Technology Readiness Level Assessment Process as Applied to NASA Earth Science Missions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Leete, Stephen J.; Romero, Raul A.; Dempsey, James A.; Carey, John P.; Cline, Helmut P.; Lively, Carey F.

2015-01-01

Technology assessments of fourteen science instruments were conducted within NASA using the NASA Technology Readiness Level (TRL) Metric. The instruments were part of three NASA Earth Science Decadal Survey missions in pre-formulation. The Earth Systematic Missions Program (ESMP) Systems Engineering Working Group (SEWG), composed of members of three NASA Centers, provided a newly modified electronic workbook to be completed, with instructions. Each instrument development team performed an internal assessment of its technology status, prepared an overview of its instrument, and completed the workbook with the results of its assessment. A team from the ESMP SEWG met with each instrument team and provided feedback. The instrument teams then reported through the Program Scientist for their respective missions to NASA's Earth Science Division (ESD) on technology readiness, taking the SEWG input into account. The instruments were found to have a range of TRL from 4 to 7. Lessons Learned are presented; however, due to the competition-sensitive nature of the assessments, the results for specific missions are not presented. The assessments were generally successful, and produced useful results for the agency. The SEWG team identified a number of potential improvements to the process. Particular focus was on ensuring traceability to guiding NASA documents, including the NASA Systems Engineering Handbook. The TRL Workbook has been substantially modified, and the revised workbook is described.

Development and Initial Validation of an Instrument for Human Capital Planning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zula, Kenneth J.; Chermack, Thomas J.

2008-01-01

This article reports on development and validation of an instrument for use in human capital approaches for organizational planning. The article describes use of a team of subject matter experts in developing a measure of human capital planning, and use of exploratory factor analysis techniques to validate the resulting instrument. These data were…

[Short Spanish version of Team Climate Inventory (TCI-14): development and psychometric properties].

PubMed

Boada-Grau, Joan; de Diego-Vallejo, Raúl; de Llanos-Serra, Emma; Vigil-Colet, Andreu

2011-04-01

The aim of the present paper was to develop a Spanish adaptation of the reduced, 14-item version of the Team Climate Inventory (TCI-14), a questionnaire developed to evaluate team climate. To this end the English version was adapted and applied to a sample of 360 employees from Castilla-León and Catalonia (44.4% men and 55.6% women). The results indicated that the TCI-14 has the same structure as the original version, and confirmatory factor analysis was used to verify the existence of the factors Vision, Participative Safety, Task Orientation and Support for Innovation. The TCI-14 also presented good reliability coefficients considering the low number of items on each scale (alphas ranged between .75 and .82). The TCI-14 is a potentially useful instrument for evaluating the climate of work teams. It could be used by future research as a screening tool in conjunction with other instruments.

New Approach to Concept Feasibility and Design Studies for Astrophysics Missions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Deutsch, M. J.; McLaughlin, W.; Nichols, J.

1998-01-01

JPL has assembled a team of multidisciplinary experts with corporate knowledge of space mission and instrument development. The advanced Concept Design Team, known as Team X, provides interactive design trades including cost as a design parameter, and advanced visualization for pre-Phase A Studies.

GASP-PL/I Simulation of Integrated Avionic System Processor Architectures. M.S. Thesis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Brent, G. A.

1978-01-01

A development study sponsored by NASA was completed in July 1977 which proposed a complete integration of all aircraft instrumentation into a single modular system. Instead of using the current single-function aircraft instruments, computers compiled and displayed inflight information for the pilot. A processor architecture called the Team Architecture was proposed. This is a hardware/software approach to high-reliability computer systems. A follow-up study of the proposed Team Architecture is reported. GASP-PL/1 simulation models are used to evaluate the operating characteristics of the Team Architecture. The problem, model development, simulation programs and results at length are presented. Also included are program input formats, outputs and listings.

Concurrent Design used in the Design of Space Instruments

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Oxnevad, Knut I.

1998-01-01

At the Project Design Center at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a concurrent design environment is under development for supporting development and analyses of space instruments in the early, conceptual design phases. This environment is being utilized by a Team I, a multidisciplinary group of experts. Team I is providing study and proposal support. To provide the required support, the Team I concurrent design environment features effectively interconnected high-end optics, CAD, and thermal design and analysis tools. Innovative approaches for linking tools, and for transferring files between applications have been implemented. These approaches together with effective sharing of geometry between the optics, CAD, and thermal tools are already showing significant timesavings.

76 FR 81945 - Request for Measures and Domains To Use in Development of a Standardized Instrument for Use in...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-12-29

... team developing this survey intends to submit it to the CAHPS Consortium to request use of the CAHPS trademark. The survey will be developed in accordance with CAHPS Survey Design Principles and will develop... other interested parties. The survey development team of Children's Hospital Boston Center of Excellence...

The Teamwork Assessment Scale: A Novel Instrument to Assess Quality of Undergraduate Medical Students' Teamwork Using the Example of Simulation-based Ward-Rounds.

PubMed

Kiesewetter, Jan; Fischer, Martin R

2015-01-01

Simulation-based teamwork trainings are considered a powerful training method to advance teamwork, which becomes more relevant in medical education. The measurement of teamwork is of high importance and several instruments have been developed for various medical domains to meet this need. To our knowledge, no theoretically-based and easy-to-use measurement instrument has been published nor developed specifically for simulation-based teamwork trainings of medical students. Internist ward-rounds function as an important example of teamwork in medicine. The purpose of this study was to provide a validated, theoretically-based instrument that is easy-to-use. Furthermore, this study aimed to identify if and when rater scores relate to performance. Based on a theoretical framework for teamwork behaviour, items regarding four teamwork components (Team Coordination, Team Cooperation, Information Exchange, Team Adjustment Behaviours) were developed. In study one, three ward-round scenarios, simulated by 69 students, were videotaped and rated independently by four trained raters. The instrument was tested for the embedded psychometric properties and factorial structure. In study two, the instrument was tested for construct validity with an external criterion with a second set of 100 students and four raters. In study one, the factorial structure matched the theoretical components but was unable to separate Information Exchange and Team Cooperation. The preliminary version showed adequate psychometric properties (Cronbach's α=.75). In study two, the instrument showed physician rater scores were more reliable in measurement than those of student raters. Furthermore, a close correlation between the scale and clinical performance as an external criteria was shown (r=.64) and the sufficient psychometric properties were replicated (Cronbach's α=.78). The validation allows for use of the simulated teamwork assessment scale in undergraduate medical ward-round trainings to reliably measure teamwork by physicians. Further studies are needed to verify the applicability of the instrument.

The Teamwork Assessment Scale: A Novel Instrument to Assess Quality of Undergraduate Medical Students' Teamwork Using the Example of Simulation-based Ward-Rounds

PubMed Central

Kiesewetter, Jan; Fischer, Martin R.

2015-01-01

Background: Simulation-based teamwork trainings are considered a powerful training method to advance teamwork, which becomes more relevant in medical education. The measurement of teamwork is of high importance and several instruments have been developed for various medical domains to meet this need. To our knowledge, no theoretically-based and easy-to-use measurement instrument has been published nor developed specifically for simulation-based teamwork trainings of medical students. Internist ward-rounds function as an important example of teamwork in medicine. Purposes: The purpose of this study was to provide a validated, theoretically-based instrument that is easy-to-use. Furthermore, this study aimed to identify if and when rater scores relate to performance. Methods: Based on a theoretical framework for teamwork behaviour, items regarding four teamwork components (Team Coordination, Team Cooperation, Information Exchange, Team Adjustment Behaviours) were developed. In study one, three ward-round scenarios, simulated by 69 students, were videotaped and rated independently by four trained raters. The instrument was tested for the embedded psychometric properties and factorial structure. In study two, the instrument was tested for construct validity with an external criterion with a second set of 100 students and four raters. Results: In study one, the factorial structure matched the theoretical components but was unable to separate Information Exchange and Team Cooperation. The preliminary version showed adequate psychometric properties (Cronbach’s α=.75). In study two, the instrument showed physician rater scores were more reliable in measurement than those of student raters. Furthermore, a close correlation between the scale and clinical performance as an external criteria was shown (r=.64) and the sufficient psychometric properties were replicated (Cronbach’s α=.78). Conclusions: The validation allows for use of the simulated teamwork assessment scale in undergraduate medical ward-round trainings to reliably measure teamwork by physicians. Further studies are needed to verify the applicability of the instrument. PMID:26038684

77 FR 2982 - Request for Measures and Domains To Use in Development of a Standardized Instrument for Use in...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-01-20

... the CAHPS 3 Consortium to develop this instrument. The survey will be developed in accordance with CAHPS Survey Design Principles and will develop implementation instructions based on those for CAHPS.... The survey development team of Children's Hospital Boston Center of Excellence for Pediatric Quality...

Contributions of the SDR Task Network tool to Calibration and Validation of the NPOESS Preparatory Project instruments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Feeley, J.; Zajic, J.; Metcalf, A.; Baucom, T.

2009-12-01

The National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) Preparatory Project (NPP) Calibration and Validation (Cal/Val) team is planning post-launch activities to calibrate the NPP sensors and validate Sensor Data Records (SDRs). The IPO has developed a web-based data collection and visualization tool in order to effectively collect, coordinate, and manage the calibration and validation tasks for the OMPS, ATMS, CrIS, and VIIRS instruments. This tool is accessible to the multi-institutional Cal/Val teams consisting of the Prime Contractor and Government Cal/Val leads along with the NASA NPP Mission team, and is used for mission planning and identification/resolution of conflicts between sensor activities. Visualization techniques aid in displaying task dependencies, including prerequisites and exit criteria, allowing for the identification of a critical path. This presentation will highlight how the information is collected, displayed, and used to coordinate the diverse instrument calibration/validation teams.

Strategies to Enhance Online Learning Teams. Team Assessment and Diagnostics Instrument and Agent-based Modeling

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-08-12

Strategies to Enhance Online Learning Teams Team Assessment and Diagnostics Instrument and Agent-based Modeling Tristan E. Johnson, Ph.D. Learning ...REPORT DATE AUG 2010 2. REPORT TYPE 3. DATES COVERED 00-00-2010 to 00-00-2010 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE Strategies to Enhance Online Learning ...TeamsTeam Strategies to Enhance Online Learning Teams: Team Assessment and Diagnostics Instrument and Agent-based Modeling 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER 5b. GRANT

Production and Distribution of NASA MODIS Remote Sensing Products

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wolfe, Robert

2007-01-01

The two Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instruments on-board NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS) Terra and Aqua satellites make key measurements for understanding the Earth's terrestrial ecosystems. Global time-series of terrestrial geophysical parameters have been produced from MODIS/Terra for over 7 years and for MODIS/Aqua for more than 4 1/2 years. These well calibrated instruments, a team of scientists and a large data production, archive and distribution systems have allowed for the development of a new suite of high quality product variables at spatial resolutions as fine as 250m in support of global change research and natural resource applications. This talk describes the MODIS Science team's products, with a focus on the terrestrial (land) products, the data processing approach and the process for monitoring and improving the product quality. The original MODIS science team was formed in 1989. The team's primary role is the development and implementation of the geophysical algorithms. In addition, the team provided feedback on the design and pre-launch testing of the instrument and helped guide the development of the data processing system. The key challenges the science team dealt with before launch were the development of algorithms for a new instrument and provide guidance of the large and complex multi-discipline processing system. Land, Ocean and Atmosphere discipline teams drove the processing system requirements, particularly in the area of the processing loads and volumes needed to daily produce geophysical maps of the Earth at resolutions as fine as 250 m. The processing system had to handle a large number of data products, large data volumes and processing loads, and complex processing requirements. Prior to MODIS, daily global maps from heritage instruments, such as Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR), were not produced at resolutions finer than 5 km. The processing solution evolved into a combination of processing the lower level (Level 1) products and the higher level discipline specific Land and Atmosphere products in the MODIS Science Investigator Lead Processing System (SIPS), the MODIS Adaptive Processing System (MODAPS), and archive and distribution of the Land products to the user community by two of NASA s EOS Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs). Recently, a part of MODAPS, the Level 1 and Atmosphere Archive and Distribution System (LAADS), took over the role of archiving and distributing the Level 1 and Atmosphere products to the user community.

Framework for the Integration of Multi-Instrument Pipelines in the BepiColombo Science Operations Control System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pérez-López, F.; Vallejo, J. C.; Martínez, S.; Ortiz, I.; Macfarlane, A.; Osuna, P.; Gill, R.; Casale, M.

2015-09-01

BepiColombo is an interdisciplinary ESA mission to explore the planet Mercury in cooperation with JAXA. The mission consists of two separate orbiters: ESA's Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and JAXA's Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO), which are dedicated to the detailed study of the planet and its magnetosphere. The MPO scientific payload comprises eleven instruments packages covering different disciplines developed by several European teams. This paper describes the design and development approach of the framework required to support the operation of the distributed BepiColombo MPO instruments pipelines, developed and operated from different locations, but designed as a single entity. An architecture based on primary-redundant configuration, fully integrated into the BepiColombo Science Operations Control System (BSCS), has been selected, where some instrument pipelines will be operated from the instrument team's data processing centres, having a pipeline replica that can be run from the Science Ground Segment (SGS), while others will be executed as primary pipelines from the SGS, adopting the SGS the pipeline orchestration role.

Jefferson Teamwork Observation Guide (JTOG): An Instrument to Observe Teamwork Behaviors.

PubMed

Lyons, Kevin J; Giordano, Carolyn; Speakman, Elizabeth; Smith, Kellie; Horowitz, June A

2016-01-01

Interprofessional education (IPE) is becoming an integral part of the education of health professions students. However, teaching students to become successful members of interprofessional teams is complex, and it is important for students to learn the combinations of skills necessary for teams to function effectively. There are many instruments available to measure many features related to IPE. However, these instruments are often too cumbersome to use in an observational situation since they tend to be lengthy and contain many abstract characteristics that are difficult to identify. The Jefferson Teamwork Observation Guide (JTOG) is a short tool that was created for students early in their educational program to observe teams in action with a set of guidelines to help them focus their observation on behaviors indicative of good teamwork. The JTOG was developed over a 2-year period based on student and clinician feedback and the input of experts in IPE. While initially developed as a purely educational tool for prelicensure students, it is becoming clear that it is an easy-to-use instrument that assesses the behavior of clinicians in practice.

Assessment of Interprofessional Team Collaboration Scale (AITCS): Development and Testing of the Instrument

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Orchard, Carole A.; King, Gillian A.; Khalili, Hossein; Bezzina, Mary Beth

2012-01-01

Introduction: Many health professionals believe they practice collaboratively. Providing insight into their actual level of collaboration requires a means to assess practice within health settings. This chapter reports on the development, testing, and refinement process for the Assessment of Interprofessional Team Collaboration Scale (AITCS).…

GeoLab: A Geological Workstation for Future Missions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Evans, Cynthia; Calaway, Michael; Bell, Mary Sue; Li, Zheng; Tong, Shuo; Zhong, Ye; Dahiwala, Ravi

2014-01-01

The GeoLab glovebox was, until November 2012, fully integrated into NASA's Deep Space Habitat (DSH) Analog Testbed. The conceptual design for GeoLab came from several sources, including current research instruments (Microgravity Science Glovebox) used on the International Space Station, existing Astromaterials Curation Laboratory hardware and clean room procedures, and mission scenarios developed for earlier programs. GeoLab allowed NASA scientists to test science operations related to contained sample examination during simulated exploration missions. The team demonstrated science operations that enhance theThe GeoLab glovebox was, until November 2012, fully integrated into NASA's Deep Space Habitat (DSH) Analog Testbed. The conceptual design for GeoLab came from several sources, including current research instruments (Microgravity Science Glovebox) used on the International Space Station, existing Astromaterials Curation Laboratory hardware and clean room procedures, and mission scenarios developed for earlier programs. GeoLab allowed NASA scientists to test science operations related to contained sample examination during simulated exploration missions. The team demonstrated science operations that enhance the early scientific returns from future missions and ensure that the best samples are selected for Earth return. The facility was also designed to foster the development of instrument technology. Since 2009, when GeoLab design and construction began, the GeoLab team [a group of scientists from the Astromaterials Acquisition and Curation Office within the Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science (ARES) Directorate at JSC] has progressively developed and reconfigured the GeoLab hardware and software interfaces and developed test objectives, which were to 1) determine requirements and strategies for sample handling and prioritization for geological operations on other planetary surfaces, 2) assess the scientific contribution of selective in-situ sample characterization for mission planning, operations, and sample prioritization, 3) evaluate analytical instruments and tools for providing efficient and meaningful data in advance of sample return and 4) identify science operations that leverage human presence with robotic tools. In the first year of tests (2010), GeoLab examined basic glovebox operations performed by one and two crewmembers and science operations performed by a remote science team. The 2010 tests also examined the efficacy of basic sample characterization [descriptions, microscopic imagery, X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analyses] and feedback to the science team. In year 2 (2011), the GeoLab team tested enhanced software and interfaces for the crew and science team (including Web-based and mobile device displays) and demonstrated laboratory configurability with a new diagnostic instrument (the Multispectral Microscopic Imager from the JPL and Arizona State University). In year 3 (2012), the GeoLab team installed and tested a robotic sample manipulator and evaluated robotic-human interfaces for science operations.

Assessing Chronic Illness Care Education (ACIC-E): a tool for tracking educational re-design for improving chronic care education.

PubMed

Bowen, Judith L; Provost, Lloyd; Stevens, David P; Johnson, Julie K; Woods, Donna M; Sixta, Connie S; Wagner, Edward H

2010-09-01

Recent Breakthrough Series Collaboratives have focused on improving chronic illness care, but few have included academic practices, and none have specifically targeted residency education in parallel with improving clinical care. Tools are available for assessing progress with clinical improvements, but no similar instruments have been developed for monitoring educational improvements for chronic care education. To design a survey to assist teaching practices with identifying curricular gaps in chronic care education and monitor efforts to address those gaps. During a national academic chronic care collaborative, we used an iterative method to develop and pilot test a survey instrument modeled after the Assessing Chronic Illness Care (ACIC). We implemented this instrument, the ACIC-Education, in a second collaborative and assessed the relationship of survey results with reported educational measures. A combined 57 self-selected teams from 37 teaching hospitals enrolled in one of two collaboratives. We used descriptive statistics to report mean ACIC-E scores and educational measurement results, and Pearson's test for correlation between the final ACIC-E score and reported educational measures. A total of 29 teams from the national collaborative and 15 teams from the second collaborative in California completed the final ACIC-E. The instrument measured progress on all sub-scales of the Chronic Care Model. Fourteen California teams (70%) reported using two to six education measures (mean 4.3). The relationship between the final survey results and the number of educational measures reported was weak (R(2) = 0.06, p = 0.376), but improved when a single outlier was removed (R(2) = 0.37, p = 0.022). The ACIC-E instrument proved feasible to complete. Participating teams, on average, recorded modest improvement in all areas measured by the instrument over the duration of the collaboratives. The relationship between the final ACIC-E score and the number of educational measures was weak. Further research on its utility and validity is required.

Dimensionality of Upper Elementary Mathematics Instruction: Exploring Factors across Two Observational Instruments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Blazar, David; Braslow, David; Charalambous, Charalambos Y.

2015-01-01

Over the past several years, research teams have developed observational instruments to measure the quality of teachers' instructional practices. Instruments such as Framework for Teaching (FFT) and the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) assess general teaching practices, including student-teacher interactions, behavior management, and…

Magnetometer instrument team studies for the definition phase of the outer planets grand tour

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Coleman, P. J., Jr.

1972-01-01

The objectives of magnetic field investigations on missions to the outer planets were defined as well as an instrumentation system, a program of studies and instrument development tasks was proposed for the mission definition phase of the Outer Planets Grand Tour project. A report on the status of this program is given. Requirements were also established for the spacecraft and the mission which would insure their compatibility with the magnetic field investigation proposed for the outer planets missions and developed figures of merit for encounter trajectories. The spacecraft-instrumentation interface and the on-board data handling system were defined in various reports by the Project Team and in the reports by the Science Steering Group. The defining program for exploring the outer planets within the more restrictive constraints of the Mariner Jupiter-Saturn project included defining a limited magnetic field investigation.

Measuring Medical Housestaff Teamwork Performance Using Multiple Direct Observation Instruments: Comparing Apples and Apples.

PubMed

Weingart, Saul N; Yaghi, Omar; Wetherell, Matthew; Sweeney, Megan

2018-04-10

To examine the composition and concordance of existing instruments used to assess medical teams' performance. A trained observer joined 20 internal medicine housestaff teams for morning work rounds at Tufts Medical Center, a 415-bed Boston teaching hospital, from October through December 2015. The observer rated each team's performance using 9 teamwork observation instruments that examined domains including team structure, leadership, situation monitoring, mutual support, and communication. Observations recorded on paper forms were stored electronically. Scores were normalized from 1 (low) to 5 (high) to account for different rating scales. Overall mean scores were calculated and graphed; weighted scores adjusted for the number of items in each teamwork domain. Teamwork scores were analyzed using t-tests, pair-wise correlations, and the Kruskal-Wallis statistic, and team performance was compared across instruments by domain. The 9 tools incorporated 5 major domains, with 5-35 items per instrument for a total of 161 items per observation session. In weighted and unweighted analyses, the overall teamwork performance score for a given team on a given day varied by instrument. While all of the tools identified the same low outlier, high performers on some instruments were low performers on others. Inconsistent scores for a given team across instruments persisted in domain-level analyses. There was substantial variation in the rating of individual teams assessed concurrently by a single observer using multiple instruments. Since existing teamwork observation tools do not yield concordant assessments, researchers should create better tools for measuring teamwork performance.

ExoMars Raman Laser Spectrometer scientific required performances check with a Breadboard

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moral, A.; Díaz, E.; Ramos, G.; Rodríguez Prieto, J. A.; Pérez Canora, C.; Díaz, C.; Canchal, R.; Gallego, P.; Santamaría, P.; Colombo, M.

2013-09-01

The Raman Laser Spectrometer (RLS) is one of the Pasteur Payload instruments, within the ESA's Aurora Exploration Program, ExoMars mission. For being able to verify the achievement of the scientific objectives of the instrument, a Breadboard campaign was developed, for achieving instrument TRL5. Within the Instrument TRL5 Plan, it was required to every unit to develop its own Unit Breadboard, to check their own TRL5 and then to deliver it to System Team to be integrated and tested for finally checks Instrument performances.

The HB-2D Polarized Neutron Development Beamline at the High Flux Isotope Reactor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Crow, Lowell; Hamilton, WA; Zhao, JK; Robertson, JL

2016-09-01

The Polarized Neutron Development beamline, recently commissioned at the HB-2D position on the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, provides a tool for development and testing of polarizers, polarized neutron devices, and prototyping of polarized neutron techniques. With available monochromators including pyrolytic graphite and polarizing enriched Fe-57 (Si), the instrument has operated at 4.25 and 2.6 Å wavelengths, using crystal, supermirror, or He-3 polarizers and analyzers in various configurations. The Neutron Optics and Development Team has used the beamline for testing of He-3 polarizers for use at other HFIR and Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) instruments, as well as a variety of flipper devices. Recently, we have acquired new supermirror polarizers which have improved the instrument performance. The team and collaborators also have continuing demonstration experiments of spin-echo focusing techniques, and plans to conduct polarized diffraction measurements. The beamline is also used to support a growing use of polarization techniques at present and future instruments at SNS and HFIR.

Development and Initial Validation of the Caregiver Perceptions About Communication With Clinical Team Members (CAPACITY) Measure.

PubMed

Van Houtven, Courtney Harold; Miller, Katherine E M; O'Brien, Emily C; Wolff, Jennifer L; Lindquist, Jennifer; Kabat, Margaret; Campbell-Kotler, Margaret; Henius, Jennifer; Voils, Corrine I

2017-12-01

Despite the important role that family caregivers play managing the care of persons with complex health needs, little is known about how caregivers perceive themselves to be recognized and valued by health care professionals. Our objective was to develop and validate a novel measure, the CAregiver Perceptions About Commun Ication with Clinical Team members (CAPACITY) instrument. Questions focus on perceived quality of communication with the health care team and the extent to which caregivers believe that the health care team considers their capacity and preferences in decision making. A confirmatory factor analysis supported a two-factor solution addressing communication and capacity. Internal consistency reliability was .90 for the communication domain and .93 for the capacity domain. Correlations between these two subscales and individual difference measures provided evidence of convergent and discriminant validity. The CAPACITY instrument may be a useful performance measure that quantifies the extent to which caregivers' experience person- and family-centered health care.

Superconducting gravity gradiometer mission. Volume 1: Study team executive summary

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Morgan, Samuel H. (Editor); Paik, Ho Jung (Editor)

1989-01-01

An executive summary is presented based upon the scientific and engineering studies and developments performed or directed by a Study Team composed of various Federal and University activities involved with the development of a three-axis Superconducting Gravity Gradiometer integrated with a six-axis superconducting accelerometer. This instrument is being developed for a future orbital mission to make precise global gravity measurements. The scientific justification and requirements for such a mission are discussed. This includes geophysics, the primary mission objective, as well as secondary objectives, such as navigation and tests of fundamental laws of physics, i.e., a null test of the inverse square law of gravitation and tests of general relativity. The instrument design and status along with mission analysis, engineering assessments, and preliminary spacecraft concepts are discussed. In addition, critical spacecraft systems and required technology advancements are examined. The mission requirements and an engineering assessment of a precursor flight test of the instrument are discussed.

Superconducting gravity gradiometer mission. Volume 2: Study team technical report

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Morgan, Samuel H. (Editor); Paik, Ho Jung (Editor)

1988-01-01

Scientific and engineering studies and developments performed or directed by a Study Team composed of various Federal and University activities involved with the development of a three-axis superconducting gravity gradiometer integrated with a six-axis superconducting accelerometer are examined. This instrument is being developed for a future orbital mission to make precise global gravity measurements. The scientific justification and requirements for such a mission are discussed. This includes geophysics, the primary mission objective, as well as secondary objective, such as navigation and feats of fundamental laws of physics, i.e., a null test of the inverse square law of gravitation and tests of general relativity. The instrument design and status along with mission analysis, engineering assessments, and preliminary spacecraft concepts are discussed. In addition, critical spacecraft systems and required technology advancements are examined. The mission requirements and an engineering assessment of a precursor flight test of the instrument are discussed.

The Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer science instruments development - Lessons learned

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Malina, Roger F.; Battel, S.

1991-01-01

The science instruments development project for the Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (EUVE) satellite is reviewed. Issues discussed include the philosophical basis of the program, the establishment of a tight development team, the approach to planning and phasing activities, the handling of the most difficult technical problems, and the assessment of the work done during the preimplemntation period of the project.

Surface contamination analysis technology team overview

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Burns, H. Dewitt, Jr.

1996-11-01

The surface contamination analysis technology (SCAT) team was originated as a working roup of NASA civil service, Space Shuttle contractor, and university groups. Participating members of the SCAT Team have included personnel from NASA Marshall Space Flight Center's Materials and Processes Laboratory and Langley Research Center's Instrument Development Group; contractors-Thiokol Corporation's Inspection Technology Group, AC Engineering support contractor, Aerojet, SAIC, and Lockheed MArtin/Oak Ridge Y-12 support contractor and Shuttle External Tank prime contractor; and the University of Alabama in Huntsville's Center for Robotics and Automation. The goal of the SCAT team as originally defined was to develop and integrate a multi-purpose inspection head for robotic application to in-process inspection of contamination sensitive surfaces. One area of interest was replacement of ozone depleting solvents currently used for surface cleanliness verification. The team approach brought together the appropriate personnel to determine what surface inspection techniques were applicable to multi-program surface cleanliness inspection. Major substrates of interest were chosen to simulate space shuttle critical bonding surface or surfaces sensitive to contamination such as fuel system component surfaces. Inspection techniques evaluated include optically stimulated electron emission or photoelectron emission; Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy; near infrared fiber optic spectroscopy; and, ultraviolet fluorescence. Current plans are to demonstrate an integrated system in MSFC's Productivity Enhancement Complex within five years from initiation of this effort in 1992. Instrumentation specifications and designs developed under this effort include a portable diffuse reflectance FTIR system built by Surface Optics Corporation and a third generation optically stimulated electron emission system built by LaRC. This paper will discuss the evaluation of the various techniques on a number of substrate materials contaminated with hydrocarbons, silicones, and fluorocarbons. Discussion will also include standards development for instrument calibration and testing.

Impact of clinical leadership development on the clinical leader, nursing team and care-giving process: a case study.

PubMed

Dierckx de Casterlé, Bernadette; Willemse, An; Verschueren, Marc; Milisen, Koen

2008-09-01

This study explored the dynamics related to a leadership development programme and their impact on the clinical leader, the nursing team and the care-giving process. While there is a growing conviction about the need to invest in transformational leadership in nursing, further insight into the true complexity of leadership development and, more specifically, how leadership can make a difference in nursing and patient outcomes is essential. A single instrumental case study was conducted in a unit of a large academic hospital where a Clinical Leadership development Project (CLP) was implemented successfully. We used mixed methods with multiple sources of data to capture the complexity of leadership development. Data were collected through individual interviews, focus groups and observation of participants. A purposive sample of 17 participants representing a wide variety of team members has permitted data saturation. The data were categorized and conceptualized and finally organized into a framework describing leadership development on the unit and its impact on the leader, the nursing team and the care-giving process. Leadership development is an ongoing, interactive process between the clinical leader and the co-workers. The head nurse became more effective in areas of self-awareness, communication skills, performance and vision. The nursing team benefited because more effective leadership promoted effective communication, greater responsibility, empowerment and job clarity. Improved clinical leadership seemed also to influence patient-centred communication, continuity of care and interdisciplinary collaboration. The results of the study give more insight into the processes underlying the leader's progress towards attaining a transformational leadership style and its impact on the team members. The impact of leadership on the care-giving process, however, remains difficult to describe. The interactive nature of leadership development makes CLP a challenge for the leader as well for the team members. Through its impact on the leader and the nursing team, CLP is a valuable instrument for improving work environments of nurses, contributing positively to patient-centred care.

A virtual team group process.

PubMed

Bell, Marnie; Robertson, Della; Weeks, Marlene; Yu, Deborah

2002-01-01

Virtual teams are a phenomenon of the Information Era and their existence in health care is anticipated to increase with technology enhancements such as telehealth and groupware. The mobilization and support of high performing virtual teams are important for leading knowledge-based health professionals in the 21st century. Using an adapted McGrath group development model, the four staged maturation process of a virtual team consisting of four masters students is explored in this paper. The team's development is analyzed addressing the interaction of technology with social and task dynamics. Throughout the project, leadership competencies of value to the group that emerged were demonstrated and incorporated into the development of a leadership competency assessment instrument. The demonstration of these competencies illustrated how they were valued and internalized by the group. In learning about the work of this virtual team, the reader will gain understanding of how leadership impacts virtual team performance.

Comprehensive planning of data archive in Japanese planetary missions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yamamoto, Yukio; Shinohara, Iku; Hoshino, Hirokazu; Tateno, Naoki; Hareyama, Makoto; Okada, Naoki; Ebisawa, Ken

Comprehensive planning of data archive in Japanese planetary missions Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) provides HAYABUSA and KAGUYA data as planetary data archives. These data archives, however, were prepared independently. Therefore the inconsistency of data format has occurred, and the knowledge of data archiving activity is not inherited. Recently, the discussion of comprehensive planning of data archive has started to prepare up-coming planetary missions, which indicates the comprehensive plan of data archive is required in several steps. The framework of the comprehensive plan is divided into four items: Preparation, Evaluation, Preservation, and Service. 1. PREPARATION FRAMEWORK Data is classified into several types: raw data, level-0, 1, 2 processing data, ancillary data, and etc. The task of mission data preparation is responsible for instrument teams, but preparations beside mission data and support of data management are essential to make unified conventions and formats over instruments in a mission, and over missions. 2. EVALUATION FRAMEWORK There are two meanings of evaluation: format and quality. The format evaluation is often discussed in the preparation framework. The data quality evaluation which is often called quality assurance (QA) or quality control (QC) must be performed by third party apart from preparation teams. An instrument team has the initiative for the preparation itself, and the third-party group is organized to evaluate the instrument team's activity. 3. PRESERVATION FRAMEWORK The main topic of this framework is document management, archiving structure, and simple access method. The mission produces many documents in the process of the development. Instrument de-velopment is no exception. During long-term development of a mission, many documents are obsoleted and updated repeatedly. A smart system will help instrument team to reduce some troubles of document management and archiving task. JAXA attempts to follow PDS manners to do this management since PDS has highly sophisticated archiving structure. In addition, the access method to archived data must be simple and standard well over a decade. 4. SERVICE FRAMEWORK The service framework including planetary data access protocol, PDAP, has been developed to share a stored data effectively. The sophisticated service framework will work not only for publication data, but also for low-level data. JAXA's data query services is under developed based on PDAP, which means that the low-level data can be published in the same manner as level 2 data. In this presentation, we report the detail structure of these four frameworks adopting upcoming Planet-C, Venus Climate Orbiter, mission.

Assessment of the Use of Online Comunities to Integrate Educational Processes Development Teams: An Experience in Popular Health Education in Brazil

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barilli, Elomar Castilho; de Freitas Barretto, Stenio; Lima, Carla Moura; Menezes, Marco Antonio

2014-01-01

This paper is intended to share the results of the assessment of the use of the Online Work Community (OWC), developed in the Moodle technology that was used as an instrument to facilitate the educational and operational processes, intended to share problems and proposals for solution among the 470 members of the development teams, made up of…

Towards a Methodology for Managing Competencies in Virtual Teams - A Systemic Approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schumacher, Marinita; Stal-Le Cardinal, Julie; Bocquet, Jean-Claude

Virtual instruments and tools are future trends in Engineering which are a response to the growing complexity of engineering tasks, the facility of communication and strong collaborations on the international market. Outsourcing, off-shoring, and the globalization of organisations’ activities have resulted in the formation of virtual product development teams. Individuals who are working in virtual teams must be equipped with diversified competencies that provide a basis for virtual team building. Thanks to the systemic approach of the functional analysis our paper responds to the need of a methodology of competence management to build virtual teams that are active in virtual design projects in the area of New Product Development (NPD).

A Measure of Team Resilience: Developing the Resilience at Work Team Scale.

PubMed

McEwen, Kathryn; Boyd, Carolyn M

2018-03-01

This study develops, and initial evaluates, a new measure of team-based resilience for use in research and practice. We conducted preliminary analyses, based on a cross-sectional sample of 344 employees nested within 31 teams. Seven dimensions were identified through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. The measure had high reliability and significant discrimination to indicate the presence of a unique team-based aspect of resilience that contributed to higher work engagement and higher self-rated team performance, over and above the effects of individual resilience. Multilevel analyses showed that team, but not individual, resilience predicted self-rated team performance. Practice implications include a need to focus on collective as well as individual behaviors in resilience-building. The measure provides a diagnostic instrument for teams and a scale to evaluate organizational interventions and research the relationship of resilience to other constructs.

What is a good general practitioner (GP)? The development and evaluation of a multi-source feedback instrument for GP appraisal.

PubMed

Shepherd, Annabel; Lough, Murray

2010-05-01

Although multi-source feedback (MSF) has been used in primary healthcare, the development of an MSF instrument specific to this setting in the UK has not been previously described. The aims of this study were to develop and evaluate an MSF instrument for GPs in Scotland taking part in appraisal. The members of ten primary healthcare teams in the west of Scotland were asked to provide comments in answer to the question, 'What is a good GP?'. The data were reduced and coded by two researchers and questions were devised. Following content validity testing the MSF process was evaluated with volunteers using face-to-face interviews and a postal survey. Thirty-seven statements covering the six domains of communication skills, professional values, clinical care, working with colleagues, personality issues and duties and responsibilities were accepted as relevant by ten primary healthcare teams using a standard of 80 percent agreement. The evaluation found the MSF process to be feasible and acceptable and participants provided some evidence of educational impact. An MSF instrument for GPs has been developed based on the concept of 'the good GP' as described by the primary healthcare team. The evaluation of the resultant MSF process illustrates the potential of MSF, when delivered in the supportive environment of GP appraisal, to provide feedback which has the possibility of improving working relationships between GPs and their colleagues.

Report on monitoring and support instruments for solar physics research from Spacelab

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1978-01-01

The Quick Reaction and Special Purpose Facility Definition Team for Solar Physics Spacelab Payloads examined a variety of instruments to fulfill the following functions: (1) solar physics research appropriate to Spacelab, (2) correlative data for research in such fields as aeronomy, magnetospheric physics, ionospheric physics, meteorology and climatology, (3) target selection for activity alert monitoring and (4) pointing accuracy monitoring of Spacelab platforms. In this examination the team accepted a number of restrictions and qualifications: (1) the cost of such instruments must be low, so as not to adversely impact the development of new, research class instrumentation in the early Spacelab era; (2) the instruments should be of such a size that they each would occupy a small fraction of a pointing system, and (3) the weight and power consumption of the instruments should also be small. With these restrictions, the instruments chosen are: the visible light telescope and magnetograph, the extreme-ultraviolet telescope, and the solar irradiance monitor.

Development of New Research-Quality Low-Resource Magnetometers for Small Satellites

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Moldwin, Mark; Hunter, Roger C.; Baker, Christopher

2017-01-01

Researchers from the University of Michigan (UM) and NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center (GSFC) are partnering to develop new types of magnetometers for use on future small satellites. These new instruments not only fulfill stringent requirements for low-amplitude and high-precision measurements, they are also enabling the team to develop a new approach to achieve high-quality magnetic measurements from space, without the need for a boom. Typically, space-based magnetometers are deployed on a boom that extends from the space vehicle to reduce exposure of magnetic noise emanating from the spacecraft, which could potentially contaminate measurements. The UMNASA team has developed algorithms to identify and eliminate spacecraft magnetic noise, which will allow placement of these economical, science-grade instrument magnetometers on and inside the satellite bus, instead of on a boom.

Profile of an excellent nurse manager: identifying and developing health care team leaders.

PubMed

Kallas, Kathryn D

2014-01-01

The purpose of this research was to identify the profile of an excellent nurse manager who can lead effective health care teams. Leadership attributes and competencies that characterize an excellent nurse manager and tools to identify them are lacking in the literature but are required to efficiently and effectively address the growing shortage of registered nurses (RNs) in health care team leadership roles and the critical linkage of these roles to patient outcomes. A profile of an excellent nurse manager was developed on the basis of the responses of nurse managers across the United States who had been identified as excellent or competent by chief nurse executive assessment or/and the Nurse Manager Ability, Leadership, and Support of Nurses staff survey to the Kouzes and Posner Leadership Practices Inventory: Self Instrument. Statistically significant distinctions exist between nurse managers who are excellent and those who are competent as assessed by the Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership, which together comprise the profile of an excellent nurse manager. The Kouzes and Posner Leadership Practices Inventory: Self Instrument can be used to identify, recruit, and develop RNs in the nurse manager role as excellent leaders of effective health care teams.

Developing an Instrument to Characterise Peer-Led Groups in Collaborative Learning Environments: Assessing Problem-Solving Approach and Group Interaction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pazos, Pilar; Micari, Marina; Light, Gregory

2010-01-01

Collaborative learning is being used extensively by educators at all levels. Peer-led team learning in a version of collaborative learning that has shown consistent success in science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines. Using a multi-phase research study we describe the development of an observation instrument that can be used to…

The development and psychometric evaluation of a safety climate measure for primary care.

PubMed

de Wet, C; Spence, W; Mash, R; Johnson, P; Bowie, P

2010-12-01

Building a safety culture is an important part of improving patient care. Measuring perceptions of safety climate among healthcare teams and organisations is a key element of this process. Existing measurement instruments are largely developed for secondary care settings in North America and many lack adequate psychometric testing. Our aim was to develop and test an instrument to measure perceptions of safety climate among primary care teams in National Health Service for Scotland. Questionnaire development was facilitated through a steering group, literature review, semistructured interviews with primary care team members, a modified Delphi and completion of a content validity index by experts. A cross-sectional postal survey utilising the questionnaire was undertaken in a random sample of west of Scotland general practices to facilitate psychometric evaluation. Statistical methods, including exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, and Cronbach and Raykov reliability coefficients were conducted. Of the 667 primary care team members based in 49 general practices surveyed, 563 returned completed questionnaires (84.4%). Psychometric evaluation resulted in the development of a 30-item questionnaire with five safety climate factors: leadership, teamwork, communication, workload and safety systems. Retained items have strong factor loadings to only one factor. Reliability coefficients was satisfactory (α = 0.94 and ρ = 0.93). This study is the first stage in the development of an appropriately valid and reliable safety climate measure for primary care. Measuring safety climate perceptions has the potential to help primary care organisations and teams focus attention on safety-related issues and target improvement through educational interventions. Further research is required to explore acceptability and feasibility issues for primary care teams and the potential for organisational benchmarking.

Customisation of an instrument to assess anaesthesiologists' non-technical skills.

PubMed

Jepsen, Rikke M H G; Spanager, Lene; Lyk-Jensen, Helle T; Dieckmann, Peter; Østergaard, Doris

2015-02-22

The objectives of the study were to identify Danish anaesthesiologists' non-technical skills and to customise the Scottish-developed Anaesthetists' Non-Technical Skills instrument for Danish anaesthesiologists. Six semi-structured group interviews were conducted with 31 operating room team members: anaes-thesiologists, nurse anaesthetists, surgeons, and scrub nurses. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed using directed content analysis. Anaesthesiologists' non-technical skills were identified, coded, and sorted using the original instrument as a basis. The resulting prototype instrument was discussed with anaesthesiologists from 17 centres to ensure face validity. Interviews lasted 46-67 minutes. Identified examples of anaesthesiologists' good or poor non-technical skills fit the four categories in the original instrument: situation awareness; decision making; team working; and task management. Anaesthesiologists' leadership role in the operating room was emphasised: the original 'Task Management' category was named 'Leadership'. One new element, 'Demonstrating self-awareness' was added under the category 'Situation Awareness'. Compared with the original instrument, half of the behavioural markers were new, which reflected that being aware of and communicating one's own abilities to the team; working systematically; and speaking up to avoid adverse events were important skills. The Anaesthetists' Non-Technical Skills instrument was customised to a Danish setting using the identified non-technical skills for anaesthesiologists and the original instrument as basis. The customised instrument comprises four categories and 16 underpinning elements supported by multiple behavioural markers. Identifying non-technical skills through semi-structured group interviews and analysing them using direct content analysis proved a useful method for customising an assessment instrument to another setting.

Training Early Career Scientists in Flight Instrument Design Through Experiential Learning: NASA Goddard's Planetary Science Winter School.

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bleacher, L. V.; Lakew, B.; Bracken, J.; Brown, T.; Rivera, R.

2017-01-01

The NASA Goddard Planetary Science Winter School (PSWS) is a Goddard Space Flight Center-sponsored training program, managed by Goddard's Solar System Exploration Division (SSED), for Goddard-based postdoctoral fellows and early career planetary scientists. Currently in its third year, the PSWS is an experiential training program for scientists interested in participating on future planetary science instrument teams. Inspired by the NASA Planetary Science Summer School, Goddard's PSWS is unique in that participants learn the flight instrument lifecycle by designing a planetary flight instrument under actual consideration by Goddard for proposal and development. They work alongside the instrument Principal Investigator (PI) and engineers in Goddard's Instrument Design Laboratory (IDL; idc.nasa.gov), to develop a science traceability matrix and design the instrument, culminating in a conceptual design and presentation to the PI, the IDL team and Goddard management. By shadowing and working alongside IDL discipline engineers, participants experience firsthand the science and cost constraints, trade-offs, and teamwork that are required for optimal instrument design. Each PSWS is collaboratively designed with representatives from SSED, IDL, and the instrument PI, to ensure value added for all stakeholders. The pilot PSWS was held in early 2015, with a second implementation in early 2016. Feedback from past participants was used to design the 2017 PSWS, which is underway as of the writing of this abstract.

Performer: An Instrument for Multidisciplinary Courseware Teams to Share Knowledge and Experiences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

van Aalst, Jan-Willem; van der Mast, Charles

2003-01-01

One of the traditional problems in courseware development that is recognized as hard to solve, is the communication and co-operation between various disciplines in project teams that are working on a courseware product [Alber (1996) "Multimedia: a management perspective." California: Wadsworth; Boyle (1997) "Design for multimedia learning." UK:…

Where's All the Teamwork Gone? A Qualitative Analysis of Cooperation between Members of Two Interdisciplinary Teams

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bruce, Jacklyn A.; Ricketts, Kristina G.

2008-01-01

This study explored cooperation between members of two interdisciplinary teams of educators within the agricultural field in a northeastern state. A researcher-developed instrument was used to explore individual perceptions regarding interdisciplinary cooperation. Using qualitative methods, the researchers intended to bring to light the thoughts,…

The 2005 HST Calibration Workshop Hubble After the Transition to Two-Gyro Mode

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Koekemoer, Anton M. (Editor); Goodfrooij, Paul (Editor); Dressel, Linda L. (Editor)

2006-01-01

The 2005 HST Calibration Workshop was held at the Space Telescope Science Institute during October 26, 2005 to bring together members of the observing community, the instrument development teams, and the STScI instrument support teams to share information and techniques. Presentations included the two-gyro performance of HST and FGS, advances in the calibration of a number of instruments, the results of other instruments after their return from space, and the status of still others which are scheduled for installation during the next servicing mission. Cross-calibration between HST and JWST was discussed, as well as the new Guide Star Catalog and advances in data analysis software. This book contains the published record of the workshop, while all the talks and posters are available electronically on the workshop Web site.

IMG_4293

NASA Image and Video Library

2015-08-14

The BARREL team prepares to release the second scientific balloon in its Sweden campaign on Aug. 13, 2015. In addition to the instruments used in previous BARREL campaigns, this second balloon launched from the Esrange Space Center in Kiruna is carrying one of two instruments designed by a team from the University of Houston. With funding from the Undergraduate Student Instrument Program, or USIP, at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center’s Wallops Flight Facility, the team of 12 students, under the direction of Edgar Bering at the University of Houston, developed a magnetometer -- which measures magnetic fields -- and an instrument to measure electrons, which flew on this launch. To collect their data, the University of Houston team needs to recover their instrument after the balloon comes down. After this launch, the balloon began to drift toward the mountains, which would have impeded recovery. So the team terminated the flight at 1:18 pm EDT to bring the payload slowly and safely to the ground. The NASA-funded BARREL – which stands for Balloon Array for Radiation-belt Relativistic Electron Losses – measures electrons in the atmosphere near the poles. Such electrons rain down into the atmosphere from two giant radiation belts surrounding Earth, called the Van Allen belts. For its third campaign, BARREL is launching six balloons from the Esrange Space Center in Kiruna, Sweden. BARREL is led by Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. Credit: NASA/University of Houston/Edgar Bering NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

Mercury Science Objectives and Traceability Within the BepiColombo Project: Optimising the Science Output of the Next Mission to Mercury

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Besse, S.; Benkhoff, J.; Bentley, M.; Cornet, T.; Moissl, R.; Munoz, C.; Zender, J.

2018-05-01

The BepiColombo Science Ground Segment is developing, in collaboration with the instrument teams, targeted science traceability matrix of each instrument. They are defined in such a way that they can be tracked during the observation lifecycle.

Sources Sought for Innovative Scientific Instrumentation for Scientific Lunar Rovers

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Meyer, C.

1993-01-01

Lunar rovers should be designed as integrated scientific measurement systems that address scientific goals as their main objective. Scientific goals for lunar rovers are presented. Teleoperated robotic field geologists will allow the science team to make discoveries using a wide range of sensory data collected by electronic 'eyes' and sophisticated scientific instrumentation. rovers need to operate in geologically interesting terrain (rock outcrops) and to identify and closely examine interesting rock samples. Enough flight-ready instruments are available to fly on the first mission, but additional instrument development based on emerging technology is desirable. Various instruments that need to be developed for later missions are described.

A SURVEY INSTRUMENT FOR IDENTIFYING CLUSTERS OF KNOWLEDGE AND COMPETENCIES ASSOCIATED WITH PERFORMANCE OF FOOD SERVICE WORK, REPORT NUMBER 9.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

RAHMLOW, HAROLD F.; AND OTHERS

AS AN INITIAL STEP TOWARD IMPROVING VOCATIONAL CURRICULUMS IN FOOD SERVICING, A SPECIAL RESEARCH TEAM DEVELOPED AND FIELD TESTED A SURVEY INSTRUMENT FOR OBTAINING UP-TO-DATE INFORMATION ABOUT MAJOR TYPES AND COMBINATIONS OF TASKS PERFORMED BY FOOD SERVICE WORKERS. THE INSTRUMENT COVERED THE FOLLOWING BASIC TASKS OF FOOD SERVICING--(1) FOOD…

The impact of leadership and team behavior on standard of care delivered during human patient simulation: a pilot study for undergraduate medical students.

PubMed

Carlson, Jim; Min, Elana; Bridges, Diane

2009-01-01

Methodology to train team behavior during simulation has received increased attention, but standard performance measures are lacking, especially at the undergraduate level. Our purposes were to develop a reliable team behavior measurement tool and explore the relationship between team behavior and the delivery of an appropriate standard of care specific to the simulated case. Authors developed a unique team measurement tool based on previous work. Trainees participated in a simulated event involving the presentation of acute dyspnea. Performance was rated by separate raters using the team behavior measurement tool. Interrater reliability was assessed. The relationship between team behavior and the standard of care delivered was explored. The instrument proved to be reliable for this case and group of raters. Team behaviors had a positive relationship with the standard of medical care delivered specific to the simulated case. The methods used provide a possible method for training and assessing team performance during simulation.

Discourse in freshman engineering teams: The relationship between verbal persuasions, self-efficacy, and achievement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yasar, Senay

Collaborative teamwork is a common practice in both science and engineering schools and workplaces. This study, using a mixed-methods approach, was designed to identify which team discourse characteristics are correlated with changes in student self-efficacy and achievement. Bandura's self-efficacy theory constitutes the theoretical framework. Seven teams, consisting of first-year engineering students, took the pre- and post-surveys and were video- and audio-recorded during a semester-long Introduction to Engineering Design course. Three instruments were developed: a self-efficacy survey, a team interaction observation protocol, and a team interaction self-report survey. The reliability and validity of these instruments were established. An iterative process of code development and refinement led to the development of thirty-five discourse types, which were grouped under six discourse categories: task-oriented, response-oriented, learning-oriented, support-oriented, challenge-oriented, and disruptive. The results of the quantitative data analysis showed that achievement and gain in self-efficacy were significantly correlated ( r=.55, p<.01). There was also a positive correlation between support-orientated discourse and post self-efficacy scores ( r=.43, p<.05). Negative correlations were observed between disruptive discourse behaviors and post self-efficacy (r=-.48, p<.05). Neither being challenged by peers nor receiving negative feedback revealed significant correlations with student self-efficacy. In addition, no direct correlations between the team discourse characteristics and achievement were found. These findings suggest that collaborative teamwork can lead to achievement to the extent that it supports self-efficacy. They also suggest that interactions such as receiving positive or negative feedback have less impact on self-efficacy than does the overall constructive behavior of the group. The qualitative component of the study, which focused on three case studies, presents how supportive and disruptive interactions occurred during team discourse. Discussion includes recommendations for educators on how to help teams build supportive environments as well as what to look for when forming teams and evaluating student team interactions.

Climate of Respect Evaluation in ICUs: Development of an Instrument (ICU-CORE).

PubMed

Beach, Mary Catherine; Topazian, Rachel; Chan, Kitty S; Sugarman, Jeremy; Geller, Gail

2018-06-01

To develop a valid, reliable measure that reflected the environment of respectfulness within the ICU setting. We developed a preliminary survey instrument based on conceptual domains of respect identified through prior qualitative analyses of ICU patient, family member, and clinician perspectives. The initial instrument consisted of 21 items. After five cognitive interviews and 16 pilot surveys, we revised the instrument to include 23 items. We used standard psychometric methods to analyze the instrument. Eight ICUs serving adult patients affiliated with a large university health system. ICU clinicians. None. Based on 249 responses, we identified three factors and created subscales: General Respect, Respectful Behaviors, and Disrespectful Behaviors. The General Respect subscale had seven items (α = 0.932) and reflected how often patients in the ICU are treated with respect, in a dignified manner, as an individual, equally to all other patients, on the "same level" as the ICU team, as a person, and as you yourself would want to be treated. The Respectful Behaviors subscale had 10 items (α = 0.926) and reflected how often the ICU team responds to patient and/or family anxiety, makes an effort to get to know the patient and family as people, listens carefully, explains things thoroughly, gives the opportunity to provide input into care, protects patient modesty, greets when entering room, and talks to sedated patients. The subscale measuring disrespect has four items (α = 0.702) and reflects how often the ICU team dismisses family concerns, talks down to patients and families, speaks disrespectfully behind their backs, and gets frustrated with patients and families. We created a reliable set of scales to measure the climate of respectfulness in intensive care settings. These measures can be used for ongoing quality improvement that aim to enhance the experience of ICU patients and their families.

Earth system dynamics: The interrelation of atmospheric, ocean and solid earth dynamics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tapley, Byron D.; Asrar, Ghassem

1993-01-01

The research work performed during the time period 16 Oct. 1992 through 31 Dec. 1993 is summarized. The overall research activity, including a list of the major findings of the EOS IDS research to date, is described, the publications and presentations are listed, and a budget request for the subsequent year is attached. Specifically, the report covers: EOS panel activities; major findings of research; team member contributions; new research directions; EOS restructuring effect; changes in requirements; plans for using existing data; collaborations with other EOS and non-EOS investigations; EOS instrument team interaction; instrument development verification and validation; interaction with EOSDIS and DAAC's; team coordination; overall management; summary of response to site review questions and comments; science computing facility; and additional new research activities.

Challenges of the science data processing, analysis and archiving approach in BepiColombo

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Martinez, Santa

BepiColombo is a joint mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to the planet Mercury. It comprises two separate orbiters: the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO). After approximately 7.5 years of cruise, BepiColombo will arrive at Mercury in 2024 and will gather data during a 1-year nominal mission, with a possible 1-year extension. The approach selected for BepiColombo for the processing, analysis and archiving of the science data represents a significant change with respect to previous ESA planetary missions. Traditionally Instrument Teams are responsible for processing, analysing and preparing their science data for the long-term archive, however in BepiColombo, the Science Ground Segment (SGS), located in Madrid, Spain, will play a key role in these activities. Fundamental aspects of this approach include: the involvement of the SGS in the definition, development and operation of the instrument processing pipelines; the production of ready-to-archive science products compatible with NASA’s Planetary Data System (PDS) standards in all the processing steps; the joint development of a quick-look analysis system to monitor deviations between planned and executed observations to feed back the results into the different planning cycles when possible; and a mission archive providing access to the scientific products and to the operational data throughout the different phases of the mission (from the early development phase to the legacy phase). In order to achieve these goals, the SGS will need to overcome a number of challenges. The proposed approach requires a flexible infrastructure able to cope with a distributed data processing system, residing in different locations but designed as a single entity. For this, all aspects related to the integration of software developed by different Instrument Teams and the alignment of their development schedules will need to be considered. In addition, the SGS is taking full responsibility for the production of the first level of science data (un-calibrated), with the associated operational implications. An additional difficulty impacting the processing strategies relates to the various spacecraft data downlink mechanisms available for the MPO and their associated data latency. With regards to archiving, the main challenges include: the use of a new version of the PDS standards (so-called PDS4), being implemented for the first time in an ESA planetary mission; the use of external standards (CDF, FITS); and the implementation of interoperability protocols that aim to make all data (from both MPO and MMO) globally accessible through a distributed archive to the end-users. For the definition of the quick-look analysis system, it is very important to understand and harmonise the different views and expectations of the science team. Due to the long duration of the Cruise phase, and the fact that there are many years between the design of the system and the nominal mission, it might be difficult for some Instrument Teams to accurately define their needs so many years before operations. In particular, new scientific discoveries over the coming years by the MESSENGER spacecraft, currently orbiting Mercury, may influence how the Instrument Teams on BepiColombo define their operations and their reduction and analysis techniques. In addition, due to the long duration of the mission, it is not always possible or practical to document all accumulated knowledge on paper so if personnel leave some of their knowledge is lost as well. This is key, particularly for the Instrument Teams. By taking a pro-active role in the collection of requirements and expectations of the science team together with the definition of clear guidelines early in the mission and by developing close collaboration with the Instrument Teams, the SGS will be able to identify how to best exploit the expertise on both sides and to guarantee that the necessary support is provided when needed. This contribution will detail the main challenges and advantages associated with the data processing, analysis and archiving approach in BepiColombo, and will summarise the various efforts ongoing to guarantee that the scientific requirements of the mission and the expectations of the science team are fulfilled. Future ESA planetary missions (e.g. ExoMars, JUICE) will follow a similar approach, adapting the efforts to the profile of the mission.

Defining and Assessing Team Skills of Business and Accountancy Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alghalith, Nabil; Blum, Michael; Medlock, Amanda; Weber, Sandy

2004-01-01

The objectives of the project are (1) to define the skills necessary for students to work effectively with others to achieve common goals, and (2) to develop an assessment instrument to measure student progress toward achieving these skills. The defined skill set will form a basis for common expectations related to team skills that will be shared…

Handbook for Evaluating Drug and Alcohol Prevention Programs: Staff/Team Evaluation of Prevention Programs (STEPP).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hawkins, J. David; Nederhood, Britt

This handbook was developed for the purpose of providing drug and alcohol prevention program managers with a comprehensive yet easy-to-use tool to help their evaluation efforts. The handbook emphasizes program staff members working together as a team. It provides instruments and activities for determining program effectiveness, as well as…

Suggested set-up and layout of instruments and equipment for advanced operative laparoscopy.

PubMed

Winer, W K; Lyons, T L

1995-02-01

Crucial elements that ensure the organization and smoothness of a laparoscopic procedure are clear communication among well-trained endoscopy team members, properly maintained equipment, and a sensible layout of the instruments. The team consists of the surgeon, surgical assistant, circulator, scrub nurse, laser nurse, and anesthesiologist. To promote continuity and interaction and to ensure a systematic, pleasant pace for laparoscopic procedures, the team should establish a specific routine, as well as set-up and layout of tables, equipment, and instruments. Key ingredients for advanced operative laparoscopy to be performed with optimum efficiency and effectiveness are the best organization and placement of the equipment, instrumentation, and team in a particular setting in the operating room.

NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP) Science Overview

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Butler, James J.

2011-01-01

NPP Instruments are: (1) well understood thanks to instrument comprehensive test, characterization and calibration programs. (2) Government team ready for October 25 launch followed by instrument activation and Intensive Calibration/Validation (ICV). NPP Data Products preliminary work includes: (1) JPSS Center for Satellite Applications and Research (STAR) team ready to support NPP ICV and operational data products. (2) NASA NPP science team ready to support NPP ICV and EOS data continuity.

Team X Spacecraft Instrument Database Consolidation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wallenstein, Kelly A.

2005-01-01

In the past decade, many changes have been made to Team X's process of designing each spacecraft, with the purpose of making the overall procedure more efficient over time. One such improvement is the use of information databases from previous missions, designs, and research. By referring to these databases, members of the design team can locate relevant instrument data and significantly reduce the total time they spend on each design. The files in these databases were stored in several different formats with various levels of accuracy. During the past 2 months, efforts have been made in an attempt to combine and organize these files. The main focus was in the Instruments department, where spacecraft subsystems are designed based on mission measurement requirements. A common database was developed for all instrument parameters using Microsoft Excel to minimize the time and confusion experienced when searching through files stored in several different formats and locations. By making this collection of information more organized, the files within them have become more easily searchable. Additionally, the new Excel database offers the option of importing its contents into a more efficient database management system in the future. This potential for expansion enables the database to grow and acquire more search features as needed.

CTEF 2.0 - Assessment and Improvement of Command Team Effectiveness: Verification of Model and Instrument (CTEF 2.0 - Diagnostic et Amelioration de l’Efficacite d’un Team de Commandement: Verification du Modele et de l’Instrument)

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-09-01

what level of detail is needed to build their teams, and they can add more detailed items from the model in order to tap deeper in the performance of...of a project on ‘Command Team Effectiveness’ by Task Group 127 for the RTO Human Factors and Medicine Panel (RTG HFM-127). Published...vérification du modèle et de l’instrument) This Technical Report documents the findings of a project on ‘Command Team Effectiveness’ by Task Group

Aerosol Optical Properties of the Free Troposphere

DTIC Science & Technology

1991-12-16

will be made possible by using the specialized instrumentation developed at the University of Wyoming during the last year. le SUBIECT TEA~mS IS...investigators. Since most of the progress concerning the instrument development portion of the research was presented in the quarterly reports, this report...I iiii averages. lmpactor The cascade impactor is a PIXE Corporation five stage single orifice device. The equiva- lent aerodynamic cutoff diameters

NASA Ames Science Instrument Launches Aboard New Mars Rover (CheMin)

NASA Image and Video Library

2011-11-23

When NASA's Mars Science Laboratory lands in a region known as Gale Crater in August of 2012, it will be poised to carry out the most sophisticated chemical analysis of the Martian surface to date. One of the 10 instruments on board the rover Curiosity will be CheMin - short for chemistry and mineralogy. Developed by Ames researcher David Blake and his team, it will use new technology to analyze and identify minerals in the Martian rocks and soil. Youtube: NASA Ames Scientists Develop MSL Science Instrument

Toward Automated Computer-Based Visualization and Assessment of Team-Based Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ifenthaler, Dirk

2014-01-01

A considerable amount of research has been undertaken to provide insights into the valid assessment of team performance. However, in many settings, manual and therefore labor-intensive assessment instruments for team performance have limitations. Therefore, automated assessment instruments enable more flexible and detailed insights into the…

Entry, Descent and Landing Using Ballutes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lyons, Daniel t.; McRonald, Angus

2005-01-01

The In Space Propulsion Program is funding a team lead by Kevin Miller at Ball Aerospace. This team of Industry, NASA, and Academic researchers is actively pursuing ballute technology development, with very promising results. The focus of that study has been to maximize the payload that is put into orbit (around Titan, Neptune, and Mars). So far the mass associated with the ballute has been minimized, because it was being thrown away. If an instrument package is attached to the Ballute, it will eventually land on the surface. Thus, the Ballute can do double duty: Aerocapture the Orbiter and Soft-land a set of instruments on the surface.

The Development and Validation of a Concise Instrument for Formative Assessment of Team Leader Performance During Simulated Pediatric Resuscitations.

PubMed

Nadkarni, Lindsay D; Roskind, Cindy G; Auerbach, Marc A; Calhoun, Aaron W; Adler, Mark D; Kessler, David O

2018-04-01

The aim of this study was to assess the validity of a formative feedback instrument for leaders of simulated resuscitations. This is a prospective validation study with a fully crossed (person × scenario × rater) study design. The Concise Assessment of Leader Management (CALM) instrument was designed by pediatric emergency medicine and graduate medical education experts to be used off the shelf to evaluate and provide formative feedback to resuscitation leaders. Four experts reviewed 16 videos of in situ simulated pediatric resuscitations and scored resuscitation leader performance using the CALM instrument. The videos consisted of 4 pediatric emergency department resuscitation teams each performing in 4 pediatric resuscitation scenarios (cardiac arrest, respiratory arrest, seizure, and sepsis). We report on content and internal structure (reliability) validity of the CALM instrument. Content validity was supported by the instrument development process that involved professional experience, expert consensus, focused literature review, and pilot testing. Internal structure validity (reliability) was supported by the generalizability analysis. The main component that contributed to score variability was the person (33%), meaning that individual leaders performed differently. The rater component had almost zero (0%) contribution to variance, which implies that raters were in agreement and argues for high interrater reliability. These results provide initial evidence to support the validity of the CALM instrument as a reliable assessment instrument that can facilitate formative feedback to leaders of pediatric simulated resuscitations.

Penn State University ground software support for X-ray missions.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Townsley, L. K.; Nousek, J. A.; Corbet, R. H. D.

1995-03-01

The X-ray group at Penn State is charged with two software development efforts in support of X-ray satellite missions. As part of the ACIS instrument team for AXAF, the authors are developing part of the ground software to support the instrument's calibration. They are also designing a translation program for Ginga data, to change it from the non-standard FRF format, which closely parallels the original telemetry format, to FITS.

A Team Approach to the Development of Gamma Ray and x Ray Remote Sensing and in Situ Spectroscopy for Planetary Exploration Missions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Trombka, J. I.; Floyd, S.; Ruitberg, A.; Evans, L.; Starr, R.; Metzger, A.; Reedy, R.; Drake, D.; Moss, C.; Edwards, B.

1993-01-01

An important part of the investigation of planetary origin and evolution is the determination of the surface composition of planets, comets, and asteroids. Measurements of discrete line X-ray and gamma ray emissions from condensed bodies in space can be used to obtain both qualitative and quantitative elemental composition information. The Planetary Instrumentation Definition and Development Program (PIDDP) X-Ray/Gamma Ray Team has been established to develop remote sensing and in situ technologies for future planetary exploration missions.

Evaluating the High School Lunar Research Projects Program

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shaner, A. J.; Shipp, S. S.; Allen, J.; Kring, D. A.

2012-12-01

The Center for Lunar Science and Exploration (CLSE), a collaboration between the Lunar and Planetary Institute and NASA's Johnson Space Center, is one of seven member teams of the NASA Lunar Science Institute (NLSI). In addition to research and exploration activities, the CLSE team is deeply invested in education and outreach. In support of NASA's and NLSI's objective to train the next generation of scientists, CLSE's High School Lunar Research Projects program is a conduit through which high school students can actively participate in lunar science and learn about pathways into scientific careers. The objectives of the program are to enhance 1) student views of the nature of science; 2) student attitudes toward science and science careers; and 3) student knowledge of lunar science. In its first three years, approximately 140 students and 28 teachers from across the United States have participated in the program. Before beginning their research, students undertake Moon 101, a guided-inquiry activity designed to familiarize them with lunar science and exploration. Following Moon 101, and guided by a lunar scientist mentor, teams choose a research topic, ask their own research question, and design their own research approach to direct their investigation. At the conclusion of their research, teams present their results to a panel of lunar scientists. This panel selects four posters to be presented at the annual Lunar Science Forum held at NASA Ames. The top scoring team travels to the forum to present their research. Three instruments have been developed or modified to evaluate the extent to which the High School Lunar Research Projects meets its objectives. These three instruments measure changes in student views of the nature of science, attitudes towards science and science careers, and knowledge of lunar science. Exit surveys for teachers, students, and mentors were also developed to elicit general feedback about the program and its impact. The nature of science instrument is an open-ended, modified version of the Views of Nature of Science questionnaire. The science attitudes Likert-scale instrument is a modified version of the Attitudes Toward Science Inventory. The lunar science content instrument was developed by CLSE education staff. All three of these instruments are administered to students before and after their research experience to measure the program's impact on student views of the nature of science, attitudes toward science, and knowledge of lunar science. All instruments are administered online via Survey Monkey®. When asked if the program changed the way they view the Moon, 77.4% of students (n=53) replied "yes" and described their increase in knowledge of the formation of the Moon, lunar surface processes, etc. Just under half (41.5%) of the students reported that their experience in the program has contributed to their consideration of a career in science. When asked about obstacles teams had to overcome, teachers described issues with time, student motivation and technology. However, every teacher enthusiastically agreed that the authentic research experience was worthwhile to their students. Detailed evaluation results for the 2011-2012 program will be presented.

Development and Validation of the Primary Care Team Dynamics Survey

PubMed Central

Song, Hummy; Chien, Alyna T; Fisher, Josephine; Martin, Julia; Peters, Antoinette S; Hacker, Karen; Rosenthal, Meredith B; Singer, Sara J

2015-01-01

Objective To develop and validate a survey instrument designed to measure team dynamics in primary care. Data Sources/Study Setting We studied 1,080 physician and nonphysician health care professionals working at 18 primary care practices participating in a learning collaborative aimed at improving team-based care. Study Design We developed a conceptual model and administered a cross-sectional survey addressing team dynamics, and we assessed reliability and discriminant validity of survey factors and the overall survey's goodness-of-fit using structural equation modeling. Data Collection We administered the survey between September 2012 and March 2013. Principal Findings Overall response rate was 68 percent (732 respondents). Results support a seven-factor model of team dynamics, suggesting that conditions for team effectiveness, shared understanding, and three supportive processes are associated with acting and feeling like a team and, in turn, perceived team effectiveness. This model demonstrated adequate fit (goodness-of-fit index: 0.91), scale reliability (Cronbach's alphas: 0.71–0.91), and discriminant validity (average factor correlations: 0.49). Conclusions It is possible to measure primary care team dynamics reliably using a 29-item survey. This survey may be used in ambulatory settings to study teamwork and explore the effect of efforts to improve team-based care. Future studies should demonstrate the importance of team dynamics for markers of team effectiveness (e.g., work satisfaction, care quality, clinical outcomes). PMID:25423886

Development and validation of the primary care team dynamics survey.

PubMed

Song, Hummy; Chien, Alyna T; Fisher, Josephine; Martin, Julia; Peters, Antoinette S; Hacker, Karen; Rosenthal, Meredith B; Singer, Sara J

2015-06-01

To develop and validate a survey instrument designed to measure team dynamics in primary care. We studied 1,080 physician and nonphysician health care professionals working at 18 primary care practices participating in a learning collaborative aimed at improving team-based care. We developed a conceptual model and administered a cross-sectional survey addressing team dynamics, and we assessed reliability and discriminant validity of survey factors and the overall survey's goodness-of-fit using structural equation modeling. We administered the survey between September 2012 and March 2013. Overall response rate was 68 percent (732 respondents). Results support a seven-factor model of team dynamics, suggesting that conditions for team effectiveness, shared understanding, and three supportive processes are associated with acting and feeling like a team and, in turn, perceived team effectiveness. This model demonstrated adequate fit (goodness-of-fit index: 0.91), scale reliability (Cronbach's alphas: 0.71-0.91), and discriminant validity (average factor correlations: 0.49). It is possible to measure primary care team dynamics reliably using a 29-item survey. This survey may be used in ambulatory settings to study teamwork and explore the effect of efforts to improve team-based care. Future studies should demonstrate the importance of team dynamics for markers of team effectiveness (e.g., work satisfaction, care quality, clinical outcomes). © Health Research and Educational Trust.

Acquisition Community Team Dynamics: The Tuckman Model vs. the DAU Model

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-04-30

courses . These student teams are used to enable the generation of more complex products and to prepare the students for the ...requirement for stage discreteness was met, I developed a stage-separation test that, when applied to the data representing the experience of a... test the reliability, and validate an improved questionnaire instrument that: – Redefines “Storming” with new storming questions Less focused

ALADIN: the first european lidar in space

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Morançais, Didier; Fabre, Frédéric; Schillinger, Marc; Barthès, Jean-Claude; Endemann, Martin; Culoma, Alain; Durand, Yannig

2017-11-01

The Atmospheric LAser Doppler INstrument (ALADIN) is the payload of the ESA's ADMAEOLUS mission, which aims at measuring wind profiles as required by the climatology and meteorology users. ALADIN belongs to a new class of Earth Observation payloads and will be the first European Lidar in space. The instrument comprises a diode-pumped high energy Nd:YAG laser and a direct detection receiver operating on aerosol and molecular backscatter signals in parallel. In addition to the Proto- Flight Model (PFM)., two instrument models are developed: a Pre-development Model (PDM) and an Opto-Structure-Thermal Model (OSTM). The flight instrument design and the industrial team has been finalised and the major equipment are now under development. This paper describes the instrument design and performance as well as the development and verification approach. The main results obtained during the PDM programme are also reported. The ALADIN instrument is developed under prime contractorship from EADS Astrium SAS with a consortium of thirty European companies.

Pretesting Qualitative Data Collection Procedures to Facilitate Methodological Adherence and Team Building in Nigeria.

PubMed

Hurst, Samantha; Arulogun, Oyedunni S; Owolabi, Ayowa O; Akinyemi, Rufus; Uvere, Ezinne; Warth, Stephanie; Ovbiagele, Bruce

Qualitative methods are becoming widely used and increasingly accepted in biomedical research involving teams formed by experts from developing and developed practice environments. Resources are rare in offering guidance on how to surmount challenges of team integration and resolution of complicated logistical issues in a global setting. In this article we present a critical reflection of lessons learned and necessary steps taken to achieve methodological coherence and international team synergy. A series of 10 pretest interviews were conducted to assess instrumentation rigor and formulate measures to address any limitations or threats to bias and management procedures before carrying out the formal phase of qualitative research, contributing to an evidence-based stroke-preventive care clinical trial study. The experience of pretesting notably helped to identify obstacles and thus increase the methodological and social reliability central to conducting credible qualitative research, while also ensuring both personal and professional fulfillment of our team members.

WFF TOPEX Software Documentation Altimeter Instrument File (AIF) Processing, October 1998. Volume 3

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lee, Jeffrey; Lockwood, Dennis

2003-01-01

This document is a compendium of the WFF TOPEX Software Development Team's knowledge regarding Sensor Data Record (SDR) Processing. It includes many elements of a requirements document, a software specification document, a software design document, and a user's manual. In the more technical sections, this document assumes the reader is familiar with TOPEX and instrument files.

One Mentor or Two: An Instrumental Case Study of Strategic Collaboration and Peer Mentoring

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wasburn, Mara H.

2008-01-01

This instrumental case study investigates the use of a team mentoring approach in a first-year seminar, which was created in response to concerns about first-year student attrition. The seminar was developed in the department of Organizational Leadership at Purdue University--West Lafayette in 2004. The aims of the course were to familiarize…

The Inner Magnetospheric Imager (IMI): Instrument heritage and orbit viewing analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wilson, Gordon R.

1992-12-01

For the last two years an engineering team in the Program Development Office at MSFC has been doing design studies for the proposed Inner Magnetospheric Imager (IMI) mission. This team had a need for more information about the instruments that this mission would carry so that they could get a better handle on instrument volume, mass, power, and telemetry needs as well as information to help assess the possible cost of such instruments and what technology development they would need. To get this information, an extensive literature search was conducted as well as interviews with several members of the IMI science working group. The results of this heritage survey are summarized below. There was also a need to evaluate the orbits proposed for this mission from the stand point of their suitability for viewing the various magnetospheric features that are planned for this mission. This was accomplished by first, identifying the factors which need to be considered in selecting an orbit, second, translating these considerations into specific criteria, and third, evaluating the proposed orbits against these criteria. The specifics of these criteria and the results of the orbit analysis are contained in the last section of this report.

The Inner Magnetospheric Imager (IMI): Instrument heritage and orbit viewing analysis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wilson, Gordon R.

1992-01-01

For the last two years an engineering team in the Program Development Office at MSFC has been doing design studies for the proposed Inner Magnetospheric Imager (IMI) mission. This team had a need for more information about the instruments that this mission would carry so that they could get a better handle on instrument volume, mass, power, and telemetry needs as well as information to help assess the possible cost of such instruments and what technology development they would need. To get this information, an extensive literature search was conducted as well as interviews with several members of the IMI science working group. The results of this heritage survey are summarized below. There was also a need to evaluate the orbits proposed for this mission from the stand point of their suitability for viewing the various magnetospheric features that are planned for this mission. This was accomplished by first, identifying the factors which need to be considered in selecting an orbit, second, translating these considerations into specific criteria, and third, evaluating the proposed orbits against these criteria. The specifics of these criteria and the results of the orbit analysis are contained in the last section of this report.

The Fermi Large Area Telescope on Orbit: Event Classification, Instrument Response Functions, and Calibration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ackermann, M.; Ajello, M.; Albert, A.; Allafort, A.; Atwood, W. B.; Axelsson, M.; Baldini, L.; Ballet, J.; Barbiellini, G.; Bastieri, D.;

A Survey to Evaluate Facilitators and Barriers to Quality Measurement and Improvement: Adapting Tools for Implementation Research in Palliative Care Programs.

PubMed

Dy, Sydney M; Al Hamayel, Nebras Abu; Hannum, Susan M; Sharma, Ritu; Isenberg, Sarina R; Kuchinad, Kamini; Zhu, Junya; Smith, Katherine; Lorenz, Karl A; Kamal, Arif H; Walling, Anne M; Weaver, Sallie J

2017-12-01

Although critical for improving patient outcomes, palliative care quality indicators are not yet widely used. Better understanding of facilitators and barriers to palliative care quality measurement and improvement might improve their use and program quality. Development of a survey tool to assess palliative care team perspectives on facilitators and barriers to quality measurement and improvement in palliative care programs. We used the adapted Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research to define domains and constructs to select instruments. We assembled a draft survey and assessed content validity through pilot testing and cognitive interviews with experts and frontline practitioners for key items. We analyzed responses using a constant comparative process to assess survey item issues and potential solutions. We developed a final survey using these results. The survey includes five published instruments and two additional item sets. Domains include organizational characteristics, individual and team characteristics, intervention characteristics, and process of implementation. Survey modules include Quality Improvement in Palliative Care, Implementing Quality Improvement in the Palliative Care Program, Teamwork and Communication, Measuring the Quality of Palliative Care, and Palliative Care Quality in Your Program. Key refinements from cognitive interviews included item wording on palliative care team members, programs, and quality issues. This novel, adaptable instrument assesses palliative care team perspectives on barriers and facilitators for quality measurement and improvement in palliative care programs. Next steps include evaluation of the survey's construct validity and how survey results correlate with findings from program quality initiatives. Copyright © 2017 American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. All rights reserved.

PM Science Working Group Meeting on Spacecraft Maneuvers

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Parkinson, Claire L.

1997-01-01

The EOS PM Science Working Group met on May 6, 1997, to examine the issue of spacecraft maneuvers. The meeting was held at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and was attended by the Team Leaders of all four instrument science teams with instruments on the PM-1 spacecraft, additional representatives from each of the four teams, the PM Project management, and random others. The meeting was chaired by the PM Project Scientist and open to all. The meeting was called in order to untangle some of the concerns raised over the past several months regarding whether or not the PM-1 spacecraft should undergo spacecraft maneuvers to allow the instruments to obtain deep-space views. Two of the Science Teams, those for the Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES), had strongly expressed the need for deep-space views in order to calibrate their instruments properly and conveniently. The other two teams, those for the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E) and the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS), the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU), and the Humidity Sounder for Brazil (HSB), had expressed concerns that the maneuvers involve risks to the instruments and undesired gaps in the data sets.

EPO for the NASA SDO Extreme Ultraviolet Variability Experiment (EVE) Learning Suite for Educators

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kellagher, Emily; Scherrer, D. K.

2013-07-01

EVE Education and Public Outreach (EPO) promotes an understanding of the process of science and concepts within solar science and sun-earth connections. EVE EPO also features working scientists, current research and career awareness. One of the highlights for of this years projects is the digitization of solar lessons and the collaboration with the other instrument teams to develop new resources for students and educators. Digital lesson suite: EVE EPO has taken the best solar lessons and reworked then to make then more engaging, to reflect SDO data and made them SMARTboard compatible. We are creating a website that Students and teachers can access these lesson and use them online or download them. Project team collaboration: The SDO instruments (EVE, AIA and HMI) teams have created a comic book series for upper elementary and middle school students with the SDO mascot Camilla. These comics may be printed or read on mobile devices. Many teachers are looking for resources to use with their students via the Ipad so our collaboration helps supply teachers with a great resource that teachers about solar concepts and helps dispel solar misconceptions.Abstract (2,250 Maximum Characters): EVE Education and Public Outreach (EPO) promotes an understanding of the process of science and concepts within solar science and sun-earth connections. EVE EPO also features working scientists, current research and career awareness. One of the highlights for of this years projects is the digitization of solar lessons and the collaboration with the other instrument teams to develop new resources for students and educators. Digital lesson suite: EVE EPO has taken the best solar lessons and reworked then to make then more engaging, to reflect SDO data and made them SMARTboard compatible. We are creating a website that Students and teachers can access these lesson and use them online or download them. Project team collaboration: The SDO instruments (EVE, AIA and HMI) teams have created a comic book series for upper elementary and middle school students with the SDO mascot Camilla. These comics may be printed or read on mobile devices. Many teachers are looking for resources to use with their students via the Ipad so our collaboration helps supply teachers with a great resource that teachers about solar concepts and helps dispel solar misconceptions.

Comparison of the effects of two handpiece locations on dental team performance.

PubMed

Kwasman, R; Handelman, S L; MacIntyre, B; Barrett, G

1975-12-01

Using audiovisual tapes of 150 actual dental treatment sessions, five dental teams working with handpieces positioned in the 8-o'clock location were compared with five dental teams working with hand pieces positioned in the 12-o'clock location. Criteria used for analysis were frequency and duration of instrument transfer, critical incidents that interfered with instrument movements, and subjective responses of the dental team members. The data showed that the handpiece transfers were faster and more frequent in the 12-o'clock location where they were done via the assistant. However, the reverse was true for transfers of the three-way syringe. Most critical incidents occurred with equal frequency and were common to both rooms, but some were related to instrument location. The subjective responses indicated that the assistant working with the 12-o'clock instrument location had many more tasks and must be more highly trained.

The GOES-R Series Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Goodman, Steven J.; Blakeslee, Richard J.; Koshak, William J.; Mach, Douglas M.

2011-01-01

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-R) is the next series to follow the existing GOES system currently operating over the Western Hemisphere. Superior spacecraft and instrument technology will support expanded detection of environmental phenomena, resulting in more timely and accurate forecasts and warnings. Advancements over current GOES capabilities include a new capability for total lightning detection (cloud and cloud-to-ground flashes) from the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM), which will have just completed Critical Design Review and move forward into the construction phase of instrument development. The GLM will operate continuously day and night with near-uniform spatial resolution of 8 km with a product refresh rate of less than 20 sec over the Americas and adjacent oceanic regions. This will aid in forecasting severe storms and tornado activity, and convective weather impacts on aviation safety and efficiency. In parallel with the instrument development (an engineering development unit and 4 flight models), a GOES-R Risk Reduction Team and Algorithm Working Group Lightning Applications Team have begun to develop the Level 2 algorithms, cal/val performance monitoring tools, and new applications. Proxy total lightning data from the NASA Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) on the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite and regional ground-based lightning networks are being used to develop the pre-launch algorithms, test data sets, and applications, as well as improve our knowledge of thunderstorm initiation and evolution. In this presentation we review the planned implementation of the instrument and suite of operational algorithms

The Rosetta Science Archive: Status and Plans for Enhancing the Archive Content

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Heather, David; Barthelemy, Maud; Besse, Sebastien; Fraga, Diego; Grotheer, Emmanuel; O'Rourke, Laurence; Taylor, Matthew; Vallat, Claire

2017-04-01

On 30 September 2016, Rosetta completed its incredible mission by landing on the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Although this marked an end to the spacecraft's active operations, intensive work is still ongoing with instrument teams preparing their final science data deliveries for ingestion into ESA's Planetary Science Archive (PSA). In addition, ESA is establishing contracts with some instrument teams to enhance their data and documentation in an effort to provide the best long-term archive possible for the Rosetta mission. Currently, the majority of teams have delivered all of their data from the nominal mission (end of 2015), and are working on their remaining increments from the 1-year mission extension. The aim is to complete the nominal archiving with data from the complete mission by the end of this year, when a full mission archive review will be held. This review will assess the complete data holdings from Rosetta and ensure that the archive is ready for the long-term. With the resources from the operational mission coming to an end, ESA has established a number of 'enhanced archiving' contracts to ensure that the best possible data are delivered to the archive before instrument teams disband. Updates are focused on key aspects of an instrument's calibration or the production of higher level data / information, and are therefore specific to each instrument's needs. These contracts are currently being kicked off, and will run for various lengths depending upon the activities to be undertaken. The full 'archive enhancement' process will run until September 2019, when the post operations activities for Rosetta will end. Within these contracts, most instrument teams will work on providing a Science User Guide for their data, as well as updating calibrations. Several teams will also be delivering higher level and derived products. For example, the VIRTIS team will be updating both their spectral and geometrical calibrations, and will aim to deliver mapping products to the final archive. Similarly, the OSIRIS team will be improving their calibrations and delivering data additionally in FITS format. The Rosetta Plasma Consortium (RPC) instruments will complete cross-calibrations and a number of activities individual to each instrument. The MIDAS team will also be working on cross-calibrations and will produce a dust particle catalog from the comet coma. GIADA will be producing dust environment maps, with products in 3D plus time. A contract also exists to produce and deliver data set(s) containing sup-porting ground-based observations from amateur astronomers. In addition to these contracts, the Rosetta ESA archiving team will produce calibrated data sets for the NAVCAM instrument, and will work to include the latest shape models from the comet into the final Rosetta archive. Work is also underway to provide a centralized solution to the problem of geometry on the comet. This presentation will outline the current status of the Rosetta archive, as well as highlighting some of the 'enhanced archiving' activities planned with the various instrument teams on Rosetta.

Capabilities of the Materials Contamination Team at Marshall Space Flight Center

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Burns, H. D.; Finckenor, M. M.; Boothe, R. E.; Albyn, K. C.; Finchum, C. A.

2003-01-01

The Materials Contamination Team of the Environmental Effects Group, Materials, Processes, and Manufacturing Department, has been recognized for its contribution to space flight, including space transportation, space science and flight projects, such as the reusable solid rocket motor, Chandra X-Ray Observatory, and the International Space Station. The Materials Contamination Team s realm of responsibility encompasses all phases of hardware development including design, manufacturing, assembly, test, transportation, launch-site processing, on-orbit exposure, return, and refurbishment if required. Contamination is a concern in the Space Shuttle with sensitivity bondlines and reactive fluid (liquid oxygen) compatibility as well as for sensitive optics, particularly spacecraft such as Hubble Space Telescope and Chandra X-Ray Observatory. The Materials Contamination Team has a variety of facilities and instrumentation capable of contaminant detection identification, and monitoring. The team addresses material applications dealing with environments, including production facilities, clean rooms, and on-orbit exposure. The team of engineers and technicians also develop and evaluates new surface cleanliness inspection technologies. Databases are maintained by the team for proces! materials as well as outgassing and optical compatibility test results for specific environments.

3D tracking of laparoscopic instruments using statistical and geometric modeling.

PubMed

Wolf, Rémi; Duchateau, Josselin; Cinquin, Philippe; Voros, Sandrine

2011-01-01

During a laparoscopic surgery, the endoscope can be manipulated by an assistant or a robot. Several teams have worked on the tracking of surgical instruments, based on methods ranging from the development of specific devices to image processing methods. We propose to exploit the instruments' insertion points, which are fixed on the patients abdominal cavity, as a geometric constraint for the localization of the instruments. A simple geometric model of a laparoscopic instrument is described, as well as a parametrization that exploits a spherical geometric grid, which offers attracting homogeneity and isotropy properties. The general architecture of our proposed approach is based on the probabilistic Condensation algorithm.

Team leadership: network differences in women's and men's instrumental and expressive relations.

PubMed

Webster, C; Grusky, O; Podus, D; Young, A

1999-01-01

Recent studies have emphasised differences in leadership styles between women and men. Women have an "interactive" leadership style while men are more "directive" and "authoritative." Social network analysis is used to examine differences in eight mental health case management teams, half formally supervised by women and half by men. The techniques used are graphical displays and measures of centrality. Results show male leaders as the most central team member for both instrumental and expressive relations. Female leaders, however, do not adhere to a single leadership style. Team centralisation also differs with gender composition of teams influencing leadership differences.

AstroMadrid: Astrophysics and technological developments in Comunidad de Madrid

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mas-Hesse, J. M.

2011-11-01

AstroMadrid is a network constituted by different research groups in the Comunidad de Madrid area, with the objective of coordinating the activities related to the development of astronomical instrumentation in the various centres. AstroMadrid is a multidisciplinar team which benefits from the synergies provided by the different participating groups, optimizing our capabilities to develop instrumentation, and minimizing the problems related to the geographical dispersion within our region. AstroMadrid is also participated by several aerospace industries, which complement the capabilities and facilities available in the research centres. In addition to optimizing the development of instrumentation, AstroMadrid plays an essential role in the formation of new engineers and scientists, by actively contributing to some Master degree courses organized by different Universities in Madrid.

Neutron detectors for the ESS diffractometers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stefanescu, I.; Christensen, M.; Fenske, J.; Hall-Wilton, R.; Henry, P. F.; Kirstein, O.; Müller, M.; Nowak, G.; Pooley, D.; Raspino, D.; Rhodes, N.; Šaroun, J.; Schefer, J.; Schooneveld, E.; Sykora, J.; Schweika, W.

2017-01-01

The ambitious instrument suite for the future European Spallation Source whose civil construction started recently in Lund, Sweden, demands a set of diverse and challenging requirements for the neutron detectors. For instance, the unprecedented high flux expected on the samples to be investigated in neutron diffraction or reflectometry experiments requires detectors that can handle high counting rates, while the investigation of sub-millimeter protein crystals will only be possible with large-area detectors that can achieve a position resolution as low as 200 μm. This has motivated an extensive research and development campaign to advance the state-of-the-art detector and to find new technologies that can reach maturity by the time the ESS will operate at full potential. This paper presents the key detector requirements for three of the Time-of-Flight (TOF) diffraction instrument concepts selected by the Scientific Advisory Committee to advance into the phase of preliminary engineering design. We discuss the detector technologies commonly employed at the existing similar instruments and their major challenges for ESS. The detector technologies selected by the instrument teams to collect the diffraction patterns are also presented. Analytical calculations, Monte-Carlo simulations, and real experimental data are used to develop a generic method to estimate the event rate in the diffraction detectors. We apply this method to make predictions for the future diffraction instruments, and thus provide additional information that can help the instrument teams with the optimisation of the detector designs.

The Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) Payload Development and Performance in Flight

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ennico, Kimberly; Shirley, Mark; Colaprete, Anthony; Osetinsky, Leonid

2012-05-01

The primary objective of the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) was to confirm the presence or absence of water ice in a permanently shadowed region (PSR) at a lunar pole. LCROSS was classified as a NASA Class D mission. Its payload, the subject of this article, was designed, built, tested and operated to support a condensed schedule, risk tolerant mission approach, a new paradigm for NASA science missions. All nine science instruments, most of them ruggedized commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS), successfully collected data during all in-flight calibration campaigns, and most importantly, during the final descent to the lunar surface on October 9, 2009, after 112 days in space. LCROSS demonstrated that COTS instruments and designs with simple interfaces, can provide high-quality science at low-cost and in short development time frames. Building upfront into the payload design, flexibility, redundancy where possible even with the science measurement approach, and large margins, played important roles for this new type of payload. The environmental and calibration approach adopted by the LCROSS team, compared to existing standard programs, is discussed. The description, capabilities, calibration and in-flight performance of each instrument are summarized. Finally, this paper goes into depth about specific areas where the instruments worked differently than expected and how the flexibility of the payload team, the knowledge of instrument priority and science trades, and proactive margin maintenance, led to a successful science measurement by the LCROSS payload's instrument complement.

The Development and Application of a STEAM Program Based on Traditional Korean Culture

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Hyoungbum; Chae, Dong-Hyun

2016-01-01

The purpose of this research was to develop a STEAM program in the context of teaching and learning a traditional Korean instrument and implement it in a high school class to determine the program's effectiveness. The STEAM program was developed through a continuous consultation process between a development team and external experts, including an…

Human Performance Models of Pilot Behavior

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Foyle, David C.; Hooey, Becky L.; Byrne, Michael D.; Deutsch, Stephen; Lebiere, Christian; Leiden, Ken; Wickens, Christopher D.; Corker, Kevin M.

2005-01-01

Five modeling teams from industry and academia were chosen by the NASA Aviation Safety and Security Program to develop human performance models (HPM) of pilots performing taxi operations and runway instrument approaches with and without advanced displays. One representative from each team will serve as a panelist to discuss their team s model architecture, augmentations and advancements to HPMs, and aviation-safety related lessons learned. Panelists will discuss how modeling results are influenced by a model s architecture and structure, the role of the external environment, specific modeling advances and future directions and challenges for human performance modeling in aviation.

Instrumentation at Paranal Observatory: maintaining the instrument suite of five large telescopes and its interferometer alive

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gillet, Gordon; Alvarez, José Luis; Beltrán, Juan; Bourget, Pierre; Castillo, Roberto; Diaz, Álvaro; Haddad, Nicolás; Leiva, Alfredo; Mardones, Pedro; O'Neal, Jared; Ribes, Mauricio; Riquelme, Miguel; Robert, Pascal; Rojas, Chester; Valenzuela, Javier

2010-07-01

This presentation provides interesting miscellaneous information regarding the instrumentation activities at Paranal Observatory. It introduces the suite of 23 instruments and auxiliary systems that are under the responsibility of the Paranal Instrumentation group, information on the type of instruments, their usage and downtime statistics. The data is based on comprehensive data recorded in the Paranal Night Log System and the Paranal Problem Reporting System whose principles are explained as well. The work organization of the 15 team members around the high number of instruments is laid out, which includes: - Maintaining older instruments with obsolete components - Receiving new instruments and supporting their integration and commissioning - Contributing to future instruments in their developing phase. The assignments of the Instrumentation staff to the actual instruments as well as auxiliary equipment (Laser Guide Star Facility, Mask Manufacturing Unit, Cloud Observation Tool) are explained with respect to responsibility and scheduling issues. The essential activities regarding hardware & software are presented, as well as the technical and organizational developments within the group towards its present and future challenges.

Principal Components Analysis of Reflectance Spectra from the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mercer, C. M.; Cohen, B. A.

2010-01-01

In the summer of 2007 a global dust storm on Mars effectively disabled Opportunity's Miniature Thermal Emission Spectrometer (Mini-TES), the primary instrument used by the Athena Science Team to identify locally unique rocks on the Martian surface. The science team needs another way to distinguish interesting rocks from their surroundings on a tactical timescale. This study was designed to develop the ability to identify locally unique rocks on the Martian surface remotely using the Mars Exploration Rovers' Panoramica Camera (PanCam) instrument. Meridiani bedrock observed by Opportunity is largely characterized by sulfate-rich sandstones and hematite spherules. Additionally, loose fragments of bedrock and "cobbles" of foreign origin collet on the surface, some of which are interpreted as meteorites.

[Psychometric evaluation of the Coach Orientation Questionnaire with a Spanish sample of handball coaches].

PubMed

Feu, Sebastián; Ibáñez, Sergio José; Graça, Amândio; Sampaio, Jaime

2007-11-01

The purpose of this study was to develop a questionnaire to investigate volleyball coaches' orientations toward the coaching process. The study was preceded by four developmental stages in order to improve user understanding, validate the content, and refine the psychometric properties of the instrument. Participants for the reliability and validity study were 334 Spanish volleyball team coaches, 86.5% men and 13.2% women. The following 6 factors emerged from the exploratory factor analysis: team-work orientation, technological orientation, innovative orientation, dialogue orientation, directive orientation, and social climate orientation. Statistical results indicated that the instrument produced reliable and valid scores in all the obtained factors (a> .70), showing that this questionnaire is a useful tool to examine coaches' orientations towards coaching.

Research and Teaching: Toward Interdisciplinary Perspectives--Using Osmotic Pressure as an Example for Analyzing Textbook Explanations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sung, Shannon; Shen, Ji; Stanger-Hall, Kathrin F.; Wiegert, Craig; Li, Wan-l; Brown, Scott; Robertson, Tom

2015-01-01

Despite the increasing interests and practices in interdisciplinary science education, little research has been documented to develop effective assessments targeting students' interdisciplinary learning. In response to this gap, a team of scientists and educators developed an interdisciplinary assessment instrument targeting osmosis, which was…

Measuring Outcomes for Children Late Placed for Adoption.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rushton, Alan

1998-01-01

Describes the selection of outcome measures used by the Maudsley Family Research team to assess outcomes--across a broad range of developmental dimensions--of permanent placement for children and adolescents. Developed a package of instruments to examine child emotional, cognitive, social, and academic development; attachment; and self-esteem, for…

The Contribution of Work-Integrated Learning to Undergraduate Employability Skill Outcomes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jackson, Denise

2013-01-01

WIL has attracted considerable attention as an instrument for enhancing professional practice and developing work-readiness in new graduates. It is widely considered as a point of difference in developing graduate employability by enhancing skill outcomes, such as team-work, communication, self-management and problem solving, employment prospects…

Monitoring At-Risk Infant and Toddler Development: A Transdisciplinary Approach.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Costarides, Anna H.; Shulman, Brian B.; Trimm, R. Franklin; Brady, Nancy R.

1998-01-01

Describes the evolution of a transdisciplinary team for assessing infants and toddlers identified as at-risk for developmental delay. The assessment process is outlined and includes information on instruments used in assessing the cognitive, language, and motor development of infants and toddlers. Obstacles encountered with families and methods…

The Fermi Large Area Telescope on Orbit: Event Classification, Instrument Response Functions, and Calibration

DOE PAGES

Ackermann, M.; Ajello, M.; Albert, A.; ...

2012-10-12

The Fermi Large Area Telescope (Fermi-LAT, hereafter LAT), the primary instrument on the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (Fermi) mission, is an imaging, wide field-of-view, high-energy γ-ray telescope, covering the energy range from 20 MeV to more than 300 GeV. During the first years of the mission, the LAT team has gained considerable insight into the in-flight performance of the instrument. Accordingly, we have updated the analysis used to reduce LAT data for public release as well as the instrument response functions (IRFs), the description of the instrument performance provided for data analysis. In this study, we describe the effects thatmore » motivated these updates. Furthermore, we discuss how we originally derived IRFs from Monte Carlo simulations and later corrected those IRFs for discrepancies observed between flight and simulated data. We also give details of the validations performed using flight data and quantify the residual uncertainties in the IRFs. In conclusion, we describe techniques the LAT team has developed to propagate those uncertainties into estimates of the systematic errors on common measurements such as fluxes and spectra of astrophysical sources.« less

Interdisciplinary Approach to the Development of Accessible Computer-Administered Measurement Instruments.

PubMed

Magasi, Susan; Harniss, Mark; Heinemann, Allen W

2018-01-01

Principles of fairness in testing require that all test takers, including people with disabilities, have an equal opportunity to demonstrate their capacity on the construct being measured. Measurement design features and assessment protocols can pose barriers for people with disabilities. Fairness in testing is a fundamental validity issue at all phases in the design, administration, and interpretation of measurement instruments in clinical practice and research. There is limited guidance for instrument developers on how to develop and evaluate the accessibility and usability of measurement instruments. This article describes a 6-stage iterative process for developing accessible computer-administered measurement instruments grounded in the procedures implemented across several major measurement initiatives. A key component of this process is interdisciplinary teams of accessibility experts, content and measurement experts, information technology experts, and people with disabilities working together to ensure that measurement instruments are accessible and usable by a wide range of users. The development of accessible measurement instruments is not only an ethical requirement, it also ensures better science by minimizing measurement bias, missing data, and attrition due to mismatches between the target population and test administration platform and protocols. Copyright © 2017 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A framework and a measurement instrument for sustainability of work practices in long-term care

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Background In health care, many organizations are working on quality improvement and/or innovation of their care practices. Although the effectiveness of improvement processes has been studied extensively, little attention has been given to sustainability of the changed work practices after implementation. The objective of this study is to develop a theoretical framework and measurement instrument for sustainability. To this end sustainability is conceptualized with two dimensions: routinization and institutionalization. Methods The exploratory methodological design consisted of three phases: a) framework development; b) instrument development; and c) field testing in former improvement teams in a quality improvement program for health care (N teams = 63, N individual = 112). Data were collected not until at least one year had passed after implementation. Underlying constructs and their interrelations were explored using Structural Equation Modeling and Principal Component Analyses. Internal consistency was computed with Cronbach's alpha coefficient. A long and a short version of the instrument are proposed. Results The χ2- difference test of the -2 Log Likelihood estimates demonstrated that the hierarchical two factor model with routinization and institutionalization as separate constructs showed a better fit than the one factor model (p < .01). Secondly, construct validity of the instrument was strong as indicated by the high factor loadings of the items. Finally, the internal consistency of the subscales was good. Conclusions The theoretical framework offers a valuable starting point for the analysis of sustainability on the level of actual changed work practices. Even though the two dimensions routinization and institutionalization are related, they are clearly distinguishable and each has distinct value in the discussion of sustainability. Finally, the subscales conformed to psychometric properties defined in literature. The instrument can be used in the evaluation of improvement projects. PMID:22087884

Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) scanner instrument anomaly investigation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Watson, N. D.; Miller, J. B.; Taylor, L. V.; Lovell, J. B.; Cox, J. W.; Fedors, J. C.; Kopia, L. P.; Holloway, R. M.; Bradley, O. H.

1985-01-01

The results of an ad-hoc committee investigation of in-Earth orbit operational anomalies noted on two identical Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) Scanner instruments on two different spacecraft busses is presented. The anomalies are attributed to the bearings and the lubrication scheme for the bearings. A detailed discussion of the pertinent instrument operations, the approach of the investigation team and the current status of the instruments now in Earth orbit is included. The team considered operational changes for these instruments, rework possibilities for the one instrument which is waiting to be launched, and preferable lubrication considerations for specific space operational requirements similar to those for the ERBE scanner bearings.

Real-Time Visualization Tool Integrating STEREO, ACE, SOHO and the SDO

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schroeder, P. C.; Luhmann, J. G.; Marchant, W.

2011-12-01

The STEREO/IMPACT team has developed a new web-based visualization tool for near real-time data from the STEREO instruments, ACE and SOHO as well as relevant models of solar activity. This site integrates images, solar energetic particle, solar wind plasma and magnetic field measurements in an intuitive way using near real-time products from NOAA and other sources to give an overview of recent space weather events. This site enhances the browse tools already available at UC Berkeley, UCLA and Caltech which allow users to visualize similar data from the start of the STEREO mission. Our new near real-time tool utilizes publicly available real-time data products from a number of missions and instruments, including SOHO LASCO C2 images from the SOHO team's NASA site, SDO AIA images from the SDO team's NASA site, STEREO IMPACT SEP data plots and ACE EPAM data plots from the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center and STEREO spacecraft positions from the STEREO Science Center.

Slush Hydrogen Technology Program

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cady, Edwin C.

1994-01-01

A slush hydrogen (SH2) technology facility (STF) was designed, fabricated, and assembled by a contractor team of McDonnell Douglas Aerospace (MDA), Martin Marietta Aerospace Group (MMAG), and Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. (APCI). The STF consists of a slush generator which uses the freeze-thaw production process, a vacuum subsystem, a test tank which simulates the NASP vehicle, a triple point hydrogen receiver tank, a transfer subsystem, a sample bottle, a pressurization system, and a complete instrumentation and control subsystem. The STF was fabricated, checked-out, and made ready for testing under this contract. The actual SH2 testing was performed under the NASP consortium following NASP teaming. Pre-STF testing verified SH2 production methods, validated special SH2 instrumentation, and performed limited SH2 pressurization and expulsion tests which demonstrated the need for gaseous helium pre-pressurized of SH2 to control pressure collapse. The STF represents cutting-edge technology development by an effective Government-Industry team under very tight cost and schedule constraints.

Using Image Pro Plus Software to Develop Particle Mapping on Genesis Solar Wind Collector Surfaces

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rodriquez, Melissa C.; Allton, J. H.; Burkett, P. J.

2012-01-01

The continued success of the Genesis mission science team in analyzing solar wind collector array samples is partially based on close collaboration of the JSC curation team with science team members who develop cleaning techniques and those who assess elemental cleanliness at the levels of detection. The goal of this collaboration is to develop a reservoir of solar wind collectors of known cleanliness to be available to investigators. The heart and driving force behind this effort is Genesis mission PI Don Burnett. While JSC contributes characterization, safe clean storage, and benign collector cleaning with ultrapure water (UPW) and UV ozone, Burnett has coordinated more exotic and rigorous cleaning which is contributed by science team members. He also coordinates cleanliness assessment requiring expertise and instruments not available in curation, such as XPS, TRXRF [1,2] and synchrotron TRXRF. JSC participates by optically documenting the particle distributions as cleaning steps progress. Thus, optical document supplements SEM imaging and analysis, and elemental assessment by TRXRF.

Advanced Space Radiation Detector Technology Development

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wrbanek, John D.; Wrbanek, Susan Y.; Fralick, Gustave C.

2013-01-01

The advanced space radiation detector development team at the NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) has the goal of developing unique, more compact radiation detectors that provide improved real-time data on space radiation. The team has performed studies of different detector designs using a variety of combinations of solid-state detectors, which allow higher sensitivity to radiation in a smaller package and operate at lower voltage than traditional detectors. Integration of multiple solid-state detectors will result in an improved detector system in comparison to existing state-of-the-art instruments for the detection and monitoring of the space radiation field for deep space and aerospace applications.

Advanced Space Radiation Detector Technology Development

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wrbanek, John D.; Wrbanek, Susan Y.; Fralick, Gustave C.

2013-01-01

The advanced space radiation detector development team at NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) has the goal of developing unique, more compact radiation detectors that provide improved real-time data on space radiation. The team has performed studies of different detector designs using a variety of combinations of solid-state detectors, which allow higher sensitivity to radiation in a smaller package and operate at lower voltage than traditional detectors. Integration of multiple solid-state detectors will result in an improved detector system in comparison to existing state-of-the-art instruments for the detection and monitoring of the space radiation field for deep space and aerospace applications.

Advanced Space Radiation Detector Technology Development

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wrbanek, John D.; Wrbanek, Susan Y.; Fralick, Gustave C.

2013-01-01

The advanced space radiation detector development team at NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) has the goal of developing unique, more compact radiation detectors that provide improved real-time data on space radiation. The team has performed studies of different detector designs using a variety of combinations of solid-state detectors, which allow higher sensitivity to radiation in a smaller package and operate at lower voltage than traditional detectors. Integration of multiple solid-state detectors will result in an improved detector system in comparison to existing state-of-the-art (SOA) instruments for the detection and monitoring of the space radiation field for deep space and aerospace applications.

The BepiColombo Archive Core System (BACS)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Macfarlane, A. J.; Osuna, P.; Pérez-López, F.; Vallejo, J. C.; Martinez, S.; Arviset, C.; Casale, M.

2015-09-01

BepiColombo is an interdisciplinary ESA mission to explore the planet Mercury in cooperation with JAXA. The mission consists of two separate orbiters: ESA's Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and JAXA's Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO), which are dedicated to the detailed study of the planet and its magnetosphere. The MPO scientific payload comprises 11 instruments covering different scientific disciplines developed by several European teams. The MPO science operations will be prepared by the MPO Science Ground Segment (SGS) located at the European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC) in Madrid. The BepiColombo Archive Core System (BACS) will be the central archive in which all mission operational data will be stored and is being developed by the Science Archives and Virtual Observatory Team (SAT) also at ESAC. The BACS will act as one of the modular subsystems within the BepiColombo Science Operations Control System (BSCS), (Vallejo 2014; Pérez-López 2014) which is under the responsibility of the SGS, with the purpose of facilitating the information exchange of data and metadata between the other subsystems of the BSCS as well as with the MPO Instrument Teams. This paper gives an overview of the concept and design of the BACS and how it integrates into the science ground segment workflow.

The NGST Yardstick Integrated Science Instrument Module (ISIM) Feasibility Study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Greenhouse, M. A.; NGST ISIM Team

1999-05-01

The Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST) Integrated Science Instrument Module (ISIM) is a distributed system consisting of a cryogenic instrument module that is integrated with the Optical Telescope Assembly (OTA) and science processors, software, and other electronics located in the Space Support Module (SSM). The ISIM system provides structure, environment, and data handling for several modular science instruments as well as several components of the OTA optics train. An ISIM baseline design and feasibility study is ongoing at GSFC. This pre-Phase A design was developed for integration with the Yardstick NGST architecture and packaging in a 5 m class EELV fairing. The goals of this study are to: [1] demonstrate mission science feasibility, [2] assess ISIM engineering and cost feasibility, [3] identify ISIM technology challenge areas,and [4] enable smart customer procurement of the NGST. In depth results from this work beyond those displayed here can be found at: http://www701.gsfc.nasa.gov/isim/isim.htm The flight ISIM will be developed by a GSFC led IPT that includes members from the STScI and, during Phase A/B, will grow to include the NGST Prime Contractor, and science instrument development teams from European, Canadian , and US science communities. Science instruments will be competitively procured from the science community, and will be integrated into the ISIM by GSFC. The flight qualified ISIM will then be delivered by GSFC to the NGST Prime Contractor for observatory level integration. At the start of NGST Phase A (Spring 1999), two competing prime contractors will begin development of separate NGST architectures, and the ISIM IPT will develop two ISIM designs corresponding to these architectures. Down selection to a single design will occur during mid 2001. The ISIM team welcomes science community feedback. Contact the IPT lead: Matt Greenhouse: matt@stars.gsfc.nasa.gov.

Planned change or emergent change implementation approach and nurses' professional clinical autonomy.

PubMed

Luiking, Marie-Louise; Aarts, Leon; Bras, Leo; Grypdonck, Maria; van Linge, Roland

2017-11-01

Nurses' clinical autonomy is considered important for patients' outcome and influenced by the implementation approach of innovations. Emergent change approach with participation in the implementation process is thought to increase clinical autonomy. Planned change approach without this participation is thought not to increase clinical autonomy. Evidence of these effects on clinical autonomy is however limited. To examine the changes in clinical autonomy and in personal norms and values for a planned change and emergent change implementation of an innovation, e.g. intensive insulin therapy. Prospective comparative study with two geographically separated nurses' teams on one intensive care unit (ICU), randomly assigned to the experimental conditions. Data were collected from March 2008 to January 2009. Pre-existing differences in perception of team and innovation characteristics were excluded using instruments based on the innovation contingency model. The Nursing Activity Scale was used to measure clinical autonomy. The Personal Values and Norms instrument was used to assess orientation towards nursing activities and the Team Learning Processes instrument to assess learning as a team. Pre-implementation the measurements did not differ. Post-implementation, clinical autonomy was increased in the emergent change team and decreased in the planned change team. The Personal Values and Norms instrument showed in the emergent change team a decreased hierarchic score and increased developmental and rational scores. In the planned change team the hierarchical and group scores were increased. Learning as a team did not differ between the teams. In both teams there was a change in clinical autonomy and orientation towards nursing activities, in line with the experimental conditions. Emergent change implementation resulted in more clinical autonomy than planned change implementation. If an innovation requires the nurses to make their own clinical decisions, an emergent change implementation should help to establish this clinical autonomy. © 2015 British Association of Critical Care Nurses.

Development and initial validation of the interprofessional team learning profiling questionnaire.

PubMed

Nisbet, Gillian; Dunn, Stewart; Lincoln, Michelle; Shaw, Joanne

2016-05-01

Informal workplace interprofessional learning occurs as health professionals interact with each other as part of everyday work practice. Participation in interprofessional team meetings is a practical way to foster learning. However, a gap exists in the availability of a reliable and valid instrument that adequately captures the nuances of informal workplace interprofessional learning in this setting. The purpose of this study was to develop a questionnaire to measure the different components of interprofessional learning that contribute to the quality of interprofessional learning within the interprofessional team meeting. Questionnaire items were developed from a review of the literature and interviews with health professionals. Exploratory factor analysis was used to determine the underlying factor structure. Two hundred and eighty-five health professionals completed a 98-item questionnaire. After elimination of unreliable items, the remaining items (n = 41) loaded onto four factors named personal and professional capacity; turning words into action-"walk the talk"; the rhetoric of interprofessional learning-"talk the talk"; and inclusiveness. Internal consistency was high for all sub-scales (Cronbach's alpha 0.91, 0.87, 0.83, and 0.83, respectively). Content, construct, and concurrent validity were assessed. The instrument developed in this study indicated consistency and robust psychometric properties. Future studies that further test the psychometric properties of the questionnaire will help to establish the usefulness of this measure in establishing evidence for the perceived effectiveness of interprofessional learning in a healthcare setting.

Low-Power Multi-Aspect Space Radiation Detector System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wrbanek, John D.; Wrbanek, Susan Y.; Fralick, Gustave; Freeman, Jon C.; Burkebile, Stephen P.

2012-01-01

The advanced space radiation detector development team at NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) has the goal of developing unique, more compact radiation detectors that provide improved real-time data on space radiation. The team has performed studies of different detector designs using a variety of combinations of solid-state detectors, which allow higher sensitivity to radiation in a smaller package and operate at lower voltage than traditional detectors. Integration of all of these detector technologies will result in an improved detector system in comparison to existing state-of-the-art (SOA) instruments for the detection and monitoring of the deep space radiation field.

Exploring Mission Concepts with the JPL Innovation Foundry A-Team

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ziemer, John K.; Ervin, Joan; Lang, Jared

2013-01-01

The JPL Innovation Foundry has established a new approach for exploring, developing, and evaluating early concepts called the A-Team. The A-Team combines innovative collaborative methods with subject matter expertise and analysis tools to help mature mission concepts. Science, implementation, and programmatic elements are all considered during an A-Team study. Methods are grouped by Concept Maturity Level (CML), from 1 through 3, including idea generation and capture (CML 1), initial feasibility assessment (CML 2), and trade space exploration (CML 3). Methods used for each CML are presented, and the key team roles are described from two points of view: innovative methods and technical expertise. A-Team roles for providing innovative methods include the facilitator, study lead, and assistant study lead. A-Team roles for providing technical expertise include the architect, lead systems engineer, and integration engineer. In addition to these key roles, each A-Team study is uniquely staffed to match the study topic and scope including subject matter experts, scientists, technologists, flight and instrument systems engineers, and program managers as needed. Advanced analysis and collaborative engineering tools (e.g. cost, science traceability, mission design, knowledge capture, study and analysis support infrastructure) are also under development for use in A-Team studies and will be discussed briefly. The A-Team facilities provide a constructive environment for innovative ideas from all aspects of mission formulation to eliminate isolated studies and come together early in the development cycle when they can provide the biggest impact. This paper provides an overview of the A-Team, its study processes, roles, methods, tools and facilities.

Measuring team-based interprofessional education outcomes in clinical dentistry: psychometric evaluation of a new scale at an Australian dental school.

PubMed

Storrs, Mark J; Alexander, Heather; Sun, Jing; Kroon, Jeroen; Evans, Jane L

2015-03-01

Previous research on interprofessional education (IPE) assessment has shown the need to evaluate the influence of team-based processes on the quality of clinical education. This study aimed to develop a valid and reliable instrument to evaluate the effectiveness of interprofessional team-based treatment planning (TBTP) on the quality of clinical education at the Griffith University School of Dentistry and Oral Health, Queensland, Australia. A scale was developed and evaluated to measure interprofessional student team processes and their effect on the quality of clinical education for dental, oral health therapy, and dental technology students (known more frequently as intraprofessional education). A face validity analysis by IPE experts confirmed that items on the scale reflected the meaning of relevant concepts. After piloting, 158 students (61% response rate) involved with TBTP participated in a survey. An exploratory factor analysis using the principal component method retained 23 items with a total variance of 64.6%, suggesting high content validity. Three subscales accounted for 45.7%, 11.4%, and 7.5% of the variance. Internal consistency of the scale (α=0.943) and subscales 1 (α=0.953), 2 (α=0.897), and 3 (α=0.813) was high. A reliability analysis yielded moderate (rs=0.43) to high correlations (0.81) with the remaining scale items. Confirmatory factor analyses verified convergent validity and confirmed that this structure had a good model fit. This study suggests that the instrument might be useful in evaluating interprofessional or intraprofessional team-based processes and their influence on the quality of clinical education in academic dental institutions.

Viking lander: Creating the science teams

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1984-01-01

The teams of scientists and the contractors involved in designing and fabricating the Viking lander spacecraft for Mars exploration are discussed. The requirements established for each member of the research teams are enumerated and the personnel selection process is described. Two instruments for the lander, a gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer and a biology life detection instrument, are addressed in terms of costs, design, planning, and subcontractors. The challenges and ultimate success of the research management efforts are related in detail.

Satellite-instrument system engineering best practices and lessons

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schueler, Carl F.

2009-08-01

This paper focuses on system engineering development issues driving satellite remote sensing instrumentation cost and schedule. A key best practice is early assessment of mission and instrumentation requirements priorities driving performance trades among major instrumentation measurements: Radiometry, spatial field of view and image quality, and spectral performance. Key lessons include attention to technology availability and applicability to prioritized requirements, care in applying heritage, approaching fixed-price and cost-plus contracts with appropriate attention to risk, and assessing design options with attention to customer preference as well as design performance, and development cost and schedule. A key element of success either in contract competition or execution is team experience. Perhaps the most crucial aspect of success, however, is thorough requirements analysis and flowdown to specifications driving design performance with sufficient parameter margin to allow for mistakes or oversights - the province of system engineering from design inception to development, test and delivery.

MODIS Information, Data, and Control System (MIDACS) system specifications and conceptual design

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Han, D.; Salomonson, V.; Ormsby, J.; Ardanuy, P.; Mckay, A.; Hoyt, D.; Jaffin, S.; Vallette, B.; Sharts, B.; Folta, D.

1988-01-01

The MODIS Information, Data, and Control System (MIDACS) Specifications and Conceptual Design Document discusses system level requirements, the overall operating environment in which requirements must be met, and a breakdown of MIDACS into component subsystems, which include the Instrument Support Terminal, the Instrument Control Center, the Team Member Computing Facility, the Central Data Handling Facility, and the Data Archive and Distribution System. The specifications include sizing estimates for the processing and storage capacities of each data system element, as well as traffic analyses of data flows between the elements internally, and also externally across the data system interfaces. The specifications for the data system, as well as for the individual planning and scheduling, control and monitoring, data acquisition and processing, calibration and validation, and data archive and distribution components, do not yet fully specify the data system in the complete manner needed to achieve the scientific objectives of the MODIS instruments and science teams. The teams have not yet been formed; however, it was possible to develop the specifications and conceptual design based on the present concept of EosDIS, the Level-1 and Level-2 Functional Requirements Documents, the Operations Concept, and through interviews and meetings with key members of the scientific community.

Kalman Filter for Calibrating a Telescope Focal Plane

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kang, Bryan; Bayard, David

2006-01-01

The instrument-pointing frame (IPF) Kalman filter, and an algorithm that implements this filter, have been devised for calibrating the focal plane of a telescope. As used here, calibration signifies, more specifically, a combination of measurements and calculations directed toward ensuring accuracy in aiming the telescope and determining the locations of objects imaged in various arrays of photodetectors in instruments located on the focal plane. The IPF Kalman filter was originally intended for application to a spaceborne infrared astronomical telescope, but can also be applied to other spaceborne and ground-based telescopes. In the traditional approach to calibration of a telescope, (1) one team of experts concentrates on estimating parameters (e.g., pointing alignments and gyroscope drifts) that are classified as being of primarily an engineering nature, (2) another team of experts concentrates on estimating calibration parameters (e.g., plate scales and optical distortions) that are classified as being primarily of a scientific nature, and (3) the two teams repeatedly exchange data in an iterative process in which each team refines its estimates with the help of the data provided by the other team. This iterative process is inefficient and uneconomical because it is time-consuming and entails the maintenance of two survey teams and the development of computer programs specific to the requirements of each team. Moreover, theoretical analysis reveals that the engineering/ science iterative approach is not optimal in that it does not yield the best estimates of focal-plane parameters and, depending on the application, may not even enable convergence toward a set of estimates.

Validity, Reliability and Acceptability of the Team Standardized Assessment of Clinical Encounter Report*

PubMed Central

Wong, Camilla L.; Norris, Mireille; Sinha, Samir S.; Zorzitto, Maria L.; Madala, Sushma; Hamid, Jemila S.

2016-01-01

Background The Team Standardized Assessment of a Clinical Encounter Report (StACER) was designed for use in Geriatric Medicine residency programs to evaluate Communicator and Collaborator competencies. Methods The Team StACER was completed by two geriatricians and interdisciplinary team members based on observations during a geriatric medicine team meeting. Postgraduate trainees were recruited from July 2010–November 2013. Inter-rater reliability between two geriatricians and between all team members was determined. Internal consistency of items for the constructs Communicator and Collaborator competencies was calculated. Raters completed a survey previously administered to Canadian geriatricians to assess face validity. Trainees completed a survey to determine the usefulness of this instrument as a feedback tool. Results Thirty postgraduate trainees participated. The prevalence-adjusted bias-adjusted kappa range inter-rater reliability for Communicator and Collaborator items were 0.87–1.00 and 0.86–1.00, respectively. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for Communicator and Collaborator items was 0.997 (95% CI: 0.993–1.00) and 0.997 (95% CI: 0.997–1.00), respectively. The instrument lacked discriminatory power, as all trainees scored “meets requirements” in the overall assessment. Niney-three per cent and 86% of trainees found feedback useful for developing Communicator and Collaborator competencies, respectively. Conclusions The Team StACER has adequate inter-rater reliability and internal consistency. Poor discriminatory power and face validity challenge the merit of using this evaluation tool. Trainees felt the tool provided useful feedback on Collaborator and Communicator competencies. PMID:28050222

Earth Observing System (EOS) advanced altimetry

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Parsons, C. L.; Walsh, E. J.

1988-01-01

In the post-TOPEX era, satellite radar altimeters will be developed with the capability of measuring the earth's surface topography over a wide swath of coverage, rather than just at the satellite's nadir. The identification of potential spacecraft flight missions in the future was studied. The best opportunity was found to be the Earth Observing System (EOS). It is felt that an instrument system that has a broad appeal to the earth sciences community stands a much better chance of being selected as an EOS instrument. Consequently, the Topography and Rain Radar Imager (TARRI) will be proposed as a system that has the capability to profile the Earth's topography regardless of the surface type. The horizontal and height resolutions of interest are obviously significantly different over land, ice, and water; but, the use of radar to provide an all-weather observation capability is applicable to the whole earth. The scientific guidance for the design and development of this instrument and the eventual scientific utilization of the data produced by the TARRI will be provided by seven science teams. The teams are formed around scientific disciplines and are titled: Geology/Geophysics, Hydrology/Rain, Oceanography, Ice/Snow, Geodesy/Orbit/Attitude, Cartography, and Surface Properties/Techniques.

Site scientific mission plan for the Southern Great Plains CART site, January-June 1995

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

Schneider, J.M.; Lamb, P.J.; Sisterson, D.L.

1994-12-01

The Southern Great Plains (SGP) Cloud and Radiation Testbed (CART) site is designed to help satisfy the data needs of the Atmospheric Measurement (ARM) Program Science Team. This document defines the scientific priorities for site activities during the six months beginning on January 1, 1995, and also looks forward in lesser detail to subsequent six-month periods. The primary purpose of this Site Scientific Mission Plan is to provide guidance for the development of plans for site operations. It also provides information on current plans to the ARM functional teams (Management Team, Experiment Support Team [EST], Operations Team, Data Management Teammore » [DMT], Instrument Team [IT], and Campaign Team) and serves to disseminate the plans more generally within the ARM Program and among the members of the Science Team. This document includes a description of the operational status of the site and the primary envisaged site activities, together with information concerning approved and proposed Intensive Observation Periods (IOPs). Amendments will be prepared and distributed whenever the content changes by more than 30% within a six-month period. The primary users of this document are the site operator, the site scientist, the Science Team through the ARM Program Science Director, The ARM Program Experiment Center, and the aforementioned ARM Program functional teams. This plan is a living document that will be updated and reissued every six months as the observational facilities are developed, tested, and augmented and as priorities are adjusted in response to developments in scientific planning and understanding.« less

A behaviourally anchored rating scale for evaluating the use of the WHO surgical safety checklist: development and initial evaluation of the WHOBARS.

PubMed

Devcich, Daniel A; Weller, Jennifer; Mitchell, Simon J; McLaughlin, Scott; Barker, Lauren; Rudolph, Jenny W; Raemer, Daniel B; Zammert, Martin; Singer, Sara J; Torrie, Jane; Frampton, Chris Ma; Merry, Alan F

2016-10-01

Realising the full potential of the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist (SSC) to reduce perioperative harm requires the constructive engagement of all operating room (OR) team members during its administration. To facilitate research on SSC implementation, a valid and reliable instrument is needed for measuring OR team behaviours during its administration. We developed a behaviourally anchored rating scale (BARS) for this purpose. We used a modified Delphi process, involving 16 subject matter experts, to compile a BARS with behavioural domains applicable to all three phases of the SSC. We evaluated the instrument in 80 adult OR cases and 30 simulated cases using two medical student raters and seven expert raters, respectively. Intraclass correlation coefficients were calculated to assess inter-rater reliability. Internal consistency and instrument discrimination were explored. Sample size estimates for potential study designs using the instrument were calculated. The Delphi process resulted in a BARS instrument (the WHOBARS) with five behavioural domains. Intraclass correlation coefficients calculated from the OR cases exceeded 0.80 for 80% of the instrument's domains across the SSC phases. The WHOBARS showed high internal consistency across the three phases of the SSC and ability to discriminate among surgical cases in both clinical and simulated settings. Fewer than 20 cases per group would be required to show a difference of 1 point between groups in studies of the SSC, where α=0.05 and β=0.8. We have developed a generic instrument for comprehensively rating the administration of the SSC and informing initiatives to realise its full potential. We have provided data supporting its capacity for discrimination, internal consistency and inter-rater reliability. Further psychometric evaluation is warranted. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/

Developing a workplace resilience instrument.

PubMed

Mallak, Larry A; Yildiz, Mustafa

2016-05-27

Resilience benefits from the use of protective factors, as opposed to risk factors, which are associated with vulnerability. Considerable research and instrument development has been conducted in clinical settings for patients. The need existed for an instrument to be developed in a workplace setting to measure resilience of employees. This study developed and tested a resilience instrument for employees in the workplace. The research instrument was distributed to executives and nurses working in the United States in hospital settings. Five-hundred-forty completed and usable responses were obtained. The instrument contained an inventory of workplace resilience, a job stress questionnaire, and relevant demographics. The resilience items were written based on previous work by the lead author and inspired by Weick's [1] sense-making theory. A four-factor model yielded an instrument having psychometric properties showing good model fit. Twenty items were retained for the resulting Workplace Resilience Instrument (WRI). Parallel analysis was conducted with successive iterations of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Respondents were classified based on their employment with either a rural or an urban hospital. Executives had significantly higher WRI scores than nurses, controlling for gender. WRI scores were positively and significantly correlated with years of experience and the Brief Job Stress Questionnaire. An instrument to measure individual resilience in the workplace (WRI) was developed. The WRI's four factors identify dimensions of workplace resilience for use in subsequent investigations: Active Problem-Solving, Team Efficacy, Confident Sense-Making, and Bricolage.

[Assessing aggression in patients of the mental health crisis service].

PubMed

Penterman, E J M; Nijman, H L I

2009-01-01

Care workers of the outreach psychiatric crisis team are frequently confronted with aggressive patients. To prevent dangerous situations from developing it could be advantageous to have in place a method of risk assessment that is based on information about patients before they are actually contacted by the crisis team. To test the predictive validity of an instrument specifically designed to assess the risks of aggression from severely disturbed psychiatric patients before they are seen by the crisis team. Over a period of two years and prior to any outreach contact with patients in crisis situations a Checklist of Risks to the Crisis team (CRC) was completed. Then, following outreach contact with the patient any perceived aggression was recorded by means of the Staff Observation Aggression Scale-Revised (SOAS-R). Aggressive behaviour by patients was observed during 51 of 499 crisis contacts with members of the outreach crisis team. On the basis of three factors in the CRC, namely the clinical assessment on a visual-analogue scale, an estimate of the number of aggressive persons in the vicinity of the crisis patient concerned and the reporting of crises by the patient himself, it was possible to predict outwardly directed aggression with a sensitivity of 74% and a specificity of 84%. Although the findings still need to be reproduced, an instrument such as the crc could be very useful to members of the crisis service.

Data Management for a Climate Data Record in an Evolving Technical Landscape

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moore, K. D.; Walter, J.; Gleason, J. L.

2017-12-01

For nearly twenty years, NASA Langley Research Center's Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) Science Team has been producing a suite of data products that forms a persistent climate data record of the Earth's radiant energy budget. Many of the team's physical scientists and key research contributors have been with the team since the launch of the first CERES instrument in 1997. This institutional knowledge is irreplaceable and its longevity and continuity are among the reasons that the team has been so productive. Such legacy involvement, however, can also be a limiting factor. Some CERES scientists-cum-coders might possess skills that were state-of-the-field when they were emerging scientists but may now be outdated with respect to developments in software development best practices and supporting technologies. Both programming languages and processing frameworks have evolved significantly in the past twenty years, and updating one of these factors warrants consideration of updating the other. With the imminent launch of a final CERES instrument and the good health of those in flight, the CERES data record stands to continue far into the future. The CERES Science Team is, therefore, undergoing a re-architecture of its codebase to maintain compatibility with newer data processing platforms and technologies and to leverage modern software development best practices. This necessitates training our staff and consequently presents several challenges, including: Development continues immediately on the next "edition" of research algorithms upon release of the previous edition. How can code be rewritten at the same time that the science algorithms are being updated and integrated? With limited time to devote to training, how can we update the staff's existing skillset without slowing progress or introducing new errors? The CERES Science Team is large and complex, much like the current state of its codebase. How can we identify, in a breadth-wise manner, areas for code improvement across multiple research groups that maintain code with varying semantics but common concepts? In this work, we discuss the successes and pitfalls of this major re-architecture effort and share how we will sustain improvement into the future.

Staff perceptions of a patient at risk team: A survey design.

PubMed

Wood, Tania; Pirret, Alison; Takerei, Susan; Harford, Joanne

2017-12-01

Whilst research demonstrates the benefits of critical care outreach, limited research describes staffs' perspective of these teams. This study examined ward nurses' and doctors' perceptions of the service provided by a nurse-led 24hours a day, seven days a week Patient at Risk team. Using an exploratory survey research design and a previously used instrument, data were collected between January and March (2016). The instruments' reliability was assessed using Cronbach's alpha (a=0.90). 339 participants, including 255 nurses and 84 doctors, completed the questionnaire (70.48% response rate). Most participants agreed the Patient at Risk team 1) were accessible and approachable, 2) recognised deterioration and reduced serious events, 3) provided ward staff teaching and coaching and 4) aided allied health referral and improved transfer of patients from critical care. More nurses than doctors perceived the team's role more positively in some aspects of the service they provided. Whilst most comments were positive, some comments identified improvements could be made to the service. Ward nurses' and doctors' perceived the Patient at Risk team contributed to improving care of deteriorating ward patients. The instrument used in this study may be useful to other outreach teams to identify service improvements. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Usability-driven evolution of a space instrument

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McCalden, Alec

2012-09-01

The use of resources in the cradle-to-grave timeline of a space instrument might be significantly improved by considering the concept of usability from the start of the mission. The methodology proposed here includes giving early priority in a programme to the iterative development of a simulator that models instrument operation, and allowing this to evolve ahead of the actual instrument specification and fabrication. The advantages include reduction of risk in software development by shifting much of it to earlier in a programme than is typical, plus a test programme that uses and thereby proves the same support systems that may be used for flight. A new development flow for an instrument is suggested, showing how the system engineering phases used by the space agencies could be reworked in line with these ideas. This methodology is also likely to contribute to a better understanding between the various disciplines involved in the creation of a new instrument. The result should better capture the science needs, implement them more accurately with less wasted effort, and more fully allow the best ideas from all team members to be considered.

Reaching a Conclusion--Procedures and Processes of Judgement Formation in School Inspection Teams

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dedering, Kathrin; Sowada, Moritz G.

2017-01-01

School inspections have become an important instrument of quality assurance and quality development in many European countries. So far, the focus of empirical research on school inspections has been on the acceptance of the procedure among the school-internal actors, its influence for internal quality development and its effects on student…

ExoMars Raman laser spectrometer breadboard overview

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Díaz, E.; Moral, A. G.; Canora, C. P.; Ramos, G.; Barcos, O.; Prieto, J. A. R.; Hutchinson, I. B.; Ingley, R.; Colombo, M.; Canchal, R.; Dávila, B.; Manfredi, J. A. R.; Jiménez, A.; Gallego, P.; Pla, J.; Margoillés, R.; Rull, F.; Sansano, A.; López, G.; Catalá, A.; Tato, C.

2011-10-01

The Raman Laser Spectrometer (RLS) is one of the Pasteur Payload instruments, within the ESA's Aurora Exploration Programme, ExoMars mission. The RLS Instrument will perform Raman spectroscopy on crushed powdered samples deposited on a small container after crushing the cores obtained by the Rover's drill system. In response to ESA requirements for delta-PDR to be held in mid 2012, an instrument BB programme has been developed, by RLS Assembly Integration and Verification (AIV) Team to achieve the Technology Readiness level 5 (TRL5), during last 2010 and whole 2011. Currently RLS instrument is being developed pending its CoDR (Conceptual Design Revision) with ESA, in October 2011. It is planned to have a fully operative breadboard, conformed from different unit and sub-units breadboards that would demonstrate the end-to-end performance of the flight representative units by 2011 Q4.

Sacrificial Charge and the Spectral Resolution Performance of ACIS CCDs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grant, Catherine E.; Prigozhin, Gregory; Lamarr, Beverly; Bautz, Mark W.

2002-04-01

Soon after launch, the Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer (ACIS), one of the focal plane instruments on the Chandra X-ray Observatory, suffered radiation damage from exposure to soft protons during passages through the Earth's radiation belts. The ACIS team is continuing to study the properties of the damage with an emphasis on developing techniques to mitigate charge transfer inefficiency (CTI) and spectral resolution degradation. A post-facto CTI corrector has been developed which can effectively recover much of the lost resolution (Townsley et al. 2000, ApJ, 534, L139). Any further improvements in performance will require knowledge of the location and amount of sacrificial charge - charge deposited along the readout path of an event which fills electron traps and changes CTI. We report on efforts by the ACIS Instrument team to characterize which charge traps cause performance degradation and the properties of the sacrificial charge seen on-orbit. We also report on early attempts to correct for the presence of sacrificial charge.

Sacrificial charge and the spectral resolution performance of the Chandra advanced CCD imaging spectrometer

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grant, Catherine E.; Prigozhin, Gregory Y.; LaMarr, Beverly; Bautz, Mark W.

2003-03-01

Soon after launch, the Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer (ACIS), one of the focal plane instruments on the Chandra X-ray Observatory, suffered radiation damage from exposure to soft protons during passages through the Earth's radiation belts. The ACIS team is continuing to study the properties of the damage with an emphasis on developing techniques to mitigate charge transfer inefficiency (CTI) and spectral resolution degradation. A post-facto CTI corrector has been developed which can effectively recover much of the lost resolution. Any further improvements in performance will require knowledge of the location and amount of sacrificial charge - charge deposited along the readout path of an event which fills electron traps and changes CTI. We report on efforts by the ACIS Instrument team to characterize which charge traps cause performance degradation and the properties of the sacrificial charge seen on-orbit. We also report on attempts to correct X-ray pulseheights for the presence of sacrificial charge.

A hospital discharge summary quality improvement program featuring individual and team-based feedback and academic detailing.

PubMed

Axon, Robert N; Penney, Fletcher T; Kyle, Thomas R; Zapka, Jane; Marsden, Justin; Zhao, Yumin; Mauldin, Patrick D; Moran, William P

2014-06-01

Discharge summaries are an important component of hospital care transitions typically completed by interns in teaching hospitals. However, these documents are often not completed in a timely fashion or do not include pertinent details of hospitalization. This report outlines the development and impact of a curriculum intervention to improve the quality of discharge summaries by interns and residents in Internal Medicine. A previous study demonstrated that a discharge summary curriculum featuring individualized feedback was associated with improved summary quality, but few subsequent studies have described implementation of similar curricula. No information exists on the utility of other strategies such as team-based feedback or academic detailing. Study participants were 96 Internal Medicine intern and resident physicians at an academic medical center-based training program. A comprehensive evidence-based discharge summary quality improvement program was developed and implemented that featured a discharge summary template to facilitate summary preparation, individual feedback, team-based feedback, academic detailing and an objective discharge summary evaluation instrument. The discharge summary evaluation instrument had moderate interrater reliability (κ = 0.72). Discharge summary scores improved from mean score of 70% to 82% (P = 0.05). Interns and residents participating in this program also reported increased confidence in producing and critiquing summaries. A comprehensive discharge summary curriculum can be feasibly implemented within the context of a residency program. Team-based feedback and academic detailing may serve to reinforce individual feedback and extend program reach.

Evaluation of diagnostic tools that tertiary teachers can apply to profile their students' conceptions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schultz, Madeleine; Lawrie, Gwendolyn A.; Bailey, Chantal H.; Bedford, Simon B.; Dargaville, Tim R.; O'Brien, Glennys; Tasker, Roy; Thompson, Christopher D.; Williams, Mark; Wright, Anthony H.

2017-03-01

A multi-institution collaborative team of Australian chemistry education researchers, teaching a total of over 3000 first year chemistry students annually, has explored a tool for diagnosing students' prior conceptions as they enter tertiary chemistry courses. Five core topics were selected and clusters of diagnostic items were assembled linking related concepts in each topic together. An ordered multiple choice assessment strategy was adopted to enable provision of formative feedback to students through combination of the specific distractors that they chose. Concept items were either sourced from existing research instruments or developed by the project team. The outcome is a diagnostic tool consisting of five topic clusters of five concept items that has been delivered in large introductory chemistry classes at five Australian institutions. Statistical analysis of data has enabled exploration of the composition and validity of the instrument including a comparison between delivery of the complete 25 item instrument with subsets of five items, clustered by topic. This analysis revealed that most items retained their validity when delivered in small clusters. Tensions between the assembly, validation and delivery of diagnostic instruments for the purposes of acquiring robust psychometric research data versus their pragmatic use are considered in this study.

Distributed framework for dyanmic telescope and instrument control

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ames, Troy J.; Case, Lynne

2003-02-01

Traditionally, instrument command and control systems have been developed specifically for a single instrument. Such solutions are frequently expensive and are inflexible to support the next instrument development effort. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center is developing an extensible framework, known as Instrument Remote Control (IRC) that applies to any kind of instrument that can be controlled by a computer. IRC combines the platform independent processing capabilities of Java with the power of the Extensible Markup Language (XML). A key aspect of the architecture is software that is driven by an instrument description, written using the Instrument Markup Language (IML). IML is an XML dialect used to describe graphical user interfaces to control and monitor the instrument, command sets and command formats, data streams, communication mechanisms, and data processing algorithms. The IRC framework provides the ability to communicate to components anywhere on a network using the JXTA protocol for dynamic discovery of distributed components. JXTA (see http://www.jxta.org) is a generalized protocol that allows any devices connected by a network to communicate in a peer-to-peer manner. IRC uses JXTA to advertise a devices IML and discover devices of interest on the network. Devices can join or leave the network and thus join or leave the instrument control environment of IRC. Currently, several astronomical instruments are working with the IRC development team to develop custom components for IRC to control their instruments. These instruments include: High resolution Airborne Wideband Camera (HAWC), a first light instrument for the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA); Submillimeter And Far Infrared Experiment (SAFIRE), a Principal Investigator instrument for SOFIA; and Fabry-Perot Interferometer Bolometer Research Experiment (FIBRE), a prototype of the SAFIRE instrument, used at the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory (CSO). Most recently, we have been working with the Submillimetre High

The COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement INstruments (COSMIN) and how to select an outcome measurement instrument.

PubMed

Mokkink, Lidwine B; Prinsen, Cecilia A C; Bouter, Lex M; Vet, Henrica C W de; Terwee, Caroline B

2016-01-19

COSMIN (COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement INstruments) is an initiative of an international multidisciplinary team of researchers who aim to improve the selection of outcome measurement instruments both in research and in clinical practice by developing tools for selecting the most appropriate available instrument. In this paper these tools are described, i.e. the COSMIN taxonomy and definition of measurement properties; the COSMIN checklist to evaluate the methodological quality of studies on measurement properties; a search filter for finding studies on measurement properties; a protocol for systematic reviews of outcome measurement instruments; a database of systematic reviews of outcome measurement instruments; and a guideline for selecting outcome measurement instruments for Core Outcome Sets in clinical trials. Currently, we are updating the COSMIN checklist, particularly the standards for content validity studies. Also new standards for studies using Item Response Theory methods will be developed. Additionally, in the future we want to develop standards for studies on the quality of non-patient reported outcome measures, such as clinician-reported outcomes and performance-based outcomes. In summary, we plea for more standardization in the use of outcome measurement instruments, for conducting high quality systematic reviews on measurement instruments in which the best available outcome measurement instrument is recommended, and for stopping the use of poor outcome measurement instruments.

The COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement INstruments (COSMIN) and how to select an outcome measurement instrument

PubMed Central

Mokkink, Lidwine B.; Prinsen, Cecilia A. C.; Bouter, Lex M.; de Vet, Henrica C. W.; Terwee, Caroline B.

2016-01-01

Background: COSMIN (COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement INstruments) is an initiative of an international multidisciplinary team of researchers who aim to improve the selection of outcome measurement instruments both in research and in clinical practice by developing tools for selecting the most appropriate available instrument. Method: In this paper these tools are described, i.e. the COSMIN taxonomy and definition of measurement properties; the COSMIN checklist to evaluate the methodological quality of studies on measurement properties; a search filter for finding studies on measurement properties; a protocol for systematic reviews of outcome measurement instruments; a database of systematic reviews of outcome measurement instruments; and a guideline for selecting outcome measurement instruments for Core Outcome Sets in clinical trials. Currently, we are updating the COSMIN checklist, particularly the standards for content validity studies. Also new standards for studies using Item Response Theory methods will be developed. Additionally, in the future we want to develop standards for studies on the quality of non-patient reported outcome measures, such as clinician-reported outcomes and performance-based outcomes. Conclusions: In summary, we plea for more standardization in the use of outcome measurement instruments, for conducting high quality systematic reviews on measurement instruments in which the best available outcome measurement instrument is recommended, and for stopping the use of poor outcome measurement instruments. PMID:26786084

A case study of technology transfer: Cardiology

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schafer, G.

1974-01-01

Research advancements in cardiology instrumentation and techniques are summarized. Emphasis is placed upon the following techniques: (1) development of electrodes which show good skin compatibility and wearer comfort; (2) contourography - a real time display system for showing the results of EKGs; (3) detection of arteriosclerosis by digital computer processing of X-ray photos; (4) automated, noninvasive systems for blood pressure measurement; (5) ultrasonoscope - a noninvasive device for use in diagnosis of aortic, mitral, and tricuspid valve disease; and (6) rechargable cardiac pacemakers. The formation of a biomedical applications team which is an interdisciplinary team to bridge the gap between the developers and users of technology is described.

Recent Advances in High-Resolution MEMS DM Fabrication and Integration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bifano, T.; Cornelissen, S.; Bierden, P.

2010-09-01

Deformable mirrors fabricated using microelectromechanical systems technology (MEMS-DMs) have been studied at Boston University (BU) and developed/commercialized by Boston Micromachines Corporation (BMC) over the past decade. Recent advances that might have an impact on surveillance telescopes include demonstration of 4092 actuator DMs with continuous mirror face-sheets, and segmented DMs capable of frame rates of greater than 20kHz for devices with up to 1020 independent segments. The 4092 actuator DM, developed by BMC for the Gemini Planet Imaging GPI instrument, was recently delivered to the GPI instrument development team. Its packaging and platform development are described, and the performance results for the latest prototype devices are presented.

Mars Exploration Student Data Teams: Building Foundations and Influencing Students to Pursue STEM Careers through Experiences with Authentic Research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Turney, D.; Grigsby, B.; Murchie, S. L.; Buczkowski, D.; Seelos, K. D.; Nair, H.; McGovern, A.; Morgan, F.; Viviano, C. E.; Goudge, T. A.; Thompson, D.

2013-12-01

The Mars Exploration Student Data Teams (MESDT) immerses diverse teams of high school and undergraduate students in an authentic research Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) based experience and allows students to be direct participants in the scientific process by working with scientists to analyze data sets from NASA's Mars program, specifically from the CRISM instrument. MESDT was created by Arizona State University's Mars Education Program, and is funded through NASA's Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars or CRISM, an instrument onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). Students work with teacher mentors and CRISM team members to analyze data, develop hypotheses, conduct research, submit proposals, critique and revise work. All students begin the program with basic Mars curriculum lessons developed by the MESDT education team. This foundation enables the program to be inclusive of all students. Teachers have reported that populations of students with diverse academic needs and abilities have been successful in this program. The use of technology in the classroom allows the MESDT program to successfully reach a nationwide audience and funding provided by NASA's CRISM instrument allows students to participate free of charge. Recent changes to the program incorporate a partnership with United States Geological Survey (USGS) and a CRISM sponsored competitive scholarship for two teams of students to present their work at the annual USGS Planetary Mappers Meeting. Returning MESDT teachers have attributed an increase in student enrollment and interest to this scholarship opportunity. The 2013 USGS Planetary Mappers Meeting was held in Washington DC which provided an opportunity for the students to meet with their Senators at the US Capitol to explain the science work they had done throughout the year as well as the impact that the program had had on their goals for the future. This opportunity extended to the students by the United States Senate was a chance for students to practice high level communication and presentation skills and was reported to have made a strong impression on the participating students. MESDT develops foundational abilities needed by all students such as critical thinking, problem solving, cooperative group work, and communication skills. The implications of having students involved in authentic data analysis from an orbiting spacecraft include increased technical abilities as well as increased confidence to pursue a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) major or career. Formative assessments and teacher, parent, and student testimonials show MESDT has had a definite impact on students and their decisions to pursue STEM related majors and careers, in addition to leading to student scholarships and awards.

Automation of Cassini Support Imaging Uplink Command Development

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ly-Hollins, Lisa; Breneman, Herbert H.; Brooks, Robert

2010-01-01

"Support imaging" is imagery requested by other Cassini science teams to aid in the interpretation of their data. The generation of the spacecraft command sequences for these images is performed by the Cassini Instrument Operations Team. The process initially established for doing this was very labor-intensive, tedious and prone to human error. Team management recognized this process as one that could easily benefit from automation. Team members were tasked to document the existing manual process, develop a plan and strategy to automate the process, implement the plan and strategy, test and validate the new automated process, and deliver the new software tools and documentation to Flight Operations for use during the Cassini extended mission. In addition to the goals of higher efficiency and lower risk in the processing of support imaging requests, an effort was made to maximize adaptability of the process to accommodate uplink procedure changes and the potential addition of new capabilities outside the scope of the initial effort.

Remote Sensing Product Verification and Validation at the NASA Stennis Space Center

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stanley, Thomas M.

2005-01-01

Remote sensing data product verification and validation (V&V) is critical to successful science research and applications development. People who use remote sensing products to make policy, economic, or scientific decisions require confidence in and an understanding of the products' characteristics to make informed decisions about the products' use. NASA data products of coarse to moderate spatial resolution are validated by NASA science teams. NASA's Stennis Space Center (SSC) serves as the science validation team lead for validating commercial data products of moderate to high spatial resolution. At SSC, the Applications Research Toolbox simulates sensors and targets, and the Instrument Validation Laboratory validates critical sensors. The SSC V&V Site consists of radiometric tarps, a network of ground control points, a water surface temperature sensor, an atmospheric measurement system, painted concrete radial target and edge targets, and other instrumentation. NASA's Applied Sciences Directorate participates in the Joint Agency Commercial Imagery Evaluation (JACIE) team formed by NASA, the U.S. Geological Survey, and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency to characterize commercial systems and imagery.

NASA’s Kuiper Airborne Observatory 1974-1995 - Twenty One Years of Discovery

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Erickson, Edwin F.

2017-01-01

The Gerard P. Kuiper Airborne Observatory (KAO) forged a unique record in the annals of astronomy. Teams of scientists developed and flew with their specialized, state-of-the-art instruments to make observations not possible from the ground, at wavelengths from 0.3 µm to 1.6 mm. The talk will describe the KAO and its legacy of scientific findings, infrared instrumentation technology, experience for young astronomers and their impact on the field of infrared astronomy - and the rationale for SOFIA.

Military Command Team Effectiveness: Model and Instrument for Assessment and Improvement (L’efficacite des Equipes de Commandement Militaires: un Modele et un Instrument Pour L’evaluation et L’amelioration)

DTIC Science & Technology

2005-04-01

influence team performance (e.g., Gender , race, age) (Morgan and Lassiter, 1992). • Leadership – the deliberate attempt to influence team outcomes...members of an organisation to be subject to an implicit socialisation process that brings members’ belief structures, values and goals into line with...Bowers, 1999). • Mix of Demographic Characteristics (e.g., age, gender , ethnicity, and culture). Whether more homogeneity or more heterogeneity is

Development of HANAA to Achieve Commercialization Final Report CRADA No. TC-2025-01

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

Koopman, R. P.; Schmidt, J. C.

The objective of this project was to provide DOD and the intelligence agencies with highly portable, advanced, bio-detection instruments and to further the DOE objective of putting advanced instrumentation for the detection of biological terrorism agents into the hands of first responders. All sponsors of the HANAA development work at LLNL believed that the technology must be commercialized to fully contribute to their missions. Intelligence organizations, military teams, and first responders must be able to purchase the instruments for a reasonable price and obtain maintenance services and support equipment from a reliable supplier in order for the instrument to bemore » useful to them. The goal was to efficiently transfer HANAA technology from LLNL to ETG, a company that would manufacture the instrument and make it commercially available to the constituencies important to our sponsors. This was to include a current beta test instrument and all knowledge of problems with the instrument and recommendations for solving those problems in a commercial version. The following tasks were to be completed under this CRADA.« less

Virtual Engineering and Science Team - Reusable Autonomy for Spacecraft Subsystems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bailin, Sidney C.; Johnson, Michael A.; Rilee, Michael L.; Truszkowski, Walt; Thompson, Bryan; Day, John H. (Technical Monitor)

2002-01-01

In this paper we address the design, development, and evaluation of the Virtual Engineering and Science Team (VEST) tool - a revolutionary way to achieve onboard subsystem/instrument autonomy. VEST directly addresses the technology needed for advanced autonomy enablers for spacecraft subsystems. It will significantly support the efficient and cost effective realization of on-board autonomy and contribute directly to realizing the concept of an intelligent autonomous spacecraft. VEST will support the evolution of a subsystem/instrument model that is probably correct and from that model the automatic generation of the code needed to support the autonomous operation of what was modeled. VEST will directly support the integration of the efforts of engineers, scientists, and software technologists. This integration of efforts will be a significant advancement over the way things are currently accomplished. The model, developed through the use of VEST, will be the basis for the physical construction of the subsystem/instrument and the generated code will support its autonomous operation once in space. The close coupling between the model and the code, in the same tool environment, will help ensure that correct and reliable operational control of the subsystem/instrument is achieved.VEST will provide a thoroughly modern interface that will allow users to easily and intuitively input subsystem/instrument requirements and visually get back the system's reaction to the correctness and compatibility of the inputs as the model evolves. User interface/interaction, logic, theorem proving, rule-based and model-based reasoning, and automatic code generation are some of the basic technologies that will be brought into play in realizing VEST.

The Huygens Descent Trajectory Working Group and the Reconstruction of the Huygens Probe Entry and Descent Trajectory at Titan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Atkinson, David H.; Kazeminejad, Bobby; Lebreton, Jean-Pierre

2015-04-01

Cassini/Huygens, a flagship mission to explore the rings, atmosphere, magnetic field, and moons that make up the Saturn system, is a joint endeavor of NASA, the European Space Agency, and Agenzia Spaziale Italiana. Comprising two spacecraft - a Saturn orbiter built by NASA and a Titan entry/descent probe built by the European Space Agency - Cassini/Huygens was launched in October 1997 and arrived at Saturn in 2004. The Huygens probe parachuted to the surface of Titan in January 2005. During the descent, six science instruments provided measurements of Titan's atmosphere, clouds, and winds, and photographed Titan's surface. It was recognized early in the Huygens program that to correctly interpret and correlate results from the probe science experiments and to provide a reference set of data for ground truth calibration of the Cassini orbiter remote sensing observations, an accurate reconstruction of the probe entry and descent trajectory and surface landing location would be necessary. The Huygens Descent Trajectory Working Group (DTWG) was chartered in 1996 as a subgroup of the Huygens Science Working Team. With membership comprising representatives from all the probe engineering and instrument teams as well as representatives of industry and the Cassini and Huygens Project Scientists, the DTWG presented an organizational framework within which instrument data was shared, the entry and descent trajectory reconstruction implemented, and the trajectory reconstruction efficiently disseminated. The primary goal of the Descent Trajectory Working Group was to develop retrieval methodologies for the probe descent trajectory reconstruction from the entry interface altitude of 1270 km to the surface using navigation data, and engineering and science data acquired by the instruments on the Huygens Probe, and to provide a reconstruction of the Huygens probe trajectory from entry to the surface of Titan that is maximally consistent with all available engineering and science data sets. The official project entry and descent trajectory reconstruction effort was published by the DTWG in 2007. A revised descent trajectory was released in 2010 that accounts for updated measurements of Titan's pole coordinates derived from radar images of Titan taken during Cassini flybys after 2007. The effect of the updated pole positions on Huygens is a southward shift of the trajectory by about 0.3 degrees with a much smaller effect of less than 0.01 degree in the zonal (west to east) direction. The revised Huygens landing coordinates of 192.335 degrees West and 10.573 degrees South with longitude and latitude residuals of respectively 0.035 degrees and 0.007 degrees, respectively, are in excellent agreement with results of recent landing site investigations using visual and radar images from the Cassini VIMS instrument. Acknowledgements *J.-P.L's work was performed while at ESA/ESTEC. DA and BK would like to express appreciation to the European Space Agency's Research and Scientific Support Department for funding the Descent Trajectory Working Group. The work of the Descent Trajectory Working Group would not have been possible without the dedicated efforts of all the Huygens principal investigators and their teams, and the science and engineering data provided from each experiment team, including M. Fulchignoni and the HASI Team, H. Niemann and the GCMS Team, J. Zarnecki and the SSP Team, M. Tomasko and the DISR Team, M. Bird and the DWE Team, and G. Israel and the ACP Team. Additionally, special thanks for many years of support to D.L. Matson, R.T. Mitchell, M. Pérez-Ayúcar, O. Witasse; J. Jones, D. Roth, N. Strange on the Cassini Navigation Team at JPL; A.-M. Schipper and P. Couzin at Thales Alenia; C. Sollazzo, D. Salt, J. Wheadon and S. Standley from the Huygens Ops Team; and R. Trautner and H. Svedhem on the Radar Team at ESTEC.

High Impact Weather Forecasts and Warnings with the GOES-R Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Goodman, Steven J.; Blakeslee, Richard J.; Koshak, William; Mach, Douglas M.

2011-01-01

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-R) is the next series to follow the existing GOES system currently operating over the Western Hemisphere. A major advancement over the current GOES include a new capability for total lightning detection (cloud and cloud-to-ground flashes) from the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM). The GLM will operate continuously day and night with near-uniform spatial resolution of 8 km with a product refresh rate of less than 20 sec over the Americas and adjacent oceanic regions. This will aid in forecasting severe storms and tornado activity, and convective weather impacts on aviation safety and efficiency. In parallel with the instrument development, a GOES-R Risk Reduction Science Team and Algorithm Working Group Lightning Applications Team have begun to develop cal/val performance monitoring tools and new applications using the GLM alone, in conjunction with other instruments, and merged or blended integrated observing system products combining satellite, radar, in-situ and numerical models. Proxy total lightning data from the NASA Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) on the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite and regional ground-based lightning networks are being used to develop the pre-launch algorithms, test data sets, and applications, as well as improve our knowledge of thunderstorm initiation and evolution. In this presentation we review the planned implementation of the instrument and suite of operational algorithms.

The Role of National Strategy Behaviour and Attendance Consultants with Regard to Training and Professional Development in Special Educational Needs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Frost, Barry

2009-01-01

The year 2003 saw Behaviour and Attendance (B&A) consultants beginning work across the country, supporting (mostly) mainstream secondary schools. They are part of an extensive advisory team which is instrumental in improving standards in schools through the Government's Secondary National Strategy. Their brief was to develop and improve the…

Voice of Experience International Research Infrastructure and the Impact of Export Control Regulations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kulakowski, Elliott C.; Chronister, Lynne; Molfese, Victoria; Slocum, Michael; Studman, Cliff; Waugaman, Paul

2007-01-01

Research today has become very complex, often involving international collaborations among multidisciplinary teams. Many institutions, especially those in less economically developed countries, have a great deal of expertise to contribute to these collaborations, but often lack the instrumentation, training, and research management infrastructure…

The Stirling Lesson-Sampling Instruments.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

White, D. R.

A long-term Leverhulme Research Project was established at Stirling University in 1970 to investigate the potential of microteaching as a major ingredient in the preparation of graduate high school teachers in Scotland. Members of the research team developed systematic observation schedules for each of the skills, in order to sharpen the focus of…

A Systematic Approach to Evaluating Career Education Materials at the Local Level.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Peat, Marwick, Mitchell and Co., Washington, DC.

The document contains an assessment instrument, developed by three teams of educators, designed to assist career education practitioners in identifying, classifying, and evaluating career education instructional materials to determine the usefulness of a particular unit of material in a specific local situation. It also contains suggestions of…

Development of a PC-based ground support system for a small satellite instrument

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Deschambault, Robert L.; Gregory, Philip R.; Spenler, Stephen; Whalen, Brian A.

1993-11-01

The importance of effective ground support for the remote control and data retrieval of a satellite instrument cannot be understated. Problems with ground support may include the need to base personnel at a ground tracking station for extended periods, and the delay between the instrument observation and the processing of the data by the science team. Flexible solutions to such problems in the case of small satellite systems are provided by using low-cost, powerful personal computers and off-the-shelf software for data acquisition and processing, and by using Internet as a communication pathway to enable scientists to view and manipulate satellite data in real time at any ground location. The personal computer based ground support system is illustrated for the case of the cold plasma analyzer flown on the Freja satellite. Commercial software was used as building blocks for writing the ground support equipment software. Several levels of hardware support, including unit tests and development, functional tests, and integration were provided by portable and desktop personal computers. Satellite stations in Saskatchewan and Sweden were linked to the science team via phone lines and Internet, which provided remote control through a central point. These successful strategies will be used on future small satellite space programs.

Final Checks of Aquarius Instrument

NASA Image and Video Library

2011-04-29

Less than two months before launch, team members conduct their final checks of NASA Aquarius instrument at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. Subsequent final instrument tests will be conducted on the launch pad.

WFIRST Science Operations at STScI

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gilbert, Karoline; STScI WFIRST Team

2018-06-01

With sensitivity and resolution comparable the Hubble Space Telescope, and a field of view 100 times larger, the Wide Field Instrument (WFI) on WFIRST will be a powerful survey instrument. STScI will be the Science Operations Center (SOC) for the WFIRST Mission, with additional science support provided by the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC) and foreign partners. STScI will schedule and archive all WFIRST observations, calibrate and produce pipeline-reduced data products for imaging with the Wide Field Instrument, support the High Latitude Imaging and Supernova Survey Teams, and support the astronomical community in planning WFI imaging observations and analyzing the data. STScI has developed detailed concepts for WFIRST operations, including a data management system integrating data processing and the archive which will include a novel, cloud-based framework for high-level data processing, providing a common environment accessible to all users (STScI operations, Survey Teams, General Observers, and archival investigators). To aid the astronomical community in examining the capabilities of WFIRST, STScI has built several simulation tools. We describe the functionality of each tool and give examples of its use.

The Suomi National Polar-Orbiting Partnership (SNPP): Continuing NASA Research and Applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Butler, James; Gleason, James; Jedlovec, Gary; Coronado, Patrick

2015-01-01

The Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (SNPP) satellite was successfully launched into a polar orbit on October 28, 2011 carrying 5 remote sensing instruments designed to provide data to improve weather forecasts and to increase understanding of long-term climate change. SNPP provides operational continuity of satellite-based observations for NOAA's Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellites (POES) and continues the long-term record of climate quality observations established by NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS) satellites. In the 2003 to 2011 pre-launch timeframe, NASA's SNPP Science Team assessed the adequacy of the operational Raw Data Records (RDRs), Sensor Data Records (SDRs), and Environmental Data Records (EDRs) from the SNPP instruments for use in NASA Earth Science research, examined the operational algorithms used to produce those data records, and proposed a path forward for the production of climate quality products from SNPP. In order to perform these tasks, a distributed data system, the NASA Science Data Segment (SDS), ingested RDRs, SDRs, and EDRs from the NOAA Archive and Distribution and Interface Data Processing Segments, ADS and IDPS, respectively. The SDS also obtained operational algorithms for evaluation purposes from the NOAA Government Resource for Algorithm Verification, Independent Testing and Evaluation (GRAVITE). Within the NASA SDS, five Product Evaluation and Test Elements (PEATEs) received, ingested, and stored data and performed NASA's data processing, evaluation, and analysis activities. The distributed nature of this data distribution system was established by physically housing each PEATE within one of five Climate Analysis Research Systems (CARS) located at either at a NASA or a university institution. The CARS were organized around 5 key EDRs directly in support of the following NASA Earth Science focus areas: atmospheric sounding, ocean, land, ozone, and atmospheric composition products. The PEATES provided the system level interface with members of the NASA SNPP Science Team and other science investigators within each CARS. A sixth Earth Radiation Budget CARS was established at NASA Langley Research Center (NASA LaRC) to support instrument performance, data evaluation, and analysis for the SNPP Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Budget Energy System (CERES) instrument. Following the 2011 launch of SNPP, spacecraft commissioning, and instrument activation, the NASA SNPP Science Team evaluated the operational RDRs, SDRs, and EDRs produced by the NOAA ADS and IDPS. A key part in that evaluation was the NASA Science Team's independent processing of operational RDRs and SDRs to EDRs using the latest NASA science algorithms. The NASA science evaluation was completed in the December 2012 to April 2014 timeframe with the release of a series of NASA Science Team Discipline Reports. In summary, these reports indicated that the RDRs produced by the SNPP instruments were of sufficiently high quality to be used to create data products suitable for NASA Earth System science and applications. However, the quality of the SDRs and EDRs were found to vary greatly when considering suitability for NASA science. The need for improvements in operational algorithms, adoption of different algorithmic approaches, greater monitoring of on-orbit instrument calibration, greater attention to data product validation, and data reprocessing were prominent findings in the reports. In response to these findings, NASA, in late 2013, directed the NASA SNPP Science Team to use SNPP instrument data to develop data products of sufficiently high quality to enable the continuation of EOS time series data records and to develop innovative, practical applications of SNPP data. This direction necessitated a transition of the SDS data system from its pre-launch assessment mode to one of full data processing and production. To do this, the PEATES, which served as NASA's data product testing environment during the prelaunch and early on-orbit periods, were transitioned to Science Investigator-led Processing Systems (SIPS). The distributed data architecture was maintained in this new system by locating the SIPS at the same institutions at which the CARS and PEATES were located. The SIPS acquire raw SNPP instrument Level 0 (i.e. RDR) data over the full SNPP mission from the NOAA ADS and IDPS through the NASA SDS Data Distribution and Depository Element (SD3E). The SIPS process those data into NASA Level 1, Level 2, and global, gridded Level 3 standard products using peer-reviewed algorithms provided by members of the NASA Science Team. The SIPS work with the NASA SNPP Science Team in obtaining enhanced, refined, or alternate real-time algorithms to support the capabilities of the Direct Readout Laboratory (DRL). All data products, algorithm source codes, coefficients, and auxiliary data used in product generation are archived in an assigned NASA Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC).

Scientific management of Space Telescope

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Odell, C. R.

1981-01-01

A historical summay is given on the science management of the Space Telescope, the inception of which began in 1962, when scientists and engineers first recommended the development of a nearly diffraction limited substantial-size optical telescope. Phase A, the feasibility requirements generation phase, began in 1971 and consisted largely of NASA scientists and a NASA design. Phase B, the preliminary design phase, established a tiered structure of scientists, led by the Large Space Telescope operations and Management Work Group. A Mission Operations Working Group headed six instrument definition teams to develop the essential instrument definitions. Many changes took place during Phase B, before design and development, which began in 1978 and still continues today.

Using the DISC behavioral instrument to guide leadership and communication.

PubMed

Slowikowski, Mary Kay

2005-11-01

BEHAVIORAL INSTRUMENTS can be useful tools to help leaders gain insight into how to better communicate with coworkers. The DISC instrument classifies behaviors into four personality types (ie, Dominant, Influencer, Steady, Conscientious) and provides methods leaders can use to work with each personality type. LEADERS SHOULD STRIVE to have a good mix of personalities on their teams to achieve optimal success. THIS ARTICLE DESCRIBES the benefits of using the DISC behavioral evaluation method to better understand and work with team members and gives role-play scenarios for dealing with each personality.

Development and Evaluation of a Novel Survey Tool Assessing Inpatient Consult Service Performance.

PubMed

Miloslavsky, Eli M; Chang, Yuchiao

2017-12-01

Subspecialty consultation in inpatient medicine is increasing, and enhancing performance of consultation services may have a broad-reaching impact. Multisource feedback is an important tool in assessing competence and improving performance. A mechanism for primary team resident feedback on performance of consult services has not been described. We developed and evaluated an instrument designed to assess internal medicine (IM) subspecialty inpatient consult service performance. We hypothesized that the instrument would be feasible to administer and provide important information to fellowship directors. The instrument was administered in 2015 and 2016 at a single academic center. All IM residents were invited to evaluate 10 IM subspecialty consult services on 4 items and an overall satisfaction rating. The instrument allowed for free-text feedback to fellows. Program directors completed another survey assessing the impact of the consult service evaluation. A total of 113 residents responded (47 in 2015 and 66 in 2016, for a combined response rate of 35%). Each of the 4 items measured (communication, professionalism, teaching, and pushback) correlated significantly with the overall satisfaction rating in univariate and multivariate analyses. There were no differences in ratings across postgraduate year or year of administration. There was considerable variation in ratings among the services evaluated. The 7 program directors who provided feedback found the survey useful and made programmatic changes following evaluation implementation. A primary team resident evaluation of inpatient medicine subspecialty consult services is feasible, provides valuable information, and is associated with changes in consult service structure and curricula.

Using ACIS on the Chandra X-ray Observatory as a Particle Radiation Monitor II

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Grant, C. E.; Ford, P. G.; Bautz, M. W.; ODell, S. L.

2012-01-01

The Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer is an instrument on the Chandra X-ray Observatory. CCDs are vulnerable to radiation damage, particularly by soft protons in the radiation belts and solar storms. The Chandra team has implemented procedures to protect ACIS during high-radiation events including autonomous protection triggered by an on-board radiation monitor. Elevated temperatures have reduced the effectiveness of the on-board monitor. The ACIS team has developed an algorithm which uses data from the CCDs themselves to detect periods of high radiation and a flight software patch to apply this algorithm is currently active on-board the instrument. In this paper, we explore the ACIS response to particle radiation through comparisons to a number of external measures of the radiation environment. We hope to better understand the efficiency of the algorithm as a function of the flux and spectrum of the particles and the time-profile of the radiation event.

Current Status of the GRACE Follow-On Mission

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Watkins, Michael; Flechtner, Frank; Webb, Frank; Landerer, Felix; Grunwald, Ludwig

2016-04-01

The GRACE Follow-On Mission has now advanced to the Assembly and Test Phase with the delivery of essentially all satellite subsystems and science instruments. As of the time of this abstract submission, the team continues to plan launch in 2017. The project team is conducting tests of satellite and instrument operation and performance and putting together updated simulations of expected performance on-orbit, including intersatellite ranging (both microwave and laser), accelerometer, thermal variability and deformation, and other errors. In addition, all required ground analysis software of the Science Data System is in development and testing at JPL, The UTCSR, and GFZ, in preparation for fully integrated end-to-end (international) testing from Level-1 through Level-3 data in the coming year. In this presentation, we will provide the detailed status of project integration and test, the latest simulations of science performance, and schedule for remaining project milestones.

Current Status of the GRACE Follow-On Mission

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Webb, F.; Watkins, M. M.; Flechtner, F.; Landerer, F. W.; Grunwaldt, L.

2016-12-01

The GRACE Follow-On Mission has now advanced to the Assembly and Test Phase with the delivery of essentially all satellite subsystems and science instruments. As of the time of this abstract submission, the team continues to plan launch in late 2017. The project team is conducting tests of satellite and instrument operation and performance and putting together updated simulations of expected performance on-orbit, including intersatellite ranging (both microwave and laser), accelerometer, thermal variability and deformation, and other errors. In addition, all required ground analysis software of the Science Data System is in development and testing at JPL, The UTCSR, and GFZ, in preparation for fully integrated end-to-end (international) testing from Level-1 through Level-3 data in the coming year. In this presentation, we will provide the detailed status of project integration and test, the latest simulations of science performance, and schedule for remaining project milestones.

Key issues in the thermal design of spaceborne cryogenic infrared instruments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schember, Helene R.; Rapp, Donald

1992-12-01

Thermal design and analysis play an integral role in the development of spaceborne cryogenic infrared (IR) instruments. From conceptual sketches to final testing, both direct and derived thermal requirements place significant constraints on the instrument design. Although in practice these thermal requirements are interdependent, the sources of most thermal constraints may be grouped into six distinct categories. These are: (1) Detector temperatures, (2) Optics temperatures, (3) Pointing or alignment stability, (4) Mission lifetime, (5) Orbit, and (6) Test and Integration. In this paper, we discuss these six sources of thermal requirements with particular regard to development of instrument packages for low background infrared astronomical observatories. In the end, the thermal performance of these instruments must meet a set of thermal requirements. The development of these requirements is typically an ongoing and interactive process, however, and the thermal design must maintain flexibility and robustness throughout the process. The thermal (or cryogenic) engineer must understand the constraints imposed by the science requirements, the specific hardware, the observing environment, the mission design, and the testing program. By balancing these often competing factors, the system-oriented thermal engineer can work together with the experiment team to produce an effective overall design of the instrument.

Content validity of governing in Building Information Modelling (BIM) implementation assessment instrument

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hadzaman, N. A. H.; Takim, R.; Nawawi, A. H.; Mohamad Yusuwan, N.

2018-04-01

BIM governance assessment instrument is a process of analysing the importance in developing BIM governance solution to tackle the existing problems during team collaboration in BIM-based projects. Despite the deployment of integrative technologies in construction industry particularly BIM, it is still insufficient compare to other sectors. Several studies have been established the requirements of BIM implementation concerning all technical and non-technical BIM adoption issues. However, the data are regarded as inadequate to develop a BIM governance framework. Hence, the objective of the paper is to evaluate the content validity of the BIM governance instrument prior to the main data collection. Two methods were employed in the form of literature review and questionnaire survey. Based on the literature review, 273 items with six main constructs are suggested to be incorporated in the BIM governance instrument. The Content Validity Ratio (CVR) scores revealed that 202 out of 273 items are considered as the utmost critical by the content experts. The findings for Item Level Content Validity Index (I-CVI) and Modified Kappa Coefficient however revealed that 257 items in BIM governance instrument are appropriate and excellent. The instrument is highly reliable for future strategies and the development of BIM projects in Malaysia.

Technology evaluation, assessment, modeling, and simulation: the TEAMS capability

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Holland, Orgal T.; Stiegler, Robert L.

1998-08-01

The United States Marine Corps' Technology Evaluation, Assessment, Modeling and Simulation (TEAMS) capability, located at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Dahlgren Virginia, provides an environment for detailed test, evaluation, and assessment of live and simulated sensor and sensor-to-shooter systems for the joint warfare community. Frequent use of modeling and simulation allows for cost effective testing, bench-marking, and evaluation of various levels of sensors and sensor-to-shooter engagements. Interconnectivity to live, instrumented equipment operating in real battle space environments and to remote modeling and simulation facilities participating in advanced distributed simulations (ADS) exercises is available to support a wide- range of situational assessment requirements. TEAMS provides a valuable resource for a variety of users. Engineers, analysts, and other technology developers can use TEAMS to evaluate, assess and analyze tactical relevant phenomenological data on tactical situations. Expeditionary warfare and USMC concept developers can use the facility to support and execute advanced warfighting experiments (AWE) to better assess operational maneuver from the sea (OMFTS) concepts, doctrines, and technology developments. Developers can use the facility to support sensor system hardware, software and algorithm development as well as combat development, acquisition, and engineering processes. Test and evaluation specialists can use the facility to plan, assess, and augment their processes. This paper presents an overview of the TEAMS capability and focuses specifically on the technical challenges associated with the integration of live sensor hardware into a synthetic environment and how those challenges are being met. Existing sensors, recent experiments and facility specifications are featured.

Planning and conducting a multi-institutional project on fatigue.

PubMed

Nail, L M; Barsevick, A M; Meek, P M; Beck, S L; Jones, L S; Walker, B L; Whitmer, K R; Schwartz, A L; Stephen, S; King, M E

1998-09-01

To describe the process used in proposal development and study implementation for a complex multisite project on cancer treatment-related fatigue (CRF), identify strategies used to manage the project, and provide recommendations for teams planning multisite research. Information derived from project team meeting records, correspondence, proposals, and personal recollection. The project was built on preexisting relationships among the three site investigators who then built a team including faculty, research coordinators, staff nurses, and students. Study sites had a range of organizational models, and the proposal was designed to capitalize on the organizational and resource strengths of each setting. Three team members drawn from outside oncology nursing provided expertise in measurement and experience with fatigue in other populations. Planning meetings were critical to the success of the project. Conference calls, fax technology, and electronic mail were used for communication. Flexibility was important in managing crises and shifting responsibility for specific components of the work. The team documented and evaluated the process used for multisite research, completed a major instrumentation study, and developed a cognitive-behavioral intervention for CRF. Accomplishments during the one-year planning grant exceeded initial expectations. The process of conducting multisite research is complex, especially when the starting point is a planning grant with specific research protocols to be developed and implemented over one year. Explicit planning for decision-making processes to be used throughout the project, acknowledging the differences among the study settings and planning the protocols to capitalize upon those differences, and recruiting a strong research team that included a member with planning grant and team-building expertise were essential elements for success. Specific recommendations for others planning multisite research are related to team-building, team membership, communication, behavioral norms, role flexibility, resources, feedback, problem management, and shared recognition.

Capabilities of the Materials Contamination Team at Marshall Space Flight Center

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Burns, Howard; Albyn, Keith; Edwards, David; Boothe, Richard; Finchum, Charles; Finckenor, Miria

2003-01-01

The Materials Contamination Team at the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) has been recognized for its contributions supporting the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) spacecraft development programs. These programs include the Reusable Solid Rocket Motor (RSRM), Chandra X-Ray Observatory, and the International Space Station (ISS). The Environmental Effects Group, with the Materials Contamination Team and the Space Environmental Effects Team has been an integral part of NASA's success by the testing, evaluation, and qualification of materials, hardware, and processes. This paper focuses on the capabilities of the Materials Contamination Team. The Materials Contamination Team's realm of responsibility includes establishing contamination control during all phases of hardware development, including design, manufacturing, assembly, test, transportation, launch site processing, on-orbit exposure, return, and refurbishment. The team continues its mission of reducing the risk of equipment failure due to molecular or particulate contamination. Contamination is a concern in the Space Shuttle with sensitive bond-lines and reactive fluid (liquid oxygen) compatibility as well as for spacecraft with sensitive optics, such as Hubble Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory. The Materials Contamination Team has a variety of facilities and instrumentation capable of contaminant detection, identification, and monitoring. The team addresses material applications dealing with environments, including production facilities, clean rooms, and on-orbit exposure. The optically stimulated electron emission (OSEE) system, the Ultraviolet (UV) fluorescence (UVF) surface contamination detection, and the Surface Optics Corporation 400 (SOC 400) portable hand-held Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectrometer are state-of-the-art tools for in-process molecular contamination detection. The team of engineers and technicians also develop contamination calibration standards and evaluate new surface cleanliness inspection technologies. The team utilizes facilities for on-orbit simulation testing of materials for outgassing and molecular film deposition characteristics in the presence of space environmental effects, such as Atomic Oxygen (AO) and UV radiation exposure. The Materials Contamination Team maintains databases for process materials as well as outgassing and optical compatibility test results for specific environments.

Study and Implementation of the End-to-End Data Pipeline for the Virtis Imaging Spectrometer Onbaord Venus Express: "From Science Operations Planning to Data Archiving and Higher Lever Processing"

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cardesín Moinelo, Alejandro

2010-04-01

This PhD Thesis describes the activities performed during the Research Program undertaken for two years at the Istituto Nazionale di AstroFisica in Rome, Italy, as active member of the VIRTIS Technical and Scientific Team, and one additional year at the European Space Astronomy Center in Madrid, Spain, as member of the Mars Express Science Ground Segment. This document will show a study of all sections of the Science Ground Segment of the Venus Express mission, from the planning of the scientific operations, to the generation, calibration and archiving of the science data, including the production of valuable high level products. We will present and discuss here the end-to-end diagram of the ground segment from the technical and scientific point of view, in order to describe the overall flow of information: from the original scientific requests of the principal investigator and interdisciplinary teams, up to the spacecraft, and down again for the analysis of the measurements and interpretation of the scientific results. These scientific results drive to new and more elaborated scientific requests, which are used as feedback to the planning cycle, closing the circle. Special attention is given here to describe the implementation and development of the data pipeline for the VIRTIS instrument onboard Venus Express. During the research program, both the raw data generation pipeline and the data calibration pipeline were developed and automated in order to produce the final raw and calibrated data products from the input telemetry of the instrument. The final raw and calibrated products presented in this work are currently being used by the VIRTIS Science team for data analysis and are distributed to the whole scientific community via the Planetary Science Archive. More than 20,000 raw data files and 10,000 calibrated products have already been generated after almost 4 years of mission. In the final part of the Thesis, we will also present some high level data processing methods developed for the Mapping channel of the VIRTIS instrument. These methods have been implemented for the generation of high level global maps of measured radiance over the whole planet, which can then be used for the understanding of the global dynamics and morphology of the Venusian atmosphere. This method is currently being used to compare different emissions probing at different altitudes from the low cloud layers up to the upper mesosphere, by using the averaged projected values of radiance observed by the instrument, such as the near infrared windows at 1.7 μm and 2.3μm, the thermal region at 3.8μm and 5μm plus the analysis of particular emissions in the night and day side of the planet. This research has been undertaken under guidance and supervision of Giuseppe Piccioni, VIRTIS co-Principal Investigator, with support of the entire VIRTIS technical and scientific team, in particular of the Archiving team in Paris (LESIA-Meudon). The work has also been done in close collaboration with the Science and Mission Operations Centres in Madrid and Darmstadt (European Space Agency), the EGSE software developer (Techno Systems), the manufacturer of the VIRTIS instrument (Galileo Avionica) and the developer of the VIRTIS onboard software (DLR Berlin). The outcome of the technical and scientific work presented in this thesis is currently being used by the VIRTIS team to continue the investigations on the Venusian atmosphere and plan new scientific observations to improve the overall knowledge of the solar system. At the end of this document we show some of the many technical and scientific contributions, which have already been published in several international journals and conferences, and some articles of the European Space Agency used for public outreach.

Practicality of intraoperative teamwork assessments.

PubMed

Phitayakorn, Roy; Minehart, Rebecca; Pian-Smith, May C M; Hemingway, Maureen W; Milosh-Zinkus, Tanya; Oriol-Morway, Danika; Petrusa, Emil

2014-07-01

High-quality teamwork among operating room (OR) professionals is a key to efficient and safe practice. Quantification of teamwork facilitates feedback, assessment, and improvement. Several valid and reliable instruments are available for assessing separate OR disciplines and teams. We sought to determine the most feasible approach for routine documentation of teamwork in in-situ OR simulations. We compared rater agreement, hypothetical training costs, and feasibility ratings from five clinicians and two nonclinicians with instruments for assessment of separate OR groups and teams. Five teams of anesthesia or surgery residents and OR nurses (RN) or surgical technicians were videotaped in simulations of an epigastric hernia repair where the patient develops malignant hyperthermia. Two anesthesiologists, one OR clinical RN specialist, one educational psychologist, one simulation specialist, and one general surgeon discussed and then independently completed Anesthesiologists' Non-Technical Skills, Non-Technical Skills for Surgeons, Scrub Practitioners' List of Intraoperative Non-Technical Skills, and Observational Teamwork Assessment for Surgery forms to rate nontechnical performance of anesthesiologists, surgeons, nurses, technicians, and the whole team. Intraclass correlations of agreement ranged from 0.17-0.85. Clinicians' agreements were not different from nonclinicians'. Published rater training was 4 h for Anesthesiologists' Non-Technical Skills and Scrub Practitioners' List of Intraoperative Non-Technical Skills, 2.5 h for Non-Technical Skills for Surgeons, and 15.5 h for Observational Teamwork Assessment for Surgery. Estimated costs to train one rater to use all instruments ranged from $442 for a simulation specialist to $6006 for a general surgeon. Additional training is needed to achieve higher levels of agreement; however, costs may be prohibitive. The most cost-effective model for real-time OR teamwork assessment may be to use a simulation technician combined with one clinical rater to allow complete documentation of all participants. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Autonomous Adaptive Low-Power Instrument Platform (AAL-PIP) for remote high latitude geospace data collection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Clauer, C. R.; Kim, H.; Deshpande, K.; Xu, Z.; Weimer, D.; Musko, S.; Crowley, G.; Fish, C.; Nealy, R.; Humphreys, T. E.; Bhatti, J. A.; Ridley, A. J.

2014-06-01

We present the development considerations and design for ground based instrumentation that is being deployed on the East Antarctic Plateau along a 40° magnetic meridian chain to investigate interhemispheric magnetically conjugate geomagnetic coupling and other space weather related phenomena. The stations are magnetically conjugate to geomagnetic stations along the west coast of Greenland. The autonomous adaptive low-power instrument platforms being deployed in the Antarctic are designed to operate unattended in remote locations for at least 5 years. They utilize solar power and AGM storage batteries for power, two-way Iridium satellite communication for data acquisition and program/operation modification, support fluxgate and induction magnetometers as well as dual-frequency gps receiver and an HF radio experiment. Size and weight considerations are considered to enable deployment by a small team using small aircraft. Considerable experience has been gained in the development and deployment of remote polar instrumentation that is reflected in the present generation of instrumentation discussed here. We conclude with the lessons learned from our experience in the design, deployment and operation of remote polar instrumentation.

An autonomous adaptive low-power instrument platform (AAL-PIP) for remote high-latitude geospace data collection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Clauer, C. R.; Kim, H.; Deshpande, K.; Xu, Z.; Weimer, D.; Musko, S.; Crowley, G.; Fish, C.; Nealy, R.; Humphreys, T. E.; Bhatti, J. A.; Ridley, A. J.

2014-10-01

We present the development considerations and design for ground-based instrumentation that is being deployed on the East Antarctic Plateau along a 40° magnetic meridian chain to investigate interhemispheric magnetically conjugate geomagnetic coupling and other space-weather-related phenomena. The stations are magnetically conjugate to geomagnetic stations along the west coast of Greenland. The autonomous adaptive low-power instrument platforms being deployed in the Antarctic are designed to operate unattended in remote locations for at least 5 years. They utilize solar power and AGM storage batteries for power, two-way Iridium satellite communication for data acquisition and program/operation modification, support fluxgate and induction magnetometers as well as a dual-frequency GPS receiver and a high-frequency (HF) radio experiment. Size and weight considerations are considered to enable deployment by a small team using small aircraft. Considerable experience has been gained in the development and deployment of remote polar instrumentation that is reflected in the present generation of instrumentation discussed here. We conclude with the lessons learned from our experience in the design, deployment and operation of remote polar instrumentation.

Virtual Instrument Simulator for CERES

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chapman, John J.

1997-01-01

A benchtop virtual instrument simulator for CERES (Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System) has been built at NASA, Langley Research Center in Hampton, VA. The CERES instruments will fly on several earth orbiting platforms notably NASDA's Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission (TRMM) and NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS) satellites. CERES measures top of the atmosphere radiative fluxes using microprocessor controlled scanning radiometers. The CERES Virtual Instrument Simulator consists of electronic circuitry identical to the flight unit's twin microprocessors and telemetry interface to the supporting spacecraft electronics and two personal computers (PC) connected to the I/O ports that control azimuth and elevation gimbals. Software consists of the unmodified TRW developed Flight Code and Ground Support Software which serves as the instrument monitor and NASA/TRW developed engineering models of the scanners. The CERES Instrument Simulator will serve as a testbed for testing of custom instrument commands intended to solve in-flight anomalies of the instruments which could arise during the CERES mission. One of the supporting computers supports the telemetry display which monitors the simulator microprocessors during the development and testing of custom instrument commands. The CERES engineering development software models have been modified to provide a virtual instrument running on a second supporting computer linked in real time to the instrument flight microprocessor control ports. The CERES Instrument Simulator will be used to verify memory uploads by the CERES Flight Operations TEAM at NASA. Plots of the virtual scanner models match the actual instrument scan plots. A high speed logic analyzer has been used to track the performance of the flight microprocessor. The concept of using an identical but non-flight qualified microprocessor and electronics ensemble linked to a virtual instrument with identical system software affords a relatively inexpensive simulation system capable of high fidelity.

Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lemen, J. R.; Freeland, S. L.

1997-01-01

Efforts concentrated on development and implementation of the SolarSoft (SSW) data analysis system. From an EIT analysis perspective, this system was designed to facilitate efficient reuse and conversion of software developed for Yohkoh/SXT and to take advantage of a large existing body of software developed by the SDAC, Yohkoh, and SOHO instrument teams. Another strong motivation for this system was to provide an EIT analysis environment which permits coordinated analysis of EIT data in conjunction with data from important supporting instruments, including Yohkoh/SXT and the other SOHO coronal instruments; CDS, SUMER, and LASCO. In addition, the SSW system will support coordinated EIT/TRACE analysis (by design) when TRACE data is available; TRACE launch is currently planned for March 1998. Working with Jeff Newmark, the Chianti software package (K.P. Dere et al) and UV /EUV data base was fully integrated into the SSW system to facilitate EIT temperature and emission analysis.

Design and development of a cross-cultural disposition inventory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Davies, Randall; Zaugg, Holt; Tateishi, Isaku

2015-01-01

Advances in technology have increased the likelihood that engineers will have to work in a global, culturally diverse setting. Many schools of engineering are currently revising their curricula to help students to develop cultural competence. However, our ability to measure cultural dispositions can be a challenge. The purpose of this project was to develop and test an instrument that measures the various aspects of cultural disposition. The results of the validation process verified that the hypothesised model adequately represented the data. The refined instrument produced a four-factor model for the overall construct. The validation process for the instrument verified the existence of specific subcomponents that form the overall cultural disposition construct. There also seems to be a hierarchical relationship within the subcomponents of cultural disposition. Additional research is needed to explore which aspects of cultural disposition affect an individual's ability to work effectively in a culturally diverse engineering team.

Animation of MARDI Instrument

NASA Image and Video Library

2008-09-30

This frame from an animation shows a zoom into the Mars Descent Imager MARDI instrument onboard NASA Phoenix Mars Lander. The Phoenix team will soon attempt to use a microphone on the MARDI instrument to capture sounds of Mars.

Distributed Framework for Dynamic Telescope and Instrument Control

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ames, Troy J.; Case, Lynne

2002-12-01

Traditionally, instrument command and control systems have been developed specifically for a single instrument. Such solutions are frequently expensive and are inflexible to support the next instrument development effort. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center is developing an extensible framework, known as Instrument Remote Control (IRC) that applies to any kind of instrument that can be controlled by a computer. IRC combines the platform independent processing capabilities of Java with the power of the Extensible Markup Language (XML). A key aspect of the architecture is software that is driven by an instrument description, written using the Instrument Markup Language (IML). IML is an XML dialect used to describe graphical user interfaces to control and monitor the instrument, command sets and command formats, data streams, communication mechanisms, and data processing algorithms. The IRC framework provides the ability to communicate to components anywhere on a network using the JXTA protocol for dynamic discovery of distributed components. JXTA (see http://www.jxta.org) is a generalized protocol that allows any devices connected by a network to communicate in a peer-to-peer manner. IRC uses JXTA to advertise a device?s IML and discover devices of interest on the network. Devices can join or leave the network and thus join or leave the instrument control environment of IRC. Currently, several astronomical instruments are working with the IRC development team to develop custom components for IRC to control their instruments. These instruments include: High resolution Airborne Wideband Camera (HAWC), a first light instrument for the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA); Submillimeter And Far Infrared Experiment (SAFIRE), a principal investigator instrument for SOFIA; and Fabry-Perot Interferometer Bolometer Research Experiment (FIBRE), a prototype of the SAFIRE instrument, used at the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory (CSO). Most recently, we have been working with the Submillimetre High Angular Resolution Camera IInd Generation (SHARCII) at the CSO to investigate using IRC capabilities with the SHARC instrument.

Distributed Framework for Dynamic Telescope and Instrument Control

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ames, Troy J.; Case, Lynne

2002-01-01

Traditionally, instrument command and control systems have been developed specifically for a single instrument. Such solutions are frequently expensive and are inflexible to support the next instrument development effort. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center is developing an extensible framework, known as Instrument Remote Control (IRC) that applies to any kind of instrument that can be controlled by a computer. IRC combines the platform independent processing capabilities of Java with the power of the Extensible Markup Language (XML). A key aspect of the architecture is software that is driven by an instrument description, written using the Instrument Markup Language (IML). IML is an XML dialect used to describe graphical user interfaces to control and monitor the instrument, command sets and command formats, data streams, communication mechanisms, and data processing algorithms. The IRC framework provides the ability to communicate to components anywhere on a network using the JXTA protocol for dynamic discovery of distributed components. JXTA (see httD://www.jxta.org,) is a generalized protocol that allows any devices connected by a network to communicate in a peer-to-peer manner. IRC uses JXTA to advertise a device's IML and discover devices of interest on the network. Devices can join or leave the network and thus join or leave the instrument control environment of IRC. Currently, several astronomical instruments are working with the IRC development team to develop custom components for IRC to control their instruments. These instruments include: High resolution Airborne Wideband Camera (HAWC), a first light instrument for the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA); Submillimeter And Far Infrared Experiment (SAFIRE), a Principal Investigator instrument for SOFIA; and Fabry-Perot Interferometer Bolometer Research Experiment (FIBRE), a prototype of the SAFIRE instrument, used at the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory (CSO). Most recently, we have been working with the Submillimetre High Angular Resolution Camera IInd Generation (SHARCII) at the CSO to investigate using IRC capabilities with the SHARC instrument.

Designing and Evaluating an Interprofessional Experiential Course Series Involving Medical and Pharmacy Students

PubMed Central

Dueñas, Gladys G.; Zanoni, Aileen; Grover, Anisha B.

2016-01-01

Objective. To prepare first-year and second-year pharmacy and medical students to build effective collaborative health care teams by participating in an interprofessional experiential 6-semester course series. Design. An interprofessional experiential course series was designed using a variety of teaching methods to achieve both interprofessional and experiential learning outcomes. A standardized objective behavioral assessment was developed to measure team performance of interprofessional communication and teamwork. In addition, student perceptions were measured using a validated instrument. Assessment. A majority of teams demonstrated appropriate competence with respect to interprofessional communication and teamwork. Additionally, a majority of students expressed positive perceptions of interprofessional collaboration with respect to teamwork, roles and responsibilities, and patient outcomes. Conclusion. An interprofessional experiential course series can be successfully implemented to achieve both interprofessional and experiential learning outcomes. Highly collaborative teams and positive student perceptions provide evidence of achievement of interprofessional education learning outcomes. PMID:27402988

Guidelines for Conducting an Ethnic Heritage Search.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Williams, Maxine Patrick

Based on the work of a 22-member research team in the San Diego Community College District, this booklet offers guidelines for developing cultural awareness and presents instruments for conducting an ethnic heritage search, i.e., a systematic examination of a culture to, for example, reveal reasons for customs or practices or clarify the modes of…

Language Arts: Programming Suggestions for Hearing Impaired Students in Elementary Schools. Recommended Resources by the Alberta School for the Deaf.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alberta Dept. of Education, Edmonton.

The monograph is designed to assist program planning teams in developing language arts programs for hearing-impaired students in regular classrooms. Topics discussed include promising instructional strategies, description and evaluation of materials, and effective assessment instruments. The first section on instructional strategies covers…

Alternative Ways of Measuring Counselees' Jungian Psychological-Type Preferences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vacha-Haase, Tammi; Thompson, Bruce

2002-01-01

Instruments measuring Carl Jung's (1921/1971) theory of psychological types have been widely used in various counseling contexts, including career counseling, marital and family therapy, and team building. The most popular measure of types, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), was developed by Katherine C. Briggs and her daughter, Isabel Briggs…

TOPEX SDR Processing, October 1998. Volume 4

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lee, Jeffrey E.; Lockwood, Dennis W.

2003-01-01

This document is a compendium of the WFF TOPEX Software Development Team's knowledge regarding Sensor Data Record (SDR) Processing. It includes many elements of a requirements document, a software specification document, a software design document, and a user's manual. In the more technical sections, this document assumes the reader is familiar with TOPEX and instrument files.

Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) design evolution and associated development and verification of data product efforts

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Salomonson, Vincent V.

1991-01-01

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) is a key observing facility to be flown on the Earth Observing System (EOS). The facility is composed of two instruments called MODIS-N (nadir) and MODIS-T (tilt). The MODIS-N is being built under contract to NASA by the Santa Barbara Research Center. The MODIS-T is being fabricated by the Engineering Directorate at the Goddard Space Flight Center. The MODIS Science Team has defined nearly 40 biogeophysical data products for studies of the ocean and land surface and properties of the atmosphere including clouds that can be expected to be produced from the MODIS instruments shortly after the launch of EOS. The ocean, land, atmosphere, and calibration groups of the MODIS Science Team are now proceeding to plan and implement the operations and facilities involving the analysis of data from existing spaceborne, airborne, and in-situ sensors required to develop and validate the algorithms that will produce the geophysical data products. These algorithm development and validation efforts will be accomplished wherever possible within the context of existing or planned national and international experiments or programs such as those in the World Climate Research Program.

Support of Herschel Key Programme Teams at the NASA Herschel Science Center

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shupe, David L.; Appleton, P. N.; Ardila, D.; Bhattacharya, B.; Mei, Y.; Morris, P.; Rector, J.; NHSC Team

2010-01-01

The first science data from the Herschel Space Observatory were distributed to Key Programme teams in September 2009. This poster describes a number of resources that have been developed by the NASA Herschel Science Center (NHSC) to support the first users of the observatory. The NHSC webpages and Helpdesk serve as the starting point for information and queries from the US community. Details about the use of the Herschel Common Science Software can be looked up in the Helpdesk Knowledgebase. The capability of real-time remote support through desktop sharing has been implemented. The NHSC continues to host workshops on data analysis and observation planning. Key Programme teams have been provided Wiki sites upon request for their team's private use and for sharing information with other teams. A secure data storage area is in place for troubleshooting purposes and for use by visitors. The NHSC draws upon close working relationships with Instrument Control Centers and the Herschel Science Center in Madrid in order to have the necessary expertise on hand to assist Herschel observers, including both Key Programme teams and respondents to upcoming open time proposal calls.

Global Climate Monitoring with the EOS PM-Platform's Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Spencer, Roy W.

2002-01-01

The Advanced Microwave Scanning 2 Radiometer (AMSR-E) is being built by NASDA to fly on NASA's PM Platform (now called Aqua) in December 2000. This is in addition to a copy of AMSR that will be launched on Japan's ADEOS-II satellite in 2001. The AMSRs improve upon the window frequency radiometer heritage of the SSM/I and SMMR instruments. Major improvements over those instruments include channels spanning the 6.9 GHz to 89 GHz frequency range, and higher spatial resolution from a 1.6 m reflector (AMSR-E) and 2.0 m reflector (ADEOS-II AMSR). The ADEOS-II AMSR also will have 50.3 and 52.8 GHz channels, providing sensitivity to lower tropospheric temperature. NASA funds an AMSR-E Science Team to provide algorithms for the routine production of a number of standard geophysical products. These products will be generated by the AMSR-E Science Investigator-led Processing System (SIPS) at the Global Hydrology Resource Center (GHRC) in Huntsville, Alabama. While there is a separate NASDA-sponsored activity to develop algorithms and produce products from AMSR, as well as a Joint (NASDA-NASA) AMSR Science Team 3 activity, here I will review only the AMSR-E Team's algorithms and how they benefit from the new capabilities that AMSR-E will provide. The US Team's products will be archived at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC).

SolarSoft Web Services

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Freeland, S.; Hurlburt, N.

2005-12-01

The SolarSoft system (SSW) is a set of integrated software libraries, databases, and system utilities which provide a common programming and data analysis environment for solar physics. The system includes contributions from a large community base, representing the efforts of many NASA PI team MO&DA teams,spanning many years and multiple NASA and international orbital and ground based missions. The SSW general use libraries include Many hundreds of utilities which are instrument and mission independent. A large subset are also SOLAR independent, such as time conversions, digital detector cleanup, time series analysis, mathematics, image display, WWW server communications and the like. PI teams may draw on these general purpose libraries for analysis and application development while concentrating efforts on instrument specific calibration issues rather than reinvention of general use software. By the same token, PI teams are encouraged to contribute new applications or enhancements to existing utilities which may have more general interest. Recent areas of intense evolution include space weather applications, automated distributed data access and analysis, interfaces with the ongoing Virtual Solar Observatory efforts, and externalization of SolarSoft power through Web Services. We will discuss the current status of SSW web services and demonstrate how this facilitates accessing the underlying power of SolarSoft in more abstract terms. In this context, we will describe the use of SSW services within the Collaborative Sun Earth Connector environment.

Simultaneous optical/gamma-ray observations of GRBs

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Greiner, J.; Wenzel, W.; Hudec, R.; Moskalenko, E. I.; Metlov, V.; Chernych, N. S.; Getman, V. S.; Ziener, Rainer; Birkle, K.; Bade, N.

1994-01-01

Details on the project to search for serendipitous time correlated optical photographic observations of Gamma Ray Bursters (GRB's) are presented. The ongoing photographic observations at nine observatories are used to look for plates which were exposed simultaneously with a gamma ray burst detected by the gamma ray instrument team (BATSE) and contain the burst position. The results for the first two years of the gamma ray instrument team operation are presented.

A Notional Example of Understanding Human Exploration Traverses on the Lunar Surface

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gruener, John

2012-01-01

Mr. Gruener received an M.S. in physical science, with an emphasis in planetary geology, from the University of Houston-Clear Lake in 1994. He then began working with NASA JSC.s Solar System Exploration Division on the development of prototype planetary science instruments, the development of a mineral-based substrate for nutrient delivery to plant growth systems in bio-regenerative life support systems, and in support of the Mars Exploration Rover missions in rock and mineral identification. In 2004, Mr. Gruener again participated in a renewed effort to plan and design missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. He participated in many exploration planning activities, including NASA.s Exploration Systems Architecture Study (ESAS), Global Exploration Strategy Workshop, Lunar Architecture Team 1 and 2, Constellation Lunar Architecture Team, the Global Point of Departure Lunar Exploration Team, and the NASA Advisory Council (NAC) Workshop on Science Associated with the Lunar Exploration Architecture. Mr. Gruener has also been an active member of the science team supporting NASA.s Desert Research and Technology Studies (RATS).

Group functioning of a collaborative family research team.

PubMed

Johnson, S K; Halm, M A; Titler, M G; Craft, M; Kleiber, C; Montgomery, L A; Nicholson, A; Buckwalter, K; Cram, E

1993-07-01

Collaborative research teams are an attractive means of conducting nursing research in the clinical setting because of the many opportunities that collaboration can supply. These opportunities include a chance to: (1) network with other nurses who have similar interests, (2) share knowledge and expertise for designing clinical studies that directly affect daily practice, (3) develop instruments, (4) write grant proposals, (5) collect and analyze data, and (6) prepare manuscripts for publication. The effectiveness of research teams, however, is strongly influenced by group functioning. This article describes the functioning of a collaborative family interventions research team of nursing faculty members and CNSs at a large Midwestern university setting. The formation of the group and membership characteristics are described, along with strategies used to identify the research focus and individual and group goals. Aspects related to the influence of the group on members and the internal operations of the group are also addressed. Future strategies to be explored will focus on the size of the group and joint authorship issues. The authors also set forth a number of recommendations for development of collaborative research groups.

The Application of the NASA Advanced Concepts Office, Launch Vehicle Team Design Process and Tools for Modeling Small Responsive Launch Vehicles

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Threet, Grady E.; Waters, Eric D.; Creech, Dennis M.

2012-01-01

The Advanced Concepts Office (ACO) Launch Vehicle Team at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) is recognized throughout NASA for launch vehicle conceptual definition and pre-phase A concept design evaluation. The Launch Vehicle Team has been instrumental in defining the vehicle trade space for many of NASA s high level launch system studies from the Exploration Systems Architecture Study (ESAS) through the Augustine Report, Constellation, and now Space Launch System (SLS). The Launch Vehicle Team s approach to rapid turn-around and comparative analysis of multiple launch vehicle architectures has played a large role in narrowing the design options for future vehicle development. Recently the Launch Vehicle Team has been developing versions of their vetted tools used on large launch vehicles and repackaged the process and capability to apply to smaller more responsive launch vehicles. Along this development path the LV Team has evaluated trajectory tools and assumptions against sounding rocket trajectories and air launch systems, begun altering subsystem mass estimating relationships to handle smaller vehicle components, and as an additional development driver, have begun an in-house small launch vehicle study. With the recent interest in small responsive launch systems and the known capability and response time of the ACO LV Team, ACO s launch vehicle assessment capability can be utilized to rapidly evaluate the vast and opportune trade space that small launch vehicles currently encompass. This would provide a great benefit to the customer in order to reduce that large trade space to a select few alternatives that should best fit the customer s payload needs.

The delta cooperative model: a dynamic and innovative team-work activity to develop research skills in microbiology.

PubMed

Rios-Velazquez, Carlos; Robles-Suarez, Reynaldo; Gonzalez-Negron, Alberto J; Baez-Santos, Ivan

2006-05-01

The Delta Cooperative Model (DCM) is a dynamic and innovative teamwork design created to develop fundamentals in research skills. High school students in the DCM belong to the Upward Bound Science and Math (UBSM) program at the Inter American University, Ponce Campus. After workshops on using the scientific method, students were organized into groups of three students with similar research interests. Each student had to take on a role within the group as either a researcher, data analyst, or research editor. Initially, each research team developed hypothesis-driven ideas on their proposed project. In intrateam research meetings, they emphasized team-specific tasks. Next, interteam meetings were held to present ideas and receive critical input. Finally, oral and poster research presentations were conducted at the UBSM science fair. Several team research projects covered topics in medical, environmental, and general microbiology. The three major assessment areas for the workshop and DCM included: (i) student's perception of the workshops' effectiveness in developing skills, content, and values; (ii) research team self- and group participation evaluation, and (iii) oral and poster presentation during the science fair. More than 91% of the students considered the workshops effective in the presentation of scientific method fundamentals. The combination of the workshop and the DCM increased student's knowledge by 55% from pre- to posttests. Two rubrics were designed to assess the oral presentation and poster set-up. The poster and oral presentation scores averaged 83% and 75% respectively. Finally, we present a team assessment instrument that allows the self- and group evaluation of each research team. While the DCM has educational plasticity and versatility, here we document how the this model has been successfully incorporated in training and engaging students in scientific research in microbiology.

Patient and surgeon radiation exposure during spinal instrumentation using intraoperative computed tomography-based navigation.

PubMed

Mendelsohn, Daniel; Strelzow, Jason; Dea, Nicolas; Ford, Nancy L; Batke, Juliet; Pennington, Andrew; Yang, Kaiyun; Ailon, Tamir; Boyd, Michael; Dvorak, Marcel; Kwon, Brian; Paquette, Scott; Fisher, Charles; Street, John

2016-03-01

Imaging modalities used to visualize spinal anatomy intraoperatively include X-ray studies, fluoroscopy, and computed tomography (CT). All of these emit ionizing radiation. Radiation emitted to the patient and the surgical team when performing surgeries using intraoperative CT-based spine navigation was compared. This is a retrospective cohort case-control study. Seventy-three patients underwent CT-navigated spinal instrumentation and 73 matched controls underwent spinal instrumentation with conventional fluoroscopy. Effective doses of radiation to the patient when the surgical team was inside and outside of the room were analyzed. The number of postoperative imaging investigations between navigated and non-navigated cases was compared. Intraoperative X-ray imaging, fluoroscopy, and CT dosages were recorded and standardized to effective doses. The number of postoperative imaging investigations was compared with the matched cohort of surgical cases. A literature review identified historical radiation exposure values for fluoroscopic-guided spinal instrumentation. The 73 navigated operations involved an average of 5.44 levels of instrumentation. Thoracic and lumbar instrumentations had higher radiation emission from all modalities (CT, X-ray imaging, and fluoroscopy) compared with cervical cases (6.93 millisievert [mSv] vs. 2.34 mSv). Major deformity and degenerative cases involved more radiation emission than trauma or oncology cases (7.05 mSv vs. 4.20 mSv). On average, the total radiation dose to the patient was 8.7 times more than the radiation emitted when the surgical team was inside the operating room. Total radiation exposure to the patient was 2.77 times the values reported in the literature for thoracolumbar instrumentations performed without navigation. In comparison, the radiation emitted to the patient when the surgical team was inside the operating room was 2.50 lower than non-navigated thoracolumbar instrumentations. The average total radiation exposure to the patient was 5.69 mSv, a value less than a single routine lumbar CT scan (7.5 mSv). The average radiation exposure to the patient in the present study was approximately one quarter the recommended annual occupational radiation exposure. Navigation did not reduce the number of postoperative X-rays or CT scans obtained. Intraoperative CT navigation increases the radiation exposure to the patient and reduces the radiation exposure to the surgeon when compared with values reported in the literature. Intraoperative CT navigation improves the accuracy of spine instrumentation with acceptable patient radiation exposure and reduced surgical team exposure. Surgeons should be aware of the implications of radiation exposure to both the patient and the surgical team when using intraoperative CT navigation. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Robotic Surgical Training in an Academic Institution

PubMed Central

Chitwood, W. Randolph; Nifong, L. Wiley; Chapman, William H. H.; Felger, Jason E.; Bailey, B. Marcus; Ballint, Tara; Mendleson, Kim G.; Kim, Victor B.; Young, James A.; Albrecht, Robert A.

2001-01-01

Objective To detail robotic procedure development and clinical applications for mitral valve, biliary, and gastric reflux operations, and to implement a multispecialty robotic surgery training curriculum for both surgeons and surgical teams. Summary Background Data Remote, accurate telemanipulation of intracavitary instruments by general and cardiac surgeons is now possible. Complex technologic advancements in surgical robotics require well-designed training programs. Moreover, efficient robotic surgical procedures must be developed methodically and safely implemented clinically. Methods Advanced training on robotic systems provides surgeon confidence when operating in tiny intracavitary spaces. Three-dimensional vision and articulated instrument control are essential. The authors’ two da Vinci robotic systems have been dedicated to procedure development, clinical surgery, and training of surgical specialists. Their center has been the first United States site to train surgeons formally in clinical robotics. Results Established surgeons and residents have been trained using a defined robotic surgical educational curriculum. Also, 30 multispecialty teams have been trained in robotic mechanics and electronics. Initially, robotic procedures were developed experimentally and are described. In the past year the authors have performed 52 robotic-assisted clinical operations: 18 mitral valve repairs, 20 cholecystectomies, and 14 Nissen fundoplications. These respective operations required 108, 28, and 73 minutes of robotic telemanipulation to complete. Procedure times for the last half of the abdominal operations decreased significantly, as did the knot-tying time in mitral operations. There have been no deaths and few complications. One mitral patient had postoperative bleeding. Conclusion Robotic surgery can be performed safely with excellent results. The authors have developed an effective curriculum for training teams in robotic surgery. After training, surgeons have applied these methods effectively and safely. PMID:11573041

Scientific and technological Challenges in the development of astronomical instrumentation: E-ELT & ALMA

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barrado, David; Gallego, Jesús

2009-12-01

The answers to the present astrophysical questions require the development of highly sophisticated instrumentation, which needs long-term scheduling and large assets of human and material resources, managed by consortia of several institutions. Spain has carried in the last years serious efforts in this direction (GTC, ESO, ESA), but there is still a notable offset between astronomical research at the theoretical and observational levels and the development of instrumentation. Now, the incorporation of new countries to ESO (in particular Spain) to ESO and several future big projects (ALMA, E-ELT, Cosmic Vision), raise the level of exigency. The goal of this workshop is to gather the scientific teams and the industries of the sector to expose their needs and projects, and share experiences. The workshop is aimed as well at serving as an echo to convince financing agencies and the astronomical community in general of the need to promote with decision the development of astrophysical instrumentation and the tools for the analysis of related data. The formation and acknowledgement of instrumentation astronomers will be a key factor for Spain to meet the requirements of its position in Astronomy in the next decades. Here, we present the contributions most closely related to the development of E-ELT, ALMA and ESA missions.

Partnership for the Revitalization of National Wind Tunnel Force Measurement Capability

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rhew, Ray D.; Skelley, Marcus L.; Woike, Mark R.; Bader, Jon B.; Marshall, Timothy J.

2009-01-01

Lack of funding and lack of focus on research over the past several years, coupled with force measurement capabilities being decentralized and distributed across the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) research centers, has resulted in a significant erosion of (1) capability and infrastructure to produce and calibrate force measurement systems; (2) NASA s working knowledge of those systems; and (3) the quantity of high-quality, full-capability force measurement systems available for use in aeronautics testing. Simultaneously, and at proportional rates, the capability of industry to design, manufacture, and calibrate these test instruments has been eroding primarily because of a lack of investment by the aeronautics community. Technical expertise in this technology area is a core competency in aeronautics testing; it is highly specialized and experience-based, and it represents a niche market for only a few small precision instrument shops in the United States. With this backdrop, NASA s Aeronautics Test Program (ATP) chartered a team to examine the issues and risks associated with the problem, focusing specifically on strain- gage balances. The team partnered with the U.S. Air Force s Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC) to exploit their combined capabilities and take a national level government view of the problem. This paper describes the team s approach, its findings, and its recommendations, and the current status for revitalizing the government s balance capability with respect to designing, fabricating, calibrating, and using the instruments.

The Raman Laser Spectrometer for the ExoMars Rover Mission to Mars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rull, Fernando; Maurice, Sylvestre; Hutchinson, Ian; Moral, Andoni; Perez, Carlos; Diaz, Carlos; Colombo, Maria; Belenguer, Tomas; Lopez-Reyes, Guillermo; Sansano, Antonio; Forni, Olivier; Parot, Yann; Striebig, Nicolas; Woodward, Simon; Howe, Chris; Tarcea, Nicolau; Rodriguez, Pablo; Seoane, Laura; Santiago, Amaia; Rodriguez-Prieto, Jose A.; Medina, Jesús; Gallego, Paloma; Canchal, Rosario; Santamaría, Pilar; Ramos, Gonzalo; Vago, Jorge L.; RLS Team

2017-07-01

The Raman Laser Spectrometer (RLS) on board the ESA/Roscosmos ExoMars 2020 mission will provide precise identification of the mineral phases and the possibility to detect organics on the Red Planet. The RLS will work on the powdered samples prepared inside the Pasteur analytical suite and collected on the surface and subsurface by a drill system. Raman spectroscopy is a well-known analytical technique based on the inelastic scattering by matter of incident monochromatic light (the Raman effect) that has many applications in laboratory and industry, yet to be used in space applications. Raman spectrometers will be included in two Mars rovers scheduled to be launched in 2020. The Raman instrument for ExoMars 2020 consists of three main units: (1) a transmission spectrograph coupled to a CCD detector; (2) an electronics box, including the excitation laser that controls the instrument functions; and (3) an optical head with an autofocus mechanism illuminating and collecting the scattered light from the spot under investigation. The optical head is connected to the excitation laser and the spectrometer by optical fibers. The instrument also has two targets positioned inside the rover analytical laboratory for onboard Raman spectral calibration. The aim of this article was to present a detailed description of the RLS instrument, including its operation on Mars. To verify RLS operation before launch and to prepare science scenarios for the mission, a simulator of the sample analysis chain has been developed by the team. The results obtained are also discussed. Finally, the potential of the Raman instrument for use in field conditions is addressed. By using a ruggedized prototype, also developed by our team, a wide range of terrestrial analog sites across the world have been studied. These investigations allowed preparing a large collection of real, in situ spectra of samples from different geological processes and periods of Earth evolution. On this basis, we are working to develop models for interpreting analog processes on Mars during the mission.

Improving Operating Room Efficiency via Reduction and Standardization of Video-Assisted Thoracoscopic Surgery Instrumentation.

PubMed

Friend, Tynan H; Paula, Ashley; Klemm, Jason; Rosa, Mark; Levine, Wilton

2018-05-28

Being the economic powerhouses of most large medical centers, operating rooms (ORs) require the highest levels of teamwork, communication, and efficiency in order to optimize patient safety and reduce hospital waste. A major component of OR waste comes from unused surgical instrumentation; instruments that are frequently prepared for procedures but are never touched by the surgical team still require a full reprocessing cycle at the conclusion of the case. Based on our own previous successes in the perioperative domain, in this work we detail an initiative that reduces surgical instrumentation waste of video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) procedures by placing thoracotomy conversion instrumentation in a standby location and designing a specific instrument kit to be used solely for VATS cases. Our estimates suggest that this initiative will reduce at least 91,800 pounds of unnecessary surgical instrumentation from cycling through our ORs and reprocessing department annually, resulting in increased OR team communication without sacrificing the highest standard of patient safety.

The Rosetta Science Archive: Status and Plans for Completing and Enhancing the Archive Content

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Heather, D.; Barthelemy, M.; Fraga, D.; Grotheer, E.; O'Rourke, L.; Taylor, M.

2017-09-01

On 30 September 2016, Rosetta's signal flat-lined, confirming that the spacecraft had completed its incredible mission by landing on the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Although this marked an end to the spacecraft's active operations, intensive work is still on-going with instrument teams preparing their final science data increments for delivery and ingestion into ESA's Planetary Science Archive (PSA). In addition to this, ESA is establishing contracts with a number of instrument teams to enhance and improve their data and documentation in an effort to provide the best long- term archive possible for the Rosetta mission. This presentation will outline the current status of the Rosetta archive, as well as highlighting some of the 'enhanced archiving' activities planned and underway with the various instrument teams on Rosetta to ensure the scientific legacy of the mission.

Next Generation LOCAD-PTS Cartridge Development

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Morris, H.; Nutter, D.; Weite, E.; Wells, M.; Maule, J.; Damon, M.; Monaco, L.; Steele, A.; Wainwright, N.

2008-01-01

Future astrobiology exploration missions will require rapid, point-of-use techniques for surface science experiments and contamination monitoring. The Lab-On-a-Chip Application Development (LOCAD) team is developing operational instruments that advance spaceflight technologies to molecular-based methods. Currently, LOCAD-Portable Test System (PTS) is quantifying levels of the bacterial molecule endotoxin onboard the Internatioal Space Station. Future research and development will focus on more sensitive molecular techniques that expand the number of compounds detected to include beta-glucan from fungal cell walls.

Collaborating with Youth to Inform and Develop Tools for Psychotropic Decision Making

PubMed Central

Murphy, Andrea; Gardner, David; Kutcher, Stan; Davidson, Simon; Manion, Ian

2010-01-01

Introduction: Youth oriented and informed resources designed to support psychopharmacotherapeutic decision-making are essentially unavailable. This article outlines the approach taken to design such resources, the product that resulted from the approach taken, and the lessons learned from the process. Methods: A project team with psychopharmacology expertise was assembled. The project team reviewed best practices regarding medication educational materials and related tools to support decisions. Collaboration with key stakeholders who were thought of as primary end-users and target groups occurred. A graphic designer and a plain language consultant were also retained. Results: Through an iterative and collaborative process over approximately 6 months, Med Ed and Med Ed Passport were developed. Literature and input from key stakeholders, in particular youth, was instrumental to the development of the tools and materials within Med Ed. A training program utilizing a train-the-trainer model was developed to facilitate the implementation of Med Ed in Ontario, which is currently ongoing. Conclusion: An evidence-informed process that includes youth and key stakeholder engagement is required for developing tools to support in psychopharmacotherapeutic decision-making. The development process fostered an environment of reciprocity between the project team and key stakeholders. PMID:21037916

ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter Instrument Modelling Approach to Streamline Science Operations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Munoz Fernandez, Michela; Frew, David; Ashman, Michael; Cardesin Moinelo, Alejandro; Garcia Beteta, Juan Jose; Geiger, Bernhard; Metcalfe, Leo; Nespoli, Federico; Muniz Solaz, Carlos

2018-05-01

ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) science operations activities are centralised at ESAC's Science Operations Centre (SOC). The SOC receives the inputs from the principal investigators (PIs) in order to implement and deliver the spacecraft pointing requests and instrument timelines to the Mission Operations Centre (MOC). The high number of orbits per planning cycle has made it necessary to abstract the planning interactions between the SOC and the PI teams at the observation level. This paper describes the modelling approach we have conducted for TGOís instruments to streamline science operations. We have created dynamic observation types that scale to adapt to the conditions specified by the PI teams including observation timing, and pointing block parameters calculated from observation geometry. This approach is considered and improvement with respect to previous missions where the generation of the observation pointing and commanding requests was performed manually by the instrument teams. Automation software assists us to effectively handle the high density of planned orbits with increasing volume of scientific data and to successfully meet opportunistic scientific goals and objectives. Our planning tool combines the instrument observation definition files provided by the PIs together with the flight dynamics products to generate the Pointing Requests and the instrument timeline (ITL). The ITL contains all the validated commands at the TC sequence level and computes the resource envelopes (data rate, power, data volume) within the constraints. At the SOC, our main goal is to maximise the science output while minimising the number of iterations among the teams, ensuring that the timeline does not violate the state transitions allowed in the Mission Operations Rules and Constraints Document.

Results from the Science Instrument Definition Team for the Gondola for High Altitude Planetary Science Project

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chanover, Nancy J.; Aslam, Shahid; DiSanti, Michael A.; Hibbitts, Charles A.; Honniball, Casey I.; Paganini, Lucas; Parker, Alex; Skrutskie, Michael F.; Young, Eliot F.

2016-10-01

The Gondola for High Altitude Planetary Science (GHAPS) is an observing asset under development by NASA's Planetary Science Division that will be hosted on stratospheric balloon missions intended for use by the broad planetary science community. GHAPS is being designed in a modular fashion to interface to a suite of instruments as called for by science needs. It will operate at an altitude of 30+ km and will include an optical telescope assembly with a 1-meter aperture and a pointing stability of approximately 1 arcsecond with a flight duration of ~100 days. The spectral grasp of the system is envisaged to include wavelengths spanning the near-ultraviolet to near/mid-infrared (~0.3-5 µm) and possibly to longer wavelengths.The GHAPS Science Instrument Definition Team (SIDT) was convened in May 2016 to define the scope of science investigations, derive the science requirements and instrument concepts for GHAPS, prioritize the instruments according to science priorities that address Planetary Science Decadal Survey questions, and generate a report that is broadly disseminated to the planetary science community. The SIDT examined a wide range of solar system targets and science questions, focusing on unique measurements that could be made from a balloon-borne platform to address high-priority planetary science questions for a fraction of the cost of space missions. The resulting instrument concepts reflect unique capabilities offered by a balloon-borne platform (e.g., observations at spectral regions inaccessible from the ground due to telluric absorption, diffraction-limited imaging, and long duration uninterrupted observations of a target). We discuss example science cases that can be addressed with GHAPS and describe a notional instrument suite that can be used by guest observers to pursue decadal-level science questions.

Eight year experience in open ended instrumentation laboratory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Marques, Manuel B.; Rosa, Carla C.; Marques, Paulo V. S.

2015-10-01

When designing laboratory courses in a Physics Major we consider a range of objectives: teaching Physics; developing lab competencies; instrument control and data acquisition; learning about measurement errors and error propagation; an introduction to project management; team work skills and scientific writing. But nowadays we face pressure to decrease laboratory hours due to the cost involved. Many universities are replacing lab classes for simulation activities, hiring PhD. and master students to give first year lab classes, and reducing lab hours. This leads to formatted lab scripts and poor autonomy of the students, and failure to enhance creativity and autonomy. In this paper we present our eight year experience with a laboratory course that is mandatory in the third year of Physics and Physical Engineering degrees. Since the students had previously two standard laboratory courses, we focused on teaching instrumentation and giving students autonomy. The course is divided in two parts: one third is dedicated to learn computer controlled instrumentation and data acquisition (based in LabView); the final 2/3 is dedicated to a group project. In this project, the team (2 or 3 students) must develop a project and present it in a typical conference format at the end of the semester. The project assignments are usually not very detailed (about two or three lines long), giving only general guidelines pointing to a successful project (students often recycle objectives putting forward a very personal project); all of them require assembling some hardware. Due to our background, about one third of the projects are related to Optics.

[The Balanced Scorecard as a management tool in a public health organization].

PubMed

Villalbí, Joan R; Villalbí, Joan; Guix, Joan; Casas, Conrad; Borrell, Carme; Duran, Júlia; Artazcoz, Lucía; Camprubí, Esteve; Cusí, Meritxell; Rodríguez-Montuquín, Pau; Armengol, Josep M; Jiménez, Guy

2007-01-01

The Balanced Scorecard is a tool for strategic planning in business. We present our experience after introducing this instrument in a public health agency to align daily management practice with strategic objectives. Our management team required deep discussions with external support to clarify the concepts behind the Balanced Scorecard, adapt them to a public organization in the health field distinct from the business sector in which the Balanced Scorecard was designed, and adopt this instrument as a management tool. This process led to definition of the Balanced Scorecard by our Management Committee in 2002, the subsequent evaluation of the degree to which its objectives had been reached, and its periodic redefinition. In addition, second-level Balanced Scorecards were defined for different divisions and services within the agency. The adoption of the Balanced Scorecard by the management team required prior effort to clarify who are the stockholders and who are the clients of a public health organization. The agency's activity and production were also analyzed and a key processes model was defined. Although it is hard to attribute specific changes to a single cause, we believe several improvements in management can be ascribed, at least in part, to the use of the Balanced Scorecard. The systematic use of the Balanced Scorecard produced greater cohesion in the management team and the entire organization and brought the strategic objectives closer to daily management operations. The organization is more attentive to its clients, has taken steps to improve its most complex cross-sectional processes, and has developed further actions for the development and growth of its officers and its entire personnel. At the same time, its management team is more in tune with the needs of the agency's administrative bodies that compose its governing board.

The Perinatal Palliative Care Perceptions and Barriers Scale Instrument©: development and validation.

PubMed

Wool, Charlotte; Northam, Sally

2011-12-01

To devise and test an instrument measuring clinician perceptions of perinatal palliative care (PPC) and barriers to care delivery. PPC was theorized to involve the care of pregnant women and their families after prenatal testing resulted in a life-limiting fetal diagnosis. Both giving birth to a child with a life-limiting condition or termination of pregnancy for fetal anomaly can be emotionally traumatic life events. Clinicians were thought to face ethical dilemmas that involved approaches to care for this population. The ethical dilemmas were measured on a perceptions scale using items about informed consent, justice, beneficence, and autonomy. Barriers were theorized as obstacles to delivering quality PPC and included insufficient education, personal discomfort, and difficulty garnering team or administrative support for care. Licensed clinicians practicing in the perinatal field. Stage 1 entailed instrument development and validation, which was achieved through a Delphi study involving 11 expert panelists. The devised instrument included 64 six-point Likert items. In stage 2, a computer survey gathered data from a multidisciplinary, clinician group. A total of 264 clinicians completed the survey. Exploratory factor analysis with varimax rotation was used to validate the instrument, evaluate the factors, and summarize the explained variance achieved by sum scores of the perceptions and barriers scales. The perceptions scale was reduced to 23 items with a 6-factor solution explaining 67% of the variance with a good internal consistency reliability of 0.77 (Cronbach α). The 22-item barriers scale had a 6-factor solution explaining 71% of the variance with an alpha reliability of 0.83. The Perinatal Palliative Care Perceptions and Practice Barriers Scale instrument is a valid and reliable measure of PPC perceptions and barriers for measuring the attitudes of physicians and nurses. Use of this instrument can foster educational programs and hospital planning for PPC teams that provide grieving families with the varied support they need. It is also a useful instrument for examining trends in the clinician perspectives and practice barriers as more genetic testing and subsequent terminal diagnoses occur.

The LUVOIR Ultraviolet Multi-Object Spectrograph (LUMOS): instrument definition and design

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

France, Kevin; Fleming, Brian; West, Garrett; McCandliss, Stephan R.; Bolcar, Matthew R.; Harris, Walter; Moustakas, Leonidas; O'Meara, John M.; Pascucci, Ilaria; Rigby, Jane; Schiminovich, David; Tumlinson, Jason

2017-08-01

The Large Ultraviolet/Optical/Infrared Surveyor (LUVOIR) is one of four large mission concepts currently undergoing community study for consideration by the 2020 Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey. LUVOIR is being designed to pursue an ambitious program of exoplanetary discovery and characterization, cosmic origins astrophysics, and planetary science. The LUVOIR study team is investigating two large telescope apertures (9- and 15-meter primary mirror diameters) and a host of science instruments to carry out the primary mission goals. Many of the exoplanet, cosmic origins, and planetary science goals of LUVOIR require high-throughput, imaging spectroscopy at ultraviolet (100 - 400 nm) wavelengths. The LUVOIR Ultraviolet Multi-Object Spectrograph, LUMOS, is being designed to support all of the UV science requirements of LUVOIR, from exoplanet host star characterization to tomography of circumgalactic halos to water plumes on outer solar system satellites. LUMOS offers point source and multi-object spectroscopy across the UV bandpass, with multiple resolution modes to support different science goals. The instrument will provide low (R = 8,000 - 18,000) and medium (R = 30,000 - 65,000) resolution modes across the far-ultraviolet (FUV: 100 - 200 nm) and nearultraviolet (NUV: 200 - 400 nm) windows, and a very low resolution mode (R = 500) for spectroscopic investigations of extremely faint objects in the FUV. Imaging spectroscopy will be accomplished over a 3 × 1.6 arcminute field-of-view by employing holographically-ruled diffraction gratings to control optical aberrations, microshutter arrays (MSA) built on the heritage of the Near Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), advanced optical coatings for high-throughput in the FUV, and next generation large-format photon-counting detectors. The spectroscopic capabilities of LUMOS are augmented by an FUV imaging channel (100 - 200nm, 13 milliarcsecond angular resolution, 2 × 2 arcminute field-of-view) that will employ a complement of narrow- and medium-band filters. The instrument definition, design, and development are being carried out by an instrument study team led by the University of Colorado, Goddard Space Flight Center, and the LUVOIR Science and Technology Definition Team. LUMOS has recently completed a preliminary design in Goddard's Instrument Design Laboratory and is being incorporated into the working LUVOIR mission concept. In this proceeding, we describe the instrument requirements for LUMOS, the instrument design, and technology development recommendations to support the hardware required for LUMOS. We present an overview of LUMOS' observing modes and estimated performance curves for effective area, spectral resolution, and imaging performance. Example "LUMOS 100-hour Highlights" observing programs are presented to demonstrate the potential power of LUVOIR's ultraviolet spectroscopic capabilities.

TOPEX Software Document Series. Volume 5; Rev. 1; TOPEX GDR Processing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lee, Jeffrey; Lockwood, Dennis; Hancock, David W., III

2003-01-01

This document is a compendium of the WFF TOPEX Software Development Team's knowledge regarding Geophysical Data Record (GDR) Processing. It includes many elements of a requirements document, a software specification document, a software design document, and a user's manual. In the more technical sections, this document assumes the reader is familiar with TOPEX and instrument files.

An Evaluation of a Summer Reading Institute, 1968.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rosenfeld, Michael

This document describes part of the evaluation of a six-week reading institute for 69 K-3 teachers from the Raymond School, Model School Division (MSD), Washington, D.C. and thereby provides an evaluation model for schools to use in their own inservice training programs. Two evaluation instruments developed by an MSD innovation team in cooperation…

Evaluation of the Implementation Grant Project of Tennessee's Nutrition Education and Training Program 1981-82.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Banta, Trudy W.; And Others

The Bureau of Educational Research and Service at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK) conducted the 1981-82 evaluation of the Tennessee Nutrition Education and Training Program. Instruments developed, field tested, and revised by the UTK team were used to assess the nutrition knowledge, attitudes, practices, and perceptions of students…

Non-technical skills assessment for prelicensure nursing students: An integrative review.

PubMed

Pires, Sara; Monteiro, Sara; Pereira, Anabela; Chaló, Daniela; Melo, Elsa; Rodrigues, Alexandre

2017-11-01

In nursing, non-technical skills are recognized as playing an important role to increase patient safety and successful clinical outcomes (Pearson and McLafferty, 2011). Non-technical skills are cognitive and social resource skills that complement technical skills and contribute to safe and efficient task performance (Flin et al., 2008). In order to effectively provide non-technical skills training, it is essential to have an instrument to measure these skills. An online search was conducted. Articles were selected if they referred to and/or described instruments assessing non-technical skills for nurses and/or prelicensure nursing students in educational, clinical and/or simulated settings with validation evidence (inclusion criteria). Of the 53 articles located, 26 met the inclusion criteria. Those referred to and/or described 16 instruments with validation evidence developed to assess non-technical skills in multidisciplinary teams including nurses. Although articles have shown 16 valid and reliable instruments, to our knowledge, no instrument has been published or developed and validated for the assessment of non-technical skills of only nurses in general, relevant for use in high-fidelity simulation-based training for prelicensure nursing students. Therefore, there is a need for the development of such an instrument. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Sentinel-5 instrument: status of design, performance, and development

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gühne, T.; Keim, C.; Bartsch, P.; Weiß, S.; Melf, M.; Seefelder, W.

2017-09-01

The Sentinel-5 instrument is currently under development by a consortium led by Airbus Defence and Space in the frame of the European Union Copernicus program. It is a customer furnished item to the MetOp Second Generation satellite platform, which will provide operational meteorological data for the coming decades. Mission objective of the Sentinel-5 is to monitor the composition of the Earth atmosphere for Copernicus Atmosphere Services by taking measurements of trace gases and aerosols impacting air quality and climate with high resolution and daily global coverage. Therefore the Sentinel-5 provides five dispersive spectrometers covering the UV-VIS (270…500 nm), NIR (685 …773 nm) and SWIR (1590…1675 and 2305…2385 nm) spectral bands with resolutions <=1nm. Spatially the Sentinel-5 provides a 108° field of view with a ground sampling of 7.5 x 7 km2 at Nadir. The development program is post PDR and the build-up of the industrial team is finalised. We report on the instrument architecture and design derived from the driving requirements, the predicted instrument performance, and the general status of the program.

NASA Planetary Science Summer School: Preparing the Next Generation of Planetary Mission Leaders

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lowes, L. L.; Budney, C. J.; Sohus, A.; Wheeler, T.; Urban, A.; NASA Planetary Science Summer School Team

2011-12-01

Sponsored by NASA's Planetary Science Division, and managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Planetary Science Summer School prepares the next generation of engineers and scientists to participate in future solar system exploration missions. Participants learn the mission life cycle, roles of scientists and engineers in a mission environment, mission design interconnectedness and trade-offs, and the importance of teamwork. For this professional development opportunity, applicants are sought who have a strong interest and experience in careers in planetary exploration, and who are science and engineering post-docs, recent PhDs, and doctoral students, and faculty teaching such students. Disciplines include planetary science, geoscience, geophysics, environmental science, aerospace engineering, mechanical engineering, and materials science. Participants are selected through a competitive review process, with selections based on the strength of the application and advisor's recommendation letter. Under the mentorship of a lead engineer (Dr. Charles Budney), students select, design, and develop a mission concept in response to the NASA New Frontiers Announcement of Opportunity. They develop their mission in the JPL Advanced Projects Design Team (Team X) environment, which is a cross-functional multidisciplinary team of professional engineers that utilizes concurrent engineering methodologies to complete rapid design, analysis and evaluation of mission concept designs. About 36 students participate each year, divided into two summer sessions. In advance of an intensive week-long session in the Project Design Center at JPL, students select the mission and science goals during a series of six weekly WebEx/telecons, and develop a preliminary suite of instrumentation and a science traceability matrix. Students assume both a science team and a mission development role with JPL Team X mentors. Once at JPL, students participate in a series of Team X project design sessions, during which their mentors aid them in finalizing their mission design and instrument suite, and in making the necessary trade-offs to stay within the cost cap. Tours of JPL facilities highlight the end-to-end life cycle of a mission. At week's end, students present their Concept Study to a "proposal review board" of JPL scientists and engineers and NASA Headquarters executives, who feed back the strengths and weaknesses of their proposal and mission design. A survey of Planetary Science Summer School alumni administered in summer of 2011 provides information on the program's impact on students' career choices and leadership roles as they pursue their employment in planetary science and related fields. Preliminary results will be discussed during the session. Almost a third of the approximately 450 Planetary Science Summer School alumni from the last 10 years of the program are currently employed by NASA or JPL. The Planetary Science Summer School is implemented by the JPL Education Office in partnership with JPL's Team X Project Design Center.

NASA Planetary Science Summer School: Preparing the Next Generation of Planetary Mission Leaders

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Budney, C. J.; Lowes, L. L.; Sohus, A.; Wheeler, T.; Wessen, A.; Scalice, D.

2010-12-01

Sponsored by NASA’s Planetary Science Division, and managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Planetary Science Summer School prepares the next generation of engineers and scientists to participate in future solar system exploration missions. Participants learn the mission life cycle, roles of scientists and engineers in a mission environment, mission design interconnectedness and trade-offs, and the importance of teamwork. For this professional development opportunity, applicants are sought who have a strong interest and experience in careers in planetary exploration, and who are science and engineering post-docs, recent PhDs, and doctoral students, and faculty teaching such students. Disciplines include planetary science, geoscience, geophysics, environmental science, aerospace engineering, mechanical engineering, and materials science. Participants are selected through a competitive review process, with selections based on the strength of the application and advisor’s recommendation letter. Under the mentorship of a lead engineer (Dr. Charles Budney), students select, design, and develop a mission concept in response to the NASA New Frontiers Announcement of Opportunity. They develop their mission in the JPL Advanced Projects Design Team (Team X) environment, which is a cross-functional multidisciplinary team of professional engineers that utilizes concurrent engineering methodologies to complete rapid design, analysis and evaluation of mission concept designs. About 36 students participate each year, divided into two summer sessions. In advance of an intensive week-long session in the Project Design Center at JPL, students select the mission and science goals during a series of six weekly WebEx/telecons, and develop a preliminary suite of instrumentation and a science traceability matrix. Students assume both a science team and a mission development role with JPL Team X mentors. Once at JPL, students participate in a series of Team X project design sessions, during which their mentors aid them in finalizing their mission design and instrument suite, and in making the necessary trade-offs to stay within the cost cap. Tours of JPL facilities highlight the end-to-end life cycle of a mission. At week’s end, students present their Concept Study to a “proposal review board” of JPL scientists and engineers and NASA Headquarters executives, who feed back the strengths and weaknesses of their proposal and mission design. The majority of students come from top US universities with planetary science or engineering programs, such as Brown University, MIT, Georgia Tech, University of Colorado, Caltech, Stanford, University of Arizona, UCLA, and University of Michigan. Almost a third of Planetary Science Summer School alumni from the last 10 years of the program are currently employed by NASA or JPL. The Planetary Science Summer School is implemented by the JPL Education Office in partnership with JPL’s Team X Project Design Center.

Construction and Validation of a Measurement Instrument for Attitudes towards Teamwork.

PubMed

Mendo-Lázaro, Santiago; Polo-Del-Río, María I; Iglesias-Gallego, Damián; Felipe-Castaño, Elena; León-Del-Barco, Benito

2017-01-01

Cooperative, collaborative learning and other forms of group learning methods are increasingly used in classrooms. Knowing students' attitudes toward teamwork has great value since they influence the students' learning results as well as their social development. So it is necessary to have robust instruments to provide a better understanding of these attitudes and preferences concerning teamwork. Such instruments also help to identify the factors that promote positive or negative attitudes within the context of group activities. Using a sample of 750 first and second year university students studying a degree in Kindergarten, Primary and Social Education, an instrument measuring attitudes toward team learning has been developed. Two distinct factors were obtained through various factorial analyses and structural equations: Academic attitudes and Social and emotional attitudes . Our study reveals that the instrument is both valid and reliable. Its application is both simple and fast and it has important implications for planning teaching and learning activities that contribute to an improvement in attitudes as well as the practice of teaching in the context of learning through teamwork.

Construction and Validation of a Measurement Instrument for Attitudes towards Teamwork

PubMed Central

Mendo-Lázaro, Santiago; Polo-del-Río, María I.; Iglesias-Gallego, Damián; Felipe-Castaño, Elena; León-del-Barco, Benito

2017-01-01

Cooperative, collaborative learning and other forms of group learning methods are increasingly used in classrooms. Knowing students’ attitudes toward teamwork has great value since they influence the students’ learning results as well as their social development. So it is necessary to have robust instruments to provide a better understanding of these attitudes and preferences concerning teamwork. Such instruments also help to identify the factors that promote positive or negative attitudes within the context of group activities. Using a sample of 750 first and second year university students studying a degree in Kindergarten, Primary and Social Education, an instrument measuring attitudes toward team learning has been developed. Two distinct factors were obtained through various factorial analyses and structural equations: Academic attitudes and Social and emotional attitudes. Our study reveals that the instrument is both valid and reliable. Its application is both simple and fast and it has important implications for planning teaching and learning activities that contribute to an improvement in attitudes as well as the practice of teaching in the context of learning through teamwork. PMID:28676775

Teamwork and patient safety in dynamic domains of healthcare: a review of the literature.

PubMed

Manser, T

2009-02-01

This review examines current research on teamwork in highly dynamic domains of healthcare such as operating rooms, intensive care, emergency medicine, or trauma and resuscitation teams with a focus on aspects relevant to the quality and safety of patient care. Evidence from three main areas of research supports the relationship between teamwork and patient safety: (1) Studies investigating the factors contributing to critical incidents and adverse events have shown that teamwork plays an important role in the causation and prevention of adverse events. (2) Research focusing on healthcare providers' perceptions of teamwork demonstrated that (a) staff's perceptions of teamwork and attitudes toward safety-relevant team behavior were related to the quality and safety of patient care and (b) perceptions of teamwork and leadership style are associated with staff well-being, which may impact clinician' ability to provide safe patient care. (3) Observational studies on teamwork behaviors related to high clinical performance have identified patterns of communication, coordination, and leadership that support effective teamwork. In recent years, research using diverse methodological approaches has led to significant progress in team research in healthcare. The challenge for future research is to further develop and validate instruments for team performance assessment and to develop sound theoretical models of team performance in dynamic medical domains integrating evidence from all three areas of team research identified in this review. This will help to improve team training efforts and aid the design of clinical work systems supporting effective teamwork and safe patient care.

SOFIA Education/Public Outreach with the Echelon Cross Echelle Spectrograph (EXES)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hemenway, M. K.; Lacy, J. H.; Jaffe, D. T.; Richter, M. J.; Green, K.; Harkrider, J. L.; Lutsinger, C. L.; Noid, E.; Penn, R.; Shepherd, L.; Suder, R.; Tykoski, M. J.; Willis, M. J.

1998-12-01

The integration of science and technology is maximized in the development of a new scientific instrument for SOFIA like EXES. Many teachers with good science backgrounds have never had an experience in which they can learn first-hand about instrument development. The goal of this program is to prepare a cadre of teachers who will promote astronomy within their communities and who will be prepared eventually for a flight experience on SOFIA. This program provides grade 7-12 Central Texas (i.e., work within 100 miles of UT-Austin) teachers an opportunity to learn not only the principles of astronomy, but also the technology behind instrument development. By spreading the experience out over several years, the group may observe the development and construction of EXES through many phases. In addition to traditional laboratory exercises [e.g. the celestial sphere, optics, optical telescopes, spectroscopy, use of CCD cameras, and error analysis], there will be practice in using equipment such as an interferometer for optical alignment, drill press, mill, and lathe. Simultaneous with the teachers' growing understanding of astronomy and technology through their hands-on activities, their knowledge of scientific research - particularly in the area of infrared astronomy - will be enhanced through regular interactive talks by the co-investigators. With careful planning, several important secondary goals are achieved with this program: 1. The activities are aligned with the National Science Education Standards 2. Many of the traditional astronomy activities have been modified for use by secondary school students 3. Information on careers is developed through activities which emphasize the team-work necessary to build and operate EXES 4. Professional links are forged between the EXES team and the teachers

A Measure of the Parent-Team Alliance in Youth Residential Psychiatry: The Revised Short Working Alliance Inventory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lamers, Audri; Delsing, Marc J. M. H.; van Widenfelt, Brigit M.; Vermeiren, Robert R. J. M.

2015-01-01

Background: The therapeutic alliance between multidisciplinary teams and parents within youth (semi) residential psychiatry is essential for the treatment process and forms a promising process variable for Routine Outcome Monitoring (ROM). No short evaluative instrument, however, is currently available to assess parent-team alliance. Objective: In…

Development and evaluation of a food environment survey in three urban environments of Kunming, China.

PubMed

Hua, Jenna; Seto, Edmund; Li, Yan; Wang, May C

2014-03-06

Given the rapid pace of urbanization and Westernization and the increasing prevalence of obesity, there is a need for research to better understand the influence of the built environment on overweight and obesity in world's developing regions. Culturally-specific food environment survey instruments are important tools for studying changing food availability and pricing. Here, we present findings from an effort to develop and evaluate food environment survey instruments for use in a rapidly developing city in southwest China. We developed two survey instruments (for stores and restaurants), each designed to be completed within 10 minutes. Two pairs of researchers surveyed a pre-selected 1-km stretch of street in each of three socio-demographically different neighborhoods to assess inter-rater reliability. Construct validity was assessed by comparing the food environments of the neighborhoods to cross-sectional height and weight data obtained on 575 adolescents in the corresponding regions of the city. 273 food establishments (163 restaurants and 110 stores) were surveyed. Sit-down, take-out, and fast food restaurants accounted for 40%, 21% and 19% of all restaurants surveyed. Tobacco and alcohol shops, convenience stores and supermarkets accounted for 25%, 12% and 11%, respectively, of all stores surveyed. We found a high percentage of agreement between teams (>75%) for all categorical variables with moderate kappa scores (0.4-0.6), and no statistically significant differences between teams for any of the continuous variables. More developed inner city neighborhoods had a higher number of fast food restaurants and convenience stores than surrounding neighborhoods. Adolescents who lived in the more developed inner neighborhoods also had a higher percentage of overweight, indicating well-founded construct validity. Depending on the cutoff used, 19% to 36% of male and 10% to 22% of female 16-year old adolescents were found to be overweight. The prevalence of overweight Chinese adolescents, and the food environments they are exposed to, deserve immediate attention. To our knowledge, these are the first food environment surveys developed specifically to assess changing food availability, accessibility, and pricing in China. These instruments may be useful in future systematic longitudinal assessments of the changing food environment and its health impact in China.

NASA's Planetary Science Summer School: Training Future Mission Leaders in a Concurrent Engineering Environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mitchell, K. L.; Lowes, L. L.; Budney, C. J.; Sohus, A.

2014-12-01

NASA's Planetary Science Summer School (PSSS) is an intensive program for postdocs and advanced graduate students in science and engineering fields with a keen interest in planetary exploration. The goal is to train the next generation of planetary science mission leaders in a hands-on environment involving a wide range of engineers and scientists. It was established in 1989, and has undergone several incarnations. Initially a series of seminars, it became a more formal mission design experience in 1999. Admission is competitive, with participants given financial support. The competitively selected trainees develop an early mission concept study in teams of 15-17, responsive to a typical NASA Science Mission Directorate Announcement of Opportunity. They select the mission concept from options presented by the course sponsors, based on high-priority missions as defined by the Decadal Survey, prepare a presentation for a proposal authorization review, present it to a senior review board and receive critical feedback. Each participant assumes multiple roles, on science, instrument and project teams. They develop an understanding of top-level science requirements and instrument priorities in advance through a series of reading assignments and webinars help trainees. Then, during the five day session at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, they work closely with concurrent engineers including JPL's Advanced Projects Design Team ("Team X"), a cross-functional multidisciplinary team of engineers that utilizes concurrent engineering methodologies to complete rapid design, analysis and evaluation of mission concept designs. All are mentored and assisted directly by Team X members and course tutors in their assigned project roles. There is a strong emphasis on making difficult trades, simulating a real mission design process as accurately as possible. The process is intense and at times dramatic, with fast-paced design sessions and late evening study sessions. A survey of PSSS alumni administered in 2013 provides information on the program's impact on trainees' career choices and leadership roles as they pursue their employment in planetary science and related fields. Results will be presented during the session, along with highlights of topics and missions covered since the program's inception.

The Evolution of an Interprofessional Shared Decision-Making Research Program: Reflective Case Study of an Emerging Paradigm.

PubMed

Dogba, Maman Joyce; Menear, Matthew; Stacey, Dawn; Brière, Nathalie; Légaré, France

2016-07-19

Healthcare research increasingly focuses on interprofessional collaboration and on shared decision making, but knowledge gaps remain about effective strategies for implementing interprofessional collaboration and shared decision-making together in clinical practice. We used Kuhn's theory of scientific revolutions to reflect on how an integrated interprofessional shared decision-making approach was developed and implemented over time. In 2007, an interdisciplinary team initiated a new research program to promote the implementation of an interprofessional shared decision-making approach in clinical settings. For this reflective case study, two new team members analyzed the team's four projects, six research publications, one unpublished and two published protocols and organized them into recognizable phases according to Kuhn's theory. The merging of two young disciplines led to challenges characteristic of emerging paradigms. Implementation of interprofessional shared-decision making was hindered by a lack of conceptual clarity, a dearth of theories and models, little methodological guidance, and insufficient evaluation instruments. The team developed a new model, identified new tools, and engaged knowledge users in a theory-based approach to implementation. However, several unresolved challenges remain. This reflective case study sheds light on the evolution of interdisciplinary team science. It offers new approaches to implementing emerging knowledge in the clinical context.

Cultural adaptation: translatability assessment and linguistic validation of the patient-reported outcome instrument for irritable bowel syndrome with diarrhea.

PubMed

Delgado-Herrera, Leticia; Lasch, Kathryn; Popielnicki, Ana; Nishida, Akito; Arbuckle, Rob; Banderas, Benjamin; Zentner, Susan; Gagainis, Ingrid; Zeiher, Bernhardt

2016-01-01

Following a 2009 US Food and Drug Administration guidance, a new patient-reported outcome (PRO) instrument was developed to support end points in multinational clinical trials assessing irritable bowel syndrome with diarrhea (IBS-D) symptom severity. Our objective was to assess the translatability of the IBS-D PRO instrument into ten languages, and subsequently perform a cultural adaptation/linguistic validation of the questionnaire into Japanese and US Spanish. Translatability assessments of the US English version of the IBS-D PRO were performed by experienced PRO translators who were native speakers of each target language and currently residing in target-language countries. Languages were Chinese (People's Republic of China), Dutch (the Netherlands), French (Belgium), German (Germany), Japanese (Japan), Polish (Poland), Portuguese (Brazil), Russian (Russia), Spanish (Mexico), and Spanish (US). The project team assessed the instrument to identify potential linguistic and/or cultural adaptation issues. After the issues identified were resolved, the instrument was translated into Spanish (US) and Japanese through a process of two forward translations, one reconciled translation, and one backward translation. The project team reviewed the translated versions before the instruments were evaluated by cognitive debriefing interviews with samples of five Spanish (US) and five Japanese IBS-D patients. Linguistic and cultural adaptation concerns identified during the translatability assessment required minor revisions, mainly the presentation of dates/times and word structure. During the cognitive debriefing interviews, two of five Spanish respondents misunderstood the term "bowel movement" to mean only diarrhea in the Spanish version. Consequently, the term was changed from "movimiento intestinal" to "evacuaciones". None of the Japanese respondents identified issues with the Japanese version. The translatability of the IBS-D PRO instrument into ten target languages was confirmed, with only minor changes made to the translations of the instrument. The translation and linguistic validation into Spanish (US) and Japanese provide evidence that this instrument can be used in multinational trials and clinical settings.

ExoGeoLab Pilot Project for Landers, Rovers and Instruments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Foing, Bernard

2010-05-01

We have developed a pilot facility with a Robotic Test Bench (ExoGeoLab) and a Mobile Lab Habitat (ExoHab). They can be used to validate concepts and external instruments from partner institutes. The ExoGeoLab research incubator project, has started in the frame of a collaboration between ILEWG (International Lunar Exploration working Group http://sci.esa.int/ilewg), ESTEC, NASA and academic partners, supported by a design and control desk in the European Space Incubator (ESI), as well as infrastructure. ExoGeoLab includes a sequence of technology and research pilot project activities: - Data analysis and interpretation of remote sensing and in-situ data, and merging of multi-scale data sets - Procurement and integration of geophysical, geo-chemical and astrobiological breadboard instruments on a surface station and rovers - Integration of cameras, environment and solar sensors, Visible and near IR spectrometer, Raman spectrometer, sample handling, cooperative rovers - Delivery of a generic small planetary lander demonstrator (ExoGeoLab lander, Sept 2009) as a platform for multi-instruments tests - Research operations and exploitation of ExoGeoLab test bench for various conceptual configurations, and support for definition and design of science surface packages (Moon, Mars, NEOs, outer moons) - Field tests of lander, rovers and instruments in analogue sites (Utah MDRS 2009 & 2010, Eifel volcanic park in Sept 2009, and future campaigns). Co-authors, ILEWG ExoGeoLab & ExoHab Team: B.H. Foing(1,11)*#, C. Stoker(2,11)*, P. Ehrenfreund(10,11), L. Boche-Sauvan(1,11)*, L. Wendt(8)*, C. Gross(8, 11)*, C. Thiel(9)*, S. Peters(1,6)*, A. Borst(1,6)*, J. Zavaleta(2)*, P. Sarrazin(2)*, D. Blake(2), J. Page(1,4,11), V. Pletser(5,11)*, E. Monaghan(1)*, P. Mahapatra(1)#, A. Noroozi(3), P. Giannopoulos(1,11) , A. Calzada(1,6,11), R. Walker(7), T. Zegers(1, 15) #, G. Groemer(12)# , W. Stumptner(12)#, B. Foing(2,5), J. K. Blom(3)#, A. Perrin(14)#, M. Mikolajczak(14)#, S. Chevrier(14)#, S. Direito(6)#, S. Voute (15)#, A. Olmedo-Soler(17)#, T. E. Zegers(1, 15)#, D. Scheer(12)#, K. Bickert(12)#, D. Schildhammer(12)#, B. Jantscher(1, 11, 12)#, MECA Team(6)#, ExoGeoLab ILEWG ExoHab teams(1,4,11) EuroGeoMars team(1,4,5); 1)ESTEC/SRE-S Postbus 299, 2200 AG Noordwijk, NL, 2)NASA Ames , 3)Delft TU , 4)ESTEC TEC Technology Dir., 5)ESTEC HSF Human Spaceflight, 6)VU Amsterdam, 7)ESTEC Education Office, 8)FU Berlin, 9)Max Planck Goettingen, 10)Leiden/GWU , 11)ILEWG ExoHab Team, 12)Austrian Space Forum (OEWF Innsbruck); 14) Ecole de l'Air, Salons de Provence, 15) Utrecht U., 16) MECA Team, 17) Olmedo Knowledge Systems S.L.; * EuroGeoMars Utah crew , # ILEWG Eifel crew, EuroMoonMars/DOMMEX Utah crew.

Nitromethane K-9 Detection Limit

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

Strobel, R; Kury, J

2003-08-29

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) trains canine/handler teams to detect explosives for government and other agencies worldwide. After completing the training program the teams are tested on an array containing explosives and numerous other samples designed to distract a canine. Passing this test results in a team's certification. These teams can be considered as ''detection instruments'' freshly calibrated just before leaving the ''factory''. Using these teams to examine special experimental arrays immediately following certification can lead to a better understanding of a canine's detection capabilities. Forty-one of these ''detection instruments'' were used in four test series withmore » arrays containing dilute nitromethane-in-water solutions. (The canines had been trained on the amount of nitromethane vapor in equilibrium with the undiluted liquid explosive.) By diluting liquid nitromethane with water, the amount of explosive vapor can be reduced many orders of magnitude to test the lower limit of the canine's nitromethane vapor detection response. The results are presented in this paper.« less

Challenges and Opportunities of US and Arab Collaborations in Health Services Research: A Case Study from Qatar

PubMed Central

Hammoud, Maya M.; Elnashar, Maha; Abdelrahim, Huda; Khidir, Amal; Elliott, Heather A.K.; Killawi, Amal; Padela, Aasim I.; Khal, Abdul Latif Al; Bener, Abdulbari; Fetters, Michael D.

2012-01-01

Economic globalization and advances in technology have made it more feasible and even necessary to develop international research collaborations in global public health. Historically, collaborations in global research described in the literature have been mostly “North-South” collaborations in which the more developed “North” country works together with a developing “South” country to conduct research in the latter. This type of collaboration has for the most part, represented unequal partnership and rarely left behind a lasting impact. Recently, the opportunity for a new kind of international research partnership has emerged in which the host country has significant financial resources, but relatively limited expertise in research methodology or techniques and research implementation. This type of collaboration features a relative equalization of power between the international partners. The purpose of this paper is to describe the process of building a successful research collaboration between a team in the United States and a team in Qatar, a rich Arabic nation in Gulf. We present a case study that provides an overview of our own project focused on the development of a culturally and linguistically adapted health care quality instrument for Qatar, discussing many of the benefits and challenges we encountered during each phase of instrument development. We present recommendations for researchers seeking sustainable and equitable partnerships with the Arab World. PMID:23121751

Challenges and opportunities of US and Arab collaborations in health services research: a case study from Qatar.

PubMed

Hammoud, Maya M; Elnashar, Maha; Abdelrahim, Huda; Khidir, Amal; Elliott, Heather A K; Killawi, Amal; Padela, Aasim I; Al Khal, Abdul Latif; Bener, Abdulbari; Fetters, Michael D

2012-09-25

Economic globalization and advances in technology have made it more feasible and even necessary to develop international research collaborations in global public health. Historically, collaborations in global research described in the literature have been mostly "North-South" collaborations in which the more developed "North" country works together with a developing "South" country to conduct research in the latter. This type of collaboration has for the most part, represented unequal partnership and rarely left behind a lasting impact. Recently, the opportunity for a new kind of international research partnership has emerged in which the host country has significant financial resources, but relatively limited expertise in research Methodology or techniques and research implementation.  This type of collaboration features a relative equalization of power between the international partners. The purpose of this paper is to describe the process of building a successful research collaboration between a team in the United States and a team in Qatar, a rich Arabic nation in Gulf. We present a case study that provides an overview of our own project focused on the development of a culturally and linguistically adapted health care quality instrument for Qatar, discussing many of the benefits and challenges we encountered during each phase of instrument development. We present recommendations for researchers seeking sustainable and equitable partnerships with the Arab World.

Neurotech for Neuroscience: Unifying Concepts, Organizing Principles, and Emerging Tools

PubMed Central

Silver, Rae; Boahen, Kwabena; Grillner, Sten; Kopell, Nancy; Olsen, Kathie L.

2012-01-01

The ability to tackle analysis of the brain at multiple levels simultaneously is emerging from rapid methodological developments. The classical research strategies of “measure,” “model,” and “make” are being applied to the exploration of nervous system function. These include novel conceptual and theoretical approaches, creative use of mathematical modeling, and attempts to build brain-like devices and systems, as well as other developments including instrumentation and statistical modeling (not covered here). Increasingly, these efforts require teams of scientists from a variety of traditional scientific disciplines to work together. The potential of such efforts for understanding directed motor movement, emergence of cognitive function from neuronal activity, and development of neuromimetic computers are described by a team that includes individuals experienced in behavior and neuroscience, mathematics, and engineering. Funding agencies, including the National Science Foundation, explore the potential of these changing frontiers of research for developing research policies and long-term planning. PMID:17978017

SERVIR Science Applications for Capacity Building

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Limaye, Ashutosh; Searby, Nancy D.; Irwin, Daniel

2012-01-01

SERVIR is a regional visualization and monitoring system using Earth observations to support environmental management, climate adaptation, and disaster response in developing countries. SERVIR is jointly sponsored by NASA and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). SERVIR has been instrumental in development of science applications to support the decision-making and capacity building in the developing countries with the help of SERVIR Hubs. In 2011, NASA Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Sciences (ROSES) included a call for proposals to form SERVIR Applied Sciences Team (SERVIR AST) under Applied Sciences Capacity Building Program. Eleven proposals were selected, the Principal Investigators of which comprise the core of the SERVIR AST. The expertise on the Team span several societal benefit areas including agriculture, disasters, public health and air quality, water, climate and terrestrial carbon assessments. This presentation will cover the existing SERVIR science applications, capacity building components, overview of SERVIR AST projects, and anticipated impacts.

Hinode/EIS science planning and operations tools

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rainnie, Jonn A.

2016-07-01

We present the design, implementation and maintenance of the suite of software enabling scientists to design and schedule Hinode/EIS1 operations. The total of this software is the EIS Science Planning Tools (EISPT), and is predominately written in IDL (Interactive Data Language), coupled with SolarSoft (SSW), an IDL library developed for solar missions. Hinode is a multi-instrument and wavelength mission designed to observe the Sun. It is a joint Japan/UK/US consortium (with ESA and Norwegian involvement). Launched in September 2006, its principal scientific goals are to study the Sun's variability and the causes of solar activity. Hinode operations are coordinated at ISAS (Tokyo, Japan). A daily Science Operations meeting is attended by the instrument teams and the spacecraft team. Nominally, science plan uploads cover periods of two or three days. When the forthcoming operations have been agreed, the necessary spacecraft operations parameters are created. These include scheduling for spacecraft pointing and ground stations. The Extreme UV Imaging Spectrometer (EIS) instrument, led by the UK (the PI institute is MSSL), is designed to observe the emission spectral lines of the solar atmosphere. Observations are composed of reusable, hierarchical components, including lines lists (wavelengths of spectral lines), rasters (exposure times, line list, etc.) and studies (defines one or more rasters). Studies are the basic unit of "timeline" scheduling. They are a useful construct for generating more complex sequences of observations, reducing the planning burden. Instrument observations must first be validated. An initial requirement was that operations be shared equally by the 3 main EIS teams (Japan, UK and US). Hence, a major design focus of the software was "Remote Operations", whereby any scientist in any location can run the software, schedule a science plan and send it to the spacecraft commanding team. It would then be validated and combined with the science plans of the other instruments. Then uploaded to the spacecraft. As for any space mission, telemetry size and rate are important constraints. For each planning cycle the instruments are issued a maximum data allocation. EISPT interactively calculates the telemetry requirements of each observation and plan. Autonomous operations was a challenging concept designed to observe the early onset of various dynamic events, including solar flares. The planning cycle precluded observers responding to such short-term events. Hence, the instrument can be run in a (low-telemetry) "hunter" mode at a suitable target. Upon detecting an event the current observation ceases and another automatically begins at the event location. This "response" observation involves a smaller field-of-view and higher cadence. It's impossible to predict if this mechanism will be activated, and if so how much telemetry is acquired. The EISPT has operated successfully since it was deployed in November 2006. Nominally it is used six days a week. It has been maintained and updated as required to take account of changing mission operations. A large update was made in 2013/14 to develop the facility to coordinate observations with other solar missions (SDO/AIA and IRIS).

The great chemical residue detection debate: dog versus machine

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tripp, Alan C.; Walker, James C.

2003-09-01

Many engineering groups desire to construct instrumentation to replace dog-handler teams in identifying and localizing chemical mixtures. This goal requires performance specifications for an "artificial dog-handler team". Progress toward generating such specifications from laboratory tests of dog-handler teams has been made recently at the Sensory Research Institute, and the method employed is amenable to the measurement of tasks representative of the decision-making that must go on when such teams solve problems in actual (and therefore informationally messy) situations. As progressively more quantitative data are obtained on progressively more complex odor tasks, the boundary conditions of dog-handler performance will be understood in great detail. From experiments leading to this knowledge, one ca develop, as we do in this paper, a taxonomy of test conditions that contain various subsets of the variables encountered in "real world settings". These tests provide the basis for the rigorous testing that will provide an improved basis for deciding when biological sensing approaches (e.g. dog-handler teams) are best and when "artificial noses" are most valuable.

Global Climate Monitoring with the Eos Pm-Platform's Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Spencer, Roy W.

2000-01-01

The Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E) is being built by NASDA to fly on NASA's PM Platform (now called "Aqua") in December 2000. This is in addition to a copy of AMSR that will be launched on Japan's ADEOS-11 satellite in 2001. The AMSRs improve upon the window frequency radiometer heritage of the SSM[l and SMMR instruments. Major improvements over those instruments include channels spanning the 6.9 GHz to 89 GHz frequency range, and higher spatial resolution from a 1.6 m reflector (AMSR-E) and 2.0 m reflector (ADEOS-11 AMSR). The ADEOS-11 AMSR also will have 50.3 and 52.8 GHz channels, providing sensitivity to lower tropospheric temperature. NASA funds an AMSR-E Science Team to provide algorithms for the routine production of a number of standard geophysical products. These products will be generated by the AMSR-E Science Investigator-led Processing System (SIPS) at the Global Hydrology Resource Center (GHRC) in Huntsville, Alabama. While there is a separate NASDA-sponsored activity to develop algorithms and produce products from AMSR, as well as a Joint (NASDA-NASA) AMSR Science Team activity, here I will review only the AMSR-E Team's algorithms and how they benefit from the new capabilities that AMSR-E will provide. The U.S. Team's products will be archived at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). Further information about AMSR-E can be obtained at http://www.jzhcc.msfc.nasa.Vov/AMSR.

Spanish adaptation of the internal functioning of the Work Teams Scale (QFI-22).

PubMed

Ficapal-Cusí, Pilar; Boada-Grau, Joan; Torrent-Sellens, Joan; Vigil-Colet, Andreu

2014-05-01

The aim of this article is to develop the Spanish adaptation of the internal functioning of Work Teams Scale (QFI-22). The scale was adapted from the French version, and was applied to a sample of 1,055 employees working for firms operating in Spain. The article analyses the internal structure (exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis) and internal consistency, and provides convergent validity evidence of the scale. The QFI-22 scale shows the same internal structure as the original. Factor analysis confirmed the existence of two factors: interpersonal support and team work management, with good internal consistency coefficients (α1 = .93, α2 = .92). Regarding validity evidence, the QFI-22 scale has significant correlations with other correlates and alternative scales used for comparison purposes. The two factors correlated positively with team vision, participation safety, task orientation and support for innovation (Team Climate Inventory, TCI scale), with progressive culture (Organisational Culture, X-Y scale), and with creating change, customer focus and organisational learning (Denison Organizational Culture Survey, DOCS scale). In contrast, the two factors correlated negatively with traditional culture (X-Y scale). The QFI-22 scale is a useful instrument for assessing the internal functioning of work teams.

Evolution of the Earth Observing System (EOS) Data and Information System (EOSDIS)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ramapriyan, Hampapuram K.; Behnke, Jeanne; Sofinowski, Edwin; Lowe, Dawn; Esfandiari, Mary Ann

2008-01-01

One of the strategic goals of the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is to "Develop a balanced overall program of science, exploration, and aeronautics consistent with the redirection of the human spaceflight program to focus on exploration". An important sub-goal of this goal is to "Study Earth from space to advance scientific understanding and meet societal needs." NASA meets this subgoal in partnership with other U.S. agencies and international organizations through its Earth science program. A major component of NASA s Earth science program is the Earth Observing System (EOS). The EOS program was started in 1990 with the primary purpose of modeling global climate change. This program consists of a set of space-borne instruments, science teams, and a data system. The instruments are designed to obtain highly accurate, frequent and global measurements of geophysical properties of land, oceans and atmosphere. The science teams are responsible for designing the instruments as well as scientific algorithms to derive information from the instrument measurements. The data system, called the EOS Data and Information System (EOSDIS), produces data products using those algorithms as well as archives and distributes such products. The first of the EOS instruments were launched in November 1997 on the Japanese satellite called the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) and the last, on the U.S. satellite Aura, were launched in July 2004. The instrument science teams have been active since the inception of the program in 1990 and have participation from Brazil, Canada, France, Japan, Netherlands, United Kingdom and U.S. The development of EOSDIS was initiated in 1990, and this data system has been serving the user community since 1994. The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the history and evolution of EOSDIS since its beginnings to the present and indicate how it continues to evolve into the future. this chapter is organized as follows. Sect. 7.2 provides a discussion of EOSDIS, its elements and their functions. Sect. 7.3 provides details regarding the move towards more distributed systems for supporting both the core and community needs to be served by NASA Earth science data systems. Sect. 7.4 discusses the use of standards and interfaces and their importance in EOSDIS. Sect. 7.5 provides details about the EOSDIS Evolution Study. Sect. 7.6 presents the implementation of the EOSDIS Evolution plan. Sect. 7.7 briefly outlines the progress that the implementation has made towards the 2015 Vision, followed by a summary in Sect. 7.8.

WFIRST: Update on the Coronagraph Science Requirements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Douglas, Ewan S.; Cahoy, Kerri; Carlton, Ashley; Macintosh, Bruce; Turnbull, Margaret; Kasdin, Jeremy; WFIRST Coronagraph Science Investigation Teams

2018-01-01

The WFIRST Coronagraph instrument (CGI) will enable direct imaging and low resolution spectroscopy of exoplanets in reflected light and imaging polarimetry of circumstellar disks. The CGI science investigation teams were tasked with developing a set of science requirements which advance our knowledge of exoplanet occurrence and atmospheric composition, as well as the composition and morphology of exozodiacal debris disks, cold Kuiper Belt analogs, and protoplanetary systems. We present the initial content, rationales, validation, and verification plans for the WFIRST CGI, informed by detailed and still-evolving instrument and observatory performance models. We also discuss our approach to the requirements development and management process, including the collection and organization of science inputs, open source approach to managing the requirements database, and the range of models used for requirements validation. These tools can be applied to requirements development processes for other astrophysical space missions, and may ease their management and maintenance. These WFIRST CGI science requirements allow the community to learn about and provide insights and feedback on the expected instrument performance and science return.

Calibration development strategies for the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) data center

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Watson, Fraser T.; Berukoff, Steven J.; Hays, Tony; Reardon, Kevin; Speiss, Daniel J.; Wiant, Scott

2016-07-01

The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST), currently under construction on Haleakalā, in Maui, Hawai'i will be the largest solar telescope in the world and will use adaptive optics to provide the highest resolution view of the Sun to date. It is expected that DKIST data will enable significant and transformative discoveries that will dramatically increase our understanding of the Sun and its effects on the Sun-Earth environment. As a result of this, it is a priority of the DKIST Data Center team at the National Solar Observatory (NSO) to be able to deliver timely and accurately calibrated data to the astronomical community for further analysis. This will require a process which allows the Data Center to develop calibration pipelines for all of the facility instruments, taking advantage of similarities between them, as well as similarities to current generation instruments. There will also be a challenges which are addressed in this article, such as the large volume of data expected, and the importance of supporting both manual and automated calibrations. This paper will detail the current calibration development strategies being used by the Data Center team at the National Solar Observatory to manage this calibration effort, so as to ensure delivery of high quality scientific data routinely to users.

Using Instruments for Tactical Assessment in Physical Education and Extra-Curricular Sports

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arias-Estero, José; Castejón, Francisco

2014-01-01

The aim was to analyse the features concerning the applicational purpose and strategy of the most common instruments used to assess game tactics both in Physical Education (PE) and in extra-curricular sport contexts. The review focused on two instruments: the Game Performance Assessment Instrument (GPAI) and the Team Sport Assessment Procedure…

Team-Based Learning's Effects on Standardized Test Scores and Student Reactions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ulrich, Deborah L.; Brewer, Tracy; Steele-Johnson, Deborah; Juvina, Ion; Peyton, Elizabeth; Hammond, Crystal

2017-01-01

We examined the effects of team-based learning (TBL) versus traditional and enhanced lecture-based instruction over time (Study 1; N = 532 nursing students) and the psychometric properties of the Team Based Learning Student Assessment Instrument (TBL-SAI), a popular measure of reactions to TBL (Study 2; N = 323 nursing and medical students).…

Team-Reflection: The Missing Link in Co-Teaching Teams

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fluijt, D.; Bakker, C.; Struyf, E.

2016-01-01

In literature, co-teaching is mostly defined as an instrumental and pedagogical means delivered by collaborating special and regular teachers, from which students with and without special educational needs benefit in regular schools. The importance of a shared vision on the part of members of co-teaching teams as to what they consider as good…

Implementation of a novel communication tool and its effect on patient comprehension of care and satisfaction.

PubMed

Simmons, Stefanie Anne; Sharp, Brian; Fowler, Jennifer; Singal, Bonita

2013-05-01

Emergency department (ED) communication has been demonstrated as requiring improvement and ED patients have repeatedly demonstrated poor comprehension of the care they receive. Through patient focus groups, the authors developed a novel tool designed to improve communication and patient comprehension. This is a prospective, randomised controlled clinical trial to test the efficacy of a novel, patient-centred communication tool. Patients in a small community hospital ED were randomised to receive the instrument, which was utilised by the entire ED care team and served as a checklist or guide to the patients' ED stay. At the end of the ED stay, patients completed a survey of their comprehension of the care and a communication assessment tool-team survey (a validated instrument to assess satisfaction with communication). Three blinded chart reviewers scored patients' comprehension of their ED care as concordant, partially concordant or discordant with charted care. The authors tested whether there was a difference in satisfaction using a two-sample t test and a difference in comprehension using ordinal logistic regression analysis. 146 patients were enrolled in the study with 72 randomised to receive the communication instrument. There was no significant difference between groups in comprehension (OR=0.65, 95% CI 0.34 to 1.23, p=0.18) or communication assessment tool-team scores (difference=0.2, 95% CI: -3.4 to 3.8, p=0.91). Using their novel communication tool, the authors were not able to show a statistically significant improvement in either comprehension or satisfaction, though a tendency towards improved comprehension was seen.

MIMA: Mars Infrared MApper - The Fourier spectrometer for the ESA Pasteur/ExoMars rover mission

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Marzo, G. A.; Bellucci, G.; Fonti, S.; Saggin, B.; Alberti, E.; Altieri, F.; Politi, R.; Zasova, L.; Mima Team

The MIMA team is developing a FT-IR miniaturized spectrometer to be mounted on the mast of the ExoMars rover Such instrument shall make remote measurements typically a few tens of meters away searching for evidence of water and of water-related processes e g carbonates sulfates clay minerals and if possible organics A survey instrument of this type will be extremely important for any rover mission on Mars especially for the Pasteur payload on the ExoMars mission whose scientific objective is to search for life and or hazards to humans Survey instruments on rover mast could provide necessary guidance if they can identify water evidence of long standing-water clay minerals carbonates sulfates so that detailed studies and drilling can be conducted at the right location The MIMA design is based on the peculiar pendulum optical design already successfully used on ESA PFS for Mars Express and Venus Express missions The wide spectral range 2-25 micron is not covered by means of a double channel as in PFS but using an innovative architecture two different detectors on the same focal plane sharing the same optical path in order to strongly reduce mass and size In this work MIMA technical and scientific issues will be discussed The MIMA team is Giancarlo Bellucci Team Coordinator Francesca Altieri Maria Blecka Roberto Bonsignori Sergio Fonti Giuseppe A Marzo Sandro Meli Jose Juan Lopez Moreno Boris Moshkin GianGabriele Ori Vincenzo Orofino Romolo Politi Giampaolo Preti Andrea Romoli Ted L Roush Bortolino Saggin Maria

A Unique Sequence of Financial Accounting Courses Featuring Team Teaching, Linked Courses, Challenging Assignments, and Instruments for Evaluation and Assessment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lundblad, Heidemarie; Wilson, Barbara A.

2008-01-01

The Department of Accounting at California State University Northridge (CSUN) has developed a unique sequence of courses designed to ensure that accounting students are trained not only in technical accounting, but also acquire critical thinking, research and communication skills. The courses have proven effective and have embedded assessment…

Mission Oriented Support and Theory (MOST) for MMS—the Goddard Space Flight Center/University of California Los Angeles Interdisciplinary Science Program

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Goldstein, Melvyn L.; Ashour-Abdalla, Maha; Viñas, Adolfo F.; Dorelli, John; Wendel, Deirdre; Klimas, Alex; Hwang, Kyoung-Joo; El-Alaoui, Mostafa; Walker, Raymond J.; Pan, Qingjiang; Liang, Haoming

2016-03-01

The MOST IDS team was tasked with focusing on two general areas: The first was to participate with the Fast Plasma Investigation (FPI) team in the development of virtual detectors that model the instrument responses of the MMS FPI sensors. The virtual instruments can be "flown through" both simulation data (from magnetohydrodynamic, hybrid, and kinetic simulations) and Cluster and THEMIS spacecraft data. The goal is to determine signatures of magnetic reconnection expected during the MMS mission. Such signatures can serve as triggers for selection of burst mode downloads. The chapter contributed by the FPI team covers that effort in detail and, therefore, most of that work has not been included here. The second area of emphasis, and the one detailed in this chapter, was to build on past and present knowledge of magnetic reconnection and its physical signatures. Below we describe intensive analyses of Cluster and THEMIS data together with theoretical models and simulations that delineate the plasma signatures that surround sites of reconnection, including the effects of turbulence as well as the detailed kinetic signatures that indicate proximity to reconnection sites. In particular, we point out that particles are energized in several regions, not only at the actual site of reconnection.

Mission Oriented Support and Theory (MOST) for MMS -- The Goddard Space Flight Center/University of California Los Angeles Interdisciplinary Science Program

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Goldstein, Melvyn L.; Ashour-Abdalla, Maha; F. Vinas, Adolfo; Dorelli, John; Wendel, Deirdre; Klimas, Alex; Hwang, Kyoung-Joo; El-Alaoui, Mostafa; Walker, Raymond J.; Pan, Qingjiang;

Curiosity ChemCam Finds High-Silica Mars Rocks

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

Frydenvang, Jens

A team of scientists, including one from Los Alamos National Laboratory, has found much higher concentrations of silica at some sites the Curiosity rover has investigated in the past seven months than anywhere else it has visited since landing on Mars 40 months ago. The first discovery was as Curiosity approached the area “Marias Pass,” where a lower geological unit contacts an overlying one. ChemCam, the rover’s laser-firing instrument for checking rock composition from a distance, detected bountiful silica in some targets the rover passed along the way to the contact zone. The ChemCam instrument was developed at Los Alamosmore » in partnership with the French IRAP laboratory in Toulouse and the French Space Agency. “The high silica was a surprise,” said Jens Frydenvang of Los Alamos National Laboratory and the University of Copenhagen, also a Curiosity science team member. “While we’re still working with multiple hypotheses on how the silica got so enriched, these hypotheses all require considerable water activity, and on Earth high silica deposits are often associated with environments that provide excellent support for microbial life. Because of this, the science team agreed to make a rare backtrack to investigate it more.”« less

Curiosity ChemCam Finds High-Silica Mars Rocks

ScienceCinema

Frydenvang, Jens

2018-01-16

A team of scientists, including one from Los Alamos National Laboratory, has found much higher concentrations of silica at some sites the Curiosity rover has investigated in the past seven months than anywhere else it has visited since landing on Mars 40 months ago. The first discovery was as Curiosity approached the area “Marias Pass,” where a lower geological unit contacts an overlying one. ChemCam, the rover’s laser-firing instrument for checking rock composition from a distance, detected bountiful silica in some targets the rover passed along the way to the contact zone. The ChemCam instrument was developed at Los Alamos in partnership with the French IRAP laboratory in Toulouse and the French Space Agency. “The high silica was a surprise,” said Jens Frydenvang of Los Alamos National Laboratory and the University of Copenhagen, also a Curiosity science team member. “While we’re still working with multiple hypotheses on how the silica got so enriched, these hypotheses all require considerable water activity, and on Earth high silica deposits are often associated with environments that provide excellent support for microbial life. Because of this, the science team agreed to make a rare backtrack to investigate it more.”

Microtechnology in Space: NASA's Lab-on-a-Chip Applications Development Program

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Monaco, Lisa; Spearing, Scott; Jenkins, Andy; Symonds, Wes; Mayer, Derek; Gouldie, Edd; Wainwright, Norm; Fries, Marc; Maule, Jake; Toporski, Jan

2004-01-01

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) Lab on a Chip Application Development LOCAD) team has worked with microfluidic technology for the past few years in an effort to support NASA's Mission. In that time, such microfluidic based Lab-on-a-Chip (LOC) systems have become common technology in clinical and diagnostic laboratories. The approach is most attractive due to its highly miniaturized platform and ability to perform reagent handling (i-e., dilution, mixing, separation) and diagnostics for multiple reactions in an integrated fashion. LOCAD, along with Caliper Life Sciences has successfully developed the first LOC device for macromolecular crystallization using a workstation acquired specifically for designing custom chips, the Caliper 42. LOCAD uses this, along with a novel MSFC-designed and built workstation for microfluidic development. The team has a cadre of LOC devices that can be used to perform initial feasibility testing to determine the efficacy of the LOC approach for a specific application. Once applicability has been established, the LOCAD team, along with the Army's Aviation and Missile Command microfabrication facility, can then begin to custom design and fabricate a device per the user's specifications. This presentation will highlight the LOCAD team's proven and unique expertise that has been utilized to provide end to end capabilities associated with applying microfluidics for applications that include robotic life detection instrumentation, crew health monitoring and microbial and environmental monitoring for human Exploration.

The Goes-R Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM): Algorithm and Instrument Status

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Goodman, Steven J.; Blakeslee, Richard J.; Koshak, William J.; Mach, Douglas

2010-01-01

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-R) is the next series to follow the existing GOES system currently operating over the Western Hemisphere. Superior spacecraft and instrument technology will support expanded detection of environmental phenomena, resulting in more timely and accurate forecasts and warnings. Advancements over current GOES capabilities include a new capability for total lightning detection (cloud and cloud-to-ground flashes) from the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM), and improved capability for the Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI). The Geostationary Lighting Mapper (GLM) will map total lightning activity (in-cloud and cloud-to-ground lighting flashes) continuously day and night with near-uniform spatial resolution of 8 km with a product refresh rate of less than 20 sec over the Americas and adjacent oceanic regions. This will aid in forecasting severe storms and tornado activity, and convective weather impacts on aviation safety and efficiency. In parallel with the instrument development (a prototype and 4 flight models), a GOES-R Risk Reduction Team and Algorithm Working Group Lightning Applications Team have begun to develop the Level 2 algorithms, cal/val performance monitoring tools, and new applications. Proxy total lightning data from the NASA Lightning Imaging Sensor on the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite and regional test beds are being used to develop the pre-launch algorithms and applications, and also improve our knowledge of thunderstorm initiation and evolution. A joint field campaign with Brazilian researchers in 2010-2011 will produce concurrent observations from a VHF lightning mapping array, Meteosat multi-band imagery, Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) overpasses, and related ground and in-situ lightning and meteorological measurements in the vicinity of Sao Paulo. These data will provide a new comprehensive proxy data set for algorithm and application development.

New Tools for New Missions - Unmanned Aircraft Systems Offer Exciting Capabilities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bland, G.; Miles, T.; Pieri, D. C.; Coronado, P. L.; Fladeland, M. M.; Diaz, J. A.; Cione, J.; Maslanik, J. A.; Roman, M. O.; de Boer, G.; Argrow, B. M.; Novara, J.; Stachura, M.; Neal, D.; Moisan, J. R.

2015-12-01

There are numerous emerging possibilities for utilizing unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) to investigate a variety of natural hazards, both for prediction and analysis of specific events. Additionally, quick response capabilities will provide affordable, low risk support for emergency management teams. NASA's partnerships with commercial, university and other government agency teams are bringing new capabilities to research and emergency management communities. New technology platforms and instrument systems are gaining momentum for stand-off remote sensing observations, as well as penetration and detailed in-situ examination of natural and anthropogenic phenomena. Several pioneering investigations have provided the foundation for this development, including NASA projects with Aerosonde, Dragon Eye, and SIERRA platforms. With miniaturized instrument and platform technologies, these experiments demonstrated that previously unobtainable observations may significantly aid in the understanding, prediction, and assessment of natural hazards such as storms, volcanic eruptions, floods, and the potential impact of environmental changes. Remote sensing observations of storms and fires have also been successfully demonstrated through NASA's efforts with larger UAS such as the Global Hawk and Ikhana platforms. The future may unfold with new high altitude and/or long endurance capabilities, in some cases with less size and costs as payload capacity requirements are reduced through further miniaturization, and alternatively with expanded instrumentation and mission profiles. Several new platforms and instrument development projects are underway that will enable affordable, quick response observations. Additionally, distributed measurements that will provide near-simultaneous coverage at multiple locations will be possible - an exciting new mission concept that will greatly aid many observation scenarios. Partnerships with industry, academia, and other government agencies are all making significant contributions to these new capabilities.

A surgical simulation curriculum for senior medical students based on TeamSTEPPS.

PubMed

Meier, Andreas H; Boehler, Maggie L; McDowell, Chris M; Schwind, Cathy; Markwell, Steve; Roberts, Nicole K; Sanfey, Hilary

2012-08-01

To investigate whether the existing Team Strategies and Tools to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety (TeamSTEPPS) curriculum can effectively teach senior medical students team skills. DESIGN Single-group preintervention and postintervention study. We integrated a TeamSTEPPS module into our existing resident readiness elective. The curriculum included interactive didactic sessions, discussion groups, role-plays, and videotaped immersive simulation scenarios. Improvement of self-assessment scores, multiple-choice examination scores, and performance ratings of videotaped simulation scenarios before and after intervention. The videos were rated by masked reviewers on the basis of a global rating instrument (TeamSTEPPS) and a more detailed nontechnical skills evaluation tool(NOTECHS). Seventeen students participated and completed the study. The self-evaluation scores improved from 12.76 to 16.06 (P < .001). The increase was significant for all of the TeamSTEPPS competencies and highest for leadership skills (from 2.2 to 3.2; P < .001). The multiple-choice score rose from 84.9% to 94.1% (P < .01). The postintervention video ratings were significantly higher for both instruments (TeamSTEPPS, from 2.99 to 3.56; P < .01; and NOTECHS, from 4.07 to 4.59; P < .001). The curriculum led to improved self-evaluation and multiple-choice scores as well as improved team skills during simulated immersive patient encounters. The TeamSTEPPS framework may be suitable for teaching medical students teamwork concepts and improving their competencies. Larger studies using this framework should be considered to further evaluate the generalizability of our results and the effectiveness of TeamSTEPPS for medical students.

Stars and Stripes

Atmospheric Science Data Center

2013-04-22

... some "dark current" data was acquired to assess instrument performance. The image at left represents 41 seconds of data taken during a ... MISR Team. February 12, 2000 - Instrument performance assessment - data obtained before MISR's covers were removed. ...

TEAM Webinar Series | EGRP/DCCPS/NCI/NIH

Cancer.gov

View archived webinars from the Transforming Epidemiology through Advanced Methods (TEAM) Webinar Series, hosted by NCI's Epidemiology and Genomics Research Program. Topics include participant engagement, data coordination, mHealth tools, sample selection, and instruments for diet & physical activity assessment.

Land and cryosphere products from Suomi NPP VIIRS: Overview and status.

PubMed

Justice, Christopher O; Román, Miguel O; Csiszar, Ivan; Vermote, Eric F; Wolfe, Robert E; Hook, Simon J; Friedl, Mark; Wang, Zhuosen; Schaaf, Crystal B; Miura, Tomoaki; Tschudi, Mark; Riggs, George; Hall, Dorothy K; Lyapustin, Alexei I; Devadiga, Sadashiva; Davidson, Carol; Masuoka, Edward J

2013-09-16

[1] The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument was launched in October 2011 as part of the Suomi National Polar-Orbiting Partnership (S-NPP). The VIIRS instrument was designed to improve upon the capabilities of the operational Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer and provide observation continuity with NASA's Earth Observing System's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). Since the VIIRS first-light images were received in November 2011, NASA- and NOAA-funded scientists have been working to evaluate the instrument performance and generate land and cryosphere products to meet the needs of the NOAA operational users and the NASA science community. NOAA's focus has been on refining a suite of operational products known as Environmental Data Records (EDRs), which were developed according to project specifications under the National Polar-Orbiting Environmental Satellite System. The NASA S-NPP Science Team has focused on evaluating the EDRs for science use, developing and testing additional products to meet science data needs, and providing MODIS data product continuity. This paper presents to-date findings of the NASA Science Team's evaluation of the VIIRS land and cryosphere EDRs, specifically Surface Reflectance, Land Surface Temperature, Surface Albedo, Vegetation Indices, Surface Type, Active Fires, Snow Cover, Ice Surface Temperature, and Sea Ice Characterization. The study concludes that, for MODIS data product continuity and earth system science, an enhanced suite of land and cryosphere products and associated data system capabilities are needed beyond the EDRs currently available from the VIIRS.

SAO Participation in the GOME and SCIAMACHY Satellite Instrument Programs

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hilsenrath, Ernest (Technical Monitor); Chance, Kelly; Kurosu, Thomas

2004-01-01

This report summarizes the progress on our three-year program of research to refine the measurement capability for satellite-based instruments that monitor ozone and other trace species in the Earth's stratosphere and troposphere, to retrieve global distributions of these and other constituents h m the GOME and SCIAMACHY satellite instruments, and to conduct scientific studies for the ILAS instruments. This continues our involvements as a U.S. participant in GOME and SCIAMACHY since their inception, and as a member of the ILAS-II Science Team. These programs have led to the launch of the first satellite instrument specifically designed to measure height-resolved ozone, including the tropospheric component (GOME), and the development of the first satellite instrument that will measure tropospheric ozone simultaneously with NO2, CO, HCHO, N2O, H2O, and CH4 (SCIAMACHY). The GOME program now includes the GOME-2 instruments, to be launched on the Eumetsat Metop satellites, providing long-term continuity in European measurements of global ozone that complement the measurements of the TOMS, SBUV, OMI, OMPS instruments. The research primarily focuses on two areas: Data analysis, including algorithm development and validation studies that will improve the quality of retrieved data products, in support for future field campaigns (to complement in situ and airborne campaigns with satellite measurements), and scientific analyses to be interfaced to atmospheric modeling studies.

SAO Participation in the GOME and SCIAMACHY Satellite Instrument Programs

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chance, Kelly; Kurosu, Thomas

2003-01-01

This report summarizes the progress on our three-year program of research to refine the measurement capability for satellite-based instruments that monitor ozone and other trace species in the Earth's stratosphere and troposphere, to retrieve global distributions of these and other constituents from the GOME and SCIAMACHY satellite instruments, and to conduct scientific studies for the ILAS instruments. This continues our involvements as a U.S. participant in GOME and SCIAMACHY since their inception, and as a member of the ILAS-II Science Team. These programs have led to the launch of the first satellite instrument specifically designed to measure height-resolved ozone, including the tropospheric component (GOME), and the development of the first satellite instrument that will measure tropospheric ozone simultaneously with NO2, CO, HCHO, N2O, H2O, and CH4 (SCIAMACHY). The GOME program now includes the GOME-2 instruments, to be launched on the Eumetsat Metop satellites, providing long-term continuity in European measurements of global ozone that complement the measurements of the TOMS, SBW, OMI, OMPS instruments. The research primarily focuses on two areas: Data analysis, including algorithm development and validation studies that will improve the quality of retrieved data products, in support for future field campaigns (to complement in situ and airborne campaigns with satellite measurements), and scientific analyses to be interfaced to atmospheric modeling studies.

A rating instrument for fear of hospitalisation.

PubMed

Jankovic, Slobodan M; Antonijevic, Gordana V; Vasic, Ivana R; Zivkovic-Radojevic, Marija N; Mirkovic, Snjezana N; Nikolic, Bosko V; Opancina, Valentina D; Putnik, Srdjan S; Radoicic, Ljiljana R; Raspopovic, Katarina M; Stanojevic, Dragan R; Teofilov, Sladjana D; Tomasevic, Katarina V; Radonjic, Vesela

2018-04-01

To develop and validate a reliable instrument that can measure fear of hospitalisation experienced by outpatients. After having a diagnosis established, some patients experience sense of fear, unpleasantness and embarrassment due to the possibility to be admitted to a hospital. Currently, there is no available instrument for measuring fear of hospitalisation. Cross-sectional study for assessing reliability and validity of a questionnaire. The questionnaire with 17 items and answers according to the Likert scale was developed during two brainstorming sessions of the research team. Its reliability, validity and temporal stability were tested on the sample of 330 outpatients. The study was multicentric, involving patients from seven cities and three countries. Fear of hospitalisation scale showed satisfactory reliability, when rated both by the investigators (Cronbach's alpha .799) and by the patients themselves (Cronbach's alpha .760). It is temporally stable, and both divergent and convergent validity tests had good results. Factorial analysis revealed three domains: fear of being injured, trust to medical staff and fear of losing privacy or autonomy. This study developed new reliable and valid instrument for measuring fear of hospitalisation. Identification of patients with high level of fear of hospitalisation by this instrument should help clinicians to administer measures which may decrease fear and prevent avoidance of healthcare utilisation. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

MAISIE: a multipurpose astronomical instrument simulator environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

O'Brien, Alan; Beard, Steven; Geers, Vincent; Klaassen, Pamela

2016-07-01

Astronomical instruments often need simulators to preview their data products and test their data reduction pipelines. Instrument simulators have tended to be purpose-built with a single instrument in mind, and at- tempting to reuse one of these simulators for a different purpose is often a slow and difficult task. MAISIE is a simulator framework designed for reuse on different instruments. An object-oriented design encourages reuse of functionality and structure, while offering the flexibility to create new classes with new functionality. MAISIE is a set of Python classes, interfaces and tools to help build instrument simulators. MAISIE can just as easily build simulators for single and multi-channel instruments, imagers and spectrometers, ground and space based instruments. To remain easy to use and to facilitate the sharing of simulators across teams, MAISIE is written in Python, a freely available and open-source language. New functionality can be created for MAISIE by creating new classes that represent optical elements. This approach allows new and novel instruments to add functionality and take advantage of the existing MAISIE classes. MAISIE has recently been used successfully to develop the simulator for the JWST/MIRI- Medium Resolution Spectrometer.

Student Perceptions of Team-based Learning vs Traditional Lecture-based Learning

PubMed Central

Frame, Tracy R.; Cailor, Stephanie M.; Chen, Aleda M.; Kiersma, Mary E.; Sheppard, Lorin

2015-01-01

Objective. To evaluate pharmacy student perceptions of team-based learning (TBL) vs traditional lecture-based learning formats. Methods. First professional year pharmacy students (N=111) at two universities used TBL in different courses during different semesters (fall vs spring). Students completed a 22-item team perceptions instrument before and after the fall semester. A 14-item teaching style preference instrument was completed at the end of the spring semester. Data were analyzed using Wilcoxon signed rank test and Mann-Whitney U test. Results. Students who experienced TBL in the fall and went back to traditional format in the spring reported improved perceptions of teams and preferred TBL format over a traditional format more than students who experienced a traditional format followed by TBL. Students at both universities agreed that the TBL format assists with critical-thinking, problem-solving, and examination preparation. Students also agreed that teams should consist of individuals with different personalities and learning styles. Conclusion. When building teams, faculty members should consider ways to diversify teams by considering different views, perspectives, and strengths. Offering TBL early in the curriculum prior to traditional lecture-based formats is better received by students, as evidenced by anecdotal reports from students possibly because it allows students time to realize the benefits and assist them in building teamwork-related skills. PMID:26089560

Student Perceptions of Team-based Learning vs Traditional Lecture-based Learning.

PubMed

Frame, Tracy R; Cailor, Stephanie M; Gryka, Rebecca J; Chen, Aleda M; Kiersma, Mary E; Sheppard, Lorin

2015-05-25

To evaluate pharmacy student perceptions of team-based learning (TBL) vs traditional lecture-based learning formats. First professional year pharmacy students (N=111) at two universities used TBL in different courses during different semesters (fall vs spring). Students completed a 22-item team perceptions instrument before and after the fall semester. A 14-item teaching style preference instrument was completed at the end of the spring semester. Data were analyzed using Wilcoxon signed rank test and Mann-Whitney U test. Students who experienced TBL in the fall and went back to traditional format in the spring reported improved perceptions of teams and preferred TBL format over a traditional format more than students who experienced a traditional format followed by TBL. Students at both universities agreed that the TBL format assists with critical-thinking, problem-solving, and examination preparation. Students also agreed that teams should consist of individuals with different personalities and learning styles. When building teams, faculty members should consider ways to diversify teams by considering different views, perspectives, and strengths. Offering TBL early in the curriculum prior to traditional lecture-based formats is better received by students, as evidenced by anecdotal reports from students possibly because it allows students time to realize the benefits and assist them in building teamwork-related skills.

[Team training and assessment in mixed reality-based simulated operating room : Current state of research in the field of simulation in spine surgery exemplified by the ATMEOS project].

PubMed

Stefan, P; Pfandler, M; Wucherer, P; Habert, S; Fürmetz, J; Weidert, S; Euler, E; Eck, U; Lazarovici, M; Weigl, M; Navab, N

2018-04-01

Surgical simulators are being increasingly used as an attractive alternative to clinical training in addition to conventional animal models and human specimens. Typically, surgical simulation technology is designed for the purpose of teaching technical surgical skills (so-called task trainers). Simulator training in surgery is therefore in general limited to the individual training of the surgeon and disregards the participation of the rest of the surgical team. The objective of the project Assessment and Training of Medical Experts based on Objective Standards (ATMEOS) is to develop an immersive simulated operating room environment that enables the training and assessment of multidisciplinary surgical teams under various conditions. Using a mixed reality approach, a synthetic patient model, real surgical instruments and radiation-free virtual X‑ray imaging are combined into a simulation of spinal surgery. In previous research studies, the concept was evaluated in terms of realism, plausibility and immersiveness. In the current research, assessment measurements for technical and non-technical skills are developed and evaluated. The aim is to observe multidisciplinary surgical teams in the simulated operating room during minimally invasive spinal surgery and objectively assess the performance of the individual team members and the entire team. Moreover, the effectiveness of training methods and surgical techniques or success critical factors, e. g. management of crisis situations, can be captured and objectively assessed in the controlled environment.

Team Problem Solving Strategies with a Survey of These Methods Used by Faculty Members in Engineering Technology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marcus, Michael L.; Winters, Dixie L.

2004-01-01

Students from science, engineering, and technology programs should be able to work together as members of project teams to find solutions to technical problems. The exercise in this paper describes the methods actually used by a project team from a Biomedical Instrumentation Corporation in which scientists, technicians, and engineers from various…

Best Practices in Military Design Teams

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-03-01

this assessment. 10 metacognitive thinkers, and can reflect and comment on how the team is thinking about a particular topic. These findings...planning team employed a thorough and intentional selection process that included assessment instruments, several interviews, and a writing assignment...Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), StrengthsFinder, and the Kirton Adaption-Innovation Inventory. • Writing samples and other examples of work

Development and Sizing of the JWST Integrated Science Instrument Module (ISIM) Metering Structure

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Johnston, John; Kunt, Cengiz; Bartoszyk, Andrew; Hendricks, Steve; Cofie, Emmanuel

2006-01-01

The JWST Integrated Science Instrument Module (ISIM) includes a large metering structure (approx. 2m x 2m x 1.5m) that houses the science instruments and guider. Stringent dimensional stability and repeatability requirements combined with mass limitations led to the selection of a composite bonded frame design comprised of biased laminate tubes. Even with the superb material specific stiffness, achieving the required frequency for the given mass allocations in conjunction with severe spatial limitations imposed by the instrument complement has proven challenging. In response to the challenge, the ISIM structure team considered literally over 100 primary structure topology and kinematic mount configurations, and settled on a concept comprised of over 70 m of tubes, over 50 bonded joint assemblies, and a "split bi-pod" kinematic mount configuration. In this paper, we review the evolution of the ISIM primary structure topology and kinematic mount configuration to the current baseline concept.

Planning and Processing Space Science Observations Using NASA's SPICE System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Acton, Charles H.

2000-01-01

The Navigation and Ancillary Information Facility (NAIF) team, acting under the directions of NASA's Office of Space Science, has built a data system-named SPICE, to assist scientists in planning and interpreting scientific observations from space-borne instruments. The principal objective of this data system is that it will provide geometric and other ancillary data used to plan space science missions and subsequently recover the full value of science instrument data returned from these missions, including correlation of individual instrument data sets with data from other instruments on the same or other spacecraft. SPICE is also used to support a host of mission engineering functions, such as telecommunications system analysis and operation of NASA's Deep Space Network antennas. This paper describes the SPICE system, including where and how it is used. It also touches on possibilities for further development and invites participation it this endeavor.

The Emirates Mars Mission Science Data Center

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Craft, James; Hammadi, Omran Al; DeWolfe, Alexandria; Staley, Bryan; Schafer, Corey; Pankratz, Chris

2017-04-01

The Emirates Mars Mission (EMM), led by the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center (MBRSC) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, is expected to arrive at Mars in January 2021. The EMM Science Data Center (SDC) is to be developed as a joint effort between MBRSC and the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP). The EMM SDC is responsible for the production, management, distribution, and archiving of science data collected from the three instruments on board the Hope spacecraft. With the respective SDC teams on opposite sides of the world evolutionary techniques and cloud-based technologies are being utilized in the development of the EMM SDC. This presentation will provide a top down view of the EMM SDC, summarizing the cloud-based technologies being implemented in the design, as well as the tools, best practices, and lessons learned for software development and management in a geographically distributed team.

The Emirates Mars Mission Science Data Center

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Craft, J.; Al Hammadi, O.; DeWolfe, A. W.; Staley, B.; Schafer, C.; Pankratz, C. K.

2017-12-01

The Emirates Mars Mission (EMM), led by the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center (MBRSC) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, is expected to arrive at Mars in January 2021. The EMM Science Data Center (SDC) is to be developed as a joint effort between MBRSC and the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP). The EMM SDC is responsible for the production, management, distribution, and archiving of science data collected from the three instruments on board the Hope spacecraft.With the respective SDC teams on opposite sides of the world evolutionary techniques and cloud-based technologies are being utilized in the development of the EMM SDC. This presentation will provide a top down view of the EMM SDC, summarizing the cloud-based technologies being implemented in the design, as well as the tools, best practices, and lessons learned for software development and management in a geographically distributed team.

Bringing a Chemical Laboratory Named Sam to Mars on the 2011 Curiosity Rover

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mahaffy, P. R.; Bleacher, L.; Jones, A.; Atreya, S. K.; Manning, H. L.; Cabane, M.; Webster, C. R.; Sam Team

2010-12-01

Introduction: An important goal of upcoming missions to Mars is to understand if life could have developed there. The task of the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) suite of instruments [1] and the other Curiosity investigations [2] is to move us steadily toward that goal with an assessment of the habitability of our neighboring planet through a series of chemical and geological measurements. SAM is designed to search for organic compounds and inorganic volatiles and measure isotope ratios. Other instruments on Curiosity will provide elemental analysis and identify minerals. SAM will analyze both atmospheric samples and gases evolved from powdered rocks that may have formed billions of years ago with Curiosity providing access to interesting sites scouted by orbiting cameras and spectrometers. SAM Instrument Suite: SAM’s instruments are a Quadrupole Mass Spectrometer (QMS), a 6-column Gas Chromatograph (GC), and a 2-channel Tunable Laser Spectrometer (TLS). SAM can identify organic compounds in Mars rocks to sub-ppb sensitivity and secure precise isotope ratios for C, H, and O in carbon dioxide and water and measure trace levels of methane and its carbon 13 isotope. The SAM gas processing system consists of valves, heaters, pressure sensors, gas scrubbers and getters, traps, and gas tanks used for calibration or combustion experiments [2]. A variety of calibrant compounds interior and exterior to SAM will allow the science and engineering teams to assess SAM’s performance. SAM has been calibrated and tested in a Mars-like environment. Keeping Educators and the Public Informed: The Education and Public Outreach (EPO) goals of the SAM team are to make this complex chemical laboratory and its data widely available to educators, students, and the public. Formal education activities include developing templates for professional development workshops for educators to teach them about SAM and Curiosity, incorporating data into Mars Student Data Teams, and writing articles for the ChemMatters journal that is widely distributed to high school students. Informal education activities include professional development telecons for the NASA Museum Alliance and development of a landing site selection activity that will bring to the attention of students and the public the interesting work done by Mars scientists who study the best locations for Curiostiy to explore. Each of these products can be used by interested groups and venues wishing to participate in the Year of the Solar System. References: [1] Mahaffy, P.R., Space Sci. Rev. 135, 255 (2008). [2] Mahaffy, P.R. (2009) Geochem. News, 121. Acknowledgement: Funding for the SAM development was provided by NASA through the MSL Project and for the GC from the CNES.

MISR: protection from ourselves

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nolan, T.; Varanasi, P.

2004-01-01

Outlines lessons learned by the Instrument Operations Team of NASA/JPL Terra's Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer mission. It narrates a story of MISR: Protection from Ourselves! and describes, in detail, how the MISR instrument survived operator errors.

Development of a Biological Science Quantitative Reasoning Exam (BioSQuaRE)

PubMed Central

Stanhope, Liz; Ziegler, Laura; Haque, Tabassum; Le, Laura; Vinces, Marcelo; Davis, Gregory K.; Zieffler, Andrew; Brodfuehrer, Peter; Preest, Marion; M. Belitsky, Jason; Umbanhowar, Charles; Overvoorde, Paul J.

2017-01-01

Multiple reports highlight the increasingly quantitative nature of biological research and the need to innovate means to ensure that students acquire quantitative skills. We present a tool to support such innovation. The Biological Science Quantitative Reasoning Exam (BioSQuaRE) is an assessment instrument designed to measure the quantitative skills of undergraduate students within a biological context. The instrument was developed by an interdisciplinary team of educators and aligns with skills included in national reports such as BIO2010, Scientific Foundations for Future Physicians, and Vision and Change. Undergraduate biology educators also confirmed the importance of items included in the instrument. The current version of the BioSQuaRE was developed through an iterative process using data from students at 12 postsecondary institutions. A psychometric analysis of these data provides multiple lines of evidence for the validity of inferences made using the instrument. Our results suggest that the BioSQuaRE will prove useful to faculty and departments interested in helping students acquire the quantitative competencies they need to successfully pursue biology, and useful to biology students by communicating the importance of quantitative skills. We invite educators to use the BioSQuaRE at their own institutions. PMID:29196427

Automated Pollution Control

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1997-01-01

Patterned after the Cassini Resource Exchange (CRE), Sholtz and Associates established the Automated Credit Exchange (ACE), an Internet-based concept that automates the auctioning of "pollution credits" in Southern California. An early challenge of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Cassini mission was allocating the spacecraft's resources. To support the decision-making process, the CRE was developed. The system removes the need for the science instrument manager to know the individual instruments' requirements for the spacecraft resources. Instead, by utilizing principles of exchange, the CRE induces the instrument teams to reveal their requirements. In doing so, they arrive at an efficient allocation of spacecraft resources by trading among themselves. A Southern California RECLAIM air pollution credit trading market has been set up using same bartering methods utilized in the Cassini mission in order to help companies keep pollution and costs down.

Technical Advancements in Simulator-Based Weapons Team Training.

DTIC Science & Technology

1991-04-01

Acting Head H.C. OKRASKI, Director Advanced Simulation Concepts Research and Engineering Division Department SPECIAL REPORT 91-003 GOVERNMENT RIGHTS...City. State, and ZWCode)I12350 Research Parkway Orlando-, FL 32826-3224 SS... NAME OF FUNDING / SPONSORING 8 b. OFFICE SYMBOL 9. PROCUREMENT INSTRUMENT...necessary and idmntify’ by block number) The research and development reported here represents one phase of a broader effort to improve the

Development of an Assessment for Entrustable Professional Activity (EPA) 10: Emergent Patient Management.

PubMed

Thompson, Laura R; Leung, Cynthia G; Green, Brad; Lipps, Jonathan; Schaffernocker, Troy; Ledford, Cynthia; Davis, John; Way, David P; Kman, Nicholas E

2017-01-01

Medical schools in the United States are encouraged to prepare and certify the entrustment of medical students to perform 13 core entrustable professional activities (EPAs) prior to graduation. Entrustment is defined as the informed belief that the learner is qualified to autonomously perform specific patient-care activities. Core EPA-10 is the entrustment of a graduate to care for the emergent patient. The purpose of this project was to design a realistic performance assessment method for evaluating fourth-year medical students on EPA-10. First, we wrote five emergent patient case-scenarios that a medical trainee would likely confront in an acute care setting. Furthermore, we developed high-fidelity simulations to realistically portray these patient case scenarios. Finally, we designed a performance assessment instrument to evaluate the medical student's performance on executing critical actions related to EPA-10 competencies. Critical actions included the following: triage skills, mustering the medical team, identifying causes of patient decompensation, and initiating care. Up to four students were involved with each case scenario; however, only the team leader was evaluated using the assessment instruments developed for each case. A total of 114 students participated in the EPA-10 assessment during their final year of medical school. Most students demonstrated competence in recognizing unstable vital signs (97%), engaging the team (93%), and making appropriate dispositions (92%). Almost 87% of the students were rated as having reached entrustment to manage the care of an emergent patient (99 of 114). Inter-rater reliability varied by case scenario, ranging from moderate to near-perfect agreement. Three of five case-scenario assessment instruments contained items that were internally consistent at measuring student performance. Additionally, the individual item scores for these case scenarios were highly correlated with the global entrustment decision. High-fidelity simulation showed good potential for effective assessment of medical student entrustment of caring for the emergent patient. Preliminary evidence from this pilot project suggests content validity of most cases and associated checklist items. The assessments also demonstrated moderately strong faculty inter-rater reliability.

Tools for Tomorrow's Science and Technology Workforce: MATE's 2006 ROV Competition Sets Students' Sights on Ocean Observing Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zande, Jill; Meeson, Blanche; Cook, Susan; Matsumoto, George

2006-01-01

Teams participating in the 2006 ROV competition organized by the Marine Advanced Technology Education (MATE) Center and the Marine Technology Society's (MTS) ROV Committee experienced first-hand the scientific and technical challenges that many ocean scientists, technicians, and engineers face every day. The competition tasked more than 1,000 middle and high school, college, and university students from Newfoundland to Hong Kong with designing and building ROVs to support the next generation of ocean observing systems. Teaming up with the National Office for Integrated and Sustained Ocean Observations, Ocean. US, and the Ocean Research Interactive Observatory Networks (ORION) Program, the competition highlighted ocean observing systems and the careers, organizations, and technologies associated with ocean observatories. The student teams were challenged to develop vehicles that can deploy, install, and maintain networks of instruments as well as to explore the practical applications and the research questions made possible by observing systems.

Flexible Workflow Software enables the Management of an Increased Volume and Heterogeneity of Sensors, and evolves with the Expansion of Complex Ocean Observatory Infrastructures.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tomlin, M. C.; Jenkyns, R.

2015-12-01

Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) collects data from observatories in the northeast Pacific, Salish Sea, Arctic Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, and land-based sites in British Columbia. Data are streamed, collected autonomously, or transmitted via satellite from a variety of instruments. The Software Engineering group at ONC develops and maintains Oceans 2.0, an in-house software system that acquires and archives data from sensors, and makes data available to scientists, the public, government and non-government agencies. The Oceans 2.0 workflow tool was developed by ONC to manage a large volume of tasks and processes required for instrument installation, recovery and maintenance activities. Since 2013, the workflow tool has supported 70 expeditions and grown to include 30 different workflow processes for the increasing complexity of infrastructures at ONC. The workflow tool strives to keep pace with an increasing heterogeneity of sensors, connections and environments by supporting versioning of existing workflows, and allowing the creation of new processes and tasks. Despite challenges in training and gaining mutual support from multidisciplinary teams, the workflow tool has become invaluable in project management in an innovative setting. It provides a collective place to contribute to ONC's diverse projects and expeditions and encourages more repeatable processes, while promoting interactions between the multidisciplinary teams who manage various aspects of instrument development and the data they produce. The workflow tool inspires documentation of terminologies and procedures, and effectively links to other tools at ONC such as JIRA, Alfresco and Wiki. Motivated by growing sensor schemes, modes of collecting data, archiving, and data distribution at ONC, the workflow tool ensures that infrastructure is managed completely from instrument purchase to data distribution. It integrates all areas of expertise and helps fulfill ONC's mandate to offer quality data to users.

Detecting Bioaerosols When Time Is of the Essence

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

Hazi, A

About seven years ago, Livermore researchers received seed funding from the Laboratory Directed Research and Development Program to develop an instrument that counters bioterrorism by providing a rapid early warning system for pathogens, such as anthrax. (See S&TR, January/February 2002, pp. 24-26.) That instrument, the Autonomous Pathogen Detection System (APDS), is now ready for deployment to better protect the public from a bioaerosol attack, and the development team has been honored with a 2004 R&D 100 Award. The lectern-size APDS can be placed in airports, office buildings, performing arts centers, mass transit systems, sporting arenas--anywhere an attack might be launched.more » APDS was designed to get results fast and get them right, without false positives. Biological scientist Richard Langlois, who spearheaded the APDS development effort, explains, ''The system provides results on the spot. Faster results allow a faster emergency response, which in the end means saving lives.''« less

Advanced X-Ray Timing Array Mission: Conceptual Spacecraft Design Study

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hopkins, R. C.; Johnson, L.; Thomas, H. D.; Wilson-Hodge, C. A.; Baysinger, M.; Maples, C. D.; Fabisinski, L.L.; Hornsby, L.; Thompson, K. S.; Miernik, J. H.

2011-01-01

The Advanced X-Ray Timing Array (AXTAR) is a mission concept for submillisecond timing of bright galactic x-ray sources. The two science instruments are the Large Area Timing Array (LATA) (a collimated instrument with 2-50-keV coverage and over 3 square meters of effective area) and a Sky Monitor (SM), which acts as a trigger for pointed observations of x-ray transients. The spacecraft conceptual design team developed two spacecraft concepts that will enable the AXTAR mission: A minimal configuration to be launched on a Taurus II and a larger configuration to be launched on a Falcon 9 or similar vehicle.

Development and evaluation of an instrument to measure parental satisfaction with quality of care in neonatal follow-up.

PubMed

Butt, Michelle L; Pinelli, Janet; Boyle, Michael H; Thomas, Helen; Hunsberger, Mabel; Saigal, Saroj; Lee, David S; Fanning, Jamie K; Austin, Patricia

2009-02-01

The goal of this study was to develop and subsequently evaluate the psychometric properties of a new discriminative instrument to measure parental satisfaction with the quality of care provided in neonatal follow-up (NFU) programs. The methodological framework for developing and evaluating measurement scales described by Streiner and Norman (Health Measurement Scales: A Practical Guide to Their Development and Use. 3rd ed. New York: Oxford University Press; 2003) was used for the study. Informing the phases of the research was a sample of 24 health care professionals and 381 parents who use NFU services. A comprehensive list of items representing the construct, parental satisfaction with quality of care, was generated from published reliable and valid instruments, research studies, focus groups with health care experts, and focus groups with parents. Using a clinimetric approach, the 62 items generated were reduced to 39 items based on parents' ratings of importance and refinement of the items by the research team. After content validation and pretesting, the instrument was tested with parents and underwent item-analysis. The resulting 16-item instrument was composed of 2 subscales, Process and Outcomes. Evaluation of the instrument's psychometric properties indicated adequate test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.72) and internal consistency (Process subscale, alpha = 0.77; Outcomes subscale, alpha = 0.90; overall instrument, alpha = 0.90), as well as good content and construct validity. A confirmatory factor analysis supported the multidimensionality of the construct. This new instrument provides clinicians and policy-makers with a tool to assess parental satisfaction with the quality of care in NFU, so areas of dissatisfaction can be identified and changes implemented to optimize service provision.

Physical Fitness of U.S. Navy Special Forces Team Members and Trainees

DTIC Science & Technology

1989-07-07

Resting Heart Rate and Blood Pressure. At the completion of a 12-lead resting EKG (VS4S, Cambridge Instrument Co., Ossining , NY), heart rate (bpm) of...Cambridge Instrument Co., Ossining , NY). Instruments were interfaced with a MINC-23 computer (Digital Equipment Corp., Marlboro, MA) for on-line

Measurements of Carbon Monoxide with the MOPITT Instrument 1999-2009

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Drummond, J. R.; Gille, J. C.; Edwards, D. P.; Deeter, M. N.; Zou, J.; Nichitiu, F.

2009-12-01

The Measurements Of Pollution In The Troposphere (MOPITT) instrument on the Terra spacecraft is completing ten years of operation measuring carbon monoxide (CO) over the planet. These measurements have demonstrated the changes of CO in both space and time and shown a planet with very large variations in concentrations depending upon events and circumstances. This talk will review the MOPITT dataset and discuss how experience with the MOPITT instrument and with data processing have led to significant improvements in our understanding of the nature of the measurements and their strengths and limitations. These studies have led to improvements in our ability to understand the sensitivity of the measurements to boundary-layer CO (to cite a single example). This presentation leads naturally into a discussion of the future improvements of both of MOPITT instrument datasets and future instruments using similar techniques. MOPITT was provided to the Terra spacecraft by the Canadian Space Agency and was built by COMDEV of Cambridge, Ontario. Data processing is performed by the MOPITT team at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO. Instrument control is by the team at the University of Toronto.

Broad-band BOS (BBYB) development and calibration in Taiwan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lin, C. R.; Wang, C. C.; Kuo, B. Y.; Chen, P.; Jang, J. P.; Chang, H.; Laio, Y. C.; Chang, K. H.; Lin, F. S.

2016-12-01

Since 2009, combine with Academia Sinica, National Applied Research Laboratories and National Sun Yat-sen University formed ocean bottom seismograph (OBS) development team to develop sub-broadband OBS (called Yardbird OBS). Through a series deploy experiment at seafloor offshore Taiwan that got a lot of data can be used to study plate tectonics, seismic activity, source characteristics. Nowadays they have pretty good results already. Due to bandwidth limitations of the Yardbird OBS that inadequate to use for analyze global-scale earthquake. Therefor developing broadband ocean bottom seismograph is an important goal for the development team. Currently the broadband OBS (called BBYB) design and construction have completed the initial experiment phase. Due to underwater instruments always got high risk. Something accidentally making equipment sank in the sea cannot be recovery. Even recovery of equipment may also be causing poor performance because there is no data record. It cannot be to accomplish the experiment mission. In order to improve the OBS performance, avoid OBS dis-recovery or data collection is incomplete, must be sure all OBS's each component (such as seismic data recording device, balanced body, sonar dashboard, instruments and internal wiring ...) with well-done quality before assembly. Each component could go through very rigorous testing, strict and pick out the good components in the assembly process. Be sure all of produce the OBS under the water after a long deployment could successful recovery and got valuable data. In this presentation we will show a serial testing procedure and results for quality each BBYB component. Such as: Data logger: digitizer sensitivity, sampling rate, clock timing. Acoustic controller: function of Enable, Disable, Range, Release 1, Release 2, Option 1(Release disable). Air pressure gauge for glass ball: accuracy. A check lists of connector wiring check for assembling instrument. Design deploy and recovery procedure for operation on deck. We hope through repeated testing to ensure perfect performance of BBYB and apply the testing concept to another equipment for improve instruments performance. Keywords: ocean bottom seismograph (OBS); Data logger; Acoustic controller; Air pressure gauge.

Progress update on a 2015 USIP interdisciplinary undergraduate student microgravity experiment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dove, A.; Colwell, J. E.; Brisset, J.; Kirstein, J.; Brightwell, K.; Hayden, R.; Jorges, J.; Schwartzberg, D.; Strange, J.; Yates, A.

2016-12-01

Our team was selected by the 2016 USIP program to build, fly, and analyze the results from a granular dynamics experiment that will fly in 2017 on a suborbital flight. The experiment will be designed to test technology and enable science relevant to low-gravity planetary objects, such as asteroids, comets, and small moons. Following on the success of previous NASA Flight Opportunities Program (FOP) and Undergraduate Student Instrumentation Project (USIP) projects, however, the primary driver of the project is to enable undergraduate student participation in the entire lifetime of a science and technology development project. Our mentoring team consists of faculty, postdoctoral researchers, and graduate students, who have experience with the past USIP program and similar projects, as well as with mentoring undergraduate students. The undergraduate team includes a diversity of major disciplines, including physics, mechanical/aerospace engineering, electrical engineering, business (accounting), and marketing. Each team member has specific project tasks, as outlined in the proposal, and all members will also help develop and participate in outreach events. In additional to their project roles, students will also be responsible for presentations and milestones, such as design reviews. Through these reviews and the outreach events, all team members have the chance to develop their technical and non-technical communication skills. Previous experience with the NASA USIP program demonstrated that students achieve significant growth through these projects -gaining a better understanding of the entire lifecycle of a project, and, likely more importantly, how to work with a diverse team. In this talk, we will discuss the status of the project, and present student impressions and thoughts on the project thus far.

Innovation management based on proactive engagement of customers: A case study on LEGO Group. Part II: Challenge of engaging the digital customer

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Avasilcăi, S.; Rusu, G.

2015-11-01

To foster the development of innovative products and new technologies, nowadays companies use an open innovation system, encouraging stakeholders to contribute, using the companies’ online platforms for open innovation or social media, bringing and sharing creative solutions and ideas in order to respond to challenging needs the company directly expresses. Accordingly, the current research continues the analysis of the LEGO Group innovation efforts, aiming to provide a case study approach based on describing the most important projects and online instruments company uses to interact with customers and other external stakeholders. Thus, by analysing the experience of the company in developing projects of involving stakeholders in the innovation processes, the article emphasizes the objective of these past projects developed by LEGO Group, outlining their objectives regarding the focus on the product or process innovation, the team management and stakeholders involved in the innovation actions and the results they obtained. Moreover, the case study highlights the features of the most important online instruments LEGO Group uses at the moment for engaging LEGO fans, children, parents, and other external stakeholders in developing new LEGO sets. Thus, LEGO online instruments provide the opportunity for customers to be creative and to respond to LEGO management team challenges. Accordingly, LEGO involve customers in bringing innovative ideas for LEGO sets through LEGO Ideas instrument, which aims to engage customers in submitting projects, voting and supporting ideas and also sharing them on social media. Also, the research emphasizes the role of supporting the open dialogue and interaction with customers and other external stakeholders through LEGO.com Create & Share Galleries instrument, using their creativity to upload innovative models in the public galleries. The continuous challenges LEGO launches for their fans create a long-term connection between company and its customers, supporting the value co-creation process, as the submitted ideas can materialize in new LEGO products which can be found on the market. As a consequence, customers’ engagement in the co-creation process facilitated by the multiple online instruments provided by LEGO, resulted in positive outcomes for the company regarding new product development for the sets launched on the market to satisfy changing needs of their customers. The results provided by this case study approach can be useful for the business environment and academia as well in order to understand the role of engaging customers in the open innovation process, creating a competitive advantage on the market for companies.

Cyber security best practices for the nuclear industry

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

Badr, I.

2012-07-01

When deploying software based systems, such as, digital instrumentation and controls for the nuclear industry, it is vital to include cyber security assessment as part of architecture and development process. When integrating and delivering software-intensive systems for the nuclear industry, engineering teams should make use of a secure, requirements driven, software development life cycle, ensuring security compliance and optimum return on investment. Reliability protections, data loss prevention, and privacy enforcement provide a strong case for installing strict cyber security policies. (authors)

Cost efficient command management

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Brandt, Theresa; Murphy, C. W.; Kuntz, Jon; Barlett, Tom

1996-01-01

The design and implementation of a command management system (CMS) for a NASA control center, is described. The technology innovations implemented in the CMS provide the infrastructure required for operations cost reduction and future development cost reduction through increased operational efficiency and reuse in future missions. The command management design facilitates error-free operations which enables the automation of the routine control center functions and allows for the distribution of scheduling responsibility to the instrument teams. The reusable system was developed using object oriented methodologies.

Building on the Cornerstone Mission: Focused LRO Workshops to Support Science Team Synergies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Keller, J. W.; Petro, N. E.

2017-10-01

During the Cornerstone Mission, the LRO instrument teams have identified a number of key science themes that drive their observations during the extended mission. These themes serve as a basis for the identification of the thematic workshops.

Automated solar cell assembly team process research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nowlan, M. J.; Hogan, S. J.; Darkazalli, G.; Breen, W. F.; Murach, J. M.; Sutherland, S. F.; Patterson, J. S.

1994-06-01

This report describes work done under the Photovoltaic Manufacturing Technology (PVMaT) project, Phase 3A, which addresses problems that are generic to the photovoltaic (PV) industry. Spire's objective during Phase 3A was to use its light soldering technology and experience to design and fabricate solar cell tabbing and interconnecting equipment to develop new, high-yield, high-throughput, fully automated processes for tabbing and interconnecting thin cells. Areas that were addressed include processing rates, process control, yield, throughput, material utilization efficiency, and increased use of automation. Spire teamed with Solec International, a PV module manufacturer, and the University of Massachusetts at Lowell's Center for Productivity Enhancement (CPE), automation specialists, who are lower-tier subcontractors. A number of other PV manufacturers, including Siemens Solar, Mobil Solar, Solar Web, and Texas instruments, agreed to evaluate the processes developed under this program.

A Multirater Instrument for the Assessment of Simulated Pediatric Crises

PubMed Central

Calhoun, Aaron W; Boone, Megan; Miller, Karen H; Taulbee, Rebecca L; Montgomery, Vicki L; Boland, Kimberly

2011-01-01

Background Few validated instruments exist to measure pediatric code team skills. The goal of this study was to develop an instrument for the assessment of resuscitation competency and self-appraisal using multirater and gap analysis methodologies. Methods Multirater assessment with gap analysis is a robust methodology that enables the measurement of self-appraisal as well as competency, offering faculty the ability to provide enhanced feedback. The Team Performance during Simulated Crises Instrument (TPDSCI) was grounded in the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education competencies. The instrument contains 5 competencies, each assessed by a series of descriptive rubrics. It was piloted during a series of simulation-based interdisciplinary pediatric crisis resource management education sessions. Course faculty assessed participants, who also did self-assessments. Internal consistency and interrater reliability were analyzed using Cronbach α and intraclass correlation (ICC) statistics. Gap analysis results were examined descriptively. Results Cronbach α for the instrument was between 0.72 and 0.69. The overall ICC was 0.82. ICC values for the medical knowledge, clinical skills, communication skills, and systems-based practice were between 0.87 and 0.72. The ICC for the professionalism domain was 0.22. Further examination of the professionalism competency revealed a positive skew, 43 simulated sessions (98%) had significant gaps for at least one of the competencies, 38 sessions (86%) had gaps indicating self-overappraisal, and 15 sessions (34%) had gaps indicating self-underappraisal. Conclusions The TPDSCI possesses good measures of internal consistency and interrater reliability with respect to medical knowledge, clinical skills, communication skills, systems-based practice, and overall competence in the context of simulated interdisciplinary pediatric medical crises. Professionalism remains difficult to assess. These results provide an encouraging first step toward instrument validation. Gap analysis reveals disparities between faculty and self-assessments that indicate inadequate participant self-reflection. Identifying self-overappraisal can facilitate focused interventions. PMID:22379528

Cassini Titan Science Integration: Getting a 'Jumpstart' on the Process

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Steadman, Kimberly B.; Pitesky, Jo E.; Ray, Trina L.; Burton, Marcia E.; Alonge, Nora K.

2010-01-01

The Cassini spacecraft has been in orbit for five years, returning a wealth of scientific data from Titan and the Saturn system. The mission is a cooperative undertaking between NASA, ESA and the Italian Space Agency and the project is currently planning for a second extension of the mission. The Cassini Solstice Mission (CSM) will extend the mission's lifetime until Saturn's northern summer solstice in 2017. The Titan Orbiter Science Team (TOST) has the task of integrating the science observations for all 126 targeted Titan flybys (44 in the Prime Mission, 26 in the first extension (Equinox Mission), and 56 in the second extension (Solstice Mission)) contained in the chosen trajectory. Cassini science instruments are body-fixed with limited ability to articulate; thus, the spacecraft pointing during the flybys must be allocated among the instruments to accomplish the mission's science goals. The science that can be accomplished on each Titan flyby also critically depends on the closest approach altitude, which is in turn determined by the attitude, but changing the altitude impacts the overall trajectory for the Solstice Mission. During the Prime and Extended missions, TOST has learned that the best way to achieve Cassini's Titan science goals is via a 'jumpstart' process prior to final delivery of the trajectory. The jumpstart is driven by the desire to balance Titan science across the entire set of flybys during the CSM, and to influence any changes (tweaks) to the flyby altitudes. By the end of the jumpstart, TOST produces Master Timelines for each flyby, identifying each flyby's prime science observations and allocating control of the spacecraft attitude to specific instrument teams. In addition, developing timelines early, while the science and operations teams are still fully funded, decreases the future workload in integration and implementation.

Engineering within the assembly, verification, and integration (AIV) process in ALMA

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lopez, Bernhard; McMullin, Joseph P.; Whyborn, Nicholas D.; Duvall, Eugene

2010-07-01

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is a joint project between astronomical organizations in Europe, North America, and East Asia, in collaboration with the Republic of Chile. ALMA will consist of at least 54 twelve-meter antennas and 12 seven-meter antennas operating as an interferometer in the millimeter and sub-millimeter wavelength range. It will be located at an altitude above 5000m in the Chilean Atacama desert. As part of the ALMA construction phase the Assembly, Verification and Integration (AIV) team receives antennas and instrumentation from Integrated Product Teams (IPTs), verifies that the sub-systems perform as expected, performs the assembly and integration of the scientific instrumentation and verifies that functional and performance requirements are met. This paper aims to describe those aspects related to the AIV Engineering team, its role within the 4-station AIV process, the different phases the group underwent, lessons learned and potential space for improvement. AIV Engineering initially focused on the preparation of the necessary site infrastructure for AIV activities, on the purchase of tools and equipment and on the first ALMA system installations. With the first antennas arriving on site the team started to gather experience with AIV Station 1 beacon holography measurements for the assessment of the overall antenna surface quality, and with optical pointing to confirm the antenna pointing and tracking capabilities. With the arrival of the first receiver AIV Station 2 was developed which focuses on the installation of electrical and cryogenic systems and incrementally establishes the full connectivity of the antenna as an observing platform. Further antenna deliveries then allowed to refine the related procedures, develop staff expertise and to transition towards a more routine production process. Stations 3 and 4 deal with verification of the antenna with integrated electronics by the AIV Science Team and is not covered directly in this paper. It is believed that both continuous improvement and the clear definition of the AIV 4-station model were key factors in achieving the goal of bringing the antennas into a state that is well enough characterized in order to smoothly start commissioning activities.

Evaluating trauma team performance in a Level I trauma center: Validation of the trauma team communication assessment (TTCA-24).

PubMed

DeMoor, Stephanie; Abdel-Rehim, Shady; Olmsted, Richard; Myers, John G; Parker-Raley, Jessica

2017-07-01

Nontechnical skills (NTS), such as team communication, are well-recognized determinants of trauma team performance and good patient care. Measuring these competencies during trauma resuscitations is essential, yet few valid and reliable tools are available. We aimed to demonstrate that the Trauma Team Communication Assessment (TTCA-24) is a valid and reliable instrument that measures communication effectiveness during activations. Two tools with adequate psychometric strength (Trauma Nontechnical Skills Scale [T-NOTECHS], Team Emergency Assessment Measure [TEAM]) were identified during a systematic review of medical literature and compared with TTCA-24. Three coders used each tool to evaluate 35 stable and 35 unstable patient activations (defined according to Advanced Trauma Life Support criteria). Interrater reliability was calculated between coders using the intraclass correlation coefficient. Spearman rank correlation coefficient was used to establish concurrent validity between TTCA-24 and the other two validated tools. Coders achieved an intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.87 for stable patient activations and 0.78 for unstable activations scoring excellent on the interrater agreement guidelines. The median score for each assessment showed good team communication for all 70 videos (TEAM, 39.8 of 54; T-NOTECHS, 17.4 of 25; and TTCA-24, 87.4 of 96). A significant correlation between TTTC-24 and T-NOTECHS was revealed (p = 0.029), but no significant correlation between TTCA-24 and TEAM (p = 0.77). Team communication was rated slightly better across all assessments for stable versus unstable patient activations, but not statistically significant. TTCA-24 correlated with T-NOTECHS, an instrument measuring nontechnical skills for trauma teams, but not TEAM, a tool that assesses communication in generic emergency settings. TTCA-24 is a reliable and valid assessment that can be a useful adjunct when evaluating interpersonal and team communication during trauma activations. Diagnostic tests or criteria, level II.

Forecasting for a Remote Island: A Class Exercise.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Riordan, Allen J.

2003-06-01

Students enrolled in a satellite meteorology course at North Carolina State University, Raleigh, recently had an unusual opportunity to apply their forecast skills to predict wind and weather conditions for a remote site in the Southern Hemisphere. For about 40 days starting in early February 2001, students used satellite and model guidance to develop forecasts to support a research team stationed on Bouvet Island (54°26S, 3°24E). Internet products together with current output from NCEP's Aviation (AVN) model supported the activity. Wind forecasts were of particular interest to the Bouvet team because violent winds often developed unexpectedly and posed a safety hazard.Results were encouraging in that 24-h wind speed forecasts showed reasonable reliability over a wide range of wind speeds. Forecasts for 48 h showed only marginal skill, however. Two critical events were well forecasted-the major February storm with wind speeds of over 120 kt and a brief calm period following several days of strong winds in early March. The latter forecast proved instrumental in recovering the research team.

KazRAM: Build Your Own Raman Spectrometer for Environmental Science Education in Kazakhstan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Redfern, S. A. T.; Seitkan, A.

2016-12-01

The development of field-based spectroscopic investigations in Eastern Kazakhstan has been held-back by the lack of access to spectroscopic methods and technologies. This has been addressed in this project, in which we use a modular system of construction to allow a Raman spectrometer to be built in the University classroom. In collaboration with scientists at East Kazakhstan State University the team at Cambridge University have designed and developed an instrument that can be replicated in the near-field environment in Central Asia. This allows students to gain a first-hand understanding of the principles and practise of Raman spectroscopy by constructing their own instrument. The project will then allow measurement of key samples in both biological ecology settings as well as in geological and mining exploration contexts.

Expected SOFIA sensitivity, characteristics, US science instrument complement and operations concept.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Becklin, E. E.; Davidson, J. A.

The joint US and German SOFIA project to develop and operate a 2.5 meter infrared airborne telescope in a Boeing 747-SP began earlier this year. Universities Space Research Association (USRA), teamed with Raytheon E-Systems and United Airlines, was selected by NASA to develop and operate SOFIA. The 2.5 meter telescope will be designed and built by a consortium of German companies lead by MAN-GHH. Work on the aircraft and the primary mirror has started. First science flights will begin in 2001 with 20% of the observing time assigned to German investigators. The observatory is expected to operate for over 20 years. The sensitivity, characteristics, US science instrument complement, and operations concept for the SOFIA observatory, with an emphasis on the science community's participation, are discussed.

A mixed methods evaluation of team-based learning for applied pathophysiology in undergraduate nursing education.

PubMed

Branney, Jonathan; Priego-Hernández, Jacqueline

2018-02-01

It is important for nurses to have a thorough understanding of the biosciences such as pathophysiology that underpin nursing care. These courses include content that can be difficult to learn. Team-based learning is emerging as a strategy for enhancing learning in nurse education due to the promotion of individual learning as well as learning in teams. In this study we sought to evaluate the use of team-based learning in the teaching of applied pathophysiology to undergraduate student nurses. A mixed methods observational study. In a year two, undergraduate nursing applied pathophysiology module circulatory shock was taught using Team-based Learning while all remaining topics were taught using traditional lectures. After the Team-based Learning intervention the students were invited to complete the Team-based Learning Student Assessment Instrument, which measures accountability, preference and satisfaction with Team-based Learning. Students were also invited to focus group discussions to gain a more thorough understanding of their experience with Team-based Learning. Exam scores for answers to questions based on Team-based Learning-taught material were compared with those from lecture-taught material. Of the 197 students enrolled on the module, 167 (85% response rate) returned the instrument, the results from which indicated a favourable experience with Team-based Learning. Most students reported higher accountability (93%) and satisfaction (92%) with Team-based Learning. Lectures that promoted active learning were viewed as an important feature of the university experience which may explain the 76% exhibiting a preference for Team-based Learning. Most students wanted to make a meaningful contribution so as not to let down their team and they saw a clear relevance between the Team-based Learning activities and their own experiences of teamwork in clinical practice. Exam scores on the question related to Team-based Learning-taught material were comparable to those related to lecture-taught material. Most students had a preference for, and reported higher accountability and satisfaction with Team-based Learning. Through contextualisation and teamwork, Team-based Learning appears to be a strategy that confers strong pedagogical benefits for teaching applied pathophysiology (bioscience) to student nurses. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Development and evaluation of a food environment survey in three urban environments of Kunming, China

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background Given the rapid pace of urbanization and Westernization and the increasing prevalence of obesity, there is a need for research to better understand the influence of the built environment on overweight and obesity in world’s developing regions. Culturally-specific food environment survey instruments are important tools for studying changing food availability and pricing. Here, we present findings from an effort to develop and evaluate food environment survey instruments for use in a rapidly developing city in southwest China. Methods We developed two survey instruments (for stores and restaurants), each designed to be completed within 10 minutes. Two pairs of researchers surveyed a pre-selected 1-km stretch of street in each of three socio-demographically different neighborhoods to assess inter-rater reliability. Construct validity was assessed by comparing the food environments of the neighborhoods to cross-sectional height and weight data obtained on 575 adolescents in the corresponding regions of the city. Results 273 food establishments (163 restaurants and 110 stores) were surveyed. Sit-down, take-out, and fast food restaurants accounted for 40%, 21% and 19% of all restaurants surveyed. Tobacco and alcohol shops, convenience stores and supermarkets accounted for 25%, 12% and 11%, respectively, of all stores surveyed. We found a high percentage of agreement between teams (>75%) for all categorical variables with moderate kappa scores (0.4-0.6), and no statistically significant differences between teams for any of the continuous variables. More developed inner city neighborhoods had a higher number of fast food restaurants and convenience stores than surrounding neighborhoods. Adolescents who lived in the more developed inner neighborhoods also had a higher percentage of overweight, indicating well-founded construct validity. Depending on the cutoff used, 19% to 36% of male and 10% to 22% of female 16-year old adolescents were found to be overweight. Conclusions The prevalence of overweight Chinese adolescents, and the food environments they are exposed to, deserve immediate attention. To our knowledge, these are the first food environment surveys developed specifically to assess changing food availability, accessibility, and pricing in China. These instruments may be useful in future systematic longitudinal assessments of the changing food environment and its health impact in China. PMID:24602326

Healthcare teams as complex adaptive systems: Focus on interpersonal interaction.

PubMed

Pype, Peter; Krystallidou, Demi; Deveugele, Myriam; Mertens, Fien; Rubinelli, Sara; Devisch, Ignaas

2017-11-01

The aim of this study is to test the feasibility of a tool to objectify the functioning of healthcare teams operating in the complexity zone, and to evaluate its usefulness in identifying areas for team quality improvement. We distributed The Complex Adaptive Leadership (CAL™) Organisational Capability Questionnaire (OCQ) to all members of one palliative care team (n=15) and to palliative care physicians in Flanders, Belgium (n=15). Group discussions were held on feasibility aspects and on the low scoring topics. Data was analysed calculating descriptive statistics (sum score, mean and standard deviation). The one sample T-Test was used to detect differences within each group. Both groups of participants reached mean scores ranging from good to excellent. The one sample T test showed statistically significant differences between participants' sum scores within each group (p<0,001). Group discussion led to suggestions for quality improvement e.g. enhanced feedback strategies between team members. The questionnaire used in our study shows to be a feasible and useful instrument for the evaluation of the palliative care teams' day-to-day operations and to identify areas for quality improvement. The CAL™OCQ is a promising instrument to evaluate any healthcare team functioning. A group discussion on the questionnaire scores can serve as a starting point to identify targets for quality improvement initiatives. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Cultural adaptation: translatability assessment and linguistic validation of the patient-reported outcome instrument for irritable bowel syndrome with diarrhea

PubMed Central

Delgado-Herrera, Leticia; Lasch, Kathryn; Popielnicki, Ana; Nishida, Akito; Arbuckle, Rob; Banderas, Benjamin; Zentner, Susan; Gagainis, Ingrid; Zeiher, Bernhardt

2016-01-01

Background and objective Following a 2009 US Food and Drug Administration guidance, a new patient-reported outcome (PRO) instrument was developed to support end points in multinational clinical trials assessing irritable bowel syndrome with diarrhea (IBS-D) symptom severity. Our objective was to assess the translatability of the IBS-D PRO instrument into ten languages, and subsequently perform a cultural adaptation/linguistic validation of the questionnaire into Japanese and US Spanish. Materials and methods Translatability assessments of the US English version of the IBS-D PRO were performed by experienced PRO translators who were native speakers of each target language and currently residing in target-language countries. Languages were Chinese (People’s Republic of China), Dutch (the Netherlands), French (Belgium), German (Germany), Japanese (Japan), Polish (Poland), Portuguese (Brazil), Russian (Russia), Spanish (Mexico), and Spanish (US). The project team assessed the instrument to identify potential linguistic and/or cultural adaptation issues. After the issues identified were resolved, the instrument was translated into Spanish (US) and Japanese through a process of two forward translations, one reconciled translation, and one backward translation. The project team reviewed the translated versions before the instruments were evaluated by cognitive debriefing interviews with samples of five Spanish (US) and five Japanese IBS-D patients. Results Linguistic and cultural adaptation concerns identified during the translatability assessment required minor revisions, mainly the presentation of dates/times and word structure. During the cognitive debriefing interviews, two of five Spanish respondents misunderstood the term “bowel movement” to mean only diarrhea in the Spanish version. Consequently, the term was changed from “movimiento intestinal” to “evacuaciones”. None of the Japanese respondents identified issues with the Japanese version. Conclusion The translatability of the IBS-D PRO instrument into ten target languages was confirmed, with only minor changes made to the translations of the instrument. The translation and linguistic validation into Spanish (US) and Japanese provide evidence that this instrument can be used in multinational trials and clinical settings. PMID:27382346

Atmospheric Drag, Occultation `N' Ionospheric Scintillation (ADONIS) mission proposal. Alpbach Summer School 2013 Team Orange

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hettrich, Sebastian; Kempf, Yann; Perakis, Nikolaos; Górski, Jędrzej; Edl, Martina; Urbář, Jaroslav; Dósa, Melinda; Gini, Francesco; Roberts, Owen W.; Schindler, Stefan; Schemmer, Maximilian; Steenari, David; Joldžić, Nina; Glesnes Ødegaard, Linn-Kristine; Sarria, David; Volwerk, Martin; Praks, Jaan

2015-02-01

The Atmospheric Drag, Occultation `N' Ionospheric Scintillation mission (ADONIS) studies the dynamics of the terrestrial thermosphere and ionosphere in dependency of solar events over a full solar cycle in Low Earth Orbit (LEO). The objectives are to investigate satellite drag with in-situ measurements and the ionospheric electron density profiles with radio occultation and scintillation measurements. A constellation of two satellites provides the possibility to gain near real-time data (NRT) about ionospheric conditions over the Arctic region where current coverage is insufficient. The mission shall also provide global high-resolution data to improve assimilative ionospheric models. The low-cost constellation can be launched using a single Vega rocket and most of the instruments are already space-proven allowing for rapid development and good reliability. From July 16 to 25, 2013, the Alpbach Summer School 2013 was organised by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG), the European Space Agency (ESA), the International Space Science Institute (ISSI) and the association of Austrian space industries Austrospace in Alpbach, Austria. During the workshop, four teams of 15 students each independently developed four different space mission proposals on the topic of "Space Weather: Science, Missions and Systems", supported by a team of tutors. The present work is based on the mission proposal that resulted from one of these teams' efforts.

The Evolution of an Interprofessional Shared Decision-Making Research Program: Reflective Case Study of an Emerging Paradigm

PubMed Central

Menear, Matthew; Stacey, Dawn; Brière, Nathalie; Légaré, France

2016-01-01

Introduction: Healthcare research increasingly focuses on interprofessional collaboration and on shared decision making, but knowledge gaps remain about effective strategies for implementing interprofessional collaboration and shared decision-making together in clinical practice. We used Kuhn’s theory of scientific revolutions to reflect on how an integrated interprofessional shared decision-making approach was developed and implemented over time. Methods: In 2007, an interdisciplinary team initiated a new research program to promote the implementation of an interprofessional shared decision-making approach in clinical settings. For this reflective case study, two new team members analyzed the team’s four projects, six research publications, one unpublished and two published protocols and organized them into recognizable phases according to Kuhn’s theory. Results: The merging of two young disciplines led to challenges characteristic of emerging paradigms. Implementation of interprofessional shared-decision making was hindered by a lack of conceptual clarity, a dearth of theories and models, little methodological guidance, and insufficient evaluation instruments. The team developed a new model, identified new tools, and engaged knowledge users in a theory-based approach to implementation. However, several unresolved challenges remain. Discussion: This reflective case study sheds light on the evolution of interdisciplinary team science. It offers new approaches to implementing emerging knowledge in the clinical context. PMID:28435417

Organizational member involvement in physical activity coalitions across the United States: development and testing of a novel survey instrument for assessing coalition functioning.

PubMed

Bornstein, Daniel B; Pate, Russell R; Beets, Michael W; Saunders, Ruth P; Blair, Steven N

2015-06-01

Coalitions are often composed of member organizations. Member involvement is thought to be associated with coalition success. No instrument currently exists for evaluating organizational member involvement in physical activity coalitions. This study aimed to develop a survey instrument for evaluating organizational member involvement in physical activity coalitions. The study was carried out in three phases: (a) developing a draft survey, (b) assessing the content validity of the draft survey, and (c) assessing the underlying factor structure, reliability, and validity of the survey. A cross-sectional design was employed. In Phase 1, a team of experts in survey development produced a draft survey. In Phase 2, the content validity of the draft survey was evaluated by a panel of individuals with expertise in physical activity coalitions. In Phase 3, the survey was administered to 120 individuals on local-, state-, and national-level physical activity coalitions. Responses were subjected to an exploratory factor analysis in order to determine the survey's underlying factor structure, reliability, and validity. Phases 1 and 2yielded a survey instrument with demonstrated content validity. Phase 3 yielded a three-factor model with three subscales: Strategic Alignment, Organizational Alignment, and Providing Input. Each subscale demonstrated high internal consistency reliability and construct validity. The survey instrument developed here demonstrated sound psychometric properties and provides new insight into organizational member involvement in physical activity coalitions. This instrument may be an important tool in developing a more complete picture of coalition functioning in physical activity coalitions specifically and health-based coalitions overall. © 2014 Society for Public Health Education.

The GEOS-5 Data Assimilation System-Documentation of Versions 5.0.1, 5.1.0, and 5.2.0

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Suarez, Max J.; Rienecker, M. M.; Todling, R.; Bacmeister, J.; Takacs, L.; Liu, H. C.; Gu, W.; Sienkiewicz, M.; Koster, R. D.; Gelaro, R.;

Measuring the Knowledge and Attitudes of Health Care Staff toward Older People: Sensitivity of Measurement Instruments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cowan, David T.; Fitzpatrick, Joanne M.; Roberts, Julia D.; While, Alison E.

2004-01-01

This paper discusses the sensitivity of instruments used to measure knowledge and attitudes toward older people. Existing standardized measurement instruments are reviewed, including a detailed examination of Palmore's Facts on Ageing Quiz (FAQ). A recent study conducted by the research team into the knowledge and attitudes of support workers (n =…

Measuring the Knowledge and Attitudes of Health Care Staff toward Older People: Sensitivity of Measurement Instruments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cowan, David T.; Fitzpatrick, Joanne M.; Roberts, Julia D.; While, Alison E.

2004-01-01

This paper discusses the sensitivity of instruments used to measure knowledge and attitudes toward older people. Existing standardized measurement instruments are reviewed, including a detailed examination of Palmore's Facts on Ageing Quiz (FAQ). A recent study conducted by the research team into the knowledge and attitudes of support workers…

A Measure of the Parent-Team Alliance in Youth Residential Psychiatry: The Revised Short Working Alliance Inventory.

PubMed

Lamers, Audri; Delsing, Marc J M H; van Widenfelt, Brigit M; Vermeiren, Robert R J M

The therapeutic alliance between multidisciplinary teams and parents within youth (semi) residential psychiatry is essential for the treatment process and forms a promising process variable for Routine Outcome Monitoring (ROM). No short evaluative instrument, however, is currently available to assess parent-team alliance. In this study, the Working Alliance Inventory-Short Version (WAV-12), a widely used alliance questionnaire, was adjusted to assess parent-team alliance from both a parent and team perspective within a youth residential setting. Psychometric properties, including factor structure and validity of the subscales, were explored. A sample of youth with mainly complex developmental disorders admitted to 11 inpatient and day patient units of a child and adolescent psychiatric institute participated in this study. The case manager involved with the youth and the primary caregiver of 87 youth completed the revised WAV-12 (WAV-12R). The team version of the WAV-12R showed a good fit to the original conceptualized model, and distinguished Bond, Task and Goal scales. For the parents' version an adjusted model with Insight, Bond and combined Task/Goal scales had the best fit. The reliability and validity of the scales were shown to be good. This paper presents preliminary evidence that the parent and treatment team versions of the WAV-12R are psychometrically sound for assessing parent-team alliance within youth (semi) residential psychiatry in the Netherlands. The team and parents' versions of the WAV-12R are recommended instruments to complement outcome measures in ROM.

Curative procedures of oral health and structural characteristics of primary dental care.

PubMed

Baumgarten, Alexandre; Hugo, Fernando Neves; Bulgarelli, Alexandre Fávero; Hilgert, Juliana Balbinot

2018-04-09

To evaluate if the provision of clinical dental care, by means of the main curative procedures recommended in Primary Health Care, is associated with team structural characteristics, considering the presence of a minimum set of equipment, instrument, and supplies in Brazil's primary health care services. A cross-sectional exploratory study based on data collected from 18,114 primary healthcare services with dental health teams in Brazil, in 2014. The outcome was created from the confirmation of five clinical procedures performed by the dentist, accounting for the presence of minimum equipment, instrument, and supplies to carry them out. Covariables were related to structural characteristics. Poisson regression with robust variance was used to obtain crude and adjusted prevalence ratios, with 95% confidence intervals. A total of 1,190 (6.5%) dental health teams did not present the minimum equipment to provide clinical dental care and only 2,498 (14.8%) had all the instrument and supplies needed and provided the five curative procedures assessed. There was a positive association between the outcome and the composition of dental health teams, higher workload, performing analysis of health condition, and monitoring of oral health indicators. Additionally, the dental health teams that planned and programmed oral health actions with the primary care team monthly provided the procedures more frequently. Dentists with better employment status, career plans, graduation in public health or those who underwent permanent education activities provided the procedures more frequently. A relevant number of Primary Health Care services did not have the infrastructure to provide clinical dental care. However, better results were found in dental health teams with oral health technicians, with higher workload and that plan their activities, as well as in those that employed dentists with better working relationships, who had dentists with degrees in public health and who underwent permanent education activities.

A team public health research project for first-year pharmacy students to apply content from didactic courses.

PubMed

Fuentes, David; Deguire, Nancy; Patel, Rajul; Boyce, Eric

2010-08-10

To implement and assess a first-year pharmacy student group research project that provided practical hands-on application and reinforced the curricula of concurrent didactic courses. Groups of 6 to 7 students chose a public health topic based on the Healthy People 2010 Priority Areas and created a survey instrument. Faculty facilitated mock institutional review board (IRB) review sessions which provided teams with ongoing feedback and refinement recommendations before each team administered their survey instrument to a predefined population. Data analysis, formal written reports, and oral presentations were presented to peers and project faculty members. Teams complied with the requirements of the mock IRB, effectively applied basic research principles learned in class, collected survey data, performed inferential statistical analyses on the data, , and presented their project findings. Two-hundred six of 210 students (98%) reported feeling satisfied with both the results of their project and the accomplishments of their team. Teams applied a varied skill set including primary literature evaluation, basic research principles, statistics, public speaking, and peer collaboration in conducting a public health research project. First-year pharmacy students may benefit from participation in a collaborative research project that provides hands-on application of material being taught in didactic courses.

Development of X-Ray Microcalorimeter Imaging Spectrometers for the X-Ray Surveyor Mission Concept

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bandler, Simon R.; Adams, Joseph S.; Chervenak, James A.; Datesman, Aaron M.; Eckart, Megan E.; Finkbeiner, Fred M.; Kelley, Richard L.; Kilbourne, Caroline A.; Betncourt-Martinez, Gabriele; Miniussi, Antoine R.;

An End-to-End Description of the Data Flow of AMSR-E and GLAS Data Products: Product Generation Through Product Delivery to Users

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lutz, B. J.; Marquis, M.

2001-12-01

The Aqua and ICESat missions are components of the Earth Observing System (EOS). The Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E) instrument will fly on the Aqua satellite planned for launch in Spring 2002. AMSR-E is a passive microwave instrument, modified from the AMSR instrument, which will be deployed on the Japanese Advanced Earth Observing Satellite-II (ADEOS-II). AMSR-E will observe the atmosphere, land, oceans, and cryosphere, yielding measurements of precipitation, cloud water, water vapor, surface wetness, sea surface temperatures, oceanic wind speed, sea ice concentrations, snow depth, and snow water content. The Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) instrument will fly aboard the ICESat satellite scheduled for launch in Summer 2002. This instrument will measure ice-sheet topography and temporal changes in topography; cloud heights, planetary boundary heights and aerosol vertical structure; and land and water topography. The GLAS and AMSR-E teams have both chosen to utilize Science Investigator-led Processing Systems (SIPS) to process their respective EOS data products. The SIPS facilities are funded by the Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS) Project at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and operated under the direction of a science team leader. The SIPS capitalize upon the scientific expertise of the science teams and the distributed processing capabilities of their institutions. The SIPS are charged with routine production of their respective EOS data products for archival at a Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC). The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) DAAC in Boulder, Colorado will archive all AMSR-E and GLAS data products. The NSIDC DAAC will distribute these data products to users throughout the world. The SIPS processing flows of both teams are rather complex. The AMSR-E SIPS is composed of three separate processing facilities (Japan, California, and Alabama). The ICESat SIPS is composed of one main processing center (Maryland) and an important secondary data set processing center (Texas) that generates required auxiliary data products. The EOSDIS Core System (ECS) has developed extensive protocols and procedures to ensure timeliness and completeness of delivery of the data from the SIPS to the DAACs. The NSIDC DAAC, in addition to being the repository of AMSR-E and GLAS data products, provides enhanced services, documentation and guides for these data. NSIDC is a liaison between the science teams and the user community. This poster will display flow diagrams showing: a) the AMSR-E and the ICESat SIPS, and the process of how their Level 1, 2, and 3 data products are generated; b) the staging and delivery of these sets of data to the NSIDC DAAC for archival, and the ECS protocols required to ensure delivery; and c) the services and "value-added" products that the NSIDC DAAC provides to the user community in support of the Aqua (AMSR-E) and ICESat missions.

Variability in the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) Physical Status (PS) Classifcation Scale

DTIC Science & Technology

1999-10-01

instrument, and was deemed unsuitable because it was altered by several variables (patient condition, planned surgical procedure, experience and skill...index of anesthetic risk could be developed. Variables in addition to the patient physical status ( experience of the surgeon, anesthetist, and hospital...and other concurrent illnesses), but also by risk inherent to the specific surgery. Surgical risks include experience of the surgical team, the

Space-borne survey instrument operations: lessons learned and new concepts for the Euclid NISP instrument

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Valenziano, L.; Gregorio, A.; Butler, R. C.; Amiaux, J.; Bonoli, C.; Bortoletto, F.; Burigana, C.; Corcione, L.; Ealet, A.; Frailis, M.; Jahnke, K.; Ligori, S.; Maiorano, E.; Morgante, G.; Nicastro, L.; Pasian, F.; Riva, M.; Scaramella, R.; Schiavone, F.; Tavagnacco, D.; Toledo-Moreo, R.; Trifoglio, M.; Zacchei, A.; Zerbi, F. M.; Maciaszek, T.

2012-09-01

Euclid is the future ESA mission, mainly devoted to Cosmology. Like WMAP and Planck, it is a survey mission, to be launched in 2019 and injected in orbit far away from the Earth, for a nominal lifetime of 7 years. Euclid has two instruments on-board, the Visible Imager (VIS) and the Near- Infrared Spectro-Photometer (NISP). The NISP instrument includes cryogenic mechanisms, active thermal control, high-performance Data Processing Unit and requires periodic in-flight calibrations and instrument parameters monitoring. To fully exploit the capability of the NISP, a careful control of systematic effects is required. From previous experiments, we have built the concept of an integrated instrument development and verification approach, where the scientific, instrument and ground-segment expertise have strong interactions from the early phases of the project. In particular, we discuss the strong integration of test and calibration activities with the Ground Segment, starting from early pre-launch verification activities. We want to report here the expertise acquired by the Euclid team in previous missions, only citing the literature for detailed reference, and indicate how it is applied in the Euclid mission framework.

The Goes-R Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Goodman, Steven J.; Blakeslee, Richard J.; Koshak, William J.; Mach, Douglas

2011-01-01

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-R) is the next series to follow the existing GOES system currently operating over the Western Hemisphere. Superior spacecraft and instrument technology will support expanded detection of environmental phenomena, resulting in more timely and accurate forecasts and warnings. Advancements over current GOES capabilities include a new capability for total lightning detection (cloud and cloud-to-ground flashes) from the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM), and improved storm diagnostic capability with the Advanced Baseline Imager. The GLM will map total lightning activity (in-cloud and cloud-to-ground lighting flashes) continuously day and night with near-uniform spatial resolution of 8 km with a product refresh rate of less than 20 sec over the Americas and adjacent oceanic regions. This will aid in forecasting severe storms and tornado activity, and convective weather impacts on aviation safety and efficiency. In parallel with the instrument development, a GOES-R Risk Reduction Team and Algorithm Working Group Lightning Applications Team have begun to develop the Level 2 algorithms, cal/val performance monitoring tools, and new applications. Proxy total lightning data from the NASA Lightning Imaging Sensor on the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite and regional test beds are being used to develop the pre-launch algorithms and applications, and also improve our knowledge of thunderstorm initiation and evolution. In this paper we will report on new Nowcasting and storm warning applications being developed and evaluated at various NOAA Testbeds.

The NGST Science Instrument Procurement Plan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

NGST Project Office Team

1999-05-01

The NGST will carry approximately 3 science instruments (SI) that together enable the wide field imaging and spectroscopic capability needed to perform the Design Reference Mission (http://www.ngst.nasa.gov/science/drm.html). The NGST telescope will permit these instruments to achieve Zodiacal light limited sensitivity over a wavelength range of 0.6 - 10+ microns. During April 2000, responsibility to provide these instruments will be allocated among the NGST partner agencies: NASA, ESA, and CSA. Instruments allocated to NASA will be solicited via a NASA Announcement of Opportunity (AO) during June 2001. This AO will be open to university, government, and industry scientists. At the present time, 11 science instrument concept studies are being conducted by US, European, and Canadian teams. Final results from these 1 year studies will be presented at the NGST Science and Technology Exposition at Woods Hole MA during September 1999 (http://ngst.gsfc.nasa.gov/science/meetings/WHannouncement.html). It is not necessary to have participated in these pre-Phase A activities in order to answer the up coming instrument technologies NRA or the flight instrument AO. In this poster, we present the process by which SI concepts will be allocated among NASA, ESA, and CSA prior to the AO solicitation as well as top level time lines for instrument acquisition and development.

A VIIRS ocean data simulator

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Robinson, Wayne D.; Patt, Frederick S.; Franz, Bryan A.; Turpie, Kevin R.; McClain, Charles R.

2009-08-01

One of the roles of the VIIRS Ocean Science Team (VOST) is to assess the performance of the instrument and scientific processing software that generates ocean color parameters such as normalized water-leaving radiances and chlorophyll. A VIIRS data simulator is being developed to help aid in this work. The simulator will create a sufficient set of simulated Sensor Data Records (SDR) so that the ocean component of the VIIRS processing system can be tested. It will also have the ability to study the impact of instrument artifacts on the derived parameter quality. The simulator will use existing resources available to generate the geolocation information and to transform calibrated radiances to geophysical parameters and visa-versa. In addition, the simulator will be able to introduce land features, cloud fields, and expected VIIRS instrument artifacts. The design of the simulator and its progress will be presented.

The rehabilitation team: staff perceptions of the hospital environment, the interdisciplinary team environment, and interprofessional relations.

PubMed

Strasser, D C; Falconer, J A; Martino-Saltzmann, D

1994-02-01

Although inpatient rehabilitation is an interdisciplinary activity organized around a treatment team, there is a limited understanding of the workings of the interdisciplinary process. To elucidate staff perceptions of key aspects of the rehabilitation treatment process, we surveyed staff (n = 113) from selected inpatient teams. The staff completed social psychological instruments that measure perceptions of the hospital environment (The Ward Atmosphere Scale [WAS]), the team's environment (the Group Environment Scale [GES]), and interprofessional relations (Interprofessional Perception Scale [IPS]). Rehabilitation staff generally endorse the team approach, but express concerns over professional boundaries. Interprofessional difficulties seemed to be independent of team membership or professional training. Compared with published data from other settings, rehabilitation teams resembled task-oriented groups, but showed significant differences across teams in their perceptions of the team and hospital environments. The task-oriented character of rehabilitation teams, team-specific characteristics, and discord in interprofessional relationships may need to be considered in studies of rehabilitation teams effectiveness.

An Undergraduate Student Instrumentation Project (USIP) to Develop New Instrument Technology to Study the Auroral Ionosphere and Stratospheric Ozone Layer Using Ultralight Balloon Payloads

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gamblin, R.; Marrero, E.; Bering, E. A., III; Leffer, B.; Dunbar, B.; Ahmad, H.; Canales, D.; Bias, C.; Cao, J.; Pina, M.; Ehteshami, A.; Hermosillo, D.; Siddiqui, A.; Guala, D.

2014-12-01

This project is currently engaging tweleve undergraduate students in the process of developing new technology and instrumentation for use in balloon borne geospace investigations in the auroral zone. Motivation stems from advances in microelectronics and consumer electronic technology. Given the technological inovations over the past 20 years it now possible to develop new instrumentation to study the auroral ionosphere and stratospheric ozone layer using ultralight balloon payloads for less than 6lbs and $3K per payload. The UH USIP undergraduate team is currently in the process of build ten such payloads for launch using1500 gm latex weather balloons to be deployed in Houston and Fairbanks, AK as well as zero pressure balloons launched from northern Sweden. The latex balloon project will collect vertical profiles of wind speed, wind direction, temperature, electrical conductivity, ozone and odd nitrogen. This instrument payload will also profiles of pressure, electric field, and air-earth electric current. The zero pressure balloons will obtain a suite of geophysical measurements including: DC electric field, electric field and magnetic flux, optical imaging, total electron content of ionosphere via dual-channel GPS, X-ray detection, and infrared/UV spectroscopy. Students will fly payloads with different combinations of these instruments to determine which packages are successful. Data collected by these instruments will be useful in understanding the nature of electrodynamic coupling in the upper atmosphere and how the global earth system is changing. Results and best practices learned from lab tests and initial Houston test flights will be discussed.

Development and validation of an instrument to assess imminent risk of homelessness among veterans.

PubMed

Montgomery, Ann Elizabeth; Fargo, Jamison D; Kane, Vincent; Culhane, Dennis P

2014-01-01

Veterans are overrepresented within the homeless population compared with their non-veteran counterparts, particularly when controlling for poverty. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) aims to prevent new episodes of homelessness by targeting households at greatest risk; however, there are no instruments that systematically assess veterans' risk of homelessness. We developed and tested a brief screening instrument to identify imminent risk of homelessness among veterans accessing VA health care. The study team developed initial assessment items, conducted cognitive interviews with veterans experiencing homelessness, refined pilot items based on veterans' and experts' feedback and results of psychometric analyses, and assigned weights to items in the final instrument to indicate a measure of homelessness risk. One-third of veterans who responded to the field instrument reported imminent risk of homelessness (i.e., housing instability in the previous 90 days or expected in the next 90 days). The reliability coefficient for the instrument was 0.85, indicating good internal consistency. Veterans who had a recent change in income, had unpaid housing expenses, were living temporarily with family and friends, needed help to get or keep housing, and had poor rental and credit histories were more likely to report a risk of homelessness than those who did not. This study provides the field with an instrument to identify individuals and households at risk of or experiencing homelessness, which is necessary to prevent and end homelessness. In addition, it supports VA's investment in homelessness prevention and rapid rehousing services for veterans who are experiencing or are at risk for homelessness.

Development and initial validation of primary care provider mental illness management and team-based care self-efficacy scales.

PubMed

Loeb, Danielle F; Crane, Lori A; Leister, Erin; Bayliss, Elizabeth A; Ludman, Evette; Binswanger, Ingrid A; Kline, Danielle M; Smith, Meredith; deGruy, Frank V; Nease, Donald E; Dickinson, L Miriam

Develop and validate self-efficacy scales for primary care provider (PCP) mental illness management and team-based care participation. We developed three self-efficacy scales: team-based care (TBC), mental illness management (MIM), and chronic medical illness (CMI). We developed the scales using Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory as a guide. The survey instrument included items from previously validated scales on team-based care and mental illness management. We administered a mail survey to 900 randomly selected Colorado physicians. We conducted exploratory principal factor analysis with oblique rotation. We constructed self-efficacy scales and calculated standardized Cronbach's alpha coefficients to test internal consistency. We calculated correlation coefficients between the MIM and TBC scales and previously validated measures related to each scale to evaluate convergent validity. We tested correlations between the TBC and the measures expected to correlate with the MIM scale and vice versa to evaluate discriminant validity. PCPs (n=402, response rate=49%) from diverse practice settings completed surveys. Items grouped into factors as expected. Cronbach's alphas were 0.94, 0.88, and 0.83 for TBC, MIM, and CMI scales respectively. In convergent validity testing, the TBC scale was correlated as predicted with scales assessing communications strategies, attitudes toward teams, and other teamwork indicators (r=0.25 to 0.40, all statistically significant). Likewise, the MIM scale was significantly correlated with several items about knowledge and experience managing mental illness (r=0.24 to 41, all statistically significant). As expected in discriminant validity testing, the TBC scale had only very weak correlations with the mental illness knowledge and experience managing mental illness items (r=0.03 to 0.12). Likewise, the MIM scale was only weakly correlated with measures of team-based care (r=0.09 to.17). This validation study of MIM and TBC self-efficacy scales showed high internal validity and good construct validity. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The James Webb Telescope Instrument Suite Layout: Optical System Engineering Considerations for a Large, Deployable Space Telescope

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bos, Brent; Davila, Pam; Jurotich, Matthew; Hobbs, Gurnie; Lightsey, Paul; Contreras, Jim; Whitman, Tony

2003-01-01

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a space-based, infrared observatory designed to study the early stages of galaxy formation in the Universe. The telescope will be launched into an elliptical orbit about the second Lagrange point and passively cooled to 30-50 K to enable astronomical observations from 0.6 to 28 microns. A group from the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and the Northrop Grumman Space Technology prime contractor team has developed an optical and mechanical layout for the science instruments within the JWST field of view that satisfies the telescope s high-level performance requirements. Four instruments required accommodation within the telescope's field of view: a Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) provided by the University of Arizona; a Near-Mared Spectrometer (NIRSpec) provided by the European Space Agency; a Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) provided by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and a European consortium; and a Fine Guidance Sensor (FGS) with a tunable filter module provided by the Canadian Space Agency. The size and position of each instrument's field of view allocation were developed through an iterative, concurrent engineering process involving the key observatory stakeholders. While some of the system design considerations were those typically encountered during the development of an infrared observatory, others were unique to the deployable and controllable nature of JWST. This paper describes the optical and mechanical issues considered during the field of view layout development, as well as the supporting modeling and analysis activities.

Curiosity: How to Boldly Go...

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pyrzak, Guy

2013-01-01

Operating a one-ton rover on the surface of Mars requires more than just a joystick and an experiment. With 10 science instruments, 17 cameras, a radioisotope thermoelectric generator and lasers, Curiosity is the largest and most complex rover NASA has sent to Mars. Combined with a 1 way light time of 4 to 20 minutes and a distributed international science and engineering team, it takes a lot of work to operate this mega-rover. The Mars Science Lab's operations team has developed an organization and process that maximizes science return and safety of the spacecraft. These are the voyages of the rover Curiosity, its 2 year mission, to determine the habitability of Gale Crater, to understand the role of water, to study the climate and geology of Mars.

An Undergraduate Student Instrumentation Project (USIP) to Develop New Instrument Technology to Study the Auroral Ionosphere and Stratospheric Ozone Layer Using Ultralight Balloon Payloads

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nowling, M.; Ahmad, H.; Gamblin, R.; Guala, D.; Hermosillo, D.; Pina, M.; Marrero, E.; Canales, D. R. J.; Cao, J.; Ehteshami, A.; Bering, E. A., III; Lefer, B. L.; Dunbar, B.; Bias, C.; Shahid, S.

2015-12-01

This project is currently engaging twelve undergraduate students in the process of developing new technology and instrumentation for use in balloon borne geospace investigations in the auroral zone. Motivation stems from advances in microelectronics and consumer electronic technology. Given the technological innovations over the past 20 years it now possible to develop new instrumentation to study the auroral ionosphere and stratospheric ozone layer using ultralight balloon payloads for less than 6lbs and $3K per payload. The University of Houston Undergraduate Student Instrumentation Project (USIP) team has built ten such payloads for launch using 1500 gm latex weather balloons deployed in Houston, TX, Fairbanks, AK, and as well as zero pressure balloons launched from northern Sweden. The latex balloon project will collect vertical profiles of wind velocity, temperature, electrical conductivity, ozone, and odd nitrogen. This instrument payload will also produce profiles of pressure, electric field, and air-earth electric current. The zero pressure balloons will obtain a suite of geophysical measurements including: DC electric field, electric field and magnetic flux, optical imaging, total electron content of ionosphere via dual-channel GPS, X-ray detection, and infrared/UV spectroscopy. Students flew payloads with different combinations of these instruments to determine which packages are successful. Data collected by these instruments will be useful in understanding the nature of electrodynamic coupling in the upper atmosphere and how the global earth system is changing. Twelve out of the launched fifteen payloads were successfully launched and recovered. Results and best practices learned from lab tests and initial Houston test flights will be discussed.

Instrumentation and Controls Division progress report for the period July 1, 1986 to June 30, 1988

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

Klobe, L.E.

1988-12-01

The Instrumentation and Controls (IandC) Division of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) performs basic and applied instrumentation and controls research, development and design engineering, specialized instrument design and fabrication, and maintenance services for instruments, electronics, and computers. The IandC Division is one of the largest RandD organizations of its type among government laboratories, and it exists as the result of an organizational strategy to integrate ORNL's instrumentation and controls-related disciplines into one dedicated functional organization to increase the Laboratory's expertise and capabilities in these rapidly expanding, innovative areas of technology. The Division participates in the programs and projects of ORNLmore » by applying its expertise and capabilities in concert with other divisions to perform basic research and mission-oriented technology development. Many of the Division's RandD tasks that are a part of a larger ORNL program are of sufficient scope that the IandC effort constitutes a separate program element with direct funding and management responsibility within the Division. The activities of IandC include performance of an RandD task in IandC facilities, the participation of from one of many IandC engineers and scientists in a multidisciplinary team working in a specific research area or development project, design and fabrication of a special instrument or instrumentation system, or a few hours of maintenance service. In its support and maintenance work, the role of the IandC Division is to provide a level of expertise appropriate to complete a job successfully at minimum overall cost and time schedule---a role which involves IandC in almost all ORNL activities.« less

Modularized Parallel Neutron Instrument Simulation on the TeraGrid

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

Chen, Meili; Cobb, John W; Hagen, Mark E

2007-01-01

In order to build a bridge between the TeraGrid (TG), a national scale cyberinfrastructure resource, and neutron science, the Neutron Science TeraGrid Gateway (NSTG) is focused on introducing productive HPC usage to the neutron science community, primarily the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Monte Carlo simulations are used as a powerful tool for instrument design and optimization at SNS. One of the successful efforts of a collaboration team composed of NSTG HPC experts and SNS instrument scientists is the development of a software facility named PSoNI, Parallelizing Simulations of Neutron Instruments. Parallelizing the traditional serialmore » instrument simulation on TeraGrid resources, PSoNI quickly computes full instrument simulation at sufficient statistical levels in instrument de-sign. Upon SNS successful commissioning, to the end of 2007, three out of five commissioned instruments in SNS target station will be available for initial users. Advanced instrument study, proposal feasibility evalua-tion, and experiment planning are on the immediate schedule of SNS, which pose further requirements such as flexibility and high runtime efficiency on fast instrument simulation. PSoNI has been redesigned to meet the new challenges and a preliminary version is developed on TeraGrid. This paper explores the motivation and goals of the new design, and the improved software structure. Further, it describes the realized new fea-tures seen from MPI parallelized McStas running high resolution design simulations of the SEQUOIA and BSS instruments at SNS. A discussion regarding future work, which is targeted to do fast simulation for automated experiment adjustment and comparing models to data in analysis, is also presented.« less

Operation Program for the Spatially Phase-Shifted Digital Speckle Pattern Interferometer - SPS-DSPI

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Blake, Peter N.; Jones, Joycelyn T.; Hostetter, Carl F.; Greenfield, Perry; Miller, Todd

2010-01-01

SPS-DSPI software has been revised so that Goddard optical engineers can operate the instrument, instead of data programmers. The user interface has been improved to view the data collected by the SPS-DSPI, with a real-time mode and a play-back mode. The SPS-DSPI has been developed by NASA/GSFC to measure the temperature distortions of the primary-mirror backplane structure for the James Webb Space Telescope. It requires a team of computer specialists to run successfully, because, at the time of this reporting, it just finished the prototype stage. This software improvement will transition the instrument to become available for use by many programs that measure distortion

Exploring the Integration of Field Portable Instrumentation into Real-Time Surface Science Operations with the RIS4E SSERVI Team

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Young, K. E.; Bleacher, J. E.; Rogers, D.; Garry, W. B.; McAdam, A.; Scheidt, S. P.; Carter, L. M.; Glotch, T. D.

2015-12-01

The Remote, In Situ, and Synchrotron Studies for Science (RIS4E) team represents one node of the Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI) program. While the RIS4E team consists of four themes, each dedicated to a different aspect of airless body exploration, this submission details the RIS4E work underway to maximize an astronaut's effectiveness while conducting surface science. The next generation of surface science operations will look quite different than the EVAs (extravehicular activities) conducted during Apollo. Astronauts will possess data of much higher resolution than the Apollo reconnaissance data, and the EVAs will thus be designed to answer targeted science questions. Additionally, technological advancements over the last several decades have made it possible to conduct in situ analyses of a caliber much greater than was achievable during Apollo. For example, lab techniques such as x-ray fluorescence, x-ray diffraction, and multi-spectral imaging are now available in field portable formats, meaning that astronauts can gain real-time geochemical awareness during sample collection. The integration of these instruments into EVA operations, however, has not been widely tested. While these instruments will provide the astronaut with a high-resolution look at regional geochemistry and structure, their implementation could prove costly to the already constrained astronaut EVA timeline. The RIS4E team, through fieldwork at the December 1974 lava flow at Kilauea Volcano, HI, investigates the incorporation of portable technologies into planetary surface exploration and explores the relationship between science value added from these instruments and the cost associated with integrating them into an EVA timeline. We also consider what an appropriate instrumentation suite would be for the exploration of a volcanic terrain using this ideal terrestrial analog (see Rogers et al., Young et al., Bleacher et al., and Yant et al., this meeting).

KSC-06pd1285

NASA Image and Video Library

2006-06-28

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - At the Cape Canaveral forecast facility in Florida, media were able to meet members of the weather team who review data used for forecasts as part of a tour of the facility. The team will play a role in the July 1 launch of Space Shuttle Discovery on mission STS-121. At the facility, which is operated by the U.S. Air Force 45th Weather Squadron, received a briefing on how the launch weather forecast is developed by Shuttle Weather Officer Kathy Winters and met the forecasters for the space shuttle and the expendable launch vehicles. Also participating were members of the Applied Meteorology Unit who provide special expertise to the forecasters by analyzing and interpreting unusual or inconsistent weather data. The media were able to see the release of the Rawinsonde weather balloon carrying instruments aloft to be used as part of developing the forecast. Photo credit: NASA/George Shelton

The measurement of collaboration within healthcare settings: a systematic review of measurement properties of instruments.

PubMed

Walters, Stephen John; Stern, Cindy; Robertson-Malt, Suzanne

2016-04-01

There is a growing call by consumers and governments for healthcare to adopt systems and approaches to care to improve patient safety. Collaboration within healthcare settings is an important factor for improving systems of care. By using validated measurement instruments a standardized approach to assessing collaboration is possible, otherwise it is only an assumption that collaboration is occurring in any healthcare setting. The objective of this review was to evaluate and compare measurement properties of instruments that measure collaboration within healthcare settings, specifically those which have been psychometrically tested and validated. Participants could be healthcare professionals, the patient or any non-professional who contributes to a patient's care, for example, family members, chaplains or orderlies. The term participant type means the designation of any one participant; for example 'nurse', 'social worker' or 'administrator'. More than two participant types was mandatory. The focus of this review was the validity of tools used to measure collaboration within healthcare settings. The types of studies considered for inclusion were validation studies, but quantitative study designs such as randomized controlled trials, controlled trials and case studies were also eligible for inclusion. Studies that focused on Interprofessional Education, were published as an abstract only, contained patient self-reporting only or were not about care delivery were excluded. The outcome of interest was validation and interpretability of the instrument being assessed and included content validity, construct validity and reliability. Interpretability is characterized by statistics such as mean and standard deviation which can be translated to a qualitative meaning. The search strategy aimed to find both published and unpublished studies. A three-step search strategy was utilized in this review. The databases searched included PubMed, CINAHL, Embase, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Emerald Fulltext, MD Consult Australia, PsycARTICLES, Psychology and Behavioural Sciences Collection, PsycINFO, Informit Health Databases, Scopus, UpToDate and Web of Science. The search for unpublished studies included EThOS (Electronic Thesis Online Service), Index to Theses and ProQuest- Dissertations and Theses. The assessment of methodological quality of the included studies was undertaken using the COSMIN checklist which is a validated tool that assesses the process of design and validation of healthcare measurement instruments. An Excel spreadsheet version of COSMIN was developed for data collection which included a worksheet for extracting participant characteristics and interpretability data. Statistical pooling of data was not possible for this review. Therefore, the findings are presented in a narrative form including tables and figures to aid in data presentation. To make a synthesis of the assessments of methodological quality of the different studies, each instrument was rated by accounting for the number of studies performed with an instrument, the appraisal of methodological quality and the consistency of results between studies. Twenty-one studies of 12 instruments were included in the review. The studies were diverse in their theoretical underpinnings, target population/setting and measurement objectives. Measurement objectives included: investigating beliefs, behaviors, attitudes, perceptions and relationships associated with collaboration; measuring collaboration between different levels of care or within a multi-rater/target group; assessing collaboration across teams; or assessing internal participation of both teams and patients.Studies produced validity or interpretability data but none of the studies assessed all validity and reliability properties. However, most of the included studies produced a factor structure or referred to prior factor analysis. A narrative synthesis of the individual study factor structures was generated consisting of nine headings: organizational settings, support structures, purpose and goals; communication; reflection on process; cooperation; coordination; role interdependence and partnership; relationships; newly created professional activities; and professional flexibility. Among the many instruments that measure collaboration within healthcare settings, the quality of each instrument varies; instruments are designed for specific populations and purposes, and are validated in various settings. Selecting an instrument requires careful consideration of the qualities of each. Therefore, referring to systematic reviews of measurement properties of instruments may be helpful to clinicians or researchers in instrument selection. Systematic reviews of measurement properties of instruments are valuable in aiding in instrument selection. This systematic review may be useful in instrument selection for the measurement of collaboration within healthcare settings with a complex mix of participant types. Evaluating collaboration provides important information on the strengths and limitations of different healthcare settings and the opportunities for continuous improvement via any remedial actions initiated. Development of a tool that can be used to measure collaboration within teams of healthcare professionals and non-professionals is important for practice. The use of different statistical modelling techniques, such as Item Response Theory modelling and the translation of models into Computer Adaptive Tests, may prove useful. Measurement equivalence is an important consideration for future instrument development and validation. Further development of the COSMIN tool should include appraisal for measurement equivalence. Researchers developing and validating measurement tools should consider multi-method research designs.

Editorial Introduction: Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, Part II

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Petro, Noah E.; Keller, John W.; Gaddis, Lisa R.

2016-01-01

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) mission has shifted our understanding of the history of the Moon. The seven instruments on LRO each have contributed to creating new paradigms for the evolution of the Moon by providing unprecedented measurements of the surface, subsurface, and lunar environment. In this second volume of the LRO Special Issue, we present 21 papers from a broad range of the areas of investigation from LRO, from the volatile inventory, to the shape of the Moon's surface, to its rich volcanic history, and the interactions between the lunar surface and the space environment. These themes provide rich science for the instrument teams, as well as for the broader science com- munity who continue to use the LRO data in their research. Each paper uses publicly available data from one or more instruments on LRO, illustrating the value of a robust spacecraft. For example, the production of high-resolution topographic data products from the LRO Camera Narrow Angle Camera (Henriksen et al., pp. 122-137, this issue) rely on the accurate geodetic grid produced by the LOLA instrument (Mao et al., pp. 55-69, this issue; Smith et al., pp. 70-91, this issue). Additionally, analysis of LRO data coupled with other spacecraft data, such as LADEE (Hurley et al., pp. 31-37, this issue) and GRAIL (e.g., Jozwiak et al., pp. 224-231, this issue) illustrate the utility of merging not only data from multiple instruments, but also multiple orbital platforms. These synergistic studies show the value of the inter-team approach adopted by the LRO mission. This second volume represents the culmination of an extensive effort to highlight the high-quality science still being produced by the LRO instrument teams, even after more than seven years in orbit at the Moon.

Gran Telescopio Canarias Commissioning Instrument Optomechanics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Espejo, Carlos; Cuevas, Salvador; Sanchez, Beatriz; Flores, Ruben; Lara, Gerardo; Farah, Alejandro; Godoy, Javier; Bringas, Vicente; Chavoya, Armando; Dorantes, Ariel; Manuel Montoya, Juan; Rangel, Juan Carlos; Devaney, Nicholas; Castro, Javier; Cavaller, Luis

2003-02-01

Under a contract with the GRANTECAN, the Commissioning Instrument is a project developed by a team of Mexican scientists and engineers from the Instrumentation Department of the Astronomy Institute at the UNAM and the CIDESI Engineering Center. This paper will discuss in some detail the final Commissioning Instrument (CI) mechanical design and fabrication. We will also explain the error budget and the barrels design as well as their thermal compensation. The optical design and the control system are discussed in other papers. The CI will just act as a diagnostic tool for image quality verification during the GTC Commissioning Phase. This phase is a quality control process for achieving, verifying, and documenting the performance of each GTC sub-systems. This is a very important step for the telescope life. It will begin on starting day and will last for a year. The CI project started in December 2000. The critical design phase was reviewed in July 2001. The CI manufacturing is currently in progress and most parts are finished. We are now approaching the factory acceptance stage.

Patient safety and patient assessment in pre-hospital care: a study protocol.

PubMed

Hagiwara, Magnus Andersson; Nilsson, Lena; Strömsöe, Anneli; Axelsson, Christer; Kängström, Anna; Herlitz, Johan

2016-02-12

Patient safety issues in pre-hospital care are poorly investigated. The aim of the planned study is to survey patient safety problems in pre-hospital care in Sweden. The study is a retro-perspective structured medical record review based on the use of 11 screening criteria. Two instruments for structured medical record review are used: a trigger tool instrument designed for pre-hospital care and a newly development instrument designed to compare the pre-hospital assessment with the final hospital assessment. Three different ambulance organisations are participating in the study. Every month, one rater in each organisation randomly collects 30 medical records for review. With guidance from the review instrument, he/she independently reviews the record. Every month, the review team meet for a discussion of problematic reviews. The results will be analysed with descriptive statistics and logistic regression. The findings will make an important contribution to knowledge about patient safety issues in pre-hospital care.

Inspection with Robotic Microscopic Imaging

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pedersen, Liam; Deans, Matthew; Kunz, Clay; Sargent, Randy; Chen, Alan; Mungas, Greg

2005-01-01

Future Mars rover missions will require more advanced onboard autonomy for increased scientific productivity and reduced mission operations cost. One such form of autonomy can be achieved by targeting precise science measurements to be made in a single command uplink cycle. In this paper we present an overview of our solution to the subproblems of navigating a rover into place for microscopic imaging, mapping an instrument target point selected by an operator using far away science camera images to close up hazard camera images, verifying the safety of placing a contact instrument on a sample or finding nearby safe points, and analyzing the data that comes back from the rover. The system developed includes portions used in the Multiple Target Single Cycle Instrument Placement demonstration at NASA Ames in October 2004, and portions of the MI Toolkit delivered to the Athena Microscopic Imager Instrument Team for the MER mission still operating on Mars today. Some of the component technologies are also under consideration for MSL mission infusion.

Research lessons from implementing a national nursing workforce study.

PubMed

Brzostek, T; Brzyski, P; Kózka, M; Squires, A; Przewoźniak, L; Cisek, M; Gajda, K; Gabryś, T; Ogarek, M

2015-09-01

National nursing workforce studies are important for evidence-based policymaking to improve nursing human resources globally. Survey instrument translation and contextual adaptation along with level of experience of the research team are key factors that will influence study implementation and results in countries new to health workforce studies. This study's aim was to describe the pre-data collection instrument adaptation challenges when designing the first national nursing workforce study in Poland while participating in the Nurse Forecasting: Human Resources Planning in Nursing project. A descriptive analysis of the pre-data collection phase of the study. Instrument adaptation was conducted through a two-phase content validity indexing process and pilot testing from 2009 to September 2010 in preparation for primary study implementation in December 2010. Means of both content validation phases were compared with pilot study results to assess for significant patterns in the data. The initial review demonstrated that the instrument had poor level of cross-cultural relevance and multiple translation issues. After revising the translation and re-evaluating using the same process, instrument scores improved significantly. Pilot study results showed floor and ceiling effects on relevance score correlations in each phase of the study. The cross-cultural adaptation process was developed specifically for this study and is, therefore, new. It may require additional replication to further enhance the method. The approach used by the Polish team helped identify potential problems early in the study. The critical step improved the rigour of the results and improved comparability for between countries analyses, conserving both money and resources. This approach is advised for cross-cultural adaptation of instruments to be used in national nursing workforce studies. Countries seeking to conduct national nursing workforce surveys to improve nursing human resources policies may find the insights provided by this paper useful to guide national level nursing workforce study implementation. © 2015 International Council of Nurses.

Twenty-Five Years of Landsat Thermal Band Calibration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Barsi, Julia A.; Markham, Brian L.; Schoff, John R.; Hook, Simon J.; Raqueno, Nina G.

2010-01-01

Landsat-7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper+ (ETM+), launched in April 1999, and Landsat-5 Thematic Mapper (TM), launched in 1984, both have a single thermal band. Both instruments thermal band calibrations have been updated previously: ETM+ in 2001 for a pre-launch calibration error and TM in 2007 for data acquired since the current era of vicarious calibration has been in place (1999). Vicarious calibration teams at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) and NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) have been working to validate the instrument calibration since 1999. Recent developments in their techniques and sites have expanded the temperature and temporal range of the validation. The new data indicate that the calibration of both instruments had errors: the ETM+ calibration contained a gain error of 5.8% since launch; the TM calibration contained a gain error of 5% and an additional offset error between 1997 and 1999. Both instruments required adjustments in their thermal calibration coefficients in order to correct for the errors. The new coefficients were calculated and added to the Landsat operational processing system in early 2010. With the corrections, both instruments are calibrated to within +/-0.7K.

Development of EOS-aided procedures for the determination of the water balance of hydrologic budget of a large watershed

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Congalton, Russell G.; Thomas, Randall W.; Zinke, Paul J.

1986-01-01

Work focused on the acquisition of remotely sensed data for the 1985 to 1986 hydrogolic year; continuation of the field measurement program; continued acquisition and construction of passive microwave remote sensing instruments; a compilation of data necessary for an initial water balance computation; and participation with the EOS Simulataneity Team in reviewing the Feather River watershed as a possible site for a simultaneity experiment.

Mitigating the Impact of Nurse Manager Large Spans of Control.

PubMed

Simpson, Brenda Baird; Dearmon, Valorie; Graves, Rebecca

Nurse managers are instrumental in achievement of organizational and unit performance goals. Greater spans of control for managers are associated with decreased satisfaction and performance. An interprofessional team measured one organization's nurse manager span of control, providing administrative assistant support and transformational leadership development to nurse managers with the largest spans of control. Nurse manager satisfaction and transformational leadership competency significantly improved following the implementation of large span of control mitigation strategies.

Extending Team Software Process (TSP) to Systems Engineering: A NAVAIR Experience Report

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-03-01

instrumental in formulating the concepts and approaches presented in this report: Dan Burton, Anita Carleton, Timothy Chick, Mike Fehring, Watts Humphrey ...Senate,” GAO-04-393, Defense Acquisitions, 2004. http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d04393.pdf [ Humphrey 06] W. S . Humphrey , TSP: Leading a Development... Humphrey 08] W. S . Humphrey , “The Process Revolution,” CrossTalk The Journal of Defense Software Engineering, August 2008, Volume 28 Number 8

Investigation of magnetization reversal process in pinned CoFeB thin film by in-situ Lorentz TEM

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pei, Ke; Xia, Wei-Xing; Wang, Bao-Min; Wen, Xing-Cheng; Sheng, Ping; Liu, Jia-Ping; Liu, Xin-Cai; Li, Run-Wei

2018-04-01

Not Available Project supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2016YFA0201102), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51571208), the Instrument Developing Project of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. YZ201536), the Program for Key Science and Technology Innovation Team of Zhejiang Province, China (Grant No. 2013TD08), the K C Wong Education Foundation (Grant No. rczx0800), and the K C Wong Magna Fund in Ningbo University.

An interferometer for high-resolution optical surveillance from geostationary orbit

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bonino, L.; Bresciani, F.; Piasini, G.; Flebus, C.; Lecat, J.-H.; Roose, S.; Pisani, M.; Cabral, A.; Rebordão, J.; Proença, C.; Costal, J.; Lima, P. U.; Loix, N.; Musso, F.

2017-11-01

The activities described in this paper have been developed in the frame of the EUCLID CEPA 9 RTP 9.9 "High Resolution Optical Satellite Sensor" project of the WEAO Research Cell. They have been focused on the definition of an interferometric instrument optimised for the high-resolution optical surveillance from geostationary orbit (GEO) by means of the synthetic aperture technique, and on the definition and development of the related enabling technologies. In this paper we describe the industrial team, the selected mission specifications and overview of the whole design and manufacturing activities performed.

NASA employee utilizes Virtual Reality (VR) equipment

NASA Image and Video Library

1991-10-28

S91-50404 (1 Nov 1991) --- Bebe Ly of the Information Systems Directorate's (ISD) Software Technology Branch at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) gives virtual reality a try. The stereo video goggles and head[phones allow her to see and hear in a computer-generated world and the gloves allow her to move around and grasp objects. Ly is a member of the team that developed the C Language Integrated production System (CLIPS) which has been instrumental in developing several of the systems to be demonstrated in an upcoming Software Technology Exposition at JSC.

Langley 16- Ft. Transonic Tunnel Pressure Sensitive Paint System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sprinkle, Danny R.; Obara, Clifford J.; Amer, Tahani R.; Leighty, Bradley D.; Carmine, Michael T.; Sealey, Bradley S.; Burkett, Cecil G.

2001-01-01

This report describes the NASA Langley 16-Ft. Transonic Tunnel Pressure Sensitive Paint (PSP) System and presents results of a test conducted June 22-23, 2000 in the tunnel to validate the PSP system. The PSP system provides global surface pressure measurements on wind tunnel models. The system was developed and installed by PSP Team personnel of the Instrumentation Systems Development Branch and the Advanced Measurement and Diagnostics Branch. A discussion of the results of the validation test follows a description of the system and a description of the test.

A competency framework for librarians involved in systematic reviews.

PubMed

Townsend, Whitney A; Anderson, Patricia F; Ginier, Emily C; MacEachern, Mark P; Saylor, Kate M; Shipman, Barbara L; Smith, Judith E

2017-07-01

The project identified a set of core competencies for librarians who are involved in systematic reviews. A team of seven informationists with broad systematic review experience examined existing systematic review standards, conducted a literature search, and used their own expertise to identify core competencies and skills that are necessary to undertake various roles in systematic review projects. The team identified a total of six competencies for librarian involvement in systematic reviews: "Systematic review foundations," "Process management and communication," "Research methodology," "Comprehensive searching," "Data management," and "Reporting." Within each competency are the associated skills and knowledge pieces (indicators). Competence can be measured using an adaptation of Miller's Pyramid for Clinical Assessment, either through self-assessment or identification of formal assessment instruments. The Systematic Review Competencies Framework provides a standards-based, flexible way for librarians and organizations to identify areas of competence and areas in need of development to build capacity for systematic review integration. The framework can be used to identify or develop appropriate assessment tools and to target skill development opportunities.

Deep Space Habitat Wireless Smart Plug

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Morgan, Joseph A.; Porter, Jay; Rojdev, Kristina; Carrejo, Daniel B.; Colozza, Anthony J.

2014-01-01

NASA has been interested in technology development for deep space exploration, and one avenue of developing these technologies is via the eXploration Habitat (X-Hab) Academic Innovation Challenge. In 2013, NASA's Deep Space Habitat (DSH) project was in need of sensors that could monitor the power consumption of various devices in the habitat with added capability to control the power to these devices for load shedding in emergency situations. Texas A&M University's Electronic Systems Engineering Technology Program (ESET) in conjunction with their Mobile Integrated Solutions Laboratory (MISL) accepted this challenge, and over the course of 2013, several undergraduate students in a Capstone design course developed five wireless DC Smart Plugs for NASA. The wireless DC Smart Plugs developed by Texas A&M in conjunction with NASA's Deep Space Habitat team is a first step in developing wireless instrumentation for future flight hardware. This paper will further discuss the X-Hab challenge and requirements set out by NASA, the detailed design and testing performed by Texas A&M, challenges faced by the team and lessons learned, and potential future work on this design.

Next generation laser-based standoff spectroscopy techniques for Mars exploration.

PubMed

Gasda, Patrick J; Acosta-Maeda, Tayro E; Lucey, Paul G; Misra, Anupam K; Sharma, Shiv K; Taylor, G Jeffrey

2015-01-01

In the recent Mars 2020 Rover Science Definition Team Report, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has sought the capability to detect and identify elements, minerals, and most importantly, biosignatures, at fine scales for the preparation of a retrievable cache of samples. The current Mars rover, the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity, has a remote laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) instrument, a type of quantitative elemental analysis, called the Chemistry Camera (ChemCam) that has shown that laser-induced spectroscopy instruments are not only feasible for space exploration, but are reliable and complementary to traditional elemental analysis instruments such as the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer. The superb track record of ChemCam has paved the way for other laser-induced spectroscopy instruments, such as Raman and fluorescence spectroscopy. We have developed a prototype remote LIBS-Raman-fluorescence instrument, Q-switched laser-induced time-resolved spectroscopy (QuaLITy), which is approximately 70 000 times more efficient at recording signals than a commercially available LIBS instrument. The increase in detection limits and sensitivity is due to our development of a directly coupled system, the use of an intensified charge-coupled device image detector, and a pulsed laser that allows for time-resolved measurements. We compare the LIBS capabilities of our system with an Ocean Optics spectrometer instrument at 7 m and 5 m distance. An increase in signal-to-noise ratio of at least an order of magnitude allows for greater quantitative analysis of the elements in a LIBS spectrum with 200-300 μm spatial resolution at 7 m, a Raman instrument capable of 1 mm spatial resolution at 3 m, and bioorganic fluorescence detection at longer distances. Thus, the new QuaLITy instrument fulfills all of the NASA expectations for proposed instruments.

Micro-Arcsec mission: implications of the monitoring, diagnostic and calibration of the instrument response in the data reduction chain. .

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Busonero, D.; Gai, M.

The goals of 21st century high angular precision experiments rely on the limiting performance associated to the selected instrumental configuration and observational strategy. Both global and narrow angle micro-arcsec space astrometry require that the instrument contributions to the overall error budget has to be less than the desired micro-arcsec level precision. Appropriate modelling of the astrometric response is required for optimal definition of the data reduction and calibration algorithms, in order to ensure high sensitivity to the astrophysical source parameters and in general high accuracy. We will refer to the framework of the SIM-Lite and the Gaia mission, the most challenging space missions of the next decade in the narrow angle and global astrometry field, respectively. We will focus our dissertation on the Gaia data reduction issues and instrument calibration implications. We describe selected topics in the framework of the Astrometric Instrument Modelling for the Gaia mission, evidencing their role in the data reduction chain and we give a brief overview of the Astrometric Instrument Model Data Analysis Software System, a Java-based pipeline under development by our team.

Data management and scientific integration within the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gracio, Deborah K.; Hatfield, Larry D.; Yates, Kenneth R.; Voyles, Jimmy W.; Tichler, Joyce L.; Cederwall, Richard T.; Laufersweiler, Mark J.; Leach, Martin J.; Singley, Paul

1995-01-01

The Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program has been developed by the U.S. Department of Energy with the goal to improve the predictive capabilities of General Circulation Models (GCM's) in their treatment of clouds and radiative transfer effects. To achieve this goal, three experimental testbeds were designed for the deployment of instruments that will collect atmospheric data used to drive the GCM's. Each site, known as a Cloud and Radiation Testbed (CART), consists of a highly available, redundant data system for the collection of data from a variety of instrumentation. The first CART site was deployed in April 1992 in the Southern Great Plains (SGP), Lamont, Oklahoma, with the other two sites to follow in September 1995 in the Tropical Western Pacific and in 1997 on the North Slope of Alaska. Approximately 400 MB of data are transferred per day via the Internet from the SGP site to the ARM Experiment Center at Pacific Northwest Laboratory in Richland, Washington. The Experiment Center is central to the ARM data path and provides for the collection, processing, analysis, and delivery of ARM data. Data are received from the CART sites from a variety of instrumentation, observational systems, amd external data sources. The Experiment Center processes these data streams on a continuous basis to provide derived data products to the ARM Science Team in near real-time while providing a three-month running archive of data. A primary requirement of the ARM Program is to preserve and protect all data produced or acquired. This function is performed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory where leading edge technology is employed for the long-term storage of ARM data. The ARM Archive provides access to data for participation outside of the ARM Program. The ARM Program involves a collaborative effort by teams from various DOE National Laboratories, providing multi-disciplinary areas of expertise. This paper will discuss the collaborative methods in which the ARM teams translate the scientific goals of the Program into data products. By combining atmospheric scientists, systems engineers, and software engineers, the ARM Program has successfully designed and developed an environment where advances in understanding the parameterizations of GCM's can be made.

Process evaluation of two participatory approaches: Implementing total worker health® interventions in a correctional workforce.

PubMed

Dugan, Alicia G; Farr, Dana A; Namazi, Sara; Henning, Robert A; Wallace, Kelly N; El Ghaziri, Mazen; Punnett, Laura; Dussetschleger, Jeffrey L; Cherniack, Martin G

2016-10-01

Correctional Officers (COs) have among the highest injury rates and poorest health of all the public safety occupations. The HITEC-2 (Health Improvement Through Employee Control-2) study uses Participatory Action Research (PAR) to design and implement interventions to improve health and safety of COs. HITEC-2 compared two different types of participatory program, a CO-only "Design Team" (DT) and "Kaizen Event Teams" (KET) of COs and supervisors, to determine differences in implementation process and outcomes. The Program Evaluation Rating Sheet (PERS) was developed to document and evaluate program implementation. Both programs yielded successful and unsuccessful interventions, dependent upon team-, facility-, organizational, state-, facilitator-, and intervention-level factors. PAR in corrections, and possibly other sectors, depends upon factors including participation, leadership, continuity and timing, resilience, and financial circumstances. The new PERS instrument may be useful in other sectors to assist in assessing intervention success. Am. J. Ind. Med. 59:897-918, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Measuring the learning capacity of organisations: development and factor analysis of the Questionnaire for Learning Organizations.

PubMed

Oudejans, S C C; Schippers, G M; Schramade, M H; Koeter, M W J; van den Brink, W

2011-04-01

To investigate internal consistency and factor structure of a questionnaire measuring learning capacity based on Senge's theory of the five disciplines of a learning organisation: Personal Mastery, Mental Models, Shared Vision, Team Learning, and Systems Thinking. Cross-sectional study. Substance-abuse treatment centres (SATCs) in The Netherlands. A total of 293 SATC employees from outpatient and inpatient treatment departments, financial and human resources departments. Psychometric properties of the Questionnaire for Learning Organizations (QLO), including factor structure, internal consistency, and interscale correlations. A five-factor model representing the five disciplines of Senge showed good fit. The scales for Personal Mastery, Shared Vision and Team Learning had good internal consistency, but the scales for Systems Thinking and Mental Models had low internal consistency. The proposed five-factor structure was confirmed in the QLO, which makes it a promising instrument to assess learning capacity in teams. The Systems Thinking and the Mental Models scales have to be revised. Future research should be aimed at testing criterion and discriminatory validity.

Suomi Npp and Jpss Pre-Launch Test Data Collection and Archive

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Denning, M.; Ullman, R.; Guenther, B.; Kilcoyne, H.; Chandler, C.; Adameck, J.

2012-12-01

During the development of each Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP) instrument, significant testing was performed, both in ambient and simulated orbital (thermal-vacuum) conditions, at the instrument factory, and again after integration with the spacecraft. The NPOESS Integrated Program Office (IPO), and later the NASA Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) Program Office, defined two primary objectives with respect to capturing instrument and spacecraft test data during these test events. The first objective was to disseminate test data and auxiliary documentation to an often distributed network of scientists to permit timely production of independent assessments of instrument performance, calibration, data quality, and test progress. The second goal was to preserve the data and documentation in a catalogued government archive for the life of the mission, to aid in the resolution of anomalies and to facilitate the comparison of on-orbit instrument operating characteristics to those observed prior to launch. In order to meet these objectives, Suomi NPP pre-launch test data collection, distribution, processing, and archive methods included adaptable support infrastructures to quickly and completely transfer test data and documentation from the instrument and spacecraft factories to sensor scientist teams on-site at the factory and around the country. These methods were unique, effective, and low in cost. These efforts supporting pre-launch instrument calibration permitted timely data quality assessments and technical feedback from contributing organizations within the government, academia, and industry, and were critical in supporting timely sensor development. Second, in parallel to data distribution to the sensor science teams, pre-launch test data were transferred and ingested into the central Suomi NPP calibration and validation (cal/val) system, known as the Government Resource for Algorithm Verification, Independent Testing, and Evaluation (GRAVITE), where they will reside for the life of the mission. As a result, data and documentation are available for query, analysis, and download by the cal/val community via the command-line GRAVITE Transfer Protocol (GTP) tool or via the NOAA-collaborative website "CasaNOSA". Instrument and spacecraft test data, telemetry, and ground support equipment information were collected and organized with detailed test procedures, logs, analyses, characterizations, and reports. This 45 Terabyte archive facilitates the comparison of on-orbit Suomi NPP operating characteristics with that observed prior to launch, and will serve as a resource to aid in the assessment of pre-launch JPSS-1 sensor performance. In summary, this paper will present the innovative pre-launch test data campaign infrastructures employed for Suomi NPP and planned for JPSS-1.

Measurement Properties of Questionnaires Measuring Continuity of Care: A Systematic Review

PubMed Central

Uijen, Annemarie A.; Heinst, Claire W.; Schellevis, Francois G.; van den Bosch, Wil J.H.M.; van de Laar, Floris A.; Terwee, Caroline B.; Schers, Henk J.

2012-01-01

Background Continuity of care is widely acknowledged as a core value in family medicine. In this systematic review, we aimed to identify the instruments measuring continuity of care and to assess the quality of their measurement properties. Methods We did a systematic review using the PubMed, Embase and PsycINFO databases, with an extensive search strategy including ‘continuity of care’, ‘coordination of care’, ‘integration of care’, ‘patient centered care’, ‘case management’ and its linguistic variations. We searched from 1995 to October 2011 and included articles describing the development and/or evaluation of the measurement properties of instruments measuring one or more dimensions of continuity of care (1) care from the same provider who knows and follows the patient (personal continuity), (2) communication and cooperation between care providers in one care setting (team continuity), and (3) communication and cooperation between care providers in different care settings (cross-boundary continuity). We assessed the methodological quality of the measurement properties of each instrument using the COSMIN checklist. Results We included 24 articles describing the development and/or evaluation of 21 instruments. Ten instruments measured all three dimensions of continuity of care. Instruments were developed for different groups of patients or providers. For most instruments, three or four of the six measurement properties were assessed (mostly internal consistency, content validity, structural validity and construct validity). Six instruments scored positive on the quality of at least three of six measurement properties. Conclusions Most included instruments have problems with either the number or quality of its assessed measurement properties or the ability to measure all three dimensions of continuity of care. Based on the results of this review, we recommend the use of one of the four most promising instruments, depending on the target population Diabetes Continuity of Care Questionnaire, Alberta Continuity of Services Scale-Mental Health, Heart Continuity of Care Questionnaire, and Nijmegen Continuity Questionnaire. PMID:22860100

The Society for Implementation Research Collaboration Instrument Review Project: a methodology to promote rigorous evaluation.

PubMed

Lewis, Cara C; Stanick, Cameo F; Martinez, Ruben G; Weiner, Bryan J; Kim, Mimi; Barwick, Melanie; Comtois, Katherine A

2015-01-08

Identification of psychometrically strong instruments for the field of implementation science is a high priority underscored in a recent National Institutes of Health working meeting (October 2013). Existing instrument reviews are limited in scope, methods, and findings. The Society for Implementation Research Collaboration Instrument Review Project's objectives address these limitations by identifying and applying a unique methodology to conduct a systematic and comprehensive review of quantitative instruments assessing constructs delineated in two of the field's most widely used frameworks, adopt a systematic search process (using standard search strings), and engage an international team of experts to assess the full range of psychometric criteria (reliability, construct and criterion validity). Although this work focuses on implementation of psychosocial interventions in mental health and health-care settings, the methodology and results will likely be useful across a broad spectrum of settings. This effort has culminated in a centralized online open-access repository of instruments depicting graphical head-to-head comparisons of their psychometric properties. This article describes the methodology and preliminary outcomes. The seven stages of the review, synthesis, and evaluation methodology include (1) setting the scope for the review, (2) identifying frameworks to organize and complete the review, (3) generating a search protocol for the literature review of constructs, (4) literature review of specific instruments, (5) development of an evidence-based assessment rating criteria, (6) data extraction and rating instrument quality by a task force of implementation experts to inform knowledge synthesis, and (7) the creation of a website repository. To date, this multi-faceted and collaborative search and synthesis methodology has identified over 420 instruments related to 34 constructs (total 48 including subconstructs) that are relevant to implementation science. Despite numerous constructs having greater than 20 available instruments, which implies saturation, preliminary results suggest that few instruments stem from gold standard development procedures. We anticipate identifying few high-quality, psychometrically sound instruments once our evidence-based assessment rating criteria have been applied. The results of this methodology may enhance the rigor of implementation science evaluations by systematically facilitating access to psychometrically validated instruments and identifying where further instrument development is needed.

INSTRUMENT FOR EVALUATING A DEPARTMENT OF VOCATIONAL AGRICULTURE.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pennsylvania State Dept. of Public Instruction, Harrisburg. Agricultural Education Section.

AN EVALUATION TEAM MAY USE THIS INSTRUMENT IN IDENTIFYING STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES IN A DEPARTMENT OF VOCATIONAL AGRICULTURE. INSTRUCTIONS ON PREPARING FOR THE EVALUATION, INVITING PARTICIPANTS, AND DISTRIBUTING SUMMARIES ARE INCLUDED. SECTIONS ARE INCLUDED FOR DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF THE PROGRAM--(1) MAINTAINING RELATIONSHIPS WITH THE SCHOOL…

Adaptation and testing of instruments to measure cervical cancer screening factors among Vietnamese immigrant women.

PubMed

Nguyen-Truong, Connie K Y; Leo, Michael C; Lee-Lin, Frances; Gedaly-Duff, Vivian; Nail, Lillian M; Gregg, Jessica; Le, Tuong Vy; Tran, Tuyen

2015-05-01

Vietnamese American women diagnosed with cervical cancer are more likely to have advanced cancer than non-Hispanic White women. We sought to (a) develop a culturally sensitive Vietnamese translation of the Revised Susceptibility, Benefits, and Barriers Scale; Cultural Barriers to Screening Inventory; Confidentiality Issues Scale; and Quality of Care from the Health Care System Scale and (b) examine the psychometric properties. Cross-sectional study with 201 Vietnamese immigrant women from the Portland, Oregon, metropolitan area. We used a community-based participatory research approach and the U.S. Census Bureau's team approach to translation. Cronbach's alpha ranged from .57 to .91. The incremental fit index ranged from .83 to .88. The instruments demonstrated moderate to strong subscale internal consistency. Further research to assess structural validity is needed. Our approaches to translation and psychometric examination support use of the instruments in Vietnamese immigrant women. © The Author(s) 2014.

100+ years of instrumental seismology: the example of the ISC-GEM Global Earthquake Instrumental Catalogue

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Storchak, Dmitry; Di Giacomo, Domenico

2015-04-01

Systematic seismological observations of earthquakes using seismic instruments on a global scale began more than 100 years ago. Since then seismologists made many discoveries about the Earth interior and the physics of the earthquakes, also thanks to major developments in the seismic instrumentation deployed around the world. Besides, since the establishment of the first global networks (Milne and Jesuit networks), seismologists around the world stored and exchanged the results of routine observations (e.g., picking of arrival times, amplitude-period measurements, etc.) or more sophisticated analyses (e.g., moment tensor inversion) in seismological bulletins/catalogues. With a project funded by the GEM Foundation (www.globalquakemodel.org), the ISC and the Team of International Experts released a new global earthquake catalogue, the ISC-GEM Global Instrumental Earthquake Catalogue (1900 2009) (www.isc.ac.uk/iscgem/index.php), which, differently from previous global seismic catalogues, has the unique feature of covering the entire period of instrumental seismology with locations and magnitude re-assessed using modern approaches for the global earthquakes selected for processing (in the current version approximately 21,000). During the 110 years covered by the ISC-GEM catalogue many seismological developments occurred in terms of instrumentation, seismological practice and knowledge of the physics of the earthquakes. In this contribution we give a brief overview of the major milestones characterizing the last 100+ years of instrumental seismology that were relevant for the production of the ISC-GEM catalogue and the major challenges we faced to obtain a catalogue as homogenous as possible.

Learning Team Breach of a Posted Barricade to Connect an Instrument to Power

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

Wilburn, Dianne Williams

On February 15, 2017, a DESHF-STO HPFC (health physics field coordinator) was asked by an NEN-1 employee if they could move an instrument, a radiation dosimetry system, from A166A to another lab at TA-35 Building 2. The HPFC walked the job down and discovered the instrument was connected to power. The instrument had not been connected to power previously. See photo 1. The instrument is located within an RCA (radiological control area). Entry to connect the instrument to power the instrument requires contacting RP. RP personnel had not been contacted as required as stated in the RCA posting.

Science Planning and Orbit Classification for Solar Probe Plus

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kusterer, M. B.; Fox, N. J.; Rodgers, D. J.; Turner, F. S.

2016-12-01

There are a number of challenges for the Science Planning Team (SPT) of the Solar Probe Plus (SPP) Mission. Since SPP is using a decoupled payload operations approach, tight coordination between the mission operations and payload teams will be required. The payload teams must manage the volume of data that they write to the spacecraft solid-state recorders (SSR) for their individual instruments for downlink to the ground. Making this process more difficult, the geometry of the celestial bodies and the spacecraft during some of the SPP mission orbits cause limited uplink and downlink opportunities. The payload teams will also be required to coordinate power on opportunities, command uplink opportunities, and data transfers from instrument memory to the spacecraft SSR with the operation team. The SPT also intend to coordinate observations with other spacecraft and ground based systems. To solve these challenges, detailed orbit activity planning is required in advance for each orbit. An orbit planning process is being created to facilitate the coordination of spacecraft and payload activities for each orbit. An interactive Science Planning Tool is being designed to integrate the payload data volume and priority allocations, spacecraft ephemeris, attitude, downlink and uplink schedules, spacecraft and payload activities, and other spacecraft ephemeris. It will be used during science planning to select the instrument data priorities and data volumes that satisfy the orbit data volume constraints and power on, command uplink and data transfer time periods. To aid in the initial stages of science planning we have created an orbit classification scheme based on downlink availability and significant science events. Different types of challenges arise in the management of science data driven by orbital geometry and operational constraints, and this scheme attempts to identify the patterns that emerge.

Autonomy for SOHO Ground Operations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Truszkowski, Walt; Netreba, Nick; Ginn, Don; Mandutianu, Sanda; Obenschain, Arthur F. (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

The SOLAR and HELIOSPHERIC OBSERVATORY (SOHO) project [SOHO Web Page] is being carried out by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as a cooperative effort between the two agencies in the framework of the Solar Terrestrial Science Program (STSP) comprising SOHO and other missions. SOHO was launched on December 2, 1995. The SOHO spacecraft was built in Europe by an industry team led by Matra, and instruments were provided by European and American scientists. There are nine European Principal Investigators (PI's) and three American ones. Large engineering teams and more than 200 co-investigators from many institutions support the PI's in the development of the instruments and in the preparation of their operations and data analysis. NASA is responsible for the launch and mission operations. Large radio dishes around the world, which form NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN), are used to track the spacecraft beyond the Earths orbit. Mission control is based at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. The agent group at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, in collaboration with JPL, is currently involved with the design and development of an agent-based system to provide intelligent interactions with the control center personnel for SOHO. The basic approach that is being taken is to develop a sub-community of agents for each major subsystem of SOHO and to integrate these sub-communities into an overall SOHO community. Agents in all sub-communities will be capable of advanced understanding (deep reasoning) of the associated spacecraft subsystem.

The effect of participation in an extended inquiry project on general chemistry student laboratory interactions, confidence, and process skills

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Krystyniak, Rebecca A.

2001-12-01

This study explored the effect of participation by second-semester general chemistry students in an extended open-inquiry laboratory investigation on their use of science process skills and confidence in performing specific aspects of laboratory investigations. In addition, verbal interactions of a student lab team among team members and with their instructor over three open-inquiry laboratory sessions and two non-inquiry sessions were investigated. Instruments included the Test of Integrated Skills (TIPS), a 36-item multiple-choice instrument, and the Chemistry Laboratory Survey (CLS), a researcher co-designed 20-item 8-point instrument. Instruments were administered at the beginning and close of the semester to 157 second-semester general chemistry students at the two universities; students at only one university participated in open-inquiry activity. A MANCOVA was performed to investigate relationships among control and experimental students, TIPS, and CLS post-test scores. Covariates were TIPS and CLS pre-test scores and prior high school and college science experience. No significant relationships were found. Wilcoxen analyses indicated both groups showed increase in confidence; experimental-group students with below-average TIPS pre-test scores showed a significant increase in science process skills. Transcribed audio tapes of all laboratory-based verbal interactions were analyzed. Coding categories, developed using the constant comparison method, led to an inter-rater reliability of .96. During open-inquiry activities, the lab team interacted less often, sought less guidance from their instructor, and talked less about chemistry concepts than during non-inquiry activities. Evidence confirmed that students used science process skills and engaged in higher-order thinking during both types of activities. A four-student focus shared their experiences with open-inquiry activities, indicating that they enjoyed the experience, viewed it as worthwhile, and believed it helped them gain understanding of the nature of chemistry research. Research results indicate that participation in open-inquiry laboratory increases student confidence and, for some students, the ability to use science process skills. Evidence documents differences in student laboratory interactions and behavior that are attributable to the type of laboratory experience. Further research into aspects of open-inquiry laboratory experiences is recommended.

Flyover Modeling of Planetary Pits - Undergraduate Student Instrument Project

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bhasin, N.; Whittaker, W.

2015-12-01

On the surface of the moon and Mars there are hundreds of skylights, which are collapsed holes that are believed to lead to underground caves. This research uses Vision, Inertial, and LIDAR sensors to build a high resolution model of a skylight as a landing vehicle flies overhead. We design and fabricate a pit modeling instrument to accomplish this task, implement software, and demonstrate sensing and modeling capability on a suborbital reusable launch vehicle flying over a simulated pit. Future missions on other planets and moons will explore pits and caves, led by the technology developed by this research. Sensor software utilizes modern graph-based optimization techniques to build 3D models using camera, LIDAR, and inertial data. The modeling performance was validated with a test flyover of a planetary skylight analog structure on the Masten Xombie sRLV. The trajectory profile closely follows that of autonomous planetary powered descent, including translational and rotational dynamics as well as shock and vibration. A hexagonal structure made of shipping containers provides a terrain feature that serves as an appropriate analog for the rim and upper walls of a cylindrical planetary skylight. The skylight analog floor, walls, and rim are modeled in elevation with a 96% coverage rate at 0.25m2 resolution. The inner skylight walls have 5.9cm2 color image resolution and the rims are 6.7cm2 with measurement precision superior to 1m. The multidisciplinary student team included students of all experience levels, with backgrounds in robotics, physics, computer science, systems, mechanical and electrical engineering. The team was commited to authentic scientific experimentation, and defined specific instrument requirements and measurable experiment objectives to verify successful completion.This work was made possible by the NASA Undergraduate Student Instrument Project Educational Flight Opportunity 2013 program. Additional support was provided by the sponsorship of an IMU by KVH industries and mentorship was provided by members of the NASA ALHAT team. In addition to external support, this project was supported by two CMU Small Undergraduate Research Grants, the availability of a high-power CMU LIDAR sensor, dedicated workspace, and mentorship from research and shop faculty.

Surface contamination analysis technology team overview

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Burns, H. Dewitt

1995-01-01

A team was established which consisted of representatives from NASA (Marshall Space Flight Center and Langley Research Center), Thiokol Corporation, the University of Alabama in Huntsville, AC Engineering, SAIC, Martin Marietta, and Aerojet. The team's purpose was to bring together the appropriate personnel to determine what surface inspection techniques were applicable to multiprogram bonding surface cleanliness inspection. In order to identify appropriate techniques and their sensitivity to various contaminant families, calibration standards were developed. Producing standards included development of consistent low level contamination application techniques. Oxidation was also considered for effect on inspection equipment response. Ellipsometry was used for oxidation characterization. Verification testing was then accomplished to show that selected inspection techniques could detect subject contaminants at levels found to be detrimental to critical bond systems of interest. Once feasibility of identified techniques was shown, selected techniques and instrumentation could then be incorporated into a multipurpose inspection head and integrated with a robot for critical surface inspection. Inspection techniques currently being evaluated include optically stimulated electron emission (OSEE); near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy utilizing fiber optics; Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy; and ultraviolet (UV) fluorescence. Current plans are to demonstrate an integrated system in MSFC's Productivity Enhancement Complex within five years from initiation of this effort in 1992 assuming appropriate funding levels are maintained. This paper gives an overview of work accomplished by the team and future plans.

Instrumentation for the Characterization of Inflatable Structures

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Swanson, Gregory T.; Cassell, Alan M.; Johnson, R. Keith

2012-01-01

Current entry, descent, and landing technologies are not practical for heavy payloads due to mass and volume constraints dictated by limitations imposed by launch vehicle fairings. Therefore, new technologies are now being explored to provide a mass- and volume-efficient solution for heavy payload capabilities, including Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerators (IAD) [1]. Consideration of IADs for space applications has prompted the development of instrumentation systems for integration with flexible structures to characterize system response to flight-like environment testing. This development opportunity faces many challenges specific to inflatable structures in extreme environments, including but not limited to physical flexibility, packaging, temperature, structural integration and data acquisition [2]. In the spring of 2012, two large scale Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerators (HIAD) will be tested in the National Full-Scale Aerodynamics Complex s 40 by 80 wind tunnel at NASA Ames Research Center. The test series will characterize the performance of a 3.0 m and 6.0 m HIAD at various angles of attack and levels of inflation during flight-like loading. To analyze the performance of these inflatable test articles as they undergo aerodynamic loading, many instrumentation systems have been researched and developed. These systems will utilize new experimental sensing systems developed by the HIAD ground test campaign instrumentation team, in addition to traditional wind tunnel sensing techniques in an effort to improve test article characterization and model validation. During the 2012 test series the instrumentation systems will target inflatable aeroshell static and dynamic deformation, structural strap loading, surface pressure distribution, localized skin deflection, and torus inflation pressure. This paper will offer an overview of inflatable structure instrumentation, and provide detail into the design and implementation of the sensors systems that will be utilized during the 2012 HIAD ground test campaign.

Europa Explorer Operational Scenarios Development

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lock, Robert E.; Pappalardo, Robert T.; Clark, Karla B.

2008-01-01

In 2007, NASA conducted four advanced mission concept studies for outer planets targets: Europa, Ganymede, Titan and Enceladus. The studies were conducted in close cooperation with the planetary science community. Of the four, the Europa Explorer Concept Study focused on refining mission options, science trades and implementation details for a potential flagship mission to Europa in the 2015 timeframe. A science definition team (SDT) was appointed by NASA to guide the study. A JPL-led engineering team worked closely with the science team to address 3 major focus areas: 1) credible cost estimates, 2) rationale and logical discussion of radiation risk and mitigation approaches, and 3) better definition and exploration of science operational scenario trade space. This paper will address the methods and results of the collaborative process used to develop Europa Explorer operations scenarios. Working in concert with the SDT, and in parallel with the SDT's development of a science value matrix, key mission capabilities and constraints were challenged by the science and engineering members of the team. Science goals were advanced and options were considered for observation scenarios. Data collection and return strategies were tested via simulation, and mission performance was estimated and balanced with flight and ground system resources and science priorities. The key to this successful collaboration was a concurrent development environment in which all stakeholders could rapidly assess the feasibility of strategies for their success in the full system context. Issues of science and instrument compatibility, system constraints, and mission opportunities were treated analytically and objectively leading to complementary strategies for observation and data return. Current plans are that this approach, as part of the system engineering process, will continue as the Europa Explorer Concept Study moves toward becoming a development project.

Quality of leadership in multidisciplinary cancer tumor boards: development and evaluation of a leadership assessment instrument (ATLAS).

PubMed

Jalil, Rozh; Soukup, Tayana; Akhter, Waseem; Sevdalis, Nick; Green, James S A

2018-03-03

High-quality leadership and chairing skills are vital for good performance in multidisciplinary tumor boards (MTBs), but no instruments currently exist for assessing and improving these skills. To construct and validate a robust instrument for assessment of MTB leading and chairing skills. We developed an observational MTB leadership assessment instrument (ATLAS). ATLAS includes 12 domains that assess the leadership and chairing skills of the MTB chairperson. ATLAS has gone through a rigorous process of refinement and content validation prior to use to assess the MTB lead by two urological surgeons (blinded to each other) in 7 real-live (n = 286 cases) and 10 video-recorded (n = 131 cases) MTBs. ATLAS domains were analyzed via descriptive statistics. Instrument content was evaluated for validity using the content validation index (CVI). Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) were used to assess inter-observer reliability. Instrument refining resulted in ATLAS including the following 12 domains: time management, communication, encouraging contribution, ability to summarize, ensuring all patients have treatment plan, case prioritization, keeping meeting focused, facilitate discussion, conflict management, leadership, creating good working atmosphere, and recruitment for clinical trials. CVI was acceptable and inter-rater agreement adequate to high for all domains. Agreement was somewhat higher in real-time MTBs compared to video ratings. Concurrent validation evidence was derived via positive and significant correlations between ATLAS and an established validated brief MTB leadership assessment scale. ATLAS is an observational assessment instrument that can be reliably used for assessing leadership and chairing skills in cancer MTBs (both live and video-recorded). The ability to assess and feedback on team leader performance provides the ground for promotion of good practice and continuing professional development of tumor board leaders.

Association of a Surgical Task During Training With Team Skill Acquisition Among Surgical Residents: The Missing Piece in Multidisciplinary Team Training.

PubMed

Sparks, Jessica L; Crouch, Dustin L; Sobba, Kathryn; Evans, Douglas; Zhang, Jing; Johnson, James E; Saunders, Ian; Thomas, John; Bodin, Sarah; Tonidandel, Ashley; Carter, Jeff; Westcott, Carl; Martin, R Shayn; Hildreth, Amy

2017-09-01

The human patient simulators that are currently used in multidisciplinary operating room team training scenarios cannot simulate surgical tasks because they lack a realistic surgical anatomy. Thus, they eliminate the surgeon's primary task in the operating room. The surgical trainee is presented with a significant barrier when he or she attempts to suspend disbelief and engage in the scenario. To develop and test a simulation-based operating room team training strategy that challenges the communication abilities and teamwork competencies of surgeons while they are engaged in realistic operative maneuvers. This pre-post educational intervention pilot study compared the gains in teamwork skills for midlevel surgical residents at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center after they participated in a standardized multidisciplinary team training scenario with 3 possible levels of surgical realism: (1) SimMan (Laerdal) (control group, no surgical anatomy); (2) "synthetic anatomy for surgical tasks" mannequin (medium-fidelity anatomy), and (3) a patient simulated by a deceased donor (high-fidelity anatomy). Participation in the simulation scenario and the subsequent debriefing. Teamwork competency was assessed using several instruments with extensive validity evidence, including the Nontechnical Skills assessment, the Trauma Management Skills scoring system, the Crisis Resource Management checklist, and a self-efficacy survey instrument. Participant satisfaction was assessed with a Likert-scale questionnaire. Scenario participants included midlevel surgical residents, anesthesia providers, scrub nurses, and circulating nurses. Statistical models showed that surgical residents exposed to medium-fidelity simulation (synthetic anatomy for surgical tasks) team training scenarios demonstrated greater gains in teamwork skills compared with control groups (SimMan) (Nontechnical Skills video score: 95% CI, 1.06-16.41; Trauma Management Skills video score: 95% CI, 0.61-2.90) and equivalent gains in teamwork skills compared with high-fidelity simulations (deceased donor) (Nontechnical Skills video score: 95% CI, -8.51 to 6.71; Trauma Management Skills video score: 95% CI, -1.70 to 0.49). Including a surgical task in operating room team training significantly enhanced the acquisition of teamwork skills among midlevel surgical residents. Incorporating relatively inexpensive, medium-fidelity synthetic anatomy in human patient simulators was as effective as using high-fidelity anatomies from deceased donors for promoting teamwork skills in this learning group.

Providing Data Management Support to NASA Airborne Field Studies through Streamlined Usability Design

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Beach, A. L., III; Northup, E. A.; Early, A. B.; Chen, G.

2016-12-01

Airborne field studies are an effective way to gain a detailed understanding of atmospheric processes for scientific research on climate change and air quality relevant issues. One major function of airborne project data management is to maintain seamless data access within the science team. This allows individual instrument principal investigators (PIs) to process and validate their own data, which requires analysis of data sets from other PIs (or instruments). The project's web platform streamlines data ingest, distribution processes, and data format validation. In May 2016, the NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) Atmospheric Science Data Center (ASDC) developed a new data management capability to help support the Korea U.S.-Air Quality (KORUS-AQ) science team. This effort is aimed at providing direct NASA Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC) support to an airborne field study. Working closely with the science team, the ASDC developed a scalable architecture that allows investigators to easily upload and distribute their data and documentation within a secure collaborative environment. The user interface leverages modern design elements to intuitively guide the PI through each step of the data management process. In addition, the new framework creates an abstraction layer between how the data files are stored and how the data itself is organized(i.e. grouping files by PI). This approach makes it easy for PIs to simply transfer their data to one directory, while the system itself can automatically group/sort data as needed. Moreover, the platform is "server agnostic" to a certain degree, making deployment and customization more straightforward as hardware needs change. This flexible design will improve development efficiency and can be leveraged for future field campaigns. This presentation will examine the KORUS-AQ data portal as a scalable solution that applies consistent and intuitive usability design practices to support ingest and management of airborne data.

The ceilometer inter-comparison campaign CeiLinEx2015

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mattis, Ina; Begbie, Robert; Boyouk, Neda; Bravo-Aranda, Juan Antonio; Brettle, Mike; Cermak, Jan; Drouin, Marc-Antoine; Geiß, Alexander; Görsdorf, Ulrich; Haefele, Alexander; Haeffelin, Martial; Hervo, Maxime; Komínková, Kateřina; Leinweber, Ronny; Müller, Gerhard; Münkel, Christoph; Pattantyús-Ábrahám, Margit; Pönitz, Kornelia; Wagner, Frank; Wiegner, Matthias

2016-04-01

Ceilometers are well established instruments for the detection of cloud base heights. Since about 2000, modern ceilometer types (mainly CHM15k, CL51, and CL31) are used also for investigations of the top height of the planetary boundary layer and for quantitative retrievals of vertical profiles of backscatter coefficients. In the framework of the European projects E-PROFILE and TOPROF, tools for the exchange of ceilometer data among European meteorological services, as well as calibration and visualization procedures are developed and established. Unfortunately, the national networks are equipped with instruments of different generations and different manufacturers. In order to quantify and reduce those inhomogeneities, the ceilometer inter-comparison experiment CeiLinEx2015 was performed between June and September 2015 at the Meteorological Observatory Lindenberg, Germany. We tested six different instrument types: LD40, CL31, CL51, CHM15k, CHM15kx, and CS135. Each instrument type was represented by two instruments to estimate the instrument-to-instrument variability and the influence of different firmware versions. Two Raman lidars (RAMSES and RALPH), operated by German Meteorological Service (DWD) are used as reference instruments. Further ancillary data are available, e.g., hourly eye observations, four radio soundings per day, and AERONET sun photometer observations. Beside the typical vertically pointing measurement scheme, we performed special measurements with horizontal pointing direction or blocked receiver telescope. During the experiment, we could collect measurements under very different meteorological situations: Several clear nights allow for Rayleigh-Calibration (see Hervo and CeiLinEx2015 team [EGU2016-4785]), a strong event of Sahara dust intrusion can be used to study the behaviour of the instruments in presence of large, non-spherical particles (like volcanic ash). Further investigations focus, e.g., on the detection of very low cloud base heights, on the retrieval of boundary layer heights, on the performance of the individual instruments in the overlap region, on the characterization of signal artefacts in the clean free troposphere, on daytime performance, and on the estimation of measurement range. All those investigations need calibrated ceilometer profiles as input data. Therefore, quantitative calibration of all instruments is a very important first step of data analysis. [Hervo and CeiLinEx2015 team EGU2016-4785] present the procedure and results of calibration of all individual instruments in a companion contribution. In this contribution, we will provide a general overview on the CeiLinEx2015 experiment together with first results. We present preliminary results concerning signal artefacts in the free troposphere and correlation studies in more detail.

2010 Atmospheric System Research (ASR) Science Team Meeting Summary

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

Dupont, DL

This document contains the summaries of papers presented in poster format at the March 2010 Atmospheric System Research Science Team Meeting held in Bethesda, Maryland. More than 260 posters were presented during the Science Team Meeting. Posters were sorted into the following subject areas: aerosol-cloud-radiation interactions, aerosol properties, atmospheric state and surface, cloud properties, field campaigns, infrastructure and outreach, instruments, modeling, and radiation. To put these posters in context, the status of ASR at the time of the meeting is provided here.

The decisive role of the patient-side surgeon in robotic surgery.

PubMed

Sgarbura, Olivia; Vasilescu, Catalin

2010-12-01

Minimally invasive technology literature is mainly concerned about the feasibility of the robotic procedures and the performance of the console surgeon. However, few of these technologies could be applied without a well-trained team. Our goal was to demonstrate that robotic surgery depends more on the patient-side assistant surgeon's abilities than has been previously reported. In our department, 280 interventions in digestive, thoracic, and gynecological surgery were performed since the acquisition of the robotic equipment. There are three teams trained in robotic surgery with three console surgeons and four certified patient-side surgeons. Four more patient-side assistants were trained at our center. Trocar placement, docking and undocking of the robot, insertion of the laparoscopic instruments, and hemostatic maneuvers with various devices were quantified and compared. Assistants trained by using animal or cadaver surgery are more comfortable with the robotic instruments handling and with docking and undocking of the robot. Assistants who finalized their residency or attend their final year are more accurate with the insertion of the laparoscopic instrument to the targeted organ and more skillful with LigaSure or clip applier devices. Interventions that require vivid participation of the assistants have shorter assistant-depending time intervals at the end of the learning curve than at the beginning. Robotic surgery is a team effort and is greatly dependant on the performance of assistant surgeons. Interventions that have the benefit of a trained team are more rapid and secure.

A Survey of Educational Activities and Resources Relevant to Mars and Astrobiology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Manning, Heidi L. K.; Bleacher, L.

2009-09-01

Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) is a suite of instruments that will be onboard the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover, which was recently named Curiosity in a student-naming contest. SAM's three instruments are devoted to studying the chemical composition of the Martian surface and atmosphere and to understanding the planet's past habitability and potential habitability today. Curiosity is scheduled to launch in 2011, however many Education and Public Outreach (EPO) activities supported by the MSL mission are well underway. The SAM EPO plan includes elements of both formal and informal education in addition to outreach, such as incorporating data into the Mars Exploration Student Data Teams program, developing a museum exhibit and associated educational materials about SAM's research, and writing articles about the MSL mission and SAM's findings for ChemMatters magazine. One of the EPO projects currently being carried out by members of the SAM team is training secondary education teachers in Mars geology, astrobiology, and SAM science goals via professional development workshops. Several of the recent Mars missions have had extensive EPO components to them. As a result, numerous educational activities and resources have already been developed relating to understanding Mars and astrobiology. We have conducted a survey of these activities and resources previously created and have compiled those relevant and useful for our SAM teacher training workshops. Resources and activities have been modified as needed. In addition, we have identified areas in which no educational activities exist and are developing new curriculum specifically to address these gaps. This work is funded by the MN Space Grant Consortium and NASA's Science Mission Directorate.

Improved Oversight, but No Invoice Reviews and Potential Antideficiency Act Violation May Have Occurred on the Kuwait Observer Controller Team Task Orders

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-08-02

Contracting, Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training, and Instrumentation; the Resident Auditor, Raytheon Network Centric Systems, Defense...Router Network (SIPRNET). We appreciate the courtesies extended to the staff. Please direct questions to Mr. Tim Moore at (703) 604-9068 (DSN 664...Raytheon Network Centric System Resident Office, DCAA, should develop and implement procedures to verify that the Army does not reimburse the contractor

Operational Data Reduction Procedure for Determining Density and Vertical Structure of the Martian Upper Atmosphere from Mars Global Surveyor Accelerometer Measurements

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cancro, George J.; Tolson, Robert H.; Keating, Gerald M.

1998-01-01

The success of aerobraking by the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft was partly due to the analysis of MGS accelerometer data. Accelerometer data was used to determine the effect of the atmosphere on each orbit, to characterize the nature of the atmosphere, and to predict the atmosphere for future orbits. To interpret the accelerometer data, a data reduction procedure was developed to produce density estimations utilizing inputs from the spacecraft, the Navigation Team, and pre-mission aerothermodynamic studies. This data reduction procedure was based on the calculation of aerodynamic forces from the accelerometer data by considering acceleration due to gravity gradient, solar pressure, angular motion of the MGS, instrument bias, thruster activity, and a vibration component due to the motion of the damaged solar array. Methods were developed to calculate all of the acceleration components including a 4 degree of freedom dynamics model used to gain a greater understanding of the damaged solar array. The total error inherent to the data reduction procedure was calculated as a function of altitude and density considering contributions from ephemeris errors, errors in force coefficient, and instrument errors due to bias and digitization. Comparing the results from this procedure to the data of other MGS Teams has demonstrated that this procedure can quickly and accurately describe the density and vertical structure of the Martian upper atmosphere.

Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Explorer: Mission Design for Rapid, Accurate Location of Gamma-ray Bursts

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bundas, David J.

2004-01-01

The Swift Gamma-ray Burst Explorer is a NASA Mid-sized Explorer (MIDEX) with the primary mission of determining the origins of Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs). It will be the first mission to autonomously respond to newly-discovered GRBs and provide immediate follow-up narrow field instruments capable of multi-wavelength (UV, Optical, X-ray) observations. The characteristics of GRBs that are the key mission design drivers, are their non-repeating and brief duration bursts of multi-wavelength photons. In addition, rapid notification of the location and characteristics of the GRBs to ground-and-space- based observatories drive the end-to-end data analysis and distribution requirements. The Swift mission is managed by the GSFC, and includes an international team of contributors that each bring their unique perspective that have proven invaluable to the mission. The spacecraft bus, provided by Spectrum Astro, Inc. was procured through a Rapid Spacecraft Development Office (RSDO) contract by the GSFC. There are three instruments: the Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) provided by the GSFC; the X-Ray Telescope (XRT) provided by a team led by the Pennsylvania State University (PSU); and the Ultra-Violet Optical Telescope (UVOT), again managed by PSU. The Mission Operations Center (MOC) was developed by and is located at PSU. Science archiving and data analysis centers are located at the GSFC, in the UK and in Italy.

Design and validation of the INICIARE instrument, for the assessment of dependency level in acutely ill hospitalised patients.

PubMed

Morales-Asencio, José Miguel; Porcel-Gálvez, Ana María; Oliveros-Valenzuela, Rosa; Rodríguez-Gómez, Susana; Sánchez-Extremera, Lucrecia; Serrano-López, Francisco Andrés; Aranda-Gallardo, Marta; Canca-Sánchez, José Carlos; Barrientos-Trigo, Sergio

2015-03-01

The aim of this study was to establish the validity and reliability of an instrument (Inventario del NIvel de Cuidados mediante IndicAdores de clasificación de Resultados de Enfermería) used to assess the dependency level in acutely hospitalised patients. This instrument is novel, and it is based on the Nursing Outcomes Classification. Multiple existing instruments for needs assessment have been poorly validated and based predominately on interventions. Standardised Nursing Languages offer an ideal framework to develop nursing sensitive instruments. A cross-sectional validation study in two acute care hospitals in Spain. This study was implemented in two phases. First, the research team developed the instrument to be validated. In the second phase, the validation process was performed by experts, and the data analysis was conducted to establish the psychometric properties of the instrument. Seven hundred and sixty-one patient ratings performed by nurses were collected during the course of the research study. Data analysis yielded a Cronbach's alpha of 0·91. An exploratory factorial analysis identified three factors (Physiological, Instrumental and Cognitive-behavioural), which explained 74% of the variance. Inventario del NIvel de Cuidados mediante IndicAdores de clasificación de Resultados de Enfermería was demonstrated to be a valid and reliable instrument based on its use in acutely hospitalised patients to assess the level of dependency. Inventario del NIvel de Cuidados mediante IndicAdores de clasificación de Resultados de Enfermería can be used as an assessment tool in hospitalised patients during the nursing process throughout the entire hospitalisation period. It contributes information to support decisions on nursing diagnoses, interventions and outcomes. It also enables data codification in large databases. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Review of the tactical evaluation tools for youth players, assessing the tactics in team sports: football.

PubMed

González-Víllora, Sixto; Serra-Olivares, Jaime; Pastor-Vicedo, Juan Carlos; da Costa, Israel Teoldo

2015-01-01

For sports assessment to be comprehensive, it must address all variables of sports development, such as psychological, social-emotional, physical and physiological, technical and tactical. Tactical assessment has been a neglected variable until the 1980s or 1990s. In the last two decades (1995-2015), the evolution of tactical assessment has grown considerably, given its importance in game performance. The aim of this paper is to compile and analyze different tactical measuring tools in team sports, particularly in soccer, through a bibliographical review. Six tools have been selected on five different criteria: (1) Instruments which assess tactics, (2) The studies have an evolution approach related to the tactical principles, (3) With a valid and reliable method, (4) The existence of publications mentioning the tool in the method, v. Applicable in different sports contexts. All six tools are structured around seven headings: introduction, objective(s), tactical principles, materials, procedures, instructions/rules of the game and published studies. In conclusion, the teaching-learning processes more tactical oriented have useful tactical assessment instrument in the literature. The selection of one or another depends some context information, like age and level of expertise of the players.

The microstructure of coaching practice: behaviours and activities of an elite rugby union head coach during preparation and competition.

PubMed

Hall, Edward Thomas; Gray, Shirley; Sproule, John

2016-01-01

The activities and behaviours of a female head coach of a national rugby union team were recorded in both training and competition, across a whole rugby season, using the newly developed Rugby Coach Activities and Behaviours Instrument (RCABI). The instrument incorporates 24 categories of behaviour, embedded within three forms of activity (training form (TF), playing form (PF) and competitive match) and seven sub-activity types. In contrast to traditional drill-based coaching, 58.5% of the training time was found to have been spent in PF activities. Moreover, the proportion of PF activities increased to a peak average of 83.8% in proximity to the team's annual international championship. Uniquely, one of the coach's most prolific behaviours was conferring with associates (23.3%), highlighting the importance of interactions with assistant coaches, medical staff and others in shaping the coaching process. Additionally, the frequencies of key behaviours such as questioning and praise were found to vary between the different activity forms and types, raising questions about previous conceptions of effective coaching practice. The findings are discussed in the light of the Game Sense philosophy and the role of the head coach.

Use of MicroMaps for Satellite Validation and Potential UAV Applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Connors, V. S.; Sachse, G. W.; Hopkins, P. E.; Morrow, W.; McMillan, W. W.

2005-12-01

The MicroMAPS instrument is a nadir-viewing, gas filter-correlated radiometer which operates in the 4.67 micrometer fundamental band of carbon monoxide. Originally designed and built for a space mission, this CO remote sensor is being flown in support of satellite validation and science instrument demonstrations for potential UAV applications. The MicroMAPS CO instrument was flown for the first time during the Summer-Fall 2004 on-board the Proteus aircraft, which is owned and operated by Scaled Composites, in Mojave, CA. The insturment system, flown on Proteus, was designed by a student team as a senior design project in the Aerospace Engineering Department, Virginia Tech, in Blacksburg, VA. This proposed design was reviewed and revised by Systems Engineers at NASA Langley; the final instrument system was integrated and tested at NASA LaRC in partnership with Scaled Composites and Virginia Space Grant Consortium, which supervised the fabrication of the nacelle which housed the instrument system on the right rear tail boom of Proteus. Full system integration and flight testing was performed at Scaled Composites, in Mojave, in June 2004. Its successful performance enabled participation in three international science missions: INTEX -NA over eastern North America in July 2004, ADRIEX over the Mediterranean region and EAQUATE over the United Kingdom region in September 2004, piggy-backing with the IPO-sponsored payload flown on Proteus. These flights resulted in nearly 100 hours of science measurements and in-flight calibrations. In parallel with the engineering devlopments, theoretical radiative transfer models were developed specifically for the MicroMAPS instrument system at the University of Virginia, Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Department by a combined undergraduate and graduate student team. With techical support from Resonance Ltd. In June 2005, in Barrie, Canada, the MicroMAPS instrument was calibrated for the conditions underwhich the Summer-Fall 2004 flights occurred. The analyses of the calibration data, combined with the theoretical radiative transfer models, will provide the first data reduction for the science flights. These early results and comparisons with profile data from the NASA DC-8 and the coincident AIRS CO retrievals will be presented.

LBT Distributed Archive: Status and Features

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Knapic, C.; Smareglia, R.; Thompson, D.; Grede, G.

2011-07-01

After the first release of the LBT Distributed Archive, this successful collaboration is continuing within the LBT corporation. The IA2 (Italian Center for Astronomical Archive) team had updated the LBT DA with new features in order to facilitate user data retrieval while abiding by VO standards. To facilitate the integration of data from any new instruments, we have migrated to a new database, developed new data distribution software, and enhanced features in the LBT User Interface. The DBMS engine has been changed to MySQL. Consequently, the data handling software now uses java thread technology to update and synchronize the main storage archives on Mt. Graham and in Tucson, as well as archives in Trieste and Heidelberg, with all metadata and proprietary data. The LBT UI has been updated with additional features allowing users to search by instrument and some of the more important characteristics of the images. Finally, instead of a simple cone search service over all LBT image data, new instrument specific SIAP and cone search services have been developed. They will be published in the IVOA framework later this fall.

A layered approach to technology transfer of AVIRIS between Earth Search Sciences, Inc. and the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ferguson, James S.; Ferguson, Joanne E.; Peel, John, III; Vance, Larry

1995-01-01

Since initial contact between Earth Search Sciences, Inc. (ESSI) and the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL) in February, 1994, at least seven proposals have been submitted in response to a variety of solicitations to commercialize and improve the AVIRIS instrument. These proposals, matching ESSI's unique position with respect to agreements with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to utilize, miniaturize, and commercialize the AVIRIS instrument and platform, are combined with the applied engineering of the INEL. Teaming ESSI, NASA/JPL, and INEL with diverse industrial partners has strengthened the respective proposals. These efforts carefully structure the overall project plans to ensure the development, demonstration, and deployment of this concept to the national and international arenas. The objectives of these efforts include: (1) developing a miniaturized commercial, real-time, cost effective version of the AVIRIS instrument; (2) identifying multiple users for AVIRIS; (3) integrating the AVIRIS technology with other technologies; (4) gaining the confidence/acceptance of other government agencies and private industry in AVIRIS; and (5) increasing the technology base of U.S. industry.

Evaluation of biologic occupational risk control practices: quality indicators development and validation.

PubMed

Takahashi, Renata Ferreira; Gryschek, Anna Luíza F P L; Izumi Nichiata, Lúcia Yasuko; Lacerda, Rúbia Aparecida; Ciosak, Suely Itsuko; Gir, Elucir; Padoveze, Maria Clara

2010-05-01

There is growing demand for the adoption of qualification systems for health care practices. This study is aimed at describing the development and validation of indicators for evaluation of biologic occupational risk control programs. The study involved 3 stages: (1) setting up a research team, (2) development of indicators, and (3) validation of the indicators by a team of specialists recruited to validate each attribute of the developed indicators. The content validation method was used for the validation, and a psychometric scale was developed for the specialists' assessment. A consensus technique was used, and every attribute that obtained a Content Validity Index of at least 0.75 was approved. Eight indicators were developed for the evaluation of the biologic occupational risk prevention program, with emphasis on accidents caused by sharp instruments and occupational tuberculosis prevention. The indicators included evaluation of the structure, process, and results at the prevention and biologic risk control levels. The majority of indicators achieved a favorable consensus regarding all validated attributes. The developed indicators were considered validated, and the method used for construction and validation proved to be effective. Copyright (c) 2010 Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. Published by Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.

DARPA Improving Warfighter Information Intake Under Stress -- Augmented Cognition. Volume 1. Phase 2: Concept Validation Experiment

DTIC Science & Technology

2006-09-01

trademark of the Boeing Company. Mercedes - Benz ® is a registered trademark of DaimlerChrysler AG Corporation. Released by R. J. Smillie, Head...Team DCC CLIP architecture. 2.2.4 Methodology The test conditions for the DCC team consisted of an instrumented Mercedes Benz ® S class vehicle

The bedside assistant in robotic surgery--keys to success.

PubMed

Yuh, Bertram

2013-01-01

Taking on the position of bedside assistant for a surgical robotic team can be a daunting task. Keys to success include preparation, proper operation set up, effective use of instruments to augment the actions of the console surgeon, and readiness for surgical emergencies. Effective communication, repetitive execution, and readiness facilitate the efforts of the surgical team.

CLASSROOM INTERACTION, PUPIL ACHIEVEMENT AND ADJUSTMENT IN TEAM TEACHING AS COMPARED WITH THE SELF-CONTAINED CLASSROOM.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

LAMBERT, PHILIP; AND OTHERS

EXPLORED ARE TEACHING AND LEARNING RELATIONSHIPS OR FORMS OF CLASSROOM INTERACTION IN THE TEAM TEACHING ARRANGEMENT, AND THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THESE AND TRADITIONAL CLASSROOM INTERACTION WITH RESPECT TO STUDENT ADJUSTMENT AND STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT. AN ATTEMPT WAS MADE TO IMPROVE THE SOPHISTICATION OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH INSTRUMENTS. A 2-YEAR TEAM…

Development and Analysis of a Scale for Meauring Teachers' Sense of Efficacy in Urban Schools (SEUS).

PubMed

Garner, Mary; Kokan, Julie; Annis, Kathy; Baker, Mark; Phillips, Maggie; Head, Catherine; Hearrington, Doug; Yanosky, Daniel; Holbein, Marie

2015-01-01

Research in teacher self-efficacy has a long history that can be traced back to Bandura (1986) and has been shown to be linked to teacher performance. This article presents evidence for teacher self-efficacy in urban schools, a construct that is separate from but related to the more general construct of teacher self-efficacy. An instrument was developed and validated by a team of university faculty, urban teachers, and school administrators. The Teachers' Sense of Efficacy in Urban Schools (SEUS) is a 15-item instrument designed to address factors that are important for success in teaching in an urban environment, including working effectively with English language learners, students with disabilities, economically disadvantaged students, cultural diversity, literacy, technology, differentiation, and assessment data. The present study analyzes SEUS on multiple levels, using the Rasch partial credit model.

Comparing team-based and mixed active-learning methods in an ambulatory care elective course.

PubMed

Zingone, Michelle M; Franks, Andrea S; Guirguis, Alexander B; George, Christa M; Howard-Thompson, Amanda; Heidel, Robert E

2010-11-10

To assess students' performance and perceptions of team-based and mixed active-learning methods in 2 ambulatory care elective courses, and to describe faculty members' perceptions of team-based learning. Using the 2 teaching methods, students' grades were compared. Students' perceptions were assessed through 2 anonymous course evaluation instruments. Faculty members who taught courses using the team-based learning method were surveyed regarding their impressions of team-based learning. The ambulatory care course was offered to 64 students using team-based learning (n = 37) and mixed active learning (n = 27) formats. The mean quality points earned were 3.7 (team-based learning) and 3.3 (mixed active learning), p < 0.001. Course evaluations for both courses were favorable. All faculty members who used the team-based learning method reported that they would consider using team-based learning in another course. Students were satisfied with both teaching methods; however, student grades were significantly higher in the team-based learning course. Faculty members recognized team-based learning as an effective teaching strategy for small-group active learning.

The development and assessment of an evaluation tool for pediatric resident competence in leading simulated pediatric resuscitations.

PubMed

Grant, Estée C; Grant, Vincent J; Bhanji, Farhan; Duff, Jonathan P; Cheng, Adam; Lockyer, Jocelyn M

2012-07-01

It is critical that competency in pediatric resuscitation is achieved and assessed during residency or post graduate medical training. The purpose of this study was to create and evaluate a tool to measure all elements of pediatric resuscitation team leadership competence. An initial set of items, derived from a literature review and a brainstorming session, were refined to a 26 item assessment tool through the use of Delphi methodology. The tool was tested using videos of standardized resuscitations. A psychometric assessment of the evidence for instrument validity and reliability was undertaken. The performance of 30 residents on two videotaped scenarios was assessed by 4 pediatricians using the tool, with 12 items assessing 'leadership and communication skills' (LCS) and 14 items assessing 'knowledge and clinical skills' (KCS). The instrument showed evidence of reliability; the Cronbach's alpha and generalizability co-efficients for the overall instrument were α=0.818 and Ep(2)=0.76, for LCS were α=0.827 and Ep(2)=0.844, and for KCS were α=0.673 and Ep(2)=0.482. While validity was initially established through literature review and brainstorming by the panel of experts, it was further built through the high strength of correlation between global scores and scores for overall performance (r=0.733), LCS (r=0.718) and KCS (r=0.662) as well as the factor analysis which accounted for 40.2% of the variance. The results of the study demonstrate that the instrument is a valid and reliable tool to evaluate pediatric resuscitation team leader competence. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Engineering design of the Regolith X-ray Imaging Spectrometer (REXIS) instrument: an OSIRIS-REx student collaboration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jones, Michael; Chodas, Mark; Smith, Matthew J.; Masterson, Rebecca A.

2014-07-01

OSIRIS-REx is a NASA New Frontiers mission scheduled for launch in 2016 that will travel to the asteroid Bennu and return a pristine sample of the asteroid to Earth. The REgolith X-ray Imaging Spectrometer (REXIS) is a student collaboration instrument on-board the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. REXIS is a NASA risk Class D instrument, and its design and development is largely student led. The engineering team consists of MIT graduate and undergraduate students and staff at the MIT Space Systems Laboratory. The primary goal of REXIS is the education of science and engineering students through participation in the development of light hardware. In light, REXIS will contribute to the mission by providing an elemental abundance map of the asteroid and by characterizing Bennu among the known meteorite groups. REXIS is sensitive to X-rays between 0.5 and 7 keV, and uses coded aperture imaging to map the distribution of iron with 50 m spatial resolution. This paper describes the science goals, concept of operations, and overall engineering design of the REXIS instrument. Each subsystem of the instrument is addressed with a high-level description of the design. Critical design elements such as the Thermal Isolation Layer (TIL), radiation cover, coded-aperture mask, and Detector Assembly Mount (DAM) are discussed in further detail.

The Undergraduate Student Instrumentation Projects at the University of Houston

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bering, E. A., III; Talbot, R. W.; Glennie, C. L.; Rodrigues, D.; Jinghong, C.; Alozie, M.; Behrend, C. C.; Bias, C.; Ehteshami, A.; Fenton, A.; Greer, M.; Gunawan, B.; Harrison, W.; Jordan, J.; Lalata, M. C.; Lehnen, J. N.; Martinez, A.; Mathur, S.; Medillin, M.; Nguyen, T.; Nguyen, T. V.; Nowling, M.; Perez, D.; Pham, M.; Pina, M.; Porat, I.; Prince, J.; Thomas, G. C.; Velasquez, B.; Victor, L.

2016-12-01

The Undergraduate Student Instrumentation Project (USIP) is a NASA program to engage undergraduate students in rigorous scientific research, for the purposes of innovation and developing the next generation of professionals for an array of fields. The program is student led and executed from initial ideation to research to the design and deployment of scientific payloads. The University of Houston has been selected twice to participate in the USIP programs. The first program (USIP_UH I) ran from 2013 to 2016. USIP_UH II started in January of this year, with funding starting at the end of May. USIP_UH I (USIP_UH II) at the University of Houston was (is) composed of eight (seven) research teams developing six (seven), distinct, balloon-based scientific instruments. These instruments will contribute to a broad range of geophysical sciences from Very Low Frequency recording and Total Electron Content to exobiology and ozone profiling. USIP_UH I had 12 successful launches with 9 recoveries from Fairbanks, AK in March 2015 and 4 piggyback flights with BARREL 3 from Esrange, Kiruna, Sweden in August, 2015. Additional flights with BARREL 4 will take place in August 2016. The great opportunity of this program is capitalizing on the proliferation of electronics miniaturization to create new generations of scientific instruments that are smaller and lighter than ever before. This situation allows experiments to be done more cheaply which ultimately allows many more experiments to be done.

MicroMAPS: Leveraging Federal and Universities' Resources for Atmospheric Sciences Research and Education

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sandy, M.; Companion, J. A.; Connors, V. S.

2007-05-01

NASA Langley Research Center approached the Virginia Space Grant Consortium, a NASA-sponsored coalition of universities, NASA research centers and state agencies with the opportunity to develop a scientific mission and flight opportunities for an un-flown atmospheric composition remote sensor, MicroMAPS. The resulting partnership led to new life for this instrument from a space-borne carbon monoxide remote sensor to an high altitude airborne instrument that measures tropospheric carbon monoxide in the near infrared portion of the spectrum. The five year effort to date has leveraged the existing instrument with work by student teams overseen by faculty and NASA advisors, with both NASA and industry contributions. The result is a viable instrument system that has flown in four international scientific field campaigns aboard the Scaled Composites Proteus aircraft, generating 300 plus hours of CO data to date over North America, Italy, the Mediterranean, England, the North Sea, Darwin, Northern Australia, the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and the Pacific Ocean between Australia and California. A relatively small investment by NASA and contributions by 56 students and nine faculty members, both active and retired NASA engineers and scientists, as well as a Canadian aerospace research company (which designed and built the MicroMAPS instrument) yielded successful results that go well beyond the instrument and data retrieved. The effort provided a valuable educational research experience for students from three universities whose work included contributions in: 1) Development of the instrument system and pod design for the Proteus flights; 2) Development of assessment strategy and analysis of instrument performance; 3) Development of the operations and data management strategy; 4) Contributions to development of design, implementation, and analysis of sensor calibration at Resonance Ltd., Barrie, Canada 5) Development of a new data reduction strategy for the airborne configuration over northern mid-latitudes and tropical regions. 6) Development of the instrument system and pod design for possible flights on Altair (a unmanned airborne vehicle managed at the NASA Dryden Flight Center) and 7) Geo-referencing of MicroMAPS data. An overview of the MicroMAPS project partnership will be presented and the potential for collaboration between federal laboratories and industry with National Space Grant Consortia and their Space Grant universities on similar partnerships will be described.

NGST Science Instruments and Process

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mather, John

1999-01-01

Possible NGST (Next Generation Space Telescope) instruments have been studied by NASA, ESA (European Space Agency), and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) teams, and their reports were presented at this meeting and published on the NGST web sites. The instrument capabilities will be evaluated by the Ad Hoc Science Working Group and the technical readiness will be reviewed by a technical panel. Recommendations will be made to the NASA Project Scientist, who will present a report for public comment. NASA. ESA, and the CSA will then allocate instrument, responsibilities in early 2000. NASA will choose its scientific investigations with instruments in 2002.

Adding Interferometer Restoration and Upgrade: Learning by Doing with the NINE Program

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Saby, Linnea

2017-01-01

During the summer of 2016, participants in the National and International Non-Traditional Exchange (NINE) Program were responsible for the restoration and upgrade of N2I2, an instructional interferometer located on New Mexico Tech's Socorro campus. The NINE program is a National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) initiative geared towards providing training in project management and other STEM functional areas to underrepresented groups around the world. A description of this restoration project illustrates both the experience of a NINE program participant and, more specifically, how principles of engineering and project management were applied to achieve project objectives.N2I2 was created by a joint NRAO-New Mexico Tech (NMT) team and became operational in 2004. The original instrument comprised two ten-foot dishes which recieved signals that were added using a simple power combiner, and data was interpreted using software on computers located in a nearby control room. The theory of adding interferometry was re-discovered for the design of this unique telescope. N2I2 was built using simple hardware with the intention of allowing interested community members and students from middle school to graduate school to learn about the principles of radio astronomy.Unfortunately, between 2008 and 2016 N2I2 was not used on a regular basis and fell into disrepair. NINE program director Lory Wingate accepted the responsibility of restoring the instrument as an experiential learning opportunity for the Socorro, New Mexico NINE team.During their 9 week assignment, the NINE team created a project plan, replaced and upgraded antenna hardware, developed operation and maintenance manuals, and refurbished the control room. A project plan was created for the addition of a third antenna and that plan was successfully carried out during August and September of 2016.Ultimately, functionality was successfully restored and improved, a maintenance plan was put into place, and community interest in the instrument was reignited.

NASA Science Data Processing for SNPP

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hall, A.; Behnke, J.; Lowe, D. R.; Ho, E. L.

2014-12-01

NASA's ESDIS Project has been operating the Suomi National Polar-Orbiting Partnership (SNPP) Science Data Segment (SDS) since the launch in October 2011. The science data processing system includes a Science Data Depository and Distribution Element (SD3E) and five Product Evaluation and Analysis Tool Elements (PEATEs): Land, Ocean, Atmosphere, Ozone, and Sounder. The SDS has been responsible for assessing Environmental Data Records (EDRs) for climate quality, providing and demonstrating algorithm improvements/enhancements and supporting the calibration/validation activities as well as instrument calibration and sensor table uploads for mission planning. The SNPP also flies two NASA instruments: OMPS Limb and CERES. The SNPP SDS has been responsible for producing, archiving and distributing the standard products for those instruments in close association with their NASA science teams. The PEATEs leveraged existing science data processing techniques developed under the EOSDIS Program. This enabled he PEATEs to do an excellent job in supporting Science Team analysis for SNPP. The SDS acquires data from three sources: NESDIS IDPS (Raw Data Records (RDRs)), GRAVITE (Retained Intermediate Products (RIPs)), and the NOAA/CLASS (higher level products). The SD3E component aggregates the RDRs, and distributes them to each of the PEATEs for further analysis and processing. It provides a ~32 day rolling storage of data, available for pickup by the PEATEs. The current system used by NASA will be presented along with plans for streamlining the system in support of continuing the NASA's EOS measurements.

EGSE customization for the Euclid NISP Instrument AIV/AIT activities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Franceschi, E.; Trifoglio, M.; Gianotti, F.; Conforti, V.; Andersen, J. J.; Stephen, J. B.; Valenziano, L.; Auricchio, N.; Bulgarelli, A.; De Rosa, A.; Fioretti, V.; Maiorano, E.; Morgante, G.; Nicastro, L.; Sortino, F.; Zoli, A.; Balestra, A.; Bonino, D.; Bonoli, C.; Bortoletto, F.; Capobianco, V.; Corcione, L.; Dal Corso, F.; Debei, S.; Di Ferdinando, D.; Dusini, S.; Farinelli, R.; Fornari, F.; Giacomini, F.; Guizzo, G. P.; Laudisio, F.; Ligori, S.; Mauri, N.; Medinaceli, E.; Patrizii, L.; Sirignano, C.; Sirri, G.; Stanco, L.; Tenti, M.; Valieri, C.; Ventura, S.

2016-07-01

The Near Infrared Spectro-Photometer (NISP) on board the Euclid ESA mission will be developed and tested at various levels of integration by using various test equipment. The Electrical Ground Support Equipment (EGSE) shall be required to support the assembly, integration, verification and testing (AIV/AIT) and calibration activities at instrument level before delivery to ESA, and at satellite level, when the NISP instrument is mounted on the spacecraft. In the case of the Euclid mission this EGSE will be provided by ESA to NISP team, in the HW/SW framework called "CCS Lite", with a possible first usage already during the Warm Electronics (WE) AIV/AIT activities. In this paper we discuss how we will customize that "CCS Lite" as required to support both the WE and Instrument test activities. This customization will primarily involve building the NISP Mission Information Base (the CCS MIB tables) by gathering the relevant data from the instrument sub-units and validating these inputs through specific tools. Secondarily, it will imply developing a suitable set of test sequences, by using uTOPE (an extension to the TCL scripting language, included in the CCS framework), in order to implement the foreseen test procedures. In addition and in parallel, custom interfaces shall be set up between the CCS and the NI-IWS (the NISP Instrument Workstation, which will be in use at any level starting from the WE activities), and also between the CCS and the TCC (the Telescope Control and command Computer, to be only and specifically used during the instrument level tests).

Applying interprofessional Team-Based Learning in patient safety: a pilot evaluation study.

PubMed

Lochner, Lukas; Girardi, Sandra; Pavcovich, Alessandra; Meier, Horand; Mantovan, Franco; Ausserhofer, Dietmar

2018-03-27

Interprofessional education (IPE) interventions are not always successful in achieving learning outcomes. Team-Based Learning (TBL) would appear to be a suitable pedagogical method for IPE, as it focuses on team performance; however, little is known about interprofessional TBL as an instructional framework for patient safety. In this pilot-study, we aimed to (1) describe participants' reactions to TBL, (2) observe their achievement with respect to interprofessional education learning objectives, and (3) document their attitudinal shifts with regard to patient safety behaviours. We developed and implemented a three-day course for pre-qualifying, non-medical healthcare students to give instruction on non-technical skills related to 'learning from errors'. The course consisted of three sequential modules: 'Recognizing Errors', 'Analysing Errors', and 'Reporting Errors'. The evaluation took place within a quasi-experimental pre-test-post-test study design. Participants completed self-assessments through valid and reliable instruments such as the Mennenga's TBL Student Assessment Instrument and the University of the West of England's Interprofessional Questionnaire. The mean scores of the individual readiness assurance tests were compared with the scores of the group readiness assurance test in order to explore if students learned from each other during group discussions. Data was analysed using descriptive (i.e. mean, standard deviation), parametric (i.e. paired t-test), and non-parametric (i.e. Wilcoxon signed-rank test) methods. Thirty-nine students from five different bachelor's programs attended the course. The participants positively rated TBL as an instructional approach. All teams outperformed the mean score of their individual members during the readiness assurance process. We observed significant improvements in 'communication and teamwork' and 'interprofessional learning' but not in 'interprofessional interaction' and 'interprofessional relationships.' Findings on safety attitudes and behaviours were mixed. TBL was well received by the students. Our first findings indicate that interprofessional TBL seems to be a promising pedagogical method to achieve patient safety learning objectives. It is crucial to develop relevant clinical cases that involve all professions. Further research with larger sample sizes (e.g. including medical students) and more rigorous study designs (e.g. pre-test post-test with a control group) is needed to confirm our preliminary findings.

Supporting response with science: the Oso, Washington, landslide

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Godt, J.

2014-12-01

On 22 March 2014 a large, rapidly moving landslide impacted the community of Steelhead Haven, near Oso, Washington, killing 43 people. The slide displaced about 8 million m3 of sand and silt from a 200-m high glacial terrace destroying 40 homes and burying more than 1.0 km of State Route 530. The landslide temporarily dammed the North Fork of the Stillaguamish River flooding an area of about 1.4 km2. The unusually long travel distance, in excess of 700 m from the base of the slope, and apparent speed of the slide led to the great loss of life and destruction. Landslide science was critical in supporting the response to the disaster. Landslide monitoring, process understanding, pre- and post-event high-resolution digital topography, and numerical simulations were used to advise search operations. Recognizing that buildings and their contents were swept tens to hundreds of meters from their original locations, maps of deposit thickness, and estimates of landslide trajectories were used to develop safer and more efficient search strategies. Teams of county, state, and federal scientists, engineers, and specialists were formed to assess the stability of the landslide dam and to monitor stream flow and the level of the lake impounded by the slide, and to assess the geomorphic response of the river to the landslide for gauging future effects on flood hazards and aquatic ecosystems. Another scientific team assessed the threat of additional landslide activity to search operations. This team's activities included establishing a communications protocol among landslide watch officers and search operations, deploying instrument platforms developed for use on volcanoes (Spiders) to remotely detect ground movement by means of GPS technology and to detect vibrations indicative of landslide movement using seismometers. The team was responsible for monitoring and integrating data from the Spiders and other instruments and making determinations with regards to the potential for additional landsliding during daylight hours, 7 days a week, until the conclusion of active search operations on 28 April 2014. Landslide understanding, data collected prior to and during the response, and modeling results were critical for informing search operations, decision makers, and the community.

Assessing the self-development potential of a pharmacy management practitioner through self-assessment survey.

PubMed

Granko, Robert P; Wolfe, Adam S; Kelley, Lindsey R; Morton, Carolyn S; Delgado, Osmel

2015-01-15

The self-development potential of pharmacy management practitioners related to self-management, team development, and network management was assessed. A survey instrument consisting of 12 self-assessment questions and 11 questions about demographics was distributed to pharmacy management practitioners to assess their abilities to manage themselves, their teams, and their networks. The tool was distributed by e-mail hyperlink to 190 potential respondents. Only surveys from respondents who had a pharmacy degree and direct supervisory capacity were analyzed. Respondents rated their progress toward meeting the three imperatives on a scale of 1-5. Responses to the questions were analyzed as ordinal data, with median responses used for assessment. A total of 160 responses were received via e-mail, 149 (93%) of which met the inclusion criteria. About half of all respondents were practicing at institutions of 600 beds or more and supervised at least five employees. The majority of respondents identified their abilities to manage themselves, their teams, and their networks as areas of strength but also acknowledged that using all three of these skills on a daily basis was an area of opportunity. Respondents generally identified management of their network as an area needing work. The majority of survey respondents identified their skills in self-, team, and network management as areas of strength. Respondents generally identified management of their network as an area needing work. Respondents also identified the use of all three imperatives on a daily basis as an area of opportunity for improvement. Copyright © 2015 by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Inc. All rights reserved.

The Relationship of High School Teachers' Job Satisfaction to Principal Support

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bressler, Kathleen M.

2012-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between high school teacher job satisfaction, using an instrument that measures Herzberg's Two Factor Theory and principal support, using an adapted instrument from House's theory of administrative support. Data were collected by a team of researchers from 34 self-selected public Virginia…

WETS - Azura Half Scale Testing MOIS Documentation

DOE Data Explorer

Nelson, Eric

2015-05-30

This submission includes documentation on the Modular Ocean Instrumentation System (MOIS) installation on the Azura 1/2 scale wave energy converter at the Marine Station Kaneohe Bay (MCBH). Data from the deployment will be uploaded over the course of the test. The instrumentation and data come from the NREL team participating in this testing.

[Analysis of expectations on the nurse's leadership in the light of Grid's theories].

PubMed

Trevizan, M A; Mendes, I A; Hayashida, M; Galvão, C M; Cury, S R

2001-01-01

Based on the understanding that leadership is a fundamental resource for nurses in health institutions, the aim of the authors was to analyze, under the light of Blake & Mouton's Grid Theories, the expectations of the Nursing team regarding nurse's leadership. The analysis was based on four investigations performed in different contexts of Brazilian Nursing and data were collected through the application of the "Grid & Leadership in Nursing Instrument" developed by Trevizan. Results show that the subjects prefer the Grid style 9.9. The authors discuss the results and emphasize the need for the development of leadership in Nursing.

Integrating Time-Synchronized Video with Other Geospatial and Temporal Data for Remote Science Operations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cohen, Tamar E.; Lees, David S.; Deans, Matthew C.; Lim, Darlene S. S.; Lee, Yeon Jin Grace

2018-01-01

Exploration Ground Data Systems (xGDS) supports rapid scientific decision making by synchronizing video in context with map, instrument data visualization, geo-located notes and any other collected data. xGDS is an open source web-based software suite developed at NASA Ames Research Center to support remote science operations in analog missions and prototype solutions for remote planetary exploration. (See Appendix B) Typical video systems are designed to play or stream video only, independent of other data collected in the context of the video. Providing customizable displays for monitoring live video and data as well as replaying recorded video and data helps end users build up a rich situational awareness. xGDS was designed to support remote field exploration with unreliable networks. Commercial digital recording systems operate under the assumption that there is a stable and reliable network between the source of the video and the recording system. In many field deployments and space exploration scenarios, this is not the case - there are both anticipated and unexpected network losses. xGDS' Video Module handles these interruptions, storing the available video, organizing and characterizing the dropouts, and presenting the video for streaming or replay to the end user including visualization of the dropouts. Scientific instruments often require custom or expensive software to analyze and visualize collected data. This limits the speed at which the data can be visualized and limits access to the data to those users with the software. xGDS' Instrument Module integrates with instruments that collect and broadcast data in a single snapshot or that continually collect and broadcast a stream of data. While seeing a visualization of collected instrument data is informative, showing the context for the collected data, other data collected nearby along with events indicating current status helps remote science teams build a better understanding of the environment. Further, sharing geo-located, tagged notes recorded by the scientists and others on the team spurs deeper analysis of the data.

An automated performance budget estimator: a process for use in instrumentation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Laporte, Philippe; Schnetler, Hermine; Rees, Phil

2016-08-01

Current day astronomy projects continue to increase in size and are increasingly becoming more complex, regardless of the wavelength domain, while risks in terms of safety, cost and operability have to be reduced to ensure an affordable total cost of ownership. All of these drivers have to be considered carefully during the development process of an astronomy project at the same time as there is a big drive to shorten the development life-cycle. From the systems engineering point of view, this evolution is a significant challenge. Big instruments imply management of interfaces within large consortia and dealing with tight design phase schedules which necessitate efficient and rapid interactions between all the stakeholders to firstly ensure that the system is defined correctly and secondly that the designs will meet all the requirements. It is essential that team members respond quickly such that the time available for the design team is maximised. In this context, performance prediction tools can be very helpful during the concept phase of a project to help selecting the best design solution. In the first section of this paper we present the development of such a prediction tool that can be used by the system engineer to determine the overall performance of the system and to evaluate the impact on the science based on the proposed design. This tool can also be used in "what-if" design analysis to assess the impact on the overall performance of the system based on the simulated numbers calculated by the automated system performance prediction tool. Having such a tool available from the beginning of a project can allow firstly for a faster turn-around between the design engineers and the systems engineer and secondly, between the systems engineer and the instrument scientist. Following the first section we described the process for constructing a performance estimator tool, followed by describing three projects in which such a tool has been utilised to illustrate how such a tool have been used in astronomy projects. The three use-cases are; EAGLE, one of the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) Multi-Object Spectrograph (MOS) instruments that was studied from 2007 to 2009, the Multi-Object Optical and Near-Infrared Spectrograph (MOONS) for the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT), currently under development and SST-GATE.

High Energy Astrophysics Program

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1996-01-01

This report reviews activities performed-by members of the USRA contract team during the six months of the reporting period and projected activities during the coming six months. Activities take place at the Goddard Space Flight Center, visiting the Laboratory for High Energy Astrophysics. Developments concern instrumentation, observation, data analysis, and theoretical work in Astrophysics. Missions supported include: Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics (ASCA); X-ray Timing Experiment (XTE); X-ray Spectrometer (XRS); Astro-E; High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC), and others.

High Energy Astrophysics Research and Programmatic Support

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Angelini, Lorella

1998-01-01

This report reviews activities performed by members of the USRA contract team during the six months of the reporting period and projected activities during the coming six months. Activities take place at the Goddard Space Flight Center, within the Laboratory for High Energy Astrophysics. Developments concern instrumentation, observation, data analysis, and theoretical work in Astrophysics. Missions supported include: Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics (ASCA), X-ray Timing Experiment (XTE), X-ray Spectrometer (XRS), Astro-E, High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC), and others.

High Energy Astrophysics Program (HEAP)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Angelini, Lorella; Corcoran, Michael; Drake, Stephen; McGlynn, Thomas A.; Snowden, Stephen; Mukai, Koji; Cannizzo, John; Lochner, James; Rots, Arnold; Christian, Eric;

Update on the NASA GEOS-5 Aerosol Forecasting and Data Assimilation System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Colarco, Peter; da Silva, Arlindo; Aquila, Valentina; Bian, Huisheng; Buchard, Virginie; Castellanos, Patricia; Darmenov, Anton; Follette-Cook, Melanie; Govindaraju, Ravi; Keller, Christoph;

High Energy Astrophysics Program (HEAP)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Angelini, L.

1998-01-01

This report reviews activities performed by members of the USRA contract team during the six months of the reporting period and projected activities during the coming six months. Activities take place at the Goddard Space Flight Center, within the Laboratory for High Energy Astrophysics. Developments concern instrumentation, observation, data analysis, and theoretical work in Astrophysics Missions supported include: Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics (ASCA), X-ray Timing Experiment (XTE), X-ray Spectrometer (XRS), Astro-E, High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC), and others.

High Energy Astrophysics Research and Programmatic Support

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Angelini, L. (Editor)

1997-01-01

This report reviews activities performed by members of the USRA contract team during the six months of the reporting period and projected activities during the coming six months. Activities take place at the Goddard Space Flight Center, within the Laboratory for High Energy Astrophysics. Developments concern instrumentation, observation, data analysis, and theoretical work in Astrophysics. Missions supported include: Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics (ASCA), X-ray Timing Experiment (XTE), X-ray Spectrometer (XRS), Astro-E, High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC), and others.

Evaluating Student Motivation in Organic Chemistry Courses: Moving from a Lecture-Based to a Flipped Approach with Peer-Led Team Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liu, Yujuan; Raker, Jeffrey R.; Lewis, Jennifer E.

2018-01-01

Academic Motivation Scale-Chemistry (AMS-Chemistry), an instrument based on the self-determination theory, was used to evaluate students' motivation in two organic chemistry courses, where one course was primarily lecture-based and the other implemented flipped classroom and peer-led team learning (Flip-PLTL) pedagogies. Descriptive statistics…

WFIRST CGI Adjutant Scientist

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kasdin, N.

One of the most exciting developments in exoplanet science is the inclusion of a coronagraph instrument on WFIRST. After more than 20 years of research and development on coronagraphy and wavefront control, the technology is ready for a demonstration in space and to be used for revolutionary science. Good progress has already been made at JPL and partner institutions on the coronagraph technology and instrument design and test. The next five years as we enter Phase A will be critical for raising the TRL of the coronagraph to the needed level for flight and for converging on a design that is robust, low risk, and meets the science requirements. In addition, there is growing excitement over the possibility of rendezvousing an occulter with WFIRST/AFTA as a separate mission; this would both demonstrate that important technology and potentially dramatically enhance the science reach, introducing the possibility of imaging Earth-like planets in the habitable zone of nearby stars. In this proposal I will be applying for the Coronagraph Adjutant Scientist (CAS) position. I bring to the position the background and skills needed to be an effective liaison between the project office, the instrument team, and the Science Investigation Team (SIT). My background in systems engineering before coming to Princeton (I was Chief Systems Engineer for the Gravity Probe-B mission) and my 15 years of working closely with NASA on both coronagraph and occulter technology make me well-suited to the role. I have been a lead coronagraph scientist for the WFIRST mission from the beginning, including as a member of the SDT. Together with JPL and NASA HQ, I helped organize the process for selecting the coronagraphs for the CGI, one of which, the shaped pupil, has been developed in my lab. All of the key algorithms for wavefront control (including EFC and Stroke Minimization) were originally developed by students or post-docs in my lab at Princeton. I am thus in a unique position to work with both the scientists and engineers to coordinate the performance requirements and calibration metrics and to optimize the instrument to achieve the maximal scientific output. I am also one of the few engineers/scientists in the community to research both coronagraph and occulter technology. I have been PI on all of the leading Technology Development for Exoplanet Missions (TDEM) for occulters as well as being a member of the Exo-S study. This puts me in a unique position to be able to fulfill the role of CGI adjutant scientist as well as ensure that the WFIRST/AFTA spacecraft is â€oeocculter ready― in anticipation of a decadal review. For much of my career I have straddled the boundary between science and engineering, working closely with astronomers and physicists on key technology to enable world-class science. I am enthusiastic about bringing that experience to the CAS position. I also have proven communication and leadership skills that will allow me to fulfill the duties associated with enhancing the communication between the SIT andFSWG and the instrument team, to coordinate and lead the FSWG meetings, and to interact with the astronomical community and the WFIRST Science Center. Bold part of below is in the spreadsheet but not the pdf

Student Perceptions of and Confidence in Self-Care Course Concepts Using Team-based Learning.

PubMed

Frame, Tracy R; Gryka, Rebecca; Kiersma, Mary E; Todt, Abby L; Cailor, Stephanie M; Chen, Aleda M H

2016-04-25

Objective. To evaluate changes in student perceptions of and confidence in self-care concepts after completing a team-based learning (TBL) self-care course. Methods. Team-based learning was used at two universities in first professional year, semester-long self-care courses. Two instruments were created and administered before and after the semester. The instruments were designed to assess changes in student perceptions of self-care using the theory of planned behavior (TPB) domains and confidence in learning self-care concepts using Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory. Wilcoxon signed rank tests were used to evaluate pre/post changes, and Mann Whitney U tests were used to evaluate university differences. Results. Fifty-three Cedarville University and 58 Manchester University students completed both instruments (100% and 92% response rates, respectively). Student self-care perceptions with TPB decreased significantly on nine of 13 items for Cedarville and decreased for one of 13 items for Manchester. Student confidence in self-care concepts improved significantly on all questions for both universities. Conclusion. Data indicate TBL self-care courses were effective in improving student confidence about self-care concepts. Establishing students' skill sets prior to entering the profession is beneficial because pharmacists will use self-directed learning to expand their knowledge and adapt to problem-solving situations.

Student Perceptions of and Confidence in Self-Care Course Concepts Using Team-based Learning

PubMed Central

Gryka, Rebecca; Kiersma, Mary E.; Todt, Abby L.; Cailor, Stephanie M.; Chen, Aleda M. H.

2016-01-01

Objective. To evaluate changes in student perceptions of and confidence in self-care concepts after completing a team-based learning (TBL) self-care course. Methods. Team-based learning was used at two universities in first professional year, semester-long self-care courses. Two instruments were created and administered before and after the semester. The instruments were designed to assess changes in student perceptions of self-care using the theory of planned behavior (TPB) domains and confidence in learning self-care concepts using Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory. Wilcoxon signed rank tests were used to evaluate pre/post changes, and Mann Whitney U tests were used to evaluate university differences. Results. Fifty-three Cedarville University and 58 Manchester University students completed both instruments (100% and 92% response rates, respectively). Student self-care perceptions with TPB decreased significantly on nine of 13 items for Cedarville and decreased for one of 13 items for Manchester. Student confidence in self-care concepts improved significantly on all questions for both universities. Conclusion. Data indicate TBL self-care courses were effective in improving student confidence about self-care concepts. Establishing students’ skill sets prior to entering the profession is beneficial because pharmacists will use self-directed learning to expand their knowledge and adapt to problem-solving situations. PMID:27170817

A strategy to assess the pointing accuracy of the CERES FM1-FM5 scanners

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Smith, Nathaniel P.; Szewczyk, Z. Peter; Hess, Phillip C.; Priestley, Kory J.

2017-09-01

The Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) scanning radiometer is designed to measure the solar radiation reflected by the Earth and thermal radiation emitted by the Earth. Five CERES instruments are currently in service; two aboard the Terra spacecraft, launched in 1999; two aboard the Aqua spacecraft, launched in 2002; and one instrument about the NPP spacecraft, launched in 2011. Verifying the pointing accuracy of the CERES instruments is required to assure that all earth viewing data is correctly geolocated. The CERES team has developed an on-orbit technique for assessing the pointing accuracy of the CERES sensors that relies on a rapid gradient change of measurements taken over a well-defined and known Earth target, such as a coastline, where a strong contrast in brightness and temperature exists. The computed coastline is then compared with World Bank II map to verify the accuracy of the measurement location. This paper briefly restates the algorithm used in the study, describes collection of coastline data, and summarizes the results of the study the CERES FM1, FM2, FM3, and FM5 instruments.

KSC-06pd1276

NASA Image and Video Library

2006-06-28

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - At the Cape Canaveral weather station in Florida, a member of the weather team looks over the weather balloons inside. The release of a Rawinsonde weather balloon was planned as part of a media tour prior to the launch of Space Shuttle Discovery on mission STS-121 July 1. At the facility, which is operated by the U.S. Air Force 45th Weather Squadron, media saw the tools used by the weather team to create the forecast for launch day. They received a briefing on how the launch weather forecast is developed by Shuttle Weather Officer Kathy Winters and met the forecasters for the space shuttle and the expendable launch vehicles. Also participating were members of the Applied Meteorology Unit who provide special expertise to the forecasters by analyzing and interpreting unusual or inconsistent weather data. The media were able to see the release of the Rawinsonde weather balloon carrying instruments aloft to be used as part of developing the forecast. Photo credit: NASA/George Shelton

KSC-06pd1275

NASA Image and Video Library

2006-06-28

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - At the Cape Canaveral weather station in Florida, a member of the weather team prepares a Rawinsonde weather balloon for release. The release was planned as part of a media tour prior to the launch of Space Shuttle Discovery on mission STS-121 July 1. At the facility, which is operated by the U.S. Air Force 45th Weather Squadron, media saw the tools used by the weather team to create the forecast for launch day. They received a briefing on how the launch weather forecast is developed by Shuttle Weather Officer Kathy Winters and met the forecasters for the space shuttle and the expendable launch vehicles. Also participating were members of the Applied Meteorology Unit who provide special expertise to the forecasters by analyzing and interpreting unusual or inconsistent weather data. The media were able to see the release of the Rawinsonde weather balloon carrying instruments aloft to be used as part of developing the forecast. Photo credit: NASA/George Shelton

M3 Status and Science Discussion

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pieters, Carle

2007-01-01

Members of the M3 Science Team will attend the Chandrayaan-I Science Team Meeting in Bangalore, India to present a brief summary of instrument status and the near-term milestones (e.g., final I&T, pre-ship review). The principal purpose of the meeting is to interact with other members of the Chandrayaan-I Science Team to prepare for successful science return. The objectives are: 1) Characterize the diversity and extent of different types of basaltic volcanism; 2) Constrain evolution over time; and 3) Examine high priority regional sites.

Real-Time On-Board Airborne Demonstration of High-Speed On-Board Data Processing for Science Instruments (HOPS)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Beyon, Jeffrey Y.; Ng, Tak-Kwong; Davis, Mitchell J.; Adams, James K.; Bowen, Stephen C.; Fay, James J.; Hutchinson, Mark A.

2015-01-01

The project called High-Speed On-Board Data Processing for Science Instruments (HOPS) has been funded by NASA Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO) Advanced Information Systems Technology (AIST) program since April, 2012. The HOPS team recently completed two flight campaigns during the summer of 2014 on two different aircrafts with two different science instruments. The first flight campaign was in July, 2014 based at NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) in Hampton, VA on the NASA's HU-25 aircraft. The science instrument that flew with HOPS was Active Sensing of CO2 Emissions over Nights, Days, and Seasons (ASCENDS) CarbonHawk Experiment Simulator (ACES) funded by NASA's Instrument Incubator Program (IIP). The second campaign was in August, 2014 based at NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center (AFRC) in Palmdale, CA on the NASA's DC-8 aircraft. HOPS flew with the Multifunctional Fiber Laser Lidar (MFLL) instrument developed by Excelis Inc. The goal of the campaigns was to perform an end-to-end demonstration of the capabilities of the HOPS prototype system (HOPS COTS) while running the most computationally intensive part of the ASCENDS algorithm real-time on-board. The comparison of the two flight campaigns and the results of the functionality tests of the HOPS COTS are presented in this paper.

NASA's Swarm Missions: The Challenge of Building Autonomous Software

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Truszkowski, Walt; Hinchey, Mike; Rash, James; Rouff, Christopher

2004-01-01

The days of watching a massive manned cylinder thrust spectacularly off a platform into space might rapidly become ancient history when the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) introduces its new millenium mission class. Motivated by the need to gather more data than is possible with a single spacecraft, scientists have developed a new class of missions based on the efficiency and cooperative nature of a hive culture. The missions, aptly dubbed nanoswarm will be little more than mechanized colonies cooperating in their exploration of the solar system. Each swarm mission can have hundreds or even thousands of cooperating intelligent spacecraft that work in teams. The spacecraft must operate independently for long periods both in teams and individually, as well as have autonomic properties - self-healing, -configuring, -optimizing, and -protecting- to survive the harsh space environment. One swarm mission under concept development for 2020 to 2030 is the Autonomous Nano Technology Swarm (ANTS), in which a thousand picospacecraft, each weighing less than three pounds, will work cooperatively to explore the asteroid belt. Some spacecraft will form teams to catalog asteroid properties, such as mass, density, morphology, and chemical composition, using their respective miniature scientific instruments. Others will communicate with the data gatherers and send updates to mission elements on Earth. For software and systems development, this is uncharted territory that calls for revolutionary techniques.

A Gentle Touch

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Frandsen, Allan

2002-01-01

One aspect of my job as Payload Manager on the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) mission involved keeping track of what the different science teams were working on, and offering help where it was needed. At first it seemed like many of the scientists or their technical staff were not sure how safe it was to confide in me. Everybody knew I had spent most of my career with NASA at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). All of my staff, initially four of them, came from JPL too. Left to our own devices, would we impose onerous NASA rules that could stifle innovation in the ACE (Advanced Composition Explorer) mission instrument development labs? The challenge to my team was getting the science groups to regard us as partners, or as people who could help them rather than as what they seemed to expect--a troop of requirements enforcers.

Patient perspectives on communication with the medical team: pilot study using the Communication Assessment Tool-Team (CAT-T).

PubMed

Mercer, Laura Min; Tanabe, Paula; Pang, Peter S; Gisondi, Michael A; Courtney, D Mark; Engel, Kirsten G; Donlan, Sarah M; Adams, James G; Makoul, Gregory

2008-11-01

Effective communication is an essential aspect of high-quality patient care and a core competency for physicians. To date, assessment of communication skills in team-based settings has not been well established. We sought to tailor a psychometrically validated instrument, the Communication Assessment Tool, for use in Team settings (CAT-T), and test the feasibility of collecting patient perspectives of communication with medical teams in the emergency department (ED). A prospective, cross-sectional study in an academic, tertiary, urban, Level 1 trauma center using the CAT-T, a 15-item instrument. Items were answered via a 5-point scale, with 5 = excellent. All adult ED patients (> or = 18 y/o) were eligible if the following exclusion criteria did not apply: primary psychiatric issues, critically ill, physiologically unstable, non-English speaking, or under arrest. 81 patients were enrolled (mean age: 44, S.D. = 17; 44% male). Highest ratings were for treating the patient with respect (69% excellent), paying attention to the patient (69% excellent), and showing care and concern (69% excellent). Lowest ratings were for greeting the patient appropriately (54%), encouraging the patient to ask questions (54%), showing interest in the patient's ideas about his or her health (53% excellent), and involving the patient in decisions as much as he or she wanted (53% excellent). Although this pilot study has several methodological limitations, it demonstrates a signal that patient assessment of communication with the medical team is feasible and offers important feedback. Results indicate the need to improve communication in the ED. In the ED, focusing on the medical team rather then individual caregivers may more accurately reflect patients' experience.

Land, Cryosphere, and Nighttime Environmental Products from Suomi NPP VIIRS: Overview and Status

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Roman, Miguel O.; Justice, Chris; Csiszar, Ivan

2014-01-01

The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument was launched in October 2011 as part of the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (S-NPP: http://npp.gsfc.nasa.gov/). VIIRS was designed to improve upon the capabilities of the operational Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) and provide observation continuity with NASA's Earth Observing System's (EOS) Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). Since the VIIRS first-light images were received in November 2011, NASA and NOAA funded scientists have been working to evaluate the instrument performance and derived products to meet the needs of the NOAA operational users and the NASA science community. NOAA's focus has been on refining a suite of operational products known as Environmental Data Records (EDRs), which were developed according to project specifications under the former National Polar-orbiting Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS). The NASA S-NPP Science Team has focused on evaluating the EDRs for science use, developing and testing additional products to meet science data needs and providing MODIS data product continuity. This paper will present to-date findings of the NASA Science Team's evaluation of the VIIRS Land and Cryosphere EDRs, specifically Surface Reflectance, Land Surface Temperature, Surface Albedo, Vegetation Indices, Surface Type, Active Fires, Snow Cover, Ice Surface Temperature, and Sea Ice Characterization (http://viirsland.gsfc.nasa.gov/index.html). The paper will also discuss new capabilities being developed at NASA's Land Product Evaluation and Test Element (http://landweb.nascom.nasa.gov/NPP_QA/); including downstream data and products derived from the VIIRS Day/Night Band (DNB).

OOD/OOP experience in the Science Operations Center part of the ground system for X ray Timing Explorer mission

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Choudhary, Abdur Rahim

1994-01-01

The Science Operations Center (SOC) for the X-ray Timing Explorer (XTE) mission is an important component of the XTE ground system. Its mandate includes: (1) command and telemetry for the three XTE instruments, using CCSDS standards; (2) monitoring of the real-time science operations, reconfiguration of the experiment and the instruments, and real-time commanding to address the targets of opportunity (TOO) and alternate observations; and (3) analysis, processing, and archival of the XTE telemetry, and the timely delivery of the data products to the principal investigator (PI) teams and the guest observers (GO). The SOC has two major components: the science operations facility (SOF) that addresses the first two objectives stated above and the guest observer facility (GOF) that addresses the third. The SOF has subscribed to the object oriented design and implementation; while the GOF uses the traditional approach in order to take advantage of the existing software developed in support of previous missions. This paper details the SOF development using the object oriented design (OOD), and its implementation using the object oriented programming (OOP) in C++ under Unix environment on client-server architecture using Sun workstations. It also illustrates how the object oriented (OO) and the traditional approaches coexist in SOF and GOF, the lessons learned, and how the OOD facilitated the distributed software development collaboratively by four different teams. Details are presented for the SOF system, its major subsystems, its interfaces with the rest of the XTE ground data system, and its design and implementation approaches.

Assessing the capacity of ministries of health to use research in decision-making: conceptual framework and tool.

PubMed

Rodríguez, Daniela C; Hoe, Connie; Dale, Elina M; Rahman, M Hafizur; Akhter, Sadika; Hafeez, Assad; Irava, Wayne; Rajbangshi, Preety; Roman, Tamlyn; Ţîrdea, Marcela; Yamout, Rouham; Peters, David H

2017-08-01

The capacity to demand and use research is critical for governments if they are to develop policies that are informed by evidence. Existing tools designed to assess how government officials use evidence in decision-making have significant limitations for low- and middle-income countries (LMICs); they are rarely tested in LMICs and focus only on individual capacity. This paper introduces an instrument that was developed to assess Ministry of Health (MoH) capacity to demand and use research evidence for decision-making, which was tested for reliability and validity in eight LMICs (Bangladesh, Fiji, India, Lebanon, Moldova, Pakistan, South Africa, Zambia). Instrument development was based on a new conceptual framework that addresses individual, organisational and systems capacities, and items were drawn from existing instruments and a literature review. After initial item development and pre-testing to address face validity and item phrasing, the instrument was reduced to 54 items for further validation and item reduction. In-country study teams interviewed a systematic sample of 203 MoH officials. Exploratory factor analysis was used in addition to standard reliability and validity measures to further assess the items. Thirty items divided between two factors representing organisational and individual capacity constructs were identified. South Africa and Zambia demonstrated the highest level of organisational capacity to use research, whereas Pakistan and Bangladesh were the lowest two. In contrast, individual capacity was highest in Pakistan, followed by South Africa, whereas Bangladesh and Lebanon were the lowest. The framework and related instrument represent a new opportunity for MoHs to identify ways to understand and improve capacities to incorporate research evidence in decision-making, as well as to provide a basis for tracking change.

Development of the Potassium-Argon Laser Experiment (KArLE) Instrument for In Situ Geochronology

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cohen, Barbara A.; Li, Z.-H.; Miller, J. S.; Brinckerhoff, W. B.; Clegg, S. M.; Mahaffy, P. R.; Swindle, T. D.; Wiens, R. C.

2012-01-01

Absolute dating of planetary samples is an essential tool to establish the chronology of geological events, including crystallization history, magmatic evolution, and alteration. Traditionally, geochronology has only been accomplishable on samples from dedicated sample return missions or meteorites. The capability for in situ geochronology is highly desired, because it will allow one-way planetary missions to perform dating of large numbers of samples. The success of an in situ geochronology package will not only yield data on absolute ages, but can also complement sample return missions by identifying the most interesting rocks to cache and/or return to Earth. In situ dating instruments have been proposed, but none have yet reached TRL 6 because the required high-resolution isotopic measurements are very challenging. Our team is now addressing this challenge by developing the Potassium (K) - Argon Laser Experiment (KArLE) under the NASA Planetary Instrument Definition and Development Program (PIDDP), building on previous work to develop a K-Ar in situ instrument [1]. KArLE uses a combination of several flight-proven components that enable accurate K-Ar isochron dating of planetary rocks. KArLE will ablate a rock sample, determine the K in the plasma state using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), measure the liberated Ar using quadrupole mass spectrometry (QMS), and relate the two by the volume of the ablated pit using an optical method such as a vertical scanning interferometer (VSI). Our preliminary work indicates that the KArLE instrument will be capable of determining the age of several kinds of planetary samples to +/-100 Myr, sufficient to address a wide range of geochronology problems in planetary science.

Recent Developments in Balloon Support Instrumentation at TIFR Balloon Facility, Hyderabad.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vasudevan, Rajagopalan

2012-07-01

The Balloon Facility of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research has been conducting stratospheric balloon flights regularly for various experiments in Space Astronomy and Atmospheric Sciences. A continuous improvement in Balloon flight Support instrumentation by the Control Instrumentation Group to keep in space with the growing complexities of the scientific payloads have contributed to the total success of balloon flights conducted recently. Recent improvements in display of Balloon position during balloon flight by showing on real time the balloon GPS position against Google TM maps is of immense help in selecting the right spot for payload landing and safe recovery . For further speeding up the payload recovery process, a new GPS-GSM payload system has been developed which gives SMS of the payload position information to the recovery team on their cell phones. On parallel footing, a new GPS- VHF system has been developed using GPS and Radio Modems for Balloon Tracking and also for obtaining the payload impact point. On the Telecommand side, a single board Telecommand/ Timer weighing less than 2 Kg has been specially developed for use in the mesosphere balloon test flight. The interference on the existing Short Range Telemetry System has been eliminated by introducing a Band Pass Filter and LNA in the Receiving system of the modules, thereby enhancing its reliability. In this paper , we present the details of the above mentioned developments.

Science Planning for the Solar Probe Plus NASA Mission

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kusterer, M. B.; Fox, N. J.; Turner, F. S.; Vandegriff, J. D.

2015-12-01

With a planned launch in 2018, there are a number of challenges for the Science Planning Team (SPT) of the Solar Probe Plus mission. The geometry of the celestial bodies and the spacecraft during some of the Solar Probe Plus mission orbits cause limited uplink and downlink opportunities. The payload teams must manage the volume of data that they write to the spacecraft solid-state recorders (SSR) for their individual instruments for downlink to the ground. The aim is to write the instrument data to the spacecraft SSR for downlink before a set of data downlink opportunities large enough to get the data to the ground and before the start of another data collection cycle. The SPT also intend to coordinate observations with other spacecraft and ground based systems. To add further complexity, two of the spacecraft payloads have the capability to write a large volumes of data to their internal payload SSR while sending a smaller "survey" portion of the data to the spacecraft SSR for downlink. The instrument scientists would then view the survey data on the ground, determine the most interesting data from their payload SSR, send commands to transfer that data from their payload SSR to the spacecraft SSR for downlink. The timing required for downlink and analysis of the survey data, identifying uplink opportunities for commanding data transfers, and downlink opportunities big enough for the selected data within the data collection period is critical. To solve these challenges, the Solar Probe Plus Science Working Group has designed a orbit-type optimized data file priority downlink scheme to downlink high priority survey data quickly. This file priority scheme would maximize the reaction time that the payload teams have to perform the survey and selected data method on orbits where the downlink and uplink availability will support using this method. An interactive display and analysis science planning tool is being designed for the SPT to use as an aid to planning. The tool will integrate the data file priority downlink scheme, payload data volume allocations, spacecraft ephemeris, attitude, downlink and uplink schedules, spacecraft and payload activities, and other spacecraft ephemeris. A prototype of the tool is in development using notional inputs obtained from the spacecraft engineering teams.

Reliability of the Motor Learning Strategy Rating Instrument for Children and Youth with Acquired Brain Injury

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kamath, Trishna; Pfeifer, Megan; Banerjee-Guenette, Priyanka; Hunter, Theresa; Ito, Julia; Salbach, Nancy M.; Wright, Virginia; Levac, Danielle

2012-01-01

Purpose: To evaluate reliability and feasibility of the Motor Learning Strategy Rating Instrument (MLSRI) in children with acquired brain injury (ABI). The MLSRI quantifies the extent to which motor learning strategies (MLS) are used within physiotherapy (PT) interventions. Methods: PT sessions conducted by ABI team physiotherapists with a…

Return to the red planet: The Mars Observer Mission

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

French, Bevan M.; Young, Carolynn (Editor)

1993-01-01

An overview of the Mars Observer Mission is discussed. Highlights include: (1) the spacecraft; (2) the instrumentation and science experiments; (3) the countries involved; (4) the flight teams; and (5) the planet Mars itself (a brief history). Photographs and flow charts are included, along with diagrams of instrumentation and a brief historical narrative of space observation and exploration.

Best practices for minimally invasive procedures.

PubMed

Ulmer, Brenda C

2010-05-01

Techniques and instrumentation for minimally invasive surgical procedures originated in gynecologic surgery, but the benefits of surgery with small incisions or no incisions at all have prompted the expansion of these techniques into numerous specialties. Technologies such as robotic assistance, single-incision laparoscopic surgery, natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery, and video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery have led to the continued expansion of minimally invasive surgery into new specialties. With this expansion, perioperative nurses and other members of the surgical team are required to continue to learn about new technology and instrumentation, as well as the techniques and challenges involved in using new technology, to help ensure the safety of their patients. This article explores the development of minimally invasive procedures and offers suggestions for increasing patient safety. Copyright 2010 AORN, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

NGST Yardstick Integrated Science Instrument Module (ISIM) Feasibility Study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Greenhouse, M. A.; Dipirro, M.; Federline, B.; Gardner, Jonathan P.; Guy, P.; Hagopian, J.; Hein, J.; Jurotich, M.; Lawrence, J.; Martineau, B.; Mather, J. C.; Mentzell, E.; Satyapal, S.; Stanley, D.; Teplitz, H. I.; Travis, J.; Bely, P.; Petro, L. D.; Stockman, P.; Burg, R.; Bitzel, R.

1998-12-01

We display portions of the baseline design concept for the NGST Integrated Science Instrument Module (ISIM). This ISIM design is under ongoing development for integration with the "Yardstick" and other NGST 8 m architectures that are intended for packaging in an EELV or Ariane 5 meter class fairing. The goals of this activity are to: [1] demonstrate mission science feasibility, [2] identify ISIM technology challenge areas, [3] assess ISIM engineering and cost feasibility, [5] identify ISIM/NGST interface constraints, and [6] enable smart customer procurement of the ISIM. In this poster, we display a snap shot of work in progress including: optical design, opto-mechanical layout, thermal modeling, focal plane array design, and electronics design. Ongoing progress can be monitored via ISIM team web site: http://ngst.gsfc.nasa.gov/

Pre-Launch Algorithms and Risk Reduction in Support of the Geostationary Lightning Mapper for GOES-R and Beyond

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Goodman, Steven J.; Blakeslee, R. J.; Koshak, W.; Petersen, W.; Buechler, D. E.; Krehbiel, P. R.; Gatlin, P.; Zubrick, S.

2008-01-01

The Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) is a single channel, near-IR imager/optical transient event detector, used to detect, locate and measure total lightning activity over the full-disk as part of a 3-axis stabilized, geostationary weather satellite system. The next generation NOAA Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-R) series with a planned launch in 2014 will carry a GLM that will provide continuous day and night observations of lightning from the west coast of Africa (GOES-E) to New Zealand (GOES-W) when the constellation is fUlly operational. The mission objectives for the GLM are to 1) provide continuous, full-disk lightning measurements for storm warning and nowcasting, 2) provide early warning of tornadic activity, and 3) accumulate a long-term database to track decadal changes of lightning. The GLM owes its heritage to the NASA Lightning Imaging Sensor (1997-Present) and the Optical Transient Detector (1995-2000), which were developed for the Earth Observing System and have produced a combined 13 year data record of global lightning activity. Instrument formulation studies were completed in March 2007 and the implementation phase to develop a prototype model and up to four flight models is expected to be underway in the latter part of 2007. In parallel with the instrument development, a GOES-R Risk Reduction Team and Algorithm Working Group Lightning Applications Team have begun to develop the Level 2 ground processing algorithms and applications. Proxy total lightning data from the NASA Lightning Imaging Sensor on the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite and regional test beds (e.g., Lightning Mapping Arrays in North Alabama and the Washington DC Metropolitan area)

Practical experience with test-driven development during commissioning of the multi-star AO system ARGOS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kulas, M.; Borelli, Jose Luis; Gässler, Wolfgang; Peter, Diethard; Rabien, Sebastian; Orban de Xivry, Gilles; Busoni, Lorenzo; Bonaglia, Marco; Mazzoni, Tommaso; Rahmer, Gustavo

2014-07-01

Commissioning time for an instrument at an observatory is precious, especially the night time. Whenever astronomers come up with a software feature request or point out a software defect, the software engineers have the task to find a solution and implement it as fast as possible. In this project phase, the software engineers work under time pressure and stress to deliver a functional instrument control software (ICS). The shortness of development time during commissioning is a constraint for software engineering teams and applies to the ARGOS project as well. The goal of the ARGOS (Advanced Rayleigh guided Ground layer adaptive Optics System) project is the upgrade of the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) with an adaptive optics (AO) system consisting of six Rayleigh laser guide stars and wavefront sensors. For developing the ICS, we used the technique Test- Driven Development (TDD) whose main rule demands that the programmer writes test code before production code. Thereby, TDD can yield a software system, that grows without defects and eases maintenance. Having applied TDD in a calm and relaxed environment like office and laboratory, the ARGOS team has profited from the benefits of TDD. Before the commissioning, we were worried that the time pressure in that tough project phase would force us to drop TDD because we would spend more time writing test code than it would be worth. Despite this concern at the beginning, we could keep TDD most of the time also in this project phase This report describes the practical application and performance of TDD including its benefits, limitations and problems during the ARGOS commissioning. Furthermore, it covers our experience with pair programming and continuous integration at the telescope.

The Ottawa Model of Research Use: a guide to clinical innovation in the NICU.

PubMed

Hogan, Debora L; Logan, Jo

2004-01-01

To improve performance of a neonatal transport team by implementing a research-based family assessment instrument. Objectives included providing a structure for evaluating families and fostering the healthcare relationship. Neonatal transports are associated with family crises. Transport teams require a comprehensive framework to accurately assess family responses to adversity and tools to guide their practice toward parental mastery of the event. Currently, there are no assessment tools that merge family nursing expertise with neonatal transport. A family assessment tool grounded in contemporary family nursing theory and research was developed by a clinical nurse specialist. The Ottawa Model of Research Use guided the process of piloting the innovation with members of a transport team. Focus groups, interviews, and surveys were conducted to create profiles of barriers and facilitators to research use by team members. Tailored research transfer strategies were enacted based on the profile results. Formative evaluations demonstrated improvements in team members' perceptions of their knowledge, family centeredness, and ability to assess and intervene with families. The family assessment tool is currently being incorporated into Clinical Practice Guidelines for Transport and thus will be considered standard care. Use of a family assessment tool is an effective way of appraising families and addressing suffering. The Ottawa Model of Research Use provided a framework for implementing the clinical innovation. A key role of the clinical nurse specialist is to influence nursing practice by fostering research use by practitioners. When developing and implementing a clinical innovation, input from end users and consumers is pivotal. Incorporating the innovation into a practice guideline provides a structure to imbed research evidence into practice.

Correlation Of Terrestrial gamma flashes, Electric fields, and Lightning strikes (COTEL) in thunderstorms using networked balloon payloads developed by university and community college students

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Landry, B. J.; Blair, D.; Causey, J.; Collins, J.; Davis, A.; Fernandez-Kim, V.; Kennedy, J.; Pate, N.; Kearney, C.; Schayer, C.; Turk, E.; Cherry, M. L.; Fava, C.; Granger, D.; Stewart, M.; Guzik, T. G.

2017-12-01

High energy gamma ray flashes from terrestrial sources have been observed by satellites for decades, but the actual mechanism, assumed to be thunderstorm lightning, has yet to be fully characterized. The goal of COTEL, funded by NASA through the University Student Instrument Project (USIP) program, is to correlate in time TGF events, lightning strikes, and electric fields inside of thunderstorms. This will be accomplished using a small network of balloon-borne payloads suspended in and around thunderstorm environments. The payloads will detect and timestamp gamma radiation bursts, lightning strikes, and the intensity of localized electric fields. While in flight, data collected by the payloads will be transmitted to a ground station in real-time and will be analyzed post-flight to investigate potential correlations between lightning, TGFs, and electric fields. The COTEL student team is in its second year of effort having spent the first year developing the basic balloon payloads and ground tracking system. Currently the team is focusing on prototype electric field and gamma radiation detectors. Testing and development of these systems will continue into 2018, and flight operations will take place during the spring 2018 Louisiana thunderstorm season. The presentation, led by undergraduate Physics student Brad Landry, will cover the student team effort in developing the COTEL system, an overview of the system architecture, balloon flight tests conducted to date, preliminary results from prototype detectors, lessons learned for student-led science projects, and future plans.

"That's not how we do it": managing the inherited medical practice team.

PubMed

Hills, Laura

2013-01-01

Most medical practice managers who take a new job will inherit an existing team. Those first few days on the job are critical because they can determine whether or not the new manager will succeed. This article provides a game plan for new medical practice managers so they get off on the right foot with their inherited teams. It suggests strategies for learning about the team's culture and for demonstrating visibly that there is a new manager in the job. It offers guidelines about introducing the new manager to the inherited team, discussing past experiences, and establishing new expectations. This article further provides practical tips for serving as a role model, gaining allies, and dealing with troublemakers quickly and effectively. It suggests strategies for speaking about the previous practice manager and for creating excitement with the inherited team. Finally, this article offers a set of 15 questions a new manager can ask members of the inherited team to get to know them, an additional 25-point team assessment instrument, and a step-by-step strategy for raising the bar for mediocre, lackluster, or dysfunctional inherited teams.

Making Sense of Complex Problems: A Resource for Teams

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-12-01

instruments, interviews, and a writing assignment to mirror those characteristics and skills. Candidates were evaluated in terms of that set of criteria, and...and those who are metacognitive thinkers, and can reflect and comment on how the team is thinking about a particular topic...The Cognitive- Style Inventory (see Tools and Resources for references). Writing samples and other examples of work products These products can

Development of an instrument to analyze organizational characteristics in multidisciplinary care pathways; the case of colorectal cancer.

PubMed

Pluimers, Dorine J; van Vliet, Ellen J; Niezink, Anne Gh; van Mourik, Martijn S; Eddes, Eric H; Wouters, Michel W; Tollenaar, Rob A E M; van Harten, Wim H

2015-04-09

To analyze the organization of multidisciplinary care pathways such as colorectal cancer care, an instrument was developed based on a recently published framework that was earlier used in analyzing (monodisciplinary) specialist cataract care from a lean perspective. The instrument was constructed using semi-structured interviews and direct observation of the colorectal care process based on a Rapid Plant Assessment. Six lean aspects that were earlier established that highly impact process design, were investigated: operational focus, autonomous work cell, physical lay-out of resources, multi-skilled team, pull planning and non-value adding activities. To test reliability, clarity and face validity of the instrument, a pilot study was performed in eight Dutch hospitals. In the pilot it proved feasible to apply the instrument and generate the intended information. The instrument consisted of 83 quantitative and 24 qualitative items. Examples of results show differences in operational focus, number of patient visits needed for diagnosis, numbers of staff involved with treatment, the implementation of protocols and utilization of one-stop-shops. Identification of waste and non-value adding activities may need further attention. Based on feedback from involved clinicians the face validity was acceptable and the results provided useful feedback- and benchmark data. The instrument proved to be reliable and valid for broader implementation in Dutch health care. The limited number of cases made statistical analysis not possible and further validation studies may shed better light on variation. This paper demonstrates the use of an instrument to analyze organizational characteristics in colorectal cancer care from a lean perspective. Wider use might help to identify best organizational practices for colorectal surgery. In larger series the instrument might be used for in-depth research into the relation between organization and patient outcomes. Although we found no reason to adapt the underlying framework, recommendations were made for further development to enable use in different tumor- and treatment modalities and in larger (international) samples that allow for more advanced statistical analysis. Waste from defective care or from wasted human potential will need further elaboration of the instrument.

IceBridge: Bringing a Field Campaign Home

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Woods, J.; Beck, J.; Bartholow, S.

2015-12-01

IceBridge, a six-year NASA mission, is the largest airborne survey of Earth's polar ice ever flown. It will yield an unprecedented three-dimensional view of Arctic and Antarctic ice sheets, ice shelves and sea ice. These flights will provide a yearly, multi-instrument look at the behavior of the rapidly changing features of the Greenland and Antarctic ice. Data collected during IceBridge will help scientists bridge the gap in polar observations between NASA's Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) -- in orbit since 2003 -- and ICESat-2, planned for 2017. ICESat stopped collecting science data in 2009, making IceBridge critical for ensuring a continuous series of observations. IceBridge will use airborne instruments to map Arctic and Antarctic areas once a year at a minimum, with new campaigns being developed during the Arctic melt season. IceBridge flights are conducted in the spring and summer for the Arctic and in the fall over Antarctica. Other smaller airborne surveys around the world are also part of the IceBridge campaign. IceBridge actively engages the public and educators through a variety of outlets ranging from communications strategies through social media outlets, to larger organized efforts such as PolarTREC. In field activities include blog posts, photo updates, in flight chat sessions, and more intensive live events to include google hangouts, where field team members can interact with the public during a scheduled broadcast. The IceBridge team provides scientists and other team members with the training and support to become communicators in their own right. There is an exciting new initiative where IceBridge will be collaborating with Undergraduate and Graduate students to integrate the next generation of scientists and communicators into the Science Teams. This will be explored through partnerships with institutions that are interested in mentoring through project based initiatives.

White Light Stray Light Test of the SOHO UVCS

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gardner, L. N.; Gardner, L. N.; Fineschi, S.

1998-01-01

During the late stages of the integration phase of the Ultraviolet Coronagraph Spectrometer (UVCS) instrument for the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) at MATRA-Marconi in Toulouse, France, SOHO Project management at Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) became concerned that the elaborate stray light rejection system for the instrument had not been tested and might possibly be misaligned such that the instrument could not deliver promised scientific returns. A white light stray light test, which would place an upper bound on the value of UVCS's stray light rejection capability, was commissioned, conceived, and carried out. This upper bound value would be indicative of the weakest coronal features the spectrometer would be capable of discerning. The test was rapidly developed at GSFC in coordination with science team members from Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CFA) and was carried out at MATRA in late February 1995. The outcome of this test helped to justify similar, much desired tests with visible and far ultraviolet light at CFA in a facility specifically designed to perform such testing.

Identifying and analyzing the construction and effectiveness of offensive plays in basketball by using systematic observation.

PubMed

Fernandez, Jordi; Camerino, Oleguer; Anguera, M Teresa; Jonsson, Gudberg K

2009-08-01

In the field of sports research, there is a growing need for the rigorous collection of data that provide empirical evidence about the complex reality they refer to. Although sports psychology research has advanced considerably in recent years, in both extent and quality, one area of research that remains relatively unexplored is the dynamics of the sports group and the influence of the group on its members (George & Feltz, 1995; Widmeyer, Brawley, & Carron, 1992). Key aspects in this regard include the presence of regularities that are not detectable through visual inference or traditional methods of data analysis, the lack of standard observation instruments, and, assuming priority, the need to develop powerful, computerized coding systems, all of which must form part of an approach that is suitable for natural and habitual contexts. The present study is part of a broader research project concerning ACB teams (first Spanish basketball division) and considers the interaction context before teams try to score (where this is understood as how teams create scoring opportunities) as the core aspect that links team play. This investigation proposes a new model of analysis for studying the effectiveness and construction of offensive basketball plays in order to identify their outcomes, thus providing coaches with an important device for improving or consolidating them.

Interprofessional teamwork skills as predictors of clinical outcomes in a simulated healthcare setting.

PubMed

Shrader, Sarah; Kern, Donna; Zoller, James; Blue, Amy

2013-01-01

Teaching interprofessional (IP) teamwork skills is a goal of interprofessional education. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between IP teamwork skills, attitudes and clinical outcomes in a simulated clinical setting. One hundred-twenty health professions students (medicine, pharmacy, physician assistant) worked in interprofessional teams to manage a "patient" in a health care simulation setting. Students completed the Interdisciplinary Education Perception Scale (IEPS) attitudinal survey instrument. Students' responses were averaged by team to create an IEPS attitudes score. Teamwork skills for each team were rated by trained observers using a checklist to calculate a teamwork score (TWS). Clinical outcome scores (COS) were determined by summation of completed clinical tasks performed by the team based on an expert developed checklist. Regression analyses were conducted to determine the relationship of IEPS and TWS with COS. IEPS score was not a significant predictor of COS (p=0.054), but TWS was a significant predictor (p<0.001) of COS. Results suggest that in a simulated clinical setting, students' interprofessional teamwork skills are significant predictors of positive clinical outcomes. Interprofessional curricular models that produce effective teamwork skills can improve student performance in clinical environments and likely improve teamwork practice to positively affect patient care outcomes.

Empowering certified nurse's aides to improve quality of work life through a team communication program.

PubMed

Howe, Erin E

2014-01-01

The purpose of this pilot study was to explore the impact of a certified nurse's aide (CNA)-led interdisciplinary teamwork and communication intervention on perceived quality of work environment and six-month job intentions. CNAs are frequently excluded from team communication and decision-making, which often leads to job dissatisfaction with high levels of staff turnover. Using a mixed quantitative and qualitative approach with pre- post-program design, the intervention utilized the strategy of debriefing from the national patient safety initiative, TeamSTEPPS. Inherent in the program design, entitled Long Term Care (LTC) Team Talk, was the involvement of the CNAs in the development of the intervention as an empowering process on two wings of a transitional care unit in a long-term care facility in upstate NY. CNAs' perceptions of work environment quality were measured using a Quality of Work Life (QWL) instrument. Additionally, job turnover intent within six months was assessed. Results indicated improved scores on nearly all QWL subscales anticipated to be impacted, and enhanced perceived empowerment of the CNAs on each wing albeit through somewhat different experiential processes. The program is highly portable and can potentially be implemented in a variety of long-term care settings. Copyright © 2014 Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.

Field trial of a dual-wavelength fluorescent emission (L.I.F.E.) instrument and the Magma White rover during the MARS2013 Mars analog mission.

PubMed

Groemer, Gernot; Sattler, Birgit; Weisleitner, Klemens; Hunger, Lars; Kohstall, Christoph; Frisch, Albert; Józefowicz, Mateusz; Meszyński, Sebastian; Storrie-Lombardi, Michael; Bothe, Claudia; Boyd, Andrea; Dinkelaker, Aline; Dissertori, Markus; Fasching, David; Fischer, Monika; Föger, Daniel; Foresta, Luca; Frischauf, Norbert; Fritsch, Lukas; Fuchs, Harald; Gautsch, Christoph; Gerard, Stephan; Goetzloff, Linda; Gołebiowska, Izabella; Gorur, Paavan; Groemer, Gerhard; Groll, Petra; Haider, Christian; Haider, Olivia; Hauth, Eva; Hauth, Stefan; Hettrich, Sebastian; Jais, Wolfgang; Jones, Natalie; Taj-Eddine, Kamal; Karl, Alexander; Kauerhoff, Tilo; Khan, Muhammad Shadab; Kjeldsen, Andreas; Klauck, Jan; Losiak, Anna; Luger, Markus; Luger, Thomas; Luger, Ulrich; McArthur, Jane; Moser, Linda; Neuner, Julia; Orgel, Csilla; Ori, Gian Gabriele; Paternesi, Roberta; Peschier, Jarno; Pfeil, Isabella; Prock, Silvia; Radinger, Josef; Ragonig, Christoph; Ramirez, Barbara; Ramo, Wissam; Rampey, Mike; Sams, Arnold; Sams, Elisabeth; Sams, Sebastian; Sandu, Oana; Sans, Alejandra; Sansone, Petra; Scheer, Daniela; Schildhammer, Daniel; Scornet, Quentin; Sejkora, Nina; Soucek, Alexander; Stadler, Andrea; Stummer, Florian; Stumptner, Willibald; Taraba, Michael; Tlustos, Reinhard; Toferer, Ernst; Turetschek, Thomas; Winter, Egon; Zanella-Kux, Katja

2014-05-01

Abstract We have developed a portable dual-wavelength laser fluorescence spectrometer as part of a multi-instrument optical probe to characterize mineral, organic, and microbial species in extreme environments. Operating at 405 and 532 nm, the instrument was originally designed for use by human explorers to produce a laser-induced fluorescence emission (L.I.F.E.) spectral database of the mineral and organic molecules found in the microbial communities of Earth's cryosphere. Recently, our team had the opportunity to explore the strengths and limitations of the instrument when it was deployed on a remote-controlled Mars analog rover. In February 2013, the instrument was deployed on board the Magma White rover platform during the MARS2013 Mars analog field mission in the Kess Kess formation near Erfoud, Morocco. During these tests, we followed tele-science work flows pertinent to Mars surface missions in a simulated spaceflight environment. We report on the L.I.F.E. instrument setup, data processing, and performance during field trials. A pilot postmission laboratory analysis determined that rock samples acquired during the field mission exhibited a fluorescence signal from the Sun-exposed side characteristic of chlorophyll a following excitation at 405 nm. A weak fluorescence response to excitation at 532 nm may have originated from another microbial photosynthetic pigment, phycoerythrin, but final assignment awaits development of a comprehensive database of mineral and organic fluorescence spectra. No chlorophyll fluorescence signal was detected from the shaded underside of the samples.

Development of a Standardized Kalamazoo Communication Skills Assessment Tool for Radiologists: Validation, Multisource Reliability, and Lessons Learned.

PubMed

Brown, Stephen D; Rider, Elizabeth A; Jamieson, Katherine; Meyer, Elaine C; Callahan, Michael J; DeBenedectis, Carolynn M; Bixby, Sarah D; Walters, Michele; Forman, Sara F; Varrin, Pamela H; Forbes, Peter; Roussin, Christopher J

2017-08-01

The purpose of this study was to develop and test a standardized communication skills assessment instrument for radiology. The Delphi method was used to validate the Kalamazoo Communication Skills Assessment instrument for radiology by revising and achieving consensus on the 43 items of the preexisting instrument among an interdisciplinary team of experts consisting of five radiologists and four nonradiologists (two men, seven women). Reviewers assessed the applicability of the instrument to evaluation of conversations between radiology trainees and trained actors portraying concerned parents in enactments about bad news, radiation risks, and diagnostic errors that were video recorded during a communication workshop. Interrater reliability was assessed by use of the revised instrument to rate a series of enactments between trainees and actors video recorded in a hospital-based simulator center. Eight raters evaluated each of seven different video-recorded interactions between physicians and parent-actors. The final instrument contained 43 items. After three review rounds, 42 of 43 (98%) items had an average rating of relevant or very relevant for bad news conversations. All items were rated as relevant or very relevant for conversations about error disclosure and radiation risk. Reliability and rater agreement measures were moderate. The intraclass correlation coefficient range was 0.07-0.58; mean, 0.30; SD, 0.13; and median, 0.30. The range of weighted kappa values was 0.03-0.47; mean, 0.23; SD, 0.12; and median, 0.22. Ratings varied significantly among conversations (χ 2 6 = 1186; p < 0.0001) and varied significantly by viewing order, rater type, and rater sex. The adapted communication skills assessment instrument is highly relevant for radiology, having moderate interrater reliability. These findings have important implications for assessing the relational competencies of radiology trainees.

The Landsat Data Continuity Mission Operational Land Imager (OLI) Radiometric Calibration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Markham, Brian L.; Dabney, Philip W.; Murphy-Morris, Jeanine E.; Knight, Edward J.; Kvaran, Geir; Barsi, Julia A.

2010-01-01

The Operational Land Imager (OLI) on the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) has a comprehensive radiometric characterization and calibration program beginning with the instrument design, and extending through integration and test, on-orbit operations and science data processing. Key instrument design features for radiometric calibration include dual solar diffusers and multi-lamped on-board calibrators. The radiometric calibration transfer procedure from NIST standards has multiple checks on the radiometric scale throughout the process and uses a heliostat as part of the transfer to orbit of the radiometric calibration. On-orbit lunar imaging will be used to track the instruments stability and side slither maneuvers will be used in addition to the solar diffuser to flat field across the thousands of detectors per band. A Calibration Validation Team is continuously involved in the process from design to operations. This team uses an Image Assessment System (IAS), part of the ground system to characterize and calibrate the on-orbit data.

Is it all in the game? Flow experience and scientific practices during an INPLACE mobile game

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bressler, Denise M.

Mobile science learning games show promise for promoting scientific practices and high engagement. Researchers have quantified this engagement according to flow theory. Using an embedded mixed methods design, this study investigated whether an INPLACE mobile game promotes flow experience, scientific practices, and effective team collaboration. Students playing the game (n=59) were compared with students in a business-as-usual control activity (n=120). Using an open-ended instrument designed to measure scientific practices and a self-report flow survey, this study empirically assessed flow and learner's scientific practices. The game players had significantly higher levels of flow and scientific practices. Using a multiple case study approach, collaboration among game teams (n=3 teams) were qualitatively compared with control teams (n=3 teams). Game teams revealed not only higher levels of scientific practices but also higher levels of engaged responses and communal language. Control teams revealed lower levels of scientific practice along with higher levels of rejecting responses and command language. Implications for these findings are discussed.

The Strength of the Strongest Ties in Collaborative Problem Solving

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de Montjoye, Yves-Alexandre; Stopczynski, Arkadiusz; Shmueli, Erez; Pentland, Alex; Lehmann, Sune

2014-06-01

Complex problem solving in science, engineering, and business has become a highly collaborative endeavor. Teams of scientists or engineers collaborate on projects using their social networks to gather new ideas and feedback. Here we bridge the literature on team performance and information networks by studying teams' problem solving abilities as a function of both their within-team networks and their members' extended networks. We show that, while an assigned team's performance is strongly correlated with its networks of expressive and instrumental ties, only the strongest ties in both networks have an effect on performance. Both networks of strong ties explain more of the variance than other factors, such as measured or self-evaluated technical competencies, or the personalities of the team members. In fact, the inclusion of the network of strong ties renders these factors non-significant in the statistical analysis. Our results have consequences for the organization of teams of scientists, engineers, and other knowledge workers tackling today's most complex problems.

The strength of the strongest ties in collaborative problem solving.

PubMed

de Montjoye, Yves-Alexandre; Stopczynski, Arkadiusz; Shmueli, Erez; Pentland, Alex; Lehmann, Sune

2014-06-20

Complex problem solving in science, engineering, and business has become a highly collaborative endeavor. Teams of scientists or engineers collaborate on projects using their social networks to gather new ideas and feedback. Here we bridge the literature on team performance and information networks by studying teams' problem solving abilities as a function of both their within-team networks and their members' extended networks. We show that, while an assigned team's performance is strongly correlated with its networks of expressive and instrumental ties, only the strongest ties in both networks have an effect on performance. Both networks of strong ties explain more of the variance than other factors, such as measured or self-evaluated technical competencies, or the personalities of the team members. In fact, the inclusion of the network of strong ties renders these factors non-significant in the statistical analysis. Our results have consequences for the organization of teams of scientists, engineers, and other knowledge workers tackling today's most complex problems.

The Ocean Observatories Initiative Data Management and QA/QC: Lessons Learned and the Path Ahead

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vardaro, M.; Belabbassi, L.; Garzio, L. M.; Knuth, F.; Smith, M. J.; Kerfoot, J.; Crowley, M. F.

2016-02-01

The Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) is a multi-decadal, NSF-funded program that will provide long-term, near real-time cabled and telemetered measurements of climate variability, ocean circulation, ecosystem dynamics, air-sea exchange, seafloor processes, and plate-scale geodynamics. The OOI platforms consist of seafloor sensors, fixed moorings, and mobile assets containing over 700 operational instruments in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Rutgers University operates the Cyberinfrastructure (CI) component of the OOI, which acquires, processes and distributes data to scientists, researchers, educators and the public. It will also provide observatory mission command and control, data assessment and distribution, and long-term data management. The Rutgers Data Management Team consists of a data manager and four data evaluators, who are tasked with ensuring data completeness and quality, as well as interaction with OOI users to facilitate data delivery and utility. Here we will discuss the procedures developed to guide the data team workflow, the automated QC algorithms and human-in-the-loop (HITL) annotations that are used to flag suspect data (whether due to instrument failures, biofouling, or unanticipated events), system alerts and alarms, long-term data storage and CF (Climate and Forecast) standard compliance, and the lessons learned during construction and the first several months of OOI operations.

Student Participation in Rover Field Trials

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bowman, C. D.; Arvidson, R. E.; Nelson, S. V.; Sherman, D. M.; Squyres, S. W.

2001-12-01

The LAPIS program was developed in 1999 as part of the Athena Science Payload education and public outreach, funded by the JPL Mars Program Office. For the past three years, the Athena Science Team has been preparing for 2003 Mars Exploration Rover Mission operations using the JPL prototype Field Integrated Design and Operations (FIDO) rover in extended rover field trials. Students and teachers participating in LAPIS work with them each year to develop a complementary mission plan and implement an actual portion of the annual tests using FIDO and its instruments. LAPIS is designed to mirror an end-to-end mission: Small, geographically distributed groups of students form an integrated mission team, working together with Athena Science Team members and FIDO engineers to plan, implement, and archive a two-day test mission, controlling FIDO remotely over the Internet using the Web Interface for Telescience (WITS) and communicating with each other by email, the web, and teleconferences. The overarching goal of LAPIS is to get students excited about science and related fields. The program provides students with the opportunity to apply knowledge learned in school, such as geometry and geology, to a "real world" situation and to explore careers in science and engineering through continuous one-on-one interactions with teachers, Athena Science Team mentors, and FIDO engineers. A secondary goal is to help students develop improved communication skills and appreciation of teamwork, enhanced problem-solving skills, and increased self-confidence. The LAPIS program will provide a model for outreach associated with future FIDO field trials and the 2003 Mars mission operations. The base of participation will be broadened beyond the original four sites by taking advantage of the wide geographic distribution of Athena team member locations. This will provide greater numbers of students with the opportunity to actively engage in rover testing and to explore the possibilities of science, engineering, and technology.

NASA's Long-Term Archive (LTA) of ICESat Data at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fowler, D. K.; Moses, J. F.; Dimarzio, J. P.; Webster, D.

2011-12-01

Data Stewardship, preservation, and reproducibility are becoming principal parts of a data manager's work. In an era of distributed data and information systems, where the host location ought to be transparent to the internet user, it is of vital importance that organizations make a commitment to both current and long-term goals of data management and the preservation of scientific data. NASA's EOS Data and Information System (EOSDIS) is a distributed system of discipline-specific archives and mission-specific science data processing facilities. Satellite missions and instruments go through a lifecycle that involves pre-launch calibration, on-orbit data acquisition and product generation, and final reprocessing. Data products and descriptions flow to the archives for distribution on a regular basis during the active part of the mission. However there is additional information from the product generation and science teams needed to ensure the observations will be useful for long term climate studies. Examples include ancillary input datasets, product generation software, and production history as developed by the team during the course of product generation. These data and information will need to be archived after product data processing is completed. Using inputs from the USGCRP Workshop on Long Term Archive Requirements (1998), discussions with EOS instrument teams, and input from the 2011 ESIPS Federation meeting, NASA is developing a set of Earth science data and information content requirements for long term preservation that will ultimately be used for all the EOS missions as they come to completion. Since the ICESat/GLAS mission is one of the first to come to an end, NASA and NSIDC are preparing for long-term support of the ICESat mission data now. For a long-term archive, it is imperative that there is sufficient information about how products were prepared in order to convince future researchers that the scientific results are accurate, understandable, useable, and reproducible. Our experience suggests data centers know what to preserve in most cases, i.e., the processing algorithms along with the Level 0 or Level 1a input and ancillary products used to create the higher-level products will be archived and made available to users. In other cases the data centers must seek guidance from the science team, e.g., for pre-launch, calibration/validation, and test data. All these data are an important part of product provenance, contributing to and helping establish the integrity of the scientific observations for long term climate studies. In this presentation we will describe application of information content requirements, guidance from the ICESat/GLAS Science Team and the flow of additional information from the ICESat Science team and Science Investigator-Led Processing System to the Distributed Active Archive Center.

Development of a Lunar Scintillometer as part of the national large optical telescope site survey

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Surendran, Avinash; Parihar, Padmakar S.; Banyal, Ravinder K.; Kalyaan, Anusha

2018-03-01

Ground layer turbulence is a very important site characterization parameter used to assess the quality of an astronomical site. The Lunar Scintillometer is a simple and effective site-testing device for measuring the ground layer turbulence. It consists of a linear array of photodiodes which are sensitive to the slight variations in the moon's brightness due to scintillation by the lower layers of the Earth's atmosphere. The covariance of intensity values between the non-redundant photodiode baselines can be used to measure the turbulence profile from the ground up to a height determined by the furthest pair of detectors. The six channel lunar scintillometer that has been developed at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics is based closely on an instrument built by the team led by Andrei Tokovinin of Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), Chile (Tokovinin et al., Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 404(3), 1186-1196 2010). We have fabricated the instrument based on the existing electronic design, and have worked on the noise analysis, an EMI (Electromagnetic Induction) resistant PCB design and the software pipeline for analyzing the data from the same. The results from the instrument's multi-year campaign at Mount Saraswati, Hanle is also presented.

Developing the Next Generation of Science Data System Engineers

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Moses, John F.; Behnke, Jeanne; Durachka, Christopher D.

2016-01-01

At Goddard, engineers and scientists with a range of experience in science data systems are needed to employ new technologies and develop advances in capabilities for supporting new Earth and Space science research. Engineers with extensive experience in science data, software engineering and computer-information architectures are needed to lead and perform these activities. The increasing types and complexity of instrument data and emerging computer technologies coupled with the current shortage of computer engineers with backgrounds in science has led the need to develop a career path for science data systems engineers and architects.The current career path, in which undergraduate students studying various disciplines such as Computer Engineering or Physical Scientist, generally begins with serving on a development team in any of the disciplines where they can work in depth on existing Goddard data systems or serve with a specific NASA science team. There they begin to understand the data, infuse technologies, and begin to know the architectures of science data systems. From here the typical career involves peermentoring, on-the-job training or graduate level studies in analytics, computational science and applied science and mathematics. At the most senior level, engineers become subject matter experts and system architect experts, leading discipline-specific data centers and large software development projects. They are recognized as a subject matter expert in a science domain, they have project management expertise, lead standards efforts and lead international projects. A long career development remains necessary not only because of the breadth of knowledge required across physical sciences and engineering disciplines, but also because of the diversity of instrument data being developed today both by NASA and international partner agencies and because multidiscipline science and practitioner communities expect to have access to all types of observational data.This paper describes an approach to defining career-path guidance for college-bound high school and undergraduate engineering students, junior and senior engineers from various disciplines.

Developing the Next Generation of Science Data System Engineers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moses, J. F.; Durachka, C. D.; Behnke, J.

2015-12-01

At Goddard, engineers and scientists with a range of experience in science data systems are needed to employ new technologies and develop advances in capabilities for supporting new Earth and Space science research. Engineers with extensive experience in science data, software engineering and computer-information architectures are needed to lead and perform these activities. The increasing types and complexity of instrument data and emerging computer technologies coupled with the current shortage of computer engineers with backgrounds in science has led the need to develop a career path for science data systems engineers and architects. The current career path, in which undergraduate students studying various disciplines such as Computer Engineering or Physical Scientist, generally begins with serving on a development team in any of the disciplines where they can work in depth on existing Goddard data systems or serve with a specific NASA science team. There they begin to understand the data, infuse technologies, and begin to know the architectures of science data systems. From here the typical career involves peer mentoring, on-the-job training or graduate level studies in analytics, computational science and applied science and mathematics. At the most senior level, engineers become subject matter experts and system architect experts, leading discipline-specific data centers and large software development projects. They are recognized as a subject matter expert in a science domain, they have project management expertise, lead standards efforts and lead international projects. A long career development remains necessary not only because of the breath of knowledge required across physical sciences and engineering disciplines, but also because of the diversity of instrument data being developed today both by NASA and international partner agencies and because multi-discipline science and practitioner communities expect to have access to all types of observational data. This paper describes an approach to defining career-path guidance for college-bound high school and undergraduate engineering students, junior and senior engineers from various disciplines.

Sixteen Years of Terra MODIS On-Orbit Operation, Calibration, and Performance

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Xiong, X.; Angal, A.; Wu, A.; Link, D.; Geng, X.; Barnes, W.; Solomonson, V.

2016-01-01

Terra MODIS has successfully operated for more than 16 years since its launch in December 1999. From its observations, many science data products have been generated in support of a broad range of research activities and remote sensing applications. Terra MODIS has operated in a number of configurations and experienced a few anomalies, including spacecraft and instrument related events. MODIS collects data in 36 spectral bands that are calibrated regularly by a set of on-board calibrators for their radiometric, spectral, and spatial performance. Periodic lunar observations and long-term radiometric trending over well-characterized ground targets are also used to support sensor on-orbit calibration. Dedicated efforts made by the MODIS Characterization Support Team (MCST) and continuing support from the MODIS Science Team have contributed to the mission success, enabling well-calibrated data products to be continuously generated and routinely delivered to users worldwide. This paper presents an overview of Terra MODIS mission operations, calibration activities, and instrument performance of the past 16 years. It illustrates and describes the results of key sensor performance parameters derived from on-orbit calibration and characterization, such as signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), noise equivalent temperature difference (NEdT), solar diffuser (SD) degradation, changes in sensor responses, center wavelengths, and band-to-band registration (BBR). Also discussed in this paper are the calibration approaches and strategies developed and implemented in support of MODIS Level 1B data production and re-processing, major challenging issues, and lessons learned. (2016) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

Patient engagement: an investigation at a primary care clinic

PubMed Central

Gill, Preetinder Singh

2013-01-01

Background Engaged employees are an asset to any organization. They are instrumental in ensuring good commercial outcomes through continuous innovation and incremental improvement. A health care facility is similar to a regular work setting in many ways. A health care provider and a patient have roles akin to a team leader and a team member/stakeholder, respectively. Hence it can be argued that the concept of employee engagement can be applied to patients in health care settings in order to improve health outcomes. Methods Patient engagement data were collected using a survey instrument from a primary care clinic in the northern Indian state of Punjab. Canonical correlation equations were formulated to identify combinations which were strongly related to each other. In addition, the cause-effect relationship between patient engagement and patient-perceived health outcomes was described using structural equation modeling. Results Canonical correlation analysis showed that the first set of canonical variables had a fairly strong relationship, ie, a magnitude > 0.80 at the 95% confidence interval, for five dimensions of patient engagement. Structural equation modeling analysis yielded a β ≥ 0.10 and a Student’s t statistic ≥ 2.96 for these five dimensions. The threshold Student’s t statistic was 1.99. Hence it was found the β values were significant at the 95% confidence interval for all census regions. Conclusion A scaled reliable survey instrument was developed to measured patient engagement. Better patient engagement is associated with better patient-perceived health outcomes. This study provides preliminary evidence that patient engagement has a causal relationship with patient-perceived health outcomes. PMID:23515133

Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (sofia)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Becklin, E. E.

1997-08-01

The joint US and German SOFIA project to develop and operate a 2.5 meter infrared airborne telescope in a Boeing 747-SP began earlier this year. Universities Space Research Association (USRA), teamed with Raytheon E systems and United Airlines, was selected by NASA to develop and operate SOFIA. The 2.5 meter telescope will be designed and built by a consortium of German companies lead by MAN-GHH. Work on the aircraft and the primary mirror has started. First science flights will begin in 2001, and the observatory is expected to operate for over 20 years. The specifications, instruments and science potential of SOFIA are discussed.

Integrated Airport Surface Operations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Koczo, S.

1998-01-01

The current air traffic environment in airport terminal areas experiences substantial delays when weather conditions deteriorate to Instrument Meteorological Conditions (IMC). Research activity at NASA has culminated in the development, flight test and demonstration of a prototype Low Visibility Landing and Surface Operations (LVLASO) system. A NASA led industry team and the FAA developed the system which integrated airport surface surveillance systems, aeronautical data links, DGPS navigation, automation systems, and controller and flight deck displays. The LVLASO system was demonstrated at the Hartsfield-Atlanta International Airport using a Boeing 757-200 aircraft during August, 1997. This report documents the contractors role in this testing particularly in the area of data link and DGPS navigation.

Layout of personnel accommodations for the SOFIA

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Daughters, David M.; Bruich, J. G.; Arceneaux, Gregory P.; Zirretta, Jason; Caton, William B.

2000-06-01

The NASA Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) Observatory is based upon a refurbished and heavily modified Boeing 747 SP aircraft. The Observatory, which provides accommodations for the Deutsches Zentrum Fur Luftund Raumfahrt 2.5 m telescope, science investigator teams, scientific instruments, mission crew and support systems. The US contractor team has removed most of the aircraft original furnishings and designed a new Layout of Personnel Accommodations (LOPA) tailored to SOFIA's needs.

ASTER Waves

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2000-01-01

The pattern on the right half of this image of the Bay of Bengal is the result of two opposing wave trains colliding. This ASTER sub-scene, acquired on March 29, 2000, covers an area 18 kilometers (13 miles) wide and 15 kilometers (9 miles) long in three bands of the reflected visible and infrared wavelength region. The visible and near-infrared bands highlight surface waves due to specular reflection of sunlight off of the wave faces.

Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) is one of five Earth-observing instruments launched December 18, 1999, on NASA's Terra satellite. The instrument was built by Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry. A joint U.S./Japan science team is responsible for validation and calibration of the instrument and the data products. Dr. Anne Kahle at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, is the U.S. science team leader; Moshe Pniel of JPL is the project manager. ASTER is the only high-resolution imaging sensor on Terra. The primary goal of the ASTER mission is to obtain high-resolution image data in 14 channels over the entire land surface, as well as black and white stereo images. With revisit time of between 4 and 16 days, ASTER will provide the capability for repeat coverage of changing areas on Earth's surface. Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) is one of five Earth-observing instruments launched December 18, 1999, on NASA's Terra satellite. The instrument was built by Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry. A joint U.S./Japan science team is responsible for validation and calibration of the instrument and the data products. Dr. Anne Kahle at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, is the U.S. science team leader; Moshe Pniel of JPL is the project manager. ASTER is the only high-resolution imaging sensor on Terra. The primary goal of the ASTER mission is to obtain high-resolution image data in 14 channels over the entire land surface, as well as black and white stereo images. With revisit time of between 4 and 16 days, ASTER will provide the capability for repeat coverage of changing areas on Earth's surface.

The broad spectral coverage and high spectral resolution of ASTER will provide scientists in numerous disciplines with critical information for surface mapping and monitoring dynamic conditions and temporal change. Examples of applications include monitoring glacial advances and retreats, potentially active volcanoes, thermal pollution, and coral reef degradation; identifying crop stress; determining cloud morphology and physical properties; evaluating wetlands; mapping surface temperature of soils and geology; and measuring surface heat balance.

The NASA SETI sky survey - Recent developments

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Klein, Michael J.; Gulkis, Samuel; Olsen, Edward T.; Renzetti, Nicholas A.

1988-01-01

NASA's Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) project utilizes two complimentary search strategies: a sky survey and a targeted search. The SETI team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory have primary responsibility to develop and carry out the sky survey part of the Microwave Observing Project. The paper describes progress that has been made to develop the major elements of the survey including a two-million channel wideband spectrum analyzer system that is being developed and constructed by JPL for the Deep Space Network. The new system will be a multiuser instrument that will serve as a prototype for the SETI Sky Survey processor. This system will be used to test the signal detection and observational strategies on deep-space network antennas in the near future.

Miniature Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometer

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Potember, Richard S.

1999-01-01

Major advances must occur to protect astronauts from prolonged periods in near-zero gravity and high radiation associated with extended space travel. The dangers of living in space must be thoroughly understood and methods developed to reverse those effects that cannot be avoided. Six of the seven research teams established by the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) are studying biomedical factors for prolonged space travel to deliver effective countermeasures. To develop effective countermeasures, each of these teams require identification of and quantitation of complex pharmacological, hormonal, and growth factor compounds (biomarkers) in humans and in experimental animals to develop an in-depth knowledge of the physiological changes associated with space travel. At present, identification of each biomarker requires a separate protocol. Many of these procedures are complicated and the identification of each biomarker requires a separate protocol and associated laboratory equipment. To carry all of this equipment and chemicals on a spacecraft would require a complex clinical laboratory; and it would occupy much of the astronauts time. What is needed is a small, efficient, broadband medical diagnostic instrument to rapidly identify important biomarkers for human space exploration. The Miniature Time-Of- Flight Mass Spectrometer Project in the Technology Development Team is developing a small, high resolution, time-of-flight mass spectrometer (TOFMS) to quantitatively measure biomarkers for human space exploration. Virtues of the JHU/APL TOFMS technologies reside in the promise for a small (less than one cubic ft), lightweight (less than 5 kg), low-power (less than 50 watts), rugged device that can be used continuously with advanced signal processing diagnostics. To date, the JHU/APL program has demonstrated mass capability from under 100 to beyond 10,000 atomic mass units (amu) in a very small, low power prototype for biological analysis. Further, the electronic nature of the TOFMS output makes it ideal for rapid telemetry to earth for in-depth analysis by ground support teams.

NASA/University Joint Venture (JOVE) Program

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Magee-Sauer, Karen P.

1999-01-01

Hale-Bopp observations at the NASA IRTF concluded in September 1997. For the post Hale-Bopp period, telescope time was awarded to study comet Giacobini-Zinner in October 1998 at the NASA IRTF. A total of 6 nights were awarded to our team to study the comet where 2 of those 6 nights were awarded to Magee-Sauer as the principal investigator. Other observing trips were awarded to study YSOs (October 1998) and Mars (spring 1999) were Magee-Sauer was a co-investigator. An observing run from July 4 -7 1999 included study of Mars and YSOS. Our group has started to use the NIRSPEC instrument on the Keck II telescope. In collaboration with the development team from UCLA, we obtained images of comet Lee in August 1999. Telescope proposals are submitted each semester for targeted comet observations when a comet is bright enough to observe.

Origins Space Telescope

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cooray, Asantha R.; Origins Space Telescope Study Team

2017-01-01

The Origins Space Telescope (OST) is the mission concept for the Far-Infrared Surveyor, a study in development by NASA in preparation for the 2020 Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey. Origins is planned to be a large aperture, actively-cooled telescope covering a wide span of the mid- to far-infrared spectrum. Its spectrographs will enable 3D surveys of the sky that will discover and characterize the most distant galaxies, Milky-Way, exoplanets, and the outer reaches of our Solar system. Origins will enable flagship-quality general observing programs led by the astronomical community in the 2030s. The Science and Technology Definition Team (STDT) would like to hear your science needs and ideas for this mission. The team can be contacted at firsurveyor_info@lists.ipac.caltech.edu. I will summarize the OST STDT, mission design and instruments, key science drivers, and the study plan over the next two years.

NASA's Information Power Grid: Large Scale Distributed Computing and Data Management

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Johnston, William E.; Vaziri, Arsi; Hinke, Tom; Tanner, Leigh Ann; Feiereisen, William J.; Thigpen, William; Tang, Harry (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

Large-scale science and engineering are done through the interaction of people, heterogeneous computing resources, information systems, and instruments, all of which are geographically and organizationally dispersed. The overall motivation for Grids is to facilitate the routine interactions of these resources in order to support large-scale science and engineering. Multi-disciplinary simulations provide a good example of a class of applications that are very likely to require aggregation of widely distributed computing, data, and intellectual resources. Such simulations - e.g. whole system aircraft simulation and whole system living cell simulation - require integrating applications and data that are developed by different teams of researchers frequently in different locations. The research team's are the only ones that have the expertise to maintain and improve the simulation code and/or the body of experimental data that drives the simulations. This results in an inherently distributed computing and data management environment.

Television experiment for Mariner Mars 1971

USGS Publications Warehouse

Masursky, H.; Batson, R.; Borgeson, W.; Carr, M.; McCauley, J.; Milton, D.; Wildey, R.; Wilhelms, D.; Murray, B.; Horowitz, N.; Leighton, R.; Sharp, R.; Thompson, W.; Briggs, G.; Chandeysson, P.; Shipley, E.; Sagan, C.; Pollack, J.; Lederberg, J.; Levinthal, E.; Hartmann, W.; McCord, T.; Smith, B.; Davies, M.; De Vaucouleurs, G.; Leovy, C.

1970-01-01

The Television Experiment objectives are to provide imaging data which will complement previously gathered data and extend our knowledge of Mars. The two types of investigations will be fixed-feature (for mapping) and variable-feature (for surface and atmospheric changes). Two cameras with a factor-of-ten difference in resolution will be used on each spacecraft for medium- and high-resolution imagery. Mapping of 70% of the planet's surface will be provided by medium-resolution imagery. Spot coverage of about 5% of the surface will be possible with the high-resolution imagery. The experiment's 5 Principal Investigators and 21 Co-Investigators are organized into a team. Scientific disciplines and technical task groups have been formed to provide the formulation of experiment requirements for mission planning and instrument development. It is expected that the team concept will continue through the operational and reporting phases of the Mariner Mars 1971 Project. ?? 1970.

Palliative Care Processes Embedded in the ICU Workflow May Reserve Palliative Care Teams for Refractory Cases.

PubMed

Mun, Eluned; Umbarger, Lillian; Ceria-Ulep, Clementina; Nakatsuka, Craig

2018-01-01

Palliative Care Teams have been shown to be instrumental in the early identification of multiple aspects of advanced care planning. Despite an increased number of services to meet the rising consultation demand, it is conceivable that the numbers of palliative care consultations generated from an ICU alone could become overwhelming for an existing palliative care team. Improve end-of-life care in the ICU by incorporating basic palliative care processes into the daily routine ICU workflow, thereby reserving the palliative care team for refractory situations. A structured, palliative care, quality-improvement program was implemented and evaluated in the ICU at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Hawaii. This included selecting trigger criteria, a care model, forming guidelines, and developing evaluation criteria. These included the early identification of the multiple features of advanced care planning, numbers of proactive ICU and palliative care family meetings, and changes in code status and treatment upon completion of either meeting. Early identification of Goals-of-Care, advance directives, and code status by the ICU staff led to a proactive ICU family meeting with resultant increases in changes in code status and treatment. The numbers of palliative care consultations also rose, but not significantly. Palliative care processes could be incorporated into a daily ICU workflow allowing for integration of aspects of advanced care planning to be identified in a systematic and proactive manner. This reserved the palliative care team for situations when palliative care efforts performed by the ICU staff were ineffective.

The SMART Theory and Modeling Team: An Integrated Element of Mission Development and Science Analysis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hesse, Michael; Birn, J.; Denton, Richard E.; Drake, J.; Gombosi, T.; Hoshino, M.; Matthaeus, B.; Sibeck, D.

2005-01-01

When targeting physical understanding of space plasmas, our focus is gradually shifting away from discovery-type investigations to missions and studies that address our basic understanding of processes we know to be important. For these studies, theory and models provide physical predictions that need to be verified or falsified by empirical evidence. Within this paradigm, a tight integration between theory, modeling, and space flight mission design and execution is essential. NASA's Magnetospheric MultiScale (MMS) mission is a pathfinder in this new era of space research. The prime objective of MMS is to understand magnetic reconnection, arguably the most fundamental of plasma processes. In particular, MMS targets the microphysical processes, which permit magnetic reconnection to operate in the collisionless plasmas that permeate space and astrophysical systems. More specifically, MMS will provide closure to such elemental questions as how particles become demagnetized in the reconnection diffusion region, which effects determine the reconnection rate, and how reconnection is coupled to environmental conditions such as magnetic shear angles. Solutions to these problems have remained elusive in past and present spacecraft missions primarily due to instrumental limitations - yet they are fundamental to the large-scale dynamics of collisionless plasmas. Owing to the lack of measurements, most of our present knowledge of these processes is based on results from modern theory and modeling studies of the reconnection process. Proper design and execution of a mission targeting magnetic reconnection should include this knowledge and have to ensure that all relevant scales and effects can be resolved by mission measurements. The SMART mission has responded to this need through a tight integration between instrument and theory and modeling teams. Input from theory and modeling is fed into all aspects of science mission design, and theory and modeling activities are tailored to SMART needs during mission development and science analysis. In this presentation, we will present an overview of SMART theory and modeling team activities. In particular, we will provide examples of science objectives derived from state-of-the art models, and of recent research results that continue to be utilized in SMART mission development.

Content Validity of Patient-Reported Outcome Instruments used with Pediatric Patients with Facial Differences: A Systematic Review.

PubMed

Wickert, Natasha M; Wong Riff, Karen W Y; Mansour, Mark; Forrest, Christopher R; Goodacre, Timothy E E; Pusic, Andrea L; Klassen, Anne F

2018-01-01

Objective The aim of this systematic review was to identify patient-reported outcome (PRO) instruments used in research with children/youth with conditions associated with facial differences to identify the health concepts measured. Design MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, and PsycINFO were searched from 2004 to 2016 to identify PRO instruments used in acne vulgaris, birthmarks, burns, ear anomalies, facial asymmetries, and facial paralysis patients. We performed a content analysis whereby the items were coded to identify concepts and categorized as positive or negative content or phrasing. Results A total of 7,835 articles were screened; 6 generic and 11 condition-specific PRO instruments were used in 96 publications. Condition-specific instruments were for acne (four), oral health (two), dermatology (one), facial asymmetries (two), microtia (one), and burns (one). The PRO instruments provided 554 items (295 generic; 259 condition specific) that were sorted into 4 domains, 11 subdomains, and 91 health concepts. The most common domain was psychological (n = 224 items). Of the identified items, 76% had negative content or phrasing (e.g., "Because of the way my face looks I wish I had never been born"). Given the small number of items measuring facial appearance (n = 19) and function (n = 22), the PRO instruments reviewed lacked content validity for patients whose condition impacted facial function and/or appearance. Conclusions Treatments can change facial appearance and function. This review draws attention to a problem with content validity in existing PRO instruments. Our team is now developing a new PRO instrument called FACE-Q Kids to address this problem.

The Projects for Onboard Autonomy (PROBA2) Science Centre: Sun Watcher Using APS Detectors and Image Processing (SWAP) and Large-Yield Radiometer (LYRA) Science Operations and Data Products

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zender, J.; Berghmans, D.; Bloomfield, D. S.; Cabanas Parada, C.; Dammasch, I.; De Groof, A.; D'Huys, E.; Dominique, M.; Gallagher, P.; Giordanengo, B.; Higgins, P. A.; Hochedez, J.-F.; Yalim, M. S.; Nicula, B.; Pylyser, E.; Sanchez-Duarte, L.; Schwehm, G.; Seaton, D. B.; Stanger, A.; Stegen, K.; Willems, S.

2013-08-01

The PROBA2 Science Centre (P2SC) is a small-scale science operations centre supporting the Sun observation instruments onboard PROBA2: the EUV imager Sun Watcher using APS detectors and image Processing (SWAP) and Large-Yield Radiometer (LYRA). PROBA2 is one of ESA's small, low-cost Projects for Onboard Autonomy (PROBA) and part of ESA's In-Orbit Technology Demonstration Programme. The P2SC is hosted at the Royal Observatory of Belgium, co-located with both Principal Investigator teams. The P2SC tasks cover science planning, instrument commanding, instrument monitoring, data processing, support of outreach activities, and distribution of science data products. PROBA missions aim for a high degree of autonomy at mission and system level, including the science operations centre. The autonomy and flexibility of the P2SC is reached by a set of web-based interfaces allowing the operators as well as the instrument teams to monitor quasi-continuously the status of the operations, allowing a quick reaction to solar events. In addition, several new concepts are implemented at instrument, spacecraft, and ground-segment levels allowing a high degree of flexibility in the operations of the instruments. This article explains the key concepts of the P2SC, emphasising the automation and the flexibility achieved in the commanding as well as the data-processing chain.

Assessing an organizational culture instrument based on the Competing Values Framework: Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses

PubMed Central

Helfrich, Christian D; Li, Yu-Fang; Mohr, David C; Meterko, Mark; Sales, Anne E

2007-01-01

Background The Competing Values Framework (CVF) has been widely used in health services research to assess organizational culture as a predictor of quality improvement implementation, employee and patient satisfaction, and team functioning, among other outcomes. CVF instruments generally are presented as well-validated with reliable aggregated subscales. However, only one study in the health sector has been conducted for the express purpose of validation, and that study population was limited to hospital managers from a single geographic locale. Methods We used exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses to examine the underlying structure of data from a CVF instrument. We analyzed cross-sectional data from a work environment survey conducted in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). The study population comprised all staff in non-supervisory positions. The survey included 14 items adapted from a popular CVF instrument, which measures organizational culture according to four subscales: hierarchical, entrepreneurial, team, and rational. Results Data from 71,776 non-supervisory employees (approximate response rate 51%) from 168 VHA facilities were used in this analysis. Internal consistency of the subscales was moderate to strong (α = 0.68 to 0.85). However, the entrepreneurial, team, and rational subscales had higher correlations across subscales than within, indicating poor divergent properties. Exploratory factor analysis revealed two factors, comprising the ten items from the entrepreneurial, team, and rational subscales loading on the first factor, and two items from the hierarchical subscale loading on the second factor, along with one item from the rational subscale that cross-loaded on both factors. Results from confirmatory factor analysis suggested that the two-subscale solution provides a more parsimonious fit to the data as compared to the original four-subscale model. Conclusion This study suggests that there may be problems applying conventional CVF subscales to non-supervisors, and underscores the importance of assessing psychometric properties of instruments in each new context and population to which they are applied. It also further highlights the challenges management scholars face in assessing organizational culture in a reliable and comparable way. More research is needed to determine if the emergent two-subscale solution is a valid or meaningful alternative and whether these findings generalize beyond VHA. PMID:17459167

Janus: Graphical Software for Analyzing In-Situ Measurements of Solar-Wind Ions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Maruca, B.; Stevens, M. L.; Kasper, J. C.; Korreck, K. E.

2016-12-01

In-situ observations of solar-wind ions provide tremendous insights into the physics of space plasmas. Instrument on spacecraft measure distributions of ion energies, which can be processed into scientifically useful data (e.g., values for ion densities and temperatures). This analysis requires a strong, technical understanding of the instrument, so it has traditionally been carried out by the instrument teams using automated software that they had developed for that purpose. The automated routines are optimized for typical solar-wind conditions, so they can fail to capture the complex (and scientifically interesting) microphysics of transient solar-wind - such as coronal mass ejections (CME's) and co-rotating interaction regions (CIR's) - which are often better analyzed manually.This presentation reports on the ongoing development of Janus, a new software package for processing in-situ measurement of solar-wind ions. Janus will provide user with an easy-to-use graphical user interface (GUI) for carrying out highly customized analyses. Transparent to the user, Janus will automatically handle the most technical tasks (e.g., the retrieval and calibration of measurements). For the first time, users with only limited knowledge about the instruments (e.g., non-instrumentalists and students) will be able to easily process measurements of solar-wind ions. Version 1 of Janus focuses specifically on such measurements from the Wind spacecraft's Faraday Cups and is slated for public release in time for this presentation.

The infrared imaging spectrograph (IRIS) for TMT: latest science cases and simulations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wright, Shelley A.; Walth, Gregory; Do, Tuan; Marshall, Daniel; Larkin, James E.; Moore, Anna M.; Adamkovics, Mate; Andersen, David; Armus, Lee; Barth, Aaron; Cote, Patrick; Cooke, Jeff; Chisholm, Eric M.; Davidge, Timothy; Dunn, Jennifer S.; Dumas, Christophe; Ellerbroek, Brent L.; Ghez, Andrea M.; Hao, Lei; Hayano, Yutaka; Liu, Michael; Lopez-Rodriguez, Enrique; Lu, Jessica R.; Mao, Shude; Marois, Christian; Pandey, Shashi B.; Phillips, Andrew C.; Schoeck, Matthias; Subramaniam, Annapurni; Subramanian, Smitha; Suzuki, Ryuji; Tan, Jonathan C.; Terai, Tsuyoshi; Treu, Tommaso; Simard, Luc; Weiss, Jason L.; Wincentsen, James; Wong, Michael; Zhang, Kai

2016-07-01

The Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) first light instrument IRIS (Infrared Imaging Spectrograph) will complete its preliminary design phase in 2016. The IRIS instrument design includes a near-infrared (0.85 - 2.4 micron) integral field spectrograph (IFS) and imager that are able to conduct simultaneous diffraction-limited observations behind the advanced adaptive optics system NFIRAOS. The IRIS science cases have continued to be developed and new science studies have been investigated to aid in technical performance and design requirements. In this development phase, the IRIS science team has paid particular attention to the selection of filters, gratings, sensitivities of the entire system, and science cases that will benefit from the parallel mode of the IFS and imaging camera. We present new science cases for IRIS using the latest end-to-end data simulator on the following topics: Solar System bodies, the Galactic center, active galactic nuclei (AGN), and distant gravitationally-lensed galaxies. We then briefly discuss the necessity of an advanced data management system and data reduction pipeline.

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

Brown, M. J.; Khalsa, H. S.; Nelson, M. A.

As part of the larger Joint URBAN 2003 tracer field experiment performed in Oklahoma City from June 29 to July 30, 2003, a collaborative team of government and university researchers instrumented a downtown street canyon with a high density of wind sensor instrumentation (Brown et al., 2003). The goal of the Park Avenue street canyon experiment was to garner flow field information in order to better understand the transport and dispersion of tracers released in the street canyon and to test and improve the next generation of urban dispersion models. In this paper, we focus on describing the mean flowmore » patterns that developed in the street canyon in a horizontal plane near the surface. We look at the patterns that develop over entire Intensive Operating Periods (IOP's) lasting from 6-9 hours in length, and as a function of inflow wind direction. Most prior street canyon experiments have generally focused on the vertical structure of the flow; this work contributes to the understanding of the horizontal nature of the flow.« less

Information science team

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Billingsley, F.

1982-01-01

Concerns are expressed about the data handling aspects of system design and about enabling technology for data handling and data analysis. The status, contributing factors, critical issues, and recommendations for investigations are listed for data handling, rectification and registration, and information extraction. Potential supports to individual P.I., research tasks, systematic data system design, and to system operation. The need for an airborne spectrometer class instrument for fundamental research in high spectral and spatial resolution is indicated. Geographic information system formatting and labelling techniques, very large scale integration, and methods for providing multitype data sets must also be developed.

High Energy Astrophysics Program

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1996-01-01

This report reviews activities performed by members of the USRA (Universities Space Research Association) contract team during the six months during the reporting period (10/95 - 3/96) and projected activities during the coming six months. Activities take place at the Goddard Space Flight Center, within the Laboratory for High Energy Astrophysics. Developments concern instrumentation, observation, data analysis, and theoretical work in Astrophysics. Missions supported include: Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics (ASCA), X-ray Timing Experiment (XTE), X-ray Spectrometer (XRS), Astro-E, High Energy Astrophysics Science, Archive Research Center (HEASARC), and others.

New project to support scientific collaboration electronically

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Clauer, C. R.; Rasmussen, C. E.; Niciejewski, R. J.; Killeen, T. L.; Kelly, J. D.; Zambre, Y.; Rosenberg, T. J.; Stauning, P.; Friis-Christensen, E.; Mende, S. B.; Weymouth, T. E.; Prakash, A.; McDaniel, S. E.; Olson, G. M.; Finholt, T. A.; Atkins, D. E.

A new multidisciplinary effort is linking research in the upper atmospheric and space, computer, and behavioral sciences to develop a prototype electronic environment for conducting team science worldwide. A real-world electronic collaboration testbed has been established to support scientific work centered around the experimental operations being conducted with instruments from the Sondrestrom Upper Atmospheric Research Facility in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland. Such group computing environments will become an important component of the National Information Infrastructure initiative, which is envisioned as the high-performance communications infrastructure to support national scientific research.

Results from the USIP_UH contribution to the BARREL-4 campaign

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Behrend, C. C.; Bering, E. A., III; Ehteshami, A.; Fenton, A.; Gamblin, R.; Greer, M.; Mathur, S.; Glennie, C. L.; Velasquez, B.; Marpaung, J.; Lalata, M. C.

2016-12-01

The Undergraduate Student Instrumentation Project (USIP) at the University of Houston sent a team to Kiruna, Sweden to participate with NASA/Dartmouth's BARREL-4 campaign in August 2016. BARREL-4's primary instrument is an MeV x-ray scintillation counter. The team has provided two different experiments to be flown, a dual frequency GPS receiver to calculate total electron content and a Very Low Frequency (VLF) receiver to measure the VLF emissions associated with electron precipitation. TEC is calculated via finding pseudo-ranges comparing the sent and received signals from passing satellites. The VLF receiver has an air-core magnetic loop antenna that utilizes a transformer coupled with an integrating pre-amp which is then recorded to a standard music recorder. The presentation will include a summary of observations.

TMT in the Astronomical Landscape of the 2020s

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dickinson, Mark; Inami, Hanae

2014-07-01

Thirty Meter Telescope Observatory and NOAO will host the second TMT Science Forum at Loews Ventana Canyon Resort in Tucson, Arizona. The TMT Science Forum is an an annual gathering of astronomers, educators, and observatory staff, who meet to explore TMT science, instrumentation, observatory operations, archiving and data processing, astronomy education, and science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) issues. It is an opportunity for astronomers from the international TMT partners and from the US-at-large community to learn about the observatory status, discuss and plan cutting-edge science, establish collaborations, and to help shape the future of TMT. One important theme for this year's Forum will be the synergy between TMT and other facilities in the post-2020 astronomical landscape. There will be plenary sessions, an instrumentation workshop, topical science sessions and meetings of the TMT International Science Development Teams (ISDTs).

ISO Guest Observer Data Analysis and LWS Instrument Team Activities

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Oliversen, Ronald J. (Technical Monitor); Smith, Howard A.

2003-01-01

We have designed and fabricated infrared filters for use at wavelengths greater than or equal to 15 microns. Unlike conventional dielectric filters used at the short wavelengths, ours are made from stacked metal grids, spaced at a very small fraction of the performance wavelengths. The individual lattice layers are gold, the spacers are polyimide, and they are assembled using integrated circuit processing techniques; they resemble some metallic photonic band-gap structures. We simulate the filter performance accurately, including the coupling of the propagating, near-field electromagnetic modes, using computer aided design codes. We find no anomalous absorption. The geometrical parameters of the grids are easily altered in practice, allowing for the production of tuned filters with predictable useful transmission characteristics. Although developed for astronomical instrumentation, the filters are broadly applicable in systems across infrared and terahertz bands.

Experiences Supporting the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera: the Devops Model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Licht, A.; Estes, N. M.; Bowman-Cisnesros, E.; Hanger, C. D.

2013-12-01

Introduction: The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) Science Operations Center (SOC) is responsible for instrument targeting, product processing, and archiving [1]. The LROC SOC maintains over 1,000,000 observations with over 300 TB of released data. Processing challenges compound with the acquisition of over 400 Gbits of observations daily creating the need for a robust, efficient, and reliable suite of specialized software. Development Environment: The LROC SOC's software development methodology has evolved over time. Today, the development team operates in close cooperation with the systems administration team in a model known in the IT industry as DevOps. The DevOps model enables a highly productive development environment that facilitates accomplishment of key goals within tight schedules[2]. The LROC SOC DevOps model incorporates industry best practices including prototyping, continuous integration, unit testing, code coverage analysis, version control, and utilizing existing open source software. Scientists and researchers at LROC often prototype algorithms and scripts in a high-level language such as MATLAB or IDL. After the prototype is functionally complete the solution is implemented as production ready software by the developers. Following this process ensures that all controls and requirements set by the LROC SOC DevOps team are met. The LROC SOC also strives to enhance the efficiency of the operations staff by way of weekly presentations and informal mentoring. Many small scripting tasks are assigned to the cognizant operations personnel (end users), allowing for the DevOps team to focus on more complex and mission critical tasks. In addition to leveraging open source software the LROC SOC has also contributed to the open source community by releasing Lunaserv [3]. Findings: The DevOps software model very efficiently provides smooth software releases and maintains team momentum. Scientists prototyping their work has proven to be very efficient as developers do not need to spend time iterating over small changes. Instead, these changes are realized in early prototypes and implemented before the task is seen by developers. The development practices followed by the LROC SOC DevOps team help facilitate a high level of software quality that is necessary for LROC SOC operations. Application to the Scientific Community: There is no replacement for having software developed by professional developers. While it is beneficial for scientists to write software, this activity should be seen as prototyping, which is then made production ready by professional developers. When constructed properly, even a small development team has the ability to increase the rate of software development for a research group while creating more efficient, reliable, and maintainable products. This strategy allows scientists to accomplish more, focusing on teamwork, rather than software development, which may not be their primary focus. 1. Robinson et al. (2010) Space Sci. Rev. 150, 81-124 2. DeGrandis. (2011) Cutter IT Journal. Vol 24, No. 8, 34-39 3. Estes, N.M.; Hanger, C.D.; Licht, A.A.; Bowman-Cisneros, E.; Lunaserv Web Map Service: History, Implementation Details, Development, and Uses, http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013LPICo1719.2609E.

Demonstration of the ExoMars sample preparation and distribution system jointly with an optical instrument head

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schulte, Wolfgang; Thiele, Hans; Hofmann, Peter; Baglioni, Pietro

The ExoMars program will search for past and present life on Mars. ExoMars will address important scientific goals and demonstrate key in-situ enabling technologies. Among such technologies are the acquisition, preparation, distribution and analysis of samples from Mars surface rocks and from the subsurface. The 2018 mission will land an ESA rover on Mars which carries a sample preparation and distribution system (SPDS) and a suite of analytical instruments, the Pasteur Payload with its Analytical Laboratory Drawer (ALD). Kayser-Threde GmbH (Germany) will be responsible for the SPDS as a subcontractor under the mission prime Thales Alenia Space. The SPDS comprises a number of complex mechanisms and mechanical devices designed to transport drill core samples within the rover analytical laboratory, to crush them to powder with a fine grain size, to portion discrete amounts of powdered sample material, to distribute and fill the material into sample containers and to prepare flat sample surfaces for scientific analysis. Breadboards of the crushing mechanism, the dosing mechanism and a distribution carousel with sample containers and a powder sample surface flattening mechanism were built and tested. Kayser-Threde, as a member of the Spanish led ExoMars Raman Instrument team, is also responsible for development of the Raman optical head, which will be mounted inside ALD and will inspect the crushed samples, when they are presented to the instrument by the distribution carousel. Within this activity, which is performed under contract with the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the University of Jena (Germany) and funded by the German DLR, Kayser-Threde can demonstrate Raman measurements with the optical head and a COTS laser and spectrometer and thus simulate the full Raman instrument optical path. An autofocus system with actuator and feedback optics is also part of this activity, which allows focusing the 50 m Raman spot on the surface of the powdered sample. Availability of both, the SPDS mechanisms and the Raman Spectrometer optical head at Kayser-Threde facilities allowed to demonstrate for the first time a sample preparation chain with a joint operation of the optical head. Mineral samples were crushed, dosed into sample containers on the carousel, flattened and then inspected by the Raman optical head. The samples were provided by the University of Jena, a member of the ExoMars Raman science team. This paper will give an overview of the breadboards developed so far for the ExoMars SPDS and the Raman optical head and illustrate the joint demonstration test setup of the SPDS with the instrument. The different behavior of different sample materials will be highlighted and first conclusions will be drawn on what could be learned from test setups combining the ExoMars SPDS and analytical instruments.

Noyce SWARMS Scholars and Two Professional Development Models (LASSI and RAMPED): Summer 2015, 2016, and 2017

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Burrows, Andrea C.; Myers, Adam D.; Borowczak, Mike

2018-06-01

This poster showcases an astronomy professional development (PD) for 41 K-12 teachers. The project was entitled Launching Astronomy Standards and STEM Integration (LASSI). A project description (activities in the 18 months - Summer 2015 and 2016) for the astronomy, authentic science, and pre-service teacher opportunities is included. The PD team utilized real-world problems, participant-generated questions, science instruments, technology, evidence, communication, dissemination, and collaboration in the LASSI PD model. Computer science was a feature of the PD and the K-12 teacher participants showcased various methods of its use. Embracing an engineering process with an authentic astronomy PD allowed participants to make connections to current topics and create shareable projects. The PD team highlights teacher work from LASSI entitled - A Model for Determining Size of Objects in an Artificial Solar System. The Sustaining Wyoming's Advancing Reach in Mathematics and Science (SWARMS) Scholars (NSF Noyce funded) interacted with and used the materials from the LASSI PD. The poster highlights PD use from the LASSI participants and SWARMS Scholars as well as explains lessons learned to date as a follow-up PD Robotics, Applied Mathematics, Physics, and Engineering Design (RAMPED) was implemented in Summer 2017 and carried methods from LASSI. The LASSI and RAMPED PD teams included faculty from the College of Education, College of Engineering and Applied Science, College of Arts and Sciences, graduate students, and the teachers themselves. The PD teams created a website with these and other PD materials - UWpd.org - for others to view and change to meet their needs.

Marine Optical Characterizations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Clark, Dennis K.

1996-01-01

The team's major emphasis during this reporting period has been focused on the completion of the operational versions of the Marine Optical Buoys (MOBY's). Other work areas consisted of designing and testing bio-optical instrumentation, evaluating several of the SeaWiFS bio-optical protocols, processing data collected during field experiments, and reprocessing several of the Marine Optical Characteristics Experiment (MOCE) 2 and 3 bio-optical data sets. The team conducted one trip to the operations site in Honolulu, Hawaii, making necessary preparations for future field experiments. Part of the team also traveled to Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, Salinas, CA, and to American Holographic Co. Fitchburg MA, to assist with the fabrication of the next generation Marine Optical Buoys. Technical memoranda are being written to address the remote sensing reflectance, and instrument self-shading protocols. During the Ocean Color 96 meeting discussions with the Spanish on acquiring research vessel support during the MODIS validation period were conducted. A proposal will be generated towards this purpose for an experiment to be conducted off the North African coast during the summer of 1999.