WHE-PAGER Project: A new initiative in estimating global building inventory and its seismic vulnerability

USGS Publications Warehouse

Porter, K.A.; Jaiswal, K.S.; Wald, D.J.; Greene, M.; Comartin, Craig

2008-01-01

The U.S. Geological Survey’s Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquake’s Response (PAGER) Project and the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute’s World Housing Encyclopedia (WHE) are creating a global database of building stocks and their earthquake vulnerability. The WHE already represents a growing, community-developed public database of global housing and its detailed structural characteristics. It currently contains more than 135 reports on particular housing types in 40 countries. The WHE-PAGER effort extends the WHE in several ways: (1) by addressing non-residential construction; (2) by quantifying the prevalence of each building type in both rural and urban areas; (3) by addressing day and night occupancy patterns, (4) by adding quantitative vulnerability estimates from judgment or statistical observation; and (5) by analytically deriving alternative vulnerability estimates using in part laboratory testing.

Estimating economic losses from earthquakes using an empirical approach

USGS Publications Warehouse

Jaiswal, Kishor; Wald, David J.

2013-01-01

We extended the U.S. Geological Survey's Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response (PAGER) empirical fatality estimation methodology proposed by Jaiswal et al. (2009) to rapidly estimate economic losses after significant earthquakes worldwide. The requisite model inputs are shaking intensity estimates made by the ShakeMap system, the spatial distribution of population available from the LandScan database, modern and historic country or sub-country population and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) data, and economic loss data from Munich Re's historical earthquakes catalog. We developed a strategy to approximately scale GDP-based economic exposure for historical and recent earthquakes in order to estimate economic losses. The process consists of using a country-specific multiplicative factor to accommodate the disparity between economic exposure and the annual per capita GDP, and it has proven successful in hindcast-ing past losses. Although loss, population, shaking estimates, and economic data used in the calibration process are uncertain, approximate ranges of losses can be estimated for the primary purpose of gauging the overall scope of the disaster and coordinating response. The proposed methodology is both indirect and approximate and is thus best suited as a rapid loss estimation model for applications like the PAGER system.

Effect of a pager notification system on Australasian Triage Scale category 2 patients in a paediatric emergency department.

PubMed

Cheng, Daryl R; McCartney, Laura E; West, Adam; Craig, Simon S

2016-08-01

Australasian EDs have introduced innovative processes to ensure safe and timely management of patients. Our ED introduced a dedicated pager system to provide rapid assessment of Australasian Triage Scale (ATS) category 2 patients in an attempt to expedite ED care. The present paper aims to evaluate the impact of this initiative on time to clinician, ED length of stay (LOS) and clinical outcomes in a tertiary paediatric ED. Retrospective structured chart review on patients presenting in a 2 month period before the intervention (August-September 2009) and the same time 1 year later. Patients were grouped into common ATS category 2 presentations and analysed in these subcategories. Clinical indicators of appropriate and timely performance were selected from best practice performance guidelines. 779 ATS category 2 patients were seen during the two periods: 370 pre-intervention and 409 post-intervention. The overall percentage of ATS category 2 patients seen within the target time increased by 22.3%, although there was no significant change in ED LOS. The median time for patients from triage to being seen by an ED clinician improved from 10 to 6 min (P < 0.01). However, we were unable to demonstrate an impact of the pager system on various clinical quality indicators. The rapid assessment pager system proved beneficial in reducing triage to clinician times for ATS category 2 patients but showed no improvement in overall ED LOS or disease-specific clinical quality indicators. Further research is needed to determine the influence of other components of ED functioning on clinical outcomes, as well as the overall clinical impact a pager system has on other measures of quality such as patient satisfaction and other subgroups of patients. © 2016 Australasian College for Emergency Medicine and Australasian Society for Emergency Medicine.

Notification of real-time clinical alerts generated by pharmacy expert systems.

PubMed Central

Miller, J. E.; Reichley, R. M.; McNamee, L. A.; Steib, S. A.; Bailey, T. C.

1999-01-01

We developed and implemented a strategy for notifying clinical pharmacists of alerts generated in real-time by two pharmacy expert systems: one for drug dosing and the other for adverse drug event prevention. Display pagers were selected as the preferred notification method and a concise, yet readable, format for displaying alert data was developed. This combination of real-time alert generation and notification via display pagers was shown to be efficient and effective in a 30-day trial. PMID:10566374

Development of Tools for the Rapid Assessment of Landslide Potential in Areas Exposed to Intense Storms, Earthquakes, and Other Triggering Mechanisms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Highland, Lynn

2014-05-01

Landslides frequently occur in connection with other types of hazardous phenomena such as earthquake or volcanic activity and intense rainstorms. Strong shaking, for example, often triggers extensive landslides in mountainous areas, which can then complicate response and compound socio-economic impacts over shaking losses alone. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is exploring different ways to add secondary hazards to its Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response (PAGER) system, which has been developed to deliver rapid earthquake impact and loss assessments following significant global earthquakes. The PAGER team found that about 22 percent of earthquakes with fatalities have deaths due to secondary causes, and the percentage of economic losses they incur has not been widely studied, but is probably significant. The current approach for rapid assessment and reporting of the potential and distribution of secondary earthquake-induced landslides involves empirical models that consider ground acceleration, slope, and rock-strength. A complementary situational awareness tool being developed is a region-specific landslide database for the U.S. The latter will be able to define, in a narrative form, the landslide types (debris flows, rock avalanches, shallow versus deep) that generally occur in each area, along with the type of soils, geology and meteorological effects that could have a bearing on soil saturation, and thus susceptibility. When a seismic event occurs in the U.S. and the PAGER system generates web-based earthquake information, these landslide narratives will simultaneously be made available, which will help in the assessment of the nature of landslides in that particular region. This landslide profile database could also be applied to landslide events that are not triggered by earthquake shaking, in conjunction with National Weather Service Alerts and other landslide/debris-flow alerting systems. Currently, prototypes are being developed for both the slope-based and the narrative assessment of landslide susceptibility and hazard.

Evaluating the effect of distractions in the operating room on clinical decision-making and patient safety.

PubMed

Murji, Ally; Luketic, Lea; Sobel, Mara L; Kulasegaram, Kulamakan Mahan; Leyland, Nicholas; Posner, Glenn

2016-10-01

Answering telephone calls and pagers is common distraction in the operating room. We sought to evaluate the impact of distractions on patient care by (1) assessing the accuracy and safety of responses to clinical questions posed to a surgeon while operating and (2) determining whether pager distractions affect simulation-based surgical performance. We conducted a randomized crossover study of obstetrics and gynecology residents. After studying a patient sign-out list, subjects performed a virtual salpingectomy. They were randomized to a distraction phase followed by quiet phase or vice versa. In the distraction phase, a pager beeped and subjects were asked questions based on the sign-out list. Accuracy of responses and the number of unsafe responses were recorded. In the quiet phase, trainees performed the task uninterrupted. Measures of surgical performance were successful task completion, time to task completion and operative blood loss. The mean score for correct responses to clinical questions during the distracted phase was 80 % (SD ±14 %). Nineteen residents (63 %) made at least 1 unsafe clinical decision while operating on the simulator (range 0-3). Subjects were more likely to successfully complete the surgical task in the allotted time under the quiet compared to distraction condition (OR 11.3, p = 0.03). There was no difference between the conditions in paired analysis for mean time (seconds) to task completion [426 (SD 133) vs. 440 (SD 186), p = 0.61] and mean operative blood loss (mL) [73.14 (SD 106) vs. 112.70 (SD 358), p = 0.47]. Distractions in the operating room may have a profound impact on patient safety on the wards. While multitasking in a simulated setting, the majority of residents made at least one unsafe clinical decision. Pager distractions also hindered surgical residents' ability to complete a simulated laparoscopic task in the allotted time without affecting other variables of surgical performance.

PAGER-CAT: A composite earthquake catalog for calibrating global fatality models

USGS Publications Warehouse

Allen, T.I.; Marano, K.D.; Earle, P.S.; Wald, D.J.

2009-01-01

We have described the compilation and contents of PAGER-CAT, an earthquake catalog developed principally for calibrating earthquake fatality models. It brings together information from a range of sources in a comprehensive, easy to use digital format. Earthquake source information (e.g., origin time, hypocenter, and magnitude) contained in PAGER-CAT has been used to develop an Atlas of Shake Maps of historical earthquakes (Allen et al. 2008) that can subsequently be used to estimate the population exposed to various levels of ground shaking (Wald et al. 2008). These measures will ultimately yield improved earthquake loss models employing the uniform hazard mapping methods of ShakeMap. Currently PAGER-CAT does not consistently contain indicators of landslide and liquefaction occurrence prior to 1973. In future PAGER-CAT releases we plan to better document the incidence of these secondary hazards. This information is contained in some existing global catalogs but is far from complete and often difficult to parse. Landslide and liquefaction hazards can be important factors contributing to earthquake losses (e.g., Marano et al. unpublished). Consequently, the absence of secondary hazard indicators in PAGER-CAT, particularly for events prior to 1973, could be misleading to sorne users concerned with ground-shaking-related losses. We have applied our best judgment in the selection of PAGER-CAT's preferred source parameters and earthquake effects. We acknowledge the creation of a composite catalog always requires subjective decisions, but we believe PAGER-CAT represents a significant step forward in bringing together the best available estimates of earthquake source parameters and reports of earthquake effects. All information considered in PAGER-CAT is stored as provided in its native catalog so that other users can modify PAGER preferred parameters based on their specific needs or opinions. As with all catalogs, the values of some parameters listed in PAGER-CAT are highly uncertain, particularly the casualty numbers, which must be regarded as estimates rather than firm numbers for many earthquakes. Consequently, we encourage contributions from the seismology and earthquake engineering communities to further improve this resource via the Wikipedia page and personal communications, for the benefit of the whole community.

Improving the quality of the order-writing process for inpatient orders in a teaching hospital.

PubMed

Boehringer, Peter A; Rylander, Jeanette; Dizon, Dominic T; Peterson, Michael W

2007-01-01

Physicians' illegible handwriting is a notorious contributing factor to medical errors. Furthermore, an illegible signature or failure to print prescribers' name interferes with the ability of staff to clarify orders. We surveyed support medical staff at a teaching hospital before and 2 months after providing all internal medicine department residents a self-inking stamp with their name and pager number. Responses were received from 51% at the first and 36% at the second survey of 401 eligible staff. Responses to questions regarding illegible or absent signature, illegible or absent pager number, and failure to print prescribers' name showed a significant improvement (P < .0001) after 52 residents working in the hospital started to sign orders with their stamp. The support staff also noted a significant reduction in the time required to contact a physician to clarify orders, from more than 10 minutes to 1 to 5 minutes (P < .0001). Physicians signing orders using a stamp with their name and pager number provide support staff legible identification, leading to an improvement in the quality of the order-writing process. This kind of signature allows clarification of orders in a timely fashion.

The Use of WhatsApp Smartphone Messaging Improves Communication Efficiency within an Orthopaedic Surgery Team.

PubMed

Ellanti, Prasad; Moriarty, Andrew; Coughlan, Fionn; McCarthy, Thomas

2017-02-18

Effective and timely communication is important for any surgical specialty to function. The use of smartphones is prevalent amongst doctors. Numerous smartphone applications offer the potential for fast and cost-effective communication. WhatsApp is a commonly used application that is free, easy to use, and capable of text and multimedia messaging. We report on the use of WhatsApp over a six month period in our unit. WhatsApp communication between non-consultant members of an orthopaedic team over a six-month period was analysed. Both the phones and the WhatsApp application were password-protected, and patient details were anonymised. A series of 20 communications using the hospital pager system and the telephone system were also analysed. A total of 5,492 messages were sent during the six-month period and were part of 1,916 separate communication events. The vast majority of messages, 5,090, were related to patient care. A total of 195 multimedia messages were sent and these included images of radiographs and wounds. When using the hospital telephones, the length of time spent on a communication averaged 5.78 minutes and using the hospital pager system averaged 7.45 minutes. Using the WhatsApp messaging system has potentially saved up to 7,664 minutes over the study period. All participants found WhatsApp easy to use and found it to be more efficient than the traditional pager system Conclusion: Compared to the traditional pager systems, the use of WhatsApp is easy, inexpensive, and reliable and can help improve the efficiency of communication within a surgical team.

The Use of WhatsApp Smartphone Messaging Improves Communication Efficiency within an Orthopaedic Surgery Team

PubMed Central

Moriarty, Andrew; Coughlan, Fionn; McCarthy, Thomas

2017-01-01

Introduction: Effective and timely communication is important for any surgical specialty to function. The use of smartphones is prevalent amongst doctors. Numerous smartphone applications offer the potential for fast and cost-effective communication. WhatsApp is a commonly used application that is free, easy to use, and capable of text and multimedia messaging. We report on the use of WhatsApp over a six month period in our unit. Materials and Methods: WhatsApp communication between non-consultant members of an orthopaedic team over a six-month period was analysed. Both the phones and the WhatsApp application were password-protected, and patient details were anonymised. A series of 20 communications using the hospital pager system and the telephone system were also analysed. Results: A total of 5,492 messages were sent during the six-month period and were part of 1,916 separate communication events. The vast majority of messages, 5,090, were related to patient care. A total of 195 multimedia messages were sent and these included images of radiographs and wounds. When using the hospital telephones, the length of time spent on a communication averaged 5.78 minutes and using the hospital pager system averaged 7.45 minutes. Using the WhatsApp messaging system has potentially saved up to 7,664 minutes over the study period. All participants found WhatsApp easy to use and found it to be more efficient than the traditional pager system Conclusion: Compared to the traditional pager systems, the use of WhatsApp is easy, inexpensive, and reliable and can help improve the efficiency of communication within a surgical team.  PMID:28357172

SAW devices for consumer communication applications.

PubMed

Ruppel, C W; Dill, R; Fischerauer, A; Fischerauer, G; Gawlik, A; Machui, J; Muller, F; Reindl, L; Ruile, W; Scholl, G; Schropp, I; Wagner, K C

1993-01-01

An overview of surface acoustic wave (SAW) filter techniques available for different applications is given. Techniques for TV IF applications are outlined, and typical structures are presented. This is followed by a discussion of applications for SAW resonators. Low-loss devices for mobile communication systems and pager applications are examined. Tapped delay lines (matched filters) and convolvers for code-division multiaccess (CDMA) systems are also covered. Although simulation procedures are not considered, for many devices the theoretical frequency response is presented along with the measurement curve.

Global earthquake casualties due to secondary effects: A quantitative analysis for improving PAGER losses

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wald, David J.

2010-01-01

This study presents a quantitative and geospatial description of global losses due to earthquake-induced secondary effects, including landslide, liquefaction, tsunami, and fire for events during the past 40 years. These processes are of great importance to the US Geological Survey’s (USGS) Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response (PAGER) system, which is currently being developed to deliver rapid earthquake impact and loss assessments following large/significant global earthquakes. An important question is how dominant are losses due to secondary effects (and under what conditions, and in which regions)? Thus, which of these effects should receive higher priority research efforts in order to enhance PAGER’s overall assessment of earthquakes losses and alerting for the likelihood of secondary impacts? We find that while 21.5% of fatal earthquakes have deaths due to secondary (non-shaking) causes, only rarely are secondary effects the main cause of fatalities. The recent 2004 Great Sumatra–Andaman Islands earthquake is a notable exception, with extraordinary losses due to tsunami. The potential for secondary hazards varies greatly, and systematically, due to regional geologic and geomorphic conditions. Based on our findings, we have built country-specific disclaimers for PAGER that address potential for each hazard (Earle et al., Proceedings of the 14th World Conference of the Earthquake Engineering, Beijing, China, 2008). We will now focus on ways to model casualties from secondary effects based on their relative importance as well as their general predictability.

Global earthquake casualties due to secondary effects: A quantitative analysis for improving rapid loss analyses

USGS Publications Warehouse

Marano, K.D.; Wald, D.J.; Allen, T.I.

2010-01-01

This study presents a quantitative and geospatial description of global losses due to earthquake-induced secondary effects, including landslide, liquefaction, tsunami, and fire for events during the past 40 years. These processes are of great importance to the US Geological Survey's (USGS) Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response (PAGER) system, which is currently being developed to deliver rapid earthquake impact and loss assessments following large/significant global earthquakes. An important question is how dominant are losses due to secondary effects (and under what conditions, and in which regions)? Thus, which of these effects should receive higher priority research efforts in order to enhance PAGER's overall assessment of earthquakes losses and alerting for the likelihood of secondary impacts? We find that while 21.5% of fatal earthquakes have deaths due to secondary (non-shaking) causes, only rarely are secondary effects the main cause of fatalities. The recent 2004 Great Sumatra-Andaman Islands earthquake is a notable exception, with extraordinary losses due to tsunami. The potential for secondary hazards varies greatly, and systematically, due to regional geologic and geomorphic conditions. Based on our findings, we have built country-specific disclaimers for PAGER that address potential for each hazard (Earle et al., Proceedings of the 14th World Conference of the Earthquake Engineering, Beijing, China, 2008). We will now focus on ways to model casualties from secondary effects based on their relative importance as well as their general predictability. ?? Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009.

Improving PAGER's real-time earthquake casualty and loss estimation toolkit: a challenge

USGS Publications Warehouse

Jaiswal, K.S.; Wald, D.J.

2012-01-01

We describe the on-going developments of PAGER’s loss estimation models, and discuss value-added web content that can be generated related to exposure, damage and loss outputs for a variety of PAGER users. These developments include identifying vulnerable building types in any given area, estimating earthquake-induced damage and loss statistics by building type, and developing visualization aids that help locate areas of concern for improving post-earthquake response efforts. While detailed exposure and damage information is highly useful and desirable, significant improvements are still necessary in order to improve underlying building stock and vulnerability data at a global scale. Existing efforts with the GEM’s GED4GEM and GVC consortia will help achieve some of these objectives. This will benefit PAGER especially in regions where PAGER’s empirical model is less-well constrained; there, the semi-empirical and analytical models will provide robust estimates of damage and losses. Finally, we outline some of the challenges associated with rapid casualty and loss estimation that we experienced while responding to recent large earthquakes worldwide.

An Atlas of ShakeMaps for Landslide and Liquefaction Modeling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Johnson, K. L.; Nowicki, M. A.; Mah, R. T.; Garcia, D.; Harp, E. L.; Godt, J. W.; Lin, K.; Wald, D. J.

2012-12-01

The human consequences of a seismic event are often a result of subsequent hazards induced by the earthquake, such as landslides. While the United States Geological Survey (USGS) ShakeMap and Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response (PAGER) systems are, in conjunction, capable of estimating the damage potential of earthquake shaking in near-real time, they do not currently provide estimates for the potential of further damage by secondary processes. We are developing a sound basis for providing estimates of the likelihood and spatial distribution of landslides for any global earthquake under the PAGER system. Here we discuss several important ingredients in this effort. First, we report on the development of a standardized hazard layer from which to calibrate observed landslide distributions; in contrast, prior studies have used a wide variety of means for estimating the hazard input. This layer now takes the form of a ShakeMap, a standardized approach for computing geospatial estimates for a variety of shaking metrics (both peak ground motions and shaking intensity) from any well-recorded earthquake. We have created ShakeMaps for about 20 historical landslide "case history" events, significant in terms of their landslide occurrence, as part of an updated release of the USGS ShakeMap Atlas. We have also collected digitized landslide data from open-source databases for many of the earthquake events of interest. When these are combined with up-to-date topographic and geologic maps, we have the basic ingredients for calibrating landslide probabilities for a significant collection of earthquakes. In terms of modeling, rather than focusing on mechanistic models of landsliding, we adopt a strictly statistical approach to quantify landslide likelihood. We incorporate geology, slope, peak ground acceleration, and landslide data as variables in a logistic regression, selecting the best explanatory variables given the standardized new hazard layers (see Nowicki et al., this meeting, for more detail on the regression). To make the ShakeMap and PAGER systems more comprehensive in terms of secondary losses, we are working to calibrate a similarly constrained regression for liquefaction estimation using a suite of well-studied earthquakes for which detailed, digitized liquefaction datasets are available; here variants of wetness index and soil strength replace geology and slope. We expect that this Atlas of ShakeMaps for landslide and liquefaction case history events, which will soon be publicly available via the internet, will aid in improving the accuracy of loss-modeling systems such as PAGER, as well as allow for a common framework for numerous other mechanistic and empirical studies.

The USAID Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance: Using Disaster Risk Reduction Programs to Increase Community Resiliency to Geologic Hazards and Promote Sustained Development

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mayberry, G. C.

2009-12-01

The U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) supports several geologic-hazard related projects that help reduce the impact of geologic disasters by utilizing advances in science to monitor hazards and mitigate their effects. OFDA’s main responsibility is to rapidly respond to disasters, but OFDA also supports disaster risk reduction activities that aim to ultimately decrease the need for external responders and help to sustain development efforts by lessening the impact of potential disasters and strengthening at-risk community’s resiliency. One of OFDA’s success stories in geologic hazard risk reduction is the Volcano Disaster Assistance Program (VDAP). Following the deadly 1985 eruption of Nevado del Ruiz volcano in Colombia that killed about 25,000 people, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and OFDA formed the VDAP team to provide technical assistance worldwide when potentially dangerous volcanoes show signs of unrest. VDAP also provides technical assistance for capacity-building projects at foreign observatories in order to strengthen their volcano monitoring networks and better prepare them for future activity. VDAP has deployed to 24 major crises in the past 23 years and helped to build infrastructure in 12 countries. They have helped their local counterparts save tens of thousands of lives, and hundreds of millions of dollars in property. Several factors contribute to VDAP’s success: sustained technical assistance allows VDAP to build upon previous efforts, working in the background with counterparts promotes independence, and addressing response and capacity-building needs leads to sustained development among counterpart agencies. Some of the lessons learned from VDAP will be parlayed into the newly formed OFDA-USGS Earthquake Disaster Assistance Team (EDAT), which will provide technical assistance to scientists shortly after large earthquakes occur in foreign countries so that they can “build back better” after events. An example of how OFDA is using advances in science to address the impact of earthquakes on society is the Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response (PAGER). PAGER, which is implemented by the USGS, distributes notifications that provide an estimate of the impact of significant earthquakes shortly after they occur. The notifications include earthquake information such as location, magnitude and depth, an estimate of the number of people exposed to varying levels of shaking based on the Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale, and a description of the region’s vulnerability to earthquakes. The science-based information that PAGER provides has proven to be a valuable asset for responders who have to quickly make potentially life-saving decisions often with little data. In addition, scenarios can be run using the PAGER system that provide a visual means to communicate the potential seismic hazard to at-risk communities and decision makers so that they can make informed decisions about future development. OFDA’s disaster risk reduction projects such as VDAP, EDAT, and PAGER, help promote sustained development by lessening the impact of future geologic events.

PAGER 2.0: an update to the pathway, annotated-list and gene-signature electronic repository for Human Network Biology

PubMed Central

Yue, Zongliang; Zheng, Qi; Neylon, Michael T; Yoo, Minjae; Shin, Jimin; Zhao, Zhiying; Tan, Aik Choon

2018-01-01

Abstract Integrative Gene-set, Network and Pathway Analysis (GNPA) is a powerful data analysis approach developed to help interpret high-throughput omics data. In PAGER 1.0, we demonstrated that researchers can gain unbiased and reproducible biological insights with the introduction of PAGs (Pathways, Annotated-lists and Gene-signatures) as the basic data representation elements. In PAGER 2.0, we improve the utility of integrative GNPA by significantly expanding the coverage of PAGs and PAG-to-PAG relationships in the database, defining a new metric to quantify PAG data qualities, and developing new software features to simplify online integrative GNPA. Specifically, we included 84 282 PAGs spanning 24 different data sources that cover human diseases, published gene-expression signatures, drug–gene, miRNA–gene interactions, pathways and tissue-specific gene expressions. We introduced a new normalized Cohesion Coefficient (nCoCo) score to assess the biological relevance of genes inside a PAG, and RP-score to rank genes and assign gene-specific weights inside a PAG. The companion web interface contains numerous features to help users query and navigate the database content. The database content can be freely downloaded and is compatible with third-party Gene Set Enrichment Analysis tools. We expect PAGER 2.0 to become a major resource in integrative GNPA. PAGER 2.0 is available at http://discovery.informatics.uab.edu/PAGER/. PMID:29126216

Improving communication among nurses and patients.

PubMed

Unluturk, Mehmet S; Ozcanhan, Mehmet H; Dalkilic, Gokhan

2015-07-01

Patients use nurse call systems to signal nurses for medical help. Traditional push button-flashing lamp call systems are not integrated with other hospital automation systems. Therefore, nurse response time becomes a matter of personal discretion. The improvement obtained by integrating a pager system into the nurse call systems does not increase care efficiency, because unnecessary visits are still not eliminated. To obtain an immediate response and a purposeful visit by a nurse; regardless of the location of nurse in hospital, traditional systems have to be improved by intelligent telephone system integration. The results of the developed Nurse Call System Software (NCSS), the Wireless Phone System Software (WPSS), the Location System Software (LSS) and the communication protocol are provided, together with detailed XML message structures. The benefits of the proposed system are also discussed and the direction of future work is presented. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Pagers, Smartphones, and HIPAA: Finding the Best Solution for Electronic Communication of Protected Health Information.

PubMed

Freundlich, Robert E; Freundlich, Katherine L; Drolet, Brian C

2017-11-25

Electronic communication is a topic that applies broadly to the professional activities of every physician and the pager has been the gold standard of communication for decades. We believe that this is a dated technology that is holding clinicians back from better, more efficient alternatives, particularly smartphones. In this manuscript, we examine the paradoxical reliance on pagers in academic medicine, at a time when the use of smartphones and text messaging is the subject of intense scrutiny with respect to its standing under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). We provide previously unreported data regarding the electronic communication practices of academic medical centers in the United States, which we obtained through a survey of Designated Institutional Officials. These data highlight both the controversy around text messaging and HIPAA and a puzzling widespread reliance on pagers as an alternative.

Resident perceptions of the impact of paging on intraoperative education.

PubMed

Rose, Joel S; Waibel, Brett H; Schenarts, Paul J

2012-06-01

Our purpose was to evaluate the impact of paging on perceptions of intraoperative learning. Intraoperative logs of pager interruptions were kept by surgical residents at a university hospital over a 30-day period. The postgraduate year, number of pages, category of caller, reason for call, and level of urgency were recorded during each operation. At the conclusion of each operation, residents also completed a two-item survey with responses on a 5-point scale (1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree), querying if interruptions negatively impacted the intraoperative experience and if a message taken by a third party was effective in limiting interruptions. Logs were completed for 124 of 204 operations. Fifty-five per cent of operations were interrupted at least once with 49 per cent interrupted two to five times and 6 per cent were interrupted six or more times. Junior residents had 69 per cent of their operations interrupted compared with 39 per cent of senior residents (P = 0.001). Ninety-two per cent of pages were nonurgent. Residents did not perceive pager interruptions negatively impacted their educational experience (mean 2.3) but were neutral with respect if messages taken by a third party decreased interruptions (mean 3.8). Although our hypothesis was that pager interruptions were frequent and disrupt resident education, our data demonstrate the opposite.

75 FR 76428 - Privacy Act of 1974; System of Records

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-12-08

..., country, organization, phone, fax, mobile, pager, Defense Switched Network (DSN) phone, other fax, other... to populate and maintain personal data elements in DoD Component networks and systems, such as.../Transport Layer Security (SSL/ TLS) connections, access control lists, file system permissions, intrusion...

Handheld computers and the 21st century surgical team: a pilot study.

PubMed

Aziz, Omer; Panesar, Sukhmeet S; Netuveli, Gopalakrishnan; Paraskeva, Paraskevas; Sheikh, Aziz; Darzi, Ara

2005-08-18

The commercial development and expansion of mobile phone networks has led to the creation of devices combining mobile phones and personal digital assistants, which could prove invaluable in a clinical setting. This pilot study aimed to look at how one such device compared with the current pager system in facilitating inter-professional communication in a hospital clinical team. The study looked at a heterogeneous team of doctors (n = 9) working in a busy surgical setting at St. Mary's Hospital in London and compared the use of a personal digital assistant with mobile phone and web-browsing facilities to the existing pager system. The primary feature of this device being compared to the conventional pager was its use as a mobile phone, but other features evaluated included the ability to access the internet, and reference data on the device. A crossover study was carried out for 6 weeks in 2004, with the team having access to the personal digital assistant every alternate week. The primary outcome measure for assessing efficiency of communication was the length of time it took for clinicians to respond to a call. We also sought to assess the ease of adoption of new technology by evaluating the perceptions of the team (n = 9) to personal digital assistants, by administering a questionnaire. Doctors equipped with a personal digital assistant rather than a pager, responded more quickly to a call and had a lower of failure to respond rate (RR: 0.44; 95%CI 0.20-0.93). Clinicians also found this technology easy to adopt as seen by a significant reduction in perceptions of nervousness to the technology over the six-week study period (mean (SD) week 1: 4.10 (SD 1.69) vs. mean (SD) week 6: 2.20 (1.99); p = 0.04). The results of this pilot study show the possible effects of replacing the current hospital pager with a newer, more technologically advanced device, and suggest that a combined personal digital assistant and mobile phone device may improve communication between doctors. In the light of these encouraging preliminary findings, we propose a large-scale clinical trial of the use of these devices in facilitating inter-professional communication in a hospital setting.

Examples of Communicating Uncertainty Applied to Earthquake Hazard and Risk Products

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wald, D. J.

2013-12-01

When is communicating scientific modeling uncertainty effective? One viewpoint is that the answer depends on whether one is communicating hazard or risk: hazards have quantifiable uncertainties (which, granted, are often ignored), yet risk uncertainties compound uncertainties inherent in the hazard with those of the risk calculations, and are thus often larger. Larger, yet more meaningful: since risk entails societal impact of some form, consumers of such information tend to have a better grasp of the potential uncertainty ranges for loss information than they do for less-tangible hazard values (like magnitude, peak acceleration, or stream flow). I present two examples that compare and contrast communicating uncertainty for earthquake hazard and risk products. The first example is the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) ShakeMap system, which portrays the uncertain, best estimate of the distribution and intensity of shaking over the potentially impacted region. The shaking intensity is well constrained at seismograph locations yet is uncertain elsewhere, so shaking uncertainties are quantified and presented spatially. However, with ShakeMap, it seems that users tend to believe what they see is accurate in part because (1) considering the shaking uncertainty complicates the picture, and (2) it would not necessarily alter their decision-making. In contrast, when it comes to making earthquake-response decisions based on uncertain loss estimates, actions tend to be made only after analysis of the confidence in (or source of) such estimates. Uncertain ranges of loss estimates instill tangible images for users, and when such uncertainties become large, intuitive reality-check alarms go off, for example, when the range of losses presented become too wide to be useful. The USGS Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response (PAGER) system, which in near-real time alerts users to the likelihood of ranges of potential fatalities and economic impact, is aimed at facilitating rapid and proportionate earthquake response. For uncertainty representation, PAGER employs an Earthquake Impact Scale (EIS) that provides simple alerting thresholds, derived from systematic analyses of past earthquake impact and response levels. The alert levels are characterized by alerts of green (little or no impact), yellow (regional impact and response), orange (national-scale impact and response), and red (major disaster, necessitating international response). We made a conscious attempt at both simple and intuitive color-coded alerting criterion; yet, we preserve the necessary uncertainty measures (with simple histograms) by which one can gauge the likelihood for the alert to be over- or underestimated. In these hazard and loss modeling examples, both products are widely used across a range of technical as well as general audiences. Ironically, ShakeMap uncertainties--rigorously reported and portrayed for the primarily scientific portion of the audience--are rarely employed and are routinely misunderstood; for PAGER, uncertainties aimed at a wider user audience seem to be more easily digested. We discuss how differences in the way these uncertainties are portrayed may play into their acceptance and uptake, or lack thereof.

75 FR 69644 - Privacy Act of 1974; System of Records

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-11-15

..., organization, phone, fax, mobile, pager, Defense Switched Network (DSN) phone, other fax, other mobile, other.../Transport Layer Security (SSL/ TLS) connections, access control lists, file system permissions, intrusion detection and prevention systems and log monitoring. Complete access to all records is restricted to and...

Terrorism drill shows ED response plan flaws.

PubMed

2005-07-01

Valuable lessons can be learned by paying attention to your processes and communication equipment during a disaster drill. Did your radios and pagers work adequately? If not, it may be time for a new vendor. Going through the drill helps remind the entire ED staff to funnel all communications and key decisions through the disaster response leader. Make sure to update your disaster response handbook to reflect important lessons learned during the drill.

It's not about pager replacement: an in-depth look at the interprofessional nature of communication in healthcare.

PubMed

Quan, Sherman D; Wu, Robert C; Rossos, Peter G; Arany, Teri; Groe, Silvi; Morra, Dante; Wong, Brian M; Cavalcanti, Rodrigo; Coke, William; Lau, Francis Y

2013-03-01

Institutions have tried to replace the use of numeric pagers for clinical communication by implementing health information technology (HIT) solutions. However, failing to account for the sociotechnical aspects of HIT or the interplay of technology with existing clinical workflow, culture, and social interactions may create other unintended consequences. To evaluate a Web-based messaging system that allows asynchronous communication between health providers and identify the unintended consequences associated with implementing such technology. Intervention-a Web-based messaging system at the University Health Network to replace numeric paging practices in May 2010. The system facilitated clinical communication on the medical wards for coordinating patient care. Study design-pre-post mixed methods utilizing both quantitative and qualitative measures. Five residents, 8 nurses, 2 pharmacists, and 2 social workers were interviewed. Pre-post interruption-15 residents from 5 clinical teams in both periods. The study compared the type of messages sent to physicians before and after implementation of the Web-based messaging system; a constant comparative analysis of semistructured interviews was used to generate key themes related to unintended consequences. Interruptions increased 233%, from 3 pages received per resident per day pre-implementation to 10 messages received per resident per day post-implementation. Key themes relating to unintended consequences that emerged from the interviews included increase in interruptions, accountability, and tactics to improve personal productivity. Meaningful improvements in clinical communication can occur but require more than just replacing pagers. Introducing HIT without addressing the sociotechnical aspects of HIT that underlie clinical communication can lead to unintended consequences. Copyright © 2013 Society of Hospital Medicine.

An Atlas of ShakeMaps and population exposure catalog for earthquake loss modeling

USGS Publications Warehouse

Allen, T.I.; Wald, D.J.; Earle, P.S.; Marano, K.D.; Hotovec, A.J.; Lin, K.; Hearne, M.G.

2009-01-01

We present an Atlas of ShakeMaps and a catalog of human population exposures to moderate-to-strong ground shaking (EXPO-CAT) for recent historical earthquakes (1973-2007). The common purpose of the Atlas and exposure catalog is to calibrate earthquake loss models to be used in the US Geological Survey's Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response (PAGER). The full ShakeMap Atlas currently comprises over 5,600 earthquakes from January 1973 through December 2007, with almost 500 of these maps constrained-to varying degrees-by instrumental ground motions, macroseismic intensity data, community internet intensity observations, and published earthquake rupture models. The catalog of human exposures is derived using current PAGER methodologies. Exposure to discrete levels of shaking intensity is obtained by correlating Atlas ShakeMaps with a global population database. Combining this population exposure dataset with historical earthquake loss data, such as PAGER-CAT, provides a useful resource for calibrating loss methodologies against a systematically-derived set of ShakeMap hazard outputs. We illustrate two example uses for EXPO-CAT; (1) simple objective ranking of country vulnerability to earthquakes, and; (2) the influence of time-of-day on earthquake mortality. In general, we observe that countries in similar geographic regions with similar construction practices tend to cluster spatially in terms of relative vulnerability. We also find little quantitative evidence to suggest that time-of-day is a significant factor in earthquake mortality. Moreover, earthquake mortality appears to be more systematically linked to the population exposed to severe ground shaking (Modified Mercalli Intensity VIII+). Finally, equipped with the full Atlas of ShakeMaps, we merge each of these maps and find the maximum estimated peak ground acceleration at any grid point in the world for the past 35 years. We subsequently compare this "composite ShakeMap" with existing global hazard models, calculating the spatial area of the existing hazard maps exceeded by the combined ShakeMap ground motions. In general, these analyses suggest that existing global, and regional, hazard maps tend to overestimate hazard. Both the Atlas of ShakeMaps and EXPO-CAT have many potential uses for examining earthquake risk and epidemiology. All of the datasets discussed herein are available for download on the PAGER Web page ( http://earthquake.usgs.gov/ eqcenter/pager/prodandref/ ). ?? 2009 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

Degradable Systems: A Survey of Multistate System Theory.

DTIC Science & Technology

1982-08-01

and Subtitle) S. TYPE OF REPORT & PERIOD COVERED C. O DEGRADABLE SYSTEMS: A SURVEY OF MULTISTATE TECHNICAL SYSTEM THEORY 6. PERFORMING ORG. REPORT...THIS PAGE(R7,en Date £nt.,.d) AEoS-T- 8- 9 2 0 Degradable Systems: A Survey of Multistate System Theory by 1 2Emad El-Neweihi and Frank Proschan

Psychotic-Like Experiences at the Healthy End of the Psychosis Continuum.

PubMed

Unterrassner, Lui; Wyss, Thomas A; Wotruba, Diana; Ajdacic-Gross, Vladeta; Haker, Helene; Rössler, Wulf

2017-01-01

There is increasing evidence pointing toward a continuous distribution of psychotic symptoms and accompanying factors between subclinical and clinical populations. However, for the construction of continuum models, a more detailed knowledge of different types of psychotic-like experiences (PLE) and their associations with distress, functional impairment, and demographic variables is needed. We investigated PLE in a sample of healthy adults ( N = 206) incorporating the recently developed revised Exceptional Experiences Questionnaire (PAGE-R). For the first time, the PAGE-R was cross validated with PLE, disorganized-, and negative-like symptoms [Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ), Physical Anhedonia Scale (PAS)]. We subjected the PAGE-R to exploratory factor analyses and examined the resulting subtypes of EE for specific associations with contextual factors, valence ratings, socio-demographic variables, and general psychological burden (Revised Symptom-Checklist-90). Correlational cross-validation suggested that the PAGE-R measures facets of PLE. Importantly, we (1) identified three types of exceptional experiences (EE): Odd beliefs, dissociative anomalous perceptions, and hallucinatory anomalous perceptions. Further, the results suggested that even in healthy individuals (2) PLE and EE are indicative of reduced functioning, as reflected by increased psychological burden and lower educational achievement. Moreover, (3) similar sex-differences might exist as in psychotic patients with women reporting more positive-like symptoms and EE but less disorganized-like symptoms than men. Importantly, (4) EE might be differentially implicated in psychological functioning. We suggest that the PAGE-R holds the potential to complement the current assessment of sub-clinical psychosis. However, whereas our results might point toward a continuity of psychotic symptoms with EE and normal experiences, they require replication in larger samples as well as equivalence testing across the psychosis continuum. Future analyses incorporating the PAGE-R might shed more light onto mechanisms that are implicated in the progress or resilience toward clinical illness.

Psychotic-Like Experiences at the Healthy End of the Psychosis Continuum

PubMed Central

Unterrassner, Lui; Wyss, Thomas A.; Wotruba, Diana; Ajdacic-Gross, Vladeta; Haker, Helene; Rössler, Wulf

2017-01-01

There is increasing evidence pointing toward a continuous distribution of psychotic symptoms and accompanying factors between subclinical and clinical populations. However, for the construction of continuum models, a more detailed knowledge of different types of psychotic-like experiences (PLE) and their associations with distress, functional impairment, and demographic variables is needed. We investigated PLE in a sample of healthy adults (N = 206) incorporating the recently developed revised Exceptional Experiences Questionnaire (PAGE-R). For the first time, the PAGE-R was cross validated with PLE, disorganized-, and negative-like symptoms [Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ), Physical Anhedonia Scale (PAS)]. We subjected the PAGE-R to exploratory factor analyses and examined the resulting subtypes of EE for specific associations with contextual factors, valence ratings, socio-demographic variables, and general psychological burden (Revised Symptom-Checklist-90). Correlational cross-validation suggested that the PAGE-R measures facets of PLE. Importantly, we (1) identified three types of exceptional experiences (EE): Odd beliefs, dissociative anomalous perceptions, and hallucinatory anomalous perceptions. Further, the results suggested that even in healthy individuals (2) PLE and EE are indicative of reduced functioning, as reflected by increased psychological burden and lower educational achievement. Moreover, (3) similar sex-differences might exist as in psychotic patients with women reporting more positive-like symptoms and EE but less disorganized-like symptoms than men. Importantly, (4) EE might be differentially implicated in psychological functioning. We suggest that the PAGE-R holds the potential to complement the current assessment of sub-clinical psychosis. However, whereas our results might point toward a continuity of psychotic symptoms with EE and normal experiences, they require replication in larger samples as well as equivalence testing across the psychosis continuum. Future analyses incorporating the PAGE-R might shed more light onto mechanisms that are implicated in the progress or resilience toward clinical illness. PMID:28555120

Technology in rural transportation. Simple solution #10, wireless pagers to activate warning beacons

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1997-01-01

This application was identified as a promising rural Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) solution under a project sponsored by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the ENTERPRISE program. This summary describes the solution as well as o...

Real-Time Support of Pediatric Diabetes Self-Care by a Transport Team

PubMed Central

Franklin, Brandi E.; Crisler, S. Crile; Shappley, Rebekah; Armour, Meri M.; McCommon, Dana T.; Ferry, Robert J.

2014-01-01

OBJECTIVE The study seeks to improve access for underserved patients via novel integration of Pedi-Flite (a critical care transport team) and to validate whether this safely enhances diabetes care and effectively expands the endocrine workforce. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS The study retrospectively analyzed pager service use in a cohort of established diabetic patients (n = 979) after inception of Pedi-Flite support. Outcomes included incidence and severity of recurrent diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) and cost savings generated from reduced referrals to the emergency department (ED) and on-call endocrinologist. We generated descriptive statistics to characterize the study population and ED visits for DKA and constructed logistic regression models to examine associations of pager use and likelihood of ED visitation and nonelective inpatient admission from an ED for DKA. RESULTS Pager users comprised 30% of the patient population. They were younger but had more established diabetes than nonusers. While pager users were 2.75 times more likely than nonusers to visit the ED for DKA (P < 0.0001), their visits were less likely to lead to inpatient admissions (odds ratio 0.58; P < 0.02). More than half (n = 587) of all calls to the pager were resolved without need for further referral. Estimates suggest that 439 ED visits and 115 admissions were avoided at a potential cost savings exceeding 760,000 USD. CONCLUSIONS Integration of a transport service provides a novel, cost-effective approach to reduce disparities in diabetes care. Advantages include scalability, applicability to other disease areas and settings, and low added costs. These findings enrich an emerging evidence base for telephonic care-management models supported by allied health personnel. PMID:23959568

Real-time support of pediatric diabetes self-care by a transport team.

PubMed

Franklin, Brandi E; Crisler, S Crile; Shappley, Rebekah; Armour, Meri M; McCommon, Dana T; Ferry, Robert J

2014-01-01

OBJECTIVE The study seeks to improve access for underserved patients via novel integration of Pedi-Flite (a critical care transport team) and to validate whether this safely enhances diabetes care and effectively expands the endocrine workforce. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS The study retrospectively analyzed pager service use in a cohort of established diabetic patients (n = 979) after inception of Pedi-Flite support. Outcomes included incidence and severity of recurrent diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) and cost savings generated from reduced referrals to the emergency department (ED) and on-call endocrinologist. We generated descriptive statistics to characterize the study population and ED visits for DKA and constructed logistic regression models to examine associations of pager use and likelihood of ED visitation and nonelective inpatient admission from an ED for DKA. RESULTS Pager users comprised 30% of the patient population. They were younger but had more established diabetes than nonusers. While pager users were 2.75 times more likely than nonusers to visit the ED for DKA (P < 0.0001), their visits were less likely to lead to inpatient admissions (odds ratio 0.58; P < 0.02). More than half (n = 587) of all calls to the pager were resolved without need for further referral. Estimates suggest that 439 ED visits and 115 admissions were avoided at a potential cost savings exceeding 760,000 USD. CONCLUSIONS Integration of a transport service provides a novel, cost-effective approach to reduce disparities in diabetes care. Advantages include scalability, applicability to other disease areas and settings, and low added costs. These findings enrich an emerging evidence base for telephonic care-management models supported by allied health personnel.

An atlas of ShakeMaps for selected global earthquakes

USGS Publications Warehouse

Allen, Trevor I.; Wald, David J.; Hotovec, Alicia J.; Lin, Kuo-Wan; Earle, Paul S.; Marano, Kristin D.

2008-01-01

An atlas of maps of peak ground motions and intensity 'ShakeMaps' has been developed for almost 5,000 recent and historical global earthquakes. These maps are produced using established ShakeMap methodology (Wald and others, 1999c; Wald and others, 2005) and constraints from macroseismic intensity data, instrumental ground motions, regional topographically-based site amplifications, and published earthquake-rupture models. Applying the ShakeMap methodology allows a consistent approach to combine point observations with ground-motion predictions to produce descriptions of peak ground motions and intensity for each event. We also calculate an estimated ground-motion uncertainty grid for each earthquake. The Atlas of ShakeMaps provides a consistent and quantitative description of the distribution and intensity of shaking for recent global earthquakes (1973-2007) as well as selected historic events. As such, the Atlas was developed specifically for calibrating global earthquake loss estimation methodologies to be used in the U.S. Geological Survey Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response (PAGER) Project. PAGER will employ these loss models to rapidly estimate the impact of global earthquakes as part of the USGS National Earthquake Information Center's earthquake-response protocol. The development of the Atlas of ShakeMaps has also led to several key improvements to the Global ShakeMap system. The key upgrades include: addition of uncertainties in the ground motion mapping, introduction of modern ground-motion prediction equations, improved estimates of global seismic-site conditions (VS30), and improved definition of stable continental region polygons. Finally, we have merged all of the ShakeMaps in the Atlas to provide a global perspective of earthquake ground shaking for the past 35 years, allowing comparison with probabilistic hazard maps. The online Atlas and supporting databases can be found at http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/shakemap/atlas.php/.

Global building inventory for earthquake loss estimation and risk management

USGS Publications Warehouse

Jaiswal, Kishor; Wald, David; Porter, Keith

2010-01-01

We develop a global database of building inventories using taxonomy of global building types for use in near-real-time post-earthquake loss estimation and pre-earthquake risk analysis, for the U.S. Geological Survey’s Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response (PAGER) program. The database is available for public use, subject to peer review, scrutiny, and open enhancement. On a country-by-country level, it contains estimates of the distribution of building types categorized by material, lateral force resisting system, and occupancy type (residential or nonresidential, urban or rural). The database draws on and harmonizes numerous sources: (1) UN statistics, (2) UN Habitat’s demographic and health survey (DHS) database, (3) national housing censuses, (4) the World Housing Encyclopedia and (5) other literature.

Interoperability...NMCI and Beyond

DTIC Science & Technology

2001-05-31

wireless. “On The Road” – Pagers – Cell phones – Palm-size PDAs – Two way pagers – Hand-held computing device – Laptop computer – Two-way radios – A...combat capability”… $0 $5 $10 $15 $20 $25 Electric Power NMCI Seat First Run Movie Cell Phone Fed. Civilian Salary 23.80 11.00 4.00 1.380.20 F/A-18...Flying Hour: 1,134.00 Fed. Civilian Salary (mean): 23.80 Cell Phone Air Time: 11.00 First Run Movie: 4.00 DSN

Radiation pager

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Warren, John L.; Vadnais, Kenneth G.

1997-01-01

Recent advances in miniature photomultiplier tubes and low power electronics have made possible a new generation of small gamma-ray radiation detectors specifically designed for use by government and law enforcement agencies for the detection and interdiction of concealed nuclear materials. This paper describes an inexpensive pager sized radiation detector that can be worn on the belt or carried in a pocket for hands free operation, and which can quietly alert the operator to the presence of nuclear material. The sensitivity performance of the detector technology and the application of the instrument to law enforcement and nuclear smuggling are discussed.

A global building inventory for earthquake loss estimation and risk management

USGS Publications Warehouse

Jaiswal, K.; Wald, D.; Porter, K.

2010-01-01

We develop a global database of building inventories using taxonomy of global building types for use in near-real-time post-earthquake loss estimation and pre-earthquake risk analysis, for the U.S. Geological Survey's Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response (PAGER) program. The database is available for public use, subject to peer review, scrutiny, and open enhancement. On a country-by-country level, it contains estimates of the distribution of building types categorized by material, lateral force resisting system, and occupancy type (residential or nonresidential, urban or rural). The database draws on and harmonizes numerous sources: (1) UN statistics, (2) UN Habitat's demographic and health survey (DHS) database, (3) national housing censuses, (4) the World Housing Encyclopedia and (5) other literature. ?? 2010, Earthquake Engineering Research Institute.

Earthquake impact scale

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wald, D.J.; Jaiswal, K.S.; Marano, K.D.; Bausch, D.

2011-01-01

With the advent of the USGS prompt assessment of global earthquakes for response (PAGER) system, which rapidly assesses earthquake impacts, U.S. and international earthquake responders are reconsidering their automatic alert and activation levels and response procedures. To help facilitate rapid and appropriate earthquake response, an Earthquake Impact Scale (EIS) is proposed on the basis of two complementary criteria. On the basis of the estimated cost of damage, one is most suitable for domestic events; the other, on the basis of estimated ranges of fatalities, is generally more appropriate for global events, particularly in developing countries. Simple thresholds, derived from the systematic analysis of past earthquake impact and associated response levels, are quite effective in communicating predicted impact and response needed after an event through alerts of green (little or no impact), yellow (regional impact and response), orange (national-scale impact and response), and red (international response). Corresponding fatality thresholds for yellow, orange, and red alert levels are 1, 100, and 1,000, respectively. For damage impact, yellow, orange, and red thresholds are triggered by estimated losses reaching $1M, $100M, and $1B, respectively. The rationale for a dual approach to earthquake alerting stems from the recognition that relatively high fatalities, injuries, and homelessness predominate in countries in which local building practices typically lend themselves to high collapse and casualty rates, and these impacts lend to prioritization for international response. In contrast, financial and overall societal impacts often trigger the level of response in regions or countries in which prevalent earthquake resistant construction practices greatly reduce building collapse and resulting fatalities. Any newly devised alert, whether economic- or casualty-based, should be intuitive and consistent with established lexicons and procedures. Useful alerts should also be both specific (although allowably uncertain) and actionable. In this analysis, an attempt is made at both simple and intuitive color-coded alerting criteria; yet the necessary uncertainty measures by which one can gauge the likelihood for the alert to be over- or underestimated are preserved. The essence of the proposed impact scale and alerting is that actionable loss information is now available in the immediate aftermath of significant earthquakes worldwide on the basis of quantifiable loss estimates. Utilizing EIS, PAGER's rapid loss estimates can adequately recommend alert levels and suggest appropriate response protocols, despite the uncertainties; demanding or awaiting observations or loss estimates with a high level of accuracy may increase the losses. ?? 2011 American Society of Civil Engineers.

Wireless Headset Communication System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lau, Wilfred K.; Swanson, Richard; Christensen, Kurt K.

1995-01-01

System combines features of pagers, walkie-talkies, and cordless telephones. Wireless headset communication system uses digital modulation on spread spectrum to avoid interference among units. Consists of base station, 4 radio/antenna modules, and as many as 16 remote units with headsets. Base station serves as network controller, audio-mixing network, and interface to such outside services as computers, telephone networks, and other base stations. Developed for use at Kennedy Space Center, system also useful in industrial maintenance, emergency operations, construction, and airport operations. Also, digital capabilities exploited; by adding bar-code readers for use in taking inventories.

High-Fidelity Piezoelectric Audio Device

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Woodward, Stanley E.; Fox, Robert L.; Bryant, Robert G.

2003-01-01

ModalMax is a very innovative means of harnessing the vibration of a piezoelectric actuator to produce an energy efficient low-profile device with high-bandwidth high-fidelity audio response. The piezoelectric audio device outperforms many commercially available speakers made using speaker cones. The piezoelectric device weighs substantially less (4 g) than the speaker cones which use magnets (10 g). ModalMax devices have extreme fabrication simplicity. The entire audio device is fabricated by lamination. The simplicity of the design lends itself to lower cost. The piezoelectric audio device can be used without its acoustic chambers and thereby resulting in a very low thickness of 0.023 in. (0.58 mm). The piezoelectric audio device can be completely encapsulated, which makes it very attractive for use in wet environments. Encapsulation does not significantly alter the audio response. Its small size (see Figure 1) is applicable to many consumer electronic products, such as pagers, portable radios, headphones, laptop computers, computer monitors, toys, and electronic games. The audio device can also be used in automobile or aircraft sound systems.

An Automated Tool to Enable the Distributed Operations of Air Force Satellites

DTIC Science & Technology

2002-01-01

workstations, home PCs, PDAs, pagers) over connections with various bandwidths (e.g., dial-up 56k , wireless 9.6k), SERS has different USis to support the...demonstration and evaluation activities, and (3) CERES employs more modem and open ground systems than are currently deployed in the space operations...COTS or custom tools. • Yes, we demonstrated that our software can interface with a modem Air Force ground system (CERES’ COBRA). • We identified new

Web life: The Evil Mad Scientist Project

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

2009-04-01

What is it? Have you ever tried to electrocute a hot dog? Wondered how to make a robot out of a toothbrush, watch battery and phone-pager motor? Seen a cantaloupe melon and thought, "Hmm, I could make this look like the Death Star from the original Star Wars films"? If you have not, but you would like to - preferably as soon as you can find a pager motor - then this is the site for you. The Evil Mad Scientist Project (EMSP) blog is packed full of ideas for unusual, silly and frequently physics-related creations that bring science out of the laboratory and into kitchens, backyards and tool sheds.

Communication in critical care environments: mobile telephones improve patient care.

PubMed

Soto, Roy G; Chu, Larry F; Goldman, Julian M; Rampil, Ira J; Ruskin, Keith J

2006-02-01

Most hospital policies prohibiting the use of wireless devices cite reports of disruption of medical equipment by cellular telephones. There have been no studies to determine whether mobile telephones may have a beneficial impact on safety. At the 2003 meeting of the American Society of Anesthesiologists 7878 surveys were distributed to attendees. The five-question survey polled anesthesiologists regarding modes of communication used in the operating room/intensive care unit and experience with communications delays and medical errors. Survey reliability was verified using test-retest analysis and proportion agreement in a convenience sample of 17 anesthesiologists. Four-thousand-eighteen responses were received. The test-retest reliability of the survey instrument was excellent (Kappa = 0.75; 95% confidence interval, 0.56-0.94). Sixty-five percent of surveyed anesthesiologists reported using pagers as their primary mode of communications, whereas only 17% used cellular telephones. Forty-five percent of respondents who use pagers reported delays in communications compared with 31% of cellular telephone users. Cellular telephone use by anesthesiologists is associated with a reduction in the risk of medical error or injury resulting from communication delay (relative risk = 0.78; 95% confidence interval, 0.6234-0.9649). The small risks of electromagnetic interference between mobile telephones and medical devices should be weighed against the potential benefits of improved communication.

Alert Notification System Router

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gurganus, Joseph; Carey, Everett; Antonucci, Robert; Hitchener, Peter

2009-01-01

The Alert Notification System Router (ANSR) software provides satellite operators with notifications of key events through pagers, cell phones, and e-mail. Written in Java, this application is specifically designed to meet the mission-critical standards for mission operations while operating on a variety of hardware environments. ANSR is a software component that runs inside the Mission Operations Center (MOC). It connects to the mission's message bus using the GMSEC [Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) Mission Services Evolution Center (GMSEC)] standard. Other components, such as automation and monitoring components, can use ANSR to send directives to notify users or groups. The ANSR system, in addition to notifying users, can check for message acknowledgements from a user and escalate the notification to another user if there is no acknowledgement. When a firewall prevents ANSR from accessing the Internet directly, proxies can be run on the other side of the wall. These proxies can be configured to access the Internet, notify users, and poll for their responses. Multiple ANSRs can be run in parallel, providing a seamless failover capability in the event that one ANSR system becomes incapacitated.

Efficacy of Directional Cues from a Tactile System for Target Orientation in Helicopter Extractions over Moving Targets

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-01-01

incapacitating simulator sickness, current use of medications that alter sleep/ wake cycles, current acute illness, and significant sleep deprivation...tactile cueing using pager motors were not successful in the aviation environment due to ambient noise and vibration obscuring the tactile stimulus (see...continuous wakefulness ). Each day, each participant performed four, 10-minute stabilized hovering A B 6 maneuvers (at 70 feet above ground level

The Ambulatory Care Workload Management System for Nursing Reference Manual

DTIC Science & Technology

1991-05-31

MEDICAL DATA SERVICES CENTER BETHESDA, MARYLAND 2088Q-506. 91-03029 SECuRItY CLASSIFICATION OF THIS PAGEr REPORT DOCUMENTATION PAGE Ia. REPORT SECURITY...ORGANIZATION 6b OFFICE SYMBOL 7a. NAME OF MONITORING ORGANIZATION Naval Medical Data Servics (If applicable) Center 6c. ADDRESS (City, State, and ZIPCode) 7b...staffing methodology developed for emergency and ambulatory care departments in naval medical treatment facilities . The staffing model translates varying

An empirical model for global earthquake fatality estimation

USGS Publications Warehouse

Jaiswal, Kishor; Wald, David

2010-01-01

We analyzed mortality rates of earthquakes worldwide and developed a country/region-specific empirical model for earthquake fatality estimation within the U.S. Geological Survey's Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response (PAGER) system. The earthquake fatality rate is defined as total killed divided by total population exposed at specific shaking intensity level. The total fatalities for a given earthquake are estimated by multiplying the number of people exposed at each shaking intensity level by the fatality rates for that level and then summing them at all relevant shaking intensities. The fatality rate is expressed in terms of a two-parameter lognormal cumulative distribution function of shaking intensity. The parameters are obtained for each country or a region by minimizing the residual error in hindcasting the total shaking-related deaths from earthquakes recorded between 1973 and 2007. A new global regionalization scheme is used to combine the fatality data across different countries with similar vulnerability traits.

The Discovery of the Optical Transient For GRB 010222

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Henden, Arne A.

2001-04-01

On February 22, 2001, a very bright gamma-ray burst was detected by the Italian BeppoSAX satellite. The localization was posted about 4 hours after the burst. Prompt notification by phone and by the AAVSO Gamma-Ray Burst Network pager alert system resulted in the discovery of the optical afterglow within the first hour after the locatlization posting. This paper gives a brief history of the event and how the AAVSO was essential to the discovery.

Microcircuit Reliability Bibliography. Volume 4. 1976 Annual Reference Supplement. (Document Numbers 11045-11745)

DTIC Science & Technology

1976-04-01

State Electron- Res. Lab., Eindhoven, Neth.) icw 16, no. 12, 1315-20, Dec. 1973 ATMOS-AN ELECTRICALLY REPROGRAMMABLE READ-ONLY MEMORY DEVICE. IEEE Trans...transistor is described that can be used nular and array geometry contacts by as an electrically reprogrammable read- the pr~nciple of superposition. It is...digital tuning techniques for FM and typical automobile systems can be readily television, and pocket pagers. Tn. implemented by COS1440S monolithic

Modern wireless telecommunication technologies and their electromagnetic compatibility with life-supporting equipment.

PubMed

Wallin, Mats K E B; Marve, Therese; Hakansson, Peter K

2005-11-01

Hospitals rely on pagers and ordinary telephones to reach staff members in emergency situations. New telecommunication technologies such as General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), the third generation mobile phone system Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), and Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) might be able to replace hospital pagers if they are electromagnetically compatible with medical devices. In this study, we sought to determine if GPRS, UMTS (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access-Frequency Division Duplex [WCDMA FDD]), and WLAN (IEEE 802.11b) transmitted signals interfere with life-supporting equipment in the intensive care and operating room environment. According to United States standard, ANSI C63.18-1997, laboratory tests were performed on 76 medical devices. In addition, clinical tests during 11 operations and 100 h of intensive care were performed. UMTS and WLAN signals caused little interference. Devices using these technologies can be used safely in critical care areas and during operations, but direct contact between medical devices and wireless communication devices ought to be avoided. In the case of GPRS, at a distance of 50 cm, it caused an older infusion pump to alarm and stop infusing; the pump had to be reset. Also, 10 cases of interference with device displays occurred. GPRS can be used safely at a distance of 1 m. Terminals/cellular phones using these technologies should be allowed without restriction in public areas because the risk of interference is minimal.

Use of a Hands Free, Instantaneous, Closed-Loop Communication Device Improves Perception of Communication and Workflow Integration in an Academic Teaching Hospital: A Pilot Study.

PubMed

Fang, Daniel Z; Patil, Teja; Belitskaya-Levy, Ilana; Yeung, Marianne; Posley, Keith; Allaudeen, Nazima

2017-11-17

Efficient and effective communication between providers is critical to quality patient care within a hospital system. Hands free communication devices (HFCD) allow instantaneous, closed-loop communication between physicians and other members of a multidisciplinary team, providing a communication advantage over traditional pager systems. HFCD have been shown to decrease emergency room interruptions, improve nursing communication, improve speed of information flow, and eliminate health care waste. We evaluated the integration of an HFCD with an existing alphanumeric paging system on an acute inpatient medicine service. We conducted a prospective, observational, survey-based study over twenty-four weeks in an academic tertiary care center with attending physicians and residents. Our intervention involved the implementation of an HFCD alongside the existing paging system. Fifty-six pre and post surveys evaluated the perception of improvement in communication and the integration of the HFCD into existing workflow. We saw significant improvements in the ability of an HFCD to help physicians communicate thoughts clearly, communicate thoughts effectively, reach team members, reach ancillary staff, and stay informed about patients. Physicians also reported better workflow integration during admissions, rounds, discharge, and teaching sessions. Qualitative data from post surveys demonstrated that the greatest strengths of the HFCD included the ability to reach colleagues and staff quickly, provide instant access to individuals of the care team, and improve overall communication. Integration of an instantaneous, hands free, closed loop communication system alongside the existing pager system can provide improvements in the perceptions of communication and workflow integration in an academic medicine service. Future studies are needed to correlate these subjective findings with objective measures of quality and safety.

Direct cellular vs. indirect pager communication during orthopaedic surgical procedures: a prospective study.

PubMed

Ortega, Gil R; Taksali, Sudeep; Smart, Ryan; Baumgaertner, Michael R

2009-01-01

Cellular phone use within the hospital setting has increased as physicians, nurses, and ancillary staff incorporate wireless technologies in improving efficiencies, cost, and maintaining patient safety and high quality healthcare [11]. Through the use of wireless, cellular communication, an overall improvement in communication accuracy and efficiency between intraoperative orthopaedic surgeons and floor nurses may be achieved. Both communication types occurred while the surgeon was scrubbed in the operating room (OR). Indirect communication occurred when the pager call was answered by the OR circulating nurse with communication between the surgeon, circulating nurse, and floor nurse. Direct communication consisted of cell phone and Jabra Bluetooth BT200 wireless ear piece used by the surgeon. The surgeon answered the floor nurse's cellular call by phone ring-activated automatic answering. The study was conducted during scheduled orthopaedic procedures. An independent observer measured time variables with a stop-watch while orthopaedic nurses randomly called via pager or cell phone. The nurses asked for patient caregiver confirmation and answers to 30 different patient-care questions. Sixty trials were performed with 30 cell and 30 page communications. Direct cellular communication showed a better response rate than indirect page (Cell 100%, Page 73%). Indirect page communication allowed a 27% and 33% error rate with patient problem and surgeon solution communications, respectively. There were no reported communication errors while using direct wireless, cellular communication. When compared to page communications, cellular communications showed statistically significant improvements in mean time intervals in response time (Cell = 11s, Page = 211s), correct patient identification (Cell = 5s, Page = 172s), patient problem and solution time (Cell = 13s, Page = 189s), and total communication time (Cell = 32s, Page = 250s) (s = seconds, all P < 0.001). Floor nurse satisfaction ratings (dependent on communication times and/or difficulties) were improved with direct cellular communication (Cell = 29 excellent, Page = 11 excellent). Intraoperative case interruptions (defined as delaying surgical progress) were more frequent with indirect page communication (10 page v. 0 cell). Our study demonstrates that direct wireless communication may be used to improve intraoperative communication and enhance patient safety. Direct wireless, cellular intraoperative communication improves communication times, communication accuracy, communication satisfaction, and minimizes intraoperative case interruption. As a result of this study, we hope to maintain our transition to direct wireless, cellular intraoperative orthopaedic communication to reduce medical errors, improve patient care, and enhance both orthopaedic surgeon and nursing efficiencies.

Improving communication in level 1 trauma centers: replacing pagers with smartphones.

PubMed

Joseph, Bellal; Pandit, Viraj; Khreiss, Mohammad; Aziz, Hassan; Kulvatunyou, Narong; Tang, Andrew; Wynne, Julie; O'Keeffe, Terence; Friese, Randall S; Weinstein, Ronald S; Rhee, Peter

2013-03-01

Communication among healthcare providers continues to change, and 90% of healthcare providers are now carrying cellular phones. Compared with pagers, the rate and amount of information immediately available via cellular phones are far superior. Wireless devices such as smartphones are ideal in acute trauma settings as they can transfer patient information quickly in a coordinate manner to all the team members responsible for patient care. A questionnaire survey was distributed among all the trauma surgeons, surgery residents, and nurse practitioners who were a part of the trauma surgery team at a Level 1 trauma center. Answers to each question were recorded on a 5-point Likert scale. The completed survey questionnaires were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences software (SPSS version 17; SPSS, Inc., Chicago, IL). The respondents had an overall positive experience with the usage of the third-generation (3G) smartphones, with 94% of respondents in favor of having wireless means of communication at a Level 1 trauma center. Of respondents, 78% found the device very user friendly, 98% stated that use of smartphones had improved the speed and quality of communication, 96% indicated that 3G smartphones were a useful teaching tool, 90% of the individuals felt there was improvement in the physician's response time to both routine and critical patients, and 88% of respondents were aware of the rules and regulations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Smartphones in an acute trauma setting are easy to use and improve the means of communication among the team members by providing accurate and reliable information in real time. Smartphones are effective in patient follow-up and as a teaching tool. Strict rules need to be used to govern the use of smartphones to secure the safety and secrecy of patient information.

Detection and classification of concealed weapons using a magnetometer-based portal

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kotter, Dale K.; Roybal, Lyle G.; Polk, Robert E.

2002-08-01

A concealed weapons detection technology was developed through the support of the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) to provide a non intrusive means for rapid detection, location, and archiving of data (including visual) of potential suspects and weapon threats. This technology, developed by the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL), has been applied in a portal style weapons detection system using passive magnetic sensors as its basis. This paper will report on enhancements to the weapon detection system to enable weapon classification and to discriminate threats from non-threats. Advanced signal processing algorithms were used to analyze the magnetic spectrum generated when a person passes through a portal. These algorithms analyzed multiple variables including variance in the magnetic signature from random weapon placement and/or orientation. They perform pattern recognition and calculate the probability that the collected magnetic signature correlates to a known database of weapon versus non-weapon responses. Neural networks were used to further discriminate weapon type and identify controlled electronic items such as cell phones and pagers. False alarms were further reduced by analyzing the magnetic detector response by using a Joint Time Frequency Analysis digital signal processing technique. The frequency components and power spectrum for a given sensor response were derived. This unique fingerprint provided additional information to aid in signal analysis. This technology has the potential to produce major improvements in weapon detection and classification.

Logistic Regression for Seismically Induced Landslide Predictions: Using Uniform Hazard and Geophysical Layers as Predictor Variables

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nowicki, M. A.; Hearne, M.; Thompson, E.; Wald, D. J.

2012-12-01

Seismically induced landslides present a costly and often fatal threats in many mountainous regions. Substantial effort has been invested to understand where seismically induced landslides may occur in the future. Both slope-stability methods and, more recently, statistical approaches to the problem are described throughout the literature. Though some regional efforts have succeeded, no uniformly agreed-upon method is available for predicting the likelihood and spatial extent of seismically induced landslides. For use in the U. S. Geological Survey (USGS) Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response (PAGER) system, we would like to routinely make such estimates, in near-real time, around the globe. Here we use the recently produced USGS ShakeMap Atlas of historic earthquakes to develop an empirical landslide probability model. We focus on recent events, yet include any digitally-mapped landslide inventories for which well-constrained ShakeMaps are also available. We combine these uniform estimates of the input shaking (e.g., peak acceleration and velocity) with broadly available susceptibility proxies, such as topographic slope and surface geology. The resulting database is used to build a predictive model of the probability of landslide occurrence with logistic regression. The landslide database includes observations from the Northridge, California (1994); Wenchuan, China (2008); ChiChi, Taiwan (1999); and Chuetsu, Japan (2004) earthquakes; we also provide ShakeMaps for moderate-sized events without landslide for proper model testing and training. The performance of the regression model is assessed with both statistical goodness-of-fit metrics and a qualitative review of whether or not the model is able to capture the spatial extent of landslides for each event. Part of our goal is to determine which variables can be employed based on globally-available data or proxies, and whether or not modeling results from one region are transferrable to geomorphologically-similar regions that lack proper calibration events. Combined with near-real time ShakeMaps, we anticipate using our model to make generalized predictions of whether or not (and if so, where) landslides are likely to occur for earthquakes around the globe; we also intend to incorporate this functionality into the USGS PAGER system.

Wireless clinical alerts for physiologic, laboratory and medication data.

PubMed Central

Shabot, M. M.; LoBue, M.; Chen, J.

2000-01-01

A fully interfaced clinical information system (CIS) contains physiologic, laboratory, blood gas, medication and other data that can be used as the information base for a comprehensive alerting system. Coupled with an event driven rules engine, a CIS can generate clinical alerts which may both prevent medical errors and assist caregivers in responding to critical events in a timely way. The authors have developed a clinical alerting system which delivers alerts and reminders to clinicians in real time via a alphanumeric display pagers. This paper will describe the system, the type and number of alerts generated, and the impact on clinical practice. A major issue remains in measuring the impact of wireless alerts on patient outcomes. PMID:11079992

Managing the Unexpected

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Davis, Marty

2004-01-01

On September 5, 2003, my wife and I left to go on vacation. We planned to spend two weeks wandering around New York State seeing all the sights. When we left the house, I turned off my cell phone, but kept my pager on - in case anyone needed to get hold of me. We had a wonderful weekend. Then, bright and early on Monday morning, my pager went off. It was the Project Manager for one of our spacecraft. She had been trying to reach me on my cell phone since Saturday to tell me that the day after I left, Lockheed-Martin had dropped one of my spacecraft. You can go through your whole career and never have someone drop one of your spacecraft. I think that would have been nice. So, one of the first things I did when I got back, was to inquire whether I could retire retroactively to Friday, so it wouldn't have been on my watch. They just laughed that off. Then we got to work. Almost immediately, four investigation teams were formed - two by Lockheed-Martin and two by NASA. Each was tasked to investigate a different aspect of the accident. These aspects included not only finding out what happened, but also looking for systemic problems in the program, determining next steps, and assessing liability.

PACS quality control and automatic problem notifier

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Honeyman-Buck, Janice C.; Jones, Douglas; Frost, Meryll M.; Staab, Edward V.

1997-05-01

One side effect of installing a clinical PACS Is that users become dependent upon the technology and in some cases it can be very difficult to revert back to a film based system if components fail. The nature of system failures range from slow deterioration of function as seen in the loss of monitor luminance through sudden catastrophic loss of the entire PACS networks. This paper describes the quality control procedures in place at the University of Florida and the automatic notification system that alerts PACS personnel when a failure has happened or is anticipated. The goal is to recover from a failure with a minimum of downtime and no data loss. Routine quality control is practiced on all aspects of PACS, from acquisition, through network routing, through display, and including archiving. Whenever possible, the system components perform self and between platform checks for active processes, file system status, errors in log files, and system uptime. When an error is detected or a exception occurs, an automatic page is sent to a pager with a diagnostic code. Documentation on each code, trouble shooting procedures, and repairs are kept on an intranet server accessible only to people involved in maintaining the PACS. In addition to the automatic paging system for error conditions, acquisition is assured by an automatic fax report sent on a daily basis to all technologists acquiring PACS images to be used as a cross check that all studies are archived prior to being removed from the acquisition systems. Daily quality control is preformed to assure that studies can be moved from each acquisition and contrast adjustment. The results of selected quality control reports will be presented. The intranet documentation server will be described with the automatic pager system. Monitor quality control reports will be described and the cost of quality control will be quantified. As PACS is accepted as a clinical tool, the same standards of quality control must be established as are expected on other equipment used in the diagnostic process.

Introducing Current Technologies

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mitchell, Tiffany

1995-01-01

The objective of the study was a continuation of the 'technology push' activities that the Technology Transfer Team conducts at this time. It was my responsibility to research current technologies at Langley Research Center and find a commercial market for these technologies in the private industry. After locating a market for the technologies, a mailing package was put together which informed the companies of the benefits of NASA Langley's technologies. The mailing package included articles written about the technology, patent material, abstracts from technical papers, and one-pagers which were used at the Technology Opportunities Showcase (TOPS) exhibitions. The companies were encouraged to consult key team members for further information on the technologies.

Can mobile technology improve response times of junior doctors to urgent out-of-hours calls? A prospective observational study.

PubMed

Herrod, P J J; Barclay, C; Blakey, J D

2014-04-01

The Hospital at Night system has been widely adopted to manage Out-of-Hours workload. However, it has the potential to introduce delays and corruption of information. The introduction of newer technologies to replace landlines, pagers and paper may ameliorate these issues. To establish if the introduction of a Hospital at Night system supported by a wireless taskflow system affected the escalation of high Early Warning Scores (EWSs) to medical attention, and the time taken to medical review. Prospective 'pre and post' observational study in a teaching hospital in the UK. Review of observation charts and medical records, and data extraction from the electronic taskflow system. The implementation of a technology-supported Hospital at Night system was associated with a significant decrease in time to documentation of initial review in those who were reviewed. However, there was no change in the proportion of those with a high EWS that were reviewed, and throughout the study a majority of patients with high EWSs were not reviewed in accordance with guidelines. Introduction of a Hospital at Night system supported by mobile technology appeared to improve the transfer of information, but did not affect the nursing decision whether to escalate abnormal findings.

Tooth contact in patients with temporomandibular disorders.

PubMed

Glaros, Alan G; Williams, Karen; Lausten, Leonard; Friesen, Lynn R

2005-07-01

Both experimental and retrospective studies suggest a link between parafunctions and pain in temporomandibular disorder (TMD) patients. To investigate the role of parafunctions in TMD, experience sampling methodology was used as a prospective test of the hypothesis that patients with TMD have higher levels of tooth contact and tension than non-TMD controls. Three groups of TMD patients and a group of normal controls carried pagers for one week, were contacted approximately every two hours by an automated calling system, and completed questionnaires assessing tooth contact, tension, and pain at each contact. Results showed that tooth contact was much more frequent among normal controls than is commonly presumed. Patients with myofascial pain with/without arthralgia reported more frequent contact, higher intensity contact, and more tension than patients with disk displacement or normal controls. Increased masticatory muscle activity responsible for tooth contact and tension may be an important mechanism in the etiology and maintenance of the myofascial pain and arthralgia of TMD.

Closing the Loop in ICU Decision Support: Physiologic Event Detection, Alerts, and Documentation

PubMed Central

Norris, Patrick R.; Dawant, Benoit M.

2002-01-01

Automated physiologic event detection and alerting is a challenging task in the ICU. Ideally care providers should be alerted only when events are clinically significant and there is opportunity for corrective action. However, the concepts of clinical significance and opportunity are difficult to define in automated systems, and effectiveness of alerting algorithms is difficult to measure. This paper describes recent efforts on the Simon project to capture information from ICU care providers about patient state and therapy in response to alerts, in order to assess the value of event definitions and progressively refine alerting algorithms. Event definitions for intracranial pressure and cerebral perfusion pressure were studied by implementing a reliable system to automatically deliver alerts to clinical users’ alphanumeric pagers, and to capture associated documentation about patient state and therapy when the alerts occurred. During a 6-month test period in the trauma ICU at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, 530 alerts were detected in 2280 hours of data spanning 14 patients. Clinical users electronically documented 81% of these alerts as they occurred. Retrospectively classifying documentation based on therapeutic actions taken, or reasons why actions were not taken, provided useful information about ways to potentially improve event definitions and enhance system utility.

Aviation Careers Series: Aircraft Manufacturing

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1993-01-01

Genesis was a Field Operational Test using alphanumeric personal communications devices (pagers) and personal digital assistants (PDAs) to distribute traffic information in the Twin Cities Metropolitan area of Minnesota. This test is the second of a ...

KSC-00padig050

NASA Image and Video Library

2000-10-18

This close-up shows the pager-sized Personal Cabin Pressure Altitude Monitor developed by Jan Zysko, chief of the KSC Spaceport Engineering and Technology directorate's data and electronic systems branch. The monitor alerts wearers of a potentially dangerous or deteriorating cabin pressure altitude condition, which can lead to life-threatening hypoxia. Zysko originally designed the monitor to offer Space Shuttle and Space Station crew members added independent notification about any depressurization. However, it has drawn the interest of such organizations as the Federal Aviation Administration for use in commercial airliners and private aircraft as well

Estimating Casualties for Large Earthquakes Worldwide Using an Empirical Approach

USGS Publications Warehouse

Jaiswal, Kishor; Wald, David J.; Hearne, Mike

2009-01-01

We developed an empirical country- and region-specific earthquake vulnerability model to be used as a candidate for post-earthquake fatality estimation by the U.S. Geological Survey's Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response (PAGER) system. The earthquake fatality rate is based on past fatal earthquakes (earthquakes causing one or more deaths) in individual countries where at least four fatal earthquakes occurred during the catalog period (since 1973). Because only a few dozen countries have experienced four or more fatal earthquakes since 1973, we propose a new global regionalization scheme based on idealization of countries that are expected to have similar susceptibility to future earthquake losses given the existing building stock, its vulnerability, and other socioeconomic characteristics. The fatality estimates obtained using an empirical country- or region-specific model will be used along with other selected engineering risk-based loss models for generation of automated earthquake alerts. These alerts could potentially benefit the rapid-earthquake-response agencies and governments for better response to reduce earthquake fatalities. Fatality estimates are also useful to stimulate earthquake preparedness planning and disaster mitigation. The proposed model has several advantages as compared with other candidate methods, and the country- or region-specific fatality rates can be readily updated when new data become available.

Teaching Your Child How to Use 911

MedlinePlus

... people accidentally push the emergency button on their cell phones. Others don't realize that 911 is for ... where you can be reached, such as your cell phone, pager, or work number. In the confusion of ...

USGS ShakeMap Developments, Implementation, and Derivative Tools

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wald, D. J.; Lin, K.; Quitoriano, V.; Worden, B.

2007-12-01

We discuss ongoing development and enhancements of ShakeMap, a system for automatically generating maps of ground shaking and intensity in the minutes following an earthquake. The rapid availability of these maps is of particular value to emergency response organizations, utilities, insurance companies, government decision- makers, the media, and the general public. ShakeMap Version 3.2 was released in March, 2007, on a download site which allows ShakeMap developers to track operators' updates and provide follow-up information; V3.2 has now been downloaded in 15 countries. The V3.2 release supports LINUX in addition to other UNIX operating systems and adds enhancements to XML, KML, metadata, and other products. We have also added an uncertainty measure, quantified as a function of spatial location. Uncertainty is essential for evaluating the range of possible losses. Though not released in V3.2, we will describe a new quantitative uncertainty letter grading for each ShakeMap produced, allowing users to gauge the appropriate level of confidence when using rapidly produced ShakeMaps as part of their post-earthquake critical decision-making process. Since the V3.2 release, several new ground motion predictions equations have also been added to the prediction equation modules. ShakeMap is implemented in several new regions as reported in this Session. Within the U.S., robust systems serve California, Nevada, Utah, Washington and Oregon, Hawaii, and Anchorage. Additional systems are in development and efforts to provide backup capabilities for all Advanced National Seismic System (ANSS) regions at the National Earthquake Information Center are underway. Outside the U.S., this Session has descriptions of ShakeMap systems in Italy, Switzerland, Romania, and Turkey, among other countries. We also describe our predictive global ShakeMap system for the rapid evaluation of significant earthquakes globally for the Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response (PAGER) system. These global ShakeMaps are constrained by rapidly gathered intensity data via the Internet and by finite fault and aftershock analyses for portraying fault rupture dimensions. As part of the PAGER loss calibration process we have produced an Atlas of ShakeMaps for significant earthquakes around the globe since 1973 (Allen and others, this Session); these Atlas events have additional constraints provided by archival strong motion, faulting dimensions, and macroseismic intensity data. We also describe derivative tools for further utilizing ShakeMap including ShakeCast, a fully automated system for delivering specific ShakeMap products to critical users and triggering established post-earthquake response protocols. We have released ShakeCast Version 2.0 (Lin and others, this Session), which allows RSS feeds for automatically receiving ShakeMap files, auto-launching of post-download processing scripts, and delivering notifications based on users' likely facility damage states derived from ShakeMap shaking parameters. As part of our efforts to produce estimated ShakeMaps globally, we have developed a procedure for deriving Vs30 estimates from correlations with topographic slope, and we have now implemented a global Vs30 Server, allowing users to generate Vs30 maps for custom user-selected regions around the globe (Allen and Wald, this Session). Finally, as a further derivative product of the ShakeMap Atlas project, we will present a shaking hazard Map for the past 30 years based on approximately 3,900 earthquake ShakeMaps of historic earthquakes.

36 CFR 1254.46 - Are there other rules of conduct that I must follow?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION PUBLIC AVAILABILITY AND USE USING RECORDS AND DONATED HISTORICAL MATERIALS... eat, drink, chew gum, smoke, or use smokeless tobacco products, or use a cell phone, pager, or similar...

36 CFR 1254.46 - Are there other rules of conduct that I must follow?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION PUBLIC AVAILABILITY AND USE USING RECORDS AND DONATED HISTORICAL MATERIALS... eat, drink, chew gum, smoke, or use smokeless tobacco products, or use a cell phone, pager, or similar...

36 CFR 1254.46 - Are there other rules of conduct that I must follow?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION PUBLIC AVAILABILITY AND USE USING RECORDS AND DONATED HISTORICAL MATERIALS... eat, drink, chew gum, smoke, or use smokeless tobacco products, or use a cell phone, pager, or similar...

Smarter hospital communication: secure smartphone text messaging improves provider satisfaction and perception of efficacy, workflow.

PubMed

Przybylo, Jennifer A; Wang, Ange; Loftus, Pooja; Evans, Kambria H; Chu, Isabella; Shieh, Lisa

2014-09-01

Though current hospital paging systems are neither efficient (callbacks disrupt workflow), nor secure (pagers are not Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act [HIPAA]-compliant), they are routinely used to communicate patient information. Smartphone-based text messaging is a potentially more convenient and efficient mobile alternative; however, commercial cellular networks are also not secure. To determine if augmenting one-way pagers with Medigram, a secure, HIPAA-compliant group messaging (HCGM) application for smartphones, could improve hospital team communication. Eight-week prospective, cluster-randomized, controlled trial Stanford Hospital Three inpatient medicine teams used the HCGM application in addition to paging, while two inpatient medicine teams used paging only for intra-team communication. Baseline and post-study surveys were collected from 22 control and 41 HCGM team members. When compared with paging, HCGM was rated significantly (P < 0.05) more effective in: (1) allowing users to communicate thoughts clearly (P = 0.010) and efficiently (P = 0.009) and (2) integrating into workflow during rounds (P = 0.018) and patient discharge (P = 0.012). Overall satisfaction with HCGM was significantly higher (P = 0.003). 85% of HCGM team respondents said they would recommend using an HCGM system on the wards. Smartphone-based, HIPAA-compliant group messaging applications improve provider perception of in-hospital communication, while providing the information security that paging and commercial cellular networks do not. © 2014 The Authors Journal of Hospital Medicine published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Society of Hospital Medicine.

36 CFR § 1254.46 - Are there other rules of conduct that I must follow?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION PUBLIC AVAILABILITY AND USE USING RECORDS AND DONATED HISTORICAL...) You may not eat, drink, chew gum, smoke, or use smokeless tobacco products, or use a cell phone, pager...

Geothermal Power/Oil & Gas Coproduction Opportunity

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

DOE

2012-02-01

Coproduced geothermal resources can deliver near-term energy savings, diminish greenhouse gas emissions, extend the economic life of oil and gas fields, and profitably utilize oil and gas field infrastructure. This two-pager provides an overview of geothermal coproduced resources.

77 FR 61535 - Private Land Mobile Radio Rules

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-10-10

... technology that we believe can provide valuable benefits to land mobile radio users. III. Summary of..., GPS equipment, pagers, cellular phones, mobile communications equipment, and radio and television...-114] Private Land Mobile Radio Rules AGENCY: Federal Communications Commission. ACTION: Final rule...

Better protecting staff working alone.

PubMed

Swindlehurst, Darren

2016-08-01

Established four and a half years ago as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Dutch-headquartered personal security and critical communications solutions provider, Atus BV, Hereford-based Atus Systems has since established a strong UK-wide client base supplying personal pagers, wireless personal alarm units, and the associated infrastructure, predominantly to high secure mental health facilities, prisons, and detention centres. Recent months, however, mark a new chapter for it, with the launch of a 'unique' lone worker protection system able to identify such personnel's location even when they are indoors and out of range of GPS coverage, and a sophisticated two-way enterprise critical messaging system. As HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie, discovered from MD, Darren Swindlehurst, the company will target both systems squarely at the NHS and private healthcare providers, as well as at its more 'traditional' customers.

Detecting alerts, notifying the physician, and offering action items: a comprehensive alerting system.

PubMed Central

Kuperman, G. J.; Teich, J. M.; Bates, D. W.; Hiltz, F. L.; Hurley, J. M.; Lee, R. Y.; Paterno, M. D.

1996-01-01

We developed and evaluated a system to automatically identify serious clinical conditions in inpatients. The system notifies the patient's covering physician via his pager that an alert is present and offers potential therapies for the patient's condition (action items) at the time he views the alert information. Over a 6 month period, physicians responded to 1214 (70.2%) of 1730 alerts for which they were paged; they responded to 1002 (82.5% of the 1214) in less than 15 minutes. They said they would take action in 71.5% of the alerts, and they placed an order directly from the alert display screen in 39.4%. Further study is needed to determine if this alerting system improves processes or outcomes of care. PMID:8947756

Closing the loop in ICU decision support: physiologic event detection, alerts, and documentation.

PubMed Central

Norris, P. R.; Dawant, B. M.

2001-01-01

Automated physiologic event detection and alerting is a challenging task in the ICU. Ideally care providers should be alerted only when events are clinically significant and there is opportunity for corrective action. However, the concepts of clinical significance and opportunity are difficult to define in automated systems, and effectiveness of alerting algorithms is difficult to measure. This paper describes recent efforts on the Simon project to capture information from ICU care providers about patient state and therapy in response to alerts, in order to assess the value of event definitions and progressively refine alerting algorithms. Event definitions for intracranial pressure and cerebral perfusion pressure were studied by implementing a reliable system to automatically deliver alerts to clinical users alphanumeric pagers, and to capture associated documentation about patient state and therapy when the alerts occurred. During a 6-month test period in the trauma ICU at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, 530 alerts were detected in 2280 hours of data spanning 14 patients. Clinical users electronically documented 81% of these alerts as they occurred. Retrospectively classifying documentation based on therapeutic actions taken, or reasons why actions were not taken, provided useful information about ways to potentially improve event definitions and enhance system utility. PMID:11825238

36 CFR 1254.26 - What can I take into a research room with me?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... wallet or purse is sufficiently small for purposes of this section. You may take cell phones, pagers, and...) and, for cell phone cameras, in § 1254.70(g). (b) Notes and reference materials. You may take notes...

36 CFR 1254.26 - What can I take into a research room with me?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... wallet or purse is sufficiently small for purposes of this section. You may take cell phones, pagers, and...) and, for cell phone cameras, in § 1254.70(g). (b) Notes and reference materials. You may take notes...

36 CFR 1254.26 - What can I take into a research room with me?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... wallet or purse is sufficiently small for purposes of this section. You may take cell phones, pagers, and...) and, for cell phone cameras, in § 1254.70(g). (b) Notes and reference materials. You may take notes...

36 CFR § 1254.26 - What can I take into a research room with me?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... wallet or purse is sufficiently small for purposes of this section. You may take cell phones, pagers, and...) and, for cell phone cameras, in § 1254.70(g). (b) Notes and reference materials. You may take notes...

Nature-Inspired Acoustic Sensor Projects

DTIC Science & Technology

1999-08-24

m). The pager motors are worn on the wrists. Yale Intelligent Sensors Lab 8 Autonomous vehicle navigation Yago – Yale Autonomous Go-Cart Yago is used...proximity sensor determined the presence of close-by objects missed by the sonars. Yago operated autonomously by avoiding obstacles. Problems being

Franklin Pierce College's Fire Department: 17 Student Volunteers and a Vintage Engine.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Meyer, Thomas J.

1985-01-01

Seventeen student volunteers form the Franklin Pierce College Fire Department. When the firefighters are on duty, they must carry electronic pagers at all times. They also participate in dormitory inspections and attend weekend sessions at a local firefighters' training school. (MLW)

Enabling Advanced Automation in Spacecraft Operations with the Spacecraft Emergency Response System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Breed, Julie; Fox, Jeffrey A.; Powers, Edward I. (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

True autonomy is the Holy Grail of spacecraft mission operations. The goal of launching a satellite and letting it manage itself throughout its useful life is a worthy one. With true autonomy, the cost of mission operations would be reduced to a negligible amount. Under full autonomy, any problems (no matter the severity or type) that may arise with the spacecraft would be handled without any human intervention via some combination of smart sensors, on-board intelligence, and/or smart automated ground system. Until the day that complete autonomy is practical and affordable to deploy, incremental steps of deploying ever-increasing levels of automation (computerization of once manual tasks) on the ground and on the spacecraft are gradually decreasing the cost of mission operations. For example, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (NASA-GSFC) has been flying spacecraft with low cost operations for several years. NASA-GSFC's SMEX (Small Explorer) and MIDEX (Middle Explorer) missions have effectively deployed significant amounts of automation to enable the missions to fly predominately in 'light-out' mode. Under light-out operations the ground system is run without human intervention. Various tools perform many of the tasks previously performed by the human operators. One of the major issues in reducing human staff in favor of automation is the perceived increased in risk of losing data, or even losing a spacecraft, because of anomalous conditions that may occur when there is no one in the control center. When things go wrong, missions deploying advanced automation need to be sure that anomalous conditions are detected and that key personal are notified in a timely manner so that on-call team members can react to those conditions. To ensure the health and safety of its lights-out missions, NASA-GSFC's Advanced Automation and Autonomy branch (Code 588) developed the Spacecraft Emergency Response System (SERS). The SERS is a Web-based collaborative environment that enables secure distributed fault and resource management. The SERS incorporates the use of intelligent agents, threaded discussions, workflow, database connectivity, and links to a variety of communications devices (e.g., two-way paging, PDA's, and Internet phones) via commercial gateways. When the SERS detects a problem, it notifies on-call team members, who then can remotely take any necessary actions to resolve the anomalies.The SERS goes well beyond a simple '911' system that sends out an error code to everyone with a pager. Instead, SERS' software agents send detailed data (i.e., notifications) to the most appropriate team members based on the type and severity of the anomaly and the skills of the on-call team members. The SERS also allows the team members to respond to the notifications from their wireless devices. This unique capability ensures rapid response since the team members no longer have to go to a PC or the control center for every anomalous event. Most importantly, the SERS enables safe experimentation with various techniques for increasing levels of automation, leading to robust autonomy. For the MIDEX missions at NASA GSFC, the SERS is used to provide 'human-in-the-loop' automation. During lights-out operations, as greater control is given to the MIDEX automated systems, the SERS can be configured to page remote personnel and keep them informed regarding actions taking place in the control center. Remote off-duty operators can even be given the option of enabling or inhibiting a specific automated response in near real time via their two-way pagers. The SERS facilitates insertion of new technology to increase automation, while maintaining the safety and security of mission resources. This paper will focus on SERS' overall functionality and how SERS has been designed to handle the monitoring and emergency response for missions with varying levels of automation. The paper will also convey some of the key lessons learned from SERS' deployment across of variety of missions, highlighting this incremental approach to achieving 'robust autonomy'.

Quality improvement utilizing in-situ simulation for a dual-hospital pediatric code response team.

PubMed

Yager, Phoebe; Collins, Corey; Blais, Carlene; O'Connor, Kathy; Donovan, Patricia; Martinez, Maureen; Cummings, Brian; Hartnick, Christopher; Noviski, Natan

2016-09-01

Given the rarity of in-hospital pediatric emergency events, identification of gaps and inefficiencies in the code response can be difficult. In-situ, simulation-based medical education programs can identify unrecognized systems-based challenges. We hypothesized that developing an in-situ, simulation-based pediatric emergency response program would identify latent inefficiencies in a complex, dual-hospital pediatric code response system and allow rapid intervention testing to improve performance before implementation at an institutional level. Pediatric leadership from two hospitals with a shared pediatric code response team employed the Institute for Healthcare Improvement's (IHI) Breakthrough Model for Collaborative Improvement to design a program consisting of Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles occurring in a simulated environment. The objectives of the program were to 1) identify inefficiencies in our pediatric code response; 2) correlate to current workflow; 3) employ an iterative process to test quality improvement interventions in a safe environment; and 4) measure performance before actual implementation at the institutional level. Twelve dual-hospital, in-situ, simulated, pediatric emergencies occurred over one year. The initial simulated event allowed identification of inefficiencies including delayed provider response, delayed initiation of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), and delayed vascular access. These gaps were linked to process issues including unreliable code pager activation, slow elevator response, and lack of responder familiarity with layout and contents of code cart. From first to last simulation with multiple simulated process improvements, code response time for secondary providers coming from the second hospital decreased from 29 to 7 min, time to CPR initiation decreased from 90 to 15 s, and vascular access obtainment decreased from 15 to 3 min. Some of these simulated process improvements were adopted into the institutional response while others continue to be trended over time for evidence that observed changes represent a true new state of control. Utilizing the IHI's Breakthrough Model, we developed a simulation-based program to 1) successfully identify gaps and inefficiencies in a complex, dual-hospital, pediatric code response system and 2) provide an environment in which to safely test quality improvement interventions before institutional dissemination. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Seismic hazard, risk, and design for South America

USGS Publications Warehouse

Petersen, Mark D.; Harmsen, Stephen; Jaiswal, Kishor; Rukstales, Kenneth S.; Luco, Nicolas; Haller, Kathleen; Mueller, Charles; Shumway, Allison

2018-01-01

We calculate seismic hazard, risk, and design criteria across South America using the latest data, models, and methods to support public officials, scientists, and engineers in earthquake risk mitigation efforts. Updated continental scale seismic hazard models are based on a new seismicity catalog, seismicity rate models, evaluation of earthquake sizes, fault geometry and rate parameters, and ground‐motion models. Resulting probabilistic seismic hazard maps show peak ground acceleration, modified Mercalli intensity, and spectral accelerations at 0.2 and 1 s periods for 2%, 10%, and 50% probabilities of exceedance in 50 yrs. Ground shaking soil amplification at each site is calculated by considering uniform soil that is applied in modern building codes or by applying site‐specific factors based on VS30">VS30 shear‐wave velocities determined through a simple topographic proxy technique. We use these hazard models in conjunction with the Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response (PAGER) model to calculate economic and casualty risk. Risk is computed by incorporating the new hazard values amplified by soil, PAGER fragility/vulnerability equations, and LandScan 2012 estimates of population exposure. We also calculate building design values using the guidelines established in the building code provisions. Resulting hazard and associated risk is high along the northern and western coasts of South America, reaching damaging levels of ground shaking in Chile, western Argentina, western Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, and in localized areas distributed across the rest of the continent where historical earthquakes have occurred. Constructing buildings and other structures to account for strong shaking in these regions of high hazard and risk should mitigate losses and reduce casualties from effects of future earthquake strong ground shaking. National models should be developed by scientists and engineers in each country using the best available science.

KSC00padig049

NASA Image and Video Library

2000-10-01

Jan Zysko (left) and Rich Mizell (right) test a Personal Cabin Pressure Altitude Monitor in an altitude chamber at Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida. Zysko invented the pager-sized monitor that alerts wearers of a potentially dangerous or deteriorating cabin pressure altitude condition, which can lead to life-threatening hypoxia. Zysko is chief of the KSC Spaceport Engineering and Technology directorate's data and electronic systems branch. Mizell is a Shuttle processing engineer. The monitor, which has drawn the interest of such organizations as the Federal Aviation Administration for use in commercial airliners and private aircraft, was originally designed to offer Space Shuttle and Space Station crew members added independent notification about any depressurization

KSC-00padig049

NASA Image and Video Library

2000-10-01

Jan Zysko (left) and Rich Mizell (right) test a Personal Cabin Pressure Altitude Monitor in an altitude chamber at Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida. Zysko invented the pager-sized monitor that alerts wearers of a potentially dangerous or deteriorating cabin pressure altitude condition, which can lead to life-threatening hypoxia. Zysko is chief of the KSC Spaceport Engineering and Technology directorate's data and electronic systems branch. Mizell is a Shuttle processing engineer. The monitor, which has drawn the interest of such organizations as the Federal Aviation Administration for use in commercial airliners and private aircraft, was originally designed to offer Space Shuttle and Space Station crew members added independent notification about any depressurization

Mixed Signals.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Danforth, Eric L.

2003-01-01

According to the Education Commission of the States, 14 states prohibit pagers and/or cell phones in schools, 8 states have repealed bans, and the rest have no statutes on the issue. Ten states, including some that have repealed bans, grant policymaking authority to local boards. Presents arguments pro and con on cell phones and school district…

Keep Deaf Workers Safe.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Menchel, Robert S.; Ritter, Audrey

1984-01-01

Safety suggestions are presented to increase job safety for all employees, especially the hearing impaired. Suggestions include use of various types of lights and equipment such as vests, helmets, and pagers. The article also examines studies of safety programs already in effect and the question of safety for hearing impaired drivers. (CT)

Code Readiness

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lapin, Lisa

2009-01-01

Should a crisis hit the University of Montana, students sitting in classrooms will get immediate emergency information, even if their mobile phones are turned off and they aren't online. Classrooms, dorms, and other buildings are now outfitted with LED message boards--a sort of wall-mounted electronic pager--that use widely understood colors of…

Genesis Pilot Human Factors Test, Human Factors Evaluation Of Driver Multitasking And Message Formats, Final Report

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1996-02-01

THE WORK REPORTED HERE WAS ON TWO SEPARATE TOPICS. THE FIRST OF THESE WAS THE MULTITASKING EFFECTS ON DRIVING PERFORMANCE OF USING PAGERS OR PDAS WHILE DRIVING. THE LITERATURE SHOWED THAT SUCH EFFECTS CAN OCCUR BUT THAT THEY ARE TASK SPECIFIC. FINDIN...

When Teens Turn Cyberbullies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Strom, Paris S.; Strom, Robert D.

2005-01-01

Cyber harassment involves using an electronic medium to threaten or harm others. E-mail, chat rooms, cell phones, instant messaging, pagers, text messaging, and online voting booths are tools used to inflict humiliation, fear, and a sense of helplessness. This type of intimidation differs from traditional bullying in several important ways. Unlike…

Inexpensive automated paging system for use at remote research sites

USGS Publications Warehouse

Sargent, S.L.; Dey, W.S.; Keefer, D.A.

1998-01-01

The use of a flow-activated automatic sampler at a remote research site required personnel to periodically visit the site to collect samples and reset the automatic sampler. To reduce site visits, a cellular telephone was modified for activation by a datalogger. The purpose of this study was to demonstrate the use and benefit of the modified telephone. Both the power switch and the speed-dial button on the telephone were bypassed and wired to a relay driver. The datalogger was programmed to compare values of a monitored environmental parameter with a target value. When the target value was reached or exceeded, the datalogger pulsed a relay driver, activating power to the telephone. A separate relay activated the speed dial, dialing the number of a tone-only pager. The use of this system has saved time and reduced travel costs by reducing the number of trips to the site, without the loss of any data.The use of a flow-activated automatic sampler at a remote research site required personnel to periodically visit the site to collect samples and reset the automatic sampler. To reduce site visits, a cellular telephone was modified for activation by a datalogger. The purpose of this study was to demonstrate the use and benefit of the modified telephone. Both the power switch and the speed-dial button on the telephone were bypassed and wired to a relay driver. The datalogger was programmed to compare values of a monitored environmental parameter with a target value. When the target value was reached or exceeded, the datalogger pulsed a relay driver, activating power to the telephone. A separate relay activated the speed dial, dialing the number of a tone-only pager. The use of this system has saved time and reduced travel costs by reducing the number of trips to the site, without the loss of any data.

Wireless augmented reality communication system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Devereaux, Ann (Inventor); Agan, Martin (Inventor); Jedrey, Thomas (Inventor)

2006-01-01

The system of the present invention is a highly integrated radio communication system with a multimedia co-processor which allows true two-way multimedia (video, audio, data) access as well as real-time biomedical monitoring in a pager-sized portable access unit. The system is integrated in a network structure including one or more general purpose nodes for providing a wireless-to-wired interface. The network architecture allows video, audio and data (including biomedical data) streams to be connected directly to external users and devices. The portable access units may also be mated to various non-personal devices such as cameras or environmental sensors for providing a method for setting up wireless sensor nets from which reported data may be accessed through the portable access unit. The reported data may alternatively be automatically logged at a remote computer for access and viewing through a portable access unit, including the user's own.

Wireless Augmented Reality Communication System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jedrey, Thomas (Inventor); Agan, Martin (Inventor); Devereaux, Ann (Inventor)

2014-01-01

The system of the present invention is a highly integrated radio communication system with a multimedia co-processor which allows true two-way multimedia (video, audio, data) access as well as real-time biomedical monitoring in a pager-sized portable access unit. The system is integrated in a network structure including one or more general purpose nodes for providing a wireless-to-wired interface. The network architecture allows video, audio and data (including biomedical data) streams to be connected directly to external users and devices. The portable access units may also be mated to various non-personal devices such as cameras or environmental sensors for providing a method for setting up wireless sensor nets from which reported data may be accessed through the portable access unit. The reported data may alternatively be automatically logged at a remote computer for access and viewing through a portable access unit, including the user's own.

Wireless Augmented Reality Communication System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Agan, Martin (Inventor); Devereaux, Ann (Inventor); Jedrey, Thomas (Inventor)

2016-01-01

The system of the present invention is a highly integrated radio communication system with a multimedia co-processor which allows true two-way multimedia (video, audio, data) access as well as real-time biomedical monitoring in a pager-sized portable access unit. The system is integrated in a network structure including one or more general purpose nodes for providing a wireless-to-wired interface. The network architecture allows video, audio and data (including biomedical data) streams to be connected directly to external users and devices. The portable access units may also be mated to various non-personal devices such as cameras or environmental sensors for providing a method for setting up wireless sensor nets from which reported data may be accessed through the portable access unit. The reported data may alternatively be automatically logged at a remote computer for access and viewing through a portable access unit, including the user's own.

Parenthood and the Quality of Experience in Daily Life: A Longitudinal Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fave, Antonella Delle; Massimini, Fausto

2004-01-01

This longitudinal study analyzes the time budget and the quality of experience reported by new parents. Five primiparous couples were repeatedly administered Experience Sampling Method. They carried pagers sending random signals 6-8 times a day; at the signal reception, they filled out forms sampling current thoughts, activities, and the quality…

78 FR 23877 - Schools and Libraries Universal Service Support Mechanism and A National Broadband Plan for Our...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-04-23

...'' or reduced price ineligible component results in a more expensive bundle, the money saved by not... mobile radio telephony carriers. As noted, the SBA has developed a small business size standard for... receiving antennas, cable television equipment, GPS equipment, pagers, cellular phones, mobile...

What Are the Safety Considerations for Insulin Control for Athletes?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McDaniel, Larry W.; Olson, Sara; Gaudet, Laura; Jackson, Allen

2010-01-01

Athletes diagnosed with diabetes may have difficulty with their blood sugar levels fluctuating during intense exercise. Considerations for athletes with insulin concerns may range anywhere from exercise rehabilitation to the use of an automatic insulin pump. The automatic insulin pump is a small battery-operated device about the size of a pager.…

Daily emotional states as reported by children and adolescents.

PubMed

Larson, R; Lampman-Petraitis, C

1989-10-01

Hour-to-hour emotional states reported by children, ages 9-15, were examined in order to evaluate the hypothesis that the onset of adolescence is associated with increased emotional variability. These youths carried electronic pagers for 1 week and filled out reports on their emotional states in response to signals received at random times. To evaluate possible age-related response sets, a subset of children was asked to use the same scales to rate the emotions shown in drawings of 6 faces. The expected relation between daily emotional variability and age was not found among the boys and was small among the girls. There was, however, a linear relation between age and average mood states, with the older participants reporting more dysphoric average states, especially more mildly negative states. An absence of age difference in the ratings of the faces indicated that this relation could not be attributed to age differences in response set. Thus, these findings provide little support for the hypothesis that the onset of adolescence is associated with increased emotionality but indicate significant alterations in everyday experience associated with this age period.

Monitoring the Earthquake source process in North America

USGS Publications Warehouse

Herrmann, Robert B.; Benz, H.; Ammon, C.J.

2011-01-01

With the implementation of the USGS National Earthquake Information Center Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response system (PAGER), rapid determination of earthquake moment magnitude is essential, especially for earthquakes that are felt within the contiguous United States. We report an implementation of moment tensor processing for application to broad, seismically active areas of North America. This effort focuses on the selection of regional crustal velocity models, codification of data quality tests, and the development of procedures for rapid computation of the seismic moment tensor. We systematically apply these techniques to earthquakes with reported magnitude greater than 3.5 in continental North America that are not associated with a tectonic plate boundary. Using the 0.02-0.10 Hz passband, we can usually determine, with few exceptions, moment tensor solutions for earthquakes with M w as small as 3.7. The threshold is significantly influenced by the density of stations, the location of the earthquake relative to the seismic stations and, of course, the signal-to-noise ratio. With the existing permanent broadband stations in North America operated for rapid earthquake response, the seismic moment tensor of most earthquakes that are M w 4 or larger can be routinely computed. As expected the nonuniform spatial pattern of these solutions reflects the seismicity pattern. However, the orientation of the direction of maximum compressive stress and the predominant style of faulting is spatially coherent across large regions of the continent.

The public health dashboard: a surveillance model for bioterrorism preparedness.

PubMed

Foldy, Seth L; Biedrzycki, Paul A; Baker, Bevan K; Swain, Geoffrey R; Howe, Donna S; Gieryn, Douglas; Barthell, Edward N; Pemble, Kim R

2004-01-01

The City of Milwaukee Health Department piloted a short-term, near real-time syndromic surveillance and communication tool by using an existing secure regional Internet infrastructure. Voluntary, active syndromic case reporting by hospital Emergency Departments was combined with other data streams, including clinical laboratory reports of communicable disease, hospital emergency room diversions, ambulance runs, medical examiner reports of unusual or suspicious deaths, poison control and nursing hotline call volumes, and pharmacy over-the-counter sales. These data were aggregated into a "Surveillance Dashboard" format that was used to communicate community syndromic health trends to hospitals, Emergency Departments, and other providers using a secure Internet technology. Emergency Departments at 8 area hospitals reported a total of 314 cases meeting syndromic criteria from 26,888 patient encounters. Participants were satisfied with data entry and communications. All participating Emergency Departments received e-mail and text pager alerts sent by the Milwaukee Health Department. No unexplained findings or suggestions of an early outbreak were reported through syndrome surveillance for the 4-week duration of the project. Similar surveillance and communications systems could provide multiple benefits to Emergency Department workflow and management, as well as to public health and emergency response.

Multimodal observational assessment of quality and productivity benefits from the implementation of wireless technology for out of hours working

PubMed Central

Blakey, John D; Guy, Debbie; Simpson, Carl; Fearn, Andrew; Cannaby, Sharon; Wilson, Petra

2012-01-01

Objectives The authors investigated if a wireless system of call handling and task management for out of hours care could replace a standard pager-based system and improve markers of efficiency, patient safety and staff satisfaction. Design Prospective assessment using both quantitative and qualitative methods, including interviews with staff, a standard satisfaction questionnaire, independent observation, data extraction from work logs and incident reporting systems and analysis of hospital committee reports. Setting A large teaching hospital in the UK. Participants Hospital at night co-ordinators, clinical support workers and junior doctors handling approximately 10 000 tasks requested out of hours per month. Outcome measures Length of hospital stay, incidents reported, co-ordinator call logging activity, user satisfaction questionnaire, staff interviews. Results Users were more satisfied with the new system (satisfaction score 62/90 vs 82/90, p=0.0080). With the new system over 70 h/week of co-ordinator time was released, and there were fewer untoward incidents related to handover and medical response (OR=0.30, p=0.02). Broad clinical measures (cardiac arrest calls for peri-arrest situations and length of hospital stay) improved significantly in the areas covered by the new system. Conclusions The introduction of call handling software and mobile technology over a medical-grade wireless network improved staff satisfaction with the Hospital at Night system. Improvements in efficiency and information flow have been accompanied by a reduction in untoward incidents, length of stay and peri-arrest calls. PMID:22466035

Pedagogical Applications of Instant Messaging Technology for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Students in the Science Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pagano, Todd; Quinsland, L. K.

2007-01-01

For deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals, the emergence of Instant Messaging technology and digital pagers has been perhaps one of the greatest liberating communication technological breakthroughs since the advent of the TTY. Instant Messaging has evolved into an everyday socially compelling, portable, and "real time" communication mode…

Effective Management of High-Use/High-Demand Space Using Restaurant-Style Pagers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gonzalez, Adriana

2012-01-01

The library landscape is changing at a fast pace, with an increase in the demand for study space including quiet, individualized study space; open group study space; and as enclosed group study space. In large academic libraries, managing limited high-demand resources is crucial and is partially being driven by the greater emphasis on group…

Improving the Efficiency and Efficacy of Glibenclamide in Limiting Progressive Hemorrhagic Necrosis Following Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-10-01

screening for eligible patients “24/7”. The research staff rotates a research dedicated cell phone that acts as a pager. All the neurosurgery residents...have the cell phone number and we get called for all potential eligible patients. We work very closely with the neurosurgery residents; all are

Development of an Earthquake Impact Scale

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wald, D. J.; Marano, K. D.; Jaiswal, K. S.

2009-12-01

With the advent of the USGS Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response (PAGER) system, domestic (U.S.) and international earthquake responders are reconsidering their automatic alert and activation levels as well as their response procedures. To help facilitate rapid and proportionate earthquake response, we propose and describe an Earthquake Impact Scale (EIS) founded on two alerting criteria. One, based on the estimated cost of damage, is most suitable for domestic events; the other, based on estimated ranges of fatalities, is more appropriate for most global events. Simple thresholds, derived from the systematic analysis of past earthquake impact and response levels, turn out to be quite effective in communicating predicted impact and response level of an event, characterized by alerts of green (little or no impact), yellow (regional impact and response), orange (national-scale impact and response), and red (major disaster, necessitating international response). Corresponding fatality thresholds for yellow, orange, and red alert levels are 1, 100, and 1000, respectively. For damage impact, yellow, orange, and red thresholds are triggered by estimated losses exceeding 1M, 10M, and $1B, respectively. The rationale for a dual approach to earthquake alerting stems from the recognition that relatively high fatalities, injuries, and homelessness dominate in countries where vernacular building practices typically lend themselves to high collapse and casualty rates, and it is these impacts that set prioritization for international response. In contrast, it is often financial and overall societal impacts that trigger the level of response in regions or countries where prevalent earthquake resistant construction practices greatly reduce building collapse and associated fatalities. Any newly devised alert protocols, whether financial or casualty based, must be intuitive and consistent with established lexicons and procedures. In this analysis, we make an attempt at both simple and intuitive color-coded alerting criterion; yet, we preserve the necessary uncertainty measures by which one can gauge the likelihood for the alert to be over- or underestimated.

21st Century Intrusions into Learning. A Legal Memorandum: Quarterly Law Topics for School Leaders, Summer 2005

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pickett, A. Dean; Thomas, Christopher

2005-01-01

Thirty to forty years ago educators had at most the challenge of tape recorders and players and transistor radios to confront as electronic distractions in the classroom. Then pagers were introduced and became associated with drug trafficking and gang activity. Not long after, the first cellular phones were introduced and, when they became…

Development of a novel information and communication technology system to compensate for a sudden shortage of emergency department physicians.

PubMed

Tanaka, Kumiko; Nakada, Taka-Aki; Fukuma, Hiroshi; Nakao, Shota; Masunaga, Naohisa; Tomita, Keisuke; Matsumura, Yosuke; Mizushima, Yasuaki; Matsuoka, Tetsuya

2017-01-23

A sudden shortage of physician resources due to overwhelming patient needs can affect the quality of care in the emergency department (ED). Developing effective response strategies remains a challenging research area. We created a novel system using information and communication technology (ICT) to respond to a sudden shortage, and tested the system to determine whether it would compensate for a shortage. Patients (n = 4890) transferred to a level I trauma center in Japan during 2012-2015 were studied. We assessed whether the system secured the necessary physicians without using other means such as phone or pager, and calculated fulfillment rate by the system as a primary outcome variable. We tested for the difference in probability of multiple casualties among total casualties transferred to the ED as an indicator of ability to respond to excessive patient needs, in a secondary analysis before and after system introduction. The system was activated 24 times (stand-by request [n = 12], attendance request [n = 12]) in 24 months, and secured the necessary physicians without using other means; fulfillment rate was 100%. There was no significant difference in the probability of multiple casualties during daytime weekdays hours before and after system introduction, while the probability of multiple casualties during night or weekend hours after system introduction significantly increased compared to before system introduction (4.8% vs. 12.9%, P < 0.0001). On the whole, the probability of multiple casualties increased more than 2 times after system introduction 6.2% vs. 13.6%, P < 0.0001). After introducing the system, probability of multiple casualties increased. Thus the system may contribute to improvement in the ability to respond to sudden excessive patient needs in multiple causalities. A novel system using ICT successfully secured immediate responses from needed physicians outside the hospital without increasing user workload, and increased the ability to respond to excessive patient needs. The system appears to be able to compensate for a shortage of physician in the ED due to excessive patient transfers, particularly during off-hours.

A Hole in the Weather Warning System.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wood, Vincent T.; Weisman, Robert A.

2003-02-01

lack of text information. These problems had forced deaf and hard of hearing people to rely on looking at the sky or having hearing people alert them as their primary methods of receiving emergency information. These problems are documented through the use of a survey of 277 deaf and hard of hearing people in Minnesota and Oklahoma as well as specific examples.During the last two years, some progress has been made to "close this hole" in the weather warning system. The Federal Communications Commission has approved new rules, requiring that all audio emergency information provided by television stations, satellite, and cable operators must also be provided visually. In addition, the use of new technology such as pager systems, weather radios adapted for use by those with special needs, the Internet, and satellite warning systems have allowed deaf and hard of hearing people to have more access to emergency information.In this article, these improvements are documented but continuing problems and possible solutions are also listed.

Integrating Real-time Earthquakes into Natural Hazard Courses

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Furlong, K. P.; Benz, H. M.; Whitlock, J. S.; Bittenbinder, A. N.; Bogaert, B. B.

2001-12-01

Natural hazard courses are playing an increasingly important role in college and university earth science curricula. Students' intrinsic curiosity about the subject and the potential to make the course relevant to the interests of both science and non-science students make natural hazards courses popular additions to a department's offerings. However, one vital aspect of "real-life" natural hazard management that has not translated well into the classroom is the real-time nature of both events and response. The lack of a way to entrain students into the event/response mode has made implementing such real-time activities into classroom activities problematic. Although a variety of web sites provide near real-time postings of natural hazards, students essentially learn of the event after the fact. This is particularly true for earthquakes and other events with few precursors. As a result, the "time factor" and personal responsibility associated with natural hazard response is lost to the students. We have integrated the real-time aspects of earthquake response into two natural hazard courses at Penn State (a 'general education' course for non-science majors, and an upper-level course for science majors) by implementing a modification of the USGS Earthworm system. The Earthworm Database Management System (E-DBMS) catalogs current global seismic activity. It provides earthquake professionals with real-time email/cell phone alerts of global seismic activity and access to the data for review/revision purposes. We have modified this system so that real-time response can be used to address specific scientific, policy, and social questions in our classes. As a prototype of using the E-DBMS in courses, we have established an Earthworm server at Penn State. This server receives national and global seismic network data and, in turn, transmits the tailored alerts to "on-duty" students (e-mail, pager/cell phone notification). These students are responsible to react to the alarm real-time, consulting other members of their class and accessing the E-DBMS server and other links to glean information that they will then use to make decisions. Students wrestle with the complications in interpreting natural hazard data, evaluating whether a response is needed, and problems such as those associated with communication between media and the public through these focused exercises. Although earthquakes are targeted at present, similar DBMS systems are envisioned for other natural hazards like flooding, volcanoes, and severe weather. We are testing this system as a prototype intended to be expanded to provide web-based access to classes at both the middle/high school and college/university levels.

Maritime NORAD: Setting a Course for Success in Joint, Interagency, and Bi-National Maritime Homeland Security and Defense

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-04-05

gauges to blueberries can have a radiation profile that is higher than normal background and, thus, alert the radiation pagers carried by boarding...illustrate how the defense away game can come directly to the homeland with little or no warning. R ou ti ne P at ro ls , I ns pe ct io ns & E

Regional Earthquake Shaking and Loss Estimation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sesetyan, K.; Demircioglu, M. B.; Zulfikar, C.; Durukal, E.; Erdik, M.

2009-04-01

This study, conducted under the JRA-3 component of the EU NERIES Project, develops a methodology and software (ELER) for the rapid estimation of earthquake shaking and losses in the Euro-Mediterranean region. This multi-level methodology developed together with researchers from Imperial College, NORSAR and ETH-Zurich is capable of incorporating regional variability and sources of uncertainty stemming from ground motion predictions, fault finiteness, site modifications, inventory of physical and social elements subjected to earthquake hazard and the associated vulnerability relationships. GRM Risk Management, Inc. of Istanbul serves as sub-contractor tor the coding of the ELER software. The methodology encompasses the following general steps: 1. Finding of the most likely location of the source of the earthquake using regional seismotectonic data base and basic source parameters, and if and when possible, by the estimation of fault rupture parameters from rapid inversion of data from on-line stations. 2. Estimation of the spatial distribution of selected ground motion parameters through region specific ground motion attenuation relationships and using shear wave velocity distributions.(Shake Mapping) 4. Incorporation of strong ground motion and other empirical macroseismic data for the improvement of Shake Map 5. Estimation of the losses (damage, casualty and economic) at different levels of sophistication (0, 1 and 2) that commensurate with the availability of inventory of human built environment (Loss Mapping) Both Level 0 (similar to PAGER system of USGS) and Level 1 analyses of the ELER routine are based on obtaining intensity distributions analytically and estimating total number of casualties and their geographic distribution either using regionally adjusted intensity-casualty or magnitude-casualty correlations (Level 0) of using regional building inventory data bases (Level 1). Level 0 analysis is similar to the PAGER system being developed by USGS. For given basis source parameters the intensity distributions can be computed using: a)Regional intensity attenuation relationships, b)Intensity correlations with attenuation relationship based PGV, PGA, and Spectral Amplitudes and, c)Intensity correlations with synthetic Fourier Amplitude Spectrum. In Level 1 analysis EMS98 based building vulnerability relationships are used for regional estimates of building damage and the casualty distributions. Results obtained from pilot applications of the Level 0 and Level 1 analysis modes of the ELER software to the 1999 M 7.4 Kocaeli, 1995 M 6.1 Dinar, and 2007 M 5.4 Bingol earthquakes in terms of ground shaking and losses are presented and comparisons with the observed losses are made. The regional earthquake shaking and loss information is intented for dissemination in a timely manner to related agencies for the planning and coordination of the post-earthquake emergency response. However the same software can also be used for scenario earthquake loss estimation and related Monte-Carlo type simulations.

An Assessment of Public Law 95-507.

DTIC Science & Technology

1980-12-01

pal~ 1) 900 013-014 AdelSIRCuRITY CLASSIFICATION OF twoS PAGER (10he Dole gasnerell businesses as well as assisting,- them to become viable...and small disadvantaged businesses as well as assisting them to become viable independent enterprises. Implementation has been slow due to a...Secondary Research . ......... . 11 E~. L iTER A TUR R37E ,I... . . . . 12 -. ORGAN ZATIOI OF STUDY ...... . . 13 A. TH3 SMALL BUSINESS

The FAIR-INNOVATION dissemination project.

PubMed

Gormley, R

2001-08-01

The goal of the FAIR-INNOVATION dissemination project (FLAIR-FLOW 3) (1997-2000) was to disseminate R&D results from the EU FAIR programme to small and medium-sized food enterprises (SMEs), health professionals (HPs) and consumer groups (CGs) in 19 European countries. The dissemination routes were: (i) one-page technical documents on research results; (ii) their reproduction on the internet; (iii) their reproduction in journals Europe-wide; (iv) workshops on results from EU-supported food research programmes; and (v) lectures and poster presentations by FLAIR-FLOW network personnel. Of the 135 one-pagers produced, 62% were targeted at SMEs, 18% at HPs and 5% at CGs. The remaining 15% were on food safety and were common to the three target groups. There were 1047 publications arising from one-pages in trade journals, and over 8000 requests (paper route) were received for follow-up information. These were in addition to 240 k downloads from the FLAIR-FLOW 3 web site (www.flair-flow.com). Initiatives for HPs included specially collated versions of the one-pagers for major conferences, 20 focused workshops, and interaction with the European Federation of Associations of Dieticians. Currently, dissemination is continuing through FLAIR-FLOW 4 (2001-2003) in 24 countries. FLAIR-FLOW 4 is co-ordinated by M. Jean François Quillien from INRA-CRIAA (FR) at criaa@rennes.inra.fr.

Communication devices in the operating room.

PubMed

Ruskin, Keith J

2006-12-01

Effective communication is essential to patient safety. Although radio pagers have been the cornerstone of medical communication, new devices such as cellular telephones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and laptop or tablet computers can help anesthesiologists to get information quickly and reliably. Anesthesiologists can use these devices to speak with colleagues, access the medical record, or help a colleague in another location without having to leave a patient's side. Recent advances in communication technology offer anesthesiologists new ways to improve patient care. Anesthesiologists rely on a wide variety of information to make decisions, including vital signs, laboratory values, and entries in the medical record. Devices such as PDAs and computers with wireless networking can be used to access this information. Mobile telephones can be used to get help or ask for advice, and are more efficient than radio pagers. Voice over Internet protocol is a new technology that allows voice conversations to be routed over computer networks. It is widely believed that wireless devices can cause life-threatening interference with medical devices. The actual risk is very low, and is offset by a significant reduction in medical errors that results from more efficient communication. Using common technology like cellular telephones and wireless networks is a simple, cost-effective way to improve patient care.

Reliability-Growth Assessment, Prediction, and Control for Electronic Engine Control (GAPCEEC)

DTIC Science & Technology

1984-04-01

COMPEtTIN FOR Control (GAPCEEC) 4. PERFORMING ORG. REPORT NUMUR ______________________________ P&W/GPD/FR-17847 7. AUTI4OR(e) Michael E. McGlone...Control for Electronic Engine Control (GAPCEEC) program was performed under contract F33615-81 -C-2015. This 22-month program I. was formulated to study and...and (3) that data should be tracked c-ontinuously on an indiidual and fleet basis. UNCLASSIFIED 86CURITY CLASSIICATION OF THIS PAGErWmm Doe Rateio

The Impact of Technology on the Command, Control, and Organizational Structure of Insurgent Groups

DTIC Science & Technology

2005-06-17

like cell phones , the Internet, and satellite television, have brought the world closer and have introduced ideas, customs, and cultures to a...has allowed people to stay in contact with organizations and individuals like never before. Cell phones , pagers, and palm pilots allow the user to...with some success by past insurgencies. It is already known that insurgents use cell phones to alert forces of enemy movement and to detonate improvised

Properties and Applications of Lossy Metamaterials

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-12-01

Ring ENG Epsilon-Negative MNG Mu-Negative SNG Single-Negative NRI Negative Refractive Index FIT Finite Integration Technique xiv THIS PAGE...r r r rB ε µ ε µ′ ′′ ′′ ′= + parameters. A classification of double positive (DPS), double negative (DNG) and single negative ( SNG ) materials with...negative, and when 0B > the phase constant and the refractive index are both positive. The parameter A is negative in SNG materials but can be positive or

The relationship of maternal employment to early adolescent daily experience with and without parents.

PubMed

Richards, M H; Duckett, E

1994-02-01

This study examines how maternal work may shape pre- and young adolescents' daily life experience. According to the procedures of the Experience Sampling Method (ESM), 295 10-13-year-old children carried electronic pagers for 1 week and completed self-report forms in response to random signals sent every other hour. Their daily experience did not differ by maternal employment status, with the following exceptions: full-time maternal employment was associated with more time doing homework with mothers and less time in general leisure, while part-time employment was associated with more time doing sports with parents. Relative to those with nonemployed mothers, youth with part-time employed mothers reported more positive daily moods and higher self-esteem, while youth reported time with full-time employed mothers to be the friendliest. While children with employed mothers spent no less time with family, parents, friends, in class or alone, they spent more time alone with fathers.

New Human-Computer Interface Concepts for Mission Operations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fox, Jeffrey A.; Hoxie, Mary Sue; Gillen, Dave; Parkinson, Christopher; Breed, Julie; Nickens, Stephanie; Baitinger, Mick

2000-01-01

The current climate of budget cuts has forced the space mission operations community to reconsider how it does business. Gone are the days of building one-of-kind control centers with teams of controllers working in shifts 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. Increasingly, automation is used to significantly reduce staffing needs. In some cases, missions are moving towards lights-out operations where the ground system is run semi-autonomously. On-call operators are brought in only to resolve anomalies. Some operations concepts also call for smaller operations teams to manage an entire family of spacecraft. In the not too distant future, a skeleton crew of full-time general knowledge operators will oversee the operations of large constellations of small spacecraft, while geographically distributed specialists will be assigned to emergency response teams based on their expertise. As the operations paradigms change, so too must the tools to support the mission operations team's tasks. Tools need to be built not only to automate routine tasks, but also to communicate varying types of information to the part-time, generalist, or on-call operators and specialists more effectively. Thus, the proper design of a system's user-system interface (USI) becomes even more importance than before. Also, because the users will be accessing these systems from various locations (e.g., control center, home, on the road) via different devices with varying display capabilities (e.g., workstations, home PCs, PDAS, pagers) over connections with various bandwidths (e.g., dial-up 56k, wireless 9.6k), the same software must have different USIs to support the different types of users, their equipment, and their environments. In other words, the software must now adapt to the needs of the users! This paper will focus on the needs and the challenges of designing USIs for mission operations. After providing a general discussion of these challenges, the paper will focus on the current efforts of creatin(y an effective USI for one specific suite of tools, SERS (The Spacecraft Emergency Response System), which has been built to enable lights-out operations. SERS is a Web-based collaborative environment that enables secure distributed fault management.

The MAP Autonomous Mission Control System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Breed, Juile; Coyle, Steven; Blahut, Kevin; Dent, Carolyn; Shendock, Robert; Rowe, Roger

2000-01-01

The Microwave Anisotropy Probe (MAP) mission is the second mission in NASA's Office of Space Science low-cost, Medium-class Explorers (MIDEX) program. The Explorers Program is designed to accomplish frequent, low cost, high quality space science investigations utilizing innovative, streamlined, efficient management, design and operations approaches. The MAP spacecraft will produce an accurate full-sky map of the cosmic microwave background temperature fluctuations with high sensitivity and angular resolution. The MAP spacecraft is planned for launch in early 2001, and will be staffed by only single-shift operations. During the rest of the time the spacecraft must be operated autonomously, with personnel available only on an on-call basis. Four (4) innovations will work cooperatively to enable a significant reduction in operations costs for the MAP spacecraft. First, the use of a common ground system for Spacecraft Integration and Test (I&T) as well as Operations. Second, the use of Finite State Modeling for intelligent autonomy. Third, the integration of a graphical planning engine to drive the autonomous systems without an intermediate manual step. And fourth, the ability for distributed operations via Web and pager access.

A Proposed Mechanism of Neuronal Injury in Pilots and Aircrew Personnel with Hypobaric Exposure

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-04-22

Technical Information Center (DTIC). DATE March 14, 2017 14. 59 MOW PRIMARY POINT OF CONTACT (Last Name, First Name, M.I., email) 15. DUTY PHONE/PAGER...will appear in the manuscript. LAST NAME, FIRST NAME AND M.I. GRADE/RANK SQUADRON/GROUP/OFFICE SYMBOL INSTITUTION (If not 59 MOW) a. Primary ...34,·" ••• • • U-2 pilots display an increased incidence of white-matter hyperintensities (WMH) on MRI compared to healthy age -matched controls (non-pilots

Protecting Noncreative Databases: H.R. 3261, 108th Congress, First Session (2003)

DTIC Science & Technology

2004-01-29

misappropriation of the latter’s property, notwithstanding the general rule that no one owns “the news.”) 4 See e.g., National Basketball Assoc. v...Motorola, Inc., 105 F.3d 841 (2d Cir. 1997)(Misappropriation claim under state law brought by the NBA against Motorola for hand held pagers that...provided real-time information about NBA games was preempted by copyright law ); Warren Publishing v. Microdos Data Inc. 115 F.3d 1509 (11th Cir)(en banc

Development of a globally applicable model for near real-time prediction of seismically induced landslides

USGS Publications Warehouse

Nowicki, M. Anna; Wald, David J.; Hamburger, Michael W.; Hearne, Mike; Thompson, Eric M.

2014-01-01

Substantial effort has been invested to understand where seismically induced landslides may occur in the future, as they are a costly and frequently fatal threat in mountainous regions. The goal of this work is to develop a statistical model for estimating the spatial distribution of landslides in near real-time around the globe for use in conjunction with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response (PAGER) system. This model uses standardized outputs of ground shaking from the USGS ShakeMap Atlas 2.0 to develop an empirical landslide probability model, combining shaking estimates with broadly available landslide susceptibility proxies, i.e., topographic slope, surface geology, and climate parameters. We focus on four earthquakes for which digitally mapped landslide inventories and well-constrainedShakeMaps are available. The resulting database is used to build a predictive model of the probability of landslide occurrence. The landslide database includes the Guatemala (1976), Northridge (1994), Chi-Chi (1999), and Wenchuan (2008) earthquakes. Performance of the regression model is assessed using statistical goodness-of-fit metrics and a qualitative review to determine which combination of the proxies provides both the optimum prediction of landslide-affected areas and minimizes the false alarms in non-landslide zones. Combined with near real-time ShakeMaps, these models can be used to make generalized predictions of whether or not landslides are likely to occur (and if so, where) for earthquakes around the globe, and eventually to inform loss estimates within the framework of the PAGER system.

Real world implementation lessons and outcomes from the Worker Interactive Networking (WIN) project: workplace-based online caregiver support and remote monitoring of elders at home.

PubMed

Mahoney, Diane M F; Mutschler, Phyllis H; Tarlow, Barbara; Liss, Ellen

2008-04-01

The objective of this research was to determine the feasibility of and receptivity to the first computerized workplace-based direct caregiver intervention and to assess the effects on businesses, working family caregivers, and their elderly relatives. Working family caregivers, with at least one health and/or safety concern related to an elder residing alone at home during the workday, were recruited from five companies (n = 27). Caregivers received free computer access to the Worker Interactive Networking (WIN) Internet online caregiver support group and a remote elder monitoring system at home for 6 months. The remote monitoring system provided Web-based status reports and e-mail/pager alerts when individualized parameters were exceeded. Motion sensor signals were transmitted to a transponder that uploaded via wireless cellular communications to the project server, thereby not interfering with elders' telephone use. Formative qualitative analyses clarified acceptance and implementation issues. Summative quantitative evaluation determined pilot intervention effects and was conducted by external evaluators. Despite interoperability and cellular reception issues, the system was successfully deployed across four states to a variety of businesses and housing types. Positive results occurred on worker morale, productivity, and reduction of caregiver stress. Participants found it easy to learn and use. Elders did not find the technology "intrusive" or "isolating." Contrary to their expectations, managers reported no abuse of Internet access. Workers expressed a willingness to pay for a similar system in the future ranging from $10 to $130, depending on the features. They would pay the most for the option involving a geriatric nurse coach. The WIN system innovatively tailored to users' wants, and provided users customized control and personalized support. Use of the system was associated with positive outcomes. Enrollment response suggests a specific niche market for remote home monitoring, making it a manageable employee benefit.

New ultraportable display technology and applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alvelda, Phillip; Lewis, Nancy D.

1998-08-01

MicroDisplay devices are based on a combination of technologies rooted in the extreme integration capability of conventionally fabricated CMOS active-matrix liquid crystal display substrates. Customized diffraction grating and optical distortion correction technology for lens-system compensation allow the elimination of many lenses and systems-level components. The MicroDisplay Corporation's miniature integrated information display technology is rapidly leading to many new defense and commercial applications. There are no moving parts in MicroDisplay substrates, and the fabrication of the color generating gratings, already part of the CMOS circuit fabrication process, is effectively cost and manufacturing process-free. The entire suite of the MicroDisplay Corporation's technologies was devised to create a line of application- specific integrated circuit single-chip display systems with integrated computing, memory, and communication circuitry. Next-generation portable communication, computer, and consumer electronic devices such as truly portable monitor and TV projectors, eyeglass and head mounted displays, pagers and Personal Communication Services hand-sets, and wristwatch-mounted video phones are among the may target commercial markets for MicroDisplay technology. Defense applications range from Maintenance and Repair support, to night-vision systems, to portable projectors for mobile command and control centers.

Personal Cabin Pressure Monitor and Warning System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zysko, Jan A. (Inventor)

2002-01-01

A cabin pressure altitude monitor and warning system provides a warning when a detected cabin pressure altitude has reached a predetermined level. The system is preferably embodied in a portable, pager-sized device that can be carried or worn by an individual. A microprocessor calculates the pressure altitude from signals generated by a calibrated pressure transducer and a temperature sensor that compensates for temperature variations in the signals generated by the pressure transducer. The microprocessor is programmed to generate a warning or alarm if a cabin pressure altitude exceeding a predetermined threshold is detected. Preferably, the microprocessor generates two different types of warning or alarm outputs, a first early warning or alert when a first pressure altitude is exceeded. and a second more serious alarm condition when either a second. higher pressure altitude is exceeded, or when the first pressure altitude has been exceeded for a predetermined period of time. Multiple types of alarm condition indicators are preferably provided, including visual, audible and tactile. The system is also preferably designed to detect gas concentrations and other ambient conditions, and thus incorporates other sensors, such as oxygen, relative humidity, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and ammonia sensors, to provide a more complete characterization and monitoring of the local environment.

Personal Cabin Pressure Monitor and Warning System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zysko, Jan A.

2002-09-01

A cabin pressure altitude monitor and warning system provides a warning when a detected cabin pressure altitude has reached a predetermined level. The system is preferably embodied in a portable, pager-sized device that can be carried or worn by an individual. A microprocessor calculates the pressure altitude from signals generated by a calibrated pressure transducer and a temperature sensor that compensates for temperature variations in the signals generated by the pressure transducer. The microprocessor is programmed to generate a warning or alarm if a cabin pressure altitude exceeding a predetermined threshold is detected. Preferably, the microprocessor generates two different types of warning or alarm outputs, a first early warning or alert when a first pressure altitude is exceeded. and a second more serious alarm condition when either a second. higher pressure altitude is exceeded, or when the first pressure altitude has been exceeded for a predetermined period of time. Multiple types of alarm condition indicators are preferably provided, including visual, audible and tactile. The system is also preferably designed to detect gas concentrations and other ambient conditions, and thus incorporates other sensors, such as oxygen, relative humidity, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and ammonia sensors, to provide a more complete characterization and monitoring of the local environment.

Vessels General Permit Fact Sheet (russian 2 pager)

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

2012-09-26

Имеет ли это разрешение какое-то отношение ко мне? Генеральное разрешение для морских судов (VGP) распространяется ...

An evaluation of the use of smartphones to communicate between clinicians: a mixed-methods study.

PubMed

Wu, Robert; Rossos, Peter; Quan, Sherman; Reeves, Scott; Lo, Vivian; Wong, Brian; Cheung, Mark; Morra, Dante

2011-08-29

Communication between clinicians is critical to providing quality patient care but is often hampered by limitations of current systems. Smartphones such as BlackBerrys may improve communication, but studies of these technologies have been limited to date. Our objectives were to describe how smartphones were adopted for clinical communication within general internal medical wards and determine their impact on team effectiveness and communication. This was a mixed-methods study that gathered data from the frequency of smartphone calls and email messages, clinicians' interviews, and ethnographic observations of clinical communication interactions. Triangulation of qualitative and quantitative data was undertaken to develop common themes that encompass comprehensive and representative insights across different methods. Findings from our study indicated that over a 24-hour period, nurses sent on average 22.3 emails to the physicians mostly through the "team smartphone," the designated primary point of contact for a specific medical team. Physicians carrying the team smartphone received on average 21.9 emails and 6.4 telephone calls while sending out 6.9 emails and initiating 8.3 telephone calls over the 24-hour period. Our analyses identified both positive and negative outcomes associated with the use of smartphones for clinical communication. There was a perceived improvement in efficiency over the use of pagers for clinical communication for physicians, nurses, and allied health professionals. In particular, residents found that the use of smartphones helped to increase their mobility and multitasking abilities. Negative outcomes included frequent interruptions and discordance between what doctors and nurses considered urgent. Nurses perceived a worsening of the interprofessional relationships due to overreliance on messaging by text with a resulting decrease in verbal communication. Unprofessional behaviors were observed in the use of smartphones by residents. Routine adoption of smartphones by residents appeared to improve efficiency over the use of pagers for physicians, nurses, and allied health professionals. This was balanced by negative communication issues of increased interruptions, a gap in perceived urgency, weakened interprofessional relationships, and unprofessional behavior. Further communication interventions are required that balance efficiency and interruptions while maintaining or even improving interprofessional relationships and professionalism.

Is that your pager or mine: a survey of women academic family physicians in dual physician families.

PubMed

Schrager, Sarina; Kolan, Anne; Dottl, Susan L

2007-08-01

This study explored the unique challenges and strategies of women in academic family medicine who are in dual physician families. An e-mail survey was sent to all female physician members of the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine (STFM) who were listed in the on-line database. The survey collected demographic information, details of job descriptions and family life, and included 3 open-ended questions about the experiences of dual physician families. Over 1200 surveys were sent to women physicians in academic family medicine. One hundred fifty-nine surveys were returned. Half of all women worked full time compared to 87% of their partners. Most women reported benefits of having a physician partner including support and having an understanding person at home, though scheduling conflicts and childcare responsibilities contributed to the need for job compromises. Women prioritized finding work-life balance and having supportive partners and mentors as most important to their success as academic family physicians. Dual physician relationships involve rewards and conflicts. More research should explore the competing demands of family life with success in academic medicine.

The intended and unintended consequences of communication systems on general internal medicine inpatient care delivery: a prospective observational case study of five teaching hospitals.

PubMed

Wu, Robert C; Lo, Vivian; Morra, Dante; Wong, Brian M; Sargeant, Robert; Locke, Ken; Cavalcanti, Rodrigo; Quan, Sherman D; Rossos, Peter; Tran, Kim; Cheung, Mark

2013-01-01

Effective clinical communication is critical to providing high-quality patient care. Hospitals have used different types of interventions to improve communication between care teams, but there have been few studies of their effectiveness. To describe the effects of different communication interventions and their problems. Prospective observational case study using a mixed methods approach of quantitative and qualitative methods. General internal medicine (GIM) inpatient wards at five tertiary care academic teaching hospitals. Clinicians consisting of residents, attending physicians, nurses, and allied health (AH) staff working on the GIM wards. Ethnographic methods and interviews with clinical staff (doctors, nurses, medical students, and AH professionals) were conducted over a 16-month period from 2009 to 2010. We identified four categories that described the intended and unintended consequences of communication interventions: impacts on senders, receivers, interprofessional collaboration, and the use of informal communication processes. The use of alphanumeric pagers, smartphones, and web-based communication systems had positive effects for senders and receivers, but unintended consequences were seen with all interventions in all four categories. Interventions that aimed to improve clinical communications solved some but not all problems, and unintended effects were seen with all systems.

Electronic reminders improve procedure documentation compliance and professional fee reimbursement.

PubMed

Kheterpal, Sachin; Gupta, Ruchika; Blum, James M; Tremper, Kevin K; O'Reilly, Michael; Kazanjian, Paul E

2007-03-01

Medicolegal, clinical, and reimbursement needs warrant complete and accurate documentation. We sought to identify and improve our compliance rate for the documentation of arterial catheterization in the perioperative setting. We first reviewed 12 mo of electronic anesthesia records to establish a baseline compliance rate for arterial catheter documentation. Residents and Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists were randomly assigned to a control group and experimental group. When surgical incision and anesthesia end were documented in the electronic record keeper, a reminder routine checked for an invasive arterial blood pressure tracing. If a case used an arterial catheter, but no procedure note was observed, the resident or Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist assigned to the case was sent an automated alphanumeric pager and e-mail reminder. Providers in the control group received no pager or e-mail message. After 2 mo, all staff received the reminders. A baseline compliance rate of 80% was observed (1963 of 2459 catheters documented). During the 2-mo study period, providers in the control group documented 152 of 202 (75%) arterial catheters, and the experimental group documented 177 of 201 (88%) arterial lines (P < 0.001). After all staff began receiving reminders, 309 of 314 arterial lines were documented in a subsequent 2 mo period (98%). Extrapolating this compliance rate to 12 mo of expected arterial catheter placement would result in an annual incremental $40,500 of professional fee reimbursement. The complexity of the tertiary care process results in documentation deficiencies. Inexpensive automated reminders can drastically improve compliance without the need for complicated negative or positive feedback.

Implementation of a closed-loop reporting system for critical values and clinical communication in compliance with goals of the joint commission.

PubMed

Parl, Fritz F; O'Leary, Mandy F; Kaiser, Allen B; Paulett, John M; Statnikova, Kristina; Shultz, Edward K

2010-03-01

Current practices of reporting critical laboratory values make it challenging to measure and assess the timeliness of receipt by the treating physician as required by The Joint Commission's 2008 National Patient Safety Goals. A multidisciplinary team of laboratorians, clinicians, and information technology experts developed an electronic ALERTS system that reports critical values via the laboratory and hospital information systems to alphanumeric pagers of clinicians and ensures failsafe notification, instant documentation, automatic tracking, escalation, and reporting of critical value alerts. A method for automated acknowledgment of message receipt was incorporated into the system design. The ALERTS system has been applied to inpatients and eliminated approximately 9000 phone calls a year made by medical technologists. Although a small number of phone calls were still made as a result of pages not acknowledged by clinicians within 10 min, they were made by telephone operators, who either contacted the same physician who was initially paged by the automated system or identified and contacted alternate physicians or the patient's nurse. Overall, documentation of physician acknowledgment of receipt in the electronic medical record increased to 95% of critical values over 9 months, while the median time decreased to <3 min. We improved laboratory efficiency and physician communication by developing an electronic system for reporting of critical values that is in compliance with The Joint Commission's goals.

SEE: improving nurse-patient communications and preventing software piracy in nurse call applications.

PubMed

Unluturk, Mehmet S

2012-06-01

Nurse call system is an electrically functioning system by which patients can call upon from a bedside station or from a duty station. An intermittent tone shall be heard and a corridor lamp located outside the room starts blinking with a slow or a faster rate depending on the call origination. It is essential to alert nurses on time so that they can offer care and comfort without any delay. There are currently many devices available for a nurse call system to improve communication between nurses and patients such as pagers, RFID (radio frequency identification) badges, wireless phones and so on. To integrate all these devices into an existing nurse call system and make they communicate with each other, we propose software client applications called bridges in this paper. We also propose a window server application called SEE (Supervised Event Executive) that delivers messages among these devices. A single hardware dongle is utilized for authentication and copy protection for SEE. Protecting SEE with securities provided by dongle only is a weak defense against hackers. In this paper, we develop some defense patterns for hackers such as calculating checksums in runtime, making calls to dongle from multiple places in code and handling errors properly by logging them into database.

Simulation of void formation in interconnect lines

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sheikholeslami, Alireza; Heitzinger, Clemens; Puchner, Helmut; Badrieh, Fuad; Selberherr, Siegfried

2003-04-01

The predictive simulation of the formation of voids in interconnect lines is important for improving capacitance and timing in current memory cells. The cells considered are used in wireless applications such as cell phones, pagers, radios, handheld games, and GPS systems. In backend processes for memory cells, ILD (interlayer dielectric) materials and processes result in void formation during gap fill. This approach lowers the overall k-value of a given metal layer and is economically advantageous. The effect of the voids on the overall capacitive load is tremendous. In order to simulate the shape and positions of the voids and thus the overall capacitance, the topography simulator ELSA (Enhanced Level Set Applications) has been developed which consists of three modules, a level set module, a radiosity module, and a surface reaction module. The deposition process considered is deposition of silicon nitride. Test structures of interconnect lines of memory cells were fabricated and several SEM images thereof were used to validate the corresponding simulations.

Expanding the Delivery of Rapid Earthquake Information and Warnings for Response and Recovery

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Blanpied, M. L.; McBride, S.; Hardebeck, J.; Michael, A. J.; van der Elst, N.

2017-12-01

Scientific organizations like the United States Geological Survey (USGS) release information to support effective responses during an earthquake crisis. Information is delivered to the White House, the National Command Center, the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security (including FEMA), Transportation, Energy, and Interior. Other crucial stakeholders include state officials and decision makers, emergency responders, numerous public and private infrastructure management centers (e.g., highways, railroads and pipelines), the media, and the public. To meet the diverse information requirements of these users, rapid earthquake notifications have been developed to be delivered by e-mail and text message, as well as a suite of earthquake information resources such as ShakeMaps, Did You Feel It?, PAGER impact estimates, and data are delivered via the web. The ShakeAlert earthquake early warning system being developed for the U.S. West Coast will identify and characterize an earthquake a few seconds after it begins, estimate the likely intensity of ground shaking, and deliver brief but critically important warnings to people and infrastructure in harm's way. Currently the USGS is also developing a capability to deliver Operational Earthquake Forecasts (OEF). These provide estimates of potential seismic behavior after large earthquakes and during evolving aftershock sequences. Similar work is underway in New Zealand, Japan, and Italy. In the development of OEF forecasts, social science research conducted during these sequences indicates that aftershock forecasts are valued for a variety of reasons, from informing critical response and recovery decisions to psychologically preparing for more earthquakes. New tools will allow users to customize map-based, spatiotemporal forecasts to their specific needs. Hazard curves and other advanced information will also be available. For such authoritative information to be understood and used during the pressures of an earthquake response, it must reach users in an effective form. These new products are being developed and honed using best-practices developed through communication research, experience with forecasts in the U.S., Nepal, and New Zealand, and in consultation with emergency managers, government agencies, businesses, and social scientists.

Secure remote access to a clinical data repository using a wireless personal digital assistant (PDA).

PubMed

Duncan, R G; Shabot, M M

2000-01-01

TCP/IP and World-Wide-Web (WWW) technology have become the universal standards for networking and delivery of information. Personal digital assistants (PDAs), cellular telephones, and alphanumeric pagers are rapidly converging on a single pocket device that will leverage wireless TCP/IP networks and WWW protocols and can be used to deliver clinical information and alerts anytime, anywhere. We describe a wireless interface to clinical information for physicians based on Palm Corp.'s Palm VII pocket computer, a wireless digital network, encrypted data transmission, secure web servers, and a clinical data repository (CDR).

Secure remote access to a clinical data repository using a wireless personal digital assistant (PDA).

PubMed Central

Duncan, R. G.; Shabot, M. M.

2000-01-01

TCP/IP and World-Wide-Web (WWW) technology have become the universal standards for networking and delivery of information. Personal digital assistants (PDAs), cellular telephones, and alphanumeric pagers are rapidly converging on a single pocket device that will leverage wireless TCP/IP networks and WWW protocols and can be used to deliver clinical information and alerts anytime, anywhere. We describe a wireless interface to clinical information for physicians based on Palm Corp.'s Palm VII pocket computer, a wireless digital network, encrypted data transmission, secure web servers, and a clinical data repository (CDR). PMID:11079875

Spatial Analysis of Earthquake Fatalities in the Middle East, 1970-2008: First Results

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Khaleghy Rad, M.; Evans, S. G.; Brenning, A.

2010-12-01

Earthquakes claim the lives of thousands of people each year and the annual number of earthquake fatalities in the Middle East (21 countries) is 20 % of the total yearly fatalities of the World. There have been several attempts to estimate the number of fatalities in a given earthquake. We review the results of previous attempts and present an estimation of fatalities using a new conceptual model for life loss that includes hazard (earthquake magnitude and focal depth), vulnerability (GDP value of countries and elapsed time since 1970 as proxy variables) and exposed population in the affected area of a given earthquake. PAGER_CAT is a global catalog (http://earthquake.usgs.gov/research/data/pager/) that presents information on casualties of earthquakes since 1900. Although, the catalog itself is almost a complete record of fatal earthquakes, the data on number of deaths is not complete. We use PAGER_CAT to assemble a Middle East (the latitude and longitude of 10°-42° N and 24°-64° E respectively) catalog for the period 1970-2008 that includes 202 events with published number of fatalities, including events with zero casualties. We investigated the effect of components of each event, e.g. exposed population, instrumental earthquake magnitude, focal depth, date (year of event) and GDP on earthquake fatalities in Middle East in the 202 events with detailed fatality estimates. To estimate the number of people exposed to each event, we used a fatality threshold for peak ground acceleration of 0.1g to calculate the radius of affected area. The exposed population of each event is the enclosed population of each circle calculated from gridded population data available on SEDAC (http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/gpw/global.jsp) using ArcGIS. Results of our statistical model, using Poisson regression in R statistical software, show that the number of fatalities due to earthquakes is in direct (positive) relation to the exposed population and the magnitude of the earthquake at the epicenter. On the other hand, it is in inverse (negative) relation to elapsed time since 1970, focal depth and GDP of the country affected. These spatial and temporal patterns of life loss are consistent with the patterns expected within our conceptual framework in relationship with hazard, exposed population and proxies of vulnerability. Our findings suggest that for earthquakes with comparable physical characteristics, the number of fatalities has been falling since 1970 in the Middle East region. We interpret this as an overall reduction of vulnerability of the Middle East during 1970-2008. Ongoing research is focusing on more detailed analysis of particular indicators of vulnerability reduction such as the development of earthquake building codes and preparedness, and on the spatial disaggregation of exposed population and the attenuation of earthquake magnitude.

Evaluation of Ground-Motion Modeling Techniques for Use in Global ShakeMap - A Critique of Instrumental Ground-Motion Prediction Equations, Peak Ground Motion to Macroseismic Intensity Conversions, and Macroseismic Intensity Predictions in Different Tectonic Settings

USGS Publications Warehouse

Allen, Trevor I.; Wald, David J.

2009-01-01

Regional differences in ground-motion attenuation have long been thought to add uncertainty in the prediction of ground motion. However, a growing body of evidence suggests that regional differences in ground-motion attenuation may not be as significant as previously thought and that the key differences between regions may be a consequence of limitations in ground-motion datasets over incomplete magnitude and distance ranges. Undoubtedly, regional differences in attenuation can exist owing to differences in crustal structure and tectonic setting, and these can contribute to differences in ground-motion attenuation at larger source-receiver distances. Herein, we examine the use of a variety of techniques for the prediction of several ground-motion metrics (peak ground acceleration and velocity, response spectral ordinates, and macroseismic intensity) and compare them against a global dataset of instrumental ground-motion recordings and intensity assignments. The primary goal of this study is to determine whether existing ground-motion prediction techniques are applicable for use in the U.S. Geological Survey's Global ShakeMap and Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response (PAGER). We seek the most appropriate ground-motion predictive technique, or techniques, for each of the tectonic regimes considered: shallow active crust, subduction zone, and stable continental region.

Pharmacist involvement in a multidisciplinary initiative to reduce sepsis-related mortality.

PubMed

Beardsley, James R; Jones, Catherine M; Williamson, John; Chou, Jason; Currie-Coyoy, Margaret; Jackson, Teresa

2016-02-01

Pharmacy department contributions to a medical center's broad initiative to improve sepsis care outcomes are described. Timely and appropriate antimicrobial therapy is a key factor in optimizing treatment outcomes in patients with severe sepsis or septic shock. The inpatient pharmacy at Wake Forest Baptist Health implemented standardized processes to reduce order turnaround time and facilitate prompt antibiotic administration as part of the hospital's multidisciplinary "Code Sepsis" initiative. The program includes (1) nurse-conducted screening for sepsis using a standard assessment instrument, (2) pager alerts notifying rapid-response, pharmacy, and other personnel of cases of suspected sepsis, (3) activation of an electronic order set including guideline-based antibiotic therapy recommendations based on local pathogen patterns, and (4) a protocol allowing pharmacists to select an antibiotic regimen if providers are busy with other patient care duties. Assessments conducted during and after implementation of the Code Sepsis initiative showed improvements in key program metrics. The mean ± S.D. time from receipt of a Code Sepsis page to antibiotic delivery was reduced to 14.1 ± 13.7 minutes, the mean time from identification of suspected sepsis to antibiotic administration was reduced to 31 minutes in the hospital's intensive care units and to 51 minutes in non-critical care units, and the institution's performance on a widely used measure of sepsis-related mortality improved dramatically. Implementation of the Code Sepsis initiative was associated with reductions in order turnaround time, time to antibiotic administration, and sepsis-related mortality. Copyright © 2016 by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Inc. All rights reserved.

Automated detection of physiologic deterioration in hospitalized patients

PubMed Central

Evans, R Scott; Kuttler, Kathryn G; Simpson, Kathy J; Howe, Stephen; Crossno, Peter F; Johnson, Kyle V; Schreiner, Misty N; Lloyd, James F; Tettelbach, William H; Keddington, Roger K; Tanner, Alden; Wilde, Chelbi; Clemmer, Terry P

2015-01-01

Objective Develop and evaluate an automated case detection and response triggering system to monitor patients every 5 min and identify early signs of physiologic deterioration. Materials and methods A 2-year prospective, observational study at a large level 1 trauma center. All patients admitted to a 33-bed medical and oncology floor (A) and a 33-bed non-intensive care unit (ICU) surgical trauma floor (B) were monitored. During the intervention year, pager alerts of early physiologic deterioration were automatically sent to charge nurses along with access to a graphical point-of-care web page to facilitate patient evaluation. Results Nurses reported the positive predictive value of alerts was 91–100% depending on erroneous data presence. Unit A patients were significantly older and had significantly more comorbidities than unit B patients. During the intervention year, unit A patients had a significant increase in length of stay, more transfers to ICU (p = 0.23), and significantly more medical emergency team (MET) calls (p = 0.0008), and significantly fewer died (p = 0.044) compared to the pre-intervention year. No significant differences were found on unit B. Conclusions We monitored patients every 5 min and provided automated pages of early physiologic deterioration. This before–after study found a significant increase in MET calls and a significant decrease in mortality only in the unit with older patients with multiple comorbidities, and thus further study is warranted to detect potential confounding. Moreover, nurses reported the graphical alerts provided information needed to quickly evaluate patients, and they felt more confident about their assessment and more comfortable requesting help. PMID:25164256

Bronson Methodist Hospital: journey to excellence in quality and safety.

PubMed

Knapp, Cheryl

2006-10-01

Bronson Healthcare Group, a 343-bed not-for-profit health care system serving all of southwest Michigan and northern Indiana, has as its flagship Bronson Methodist Hospital, the recipient of the 2005 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. The Baldrige criteria were used to formalize Bronson's approach to performance excellence. The strategic plan is condensed and communicated via a "Plan for Excellence" focused on three strategies: clinical excellence, customer and service excellence, and corporate effectiveness. Initiatives include clinical scene investigation (a system for reporting and investigating sentinel and atypical events), a strategy for educating staff in the Situation-Background-Assessment-Recommendations (SBAR) communication technique, and mandatory influenza immunization for health care staff (safety), patient health literacy needs and a health information center (patient centeredness); methods to reduce bloodstream and ventilator-acquired pneumonia infections (effectiveness); a physician portal for access to forms, test results, and patient information (efficiency); restaurant-style pagers for patients and families while waiting (timeliness); and community outreach (equity). Bronson's journey to excellence continues with more accountability for hand-off communication and teamwork, enhancing a non-punitive environment for patient safety reporting, and further incorporating patient and family involvement.

The intended and unintended consequences of communication systems on general internal medicine inpatient care delivery: a prospective observational case study of five teaching hospitals

PubMed Central

Wu, Robert C; Lo, Vivian; Morra, Dante; Wong, Brian M; Sargeant, Robert; Locke, Ken; Cavalcanti, Rodrigo; Quan, Sherman D; Rossos, Peter; Tran, Kim; Cheung, Mark

2013-01-01

Background Effective clinical communication is critical to providing high-quality patient care. Hospitals have used different types of interventions to improve communication between care teams, but there have been few studies of their effectiveness. Objectives To describe the effects of different communication interventions and their problems. Design Prospective observational case study using a mixed methods approach of quantitative and qualitative methods. Setting General internal medicine (GIM) inpatient wards at five tertiary care academic teaching hospitals. Participants Clinicians consisting of residents, attending physicians, nurses, and allied health (AH) staff working on the GIM wards. Methods Ethnographic methods and interviews with clinical staff (doctors, nurses, medical students, and AH professionals) were conducted over a 16-month period from 2009 to 2010. Results We identified four categories that described the intended and unintended consequences of communication interventions: impacts on senders, receivers, interprofessional collaboration, and the use of informal communication processes. The use of alphanumeric pagers, smartphones, and web-based communication systems had positive effects for senders and receivers, but unintended consequences were seen with all interventions in all four categories. Conclusions Interventions that aimed to improve clinical communications solved some but not all problems, and unintended effects were seen with all systems. PMID:23355461

Cooperative problem solving with personal mobile information tools in hospitals.

PubMed

Buchauer, A; Werner, R; Haux, R

1998-01-01

Health-care professionals have a broad range of needs for information and cooperation while working at different points of care (e.g., outpatient departments, wards, and functional units such as operating theaters). Patient-related data and medical knowledge have to be widely available to support high-quality patient care. Furthermore, due to the increased specialization of health-care professionals, efficient collaboration is required. Personal mobile information tools have a considerable potential to realize almost ubiquitous information and collaborative support. They enable to unite the functionality of conventional tools such as paper forms, dictating machines, and pagers into one tool. Moreover, they can extend the support already provided by clinical workstations. An approach is described for the integration of mobile information tools with heterogeneous hospital information systems. This approach includes identification of functions which should be provided on mobile tools. Major functions are the presentation of medical records and reports, electronic mailing to support interpersonal communication, and the provision of editors for structured clinical documentation. To realize those functions on mobile tools, we propose a document-based client-server architecture that enables mobile information tools to interoperate with existing computer-based application systems. Open application systems and powerful, partially wireless, hospital-wide networks are the prerequisites for the introduction of mobile information tools.

Thin glass substrates for mobile applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mauch, Reiner H.; Wegener, Holger; Kruse, Anke; Hildebrand, Norbert

2000-10-01

Flat panel displays play an important role as the visual interface for today's electronic devices (Notebook computers, PDA's, pagers, mobile phones, etc.). Liquid Crystal Display's are dominating the market. While for higher resolution displays active matrix displays like Thin Film Transistor LCD's are used, portable devices are mainly using Super Twisted Nematic (STN) displays. Based on the application, STN displays for mobile applications require thinner glass substrates with improved surface quality at a lower cost. The requirements and trends for STN glass substrates are identified and discussed. Different glass manufacturing processes are used today for the manufacture of these substrates. Advantages and disadvantages of the different glass substrate types are presented and discussed.

Typology of after-hours care instructions for patients

PubMed Central

Bordman, Risa; Bovett, Monica; Drummond, Neil; Crighton, Eric J.; Wheler, David; Moineddin, Rahim; White, David

2007-01-01

OBJECTIVE To develop a typology of after-hours care (AHC) instructions and to examine physician and practice characteristics associated with each type of instruction. DESIGN Cross-sectional telephone survey. Physicians’ offices were called during evenings and weekends to listen to their messages regarding AHC. All messages were categorized. Thematic analysis of a subset of messages was conducted to develop a typology of AHC instructions. Logistic regression analysis was used to identify associations between physician and practice characteristics and the instructions left for patients. SETTING Family practices in the greater Toronto area. PARTICIPANTS Stratified random sample of family physicians providing office-based primary care. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Form of response (eg, answering machine), content of message, and physician and practice characteristics. RESULTS Of 514 after-hours messages from family physicians’ offices, 421 were obtained from answering machines, 58 were obtained from answering services, 23 had no answer, 2 gave pager numbers, and 10 had other responses. Message content ranged from no AHC instructions to detailed advice; 54% of messages provided a single instruction, and the rest provided a combination of instructions. Content analysis identified 815 discrete instructions or types of response that were classified into 7 categories: 302 instructed patients to go to an emergency department; 122 provided direct contact with a physician; 115 told patients to go to a clinic; 94 left no directions; 76 suggested calling a housecall service; 45 suggested calling Telehealth; and 61 suggested other things. About 22% of messages only advised attending an emergency department, and 18% gave no advice at all. Physicians who were female, had Canadian certification in family medicine, held hospital privileges, or had attended a Canadian medical school were more likely to be directly available to their patients. CONCLUSION Important issues identified included the recommendation to use an emergency department as the sole source of AHC, practices providing no specific AHC instructions to their patients, and physicians’ lack of acceptance of Telehealth. To improve AHC, new initiatives should build upon the existing system, changes should be integrated, and there should be a range of AHC options for patients and physicians. PMID:17872681

Typology of after-hours care instructions for patients: telephone survey and multivariate analysis.

PubMed

Bordman, Risa; Bovett, Monica; Drummond, Neil; Crighton, Eric J; Wheler, David; Moineddin, Rahim; White, David

2007-03-01

To develop a typology of after-hours care (AHC) instructions and to examine physician and practice characteristics associated with each type of instruction. Cross-sectional telephone survey. Physicians' offices were called during evenings and weekends to listen to their messages regarding AHC. All messages were categorized. Thematic analysis of a subset of messages was conducted to develop a typology of AHC instructions. Logistic regression analysis was used to identify associations between physician and practice characteristics and the instructions left for patients. Family practices in the greater Toronto area. Stratified random sample of family physicians providing office-based primary care. Form of response (eg, answering machine), content of message, and physician and practice characteristics. Of 514 after-hours messages from family physicians' offices, 421 were obtained from answering machines, 58 were obtained from answering services, 23 had no answer, 2 gave pager numbers, and 10 had other responses. Message content ranged from no AHC instructions to detailed advice; 54% of messages provided a single instruction, and the rest provided a combination of instructions. Content analysis identified 815 discrete instructions or types of response that were classified into 7 categories: 302 instructed patients to go to an emergency department; 122 provided direct contact with a physician; 115 told patients to go to a clinic; 94 left no directions; 76 suggested calling a housecall service; 45 suggested calling Telehealth; and 61 suggested other things. About 22% of messages only advised attending an emergency department, and 18% gave no advice at all. Physicians who were female, had Canadian certification in family medicine, held hospital privileges, or had attended a Canadian medical school were more likely to be directly available to their patients. Important issues identified included the recommendation to use an emergency department as the sole source of AHC, practices providing no specific AHC instructions to their patients, and physicians' lack of acceptance of Telehealth. To improve AHC, new initiatives should build upon the existing system, changes should be integrated, and there should be a range of AHC options for patients and physicians.

Barriers to administering intravenous tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) for acute ischemic stroke in the emergency department: A cross-sectional survey of stroke centers.

PubMed

Hargis, Mitch; Shah, Jharna N; Mazabob, Janine; Rao, Chethan Venkatasubba; Suarez, Jose I; Bershad, Eric M

2015-08-01

The logistics involved in administration of IV tPA for acute ischemic stroke patients are complex, and may contribute to variability in door-to-needle times between different hospitals. We sought to identify practice patterns in stroke centers related to IV tPA use. We hypothesized that there would be significant variability in logistics related to ancillary staff (i.e. nursing, pharmacists) processes in the emergency room setting. A 21 question survey was distributed to attendees of the AHA/ASA Southwest Affiliate Stroke Coordinators Conference to evaluate potential barriers and delays with regards to thrombolysis for acute strokes patients in the Emergency Department setting. Answers were anonymous and aggregated to examine trends in responses. Responses were obtained from 37 of 67 (55%) stroke centers, which were located mainly in the Southwest United States. Logistical processes differed between facilities. Nursing and pharmacy carried stroke pagers in only 19% of the centers, and pharmacy responded to stroke alerts only one-third of centers. Insertion of Foley catheters and nasogastric tubes prior to tPA was routine in some of the sites. Other barriers to IV tPA administration included physician reluctance and inadequate communication between health care providers. Practices regarding logistics for giving IV tPA may be variable amongst different stroke centers. Given this potential variability, prospective evaluation to confirm these preliminary findings is warranted. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Development of a lightweight portable ventilator for far-forward battlefield combat casualty support

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cutchis, Protagoras N.; Smith, Dexter G.; Ko, Harvey W.; Wiesmann, William P.; Pranger, L. Alex

1999-07-01

Immediate medical provision substantially reduces the number of fatalities sustained during military operations. However, the shift from large-scale regional conflicts to smaller peacekeeping and humanitarian missions has reduced the military medical support infrastructure. Civilian emergency medical services have long emphasized the 'golden hour' during which a patient must receive definitive medical attention. Without on-scene medical support, injured soldiers must be transported significant distances before receiving advanced medical care, and rapid transport to a medical facility is not always a viable option. Technological solutions enable military medics to deliver advanced medical care on the battlefield. We report here on the development of a small lightweight portable respirator for the treatment of far- forward battlefield casualties. The Far Forward Life Support System (FFLSS) utilizes a combination of COTS (commercial off the shelf) components and custom designed systems to provide ventilatory support to injured combatants. It also incorporates a small IV fluid pump and IV fluids for resuscitation. A microcompressor control system monitors both system performance and patient parameters for system control. Telemetry to a pager-like device worn by the front line medic alerts of any anomalies in ventilator or patient parameters, which will add greatly to triage decisions and resource management. Novel elements of the FLSS design include oxygen generation, low-pressure air generation, available patient suction, and the absence of any high pressure air cylinders. A prototype developed for animal testing will be described in detail as well as further design requirements for the human rated prototype.

Automated detection of physiologic deterioration in hospitalized patients.

PubMed

Evans, R Scott; Kuttler, Kathryn G; Simpson, Kathy J; Howe, Stephen; Crossno, Peter F; Johnson, Kyle V; Schreiner, Misty N; Lloyd, James F; Tettelbach, William H; Keddington, Roger K; Tanner, Alden; Wilde, Chelbi; Clemmer, Terry P

2015-03-01

Develop and evaluate an automated case detection and response triggering system to monitor patients every 5 min and identify early signs of physiologic deterioration. A 2-year prospective, observational study at a large level 1 trauma center. All patients admitted to a 33-bed medical and oncology floor (A) and a 33-bed non-intensive care unit (ICU) surgical trauma floor (B) were monitored. During the intervention year, pager alerts of early physiologic deterioration were automatically sent to charge nurses along with access to a graphical point-of-care web page to facilitate patient evaluation. Nurses reported the positive predictive value of alerts was 91-100% depending on erroneous data presence. Unit A patients were significantly older and had significantly more comorbidities than unit B patients. During the intervention year, unit A patients had a significant increase in length of stay, more transfers to ICU (p = 0.23), and significantly more medical emergency team (MET) calls (p = 0.0008), and significantly fewer died (p = 0.044) compared to the pre-intervention year. No significant differences were found on unit B. We monitored patients every 5 min and provided automated pages of early physiologic deterioration. This before-after study found a significant increase in MET calls and a significant decrease in mortality only in the unit with older patients with multiple comorbidities, and thus further study is warranted to detect potential confounding. Moreover, nurses reported the graphical alerts provided information needed to quickly evaluate patients, and they felt more confident about their assessment and more comfortable requesting help. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Medical Informatics Association. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Computer-mediated mobile messaging as collaboration support for nurses.

PubMed

Karpati, Peter; Toussaint, Pieter Jelle; Nytrø, Oystein

2009-01-01

Collaboration in hospitals is coordinated mainly by communication, which currently happens by face-to-face meetings, phone calls, pagers, notes and the electronic patient record. These habits raise problems e.g., delayed notifications and unnecessary interruptions. Dealing with these problems could save time and improve the care. Therefore we designed and prototyped a mobile messaging solution based on two specific scenarios coming from observations at a cardiology department of a Norwegian hospital. The main focus was on supporting the work of nurses. One prototype supported patient management while another one dealt with messages related to medication planning. The evaluation of the prototypes suggested that messaging-based collaboration support is worth to explore and also gave ideas for improvement.

Implementing new technologies for public safety communication: competing frequency demands and standardization issues

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stevens, Kathryn J.

1997-01-01

Attempting to incorporate new technology into an existing environment is often very difficult. The problems are lengthy to resolve, wrought with confusion and seldom turn out like anyone expected. This document represents an overview of one such attempt. It outlines the general areas of concern which could be affected by a transition, and potential problems that may be encountered as a result of the effort. Over the past several decades, many local, state and federal agencies are pressing for more efficient use of frequency spectrums. The urgency of this issue has grown due to the demands of several groups wanting access to these channels for commercial use. Pager systems, cellular telephones, radio systems for private businesses all demand more space. Public safety agencies are starting to fear their needs will diminish in importance as the available channel spectrums are consumed by commercial ventures. How to share these channels, purchase appropriate equipment to meet your needs, and stay within a reasonable budget are not easy tasks. Public safety agencies who rely on communication networks in the performance of their jobs also know why encryption is important. Protecting the rights of citizens as police exchange information over the air, maintaining the integrity of an investigation and officer safety are all concerns police must address each time they use a radio.

Populating the Advanced National Seismic System Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Earle, P. S.; Perry, M. R.; Andrews, J. R.; Withers, M. M.; Hellweg, M.; Kim, W. Y.; Shiro, B.; West, M. E.; Storchak, D. A.; Pankow, K. L.; Huerfano Moreno, V. A.; Gee, L. S.; Wolfe, C. J.

2016-12-01

The U.S. Geological Survey maintains a repository of earthquake information produced by networks in the Advanced National Seismic System with additional data from the ISC-GEM catalog and many non-U.S. networks through their contributions to the National Earthquake Information Center PDE bulletin. This Comprehensive Catalog (ComCat) provides a unified earthquake product while preserving attribution and contributor information. ComCat contains hypocenter and magnitude information with supporting phase arrival-time and amplitude measurements (when available). Higher-level products such as focal mechanisms, earthquake slip models, "Did You Feel It?" reports, ShakeMaps, PAGER impact estimates, earthquake summary posters, and tectonic summaries are also included. ComCat is updated as new events are processed and the catalog can be accesed at http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/search/. Throughout the past few years, a concentrated effort has been underway to expand ComCat by integrating global and regional historic catalogs. The number of earthquakes in ComCat has more than doubled in the past year and it presently contains over 1.6 million earthquake hypocenters. We will provide an overview of catalog contents and a detailed description of numerous tools and semi-automated quality-control procedures developed to uncover errors including systematic magnitude biases, missing time periods, duplicate postings for the same events, and incorrectly associated events.

Technological aspects of hospital communication challenges: an observational study.

PubMed

Popovici, Ilinca; Morita, Plinio P; Doran, Diane; Lapinsky, Stephen; Morra, Dante; Shier, Ashleigh; Wu, Robert; Cafazzo, Joseph A

2015-06-01

To gain insights into how technological communication tools impact effective communication among clinicians, which is critical for patient safety. This multi-site observational study analyzes inter-clinician communication and interaction with information technology, with a focus on the critical process of patient transfer from the Emergency Department to General Internal Medicine. Mount Sinai Hospital, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and Toronto General Hospital. At least five ED and general internal medicine nurses and physicians directly involved in patient transfers were observed on separate occasions at each institution. N/A. N/A. The study provides insight into clinician workflow, evaluates current hospital communication systems and identifies key issues affecting communication: interruptions, issues with numeric pagers, lack of integrated communication tools, lack of awareness of consultation status, inefficiencies related to the paper chart, unintuitive user interfaces, mixed use of electronic and paper systems and lack of up-to-date contact information. It also identifies design trade-offs to be negotiated: synchronous communication vs. reducing interruptions, notification of patient status vs. reducing interruptions and speed vs. quality of handovers. The issues listed should be considered in the design of new technology for hospital communications. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press in association with the International Society for Quality in Health Care; all rights reserved.

Assessing the seismic risk potential of South America

USGS Publications Warehouse

Jaiswal, Kishor; Petersen, Mark D.; Harmsen, Stephen; Smoczyk, Gregory M.

2016-01-01

We present here a simplified approach to quantifying regional seismic risk. The seismic risk for a given region can be inferred in terms of average annual loss (AAL) that represents long-term value of earthquake losses in any one year caused from a long-term seismic hazard. The AAL are commonly measured in the form of earthquake shaking-induced deaths, direct economic impacts or indirect losses caused due to loss of functionality. In the context of South American subcontinent, the analysis makes use of readily available public data on seismicity, population exposure, and the hazard and vulnerability models for the region. The seismic hazard model was derived using available seismic catalogs, fault databases, and the hazard methodologies that are analogous to the U.S. Geological Survey’s national seismic hazard mapping process. The Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response (PAGER) system’s direct empirical vulnerability functions in terms of fatality and economic impact were used for performing exposure and risk analyses. The broad findings presented and the risk maps produced herein are preliminary, yet they do offer important insights into the underlying zones of high and low seismic risks in the South American subcontinent. A more detailed analysis of risk may be warranted by engaging local experts, especially in some of the high risk zones identified through the present investigation.

REFINE (REducing Falls in In-patieNt Elderly) using bed and bedside chair pressure sensors linked to radio-pagers in acute hospital care: a randomised controlled trial

PubMed Central

Sahota, Opinder; Drummond, Avril; Kendrick, Denise; Grainge, Matthew J.; Vass, Catherine; Sach, Tracey; Gladman, John; Avis, Mark

2014-01-01

Background: falls in hospitals are a major problem and contribute to substantial healthcare burden. Advances in sensor technology afford innovative approaches to reducing falls in acute hospital care. However, whether these are clinically effective and cost effective in the UK setting has not been evaluated. Methods: pragmatic, parallel-arm, individual randomised controlled trial of bed and bedside chair pressure sensors using radio-pagers (intervention group) compared with standard care (control group) in elderly patients admitted to acute, general medical wards, in a large UK teaching hospital. Primary outcome measure number of in-patient bedside falls per 1,000 bed days. Results: 1,839 participants were randomised (918 to the intervention group and 921 to the control group). There were 85 bedside falls (65 fallers) in the intervention group, falls rate 8.71 per 1,000 bed days compared with 83 bedside falls (64 fallers) in the control group, falls rate 9.84 per 1,000 bed days (adjusted incidence rate ratio, 0.90; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.66–1.22; P = 0.51). There was no significant difference between the two groups with respect to time to first bedside fall (adjusted hazard ratio (HR), 0.95; 95% CI: 0.67–1.34; P= 0.12). The mean cost per patient in the intervention group was £7199 compared with £6400 in the control group, mean difference in QALYs per patient, 0.0001 (95% CI: −0.0006–0.0004, P= 0.67). Conclusions: bed and bedside chair pressure sensors as a single intervention strategy do not reduce in-patient bedside falls, time to first bedside fall and are not cost-effective in elderly patients in acute, general medical wards in the UK. Trial registration: isrctn.org identifier: ISRCTN44972300. PMID:24141253

Enhancement of global flood damage assessments using building material based vulnerability curves

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Englhardt, Johanna; de Ruiter, Marleen; de Moel, Hans; Aerts, Jeroen

2017-04-01

This study discusses the development of an enhanced approach for flood damage and risk assessments using vulnerability curves that are based on building material information. The approach draws upon common practices in earthquake vulnerability assessments, and is an alternative for land-use or building occupancy approach in flood risk assessment models. The approach is of particular importance for studies where there is a large variation in building material, such as large scale studies or studies in developing countries. A case study of Ethiopia is used to demonstrate the impact of the different methodological approaches on direct damage assessments due to flooding. Generally, flood damage assessments use damage curves for different land-use or occupancy types (i.e. urban or residential and commercial classes). However, these categories do not necessarily relate directly to vulnerability of damage by flood waters. For this, the construction type and building material may be more important, as is used in earthquake risk assessments. For this study, we use building material classification data of the PAGER1 project to define new building material based vulnerability classes for flood damage. This approach will be compared to the widely applied land-use based vulnerability curves such as used by De Moel et al. (2011). The case of Ethiopia demonstrates and compares the feasibility of this novel flood vulnerability method on a country level which holds the potential to be scaled up to a global level. The study shows that flood vulnerability based on building material also allows for better differentiation between flood damage in urban and rural settings, opening doors to better link to poverty studies when such exposure data is available. Furthermore, this new approach paves the road to the enhancement of multi-risk assessments as the method enables the comparison of vulnerability across different natural hazard types that also use material-based vulnerability curves. Finally, this approach allows for more accuracy in estimating losses as a result of direct damages. 1 http://earthquake.usgs.gov/data/pager/

Acoustical and noise redesign considerations when trying to increase patient privacy while ensuring comfort

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Klavetter, Eric

2005-09-01

An internal assessment was undertaken to understand the flow of patients to ensure comfort and privacy during their health care experience at Mayo Clinic. A number of different prototypes, work flows, and methodologies were utilized and assessed to determine the ``best experience for our patients.'' A number of prototypes ranging from self-check in to personal pagers were assessed along with creating environments that introduced ``passive distractions'' for acoustical and noise management, which can range from fireplaces, to coffee shops to playgrounds to ``tech corridors.'' While a number of these designs are currently being piloted, the over-reaching goal is to make the patient experience ``like no other'' when receiving their care at Mayo Clinic.

Event Driven Messaging with Role-Based Subscriptions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bui, Tung; Bui, Bach; Malhotra, Shantanu; Chen, Fannie; Kim, rachel; Allen, Christopher; Luong, Ivy; Chang, George; Zendejas, Silvino; Sadaqathulla, Syed

2009-01-01

Event Driven Messaging with Role-Based Subscriptions (EDM-RBS) is a framework integrated into the Service Management Database (SMDB) to allow for role-based and subscription-based delivery of synchronous and asynchronous messages over JMS (Java Messaging Service), SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol), or SMS (Short Messaging Service). This allows for 24/7 operation with users in all parts of the world. The software classifies messages by triggering data type, application source, owner of data triggering event (mission), classification, sub-classification and various other secondary classifying tags. Messages are routed to applications or users based on subscription rules using a combination of the above message attributes. This program provides a framework for identifying connected users and their applications for targeted delivery of messages over JMS to the client applications the user is logged into. EDMRBS provides the ability to send notifications over e-mail or pager rather than having to rely on a live human to do it. It is implemented as an Oracle application that uses Oracle relational database management system intrinsic functions. It is configurable to use Oracle AQ JMS API or an external JMS provider for messaging. It fully integrates into the event-logging framework of SMDB (Subnet Management Database).

Assessment of continuous acoustic respiratory rate monitoring as an addition to a pulse oximetry-based patient surveillance system.

PubMed

McGrath, Susan P; Pyke, Joshua; Taenzer, Andreas H

2017-06-01

Technology advances make it possible to consider continuous acoustic respiratory rate monitoring as an integral component of physiologic surveillance systems. This study explores technical and logistical aspects of augmenting pulse oximetry-based patient surveillance systems with continuous respiratory rate monitoring and offers some insight into the impact on patient deterioration detection that may result. Acoustic respiratory rate sensors were introduced to a general care pulse oximetry-based surveillance system with respiratory rate alarms deactivated. Simulation was used after 4324 patient days to determine appropriate alarm thresholds for respiratory rate, which were then activated. Data were collected for an additional 4382 patient days. Physiologic parameters, alarm data, sensor utilization and patient/staff feedback were collected throughout the study and analyzed. No notable technical or workflow issues were observed. Sensor utilization was 57 %, with patient refusal leading reasons for nonuse (22.7 %). With respiratory rate alarm thresholds set to 6 and 40 breaths/min., the majority of nurse pager clinical notifications were triggered by low oxygen saturation values (43 %), followed by low respiratory rate values (21 %) and low pulse rate values (13 %). Mean respiratory rate collected was 16.6 ± 3.8 breaths/min. The vast majority (82 %) of low oxygen saturation states coincided with normal respiration rates of 12-20 breaths/min. Continuous respiratory rate monitoring can be successfully added to a pulse oximetry-based surveillance system without significant technical, logistical or workflow issues and is moderately well-tolerated by patients. Respiratory rate sensor alarms did not significantly impact overall system alarm burden. Respiratory rate and oxygen saturation distributions suggest adding continuous respiratory rate monitoring to a pulse oximetry-based surveillance system may not significantly improve patient deterioration detection.

U.S. Geological Survey's ShakeCast: A cloud-based future

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wald, David J.; Lin, Kuo-Wan; Turner, Loren; Bekiri, Nebi

2014-01-01

When an earthquake occurs, the U. S. Geological Survey (USGS) ShakeMap portrays the extent of potentially damaging shaking. In turn, the ShakeCast system, a freely-available, post-earthquake situational awareness application, automatically retrieves earthquake shaking data from ShakeMap, compares intensity measures against users’ facilities, sends notifications of potential damage to responsible parties, and generates facility damage assessment maps and other web-based products for emergency managers and responders. ShakeCast is particularly suitable for earthquake planning and response purposes by Departments of Transportation (DOTs), critical facility and lifeline utilities, large businesses, engineering and financial services, and loss and risk modelers. Recent important developments to the ShakeCast system and its user base are described. The newly-released Version 3 of the ShakeCast system encompasses advancements in seismology, earthquake engineering, and information technology applicable to the legacy ShakeCast installation (Version 2). In particular, this upgrade includes a full statistical fragility analysis framework for general assessment of structures as part of the near real-time system, direct access to additional earthquake-specific USGS products besides ShakeMap (PAGER, DYFI?, tectonic summary, etc.), significant improvements in the graphical user interface, including a console view for operations centers, and custom, user-defined hazard and loss modules. The release also introduces a new adaption option to port ShakeCast to the "cloud". Employing Amazon Web Services (AWS), users now have a low-cost alternative to local hosting, by fully offloading hardware, software, and communication obligations to the cloud. Other advantages of the "ShakeCast Cloud" strategy include (1) Reliability and robustness of offsite operations, (2) Scalability naturally accommodated, (3), Serviceability, problems reduced due to software and hardware uniformity, (4) Testability, freely available for new users, (5) Remotely supported, allowing expert-facilitated maintenance, (6) Adoptability, simplified with disk images, and (7) Security, built in at the very high level associated with AWS. The ShakeCast user base continues to expand and broaden. For example, Caltrans, the prototypical ShakeCast user and development supporter, has been providing guidance to other DOTs on the use of the National Bridge Inventory (NBI) database to implement fully-functional ShakeCast systems in their states. A long-term goal underway is to further "connect the DOTs" via a Transportation Pooled Fund (TPF) with participating state DOTs. We also review some of the many other users and uses of ShakeCast. Lastly, on the hazard input front, we detail related ShakeMap improvements and ongoing advancements in estimating the likelihood of shaking-induced secondary hazards at structures, facilities, bridges, and along roadways due to landslides and liquefaction, and implemented within the ShakeCast framework.

Real-Time Data Processing Systems and Products at the Alaska Earthquake Information Center

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ruppert, N. A.; Hansen, R. A.

2007-05-01

The Alaska Earthquake Information Center (AEIC) receives data from over 400 seismic sites located within the state boundaries and the surrounding regions and serves as a regional data center. In 2007, the AEIC reported ~20,000 seismic events, with the largest event of M6.6 in Andreanof Islands. The real-time earthquake detection and data processing systems at AEIC are based on the Antelope system from BRTT, Inc. This modular and extensible processing platform allows an integrated system complete from data acquisition to catalog production. Multiple additional modules constructed with the Antelope toolbox have been developed to fit particular needs of the AEIC. The real-time earthquake locations and magnitudes are determined within 2-5 minutes of the event occurrence. AEIC maintains a 24/7 seismologist-on-duty schedule. Earthquake alarms are based on the real- time earthquake detections. Significant events are reviewed by the seismologist on duty within 30 minutes of the occurrence with information releases issued for significant events. This information is disseminated immediately via the AEIC website, ANSS website via QDDS submissions, through e-mail, cell phone and pager notifications, via fax broadcasts and recorded voice-mail messages. In addition, automatic regional moment tensors are determined for events with M>=4.0. This information is posted on the public website. ShakeMaps are being calculated in real-time with the information currently accessible via a password-protected website. AEIC is designing an alarm system targeted for the critical lifeline operations in Alaska. AEIC maintains an extensive computer network to provide adequate support for data processing and archival. For real-time processing, AEIC operates two identical, interoperable computer systems in parallel.

Environment Agency England flood warning systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Strong, Chris; Walters, Mark; Haynes, Elizabeth; Dobson, Peter

2015-04-01

Context In England around 5 million homes are at risk of flooding. We invest significantly in flood prevention and management schemes but we can never prevent all flooding. Early alerting systems are fundamental to helping us reduce the impacts of flooding. The Environment Agency has had the responsibility for flood warning since 1996. In 2006 we invested in a new dissemination system that would send direct messages to pre-identified recipients via a range of channels. Since then we have continuously improved the system and service we offer. In 2010 we introduced an 'opt-out' service where we pre-registered landline numbers in flood risk areas, significantly increasing the customer base. The service has performed exceptionally well under intense flood conditions. Over a period of 3 days in December 2013, when England was experiencing an east coast storm surge, the system sent nearly 350,000 telephone messages, 85,000 emails and 70,000 text messages, with a peak call rate of around 37,000 per hour and 100% availability. The Floodline Warnings Direct (FWD) System FWD provides warnings in advance of flooding so that people at risk and responders can take action to minimise the impact of the flood. Warnings are sent via telephone, fax, text message, pager or e-mail to over 1.1 million properties located within flood risk areas in England. Triggers for issuing alerts and warnings include attained and forecast river levels and rainfall in some rapidly responding locations. There are three levels of warning: Flood Alert, Flood Warning and Severe Flood Warning, and a stand down message. The warnings can be updated to include relevant information to help inform those at risk. Working with our current provider Fujitsu, the system is under a programme of continuous improvement including expanding the 'opt-out' service to mobile phone numbers registered to at risk addresses, allowing mobile registration to the system for people 'on the move' and providing access to registration via third parties. The 'Future Flood Warning System' Our research shows that people want more choice on how they access and receive warnings. Many want a service tailored to their own risk, rather than that of their community. They also want more information about the forecast and the situation to that they can make decisions personal to their circumstances. Our future flood warning system will build upon the success of our existing service and will aim to: • provide our customers with a more flexible and personalised self-service approach which caters for the diverse range of user needs • alert people wherever they are, not just in properties • be flexible enough to respond to user feedback to make improvements and utilise new technology as it becomes available • provide real-time visualisation of system performance, to assist our flood response • capture greater levels of information from the recipients of our warnings • be efficient for operators of the system and utilise automation where relevant • take a risk based approach to resilience to provide the highest level of reliability when needed at a reduced cost

The effect of reminder systems on patients’ adherence to treatment

PubMed Central

Fenerty, Sarah D; West, Cameron; Davis, Scott A; Kaplan, Sebastian G; Feldman, Steven R

2012-01-01

Background Patient adherence is an important component of the treatment of chronic disease. An understanding of patient adherence and its modulating factors is necessary to correctly interpret treatment efficacy and barriers to therapeutic success. Purpose This meta-analysis aims to systematically review published randomized controlled trials of reminder interventions to assist patient adherence to prescribed medications. Methods A Medline search was performed for randomized controlled trials published between 1968 and June 2011, which studied the effect of reminder-based interventions on adherence to self-administered daily medications. Results Eleven published randomized controlled trials were found between 1999 and 2009 which measured adherence to a daily medication in a group receiving reminder interventions compared to controls receiving no reminders. Medication adherence was measured as the number of doses taken compared to the number prescribed within a set period of time. Meta- analysis showed a statistically significant increase in adherence in groups receiving a reminder intervention compared to controls (66.61% versus 54.71%, 95% CI for mean: 0.8% to 22.4%). Self-reported and electronically monitored adherence rates did not significantly differ (68.04% versus 63.67%, P = 1.0). Eight of eleven studies showed a statistically significant increase in adherence for at least one of the reminder group arms compared to the control groups receiving no reminder intervention. Limitations The data are limited by imperfect measures of adherence due to variability in data collection methods. It is also likely that concomitant educational efforts in the study populations, such as instructions regarding proper administration and importance of correct dosing schedules, contributed to improved patient adherence, both in reminder and control arms. The search strategy could have missed relevant studies which were categorized by disease rather than adherence. Conclusions Reminder-based interventions may improve adherence to daily medications. However, the interventions used in these studies, which included reminder phone calls, text messages, pagers, interactive voice response systems, videotelephone calls, and programmed electronic audiovisual reminder devices, are impractical for widespread implementation, and their efficacy may be optimized when combined with alternative adherence-modifying strategies. More practical reminder-based interventions should be assessed to determine their value in improving patient adherence and treatment outcomes. PMID:22379363

The new concept of the Disruption Index (DI) as an indicator to measure cascading effects in urban areas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Oliveira, C. S.; Ferreira, M. A.

2015-12-01

Apart from the loss of lives, injuries and homeless resulting from an earthquake, not only the economy and physical landscape are altered, but also the lives of citizens and their places of work are dramatically altered. If critical services and functions are disrupted for more than a reasonable time period, consequences can be severe. All communities are at risk and face potential disaster, if unprepared. The Disruption Index (DI) is a tool that allows the representation of a complex, multidimensional, situation in a concise and easier way, providing institutions and communities with a way to identify the global earthquake impact in a geographical area, the elements at risk, and the means to reduce it. Understanding how the loss and cascading effects across a number of areas might be correlated during a single earthquake is critical to evaluate risk. The application of this tool, prior-to a catastrophe, assumes a huge importance for earthquake risk professionals and planners to understand their impacts and to start building earthquake resilient cities. Post-to an event, this tool provides an assessment of its extent and impact considering the propagation effects, developed in a Geographic Information System (GIS) environment. The DI was already tested, calibrated after several earthquakes and applied in Portugal, Italy, Spain and Iceland. The next step in this research is to implement this tool directly into web portals or websites as well as PAGER or GDACS platforms to: - Rapidly assess an earthquake impact in a region following significant events. Nowadays the institutions used the shake maps; it's an important tool but cannot reflect the impact on livelihoods and the cascade effects. The DI maps can be used by state and local organizations, both public and private, for post-earthquake response and recovery, public and scientific information.

Hospitalist time usage and cyclicality: opportunities to improve efficiency.

PubMed

Kim, Christopher S; Lovejoy, William; Paulsen, Michael; Chang, Robert; Flanders, Scott A

2010-01-01

Academic medical centers (AMCs) have a constrained resident work force. Many AMCs have increased the use of nonresident service hospitalists to manage continued growth in clinical volume. To optimize their time in the hospital, it is important to understand hospitalists' work flow. We performed a time-motion study of hospitalists carrying the admission pager throughout the 3 types of shifts we have at our hospital (day shift, swing shift, and night shift). Tertiary academic medical center in the Midwest. Hospitalists spend about 15% of their time on direct patient care, and two-thirds of their time on indirect patient care. Of the indirect activities, communication and documentation dominate. Travel demands make up over 7% of a hospitalists' time. There are spikes in indirect patient care, followed closely by spikes in direct patient care, at shift changes. At our AMC, indirect patient care activities accounted for the majority of the admitting hospitalists' time spent in the hospital, with documentation and communication dominating this time. Travel takes a significant fraction of hospitalists' time. There is also a cyclical nature to activities performed throughout the day, which can cause patient delays and impose variability on support services. There is a need for both service-specific and systemic improvements for AMCs to efficiently manage further growth in their inpatient volume. (c) 2010 Society of Hospital Medicine.

Task Manager: an innovative approach to improving hospital communication after hours.

PubMed

Seddon, Mary E; Hay, David

2010-10-15

To improve communication between doctors and nurses after hours, by developing a tool to display ward tasks, allowing staff to prioritise their work, without constant interruption from pagers (beepers). Middlemore Hospital, a large metropolitan 800-bed hospital in Auckland, New Zealand. Introduction of computerised system (Task Manager) to identify, allocate and complete after-hours tasks. In the first 6 months 21,000 tasks have been completed in Task Manager. Paging of junior doctors has decreased by over 30% and there is broad acceptance of the tool by both nursing and medical staff. Task Manager has collected real-time data on the type of after hours tasks (nearly 50% are phlebotomy-related tasks), busy times of the day (1600 hours to 2400 hours) and who is performing most of the tasks. Task Manager is a simple yet powerful tool for prioritising routine tasks after hours. It allows staff to quickly create tasks, and communicate effectively with other members of the team. It has reduced the frequency of junior doctors paging so that they can continue their work with fewer interruptions. Whilst it was introduced to improve effective communication after hours, it has become apparent that there are multiple 'tasks' that are ordered in a multitude of ways in our hospital and many could be served by Task Manager.

Liquid crystal displays with plastic substrates

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lueder, Ernst H.

1998-04-01

Plastic substrates for the cells of displays exhibit only 1/6 of the weight of glass substrates; they are virtually unbreakable; their flexibility allows the designer to give them a shape suppressing reflections, to realize a display board on a curved surface or meeting the requirements for an appealing styling; displays with plastics are thinner which provides a wider viewing angle. These features render them attractive for displays in portable systems such as mobile phones, pagers, smart cards, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and portable computers. Reflective displays are especially attractive as they don't need a back light. The most important requirements are the protection of plastics against gas permeation and chemical agents, the prevention of layers on plastics to crack or peel off when the plastic is bent and the development of low temperature thin film processes because the plastics, as a rule, only tolerate temperatures below 150 degrees Celsius. Bistable reflective FLC- and PSCT-displays with plastic substrates will be introduced. Special sputtered SiO2-orientation layers preserve the displayed information even if pressure or torsion is applied. MIM-addressed PDLC-displays require additional Al- or Ti-layers which provide the necessary ductility. Sputtered or PECVD-generated TFTs can be fabricated on plastics at temperatures below 150 degrees Celsius.

Surveillance Monitoring Management for General Care Units: Strategy, Design, and Implementation.

PubMed

McGrath, Susan P; Taenzer, Andreas H; Karon, Nancy; Blike, George

2016-07-01

The growing number of monitoring devices, combined with suboptimal patient monitoring and alarm management strategies, has increased "alarm fatigue," which have led to serious consequences. Most reported alarm man- agement approaches have focused on the critical care setting. Since 2007 Dartmouth-Hitchcock (Lebanon, New Hamp- shire) has developed a generalizable and effective design, implementation, and performance evaluation approach to alarm systems for continuous monitoring in general care settings (that is, patient surveillance monitoring). In late 2007, a patient surveillance monitoring system was piloted on the basis of a structured design and implementation approach in a 36-bed orthopedics unit. Beginning in early 2009, it was expanded to cover more than 200 inpatient beds in all medicine and surgical units, except for psychiatry and labor and delivery. Improvements in clinical outcomes (reduction of unplanned transfers by 50% and reduction of rescue events by more than 60% in 2008) and approximately two alarms per patient per 12-hour nursing shift in the original pilot unit have been sustained across most D-H general care units in spite of increasing patient acuity and unit occupancy. Sample analysis of pager notifications indicates that more than 85% of all alarm conditions are resolved within 30 seconds and that more than 99% are resolved before escalation is triggered. The D-H surveillance monitoring system employs several important, generalizable features to manage alarms in a general care setting: alarm delays, static thresholds set appropriately for the prevalence of events in this setting, directed alarm annunciation, and policy-driven customization of thresholds to allow clinicians to respond to needs of individual patients. The systematic approach to design, implementation, and performance management has been key to the success of the system.

Automation of the Lowell Observatory 0.8-m Telescope

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Buie, M. W.

2001-11-01

In the past year I have converted the Lowell Observatory 0.8-m telescope from a classically scheduled and operated telescope to an automated facility. The new setup uses an existing CCD camera and the existing telescope control system. The key steps in the conversion were writing a new CCD control and data acquisition module plus writing communication and queue control software. The previous CCD control program was written for DOS and much of the code was reused for this project. The entire control system runs under Linux and consists of four daemons: MOVE, PCCD, CMDR, and PCTL. The MOVE daemon is a process that communciates with the telescope control system via an RS232 port, keeping track of its state and forwarding commands from other processes to the telescope. The PCCD daemon controls the CCD camera and collects data. The CMDR daemon maintains a FIFO queue of commands to be executed during the night. The PCTL daemon receives notification from any other deamon of execution failures and sends an error code to the on-duty observer via a numeric pager. This system runs through the night much as you would traditionally operate a telescope. However, this system permits queuing up all the commands for a night and they execute one after another in sequence. Additional commands are needed to replace the normal human interaction during observing (ie., target acquisition, field registration, focusing). Also, numerous temporal synchronization commands are required so that observations happen at the right time. The system was used for this year's photometric monitoring of Pluto and Triton and is in general use for 2/3 of time on the telescope. Pluto observations were collected on 30 nights out of a potential pool of 90 nights. Detailed system design and capabilites plus sample observations will be presented. Also, a live demonstration will be provided if the weather is good. This work was supported by NASA Grant NAG5-4210 and the NSF REU Program grant to NAU.

European user trial of paging by satellite

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fudge, R. E.; Fenton, C. J.

1990-01-01

British Telecom conceived the idea of adapting their existing paging service, together with the use of existing terrestrial pagers, to yield a one way data (i.e., paging) satellite service to mobiles. The user trial of paging by satellites was successful. It demonstrated that services could be provided over a wide geographical area to low priced terminals. Many lessons were learned in unexpected areas. These include the need for extensive liaison with all users involved, especially the drivers, to ensure they understood the potential benefits. There was a significant desire for a return acknowledgement channel or even a return data channel. Above all there is a need to ensure that the equipment can be taken across European borders and legitimately used in all European countries. The next step in a marketing assessment would be to consider the impact of two way data messaging such as INMARSAT-C.

NDFOM Description for DNDO Summer Internship Program

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

Budden, Brent Scott

2017-12-01

Nuclear Detection Figure of Merit (NDFOM) is a DNDO-funded project at LANL to develop a software framework that allows a user to evaluate a radiation detection scenario of interest, quickly obtaining results on detector performance. It is intended as a “first step” in detector performance assessment, and meant to be easily employed by subject matter experts (SMEs) and non-SMEs alike. The generic scenario consists of a potential source moving past a detector at a relative velocity and with a distance of closest approach. Such a scenario is capable of describing, e.g., vehicles driving through portal monitors, border patrol scanning suspectedmore » illicit materials with a handheld instrument, and first responders with backpackor pager-based detectors (see Fig. 1). The backend library is prepopulated by the NDFOM developers to include sources and detectors of interest to DNDO and its community.« less

Improving the Capture of Fall Events in Hospitals: Combining a Service for Evaluating Inpatient Falls with an Incident Report System

PubMed Central

Shorr, Ronald I.; Mion, Lorraine C.; Chandler, A. Michelle; Rosenblatt, Linda C.; Lynch, Debra; Kessler, Lori A.

2008-01-01

OBJECTIVES To determine the utility of a fall evaluation service to improve the ascertainment of falls in acute care. DESIGN Six-month observational study. SETTING Sixteen adult nursing units (349 beds) in an urban, academically affiliated, community hospital. PARTICIPANTS Patients admitted to the study units during the study period. INTERVENTION Nursing staff identifying falls were instructed to notify, using a pager, a trained nurse ‘‘fall evaluator.’’ Fall evaluators provided 24-hour-per-day 7-day-per-week coverage throughout the study. Data on patient falls gathered by fall evaluators were compared with falls data obtained through the hospital’s incident reporting system. RESULTS During 51,180 patient-days of observation, 191 falls were identified according to incident reports (3.73 falls/1,000 patient-days), whereas the evaluation service identified 228 falls (4.45 falls/1,000 patient-days). Combining falls reported from both data sources yielded 266 falls (5.20 falls/1,000 patient-days), a 39% relative rate increase compared with incident reports alone (P<.001). For falls with injury, combining data from both sources yielded 79 falls (1.54 injurious falls/1,000 patient-days), compared with 57 falls (1.11 injurious falls/1,000 patient-days) filed in incident reports—a 28% increase (P = .06). In the 16 nursing units, the relative percentage increase of captured fall events using the combined data sources versus the incident reporting system alone ranged from 13% to 125%. CONCLUSION Incident reports significantly underestimate both injurious and noninjurious falls in acute care settings and should not be used as the sole source of data for research or quality improvement initiatives. PMID:18205761

The use of technology for urgent clinician to clinician communications: a systematic review of the literature.

PubMed

Nguyen, Cristina; McElroy, Lisa M; Abecassis, Michael M; Holl, Jane L; Ladner, Daniela P

2015-02-01

Urgent clinician-clinician communications require routes of contact that are fast and dependable, and allow for the exchange of complex information. Despite the increasing focus on improving healthcare delivery systems over the past decade, few studies have examined the role of technology in clinician-clinician communication. The aim of this study was to review the literature examining the role of devices and technology in facilitating urgent clinician-clinician communication to identify critical areas for future research. A search of Pub Med was performed using the terms (((("Critical Care"[Mesh] OR "urgent")))) AND (((hospital communication systems[MeSH Terms]) OR health communication[MeSH Terms]) OR interdisciplinary communication[MeSH Terms]). Commentaries and editorials were excluded. The initial search returned 272 articles, which were reviewed to identify articles describing: (1) the role of technological support or devices in clinician-clinician communication, (2) technology-based interventions that improved clinician-to-clinician communication in hospitals or acute care facilities related to critically ill patients, or (3) critical information exchange. A total of 16 articles were included in the final review. These were grouped into three categories: alphanumeric pagers, cellular and smart telephones, and novel uses of technology. Breakdowns in clinician-clinician communication are complex and cannot be solved through the implementation of devices or technologically advanced systems alone. It is essential to understand the correlation between emerging technologies, a demanding workload, and clinician-clinician interaction. Enhanced communication of clinical ideas, opportunities for team discussion, and a sense of partnership and support require not just increased information, but enhanced delivery. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Online guideline assist in intensive care medicine--is the login-authentication a sufficient trigger for reminders?

PubMed

Röhrig, Rainer; Meister, Markus; Michel-Backofen, Achim; Sedlmayr, Martin; Uphus, Dirk; Katzer, Christian; Rose, Thomas

2006-01-01

Rising cost pressure due to the implementation of the DRG-System and quality assurance lead to an increased use of therapy standards and standard operating procedures (SOPs) in intensive care medicine. The intention of the German Scientific Society supported project "OLGA" (Online Guideline Assist) is to develop a prototype of a knowledge based system supporting physicians of an intensive care unit in recognizing the indication for and selecting a specific guideline or SOP. While the response of the prototype on user entries can be displayed as a signal on the used workstation itself, the location and time for a reminder of scheduled or missed procedures or reactions to imported information is a difficult issue. One possible approach to this task is the display of non acknowledged reminders or recommendations while logging on to a system. The objective of this study is to analyse user behaviour of the physicians working on the surgical intensive care unit to decide whether the login authentication is a sufficient trigger for clinical reminding. The surgical intensive care unit examined in this study comprises 14 beds. Medical care is provided by physicians working in shifts 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with two anaesthetists at a time and an additional senior consultant during daytime. The entire documentation (examinations, medication, orders, care) is performed using the patient data management system ICUData. The authentication process of the physicians was logged and analysed. Throughout the observation period from December 13th 2005 to January 11th 2006 3563 physician logins were counted in total. The mean span between logins was in 11.3 minutes (SD 14.4), the median 7 minutes. The 75% centile was 14 minutes, the 95% centile 38 min. Intervals greater than 60 minutes occurred in 75%, and greater than 90 minutes in 25% of the days. It seems reasonable that reminders sent during authentication are able to enforce workflow compliance. It is possible to send notifications caused by external events to the physician depending on the importance of the event. Serious events with high urgency should be reliably passed using wireless pager or handheld technology. It seems that after the implementation of the prototype guideline assist further investigation is needed to monitor changes in authentication behaviour and reactions to the guideline advisory. This is also required to investigate the influence of unit's size, medical specialty and actual ward workload.

An automated DICOM database capable of arbitrary data mining (including radiation dose indicators) for quality monitoring.

PubMed

Wang, Shanshan; Pavlicek, William; Roberts, Catherine C; Langer, Steve G; Zhang, Muhong; Hu, Mengqi; Morin, Richard L; Schueler, Beth A; Wellnitz, Clinton V; Wu, Teresa

2011-04-01

The U.S. National Press has brought to full public discussion concerns regarding the use of medical radiation, specifically x-ray computed tomography (CT), in diagnosis. A need exists for developing methods whereby assurance is given that all diagnostic medical radiation use is properly prescribed, and all patients' radiation exposure is monitored. The "DICOM Index Tracker©" (DIT) transparently captures desired digital imaging and communications in medicine (DICOM) tags from CT, nuclear imaging equipment, and other DICOM devices across an enterprise. Its initial use is recording, monitoring, and providing automatic alerts to medical professionals of excursions beyond internally determined trigger action levels of radiation. A flexible knowledge base, aware of equipment in use, enables automatic alerts to system administrators of newly identified equipment models or software versions so that DIT can be adapted to the new equipment or software. A dosimetry module accepts mammography breast organ dose, skin air kerma values from XA modalities, exposure indices from computed radiography, etc. upon receipt. The American Association of Physicists in Medicine recommended a methodology for effective dose calculations which are performed with CT units having DICOM structured dose reports. Web interface reporting is provided for accessing the database in real-time. DIT is DICOM-compliant and, thus, is standardized for international comparisons. Automatic alerts currently in use include: email, cell phone text message, and internal pager text messaging. This system extends the utility of DICOM for standardizing the capturing and computing of radiation dose as well as other quality measures.

Influencing Anesthesia Provider Behavior Using Anesthesia Information Management System Data for Near Real-Time Alerts and Post Hoc Reports.

PubMed

Epstein, Richard H; Dexter, Franklin; Patel, Neil

2015-09-01

In this review article, we address issues related to using data from anesthesia information management systems (AIMS) to deliver near real-time alerts via AIMS workstation popups and/or alphanumeric pagers and post hoc reports via e-mail. We focus on reports and alerts for influencing the behavior of anesthesia providers (i.e., anesthesiologists, anesthesia residents, and nurse anesthetists). Multiple studies have shown that anesthesia clinical decision support (CDS) improves adherence to protocols and increases financial performance through facilitation of billing, regulatory, and compliance documentation; however, improved clinical outcomes have not been demonstrated. We inform developers and users of feedback systems about the multitude of concerns to consider during development and implementation of CDS to increase its effectiveness and to mitigate its potentially disruptive aspects. We discuss the timing and modalities used to deliver messages, implications of outlier-only versus individualized feedback, the need to consider possible unintended consequences of such feedback, regulations, sustainability, and portability among systems. We discuss statistical issues related to the appropriate evaluation of CDS efficacy. We provide a systematic review of the published literature (indexed in PubMed) of anesthesia CDS and offer 2 case studies of CDS interventions using AIMS data from our own institution illustrating the salient points. Because of the considerable expense and complexity of maintaining near real-time CDS systems, as compared with providing individual reports via e-mail after the fact, we suggest that if the same goal can be accomplished via delayed reporting versus immediate feedback, the former approach is preferable. Nevertheless, some processes require near real-time alerts to produce the desired improvement. Post hoc e-mail reporting from enterprise-wide electronic health record systems is straightforward and can be accomplished using system-independent pathways (e.g., via built-in e-mail support provided by the relational database management system). However, for some of these enterprise-wide systems, near real-time data access, necessary for CDS that generates concurrent alerts, has been challenging to implement.

Real-Time Science on Social Media: The Example of Twitter in the Minutes, Hours, Days after the 2015 M7.8 Nepal Earthquake

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lomax, A.; Bossu, R.; Mazet-Roux, G.

2015-12-01

Scientific information on disasters such as earthquakes typically comes firstly from official organizations, news reports and interviews with experts, and later from scientific presentations and peer-reviewed articles. With the advent of the Internet and social media, this information is available in real-time from automated systems and within a dynamic, collaborative interaction between scientific experts, responders and the public. After the 2015 M7.8 Nepal earthquake, Twitter Tweets from earth scientists* included information, analysis, commentary and discussion on earthquake parameters (location, size, mechanism, rupture extent, high-frequency radiation, …), earthquake effects (distribution of felt shaking and damage, triggered seismicity, landslides, …), earthquake rumors (e.g. the imminence of a larger event) and other earthquake information and observations (aftershock forecasts, statistics and maps, source and regional tectonics, seismograms, GPS, InSAR, photos/videos, …).In the future (while taking into account security, false or erroneous information and identity verification), collaborative, real-time science on social media after a disaster will give earlier and better scientific understanding and dissemination of public information, and enable improved emergency response and disaster management.* A sample of scientific Tweets after the 2015 Nepal earthquake: In the first minutes: "mb5.9 Mwp7.4 earthquake Nepal 2015.04.25-06:11:25UTC", "Major earthquake shakes Nepal 8 min ago", "Epicenter between Pokhara and Kathmandu", "Major earthquake shakes Nepal 18 min ago. Effects derived from witnesses' reports". In the first hour: "shallow thrust faulting to North under Himalayas", "a very large and shallow event ... Mw7.6-7.7", "aftershocks extend east and south of Kathmandu, so likely ruptured beneath city", "Valley-blocking landslides must be a very real worry". In the first day: "M7.8 earthquake in Nepal 2hr ago: destructive in Kathmandu Valley and widely felt in India", "USGS pager v.3 contains initial fatality & economic loss estimates", "analysis of seismic waves … shows fault rupture lasted 80 sec, shaking longer", "aftershocks suggests rupture zone, directivity and shaking intensity".

The Interplanetary Network II: 11 Months of Rapid, Precise GRB Localizations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hurley, K.; Cline, T.; Mazets, E.; Golenetskii, S.; Trombka, J.; Feroci, M.; Kippen, R. M.; Barthelmy, S.; Frontera, F.; Guidorzi, C.; Montanari, E.

2000-10-01

Since December 1999 the 3rd Interplanetary Network has been producing small ( 10') error boxes at a rate of about one per week, and circulating them rapidly ( 24 h) via the GCN. As of June 2000, 24 such error boxes have been obtained; 18 of them have been searched in the radio and optical ranges for counterparts, resulting in four definite counterpart detections and three redshift determinations. We will review these results and explain the some of the lesser known IPN operations. In particular, we maintain an "early warning" list of potential observers with pagers and cell phones, and send messages to them to alert them to bursts for which error boxes will be obtained, allowing them to prepare for observations many hours before the complete spacecraft data are received and the GCN message is issued. As an interesting aside, now that the CGRO mission is terminated, the IPN consists entirely of non-NASA and/or non-astrophysics missions, specifically, Ulysses and Wind (Space Physics), NEAR (Planetary Physics), and BeppoSAX (ASI).

Spacecraft operations automation: Automatic alarm notification and web telemetry display

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Short, Owen G.; Leonard, Robert E.; Bucher, Allen W.; Allen, Bryan

1999-11-01

In these times of Faster, Better, Cheaper (FBC) spacecraft, Spacecraft Operations Automation is an area that is targeted by many Operations Teams. To meet the challenges of the FBC environment, the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Operations Team designed and quickly implemented two new low-cost technologies: one which monitors spacecraft telemetry, checks the status of the telemetry, and contacts technical experts by pager when any telemetry datapoints exceed alarm limits, and a second which allows quick and convenient remote access to data displays. The first new technology is Automatic Alarm Notification (AAN). AAN monitors spacecraft telemetry and will notify engineers automatically if any telemetry is received which creates an alarm condition. The second new technology is Web Telemetry Display (WTD). WTD captures telemetry displays generated by the flight telemetry system and makes them available to the project web server. This allows engineers to check the health and status of the spacecraft from any computer capable of connecting to the global internet, without needing normally-required specialized hardware and software. Both of these technologies have greatly reduced operations costs by alleviating the need to have operations engineers monitor spacecraft performance on a 24 hour per day, 7 day per week basis from a central Mission Support Area. This paper gives details on the design and implementation of AAN and WTD, discusses their limitations, and lists the ongoing benefits which have accrued to MGS Flight Operations since their implementation in late 1996.

An investigation of two-way text messaging use with deaf students at the secondary level.

PubMed

Akamatsu, C Tane; Mayer, Connie; Farrelly, Shona

2006-01-01

Deaf and hard-of-hearing students are often delayed in developing their independent living skills because of parental restrictions on activities outside the home due to worries about their child's inability to communicate, their whereabouts, and their general safety. Recent accounts of the use of two-way text messagers suggests that, like electronic mail, distance communication problems that have long plagued deaf people may be ameliorated--by the use of such technology (M. R. Power & D. Power, 2004; S. S. Rhone & Cox News Service, 2002). This project was designed as an initial foray into investigating the use of two-way text messaging technology as a way of increasing the independence of deaf adolescents and reducing their parents' anxiety about their safety and responsibility. All the deaf and hard-of-hearing students in the deaf and hard-of-hearing programs at two urban high schools (ages 13-19), the staff of the deaf departments at these two schools, and the parents/guardians of the students participated in this study. Preuse surveys, postuse surveys, and monthly statistics on the number of times each pager was used enabled us to chart how often the participants used the technology. The data were used to identify concerns that parents have about student independence and safety, the extent to which deaf students engage in independent activities, and expectations surrounding how two-way text messaging use might increase independence and literacy skills. The data collected on this project to date confirm that two-way text messaging technology is indeed useful for deaf adolescents and helps alleviate some of the concerns that have kept them from developing independence as quickly or readily as their hearing peers. The potential policy implications for this research are discussed.

Amateur-Professional Collaborations in the AAVSO

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hawkins, G.; Mattei, J. A.; Waagen, E. O.

2000-05-01

The AAVSO coordinates, collects, evaluates, and archives variable star observations made largely by amateur astronomers around the world, and publishes and disseminates these observations to researchers and educators worldwide. Its electronic database of nearly 10 million visual variable star observations contributed by 6,000 amateur astronomers in over 40 countries since 1911 is the world's largest and longest-running. The AAVSO has a long history of collaborations between its amateur astronomer observers and professional astronomers. Many of the over 275 requests received yearly from astronomers for AAVSO data and services result in collaborative projects - particularly in multiwavelength observations of variable stars using ground-based telescopes and/or satellites - to help schedule observing runs; provide sumultaneous optical coverage of observing targets and immediate notification of their activity during particular satellite observations; correlate multiwavelength data; and analyze long-term variable star behavior. Among the more dramatic collaborations AAVSO observers have participated in are numerous multi-satellite observing runs on specific variable stars triggered in response to real-time alerts to stellar activity from AAVSO observers; and the variable star observations made during the Astro-2 mission, in which real-time observations by AAVSO observers directed shuttle astronauts to observing targets, and resulted in seminal new information about the cataclysmic variable Z Camelopardalis. The AAVSO is embarking on an exciting new collaboration with Gamma-Ray astronomers at NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center. The AAVSO and the MSFC Gamma-Ray Burst Team have established a Gamma-Ray Burst Network, in which participating AAVSO observers will be alerted immediately via pagers and email to the detection of gamma-ray bursts and will use their own CCD-equipped telescopes to search for the optical counterpart. We gratefully acknowledge partial funding of this network by NASA. Contact the AAVSO at aavso@aavso.org or http://www.aavso.org.

Physicians interrupted by mobile devices in hospitals: understanding the interaction between devices, roles, and duties.

PubMed

Solvoll, Terje; Scholl, Jeremiah; Hartvigsen, Gunnar

2013-03-07

A common denominator of modern hospitals is a variety of communication problems. In particular, interruptions from mobile communication devices are a cause of great concern for many physicians. To characterize how interruptions from mobile devices disturb physicians in their daily work. The gathered knowledge will be subsequently used as input for the design and development of a context-sensitive communication system for mobile communications suitable for hospitals. This study adheres to an ethnographic and interpretive field research approach. The data gathering consisted of participant observations, non-structured and mostly ad hoc interviews, and open-ended discussions with a selected group of physicians. Eleven physicians were observed for a total of 135 hours during May and June 2009. The study demonstrates to what degree physicians are interrupted by mobile devices in their daily work and in which situations they are interrupted, such as surgery, examinations, and during patients/relatives high-importance level conversations. The participants in the study expected, and also indicated, that wireless phones probably led to more interruptions immediately after their introduction in a clinic, when compared to a pager, but this changed after a short while. The unpleasant feeling experienced by the caller when interrupting someone by calling them differs compared to sending a page message, which leaves it up to the receiver when to return the call. Mobile devices, which frequently interrupt physicians in hospitals, are a problem for both physicians and patients. The results from this study contribute to knowledge being used as input for designing and developing a prototype for a context-sensitive communication system for mobile communication suitable for hospitals. We combined these findings with results from earlier studies and also involved actual users to develop the prototype, CallMeSmart. This system intends to reduce such interruptions and at the same time minimize the number of communication devices needed per user.

Ground-penetrating radar: use and misuse

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Olhoeft, Gary R.

1999-10-01

Ground penetrating radar (GPR) has been used to explore the subsurface of the earth since 1929. Over the past 70 years, it has been widely used, misused and abused. Use includes agriculture, archaeology, environmental and geotechnical site characterization, minerals, groundwater and permafrost exploration, tunnel, utility, and unexploded ordnance location, dam inspection, and much more. Misuse includes mistaking above ground reflections for subsurface events or mapping things from off to the side as if they were directly below, synthetic aperture processing of dispersive data, minimum phase deconvolution, locating objects smaller than resolution limits of the wavelength in the ground, ignoring Fresnel zone limitations in mapping subsurface structure, processing radar data through seismic software packages without allowing for the differences, mapping the bottom of metal pipes from the top, claiming to see through thousands of feet of sediments, and more. GPR is also being abused as the regulatory environment changes and the radiofrequency spectrum is becoming more crowded by cellular phones, pagers, garage door openers, wireless computer networks, and the like. It is often thought to be a source of interference (though it never is) and it is increasingly interfered with by other radiofrequency transmitters.

ShakeMap Atlas 2.0: an improved suite of recent historical earthquake ShakeMaps for global hazard analyses and loss model calibration

USGS Publications Warehouse

Garcia, D.; Mah, R.T.; Johnson, K.L.; Hearne, M.G.; Marano, K.D.; Lin, K.-W.; Wald, D.J.

2012-01-01

We introduce the second version of the U.S. Geological Survey ShakeMap Atlas, which is an openly-available compilation of nearly 8,000 ShakeMaps of the most significant global earthquakes between 1973 and 2011. This revision of the Atlas includes: (1) a new version of the ShakeMap software that improves data usage and uncertainty estimations; (2) an updated earthquake source catalogue that includes regional locations and finite fault models; (3) a refined strategy to select prediction and conversion equations based on a new seismotectonic regionalization scheme; and (4) vastly more macroseismic intensity and ground-motion data from regional agencies All these changes make the new Atlas a self-consistent, calibrated ShakeMap catalogue that constitutes an invaluable resource for investigating near-source strong ground-motion, as well as for seismic hazard, scenario, risk, and loss-model development. To this end, the Atlas will provide a hazard base layer for PAGER loss calibration and for the Earthquake Consequences Database within the Global Earthquake Model initiative.

The evolution and impact of PCS technology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lawson, John R.

1994-09-01

In today's mobile society, communications services that focus on location (wired) are increasingly inadequate. But services that center around the individual (wireless) are being developed to serve society in a way that only recently could consumers have imagined. People-oriented communications tools will make life simpler and more productive. The essence of this concept is captured in a family of wireless services and devices that allow the user to communicate independent of location--Personal Communications Services, known as PCS. First generation PCS devices such a pagers and cellular phones were the instruments of the first wireless revolution, but they will soon be forced to relinquish the spotlight to the new generation of PCS and what should be a dazzling variety of individualized advanced telecommunications services and devices. Within the next two years, these new PCS models, recently described as 'the most exciting development in telecommunications since the breakup of AT&T,' should hit the marketplace, changing the way we communicate and, in turn, the way we live. This paper explores the status and likely development of PCS generally, including 'new PCS.'

The Wearable Poster: What all the Cool Kids will be Doing Next Fall

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moore, W. B.

2004-12-01

One of the primary drawbacks to giving a poster is that if you do everything right and present an exciting and interesting idea, you get stuck standing at your poster discussing it the entire session and you miss everything else that's going on. But the poster concept lends itself easily to being transported. From a low-tech solution such as a sandwich-board, to laptop based solutions, concepts that free the presenter from being stuck in one place will be presented and demonstrated. One potential problem of freeing the presenter from a fixed location is actually locating the presentations you want to see. Solutions to this include pager-based hotlists, wi-fi localization techniques, and the simpler ``I will be at this place at this time'' solution currently in use. By allowing the presentation to move with the presenter, interactions will be freer and more spontaneous, information will be more readily shared, and the poster ``session'' will become a dynamic exchange that goes on throughout the meeting, whenever two people with common interests run into each other.

Integrating landslide and liquefaction hazard and loss estimates with existing USGS real-time earthquake information products

USGS Publications Warehouse

Allstadt, Kate E.; Thompson, Eric M.; Hearne, Mike; Nowicki Jessee, M. Anna; Zhu, J.; Wald, David J.; Tanyas, Hakan

2017-01-01

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has made significant progress toward the rapid estimation of shaking and shakingrelated losses through their Did You Feel It? (DYFI), ShakeMap, ShakeCast, and PAGER products. However, quantitative estimates of the extent and severity of secondary hazards (e.g., landsliding, liquefaction) are not currently included in scenarios and real-time post-earthquake products despite their significant contributions to hazard and losses for many events worldwide. We are currently running parallel global statistical models for landslides and liquefaction developed with our collaborators in testing mode, but much work remains in order to operationalize these systems. We are expanding our efforts in this area by not only improving the existing statistical models, but also by (1) exploring more sophisticated, physics-based models where feasible; (2) incorporating uncertainties; and (3) identifying and undertaking research and product development to provide useful landslide and liquefaction estimates and their uncertainties. Although our existing models use standard predictor variables that are accessible globally or regionally, including peak ground motions, topographic slope, and distance to water bodies, we continue to explore readily available proxies for rock and soil strength as well as other susceptibility terms. This work is based on the foundation of an expanding, openly available, case-history database we are compiling along with historical ShakeMaps for each event. The expected outcome of our efforts is a robust set of real-time secondary hazards products that meet the needs of a wide variety of earthquake information users. We describe the available datasets and models, developments currently underway, and anticipated products. 

Designing an autonomous environment for mission critical operation of the EUVE satellite

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Abedini, Annadiana; Malina, Roger F.

1994-01-01

Since the launch of NASA's Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (EUVE) satellite in 1992, there has only been a handful of occurrences that have warranted manual intervention in the EUVE Science Operations Center (ESOC). So, in an effort to reduce costs, the current environment is being redesigned to utilize a combination of off-the-shelf packages and recently developed artificial intelligence (AI) software to automate the monitoring of the science payload and ground systems. The successful implementation of systemic automation would allow the ESOC to evolve from a seven day/week, three shift operation, to a seven day/week one shift operation. First, it was necessary to identify all areas considered mission critical. These were defined as follows: (1) The telemetry stream must be monitored autonomously and anomalies identified. (2) Duty personnel must be automatically paged and informed of the occurrence of an anomaly. (3) The 'basic' state of the ground system must be assessed. (4) Monitors should check that the systems and processes needed to continue in a 'healthy' operational mode are working at all times. (5) Network loads should be monitored to ensure that they stay within established limits. (6) Connectivity to Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) systems should be monitored as well, not just for connectivity of the network itself but also for the ability to transfer files. (7) All necessary peripheral devices should be monitored. This would include the disks, routers, tape drives, printers, tape carousel, and power supplies. (8) System daemons such as the archival daemon, the Sybase server, the payload monitoring software, and any other necessary processes should be monitored to ensure that they are operational. (9) The monitoring system needs to be redundant so that the failure of a single machine will not paralyze the monitors. (10) Notification should be done by means of looking though a table of the pager numbers for current 'on call' personnel. The software should be capable of dialing out to notify, sending email, and producing error logs. (11) The system should have knowledge of when real-time passes and tape recorder dumps will occur and should know that these passes and data transmissions are successful. Once the design criteria were established, the design team split into two groups: one that addressed the tracking, commanding, and health and safety of the science payload and another group that addressed the ground systems and communications aspects of the overall system.

Information and communication technologies for adherence to antiretroviral treatment in adults with HIV/AIDS.

PubMed

Lima, Ivana Cristina Vieira de; Galvão, Marli Teresinha Gimeniz; Alexandre, Herta de Oliveira; Lima, Francisca Elisângela Teixeira; Araújo, Thelma Leite de

2016-08-01

Information and communication technologies support interventions directed at the prevention of HIV transmission and patient monitoring by promoting improved accessibility and quality of care. To evaluate the efficacy of information and communication technologies in the adherence to antiretroviral treatment in adults with HIV/AIDS. Systematic review conducted from March to May of 2015 in three databases-the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL); the Latin-American and Caribbean Literature in Health Sciences (LILACS/BIREME) and SCOPUS; and the Cochrane library and the Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online portal (MEDLINE/PubMed). The sample consisted of nine randomized clinical trials based on the use of information and communication technologies for adherence to antiretroviral treatment in adults with HIV/AIDS. Three studies analysed the use of a short message service - SMS - two phone calls, two alarm devices, one web-enabled Hand-held device and one web electronic intervention. Improvements in the levels of adherence in the group subjected to the intervention were identified in seven studies. The phone was the type of information and communication technology with proven efficacy with respect to adherence. It was used to make calls, as well as to send alert messages and reminders about taking medications. Pagers were not considered to be effective regarding adherence to antiretroviral therapy. The integrated use of information and communication technologies with standard care promotes increased access to care, strengthening the relationship between patients and health services, with the possibility of mitigating the difficulties experienced by people with HIV in achieving optimal levels of adherence to drug therapy. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Implications of resolved hypoxemia on the utility of desaturation alerts sent from an anesthesia decision support system to supervising anesthesiologists.

PubMed

Epstein, Richard H; Dexter, Franklin

2012-10-01

Hypoxemia (oxygen saturation <90%) lasting 2 or more minutes occurs in 6.8% of adult patients undergoing noncardiac anesthesia in operating room settings. Alarm management functionality can be added to decision support systems (DSS) to send text alerts about vital signs outside specified thresholds, using data in anesthesia information management systems. We considered enhancing our DSS to send hypoxemia alerts to the text pagers of supervising anesthesiologists. As part of a voluntary application for an investigative device exemption from our IRB to implement such functionality, we evaluated the maximum potential utility of such an alert system. Pulse oximetry values (Spo(2)) were extracted from our anesthesia information management systems for all cases performed in our main operating rooms and ambulatory surgical center between September 1, 2011, and February 4, 2012 (n = 16,870). Hypoxemic episodes (Spo(2) < 90%) were characterized as either (a) lasting one or more minutes or (b) lasting 2 or more minutes. A single simulated "alert" was modeled as having been sent at the timestamp of the first (a) or the second (b) hypoxemic value. The hypoxemic episode was considered resolved at 1, 3, or 5 minutes after the time of the alert if the Spo(2) value was no longer below the 90% threshold. Two-sided 99% conservative confidence limits were calculated for the percentage of unresolved alerts at the 3 evaluation intervals and compared with 70%, the lower limit of an acceptable true alarm rate for clinical utility. There was at least 1 hypoxemic episode lasting 1 minute or longer in 23% of cases, and at least 1 episode lasting 2 minutes or longer in 8% of cases. Only 7% (99% confidence interval [CI] 6% to 8%) of the 1-minute hypoxemic episodes were unresolved after 3 minutes, and only 8% (99% CI 6%to 9%) of 2-minute episodes after 5 minutes (both P < 10(-6) in comparison with 70% minimum reliability rate). Low utility should be expected for a DSS sending hypoxemia alerts to supervising anesthesiologists, because nearly all hypoxemic episodes will have been resolved before arrival of the anesthesiologist in the operating room. These results suggest that the principal research focus should be on developing more sophisticated alerts and processes within rooms for the anesthesia care provider to initiate treatment promptly, to interpret or correct artifacts, and to make it easier to call for assistance via a rapid communication system.

Use of computer decision support in an antimicrobial stewardship program (ASP).

PubMed

Evans, R S; Olson, J A; Stenehjem, E; Buckel, W R; Thorell, E A; Howe, S; Wu, X; Jones, P S; Lloyd, J F

2015-01-01

Document information needs, gaps within the current electronic applications and reports, and workflow interruptions requiring manual information searches that decreased the ability of our antimicrobial stewardship program (ASP) at Intermountain Healthcare (IH) to prospectively audit and provide feedback to clinicians to improve antimicrobial use. A framework was used to provide access to patient information contained in the electronic medical record, the enterprise-wide data warehouse, the data-driven alert file and the enterprise-wide encounter file to generate alerts and reports via pagers, emails and through the Centers for Diseases and Control's National Healthcare Surveillance Network. Four new applications were developed and used by ASPs at Intermountain Medical Center (IMC) and Primary Children's Hospital (PCH) based on the design and input from the pharmacists and infectious diseases physicians and the new Center for Diseases Control and Prevention/National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) antibiotic utilization specifications. Data from IMC and PCH now show a general decrease in the use of drugs initially targeted by the ASP at both facilities. To be effective, ASPs need an enormous amount of "timely" information. Members of the ASP at IH report these new applications help them improve antibiotic use by allowing efficient, timely review and effective prioritization of patients receiving antimicrobials in order to optimize patient care.

Communication latencies of wireless devices suitable for time-critical messaging to anesthesia providers.

PubMed

Epstein, Richard H; Dexter, Franklin; Rothman, Brian

2013-04-01

Rapid and reliable methods of text communication to mobile anesthesia care providers are important to patient care and to efficient operating room management. Anesthesia departments are implementing automated methods to send text messages to mobile devices for abnormal vital signs, clinical recommendations, quality of care, and compliance or billing issues. The most time-critical communications determine maximum acceptable latencies. We studied the reliability of several alphanumeric messaging systems to identify an appropriate technology for such use. Latencies between message initiation and delivery to 3 alphanumeric paging devices were measured over weeks. Two devices used Internet pathways outside the hospital's local network with an external paging vendor (SkyTel). The third device used only the internal hospital network (Zetron). Sequential cell phone text page latencies were examined for lag-1 autocorrelation using the runs test, with results binned by hour and by day. Message latencies subsequently were batched in successive 1-week bins for calculation of the mean and 99th percentiles of latencies. We defined acceptance criteria as a mean latency <30 seconds and no more than 1 in 200 pages (0.5%) having a latency longer than 100 seconds. Cell phone texting was used as a positive control to assure that the analysis was appropriate, because such devices have (known) poor reliability during high network activity. There was substantial correlation among latencies for sequential cell phone text messages when binned by hours (P < 0.0001), but not by days (P = 0.61). The 2 devices using Internet pathways outside the hospital's network demonstrated unacceptable performance, with 1.3% and 33% of latencies exceeding 100 seconds, respectively. The device dependent only on the internal network had a mean latency of 8 seconds, with 100% of 40,200 pages having latencies <100 seconds. The findings suggest that the network used was the deciding factor. Developers of anesthesia communication systems need to measure latencies of proposed communication pathways and devices used to deliver urgent messages to mobile users. Similar evaluation is relevant for text pagers used on an ad hoc basis for delivery of time-critical notifications. Testing over a period of hours to days is adequate only for disqualification of a candidate paging system, because acceptable results are not necessarily indicative of long-term performance. Rather, weeks of testing are required, with appropriate batching of pages for analysis.

Emergency medical care for spectators attending National Football League games.

PubMed

Roberts, D M; Blackwell, T H; Marx, J A

1997-01-01

To analyze medical care facilities and resources available for spectators attending football games in the current National Football League (NFL) stadiums. A prospective, structured questionnaire regarding facilities, transportation, medications and equipment, personnel configuration, compensation, and communications was mailed to all 28 NFL organizations. Those falling to respond were interviewed by telephone using the identical questionnaire. Data were compiled using Lotus 1-2-3. Data were collected from all 28 NFL organizations. Because two teams use the same stadium, results were calculated for 27 facilities (n = 27). The number of stadium first aid rooms ranges from 1 to 7, with an average of 2.4 +/- 1.3 rooms per stadium (+/- 1 SD) and these vary in size from 120 to 2,000 square feet, with a mean of 434 +/- 377 square feet. Each room is equipped with an average of 3.3 +/- 2.9 stretchers (or tables), with telephones being present in 91% and sinks in 88% of all rooms. To provide contractual EMS coverage, stadiums use standard EMS system designs, including private (n = 19), fire department-based (n = 7), municipal (city/county) (n = 5), volunteer (n = 4), and hospital (n = 3). Nine stadiums employ more than one type of provider. All stadiums have a minimum of one ambulance dedicated on-site for spectators, with a range of 1 to 7, and a mean of 2.9 +/- 1.4. Golf carts are used for intrafacility patient transportation in 17 stadiums, with a range of 1 to 6, and a mean of 2.5 +/- 1.3. Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) medications and equipment are present in all NFL stadiums and are provided by the private EMS company (n = 16), stadium (n = 10), fire EMS (n = 7), hospitals (n = 4), municipal EMS (n = 2), and the local NFL organization (n = 1). Several facilities have more than one provider of ACLS medications and equipment. The majority of stadiums dispense acetaminophen (n = 25) and aspirin (n = 24). Some dispense antacids (n = 7) and antihistamines (n = 6). The average stadium staffs 8 EMT-Bs, 7 EMT-Ps, 3 registered nurses, and 2 physicians. Nine stadiums pay a predesignated fee per game to an agency to provide emergency care to spectators. Medical personnel are compensated by an hourly rate (n = 15), a fixed rate per event (n = 9), overtime wages (n = 3), or volunteerism (n = 4). Four NFL organizations pay their medical personnel by more than one type of compensation. Courtesy seats are provided to physicians and nurses in 1 stadium and to just physicians in 8 stadiums, with a range of 2 to 6 and a mean of 3.3 +/- 1.3. All stadiums use two-way radios for the communication and coordination of medical care in the stadium. Additionally, 20 use fixed telephones in the first aid rooms, 3 use cellular telephones, and 2 incorporate a pager system to dispatch personnel within the stadium. A wide variety of system designs, facilities, and personnel configurations are used to provide emergency medical care for spectators attending NFL games. This information may be useful for assisting those individuals responsible for organizing stadium medical coverage.

Oxygen-Partial-Pressure Sensor for Aircraft Oxygen Mask

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kelly, Mark; Pettit, Donald

2003-01-01

A device that generates an alarm when the partial pressure of oxygen decreases to less than a preset level has been developed to help prevent hypoxia in a pilot or other crewmember of a military or other high-performance aircraft. Loss of oxygen partial pressure can be caused by poor fit of the mask or failure of a hose or other component of an oxygen distribution system. The deleterious physical and mental effects of hypoxia cause the loss of a military aircraft and crew every few years. The device is installed in the crewmember s oxygen mask and is powered via communication wiring already present in all such oxygen masks. The device (see figure) includes an electrochemical sensor, the output potential of which is proportional to the partial pressure of oxygen. The output of the sensor is amplified and fed to the input of a comparator circuit. A reference potential that corresponds to the amplified sensor output at the alarm oxygen-partial-pressure level is fed to the second input of the comparator. When the sensed partial pressure of oxygen falls below the minimum acceptable level, the output of the comparator goes from the low state (a few millivolts) to the high state (near the supply potential, which is typically 6.8 V for microphone power). The switching of the comparator output to the high state triggers a tactile alarm in the form of a vibration in the mask, generated by a small 1.3-Vdc pager motor spinning an eccentric mass at a rate between 8,000 and 10,000 rpm. The sensation of the mask vibrating against the crewmember s nose is very effective at alerting the crewmember, who may already be groggy from hypoxia and is immersed in an environment that is saturated with visual cues and sounds. Indeed, the sensation is one of rudeness, but such rudeness could be what is needed to stimulate the crewmember to take corrective action in a life-threatening situation.

GEM Building Taxonomy (Version 2.0)

USGS Publications Warehouse

Brzev, S.; Scawthorn, C.; Charleson, A.W.; Allen, L.; Greene, M.; Jaiswal, Kishor; Silva, V.

2013-01-01

/7/8/IRRE9/10/RSH3+RWO211/FW12/13/ which can be read as (1) Direction = [DX or DY] (the building has the same lateral load-resisting system in both directions); (2) Material = [Unreinforced Masonry + solid fired clay bricks + cement: lime mortar]; (3) Lateral Load-Resisting System = [Wall]; (4) Date of construction = [pre-1939]; (5) Heaight = [exactly 2 storeys]; (6) Occupancy = [residential, unknown type]; (7) Building Position = [unknown = no entry]; (8) Shape of building plan = [unknown = no entry]; (9) Structural irregularity = [regular]; (10) Exterior walls = [unknown = no entry]; (11) Roof = [Shape: pitched and hipped, Roof covering: clay tiles, Roof system material: wood, Roof system type: wood trusses]; (12) Floor = [Floor system: Wood, unknown]; (13) Foundation = [unknown = no entry]. Mapping of GEM Building Taxonomy to selected taxonomies is included in the report -- for example, the above building would be referenced by previous structural taxonomies as: PAGER-STR as UFB or UFB4, by the World Housing Encyclopedia as 7 or 8 and by the European Macroseismic Scale (98) as M5. The Building Taxonomy data model is highly flexible and has been incorporated within a relational database architecture. Due to its ability to represent building typologies using a shorthand form, it is also possible to use the taxonomy for non-database applications, and we discuss possible application of adaptation for Building Information Modelling (BIM) systems, and for the insurance industry. The GEM Building Taxonomy was independently evaluated and tested by the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI), which received 217 TaxT reports from 49 countries, representing a wide range of building typologies, including single and multi-storey buildings, reinforced and unreinforced masonry, confined masonry, concrete, steel, wood, and earthern buildings used for residential, commercial, industrial, and educational occupancy. Based on these submissions and other feedback, the EERI team validated that the GEM Building Taxonomy is highly functional, robust and able to describe different buildings around the world. The GEM Building Taxonomy is accompanied by supplementary resources. All terms have been explained in a companion online Glossary, which provides both text and graphic descriptions. The Taxonomy is accompanied by TaxT, a computer application that enables a user record information about a building or a building typology using the attributes of the GEM Building Taxonomy v2.0. TaxT can generate a taxonomy string and enable a user to generate a report in PDF format which summarizes the attribute values (s)he has chosen as representative of the building typology under consideration. The report concludes with recommendations for future development of the GEM Building Taxonomy. Appendices provide the detailed GEM Building Taxonomy tables and additional resource, as well as mappings to other taxonomies.

USGS approach to real-time estimation of earthquake-triggered ground failure - Results of 2015 workshop

USGS Publications Warehouse

Allstadt, Kate E.; Thompson, Eric M.; Wald, David J.; Hamburger, Michael W.; Godt, Jonathan W.; Knudsen, Keith L.; Jibson, Randall W.; Jessee, M. Anna; Zhu, Jing; Hearne, Michael; Baise, Laurie G.; Tanyas, Hakan; Marano, Kristin D.

2016-03-30

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Earthquake Hazards and Landslide Hazards Programs are developing plans to add quantitative hazard assessments of earthquake-triggered landsliding and liquefaction to existing real-time earthquake products (ShakeMap, ShakeCast, PAGER) using open and readily available methodologies and products. To date, prototype global statistical models have been developed and are being refined, improved, and tested. These models are a good foundation, but much work remains to achieve robust and defensible models that meet the needs of end users. In order to establish an implementation plan and identify research priorities, the USGS convened a workshop in Golden, Colorado, in October 2015. This document summarizes current (as of early 2016) capabilities, research and operational priorities, and plans for further studies that were established at this workshop. Specific priorities established during the meeting include (1) developing a suite of alternative models; (2) making use of higher resolution and higher quality data where possible; (3) incorporating newer global and regional datasets and inventories; (4) reducing barriers to accessing inventory datasets; (5) developing methods for using inconsistent or incomplete datasets in aggregate; (6) developing standardized model testing and evaluation methods; (7) improving ShakeMap shaking estimates, particularly as relevant to ground failure, such as including topographic amplification and accounting for spatial variability; and (8) developing vulnerability functions for loss estimates.

An Efficient Rapid Warning System For Earthquakes In The European-mediterranean Region

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bossu, R.; Mazet-Roux, G.; di Giovambattista, R.; Tome, M.

Every year a few damaging earthquakes occur in the European-Mediterranean region. It is therefore indispensable to operate a real-time warning system in order to pro- vide rapidly reliable estimates of the location, depth and magnitude of these seismic events. In order to provide this information in a timely manner both to the scientific community and to the European and national authorities dealing with natural hazards and relief organisation, the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) has federated a network of seismic networks exchanging their data in quasi real-time. Today, thanks to the Internet, the EMSC receives real-time information about earth- quakes from about thirty seismological institutes. As soon as data reach the EMSC, they are displayed on the EMSC Web pages (www.emsc-csem.org). A seismic alert is generated for any potentially damaging earthquake in the European-Mediterranean re- gion, potentially damaging earthquakes being defined as seismic events of magnitude 5 or more. The warning system automatically issues a message to the duty seismolo- gist mobile phone and pager. The seismologist log in to the EMSC computers using a laptop PC and relocates the earthquake by processing together all information pro- vided by the networks. The new location and magnitude are then send, by fax, telex, and email, within one hour following the earthquake occurrence, to national and inter- national organisations whose activities are related to seismic risks, and to the EMSC members. The EMSC rapid warning system has been fully operational for more than 4 years. Its distributed architecture has proved to be an efficient and reliable way for the monitoring of potentially damaging earthquakes. Furthermore, if a major problem disrupts the operational system more than 30 minutes, the duty is taken, over either by the Instituto Geografico National in Spain or by the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica in Italy. The EMSC operational centre, located at the premises of CEA / DASE in Bruyères le Châtel (France) operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Although EMSC focuses on the European-Mediterranean region, the rest of the world is monitored, but for increasing magnitudes as the distance from this region increases. It generates between 70 to 100 warning messages each year. The utility of this EMSC service is clearly demonstrated by its following among the public : EMSC email dissemination list has been subscribed by about 200 institutions or individuals and there have been, for example, more than 800 connections to our Web site in the 48 hours following 1 the M5.8 earthquake of the Aegean Sea (27/07/2001, alert sent 47 minutes after its occurrence). 2

Leveraging geodetic data to reduce losses from earthquakes

USGS Publications Warehouse

Murray, Jessica R.; Roeloffs, Evelyn A.; Brooks, Benjamin A.; Langbein, John O.; Leith, William S.; Minson, Sarah E.; Svarc, Jerry L.; Thatcher, Wayne R.

2018-04-23

Seismic hazard assessments that are based on a variety of data and the best available science, coupled with rapid synthesis of real-time information from continuous monitoring networks to guide post-earthquake response, form a solid foundation for effective earthquake loss reduction. With this in mind, the Earthquake Hazards Program (EHP) of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Natural Hazards Mission Area (NHMA) engages in a variety of undertakings, both established and emergent, in order to provide high quality products that enable stakeholders to take action in advance of and in response to earthquakes. Examples include the National Seismic Hazard Model (NSHM), development of tools for improved situational awareness such as earthquake early warning (EEW) and operational earthquake forecasting (OEF), research about induced seismicity, and new efforts to advance comprehensive subduction zone science and monitoring. Geodetic observations provide unique and complementary information directly relevant to advancing many aspects of these efforts (fig. 1). EHP scientists have long leveraged geodetic data for a range of influential studies, and they continue to develop innovative observation and analysis methods that push the boundaries of the field of geodesy as applied to natural hazards research. Given the ongoing, rapid improvement in availability, variety, and precision of geodetic measurements, considering ways to fully utilize this observational resource for earthquake loss reduction is timely and essential. This report presents strategies, and the underlying scientific rationale, by which the EHP could achieve the following outcomes: The EHP is an authoritative source for the interpretation of geodetic data and its use for earthquake loss reduction throughout the United States and its territories.The USGS consistently provides timely, high quality geodetic data to stakeholders.Significant earthquakes are better characterized by incorporating geodetic data into USGS event response products and by expanded use of geodetic imaging data to assess fault rupture and source parameters.Uncertainties in the NSHM, and in regional earthquake models, are reduced by fully incorporating geodetic data into earthquake probability calculations.Geodetic networks and data are integrated into the operations and earthquake information products of the Advanced National Seismic System (ANSS).Earthquake early warnings are improved by more rapidly assessing ground displacement and the dynamic faulting process for the largest earthquakes using real-time geodetic data.Methodology for probabilistic earthquake forecasting is refined by including geodetic data when calculating evolving moment release during aftershock sequences and by better understanding the implications of transient deformation for earthquake likelihood.A geodesy program that encompasses a balanced mix of activities to sustain missioncritical capabilities, grows new competencies through the continuum of fundamental to applied research, and ensures sufficient resources for these endeavors provides a foundation by which the EHP can be a leader in the application of geodesy to earthquake science. With this in mind the following objectives provide a framework to guide EHP efforts:Fully utilize geodetic information to improve key products, such as the NSHM and EEW, and to address new ventures like the USGS Subduction Zone Science Plan.Expand the variety, accuracy, and timeliness of post-earthquake information products, such as PAGER (Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response), through incorporation of geodetic observations.Determine if geodetic measurements of transient deformation can significantly improve estimates of earthquake probability.Maintain an observational strategy aligned with the target outcomes of this document that includes continuous monitoring, recording of ephemeral observations, focused data collection for use in research, and application-driven data processing and analysis systems.Collaborate on research, development, and operation of affordable, high-precision seafloor geodetic methods that improve earthquake forecasting and event response.Advance computational techniques and instrumentation to enable use of strategies like repeat-pass imagery and low-cost geodetic sensors for earthquake response, monitoring, and research.Engage stakeholders and collaborate with partner institutions to foster operational and research objectives and to safeguard the continued health of geodetic infrastructure upon which we mutually depend.Maintaining a vibrant internal research program provides the foundation by which the EHP can remain an effective and trusted source for earthquake science. Exploiting abundant new data sources, evaluating and assimilating the latest science, and pursuing novel avenues of investigation are means to fulfilling the EHP’s core responsibilities and realizing the important scientific advances envisioned by its scientists. Central to the success of such a research program is engaging personnel with a breadth of competencies and a willingness and ability to adapt these to the program’s evolving priorities, enabling current staff to expand their skills and responsibilities, and planning holistically to meet shared workforce needs. In parallel, collaboration with external partners to support scientific investigations that complement ongoing internal research enables the EHP to strengthen earthquake information products by incorporating alternative perspectives and approaches and to study topics and geographic regions that cannot be adequately covered internally.With commensurate support from technical staff who possess diverse skills, including engineering, information technology, and proficiency in quantitative analysis combined with basic geophysical knowledge, the EHP can achieve the geodetic outcomes identified in this document.

Effects of major depression on moment-in-time work performance.

PubMed

Wang, Philip S; Beck, Arne L; Berglund, Pat; McKenas, David K; Pronk, Nicolaas P; Simon, Gregory E; Kessler, Ronald C

2004-10-01

Although major depression is thought to have substantial negative effects on work performance, the possibility of recall bias limits self-report studies of these effects. The authors used the experience sampling method to address this problem by collecting comparative data on moment-in-time work performance among service workers who were depressed and those who were not depressed. The group studied included 105 airline reservation agents and 181 telephone customer service representatives selected from a larger baseline sample; depressed workers were deliberately oversampled. Respondents were given pagers and experience sampling method diaries for each day of the study. A computerized autodialer paged respondents at random time points. When paged, respondents reported on their work performance in the diary. Moment-in-time work performance was assessed at five random times each day over a 7-day data collection period (35 data points for each respondent). Seven conditions (allergies, arthritis, back pain, headaches, high blood pressure, asthma, and major depression) occurred often enough in this group of respondents to be studied. Major depression was the only condition significantly related to decrements in both of the dimensions of work performance assessed in the diaries: task focus and productivity. These effects were equivalent to approximately 2.3 days absent because of sickness per depressed worker per month of being depressed. Previous studies based on days missed from work significantly underestimate the adverse economic effects associated with depression. Productivity losses related to depression appear to exceed the costs of effective treatment.

Operating room managerial decision-making on the day of surgery with and without computer recommendations and status displays.

PubMed

Dexter, Franklin; Willemsen-Dunlap, Ann; Lee, John D

2007-08-01

There are three basic types of decision aids to facilitate operating room (OR) management decision-making on the day of surgery. Decision makers can rely on passive status displays (e.g., big screens or whiteboards), active status displays (e.g., text pager notification), and/or command displays (e.g., text recommendations about what to do). Anesthesiologists, OR nurses, and housekeepers were given nine simulated scenarios (vignettes) involving multiple ORs to study their decision-making. Participants were randomized to one of four groups, all with an updated paper OR schedule: with/without command display and with/without passive status display. Participants making decisions without command displays performed no better than random chance in terms of increasing the predictability of work hours, reducing over-utilized OR time, and increasing OR efficiency. Status displays had no effect on these end-points, whereas command displays improved the quality of decisions. In the scenarios for which the command displays provided recommendations that adversely affected safety, participants appropriately ignored advice. Anesthesia providers and nursing staff made decisions that increased clinical work per unit time in each OR, even when doing so resulted in an increase in over-utilized OR time, higher staffing costs, unpredictable work hours, and/or mandatory overtime. Organizational culture and socialization during clinical training may be a cause. Command displays showed promise in mitigating this tendency. Additional investigations are in our companion paper.

Real Time Seismic Loss Estimation in Italy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Goretti, A.; Sabetta, F.

2009-04-01

By more than 15 years the Seismic Risk Office is able to perform a real-time evaluation of the earthquake potential loss in any part of Italy. Once the epicentre and the magnitude of the earthquake are made available by the National Institute for Geophysiscs and Volca-nology, the model, based on the Italian Geographic Information Sys-tems, is able to evaluate the extent of the damaged area and the consequences on the built environment. In recent years the model has been significantly improved with new methodologies able to conditioning the uncertainties using observa-tions coming from the fields during the first days after the event. However it is reputed that the main challenges in loss analysis are related to the input data, more than to methodologies. Unlike the ur-ban scenario, where the missing data can be collected with enough accuracy, the country-wise analysis requires the use of existing data bases, often collected for other purposed than seismic scenario evaluation, and hence in some way lacking of completeness and homogeneity. Soil properties, building inventory and population dis-tribution are the main input data that are to be known in any site of the whole Italian territory. To this end the National Census on Popu-lation and Dwellings has provided information on the residential building types and the population that lives in that building types. The critical buildings, such as Hospital, Fire Brigade Stations, Schools, are not included in the inventory, since the national plan for seismic risk assessment of critical buildings is still under way. The choice of a proper soil motion parameter, its attenuation with distance and the building type fragility are important ingredients of the model as well. The presentation will focus on the above mentioned issues, highlight-ing the different data sets used and their accuracy, and comparing the model, input data and results when geographical areas with dif-ferent extent are considered: from the urban scenarios, to the coun-try-wise analysis up to the recent Italian contribution in the world wide vulnerability assessment within the USGS Pager project.

Development and Demonstration of a Security Core Component

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

Turke, Andy

In recent years, the convergence of a number of trends has resulted in Cyber Security becoming a much greater concern for electric utilities. A short list of these trends includes: · Industrial Control Systems (ICSs) have evolved from depending on proprietary hardware and operating software toward using standard off-the-shelf hardware and operating software. This has meant that these ICSs can no longer depend on “security through obscurity. · Similarly, these same systems have evolved toward using standard communications protocols, further reducing their ability to rely upon obscurity. · The rise of the Internet and the accompanying demand for more datamore » about virtually everything has resulted in formerly isolated ICSs becoming at least partially accessible via Internet-connected networks. · “Cyber crime” has become commonplace, whether it be for industrial espionage, reconnaissance for a possible cyber attack, theft, or because some individual or group “has something to prove.” Electric utility system operators are experts at running the power grid. The reality is, especially at small and mid-sized utilities, these SCADA operators will by default be “on the front line” if and when a cyber attack occurs against their systems. These people are not computer software, networking, or cyber security experts, so they are ill-equipped to deal with a cyber security incident. Cyber Security Manager (CSM) was conceived, designed, and built so that it can be configured to know what a utility’s SCADA/EMS/DMS system looks like under normal conditions. To do this, CSM monitors log messages from any device that uses the syslog standard. It can also monitor a variety of statistics from the computers that make up the SCADA/EMS/DMS: outputs from host-based security tools, intrusion detection systems, SCADA alarms, and real-time SCADA values – even results from a SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) system. When the system deviates from “normal,” CSM can alert the operator in language that they understand that an incident may be occurring, provide actionable intelligence, and informing them what actions to take. These alarms may be viewed on CSM’s built-in user interface, sent to a SCADA alarm list, or communicated via email, phone, pager, or SMS message. In recognition of the fact that “real world” training for cyber security events is impractical, CSM has a built-in Operator Training Simulator capability. This can be used stand alone to create simulated event scenarios for training purposes. It may also be used in conjunction with the recipient’s SCADA/EMS/DMS Operator Training Simulator. In addition to providing cyber security situational awareness for electric utility operators, CSM also provides tools for analysts and support personnel; in fact, the majority of user interface displays are designed for use in analyzing current and past security events. CSM keeps security-related information in long-term storage, as well as writing any decisions it makes to a (syslog) log for use forensic or other post-event analysis.« less

Creating a Global Building Inventory for Earthquake Loss Assessment and Risk Management

USGS Publications Warehouse

Jaiswal, Kishor; Wald, David J.

2008-01-01

Earthquakes have claimed approximately 8 million lives over the last 2,000 years (Dunbar, Lockridge and others, 1992) and fatality rates are likely to continue to rise with increased population and urbanizations of global settlements especially in developing countries. More than 75% of earthquake-related human casualties are caused by the collapse of buildings or structures (Coburn and Spence, 2002). It is disheartening to note that large fractions of the world's population still reside in informal, poorly-constructed & non-engineered dwellings which have high susceptibility to collapse during earthquakes. Moreover, with increasing urbanization half of world's population now lives in urban areas (United Nations, 2001), and half of these urban centers are located in earthquake-prone regions (Bilham, 2004). The poor performance of most building stocks during earthquakes remains a primary societal concern. However, despite this dark history and bleaker future trends, there are no comprehensive global building inventories of sufficient quality and coverage to adequately address and characterize future earthquake losses. Such an inventory is vital both for earthquake loss mitigation and for earthquake disaster response purposes. While the latter purpose is the motivation of this work, we hope that the global building inventory database described herein will find widespread use for other mitigation efforts as well. For a real-time earthquake impact alert system, such as U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response (PAGER), (Wald, Earle and others, 2006), we seek to rapidly evaluate potential casualties associated with earthquake ground shaking for any region of the world. The casualty estimation is based primarily on (1) rapid estimation of the ground shaking hazard, (2) aggregating the population exposure within different building types, and (3) estimating the casualties from the collapse of vulnerable buildings. Thus, the contribution of building stock, its relative vulnerability, and distribution are vital components for determining the extent of casualties during an earthquake. It is evident from large deadly historical earthquakes that the distribution of vulnerable structures and their occupancy level during an earthquake control the severity of human losses. For example, though the number of strong earthquakes in California is comparable to that of Iran, the total earthquake-related casualties in California during the last 100 years are dramatically lower than the casualties from several individual Iranian earthquakes. The relatively low casualties count in California is attributed mainly to the fact that more than 90 percent of the building stock in California is made of wood and is designed to withstand moderate to large earthquakes (Kircher, Seligson and others, 2006). In contrast, the 80 percent adobe and or non-engineered masonry building stock with poor lateral load resisting systems in Iran succumbs even for moderate levels of ground shaking. Consequently, the heavy death toll for the 2003 Bam, Iran earthquake, which claimed 31,828 lives (Ghafory-Ashtiany and Mousavi, 2005), is directly attributable to such poorly resistant construction, and future events will produce comparable losses unless practices change. Similarly, multistory, precast-concrete framed buildings caused heavy casualties in the 1988 Spitak, Armenia earthquake (Bertero, 1989); weaker masonry and reinforced-concrete framed construction designed for gravity loads with soft first stories dominated losses in the Bhuj, India earthquake of 2001 (Madabhushi and Haigh, 2005); and adobe and weak masonry dwellings in Peru controlled the death toll in the Peru earthquake of 2007 (Taucer, J. and others, 2007). Spence (2007) after conducting a brief survey of most lethal earthquakes since 1960 found that building collapses remains a major cause of earthquake mortality and unreinforced masonry buildings are one of the mos

[How deaf people cope in routine and emergency situations - suggested paths for thought and action].

PubMed

Tannenbaum-Baruchi, Carolina; Feder-Bubis, Paula; Adini-Weisel, Bruria; Aharonson-Daniel, Limor

2014-09-01

Deaf people have unique characteristics and needs. There is a limited amount of research regarding the needs of deaf people, and no studies were found concerning deaf people in emergency situations. The absence of the sense of hearing in deaf people is only one component of the complexity of their world. Many factors contribute to this complexity, but the most striking is the means of communication between the deaf and the hearing person and vice versa. Changes during emergency situations present a challenge for hearing individuals, and even more so, for deaf people. Deaf individuals experience difficulty in obtaining and transmitting information, accessing care and more. These difficulties often result in the dependency of the deaf person on others. The State of Israel enacted laws targeted to facilitate the access of individuals with disabilities in general, and deaf people in particular, to public services. In emergencies, the Home Front Command and the Ministry of Social Welfare distribute pagers to the deaf population, as a device to communicate warning alerts. However, these devices do not fulfil the need for accessible care, bi-directional flow of information, and additional needs that arise during times of emergency. The deaf population is a cultural minority, whose needs in emergency situations are unknown. Familiarity with the deaf population is the first step towards improving treatment and communication that are apt for this population. This paper reviews what is known in the literature about this topic and presents an attempt to bridge the gap of knowledge and barriers to communication between the deaf population and

Enhancing the DNA Patent Database

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

Walters, LeRoy B.

Final Report on Award No. DE-FG0201ER63171 Principal Investigator: LeRoy B. Walters February 18, 2008 This project successfully completed its goal of surveying and reporting on the DNA patenting and licensing policies at 30 major U.S. academic institutions. The report of survey results was published in the January 2006 issue of Nature Biotechnology under the title “The Licensing of DNA Patents by US Academic Institutions: An Empirical Survey.” Lori Pressman was the lead author on this feature article. A PDF reprint of the article will be submitted to our Program Officer under separate cover. The project team has continued to updatemore » the DNA Patent Database on a weekly basis since the conclusion of the project. The database can be accessed at dnapatents.georgetown.edu. This database provides a valuable research tool for academic researchers, policymakers, and citizens. A report entitled Reaping the Benefits of Genomic and Proteomic Research: Intellectual Property Rights, Innovation, and Public Health was published in 2006 by the Committee on Intellectual Property Rights in Genomic and Protein Research and Innovation, Board on Science, Technology, and Economic Policy at the National Academies. The report was edited by Stephen A. Merrill and Anne-Marie Mazza. This report employed and then adapted the methodology developed by our research project and quoted our findings at several points. (The full report can be viewed online at the following URL: http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=11487&page=R1). My colleagues and I are grateful for the research support of the ELSI program at the U.S. Department of Energy.« less

Phantom vibration syndrome among medical staff: a cross sectional survey.

PubMed

Rothberg, Michael B; Arora, Ashish; Hermann, Jodie; Kleppel, Reva; St Marie, Peter; Visintainer, Paul

2010-12-15

To describe the prevalence of and risk factors for experiencing "phantom vibrations," the sensory hallucination sometimes experienced by people carrying pagers or cell phones when the device is not vibrating. Cross sectional survey. Academic medical centre. 176 medical staff who responded to questionnaire (76% of the 232 people invited). Measurements Electronic survey consisting of 17 questions about demographics, device use, phantom vibrations experienced, and attempts to stop them. Of the 169 participants who answered the question, 115 (68%, 95% confidence interval 61% to 75%) reported having experienced phantom vibrations. Most (68/112) who experienced phantom vibrations did so after carrying the device between 1 month and 1 year, and 13% experienced them daily. Four factors were independently associated with phantom vibrations: occupation (resident v attending physician, prevalence ratio 1.47, 95% confidence interval 1.10 to 1.97), device location (breast pocket v belt, prevalence ratio 1.66, 1.29 to 2.14), hours carried (per 6 hour increment, prevalence ratio 1.30, 1.07 to 1.58), and more frequent use in vibrate mode (per frequency category, prevalence ratio 1.18, 1.03 to 1.34). Of those who experienced phantom vibrations, 43 (39%, 30% to 48%) were able to stop them. Strategies for stopping phantom vibrations included taking the device off vibrate mode, changing the location of the device, and using a different device (success rates 75% v 63% v 50%, respectively, P=0.217). However, 39% (30% to 49%) of respondents did not attempt any strategies. Phantom vibration syndrome is common among those who use electronic devices.

Topographic Slope as a Proxy for Seismic Site-Conditions (VS30) and Amplification Around the Globe

USGS Publications Warehouse

Allen, Trevor I.; Wald, David J.

2007-01-01

Executive Summary It is well-known that large global earthquakes can have a dramatic effect on local communities and the built environment. Moreover, ground motions amplified by surficial materials can exacerbate the situation, often making the difference between minor and major damage. For a real-time earthquake impact alert system, such as Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response (PAGER) (Wald and others, 2006), we seek to rapidly evaluate potential ground shaking in the source region and subsequently provide an estimate of the population exposure to potentially fatal levels of ground shaking in any region of the world. The contribution of surficial geology (particularly soft sediments) to the amplification of ground shaking is an important component in predicting the levels of ground motion observed at any site. Unfortunately, the availability of information regarding seismic siteconditions is only available at a few sites around the globe. Herein, we describe a methodology for deriving maps of seismic site-conditions anywhere in the world using topographic slope as a proxy. Average shear-velocity down to 30 m (or VS30) measurements are correlated against topographic slope to develop two sets of coefficients for predicting VS30: one for active tectonic regions that possess dynamic topographic relief, and one for stable continental regions where changes in topography are more subdued. These coefficients have been applied to the continental United States, in addition to other regions around the world. They are subsequently compared to existing site-condition maps based on geology and observed VS30 measurements, where available. The application of the topographic slope method in regions with abundant VS30 measurements (for example California, Memphis, and Taiwan) indicates that this method provides site condition-maps of similar quality, or in some cases, maps superior to those developed from more traditional techniques. Having a first-order assessment of seismic site-conditions anywhere in the world provides a valuable tool to rapidly estimate ground motions following any global earthquake, the primary motivation for this research. These VS30 maps will enable us to better quantify possible ground shaking and rapidly deliver these predictions to emergency managers and responders. In addition, the VS30 maps for the globe will also have practical applications for numerous related probabilistic- and scenario-based studies. To date, several researchers have requested maps or have used the approach outlined herein for their own applications (for example Cagnan and Kariptas, written commun., 2007; Harmandar and others, 2007). Given that we anticipate a significant demand for these products, we have developed an internet delivery service so that users can download maps and grids of seismic site-conditions for specified regions. To some extent, these grids can also be customized by the user if they disagree with the predefined correlations derived using the methodologies described within this report. Finally, this report represents a more comprehensive account of this technique and provides a more fully illustrated global description of results than that given in Wald and Allen (2007), which has been accepted for publication in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America.

Hands on + hands free: simulated on-call interaction.

PubMed

Fisher, James; Martin, Richard; Tate, David

2014-10-01

In hospital, doctors and nurses frequently discuss acutely unwell patients via the telephone. Telephone communication can be challenging, yet medical students receive little training in how to conduct such interactions. We aimed to provide a simple, innovative, simulation session to address this learning need for third-year medical students at Newcastle University. Groups of students were given a pager and a supervising tutor. Students responded to a 'bleep' from a nurse practitioner in a different room, who role-played a ward nurse concerned about a patient. Speakerphones were used, allowing the entire conversation to be audible. After the call, a student-led debriefing session took place. After the debriefing another student 'held' the bleep and a different scenario ensued. Following a resuscitation scenario, students made telephone contact with the medical registrar to hand over information pertaining to the case. Before and after the session, students rated their confidence in telephone interaction and handover using a 10-point Likert scale. Students also completed a feedback questionnaire. Fifty-four students attended the session. A statistically significant improvement in student confidence in telephone communication and handover was seen after the session. Free-text feedback highlighted that students had not received teaching on this previously, and that they welcomed opportunities to practise such skills within a controlled, safe environment. Simulation training can be costly, but speakerphones are cheap and readily available. Given the frequency of telephone interaction in hospital, we believe all medical students should receive telephone communication training. Locally, our department has now incorporated these teaching methods into simulation sessions elsewhere in the curriculum. Medical students receive little training in how to conduct [telephone] interactions. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Impact of intraoperative distractions on patient safety: a prospective descriptive study using validated instruments.

PubMed

Sevdalis, Nick; Undre, Shabnam; McDermott, James; Giddie, Jasdeep; Diner, Lila; Smith, Gillian

2014-04-01

There is emerging evidence indicating that distractions in the operating room (OR) are prevalent. Studies have shown a negative impact of distractions, but they have been conducted mostly with residents in simulated environments. We tested the hypothesis that intraoperative distractions are associated with deterioration in patient safety checks in the OR. We assessed 24 elective urologic procedures. Blinded trained assessors (two surgeons, one psychologist) used validated instruments to prospectively assess in vivo frequency and severity of distractions (related to communication, phones/pagers, equipment/provisions, OR environment, other hospital departments, or a member of the OR team) and completion of safety-related tasks (related to the patient, equipment, and communication). Descriptive and correlational analyses were conducted. Mean case duration was 70 min (mean intraoperative time 31 min). A mean of 4.0 communication distractions (range 0-9) and 2.48 other distractions (range 0-5) were recorded per case (distraction rate of one per 10 min). Distractions from external visitors (addressed to the entire team or the surgeon) and distractions due to lack of coordination between hospital departments were most disruptive. Regarding safety checks, patient tasks were completed most often (85-100 %) followed by equipment tasks (75-100 %) and communication tasks (55-90 %). Correlational analyses showed that more frequent/severe communication distractions were linked to lower completion of patient checks intraoperatively (median rho -0.56, p < 0.05). Distractions are prevalent in ORs and in this study were linked to deterioration in intraoperative patient safety checks. Surgeons should be mindful of their tolerance to distractions. Surgical leadership can help control distractions and reduce their potential impact on patient safety and performance.

Emergency situations and deaf people in Israel: Communication obstacles and recommendations

PubMed Central

Tannenbaum-Baruchi, Carolina; Feder-Bubis, Paula; Adini, Bruria; Aharonson-Daniel, Limor

2014-01-01

The absence of the ability to hear sounds in deaf people is an obstacle to optimal communication in a predominantly hearing world. Emergency situations harbor sufficient challenge for the hearing person and pose even greater barriers for the deaf and hard of hearing. During disasters and emergency situations, deaf people have great difficulty in obtaining and sharing information, increasing their dependence on others. This article focuses on the experience of deaf people during a period of security threat, when missiles from the Gaza strip were aimed at the civilian population in Southern Israel, in 2009. The aim of this article is to illustrate the complexities that deaf citizens experienced, and describe their coping mechanisms. A qualitative study including 15 heterogeneous-background Deaf participants interviewed by a researcher that belongs to the deaf community using a multiple-method facilitated questionnaire. Data was analyzed using grounded theory methodology principles. Main categories that arose from data analysis were communication problems during emergencies, the pager as a questionable warning device about emergencies (due to timing and content/context issues of its use), and the implications of the location of deaf people at time of emergency. Various channels for conveying information should be examined and created in order to maximize the heterogeneous deaf community's ability to receive vital information during an emergency. Professional sign language interpreters are necessary during emergencies, helping to reduce both dependence on informal sources (such as family members, including minors, friends, neighbors, by-standers) and risk. The development of new technologies may bear potential help for deaf persons during emergencies. Being a socio-linguistic minority, it is recommended to ensure these technologies will be accessible to the whole deaf community. PMID:28229005

Application of mobile phone technology for managing chemotherapy-associated side-effects.

PubMed

Weaver, A; Young, A M; Rowntree, J; Townsend, N; Pearson, S; Smith, J; Gibson, O; Cobern, W; Larsen, M; Tarassenko, L

2007-11-01

Novel mobile phone technology linked to a server that communicates patients' symptoms to healthcare professionals has been adapted to register the side- effects of chemotherapy and provide advice on management of toxicity. We report a feasibility study to examine the utility of home monitoring of patients' symptoms via a mobile phone. Six colon cancer patients receiving adjuvant chemotherapy, entered symptom data onto user friendly screens on a mobile phone twice daily. This 'real time' self assessment of nausea, vomiting, mucositis, diarrhoea and hand-foot syndrome and measurement of temperature was sent via a secured connection to a remote computer. In the event of moderate or severe symptoms (generating amber and red alerts respectively), the nurse was immediately alerted by the computer, via a pager. The nurse then contacted the patient to reinforce the automatic advice sent to the patient on their phone and to assess the patient using clinical algorithms. The patient used the mobile phones during the first two cycles of chemotherapy. The data were successfully analysed by the server software and alerts were generated alerting the study nurses to patients' symptoms at the appropriate time. There were 91 alerts-54 red and 37 amber; 54% (29/54) of the red alerts were data delay and transmission problems which were swiftly rectified. The remaining red alerts were managed appropriately by the study nurses. Both patients and staff felt confident in this approach to symptom management. This study demonstrates that the technology for monitoring patients' symptoms worked well. The patients felt secure in the knowledge that their symptoms were being closely monitored and that they were participating effectively in their own care management.

Characterizing Physician Listening Behavior During Hospitalist Handoffs using the HEAR Checklist

PubMed Central

Greenstein, Elizabeth A.; Arora, Vineet M.; Staisiunas, Paul G.; Banerjee, Stacy S.; Farnan, Jeanne M.

2015-01-01

Background The increasing fragmentation of healthcare has resulted in more patient handoffs. Many professional groups, including the Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education and the Society of Hospital Medicine, have made recommendations for safe and effective handoffs. Despite the two-way nature of handoff communication, the focus of these efforts has largely been on the person giving information. Objective To observe and characterize the listening behaviors of handoff receivers during hospitalist handoffs. Design Prospective observational study of shift change and service change handoffs on a non-teaching hospitalist service at a single academic tertiary care institution. Measurements The “HEAR Checklist”, a novel tool created based on review of effective listening behaviors, was used by third party observers to characterize active and passive listening behaviors and interruptions during handoffs. Results In 48 handoffs (25 shift change, 23 service change), active listening behaviors (e.g. read-back (17%), note-taking (23%), and reading own copy of the written signout (27%)) occurred less frequently than passive listening behaviors (e.g. affirmatory statements (56%) nodding (50%) and eye contact (58%)) (p<0.01). Read-back occurred only 8 times (17%). In 11 handoffs (23%) receivers took notes. Almost all (98%) handoffs were interrupted at least once, most often by side conversations, pagers going off, or clinicians arriving. Handoffs with more patients, such as service change, were associated with more interruptions (r= 0.46, p<0.01). Conclusions Using the “HEAR Checklist”, we can characterize hospitalist handoff listening behaviors. While passive listening behaviors are common, active listening behaviors that promote memory retention are rare. Handoffs are often interrupted, most commonly by side conversations. Future handoff improvement efforts should focus on augmenting listening and minimizing interruptions. PMID:23258389

Endocytosis Plays a Critical Role in Proteolytic Processing of the Hendra Virus Fusion Protein

PubMed Central

Meulendyke, Kelly Ann; Wurth, Mark Allen; McCann, Richard O.; Dutch, Rebecca Ellis

2005-01-01

The Hendra virus fusion (F) protein is synthesized as a precursor protein, F0, which is proteolytically processed to the mature form, F1+F2. Unlike the case for the majority of paramyxovirus F proteins, the processing event is furin independent, does not require the addition of exogenous proteases, is not affected by reductions in intracellular Ca2+, and is strongly affected by conditions that raise the intracellular pH (C. T. Pager, M. A. Wurth, and R. E. Dutch, J. Virol. 78:9154-9163, 2004). The Hendra virus F protein cytoplasmic tail contains a consensus motif for endocytosis, YXXΦ. To analyze the potential role of endocytosis in the processing and membrane fusion promotion of the Hendra virus F protein, mutation of tyrosine 525 to alanine (Hendra virus F Y525A) or phenylalanine (Hendra virus F Y525F) was performed. The rate of endocytosis of Hendra virus F Y525A was significantly reduced compared to that of the wild-type (wt) F protein, confirming the functional importance of the endocytosis motif. An intermediate level of endocytosis was observed for Hendra virus F Y525F. Surprisingly, dramatic reductions in the rate of proteolytic processing were observed for Hendra virus F Y525A, although initial transport to the cell surface was not affected. The levels of surface expression for both Hendra virus F Y525A and Hendra virus F Y525F were higher than that of the wt protein, and these mutants displayed enhanced syncytium formation. These results suggest that endocytosis is critically important for Hendra virus F protein cleavage, representing a new paradigm for proteolytic processing of paramyxovirus F proteins. PMID:16188966

Clicker Implementation Models

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

White, Peter J. T.; Delaney, David G.; Syncox, David; Akerberg, Oscar Avila; Alters, Brian

2011-01-01

Student response systems can help instructors integrate active learning into their classrooms. Such technology is known by a variety of names, including classroom response systems, student response systems, audience response systems, electronic response systems, personal response systems, zappers, and clickers. The "system" consists of three…

What is health systems responsiveness? Review of existing knowledge and proposed conceptual framework.

PubMed

Mirzoev, Tolib; Kane, Sumit

2017-01-01

Responsiveness is a key objective of national health systems. Responsive health systems anticipate and adapt to existing and future health needs, thus contributing to better health outcomes. Of all the health systems objectives, responsiveness is the least studied, which perhaps reflects lack of comprehensive frameworks that go beyond the normative characteristics of responsive services. This paper contributes to a growing, yet limited, knowledge on this topic. Herewith, we review the current frameworks for understanding health systems responsiveness and drawing on these, as well as key frameworks from the wider public services literature, propose a comprehensive conceptual framework for health systems responsiveness. This paper should be of interest to different stakeholders who are engaged in analysing and improving health systems responsiveness. Our review shows that existing knowledge on health systems responsiveness can be extended along the three areas. First, responsiveness entails an actual experience of people's interaction with their health system, which confirms or disconfirms their initial expectations of the system. Second, the experience of interaction is shaped by both the people and the health systems sides of this interaction. Third, different influences shape people's interaction with their health system, ultimately affecting their resultant experiences. Therefore, recognition of both people and health systems sides of interaction and their key determinants would enhance the conceptualisations of responsiveness. Our proposed framework builds on, and advances, the core frameworks in the health systems literature. It positions the experience of interaction between people and health system as the centrepiece and recognises the determinants of responsiveness experience both from the health systems (eg, actors, processes) and the people (eg, initial expectations) sides. While we hope to trigger further thinking on the conceptualisation of health system responsiveness, the proposed framework can guide assessments of, and interventions to strengthen, health systems responsiveness.

What is health systems responsiveness? Review of existing knowledge and proposed conceptual framework

PubMed Central

Mirzoev, Tolib; Kane, Sumit

2017-01-01

Responsiveness is a key objective of national health systems. Responsive health systems anticipate and adapt to existing and future health needs, thus contributing to better health outcomes. Of all the health systems objectives, responsiveness is the least studied, which perhaps reflects lack of comprehensive frameworks that go beyond the normative characteristics of responsive services. This paper contributes to a growing, yet limited, knowledge on this topic. Herewith, we review the current frameworks for understanding health systems responsiveness and drawing on these, as well as key frameworks from the wider public services literature, propose a comprehensive conceptual framework for health systems responsiveness. This paper should be of interest to different stakeholders who are engaged in analysing and improving health systems responsiveness. Our review shows that existing knowledge on health systems responsiveness can be extended along the three areas. First, responsiveness entails an actual experience of people’s interaction with their health system, which confirms or disconfirms their initial expectations of the system. Second, the experience of interaction is shaped by both the people and the health systems sides of this interaction. Third, different influences shape people’s interaction with their health system, ultimately affecting their resultant experiences. Therefore, recognition of both people and health systems sides of interaction and their key determinants would enhance the conceptualisations of responsiveness. Our proposed framework builds on, and advances, the core frameworks in the health systems literature. It positions the experience of interaction between people and health system as the centrepiece and recognises the determinants of responsiveness experience both from the health systems (eg, actors, processes) and the people (eg, initial expectations) sides. While we hope to trigger further thinking on the conceptualisation of health system responsiveness, the proposed framework can guide assessments of, and interventions to strengthen, health systems responsiveness. PMID:29225953

The Mw 5.8 Mineral, Virginia, earthquake of August 2011 and aftershock sequence: constraints on earthquake source parameters and fault geometry

USGS Publications Warehouse

McNamara, Daniel E.; Benz, H.M.; Herrmann, Robert B.; Bergman, Eric A.; Earle, Paul; Meltzer, Anne; Withers, Mitch; Chapman, Martin

2014-01-01

The Mw 5.8 earthquake of 23 August 2011 (17:51:04 UTC) (moment, M0 5.7×1017  N·m) occurred near Mineral, Virginia, within the central Virginia seismic zone and was felt by more people than any other earthquake in United States history. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) received 148,638 felt reports from 31 states and 4 Canadian provinces. The USGS PAGER system estimates as many as 120,000 people were exposed to shaking intensity levels of IV and greater, with approximately 10,000 exposed to shaking as high as intensity VIII. Both regional and teleseismic moment tensor solutions characterize the earthquake as a northeast‐striking reverse fault that nucleated at a depth of approximately 7±2  km. The distribution of reported macroseismic intensities is roughly ten times the area of a similarly sized earthquake in the western United States (Horton and Williams, 2012). Near‐source and far‐field damage reports, which extend as far away as Washington, D.C., (135 km away) and Baltimore, Maryland, (200 km away) are consistent with an earthquake of this size and depth in the eastern United States (EUS). Within the first few days following the earthquake, several government and academic institutions installed 36 portable seismograph stations in the epicentral region, making this among the best‐recorded aftershock sequences in the EUS. Based on modeling of these data, we provide a detailed description of the source parameters of the mainshock and analysis of the subsequent aftershock sequence for defining the fault geometry, area of rupture, and observations of the aftershock sequence magnitude–frequency and temporal distribution. The observed slope of the magnitude–frequency curve or b‐value for the aftershock sequence is consistent with previous EUS studies (b=0.75), suggesting that most of the accumulated strain was released by the mainshock. The aftershocks define a rupture that extends between approximately 2–8 km in depth and 8–10 km along the strike of the fault plane. Best‐fit modeling of the geometry of the aftershock sequence defines a rupture plane that strikes N36°E and dips to the east‐southeast at 49.5°. Moment tensor solutions of the mainshock and larger aftershocks are consistent with the distribution of aftershock locations, both indicating reverse slip along a northeast–southwest striking southeast‐dipping fault plane.

Effectiveness Analysis of a Part-Time Rapid Response System During Operation Versus Nonoperation.

PubMed

Kim, Youlim; Lee, Dong Seon; Min, Hyunju; Choi, Yun Young; Lee, Eun Young; Song, Inae; Park, Jong Sun; Cho, Young-Jae; Jo, You Hwan; Yoon, Ho Il; Lee, Jae Ho; Lee, Choon-Taek; Do, Sang Hwan; Lee, Yeon Joo

2017-06-01

To evaluate the effect of a part-time rapid response system on the occurrence rate of cardiopulmonary arrest by comparing the times of rapid response system operation versus nonoperation. Retrospective cohort study. A 1,360-bed tertiary care hospital. Adult patients admitted to the general ward were screened. Data were collected over 36 months from rapid response system implementation (October 2012 to September 2015) and more than 45 months before rapid response system implementation (January 2009 to September 2012). None. The rapid response system operates from 7 AM to 10 PM on weekdays and from 7 AM to 12 PM on Saturdays. Primary outcomes were the difference of cardiopulmonary arrest incidence between pre-rapid response system and post-rapid response system periods and whether the rapid response system operating time affects the cardiopulmonary arrest incidence. The overall cardiopulmonary arrest incidence (per 1,000 admissions) was 1.43. Although the number of admissions per month and case-mix index were increased (3,555.18 vs 4,564.72, p < 0.001; 1.09 vs 1.13, p = 0.001, respectively), the cardiopulmonary arrest incidence was significantly decreased after rapid response system (1.60 vs 1.23; p = 0.021), and mortality (%) was unchanged (1.38 vs 1.33; p = 0.322). After rapid response system implementation, the cardiopulmonary arrest incidence significantly decreased by 40% during rapid response system operating times (0.82 vs 0.49/1,000 admissions; p = 0.001) but remained similar during rapid response system nonoperating times (0.77 vs 0.73/1,000 admissions; p = 0.729). The implementation of a part-time rapid response system reduced the cardiopulmonary arrest incidence based on the reduction of cardiopulmonary arrest during rapid response system operating times. Further analysis of the cost effectiveness of part-time rapid response system is needed.

Responsive systems - The challenge for the nineties

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Malek, Miroslaw

1990-01-01

A concept of responsive computer systems will be introduced. The emerging responsive systems demand fault-tolerant and real-time performance in parallel and distributed computing environments. The design methodologies for fault-tolerant, real time and responsive systems will be presented. Novel techniques of introducing redundancy for improved performance and dependability will be illustrated. The methods of system responsiveness evaluation will be proposed. The issues of determinism, closed and open systems will also be discussed from the perspective of responsive systems design.

78 FR 34995 - Response Systems to Adult Sexual Assault Crimes Panel (Response Systems Panel); Notice of Federal...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-06-11

... DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE Office of the Secretary Response Systems to Adult Sexual Assault Crimes Panel (Response Systems Panel); Notice of Federal Advisory Committee Meeting AGENCY: Department of... committee meeting of the Response Systems to Adult Sexual Assault Crimes Panel. DATES: A meeting of the...

Productivity and quality improvements in health care through airboss mobile messaging services.

PubMed

Shah, P J; Martinez, R; Cooney, E

1997-01-01

The US health care industry is in the midst of revolutionary changes. Under tremendous pressures from third-party payers and managed care programs to control costs while providing high quality medical services, health care entities are now looking at information technologies to help them achieve their goals. These goals typically include improved productivity, efficiency and decision-making capabilities among staff members. Moreover, hospitals and other health care facilities that provide a broad and integrated range of inpatient and outpatient care, wellness and home care services are in the best position to offer comprehensive packages to managed care and private insurers. Many health care providers and administrators are considered mobile employees. This mobility can range from intra-building and intra-campus to multi-site and metropolitan areas. This group often relies on a variety of information technologies such as personal computers, communicating laptops, pagers, cellular phones, wireline phones, cordless phones and fax machines to stay in touch and handle information needs. These health care professionals require mobile information access and messaging tools to improve communications, control accessibility and enhance decision-making capabilities. AirBoss mobile messaging services could address the health care industry's need for improved messaging capabilities for its mobile employees. The AirBoss family of services supports integrated voice services, data messaging, mobile facsimile and customized information delivery. This paper describes overview of the current mobile data networking capability, the AirBoss architecture, the health care-related applications it addresses and long-term benefits. In addition, a prototype application for mobile home health care workers is illustrated. This prototype application provides integrated e-mail, information services, web access, real-time access and update of patient records from wireline or wireless networks, and cross media delivery and notification. It provides seamless wide area access to patient data in a secure environment, thus providing a continuity of care from the hospital to home.

Lecture-Free High School Biology Using an Audience Response System

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barnes, Larry J.

2008-01-01

Audience Response Systems (ARS) represent a powerful new tool for increasing student engagement. ARS technology (known variously as electronic voting systems, personal response systems, interactive student response systems, and classroom performance systems) includes one hand-held remote per student, a receiver (infrared or radio frequency,…

44 CFR 208.3 - Authority for the National US&R Response System.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... Order 12148. (b) Implementing plan. The National Response Plan identifies DHS as the primary Federal...&R Response System. 208.3 Section 208.3 Emergency Management and Assistance FEDERAL EMERGENCY... RESPONSE SYSTEM General § 208.3 Authority for the National US&R Response System. (a) Enabling legislation...

44 CFR 208.3 - Authority for the National US&R Response System.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... Order 12148. (b) Implementing plan. The National Response Plan identifies DHS as the primary Federal...&R Response System. 208.3 Section 208.3 Emergency Management and Assistance FEDERAL EMERGENCY... RESPONSE SYSTEM General § 208.3 Authority for the National US&R Response System. (a) Enabling legislation...

44 CFR 208.3 - Authority for the National US&R Response System.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... Order 12148. (b) Implementing plan. The National Response Plan identifies DHS as the primary Federal...&R Response System. 208.3 Section 208.3 Emergency Management and Assistance FEDERAL EMERGENCY... RESPONSE SYSTEM General § 208.3 Authority for the National US&R Response System. (a) Enabling legislation...

44 CFR 208.3 - Authority for the National US&R Response System.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... Order 12148. (b) Implementing plan. The National Response Plan identifies DHS as the primary Federal...&R Response System. 208.3 Section 208.3 Emergency Management and Assistance FEDERAL EMERGENCY... RESPONSE SYSTEM General § 208.3 Authority for the National US&R Response System. (a) Enabling legislation...

44 CFR 208.3 - Authority for the National US&R Response System.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... Order 12148. (b) Implementing plan. The National Response Plan identifies DHS as the primary Federal...&R Response System. 208.3 Section 208.3 Emergency Management and Assistance FEDERAL EMERGENCY... RESPONSE SYSTEM General § 208.3 Authority for the National US&R Response System. (a) Enabling legislation...

78 FR 53429 - Response Systems to Adult Sexual Assault Crimes Panel (Response Systems Panel); Notice of Federal...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-08-29

... recommendations regarding how to improve the effectiveness of such systems. The Panel is interested in written and... DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE Office of the Secretary Response Systems to Adult Sexual Assault Crimes Panel (Response Systems Panel); Notice of Federal Advisory Committee Meeting AGENCY: Department of...

Ecosystem and immune systems: Hierarchial response provides resilience against invasions

USGS Publications Warehouse

Allen, Craig R.

2001-01-01

Janssen (2001) provides the stimulus for thoughtful comparison and consideration of the ranges of responses exhibited by immune systems and ecological systems in the face of perturbations such as biological invasions. It may indeed be informative to consider the similarities of the responses to invasions exhibited by immune systems and ecological systems. Clearly, both types of systems share a general organizational structure with all other complex hierarchical systems. Their organization provides these systems with resilience. However, when describing the response of ecological-economic systems to invasions, Janssen emphasizes the human-economic response. I would like to expand on his comparison by focusing on how resilience is maintained in complex systems under the threat of invasion.

Error response test system and method using test mask variable

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gender, Thomas K. (Inventor)

2006-01-01

An error response test system and method with increased functionality and improved performance is provided. The error response test system provides the ability to inject errors into the application under test to test the error response of the application under test in an automated and efficient manner. The error response system injects errors into the application through a test mask variable. The test mask variable is added to the application under test. During normal operation, the test mask variable is set to allow the application under test to operate normally. During testing, the error response test system can change the test mask variable to introduce an error into the application under test. The error response system can then monitor the application under test to determine whether the application has the correct response to the error.

78 FR 25972 - Establishment of the Response Systems to Adult Sexual Crimes Panel

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-05-03

.... 920 (Article 120 of the UCMJ). The Response Systems Panel's review shall include the following: a... recommendations and advice to the Response Systems Panel for full deliberation and discussion. Subcommittees, task... DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE Office of the Secretary Establishment of the Response Systems to Adult...

Benefits of Using Online Student Response Systems in Japanese EFL Classrooms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mork, Cathrine-Mette

2014-01-01

Online student response systems (OSRSs) are fast replacing classroom response systems (CRSs), also known as personal or audience response systems or "clickers". OSRSs can more easily be implemented in the classroom because they are web-based and allow students to use any browser and device to do the "clicking" required to…

An analytical study and wind tunnel tests of an aeromechanical gust-alleviation system for a light airplane

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stewart, E. C.

1976-01-01

The results of an analytical study of a system using stability derivatives determined in static wind tunnel tests of a 1/6 scale model of a popular, high wing, light airplane equipped with the gust alleviation system are reported. The longitudinal short period mode dynamics of the system are analyzed, and include the following: (1) root loci, (2) airplane frequency responses to vertical gusts, (3) power spectra of the airplane responses in a gust spectrum, (4) time history responses to vertical gusts, and (5) handling characteristics. The system reduces the airplane's normal acceleration response to vertical gusts while simultaneously increasing the pitching response and reducing the damping of the longitudinal short period mode. The normal acceleration response can be minimized by using the proper amount of static alleviation and a fast response system with a moderate amount of damping. The addition of a flap elevator interconnect or a pitch damper system further increases the alleviation while moderating the simultaneous increase in pitching response. The system provides direct lift control and may reduce the stick fixed longitudinal static stability.

Transformative Learning: Patterns of Psychophysiologic Response and Technology-Enabled Learning and Intervention Systems

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-09-01

Psychophysiologic Response and Technology -Enabled Learning and Intervention Systems PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: Leigh W. Jerome, Ph.D...NUMBER Transformative Learning : Patterns of Psychophysiologic Response and Technology - Enabled Learning and Intervention Systems 5b. GRANT NUMBER...project entitled “Transformative Learning : Patterns of Psychophysiologic Response in Technology Enabled Learning and Intervention Systems.” The

78 FR 63454 - Response Systems to Adult Sexual Assault Crimes Panel; Notice of Federal Advisory Committee Meeting

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-10-24

... DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE Office of the Secretary Response Systems to Adult Sexual Assault Crimes... Advisory Committee meeting of the Response Systems to Adult Sexual Assault Crimes Panel. DATES: A meeting of the Response Systems to Adult Sexual Assault Crimes Panel (``the Panel'') will be held November 7...

Aviation System Analysis Capability Quick Response System Report for Fiscal Year 1998

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ege, Russell; Villani, James; Ritter, Paul

1999-01-01

This document presents the additions and modifications made to the Quick Response System (QRS) in FY 1998 in support of the ASAC QRS development effort. this Document builds upon the Aviation System Analysis Capability Quick Responses System Report for Fiscal Year 1997.

Method of calibrating a fluid-level measurement system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Woodard, Stanley E. (Inventor); Taylor, Bryant D. (Inventor)

2010-01-01

A method of calibrating a fluid-level measurement system is provided. A first response of the system is recorded when the system's sensor(s) is (are) not in contact with a fluid of interest. A second response of the system is recorded when the system's sensor(s) is (are) fully immersed in the fluid of interest. Using the first and second responses, a plurality of expected responses of the system's sensor(s) is (are) generated for a corresponding plurality of levels of immersion of the sensor(s) in the fluid of interest.

48 CFR 234.003 - Responsibilities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 3 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Responsibilities. 234.003 Section 234.003 Federal Acquisition Regulations System DEFENSE ACQUISITION REGULATIONS SYSTEM, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE SPECIAL CATEGORIES OF CONTRACTING MAJOR SYSTEM ACQUISITION 234.003 Responsibilities. DoDD...

Rapid response systems.

PubMed

Lyons, Patrick G; Edelson, Dana P; Churpek, Matthew M

2018-07-01

Rapid response systems are commonly employed by hospitals to identify and respond to deteriorating patients outside of the intensive care unit. Controversy exists about the benefits of rapid response systems. We aimed to review the current state of the rapid response literature, including evolving aspects of afferent (risk detection) and efferent (intervention) arms, outcome measurement, process improvement, and implementation. Articles written in English and published in PubMed. Rapid response systems are heterogeneous, with important differences among afferent and efferent arms. Clinically meaningful outcomes may include unexpected mortality, in-hospital cardiac arrest, length of stay, cost, and processes of care at end of life. Both positive and negative interventional studies have been published, although the two largest randomized trials involving rapid response systems - the Medical Early Response and Intervention Trial (MERIT) and the Effect of a Pediatric Early Warning System on All-Cause Mortality in Hospitalized Pediatric Patients (EPOCH) trial - did not find a mortality benefit with these systems, albeit with important limitations. Advances in monitoring technologies, risk assessment strategies, and behavioral ergonomics may offer opportunities for improvement. Rapid responses may improve some meaningful outcomes, although these findings remain controversial. These systems may also improve care for patients at the end of life. Rapid response systems are expected to continue evolving with novel developments in monitoring technologies, risk prediction informatics, and work in human factors. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Community Environmental Response Facilitation Act (CERFA) Report, Sacramento Army Depot, Sacramento, California

DTIC Science & Technology

1994-04-01

Response, Compensation, and Liability Information System CERFA Community Environmental Response Facilitation Act CORTESE State-designated hazardous...waste cleanup sites DESCOM U.S. Army Depot Systems Command DTSC Department of Toxic Substance Control EMD Environmental Management Division EPA U.S...Environmental Protection Agency ERNS Emergency Response Notification system FFA Federal Facility Agreement FINDS Facility index system HWCSA Hazardous

Improved Academic Performance and Student Perceptions of Learning through Use of a Cell Phone-Based Personal Response System

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ma, Sihui; Steger, Daniel G.; Doolittle, Peter E.; Stewart, Amanda C.

2018-01-01

Personal response systems, such as clickers, have been widely used to improve the effectiveness of teaching in various classroom settings. Although hand-held clicker response systems have been the subject of multiple prior studies, few studies have focused on the use of cell phone-based personal response system (CPPRS) specifically. This study…

Stimulus Responsive Nanoparticles

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sierros, Konstantinos A. (Inventor); Cairns, Darran Robert (Inventor); Huebsch, Wade W. (Inventor); Shafran, Matthew S. (Inventor)

2017-01-01

Disclosed are various embodiments of methods and systems related to stimulus responsive nanoparticles. In one embodiment including a stimulus responsive nanoparticle system, the system includes a first electrode, a second electrode, and a plurality of elongated electro-responsive nanoparticles dispersed between the first and second electrodes, the plurality of electro-responsive nanorods configured to respond to an electric field established between the first and second electrodes.

Stimulus responsive nanoparticles

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cairns, Darren Robert (Inventor); Shafran, Matthew S. (Inventor); Huebsch, Wade W. (Inventor); Sierros, Konstantinos A. (Inventor)

2013-01-01

Disclosed are various embodiments of methods and systems related to stimulus responsive nanoparticles. In one embodiment includes a stimulus responsive nanoparticle system, the system includes a first electrode, a second electrode, and a plurality of elongated electro-responsive nanoparticles dispersed between the first and second electrodes, the plurality of electro-responsive nanorods configured to respond to an electric field established between the first and second electrodes.

Stimulus Responsive Nanoparticles

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cairns, Darran Robert (Inventor); Huebsch, Wade W. (Inventor); Sierros, Konstantinos A. (Inventor); Shafran, Matthew S. (Inventor)

2015-01-01

Disclosed are various embodiments of methods and systems related to stimulus responsive nanoparticles. In one embodiment includes a stimulus responsive nanoparticle system, the system includes a first electrode, a second electrode, and a plurality of elongated electro-responsive nanoparticles dispersed between the first and second electrodes, the plurality of electro-responsive nanorods configured to respond to an electric field established between the first and second electrodes.

Wireless Damage Location Sensing System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Woodard, Stanley E. (Inventor); Taylor, Bryant Douglas (Inventor)

2012-01-01

A wireless damage location sensing system uses a geometric-patterned wireless sensor that resonates in the presence of a time-varying magnetic field to generate a harmonic response that will experience a change when the sensor experiences a change in its geometric pattern. The sensing system also includes a magnetic field response recorder for wirelessly transmitting the time-varying magnetic field and for wirelessly detecting the harmonic response. The sensing system compares the actual harmonic response to a plurality of predetermined harmonic responses. Each predetermined harmonic response is associated with a severing of the sensor at a corresponding known location thereof so that a match between the actual harmonic response and one of the predetermined harmonic responses defines the known location of the severing that is associated therewith.

Method and system for an on-chip AC self-test controller

DOEpatents

Flanagan, John D [Rhinebeck, NY; Herring, Jay R [Poughkeepsie, NY; Lo, Tin-Chee [Fishkill, NY

2008-09-30

A method and system for performing AC self-test on an integrated circuit that includes a system clock for use during normal operation are provided. The method includes applying a long data capture pulse to a first test register in response to the system clock, applying an at speed data launch pulse to the first test register in response to the system clock, inputting the data from the first register to a logic path in response to applying the at speed data launch pulse to the first test register, applying an at speed data capture pulse to a second test register in response to the system clock, inputting the logic path output to the second test register in response to applying the at speed data capture pulse to the second test register, and applying a long data launch pulse to the second test register in response to the system clock.

75 FR 30845 - Request Voucher for Grant Payment and Line of Credit Control System (LOCCS) Voice Response System...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-06-02

... request vouchers for distribution of grant funds using the automated Voice Response System (VRS). An... Payment and Line of Credit Control System (LOCCS) Voice Response System Access Authorization AGENCY... subject proposal. Payment request vouchers for distribution of grant funds using the automated Voice...

77 FR 17462 - Notice of Submission for OMB Review; Institute of Education Sciences; Quick Response Information...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-03-26

... DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Notice of Submission for OMB Review; Institute of Education Sciences; Quick Response Information System (QRIS) 2012-2015 System Clearance SUMMARY: The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Quick Response Information System (QRIS) consists of the Fast Response Survey...

40 CFR 281.37 - Financial responsibility for UST systems containing petroleum.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... systems containing petroleum. 281.37 Section 281.37 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION... for No-Less-Stringent § 281.37 Financial responsibility for UST systems containing petroleum. (a) In... UST systems containing petroleum, the state requirements for financial responsibility for petroleum...

Application of Simulated Reactivity Feedback in Nonnuclear Testing of a Direct-Drive Gas-Cooled Reactor

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bragg-Sitton, S. M.; Webster, K. L.

2007-01-01

Nonnuclear testing can be a valuable tool in the development of an in-space nuclear power or propulsion system. In a nonnuclear test facility, electric heaters are used to simulate heat from nuclear fuel. Standard testing allows one to fully assess thermal, heat transfer, and stress related attributes of a given system but fails to demonstrate the dynamic response that would be present in an integrated, fueled reactor system. The integration of thermal hydraulic hardware tests with simulated neutronic response provides a bridge between electrically heated testing and full nuclear testing. By implementing a neutronic response model to simulate the dynamic response that would be expected in a fueled reactor system, one can better understand system integration issues, characterize integrated system response times and response and response characteristics, and assess potential design improvements with a relatively small fiscal investment. Initial system dynamic response testing was demonstrated on the integrated SAFE 100a heat pipe cooled, electrically heated reactor and heat exchanger hardware. This Technical Memorandum discusses the status of the planned dynamic test methodology for implementation in the direct-drive gas-cooled reactor testing and assesses the additional instrumentation needed to implement high-fidelity dynamic testing.

A HO-IRT Based Diagnostic Assessment System with Constructed Response Items

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yang, Chih-Wei; Kuo, Bor-Chen; Liao, Chen-Huei

2011-01-01

The aim of the present study was to develop an on-line assessment system with constructed response items in the context of elementary mathematics curriculum. The system recorded the problem solving process of constructed response items and transfered the process to response codes for further analyses. An inference mechanism based on artificial…

Implementing a vector surveillance-response system for chagas disease control: a 4-year field trial in Nicaragua.

PubMed

Yoshioka, Kota; Tercero, Doribel; Pérez, Byron; Nakamura, Jiro; Pérez, Lenin

2017-03-06

Chagas disease is one of the neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). International goals for its control involve elimination of vector-borne transmission. Central American countries face challenges in establishing sustainable vector control programmes, since the main vector, Triatoma dimidiata, cannot be eliminated. In 2012, the Ministry of Health in Nicaragua started a field test of a vector surveillance-response system to control domestic vector infestation. This paper reports the main findings from this pilot study. This study was carried out from 2012 to 2015 in the Municipality of Totogalpa. The Japan International Cooperation Agency provided technical cooperation in designing and monitoring the surveillance-response system until 2014. This system involved 1) vector reports by householders to health facilities, 2) data analysis and planning of responses at the municipal health centre and 3) house visits or insecticide spraying by health personnel as a response. We registered all vector reports and responses in a digital database. The collected data were used to describe and analyse the system performance in terms of amount of vector reports as well as rates and timeliness of responses. During the study period, T. dimidiata was reported 396 times. Spatiotemporal analysis identified some high-risk clusters. All houses reported to be infested were visited by health personnel in 2013 and this response rate dropped to 39% in 2015. Rates of insecticide spraying rose above 80% in 2013 but no spraying was carried out in the following 2 years. The timeliness of house visits improved significantly after the responsibility was transferred from a vector control technician to primary health care staff. We argue that the proposed vector surveillance-response system is workable within the resource-constrained health system in Nicaragua. Integration to the primary health care services was a key to improve the system performance. Continual efforts are necessary to keep adapting the surveillance-response system to the dynamic health systems. We also discuss that the goal of eliminating vector-borne transmission remains unachievable. This paper provides lessons not only for Chagas disease control in Central America, but also for control efforts for other NTDs that need a sustainable surveillance-response system to support elimination.

Experiences of faculty and students using an audience response system in the classroom.

PubMed

Thomas, Christine M; Monturo, Cheryl; Conroy, Katherine

2011-07-01

The advent of innovative technologies, such as the audience response system, provides an opportunity to engage students and enhance learning. Based on their experiences, three nursing faculty evaluated the use of an audience response system in four distinct nursing courses through the use of informal survey results. When using the audience response system, the faculty experienced an increased perception of student attentiveness and engagement, high level of class attendance, and enhanced learning. Faculty feelings were mixed concerning the burden in adapting to increased classroom time and increased preparation time. Students' perception of the value of audience response system use was mostly positive, except when responses were included as part of the grade. The majority of the students indicated that use of the audience response system enhanced learning and was a helpful learning method when used with NCLEX-style questions. Overall, faculty believed that the benefits of student engagement and enhanced learning outweighed the burdens of incorporating this new technology in the classroom.

Experimental investigation of stress-inducing properties of system response times.

PubMed

Kuhmann, W

1989-03-01

System response times are regarded as a major stressor in human-computer interaction. In two earlier studies short (2s) and long (8s) response times were found to have differential effects on psychological, subjective, and performance variables, but results did not favour either response time. Therefore, in another laboratory study with 48 subjects in four independent groups working at a stimulated computer workplace, system response times of 2, 4, 6 and 8s were introduced in the same error detection task as used before, during 3 training and 5 working trials of 20 min each, and the same physiological, subjective and performance measures were obtained. There were no global effects on physiological variables, possibly due to low work load as a result of missing time pressure, but subjective and performance variables clearly favoured the longer system response times. When task periods and response time-periods were analysed separately, a shift of electrodermal activity could be observed from task- to response time-periods during the course of trials in the 8s condition. This did not appear in any other condition, which points to psychophysiological excitement that develops when system response times are too long, thus providing support for the concept of optimal system response times.

Evaluating the Reliability of Emergency Response Systems for Large-Scale Incident Operations

PubMed Central

Jackson, Brian A.; Faith, Kay Sullivan; Willis, Henry H.

2012-01-01

Abstract The ability to measure emergency preparedness—to predict the likely performance of emergency response systems in future events—is critical for policy analysis in homeland security. Yet it remains difficult to know how prepared a response system is to deal with large-scale incidents, whether it be a natural disaster, terrorist attack, or industrial or transportation accident. This research draws on the fields of systems analysis and engineering to apply the concept of system reliability to the evaluation of emergency response systems. The authors describe a method for modeling an emergency response system; identifying how individual parts of the system might fail; and assessing the likelihood of each failure and the severity of its effects on the overall response effort. The authors walk the reader through two applications of this method: a simplified example in which responders must deliver medical treatment to a certain number of people in a specified time window, and a more complex scenario involving the release of chlorine gas. The authors also describe an exploratory analysis in which they parsed a set of after-action reports describing real-world incidents, to demonstrate how this method can be used to quantitatively analyze data on past response performance. The authors conclude with a discussion of how this method of measuring emergency response system reliability could inform policy discussion of emergency preparedness, how system reliability might be improved, and the costs of doing so. PMID:28083267

Interactive Response Systems (IRS) Socrative Application Sample

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aslan, Bilge; Seker, Hasan

2017-01-01

In globally developing education system, technology has made instructional improved in many ways. One of these improvements is the Interactive Response Systems (IRS) that are applied in classroom activities. Therefore, it is "smart" to focus on interactive response systems in learning environment. This study was conducted aiming to focus…

41 CFR 102-118.350 - Does establishing a prepayment audit system or program change the responsibilities of the...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... prepayment audit system or program change the responsibilities of the certifying officers? 102-118.350... System (Continued) FEDERAL MANAGEMENT REGULATION TRANSPORTATION 118-TRANSPORTATION PAYMENT AND AUDIT... Does establishing a prepayment audit system or program change the responsibilities of the certifying...

Dynamic Response Testing in an Electrically Heated Reactor Test Facility

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bragg-Sitton, Shannon M.; Morton, T. J.

2006-01-01

Non-nuclear testing can be a valuable tool in the development of a space nuclear power or propulsion system. In a non-nuclear test bed, electric heaters are used to simulate the heat from nuclear fuel. Standard testing allows one to fully assess thermal, heat transfer, and stress related attributes of a given system, but fails to demonstrate the dynamic response that would be present in an integrated, fueled reactor system. The integration of thermal hydraulic hardware tests with simulated neutronic response provides a bridge between electrically heated testing and fueled nuclear testing. By implementing a neutronic response model to simulate the dynamic response that would be expected in a fueled reactor system, one can better understand system integration issues, characterize integrated system response times and response characteristics, and assess potential design improvements at a relatively small fiscal investment. Initial system dynamic response testing was demonstrated on the integrated SAFE-100a heat pipe (HP) cooled, electrically heated reactor and heat exchanger hardware, utilizing a one-group solution to the point kinetics equations to simulate the expected neutronic response of the system. Reactivity feedback calculations were then based on a bulk reactivity feedback coefficient and measured average core temperature. This paper presents preliminary results from similar dynamic testing of a direct drive gas cooled reactor system (DDG), demonstrating the applicability of the testing methodology to any reactor type and demonstrating the variation in system response characteristics in different reactor concepts. Although the HP and DDG designs both utilize a fast spectrum reactor, the method of cooling the reactor differs significantly, leading to a variable system response that can be demonstrated and assessed in a non-nuclear test facility. Planned system upgrades to allow implementation of higher fidelity dynamic testing are also discussed. Proposed DDG testing will utilize a higher fidelity point kinetics model to control core power transients, and reactivity feedback will be based on localized feedback coefficients and several independent temperature measurements taken within the core block. This paper presents preliminary test results and discusses the methodology that will be implemented in follow-on DDG testing and the additional instrumentation required to implement high fidelity dynamic testing.

Demand Response For Power System Reliability: FAQ

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

Kirby, Brendan J

2006-12-01

Demand response is the most underutilized power system reliability resource in North America. Technological advances now make it possible to tap this resource to both reduce costs and improve. Misconceptions concerning response capabilities tend to force loads to provide responses that they are less able to provide and often prohibit them from providing the most valuable reliability services. Fortunately this is beginning to change with some ISOs making more extensive use of load response. This report is structured as a series of short questions and answers that address load response capabilities and power system reliability needs. Its objective is tomore » further the use of responsive load as a bulk power system reliability resource in providing the fastest and most valuable ancillary services.« less

Method and system for an on-chip AC self-test controller

DOEpatents

Flanagan, John D.; Herring, Jay R.; Lo, Tin-Chee

2006-06-06

A method for performing AC self-test on an integrated circuit, including a system clock for use during normal operation. The method includes applying a long data capture pulse to a first test register in response to the system clock, and further applying at an speed data launch pulse to the first test register in response to the system clock. Inputting the data from the first register to a logic path in response to applying the at speed data launch pulse to the first test register. Applying at speed data capture pulse to a second test register in response to the system clock. Inputting the output from the logic path to the second test register in response to applying the at speed data capture pulse to the second register. Applying a long data launch pulse to the second test register in response to the system clock.

Control of Initialized Fractional-Order Systems. Revised

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hartley, Tom T.; Lorenzo, Carl F.

2002-01-01

Due to the importance of historical effects in fractional-order systems, this paper presents a general fractional-order control theory that includes the time-varying initialization response. Previous studies have not properly accounted for these historical effects. The initialization response, along with the forced response, for fractional-order systems is determined. Stability properties of fractional-order systems are presented in the complex w-plane, which is a transformation of the s-plane. Time responses are discussed with respect to pole positions in the complex w-plane and frequency response behavior is included. A fractional-order vector space representation, which is a generalization of the state space concept, is presented including the initialization response. Control methods for vector representations of initialized fractional-order systems are shown. Nyquist, root-locus, and other input-output control methods are adapted to the control of fractional-order systems. Finally, the fractional-order differintegral is generalized to continuous order-distributions that have the possibility of including a continuum of fractional orders in a system element.

Non-linear dynamic compensation system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lin, Yu-Hwan (Inventor); Lurie, Boris J. (Inventor)

1992-01-01

A non-linear dynamic compensation subsystem is added in the feedback loop of a high precision optical mirror positioning control system to smoothly alter the control system response bandwidth from a relatively wide response bandwidth optimized for speed of control system response to a bandwidth sufficiently narrow to reduce position errors resulting from the quantization noise inherent in the inductosyn used to measure mirror position. The non-linear dynamic compensation system includes a limiter for limiting the error signal within preselected limits, a compensator for modifying the limiter output to achieve the reduced bandwidth response, and an adder for combining the modified error signal with the difference between the limited and unlimited error signals. The adder output is applied to control system motor so that the system response is optimized for accuracy when the error signal is within the preselected limits, optimized for speed of response when the error signal is substantially beyond the preselected limits and smoothly varied therebetween as the error signal approaches the preselected limits.

Control of Initialized Fractional-Order Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hartly, Tom T.; Lorenzo, Carl F.

2002-01-01

Due to the importance of historical effects in fractional-order systems, this paper presents a general fractional-order control theory that includes the time-varying initialization response. Previous studies have not properly accounted for these historical effects. The initialization response, along with the forced response, for fractional-order systems is determined. Stability properties of fractional-order systems are presented in the complex Airplane, which is a transformation of the s-plane. Time responses are discussed with respect to pole positions in the complex Airplane and frequency response behavior is included. A fractional-order vector space representation, which is a generalization of the state space concept, is presented including the initialization response. Control methods for vector representations of initialized fractional-order systems are shown. Nyquist, root-locus, and other input-output control methods are adapted to the control of fractional-order systems. Finally, the fractional-order differintegral is generalized to continuous order-distributions that have the possibility of including a continuum of fractional orders in a system element.

Optimal Linear Responses for Markov Chains and Stochastically Perturbed Dynamical Systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Antown, Fadi; Dragičević, Davor; Froyland, Gary

2018-03-01

The linear response of a dynamical system refers to changes to properties of the system when small external perturbations are applied. We consider the little-studied question of selecting an optimal perturbation so as to (i) maximise the linear response of the equilibrium distribution of the system, (ii) maximise the linear response of the expectation of a specified observable, and (iii) maximise the linear response of the rate of convergence of the system to the equilibrium distribution. We also consider the inhomogeneous, sequential, or time-dependent situation where the governing dynamics is not stationary and one wishes to select a sequence of small perturbations so as to maximise the overall linear response at some terminal time. We develop the theory for finite-state Markov chains, provide explicit solutions for some illustrative examples, and numerically apply our theory to stochastically perturbed dynamical systems, where the Markov chain is replaced by a matrix representation of an approximate annealed transfer operator for the random dynamical system.

[Characteristics of the sympathoadrenal system response to psychoemotional stress under hypoxic conditions in aged people with physiological and accelerated aging of the respiratory system].

PubMed

Asanov, E O; Os'mak, Ie D; Kuz'mins'ka, L A

2013-01-01

The peculiarities of the response of the sympathoadrenal system to psychoemotional and hypoxic stress in healthy young people and in aged people with physiological and accelerated aging of respiratory system were studied. It was shown that in aging a more pronounced response of the sympathoadrenal system to psychoemotional stress. At the same time, elderly people with different types of aging of the respiratory system did not demonstrate a difference in the response of the sympathoadrenal system to psychoemotional stress. Unlike in young people, in aged people, combination of psychoemotional and hypoxic stresses resulted in further activation of the sympathoadrenal system. The reaction of the sympathoadrenal system was more expressed in elderly people with accelerated ageing of the respiratory system.

Pilot study to examine use of transverse vibration nondestructive evaluation for assessing floor systems

Treesearch

Zhiyong Cai; Robert J. Ross; Michael O. Hunt; Lawrence A. Soltis

2002-01-01

Evaluation of existing timber structures requires procedures to evaluate in situ structural members and components. This report evaluates the transverse vibration response of laboratory-built floor systems with new and salvaged joists. The objectives were to 1) compare floor system response to individual member response; 2) examine response sensitivity to location of...

49 CFR 37.77 - Purchase or lease of new non-rail vehicles by public entities operating a demand responsive...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... public entities operating a demand responsive system for the general public. 37.77 Section 37.77...-rail vehicles by public entities operating a demand responsive system for the general public. (a) Except as provided in this section, a public entity operating a demand responsive system for the general...

49 CFR 37.77 - Purchase or lease of new non-rail vehicles by public entities operating a demand responsive...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... public entities operating a demand responsive system for the general public. 37.77 Section 37.77...-rail vehicles by public entities operating a demand responsive system for the general public. (a) Except as provided in this section, a public entity operating a demand responsive system for the general...

49 CFR 37.77 - Purchase or lease of new non-rail vehicles by public entities operating a demand responsive...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... public entities operating a demand responsive system for the general public. 37.77 Section 37.77...-rail vehicles by public entities operating a demand responsive system for the general public. (a) Except as provided in this section, a public entity operating a demand responsive system for the general...

49 CFR 37.77 - Purchase or lease of new non-rail vehicles by public entities operating a demand responsive...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... public entities operating a demand responsive system for the general public. 37.77 Section 37.77...-rail vehicles by public entities operating a demand responsive system for the general public. (a) Except as provided in this section, a public entity operating a demand responsive system for the general...

After-action review of the 2009-10 H1N1 Influenza Outbreak Response: Ohio's Public Health System's performance.

PubMed

Mase, William A; Bickford, Beth; Thomas, Casey L; Jones, Shamika D; Bisesi, Michael

In early 2009, H1N1 influenza was identified within the human population. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) officials responded with focused assessment, policy development, and assurances. The response was mobilized through efforts including procurement of adequate vaccine supply, local area span of control, materials acquisition, and facilities and resource identification. Qualitative evaluation of the assurance functions specific to the system's ability to assure safe and healthy conditions are reported. The methodology mirrors the Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program used to assess system capability. Findings demonstrate the effectiveness of community responsive disease prevention efforts in partnership with the public health systems mission to unify traditional public sector systems, for-profit systems, and local area systems was accomplished. As a result of this response pharmaceutical industries, healthcare providers, healthcare agencies, police/safety, colleges, and health and human service agencies were united. Findings demonstrate the effectiveness of community response strategies utilizing feedback from system stakeholders. After-action review processes are critical in all-hazards preparedness. This analysis of local health district response to the H1N1 influenza outbreak informs future public health service delivery. Results provide a synthesis of local health department's emergency response strategies, challenges encountered, and future-focused emergency response strategy implementation. A synthesis is provided as to policy and practice developments which have emerged over the past seven years with regard to lessons learned from the 2009-10 H1N1 influenza outbreak and response.

Evaluation of Mucosal and Systemic Immune Responses Elicited by GPI-0100- Adjuvanted Influenza Vaccine Delivered by Different Immunization Strategies

PubMed Central

Liu, Heng; Patil, Harshad P.; de Vries-Idema, Jacqueline; Wilschut, Jan; Huckriede, Anke

2013-01-01

Vaccines for protection against respiratory infections should optimally induce a mucosal immune response in the respiratory tract in addition to a systemic immune response. However, current parenteral immunization modalities generally fail to induce mucosal immunity, while mucosal vaccine delivery often results in poor systemic immunity. In order to find an immunization strategy which satisfies the need for induction of both mucosal and systemic immunity, we compared local and systemic immune responses elicited by two mucosal immunizations, given either by the intranasal (IN) or the intrapulmonary (IPL) route, with responses elicited by a mucosal prime followed by a systemic boost immunization. The study was conducted in BALB/c mice and the vaccine formulation was an influenza subunit vaccine supplemented with GPI-0100, a saponin-derived adjuvant. While optimal mucosal antibody titers were obtained after two intrapulmonary vaccinations, optimal systemic antibody responses were achieved by intranasal prime followed by intramuscular boost. The latter strategy also resulted in the best T cell response, yet, it was ineffective in inducing nose or lung IgA. Successful induction of secretory IgA, IgG and T cell responses was only achieved with prime-boost strategies involving intrapulmonary immunization and was optimal when both immunizations were given via the intrapulmonary route. Our results underline that immunization via the lungs is particularly effective for priming as well as boosting of local and systemic immune responses. PMID:23936066

48 CFR 2434.003 - Responsibilities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 6 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Responsibilities. 2434.003 Section 2434.003 Federal Acquisition Regulations System DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT GENERAL CONTRACTING REQUIREMENTS MAJOR SYSTEM ACQUISITIONS 2434.003 Responsibilities. (a) The Senior...

48 CFR 2434.003 - Responsibilities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 6 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Responsibilities. 2434.003 Section 2434.003 Federal Acquisition Regulations System DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT GENERAL CONTRACTING REQUIREMENTS MAJOR SYSTEM ACQUISITIONS 2434.003 Responsibilities. (a) The Senior...

48 CFR 2434.003 - Responsibilities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 6 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Responsibilities. 2434.003 Section 2434.003 Federal Acquisition Regulations System DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT GENERAL CONTRACTING REQUIREMENTS MAJOR SYSTEM ACQUISITIONS 2434.003 Responsibilities. (a) The Senior...

48 CFR 2434.003 - Responsibilities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 6 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Responsibilities. 2434.003 Section 2434.003 Federal Acquisition Regulations System DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT GENERAL CONTRACTING REQUIREMENTS MAJOR SYSTEM ACQUISITIONS 2434.003 Responsibilities. (a) The Senior...

48 CFR 2434.003 - Responsibilities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 6 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 true Responsibilities. 2434.003 Section 2434.003 Federal Acquisition Regulations System DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT GENERAL CONTRACTING REQUIREMENTS MAJOR SYSTEM ACQUISITIONS 2434.003 Responsibilities. (a) The Senior...

Input-output characterization of an ultrasonic testing system by digital signal analysis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Williams, J. H., Jr.; Lee, S. S.; Karagulle, H.

1986-01-01

Ultrasonic test system input-output characteristics were investigated by directly coupling the transmitting and receiving transducers face to face without a test specimen. Some of the fundamentals of digital signal processing were summarized. Input and output signals were digitized by using a digital oscilloscope, and the digitized data were processed in a microcomputer by using digital signal-processing techniques. The continuous-time test system was modeled as a discrete-time, linear, shift-invariant system. In estimating the unit-sample response and frequency response of the discrete-time system, it was necessary to use digital filtering to remove low-amplitude noise, which interfered with deconvolution calculations. A digital bandpass filter constructed with the assistance of a Blackman window and a rectangular time window were used. Approximations of the impulse response and the frequency response of the continuous-time test system were obtained by linearly interpolating the defining points of the unit-sample response and the frequency response of the discrete-time system. The test system behaved as a linear-phase bandpass filter in the frequency range 0.6 to 2.3 MHz. These frequencies were selected in accordance with the criterion that they were 6 dB below the maximum peak of the amplitude of the frequency response. The output of the system to various inputs was predicted and the results were compared with the corresponding measurements on the system.

Device for rapid quantification of human carotid baroreceptor-cardiac reflex responses

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sprenkle, J. M.; Eckberg, D. L.; Goble, R. L.; Schelhorn, J. J.; Halliday, H. C.

1986-01-01

A new device has been designed, constructed, and evaluated to characterize the human carotid baroreceptor-cardiac reflex response relation rapidly. This system was designed for study of reflex responses of astronauts before, during, and after space travel. The system comprises a new tightly sealing silicon rubber neck chamber, a stepping motor-driven electrodeposited nickel bellows pressure system, capable of delivering sequential R-wave-triggered neck chamber pressure changes between +40 and -65 mmHg, and a microprocessor-based electronics system for control of pressure steps and analysis and display of responses. This new system provokes classic sigmoid baroreceptor-cardiac reflex responses with threshold, linear, and saturation ranges in most human volunteers during one held expiration.

78 FR 70023 - Response Systems to Adult Sexual Assault Crimes Panel; Notice of Federal Advisory Committee Meeting

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-11-22

... developing recommendations regarding how to improve the effectiveness of such systems. The Panel is... DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE Office of the Secretary Response Systems to Adult Sexual Assault Crimes... Advisory Committee meeting of the Response Systems to Adult Sexual Assault Crimes Panel. This meeting is...

Inverse full state hybrid projective synchronization for chaotic maps with different dimensions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ouannas, Adel; Grassi, Giuseppe

2016-09-01

A new synchronization scheme for chaotic (hyperchaotic) maps with different dimensions is presented. Specifically, given a drive system map with dimension n and a response system with dimension m, the proposed approach enables each drive system state to be synchronized with a linear response combination of the response system states. The method, based on the Lyapunov stability theory and the pole placement technique, presents some useful features: (i) it enables synchronization to be achieved for both cases of n < m and n > m; (ii) it is rigorous, being based on theorems; (iii) it can be readily applied to any chaotic (hyperchaotic) maps defined to date. Finally, the capability of the approach is illustrated by synchronization examples between the two-dimensional Hénon map (as the drive system) and the three-dimensional hyperchaotic Wang map (as the response system), and the three-dimensional Hénon-like map (as the drive system) and the two-dimensional Lorenz discrete-time system (as the response system).

Step-control of electromechanical systems

DOEpatents

Lewis, Robert N.

1979-01-01

The response of an automatic control system to a general input signal is improved by applying a test input signal, observing the response to the test input signal and determining correctional constants necessary to provide a modified input signal to be added to the input to the system. A method is disclosed for determining correctional constants. The modified input signal, when applied in conjunction with an operating signal, provides a total system output exhibiting an improved response. This method is applicable to open-loop or closed-loop control systems. The method is also applicable to unstable systems, thus allowing controlled shut-down before dangerous or destructive response is achieved and to systems whose characteristics vary with time, thus resulting in improved adaptive systems.

48 CFR 1334.003 - Responsibilities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 5 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Responsibilities. 1334.003 Section 1334.003 Federal Acquisition Regulations System DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE SPECIAL CATEGORIES OF CONTRACTING MAJOR SYSTEM ACQUISITION General 1334.003 Responsibilities. (a) The designee authorized to carry...

48 CFR 1334.003 - Responsibilities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 5 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Responsibilities. 1334.003 Section 1334.003 Federal Acquisition Regulations System DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE SPECIAL CATEGORIES OF CONTRACTING MAJOR SYSTEM ACQUISITION General 1334.003 Responsibilities. (a) The designee authorized to carry...

48 CFR 1334.003 - Responsibilities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 5 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Responsibilities. 1334.003 Section 1334.003 Federal Acquisition Regulations System DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE SPECIAL CATEGORIES OF CONTRACTING MAJOR SYSTEM ACQUISITION General 1334.003 Responsibilities. (a) The designee authorized to carry...

48 CFR 1334.003 - Responsibilities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 5 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Responsibilities. 1334.003 Section 1334.003 Federal Acquisition Regulations System DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE SPECIAL CATEGORIES OF CONTRACTING MAJOR SYSTEM ACQUISITION General 1334.003 Responsibilities. (a) The designee authorized to carry...

48 CFR 1334.003 - Responsibilities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 5 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Responsibilities. 1334.003 Section 1334.003 Federal Acquisition Regulations System DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE SPECIAL CATEGORIES OF CONTRACTING MAJOR SYSTEM ACQUISITION General 1334.003 Responsibilities. (a) The designee authorized to carry...

Healthcare system responsiveness in Jiangsu Province, China.

PubMed

Chao, Jianqian; Lu, Boyang; Zhang, Hua; Zhu, Liguo; Jin, Hui; Liu, Pei

2017-01-13

The perceived responsiveness of a healthcare system reflects its ability to satisfy reasonable expectations of the public with respect to non-medical services. Recently, there has been increasing attention paid to responsiveness in evaluating the performance of a healthcare system in a variety of service settings. However, the factors that affect the responsiveness have been inconclusive so far and measures of improved responsiveness have not always thoroughly considered the factors. The aim of this study was to evaluate both the responsiveness of the healthcare system in Jiangsu Province, China, the factors that influence responsiveness and the measures of improved responsiveness considering it, as determined by a responsiveness survey. A multistage, stratified random sampling method was used to select 1938 adult residents of Jiangsu Province in 2011. Face-to-face interviews were conducted using a self-designed questionnaire modeled on the World Health Organization proposal. The final analysis was based on 1783 (92%) valid questionnaires. Canonical correlation analysis was used to assess the factors that affect responsiveness. The average score of all responsiveness-related domains in the surveyed healthcare system was satisfactory (7.50 out of a maximum 10.0). The two highest scoring domains were dignity and confidentiality, and the two lowest scoring domains choice and prompt attention. The factors affecting responsiveness were age, regional economic development level, and geographic area (urban vs. rural). The responsiveness regarding basic amenities was rated worse by the elderly than by younger respondents. Responsiveness ranked better by those with a poorer economic status. Choice in cities was better than in rural regions. The responsiveness of the Jiangsu healthcare system was considered to be satisfactory but could be improved by offering greater choice and providing more prompt attention. Perceptions of healthcare system responsiveness differ with age, regional economic development level, and geographic area (urban vs. rural). Measures to increase the perceived level of responsiveness include better service at higher level hospitals, shorter waiting time, more hospitals in rural regions, an improved medical environment, and provision of infrastructures that makes the medical environments more comfortable.

Design of energy storage system to improve inertial response for large scale PV generation

DOE PAGES

Wang, Xiaoyu; Yue, Meng

2016-07-01

With high-penetration levels of renewable generating sources being integrated into the existing electric power grid, conventional generators are being replaced and grid inertial response is deteriorating. This technical challenge is more severe with photovoltaic (PV) generation than with wind generation because PV generation systems cannot provide inertial response unless special countermeasures are adopted. To enhance the inertial response, this paper proposes to use battery energy storage systems (BESS) as the remediation approach to accommodate the degrading inertial response when high penetrations of PV generation are integrated into the existing power grid. A sample power system was adopted and simulated usingmore » PSS/E software. Here, impacts of different penetration levels of PV generation on the system inertial response were investigated and then BESS was incorporated to improve the frequency dynamics.« less

I Like the Way This Feels: Using Classroom Response System Technology to Enhance Tactile Learners' Introductory American Government Experience

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ulbig, Stacy G.

2016-01-01

Do individual-level student learning styles affect appreciation for and benefit from the use of classroom response system technology? This research investigates the benefit of in-class electronic classroom response systems ("classroom clickers"). With these systems, students answer questions posed to them in a PowerPoint presentation…

Qualitative and quantitative outcomes of audience response systems as an educational tool in a plastic surgery residency program.

PubMed

Arneja, Jugpal S; Narasimhan, Kailash; Bouwman, David; Bridge, Patrick D

2009-12-01

In-training evaluations in graduate medical education have typically been challenging. Although the majority of standardized examination delivery methods have become computer-based, in-training examinations generally remain pencil-paper-based, if they are performed at all. Audience response systems present a novel way to stimulate and evaluate the resident-learner. The purpose of this study was to assess the outcomes of audience response systems testing as compared with traditional testing in a plastic surgery residency program. A prospective 1-year pilot study of 10 plastic surgery residents was performed using audience response systems-delivered testing for the first half of the academic year and traditional pencil-paper testing for the second half. Examination content was based on monthly "Core Quest" curriculum conferences. Quantitative outcome measures included comparison of pretest and posttest and cumulative test scores of both formats. Qualitative outcomes from the individual participants were obtained by questionnaire. When using the audience response systems format, pretest and posttest mean scores were 67.5 and 82.5 percent, respectively; using traditional pencil-paper format, scores were 56.5 percent and 79.5 percent. A comparison of the cumulative mean audience response systems score (85.0 percent) and traditional pencil-paper score (75.0 percent) revealed statistically significantly higher scores with audience response systems (p = 0.01). Qualitative outcomes revealed increased conference enthusiasm, greater enjoyment of testing, and no user difficulties with the audience response systems technology. The audience response systems modality of in-training evaluation captures participant interest and reinforces material more effectively than traditional pencil-paper testing does. The advantages include a more interactive learning environment, stimulation of class participation, immediate feedback to residents, and immediate tabulation of results for the educator. Disadvantages include start-up costs and lead-time preparation.

Drug-induced and genetic alterations in stress-responsive systems: Implications for specific addictive diseases.

PubMed

Zhou, Yan; Proudnikov, Dmitri; Yuferov, Vadim; Kreek, Mary Jeanne

2010-02-16

From the earliest work in our laboratory, we hypothesized, and with studies conducted in both clinical research and animal models, we have shown that drugs of abuse, administered or self-administered, on a chronic basis, profoundly alter stress-responsive systems. Alterations of expression of specific genes involved in stress responsivity, with increases or decreases in mRNA levels, receptor, and neuropeptide levels, and resultant changes in hormone levels, have been documented to occur after chronic intermittent exposure to heroin, morphine, other opiates, cocaine, other stimulants, and alcohol in animal models and in human molecular genetics. The best studied of the stress-responsive systems in humans and mammalian species in general is undoubtedly the HPA axis. In addition, there are stress-responsive systems in other parts in the brain itself, and some of these include components of the HPA axis, such as CRF and CRF receptors, along with POMC gene and gene products. Several other stress-responsive systems are known to influence the HPA axis, such as the vasopressin-vasopressin receptor system. Orexin-hypocretin, acting at its receptors, may effect changes which suggest that it should be properly categorized as a stress-responsive system. However, less is known about the interactions and connectivity of some of these different neuropeptide and receptor systems, and in particular, about the possible connectivity of fast-acting (e.g., glutamate and GABA) and slow-acting (including dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine) neurotransmitters with each of these stress-responsive components and the resultant impact, especially in the setting of chronic exposure to drugs of abuse. Several of these stress-responsive systems and components, primarily based on our laboratory-based and human molecular genetics research of addictive diseases, will be briefly discussed in this review. Copyright 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Analysis of Smartphone Interruptions on Academic General Internal Medicine Wards

PubMed Central

C.Wu, Robert

2017-01-01

Summary Introduction Hospital-based medical services are increasingly utilizing team-based pagers and smartphones to streamline communications. However, an unintended consequence may be higher volumes of interruptions potentially leading to medical error. There is likely a level at which interruptions are excessive and cause a ‘crisis mode’ climate. Methods We retrospectively collected phone, text messaging, and email interruptions directed to hospital-assigned smartphones on eight General Internal Medicine (GIM) teams at two tertiary care centres in Toronto, Ontario from April 2013 to September 2014. We also calculated the number of times these interruptions exceeded a pre-specified threshold per hour, termed ‘crisis mode’, defined as at least five interruptions in 30 minutes. We analyzed the correlation between interruptions and date, site, and patient volumes. Results A total of 187,049 interruptions were collected over an 18-month period. Daily weekday interruptions rose sharply in the morning, peaking between 11 AM to 12 PM and measuring 4.8 and 3.7 mean interruptions/hour at each site, respectively. Mean daily interruptions per team totaled 46.2 ± 3.6 at Site 1 and 39.2 ± 4.2 at Site 2. The ‘crisis mode’ threshold was exceeded, on average, 2.3 times/day per GIM team during weekdays. In a multivariable linear regression analysis, site (β6.43 CI95% 5.44 – 7.42, p<0.001), day of the week (with Friday having the most interruptions) (β0.481 CI95% 0.236 – 0.730, p<0.05) and patient census (β1.55 CI95% 1.42 – 1.67, p<0.05) were all predictive of daily interruption volume although there was a significant interaction effect between site and patient census (β-0.941 CI95% -1.18 – -0.703, p<0.05). Conclusion Interruptions were related to site-specific features, including volume, suggesting that future interventions should target the culture of individual hospitals. Excessive interruptions may have implications for patient safety especially when exceeding a maximal threshold over short periods of time. PMID:28066851

How Adolescents Use Technology for Health Information: Implications for Health Professionals from Focus Group Studies

PubMed Central

Biscope, Sherry; Poland, Blake; Goldberg, Eudice

2003-01-01

Background Adolescents present many challenges in providing them effective preventive services and health care. Yet, they are typically the early adopters of new technology (eg, the Internet). This creates important opportunities for engaging youths via eHealth. Objective To describe how adolescents use technology for their health-information needs, identify the challenges they face, and highlight some emerging roles of health professionals regarding eHealth services for adolescents. Methods Using an inductive qualitative research design, 27 focus groups were conducted in Ontario, Canada. The 210 participants (55% female, 45% male; median age 16 years) were selected to reflect diversity in age, sex, geographic location, cultural identity, and risk. An 8-person team analyzed and coded the data according to major themes. Results Study participants most-frequently sought or distributed information related to school (89%), interacting with friends (85%), social concerns (85%), specific medical conditions (67%), body image and nutrition (63%), violence and personal safety (59%), and sexual health (56%). Finding personally-relevant, high-quality information was a pivotal challenge that has ramifications on the depth and types of information that adolescents can find to answer their health questions. Privacy in accessing information technology was a second key challenge. Participants reported using technologies that clustered into 4 domains along a continuum from highly-interactive to fixed information sources: (1) personal communication: telephone, cell phone, and pager; (2) social communication: e-mail, instant messaging, chat, and bulletin boards; (3) interactive environments: Web sites, search engines, and computers; and (4) unidirectional sources: television, radio, and print. Three emerging roles for health professionals in eHealth include: (1) providing an interface for adolescents with technology and assisting them in finding pertinent information sources; (2) enhancing connection to youths by extending ways and times when practitioners are available; and (3) fostering critical appraisal skills among youths for evaluating the quality of health information. Conclusions This study helps illuminate adolescent health-information needs, their use of information technologies, and emerging roles for health professionals. The findings can inform the design and more-effective use of eHealth applications for adolescent populations. PMID:14713660

Analysis of Smartphone Interruptions on Academic General Internal Medicine Wards. Frequent Interruptions may cause a 'Crisis Mode' Work Climate.

PubMed

Vaisman, Alon; Wu, Robert C

2017-01-04

Hospital-based medical services are increasingly utilizing team-based pagers and smartphones to streamline communications. However, an unintended consequence may be higher volumes of interruptions potentially leading to medical error. There is likely a level at which interruptions are excessive and cause a 'crisis mode' climate. We retrospectively collected phone, text messaging, and email interruptions directed to hospital-assigned smartphones on eight General Internal Medicine (GIM) teams at two tertiary care centres in Toronto, Ontario from April 2013 to September 2014. We also calculated the number of times these interruptions exceeded a pre-specified threshold per hour, termed 'crisis mode', defined as at least five interruptions in 30 minutes. We analyzed the correlation between interruptions and date, site, and patient volumes. A total of 187,049 interruptions were collected over an 18-month period. Daily weekday interruptions rose sharply in the morning, peaking between 11 AM to 12 PM and measuring 4.8 and 3.7 mean interruptions/hour at each site, respectively. Mean daily interruptions per team totaled 46.2 ± 3.6 at Site 1 and 39.2 ± 4.2 at Site 2. The 'crisis mode' threshold was exceeded, on average, 2.3 times/day per GIM team during weekdays. In a multivariable linear regression analysis, site (β6.43 CI95% 5.44 - 7.42, p<0.001), day of the week (with Friday having the most interruptions) (β0.481 CI95% 0.236 - 0.730, p<0.05) and patient census (β1.55 CI95% 1.42 - 1.67, p<0.05) were all predictive of daily interruption volume although there was a significant interaction effect between site and patient census (β-0.941 CI95% -1.18 - -0.703, p<0.05). Interruptions were related to site-specific features, including volume, suggesting that future interventions should target the culture of individual hospitals. Excessive interruptions may have implications for patient safety especially when exceeding a maximal threshold over short periods of time.

How adolescents use technology for health information: implications for health professionals from focus group studies.

PubMed

Skinner, Harvey; Biscope, Sherry; Poland, Blake; Goldberg, Eudice

2003-12-18

Adolescents present many challenges in providing them effective preventive services and health care. Yet, they are typically the early adopters of new technology (eg, the Internet). This creates important opportunities for engaging youths via eHealth. To describe how adolescents use technology for their health-information needs, identify the challenges they face, and highlight some emerging roles of health professionals regarding eHealth services for adolescents. Using an inductive qualitative research design, 27 focus groups were conducted in Ontario, Canada. The 210 participants (55% female, 45% male; median age 16 years) were selected to reflect diversity in age, sex, geographic location, cultural identity, and risk. An 8-person team analyzed and coded the data according to major themes. Study participants most-frequently sought or distributed information related to school (89%), interacting with friends (85%), social concerns (85%), specific medical conditions (67%), body image and nutrition (63%), violence and personal safety (59%), and sexual health (56%). Finding personally-relevant, high-quality information was a pivotal challenge that has ramifications on the depth and types of information that adolescents can find to answer their health questions. Privacy in accessing information technology was a second key challenge. Participants reported using technologies that clustered into 4 domains along a continuum from highly-interactive to fixed information sources: (1) personal communication: telephone, cell phone, and pager; (2) social communication: e-mail, instant messaging, chat, and bulletin boards; (3) interactive environments: Web sites, search engines, and computers; and (4) unidirectional sources: television, radio, and print. Three emerging roles for health professionals in eHealth include: (1) providing an interface for adolescents with technology and assisting them in finding pertinent information sources; (2) enhancing connection to youths by extending ways and times when practitioners are available; and (3) fostering critical appraisal skills among youths for evaluating the quality of health information. This study helps illuminate adolescent health-information needs, their use of information technologies, and emerging roles for health professionals. The findings can inform the design and more-effective use of eHealth applications for adolescent populations.

Incorporating Real-time Earthquake Information into Large Enrollment Natural Disaster Course Learning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Furlong, K. P.; Benz, H.; Hayes, G. P.; Villasenor, A.

2010-12-01

Although most would agree that the occurrence of natural disaster events such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and floods can provide effective learning opportunities for natural hazards-based courses, implementing compelling materials into the large-enrollment classroom environment can be difficult. These natural hazard events derive much of their learning potential from their real-time nature, and in the modern 24/7 news-cycle where all but the most devastating events are quickly out of the public eye, the shelf life for an event is quite limited. To maximize the learning potential of these events requires that both authoritative information be available and course materials be generated as the event unfolds. Although many events such as hurricanes, flooding, and volcanic eruptions provide some precursory warnings, and thus one can prepare background materials to place the main event into context, earthquakes present a particularly confounding situation of providing no warning, but where context is critical to student learning. Attempting to implement real-time materials into large enrollment classes faces the additional hindrance of limited internet access (for students) in most lecture classrooms. In Earth 101 Natural Disasters: Hollywood vs Reality, taught as a large enrollment (150+ students) general education course at Penn State, we are collaborating with the USGS’s National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC) to develop efficient means to incorporate their real-time products into learning activities in the lecture hall environment. Over time (and numerous events) we have developed a template for presenting USGS-produced real-time information in lecture mode. The event-specific materials can be quickly incorporated and updated, along with key contextual materials, to provide students with up-to-the-minute current information. In addition, we have also developed in-class activities, such as student determination of population exposure to severe ground shaking (i.e. simulating the USGS PAGER product), tsunami warning calculations, and building damage analyses that allow the students to participate in realistic hazard analyses as the event unfolds. Examples of these templates and activities will be presented. Key to the successful implementation of real-time materials is sufficient flexibility and adaptability in the course syllabus.

Interruptions in a level one trauma center: a case study.

PubMed

Brixey, Juliana J; Tang, Zhihua; Robinson, David J; Johnson, Craig W; Johnson, Todd R; Turley, James P; Patel, Vimla L; Zhang, Jiajie

2008-04-01

The emergency department has been characterized as interrupt-driven. Government agencies and patient safety organizations recognize that interruptions contribute to medical errors. The purpose of this study was to observe, record, and contextualize activities and interruptions experienced by physicians and Registered Nurses (RNs) working in a Level One Trauma Center. A case study that relied on an ethnographic study design using the shadowing method. A convenience sample of physicians and RNs, each with at least 6 months of experience in the Emergency Department (ED), were asked to participate. In these kinds of detailed qualitative investigations, it is quite common to have a small sample size. Ethical approval: Approval was obtained from institutional ethic committees prior to initiating the study. Community consent was obtained from the ED staff through in-service education. All observations were made in the trauma section of the ED of a tertiary teaching hospital. The hospital is situated in a major medical center in the Gulf Coast region of the United States of America (USA). Five attending ED physicians were observed for a total of 29h, 31min. Eight RNs were shadowed for a total of 40 h, 9min. Interruptions and activities were categorized using the Hybrid Method to Categorize Interruptions and Activities (HyMCIA). Registered Nurses received slightly more interruptions per hour than physicians. People, pagers, and telephones were identified as mediums through which interruptions were delivered. The physical environment was found to contribute to interruptions in workflow because of physical design and when supplies were not available. Physicians and RNs usually returned to the original, interrupted activity more often than leaving the activity unfinished. This research provides an enhanced understanding of interruptions in workflow in the ED, the identification of work constraints, and the need to develop interventions to manage interruptions. It is crucial that interruptions be delivered in such a way that there is minimal negative impact on performance. The significance and importance of the interruption must always be weighed against the negative impact that it has on smooth, efficient workflow.

Creating a Team Archive During Fast-Paced Anomaly Response Activities in Space Missions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Malin, Jane T.; Hicks, LaDessa; Overland, David; Thronesbery, Carroll; Christofferesen, Klaus; Chow, Renee

2002-01-01

This paper describes a Web-based system to support the temporary Anomaly Response Team formed from distributed subteams in Space Shuttle and International Space Station missions. The system was designed for easy and flexible creation of small collections of files and links associated with work on a particular anomaly. The system supports privacy and levels of formality for the subteams. First we describe the supported groups and an anomaly response scenario. Then we describe the support system prototype, the Anomaly Response Tracking and Integration System (ARTIS). Finally, we describe our evaluation approach and the results of the evaluation.

Development of an analysis for the determination of coupled helicopter rotor/control system dynamic response. Part 2: Program listing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sutton, L. R.

1975-01-01

A theoretical analysis is developed for a coupled helicopter rotor system to allow determination of the loads and dynamic response behavior of helicopter rotor systems in both steady-state forward flight and maneuvers. The effects of an anisotropically supported swashplate or gyroscope control system and a deformed free wake on the rotor system dynamic response behavior are included.

Systemic acquired tolerance to virulent bacterial pathogens in tomato.

PubMed

Block, Anna; Schmelz, Eric; O'Donnell, Phillip J; Jones, Jeffrey B; Klee, Harry J

2005-07-01

Recent studies on the interactions between plants and pathogenic microorganisms indicate that the processes of disease symptom development and pathogen growth can be uncoupled. Thus, in many instances, the symptoms associated with disease represent an active host response to the presence of a pathogen. These host responses are frequently mediated by phytohormones. For example, ethylene and salicylic acid (SA) mediate symptom development but do not influence bacterial growth in the interaction between tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) and virulent Xanthomonas campestris pv vesicatoria (Xcv). It is not apparent why extensive tissue death is integral to a defense response if it does not have the effect of limiting pathogen proliferation. One possible function for this hormone-mediated response is to induce a systemic defense response. We therefore assessed the systemic responses of tomato to Xcv. SA- and ethylene-deficient transgenic lines were used to investigate the roles of these phytohormones in systemic signaling. Virulent and avirulent Xcv did induce a systemic response as evidenced by expression of defense-associated pathogenesis-related genes in an ethylene- and SA-dependent manner. This systemic response reduced cell death but not bacterial growth during subsequent challenge with virulent Xcv. This systemic acquired tolerance (SAT) consists of reduced tissue damage in response to secondary challenge with a virulent pathogen with no effect upon pathogen growth. SAT was associated with a rapid ethylene and pathogenesis-related gene induction upon challenge. SAT was also induced by infection with Pseudomonas syringae pv tomato. These data show that SAT resembles systemic acquired resistance without inhibition of pathogen growth.

Infrasound-array-element frequency response: in-situ measurement and modeling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gabrielson, T.

2011-12-01

Most array elements at the infrasound stations of the International Monitoring System use some variant of a multiple-inlet pipe system for wind-noise suppression. These pipe systems have a significant impact on the overall frequency response of the element. The spatial distribution of acoustic inlets introduces a response dependence that is a function of frequency and of vertical and horizontal arrival angle; the system of inlets, pipes, and summing junctions further shapes that response as the signal is ducted to the transducer. In-situ measurements, using a co-located reference microphone, can determine the overall frequency response and diagnose problems with the system. As of July 2011, the in-situ frequency responses for 25 individual elements at 6 operational stations (I10, I53, I55, I56, I57, and I99) have been measured. In support of these measurements, a fully thermo-viscous model for the acoustics of these multiple-inlet pipe systems has been developed. In addition to measurements at operational stations, comparative analyses have been done on experimental systems: a multiple-inlet radial-pipe system with varying inlet hole size; a one-quarter scale model of a 70-meter rosette system; and vertical directionality of a small rosette system using aircraft flyovers. [Funded by the US Army Space and Missile Defense Command

Mathematical modeling of human cardiovascular system for simulation of orthostatic response

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Melchior, F. M.; Srinivasan, R. S.; Charles, J. B.

1992-01-01

This paper deals with the short-term response of the human cardiovascular system to orthostatic stresses in the context of developing a mathematical model of the overall system. It discusses the physiological issues involved and how these issues have been handled in published cardiovascular models for simulation of orthostatic response. Most of the models are stimulus specific with no demonstrated capability for simulating the responses to orthostatic stimuli of different types. A comprehensive model incorporating all known phenomena related to cardiovascular regulation would greatly help to interpret the various orthostatic responses of the system in a consistent manner and to understand the interactions among its elements. This paper provides a framework for future efforts in mathematical modeling of the entire cardiovascular system.

Unmanned and Unattended Response Capability for Homeland Defense

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

BENNETT, PHIL C.

2002-11-01

An analysis was conducted of the potential for unmanned and unattended robotic technologies for forward-based, immediate response capabilities that enables access and controlled task performance. The authors analyze high-impact response scenarios in conjunction with homeland security organizations, such as the NNSA Office of Emergency Response, the FBI, the National Guard, and the Army Technical Escort Unit, to cover a range of radiological, chemical and biological threats. They conducted an analysis of the potential of forward-based, unmanned and unattended robotic technologies to accelerate and enhance emergency and crisis response by Homeland Defense organizations. Response systems concepts were developed utilizing new technologiesmore » supported by existing emerging threats base technologies to meet the defined response scenarios. These systems will pre-position robotic and remote sensing capabilities stationed close to multiple sites for immediate action. Analysis of assembled systems included experimental activities to determine potential efficacy in the response scenarios, and iteration on systems concepts and remote sensing and robotic technologies, creating new immediate response capabilities for Homeland Defense.« less

The implementation and operation of a variable-response electronic throttle control system for a TF-104G aircraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Neal, Bradford; Sengupta, Upal

1989-01-01

During some flight programs, researchers have encountered problems in the throttle response characteristics of high-performance aircraft. To study and to help solve these problems, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Ames Research Center's Dryden Flight Research Facility (Ames-Dryden) conducted a study using a TF-104G airplane modified with a variable-response electronic throttle control system. Ames-Dryden investigated the effects of different variables on engine response and handling qualities. The system provided transport delay, lead and lag filters, second-order lags, command rate and position limits, and variable gain between the pilot's throttle command and the engine fuel controller. These variables could be tested individually or in combination. Ten research flights were flown to gather data on engine response and to obtain pilot ratings of the various system configurations. The results should provide design criteria for engine-response characteristics. The variable-response throttle components and how they were installed in the TF-104G aircraft are described. How the variable-response throttle was used in flight and some of the results of using this system are discussed.

Innate immune memory in plants.

PubMed

Reimer-Michalski, Eva-Maria; Conrath, Uwe

2016-08-01

The plant innate immune system comprises local and systemic immune responses. Systemic plant immunity develops after foliar infection by microbial pathogens, upon root colonization by certain microbes, or in response to physical injury. The systemic plant immune response to localized foliar infection is associated with elevated levels of pattern-recognition receptors, accumulation of dormant signaling enzymes, and alterations in chromatin state. Together, these systemic responses provide a memory to the initial infection by priming the remote leaves for enhanced defense and immunity to reinfection. The plant innate immune system thus builds immunological memory by utilizing mechanisms and components that are similar to those employed in the trained innate immune response of jawed vertebrates. Therefore, there seems to be conservation, or convergence, in the evolution of innate immune memory in plants and vertebrates. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A meta-analysis of response-time tests of the sequential two-systems model of moral judgment.

PubMed

Baron, Jonathan; Gürçay, Burcu

2017-05-01

The (generalized) sequential two-system ("default interventionist") model of utilitarian moral judgment predicts that utilitarian responses often arise from a system-two correction of system-one deontological intuitions. Response-time (RT) results that seem to support this model are usually explained by the fact that low-probability responses have longer RTs. Following earlier results, we predicted response probability from each subject's tendency to make utilitarian responses (A, "Ability") and each dilemma's tendency to elicit deontological responses (D, "Difficulty"), estimated from a Rasch model. At the point where A = D, the two responses are equally likely, so probability effects cannot account for any RT differences between them. The sequential two-system model still predicts that many of the utilitarian responses made at this point will result from system-two corrections of system-one intuitions, hence should take longer. However, when A = D, RT for the two responses was the same, contradicting the sequential model. Here we report a meta-analysis of 26 data sets, which replicated the earlier results of no RT difference overall at the point where A = D. The data sets used three different kinds of moral judgment items, and the RT equality at the point where A = D held for all three. In addition, we found that RT increased with A-D. This result holds for subjects (characterized by Ability) but not for items (characterized by Difficulty). We explain the main features of this unanticipated effect, and of the main results, with a drift-diffusion model.

Recent Advances in Cyclodextrin-Based Light-Responsive Supramolecular Systems.

PubMed

Zhang, Xiaojin; Ma, Xin; Wang, Kang; Lin, Shijun; Zhu, Shitai; Dai, Yu; Xia, Fan

2018-06-01

Cyclodextrins (CDs), one of the host molecules in supramolecular chemistry, can host guest molecules to form inclusion complexes via non-covalent and reversible host-guest interactions. CD-based light-responsive supramolecular systems are typically constructed using CDs and guest molecules with light-responsive moieties, including azobenzene, arylazopyrazole, o-nitrobenzyl ester, pyrenylmethyl ester, coumarin, and anthracene. To date, numerous efforts have been reported on the topic of CD-based light-responsive supramolecular systems, but these have not yet been highlighted in a separated review. This review summarizes the efforts reported over the past ten years. The main text of this review is divided into five sections (vesicles, micelles, gels, capturers, and nanovalves) according to the formation of self-assemblies. This feature article aims to afford a comprehensive understanding of the light-responsive moieties used in the construction of CD-based light-responsive supramolecular systems and to provide a helpful guide for the further design of CD-based light-responsive supramolecular systems. © 2018 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Delayed system response times affect immediate physiology and the dynamics of subsequent button press behavior.

PubMed

Kohrs, Christin; Hrabal, David; Angenstein, Nicole; Brechmann, André

2014-11-01

System response time research is an important issue in human-computer interactions. Experience with technical devices and general rules of human-human interactions determine the user's expectation, and any delay in system response time may lead to immediate physiological, emotional, and behavioral consequences. We investigated such effects on a trial-by-trial basis during a human-computer interaction by measuring changes in skin conductance (SC), heart rate (HR), and the dynamics of button press responses. We found an increase in SC and a deceleration of HR for all three delayed system response times (0.5, 1, 2 s). Moreover, the data on button press dynamics was highly informative since subjects repeated a button press with more force in response to delayed system response times. Furthermore, the button press dynamics could distinguish between correct and incorrect decisions and may thus even be used to infer the uncertainty of a user's decision. Copyright © 2014 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

High Torque-to-Inertia Servo System for Stabilizing Sensor Systems. Candidate Systems Include Missile Guidance, Surveillance, and Tracking

DTIC Science & Technology

1980-04-01

specifications ... 3-10 25. Typical isolation curve ... 3-12 26. Servo amp/motor/load frequency response (inner gimbal) ... 4-3 27. Slave loop ( open loop...slave loop ( open loop) frequency response (inner gimbal) . . . 4-4 30. Slave loop (closed loop) frequency response (inner gimbal) ... 4-5 3 . Slave...loop inner gimbal time response ... 4-5 32. Servo amp/motor/load frequency response (outer gimbal) ... 4-6 33. Slave loop ( open loop) uncompensated

Responsibility for Curriculum Evaluation in Centralized Systems.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Deschamp, Phil; McGaw, Barry

1979-01-01

While responsibility for curriculum development in Australia is devolving to the local level, the state systems, in the name of accountability, are retaining responsibility for curriculum evaluation. This article examines the curriculum centralization/decentralization patterns in Australia's states, points out the paradoxes in such systems, and…

48 CFR 253.209-1 - Responsible prospective contractors.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 3 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Responsible prospective contractors. 253.209-1 Section 253.209-1 Federal Acquisition Regulations System DEFENSE ACQUISITION REGULATIONS SYSTEM, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE CLAUSES AND FORMS FORMS Prescription of Forms 253.209-1 Responsible...

48 CFR 253.209-1 - Responsible prospective contractors.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 3 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Responsible prospective contractors. 253.209-1 Section 253.209-1 Federal Acquisition Regulations System DEFENSE ACQUISITION REGULATIONS SYSTEM, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE CLAUSES AND FORMS FORMS Prescription of Forms 253.209-1 Responsible...

The influence of an audience response system on knowledge retention: an application to resident education.

PubMed

Pradhan, Archana; Sparano, Dina; Ananth, Cande V

2005-11-01

The purpose of the study was to compare delivery methods of lecture material regarding contraceptive options by either traditional or interactive lecture style with the use of an audience response system with obstetrics and gynecology residents. A prospective, randomized controlled trial that included 17 obstetrics and gynecology residents was conducted. Group differences and comparison of pre/posttest scores to evaluate efficacy of lecture styles were performed with the Student t test. Each participant completed an evaluation to assess usefulness of the audience response system. Residents who received audience response system interactive lectures showed a 21% improvement between pretest and posttest scores; residents who received the standard lecture demonstrated a 2% improvement (P = .018). The evaluation survey showed that 82% of residents thought that the audience response system was a helpful learning aid. The results of this randomized controlled trial demonstrate the effectiveness of audience response system for knowledge retention, which suggests that it may be an efficient teaching tool for residency education.

A Comprehensive Evaluation System for Military Hospitals' Response Capability to Bio-terrorism.

PubMed

Wang, Hui; Jiang, Nan; Shao, Sicong; Zheng, Tao; Sun, Jianzhong

2015-05-01

The objective of this study is to establish a comprehensive evaluation system for military hospitals' response capacity to bio-terrorism. Literature research and Delphi method were utilized to establish the comprehensive evaluation system for military hospitals' response capacity to bio-terrorism. Questionnaires were designed and used to survey the status quo of 134 military hospitals' response capability to bio-terrorism. Survey indicated that factor analysis method was suitable to for analyzing the comprehensive evaluation system for military hospitals' response capacity to bio-terrorism. The constructed evaluation system was consisted of five first-class and 16 second-class indexes. Among them, medical response factor was considered as the most important factor with weight coefficient of 0.660, followed in turn by the emergency management factor with weight coefficient of 0.109, emergency management consciousness factor with weight coefficient of 0.093, hardware support factor with weight coefficient of 0.078, and improvement factor with weight coefficient of 0.059. The constructed comprehensive assessment model and system are scientific and practical.

Meeting national response time targets for priority 1 incidents in an urban emergency medical services system in South Africa: More ambulances won't help.

PubMed

Stein, Christopher; Wallis, Lee; Adetunji, Olufemi

2015-09-19

Response time is viewed as a key performance indicator in most emergency medical services (EMS) systems. To determine the effect of increased emergency vehicle numbers on response time performance for priority 1 incidents in an urban EMS system in Cape Town, South Africa, using discrete-event computer simulation. A simulation model was created, based on input data from part of the EMS operations. Two different versions of the model were used, one with primary response vehicles and ambulances and one with only ambulances. In both cases the models were run in seven different scenarios. The first scenario used the actual number of emergency vehicles in the real system, and in each subsequent scenario vehicle numbers were increased by adding the baseline number to the cumulative total. The model using only ambulances had shorter response times and a greater number of responses meeting national response time targets than models using primary response vehicles and ambulances. In both cases an improvement in response times and the number of responses meeting national response time targets was observed with the first incremental addition of vehicles. After this the improvements rapidly diminished and eventually became negligible with each successive increase in vehicle numbers. The national response time target for urban areas was never met, even with a seven-fold increase in vehicle numbers. The addition of emergency vehicles to an urban EMS system improves response times in priority 1 incidents, but alone is not capable of the magnitude of response time improvement needed to meet the national response time targets.

MIMO system identification using frequency response data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Medina, Enrique A.; Irwin, R. D.; Mitchell, Jerrel R.; Bukley, Angelia P.

1992-01-01

A solution to the problem of obtaining a multi-input, multi-output statespace model of a system from its individual input/output frequency responses is presented. The Residue Identification Algorithm (RID) identifies the system poles from a transfer function model of the determinant of the frequency response data matrix. Next, the residue matrices of the modes are computed guaranteeing that each input/output frequency response is fitted in the least squares sense. Finally, a realization of the system is computed. Results of the application of RID to experimental frequency responses of a large space structure ground test facility are presented and compared to those obtained via the Eigensystem Realization Algorithm.

Coherent motion of chaotic attractors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Louodop, Patrick; Saha, Suman; Tchitnga, Robert; Muruganandam, Paulsamy; Dana, Syamal K.; Cerdeira, Hilda A.

2017-10-01

We report a simple model of two drive-response-type coupled chaotic oscillators, where the response system copies the nonlinearity of the driver system. It leads to a coherent motion of the trajectories of the coupled systems that establishes a constant separating distance in time between the driver and the response attractors, and their distance depends upon the initial state. The coupled system responds to external obstacles, modeled by short-duration pulses acting either on the driver or the response system, by a coherent shifting of the distance, and it is able to readjust their distance as and when necessary via mutual exchange of feedback information. We confirm these behaviors with examples of a jerk system, the paradigmatic Rössler system, a tunnel diode system and a Josephson junction-based jerk system, analytically, to an extent, and mostly numerically.

Exploring Health System Responsiveness in Ambulatory Care and Disease Management and its Relation to Other Dimensions of Health System Performance (RAC) – Study Design and Methodology

PubMed Central

Röttger, Julia; Blümel, Miriam; Engel, Susanne; Grenz-Farenholtz, Brigitte; Fuchs, Sabine; Linder, Roland; Verheyen, Frank; Busse, Reinhard

2015-01-01

Background: The responsiveness of a health system is considered to be an intrinsic goal of health systems and an essential aspect in performance assessment. Numerous studies have analysed health system responsiveness and related concepts, especially across different countries and health systems. However, fewer studies have applied the concept for the evaluation of specific healthcare delivery structures and thoroughly analysed its determinants within one country. The aims of this study are to assess the level of perceived health system responsiveness to patients with chronic diseases in ambulatory care in Germany and to analyse the determinants of health system responsiveness as well as its distribution across different population groups. Methods and Analysis: The target population consists of chronically ill people in Germany, with a focus on patients suffering from type 2 diabetes and/or from coronary heart disease (CHD). Data comes from two different sources: (i) cross-sectional survey data from a postal survey and (ii) claims data from a German sickness fund. Data from both sources will be linked at an individual-level. The postal survey has the purpose of measuring perceived health system responsiveness, health related quality of life, experiences with disease management programmes (DMPs) and (subjective) socioeconomic background. The claims data consists of information on (co)morbidities, service utilization, enrolment within a DMP and sociodemographic characteristics, including the type of residential area. Discussion: RAC is one of the first projects linking survey data on health system responsiveness at individual level with claims data. With this unique database, it will be possible to comprehensively analyse determinants of health system responsiveness and its relation to other aspects of health system performance assessment. The results of the project will allow German health system decision-makers to assess the performance of nonclinical aspects of healthcare delivery and their determinants in two important areas of health policy: in ambulatory and chronic disease care. PMID:26188807

Exploring Health System Responsiveness in Ambulatory Care and Disease Management and its Relation to Other Dimensions of Health System Performance (RAC) - Study Design and Methodology.

PubMed

Röttger, Julia; Blümel, Miriam; Engel, Susanne; Grenz-Farenholtz, Brigitte; Fuchs, Sabine; Linder, Roland; Verheyen, Frank; Busse, Reinhard

2015-05-20

The responsiveness of a health system is considered to be an intrinsic goal of health systems and an essential aspect in performance assessment. Numerous studies have analysed health system responsiveness and related concepts, especially across different countries and health systems. However, fewer studies have applied the concept for the evaluation of specific healthcare delivery structures and thoroughly analysed its determinants within one country. The aims of this study are to assess the level of perceived health system responsiveness to patients with chronic diseases in ambulatory care in Germany and to analyse the determinants of health system responsiveness as well as its distribution across different population groups. The target population consists of chronically ill people in Germany, with a focus on patients suffering from type 2 diabetes and/or from coronary heart disease (CHD). Data comes from two different sources: (i) cross-sectional survey data from a postal survey and (ii) claims data from a German sickness fund. Data from both sources will be linked at an individual-level. The postal survey has the purpose of measuring perceived health system responsiveness, health related quality of life, experiences with disease management programmes (DMPs) and (subjective) socioeconomic background. The claims data consists of information on (co)morbidities, service utilization, enrolment within a DMP and sociodemographic characteristics, including the type of residential area. RAC is one of the first projects linking survey data on health system responsiveness at individual level with claims data. With this unique database, it will be possible to comprehensively analyse determinants of health system responsiveness and its relation to other aspects of health system performance assessment. The results of the project will allow German health system decision-makers to assess the performance of nonclinical aspects of healthcare delivery and their determinants in two important areas of health policy: in ambulatory and chronic disease care. © 2015 by Kerman University of Medical Sciences.

Understanding the immune response to seasonal influenza vaccination in older adults: a systems biology approach.

PubMed

Lambert, Nathaniel D; Ovsyannikova, Inna G; Pankratz, V Shane; Jacobson, Robert M; Poland, Gregory A

2012-08-01

Annual vaccination against seasonal influenza is recommended to decrease disease-related mortality and morbidity. However, one population that responds suboptimally to influenza vaccine is adults over the age of 65 years. The natural aging process is associated with a complex deterioration of multiple components of the host immune system. Research into this phenomenon, known as immunosenescence, has shown that aging alters both the innate and adaptive branches of the immune system. The intricate mechanisms involved in immune response to influenza vaccine, and how these responses are altered with age, have led us to adopt a more encompassing systems biology approach to understand exactly why the response to vaccination diminishes with age. Here, the authors review what changes occur with immunosenescence, and some immunogenetic factors that influence response, and outline the systems biology approach to understand the immune response to seasonal influenza vaccination in older adults.

DR5 as a reporter system to study auxin response in Populus.

PubMed

Chen, Yiru; Yordanov, Yordan S; Ma, Cathleen; Strauss, Steven; Busov, Victor B

2013-03-01

KEY MESSAGE : Auxin responsive promoter DR5 reporter system is functional in Populus to monitor auxin response in tissues including leaves, roots, and stems. We described the behavior of the DR5::GUS reporter system in stably transformed Populus plants. We found several similarities with Arabidopsis, including sensitivity to native and synthetic auxins, rapid induction after treatment in a variety of tissues, and maximal responses in root tissues. There were also several important differences from Arabidopsis, including slower time to maximum response and lower induction amplitude. Young leaves and stem sections below the apex showed much higher DR5 activity than did older leaves and stems undergoing secondary growth. DR5 activity was highest in cortex, suggesting high levels of auxin concentration and/or sensitivity in this tissue. Our study shows that the DR5 reporter system is a sensitive and facile system for monitoring auxin responses and distribution at cellular resolution in poplar.

Multiswitching compound antisynchronization of four chaotic systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Khan, Ayub; Khattar, Dinesh; Prajapati, Nitish

2017-12-01

Based on three drive-one response system, in this article, the authors investigate a novel synchronization scheme for a class of chaotic systems. The new scheme, multiswitching compound antisynchronization (MSCoAS), is a notable extension of the earlier multiswitching schemes concerning only one drive-one response system model. The concept of multiswitching synchronization is extended to compound synchronization scheme such that the state variables of three drive systems antisynchronize with different state variables of the response system, simultaneously. The study involving multiswitching of three drive systems and one response system is first of its kind. Various switched modified function projective antisynchronization schemes are obtained as special cases of MSCoAS, for a suitable choice of scaling factors. Using suitable controllers and Lyapunov stability theory, sufficient condition is obtained to achieve MSCoAS between four chaotic systems and the corresponding theoretical proof is given. Numerical simulations are performed using Lorenz system in MATLAB to demonstrate the validity of the presented method.

Response formulae for n-point correlations in statistical mechanical systems and application to a problem of coarse graining

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lucarini, Valerio; Wouters, Jeroen

2017-09-01

Predicting the response of a system to perturbations is a key challenge in mathematical and natural sciences. Under suitable conditions on the nature of the system, of the perturbation, and of the observables of interest, response theories allow to construct operators describing the smooth change of the invariant measure of the system of interest as a function of the small parameter controlling the intensity of the perturbation. In particular, response theories can be developed both for stochastic and chaotic deterministic dynamical systems, where in the latter case stricter conditions imposing some degree of structural stability are required. In this paper we extend previous findings and derive general response formulae describing how n- point correlations are affected by perturbations to the vector flow. We also show how to compute the response of the spectral properties of the system to perturbations. We then apply our results to the seemingly unrelated problem of coarse graining in multiscale systems: we find explicit formulae describing the change in the terms describing the parameterisation of the neglected degrees of freedom resulting from applying perturbations to the full system. All the terms envisioned by the Mori-Zwanzig theory—the deterministic, stochastic, and non-Markovian terms—are affected at first order in the perturbation. The obtained results provide a more comprehensive understanding of the response of statistical mechanical systems to perturbations. They also contribute to the goal of constructing accurate and robust parameterisations and are of potential relevance for fields like molecular dynamics, condensed matter, and geophysical fluid dynamics. We envision possible applications of our general results to the study of the response of climate variability to anthropogenic and natural forcing and to the study of the equivalence of thermostatted statistical mechanical systems.

Development of a model protection and dynamic response monitoring system for the national transonic facility

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Young, Clarence P., Jr.; Balakrishna, S.; Kilgore, W. Allen

1995-01-01

A state-of-the-art, computerized mode protection and dynamic response monitoring system has been developed for the NASA Langley Research Center National Transonic Facility (NTF). This report describes the development of the model protection and shutdown system (MPSS). A technical description of the system is given along with discussions on operation and capabilities of the system. Applications of the system to vibration problems are presented to demonstrate the system capabilities, typical applications, versatility, and investment research return derived from the system to date. The system was custom designed for the NTF but can be used at other facilities or for other dynamic measurement/diagnostic applications. Potential commercial uses of the system are described. System capability has been demonstrated for forced response testing and for characterizing and quantifying bias errors for onboard inertial model attitude measurement devices. The system is installed in the NTF control room and has been used successfully for monitoring, recording and analyzing the dynamic response of several model systems tested in the NTF.

The Stress Response Systems: Universality and Adaptive Individual Differences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ellis, Bruce J.; Jackson, Jenee James; Boyce, W. Thomas

2006-01-01

Biological reactivity to psychological stressors comprises a complex, integrated system of central neural and peripheral neuroendocrine responses designed to prepare the organism for challenge or threat. Developmental experience plays a role, along with heritable variation, in calibrating the response dynamics of this system. This calibration…

Recursive Inversion By Finite-Impulse-Response Filters

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bach, Ralph E., Jr.; Baram, Yoram

1991-01-01

Recursive approximation gives least-squares best fit to exact response. Algorithm yields finite-impulse-response approximation of unknown single-input/single-output, causal, time-invariant, linear, real system, response of which is sequence of impulses. Applicable to such system-inversion problems as suppression of echoes and identification of target from its scatter response to incident impulse.

Health Systems' Responsiveness and Its Characteristics: A Cross-Country Comparative Analysis

PubMed Central

Robone, Silvana; Rice, Nigel; Smith, Peter C

2011-01-01

Objectives Responsiveness has been identified as one of the intrinsic goals of health care systems. Little is known, however, about its determinants. Our objective is to investigate the potential country-level drivers of health system responsiveness. Data Source Data on responsiveness are taken from the World Health Survey. Information on country-level characteristics is obtained from a variety of sources including the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). Study Design A two-step procedure. First, using survey data we derive a country-level measure of system responsiveness purged of differences in individual reporting behavior. Secondly, we run cross-sectional country-level regressions of responsiveness on potential drivers. Principal Findings Health care expenditures per capita are positively associated with responsiveness, after controlling for the influence of potential confounding factors. Aspects of responsiveness are also associated with public sector spending (negatively) and educational development (positively). Conclusions From a policy perspective, improvements in responsiveness may require higher spending levels. The expansion of nonpublic sector provision, perhaps in the form of increased patient choice, may also serve to improve responsiveness. However, these inferences are tentative and require further study. PMID:21762144

21 CFR 820.20 - Management responsibility.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... 21 Food and Drugs 8 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Management responsibility. 820.20 Section 820.20...) MEDICAL DEVICES QUALITY SYSTEM REGULATION Quality System Requirements § 820.20 Management responsibility. (a) Quality policy. Management with executive responsibility shall establish its policy and...

21 CFR 820.20 - Management responsibility.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... 21 Food and Drugs 8 2012-04-01 2012-04-01 false Management responsibility. 820.20 Section 820.20...) MEDICAL DEVICES QUALITY SYSTEM REGULATION Quality System Requirements § 820.20 Management responsibility. (a) Quality policy. Management with executive responsibility shall establish its policy and...

21 CFR 820.20 - Management responsibility.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... 21 Food and Drugs 8 2013-04-01 2013-04-01 false Management responsibility. 820.20 Section 820.20...) MEDICAL DEVICES QUALITY SYSTEM REGULATION Quality System Requirements § 820.20 Management responsibility. (a) Quality policy. Management with executive responsibility shall establish its policy and...

21 CFR 820.20 - Management responsibility.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... 21 Food and Drugs 8 2014-04-01 2014-04-01 false Management responsibility. 820.20 Section 820.20...) MEDICAL DEVICES QUALITY SYSTEM REGULATION Quality System Requirements § 820.20 Management responsibility. (a) Quality policy. Management with executive responsibility shall establish its policy and...

21 CFR 820.20 - Management responsibility.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... 21 Food and Drugs 8 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Management responsibility. 820.20 Section 820.20...) MEDICAL DEVICES QUALITY SYSTEM REGULATION Quality System Requirements § 820.20 Management responsibility. (a) Quality policy. Management with executive responsibility shall establish its policy and...

33 CFR 154.1020 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... personnel identified to staff the organizational structure identified in a response plan to manage response... identifying response systems and equipment in a response plan for the applicable operating environment... visibility, and currents within the COTP zone in which the systems or equipment are intended to function...

Analysis of DISMS (Defense Integrated Subsistence Management System) Increment 4

DTIC Science & Technology

1988-12-01

response data entry; and rationale supporting an on-line system based on real time management information needs. Keywords: Automated systems; Subsistence; Workload capacity; Bid response; Contract administration; Computer systems.

40 CFR 1065.309 - Continuous gas analyzer system-response and updating-recording verification-for gas analyzers...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... change the system response. (b) Measurement principles. This procedure verifies that the updating and... gas detectors used to generate a continuously combined/compensated concentration measurement signal... verifies that the measurement system meets a minimum response time. For this procedure, ensure that all...

78 FR 38341 - Federal Acquisition Regulation; Information Collection; Preaward Survey Forms (Standard Forms...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-06-26

... Contractor Accounting System Respondents: 708. Responses annually: 1. Total Responses: 708. Hours per... contractor responsibility in each case. B. Annual Reporting Burden There are no Governmentwide systems for... Procurement Data System (FPDS) ad hoc report was completed identifying that in Fiscal Year (FY) 2012 an...

48 CFR 301.604-71 - HCA authorities and responsibilities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 4 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false HCA authorities and responsibilities. 301.604-71 Section 301.604-71 Federal Acquisition Regulations System HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES GENERAL HHS ACQUISITION REGULATION SYSTEM Career Development, Contracting Authority, and Responsibilities 301.604-71 HCA authorities and...

48 CFR 301.604-71 - HCA authorities and responsibilities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 4 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false HCA authorities and responsibilities. 301.604-71 Section 301.604-71 Federal Acquisition Regulations System HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES GENERAL HHS ACQUISITION REGULATION SYSTEM Career Development, Contracting Authority, and Responsibilities 301.604-71 HCA authorities and...

48 CFR 301.604-71 - HCA authorities and responsibilities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 4 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false HCA authorities and responsibilities. 301.604-71 Section 301.604-71 Federal Acquisition Regulations System HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES GENERAL HHS ACQUISITION REGULATION SYSTEM Career Development, Contracting Authority, and Responsibilities 301.604-71 HCA authorities and...

48 CFR 301.604-71 - HCA authorities and responsibilities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 4 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false HCA authorities and responsibilities. 301.604-71 Section 301.604-71 Federal Acquisition Regulations System HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES GENERAL HHS ACQUISITION REGULATION SYSTEM Career Development, Contracting Authority, and Responsibilities 301.604-71 HCA authorities and...

48 CFR 301.604-71 - HCA authorities and responsibilities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 4 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false HCA authorities and responsibilities. 301.604-71 Section 301.604-71 Federal Acquisition Regulations System HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES GENERAL HHS ACQUISITION REGULATION SYSTEM Career Development, Contracting Authority, and Responsibilities 301.604-71 HCA authorities and...

The association between attributions of responsibility for motor vehicle accidents and patient satisfaction: a study within a no-fault injury compensation system.

PubMed

Thompson, Jason; Berk, Michael; O'Donnell, Meaghan; Stafford, Lesley; Nordfjaern, Trond

2015-05-01

This study set out to test the relationship between attributions of responsibility for motor vehicle accidents and satisfaction with personal injury compensation systems. The study analysed survey data from 1394 people injured in a motor vehicle accident who were compensated under a no-fault personal injury compensation system. Patients' ratings of satisfaction with the compensation system across five domains (resolves your issues, keeps you up-to-date, treats you as an individual, cares about you, and overall satisfaction) were analysed alongside patient attributions of responsibility for their accident (not responsible, partly responsible, totally responsible). Postaccident physical and mental health status, age, gender, and duration of compensation claim were controlled for in the analysis. A multivariate analysis of covariance indicated attributions of responsibility for accidents were significantly associated with levels of patient satisfaction across all five domains under study (F (10, 2084) = 3.7, p<0.001, η(2)  =0.02). Despite access to virtually indistinguishable services, patients who attributed responsibility for their accidents to others were significantly less satisfied with the injury compensation system than those who attributed responsibility to themselves. Satisfaction with no-fault motor vehicle injury compensation services are associated with patients' attributions of responsibility for their accident. Compensation systems and other rehabilitation services monitoring patient satisfaction should adjust for attributions of responsibility when assessing levels of patient satisfaction between time periods, services, or injured populations. Differences in levels of patient satisfaction observed between compensation or rehabilitation populations may reflect differences in attributions of responsibility for accidents rather than objective service quality. © The Author(s) 2014.

Sensor/Response Coordination In A Tactical Self-Protection System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Steinberg, Alan N.

1988-08-01

This paper describes a model for integrating information acquisition functions into a response planner within a tactical self-defense system. This model may be used in defining requirements in such applications for sensor systems and for associated processing and control functions. The goal of information acquisition in a self-defense system is generally not that of achieving the best possible estimate of the threat environment; but rather to provide resolution of that environment sufficient to support response decisions. We model the information acquisition problem as that of achieving a partition among possible world states such that the final partition maps into the system's repertoire of possible responses.

Opposing and following responses in sensorimotor speech control: Why responses go both ways.

PubMed

Franken, Matthias K; Acheson, Daniel J; McQueen, James M; Hagoort, Peter; Eisner, Frank

2018-06-04

When talking, speakers continuously monitor and use the auditory feedback of their own voice to control and inform speech production processes. When speakers are provided with auditory feedback that is perturbed in real time, most of them compensate for this by opposing the feedback perturbation. But some responses follow the perturbation. In the present study, we investigated whether the state of the speech production system at perturbation onset may determine what type of response (opposing or following) is made. The results suggest that whether a perturbation-related response is opposing or following depends on ongoing fluctuations of the production system: The system initially responds by doing the opposite of what it was doing. This effect and the nontrivial proportion of following responses suggest that current production models are inadequate: They need to account for why responses to unexpected sensory feedback depend on the production system's state at the time of perturbation.

Evaluation of TLR Agonists as Potential Mucosal Adjuvants for HIV gp140 and Tetanus Toxoid in Mice

PubMed Central

Buffa, Viviana; Klein, Katja; Fischetti, Lucia; Shattock, Robin J.

2012-01-01

In the present study we investigate the impact of a range of TLR ligands and chitosan as potential adjuvants for different routes of mucosal immunisation (sublingual (SL), intranasal (IN), intravaginal (IVag) and a parenteral route (subcutaneous (SC)) in the murine model. We assess their ability to enhance antibody responses to HIV-1 CN54gp140 (gp140) and Tetanus toxoid (TT) in systemic and vaginal compartments. A number of trends were observed by route of administration. For non-adjuvanted antigen, SC>SL>IN immunisation with respect to systemic IgG responses, where endpoint titres were greater for TT than for gp140. In general, co-administration with adjuvants increased specific IgG responses where IN = SC>SL, while in the vaginal compartment IN>SL>SC for specific IgA. In contrast, for systemic and mucosal IgA responses to antigen alone SL>IN = SC. A number of adjuvants increased specific systemic IgA responses where in general IN>SL>SC immunisation, while for mucosal responses IN = SL>SC. In contrast, direct intravaginal immunisation failed to induce any detectable systemic or mucosal responses to gp140 even in the presence of adjuvant. However, significant systemic IgG responses to TT were induced by intravaginal immunisation with or without adjuvant, and detectable mucosal responses IgG and IgA were observed when TT was administered with FSL-1 or Poly I∶C. Interestingly some TLRs displayed differential activity dependent upon the route of administration. MPLA (TLR4) suppressed systemic responses to SL immunisation while enhancing responses to IN or SC immunisation. CpG B enhanced SL and IN responses, while having little or no impact on SC immunisation. These data demonstrate important route, antigen and adjuvant effects that need to be considered in the design of mucosal vaccine strategies. PMID:23272062

48 CFR 47.305-15 - Loading responsibilities of contractors.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Loading responsibilities of contractors. 47.305-15 Section 47.305-15 Federal Acquisition Regulations System FEDERAL... responsibilities of contractors. (a)(1) Contractors are responsible for loading, blocking, and bracing carload...

Comparison of digital controllers used in magnetic suspension and balance systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kilgore, William A.

1990-01-01

Dynamic systems that were once controlled by analog circuits are now controlled by digital computers. Presented is a comparison of the digital controllers presently used with magnetic suspension and balance systems. The overall responses of the systems are compared using a computer simulation of the magnetic suspension and balance system and the digital controllers. The comparisons include responses to both simulated force and position inputs. A preferred digital controller is determined from the simulated responses.

Response diversity to land use occurs but does not consistently stabilise ecosystem services provided by native pollinators.

PubMed

Cariveau, Daniel P; Williams, Neal M; Benjamin, Faye E; Winfree, Rachael

2013-07-01

More diverse biological communities may provide ecosystem services that are less variable over space or time. However, the mechanisms underlying this relationship are rarely investigated empirically in real-world ecosystems. Here, we investigate how a potentially important stabilising mechanism, response diversity, the differential response to environmental change among species, stabilises pollination services against land-use change. We measured crop pollination services provided by native bees across land-use gradients in three crop systems. We found that bee species responded differentially to increasing agricultural land cover in all three systems, demonstrating that response diversity occurs. Similarly, we found response diversity in pollination services in two of the systems. However, there was no evidence that response diversity, in general, stabilised ecosystem services. Our results suggest that either response diversity is not the primary stabilising mechanism in our system, or that new measures of response diversity are needed that better capture the stabilising effects it provides. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd/CNRS.

Development of a Graphics Based Automated Emergency Response System (AERS) for Rail Transit Systems

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1989-05-01

This report presents an overview of the second generation Automated Emergency Response System (AERS2). Developed to assist transit systems in responding effectively to emergency situations, AERS2 is a microcomputer-based information retrieval system ...

Effects of mistuning and matrix structure on the topology of frequency response curves

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Afolabi, Dare

1989-01-01

The stability of a frequency response curve under mild perturbations of the system's matrix is investigated. Using recent developments in the theory of singularities of differentiable maps, it is shown that the stability of a response curve depends on the structure of the system's matrix. In particular, the frequency response curves of a cylic system are shown to be unstable. Consequently, slight parameter variations engendered by mistuning will induce a significant difference in the topology of the forced response curves, if the mistuning transformation crosses the bifurcation set.

Shallow End Response from ATEM

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vetrov, A.

2014-12-01

Different geological, hydrological, environmental and engineering targets are located shallow underground. The information collected with ATEM systems might be very useful for their study; although there are many deeper targets that the ATEM systems are traditionally used for. The idea to raise magnetic moment output and get deeper penetration response was one of the goals of ATEM systems development during the last decade. The shallow geology response was a trade for such systems, which sometimes were almost blind in the first hundred meter under surface. The possibility to achieve shallow end response from ATEM systems has become significant subject in last years. Several airborne TDEM systems got second higher frequency and lower magnetic moment signal to pick up shallow response together with deep one. Having a potential advantage such implementation raises complication and cost of the system. There's no need to receive 500 meter deep response when exploring shallow geology. P-THEM system having a compact size transmitter and relatively light weight is working on one base frequency at a time, but this frequency can be preset before a flight considering survey goals. A study of shallow geology response of the P-THEM system working on different base frequency has been conducted in 2014 in Ontario. The Alliston test area located in Southern Ontario has been flown with the P-THEM system working on base frequencies 30Hz and 90Hz. Results of the observations will be discussed in the presentation. The shallow end data can be used for mineral exploration applications and also for hydrological and environmental studies.

Implementation of a novel postoperative monitoring system using automated Modified Early Warning Scores (MEWS) incorporating end-tidal capnography.

PubMed

Blankush, Joseph M; Freeman, Robbie; McIlvaine, Joy; Tran, Trung; Nassani, Stephen; Leitman, I Michael

2017-10-01

Modified Early Warning Scores (MEWS) provide real-time vital sign (VS) trending and reduce ICU admissions in post-operative patients. These early warning calculations classically incorporate oxygen saturation, heart rate, respiratory rate, systolic blood pressure, and temperature but have not previously included end-tidal CO2 (EtCO 2 ), more recently identified as an independent predictor of critical illness. These systems may be subject to failure when physiologic data is incorrectly measured, leading to false alarms and increased workload. This study investigates whether the implementation of automated devices that utilize ongoing vital signs monitoring and MEWS calculations, inclusive of a score for end-tidal CO 2 (EtCO 2 ), can be feasibly implemented on the general care hospital floor and effectively identify derangements in a post-operative patient's condition while limiting the amount of false alarms that would serve to increase provider workload. From July to November 2014, post-operative patients meeting the inclusion criteria (BMI > 30 kg/m 2 , history of obstructive sleep apnea, or the use of patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) or epidural narcotics) were monitored using automated devices that record minute-by-minute VS included in classic MEWS calculations as well as EtCO 2 . Automated messages via pagers were sent to providers for instances when the device measured elevated MEWS, abnormal EtCO 2 , and oxygen desaturations below 85 %. Data, including alarm and message details from the first 133 patients, were recorded and analyzed. Overall, 3.3 alarms and pages sounded per hour of monitoring. Device-only alarms sounded 2.7 times per hour-21 % were technical alarms. The remaining device-only alarms for concerning VS sounded 2.0/h, 70 % for falsely recorded VS. Pages for abnormal EtCO 2 sounded 0.4/h (82 % false recordings) while pages for low blood oxygen saturation sounded 0.1/h (55 % false alarms). 143 times (0.1 pages/h) the devices calculated a MEWS warranting a page (rise in MEWS by 2 or 5 or greater)-62 % were false scores inclusive of falsely recorded VS. An abnormal EtCO 2 value resulted in or added to an elevated MEWS score in 29 % of notifications, but 50 % of these included a falsely abnormal EtCO 2 value. To date, no adverse events have occurred. There were no statistically significant demographic, post-operative condition, or pre-existing comorbidity differences between patients who had a majority of true alarms from those who had mostly false-positive alarms. Although not statistically significant, the group of patients in whom automated MEWS suggested greater utility included those with a history of hypertension (p = 0.072) and renal disease (p = 0.084). EtCO 2 monitoring was more likely to be useful in patients with a history of type 2 diabetes, coronary artery disease, and obstructive sleep apnea (p < 0.05). These patients were also more likely to have been on a PCA post-operatively (p < 0.05). Overall, non-invasive physiologic monitoring incorporating an automated MEWS system, modified to include end-tidal CO2 can be feasibly implemented in a hospital ward. Further study is needed to evaluate its clinical utility, including an end-tidal CO 2 score, is feasibly implemented and can be useful in monitoring select post-operative patients for derangements in physiologic metrics. Like any other monitoring system, false alarms may occur at high rates. While further study is needed to determine the additive utility of EtCO 2 in MEWS calculations, this study suggests utility of EtCO 2 in select post-operative patients.

Student Response (Clicker) Systems: Preferences of Biomedical Physiology Students in Asian Classes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hwang, Isabel; Wong, Kevin; Lam, Shun Leung; Lam, Paul

2015-01-01

Student response systems (commonly called "clickers") are valuable tools for engaging students in classroom interactions. In this study, we investigated the use of two types of response systems (a traditional clicker and a mobile device) by students in human physiology courses. Our results showed high student satisfaction with the use of…

Using crosscorrelation techniques to determine the impulse response of linear systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dallabetta, Michael J.; Li, Harry W.; Demuth, Howard B.

1993-01-01

A crosscorrelation method of measuring the impulse response of linear systems is presented. The technique, implementation, and limitations of this method are discussed. A simple system is designed and built using discrete components and the impulse response of a linear circuit is measured. Theoretical and software simulation results are presented.

Student Response Systems and Learner Engagement in Large Classes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Heaslip, Graham; Donovan, Paul; Cullen, John G.

2014-01-01

The use of student response systems is becoming more prevalent in higher level education. Evidence on the effectiveness of this technology can be an important resource for tutors seeking to engage with learners and raise the quality of learning experiences. Student response systems have been found to increase student engagement and participation…

"Clickers" and Metacognition: How Do Electronic Response Devices ("Clickers") Influence Student Metacognition?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Manke-Brady, Melanie

2012-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine whether electronic response systems influence student metacognitions in large lecture settings, and how metacognitive processes are influenced. Moreover, this study compared electronic response systems with a low technology system and sought to establish whether differences exist in how the two response…

48 CFR 1845.502 - Contractor responsibility.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 6 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 true Contractor responsibility. 1845.502 Section 1845.502 Federal Acquisition Regulations System NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE... Contractors 1845.502 Contractor responsibility. ...

Nonvocal language acquisition in adolescents with severe physical disabilities: Bliss symbol versus iconic stimulus formats.

PubMed Central

Hurlbut, B I; Iwata, B A; Green, J D

1982-01-01

This study compared training in two language systems for three severely handicapped, nonvocal adolescents: the Bliss symbol system and an iconic picture system. Following baseline, training and review trials were implemented using an alternating treatments design. Daily probes were conducted to assess maintenance, stimulus generalization, and response generalization, and data were collected on spontaneous usage of either language system throughout the school day. Results showed that students required approximately four times as many trials to acquire Bliss symbols as iconic pictures, and that students maintained a higher percentage of iconic pictures. Stimulus generalization occurred in both language systems, while the number of correct responses during responses generalization probes was much greater for the iconic system. Finally, students almost always showed more iconic responses than Bliss responses in daily spontaneous usage. These results suggest that an iconic system might be more readily spontaneous usage. These results suggest than an iconic system might be more readily acquired, maintained, and generalized to daily situations. Implications of these findings for the newly verbal person were discussed. PMID:6181049

14 CFR 1212.704 - System manager.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 5 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false System manager. 1212.704 Section 1212.704... Authority and Responsibilities § 1212.704 System manager. (a) Each system manager is responsible for the following with regard to the system of records over which the system manager has cognizance: (1) Overall...

14 CFR 1212.705 - System manager.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 5 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false System manager. 1212.705 Section 1212.705... Authority and Responsibilities § 1212.705 System manager. (a) Each system manager is responsible for the following with regard to the system of records over which the system manager has cognizance: (1) Overall...

14 CFR 1212.704 - System manager.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 5 2011-01-01 2010-01-01 true System manager. 1212.704 Section 1212.704... Authority and Responsibilities § 1212.704 System manager. (a) Each system manager is responsible for the following with regard to the system of records over which the system manager has cognizance: (1) Overall...

14 CFR 1212.704 - System manager.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 5 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false System manager. 1212.704 Section 1212.704... Authority and Responsibilities § 1212.704 System manager. (a) Each system manager is responsible for the following with regard to the system of records over which the system manager has cognizance: (1) Overall...

Occupational Safety and Health System for Workers Engaged in Emergency Response Operations in the USA.

PubMed

Toyoda, Hiroyuki; Kubo, Tatsuhiko; Mori, Koji

2016-12-03

To study the occupational safety and health systems used for emergency response workers in the USA, we performed interviews with related federal agencies and conducted research on related studies. We visited the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in the USA and performed interviews with their managers on the agencies' roles in the national emergency response system. We also obtained information prepared for our visit from the USA's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). In addition, we conducted research on related studies and information on the website of the agencies. We found that the USA had an established emergency response system based on their National Incident Management System (NIMS). This enabled several organizations to respond to emergencies cooperatively using a National Response Framework (NRF) that clarifies the roles and cooperative functions of each federal agency. The core system in NIMS was the Incident Command System (ICS), within which a Safety Officer was positioned as one of the command staff supporting the commander. All ICS staff were required to complete a training program specific to their position; in addition, the Safety Officer was required to have experience. The All-Hazards model was commonly used in the emergency response system. We found that FEMA coordinated support functions, and OSHA and NIOSH, which had specific functions to protect workers, worked cooperatively under NRF. These agencies employed certified industrial hygienists that play a professional role in safety and health. NIOSH recently executed support activities during disasters and other emergencies. The USA's emergency response system is characterized by functions that protect the lives and health of emergency response workers. Trained and experienced human resources support system effectiveness. The findings provided valuable information that could be used to improve the occupational safety and health function in the Japanese system.

Apparatus and Methods for Manipulation and Optimization of Biological Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sun, Ren (Inventor); Ho, Chih-Ming (Inventor); Wong, Pak Kin (Inventor); Yu, Fuqu (Inventor)

2014-01-01

The invention provides systems and methods for manipulating biological systems, for example to elicit a more desired biological response from a biological sample, such as a tissue, organ, and/or a cell. In one aspect, the invention operates by efficiently searching through a large parametric space of stimuli and system parameters to manipulate, control, and optimize the response of biological samples sustained in the system. In one aspect, the systems and methods of the invention use at least one optimization algorithm to modify the actuator's control inputs for stimulation, responsive to the sensor's output of response signals. The invention can be used, e.g., to optimize any biological system, e.g., bioreactors for proteins, and the like, small molecules, polysaccharides, lipids, and the like. Another use of the apparatus and methods includes is for the discovery of key parameters in complex biological systems.

Health systems' responsiveness and its characteristics: a cross-country comparative analysis.

PubMed

Robone, Silvana; Rice, Nigel; Smith, Peter C

2011-12-01

OBJECTIVES. Responsiveness has been identified as one of the intrinsic goals of health care systems. Little is known, however, about its determinants. Our objective is to investigate the potential country-level drivers of health system responsiveness. DATA SOURCE. Data on responsiveness are taken from the World Health Survey. Information on country-level characteristics is obtained from a variety of sources including the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). STUDY DESIGN. A two-step procedure. First, using survey data we derive a country-level measure of system responsiveness purged of differences in individual reporting behavior. Secondly, we run cross-sectional country-level regressions of responsiveness on potential drivers. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS. Health care expenditures per capita are positively associated with responsiveness, after controlling for the influence of potential confounding factors. Aspects of responsiveness are also associated with public sector spending (negatively) and educational development (positively). CONCLUSIONS. From a policy perspective, improvements in responsiveness may require higher spending levels. The expansion of nonpublic sector provision, perhaps in the form of increased patient choice, may also serve to improve responsiveness. However, these inferences are tentative and require further study. © Health Research and Educational Trust.

Systemic inflammatory response following acute myocardial infarction

PubMed Central

Fang, Lu; Moore, Xiao-Lei; Dart, Anthony M; Wang, Le-Min

2015-01-01

Acute cardiomyocyte necrosis in the infarcted heart generates damage-associated molecular patterns, activating complement and toll-like receptor/interleukin-1 signaling, and triggering an intense inflammatory response. Inflammasomes also recognize danger signals and mediate sterile inflammatory response following acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Inflammatory response serves to repair the heart, but excessive inflammation leads to adverse left ventricular remodeling and heart failure. In addition to local inflammation, profound systemic inflammation response has been documented in patients with AMI, which includes elevation of circulating inflammatory cytokines, chemokines and cell adhesion molecules, and activation of peripheral leukocytes and platelets. The excessive inflammatory response could be caused by a deregulated immune system. AMI is also associated with bone marrow activation and spleen monocytopoiesis, which sustains a continuous supply of monocytes at the site of inflammation. Accumulating evidence has shown that systemic inflammation aggravates atherosclerosis and markers for systemic inflammation are predictors of adverse clinical outcomes (such as death, recurrent myocardial infarction, and heart failure) in patients with AMI. PMID:26089856

Spinning Reserve From Hotel Load Response: Initial Progress

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

Kueck, John D; Kirby, Brendan J

2008-11-01

This project was motivated by the fundamental match between hotel space conditioning load response capability and power system contingency response needs. As power system costs rise and capacity is strained demand response can provide a significant system reliability benefit at a potentially attractive cost. At ORNL s suggestion, Digital Solutions Inc. adapted its hotel air conditioning control technology to supply power system spinning reserve. This energy saving technology is primarily designed to provide the hotel operator with the ability to control individual room temperature set-points based upon occupancy (25% to 50% energy savings based on an earlier study [Kirby andmore » Ally, 2002]). DSI added instantaneous local load shedding capability in response to power system frequency and centrally dispatched load shedding capability in response to power system operator command. The 162 room Music Road Hotel in Pigeon Forge Tennessee agreed to host the spinning reserve test. The Tennessee Valley Authority supplied real-time metering equipment in the form of an internet connected Dranetz-BMI power quality meter and monitoring expertise to record total hotel load during both normal operations and test results. The Sevier County Electric System installed the metering. Preliminary testing showed that hotel load can be curtailed by 22% to 37% depending on the outdoor temperature and the time of day. These results are prior to implementing control over the common area air conditioning loads. Testing was also not at times of highest system or hotel loading. Full response occurred in 12 to 60 seconds from when the system operator s command to shed load was issued. The load drop was very rapid, essentially as fast as the 2 second metering could detect, with all units responding essentially simultaneously. Load restoration was ramped back in over several minutes. The restoration ramp can be adjusted to the power system needs. Frequency response testing was not completed. Initial testing showed that the units respond very quickly. Problems with local power quality generated false low frequency signals which required testing to be stopped. This should not be a problem in actual operation since the frequency trip points will be staggered to generate a droop curve which mimics generator governor response. The actual trip frequencies will also be low enough to avoid power quality problems. The actual trip frequencies are too low to generate test events with sufficient regularity to complete testing in a reasonable amount of time. Frequency response testing will resume once the local power quality problem is fully understood and reasonable test frequency settings can be determined. Overall the preliminary testing was extremely successful. The hotel response capability matches the power system reliability need, being faster than generation response and inherently available when the power system is under the most stress (times of high system and hotel load). Periodic testing is scheduled throughout the winter and spring to characterize hotel response capability under a full range of conditions. More extensive testing will resume when summer outdoor temperatures are again high enough to fully test hotel response.« less

Dynamic Docking Test System (DDTS) active table frequency response test results. [Apollo Soyuz Test Project

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gates, R. M.

1974-01-01

Results are presented of the frequency response test performed on the dynamic docking test system (DDTS) active table. Sinusoidal displacement commands were applied to the table and the dynamic response determined from measured actuator responses and accelerometers mounted to the table and one actuator.

40 CFR 281.37 - Financial responsibility for UST systems containing petroleum.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 26 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Financial responsibility for UST... for No-Less-Stringent § 281.37 Financial responsibility for UST systems containing petroleum. (a) In order to be considered no less stringent than the federal requirements for financial responsibility for...

Analysis of dynamic system response to product random processes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sidwell, K.

1978-01-01

The response of dynamic systems to the product of two independent Gaussian random processes is developed by use of the Fokker-Planck and associated moment equations. The development is applied to the amplitude modulated process which is used to model atmospheric turbulence in aeronautical applications. The exact solution for the system response is compared with the solution obtained by the quasi-steady approximation which omits the dynamic properties of the random amplitude modulation. The quasi-steady approximation is valid as a limiting case of the exact solution for the dynamic response of linear systems to amplitude modulated processes. In the nonlimiting case the quasi-steady approximation can be invalid for dynamic systems with low damping.

Visual examination apparatus

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Haines, R. F.; Fitzgerald, J. W.; Rositano, S. A. (Inventor)

1976-01-01

An automated visual examination apparatus for measuring visual sensitivity and mapping blind spot location including a projection system for displaying to a patient a series of visual stimuli. A response switch enables him to indicate his reaction to the stimuli, and a recording system responsive to both the visual stimuli per se and the patient's response. The recording system thereby provides a correlated permanent record of both stimuli and response from which a substantive and readily apparent visual evaluation can be made.

Joint Planning Of Energy Storage and Transmission Considering Wind-Storage Combined System and Demand Side Response

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, Y.; Liu, B. Z.; Wang, K. Y.; Ai, X.

2017-12-01

In response to the new requirements of the operation mode of wind-storage combined system and demand side response for transmission network planning, this paper presents a joint planning of energy storage and transmission considering wind-storage combined system and demand side response. Firstly, the charge-discharge strategy of energy storage system equipped at the outlet of wind farm and demand side response strategy are analysed to achieve the best comprehensive benefits through the coordination of the two. Secondly, in the general transmission network planning model with wind power, both energy storage cost and demand side response cost are added to the objective function. Not only energy storage operation constraints and but also demand side response constraints are introduced into the constraint condition. Based on the classical formulation of TEP, a new formulation is developed considering the simultaneous addition of the charge-discharge strategy of energy storage system equipped at the outlet of the wind farm and demand side response strategy, which belongs to a typical mixed integer linear programming model that can be solved by mature optimization software. The case study based on the Garver-6 bus system shows that the validity of the proposed model is verified by comparison with general transmission network planning model. Furthermore, the results demonstrate that the joint planning model can gain more economic benefits through setting up different cases.

Consumer participation in early detection of the deteriorating patient and call activation to rapid response systems: a literature review.

PubMed

Vorwerk, Jane; King, Lindy

2016-01-01

This review investigated the impact of consumer participation in recognition of patient deterioration and response through call activation in rapid response systems. Nurses and doctors have taken the main role in recognition and response to patient deterioration through hospital rapid response systems. Yet patients and visitors (consumers) have appeared well placed to notice early signs of deterioration. In response, many hospitals have sought to partner health professionals with consumers in detection and response to early deterioration. However, to date, there have been no published research-based reviews to establish the impact of introducing consumer involvement into rapid response systems. A critical research-based review was undertaken. A comprehensive search of databases from 2006-2014 identified 11 studies. Critical appraisal of these studies was undertaken and thematic analysis of the findings revealed four major themes. Following implementation of the consumer activation programmes, the number of calls made by the consumers following detection of deterioration increased. Interestingly, the number of staff calls also increased. Importantly, mortality numbers were found to decrease in one major study following the introduction of consumer call activation. Consumer and staff knowledge and satisfaction with the new programmes indicated mixed results. Initial concerns of the staff over consumer involvement overwhelming the rapid response systems did not eventuate. Evaluation of successful consumer-activated programmes indicated the importance of: effective staff education and training; ongoing consumer education by nurses and clear educational materials. Findings indicated positive patient outcomes following introduction of consumer call activation programmes within rapid response systems. Effective consumer programmes included information that was readily accessible, easy-to-understand and available in a range of multimedia materials accompanied by the explanation and support of health professionals. Introduction of consumer-activated programmes within rapid response systems appears likely to improve outcomes for patients experiencing deterioration. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

System identification methods for aircraft flight control development and validation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tischler, Mark B.

1995-01-01

System-identification methods compose a mathematical model, or series of models, from measurements of inputs and outputs of dynamic systems. The extracted models allow the characterization of the response of the overall aircraft or component subsystem behavior, such as actuators and on-board signal processing algorithms. This paper discusses the use of frequency-domain system-identification methods for the development and integration of aircraft flight-control systems. The extraction and analysis of models of varying complexity from nonparametric frequency-responses to transfer-functions and high-order state-space representations is illustrated using the Comprehensive Identification from FrEquency Responses (CIFER) system-identification facility. Results are presented for test data of numerous flight and simulation programs at the Ames Research Center including rotorcraft, fixed-wing aircraft, advanced short takeoff and vertical landing (ASTOVL), vertical/short takeoff and landing (V/STOL), tiltrotor aircraft, and rotor experiments in the wind tunnel. Excellent system characterization and dynamic response prediction is achieved for this wide class of systems. Examples illustrate the role of system-identification technology in providing an integrated flow of dynamic response data around the entire life-cycle of aircraft development from initial specifications, through simulation and bench testing, and into flight-test optimization.

Assessing the responsiveness of chronic disease care - is the World Health Organization's concept of health system responsiveness applicable?

PubMed

Röttger, Julia; Blümel, Miriam; Fuchs, Sabine; Busse, Reinhard

2014-07-01

The concept of health system responsiveness is an important dimension of health system performance assessment. Further efforts have been made in recent years to improve the analysis of responsiveness measurements, yet few studies have applied the responsiveness concept to the evaluation of specific health care delivery structures. The objective of this study was to test the World Health Organization's (WHO's) responsiveness concept for an application in the evaluation of chronic disease care. In September and October 2012 we conducted four focus groups of chronically ill people (n = 38) in Germany, in which participants discussed their experiences and expectations regarding health care. The data was analyzed deductively (on the basis of the WHO responsiveness concept) and inductively using directed content analysis. Ten themes related to health system responsiveness and one theme (finances) not directly related to health system responsiveness, but of high importance to the focus group participants, could be identified. Eight of the ten responsiveness themes are consistent with the WHO concept. Additionally, two new themes were identified: trust (consultation and treatment are not led by any motive other than the patients' wellbeing) and coordination (treatment involving different providers is coordinated and different actors communicate with each other). These findings indicate the suitability of the WHO responsiveness concept for the evaluation of chronic disease care. However, some amendments, in particular an extension of the concept to include the two domains trust and coordination, are necessary for a thorough assessment of the responsiveness of chronic disease care. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Reinterpreting Responsiveness for Health Systems Research in Low and Middle-Income Countries.

PubMed

Pratt, Bridget; Hyder, Adnan A

2015-07-01

The ethical concept of responsiveness has largely been interpreted in the context of international clinical research. In light of the increasing conduct of externally funded health systems research (HSR) in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), this article examines how responsiveness might be understood for such research and how it can be applied. It contends that four features (amongst others) set HSR in LMICs apart from international clinical research: a focus on systems; being context-driven; being policy-driven; and being closely linked to development objectives. These features support reinterpreting responsiveness for HSR in LMICs as responsiveness to systems needs, where health system performance assessments can be relied upon to identify systems needs, and/or responsiveness to systems priorities, which entails aligning research with HSR priorities set through country-owned processes involving national and sub-national policymakers from host countries. Both concepts may be difficult to achieve in practice. Country ownership is not an established fact for many countries and alignment to their priorities may be meaningless without it. It is argued that more work is, therefore, needed to identify strategies for how the responsiveness requirement can be ethically fulfilled for HSR in LMICs under non-ideal conditions such as where host countries have not set HSR priorities via country-owned processes. Embeddedness is proposed as one approach that could be the focus of further development. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

A microcomputer-based emergency response system*.

PubMed

Belardo, S; Howell, A; Ryan, R; Wallace, W A

1983-09-01

A microcomputer-based system was developed to provide local officials responsible for disaster management with assistance during the crucial period immediately following a disaster, a period when incorrect decisions could have an adverse impact on the surrounding community. While the paper focuses on a potential disaster resulting from an accident at a commercial nuclear power generating facility, the system can be applied to other disastrous situations. Decisions involving evacuation, shelter and the deployment of resources must be made in response to floods, earthquakes, accidents in the transportation of hazardous materials, and hurricanes to name a few examples. As a decision aid, the system was designed to enhance data display by presenting the data in the form of representations (i.e. road maps, evacuation routes, etc.) as well as in list or tabular form. The potential impact of the event (i.e. the release of radioactive material) was displayed in the form of a cloud, representing the dispersion of the radioactive material. In addition, an algorithm was developed to assist the manager in assigning response resources to demands. The capability for modelling the impact of a disaster is discussed briefly, with reference to a system installed in the communities surrounding the Indian Point nuclear power plant in New York State. Results demonstrate both the technical feasibility of incorporating microcomputers indecision support systems for radiological emergency response, and the acceptance of such systems by those public officials responsible for implementing the response plans.

Investigations on response time of magnetorheological elastomer under compression mode

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhu, Mi; Yu, Miao; Qi, Song; Fu, Jie

2018-05-01

For efficient fast control of vibration system with magnetorheological elastomer (MRE)-based smart device, the response time of MRE material is the key parameter which directly affects the control performance of the vibration system. For a step coil current excitation, this paper proposed a Maxwell behavior model with time constant λ to describe the normal force response of MRE, and the response time of MRE was extracted through the separation of coil response time. Besides, the transient responses of MRE under compression mode were experimentally investigated, and the effects of (i) applied current, (ii) particle distribution and (iii) compressive strain on the response time of MRE were addressed. The results revealed that the three factors can affect the response characteristic of MRE quite significantly. Besides the intrinsic importance for contributing to the response evaluation and effective design of MRE device, this study may conduce to the optimal design of controller for MRE control system.

5 CFR 9701.410 - DHS responsibilities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... RESOURCES MANAGEMENT SYSTEM Performance Management § 9701.410 DHS responsibilities. In carrying out its performance management system(s), DHS must— (a) Transfer ratings between subordinate organizations and to... 9701.410 Administrative Personnel DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT SYSTEM...

5 CFR 9701.410 - DHS responsibilities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... RESOURCES MANAGEMENT SYSTEM Performance Management § 9701.410 DHS responsibilities. In carrying out its performance management system(s), DHS must— (a) Transfer ratings between subordinate organizations and to... 9701.410 Administrative Personnel DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT SYSTEM...

5 CFR 9701.410 - DHS responsibilities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... RESOURCES MANAGEMENT SYSTEM Performance Management § 9701.410 DHS responsibilities. In carrying out its performance management system(s), DHS must— (a) Transfer ratings between subordinate organizations and to... 9701.410 Administrative Personnel DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT SYSTEM...

Spill response system configuration study

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1996-05-01

This report describes the development of a prototype decision support system for oil spill response configuration plannig that will help U.S. Coast Guard planners to determine the appropriate response equipment and personnel for major spills. The rep...

Development of water environment information management and water pollution accident response system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, J.; Ruan, H.

2009-12-01

In recent years, many water pollution accidents occurred with the rapid economical development. In this study, water environment information management and water pollution accident response system are developed based on geographic information system (GIS) techniques. The system integrated spatial database, attribute database, hydraulic model, and water quality model under a user-friendly interface in a GIS environment. System ran in both Client/Server (C/S) and Browser/Server (B/S) platform which focused on model and inquiry respectively. System provided spatial and attribute data inquiry, water quality evaluation, statics, water pollution accident response case management (opening reservoir etc) and 2D and 3D visualization function, and gave assistant information to make decision on water pollution accident response. Polluted plume in Huaihe River were selected to simulate the transport of pollutes.

The Impact of Student Response Systems on the Learning Experience of Undergraduate Psychology Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Walklet, Elaine; Davis, Sarah; Farrelly, Daniel; Muse, Kate

2016-01-01

Student response systems (SRS) are hand-held devices or mobile phone polling systems which collate real-time, individual responses to on-screen questions. Previous research examining their role in higher education has highlighted both advantages and disadvantages of their use. This paper explores how different SRS influence the learning experience…

Integrating the Rights of the Child with the Responsibility of the Parent

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scholz, Carolyn L.

2011-01-01

This paper will explore the balance between children's rights and parental responsibility from a family systems perspective. Children do not grow up in a vacuum; they are part of a biological, psychological and social system. The interaction of the child and parent within this system must include the development of responsibilities by the parent…

78 FR 71676 - Submission for Review: 3206-0201, Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Open Season Express...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-11-29

... (FEHB) Open Season Express Interactive Voice Response (IVR) System and Open Season Web site AGENCY: U.S... Benefits (FEHB) Open Season Express Interactive Voice Response (IVR) System and the Open Season Web site... Season Express Interactive Voice Response (IVR) System, and the Open Season Web site, Open Season Online...

14 CFR § 1212.705 - System manager.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 5 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false System manager. § 1212.705 Section § 1212... NASA Authority and Responsibilities § 1212.705 System manager. (a) Each system manager is responsible for the following with regard to the system of records over which the system manager has cognizance...

Development of a Tailored Methodology and Forensic Toolkit for Industrial Control Systems Incident Response

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-06-01

for industrial control systems ,” in Proceedings of the VDE Kongress, 2004. [15] K. Stouffer et al., “Special publication 800-82: Guide to industrial...TAILORED METHODOLOGY AND FORENSIC TOOLKIT FOR INDUSTRIAL CONTROL SYSTEMS INCIDENT RESPONSE by Nicholas B. Carr June 2014 Thesis Co...CONTROL SYSTEMS INCIDENT RESPONSE 5. FUNDING NUMBERS 6. AUTHOR(S) Nicholas B. Carr 7. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES) Naval

Oncolytic Viral Therapy and the Immune System: A Double-Edged Sword Against Cancer.

PubMed

Marelli, Giulia; Howells, Anwen; Lemoine, Nicholas R; Wang, Yaohe

2018-01-01

Oncolytic viral therapy is a new promising strategy against cancer. Oncolytic viruses (OVs) can replicate in cancer cells but not in normal cells, leading to lysis of the tumor mass. Beside this primary effect, OVs can also stimulate the immune system. Tumors are an immuno-suppressive environment in which the immune system is silenced in order to avoid the immune response against cancer cells. The delivery of OVs into the tumor wakes up the immune system so that it can facilitate a strong and durable response against the tumor itself. Both innate and adaptive immune responses contribute to this process, producing an immune response against tumor antigens and facilitating immunological memory. However, viruses are recognized by the immune system as pathogens and the consequent anti-viral response could represent a big hurdle for OVs. Finding a balance between anti-tumor and anti-viral immunity is, under this new light, a priority for researchers. In this review, we provide an overview of the various ways in which different components of the immune system can be allied with OVs. We have analyzed the different immune responses in order to highlight the new and promising perspectives leading to increased anti-tumor response and decreased immune reaction to the OVs.

General response formula and application to topological insulator in quantum open system.

PubMed

Shen, H Z; Qin, M; Shao, X Q; Yi, X X

2015-11-01

It is well-known that the quantum linear response theory is based on the first-order perturbation theory for a system in thermal equilibrium. Hence, this theory breaks down when the system is in a steady state far from thermal equilibrium and the response up to higher order in perturbation is not negligible. In this paper, we develop a nonlinear response theory for such quantum open system. We first formulate this theory in terms of general susceptibility, after which we apply it to the derivation of Hall conductance for open system at finite temperature. As an example, the Hall conductance of the two-band model is derived. Then we calculate the Hall conductance for a two-dimensional ferromagnetic electron gas and a two-dimensional lattice model. The calculations show that the transition points of topological phase are robust against the environment. Our results provide a promising platform for the coherent manipulation of the nonlinear response in quantum open system, which has potential applications for quantum information processing and statistical physics.

Nonlinear dynamics in ecosystem response to climatic change: Case studies and policy implications

USGS Publications Warehouse

Burkett, Virginia R.; Wilcox, Douglas A.; Stottlemyer, Robert; Barrow, Wylie; Fagre, Dan; Baron, Jill S.; Price, Jeff; Nielsen, Jennifer L.; Allen, Craig D.; Peterson, David L.; Ruggerone, Greg; Doyle, Thomas

2005-01-01

Many biological, hydrological, and geological processes are interactively linked in ecosystems. These ecological phenomena normally vary within bounded ranges, but rapid, nonlinear changes to markedly different conditions can be triggered by even small differences if threshold values are exceeded. Intrinsic and extrinsic ecological thresholds can lead to effects that cascade among systems, precluding accurate modeling and prediction of system response to climate change. Ten case studies from North America illustrate how changes in climate can lead to rapid, threshold-type responses within ecological communities; the case studies also highlight the role of human activities that alter the rate or direction of system response to climate change. Understanding and anticipating nonlinear dynamics are important aspects of adaptation planning since responses of biological resources to changes in the physical climate system are not necessarily proportional and sometimes, as in the case of complex ecological systems, inherently nonlinear.

Visual examination apparatus

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Haines, R. F.; Fitzgerald, J. W.; Rositano, S. A. (Inventor)

1973-01-01

An automated visual examination apparatus for measuring visual sensitivity and mapping blind spot location is described. The apparatus includes a projection system for displaying to a patient a series of visual stimuli, a response switch enabling him to indicate his reaction to the stimuli, and a recording system responsive to both the visual stimuli per se and the patient's response. The recording system provides a correlated permanent record of both stimuli and response from which a substantive and readily apparent visual evaluation can be made.

Bacteria-Triggered Systemic Immunity in Barley Is Associated with WRKY and ETHYLENE RESPONSIVE FACTORs But Not with Salicylic Acid1[C][W

PubMed Central

Dey, Sanjukta; Wenig, Marion; Langen, Gregor; Sharma, Sapna; Kugler, Karl G.; Knappe, Claudia; Hause, Bettina; Bichlmeier, Marlies; Babaeizad, Valiollah; Imani, Jafargholi; Janzik, Ingar; Stempfl, Thomas; Hückelhoven, Ralph; Kogel, Karl-Heinz; Mayer, Klaus F.X.

2014-01-01

Leaf-to-leaf systemic immune signaling known as systemic acquired resistance is poorly understood in monocotyledonous plants. Here, we characterize systemic immunity in barley (Hordeum vulgare) triggered after primary leaf infection with either Pseudomonas syringae pathovar japonica (Psj) or Xanthomonas translucens pathovar cerealis (Xtc). Both pathogens induced resistance in systemic, uninfected leaves against a subsequent challenge infection with Xtc. In contrast to systemic acquired resistance in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), systemic immunity in barley was not associated with NONEXPRESSOR OF PATHOGENESIS-RELATED GENES1 or the local or systemic accumulation of salicylic acid. Instead, we documented a moderate local but not systemic induction of abscisic acid after infection of leaves with Psj. In contrast to salicylic acid or its functional analog benzothiadiazole, local applications of the jasmonic acid methyl ester or abscisic acid triggered systemic immunity to Xtc. RNA sequencing analysis of local and systemic transcript accumulation revealed unique gene expression changes in response to both Psj and Xtc and a clear separation of local from systemic responses. The systemic response appeared relatively modest, and quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction associated systemic immunity with the local and systemic induction of two WRKY and two ETHYLENE RESPONSIVE FACTOR (ERF)-like transcription factors. Systemic immunity against Xtc was further associated with transcriptional changes after a secondary/systemic Xtc challenge infection; these changes were dependent on the primary treatment. Taken together, bacteria-induced systemic immunity in barley may be mediated in part by WRKY and ERF-like transcription factors, possibly facilitating transcriptional reprogramming to potentiate immunity. PMID:25332505

Input-output characterization of an ultrasonic testing system by digital signal analysis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Karaguelle, H.; Lee, S. S.; Williams, J., Jr.

1984-01-01

The input/output characteristics of an ultrasonic testing system used for stress wave factor measurements were studied. The fundamentals of digital signal processing are summarized. The inputs and outputs are digitized and processed in a microcomputer using digital signal processing techniques. The entire ultrasonic test system, including transducers and all electronic components, is modeled as a discrete-time linear shift-invariant system. Then the impulse response and frequency response of the continuous time ultrasonic test system are estimated by interpolating the defining points in the unit sample response and frequency response of the discrete time system. It is found that the ultrasonic test system behaves as a linear phase bandpass filter. Good results were obtained for rectangular pulse inputs of various amplitudes and durations and for tone burst inputs whose center frequencies are within the passband of the test system and for single cycle inputs of various amplitudes. The input/output limits on the linearity of the system are determined.

Impaired Memory Retrieval Correlates with Individual Differences in Cortisol Response but Not Autonomic Response

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tranel, Daniel; Adolphs, Ralph; Buchanan, Tony W.

2006-01-01

Stress can enhance or impair memory performance. Both cortisol release and sympathetic nervous system responses have been implicated in these differential effects. Here we investigated how memory retrieval might be affected by stress-induced cortisol release, independently of sympathetic nervous system stress responses. Thirty-two healthy…

The systemic inflammatory response syndrome.

PubMed

Robertson, Charles M; Coopersmith, Craig M

2006-04-01

The systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) is the body's response to an infectious or noninfectious insult. Although the definition of SIRS refers to it as an "inflammatory" response, it actually has pro- and anti-inflammatory components. This review outlines the pathophysiology of SIRS and highlights potential targets for future therapeutic intervention in patients with this complex entity.

48 CFR 6103.303 - Responses to claims [Rule 303].

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 7 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Responses to claims [Rule 303]. 6103.303 Section 6103.303 Federal Acquisition Regulations System CIVILIAN BOARD OF CONTRACT APPEALS, GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION TRANSPORTATION RATE CASES 6103.303 Responses to claims [Rule 303]. (a) Content of responses. Within 30 calenda...

Using Classroom Response Technology to Create an Active Learning Environment in Marketing Classes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Muncy, James A.; Eastman, Jacqueline K.

2012-01-01

Classroom response systems (CRS), also called student/audience response systems or clickers, have been used by business instructors, particularly in larger classes, to allow instructors to ask students questions in class and have their responses immediately tabulated and reported electronically. While clickers have typically been used to measure…

Single-channel voice-response-system program documentation volume I : system description

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1977-01-01

This report documents the design and implementation of a Voice Response System (VRS) using Adaptive Differential Pulse Code Modulation (ADPCM) voice coding. Implemented on a Digital Equipment Corporation PDP-11/20,R this VRS system supports a single ...

48 CFR 715.303 - Responsibilities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 5 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Responsibilities. 715.303 Section 715.303 Federal Acquisition Regulations System AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT CONTRACTING METHODS AND CONTRACT TYPES CONTRACTING BY NEGOTIATION Source Selection 715.303 Responsibilities. ...

48 CFR 715.303 - Responsibilities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 5 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Responsibilities. 715.303 Section 715.303 Federal Acquisition Regulations System AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT CONTRACTING METHODS AND CONTRACT TYPES CONTRACTING BY NEGOTIATION Source Selection 715.303 Responsibilities. ...

System level analysis and control of manufacturing process variation

DOEpatents

Hamada, Michael S.; Martz, Harry F.; Eleswarpu, Jay K.; Preissler, Michael J.

2005-05-31

A computer-implemented method is implemented for determining the variability of a manufacturing system having a plurality of subsystems. Each subsystem of the plurality of subsystems is characterized by signal factors, noise factors, control factors, and an output response, all having mean and variance values. Response models are then fitted to each subsystem to determine unknown coefficients for use in the response models that characterize the relationship between the signal factors, noise factors, control factors, and the corresponding output response having mean and variance values that are related to the signal factors, noise factors, and control factors. The response models for each subsystem are coupled to model the output of the manufacturing system as a whole. The coefficients of the fitted response models are randomly varied to propagate variances through the plurality of subsystems and values of signal factors and control factors are found to optimize the output of the manufacturing system to meet a specified criterion.

Dissociating Medial Temporal and Striatal Memory Systems With a Same/Different Matching Task: Evidence for Two Neural Systems in Human Recognition.

PubMed

Sinha, Neha; Glass, Arnold Lewis

2017-01-01

The medial temporal lobe and striatum have both been implicated as brain substrates of memory and learning. Here, we show dissociation between these two memory systems using a same/different matching task, in which subjects judged whether four-letter strings were the same or different. Different RT was determined by the left-to-right location of the first letter different between the study and test string, consistent with a left-to-right comparison of the study and test strings, terminating when a difference was found. This comparison process results in same responses being slower than different responses. Nevertheless, same responses were faster than different responses. Same responses were associated with hippocampus activation. Different responses were associated with both caudate and hippocampus activation. These findings are consistent with the dual-system hypothesis of mammalian memory and extend the model to human visual recognition.

Colombeau algebra as a mathematical tool for investigating step load and step deformation of systems of nonlinear springs and dashpots

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Průša, Vít; Řehoř, Martin; Tůma, Karel

2017-02-01

The response of mechanical systems composed of springs and dashpots to a step input is of eminent interest in the applications. If the system is formed by linear elements, then its response is governed by a system of linear ordinary differential equations. In the linear case, the mathematical method of choice for the analysis of the response is the classical theory of distributions. However, if the system contains nonlinear elements, then the classical theory of distributions is of no use, since it is strictly limited to the linear setting. Consequently, a question arises whether it is even possible or reasonable to study the response of nonlinear systems to step inputs. The answer is positive. A mathematical theory that can handle the challenge is the so-called Colombeau algebra. Building on the abstract result by Průša and Rajagopal (Int J Non-Linear Mech 81:207-221, 2016), we show how to use the theory in the analysis of response of nonlinear spring-dashpot and spring-dashpot-mass systems.

Simultaneous approach using systemic, mucosal and transcutaneous routes of immunization for development of protective HIV-1 vaccines.

PubMed

Belyakov, I M; Ahlers, J D

2011-01-01

Mucosal tissues are major sites of HIV entry and initial infection. Induction of a local mucosal cytotoxic T lymphocyte response is considered an important goal in developing an effective HIV vaccine. In addition, activation and recruitment of memory CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells in systemic lymphoid circulation to mucosal effector sites might provide the firewall needed to prevent virus spread. Therefore a vaccine that generates CD4(+) and CD8(+) responses in both mucosal and systemic tissues might be required for protection against HIV. However, optimal routes and number of vaccinations required for the generation of long lasting CD4(+) and CD8(+) CTL effector and memory responses are not well understood especially for mucosal T cells. A number of studies looking at protective immune responses against diverse mucosal pathogens have shown that mucosal vaccination is necessary to induce a compartmentalized immune response including maximum levels of mucosal high-avidity CD8(+) CTL, antigen specific mucosal antibodies titers (especially sIgA), as well as induction of innate anti-viral factors in mucosa tissue. Immune responses are detectable at mucosal sites after systemic delivery of vaccine, and prime boost regimens can amplify the magnitude of immune responses in mucosal sites and in systemic lymphoid tissues. We believe that the most optimal mucosal and systemic HIV/SIV specific protective immune responses and innate factors might best be achieved by simultaneous mucosal and systemic prime and boost vaccinations. Similar principals of vaccination may be applied for vaccine development against cancer and highly invasive pathogens that lead to chronic infection.

Long-term culture change related to rapid response system implementation.

PubMed

Stevens, Jennifer; Johansson, Anna; Lennes, Inga; Hsu, Douglas; Tess, Anjala; Howell, Michael

2014-12-01

Increasing attention to patient safety in training hospitals may come at the expense of trainee autonomy and professional growth. This study sought to examine changes in medical trainees' self-reported behaviour after the institution-wide implementation of a rapid response system. We conducted a two-point cross-sectional survey of medical trainees in 2006, during the implementation of a rapid response system, and in 2010, in a single academic medical centre. A novel instrument was used to measure trainee likelihood of calling for supervisory assistance, perception of autonomy, and comfort in managing decompensating patients. Non-parametric tests to assess for change were used and year of training was evaluated as an effect modifier. Response rates were 38% in 2006 and 70% in 2010. After 5 years of the full implementation of the rapid response system, residents were significantly more likely to report calling their attending physicians for assistance (rising from 40% to 65% of relevant situations; p < 0.0001). Year of training was a significant effect modifier. Interns felt significantly more comfortable in managing acutely ill patients; juniors and seniors felt significantly less concerned about their autonomy at 5 years after the implementation of the rapid response system. These changes were mirrored in the actual use of the rapid response system, which increased by 41% during the 5-year period after adjustment for patient volume (p < 0.0001). A primary team-focused implementation of a rapid response system was associated with durable changes in resident physicians' reported behaviour, including increased comfort with involving more experienced physicians and managing unstable patients. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Hypoxia Responsive Drug Delivery Systems in Tumor Therapy.

PubMed

Alimoradi, Houman; Matikonda, Siddharth S; Gamble, Allan B; Giles, Gregory I; Greish, Khaled

2016-01-01

Hypoxia is a common characteristic of solid tumors. It is mainly determined by low levels of oxygen resulting from imperfect vascular networks supplying most tumors. In an attempt to improve the present chemotherapeutic treatment and reduce associated side effects, several prodrug strategies have been introduced to achieve hypoxia-specific delivery of cytotoxic anticancer agents. With the advances in nanotechnology, novel delivery systems activated by the consequent outcomes of hypoxia have been developed. However, developing hypoxia responsive drug delivery systems (which only depend on low oxygen levels) is currently naïve. This review discusses four main hypoxia responsive delivery systems: polymeric based drug delivery systems, oxygen delivery systems combined with radiotherapy and chemotherapy, anaerobic bacteria which are used for delivery of genes to express anticancer proteins such as tumor necrosis alpha (TNF-α) and hypoxia-inducible transcription factors 1 alpha (HIF1α) responsive gene delivery systems.

Responsiveness of the health insurance and private systems in Alexandria, Egypt.

PubMed

Mosallam, Rasha A; Aly, Mahmoud M; Moharram, Ahmed M

2013-04-01

Responsiveness to patients is a key indicator for measuring the health system performance with respect to nonhealth aspects. This study aimed to compare responsiveness of the Health Insurance Organization (HIO) with the private healthcare system and also to assess the importance of the different responsiveness domains according to the study population's perspective. Patients attending both inpatient and outpatient settings of both organizations were interviewed (200 outpatients and 200 inpatients from each selected hospital) using the WHO questionnaire. The questionnaire elicits the ratings of the respondents on their experiences with the healthcare system over the past 12 months in terms of responsiveness domains, respondents' inability to access medical care because of financial barriers, and their ranking of the relative importance of responsiveness domains. Almost twice the number of HIO participants reported poor responsiveness compared with the private organization participants (27.8 vs. 56.8%, respectively). The outpatient setting scored much favorably compared with the inpatient setting at the HIO (52.3% of respondents reported poor responsiveness in the outpatient setting compared with 76.3% in the inpatient setting); however, they were comparable in the private setting. Communication, prompt attention, and dignity were the domains most frequently rated as the most important (36.0, 32.0, and 14.7%, respectively). The type of organization (HIO vs. private organization) and setting of care (inpatient vs. outpatient) were significant predictors of responsiveness score (P<0.001). The overall rating of the patients on responsiveness of the HIO system is low, especially when compared with the private sector. The results emphasize the importance of establishment of systems for monitoring the performance of the providers and discontinuation of the services for the nonperformers.

Combined local and systemic bleomycin administration in electrochemotherapy to reduce the number of treatment sessions

PubMed Central

Tellado, Matias; Olaiz, Nahuel; Michinski, Sebastian; Marshall, Guillermo

2016-01-01

Background Electrochemotherapy (ECT), a medical treatment widely used in human patients for tumor treatment, increases bleomycin toxicity by 1000 fold in the treated area with an objective response rate of around 80%. Despite its high response rate, there are still 20% of cases in which the patients are not responding. This could be ascribed to the fact that bleomycin, when administered systemically, is not reaching the whole tumor mass properly because of the characteristics of tumor vascularization, in which case local administration could cover areas that are unreachable by systemic administration. Patients and methods We propose combined bleomycin administration, both systemic and local, using companion animals as models. We selected 22 canine patients which failed to achieve a complete response after an ECT treatment session. Eleven underwent another standard ECT session (control group), while 11 received a combined local and systemic administration of bleomycin in the second treatment session. Results According to the WHO criteria, the response rates in the combined administration group were: complete response (CR) 54% (6), partial response (PR) 36% (4), stable disease (SD) 10% (1). In the control group, these were: CR 0% (0), PR 19% (2), SD 63% (7), progressive disease (PD) 18% (2). In the combined group 91% objective responses (CR+PR) were obtained. In the control group 19% objective responses were obtained. The difference in the response rate between the treatment groups was significant (p < 0.01). Conclusions Combined local and systemic bleomycin administration was effective in previously to ECT non responding canine patients. The results indicate that this approach could be useful and effective in specific population of patients and reduce the number of treatment sessions needed to obtain an objective response. PMID:27069450

Sex differences in physiological reactivity to acute psychosocial stress in adolescence.

PubMed

Ordaz, Sarah; Luna, Beatriz

2012-08-01

Females begin to demonstrate greater negative affective responses to stress than males in adolescence. This may reflect the concurrent emergence of underlying differences in physiological response systems, including corticolimbic circuitries, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPAA), and the autonomic nervous system (ANS). This review examines when sex differences in physiological reactivity to acute psychosocial stress emerge and the directionality of these differences over development. Indeed, the literature indicates that sex differences emerge during adolescence and persist into adulthood for all three physiological response systems. However, the directionality of the differences varies by system. The emerging corticolimbic reactivity literature suggests greater female reactivity, particularly in limbic regions densely innervated by gonadal hormone receptors. In contrast, males generally show higher levels of HPAA and ANS reactivity. We argue that the contrasting directionality of corticolimbic and peripheral physiological responses may reflect specific effects of gonadal hormones on distinct systems and also sex differences in evolved behavioral responses that demand different levels of peripheral physiological activation. Studies that examine both subjective reports of negative affect and physiological responses indicate that beginning in adolescence, females respond to acute stressors with more intense negative affect than males despite their comparatively lower peripheral physiological responses. This dissociation is not clearly explained by sex differences in the strength of the relationship between physiological and subjective responses. We suggest that females' greater subjective responsivity may instead arise from a greater activity in brain regions that translate stress responses to subjective awareness in adolescence. Future research directions include investigations of the role of pubertal hormones in physiological reactivity across all systems, examining the relationship of corticolimbic reactivity and negative affect, and sex differences in emotion regulation processes. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Sex differences in physiological reactivity to acute psychosocial stress in adolescence

PubMed Central

Ordaz, Sarah; Luna, Beatriz

2012-01-01

Summary Females begin to demonstrate greater negative affective responses to stress than males in adolescence. This may reflect the concurrent emergence of underlying differences in physiological response systems, including corticolimbic circuitries, the hypothalamic—pituitary— adrenal axis (HPAA), and the autonomic nervous system (ANS). This review examines when sex differences in physiological reactivity to acute psychosocial stress emerge and the directionality of these differences over development. Indeed, the literature indicates that sex differences emerge during adolescence and persist into adulthood for all three physiological response systems. However, the directionality of the differences varies by system. The emerging corti-colimbic reactivity literature suggests greater female reactivity, particularly in limbic regions densely innervated by gonadal hormone receptors. In contrast, males generally show higher levels of HPAA and ANS reactivity. We argue that the contrasting directionality of corticolimbic and peripheral physiological responses may reflect specific effects of gonadal hormones on distinct systems and also sex differences in evolved behavioral responses that demand different levels of peripheral physiological activation. Studies that examine both subjective reports of negative affect and physiological responses indicate that beginning in adolescence, females respond to acute stressors with more intense negative affect than males despite their comparatively lower peripheral physiological responses. This dissociation is not clearly explained by sex differences in the strength of the relationship between physiological and subjective responses. We suggest that females' greater subjective responsivity may instead arise from a greater activity in brain regions that translate stress responses to subjective awareness in adolescence. Future research directions include investigations of the role of pubertal hormones in physiological reactivity across all systems, examining the relationship of corticolimbic reactivity and negative affect, and sex differences in emotion regulation processes. PMID:22281210

Brain reward system's alterations in response to food and monetary stimuli in overweight and obese individuals.

PubMed

Verdejo-Román, Juan; Vilar-López, Raquel; Navas, Juan F; Soriano-Mas, Carles; Verdejo-García, Antonio

2017-02-01

The brain's reward system is crucial to understand obesity in modern society, as increased neural responsivity to reward can fuel the unhealthy food choices that are driving the growing obesity epidemic. Brain's reward system responsivity to food and monetary rewards in individuals with excessive weight (overweight and obese) versus normal weight controls, along with the relationship between this responsivity and body mass index (BMI) were tested. The sample comprised 21 adults with obesity (BMI > 30), 21 with overweight (BMI between 25 and 30), and 39 with normal weight (BMI < 25). Participants underwent a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) session while performing two tasks that involve the processing of food (Willing to Pay) and monetary rewards (Monetary Incentive Delay). Neural activations within the brain reward system were compared across the three groups. Curve fit analyses were conducted to establish the association between BMI and brain reward system's response. Individuals with obesity had greater food-evoked responsivity in the dorsal and ventral striatum compared with overweight and normal weight groups. There was an inverted U-shape association between BMI and monetary-evoked responsivity in the ventral striatum, medial frontal cortex, and amygdala; that is, individuals with BMIs between 27 and 32 had greater responsivity to monetary stimuli. Obesity is associated with greater food-evoked responsivity in the ventral and dorsal striatum, and overweight is associated with greater monetary-evoked responsivity in the ventral striatum, the amygdala, and the medial frontal cortex. Findings suggest differential reactivity of the brain's reward system to food versus monetary rewards in obesity and overweight. Hum Brain Mapp 38:666-677, 2017. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Response Diversity and Resilience in Social-Ecological Systems

PubMed Central

Leslie, Paul; McCabe, J. Terrence

2013-01-01

Recent work in ecology suggests that the diversity of responses to environmental change among species contributing to the same ecosystem function can strongly influence ecosystem resilience. To render this important realization more useful for understanding coupled human-natural systems, we broaden the concept of response diversity to include heterogeneity in human decisions and action. Simply put, not all actors respond the same way to challenges, opportunities, and risks. The range, prevalence, and spatial and temporal distributions of different responses may be crucial to the resilience or the transformation of a social-ecological system, and thus have a bearing on human vulnerability and well-being in the face of environmental, socioeconomic, and political change. Response diversity can be seen at multiple scales (e.g., household, village, region) and response diversity at one scale may act synergistically with or contrary to the effects of diversity at another scale. Although considerable research on the sources of response diversity has been done, our argument is that the consequences of response diversity warrant closer attention. We illustrate this argument with examples drawn from our studies of two East African pastoral populations and discuss the relationship of response diversity to characteristics of social-ecological systems that can promote or diminish resilience. PMID:24855324

Investigation of absolute and relative response for three different liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry systems; the impact of ionization and detection saturation.

PubMed

Nilsson, Lars B; Skansen, Patrik

2012-06-30

The investigations in this article were triggered by two observations in the laboratory; for some liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) systems it was possible to obtain linear calibration curves for extreme concentration ranges and for some systems seemingly linear calibration curves gave good accuracy at low concentrations only when using a quadratic regression function. The absolute and relative responses were tested for three different LC/MS/MS systems by injecting solutions of a model compound and a stable isotope labeled internal standard. The analyte concentration range for the solutions was 0.00391 to 500 μM (128,000×), giving overload of the chromatographic column at the highest concentrations. The stable isotope labeled internal standard concentration was 0.667 μM in all samples. The absolute response per concentration unit decreased rapidly as higher concentrations were injected. The relative response, the ratio for the analyte peak area to the internal standard peak area, per concentration unit was calculated. For system 1, the ionization process was found to limit the response and the relative response per concentration unit was constant. For systems 2 and 3, the ion detection process was the limiting factor resulting in decreasing relative response at increasing concentrations. For systems behaving like system 1, simple linear regression can be used for any concentration range while, for systems behaving like systems 2 and 3, non-linear regression is recommended for all concentration ranges. Another consequence is that the ionization capacity limited systems will be insensitive to matrix ion suppression when an ideal internal standard is used while the detection capacity limited systems are at risk of giving erroneous results at high concentrations if the matrix ion suppression varies for different samples in a run. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Improving Systems Engineering Effectiveness in Rapid Response Development Environments

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-06-02

environments where large, complex, brownfield systems of systems are evolved through parallel development of new capabilities in response to external, time...license 14. ABSTRACT Systems engineering is often ineffective in development environments where large, complex, brownfield systems of systems are...IEEE Press, Hoboken, NJ, 2008 [18] Boehm, B.: Applying the Incremental Commitment Model to Brownfield Systems Development, Proceedings, CSER 2009

Long-Range Activation of Systemic Immunity through Peptidoglycan Diffusion in Drosophila

PubMed Central

Gendrin, Mathilde; Welchman, David P.; Poidevin, Mickael; Hervé, Mireille; Lemaitre, Bruno

2009-01-01

The systemic immune response of Drosophila is known to be induced both by septic injury and by oral infection with certain bacteria, and is characterized by the secretion of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) into the haemolymph. To investigate other possible routes of bacterial infection, we deposited Erwinia carotovora (Ecc15) on various sites of the cuticle and monitored the immune response via expression of the AMP gene Diptericin. A strong response was observed to deposition on the genital plate of males (up to 20% of a septic injury response), but not females. We show that the principal response to genital infection is systemic, but that some AMPs, particularly Defensin, are induced locally in the genital tract. At late time points we detected bacteria in the haemolymph of immune deficient RelishE20 flies, indicating that the genital plate can be a route of entry for pathogens, and that the immune response protects flies against the progression of genital infection. The protective role of the immune response is further illustrated by our observation that RelishE20 flies exhibit significant lethality in response to genital Ecc15 infections. We next show that a systemic immune response can be induced by deposition of the bacterial elicitor peptidoglycan (PGN), or its terminal monomer tracheal cytotoxin (TCT), on the genital plate. This immune response is downregulated by PGRP-LB and Pirk, known regulators of the Imd pathway, and can be suppressed by the overexpression of PGRP-LB in the haemolymph compartment. Finally, we provide strong evidence that TCT can activate a systemic response by crossing epithelia, by showing that radiolabelled TCT deposited on the genital plate can subsequently be detected in the haemolymph. Genital infection is thus an intriguing new model for studying the systemic immune response to local epithelial infections and a potential route of entry for naturally occurring pathogens of Drosophila. PMID:20019799

Long-range activation of systemic immunity through peptidoglycan diffusion in Drosophila.

PubMed

Gendrin, Mathilde; Welchman, David P; Poidevin, Mickael; Hervé, Mireille; Lemaitre, Bruno

2009-12-01

The systemic immune response of Drosophila is known to be induced both by septic injury and by oral infection with certain bacteria, and is characterized by the secretion of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) into the haemolymph. To investigate other possible routes of bacterial infection, we deposited Erwinia carotovora (Ecc15) on various sites of the cuticle and monitored the immune response via expression of the AMP gene Diptericin. A strong response was observed to deposition on the genital plate of males (up to 20% of a septic injury response), but not females. We show that the principal response to genital infection is systemic, but that some AMPs, particularly Defensin, are induced locally in the genital tract. At late time points we detected bacteria in the haemolymph of immune deficient Relish(E20) flies, indicating that the genital plate can be a route of entry for pathogens, and that the immune response protects flies against the progression of genital infection. The protective role of the immune response is further illustrated by our observation that Relish(E20) flies exhibit significant lethality in response to genital Ecc15 infections. We next show that a systemic immune response can be induced by deposition of the bacterial elicitor peptidoglycan (PGN), or its terminal monomer tracheal cytotoxin (TCT), on the genital plate. This immune response is downregulated by PGRP-LB and Pirk, known regulators of the Imd pathway, and can be suppressed by the overexpression of PGRP-LB in the haemolymph compartment. Finally, we provide strong evidence that TCT can activate a systemic response by crossing epithelia, by showing that radiolabelled TCT deposited on the genital plate can subsequently be detected in the haemolymph. Genital infection is thus an intriguing new model for studying the systemic immune response to local epithelial infections and a potential route of entry for naturally occurring pathogens of Drosophila.

Assessment of the effects of student response systems on student learning and attitudes over a broad range of biology courses.

PubMed

Preszler, Ralph W; Dawe, Angus; Shuster, Charles B; Shuster, Michèle

2007-01-01

With the advent of wireless technology, new tools are available that are intended to enhance students' learning and attitudes. To assess the effectiveness of wireless student response systems in the biology curriculum at New Mexico State University, a combined study of student attitudes and performance was undertaken. A survey of students in six biology courses showed that strong majorities of students had favorable overall impressions of the use of student response systems and also thought that the technology improved their interest in the course, attendance, and understanding of course content. Students in lower-division courses had more strongly positive overall impressions than did students in upper-division courses. To assess the effects of the response systems on student learning, the number of in-class questions was varied within each course throughout the semester. Students' performance was compared on exam questions derived from lectures with low, medium, or high numbers of in-class questions. Increased use of the response systems in lecture had a positive influence on students' performance on exam questions across all six biology courses. Students not only have favorable opinions about the use of student response systems, increased use of these systems increases student learning.

State deadbeat response and observability in multi-modal systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Conner, L. T., Jr.; Stanford, D. P.

1984-01-01

Two aspects of multimodal systems are examined. It is shown that any completely controllable system with state dimension n not exceeding three allows a choice of feedback matrices resulting in a state deadbeat response. Some of the results presented here are valid for arbitrary n, and it is suggested that for all n the state deadbeat response can be obtained under the hypothesis of complete controllability. The controllability canonical form for a multimodal system is refined by introducing a notion of observability which is dual to controllability for these systems.

Field camera measurements of gradient and shim impulse responses using frequency sweeps.

PubMed

Vannesjo, S Johanna; Dietrich, Benjamin E; Pavan, Matteo; Brunner, David O; Wilm, Bertram J; Barmet, Christoph; Pruessmann, Klaas P

2014-08-01

Applications of dynamic shimming require high field fidelity, and characterizing the shim field dynamics is therefore necessary. Modeling the system as linear and time-invariant, the purpose of this work was to measure the impulse response function with optimal sensitivity. Frequency-swept pulses as inputs are analyzed theoretically, showing that the sweep speed is a key factor for the measurement sensitivity. By adjusting the sweep speed it is possible to achieve any prescribed noise profile in the measured system response. Impulse response functions were obtained for the third-order shim system of a 7 Tesla whole-body MR scanner. Measurements of the shim fields were done with a dynamic field camera, yielding also cross-term responses. The measured shim impulse response functions revealed system characteristics such as response bandwidth, eddy currents and specific resonances, possibly of mechanical origin. Field predictions based on the shim characterization were shown to agree well with directly measured fields, also in the cross-terms. Frequency sweeps provide a flexible tool for shim or gradient system characterization. This may prove useful for applications involving dynamic shimming by yielding accurate estimates of the shim fields and a basis for setting shim pre-emphasis. Copyright © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Preparedness and Emergency Response Research Centers: Using a Public Health Systems Approach to Improve All-Hazards Preparedness and Response

PubMed Central

Leinhos, Mary; Williams-Johnson, Mildred

2014-01-01

In 2008, at the request of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Institute of Medicine (IOM) prepared a report identifying knowledge gaps in public health systems preparedness and emergency response and recommending near-term priority research areas. In accordance with the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act mandating new public health systems research for preparedness and emergency response, CDC provided competitive awards establishing nine Preparedness and Emergency Response Research Centers (PERRCs) in accredited U.S. schools of public health. The PERRCs conducted research in four IOM-recommended priority areas: (1) enhancing the usefulness of public health preparedness and response (PHPR) training, (2) creating and maintaining sustainable preparedness and response systems, (3) improving PHPR communications, and (4) identifying evaluation criteria and metrics to improve PHPR for all hazards. The PERRCs worked closely with state and local public health, community partners, and advisory committees to produce practice-relevant research findings. PERRC research has generated more than 130 peer-reviewed publications and nearly 80 practice and policy tools and recommendations with the potential to significantly enhance our nation's PHPR to all hazards and that highlight the need for further improvements in public health systems. PMID:25355970

Narrow band noise response of a Belleville spring resonator.

PubMed

Lyon, Richard H

2013-09-01

This study of nonlinear dynamics includes (i) an identification of quasi-steady states of response using equivalent linearization, (ii) the temporal simulation of the system using Heun's time step procedure on time domain analytic signals, and (iii) a laboratory experiment. An attempt has been made to select material and measurement parameters so that nearly the same systems are used and analyzed for all three parts of the study. This study illustrates important features of nonlinear response to narrow band excitation: (a) states of response that the system can acquire with transitions of the system between those states, (b) the interaction between the noise source and the vibrating load in which the source transmits energy to or draws energy from the load as transitions occur; (c) the lag or lead of the system response relative to the source as transitions occur that causes the average frequencies of source and response to differ; and (d) the determination of the state of response (mass or stiffness controlled) by observation of the instantaneous phase of the influence function. These analyses take advantage of the use of time domain analytic signals that have a complementary role to functions that are analytic in the frequency domain.

The stress response and immune system share, borrow, and reconfigure their physiological network elements: Evidence from the insects.

PubMed

Adamo, Shelley A

2017-02-01

The classic biomedical view is that stress hormone effects on the immune system are largely pathological, especially if the stress is chronic. However, more recent interpretations have focused on the potential adaptive function of these effects. This paper examines stress response-immune system interactions from a physiological network perspective, using insects because of their simpler physiology. For example, stress hormones can reduce disease resistance, yet activating an immune response results in the release of stress hormones in both vertebrates and invertebrates. From a network perspective, this phenomenon is consistent with the 'sharing' of the energy-releasing ability of stress hormones by both the stress response and the immune system. Stress-induced immunosuppression is consistent with the stress response 'borrowing' molecular components from the immune system to increase the capacity of stress-relevant physiological processes (i.e. a trade off). The insect stress hormones octopamine and adipokinetic hormone can also 'reconfigure' the immune system to help compensate for the loss of some of the immune system's molecular resources (e.g. apolipophorin III). This view helps explain seemingly maladaptive interactions between the stress response and immune system. The adaptiveness of stress hormone effects on individual immune components may be apparent only from the perspective of the whole organism. These broad principles will apply to both vertebrates and invertebrates. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Linking Health System Responsiveness to Political Rights and Civil Liberties: A Multilevel Analysis Using Data From 44 Countries.

PubMed

Witvliet, Margot I; Stronks, Karien; Kunst, Anton E; Mahapatra, Tanmay; Arah, Onyebuchi A

2015-01-01

Responsiveness is a dimension of health system functioning and might be dependent upon contextual factors related to politics. Given this, we performed cross-national comparisons with the aim of investigating: 1) the associations of political factors with patients' reports of health system responsiveness and 2) the extent to which health input and output might explain these associations. World Health Survey data were analyzed for 44 countries (n = 103 541). Main outcomes included, respectively, 8 and 7 responsiveness domains for inpatient and outpatient care. Linear multilevel regressions were used to assess the associations of politics (namely, civil liberties and political rights), socioeconomic development, health system input, and health system output (measured by maternal mortality) with responsiveness domains, adjusted for demographic factors. Political rights showed positive associations with dignity (regression coefficient = 0.086 [standard error = 0.039]), quality (0.092 [0.049]), and support (0.113 [0.048]) for inpatient care and with dignity (0.075 [0.040]), confidentiality (0.089 [0.043]), and quality (0.124 [0.053]) for outpatient care. Positive associations were observed for civil liberties as well. Health system input and output reduced observed associations. Results tentatively suggest that strengthening political rights and, to a certain extent, civil liberties might improve health system responsiveness, in part through their effect on health system input and output. © The Author(s) 2015.

Propagating Molecular Recognition Events through Highly Integrated Sense-Response Chemical Systems

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-08-01

Propagating Molecular Recognition Events through Highly Integrated Sense-Response Chemical Systems The views, opinions and/or findings contained in...University of California - San Diego Title: Propagating Molecular Recognition Events through Highly Integrated Sense-Response Chemical Systems Report Term...including enzymatic reactions , occurring at the aqueous interfaces of thermotropic LCs show promise as the basis of biomolecular triggers of LC

Dynamic Docking Test System (DDTS) active table computer program NASA Advanced Docking System (NADS)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gates, R. M.; Jantz, R. E.

1974-01-01

A computer program was developed to describe the three-dimensional motion of the Dynamic Docking Test System active table. The input consists of inertia and geometry data, actuator structural data, forcing function data, hydraulics data, servo electronics data, and integration control data. The output consists of table responses, actuator bending responses, and actuator responses.

Soil life in reconstructed ecosystems: initial soil food web responses after rebuilding a forest soil profile for a climate change experiment

Treesearch

Paul T. Rygiewicz; Vicente J. Monleon; Elaine R. Ingham; Kendall J. Martin; Mark G. Johnson

2010-01-01

Disrupting ecosystem components, while transferring and reconstructing them for experiments can produce myriad responses. Establishing the extent of these biological responses as the system approaches a new equilibrium allows us more reliably to emulate comparable native systems. That is, the sensitivity of analyzing ecosystem processes in a reconstructed system is...

A new approach for the calculation of response spectral density of a linear stationary random multidegree of freedom system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sharan, A. M.; Sankar, S.; Sankar, T. S.

1982-08-01

A new approach for the calculation of response spectral density for a linear stationary random multidegree of freedom system is presented. The method is based on modifying the stochastic dynamic equations of the system by using a set of auxiliary variables. The response spectral density matrix obtained by using this new approach contains the spectral densities and the cross-spectral densities of the system generalized displacements and velocities. The new method requires significantly less computation time as compared to the conventional method for calculating response spectral densities. Two numerical examples are presented to compare quantitatively the computation time.

Rapid response deluge system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mille, J. R.

1984-08-01

The development of a rapid response deluge system by the Ammunition Equipment Directorate (AED) for use in suppressing propellant fires during demilitarization shows great promise. Prototype systems have been tested and data acquired on their efficiencies. Present system vs previous generations and lessons learned are discussed.

RESPONSE OF THE THERMOREGULATORY SYSTEM TO TOXIC CHEMICALS

EPA Science Inventory

The thermoregulatory system plays a crucial role in the physiological response to pesticides, airborne pollutants, and other toxic agents. The exposure to toxicants via inhalation, cutaneous absorption, or ingestion, their clearance from the body, the physiological responses, del...

48 CFR 46.502 - Responsibility for acceptance.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Responsibility for acceptance. 46.502 Section 46.502 Federal Acquisition Regulations System FEDERAL ACQUISITION REGULATION CONTRACT MANAGEMENT QUALITY ASSURANCE Acceptance 46.502 Responsibility for acceptance. Acceptance of...

Response of the Thermoregulatory System to Toxic Chemicals

EPA Science Inventory

The thermoregulatory system plays a crucial role in the physiological response to pesticides, airborne pollutants, and other toxic agents. The exposure to toxicants via inhalation, cutaneous absorption, or ingestion, their clearance from the body, the physiological responses, del...

Must Educational Responsibility Be an Illusion?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Inbar, Dan

1982-01-01

Examines the concepts of and relationship between responsibility and authority. Identifies seven characteristics of educational systems (authority, interdependence, the unified whole, goals, evaluation, correction, and knowledge) as central to an analysis of educational responsibility. Suggests restructuring the educational system on a…

Dynamic analysis of a flexible spacecraft with rotating components. Volume 1: Analytical developments

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bodley, C. S.; Devers, A. D.; Park, A. C.

1975-01-01

Analytical procedures and digital computer code are presented for the dynamic analysis of a flexible spacecraft with rotating components. Topics, considered include: (1) nonlinear response in the time domain, and (2) linear response in the frequency domain. The spacecraft is assumed to consist of an assembly of connected rigid or flexible subassemblies. The total system is not restricted to a topological connection arrangement and may be acting under the influence of passive or active control systems and external environments. The analytics and associated digital code provide the user with the capability to establish spacecraft system nonlinear total response for specified initial conditions, linear perturbation response about a calculated or specified nominal motion, general frequency response and graphical display, and spacecraft system stability analysis.

Role of the autonomic nervous system and baroreflex in stress-evoked cardiovascular responses in rats.

PubMed

Dos Reis, Daniel Gustavo; Fortaleza, Eduardo Albino Trindade; Tavares, Rodrigo Fiacadori; Corrêa, Fernando Morgan Aguiar

2014-07-01

Restraint stress (RS) is an experimental model to study stress-related cardiovascular responses, characterized by sustained pressor and tachycardiac responses. We used pharmacologic and surgical procedures to investigate the role played by sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and parasympathetic nervous system (PSNS) in the mediation of stress-evoked cardiovascular responses. Ganglionic blockade with pentolinium significantly reduced RS-evoked pressor and tachycardiac responses. Intravenous treatment with homatropine methyl bromide did not affect the pressor response but increased tachycardia. Pretreatment with prazosin reduced the pressor and increased the tachycardiac response. Pretreatment with atenolol did not affect the pressor response but reduced tachycardia. The combined treatment with atenolol and prazosin reduced both pressor and tachycardiac responses. Adrenal demedullation reduced the pressor response without affecting tachycardia. Sinoaortic denervation increased pressor and tachycardiac responses. The results indicate that: (1) the RS-evoked cardiovascular response is mediated by the autonomic nervous system without an important involvement of humoral factors; (2) hypertension results primarily from sympathovascular and sympathoadrenal activation, without a significant involvement of the cardiac sympathetic component (CSNS); (3) the abrupt initial peak in the hypertensive response to restraint is sympathovascular-mediated, whereas the less intense but sustained hypertensive response observed throughout the remaining restraint session is mainly mediated by sympathoadrenal activation and epinephrine release; (4) tachycardia results from CSNS activation, and not from PSNS inhibition; (5) RS evokes simultaneous CSNS and PSNS activation, and heart rate changes are a vector of both influences; (6) the baroreflex is functional during restraint, and modulates both the vascular and cardiac responses to restraint.

Effect of Stimulation of Neurotransmitter Systems on Heart Rate Variability and β-Adrenergic Responsiveness of Erythrocytes in Outbred Rats.

PubMed

Kur'yanova, E V; Tryasuchev, A V; Stupin, V O; Teplyi, D L

2017-05-01

We studied heart rate variability and β-adrenergic responsiveness of erythrocytes and changes in these parameters in response to single administration of β-adrenoblocker propranolol (2 mg/kg) in outbred male rats against the background of activation of the noradrenergic, serotonergic, and dopaminergic neurotransmitter systems achieved by 4-fold injections maprotiline (10 mg/kg), 5-hydroxytryptophan (50 mg/kg) combined with fluoxetine (3 mg/kg), and L-DOPA (20 mg/kg) with amantadine (20 mg/kg), respectively. Stimulation of the noradrenergic system moderately enhanced the heart rhythm rigidity and β-adrenergic responsiveness of erythrocytes. In addition, it markedly augmented the moderating effect of subsequently administered propranolol on LF and VLF components in the heart rate variability and reversed the effect of propranolol on β-adrenergic responsiveness of erythrocytes. Stimulation of the serotonergic system dramatically decreased all components in the heart rate variability and pronouncedly enhanced β-adrenergic responsiveness of erythrocytes. Subsequent injection of propranolol slightly restored all components in the heart rate variability and decreased β-adrenergic responsiveness of erythrocytes to the control level. Stimulation of the dopaminergic system made the heart rate more rigid due to decrease of all components in the heart rate variability; in addition, it slightly but significantly enhanced β-adrenergic responsiveness of erythrocytes. Subsequent injection of propranolol produced no significant effects on all components in the heart rate variability and on β-adrenergic responsiveness of erythrocytes. Stimulation of noradrenergic, serotonergic, and dopaminergic neurotransmitter systems produced unidirectional and consorted effects on heart rate variability and β-adrenergic responsiveness of erythrocytes, although the magnitudes of these effects were different. Probably, the changes in the heart rate variability in rats with stimulated neurotransmitter systems results from modification of the cellular sensitivity in peripheral organs to adrenergic influences. However, the differences in the reactions to β-adrenoblocker attest to specificity of the mechanisms underlying the changes in membrane reception and adrenergic pathways in every experimental model employed in this study.

Toward an artificial sensory feedback system for prosthetic mobility rehabilitation: examination of sensorimotor responses.

PubMed

Sharma, Aman; Torres-Moreno, Ricardo; Zabjek, Karl; Andrysek, Jan

2014-01-01

People with lower-limb amputation have reduced mobility due to loss of sensory information, which may be restored by artificial sensory feedback systems built into prostheses. For an effective system, it is important to understand how humans sense, interpret, and respond to the feedback that would be provided. The goal of this study was to examine sensorimotor responses to mobility-relevant stimuli. Three experiments were performed to examine the effects of location of stimuli, frequency of stimuli, and means for providing the response. Stimuli, given as vibrations, were applied to the thigh region, and responses involved leg movements. Sensorimotor reaction time (RT) was measured as the duration between application of the stimulus and initiation of the response. Accuracy of response was also measured. Overall average RTs for one response option were 0.808 +/- 0.142 s, and response accuracies were >90%. Higher frequencies (220 vs 140 Hz) of vibration stimulus provided in anterior regions of the thigh produced the fastest RTs. When participants were presented with more than one stimulus and response option, RTs increased. Findings suggest that long sensorimotor responses may be a limiting factor in the development of an artificial feedback system for mobility rehabilitation applications; however, feed-forward techniques could potentially help to address these limitations.

Public Health Response Systems In-Action: Learning from Local Health Departments’ Experiences with Acute and Emergency Incidents

PubMed Central

Hunter, Jennifer C.; Yang, Jane E.; Crawley, Adam W.; Biesiadecki, Laura; Aragón, Tomás J.

2013-01-01

As part of their core mission, public health agencies attend to a wide range of disease and health threats, including those that require routine, acute, and emergency responses. While each incident is unique, the number and type of response activities are finite; therefore, through comparative analysis, we can learn about commonalities in the response patterns that could improve predictions and expectations regarding the resources and capabilities required to respond to future acute events. In this study, we interviewed representatives from more than 120 local health departments regarding their recent experiences with real-world acute public health incidents, such as infectious disease outbreaks, severe weather events, chemical spills, and bioterrorism threats. We collected highly structured data on key aspects of the incident and the public health response, particularly focusing on the public health activities initiated and community partners engaged in the response efforts. As a result, we are able to make comparisons across event types, create response profiles, and identify functional and structural response patterns that have import for future public health preparedness and response. Our study contributes to clarifying the complexity of public health response systems and our analysis reveals the ways in which these systems are adaptive to the character of the threat, resulting in differential activation of functions and partners based on the type of incident. Continued and rigorous examination of the experiences of health departments throughout the nation will refine our very understanding of what the public health response system is, will enable the identification of organizational and event inputs to performance, and will allow for the construction of rich, relevant, and practical models of response operations that can be employed to strengthen public health systems. PMID:24236137

How Humans Adapt To Heat

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Greenleaf, John E.; Kaciuba-Uscilko, Hanna

1992-01-01

Report discusses adaptive responses of humans to hot environment. Describes thermoregulation by integrated responses of nervous system, vascular/fluid/electrolyte system, and endocrine system. Considers disorders resulting from failure of thermoregulation and less serious heat stress.

Exploratory analysis of real personal emergency response call conversations: considerations for personal emergency response spoken dialogue systems.

PubMed

Young, Victoria; Rochon, Elizabeth; Mihailidis, Alex

2016-11-14

The purpose of this study was to derive data from real, recorded, personal emergency response call conversations to help improve the artificial intelligence and decision making capability of a spoken dialogue system in a smart personal emergency response system. The main study objectives were to: develop a model of personal emergency response; determine categories for the model's features; identify and calculate measures from call conversations (verbal ability, conversational structure, timing); and examine conversational patterns and relationships between measures and model features applicable for improving the system's ability to automatically identify call model categories and predict a target response. This study was exploratory and used mixed methods. Personal emergency response calls were pre-classified according to call model categories identified qualitatively from response call transcripts. The relationships between six verbal ability measures, three conversational structure measures, two timing measures and three independent factors: caller type, risk level, and speaker type, were examined statistically. Emergency medical response services were the preferred response for the majority of medium and high risk calls for both caller types. Older adult callers mainly requested non-emergency medical service responders during medium risk situations. By measuring the number of spoken words-per-minute and turn-length-in-words for the first spoken utterance of a call, older adult and care provider callers could be identified with moderate accuracy. Average call taker response time was calculated using the number-of-speaker-turns and time-in-seconds measures. Care providers and older adults used different conversational strategies when responding to call takers. The words 'ambulance' and 'paramedic' may hold different latent connotations for different callers. The data derived from the real personal emergency response recordings may help a spoken dialogue system classify incoming calls by caller type with moderate probability shortly after the initial caller utterance. Knowing the caller type, the target response for the call may be predicted with some degree of probability and the output dialogue could be tailored to this caller type. The average call taker response time measured from real calls may be used to limit the conversation length in a spoken dialogue system before defaulting to a live call taker.

Interaction of magnetite-based receptors in the beak with the visual system underlying 'fixed direction' responses in birds

PubMed Central

2010-01-01

Background European robins, Erithacus rubecula, show two types of directional responses to the magnetic field: (1) compass orientation that is based on radical pair processes and lateralized in favor of the right eye and (2) so-called 'fixed direction' responses that originate in the magnetite-based receptors in the upper beak. Both responses are light-dependent. Lateralization of the 'fixed direction' responses would suggest an interaction between the two magnetoreception systems. Results Robins were tested with either the right or the left eye covered or with both eyes uncovered for their orientation under different light conditions. With 502 nm turquoise light, the birds showed normal compass orientation, whereas they displayed an easterly 'fixed direction' response under a combination of 502 nm turquoise with 590 nm yellow light. Monocularly right-eyed birds with their left eye covered were oriented just as they were binocularly as controls: under turquoise in their northerly migratory direction, under turquoise-and-yellow towards east. The response of monocularly left-eyed birds differed: under turquoise light, they were disoriented, reflecting a lateralization of the magnetic compass system in favor of the right eye, whereas they continued to head eastward under turquoise-and-yellow light. Conclusion 'Fixed direction' responses are not lateralized. Hence the interactions between the magnetite-receptors in the beak and the visual system do not seem to involve the magnetoreception system based on radical pair processes, but rather other, non-lateralized components of the visual system. PMID:20707905

Nonlinear dynamical analysis of an aeroelastic system with multi-segmented moment in the pitch degree-of-freedom

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vasconcellos, Rui; Abdelkefi, Abdessattar

2015-01-01

The effects of a multi-segmented nonlinearity in the pitch degree of freedom on the behavior of a two-degree of freedom aeroelastic system are investigated. The aeroelastic system is free to plunge and pitch and is supported by linear translational and nonlinear torsional springs and is subjected to an incoming flow. The unsteady representation based on the Duhamel formulation is used to model the aerodynamic loads. Using modern method of nonlinear dynamics, a nonlinear characterization is performed to identify the system's response when increasing the wind speed. It is demonstrated that four sudden transitions take place with a change in the system's response. It is shown that, in the first transition, the system's response changes from simply periodic (only main oscillating frequency) to two periods (having the main oscillating frequency and its superharmonic of order 2). In the second transition, the response of the system changes from two periods (having the main oscillating frequency and its superharmonic of order 2) to a period-1. The results also show that the third transition is accompanied by a change in the system's response from simply periodic to two periods (having the main oscillating frequency and its superharmonic of order 3). After this transition, chaotic responses take place and then the fourth transition is accompanied by a sudden change in the system's response from chaotic to two periods (having the main oscillating frequency and its superharmonic of order 3). The results show that these transitions are caused by the tangential contact between the trajectory and the multi-segmented nonlinearity boundaries and with a zero-pitch speed incidence. This observation is associated with the definition of grazing bifurcation.

A Review of Cardiac Autonomic Measures: Considerations for Examination of Physiological Response in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Benevides, Teal W.; Lane, Shelly J.

2015-01-01

The autonomic nervous system (ANS) is responsible for multiple physiological responses, and dysfunction of this system is often hypothesized as contributing to cognitive, affective, and behavioral responses in children. Research suggests that examination of ANS activity may provide insight into behavioral dysregulation in children with autism…

Review of probabilistic analysis of dynamic response of systems with random parameters

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kozin, F.; Klosner, J. M.

1989-01-01

The various methods that have been studied in the past to allow probabilistic analysis of dynamic response for systems with random parameters are reviewed. Dynamic response may have been obtained deterministically if the variations about the nominal values were small; however, for space structures which require precise pointing, the variations about the nominal values of the structural details and of the environmental conditions are too large to be considered as negligible. These uncertainties are accounted for in terms of probability distributions about their nominal values. The quantities of concern for describing the response of the structure includes displacements, velocities, and the distributions of natural frequencies. The exact statistical characterization of the response would yield joint probability distributions for the response variables. Since the random quantities will appear as coefficients, determining the exact distributions will be difficult at best. Thus, certain approximations will have to be made. A number of techniques that are available are discussed, even in the nonlinear case. The methods that are described were: (1) Liouville's equation; (2) perturbation methods; (3) mean square approximate systems; and (4) nonlinear systems with approximation by linear systems.

47 CFR 90.656 - Responsibilities of base station licensees of Specialized Mobile Radio systems.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... operate mobile units on a particular Specialized Mobile Radio system will be licensed to that system. A... Specialized Mobile Radio systems. 90.656 Section 90.656 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION... Bands § 90.656 Responsibilities of base station licensees of Specialized Mobile Radio systems. (a) The...

Crop and cattle production responses to tillage and cover crop management in an integrated crop-livestock system in the southeastern USA

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Integrated crop-livestock systems can help achieve greater environmental quality from disparate crop and livestock systems by recycling nutrients and taking advantage of synergies between systems. We investigated crop and animal production responses in integrated crop-livestock systems with two typ...

Experimental Study of Hydraulic Systems Transient Response Characteristics

DTIC Science & Technology

1978-12-01

of Filter .. ... ...... ..... ..... 28 Effects of Quincke -Tube. .. ..... ...... ... 28 Error ’Estimation. .. ... ...... ..... ..... 33 I. CONCLUSIONS...System With Quincke -Tube i Configuration ..... ..................... ... 11 6 Schematic of Pump System .... ............... ... 12 7 Example of Computer...Filter Configuration ........ ..................... 32 20 Transient Response, Reservoir System, Quincke -Tube (Short) Configuration, 505 PSIA

Method for suppressing noise in measurements

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Carson, Paul L. (Inventor); Madsen, Louis A. (Inventor); Leskowitz, Garett M. (Inventor); Weitekamp, Daniel P. (Inventor)

2000-01-01

Methods for suppressing noise in measurements by correlating functions based on at least two different measurements of a system at two different times. In one embodiment, a measurement operation is performed on at least a portion of a system that has a memory. A property of the system is measured during a first measurement period to produce a first response indicative of a first state of the system. Then the property of the system is measured during a second measurement period to produce a second response indicative of a second state of the system. The second measurement is performed after an evolution duration subsequent to the first measurement period when the system still retains a degree of memory of an aspect of the first state. Next, a first function of the first response is combined with a second function of the second response to form a second-order correlation function. Information of the system is then extracted from the second-order correlation function.

Intelligent transportation systems field operational test cross-cutting study : emergency notification and response.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1998-09-01

Emergency Notification and Response report summarizes and interprets the results of two Field Operational Tests (FOTs) that included emergency notification and response system components. The tests included in this report are: Colorado Mayday and Pug...

48 CFR 2446.502 - Responsibility for acceptance.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 6 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 true Responsibility for acceptance. 2446.502 Section 2446.502 Federal Acquisition Regulations System DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT CONTRACT MANAGEMENT QUALITY ASSURANCE Acceptance 2446.502 Responsibility for acceptance. ...

48 CFR 837.103 - Contracting officer responsibility.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 5 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Contracting officer responsibility. 837.103 Section 837.103 Federal Acquisition Regulations System DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS... officer responsibility. When the contracting officer determines that legal assistance is necessary in...

48 CFR 49.101 - Authorities and responsibilities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Authorities and responsibilities. 49.101 Section 49.101 Federal Acquisition Regulations System FEDERAL ACQUISITION REGULATION CONTRACT MANAGEMENT TERMINATION OF CONTRACTS General Principles 49.101 Authorities and responsibilities. (a...

48 CFR 849.101 - Authorities and responsibilities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 5 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Authorities and responsibilities. 849.101 Section 849.101 Federal Acquisition Regulations System DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS CONTRACT MANAGEMENT TERMINATION OF CONTRACTS General Principles 849.101 Authorities and responsibilities...

48 CFR 949.101 - Authorities and responsibilities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 5 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Authorities and responsibilities. 949.101 Section 949.101 Federal Acquisition Regulations System DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY CONTRACT MANAGEMENT TERMINATION OF CONTRACTS General Principles 949.101 Authorities and responsibilities. The Senior...

48 CFR 30.202-6 - Responsibilities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 1 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Responsibilities. 30.202-6 Section 30.202-6 Federal Acquisition Regulations System FEDERAL ACQUISITION REGULATION GENERAL CONTRACTING REQUIREMENTS COST ACCOUNTING STANDARDS ADMINISTRATION CAS Program Requirements 30.202-6 Responsibilities. (a...

The developing immune system - from foetus to toddler.

PubMed

Ygberg, Sofia; Nilsson, Anna

2012-02-01

During foetal development, neonatal period and childhood, the immune system is constantly maturing. In the foetus, infection responsiveness is low and associates with spontaneous abortion. During the neonatal period, the infection response shifts towards a more pro-inflammatory response. The immune system of the newborn acquires adaptive features as a result of exposure to microbes. The development of the human immune system is a continuous process where both accelerated and retarded development is deleterious. © 2011 The Author(s)/Acta Paediatrica © 2011 Foundation Acta Paediatrica.

Request for Information Response for the Flight Validation of Adaptive Control to Prevent Loss-of-Control Events. Overview of RFI Responses

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bosworth, John T.

2009-01-01

Adaptive control should be integrated with a baseline controller and only used when necessary (5 responses). Implementation as an emergency system. Immediately re-stabilize and return to controlled flight. Forced perturbation (excitation) for fine-tuning system a) Check margins; b) Develop requirements for amplitude of excitation. Adaptive system can improve performance by eating into margin constraints imposed on the non-adaptive system. Nonlinear effects due to multi-string voting.

An Investigation of the Memory Response of the Local Immune System to Shigella Antigens.

DTIC Science & Technology

1985-12-31

kAD-A±75 215 AN INVESTIOATION OF THE MEMORY RESPONSE OF THE LOCAL L/1 I IMMUNE SYSTEM TO SHIGELLA ANTIGENS(U) MICHIGAN UNIV ANN I RBOR D F KEREN 31...IMMUNE SYSTEM TO SHIGELLA ANTIGENS ANNUAL REPORT DAVID F. KEREN, M.D. DECEMBER 31, 1985 FOR THE PERIOD DECEMBER 1, 1984 - NOVEMBER 30, 1985 SUPPORTED...Security Classification) An Investigation of the Memory Response of the Local Immune System to Shigella Antigens 12 PERSONAL AUTHOR(S) Keren, David F

Radiometric Measurements by the MIDAS III System at Key West. Volume I. Cloud Backgrounds.

DTIC Science & Technology

1979-09-01

13 13.3 System Relative Spectral Response - Filter No. 2 5(4.4-4.77 pim ) ............................................. 14 3.4 System Relative Spectral...Response - Filter No. 5 (3.8-4.2 pim ) .............................................. 15 3.5 System Relative Spectral Response - Filter No. 6 (3.4-4.3...5 dat a was recorded dirtxet l ott t he recordinig osc ml logrtt1 Witereis tilt- 8-13 data was recorded on t tiet I ape, recorders i xst itd laxter p

Cutaneous immunology: basics and new concepts.

PubMed

Yazdi, Amir S; Röcken, Martin; Ghoreschi, Kamran

2016-01-01

As one of the largest organs, the skin forms a mechanical and immunological barrier to the environment. The skin immune system harbors cells of the innate immune system and cells of the adaptive immune system. Signals of the innate immune system typically initiate skin immune responses, while cells and cytokines of the adaptive immune system perpetuate the inflammation. Skin immune responses ensure effective host defense against pathogens but can also cause inflammatory skin diseases. An extensive crosstalk between the different cell types of the immune system, tissue cells, and pathogens is responsible for the complexity of skin immune reactions. Here we summarize the major cellular and molecular components of the innate and adaptive skin immune system.

Very serious and non-ignorable problem: Crisis in emergency medical response in catastrophic event.

PubMed

Shen, Weifeng; Jiang, Libing; Zhang, Mao; Ma, Yuefeng; Jiang, Guanyu; He, Xiaojun

2015-12-01

The crisis of medical response caused by catastrophic events might significantly affect emergency response, and might even initiate more serious social crisis. Therefore, early identification and timely blocking the formation of crisis in the early phase after a major disaster will improve the efficiency of medical response in a major disaster and avoid serious consequences. In the present paper, we described the emergency strategy to crisis management of medical response after a major disaster. Major catastrophic events often lead to various crises, including excess demand, the crisis of response in barrier and the structural crisis in response. The corresponding emergency response strategies include: (i) shunt of catastrophic medical surge; (ii) scalability of medical surge capacity; (iii) matching of the structural elements of response; (iv) maintaining the functions of support system for medical response and maximising the operation of the integrated response system; and (v) selection of appropriate care 'standard' in extreme situations of overload of disaster medical surge. In conclusion, under the impact of a major catastrophic event, medical response is often complex and the medical surge beyond the conventional response capacity and it is easy to be in crisis. In addition to the current consensus of disaster response, three additional aspects should be considered. First, all relevant society forces led by the government and military should be linkages. Second, a powerful medical response system must be based on a strong support system. Third, countermeasures of medical surge should be applied flexibly to the special and specific disaster environment, to promote the effective medical response force. © 2015 Australasian College for Emergency Medicine and Australasian Society for Emergency Medicine.

Bacteria-triggered systemic immunity in barley is associated with WRKY and ETHYLENE RESPONSIVE FACTORs but not with salicylic acid.

PubMed

Dey, Sanjukta; Wenig, Marion; Langen, Gregor; Sharma, Sapna; Kugler, Karl G; Knappe, Claudia; Hause, Bettina; Bichlmeier, Marlies; Babaeizad, Valiollah; Imani, Jafargholi; Janzik, Ingar; Stempfl, Thomas; Hückelhoven, Ralph; Kogel, Karl-Heinz; Mayer, Klaus F X; Vlot, A Corina

2014-12-01

Leaf-to-leaf systemic immune signaling known as systemic acquired resistance is poorly understood in monocotyledonous plants. Here, we characterize systemic immunity in barley (Hordeum vulgare) triggered after primary leaf infection with either Pseudomonas syringae pathovar japonica (Psj) or Xanthomonas translucens pathovar cerealis (Xtc). Both pathogens induced resistance in systemic, uninfected leaves against a subsequent challenge infection with Xtc. In contrast to systemic acquired resistance in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), systemic immunity in barley was not associated with NONEXPRESSOR OF PATHOGENESIS-RELATED GENES1 or the local or systemic accumulation of salicylic acid. Instead, we documented a moderate local but not systemic induction of abscisic acid after infection of leaves with Psj. In contrast to salicylic acid or its functional analog benzothiadiazole, local applications of the jasmonic acid methyl ester or abscisic acid triggered systemic immunity to Xtc. RNA sequencing analysis of local and systemic transcript accumulation revealed unique gene expression changes in response to both Psj and Xtc and a clear separation of local from systemic responses. The systemic response appeared relatively modest, and quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction associated systemic immunity with the local and systemic induction of two WRKY and two ETHYLENE RESPONSIVE FACTOR (ERF)-like transcription factors. Systemic immunity against Xtc was further associated with transcriptional changes after a secondary/systemic Xtc challenge infection; these changes were dependent on the primary treatment. Taken together, bacteria-induced systemic immunity in barley may be mediated in part by WRKY and ERF-like transcription factors, possibly facilitating transcriptional reprogramming to potentiate immunity. © 2014 American Society of Plant Biologists. All Rights Reserved.

Order of exposure to pleasant and unpleasant odors affects autonomic nervous system response.

PubMed

Horii, Yuko; Nagai, Katsuya; Nakashima, Toshihiro

2013-04-15

When mammals are exposed to an odor, that odor is expected to elicit a physiological response in the autonomic nervous system. An unpleasant aversive odor causes non-invasive stress, while a pleasant odor promotes healing and relaxation in mammals. We hypothesized that pleasant odors might reduce a stress response previously induced by an aversive predator odor. Rats were thus exposed to pleasant and unpleasant odors in different orders to determine whether the order of odor exposure had an effect on the physiological response in the autonomic nervous system. The first trial examined autonomic nerve activity via sympathetic and parasympathetic nerve response while the second trial examined body temperature response. Initial exposure to a pleasant odor elicited a positive response and secondary exposure to an unpleasant odor elicited a negative response, as expected. However, we found that while initial exposure to an unpleasant odor elicited a negative stress response, subsequent secondary exposure to a pleasant odor not only did not alleviate that negative response, but actually amplified it. These findings were consistent for both the autonomic nerve activity response trial and the body temperature response trial. The trial results suggest that exposure to specific odors does not necessarily result in the expected physiological response and that the specific order of exposure plays an important role. Our study should provide new insights into our understanding of the physiological response in the autonomic nervous system related to odor memory and discrimination and point to areas that require further research. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Striatal GABA-MRS predicts response inhibition performance and its cortical electrophysiological correlates.

PubMed

Quetscher, Clara; Yildiz, Ali; Dharmadhikari, Shalmali; Glaubitz, Benjamin; Schmidt-Wilcke, Tobias; Dydak, Ulrike; Beste, Christian

2015-11-01

Response inhibition processes are important for performance monitoring and are mediated via a network constituted by different cortical areas and basal ganglia nuclei. At the basal ganglia level, striatal GABAergic medium spiny neurons are known to be important for response selection, but the importance of the striatal GABAergic system for response inhibition processes remains elusive. Using a novel combination of behavior al, EEG and magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) data, we examine the relevance of the striatal GABAergic system for response inhibition processes. The study shows that striatal GABA levels modulate the efficacy of response inhibition processes. Higher striatal GABA levels were related to better response inhibition performance. We show that striatal GABA modulate specific subprocesses of response inhibition related to pre-motor inhibitory processes through the modulation of neuronal synchronization processes. To our knowledge, this is the first study providing direct evidence for the relevance of the striatal GABAergic system for response inhibition functions and their cortical electrophysiological correlates in humans.

40 CFR 264.196 - Response to leaks or spills and disposition of leaking or unfit-for-use tank systems.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 25 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Response to leaks or spills and... HAZARDOUS WASTE TREATMENT, STORAGE, AND DISPOSAL FACILITIES Tank Systems § 264.196 Response to leaks or... system from which there has been a leak or spill, or which is unfit for use, must be removed from service...

The Influence of the Application of Personal Response Systems on the Effects of Teaching and Learning Physics at the High School Level

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Binek, Slawomir; Kimla, Damian; Jarosz, Jerzy

2017-01-01

We report on the effectiveness of using interactive personal response systems in teaching physics in secondary schools. Our research were conducted over the period of 2013-2016 using the system called clickers. The idea is based on a reciprocal interaction allowing one to ask questions and receive immediate responses from all the students…

Investigation of air cleaning system response to accident conditions

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

Andrae, R.W.; Bolstad, J.W.; Foster, R.D.

1980-01-01

Air cleaning system response to the stress of accident conditions are being investigated. A program overview and hghlight recent results of our investigation are presented. The program includes both analytical and experimental investigations. Computer codes for predicting effects of tornados, explosions, fires, and material transport are described. The test facilities used to obtain supportive experimental data to define structural integrity and confinement effectiveness of ventilation system components are described. Examples of experimental results for code verification, blower response to tornado transients, and filter response to tornado and explosion transients are reported.

Distribution analysis for F100(3) engine

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Walter, W. A.; Shaw, M.

1980-01-01

The F100(3) compression system response to inlet circumferential distortion was investigated using an analytical compressor flow model. Compression system response to several types of distortion, including pressure, temperature, and combined pressure/temperature distortions, was investigated. The predicted response trends were used in planning future F100(3) distortion tests. Results show that compression system response to combined temperature and pressure distortions depends upon the relative orientation, as well as the individual amplitudes and circumferential extents of the distortions. Also the usefulness of the analytical predictions in planning engine distortion tests is indicated.

Extrapolation to Nonequilibrium from Coarse-Grained Response Theory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Basu, Urna; Helden, Laurent; Krüger, Matthias

2018-05-01

Nonlinear response theory, in contrast to linear cases, involves (dynamical) details, and this makes application to many-body systems challenging. From the microscopic starting point we obtain an exact response theory for a small number of coarse-grained degrees of freedom. With it, an extrapolation scheme uses near-equilibrium measurements to predict far-from-equilibrium properties (here, second order responses). Because it does not involve system details, this approach can be applied to many-body systems. It is illustrated in a four-state model and in the near critical Ising model.

Acute injury in the peripheral nervous system triggers an alternative macrophage response

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background The activation of the immune system in neurodegeneration has detrimental as well as beneficial effects. Which aspects of this immune response aggravate the neurodegenerative breakdown and which stimulate regeneration remains an open question. To unravel the neuroprotective aspects of the immune system we focused on a model of acute peripheral nerve injury, in which the immune system was shown to be protective. Methods To determine the type of immune response triggered after axotomy of the sciatic nerve, a model for Wallerian degeneration in the peripheral nervous system, we evaluated markers representing the two extremes of a type I and type II immune response (classical vs. alternative) using real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR), western blot, and immunohistochemistry. Results Our results showed that acute peripheral nerve injury triggers an anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive response, rather than a pro-inflammatory response. This was reflected by the complete absence of classical macrophage markers (iNOS, IFNγ, and IL12p40), and the strong up-regulation of tissue repair markers (arginase-1, Ym1, and Trem2). The signal favoring the alternative macrophage environment was induced immediately after nerve damage and appeared to be established within the nerve, well before the infiltration of macrophages. In addition, negative regulators of the innate immune response, as well as the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 were induced. The strict regulation of the immune system dampens the potential tissue damaging effects of an over-activated response. Conclusions We here demonstrate that acute peripheral nerve injury triggers an inherent protective environment by inducing the M2 phenotype of macrophages and the expression of arginase-1. We believe that the M2 phenotype, associated with a sterile inflammatory response and tissue repair, might explain their neuroprotective capacity. As such, shifting the neurodegeneration-induced immune responses towards an M2/Th2 response could be an important therapeutic strategy. PMID:22818207

Spatial nonlinearities: Cascading effects in the earth system

USGS Publications Warehouse

Peters, Debra P.C.; Pielke, R.A.; Bestelmeyer, B.T.; Allen, Craig D.; Munson-McGee, Stuart; Havstad, K. M.; Canadell, Josep G.; Pataki, Diane E.; Pitelka, Louis F.

2006-01-01

Nonlinear behavior is prevalent in all aspects of the Earth System, including ecological responses to global change (Gallagher and Appenzeller 1999; Steffen et al. 2004). Nonlinear behavior refers to a large, discontinuous change in response to a small change in a driving variable (Rial et al. 2004). In contrast to linear systems where responses are smooth, well-behaved, continuous functions, nonlinear systems often undergo sharp or discontinuous transitions resulting from the crossing of thresholds. These nonlinear responses can result in surprising behavior that makes forecasting difficult (Kaplan and Glass 1995). Given that many system dynamics are nonlinear, it is imperative that conceptual and quantitative tools be developed to increase our understanding of the processes leading to nonlinear behavior in order to determine if forecasting can be improved under future environmental changes (Clark et al. 2001).

Self-contained, low-cost Body-on-a-Chip systems for drug development.

PubMed

Wang, Ying I; Oleaga, Carlota; Long, Christopher J; Esch, Mandy B; McAleer, Christopher W; Miller, Paula G; Hickman, James J; Shuler, Michael L

2017-11-01

Integrated multi-organ microphysiological systems are an evolving tool for preclinical evaluation of the potential toxicity and efficacy of drug candidates. Such systems, also known as Body-on-a-Chip devices, have a great potential to increase the successful conversion of drug candidates entering clinical trials into approved drugs. Systems, to be attractive for commercial adoption, need to be inexpensive, easy to operate, and give reproducible results. Further, the ability to measure functional responses, such as electrical activity, force generation, and barrier integrity of organ surrogates, enhances the ability to monitor response to drugs. The ability to operate a system for significant periods of time (up to 28 d) will provide potential to estimate chronic as well as acute responses of the human body. Here we review progress towards a self-contained low-cost microphysiological system with functional measurements of physiological responses. Impact statement Multi-organ microphysiological systems are promising devices to improve the drug development process. The development of a pumpless system represents the ability to build multi-organ systems that are of low cost, high reliability, and self-contained. These features, coupled with the ability to measure electrical and mechanical response in addition to chemical or metabolic changes, provides an attractive system for incorporation into the drug development process. This will be the most complete review of the pumpless platform with recirculation yet written.

Nonlinear dynamics of the human lumbar intervertebral disc.

PubMed

Marini, Giacomo; Huber, Gerd; Püschel, Klaus; Ferguson, Stephen J

2015-02-05

Systems with a quasi-static response similar to the axial response of the intervertebral disc (i.e. progressive stiffening) often present complex dynamics, characterized by peculiar nonlinearities in the frequency response. However, such characteristics have not been reported for the dynamic response of the disc. The accurate understanding of disc dynamics is essential to investigate the unclear correlation between whole body vibration and low back pain. The present study investigated the dynamic response of the disc, including its potential nonlinear response, over a range of loading conditions. Human lumbar discs were tested by applying a static preload to the top and a sinusoidal displacement at the bottom of the disc. The frequency of the stimuli was set to increase linearly from a low frequency to a high frequency limit and back down. In general, the response showed nonlinear and asymmetric characteristics. For each test, the disc had different response in the frequency-increasing compared to the frequency-decreasing sweep. In particular, the system presented abrupt changes of the oscillation amplitude at specific frequencies, which differed between the two sweeps. This behaviour indicates that the system oscillation has a different equilibrium condition depending on the path followed by the stimuli. Preload and amplitude of the oscillation directly influenced the disc response by changing the nonlinear dynamics and frequency of the jump-phenomenon. These results show that the characterization of the dynamic response of physiological systems should be readdressed to determine potential nonlinearities. Their direct effect on the system function should be further investigated. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.