Evaluation of Selected Chemical Processes for Production of Low-cost Silicon, Phase 3

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Blocher, J. M., Jr.; Browning, M. F.

1979-01-01

The construction of the 50 MT Si/year experimental process system development unit was deferred until FY 1980, and the fluidized bed, zinc vaporizer, by-product condenser, and electrolytic cell were combined with auxiliary units, capable of supporting 8-hour batchwise operation, to form the process development unit (PDU), which is scheduled to be in operation by October 1, 1979. The design of the PDU and objectives of its operation are discussed. Experimental program support activities described relate to: (1) a wetted-wall condensor; (2) fluidized-bed modeling; (3) zinc chloride electrolysis; and (4) zinc vaporizer.

Models of unit operations used for solid-waste processing

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

Savage, G.M.; Glaub, J.C.; Diaz, L.F.

1984-09-01

This report documents the unit operations models that have been developed for typical refuse-derived-fuel (RDF) processing systems. These models, which represent the mass balances, energy requirements, and economics of the unit operations, are derived, where possible, from basic principles. Empiricism has been invoked where a governing theory has yet to be developed. Field test data and manufacturers' information, where available, supplement the analytical development of the models. A literature review has also been included for the purpose of compiling and discussing in one document the available information pertaining to the modeling of front-end unit operations. Separate analytics have been donemore » for each task.« less

Speaking the right language: the scientific method as a framework for a continuous quality improvement program within academic medical research compliance units.

PubMed

Nolte, Kurt B; Stewart, Douglas M; O'Hair, Kevin C; Gannon, William L; Briggs, Michael S; Barron, A Marie; Pointer, Judy; Larson, Richard S

2008-10-01

The authors developed a novel continuous quality improvement (CQI) process for academic biomedical research compliance administration. A challenge in developing a quality improvement program in a nonbusiness environment is that the terminology and processes are often foreign. Rather than training staff in an existing quality improvement process, the authors opted to develop a novel process based on the scientific method--a paradigm familiar to all team members. The CQI process included our research compliance units. Unit leaders identified problems in compliance administration where a resolution would have a positive impact and which could be resolved or improved with current resources. They then generated testable hypotheses about a change to standard practice expected to improve the problem, and they developed methods and metrics to assess the impact of the change. The CQI process was managed in a "peer review" environment. The program included processes to reduce the incidence of infections in animal colonies, decrease research protocol-approval times, improve compliance and protection of animal and human research subjects, and improve research protocol quality. This novel CQI approach is well suited to the needs and the unique processes of research compliance administration. Using the scientific method as the improvement paradigm fostered acceptance of the project by unit leaders and facilitated the development of specific improvement projects. These quality initiatives will allow us to improve support for investigators while ensuring that compliance standards continue to be met. We believe that our CQI process can readily be used in other academically based offices of research.

Patterns in Nature Forming Patterns in Minds: An Evaluation of an Introductory Physics Unit

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sheaffer, Christopher Ryan

Educators are increasingly focused on the process over the content. In science especially, teachers want students to understand the nature of science and investigation. The emergence of scientific inquiry and engineering design teaching methods have led to the development of new teaching and evaluation methods that concentrate on steps in a process rather than facts in a topic. Research supports the notion that an explicit focus on the scientific process can lead to student science knowledge gains. In response to new research and standards many teachers have been developing teaching methods that seem to work well in their classrooms, but lack the time and resources to test them in other classroom environments. A high school Physics teacher (Bradford Hill) has developed a unit called Patterns in Nature (PIN) with objectives relating mathematical modeling to the scientific process. Designed for use in his large public school classroom, the unit was taken and used in a charter school with small classes. This study looks at specifically whether or not the PIN unit effectively teaches students how to graph the data they gather and fit an appropriate mathematical pattern, using that model to predict future measurements. Additionally, the study looks at the students' knowledge and views about the nature of science and the process of scientific investigation as it is affected by the PIN unit. Findings show that students are able to identify and apply patterns to data, but have difficulties explaining the meaning of the math. Students' show increases in their knowledge of the process of science, and the majority develop positive views about science in general. A major goal of this study is to place this unit in the cyclical process of Design-Based Research and allow for Pattern in Nature's continuous improvement, development and evaluation. Design-Based Research (DBR) is an approach that can be applied to the implementation and evaluation of classroom materials. This method incorporates the complexities of different contexts and changing treatments into the research methods and analysis. From the use of DBR teachers can understand more about how the designed materials affect the students. Others may be able to use the development and analysis of PIN study as a guide to look at similar aspects of science units developed elsewhere.

Architecture and data processing alternatives for Tse computer. Volume 1: Tse logic design concepts and the development of image processing machine architectures

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rickard, D. A.; Bodenheimer, R. E.

1976-01-01

Digital computer components which perform two dimensional array logic operations (Tse logic) on binary data arrays are described. The properties of Golay transforms which make them useful in image processing are reviewed, and several architectures for Golay transform processors are presented with emphasis on the skeletonizing algorithm. Conventional logic control units developed for the Golay transform processors are described. One is a unique microprogrammable control unit that uses a microprocessor to control the Tse computer. The remaining control units are based on programmable logic arrays. Performance criteria are established and utilized to compare the various Golay transform machines developed. A critique of Tse logic is presented, and recommendations for additional research are included.

Hand portable thin-layer chromatography system

DOEpatents

Haas, Jeffrey S.; Kelly, Fredrick R.; Bushman, John F.; Wiefel, Michael H.; Jensen, Wayne A.

2000-01-01

A hand portable, field-deployable thin-layer chromatography (TLC) unit and a hand portable, battery-operated unit for development, illumination, and data acquisition of the TLC plates contain many miniaturized features that permit a large number of samples to be processed efficiently. The TLC unit includes a solvent tank, a holder for TLC plates, and a variety of tool chambers for storing TLC plates, solvent, and pipettes. After processing in the TLC unit, a TLC plate is positioned in a collapsible illumination box, where the box and a CCD camera are optically aligned for optimal pixel resolution of the CCD images of the TLC plate. The TLC system includes an improved development chamber for chemical development of TLC plates that prevents solvent overflow.

Illumination box and camera system

DOEpatents

Haas, Jeffrey S.; Kelly, Fredrick R.; Bushman, John F.; Wiefel, Michael H.; Jensen, Wayne A.; Klunder, Gregory L.

2002-01-01

A hand portable, field-deployable thin-layer chromatography (TLC) unit and a hand portable, battery-operated unit for development, illumination, and data acquisition of the TLC plates contain many miniaturized features that permit a large number of samples to be processed efficiently. The TLC unit includes a solvent tank, a holder for TLC plates, and a variety of tool chambers for storing TLC plates, solvent, and pipettes. After processing in the TLC unit, a TLC plate is positioned in a collapsible illumination box, where the box and a CCD camera are optically aligned for optimal pixel resolution of the CCD images of the TLC plate. The TLC system includes an improved development chamber for chemical development of TLC plates that prevents solvent overflow.

Evaluation of Selected Chemical Processes for Production of Low-cost Silicon, Phase 3. [using a fluidized bed reactor

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Blocher, J. M., Jr.; Browning, M. F.

1979-01-01

The construction and operation of an experimental process system development unit (EPSDU) for the production of granular semiconductor grade silicon by the zinc vapor reduction of silicon tetrachloride in a fluidized bed of seed particles is presented. The construction of the process development unit (PDU) is reported. The PDU consists of four critical units of the EPSDU: the fluidized bed reactor, the reactor by product condenser, the zinc vaporizer, and the electrolytic cell. An experimental wetted wall condenser and its operation are described. Procedures are established for safe handling of SiCl4 leaks and spills from the EPSDU and PDU.

Bosch CO2 Reduction System Development

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Holmes, R. F.; King, C. D.; Keller, E. E.

1976-01-01

Development of a Bosch process CO2 reduction unit was continued, and, by means of hardware modifications, the performance was substantially improved. Benefits of the hardware upgrading were demonstrated by extensive unit operation and data acquisition in the laboratory. This work was accomplished on a cold seal configuration of the Bosch unit.

Preliminary development of digital signal processing in microwave radiometers

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stanley, W. D.

1980-01-01

Topics covered involve a number of closely related tasks including: the development of several control loop and dynamic noise model computer programs for simulating microwave radiometer measurements; computer modeling of an existing stepped frequency radiometer in an effort to determine its optimum operational characteristics; investigation of the classical second order analog control loop to determine its ability to reduce the estimation error in a microwave radiometer; investigation of several digital signal processing unit designs; initiation of efforts to develop required hardware and software for implementation of the digital signal processing unit; and investigation of the general characteristics and peculiarities of digital processing noiselike microwave radiometer signals.

The Development of Close Relationships in Japan and the United States: Paths of Symbiotic Harmony and Generative Tension.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rothbaum, Fred; Pott, Martha; Azuma, Hiroshi; Miyake, Kazuo; Weisz, John

2000-01-01

Compares paths of development in Japan (symbiotic harmony) and the United States (generative tension) of parent-child and adult mate relationships, challenging assumptions that certain processes are central in all relationships or that U.S. relationships are less valued or weaker than Japan's. Suggests need to investigate processes underlying, and…

Flat-plate solar-array project. Experimental process system development unit for producing semiconductor-grade silicon using the silane-to-silicon process

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1981-01-01

The engineering design, fabrication, assembly, operation, economic analysis, and process support R and D for an Experimental Process System Development Unit (EPSDU) are reported. About 95% of purchased equipment is received and will be reshipped to the West Coast location. The Data Collection System is completed. In the area of melting/consolidation, to the system using silicon powder transfer, melting and shotting on a pseudocontinuous basis is demonstrated. It is proposed to continue the very promising fluid bed work.

Exploring a Framework for Professional Development in Curriculum Innovation: Empowering Teachers for Designing Context-Based Chemistry Education

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stolk, Machiel J.; de Jong, Onno; Bulte, Astrid M. W.; Pilot, Albert

2011-05-01

Involving teachers in early stages of context-based curriculum innovations requires a professional development programme that actively engages teachers in the design of new context-based units. This study considers the implementation of a teacher professional development framework aiming to investigate processes of professional development. The framework is based on Galperin's theory of the internalisation of actions and it is operationalised into a professional development programme to empower chemistry teachers for designing new context-based units. The programme consists of the teaching of an educative context-based unit, followed by the designing of an outline of a new context-based unit. Six experienced chemistry teachers participated in the instructional meetings and practical teaching in their respective classrooms. Data were obtained from meetings, classroom discussions, and observations. The findings indicated that teachers became only partially empowered for designing a new context-based chemistry unit. Moreover, the process of professional development leading to teachers' empowerment was not carried out as intended. It is concluded that the elaboration of the framework needs improvement. The implications for a new programme are discussed.

Speech motor development: Integrating muscles, movements, and linguistic units.

PubMed

Smith, Anne

2006-01-01

A fundamental problem for those interested in human communication is to determine how ideas and the various units of language structure are communicated through speaking. The physiological concepts involved in the control of muscle contraction and movement are theoretically distant from the processing levels and units postulated to exist in language production models. A review of the literature on adult speakers suggests that they engage complex, parallel processes involving many units, including sentence, phrase, syllable, and phoneme levels. Infants must develop multilayered interactions among language and motor systems. This discussion describes recent studies of speech motor performance relative to varying linguistic goals during the childhood, teenage, and young adult years. Studies of the developing interactions between speech motor and language systems reveal both qualitative and quantitative differences between the developing and the mature systems. These studies provide an experimental basis for a more comprehensive theoretical account of how mappings between units of language and units of action are formed and how they function. Readers will be able to: (1) understand the theoretical differences between models of speech motor control and models of language processing, as well as the nature of the concepts used in the two different kinds of models, (2) explain the concept of coarticulation and state why this phenomenon has confounded attempts to determine the role of linguistic units, such as syllables and phonemes, in speech production, (3) describe the development of speech motor performance skills and specify quantitative and qualitative differences between speech motor performance in children and adults, and (4) describe experimental methods that allow scientists to study speech and limb motor control, as well as compare units of action used to study non-speech and speech movements.

Understanding the development of minimum unit pricing of alcohol in Scotland: a qualitative study of the policy process.

PubMed

Katikireddi, Srinivasa Vittal; Hilton, Shona; Bonell, Chris; Bond, Lyndal

2014-01-01

Minimum unit pricing of alcohol is a novel public health policy with the potential to improve population health and reduce health inequalities. Theories of the policy process may help to understand the development of policy innovation and in turn identify lessons for future public health research and practice. This study aims to explain minimum unit pricing's development by taking a 'multiple-lenses' approach to understanding the policy process. In particular, we apply three perspectives of the policy process (Kingdon's multiple streams, Punctuated-Equilibrium Theory, Multi-Level Governance) to understand how and why minimum unit pricing has developed in Scotland and describe implications for efforts to develop evidence-informed policymaking. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with policy actors (politicians, civil servants, academics, advocates, industry representatives) involved in the development of MUP (n = 36). Interviewees were asked about the policy process and the role of evidence in policy development. Data from two other sources (a review of policy documents and an analysis of evidence submission documents to the Scottish Parliament) were used for triangulation. The three perspectives provide complementary understandings of the policy process. Evidence has played an important role in presenting the policy issue of alcohol as a problem requiring action. Scotland-specific data and a change in the policy 'image' to a population-based problem contributed to making alcohol-related harms a priority for action. The limited powers of Scottish Government help explain the type of price intervention pursued while distinct aspects of the Scottish political climate favoured the pursuit of price-based interventions. Evidence has played a crucial but complex role in the development of an innovative policy. Utilising different political science theories helps explain different aspects of the policy process, with Multi-Level Governance particularly useful for highlighting important lessons for the future of public health policy.

Understanding the Development of Minimum Unit Pricing of Alcohol in Scotland: A Qualitative Study of the Policy Process

PubMed Central

Katikireddi, Srinivasa Vittal; Hilton, Shona; Bonell, Chris; Bond, Lyndal

2014-01-01

Background Minimum unit pricing of alcohol is a novel public health policy with the potential to improve population health and reduce health inequalities. Theories of the policy process may help to understand the development of policy innovation and in turn identify lessons for future public health research and practice. This study aims to explain minimum unit pricing’s development by taking a ‘multiple-lenses’ approach to understanding the policy process. In particular, we apply three perspectives of the policy process (Kingdon’s multiple streams, Punctuated-Equilibrium Theory, Multi-Level Governance) to understand how and why minimum unit pricing has developed in Scotland and describe implications for efforts to develop evidence-informed policymaking. Methods Semi-structured interviews were conducted with policy actors (politicians, civil servants, academics, advocates, industry representatives) involved in the development of MUP (n = 36). Interviewees were asked about the policy process and the role of evidence in policy development. Data from two other sources (a review of policy documents and an analysis of evidence submission documents to the Scottish Parliament) were used for triangulation. Findings The three perspectives provide complementary understandings of the policy process. Evidence has played an important role in presenting the policy issue of alcohol as a problem requiring action. Scotland-specific data and a change in the policy ‘image’ to a population-based problem contributed to making alcohol-related harms a priority for action. The limited powers of Scottish Government help explain the type of price intervention pursued while distinct aspects of the Scottish political climate favoured the pursuit of price-based interventions. Conclusions Evidence has played a crucial but complex role in the development of an innovative policy. Utilising different political science theories helps explain different aspects of the policy process, with Multi-Level Governance particularly useful for highlighting important lessons for the future of public health policy. PMID:24670519

"COMPARE" Forum: The Post-2015 Education and Development Agenda

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sayed, Yusuf; Sprague, Terra; Turner, David; Smith, Alan; Paulson, Julia; Shields, Robin; Shrestha, Purna Kumar; Unterhalter, Elaine; Vaughan, Rosie Peppin; Smail, Amy; Tungaraza, Frida; Sutherland, Margaret; Stack, Niamah; Barrett, Angeline M.; Bunwaree, Vasant K.; Alhawsawi, Sajjad; Hanna, Helen; Soudien, Crain; Motivans, Albert

2013-01-01

As the 2015 target date for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) approaches, there are a growing number of processes, preparations and debates on what a post-2015 agenda and framework will look like. The United Nations Development Group (UNDG) (as chaired by the United Nations Development Programme) is leading the planning of efforts…

Look before you build; geologic studies for safer land development in the San Francisco Bay area

USGS Publications Warehouse

Blair-Tyler, Martha

1995-01-01

This Circular provides a general description of the types of geologic hazards that exist throughout the United States. In nontechnical language this book describes how geologic information can be incorporated in the land-use development process and contains useful discussion of several examples from the San Francisco Bay area and elsewhere in the United States of how geologic information is already being used in the development process by some cities and counties.

Low-cost Solar Array Project. Feasibility of the Silane Process for Producing Semiconductor-grade Silicon

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1979-01-01

The feasibility of Union Carbide's silane process for commercial application was established. An integrated process design for an experimental process system development unit and a commercial facility were developed. The corresponding commercial plant economic performance was then estimated.

Apollo experience report: Development of the extravehicular mobility unit

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lutz, C. C.; Stutesman, H. L.; Carson, M. A.; Mcbarron, J. W., II

1975-01-01

The development and performance history of the Apollo extravehicular mobility unit and its major subsystems is described. The three major subsystems, the pressure garment assembly, the portable life-support system, and the oxygen purge system, are defined and described in detail as is the evolutionary process that culminated in each major subsystem component. Descriptions of ground-support equipment and the qualification testing process for component hardware are also presented.

Reading Enrichment Art Development.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sholler, Ruth; And Others

1983-01-01

A unit on Afro-American art was developed as part of the Reading Enrichment Art Development program. Elementary students from the program were concentrating on the concept of pattern in language. The unit was designed to reinforce this understanding via the reverse-fold pleating process used in a Nigerian tie-dye project. (AM)

Improvement for enhancing effectiveness of universal power system (UPS) continuous testing process

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sriratana, Lerdlekha

2018-01-01

This experiment aims to enhance the effectiveness of the Universal Power System (UPS) continuous testing process of the Electrical and Electronic Institute by applying work scheduling and time study methods. Initially, the standard time of testing process has not been considered that results of unaccurate testing target and also time wasting has been observed. As monitoring and reducing waste time for improving the efficiency of testing process, Yamazumi chart and job scheduling theory (North West Corner Rule) were applied to develop new work process. After the improvements, the overall efficiency of the process possibly increased from 52.8% to 65.6% or 12.7%. Moreover, the waste time could reduce from 828.3 minutes to 653.6 minutes or 21%, while testing units per batch could increase from 3 to 4 units. Therefore, the number of testing units would increase from 12 units up to 20 units per month that also contribute to increase of net income of UPS testing process by 72%.

Distributive Distillation Enabled by Microchannel Process Technology

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

Arora, Ravi

The application of microchannel technology for distributive distillation was studied to achieve the Grand Challenge goals of 25% energy savings and 10% return on investment. In Task 1, a detailed study was conducted and two distillation systems were identified that would meet the Grand Challenge goals if the microchannel distillation technology was used. Material and heat balance calculations were performed to develop process flow sheet designs for the two distillation systems in Task 2. The process designs were focused on two methods of integrating the microchannel technology 1) Integrating microchannel distillation to an existing conventional column, 2) Microchannel distillation formore » new plants. A design concept for a modular microchannel distillation unit was developed in Task 3. In Task 4, Ultrasonic Additive Machining (UAM) was evaluated as a manufacturing method for microchannel distillation units. However, it was found that a significant development work would be required to develop process parameters to use UAM for commercial distillation manufacturing. Two alternate manufacturing methods were explored. Both manufacturing approaches were experimentally tested to confirm their validity. The conceptual design of the microchannel distillation unit (Task 3) was combined with the manufacturing methods developed in Task 4 and flowsheet designs in Task 2 to estimate the cost of the microchannel distillation unit and this was compared to a conventional distillation column. The best results were for a methanol-water separation unit for the use in a biodiesel facility. For this application microchannel distillation was found to be more cost effective than conventional system and capable of meeting the DOE Grand Challenge performance requirements.« less

Sustaining a culture of practice development in an acute adolescent inpatient mental health unit.

PubMed

Vella, Natalie; Page, Laura; Edwards, Clair; Wand, Timothy

2014-08-01

It is recognized that facilitating change in workplace culture is a significant challenge in healthcare service delivery. Practice development strategies and principles provide a framework for initiating and sustaining programs focused on enhancing patient-centered care by concentrating on the therapeutic attributes of nursing. However, little literature exists on explicating "what worked" in practice development programs. This paper details the processes, people, resources, and relationships that enabled the successful implementation, and led to the sustainability, of a practice development program employed in an acute adolescent mental health unit in Sydney, Australia. Following an external review of the unit, a meeting of key stakeholders was convened and subsequently an advisory panel formed to address specific issues facing nursing staff. This process resulted in the development of an educational package and adoption of the tidal model as the framework for mental health nursing practice in the unit. Clinical reasoning sessions and journal article presentations were incorporated to consolidate and maintain the change in nursing care. A planned, structured, and inclusive practice development program has transformed the nursing culture and vastly improved the care provided to adolescents presenting in acute states of distress to this mental health unit. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

On the technological development of cotton primary processing, using a new drying-purifying unit

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Agzamov, M. M.; Yunusov, S. Z.; Gafurov, J. K.

2017-10-01

The article reflects feasibility study of conducting research on technological development of cotton primary processing with the modified parameters of drying and cleaning process for small litter. As a result of theoretical and experimental research, drying and purifying unit is designed, in which in the existing processes a heat source, exhaust fans, a dryer drum, a peg-drum cleaner of cotton and the vehicle transmitting raw cotton from the dryer to the purifier will be excluded. The experience has shown that when a drying-purifying unit is installed (with eight wheels) purifying effect on the small litter of 34%, ie cleaning effect is higher than of that currently in operation 1XK drum cleaner. According to the research patent of RU UZ FAP 00674 “Apparatus for drying and cleaning fibrous material” is received.

Library Involvement in State Government Information Policy Development in the United States.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weaver, Barbara F.

This paper focuses on efforts by library groups and individuals to influence the development of state government information policy in various states in the United States, and emphasizes the need for librarians to make sure they either initiate such development or insert themselves into any existing policy development processes. Emphasis is given…

40 CFR 63.7491 - Are any boilers or process heaters not subject to this subpart?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... generating unit (EGU) covered by subpart UUUUU of this part. (b) A recovery boiler or furnace covered by... vessels. This does not include units that provide heat or steam to a process at a research and development... the average annual heat input during any 3 consecutive calendar years to the boiler or process heater...

40 CFR 63.7491 - Are any boilers or process heaters not subject to this subpart?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... generating unit (EGU) covered by subpart UUUUU of this part. (b) A recovery boiler or furnace covered by... vessels. This does not include units that provide heat or steam to a process at a research and development... the average annual heat input during any 3 consecutive calendar years to the boiler or process heater...

Data Handling and Processing Unit for Alphabus/Alphasat TDP-8

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Habinc, Sandi; Martins, Rodolfo; Costa Pinto, Joao; Furano, Gianluca

2011-08-01

ESA's and Inmarsat's ARTES 8 Alphabus/Alphasat is a specific programme dedicated to the development and deployment of Alphasat. It encompasses several technology demonstration payloads (TDPs), of which the TDP8 is an Environment effects facility to monitor the GEO radiation environment and its effects on electronic components and sensors. This paper will discuss the rapid development of the processor and board for TDP8's data handling and processing unit.

The role of pre-field operations at four forest inventory units: We can see the trees, not just the forest

Treesearch

Sara A. Goeking; Greg C. Liknes

2009-01-01

The Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program attempts to inventory all forested lands throughout the United States. Each of the four FIA units has developed a process to minimize inventory costs by refraining from visiting those plots in the national inventory grid that are undoubtedly nonforest. We refer to this process as pre-field operations. Until recently, the...

Modeling of yield and environmental impact categories in tea processing units based on artificial neural networks.

PubMed

Khanali, Majid; Mobli, Hossein; Hosseinzadeh-Bandbafha, Homa

2017-12-01

In this study, an artificial neural network (ANN) model was developed for predicting the yield and life cycle environmental impacts based on energy inputs required in processing of black tea, green tea, and oolong tea in Guilan province of Iran. A life cycle assessment (LCA) approach was used to investigate the environmental impact categories of processed tea based on the cradle to gate approach, i.e., from production of input materials using raw materials to the gate of tea processing units, i.e., packaged tea. Thus, all the tea processing operations such as withering, rolling, fermentation, drying, and packaging were considered in the analysis. The initial data were obtained from tea processing units while the required data about the background system was extracted from the EcoInvent 2.2 database. LCA results indicated that diesel fuel and corrugated paper box used in drying and packaging operations, respectively, were the main hotspots. Black tea processing unit caused the highest pollution among the three processing units. Three feed-forward back-propagation ANN models based on Levenberg-Marquardt training algorithm with two hidden layers accompanied by sigmoid activation functions and a linear transfer function in output layer, were applied for three types of processed tea. The neural networks were developed based on energy equivalents of eight different input parameters (energy equivalents of fresh tea leaves, human labor, diesel fuel, electricity, adhesive, carton, corrugated paper box, and transportation) and 11 output parameters (yield, global warming, abiotic depletion, acidification, eutrophication, ozone layer depletion, human toxicity, freshwater aquatic ecotoxicity, marine aquatic ecotoxicity, terrestrial ecotoxicity, and photochemical oxidation). The results showed that the developed ANN models with R 2 values in the range of 0.878 to 0.990 had excellent performance in predicting all the output variables based on inputs. Energy consumption for processing of green tea, oolong tea, and black tea were calculated as 58,182, 60,947, and 66,301 MJ per ton of dry tea, respectively.

Textbook Development and Selection in Japan and the United States.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tani, Masaru; And Others

1993-01-01

Reports on a study trip by 13 U.S. social studies educators and publishers to Japan. Compares development, marketing, and selection of textbooks in the United States and Japan. Concludes that both nations should improve textbooks and textbook selection processes. (CFR)

Recent advances in chemical modification and processing of cotton fibers for specific end-use applications

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The Cotton Chemistry and Utilization Research Unit is part of the Agricultural Research Service, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific in-house research agency. The Research Unit develops new processes, applications and product enabling technologies which facilitate the expanded use ...

Parallelized CCHE2D flow model with CUDA Fortran on Graphics Process Units

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

This paper presents the CCHE2D implicit flow model parallelized using CUDA Fortran programming technique on Graphics Processing Units (GPUs). A parallelized implicit Alternating Direction Implicit (ADI) solver using Parallel Cyclic Reduction (PCR) algorithm on GPU is developed and tested. This solve...

A Science and Risk-Based Pragmatic Methodology for Blend and Content Uniformity Assessment.

PubMed

Sayeed-Desta, Naheed; Pazhayattil, Ajay Babu; Collins, Jordan; Doshi, Chetan

2018-04-01

This paper describes a pragmatic approach that can be applied in assessing powder blend and unit dosage uniformity of solid dose products at Process Design, Process Performance Qualification, and Continued/Ongoing Process Verification stages of the Process Validation lifecycle. The statistically based sampling, testing, and assessment plan was developed due to the withdrawal of the FDA draft guidance for industry "Powder Blends and Finished Dosage Units-Stratified In-Process Dosage Unit Sampling and Assessment." This paper compares the proposed Grouped Area Variance Estimate (GAVE) method with an alternate approach outlining the practicality and statistical rationalization using traditional sampling and analytical methods. The approach is designed to fit solid dose processes assuring high statistical confidence in both powder blend uniformity and dosage unit uniformity during all three stages of the lifecycle complying with ASTM standards as recommended by the US FDA.

The Role of the Company in Generating Skills. The Learning Effects of Work Organization in the United Kingdom.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Walsh, Kenneth; Green, Andy; Steedman, Hilary

The impact of developments in work organizations on the skilling process in the United Kingdom was studied through a macro analysis of available statistical information about the development of workplace training in the United Kingdom and case studies of three U.K. firms. The macro analysis focused on the following: initial training arrangements;…

Looking for Synergies: Education for Sustainable Development and the Bologna Process

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fadeeva, Zinaida; Galkute, Laima

2012-01-01

In defining quality of higher education, competences achieved by graduates are interpreted as essential criteria. There are two political processes in education dealing, among other issues, with competence development: the Bologna Process in European Higher Education Area and a global process--the United Nations (UN) Decade (2005-2014) of…

Potable water recovery for spacecraft application by electrolytic pretreatment/air evaporation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wells, G. W.

1975-01-01

A process for the recovery of potable water from urine using electrolytic pretreatment followed by distillation in a closed-cycle air evaporator has been developed and tested. Both the electrolytic pretreatment unit and the air evaporation unit are six-person, flight-concept prototype, automated units. Significantly extended wick lifetimes have been achieved in the air evaporation unit using electrolytically pretreated, as opposed to chemically pretreated, urine feed. Parametric test data are presented on product water quality, wick life, process power, maintenance requirements, and expendable requirements.

Developing Curriculum for Canadian Schools: What We Learned from the Atlantic Salmon

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anderson, Gary J.; And Others

1977-01-01

The process of developing a distinctively Canadian junior high school curriculum unit integrating subject content of history, science, and geography around a common theme is discussed. The unit focuses on the life cycle and environment of the Atlantic Salmon, Salmo salar. (MJB)

Google matrix of business process management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abel, M. W.; Shepelyansky, D. L.

2011-12-01

Development of efficient business process models and determination of their characteristic properties are subject of intense interdisciplinary research. Here, we consider a business process model as a directed graph. Its nodes correspond to the units identified by the modeler and the link direction indicates the causal dependencies between units. It is of primary interest to obtain the stationary flow on such a directed graph, which corresponds to the steady-state of a firm during the business process. Following the ideas developed recently for the World Wide Web, we construct the Google matrix for our business process model and analyze its spectral properties. The importance of nodes is characterized by PageRank and recently proposed CheiRank and 2DRank, respectively. The results show that this two-dimensional ranking gives a significant information about the influence and communication properties of business model units. We argue that the Google matrix method, described here, provides a new efficient tool helping companies to make their decisions on how to evolve in the exceedingly dynamic global market.

A Reverse Osmosis System for an Advanced Separation Process Laboratory.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Slater, C. S.; Paccione, J. D.

1987-01-01

Focuses on the development of a pilot unit for use in an advanced separations process laboratory in an effort to develop experiments on such processes as reverse osmosis, ultrafiltration, adsorption, and chromatography. Discusses reverse osmosis principles, the experimental system design, and some experimental studies. (TW)

Efficient utilization of greenhouse gases in a gas-to-liquids process combined with CO2/steam-mixed reforming and Fe-based Fischer-Tropsch synthesis.

PubMed

Zhang, Chundong; Jun, Ki-Won; Ha, Kyoung-Su; Lee, Yun-Jo; Kang, Seok Chang

2014-07-15

Two process models for carbon dioxide utilized gas-to-liquids (GTL) process (CUGP) mainly producing light olefins and Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) synthetic oils were developed by Aspen Plus software. Both models are mainly composed of a reforming unit, an F-T synthesis unit and a recycle unit, while the main difference is the feeding point of fresh CO2. In the reforming unit, CO2 reforming and steam reforming of methane are combined together to produce syngas in flexible composition. Meanwhile, CO2 hydrogenation is conducted via reverse water gas shift on the Fe-based catalysts in the F-T synthesis unit to produce hydrocarbons. After F-T synthesis, the unreacted syngas is recycled to F-T synthesis and reforming units to enhance process efficiency. From the simulation results, it was found that the carbon efficiencies of both CUGP options were successfully improved, and total CO2 emissions were significantly reduced, compared with the conventional GTL processes. The process efficiency was sensitive to recycle ratio and more recycle seemed to be beneficial for improving process efficiency and reducing CO2 emission. However, the process efficiency was rather insensitive to split ratio (recycle to reforming unit/total recycle), and the optimum split ratio was determined to be zero.

Evolution of the Power Processing Units Architecture for Electric Propulsion at CRISA

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Palencia, J.; de la Cruz, F.; Wallace, N.

2008-09-01

Since 2002, the team formed by EADS Astrium CRISA, Astrium GmbH Friedrichshafen, and QinetiQ has participated in several flight programs where the Electric Propulsion based on Kaufman type Ion Thrusters is the baseline conceptOn 2002, CRISA won the contract for the development of the Ion Propulsion Control Unit (IPCU) for GOCE. This unit together with the T5 thruster by QinetiQ provides near perfect atmospheric drag compensation offering thrust levels in the range of 1 to 20mN.By the end of 2003, CRISA started the adaptation of the IPCU concept to the QinetiQ T6 Ion Thruster for the Alphabus program.This paper shows how the Power Processing Unit design evolved in time including the current developments.

ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEWS AND CASE STUDIES: The National Park Service Visual Resource Inventory: Capturing the Historic and Cultural Values of Scenic Views

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

Sullivan, Robert G.; Meyer, Mark E.

Several United States (US) federal agencies have developed visual resource inventory (VRI) and management systems that reflect specific agency missions and visual resource management objectives. These programs have varied in the degree to which they incorporate historic and cultural elements and values into the scenic inventory process. The recent nationwide expansion of renewable energy and associated transmission development is causing an increase in visual impacts on both scenic and historic/cultural resources. This increase has highlighted the need for better integration of visual and historic/cultural resource assessment and management activities for land use planning purposes. The US Department of the Interiormore » National Park Service (NPS), in response to concerns arising from potential scenic impacts from renewable energy, electric transmission, and other types of development on lands and waters near NPS units, has developed a VRI process for high-value views both within and outside NPS unit boundaries. The NPS VRI incorporates historic and cultural elements and values into the scenic resource inventory process and provides practical guidance and metrics for successfully integrating historic and cultural concerns into the NPS’s scenic resource conservation efforts. This article describes the NPS VRI process and compares it with the VRI processes of the US Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management and the US Department of Agriculture Forest Service, with respect to the incorporation of historic and cultural values. The article discusses why a scenic inventory approach that more robustly integrates the historic and cultural values of the landscape is essential for NPS landscapes, and for fulfillment of NPS’s mission. Inventories are underway at many NPS units, and the results indicate that the VRI process can be used successfully to capture important historic and cultural resource information and incorporate that information into the assessment of the scenic values of views within and outside NPS units. Environmental Practice 18: 166–179 (2016)« less

[Continuity and non-continuity from child- to adulthood in psychiatric clinical studies].

PubMed

Kuwabara, Hitoshi; Kawakubo, Yuki; Kano, Yukiko

2014-01-01

It is difficult to conceive of the development of the brain as a single process, especially when we think about continuity and non-continuity from child- to adulthood. Non-continuity may be present when the brain is developing normally or consistently, or during aging, and development may vary across behavioral, structural, functional, and regional units. Clinical studies that consider the developmental process of change as natural and expected may better incorporate the potential variety and non-continuity than clinical studies that do not consider the process of change. It is likely that these complications are exacerbated because the timing of changes appears to vary across units. If we can identify the critical points of plasticity, temporally appropriate interventions can be developed. A focus on the developmental process of changes in the brain may lead to more rational and effective intervention strategies.

Low Quality Natural Gas Sulfur Removal and Recovery CNG Claus Sulfur Recovery Process

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

Klint, V.W.; Dale, P.R.; Stephenson, C.

1997-10-01

Increased use of natural gas (methane) in the domestic energy market will force the development of large non-producing gas reserves now considered to be low quality. Large reserves of low quality natural gas (LQNG) contaminated with hydrogen sulfide (H{sub 2}S), carbon dioxide (CO{sub 2}) and nitrogen (N) are available but not suitable for treatment using current conventional gas treating methods due to economic and environmental constraints. A group of three technologies have been integrated to allow for processing of these LQNG reserves; the Controlled Freeze Zone (CFZ) process for hydrocarbon / acid gas separation; the Triple Point Crystallizer (TPC) processmore » for H{sub 2}S / C0{sub 2} separation and the CNG Claus process for recovery of elemental sulfur from H{sub 2}S. The combined CFZ/TPC/CNG Claus group of processes is one program aimed at developing an alternative gas treating technology which is both economically and environmentally suitable for developing these low quality natural gas reserves. The CFZ/TPC/CNG Claus process is capable of treating low quality natural gas containing >10% C0{sub 2} and measurable levels of H{sub 2}S and N{sub 2} to pipeline specifications. The integrated CFZ / CNG Claus Process or the stand-alone CNG Claus Process has a number of attractive features for treating LQNG. The processes are capable of treating raw gas with a variety of trace contaminant components. The processes can also accommodate large changes in raw gas composition and flow rates. The combined processes are capable of achieving virtually undetectable levels of H{sub 2}S and significantly less than 2% CO in the product methane. The separation processes operate at pressure and deliver a high pressure (ca. 100 psia) acid gas (H{sub 2}S) stream for processing in the CNG Claus unit. This allows for substantial reductions in plant vessel size as compared to conventional Claus / Tail gas treating technologies. A close integration of the components of the CNG Claus process also allow for use of the methane/H{sub 2}S separation unit as a Claus tail gas treating unit by recycling the CNG Claus tail gas stream. This allows for virtually 100 percent sulfur recovery efficiency (virtually zero SO{sub 2} emissions) by recycling the sulfur laden tail gas to extinction. The use of the tail gas recycle scheme also deemphasizes the conventional requirement in Claus units to have high unit conversion efficiency and thereby make the operation much less affected by process upsets and feed gas composition changes. The development of these technologies has been ongoing for many years and both the CFZ and the TPC processes have been demonstrated at large pilot plant scales. On the other hand, prior to this project, the CNG Claus process had not been proven at any scale. Therefore, the primary objective of this portion of the program was to design, build and operate a pilot scale CNG Claus unit and demonstrate the required fundamental reaction chemistry and also demonstrate the viability of a reasonably sized working unit.« less

Interactive boundary delineation of agricultural lands using graphics workstations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cheng, Thomas D.; Angelici, Gary L.; Slye, Robert E.; Ma, Matt

1992-01-01

A review is presented of the computer-assisted stratification and sampling (CASS) system developed to delineate the boundaries of sample units for survey procedures. CASS stratifies the sampling units by land-cover and land-use type, employing image-processing software and hardware. This procedure generates coverage areas and the boundaries of stratified sampling units that are utilized for subsequent sampling procedures from which agricultural statistics are developed.

General purpose molecular dynamics simulations fully implemented on graphics processing units

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Anderson, Joshua A.; Lorenz, Chris D.; Travesset, A.

2008-05-01

Graphics processing units (GPUs), originally developed for rendering real-time effects in computer games, now provide unprecedented computational power for scientific applications. In this paper, we develop a general purpose molecular dynamics code that runs entirely on a single GPU. It is shown that our GPU implementation provides a performance equivalent to that of fast 30 processor core distributed memory cluster. Our results show that GPUs already provide an inexpensive alternative to such clusters and discuss implications for the future.

Developing Interdisciplinary Units: Strategies and Examples.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McDonald, Jacqueline; Czerniak, Charlene

1994-01-01

A theme of sharks is used to illustrate the process of developing interdisciplinary units for middle school instruction, including a model for teams of teachers to follow. As activities evolve, a concept map is created to illustrate relationships and integration of ideas and activities for various disciplines. (Contains 10 references.) (MKR)

A Neuroconstructivist Model of Past Tense Development and Processing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Westermann, Gert; Ruh, Nicolas

2012-01-01

We present a neural network model of learning and processing the English past tense that is based on the notion that experience-dependent cortical development is a core aspect of cognitive development. During learning the model adds and removes units and connections to develop a task-specific final architecture. The model provides an integrated…

Miniaturized Power Processing Unit Study: A Cubesat Electric Propulsion Technology Enabler Project

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ghassemieh, Shakib M.

2014-01-01

This study evaluates High Voltage Power Processing Unit (PPU) technology and driving requirements necessary to enable the Microfluidic Electric Propulsion technology research and development by NASA and university partners. This study provides an overview of the state of the art PPU technology with recommendations for technology demonstration projects and missions for NASA to pursue.

Modeling the Hydrologic Processes of a Permeable Pavement ...

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

A permeable pavement system can capture stormwater to reduce runoff volume and flow rate, improve onsite groundwater recharge, and enhance pollutant controls within the site. A new unit process model for evaluating the hydrologic performance of a permeable pavement system has been developed in this study. The developed model can continuously simulate infiltration through the permeable pavement surface, exfiltration from the storage to the surrounding in situ soils, and clogging impacts on infiltration/exfiltration capacity at the pavement surface and the bottom of the subsurface storage unit. The exfiltration modeling component simulates vertical and horizontal exfiltration independently based on Darcy’s formula with the Green-Ampt approximation. The developed model can be arranged with physically-based modeling parameters, such as hydraulic conductivity, Manning’s friction flow parameters, saturated and field capacity volumetric water contents, porosity, density, etc. The developed model was calibrated using high-frequency observed data. The modeled water depths are well matched with the observed values (R2 = 0.90). The modeling results show that horizontal exfiltration through the side walls of the subsurface storage unit is a prevailing factor in determining the hydrologic performance of the system, especially where the storage unit is developed in a long, narrow shape; or with a high risk of bottom compaction and clogging. This paper presents unit

High Input Voltage, Silicon Carbide Power Processing Unit Performance Demonstration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bozak, Karin E.; Pinero, Luis R.; Scheidegger, Robert J.; Aulisio, Michael V.; Gonzalez, Marcelo C.; Birchenough, Arthur G.

2015-01-01

A silicon carbide brassboard power processing unit has been developed by the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. The power processing unit operates from two sources: a nominal 300 Volt high voltage input bus and a nominal 28 Volt low voltage input bus. The design of the power processing unit includes four low voltage, low power auxiliary supplies, and two parallel 7.5 kilowatt (kW) discharge power supplies that are capable of providing up to 15 kilowatts of total power at 300 to 500 Volts (V) to the thruster. Additionally, the unit contains a housekeeping supply, high voltage input filter, low voltage input filter, and master control board, such that the complete brassboard unit is capable of operating a 12.5 kilowatt Hall effect thruster. The performance of the unit was characterized under both ambient and thermal vacuum test conditions, and the results demonstrate exceptional performance with full power efficiencies exceeding 97%. The unit was also tested with a 12.5kW Hall effect thruster to verify compatibility and output filter specifications. With space-qualified silicon carbide or similar high voltage, high efficiency power devices, this would provide a design solution to address the need for high power electric propulsion systems.

Quality Improvement Process in a Large Intensive Care Unit: Structure and Outcomes.

PubMed

Reddy, Anita J; Guzman, Jorge A

2016-11-01

Quality improvement in the health care setting is a complex process, and even more so in the critical care environment. The development of intensive care unit process measures and quality improvement strategies are associated with improved outcomes, but should be individualized to each medical center as structure and culture can differ from institution to institution. The purpose of this report is to describe the structure of quality improvement processes within a large medical intensive care unit while using examples of the study institution's successes and challenges in the areas of stat antibiotic administration, reduction in blood product waste, central line-associated bloodstream infections, and medication errors. © The Author(s) 2015.

EMERGING TECHNOLOGY BULLETIN: DEVELOPMENT OF A PHOTOTHERMAL DETOXIFICATION UNIT - ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING GROUP - UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON RESEARCH INSTITUTE

EPA Science Inventory

The University of Dayton Research Institute has developed a novel photochemical process embodied in a device called a Photothermal Detoxification Unit (PDU) which offers an efficient means of destroying hazardous organic wastes. The PDU, which overcomes the problems of slow react...

Plan Your Marketing: Enhance Profits and Reduce Risk.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Edwards, William; And Others

This marketing unit was developed to help farm families formulate a step-by-step plan for marketing their commodities in order to help remove much of the guesswork and anxiety from the process. The unit is organized in the following eight sections: introduction; sources of risk; pricing alternatives; developing a plan (10 steps); summary;…

Science Adventures with Children's Literature: A Thematic Approach.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fredericks, Anthony D.

This guide provides background information on the development and implementation of thematic units that focus on a hands-on approach, process orientation, integrated curriculum, cooperative learning, and critical thinking. Topics of the thematic units and mini-units include wild animals, dinosaurs, rainforests, the human body, earth science,…

TREATABILITY STUDY BULLETIN: MOBILE VOLUME REDUCTION UNIT AT THE ESCAMBIA SUPERFUND SITE

EPA Science Inventory

The RREL has developed a pilot-scale Mobile Volume Reduction Unit (VRU) to determine the feasibility of soil washing for the remediation of contaminated soils. This mobile unit, mounted on two trailers, can process 100 lb/hr of soil feed. Soil washing is a cost effective technolo...

Speech Motor Development: Integrating Muscles, Movements, and Linguistic Units

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Anne

2006-01-01

A fundamental problem for those interested in human communication is to determine how ideas and the various units of language structure are communicated through speaking. The physiological concepts involved in the control of muscle contraction and movement are theoretically distant from the processing levels and units postulated to exist in…

Innovation and Technology: Electronic Intensive Care Unit Diaries.

PubMed

Scruth, Elizabeth A; Oveisi, Nazanin; Liu, Vincent

2017-01-01

Hospitalization in the intensive care unit can be a stressful time for patients and their family members. Patients' family members often have difficulty processing all of the information that is given to them. Therefore, an intensive care unit diary can serve as a conduit for synthesizing information, maintaining connection with patients, and maintaining a connection with family members outside the intensive care unit. Paper intensive care unit diaries have been used outside the United States for many years. This article explores the development of an electronic intensive care unit diary using a rapid prototyping model to accelerate the process. Initial results of design testing demonstrate that it is feasible, useful, and desirable to consider the implementation of electronic intensive care unit diaries for patients at risk for post-intensive care syndrome. ©2017 American Association of Critical-Care Nurses.

Psychiatry training in the United Kingdom--part 2: the training process.

PubMed

Christodoulou, N; Kasiakogia, K

2015-01-01

In the second part of this diptych, we shall deal with psychiatric training in the United Kingdom in detail, and we will compare it--wherever this is meaningful--with the equivalent system in Greece. As explained in the first part of the paper, due to the recently increased emigration of Greek psychiatrists and psychiatric trainees, and the fact that the United Kingdom is a popular destination, it has become necessary to inform those aspiring to train in the United Kingdom of the system and the circumstances they should expect to encounter. This paper principally describes the structure of the United Kingdom's psychiatric training system, including the different stages trainees progress through and their respective requirements and processes. Specifically, specialty and subspecialty options are described and explained, special paths in training are analysed, and the notions of "special interest day" and the optional "Out of programme experience" schemes are explained. Furthermore, detailed information is offered on the pivotal points of each of the stages of the training process, with special care to explain the important differences and similarities between the systems in Greece and the United Kingdom. Special attention is given to The Royal College of Psychiatrists' Membership Exams (MRCPsych) because they are the only exams towards completing specialisation in Psychiatry in the United Kingdom. Also, the educational culture of progressing according to a set curriculum, of utilising diverse means of professional development, of empowering the trainees' autonomy by allowing initiative-based development and of applying peer supervision as a tool for professional development is stressed. We conclude that psychiatric training in the United Kingdom differs substantially to that of Greece in both structure and process. Τhere are various differences such as pure psychiatric training in the United Kingdom versus neurological and medical modules in Greece, in-training exams in the United Kingdom versus an exit exam in Greece, and of course the three years of higher training, which prepares trainees towards functioning as consultants. However, perhaps the most important difference is one of mentality; namely a culture of competency- based training progression in the United Kingdom, which further extends beyond training into professional revalidation. We believe that, with careful cultural adaptation, the systems of psychiatric training in the United Kingdom and Greece may benefit from sharing some of their features. Lastly, as previously clarified, this diptych paper is meant to be informative, not advisory.

Multivariate statistical process control of a continuous pharmaceutical twin-screw granulation and fluid bed drying process.

PubMed

Silva, A F; Sarraguça, M C; Fonteyne, M; Vercruysse, J; De Leersnyder, F; Vanhoorne, V; Bostijn, N; Verstraeten, M; Vervaet, C; Remon, J P; De Beer, T; Lopes, J A

2017-08-07

A multivariate statistical process control (MSPC) strategy was developed for the monitoring of the ConsiGma™-25 continuous tablet manufacturing line. Thirty-five logged variables encompassing three major units, being a twin screw high shear granulator, a fluid bed dryer and a product control unit, were used to monitor the process. The MSPC strategy was based on principal component analysis of data acquired under normal operating conditions using a series of four process runs. Runs with imposed disturbances in the dryer air flow and temperature, in the granulator barrel temperature, speed and liquid mass flow and in the powder dosing unit mass flow were utilized to evaluate the model's monitoring performance. The impact of the imposed deviations to the process continuity was also evaluated using Hotelling's T 2 and Q residuals statistics control charts. The influence of the individual process variables was assessed by analyzing contribution plots at specific time points. Results show that the imposed disturbances were all detected in both control charts. Overall, the MSPC strategy was successfully developed and applied. Additionally, deviations not associated with the imposed changes were detected, mainly in the granulator barrel temperature control. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Isolation and Purification of Biotechnological Products

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hubbuch, Jürgen; Kula, Maria-Regina

2007-05-01

The production of modern pharma proteins is one of the most rapid growing fields in biotechnology. The overall development and production is a complex task ranging from strain development and cultivation to the purification and formulation of the drug. Downstream processing, however, still accounts for the major part of production costs. This is mainly due to the high demands on purity and thus safety of the final product and results in processes with a sequence of typically more than 10 unit operations. Consequently, even if each process step would operate at near optimal yield, a very significant amount of product would be lost. The majority of unit operations applied in downstream processing have a long history in the field of chemical and process engineering; nevertheless, mathematical descriptions of the respective processes and the economical large-scale production of modern pharmaceutical products are hampered by the complexity of the biological feedstock, especially the high molecular weight and limited stability of proteins. In order to develop new operational steps as well as a successful overall process, it is thus a necessary prerequisite to develop a deeper understanding of the thermodynamics and physics behind the applied processes as well as the implications for the product.

36 CFR 910.58 - Development.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... GUIDELINES AND UNIFORM STANDARDS FOR URBAN PLANNING AND DESIGN OF DEVELOPMENT WITHIN THE PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE..., planned unit development, or project resulting from the process of planning, land acquisition, demolition...

36 CFR 910.58 - Development.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... GUIDELINES AND UNIFORM STANDARDS FOR URBAN PLANNING AND DESIGN OF DEVELOPMENT WITHIN THE PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE..., planned unit development, or project resulting from the process of planning, land acquisition, demolition...

Development and Validation of an Instrument to Assess the Implementation of Family-Centred Care in Traditional Open Bay Neonatal Intensive Care Units

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Al-Motlaq, Mohammad A.; Abuidhail, Jamila; Salameh, Taghreed; Awwad, Wesam

2017-01-01

Objective: To develop an instrument to study family-centred care (FCC) in traditional open bay Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs). Methods: The development process involved constructing instrument's items, establishing content validity by an expert panel and testing the instrument for validity and reliability with a convenience sample of 25…

A numerical investigation of the scale-up effects on flow, heat transfer, and kinetics processes of FCC units.

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

Chang, S. L.

1998-08-25

Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC) technology is the most important process used by the refinery industry to convert crude oil to valuable lighter products such as gasoline. Process development is generally very time consuming especially when a small pilot unit is being scaled-up to a large commercial unit because of the lack of information to aide in the design of scaled-up units. Such information can now be obtained by analysis based on the pilot scale measurements and computer simulation that includes controlling physics of the FCC system. A Computational fluid dynamic (CFD) code, ICRKFLO, has been developed at Argonne National Laboratorymore » (ANL) and has been successfully applied to the simulation of catalytic petroleum cracking risers. It employs hybrid hydrodynamic-chemical kinetic coupling techniques, enabling the analysis of an FCC unit with complex chemical reaction sets containing tens or hundreds of subspecies. The code has been continuously validated based on pilot-scale experimental data. It is now being used to investigate the effects of scaled-up FCC units. Among FCC operating conditions, the feed injection conditions are found to have a strong impact on the product yields of scaled-up FCC units. The feed injection conditions appear to affect flow and heat transfer patterns and the interaction of hydrodynamics and cracking kinetics causes the product yields to change accordingly.« less

Low cost solar array project: Experimental process system development unit for producing semiconductor-grade silicon using the silane-to-silicon process

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1981-01-01

The results of the free space reactor experimental work are summarized. Overall, the objectives were achieved and the unit can be confidently scaled to the EPSDU size based on the experimental work and supporting theoretical analyses. The piping and instrumentation of the fluidized bed reactor was completed.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and Participation in Aotearoa New Zealand

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moriarity, L.; Dew, K.

2011-01-01

The involvement of persons with disabilities in formal decision-making processes is thought to have a range of benefits. However, research suggests that participatory processes may fail to match normative ideals. This study examines the participation of persons with disabilities in the development of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of…

Development of the Clinical Teaching Effectiveness Questionnaire in the United States.

PubMed

Wormley, Michelle E; Romney, Wendy; Greer, Anna E

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study was to develop a valid measure for assessing clinical teaching effectiveness within the field of physical therapy. The Clinical Teaching Effectiveness Questionnaire (CTEQ) was developed via a 4-stage process, including (1) initial content development, (2) content analysis with 8 clinical instructors with over 5 years of clinical teaching experience, (3) pilot testing with 205 clinical instructors from 2 universities in the Northeast of the United States, and (4) psychometric evaluation, including principal component analysis. The scale development process resulted in a 30-item questionnaire with 4 sections that relate to clinical teaching: learning experiences, learning environment, communication, and evaluation. The CTEQ provides a preliminary valid measure for assessing clinical teaching effectiveness in physical therapy practice.

Meat Processor. Ohio's Competency Analysis Profile.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Vocational Instructional Materials Lab.

Developed through a modified DACUM (Developing a Curriculum) process involving business, industry, labor, and community agency representatives in Ohio, this document is a comprehensive and verified employer competency profile for meat processing occupations. The list contains units (with and without subunits), competencies, and competency builders…

Grace: A cross-platform micromagnetic simulator on graphics processing units

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhu, Ru

2015-12-01

A micromagnetic simulator running on graphics processing units (GPUs) is presented. Different from GPU implementations of other research groups which are predominantly running on NVidia's CUDA platform, this simulator is developed with C++ Accelerated Massive Parallelism (C++ AMP) and is hardware platform independent. It runs on GPUs from venders including NVidia, AMD and Intel, and achieves significant performance boost as compared to previous central processing unit (CPU) simulators, up to two orders of magnitude. The simulator paved the way for running large size micromagnetic simulations on both high-end workstations with dedicated graphics cards and low-end personal computers with integrated graphics cards, and is freely available to download.

OSPREY Model Development Status Update

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

Veronica J Rutledge

2014-04-01

During the processing of used nuclear fuel, volatile radionuclides will be discharged to the atmosphere if no recovery processes are in place to limit their release. The volatile radionuclides of concern are 3H, 14C, 85Kr, and 129I. Methods are being developed, via adsorption and absorption unit operations, to capture these radionuclides. It is necessary to model these unit operations to aid in the evaluation of technologies and in the future development of an advanced used nuclear fuel processing plant. A collaboration between Fuel Cycle Research and Development Offgas Sigma Team member INL and a NEUP grant including ORNL, Syracuse University,more » and Georgia Institute of Technology has been formed to develop off gas models and support off gas research. Georgia Institute of Technology is developing fundamental level model to describe the equilibrium and kinetics of the adsorption process, which are to be integrated with OSPREY. This report discusses the progress made on expanding OSPREY to be multiple component and the integration of macroscale and microscale level models. Also included in this report is a brief OSPREY user guide.« less

Modular Toolkit for Data Processing (MDP): A Python Data Processing Framework.

PubMed

Zito, Tiziano; Wilbert, Niko; Wiskott, Laurenz; Berkes, Pietro

2008-01-01

Modular toolkit for Data Processing (MDP) is a data processing framework written in Python. From the user's perspective, MDP is a collection of supervised and unsupervised learning algorithms and other data processing units that can be combined into data processing sequences and more complex feed-forward network architectures. Computations are performed efficiently in terms of speed and memory requirements. From the scientific developer's perspective, MDP is a modular framework, which can easily be expanded. The implementation of new algorithms is easy and intuitive. The new implemented units are then automatically integrated with the rest of the library. MDP has been written in the context of theoretical research in neuroscience, but it has been designed to be helpful in any context where trainable data processing algorithms are used. Its simplicity on the user's side, the variety of readily available algorithms, and the reusability of the implemented units make it also a useful educational tool.

High Input Voltage, Silicon Carbide Power Processing Unit Performance Demonstration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bozak, Karin E.; Pinero, Luis R.; Scheidegger, Robert J.; Aulisio, Michael V.; Gonzalez, Marcelo C.; Birchenough, Arthur G.

2015-01-01

A silicon carbide brassboard power processing unit has been developed by the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. The power processing unit operates from two sources - a nominal 300-Volt high voltage input bus and a nominal 28-Volt low voltage input bus. The design of the power processing unit includes four low voltage, low power supplies that provide power to the thruster auxiliary supplies, and two parallel 7.5 kilowatt power supplies that are capable of providing up to 15 kilowatts of total power at 300-Volts to 500-Volts to the thruster discharge supply. Additionally, the unit contains a housekeeping supply, high voltage input filter, low voltage input filter, and master control board, such that the complete brassboard unit is capable of operating a 12.5 kilowatt Hall Effect Thruster. The performance of unit was characterized under both ambient and thermal vacuum test conditions, and the results demonstrate the exceptional performance with full power efficiencies exceeding 97. With a space-qualified silicon carbide or similar high voltage, high efficiency power device, this design could evolve into a flight design for future missions that require high power electric propulsion systems.

A novel shape-changing haptic table-top display

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Jiabin; Zhao, Lu; Liu, Yue; Wang, Yongtian; Cai, Yi

2018-01-01

A shape-changing table-top display with haptic feedback allows its users to perceive 3D visual and texture displays interactively. Since few existing devices are developed as accurate displays with regulatory haptic feedback, a novel attentive and immersive shape changing mechanical interface (SCMI) consisting of image processing unit and transformation unit was proposed in this paper. In order to support a precise 3D table-top display with an offset of less than 2 mm, a custommade mechanism was developed to form precise surface and regulate the feedback force. The proposed image processing unit was capable of extracting texture data from 2D picture for rendering shape-changing surface and realizing 3D modeling. The preliminary evaluation result proved the feasibility of the proposed system.

Development of process control capability through the Browns Ferry Integrated Computer System using Reactor Water Clanup System as an example. Final report

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

Smith, J.; Mowrey, J.

1995-12-01

This report describes the design, development and testing of process controls for selected system operations in the Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant (BFNP) Reactor Water Cleanup System (RWCU) using a Computer Simulation Platform which simulates the RWCU System and the BFNP Integrated Computer System (ICS). This system was designed to demonstrate the feasibility of the soft control (video touch screen) of nuclear plant systems through an operator console. The BFNP Integrated Computer System, which has recently. been installed at BFNP Unit 2, was simulated to allow for operator control functions of the modeled RWCU system. The BFNP Unit 2 RWCU systemmore » was simulated using the RELAP5 Thermal/Hydraulic Simulation Model, which provided the steady-state and transient RWCU process variables and simulated the response of the system to control system inputs. Descriptions of the hardware and software developed are also included in this report. The testing and acceptance program and results are also detailed in this report. A discussion of potential installation of an actual RWCU process control system in BFNP Unit 2 is included. Finally, this report contains a section on industry issues associated with installation of process control systems in nuclear power plants.« less

Landsat 7 Science Data Processing: An Overview

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schweiss, Robert J.; Daniel, Nathaniel E.; Derrick, Deborah K.

2000-01-01

The Landsat 7 Science Data Processing System, developed by NASA for the Landsat 7 Project, provides the science data handling infrastructure used at the Earth Resources Observation Systems (EROS) Data Center (EDC) Landsat Data Handling Facility (DHF) of the United States Department of Interior, United States Geological Survey (USGS) located in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. This paper presents an overview of the Landsat 7 Science Data Processing System and details of the design, architecture, concept of operation, and management aspects of systems used in the processing of the Landsat 7 Science Data.

A Proven Method for Meeting Export Control Objectives in Postal and Shipping Sectors

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-02-01

Mellon University for the operation of the Software Engineering Institute, a federally funded research and development center sponsored by the United...Export Control at USPS 5 3.3 Objectives for Improving Export Screening at USPS 6 4 Development of the New Screening Process 7 4.1 “Walking the Model...Export Screening Development Process 10 Figure 2: Induction and Processing of International Mail 10 Figure 3: The Export Screening Process 11

The Impact of Mentorship on Leadership Development Outcomes of International Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shalka, Tricia R.

2017-01-01

The purpose of this quantitative study of 6,076 undergraduates in the United States (3,038 international and 3,038 domestic) was to examine leadership development outcomes for international students in the United States and the potential role of mentorship in this process. Data for this study were derived from the 2009 Multi-Institutional Study of…

Organizations and Information Processing: A Field Study of Research and Development Units within the United States Air Force Systems Command.

DTIC Science & Technology

1984-08-01

Requirements 63 3.3.1 Hypothesis 4: Relationship Between Unit Technology and Information Source Requirements..................64 3.3.2 Hypothesis 5... Relationship Between Environ- mental Uncertainty and Information Source Requirements..................65 3.3.3 Hypothesis 6: Relationship Between Inter-Unit...Sources. ............ 67 3.4.1 Hypothesis 1: Relationship Between Unit Structure and the Accessibility and Quality of Information Sources .. ........ 68

Multifunctional centrifugal grinding unit

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sevostyanov, V. S.; Uralskij, V. I.; Uralskij, A. V.; Sinitsa, E. V.

2018-03-01

The article presents scientific and engineering developments of multifunctional centrifugal grinding unit in which the selective effect of grinding bodies on the crushing material is realized, depending on its physical and mechanical characteristics and various schemes for organizing the technological process

High Input Voltage Discharge Supply for High Power Hall Thrusters Using Silicon Carbide Devices

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pinero, Luis R.; Scheidegger, Robert J.; Aulsio, Michael V.; Birchenough, Arthur G.

2014-01-01

A power processing unit for a 15 kW Hall thruster is under development at NASA Glenn Research Center. The unit produces up to 400 VDC with two parallel 7.5 kW discharge modules that operate from a 300 VDC nominal input voltage. Silicon carbide MOSFETs and diodes were used in this design because they were the best choice to handle the high voltage stress while delivering high efficiency and low specific mass. Efficiencies in excess of 97 percent were demonstrated during integration testing with the NASA-300M 20 kW Hall thruster. Electromagnet, cathode keeper, and heater supplies were also developed and will be integrated with the discharge supply into a vacuum-rated brassboard power processing unit with full flight functionality. This design could be evolved into a flight unit for future missions that requires high power electric propulsion.

A System for the Individualization and Optimization of Learning Through Computer Management of the Educational Process. Final Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schure, Alexander

A computer-based system model for the monitoring and management of the instructional process was conceived, developed and refined through the techniques of systems analysis. This report describes the various aspects and components of this project in a series of independent and self-contained units. The first unit provides an overview of the entire…

Reweaving a Fragmented Self: A Grounded Theory of Self-Understanding among Chinese Women Students in the United States of America

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Qin, Dongxiao; Lykes, M. Brinton

2006-01-01

A grounded theory was developed to describe the processes of self-understanding of a group of Chinese women graduate students who were studying in the United States at the time of the research. A basic psychological process, reweaving a fragmented self, was identified from interviews with 20 Chinese women graduate students. Reweaving a fragmented…

Developing criterion-based competencies for tele-intensive care unit.

PubMed

Schleifer, Sarah Joy; Carroll, Karen; Moseley, Marthe J

2014-01-01

Over the last 5 years, telemedicine has developed nursing roles that differ from traditional bedside care. In the midst of this transition, current competency development models focused on task completion may not be the most effective form of proficiency validation. The procedure of competency creation for the role of tele-intensive care unit registered nurse requires a thoughtful process using stakeholders from institutional leadership to frontline staff. The process must include stakeholder approval to ensure appropriate buy-in and follow-through on the agreed-upon criteria. This can be achieved using a standardized method of concept stimulation related to the behaviors, not a memorized list of tasks, expected of a telemedicine registered nurse. This process serves as the foundation for the development of criterion-based competency statements that then allows for clearer expectations. Continually reviewing the written competencies, ensuring current applicability, and revising as needed are necessities for maintaining competence and, therefore, patient safety.

Layering in peralkaline magmas, Ilímaussaq Complex, S Greenland

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hunt, Emma J.; Finch, Adrian A.; Donaldson, Colin H.

2017-01-01

The peralkaline to agpaitic Ilímaussaq Complex, S. Greenland, displays spectacular macrorhythmic (> 5 m) layering via the kakortokite (agpaitic nepheline syenite), which outcrops as the lowest exposed rocks in the complex. This study applies crystal size distribution (CSD) analyses and eudialyte-group mineral chemical compositions to study the marker horizon, Unit 0, and the contact to the underlying Unit - 1. Unit 0 is the best-developed unit in the kakortokites and as such is ideal for gaining insight into processes of crystal formation and growth within the layered kakortokite. The findings are consistent with a model whereby the bulk of the black and red layers developed through in situ crystallisation at the crystal mush-magma interface, whereas the white layer developed through a range of processes operating throughout the magma chamber, including density segregation (gravitational settling and flotation). Primary textures were modified through late-stage textural coarsening via grain overgrowth. An open-system model is proposed, where varying concentrations of halogens, in combination with undercooling, controlled crystal nucleation and growth to form Unit 0. Our observations suggest that the model is applicable more widely to the layering throughout the kakortokite series and potentially other layered peralkaline/agpaitic rocks around the world.

Mercury Phase II Study - Mercury Behavior across the High-Level Waste Evaporator System

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

Bannochie, C. J.; Crawford, C. L.; Jackson, D. G.

2016-06-17

The Mercury Program team’s effort continues to develop more fundamental information concerning mercury behavior across the liquid waste facilities and unit operations. Previously, the team examined the mercury chemistry across salt processing, including the Actinide Removal Process/Modular Caustic Side Solvent Extraction Unit (ARP/MCU), and the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) flowsheets. This report documents the data and understanding of mercury across the high level waste 2H and 3H evaporator systems.

Real-time radar signal processing using GPGPU (general-purpose graphic processing unit)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kong, Fanxing; Zhang, Yan Rockee; Cai, Jingxiao; Palmer, Robert D.

2016-05-01

This study introduces a practical approach to develop real-time signal processing chain for general phased array radar on NVIDIA GPUs(Graphical Processing Units) using CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture) libraries such as cuBlas and cuFFT, which are adopted from open source libraries and optimized for the NVIDIA GPUs. The processed results are rigorously verified against those from the CPUs. Performance benchmarked in computation time with various input data cube sizes are compared across GPUs and CPUs. Through the analysis, it will be demonstrated that GPGPUs (General Purpose GPU) real-time processing of the array radar data is possible with relatively low-cost commercial GPUs.

Status of the Development of Flight Power Processing Units for the NASAs Evolutionary Xenon Thruster - Commercial (NEXT-C) Project

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Aulisio, Michael V.; Pinero, Luis R.; White, Brandon L.; Hickman, Tyler A.; Bontempo, James J.; Hertel, Thomas A.; Birchenough, Arthur G.

2016-01-01

A pathfinder prototype unit and two flight power processing units (PPUs) are being developed by the Aerojet Rocketdyne Corporation in Redmond, Washington and ZIN Technologies in Cleveland, Ohio, in support of the NEXT-C Project. This project is being led by the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, and will also yield two flight thrusters. This hardware is being considered to be provided as Government Furnished Equipment for the New Frontiers Program, and is applicable to a variety of planetary science missions and astrophysics science missions. The design of the NEXT-C PPU evolves from the hardware fabricated under the NEXT technology development project. The power processing unit operates from two sources: a wide input 80 to 160 V high-power bus and a nominal 28 V low-power bus. The unit includes six power supplies. Four power supplies (beam, accelerator, discharge, and neutralizer keeper) are needed for steady state operation, while two cathode heater power supplies (neutralizer and discharge) are utilized during thruster startup. The unit in total delivers up to 7 kW of regulated power to a single gridded-ion thruster. Significant modifications to the initial design include: high-power adaptive-delay control, upgrade of design to EEE-INST-002 compliance, telemetry accuracy improvements, incorporation of telemetry to detect plume-mode operation, and simplification of the design in select areas to improve manufacturability and commercialization potential. The project is presently in the prototype phase and preparing for qualification level environmental testing.

Application of quality by design principles to the development and technology transfer of a major process improvement for the manufacture of a recombinant protein.

PubMed

Looby, Mairead; Ibarra, Neysi; Pierce, James J; Buckley, Kevin; O'Donovan, Eimear; Heenan, Mary; Moran, Enda; Farid, Suzanne S; Baganz, Frank

2011-01-01

This study describes the application of quality by design (QbD) principles to the development and implementation of a major manufacturing process improvement for a commercially distributed therapeutic protein produced in Chinese hamster ovary cell culture. The intent of this article is to focus on QbD concepts, and provide guidance and understanding on how the various components combine together to deliver a robust process in keeping with the principles of QbD. A fed-batch production culture and a virus inactivation step are described as representative examples of upstream and downstream unit operations that were characterized. A systematic approach incorporating QbD principles was applied to both unit operations, involving risk assessment of potential process failure points, small-scale model qualification, design and execution of experiments, definition of operating parameter ranges and process validation acceptance criteria followed by manufacturing-scale implementation and process validation. Statistical experimental designs were applied to the execution of process characterization studies evaluating the impact of operating parameters on product quality attributes and process performance parameters. Data from process characterization experiments were used to define the proven acceptable range and classification of operating parameters for each unit operation. Analysis of variance and Monte Carlo simulation methods were used to assess the appropriateness of process design spaces. Successful implementation and validation of the process in the manufacturing facility and the subsequent manufacture of hundreds of batches of this therapeutic protein verifies the approaches taken as a suitable model for the development, scale-up and operation of any biopharmaceutical manufacturing process. Copyright © 2011 American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE).

Developing Statistical Models to Assess Transplant Outcomes Using National Registries: The Process in the United States.

PubMed

Snyder, Jon J; Salkowski, Nicholas; Kim, S Joseph; Zaun, David; Xiong, Hui; Israni, Ajay K; Kasiske, Bertram L

2016-02-01

Created by the US National Organ Transplant Act in 1984, the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR) is obligated to publicly report data on transplant program and organ procurement organization performance in the United States. These reports include risk-adjusted assessments of graft and patient survival, and programs performing worse or better than expected are identified. The SRTR currently maintains 43 risk adjustment models for assessing posttransplant patient and graft survival and, in collaboration with the SRTR Technical Advisory Committee, has developed and implemented a new systematic process for model evaluation and revision. Patient cohorts for the risk adjustment models are identified, and single-organ and multiorgan transplants are defined, then each risk adjustment model is developed following a prespecified set of steps. Model performance is assessed, the model is refit to a more recent cohort before each evaluation cycle, and then it is applied to the evaluation cohort. The field of solid organ transplantation is unique in the breadth of the standardized data that are collected. These data allow for quality assessment across all transplant providers in the United States. A standardized process of risk model development using data from national registries may enhance the field.

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

Not Available

Prior to 1978, the Wilsonville Advanced Coal Liquefaction facility material balance surrounded only the thermal liquefaction unit and involved analyses of only the slurry stream and individual gas streams. The distillate solvent yield was determined by difference. Subsequently, several modifications and additional process units were introduced to this single unit system. With the inclusion of the deashing unit in 1978 and the catalytic hydrogenation unit in 1981, the process has evolved into a sophisticated two-stage coal liquefaction process and has the potential for various modes of integration. This report presents an elemental balancing procedure and a simplified presentation format thatmore » is sufficiently flexible to meet current and future needs. The development of the elemental balancing technique and the relevant computer programs to handle the calculations have been addressed. This will be useful in modelling individual unit performance as well as determining the impact of each unit on the overall liquefaction system, provided the units are on a steady-state basis. Five different material balance envelopes are defined. Three of these envelopes pertain to the individual units (the thermal liquefaction or TL unit, the Critical Solvent Deashing or CSD unit and the H-Oil Ebullated Bed Hydrotreating or HTR unit). The fourth or single stage material balance envelope combines the TL and CSD units. The fifth envelope is the two-stage configuration combining all three units. 3 references.« less

Development and fabrication of a solar cell junction processing system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Banker, S.

1982-01-01

Development of a pulsed electron beam subsystem, wafer transport system, and ion implanter are discussed. A junction processing system integration and cost analysis are reviewed. Maintenance of the electron beam processor and the experimental test unit of the non-mass analyzed ion implanter is reviewed.

ISO 9001 in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).

PubMed

Vitner, Gad; Nadir, Erez; Feldman, Michael; Yurman, Shmuel

2011-01-01

The aim of this paper is to present the process for approving and certifying a neonatal intensive care unit to ISO 9001 standards. The process started with the department head's decision to improve services quality before deciding to achieve ISO 9001 certification. Department processes were mapped and quality management mechanisms were developed. Process control and performance measurements were defined and implemented to monitor the daily work. A service satisfaction review was conducted to get feedback from families. In total, 28 processes and related work instructions were defined. Process yields showed service improvements. Family satisfaction improved. The paper is based on preparing only one neonatal intensive care unit to the ISO 9001 standard. The case study should act as an incentive for hospital managers aiming to improve service quality based on the ISO 9001 standard. ISO 9001 is becoming a recommended tool to improve clinical service quality.

Plasma Processing of Model Residential Solid Waste

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Messerle, V. E.; Mossé, A. L.; Nikonchuk, A. N.; Ustimenko, A. B.; Baimuldin, R. V.

2017-09-01

The authors have tested the technology of processing of model residential solid waste. They have developed and created a pilot plasma unit based on a plasma chamber incinerator. The waste processing technology has been tested and prepared for commercialization.

Technology and development requirements for advanced coal conversion systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1981-01-01

A compendium of coal conversion process descriptions is presented. The SRS and MC data bases were utilized to provide information paticularly in the areas of existing process designs and process evaluations. Additional information requirements were established and arrangements were made to visit process developers, pilot plants, and process development units to obtain information that was not otherwise available. Plant designs, process descriptions and operating conditions, and performance characteristics were analyzed and requirements for further development identified and evaluated to determine the impact of these requirements on the process commercialization potential from the standpoint of economics and technical feasibility. A preliminary methodology was established for the comparative technical and economic assessment of advanced processes.

Developing a Model for Identifying Students at Risk of Failure in a First Year Accounting Unit

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Malcolm; Therry, Len; Whale, Jacqui

2012-01-01

This paper reports on the process involved in attempting to build a predictive model capable of identifying students at risk of failure in a first year accounting unit in an Australian university. Identifying attributes that contribute to students being at risk can lead to the development of appropriate intervention strategies and support…

A practical approach for calculating the settlement and storage capacity of landfills based on the space and time discretization of the landfilling process.

PubMed

Gao, Wu; Xu, Wenjie; Bian, Xuecheng; Chen, Yunmin

2017-11-01

The settlement of any position of the municipal solid waste (MSW) body during the landfilling process and after its closure has effects on the integrity of the internal structure and storage capacity of the landfill. This paper proposes a practical approach for calculating the settlement and storage capacity of landfills based on the space and time discretization of the landfilling process. The MSW body in the landfill was divided into independent column units, and the filling process of each column unit was determined by a simplified complete landfilling process. The settlement of a position in the landfill was calculated with the compression of each MSW layer in every column unit. Then, the simultaneous settlement of all the column units was integrated to obtain the settlement of the landfill and storage capacity of all the column units; this allowed to obtain the storage capacity of the landfill based on the layer-wise summation method. When the compression of each MSW layer was calculated, the effects of the fluctuation of the main leachate level and variation in the unit weight of the MSW on the overburdened effective stress were taken into consideration by introducing the main leachate level's proportion and the unit weight and buried depth curve. This approach is especially significant for MSW with a high kitchen waste content and landfills in developing countries. The stress-biodegradation compression model was used to calculate the compression of each MSW layer. A software program, Settlement and Storage Capacity Calculation System for Landfills, was developed by integrating the space and time discretization of the landfilling process and the settlement and storage capacity algorithms. The landfilling process of the phase IV of Shanghai Laogang Landfill was simulated using this software. The maximum geometric volume of the landfill error between the calculated and measured values is only 2.02%, and the accumulated filling weight error between the calculated value and measured value is less than 5%. These results show that this approach is practical for satisfactorily and reliably calculating the settlement and storage capacity. In addition, the development of the elevation lines in the landfill sections created with the software demonstrates that the optimization of the design of the structures should be based on the settlement of the landfill. Since this practical approach can reasonably calculate the storage capacity of landfills and efficiently provide the development of the settlement of each landfilling stage, it can be used for the optimizations of landfilling schemes and structural designs. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Design of a highly integrated video acquisition module for smart video flight unit development

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lebre, V.; Gasti, W.

2017-11-01

CCD and APS devices are widely used in space missions as instrument sensors and/or in Avionics units like star detectors/trackers. Therefore, various and numerous designs of video acquisition chains have been produced. Basically, a classical video acquisition chain is constituted of two main functional blocks: the Proximity Electronics (PEC), including detector drivers and the Analogue Processing Chain (APC) Electronics that embeds the ADC, a master sequencer and the host interface. Nowadays, low power technologies allow to improve the integration, radiometric performances and power budget optimisation of video units and to standardize video units design and development. To this end, ESA has initiated a development activity through a competitive process requesting the expertise of experienced actors in the field of high resolution electronics for earth observation and Scientific missions. THALES ALENIA SPACE has been granted this activity as a prime contractor through ESA contract called HIVAC that holds for Highly Integrated Video Acquisition Chain. This paper presents main objectives of the on going HIVAC project and focuses on the functionalities and performances offered by the usage of the under development HIVAC board for future optical instruments.

Collaboration as a process and an outcome: Consumer experiences of collaborating with nurses in care planning in an acute inpatient mental health unit.

PubMed

Reid, Rebecca; Escott, Phil; Isobel, Sophie

2018-04-14

This qualitative study explores inpatient mental health consumer perceptions of how collaborative care planning with mental health nurses impacts personal recovery. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with consumers close to discharge from one unit in Sydney, Australia. The unit had been undertaking a collaborative care planning project which encouraged nurses to use care plan documentation to promote person-centred and goal-focussed interactions and the development of meaningful strategies to aid consumer recovery. The interviews explored consumer understandings of the collaborative care planning process, perceptions of the utility of the care plan document and the process of collaborating with the nurses, and their perception of the impact of collaboration on their recovery. Findings are presented under four organizing themes: the process of collaborating, the purpose of collaborating, the nurse as collaborator and the role of collaboration in wider care and recovery. Consumers highlighted the importance of the process of developing their care plan with a nurse as being as helpful for recovery as the goals and strategies themselves. The findings provide insights into consumers' experiences of care planning in an acute inpatient unit, the components of care that support recovery and highlight specific areas for mental health nursing practice improvement in collaboration. © 2018 Australian College of Mental Health Nurses Inc.

Accreditation of specialized asthma units for adults in Spain: an applicable experience for the management of difficult-to-control asthma

PubMed Central

Cisneros, Carolina; Díaz-Campos, Rocío Magdalena; Marina, Núria; Melero, Carlos; Padilla, Alicia; Pascual, Silvia; Pinedo, Celia; Trisán, Andrea

2017-01-01

This paper, developed by consensus of staff physicians of accredited asthma units for the management of severe asthma, presents information on the process and requirements for already-existing asthma units to achieve official accreditation by the Spanish Society of Pneumology and Thoracic Surgery (SEPAR). Three levels of specialized asthma care have been established based on available resources, which include specialized units for highly complex asthma, specialized asthma units, and basic asthma units. Regardless of the level of accreditation obtained, the distinction of “excellence” could be granted when more requirements in the areas of provision of care, technical and human resources, training in asthma, and teaching and research activities were met at each level. The Spanish experience in the process of accreditation of specialized asthma units, particularly for the care of patients with difficult-to-control asthma, may be applicable to other health care settings. PMID:28533690

Units of Distinction: Creating a Blueprint for Recognition of High-Performing Medical-Surgical Nursing Units.

PubMed

Jeffery, Alvin D; Mosier, Sammie; Baker, Allison; Korwek, Kimberly; Borum, Cindy; Englebright, Jane

2018-02-01

Hospital medical-surgical (M/S) nursing units are responsible for up to 28 million encounters annually, yet receive little attention from professional organizations and national initiatives targeted to improve quality and performance. We sought to develop a framework recognizing high-performing units within our large hospital system. This was a retrospective data analysis of M/S units throughout a 168-hospital system. Measures represented patient experience, employee engagement, staff scheduling, nursing-sensitive patient outcomes, professional practices, and clinical process measures. Four hundred ninety units from 129 hospitals contributed information to test the framework. A manual scoring system identified the top 5% and recognized them as a "Unit of Distinction." Secondary analyses with machine learning provided validation of the proposed framework. Similar to external recognition programs, this framework and process provide a holistic evaluation useful for meaningful recognition and lay the groundwork for benchmarking in improvement efforts.

Development Of Simulation Model For Fluid Catalytic Cracking

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ghosh, Sobhan

2010-10-01

Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC) is the most widely used secondary conversion process in the refining industry, for producing gasoline, olefins, and middle distillate from heavier petroleum fractions. There are more than 500 units in the world with a total processing capacity of about 17 to 20% of the crude capacity. FCC catalyst is the highest consumed catalyst in the process industry. On one hand, FCC is quite flexible with respect to it's ability to process wide variety of crudes with a flexible product yield pattern, and on the other hand, the interdependence of the major operating parameters makes the process extremely complex. An operating unit is self balancing and some fluctuations in the independent parameters are automatically adjusted by changing the temperatures and flow rates at different sections. However, a good simulation model is very useful to the refiner to get the best out of the process, in terms of selection of the best catalyst, to cope up with the day to day changing of the feed quality and the demands of different products from FCC unit. In addition, a good model is of great help in designing the process units and peripherals. A simple empirical model is often adequate to monitor the day to day operations, but they are not of any use in handling the other problems such as, catalyst selection or, design / modification of the plant. For this, a kinetic based rigorous model is required. Considering the complexity of the process, large number of chemical species undergoing "n" number of parallel and consecutive reactions, it is virtually impossible to develop a simulation model based on the kinetic parameters. The most common approach is to settle for a semi empirical model. We shall take up the key issues for developing a FCC model and the contribution of such models in the optimum operation of the plant.

Nurse adoption of continuous patient monitoring on acute post-surgical units: managing technology implementation.

PubMed

Jeskey, Mary; Card, Elizabeth; Nelson, Donna; Mercaldo, Nathaniel D; Sanders, Neal; Higgins, Michael S; Shi, Yaping; Michaels, Damon; Miller, Anne

2011-10-01

To report an exploratory action-research process used during the implementation of continuous patient monitoring in acute post-surgical nursing units. Substantial US Federal funding has been committed to implementing new health care technology, but failure to manage implementation processes may limit successful adoption and the realisation of proposed benefits. Effective approaches for managing barriers to new technology implementation are needed. Continuous patient monitoring was implemented in three of 13 medical/surgical units. An exploratory action-feedback approach, using time-series nurse surveys, was used to identify barriers and develop and evaluate responses. Post-hoc interviews and document analysis were used to describe the change implementation process. Significant differences were identified in night- and dayshift nurses' perceptions of technology benefits. Research nurses' facilitated the change process by evolving 'clinical nurse implementation specialist' expertise. Health information technology (HIT)-related patient outcomes are mediated through nurses' acting on new information but HIT designed for critical care may not transfer to acute care settings. Exploratory action-feedback approaches can assist nurse managers in assessing and mitigating the real-world effects of HIT implementations. It is strongly recommended that nurse managers identify stakeholders and develop comprehensive plans for monitoring the effects of HIT in their units. © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Low cost solar array project. Experimental process system development unit for producing semiconductor-grade silicon using the silane-to-silicon process

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1980-01-01

Technical activities are reported in the design of process, facilities, and equipment for producing silicon at a rate and price comensurate with production goals for low cost solar cell modules. The silane-silicone process has potential for providing high purity poly-silicon on a commercial scale at a price of fourteen dollars per kilogram by 1986, (1980 dollars). Commercial process, economic analysis, process support research and development, and quality control are discussed.

A Shipping Container-Based Sterile Processing Unit for Low Resources Settings

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

Deficiencies in the sterile processing of medical instruments contribute to poor outcomes for patients, such as surgical site infections, longer hospital stays, and deaths. In low resources settings, such as some rural and semi-rural areas and secondary and tertiary cities of developing countries, deficiencies in sterile processing are accentuated due to the lack of access to sterilization equipment, improperly maintained and malfunctioning equipment, lack of power to operate equipment, poor protocols, and inadequate quality control over inventory. Inspired by our sterile processing fieldwork at a district hospital in Sierra Leone in 2013, we built an autonomous, shipping-container-based sterile processing unit to address these deficiencies. The sterile processing unit, dubbed “the sterile box,” is a full suite capable of handling instruments from the moment they leave the operating room to the point they are sterile and ready to be reused for the next surgery. The sterile processing unit is self-sufficient in power and water and features an intake for contaminated instruments, decontamination, sterilization via non-electric steam sterilizers, and secure inventory storage. To validate efficacy, we ran tests of decontamination and sterilization performance. Results of 61 trials validate convincingly that our sterile processing unit achieves satisfactory outcomes for decontamination and sterilization and as such holds promise to support healthcare facilities in low resources settings. PMID:27007568

Comparing student clinical self-efficacy and team process outcomes for a DEU, blended, and traditional clinical setting: A quasi-experimental research study.

PubMed

Plemmons, Christina; Clark, Michele; Feng, Du

2018-03-01

Clinical education is vital to both the development of clinical self-efficacy and the integration of future nurses into health care teams. The dedicated education unit clinical teaching model is an innovative clinical partnership, which promotes skill development, professional growth, clinical self-efficacy, and integration as a team member. Blended clinical teaching models are combining features of the dedicated education unit and traditional clinical model. The aims of this study are to explore how each of three clinical teaching models (dedicated education unit, blended, traditional) affects clinical self-efficacy and attitude toward team process, and to compare the dedicated education unit model and blended model to traditional clinical. A nonequivalent control-group quasi-experimental design was utilized. The convenience sample of 272 entry-level baccalaureate nursing students included 84 students participating in a dedicated education unit model treatment group, 66 students participating in a blended model treatment group, and 122 students participating in a traditional model control group. Perceived clinical self-efficacy was evaluated by the pretest/posttest scores obtained on the General Self-Efficacy scale. Attitude toward team process was evaluated by the pretest/posttest scores obtained on the TeamSTEPPS® Teamwork Attitude Questionnaire. All three clinical teaching models resulted in significant increases in both clinical self-efficacy (p=0.04) and attitude toward team process (p=0.003). Students participating in the dedicated education unit model (p=0.016) and students participating in the blended model (p<0.001) had significantly larger increases in clinical self-efficacy compared to students participating in the traditional model. These findings support the use of dedicated education unit and blended clinical partnerships as effective alternatives to the traditional model to promote both clinical self-efficacy and team process among entry-level baccalaureate nursing students. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A centerless grinding unit used for precisely processing ferrules of optical fiber connector

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, Yongbo; Kondo, Takahiro; Kato, Masana

2005-02-01

This paper describes the development of a centerless grinding unit used for precisely processing ferrules, a key component of optical fiber connectors. In conventional processing procedure, the outer diameter of a ferrule is ground by employing a special machine tool, i.e., centerless grinder. However, in the case of processing small amount of ferrules, introducing a centerless grinder leads to high processing cost. Therefore, in order to take measures against this problem, the present authors propose a new centerless grinding technique where a compact centerless grinding unit, which is composed of an ultrasonic elliptic-vibration shoe, a workrest blade, and their respective holders, is installed on a popular surface grinder to perform the centerless grinding operations for outer diameter machining of ferrules. In this work, a unit is designed and constructed, and is installed on a surface grinder equipped with a diamond grinding wheel. Then, the performance of the unit is examined experimentally followed by grinding tests of ferrule"s outer diameter. As a result, the roundness of the ferrule"s outer diameter improved from the original value of around 3μm to the final value of around 0.5 μm, confirming the validity of the new technique.

Low-Energy, Low-Cost Production of Ethylene by Low- Temperature Oxidative Coupling of Methane

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

Radaelli, Guido; Chachra, Gaurav; Jonnavittula, Divya

In this project, we develop a catalytic process technology for distributed small-scale production of ethylene by oxidative coupling of methane at low temperatures using an advanced catalyst. The Low Temperature Oxidative Coupling of Methane (LT-OCM) catalyst system is enabled by a novel chemical catalyst and process pioneered by Siluria, at private expense, over the last six years. Herein, we develop the LT-OCM catalyst system for distributed small-scale production of ethylene by identifying and addressing necessary process schemes, unit operations and process parameters that limit the economic viability and mass penetration of this technology to manufacture ethylene at small-scales. The outputmore » of this program is process concepts for small-scale LT-OCM catalyst based ethylene production, lab-scale verification of the novel unit operations adopted in the proposed concept, and an analysis to validate the feasibility of the proposed concepts.« less

Nanosilver as a disinfectant in dental unit waterlines ...

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Dental unit water lines (DUWL) are susceptible to biofilm development and bacterial growth leading to water contamination, causing health and ecological effects. This study monitors the interactions between a commonly used nanosilver disinfectant (ASAP-AGX-32, an antimicrobial cleaner for dental units, 0.0032% Ag) and biofilm development in DUWL. To simulate the disinfection scenario, an in-house DUWL model was assembled and biofilm accumulation was allowed. Subsequent to biofilm development, the disinfection process was performed according to the manufacturer's instructions. The pristine nanosilver particles in the cleaner measured between 3 and 5 nm in diameter and were surrounded by a stabilizing polymer. However, the polymeric stabilizing agent diminished over the disinfection process, initiating partial AgNPs aggregation. Furthermore, surface speciation of the pristine AgNPs were identified as primarily AgO, and after the disinfection process, transformations to AgCl were observed. The physicochemical characteristics of AgNPs are known to govern their fate, and transport and environmental implications. Hence, knowledge of the AgNPs characteristics after the disinfection process (usage scenario) is of significance. This study demonstrates the adsorption of AgNPs onto biofilm surfaces and, therefore, will assist in illustration of the toxicity mechanisms of AgNPs to bacteria and biofilms. This work can be an initial step in better understanding how

New 'patent accelerated care environment' aims to facilitate work flow, free up ED for acute care needs.

PubMed

2012-02-01

Faced with rising acuity levels and surging demand, Virginia Mason Medical Center modified the Clinical Decision Unit concept used in many EDs, and developed a new Patient Accelerated Care Environment (PACE) to care for observation patients, process patients for discharge, and to prepare patients for admission.The approach is designed to utilize ED beds for initial processing of patients, allowing resuscitative care if needed, and treating and releasing the patients with quick care needs. Using the Virginia Mason Production System, a methodology that is modeled after Toyota production techniques, developers designed an optimal work flow pattern and then built infrastructure to facilitate that process. All patients who present to the ED for care are seen by the ED team through a "team greet" approach. Approximately 35% to 40% of patients who come to the ED for care are transferred to the PACE unit. Patients assigned to the PACE unit typically remain there for 4 to 48 hours, depending on their care needs.

Web-Based Honorarium Confirmation System Prototype

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wisswani, N. W.; Catur Bawa, I. G. N. B.

2018-01-01

Improving services in academic environment can be applied by regulating salary payment process for all employees. As a form of control to maintain financial transparency, employees should have information concerning salary payment process. Currently, notification process of committee honorarium will be accepted by the employees in a manual manner. The salary will be received by the employee bank account and to know its details, they should go to the accounting unit to find out further information. Though there are some employees entering the accounting unit, they still find difficulty to obtain information about detailed honor information that they received in their accounts. This can be caused by many data collected and to be managed. Based on this issue, this research will design a prototype of web-based system for accounting unit system in order to provide detailed financial transaction confirmation to employee bank accounts that have been informed through mobile banking system. This prototype will be developed with Waterfall method through testing on final users after it is developed through PHP program with MySQL as DBMS

GREENSCOPE Technical User’s Guide

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

GREENSCOPE’s methodology has been developed and its software tool designed such that it can be applied to an entire process, to a piece of equipment or process unit, or at the investigatory bench scale.

The Currency of Gender: Student and Institutional Responses to the First Gender Unit in an Australian Journalism Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

North, Louise

2015-01-01

This paper reports on the development and implementation of the first unit in an Australian university undergraduate journalism program to specifically examine the gendered nature of both news content and production processes. The paper outlines why such a unit is important to addressing entrenched industry bias, the core content, and student and…

Plated wire memory subsystem

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Reynolds, L.; Tweed, H.

1972-01-01

The work performed entailed the design, development, construction and testing of a 4000 word by 18 bit random access, NDRO plated wire memory for use in conjunction with a spacecraft imput/output unit and central processing unit. The primary design parameters, in order of importance, were high reliability, low power, volume and weight. A single memory unit, referred to as a qualification model, was delivered.

Vaccines in the pipeline: the path from development to use in the United States.

PubMed

Pickering, Larry K; Walton, L Reed

2013-08-01

New vaccines in the United States go through a complex process on their path from development to the domestic market involving an intricate partnership of public and private agencies and organizations. This process includes licensure by the US Food and Drug Administration, the development of recommendations by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, and safety oversight post-licensure. This article examines the roles of the US Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as certain professional organizations in governing the testing, marketing, and usage of new vaccines. Vaccines currently in development to treat numerous infectious and noninfectious diseases are also examined and compared with frameworks of domestic vaccine development prioritization, past and present, as assessed by the Institute of Medicine. Copyright 2013, SLACK Incorporated.

Coal gasification systems engineering and analysis. Appendix F: Critical technology items/issues

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1980-01-01

Critical technology items and issues are defined in which there is a need for developmental research in order to assure technical and economic success for the state of the art of coal gasification in the United States. Technology development needs for the main processing units and the supporting units are discussed. While development needs are shown for a large number of systems, the most critical areas are associated with the gasifier itself and those systems which either feed the gasifier or directly receive products form the gasifier.

A Miscellany of Etceteras: An "In-Process" Collection of Interdisciplinary Units and Enrichment Lessons. New York and the World Project 1991-92.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Greenberg, Hazel Sara, Ed.

These curriculum pieces, developed by teachers involved in the New York and the World Program, vary from single lessons to full units and indicate new approaches that all teachers can use in determining what to teach and how to teach it. The first section provides an overview of an interdisciplinary model along with steps in the process. The next…

U.S. Global Defense Posture, 1783-2011

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-01-01

in global affairs to further the nation’s interests. Second, as a consequence of its victory in the Spanish -American War of 1898, the United States...planning process . Despite their importance, the Pentagon needs to ensure that its global defense posture is developed from a top-down, not a bottom-up...to the continental United States (CONUS) or leaving it, both of which have implications for the base realignment and closure process . Despite this

Developing and Managing University-Industry Research Collaborations through a Process Methodology/Industrial Sector Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Philbin, Simon P.

2010-01-01

A management framework has been successfully utilized at Imperial College London in the United Kingdom to improve the process for developing and managing university-industry research collaborations. The framework has been part of a systematic approach to increase the level of research contracts from industrial sources, to strengthen the…

Electron Beam Freeform Fabrication Technology Development for Aerospace Applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Taminger, Karen M.

2006-01-01

NASA Langley has developed a the EBF(sup 3)process and currently has two EBF(sup 3) systems in house. EBF(sup 3) process offers potential cost reduction and fabrication of complex unitized structures out of metals. EBF(sup 3) has been successfully demonstrated on Al, Al-Li, Ti, and Ni alloys to date.

Mi-STAR: Designing Integrated Science Curriculum to Address the Next Generation Science Standards and Their Foundations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gochis, E. E.; Huntoon, J. E.

2015-12-01

Mi-STAR (Michigan Science Teaching and Assessment Reform, http://mi-star.mtu.edu/) was funded by the Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow Foundation to reform K-12 science education to present science as an integrated body of knowledge that is applied to address societal issues. To achieve this goal, Mi-STAR is developing an integrated science curriculum for the middle grades that will be aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Similar to the geosciences, the curriculum requires the integration of science, engineering and math content to explore 21st-century issues and demonstrates how these concepts can be used in service of society. The curriculum is based on the Mi-STAR Unit Specification Chart which pairs interdisciplinary themes with bundled NGSS Performance Expectations. Each unit is developed by a collaborative team of K-12 teachers, university STEM content experts and science education experts. Prior to developing a unit, each member on the team attends the on-line Mi-STAR Academy, completing 18+ hours of professional development (PD). This on-line PD program familiarizes teachers and experts with necessary pedagogical and content background knowledge, including NGSS and three-dimensional learning. With this background, teams use a staged, backwards design process to craft a multi-week unit based on a series of performance based tasks, or 'challenges' that engage students in actively doing science and engineering. Each unit includes Disciplinary Core Ideas from multiple disciplines, which focus on local and familiar examples that demonstrate the relevance of science in student's lives. Performance-based assessments are interwoven throughout the unit. Mi-STAR units will go through extensive pilot testing in several school districts across the state of Michigan. Additionally, the Mi-STAR program will develop teacher professional development programs to support implementation of the curriculum and design a pre-service teacher program in integrated science. We will share preliminary results on the collaborative Mi-STAR process of designing integrated science curriculum to address NGSS.

Implementation Of The Materials Certification Process

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2000-05-26

The South Dakota Department of Transportation has committed resources to investigate certification practices across the United States, and to develop and implement an improved material certification process. The research team reviewed Study SD96-06 a...

Low cost solar aray project: Experimental process system development unit for producing semiconductor-grade silicon using the silane-to-silicon process

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1981-01-01

This phase consists of the engineering design, fabrication, assembly, operation, economic analysis, and process support R&D for an Experimental Process System Development Unit (EPSDU). The mechanical bid package was issued and the bid responses are under evaluation. Similarly, the electrical bid package was issued, however, responses are not yet due. The majority of all equipment is on order or has been received at the EPSDU site. The pyrolysis/consolidation process design package was issued. Preparation of process and instrumentation diagram for the free-space reactor was started. In the area of melting/consolidation, Kayex successfully melted chunk silicon and have produced silicon shot. The free-space reactor powder was successfully transported pneumatically from a storage bin to the auger feeder twenty-five feet up and was melted. The fluid-bed PDU has successfully operated at silane feed concentrations up to 21%. The writing of the operating manual has started. Overall, the design phase is nearing completion.

Characterization of suspended bacteria from processing units in an advanced drinking water treatment plant of China.

PubMed

Wang, Feng; Li, Weiying; Zhang, Junpeng; Qi, Wanqi; Zhou, Yanyan; Xiang, Yuan; Shi, Nuo

2017-05-01

For the drinking water treatment plant (DWTP), the organic pollutant removal was the primary focus, while the suspended bacterial was always neglected. In this study, the suspended bacteria from each processing unit in a DWTP employing an ozone-biological activated carbon process was mainly characterized by using heterotrophic plate counts (HPCs), a flow cytometer, and 454-pyrosequencing methods. The results showed that an adverse changing tendency of HPC and total cell counts was observed in the sand filtration tank (SFT), where the cultivability of suspended bacteria increased to 34%. However, the cultivability level of other units stayed below 3% except for ozone contact tank (OCT, 13.5%) and activated carbon filtration tank (ACFT, 34.39%). It meant that filtration processes promoted the increase in cultivability of suspended bacteria remarkably, which indicated biodegrading capability. In the unit of OCT, microbial diversity indexes declined drastically, and the dominant bacteria were affiliated to Proteobacteria phylum (99.9%) and Betaproteobacteria class (86.3%), which were also the dominant bacteria in the effluent of other units. Besides, the primary genus was Limnohabitans in the effluents of SFT (17.4%) as well as ACFT (25.6%), which was inferred to be the crucial contributors for the biodegradable function in the filtration units. Overall, this paper provided an overview of community composition of each processing units in a DWTP as well as reference for better developing microbial function for drinking water treatment in the future.

Decontamination of Nuclear Liquid Wastes Status of CEA and AREVA R and D: Application to Fukushima Waste Waters - 12312

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

Fournel, B.; Barre, Y.; Lepeytre, C.

2012-07-01

Liquid wastes decontamination processes are mainly based on two techniques: Bulk processes and the so called Cartridges processes. The first technique has been developed for the French nuclear fuel reprocessing industry since the 60's in Marcoule and La Hague. It is a proven and mature technology which has been successfully and quickly implemented by AREVA at Fukushima site for the processing of contaminated waters. The second technique, involving cartridges processes, offers new opportunities for the use of innovative adsorbents. The AREVA process developed for Fukushima and some results obtained on site will be presented as well as laboratory scale resultsmore » obtained in CEA laboratories. Examples of new adsorbents development for liquid wastes decontamination are also given. A chemical process unit based on co-precipitation technique has been successfully and quickly implemented by AREVA at Fukushima site for the processing of contaminated waters. The asset of this technique is its ability to process large volumes in a continuous mode. Several chemical products can be used to address specific radioelements such as: Cs, Sr, Ru. Its drawback is the production of sludge (about 1% in volume of initial liquid volume). CEA developed strategies to model the co-precipitation phenomena in order to firstly minimize the quantity of added chemical reactants and secondly, minimize the size of co-precipitation units. We are on the way to design compact units that could be mobilized very quickly and efficiently in case of an accidental situation. Addressing the problem of sludge conditioning, cementation appears to be a very attractive solution. Fukushima accident has focused attention on optimizations that should be taken into account in future studies: - To better take account for non-typical aqueous matrixes like seawater; - To enlarge the spectrum of radioelements that can be efficiently processed and especially short lives radioelements that are usually less present in standard effluents resulting from nuclear activities; - To develop reversible solid adsorbents for cartridge-type applications in order to minimize wastes. (authors)« less

The Role of the United States in a Changing World. Revised Edition. Choices for the 21st Century.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brown Univ., Providence, RI. Center for Foreign Policy Development.

This unit is designed to lead high school students to consider seriously the U.S. role in the world. At the core of the unit is a framework of choices for U.S. foreign policy. These choices, or Futures as they are called in the unit, are intended to be a vehicle to guide students through the process involved in developing a reasoned opinion on the…

Scalable and massively parallel Monte Carlo photon transport simulations for heterogeneous computing platforms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yu, Leiming; Nina-Paravecino, Fanny; Kaeli, David; Fang, Qianqian

2018-01-01

We present a highly scalable Monte Carlo (MC) three-dimensional photon transport simulation platform designed for heterogeneous computing systems. Through the development of a massively parallel MC algorithm using the Open Computing Language framework, this research extends our existing graphics processing unit (GPU)-accelerated MC technique to a highly scalable vendor-independent heterogeneous computing environment, achieving significantly improved performance and software portability. A number of parallel computing techniques are investigated to achieve portable performance over a wide range of computing hardware. Furthermore, multiple thread-level and device-level load-balancing strategies are developed to obtain efficient simulations using multiple central processing units and GPUs.

Optimization of controlled processes in combined-cycle plant (new developments and researches)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tverskoy, Yu S.; Muravev, I. K.

2017-11-01

All modern complex technical systems, including power units of TPP and nuclear power plants, work in the system-forming structure of multifunctional APCS. The development of the modern APCS mathematical support allows bringing the automation degree to the solution of complex optimization problems of equipment heat-mass-exchange processes in real time. The difficulty of efficient management of a binary power unit is related to the need to solve jointly at least three problems. The first problem is related to the physical issues of combined-cycle technologies. The second problem is determined by the criticality of the CCGT operation to changes in the regime and climatic factors. The third problem is related to a precise description of a vector of controlled coordinates of a complex technological object. To obtain a joint solution of this complex of interconnected problems, the methodology of generalized thermodynamic analysis, methods of the theory of automatic control and mathematical modeling are used. In the present report, results of new developments and studies are shown. These results allow improving the principles of process control and the automatic control systems structural synthesis of power units with combined-cycle plants that provide attainable technical and economic efficiency and operational reliability of equipment.

Development of parametric material, energy, and emission inventories for wafer fabrication in the semiconductor industry.

PubMed

Murphy, Cynthia F; Kenig, George A; Allen, David T; Laurent, Jean-Philippe; Dyer, David E

2003-12-01

Currently available data suggest that most of the energy and material consumption related to the production of an integrated circuit is due to the wafer fabrication process. The complexity of wafer manufacturing, requiring hundreds of steps that vary from product to product and from facility to facility and which change every few years, has discouraged the development of material, energy, and emission inventory modules for the purpose of insertion into life cycle assessments. To address this difficulty, a flexible, process-based system for estimating material requirements, energy requirements, and emissions in wafer fabrication has been developed. The method accounts for mass and energy use atthe unit operation level. Parametric unit operation modules have been developed that can be used to predict changes in inventory as the result of changes in product design, equipment selection, or process flow. A case study of the application of the modules is given for energy consumption, but a similar methodology can be used for materials, individually or aggregated.

Development of a web-based learning medium on mechanism of labour for nursing students.

PubMed

Gerdprasert, Sailom; Pruksacheva, Tassanee; Panijpan, Bhinyo; Ruenwongsa, Pintip

2010-07-01

This study aimed to develop a web-based learning media on the process and mechanism of labour for the third-year university nursing and midwifery students. This media was developed based on integrating principles of the mechanism of labour with the 5Es inquiry cycle and interactive features of information technology. In this study, the web-based learning unit was used to supplement the conventional lecture as in the traditional teaching. Students' achievements were assessed by using the pre- and post-test on factual knowledge and semi-structured interviews on attitude to the unit. Supplementation with this learning unit made learning significantly more effective than the traditional lecture by itself. The students also showed positive attitude toward the learning unit. Copyright 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Recovery and purification process development for monoclonal antibody production

PubMed Central

Ma, Junfen; Winter, Charles; Bayer, Robert

2010-01-01

Hundreds of therapeutic monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) are currently in development, and many companies have multiple antibodies in their pipelines. Current methodology used in recovery processes for these molecules are reviewed here. Basic unit operations such as harvest, Protein A affinity chromatography and additional polishing steps are surveyed. Alternative processes such as flocculation, precipitation and membrane chromatography are discussed. We also cover platform approaches to purification methods development, use of high throughput screening methods, and offer a view on future developments in purification methodology as applied to mAbs. PMID:20647768

The contribution of bacterial genome engineering to sustainable development.

PubMed

Reuß, Daniel R; Commichau, Fabian M; Stülke, Jörg

2017-09-01

The United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals define important challenges for the prosperous development of mankind. To reach several of these goals, among them the production of value-added compounds, improved economic and ecologic balance of production processes, prevention of climate change and protection of ecosystems, the use of engineered bacteria can make valuable contributions. We discuss the strategies for genome engineering and how they can be applied to meet the United Nations' goals for sustainable development. © 2017 The Authors. Microbial Biotechnology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd and Society for Applied Microbiology.

Hot Swapping Protocol Implementations in the OPNET Modeler Development Environment

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-03-01

components. Unfortunately, this style is not efficient or particularly human–readable. Even purely pedagogical scenarios consisting of a client and a...definition provided by the mock object. sion of this kernel procedure steers all packets sent with op pk deliver() to the unit testing’s specialized...forms of development. Moreover, batteries of unit tests could ship with the accompanying process models and serve as robust regression tests

Technology Education for the 21st Century: A Collection of Essays. 49th Yearbook, 2000.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martin, G. Eugene, Ed.

These 38 essays in 4 units are directed toward the future of technology education. Unit I: Evolving into the 21st Century has one essay, entitled "The Past Defines the Paths to be Taken" (Jerry Streichler). Essays 2-18, in Unit II: Exemplary Practices for the 21st Century, are "Developing a Curriculum Process" (Bryan Albrecht);…

Developing an experimental case in aluminium foils 1100 to determine the maximum angle of formability in a piece by Dieless-SPIF process

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gabriel, Paramo; Adrian, Benitez

2014-07-01

Incremental sheet forming by the method of single point incremental forming Dieless-SPIF, is a widely studied process, experimented and developed in countries with high manufacturing technologies, with friendly costs when the productive configuration in a productivity system is based in small production batches. United states, United kingdom and France lead this type of studies and cases, developing various proof with experimental geometries, different from the national environment such as Colombia, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador and Peru where this process where discretely studied. Previously mentioned, it pretends develop an experimental case of a particular geometry, identifying the maximum formability angle of material permissible for the forming of a piece in one pass, the analysis of forming limit curve (FLC), with the objective to emphasizes in this innovative method based in CAD-CAM technologies, compare with other analogous process of deformation sheet metal like embossing, take correct decisions about the viability and applicability of this process (Dieless) in a particular industrial piece, which responses to the necessities of productive configurations mentioned and be highly taken like a manufacturing alternative to the other conventional process of forming sheet metal like embossing, for systems with slow batches production.

The Transformation of a College.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wisniewski, Richard

1996-01-01

Describes the restructuring process at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, focusing on changes in the College of Education over four years. Grant monies allowed faculty members to attend programs and conferences, hire specialists, develop a planning document, implement a plan that included 11 new units, and elect unit leaders. (SM)

The French Revolution.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scrofani, E. Robert; Johnston, Anne

This 10-day unit on the French Revolution is designed to help high school students understand the interplay of economic, social, and political forces in the process of revolutionary change, and the development of modern democratic forms of government. Critical thinking and geographic skill activities are employed throughout the unit and include…

Enhancing Teaching through Constructive Alignment.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Biggs, John

1996-01-01

An approach to college-level instructional design that incorporates the principles of constructivism, termed "constructive alignment," is described. The process is then illustrated with reference to a professional development unit in educational psychology for teachers, but the model is viewed as generalizable to most units or programs in higher…

Development and implementation of a comprehensive quality assurance program at a community endoscopy facility.

PubMed

Hilsden, Robert Jay; Rostom, Alaa; Dubé, Catherine; Pontifex, Darlene; McGregor, S Elizabeth; Bridges, Ronald J

2011-10-01

Quality assurance (QA) is a process that includes the systematic evaluation of a service, institution of improvements and ongoing evaluation to ensure that effective changes were made. QA is a fundamental component of any organized colorectal cancer screening program. However, it should play an equally important role in opportunistic screening. Establishing the processes and procedures for a comprehensive QA program can be a daunting proposition for an endoscopy unit. The present article describes the steps taken to establish a QA program at the Forzani & MacPhail Colon Cancer Screening Centre (Calgary, Alberta) - a colorectal cancer screening centre and nonhospital endoscopy unit that is dedicated to providing colorectal cancer screening-related colonoscopies. Lessons drawn from the authors' experience may help others develop their own initiatives. The Global Rating Scale, a quality assessment and improvement tool developed for the gastrointestinal endoscopy services of the United Kingdom's National Health Service, was used as the framework to develop the QA program. QA activities include monitoring the patient experience through surveys, creating endoscopist report cards on colonoscopy performance, tracking and evaluating adverse events and monitoring wait times.

Experience of Data Handling with IPPM Payload

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Errico, Walter; Tosi, Pietro; Ilstad, Jorgen; Jameux, David; Viviani, Riccardo; Collantoni, Daniele

2010-08-01

A simplified On-Board Data Handling system has been developed by CAEN AURELIA SPACE and ABSTRAQT as PUS-over-SpaceWire demonstration platform for the Onboard Payload Data Processing laboratory at ESTEC. The system is composed of three Leon2-based IPPM (Integrated Payload Processing Module) computers that play the roles of Instrument, Payload Data Handling Unit and Satellite Management Unit. Two PCs complete the test set-up simulating an external Memory Management Unit and the Ground Control Unit. Communication among units take place primarily through SpaceWire links; RMAP[2] protocol is used for configuration and housekeeping. A limited implementation of ECSS-E-70-41B Packet Utilisation Standard (PUS)[1] over CANbus and MIL-STD-1553B has been also realized. The Open Source RTEMS is running on the IPPM AT697E CPU as real-time operating system.

A Module Experimental Process System Development Unit (MEPSDU)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1981-01-01

A cost effective process sequence and machinery for the production of flat plate photovoltaic modules are described. Cells were fabricated using the process sequence which was optimized, as was a lamination procedure. Insulator tapes and edge seal material were identified and tested. Encapsulation materials were evaluated.

Assessment of mammographic film processor performance in a hospital and mobile screening unit.

PubMed

Murray, J G; Dowsett, D J; Laird, O; Ennis, J T

1992-12-01

In contrast to the majority of mammographic breast screening programmes, film processing at this centre occurs on site in both hospital and mobile trailer units. Initial (1989) quality control (QC) sensitometric tests revealed a large variation in film processor performance in the mobile unit. The clinical significance of these variations was assessed and acceptance limits for processor performance determined. Abnormal mammograms were used as reference material and copied using high definition 35 mm film over a range of exposure settings. The copies were than matched with QC film density variation from the mobile unit. All films were subsequently ranked for spatial and contrast resolution. Optimal values for processing time of 2 min (equivalent to film transit time 3 min and developer time 46 s) and temperature of 36 degrees C were obtained. The widespread anomaly of reporting film transit time as processing time is highlighted. Use of mammogram copies as a means of measuring the influence of film processor variation is advocated. Careful monitoring of the mobile unit film processor performance has produced stable quality comparable with the hospital based unit. The advantages of on site film processing are outlined. The addition of a sensitometric step wedge to all mammography film stock as a means of assessing image quality is recommended.

Cost calculator methods for estimating casework time in child welfare services: A promising approach for use in implementation of evidence-based practices and other service innovations.

PubMed

Holmes, Lisa; Landsverk, John; Ward, Harriet; Rolls-Reutz, Jennifer; Saldana, Lisa; Wulczyn, Fred; Chamberlain, Patricia

2014-04-01

Estimating costs in child welfare services is critical as new service models are incorporated into routine practice. This paper describes a unit costing estimation system developed in England (cost calculator) together with a pilot test of its utility in the United States where unit costs are routinely available for health services but not for child welfare services. The cost calculator approach uses a unified conceptual model that focuses on eight core child welfare processes. Comparison of these core processes in England and in four counties in the United States suggests that the underlying child welfare processes generated from England were perceived as very similar by child welfare staff in California county systems with some exceptions in the review and legal processes. Overall, the adaptation of the cost calculator for use in the United States child welfare systems appears promising. The paper also compares the cost calculator approach to the workload approach widely used in the United States and concludes that there are distinct differences between the two approaches with some possible advantages to the use of the cost calculator approach, especially in the use of this method for estimating child welfare costs in relation to the incorporation of evidence-based interventions into routine practice.

Design and implementation of the monitoring system for underground coal fires in Xinjiang region, China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li-bo, Dang; Jia-chun, Wu; Yue-xing, Liu; Yuan, Chang; Bin, Peng

2017-04-01

Underground coal fire (UCF) is serious in Xinjiang region of China. In order to deal with this problem efficiently, a UCF monitoring System, which is based on the use of wireless communication technology and remote sensing images, was designed and implemented by Xinjiang Coal Fire Fighting Bureau. This system consists of three parts, i.e., the data collecting unit, the data processing unit and the data output unit. For the data collecting unit, temperature sensors and gas sensors were put together on the sites with depth of 1.5 meter from the surface of coal fire zone. Information on these sites' temperature and gas was transferred immediately to the data processing unit. The processing unit was developed by coding based on GIS software. Generally, the processed datum were saved in the computer by table format, which can be displayed on the screen as the curve. Remote sensing image for each coal fire was saved in this system as the background for each monitoring site. From the monitoring data, the changes of the coal fires were displayed directly. And it provides a solid basis for analyzing the status of coal combustion of coal fire, the gas emission and possible dominant direction of coal fire propagation, which is helpful for making-decision of coal fire extinction.

Development of a wearable measurement and control unit for personal customizing machine-supported exercise.

PubMed

Wang, Zhihui; Tamura, Naoki; Kiryu, Tohru

2005-01-01

Wearable technology has been used in various health-related fields to develop advanced monitoring solutions. However, the monitoring function alone cannot meet all the requirements of personal customizing machine-supported exercise that have biosignal-based controls. In this paper, we propose a new wearable unit design equipped with measurement and control functions to support the personal customization process. The wearable unit can measure the heart rate and electromyogram signals during exercise and output workload control commands to the exercise machines. We then applied a prototype of the wearable unit to an Internet-based cycle ergometer system. The wearable unit was examined using twelve young people to check its feasibility. The results verified that the unit could successfully adapt to the control of the workload and was effective for continuously supporting gradual changes in physical activities.

A portable device for rapid nondestructive detection of fresh meat quality

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lin, Wan; Peng, Yankun

2014-05-01

Quality attributes of fresh meat influence nutritional value and consumers' purchasing power. In order to meet the demand of inspection department for portable device, a rapid and nondestructive detection device for fresh meat quality based on ARM (Advanced RISC Machines) processor and VIS/NIR technology was designed. Working principal, hardware composition, software system and functional test were introduced. Hardware system consisted of ARM processing unit, light source unit, detection probe unit, spectral data acquisition unit, LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) touch screen display unit, power unit and the cooling unit. Linux operating system and quality parameters acquisition processing application were designed. This system has realized collecting spectral signal, storing, displaying and processing as integration with the weight of 3.5 kg. 40 pieces of beef were used in experiment to validate the stability and reliability. The results indicated that prediction model developed using PLSR method using SNV as pre-processing method had good performance, with the correlation coefficient of 0.90 and root mean square error of 1.56 for validation set for L*, 0.95 and 1.74 for a*，0.94 and 0.59 for b*, 0.88 and 0.13 for pH, 0.79 and 12.46 for tenderness, 0.89 and 0.91 for water content, respectively. The experimental result shows that this device can be a useful tool for detecting quality of meat.

Low Cost Solar Array Project. Feasibility of the silane process for producing semiconductor-grade silicon. Final report, October 1975-March 1979

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

Not Available

1979-06-01

The commercial production of low-cost semiconductor-grade silicon is an essential requirement of the JPL/DOE (Department of Energy) Low-Cost Solar Array (LSA) Project. A 1000-metric-ton-per-year commercial facility using the Union Carbide Silane Process will produce molten silicon for an estimated price of $7.56/kg (1975 dollars, private financing), meeting the DOE goal of less than $10/kg. Conclusions and technology status are reported for both contract phases, which had the following objectives: (1) establish the feasibility of Union Carbide's Silane Process for commercial application, and (2) develop an integrated process design for an Experimental Process System Development Unit (EPSDU) and a commercial facility,more » and estimate the corresponding commercial plant economic performance. To assemble the facility design, the following work was performed: (a) collection of Union Carbide's applicable background technology; (b) design, assembly, and operation of a small integrated silane-producing Process Development Unit (PDU); (c) analysis, testing, and comparison of two high-temperature methods for converting pure silane to silicon metal; and (d) determination of chemical reaction equilibria and kinetics, and vapor-liquid equilibria for chlorosilanes.« less

The Development of the Final Approach Spacing Tool (FAST): A Cooperative Controller-Engineer Design Approach

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1995-08-01

Historically, the development of advanced automation for air traffic control in : the United States has excluded the input of the air traffic controller until the : end of the development process. In contrast, the development of the Final : Approach ...

Insights into software development in Japan

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Duvall, Lorraine M.

1992-01-01

The interdependence of the U.S.-Japanese economies makes it imperative that we in the United States understand how business and technology developments take place in Japan. We can gain insight into these developments in software engineering by studying the context in which Japanese software is developed, the practices that are used, the problems encountered, the setting surrounding these problems, and the resolution of these problems. Context includes the technological and sociological characteristics of the software development environment, the software processes applied, personnel involved in the development process, and the corporate and social culture surrounding the development. Presented in this paper is a summary of results of a study that addresses these issues. Data for this study was collected during a three month visit to Japan where the author interviewed 20 software managers representing nine companies involved in developing software in Japan. These data are compared to similar data from the United States in which 12 managers from five companies were interviewed.

Delivering a National Process Design Unit with Industry Support

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ibana, Don

Supported by the Minerals Council of Australia (MCA) through the Minerals Tertiary Education Council (MTEC), three Australian universities-Curtin University, Murdoch University and the University of Queensland-have formed the Metallurgical Education Partnership (MEP) to jointly develop and deliver an engineering design capstone unit-Metallurgical Process and Plant Design-in their respective undergraduate programs in extractive metallurgy, in order to enhance the students' educational experience. A unique feature of the program is the close interaction of the students in all three universities and a significant involvement of industry professionals. Now in its sixth year, it is clear that this unit is achieving its objectives.

Scientific Method K-6, Elementary Science Unit No. 3.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Khouri, John W.

Contained in this unit are activities designed to develop science process skills for Grades K through 6. A chart shows how the activities for each grade relate to the operations of classifying, inferring, observing, predicting, interpreting data, estimating, measuring, using numbers, experimenting, and controlling variables. Each activity is…

78 FR 59817 - Revision to United States Marshals Service Fees for Services

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-09-30

.... Federal Cost Accounting and Fee Setting Standards and Guidelines Being Used When developing fees for... imputed rents on land, buildings, and equipment;'' (c) ``management and supervisory costs;'' and (d... current costs to the United States Marshals Service for service of process in federal court proceedings. A...

7 CFR 275.16 - Corrective action planning.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 4 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Corrective action planning. 275.16 Section 275.16... Corrective action planning. (a) Corrective action planning is the process by which State agencies shall...)/management unit(s) in the planning, development, and implementation of corrective action are those which: (1...

The Organizational Meaning of Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Adria, Marco; Boechler, Patricia

2004-01-01

Practitioners and theorists have given attention recently to the role and status of research activities in Canadian university continuing education units. For individuals in units that are increasing the proportion of their organizational activities devoted to research, there will be an ongoing process of cognitive change and development as a new…

Instructional Systems Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Watson, Russell

The United States Army, confronted with sophisticated defense machinery and entry level soldiers with low educational backgrounds, selected a systems approach to training that was developed in 1975 by Florida State University. Instructional Systems Development (IDS), a five-phase process encompassing the entire educational environment, is…

Identifying strengths and weaknesses of Quality Management Unit University of Sumatera Utara software using SCAMPI C

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gunawan, D.; Amalia, A.; Rahmat, R. F.; Muchtar, M. A.; Siregar, I.

2018-02-01

Identification of software maturity level is a technique to determine the quality of the software. By identifying the software maturity level, the weaknesses of the software can be observed. As a result, the recommendations might be a reference for future software maintenance and development. This paper discusses the software Capability Level (CL) with case studies on Quality Management Unit (Unit Manajemen Mutu) University of Sumatera Utara (UMM-USU). This research utilized Standard CMMI Appraisal Method for Process Improvement class C (SCAMPI C) model with continuous representation. This model focuses on activities for developing quality products and services. The observation is done in three process areas, such as Project Planning (PP), Project Monitoring and Control (PMC), and Requirements Management (REQM). According to the measurement of software capability level for UMM-USU software, turns out that the capability level for the observed process area is in the range of CL1 and CL2. Planning Project (PP) is the only process area which reaches capability level 2, meanwhile, PMC and REQM are still in CL 1 or in performed level. This research reveals several weaknesses of existing UMM-USU software. Therefore, this study proposes several recommendations for UMM-USU to improve capability level for observed process areas.

Efficient particle-in-cell simulation of auroral plasma phenomena using a CUDA enabled graphics processing unit

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sewell, Stephen

This thesis introduces a software framework that effectively utilizes low-cost commercially available Graphic Processing Units (GPUs) to simulate complex scientific plasma phenomena that are modeled using the Particle-In-Cell (PIC) paradigm. The software framework that was developed conforms to the Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA), a standard for general purpose graphic processing that was introduced by NVIDIA Corporation. This framework has been verified for correctness and applied to advance the state of understanding of the electromagnetic aspects of the development of the Aurora Borealis and Aurora Australis. For each phase of the PIC methodology, this research has identified one or more methods to exploit the problem's natural parallelism and effectively map it for execution on the graphic processing unit and its host processor. The sources of overhead that can reduce the effectiveness of parallelization for each of these methods have also been identified. One of the novel aspects of this research was the utilization of particle sorting during the grid interpolation phase. The final representation resulted in simulations that executed about 38 times faster than simulations that were run on a single-core general-purpose processing system. The scalability of this framework to larger problem sizes and future generation systems has also been investigated.

Simulation in Metallurgical Processing: Recent Developments and Future Perspectives

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ludwig, Andreas; Wu, Menghuai; Kharicha, Abdellah

2016-08-01

This article briefly addresses the most important topics concerning numerical simulation of metallurgical processes, namely, multiphase issues (particle and bubble motion and flotation/sedimentation of equiaxed crystals during solidification), multiphysics issues (electromagnetic stirring, electro-slag remelting, Cu-electro-refining, fluid-structure interaction, and mushy zone deformation), process simulations on graphical processing units, integrated computational materials engineering, and automatic optimization via simulation. The present state-of-the-art as well as requirements for future developments are presented and briefly discussed.

Development of Low-cost, High Energy-per-unit-area Solar Cell Modules

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jones, G. T.; Chitre, S.; Rhee, S. S.

1978-01-01

The development of two hexagonal solar cell process sequences, a laserscribing process technique for scribing hexagonal and modified hexagonal solar cells, a large through-put diffusion process, and two surface macrostructure processes suitable for large scale production is reported. Experimental analysis was made on automated spin-on anti-reflective coating equipment and high pressure wafer cleaning equipment. Six hexagonal solar cell modules were fabricated. Also covered is a detailed theoretical analysis on the optimum silicon utilization by modified hexagonal solar cells.

Graphics Processing Unit Assisted Thermographic Compositing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ragasa, Scott; Russell, Samuel S.

2012-01-01

Objective Develop a software application utilizing high performance computing techniques, including general purpose graphics processing units (GPGPUs), for the analysis and visualization of large thermographic data sets. Over the past several years, an increasing effort among scientists and engineers to utilize graphics processing units (GPUs) in a more general purpose fashion is allowing for previously unobtainable levels of computation by individual workstations. As data sets grow, the methods to work them grow at an equal, and often greater, pace. Certain common computations can take advantage of the massively parallel and optimized hardware constructs of the GPU which yield significant increases in performance. These common computations have high degrees of data parallelism, that is, they are the same computation applied to a large set of data where the result does not depend on other data elements. Image processing is one area were GPUs are being used to greatly increase the performance of certain analysis and visualization techniques.

The Evaluation Handbook: Guidelines for Evaluating Dropout Prevention Programs.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smink, Jay; Stank, Peg

This manual, developed in an effort to take the mysticism out of program evaluation, discusses six phases of the program evaluation process. The introduction discusses reasons for evaluation, process and outcome evaluation, the purpose of the handbook, the evaluation process, and the Sequoia United School District Dropout Prevention Program. Phase…

Computer program developed for flowsheet calculations and process data reduction

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Alfredson, P. G.; Anastasia, L. J.; Knudsen, I. E.; Koppel, L. B.; Vogel, G. J.

1969-01-01

Computer program PACER-65, is used for flowsheet calculations and easily adapted to process data reduction. Each unit, vessel, meter, and processing operation in the overall flowsheet is represented by a separate subroutine, which the program calls in the order required to complete an overall flowsheet calculation.

Recovering tag fiber from cottonseed using the power roll gin

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

In the mid-1990s, Cotton Incorporated and the USDA-ARS Cotton Production and Processing Research Unit developed a process that became known as EasiFlo™ cottonseed (Patent #5,750,466; Issued May 12, 1998). This process involves the application of gelatinized starch to the surface of fuzzy cottonseed,...

Union Carbide Corp. polysilicon status and plans

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Leipold, M. H.

1982-01-01

The status of polysilicon activities is summarized highlighted by moving the silane portion of the experimental process system development unit (EPSDU) to Washougal, Washington. The completion and operation of the silane EPSDU, is discussed along with research on the silane-to-silicon deposition process. Progress on the dichlorosilane process is also reported.

IMPLEMENTATION OF A CAPE-OPEN COMPLIANT PROCESS SIMULATOR USING MICROSOFT'S VISUAL STUDIO.NET AND THE .NET FRAMEWORK

EPA Science Inventory

The United States Environmental Protection Agency is developing a Computer
Aided Process Engineering (CAPE) software tool for the metal finishing
industry that helps users design efficient metal finishing processes that
are less polluting to the environment. Metal finish...

Databases and coordinated research projects at the IAEA on atomic processes in plasmas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Braams, Bastiaan J.; Chung, Hyun-Kyung

2012-05-01

The Atomic and Molecular Data Unit at the IAEA works with a network of national data centres to encourage and coordinate production and dissemination of fundamental data for atomic, molecular and plasma-material interaction (A+M/PMI) processes that are relevant to the realization of fusion energy. The Unit maintains numerical and bibliographical databases and has started a Wiki-style knowledge base. The Unit also contributes to A+M database interface standards and provides a search engine that offers a common interface to multiple numerical A+M/PMI databases. Coordinated Research Projects (CRPs) bring together fusion energy researchers and atomic, molecular and surface physicists for joint work towards the development of new data and new methods. The databases and current CRPs on A+M/PMI processes are briefly described here.

Evaluation of selected chemical processes for production of low-cost silicon, phase 3

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Blocher, J. M., Jr.; Browning, M. F.; Seifert, D. A.

1981-01-01

A Process Development Unit (PDU), which consisted of the four major units of the process, was designed, installed, and experimentally operated. The PDU was sized to 50MT/Yr. The deposition took place in a fluidized bed reactor. As a consequences of the experiments, improvements in the design an operation of these units were undertaken and their experimental limitations were partially established. A parallel program of experimental work demonstrated that Zinc can be vaporized for introduction into the fluidized bed reactor, by direct induction-coupled r.f. energy. Residual zinc in the product can be removed by heat treatment below the melting point of silicon. Current efficiencies of 94 percent and above, and power efficiencies around 40 percent are achievable in the laboratory-scale electrolysis of ZnCl2.

Tomato seeds maturity detection system based on chlorophyll fluorescence

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Cuiling; Wang, Xiu; Meng, Zhijun

2016-10-01

Chlorophyll fluorescence intensity can be used as seed maturity and quality evaluation indicator. Chlorophyll fluorescence intensity of seed coats is tested to judge the level of chlorophyll content in seeds, and further to judge the maturity and quality of seeds. This research developed a detection system of tomato seeds maturity based on chlorophyll fluorescence spectrum technology, the system included an excitation light source unit, a fluorescent signal acquisition unit and a data processing unit. The excitation light source unit consisted of two high power LEDs, two radiators and two constant current power supplies, and it was designed to excite chlorophyll fluorescence of tomato seeds. The fluorescent signal acquisition unit was made up of a fluorescence spectrometer, an optical fiber, an optical fiber scaffolds and a narrowband filter. The data processing unit mainly included a computer. Tomato fruits of green ripe stage, discoloration stage, firm ripe stage and full ripe stage were harvested, and their seeds were collected directly. In this research, the developed tomato seeds maturity testing system was used to collect fluorescence spectrums of tomato seeds of different maturities. Principal component analysis (PCA) method was utilized to reduce the dimension of spectral data and extract principal components, and PCA was combined with linear discriminant analysis (LDA) to establish discriminant model of tomato seeds maturity, the discriminant accuracy was greater than 90%. Research results show that using chlorophyll fluorescence spectrum technology is feasible for seeds maturity detection, and the developed tomato seeds maturity testing system has high detection accuracy.

Unit Operations in Microgravity.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Allen, David T.; Pettit, Donald R.

1987-01-01

Presents some of the work currently under way in the development of microgravity chemical processes. Highlights some of the opportunities for materials processing in outer space. Emphasizes some of the contributions that chemical engineers can make in this emerging set of technologies. (TW)

Effects of orthographic consistency on eye movement behavior: German and English children and adults process the same words differently.

PubMed

Rau, Anne K; Moll, Kristina; Snowling, Margaret J; Landerl, Karin

2015-02-01

The current study investigated the time course of cross-linguistic differences in word recognition. We recorded eye movements of German and English children and adults while reading closely matched sentences, each including a target word manipulated for length and frequency. Results showed differential word recognition processes for both developing and skilled readers. Children of the two orthographies did not differ in terms of total word processing time, but this equal outcome was achieved quite differently. Whereas German children relied on small-unit processing early in word recognition, English children applied small-unit decoding only upon rereading-possibly when experiencing difficulties in integrating an unfamiliar word into the sentence context. Rather unexpectedly, cross-linguistic differences were also found in adults in that English adults showed longer processing times than German adults for nonwords. Thus, although orthographic consistency does play a major role in reading development, cross-linguistic differences are detectable even in skilled adult readers. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Developing and Evaluating an Eighth Grade Curriculum Unit That Links Foundational Chemistry to Biological Growth. Paper #1: Selecting Core Ideas and Practices -- An Iterative Process

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roseman, Jo Ellen; Herrmann-Abell, Cari; Flanagan, Jean; Kruse, Rebecca; Howes, Elaine; Carlson, Janet; Roth, Kathy; Bourdelat-Parks, Brooke

2013-01-01

Researchers at AAAS and BSCS have developed a six-week unit that aims to help middle school students learn important chemistry ideas that can be used to explain growth and repair in animals and plants. By integrating core physical and life science ideas and engaging students in the science practices of modeling and constructing explanations, the…

PACE. A Program for Acquiring Competence in Entrepreneurship. Part III: Being an Entrepreneur. Unit A: Managing the Business. Research and Development Series No. 194 C-1.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ohio State Univ., Columbus. National Center for Research in Vocational Education.

This three-part curriculum for entrepreneurship education is primarily for postsecondary level, including four-year colleges and adult education, but it can be adapted for special groups or vocational teacher education. The emphasis of the eight instructional units in Part III is operating a business. Unit A focuses on the management process. It…

High Voltage Hall Accelerator Propulsion System Development for NASA Science Missions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kamhawi, Hani; Haag, Thomas; Huang, Wensheng; Shastry, Rohit; Pinero, Luis; Peterson, Todd; Dankanich, John; Mathers, Alex

2013-01-01

NASA Science Mission Directorates In-Space Propulsion Technology Program is sponsoring the development of a 3.8 kW-class engineering development unit Hall thruster for implementation in NASA science and exploration missions. NASA Glenn Research Center and Aerojet are developing a high fidelity high voltage Hall accelerator (HiVHAc) thruster that can achieve specific impulse magnitudes greater than 2,700 seconds and xenon throughput capability in excess of 300 kilograms. Performance, plume mappings, thermal characterization, and vibration tests of the HiVHAc engineering development unit thruster have been performed. In addition, the HiVHAc project is also pursuing the development of a power processing unit (PPU) and xenon feed system (XFS) for integration with the HiVHAc engineering development unit thruster. Colorado Power Electronics and NASA Glenn Research Center have tested a brassboard PPU for more than 1,500 hours in a vacuum environment, and a new brassboard and engineering model PPU units are under development. VACCO Industries developed a xenon flow control module which has undergone qualification testing and will be integrated with the HiVHAc thruster extended duration tests. Finally, recent mission studies have shown that the HiVHAc propulsion system has sufficient performance for four Discovery- and two New Frontiers-class NASA design reference missions.

Dynamic Emotional Processing in Experiential Therapy: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pascual-Leone, Antonio

2009-01-01

The study of dynamic and nonlinear change has been a valuable development in psychotherapy process research. However, little advancement has been made in describing how moment-by-moment affective processes contribute to larger units of change. The purpose of this study was to examine observable moment-by-moment sequences in emotional processing as…

Fast, multi-channel real-time processing of signals with microsecond latency using graphics processing units.

PubMed

Rath, N; Kato, S; Levesque, J P; Mauel, M E; Navratil, G A; Peng, Q

2014-04-01

Fast, digital signal processing (DSP) has many applications. Typical hardware options for performing DSP are field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application-specific integrated DSP chips, or general purpose personal computer systems. This paper presents a novel DSP platform that has been developed for feedback control on the HBT-EP tokamak device. The system runs all signal processing exclusively on a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) to achieve real-time performance with latencies below 8 μs. Signals are transferred into and out of the GPU using PCI Express peer-to-peer direct-memory-access transfers without involvement of the central processing unit or host memory. Tests were performed on the feedback control system of the HBT-EP tokamak using forty 16-bit floating point inputs and outputs each and a sampling rate of up to 250 kHz. Signals were digitized by a D-TACQ ACQ196 module, processing done on an NVIDIA GTX 580 GPU programmed in CUDA, and analog output was generated by D-TACQ AO32CPCI modules.

United States transportation fuel economics (1975 - 1995)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Alexander, A. D., III

1975-01-01

The United States transportation fuel economics in terms of fuel resources options, processing alternatives, and attendant economics for the period 1975 to 1995 are evaluated. The U.S. energy resource base is reviewed, portable fuel-processing alternatives are assessed, and selected future aircraft fuel options - JP fuel, liquid methane, and liquid hydrogen - are evaluated economically. Primary emphasis is placed on evaluating future aircraft fuel options and economics to provide guidance for future strategy of NASA in the development of aviation and air transportation research and technology.

The potential for industrial cogeneration development by 1990

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

1981-07-01

The cogeneration study focused on five industries that constitute three quarters of industrial steam demand: pulp and paper, chemicals, petroleum refining, steel, and food processing. These industries use almost one fifth of the total energy consumed in the United States. The analysis reflected the investment and regulatory concerns in the United States. The analysis reflected the investment used by industrial and utility managers. Phone discussions were held with approximately 70 companies to verify and augment the process and energy use data for the five industries.

Experience in feeding coal into a liquefaction process development unit

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Akhtar, S.; Friedman, S.; Mazzocco, N. J.; Yavorsky, P. M.

1977-01-01

A system for preparing coal slurry and feeding it into a high pressure liquefaction plant is described. The system was developed to provide supporting research and development for the Bureau of Mines coal liquefaction pilot plant. Operating experiences are included.

78 FR 36520 - Rural Development Voucher Program

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-06-18

...- Family Housing Portfolio Management Division, Rural Development, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1400... the process for providing voucher assistance to the eligible impacted families when an owner prepays a... Development Voucher Program, including the eligibility of families, the inspection of the units, and the...

Development and evaluation of low cost honey heating-cum-filtration system.

PubMed

Alam, Md Shafiq; Sharma, D K; Sehgal, V K; Arora, M; Bhatia, S

2014-11-01

A fully mechanized honey heating-cum-filtration system was designed, developed, fabricated and evaluated for its performance. The system comprised of two sections; the top heating section and the lower filtering section. The developed system was evaluated for its performance at different process conditions (25 kg and 50 kg capacity using processing condition: 50 °C heating temperature and 60 °C heating temperature with 20 and 40 min holding time, respectively) and it was found that the total time required for heating, holding and filtration of honey was 108 and 142 min for 25 kg and 50 kg capacity of machine, respectively, irrespective of the processing conditions. The optimum capacity of the system was found to be 50 kg and it involved an investment of Rs 40,000 for its fabrication. The honey filtered through the developed filtration system was compared with the honey filtered in a high cost honey processing plant and raw honey for its microbial and biochemical (reducing sugars (%), moisture, acidity and pH) quality attributes. It was observed that the process of filtering through the developed unit resulted in reduction of microbes. The microbiological quality of honey filtered through the developed filtration system was better than that of raw honey and commercially processed honey. The treatment conditions found best in context of microbiological counts were 60 °C temperature for 20 min. There was 1.97 fold reductions in the plate count and 2.14 reductions in the fungal count of honey processed through the developed filtration system as compared to the raw honey. No coliforms were found in the processed honey. Honey processed through developed unit witnessed less moisture content, acidity and more reducing sugars as compared to raw honey, whereas its quality was comparable to the commercially processed honey.

Integrated Process Modeling-A Process Validation Life Cycle Companion.

PubMed

Zahel, Thomas; Hauer, Stefan; Mueller, Eric M; Murphy, Patrick; Abad, Sandra; Vasilieva, Elena; Maurer, Daniel; Brocard, Cécile; Reinisch, Daniela; Sagmeister, Patrick; Herwig, Christoph

2017-10-17

During the regulatory requested process validation of pharmaceutical manufacturing processes, companies aim to identify, control, and continuously monitor process variation and its impact on critical quality attributes (CQAs) of the final product. It is difficult to directly connect the impact of single process parameters (PPs) to final product CQAs, especially in biopharmaceutical process development and production, where multiple unit operations are stacked together and interact with each other. Therefore, we want to present the application of Monte Carlo (MC) simulation using an integrated process model (IPM) that enables estimation of process capability even in early stages of process validation. Once the IPM is established, its capability in risk and criticality assessment is furthermore demonstrated. IPMs can be used to enable holistic production control strategies that take interactions of process parameters of multiple unit operations into account. Moreover, IPMs can be trained with development data, refined with qualification runs, and maintained with routine manufacturing data which underlines the lifecycle concept. These applications will be shown by means of a process characterization study recently conducted at a world-leading contract manufacturing organization (CMO). The new IPM methodology therefore allows anticipation of out of specification (OOS) events, identify critical process parameters, and take risk-based decisions on counteractions that increase process robustness and decrease the likelihood of OOS events.

VLTI auxiliary telescopes: a full object-oriented approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chiozzi, Gianluca; Duhoux, Philippe; Karban, Robert

2000-06-01

The Very Large Telescope (VLT) Telescope Control Software (TCS) is a portable system. It is now in use or will be used in a whole family of ESO telescopes VLT Unit Telescopes, VLTI Auxiliary Telescopes, NTT, La Silla 3.6, VLT Survey Telescope and Astronomical Site Monitors in Paranal and La Silla). Although it has been developed making extensive usage of Object Oriented (OO) methodologies, the overall development process chosen at the beginning of the project used traditional methods. In order to warranty a longer lifetime to the system (improving documentation and maintainability) and to prepare for future projects, we have introduced a full OO process. We have taken as a basis the United Software Development Process with the Unified Modeling Language (UML) and we have adapted the process to our specific needs. This paper describes how the process has been applied to the VLTI Auxiliary Telescopes Control Software (ATCS). The ATCS is based on the portable VLT TCS, but some subsystems are new or have specific characteristics. The complete process has been applied to the new subsystems, while reused code has been integrated in the UML models. We have used the ATCS on one side to tune the process and train the team members and on the other side to provide a UML and WWW based documentation for the portable VLT TCS.

Emergency recompression: clinical audit of service delivery at a national level.

PubMed

Ross, John As; Sayer, Martin Dj

2009-03-01

Clinical audit is an essential element to the maintenance or improvement of delivery of any medical service. During the development phase of a National Recompression Registration Service for Scotland, clinical audit was initiated to provide a standardised tool to monitor the quality of outcome with respect to the severity of presentation. A functional audit process was an essential consideration for planned future measurement of treatment efficacy at local (single hyperbaric unit) and national (multiple hyperbaric units) scales. The audit process was designed to be undemanding, robust and informative, irrespective of the experience of treatment centre and of the clinician in charge of treatment. The clinical records from 104 cases of divers with decompression illness were used to derive and evaluate measures of severity and clinical outcome that could be used for audit and quality assurance. The various measures of disease severity were examined against clinical outcome and days spent in care after admission to a hyperbaric unit. An initial version of the clinical audit format that was developed from this process is presented.

Graphics processing units in bioinformatics, computational biology and systems biology.

PubMed

Nobile, Marco S; Cazzaniga, Paolo; Tangherloni, Andrea; Besozzi, Daniela

2017-09-01

Several studies in Bioinformatics, Computational Biology and Systems Biology rely on the definition of physico-chemical or mathematical models of biological systems at different scales and levels of complexity, ranging from the interaction of atoms in single molecules up to genome-wide interaction networks. Traditional computational methods and software tools developed in these research fields share a common trait: they can be computationally demanding on Central Processing Units (CPUs), therefore limiting their applicability in many circumstances. To overcome this issue, general-purpose Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) are gaining an increasing attention by the scientific community, as they can considerably reduce the running time required by standard CPU-based software, and allow more intensive investigations of biological systems. In this review, we present a collection of GPU tools recently developed to perform computational analyses in life science disciplines, emphasizing the advantages and the drawbacks in the use of these parallel architectures. The complete list of GPU-powered tools here reviewed is available at http://bit.ly/gputools. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press.

Development of a Model of Interprofessional Shared Clinical Decision Making in the ICU: A Mixed-Methods Study.

PubMed

DeKeyser Ganz, Freda; Engelberg, Ruth; Torres, Nicole; Curtis, Jared Randall

2016-04-01

To develop a model to describe ICU interprofessional shared clinical decision making and the factors associated with its implementation. Ethnographic (observations and interviews) and survey designs. Three ICUs (two in Israel and one in the United States). A convenience sample of nurses and physicians. None. Observations and interviews were analyzed using ethnographic and grounded theory methodologies. Questionnaires included a demographic information sheet and the Jefferson Scale of Attitudes toward Physician-Nurse Collaboration. From observations and interviews, we developed a conceptual model of the process of shared clinical decision making that involves four stepped levels, proceeding from the lowest to the highest levels of collaboration: individual decision, information exchange, deliberation, and shared decision. This process is influenced by individual, dyadic, and system factors. Most decisions were made at the lower two levels. Levels of perceived collaboration were moderate with no statistically significant differences between physicians and nurses or between units. Both qualitative and quantitative data corroborated that physicians and nurses from all units were similarly and moderately satisfied with their level of collaboration and shared decision making. However, most ICU clinical decision making continues to take place independently, where there is some sharing of information but rarely are decisions made collectively. System factors, such as interdisciplinary rounds and unit culture, seem to have a strong impact on this process. This study provides a model for further study and improvement of interprofessional shared decision making.

Implementation of a Portable Personal EKG Signal Monitoring System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tan, Tan-Hsu; Chang, Ching-Su; Chen, Yung-Fu; Lee, Cheng

This research develops a portable personal EKG signal monitoring system to help patients monitor their EKG signals instantly to avoid the occurrence of tragedies. This system is built with two main units: signal pro-cessing unit and monitoring and evaluation unit. The first unit consists of EKG signal sensor, signal amplifier, digitalization circuit, and related control circuits. The second unit is a software tool developed on an embedded Linux platform (called CSA). Experimental result indicates that the proposed system has the practical potential for users in health monitoring. It is demonstrated to be more convenient and with greater portability than the conventional PC-based EKG signal monitoring systems. Furthermore, all the application units embedded in the system are built with open source codes, no licensed fee is required for operating systems and authorized applications. Thus, the building cost is much lower than the traditional systems.

Process Improvement to Enhance Quality in a Large Volume Labor and Birth Unit.

PubMed

Bell, Ashley M; Bohannon, Jessica; Porthouse, Lisa; Thompson, Heather; Vago, Tony

The goal of the perinatal team at Mercy Hospital St. Louis is to provide a quality patient experience during labor and birth. After the move to a new labor and birth unit in 2013, the team recognized many of the routines and practices needed to be modified based on different demands. The Lean process was used to plan and implement required changes. This technique was chosen because it is based on feedback from clinicians, teamwork, strategizing, and immediate evaluation and implementation of common sense solutions. Through rapid improvement events, presence of leaders in the work environment, and daily huddles, team member engagement and communication were enhanced. The process allowed for team members to offer ideas, test these ideas, and evaluate results, all within a rapid time frame. For 9 months, frontline clinicians met monthly for a weeklong rapid improvement event to create better experiences for childbearing women and those who provide their care, using Lean concepts. At the end of each week, an implementation plan and metrics were developed to help ensure sustainment. The issues that were the focus of these process improvements included on-time initiation of scheduled cases such as induction of labor and cesarean birth, timely and efficient assessment and triage disposition, postanesthesia care and immediate newborn care completed within approximately 2 hours, transfer from the labor unit to the mother baby unit, and emergency transfers to the main operating room and intensive care unit. On-time case initiation for labor induction and cesarean birth improved, length of stay in obstetric triage decreased, postanesthesia recovery care was reorganized to be completed within the expected 2-hour standard time frame, and emergency transfers to the main hospital operating room and intensive care units were standardized and enhanced for efficiency and safety. Participants were pleased with the process improvements and quality outcomes. Working together as a team using the Lean process, frontline clinicians identified areas that needed improvement, developed and implemented successful strategies that addressed each gap, and enhanced the quality and safety of care for a large volume perinatal service.

Assessing Postgraduate Student Perceptions and Measures of Learning in a Peer Review Feedback Process

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Simpson, Genevieve; Clifton, Julian

2016-01-01

Peer review feedback, developed to assist students with increasing the quality of group reports and developing peer review skills, was added to a master's level Climate Change Policy and Planning unit. A pre- and post-survey was conducted to determine whether students found the process a valuable learning opportunity: 87% of students responding to…

PREDICTING THE RELATIVE IMPACTS OF URBAN DEVELOPMENT POLICIES AND ON-ROAD VEHICLE TECHNOLOGIES ON AIR QUALITY IN THE UNITED STATES: MODELING AND ANALYSIS OF A CASE STUDY IN AUSTIN, TEXAS

EPA Science Inventory

Urban development results in changes to land use and land cover and, consequently, to biogenic and anthropogenic emissions, meteorological processes, and processes such as dry deposition that influence future predictions of air quality. This study examines the impacts of alter...

Overview of the dairy and food processing research conducted at the Dairy and Functional Foods Research Unit, ERRC, and research to develop sustainable food processes

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The DFFRU is dedicated to solving critical problems in the utilization of milk and specialty crop byproducts by developing high-quality, value-added functional foods and consumer products. The presentation will give an overview of the research projects that will benefit human health and well-being. ...

Heater Validation for the NEXT-C Hollow Cathodes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Verhey, Timothy R.; Soulas, George C.; Mackey, Jonathan Ar.

2017-01-01

Swaged cathode heaters whose design was successfully demonstrated under a prior flight project are to be provided by the NASA Glenn Research Center for the NEXT-C ion thruster being fabricated by Aerojet Rocketdyne. Extensive requalification activities were performed to validate process controls that had to be re-established or revised because systemic changes prevented reuse of the past approaches. A development batch of heaters was successfully fabricated based on the new process controls. Acceptance and cyclic life testing of multiple discharge and neutralizer sized heaters extracted from the development batch was initiated in August, 2016, with the last heater completing testing in April, 2017. Cyclic life testing results substantially exceeded the NEXT-C thruster requirement as well as all past experience for GRC fabricated units. The heaters demonstrated ultimate cyclic life capability of 19050 to 33500 cycles. A qualification batch of heaters is now being fabricated using the finalized process controls. A set of six heaters will be acceptance and cyclic tested to verify conformance to the behavior observed with the development heaters. The heaters for flight use will be then be provided to the contractor. This paper summarizes the fabrication process control activities and the acceptance and life testing of the development heater units.

Quality Improvement in Critical Care: Selection and Development of Quality Indicators

PubMed Central

Martin, Claudio M.; Project, The Quality Improvement in Critical Care

2016-01-01

Background. Caring for critically ill patients is complex and resource intensive. An approach to monitor and compare the function of different intensive care units (ICUs) is needed to optimize outcomes for patients and the health system as a whole. Objective. To develop and implement quality indicators for comparing ICU characteristics and performance within and between ICUs and regions over time. Methods. Canadian jurisdictions with established ICU clinical databases were invited to participate in an iterative series of face-to-face meetings, teleconferences, and web conferences. Eighteen adult intensive care units across 14 hospitals and 5 provinces participated in the process. Results. Six domains of ICU function were identified: safe, timely, efficient, effective, patient/family satisfaction, and staff work life. Detailed operational definitions were developed for 22 quality indicators. The feasibility was demonstrated with the collection of 3.5 years of data. Statistical process control charts and graphs of composite measures were used for data display and comparisons. Medical and nursing leaders as well as administrators found the system to be an improvement over prior methods. Conclusions. Our process resulted in the selection and development of 22 indicators representing 6 domains of ICU function. We have demonstrated the feasibility of such a reporting system. This type of reporting system will demonstrate variation between units and jurisdictions to help identify and prioritize improvement efforts. PMID:27493476

GREENING OF OXIDATION CATALYSIS THROUGH IMPROVED CATALYST AND PROCESS DESIGN

EPA Science Inventory

Greening of Oxidation Catalysis Through Improved Catalysts and Process Design
Michael A. Gonzalez*, Thomas Becker, and Raymond Smith

United State Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, National Risk Management Research Laboratory, 26 W...

NATO/CCMS PILOT STUDY ON CLEAN PRODUCTS & PROCESSES

EPA Science Inventory

Led by the United States, represented by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) National Risk Management Research Laboratory, the Pilot Study on Clean Products and Processes was instituted to create an international forum where current trends, developments, and expert...

A History of the Chemical Innovations in Silver-Halide Materials for Color PhotographyIII. Dye Tranfer Process — Instant Color Photography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Oishi, Yasushi

A historical review of the technological developments of instant color photographic process, is presented with emphasis on the innovation processes at the following main turning points: 1) the creation of instant photography by E. H. Land in 1948 (one step processing by transfer of image-forming materials), 2) the advent of instant color photography based on dye developer, by Polaroid Corp., in 1963 (departing from dye-forming development, forming a direct positive preformed-dye image with a negative emulsion, but constraining the sensitive-material designs), 3) the introduction of a color instant product containing redox dye releaser with improved auto-positive emulsion, by Eastman Kodak Co., in 1976 (producing much improved color image quality, freed from the design constraints), and 4) the realization of absolute one-step photography by the integral film- unit system, by Polaroid in 1972. And the patent litigation (1976-86) raised by Polaroid against Kodak allegedly infringing on the integral film-unit patents caused the vast impacts on the industry.

South Carolina Guide for Child Development.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pough, Carmen; Evans, Hattie

South Carolina's Guide to Child Development addresses three domains of learning: psychomotor, cognitive, and affective. The first unit of the guide, Child Development I, concerns the processes of understanding prenatal development, caring for an infant, providing care for children between 1 and 6 years of age, and delivering care for the…

USAID Assistance to Afghanistan Reconstruction: $13.3 Billion Obligated Between 2002 and 2013

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-01-01

Development Group 274 TAF -The Asia Foundation 157 AED-Academy for Educational Development 146 CEPPS-Consortium For Elections and Political Process...United Nations Development Program 268,825 WHO 107,337 IFDC-International Fertilizer Development Center 32,531 TAF -The Asia Foundation 24,122 DANIDA

Building SAWE Capability as an ANSI Accredited Standards Developer

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cerro, Jeffrey A.; Davis, Ed; Peterson, Eric; Griffiths, William T.; Brooks, Andy; Stratton, Bonnie; Attar, Jose

2014-01-01

This paper presents a 2014 status of the Society of Allied Weight Engineers' process towards becoming an Accredited Standards Developer (ASD) under certification by the United States American National Standards Institute (ANSI). Included is material from the committee's 2013 International presentation, current status, and additional general background material. The document strives to serve as a reference point to assist SAWE Recommended Practice and Standards developers in negotiating United States Standards Strategy, international standards strategy, and the association of SAWE standards and recommended practices to those efforts. Required procedures for SAWE to develop and maintain Recommended Practices and ANSI/SAWE Standards are reviewed.

Development of High-Power Hall Thruster Power Processing Units at NASA GRC

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pinero, Luis R.; Bozak, Karin E.; Santiago, Walter; Scheidegger, Robert J.; Birchenough, Arthur G.

2015-01-01

NASA GRC successfully designed, built and tested four different power processor concepts for high power Hall thrusters. Each design satisfies unique goals including the evaluation of a novel silicon carbide semiconductor technology, validation of innovative circuits to overcome the problems with high input voltage converter design, development of a direct-drive unit to demonstrate potential benefits, or simply identification of lessonslearned from the development of a PPU using a conventional design approach. Any of these designs could be developed further to satisfy NASA's needs for high power electric propulsion in the near future.

Development of a COTS Mass Storage Unit for the Space Readiness Coherent Lidar Experiment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Liggin, Karl; Clark, Porter

1999-01-01

The technology to develop a Mass Storage Unit (MSU) using commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) hard drives is an on-going challenge to meet the Space Readiness Coherent Lidar Experiment (SPARCLE) program requirements. A conceptual view of SPARCLE's laser collecting atmospheric data from the shuttle is shown in Figure 1. The determination to develop this technology required several in depth studies before an actual COTS hard drive was selected to continue this effort. Continuing the development of the MSU can, and will, serve future NASA programs that require larger data storage and more on-board processing.

A pilot scale ultrasonic system to enhance extraction processes with dense gases

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Riera, E.; Blasco, M.; Tornero, A.; Casas, E.; Roselló, C.; Simal, S.; Acosta, V. M.; Gallego-Juárez, J. A.

2012-05-01

The use of dense gases (supercritical fluids) as extracting agents has been attracting wide interest for years. In particular, supercritical carbon dioxide is considered nowadays as a green and very useful solvent. Nevertheless, the extraction process has a slow dynamics. Power ultrasound represents an efficient way for accelerating and enhancing the kinetics of the process by producing strong agitation and turbulence, compressions and decompressions, and heating in the media. For this purpose, a device prototype for using ultrasound in supercritical media was developed, tested and validated in extraction processes of oil from grounded almonds (55% oil content, wet basis and 3-4 mm particle size) in a 5 L extraction unit. An amount of 1500 g of grounded almonds was placed in a cylindrical basket during the trials inside the dense gas extractor (DGE) where solvent was introduced at different flow rates, pressures and temperatures. In all cases the ultrasonic energy confirmed the enhancement and acceleration of the almond oil extraction kinetics using supercritical CO2. Presently the power ultrasound effect in such a process is being deeply analyzed in a 5 L extraction unit before scaling-up a new ultrasonic system. This technology, still under development, has been designed for a bigger dense gas pilot-plant consisting of two extractors (20 L capacity), two separation units and has the possibility of operating at a pressure up to 50 MPa. The goal of this work is to study the effect of high-power ultrasound coupled to dense gas extraction inside the basket with the product, and to present a prototype for the use of power ultrasound in extraction processes with dense gases inside a new 20 L extractor unit.

Arc-Jet Thrustor Development

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Curran, F. M.; Hamley, J. A.; Gruber, R. P.; Sankovic, J. M.; Haag, T. W.; Marren, W. E.; Sarmiento, C. J.; Carney, L.

1993-01-01

Two flight-type 1.4-kW hydrazine arcjet systems developed and tested under Lewis program. Each consists of thrustor, gas generator, and power-processing unit. Performance significantly improved. Technology transferred to user community, and first commercial flight anticipated in 1993.

Modern Europe: An Instructional Guide, Grades 10-12.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Los Angeles City Schools, CA. Div. of Instructional Planning and Services.

Emphasizing Europe's role in the growth of Western institutions and ideals, this guide stresses the development of skills necessary for active participation in democratic processes. An introductory unit on the Renaissance and the Reformation is followed by units on (1) the political events fostering the growth of the modern national state and the…

78 FR 32427 - Notice of Issuance of Final Determination Concerning Multifunctional Digital Imaging Systems

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-05-30

... manufacture different types of Controller units. Ricoh considers the manufacturing of the Controller unit... components and subassemblies of the MFPs from China and the Philippines for manufacture in the U.S. and..., and that the entire engineering, development, design and artwork processes for the MFPs took place in...

Potential for extending major land resource areas into northern Mexico

Treesearch

Roy S. Mann; Philip Heilman; Jeffry Stone

2013-01-01

There is a significant history of cooperative efforts between Mexico and the United States on natural resource management issues. Mexico and the United States have jointly conducted research and developed range management technologies. Bringing these technologies together and improving technical communications are an ongoing process. This paper discusses a potential...

Training the Professional Interpreter for the Commercial and Legal Setting.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Adams, Eleonora K.

The United States has been training interpreters only in the recent past, but the American penchant for technology has furthered the profession as a whole. Benchmarks in this process include machines introduced at the 1936 Paris World Fair and the Nuremberg trials, establishment of the United Nations, language services, development of the Division…

Assessing pine regeneration for the South Central United States

Treesearch

William H. McWilliams

1990-01-01

Poor regeneration of pine following harvest on nonindustrial timberland has been identified as a major cause for loss of pine forests and slowdown of softwood growth in the Southern United States.Developing a strategy for regeneration assessment requires clear definition of sampling objectives, sampling design, and analytical processes. It is important that...

Issues for an Evaluation of Freire-Inspired Programs in the United States and Puerto Rico.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Facundo, Blanca

Paulo Freire is a Brazilian educator whose theories link educational processes with revolutionary political aims. This report describes attempts by predominantly Latino proponents of his theories to develop "liberating education" (educacion liberadora) in the United States and in Puerto Rico. Section 1 describes the national, political,…

Man and His Physical Environment: Teacher's Manual.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mank, Evans R.

Building upon Course I, this teaching guide for the first of four units of Course II introduces the secondary student to geographic concepts and generalizations of the physical world to which man has related over time. All units of the second course emphasize the process of development whereby man, coping with given conditions in his physical…

Observing and Producing Sounds, Elementary School Science, Level Four, Teaching Manual.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hale, Helen E.

This pilot teaching unit is one of a series developed for use in elementary school science programs. This unit is designed to help children discover specific concepts which relate to sound, such as volume, pitch, and echo. The student activities employ important scientific processes, such as observation, communication, inference, classification,…

European Mobility of United Kingdom Educated Graduates. Who Stays, Who Goes?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Behle, Heike

2014-01-01

Official figures from the Home Office show an increase in mobility of the highly-skilled from the United Kingdom (UK) to other European countries. This paper analyses the social composition of intra-European mobile graduates from the UK in the context of recent political developments (Bologna-Process, European Higher Education Area). Using…

Solvent Refined Coal (SRC) process. Research and development report No. 53, interim report No. 29, August-November, 1978. Volume VI. Process development unit studies. Part 1

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

None

1980-01-01

This report presents the results of seven SRC-II runs on Process Development Unit P99 feeding Pittsburgh Seam coal. Four of these runs (Runs 41-44) were made feeding coal from the Robinson Run Mine and three (Runs 45-47) were made feeding a second shipment of coal from the Powhatan No. 5 Mine. This work showed that both these coals are satisfactory feedstocks for the SRC-II process. Increasing dissolver outlet hydrogen partial pressure from approximately 1300 to about 1400 psia did not have a significant effect on yields from Robinson Run coal, but simultaneously increasing coal concentration in the feed slurry frommore » 25 to 30 wt% and decreasing the percent recycle solids from 21% to 17% lowered distillate yields. With the Powhatan coal, a modest increase in the boiling temperature (approximately 35/sup 0/F) at the 10% point) of the process solvent had essentially no effect on product yields, while lowering the average dissolver temperature from 851/sup 0/F to 842/sup 0/F reduced gas yield.« less

GPU applications for data processing

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

Vladymyrov, Mykhailo, E-mail: mykhailo.vladymyrov@cern.ch; Aleksandrov, Andrey; INFN sezione di Napoli, I-80125 Napoli

2015-12-31

Modern experiments that use nuclear photoemulsion imply fast and efficient data acquisition from the emulsion can be performed. The new approaches in developing scanning systems require real-time processing of large amount of data. Methods that use Graphical Processing Unit (GPU) computing power for emulsion data processing are presented here. It is shown how the GPU-accelerated emulsion processing helped us to rise the scanning speed by factor of nine.

Sustainable Energy Solutions Task 3.0:Life-Cycle Database for Wind Energy Systems

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

Twomey, Janet M.

2010-03-01

The benefits of wind energy had previously been captured in the literature at an overview level with relatively low transparency or ability to understand the basis for that information. This has limited improvement and decision-making to larger questions such as wind versus other electrical sources (such as coal-fired plants). This research project has established a substantially different approach which is to add modular, high granularity life cycle inventory (lci) information that can be used by a wide range of decision-makers, seeking environmental improvement. Results from this project have expanded the understanding and evaluation of the underlying factors that can improvemore » both manufacturing processes and specifically wind generators. The use of life cycle inventory techniques has provided a uniform framework to understand and compare the full range of environmental improvement in manufacturing, hence the concept of green manufacturing. In this project, the focus is on 1. the manufacturing steps that transform materials and chemicals into functioning products 2. the supply chain and end-of-life influences of materials and chemicals used in industry Results have been applied to wind generators, but also impact the larger U.S. product manufacturing base. For chemicals and materials, this project has provided a standard format for each lci that contains an overview and description, a process flow diagram, detailed mass balances, detailed energy of unit processes, and an executive summary. This is suitable for integration into other life cycle databases (such as that at NREL), so that broad use can be achieved. The use of representative processes allows unrestricted use of project results. With the framework refined in this project, information gathering was initiated for chemicals and materials in wind generation. Since manufacturing is one of the most significant parts of the environmental domain for wind generation improvement, this project research has developed a fundamental approach. The emphasis was place on individual unit processes as an organizing framework to understand the life cycle of manufactured products. The rearrangement of unit processes provides an efficient and versatile means of understanding improved manufactured products such as wind generators. The taxonomy and structure of unit process lci were developed in this project. A series of ten unit process lci were developed to sample the major segments of the manufacturing unit process taxonomy. Technical and economic effectiveness has been a focus of the project research in Task three. The use of repeatable modules for the organization of information on environmental improvement has a long term impact. The information developed can be used and reused in a variety of manufacturing plants and for a range of wind generator sizes and designs. Such a modular approach will lower the cost of life cycle analysis, that is often asked questions of carbon footprint, environmental impact, and sustainability. The use of a website for dissemination, linked to NREL, adds to the economic benefit as more users have access to the lci information. Benefit to the public has been achieved by a well-attended WSU conference, as well as presentations for the Kansas Wind Energy Commission. Attendees represented public interests, land owners, wind farm developers, those interested in green jobs, and industry. Another benefit to the public is the start of information flow from manufacturers that can inform individuals about products.« less

A Ten-Step Process for Developing Teaching Units

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Butler, Geoffrey; Heslup, Simon; Kurth, Lara

2015-01-01

Curriculum design and implementation can be a daunting process. Questions quickly arise, such as who is qualified to design the curriculum and how do these people begin the design process. According to Graves (2008), in many contexts the design of the curriculum and the implementation of the curricular product are considered to be two mutually…

Resurgence of Integrated Behavioral Units

PubMed Central

Bachá-Méndez, Gustavo; Reid, Alliston K; Mendoza-Soylovna, Adela

2007-01-01

Two experiments with rats examined the dynamics of well-learned response sequences when reinforcement contingencies were changed. Both experiments contained four phases, each of which reinforced a 2-response sequence of lever presses until responding was stable. The contingencies then were shifted to a new reinforced sequence until responding was again stable. Extinction-induced resurgence of previously reinforced, and then extinguished, heterogeneous response sequences was observed in all subjects in both experiments. These sequences were demonstrated to be integrated behavioral units, controlled by processes acting at the level of the entire sequence. Response-level processes were also simultaneously operative. Errors in sequence production were strongly influenced by the terminal, not the initial, response in the currently reinforced sequence, but not by the previously reinforced sequence. These studies demonstrate that sequence-level and response-level processes can operate simultaneously in integrated behavioral units. Resurgence and the development of integrated behavioral units may be dissociated; thus the observation of one does not necessarily imply the other. PMID:17345948

PROPULSE 980: A Hydrogen Peroxide Enrichment System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Boxwell, Robert; Bromley, G.; Wanger, Robert; Pauls, Dan; Maynard, Bryon; McNeal, Curtis; Dumbacher, D. L. (Technical Monitor)

2000-01-01

The PROPULSE 980 unit is a transportable processing plant that enriches aerospace grade hydrogen peroxide from 90% to 98% final concentration. The unit was developed by Degussa-H Is, in cooperation with Orbital, NASA Marshall Space Center, and NASA Stennis Space Center. The system is a self-contained unit that houses all of the process equipment, instrumentation and controls to perform the concentration operation nearly autonomously. It is designed to produce non-bulk quantities of 98% hydrogen peroxide. The enrichment unit design also maintains system, personnel and environmental safety during all aspects of the enrichment process and final product storage. As part of the Propulse 980 checkout and final buyoff, it will be disassembled at the Degussa-H Is Corporation plant in Theodore, AL, transported to the Stennis Space Center, reassembled and subjected to a series of checkout tests to verify design objectives have been met. This paper will summarize the basic project elements and provide an update on the present status of the project.

Equipment of the binary-cycle geothermal power unit at the Pauzhet geothermal power station

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tomarov, G. V.; Nikol'skii, A. I.; Semenov, V. N.; Shipkov, A. A.

2014-06-01

The equipment of and technological processes in the pilot industrial model of the domestically produced binary-cycle geothermal power unit operating on the discharge separate at the Pauzhet geothermal power station are considered. The development principles, the design and operational features, and the data on selecting the metal in manufacturing the main equipment of the 2.5-MW binary power unit of the geothermal power station are described.

Seasonal Solar Thermal Absorption Energy Storage Development.

PubMed

Daguenet-Frick, Xavier; Gantenbein, Paul; Rommel, Mathias; Fumey, Benjamin; Weber, Robert; Gooneseker, Kanishka; Williamson, Tommy

2015-01-01

This article describes a thermochemical seasonal storage with emphasis on the development of a reaction zone for an absorption/desorption unit. The heat and mass exchanges are modelled and the design of a suitable reaction zone is explained. A tube bundle concept is retained for the heat and mass exchangers and the units are manufactured and commissioned. Furthermore, experimental results of both absorption and desorption processes are presented and the exchanged power is compared to the results of the simulations.

SMIF capability at Intel Mask Operation improves yield

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dam, Thuc H.; Pekny, Matt; Millino, Jim; Luu, Gibson; Melwani, Nitesh; Venkatramani, Aparna; Tavassoli, Malahat

2003-08-01

At Intel Mask Operations (IMO), Standard Mechanical Interface (SMIF) processing has been employed to reduce environmental particle contamination from manual handling-related activities. SMIF handling entailed the utilization of automated robotic transfers of photoblanks/reticles between SMIF pods, whereas conventional handling utilized manual pick transfers of masks between SMIF pods with intermediate storage in Toppan compacts. The SMIF-enabling units in IMO's process line included: (1) coater, (2) exposure, (3) developer, (4) dry etcher, and (5) inspection. Each unit is equipped with automated I/O port, environmentally enclosed processing chamber, and SMIF pods. Yield metrics were utilized to demonstrate the effectiveness and advantages of SMIF processing compared to manual processing. The areas focused in this paper were blank resist coating, binary front-end reticle processing and 2nd level PSM reticle processing. Results obtained from the investigation showed yield improvements in these areas.

Study on photochemical analysis system (VLES) for EUV lithography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sekiguchi, A.; Kono, Y.; Kadoi, M.; Minami, Y.; Kozawa, T.; Tagawa, S.; Gustafson, D.; Blackborow, P.

2007-03-01

A system for photo-chemical analysis of EUV lithography processes has been developed. This system has consists of 3 units: (1) an exposure that uses the Z-Pinch (Energetiq Tech.) EUV Light source (DPP) to carry out a flood exposure, (2) a measurement system RDA (Litho Tech Japan) for the development rate of photo-resists, and (3) a simulation unit that utilizes PROLITH (KLA-Tencor) to calculate the resist profiles and process latitude using the measured development rate data. With this system, preliminary evaluation of the performance of EUV lithography can be performed without any lithography tool (Stepper and Scanner system) that is capable of imaging and alignment. Profiles for 32 nm line and space pattern are simulated for the EUV resist (Posi-2 resist by TOK) by using VLES that hat has sensitivity at the 13.5nm wavelength. The simulation successfully predicts the resist behavior. Thus it is confirmed that the system enables efficient evaluation of the performance of EUV lithography processes.

The Process and Impact of Stakeholder Engagement in Developing a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit Communication and Decision-Making Intervention.

PubMed

Michelson, Kelly N; Frader, Joel; Sorce, Lauren; Clayman, Marla L; Persell, Stephen D; Fragen, Patricia; Ciolino, Jody D; Campbell, Laura C; Arenson, Melanie; Aniciete, Danica Y; Brown, Melanie L; Ali, Farah N; White, Douglas

2016-12-01

Stakeholder-developed interventions are needed to support pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) communication and decision-making. Few publications delineate methods and outcomes of stakeholder engagement in research. We describe the process and impact of stakeholder engagement on developing a PICU communication and decision-making support intervention. We also describe the resultant intervention. Stakeholders included parents of PICU patients, healthcare team members (HTMs), and research experts. Through a year-long iterative process, we involved 96 stakeholders in 25 meetings and 26 focus groups or interviews. Stakeholders adapted an adult navigator model by identifying core intervention elements and then determining how to operationalize those core elements in pediatrics. The stakeholder input led to PICU-specific refinements, such as supporting transitions after PICU discharge and including ancillary tools. The resultant intervention includes navigator involvement with parents and HTMs and navigator-guided use of ancillary tools. Subsequent research will test the feasibility and efficacy of our intervention.

Databases and coordinated research projects at the IAEA on atomic processes in plasmas

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

Braams, Bastiaan J.; Chung, Hyun-Kyung

2012-05-25

The Atomic and Molecular Data Unit at the IAEA works with a network of national data centres to encourage and coordinate production and dissemination of fundamental data for atomic, molecular and plasma-material interaction (A+M/PMI) processes that are relevant to the realization of fusion energy. The Unit maintains numerical and bibliographical databases and has started a Wiki-style knowledge base. The Unit also contributes to A+M database interface standards and provides a search engine that offers a common interface to multiple numerical A+M/PMI databases. Coordinated Research Projects (CRPs) bring together fusion energy researchers and atomic, molecular and surface physicists for joint workmore » towards the development of new data and new methods. The databases and current CRPs on A+M/PMI processes are briefly described here.« less

Technology development for lunar base water recycling

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schultz, John R.; Sauer, Richard L.

1992-01-01

This paper will review previous and ongoing work in aerospace water recycling and identify research activities required to support development of a lunar base. The development of a water recycle system for use in the life support systems envisioned for a lunar base will require considerable research work. A review of previous work on aerospace water recycle systems indicates that more efficient physical and chemical processes are needed to reduce expendable and power requirements. Development work on biological processes that can be applied to microgravity and lunar environments also needs to be initiated. Biological processes are inherently more efficient than physical and chemical processes and may be used to minimize resupply and waste disposal requirements. Processes for recovering and recycling nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur also need to be developed to support plant growth units. The development of efficient water quality monitors to be used for process control and environmental monitoring also needs to be initiated.

National Study of Word Processing Installations in Selected Business Organizations. A Report on the National Word Processing Research Study of Delta Pi Epsilon.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scriven, Jolene D.; And Others

A study was conducted (1) to determine current practices in word processing installations in selected organizations throughout the United States, and (2) to ascertain anticipated future developments in word processing as well as to provide recommendations for educational institutions that prepare workers for business offices. Seven interview…

Application of agent-based system for bioprocess description and process improvement.

PubMed

Gao, Ying; Kipling, Katie; Glassey, Jarka; Willis, Mark; Montague, Gary; Zhou, Yuhong; Titchener-Hooker, Nigel J

2010-01-01

Modeling plays an important role in bioprocess development for design and scale-up. Predictive models can also be used in biopharmaceutical manufacturing to assist decision-making either to maintain process consistency or to identify optimal operating conditions. To predict the whole bioprocess performance, the strong interactions present in a processing sequence must be adequately modeled. Traditionally, bioprocess modeling considers process units separately, which makes it difficult to capture the interactions between units. In this work, a systematic framework is developed to analyze the bioprocesses based on a whole process understanding and considering the interactions between process operations. An agent-based approach is adopted to provide a flexible infrastructure for the necessary integration of process models. This enables the prediction of overall process behavior, which can then be applied during process development or once manufacturing has commenced, in both cases leading to the capacity for fast evaluation of process improvement options. The multi-agent system comprises a process knowledge base, process models, and a group of functional agents. In this system, agent components co-operate with each other in performing their tasks. These include the description of the whole process behavior, evaluating process operating conditions, monitoring of the operating processes, predicting critical process performance, and providing guidance to decision-making when coping with process deviations. During process development, the system can be used to evaluate the design space for process operation. During manufacture, the system can be applied to identify abnormal process operation events and then to provide suggestions as to how best to cope with the deviations. In all cases, the function of the system is to ensure an efficient manufacturing process. The implementation of the agent-based approach is illustrated via selected application scenarios, which demonstrate how such a framework may enable the better integration of process operations by providing a plant-wide process description to facilitate process improvement. Copyright 2009 American Institute of Chemical Engineers

DEMONSTRATION BULLETIN: TEXACO GASIFICATION PROCESS TEXACO, INC.

EPA Science Inventory

The Texaco Gasification Process (TGP) has operated commercially for nearly 45 years on feeds such as natural gas, liquid petroleum fractions, coal, and petroleum coke. More than 45 plants are either operational or under development in the United States and abroad. Texaco has dev...

A Diagnostic System for Studying Energy Partitioning and Assessing the Response of the Ionosphere during HAARP Modification Experiments

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Djuth, Frank T.; Elder, John H.; Williams, Kenneth L.

1996-01-01

This research program focused on the construction of several key radio wave diagnostics in support of the HF Active Auroral Ionospheric Research Program (HAARP). Project activities led to the design, development, and fabrication of a variety of hardware units and to the development of several menu-driven software packages for data acquisition and analysis. The principal instrumentation includes an HF (28 MHz) radar system, a VHF (50 MHz) radar system, and a high-speed radar processor consisting of three separable processing units. The processor system supports the HF and VHF radars and is capable of acquiring very detailed data with large incoherent scatter radars. In addition, a tunable HF receiver system having high dynamic range was developed primarily for measurements of stimulated electromagnetic emissions (SEE). A separate processor unit was constructed for the SEE receiver. Finally, a large amount of support instrumentation was developed to accommodate complex field experiments. Overall, the HAARP diagnostics are powerful tools for studying diverse ionospheric modification phenomena. They are also flexible enough to support a host of other missions beyond the scope of HAARP. Many new research programs have been initiated by applying the HAARP diagnostics to studies of natural atmospheric processes.

Development of ZL400 Mine Cooling Unit Using Semi-Hermetic Screw Compressor and Its Application on Local Air Conditioning in Underground Long-Wall Face

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chu, Zhaoxiang; Ji, Jianhu; Zhang, Xijun; Yan, Hongyuan; Dong, Haomin; Liu, Junjie

2016-12-01

Aiming at heat injuries occurring in the process of deep coal mining in China, a ZL400 mine-cooling unit employing semi-hermetic screw compressor with a cooling capacity of 400 kW is developed. This paper introduced its operating principle, structural characteristics and technical indexes. By using the self-built testing platform, some parameters for indication of its operation conditions were tested on the ground. The results show that the aforementioned cooling unit is stable in operation: cooling capacity of the unit was 420 kW underground-test conditions, while its COP (coefficient of performance) reached 3.4. To address the issue of heat injuries existing in No. 16305 U-shaped long-wall ventilation face of Jining No. 3 coal mine, a local air conditioning system was developed with ZL400 cooling unit as the system's core. The paper presented an analysis of characteristics of the air current flowing in the air-mixing and cooling mode of ZL400 cooling unit used in air intake way. Through i-d patterns we described the process of the airflow treatment, such as cooling, mixing and heating, etc. The cooling system decreased dry bulb temperature on working face by 3°C on average and 3.8°C at most, while lowered the web bulb temperature by 3.6°C on average and 4.8°C at most. At the same time, it reduced relative humidity by 5% on average and 8.6% at most. The field application of the ZL400 cooling unit had gain certain effects in air conditioning and provided support for the solution of mine heat injuries in China in terms of technology and equipment.

Evaluation of a Combined Cyclone and Gas Filtration System for Particulate Removal in the Gasification Process

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

Rizzo, Jeffrey J.

2010-04-30

The Wabash gasification facility, owned and operated by sgSolutions LLC, is one of the largest single train solid fuel gasification facilities in the world capable of transforming 2,000 tons per day of petroleum coke or 2,600 tons per day of bituminous coal into synthetic gas for electrical power generation. The Wabash plant utilizes Phillips66 proprietary E-Gas (TM) Gasification Process to convert solid fuels such as petroleum coke or coal into synthetic gas that is fed to a combined cycle combustion turbine power generation facility. During plant startup in 1995, reliability issues were realized in the gas filtration portion of themore » gasification process. To address these issues, a slipstream test unit was constructed at the Wabash facility to test various filter designs, materials and process conditions for potential reliability improvement. The char filtration slipstream unit provided a way of testing new materials, maintenance procedures, and process changes without the risk of stopping commercial production in the facility. It also greatly reduced maintenance expenditures associated with full scale testing in the commercial plant. This char filtration slipstream unit was installed with assistance from the United States Department of Energy (built under DOE Contract No. DE-FC26-97FT34158) and began initial testing in November of 1997. It has proven to be extremely beneficial in the advancement of the E-Gas (TM) char removal technology by accurately predicting filter behavior and potential failure mechanisms that would occur in the commercial process. After completing four (4) years of testing various filter types and configurations on numerous gasification feed stocks, a decision was made to investigate the economic and reliability effects of using a particulate removal gas cyclone upstream of the current gas filtration unit. A paper study had indicated that there was a real potential to lower both installed capital and operating costs by implementing a char cyclonefiltration hybrid unit in the E-Gas (TM) gasification process. These reductions would help to keep the E-Gas (TM) technology competitive among other coal-fired power generation technologies. The Wabash combined cyclone and gas filtration slipstream test program was developed to provide design information, equipment specification and process control parameters of a hybrid cyclone and candle filter particulate removal system in the E-Gas (TM) gasification process that would provide the optimum performance and reliability for future commercial use. The test program objectives were as follows: 1. Evaluate the use of various cyclone materials of construction; 2. Establish the optimal cyclone efficiency that provides stable long term gas filter operation; 3. Determine the particle size distribution of the char separated by both the cyclone and candle filters. This will provide insight into cyclone efficiency and potential future plant design; 4. Determine the optimum filter media size requirements for the cyclone-filtration hybrid unit; 5. Determine the appropriate char transfer rates for both the cyclone and filtration portions of the hybrid unit; 6. Develop operating procedures for the cyclone-filtration hybrid unit; and, 7. Compare the installed capital cost of a scaled-up commercial cyclone-filtration hybrid unit to the current gas filtration design without a cyclone unit, such as currently exists at the Wabash facility.« less

Minimize Solvent Oxidation with NO X Pre-Scrubbing

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

Sexton, Andrew; Sachde, Darshan; Vance, Austyn

A novel method to remove nitrogen dioxide (NO 2) from the flue gas of coal-fired power plants with CO 2 capture was further developed for commercial implementation. The technology leverages the equipment and chemistry in an existing (sulfur dioxide) SO 2 polishing scrubber upstream of the main CO 2 capture unit to remove the NO 2, preventing degradation of the CO 2 capture solvent and formation of nitrosamines (environmental hazards). The research in this report focuses on further evaluation of the chemical additives and operating conditions associated with the NO 2 removal process to define conditions for commercial scale testingmore » and deployment. Experimental work systematically evaluated a series of potential additives to minimize the oxidation of sulfite in a representative SO 2 pre-scrubber solution (sulfite, in turn, absorbs NO 2). The additive combinations and concentrations were varied alongside important process conditions such as temperature, oxygen concentration, and metals present in solution to mimic the conditions expected in a commercial system. Important results of the parametric experimental work include identifying a new, potent sulfite oxidation inhibitor, revealing the importance of combining inhibitors with metal chelating agents, validation of a low-cost additive process, and development of a new semi-empirical model to represent mechanisms associated with sulfite oxidation. In addition, the experimental work reveled the impact of operating at higher temperatures (representative of a field test unit), which will guide the selection and concertation of additives as well. Engineering analysis found that waste solutions from the pre-scrubber with NO 2 additives may potentially be integrated with existing processes on site (e.g., flue gas desulfurization unit). In addition, techno-economic analysis identified potential net savings as large as $1.30/tonne CO 2 captured and quantified the potential benefit of low cost additive options actively being pursued by the development team. Finally, the experimental results and engineering analysis supported the development of a detailed field testing plan and protocol to evaluate the technology at near-commercial scale. The field test preparation included development of procedures to introduce chemical additives to an existing SO 2 polishing unit and identification of representative flue gas conditions based on a review of existing plants. These activities will have direct bearing on operation and design of commercial units.« less

Energy saving effect of desiccant ventilation system using Wakkanai siliceous shale

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nabeshima, Yuki; Togawa, Jun-ya; Nagano, Katsunori; Kazuyo, Tsuzuki

2017-10-01

The nuclear power station accident resulting from the Great East Japan Earthquake disaster has resulted in a constrained electricity supply. However, in this Asian region there is high temperature and high humidity and consequently dehumidification process requires a huge amount of energy. This is the reason for the increasing energy consumption in the residential and commercial sectors. Accordingly, a high efficiency air-conditioning system is needed to be developed. The desiccant ventilation system is effective to reduce energy consumption for the dehumidification process. This system is capable of dehumidifying without dew condensing unlike a conventional air-conditioning system. Then we focused on Wakkanai Siliceous Shale (WSS) as a desiccant material to develop a new desiccant ventilation system. This is low priced, high performance, new type of thing. The aim of this study is to develop a desiccant ventilation unit using the WSS rotor which can be regenerated with low-temperature by numerical calculation. The results of performance prediction of the desiccant unit, indicate that it is possible to regenerate the WSS rotor at low-temperature of between 35 - 45 °C. In addition, we produced an actual measurement for the desiccant unit and air-conditioning unit. This air-conditioning system was capable to reduce roughly 40 % of input energy consumption.

Recovering activity and illusion: the nephrology day care unit.

PubMed

Remón Rodríguez, C; Quirós Ganga, P L; González-Outón, J; del Castillo Gámez, R; García Herrera, A L; Sánchez Márquez, M G

2011-01-01

Day Care Units are an alternative to hospital care that improves more efficiency. The Nephrology, by its technical characteristics, would be benefit greatly from further development of this care modality. The objectives of this study are to present the process we have developed the Nephrology Day Care Unit in the Puerto Real University Hospital (Cádiz, Spain). For this project we followed the Deming Management Method of Quality improvement, selecting opportunities, analyzing causes, select interventions, implement and monitor results. The intervention plan includes the following points: 1) Define the place of the Day Care Unit in the organization of our Clinical Department of Nephrology, 2) Define the Manual of organization, 3) Define the structural and equipment resources, 4) Define the Catalogue of services and procedures, 5) Standards of Care Processes. Protocols and Clinical Pathways; and 6) Information and Registration System. In the first 8 months we have been performed nearly 2000 procedures, which corresponds to an average of about 10 procedures per day, and essentially related to Hemodialysis in critical or acute patients, the Interventional Nephrology, the Clinical Nephrology and Peritoneal Dialysis. The development of the Nephrology Day Care Units can help to increase our autonomy, our presence in Hospitals, recover the progressive loss of clinical activity (diagnostic and therapeutic skills) in the past to the benefit of other Specialties. It also contributes to: Promote and develop the Diagnostic and Interventional Nephrology; improve the clinical management of patients with Primary Health Level, promote the Health Education and Investigation, collaborate in the Resources Management, and finally, to make more attractive and exciting our Specialty, both for nephrologists to training specialists.

Graphics processing unit based computation for NDE applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nahas, C. A.; Rajagopal, Prabhu; Balasubramaniam, Krishnan; Krishnamurthy, C. V.

2012-05-01

Advances in parallel processing in recent years are helping to improve the cost of numerical simulation. Breakthroughs in Graphical Processing Unit (GPU) based computation now offer the prospect of further drastic improvements. The introduction of 'compute unified device architecture' (CUDA) by NVIDIA (the global technology company based in Santa Clara, California, USA) has made programming GPUs for general purpose computing accessible to the average programmer. Here we use CUDA to develop parallel finite difference schemes as applicable to two problems of interest to NDE community, namely heat diffusion and elastic wave propagation. The implementations are for two-dimensions. Performance improvement of the GPU implementation against serial CPU implementation is then discussed.

Application of NASA-developed technology to the automatic control of municipal sewage treatment plants

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hiser, L. L.; Herrera, W. R.

1973-01-01

A search was made of NASA developed technology and commercial technology for process control sensors and instrumentation which would be applicable to the operation of municipal sewage treatment plants. Several notable items were found from which process control concepts were formulated that incorporated these items into systems to automatically operate municipal sewage treatment plants. A preliminary design of the most promising concept was developed into a process control scheme for an activated sludge treatment plant. This design included process control mechanisms for maintaining constant food to sludge mass (F/M) ratio, and for such unit processes as primary sedimentation, sludge wastage, and underflow control from the final clarifier.

Exposures and their determinants in radiographic film processing.

PubMed

Teschke, Kay; Chow, Yat; Brauer, Michael; Chessor, Ed; Hirtle, Bob; Kennedy, Susan M; Yeung, Moira Chan; Ward, Helen Dimich

2002-01-01

Radiographers process X-ray films using developer and fixer solutions that contain chemicals known to cause or exacerbate asthma. In a study in British Columbia, Canada, radiographers' personal exposures to glutaraldehyde (a constituent of the developer chemistry), acetic acid (a constituent of the fixer chemistry), and sulfur dioxide (a byproduct of sulfites, present in both developer and fixer solutions) were measured. Average full-shift exposures to glutaraldehyde, acetic acid, and sulfur dioxide were 0.0009 mg/m3, 0.09 mg/m3, and 0.08 mg/m3, respectively, all more than one order of magnitude lower than current occupational exposure limits. Local exhaust ventilation of the processing machines and use of silver recovery units lowered exposures, whereas the number of films processed per machine and the time spent near the machines increased exposures. Personnel in clinic facilities had higher exposures than those in hospitals. Private clinics were less likely to have local exhaust ventilation and silver recovery units. Their radiographers spent more time in the processor areas and processed more films per machine. Although exposures were low compared with exposure standards, there are good reasons to continue practices to minimize or eliminate exposures: glutaraldehyde and hydroquinone (present in the developer) are sensitizers; the levels at which health effects occur are not yet clearly established, but appear to be lower than current standards; and health effects resulting from the mixture of chemicals are not understood. Developments in digital imaging technology are making available options that do not involve wet-processing of photographic film and therefore could eliminate the use of developer and fixer chemicals altogether.

Planning for Space Station Freedom laboratory payload integration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Willenberg, Harvey J.; Torre, Larry P.

1989-01-01

Space Station Freedom is being developed to support extensive missions involving microgravity research and applications. Requirements for on-orbit payload integration and the simultaneous payload integration of multiple mission increments will provide the stimulus to develop new streamlined integration procedures in order to take advantage of the increased capabilities offered by Freedom. The United States Laboratory and its user accommodations are described. The process of integrating users' experiments and equipment into the United States Laboratory and the Pressurized Logistics Modules is described. This process includes the strategic and tactical phases of Space Station utilization planning. The support that the Work Package 01 Utilization office will provide to the users and hardware developers, in the form of Experiment Integration Engineers, early accommodation assessments, and physical integration of experiment equipment, is described. Plans for integrated payload analytical integration are also described.

Development of expert systems for modeling of technological process of pressure casting on the basis of artificial intelligence

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gavarieva, K. N.; Simonova, L. A.; Pankratov, D. L.; Gavariev, R. V.

2017-09-01

In article the main component of expert system of process of casting under pressure which consists of algorithms, united in logical models is considered. The characteristics of system showing data on a condition of an object of management are described. A number of logically interconnected steps allowing to increase quality of the received castings is developed

Manufacturing Process Applications Team (MATeam)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1978-01-01

The activities of the Manufacturing Process Applications Team concerning the promotion of joint Industry/Federal Agency/NASA funded research and technology operating plan (RTOP) programs are reported. Direct transfers occurred in cutting tools, laser wire stripping, soldering, and portable X-ray unit technology. TROP program funding approval was obtained for the further development of the cutting tool Sialon and development of an automated nondestructive fracture toughness testing system.

The evolution and development of an instrument to measure essential professional nursing practices.

PubMed

Kramer, Marlene; Brewer, Barbara B; Halfer, Diana; Hnatiuk, Cynthia Nowicki; MacPhee, Maura; Schmalenberg, Claudia

2014-11-01

Nursing continues to evolve from a task-oriented occupation to a holistic professional practice. Increased professionalism requires accurate measurement of care processes and practice. Nursing studies often omit measurement of the relationship between structures in the work environment and processes of care or between processes of care and patient outcomes. Process measurement is integral to understanding and improving nursing practice. This article describes the development of an updated Essentials of Magnetism process measurement instrument for clinical nurses (CNs) practicing on inpatient units in hospitals. It has been renamed Essential Professional Nursing Practices: CN.

SIRU development. Volume 1: System development

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gilmore, J. P.; Cooper, R. J.

1973-01-01

A complete description of the development and initial evaluation of the Strapdown Inertial Reference Unit (SIRU) system is reported. System development documents the system mechanization with the analytic formulation for fault detection and isolation processing structure; the hardware redundancy design and the individual modularity features; the computational structure and facilities; and the initial subsystem evaluation results.

The Citizenship Development Framework: A Six Stage Socio/Cultural Theory.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dynneson, Thomas L.; Gross, Richard E.

In order to understand the mechanisms of citizenship in the United States, people are required to study the interactions of ideology, education, and cultural pluralism as they are manifested in educational programs and in the processes of child development. The Citizenship Development Framework (CDF), a product of the Citizenship Development Study…

General Purpose Graphics Processing Unit Based High-Rate Rice Decompression and Reed-Solomon Decoding

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

Loughry, Thomas A.

As the volume of data acquired by space-based sensors increases, mission data compression/decompression and forward error correction code processing performance must likewise scale. This competency development effort was explored using the General Purpose Graphics Processing Unit (GPGPU) to accomplish high-rate Rice Decompression and high-rate Reed-Solomon (RS) decoding at the satellite mission ground station. Each algorithm was implemented and benchmarked on a single GPGPU. Distributed processing across one to four GPGPUs was also investigated. The results show that the GPGPU has considerable potential for performing satellite communication Data Signal Processing, with three times or better performance improvements and up to tenmore » times reduction in cost over custom hardware, at least in the case of Rice Decompression and Reed-Solomon Decoding.« less

ISS and Shuttle Payload Research Development and Processing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Calhoun, Kyle A.

2010-01-01

NASA's ISS and Spacecraft Processing Directorate (UB) is charged with the performance of payload development for research originating through NASA, ISS international partners, and the National Laboratory. The Payload Development sector of the Directorate takes biological research approved for on orbit experimentation from its infancy stage and finds a way to integrate and implement that research into a payload on either a Shuttle sortie or Space Station increment. From solicitation and selection, to definition, to verification, to integration and finally to operations and analysis, Payload Development is there every step of the way. My specific work as an intern this summer has consisted of investigating data received by separate flight and ground control Advanced Biological Research Systems (ABRS) units for Advanced Plant Experiments (APEX) and Cambium research. By correlation and analysis of this data and specific logbook information I have been working to explain changes in environmental conditions on both the flight and ground control unit. I have then, compiled all of that information into a form that can be presentable to the Principal Investigator (PI). This compilation allows that PI scientist to support their findings and add merit to their research. It also allows us, as the Payload Developers, to further inspect the ABRS unit and its performance

7 CFR 1780.39 - Application processing.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... shall be payable jointly to the borrower and the United States of America. (5) Applicants must provide a... AGRICULTURE (CONTINUED) WATER AND WASTE LOANS AND GRANTS Loan and Grant Application Processing § 1780.39... documentation requirements, preparation of cost and income estimates, development of proposals for organization...

7 CFR 1780.39 - Application processing.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... shall be payable jointly to the borrower and the United States of America. (5) Applicants must provide a... AGRICULTURE (CONTINUED) WATER AND WASTE LOANS AND GRANTS Loan and Grant Application Processing § 1780.39... documentation requirements, preparation of cost and income estimates, development of proposals for organization...

7 CFR 1780.39 - Application processing.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... shall be payable jointly to the borrower and the United States of America. (5) Applicants must provide a... AGRICULTURE (CONTINUED) WATER AND WASTE LOANS AND GRANTS Loan and Grant Application Processing § 1780.39... documentation requirements, preparation of cost and income estimates, development of proposals for organization...

7 CFR 1780.39 - Application processing.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... shall be payable jointly to the borrower and the United States of America. (5) Applicants must provide a... AGRICULTURE (CONTINUED) WATER AND WASTE LOANS AND GRANTS Loan and Grant Application Processing § 1780.39... documentation requirements, preparation of cost and income estimates, development of proposals for organization...

Work unit compensation.

PubMed

Sodano, M J

1991-01-01

The author describes an innovative "work unit compensation" system that acts as an adjunct to existing personnel payment structures. The process, developed as a win-win alternative for both employees and their institution, includes a reward system for the entire department and insures a team atmosphere. The Community Medical Center in Toms River, New Jersey developed the plan which sets the four basic goals: to be fair, economical, lasting and transferable (FELT). The plan has proven to be a useful tool in retention and recruitment of qualified personnel.

FASEA: A FPGA Acquisition System and Software Event Analysis for liquid scintillation counting

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Steele, T.; Mo, L.; Bignell, L.; Smith, M.; Alexiev, D.

2009-10-01

The FASEA (FPGA based Acquisition and Software Event Analysis) system has been developed to replace the MAC3 for coincidence pulse processing. The system uses a National Instruments Virtex 5 FPGA card (PXI-7842R) for data acquisition and a purpose developed data analysis software for data analysis. Initial comparisons to the MAC3 unit are included based on measurements of 89Sr and 3H, confirming that the system is able to accurately emulate the behaviour of the MAC3 unit.

Mi-STAR Unit Challenges serve as a model for integrating earth science and systems thinking in a Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) aligned curriculum.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gochis, E. E.; Tubman, S.; Matthys, T.; Bluth, G.; Oppliger, D.; Danhoff, B.; Huntoon, J. E.

2017-12-01

Michigan Science Teaching and Assessment Reform (Mi-STAR) is developing an NGSS-aligned middle school curriculum and associated teacher professional learning program in which science is taught and learned as an integrated body of knowledge that can be applied to address societal issues. With the generous support of the Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow Foundation, Mi-STAR has released several pilot-tested units through the Mi-STAR curriculum portal at mi-star.mtu.edu. Each of these units focuses on an ongoing `Unit Challenge' investigation that integrates STEM content across disciplinary boundaries, stimulates interest, and engages students in using scientific practices to address 21st century challenges. Each Mi-STAR unit is connected to a Unifying NGSS Crosscutting Concept (CCC) that allows students to recognize the concepts that are related to the phenomena or problems under investigation. In the 6th grade, students begin with an exploration of the CCC Systems and System Models. Through repeated applications across units, students refine their understanding of what a system is and how to model a complex Earth system. An example 6th grade unit entitled "Water on the Move: The Water Cycle," provides an example of how Mi-STAR approaches the use of Unifying CCCs and Unit Challenges to enhance middle school students' understanding of the interconnections of Earth system processes and human activities. Throughout the unit, students use a series of hands-on explorations and simulations to explore the hydrologic cycle and how human activity can alter Earth systems. Students develop new knowledge through repeated interactions with the Unit Challenge, which requires development of system models and construction of evidence-based arguments related to flooding problems in a local community. Students have the opportunity to make predictions about how proposed land-use management practices (e.g. development of a skate-park, rain garden, soccer field, etc.) can alter the earth-system processes. Students present their findings and recommendations in a public forum format. Student-learning outcomes are measured using a combination of formative and summative assessments that address students' proficiency with science and engineering content and practices in conjunction with the unit's Unifying CCC.

Method for Biochar Passivation Using Low Percent Oxygen

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

Smith, Kristin; Dupuis, Dan; Wilcox, Esther

2016-06-06

The thermochemical process development unit may be configured for pyrolysis or gasification. The pyrolysis unit operations include: feed transport system; entrained flow reactor; solids removal and collection; and liquid scrubbing, collection, and filtration. Char accumulates in the collection drums at a rate of ~1.5 kg/hr and must be passivated before it is stored or transported.

La Comunicacion (Communication). Latino Family Life Education Curriculum Series. Curriculum Unit [and] Student Workbook.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chavez, Gene T.

This 10-lesson curriculum unit provides teachers with some basic tools to help Latino students improve their communication skills. Primary goals are to help students analyze how a person's belief system affects the communication process, and to develop and improve decision-making and communication skills. The following key components are included…

MOBILE-izing Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health Care: A Pilot Study Using A Mobile Health Unit in Chicago

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stefansson, Lilja S.; Webb, M. Elizabeth; Hebert, Luciana E.; Masinter, Lisa; Gilliam, Melissa L.

2018-01-01

Background: Adolescents experience numerous barriers to obtaining sexual and reproductive health care (SRHC). Mobile Health Units (MHUs) can remove some barriers by traveling to the community. This pilot study developed Mobile SRHC through an iterative process on an existing MHU and evaluated it among adolescents and providers. Methods: Mobile…

Discovering Animal Ways, Elementary School Science, Level Three, Teaching Manual.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hale, Helen E.

This pilot teaching unit is one of a series developed for use in elementary school science programs. This unit is designed to promote children's natural curiosity and to help those who show a reluctance to work with animals to overcome some of their fears. The student activities employ important scientific processes, such as observation,…

Chrysalis: Nurturing Creative and Independent Thought in Children. Grades 4-12.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McKisson, Micki

The intent of this book is to provide the framework for educational experiences designed to develop creativity, self-reliance, and a sense of independence in the students' approach to learning. It is comprised of eight units on a variety of themes. Each unit stresses the use of thinking processes, such as creativity and problem solving. Emphasis…

Software Measurement Guidebook. Version 02.00.02

DTIC Science & Technology

1992-12-01

Compatibility Testing Process .............................. 9-5 Figure 9-3. Development Effort Planning Curve ................................. 9-7 Figure 10-1...requirements, design, code, and test and for analyzing this data. "* Proposal Manager. The person responsible for describing and supporting the estimated...designed, build/elease ranges, variances, and comparisons size growth; costs; completions; and content, units completing test , units with historical

DETOX{sup SM} catalyzed wet oxidation as a highly suitable pretreatment for vitrification

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

Rogers, T.W.; Dhooge, P.M.; Goldblatt, S.D.

1995-11-01

A catalyzed wet oxidation process has been developed which uses ferric iron in an acidic water solution to oxidize organic compounds in the presence of platinum ion and/or ruthenium ion catalysts. The process is capable of oxidizing a wide range of organic compounds to carbon dioxide and water with great efficiency. The process has been tested in the bench-scale with many different types of organics. Conceptual engineering for application of the process to treatment of liquid and solid organic waste materials has been followed by engineering design for a demonstration unit. Fabrication of the unit and demonstration on hazardous andmore » mixed wastes at two Department of Energy sites is planned in 1995 through 1997.« less

Planning for Interagency Cooperation in Rural Development. CARD Report 45.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rogers, David L.; Glick, Edward L.

With a major emphasis on cooperative planning in rural development, three elements of development process were identified: (1) integration of units involved, occurring when several organizations contribute to a larger collective effort; (2) decentralized planning and local initiative, occurring when planning initiative is at the local level; (3)…

Analysis of the policymaking process in Burkina Faso's health sector: case studies of the creation of two health system support units.

PubMed

Zida, Andre; Lavis, John N; Sewankambo, Nelson K; Kouyate, Bocar; Moat, Kaelan; Shearer, Jessica

2017-02-13

Burkina Faso has made a number of health system policy decisions to improve performance on health indicators and strengthen responsiveness to health-related challenges. These included the creation of a General Directorate of Health Information and Statistics (DGISS) and a technical unit to coordinate performance-based financing (CT-FBR). We analysed the policymaking processes associated with the establishment of these units, and documented the factors that influenced this process. We used a multiple-case study design based on Kingdon's agenda-setting model to investigate the DGISS and CT-FBR policymaking processes. Data were collected from interviews with key informants (n = 28), published literature, policy documents (including two strategic and 230 action plans), and 55 legal/regulatory texts. Interviews were analysed using thematic qualitative analysis. Data from the documentary analysis were triangulated with the qualitative interview data. Key factors influencing the policymaking processes associated with the two units involved the 'problem' (problem identification), 'policy' (formation of policy proposals), and 'politics' (political climate/change) streams, which came together in a way that resulted in proposals being placed on the decision agenda. A number of problems with Burkina Faso's health information and financing systems were identified. Policy proposals for the DGISS and CT-FBR units were developed in response to these problems, emerging from several sources including development partners. Changes in political and public service administrations (specifically the 2008 appointment of a new Minister of Health and the establishment of a new budget allocation system), with corresponding changes in the actors and interests involved, appeared key in elevating the proposals to the decision agenda. Efforts to improve performance on health indicators and strengthen responsiveness to health-related challenges need focus on the need for a compelling problem, a viable policy, and conducive politics in order to make it to the decision agenda.

Entrepreneurship. Ohio's Competency Analysis Profile.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Vocational Instructional Materials Lab.

Developed through a modified DACUM (Developing a Curriculum) process involving business, industry, labor, and community agency representatives in Ohio, this document is a comprehensive and verified employer competency profile for entrepreneurship. The list contains units (with and without subunits), competencies, and competency builders that…

State Landmarks.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pappas, Marjorie L.

2003-01-01

Explains how to develop lesson plans to help students become effective researchers using electronic searching tools. Uses a unit developed for Kansas landmarks to discuss information skills, competency standards, inquiry, technology use, information literacy and process skills, finding information, and an example of a research log. (LRW)

Quantification of the resist dissolution process: an in situ analysis using high speed atomic force microscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Santillan, Julius Joseph; Shichiri, Motoharu; Itani, Toshiro

2016-03-01

This work focuses on the application of a high speed atomic force microscope (HS-AFM) for the in situ visualization / quantification of the resist dissolution process. This technique, as reported in the past, has provided useful pointers on the formation of resist patterns during dissolution. This paper discusses about an investigation made on the quantification of what we refer to as "dissolution unit size" or the basic units of patterning material dissolution. This was done through the establishment of an originally developed analysis method which extracts the difference between two succeeding temporal states of the material film surface (images) to indicate the amount of change occurring in the material film at a specific span of time. Preliminary experiments with actual patterning materials were done using a positive-tone EUV model resist composed only of polyhydroxystyrene (PHS)-based polymer with a molecular weight of 2,500 and a polydispersity index of 1.2. In the absence of a protecting group, the material was utilized at a 50nm film thickness with post application bake of 90°C/60s. The resulting film is soluble in the alkali-based developer even without exposure. Results have shown that the dissolution components (dissolution unit size) of the PHS-based material are not of fixed size. Instead, it was found that aside from one constantly dissolving unit size, another, much larger dissolution unit size trend also occurs during material dissolution. The presence of this larger dissolution unit size suggests an occurrence of "polymer clustering". Such polymer clustering was not significantly present during the initial stages of dissolution (near the original film surface) but becomes more persistently obvious after the dissolution process reaches a certain film thickness below the initial surface.

Status of Hollow Cathode Heater Development for the Space Station Plasma Contactor

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Soulas, George C.

1994-01-01

A hollow cathode-based plasma contactor has been selected for use on the Space Station. During the operation of the plasma contactor, the hollow cathode heater will endure approximately 12000 thermal cycles. Since a hollow cathode heater failure would result in a plasma contactor failure, a hollow cathode heater development program was established to produce a reliable heater. The development program includes the heater design, process documents for both heater fabrication and assembly, and heater testing. The heater design was a modification of a sheathed ion thruster cathode heater. Heater tests included testing of the heater unit alone and plasma contactor and ion thruster testing. To date, eight heaters have been or are being processed through heater unit testing, two through plasma contactor testing and three through ion thruster testing, all using direct current power supplies. Comparisons of data from heater unit performance tests before cyclic testing, plasma contactor tests, and ion thruster tests at the ignition input current level show the average deviation of input power and tube temperature near the cathode tip to be +/-0.9 W and +/- 21 C, respectively. Heater unit testing included cyclic testing to evaluate reliability under thermal cycling. The first heater, although damaged during assembly, completed 5985 ignition cycles before failing. Four additional heaters successfully completed 6300, 6300, 700, and 700 cycles. Heater unit testing is currently ongoing for three heaters which have to date accumulated greater than 7250, greater than 5500, and greater than 5500 cycles, respectively.

Replication of clinical innovations in multiple medical practices.

PubMed

Henley, N S; Pearce, J; Phillips, L A; Weir, S

1998-11-01

Many clinical innovations had been successfully developed and piloted in individual medical practice units of Kaiser Permanente in North Carolina during 1995 and 1996. Difficulty in replicating these clinical innovations consistently throughout all 21 medical practice units led to development of the interdisciplinary Clinical Innovation Implementation Team, which was formed by using existing resources from various departments across the region. REPLICATION MODEL: Based on a model of transfer of best practices, the implementation team developed a process and tools (master schedule and activity matrix) to quickly replicate successful pilot projects throughout all medical practice units. The process involved the following steps: identifying a practice and delineating its characteristics and measures (source identification); identifying a team to receive the (new) practice; piloting the practice; and standardizing, including the incorporation of learnings. The model includes the following components for each innovation: sending and receiving teams, an innovation coordinator role, an innovation expert role, a location expert role, a master schedule, and a project activity matrix. Communication depended on a partnership among the location experts (local knowledge and credibility), the innovation coordinator (process expertise), and the innovation experts (content expertise). Results after 12 months of working with the 21 medical practice units include integration of diabetes care team services into the practices, training of more than 120 providers in the use of personal computers and an icon-based clinical information system, and integration of a planwide self-care program into the medical practices--all with measurable improved outcomes. The model for sequential replication and the implementation team structure and function should be successful in other organizational settings.

Summary Report of National Study of Word Processing Installations in Selected Business Organizations. A Summary of a Report on the National Word Processing Research Study of Delta Pi Epsilon.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scriven, Jolene D.; And Others

A study sought to determine current practices in word processing installations located in selected organizations throughout the United States. A related problem was to ascertain anticipated future developments in word processing to provide information for educational institutions preparing workers for the business office. Six interview instruments…

A Hydrogen Containment Process for Nuclear Thermal Engine Ground testing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wang, Ten-See; Stewart, Eric; Canabal, Francisco

2016-01-01

The objective of this study is to propose a new total hydrogen containment process to enable the testing required for NTP engine development. This H2 removal process comprises of two unit operations: an oxygen-rich burner and a shell-and-tube type of heat exchanger. This new process is demonstrated by simulation of the steady state operation of the engine firing at nominal conditions.

Methodologies for processing plant material into acceptable food on a small scale

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Parks, Thomas R.; Bindon, John N.; Bowles, Anthony J. G.; Golbitz, Peter; Lampi, Rauno A.; Marquardt, Robert F.

1994-01-01

Based on the Controlled Environment Life Support System (CELSS) production of only four crops, wheat, white potatoes, soybeans, and sweet potatoes; a crew size of twelve; a daily planting/harvesting regimen; and zero-gravity conditions, estimates were made on the quantity of food that would need to be grown to provide adequate nutrition; and the corresponding amount of biomass that would result. Projections were made of the various types of products that could be made from these crops, the unit operations that would be involved, and what menu capability these products could provide. Equipment requirements to perform these unit operations were screened to identify commercially available units capable of operating (or being modified to operate) under CELSS/zero-gravity conditions. Concept designs were developed for those equipment needs for which no suitable units were commercially available. Prototypes of selected concept designs were constructed and tested on a laboratory scale, as were selected commercially available units. This report discusses the practical considerations taken into account in the various design alternatives, some of the many product/process factors that relate to equipment development, and automation alternatives. Recommendations are made on both general and specific areas in which it was felt additional investigation would benefit CELSS missions.

A Novel Reconfigurable Logic Unit Based on the DNA-Templated Potassium-Concentration-Dependent Supramolecular Assembly.

PubMed

Yang, Chunrong; Zou, Dan; Chen, Jianchi; Zhang, Linyan; Miao, Jiarong; Huang, Dan; Du, Yuanyuan; Yang, Shu; Yang, Qianfan; Tang, Yalin

2018-03-15

Plenty of molecular circuits with specific functions have been developed; however, logic units with reconfigurability, which could simplify the circuits and speed up the information process, are rarely reported. In this work, we designed a novel reconfigurable logic unit based on a DNA-templated, potassium-concentration-dependent, supramolecular assembly, which could respond to the input stimuli of H + and K + . By inputting different concentrations of K + , the logic unit could implement three significant functions, including a half adder, a half subtractor, and a 2-to-4 decoder. Considering its reconfigurable ability and good performance, the novel prototypes developed here may serve as a promising proof of principle in molecular computers. © 2018 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

[The development and impacts of professional nursing in senior care and senior business management: the perspective of a U.S.-based nurse entrepreneur].

PubMed

Chang, Theresa

2008-10-01

The three main parts of this article include (1) the process of transition from a clinical nurse to a nurse entrepreneur, (2) senior care business management and social responsibility and (3) the development of senior care business in the future as well as the chances for nursing development. The article analyzes the development of gerontology nursing careers in the United States and Taiwan and the role professional nurses can play in ageing societies. A prospective plan for collaboration between gerontology nurses and long-term care health professionals in the United States and Taiwan concludes the article.

Change champions at the grassroots level: practice innovation using team process.

PubMed

Scott, J; Rantz, M

1994-01-01

A nursing administrative group recognized the critical value of staff participation in the formulation of a restructuring project and guidance throughout the project. Using a team approach, a task force of three staff nurses, two assistant nurse managers, a nurse clinician, a nursing practice specialist, and a representative from nursing administration came together. They were given responsibility for researching and setting the course for restructuring change. A unit-based team including a unit secretary, a nursing attendant, licensed practical nurse (LPN), and six staff nurses was formed from volunteers from the 40-bed medicine unit to develop that unit's plan for restructuring. The unit-based team analyzed patient care needs and staff member roles. They created a new patient care technician role as well as a nurse care coordinator role. The role of the LPN was envisioned as providing technical support. Staffing mix was also determined by the unit-based team. Both the task force and the unit-based team continue to evaluate, troubleshoot, and take every opportunity to sell their vision to solidify it further as the foundation for the future of patient care services at the hospital. The process will soon move forward to a large surgical unit.

[Diagnosis and the technology for optimizing the medical support of a troop unit].

PubMed

Korshever, N G; Polkovov, S V; Lavrinenko, O V; Krupnov, P A; Anastasov, K N

2000-05-01

The work is devoted to investigation of the system of military unit medical support with the use of principles and states of organizational diagnosis; development of the method allowing to assess its functional activity; and determination of optimization trends. Basing on the conducted organizational diagnosis and expert inquiry the informative criteria were determined which characterize the stages of functioning of the military unit medical support system. To evaluate the success of military unit medical support the complex multi-criteria pattern was developed and algorithm of this process optimization was substantiated. Using the results obtained, particularly realization of principles and states of decision taking theory in machine program it is possible to solve more complex problem of comparison between any number of military units: to dispose them according to priority decrease; to select the programmed number of the best and worst; to determine the trends of activity optimization in corresponding medical service personnel.

[Quality control of laser imagers].

PubMed

Winkelbauer, F; Ammann, M; Gerstner, N; Imhof, H

1992-11-01

Multiformat imagers based on laser systems are used for documentation in an increasing number of investigations. The specific problems of quality control are explained and the persistence of film processing in these imager systems of different configuration with (Machine 1: 3M-Laser-Imager-Plus M952 with connected 3M Film-Processor, 3M-Film IRB, X-Rax Chemical Mixer 3M-XPM, 3M-Developer and Fixer) or without (Machine 2: 3M-Laser-Imager-Plus M952 with separate DuPont-Cronex Film-processor, Kodak IR-Film, Kodak Automixer, Kodak-Developer and Fixer) connected film processing unit are investigated. In our checking based on DIN 6868 and ONORM S 5240 we found persistence of film processing in the equipment with directly adapted film processing unit according to DIN and ONORM. The checking of film persistence as demanded by DIN 6868 in these equipment could therefore be performed in longer periods. Systems with conventional darkroom processing comparatively show plain increased fluctuation, and hence the demanded daily control is essential to guarantee appropriate reaction and constant quality of documentation.

A case of the birth and death of a high reliability healthcare organisation.

PubMed

Roberts, K H; Madsen, P; Desai, V; Van Stralen, D

2005-06-01

High reliability organisations (HROs) are those in which errors rarely occur. To accomplish this they conduct relatively error free operations over long periods of time and make consistently good decisions resulting in high quality and reliability. Some organisational processes that characterise HROs are process auditing, implementing appropriate reward systems, avoiding quality degradation, appropriately perceiving that risk exists and developing strategies to deal with it, and command and control. Command and control processes include migrating decision making, redundancy in people or hardware, developing situational awareness, formal rules and procedures, and training. These processes must be tailored to the specific organisation implementing them. These processes were applied to a paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) where care was derived from problem solving methodology rather than protocol. After a leadership change, the unit returned to the hierarchical medical model of care. Important outcome variables such as infant mortality, patient return to the PICU after discharge, days on the PICU, air transports, degraded. Implications for clinical practice include providing caregivers with sufficient flexibility to meet changing situations, encouraging teamwork, and avoiding shaming, naming, and blaming.

Development of in situ product removal strategies in biocatalysis applying scaled-down unit operations.

PubMed

Heintz, Søren; Börner, Tim; Ringborg, Rolf H; Rehn, Gustav; Grey, Carl; Nordblad, Mathias; Krühne, Ulrich; Gernaey, Krist V; Adlercreutz, Patrick; Woodley, John M

2017-03-01

An experimental platform based on scaled-down unit operations combined in a plug-and-play manner enables easy and highly flexible testing of advanced biocatalytic process options such as in situ product removal (ISPR) process strategies. In such a platform, it is possible to compartmentalize different process steps while operating it as a combined system, giving the possibility to test and characterize the performance of novel process concepts and biocatalysts with minimal influence of inhibitory products. Here the capabilities of performing process development by applying scaled-down unit operations are highlighted through a case study investigating the asymmetric synthesis of 1-methyl-3-phenylpropylamine (MPPA) using ω-transaminase, an enzyme in the sub-family of amino transferases (ATAs). An on-line HPLC system was applied to avoid manual sample handling and to semi-automatically characterize ω-transaminases in a scaled-down packed-bed reactor (PBR) module, showing MPPA as a strong inhibitor. To overcome the inhibition, a two-step liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) ISPR concept was tested using scaled-down unit operations combined in a plug-and-play manner. Through the tested ISPR concept, it was possible to continuously feed the main substrate benzylacetone (BA) and extract the main product MPPA throughout the reaction, thereby overcoming the challenges of low substrate solubility and product inhibition. The tested ISPR concept achieved a product concentration of 26.5 g MPPA  · L -1 , a purity up to 70% g MPPA  · g tot -1 and a recovery in the range of 80% mol · mol -1 of MPPA in 20 h, with the possibility to increase the concentration, purity, and recovery further. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2017;114: 600-609. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Interventional Radiation Oncology (IRO): Transition of a magnetic resonance simulator to a brachytherapy suite.

PubMed

Anderson, Roberta; Armour, Elwood; Beeckler, Courtney; Briner, Valerie; Choflet, Amanda; Cox, Andrea; Fader, Amanda N; Hannah, Marie N; Hobbs, Robert; Huang, Ellen; Kiely, Marilyn; Lee, Junghoon; Morcos, Marc; McMillan, Paige E; Miller, Dave; Ng, Sook Kien; Prasad, Rashmi; Souranis, Annette; Thomsen, Robert; DeWeese, Theodore L; Viswanathan, Akila N

As a core component of a new gynecologic cancer radiation program, we envisioned, structured, and implemented a novel Interventional Radiation Oncology (IRO) unit and magnetic resonance (MR)-brachytherapy environment in an existing MR simulator. We describe the external and internal processes required over a 6-8 month time frame to develop a clinical and research program for gynecologic brachytherapy and to successfully convert an MR simulator into an IRO unit. Support of the institution and department resulted in conversion of an MR simulator to a procedural suite. Development of the MR gynecologic brachytherapy program required novel equipment, staffing, infrastructural development, and cooperative team development with anesthetists, nurses, therapists, physicists, and physicians to ensure a safe and functional environment. Creation of a separate IRO unit permitted a novel billing structure. The creation of an MR-brachytherapy environment in an MR simulator is feasible. Developing infrastructure includes several collaborative elements. Unique to the field of radiation oncology, formalizing the space as an Interventional Radiation Oncology unit permits a sustainable financial structure. Copyright © 2018 American Brachytherapy Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A POLLUTION REDUCTION METHODOLOGY FOR CHEMICAL PROCESS SIMULATORS

EPA Science Inventory

A pollution minimization methodology was developed for chemical process design using computer simulation. It is based on a pollution balance that at steady state is used to define a pollution index with units of mass of pollution per mass of products. The pollution balance has be...

The Kepler Science Operations Center Pipeline Framework Extensions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Klaus, Todd C.; Cote, Miles T.; McCauliff, Sean; Girouard, Forrest R.; Wohler, Bill; Allen, Christopher; Chandrasekaran, Hema; Bryson, Stephen T.; Middour, Christopher; Caldwell, Douglas A.;

User's manual for the National Water Information System of the U.S. Geological Survey: Automated Data Processing System (ADAPS)

USGS Publications Warehouse

,

2003-01-01

The Automated Data Processing System (ADAPS) was developed for the processing, storage, and retrieval of water data, and is part of the National Water Information System (NWIS) developed by the U.S. Geological Survey. NWIS is a distributed water database in which data can be processed over a network of computers at U.S. Geological Survey offices throughout the United States. NWIS comprises four subsystems: ADAPS, the Ground-Water Site Inventory System (GWSI), the Water-Quality System (QWDATA), and the Site-Specific Water-Use Data System (SWUDS). This section of the NWIS User's Manual describes the automated data processing of continuously recorded water data, which primarily are surface-water data; however, the system also allows for the processing of water-quality and ground-water data. This manual describes various components and features of the ADAPS, and provides an overview of the data processing system and a description of the system framework. The components and features included are: (1) data collection and processing, (2) ADAPS menus and programs, (3) command line functions, (4) steps for processing station records, (5) postprocessor programs control files, (6) the standard format for transferring and entering unit and daily values, and (7) relational database (RDB) formats.

Quality by design: scale-up of freeze-drying cycles in pharmaceutical industry.

PubMed

Pisano, Roberto; Fissore, Davide; Barresi, Antonello A; Rastelli, Massimo

2013-09-01

This paper shows the application of mathematical modeling to scale-up a cycle developed with lab-scale equipment on two different production units. The above method is based on a simplified model of the process parameterized with experimentally determined heat and mass transfer coefficients. In this study, the overall heat transfer coefficient between product and shelf was determined by using the gravimetric procedure, while the dried product resistance to vapor flow was determined through the pressure rise test technique. Once model parameters were determined, the freeze-drying cycle of a parenteral product was developed via dynamic design space for a lab-scale unit. Then, mathematical modeling was used to scale-up the above cycle in the production equipment. In this way, appropriate values were determined for processing conditions, which allow the replication, in the industrial unit, of the product dynamics observed in the small scale freeze-dryer. This study also showed how inter-vial variability, as well as model parameter uncertainty, can be taken into account during scale-up calculations.

Design, Assembly, Integration, and Testing of a Power Processing Unit for a Cylindrical Hall Thruster, the NORSAT-2 Flatsat, and the Vector Gravimeter for Asteroids Instrument Computer

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Svatos, Adam Ladislav

This thesis describes the author's contributions to three separate projects. The bus of the NORSAT-2 satellite was developed by the Space Flight Laboratory (SFL) for the Norwegian Space Centre (NSC) and Space Norway. The author's contributions to the mission were performing unit tests for the components of all the spacecraft subsystems as well as designing and assembling the flatsat from flight spares. Gedex's Vector Gravimeter for Asteroids (VEGA) is an accelerometer for spacecraft. The author's contributions to this payload were modifying the instrument computer board schematic, designing the printed circuit board, developing and applying test software, and performing thermal acceptance testing of two instrument computer boards. The SFL's cylindrical Hall effect thruster combines the cylindrical configuration for a Hall thruster and uses permanent magnets to achieve miniaturization and low power consumption, respectively. The author's contributions were to design, build, and test an engineering model power processing unit.

Frontiers in Microbiology: Envisioning a Curriculum Unit for High School Biology

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

Mark Bloom

Microbiology is undergoing a quiet revolution. Techniques such as polymerase chain reaction, high throughput DNA sequencing, whole genome shotgun sequencing, DNA microarrays, and bioinformatics analyses are greatly aiding our understanding of the estimated one billion species of microbes that inhabit the Earth. Unfortunately, the rapid pace of research in microbiology stands in contrast to the much slower pace of change in educational reform. Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS) hosted a two-day planning meeting to discuss whether or not a new curriculum unit on microbiology is desirable for the high school audience. Attending the meeting were microbiologists, high school biology teachers,more » and science educators. The consensus of the participants was that an inquiry-based unit dealing with advances in microbiology should be developed for a high school biology audience. Participants established content priorities for the unit, discussed the unit's conceptual flow, brainstormed potential student activities, and discussed the role of educational technology for the unit. As a result of the planning meeting discussions, BSCS staff sought additional funding to develop, disseminate, and evaluate the Frontiers in Microbiology curriculum unit. This unit was intended to be developed as a replacement unit suitable for an introductory biology course. The unit would feature inquiry-based student activities and provide approximately four weeks of instruction. As appropriate, activities would make use of multimedia. The development and production processes would require about two years for completion. Unfortunately, BSCS staff was not able to attract sufficient funding to develop the proposed curriculum unit. Since there were some unexpended funds left over from the planning meeting, BSCS requested and received permission from DOE to use the balance of the funds to prepare background materials about advances in microbiology that would be useful to teachers. These materials were developed and placed on the BSCS Web site (http://www.bscs.org).« less

Very large scale monoclonal antibody purification: the case for conventional unit operations.

PubMed

Kelley, Brian

2007-01-01

Technology development initiatives targeted for monoclonal antibody purification may be motivated by manufacturing limitations and are often aimed at solving current and future process bottlenecks. A subject under debate in many biotechnology companies is whether conventional unit operations such as chromatography will eventually become limiting for the production of recombinant protein therapeutics. An evaluation of the potential limitations of process chromatography and filtration using today's commercially available resins and membranes was conducted for a conceptual process scaled to produce 10 tons of monoclonal antibody per year from a single manufacturing plant, a scale representing one of the world's largest single-plant capacities for cGMP protein production. The process employs a simple, efficient purification train using only two chromatographic and two ultrafiltration steps, modeled after a platform antibody purification train that has generated 10 kg batches in clinical production. Based on analyses of cost of goods and the production capacity of this very large scale purification process, it is unlikely that non-conventional downstream unit operations would be needed to replace conventional chromatographic and filtration separation steps, at least for recombinant antibodies.

Wireless structural monitoring for homeland security applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kiremidjian, Garo K.; Kiremidjian, Anne S.; Lynch, Jerome P.

2004-07-01

This paper addresses the development of a robust, low-cost, low power, and high performance autonomous wireless monitoring system for civil assets such as large facilities, new construction, bridges, dams, commercial buildings, etc. The role of the system is to identify the onset, development, location and severity of structural vulnerability and damage. The proposed system represents an enabling infrastructure for addressing structural vulnerabilities specifically associated with homeland security. The system concept is based on dense networks of "intelligent" wireless sensing units. The fundamental properties of a wireless sensing unit include: (a) interfaces to multiple sensors for measuring structural and environmental data (such as acceleration, displacements, pressure, strain, material degradation, temperature, gas agents, biological agents, humidity, corrosion, etc.); (b) processing of sensor data with embedded algorithms for assessing damage and environmental conditions; (c) peer-to-peer wireless communications for information exchange among units(thus enabling joint "intelligent" processing coordination) and storage of data and processed information in servers for information fusion; (d) ultra low power operation; (e) cost-effectiveness and compact size through the use of low-cost small-size off-the-shelf components. An integral component of the overall system concept is a decision support environment for interpretation and dissemination of information to various decision makers.

MPEG-1 low-cost encoder solution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grueger, Klaus; Schirrmeister, Frank; Filor, Lutz; von Reventlow, Christian; Schneider, Ulrich; Mueller, Gerriet; Sefzik, Nicolai; Fiedrich, Sven

1995-02-01

A solution for real-time compression of digital YCRCB video data to an MPEG-1 video data stream has been developed. As an additional option, motion JPEG and video telephone streams (H.261) can be generated. For MPEG-1, up to two bidirectional predicted images are supported. The required computational power for motion estimation and DCT/IDCT, memory size and memory bandwidth have been the main challenges. The design uses fast-page-mode memory accesses and requires only one single 80 ns EDO-DRAM with 256 X 16 organization for video encoding. This can be achieved only by using adequate access and coding strategies. The architecture consists of an input processing and filter unit, a memory interface, a motion estimation unit, a motion compensation unit, a DCT unit, a quantization control, a VLC unit and a bus interface. For using the available memory bandwidth by the processing tasks, a fixed schedule for memory accesses has been applied, that can be interrupted for asynchronous events. The motion estimation unit implements a highly sophisticated hierarchical search strategy based on block matching. The DCT unit uses a separated fast-DCT flowgraph realized by a switchable hardware unit for both DCT and IDCT operation. By appropriate multiplexing, only one multiplier is required for: DCT, quantization, inverse quantization, and IDCT. The VLC unit generates the video-stream up to the video sequence layer and is directly coupled with an intelligent bus-interface. Thus, the assembly of video, audio and system data can easily be performed by the host computer. Having a relatively low complexity and only small requirements for DRAM circuits, the developed solution can be applied to low-cost encoding products for consumer electronics.

Heater Validation for the NEXT-C Hollow Cathodes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Verhey, Timothy R.; Soulas, George C.; Mackey, Jonathan A.

2018-01-01

Swaged cathode heaters whose design was successfully demonstrated under a prior flight project are to be provided by the NASA Glenn Research Center for the NEXT-C ion thruster being fabricated by Aerojet Rocketdyne. Extensive requalification activities were performed to validate process controls that had to be re-established or revised because systemic changes prevented reuse of the past approaches. A development batch of heaters was successfully fabricated based on the new process controls. Acceptance and cyclic life testing of multiple discharge and neutralizer sized heaters extracted from the development batch was initiated in August, 2016, with the last heater completing testing in April, 2017. Cyclic life testing results substantially exceeded the NEXT-C thruster requirement as well as all past experience for GRC-fabricated units. The heaters demonstrated ultimate cyclic life capability of 19050 to 33500 cycles. A qualification batch of heaters is now being fabricated using the finalized process controls. A set of six heaters will be acceptance and cyclic tested to verify conformance to the behavior observed with the development heaters. The heaters for flight use will be then be provided to the contractor from the remainder of the qualification batch. This paper summarizes the fabrication process control activities and the acceptance and life testing of the development heater units.

Neurokernel: An Open Source Platform for Emulating the Fruit Fly Brain

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

We have developed an open software platform called Neurokernel for collaborative development of comprehensive models of the brain of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster and their execution and testing on multiple Graphics Processing Units (GPUs). Neurokernel provides a programming model that capitalizes upon the structural organization of the fly brain into a fixed number of functional modules to distinguish between these modules’ local information processing capabilities and the connectivity patterns that link them. By defining mandatory communication interfaces that specify how data is transmitted between models of each of these modules regardless of their internal design, Neurokernel explicitly enables multiple researchers to collaboratively model the fruit fly’s entire brain by integration of their independently developed models of its constituent processing units. We demonstrate the power of Neurokernel’s model integration by combining independently developed models of the retina and lamina neuropils in the fly’s visual system and by demonstrating their neuroinformation processing capability. We also illustrate Neurokernel’s ability to take advantage of direct GPU-to-GPU data transfers with benchmarks that demonstrate scaling of Neurokernel’s communication performance both over the number of interface ports exposed by an emulation’s constituent modules and the total number of modules comprised by an emulation. PMID:26751378

NursesforTomorrow: a proactive approach to nursing resource analysis.

PubMed

Bournes, Debra A; Plummer, Carolyn; Miller, Robert; Ferguson-Paré, Mary

2010-03-01

This paper describes the background, development, implementation and utilization of NursesforTomorrow (N4T), a practical and comprehensive nursing human resources analysis method to capture regional, institutional and patient care unit-specific actual and predicted nurse vacancies, nurse staff characteristics and nurse staffing changes. Reports generated from the process include forecasted shortfalls or surpluses of nurses, percentage of novice nurses, occupancy, sick time, overtime, agency use and other metrics. Readers will benefit from a description of the ways in which the data generated from the nursing resource analysis process are utilized at senior leadership, program and unit levels to support proactive hiring and resource allocation decisions and to predict unit-specific recruitment and retention patterns across multiple healthcare organizations and regions.

Practical Nursing. Ohio's Competency Analysis Profile.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Vocational Instructional Materials Lab.

Developed through a modified DACUM (Developing a Curriculum) process involving business, industry, labor, and community agency representatives in Ohio, this document is a comprehensive and verified employer competency profile for practical nursing. The list contains units (with and without subunits), competencies, and competency builders that…

Animal Management Technician. Ohio's Competency Analysis Profile.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Vocational Instructional Materials Lab.

Developed through a modified DACUM (Developing a Curriculum) process involving business, industry, labor, and community agency representatives in Ohio, this document is a comprehensive and verified employer competency profile for animal management technician occupations. The list contains units (with and without subunits), competencies, and…

Dental Assistant. Ohio's Competency Analysis Profile.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Vocational Instructional Materials Lab.

Developed through a modified DACUM (Developing a Curriculum) process involving business, industry, labor, and community agency representatives in Ohio, this document is a comprehensive and verified employer competency profile for dental assistants. The list contains units (with and without subunits), competencies, and competency builders that…

General Marketing. Ohio's Competency Analysis Profile. Revised.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Vocational Instructional Materials Lab.

Developed through a modified DACUM (Developing a Curriculum) process involving business, industry, labor, and community agency representatives in Ohio, this document is a comprehensive and verified employer competency profile for general marketing occupations. The list contains units (with and without subunits), competencies, and competency…

Carpentry. Ohio's Competency Analysis Profile.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Vocational Instructional Materials Lab.

This comprehensive and verified employer competency list was developed from a modified DACUM (Developing a Curriculum) process involving business, industry, labor, and community agency representatives from Ohio. This competency list contains 14 units (with or without subunits), competencies, and competency builders that identify the occupational,…

Industrial Maintenance. Ohio's Competency Analysis Profile.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Vocational Instructional Materials Lab.

Developed through a modified DACUM (Developing a Curriculum) process involving business, industry, labor, and community agency representatives in Ohio, this document is a comprehensive and verified employer competency profile for industrial maintenance occupations. The list contains units (with and without subunits), competencies, and competency…

Masonry. Ohio's Competency Analysis Profile.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Vocational Instructional Materials Lab.

Developed through a modified DACUM (Developing a Curriculum) process involving business, industry, labor, and community agency representatives in Ohio, this document is a comprehensive and verified employer competency profile for masonry occupations. The list contains units (with and without subunits), competencies, and competency builders that…

Power Equipment Technology. Ohio's Competency Analysis Profile.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Vocational Instructional Materials Lab.

Developed through a modified DACUM (Developing a Curriculum) process involving business, industry, labor, and community agency representatives in Ohio, this document is a comprehensive and verified employer competency profile for power equipment technology occupations. The list contains units (with and without subunits), competencies, and…

Electrical Trades. Ohio's Competency Analysis Profile.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Vocational Instructional Materials Lab.

Developed through a modified DACUM (Developing a Curriculum) process involving business, industry, labor, and community agency representatives in Ohio, this document is a comprehensive and verified employer competency profile for electrical trades. The list contains units (with and without subunits), competencies, and competency builders that…

Resource Conservation. Ohio's Competency Analysis Profile.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Vocational Instructional Materials Lab.

Developed through a modified DACUM (Developing a Curriculum) process involving business, industry, labor, and community agency representatives in Ohio, this document is a comprehensive and verified employer competency profile for resource conservation occupations. The list contains units (with and without subunits), competencies, and competency…

Cosmetology. Ohio's Competency Analysis Profile.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Vocational Instructional Materials Lab.

This comprehensive and verified employer competency list was developed from a modified DACUM (Developing a Curriculum) process involving business, industry, labor, and community agency representatives from Ohio. This competency list contains 17 units (with or without subunits), competencies, and competency builders that identify the occupational,…

A 16-year time series of 1 km AVHRR satellite data of the conterminous United States and Alaska

USGS Publications Warehouse

Eidenshink, Jeff

2006-01-01

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has developed a 16-year time series of vegetation condition information for the conterminous United States and Alaska using 1 km Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) data. The AVHRR data have been processed using consistent methods that account for radiometric variability due to calibration uncertainty, the effects of the atmosphere on surface radiometric measurements obtained from wide field-of-view observations, and the geometric registration accuracy. The conterminous United States and Alaska data sets have an atmospheric correction for water vapor, ozone, and Rayleigh scattering and include a cloud mask derived using the Clouds from AVHRR (CLAVR) algorithm. In comparison with other AVHRR time series data sets, the conterminous United States and Alaska data are processed using similar techniques. The primary difference is that the conterminous United States and Alaska data are at 1 km resolution, while others are at 8 km resolution. The time series consists of weekly and biweekly maximum normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) composites.

Unit Testing for the Application Control Language (ACL) Software

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Heinich, Christina Marie

2014-01-01

In the software development process, code needs to be tested before it can be packaged for release in order to make sure the program actually does what it says is supposed to happen as well as to check how the program deals with errors and edge cases (such as negative or very large numbers). One of the major parts of the testing process is unit testing, where you test specific units of the code to make sure each individual part of the code works. This project is about unit testing many different components of the ACL software and fixing any errors encountered. To do this, mocks of other objects need to be created and every line of code needs to be exercised to make sure every case is accounted for. Mocks are important to make because it gives direct control of the environment the unit lives in instead of attempting to work with the entire program. This makes it easier to achieve the second goal of exercising every line of code.

An action research approach for developing research and innovation in nursing and midwifery practice: building research capacity in one NHS foundation trust.

PubMed

Moore, Jenny; Crozier, Kenda; Kite, Katharine

2012-01-01

The National Health Service in the United Kingdom is committed to a process of reform centred on quality care and innovative practice. Central to this process is the need for research capacity building within the workforce. The aim of this study was to develop an infrastructure for research capacity building within one National Health Service Foundation Trust. Using an Action Research methodology, sixteen individuals were purposefully selected from a population of nurses and midwives to participate in the study. This nonprobability sampling method enabled the researchers to select participants on the basis of who would be most informative about existing research capacity building structures and processes within the Trust. Data were collected in the form of semi-structured individual interviews with each participant. The main findings were that research activity was not embedded in the culture of the organisation, and initiating and undertaking change was a complex process. As a result, a range of structures and processes which were considered necessary to enable the Trust move forward in developing capacity and capability for research were developed and implemented. This paper reports the first two stages of this process, namely: the findings from the pre-step and an outline of how these findings were used to create an infrastructure to support research capacity building within one NHS Foundation Trust Hospital in the United Kingdom. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Software Development for EECU Platform of Turbofan Engine

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, Bo Gyoung; Kwak, Dohyup; Kim, Byunghyun; Choi, Hee ju; Kong, Changduk

2017-04-01

The turbofan engine operation consists of a number of hardware and software. The engine is controlled by Electronic Engine Control Unit (EECU). In order to control the engine, EECU communicates with an aircraft system, Actuator Drive Unit (ADU), Engine Power Unit (EPU) and sensors on the engine. This paper tried to investigate the process form starting to taking-off and aims to design the EECU software mode and defined communication data format. The software is implemented according to the designed software mode.

Critical elements in the development and implementation of Community Wildfire Protection Plans (CWPPs)

Treesearch

Pamela Jakes; Sam Burns; Antony Cheng; Emily Saeli; Kristen Nelson Rachel Brummel; Stephanie Grayzeck; Victoria Sturtevant; Daniel Williams

2007-01-01

Community wildfire protection plans (CWPPs) are being developed and implemented in communities across the United States. In a series of case studies, researchers found that the process of developing a CWPP can lead to benefits beyond those associated with fuels reduction, including enhancing social networks, developing learning communities, and building community...

Information Architecture for Quality Management Support in Hospitals.

PubMed

Rocha, Álvaro; Freixo, Jorge

2015-10-01

Quality Management occupies a strategic role in organizations, and the adoption of computer tools within an aligned information architecture facilitates the challenge of making more with less, promoting the development of a competitive edge and sustainability. A formal Information Architecture (IA) lends organizations an enhanced knowledge but, above all, favours management. This simplifies the reinvention of processes, the reformulation of procedures, bridging and the cooperation amongst the multiple actors of an organization. In the present investigation work we planned the IA for the Quality Management System (QMS) of a Hospital, which allowed us to develop and implement the QUALITUS (QUALITUS, name of the computer application developed to support Quality Management in a Hospital Unit) computer application. This solution translated itself in significant gains for the Hospital Unit under study, accelerating the quality management process and reducing the tasks, the number of documents, the information to be filled in and information errors, amongst others.

Integrated Testing of a 4-Bed Molecular Sieve, Air-Cooled Temperature Swing Adsorption Compressor, and Sabatier Engineering Development Unit

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Knox, James C.; Miller, Lee; Campbell, Melissa; Mulloth, Lila; Varghese, Mini

2006-01-01

Accumulation and subsequent compression of carbon dioxide that is removed from the space cabin are two important processes involved in a closed-loop air revitalization scheme of the International Space Station (ISS). The 4-Bed Molecular Sieve (4BMS) of ISS currently operates in an open loop mode without a compressor. The Sabatier Engineering Development Unit (EDU) processes waste CO2 to provide water to the crew. This paper reports the integrated 4BMS, air-cooled Temperature Swing Adsorption Compressor (TSAC), and Sabatier EDU testing. The TSAC prototype was developed at NASA Ames Research Center (ARC). The 4BMS was modified to a functionally flight-like condition at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). Testing was conducted at MSFC. The paper provides details of the TSAC operation at various CO2 loadings and corresponding performance of the 4BMS and Sabatier.

Trajectories of Ethnic-Racial Identity and Autonomy Among Mexican-Origin Adolescent Mothers in the United States.

PubMed

Umaña-Taylor, Adriana J; Updegraff, Kimberly A; Jahromi, Laudan B; Zeiders, Katharine H

2015-01-01

This study examined trajectories of ethnic-racial identity (ERI) and autonomy development among Mexican-origin adolescent females in the United States (N = 181; M(age) at Wave 1 = 16.80 years, SD = 1.00) as they transitioned through the first 5 years of parenthood. Trajectories of ERI and autonomy also were examined in relation to psychosocial functioning. Unconditional latent growth models indicated significant growth in autonomy, ERI resolution, and ERI affirmation from middle to late adolescence. Conditional latent growth models indicated that autonomy and ERI exploration growth trajectories were positively associated with psychosocial adjustment. Although adolescent mothers are experiencing transitions that are not normative during adolescence, they also engage in normative developmental processes, and their engagement in such processes is linked with better adjustment. © 2015 The Authors. Child Development © 2015 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.

The rise of biosimilars: How they got here and where they are going.

PubMed

Patel, Dhiren; Gillis, Colin; Naggar, Joseph; Mistry, Amee; Mantzoros, Christos S

2017-10-01

Biosimilars have become a subject of great interest in the past few years. The European Union and the United States are seeing an increasing number of biosimilar applications and approvals. The development of a biosimilar is significantly more complex and costly than a small molecule generic product. In the European Union, there has been a wider use of these medications compared to the United States. More biosimilars are gaining approval in the United States, and these products will likely alter the healthcare system in highly impactful ways. Understanding the regulatory process, the risks, and benefits will enable clinicians to be prepared and maximize the utility of these medications when they enter the market. This article introduces the concept of a biosimilar, discusses the regulatory process in the United States, and reviews the risks and benefits of these products. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Educating for Peace and Justice: Religious Dimensions, K-6. 8th Edition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McGinnis, James

This revised teacher's manual focuses on the need to develop compassionate concern in students if they are to be moved to action. The 12-step processes in the 8 units promote a personal relationship or friendship with the persons or groups involved. The units include: (1) "Of Dreams and Vision"; (2) "Interpersonal Peacemaking/Reconciliation"; (3)…

Conserving Our Health. Seychelles Integrated Science. [Teacher and Pupil Booklets]. Unit 12.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brophy, M.; Fryars, M.

Seychelles Integrated Science (SIS), a 3-year laboratory-based science program for students (ages 11-15) in upper primary grades 7, 8, and 9, was developed from an extensive evaluation and modification of previous P7-P9 materials. This P9 SIS unit deals with conserving health, focusing on such body processes as breathing, digestion, excretion,…

Attribution of net carbon change by disturbance type across forest lands of the conterminous United States

Treesearch

N. L. Harris; S. C. Hagen; S. S. Saatchi; T. R. H. Pearson; Christopher W. Woodall; Grant M. Domke; B. H. Braswell; Brian F. Walters; S. Brown; W. Salas; A. Fore; Y. Yu

2016-01-01

Background: Locating terrestrial sources and sinks of carbon (C) will be critical to developing strategies that contribute to the climate change mitigation goals of the Paris Agreement. Here we present spatially resolved estimates of net C change across United States (US) forest lands between 2006 and 2010 and attribute them to natural and anthropogenic processes....

Physical fundamentals of criterial estimation of nitriding technology for parts of friction units

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kuksenova, L. I.; Gerasimov, S. A.; Lapteva, V. G.; Alekseeva, M. S.

2013-03-01

Characteristics of the structure and properties of surface layers of nitrided structural steels and alloys, which affect the level of surface fracture under friction, are studied. A generalized structural parameter for optimizing the nitriding process and a rapid method for estimating the quality of the surface layer of nitrided parts of friction units are developed.

POLLUTION BALANCE: A NEW METHODOLOGY FOR MINIMIZING WASTE PRODUCTION IN MANUFACTURING PROCESSES.

EPA Science Inventory

A new methodolgy based on a generic pollution balance equation, has been developed for minimizing waste production in manufacturing processes. A "pollution index," defined as the mass of waste produced per unit mass of a product, has been introduced to provide a quantitative meas...

Faculty Perceptions of Strategic Visioning.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marcus, Laurence R.; Smith, Richard

This report presents an examination of the use of a participative model in the strategic planning process at a publicly-supported, comprehensive institution in the middle Atlantic region of the United States. Specific attention is given to the process of developing the vision statement, an undertaking of approximately 15 months preceding Board of…

A Module Experimental Process System Development Unit (MEPSDU). [flat plate solar arrays

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1981-01-01

The development of a cost effective process sequence that has the potential for the production of flat plate photovoltaic modules which meet the price goal in 1986 of 70 cents or less per Watt peak is described. The major accomplishments include (1) an improved AR coating technique; (2) the use of sand blast back clean-up to reduce clean up costs and to allow much of the Al paste to serve as a back conductor; and (3) the development of wave soldering for use with solar cells. Cells were processed to evaluate different process steps, a cell and minimodule test plan was prepared and data were collected for preliminary Samics cost analysis.

A Guide for Developing Standard Operating Job Procedures for the Digestion Process Wastewater Treatment Facility. SOJP No. 10.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schwing, Carl M.

This guide describes standard operating job procedures for the digestion process of wastewater treatment facilities. This process is for reducing the volume of sludge to be treated in subsequent units and to reduce the volatile content of sludge. The guide gives step-by-step instructions for pre-startup, startup, continuous operating, shutdown,…

GPU acceleration of Runge Kutta-Fehlberg and its comparison with Dormand-Prince method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Seen, Wo Mei; Gobithaasan, R. U.; Miura, Kenjiro T.

2014-07-01

There is a significant reduction of processing time and speedup of performance in computer graphics with the emergence of Graphic Processing Units (GPUs). GPUs have been developed to surpass Central Processing Unit (CPU) in terms of performance and processing speed. This evolution has opened up a new area in computing and researches where highly parallel GPU has been used for non-graphical algorithms. Physical or phenomenal simulations and modelling can be accelerated through General Purpose Graphic Processing Units (GPGPU) and Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA) implementations. These phenomena can be represented with mathematical models in the form of Ordinary Differential Equations (ODEs) which encompasses the gist of change rate between independent and dependent variables. ODEs are numerically integrated over time in order to simulate these behaviours. The classical Runge-Kutta (RK) scheme is the common method used to numerically solve ODEs. The Runge Kutta Fehlberg (RKF) scheme has been specially developed to provide an estimate of the principal local truncation error at each step, known as embedding estimate technique. This paper delves into the implementation of RKF scheme for GPU devices and compares its result with Dorman Prince method. A pseudo code is developed to show the implementation in detail. Hence, practitioners will be able to understand the data allocation in GPU, formation of RKF kernels and the flow of data to/from GPU-CPU upon RKF kernel evaluation. The pseudo code is then written in C Language and two ODE models are executed to show the achievable speedup as compared to CPU implementation. The accuracy and efficiency of the proposed implementation method is discussed in the final section of this paper.

Complex Processes from Dynamical Architectures with Time-Scale Hierarchy

PubMed Central

Perdikis, Dionysios; Huys, Raoul; Jirsa, Viktor

2011-01-01

The idea that complex motor, perceptual, and cognitive behaviors are composed of smaller units, which are somehow brought into a meaningful relation, permeates the biological and life sciences. However, no principled framework defining the constituent elementary processes has been developed to this date. Consequently, functional configurations (or architectures) relating elementary processes and external influences are mostly piecemeal formulations suitable to particular instances only. Here, we develop a general dynamical framework for distinct functional architectures characterized by the time-scale separation of their constituents and evaluate their efficiency. Thereto, we build on the (phase) flow of a system, which prescribes the temporal evolution of its state variables. The phase flow topology allows for the unambiguous classification of qualitatively distinct processes, which we consider to represent the functional units or modes within the dynamical architecture. Using the example of a composite movement we illustrate how different architectures can be characterized by their degree of time scale separation between the internal elements of the architecture (i.e. the functional modes) and external interventions. We reveal a tradeoff of the interactions between internal and external influences, which offers a theoretical justification for the efficient composition of complex processes out of non-trivial elementary processes or functional modes. PMID:21347363

Physical Modeling of Contact Processes on the Cutting Tools Surfaces of STM When Turning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Belozerov, V. A.; Uteshev, M. H.

2016-08-01

This article describes how to create an optimization model of the process of fine turning of superalloys and steel tools from STM on CNC machines, flexible manufacturing units (GPM), machining centers. Creation of the optimization model allows you to link (unite) contact processes simultaneously on the front and back surfaces of the tool from STM to manage contact processes and the dynamic strength of the cutting tool at the top of the STM. Established optimization model of management of the dynamic strength of the incisors of the STM in the process of fine turning is based on a previously developed thermomechanical (physical, heat) model, which allows the system thermomechanical approach to choosing brands STM (domestic and foreign) for cutting tools from STM designed for fine turning of heat resistant alloys and steels.

Optimized Laplacian image sharpening algorithm based on graphic processing unit

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ma, Tinghuai; Li, Lu; Ji, Sai; Wang, Xin; Tian, Yuan; Al-Dhelaan, Abdullah; Al-Rodhaan, Mznah

2014-12-01

In classical Laplacian image sharpening, all pixels are processed one by one, which leads to large amount of computation. Traditional Laplacian sharpening processed on CPU is considerably time-consuming especially for those large pictures. In this paper, we propose a parallel implementation of Laplacian sharpening based on Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA), which is a computing platform of Graphic Processing Units (GPU), and analyze the impact of picture size on performance and the relationship between the processing time of between data transfer time and parallel computing time. Further, according to different features of different memory, an improved scheme of our method is developed, which exploits shared memory in GPU instead of global memory and further increases the efficiency. Experimental results prove that two novel algorithms outperform traditional consequentially method based on OpenCV in the aspect of computing speed.

Progress in a novel architecture for high performance processing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Zhiwei; Liu, Meng; Liu, Zijun; Du, Xueliang; Xie, Shaolin; Ma, Hong; Ding, Guangxin; Ren, Weili; Zhou, Fabiao; Sun, Wenqin; Wang, Huijuan; Wang, Donglin

2018-04-01

The high performance processing (HPP) is an innovative architecture which targets on high performance computing with excellent power efficiency and computing performance. It is suitable for data intensive applications like supercomputing, machine learning and wireless communication. An example chip with four application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) cores which is the first generation of HPP cores has been taped out successfully under Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) 40 nm low power process. The innovative architecture shows great energy efficiency over the traditional central processing unit (CPU) and general-purpose computing on graphics processing units (GPGPU). Compared with MaPU, HPP has made great improvement in architecture. The chip with 32 HPP cores is being developed under TSMC 16 nm field effect transistor (FFC) technology process and is planed to use commercially. The peak performance of this chip can reach 4.3 teraFLOPS (TFLOPS) and its power efficiency is up to 89.5 gigaFLOPS per watt (GFLOPS/W).

Birth and Death Process Modeling Leads to the Poisson Distribution: A Journey Worth Taking

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rash, Agnes M.; Winkel, Brian J.

2009-01-01

This paper describes details of development of the general birth and death process from which we can extract the Poisson process as a special case. This general process is appropriate for a number of courses and units in courses and can enrich the study of mathematics for students as it touches and uses a diverse set of mathematical topics, e.g.,…

[The role of a specialised risk analysis group in the Veterinary Services of a developing country].

PubMed

Urbina-Amarís, M E

2003-08-01

Since the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures was established, risk analysis in trade, and ultimately in Veterinary and Animal Health Services, has become strategically important. Irrespective of their concept (discipline, approach, method, process), all types of risk analysis in trade involve four periods or phases:--risk identification-- risk assessment--risk management--risk information or communication. All veterinarians involved in a risk analysis unit must have in-depth knowledge of statistics and the epidemiology of transmissible diseases, as well as a basic knowledge of veterinary science, economics, mathematics, data processing and social communication, to enable them to work with professionals in these disciplines. Many developing countries do not have enough well-qualified professionnals in these areas to support a risk analysis unit. This will need to be rectified by seeking strategic alliances with other public or private sectors that will provide the required support to run the unit properly. Due to the special nature of its risk analysis functions, its role in supporting decision-making, and the criteria of independence and transparency that are so crucial to its operations, the hierarchical position of the risk analysis unit should be close to the top management of the Veterinary Service. Due to the shortage of personnel in developing countries with the required training and scientific and technical qualifications, countries with organisations responsible for both animal and plant health protection would be advised to set up integrated plant and animal risk analysis units. In addition, these units could take charge of all activities relating to WTO agreements and regional agreements on animal and plant health management.

Pre- and post-drill comparison of the Mount Elbert gas hydrate prospect, Alaska North Slope

USGS Publications Warehouse

Lee, M.W.; Agena, W.F.; Collett, T.S.; Inks, T.L.

2011-01-01

In 2006, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) completed a detailed analysis and interpretation of available 2-D and 3-D seismic data, along with seismic modeling and correlation with specially processed downhole well log data for identifying potential gas hydrate accumulations on the North Slope of Alaska. A methodology was developed for identifying sub-permafrost gas hydrate prospects within the gas hydrate stability zone in the Milne Point area. The study revealed a total of 14 gas hydrate prospects in this area.In order to validate the gas hydrate prospecting protocol of the USGS and to acquire critical reservoir data needed to develop a longer-term production testing program, a stratigraphic test well was drilled at the Mount Elbert prospect in the Milne Point area in early 2007. The drilling confirmed the presence of two prominent gas-hydrate-bearing units in the Mount Elbert prospect, and high quality well logs and core data were acquired. The post-drill results indicate pre-drill predictions of the reservoir thickness and the gas-hydrate saturations based on seismic and existing well data were 90% accurate for the upper unit (hydrate unit D) and 70% accurate for the lower unit (hydrate unit C), confirming the validity of the USGS approach to gas hydrate prospecting. The Mount Elbert prospect is the first gas hydrate accumulation on the North Slope of Alaska identified primarily on the basis of seismic attribute analysis and specially processed downhole log data. Post-drill well log data enabled a better constraint of the elastic model and the development of an improved approach to the gas hydrate prospecting using seismic attributes. ?? 2009.

Teaching Driver Education Technology to Novice Drivers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Young, Anthony

A cybernetic unit in driver education was developed to help grade 10 students develop the skills needed to acquire and process driver education information and prepare for the driving phase of driver education in grade 11. Students used a simulator to engage in a series of scenarios designed to promote development of social, behavioral, and mental…

Key Lessons for the Design and Integration of Virtual Environments in Secondary Science.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crosier, Joanna K.; Cobb, Sue; Wilson, John R.

2002-01-01

Discusses a three-year research project in which a virtual environment to teach radioactivity in secondary schools in the United Kingdom was developed and tested. Emphasizes the importance of involving teachers through the development process and confirms the importance of school-based evaluation studies in the development and evaluation of…

Development of a corn and soybean labeling procedure for use with profile parameter classification

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Magness, E. R. (Principal Investigator)

1982-01-01

Some essential processes for the development of a green-number-based logic for identifying (labeling) crops in LANDSAT imagery are documented. The supporting data and subsequent conclusions that resulted from development of a specific labeling logic for corn and soybean crops in the United States are recorded.

Seafood Processing: Unit F#3 Grade 5. Project COULD: Career Orientation Utilizing Language Development.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coos County Intermediate Education District, North Bend, OR.

Project COULD (Career Orientation Utilizing Language Development) was developed as a means of building skills, knowledges, and attitudes on elementary children's previously acquired backgrounds. Children learn to speak the grammar and vocabulary characteristic of the language heard most frequently at home and in the immediate environment. A series…

Developing a New Industrial Engineering Curriculum Using a Systems Engineering Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Buyurgan, Nebil; Kiassat, Corey

2017-01-01

This paper reports on the development of an engineering curriculum for a new industrial engineering programme at a medium-sized private university in the northeast United States. A systems engineering process has been followed to design and develop the new curriculum. Considering the programme curriculum as a system, first the stakeholders have…

Saskatchewan's (Canada) Regional Centre of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dahms, Tanya; McMartin, Dena; Petry, Roger

2008-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe the unique collaborative process initiated at the University of Regina in Saskatchewan, Canada, to develop a Regional Centre of Expertise (RCE) on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) through the United Nations University-Institute of Advanced Studies (UNU-IAS). Design/methodology/approach:…

Designing and Developing a Programme-Focused Assessment Strategy: A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brunton, James; Brown, Mark; Costello, Eamon; Walsh, Elaine

2016-01-01

This case study describes the process that the Humanities Programme Team, in Dublin City University's Open Education Unit, has undertaken with regard to developing a systematic, programme-focused assessment strategy. It charts the development of an Assessment Matrix that facilitated the enhancement of programme coherence in the context of a…

Performance and Environmental Test Results of the High Voltage Hall Accelerator Engineering Development Unit

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kamhawi, Hani; Haag, Thomas; Huang, Wensheng; Shastry, Rohit; Pinero, Luis; Peterson, Todd; Mathers, Alex

2012-01-01

NASA Science Mission Directorate's In-Space Propulsion Technology Program is sponsoring the development of a 3.5 kW-class engineering development unit Hall thruster for implementation in NASA science and exploration missions. NASA Glenn and Aerojet are developing a high fidelity high voltage Hall accelerator that can achieve specific impulse magnitudes greater than 2,700 seconds and xenon throughput capability in excess of 300 kilograms. Performance, plume mappings, thermal characterization, and vibration tests of the high voltage Hall accelerator engineering development unit have been performed. Performance test results indicated that at 3.9 kW the thruster achieved a total thrust efficiency and specific impulse of 58%, and 2,700 sec, respectively. Thermal characterization tests indicated that the thruster component temperatures were within the prescribed material maximum operating temperature limits during full power thruster operation. Finally, thruster vibration tests indicated that the thruster survived the 3-axes qualification full-level random vibration test series. Pre and post-vibration test performance mappings indicated almost identical thruster performance. Finally, an update on the development progress of a power processing unit and a xenon feed system is provided.

Ares I Upper Stage Update

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Davis, Daniel J.

2010-01-01

These presentation slides review the progress in the development of the Ares I upper stage. The development includes development of a manufacturing and processing assembly that will reduce the time required over 100 days, development of a weld tool that is a robotic tool that is the largest welder of its kind in the United States, development of avionics and software, and development of logisitics and operations systems.

Business Administration and Management. Ohio's Competency Analysis Profile.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Vocational Instructional Materials Lab.

This comprehensive and verified employer competency list was developed from a modified DACUM (Developing a Curriculum) process involving business, industry, labor, and community agency representatives from Ohio. This competency list contains eight units (with or without subunits), competencies, and competency builders that identify the…

Agricultural/Industrial Mechanical Technician. Ohio's Competency Analysis Profile.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Vocational Instructional Materials Lab.

Developed through a modified DACUM (Developing a Curriculum) process involving business, industry, labor, and community agency representatives in Ohio, this document is a comprehensive and verified employer competency profile for agricultural/industrial mechanical technician occupations. The list contains units (with and without subunits),…

Nurse Aide. Ohio's Competency Analysis Profile.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Vocational Instructional Materials Lab.

Developed through a modified DACUM (Developing a Curriculum) process involving business, industry, labor, and community agency representatives in Ohio, this document is a comprehensive and verified employer competency profile for nurses' aides. The list contains units (with and without subunits), competencies, and competency builders that identify…

Travel and Tourism Marketing. Ohio's Competency Analysis Profile.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Vocational Instructional Materials Lab.

Developed through a modified DACUM (Developing a Curriculum) process involving business, industry, labor, and community agency representatives in Ohio, this document is a comprehensive and verified employer competency profile for travel and tourism occupations. The list contains units (with and without subunits), competencies, and competency…

Commercial Art. Ohio's Competency Analysis Profile.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Vocational Instructional Materials Lab.

This comprehensive and verified employer competency list was developed from a modified DACUM (Developing a Curriculum) process involving business, industry, labor, and community agency representatives from Ohio. This competency list contains 16 units (with or without subunits), competencies, and competency builders that identify the occupational,…

Crop Producer. Ohio's Competency Analysis Profile.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Vocational Instructional Materials Lab.

This comprehensive and verified employer competency list was developed from a modified DACUM (Developing a Curriculum) process involving business, industry, labor, and community agency representatives from Ohio. This competency list contains six units (with or without subunits), competencies, and competency builders that identify the occupational,…

Auto Mechanics. Ohio's Competency Analysis Profile.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Vocational Instructional Materials Lab.

This comprehensive and verified employer competency list was developed from a modified DACUM (Developing a Curriculum) process involving business, industry, labor, and community agency representatives from Ohio. This competency list contains 11 units (with or without subunits), competencies, and competency builders that identify the occupational,…

Building and Property Maintenance. Ohio's Competency Analysis Profile.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Vocational Instructional Materials Lab.

Developed through a modified DACUM (Developing a Curriculum) process involving business, industry, labor, and community agency representatives in Ohio, this document is a comprehensive and verified employer competency profile for building and property maintenance occupations. The list contains units (with and without subunits), competencies, and…

Forest Industry Worker. Ohio's Competency Analysis Profile.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Vocational Instructional Materials Lab.

Developed through a modified DACUM (Developing a Curriculum) process involving business, industry, labor, and community agency representatives in Ohio, this document is a comprehensive and verified employer competency profile for forest industry occupations. The list contains units (with and without subunits), competencies, and competency builders…

Floriculture and Greenhouse Worker. Ohio's Competency Analysis Profile.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Vocational Instructional Materials Lab.

Developed through a modified DACUM (Developing a Curriculum) process involving business, industry, labor, and community agency representatives in Ohio, this document is a comprehensive and verified employer competency profile for floriculture and greenhouse occupations. The list contains units (with and without subunits), competencies, and…

The Research and Implementation of MUSER CLEAN Algorithm Based on OpenCL

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Feng, Y.; Chen, K.; Deng, H.; Wang, F.; Mei, Y.; Wei, S. L.; Dai, W.; Yang, Q. P.; Liu, Y. B.; Wu, J. P.

2017-03-01

It's urgent to carry out high-performance data processing with a single machine in the development of astronomical software. However, due to the different configuration of the machine, traditional programming techniques such as multi-threading, and CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture)+GPU (Graphic Processing Unit) have obvious limitations in portability and seamlessness between different operation systems. The OpenCL (Open Computing Language) used in the development of MUSER (MingantU SpEctral Radioheliograph) data processing system is introduced. And the Högbom CLEAN algorithm is re-implemented into parallel CLEAN algorithm by the Python language and PyOpenCL extended package. The experimental results show that the CLEAN algorithm based on OpenCL has approximately equally operating efficiency compared with the former CLEAN algorithm based on CUDA. More important, the data processing in merely CPU (Central Processing Unit) environment of this system can also achieve high performance, which has solved the problem of environmental dependence of CUDA+GPU. Overall, the research improves the adaptability of the system with emphasis on performance of MUSER image clean computing. In the meanwhile, the realization of OpenCL in MUSER proves its availability in scientific data processing. In view of the high-performance computing features of OpenCL in heterogeneous environment, it will probably become the preferred technology in the future high-performance astronomical software development.

A hardware-software system for the automation of verification and calibration of oil metering units secondary equipment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Boyarnikov, A. V.; Boyarnikova, L. V.; Kozhushko, A. A.; Sekachev, A. F.

2017-08-01

In the article the process of verification (calibration) of oil metering units secondary equipment is considered. The purpose of the work is to increase the reliability and reduce the complexity of this process by developing a software and hardware system that provides automated verification and calibration. The hardware part of this complex carries out the commutation of the measuring channels of the verified controller and the reference channels of the calibrator in accordance with the introduced algorithm. The developed software allows controlling the commutation of channels, setting values on the calibrator, reading the measured data from the controller, calculating errors and compiling protocols. This system can be used for checking the controllers of the secondary equipment of the oil metering units in the automatic verification mode (with the open communication protocol) or in the semi-automatic verification mode (without it). The peculiar feature of the approach used is the development of a universal signal switch operating under software control, which can be configured for various verification methods (calibration), which allows to cover the entire range of controllers of metering units secondary equipment. The use of automatic verification with the help of a hardware and software system allows to shorten the verification time by 5-10 times and to increase the reliability of measurements, excluding the influence of the human factor.

Characteristics of health care organizations associated with learning and development: lessons from a pilot study.

PubMed

Nyström, Monica

2009-01-01

Characteristics of health care organizations associated with an ability to learn from experiences and to develop and manage change were explored in this study. Understanding of these characteristics is necessary to identify factors influencing success in learning from the past and achieving future health care quality objectives. A literature review of the quality improvement, strategic organizational development and change management, organizational learning, and microsystems fields identified 20 organizational characteristics, grouped under (a) organizational systems, (b) key actors, and (c) change management processes. Qualitative methods, using interviews, focus group reports, and archival records, were applied to find associations between identified characteristics and 6 Swedish health care units externally evaluated as delivering high-quality care. Strong support for a characteristic was defined as units having more than 4 sources describing the characteristic as an important success factor. Eighteen characteristics had strong support from at least 2 units. The strongest evidence was found for the following: (i) key actors have long-term commitment, provide support, and make sense of ambiguous situations; (ii) organizational systems encourage employee commitment, participation, and involvement; and (iii) change management processes are employed systematically. Based on the results, a new model of "characteristics associated with learning and development in health care organizations" is proposed.

[The general concepts of development and the principle of sustainable development].

PubMed

Romanov, Iu A

1995-01-01

A concept of the sustainable development principle proposed by the United Nations/International Committee on Environment and Development (ICED, 1987) and gained acceptance at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Rio-de-Janeiro, 1992) lies not in the notion of a sustained character of the development but in an understanding of the development as a steadily and long existing and maintained process that is in advocating the stability of the development. It is known, that the state instability of open self-organizing and self-developing systems including the social ones is the the source of the development having a probabilistic, bifurcate and not quite predictable character. Such an understanding of the development should be well represented in the action initiated in the frame work of national and international state ecological policies.

PyMUS: Python-Based Simulation Software for Virtual Experiments on Motor Unit System

PubMed Central

Kim, Hojeong; Kim, Minjung

2018-01-01

We constructed a physiologically plausible computationally efficient model of a motor unit and developed simulation software that allows for integrative investigations of the input–output processing in the motor unit system. The model motor unit was first built by coupling the motoneuron model and muscle unit model to a simplified axon model. To build the motoneuron model, we used a recently reported two-compartment modeling approach that accurately captures the key cell-type-related electrical properties under both passive conditions (somatic input resistance, membrane time constant, and signal attenuation properties between the soma and the dendrites) and active conditions (rheobase current and afterhyperpolarization duration at the soma and plateau behavior at the dendrites). To construct the muscle unit, we used a recently developed muscle modeling approach that reflects the experimentally identified dependencies of muscle activation dynamics on isometric, isokinetic and dynamic variation in muscle length over a full range of stimulation frequencies. Then, we designed the simulation software based on the object-oriented programing paradigm and developed the software using open-source Python language to be fully operational using graphical user interfaces. Using the developed software, separate simulations could be performed for a single motoneuron, muscle unit and motor unit under a wide range of experimental input protocols, and a hierarchical analysis could be performed from a single channel to the entire system behavior. Our model motor unit and simulation software may represent efficient tools not only for researchers studying the neural control of force production from a cellular perspective but also for instructors and students in motor physiology classroom settings. PMID:29695959

PyMUS: Python-Based Simulation Software for Virtual Experiments on Motor Unit System.

PubMed

Kim, Hojeong; Kim, Minjung

2018-01-01

We constructed a physiologically plausible computationally efficient model of a motor unit and developed simulation software that allows for integrative investigations of the input-output processing in the motor unit system. The model motor unit was first built by coupling the motoneuron model and muscle unit model to a simplified axon model. To build the motoneuron model, we used a recently reported two-compartment modeling approach that accurately captures the key cell-type-related electrical properties under both passive conditions (somatic input resistance, membrane time constant, and signal attenuation properties between the soma and the dendrites) and active conditions (rheobase current and afterhyperpolarization duration at the soma and plateau behavior at the dendrites). To construct the muscle unit, we used a recently developed muscle modeling approach that reflects the experimentally identified dependencies of muscle activation dynamics on isometric, isokinetic and dynamic variation in muscle length over a full range of stimulation frequencies. Then, we designed the simulation software based on the object-oriented programing paradigm and developed the software using open-source Python language to be fully operational using graphical user interfaces. Using the developed software, separate simulations could be performed for a single motoneuron, muscle unit and motor unit under a wide range of experimental input protocols, and a hierarchical analysis could be performed from a single channel to the entire system behavior. Our model motor unit and simulation software may represent efficient tools not only for researchers studying the neural control of force production from a cellular perspective but also for instructors and students in motor physiology classroom settings.

Evaluation of the Impact of an Additive Manufacturing Enhanced CubeSat Architecture on the CubeSat Development Process

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-09-15

EVALUATION OF THE IMPACT OF AN ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING ENHANCED CUBESAT ARCHITECTURE ON THE CUBESAT...DEVELOPMENT PROCESS THESIS Rachel E. Sharples AFIT-ENV-MS-16-S-049 DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCE AIR UNIVERSITY AIR FORCE INSTITUTE OF...The views expressed in this thesis are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the United States Air Force

Studies and research concerning BNFP: computerized nuclear materials control and accounting system development evaluation report, FY 1978

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

Crawford, J M; Ehinger, M H; Joseph, C

1978-10-01

Development work on a computerized system for nuclear materials control and accounting in a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant is described and evaluated. Hardware and software were installed and tested to demonstrate key measurement, measurement control, and accounting requirements at accountability input/output points using natural uranium. The demonstration included a remote data acquisition system which interfaces process and special instrumentation to a cenral processing unit.

Fast Laser Holographic Interferometry For Wind Tunnels

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lee, George

1989-01-01

Proposed system makes holographic interferograms quickly in wind tunnels. Holograms reveal two-dimensional flows around airfoils and provide information on distributions of pressure, structures of wake and boundary layers, and density contours of flow fields. Holograms form quickly in thermoplastic plates in wind tunnel. Plates rigid and left in place so neither vibrations nor photgraphic-development process degrades accuracy of holograms. System processes and analyzes images quickly. Semiautomatic micro-computer-based desktop image-processing unit now undergoing development moves easily to wind tunnel, and its speed and memory adequate for flows about airfoils.

NOSS Altimeter Detailed Algorithm specifications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hancock, D. W.; Mcmillan, J. D.

1982-01-01

The details of the algorithms and data sets required for satellite radar altimeter data processing are documented in a form suitable for (1) development of the benchmark software and (2) coding the operational software. The algorithms reported in detail are those established for altimeter processing. The algorithms which required some additional development before documenting for production were only scoped. The algorithms are divided into two levels of processing. The first level converts the data to engineering units and applies corrections for instrument variations. The second level provides geophysical measurements derived from altimeter parameters for oceanographic users.

40 CFR 63.11505 - What parts of my plant does this subpart cover?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... electroplating; electroforming; electropolishing; electroless plating or other non-electrolytic metal coating... Chromium Electroplating and Chromium Anodizing Tanks). (2) Research and development process units, as...

7 CFR 1219.15 - Industry information.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... efficiency in processing, enhance the development of new markets and marketing strategies, increase marketing efficiency, and enhance the image of Hass avocados and the Hass avocado industry in the United States. ...

7 CFR 1219.15 - Industry information.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... efficiency in processing, enhance the development of new markets and marketing strategies, increase marketing efficiency, and enhance the image of Hass avocados and the Hass avocado industry in the United States. ...

7 CFR 1219.15 - Industry information.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... efficiency in processing, enhance the development of new markets and marketing strategies, increase marketing efficiency, and enhance the image of Hass avocados and the Hass avocado industry in the United States. ...

7 CFR 1219.15 - Industry information.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... efficiency in processing, enhance the development of new markets and marketing strategies, increase marketing efficiency, and enhance the image of Hass avocados and the Hass avocado industry in the United States. ...

Programmable partitioning for high-performance coherence domains in a multiprocessor system

DOEpatents

Blumrich, Matthias A [Ridgefield, CT; Salapura, Valentina [Chappaqua, NY

2011-01-25

A multiprocessor computing system and a method of logically partitioning a multiprocessor computing system are disclosed. The multiprocessor computing system comprises a multitude of processing units, and a multitude of snoop units. Each of the processing units includes a local cache, and the snoop units are provided for supporting cache coherency in the multiprocessor system. Each of the snoop units is connected to a respective one of the processing units and to all of the other snoop units. The multiprocessor computing system further includes a partitioning system for using the snoop units to partition the multitude of processing units into a plurality of independent, memory-consistent, adjustable-size processing groups. Preferably, when the processor units are partitioned into these processing groups, the partitioning system also configures the snoop units to maintain cache coherency within each of said groups.

Heating, Ventilation, Air-conditioning, and Refrigeration. Ohio's Competency Analysis Profile.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Vocational Instructional Materials Lab.

Developed through a modified DACUM (Developing a Curriculum) process involving business, industry, labor, and community agency representatives in Ohio, this document is a comprehensive and verified employer competency profile for heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration occupations. The list contains units (with and without…

Clothing and Interiors, Production and Services. Ohio's Competency Analysis Profile.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Vocational Instructional Materials Lab.

Developed through a modified DACUM (Developing a Curriculum) process involving business, industry, labor, and community agency representatives in Ohio, this document is a comprehensive and verified employer competency profile for occupations in clothing, fashion merchandising, and interior design. The list contains units (with and without…

Child Care Guidance, Management, and Service. Ohio's Competency Analysis Profile.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Vocational Instructional Materials Lab.

This comprehensive and verified employer competency list was developed from a modified DACUM (Developing a Curriculum) process involving business, industry, labor, and community agency representatives from Ohio. This competency list contains seven units (with or without subunits), competencies, and competency builders that identify the…

Auto Body and Fender. Ohio's Competency Analysis Profile.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Vocational Instructional Materials Lab.

This comprehensive and verified employer competency list was developed from a modified DACUM (Developing a Curriculum) process involving business, industry, labor, and community agency representatives from Ohio. This competency list contains 10 units (with or without subunits), competencies, and competency builders that identify the occupational,…

Beef and Sheep Producer. Ohio's Competency Analysis Profile.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Vocational Instructional Materials Lab.

This comprehensive and verified employer competency list was developed from a modified DACUM (Developing a Curriculum) process involving business, industry, labor, and community agency representatives from Ohio. This competency list contains 11 units (with or without subunits), competencies, and competency builders that identify the occupational,…

Agricultural Business Feed and Grain Worker. Ohio's Competency Analysis Profile.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Vocational Instructional Materials Lab.

This comprehensive and verified employer competency list was developed from a modified DACUM (Developing a Curriculum) process involving business, industry, labor, and community agency representatives from Ohio. This competency list contains nine units (with or without subunits), competencies, and competency builders that identify the…

Hospitality and Facility Care Services. Ohio's Competency Analysis Profile.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Vocational Instructional Materials Lab.

Developed through a modified DACUM (Developing a Curriculum) process involving business, industry, labor, and community agency representatives in Ohio, this document is a comprehensive and verified employer competency profile for hospitality and facility care occupations. The list contains units (with and without subunits), competencies, and…

Doors to Discovery [TM]. WWC Intervention Report

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

What Works Clearinghouse, 2009

2009-01-01

Doors to Discovery[TM], an early childhood curriculum, focuses on the development of children's vocabulary and expressive and receptive language through a learning process called "shared literacy," where adults and children work together to develop literacy-related skills. Literacy activities, organized into thematic units, encourage children's…

Food Production, Management and Services. Ohio's Competency Analysis Profile.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Vocational Instructional Materials Lab.

Developed through a modified DACUM (Developing a Curriculum) process involving business, industry, labor, and community agency representatives in Ohio, this document is a comprehensive and verified employer competency profile for food production, management, and service occupations. The list contains units (with and without subunits),…

Health care managers' views on and approaches to implementing models for improving care processes.

PubMed

Andreasson, Jörgen; Eriksson, Andrea; Dellve, Lotta

2016-03-01

To develop a deeper understanding of health-care managers' views on and approaches to the implementation of models for improving care processes. In health care, there are difficulties in implementing models for improving care processes that have been decided on by upper management. Leadership approaches to this implementation can affect the outcome. In-depth interviews with first- and second-line managers in Swedish hospitals were conducted and analysed using grounded theory. 'Coaching for participation' emerged as a central theme for managers in handling top-down initiated process development. The vertical approach in this coaching addresses how managers attempt to sustain unit integrity through adapting and translating orders from top management. The horizontal approach in the coaching refers to managers' strategies for motivating and engaging their employees in implementation work. Implementation models for improving care processes require a coaching leadership built on close manager-employee interaction, mindfulness regarding the pace of change at the unit level, managers with the competence to share responsibility with their teams and engaged employees with the competence to share responsibility for improving the care processes, and organisational structures that support process-oriented work. Implications for nursing management are the importance of giving nurse managers knowledge of change management. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Solar cell and photonics outreach for middle school students and teachers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gilchrist, Pamela O.; Alexander, Alonzo B.

2017-08-01

This paper will describe the curriculum development process employed to develop a solar cell and photonics curriculum unit for students underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields. Information will explain how the curriculum unit was piloted with middle and high school teachers from public schools in North Carolina, high school students from underrepresented groups in an informal science program, and workshop settings. Measures used to develop the curriculum materials for middle school students will be presented along with program findings documenting students' urban versus rural interest in STEM, career aspirations, and 21st century learning skills in informal learning settings.

Ecological Factors in Social Skill Acquisition: High School Students with Emotional and/or Behavioral Disorders in the United States and Norway

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anderson, Sarah K.

2010-01-01

The purpose of my study was to develop a grounded theory of the underlying social processes and/or other ecological factors that impact the effectiveness of skill acquisition for students with emotional and/or behavioral disorders (EBD) in "sister" cities located in the United States (Site One) and in Norway (Site Two). Theory…

The development of landscape-scale ecological units and their application to the greater Huachuca Mountains fire planning process

Treesearch

Larry E. Laing; David Gori; James T. Jones

2005-01-01

The multi-partner Greater Huachuca Mountains fire planning effort involves over 500,000 acres of public and private lands. This large area supports distinct landscapes that have evolved with fire. Utilizing GIS as a tool, the United States Forest Service (USFS), General Ecosystem Survey (GES), and Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) State Soil Geographic...

Review of LOGEX. Main Report and Appendixes A-I

DTIC Science & Technology

1975-05-23

been developed on an RCA Spectra 70 machine located at the Army Logistics Management Center, Fort Lee, Virginia. This was undoubtedly an outstanding...Control Number ADP - Automatic Data Processing ACT - Active Duty for Training ALMC - US Army Logistics Management Center AMO - Ammunition AR - Amy...Directorate CPT McClellan, LOGEX Directorate CPT Weaver, LOGEX Directorate United States Army Logistics Management Center Mr. Loper Mr. Ross United States

Analysis and Characterization | Bioenergy | NREL

Science.gov Websites

Analysis and Characterization Analysis and Characterization NREL's team of bioenergy analysts takes equipment in a lab Biomass Characterization Photo of NRELs Biochemical Process Development Unit showing a

Temperature metrology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fischer, J.; Fellmuth, B.

2005-05-01

The majority of the processes used by the manufacturing industry depend upon the accurate measurement and control of temperature. Thermal metrology is also a key factor affecting the efficiency and environmental impact of many high-energy industrial processes, the development of innovative products and the health and safety of the general population. Applications range from the processing, storage and shipment of perishable foodstuffs and biological materials to the development of more efficient and less environmentally polluting combustion processes for steel-making. Accurate measurement and control of temperature is, for instance, also important in areas such as the characterization of new materials used in the automotive, aerospace and semiconductor industries. This paper reviews the current status of temperature metrology. It starts with the determination of thermodynamic temperatures required on principle because temperature is an intensive quantity. Methods to determine thermodynamic temperatures are reviewed in detail to introduce the underlying physical basis. As these methods cannot usually be applied for practical measurements the need for a practical temperature scale for day-to-day work is motivated. The International Temperature Scale of 1990 and the Provisional Low Temperature Scale PLTS-2000 are described as important parts of the International System of Units to support science and technology. Its main importance becomes obvious in connection with industrial development and international markets. Every country is strongly interested in unique measures, in order to guarantee quality, reproducibility and functionability of products. The eventual realization of an international system, however, is only possible within the well-functioning organization of metrological laboratories. In developed countries the government established scientific institutes have certain metrological duties, as, for instance, the maintenance and dissemination of national units. For the base unit kelvin, this procedure is described in the sections on practical temperature scales, practical thermometry and reference standards. Testing experimentally the fundamental laws of physics means in practice the precise determination of the fundamental constants appearing in the laws. The essence of current activities is that prototypes, which may vary uncontrollably with time and location, are replaced by abstract experimental prescriptions that relate the units to the constants. This approach is shown for the definition of the kelvin and the Boltzmann constant. Dedicated to the occasion of the 60th birthday of Wolfgang Buck.

Extreme-ultraviolet and electron beam lithography processing using water developable resist material

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Takei, Satoshi

2017-08-01

In order to achieve the use of pure water in the developable process of extreme-ultraviolet and electron beam lithography, instead of conventionally used tetramethylammonium hydroxide and organic solvents, a water developable resist material was designed and developed. The water-developable resist material was derived from woody biomass with beta-linked disaccharide unit for environmental affair, safety, easiness of handling, and health of the working people. 80 nm dense line patterning images with exposure dose of 22 μC/cm2 and CF4 etching selectivity of 1.8 with hardmask layer were provided by specific process conditions. The approach of our water-developable resist material will be one of the most promising technologies ready to be investigated into production of medical device applications.

Learning and Refugees: Recognizing the Darker Side of Transformative Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Morrice, Linda

2013-01-01

Learning is generally viewed as a positive process bringing benefits to the individual, leading to growth and self-development. But is this always the case? This article draws on empirical research with refugees and considers the processes of transforming experience and learning that accompanies transition to life in the United Kingdom. I will…

WEPP Model applications for evaluations of best management practices

Treesearch

D. C. Flanagan; W. J. Elliott; J. R. Frankenberger; C. Huang

2010-01-01

The Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP) model is a process-based erosion prediction technology for application to small watersheds and hillslope profiles, under agricultural, forested, rangeland, and other land management conditions. Developed by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) over the past 25 years, WEPP simulates many of the physical processes...

Implementation of School Instructional Improvement and Student Growth in Math: Testing a Multilevel Longitudinal Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Takanishi, Stacey M.

2012-01-01

NCLB policies in the United States focus schools' efforts on implementing effective instructional processes to improve student outcomes. This study looks more specifically at how schools are perceived to be implementing state required curricula and benchmarks and developing teaching and learning processes that support the teaching of state…

Understanding Customer Product Choices: A Case Study Using the Analytical Hierarchy Process

Treesearch

Robert L. Smith; Robert J. Bush; Daniel L. Schmoldt

1996-01-01

The Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) was used to characterize the bridge material selection decisions of highway officials across the United States. Understanding product choices by utilizing the AHP allowed us to develop strategies for increasing the use of timber in bridge construction. State Department of Transportation engineers, private consulting engineers, and...

METHOD-SPECIFIC PRECISION AND BIAS RELATIONSHIPS DEVELOPED FROM DATA SUBMITTED DURING USEPA DRINKING WATER LABORATORY PERFORMANCE EVALUATION STUDIES

EPA Science Inventory

This paper documents the process used by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) to estimate the mean and standard deviation of data reported by in-control drinking water laboratories during Water Supply (WS) studies. This process is then applied to the data re...

METHOD-SPECIFIC PRECISION AND BIAS RELATIONSHIPS DEVELOPED FROM DATA SUBMITTED DURING USEPA WASTEWATER LABORATORY PERFORMANCE EVALUATION STUDIES

EPA Science Inventory

This paper documents the process used by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) to estimate the mean and standard deviation of data reported by in-control wastewater laboratories during Water Pollution (WP) studies. This process is then applied to the data rep...

Characterization of escherichia coli O157:H7 strains from contaminated raw beef trim during “high event periods”

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The development and implementation of effective antimicrobial interventions by the beef processing industry in the United States have dramatically reduced the incidence of beef trim contamination by Escherichia coli O157:H7. However, individual processing plants still experience sporadic peaks in co...

SBIR and STTR Programs: The Private Sector, Public Sector and University Trifecta

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ford, Bryan K.; Sander, Erik; Shino, Kathleen J.; Hardin, J. Michael

2008-01-01

The process of creating and transitioning the storehouse of university research and development to commercial products is by its nature a true partnership of great university innovators, experienced entrepreneurs and adequate funding sources. In the United States, the process of university innovation to commercialization begins deep in university…

Disciplinary Literacies in an Engineering Club: Exploring Productive Communication and the Engineering Design Process

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shanahan, Lynn E.; McVee, Mary B.; Slivestri, Katarina N.; Haq, Kate

2016-01-01

This conceptual article addresses the question: What are the disciplinary literacy practices surrounding the Engineering Design Process (EDP) at the elementary level? Recent attention has focused on developing science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) skills for U.S. students. In the United States, the Next Generation Science Standards and…

Occupationally Related Science. Draft Curriculum 1986-87.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

New York State Education Dept., Albany. Div. of Occupational Education Programs.

To prepare occupational students for employment, a basic understanding of scientific knowledge and the processes of science that have been applied in the development of tools, machines, instruments, and technological techniques or processes should be taught. When a second unit of science was included for all high school students in the New York…

Development of microcontroller-based acquisition and processing unit for fiber optic vibration sensor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Suryadi; Puranto, P.; Adinanta, H.; Waluyo, T. B.; Priambodo, P. S.

2017-04-01

Microcontroller based acquisition and processing unit (MAPU) has been developed to measure vibration signal from fiber optic vibration sensor. The MAPU utilizes a 32-bit ARM microcontroller to perform acquisition and processing of the input signal. The input signal is acquired with 12 bit ADC and processed using FFT method to extract frequency information. Stability of MAPU is characterized by supplying a constant input signal at 500 Hz for 29 hours and shows a stable operation. To characterize the frequency response, input signal is swapped from 20 to 1000 Hz with 20 Hz interval. The characterization result shows that MAPU can detect input signal from 20 to 1000 Hz with minimum signal of 4 mV RMS. The experiment has been set that utilizes the MAPU with singlemode-multimode-singlemode (SMS) fiber optic sensor to detect vibration which is induced by a transducer in a wooden platform. The experimental result indicates that vibration signal from 20 to 600 Hz has been successfully detected. Due to the limitation of the vibration source used in the experiment, vibration signal above 600 Hz is undetected.

Spreading a medication administration intervention organizationwide in six hospitals.

PubMed

Kliger, Julie; Singer, Sara; Hoffman, Frank; O'Neil, Edward

2012-02-01

Six hospitals from the San Francisco Bay Area participated in a 12-month quality improvement project conducted by the Integrated Nurse Leadership Program (INLP). A quality improvement intervention that focused on improving medication administration accuracy was spread from two pilot units to all inpatient units in the hospitals. INLP developed a 12-month curriculum, presented in a combination of off-site training sessions and hospital-based training and consultant-led meetings, to teach clinicians the key skills needed to drive organizationwide change. Each hospital established a nurse-led project team, as well as unit teams to address six safety processes designed to improve medication administration accuracy: compare medication to the medication administration record; keep medication labeled throughout; check two patient identifications; explain drug to patient (if applicable); chart immediately after administration; and protect process from distractions and interruptions. From baseline until one year after project completion, the six hospitals improved their medication accuracy rates, on average, from 83.4% to 98.0% in the spread units. The spread units also improved safety processes overall from 83.1% to 97.2%. During the same time, the initial pilot units also continued to improve accuracy from 94.0% to 96.8% and safety processes overall from 95.3% to 97.2%. With thoughtful planning, engaging those doing the work early and focusing on the "human side of change" along with technical knowledge of improvement methodologies, organizations can spread initiatives enterprisewide. This program required significant training of frontline workers in problem-solving skills, leading change, team management, data tracking, and communication.

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.

The Development of Environmental Education Materials for Investigating Fire-Environment-Man Relationships: Final Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hanselman, David L.; Reider, David A.

This publication details the development and use of environmental education materials based on the United States Forest Service "Process Approach." This publication focuses on materials that teach the ecology and management of natural and man-made forest and brush fires. The main body of the contents develop and document a rationale for…

Community Development: An Intensive Training Manual. Training for Agency Field Personnel.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gessaman, Paul H.

Intended for agency field personnel who assist in local community development (CD) efforts, this publication is the second of three making up an intensive training manual for community development. Using an inservice training approach, this part of the manual contains four instructional units: rationale for CD training, what CD is (CD as process,…

Analysis of digester design concepts

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

Ashare, E.; Wilson, E. H.

1979-01-29

Engineering economic analyses were performed on various digester design concepts to determine the relative performance for various biomass feedstocks. A comprehensive literature survey describing the state-of-the-art of the various digestion designs is included. The digester designs included in the analyses are CSTR, plug flow, batch, CSTR in series, multi-stage digestion and biomethanation. Other process options investigated included pretreatment processes such as shredding, degritting, and chemical pretreatment, and post-digestion processes, such as dewatering and gas purification. The biomass sources considered include feedlot manure, rice straw, and bagasse. The results of the analysis indicate that the most economical (on a unit gasmore » cost basis) digester design concept is the plug flow reactor. This conclusion results from this system providing a high gas production rate combined with a low capital hole-in-the-ground digester design concept. The costs determined in this analysis do not include any credits or penalties for feedstock or by-products, but present the costs only for conversion of biomass to methane. The batch land-fill type digester design was shown to have a unit gas cost comparable to that for a conventional stirred tank digester, with the potential of reducing the cost if a land-fill site were available for a lower cost per unit volume. The use of chemical pretreatment resulted in a higher unit gas cost, primarily due to the cost of pretreatment chemical. A sensitivity analysis indicated that the use of chemical pretreatment could improve the economics provided a process could be developed which utilized either less pretreatment chemical or a less costly chemical. The use of other process options resulted in higher unit gas costs. These options should only be used when necessary for proper process performance, or to result in production of a valuable by-product.« less

Development of an Integrated Multi-Contaminant Removal Process Applied to Warm Syngas Cleanup for Coal-Based Advanced Gasification Systems

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

Meyer, Howard

2010-11-30

This project met the objective to further the development of an integrated multi-contaminant removal process in which H2S, NH3, HCl and heavy metals including Hg, As, Se and Cd present in the coal-derived syngas can be removed to specified levels in a single/integrated process step. The process supports the mission and goals of the Department of Energy's Gasification Technologies Program, namely to enhance the performance of gasification systems, thus enabling U.S. industry to improve the competitiveness of gasification-based processes. The gasification program will reduce equipment costs, improve process environmental performance, and increase process reliability and flexibility. Two sulfur conversion conceptsmore » were tested in the laboratory under this project, i.e., the solventbased, high-pressure University of California Sulfur Recovery Process High Pressure (UCSRP-HP) and the catalytic-based, direct oxidation (DO) section of the CrystaSulf-DO process. Each process required a polishing unit to meet the ultra-clean sulfur content goals of <50 ppbv (parts per billion by volume) as may be necessary for fuel cells or chemical production applications. UCSRP-HP was also tested for the removal of trace, non-sulfur contaminants, including ammonia, hydrogen chloride, and heavy metals. A bench-scale unit was commissioned and limited testing was performed with simulated syngas. Aspen-Plus®-based computer simulation models were prepared and the economics of the UCSRP-HP and CrystaSulf-DO processes were evaluated for a nominal 500 MWe, coal-based, IGCC power plant with carbon capture. This report covers the progress on the UCSRP-HP technology development and the CrystaSulf-DO technology.« less

Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator Engineering Unit 2 (ASRG EU2) Final Assembly

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Oriti, Salvatore M.

2015-01-01

NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) has recently completed the assembly of a unique Stirling generator test article for laboratory experimentation. Under the Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator (ASRG) flight development contract, NASA GRC initiated a task to design and fabricate a flight-like generator for in-house testing. This test article was given the name ASRG Engineering Unit 2 (EU2) as it was effectively the second engineering unit to be built within the ASRG project. The intent of the test article was to duplicate Lockheed Martin's qualification unit ASRG design as much as possible to enable system-level tests not previously possible at GRC. After the cancellation of the ASRG flight development project, the decision was made to continue the EU2 build, and make use of a portion of the hardware from the flight development project. GRC and Lockheed Martin engineers collaborated to develop assembly procedures, leveraging the valuable knowledge gathered by Lockheed Martin during the ASRG development contract. The ASRG EU2 was then assembled per these procedures at GRC with Lockheed Martin engineers on site. The assembly was completed in August 2014. This paper details the components that were used for the assembly, and the assembly process itself.

General purpose graphic processing unit implementation of adaptive pulse compression algorithms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cai, Jingxiao; Zhang, Yan

2017-07-01

This study introduces a practical approach to implement real-time signal processing algorithms for general surveillance radar based on NVIDIA graphical processing units (GPUs). The pulse compression algorithms are implemented using compute unified device architecture (CUDA) libraries such as CUDA basic linear algebra subroutines and CUDA fast Fourier transform library, which are adopted from open source libraries and optimized for the NVIDIA GPUs. For more advanced, adaptive processing algorithms such as adaptive pulse compression, customized kernel optimization is needed and investigated. A statistical optimization approach is developed for this purpose without needing much knowledge of the physical configurations of the kernels. It was found that the kernel optimization approach can significantly improve the performance. Benchmark performance is compared with the CPU performance in terms of processing accelerations. The proposed implementation framework can be used in various radar systems including ground-based phased array radar, airborne sense and avoid radar, and aerospace surveillance radar.

Know how to maximize maintenance spending

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

Carrino, A.J.; Jones, R.B.; Platt, W.E.

Solomon has developed a methodology to determine a large optimum point where availability meets maintenance spending for Powder River Basin (PRB) coal-fired units. Using a database of sufficient size and composition across various operating ranges, Solomon generated an algorithm that predicts the relationship between maintenance spending and availability. Coupling this generalized algorithm with a unit-specific market-loss curve determines the optimum spending for a facility. The article presents the results of the analysis, how this methodology can be applied to develop optimum operating and financial targets for specific units and markets and a process to achieve those targets. It also describesmore » how this methodology can be used for other types of fossil-fired technologies and future enhancements to the analysis. 5 figs.« less

Quantity and unit extraction for scientific and technical intelligence analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

David, Peter; Hawes, Timothy

2017-05-01

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

Allograft update: the current status of tissue regulation, procurement, processing, and sterilization.

PubMed

McAllister, David R; Joyce, Michael J; Mann, Barton J; Vangsness, C Thomas

2007-12-01

Allografts are commonly used during sports medicine surgical procedures in the United States, and their frequency of use is increasing. Based on surgeon reports, it is estimated that more than 60 000 allografts were used in knee surgeries by members of the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine in 2005. In the United States, there are governmental agencies and other regulatory bodies involved in the oversight of tissue banks. In 2005, the Food and Drug Administration finalized its requirements for current good tissue practice and has mandated new rules regarding the "manufacture" of allogenic tissue. In response to well-publicized infections associated with the implantation of allograft tissue, some tissue banks have developed methods to sterilize allograft tissue. Although many surgeons have significant concerns about the safety of allografts, the majority believe that sterilized allografts are safe but that the sterilization process negatively affects tissue biology and biomechanics. However, most know very little about the principles of sterilization and the proprietary processes currently used in tissue banking. This article will review the current status of allograft tissue regulation, procurement, processing, and sterilization in the United States.

Reliability and performance of a system-on-a-chip by predictive wear-out based activation of functional components

DOEpatents

Cher, Chen-Yong; Coteus, Paul W; Gara, Alan; Kursun, Eren; Paulsen, David P; Schuelke, Brian A; Sheets, II, John E; Tian, Shurong

2013-10-01

A processor-implemented method for determining aging of a processing unit in a processor the method comprising: calculating an effective aging profile for the processing unit wherein the effective aging profile quantifies the effects of aging on the processing unit; combining the effective aging profile with process variation data, actual workload data and operating conditions data for the processing unit; and determining aging through an aging sensor of the processing unit using the effective aging profile, the process variation data, the actual workload data, architectural characteristics and redundancy data, and the operating conditions data for the processing unit.

Biodesign process and culture to enable pediatric medical technology innovation.

PubMed

Wall, James; Wynne, Elizabeth; Krummel, Thomas

2015-06-01

Innovation is the process through which new scientific discoveries are developed and promoted from bench to bedside. In an effort to encourage young entrepreneurs in this area, Stanford Biodesign developed a medical device innovation training program focused on need-based innovation. The program focuses on teaching systematic evaluation of healthcare needs, invention, and concept development. This process can be applied to any field of medicine, including Pediatric Surgery. Similar training programs have gained traction throughout the United States and beyond. Equally important to process in the success of these programs is an institutional culture that supports transformative thinking. Key components of this culture include risk tolerance, patience, encouragement of creativity, management of conflict, and networking effects. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

How Differences Between Manager and Clinician Perceptions of Safety Culture Impact Hospital Processes of Care.

PubMed

Richter, Jason; Mazurenko, Olena; Kazley, Abby Swanson; Ford, Eric W

2017-11-04

Evidenced-based processes of care improve patient outcomes, yet universal compliance is lacking, and perceptions of the quality of care are highly variable. The purpose of this study is to examine how differences in clinician and management perceptions on teamwork and communication relate to adherence to hospital processes of care. Hospitals submitted identifiable data for the 2012 Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' Hospital Compare. The dependent variable was a composite, developed from the scores on adherence to acute myocardial infarction, heart failure, and pneumonia process of care measures. The primary independent variables reflected 4 safety culture domains: communication openness, feedback about errors, teamwork within units, and teamwork between units. We assigned each hospital into one of 4 groups based on agreement between managers and clinicians on each domain. Each hospital was categorized as "high" (above the median) or "low" (below) for clinicians and managers in communication and teamwork. We found a positive relationship between perceived teamwork and communication climate and processes of care measures. If managers and clinicians perceived the communication openness as high, the hospital was more likely to adhere with processes of care. Similarly, if clinicians perceived teamwork across units as high, the hospital was more likely to adhere to processes of care. Manager and staff perceptions about teamwork and communications impact adherence to processes of care. Policies should recognize the importance of perceptions of both clinicians and managers on teamwork and communication and seek to improve organizational climate and practices. Clinician perceptions of teamwork across units are more closely linked to processes of care, so managers should be cognizant and try to improve their perceptions.

Building the United States National Vegetation Classification

USGS Publications Warehouse

Franklin, S.B.; Faber-Langendoen, D.; Jennings, M.; Keeler-Wolf, T.; Loucks, O.; Peet, R.; Roberts, D.; McKerrow, A.

2012-01-01

The Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) Vegetation Subcommittee, the Ecological Society of America Panel on Vegetation Classification, and NatureServe have worked together to develop the United States National Vegetation Classification (USNVC). The current standard was accepted in 2008 and fosters consistency across Federal agencies and non-federal partners for the description of each vegetation concept and its hierarchical classification. The USNVC is structured as a dynamic standard, where changes to types at any level may be proposed at any time as new information comes in. But, because much information already exists from previous work, the NVC partners first established methods for screening existing types to determine their acceptability with respect to the 2008 standard. Current efforts include a screening process to assign confidence to Association and Group level descriptions, and a review of the upper three levels of the classification. For the upper levels especially, the expectation is that the review process includes international scientists. Immediate future efforts include the review of remaining levels and the development of a proposal review process.

Description of a dual fail operational redundant strapdown inertial measurement unit for integrated avionics systems research

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bryant, W. H.; Morrell, F. R.

1981-01-01

An experimental redundant strapdown inertial measurement unit (RSDIMU) is developed as a link to satisfy safety and reliability considerations in the integrated avionics concept. The unit includes four two degree-of-freedom tuned rotor gyros, and four accelerometers in a skewed and separable semioctahedral array. These sensors are coupled to four microprocessors which compensate sensor errors. These microprocessors are interfaced with two flight computers which process failure detection, isolation, redundancy management, and general flight control/navigation algorithms. Since the RSDIMU is a developmental unit, it is imperative that the flight computers provide special visibility and facility in algorithm modification.

Oligosaccharide Mimetics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wessel, Hans Peter; Lucas, Susana Dias

The important roles of oligosaccharides in physiological and pathophysiological processes have spurred the development of mimetics. Oligosaccharide mimetics discussed in this chapter may possess a linker of two or more atoms such as amide or urea groups that may lead to isosteric linkage replacements but mostly do not. Larger groups that replace a full sugar unit we refer to as spacers and have grouped molecules with flexible acyclic spacers and more rigid cyclic spacers . The employment of pharmacophore models has led to oligosaccharide mimetics with only one sugar unit or finally without any saccharide unit as exemplified in mimotopes.

Manufacturing Process Development for Dust and Rain Erosion Resistant Coated Metallic Clads for Helicopter Rotors

DTIC Science & Technology

1980-06-01

program is to develop, on a timely basis, manufacturing processes, techniques and equipment for use in production of Army materiel. Comments are...solicited on the potential utilization of the information contained herein as applied to present and/or future production programs. Such comments should be...manufacturers in this report shall not be construed as advertising nor as an official indorsement or approval of such products or companies by the United

Development of water quality standards criteria. [for consumables (spacecrew supplies)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1976-01-01

Qualitative and semiquantitative analyses were made of volatile organic compounds in water supplies collected at various stages of processing in the space station prototype vacuum compression distillation unit to evaluate the process and the product water. Additional evaluation was made of specific ingredients required to adequately enhance the taste of the reclaimed water. A concept for the in-flight addition of these ingredients was developed. Revisions to previously recommended potable water criteria and specifications are included.

Taking Workforce Initiatives to Scale: Workforce Initiatives Discussion Paper #2

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Academy for Educational Development, 2011

2011-01-01

The System-wide Collaborative Action for Livelihoods and Environment, or SCALE process, has become one of the Academy for Educational Development's (AED's) and the United States Agency for International Development's (USAID's) most utilized and replicated models, with applications in education, health, natural resources management, tourism,…

Agricultural Products Sales and Service Worker. Ohio's Competency Analysis Profile.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Vocational Instructional Materials Lab.

Developed through a modified DACUM (Developing a Curriculum) process involving business, industry, labor, and community agency representatives in Ohio, this document is a comprehensive and verified employer competency profile for agricultural products sales and service occupations. The list contains units (with and without subunits), competencies,…

Model development and applications at the USDA-ARS National Soil Erosion Research Laboratory

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has a long history of development of soil erosion prediction technology, initially with empirical equations like the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE), and more recently with process-based models such as the Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP)...

INTERIM GUIDANCE FOR DEVELOPING GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEM DATA COLLECTION STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURES AND QUALITY ASSURANCE PROJECT PLANS

EPA Science Inventory

The United States Environmental Protection Agency Geospatial Quality Council developed this document to harmonize the process of collecting, editing, and exporting spatial data of known quality using the Global Positioning System (GPS). Each organizational entity may adopt this d...

Development of Mobile Tracer Correlation Method for Quantification of Emissions from Landfills and Other Large Area Sources

EPA Science Inventory

There is an emerging need to develop cost effective measurement methods for greenhouse gas and air pollutant emissions from large area sources such as landfills, waste water treatment ponds, open area processing units, agricultural operations, CO2 sequestration fields, and site r...

Development of Mobile Tracer Correlation Approach for Quantification of Emissions from Landfills and Other Large Area Sources

EPA Science Inventory

There is a recognized need to develop cost effective measurement methods for greenhouse gas and air pollutant emissions from large area sources such as landfills, waste water treatment ponds, open area processing units, agricultural operations, CO2 sequestration fields, and site ...

U.S. Strategic Nuclear Forces: Background, Developments, and Issues

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-02-10

This program area is specifically seeking to support the solid rocket motor research and development industrial base , so that it will have the...... Research Service Summary Even though the United States is in the process of reducing the number of warheads deployed on its long-range missiles and

Managing Returns in a Catalog Distribution Center

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gates, Joyce; Stuart, Julie Ann; Bonawi-tan, Winston; Loehr, Sarah

2004-01-01

The research team of the Purdue University in the United States developed an algorithm that considers several different factors, in addition to cost, to help catalog distribution centers process their returns more efficiently. A case study to teach the students important concepts involved in developing a solution to the returns disposition problem…

Comparative Lessons for Democracy: An International Curriculum Development Project.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shinew, Dawn M.; Fischer, John M.

1997-01-01

Describes a project, Comparative Lessons for Democracy, to develop and publish lessons for high school students. Lessons compare institutions and processes of constitutional democracy in the United States and five post-communist countries involved in the Civitas international civic education programs: Latvia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary,…

Fast analytical scatter estimation using graphics processing units.

PubMed

Ingleby, Harry; Lippuner, Jonas; Rickey, Daniel W; Li, Yue; Elbakri, Idris

2015-01-01

To develop a fast patient-specific analytical estimator of first-order Compton and Rayleigh scatter in cone-beam computed tomography, implemented using graphics processing units. The authors developed an analytical estimator for first-order Compton and Rayleigh scatter in a cone-beam computed tomography geometry. The estimator was coded using NVIDIA's CUDA environment for execution on an NVIDIA graphics processing unit. Performance of the analytical estimator was validated by comparison with high-count Monte Carlo simulations for two different numerical phantoms. Monoenergetic analytical simulations were compared with monoenergetic and polyenergetic Monte Carlo simulations. Analytical and Monte Carlo scatter estimates were compared both qualitatively, from visual inspection of images and profiles, and quantitatively, using a scaled root-mean-square difference metric. Reconstruction of simulated cone-beam projection data of an anthropomorphic breast phantom illustrated the potential of this method as a component of a scatter correction algorithm. The monoenergetic analytical and Monte Carlo scatter estimates showed very good agreement. The monoenergetic analytical estimates showed good agreement for Compton single scatter and reasonable agreement for Rayleigh single scatter when compared with polyenergetic Monte Carlo estimates. For a voxelized phantom with dimensions 128 × 128 × 128 voxels and a detector with 256 × 256 pixels, the analytical estimator required 669 seconds for a single projection, using a single NVIDIA 9800 GX2 video card. Accounting for first order scatter in cone-beam image reconstruction improves the contrast to noise ratio of the reconstructed images. The analytical scatter estimator, implemented using graphics processing units, provides rapid and accurate estimates of single scatter and with further acceleration and a method to account for multiple scatter may be useful for practical scatter correction schemes.

Orthorectification by Using Gpgpu Method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sahin, H.; Kulur, S.

2012-07-01

Thanks to the nature of the graphics processing, the newly released products offer highly parallel processing units with high-memory bandwidth and computational power of more than teraflops per second. The modern GPUs are not only powerful graphic engines but also they are high level parallel programmable processors with very fast computing capabilities and high-memory bandwidth speed compared to central processing units (CPU). Data-parallel computations can be shortly described as mapping data elements to parallel processing threads. The rapid development of GPUs programmability and capabilities attracted the attentions of researchers dealing with complex problems which need high level calculations. This interest has revealed the concepts of "General Purpose Computation on Graphics Processing Units (GPGPU)" and "stream processing". The graphic processors are powerful hardware which is really cheap and affordable. So the graphic processors became an alternative to computer processors. The graphic chips which were standard application hardware have been transformed into modern, powerful and programmable processors to meet the overall needs. Especially in recent years, the phenomenon of the usage of graphics processing units in general purpose computation has led the researchers and developers to this point. The biggest problem is that the graphics processing units use different programming models unlike current programming methods. Therefore, an efficient GPU programming requires re-coding of the current program algorithm by considering the limitations and the structure of the graphics hardware. Currently, multi-core processors can not be programmed by using traditional programming methods. Event procedure programming method can not be used for programming the multi-core processors. GPUs are especially effective in finding solution for repetition of the computing steps for many data elements when high accuracy is needed. Thus, it provides the computing process more quickly and accurately. Compared to the GPUs, CPUs which perform just one computing in a time according to the flow control are slower in performance. This structure can be evaluated for various applications of computer technology. In this study covers how general purpose parallel programming and computational power of the GPUs can be used in photogrammetric applications especially direct georeferencing. The direct georeferencing algorithm is coded by using GPGPU method and CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture) programming language. Results provided by this method were compared with the traditional CPU programming. In the other application the projective rectification is coded by using GPGPU method and CUDA programming language. Sample images of various sizes, as compared to the results of the program were evaluated. GPGPU method can be used especially in repetition of same computations on highly dense data, thus finding the solution quickly.

The factors affecting the institutionalisation of two policy units in Burkina Faso's health system: a case study.

PubMed

Zida, Andre; Lavis, John N; Sewankambo, Nelson K; Kouyate, Bocar; Moat, Kaelan

2017-07-17

This paper is one of three linked studies that attempts to understand the process of institutionalisation of policy units within Burkina Faso's health system. It examines the relationships between the existence of an institutional framework, data production capacity and other resource availability in the institutionalisation of policy units in health systems. It therefore contributes to our understanding of the dynamics linking the key drivers and indicators of institutionalisation. Additionally, it examines how factors within the managerial setting, including workplace environment, and budgetary and human resource availability, may influence the institutionalisation process. The study used an explanatory qualitative case study approach, examining two policy units in Burkina Faso's Ministry of Health, the first of which had been institutionalised successfully and the other less so. Data were collected from key policymakers, including 13 connected with the first policy unit and 10 with the second, plus two funders. We also conducted a documentary analysis of the National Program for Health Development, two mid-term strategic plans, 230 action plans, eight Ministry of Health state budgets, eight Ministry of Health annual statistics reports, 16 policy unit budgets and published literature. The framework within which the government gave the policy unit its mandate and policy focus had the strongest effect on the institutionalisation process. Institutionalisation depended on political will, in both the host government and any donors, and the priority given to the policy unit's focus. It was also affected by the leadership of the policy unit managers. These factors were influenced by human resource capacity, and our findings suggest that, for successful institutionalisation in Burkina Faso's health system, policy units need to be given sufficient human resources to achieve their objectives. Policy units' institutionalisation in Burkina Faso's health system depend on the leadership of the unit managers to implement relevant activities, mobilise funding, and recruit and maintain enough human resources, as well as the mandate given by the government.

Device and method to enhance availability of cluster-based processing systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lupia, David J. (Inventor); Ramos, Jeremy (Inventor); Samson, Jr., John R. (Inventor)

2010-01-01

An electronic computing device including at least one processing unit that implements a specific fault signal upon experiencing an associated fault, a control unit that generates a specific recovery signal upon receiving the fault signal from the at least one processing unit, and at least one input memory unit. The recovery signal initiates specific recovery processes in the at least one processing unit. The input memory buffers input data signals input to the at least one processing unit that experienced the fault during the recovery period.

The implementation of a postoperative care process on a neurosurgical unit.

PubMed

Douglas, Mary; Rowed, Sheila

2005-12-01

The postoperative phase is a critical time for any neurosurgical patient. Historically, certain patients having neurosurgical procedures, such as craniotomies and other more complex surgeries, have been nursed postoperatively in the intensive care unit (ICU) for an overnight stay, prior to transfer to a neurosurgical floor. At the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, because of challenges with access to ICU beds and the cancellation of surgeries because of lack of available nurses for the ICU setting, this practice was reexamined. A set of criteria was developed to identify which postoperative patients should come directly to the neurosurgical unit immediately following their anesthetic recovery. The criteria were based on patient diagnosis, preoperative condition, comorbidities, the surgical procedure, intraoperative complications, and postoperative status. A detailed process was then outlined that allowed the optimum patients to be selected for this process to ensure patient safety. Included in this process was a postoperative protocol addressing details such as standard physician orders and the levels of monitoring required. Outcomes of this new process include fewer surgical cancellations for patients and families, equally safe, or better patient care, and the conservation of limited ICU resources. The program has currently been expanded to include patients who have undergone endovascular therapies.

Standardized severe maternal morbidity review: rationale and process.

PubMed

Kilpatrick, Sarah J; Berg, Cynthia; Bernstein, Peter; Bingham, Debra; Delgado, Ana; Callaghan, William M; Harris, Karen; Lanni, Susan; Mahoney, Jeanne; Main, Elliot; Nacht, Amy; Schellpfeffer, Michael; Westover, Thomas; Harper, Margaret

2014-08-01

Severe maternal morbidity and mortality have been rising in the United States. To begin a national effort to reduce morbidity, a specific call to identify all pregnant and postpartum women experiencing admission to an intensive care unit or receipt of 4 or more units of blood for routine review has been made. While advocating for review of these cases, no specific guidance for the review process was provided. Therefore, the aim of this expert opinion is to present guidelines for a standardized severe maternal morbidity interdisciplinary review process to identify systems, professional, and facility factors that can be ameliorated, with the overall goal of improving institutional obstetric safety and reducing severe morbidity and mortality among pregnant and recently pregnant women. This opinion was developed by a multidisciplinary working group that included general obstetrician-gynecologists, maternal-fetal medicine subspecialists, certified nurse-midwives, and registered nurses all with experience in maternal mortality reviews. A process for standardized review of severe maternal morbidity addressing committee organization, review process, medical record abstraction and assessment, review culture, data management, review timing, and review confidentiality is presented. Reference is made to a sample severe maternal morbidity abstraction and assessment form.

Real-time image processing for non-contact monitoring of dynamic displacements using smartphone technologies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Min, Jae-Hong; Gelo, Nikolas J.; Jo, Hongki

2016-04-01

The newly developed smartphone application, named RINO, in this study allows measuring absolute dynamic displacements and processing them in real time using state-of-the-art smartphone technologies, such as high-performance graphics processing unit (GPU), in addition to already powerful CPU and memories, embedded high-speed/ resolution camera, and open-source computer vision libraries. A carefully designed color-patterned target and user-adjustable crop filter enable accurate and fast image processing, allowing up to 240fps for complete displacement calculation and real-time display. The performances of the developed smartphone application are experimentally validated, showing comparable accuracy with those of conventional laser displacement sensor.

A Module Experimental Process System Development Unit (MEPSDU). [development of low cost solar arrays

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1981-01-01

The technical readiness of a cost effective process sequence that has the potential for the production of flat plate photovoltaic modules which met the price goal in 1986 of $.70 or less per Watt peak was demonstrated. The proposed process sequence was reviewed and laboratory verification experiments were conducted. The preliminary process includes the following features: semicrystalline silicon (10 cm by 10 cm) as the silicon input material; spray on dopant diffusion source; Al paste BSF formation; spray on AR coating; electroless Ni plate solder dip metallization; laser scribe edges; K & S tabbing and stringing machine; and laminated EVA modules.

[IMPLEMENTATION OF A QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM IN A NUTRITION UNIT ACCORDING TO ISO 9001:2008].

PubMed

Velasco Gimeno, Cristina; Cuerda Compés, Cristina; Alonso Puerta, Alba; Frías Soriano, Laura; Camblor Álvarez, Miguel; Bretón Lesmes, Irene; Plá Mestre, Rosa; Izquierdo Membrilla, Isabel; García-Peris, Pilar

2015-09-01

the implementation of quality management systems (QMS) in the health sector has made great progress in recent years, remains a key tool for the management and improvement of services provides to patients. to describe the process of implementing a quality management system (QMS) according to the standard ISO 9001:2008 in a Nutrition Unit. the implementation began in October 2012. Nutrition Unit was supported by Hospital Preventive Medicine and Quality Management Service (PMQM). Initially training sessions on QMS and ISO standards for staff were held. Quality Committee (QC) was established with representation of the medical and nursing staff. Every week, meeting took place among members of the QC and PMQM to define processes, procedures and quality indicators. We carry on a 2 months follow-up of these documents after their validation. a total of 4 processes were identified and documented (Nutritional status assessment, Nutritional treatment, Monitoring of nutritional treatment and Planning and control of oral feeding) and 13 operating procedures in which all the activity of the Unit were described. The interactions among them were defined in the processes map. Each process has associated specific quality indicators for measuring the state of the QMS, and identifying opportunities for improvement. All the documents associated with requirements of ISO 9001:2008 were developed: quality policy, quality objectives, quality manual, documents and records control, internal audit, nonconformities and corrective and preventive actions. The unit was certified by AENOR in April 2013. the implementation of a QMS causes a reorganization of the activities of the Unit in order to meet customer's expectations. Documenting these activities ensures a better understanding of the organization, defines the responsibilities of all staff and brings a better management of time and resources. QMS also improves the internal communication and is a motivational element. Explore the satisfaction and expectations of patients can include their view in the design of care processes. Copyright AULA MEDICA EDICIONES 2014. Published by AULA MEDICA. All rights reserved.

Creating a duet: The Couples Life Story Approach in the United States and Japan

PubMed Central

Ingersoll-Dayton, Berit; Spencer, Beth; Campbell, Ruth; Kurokowa, Yukiko; Ito, Mio

2015-01-01

There is a global need for interventions that help couples who are dealing with dementia. This paper describes the way in which interventionists from the United States and Japan participated in the development of an intervention for dyads in which one person is experiencing memory loss. The 5-week intervention, the Couples Life Story Approach, helps dyads to reminisce about their life together as a couple, to work on their patterns of communication, and to develop a Life Story Book. Based on an analysis of cases conducted in the United States (n = 20 couples) and Japan (n = 9 couples), this paper highlights the cross-fertilization process that has occurred as interventionists from the two countries have shared their experiences with one another. Using case illustrations, the discussion focuses on the clinical themes that have emerged for couples in the United States and Japan. PMID:24627456

A discrete event simulation tool to support and predict hospital and clinic staffing.

PubMed

DeRienzo, Christopher M; Shaw, Ryan J; Meanor, Phillip; Lada, Emily; Ferranti, Jeffrey; Tanaka, David

2017-06-01

We demonstrate how to develop a simulation tool to help healthcare managers and administrators predict and plan for staffing needs in a hospital neonatal intensive care unit using administrative data. We developed a discrete event simulation model of nursing staff needed in a neonatal intensive care unit and then validated the model against historical data. The process flow was translated into a discrete event simulation model. Results demonstrated that the model can be used to give a respectable estimate of annual admissions, transfers, and deaths based upon two different staffing levels. The discrete event simulation tool model can provide healthcare managers and administrators with (1) a valid method of modeling patient mix, patient acuity, staffing needs, and costs in the present state and (2) a forecast of how changes in a unit's staffing, referral patterns, or patient mix would affect a unit in a future state.

Comprehensive national database of tree effects on air quality and human health in the United States.

PubMed

Hirabayashi, Satoshi; Nowak, David J

2016-08-01

Trees remove air pollutants through dry deposition processes depending upon forest structure, meteorology, and air quality that vary across space and time. Employing nationally available forest, weather, air pollution and human population data for 2010, computer simulations were performed for deciduous and evergreen trees with varying leaf area index for rural and urban areas in every county in the conterminous United States. The results populated a national database of annual air pollutant removal, concentration changes, and reductions in adverse health incidences and costs for NO2, O3, PM2.5 and SO2. The developed database enabled a first order approximation of air quality and associated human health benefits provided by trees with any forest configurations anywhere in the conterminous United States over time. Comprehensive national database of tree effects on air quality and human health in the United States was developed. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Instrumentation for mechanistic design implementation.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2010-02-01

The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) Pavement Services Unit is in the process of implementing a new pavement design : procedure being developed under the sponsorship of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials....

International Nursing: How Much Power Do Nurse Managers Have?

PubMed

Trus, Marija; Martinkenas, Arvydas; Suominen, Tarja

This study was conducted to explore issues of nurse managers' power and empowerment. Data were collected from nurse managers by way of a questionnaire consisting of background factors, work-related questions, and power-related questions at the unit and organization levels. The degree of empowerment was evaluated using 2 established instruments (CWEQ-II and Work Empowerment Questionnaire). The overall level of managers' personal power within their own units was relatively high. Nurse managers' perception of their power at an organizational level was found to be at a moderate level. Several factors related to an individual's professional background were correlated to power issues, both at the unit and organizational levels. Structural and psychological empowerment correlated with the overall level of power at a unit level and the overall level of power at an organizational level. Nurse managers self-reported their own general power at a unit level as high, which offers them possibilities to lead the development of nursing care in their units. Organizations may benefit more from nurse managers' leadership by more fully integrating them in the development processes of the entire organization.

Event processing in X-IFU detector onboard Athena.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ceballos, M. T.; Cobos, B.; van der Kuurs, J.; Fraga-Encinas, R.

2015-05-01

The X-ray Observatory ATHENA was proposed in April 2014 as the mission to implement the science theme "The Hot and Energetic Universe" selected by ESA for L2 (the second Large-class mission in ESA's Cosmic Vision science programme). One of the two X-ray detectors designed to be onboard ATHENA is X-IFU, a cryogenic microcalorimeter based on Transition Edge Sensor (TES) technology that will provide spatially resolved high-resolution spectroscopy. X-IFU will be developed by a consortium of European research institutions currently from France (leadership), Italy, The Netherlands, Belgium, UK, Germany and Spain. From Spain, IFCA (CSIC-UC) is involved in the Digital Readout Electronics (DRE) unit of the X-IFU detector, in particular in the Event Processor Subsytem. We at IFCA are in charge of the development and implementation in the DRE unit of the Event Processing algorithms, designed to recognize, from a noisy signal, the intensity pulses generated by the absorption of the X-ray photons, and lately extract their main parameters (coordinates, energy, arrival time, grade, etc.) Here we will present the design and performance of the algorithms developed for the event recognition (adjusted derivative), and pulse grading/qualification as well as the progress in the algorithms designed to extract the energy content of the pulses (pulse optimal filtering). IFCA will finally have the responsibility of the implementation on board in the (TBD) FPGAs or micro-processors of the DRE unit, where this Event Processing part will take place, to fit into the limited telemetry of the instrument.

New methods of multimode fiber interferometer signal processing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vitrik, Oleg B.; Kulchin, Yuri N.; Maxaev, Oleg G.; Kirichenko, Oleg V.; Kamenev, Oleg T.; Petrov, Yuri S.

1995-06-01

New methods of multimode fiber interferometers signal processing are suggested. For scheme of single fiber multimode interferometers with two excited modes, the method based on using of special fiber unit is developed. This unit provides the modes interaction and further sum optical field filtering. As a result the amplitude of output signal is modulated by external influence on interferometer. The stabilization of interferometer sensitivity is achieved by using additional special modulation of output signal. For scheme of single fiber multimode interferometers with excitation of wide mode spectrum, the signal of intermode interference is registered by photodiode matrix and then special electronic unit performs correlation processing. For elimination of temperature destabilization, the registered signal is adopted to multimode interferometers optical signal temperature changes. The achieved parameters for double mode scheme: temporary stability--0.6% per hour, sensitivity to interferometer length deviations--3,2 nm; for multimode scheme: temperature stability--(0.5%)/(K), temporary nonstability--0.2% per hour, sensitivity to interferometer length deviations--20 nm, dynamic range--35 dB.

A mobile unit for memory retrieval in daily life based on image and sensor processing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Takesumi, Ryuji; Ueda, Yasuhiro; Nakanishi, Hidenobu; Nakamura, Atsuyoshi; Kakimori, Nobuaki

2003-10-01

We developed a Mobile Unit which purpose is to support memory retrieval of daily life. In this paper, we describe the two characteristic factors of this unit. (1)The behavior classification with an acceleration sensor. (2)Extracting the difference of environment with image processing technology. In (1), By analyzing power and frequency of an acceleration sensor which turns to gravity direction, the one's activities can be classified using some techniques to walk, stay, and so on. In (2), By extracting the difference between the beginning scene and the ending scene of a stay scene with image processing, the result which is done by user is recognized as the difference of environment. Using those 2 techniques, specific scenes of daily life can be extracted, and important information at the change of scenes can be realized to record. Especially we describe the effect to support retrieving important things, such as a thing left behind and a state of working halfway.

An integrated autonomous rendezvous and docking system architecture using Centaur modern avionics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nelson, Kurt

1991-01-01

The avionics system for the Centaur upper stage is in the process of being modernized with the current state-of-the-art in strapdown inertial guidance equipment. This equipment includes an integrated flight control processor with a ring laser gyro based inertial guidance system. This inertial navigation unit (INU) uses two MIL-STD-1750A processors and communicates over the MIL-STD-1553B data bus. Commands are translated into load activation through a Remote Control Unit (RCU) which incorporates the use of solid state relays. Also, a programmable data acquisition system replaces separate multiplexer and signal conditioning units. This modern avionics suite is currently being enhanced through independent research and development programs to provide autonomous rendezvous and docking capability using advanced cruise missile image processing technology and integrated GPS navigational aids. A system concept was developed to combine these technologies in order to achieve a fully autonomous rendezvous, docking, and autoland capability. The current system architecture and the evolution of this architecture using advanced modular avionics concepts being pursued for the National Launch System are discussed.

MORICE--new technology for mechanical oil recovery in ice infested waters.

PubMed

Jensen, Hans V; Mullin, Joseph V

2003-01-01

Mechanical oil recovery in ice infested waters (MORICE) was initiated in 1995 to develop technology for the recovery of oil spills in ice. It has been a multinational effort involving Norwegian, Canadian, American and German organizations and researchers. Through a stepwise approach with the development organized in six separate phases, laboratory tests and field experiments have been conducted to study various ideas and concepts, and to refine the ideas that were considered to have the best potential for removing oil in ice. Put together in one unit, these concepts included ice processing equipment and two alternative oil recovery units installed on a work platform. In January 2002, the final oil and ice testing with MORICE concepts was conducted at the Ohmsett test facility in Leonardo, New Jersey. The unit has been referred to as a harbor version to indicate the size and operating conditions, but the concepts could be scaled up to increase the capacity of oil and ice processing. For heavier ice conditions it would also be necessary to increase the overall strength.

Establishing a composite tissue allotransplantation program.

PubMed

Pomahac, Bohdan

2012-01-01

Composite tissue allotransplantation (CTA) has emerged as a promising surgical option to restore the form and function of missing or severely damaged structures such as the face, hands, or trachea. Currently, there are four active CTA programs in the United States and numerous others under development. The process of development of a CTA program in the United States involves successful collaboration between a strong project leader with vested clinical research interest, a multidisciplinary team of investigators, an Institutional Review Board, a regional Organ Processing Organization (PO), and the hospital's administration. The process of establishment of a CTA program can be slow and lengthy, therefore the project leader must strive to maintain the enthusiasm alive and drive the project forward. At all phases of development, the project must remain focused on the patients, must recognize and address all potential patient safety issues, must take into account the concerns, issues and logistic hurdles faced by the OPO, and must be financially responsible by ensuring that postoperative costs related to medical care and life-long immunosuppression are covered by medical insurance. This article describes the process of establishment of a CTA program at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA with special emphasis on strategy and planning. Thieme Medical Publishers 333 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10001, USA.

Food, Hunger, and Agricultural Issues. Proceedings of a Colloquium on Future U.S. Development Assistance (Morrilton, Arkansas, February 17-19, 1988). Development Education Series.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Clubb, Deborah, Ed.; Ligon, Polly C., Ed.

Colloquium participants were asked to make informed guesses about whether developing countries can grow and equitably distribute the food they need over the next decade, what the international development community should do to help in both production and distribution, and what role the United States should play in the development process. The 17…

Prediction system of hydroponic plant growth and development using algorithm Fuzzy Mamdani method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sudana, I. Made; Purnawirawan, Okta; Arief, Ulfa Mediaty

2017-03-01

Hydroponics is a method of farming without soil. One of the Hydroponic plants is Watercress (Nasturtium Officinale). The development and growth process of hydroponic Watercress was influenced by levels of nutrients, acidity and temperature. The independent variables can be used as input variable system to predict the value level of plants growth and development. The prediction system is using Fuzzy Algorithm Mamdani method. This system was built to implement the function of Fuzzy Inference System (Fuzzy Inference System/FIS) as a part of the Fuzzy Logic Toolbox (FLT) by using MATLAB R2007b. FIS is a computing system that works on the principle of fuzzy reasoning which is similar to humans' reasoning. Basically FIS consists of four units which are fuzzification unit, fuzzy logic reasoning unit, base knowledge unit and defuzzification unit. In addition to know the effect of independent variables on the plants growth and development that can be visualized with the function diagram of FIS output surface that is shaped three-dimensional, and statistical tests based on the data from the prediction system using multiple linear regression method, which includes multiple linear regression analysis, T test, F test, the coefficient of determination and donations predictor that are calculated using SPSS (Statistical Product and Service Solutions) software applications.

Assessment of DoD Enterprise Resource Planning Business Systems

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-02-01

activities, and processes to the organizational units that execute them • Architecture standards, such as application of the BPMN • Recommended...Recommendation: • Create and use style guides for the development of BPMN based process models. The style guide would probably include specifications such as...o All processes must have ‘entry points’ or ‘triggers’ in the form of BPMN Events o All processes must have ‘outcomes’ also in the form of BPMN

Maritime Domain Awareness: C4I for the 1000 Ship Navy

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-12-04

unit action, provide unit sensed contacts, coordinate unit operations, process unit information, release image , and release contact report, Figure 33...Intelligence Tasking Request Intelligence Summary Release Unit Person Incident Release Unit Vessel Incident Process Intelligence Tasking Release Image ...xi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Functional Problem Sequence Process Flow. ....................................................4 Figure 2. United

Industrial College of the Armed Forces Industry Studies 2003: Biotechnology

DTIC Science & Technology

2003-01-01

modern life. This critical sector of United States industry is developing products that will improve health care, agriculture , industrial processes...vaccines, antibiotics, drug therapies, and new medical devices. Agricultural advances include crops engineered to be pest resistant, to survive...pharmaceutical and agriculture sectors of the U.S. economy. As we enter the “Era of the Biomolecule,” the United States must implement policies and allocate

Development and Evaluation of Sterographic Display for Lung Cancer Screening

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-12-01

burden. Application of GPUs – With the evolution of commodity graphics processing units (GPUs) for accelerating games on personal computers, over the...units, which are designed for rendering computer games , are readily available and can be programmed to perform the kinds of real-time calculations...575-581, 1994. 12. Anderson CM, Saloner D, Tsuruda JS, Shapeero LG, Lee RE. "Artifacts in maximun-intensity-projection display of MR angiograms

Near-Zero Emissions Oxy-Combustion Flue Gas Purification Task 3: SOx/NOx/Hg Removal for Low Sulfur Coal

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

Zanfir, Monica; Solunke, Rahul; Shah, Minish

2012-06-01

The goal of this project was to develop a near-zero emissions flue gas purification technology for existing PC (pulverized coal) power plants that are retrofitted with oxycombustion technology. The objective of Task 3 of this project was to evaluate an alternative method of SOx, NOx and Hg removal from flue gas produced by burning low sulfur coal in oxy-combustion power plants. The goal of the program was to conduct an experimental investigation and to develop a novel process for simultaneously removal of SOx and NOx from power plants that would operate on low sulfur coal without the need for wet-FGDmore » & SCRs. A novel purification process operating at high pressures and ambient temperatures was developed. Activated carbon's catalytic and adsorbent capabilities are used to oxidize the sulfur and nitrous oxides to SO{sub 3} and NO{sub 2} species, which are adsorbed on the activated carbon and removed from the gas phase. Activated carbon is regenerated by water wash followed by drying. The development effort commenced with the screening of commercially available activated carbon materials for their capability to remove SO{sub 2}. A bench-unit operating in batch mode was constructed to conduct an experimental investigation of simultaneous SOx and NOx removal from a simulated oxyfuel flue gas mixture. Optimal operating conditions and the capacity of the activated carbon to remove the contaminants were identified. The process was able to achieve simultaneous SOx and NOx removal in a single step. The removal efficiencies were >99.9% for SOx and >98% for NOx. In the longevity tests performed on a batch unit, the retention capacity could be maintained at high level over 20 cycles. This process was able to effectively remove up to 4000 ppm SOx from the simulated feeds corresponding to oxyfuel flue gas from high sulfur coal plants. A dual bed continuous unit with five times the capacity of the batch unit was constructed to test continuous operation and longevity. Full-automation was implemented to enable continuous operation (24/7) with minimum operator supervision. Continuous run was carried out for 40 days. Very high SOx (>99.9%) and NOx (98%) removal efficiencies were also achieved in a continuous unit. However, the retention capacity of carbon beds for SOx and NOx was decreased from ~20 hours to ~10 hours over a 40 day period of operation, which was in contrast to the results obtained in a batch unit. These contradictory results indicate the need for optimization of adsorption-regeneration cycle to maintain long term activity of activated carbon material at a higher level and thus minimize the capital cost of the system. In summary, the activated carbon process exceeded performance targets for SOx and NOx removal efficiencies and it was found to be suitable for power plants burning both low and high sulfur coals. More efforts are needed to optimize the system performance.« less

Development studies for a novel wet oxidation process. Phase 2

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

NONE

1994-07-01

DETOX{sup SM} is a catalyzed wet oxidation process which destroys organic materials in an acidic water solution of iron at 373 to 473 K. The solution can be used repeatedly to destroy great amounts of organic materials. Since the process is conducted in a contained vessel, air emissions from the process can be well controlled. The solution is also capable of dissolving and concentrating many heavy and radioactive metals for eventual stabilization and disposal. The Phase 2 effort for this project is site selection and engineering design for a DETOX demonstration unit. Site selection was made using a set ofmore » site selection criteria and evaluation factors. A survey of mixed wastes at DOE sites was conducted using the Interim Mixed Waste Inventory Report. Sites with likely suitable waste types were identified. Potential demonstration sites were ranked based on waste types, interest, regulatory needs, scheduling, ability to provide support, and available facilities. Engineering design for the demonstration unit is in progress and is being performed by Jacobs Applied Technology. The engineering design proceeded through preliminary process flow diagrams (PFDs), calculation of mass and energy balances for representative waste types, process and instrumentation diagrams (P and IDs), preparation of component specifications, and a firm cost estimate for fabrication of the demonstration unit.« less

Evaluation of Argonne 9-cm and 10-cm Annular Centrifugal Contactors for SHINE Solution Processing

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

Wardle, Kent E.; Pereira, Candido; Vandegrift, George

2015-02-01

Work is in progress to evaluate the SHINE Medical Technologies process for producing Mo-99 for medical use from the fission of dissolved low-enriched uranium (LEU). This report addresses the use of Argonne annular centrifugal contactors for periodic treatment of the process solution. In a letter report from FY 2013, Pereira and Vandegrift compared the throughput and physical footprint for the two contactor options available from CINC Industries: the V-02 and V-05, which have rotor diameters of 5 cm and 12.7 cm, respectively. They suggested that an intermediately sized “Goldilocks” contactor might provide a better balance between throughput and footprint tomore » meet the processing needs for the uranium extraction (UREX) processing of the SHINE solution to remove undesired fission products. Included with the submission of this letter report are the assembly drawings for two Argonne-design contactors that are in this intermediate range—9-cm and 10-cm rotors, respectively. The 9-cm contactor (drawing number CE-D6973A, stamped February 15, 1978) was designed as a single-stage unit and built and tested in the late 1970s along with other size units, both smaller and larger. In subsequent years, a significant effort to developed annular centrifugal contactors was undertaken to support work at Hanford implementing the transuranic extraction (TRUEX) process. These contactors had a 10-cm rotor diameter and were fully designed as multistage units with four stages per assembly (drawing number CMT-E1104, stamped March 14, 1990). From a technology readiness perspective, these 10-cm units are much farther ahead in the design progression and, therefore, would require significantly less re-working to make them ready for UREX deployment. Additionally, the overall maximum throughput of ~12 L/min is similar to that of the 9-cm unit (10 L/min), and the former could be efficiently operated over much of the same range of throughput. As a result, only the 10-cm units are considered here, though drawings are provided for the 9-cm unit for reference.« less

Processing device with self-scrubbing logic

DOEpatents

Wojahn, Christopher K.

2016-03-01

An apparatus includes a processing unit including a configuration memory and self-scrubber logic coupled to read the configuration memory to detect compromised data stored in the configuration memory. The apparatus also includes a watchdog unit external to the processing unit and coupled to the self-scrubber logic to detect a failure in the self-scrubber logic. The watchdog unit is coupled to the processing unit to selectively reset the processing unit in response to detecting the failure in the self-scrubber logic. The apparatus also includes an external memory external to the processing unit and coupled to send configuration data to the configuration memory in response to a data feed signal outputted by the self-scrubber logic.

Achievement Test Preparation: A Year-Long Goal, Not a Last-Minute Thought.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Matter, M. Kevin; Ligon, Glynn

Yearly administrations of a standardized achievement test are a part of the educational process in many school districts in the United States. The Systemwide Testing Program in the Austin Independent School District Office of Research and Evaluation has gradually developed a process and support materials whereby the test administrations are a tool…

Development and Evaluation of Educational Materials for Embedded Systems to Increase the Learning Motivation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Koshino, Makoto; Kojima, Yuki; Kanedera, Noboru

2013-01-01

Educational materials of embedded systems are currently used in many educational institutions. However, they have difficulties in arousing the interest of students. One of the reasons is that a poor CPU (central processing unit), which has been loaded in the current materials, cannot execute the multimedia processing. In order to make the…

Self-Employment for People with Disabilities in the United States: A Recommended Process for Vocational Rehabilitation Agencies.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arnold, Nancy; Seekins, Tom; Ipsen, Catherine; Colling, Kyle

2003-01-01

Recommends a research-based process for rehabilitation agencies assisting clients with self-employment. Steps include counselor-client dialog about self-employment, use of assessment tools and resources, education/training, development of a business plan, start-up funding from the agency and other sources, business start-up, and evaluation of…

75 FR 65012 - Small Hydropower Development in the United States; Notice of Small/Low-Impact Hydropower Webinar

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-10-21

... and walk participants through all phases of the licensing and exemption processes using the Web site. Specifically, the webinar will provide the opportunity for participants to learn about the small hydropower licensing process, find out how to get more information and assistance from FERC, and ask questions. To...

The Bill of Rights: Due Process and Rights of the Accused.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mueller, Jean West; Schamel, Wynell Burroughs

1990-01-01

Presents Clarence Earl Gideon's petition for counsel as a primary source document to be used in social studies units on the Bill of Right's Sixth Amendment. Examines the constitutional issues of due process and right to counsel. Outlines teaching activities that develop vocabulary and analyzes Gideon v. Wainwright as a case study. (CH)

Small States and Big Institutions: USAID and Education Policy Formation in El Salvador

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Edwards, D. Brent, Jr.

2012-01-01

This article analyses the institutional power of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in the process of education policy formation in El Salvador during 2003-2005. The results show how bi- and multi-lateral institutions are able to leverage financial and intellectual capital to guide the policymaking process and sway…

Implementing an Enterprise Information System to Reengineer and Streamline Administrative Processes in a Distance Learning Unit

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abdous, M'hammed; He, Wu

2009-01-01

During the past three years, we have developed and implemented an enterprise information system (EIS) to reengineer and facilitate the administrative process for preparing and teaching distance learning courses in a midsized-to-large university (with 23,000 students). The outcome of the implementation has been a streamlined and efficient process…

Efficiency of optical-electronic systems: methods application for the analysis of structural changes in the process of eye grounds diagnosis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Saldan, Yosyp R.; Pavlov, Sergii V.; Vovkotrub, Dina V.; Saldan, Yulia Y.; Vassilenko, Valentina B.; Mazur, Nadia I.; Nikolaichuk, Daria V.; Wójcik, Waldemar; Romaniuk, Ryszard; Suleimenov, Batyrbek; Bainazarov, Ulan

2017-08-01

Process of eye tomogram obtaining by means of optical coherent tomography is studied. Stages of idiopathic macula holes formation in the process of eye grounds diagnostics are considered. Main stages of retina pathology progression are determined: Fuzzy logic units for obtaining reliable conclusions regarding the result of diagnosis are developed. By the results of theoretical and practical research system and technique of retinal macular region of the eye state analysis is developed ; application of the system, based on fuzzy logic device, improves the efficiency of eye retina complex.

An approach to developing an integrated pyroprocessing simulator

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Hyo Jik; Ko, Won Il; Choi, Sung Yeol; Kim, Sung Ki; Kim, In Tae; Lee, Han Soo

2014-02-01

Pyroprocessing has been studied for a decade as one of the promising fuel recycling options in Korea. We have built a pyroprocessing integrated inactive demonstration facility (PRIDE) to assess the feasibility of integrated pyroprocessing technology and scale-up issues of the processing equipment. Even though such facility cannot be replaced with a real integrated facility using spent nuclear fuel (SF), many insights can be obtained in terms of the world's largest integrated pyroprocessing operation. In order to complement or overcome such limited test-based research, a pyroprocessing Modelling and simulation study began in 2011. The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) suggested a Modelling architecture for the development of a multi-purpose pyroprocessing simulator consisting of three-tiered models: unit process, operation, and plant-level-model. The unit process model can be addressed using governing equations or empirical equations as a continuous system (CS). In contrast, the operation model describes the operational behaviors as a discrete event system (DES). The plant-level model is an integrated model of the unit process and an operation model with various analysis modules. An interface with different systems, the incorporation of different codes, a process-centered database design, and a dynamic material flow are discussed as necessary components for building a framework of the plant-level model. As a sample model that contains methods decoding the above engineering issues was thoroughly reviewed, the architecture for building the plant-level-model was verified. By analyzing a process and operation-combined model, we showed that the suggested approach is effective for comprehensively understanding an integrated dynamic material flow. This paper addressed the current status of the pyroprocessing Modelling and simulation activity at KAERI, and also predicted its path forward.

An approach to developing an integrated pyroprocessing simulator

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

Lee, Hyo Jik; Ko, Won Il; Choi, Sung Yeol

Pyroprocessing has been studied for a decade as one of the promising fuel recycling options in Korea. We have built a pyroprocessing integrated inactive demonstration facility (PRIDE) to assess the feasibility of integrated pyroprocessing technology and scale-up issues of the processing equipment. Even though such facility cannot be replaced with a real integrated facility using spent nuclear fuel (SF), many insights can be obtained in terms of the world's largest integrated pyroprocessing operation. In order to complement or overcome such limited test-based research, a pyroprocessing Modelling and simulation study began in 2011. The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) suggestedmore » a Modelling architecture for the development of a multi-purpose pyroprocessing simulator consisting of three-tiered models: unit process, operation, and plant-level-model. The unit process model can be addressed using governing equations or empirical equations as a continuous system (CS). In contrast, the operation model describes the operational behaviors as a discrete event system (DES). The plant-level model is an integrated model of the unit process and an operation model with various analysis modules. An interface with different systems, the incorporation of different codes, a process-centered database design, and a dynamic material flow are discussed as necessary components for building a framework of the plant-level model. As a sample model that contains methods decoding the above engineering issues was thoroughly reviewed, the architecture for building the plant-level-model was verified. By analyzing a process and operation-combined model, we showed that the suggested approach is effective for comprehensively understanding an integrated dynamic material flow. This paper addressed the current status of the pyroprocessing Modelling and simulation activity at KAERI, and also predicted its path forward.« less

CLABSI Conversations: Lessons From Peer-to-Peer Assessments to Reduce Central Line-Associated Bloodstream Infections.

PubMed

Pham, Julius Cuong; Goeschel, Christine A; Berenholtz, Sean M; Demski, Renee; Lubomski, Lisa H; Rosen, Michael A; Sawyer, Melinda D; Thompson, David A; Trexler, Polly; Weaver, Sallie J; Weeks, Kristina R; Pronovost, Peter J

2016-01-01

A national collaborative helped many hospitals dramatically reduce central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs), but some hospitals struggled to reduce infection rates. This article describes the development of a peer-to-peer assessment process (CLABSI Conversations) and the practical, actionable practices we discovered that helped intensive care unit teams achieve a CLABSI rate of less than 1 infection per 1000 catheter-days for at least 1 year. CLABSI Conversations was designed as a learning-oriented process, in which a team of peers visited hospitals to surface barriers to infection prevention and to share best practices and insights from successful intensive care units. Common practices led to 10 recommendations: executive and board leaders communicate the goal of zero CLABSI throughout the hospital; senior and unit-level leaders hold themselves accountable for CLABSI rates; unit physicians and nurse leaders own the problem; clinical leaders and infection preventionists build infection prevention training and simulation programs; infection preventionists participate in unit-based CLABSI reduction efforts; hospital managers make compliance with best practices easy; clinical leaders standardize the hospital's catheter insertion and maintenance practices and empower nurses to stop any potentially harmful acts; unit leaders and infection preventionists investigate CLABSIs to identify root causes; and unit nurses and staff audit catheter maintenance policies and practices.

Identification of different geologic units using fuzzy constrained resistivity tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Singh, Anand; Sharma, S. P.

2018-01-01

Different geophysical inversion strategies are utilized as a component of an interpretation process that tries to separate geologic units based on the resistivity distribution. In the present study, we present the results of separating different geologic units using fuzzy constrained resistivity tomography. This was accomplished using fuzzy c means, a clustering procedure to improve the 2D resistivity image and geologic separation within the iterative minimization through inversion. First, we developed a Matlab-based inversion technique to obtain a reliable resistivity image using different geophysical data sets (electrical resistivity and electromagnetic data). Following this, the recovered resistivity model was converted into a fuzzy constrained resistivity model by assigning the highest probability value of each model cell to the cluster utilizing fuzzy c means clustering procedure during the iterative process. The efficacy of the algorithm is demonstrated using three synthetic plane wave electromagnetic data sets and one electrical resistivity field dataset. The presented approach shows improvement on the conventional inversion approach to differentiate between different geologic units if the correct number of geologic units will be identified. Further, fuzzy constrained resistivity tomography was performed to examine the augmentation of uranium mineralization in the Beldih open cast mine as a case study. We also compared geologic units identified by fuzzy constrained resistivity tomography with geologic units interpreted from the borehole information.

Advanced Stirling Convertor Testing at GRC

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schifer, Nick; Oriti, Salvatore M.

2013-01-01

NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) has been supporting development of the Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator (ASRG) since 2006. A key element of the ASRG project is providing life, reliability, and performance testing of the Advanced Stirling Convertor (ASC). The latest version of the ASC, deemed ASC-E3, is of a design identical to the forthcoming flight convertors. The first pair of ASC-E3 units was delivered in December 2012. GRC has begun the process of adding these units to the catalog of ongoing Stirling convertor operation. This process includes performance verification, which examines the data from various tests to validate the convertors performance to the product specification.

A decision modeling for phasor measurement unit location selection in smart grid systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Seung Yup

As a key technology for enhancing the smart grid system, Phasor Measurement Unit (PMU) provides synchronized phasor measurements of voltages and currents of wide-area electric power grid. With various benefits from its application, one of the critical issues in utilizing PMUs is the optimal site selection of units. The main aim of this research is to develop a decision support system, which can be used in resource allocation task for smart grid system analysis. As an effort to suggest a robust decision model and standardize the decision modeling process, a harmonized modeling framework, which considers operational circumstances of component, is proposed in connection with a deterministic approach utilizing integer programming. With the results obtained from the optimal PMU placement problem, the advantages and potential that the harmonized modeling process possesses are assessed and discussed.

Research on Treatment Technology and Device of Oily Sludge

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, J. Q.; Shui, F. S.; Li, Q. F.

2017-12-01

Oily sludge is a solid oily waste, which is produced during the process of oil exploitation, transportation, refining and treatment of oily sewage. It contains a great number of hazardous substance, and is difficult to handle with. To solve the problem of waste resources of oil sludge with high oil content and usually not easy to aggregate during the preparation of profile control agent, a new oily sludge treatment device was developed. This device consists of heat supply unit, flush and filter unit, oil removal unit and dehydration unit. It can effectively clean and filter out the waste from oily sludge, recycle the oil resources and reduce the water content of the residue. In the process of operation, the water and chemical agent are recycled in the device, eventually producing little sewage. The device is small, easy to move and has high degree of automation control. The experimental application shows that the oil removal rate of the oily sludge is up to 70%, and the higher the oil content rate the better the treatment.

How Education for Sustainable Development Is Implemented in Germany: Looking through the Lens of Educational Governance Theory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bormann, Inka; Nikel, Jutta

2017-01-01

The United Nations (UN) Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) aimed to integrate the principles, values and practices of sustainable development into all aspects of education and learning around the world. The authors of this article address the implementation process of ESD in Germany during the UN Decade (2005-2014). By…

Methyl chloride via oxyhydrochlorination of methane: A building block for chemicals and fuels from natural gas

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

Benson, R.L.; Brown, S.S.D.; Ferguson, S.P.

1995-12-31

The objectives of this program are to (a) develop a process for converting natural gas to methyl chloride via an oxyhydrochlorination route using highly selective, stable catalysts in a fixed-bed, (b) design a reactor capable of removing the large amount of heat generated in the process so as to control the reaction, (c) develop a recovery system capable of removing the methyl chloride from the product stream and (d) determine the economics and commercial viability of the process. The general approach has been as follows: (a) design and build a laboratory scale reactor, (b) define and synthesize suitable OHC catalystsmore » for evaluation, (c) select first generation OHC catalyst for Process Development Unit (PDU) trials, (d) design, construct and startup PDU, (e) evaluate packed bed reactor design, (f) optimize process, in particular, product recovery operations, (g) determine economics of process, (h) complete preliminary engineering design for Phase II and (i) make scale-up decision and formulate business plan for Phase II. Conclusions regarding process development and catalyst development are presented.« less

Preprototype Vapor Compression Distillation Subsystem development

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Thompson, C. D.; Ellis, G. S.; Schubert, F. H.

1981-01-01

Vapor Compression Distillation (VCD) has evolved as the most promising approach to reclaim potable water from wastewater for future long-term manned space missions. Life Systems, Inc. (LSI), working with NASA, has developed a preprototype Vapor Compression Distillation Subsystem (VCDS) which processes wastewater at 1.4 kg/h. The preprototype unit weighs 143 kg, occupies a volume of 0.47 cu m, and will reclaim 96 percent of the available wastewater. This unit has been tested by LSI and is scheduled for further testing at NASA-JSC. This paper presents the preprototype VCDS design, configuration, performance data, test results and flight system projections.

Development assessment of wash water reclamation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Putnam, D. F.

1976-01-01

An analytical study assessment of state-of-the-art wash water reclamation technology is presented. It covers all non-phase-change unit operations, unit processes and subsystems currently under development by NASA. Each approach to wash water reclamation is described in detail. Performance data are given together with the projected weights and sizes of key components and subsystems. It is concluded that a simple multifiltration subsystem composed of surface-type cartridge filters, carbon adsorption and ion exchange resins is the most attractive approach for spacecraft wash water reclamation in earth orbital missions of up to 10 years in duration.

Mobil process converts methanol to high-quality synthetic gasoline

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

Wood, A.

1978-12-11

If production of gasoline from coal becomes commercially attractive in the United States, a process under development at the Mobil Research and Development Corp. may compete with better known coal liquefaction processes. Mobil process converts methanol to high-octane, unleaded gasoline; methanol can be produced commercially from coal. If gasoline is the desired product, the Mobil process offers strong technical and cost advantages over H-coal, Exxon donor solvent, solvent-refined coal, and Fischer--Tropsch processes. The cost analysis, contained in a report to the Dept. of Energy, concludes that the Mobil process produces more-expensive liquid products than any other liquefaction process except Fischer--Tropsch.more » But Mobil's process produces ready-to-use gasoline, while the others produce oils which require further expensive refining to yield gasoline. Disadvantages and advantages are discussed.« less

Rework and workarounds in nurse medication administration process: implications for work processes and patient safety.

PubMed

Halbesleben, Jonathon R B; Savage, Grant T; Wakefield, Douglas S; Wakefield, Bonnie J

2010-01-01

Health care organizations have redesigned existing and implemented new work processes intended to improve patient safety. As a consequence of these process changes, there are now intentionally designed "blocks" or barriers that limit how specific work actions, such as ordering and administering medication, are to be carried out. Health care professionals encountering these designed barriers can choose to either follow the new process, engage in workarounds to get past the block, or potentially repeat work (rework). Unfortunately, these workarounds and rework may lead to other safety concerns. The aim of this study was to examine rework and workarounds in hospital medication administration processes. Observations and semistructured interviews were conducted with 58 nurses from four hospital intensive care units focusing on the medication administration process. Using the constant comparative method, we analyzed the observation and interview data to develop themes regarding rework and workarounds. From this analysis, we developed an integrated process map of the medication administration process depicting blocks. A total of 12 blocks were reported by the participants. Based on the analysis, we categorized them as related to information exchange, information entry, and internal supply chain issues. Whereas information exchange and entry blocks tended to lead to rework, internal supply chain issues were more likely to lead to workarounds. A decentralized pharmacist on the unit may reduce work flow blocks (and, thus, workarounds and rework). Work process redesign may further address the problems of workarounds and rework.

A stochastic diffusion process for Lochner's generalized Dirichlet distribution

DOE PAGES

Bakosi, J.; Ristorcelli, J. R.

2013-10-01

The method of potential solutions of Fokker-Planck equations is used to develop a transport equation for the joint probability of N stochastic variables with Lochner’s generalized Dirichlet distribution as its asymptotic solution. Individual samples of a discrete ensemble, obtained from the system of stochastic differential equations, equivalent to the Fokker-Planck equation developed here, satisfy a unit-sum constraint at all times and ensure a bounded sample space, similarly to the process developed in for the Dirichlet distribution. Consequently, the generalized Dirichlet diffusion process may be used to represent realizations of a fluctuating ensemble of N variables subject to a conservation principle.more » Compared to the Dirichlet distribution and process, the additional parameters of the generalized Dirichlet distribution allow a more general class of physical processes to be modeled with a more general covariance matrix.« less

Massively Parallel Signal Processing using the Graphics Processing Unit for Real-Time Brain-Computer Interface Feature Extraction.

PubMed

Wilson, J Adam; Williams, Justin C

2009-01-01

The clock speeds of modern computer processors have nearly plateaued in the past 5 years. Consequently, neural prosthetic systems that rely on processing large quantities of data in a short period of time face a bottleneck, in that it may not be possible to process all of the data recorded from an electrode array with high channel counts and bandwidth, such as electrocorticographic grids or other implantable systems. Therefore, in this study a method of using the processing capabilities of a graphics card [graphics processing unit (GPU)] was developed for real-time neural signal processing of a brain-computer interface (BCI). The NVIDIA CUDA system was used to offload processing to the GPU, which is capable of running many operations in parallel, potentially greatly increasing the speed of existing algorithms. The BCI system records many channels of data, which are processed and translated into a control signal, such as the movement of a computer cursor. This signal processing chain involves computing a matrix-matrix multiplication (i.e., a spatial filter), followed by calculating the power spectral density on every channel using an auto-regressive method, and finally classifying appropriate features for control. In this study, the first two computationally intensive steps were implemented on the GPU, and the speed was compared to both the current implementation and a central processing unit-based implementation that uses multi-threading. Significant performance gains were obtained with GPU processing: the current implementation processed 1000 channels of 250 ms in 933 ms, while the new GPU method took only 27 ms, an improvement of nearly 35 times.

A noninvasive technique for real-time detection of bruises in apple surface based on machine vision

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhao, Juan; Peng, Yankun; Dhakal, Sagar; Zhang, Leilei; Sasao, Akira

2013-05-01

Apple is one of the highly consumed fruit item in daily life. However, due to its high damage potential and massive influence on taste and export, the quality of apple has to be detected before it reaches the consumer's hand. This study was aimed to develop a hardware and software unit for real-time detection of apple bruises based on machine vision technology. The hardware unit consisted of a light shield installed two monochrome cameras at different angles, LED light source to illuminate the sample, and sensors at the entrance of box to signal the positioning of sample. Graphical Users Interface (GUI) was developed in VS2010 platform to control the overall hardware and display the image processing result. The hardware-software system was developed to acquire the images of 3 samples from each camera and display the image processing result in real time basis. An image processing algorithm was developed in Opencv and C++ platform. The software is able to control the hardware system to classify the apple into two grades based on presence/absence of surface bruises with the size of 5mm. The experimental result is promising and the system with further modification can be applicable for industrial production in near future.

ICR MICROBIAL MANUAL

EPA Science Inventory

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) instituted a formal regulation negotiation process in 1992 to develop the Disinfectant/Disinfection By-Product (D/DBP) Rule.1 The Advisory Committee that was established to negotiate the regulation included represent...

Involvement of Fibroblast Growth Factors and Their Receptors in Epididymo-Testicular Descent and Maldescent

PubMed Central

Hadziselimovic, Faruk

2016-01-01

Maldescent of the epididymo-testicular unit can occur as an isolated event or as a component of various syndromes. When part of a syndrome, crypto-epididymis is usually accompanied by other genital and/or extragenital features. Epididymis development is primarily regulated by androgens, and successful epididymo-testicular unit development and descent requires an intact hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis. The developing gonadotropin-releasing hormone system is essential for epididymo-testicular descent and is highly sensitive to reduced fibroblast growth factor (FGF) signaling. Our understanding of the impact of FGFR1 in the process of epididymo-testicular descent has recently improved. At later stages of embryonic development, the undifferentiated epididymal mesenchyme is a specific domain for FGFR1 expression. The majority of individuals with syndromic crypto-epididymis, as well as individuals with isolated maldescent of the epididymo-testicular unit, exhibit some disturbance of FGF, FGFR1 and/or genes involved in hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis regulation. However, the mechanisms underlying FGF dysregulation may differ between various syndromes. PMID:27022326

Involvement of Fibroblast Growth Factors and Their Receptors in Epididymo-Testicular Descent and Maldescent.

PubMed

Hadziselimovic, Faruk

2016-02-01

Maldescent of the epididymo-testicular unit can occur as an isolated event or as a component of various syndromes. When part of a syndrome, crypto-epididymis is usually accompanied by other genital and/or extragenital features. Epididymis development is primarily regulated by androgens, and successful epididymo-testicular unit development and descent requires an intact hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis. The developing gonadotropin-releasing hormone system is essential for epididymo-testicular descent and is highly sensitive to reduced fibroblast growth factor (FGF) signaling. Our understanding of the impact of FGFR1 in the process of epididymo-testicular descent has recently improved. At later stages of embryonic development, the undifferentiated epididymal mesenchyme is a specific domain for FGFR1 expression. The majority of individuals with syndromic crypto-epididymis, as well as individuals with isolated maldescent of the epididymo-testicular unit, exhibit some disturbance of FGF, FGFR1 and/or genes involved in hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis regulation. However, the mechanisms underlying FGF dysregulation may differ between various syndromes.

Model for Sucker-Rod Pumping Unit Operating Modes Analysis Based on SimMechanics Library

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zyuzev, A. M.; Bubnov, M. V.

2018-01-01

The article provides basic information about the process of a sucker-rod pumping unit (SRPU) model developing by means of SimMechanics library in the MATLAB Simulink environment. The model is designed for the development of a pump productivity optimal management algorithms, sensorless diagnostics of the plunger pump and pumpjack, acquisition of the dynamometer card and determination of a dynamic fluid level in the well, normalization of the faulty unit operation before troubleshooting is performed by staff as well as equilibrium ratio determining by energy indicators and outputting of manual balancing recommendations to achieve optimal power consumption efficiency. Particular attention is given to the application of various blocks from SimMechanics library to take into account the pumpjack construction principal characteristic and to obtain an adequate model. The article explains in depth the developed tools features for collecting and analysis of simulated mechanism data. The conclusions were drawn about practical implementation possibility of the SRPU modelling results and areas for further development of investigation.

Computer-supported weight-based drug infusion concentrations in the neonatal intensive care unit.

PubMed

Giannone, Gay

2005-01-01

This article addresses the development of a computerized provider order entry (CPOE)-embedded solution for weight-based neonatal drug infusion developed during the transition from a legacy CPOE system to a customized application of a neonatal CPOE product during a hospital-wide information system transition. The importance of accurate fluid management in the neonate is reviewed. The process of tailoring the system that eventually resulted in the successful development of a computer application enabling weight-based medication infusion calculation for neonates within the CPOE information system is explored. In addition, the article provides guidelines on how to customize a vendor solution for hospitals with neonatal intensive care unit.

Co-planning among science and special education teachers: How do different conceptual lenses help to make sense of the process?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Swanson, Lauren H.; Bianchini, Julie A.

2015-12-01

In this study, we investigated the process of teacher co-planning. We examined two teams of high school science and special education teachers brought together to co-plan inclusive, inquiry-oriented science units as part of a professional development effort. We used three conceptual lenses to help make sense of this process: (1) characteristics of collaboration, (2) small group interactions, and (3) community discourse. Using these lenses individually and collectively, we identified strengths and limitations in teachers' co-planning efforts. A strength was that all teachers, irrespective of discipline, shared ideas and helped make decisions about the content and activities included in unit and lesson plans. A limitation was that teachers, again irrespective of discipline, discussed science education topics in their teams more often than special education ones. We found this latter finding of note as it spoke to issues of parity among teachers during the professional development. In our discussion, we argue that each conceptual lens yielded both unique and common findings on co-planning. We also provide recommendations for professional developers and educational scholars intent on organizing and/or researching co-planning among science and special education teachers.

Recent progress in continuous and semi-continuous processing of solid oral dosage forms: a review.

PubMed

Teżyk, Michał; Milanowski, Bartłomiej; Ernst, Andrzej; Lulek, Janina

2016-08-01

Continuous processing is an innovative production concept well known and successfully used in other industries for many years. The modern pharmaceutical industry is facing the challenge of transition from a traditional manufacturing approach based on batch-wise production to a continuous manufacturing model. The aim of this article is to present technological progress in manufacturing based on continuous and semi-continuous processing of the solid oral dosage forms. Single unit processes possessing an alternative processing pathway to batch-wise technology or, with some modification, an altered approach that may run continuously, and are thus able to seamlessly switch to continuous manufacturing are briefly presented. Furthermore, the concept of semi-continuous processing is discussed. Subsequently, more sophisticated production systems created by coupling single unit processes and comprising all the steps of production, from powder to final dosage form, were reviewed. Finally, attempts of end-to-end production approach, meaning the linking of continuous synthesis of API from intermediates with the production of final dosage form, are described. There are a growing number of scientific articles showing an increasing interest in changing the approach to the production of pharmaceuticals in recent years. Numerous scientific publications are a source of information on the progress of knowledge and achievements of continuous processing. These works often deal with issues of how to modify or replace the unit processes in order to enable seamlessly switching them into continuous processing. A growing number of research papers concentrate on integrated continuous manufacturing lines in which the production concept of "from powder to tablet" is realized. Four main domains are under investigation: influence of process parameters on intermediates or final dosage forms properties, implementation of process analytical tools, control-managing system responsible for keeping continuous materials flow through the whole manufacturing process and the development of new computational methods to assess or simulate these new manufacturing techniques. The attempt to connect the primary and secondary production steps proves that development of continuously operating lines is possible. A mind-set change is needed to be able to face, and fully assess, the advantages and disadvantages of switching from batch to continuous mode production.

Developing Successful Community Partnerships: "Teeing Up" for Change.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tyler, Arthur Q.

2002-01-01

Reports that thinking innovatively and taking prudent risks to bring a golf driving range to Los Angeles City College (California) helped unite the community with the college. Chronicles the long-term and complex partnership process behind this development, which led to a change in campus culture and reinvigorated the campus and community…

An Intercultural Community - Input Process for Curriculum Development.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leonard, Deni

A program to bring about community involvement in the development of curriculum for public schools was implemented in Seattle in 1974-75 by the United Indians of All Tribes Foundation. The program follows a 12-step procedure that begins with selecting community representatives who will learn curriculum planning skills enabling them to make…