Crossing the Barriers: An Analysis of Market Barriers to Geothermal Development and Potential Improvement Scenarios

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

Young, Katherine R; Levine, Aaron L; Cook, Jeffrey J

Developers have identified many non-technical barriers to geothermal power development, including market barriers. Understanding the challenges to market deployment of geothermal power is important since obtaining power purchase agreements is often cited as one of the largest barriers to geothermal development. This paper discusses the impacts to deployment caused by market challenges, including market demand, price of electricity, policies and incentives.

The Future Cybersecurity Workforce: Going Beyond Technical Skills for Successful Cyber Performance.

PubMed

Dawson, Jessica; Thomson, Robert

2018-01-01

One of the challenges in writing an article reviewing the current state of cyber education and workforce development is that there is a paucity of quantitative assessment regarding the cognitive aptitudes, work roles, or team organization required by cybersecurity professionals to be successful. In this review, we argue that the people who operate within the cyber domain need a combination of technical skills, domain specific knowledge, and social intelligence to be successful. They, like the networks they operate, must also be reliable, trustworthy, and resilient. Defining the knowledge, skills, attributes, and other characteristics is not as simple as defining a group of technical skills that people can be trained on; the complexity of the cyber domain makes this a unique challenge. There has been little research devoted to exactly what attributes individuals in the cyber domain need. What research does exist places an emphasis on technical and engineering skills while discounting the important social and organizational influences that dictate success or failure in everyday settings. This paper reviews the literature on cyber expertise and cyber workforce development to identify gaps and then argues for the important contribution of social fit in the highly complex and heterogenous cyber workforce. We then identify six assumptions for the future of cybersecurity workforce development, including the requirement for systemic thinkers, team players, a love for continued learning, strong communication ability, a sense of civic duty, and a blend of technical and social skill. Finally, we make recommendations for social and cognitive metrics which may be indicative of future performance in cyber work roles to provide a roadmap for future scholars.

COMPREHENSIVE PLAN FOR A SUSTAINABLE URBAN WATERSHED

EPA Science Inventory

Technical Challenge. This proposal deals with the urban watershed. The urban watershed is important to the quality of life in the city. For many urban dwellers, the urban stream represents a unique opportunity for recreation and the experience of the ...

Technical cooperation on nuclear security between the United States and China : review of the past and opportunities for the future.

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

Pregenzer, Arian Leigh

2011-12-01

The United States and China are committed to cooperation to address the challenges of the next century. Technical cooperation, building on a long tradition of technical exchange between the two countries, can play an important role. This paper focuses on technical cooperation between the United States and China in the areas of nonproliferation, arms control and other nuclear security topics. It reviews cooperation during the 1990s on nonproliferation and arms control under the U.S.-China Arms Control Exchange, discusses examples of ongoing activities under the Peaceful Uses of Technology Agreement to enhance security of nuclear and radiological material, and suggests opportunitiesmore » for expanding technical cooperation between the defense nuclear laboratories of both countries to address a broader range of nuclear security topics.« less

Three Case Studies on Business Collaboration and Process Management

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fan, Shaokun

2012-01-01

The importance of collaboration has been recognized for more than 2000 years. While recent improvement in technology creates vast opportunities for collaboration, effective collaboration remains challenging as ad hoc teams work across time, geographical, language, and technical boundaries, and suffer from process inefficiency. My dissertation…

The Future Cybersecurity Workforce: Going Beyond Technical Skills for Successful Cyber Performance

PubMed Central

Dawson, Jessica; Thomson, Robert

2018-01-01

One of the challenges in writing an article reviewing the current state of cyber education and workforce development is that there is a paucity of quantitative assessment regarding the cognitive aptitudes, work roles, or team organization required by cybersecurity professionals to be successful. In this review, we argue that the people who operate within the cyber domain need a combination of technical skills, domain specific knowledge, and social intelligence to be successful. They, like the networks they operate, must also be reliable, trustworthy, and resilient. Defining the knowledge, skills, attributes, and other characteristics is not as simple as defining a group of technical skills that people can be trained on; the complexity of the cyber domain makes this a unique challenge. There has been little research devoted to exactly what attributes individuals in the cyber domain need. What research does exist places an emphasis on technical and engineering skills while discounting the important social and organizational influences that dictate success or failure in everyday settings. This paper reviews the literature on cyber expertise and cyber workforce development to identify gaps and then argues for the important contribution of social fit in the highly complex and heterogenous cyber workforce. We then identify six assumptions for the future of cybersecurity workforce development, including the requirement for systemic thinkers, team players, a love for continued learning, strong communication ability, a sense of civic duty, and a blend of technical and social skill. Finally, we make recommendations for social and cognitive metrics which may be indicative of future performance in cyber work roles to provide a roadmap for future scholars. PMID:29946276

Pharmacist Staffing, Technology Use, and Implementation of Medication Safety Practices in Rural Hospitals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Casey, Michelle M.; Moscovice, Ira S.; Davidson, Gestur

2006-01-01

Context: Medication safety is clearly an important quality issue for rural hospitals. However, rural hospitals face special challenges implementing medication safety practices in terms of their staffing and financial and technical resources. Purpose: This study assessed the capacity of small rural hospitals to implement medication safety…

Growth of Engineering Education in India: Status, Issues, and Challenges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Choudhury, Pradeep Kumar

2016-01-01

This article examines the growth of engineering education in India in the post-economic reform period using the secondary data published by Ministry of Human Resource Development, University Grants Commission and All India Council for Technical Education. Particularly, this article has focused on three important dimensions of engineering and…

Student-Centred Experiments with Stream Invertebrates

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vaughan, Ian; Larsen, Stefano; Durance, Isabelle; Ormerod, Steve

2011-01-01

Field experiments are at the core of ecology, yet rarely find their way into education, probably due to a combination of technical challenges and risks associated with fieldwork. This may compromise student education and perception of the subject, making interesting, readily manageable experiments extremely important. We describe how the daily…

Recycling Pressure-Sensitive Products

Treesearch

Jihui Guo; Larry Gwin; Carl Houtman; Mark Kroll; Steven J. Severtson

2012-01-01

The efficient control of contaminants such as metals, plastics, inks and adhesives during the processing of recovered paper products determines the profitability of recycling mills. In fact, it is arguably the most important technical obstacle in expanding the use of recycled paper.1-4 An especially challenging category of contaminants to manage...

Translating Legal Collocations in Contract Agreements by Iraqi EFL Students-Translators

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abdulwahid, Muntaha A.; Hamzah, Zaitul Azma Binti Zainon; Hajimaming, Pabiyah; Alkhawaja, Hussein W.

2017-01-01

Legal translation of contract agreements is a challenge to translators as it involves combining the literary translation with the technical terminological precision. In translating legal contract agreements, a legal translator must utilize the lexical or syntactic precision and, more importantly, the pragmatic awareness of the context. This will…

The Challenges of Career and Technical Education Concurrent Enrollment: An Administrative Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Haag, Patricia W.

2015-01-01

Career and technical education concurrent enrollment may pose unique challenges in programming and enrollment for program administrators, and this chapter describes the experiences and challenges of a CTE concurrent enrollment administrator.

Technical Challenges for a Comprehensive Test Ban: A historical perspective to frame the future (Invited)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wallace, T. C.

2013-12-01

In the summer of 1958 scientists from the Soviet block and the US allies met in Geneva to discuss what it would take to monitor a forerunner to a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty at the 'Conference of Experts to Study the Possibility of Detecting Violations of a Possible Agreement on Suspension of Nuclear Tests'. Although armed with a limited resume of observations, the conference recommended a multi-phenomenology approach (air sampling, acoustics, seismic and electromagnetic) deployed it a network of 170 sites scattered across the Northern Hemisphere, and hypothesized a detection threshold of 1kt for atmospheric tests and 5kt for underground explosions. The conference recommendations spurred vigorous debate, with strong disagreement with the stated detection hypothesis. Nevertheless, the technical challenges posed lead to a very focused effort to improve facilities, methodologies and, most importantly, research and development on event detection, location and identification. In the ensuing 50 years the various challenges arose and were eventually 'solved'; these included quantifying yield determination to enter a Limited Threshold Test Ban, monitoring broad areas of emerging nuclear nations, and after the mid-1990s lowering the global detection threshold to sub-kiloton levels for underground tests. Today there is both an international monitoring regime (ie, the International Monitoring System, or IMS) and a group of countries that have their own national technical means (NTM). The challenges for the international regime are evolving; the IMS has established itself as a very credible monitoring system, but the demand of a CTBT to detect and identify a 'nuclear test' of diminished size (zero yield) poses new technical hurdles. These include signal processing and understanding limits of resolution, location accuracy, integration of heterogeneous data, and accurately characterizing anomalous events. It is possible to extrapolate past technical advances to predict what should be available by 2020; detection of coupled explosions to 100s of tons for all continental areas, as well as a probabilistic assessment of event identification.

Socio-Technical Perspective on Interdisciplinary Interactions During the Development of Complex Engineered Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

McGowan, Anna-Maria R.; Daly, Shanna; Baker, Wayne; Papalambros, panos; Seifert, Colleen

2013-01-01

This study investigates interdisciplinary interactions that take place during the research, development, and early conceptual design phases in the design of large-scale complex engineered systems (LaCES) such as aerospace vehicles. These interactions, that take place throughout a large engineering development organization, become the initial conditions of the systems engineering process that ultimately leads to the development of a viable system. This paper summarizes some of the challenges and opportunities regarding social and organizational issues that emerged from a qualitative study using ethnographic and survey data. The analysis reveals several socio-technical couplings between the engineered system and the organization that creates it. Survey respondents noted the importance of interdisciplinary interactions and their benefits to the engineered system as well as substantial challenges in interdisciplinary interactions. Noted benefits included enhanced knowledge and problem mitigation and noted obstacles centered on organizational and human dynamics. Findings suggest that addressing the social challenges may be a critical need in enabling interdisciplinary interactions

Refined approach for quantification of in vivo ischemia-reperfusion injury in the mouse heart

PubMed Central

Medway, Debra J.; Schulz-Menger, Jeanette; Schneider, Jurgen E.; Neubauer, Stefan; Lygate, Craig A.

2009-01-01

Cardiac ischemia-reperfusion experiments in the mouse are important in vivo models of human disease. Infarct size is a particularly important scientific readout as virtually all cardiocirculatory pathways are affected by it. Therefore, such measurements must be exact and valid. The histological analysis, however, remains technically challenging, and the resulting quality is often unsatisfactory. For this report we have scrutinized each step involved in standard double-staining histology. We have tested published approaches and challenged their practicality. As a result, we propose an improved and streamlined protocol, which consistently yields high-quality histology, thereby minimizing experimental noise and group sizes. PMID:19820193

Robust Radio Broadcast Monitoring Using a Multi-Band Spectral Entropy Signature

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Camarena-Ibarrola, Antonio; Chávez, Edgar; Tellez, Eric Sadit

Monitoring media broadcast content has deserved a lot of attention lately from both academy and industry due to the technical challenge involved and its economic importance (e.g. in advertising). The problem pose a unique challenge from the pattern recognition point of view because a very high recognition rate is needed under non ideal conditions. The problem consist in comparing a small audio sequence (the commercial ad) with a large audio stream (the broadcast) searching for matches.

New Mexico Small Business Assistance

Science.gov Websites

expertise Technical Assistance Individual Assistance Individual Assistance Request Form Leveraged Projects Assistance (NMSBA) Program allows New Mexico small businesses facing a technical challenge to access the business, small businesses with a technical challenge can seek assistance from lab scientists or engineers

Ethics in global surgery.

PubMed

Wall, Anji E

2014-07-01

Global surgery, while historically a small niche, is becoming a larger part of the global health enterprise. This article discusses the burden of global surgery, emphasizing the importance of addressing surgical needs in low- and middle-income countries. It describes the barriers to surgical care in the developing world, the ethical challenges that these barriers create, and strategies to overcome these barriers. It emphasizes the crucial role of preparation for global surgical interventions as a way to maximize benefits as well as minimize harms and ethical challenges. It ends with the cautionary statement that preparation does not eliminate ethical problems, so surgical volunteers must be prepared not only for the technical challenges of global surgery but also for the ethical challenges.

The Colombian nuclear scenario: Challenges and opportunities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Martinez, Isabel

2016-07-01

In Colombia, the absence of nuclear-oriented policies based on technical knowledge, the closing of the Nuclear Affairs Institute (1956-1998), the association of the word "nuclear" with weapons, plus the country's last six decades of internal conflict and narcotraffic have discourage the technical, social and environmental nuclear advance. However, there are technical, social and economic national challenges that could be faced by the present nuclear technical capacities.

Teaching e-Commerce Personalization Technology: The Need for a Comprehensive View

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sicilia, Miguel-Angel

2005-01-01

Personalization technology has become an important topic in e-commerce, fostered by the emergence of the relationship-marketing paradigm. But teaching e-commerce personalization technology is a challenging task, since it requires a balance between marketing and management and technical implementation issues that must be calibrated according to the…

Prospects and Challenges for Using Microcomputers in School. Technical Report No. 7.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pea, Roy D.

Prepared as an address for educator groups, this paper provides a theoretical perspective for thinking about problems and prospects for integrating microcomputer uses in school activities. Six major aspects of the perspective are defined: (1) the computer as general-purpose symbolic device; (2) the importance of developmental studies of children's…

Laparoscopic partial nephrectomy: Technical considerations and an update

PubMed Central

Dominguez-Escrig, Jose L; Vasdev, Nikhil; O’Riordon, Anna; Soomro, Naeem

2011-01-01

The widespread use of radiological imaging (ultrasound, computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging) has resulted in a steady increase in the incidental diagnosis of small renal masses. While open partial nephrectomy (OPN) remains the reference standard for the management of small renal masses, laparoscopic partial nephrectomy (LPN) continues to evolve. LPN is currently advocated to be at par with OPN oncologically. The steep learning curve and technical demand of LPN make it challenging to establish this as a new procedure. We present a detailed up-to-date review on the previous, current and planned technical considerations for the use of LPN, highlighting important surgical techniques, including single-port and robotic surgery, techniques on improving intra-operative haemostasis and the management of complications specific to LPN. PMID:22022109

Examining the Challenging Hindrances facing in the Construction Projects: South India’s Perspective

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Subramanyam, K.; Haridharan, M. K.

2017-07-01

Developing countries like India require a huge infrastructure to facilitate needs of the people. Construction industry provides several opportunities to the individuals. Construction manager work is to supervise and organize the construction activities in construction projects. Now a day construction manager facing challenges. This paper aimed to study the challenges facing by the construction manager in the perception of construction professionals. 39 variables were taken from the literature review which found to be severe impact on construction managers’ performance. Construction manager, project manager and site engineers are the respondents for this survey. Using SPSS, regression analysis was done and recognized significant challenges. These challenges were classified into 5 domains. In management challenges, resource availability and allocation, risks and uncertainties existing in the project onsite, top management support and cost constraints are the most significant variables. In skills requirement of a construction manager challenges, technical skills required to learn and adapt new technology in the project, decision making and planning according to the situation in site are the most significant variables. In performance challenges, implementation of tasks according to the plan is the important variable whereas in onsite challenges, manage project risks, develop project policies and procedures are the most important.

A Perkins Challenge: Assessing Technical Skills in CTE

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stone, James R., III

2009-01-01

Federal law requires state to develop performance measures and data-collection systems for secondary and postsecondary technical-skill attainment. This poses many challenges, such as defining a technical skills, measurement and when to assess students. In this article, the author outlines various assessment models and looks at the challenges…

Education for a Working America. A Vision of Vocational Technical Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Association of State Directors of Vocational Technical Education Consortium.

This document presents the views of the National Association of State Directors of Vocational Technical Education regarding the challenge, mission, vision, underlying principles, practice, needs, and benefits/potential outcomes of vocational-technical education (VTE). The following topics are discussed: the challenge of making VTE the cornerstone…

Overcoming Resistance to New Ideas

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Powell, William; Kusuma-Powell, Ochan

2015-01-01

There are two types of challenges that adults face in their professional learning: technical and adaptive. Technical challenges simply require informational learning while adaptive challenges require transformational learning, which requires us to rethink our deeply held values, beliefs, assumptions, and even our professional identity. Adaptive…

Competencies for government veterinary services of the future: Summary of ISVEE 14 Yucatan 2015 roundtable discussion.

PubMed

Stärk, Katharina D C; Goncalves, Vitor S P; McCluskey, Brian J; Pinto, Julio; Tsutsui, Toshiyuki; Gibbens, Jane

2017-02-01

This short communication summarizes the strengths and weaknesses of current organisational structures in government veterinary services, as well as future technical, financial and societal challenges and related necessary competencies for government veterinary services of the future as discussed by an expert panel at ISVEE2015. First, participating representatives of veterinary services of diverse geographical backgrounds and statements from the audience confirmed that non-technical skills such as ability to work in teams, adaptability to new environments and situations, social and communication skills are increasingly seen as important. The second challenge faced by veterinary services is related to capacity issues, i.e. to have enough manpower to plan and deliver according to legislation in a period of shrinking budgets. New and emerging diseases can result in sudden, massive increases in the workload of veterinary services. Technical complexity has also increased for some hazards. Staff skills in veterinary services therefore need to be continuously updated, and it is essential to establish cross technical collaboration with other sectors including food safety, public health and environment. ISVEE conferences were seen as an opportunity to provide a global platform to develop skills needed by veterinary services, now and in the future. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Reply to comment by Añel on "Most computational hydrology is not reproducible, so is it really science?"

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hutton, Christopher; Wagener, Thorsten; Freer, Jim; Han, Dawei; Duffy, Chris; Arheimer, Berit

2017-03-01

In this article, we reply to a comment made on our previous commentary regarding reproducibility in computational hydrology. Software licensing and version control of code are important technical aspects of making code and workflows of scientific experiments open and reproducible. However, in our view, it is the cultural change that is the greatest challenge to overcome to achieve reproducible scientific research in computational hydrology. We believe that from changing the culture and attitude among hydrological scientists, details will evolve to cover more (technical) aspects over time.

Cybersecurity vulnerabilities in medical devices: a complex environment and multifaceted problem

PubMed Central

Williams, Patricia AH; Woodward, Andrew J

2015-01-01

The increased connectivity to existing computer networks has exposed medical devices to cybersecurity vulnerabilities from which they were previously shielded. For the prevention of cybersecurity incidents, it is important to recognize the complexity of the operational environment as well as to catalog the technical vulnerabilities. Cybersecurity protection is not just a technical issue; it is a richer and more intricate problem to solve. A review of the factors that contribute to such a potentially insecure environment, together with the identification of the vulnerabilities, is important for understanding why these vulnerabilities persist and what the solution space should look like. This multifaceted problem must be viewed from a systemic perspective if adequate protection is to be put in place and patient safety concerns addressed. This requires technical controls, governance, resilience measures, consolidated reporting, context expertise, regulation, and standards. It is evident that a coordinated, proactive approach to address this complex challenge is essential. In the interim, patient safety is under threat. PMID:26229513

Cybersecurity vulnerabilities in medical devices: a complex environment and multifaceted problem.

PubMed

Williams, Patricia Ah; Woodward, Andrew J

2015-01-01

The increased connectivity to existing computer networks has exposed medical devices to cybersecurity vulnerabilities from which they were previously shielded. For the prevention of cybersecurity incidents, it is important to recognize the complexity of the operational environment as well as to catalog the technical vulnerabilities. Cybersecurity protection is not just a technical issue; it is a richer and more intricate problem to solve. A review of the factors that contribute to such a potentially insecure environment, together with the identification of the vulnerabilities, is important for understanding why these vulnerabilities persist and what the solution space should look like. This multifaceted problem must be viewed from a systemic perspective if adequate protection is to be put in place and patient safety concerns addressed. This requires technical controls, governance, resilience measures, consolidated reporting, context expertise, regulation, and standards. It is evident that a coordinated, proactive approach to address this complex challenge is essential. In the interim, patient safety is under threat.

Rich Schools--Poor Schools: Challenges for Rural and Urban Pennsylvania. Technical Paper No. 8.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Center for Rural Pennsylvania, Harrisburg.

This report examines the wealth of Pennsylvania school districts, the effort districts exert to support education, school expenditures, and the effects of district wealth on students. Important findings related to disparities in wealth and spending on education include: (1) the polarization of wealth distribution during the 1980s made over 90% of…

What have we learned, and what is new in watershed science?

Treesearch

Robert R. Ziemer; Leslie M. Reid

1997-01-01

Abstract - Important new lessons are not in technical details, but in how to scale up the details to apply to large watersheds and landscapes. Nearly three years of experience with the Northwest Forest Plan have revealed some major new challenges in the fields of watershed science. In particular, managers and resource specialists engaged in watershed analysis...

Safety evaluation of cosmetics in the EU. Reality and challenges for the toxicologist.

PubMed

Pauwels, Marleen; Rogiers, Vera

2004-06-15

Council Directive 76/768/EEC, its seven amendments and 30 adaptations to technical progress form the basis of the cosmetic EU legislation today. There are actually four key principles for safety in the cosmetic legislation. (i) The full responsibility for the safety of cosmetics for human health is placed on the manufacturer, first importer in the EU or marketer. (ii) The safety evaluation of finished products is based on safety of individual ingredients, more specifically on their chemical structure, toxicological profile and their level of exposure. (iii) A compilation of information on each cosmetic product (dossier) must be kept readily available for inspection by the competent authorities of the Member State concerned. This information source, usually called a technical information file (TIF) or product information file/requirements (PIF(R)), contains, as the most important part, the safety assessment of the product undersigned by a competent safety assessor. (iv) The use of validated replacement alternative methods instead of animal testing forms the 4th key principle for safety of cosmetic products on the EU market. The 7th amendment imposes strict deadlines for the abolition of animal in vivo studies on cosmetic ingredients. These legal requirements induce a number of important challenges for the cosmetic industry and more specifically for the toxicologist involved as safety assessor.

A crunch on thermocompression flip chip bonding

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Suppiah, Sarveshvaran; Ong, Nestor Rubio; Sauli, Zaliman; Sarukunaselan, Karunavani; Alcain, Jesselyn Barro; Mahmed, Norsuria; Retnasamy, Vithyacharan

2017-09-01

This study discussed the evolution and important findings, critical technical challenges, solutions and bonding equipment of flip chip thermo compression bonding (TCB). The bonding force, temperature and time were the key bonding parameters that need to be tweaked based on the researches done by others. TCB technology worked well with both pre-applied underfill and flux (still under development). Lower throughput coupled with higher processing costs was example of challenges in the TCB technology. The paper is concluded with a brief description of the current equipment used in thermo compression process.

A review of Integrated Vehicle Health Management tools for legacy platforms: Challenges and opportunities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Esperon-Miguez, Manuel; John, Philip; Jennions, Ian K.

2013-01-01

Integrated Vehicle Health Management (IVHM) comprises a set of tools, technologies and techniques for automated detection, diagnosis and prognosis of faults in order to support platforms more efficiently. Specific challenges are faced when IVHM tools are to be retrofitted into legacy vehicles since major modifications are much more challenging than with platforms whose design can still be modified. The topics covered in this Review Paper include the state of the art of IVHM tools and how their characteristics match the requirements of legacy aircraft, a summary of problems faced in the past trying to retrofit IVHM tools both from a technical and organisational perspective and the current level of implementation of IVHM in industry. Although the technology has not reached the level necessary to implement IVHM to its full potential on every kind of component, significant progress has been achieved on rotating equipment, structures or electronics. Attempts to retrofit some of these tools in the past faced both technical difficulties and opposition by some stakeholders, the later being responsible for the failure of technically sound projects in more than one occasion. Nevertheless, despite these difficulties, products and services based on IVHM technology have started to be offered by the manufacturers and, what is more important, demanded by the operators, providing guidance on what the industry would demand from IVHM on legacy aircraft.

A review of tags anti-collision and localization protocols in RFID networks.

PubMed

Ullah, S; Alsalih, W; Alsehaim, A; Alsadhan, N

2012-12-01

Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) has allowed the realization of ubiquitous tracking and monitoring of physical objects wirelessly with minimum human interactions. It plays a key role in a wide range of applications including asset tracking, contactless payment, access control, transportation and logistics, and other industrial applications. On the other side, RFID systems face several technical challenges that need to be overcome in order to achieve their potential benefits; tags collisions and localization of tagged objects are two important challenges. Numerous anti-collision and localization protocols have been proposed to address these challenges. This paper reviews the state-of-art tags' anti-collision and localization protocols, and provides a deep insight into technical issues of these protocols. The probabilistic and deterministic anti-collision protocols are critically studied and compared in terms of different parameters. We further review distance estimation, scene analysis, and proximity localization schemes and provide useful suggestions. We also introduce a new hybrid direction that utilizes power control to spatially partition the interrogation range of a reader for more efficient anti-collision and localization. Finally, we present the applications of RFID systems in healthcare sectors.

X-ray Diffraction and Multi-Frame Phase Contrast Imaging Diagnostics for IMPULSE at the Advanced Photon Source

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

Iverson, Adam; Carlson, Carl; Young, Jason

2013-07-08

The diagnostic needs of any dynamic loading platform present unique technical challenges that must be addressed in order to accurately measure in situ material properties in an extreme environment. The IMPULSE platform (IMPact system for Ultrafast Synchrotron Experiments) at the Advanced Photon Source (APS) is no exception and, in fact, may be more challenging, as the imaging diagnostics must be synchronized to both the experiment and the 60 ps wide x-ray bunches produced at APS. The technical challenges of time-resolved x-ray diffraction imaging and high-resolution multi-frame phase contrast imaging (PCI) are described in this paper. Example data from recent IMPULSEmore » experiments are shown to illustrate the advances and evolution of these diagnostics with a focus on comparing the performance of two intensified CCD cameras and their suitability for multi-frame PCI. The continued development of these diagnostics is fundamentally important to IMPULSE and many other loading platforms and will benefit future facilities such as the Dynamic Compression Sector at APS and MaRIE at Los Alamos National Laboratory.« less

Scaffold Translation: Barriers Between Concept and Clinic

PubMed Central

Murphy, William L.

2011-01-01

Translation of scaffold-based bone tissue engineering (BTE) therapies to clinical use remains, bluntly, a failure. This dearth of translated tissue engineering therapies (including scaffolds) remains despite 25 years of research, research funding totaling hundreds of millions of dollars, over 12,000 papers on BTE and over 2000 papers on BTE scaffolds alone in the past 10 years (PubMed search). Enabling scaffold translation requires first an understanding of the challenges, and second, addressing the complete range of these challenges. There are the obvious technical challenges of designing, manufacturing, and functionalizing scaffolds to fill the Form, Fixation, Function, and Formation needs of bone defect repair. However, these technical solutions should be targeted to specific clinical indications (e.g., mandibular defects, spine fusion, long bone defects, etc.). Further, technical solutions should also address business challenges, including the need to obtain regulatory approval, meet specific market needs, and obtain private investment to develop products, again for specific clinical indications. Finally, these business and technical challenges present a much different model than the typical research paradigm, presenting the field with philosophical challenges in terms of publishing and funding priorities that should be addressed as well. In this article, we review in detail the technical, business, and philosophical barriers of translating scaffolds from Concept to Clinic. We argue that envisioning and engineering scaffolds as modular systems with a sliding scale of complexity offers the best path to addressing these translational challenges. PMID:21902613

The importance of comprehensive agricultural education in land-grant institutions: a historical perspective.

PubMed

Grant, P M; Field, T G; Green, R D; Rollin, B E

2000-06-01

Any thorough examination of the present and future of agricultural education must certainly begin with a look into its past. Since the creation of the United States, many leading American philosophers have viewed a strong agrarian culture as the bedrock of American vigor. These same philosophers repeatedly noted the significance of comprehensive agricultural education to a nation rich in agricultural wealth. The signing of the Agricultural Colleges Act legitimized the concept of formal education in the agricultural sciences and provided funding for such education. The Act, which came to be known as the Morrill Act, after one of its primary authors, stressed the importance of comprehensive education. In fact, the inclusion of liberal studies was specifically mentioned in the Morrill Act and was defended repeatedly by Morrill himself. Comprehensive education prevented graduating technically trained students who were lacking in the basic outcomes of education--critical, comprehensive problem solving, cohesive thought, and effective communication. However, throughout history, the demands of a growing population coupled with rapid advancements in scientific knowledge led to a gradual move away from comprehensive education in agricultural sciences toward increasing specialization, resulting in more narrowly trained students. Today's agricultural students are technically well versed but often lack the skill and knowledge required for cohesive thought and critical problem solving. Addressing the multitude of challenges facing leaders in the future of agriculture requires much more than technical skill. These challenges require quick, yet careful thinkers and communicators who can respond to changing market structure and consumer demand in a dynamic way. Students who are a product of a conscious move toward amalgamation of burgeoning scientific knowledge and technical prowess with an integrative education emphasizing relationships between disciplines would better serve tomorrow's agriculture.

MO-G-12A-01: Quantitative Imaging Metrology: What Should Be Assessed and How?

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

Giger, M; Petrick, N; Obuchowski, N

The first two symposia in the Quantitative Imaging Track focused on 1) the introduction of quantitative imaging (QI) challenges and opportunities, and QI efforts of agencies and organizations such as the RSNA, NCI, FDA, and NIST, and 2) the techniques, applications, and challenges of QI, with specific examples from CT, PET/CT, and MR. This third symposium in the QI Track will focus on metrology and its importance in successfully advancing the QI field. While the specific focus will be on QI, many of the concepts presented are more broadly applicable to many areas of medical physics research and applications. Asmore » such, the topics discussed should be of interest to medical physicists involved in imaging as well as therapy. The first talk of the session will focus on the introduction to metrology and why it is critically important in QI. The second talk will focus on appropriate methods for technical performance assessment. The third talk will address statistically valid methods for algorithm comparison, a common problem not only in QI but also in other areas of medical physics. The final talk in the session will address strategies for publication of results that will allow statistically valid meta-analyses, which is critical for combining results of individual studies with typically small sample sizes in a manner that can best inform decisions and advance the field. Learning Objectives: Understand the importance of metrology in the QI efforts. Understand appropriate methods for technical performance assessment. Understand methods for comparing algorithms with or without reference data (i.e., “ground truth”). Understand the challenges and importance of reporting results in a manner that allows for statistically valid meta-analyses.« less

Challenges of deploying nuclear energy for power generation in Malaysia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jaafar, Mohd Zamzam; Nazaruddin, Nurul Huda; Lye, Jonathan Tan Thiam

2017-01-01

Under the 10th Malaysia Plan (2010-2015) and the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP), nuclear energy was identified as a potential long-term option to be explored for electricity generation in Peninsular Malaysia. The energy sector in Malaysia currently faces several concerns including depleting domestic gas supply which will affect security and reliability of supply as well as overdependance on fossil fuels - mainly gas and imported coal, and nuclear energy may offer a possible solution to these issues as well as global climate change concern. Pursuing the nuclear option, Malaysia Nuclear Power Corporation (MNPC) is undertaking a series of comprehensive studies to facilitate an informed Government decision on the matter. This paper aims to discuss the many challenges towards the peaceful use of nuclear energy for electricity generation in the context of the New Energy Policy 2010 to achieve a balanced and sustainable energy mix. This effort will continue in the 11th Malaysia Plan (2016-2020) with emphasis on implementing a comprehensive communications plan and public awareness programme for the potential use of nuclear energy in the future. In analysing the challenges for the development of nuclear energy in Malaysia, the traditional triple bottom line (TBL) framework for sustainability, encompassing economic, social and environmental objectives is utilized. An additional factor, technical, is also included in the analysis to provide a more holistic view. It is opined that the main challenges of developing nuclear energy for electricity generation in a newcomer country like Malaysia can be attributed primarily to domestic non-technical factors compared to the technical factor.

Ares I-X Roll Control System Development

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Unger, Ronald J.; Massey, Edmund C.

2009-01-01

Project Managers often face challenging technical, schedule and budget issues. This presentation will explore how the Ares I-X Roll Control System Integrated Product Team (IPT) mitigated challenges such as concurrent engineering requirements and environments and evolving program processes, while successfully managing an aggressive project schedule and tight budget. IPT challenges also included communications and negotiations among inter- and intra-government agencies, including the US Air Force, NASA/MSFC Propulsion Engineering, LaRC, GRC, KSC, WSTF, and the Constellation Program. In order to successfully meet these challenges it was essential that the IPT define those items that most affected the schedule critical path, define early mitigation strategies to reduce technical, schedule, and budget risks, and maintain the end-product focus of an "unmanned test flight" context for the flight hardware. The makeup of the IPT and how it would function were also important considerations. The IPT consisted of NASA/MSFC (project management, engineering, and safety/quality) and contractors (Teledyne Brown Engineering and Pratt and Whitney Rocketdyne, who supplied heritage hardware experience). The early decision to have a small focused IPT working "badgelessly" across functional lines to eliminate functional stove-piping allowed for many more tasks to be done by fewer people. It also enhanced a sense of ownership of the products, while still being able to revert back to traditional roles in order to provide the required technical independence in design reviews and verification closures. This presentation will highlight several prominent issues and discuss how they were mitigated and the resulting Lessons Learned that might benefit other projects.

Large-scale CO2 storage — Is it feasible?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Johansen, H.

2013-06-01

CCS is generally estimated to have to account for about 20% of the reduction of CO2 emissions to the atmosphere. This paper focuses on the technical aspects of CO2 storage, even if the CCS challenge is equally dependent upon finding viable international solutions to a wide range of economic, political and cultural issues. It has already been demonstrated that it is technically possible to store adequate amounts of CO2 in the subsurface (Sleipner, InSalah, Snøhvit). The large-scale storage challenge (several Gigatons of CO2 per year) is more an issue of minimizing cost without compromising safety, and of making international regulations.The storage challenge may be split into 4 main parts: 1) finding reservoirs with adequate storage capacity, 2) make sure that the sealing capacity above the reservoir is sufficient, 3) build the infrastructure for transport, drilling and injection, and 4) set up and perform the necessary monitoring activities. More than 150 years of worldwide experience from the production of oil and gas is an important source of competence for CO2 storage. The storage challenge is however different in three important aspects: 1) the storage activity results in pressure increase in the subsurface, 2) there is no production of fluids that give important feedback on reservoir performance, and 3) the monitoring requirement will have to extend for a much longer time into the future than what is needed during oil and gas production. An important property of CO2 is that its behaviour in the subsurface is significantly different from that of oil and gas. CO2 in contact with water is reactive and corrosive, and may impose great damage on both man-made and natural materials, if proper precautions are not executed. On the other hand, the long-term effect of most of these reactions is that a large amount of CO2 will become immobilized and permanently stored as solid carbonate minerals. The reduced opportunity for direct monitoring of fluid samples close to the reservoir, the general pressure build up, and the reactive nature of CO2, have created a need for new research and knowledge, to be used in conjunction with operating competence from the oil and gas industry. Experimental work on fluid flow, deformation and reaction, as well as simulations to predict the future performance of the injected CO2, are much more important in connection with CO2 storage, as compared with conventional oil and gas production. To conclude this overview of the CO2 storage challenge, the technical feasibility of large-scale CO2 storage has been demonstrated. The cost is however going to be significant, especially in the initial phase. The public acceptance of CCS, and the willingness to pay the bill, will depend on several important factors: a serious acceptance of the climate problem, economic and political regulations that are globally fair, and the willingness of each and one of us to accept a higher price for energy.

Vocational and Technical Education in Lebanon: Strategic Issues and Challenges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Karam, Gebran

2006-01-01

The current status of the Lebanese vocational and technical education (VTE) system is assessed and the strategic issues and challenges facing it are identified. In addition to the economic and social challenges that are common to many developing countries, the Lebanese system suffers from idiosyncratic problems, which may require innovative and…

Supersonics Project: Airport Noise Technical Challenge

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bridges, James E.

2008-01-01

This presentation gives an overview of the work being done under the Airport Noise Technical Challenge portion of the Supersonics Project in the Fundamental Aeronautics Program. The objective of the Challenge is to provide technology (e.g. low noise nozzle concepts) and engineering tools required for a viable supersonic aircraft. To accomplish this we have activities divided into Prediction, Diagnostics, and Engineering elements. Each of the tasks reviewed here have potential applications to work being done at other flight regimes and other aircraft and are of interest to the Acoustics Technical Working Group.

Crowdsourcing in biomedicine: challenges and opportunities

PubMed Central

Khare, Ritu; Good, Benjamin M.; Leaman, Robert; Su, Andrew I.

2016-01-01

The use of crowdsourcing to solve important but complex problems in biomedical and clinical sciences is growing and encompasses a wide variety of approaches. The crowd is diverse and includes online marketplace workers, health information seekers, science enthusiasts and domain experts. In this article, we review and highlight recent studies that use crowdsourcing to advance biomedicine. We classify these studies into two broad categories: (i) mining big data generated from a crowd (e.g. search logs) and (ii) active crowdsourcing via specific technical platforms, e.g. labor markets, wikis, scientific games and community challenges. Through describing each study in detail, we demonstrate the applicability of different methods in a variety of domains in biomedical research, including genomics, biocuration and clinical research. Furthermore, we discuss and highlight the strengths and limitations of different crowdsourcing platforms. Finally, we identify important emerging trends, opportunities and remaining challenges for future crowdsourcing research in biomedicine. PMID:25888696

Reaching a 1.5°C target: socio-technical challenges for a rapid transition to low-carbon electricity systems.

PubMed

Eyre, Nick; Darby, Sarah J; Grünewald, Philipp; McKenna, Eoghan; Ford, Rebecca

2018-05-13

A 1.5°C global average target implies that we should no longer focus on merely incremental emissions reductions from the electricity system, but rather on fundamentally re-envisaging a system that, sooner rather than later, becomes carbon free. Many low-carbon technologies are surpassing mainstream predictions for both uptake and cost reduction. Their deployment is beginning to be disruptive within established systems. 'Smart technologies' are being developed to address emerging challenges of system integration, but their rates of future deployment remain uncertain. We argue that transition towards a system that can fully displace carbon generation sources will require expanding the focus of our efforts beyond technical solutions. Recognizing that change has social and technical dimensions, and that these interact strongly, we set out a socio-technical review that covers electricity infrastructure, citizens, business models and governance. It describes some of the socio-technical challenges that need to be addressed for the successful transition of the existing electricity systems. We conclude that a socio-technical understanding of electricity system transitions offers new and better insights into the potential and challenges for rapid decarbonization.This article is part of the theme issue 'The Paris Agreement: understanding the physical and social challenges for a warming world of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels'. © 2018 The Author(s).

Opinions of researchers based in the UK on recruiting subjects from developing countries into randomized controlled trials.

PubMed

Newton, Sam K; Appiah-Poku, John

2007-12-01

Explaining technical terms in consent forms prior to seeking informed consent to recruit into trials can be challenging in developing countries, and more so when the studies are randomized controlled trials. This study was carried out to examine the opinions of researchers on ways of dealing with these challenges in developing countries. Recorded in-depth interviews with 12 lecturers and five doctoral students, who had carried out research in developing countries, at a leading school of public health in the United Kingdom. A purposive, snowballing approach was used to identify interviewees. Researchers were divided on the feasibility of explaining technical trials in illiterate populations; the majority of them held the view that local analogies could be used to explain these technical terms. Others were of the opinion that this could not be done since it was too difficult to explain technical trials, such as randomized controlled trials, even to people in developed countries. Researchers acknowledged the difficulty in explaining randomized controlled trials but it was also their perception that this was an important part of the ethics of the work of scientific research involving human subjects. These difficulties notwithstanding, efforts should be made to ensure that subjects have sufficient understanding to consent, taking into account the fact that peculiar situations in developing countries might compound this difficulty.

Fostering Entrepreneurship Education in Engineering Curricula in Greece. Experience and Challenges for a Technical University

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Papayannakis, L.; Kastelli, I.; Damigos, D.; Mavrotas, G.

2008-01-01

While entrepreneurship has emerged as an important mechanism for the generation of social returns in terms of economic growth and job creation, entrepreneurship education is still something new in Europe and the debate about the need and the way of introduction of specific entrepreneurship courses in higher education is on going. This paper deals…

The Importance of Affects, Self-Regulation and Relationships in the Writing of a Master's Thesis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wagener, Bastien

2018-01-01

While the number of postgraduate students is increasing, the writing of a master's dissertation still poses numerous challenges to them. The outcome of this work depends just as much on technical and methodological skills as on affects, self-regulation, and the relationship to the supervisor. In order to test a comprehensive model including all…

Integration of the Common Core State Standards into CTE: Challenges and Strategies of Career and Technical Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Asunda, Paul A.; Finnell, Alicia M.; Berry, Nicholas R.

2015-01-01

In recent years, conversations about the importance of education standards in our school systems have intensified. Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are being implemented across most of the country. The standards require a major shift in instruction and the needed supports really are not there. This study investigated the common barriers,…

Phased Arrays of Ground and Airborne Mobile Terminals for Satellite Communications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Huang, John

1996-01-01

Phased array antenna is beginning to play an important in the arena of mobile/satellite communications. Two examples of mobile terminal phased arrays will be shown. Their technical background, challenges, and cost drivers will be discussed. A possible solution to combat some of the deficiencies of the conventional phased array by exploiting the phased reflectarray technology will be briefly presented.

In the public interest: assessing expert and stakeholder influence in public deliberation about biobanks.

PubMed

MacLean, Samantha; Burgess, Michael M

2010-07-01

Providing technical and experiential information without overwhelming participants' perspectives presents a major challenge to public involvement in policy decisions. This article reports the design and analysis of a case study on incorporating expert and stakeholder knowledge without including them as deliberators, while supporting deliberative participants' ability to introduce and critically assess different perspectives. Analysis of audio-recorded deliberations illustrates how expert and stakeholder knowledge was cited, criticized and incorporated into deliberations. In conclusion, separating experts and stakeholders from deliberations may be an important prima facie principle when the goal is to enhance citizen representation on technical issues and related policy.

Scaffold translation: barriers between concept and clinic.

PubMed

Hollister, Scott J; Murphy, William L

2011-12-01

Translation of scaffold-based bone tissue engineering (BTE) therapies to clinical use remains, bluntly, a failure. This dearth of translated tissue engineering therapies (including scaffolds) remains despite 25 years of research, research funding totaling hundreds of millions of dollars, over 12,000 papers on BTE and over 2000 papers on BTE scaffolds alone in the past 10 years (PubMed search). Enabling scaffold translation requires first an understanding of the challenges, and second, addressing the complete range of these challenges. There are the obvious technical challenges of designing, manufacturing, and functionalizing scaffolds to fill the Form, Fixation, Function, and Formation needs of bone defect repair. However, these technical solutions should be targeted to specific clinical indications (e.g., mandibular defects, spine fusion, long bone defects, etc.). Further, technical solutions should also address business challenges, including the need to obtain regulatory approval, meet specific market needs, and obtain private investment to develop products, again for specific clinical indications. Finally, these business and technical challenges present a much different model than the typical research paradigm, presenting the field with philosophical challenges in terms of publishing and funding priorities that should be addressed as well. In this article, we review in detail the technical, business, and philosophical barriers of translating scaffolds from Concept to Clinic. We argue that envisioning and engineering scaffolds as modular systems with a sliding scale of complexity offers the best path to addressing these translational challenges. © Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.

Remote navigation systems in electrophysiology.

PubMed

Schmidt, Boris; Chun, Kyoung Ryul Julian; Tilz, Roland R; Koektuerk, Buelent; Ouyang, Feifan; Kuck, Karl-Heinz

2008-11-01

Today, atrial fibrillation (AF) is the dominant indication for catheter ablation in big electrophysiologists (EP) centres. AF ablation strategies are complex and technically challenging. Therefore, it would be desirable that technical innovations pursue the goal to improve catheter stability to increase the procedural success and most importantly to increase safety by helping to avoid serious complications. The most promising technical innovation aiming at the aforementioned goals is remote catheter navigation and ablation. To date, two different systems, the NIOBE magnetic navigation system (MNS, Stereotaxis, USA) and the Sensei robotic navigation system (RNS, Hansen Medical, USA), are commercially available. The following review will introduce the basic principles of the systems, will give an insight into the merits and demerits of remote navigation, and will further focus on the initial clinical experience at our centre with focus on pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) procedures.

Technical Writing Teachers and the Challenges of Desktop Publishing.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kalmbach, James

1988-01-01

Argues that technical writing teachers must understand desktop publishing. Discusses the strengths that technical writing teachers bring to desktop publishing, and the impact desktop publishing will have on technical writing courses and programs. (ARH)

Advances in addressing technical challenges of point-of-care diagnostics in resource-limited settings

PubMed Central

Wang, ShuQi; Lifson, Mark A.; Inci, Fatih; Liang, Li-Guo; Sheng, Ye-Feng; Demirci, Utkan

2016-01-01

The striking prevalence of HIV, TB and malaria, as well as outbreaks of emerging infectious diseases, such as influenza A (H7N9), Ebola and MERS, poses great challenges for patient care in resource-limited settings (RLS). However, advanced diagnostic technologies cannot be implemented in RLS largely due to economic constraints. Simple and inexpensive point-of-care (POC) diagnostics, which rely less on environmental context and operator training, have thus been extensively studied to achieve early diagnosis and treatment monitoring in non-laboratory settings. Despite great input from material science, biomedical engineering and nanotechnology for developing POC diagnostics, significant technical challenges are yet to be overcome. Summarized here are the technical challenges associated with POC diagnostics from a RLS perspective and the latest advances in addressing these challenges are reviewed. PMID:26777725

Core Noise - Increasing Importance

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hultgren, Lennart S.

2011-01-01

This presentation is a technical summary of and outlook for NASA-internal and NASA-sponsored external research on core (combustor and turbine) noise funded by the Fundamental Aeronautics Program Subsonic Fixed Wing (SFW) Project. Sections of the presentation cover: the SFW system-level noise metrics for the 2015, 2020, and 2025 timeframes; turbofan design trends and their aeroacoustic implications; the emerging importance of core noise and its relevance to the SFW Reduced-Perceived-Noise Technical Challenge; and the current research activities in the core-noise area, with additional details given about the development of a high-fidelity combustor-noise prediction capability as well as activities supporting the development of improved reduced-order, physics-based models for combustor-noise prediction. The need for benchmark data for validation of high-fidelity and modeling work and the value of a potential future diagnostic facility for testing of core-noise-reduction concepts are indicated. The NASA Fundamental Aeronautics Program has the principal objective of overcoming today's national challenges in air transportation. The SFW Reduced-Perceived-Noise Technical Challenge aims to develop concepts and technologies to dramatically reduce the perceived aircraft noise outside of airport boundaries. This reduction of aircraft noise is critical to enabling the anticipated large increase in future air traffic. Noise generated in the jet engine core, by sources such as the compressor, combustor, and turbine, can be a significant contribution to the overall noise signature at low-power conditions, typical of approach flight. At high engine power during takeoff, jet and fan noise have traditionally dominated over core noise. However, current design trends and expected technological advances in engine-cycle design as well as noise-reduction methods are likely to reduce non-core noise even at engine-power points higher than approach. In addition, future low-emission combustor designs could increase the combustion-noise component. The trend towards high-power-density cores also means that the noise generated in the low-pressure turbine will likely increase. Consequently, the combined result from these emerging changes will be to elevate the overall importance of turbomachinery core noise, which will need to be addressed in order to meet future noise goals.

Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Integration in the National Airspace System (NAS) Project: KDP-A for Phase 2 Minimum Operational Performance Standards

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Grindle, Laurie; Hackenberg, Davis L.

2016-01-01

UAS Integration in the NAS Project has: a) Developed Technical Challenges that are crucial to UAS integration, aligned with NASA's Strategic Plan and Thrusts, and support FAA standards development. b) Demonstrated rigorous project management processes through the execution of previous phases. c) Defined Partnership Plans. d) Established path to KDP-C. Request approval of Technical Challenges, execution of partnerships and plans, and execution of near-term FY17 activities. There is an increasing need to fly UAS in the NAS to perform missions of vital importance to National Security and Defense, Emergency Management, and Science. There is also an emerging need to enable commercial applications such as cargo transport (e.g. FedEx). Unencumbered NAS Access for Civil/Commercial UAS. Provide research findings, utilizing simulation and flight tests, to support the development and validation of DAA and C2 technologies necessary for integrating Unmanned Aircraft Systems into the National Airspace System.

The rewards, risks and challenges of regional tobacco tax harmonisation.

PubMed

Blecher, Evan; Drope, Jeffrey

2014-05-01

Combining international relations theory and a technical discussion of tobacco taxation, we examine prospects for regional tobacco tax harmonization and how it might heighten the positive effects of taxation for public health. The specific rewards of harmonized tobacco taxation that follow "best practices" might reasonably include increased tax revenue, higher prices for tobacco products and related decreases in tobacco consumption and/or smoking prevalence. Harmonization, however, is often politically and technically challenging as each region has political and economic idiosyncrasies that create multiple, and often conflicting constraints on tax harmonization. For example, governments must overcome different types of collective action problems to agree politically on harmonized policy. Though there is no "one size fits all" approach, we find that setting appropriate and realistic goals and developing reasonable expectations are important for success. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

ADMS State of the Industry and Gap Analysis

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

Agalgaonkar, Yashodhan P.; Marinovici, Maria C.; Vadari, Subramanian V.

2016-03-31

An Advanced distribution management system (ADMS) is a platform for optimized distribution system operational management. This platform comprises of distribution management system (DMS) applications, supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), outage management system (OMS), and distributed energy resource management system (DERMS). One of the primary objectives of this work is to study and analyze several ADMS component and auxiliary systems. All the important component and auxiliary systems, SCADA, GISs, DMSs, AMRs/AMIs, OMSs, and DERMS, are discussed in this report. Their current generation technologies are analyzed, and their integration (or evolution) with an ADMS technology is discussed. An ADMS technology statemore » of the art and gap analysis is also presented. There are two technical gaps observed. The integration challenge between the component operational systems is the single largest challenge for ADMS design and deployment. Another significant challenge noted is concerning essential ADMS applications, for instance, fault location, isolation, and service restoration (FLISR), volt-var optimization (VVO), etc. There are a relatively small number of ADMS application developers as ADMS software platform is not open source. There is another critical gap and while not being technical in nature (when compared the two above) is still important to consider. The data models currently residing in utility GIS systems are either incomplete or inaccurate or both. This data is essential for planning and operations because it is typically one of the primary sources from which power system model are created. To achieve the full potential of ADMS, the ability to execute acute Power Flow solution is an important pre-requisite. These critical gaps are hindering wider Utility adoption of an ADMS technology. The development of an open architecture platform can eliminate many of these barriers and also aid seamless integration of distribution Utility legacy systems with an ADMS.« less

Final Technical Report for DE-FG02-98ER45737

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

Ade, Harald W.

This document represents the cumulative, final technical report for Grant No. DE-FG02- 98ER45737, the title of which has changed with each funding period, but the research pursued is within a coherent overall theme of methods and technique developments that exploit contrast at the carbon absorption edge to characterize complex organic materials and the use of these synchrotron radiation-based methods for important research challenges in polymer physics and Materials Science. The last three funding periods focused on organic devices and in particular organic solar cells (OSCs), owing to their extra-ordinarily complex morphology, yet high potential as a cheap and printable power-conversionmore » technology.« less

Non-technical Issues in Design and Development of Personal Portable Devices.

PubMed

Lhotska, Lenka; Cheshire, Paul; Pharow, Peter; Macku, David

2016-01-01

Mobile technologies are constantly evolving and with the development of Internet of Things we can expect continuous increase of various applications. Mobile technologies have undeniable opportunities to play an important role in health services. Concerning purely technical aspects, almost every problem can be solved. However, there are still many unsolved and unclear issues related with ethics and governance mechanisms for mobile phone applications. These issues are even more critical in medical and health care applications of mobile technologies. This paper tries to analyse ethical, and privacy-related challenges that may occur when introducing Personal Portable Devices (PPD) to collect and record personal health data in health care and welfare environment.

Hazardous and toxic waste management in Botswana: practices and challenges.

PubMed

Mmereki, Daniel; Li, Baizhan; Meng, Liu

2014-12-01

Hazardous and toxic waste is a complex waste category because of its inherent chemical and physical characteristics. It demands for environmentally sound technologies and know-how as well as clean technologies that simultaneously manage and dispose it in an environmentally friendly way. Nevertheless, Botswana lacks a system covering all the critical steps from importation to final disposal or processing of hazardous and toxic waste owing to limited follow-up of the sources and types of hazardous and toxic waste, lack of modern and specialised treatment/disposal facilities, technical know-how, technically skilled manpower, funds and capabilities of local institutions to take lead in waste management. Therefore, because of a lack of an integrated system, there are challenges such as lack of cooperation among all the stakeholders about the safe management of hazardous and toxic waste. Furthermore, Botswana does not have a systematic regulatory framework regarding monitoring and hazardous and toxic waste management. In addition to the absence of a systematic regulatory framework, inadequate public awareness and dissemination of information about hazardous and toxic waste management, slower progress to phase-out persistent and bio-accumulative waste, and lack of reliable and accurate information on hazardous and toxic waste generation, sources and composition have caused critical challenges to effective hazardous and toxic waste management. It is, therefore, important to examine the status of hazardous and toxic waste as a waste stream in Botswana. By default; this mini-review article presents an overview of the current status of hazardous and toxic waste management and introduces the main challenges in hazardous and toxic waste management. Moreover, the article proposes the best applicable strategies to achieve effective hazardous and toxic waste management in the future. © The Author(s) 2014.

Technical challenges involved in supporting the Lambda Point Experiment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Petrac, D.; Israelsson, U.; Otth, D.; Simmons, L.; Staats, J.; Thompson, A.

1990-01-01

The Lambda Point Experiment (LPE) is one of the instruments included in the U.S. Microgravity Payload Mission 1 planned for one of the Space Shuttle flights in 1992. The objective of the experiment is to measure the heat capacity of liquid helium within a narrow interval around the transition between superfluid and normal helium (the lambda point) with an unprecedented temperature resolution of about 10 to the -10th. Multiple technical challenges are presented in the areas of structural support, safety analysis, and modal frequency tests. This paper describes the technical challenges of JPL's multidisciplinary involvement in support of these experiments in microgravity.

Uganda's National Transmission Backbone Infrastructure Project: Technical Challenges and the Way Forward

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bulega, T.; Kyeyune, A.; Onek, P.; Sseguya, R.; Mbabazi, D.; Katwiremu, E.

2011-10-01

Several publications have identified technical challenges facing Uganda's National Transmission Backbone Infrastructure project. This research addresses the technical limitations of the National Transmission Backbone Infrastructure project, evaluates the goals of the project, and compares the results against the technical capability of the backbone. The findings of the study indicate a bandwidth deficit, which will be addressed by using dense wave division multiplexing repeaters, leasing bandwidth from private companies. Microwave links for redundancy, a Network Operation Center for operation and maintenance, and deployment of wireless interoperability for microwave access as a last-mile solution are also suggested.

Challenging hierarchy in healthcare teams - ways to flatten gradients to improve teamwork and patient care.

PubMed

Green, B; Oeppen, R S; Smith, D W; Brennan, P A

2017-06-01

In healthcare, mistakes that are potentially harmful or fatal to patients are often the result of poor communication between members of a team. This is particularly important in high-risk areas such as operating theatres or during any intervention, and the ability to challenge colleagues who are in authority when something does not seem right or is clearly wrong, is crucial. Colleagues in oral and maxillofacial surgery recognised the importance of this as early as 2004, and it is now well known that failure or reluctance to challenge others who might be wrong can severely compromise a patient's safety. The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh runs popular regular courses (Non-technical Skills for Surgeons, NOTSS) that teach how to ensure safety through good communication and teamwork. In this paper we introduce the concept of hierarchical challenge, and discuss models and approaches to address situations when problems arise within a team. Copyright © 2017 The British Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Educational challenges of molecular life science: Characteristics and implications for education and research.

PubMed

Tibell, Lena A E; Rundgren, Carl-Johan

2010-01-01

Molecular life science is one of the fastest-growing fields of scientific and technical innovation, and biotechnology has profound effects on many aspects of daily life-often with deep, ethical dimensions. At the same time, the content is inherently complex, highly abstract, and deeply rooted in diverse disciplines ranging from "pure sciences," such as math, chemistry, and physics, through "applied sciences," such as medicine and agriculture, to subjects that are traditionally within the remit of humanities, notably philosophy and ethics. Together, these features pose diverse, important, and exciting challenges for tomorrow's teachers and educational establishments. With backgrounds in molecular life science research and secondary life science teaching, we (Tibell and Rundgren, respectively) bring different experiences, perspectives, concerns, and awareness of these issues. Taking the nature of the discipline as a starting point, we highlight important facets of molecular life science that are both characteristic of the domain and challenging for learning and education. Of these challenges, we focus most detail on content, reasoning difficulties, and communication issues. We also discuss implications for education research and teaching in the molecular life sciences.

Crowdsourcing in biomedicine: challenges and opportunities.

PubMed

Khare, Ritu; Good, Benjamin M; Leaman, Robert; Su, Andrew I; Lu, Zhiyong

2016-01-01

The use of crowdsourcing to solve important but complex problems in biomedical and clinical sciences is growing and encompasses a wide variety of approaches. The crowd is diverse and includes online marketplace workers, health information seekers, science enthusiasts and domain experts. In this article, we review and highlight recent studies that use crowdsourcing to advance biomedicine. We classify these studies into two broad categories: (i) mining big data generated from a crowd (e.g. search logs) and (ii) active crowdsourcing via specific technical platforms, e.g. labor markets, wikis, scientific games and community challenges. Through describing each study in detail, we demonstrate the applicability of different methods in a variety of domains in biomedical research, including genomics, biocuration and clinical research. Furthermore, we discuss and highlight the strengths and limitations of different crowdsourcing platforms. Finally, we identify important emerging trends, opportunities and remaining challenges for future crowdsourcing research in biomedicine. Published by Oxford University Press 2015. This work is written by US Government employees and is in the public domain in the US.

Technical documentation challenges in aviation maintenance : a proceedings report.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2012-11-01

The 2012 Technical Documentation workshop addressed both problems and solutions associated with technical : documentation for maintenance. These issues are known to cause errors, rework, maintenance delays, other : safety hazards, and FAA administrat...

Advancing Innovation Through Collaboration: Implementation of the NASA Space Life Sciences Strategy

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Davis, Jeffrey R.; Richard, Elizabeth E.

2010-01-01

On October 18, 2010, the NASA Human Health and Performance center (NHHPC) was opened to enable collaboration among government, academic and industry members. Membership rapidly grew to 90 members (http://nhhpc.nasa.gov ) and members began identifying collaborative projects as detailed in this article. In addition, a first workshop in open collaboration and innovation was conducted on January 19, 2011 by the NHHPC resulting in additional challenges and projects for further development. This first workshop was a result of the SLSD successes in running open innovation challenges over the past two years. In 2008, the NASA Johnson Space Center, Space Life Sciences Directorate (SLSD) began pilot projects in open innovation (crowd sourcing) to determine if these new internet-based platforms could indeed find solutions to difficult technical problems. From 2008 to 2010, the SLSD issued 34 challenges, 14 externally and 20 internally. The 14 external challenges were conducted through three different vendors: InnoCentive, Yet2.com and TopCoder. The 20 internal challenges were conducted using the InnoCentive platform, customized to NASA use, and promoted as NASA@Work. The results from the 34 challenges involved not only technical solutions that were reported previously at the 61st IAC, but also the formation of new collaborative relationships. For example, the TopCoder pilot was expanded by the NASA Space Operations Mission Directorate to the NASA Tournament Lab in collaboration with Harvard Business School and TopCoder. Building on these initial successes, the NHHPC workshop in January of 2011, and ongoing NHHPC member discussions, several important collaborations have been developed: (1) Space Act Agreement between NASA and GE for collaborative projects (2) NASA and academia for a Visual Impairment / Intracranial Hypertension summit (February 2011) (3) NASA and the DoD through the Defense Venture Catalyst Initiative (DeVenCI) for a technical needs workshop (June 2011) (4) NASA and the San Diego Zoo for a joint challenge in biomimicry (5) NASA and the FAA Center of Excellence for Commercial Space Flight for five collaborative projects (6) NASA and ESA for a Space Medicine Workshop (July 2011) (7) NASA and Tufts University for an education pilot (8) Establishment of long-term contracts (August 2011) to enable future challenges (9) Establishment of a new Center of Excellence for Collaborative Innovation (July 2011) for all federal agencies in the US

Accomplishments and challenges of surgical simulation.

PubMed

Satava, R M

2001-03-01

For nearly a decade, advanced computer technologies have created extraordinary educational tools using three-dimensional (3D) visualization and virtual reality. Pioneering efforts in surgical simulation with these tools have resulted in a first generation of simulators for surgical technical skills. Accomplishments include simulations with 3D models of anatomy for practice of surgical tasks, initial assessment of student performance in technical skills, and awareness by professional societies of potential in surgical education and certification. However, enormous challenges remain, which include improvement of technical fidelity, standardization of accurate metrics for performance evaluation, integration of simulators into a robust educational curriculum, stringent evaluation of simulators for effectiveness and value added to surgical training, determination of simulation application to certification of surgical technical skills, and a business model to implement and disseminate simulation successfully throughout the medical education community. This review looks at the historical progress of surgical simulators, their accomplishments, and the challenges that remain.

Use of technical skills and medical devices among new registered nurses: A questionnaire study.

PubMed

Ewertsson, Mona; Gustafsson, Margareta; Blomberg, Karin; Holmström, Inger K; Allvin, Renée

2015-12-01

One comprehensive part of nursing practice is performing technical skills and handling of medical equipment. This might be challenging for new registered nurses (RNs) to do in patient-safe way. The aim of this study was to describe and compare the extent to which new RNs perform various technical skills and handle medical devices in different settings, and to investigate their possibility for continued learning in this respect. A further aim was to describe their perceptions of incident reporting related to technical skills and medical devices. A cross-sectional study with descriptive and comparative design. RNs who recently graduated from a nursing programme at three Swedish universities and had worked as a RN for up to 1 year were included in the study (n=113, response rate 57%). Data were collected by means of a postal questionnaire. Half of the RNs reported that they performed several of the listed tasks every day or every week, regardless of workplace. These tasks were most frequently performed in surgical departments. The majority of the participants (76%) stated a need of continued practical training. However, less than half of them (48%) had access to a training environment. Several participants (43%) had been involved in incidents related to technical skills or medical devices, which were not always reported. Nearly a third of the participants (31%) did not use the existing guidelines when performing technical skills, and reflection on performance was uncommon. This study highlights the importance of shared responsibilities between nurse educators and health care employers to provide learning opportunities for new RNs in technical skills, to maintain patient safety. To increase the safety culture where nursing students and new RNs understand the importance of using evidence-based guidelines and taking a reflective approach in the performance of technical tasks is needed. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Important skills for biomedical services: The perspectives of Malaysian employers and employees.

PubMed

Buntat, Yahya; Saud, Muhammad Sukri; Mokhtar, Mahani; Kamin, Yusri; Feh, Lim Set

2016-10-17

Increase in the occurrence of existing diseases, continual emergence of new or exotic diseases and re-emergence of old diseases have placed increasing demands on biomedical services in Malaysia. Biomedical technicians play an important role in operating biomedical instruments. However, there are no clear specifications about characteristics and traits for these semi-professional employees. Employers in a few studies claimed that biomedical graduates are not ready to enter and face challenges in the job market. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to identify technical and generic skills for a biomedical technician from the perspectives of the biomedical technicians and their employers. A quantitative survey design was employed whereby data were obtained through the administration of an instrument developed by the researchers. The sample consisted of 20 hospital managers and 186 biomedical technicians who are currently working in Malaysian government hospitals. The findings show that there are no difference in the perceptions of hospital managers and biomedical technicians regarding technical and non-technical skills. These findings resulted in a checklist which can be used for institutions to produce future biomedical technician graduates in order to meet job demands. However, future research is needed to validate the findings and explore the variables in depth.

Challenges and Opportunities: Two Weeks of Teaching Technical Communication at Suzhou University, China.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ding, Daniel; Jablonski, John

2001-01-01

Relates the authors' experience teaching technical writing for two weeks at Suzhou University in China. Discusses activities; examines four technical writing textbooks purchased there; and offers suggestions about how technical communication might be established as a separate academic discipline in Chinese universities. Discusses technical…

Technical and Vocational Education in Nigeria: Issues, Challenges and a Way Forward

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Okoye, Reko; Arimonu, Maxwell Onyenwe

2016-01-01

Technical education, as enshrined in the Nigerian national policy on education, is concerned with qualitative technological human resources development directed towards a national pool of skilled and self reliant craftsmen, technicians and technologists in technical and vocational education fields. In Nigeria, the training of technical personnel…

Barriers and facilitators to Electronic Medical Record (EMR) use in an urban slum.

PubMed

Jawhari, Badeia; Keenan, Louanne; Zakus, David; Ludwick, Dave; Isaac, Abraam; Saleh, Abdullah; Hayward, Robert

2016-10-01

Rapid urbanization has led to the growth of urban slums and increased healthcare burdens for vulnerable populations. Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) have the potential to improve continuity of care for slum residents, but their implementation is complicated by technical and non-technical limitations. This study sought practical insights about facilitators and barriers to EMR implementation in urban slum environments. Descriptive qualitative method was used to explore staff perceptions about a recent open-source EMR deployment in two primary care clinics in Kibera, Nairobi. Participants were interviewed using open-ended, semi-structured questions. Content analysis was used when exploring transcribed data. Three major themes - systems, software, and social considerations - emerged from content analysis, with sustainability concerns prevailing. Although participants reported many systems (e.g., power, network, Internet, hardware, interoperability) and software (e.g., data integrity, confidentiality, function) challenges, social factors (e.g., identity management, training, use incentives) appeared the most important impediments to sustainability. These findings are consistent with what others have reported, especially the importance of practical barriers to EMR deployments in resource-constrained settings. Other findings contribute unique insights about social determinants of EMR impact in slum settings, including the challenge of multiple-identity management and development of meaningful incentives to staff compliance. This study exposes front-line experiences with opportunities and shortcomings of EMR implementations in urban slum primary care clinics. Although the promise is great, there are a number of unique system, software and social challenges that EMR advocates should address before expecting sustainable EMR use in resource-constrained settings. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Iridium: failures & successes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Christensen, CarissaBryce; Beard, Suzette

2001-03-01

This paper will provide an overview of the Iridium business venture in terms of the challenges faced, the successes achieved, and the causes of the ultimate failure of the venture — bankruptcy and system de-orbit. The paper will address technical, business, and policy issues. The intent of the paper is to provide a balanced and accurate overview of the Iridium experience, to aid future decision-making by policy makers, the business community, and technical experts. Key topics will include the history of the program, the objectives and decision-making of Motorola, the market research and analysis conducted, partnering strategies and their impact, consumer equipment availability, and technical issues — target performance, performance achieved, technical accomplishments, and expected and unexpected technical challenges. The paper will use as sources trade media and business articles on the Iridium program, technical papers and conference presentations, Wall Street analyst's reports, and, where possible, interviews with participants and close observers.

Rib fracture repair: indications, technical issues, and future directions.

PubMed

Nirula, Raminder; Diaz, Jose J; Trunkey, Donald D; Mayberry, John C

2009-01-01

Rib fracture repair has been performed at selected centers around the world for more than 50 years; however, the operative indications have not been established and are considered controversial. The outcome of a strictly nonoperative approach may not be optimal. Potential indications for rib fracture repair include flail chest, painful, movable rib fractures refractory to conventional pain management, chest wall deformity/defect, rib fracture nonunion, and during thoracotomy for other traumatic indication. Rib fracture repair is technically challenging secondary to the human rib's relatively thin cortex and its tendency to fracture obliquely. Nonetheless, several effective repair systems have been developed. Future directions for progress on this important surgical problem include the development of minimally invasive techniques and the conduct of multicenter, randomized trials.

[Robotic surgery -- the modern surgical treatment of prostate cancer].

PubMed

Szabó, Ferenc János; Alexander, de la Taille

2014-09-01

Minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery replaces many open surgery procedures in urology due to its advantages concerning post-operative morbidity. However, the technical challenges and need of learning have limited the application of this method to the work of highly qualified surgeons. The introduction of da Vinci surgical system has offered important technical advantages compared to the laparoscopic surgical procedure. Robot-assisted radical prostatectomy became a largely accepted procedure. It has paved the way for urologists to start other, more complex operations, decreasing this way the operative morbidity. The purpose of this article is to overview the history of robotic surgery, its current and future states in the treatment of the cancer. We present our robot-assisted radical prostatectomy and the results.

Converting lignocellulosic solid waste into ethanol for the State of Washington: an investigation of treatment technologies and environmental impacts.

PubMed

Schmitt, Elliott; Bura, Renata; Gustafson, Rick; Cooper, Joyce; Vajzovic, Azra

2012-01-01

There is little research literature on the conversion of lignocellulosic rich waste streams to ethanol, and even fewer have investigated both the technical aspects and environmental impacts together. This study assessed technical and environmental challenges of converting three lignocellulosic waste streams to ethanol: municipal solid waste (MSW), low grade mixed waste paper (MWP), and organic yard waste (YW). Experimental results showed high conversion yields for all three streams using suitable conversion methods. Environmental impacts are highly dependent on conversion technology, and process conditions used. Life cycle assessment results showed that both chemicals production and waste collection are important factors to be included within a waste-to-ethanol study. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

NASA's Pursuit of Low-Noise Propulsion for Low-Boom Commercial Supersonic Vehicles

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bridges, James; Brown, Clifford A.; Seidel, Jonathan A.

2018-01-01

Since 2006, when the Fundamental Aeronautics Program was instituted within NASA's Aeronautics Mission Directorate, there has been a Project looking at the technical barriers to commercial supersonic flight. Among the barriers is the noise produced by aircraft during landing and takeoff. Over the years that followed, research was carried out at NASA aeronautics research centers, often in collaboration with academia and industry, addressing the problem. In 2013, a high-level milestone was established, described as a Technical Challenge, with the objective of demonstrating the feasibility of a low-boom supersonic airliner that could meet current airport noise regulations. The Technical Challenge was formally called "Low Noise Propulsion for Low Boom Aircraft", and was completed in late 2016. This paper reports the technical findings from this Technical Challenge, reaching back almost 10 years to review the technologies and tools that were developed along the way. It also discusses the final aircraft configuration and propulsion systems required for a supersonic civilian aircraft to meet noise regulations using the technologies available today. Finally, the paper documents the model-scale tests that validated the acoustic performance of the study aircraft.

NASA's Pursuit of Low-Noise Propulsion for Low-Boom Commercial Supersonic Vehicles

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bridges, James; Brown, Clifford A.; Seidel, Jonathan

2018-01-01

Since 2006, when the Fundamental Aeronautics Program was instituted within NASA's Aeronautics Mission Directorate, there has been a Project looking at the technical barriers to commercial supersonic flight. Among the barriers is the noise produced by aircraft during landing and takeoff. Over the years that followed, research was carried out at NASA aeronautics research centers, often in collaboration with academia and industry, addressing the problem. In 2013, a high-level milestone was established, described as a Technical Challenge, with the objective of demonstrating the feasibility of a low-boom supersonic airliner that could meet current airport noise regulations. The Technical Challenge was formally called a Low Noise Propulsion for Low Boom Aircraft and was completed in late 2016. This paper reports the technical findings from this Technical Challenge, reaching back almost 10 years to review the technologies and tools that were developed along the way. It also discusses the final aircraft configuration and propulsion systems required for a supersonic civilian aircraft to meet noise regulations using the technologies available today. Finally, the paper documents the model-scale tests that validated the acoustic performance of the study aircraft.

Science, Technical Innovation and Applications in Bioacoustics: Summary of a Workshop

DTIC Science & Technology

2004-07-01

binaural processing have been neglected. From a signal-processing standpoint, we should avoid complex computational methods and instead use massively...design and/or build transducers or arrays with anywhere near the performance and, most importantly, environmental adaptability of animal binaural ...shell Small animal imaging Cardiac Imaging in Mice The Challenge Mouse heart • 7mm diameter • 8 beats /sec Mouse Heart L16-28MHzL5-10MHz Laptop

Clinical Epidemiology (CE) and Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) in the Asia Pacific region (Round Table Forum).

PubMed

Su, Tin Tin; Bulgiba, Awang M; Sampatanukul, Pichet; Sastroasmoro, Sudigdo; Chang, Peter; Tharyan, Prathap; Lin, Vivian; Wong, Yut Lin

2013-01-01

Clinical Epidemiology (CE) and Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) have become increasingly important in an era of rising costs, patient safety concerns and evidence-based health care. CE and EBM research in the Asia Pacific region have grown significantly. However, there are three main challenges such as linking evidence to practice and policy; developing a strong collaborative network; and a need for resources and technical expertise to produce evidence. The Cochrane Collaboration is a possible solution to resolve above challenges identified, particularly the challenge of transforming evidence to practice. In addition, training can be carried out to enhance technical expertise in the region and there is also the promising potential that collaborations could extend beyond systematic reviews. To improve the adoption of evidence-based health policy, selection of the best evidence for the right audience and focusing on the relevant issues through appropriate methodology are essential. Information on effectiveness and cost effectiveness needs to be highlighted for policy makers. The way forward to strengthen research and capacity building is to establish the Asia Pacific Consortium for CE and EBM. The consortium would help to create mutually rewarding scientific research and collaborations that will augur well for advances in CE and EBM. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Obesity Learning Centre (OLC) – a website supporting those working towards a healthy weight and reducing obesity levels

PubMed Central

Korjonen, Helena

2011-01-01

Objectives: Develop a website, the OLC, which supports those people who work on promoting a healthy weight and tackling obesity. Research shows that original networks where sharing of information and peer interaction take place create solutions to current public health challenges. Methods: Considerations that are relevant when building a new information service as well as the technical set up and information needs of users were taken into account prior to building the OLC and during continuous development and maintenance. Results: The OLC provides global news, resources and tools and link out to other networks, websites and organisations providing similar useful information. The OLC also uses social networking tools to highlight new and important information. Discussion: Networks contribute to a stronger community that can respond to emerging challenges in public health. The OLC improves connections of people and services from different backgrounds and organisations. Some challenges exist in the technical set up and also because of other aspects, e.g. public health information and differing information needs. Conclusion: Public health work programmes should include networking opportunities where public policy can be disseminated. The provision of necessary tools and resources can lead to better decision-making, save time and money and lead to improved public health outcomes. PMID:23569599

Digital media in the home: technical and research challenges

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ribas-Corbera, Jordi

2005-03-01

This article attempts to identify some of the technology and research challenges facing the digital media industry in the future. We first discuss several trends in the industry, such as the rapid growth of broadband Internet networks and the emergence of networking and media-capable devices in the home. Next, we present technical challenges that result from these trends, such as effective media interoperability in devices, and provide a brief overview of Windows Media, which is one of the technologies in the market attempting to address these challenges. Finally, given these trends and the state of the art, we argue that further research on data compression, encoder optimization, and multi-format transcoding can potentially make a significant technical and business impact in digital media. We also explore the reasons that research on related techniques such as wavelets or scalable video coding is having a relatively minor impact in today"s practical digital media systems.

Student-Centered and Dynamic Interfaces that Enrich Technical Learning for Online Science Learners: A Review of the Literature

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Killian, Susan A.; Beck, Dennis E.; O'Bryan, Corliss A.; Jarvis, Nathan; Clausen, Edgar C.; Crandall, Philip G.

2014-01-01

Communicating complex scientific and technical information presents a challenge for food science educators. The most efficient learning occurs when all senses are engaged, one reason that many educators believe that scientific principles are best taught with hands-on laboratory experiences. Today there are many challenges to the continuation of…

Wireless Instrumentation Systems for Flight Testing at NASA AFRC

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hang, Richard

2017-01-01

NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center is revolutionizing its traditional wired instrumentation systems with wireless technologies. This effort faces many technical challenges, such as spectrum compliance, time synchronization, power distribution and airworthiness. This presentation summarizes NASA AFRC's flight test capabilities with current conventional instrumentation methodology and highlights the technical challenges of wireless systems used for flight test research applications.

76 FR 66078 - Notice of Industry Workshop on Technical and Regulatory Challenges in Deep and Ultra-Deep Outer...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-10-25

...-0087] Notice of Industry Workshop on Technical and Regulatory Challenges in Deep and Ultra-Deep Outer... and gas exploration and production in deep and ultra-deep OCS waters. Through this workshop, BSEE will... structured venue for consultation among offshore deepwater oil and gas industry and regulatory experts in...

Cuba Country Analysis Brief

EIA Publications

2016-01-01

Cuba imports the majority of their energy needs, but offshore oil and gas potential could help mitigate their reliance imports. Cuba has entered into many agreements with various countries to help with exploration and drilling efforts. As a result of the ongoing U.S. trade embargo against Cuba, U.S. companies are unable to own any Cuban oil assets. However, U.S. oil companies are allowed to participate in drilling as well as sending technology and supplies with an executive license. While there is interest in Cuban offshore assets, the combination of low oil prices and technically challenging fields could be stumbling blocks for foreign investment.

Optimizing care for the obese patient in interventional radiology

PubMed Central

Aberle, Dwight; Charles, Hearns; Hodak, Steven; O’Neill, Daniel; Oklu, Rahmi; Deipolyi, Amy R.

2017-01-01

With the rising epidemic of obesity, interventional radiologists are treating increasing numbers of obese patients, as comorbidities associated with obesity preclude more invasive treatments. These patients are at heightened risk of vascular and oncologic disease, both of which often require interventional radiology care. Obese patients pose unique challenges in imaging, technical feasibility, and periprocedural monitoring. This review describes the technical and clinical challenges posed by this population, with proposed methods to mitigate these challenges and optimize care. PMID:28082253

Assessing and Managing Natural Resource Damages: Continuing Challenges and Opportunities.

PubMed

Barnthouse, Lawrence W; Stahl, Ralph G

2017-05-01

In a 2002 paper, we discussed the technical challenges associated with quantifying natural resource injuries, service losses and damages, and suggested some actions that might help to overcome them. An important suggestion was to consider using some of the approaches in ecological risk assessment to help evaluate potential natural resource injuries, and ultimately in some cases to help translate those injuries into natural resource service loss. This was based on the observation that ecological risk assessment and natural resource damage assessments use much of the same types of data, but at that time the experience base with ecological risk assessment was greater than for natural resource damage assessments. We also discussed some of the issues in applying the then current Department of Interior natural resource damage assessments regulations. Since our 2002 publication the scientific literature, relevant regulations, the global context and more have changed. In the current paper we focus on the technical and regulatory changes in natural resource damage assessments practice since 2002, and use recent reports and publications to illustrate those changes and identify new directions in natural resource damage assessments.

Quantity and unit extraction for scientific and technical intelligence analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

David, Peter; Hawes, Timothy

2017-05-01

Scientific and Technical (S and T) intelligence analysts consume huge amounts of data to understand how scientific progress and engineering efforts affect current and future military capabilities. One of the most important types of information S and T analysts exploit is the quantities discussed in their source material. Frequencies, ranges, size, weight, power, and numerous other properties and measurements describing the performance characteristics of systems and the engineering constraints that define them must be culled from source documents before quantified analysis can begin. Automating the process of finding and extracting the relevant quantities from a wide range of S and T documents is difficult because information about quantities and their units is often contained in unstructured text with ad hoc conventions used to convey their meaning. Currently, even simple tasks, such as searching for documents discussing RF frequencies in a band of interest, is a labor intensive and error prone process. This research addresses the challenges facing development of a document processing capability that extracts quantities and units from S and T data, and how Natural Language Processing algorithms can be used to overcome these challenges.

Optimization of Protein Extraction and Two-Dimensional Electrophoresis Protocols for Oil Palm Leaf.

PubMed

Daim, Leona Daniela Jeffery; Ooi, Tony Eng Keong; Yusof, Hirzun Mohd; Majid, Nazia Abdul; Karsani, Saiful Anuar Bin

2015-08-01

Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) is an important economic crop cultivated for its nutritional palm oil. A significant amount of effort has been undertaken to understand oil palm growth and physiology at the molecular level, particularly in genomics and transcriptomics. Recently, proteomics studies have begun to garner interest. However, this effort is impeded by technical challenges. Plant sample preparation for proteomics analysis is plagued with technical challenges due to the presence of polysaccharides, secondary metabolites and other interfering compounds. Although protein extraction methods for plant tissues exist, none work universally on all sample types. Therefore, this study aims to compare and optimize different protein extraction protocols for use with two-dimensional gel electrophoresis of young and mature leaves from the oil palm. Four protein extraction methods were evaluated: phenol-guanidine isothiocyanate, trichloroacetic acid-acetone precipitation, sucrose and trichloroacetic acid-acetone-phenol. Of these four protocols, the trichloroacetic acid-acetone-phenol method was found to give the highest resolution and most reproducible gel. The results from this study can be used in sample preparations of oil palm tissue for proteomics work.

Assessing and Managing Natural Resource Damages: Continuing Challenges and Opportunities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barnthouse, Lawrence W.; Stahl, Ralph G.

2017-05-01

In a 2002 paper, we discussed the technical challenges associated with quantifying natural resource injuries, service losses and damages, and suggested some actions that might help to overcome them. An important suggestion was to consider using some of the approaches in ecological risk assessment to help evaluate potential natural resource injuries, and ultimately in some cases to help translate those injuries into natural resource service loss. This was based on the observation that ecological risk assessment and natural resource damage assessments use much of the same types of data, but at that time the experience base with ecological risk assessment was greater than for natural resource damage assessments. We also discussed some of the issues in applying the then current Department of Interior natural resource damage assessments regulations. Since our 2002 publication the scientific literature, relevant regulations, the global context and more have changed. In the current paper we focus on the technical and regulatory changes in natural resource damage assessments practice since 2002, and use recent reports and publications to illustrate those changes and identify new directions in natural resource damage assessments.

Addressing Barriers to the Development and Adoption of Rapid Diagnostic Tests in Global Health.

PubMed

Miller, Eric; Sikes, Hadley D

Immunochromatographic rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) have demonstrated significant potential for use as point-of-care diagnostic tests in resource-limited settings. Most notably, RDTs for malaria have reached an unparalleled level of technological maturity and market penetration, and are now considered an important complement to standard microscopic methods of malaria diagnosis. However, the technical development of RDTs for other infectious diseases, and their uptake within the global health community as a core diagnostic modality, has been hindered by a number of extant challenges. These range from technical and biological issues, such as the need for better affinity agents and biomarkers of disease, to social, infrastructural, regulatory and economic barriers, which have all served to slow their adoption and diminish their impact. In order for the immunochromatographic RDT format to be successfully adapted to other disease targets, to see widespread distribution, and to improve clinical outcomes for patients on a global scale, these challenges must be identified and addressed, and the global health community must be engaged in championing the broader use of RDTs.

Addressing Barriers to the Development and Adoption of Rapid Diagnostic Tests in Global Health

PubMed Central

Miller, Eric; Sikes, Hadley D.

2015-01-01

Immunochromatographic rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) have demonstrated significant potential for use as point-of-care diagnostic tests in resource-limited settings. Most notably, RDTs for malaria have reached an unparalleled level of technological maturity and market penetration, and are now considered an important complement to standard microscopic methods of malaria diagnosis. However, the technical development of RDTs for other infectious diseases, and their uptake within the global health community as a core diagnostic modality, has been hindered by a number of extant challenges. These range from technical and biological issues, such as the need for better affinity agents and biomarkers of disease, to social, infrastructural, regulatory and economic barriers, which have all served to slow their adoption and diminish their impact. In order for the immunochromatographic RDT format to be successfully adapted to other disease targets, to see widespread distribution, and to improve clinical outcomes for patients on a global scale, these challenges must be identified and addressed, and the global health community must be engaged in championing the broader use of RDTs. PMID:26594252

The Future of Low-Carbon Transportation Fuels

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Christopher; Yeh, Sonia

2011-11-01

Petroleum fuel uses make up essentially all of transportation fuel usage today and will continue to dominate transportation fuel usage well into future without any major policy changes. This chapter focuses on low-carbon transportation fuels, specifically, biofuels, electricity and hydrogen, that are emerging options to displace petroleum based fuels. The transition to cleaner, lower carbon fuel sources will need significant technology advancement, and sustained coordination efforts among the vehicle and fuel industry and policymakers/regulators over long period of time in order to overcome market barriers, consumer acceptance, and externalities of imported oil. We discuss the unique infrastructure challenges, and compare resource, technology, economics and transitional issues for each of these fuels. While each fuel type has important technical and implementation challenges to overcome (including vehicle technologies) in order to contribute a large fraction of our total fuel demand, it is important to note that a portfolio approach will give us the best chance of meeting stringent environmental and energy security goals for a sustainable transportation future.

Educational Challenges of Molecular Life Science: Characteristics and Implications for Education and Research

PubMed Central

Rundgren, Carl-Johan

2010-01-01

Molecular life science is one of the fastest-growing fields of scientific and technical innovation, and biotechnology has profound effects on many aspects of daily life—often with deep, ethical dimensions. At the same time, the content is inherently complex, highly abstract, and deeply rooted in diverse disciplines ranging from “pure sciences,” such as math, chemistry, and physics, through “applied sciences,” such as medicine and agriculture, to subjects that are traditionally within the remit of humanities, notably philosophy and ethics. Together, these features pose diverse, important, and exciting challenges for tomorrow's teachers and educational establishments. With backgrounds in molecular life science research and secondary life science teaching, we (Tibell and Rundgren, respectively) bring different experiences, perspectives, concerns, and awareness of these issues. Taking the nature of the discipline as a starting point, we highlight important facets of molecular life science that are both characteristic of the domain and challenging for learning and education. Of these challenges, we focus most detail on content, reasoning difficulties, and communication issues. We also discuss implications for education research and teaching in the molecular life sciences. PMID:20194805

The strategic relevance of manufacturing technology: An overall quality concept to promote innovation preventing drug shortage.

PubMed

Panzitta, Michele; Ponti, Mauro; Bruno, Giorgio; Cois, Giancarlo; D'Arpino, Alessandro; Minghetti, Paola; Mendicino, Francesca Romana; Perioli, Luana; Ricci, Maurizio

2017-01-10

Manufacturing is the bridge between research and patient: without product, there is no clinical outcome. Shortage has a variety of causes, in this paper we analyse only causes related to manufacturing technology and we use shortage as a paradigm highliting the relevance of Pharmaceutical Technology. Product and process complexity and capacity issues are the main challenge for the Pharmaceutical Industry Supply chain. Manufacturing Technology should be acknowledged as a R&D step and as a very important matter during University degree in Pharmacy and related disciplines, promoting collaboration between Academia and Industry, measured during HTA step and rewarded in terms of price and reimbursement. The above elements are not yet properly recognised, and manufacturing technology is taken in to consideration only when a shortage is in place. In a previous work, Panzitta et al. proposed to perform a full technology assessment at the Health Technological Assessment stage, evaluating three main technical aspects of a medicine: manufacturing process, physicochemical properties, and formulation characteristics. In this paper, we develop the concept of manufacturing appraisal, providing a technical overview of upcoming challenges, a risk based approach and an economic picture of shortage costs. We develop also an overall quality concept, not limited to GMP factors but broaden to all elements leading to a robust supply and promoting technical innovation. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Advanced Development of the rF1V and rBV A/B Vaccines: Progress and Challenges

PubMed Central

Hart, Mary Kate; Saviolakis, George A.; Welkos, Susan L.; House, Robert V.

2012-01-01

The development of vaccines for microorganisms and bacterial toxins with the potential to be used as biowarfare and bioterrorism agents is an important component of the US biodefense program. DVC is developing two vaccines, one against inhalational exposure to botulinum neurotoxins A1 and B1 and a second for Yersinia pestis, with the ultimate goal of licensure by the FDA under the Animal Rule. Progress has been made in all technical areas, including manufacturing, nonclinical, and clinical development and testing of the vaccines, and in assay development. The current status of development of these vaccines, and remaining challenges are described in this chapter. PMID:22028978

Urology technical and non-technical skills development: the emerging role of simulation.

PubMed

Rashid, Prem; Gianduzzo, Troy R J

2016-04-01

To review the emerging role of technical and non-technical simulation in urological education and training. A review was conducted to examine the current role of simulation in urology training. A PUBMED search of the terms 'urology training', 'urology simulation' and 'urology education' revealed 11,504 titles. Three hundred and fifty-seven abstracts were identified as English language, peer reviewed papers pertaining to the role of simulation in urology and related topics. Key papers were used to explore themes. Some cross-referenced papers were also included. There is an ongoing need to ensure that training time is efficiently utilised while ensuring that optimal technical and non-technical skills are achieved. Changing working conditions and the need to minimise patient harm by inadvertent errors must be taken into account. Simulation models for specific technical aspects have been the mainstay of graduated step-wise low and high fidelity training. Whole scenario environments as well as non-technical aspects can be slowly incorporated into the curriculum. Doing so should also help define what have been challenging competencies to teach and evaluate. Dedicated time, resources and trainer up-skilling are important. Concurrent studies are needed to help evaluate the effectiveness of introducing step-wise simulation for technical and non-technical competencies. Simulation based learning remains the best avenue of progressing surgical education. Technical and non-technical simulation could be used in the selection process. There are good economic, logistic and safety reasons to pursue the process of ongoing development of simulation co-curricula. While the role of simulation is assured, its progress will depend on a structured program that takes advantage of what can be delivered via this medium. Overall, simulation can be developed further for urological training programs to encompass technical and non-technical skill development at all stages, including recertification. © 2015 The Authors BJU International © 2015 BJU International Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Surgeons' and trainees' perceived self-efficacy in operating theatre non-technical skills.

PubMed

Pena, G; Altree, M; Field, J; Thomas, M J W; Hewett, P; Babidge, W; Maddern, G J

2015-05-01

An important factor that may influence an individual's performance is self-efficacy, a personal judgement of capability to perform a particular task successfully. This prospective study explored newly qualified surgeons' and surgical trainees' self-efficacy in non-technical skills compared with their non-technical skills performance in simulated scenarios. Participants undertook surgical scenarios challenging non-technical skills in two simulation sessions 6 weeks apart. Some participants attended a non-technical skills workshop between sessions. Participants completed pretraining and post-training surveys about their perceived self-efficacy in non-technical skills, which were analysed and compared with their performance in surgical scenarios in two simulation sessions. Change in performance between sessions was compared with any change in participants' perceived self-efficacy. There were 40 participants in all, 17 of whom attended the non-technical skills workshop. There was no significant difference in participants' self-efficacy regarding non-technical skills from the pretraining to the post-training survey. However, there was a tendency for participants with the highest reported self-efficacy to adjust their score downwards after training and for participants with the lowest self-efficacy to adjust their score upwards. Although there was significant improvement in non-technical skills performance from the first to second simulation sessions, a correlation between participants' self-efficacy and performance in scenarios in any of the comparisons was not found. The results suggest that new surgeons and surgical trainees have poor insight into their non-technical skills. Although it was not possible to correlate participants' self-belief in their abilities directly with their performance in a simulation, in general they became more critical in appraisal of their abilities as a result of the intervention. © 2015 BJS Society Ltd Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Single Cell and Metagenomic Assemblies: Biology Drives Technical Choices and Goals (Metagenomics Informatics Challenges Workshop: 10K Genomes at a Time)

ScienceCinema

Stepanauskas, Ramunas

2018-02-06

DOE JGI's Tanja Woyke, chair of the Single Cells and Metagenomes session, delivers an introduction, followed by Bigelow Laboratory's Ramunas Stepanauskas on "Single Cell and Metagenomic Assemblies: Biology Drives Technical Choices and Goals" at the Metagenomics Informatics Challenges Workshop held at the DOE JGI on October 12-13, 2011.

Challenge Study: A Project-Based Learning on a Wireless Communication System at Technical High School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Terasawa, Ikuo

2016-01-01

The challenge study is a project based learning curriculum at Technical High School aimed at the construction of a wireless communication system. The first period was engineering issues in the construction of an artificial satellite and the second period was a positional locating system based on the general purpose wire-less device--ZigBee device.…

Developing the Next Generation of International Safeguards and Nonproliferation Experts: Highlights of Select Activities at the National Laboratories

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

Reed, J; Mathews, C; Kirk, B

2010-03-31

With many safeguards experts in the United States at or near retirement age, and with the growing and evolving mission of international safeguards, attracting and educating a new generation of safeguards experts is an important element of maintaining a credible and capable international safeguards system. The United States National Laboratories, with their rich experience in addressing the technical and policy challenges of international safeguards, are an important resource for attracting, educating, and training future safeguards experts. This presentation highlights some of the safeguards education and professional development activities underway at the National Laboratories. These include university outreach, summer courses, internships,more » mid-career transition, knowledge retention, and other projects. The presentation concludes with thoughts on the challenge of interdisciplinary education and the recruitment of individuals with the right balance of skills and backgrounds are recruited to meet tomorrow's needs.« less

Preparing your Offshore Organization for Agility: Experiences in India

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Srinivasan, Jayakanth

Two strategies that have significantly changed the way we conventionally think about managing software development and sustainment are the family of development approaches collectively referred to as agile methods, and the distribution of development efforts on a global scale. When you combine the two strategies, organizations have to address not only the technical challenges that arise from introducing new ways of working, but more importantly have to manage the 'soft' factors that if ignored lead to hard challenges. Using two case studies of distributed agile software development in India we illustrate the areas that organizations need to be aware of when transitioning work to India. The key issues that we emphasize are the need to recruit and retain personnel; the importance of teaching, mentoring and coaching; the need to manage customer expectations; the criticality of well-articulated senior leadership vision and commitment; and the reality of operating in a heterogeneous process environment.

Applications of Mass Spectrometry to Structural Analysis of Marine Oligosaccharides

PubMed Central

Lang, Yinzhi; Zhao, Xia; Liu, Lili; Yu, Guangli

2014-01-01

Marine oligosaccharides have attracted increasing attention recently in developing potential drugs and biomaterials for their particular physical and chemical properties. However, the composition and sequence analysis of marine oligosaccharides are very challenging for their structural complexity and heterogeneity. Mass spectrometry (MS) has become an important technique for carbohydrate analysis by providing more detailed structural information, including molecular mass, sugar constituent, sequence, inter-residue linkage position and substitution pattern. This paper provides an overview of the structural analysis based on MS approaches in marine oligosaccharides, which are derived from some biologically important marine polysaccharides, including agaran, carrageenan, alginate, sulfated fucan, chitosan, glycosaminoglycan (GAG) and GAG-like polysaccharides. Applications of electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) are mainly presented and the general applications of matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS) are also outlined. Some technical challenges in the structural analysis of marine oligosaccharides by MS have also been pointed out. PMID:24983643

NASA Environmentally Responsible Aviation's Highly-Loaded Front Block Compressor Demonstration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Celestina, Mark

2017-01-01

The ERA project was created in 2009 as part of NASAs Aeronautics Research Mission Directorates (ARMD) Integrated Systems Aviation Program (IASP). The purpose of the ERA project was to explore and document the feasibility, benefit, and technical risk of vehicles concepts and enabling technologies to reduce aviations impact on the environment. The metrics for this technology is given in Figure 1 with the N+2 metrics highlighted in green. It is anticipated that the United States air transportation system will continue to expand significantly over the next few decades thus adversely impacting the environment unless new technology is incorporated to simultaneously reduce nitrous oxides (NOx), noise and fuel consumption. In order to achieve the overall goals and meet the technology insertion challenges, these goals were divided into technical challenges that were to be achieved during the execution of the ERA project. Technical challenges were accomplished through test campaigns conducted by Integrated Technology Demonstration (ITDs). ERAs technical performance period ended in 2015.

Critical evaluation of the EU-technical guidance on shelf-life studies for L. monocytogenes on RTE-foods: a case study for smoked salmon.

PubMed

Vermeulen, A; Devlieghere, F; De Loy-Hendrickx, A; Uyttendaele, M

2011-01-31

In November 2008, a technical guidance document on the challenge test protocol was published by the EU CRL (Community of Reference Laboratory) for L. monocytogenes. This document describes the practical aspects on the execution of a challenge test in order to comply to the EU Commission regulation N° 2073/2005 on microbiological criteria for foodstuff. In this guideline two approaches are specified. On the one hand challenge tests, based on actual data measurements at the beginning and end of the shelf-life of products stored under reasonably foreseen T-profile, are described. On the other hand, growth potential is calculated by predictive models using a validated maximum specific growth rate. The present study evaluates the two above mentioned approaches on cold smoked salmon, a typical risk product for L. monocytogenes. The focus is on: (i) the relative importance of intrabatch versus interbatch variability, (ii) the concept of a simple challenge test based on actual data at start and end of shelf life versus a modelling approach and (iii) the interpretation of challenge tests. Next to this, available tertiary models were used to estimate the growth potential of these products based on their initial physicochemical characteristics. From the results it could be concluded that in some batches considerable intrabatch variability was obtained. In general, however, the interbatch variability was significantly higher than intrabatch variability. Concerning the two above mentioned methods for challenge tests, it can be stated that the first approach (simple challenge test) can be set up rather rapidly and is cost-effective for SMEs (small and medium enterprises) but provides only a single isolated outcome. This implies that challenge tests should be redone if changes occur in composition or production process. The second (modelling) approach, using extended challenge tests to establish growth parameters needs larger set ups and more complicated data analysis, which makes them more expensive. Using available tertiary models has the major advantage that the most important intrinsic and extrinsic factors can be included for the prediction of the growth parameter. It was clear that product specific models, taking into account the interaction effects with background flora, performed the best. Regarding the challenge tests, it can be concluded that the best approach to choose will depend on the particular context as in the end both approaches will lead to the same conclusion. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Site Guidelines for a "Making Middle Grades Work" Technical Review Visit

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Southern Regional Education Board, 2004

2004-01-01

The purpose of the Technical Review Visit (TRV) is to follow up on the actions taken to implement the recommendations indicated for each challenge in the most recent Technical Assistance Visit (TAV) report. This document provides the following: (1) Site Guidelines for the Making Middle Grades Work (MMGW) Technical Review Visit; (2) Site Checklist;…

Proceedings of the Annual National Clinic on Technical Education (12th, Spokane, Washington, March 26-28, 1975). Human Resource Development: Technical Education's Challenge.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rutledge, Gene; And Others

This report includes the presentations of the speakers appearing before the National Clinic on Technical Education. Topics cover human resource development; the impact of technical education on economic development (in Mississippi); economics of allied health education; manpower implications of environmental protection; manpower needs for…

Human Resource Development: Technical Education's Challenge. Proceedings of the Annual National Clinic on Technical Education (12th, Spokane, Washington, March 26-28, 1975).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Washington State Community Coll. District 17, Spokane.

Speeches and discussions are transcribed in this report, which also includes a listing of the American Technical Education Association (ATEA) committee members, exhibitors, officers, and directory of speakers. Speeches covered "Human Resource Development" by Gene Rutledge; "The Impact of Technical Education on Economic…

Describing Acupuncture: A New Challenge for Technical Communicators.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Karanikas, Marianthe

1997-01-01

Considers acupuncture as an increasingly popular alternative medical therapy, but difficult to describe in technical communication. Notes that traditional Chinese medical explanations of acupuncture are unscientific, and that scientific explanations of acupuncture are inconclusive. Finds that technical communicators must translate acupuncture for…

A second-generation expression system for tyrosine-sulfated proteins and its application in crop protection.

PubMed

Schwessinger, Benjamin; Li, Xiang; Ellinghaus, Thomas L; Chan, Leanne Jade G; Wei, Tong; Joe, Anna; Thomas, Nicholas; Pruitt, Rory; Adams, Paul D; Chern, Maw Sheng; Petzold, Christopher J; Liu, Chang C; Ronald, Pamela C

2016-04-18

Posttranslational modification (PTM) of proteins and peptides is important for diverse biological processes in plants and animals. The paucity of heterologous expression systems for PTMs and the technical challenges associated with chemical synthesis of these modified proteins has limited detailed molecular characterization and therapeutic applications. Here we describe an optimized system for expression of tyrosine-sulfated proteins in Escherichia coli and its application in a bio-based crop protection strategy in rice.

A second-generation expression system for tyrosine-sulfated proteins and its application in crop protection

DOE PAGES

Schwessinger, Benjamin; Li, Xiang; Ellinghaus, Thomas L.; ...

2015-11-27

Posttranslational modification (PTM) of proteins and peptides is important for diverse biological processes in plants and animals. The paucity of heterologous expression systems for PTMs and the technical challenges associated with chemical synthesis of these modified proteins has limited detailed molecular characterization and therapeutic applications. Here we describe an optimized system for expression of tyrosine-sulfated proteins in Escherichia coli and its application in a bio-based crop protection strategy in rice.

A case report on buccal mucosa graft for upper ureteral stricture repair.

PubMed

Sabale, Vilas Pandurang; Thakur, Naveen; Kankalia, Sharad Kumar; Satav, Vikram Pramod

2016-01-01

Management of ureteric stricture especially long length upper one-third poses a challenging job for most urologists. With the successful use of buccal mucosa graft (BMG) for stricture urethra leads the foundation for its use in ureteric stricture also. A 35-year-old male diagnosedcase of left upper ureteric stricture, postureteroscopy with left percutaneous nephrostomy (PCN) in situ . Cysto-retrograde pyelography and nephrostogram done simultaneously suggestive of left upper ureteric stricture of 3 cm at L3 level. On exploration, diseased ureteral segment exposed, BMG harvested and sutured as onlay patch graft with supportive omental wrap. The treatment choice for upper ureteric long length stricture is inferior nephropexy, autotransplantation, or bowel interposition. With PCN in situ , inferior nephropexy becomes technically difficult, other two are morbid procedures. Use of BMG in this situation is technically better choice with all the advantages of buccal mucosa. Onlay BMG for ureteral stricture is technically easy, less morbid procedure and can be important choice in future.

Planning as an Iterative Process

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Smith, David E.

2012-01-01

Activity planning for missions such as the Mars Exploration Rover mission presents many technical challenges, including oversubscription, consideration of time, concurrency, resources, preferences, and uncertainty. These challenges have all been addressed by the research community to varying degrees, but significant technical hurdles still remain. In addition, the integration of these capabilities into a single planning engine remains largely unaddressed. However, I argue that there is a deeper set of issues that needs to be considered namely the integration of planning into an iterative process that begins before the goals, objectives, and preferences are fully defined. This introduces a number of technical challenges for planning, including the ability to more naturally specify and utilize constraints on the planning process, the ability to generate multiple qualitatively different plans, and the ability to provide deep explanation of plans.

78 FR 50404 - Advanced Scientific Computing Advisory Committee

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-08-19

... for the exascale challenges charge. Tentative Agenda: Agenda will include discussion of the following: Exascale Challenges Workshop and preliminary list of most critical challenges, and technical approaches to...

Delivery of high-tech home care by hospital-based nursing units in Quebec: clinical and technical challenges.

PubMed

Lehoux, Pascale; Richard, L; Pineault, R; Saint-Arnaud, J

2006-03-01

The role that hospital-based nurses should play in the delivery of high-tech home care, and how they should be supported in that role, are topics that remain understudied. Our research objective was to document how hospital-based nursing teams perceive and deal with the clinical and technical challenges associated with the provision of high-tech home care. Four home care interventions were selected: antibiotic intravenous therapy, parenteral nutrition, peritoneal dialysis and oxygen therapy. A self-administered survey was sent to all hospital-based units providing these interventions in the province of Quebec, Canada (n = 154; response rate: 70.8%). We used descriptive statistical analyses to derive mean values for scores on either a five- or a six-level Likert scale. Despite variation across the four interventions, our results indicate that while nursing teams believe these interventions increase patients' autonomy, they also recognize that they generate anxiety and impose constraints on patients' lives. Nurses must increase efforts to deal with both clinical and technical challenges and help patients overcome the barriers to appropriate use of home care technologies. While nursing teams generally perceive high-tech home care as beneficial, they still experience significant technical and clinical challenges. Some of these challenges could be addressed by strengthening professional training initiatives, while others require broader home care policy interventions.

Case-based medical informatics

PubMed Central

Pantazi, Stefan V; Arocha, José F; Moehr, Jochen R

2004-01-01

Background The "applied" nature distinguishes applied sciences from theoretical sciences. To emphasize this distinction, we begin with a general, meta-level overview of the scientific endeavor. We introduce the knowledge spectrum and four interconnected modalities of knowledge. In addition to the traditional differentiation between implicit and explicit knowledge we outline the concepts of general and individual knowledge. We connect general knowledge with the "frame problem," a fundamental issue of artificial intelligence, and individual knowledge with another important paradigm of artificial intelligence, case-based reasoning, a method of individual knowledge processing that aims at solving new problems based on the solutions to similar past problems. We outline the fundamental differences between Medical Informatics and theoretical sciences and propose that Medical Informatics research should advance individual knowledge processing (case-based reasoning) and that natural language processing research is an important step towards this goal that may have ethical implications for patient-centered health medicine. Discussion We focus on fundamental aspects of decision-making, which connect human expertise with individual knowledge processing. We continue with a knowledge spectrum perspective on biomedical knowledge and conclude that case-based reasoning is the paradigm that can advance towards personalized healthcare and that can enable the education of patients and providers. We center the discussion on formal methods of knowledge representation around the frame problem. We propose a context-dependent view on the notion of "meaning" and advocate the need for case-based reasoning research and natural language processing. In the context of memory based knowledge processing, pattern recognition, comparison and analogy-making, we conclude that while humans seem to naturally support the case-based reasoning paradigm (memory of past experiences of problem-solving and powerful case matching mechanisms), technical solutions are challenging. Finally, we discuss the major challenges for a technical solution: case record comprehensiveness, organization of information on similarity principles, development of pattern recognition and solving ethical issues. Summary Medical Informatics is an applied science that should be committed to advancing patient-centered medicine through individual knowledge processing. Case-based reasoning is the technical solution that enables a continuous individual knowledge processing and could be applied providing that challenges and ethical issues arising are addressed appropriately. PMID:15533257

Core-Noise

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hultgren, Lennart S.

2010-01-01

This presentation is a technical progress report and near-term outlook for NASA-internal and NASA-sponsored external work on core (combustor and turbine) noise funded by the Fundamental Aeronautics Program Subsonic Fixed Wing (SFW) Project. Sections of the presentation cover: the SFW system level noise metrics for the 2015, 2020, and 2025 timeframes; the emerging importance of core noise and its relevance to the SFW Reduced-Noise-Aircraft Technical Challenge; the current research activities in the core-noise area, with some additional details given about the development of a high-fidelity combustion-noise prediction capability; the need for a core-noise diagnostic capability to generate benchmark data for validation of both high-fidelity work and improved models, as well as testing of future noise-reduction technologies; relevant existing core-noise tests using real engines and auxiliary power units; and examples of possible scenarios for a future diagnostic facility. The NASA Fundamental Aeronautics Program has the principal objective of overcoming today's national challenges in air transportation. The SFW Reduced-Noise-Aircraft Technical Challenge aims to enable concepts and technologies to dramatically reduce the perceived aircraft noise outside of airport boundaries. This reduction of aircraft noise is critical for enabling the anticipated large increase in future air traffic. Noise generated in the jet engine core, by sources such as the compressor, combustor, and turbine, can be a significant contribution to the overall noise signature at low-power conditions, typical of approach flight. At high engine power during takeoff, jet and fan noise have traditionally dominated over core noise. However, current design trends and expected technological advances in engine-cycle design as well as noise-reduction methods are likely to reduce non-core noise even at engine-power points higher than approach. In addition, future low-emission combustor designs could increase the combustion-noise component. The trend towards high-power-density cores also means that the noise generated in the low-pressure turbine will likely increase. Consequently, the combined result from these emerging changes will be to elevate the overall importance of turbomachinery core noise, which will need to be addressed in order to meet future noise goals.

Computer-Aided Diagnosis Systems for Lung Cancer: Challenges and Methodologies

PubMed Central

El-Baz, Ayman; Beache, Garth M.; Gimel'farb, Georgy; Suzuki, Kenji; Okada, Kazunori; Elnakib, Ahmed; Soliman, Ahmed; Abdollahi, Behnoush

2013-01-01

This paper overviews one of the most important, interesting, and challenging problems in oncology, the problem of lung cancer diagnosis. Developing an effective computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) system for lung cancer is of great clinical importance and can increase the patient's chance of survival. For this reason, CAD systems for lung cancer have been investigated in a huge number of research studies. A typical CAD system for lung cancer diagnosis is composed of four main processing steps: segmentation of the lung fields, detection of nodules inside the lung fields, segmentation of the detected nodules, and diagnosis of the nodules as benign or malignant. This paper overviews the current state-of-the-art techniques that have been developed to implement each of these CAD processing steps. For each technique, various aspects of technical issues, implemented methodologies, training and testing databases, and validation methods, as well as achieved performances, are described. In addition, the paper addresses several challenges that researchers face in each implementation step and outlines the strengths and drawbacks of the existing approaches for lung cancer CAD systems. PMID:23431282

Computing, Information and Communications Technology (CICT) Website

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hardman, John; Tu, Eugene (Technical Monitor)

2002-01-01

The Computing, Information and Communications Technology Program (CICT) was established in 2001 to ensure NASA's Continuing leadership in emerging technologies. It is a coordinated, Agency-wide effort to develop and deploy key enabling technologies for a broad range of mission-critical tasks. The NASA CICT program is designed to address Agency-specific computing, information, and communications technology requirements beyond the projected capabilities of commercially available solutions. The areas of technical focus have been chosen for their impact on NASA's missions, their national importance, and the technical challenge they provide to the Program. In order to meet its objectives, the CICT Program is organized into the following four technology focused projects: 1) Computing, Networking and Information Systems (CNIS); 2) Intelligent Systems (IS); 3) Space Communications (SC); 4) Information Technology Strategic Research (ITSR).

Final Report for DOE Award ER25756

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

Kesselman, Carl

2014-11-17

The SciDAC-funded Center for Enabling Distributed Petascale Science (CEDPS) was established to address technical challenges that arise due to the frequent geographic distribution of data producers (in particular, supercomputers and scientific instruments) and data consumers (people and computers) within the DOE laboratory system. Its goal is to produce technical innovations that meet DOE end-user needs for (a) rapid and dependable placement of large quantities of data within a distributed high-performance environment, and (b) the convenient construction of scalable science services that provide for the reliable and high-performance processing of computation and data analysis requests from many remote clients. The Centermore » is also addressing (c) the important problem of troubleshooting these and other related ultra-high-performance distributed activities from the perspective of both performance and functionality« less

Crowd Sourcing for Challenging Technical Problems and Business Model

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Davis, Jeffrey R.; Richard, Elizabeth

2011-01-01

Crowd sourcing may be defined as the act of outsourcing tasks that are traditionally performed by an employee or contractor to an undefined, generally large group of people or community (a crowd) in the form of an open call. The open call may be issued by an organization wishing to find a solution to a particular problem or complete a task, or by an open innovation service provider on behalf of that organization. In 2008, the Space Life Sciences Directorate (SLSD), with the support of Wyle Integrated Science and Engineering, established and implemented pilot projects in open innovation (crowd sourcing) to determine if these new internet-based platforms could indeed find solutions to difficult technical challenges. These unsolved technical problems were converted to problem statements, also called "Challenges" or "Technical Needs" by the various open innovation service providers, and were then posted externally to seek solutions. In addition, an open call was issued internally to NASA employees Agency wide (10 Field Centers and NASA HQ) using an open innovation service provider crowd sourcing platform to post NASA challenges from each Center for the others to propose solutions). From 2008 to 2010, the SLSD issued 34 challenges, 14 externally and 20 internally. The 14 external problems or challenges were posted through three different vendors: InnoCentive, Yet2.com and TopCoder. The 20 internal challenges were conducted using the InnoCentive crowd sourcing platform designed for internal use by an organization. This platform was customized for NASA use and promoted as NASA@Work. The results were significant. Of the seven InnoCentive external challenges, two full and five partial awards were made in complex technical areas such as predicting solar flares and long-duration food packaging. Similarly, the TopCoder challenge yielded an optimization algorithm for designing a lunar medical kit. The Yet2.com challenges yielded many new industry and academic contacts in bone imaging, microbial detection and even the use of pharmaceuticals for radiation protection. The internal challenges through NASA@Work drew over 6000 participants across all NASA centers. Challenges conducted by each NASA center elicited ideas and solutions from several other NASA centers and demonstrated rapid and efficient participation from employees at multiple centers to contribute to problem solving. Finally, on January 19, 2011, the SLSD conducted a workshop on open collaboration and innovation strategies and best practices through the newly established NASA Human Health and Performance Center (NHHPC). Initial projects will be described leading to a new business model for SLSD.

Turbines, Wind Tunnels, and Teamwork: The 2017 Collegiate Wind Competition Technical Challenge

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

None

Ten college teams put their turbines to the test at the U.S. Department of Energy’s 2017 Collegiate Wind Competition Technical Challenge, held April 20–22 at the National Wind Technology Center (NWTC). The competition showcased a wide variety of turbine designs and highlighted the competitors’ brilliance, agility, and ingenuity. College students weren’t the only future wind energy experts at the NWTC that weekend: elementary and middle school students tested their turbines—crafted creatively from materials like soda bottles and aluminum foil—in the Colorado KidWind Challenge.

Web-based technical assistance and training to promote community tobacco control policy change.

PubMed

Young, Walter F; Montgomery, Debbie; Nycum, Colleen; Burns-Martin, Lavon; Buller, David B

2006-01-01

In 1998 the tobacco industry was released of claims that provided monetary relief for states. A significant expansion of tobacco control activity in many states created a need to develop local capacity. Technical assistance and training for new and experienced staff became a significant challenge for tobacco control leadership. In Colorado, this challenge was addressed in part through the development of a technical assistance and training Web site designed for local tobacco control staff and coalition members. Researchers, technical Web site development specialists, state health agency, and state tobacco control coalition staff collaborated to develop, promote, and test the efficacy of this Web site. The work group embodied a range of skills including tobacco control, Web site technical development, marketing, training, and project management. Persistent marketing, updating of Web site content, and institutionalizing it as a principal source of information and training were key to use by community coalition members.

High-Resolution X-Ray Telescopes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

ODell, Stephen L.; Brissenden, Roger J.; Davis, William; Elsner, Ronald F.; Elvis, Martin; Freeman, Mark; Gaetz, Terry; Gorenstein, Paul; Gubarev, Mikhail V.

2010-01-01

Fundamental needs for future x-ray telescopes: a) Sharp images => excellent angular resolution. b) High throughput => large aperture areas. Generation-X optics technical challenges: a) High resolution => precision mirrors & alignment. b) Large apertures => lots of lightweight mirrors. Innovation needed for technical readiness: a) 4 top-level error terms contribute to image size. b) There are approaches to controlling those errors. Innovation needed for manufacturing readiness. Programmatic issues are comparably challenging.

TADS and Technical Assistance.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Trohanis, Pascal L.

1983-01-01

Accomplishments of the Technical Assistance Development System (TADS) are cited, current challenges (including program development, and communication and coordination) are noted, and the mission mandated for TADS is outlined. (CL)

Small scale rainfall simulators: Challenges for a future use in soil erosion research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ries, Johannes B.; Iserloh, Thomas; Seeger, Manuel

2013-04-01

Rainfall simulation on micro-plot scale is a method used worldwide to assess the generation of overland flow, soil erosion, infiltration and interrelated processes such as soil sealing, crusting, splash and redistribution of solids and solutes. The produced data are of great significance not only for the analysis of the simulated processes, but also as a source of input-data for soil erosion modelling. The reliability of the data is therefore of paramount importance, and quality management of rainfall simulation procedure a general responsibility of the rainfall simulation community. This was an accepted outcome at the "International Rainfall Simulator Workshop 2011" at Trier University. The challenges of the present and near future use of small scale rainfall simulations concern the comparability of results and scales, the quality of the data for soil erosion modelling, and further technical developments to overcome physical limitations and constraints. Regarding the high number of research questions, different fields of application, and due to the great technical creativity of researchers, a large number of different types of rainfall simulators is available. But each of the devices produces a different rainfall, leading to different kinetic energy values influencing soil surface and erosion processes. Plot sizes are also variable, as well as the experimental simulation procedures. As a consequence, differing runoff and erosion results are produced. The presentation summarises the three important aspects of rainfall simulations, following a processual order: 1. Input-factor "rain" and its calibration 2. Surface-factor "plot" and its documentation 3. Output-factors "runoff" and "sediment concentration" Finally, general considerations about the limitations and challenges for further developments and applications of rainfall simulation data are presented.

The process of developing audiovisual patient information: challenges and opportunities.

PubMed

Hutchison, Catherine; McCreaddie, May

2007-11-01

The aim of this project was to produce audiovisual patient information, which was user friendly and fit for purpose. The purpose of the audiovisual patient information is to inform patients about randomized controlled trials, as a supplement to their trial-specific written information sheet. Audiovisual patient information is known to be an effective way of informing patients about treatment. User involvement is also recognized as being important in the development of service provision. The aim of this paper is (i) to describe and discuss the process of developing the audiovisual patient information and (ii) to highlight the challenges and opportunities, thereby identifying implications for practice. A future study will test the effectiveness of the audiovisual patient information in the cancer clinical trial setting. An advisory group was set up to oversee the project and provide guidance in relation to information content, level and delivery. An expert panel of two patients provided additional guidance and a dedicated operational team dealt with the logistics of the project including: ethics; finance; scriptwriting; filming; editing and intellectual property rights. Challenges included the limitations of filming in a busy clinical environment, restricted technical and financial resources, ethical needs and issues around copyright. There were, however, substantial opportunities that included utilizing creative skills, meaningfully involving patients, teamworking and mutual appreciation of clinical, multidisciplinary and technical expertise. Developing audiovisual patient information is an important area for nurses to be involved with. However, this must be performed within the context of the multiprofessional team. Teamworking, including patient involvement, is crucial as a wide variety of expertise is required. Many aspects of the process are transferable and will provide information and guidance for nurses, regardless of specialty, considering developing this format of patient information.

Does integration of HIV and sexual and reproductive health services improve technical efficiency in Kenya and Swaziland? An application of a two-stage semi parametric approach incorporating quality measures

PubMed Central

Obure, Carol Dayo; Jacobs, Rowena; Guinness, Lorna; Mayhew, Susannah; Vassall, Anna

2016-01-01

Theoretically, integration of vertically organized services is seen as an important approach to improving the efficiency of health service delivery. However, there is a dearth of evidence on the effect of integration on the technical efficiency of health service delivery. Furthermore, where technical efficiency has been assessed, there have been few attempts to incorporate quality measures within efficiency measurement models particularly in sub-Saharan African settings. This paper investigates the technical efficiency and the determinants of technical efficiency of integrated HIV and sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services using data collected from 40 health facilities in Kenya and Swaziland for 2008/2009 and 2010/2011. Incorporating a measure of quality, we estimate the technical efficiency of health facilities and explore the effect of integration and other environmental factors on technical efficiency using a two-stage semi-parametric double bootstrap approach. The empirical results reveal a high degree of inefficiency in the health facilities studied. The mean bias corrected technical efficiency scores taking quality into consideration varied between 22% and 65% depending on the data envelopment analysis (DEA) model specification. The number of additional HIV services in the maternal and child health unit, public ownership and facility type, have a positive and significant effect on technical efficiency. However, number of additional HIV and STI services provided in the same clinical room, proportion of clinical staff to overall staff, proportion of HIV services provided, and rural location had a negative and significant effect on technical efficiency. The low estimates of technical efficiency and mixed effects of the measures of integration on efficiency challenge the notion that integration of HIV and SRH services may substantially improve the technical efficiency of health facilities. The analysis of quality and efficiency as separate dimensions of performance suggest that efficiency may be achieved without sacrificing quality. PMID:26803655

Does integration of HIV and sexual and reproductive health services improve technical efficiency in Kenya and Swaziland? An application of a two-stage semi parametric approach incorporating quality measures.

PubMed

Obure, Carol Dayo; Jacobs, Rowena; Guinness, Lorna; Mayhew, Susannah; Vassall, Anna

2016-02-01

Theoretically, integration of vertically organized services is seen as an important approach to improving the efficiency of health service delivery. However, there is a dearth of evidence on the effect of integration on the technical efficiency of health service delivery. Furthermore, where technical efficiency has been assessed, there have been few attempts to incorporate quality measures within efficiency measurement models particularly in sub-Saharan African settings. This paper investigates the technical efficiency and the determinants of technical efficiency of integrated HIV and sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services using data collected from 40 health facilities in Kenya and Swaziland for 2008/2009 and 2010/2011. Incorporating a measure of quality, we estimate the technical efficiency of health facilities and explore the effect of integration and other environmental factors on technical efficiency using a two-stage semi-parametric double bootstrap approach. The empirical results reveal a high degree of inefficiency in the health facilities studied. The mean bias corrected technical efficiency scores taking quality into consideration varied between 22% and 65% depending on the data envelopment analysis (DEA) model specification. The number of additional HIV services in the maternal and child health unit, public ownership and facility type, have a positive and significant effect on technical efficiency. However, number of additional HIV and STI services provided in the same clinical room, proportion of clinical staff to overall staff, proportion of HIV services provided, and rural location had a negative and significant effect on technical efficiency. The low estimates of technical efficiency and mixed effects of the measures of integration on efficiency challenge the notion that integration of HIV and SRH services may substantially improve the technical efficiency of health facilities. The analysis of quality and efficiency as separate dimensions of performance suggest that efficiency may be achieved without sacrificing quality. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Integrating natural and social sciences to inspire public confidence in radioactive waste policy case study - Committee on radioactive waste management

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

Usher, Sam

2007-07-01

Integrating Natural and Social Sciences to Inspire Public Confidence in Radioactive Waste Policy Case Study: Committee on Radioactive Waste Management Implementing effective long-term radioactive waste management policy is challenging, and both UK and international experience is littered with policy and programme failures. Policy must not only be underpinned by sound science and technical rationale, it must also inspire the confidence of the public and other stakeholders. However, in today's modern society, communities will not simply accept the word of scientists for setting policy based purely on technical grounds. This is particularly so in areas where there are significant social andmore » ethical issues, such as radioactive waste disposal. To develop and implement effective policy, governments, waste owners and implementing bodies must develop processes which effectively integrate both complex technical and scientific issues, with equally challenging social and ethical concerns. These integrating processes must marry often intricate technical issues with broad public and stakeholder engagement programmes, in programmes which can expect the highest levels of public scrutiny, and must invariably be delivered within challenging time and budget constraints. This paper considers a model for how such integrating processes can be delivered. The paper reviews, as a case study, how such challenges were overcome by the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CoRWM), which, in July 2006, made recommendations to the UK government for the establishment of a long-term radioactive waste policy. Its recommendations were underpinned by sound science, but also engendered public confidence through undertaking the largest and most significant deliberative public and stakeholder engagement programme on a complex policy issue in the UK. Effective decision-making was enabled through the integration of both proven and bespoke methodologies, including Multi-criteria Decision Analysis and Holistic assessments, coupled with an overarching deliberative approach. How this was managed and delivered to programme demonstrates how important effective integration of different issues, interests and world views can be achieved, and the paper looks forward to how the continued integration of both natural and social sciences is essential if public confidence is to be maintained through implementation stages. This paper will be particularly relevant to governments, waste owners and implementing bodies who are responsible for developing and implementing policy. (author)« less

A quasi-Delphi study on technological barriers to the uptake of hydrogen as a fuel for transport applications-Production, storage and fuel cell drivetrain considerations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hart, David; Anghel, Alexandra T.; Huijsmans, Joep; Vuille, François

The introduction of hydrogen in transport, particularly using fuel cell vehicles, faces a number of technical and non-technical hurdles. However, their relative importance is unclear, as are the levels of concern accorded them within the expert community conducting research and development within this area. To understand what issues are considered by experts working in the field to have significant potential to slow down or prevent the introduction of hydrogen technology in transport, a study was undertaken, primarily during 2007. Three key technology areas within hydrogen transport were selected - hydrogen storage, fuel cell drivetrains, and small-scale hydrogen production - and interviews with selected experts conducted. Forty-nine experts from 34 organisations within the fuel cell, automotive, industrial gas and other related industries participated, in addition to some key academic and government figures. The survey was conducted in China, Japan, North America and Europe, and analysed using conventional mathematical techniques to provide weighted and averaged rankings of issues viewed as important by the experts. It became clear both from the interviews and the subsequent analysis that while a primary concern in China was fundamental technical performance, in the other regions cost and policy were rated more highly. Although a few individual experts identified possible technical showstoppers, the overall message was that pre-commercial hydrogen fuel cell vehicles could realistically be on the road in tens of thousands within 5 years, and that full commercialisation could take place within 10-15 years, without the need for radical technical breakthroughs. Perhaps surprisingly, the performance of hydrogen storage technologies was not viewed as a showstopper, though cost was seen as a significant challenge. Overall, however, coherent policy development was more frequently identified as a major issue to address.

Managing Challenges in a Multi Contractor Project

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

King, Ron

2011-01-01

The presentation provides a project description, describes the integrated product team, and review project challenges. The challenges include programmatic, technical, basic drop tests, heavy drop tests, C-17 envelope expansion, and Ares I-X.

On the bending of structural materials with plastic anisotropic effect

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lachugin, D. V.; Pavilaynen, G. V.

2018-05-01

The study of a deformation features of metal alloys which are sensitive to tension or compression loading is an important technical challenge in the design and creation of a new shipbuilding and aircraft constructions. We use a mathematical model for the elastic-plastic bending of such material where SD(strength-different) parameter is taken into account. The problem is solved analytically and numerically. As an example of the material with the SD-effect the steel alloy is considered.

Employee incentives in the healthcare industry.

PubMed

McKinnies, Richard C; Collins, Sandra K; Collins, Kevin S

2008-01-01

*Employee incentives are an important part of a radiology department's ability to attract and maintain employees. For incentive programs to be successful, radiology managers must diligently look for the incentives that motivate each particular employee. *The types of incentives being used frequently in the field of healthcare vary between technical, managerial, and executive positions. The process of identifying the right employee incentive for each group of individuals may be challenging, but if the result is a more productive and satisfied group of employees, the process is worth the effort.

A multifunctional azobenzene-based polymeric adsorbent for effective water remediation

PubMed Central

Wan, Decheng; Chen, Feng; Geng, Qingrui; Lu, Hang; Willcock, Helen; Liu, Qiuming; Wang, Fangyingkai; Zou, Kaidian; Jin, Ming; Pu, Hongting; Du, Jianzhong

2014-01-01

The efficient removal of trace carcinogenic organic pollutants, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and ionic dyes, from water is an important technical challenge. We report a highly effective recyclable multifunctional azobenzene (AZ)-based silica-supported polymeric adsorbent which can simultaneously remove both PAHs and anionic dyes from water to below parts per billion (ppb) level based on multiple interactions such as the hydrophobic effect, π–π stacking and electrostatic interactions, thus providing a new strategy for designer water remediation materials. PMID:25465671

Technical standards for micro sensors in surgery and minimally invasive therapy.

PubMed

Neuder; Dehm

2004-04-01

The development of medical applications is fuelled in the context of steadily growing needs and the requirement of lowering overall costs. Micro systems will have an extremely important impact on medical technology in the future. The great challenges for the wider use of micro structures in health applications are biocompatibility and mass production. Especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) need help to overcome these problems by free access to knowledge, the availability of standards and contacts to partners.

Crowdsourcing for Challenging Technical Problems - It Works!

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Davis, Jeffrey R.

2011-01-01

The NASA Johnson Space Center Space Life Sciences Directorate (SLSD) and Wyle Integrated Science and Engineering (Wyle) will conduct a one-day business cluster at the 62nd IAC so that IAC attendees will understand the benefits of open innovation (crowdsourcing), review successful results of conducting technical challenges in various open innovation projects, and learn how an organization can effectively deploy these new problem solving tools to innovate more efficiently and effectively. Results from both the SLSD open innovation pilot program and the open innovation workshop conducted by the NASA Human Health and Performance Center will be discussed. NHHPC members will be recruited to participate in the business cluster (see membership http://nhhpc.nasa.gov) and as IAF members. Crowdsourcing may be defined as the act of outsourcing tasks that are traditionally performed by an employee or contractor to an undefined, generally large group of people or community (a crowd) in the form of an open call. The open call may be issued by the organization wishing to find a solution to a particular problem or complete a task, or by an open innovation service provider on behalf of that organization. In 2008, the SLSD, with the support of Wyle, established and implemented pilot projects in open innovation (crowdsourcing) to determine if these new internet-based platforms could indeed find solutions to difficult technical challenges. These unsolved technical problems were converted to problem statements, called Challenges by some open innovation service providers, and were then posted externally to seek solutions to these problems. In addition, an open call was issued internally to NASA employees Agency wide (11 Field Centers and NASA HQ) using an open innovation service provider crowdsourcing platform to post NASA challenges from each Center for the others to propose solutions). From 2008 to 2010, the SLSD issued 34 challenges, 14 externally and 20 internally. The 14 external problems or challenges were posted through three different vendors: InnoCentive, yet2.com and TopCoder. The 20 internal challenges were conducted using the InnoCentive crowdsourcing platform designed for use internal to an organization and customized for NASA use, and promoted as NASA@Work. The results were significant. Of the seven InnoCentive external challenges, two full and five partial awards were made in complex technical areas such as predicting solar flares and long-duration food packaging.

Developing Technical Skill Assessments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hyslop, Alisha

2009-01-01

One of the biggest challenges facing the career and technical education (CTE) community as it works to implement the 2006 Perkins Act is responding to more rigorous requirements for reporting on CTE students' technical skill attainment. The U.S. Department of Education suggested in non-regulatory guidance that states and locals use the number of…

A Decision Support Tool to Evaluate Sources and Sinks of Nitrogen within a Watershed Framework

EPA Science Inventory

Human transformation of the nitrogen (N) cycle is causing a number of environmental and human health problems. Federal, state and local authorities focusing on management of N loadings face both technical and non-technical challenges. One technical issue is that we need a bette...

The Technical Communicator as Corporate Spokesperson: A Public Relations Primer.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Troester, Rod; Warburton, Terrence L.

2001-01-01

Examines the changing role of the technical communication professional in the rapidly evolving environment of organizational life. Presents five principles that serve as an initial step in laying a foundation for the preparation of technical communicators for the challenges and opportunities awaiting in contemporary organizations and the…

NASA as a Convener: Government, Academic and Industry Collaborations Through the NASA Human Health and Performance Center

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Davis, Jeffrey R.; Richard, Elizabeth E.

2011-01-01

On October 18, 2010, the NASA Human Health and Performance center (NHHPC) was opened to enable collaboration among government, academic and industry members. Membership rapidly grew to 60 members (http://nhhpc.nasa.gov ) and members began identifying collaborative projects as detailed below. In addition, a first workshop in open collaboration and innovation was conducted on January 19, 2011 by the NHHPC resulting in additional challenges and projects for further development. This first workshop was a result of the SLSD successes in running open innovation challenges over the past two years. In 2008, the NASA Johnson Space Center, Space Life Sciences Directorate (SLSD) began pilot projects in open innovation (crowd sourcing) to determine if these new internet-based platforms could indeed find solutions to difficult technical problems. From 2008 to 2010, the SLSD issued 34 challenges, 14 externally and 20 internally. The 14 external challenges were conducted through three different vendors: InnoCentive, Yet2.com and TopCoder. The 20 internal challenges were conducted using the InnoCentive platform, customized to NASA use, and promoted as NASA@Work. The results from the 34 challenges involved not only technical solutions that were reported previously at the 61st IAC, but also the formation of new collaborative relationships. For example, the TopCoder pilot was expanded by the NASA Space Operations Mission Directorate to the NASA Tournament Lab in collaboration with Harvard Business School and TopCoder. Building on these initial successes, the NHHPC workshop in January of 2011, and ongoing NHHPC member discussions, several important collaborations are in development: Space Act Agreement between NASA and GE for collaborative projects, NASA and academia for a Visual Impairment / Intracranial Hypertension summit (February 2011), NASA and the DoD through the Defense Venture Catalyst Initiative (DeVenCI) for a technical needs workshop (June 2011), NASA and the San Diego Zoo in Biomimicry, NASA and the FAA Center of Excellence for Commercial Space Flight for collaborative projects, NASA and the FDA concerning automatic external defibrillators, and NASA and Tufts University for an education pilot. These and other collaborations will be detailed in the paper demonstrating that a government-sponsored convening entity (the NHHPC) can facilitate industry, academic, and non-profit collaborations for products of mutual benefit.

Joseph A. Burton Forum Award Lecture: Managing Nuclear and Biological Risks: Building Resilience through International Cooperation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pregenzer, Arian

2012-03-01

International technical cooperation has long been an important nonproliferation strategy, especially since the 1990s when cooperative threat reduction (CTR) to prevent theft or illicit transfer of nuclear weapons, material and expertise in the former Soviet Union became a keystone of U.S. policy. The CTR approach expanded to include engagement with scientists and engineers with expertise relevant to biological and chemical weapons, and continued in the 2000s with efforts in Iraq and Libya, and cooperation with a wide range of countries on export control and nuclear and biological security. In general, the goal of such efforts has been to prevent proliferation or WMD terrorism. In most cases, the United States (or the West) defines the threat, and then funds partner countries to implement solutions. This presentation will argue that the future requires a new approach. Nuclear capabilities are more widely available than ever before, repercussions of the A.Q. Khan network continue to unfurl, and countries such as the DPRK engage in illicit cooperation. In addition, there has been a global boom in biotechnology with many nations, particularly across South and East Asia, investing in the biotech industry as a source of fuels, food, and materials for their rapidly expanding populations. Compared to the 1990s, today's threat is more diffuse, and the line between legitimate and illegitimate technical capability is no longer so clear. In addition, the West has many fewer resources to invest due to the global economic downturn. In this environment, full commitment of all countries that benefit from nuclear and biological advances will be required to assure the safety and security of all. Technical cooperation can continue to play an important role, but with some significant changes: First, challenges should be defined from a local perspective to ensure full commitment and participation. Second, the goal of cooperation should shift from preventing specific threats to building general capabilities to respond to a broad range of challenges as they arise. Finally, the funding model for technical cooperation should move from contractual arrangements to mutual investment and partnership, with regional approaches encouraged to add credibility, increase available resources, and help to ensure broad support.

A Qualitative Study of the Job Challenges of Instructional Deans in the Technical College System of Georgia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alford, Perrin J.

2014-01-01

The Technical College System of Georgia serves the people and the state by creating a system of technical education whose purpose is to use the latest technology and easy access for all adult Georgians and corporate citizens. Within each technical college is a hierarchy of faculty, staff, and administrators. The instructional deans serve a vital…

Packaging food for radiation processing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Komolprasert, Vanee

2016-12-01

Irradiation can play an important role in reducing pathogens that cause food borne illness. Food processors and food safety experts prefer that food be irradiated after packaging to prevent post-irradiation contamination. Food irradiation has been studied for the last century. However, the implementation of irradiation on prepackaged food still faces challenges on how to assess the suitability and safety of these packaging materials used during irradiation. Irradiation is known to induce chemical changes to the food packaging materials resulting in the formation of breakdown products, so called radiolysis products (RP), which may migrate into foods and affect the safety of the irradiated foods. Therefore, the safety of the food packaging material (both polymers and adjuvants) must be determined to ensure safety of irradiated packaged food. Evaluating the safety of food packaging materials presents technical challenges because of the range of possible chemicals generated by ionizing radiation. These challenges and the U.S. regulations on food irradiation are discussed in this article.

Challenges in Modern Anti-Doping Analytical Science.

PubMed

Ayotte, Christiane; Miller, John; Thevis, Mario

2017-01-01

The challenges facing modern anti-doping analytical science are increasingly complex given the expansion of target drug substances, as the pharmaceutical industry introduces more novel therapeutic compounds and the internet offers designer drugs to improve performance. The technical challenges are manifold, including, for example, the need for advanced instrumentation for greater speed of analyses and increased sensitivity, specific techniques capable of distinguishing between endogenous and exogenous metabolites, or biological assays for the detection of peptide hormones or their markers, all of which require an important investment from the laboratories and recruitment of highly specialized scientific personnel. The consequences of introducing sophisticated and complex analytical procedures may result in the future in a change in the strategy applied by the Word Anti-Doping Agency in relation to the introduction and performance of new techniques by the network of accredited anti-doping laboratories. © 2017 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Newborn screening progress in developing countries--overcoming internal barriers.

PubMed

Padilla, Carmencita D; Krotoski, Danuta; Therrell, Bradford L

2010-04-01

Newborn screening is an important public health measure aimed at early identification and management of affected newborns thereby lowering infant morbidity and mortality. It is a comprehensive system of education, screening, follow-up, diagnosis, treatment/management, and evaluation that must be institutionalized and sustained within public health systems often challenged by economic, political, and cultural considerations. As a result, developing countries face unique challenges in implementing and expanding newborn screening that can be grouped into the following categories: (1) planning, (2) leadership, (3) medical support, (4) technical support, (5) logistical support, (6) education, (7) protocol and policy development, (8) administration, (9) evaluation, and (10) sustainability. We review some of the experiences in overcoming implementation challenges in developing newborn screening programs, and discuss recent efforts to encourage increased newborn screening through support networking and information exchange activities in 2 regions-the Asia Pacific and the Middle East/North Africa. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Embolization of palpebral and orbito-frontal fistulas: technical and anatomical considerations in treating high-flow superficial skin lesions with liquid embolics.

PubMed

Samaniego, Edgar A; Fisher, Mark; Hasan, David; Guerrero, Waldo R; Fifi, Johanna T; Bottani, Laura; Ortega-Gutierrez, Santiago

2018-03-01

The treatment of palpebral and periorbital fistulas may be challenging due to the presence of multiple anastomosis with eloquent ophthalmic and intracranial vascular territories. Moreover, cosmetic and functional characteristics of this area pose unique challenges to open surgical approaches and endovascular therapy. We review the advantages and disadvantages of different liquid embolics in treating palpebral and periorbital fistulas as we describe three successfully treated cases. Moreover, we describe important anatomical landmarks that should be considered at the time of treatment of these lesions. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2018. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

Morbidly obese parturient: Challenges for the anaesthesiologist, including managing the difficult airway in obstetrics. What is new?

PubMed Central

Rao, Durga Prasada; Rao, Venkateswara A

2010-01-01

The purpose of this article is to review the fundamental aspects of obesity, pregnancy and a combination of both. The scientific aim is to understand the physiological changes, pathological clinical presentations and application of technical skills and pharmacological knowledge on this unique clinical condition. The goal of this presentation is to define the difficult airway, highlight the main reasons for difficult or failed intubation and propose a practical approach to management Throughout the review, an important component is the necessity for team work between the anaesthesiologist and the obstetrician. Certain protocols are recommended to meet the anaesthetic challenges and finally concluding with “what is new?” in obstetric anaesthesia. PMID:21224967

Teaching and learning experiences in a collaborative distance-education environment.

PubMed

Martin, Peter; Scheetz, Laura Temple

2011-01-01

The Great Plains Distance Education Alliance (Great Plains IDEA) emphasizes the importance of a collaborative environment for instructors and students in distance education. The authors highlight a number of important principles for distance-education programs and point out similarities and differences when compared to traditional face-face-to classes such as communication, classroom management, connectivity, and technical challenges. They summarize general topics concerning the faculty, the syllabus, office hours, the calendar, and announcements. Three essential lesson components are noted: an overview, the lesson itself, and supplemanetary material. The authors also take the student perspective, emphasizing the diversity of students, the importance of computer proficiency, and student interactions. Finally, they summarize a first round of course evaluations in the Great Plains IDEA gerontology master's program.

1996 DOE technical standards program workshop: Proceedings

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

NONE

1996-07-01

The workshop theme is `The Strategic Standardization Initiative - A Technology Exchange and Global Competitiveness Challenge for DOE.` The workshop goal is to inform the DOE technical standards community of strategic standardization activities taking place in the Department, other Government agencies, standards developing organizations, and industry. Individuals working on technical standards will be challenged to improve cooperation and communications with the involved organizations in response to the initiative. Workshop sessions include presentations by representatives from various Government agencies that focus on coordination among and participation of Government personnel in the voluntary standards process; reports by standards organizations, industry, and DOEmore » representatives on current technology exchange programs; and how the road ahead appears for `information superhighway` standardization. Another session highlights successful standardization case studies selected from several sites across the DOE complex. The workshop concludes with a panel discussion on the goals and objectives of the DOE Technical Standards Program as envisioned by senior DOE management. The annual workshop on technical standards has proven to be an effective medium for communicating information related to standards throughout the DOE community. Technical standards are used to transfer technology and standardize work processes to produce consistent, acceptable results. They provide a practical solution to the Department`s challenge to protect the environment and the health and safety of the public and workers during all facility operations. Through standards, the technologies of industries and governments worldwide are available to DOE. The DOE Technical Standards Program, a Department-wide effort that crosscuts all organizations and disciplines, links the Department to those technologies.« less

Civil engineering at the crossroads in the twenty-first century.

PubMed

Ramírez, Francisco; Seco, Andres

2012-12-01

The twenty-first century presents a major challenge for civil engineering. The magnitude and future importance of some of the problems perceived by society are directly related to the field of the civil engineer, implying an inescapable burden of responsibility for a group whose technical soundness, rational approach and efficiency is highly valued and respected by the citizen. However, the substantial changes in society and in the way it perceives the problems that it considers important call for a thorough review of our structures, both professional and educational; so that our profession, with its undeniable historical prestige, may modernize certain approaches and attitudes in order to continue to be a reliable instrument in the service of society, giving priority from an ethical standpoint to its actions in pursuit of "the public good". It possesses important tools to facilitate this work (new technologies, the development of communications, the transmission of scientific thought.···); but there is nevertheless a need for deep reflection on the very essence of civil engineering: what we want it to be in the future, and the ability and willingness to take the lead at a time when society needs disinterested messages, technically supported, reasonably presented and dispassionately transmitted.

Technical Assistance Project Map | State, Local, and Tribal Governments |

Science.gov Websites

), NREL provides research to help stakeholders understand challenges and barriers to the development of offers various types of technical assistance to state and local governments. Clear All Filter by: State (0) All states Year (0) All years Type (0) All types Category (0) All categories Technical Assistance

Information Retrieval and Text Mining Technologies for Chemistry.

PubMed

Krallinger, Martin; Rabal, Obdulia; Lourenço, Anália; Oyarzabal, Julen; Valencia, Alfonso

2017-06-28

Efficient access to chemical information contained in scientific literature, patents, technical reports, or the web is a pressing need shared by researchers and patent attorneys from different chemical disciplines. Retrieval of important chemical information in most cases starts with finding relevant documents for a particular chemical compound or family. Targeted retrieval of chemical documents is closely connected to the automatic recognition of chemical entities in the text, which commonly involves the extraction of the entire list of chemicals mentioned in a document, including any associated information. In this Review, we provide a comprehensive and in-depth description of fundamental concepts, technical implementations, and current technologies for meeting these information demands. A strong focus is placed on community challenges addressing systems performance, more particularly CHEMDNER and CHEMDNER patents tasks of BioCreative IV and V, respectively. Considering the growing interest in the construction of automatically annotated chemical knowledge bases that integrate chemical information and biological data, cheminformatics approaches for mapping the extracted chemical names into chemical structures and their subsequent annotation together with text mining applications for linking chemistry with biological information are also presented. Finally, future trends and current challenges are highlighted as a roadmap proposal for research in this emerging field.

Chemical and technical challenges in the analysis of central carbon metabolites by liquid-chromatography mass spectrometry.

PubMed

Siegel, David; Permentier, Hjalmar; Reijngoud, Dirk-Jan; Bischoff, Rainer

2014-09-01

This review deals with chemical and technical challenges in the analysis of small-molecule metabolites involved in central carbon and energy metabolism via liquid-chromatography mass-spectrometry (LC-MS). The covered analytes belong to the prominent pathways in biochemical carbon oxidation such as glycolysis or the tricarboxylic acid cycle and, for the most part, share unfavorable properties such as a high polarity, chemical instability or metal-affinity. The topic is introduced by selected examples on successful applications of metabolomics in the clinic. In the core part of the paper, the structural features of important analyte classes such as nucleotides, coenzyme A thioesters or carboxylic acids are linked to "problematic hotspots" along the analytical chain (sample preparation and-storage, separation and detection). We discuss these hotspots from a chemical point of view, covering issues such as analyte degradation or interactions with metals and other matrix components. Based on this understanding we propose solutions wherever available. A major notion derived from these considerations is that comprehensive carbon metabolomics inevitably requires multiple, complementary analytical approaches covering different chemical classes of metabolites. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Artificial chordae for degenerative mitral valve disease: critical analysis of current techniques

PubMed Central

Ibrahim, Michael; Rao, Christopher; Athanasiou, Thanos

2012-01-01

The surgical repair of degenerative mitral valve disease involves a number of technical points of importance. The use of artificial chordae for the repair of degenerative disease has increased as a part of the move from mitral valve replacement to repair of the mitral valve. The use of artificial chordae provides an alternative to the techniques pioneered by Carpentier (including the quadrangular resection, transfer of native chordae and papillary muscle shortening/plasty), which can be more technically difficult. Despite a growth in their uptake and the indications for their use, a number of challenges remain for the use of artificial chordae in mitral valve repair, particularly in the determination of the correct length to ensure optimal leaflet coaptation. Here, we analyse over 40 techniques described for artificial chordae mitral valve repair in the setting of degenerative disease. PMID:22962321

Challenges Faced by Female-Students in Engineering-Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Madara, Diana Starovoytova; Cherotich, Sharon

2016-01-01

Gender-related challenges in learning technical courses are universal phenomenon. These challenges could restrain female students from achieving their fullest potential. The main focus of this study, therefore, is to examine self-recognized challenges faced by undergraduate female students in pursuing engineering at the School of Engineering…

The Use of Dynamic Stochastic Social Behavior Models to Produce Likelihood Functions for Risk Modeling of Proliferation and Terrorist Attacks

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

Young, Jonathan; Thompson, Sandra E.; Brothers, Alan J.

The ability to estimate the likelihood of future events based on current and historical data is essential to the decision making process of many government agencies. Successful predictions related to terror events and characterizing the risks will support development of options for countering these events. The predictive tasks involve both technical and social component models. The social components have presented a particularly difficult challenge. This paper outlines some technical considerations of this modeling activity. Both data and predictions associated with the technical and social models will likely be known with differing certainties or accuracies – a critical challenge is linkingmore » across these model domains while respecting this fundamental difference in certainty level. This paper will describe the technical approach being taken to develop the social model and identification of the significant interfaces between the technical and social modeling in the context of analysis of diversion of nuclear material.« less

Are three generations of quantitative molecular methods sufficient in medical virology? Brief review.

PubMed

Clementi, Massimo; Bagnarelli, Patrizia

2015-10-01

In the last two decades, development of quantitative molecular methods has characterized the evolution of clinical virology more than any other methodological advancement. Using these methods, a great deal of studies has addressed efficiently in vivo the role of viral load, viral replication activity, and viral transcriptional profiles as correlates of disease outcome and progression, and has highlighted the physio-pathology of important virus diseases of humans. Furthermore, these studies have contributed to a better understanding of virus-host interactions and have sharply revolutionized the research strategies in basic and medical virology. In addition and importantly from a medical point of view, quantitative methods have provided a rationale for the therapeutic intervention and therapy monitoring in medically important viral diseases. Despite the advances in technology and the development of three generations of molecular methods within the last two decades (competitive PCR, real-time PCR, and digital PCR), great challenges still remain for viral testing related not only to standardization, accuracy, and precision, but also to selection of the best molecular targets for clinical use and to the identification of thresholds for risk stratification and therapeutic decisions. Future research directions, novel methods and technical improvements could be important to address these challenges.

Finance Program, Technical Assistance Brief 1

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1993-01-01

This four page pamphlet highlights the work of the Federal Transit : Administration's Office of Technical Assistance and Safety. Articles in this : issue are: Transit's Finance Challenge, which discusses the three main aspects : of the Office's Finan...

The Apollo Experience Lessons Learned for Constellation Lunar Dust Management

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wagner, Sandra

2008-01-01

In 2008, NASA was embarking on its Exploration Vision, knowing that many technical challenges would be encountered. For lunar exploration missions, one challenge was to learn to manage lunar dust. References to problems associated with lunar dust during the Apollo Program were found on many of pages of the mission reports and technical debriefs. All engineers designing hardware that would come into contact with lunar dust had to mitigate its effects in the design.

Quality Career/Technical Programs Prepare Students to Succeed in a New, More Challenging Economy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Southern Regional Education Board (SREB), 2008

2008-01-01

Quality career/technical education and its role in school improvement was a primary theme of the 2008 "High Schools That Work" ("HSTW") Staff Development Conference. This newsletter covers crucial topics in quality CTE (career and technical education), including assessing the quality and effectiveness of CT programs, preparing students to succeed…

Use of Career Education and Occupation Information Services in Boosting Enrolment into Vocational and Technical Education Programs in Nigeria

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Igbinedion, V. I.; Ojeaga, I. J.

2012-01-01

The major thrust of technical and vocational education (TVE) worldwide is to address issues of youth unemployment, poverty and international competitiveness in skills development towards current and projected opportunities and challenges. The paper posits that despite the evidence of numerous reforms in vocational and technical education programs…

Strategic Management for Competitive Advantage: A Case Study of Higher Technical and Vocational Education in Taiwan

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Huang, Hsun-I; Lee, Cheng-Fei

2012-01-01

Higher technical and vocational education institutions in Taiwan face the pressure of an oversupply of student places and fierce competition from domestic and international institutions. To cope with these challenges, higher technical and vocational education institutions that are better equipped to respond to market requirements are expected to…

Teaching Intercultural Communication in a Basic Technical Writing Course: A Survey of Our Current Practices and Methods

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Matveeva, Natalia

2008-01-01

This research article reports the results of an online survey distributed among technical writing instructors in 2006. The survey aimed to examine how we teach intercultural communication in basic technical writing courses: our current practices and methods. The article discusses three major challenges that instructors may face when teaching about…

Scope and Challenges of Technical Education: A Kerala Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rahman, M. Abdul; Unnikrishnan, Ramesh

2015-01-01

Technical education contributes a major share to the overall education system and plays a vital role in the social and economic development of our nation. Since independence, the technical education system in our country has grown into a fairly large-sized system, offering opportunities for education and training in a wide variety of trades and…

The relevance of economic data in the decision-making process for orbital launch vehicle programs, a U.S. perspective

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hertzfeld, Henry R.; Williamson, Ray A.; Peter, Nicolas

2007-12-01

Over the past fifteen years, major U.S. initiatives for the development of new launch vehicles have been remarkably unsuccessful. The list is long: NLI, SLI, and X-33, not to mention several cancelled programs aimed at high speed airplanes (NASP, HSCT) which would share some similar technological problems. The economic aspects of these programs are equally as important to their success as are the technical aspects. In fact, by largely ignoring economic realities in the decisions to undertake these programs and in subsequent management decisions, space agencies (and their commercial partners) have inadvertently contributed to the eventual demise of these efforts. The transportation revolution that was envisaged by the promises of these programs has never occurred. Access to space is still very expensive; reliability of launch vehicles has remained constant over the years; and market demand has been relatively low, volatile and slow to develop. The changing international context of the industry (launching overcapacity, etc.) has also worked against the investment in new vehicles in the U.S. Today, unless there are unforeseen technical breakthroughs, orbital space access is likely to continue as it has been with high costs and market stagnation. Space exploration will require significant launching capabilities. The details of the future needs are not yet well defined. But, the question of the launch costs, the overall demand for vehicles, and the size and type of role that NASA will play in the overall launch market is likely to influence the industry. This paper will emphasize the lessons learned from the economic and management perspective from past launch programs, analyze the issues behind the demand for launches, and project the challenges that NASA will face as only one new customer in a very complex market situation. It will be important for NASA to make launch vehicle decisions based as much on economic considerations as it does on solving new technical challenges.

A Comparison of Robotically Assisted Microsurgery versus Manual Microsurgery in Challenging Situations.

PubMed

Willems, Joost I P; Shin, Alexandra M; Shin, Delaney M; Bishop, Allen T; Shin, Alexander Y

2016-04-01

Microsurgery can be challenging secondary to orientation of the vessels, accessibility, or depth of the wound. Robotically assisted microsurgery reduces tremors and improves visualization and may improve the quality of anastomosis compared with traditional microsurgery. The purpose of this study was to compare robotically assisted microsurgery to traditional microsurgery in technically challenging situations with respect to time of anastomosis, quality of anastomosis, and Objective Structured Assessment of Technical Skills. Two investigators with no prior surgery or microsurgery experience performed 160 anastomoses on artificial microvessels after undergoing standardized traditional and robotically assisted microsurgery courses. Five different exposure groups were created with depths of 0, 10, and 20 cm and sidewall angles of 20 and 30 degrees. A comparison of 80 manual with 80 robotically assisted microsurgery anastomoses in different exposure groups was undertaken. The modified Objective Structured Assessment of Technical Skills scoring system, duration per anastomosis, and a subjective comfort scale were evaluated. In the most difficult exposure, Objective Structured Assessment of Technical Skills scores were similar in both groups (p = 0.98), the duration was higher in the manual group (p = 0.004), and the subjective comfort rating was higher in the robotically assisted microsurgery group (p < 0.001). In the easiest (0-cm depth, flat) exposure, Objective Structured Assessment of Technical Skills scores were higher in the manual group (p = 0.018) and the duration was longer in the robotically assisted microsurgery group (p = 0.008). Manual surgery was superior to robotically assisted microsurgery in technically easy exposures. In difficult exposures (greater depth and lower sidewall angles), however, robotically assisted microsurgery had a shorter surgery time and a higher comfort rating, with Objective Structured Assessment of Technical Skills scores similar to those assessing traditional microsurgery. Therapeutic, V.

PET/MRI – Technical Review

PubMed Central

Muzic, Raymond F.; DiFilippo, Frank P.

2015-01-01

PET/MR is a hybrid imaging technology with the potential to combine the molecular and functional information of PET with the soft-tissue contrast of MR. Herein we review the technical features and challenges of putting these different technologies together. We emphasize the conceptual to make the material accessible to a wide audience. We begin by reviewing PET/CT, a more mature multi-modality imaging technology, to provide a basis for comparison to the history of PET/MR development. We discuss the motivation and challenges of PET/MR and different approaches that have been used to meet the challenges. We conclude with a speculation about the future of this exciting imaging method. PMID:25497909

Climate and Energy-Water-Land System Interactions Technical Report to the U.S. Department of Energy in Support of the National Climate Assessment

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

Skaggs, Richard; Hibbard, Kathleen A.; Frumhoff, Peter

2012-03-01

This report provides a framework to characterize and understand the important elements of climate and energy-water-land (EWL) system interactions. It identifies many of the important issues, discusses our understanding of those issues, and presents a long-term research program research needs to address the priority scientific challenges and gaps in our understanding. Much of the discussion is organized around two discrete case studies with the broad themes of (1) extreme events and (2) regional intercomparisons. These case studies help demonstrate unique ways in which energy-water-land interactions can occur and be influenced by climate.

Posterior horn medial meniscal root repair with cruciate ligament/medial collateral ligament combined injuries.

PubMed

Wilson, Brian F; Johnson, Darren L

2011-12-01

Many meniscal root tears remain unrepaired, potentially due to under-recognition and the technical challenge of repairing them. A great effort is made to preserve the native meniscus and restore the circumferential fibers for hoop stress resistance. It has been well demonstrated in the literature that failure to repair this will lead to increased contact pressures in the medial compartment and early degenerative changes in the articular cartilage. Our technique is one that allows the meniscus to resume its important role of knee stability. A thorough understanding of meniscal root anatomy, as well as repair techniques, is important for the cruciate ligament surgeon. Copyright © 2011, SLACK Incorporated.

Continuing professional development: researching non-technical competencies can support cognitive reappraisal and reduced stress in clinicians.

PubMed

Kinnison, Tierney; May, Stephen

2017-09-09

Generic professional capabilities (non-technical competencies) are increasingly valued for their links to patient outcomes and clinician well-being. This study explores the emotional change, and practice-related outcomes, of participants of a veterinary professional key skills (PKS) continuing professional development (CPD) module. Reflective summaries produced by participants were analysed. A change in emotion, from 'negative' to 'positive', was the focus of analysis. Sections regarding these emotions were thematically analysed. Analysis was performed on 46 summaries. Three themes were identified: 'the PKS module' (centred on reluctance becoming surprise and stimulation), 'developing non-technical competencies' (unease to confidence) and 'stress and coping through a reflective focus' (anxiety to harmony). The changing emotions were connected to positive cognitive reappraisal and often behaviour changes, benefitting self, practice, clients and patients. The PKS module teaches participants to reflect; a new and challenging concept. The consequences of this enabled participants to understand the importance of professional topics, to be appreciative as well as critical, and to enjoy their job. Importantly, the module stimulated coping responses. Better understanding of roles led to participants having more reasonable expectations of themselves, more appreciation of their work and reduced stress. This research supports more attention to professional skills CPD for health professions. © British Veterinary Association (unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2017. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

Engineering the System and Technical Integration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Blair, J. C.; Ryan, R. S.; Schutzenhofer, L. A.

2011-01-01

Approximately 80% of the problems encountered in aerospace systems have been due to a breakdown in technical integration and/or systems engineering. One of the major challenges we face in designing, building, and operating space systems is: how is adequate integration achieved for the systems various functions, parts, and infrastructure? This Contractor Report (CR) deals with part of the problem of how we engineer the total system in order to achieve the best balanced design. We will discuss a key aspect of this question - the principle of Technical Integration and its components, along with management and decision making. The CR will first provide an introduction with a discussion of the Challenges in Space System Design and meeting the challenges. Next is an overview of Engineering the System including Technical Integration. Engineering the System is expanded to include key aspects of the Design Process, Lifecycle Considerations, etc. The basic information and figures used in this CR were presented in a NASA training program for Program and Project Managers Development (PPMD) in classes at Georgia Tech and at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). Many of the principles and illustrations are extracted from the courses we teach for MSFC.

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

Rhinefrank, Kenneth; Lamb, Bradford; Prudell, Joseph

This Project aims to satisfy objectives of the DOE’s Water Power Program by completing a system detailed design (SDD) and other important activities in the first phase of a utility-scale grid-connected ocean wave energy demonstration. In early 2012, Columbia Power (CPwr) had determined that further cost and performance optimization was necessary in order to commercialize its StingRAY wave energy converter (WEC). CPwr’s progress toward commercialization, and the requisite technology development path, were focused on transitioning toward a commercial-scale demonstration. This path required significant investment to be successful, and the justification for this investment required improved annual energy production (AEP) andmore » lower capital costs. Engineering solutions were developed to address these technical and cost challenges, incorporated into a proposal to the US Department of Energy (DOE), and then adapted to form the technical content and statement of project objectives of the resulting Project (DE-EE0005930). Through Project cost-sharing and technical collaboration between DOE and CPwr, and technical collaboration with Oregon State University (OSU), National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) and other Project partners, we have demonstrated experimentally that these conceptual improvements have merit and made significant progress towards a certified WEC system design at a selected and contracted deployment site at the Wave Energy Test Site (WETS) at the Marine Corps Base in Oahu, HI (MCBH).« less

Stardust Interstellar Preliminary Examination II: Curating the Interstellar Dust Collector, Picokeystones, and Sources of Impact Tracks

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Frank, David R.; Westphal, Andrew J.; Zolensky, Michael E.; Gainsforth, Zack; Butterworth, Anna L.; Bastien, Ronald K.; Allen, Carlton; Anderson, David; Bechtel, Hans A.; Sandford, Scott A.

2013-01-01

We discuss the inherent difficulties that arise during "ground truth" characterization of the Stardust interstellar dust collector. The challenge of identifying contemporary interstellar dust impact tracks in aerogel is described within the context of background spacecraft secondaries and possible interplanetary dust particles and beta-meteoroids. In addition, the extraction of microscopic dust embedded in aerogel is technically challenging. Specifically, we provide a detailed description of the sample preparation techniques developed to address the unique goals and restrictions of the Interstellar Preliminary Exam. These sample preparation requirements and the scarcity of candidate interstellar impact tracks exacerbate the difficulties. We also illustrate the role of initial optical imaging with critically important examples, and summarize the overall processing of the collection to date.

Biomarker Testing for Personalized Therapy in Lung Cancer in Low- and Middle-Income Countries.

PubMed

Hirsch, Fred R; Zaric, Bojan; Rabea, Ahmed; Thongprasert, Sumitra; Lertprasertsuke, Nirush; Dalurzo, Mercedes Liliana; Varella-Garcia, Marileila

2017-01-01

There have been many important advances in personalized therapy for patients with lung cancer, particularly for those with advanced disease. Molecular testing is crucial for implementation of personalized therapy. Although the United States and many Western countries have come far in the implementation of personalized therapy for lung cancer, there are substantial challenges for low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Globally, the LMICs display great heterogeneity in the pattern of implementation of molecular testing and targeted therapy. The current review presents an attempt to identify the challenges and obstacles for the implementation of molecular testing and the use of targeted therapies in these areas. Lack of infrastructure, lack of technical expertise, economic factors, and lack of access to new drugs are among the substantial barriers.

Observing Exoplanetary Ozone In The Mid-Ultraviolet

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Heap, S.

2008-01-01

There are good reasons for pushing the spectral range of observation to shorter wavelengths than currently envisaged for terrestrial planet-finding missions utilizing with a 4-rn, diffraction-limited, optical telescope: (1) The angular resolution is higher, so that the image of an exoplanet is better separated from that of the much brighter star. (2) Due to the higher resolution, the exozodiacal background per resolution element is smaller, so exposure times are reduced for the same incident flux. (3) Most importantly, the sensitivity to the presence of life on habitable exoplanets is increased by a hundred-fold by access to the ozone biomarker at 250-300 nm. These benefits must be weighed against challenges arising from the faintness of exoplanets in the mid-UV. We will describe the benefits and the technical and cost challenges.

Improving management decision processes through centralized communication linkages

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Simanton, D. F.; Garman, J. R.

1985-01-01

Information flow is a critical element to intelligent and timely decision-making. At NASA's Johnson Space Center the flow of information is being automated through the use of a centralized backbone network. The theoretical basis of this network, its implications to the horizontal and vertical flow of information, and the technical challenges involved in its implementation are the focus of this paper. The importance of the use of common tools among programs and some future concerns related to file transfer, graphics transfer, and merging of voice and data are also discussed.

Oxygen Sensing for Industrial Safety — Evolution and New Approaches

PubMed Central

Willett, Martin

2014-01-01

The requirement for the detection of oxygen in industrial safety applications has historically been met by electrochemical technologies based on the consumption of metal anodes. Products using this approach have been technically and commercially successful for more than three decades. However, a combination of new requirements is driving the development of alternative approaches offering fresh opportunities and challenges. This paper reviews some key aspects in the evolution of consumable anode products and highlights recent developments in alternative technologies aimed at meeting current and anticipated future needs in this important application. PMID:24681673

Oxygen sensing for industrial safety - evolution and new approaches.

PubMed

Willett, Martin

2014-03-27

The requirement for the detection of oxygen in industrial safety applications has historically been met by electrochemical technologies based on the consumption of metal anodes. Products using this approach have been technically and commercially successful for more than three decades. However, a combination of new requirements is driving the development of alternative approaches offering fresh opportunities and challenges. This paper reviews some key aspects in the evolution of consumable anode products and highlights recent developments in alternative technologies aimed at meeting current and anticipated future needs in this important application.

Adapting Project Management Practices to Research-Based Projects

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bahr, P.; Baker, T.; Corbin, B.; Keith, L.; Loerch, L.; Mullenax, C.; Myers, R.; Rhodes, B.; Skytland, N.

2007-01-01

From dealing with the inherent uncertainties in outcomes of scientific research to the lack of applicability of current NASA Procedural Requirements guidance documentation, research-based projects present challenges that require unique application of classical project management techniques. If additionally challenged by the creation of a new program transitioning from basic to applied research in a technical environment often unfamiliar with the cost and schedule constraints addressed by project management practices, such projects can find themselves struggling throughout their life cycles. Finally, supplying deliverables to a prime vehicle customer, also in the formative stage, adds further complexity to the development and management of research-based projects. The Biomedical Research and Countermeasures Projects Branch at NASA Johnson Space Center encompasses several diverse applied research-based or research-enabling projects within the newly-formed Human Research Program. This presentation will provide a brief overview of the organizational structure and environment in which these projects operate and how the projects coordinate to address and manage technical requirements. We will identify several of the challenges (cost, technical, schedule, and personnel) encountered by projects across the Branch, present case reports of actions taken and techniques implemented to deal with these challenges, and then close the session with an open forum discussion of remaining challenges and potential mitigations.

48 CFR 227.7103-13 - Government right to review, verify, challenge and validate asserted restrictions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... validation. Contracting officers must have reasonable grounds to challenge the current validity of an... available information pertaining to the assertion. All challenges must be made in accordance with the provisions of the clause at 252.227-7037, Validation of Restrictive Markings on Technical Data. (1) Challenge...

Managing Adaptive Challenges: Learning with Principals in Bermuda and Florida

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Drago-Severson, Eleanor; Maslin-Ostrowski, Patricia; Hoffman, Alexander M.; Barbaro, Justin

2014-01-01

We interviewed eight principals from Bermuda and Florida about how they identify and manage their most pressing challenges. Their challenges are composed of both adaptive and technical work, requiring leaders to learn to diagnose and manage them. Challenges focused on change and were traced to accountability contexts, yet accountability was not…

Addressing tomorrow's DMO technical challenges today

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Milligan, James R.

2009-05-01

Distributed Mission Operations (DMO) is essentially a type of networked training that pulls in participants from all the armed services and, increasingly, allies to permit them to "game" and rehearse highly complex campaigns, using a mix of local, distant, and virtual players. The United States Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is pursuing Science and Technology (S&T) solutions to address technical challenges associated with distributed communications and information management as DMO continues to progressively scale up the number, diversity, and geographic dispersal of participants in training and rehearsal exercises.

Sonic Boom Modeling Technical Challenge

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sullivan, Brenda M.

2007-01-01

This viewgraph presentation reviews the technical challenges in modeling sonic booms. The goal of this program is to develop knowledge, capabilities and technologies to enable overland supersonic flight. The specific objectives of the modeling are: (1) Develop and validate sonic boom propagation model through realistic atmospheres, including effects of turbulence (2) Develop methods enabling prediction of response of and acoustic transmission into structures impacted by sonic booms (3) Develop and validate psychoacoustic model of human response to sonic booms under both indoor and outdoor listening conditions, using simulators.

Cockpit Accommodation Assessment of the Bell 412CF Helicopter (Evaluation du Poste de Pilotage de l’Hellcoptere Bell 412CF)

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-12-01

Research, Ottawa , 1998 as issued jointly by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada...Flight Rules ) skills. Nine Bell 412CF helicopters were produced from existing CH-146 Griffons, which posed technical challenges. One such compromise was...IFR (Instrument Flight Rules ) skills. Nine Bell 412CF helicopters were produced from existing CH-146 Griffons, which posed technical challenges. One

LUVOIR Tech Notes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bolcar, Matthew R.; Shaklan, Stuart; Roberge, Aki; Rioux, Norman; Feinberg, Lee; Werner, Michael; Rauscher, Bernard; Mandell, Avi; France, Kevin; Schiminovich, David

2016-01-01

We present nine "tech notes" prepared by the Large UV/Optical/Infrared (LUVOIR) Science and Technology Definition Team (STDT), Study Office, and Technology Working Group. These tech notes are intended to highlight technical challenges that represent boundaries in the trade space for developing the LUVOIR architecture that may impact the science objectives being developed by the STDT. These tech notes are intended to be high-level discussions of the technical challenges and will serve as starting points for more in-depth analysis as the LUVOIR study progresses.

Pluripotent Stem Cells for Retinal Tissue Engineering: Current Status and Future Prospects.

PubMed

Singh, Ratnesh; Cuzzani, Oscar; Binette, François; Sternberg, Hal; West, Michael D; Nasonkin, Igor O

2018-04-19

The retina is a very fine and layered neural tissue, which vitally depends on the preservation of cells, structure, connectivity and vasculature to maintain vision. There is an urgent need to find technical and biological solutions to major challenges associated with functional replacement of retinal cells. The major unmet challenges include generating sufficient numbers of specific cell types, achieving functional integration of transplanted cells, especially photoreceptors, and surgical delivery of retinal cells or tissue without triggering immune responses, inflammation and/or remodeling. The advances of regenerative medicine enabled generation of three-dimensional tissues (organoids), partially recreating the anatomical structure, biological complexity and physiology of several tissues, which are important targets for stem cell replacement therapies. Derivation of retinal tissue in a dish creates new opportunities for cell replacement therapies of blindness and addresses the need to preserve retinal architecture to restore vision. Retinal cell therapies aimed at preserving and improving vision have achieved many improvements in the past ten years. Retinal organoid technologies provide a number of solutions to technical and biological challenges associated with functional replacement of retinal cells to achieve long-term vision restoration. Our review summarizes the progress in cell therapies of retina, with focus on human pluripotent stem cell-derived retinal tissue, and critically evaluates the potential of retinal organoid approaches to solve a major unmet clinical need-retinal repair and vision restoration in conditions caused by retinal degeneration and traumatic ocular injuries. We also analyze obstacles in commercialization of retinal organoid technology for clinical application.

Total Quality Management (TQM) in Self-Financed Technical Institutions: A Quality Function Deployment (QFD) and Force Field Analysis Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thakkar, Jitesh; Deshmukh, S. G.; Shastree, Anil

2006-01-01

Purpose: To explore the potential for adoption of TQM in self-financed technical institutions in the light of new demands and challenges posed by customers/students and society. Design/methodology/approach: The paper presents use of quality function deployment (QFD) which prioritizes technical requirements and correlates them with various…

CFD Analysis of a Maneuvering F/A-18E Super Hornet

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-10-12

UNCLASSIFIED UNCLASSIFIED NAVAL AIR WARFARE CENTER AIRCRAFT DIVISION PATUXENT RIVER, MARYLAND TECHNICAL INFORMATION MEMORANDUM...THE ABOVE ADDRESS. 1. REPORT DATE 12 October 2016 2. REPORT TYPE Technical Information Memorandum 3. DATES COVERED 2016 4. TITLE...dynamic unsteady effects of rapid motions of both the vehicle and its associated control surfaces is a known technical challenge. When aircraft

The Changing Role of Vocational and Technical Education and Training (VOTEC). Women in Vocational and Technical Education: Changes and Challenges.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Paris (France).

Changes in the vocational and technical education (VTE) opportunities available for women in Organisation for Economic Cooperation Development (OECD) member countries in response to changing labor markets and job skill requirements were discussed at a June 1994 meeting of experts. The discussions focused on the following issues: gender differences…

Prototype design for a predictive model to improve evacuation operations : technical report.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2011-08-01

Mass evacuations of the Texas Gulf Coast remain a difficult challenge. These events are massive in scale, : highly complex, and entail an intricate, ever-changing conglomeration of technical and jurisdictional issues. : This project focused primarily...

Wearable devices for blood purification: principles, miniaturization, and technical challenges.

PubMed

Armignacco, Paolo; Lorenzin, Anna; Neri, Mauro; Nalesso, Federico; Garzotto, Francesco; Ronco, Claudio

2015-01-01

The prevalences of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) and renal replacement therapy (RRT) continue to increase across the world imposing staggering costs on providers. Therefore, strategies to optimize the treatment and improve survival are of fundamental importance. Despite the benefits of daily dialysis, its implementation is difficult and wearable hemodialysis might represent an alternative by which frequent treatments can be delivered to ESRD patients with much less interference in their routines promoting better quality of life. The development of the wearable artificial kidney (WAK) requires incorporation of basic components of a dialysis system into a wearable device that allows mobility, miniaturization, and above all, patient-oriented management. The technical requirements necessary for WAK can be divided into the following broad categories: dialysis membranes, dialysis regeneration, vascular access, patient monitoring systems, and power sources. Pumping systems for blood and other fluids are the most critical components of the entire device. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Orthology prediction methods: A quality assessment using curated protein families

PubMed Central

Trachana, Kalliopi; Larsson, Tomas A; Powell, Sean; Chen, Wei-Hua; Doerks, Tobias; Muller, Jean; Bork, Peer

2011-01-01

The increasing number of sequenced genomes has prompted the development of several automated orthology prediction methods. Tests to evaluate the accuracy of predictions and to explore biases caused by biological and technical factors are therefore required. We used 70 manually curated families to analyze the performance of five public methods in Metazoa. We analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of the methods and quantified the impact of biological and technical challenges. From the latter part of the analysis, genome annotation emerged as the largest single influencer, affecting up to 30% of the performance. Generally, most methods did well in assigning orthologous group but they failed to assign the exact number of genes for half of the groups. The publicly available benchmark set (http://eggnog.embl.de/orthobench/) should facilitate the improvement of current orthology assignment protocols, which is of utmost importance for many fields of biology and should be tackled by a broad scientific community. PMID:21853451

Enabling Research without Geographical Boundaries via Collaborative Research Infrastructures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gesing, S.

2016-12-01

Collaborative research infrastructures on global scale for earth and space sciences face a plethora of challenges from technical implementations to organizational aspects. Science gateways - also known as virtual research environments (VREs) or virtual laboratories - address part of such challenges by providing end-to-end solutions to aid researchers to focus on their specific research questions without the need to become acquainted with the technical details of the complex underlying infrastructures. In general, they provide a single point of entry to tools and data irrespective of organizational boundaries and thus make scientific discoveries easier and faster. The importance of science gateways has been recognized on national as well as on international level by funding bodies and by organizations. For example, the US NSF has just funded a Science Gateways Community Institute, which offers support, consultancy and open accessible software repositories for users and developers; Horizon 2020 provides funding for virtual research environments in Europe, which has led to projects such as VRE4EIC (A Europe-wide Interoperable Virtual Research Environment to Empower Multidisciplinary Research Communities and Accelerate Innovation and Collaboration); national or continental research infrastructures such as XSEDE in the USA, Nectar in Australia or EGI in Europe support the development and uptake of science gateways; the global initiatives International Coalition on Science Gateways, the RDA Virtual Research Environment Interest Group as well as the IEEE Technical Area on Science Gateways have been founded to provide global leadership on future directions for science gateways in general and facilitate awareness for science gateways. This presentation will give an overview on these projects and initiatives aiming at supporting domain researchers and developers with measures for the efficient creation of science gateways, for increasing their usability and sustainability under consideration of the breadth of topics in the context of science gateways. It will go into detail for the challenges the community faces for collaborative research on global scale without geographical boundaries and will provide suggestions for further enhancing the outreach to domain researchers.

Funding options for research: facing the market as well as government.

PubMed

Mitchell, G; Nossal, G

1999-06-01

Parasitology is a challenge. At one level, the structural and genetic complexities of parasites provide ample technical challenges in regard to an understanding of parasite variability and adaptability, epidemiological diversity, drug resistance, etc. The intricacies of host parasite relationships including the immunology of parasitism will continually surprise yet frustrate the vaccine developer and keep the bravest immunoparasitologist busy and creative for decades. As if the technical considerations were not challenging enough, we see difficulties arising in sustaining a research endeavour and preserving a critical mass of researchers through the generation of high-level, long-term funding support. Contributing to this situation is the fact that most parasitic diseases of major impact in humans are largely centred around the rural poor in tropical, less industrially-developed countries and therefore of little or of fickle interest to the strictly commercially oriented. Moreover, the focus in the rural industries has moved away from aspects of on-farm production with lower priority given to studies on even the 'economically-important' parasites of livestock. It is contended that this may change again with pressures and clear marketing advantages to preserving a 'clean and green' image for Australia's primary industries. Overall, the extraordinary technical and conceptual advances in recent times have been tempered by uncertainties in research funding and severe cuts from some traditional sources for both fundamental and strategic/applied research in Parasitology. Several have highlighted the fact that deliverables in terms of new methods of disease control have been sparse and some claims made in the past have certainly been exaggerated. Yet the prospects and achievements at the front end of the long R&D pathway have never been brighter. In this article we examine the merits of a 'portfolio approach' to generating research funds in Parasitology and Science and Technology in Australia more generally, with an emphasis on strategies that, through welding good science with clear, medium-term product objectives, increase research funding opportunities.

Improving integration and coordination of funding, technical assistance, and reporting/data collection: recommendations from CDC and USAPI stakeholders.

PubMed

Ka'opua, Lana Sue I; White, Susan F; Rochester, Phyllis F; Holden, Debra J

2010-09-01

Current US Federal funding mechanisms may foster program silos that disable sharing of resources and information across programs within a larger system of public health services. Such silos present challenges to USAPI communities where human resources, health infrastructure, and health financing are limited. Integrative and coordinated approaches have been recommended. The CDC Pacific Islands Integration and Coordination project was initiated by the Division of Cancer Prevention and Control (DCPC). Its project aim was to identify ways for the CDC to collaborate with the USAPI in improving CDC activities and processes related to chronic disease. This article focuses on recommendations for improving coordination and integration in three core areas of health services programming: funding, program reporting/data collection and analysis, and technical assistance. Preliminary information on challenges and issues relevant to the core areas was gathered through site visits, focus groups, key informant interviews, and other sources. This information was used by stakeholder groups from the CDC and the USAPI to develop recommendations in the core programming areas. Recommendations generated at the CDC and USAPI stakeholder meetings were prepared into a single set of recommendations and stakeholders reviewed the document for accuracy prior to its dissemination to CDC's National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion programs management and staff. Key recommendations, include: (1) consideration of resource s and other challenges unique to the USAPI when reviewing funding applications, (2) consideration of ways to increase flexibility in USAPI use of program funds, (3) dedicate funding and human resources for technical assistance, (4) provide opportunities for capacity-building across programs and jurisdictions, (5) consider ways to more directly link program reporting with technical assistance. This project provided a unique opportunity for CDC and USAPI stakeholders to share diverse perspectives on challenges to public health programs in the USAPI. Despite diverse experiences, the final set of recommendations reflected a high level of concordance between USAPI and CDC stakeholders on ways to improve coordination and integration of CDC processes and activities in the three core areas. Recommendations have informed some actions already initiated by the DCPC, including the dedication of funds for leadership institutes aimed at enhancing USAPI capacity for sustainable, integrated regional and jurisdictional cancer control infrastructure. Such efforts are an important beginning, but more remains to be done. Indicated is the need for continuous dialogue and collaboration. While this project focused on the USAPI, our results may be relevant to those interested in inter-organizational collaborations, medically underserved areas, public health services programs, and community-based participatory approaches.

Improving integration and coordination of funding, technical assistance, and reporting/data collection: recommendations from CDC and USAPI stakeholders.

PubMed

Ka'opua, Lana Sue I; White, Susan F; Rochester, Phyllis F; Holden, Debra J

2011-03-01

Current US Federal funding mechanisms may foster program silos that disable sharing of resources and information across programs within a larger system of public health services. Such silos present challenges to USAPI communities where human resources, health infrastructure, and health financing are limited. Integrative and coordinated approaches have been recommended. The CDC Pacific Islands Integration and Coordination project was initiated by the CDC Division of Cancer Prevention and Control (DCPC). The project aim was to identify ways for the CDC to collaborate with the USAPI in improving CDC activities and processes related to chronic disease. This article focuses on recommendations for improving coordination and integration in three core areas of health services programming: funding, program reporting/data collection and analysis, and technical assistance. Preliminary information on challenges and issues relevant to the core areas was gathered through site visits, focus groups, key informant interviews, and other sources. This information was used by stakeholder groups from the CDC and the USAPI to develop recommendations in the core programming areas. Recommendations generated at the CDC and USAPI stakeholder meetings were prepared into a single set of recommendations and stakeholders reviewed the document for accuracy prior to its dissemination to CDC's National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion programs management and staff. Key recommendations, include: (1) consideration of resources and other challenges unique to the USAPI when reviewing funding applications, (2) consideration of ways to increase flexibility in USAPI use of program funds, (3) dedication of funding and human resources for technical assistance, (4) provision of opportunities for capacity-building across programs and jurisdictions, (5) consideration of ways to more directly link program reporting with technical assistance. This project provided a unique opportunity for CDC and USAPI stakeholders to share diverse perspectives on challenges to public health programs in the USAPI. Despite diverse experiences, the final set of recommendations reflected a high level of concordance between USAPI and CDC stakeholders. Recommendations have informed or reinforced actions initiated by the DCPC, including the dedication of funds for leadership institutes aimed at enhancing USAPI capacity for sustainable, integrated regional and jurisdictional cancer control infrastructure. Such efforts are an important beginning, but more remains to be done. Indicated is the need for continuous dialogue and collaboration. While this project focused on the USAPI, our results may be relevant to those interested in inter-organizational collaborations, medically underserved areas, public health services programs, and community-based participatory approaches.

Supersonics--Airport Noise

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bridges, James

2007-01-01

At this, the first year-end meeting of the Fundamental Aeronautics Program, an overview of the Airport Noise discipline of the Supersonics Project leads the presentation of technical plans and achievements in this area of the Project. The overview starts by defining the Technical Challenges targeted by Airport Noise efforts, and the Approaches planned to meet these challenges. These are fleshed out in Elements, namely Prediction, Diagnostics, and Engineering, and broken down into Tasks. The Tasks level is where individual researchers' work is defined and from whence the technical presentations to follow this presentation come. This overview also presents the Milestones accomplished to date and to be completed in the next year. Finally, the NASA Research Announcement cooperative agreement activities are covered and tied to the Tasks and Milestones.

Multiplex Preamplification of Serum DNA to Facilitate Reliable Detection of Extremely Rare Cancer Mutations in Circulating DNA by Digital PCR.

PubMed

Jackson, Jennifer B; Choi, Daniel S; Luketich, James D; Pennathur, Arjun; Ståhlberg, Anders; Godfrey, Tony E

2016-03-01

Tumor-specific mutations can be identified in circulating, cell-free DNA in plasma or serum and may serve as a clinically relevant alternative to biopsy. Detection of tumor-specific mutations in the plasma, however, is technically challenging. First, mutant allele fractions are typically low in a large background of wild-type circulating, cell-free DNA. Second, the amount of circulating, cell-free DNA acquired from plasma is also low. Even when using digital PCR (dPCR), rare mutation detection is challenging because there is not enough circulating, cell-free DNA to run technical replicates and assay or instrument noise does not easily allow for mutation detection <0.1%. This study was undertaken to improve on the robustness of dPCR for mutation detection. A multiplexed, preamplification step using a high-fidelity polymerase before dPCR was developed to increase total DNA and the number of targets and technical replicates that can be assayed from a single sample. We were able to detect multiple cancer-relevant mutations within tumor-derived samples down to 0.01%. Importantly, the signal/noise ratio was improved for all preamplified targets, allowing for easier discrimination of low-abundance mutations against false-positive signal. Furthermore, we used this protocol on clinical samples to detect known, tumor-specific mutations in patient sera. This study provides a protocol for robust, sensitive detection of circulating tumor DNA for future clinical applications. Copyright © 2016 American Society for Investigative Pathology and the Association for Molecular Pathology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Participatory evaluation of chicken health and production constraints in Ethiopia

PubMed Central

Sambo, Emmanuel; Bettridge, Judy; Dessie, Tadelle; Amare, Alemayehu; Habte, Tadiose; Wigley, Paul; Christley, Robert M.

2015-01-01

Chicken production has a major role in the economy of developing countries and backyard production is particularly important to women. Several programmes, in Ethiopia and elsewhere, have attempted to improve chicken production as a means to reduce poverty. A key constraint to chicken production identified by farmers is disease. This study used participatory rural appraisal methods to work with chicken-keepers in order to prioritise chicken diseases, place these within the context of other production constraints, and to explore perceptions of disease risk factors and biosecurity measures. The study, focused on Debre Zeit, Ethiopia, included 71 poultry keepers (41 backyard and 30 semi-intensive chicken producers). Although women played an important role in backyard production systems, semi-intensive farms were more likely to be controlled by men. Participants identified 9 constraints to production: 7 of 8 groups of backyard producers and 15/31 semi-intensive producers ranked diseases as the most important constraint to chicken production. In contrast to previous reports, farmers in both groups had considerable knowledge of diseases and of factors affecting disease risk. Both groups, but particularly semi-intensive producers, highlighted access to feed as a constraint. Many of the challenges faced by both groups were associated with difficulty accessing agricultural and veterinary inputs and expertise. Whilst many of the constraints identified by farmers could be viewed as simply technical issues to be overcome, we believe it is important to recognise the social factors underpinning what are, in reality, relatively modest technical challenges. The low involvement of women in semi-intensive production needs to be recognised by poultry development schemes. Provision needs to be made to allow access to inputs for a wide range of business models, particularly for those, such as women, who have limited access to the capital to allow them to make the jump from backyard to semi-intensive producer, and require support to slowly build up a flock into a profitable venture. PMID:25466215

Fundamental Aeronautics Program: Overview of Propulsion Work in the Supersonic Cruise Efficiency Technical Challenge

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Castner, Ray

2012-01-01

The Supersonics Project, part of NASA's Fundamental Aeronautics Program, contains a number of technical challenge areas which include sonic boom community response, airport noise, high altitude emissions, cruise efficiency, light weight durable engines/airframes, and integrated multi-discipline system design. This presentation provides an overview of the current (2012) activities in the supersonic cruise efficiency technical challenge, and is focused specifically on propulsion technologies. The intent is to develop and validate high-performance supersonic inlet and nozzle technologies. Additional work is planned for design and analysis tools for highly-integrated low-noise, low-boom applications. If successful, the payoffs include improved technologies and tools for optimized propulsion systems, propulsion technologies for a minimized sonic boom signature, and a balanced approach to meeting efficiency and community noise goals. In this propulsion area, the work is divided into advanced supersonic inlet concepts, advanced supersonic nozzle concepts, low fidelity computational tool development, high fidelity computational tools, and improved sensors and measurement capability. The current work in each area is summarized.

Identification of usual interstitial pneumonia pattern using RNA-Seq and machine learning: challenges and solutions.

PubMed

Choi, Yoonha; Liu, Tiffany Ting; Pankratz, Daniel G; Colby, Thomas V; Barth, Neil M; Lynch, David A; Walsh, P Sean; Raghu, Ganesh; Kennedy, Giulia C; Huang, Jing

2018-05-09

We developed a classifier using RNA sequencing data that identifies the usual interstitial pneumonia (UIP) pattern for the diagnosis of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. We addressed significant challenges, including limited sample size, biological and technical sample heterogeneity, and reagent and assay batch effects. We identified inter- and intra-patient heterogeneity, particularly within the non-UIP group. The models classified UIP on transbronchial biopsy samples with a receiver-operating characteristic area under the curve of ~ 0.9 in cross-validation. Using in silico mixed samples in training, we prospectively defined a decision boundary to optimize specificity at ≥85%. The penalized logistic regression model showed greater reproducibility across technical replicates and was chosen as the final model. The final model showed sensitivity of 70% and specificity of 88% in the test set. We demonstrated that the suggested methodologies appropriately addressed challenges of the sample size, disease heterogeneity and technical batch effects and developed a highly accurate and robust classifier leveraging RNA sequencing for the classification of UIP.

Education Industry, 2006

DTIC Science & Technology

2006-01-01

resulted in the U.S. Department of Education referring to it as Career and Technical Education (CTE). Minuteman High School, a highly successful...whole, and ultimately the students and the nation, will suffer the consequences. 7 Vocational Education The challenge for Career and Technical Education (CTE

Structured light optical microscopy for three-dimensional reconstruction of technical surfaces

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kettel, Johannes; Reinecke, Holger; Müller, Claas

2016-04-01

In microsystems technology quality control of micro structured surfaces with different surface properties is playing an ever more important role. The process of quality control incorporates three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction of specularand diffusive reflecting technical surfaces. Due to the demand on high measurement accuracy and data acquisition rates, structured light optical microscopy has become a valuable solution to solve this problem providing high vertical and lateral resolution. However, 3D reconstruction of specular reflecting technical surfaces still remains a challenge to optical measurement principles. In this paper we present a measurement principle based on structured light optical microscopy which enables 3D reconstruction of specular- and diffusive reflecting technical surfaces. It is realized using two light paths of a stereo microscope equipped with different magnification levels. The right optical path of the stereo microscope is used to project structured light onto the object surface. The left optical path is used to capture the structured illuminated object surface with a camera. Structured light patterns are generated by a Digital Light Processing (DLP) device in combination with a high power Light Emitting Diode (LED). Structured light patterns are realized as a matrix of discrete light spots to illuminate defined areas on the object surface. The introduced measurement principle is based on multiple and parallel processed point measurements. Analysis of the measured Point Spread Function (PSF) by pattern recognition and model fitting algorithms enables the precise calculation of 3D coordinates. Using exemplary technical surfaces we demonstrate the successful application of our measurement principle.

A Report to the U.S. Department of Education on Educational Challenges and Technical Assistance Needs for the Northeast Region

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

CNA Corporation, 2005

2005-01-01

The Northeast Regional Advisory Committee (NE RAC) provides an assessment of the technical assistance needs of educators in the Northeast Region in response to a directive from the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education (ED). The Secretary will use this assessment in establishing 20 comprehensive centers to provide technical assistance to…

The Challenge of the Future. Future Trends in Adult and Continuing Technical and Vocational Education. An International Symposium (Berlin, Germany, October 16-20, 1995).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, Hamburg (Germany). Inst. for Education.

This report on an international symposium on the strengthening of the development and improvement of vocational education begins with a description of UNEVOC, the International Project on Technical and Vocational Education. Section 2 presents discussions of the following topics: adult and continuing technical and vocational education and its…

Non-technical skills and health care provision in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review.

PubMed

Scott, John; Revera Morales, Dianali; McRitchie, Andrew; Riviello, Robert; Smink, Douglas; Yule, Steven

2016-04-01

Health care workers must possess high levels of medical knowledge, technical skills and also non-technical skills (NTS) in order to provide safe, effective and patient-centred care. Although there has been a recent proliferation of NTS assessment and training tools developed in high-income countries, little is known about NTS in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), which face a variety of provider-level and system-level challenges. The aim of this study was to identify the NTS used by providers in LMICs that have been studied, describe how they are assessed and taught, and explain the contextual factors in LMICs that affect their use. We conducted a systematic literature review in accordance with preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses guidelines for primary research publications from January 1994 to December 2013 on evaluation or teaching of NTS used by health care workers in LMICs using MEDLINE, Embase, CIHHAL and Web of Science. Bibliographies of relevant manuscripts were also hand-searched to identify all potentially eligible manuscripts. We identified 21 manuscripts from 17 LMICs involving eight types of health care providers and trainees. These studies covered five NTS categories: decision making, communication, teamwork, leadership and stress management. The most commonly used methods were questionnaires, interviews and observations, and 43% (n = 9) scored > 10 points using the Medical Education Research Study Quality Instrument. Although many studies highlighted the ways in which overburdened health care systems, lack of provider empowerment and deficiencies in provider training had an impact on providers' use of these NTS, no context-specific assessment or educational tools were identified. There is growing worldwide interest in understanding and teaching critical non-technical skills to health care providers. This review highlights several studies describing a variety of important non-technical skills. However, these skills must be further characterised in order to develop context-specific tools for assessing and teaching NTS that are sensitive to the local challenges that are common across a variety of LMIC contexts. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Why simulation can be efficient: on the preconditions of efficient learning in complex technology based practices.

PubMed

Hofmann, Bjørn

2009-07-23

It is important to demonstrate learning outcomes of simulation in technology based practices, such as in advanced health care. Although many studies show skills improvement and self-reported change to practice, there are few studies demonstrating patient outcome and societal efficiency. The objective of the study is to investigate if and why simulation can be effective and efficient in a hi-tech health care setting. This is important in order to decide whether and how to design simulation scenarios and outcome studies. Core theoretical insights in Science and Technology Studies (STS) are applied to analyze the field of simulation in hi-tech health care education. In particular, a process-oriented framework where technology is characterized by its devices, methods and its organizational setting is applied. The analysis shows how advanced simulation can address core characteristics of technology beyond the knowledge of technology's functions. Simulation's ability to address skilful device handling as well as purposive aspects of technology provides a potential for effective and efficient learning. However, as technology is also constituted by organizational aspects, such as technology status, disease status, and resource constraints, the success of simulation depends on whether these aspects can be integrated in the simulation setting as well. This represents a challenge for future development of simulation and for demonstrating its effectiveness and efficiency. Assessing the outcome of simulation in education in hi-tech health care settings is worthwhile if core characteristics of medical technology are addressed. This challenges the traditional technical versus non-technical divide in simulation, as organizational aspects appear to be part of technology's core characteristics.

A Semi-Automated Workflow Solution for Data Set Publication

DOE PAGES

Vannan, Suresh; Beaty, Tammy W.; Cook, Robert B.; ...

2016-03-08

In order to address the need for published data, considerable effort has gone into formalizing the process of data publication. From funding agencies to publishers, data publication has rapidly become a requirement. Digital Object Identifiers (DOI) and data citations have enhanced the integration and availability of data. The challenge facing data publishers now is to deal with the increased number of publishable data products and most importantly the difficulties of publishing diverse data products into an online archive. The Oak Ridge National Laboratory Distributed Active Archive Center (ORNL DAAC), a NASA-funded data center, faces these challenges as it deals withmore » data products created by individual investigators. This paper summarizes the challenges of curating data and provides a summary of a workflow solution that ORNL DAAC researcher and technical staffs have created to deal with publication of the diverse data products. Finally, the workflow solution presented here is generic and can be applied to data from any scientific domain and data located at any data center.« less

Measurement and Instrumentation Challenges at X-ray Free Electron Lasers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Feng, Yiping

2015-03-01

X-ray Free Electron Laser sources based on the Self Amplified Spontaneous Emission process are intrinsically chaotic, giving rise to pulse-to-pulse fluctuations in all physical properties, including intensity, position and pointing, spatial and temporal profiles, spectral content, timing, and coherence. These fluctuations represents special challenges to users whose experiments are designed to reveal small changes in the underlying physical quantities, which would otherwise be completely washed out without using the proper diagnostics tools. Due to the X-ray FEL's unique characteristics such as the unprecedented peak power and nearly full spatial coherence, there are many technical challenges in conceiving and implementing these devices that are highly transmissive, provide sufficient signal-to-noise ratio, and most importantly work in the single-shot mode. Portions of this research were carried out at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. LCLS is an Office of Science User Facility operated for the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science by Stanford Univ.

A Semi-Automated Workflow Solution for Data Set Publication

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

Vannan, Suresh; Beaty, Tammy W.; Cook, Robert B.

In order to address the need for published data, considerable effort has gone into formalizing the process of data publication. From funding agencies to publishers, data publication has rapidly become a requirement. Digital Object Identifiers (DOI) and data citations have enhanced the integration and availability of data. The challenge facing data publishers now is to deal with the increased number of publishable data products and most importantly the difficulties of publishing diverse data products into an online archive. The Oak Ridge National Laboratory Distributed Active Archive Center (ORNL DAAC), a NASA-funded data center, faces these challenges as it deals withmore » data products created by individual investigators. This paper summarizes the challenges of curating data and provides a summary of a workflow solution that ORNL DAAC researcher and technical staffs have created to deal with publication of the diverse data products. Finally, the workflow solution presented here is generic and can be applied to data from any scientific domain and data located at any data center.« less

Local capacity for groundwater protection in Ontario.

PubMed

De Loë, Rob C; Di Giantomasso, Sandra E; Kreutzwiser, Reid D

2002-02-01

Preventing groundwater contamination is vastly cheaper than remediation. Recognizing this, attention in water and land management agencies in North America increasingly turn to groundwater protection. Local agencies, such as municipalities and watershed management districts, are vital to successful groundwater protection, but they face daunting challenges. In the United States, senior governments have recognized these challenges and provide considerable support for local agencies. In Ontario, Canada, local agencies are, to a much greater extent, on their own. The aims in this paper are to analyze factors that shape local capacity for groundwater protection, focusing on Ontario, and to recommend avenues for capacity building. Interrelationships among five dimensions of capacity (technical, financial, institutional, social, and political) are explored through an analysis of three smaller Ontario communities: City of Guelph (population 93,400), Town of Orangeville (population 22,188), and Town of Erin (population 11,000). Size clearly influences capacity for groundwater protection. However, other considerations unrelated to size appear to be as important. These other factors include the ability to form horizontal and vertical linkages with external agencies, political leadership and commitment, and citizen involvement. Thus, smaller communities in Ontario (and other jurisdictions with limited senior government support) would do well to focus on these areas at the same time as they develop their technical, financial, and institutional capacity.

Vaccines to combat the neglected tropical diseases.

PubMed

Bethony, Jeffrey M; Cole, Rhea N; Guo, Xiaoti; Kamhawi, Shaden; Lightowlers, Marshall W; Loukas, Alex; Petri, William; Reed, Steven; Valenzuela, Jesus G; Hotez, Peter J

2011-01-01

The neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) represent a group of parasitic and related infectious diseases such as amebiasis, Chagas disease, cysticercosis, echinococcosis, hookworm, leishmaniasis, and schistosomiasis. Together, these conditions are considered the most common infections in low- and middle-income countries, where they produce a level of global disability and human suffering equivalent to better known conditions such as human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome and malaria. Despite their global public health importance, progress on developing vaccines for NTD pathogens has lagged because of some key technical hurdles and the fact that these infections occur almost exclusively in the world's poorest people living below the World Bank poverty line. In the absence of financial incentives for new products, the multinational pharmaceutical companies have not embarked on substantive research and development programs for the neglected tropical disease vaccines. Here, we review the current status of scientific and technical progress in the development of new neglected tropical disease vaccines, highlighting the successes that have been achieved (cysticercosis and echinococcosis) and identifying the challenges and opportunities for development of new vaccines for NTDs. Also highlighted are the contributions being made by non-profit product development partnerships that are working to overcome some of the economic challenges in vaccine manufacture, clinical testing, and global access. © 2010 John Wiley & Sons A/S.

Vaccines to combat the neglected tropical diseases

PubMed Central

Bethony, Jeffrey M.; Cole, Rhea N.; Guo, Xiaoti; Kamhawi, Shaden; Lightowlers, Marshall W.; Loukas, Alex; Petri, William; Reed, Steven; Valenzuela, Jesus G.; Hotez, Peter J.

2012-01-01

Summary The neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) represent a group of parasitic and related infectious diseases such as amebiasis, Chagas disease, cysticercosis, echinococcosis, hookworm, leishmaniasis, and schistosomiasis. Together, these conditions are considered the most common infections in low- and middle-income countries, where they produce a level of global disability and human suffering equivalent to better known conditions such as human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome and malaria. Despite their global public health importance, progress on developing vaccines for NTD pathogens has lagged because of some key technical hurdles and the fact that these infections occur almost exclusively in the world’s poorest people living below the World Bank poverty line. In the absence of financial incentives for new products, the multinational pharmaceutical companies have not embarked on substantive research and development programs for the neglected tropical disease vaccines. Here, we review the current status of scientific and technical progress in the development of new neglected tropical disease vaccines, highlighting the successes that have been achieved (cysticercosis and echinococcosis) and identifying the challenges and opportunities for development of new vaccines for NTDs. Also highlighted are the contributions being made by non-profit product development partnerships that are working to overcome some of the economic challenges in vaccine manufacture, clinical testing, and global access. PMID:21198676

Open Source in Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lakhan, Shaheen E.; Jhunjhunwala, Kavita

2008-01-01

Educational institutions have rushed to put their academic resources and services online, beginning the global community onto a common platform and awakening the interest of investors. Despite continuing technical challenges, online education shows great promise. Open source software offers one approach to addressing the technical problems in…

Technician Education Yearbook 1984.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Prakken Publications, Inc., Ann Arbor, MI.

This yearbook deals with technician education. Included in a section on new issues, problems, and proposals for technician education are the following papers: "High Technology Challenges the Vocational-Technical Curriculum," by Walter J. Brooking; "Assessment of Technical Competency," by Gordon C. McMahon; "Industry and Education Cooperation…

Internet Research: Implications for The Future of Health Care

PubMed Central

Shortliffe, Ted

1999-01-01

The phenomenal growth in Internet usage, largely due to the success of the World Wide Web, has stressed the international networking infrastructure in ways that were never contemplated when the early ARPAnet emerged from research laboratories in the 1970s. Some of the challenges are logistical and legal, and have to do with management of domain names, intellectual-property agreements, and international business activities. Others are technical, resulting both because we are envisioning applications that the current Internet cannot support, and because the existing infrastructure cannot scale to a world in which a huge portion of the world's population is online and individual homes and businesses may have IP addresses for tens of electronic devices, such as appliances, heating systems, or security alarms. In this presentation, I will discuss some of the US research and testbed activities that are currently underway in an effort to respond to the technical challenges. These include the Internet-2 testbed created by a consortium of academic institutions, and the federal government's Next Generation Internet research initiative. I will explain the difference between these two programs and identify some of the technical requirements other than a simple increase in bandwidth that have been identified for the evolving Internet. This will lead to a discussion of the limitations of the current Internet that have constrained its use in health care and that accordingly help to define the networking research agenda that is of greatest importance to the biomedical community. Policy and regulatory issues that arise because of health care's use of the Internet will also be discussed, as will those technical requirements that may be unique to biomedical applications. One goal of the discussion will be to motivate an international discussion of the ways in which the medical informatics community should be engaged in both basic and applied research in the area of networking and the future of the Internet."

Training NOAA Staff on Effective Communication Methods with Local Climate Users

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Timofeyeva, M. M.; Mayes, B.

2011-12-01

Since 2002 NOAA National Weather Service (NWS) Climate Services Division (CSD) offered training opportunities to NWS staff. As a result of eight-year-long development of the training program, NWS offers three training courses and about 25 online distance learning modules covering various climate topics: climate data and observations, climate variability and change, NWS national and local climate products, their tools, skill, and interpretation. Leveraging climate information and expertise available at all NOAA line offices and partners allows delivery of the most advanced knowledge and is a very critical aspect of the training program. NWS challenges in providing local climate services includes effective communication techniques on provide highly technical scientific information to local users. Addressing this challenge requires well trained, climate-literate workforce at local level capable of communicating the NOAA climate products and services as well as provide climate-sensitive decision support. Trained NWS climate service personnel use proactive and reactive approaches and professional education methods in communicating climate variability and change information to local users. Both scientifically-unimpaired messages and amiable communication techniques such as story telling approach are important in developing an engaged dialog between the climate service providers and users. Several pilot projects NWS CSD conducted in the past year applied the NWS climate services training program to training events for NOAA technical user groups. The technical user groups included natural resources managers, engineers, hydrologists, and planners for transportation infrastructure. Training of professional user groups required tailoring the instructions to the potential applications of each group of users. Training technical user identified the following critical issues: (1) Knowledge of target audience expectations, initial knowledge status, and potential use of climate information; (2) Leveraging partnership with climate services providers; and, (3) Applying 3H training approach, where the first H stands for Head (trusted science), the second H stands for Heart (make it easy), and the third H for Hand (support with applications).

Climate Change Challenges for Extension Educators: Technical Capacity and Cultural Attitudes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Becerra, Terrie A.; Middendorf, Gerad; Campbell, Amber; Tomlinson, Peter

2016-01-01

We surveyed Extension educators in the southern Great Plains about their attitudes and beliefs regarding climate change, their interactions with constituents surrounding climate change, and challenges they face in engaging constituents on the topic of climate change. Production-oriented and sociocultural challenges in meeting constituents'…

Space Suits and Crew Survival Systems Branch Education and Public Outreach Support of NASA's Strategic Goals in Fiscal Year 2012

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jennings, Mallory A.

2012-01-01

As NASA plans to send people beyond low Earth orbit, it is important to educate and inspire the next generation of astronauts, engineers, scientist, and general public. This is so important to NASA future that it is one of the agencies strategic goals. The Space Suits and Crew Survival Systems Branch at Johnson Space Center (JSC) is actively involved in helping to achieve this goal by sharing our hardware and technical experts with students, educators, and the general public and educating them about the challenges of human space flight, with Education and Public Outreach (EPO). This paper summarizes the Space Suit and Crew Survival Systems Branch EPO efforts throughout fiscal year 2012.

Space Suits and Crew Survival Systems Branch Education and Public Outreach Support of NASA's Strategic Goals in Fiscal Year 2012

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jennings, Mallory A.

2013-01-01

As NASA plans to send people beyond low Earth orbit, it is important to educate and inspire the next generation of astronauts, engineers, scientists, and the general public. This is so important to NASA s future that it is one of the agency s strategic goals. The Space Suits and Crew Survival Systems Branch at Johnson Space Center (JSC) is actively involved in achieving this goal by sharing our hardware and technical experts with students, educators, and the general public and educating them about the challenges of human space flight, with Education and Public Outreach (EPO). This paper summarizes the Space Suit and Crew Survival Systems Branch EPO efforts throughout fiscal year 2012.

A simple single-step approach towards synthesis of nanofluids containing cuboctahedral cuprous oxide particles using glucose reduction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shenoy, U. Sandhya; Shetty, A. Nityananda

2018-03-01

Enhancement of thermal properties of conventional heat transfer fluids has become one of the important technical challenges. Since nanofluids offer a promising help in this regard, development of simpler and hassle free routes for their synthesis is of utmost importance. Synthesis of nanofluids using a hassle free route with greener chemicals has been reported. The single-step chemical approach reported here overcomes the drawbacks of the two-step procedures in the synthesis of nanofluids. The resulting Newtonian nanofluids prepared contained cuboctahedral particles of cuprous oxide and exhibited a thermal conductivity of 2.852 W·m-1·K-1. Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) used during the synthesis acted as a stabilizing agent rendering the nanofluid a stability of 9 weeks.

Survey of Dust Issues for Lunar Seals and the RESOLVE Project

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Proctor, Margaret P.; Dempsey, Paula

2006-01-01

Lunar dust poses a technical challenge for sealing applications on the moon. A survey of seals used in Apollo lunar missions is presented as well as lunar soil characteristics and a description of the lunar environment. Seal requirements and technical challenges for the volatiles characterization oven and hydrogen reduction reaction chamber of the RESOLVE project are discussed. The purpose of the RESOLVE project is to find water or ice in lunar soil and demonstrate the ability to produce water, and hence oxygen and hydrogen, from lunar regolith for life support and propellants.

Therapeutic potentials of gene silencing by RNA interference: principles, challenges, and new strategies.

PubMed

Deng, Yan; Wang, Chi Chiu; Choy, Kwong Wai; Du, Quan; Chen, Jiao; Wang, Qin; Li, Lu; Chung, Tony Kwok Hung; Tang, Tao

2014-04-01

During recent decades there have been remarkable advances in biology, in which one of the most important discoveries is RNA interference (RNAi). RNAi is a specific post-transcriptional regulatory pathway that can result in silencing gene functions. Efforts have been done to translate this new discovery into clinical applications for disease treatment. However, technical difficulties restrict the development of RNAi, including stability, off-target effects, immunostimulation and delivery problems. Researchers have attempted to surmount these barriers and improve the bioavailability and safety of RNAi-based therapeutics by optimizing the chemistry and structure of these molecules. This paper aimed to describe the principles of RNA interference, review the therapeutic potential in various diseases and discuss the new strategies for in vivo delivery of RNAi to overcome the challenges. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Protein detection through different platforms of immuno-loop-mediated isothermal amplification

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pourhassan-Moghaddam, Mohammad; Rahmati-Yamchi, Mohammad; Akbarzadeh, Abolfazl; Daraee, Hadis; Nejati-Koshki, Kazem; Hanifehpour, Younes; Joo, Sang Woo

2013-11-01

Different immunoassay-based methods have been devised to detect protein targets. These methods have some challenges that make them inefficient for assaying ultra-low-amounted proteins. ELISA, iPCR, iRCA, and iNASBA are the common immunoassay-based methods of protein detection, each of which has specific and common technical challenges making it necessary to introduce a novel method in order to avoid their problems for detection of target proteins. Here we propose a new method nominated as `immuno-loop-mediated isothermal amplification' or `iLAMP'. This new method is free from the problems of the previous methods and has significant advantages over them. In this paper we also offer various configurations in order to improve the applicability of this method in real-world sample analyses. Important potential applications of this method are stated as well.

Final Report UCLA-Thermochemical Storage with Anhydrous Ammonia

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

Lavine, Adrienne

In ammonia-based thermochemical energy storage (TCES), ammonia is dissociated endothermically as it absorbs solar energy during the daytime. When energy is required, the reverse reaction releases energy to heat a working fluid such as steam, to produce electricity. Ammonia-based TCES has great advantages of simplicity, low cost reactants, and a strong industrial base in the conventional ammonia industry. The concept has been demonstrated over three decades of research at Australian National University, achieving a 24-hour demonstration of a complete system. At the start of this project, three challenges were identified that would have to be addressed to show that themore » system is technically and economically viable for incorporation into a CSP plant with an advanced, high temperature power block. All three of these challenges have now been addressed: 1. The ammonia synthesis reaction had not, to our knowledge, been carried out at temperatures consistent with modern power blocks (i.e., ~650°C). The technical feasibility of operating a reactor under high-temperature, near-equilibrium conditions was an unknown, and was therefore a technical risk. The project has successfully demonstrated steam heating to 650°C and energy recovery to steam at the 5 kWt level. 2. The ammonia system has a relatively low enthalpy of reaction combined with gas phase reactants. This is not a direct disadvantage since the reactants themselves are low cost. The challenge lies in storing the required volume of reactants cost effectively. Therefore, a second key goal was to show, through techno-economic analysis, that underground storage technologies can be used to store the energy-rich gas at a cost that is consistent with the SunShot cost goal. We have identified two promising technologies for gas storage: storage in salt caverns has an estimated cost of 1(USD)/kWht and storage in drilled shafts could be on the order of 7(USD)/kWht. Together these two options answer the technical challenge associated with storage of gas phase components. 3. While this project is primarily concerned with high-temperature heat recovery and methods to store the gaseous components, it is also important to consider the feasibility of the entire system. Consequently, an additional goal was to perform analysis to show the feasibility of integrating endothermic reactors within a tower receiver. A conceptual design of an ammonia dissociation receiver/reactor has been developed that fits into the same size cylindrical envelope as the molten salt receiver in SAM, and has the same design thermal capacity. The calculated thermal efficiency of this receiver is 94.6%. Thus, this investigation has established the technical feasibility of a surround field tower system using ammonia dissociation. With these challenges addressed, we proceeded to design a full-scale synthesis and heat recovery system. A model was developed and validated by comparison with our experimental data. A parametric study showed, among other things, the importance of using small tube diameters and spacing to enhance heat transfer. Multi-parameter optimization was used to find a design that minimizes the wall material volume. Finally, cost estimation shows that the ammonia system has good prospects of meeting the Sunshot 15(USD)/kWht target: estimated costs of the entire synthesis system for the 220 MWt plant with 6 hours of storage are 13(USD)/kWht using salt cavern storage and 18(USD)/kWht using shaft drilling. Costs per kWht are even lower with more hours of storage. With the established technology of ammonia synthesis as a starting point, the successes of the project have mitigated technical risks associated with high-temperature synthesis reaction, underground storage, and tower receiver design. Estimated costs are less than 15(USD)/kWht with salt cavern storage. It is now possible to map a time line to commercial deployment that is likely to be shorter and less risky than other thermochemical cycles under active investigation. UCLA has filed a patent that protects the new ideas developed during this project. Discussions are ongoing with potential investors with the aim of partnering for further work. As well as immediate improvements and extra work with the existing experimental system, a key goal is to extend it to a small solar-driven project at an early opportunity.« less

Planning for planetary protection : challenges beyond Mars

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Belz, Andrea P.; Cutts, James A.

2006-01-01

This document summarizes the technical challenges to planetary protection for these targets of interest and outlines some of the considerations, particularly at the system level, in designing an appropriate technology investment strategy for targets beyond Mars.

Machine learning challenges in Mars rover traverse science

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Castano, R.; Judd, M.; Anderson, R. C.; Estlin, T.

2003-01-01

The successful implementation of machine learning in autonomous rover traverse science requires addressing challenges that range from the analytical technical realm, to the fuzzy, philosophical domain of entrenched belief systems within scientists and mission managers.

IT Labs Proof-of-Concept Project: Technical Data Interoperability (TDI) Pathfinder Via Emerging Standards

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Conroy, Mike; Gill, Paul; Ingalls, John; Bengtsson, Kjell

2014-01-01

No known system is in place to allow NASA technical data interoperability throughout the whole life cycle. Life Cycle Cost (LCC) will be higher on many developing programs if action isn't taken soon to join disparate systems efficiently. Disparate technical data also increases safety risks from poorly integrated elements. NASA requires interoperability and industry standards, but breaking legacy ways is a challenge.

Up to the Challenge: The Role of Career and Technical Education and 21st Century Skills in College and Career Readiness

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2010

2010-01-01

This report highlights the demand for skills in the global economy and the ways in which educators can meet this demand by drawing on both career and technical education and the Partnership for 21st Century Skills' Framework for 21st Century Learning. Twenty-first century skills and career and technical education are essential in every state,…

Challenges of Human Space Flight

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Davis, Jeffrey R.; Charles, John B.

2006-01-01

The presentations will be given during the X-Prize symposium, exploring the multi-faceted dimensions of spaceflight ranging from the technical developments necessary to achieve safe routine flight to and from and through space to the new personal business opportunities and economic benefits that will open in space and here on Earth. The symposium will delve into the technical, regulatory, market and financial needs and challenges that must be met in charting and executing the incremental developments leading to Personal Spaceflight and the opening of a Place Called Space. The presentation covers facets of human space flight including descriptions of life in space, the challenges of delivering medical care in space, and the preparations needed for safe and productive human travel to the moon and Mars.

Introduction to special section on The U.S. IOOS Coastal and Ocean Modeling Testbed

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Luettich, Richard A.; Wright, L. Donelson; Signell, Richard; Friedrichs, Carl; Friedrichs, Marjy; Harding, John; Fennel, Katja; Howlett, Eoin; Graves, Sara; Smith, Elizabeth; Crane, Gary; Baltes, Rebecca

2013-12-01

Strong and strategic collaborations among experts from academia, federal operational centers, and industry have been forged to create a U.S. IOOS Coastal and Ocean Modeling Testbed (COMT). The COMT mission is to accelerate the transition of scientific and technical advances from the coastal and ocean modeling research community to improved operational ocean products and services. This is achieved via the evaluation of existing technology or the development of new technology depending on the status of technology within the research community. The initial phase of the COMT has addressed three coastal and ocean prediction challenges of great societal importance: estuarine hypoxia, shelf hypoxia, and coastal inundation. A fourth effort concentrated on providing and refining the cyberinfrastructure and cyber tools to support the modeling work and to advance interoperability and community access to the COMT archive. This paper presents an overview of the initiation of the COMT, the findings of each team and a discussion of the role of the COMT in research to operations and its interface with the coastal and ocean modeling community in general. Detailed technical results are presented in the accompanying series of 16 technical papers in this special issue.

Technical skills requirement of Indonesian construction labors to work in Malaysia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Adi, Henny Pratiwi

2017-03-01

Labors skills is an important part of construction projects implementation. Suitability between the skills possessed by labors with the skills needed by user is required to increase employment opportunities. Malaysia is a country that using construction labors from Indonesia. This study aims to get the kind of technical skills required by users of Indonesian constructian labors in Malaysia and also the importance level of technical skills. Data collecting in this research was conducted through interviews and questionnaires on contractors in Malaysia. The next stage was determine the importance level of technical skills in work field of carpenter, bricklayer, plumber and painters. The importance level of technical skills analyzed using the Relative Importance Index (RII). The results showed that mastering the operation of both instruments either manually or electrically is the most importance in the technical skills. Therefore, an understanding of the types of equipment for work field and the manner of operation is need to had by Indonesian construction labors who will work in Malaysia.

Telepathology Impacts and Implementation Challenges: A Scoping Review.

PubMed

Meyer, Julien; Paré, Guy

2015-12-01

Telepathology is a particular form of telemedicine that fundamentally alters the way pathology services are delivered. Prior reviews in this area have mostly focused on 2 themes, namely technical feasibility issues and diagnosis accuracy. To synthesize the literature on telepathology implementation challenges and broader organizational and societal impacts and to propose a research agenda to guide future efforts in this domain. Two complementary databases were systematically searched: MEDLINE (PubMed) and ABI/INFORM (ProQuest). Peer-reviewed articles and conference proceedings were considered. The final sample consisted of 159 papers published between 1992 and 2013. This review highlights the diversity of telepathology networks and the importance of considering these distinctions when interpreting research findings. Various network structures are associated with different benefits. Although the dominant rationale in single-site projects is financial, larger centralized and decentralized telepathology networks are targeting a more diverse set of benefits, including extending access to pathology to a whole region, achieving substantial economies of scale in workforce and equipment, and improving quality by standardizing care. Importantly, our synthesis reveals that the nature and scale of encountered implementation challenges also varies depending on the network structure. In smaller telepathology networks, organizational concerns are less prominent, and implementers are more focused on usability issues. As the network scope widens, organizational and legal issues gain prominence.

Barriers and facilitators to home computer and internet use among urban novice computer users of low socioeconomic position.

PubMed

Kontos, Emily Z; Bennett, Gary G; Viswanath, K

2007-10-22

Despite the increasing penetration of the Internet and amount of online health information, there are significant barriers that limit its widespread adoption as a source of health information. One is the "digital divide," with people of higher socioeconomic position (SEP) demonstrating greater access and usage compared to those from lower SEP groups. However, as the access gap narrows over time and more people use the Internet, a shift in research needs to occur to explore how one might improve Internet use as well as website design for a range of audiences. This is particularly important in the case of novice users who may not have the technical skills, experience, or social connections that could help them search for health information using the Internet. The focus of our research is to investigate the challenges in the implementation of a project to improve health information seeking among low SEP groups. The goal of the project is not to promote health information seeking as much as to understand the barriers and facilitators to computer and Internet use, beyond access, among members of lower SEP groups in an urban setting. The purpose was to qualitatively describe participants' self-identified barriers and facilitators to computer and Internet use during a 1-year pilot study as well as the challenges encountered by the research team in the delivery of the intervention. Between August and November 2005, 12 low-SEP urban individuals with no or limited computer and Internet experience were recruited through a snowball sampling. Each participant received a free computer system, broadband Internet access, monthly computer training courses, and technical support for 1 year as the intervention condition. Upon completion of the study, participants were offered the opportunity to complete an in-depth semistructured interview. Interviews were approximately 1 hour in length and were conducted by the project director. The interviews were held in the participants' homes and were tape recorded for accuracy. Nine of the 12 study participants completed the semistructured interviews. Members of the research team conducted a qualitative analysis based on the transcripts from the nine interviews using the crystallization/immersion method. Nine of the 12 participants completed the in-depth interview (75% overall response rate), with three men and six women agreeing to be interviewed. Major barriers to Internet use that were mentioned included time constraints and family conflict over computer usage. The monthly training classes and technical assistance components of the intervention surfaced as the most important facilitators to computer and Internet use. The concept of received social support from other study members, such as assistance with computer-related questions, also emerged as an important facilitator to overall computer usage. This pilot study offers important insights into the self-identified barriers and facilitators in computer and Internet use among urban low-SEP novice users as well as the challenges faced by the research team in implementing the intervention.

A large-scale mass casualty simulation to develop the non-technical skills medical students require for collaborative teamwork.

PubMed

Jorm, Christine; Roberts, Chris; Lim, Renee; Roper, Josephine; Skinner, Clare; Robertson, Jeremy; Gentilcore, Stacey; Osomanski, Adam

2016-03-08

There is little research on large-scale complex health care simulations designed to facilitate student learning of non-technical skills in a team-working environment. We evaluated the acceptability and effectiveness of a novel natural disaster simulation that enabled medical students to demonstrate their achievement of the non-technical skills of collaboration, negotiation and communication. In a mixed methods approach, survey data were available from 117 students and a thematic analysis undertaken of both student qualitative comments and tutor observer participation data. Ninety three per cent of students found the activity engaging for their learning. Three themes emerged from the qualitative data: the impact of fidelity on student learning, reflexivity on the importance of non-technical skills in clinical care, and opportunities for collaborative teamwork. Physical fidelity was sufficient for good levels of student engagement, as was sociological fidelity. We demonstrated the effectiveness of the simulation in allowing students to reflect upon and evidence their acquisition of skills in collaboration, negotiation and communication, as well as situational awareness and attending to their emotions. Students readily identified emerging learning opportunities though critical reflection. The scenarios challenged students to work together collaboratively to solve clinical problems, using a range of resources including interacting with clinical experts. A large class teaching activity, framed as a simulation of a natural disaster is an acceptable and effective activity for medical students to develop the non-technical skills of collaboration, negotiation and communication, which are essential to team working. The design could be of value in medical schools in disaster prone areas, including within low resource countries, and as a feasible intervention for learning the non-technical skills that are needed for patient safety.

Electron-Ion Dynamics with Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory: Towards Predictive Solar Cell Modeling: Final Technical Report

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

Maitra, Neepa

2016-07-14

This project investigates the accuracy of currently-used functionals in time-dependent density functional theory, which is today routinely used to predict and design materials and computationally model processes in solar energy conversion. The rigorously-based electron-ion dynamics method developed here sheds light on traditional methods and overcomes challenges those methods have. The fundamental research undertaken here is important for building reliable and practical methods for materials discovery. The ultimate goal is to use these tools for the computational design of new materials for solar cell devices of high efficiency.

Free-trade agreements: challenges for global health

PubMed Central

Ribeiro, Helena

2015-01-01

In this study new free-trade agreements are discussed, which are based on the breaking down of tariff and technical barriers and normally exclude most of the poorest countries in the world. Considering the current context of economic globalization and its health impacts, seven controversial points of these treaties and their possible implications for global public health are presented, mainly regarding health equity and other health determinants. Finally, this research proposes a greater social and health professionals participation in the formulation and discussion of these treaties, and a deeper insertion of Brazil in this important international agenda. PMID:26270018

SmallSat Precision Navigation with Low-Cost MEMS IMU Swarms

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Christian, John; Bishop, Robert; Martinez, Andres; Petro, Andrew

2015-01-01

The continued advancement of small satellite-based science missions requires the solution to a number of important technical challenges. Of particular note is that small satellite missions are characterized by tight constraints on cost, mass, power, and volume that make them unable to fly the high-quality Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs) required for orbital missions demanding precise orientation and positioning. Instead, small satellite missions typically fly low-cost Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS) IMUs. Unfortunately, the performance characteristics of these MEMS IMUs make them ineffectual in many spaceflight applications when employed in a single IMU system configuration.

Technical Assistance | NREL

Science.gov Websites

Multi-Wind Heat Smart Grid Project. Advancing Energy Solutions in Alaska NREL provides analysis mission to transfer knowledge and innovation to solve the nation's energy challenges. The goal of this transportation energy efficiency and reduce transportation energy costs State Technical Assistance-solar market

Vertical Lift - Not Just For Terrestrial Flight

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Young, Larry A

2000-01-01

Autonomous vertical lift vehicles hold considerable potential for supporting planetary science and exploration missions. This paper discusses several technical aspects of vertical lift planetary aerial vehicles in general, and specifically addresses technical challenges and work to date examining notional vertical lift vehicles for Mars, Titan, and Venus exploration.

Engineering Challenges for Floating Offshore Wind Turbines

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

Butterfield, S.; Musial, W.; Jonkman, J.

The major objective of this paper is to survey the technical challenges that must be overcome to develop deepwater offshore wind energy technologies and to provide a framework from which the first-order economics can be assessed.

Approach to the E-ELT dome and main structure challenges

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bilbao, Armando; Murga, Gaizka; Gómez, Celia; Llarena, Javier

2014-07-01

The E-ELT as a whole could be classified as an extremely challenging project. More precisely, it should be defined as an array of many different sub-challenges, which comprise technical, logistical and managerial matters. This paper reviews some of these critical challenges, in particular those related to the Dome and the Main Structure, suggesting ways to face them in the most pragmatic way possible. Technical challenges for the Dome and the Main Structure are mainly related to the need to upscale current design standards to an order of magnitude larger design. Trying a direct design escalation is not feasible; it would not work. A design effort is needed to cross hybridize current design standards with technologies coming from other different applications. Innovative design is therefore not a wish but a must. And innovative design comes along with design risk. Design risk needs to be tackled from two angles: on the one hand through thorough design validation analysis and on the other hand through extensive pre-assembly and testing. And, once again, full scale integrated pre-assembly and testing of extremely large subsystems is not always possible. Therefore, defining a comprehensive test plan for critical components, critical subsystems and critical subassemblies becomes essential. Logistical challenges are linked to the erection site. Cerro Armazones is a remote site and this needs to be considered when evaluating transport and erection requirements. But it is not only the remoteness of the site that needs to be considered. The size of both Dome and Main Structure require large construction cranes and a well defined erection plan taking into account pre-assembly strategies, limited plan area utilization, erection sequence, erection stability during intermediate stages and, very specifically, efficient coordination between the Dome and the Main Structure erection processes. Managerial issues pose another set of challenges in this project. Both the size of the project and its special technical characteristics require specific managerial skills. Due to the size of the project it becomes essential to effectively manage and integrate a large number of suppliers and fabricators, of very different nature and geographically distributed. Project management plans need to cope with this situation. Also, extensive on site activities require intensive on site organization in line with large construction management strategies. Finally, the technical edge of the project requires deep technical understanding at management level in order to be able to take sound strategic decisions throughout the project in terms of the overall project quality, cost and schedule.

In Translation: School Leaders Learning in and from Leadership Practice While Confronting Pressing Policy Challenges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Drago-Severson, Eleanor; Maslin-Ostrowski, Patricia

2018-01-01

Background/Context: Worldwide, principals face enormous challenges while translating policies and mandates for which they are accountable into their mission and practice. While some of these school-level challenges are technical, many are adaptive (Heifetz), requiring leaders and those in their care to grow their cognitive and affective…

2017 Exploration Rover Challenge event.

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-03-03

2017 Exploration Rover Challenge events at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. High school and college students from around the U.S. and the world come together for this 2 day event which challenges them to compete for the fastest time as well as technical design of the actual rover itself.

DOE Advanced Scientific Computing Advisory Subcommittee (ASCAC) Report: Top Ten Exascale Research Challenges

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

Lucas, Robert; Ang, James; Bergman, Keren

2014-02-10

Exascale computing systems are essential for the scientific fields that will transform the 21st century global economy, including energy, biotechnology, nanotechnology, and materials science. Progress in these fields is predicated on the ability to perform advanced scientific and engineering simulations, and analyze the deluge of data. On July 29, 2013, ASCAC was charged by Patricia Dehmer, the Acting Director of the Office of Science, to assemble a subcommittee to provide advice on exascale computing. This subcommittee was directed to return a list of no more than ten technical approaches (hardware and software) that will enable the development of a systemmore » that achieves the Department's goals for exascale computing. Numerous reports over the past few years have documented the technical challenges and the non¬-viability of simply scaling existing computer designs to reach exascale. The technical challenges revolve around energy consumption, memory performance, resilience, extreme concurrency, and big data. Drawing from these reports and more recent experience, this ASCAC subcommittee has identified the top ten computing technology advancements that are critical to making a capable, economically viable, exascale system.« less

Assessment of the State-of-the-Art of System-Wide Safety and Assurance Technologies

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Roychoudhury, Indranil; Reveley, Mary S.; Phojanamongkolkij, Nipa; Leone, Karen M.

2017-01-01

Since its initiation, the System-wide Safety Assurance Technologies (SSAT) Project has been focused on developing multidisciplinary tools and techniques that are verified and validated to ensure prevention of loss of property and life in NextGen and enable proactive risk management through predictive methods. To this end, four technical challenges have been listed to help realize the goals of SSAT, namely (i) assurance of flight critical systems, (ii) discovery of precursors to safety incidents, (iii) assuring safe human-systems integration, and (iv) prognostic algorithm design for safety assurance. The objective of this report is to provide an extensive survey of SSAT-related research accomplishments by researchers within and outside NASA to get an understanding of what the state-of-the-art is for technologies enabling each of the four technical challenges. We hope that this report will serve as a good resource for anyone interested in gaining an understanding of the SSAT technical challenges, and also be useful in the future for project planning and resource allocation for related research.

Aviation Trends Related to Atmospheric Environment Safety Technologies Project Technical Challenges

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Reveley, Mary S.; Withrow, Colleen A.; Barr, Lawrence C.; Evans, Joni K.; Leone, Karen M.; Jones, Sharon M.

2014-01-01

Current and future aviation safety trends related to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Atmospheric Environment Safety Technologies Project's three technical challenges (engine icing characterization and simulation capability; airframe icing simulation and engineering tool capability; and atmospheric hazard sensing and mitigation technology capability) were assessed by examining the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) accident database (1989 to 2008), incidents from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) accident/incident database (1989 to 2006), and literature from various industry and government sources. The accident and incident data were examined for events involving fixed-wing airplanes operating under Federal Aviation Regulation (FAR) Parts 121, 135, and 91 for atmospheric conditions related to airframe icing, ice-crystal engine icing, turbulence, clear air turbulence, wake vortex, lightning, and low visibility (fog, low ceiling, clouds, precipitation, and low lighting). Five future aviation safety risk areas associated with the three AEST technical challenges were identified after an exhaustive survey of a variety of sources and include: approach and landing accident reduction, icing/ice detection, loss of control in flight, super density operations, and runway safety.

The Presidential Address to the Association for Career and Technical Education Research: Using Standards to Reform Teacher Preparation in Career and Technical Education--A Successful Reformation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Whittington, M. Susie

2005-01-01

This article presents the presidential address at the annual conference of the Association for Career and Technical Education Research by M. Susie Whittington, ACTER President 2005. The purpose of the presidential address is to examine a current issue facing the profession, and pose challenges to the membership in the context of that issue. In her…

Challenges in the management of rheumatoid arthritis in developing countries.

PubMed

Mody, Girish M; Cardiel, Mario H

2008-08-01

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a systemic autoimmune disease which is characterized by chronic inflammation of the joints. Patients experience chronic pain and suffering, and increasing disability; without treatment, life expectancy is reduced. It is imperative to identify patients early so that control of inflammation can prevent joint destruction and disability. Although great advances have been made in the developed nations, early diagnosis remains a great challenge for developing countries during the Bone and Joint Decade (2000-2010) and beyond. Developing countries face important and competitive social, economic, health- and poverty-related issues, and this frequently results in chronic diseases such as RA being forgotten in health priorities when urgent health needs are considered in an environment with poor education and scarce resources. Epidemiological studies in developing countries show a lower but still important prevalence in different regions when compared to that in Caucasians. It seems that the severity of RA varies among different ethnic groups, and probably starts at a younger age in developing countries. Practising rheumatologists in these regions need to take into account several important problems that include suboptimal undergraduate education, inadequate diagnosis, late referrals, lack of human and technical resources, poor access to rheumatologists, and some deficiencies in drug availability. Infections are very important in RA, and special care is needed in developing countries as some endemic infections include tuberculosis, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B, and hepatitis C. These infections should be carefully taken into account when medications are prescribed and monitored. This chapter presents published information covering the main challenges faced in these environments, and suggests strategies to overcome these important problems in RA management.

Turning Technologies into Businesses- The Challenge for the Technical Entrepreneur

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Glass, Alexander

2000-03-01

Over the past twenty-five years, new businesses based on innovative technology have been the driving force for the US economy. Due to the abundance of early-stage capital, each year, thousands of scientists and engineers receive support to start new, technology-based businesses. However, the transition from technologist to entrepreneur is often difficult. It requires a shift in emphasis from a technology focus to a market focus. We shall discuss the challenges facing the technical entrepreneur in launching a new enterprise, and a variety of resources that are available to help the entrepreneur succeed. Many technologists fall victim to the myth that if you ``build a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to your door." To be sure, it is important to base your business on sound technology that offers a clear advantage over current practice, and, if possible, to secure title to the technology, either by obtaining patent protection, or securing an exclusive license. Once that is done, however, the principal concern of the fledgling enterprise is building a business and obtaining the financial resources to enable it to grow. The entrepreneur must develop a clear and compelling business model, that can be communicated to a non-technical investor in a few minutes. This requires a mode of thinking and expression quite different from that commonly used in engineering or scientific discussions. Fortunately, abundant resources are available to help the technologist become a successful entrepreneur. We shall discuss the kinds of assistance that are generally available through local and national programs, and give specific examples based on the activities of the Bay Area Regional Technology Alliance in northern California.

Post-Secondary Occupational Education and the Energy Crisis.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Riendeau, Albert J.

Many implications exist for postsecondary educational institutions in the challenge of arriving at a responsible solution to the energy problem. The intent of the Energy Materials Conservation Education Act of 1975 is to call for a commitment by educators (community colleges, technical institutes, and trade and technical schools) to: (1) help…

Evaluating Instructor Technology Integration in Community and Technical Colleges: A Performance Evaluation Matrix

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Del Favero, Marietta; Hinson, Janice M.

2007-01-01

The press for implementing technology based instructional delivery systems in community and technical colleges is well documented. Yet faculty face numerous challenges in integrating technology into instruction (AL-Bataineh & Brooks, 2003; Groves & Zemel, 2000; Khoury, 1997). Stimulating faculty ownership in technology, diffusion of technology use…

Definition of Intervener Services and Interveners in Educational Settings. Technical Report

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Consortium on Deaf-Blindness, 2013

2013-01-01

This technical report synthesizes the process and information used by National Consortium on Deaf-Blindness (NCDB) in the development of a consistently applied definition of intervener services. It addresses challenges and questions, provides comparisons between interveners and paraprofessionals, and offers definitions, roles and concepts used by…

Parallels in Arts Education and CTE: Some Guiding Reflections

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hull, Bradley J.

2010-01-01

Many forces shape the current national conversation regarding career and technical education (CTE). Perkins IV guides the discussion through concepts such as challenging academic and technical standards; high skill, high wage, or high demand occupations; and programs of study. Workforce development and training, the economic recession,…

48 CFR 227.7103-15 - Subcontractor rights in technical data.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... clauses at 252.227-7013, Rights in Technical Data—Noncommercial Items, and 252.227-7037, Validation of... subcontractor to transact directly with the Government matters relating to the validation of its asserted... contractor's agreement that the direct transaction of validation or challenge matters with subcontractors at...

Diving into Real World Challenges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Saldana, Matt; Rodden, Leslie

2012-01-01

In this article, the authors discuss how educators can engage students in real world learning using their academic knowledge and technical skills. They describe how school districts have discovered that the world of robotics can help students use technical skills to solve simulated problems found in the real world, while understanding the…

Making Advanced Computer Science Topics More Accessible through Interactive Technologies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shao, Kun; Maher, Peter

2012-01-01

Purpose: Teaching advanced technical concepts in a computer science program to students of different technical backgrounds presents many challenges. The purpose of this paper is to present a detailed experimental pedagogy in teaching advanced computer science topics, such as computer networking, telecommunications and data structures using…

48 CFR 227.7103-15 - Subcontractor rights in technical data.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... clauses at 252.227-7013, Rights in Technical Data—Noncommercial Items, and 252.227-7037, Validation of... subcontractor to transact directly with the Government matters relating to the validation of its asserted... contractor's agreement that the direct transaction of validation or challenge matters with subcontractors at...

48 CFR 227.7103-15 - Subcontractor rights in technical data.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... clauses at 252.227-7013, Rights in Technical Data—Noncommercial Items, and 252.227-7037, Validation of... subcontractor to transact directly with the Government matters relating to the validation of its asserted... contractor's agreement that the direct transaction of validation or challenge matters with subcontractors at...

48 CFR 227.7103-15 - Subcontractor rights in technical data.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... clauses at 252.227-7013, Rights in Technical Data—Noncommercial Items, and 252.227-7037, Validation of... subcontractor to transact directly with the Government matters relating to the validation of its asserted... contractor's agreement that the direct transaction of validation or challenge matters with subcontractors at...

48 CFR 227.7103-15 - Subcontractor rights in technical data.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... clauses at 252.227-7013, Rights in Technical Data—Noncommercial Items, and 252.227-7037, Validation of... subcontractor to transact directly with the Government matters relating to the validation of its asserted... contractor's agreement that the direct transaction of validation or challenge matters with subcontractors at...

GREEN KIT: A MODULAR, VARIABLE APPLICATION SYSTEM FOR SUSTAINABLE COOLING

EPA Science Inventory

Definition of technical challenge to sustainability One of the challenges to sustainability is to build shelters that provide human comfort (people) using limited resources (prosperity) and minimum environment impact (planet). Current practices in building ...

Positivists, Postmodernists, Aristotelians, and the Challenger Disaster.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Walzer, Arthur E.; Gross, Alan

1994-01-01

Examines the deliberations prior to the Challenger disaster from the perspective of three major approaches in recent scholarship in rhetoric as applied to technical communications: positivism, postmodernistic social constructionism, and classical Aristotelianism. Champions an approach based on Aristotle's "Rhetoric." (HB)

WASTE TO VALUE: INCORPORATING INDUSTRIAL SYMBIOSIS FOR SUSTAINABLE INFRASTRUCTURE

EPA Science Inventory

Technical Challenge: Investigators will examine the role of technology innovations as well as environmental justice (EJ) obligations in initiating and implementing urban-industrial symbiosis in Commerce City (CC), CO. The sustainability challenge invol...

Genomics and breeding in food crops

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Plant biology is in the midst of a revolution. The generation of tremendous volumes of sequence information introduce new technical challenges into plant biology and agriculture. The relatively new field of bioinformatics addresses these challenges by utilizing efficient data management strategies;...

Digital government and public health.

PubMed

Fountain, Jane E

2004-10-01

Digital government is typically defined as the production and delivery of information and services inside government and between government and the public using a range of information and communication technologies. Two types of government relationships with other entities are government-to-citizen and government-to-government relationships. Both offer opportunities and challenges. Assessment of a public health agency's readiness for digital government includes examination of technical, managerial, and political capabilities. Public health agencies are especially challenged by a lack of funding for technical infrastructure and expertise, by privacy and security issues, and by lack of Internet access for low-income and marginalized populations. Public health agencies understand the difficulties of working across agencies and levels of government, but the development of new, integrated e-programs will require more than technical change - it will require a profound change in paradigm.

Analysis of Aviation Safety Reporting System Incident Data Associated With the Technical Challenges of the Vehicle Systems Safety Technology Project

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Withrow, Colleen A.; Reveley, Mary S.

2014-01-01

This analysis was conducted to support the Vehicle Systems Safety Technology (VSST) Project of the Aviation Safety Program (AVsP) milestone VSST4.2.1.01, "Identification of VSST-Related Trends." In particular, this is a review of incident data from the NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS). The following three VSST-related technical challenges (TCs) were the focus of the incidents searched in the ASRS database: (1) Vechicle health assurance, (2) Effective crew-system interactions and decisions in all conditions; and (3) Aircraft loss of control prevention, mitigation, and recovery.

Challenges and Opportunities in Genome-Wide Environmental Interaction (GWEI) studies

PubMed Central

Aschard, Hugues; Lutz, Sharon; Maus, Bärbel; Duell, Eric J.; Fingerlin, Tasha; Chatterjee, Nilanjan; Kraft, Peter; Van Steen, Kristel

2012-01-01

The interest in performing gene-environment interaction studies has seen a significant increase with the increase of advanced molecular genetics techniques. Practically, it became possible to investigate the role of environmental factors in disease risk and hence to investigate their role as genetic effect modifiers. The understanding that genetics is important in the uptake and metabolism of toxic substances is an example of how genetic profiles can modify important environmental risk factors to disease. Several rationales exist to set up gene-environment interaction studies and the technical challenges related to these studies – when the number of environmental or genetic risk factors is relatively small – has been described before. In the post-genomic era, it is now possible to study thousands of genes and their interaction with the environment. This brings along a whole range of new challenges and opportunities. Despite a continuing effort in developing efficient methods and optimal bioinformatics infrastructures to deal with the available wealth of data, the challenge remains how to best present and analyze Genome-Wide Environmental Interaction (GWEI) studies involving multiple genetic and environmental factors. Since GWEIs are performed at the intersection of statistical genetics, bioinformatics and epidemiology, usually similar problems need to be dealt with as for Genome-Wide Association gene-gene Interaction (GWAI) studies. However, additional complexities need to be considered which are typical for large-scale epidemiological studies, but are also related to “joining” two heterogeneous types of data in explaining complex disease trait variation or for prediction purposes. PMID:22760307

DCE-MRI, DW-MRI, and MRS in Cancer: Challenges and Advantages of Implementing Qualitative and Quantitative Multi-parametric Imaging in the Clinic

PubMed Central

Winfield, Jessica M.; Payne, Geoffrey S.; Weller, Alex; deSouza, Nandita M.

2016-01-01

Abstract Multi-parametric magnetic resonance imaging (mpMRI) offers a unique insight into tumor biology by combining functional MRI techniques that inform on cellularity (diffusion-weighted MRI), vascular properties (dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI), and metabolites (magnetic resonance spectroscopy) and has scope to provide valuable information for prognostication and response assessment. Challenges in the application of mpMRI in the clinic include the technical considerations in acquiring good quality functional MRI data, development of robust techniques for analysis, and clinical interpretation of the results. This article summarizes the technical challenges in acquisition and analysis of multi-parametric MRI data before reviewing the key applications of multi-parametric MRI in clinical research and practice. PMID:27748710

Centennial Challenges

NASA Image and Video Library

2010-02-26

Doug Comstock, NASA's Director, Innovative Partnership Office, speaks during a ceremony for winners and participants of NASA’s 2009 Centennial Challenges, Friday, Feb. 26, 2010, at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The year-long competition addresses a range of technical challenges that support NASA's missions in aeronautics and space with a goal of encouraging novel solutions from non-traditional sources. Photo Credit: (NASA/Paul E. Alers)

Challenges in Fingertip Replantation

PubMed Central

Kim, Jin-Soo; Yang, Jae-Won; Lee, Dong-Chul; Ki, Sae-Hwi; Roh, Si-Young

2013-01-01

Fingertip amputation is a challenging injury to manage. Among various reconstructive procedures, replantation results in superior outcome, but is seldom considered in many institutions. From the identification of vessel ends to reanastomosis of the submillimeter vessels, fingertip's highly specialized anatomy requires technical excellence. By addressing these anatomic challenges, fingertip replantation can be a routine reconstructive option for microvascular surgeons. PMID:24872765

Ecosystem services provided by a complex coastal region: challenges of classification and mapping.

PubMed

Sousa, Lisa P; Sousa, Ana I; Alves, Fátima L; Lillebø, Ana I

2016-03-11

A variety of ecosystem services classification systems and mapping approaches are available in the scientific and technical literature, which needs to be selected and adapted when applied to complex territories (e.g. in the interface between water and land, estuary and sea). This paper provides a framework for addressing ecosystem services in complex coastal regions. The roadmap comprises the definition of the exact geographic boundaries of the study area; the use of CICES (Common International Classification of Ecosystem Services) for ecosystem services identification and classification; and the definition of qualitative indicators that will serve as basis to map the ecosystem services. Due to its complexity, the Ria de Aveiro coastal region was selected as case study, presenting an opportunity to explore the application of such approaches at a regional scale. The main challenges of implementing the proposed roadmap, together with its advantages are discussed in this research. The results highlight the importance of considering both the connectivity of natural systems and the complexity of the governance framework; the flexibility and robustness, but also the challenges when applying CICES at regional scale; and the challenges regarding ecosystem services mapping.

Ecosystem services provided by a complex coastal region: challenges of classification and mapping

PubMed Central

Sousa, Lisa P.; Sousa, Ana I.; Alves, Fátima L.; Lillebø, Ana I.

2016-01-01

A variety of ecosystem services classification systems and mapping approaches are available in the scientific and technical literature, which needs to be selected and adapted when applied to complex territories (e.g. in the interface between water and land, estuary and sea). This paper provides a framework for addressing ecosystem services in complex coastal regions. The roadmap comprises the definition of the exact geographic boundaries of the study area; the use of CICES (Common International Classification of Ecosystem Services) for ecosystem services identification and classification; and the definition of qualitative indicators that will serve as basis to map the ecosystem services. Due to its complexity, the Ria de Aveiro coastal region was selected as case study, presenting an opportunity to explore the application of such approaches at a regional scale. The main challenges of implementing the proposed roadmap, together with its advantages are discussed in this research. The results highlight the importance of considering both the connectivity of natural systems and the complexity of the governance framework; the flexibility and robustness, but also the challenges when applying CICES at regional scale; and the challenges regarding ecosystem services mapping. PMID:26964892

Unguided Mental Health Self-help Apps: Reflections on Challenges through a Clinician's Lens.

PubMed

Mehrotra, Seema; Kumar, Satish; Sudhir, Paulomi; Rao, Girish N; Thirthalli, Jagadisha; Gandotra, Aditi

2017-01-01

The past one decade has witnessed a boom in the availability of Internet-based self-help apps in the field of mental health. Several apps have emerged that aim to provide information and strategies to empower individuals with self-help approaches to deal with issues and concerns related to mental health. A large number of these apps in developing countries are likely to be those which depend entirely on the users to go over the self-help program on their own (unguided internet-based self-help). Only a few apps add a component of periodic professional contact/technical support through phone/email or other means to supplement the self-help strategies suggested in the app that the user is expected to utilize. This scenario poses several challenges in use of unguided self-help apps for mental health. This paper enumerates some of these challenges for potential users of the apps from the perspective of clinicians. These range from difficulties in choosing the right app, limited scope for contextualization, and motivation management to awareness about when to step up to a higher intensity intervention. Despite these challenges, unguided self-help apps can serve important purposes, and hence we propose a few recommendations to address such challenges.

Unguided Mental Health Self-help Apps: Reflections on Challenges through a Clinician's Lens

PubMed Central

Mehrotra, Seema; Kumar, Satish; Sudhir, Paulomi; Rao, Girish N.; Thirthalli, Jagadisha; Gandotra, Aditi

2017-01-01

The past one decade has witnessed a boom in the availability of Internet-based self-help apps in the field of mental health. Several apps have emerged that aim to provide information and strategies to empower individuals with self-help approaches to deal with issues and concerns related to mental health. A large number of these apps in developing countries are likely to be those which depend entirely on the users to go over the self-help program on their own (unguided internet-based self-help). Only a few apps add a component of periodic professional contact/technical support through phone/email or other means to supplement the self-help strategies suggested in the app that the user is expected to utilize. This scenario poses several challenges in use of unguided self-help apps for mental health. This paper enumerates some of these challenges for potential users of the apps from the perspective of clinicians. These range from difficulties in choosing the right app, limited scope for contextualization, and motivation management to awareness about when to step up to a higher intensity intervention. Despite these challenges, unguided self-help apps can serve important purposes, and hence we propose a few recommendations to address such challenges. PMID:29200577

Transesophageal echocardiography and intracardiac echocardiography differently predict potential technical challenges or failures of interatrial shunts catheter-based closure.

PubMed

Rigatelli, Gianluca; Rigateli, Gianluca; Cardaioli, Paolo; Braggion, Gabriele; Aggio, Silvio; Giordan, Massimo; Magro, Beatrice; Nascimben, Alberto; Favaro, Alberto; Roncon, Loris; Rincon, Loris

2007-02-01

We sought to prospectively assess the role of transesophageal (TEE) and intracardiac echocardiography (ICE) in detecting potential technical difficulties or failures in patients submitted to interatrial shunts percutaneous closure. We prospectively enrolled 46 consecutive patients (mean age 35+/-28, 8 years, 30 female) referred to our center for catheter-based closure of interatrial shunts. All patients were screened with TEE before the intervention. Patients who met the inclusion criteria underwent ICE study before the closure attempt (40 patients). TEE detected potential technical difficulties in 22.5% (9/40) patients, whereas ICE detected technical difficulties in 32.5% (13/40 patients). In patients with positive TEE/ICE the procedural success (92.4% versus 100% and, P = ns) and follow-up failure rate (7.7% versus 0%, P = ns) were similar to patients with negative TEE/ICE, whereas the fluoroscopy time (7 +/- 1.2 versus 5 +/- 0.7 minutes, P < 0.03), the procedural time (41 +/- 4.1 versus 30 +/- 8.2 minutes, P +/- 0.03), and technical difficulties rate (23.1% versus 0%, P = 0.013) were higher. Differences between ICE and TEE in the evaluation of rims, measurement of ASD or fossa ovalis, and detection of venous valve and embryonic septal membrane remnants impacted on technical challenges and on procedural and fluoroscopy times but did not influence the success rate and follow-up failure rate.

BI Project Success

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tracey, Graham; Riha, James

2009-01-01

Managing business intelligence (BI) projects in higher education is a formidable responsibility that challenges even the most experienced technical project managers. Data source dependencies, uncertain data quality, changing information requirements, and urgency for actionable information are but a few examples among the multitude of challenges.…

e-Human Grid Ecology - understanding and approaching the inverse tragedy of the commons in the e-Grid society.

PubMed

Knoch, Tobias A; Baumgärtner, Volkmar; de Zeeuw, Luc V; Grosveld, Frank G; Egger, Kurt

2009-01-01

With ever-new technologies emerging also the amount of information to be stored and processed is growing exponentially and is believed to be always at the limit. In contrast, however, huge resources are available in the IT sector alike e.g. the renewable energy sector, which are often even not at all used. This under-usage bares any rational especially in the IT sector where e.g. virtualisation and grid approaches could be fast implemented due to the great technical and fast turnover opportunities. Here, we describe this obvious paradox for the first time as the Inverse Tragedy of the Commons, in contrast to the Classical Tragedy of the Commons where resources are overexploited. From this perspective the grid IT sector attempting to share resources for better efficiency, reveals two challenges leading to the heart of the paradox: i) From a macro perspective all grid infrastructures involve not only mere technical solutions but also dominantly all of the autopoietic social sub-systems ranging from religion to policy. ii) On the micro level the individual players and their psychology and risk behaviour are of major importance for acting within the macro autopoietic framework. Thus, the challenges of grid implementation are similar to those of e.g. climate protection. This is well described by the classic Human Ecology triangle and our extension to a rectangle: invironment-individual-society-environment. Extension of this classical interdisciplinary field of basic and applied research to an e-Human Grid Ecology rational, allows the Inverse Tragedy of the Commons of the grid sector to be understood and approached better and implies obvious guidelines in the day-to-day management for grid and other (networked) resources, which is of importance for many fields with similar paradoxes as in (e-)society.

The International Space Station, Providing Opportunities to Tackle Most Challenging Questions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gregory, Frederick; Suzuki, Nantel

2002-01-01

The International Space Station (ISS) now soars overhead, representing NASA's newest research center. It is a fully autonomous facility more capable than any Space laboratory ever deployed, with over 60 thousand hours of experiment operations time completed to date. Technical performance has been exceptional in the deployment and operation of the over 300 thousand pounds of hardware and the over one million plus line of software on orbit. Yet many obstacles are yet to be overcome to realize its fullest potential. The Agency has recently revalidated its research objectives for ISS to identify and answer questions that cannot be studied here on earth. These objectives include fundamental and applied research as well as engineering technology. The International Space Station is our first full-service weigh station on the road map for human-robotic exploration beyond low earth orbit. It will provide answers to a breadth of research questions and it will enable our ability the successfully overcome hurdles in the areas of crew health and safety, human/robotic partnerships, and space systems performance that now impede future exploration. Management control for the development and operation of large complex space systems has become one of the most important skills to develop at NASA. Many issues have surfaced concerning ISS management and organization. These problems are being addressed and we are moving to resolve our deficiencies and demonstrate the high degree of managerial performance already seen in our attention to technical challenges and safety. This paper will address the steps being taken, and the road ahead to provide answers of importance for our society and to further humankind's quest for exploration.

Integrating oral health into Haiti's National Health Plan: from disaster relief to sustainable development.

PubMed

Estupiñán-Day, Saskia; Lafontant, Christina; Acuña, Maria Cecilia

2011-11-01

In 2010, Haiti suffered three devastating national emergencies: a 7.0 magnitude earthquake that killed over 200 000 and injured 300 000; a cholera outbreak that challenged recovery efforts and caused more deaths; and Hurricane Tomas, which brought additional destruction. In the aftermath, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) reoriented its technical cooperation to face the myriad of new challenges and needs. Efforts included support and technical assistance to the Ministry of Health and Population of Haiti and coordination of actions by the United Nations Health Cluster. This Special Report focuses specifically on the PAHO Regional Oral Health Program's call to action in Haiti and the institutional partnerships that were developed to leverage resources for oral health during this critical time and beyond. To date, achievements include working with Haiti's private sector, dental schools, public health associations, and other stakeholders, via the Oral Health of Haiti (OHOH) Coalition. The OHOH aims to meet the immediate needs of the dental community and to rebuild the oral health component of the health system; to provide dental materials and supplies to oral health sites in affected areas; and to ensure that the "Basic Package of Health Services" includes specific interventions for oral health care and services. The experience in Haiti serves as a reminder to the international community of how important linking immediate/short-term disaster-response to mid- and longterm strategies is to building a health system that provides timely access to health services, including oral health. Haiti's humanitarian crisis became an important time to rethink the country's health system and services in terms of the right to health and the concepts of citizenship, solidarity, and sustainable development.

Mass Spectrometry-Based Metabolomics to Elucidate Functions in Marine Organisms and Ecosystems

PubMed Central

Goulitquer, Sophie; Potin, Philippe; Tonon, Thierry

2012-01-01

Marine systems are very diverse and recognized as being sources of a wide range of biomolecules. This review provides an overview of metabolite profiling based on mass spectrometry (MS) approaches in marine organisms and their environments, focusing on recent advances in the field. We also point out some of the technical challenges that need to be overcome in order to increase applications of metabolomics in marine systems, including extraction of chemical compounds from different matrices and data management. Metabolites being important links between genotype and phenotype, we describe added value provided by integration of data from metabolite profiling with other layers of omics, as well as their importance for the development of systems biology approaches in marine systems to study several biological processes, and to analyze interactions between organisms within communities. The growing importance of MS-based metabolomics in chemical ecology studies in marine ecosystems is also illustrated. PMID:22690147

CAR T-cell immunotherapy: The path from the by-road to the freeway?

PubMed

Whilding, Lynsey M; Maher, John

2015-12-01

Chimeric antigen receptors are genetically encoded artificial fusion molecules that can re-program the specificity of peripheral blood polyclonal T-cells against a selected cell surface target. Unparallelled clinical efficacy has recently been demonstrated using this approach to treat patients with refractory B-cell malignancy. However, the approach is technically challenging and can elicit severe toxicity in patients. Moreover, solid tumours have largely proven refractory to this approach. In this review, we describe the important structural features of CARs and how this may influence function. Emerging clinical experience is summarized in both solid tumours and haematological malignancies. Finally, we consider the particular challenges imposed by solid tumours to the successful development of CAR T-cell immunotherapy, together with a number of innovative strategies that have been developed in an effort to reverse the balance in favour of therapeutic benefit. Crown Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Analysis of Intracellular Metabolites from Microorganisms: Quenching and Extraction Protocols

PubMed Central

Villas-Boas, Silas G.; Aggio, Raphael

2017-01-01

Sample preparation is one of the most important steps in metabolome analysis. The challenges of determining microbial metabolome have been well discussed within the research community and many improvements have already been achieved in last decade. The analysis of intracellular metabolites is particularly challenging. Environmental perturbations may considerably affect microbial metabolism, which results in intracellular metabolites being rapidly degraded or metabolized by enzymatic reactions. Therefore, quenching or the complete stop of cell metabolism is a pre-requisite for accurate intracellular metabolite analysis. After quenching, metabolites need to be extracted from the intracellular compartment. The choice of the most suitable metabolite extraction method/s is another crucial step. The literature indicates that specific classes of metabolites are better extracted by different extraction protocols. In this review, we discuss the technical aspects and advancements of quenching and extraction of intracellular metabolite analysis from microbial cells. PMID:29065530

Phonon thermal conduction in novel 2D materials.

PubMed

Xu, Xiangfan; Chen, Jie; Li, Baowen

2016-12-07

Recently, there has been increasing interest in phonon thermal transport in low-dimensional materials, due to the crucial importance of dissipating and managing heat in micro- and nano-electronic devices. Significant progress has been achieved for one-dimensional (1D) systems, both theoretically and experimentally. However, the study of heat conduction in two-dimensional (2D) systems is still in its infancy due to the limited availability of 2D materials and the technical challenges of fabricating suspended samples that are suitable for thermal measurements. In this review, we outline different experimental techniques and theoretical approaches for phonon thermal transport in 2D materials, discuss the problems and challenges of phonon thermal transport measurements and provide a comparison between existing experimental data. Special attention will be given to the effects of size, dimensionality, anisotropy and mode contributions in novel 2D systems, including graphene, boron nitride, MoS 2 , black phosphorous and silicene.

Construction of the food and nutrition security policy in Brazil: strategies and challenges in the promotion of intersectorality at the federal government level.

PubMed

Burlandy, Luciene

2009-01-01

This article analyzes institutional strategies of the Brazilian federal government that aim at promoting intersectorality in the field of Food and Nutrition Security (FNS), based on bibliographic review and document analysis. It is assumed that, although formal institutionality in this government level is not enough to promote intersectorality, it is important in process induction. It follows that the combination of different institutional mechanisms favors intersectorality, such as: the existence and location of councils integrated by government sectors and civil society in the presidency; political support by the presidency and inclusion of the issue as being strategic in the governmental agenda; assembly of institutional spaces that articulate the highest government spheres and that integrate technical levels; programs that integrate food production, commercialization, and consumption. Challenges concern interrelation with economic policy and the construction of budget agreed among sectors, integrated to policy management and monitoring.

Observing Exoplanets in the Mid-Ultraviolet

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Heap. Sara

2008-01-01

There are good reasons for pushing the spectral range of observation to shorter wavelengths than currently envisaged for terrestrial planet-finding missions utilizing with a 4-m, diffraction-limited, optical telescope: (1) The angular resolution is higher, so the image of an exoplanet is better separated from that of the much brighter star. (2) The exozodiacal background per resolution element is smaller, so exposure times are reduced for the same incident flux. (3) Most importantly, the sensitivity to the ozone biomarker is increased by several hundred-fold by access to the ozone absorption band at 250-300 nm. These benefits must be weighed against challenges arising from the faintness of exoplanets in the mid-UV. We will evaluate both the technical and cost challenges including image quality of large telescopes, advanced mirror coatings and innovative designs for enhanced optical throughput, and CCD detectors optimized for 250-400 nm.

A Plan for Revolutionary Change in Gas Turbine Engine Control System Architecture

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Culley, Dennis E.

2011-01-01

The implementation of Distributed Engine Control technology on the gas turbine engine has been a vexing challenge for the controls community. A successful implementation requires the resolution of multiple technical issues in areas such as network communications, power distribution, and system integration, but especially in the area of high temperature electronics. Impeding the achievement has been the lack of a clearly articulated message about the importance of the distributed control technology to future turbine engine system goals and objectives. To resolve these issues and bring the technology to fruition has, and will continue to require, a broad coalition of resources from government, industry, and academia. This presentation will describe the broad challenges facing the next generation of advanced control systems and the plan which is being put into action to successfully implement the technology on the next generation of gas turbine engine systems.

Decision strategies for handling the uncertainty of future extreme rainfall under the influence of climate change.

PubMed

Gregersen, I B; Arnbjerg-Nielsen, K

2012-01-01

Several extraordinary rainfall events have occurred in Denmark within the last few years. For each event, problems in urban areas occurred as the capacity of the existing drainage systems were exceeded. Adaptation to climate change is necessary but also very challenging as urban drainage systems are characterized by long technical lifetimes and high, unrecoverable construction costs. One of the most important barriers for the initiation and implementation of the adaptation strategies is therefore the uncertainty when predicting the magnitude of the extreme rainfall in the future. This challenge is explored through the application and discussion of three different theoretical decision support strategies: the precautionary principle, the minimax strategy and Bayesian decision support. The reviewed decision support strategies all proved valuable for addressing the identified uncertainties, at best applied together as they all yield information that improved decision making and thus enabled more robust decisions.

Brush Seals for Improved Steam Turbine Performance

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Turnquist, Norman; Chupp, Ray; Baily, Fred; Burnett, Mark; Rivas, Flor; Bowsher, Aaron; Crudgington, Peter

2006-01-01

GE Energy has retrofitted brush seals into more than 19 operating steam turbines. Brush seals offer superior leakage control compared to labyrinth seals, owing to their compliant nature and ability to maintain very tight clearances to the rotating shaft. Seal designs have been established for steam turbines ranging in size from 12 MW to over 1200 MW, including fossil, nuclear, combined-cycle and industrial applications. Steam turbines present unique design challenges that must be addressed to ensure that the potential performance benefits of brush seals are realized. Brush seals can have important effects on the overall turbine system that must be taken into account to assure reliable operation. Subscale rig tests are instrumental to understanding seal behavior under simulated steam-turbine operating conditions, prior to installing brush seals in the field. This presentation discusses the technical challenges of designing brush seals for steam turbines; subscale testing; performance benefits of brush seals; overall system effects; and field applications.

Towards coherent combination of 61 fiber amplifiers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Heilmann, Anke; Le Dortz, Jérémy; Daniault, Louis; Fsaifes, Ihsan; Bellanger, Séverine; Antier, Marie; Bourderionnet, Jérôme; Larat, Christian; Lallier, Eric; Durand, Eric; Brignon, Arnaud; Simon-Boisson, Christophe; Chanteloup, Jean-Christophe

2018-02-01

The XCAN project aims at the coherent combination of 61 fiber amplifiers in the femtosecond regime. An important intermediate step towards this goal is the implementation of a seven fiber test setup, which allows to address key scientific and technical challenges which might occur in the scaled version of 61 fibers. This work includes the design and characterization of a support unit able to hold 61 fibers with the high precision required for an efficient coherent combination in tiled aperture configuration. This configuration, in combination with an interferometric phase measurement and active phase control, is particularly well suited for the coherent combination of a very large number of beams. Our first preliminary results with seven fibers include a combination efficiency of 30 % and a residual phase error between two fibers as low as λ/40 rms. Experiments conducted with three fibers in order to evaluate technical improvements revealed an increase of efficiency to 54 %. The combined beam was temporally compressed to 225 fs, which is Fourier transform limited with respect to the measured spectrum.

Orthology prediction methods: a quality assessment using curated protein families.

PubMed

Trachana, Kalliopi; Larsson, Tomas A; Powell, Sean; Chen, Wei-Hua; Doerks, Tobias; Muller, Jean; Bork, Peer

2011-10-01

The increasing number of sequenced genomes has prompted the development of several automated orthology prediction methods. Tests to evaluate the accuracy of predictions and to explore biases caused by biological and technical factors are therefore required. We used 70 manually curated families to analyze the performance of five public methods in Metazoa. We analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of the methods and quantified the impact of biological and technical challenges. From the latter part of the analysis, genome annotation emerged as the largest single influencer, affecting up to 30% of the performance. Generally, most methods did well in assigning orthologous group but they failed to assign the exact number of genes for half of the groups. The publicly available benchmark set (http://eggnog.embl.de/orthobench/) should facilitate the improvement of current orthology assignment protocols, which is of utmost importance for many fields of biology and should be tackled by a broad scientific community. Copyright © 2011 WILEY Periodicals, Inc.

Purpose-driven public sector reform: the need for within-government capacity build for the management of slope stability in communities in the Caribbean.

PubMed

Anderson, Malcolm; Holcombe, Liz

2006-01-01

This article stresses the importance of within-government capacity build as the optimal approach to minimizing landslide risk to the most vulnerable communities in the developing world. Landslide risk is an integrated issue that demands strong managerial leadership and multidisciplinary inclusion to develop structures that deliver sustainable improvements in the reduction of risk. The tension between projects demanding international technical and financial intervention and those capable of "within-country" solutions are examined. More particularly, the challenges of developing a management methodology capable of energizing inter-ministry collaboration to achieve community-level action is examined in the context of a recently established program of slope stability management in St. Lucia. The program, Management of Slope Stability in Communities (MoSSaiC), is shown to have successfully fostered not only extensive technical collaboration within government but also to have energized local communities in the shared mission of capacity build through their direct involvement in the management process.

Analysis of Protein Kinetics Using Fluorescence Recovery After Photobleaching (FRAP).

PubMed

Giakoumakis, Nickolaos Nikiforos; Rapsomaniki, Maria Anna; Lygerou, Zoi

2017-01-01

Fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) is a cutting-edge live-cell functional imaging technique that enables the exploration of protein dynamics in individual cells and thus permits the elucidation of protein mobility, function, and interactions at a single-cell level. During a typical FRAP experiment, fluorescent molecules in a defined region of interest within the cell are bleached by a short and powerful laser pulse, while the recovery of the fluorescence in the region is monitored over time by time-lapse microscopy. FRAP experimental setup and image acquisition involve a number of steps that need to be carefully executed to avoid technical artifacts. Equally important is the subsequent computational analysis of FRAP raw data, to derive quantitative information on protein diffusion and binding parameters. Here we present an integrated in vivo and in silico protocol for the analysis of protein kinetics using FRAP. We focus on the most commonly encountered challenges and technical or computational pitfalls and their troubleshooting so that valid and robust insight into protein dynamics within living cells is gained.

Purpose-Driven Public Sector Reform: The Need for Within-Government Capacity Build for the Management of Slope Stability in Communities in the Caribbean

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Anderson, Malcolm; Holcombe, Liz

2006-01-01

This article stresses the importance of within-government capacity build as the optimal approach to minimizing landslide risk to the most vulnerable communities in the developing world. Landslide risk is an integrated issue that demands strong managerial leadership and multidisciplinary inclusion to develop structures that deliver sustainable improvements in the reduction of risk. The tension between projects demanding international technical and financial intervention and those capable of “within-country” solutions are examined. More particularly, the challenges of developing a management methodology capable of energizing inter-ministry collaboration to achieve community-level action is examined in the context of a recently established program of slope stability management in St. Lucia. The program, Management of Slope Stability in Communities (MoSSaiC), is shown to have successfully fostered not only extensive technical collaboration within government but also to have energized local communities in the shared mission of capacity build through their direct involvement in the management process.

76 FR 72666 - Pipeline Safety: Expanding the Use of Excess Flow Valves in Gas Distribution Systems to...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-11-25

... technical feasibility and cost of the installation of such valves; (D) The public safety benefits of the... public comment regarding the technical challenges, and the potential costs and the potential benefits of... a cost-benefit perspective. DATES: Persons interested in submitting written comments on this ANPRM...

Replacing Technically Skilled Workers: Challenges and Suggestions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Evanciew, Cheryl E. P.; Wither, Steven V.

2004-01-01

Throughout the early 1900s, the United States could either find technically skilled workers based upon their backgrounds or was able to train workers quickly. Farmers, military personnel, and other sources of skilled workers were available to fill the needs of the workforce. These sources of readily available skilled workers are no longer as…

Verification of Accurate Technical Insight: A Prerequisite for Self-Directed Surgical Training

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hu, Yinin; Kim, Helen; Mahmutovic, Adela; Choi, Joanna; Le, Ivy; Rasmussen, Sara

2015-01-01

Simulation-based surgical skills training during preclinical education is a persistent challenge due to time constraints of trainees and instructors alike. Self-directed practice is resource-efficient and flexible; however, insight into technical proficiency among trainees is often lacking. The purpose of this study is to prospectively assess the…

Education Student Perceptions of Virtual Reality as a Learning Tool

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Domingo, Jelia R.; Bradley, Elizabeth Gates

2018-01-01

The purpose of this study was to ascertain student perceptions of the use and value of three-dimensional virtual environments. A grounded theory approach was used to gather and examine data. Just over half of student participants reported positive experiences. However, most experienced technical difficulties. Despite the technical challenges of…

Teacher Collaborative Curriculum Design in Technical Vocational Colleges: A Strategy for Maintaining Curriculum Consistency?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Albashiry, Nabeel M.; Voogt, Joke M.; Pieters, Jules M.

2015-01-01

The Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) curriculum requires continuous renewal and constant involvement of stakeholders in the redesign process. Due to a lack of curriculum design expertise, TVET institutions in developing contexts encounter challenges maintaining and advancing the quality and relevance of their programmes to the…

College Readiness and Workforce Challenges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Evans, Thomas G.; Cook, Harry J.

2011-01-01

One of the key points of agreement among educators is that highly successful schools must disseminate best practices so that all can benefit. Eastern Technical High School, part of Baltimore County (MD) Public Schools, is a career and technical education (CTE) high school where students gain the knowledge and skills they need to pursue a career in…

Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET): Understanding the Nigerian Experience

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dike, Victor Ebipuruonwu

2013-01-01

The descriptive mixed-methods study explores and describes the challenges and prospects of the growth and development of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) schools and science-based technology education in Nigeria. It is not understood how Nigerians in the United States perceive the impacts of governmental policies on education…

Challenges and Rewards of Teaching Intercultural Communication in a Technical Writing Course: A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cardenas, Diana L.

2012-01-01

Community-based projects immerse technical writing students in intercultural communication, addressing local needs and shaping documents in human terms. Students at a South Texas university work to establish communication with clients in a city-county health department to create effective documents and disseminate family health legislation. To…

Globalization, Critical Post-Colonialism and Career and Technical Education in Africa: Challenges and Possibilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goura, Tairou

2012-01-01

In Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), technical and vocational education and training (TVET) is central to political discourses and educational concerns as a means for economic development, poverty alleviation, youth employment, and social mobility. Yet, there is an intriguing contradiction between this consideration and the real attention dedicated to…

CareerTech VISION 2012--Transforming CTE Together

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bray, Janet B.

2012-01-01

As the leader in career and technical education (CTE), the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) understands the ongoing challenges faced by the CTE community. That is why ACTE has created CareerTech VISION 2012, a bold and visionary event that addresses the evolving needs of the global society and meets all individual and…

Technical College Teachers Sharing Their Knowledge: Does Leadership, Institutional Factors or Barriers Predict Their Practices?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tahir, Lokman Mohd; Musah, Muhamad Berhanddin; Abdullah, Abdul Halim; Musta'amal, Aede Hatib; Abdullah, Mohd Hazim Asran

2016-01-01

This study determines the preferable leadership practised by colleges' directors, institutional factors and challenges encountered in knowledge sharing in Malaysian technical higher learning institutions (HLIs). Using a pragmatic mixed-method strand, we obtained 212 teachers and instructors' viewpoints on knowledge sharing factors and barriers.…

A Tanzanian Perspective of the Technical Aspects of IT Service Management Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kemppainen, Jyri; Tedre, Matti; Sutinen, Erkki

2012-01-01

Information technology (IT) professionals face markedly different kinds of challenges in developing countries from the ones in developed countries. Based on the research literature and our fourteen years of fieldwork in Iringa, Tanzania, we have identified eight groups of technical characteristics of IT work that significantly affect the work of…

Breeding next generation tree fruits: technical and legal challenges

PubMed Central

Dalla Costa, Lorenza; Malnoy, Mickael; Gribaudo, Ivana

2017-01-01

The new plant breeding technologies (NPBTs) have recently emerged as powerful tools in the context of ‘green’ biotechnologies. They have wide potential compared to classical genetic engineering and they are attracting the interest of politicians, stakeholders and citizens due to the revolutionary impact they may have on agriculture. Cisgenesis and genome editing potentially allow to obtain pathogen-resistant plants or plants with enhanced qualitative traits by introducing or disrupting specific genes in shorter times compared to traditional breeding programs and by means of minimal modifications in the plant genome. Grapevine, the most important fruit crop in the world from an economical point of view, is a peculiar case for NPBTs because of the load of cultural aspects, varietal traditions and consumer demands, which hinder the use of classical breeding techniques and, furthermore, the application of genetic engineering to wine grape cultivars. Here we explore the technical challenges which may hamper the application of cisgenesis and genome editing to this perennial plant, in particular focusing on the bottlenecks of the Agrobacterium-mediated gene transfer. In addition, strategies to eliminate undesired sequences from the genome and to choose proper target sites are discussed in light of peculiar features of this species. Furthermore is reported an update of the international legislative frameworks regulating NPBT products which shows conflicting positions and, in the case of the European Union, a prolonged lack of regulation. PMID:29238598

Capability Gap Assessment - Blending Warfighter Experience with Science

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-02-15

This technical report describes the gap assessment method and the results of using it. 15. SUBJECT TERMS capability gap assessment, operational risk ...29 Challenges ...approach that blends warfighter experience with science. This paper describes the process, challenges , and opportunities associated with this technique

Printed batteries and conductive patterns in technical textiles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Willert, Andreas; Meuser, Carmen; Baumann, Reinhard R.

2018-05-01

Various applications of functional devices need a tailored and reliable supply of electrical energy. Batteries are electrochemical systems that deliver energy for functional devices and applications. Due to the common use, several rigid types of batteries have been standardized. To fully integrate the battery into a product that is bendable, free in geometry and less than 1 mm thick, printing of power adaptable batteries is a challenging area of research. Therefore, the well-known zinc-manganese system, which is very promising due to its environmental sustainability and its simplicity, has been used to manufacture battery solutions on a new kind of substrate: technical textiles. Another challenge is the deposition of conductive patterns. At present, embroidery with metallic yarn is the only possibility to provide conducting paths on technical textiles, a time-consuming and elaborate process. Screen printed conductive pathways will generate a new momentum in the manufacturing of conductivity on textiles.

Core-Noise Research

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hultgren, Lennart S.

2012-01-01

This presentation is a technical summary of and outlook for NASA-internal and NASA-sponsored external research on core noise funded by the Fundamental Aeronautics Program Subsonic Fixed Wing (SFW) Project. Sections of the presentation cover: the SFW system-level noise metrics for the 2015 (N+1), 2020 (N+2), and 2025 (N+3) timeframes; SFW strategic thrusts and technical challenges; SFW advanced subsystems that are broadly applicable to N+3 vehicle concepts, with an indication where further noise research is needed; the components of core noise (compressor, combustor and turbine noise) and a rationale for NASA's current emphasis on the combustor-noise component; the increase in the relative importance of core noise due to turbofan design trends; the need to understand and mitigate core-noise sources for high-efficiency small gas generators; and the current research activities in the core-noise area, with additional details given about forthcoming updates to NASA's Aircraft Noise Prediction Program (ANOPP) core-noise prediction capabilities, two NRA efforts (Honeywell International, Phoenix, AZ and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, respectively) to improve the understanding of core-noise sources and noise propagation through the engine core, and an effort to develop oxide/oxide ceramic-matrix-composite (CMC) liners for broadband noise attenuation suitable for turbofan-core application. Core noise must be addressed to ensure that the N+3 noise goals are met. Focused, but long-term, core-noise research is carried out to enable the advanced high-efficiency small gas-generator subsystem, common to several N+3 conceptual designs, needed to meet NASA's technical challenges. Intermediate updates to prediction tools are implemented as the understanding of the source structure and engine-internal propagation effects is improved. The NASA Fundamental Aeronautics Program has the principal objective of overcoming today's national challenges in air transportation. The SFW Quiet-Aircraft Subproject aims to develop concepts and technologies to reduce perceived community noise attributable to aircraft with minimal impact on weight and performance. This reduction of aircraft noise is critical to enabling the anticipated large increase in future air traffic.

Open Access to research data - final perspectives from the RECODE project

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bigagli, Lorenzo; Sondervan, Jeroen

2015-04-01

Many networks, initiatives, and communities are addressing the key barriers to Open Access to data in scientific research. These organizations are typically heterogeneous and fragmented by discipline, location, sector (publishers, academics, data centers, etc.), as well as by other features. Besides, they often work in isolation, or with limited contacts with one another. The Policy RECommendations for Open Access to Research Data in Europe (RECODE) project, which will conclude in the first half of 2015, has scoped and addressed the challenges related to Open Access, dissemination and preservation of scientific data, leveraging the existing networks, initiatives, and communities. The overall objective of RECODE was to identify a series of targeted and over-arching policy recommendations for Open Access to European research data based on existing good practice. RECODE has undertaken a review of the existing state of the art and examined five case studies in different scientific disciplines: particle physics and astrophysics, clinical research, medicine and technical physiology (bioengineering), humanities (archaeology), and environmental sciences (Earth Observation). In particular for the latter discipline, GEOSS has been an optimal test bed for investigating the importance of technical and multidisciplinary interoperability, and what the challenges are in sharing and providing Open Access to research data from a variety of sources, and in a variety of formats. RECODE has identified five main technological and infrastructural challenges: • Heterogeneity - relates to interoperability, usability, accessibility, discoverability; • Sustainability - relates to obsolescence, curation, updates/upgrades, persistence, preservation; • Volume - also related to Big Data, which is somehow implied by Open Data; in our context, it relates to discoverability, accessibility (indexing), bandwidth, storage, scalability, energy footprint; • Quality - relates to completeness, description (metadata), usability, data (peer) review; • Security - relates to the technical aspects of policy enforcement, such the AAA-protocol for authentication, authorization and auditing/accounting, privacy issues, etc. RECODE has also focused on the identification of stakeholder values relevant to Open Access to research data, as well as on policy, legal, and institutional aspects. All these issues are of immediate relevance for the whole scientific ecosystem, including researchers, as data producers/users, as well as publishers and libraries, as means for data dissemination and management.

The NASA "PERS" Program: Solid Polymer Electrolyte Development for Advanced Lithium-Based Batteries

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Baldwin, Richard S.; Bennett, William R.

2007-01-01

In fiscal year 2000, The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) established a collaborative effort to support the development of polymer-based, lithium-based cell chemistries and battery technologies to address the next generation of aerospace applications and mission needs. The ultimate objective of this development program, which was referred to as the Polymer Energy Rechargeable System (PERS), was to establish a world-class technology capability and U.S. leadership in polymer-based battery technology for aerospace applications. Programmatically, the PERS initiative exploited both interagency collaborations to address common technology and engineering issues and the active participation of academia and private industry. The initial program phases focused on R&D activities to address the critical technical issues and challenges at the cell level. Out of a total of 38 proposals received in response to a NASA Research Announcement (NRA) solicitation, 18 proposals (13 contracts and 5 grants) were selected for initial award to address these technical challenges. Brief summaries of technical approaches, results and accomplishments of the PERS Program development efforts are presented. With Agency support provided through FY 2004, the PERS Program efforts were concluded in 2005, as internal reorganizations and funding cuts resulted in shifting programmatic priorities within NASA. Technically, the PERS Program participants explored, to various degrees over the lifetime of the formal program, a variety of conceptual approaches for developing and demonstrating performance of a viable advanced solid polymer electrolyte possessing the desired attributes, as well as several participants addressing all components of an integrated cell configuration. Programmatically, the NASA PERS Program was very successful, even though the very challenging technical goals for achieving a viable solid polymer electrolyte material or the overall envisioned long-term, program objectives were not met due to funding reductions. The NASA PERS Program provided research opportunities and generated and disseminated a wealth of new scientific knowledge and technical competencies within the polymer electrolyte area.

Arch Venture Partners' investment considerations for CBRNE products and opportunities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Crandell, K.; Lazarus, S.; Gardner, P. J.

2008-04-01

ARCH is interested in building leading, highly-valued companies from leading research. Toward that end we value innovations created by the leading researchers in the world, many of which are funded to solve critical scientific challenges including those in the instrumentation and CBRNE area. The most important CBRNE innovations we have seen at ARCH are breakthroughs involving significant unaddressed technology risk and have the potential for broad proprietary intellectual property as a result. The model ARCH has evolved in instrumentation is to look for a breakthrough innovation, with strong intellectual property and continue to strengthen the patent estate through the life of the company. ARCH looks to build companies around leading interdisciplinary scientific and engineering teams, and we favor platform technology that can be applied to multiple market applications both commercial and government. As part of a strategy to build a great company, addressing important CBRNE challenges can help a company strengthen its technical team and its IP estate. This supports a focus on early low volume markets on the way toward addressing a fuller portfolio of applications. Experienced Venture Capitalists can help this process by identifying important executive talent, partners and applications, offering financial syndication strength, and helping shape the company's strategy to maximize the ultimate value realized.

Micronutrient fortification: WFP experiences and ways forward.

PubMed

2006-03-01

Micronutrient deficiencies represent a largely invisible, but often devastating, form of malnutrition that is particularly prevalent among WFP's beneficiary populations already lacking sufficient food. Known effects of micronutrient deficiencies include impaired physical and mental growth among children, iron-deficiency anemia, maternal mortality, low adult labor productivity and blindness. WFP makes important, often pioneering contributions to overcoming such deficiencies through: Careful attention to micronutrients in needs assessment and ration planning, Delivering fortified foods, particularly to nutritionally-vulnerable groups, on an increasingly large scale, Promotion and use of locally-produced and fortified commodities in more than a dozen low income, food deficit countries, Advocacy for fortification at national and international policy levels. Important activities in local processing and fortification have recently taken place in countries like Zambia, Angola, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and in the context of the regional southern Africa drought emergency. Each case demonstrates that where micronutrient deficiencies are an operational concern local fortification is possible, albeit challenging. Several ongoing assessments of the impact of such initiatives suggest important nutritional benefits. That said, challenges remain in terms of technical and managerial capacity constraints, the need for systematic compliance with procurement specifications and quality control, clearer policies on micronutrient content labeling, and the need for cash resources to support many aspects associated with local processing and fortification activities.

Water Demand Management Strategies and Challenges in the Upper Colorado River Basin

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kuhn, R. E.

2016-12-01

Under the 1922 Colorado River Compact, the Upper Basin (Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming) has flow obligations at Lee Ferry to downstream states and Mexico. The Colorado River Storage Project Act (CRSPA) of 1956 led to the construction of four large storage reservoirs. These provide river regulation to allow the Upper Basin to meet its obligations. Lake Powell, the largest and most important, and Lake Mead are now operated in a coordinated manner under the 2007 Interim Guidelines. Studies show that at current demand levels and if the hydrologic conditions the Basin has experienced since the mid-1980s continue or get drier, reservoir operations, alone, may not provide the necessary water to meet the Upper Basin's obligations. Therefore, the Upper Basin states are now studying demand management strategies that will reduce consumptive uses when total system reservoir storage reaches critically low levels. Demand management has its own economic, political and technical challenges and limitations and will provide new opportunities for applied research. This presentation will discuss some of those strategies, their challenges, and the kinds of information that research could provide to inform demand management.

Pervasive mobile healthcare systems for chronic disease monitoring.

PubMed

Huzooree, Geshwaree; Kumar Khedo, Kavi; Joonas, Noorjehan

2017-05-01

Pervasive mobile healthcare system has the potential to improve healthcare and the quality of life of chronic disease patients through continuous monitoring. Recently, many articles related to pervasive mobile healthcare system focusing on health monitoring using wireless technologies have been published. The main aim of this review is to evaluate the state-of-the-art pervasive mobile healthcare systems to identify major technical requirements and design challenges associated with the realization of a pervasive mobile healthcare system. A systematic literature review was conducted over IEEE Xplore Digital Library to evaluate 20 pervasive mobile healthcare systems out of 683 articles from 2011 to 2016. The classification of the pervasive mobile healthcare systems and other important factors are discussed. Potential opportunities and challenges are pointed out for the further deployment of effective pervasive mobile healthcare systems. This article helps researchers in health informatics to have a holistic view toward understanding pervasive mobile healthcare systems and points out new technological trends and design challenges that researchers have to consider when designing such systems for better adoption, usability, and seamless integration.

Progress and challenges: implementation and use of health information technology among critical-access hospitals.

PubMed

Gabriel, Meghan Hufstader; Jones, Emily B; Samy, Leila; King, Jennifer

2014-07-01

Despite major national investments to support the adoption of health information technology (IT), concerns persist that barriers are inhibiting that adoption and the use of advanced health IT capabilities in rural areas in particular. Using a survey of Medicare-certified critical-access hospitals, we examined electronic health record (EHR) adoption, key EHR functionalities, telehealth, and teleradiology, as well as challenges to EHR adoption. In 2013, 89 percent of critical-access hospitals had implemented a full or partial EHR. Adoption of key EHR capabilities varied. Critical-access hospitals that had certain types of technical assistance and resources available to support health IT were more likely to have adopted health IT capabilities and less likely to report significant challenges to EHR implementation and use, compared to other hospitals in the survey. It is important to ensure that the necessary resources and support are available to critical-access hospitals, especially those that operate independently, to assist them in adopting health IT and becoming able to electronically link to the broader health care system. Project HOPE—The People-to-People Health Foundation, Inc.

Transformation of the education of health professionals in China: progress and challenges.

PubMed

Hou, Jianlin; Michaud, Catherine; Li, Zhihui; Dong, Zhe; Sun, Baozhi; Zhang, Junhua; Cao, Depin; Wan, Xuehong; Zeng, Cheng; Wei, Bo; Tao, Lijian; Li, Xiaosong; Wang, Weimin; Lu, Yingqing; Xia, Xiulong; Guo, Guifang; Zhang, Zhiyong; Cao, Yunfei; Guan, Yuanzhi; Meng, Qingyue; Wang, Qing; Zhao, Yuhong; Liu, Huaping; Lin, Huiqing; Ke, Yang; Chen, Lincoln

2014-08-30

In this Review we examine the progress and challenges of China's ambitious 1998 reform of the world's largest health professional educational system. The reforms merged training institutions into universities and greatly expanded enrolment of health professionals. Positive achievements include an increase in the number of graduates to address human resources shortages, acceleration of production of diploma nurses to correct skill-mix imbalance, and priority for general practitioner training, especially of rural primary care workers. These developments have been accompanied by concerns: rapid expansion of the number of students without commensurate faculty strengthening, worries about dilution effect on quality, outdated curricular content, and ethical professionalism challenged by narrow technical training and growing admissions of students who did not express medicine as their first career choice. In this Review we underscore the importance of rebalance of the roles of health sciences institutions and government in educational policies and implementation. The imperative for reform is shown by a looming crisis of violence against health workers hypothesised as a result of many factors including deficient educational preparation and harmful profit-driven clinical practices. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Europa Ocean Discovery mission

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

Edwards, B.C.; Chyba, C.F.; Abshire, J.B.

1997-06-01

Since it was first proposed that tidal heating of Europa by Jupiter might lead to liquid water oceans below Europa`s ice cover, there has been speculation over the possible exobiological implications of such an ocean. Liquid water is the essential ingredient for life as it is known, and the existence of a second water ocean in the Solar System would be of paramount importance for seeking the origin and existence of life beyond Earth. The authors present here a Discovery-class mission concept (Europa Ocean Discovery) to determine the existence of a liquid water ocean on Europa and to characterize Europa`smore » surface structure. The technical goal of the Europa Ocean Discovery mission is to study Europa with an orbiting spacecraft. This goal is challenging but entirely feasible within the Discovery envelope. There are four key challenges: entering Europan orbit, generating power, surviving long enough in the radiation environment to return valuable science, and complete the mission within the Discovery program`s launch vehicle and budget constraints. The authors will present here a viable mission that meets these challenges.« less

Addressing challenges for future strategic-level emergency management: reframing, networking, and capacity-building.

PubMed

Bosomworth, Karyn; Owen, Christine; Curnin, Steven

2017-04-01

The mounting frequency and intensity of natural hazards, alongside growing interdependencies between social-technical and ecological systems, are placing increased pressure on emergency management. This is particularly true at the strategic level of emergency management, which involves planning for and managing non-routine, high-consequence events. Drawing on the literature, a survey, and interviews and workshops with Australia's senior emergency managers, this paper presents an analysis of five core challenges that these pressures are creating for strategic-level emergency management. It argues that emphasising 'emergency management' as a primary adaptation strategy is a retrograde step that ignores the importance of addressing socio-political drivers of vulnerabilities. Three key suggestions are presented that could assist the country's strategic-level emergency management in tackling these challenges: (i) reframe emergency management as a component of disaster risk reduction rather than them being one and the same; (ii) adopt a network governance approach; and (iii) further develop the capacities of strategic-level emergency managers. © 2017 The Author(s). Disasters © Overseas Development Institute, 2017.

Surrogate Joint Aerial Layer Network (JALN) Experiment: Applications of Commercial-Off-The-Shelf Technologies for Researching Future JALN Challenges

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-12-01

CHALLENGES DECEMBER 2014 TECHNICAL REPORT APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE; DISTRIBUTION UNLIMITED STINFO COPY AIR FORCE RESEARCH LABORATORY INFORMATION...JOINT AERIAL LAYER NETWORK (JALN) EXPERIMENT: APPLICATION OF COMMERCIAL-OFF-THE-SHELF TECHNOLOGIES FOR RESEARCHING FUTURE JALN CHALLENGES 5a... challenge JALN developers. The use of low-cost COTS wireless technology is found to be a suitable surrogate for military hardware for investigating

Launch Vehicle Design Process: Characterization, Technical Integration, and Lessons Learned

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Blair, J. C.; Ryan, R. S.; Schutzenhofer, L. A.; Humphries, W. R.

2001-01-01

Engineering design is a challenging activity for any product. Since launch vehicles are highly complex and interconnected and have extreme energy densities, their design represents a challenge of the highest order. The purpose of this document is to delineate and clarify the design process associated with the launch vehicle for space flight transportation. The goal is to define and characterize a baseline for the space transportation design process. This baseline can be used as a basis for improving effectiveness and efficiency of the design process. The baseline characterization is achieved via compartmentalization and technical integration of subsystems, design functions, and discipline functions. First, a global design process overview is provided in order to show responsibility, interactions, and connectivity of overall aspects of the design process. Then design essentials are delineated in order to emphasize necessary features of the design process that are sometimes overlooked. Finally the design process characterization is presented. This is accomplished by considering project technical framework, technical integration, process description (technical integration model, subsystem tree, design/discipline planes, decision gates, and tasks), and the design sequence. Also included in the document are a snapshot relating to process improvements, illustrations of the process, a survey of recommendations from experienced practitioners in aerospace, lessons learned, references, and a bibliography.

The Promise and the Challenge of Space Solar Power in the 21st Century: Picking up the Gauntlet

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mankins, John C.

2002-01-01

The history of human civilization is a history of great infrastructure. Chief among these developments have been advances in power, transport, and communications. Without dramatic and steady advances in these critical systems during the past two hundred years-- especially in the available sources of power--the world would be a drastically poorer and harsher home for humanity. At the same time, through the global use of existing energy technologies humanity is rapidly consuming irreplaceable fossil resources as well as changing the environment and the climate for the world itself. Both must raise concerns about the long-term sustainability of the infrastructures that have enabled our world. The importance of abundant and affordable energy in space exploration and development is equally clear. Current missions of exploration and scientific discovery are narrowly constrained by a lack of energy. Future, even more ambitious missions will never be realized without new, reliable and less expensive sources of energy. Even more, the potential emergence of new space industries such as space tourism, manufacturing in space, solar power satellites (SPS) and others, will depend on advances in space power systems just as much as they will on progress in space transportation. Recent studies and technological advances suggest that large-scale space solar power (SSP) systems may enable progress in both arenas during the next several decades. Of course, there are tremendous engineering and technological barriers that must be surmounted to someday make large SSP systems possible. Diverse areas of technology must be advanced. Some of these include space transportation, solar power generation, wireless power transmission, robotics, structural concepts and materials, and others. Nevertheless, there are potential benefits in the offing that seem to many to make challenging even these daunting technical barriers worthwhile--and perhaps essential. Unfortunately, the political and programmatic hurdles faced by SSP often seem even greater than the technical difficulties to be faced. The great engineering and technologies projects of the past century provide important lessons--both good and bad-- that bear directly on this challenge. The Peter Glaser Lecture for 2002 will examine from a strategic perspective the challenge and the promise of space solar power, and--in the context of historical examples--suggest directions to advance this vision of almost limitless, clean energy in space and from space for the Earth.

Challenges for PISA

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schleicher, Andreas

2016-01-01

The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) provides a framework in which over 80 countries collaborate to build advanced global metrics to assess the knowledge, skills and character attributes of the students. The design of assessments poses major conceptual and technical challenges, as successful learning. Beyond a sound…

A Day in the Life of an Industrial Hearing Conservationist: A Template for Successful Career Education and Outreach Presentations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cooper, Beth A.

1997-01-01

Whether in a classroom setting or at a local community meeting, opportunities for providing descriptive and positive information about our professions to an audience unfamiliar with acoustics, noise control or hearing conservation often call for alternatives to technical demonstrations that illustrate principles of acoustics or noise control. More importantly, successful outreach presentations must convey images of our day-to-day activities and the challenges we address, many of which are non-technical. One successful approach to career outreach presentations makes use of a collection of photo slides featuring the speaker, his colleagues, customers and workplaces to vividly illustrate the specific job tasks, people and environment of the speaker's job or career. Against this fluid and multi-dimensional visual backdrop, an accompanying script addresses the main theme. A comprehensive photo slide collection may be established gradually, often by making use of and adding to technical and personal slides already in the speaker's possession. Slide collections are portable, easily and quickly reconfigured for back-to-back or spontaneous engagements, and they are well suited to speaking opportunities where technical presentations or demonstrations are not practical or appropriate. A carefully chosen sequence of photo slides minimizes the need for speaker's notes, as each photo itself provides a visual prompt. Although photo slide presentations are appropriate to a variety of outreach and professional settings, the specific illustrative and explanatory material presented here illustrates their application in career education outreach activities, using industrial hearing conservation as an example.

Monitored natural attenuation of chlorinated solvents—Moving beyond reductive dechlorination

USGS Publications Warehouse

Vangelas, Karen M.; Looney, Brian B.; Early, Tom O.; Gilmore, Tyler; Chapelle, Francis H.; Adams, Karen M.; Sink, Claire H.

2006-01-01

Monitored natural attenuation (MNA), while a remedy of choice for many sites, can be challenging when the contaminants are chlorinated solvents. Even with many high-quality technical guidance references available, there continue to be challenges implementing MNA at some chlorinated solvent sites. The U.S. Department of Energy, as one organization facing such challenges, is leading a project that will incorporate developing concepts and tools into the existing toolbox for selecting and implementing MNA as a remediation option at sites with chlorinated solvent contamination. The structure and goals of this project were introduced in an article in the Winter 2004 issue of Remediation (Sink et al., 2004). This article is a summary of the three technical areas being developed through the project: mass balance, enhanced attenuation, and characterization and monitoring supporting the first two areas.

Technical challenges for big data in biomedicine and health: data sources, infrastructure, and analytics.

PubMed

Peek, N; Holmes, J H; Sun, J

2014-08-15

To review technical and methodological challenges for big data research in biomedicine and health. We discuss sources of big datasets, survey infrastructures for big data storage and big data processing, and describe the main challenges that arise when analyzing big data. The life and biomedical sciences are massively contributing to the big data revolution through secondary use of data that were collected during routine care and through new data sources such as social media. Efficient processing of big datasets is typically achieved by distributing computation over a cluster of computers. Data analysts should be aware of pitfalls related to big data such as bias in routine care data and the risk of false-positive findings in high-dimensional datasets. The major challenge for the near future is to transform analytical methods that are used in the biomedical and health domain, to fit the distributed storage and processing model that is required to handle big data, while ensuring confidentiality of the data being analyzed.

Important Non-Technical Skills in Video-Assisted Thoracoscopic Surgery Lobectomy: Team Perspectives.

PubMed

Gjeraa, Kirsten; Mundt, Anna S; Spanager, Lene; Hansen, Henrik J; Konge, Lars; Petersen, René H; Østergaard, Doris

2017-07-01

Safety in the operating room is dependent on the team's non-technical skills. The importance of non-technical skills appears to be different for minimally invasive surgery as compared with open surgery. The aim of this study was to identify which non-technical skills are perceived by team members to be most important for patient safety, in the setting of video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) lobectomy. This was an explorative, semistructured interview-based study with 21 participants from all four thoracic surgery centers in Denmark that perform VATS lobectomy. Data analysis was deductive, and directed content analysis was used to code the text into the Oxford Non-Technical Skills system for evaluating operating teams' non-technical skills. The most important non-technical skills described by the VATS teams were planning and preparation, situation awareness, problem solving, leadership, risk assessment, and teamwork. These non-technical skills enabled the team to achieve shared mental models, which in turn facilitated their efforts to anticipate next steps. This was viewed as important by the participants as they saw VATS lobectomy as a high-risk procedure with complementary and overlapping scopes of practice between surgical and anesthesia subteams. This study identified six non-technical skills that serve as the foundation for shared mental models of the patient, the current situation, and team resources. These findings contribute three important additions to the shared mental model construct: planning and preparation, risk assessment, and leadership. Shared mental models are crucial for patient safety because they enable VATS teams to anticipate problems through adaptive patterns of both implicit and explicit coordination. Copyright © 2017 The Society of Thoracic Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Novel technical solutions for wireless ECG transmission & analysis in the age of the internet cloud.

PubMed

Al-Zaiti, Salah S; Shusterman, Vladimir; Carey, Mary G

2013-01-01

Current guidelines recommend early reperfusion therapy for ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) within 90 min of first medical encounter. Telecardiology entails the use of advanced communication technologies to transmit the prehospital 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) to offsite cardiologists for early triage to the cath lab; which has been shown to dramatically reduce door-to-balloon time and total mortality. However, hospitals often find adopting ECG transmission technologies very challenging. The current review identifies seven major technical challenges of prehospital ECG transmission, including: paramedics inconvenience and transport delay; signal noise and interpretation errors; equipment malfunction and transmission failure; reliability of mobile phone networks; lack of compliance with the standards of digital ECG formats; poor integration with electronic medical records; and costly hardware and software pre-requisite installation. Current and potential solutions to address each of these technical challenges are discussed in details and include: automated ECG transmission protocols; annotatable waveform-based ECGs; optimal routing solutions; and the use of cloud computing systems rather than vendor-specific processing stations. Nevertheless, strategies to monitor transmission effectiveness and patient outcomes are essential to sustain initial gains of implementing ECG transmission technologies. © 2013.

The Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network

PubMed Central

Mackenzie, John S.; Drury, Patrick; Arthur, Ray R.; Ryan, Michael J.; Grein, Thomas; Slattery, Raphael; Suri, Sameera; Domingo, Christine Tiffany; Bejtullahu, Armand

2014-01-01

The Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) was established in 2000 as a network of technical institutions, research institutes, universities, international health organisations and technical networks willing to contribute and participate in internationally coordinated responses to infectious disease outbreaks. It reflected a recognition of the need to strengthen and coordinate rapid mobilisation of experts in responding to international outbreaks and to overcome the sometimes chaotic and fragmented operations characterising previous responses. The network partners agreed that the World Health Organization would coordinate the network and provide a secretariat, which would also function as the operational support team. The network has evolved to comprise 153 institutions/technical partners and 37 additional networks, the latter encompassing a further 355 members and has been directly involved in 137 missions to 79 countries, territories or areas. Future challenges will include supporting countries to achieve the capacity to detect and respond to outbreaks of international concern, as required by the International Health Regulations (2005). GOARN's increasing regional focus and expanding geographic composition will be central to meeting these challenges. The paper summarises some of network's achievements over the past 13 years and presents some of the future challenges. PMID:25186571

The global outbreak alert and response network.

PubMed

Mackenzie, John S; Drury, Patrick; Arthur, Ray R; Ryan, Michael J; Grein, Thomas; Slattery, Raphael; Suri, Sameera; Domingo, Christine Tiffany; Bejtullahu, Armand

2014-01-01

The Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) was established in 2000 as a network of technical institutions, research institutes, universities, international health organisations and technical networks willing to contribute and participate in internationally coordinated responses to infectious disease outbreaks. It reflected a recognition of the need to strengthen and coordinate rapid mobilisation of experts in responding to international outbreaks and to overcome the sometimes chaotic and fragmented operations characterising previous responses. The network partners agreed that the World Health Organization would coordinate the network and provide a secretariat, which would also function as the operational support team. The network has evolved to comprise 153 institutions/technical partners and 37 additional networks, the latter encompassing a further 355 members and has been directly involved in 137 missions to 79 countries, territories or areas. Future challenges will include supporting countries to achieve the capacity to detect and respond to outbreaks of international concern, as required by the International Health Regulations (2005). GOARN's increasing regional focus and expanding geographic composition will be central to meeting these challenges. The paper summarises some of network's achievements over the past 13 years and presents some of the future challenges.

Motility Disorders in Children.

PubMed

Nurko, Samuel

2017-06-01

Gastrointestinal motility disorders in the pediatric population are common and can range from benign processes to more serious disorders. Performing and interpreting motility evaluations in children present unique challenges. There are primary motility disorders but abnormal motility may be secondary due to other disease processes. Diagnostic studies include radiographic scintigraphic and manometry studies. Although recent advances in the genetics, biology, and technical aspects are having an important impact and have allowed for a better understanding of the pathophysiology and therapy for gastrointestinal motility disorders in children, further research is needed to be done to have better understanding of the pathophysiology and for better therapies. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Combustion-Assisted Photonic Annealing of Printable Graphene Inks via Exothermic Binders.

PubMed

Secor, Ethan B; Gao, Theodore Z; Dos Santos, Manuel H; Wallace, Shay G; Putz, Karl W; Hersam, Mark C

2017-09-06

High-throughput and low-temperature processing of high-performance nanomaterial inks is an important technical challenge for large-area, flexible printed electronics. In this report, we demonstrate nitrocellulose as an exothermic binder for photonic annealing of conductive graphene inks, leveraging the rapid decomposition kinetics and built-in energy of nitrocellulose to enable versatile process integration. This strategy results in superlative electrical properties that are comparable to extended thermal annealing at 350 °C, using a pulsed light process that is compatible with thermally sensitive substrates. The resulting porous microstructure and broad liquid-phase patterning compatibility are exploited for printed graphene microsupercapacitors on paper-based substrates.

Why the enrollment in Physics Programs is decreasing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Masood, Samina

There are several reasons for the decrease in enrollment in Physics programs which includes but not limited to the (1) lack of mathematical skill, (2) part time education, (3) financial burdens, (4) students liking for teachers is given more importance over the educational standards, (5) lack of team spirit and political environment of academia. All of these factors are compared with the international education standards to find out the reasons why students from certain regions and outside US are not only more hardworking but are better prepared to accept challenges of relatively more technical subjects such as Physics and they are less distracted as well.

Retention of the Native Epigenome in Purified Mammalian Chromatin

PubMed Central

Ehrensberger, Andreas H.; Franchini, Don-Marc; East, Philip; George, Roger; Matthews, Nik; Maslen, Sarah L.; Svejstrup, Jesper Q.

2015-01-01

A protocol is presented for the isolation of native mammalian chromatin as fibers of 25–250 nucleosomes under conditions that preserve the natural epigenetic signature. The material is composed almost exclusively of histones and DNA and conforms to the structure expected by electron microscopy. All sequences probed for were retained, indicating that the material is representative of the majority of the genome. DNA methylation marks and histone marks resembled the patterns observed in vivo. Importantly, nucleosome positions also remained largely unchanged, except on CpG islands, where nucleosomes were found to be unstable. The technical challenges of reconstituting biochemical reactions with native mammalian chromatin are discussed. PMID:26248330

Dystrophic calcification of the prostate after cryotherapy.

PubMed

Dru, Christopher; Bender, Leon

2014-01-01

We present a previously undocumented complication of dystrophic calcification of the prostate after cryotherapy. An 87-year-old male presented with recurrent lower urinary tract infections and was found to have an obstructing large calcified mass in the right lobe of the prostate. Subsequently, he underwent transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) and bladder neck with laser lithotripsy to remove the calculus. We propose that chronic inflammation and necrosis of the prostate from cryotherapy resulted in dystrophic calcification of the prostate. As the use of cryotherapy for the treatment of localized prostate cancer continues to increase, it is important that clinicians be aware of this scenario and the technical challenges it poses.

Virtual reality simulator: demonstrated use in neurosurgical oncology.

PubMed

Clarke, David B; D'Arcy, Ryan C N; Delorme, Sebastien; Laroche, Denis; Godin, Guy; Hajra, Sujoy Ghosh; Brooks, Rupert; DiRaddo, Robert

2013-04-01

The overriding importance of patient safety, the complexity of surgical techniques, and the challenges associated with teaching surgical trainees in the operating room are all factors driving the need for innovative surgical simulation technologies. Despite these issues, widespread use of virtual reality simulation technology in surgery has not been fully implemented, largely because of the technical complexities in developing clinically relevant and useful models. This article describes the successful use of the NeuroTouch neurosurgical simulator in the resection of a left frontal meningioma. The widespread application of surgical simulation technology has the potential to decrease surgical risk, improve operating room efficiency, and fundamentally change surgical training.

A Survey of Space Robotics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pedersen, L.; Kortenkamp, D.; Wettergreen, D.; Nourbakhsh, I.; Korsmeyer, David (Technical Monitor)

2003-01-01

In this paper we summarize a survey conducted by NASA to determine the state-of-the-art in space robotics and to predict future robotic capabilities under either nominal and intensive development effort. The space robotics assessment study examined both in-space operations including assembly, inspection, and maintenance and planetary surface operations like mobility and exploration. Applications of robotic autonomy and human-robot cooperation were considered. The study group devised a decomposition of robotic capabilities and then suggested metrics to specify the technical challenges associated with each. The conclusion of this paper identifies possible areas in which investment in space robotics could lead to significant advances of important technologies.

The magic of relay mirrors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Duff, Edward A.; Washburn, Donald C.

2004-09-01

Laser weapon systems would be significantly enhanced with the addition of high altitude or space-borne relay mirrors. Such mirrors, operating alone with a directed energy source, or many in a series fashion, can be shown to effectively move the laser source to the last, so-called fighting mirror. This "magically" reduces the range to target and offers to enhance the performance of directed energy systems like the Airborne Laser and even ground-based or ship-based lasers. Recent development of high altitude airships will be shown to provide stationary positions for such relay mirrors thereby enabling many new and important applications for laser weapons. The technical challenges to achieve this capability are discussed.

Predictive risk models for proximal aortic surgery

PubMed Central

Díaz, Rocío; Pascual, Isaac; Álvarez, Rubén; Alperi, Alberto; Rozado, Jose; Morales, Carlos; Silva, Jacobo; Morís, César

2017-01-01

Predictive risk models help improve decision making, information to our patients and quality control comparing results between surgeons and between institutions. The use of these models promotes competitiveness and led to increasingly better results. All these virtues are of utmost importance when the surgical operation entails high-risk. Although proximal aortic surgery is less frequent than other cardiac surgery operations, this procedure itself is more challenging and technically demanding than other common cardiac surgery techniques. The aim of this study is to review the current status of predictive risk models for patients who undergo proximal aortic surgery, which means aortic root replacement, supracoronary ascending aortic replacement or aortic arch surgery. PMID:28616348

Applying value sensitive design (VSD) to wind turbines and wind parks: an exploration.

PubMed

Oosterlaken, Ilse

2015-04-01

Community acceptance still remains a challenge for wind energy projects. The most popular explanation for local opposition, the Not in My Backyard effect, has received fierce criticism in the past decade. Critics argue that opposition is not merely a matter of selfishness or ignorance, but that moral, ecological and aesthetic values play an important role. In order to better take such values into account, a more bottom-up, participatory decision process is usually proposed. Research on this topic focusses on either stakeholder motivations/attitudes, or their behavior during project implementation. This paper proposes a third research focus, namely the 'objects' which elicit certain behavioral responses and attitudes-the wind turbine and parks. More concretely, this paper explores Value Sensitive Design (VSD) as way to arrive at wind turbines and parks that better embed or reflect key values. After a critical discussion of the notion of acceptance versus acceptability and support, the paper discusses existing literature on ecology and aesthetics in relation to wind turbine/park design, which could serve as 'building blocks' of a more integral VSD approach of the topic. It also discusses the challenge of demarcating wind park projects as VSD projects. A further challenge is that VSD has been applied mainly at the level of technical artifacts, whereas wind parks can best be conceptualized as socio-technical system. This new application would therefore expand the current practice of VSD, and may as a consequence also lead to interesting new insights for the VSD community. The paper concludes that such an outcome-oriented approach of wind turbines and park is worth exploring further, as a supplement to rather than a replacement of the process-oriented approach that is promoted by the current literature on community acceptance of wind parks.

Drinking Water Quality Governance: A Comparative Case Study of Brazil, Ecuador, and Malawi.

PubMed

Kayser, Georgia L; Amjad, Urooj; Dalcanale, Fernanda; Bartram, Jamie; Bentley, Margaret E

2015-04-01

Human health is greatly affected by inadequate access to sufficient and safe drinking water, especially in low and middle-income countries. Drinking water governance improvements may be one way to better drinking water quality. Over the past decade, many projects and international organizations have been dedicated to water governance; however, water governance in the drinking water sector is understudied and how to improve water governance remains unclear. We analyze drinking water governance challenges in three countries-Brazil, Ecuador, and Malawi-as perceived by government, service providers, and civil society organizations. A mixed methods approach was used: a clustering model was used for country selection and qualitative semi-structured interviews were used with direct observation in data collection. The clustering model integrated political, economic, social and environmental variables that impact water sector performance, to group countries. Brazil, Ecuador and Malawi were selected with the model so as to enhance the generalizability of the results. This comparative case study is important because similar challenges are identified in the drinking water sectors of each country; while, the countries represent diverse socio-economic and political contexts, and the selection process provides generalizability to our results. We find that access to safe water could be improved if certain water governance challenges were addressed: coordination and data sharing between ministries that deal with drinking water services; monitoring and enforcement of water quality laws; and sufficient technical capacity to improve administrative and technical management of water services at the local level. From an analysis of our field research, we also developed a conceptual framework that identifies policy levers that could be used to influence governance of drinking water quality on national and sub-national levels, and the relationships between these levers.

Beyond Currents: The Next Phase in GOCE Oceanographic Research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bingham, Rory J.; Haines, Keith; Hughes, Chris W.

2015-03-01

GOCE has mapped the surface currents of the world’s oceans in unprecedented detail. What is now required is a concerted effort by the oceanographic community to go beyond currents and exploit these measurements for societal benefit. The aim of this review paper is to explore the ways in which this may be achieved, particularly in relation to ocean modelling. With the final gravity models now released, we begin by reviewing the progress GOCE has in made in measuring the ocean’s mean dynamic topography and associated ocean currents. In the light of this progress, we then examine the important oceanographic questions and technical challenges of societal relevance that can potentially be addressed with the help of the observations GOCE has delivered and outline the benefits their solution could deliver. Benefits may either be direct, through, for example, improved ocean modelling and operational forecasting, or indirect through improved understanding of particular oceanographic processes, such as heat transport by the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation or sea level change. Next we consider the technical challenges that must be overcome in bringing GOCE to bear on these problems. In particular we examine how best to use GOCE error information, this being an especially uncertain, underdeveloped and challenging area of investigation, due largely to the fact that such information has not been previously available to the user community. Finally, we consider measures of success; that is, metrics that can be used to quantify any GOCE-enabled progress that the community makes towards answering these questions. Such metrics are essential for demonstrating progress. Ultimately, with this review paper, we aim to paint a road map that will act as an impetus to the oceanography community to exploit the yet untapped potential of GOCE for scientific understanding and societal benefit.

Drinking Water Quality Governance: A Comparative Case Study of Brazil, Ecuador, and Malawi

PubMed Central

Kayser, Georgia L.; Amjad, Urooj; Dalcanale, Fernanda; Bartram, Jamie; Bentley, Margaret E.

2015-01-01

Human health is greatly affected by inadequate access to sufficient and safe drinking water, especially in low and middle-income countries. Drinking water governance improvements may be one way to better drinking water quality. Over the past decade, many projects and international organizations have been dedicated to water governance; however, water governance in the drinking water sector is understudied and how to improve water governance remains unclear. We analyze drinking water governance challenges in three countries—Brazil, Ecuador, and Malawi—as perceived by government, service providers, and civil society organizations. A mixed methods approach was used: a clustering model was used for country selection and qualitative semi-structured interviews were used with direct observation in data collection. The clustering model integrated political, economic, social and environmental variables that impact water sector performance, to group countries. Brazil, Ecuador and Malawi were selected with the model so as to enhance the generalizability of the results. This comparative case study is important because similar challenges are identified in the drinking water sectors of each country; while, the countries represent diverse socio-economic and political contexts, and the selection process provides generalizability to our results. We find that access to safe water could be improved if certain water governance challenges were addressed: coordination and data sharing between ministries that deal with drinking water services; monitoring and enforcement of water quality laws; and sufficient technical capacity to improve administrative and technical management of water services at the local level. From an analysis of our field research, we also developed a conceptual framework that identifies policy levers that could be used to influence governance of drinking water quality on national and sub-national levels, and the relationships between these levers. PMID:25798068

Process spectroscopy in microemulsions—setup and multi-spectral approach for reaction monitoring of a homogeneous hydroformylation process

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meyer, K.; Ruiken, J.-P.; Illner, M.; Paul, A.; Müller, D.; Esche, E.; Wozny, G.; Maiwald, M.

2017-03-01

Reaction monitoring in disperse systems, such as emulsions, is of significant technical importance in various disciplines like biotechnological engineering, chemical industry, food science, and a growing number other technical fields. These systems pose several challenges when it comes to process analytics, such as heterogeneity of mixtures, changes in optical behavior, and low optical activity. Concerning this, online nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is a powerful technique for process monitoring in complex reaction mixtures due to its unique direct comparison abilities, while at the same time being non-invasive and independent of optical properties of the sample. In this study the applicability of online-spectroscopic methods on the homogeneously catalyzed hydroformylation system of 1-dodecene to tridecanal is investigated, which is operated in a mini-plant scale at Technische Universität Berlin. The design of a laboratory setup for process-like calibration experiments is presented, including a 500 MHz online NMR spectrometer, a benchtop NMR device with 43 MHz proton frequency as well as two Raman probes and a flow cell assembly for an ultraviolet and visible light (UV/VIS) spectrometer. Results of high-resolution online NMR spectroscopy are shown and technical as well as process-specific problems observed during the measurements are discussed.

Climate Change and Water Infrastructure in Central Asia: adaptation capacities and institutional challenges

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abdullaev, Iskandar; Rakhmatullaev, Shavkat

2014-05-01

The paper discusses vulnerability areas of water sector in arid Central Asia due to climate change projections with particular focus on adaptation to sustainable operation of physical infrastructure capacities (from legal, institutional and technical aspects). Two types of technical installations are the main focus of this paper, i.e., electrical lift irrigation systems and water reservoirs. The first set of electrical lift infrastructure is strategic for delivering water to water users via pumps, diversion structures, vertical drainage facilities and groundwater boreholes; on the other hand, the primarily task of second set of structures is to accumulate the water resources for sectors of economy. In Central Asia, approximately, 20-50% of irrigation water is lifted, yet major of lift structures are in very poor technical conditions coupled with ever increasing of electricity tariffs. Furthermore, useful volumes capacities of water reservoirs are being severely diminished due to bio-physical geomorphologic processes, improper operational regimes and chronic financing for special in-house sedimentation surveys. Most importantly, the key argument is that irrigation sector should internalize its adaptation efforts, i.e., integrate renewable energy technologies, energy audit programs and lastly design comprehensive investment prioritization processes and programs. Otherwise, water sector will be at great risk for continued provision of fundamental services to the public, food security and industry

Output congestion leads to compromised care in Peruvian public hospital neonatal units.

PubMed

Arrieta, Alejandro; Guillén, Jorge

2017-06-01

Peru is moving toward a universal health insurance system, and it is facing important challenges in the provision of public health services. As more citizens gain access to health insurance, the flow of patients exceeds the capacity of public hospitals to provide care with quality. In this study we explore the relationship between technical efficiency and patient safety events in neonatal care units of Peru's public hospitals. We use Data Envelope Analysis (DEA) with output congestion to assess the association between technical efficiency and patient safety events. We study 35 neonatal care units of public hospitals in Peru's Social Security Health System, and identify two undesirable (risk-adjusted) safety outcomes: neonatal mortality and near-miss neonatal mortality. We found that for about half of hospital's neonatal care units, technical efficiency is affected by output congestion. For those hospitals, patient safety is being compromised by receiving too many patients. Our results are consistent with public reports indicating that hospitals in the Peru's Social Security Health System are overcrowded, affecting efficiency and jeopardizing quality of care. We found that most congested hospitals are located in the capital city and suburban areas, and are more likely to be hospitals with the lowest and the highest level of care. Our results call for improvements in the patient referral system and capacity expansion.

Resident education in 2011: three key challenges on the road ahead.

PubMed

Van Eaton, Erik G; Tarpley, John L; Solorzano, Carmen C; Cho, Clifford S; Weber, Sharon M; Termuhlen, Paula M

2011-04-01

Two important changes in the past decade have altered the landscape of graduate medical education (GME) in the U.S. The national restrictions on trainee duty hours mandated by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) were the most visible and generated much controversy. Equally important is the ACGME Outcome Project, which mandates competency-based training. Both of these changes have unique implications for surgery trainees, who traditionally spent long hours caring for patients in the hospital, and who must be assessed in 2 broad domains: their medical care of pre- and postoperative patients, and their technical skill with procedures in and out of the operating room. This article summarizes 3 key challenges that lie ahead for surgical educators. First, the changes in duty hours in the past 7 years are summarized, and the conversation about added restrictions planned for July 2011 is reviewed. Next, the current state of the assessment of competency among surgical trainees is reviewed, with an outline of the challenges that need to be overcome to achieve widespread, competency-based training in surgery. Finally, the article summarizes the problems caused by increased reliance on handoffs among trainees as they compensate for decreased time in the hospital, and suggests changes that need to be made to improve safety and efficiency, including how to use handoffs as part of our educational evaluation of residents. Copyright © 2011 Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.

Constraints Militating against the Implementation of Production/Service Work in Technical Colleges in North Central Nigeria

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Agu, Peter A.

2016-01-01

Skill acquisition is a critical component of any vocational technical training program. When this component is missing or falls below expectation, it tends to defeat the objectives of the program. In Nigeria, many skill-oriented schools experience great challenges in trying to provide for the necessary facilities required for effective technical…

Tips for a Successful Job Search. PEPNet Tipsheet

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

PEPNet-Northeast, 2009

2009-01-01

Looking for a job can be a challenging experience. It helps to have a positive attitude and to be well prepared for every aspect of the job search. This tipsheet uses information from the NTID (National Technical Institute for the Deaf) Center on Employment (NCE) at Rochester Institute of Technology/National Technical Institute for the Deaf and…

A Framework for 21st-Century Career-Technical and Workforce Education Curricula

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rojewski, Jay W.; Hill, Roger B.

2017-01-01

Increasingly, career-technical and workforce education professionals are challenged with determining the best ways to prepare people for work, when many of the jobs those people will perform do not exist yet. Twenty-first-century work is evolving rapidly, with some jobs going away, other types of work appearing, and many people working in jobs…

Promoting Equal Access of Girls/Women to Technical and Vocational Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mishra, Arun; Khanna, Pinki; Shrivastava, Nalini

Despite United Nations' efforts, inequality of access for girls and women to technical and vocational education (TVE) persists in India. Challenges of the 21st century with regard to ensuring equal access of girls and women to TVE include: increasing the participation of girls (especially rural girls) in TVE; overcoming gender bias and…

Exploring Electrochromics: A Series of Eye-Catching Experiments to Introduce Students to Multidisciplinary Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Small, Leo J.; Wolf, Steven; Spoerke, Erik D.

2014-01-01

Introducing students to a multidisciplinary research laboratory presents challenges in terms of learning specific technical skills and concepts but also with respect to integrating different technical elements to form a coherent picture of the research. Here we present a multidisciplinary series of experiments we have developed in the Electronic,…

Technical and Vocational Education and Training and the Labour Market in Israel

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eisenberg, Eli

2006-01-01

The aim of this report is to contribute to a better understanding of the current status of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) for human resources development (HRD) and the labour market in Israel. It describes the role and involvement of the various sectors in HRD and identifies the barriers, challenges, priorities, initiatives…

Wisconsin Technical College System Board Equity Staff Development Workshops and Services--Phase IV. Final Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baldus, Lorayne

A staff development program on gender equity was conducted for personnel in Wisconsin's technical colleges using the train-the-trainer method. The training took two approaches: a class for college personnel and career challenge training for project directors of single parent and displaced homemaker grants. The inservice class resulted in increased…

Technical and Professional Communication Programs and the Small College Setting: Opportunities and Challenges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Latterell, Catherine G.

2003-01-01

This article argues that the small school context has been a relatively unexamined or under-examined context for technical and professional communication program development. While graduate program development holds a large share of the field's attention in recent national forums, growth in graduate programs is a consequence of demand in the job…

Design and sampling plan optimization for RT-qPCR experiments in plants: a case study in blueberry

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The qPCR assay has become a routine technology in plant biotechnology and agricultural research. It is unlikely to be technically improved in the near future, but there are still challenges which center around minimizing the variability in results and transparency when reporting technical data in su...

Using simulation to train orthopaedic trainees in non-technical skills: A pilot study.

PubMed

Heaton, Samuel R; Little, Zoe; Akhtar, Kash; Ramachandran, Manoj; Lee, Joshua

2016-08-18

To enhance non-technical skills and to analyse participant's experience of a course tailored for orthopaedic surgeons. A Delphi technique was used to develop a course in human factors specific to orthopaedic residents. Twenty-six residents (six per course) participated in total with seven course facilitators all trained in Crisis Resource Management providing structured feedback. Six scenarios recreated challenging real-life situations using high-fidelity mannequins and simulated patients. Environments included a simulated operating suite, clinic room and ward setting. All were undertaken in a purpose built simulation suite utilising actors, mock operating rooms, mock clinical rooms and a high fidelity adult patient simulator organised through a simulation control room. Participants completed a 5-point Likert scale questionnaire (strongly disagree to strongly agree) before and after the course. This assessed their understanding of non-technical skills, scenario validity, relevance to orthopaedic training and predicted impact of the course on future practice. A course evaluation questionnaire was also completed to assess participants' feedback on the value and quality of the course itself. Twenty-six orthopaedic residents participated (24 male, 2 female; post-graduation 5-10 years), mean year of residency program 2.6 out of 6 years required in the United Kingdom. Pre-course questionnaires showed that while the majority of candidates recognised the importance of non-technical (NT) skills in orthopaedic training they demonstrated poor understanding of non-technical skills and their role. This improved significantly after the course (Likert score 3.0-4.2) and the perceived importance of these skills was reported as good or very good in 100%. The course was reported as enjoyable and provided an unthreatening learning environment with the candidates placing particular value on the learning opportunity provided by reflecting on their performance. All agreed that the course achieved its intended aims with realistic simulation scenarios. Participants believed patient care, patient safety and team working would all improve with further human factors training (4.4-4.6). and felt that NT skills learnt through simulation-based training should become an integral component of their training program. Participants demonstrated improved understanding of non-technical performance, recognised its relevance to patient safety and expressed a desire for its integration in training.

Hexavalent IPV-based combination vaccines for public-sector markets of low-resource countries

PubMed Central

Mahmood, Kutub; Pelkowski, Sonia; Atherly, Deborah; Sitrin, Robert; Donnelly, John J

2013-01-01

In anticipation of the successful eradication of wild polio virus, alternative vaccination strategies for public-sector markets of low-resource countries are extremely important, but are still under development. Following polio eradication, inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) would be the only polio vaccine available, and would be needed for early childhood immunization for several years, as maintenance of herd immunity will be important for sustaining polio eradication. Low-cost combination vaccines containing IPV could provide reliable and continuous immunization in the post-polio eradication period. Combination vaccines can potentially simplify complex pediatric routine immunization schedules, improve compliance, and reduce costs. Hexavalent vaccines containing Diphtheria (D), Tetanus (T), whole cell pertussis (wP), Hepatitis B (HBV), Haemophilus b (Hib) and the three IPV serotype antigens have been considered as the ultimate combination vaccine for routine immunization. This product review evaluates potential hexavalent vaccine candidates by composition, probable time to market, expected cost of goods, presentation, and technical feasibility and offers suggestions for development of low-cost hexavalent combination vaccines. Because there are significant technical challenges facing wP-based hexavalent vaccine development, this review also discusses other alternative approaches to hexavalent that could also ensure a timely and reliable supply of low-cost IPV based combination vaccines. PMID:23787559

Hexavalent IPV-based combination vaccines for public-sector markets of low-resource countries.

PubMed

Mahmood, Kutub; Pelkowski, Sonia; Atherly, Deborah; Sitrin, Robert D; Donnelly, John J

2013-09-01

In anticipation of the successful eradication of wild polio virus, alternative vaccination strategies for public-sector markets of low-resource countries are extremely important, but are still under development. Following polio eradication, inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) would be the only polio vaccine available, and would be needed for early childhood immunization for several years, as maintenance of herd immunity will be important for sustaining polio eradication. Low-cost combination vaccines containing IPV could provide reliable and continuous immunization in the post-polio eradication period. Combination vaccines can potentially simplify complex pediatric routine immunization schedules, improve compliance, and reduce costs. Hexavalent vaccines containing Diphtheria (D), Tetanus (T), whole cell pertussis (wP), Hepatitis B (HBV), Haemophilus b (Hib) and the three IPV serotype antigens have been considered as the ultimate combination vaccine for routine immunization. This product review evaluates potential hexavalent vaccine candidates by composition, probable time to market, expected cost of goods, presentation, and technical feasibility and offers suggestions for development of low-cost hexavalent combination vaccines. Because there are significant technical challenges facing wP-based hexavalent vaccine development, this review also discusses other alternative approaches to hexavalent that could also ensure a timely and reliable supply of low-cost IPV based combination vaccines.

Identifying best practices for managing operating costs for rural and small urban transportation systems: technical report.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2016-08-01

Rural and small urban transit providers across the United States face fiscal challenges caused by the growing : gap between the cost of providing transit service and available federal, state, and local funding. In Texas, the : fiscal challenges facin...

Teaching Sustainable Design Using BIM and Project-Based Energy Simulations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shen, Zhigang; Jensen, Wayne; Wentz, Timothy; Fischer, Bruce

2012-01-01

The cross-disciplinary nature of energy-efficient building design has created many challenges for architecture, engineering and construction instructors. One of the technical challenges in teaching sustainable building design is enabling students to quantitatively understand how different building designs affect a building's energy performance.…

Barriers and Facilitators to Home Computer and Internet Use Among Urban Novice Computer Users of Low Socioeconomic Position

PubMed Central

Bennett, Gary G; Viswanath, K

2007-01-01

Background Despite the increasing penetration of the Internet and amount of online health information, there are significant barriers that limit its widespread adoption as a source of health information. One is the “digital divide,” with people of higher socioeconomic position (SEP) demonstrating greater access and usage compared to those from lower SEP groups. However, as the access gap narrows over time and more people use the Internet, a shift in research needs to occur to explore how one might improve Internet use as well as website design for a range of audiences. This is particularly important in the case of novice users who may not have the technical skills, experience, or social connections that could help them search for health information using the Internet. The focus of our research is to investigate the challenges in the implementation of a project to improve health information seeking among low SEP groups. The goal of the project is not to promote health information seeking as much as to understand the barriers and facilitators to computer and Internet use, beyond access, among members of lower SEP groups in an urban setting. Objective The purpose was to qualitatively describe participants’ self-identified barriers and facilitators to computer and Internet use during a 1-year pilot study as well as the challenges encountered by the research team in the delivery of the intervention. Methods Between August and November 2005, 12 low-SEP urban individuals with no or limited computer and Internet experience were recruited through a snowball sampling. Each participant received a free computer system, broadband Internet access, monthly computer training courses, and technical support for 1 year as the intervention condition. Upon completion of the study, participants were offered the opportunity to complete an in-depth semistructured interview. Interviews were approximately 1 hour in length and were conducted by the project director. The interviews were held in the participants’ homes and were tape recorded for accuracy. Nine of the 12 study participants completed the semistructured interviews. Members of the research team conducted a qualitative analysis based on the transcripts from the nine interviews using the crystallization/immersion method. Results Nine of the 12 participants completed the in-depth interview (75% overall response rate), with three men and six women agreeing to be interviewed. Major barriers to Internet use that were mentioned included time constraints and family conflict over computer usage. The monthly training classes and technical assistance components of the intervention surfaced as the most important facilitators to computer and Internet use. The concept of received social support from other study members, such as assistance with computer-related questions, also emerged as an important facilitator to overall computer usage. Conclusions This pilot study offers important insights into the self-identified barriers and facilitators in computer and Internet use among urban low-SEP novice users as well as the challenges faced by the research team in implementing the intervention. PMID:17951215

Efficacy of simulation-based trauma team training of non-technical skills. A systematic review.

PubMed

Gjeraa, K; Møller, T P; Østergaard, D

2014-08-01

Trauma resuscitation is a complex situation, and most organisations have multi-professional trauma teams. Non-technical skills are challenged during trauma resuscitation, and they play an important role in the prevention of critical incidents. Simulation-based training of these is recommended. Our research question was: Does simulation-based trauma team training of non-technical skills have effect on reaction, learning, behaviour or patient outcome? The authors searched PubMed, EMBASE and the Cochrane Library and found 13 studies eligible for analysis. We described and compared the educational interventions and the evaluations of effect according to the four Kirkpatrick levels: reaction, learning (knowledge, skills, attitudes), behaviour (in a clinical setting) and patient outcome. No studies were randomised, controlled and blinded, resulting in a moderate to high risk of bias. The multi-professional trauma teams had positive reactions to simulation-based training of non-technical skills. Knowledge and skills improved in all studies evaluating the effect on learning. Three studies found improvements in team performance (behaviour) in the clinical setting. One of these found difficulties in maintaining these skills. Two studies evaluated on patient outcome, of which none showed improvements in mortality, complication rate or duration of hospitalisation. A significant effect on learning was found after simulation-based training of the multi-professional trauma team in non-technical skills. Three studies demonstrated significantly increased clinical team performance. No effect on patient outcome was found. All studies had a moderate to high risk of bias. More comprehensive randomised studies are needed to evaluate the effect on patient outcome. © 2014 The Acta Anaesthesiologica Scandinavica Foundation. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Using qualitative methods to understand non-technological aspects of domestic energy efficiency

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ambrose, Aimee Rebecca

The overall aim of the collected published works is to investigate how different policy interventions in the field of energy efficiency (including zero carbon homes, low carbon heat networks, and domestic energy efficiency schemes) are experienced and made sense of by a range of key actors. A further aim is to understand these interventions in the context of existing theories within the field of domestic energy efficiency including socio-technical theory and Actor Network Theory. More specifically, this research advances existing knowledge in the following areas: The nature of the socio-technical challenges encountered in the introduction of more energy efficient buildings, and the importance of achieving a balance between socially acceptable and technically optimal environments. (Papers 2, 3, 4, 6 and 8). The value of qualitative research in gaining a more nuanced understanding of our relationship with the home and the implications of this for domestic energy efficiency interventions and the design of low energy buildings (all papers). The influence of tenure as determinant of access to a more energy efficient home and in particular, the stubborn and complex barriers to achieving higher standards of energy performance within the private rented sector. (Papers 1, 2, 3 and 4). The significance of identity, setting and notions of home in the context of domestic energy efficiency interventions. (Papers 1 and 4). As these themes suggest, this PhD is not just concerned with carbon reduction and energy saving as technical objects, but as a way of life. More specifically, it considers the interactions between the two and contends that technical or policy instruments, no matter how sophisticated, cannot succeed if they are not compatible with our ways of life (and ways of doing businesss) or if our ways of life cannot be reasonably adapted to acoomodate them.

Interoperable Acquisition for Systems of Systems: The Challenges

DTIC Science & Technology

2006-09-01

Interoperable Acquisition for Systems of Systems: The Challenges James D. Smith II D. Mike Phillips September 2006 TECHNICAL NOTE...Failure of Program-Centric Risk Management 10 3.3.2 Absence of System-of-Systems Engineering 12 3.3.3 Disconnect Between System-of-Systems...SOFTWARE ENGINEERING INSTITUTE | vii viii | CMU/SEI-2006-TN-034 Abstract Large, complex systems development has always been challenging , even when the

NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operation (NEEMO) 12: Collaborative Accelerated Medical Technology Development

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-12-01

tremendous opportunity to support telesurgical care using mobile systems, where communication assets are challenging . BODY RESEARCH PLAN This... challenged with constraints of remoteness, limited resources, and limited technical expertise. This telesurgery research, funded by TATRC and reported...utilized iChat (V.2.1.3) for the Apple Macintosh. Technology Summary The challenges of implementing the technology were numerous. Beyond the fact that

Resist process optimization for further defect reduction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tanaka, Keiichi; Iseki, Tomohiro; Marumoto, Hiroshi; Takayanagi, Koji; Yoshida, Yuichi; Uemura, Ryouichi; Yoshihara, Kosuke

2012-03-01

Defect reduction has become one of the most important technical challenges in device mass-production. Knowing that resist processing on a clean track strongly impacts defect formation in many cases, we have been trying to improve the track process to enhance customer yield. For example, residual type defect and pattern collapse are strongly related to process parameters in developer, and we have reported new develop and rinse methods in the previous papers. Also, we have reported the optimization method of filtration condition to reduce bridge type defects, which are mainly caused by foreign substances such as gels in resist. Even though we have contributed resist caused defect reduction in past studies, defect reduction requirements continue to be very important. In this paper, we will introduce further process improvements in terms of resist defect reduction, including the latest experimental data.

Screening, diagnosis and management of human cysticercosis and Taenia solium taeniasis: technical recommendations by the COHEMI project study group.

PubMed

Zammarchi, Lorenzo; Bonati, Maurizio; Strohmeyer, Marianne; Albonico, Marco; Requena-Méndez, Ana; Bisoffi, Zeno; Nicoletti, Alessandra; García, Hector H; Bartoloni, Alessandro

2017-07-01

Neurocysticercosis, the central nervous system's localised form of cysticercosis, is considered to be the leading cause of epilepsy in the developing world. In Europe, the disease is mainly imported and affects both immigrants and travellers. However, autochthonous cases of cysticercosis in low-endemic countries could also originate from Taenia solium carriers (migrants or travellers) who acquired taeniasis overseas. Management of cysticercosis is a challenge for European healthcare providers as they are often hardly aware of this infection and have little familiarity in managing this disease. This study provides a summary of recommendations concerning screening, diagnosis and management of cysticercosis and T. solium taeniasis in Europe drawn up by nine experts in migrant health and imported diseases with experience in cysticercosis and T. solium taeniasis. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Telecommunications companies and health in West Africa: the issues.

PubMed

Ankri, R; Maroune, M-H

2017-11-01

West Africa still faces important public health issues today: improving the health infrastructure, compensating for the lack of medical personnel, and bringing the rural "lost-to-follow-up" population into an inclusive healthcare system. At the same time, the boom in the mobile telephone market is providing important business opportunities for telecommunications companies in this field, leading to the rapid propagation of eHealth solutions. Thus, the telecom companies' technical innovations enable the creation of digital health solutions adapted to the specific needs of the West African market. The companies can thus increase their business through eHealth and simultaneously generate positive externalities (a healthier population), meeting the goals of their corporate social responsibility policies. We will see how these companies, aware of this opportunity, build these solutions and they meet the challenges they will confront.

Crops and food security--experiences and perspectives from Taiwan.

PubMed

Huang, Chen-Te; Fu, Tzu-Yu Richard; Chang, Su-San

2009-01-01

Food security is an important issue that is of concern for all countries around the world. There are many factors which may cause food insecurity including increasing demand, shortage of supply, trade condition, another countries' food policy, lack of money, high food and oil prices, decelerating productivity, speculation, etc. The food self-sufficiency ratio of Taiwan is only 30.6% weighted by energy in 2007. Total agriculture imports and cereals have increased significantly due to the expansion of livestock and fishery industries and improve living standard. The agriculture sector of Taiwan is facing many challenges, such as: low level of food self-sufficiency, aging farmers, large acreage of set-aside farmlands, small scale farming, soaring price of fertilizers, natural disasters accelerated by climate change, and rapid changes in the world food economy. To cope with these challenges, the present agricultural policy is based on three guidelines: "Healthfulness, Efficiency, and Sustainability." A program entitled "Turning Small Landlords into Large Tenants" was launched to make effective use of idle lands. Facing globalization and the food crisis, Taiwan will secure stable food supply through revitalization of its set-aside farmlands and international markets, and provide technical assistance to developing countries, in particular for staple food crops.

Comparison of human cell signaling pathway databases—evolution, drawbacks and challenges

PubMed Central

Chowdhury, Saikat; Sarkar, Ram Rup

2015-01-01

Elucidating the complexities of cell signaling pathways is of immense importance to gain understanding about various biological phenomenon, such as dynamics of gene/protein expression regulation, cell fate determination, embryogenesis and disease progression. The successful completion of human genome project has also helped experimental and theoretical biologists to analyze various important pathways. To advance this study, during the past two decades, systematic collections of pathway data from experimental studies have been compiled and distributed freely by several databases, which also integrate various computational tools for further analysis. Despite significant advancements, there exist several drawbacks and challenges, such as pathway data heterogeneity, annotation, regular update and automated image reconstructions, which motivated us to perform a thorough review on popular and actively functioning 24 cell signaling databases. Based on two major characteristics, pathway information and technical details, freely accessible data from commercial and academic databases are examined to understand their evolution and enrichment. This review not only helps to identify some novel and useful features, which are not yet included in any of the databases but also highlights their current limitations and subsequently propose the reasonable solutions for future database development, which could be useful to the whole scientific community. PMID:25632107

Pathways to Self-Sufficiency: Successful Entrepreneurship for Refugees

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fong, Rowena; Busch, Noel Bridget; Armour, Marilyn; Heffron, Laurie Cook; Chanmugam, Amy

2007-01-01

This study examined the successes and challenges of refugee entrepreneurs by interviewing 50 refugees, service providers, and technical assistance providers. Qualitative data analyses revealed that successes and challenges occurred both at the individual and family levels as well as at the community and agency levels. The findings underscore the…

The "Virtual" Reality of High-Tech Training

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Justice, Jamie

2004-01-01

Community and technical colleges are at a crossroads in their history and mission in preparing individuals for the challenges of lifelong learning and the workforce of the future. Many industries are faced with the challenges of replacing an aging and retiring workforce, updating employee skill sets, and maintaining quality and production…

Shared Challenges and in a Networked Cultural Space.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Greenstein, Daniel

This paper supplements a previous paper that reported on a tour of leading U.S. research libraries that are investing significantly in and have significant experience with innovative online collections and services. The previous paper reported the following five key challenges: architectural and technical; standards and best practices; strategies…

Autonomy, Interdependence, and Social Control: NASA and the Space Shuttle "Challenger."

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vaughan, Diane

1990-01-01

Shows that the organizations responsible for regulating safety at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) failed to identify flaws in management procedures and technical design that, if corrected, might have prevented the "Challenger" tragedy. Regulatory effectiveness was inhibited by the autonomy and interdependence of…

Information Superhighway: An Overview of Technology Challenges. Report to the Congress.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

General Accounting Office, Washington, DC.

This report focuses on the pivotal technical issues associated with the National Information Infrastructure program, security and privacy, interoperability, and reliability, and presents the General Accounting Office's findings on these challenges. It is reported that while the structures and services to be offered by the information superhighway…

The European Project Semester at ISEP: The Challenge of Educating Global Engineers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Malheiro, Benedita; Silva, Manuel; Ribeiro, Maria Cristina; Guedes, Pedro; Ferreira, Paulo

2015-01-01

Current engineering education challenges require approaches that promote scientific, technical, design and complementary skills while fostering autonomy, innovation and responsibility. The European Project Semester (EPS) at Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto (ISEP) (EPS@ISEP) is a one semester project-based learning programme (30 European…

Challenges in Sustaining Public Health Interventions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Altman, David G.

2009-01-01

Sustainability remains a key challenge in public health. The perspective article by Fagen and Flay adds to our understanding of technical factors associated with sustaining health interventions in schools. In this commentary, the Fagen and Flay article (2009) is considered within the broader literature on sustainability. By taking a broad view,…

Experiences of New Information Technology Managers: A Qualitative Hermeneutic Phenomenological Study of IT Managers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Snyder, Walter Wesley, V.

2012-01-01

Transitioning from a technical role to a managerial role has many challenges, particularly in information technology (IT) (Lester & Parnell, 2006). These challenges include people or soft skills, language skills, knowledge, intuition, mentoring, and delegation (Brokett, 2007; Feyerherm & Rice, 2002; Lester & Parnell, 2006). The IT…

48 CFR 227.7103-13 - Government right to review, verify, challenge and validate asserted restrictions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... contracting officer shall not challenge a contractor's assertion that a commercial item, component, or process... to development of the item, component or process. (2) Presumption regarding development exclusively... validation of asserted restrictions for technical data related to commercial items, and to major systems, on...

48 CFR 227.7103-13 - Government right to review, verify, challenge and validate asserted restrictions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... contracting officer shall not challenge a contractor's assertion that a commercial item, component, or process... to development of the item, component or process. (2) Presumption regarding development exclusively... validation of asserted restrictions for technical data related to commercial items, and to major systems, on...

48 CFR 227.7103-13 - Government right to review, verify, challenge and validate asserted restrictions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... contracting officer shall not challenge a contractor's assertion that a commercial item, component, or process... to development of the item, component or process. (2) Presumption regarding development exclusively... validation of asserted restrictions for technical data related to commercial items, and to major systems, on...

48 CFR 227.7103-13 - Government right to review, verify, challenge and validate asserted restrictions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... contracting officer shall not challenge a contractor's assertion that a commercial item, component, or process... to development of the item, component or process. (2) Presumption regarding development exclusively... validation of asserted restrictions for technical data related to commercial items, and to major systems, on...

A review of design issues specific to hypersonic flight vehicles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sziroczak, D.; Smith, H.

2016-07-01

This paper provides an overview of the current technical issues and challenges associated with the design of hypersonic vehicles. Two distinct classes of vehicles are reviewed; Hypersonic Transports and Space Launchers, their common features and differences are examined. After a brief historical overview, the paper takes a multi-disciplinary approach to these vehicles, discusses various design aspects, and technical challenges. Operational issues are explored, including mission profiles, current and predicted markets, in addition to environmental effects and human factors. Technological issues are also reviewed, focusing on the three major challenge areas associated with these vehicles: aerothermodynamics, propulsion, and structures. In addition, matters of reliability and maintainability are also presented. The paper also reviews the certification and flight testing of these vehicles from a global perspective. Finally the current stakeholders in the field of hypersonic flight are presented, summarizing the active programs and promising concepts.

A Brief Literature Overview of Various Routes to Biorenewable Fuels from Lipids for the National Alliance for Advanced Biofuels and Bio-products (NAABB) Consortium

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

Albrecht, Karl O.; Hallen, Richard T.

2011-03-29

Renewable methods of producing transportation fuels are currently the focus of numerous large research efforts across the globe. Renewable fuel produced from algal lipids is one aspect of this research that could have profound implications on future transportation fuel requirements. However, technical challenges remain in several areas of algal-lipid-based fuels. These challenges include the identification and development of robust and productive algal species as well as extraction methods to recover the produced lipids. Not the least of these technical challenges is the conversion of the algae lipids to fungible fuels. This brief literature review focuses primarily on state-of-the-art “downstream” applicationsmore » of producing fuel from fats and lipids, which can be applied to ongoing research with algae-derived lipids.« less

Technical challenges in the construction of the steady-state stellarator Wendelstein 7-X

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bosch, H.-S.; Wolf, R. C.; Andreeva, T.; Baldzuhn, J.; Birus, D.; Bluhm, T.; Bräuer, T.; Braune, H.; Bykov, V.; Cardella, A.; Durodié, F.; Endler, M.; Erckmann, V.; Gantenbein, G.; Hartmann, D.; Hathiramani, D.; Heimann, P.; Heinemann, B.; Hennig, C.; Hirsch, M.; Holtum, D.; Jagielski, J.; Jelonnek, J.; Kasparek, W.; Klinger, T.; König, R.; Kornejew, P.; Kroiss, H.; Krom, J. G.; Kühner, G.; Laqua, H.; Laqua, H. P.; Lechte, C.; Lewerentz, M.; Maier, J.; McNeely, P.; Messiaen, A.; Michel, G.; Ongena, J.; Peacock, A.; Pedersen, T. S.; Riedl, R.; Riemann, H.; Rong, P.; Rust, N.; Schacht, J.; Schauer, F.; Schroeder, R.; Schweer, B.; Spring, A.; Stäbler, A.; Thumm, M.; Turkin, Y.; Wegener, L.; Werner, A.; Zhang, D.; Zilker, M.; Akijama, T.; Alzbutas, R.; Ascasibar, E.; Balden, M.; Banduch, M.; Baylard, Ch.; Behr, W.; Beidler, C.; Benndorf, A.; Bergmann, T.; Biedermann, C.; Bieg, B.; Biel, W.; Borchardt, M.; Borowitz, G.; Borsuk, V.; Bozhenkov, S.; Brakel, R.; Brand, H.; Brown, T.; Brucker, B.; Burhenn, R.; Buscher, K.-P.; Caldwell-Nichols, C.; Cappa, A.; Cardella, A.; Carls, A.; Carvalho, P.; Ciupiński, Ł.; Cole, M.; Collienne, J.; Czarnecka, A.; Czymek, G.; Dammertz, G.; Dhard, C. P.; Davydenko, V. I.; Dinklage, A.; Drevlak, M.; Drotziger, S.; Dudek, A.; Dumortier, P.; Dundulis, G.; Eeten, P. v.; Egorov, K.; Estrada, T.; Faugel, H.; Fellinger, J.; Feng, Y.; Fernandes, H.; Fietz, W. H.; Figacz, W.; Fischer, F.; Fontdecaba, J.; Freund, A.; Funaba, T.; Fünfgelder, H.; Galkowski, A.; Gates, D.; Giannone, L.; García Regaña, J. M.; Geiger, J.; Geißler, S.; Greuner, H.; Grahl, M.; Groß, S.; Grosman, A.; Grote, H.; Grulke, O.; Haas, M.; Haiduk, L.; Hartfuß, H.-J.; Harris, J. H.; Haus, D.; Hein, B.; Heitzenroeder, P.; Helander, P.; Heller, R.; Hidalgo, C.; Hildebrandt, D.; Höhnle, H.; Holtz, A.; Holzhauer, E.; Holzthüm, R.; Huber, A.; Hunger, H.; Hurd, F.; Ihrke, M.; Illy, S.; Ivanov, A.; Jablonski, S.; Jaksic, N.; Jakubowski, M.; Jaspers, R.; Jensen, H.; Jenzsch, H.; Kacmarczyk, J.; Kaliatk, T.; Kallmeyer, J.; Kamionka, U.; Karaleviciu, R.; Kern, S.; Keunecke, M.; Kleiber, R.; Knauer, J.; Koch, R.; Kocsis, G.; Könies, A.; Köppen, M.; Koslowski, R.; Koshurinov, J.; Krämer-Flecken, A.; Krampitz, R.; Kravtsov, Y.; Krychowiak, M.; Krzesinski, G.; Ksiazek, I.; Kubkowska, M.; Kus, A.; Langish, S.; Laube, R.; Laux, M.; Lazerson, S.; Lennartz, M.; Li, C.; Lietzow, R.; Lohs, A.; Lorenz, A.; Louche, F.; Lubyako, L.; Lumsdaine, A.; Lyssoivan, A.; Maaßberg, H.; Marek, P.; Martens, C.; Marushchenko, N.; Mayer, M.; Mendelevitch, B.; Mertens, Ph.; Mikkelsen, D.; Mishchenko, A.; Missal, B.; Mizuuchi, T.; Modrow, H.; Mönnich, T.; Morizaki, T.; Murakami, S.; Musielok, F.; Nagel, M.; Naujoks, D.; Neilson, H.; Neubauer, O.; Neuner, U.; Nocentini, R.; Noterdaeme, J.-M.; Nührenberg, C.; Obermayer, S.; Offermanns, G.; Oosterbeek, H.; Otte, M.; Panin, A.; Pap, M.; Paquay, S.; Pasch, E.; Peng, X.; Petrov, S.; Pilopp, D.; Pirsch, H.; Plaum, B.; Pompon, F.; Povilaitis, M.; Preinhaelter, J.; Prinz, O.; Purps, F.; Rajna, T.; Récsei, S.; Reiman, A.; Reiter, D.; Remmel, J.; Renard, S.; Rhode, V.; Riemann, J.; Rimkevicius, S.; Riße, K.; Rodatos, A.; Rodin, I.; Romé, M.; Roscher, H.-J.; Rummel, K.; Rummel, Th.; Runov, A.; Ryc, L.; Sachtleben, J.; Samartsev, A.; Sanchez, M.; Sano, F.; Scarabosio, A.; Schmid, M.; Schmitz, H.; Schmitz, O.; Schneider, M.; Schneider, W.; Scheibl, L.; Scholz, M.; Schröder, G.; Schröder, M.; Schruff, J.; Schumacher, H.; Shikhovtsev, I. V.; Shoji, M.; Siegl, G.; Skodzik, J.; Smirnow, M.; Speth, E.; Spong, D. A.; Stadler, R.; Sulek, Z.; Szabó, V.; Szabolics, T.; Szetefi, T.; Szökefalvi-Nagy, Z.; Tereshchenko, A.; Thomsen, H.; Thumm, M.; Timmermann, D.; Tittes, H.; Toi, K.; Tournianski, M.; Toussaint, U. v.; Tretter, J.; Tulipán, S.; Turba, P.; Uhlemann, R.; Urban, J.; Urbonavicius, E.; Urlings, P.; Valet, S.; Van Eester, D.; Van Schoor, M.; Vervier, M.; Viebke, H.; Vilbrandt, R.; Vrancken, M.; Wauters, T.; Weissgerber, M.; Weiß, E.; Weller, A.; Wendorf, J.; Wenzel, U.; Windisch, T.; Winkler, E.; Winkler, M.; Wolowski, J.; Wolters, J.; Wrochna, G.; Xanthopoulos, P.; Yamada, H.; Yokoyama, M.; Zacharias, D.; Zajac, J.; Zangl, G.; Zarnstorff, M.; Zeplien, H.; Zoletnik, S.; Zuin, M.

2013-12-01

The next step in the Wendelstein stellarator line is the large superconducting device Wendelstein 7-X, currently under construction in Greifswald, Germany. Steady-state operation is an intrinsic feature of stellarators, and one key element of the Wendelstein 7-X mission is to demonstrate steady-state operation under plasma conditions relevant for a fusion power plant. Steady-state operation of a fusion device, on the one hand, requires the implementation of special technologies, giving rise to technical challenges during the design, fabrication and assembly of such a device. On the other hand, also the physics development of steady-state operation at high plasma performance poses a challenge and careful preparation. The electron cyclotron resonance heating system, diagnostics, experiment control and data acquisition are prepared for plasma operation lasting 30 min. This requires many new technological approaches for plasma heating and diagnostics as well as new concepts for experiment control and data acquisition.

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

Kovoor-Misra, S.

Technical organizations are not only vulnerable to crises, but have the potential to create catastrophic crises. This has been devastatingly illustrated by recent crises, such as the gas leak in Bhopal, India, the Exxon Valdez oil spill, and the Challenger explosion. Thus, crises preparation for these organizations. This paper describes a Multidimensional Approach to crisis preparation for technical organizations. As part of this approach, come critical factors for crisis preparation are also described. The Multidimensional Approach is derived from the literature and a study of the crisis preparation of nine technical organizations. 28 refs., 3 figs., 4 tab.

Technical Desiderata for the Integration of Genomic Data into Electronic Health Records

PubMed Central

Masys, Daniel R.; Jarvik, Gail P.; Abernethy, Neil F.; Anderson, Nicholas R.; Papanicolaou, George J.; Paltoo, Dina N.; Hoffman, Mark A.; Kohane, Isaac S.; Levy, Howard P.

2012-01-01

The era of “Personalized Medicine,” guided by individual molecular variation in DNA, RNA, expressed proteins and other forms of high volume molecular data brings new requirements and challenges to the design and implementation of Electronic Health Records (EHRs). In this article we describe the characteristics of biomolecular data that differentiate it from other classes of data commonly found in EHRs, enumerate a set of technical desiderata for its management in healthcare settings, and offer a candidate technical approach to its compact and efficient representation in operational systems. PMID:22223081

Communication and Collaboration in Library Technical Services: A Case Study of New York University in Abu Dhabi

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Parrott, Justin

2016-01-01

New York University Abu Dhabi Library has developed new strategies to increase efficiency in technical services processing between units based in New York and Abu Dhabi. This case study discusses the challenges specific to the international context and the methods used to overcome them, increase speed processing, and ultimately improve patron…

Vicarious Violence on the Screen: A Challenge to Educators and Families. Technical Assistance Bulletin No. 16. [Updated Version].

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hepburn, Mary A.

This technical bulletin poses questions of concern to law-related educators (LRE) and citizenship educators working to reduce violence among students and the larger community. Maintaining that the sociological implications of violence on television and in video games should be a serious concern to all educators, the bulletin describes the…

78 FR 17871 - Changes To Implement the Technical Corrections to the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act as to Inter...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-03-25

... rule eliminates the nine-month ``dead zone'' for filing an inter partes review petition challenging a..., section 1(d) of the AIA Technical Corrections Act and this final rule eliminate the nine-month ``dead zone... the nine-month ``dead zone'' as to first-to-invent patents and reissue patents. Costs and Benefits...

Using Simplified English to Identify Potential Problems for Non-Native Speakers in the Language of Engineering Examination Papers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harrison, Sandra; Morgan, Roger

2012-01-01

There is an increasing sensitivity to the challenges posed by the language of examination papers and of instruction in scientific subjects, especially for non-native speakers of English. It has been observed that in addition to technical subject-specific vocabulary, non-technical words such as instructional verbs have been sources of difficulty,…

77 FR 53912 - Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request; H-1B...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-09-04

... for OMB Review; Comment Request; H-1B Technical Skills Training Grants and H-1B Jobs and Innovation..., ``H-1B Technical Skills Training Grants and H-1B Jobs and Innovation Accelerator Challenge Grants,'' to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and approval for use in accordance with the...

Crafting a New Vision for High School: How States Can Join Academic and Technical Studies to Promote More Powerful Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bottoms, Gene; Young, Marna

2008-01-01

The authors advocate harnessing the applied teaching strategies of career/technical education (CTE) and infusing them into college-preparatory academics to transform secondary schools into high-performing centers of learning where students are both challenged and engaged. By pursuing this strategy, say the authors, states can help many more…

Curriculum Integration: Helping Career and Technical Education Students Truly Develop College and Career Readiness

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Park, Travis; Pearson, Donna; Richardson, George B.

2017-01-01

All students need to learn how to read, write, solve mathematics problems, and understand and apply scientific principles to succeed in college and/or careers. The challenges posed by entry-level career fields are no less daunting than those posed by college-level study. Thus, career and technical education students must learn effective math,…

Summaries of the Regional Conferences Held in Preparation for the Second International Congress on Technical and Vocational Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

UNEVOC Info, 1999

1999-01-01

In 1998, five regional conferences were held in preparation for the Second International Congress on Technical and Vocational Education (TVE). The Asia-Pacific regional conference focused on challenges of the 21st century, demands of the world of work, and changing patterns in the delivery of training programs. The European symposium covered five…

The PRO-TECH Program. A Program for Gifted and Talented High School Students in Connecticut's Vocational-Technical School System.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brann, Ronald E.

This document describes Connecticut's PRO-TECH Program, which is designed to link pupils in vocational-technical schools, resources of school and community, and opportunity for growth in order to teach advanced skills, explore new interests, challenge old ideas, and highlight individual talents. The document consists of sections on the following…

Separate and Unequal at Hillsborough High: A Principal's Challenges in Integrating "Academic" and Career and Technical Education Coursework

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Malin, Joel R.; Hackmann, Donald G.

2015-01-01

Dr. Edward White, Hillsborough High School principal, has decided to allocate faculty in-service time to address an unproductive chasm between academic and career and technical education programming within the school, which has created tensions among the faculty. On returning to his office after the professional development session, which was…

1969 Proceedings of the Technical Information Advisory Committee...

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Security Industrial Association, Washington, DC.

The meetings were set up to find ways to overcome the barriers that regulate or reduce the flow of scientific/Technical information and data to the user. Giving the user what he needs, when he needs it, and at a cost he can afford is the basic challenge faced by information services. Obtaining information depends on: (1) personal habits; (2)…

Towards Quality Technical Vocational Education and Training (Tvet) Programmes in Nigeria: Challenges and Improvement Strategies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ayonmike, Chinyere Shirley; Okwelle, P. Chijioke; Okeke, Benjamin Chukwumaijem

2015-01-01

Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) is widely recognized as a vital driving force for the socio-economic growth and technological development of nations. In achieving the goals and objectives of TVET in Nigeria, the quality of the programme needs to be improved and sustained. The purpose of this study is to ascertain the challenges…

Evaluation of the Hanford 200 West Groundwater Treatment System: Fluidized Bed Bioreactor

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

Looney, Brian B.; Jackson, Dennis G.; Dickson, John O.

A fluidized bed reactor (FBR) in the 200W water treatment facility at Hanford is removing nitrate from groundwater as part of the overall pump-treat-reinject process. Control of the FBR bed solids has proven challenging, impacting equipment, increasing operations and maintenance (O&M), and limiting the throughput of the facility. In response to the operational challenges, the Department of Energy Richland Office (DOE-RL) commissioned a technical assistance team to facilitate a system engineering evaluation and provide focused support recommendations to the Hanford Team. The DOE Environmental Management (EM) technical assistance process is structured to identify and triage technologies and strategies that addressmore » the target problem(s). The process encourages brainstorming and dialog and allows rapid identification and prioritization of possible options. Recognizing that continuous operation of a large-scale FBR is complex, requiring careful attention to system monitoring data and changing conditions, the technical assistance process focused on explicit identification of the available control parameters (“knobs”), how these parameters interact and impact the FBR system, and how these can be adjusted under different scenarios to achieve operational goals. The technical assistance triage process was performed in collaboration with the Hanford team.« less

The impact of age on the art of mammography and how to adapt accordingly.

PubMed

Lake, B; Cielecki, L; Williams, S; Worrall, C; Metelko, M

2017-11-01

Breast cancer is increasingly a disease of the elderly, and combined with the NHS Breast Screening Extension means that more elderly patients are having mammography. Increasing age can make mammography more technically difficult. This is a technical note detailing the results of a local audit which may be of interest due to potential service implications. A retrospective audit of the first year of screening extension of The Shropshire Breast Screening Programme. Aims to collect data on patient demographics and describe the technical adaptations developed in Shropshire. Breast screening extension has increased by 2.5 times the number of women aged 70-74 screened, and doubled the overall numbers of women over 70 screened. Significantly more older patients are being screened to present technical challenges to a screening programme. Data was obtained from a month of screening showed that 29% of patients over 70 needed extra time for positioning. Reasons included 22% difficulty in obtaining adequate positioning and 15% needed a relative to aid with consent. In the Shropshire screening programme different technical adaptations have been developed and are key to ensuring adequate images. These include double appointments, two radiographers, thorough assessment, steeper angles, seated examinations, from-below imaging and pre-planning for subsequent screen. Significantly more older women are having breast screening due to the increasing incidence of breast cancer and the Breast Screening Programme extension. Increasing age can significantly increase time taken for adequate imaging and present technical challenges. Development of technical adaptations to art of mammography is key to achieve adequate images. Copyright © 2017 The College of Radiographers. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Technical communication. Perspectives for the Eighties, part 2

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mathes, J. C. (Compiler); Pinelli, T. E. (Compiler)

1981-01-01

The importance of technical writing as a separate discipline is suggested. Some specific areas addressed were: technical writing skills industry needs, definitions of technical writing, the hows and whys of inhouse writing, and the nature of the composing process in technical comunication.

Comparison of Traditional and Innovative Techniques to Solve Technical Challenges

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Perchonok, Michele

2011-01-01

This slide presentation reviews the use of traditional and innovative techniques to solve technical challenges in food storage technology. The planning for a mission to Mars is underway, and the food storage technology improvements requires that improvements be made. This new technology is required, because current food storage technology is inadequate,refrigerators or freezers are not available for food preservation, and that a shelf life of 5 years is expected. A 10 year effort to improve food packaging technology has not enhanced significantly food packaging capabilities. Two innovation techniques were attempted InnoCentive and Yet2.com and have provided good results, and are still under due diligence for solver verification.

Epigenome-wide association studies for cancer biomarker discovery in circulating cell-free DNA: technical advances and challenges.

PubMed

Tanić, Miljana; Beck, Stephan

2017-02-01

Since introducing the concept of epigenome-wide association studies (EWAS) in 2011, there has been a vast increase in the number of published EWAS studies in common diseases, including in cancer. These studies have increased our understanding of epigenetic events underlying carcinogenesis and have enabled the discovery of cancer-specific methylation biomarkers. In this mini-review, we have focused on the state of the art in EWAS applied to cell-free circulating DNA for epigenetic biomarker discovery in cancer and discussed associated technical advances and challenges, and our expectations for the future of the field. Copyright © 2017 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Equipment and Analytical Companies Meeting Continuous Challenges May 20-21 2014 Continuous Manufacturing Symposium.

PubMed

Page, Trevor; Dubina, Henry; Fillipi, Gabriele; Guidat, Roland; Patnaik, Saroj; Poechlauer, Peter; Shering, Phil; Guinn, Martin; Mcdonnell, Peter; Johnston, Craig

2015-03-01

This white paper focuses on equipment, and analytical manufacturers' perspectives, regarding the challenges of continuous pharmaceutical manufacturing across five prompt questions. In addition to valued input from several vendors, commentary was provided from experienced pharmaceutical representatives, who have installed various continuous platforms. Additionally, a small medium enterprise (SME) perspective was obtained through interviews. A range of technical challenges is outlined, including: the presence of particles, equipment scalability, fouling (and cleaning), technology derisking, specific analytical challenges, and the general requirement of improved technical training. Equipment and analytical companies can make a significant contribution to help the introduction of continuous technology. A key point is that many of these challenges exist in batch processing and are not specific to continuous processing. Backward compatibility of software is not a continuous issue per se. In many cases, there is available learning from other industries. Business models and opportunities through outsourced development partners are also highlighted. Agile smaller companies and academic groups have a key role to play in developing skills, working collaboratively in partnerships, and focusing on solving relevant industry challenges. The precompetitive space differs for vendor companies compared with large pharmaceuticals. Currently, there is no strong consensus around a dominant continuous design, partly because of business dynamics and commercial interests. A more structured common approach to process design and hardware and software standardization would be beneficial, with initial practical steps in modeling. Conclusions include a digestible systems approach, accessible and published business cases, and increased user, academic, and supplier collaboration. This mirrors US FDA direction. The concept of silos in pharmaceutical companies is a common theme throughout the white papers. In the equipment domain, this is equally prevalent among a broad range of companies, mainly focusing on discrete areas. As an example, the flow chemistry and secondary drug product communities are almost entirely disconnected. Control and Process Analytical Technologies (PAT) companies are active in both domains. The equipment actors are a very diverse group with a few major Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) players and a variety of SME, project providers, integrators, upstream downstream providers, and specialist PAT. In some cases, partnerships or alliances are formed to increase critical mass. This white paper has focused on small molecules; equipment associated with biopharmaceuticals is covered in a separate white paper. More specifics on equipment detail are provided in final dosage form and drug substance white papers. The equipment and analytical development from laboratory to pilot to production is important, with a variety of sensors and complexity reducing with scale. The importance of robust processing rather than overcomplex control strategy mitigation is important. A search of nonacademic literature highlights, with a few notable exceptions, a relative paucity of material. Much focuses on the economics and benefits of continuous, rather than specifics of equipment issues. The disruptive nature of continuous manufacturing represents either an opportunity or a threat for many companies, so the incentive to change equipment varies. Also, for many companies, the pharmaceutical sector is not actually the dominant sector in terms of sales. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. and the American Pharmacists Association. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. and the American Pharmacists Association.

Equipment and analytical companies meeting continuous challenges. May 20-21, 2014 Continuous Manufacturing Symposium.

PubMed

Page, Trevor; Dubina, Henry; Fillipi, Gabriele; Guidat, Roland; Patnaik, Saroj; Poechlauer, Peter; Shering, Phil; Guinn, Martin; Mcdonnell, Peter; Johnston, Craig

2015-03-01

This white paper focuses on equipment, and analytical manufacturers' perspectives, regarding the challenges of continuous pharmaceutical manufacturing across five prompt questions. In addition to valued input from several vendors, commentary was provided from experienced pharmaceutical representatives, who have installed various continuous platforms. Additionally, a small medium enterprise (SME) perspective was obtained through interviews. A range of technical challenges is outlined, including: the presence of particles, equipment scalability, fouling (and cleaning), technology derisking, specific analytical challenges, and the general requirement of improved technical training. Equipment and analytical companies can make a significant contribution to help the introduction of continuous technology. A key point is that many of these challenges exist in batch processing and are not specific to continuous processing. Backward compatibility of software is not a continuous issue per se. In many cases, there is available learning from other industries. Business models and opportunities through outsourced development partners are also highlighted. Agile smaller companies and academic groups have a key role to play in developing skills, working collaboratively in partnerships, and focusing on solving relevant industry challenges. The precompetitive space differs for vendor companies compared with large pharmaceuticals. Currently, there is no strong consensus around a dominant continuous design, partly because of business dynamics and commercial interests. A more structured common approach to process design and hardware and software standardization would be beneficial, with initial practical steps in modeling. Conclusions include a digestible systems approach, accessible and published business cases, and increased user, academic, and supplier collaboration. This mirrors US FDA direction. The concept of silos in pharmaceutical companies is a common theme throughout the white papers. In the equipment domain, this is equally prevalent among a broad range of companies, mainly focusing on discrete areas. As an example, the flow chemistry and secondary drug product communities are almost entirely disconnected. Control and Process Analytical Technologies (PAT) companies are active in both domains. The equipment actors are a very diverse group with a few major Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) players and a variety of SME, project providers, integrators, upstream downstream providers, and specialist PAT. In some cases, partnerships or alliances are formed to increase critical mass. This white paper has focused on small molecules; equipment associated with biopharmaceuticals is covered in a separate white paper. More specifics on equipment detail are provided in final dosage form and drug substance white papers. The equipment and analytical development from laboratory to pilot to production is important, with a variety of sensors and complexity reducing with scale. The importance of robust processing rather than overcomplex control strategy mitigation is important. A search of nonacademic literature highlights, with a few notable exceptions, a relative paucity of material. Much focuses on the economics and benefits of continuous, rather than specifics of equipment issues. The disruptive nature of continuous manufacturing represents either an opportunity or a threat for many companies, so the incentive to change equipment varies. Also, for many companies, the pharmaceutical sector is not actually the dominant sector in terms of sales. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. and the American Pharmacists Association.

Centennial Challenges

NASA Image and Video Library

2010-02-26

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, right, and Doug Comstock, left, stand with David Masten, of Masten Space Systems, during a ceremony for winners and participants of NASA’s 2009 Centennial Challenges, Friday, Feb. 26, 2010, at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The year-long competition addresses a range of technical challenges that support NASA's missions in aeronautics and space with a goal of encouraging novel solutions from non-traditional sources. Photo Credit: (NASA/Paul E. Alers)

Social media and pharmacovigilance: A review of the opportunities and challenges

PubMed Central

Sloane, Richard; Osanlou, Orod; Lewis, David; Bollegala, Danushka; Maskell, Simon; Pirmohamed, Munir

2015-01-01

Adverse drug reactions come at a considerable cost on society. Social media are a potentially invaluable reservoir of information for pharmacovigilance, yet their true value remains to be fully understood. In order to realize the benefits social media holds, a number of technical, regulatory and ethical challenges remain to be addressed. We outline these key challenges identifying relevant current research and present possible solutions. PMID:26147850

Health and Safety Advisory Committee (HASAC) of the International Embryo Transfer Society (IETS) has managed critical challenges for two decades.

PubMed

Thibier, M; Stringfellow, D A

2003-02-01

The International Embryo Transfer Society (IETS) was founded in 1974. Early members used the society as a forum for the exchange of scientific and technical information relevant to a newly emerging embryo transfer industry. The impact that embryo transfer could have on the international trade of livestock genetics was clear by 1982, so the IETS commissioned the Import/Export Committee. The initial challenge for this Committee was to deal with concerns about disease transmission via embryo transfer. Many of the early concerns have been dispelled, but at the time they threatened the continued development of a fledgling industry. Over the past two decades, many new critical challenges have been met and managed by this Committee, which was recently renamed the Health and Safety Advisory Committee (HASAC). Assessing risks of animal disease transmission via reproductive technologies and establishing protocols for managing these risks are still major issues for HASAC. However, additional concerns have developed as views of the society changed and as novel applications of biotechnology in farm animals were identified. This paper is intended to chronicle some of the major changes and challenges that were managed by members of the HASAC and its Subcommittees from the early years of embryo transfer to the current millennium with technological advances in molecular biology.

SIMBIOS Project

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fargion, Giulietta S.; McClain, Charles R.; Busalacchi, Antonio J. (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

The purpose of this technical report is to provide current documentation of the Sensor Intercomparison and Merger for Biological and Interdisciplinary Oceanic Studies (SIMBIOS) Project activities, NASA Research Announcement (NRAI) research status, satellite data processing, data product validation, and field calibration. This documentation is necessary to ensure that critical information is related to the scientific community and NASA management. This critical information includes the technical difficulties and challenges of validating and combining ocean color data from an array of independent satellite systems to form consistent and accurate global bio-optical time series products. This technical report is not meant as a substitute for scientific literature. Instead, it will provide a ready and responsive vehicle for the multitude of technical reports issued by an operational project.

Documentation as Problem Solving for Literacy Outreach Programs

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

Girill, T R

2004-07-06

Age-appropriate technical writing lessons for underperforming high-school students can offer them an innovative, ''authentic'' way to improve how they read and write. Thus the techniques and principles of effective technical communication routinely applied at work also provide a positive response to one of today's great educational challenges. This workshop shows participants how to (1) introduce English and science teachers to the value of technical writing as a response to school literacy problems, (2) prepare plausible practice exercises to help students improve their basic literacy, and (3) recognize and respond to known literacy outreach pitfalls. Every effective literacy outreach project basedmore » on technical writing needs to address four key problems.« less

Some technical writing skills industry needs

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Smith, F. R.

1981-01-01

It is suggested that engineers and other technical students be taught three classes of skills in technical writing. First, "Big Picture Things", which includes: the importance of clear writing, the wide scope of writing, the wide scope of writing tasks that will be faced in industry, and the principles of organization of technical materials such as; how to analyze, classify, partition, and interpret. Second, "Writing Procedures", which encompasses: how to get words on paper efficiently and team-write. Third, "Writing Details", in which two considerations are important: how to achieve precision in the use of language and the aspects of style. Three problems in style are cited: the problem of sentence transition, overuse of attributive adjectives, and verbosity in paragraph structure. The most important thing in technical writing is considered to be functionality, economy and clarity.

A citrus waste-based biorefinery as a source of renewable energy: technical advances and analysis of engineering challenges.

PubMed

Rivas-Cantu, Raul C; Jones, Kim D; Mills, Patrick L

2013-04-01

An assessment of recent technical advances on pretreatment processes and its effects on enzymatic hydrolysis as the main steps of a proposed citrus processing waste (CPW) biorefinery is presented. Engineering challenges and relevant gaps in scientific and technical information for reliable design, modeling and scale up of a CPW biorefinery are also discussed. Some integrated physico-chemical pretreatments are proposed for testing for CPW, including high speed knife-grinding and simultaneous caustic addition. These new proposed processes and the effect of parameters such as particle size, surface area and morphology, pore volume and chemical composition of the diverse fractions resulting from pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis need to be evaluated and compared for pretreated and untreated samples of grapefruit processing waste. This assessment suggests the potential for filling the data gaps, and preliminary results demonstrate that the reduction of particle size and the increased surface area for the CPW will result in higher reaction rates and monosaccharide yields for the pretreated waste material.

Application of Surface Analysis Methods to Nanomaterials: Summaryof ISO/TC 201 Technical Report: ISO 14187:2011 -Surface Chemical Analysis- Characterization of Nanomaterials

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

Baer, Donald R.

ISO Technical Report (TR) 14187 provides an introduction to (and examples of) the information that can be obtained about nanostructured materials using surface-analysis tools. In addition, both general issues and challenges associated with characterising nanostructured materials and the specific opportunities and challenges associated with individual analytical methods are identified. As the size of objects or components of materials approaches a few nanometres, the distinctions among 'bulk', 'surface' and 'particle' analysis blur. This Technical Report focuses on issues specifically relevant to surface chemical analysis of nanostructured materials. The report considers a variety of analysis methods but focuses on techniques that aremore » in the domain of ISO/TC 201 including Auger electron spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, secondary ion mass spectrometry, and scanning probe microscopy. Measurements of nanoparticle surface properties such as surface potential that are often made in a solution are not discussed.« less

SOFIA Program SE and I Lessons Learned

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ray, Ronald J.; Fobel, Laura J.; Brignola, Michael P.

2011-01-01

Once a "Troubled Project" threatened with cancellation, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) Program has overcome many difficult challenges and recently achieved its first light images. To achieve success, SOFIA had to overcome significant deficiencies in fundamental Systems Engineering identified during a major Program restructuring. This presentation will summarize the lessons learn in Systems Engineering on the SOFIA Program. After the Program was reformulated, an initial assessment of Systems Engineering established the scope of the problem and helped to set a list of priorities that needed to be work. A revised Systems Engineering Management Plan (SEMP) was written to address the new Program structure and requirements established in the approved NPR7123.1A. An important result of the "Technical Planning" effort was the decision by the Program and Technical Leadership team to re-phasing the lifecycle into increments. The reformed SOFIA Program Office had to quickly develop and establish several new System Engineering core processes including; Requirements Management, Risk Management, Configuration Management and Data Management. Implementing these processes had to consider the physical and cultural diversity of the SOFIA Program team which includes two Projects spanning two NASA Centers, a major German partnership, and sub-contractors located across the United States and Europe. The SOFIA Program experience represents a creative approach to doing "System Engineering in the middle" while a Program is well established. Many challenges were identified and overcome. The SOFIA example demonstrates it is never too late to benefit from fixing deficiencies in the System Engineering processes.

Development of a non-contact diagnostic tool for high power lasers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Simmons, Jed A.; Guttman, Jeffrey L.; McCauley, John

2016-03-01

High power lasers in excess of 1 kW generate enough Rayleigh scatter, even in the NIR, to be detected by silicon based sensor arrays. A lens and camera system in an off-axis position can therefore be used as a non-contact diagnostic tool for high power lasers. Despite the simplicity of the concept, technical challenges have been encountered in the development of an instrument referred to as BeamWatch. These technical challenges include reducing background radiation, achieving high signal to noise ratio, reducing saturation events caused by particulates crossing the beam, correcting images to achieve accurate beam width measurements, creating algorithms for the removal of non-uniformities, and creating two simultaneous views of the beam from orthogonal directions. Background radiation in the image was reduced by the proper positioning of the back plane and the placement of absorbing materials on the internal surfaces of BeamWatch. Maximizing signal to noise ratio, important to the real-time monitoring of focus position, was aided by increasing lens throughput. The number of particulates crossing the beam path was reduced by creating a positive pressure inside BeamWatch. Algorithms in the software removed non-uniformities in the data prior to generating waist width, divergence, BPP, and M2 results. A dual axis version of BeamWatch was developed by the use of mirrors. By its nature BeamWatch produced results similar to scanning slit measurements. Scanning slit data was therefore taken and compared favorably with BeamWatch results.

Economic Justification Of Robust Or Adaptive Planning And Design Of Resilient Water Resources Systems Under Deep Uncertainty: A Case Study In The Iolanda Water Treatment Plant Of Lusaka, Zambia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mendoza, G.; Tkach, M.; Kucharski, J.; Chaudhry, R.

2017-12-01

This discussion is focused around the application of a bottom-up vulnerability assessment procedure for planning of climate resilience to a water treament plant for teh city of Iolanda, Zambia. This project is a Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) innitiaive with technical support by the UNESCO category II, International Center for Integrated Water Resources Management (ICIWaRM) with secretariat at the US Army Corps of Engineers Institute for Water Resources. The MCC is an innovative and independent U.S. foreign aid agency that is helping lead the fight against global poverty. The bottom-up vulnerability assessmentt framework examines critical performance thresholds, examines the external drivers that would lead to failure, establishes plausibility and analytical uncertainty that would lead to failure, and provides the economic justification for robustness or adaptability. This presentation will showcase the experiences in the application of the bottom-up framework to a region that is very vulnerable to climate variability, has poor instituional capacities, and has very limited data. It will illustrate the technical analysis and a decision process that led to a non-obvious climate robust solution. Most importantly it will highlight the challenges of utilizing discounted cash flow analysis (DCFA), such as net present value, in justifying robust or adaptive solutions, i.e. comparing solution under different future risks. We highlight a solution to manage the potential biases these DCFA procedures can incur.

Designing with Protocells: Applications of a Novel Technical Platform

PubMed Central

Armstrong, Rachel

2014-01-01

The paper offers a design perspective on protocell applications and presents original research that characterizes the life-like qualities of the Bütschli dynamic droplet system, as a particular “species” of protocell. Specific focus is given to the possibility of protocell species becoming a technical platform for designing and engineering life-like solutions to address design challenges. An alternative framing of the protocell, based on process philosophy, sheds light on its capabilities as a technology that can deal with probability and whose ontology is consistent with complexity, nonlinear dynamics and the flow of energy and matter. However, the proposed technical systems do not yet formally exist as products or mature technologies. Their potential applications are therefore experimentally examined within a design context as architectural “projects”—an established way of considering proposals that have not yet been realized, like an extended hypothesis. Exemplary design-led projects are introduced, such as The Hylozoic Ground and Future Venice, which aim to “discover”, rather than “solve”, challenges to examine a set of possibilities that have not yet been resolved. The value of such exploration in design practice is in opening up a set of potential directions for further assessment before complex challenges are procedurally implemented. PMID:25370381

Hybrid imaging worldwide-challenges and opportunities for the developing world: a report of a Technical Meeting organized by IAEA.

PubMed

Kashyap, Ravi; Dondi, Maurizio; Paez, Diana; Mariani, Guliano

2013-05-01

The growth in nuclear medicine, in the past decade, is largely due to hybrid imaging, specifically single-photon emission tomography-computed tomography (SPECT-CT) and positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT). Introduction and use of hybrid imaging has been growing at a fast pace. This has led to many challenges and opportunities to the personnel dealing with it. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) keeps a close watch on the trends in applications of nuclear techniques in health by many ways, including obtaining inputs from member states and professional societies. In 2012, a Technical Meeting on trends in hybrid imaging was organized by IAEA to understand the current status and trends of hybrid imaging using nuclear techniques, its role in clinical practice, and associated educational needs and challenges. Perspective of scientific societies and professionals from all the regions of the world was obtained. Heterogeneity in value, educational needs, and access was noted and the drivers of this heterogeneity were discussed. This article presents the key points shared during the technical meeting, focusing primarily on SPECT-CT and PET-CT, and shares the action plan for IAEA to deal with heterogeneity as suggested by the participants. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Challenges and opportunities for multi-functional oxide thin films for voltage tunable radio frequency/microwave components

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Subramanyam, Guru; Cole, M. W.; Sun, Nian X.; Kalkur, Thottam S.; Sbrockey, Nick M.; Tompa, Gary S.; Guo, Xiaomei; Chen, Chonglin; Alpay, S. P.; Rossetti, G. A.; Dayal, Kaushik; Chen, Long-Qing; Schlom, Darrell G.

2013-11-01

There has been significant progress on the fundamental science and technological applications of complex oxides and multiferroics. Among complex oxide thin films, barium strontium titanate (BST) has become the material of choice for room-temperature-based voltage-tunable dielectric thin films, due to its large dielectric tunability and low microwave loss at room temperature. BST thin film varactor technology based reconfigurable radio frequency (RF)/microwave components have been demonstrated with the potential to lower the size, weight, and power needs of a future generation of communication and radar systems. Low-power multiferroic devices have also been recently demonstrated. Strong magneto-electric coupling has also been demonstrated in different multiferroic heterostructures, which show giant voltage control of the ferromagnetic resonance frequency of more than two octaves. This manuscript reviews recent advances in the processing, and application development for the complex oxides and multiferroics, with the focus on voltage tunable RF/microwave components. The over-arching goal of this review is to provide a synopsis of the current state-of the-art of complex oxide and multiferroic thin film materials and devices, identify technical issues and technical challenges that need to be overcome for successful insertion of the technology for both military and commercial applications, and provide mitigation strategies to address these technical challenges.

Hyper-Spectral Networking Concept of Operations and Future Air Traffic Management Simulations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Davis, Paul; Boisvert, Benjamin

2017-01-01

The NASA sponsored Hyper-Spectral Communications and Networking for Air Traffic Management (ATM) (HSCNA) project is conducting research to improve the operational efficiency of the future National Airspace System (NAS) through diverse and secure multi-band, multi-mode, and millimeter-wave (mmWave) wireless links. Worldwide growth of air transportation and the coming of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) will increase air traffic density and complexity. Safe coordination of aircraft will require more capable technologies for communications, navigation, and surveillance (CNS). The HSCNA project will provide a foundation for technology and operational concepts to accommodate a significantly greater number of networked aircraft. This paper describes two of the HSCNA projects technical challenges. The first technical challenge is to develop a multi-band networking concept of operations (ConOps) for use in multiple phases of flight and all communication link types. This ConOps will integrate the advanced technologies explored by the HSCNA project and future operational concepts into a harmonized vision of future NAS communications and networking. The second technical challenge discussed is to conduct simulations of future ATM operations using multi-bandmulti-mode networking and technologies. Large-scale simulations will assess the impact, compared to todays system, of the new and integrated networks and technologies under future air traffic demand.

Rising to the challenge: acute stress appraisals and selection centre performance in applicants to postgraduate specialty training in anaesthesia.

PubMed

Roberts, Martin J; Gale, Thomas C E; McGrath, John S; Wilson, Mark R

2016-05-01

The ability to work under pressure is a vital non-technical skill for doctors working in acute medical specialties. Individuals who evaluate potentially stressful situations as challenging rather than threatening may perform better under pressure and be more resilient to stress and burnout. Training programme recruitment processes provide an important opportunity to examine applicants' reactions to acute stress. In the context of multi-station selection centres for recruitment to anaesthesia training programmes, we investigated the factors influencing candidates' pre-station challenge/threat evaluations and the extent to which their evaluations predicted subsequent station performance. Candidates evaluated the perceived stress of upcoming stations using a measure of challenge/threat evaluation-the cognitive appraisal ratio (CAR)-and consented to release their demographic details and station scores. Using regression analyses we determined which candidate and station factors predicted variation in the CAR and whether, after accounting for these factors, the CAR predicted candidate performance in the station. The CAR was affected by the nature of the station and candidate gender, but not age, ethnicity, country of training or clinical experience. Candidates perceived stations involving work related tasks as more threatening. After controlling for candidates' demographic and professional profiles, the CAR significantly predicted station performance: 'challenge' evaluations were associated with better performance, though the effect was weak. Our selection centre model can help recruit prospective anaesthetists who are able to rise to the challenge of performing in stressful situations but results do not support the direct use of challenge/threat data for recruitment decisions.

Enrollment Management Issue Analysis: Operating in a Post-Katrina Higher Education Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jones, Jacqueline; Das, Nabakrishna; Huggins, Desiree'; McNeely, Stanton, III

2008-01-01

A definition and brief history of enrollment management are presented. The challenges represented by Hurricane Katrina for enrollment management at one community technical college and a private 4-year college are identified along with three cases that illuminate the challenges. The need for rapid response planning is articulated. (Contains 1…

The University in the Networked Economy and Society: Challenges and Opportunities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Benkler, Yochai

2008-01-01

The networked information economy and society present a new social, technical, and economic environment within which the university functions. To understand the new challenges and opportunities this environment presents, a usable characterization of the core new characteristics of both the environment and the university as a system and how those…

CONTINUING EDUCATION FOR WOMEN--A GROWING CHALLENGE.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

KEYSERLING, MARY DUBLIN

COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES ARE CHALLENGED TO EXPAND OPPORTUNITIES FOR CONTINUING EDUCATION FOR MATURE WOMEN. NEARLY 29 MILLION WOMEN ARE IN THE LABOR FORCE, MORE THAN TWICE AS MANY AS IN THE YEARS IMMEDIATELY BEFORE WORLD WAR II. IN 1966, THEY REPRESENTED 37 PERCENT OF ALL WORKERS IN PROFESSIONAL, TECHNICAL, AND KINDRED OCCUPATIONS COMPARED WITH 45…

Precollege Factors and Leading Indicators: Increasing Transfer and Degree Completion in a Community and Technical College System

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davidson, J. Cody

2015-01-01

Today, community colleges are challenged to maintain their historical identity of open access while increasing student success. This challenge is particularly salient in the context of performance-based funding models. These models create student achievements, which determine institutional levels of state funding. Therefore, these new student…

Why Integrating Technology Has Been Unsuccessful in Kuwait? An Exploratory Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alfelaij, Bader

2016-01-01

In Kuwait, unsuccessful attempts to use and integrate technology into classrooms and lecture halls are currently being witnessed in schools and higher education institutions. Such failure is believed to be the consequence of various challenges, such as cultural, technical and contextual challenges. In this exploratory study, the researcher has…

Crossing the Communication Barrier: Facilitating Communication in Mixed Groups of Deaf and Hearing Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marchetti, Carol; Foster, Susan; Long, Gary; Stinson, Michael

2012-01-01

Teachers of introductory technical courses such as statistics face numerous challenges in the classroom, including student motivation and mathematical background, and difficulties in interpreting numerical results in context. Cooperative learning through small groups addresses many such challenges, but students for whom spoken English is not their…

"Service Wars": The Race To Be the Best in Product Service.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Knox, Robert J.; Lorenzo, Albert L.

To meet the price and quality challenges of foreign manufacturers, U.S. industry has had to invest heavily in technology, incorporating it extensively into both the manufacturing process and product. This trend, termed the "New Industrial Revolution" has created a new challenge--educating technicians to service these highly technical,…

Ethical Challenges of In-The-Field Training: A Surgical Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bernstein, Mark; Knifed, Eva

2007-01-01

The teaching of professions in which technical and manual acts combined with excellent judgment are used to enhance the safety of people, poses challenges to educators. Book learning combined with mock or simulated situations goes a long way, but ultimately "in-the-field" instruction and learning is necessary to qualify trainees for many…

Worksheet: Federal Funding and Other Funding Sources for Early Childhood. State TA Resources

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Early Learning Challenge Technical Assistance, 2017

2017-01-01

This tool was prepared for the Early Learning Challenge (ELC) States that attended the Peer Learning Exchange, "Financing and Sustaining Quality Programs and Systems," in October 2017. This Peer Learning Exchange was a collaborative effort by Early Learning Challenge Technical Assistance (ELC TA,) Center on Enhancing Early Learning…

Solar Car, Solar Boat: Model Classroom Projects. Seattle Tech Prep.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Seattle Community Coll. District, Washington.

This booklet shows how teachers at Ingraham High School and Madison Middle School in Seattle (Washington) challenged their students to tackle demanding technical projects. It also shows how well the students responded to that challenge. The booklet begins with the background of the project, the framework for which would be a university-sponsored…

Skills Development, Employment and Sustained Growth in Ghana: Sustainability Challenges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Palmer, Robert

2009-01-01

Against a backdrop of some two decades of sustained economic growth in Ghana, this paper argues that there are a series of sustainability challenges related to technical and vocational skills development (TVSD) that need to be addressed. This paper analyses several sustainability dimensions of TVSD related to: promoting the sustainability of…

Preparing to understand and use science in the real world: interdisciplinary study concentrations at the Technical University of Darmstadt.

PubMed

Liebert, Wolfgang J

2013-12-01

In order to raise awareness of the ambiguous nature of scientific-technological progress, and of the challenging problems it raises, problems which are not easily addressed by courses in a single discipline and cannot be projected onto disciplinary curricula, Technical University of Darmstadt has established three interdisciplinary study concentrations: "Technology and International Development", "Environmental Sciences", and "Sustainable Shaping of Technology and Science". These three programmes seek to overcome the limitations of strictly disciplinary research and teaching by developing an integrated, problem-oriented approach. For example, one course considers fundamental nuclear dilemmas and uses role-playing techniques to address a controversy in the area of nuclear security. At the same time, incorporating interdisciplinary teaching into a university that is organized around mono- or multi-disciplinary faculties also poses a number of challenges. Recognition in disciplinary curricula, and appropriate organizational support and funding are examples of those challenges. It is expected that science and engineering students, empowered by such interdisciplinary study programmes, will be better prepared to act responsibly with regard to scientific and technological challenges.

Survey of Ambient Air Pollution Health Risk Assessment Tools.

PubMed

Anenberg, Susan C; Belova, Anna; Brandt, Jørgen; Fann, Neal; Greco, Sue; Guttikunda, Sarath; Heroux, Marie-Eve; Hurley, Fintan; Krzyzanowski, Michal; Medina, Sylvia; Miller, Brian; Pandey, Kiran; Roos, Joachim; Van Dingenen, Rita

2016-09-01

Designing air quality policies that improve public health can benefit from information about air pollution health risks and impacts, which include respiratory and cardiovascular diseases and premature death. Several computer-based tools help automate air pollution health impact assessments and are being used for a variety of contexts. Expanding information gathered for a May 2014 World Health Organization expert meeting, we survey 12 multinational air pollution health impact assessment tools, categorize them according to key technical and operational characteristics, and identify limitations and challenges. Key characteristics include spatial resolution, pollutants and health effect outcomes evaluated, and method for characterizing population exposure, as well as tool format, accessibility, complexity, and degree of peer review and application in policy contexts. While many of the tools use common data sources for concentration-response associations, population, and baseline mortality rates, they vary in the exposure information source, format, and degree of technical complexity. We find that there is an important tradeoff between technical refinement and accessibility for a broad range of applications. Analysts should apply tools that provide the appropriate geographic scope, resolution, and maximum degree of technical rigor for the intended assessment, within resources constraints. A systematic intercomparison of the tools' inputs, assumptions, calculations, and results would be helpful to determine the appropriateness of each for different types of assessment. Future work would benefit from accounting for multiple uncertainty sources and integrating ambient air pollution health impact assessment tools with those addressing other related health risks (e.g., smoking, indoor pollution, climate change, vehicle accidents, physical activity). © 2016 Society for Risk Analysis.

Challenges of the Future in Postsecondary Occupational Education. Fourth Conference on New Horizons in Community College Occupational-Technical Education (4th, Blacksburg, Virginia, October 31, November 1-2, 1976).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hoerner, James L., Ed.

Approximately 135 instructors, counselors, division directors, deans, presidents, university personnel, and graduate students from ten states participated in a fourth annual conference on New Horizons in Community College Occupational-Technical Education reported in this document. The general purpose of the conference was to examine current views…

A Report to the U.S. Department of Education on Educational Challenges and Technical Assistance Needs for the Pacific Region

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

CNA Corporation, 2005

2005-01-01

This report of the Pacific Regional Advisory Committee (RAC) provides an assessment of the technical assistance needs of educators in the Pacific region in response to a directive from the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education (ED). This information will be used to assist in the establishment of 20 comprehensive centers providing technical…

A Critical Examination of the Construct Validity of the TTI Performance DNA[TM] Survey for the Purpose of Differentiating the Entrepreneurially-Minded Engineer

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dietrich, Sandra L.

2012-01-01

The United States needs workers with more than technical skills to meet the demands of global competition; more specifically, a new breed of engineer is necessary, one who possesses leadership skills and business acumen in addition to the technical engineering skills. One Midwestern foundation has recognized this challenge and is working with…

Passing the Torch by Passing on a Skill: Passing the Torch to the Next Generation is the Intrinsic Reward for Dedicated Technology Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Millson, David; Jerie, Branko

2005-01-01

Motivating students to master the basics in any field is a demanding task. In technical education, while the direct benefit--almost certain, well-paying employment--is obvious, the challenge is to keep students' interest high. Absent that, the technical workforce lacks skilled replenishment, and the possibility of being overtaken by competition…

Content and Language Integrated Learning in Higher Technical Education Using the "InGenio" Online Multimedia Authoring Tool

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gimeno, Ana; Seiz, Rafael; de Siqueira, Jose Macario; Martinez, Antonio

2010-01-01

The future professional world of today's students is becoming a life-long learning process where they have to adapt to a changing market and an environment full of new opportunities and challenges. Thus, the development of a number of personal and professional skills, in addition to technical content and knowledge, is a crucial part of their…

Designing a system for patients controlling providers' access to their electronic health records: organizational and technical challenges.

PubMed

Leventhal, Jeremy C; Cummins, Jonathan A; Schwartz, Peter H; Martin, Douglas K; Tierney, William M

2015-01-01

Electronic health records (EHRs) are proliferating, and financial incentives encourage their use. Applying Fair Information Practice principles to EHRs necessitates balancing patients' rights to control their personal information with providers' data needs to deliver safe, high-quality care. We describe the technical and organizational challenges faced in capturing patients' preferences for patient-controlled EHR access and applying those preferences to an existing EHR. We established an online system for capturing patients' preferences for who could view their EHRs (listing all participating clinic providers individually and categorically-physicians, nurses, other staff) and what data to redact (none, all, or by specific categories of sensitive data or patient age). We then modified existing data-viewing software serving a state-wide health information exchange and a large urban health system and its primary care clinics to allow patients' preferences to guide data displays to providers. Patients could allow or restrict data displays to all clinicians and staff in a demonstration primary care clinic, categories of providers (physicians, nurses, others), or individual providers. They could also restrict access to all EHR data or any or all of five categories of sensitive data (mental and reproductive health, sexually transmitted diseases, HIV/AIDS, and substance abuse) and for specific patient ages. The EHR viewer displayed data via reports, data flowsheets, and coded and free text data displayed by Google-like searches. Unless patients recorded restrictions, by default all requested data were displayed to all providers. Data patients wanted restricted were not displayed, with no indication they were redacted. Technical barriers prevented redacting restricted information in free textnotes. The program allowed providers to hit a "Break the Glass" button to override patients' restrictions, recording the date, time, and next screen viewed. Establishing patient-control over EHR data displays was complex and required ethical, clinical, database, and programming expertise and difficult choices to overcome technical and health system constraints. Assessing patients' preferences for access to their EHRs and applying them in clinical practice requires wide-ranging technical, clinical, and bioethical expertise, to make tough choices to overcome significant technical and organization challenges.

The power of a collaborative relationship between technical assistance providers and community prevention teams: A correlational and longitudinal study

PubMed Central

Chilenski, Sarah M.; Perkins, Daniel F.; Olson, Jonathan; Hoffman, Lesa; Feinberg, Mark E.; Greenberg, Mark; Welsh, Janet; Crowley, D. Max; Spoth, Richard

2015-01-01

Background Historically, effectiveness of community collaborative prevention efforts has been mixed. Consequently, research has been undertaken to better understand the factors that support their effectiveness; theory and some related empirical research suggests that the provision of technical assistance is one important supporting factor. The current study examines one aspect of technical assistance that may be important in supporting coalition effectiveness, the collaborative relationship between the technical assistance provider and site lead implementer. Methods Four and one-half years of data were collected from technical assistance providers and prevention team members from the 14 community prevention teams involved in the PROSPER project. Results Spearman correlation analyses with longitudinal data show that the levels of the collaborative relationship during one phase of collaborative team functioning associated with characteristics of internal team functioning in future phases. Conclusions Results suggest that community collaborative prevention work should consider the collaborative nature of the technical assistance provider – prevention community team relationship when designing and conducting technical assistance activities, and it may be important to continually assess these dynamics to support high quality implementation. PMID:26476860

Renewable Electricity Futures Study Executive Summary

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

Mai, Trieu; Sandor, Debra; Wiser, Ryan

2012-12-01

The Renewable Electricity Futures Study (RE Futures) provides an analysis of the grid integration opportunities, challenges, and implications of high levels of renewable electricity generation for the U.S. electric system. The study is not a market or policy assessment. Rather, RE Futures examines renewable energy resources and many technical issues related to the operability of the U.S. electricity grid, and provides initial answers to important questions about the integration of high penetrations of renewable electricity technologies from a national perspective. RE Futures results indicate that a future U.S. electricity system that is largely powered by renewable sources is possible andmore » that further work is warranted to investigate this clean generation pathway.« less

IT as an enabler of sustainable use of data from innovative technical components for assisted living.

PubMed

Knaup, Petra; Schöpe, Lothar

2012-01-01

The authors see the major potential of systematically processing data from AAL-technology in higher sustainability, higher technology acceptance, higher security, higher robustness, higher flexibility and better integration in existing structures and processes. This potential is currently underachieved and not yet systematically promoted. The authors have written a position paper on potential and necessity of substantial IT research enhancing Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) applications. This paper summarizes the most important challenges in the fields health care, data protection, operation and user interfaces. Research in medical informatics is necessary among others in the fields flexible authorization concept, medical information needs, algorithms to evaluate user profiles and visualization of aggregated data.

Teaching science, technology, and society to engineering students: a sixteen year journey.

PubMed

Ozaktas, Haldun M

2013-12-01

The course Science, Technology, and Society is taken by about 500 engineering students each year at Bilkent University, Ankara. Aiming to complement the highly technical engineering programs, it deals with the ethical, social, cultural, political, economic, legal, environment and sustainability, health and safety, reliability dimensions of science, technology, and engineering in a multidisciplinary fashion. The teaching philosophy and experiences of the instructor are reviewed. Community research projects have been an important feature of the course. Analysis of teaching style based on a multi-dimensional model is given. Results of outcome measurements performed for ABET assessment are provided. Challenges and solutions related to teaching a large class are discussed.

Body measures: phenomenological considerations of corporeal ethics.

PubMed

Fielding, H A

1998-08-01

The development of bioethics primarily at the cognitive level further perpetuates the tendency to construe all aspects of our lives, including our bodies, as technical systems. For example, if we consider the moral issue of organ sales without taking our embodiment into account there appear to be no sound arguments for opposing such sales. However, it is important to consider the aspects of the phenomenal body that challenge rational deliberation by exploring an embodied approach to the ethical dilemma produced by a proposed kidney exchange as presented in one of Krzysztof Kieślowski's Dekalog films. What is sought is a description of a body-measure that would serve as a critique of strictly cognitive bioethical deliberations.

Speaking in Character: Voice Communication in Virtual Worlds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wadley, Greg; Gibbs, Martin R.

This chapter summarizes 5 years of research on the implications of introducing voice communication systems to virtual worlds. Voice introduces both benefits and problems for players of fast-paced team games, from better coordination of groups and greater social presence of fellow players on the positive side, to negative features such as channel congestion, transmission of noise, and an unwillingness by some to use voice with strangers online. Similarly, in non-game worlds like Second Life, issues related to identity and impression management play important roles, as voice may build greater trust that is especially important for business users, yet it erodes the anonymity and ability to conceal social attributes like gender that are important for other users. A very different mixture of problems and opportunities exists when users conduct several simultaneous conversations in multiple text and voice channels. Technical difficulties still exist with current systems, including the challenge of debugging and harmonizing all the participants' voice setups. Different groups use virtual worlds for very different purposes, so a single modality may not suit all.

A general strategy to solve the phase problem in RNA crystallography

PubMed Central

Keel, Amanda Y.; Rambo, Robert P.; Batey, Robert T.; Kieft, Jeffrey S.

2007-01-01

SUMMARY X-ray crystallography of biologically important RNA molecules has been hampered by technical challenges, including finding a heavy-atom derivative to obtain high-quality experimental phase information. Existing techniques have drawbacks, severely limiting the rate at which important new structures are solved. To address this need, we have developed a reliable means to localize heavy atoms specifically to virtually any RNA. By solving the crystal structures of thirteen variants of the G·U wobble pair cation binding motif we have identified an optimal version that when inserted into an RNA helix introduces a high-occupancy cation binding site suitable for phasing. This “directed soaking” strategy can be integrated fully into existing RNA and crystallography methods, potentially increasing the rate at which important structures are solved and facilitating routine solving of structures using Cu-Kα radiation. The success of this method has been proven in that it has already been used to solve several novel crystal structures. PMID:17637337

Standardisation in the field of nanotechnology: some issues of legitimacy.

PubMed

Forsberg, Ellen-Marie

2012-12-01

Nanotechnology will allegedly have a revolutionary impact in a wide range of fields, but has also created novel concerns about health, safety and the environment (HSE). Nanotechnology regulation has nevertheless lagged behind nanotechnology development. In 2004 the International Organization for Standardization established a technical committee for producing nanotechnology standards for terminology, measurements, HSE issues and product specifications. These standards are meant to play a role in nanotechnology development, as well as in national and international nanotechnology regulation, and will therefore have consequences for consumers, workers and the environment. This paper gives an overview of the work in the technical committee on nanotechnology and discusses some challenges with regard to legitimacy in such work. The paper focuses particularly on stakeholder involvement and the potential problems of scientific robustness when standardising in such early stages of the scientific development. The intention of the paper is to raise some important issues rather than to draw strong conclusions. However, the paper will be concluded with some suggestions for improving legitimacy in the TC 229 and a call for increased public awareness about standardisation in the field of nanotechnology.

AIMES Final Technical Report

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

Katz, Daniel S; Jha, Shantenu; Weissman, Jon

2017-01-31

This is the final technical report for the AIMES project. Many important advances in science and engineering are due to large-scale distributed computing. Notwithstanding this reliance, we are still learning how to design and deploy large-scale production Distributed Computing Infrastructures (DCI). This is evidenced by missing design principles for DCI, and an absence of generally acceptable and usable distributed computing abstractions. The AIMES project was conceived against this backdrop, following on the heels of a comprehensive survey of scientific distributed applications. AIMES laid the foundations to address the tripartite challenge of dynamic resource management, integrating information, and portable and interoperablemore » distributed applications. Four abstractions were defined and implemented: skeleton, resource bundle, pilot, and execution strategy. The four abstractions were implemented into software modules and then aggregated into the AIMES middleware. This middleware successfully integrates information across the application layer (skeletons) and resource layer (Bundles), derives a suitable execution strategy for the given skeleton and enacts its execution by means of pilots on one or more resources, depending on the application requirements, and resource availabilities and capabilities.« less

AIMES Final Technical Report

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

Weissman, Jon; Katz, Dan; Jha, Shantenu

2017-01-31

This is the final technical report for the AIMES project. Many important advances in science and engineering are due to large scale distributed computing. Notwithstanding this reliance, we are still learning how to design and deploy large-scale production Distributed Computing Infrastructures (DCI). This is evidenced by missing design principles for DCI, and an absence of generally acceptable and usable distributed computing abstractions. The AIMES project was conceived against this backdrop, following on the heels of a comprehensive survey of scientific distributed applications. AIMES laid the foundations to address the tripartite challenge of dynamic resource management, integrating information, and portable andmore » interoperable distributed applications. Four abstractions were defined and implemented: skeleton, resource bundle, pilot, and execution strategy. The four abstractions were implemented into software modules and then aggregated into the AIMES middleware. This middleware successfully integrates information across the application layer (skeletons) and resource layer (Bundles), derives a suitable execution strategy for the given skeleton and enacts its execution by means of pilots on one or more resources, depending on the application requirements, and resource availabilities and capabilities.« less

Embedding Volunteer Activity into Paramedic Education.

PubMed

Ross, Linda; Kabidi, Sophia

2017-01-01

Paramedics require a wide range of skills that are beyond clinical or technical skills in order to meet the demands of the role and provide quality and compassionate care to patients. Non-technical or "soft" skills and attributes are generally challenging to teach and develop in the classroom setting. Volunteerism provides an opportunity for students to gain exposure to different communities and develop interpersonal skills. This cross-sectional study used one-on-one interviews with 12 third-year Bachelor of Emergency Health (Paramedic) students from Monash University, Australia, who completed a community volunteering program. Results suggest that paramedic students see volunteering as a highly valuable means of developing a number of skills crucial to their future roles and paramedic practice. Volunteering also provided students with an opportunity to learn about themselves and the broader community, develop confidence, and improve overall job-readiness and employability. This study demonstrates that embedding volunteering into paramedic education is an effective way to develop the broad range of paramedic attributes required for the role. These experiences allow students to make the important transition to a job-ready graduate paramedic who can provide holistic patient-centred care.

The remote sensing data from your UAV probably isn't scientific, but it should be!

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McKee, Mac

2017-05-01

The application of unmanned autonomous vehicles (UAVs), or "drones", to generate data to support better decisions for agricultural management and farm operations is a relatively new technology that is now beginning to enter the market. This potentially disruptive technology is still in its infancy and must mature in ways that the current market cannot clearly foresee and probably does not fully understand. Major technical and regulatory hurdles must be overcome before the full potential of this remote sensing technology can be realized in agricultural applications. Further, and most importantly, buyers and sellers in today's market must both gain a deeper understanding of the potential that this technology might achieve and the technical challenges that must be met before advances that will bring significant market value will be possible. A lack of understanding of some of the basic concepts of remote sensing can translate into poor decisions regarding the acquisition and deployment of UAVs in agriculture. This paper focuses on some of the details of remote sensing that few growers, and, indeed, few university researchers fully understand.

Front-end Electronics for Unattended Measurement (FEUM). Results of Prototype Evaluation

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

Conrad, Ryan C.; Keller, Daniel T.; Morris, Scott J.

2015-07-01

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) deploys unattended monitoring systems to provide continuous monitoring of nuclear material within safeguarded facilities around the world. As the number of unattended monitoring instruments increases, the IAEA is challenged to become more efficient in the implementation of those systems. In 2010, the IAEA initiated the Front-End Electronics for Unattended Measurement (FEUM) project with the goals of greater flexibility in the interfaces to various sensors and data acquisition systems, and improved capabilities for remotely located sensors (e.g., where sensor and front-end electronics might be separated by tens of meters). In consultation with the IAEA, amore » technical evaluation of a candidate FEUM device produced by a commercial vendor has been performed. This evaluation assessed the device against the IAEA’s original technical specifications and a broad range of important parameters that include sensor types, cable lengths and types, industrial electromagnetic noise that can degrade signals from remotely located detectors, and high radiation fields. Testing data, interpretation, findings and recommendations are provided.« less

Genome privacy: challenges, technical approaches to mitigate risk, and ethical considerations in the United States

PubMed Central

Wang, Shuang; Jiang, Xiaoqian; Singh, Siddharth; Marmor, Rebecca; Bonomi, Luca; Fox, Dov; Dow, Michelle; Ohno-Machado, Lucila

2016-01-01

Accessing and integrating human genomic data with phenotypes is important for biomedical research. Making genomic data accessible for research purposes, however, must be handled carefully to avoid leakage of sensitive individual information to unauthorized parties and improper use of data. In this article, we focus on data sharing within the scope of data accessibility for research. Current common practices to gain biomedical data access are strictly rule based, without a clear and quantitative measurement of the risk of privacy breaches. In addition, several types of studies require privacy-preserving linkage of genotype and phenotype information across different locations (e.g., genotypes stored in a sequencing facility and phenotypes stored in an electronic health record) to accelerate discoveries. The computer science community has developed a spectrum of techniques for data privacy and confidentiality protection, many of which have yet to be tested on real-world problems. In this article, we discuss clinical, technical, and ethical aspects of genome data privacy and confidentiality in the United States, as well as potential solutions for privacy-preserving genotype–phenotype linkage in biomedical research. PMID:27681358

Social media and pharmacovigilance: A review of the opportunities and challenges.

PubMed

Sloane, Richard; Osanlou, Orod; Lewis, David; Bollegala, Danushka; Maskell, Simon; Pirmohamed, Munir

2015-10-01

Adverse drug reactions come at a considerable cost on society. Social media are a potentially invaluable reservoir of information for pharmacovigilance, yet their true value remains to be fully understood. In order to realize the benefits social media holds, a number of technical, regulatory and ethical challenges remain to be addressed. We outline these key challenges identifying relevant current research and present possible solutions. © 2015 The British Pharmacological Society.

2002 Controls Design Challenge

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hess, Ronald A.; Vetter, T. K.; Wells, S. R.

2002-01-01

This document is intended to provide the specifications and requirements for a flight control system design challenge. The response to the challenge will involve documenting whether the particular design has met the stated requirements through analysis and computer simulation. The response should be written in the general format of a technical publication with corresponding length limits, e.g., an approximate maximum length of 45 units, with each full-size figure and double-spaced typewritten page constituting one unit.

Discovery of functional monoclonal antibodies targeting G-protein-coupled receptors and ion channels.

PubMed

Wilkinson, Trevor C I

2016-06-15

The development of recombinant antibody therapeutics is a significant area of growth in the pharmaceutical industry with almost 50 approved monoclonal antibodies on the market in the US and Europe. Despite this growth, however, certain classes of important molecular targets have remained intractable to therapeutic antibodies due to complexity of the target molecules. These complex target molecules include G-protein-coupled receptors and ion channels which represent a large potential target class for therapeutic intervention with monoclonal antibodies. Although these targets have typically been addressed by small molecule approaches, the exquisite specificity of antibodies provides a significant opportunity to provide selective modulation of these target proteins. Given this opportunity, substantial effort has been applied to address the technical challenges of targeting these complex membrane proteins with monoclonal antibodies. In this review recent progress made in the strategies for discovery of functional monoclonal antibodies for these challenging membrane protein targets is addressed. © 2016 The Author(s). published by Portland Press Limited on behalf of the Biochemical Society.

Ecodriving in hybrid electric vehicles--Exploring challenges for user-energy interaction.

PubMed

Franke, Thomas; Arend, Matthias Georg; McIlroy, Rich C; Stanton, Neville A

2016-07-01

Hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) can help to reduce transport emissions; however, user behaviour has a significant effect on the energy savings actually achieved in everyday usage. The present research aimed to advance understanding of HEV drivers' ecodriving strategies, and the challenges for optimal user-energy interaction. We conducted interviews with 39 HEV drivers who achieved above-average fuel efficiencies. Regression analyses showed that technical system knowledge and ecodriving motivation were both important predictors for ecodriving efficiency. Qualitative data analyses showed that drivers used a plethora of ecodriving strategies and had diverse conceptualisations of HEV energy efficiency regarding aspects such as the efficiency of actively utilizing electric energy or the efficiency of different acceleration strategies. Drivers also reported several false beliefs regarding HEV energy efficiency that could impair ecodriving efforts. Results indicate that ecodriving support systems should facilitate anticipatory driving and help users locate and maintain drivetrain states of maximum efficiency. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd and The Ergonomics Society. All rights reserved.

BOLD magnetic resonance imaging in nephrology

PubMed Central

Hall, Michael E; Jordan, Jennifer H; Juncos, Luis A; Hundley, W Gregory; Hall, John E

2018-01-01

Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, a non-invasive modality that provides anatomic and physiologic information, is increasingly used for diagnosis of pathophysiologic conditions and for understanding renal physiology in humans. Although functional MR imaging methods were pioneered to investigate the brain, they also offer powerful techniques for investigation of other organ systems such as the kidneys. However, imaging the kidneys provides unique challenges due to potential complications from contrast agents. Therefore, development of non-contrast techniques to study kidney anatomy and physiology is important. Blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) MR is a non-contrast imaging technique that provides functional information related to renal tissue oxygenation in various pathophysiologic conditions. Here we discuss technical considerations, clinical uses and future directions for use of BOLD MR as well as complementary MR techniques to better understand renal pathophysiology. Our intent is to summarize kidney BOLD MR applications for the clinician rather than focusing on the complex physical challenges that functional MR imaging encompasses; however, we briefly discuss some of those issues. PMID:29559807

Mining the oral mycobiome: Methods, components, and meaning

PubMed Central

Diaz, Patricia I.; Hong, Bo-Young; Dupuy, Amanda K.; Strausbaugh, Linda D.

2017-01-01

ABSTRACT Research on oral fungi has centered on Candida. However, recent internal transcribed spacer (ITS)-based studies revealed a vast number of fungal taxa as potential oral residents. We review DNA-based studies of the oral mycobiome and contrast them with cultivation-based surveys, showing that most genera encountered by cultivation have also been detected molecularly. Some taxa such as Malassezia, however, appear in high prevalence and abundance in molecular studies but have not been cultivated. Important technical and bioinformatic challenges to ITS-based oral mycobiome studies are discussed. These include optimization of sample lysis, variability in length of ITS amplicons, high intra-species ITS sequence variability, high inter-species variability in ITS copy number and challenges in nomenclature and maintenance of curated reference databases. Molecular surveys are powerful first steps to characterize the oral mycobiome but further research is needed to unravel which fungi detected by DNA are true oral residents and what role they play in oral homeostasis. PMID:27791473

[Bowel endometriosis and infertility: Do we need to operate?

PubMed

Bourdon, M; Santulli, P; Marcellin, L; Lamau, M C; Maignien, C; Chapron, C

2017-09-01

Endometriosis is a benign chronic inflammatory disease, whose pathogenesis is still unclear. Endometriosis is responsible for infertility and/or pelvic pain. One of the most important features of the disease is the heterogeneity (clinical and anatomical: superficial peritoneal, ovarian and/or deep infiltrating lesions). Bowel involvement constitutes one particularly severe form of the disease, affecting 8-12% of women with deep endometriosis. In case of associated infertility, bowel endometriosis constitutes a real therapeutic challenge for gynecologists. Indeed, while complete resection of the lesions alleviates pain and seems to improve spontaneous fertility, surgery remains technically challenging and may cause severe complications. Reverting to assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) is another valuable therapeutic option regarding pregnancy rates. Thus, the choice between surgical management or ART is still debated. Benefits and risks of these two options should be considered and discussed before planning treatment. In the present study, we aimed to answer the question: Bowel endometriosis and infertility: do we need to operate? Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Ex vivo diffusion MRI of the human brain: Technical challenges and recent advances.

PubMed

Roebroeck, Alard; Miller, Karla L; Aggarwal, Manisha

2018-06-04

This review discusses ex vivo diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) as an important research tool for neuroanatomical investigations and the validation of in vivo dMRI techniques, with a focus on the human brain. We review the challenges posed by the properties of post-mortem tissue, and discuss state-of-the-art tissue preparation methods and recent advances in pulse sequences and acquisition techniques to tackle these. We then review recent ex vivo dMRI studies of the human brain, highlighting the validation of white matter orientation estimates and the atlasing and mapping of large subcortical structures. We also give particular emphasis to the delineation of layered gray matter structure with ex vivo dMRI, as this application illustrates the strength of its mesoscale resolution over large fields of view. We end with a discussion and outlook on future and potential directions of the field. © 2018 The Authors. NMR in Biomedicine published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

The role of non-technical skills in surgery

PubMed Central

Agha, Riaz A.; Fowler, Alexander J.; Sevdalis, Nick

2015-01-01

Non-technical skills are of increasing importance in surgery and surgical training. A traditional focus on technical skills acquisition and competence is no longer enough for the delivery of a modern, safe surgical practice. This review discusses the importance of non-technical skills and the values that underpin successful modern surgical practice. This narrative review used a number of sources including written and online, there was no specific search strategy of defined databases. Modern surgical practice requires; technical and non-technical skills, evidence-based practice, an emphasis on lifelong learning, monitoring of outcomes and a supportive institutional and health service framework. Finally these requirements need to be combined with a number of personal and professional values including integrity, professionalism and compassionate, patient-centred care. PMID:26904193

Challenges in leveraging existing human performance data for quantifying the IDHEAS HRA method

DOE PAGES

Liao, Huafei N.; Groth, Katrina; Stevens-Adams, Susan

2015-07-29

Our article documents an exploratory study for collecting and using human performance data to inform human error probability (HEP) estimates for a new human reliability analysis (HRA) method, the IntegrateD Human Event Analysis System (IDHEAS). The method was based on cognitive models and mechanisms underlying human behaviour and employs a framework of 14 crew failure modes (CFMs) to represent human failures typical for human performance in nuclear power plant (NPP) internal, at-power events [1]. A decision tree (DT) was constructed for each CFM to assess the probability of the CFM occurring in different contexts. Data needs for IDHEAS quantification aremore » discussed. Then, the data collection framework and process is described and how the collected data were used to inform HEP estimation is illustrated with two examples. Next, five major technical challenges are identified for leveraging human performance data for IDHEAS quantification. Furthermore, these challenges reflect the data needs specific to IDHEAS. More importantly, they also represent the general issues with current human performance data and can provide insight for a path forward to support HRA data collection, use, and exchange for HRA method development, implementation, and validation.« less

Using natural products for drug discovery: the impact of the genomics era.

PubMed

Zhang, Mingzi M; Qiao, Yuan; Ang, Ee Lui; Zhao, Huimin

2017-05-01

Evolutionarily selected over billions of years for their interactions with biomolecules, natural products have been and continue to be a major source of pharmaceuticals. In the 1990s, pharmaceutical companies scaled down their natural product discovery programs in favor of synthetic chemical libraries due to major challenges such as high rediscovery rates, challenging isolation, and low production titers. Propelled by advances in DNA sequencing and synthetic biology technologies, insights into microbial secondary metabolism provided have inspired a number of strategies to address these challenges. Areas covered: This review highlights the importance of genomics and metagenomics in natural product discovery, and provides an overview of the technical and conceptual advances that offer unprecedented access to molecules encoded by biosynthetic gene clusters. Expert opinion: Genomics and metagenomics revealed nature's remarkable biosynthetic potential and her vast chemical inventory that we can now prioritize and systematically mine for novel chemical scaffolds with desirable bioactivities. Coupled with synthetic biology and genome engineering technologies, significant progress has been made in identifying and predicting the chemical output of biosynthetic gene clusters, as well as in optimizing cluster expression in native and heterologous host systems for the production of pharmaceutically relevant metabolites and their derivatives.

Using natural products for drug discovery: the impact of the genomics era

PubMed Central

Zhang, Mingzi M; Qiao, Yuan; Ang, Ee Lui; Zhao, Huimin

2017-01-01

Introduction Evolutionarily selected over billions of years for their interactions with biomolecules, natural products have been and continue to be a major source of pharmaceuticals. In the 1990s, pharmaceutical companies scaled down their natural product discovery programs in favor of synthetic chemical libraries due to major challenges such as high rediscovery rates, challenging isolation, and low production titers. Propelled by advances in DNA sequencing and synthetic biology technologies, insights into microbial secondary metabolism provided have inspired a number of strategies to address these challenges. Areas covered This review highlights the importance of genomics and metagenomics in natural product discovery, and provides an overview of the technical and conceptual advances that offer unprecedented access to molecules encoded by biosynthetic gene clusters. Expert opinion Genomics and metagenomics revealed nature’s remarkable biosynthetic potential and her vast chemical inventory that we can now prioritize and systematically mine for novel chemical scaffolds with desirable bioactivities. Coupled with synthetic biology and genome engineering technologies, significant progress has been made in identifying and predicting the chemical output of biosynthetic gene clusters, as well as in optimizing cluster expression in native and heterologous host systems for the production of pharmaceutically relevant metabolites and their derivatives. PMID:28277838

Health system reform and safe abortion: a case study of Mongolia.

PubMed

Beck, Christina; Berry, Nicole S; Choijil, Semjidmaa

2013-01-01

Unsafe abortion serves as a marker of global inequity as it is concentrated in the developing world where the poorest and most vulnerable women live. While liberalisation of abortion law is essential to the reduction of unsafe abortion, a number of challenges exist beyond this important step. This paper investigates how popular health system reforms consonant with neoliberal agendas can challenge access to safe abortion. We use Mongolia, a country that has liberalised abortion law, yet, limited access to safe abortion, as a case study. Mongolia embraced market reforms in 1990 and subsequently reformed its health system. We document how common reforms in the areas of finance and regulation can compromise the safety of abortions as they foster challenges that include inconsistencies in service delivery that further foment health inequities, adoption of reproductive health programmes that are incompatible with the local sociocultural context, unregulated growth of the private sector and poor enforcement of standards and technical guidelines for safe abortion. We then discuss how this case study suggests the conversations that reproductive health policy-makers must have with those engineering health sector reform to ensure access to safe abortion in a liberalised environment.

A Comprehensive Study on the Internet of Underwater Things: Applications, Challenges, and Channel Models †

PubMed Central

Wu, Geng-De; Huang, Chun-Ju

2017-01-01

The Internet of Underwater Things (IoUT) is a novel class of Internet of Things (IoT), and is defined as the network of smart interconnected underwater objects. IoUT is expected to enable various practical applications, such as environmental monitoring, underwater exploration, and disaster prevention. With these applications, IoUT is regarded as one of the potential technologies toward developing smart cities. To support the concept of IoUT, Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks (UWSNs) have emerged as a promising network system. UWSNs are different from the traditional Territorial Wireless Sensor Networks (TWSNs), and have several unique properties, such as long propagation delay, narrow bandwidth, and low reliability. These unique properties would be great challenges for IoUT. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive study of IoUT, and the main contributions of this paper are threefold: (1) we introduce and classify the practical underwater applications that can highlight the importance of IoUT; (2) we point out the differences between UWSNs and traditional TWSNs, and these differences are the main challenges for IoUT; and (3) we investigate and evaluate the channel models, which are the technical core for designing reliable communication protocols on IoUT. PMID:28640220

Verification Challenges at Low Numbers

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

Benz, Jacob M.; Booker, Paul M.; McDonald, Benjamin S.

2013-07-16

This paper will explore the difficulties of deep reductions by examining the technical verification challenges. At each step on the road to low numbers, the verification required to ensure compliance of all parties will increase significantly. Looking post New START, the next step will likely include warhead limits in the neighborhood of 1000 (Pifer 2010). Further reductions will include stepping stones at 100’s of warheads, and then 10’s of warheads before final elimination could be considered of the last few remaining warheads and weapons. This paper will focus on these three threshold reduction levels, 1000, 100’s, 10’s. For each, themore » issues and challenges will be discussed, potential solutions will be identified, and the verification technologies and chain of custody measures that address these solutions will be surveyed. It is important to note that many of the issues that need to be addressed have no current solution. In these cases, the paper will explore new or novel technologies that could be applied. These technologies will draw from the research and development that is ongoing throughout the national lab complex, and will look at technologies utilized in other areas of industry for their application to arms control verification.« less

A Comprehensive Study on the Internet of Underwater Things: Applications, Challenges, and Channel Models.

PubMed

Kao, Chien-Chi; Lin, Yi-Shan; Wu, Geng-De; Huang, Chun-Ju

2017-06-22

The Internet of Underwater Things (IoUT) is a novel class of Internet of Things (IoT), and is defined as the network of smart interconnected underwater objects. IoUT is expected to enable various practical applications, such as environmental monitoring, underwater exploration, and disaster prevention. With these applications, IoUT is regarded as one of the potential technologies toward developing smart cities. To support the concept of IoUT, Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks (UWSNs) have emerged as a promising network system. UWSNs are different from the traditional Territorial Wireless Sensor Networks (TWSNs), and have several unique properties, such as long propagation delay, narrow bandwidth, and low reliability. These unique properties would be great challenges for IoUT. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive study of IoUT, and the main contributions of this paper are threefold: (1) we introduce and classify the practical underwater applications that can highlight the importance of IoUT; (2) we point out the differences between UWSNs and traditional TWSNs, and these differences are the main challenges for IoUT; and (3) we investigate and evaluate the channel models, which are the technical core for designing reliable communication protocols on IoUT.