATEMENT Our mission is to provide global to tactical scale ice and snow products, ice forecasting, and . National Ice Center (NIC) is a multi-agency center operated by the United States Navy, the National Oceanic

Vegetation classification system for California: user's guide

Treesearch

Serena C. Hunter; Timothy E. Paysen

1986-01-01

The Vegetation Classification System for California is an unbiased system of defining and naming units of vegetation. The concept was devised by an interagency, interdisciplinary team (Paysen and others 1980, 1982). The system derives its uniqueness from its impartiality to any particular agency or resource discipline, thus providing a long-needed link between diverse...

Life Skills-Based HIV Education: Some Virtues and Errors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Clarke, David; Yankah, Ekua; Aggleton, Peter

2015-01-01

Since the early 1990s, life skills education has benefitted substantially from international agency advocacy and support, linked to its implementation in several countries as a key component of the education sector response to sexual health and HIV. The concept of life skills was first promoted by the World Health Organization through its…

Women of Color Chief Diversity Officers: Their Positionality and Agency in Higher Education Institutions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nixon, Monica L.

2013-01-01

Colleges and universities are seen as sites for harnessing for the common good the challenges and opportunities associated with diversity. Research supports the link of diversity experiences with a range of individual, institutional, and societal benefits. Contemporary models of operationalizing diversity on college campuses focus on the…

Lessons Learned from the Whole Child and Coordinated School Health Approaches

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rasberry, Catherine N.; Slade, Sean; Lohrmann, David K.; Valois, Robert F.

2015-01-01

Background: The new Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) model, designed to depict links between health and learning, is founded on concepts of coordinated school health (CSH) and a whole child approach to education. Methods: The existing literature, including scientific articles and key publications from national agencies and…

Fat stigma and public health: a theoretical framework and ethical analysis.

PubMed

Abu-Odeh, Desiree

2014-09-01

This paper proposes a theoretical framework for understanding fat stigma and its impact on people's well-being. It argues that stigma should never be used as a tool to achieve public health ends. Drawing on Bruce Link and Jo Phelan's 2001 conceptualization of stigma as well as the works of Hilde Lindemann, Paul Benson, and Margaret Urban Walker on identity, positionality, and agency, this paper clarifies the mechanisms by which stigmatizing, oppressive conceptions of overweight and obesity damage identities and diminish moral agency, arguing that the use of obesity-related stigma for public health ends violates the bioethics principles of nonmaleficence, autonomy, and justice.

75 FR 34519 - SES Performance Review Board

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-06-17

... TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT AGENCY SES Performance Review Board AGENCY: U.S. Trade and Development... and Development Agency's Performance Review Board. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Carolyn Hum... more SES Performance Review Boards. The Board shall review and evaluate the initial appraisal of a...

24 CFR 58.1 - Purpose and applicability.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... Departments of Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Act... Development, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Acts, in accordance with section 305(c) of the... of Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Act...

24 CFR 58.1 - Purpose and applicability.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... Departments of Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Act... Development, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Acts, in accordance with section 305(c) of the... of Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Act...

24 CFR 58.1 - Purpose and applicability.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... Departments of Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Act... Development, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Acts, in accordance with section 305(c) of the... of Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Act...

The Application of Informatics in Delineating the Proof of Concept for Creating Knowledge of the Value Added by Interprofessional Practice and Education

PubMed Central

Cerra, Frank; Pacala, James; Brandt, Barbara F.; Lutfiyya, May Nawal

2015-01-01

The resurgence of interest in the promise of interprofessional education and collaborative practice (IPECP) to positively impact health outcomes, requires the collection of appropriate data that can be analyzed and from which information and knowledge linking IPECP interventions to improved health outcomes might be produced and reported to stakeholders such as health systems, policy makers and regulators, payers, and accreditation agencies. To generate such knowledge the National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education at the University of Minnesota has developed three strategies, the first two of which are: (1) creating an IPECP research agenda, and (2) a national Nexus Innovation Network (NIN) of intervention projects that are generating data that are being input and housed in a National Center Data Repository (NCDR). In this paper, the informatics platform supporting the work of these first two strategies is presented as the third interconnected strategy for knowledge generation. The proof of concept for the informatics strategy is developed in this paper by describing: data input from the NIN into the NCDR, the linking and merging of those data to produce analyzable data files that incorporate institutional and individual level data, and the production of meaningful analyses to create and provide relevant information and knowledge. This paper is organized around the concepts of data, information and knowledge—the three conceptual foundations of informatics. PMID:27417818

22 CFR 1509.645 - Federal agency or agency.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... 22 Foreign Relations 2 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 true Federal agency or agency. 1509.645 Section 1509.645 Foreign Relations AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION GOVERNMENTWIDE REQUIREMENTS FOR DRUG-FREE WORKPLACE (FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE) Definitions § 1509.645 Federal agency or agency. Federal agency or agency...

A network approach for researching partnerships in health.

PubMed

Lewis, Jenny M

2005-10-07

The last decade has witnessed a significant move towards new modes of governing that are based on coordination and collaboration. In particular, local level partnerships have been widely introduced around the world. There are few comprehensive approaches for researching the effects of these partnerships. The aim of this paper is to outline a network approach that combines structure and agency based explanations to research partnerships in health. Network research based on two Primary Care Partnerships (PCPs) in Victoria is used to demonstrate the utility of this approach. The paper examines multiple types of ties between people (structure), and the use and value of relationships to partners (agency), using interviews with the people involved in two PCPs--one in metropolitan Melbourne and one in a rural area. Network maps of ties based on work, strategic information and policy advice, show that there are many strong connections in both PCPs. Not surprisingly, PCP staff are central and highly connected. Of more interest are the ties that are dependent on these dedicated partnership staff, as they reveal which actors become weakly linked or disconnected without them. Network measures indicate that work ties are the most dispersed and strategic information ties are the most concentrated around fewer people. Divisions of general practice are weakly linked, while local government officials and Department of Human Services (DHS) regional staff appear to play important bridging roles. Finally, the relationships between partners have changed and improved, and most of those interviewed value their new or improved links with partners. Improving service coordination and health promotion planning requires engaging people and building strong relationships. Mapping ties is a useful means for assessing the strengths and weaknesses of partnerships, and network analysis indicates concentration and dispersion, the importance of particular individuals, and the points at which they will fragment. A narrative approach adds an assessment of whether the partnerships are being used and valued. The approach outlined here, which examines structure and agency as separate but related explanations, has much to offer in examining partnerships.

Relation between selected water-quality variables and lake level in Upper Klamath and Agency Lakes, Oregon

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wood, Tamara M.; Fuhrer, Gregory J.; Morace, Jennifer L.

1996-01-01

Based on the analysis of data that they have been collecting for several years, the Klamath Tribes recently recommended that the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) modify the operating plan for the dam to make the minimum lake levels for the June-August period more closely resemble pre-dam conditions (Jacob Kann, written commun., 1995). The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) was asked to analyze the available data for the lake and to assess whether the evidence exists to conclude that year-to-year differences in certain lake water-quality variables are related to year-to-year differences in lake level. The results of the analysis will be used as scientific input in the process of developing an operating plan for the Link River Dam.

Water-quality sampling by the U.S. Geological Survey-Standard protocols and procedures

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wilde, Franceska D.

2010-01-01

Thumbnail of and link to report PDF (1.0 MB) The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) develops the sampling procedures and collects the data necessary for the accurate assessment and wise management of our Nation's surface-water and groundwater resources. Federal and State agencies, water-resource regulators and managers, and many organizations and interested parties in the public and private sectors depend on the reliability, timeliness, and integrity of the data we collect and the scientific soundness and impartiality of our data assessments and analysis. The standard data-collection methods uniformly used by USGS water-quality personnel are peer reviewed, kept up-to-date, and published in the National Field Manual for the Collection of Water-Quality Data (http://pubs.water.usgs.gov/twri9A/).

Building Analytic Capacity and Statistical Literacy Among Title IV-E MSW Students

PubMed Central

LERY, BRIDGETTE; PUTNAM-HORNSTEIN, EMILY; WIEGMANN, WENDY; KING, BRYN

2016-01-01

Building and sustaining effective child welfare practice requires an infrastructure of social work professionals trained to use data to identify target populations, connect interventions to outcomes, adapt practice to varying contexts and dynamic populations, and assess their own effectiveness. Increasingly, public agencies are implementing models of self-assessment in which administrative data are used to guide and continuously evaluate the implementation of programs and policies. The research curriculum described in the article was developed to provide Title IV-E and other students interested in public child welfare systems with hands-on opportunities to become experienced and “statistically literate” users of aggregated public child welfare data from California’s administrative child welfare system, attending to the often missing link between data/research and practice improvement. PMID:27429600

Basic analytical methods for identification of erythropoiesis-stimulating agents in doping control

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Postnikov, P. V.; Krotov, G. I.; Efimova, Yu A.; Rodchenkov, G. M.

2016-02-01

The design of new erythropoiesis-stimulating agents for clinical use necessitates constant development of methods for detecting the abuse of these substances, which are prohibited under the World Anti-Doping Code and are included in the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) prohibited list. This review integrates and describes systematically the published data on the key methods currently used by WADA-accredited anti-doping laboratories around the world to detect the abuse of erythropoiesis-stimulating agents, including direct methods (various polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis techniques, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, membrane enzyme immunoassay and mass spectrometry) and indirect methods (athlete biological passport). Particular attention is given to promising approaches and investigations that can be used to control prohibited erythropoietins in the near future. The bibliography includes 122 references.

A coastal and marine digital library at USGS

USGS Publications Warehouse

Lightsom, Fran

2003-01-01

The Marine Realms Information Bank (MRIB) is a distributed geolibrary [NRC, 1999] from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), whose purpose is to classify, integrate, and facilitate access to Earth systems science information about ocean, lake, and coastal environments. Core MRIB services are: (1) the search and display of information holdings by place and subject, and (2) linking of information assets that exist in remote physical locations. The design of the MRIB features a classification system to integrate information from remotely maintained sources. This centralized catalogue organizes information using 12 criteria: locations, geologic time, physiographic features, biota, disciplines, research methods, hot topics, project names, agency names, authors, content type, and file type. For many of these fields, MRIB has developed classification hierarchies.

New and improved proteomics technologies for understanding complex biological systems: addressing a grand challenge in the life sciences.

PubMed

Hood, Leroy E; Omenn, Gilbert S; Moritz, Robert L; Aebersold, Ruedi; Yamamoto, Keith R; Amos, Michael; Hunter-Cevera, Jennie; Locascio, Laurie

2012-09-01

This White Paper sets out a Life Sciences Grand Challenge for Proteomics Technologies to enhance our understanding of complex biological systems, link genomes with phenotypes, and bring broad benefits to the biosciences and the US economy. The paper is based on a workshop hosted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg, MD, 14-15 February 2011, with participants from many federal R&D agencies and research communities, under the aegis of the US National Science and Technology Council (NSTC). Opportunities are identified for a coordinated R&D effort to achieve major technology-based goals and address societal challenges in health, agriculture, nutrition, energy, environment, national security, and economic development. © 2012 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

75 FR 30772 - Notice of Public Information Collections Being Reviewed by the U.S. Agency for International...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-06-02

... AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT Notice of Public Information Collections Being Reviewed by the U.S. Agency for International Development; Comments Requested SUMMARY: U.S. Agency for... information technology. DATES: Submit comments on or before August 2, 2010. ADDRESSES: Send comments via e...

24 CFR 58.57 - Lead agency designation.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... 24 Housing and Urban Development 1 2012-04-01 2012-04-01 false Lead agency designation. 58.57 Section 58.57 Housing and Urban Development Office of the Secretary, Department of Housing and Urban....57 Lead agency designation. If there are several agencies ready to assume the lead role, the...

24 CFR 58.57 - Lead agency designation.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... 24 Housing and Urban Development 1 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Lead agency designation. 58.57 Section 58.57 Housing and Urban Development Office of the Secretary, Department of Housing and Urban....57 Lead agency designation. If there are several agencies ready to assume the lead role, the...

24 CFR 58.57 - Lead agency designation.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... 24 Housing and Urban Development 1 2014-04-01 2014-04-01 false Lead agency designation. 58.57 Section 58.57 Housing and Urban Development Office of the Secretary, Department of Housing and Urban....57 Lead agency designation. If there are several agencies ready to assume the lead role, the...

24 CFR 58.57 - Lead agency designation.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... 24 Housing and Urban Development 1 2013-04-01 2013-04-01 false Lead agency designation. 58.57 Section 58.57 Housing and Urban Development Office of the Secretary, Department of Housing and Urban....57 Lead agency designation. If there are several agencies ready to assume the lead role, the...

24 CFR 58.57 - Lead agency designation.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... 24 Housing and Urban Development 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Lead agency designation. 58.57 Section 58.57 Housing and Urban Development Office of the Secretary, Department of Housing and Urban....57 Lead agency designation. If there are several agencies ready to assume the lead role, the...

Enhancing the European Union’s Development Strategy in Afghanistan

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-06-01

REE Rare Earth Element SCA Swedish Committee for Afghanistan SIDA Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency SIGAR Special Inspector...member states such as Ireland’s Development Cooperation Ireland (DCI), Sweden’s Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency ( SIDA ), and the...Command and General Staff College, June 2008.) 71. 142 Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, “Afghanistan Sida Country Report 2005

Moving a Rubber Hand that Feels Like Your Own: A Dissociation of Ownership and Agency

PubMed Central

Kalckert, Andreas; Ehrsson, H. Henrik

2012-01-01

During voluntary hand movement, we sense that we generate the movement and that the hand is a part of our body. These feelings of control over bodily actions, or the sense of agency, and the ownership of body parts are two fundamental aspects of the way we consciously experience our bodies. However, little is known about how these processes are functionally linked. Here, we introduce a version of the rubber hand illusion in which participants control the movements of the index finger of a model hand, which is in full view, by moving their own right index finger. We demonstrated that voluntary finger movements elicit a robust illusion of owning the rubber hand and that the senses of ownership and agency over the model hand can be dissociated. We systematically varied the relative timing of the finger movements (synchronous versus asynchronous), the mode of movement (active versus passive), and the position of the model hand (anatomically congruent versus incongruent positions). Importantly, asynchrony eliminated both ownership and agency, passive movements abolished the sense of agency but left ownership intact, and incongruent positioning of the model hand diminished ownership but did not eliminate agency. These findings provide evidence for a double dissociation of ownership and agency, suggesting that they represent distinct cognitive processes. Interestingly, we also noted that the sense of agency was stronger when the hand was perceived to be a part of the body, and only in this condition did we observe a significant correlation between the subjects’ ratings of agency and ownership. We discuss this in the context of possible differences between agency over owned body parts and agency over actions that involve interactions with external objects. In summary, the results obtained in this study using a simple moving rubber hand illusion paradigm extend previous findings on the experience of ownership and agency and shed new light on their relationship. PMID:22435056

Earth Science Education in Zimbabwe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Walsh, Kevin L.

1999-05-01

Zimbabwe is a mineral-rich country with a long history of Earth Science Education. The establishment of a University Geology Department in 1960 allowed the country to produce its own earth science graduates. These graduates are readily absorbed by the mining industry and few are without work. Demand for places at the University is high and entry standards reflect this. Students enter the University after GCE A levels in three science subjects and most go on to graduate. Degree programmes include B.Sc. General in Geology (plus another science), B.Sc. Honours in Geology and M.Sc. in Exploration Geology and in Geophysics. The undergraduate curriculum is broad-based and increasingly vocationally orientated. A well-equipped building caters for relatively large student numbers and also houses analytical facilities used for research and teaching. Computers are used in teaching from the first year onwards. Staff are on average poorly qualified compared to other universities, but there is an impressive research element. The Department has good links with many overseas universities and external funding agencies play a strong supporting role. That said, financial constraints remain the greatest barrier to future development, although increasing links with the mining industry may cushion this.

Evaluation strategies for midwifery education linked to digital media and distance delivery technology.

PubMed

Fullerton, Judith T; Ingle, Henry T

2003-01-01

The goal of the teaching and learning process for health professionals is the acquisition of a fundamental core of knowledge, the demonstration of critical thinking ability, and the demonstration of competency in the performance of clinical skills. Teaching and learning in distance education programs require that the administration, teachers, and students be creative in developing evaluation strategies that can be adapted to the challenges of the cyberspace on-line educational environment. Evaluation standards for distance education programs recently have been delineated by federal agencies, private organizations, and academic accreditation associations. These standards are linked to principles of sound education practice that promote program quality, high levels of student-faculty interaction, and support effective teaching and learning in the distance education context. A growing body of evidence supports the conclusion that technology-enhanced teaching is equivalent in effectiveness compared with traditional methods when student-learning outcomes are the focus of measurement. An allied body of literature offers model approaches that can be useful to educators who must also conduct the evaluation of clinical skills, provide feedback, and promote socialization to the nurse-midwifery/midwifery role for students being educated in whole or in part through instruction delivered at a distance.

48 CFR 1426.7102 - Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA-91) Plan and Reports.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... Reports 1426.7102 Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA-91) Plan and Reports. ... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 5 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA-91) Plan and Reports. 1426.7102 Section 1426.7102 Federal Acquisition Regulations...

75 FR 47540 - Extension of the Award Period for Certain Minority Business Enterprise Centers

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-08-06

... DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE Minority Business Development Agency [Docket No.: 100730316-0318-02... Development Agency, Commerce. ACTION: Notice. SUMMARY: The Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA... telephone at (202) 482-1940 and by e-mail at [email protected] . SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Pursuant to...

48 CFR 719.273 - The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Mentor-Protégé Program.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... International Development (USAID) Mentor-Protégé Program. 719.273 Section 719.273 Federal Acquisition.... Agency for International Development (USAID) Mentor-Protégé Program 719.273 The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Mentor-Protégé Program. ...

Developing Moral Agency through Narrative

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pasupathi, Monisha; Wainryb, Cecilia

2010-01-01

This paper poses the following question: When, in spite of knowing that it is wrong, people go on to hurt others, what does this mean for the development of moral agency? We begin by defining moral agency and briefly sketching relations between moral agency and other concepts. We then outline what three extant literatures suggest about this…

Advertising Agencies: An Analysis of Industry Structure.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Sandra J.

Noting that advertising agencies have not been examined as a collective industry, this paper looks at the development and structure of the advertising agency industry. The first portion of the paper discusses the development of the agency. The remaining two sections deal with trends in and the structure of the industry including: (1) the growth of…

Implementation of a World Wide Web server for the oil and gas industry

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

Blaylock, R.E.; Martin, F.D.; Emery, R.

1995-12-31

The Gas and Oil Technology Exchange and Communication Highway, (GO-TECH), provides an electronic information system for the petroleum community for the purpose of exchanging ideas, data, and technology. The personal computer-based system fosters communication and discussion by linking oil and gas producers with resource centers, government agencies, consulting firms, service companies, national laboratories, academic research groups, and universities throughout the world. The oil and gas producers are provided access to the GO-TECH World Wide Web home page via modem links, as well as Internet. The future GO-TECH applications will include the establishment of{open_quote}Virtual corporations {close_quotes} consisting of consortiums of smallmore » companies, consultants, and service companies linked by electronic information systems. These virtual corporations will have the resources and expertise previously found only in major corporations.« less

Implementation of a World Wide Web server for the oil and gas industry

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

Blaylock, R.E.; Martin, F.D.; Emery, R.

1996-10-01

The Gas and Oil Technology Exchange and Communication Highway (GO-TECH) provides an electronic information system for the petroleum community for exchanging ideas, data, and technology. The PC-based system fosters communication and discussion by linking the oil and gas producers with resource centers, government agencies, consulting firms, service companies, national laboratories, academic research groups, and universities throughout the world. The oil and gas producers can access the GO-TECH World Wide Web (WWW) home page through modem links, as well as through the Internet. Future GO-TECH applications will include the establishment of virtual corporations consisting of consortia of small companies, consultants, andmore » service companies linked by electronic information systems. These virtual corporations will have the resources and expertise previously found only in major corporations.« less

Conceptualizing agency: Folkpsychological and folkcommunicative perspectives on plants.

PubMed

Ojalehto, Bethany L; Medin, Douglas L; García, Salino G

2017-05-01

The present research addresses cultural variation in concepts of agency. Across two experiments, we investigate how Indigenous Ngöbe of Panama and US college students interpret and make inferences about nonhuman agency, focusing on plants as a critical test case. In Experiment 1, participants predicted goal-directed actions for plants and other nonhuman kinds and judged their capacities for intentional agency. Goal-directed action is pervasive among living kinds and as such we expected cultural agreement on these predictions. However, we expected that interpretation of the capacities involved would differ based on cultural folktheories. As expected, Ngöbe and US participants both inferred that plants would engage in goal-directed action but Ngöbe were more likely to attribute intentional agency capacities to plants. Experiment 2 extends these findings by investigating action predictions and capacity attributions linked to complex forms of plant social agency recently discovered in botanical sciences (communication, kin altruism). We hypothesized that the Ngöbe view of plants as active agents would productively guide inferences for plant social interaction. Indeed, Ngöbe were more likely than US participants to infer that plants can engage in social behaviors and they also attributed more social agency capacities to plants. We consolidate these findings by using bottom-up consensus modeling to show that these cultural differences reflect two distinct conceptual models of agency rather than variations on a single (universal) model. We consider these findings in light of current theories of domain-specificity and animism, and offer an alternative account based on a folktheory of communication that infers agency on the basis of relational interactions rather than having a mind. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Place-focused physical activity research, human agency, and social justice in public health: taking agency seriously in studies of the built environment.

PubMed

Blacksher, Erika; Lovasi, Gina S

2012-03-01

Built environment characteristics have been linked to health outcomes and health disparities. However, the effects of an environment on behavior may depend on human perception, interpretation, motivation, and other forms of human agency. We draw on epidemiological and ethical concepts to articulate a critique of research on the built environment and physical activity. We identify problematic assumptions and enumerate both scientific and ethical reasons to incorporate subjective perspectives and public engagement strategies into built environment research and interventions. We maintain that taking agency seriously is essential to the pursuit of health equity and the broader demands of social justice in public health, an important consideration as studies of the built environment and physical activity increasingly focus on socially disadvantaged communities. Attention to how people understand their environment and navigate competing demands can improve the scientific value of ongoing efforts to promote active living and health, while also better fulfilling our ethical obligations to the individuals and communities whose health we strive to protect. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A proposed framework of big data readiness in public sectors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ali, Raja Haslinda Raja Mohd; Mohamad, Rosli; Sudin, Suhizaz

2016-08-01

Growing interest over big data mainly linked to its great potential to unveil unforeseen pattern or profiles that support organisation's key business decisions. Following private sector moves to embrace big data, the government sector has now getting into the bandwagon. Big data has been considered as one of the potential tools to enhance service delivery of the public sector within its financial resources constraints. Malaysian government, particularly, has considered big data as one of the main national agenda. Regardless of government commitment to promote big data amongst government agencies, degrees of readiness of the government agencies as well as their employees are crucial in ensuring successful deployment of big data. This paper, therefore, proposes a conceptual framework to investigate perceived readiness of big data potentials amongst Malaysian government agencies. Perceived readiness of 28 ministries and their respective employees will be assessed using both qualitative (interview) and quantitative (survey) approaches. The outcome of the study is expected to offer meaningful insight on factors affecting change readiness among public agencies on big data potentials and the expected outcome from greater/lower change readiness among the public sectors.

Space Communications

DTIC Science & Technology

1977-06-15

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY LINCOLN LABORATORY SPACE COMMUNICATIONS QUARTERLY TECHNICAL SUMMARY REPORT TO THE AIR FORCE...Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with the support of the Department of the Air Force under Contract F19628-76-C-0002. This report may be...four areas: support of communications-link testing by outside agencies, cooperative jamming tests, bit-error-rate measurements on the Air Force

77 FR 34854 - Prevailing Rate Systems; Special Wage Schedules for Nonappropriated Fund Automotive Mechanics

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-06-12

..., and job-grading standards for uniform application by all Federal agencies. While most FWS employees... hours required to complete a particular job. Since the change would de-link shop labor rates from... survey of similar jobs in the local area annually. An hourly flat rate would be established for each of...

Converging Streams: The Power of Collaboration among Service Groups. Linking Learning with Life.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Drew, Sam F., Jr.

This booklet discusses the collective power of collaboration among the three agencies that compose the Corporation for National Service (AmeriCorps, Learn and Serve America, and the National Senior Service Corps) and introduces the reader to a process of collaboration intended to strengthen existing services and to create new and higher-quality…

76 FR 68634 - Airworthiness Directives; General Electric Company (GE) CF6 Turbofan Engines

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-11-07

... Airworthiness Directives; General Electric Company (GE) CF6 Turbofan Engines AGENCY: Federal Aviation... ``(c) This AD applies to * * * and CF6-80A3 turbofan engines with left-hand links * * *.'' to ``(c) This AD applies to * * * and CF6-80A3 turbofan engines, including engines marked on the engine data...

State Education Agencies, Information Systems, and the Expansion of State Power in the Era of Test-Based Accountability

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anagnostopoulos, Dorothea; Rutledge, Stacey; Bali, Valentina

2013-01-01

This article examines how SEAs in three states designed, installed, and operated statewide, longitudinal student information systems (SLSIS). SLSIS track individual students' progress in K-12 schools, college, and beyond and link it to individual schools and teachers. They are key components of the information infrastructure of test-based…

An overview of accounting and budgeting.

PubMed

Cawein, C

2001-01-01

Accounting is inextricably linked with daily professional practice and commerce. No individual, organization, or business can survive without some understanding of the basic concepts of accounting. Having knowledge of fundamental concepts of accounting will relieve some of the pressures imposed by governmental regulatory agencies and legislative requirements, and assist healthcare workers in operating more effectively and competing more successfully.

Linking Welfare Recipients to Jobs: The Role of Temporary Help Agencies.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bugarin, Alicia

Successful welfare reform requires quickly moving welfare recipients into jobs. Components to this challenge include the following: a poor fit between where jobs are located and where many welfare recipients live; recipients who lack experience and skills and do not know how to seek, find, or qualify for jobs; childcare and transportation needs;…

FHM lichen community results from Wyoming, 1997: a preliminary summary

Treesearch

Peter Neitlich; Linda Hasselback; Susan Szewczak; Paul Rogers

1999-01-01

The Forest Health Monitoring (FHM) program seeks to assess the condition and trend of the forests of the United States (Riiters et al. 1992; NAPAP 1993). FHM is linked with the national sampling grid established by the Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP) of the Environmental Protection Agency. Epiphytic lichen communities were included in FHM because...

ACHP |Partnering to Promote Heritage Tourism in Local Communities: Guidance

Science.gov Websites

Publications Search skip specific nav links Home arrow Heritage Tourism arrow Partnering to Promote Heritage Tourism in Local Communities: Guidance for Federal Agencies Partnering to Promote Heritage Tourism in historic places. Such tourism - heritage tourism -can result in a variety of tangible and intangible

The Self in Action Effects: Selective Attenuation of Self-Generated Sounds

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weiss, Carmen; Herwig, Arvid; Schutz-Bosbach, Simone

2011-01-01

The immediate experience of self-agency, that is, the experience of generating and controlling our actions, is thought to be a key aspect of selfhood. It has been suggested that this experience is intimately linked to internal motor signals associated with the ongoing actions. These signals should lead to an attenuation of the sensory consequences…

Teacher Agency in the Canadian Context: Linking the "How" and the "What"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fu, Guopeng; Clarke, Anthony

2017-01-01

Even though there is no common conceptual basis guiding teacher education in Canada, over the past two decades teacher educators both in Canada and around the world have called for teacher candidates to become agents of change. While researchers across Canada strive to demonstrate "how" to prepare pre- and in-service teachers to be…

Using Institutional Resources and Agency to Support Graduate Students' Success at a Hispanic Serving Institution

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tran, Natalie A.; Jean-Marie, Gaetane; Powers, Katherine; Bell, Sean; Sanders, Kimberly

2016-01-01

There is a growing body of evidence that links increased social capital to minority student success in college. This paper seeks to expand specifically on the graduate experience of underrepresented minorities (URM) at a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) using the social capital framework. In a cross-sectional survey, 198 graduate students…

77 FR 51698 - Authorization To Seize Property Involved in Drug Offenses for Administrative Forfeiture (2012R-9P)

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-08-27

... obtained. In recognition of the link between drug trafficking and many criminal organizations, the Attorney... to combat firearm-related violent crime. The nexus between drug trafficking and firearm violence is... Involved in Drug Offenses for Administrative Forfeiture (2012R-9P) AGENCY: Department of Justice. ACTION...

Visual Analytics in Public Safety: Example Capabilities for Example Government Agencies

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-10-01

is not limited to: the Police Records Information Management Environment for British Columbia (PRIME-BC), the Police Reporting and Occurrence System...and filtering for rapid identification of relevant documents - Graphical environment for visual evidence marshaling - Interactive linking and...analytical reasoning facilitated by interactive visual interfaces and integration with computational analytics. Indeed, a wide variety of technologies

Student Follow-Up Using Automated Record Linkage Techniques: Lessons from Florida's Education and Training Placement Information Program (FETPIP).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pfeiffer, Jay J.

Florida's Education and Training Placement Information Program (FETPIP) is a statewide system linking the administrative databases of certain state and federal agencies to collect follow-up data on former students or program participants. The databases that are collected include those of the Florida Department of Corrections; Florida Department of…

75 FR 30393 - The Effects of Mountaintop Mines and Valley Fills on Aquatic Ecosystems of the Central...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-06-01

... opportunity to evaluate the data used to derive a benchmark for conductivity. By following the link below, reviewers may download the initial data and EPA's derivative data sets that were used to calculate the... surface coal mining projects, in coordination with Federal and State regulatory agencies ( http://www.epa...

Division of Personnel and Labor Relations, Department of Administration

Science.gov Websites

Skip to content State of Alaska myAlaska Departments State Employees Statewide Links Back to Top Search the Division of Personnel and Labor Relations site DOPLR State of Alaska For Employees Agency HR DOPLR Studies EEO Report SOA Employee Movement Workforce Profile Boards Personnel Board State Officer

Results of Kirari optical communication demonstration experiments with NICT optical ground station (KODEN) aiming for future classical and quantum communications in space

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Toyoshima, Morio; Takenaka, Hideki; Shoji, Yozo; Takayama, Yoshihisa; Koyama, Yoshisada; Kunimori, Hiroo

2012-05-01

Bi-directional ground-to-satellite laser communication experiments were successfully performed between the optical ground station developed by the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), located in Koganei City in suburban Tokyo, and a low earth orbit (LEO) satellite, the "Kirari" Optical Inter-orbit Communications Engineering Test Satellite (OICETS). The experiments were conducted in cooperation with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), and called the Kirari Optical communication Demonstration Experiments with the NICT optical ground station (or KODEN). The ground-to-OICETS laser communication experiment was the first in-orbit demonstration involving the LEO satellite. The laser communication experiment was conducted since March 2006. The polarization characteristics of an artificial laser source in space, such as Stokes parameters, and the degree of polarization were measured through space-to-ground atmospheric transmission paths, which results contribute to the link estimation for quantum key distribution via space and provide the potential for enhancements in quantum cryptography on a global scale in the future. The Phase-5 experiment, international laser communications experiments were also successfully conducted with four optical ground stations located in the United States, Spain, Germany, and Japan from April 2009 to September 2009. The purpose of the Phase-5 experiment was to establish OICETS-to-ground laser communication links from the different optical ground stations and the statistical analyses such as the normalized power, scintillation index, probability density function, auto-covariance function, and power spectral density were performed. Thus the applicability of the satellite laser communications was demonstrated, aiming not only for geostationary earth orbit-LEO links but also for ground-to-LEO optical links. This paper presents the results of the KODEN experiments and mainly introduces the common analyses among the different optical ground stations.

The IBA Rhodotron: an industrial high-voltage high-powered electron beam accelerator for polymers radiation processing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Van Lancker, Marc; Herer, Arnold; Cleland, Marshall R.; Jongen, Yves; Abs, Michel

1999-05-01

The Rhodotron is a high-voltage, high-power electron beam accelerator based on a design concept first proposed in 1989 by J. Pottier of the French Atomic Agency, Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique (CEA). In December 1991, the Belgian particle accelerator manufacturer, Ion Beam Applications s.a. (IBA) entered into an exclusive agreement with the CEA to develop and industrialize the Rhodotron. Electron beams have long been used as the preferential method to cross-link a variety of polymers, either in their bulk state or in their final form. Used extensively in the wire and cable industry to toughen insulating jackets, electron beam-treated plastics can demonstrate improved tensile and impact strength, greater abrasion resistance, increased temperature resistance and dramatically improved fire retardation. Electron beams are used to selectively cross-link or degrade a wide range of polymers in resin pellets form. Electron beams are also used for rapid curing of advanced composites, for cross-linking of floor-heating and sanitary pipes and for cross-linking of formed plastic parts. Other applications include: in-house and contract medical device sterilization, food irradiation in both electron and X-ray modes, pulp processing, electron beam doping of semi-conductors, gemstone coloration and general irradiation research. IBA currently markets three models of the Rhodotron, all capable of 10 MeV and alternate beam energies from 3 MeV upwards. The Rhodotron models TT100, TT200 and TT300 are typically specified with guaranteed beam powers of 35, 80 and 150 kW, respectively. Founded in 1986, IBA, a spin-off of the Cyclotron Research Center at the University of Louvain (UCL) in Belgium, is a pioneer in accelerator design for industrial-scale production.

Chemical and morphological comparison of erionite from Oregon, North Dakota, and Turkey

USGS Publications Warehouse

Lowers, Heather; Adams, David T.; Meeker, Gregory P.; Nutt, Constance J.

2010-01-01

Erionite, a fibrous zeolite, occurs in pediment gravel deposits near Killdeer Mountain, North Dakota. Material from these pediment deposits has been excavated for use as roadbed throughout Dunn County, North Dakota. Erionite also occurs in the Cappadocian region of Turkey, where a link between malignant mesothelioma and inhalation of this mineral has been established. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Region 8, requested that the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) compare the chemistry and morphology of erionite collected from the Killdeer Mountains to those collected from villages in Turkey and from Rome, Oregon, which has also been linked to disease in animal studies.

Developing Multi-Agency Leadership in Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Close, Paul

2012-01-01

This article contributes to the growing debate around how we understand and develop multi-agency leadership in children and young people's services. Bringing together a range of inter-disciplinary research, it presents a framework for multi-agency leadership development, which, it argues, is well theorised, multi-level and versed in key field…

The sense of agency is action-effect causality perception based on cross-modal grouping.

PubMed

Kawabe, Takahiro; Roseboom, Warrick; Nishida, Shin'ya

2013-07-22

Sense of agency, the experience of controlling external events through one's actions, stems from contiguity between action- and effect-related signals. Here we show that human observers link their action- and effect-related signals using a computational principle common to cross-modal sensory grouping. We first report that the detection of a delay between tactile and visual stimuli is enhanced when both stimuli are synchronized with separate auditory stimuli (experiment 1). This occurs because the synchronized auditory stimuli hinder the potential grouping between tactile and visual stimuli. We subsequently demonstrate an analogous effect on observers' key press as an action and a sensory event. This change is associated with a modulation in sense of agency; namely, sense of agency, as evaluated by apparent compressions of action-effect intervals (intentional binding) or subjective causality ratings, is impaired when both participant's action and its putative visual effect events are synchronized with auditory tones (experiments 2 and 3). Moreover, a similar role of action-effect grouping in determining sense of agency is demonstrated when the additional signal is presented in the modality identical to an effect event (experiment 4). These results are consistent with the view that sense of agency is the result of general processes of causal perception and that cross-modal grouping plays a central role in these processes.

The sense of agency is action–effect causality perception based on cross-modal grouping

PubMed Central

Kawabe, Takahiro; Roseboom, Warrick; Nishida, Shin'ya

2013-01-01

Sense of agency, the experience of controlling external events through one's actions, stems from contiguity between action- and effect-related signals. Here we show that human observers link their action- and effect-related signals using a computational principle common to cross-modal sensory grouping. We first report that the detection of a delay between tactile and visual stimuli is enhanced when both stimuli are synchronized with separate auditory stimuli (experiment 1). This occurs because the synchronized auditory stimuli hinder the potential grouping between tactile and visual stimuli. We subsequently demonstrate an analogous effect on observers' key press as an action and a sensory event. This change is associated with a modulation in sense of agency; namely, sense of agency, as evaluated by apparent compressions of action–effect intervals (intentional binding) or subjective causality ratings, is impaired when both participant's action and its putative visual effect events are synchronized with auditory tones (experiments 2 and 3). Moreover, a similar role of action–effect grouping in determining sense of agency is demonstrated when the additional signal is presented in the modality identical to an effect event (experiment 4). These results are consistent with the view that sense of agency is the result of general processes of causal perception and that cross-modal grouping plays a central role in these processes. PMID:23740784

Assessing Climate Risk on Agricultural Production: Insights Using Retrospective Analysis of Crop Insurance and Climatic Trends

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reyes, J. J.; Elias, E.; Eischens, A.; Shilts, M.; Rango, A.; Steele, R.

2017-12-01

The collaborative synthesis of existing datasets, such as long-term climate observations and farmers' crop insurance payments, can increase their overall collective value and societal application. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Climate Hubs were created to develop and deliver science-based information and technologies to agricultural and natural resource managers to enable climate-informed decision-making. As part of this mission, Hubs work across USDA and other climate service agencies to synthesize existing information. The USDA Risk Management Agency (RMA) is responsible for overseeing the Federal crop insurance program which currently insures over $100 billion in crops annually. RMA hosts data describing the cause for loss (e.g. drought, wind, irrigation failure) and indemnity amount (i.e. total cost of loss) at multiple spatio-temporal scales (i.e. state, county, year, month). The objective of this paper is to link climate information with indemnities, and their associated cause of loss, to assess climate risk on agricultural production and provide regionally-relevant information to stakeholders to promote resilient working landscapes. We performed a retrospective trend analysis at the state-level for the American Southwest (SW). First, we assessed indemnity-only trends by cause of loss and crop type at varying temporal scales. Historical monthly weather data (i.e. precipitation and temperature) and long-term drought indices (e.g. Palmer Drought Severity Index) were then linked with indemnities and grouped by different causes of loss. Climatological ranks were used to integrate historical comparative intensity of acute and long-term climatic events. Heat and drought as causes of loss were most correlated with temperature and drought indicators, respectively. Across all SW states increasing indemnities were correlated with warmer conditions. Multiple statistical trend analyses suggest a framework is necessary to appropriately measure the biophysical signals in crop insurance trends taking into account spatio-temporal characteristics. Based on stakeholder feedback, we also developed a web-based information browser to visualize and assess indemnity trends providing useful and usable knowledge to support informed land management decisions and ecosystem resilience.

Principles and processes for effecting change in environmental management in New Zealand.

PubMed

Valentine, Ian; Hurley, Evelyn; Reid, Janet; Allen, Will

2007-02-01

In New Zealand environmental management is essentially the responsibility of land managers. Management decisions affect both production/productivity and the environment. However, responsibility for ensuring positive environmental outcomes falls on both local (Regional) and Central Government, and both they and international agencies such as the OECD would wish to monitor and report on changes. In terms of policy, strong links have been established via Central and Regional Government to land managers. Consumers in the market place are also, increasingly, requiring responsibility for positive environmental outcomes of those who purchase and process primary products. Strong links for responsibility have been established between our international markets and processing businesses and there is a noticeable strengthening of the links from the processors to the land manager/producer. In New Zealand a range of initiatives has been developed and implemented over recent times, whereby land managers are taking increasing responsibility for accounting for the environmental outcomes of their production activities. The range covers the spectrum from voluntary to compulsory (e.g., in order to meet market requirements) and from those initiated by customers to processor and/or producer initiatives. This paper follows the evolution of the principles that drove the predominant activities of the period and the processes that initiated the changes in environmental management. As the focus of agriculturalists changed from pioneering in a new world, to establishing a production base, to economic reality, and finally to environmental responsibility, the processes of extension adapted to meet the new challenge.

Conceptual model of comprehensive research metrics for improved human health and environment.

PubMed

Engel-Cox, Jill A; Van Houten, Bennett; Phelps, Jerry; Rose, Shyanika W

2008-05-01

Federal, state, and private research agencies and organizations have faced increasing administrative and public demand for performance measurement. Historically, performance measurement predominantly consisted of near-term outputs measured through bibliometrics. The recent focus is on accountability for investment based on long-term outcomes. Developing measurable outcome-based metrics for research programs has been particularly challenging, because of difficulty linking research results to spatially and temporally distant outcomes. Our objective in this review is to build a logic model and associated metrics through which to measure the contribution of environmental health research programs to improvements in human health, the environment, and the economy. We used expert input and literature research on research impact assessment. With these sources, we developed a logic model that defines the components and linkages between extramural environmental health research grant programs and the outputs and outcomes related to health and social welfare, environmental quality and sustainability, economics, and quality of life. The logic model focuses on the environmental health research portfolio of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) Division of Extramural Research and Training. The model delineates pathways for contributions by five types of institutional partners in the research process: NIEHS, other government (federal, state, and local) agencies, grantee institutions, business and industry, and community partners. The model is being applied to specific NIEHS research applications and the broader research community. We briefly discuss two examples and discuss the strengths and limits of outcome-based evaluation of research programs.

Developing a framework for critical science agency through case study in a conceptual physics context

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Basu, Sreyashi Jhumki; Calabrese Barton, Angela; Clairmont, Neil; Locke, Donya

2009-06-01

In this manuscript we examine how two students develop and express agency in and through high school physics. We tell the stories of two youth from a low-income, urban community to elucidate the important components of critical science agency in a physics context, and to situate a set of claims about how youth develop and express this concept. This research is part of a larger multiyear study of democratic practice in middle- and high-school science. We present three claims: (a) that critical science agency is intimately related to the leveraging and development of identity, (b) that critical science agency involves the strategic deployment of resources , and (c) that developing critical science agency is an iterative and generative process. Two university researchers have co-written this paper with the two students whose experiences serve as the cases under investigation, to provide both an "emic" perspective and student-focused voices that complement and challenge the researchers' voices.

Mapping groundwater reserves in northwestern Cambodia with the combined use of data from lithologs and time-domain-electromagnetic and magnetic-resonance soundings

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Valois, Remi; Vouillamoz, Jean-Michel; Lun, Sambo; Arnout, Ludovic

2018-06-01

Lack of access to water is the primary constraint to development in rural areas of northwestern Cambodia. Communities lack water for both domestic and irrigation purposes. To provide access to drinking water, governmental and aid agencies have focused on drilling shallow boreholes but they have not had a clear understanding of groundwater potential. The goal of this study has been to improve hydrogeological knowledge of two districts in Oddar Meanchey Province by analyzing borehole lithologs and geophysical data sets. The comparison of 55 time-domain electromagnetic (TEM) soundings and lithologs, as well as 66 magnetic-resonance soundings (MRS) with TEM soundings, allows a better understanding of the links between geology, electrical resistivity and hydrogeological parameters such as the specific yield ( S y) derived from MRS. The main findings are that water inflow and S y are more related to electrical resistivity and elevation than to the litholog description. Indeed, conductive media are associated with a null value of S y, whereas resistive rocks at low elevation are always linked to strictly positive S y. A new methodology was developed to create maps of groundwater reserves based on 612 TEM soundings and the observed relationship between resistivity and S y. TEM soundings were inverted using a quasi-3D modeling approach called `spatially constrained inversion'. Such maps will, no doubt, be very useful for borehole siting and in the economic development of the province because they clearly distinguish areas of high groundwater-reserves potential from areas that lack reserves.