The common engine concept for ALS application - A cost reduction approach

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bair, E. K.; Schindler, C. M.

1989-01-01

Future launch systems require the application of propulsion systems which have been designed and developed to meet mission model needs while providing high degrees of reliability and cost effectiveness. Vehicle configurations which utilize different propellant combinations for booster and core stages can benefit from a common engine approach where a single engine design can be configured to operate on either set of propellants and thus serve as either a booster or core engine. Engine design concepts and mission application for a vehicle employing a common engine are discussed. Engine program cost estimates were made and cost savings, over the design and development of two unique engines, estimated.

Chapter 15: Discussion on Prior Commercial Wood Preservation Systems That Performed Less Well Than Expected

Treesearch

Tor P. Schultz; Darrel D. Nicholas; Patti Lebow

2014-01-01

This article reviews five prior commercial wood preservatives that had efficacy concerns. A common factor among all five systems was minimal or no field testing of the proposed system prior to commercialization. Also, the formulation of a successful preservative was twice changed, and one successful system was employed with a new wood species. There is no intent to...

School Funding in Michigan: Common Myths. A Mackinac Center Report

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Van Beek, Michael

2010-01-01

Michigan's state-run school system is the largest and most expensive government service taxpayers support. It employs more than 350,000 people who work in one of the more than 4,100 different entities. The total amount this system expends each year adds up to more than $20 billion. Given the enormity and complexity of the system, it's no surprise…

LEACHING BOUNDARY IN CEMENT-BASED WASTE FORMS

EPA Science Inventory

Cement-based fixation systems are among the most commonly employed stabilization/solidification techniques. These cement haste mixtures, however, are vulnerable to ardic leaching solutions. Leaching of cement-based waste forms in acetic acid solutions with different acidic streng...

Optimal platform design using non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II and technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution; application to automotive suspension system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shojaeefard, Mohammad Hassan; Khalkhali, Abolfazl; Faghihian, Hamed; Dahmardeh, Masoud

2018-03-01

Unlike conventional approaches where optimization is performed on a unique component of a specific product, optimum design of a set of components for employing in a product family can cause significant reduction in costs. Increasing commonality and performance of the product platform simultaneously is a multi-objective optimization problem (MOP). Several optimization methods are reported to solve these MOPs. However, what is less discussed is how to find the trade-off points among the obtained non-dominated optimum points. This article investigates the optimal design of a product family using non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II (NSGA-II) and proposes the employment of technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) method to find the trade-off points among the obtained non-dominated results while compromising all objective functions together. A case study for a family of suspension systems is presented, considering performance and commonality. The results indicate the effectiveness of the proposed method to obtain the trade-off points with the best possible performance while maximizing the common parts.

The Impact of Integrated Coaching and Collaboration within an Inquiry Learning Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dragon, Toby

2013-01-01

This thesis explores the design and evaluation of a collaborative, inquiry learning Intelligent Tutoring System for ill-defined problem spaces. The common ground in the fields of Artificial Intelligence in Education and Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning is investigated to identify ways in which tutoring systems can employ both automated…

[Image processing system of visual prostheses based on digital signal processor DM642].

PubMed

Xie, Chengcheng; Lu, Yanyu; Gu, Yun; Wang, Jing; Chai, Xinyu

2011-09-01

This paper employed a DSP platform to create the real-time and portable image processing system, and introduced a series of commonly used algorithms for visual prostheses. The results of performance evaluation revealed that this platform could afford image processing algorithms to be executed in real time.

Collaborations between Foreign-Invested Enterprises and China's VET Schools: Making the System Work amid Localised Skill Shortages

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Li, Yiqiong; Sheldon, Peter

2014-01-01

This article examines collaborative initiatives individual foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs) develop with China's vocational education and training (VET) schools amid localised shortages of skilled workers. It thus focuses on employer initiatives in responding to VET system weaknesses rather than, as is common, those weaknesses. Using Suzhou…

Achieving AFRL Universal FADEC Vision With Open Architecture Addressing Capability and Obsolescence for Military and Commercial Applications (Preprint)

DTIC Science & Technology

2006-11-01

engines will involve a family of common components. It will consist of a real - time operating system and partitioned application software (AS...system will employ a standard hardware and software architecture. It will consist of a real time operating system and partitioned application...Inputs - Enables Large Cost Reduction 3. Software - FAA Certified Auto Code - Real Time Operating System - Commercial

Development of a coupled expert system for the spacecraft attitude control problem

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kawamura, K.; Beale, G.; Schaffer, J.; Hsieh, B.-J.; Padalkar, S.; Rodriguezmoscoso, J.; Vinz, F.; Fernandez, K.

1987-01-01

A majority of the current expert systems focus on the symbolic-oriented logic and inference mechanisms of artificial intelligence (AI). Common rule-based systems employ empirical associations and are not well suited to deal with problems often arising in engineering. Described is a prototype expert system which combines both symbolic and numeric computing. The expert system's configuration is presented and its application to a spacecraft attitude control problem is discussed.

Performance and cost characteristics of multi-electron transfer, common ion exchange non-aqueous redox flow batteries

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Laramie, Sydney M.; Milshtein, Jarrod D.; Breault, Tanya M.; Brushett, Fikile R.; Thompson, Levi T.

2016-09-01

Non-aqueous redox flow batteries (NAqRFBs) have recently received considerable attention as promising high energy density, low cost grid-level energy storage technologies. Despite these attractive features, NAqRFBs are still at an early stage of development and innovative design techniques are necessary to improve performance and decrease costs. In this work, we investigate multi-electron transfer, common ion exchange NAqRFBs. Common ion systems decrease the supporting electrolyte requirement, which subsequently improves active material solubility and decreases electrolyte cost. Voltammetric and electrolytic techniques are used to study the electrochemical performance and chemical compatibility of model redox active materials, iron (II) tris(2,2‧-bipyridine) tetrafluoroborate (Fe(bpy)3(BF4)2) and ferrocenylmethyl dimethyl ethyl ammonium tetrafluoroborate (Fc1N112-BF4). These results help disentangle complex cycling behavior observed in flow cell experiments. Further, a simple techno-economic model demonstrates the cost benefits of employing common ion exchange NAqRFBs, afforded by decreasing the salt and solvent contributions to total chemical cost. This study highlights two new concepts, common ion exchange and multi-electron transfer, for NAqRFBs through a demonstration flow cell employing model active species. In addition, the compatibility analysis developed for asymmetric chemistries can apply to other promising species, including organics, metal coordination complexes (MCCs) and mixed MCC/organic systems, enabling the design of low cost NAqRFBs.

The experience of seeking, gaining and maintaining employment after traumatic spinal cord injury and the vocational pathways involved.

PubMed

Hilton, Gillean; Unsworth, Carolyn A; Stuckey, Ruth; Murphy, Gregory C

2018-01-01

Vocational potential in people with spinal cord injury (SCI) are unrealised with rates of employment substantially lower than in the labour force participation of the general population and the pre-injury employment rates. To understand the experience and pathway of people achieving employment outcome after traumatic spinal cord injury by; classifying participants into employment outcome groups of stable, unstable and without employment; identifying pre and post-injury pathways for participants in each group and, exploring the experiences of people of seeking, gaining and maintaining employment. Thirty-one participants were interviewed. Mixed methods approach including interpretive phenomenological analysis and vocational pathway mapping of quantitative data. The most common pathway identified was from study and work pre-injury to stable employment post-injury. Four super-ordinate themes were identified from the interpretive phenomenological analysis; expectations of work, system impacts, worker identity and social supports. Implications for clinical practice include fostering cultural change, strategies for system navigation, promotion of worker identity and optimal use of social supports. The findings increase insight and understanding of the complex experience of employment after spinal cord injury. There is opportunity to guide experimental research, policy development and education concerning the complexity of the return to work experience and factors that influence pathways.

An Introduction to Military Satellite Communications.

DTIC Science & Technology

1987-04-01

in the range 220 - 400 MHz, and hence shared with a variety of terrestrial systems (including TV). Helix antennas are commonly employed, both on the...downlink). A common helix antenna is used for both transmit and receive, with a multiplexer unit separating the two. This antenna is relatively large...into account; these increase sharply as the TWT is driven into saturation, and the controller will determine any required back-off (and will perhaps

Occupational Skill Standards. Experience Shows Industry Involvement To Be Key. Testimony before the Committee on Labor and Human Resources, U.S. Senate.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Morra, Linda G.

A study reviewed eight standards and certification systems for occupations that required less than a bachelor's degree for entry-level employment. Common elements among systems included industry ownership and control, recertification requirements to keep certificate holders' skills current, national portability of credentials, and integration of…

20 CFR 404.1007 - Common-law employee.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... 20 Employees' Benefits 2 2012-04-01 2012-04-01 false Common-law employee. 404.1007 Section 404.1007 Employees' Benefits SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION FEDERAL OLD-AGE, SURVIVORS AND DISABILITY INSURANCE (1950- ) Employment, Wages, Self-Employment, and Self-Employment Income Employment § 404.1007...

20 CFR 404.1007 - Common-law employee.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... 20 Employees' Benefits 2 2014-04-01 2014-04-01 false Common-law employee. 404.1007 Section 404.1007 Employees' Benefits SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION FEDERAL OLD-AGE, SURVIVORS AND DISABILITY INSURANCE (1950- ) Employment, Wages, Self-Employment, and Self-Employment Income Employment § 404.1007...

20 CFR 404.1007 - Common-law employee.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... 20 Employees' Benefits 2 2013-04-01 2013-04-01 false Common-law employee. 404.1007 Section 404.1007 Employees' Benefits SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION FEDERAL OLD-AGE, SURVIVORS AND DISABILITY INSURANCE (1950- ) Employment, Wages, Self-Employment, and Self-Employment Income Employment § 404.1007...

Psychology of developing and designing expert systems

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

Tonn, B.; MacGregor, D.

This paper discusses psychological problems relevant to developing and designing expert systems. With respect to the former, the psychological literature suggests that several cognitive biases may affect the elicitation of a valid knowledge base from the expert. The literature also suggests that common expert system inference engines may be quite inconsistent with reasoning heuristics employed by experts. With respect to expert system user interfaces, care should be taken when eliciting uncertainty estimates from users, presenting system conclusions, and ordering questions.

Evaluation and optimisation of preparative semi-automated electrophoresis systems for Illumina library preparation.

PubMed

Quail, Michael A; Gu, Yong; Swerdlow, Harold; Mayho, Matthew

2012-12-01

Size selection can be a critical step in preparation of next-generation sequencing libraries. Traditional methods employing gel electrophoresis lack reproducibility, are labour intensive, do not scale well and employ hazardous interchelating dyes. In a high-throughput setting, solid-phase reversible immobilisation beads are commonly used for size-selection, but result in quite a broad fragment size range. We have evaluated and optimised the use of two semi-automated preparative DNA electrophoresis systems, the Caliper Labchip XT and the Sage Science Pippin Prep, for size selection of Illumina sequencing libraries. © 2012 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Enhancing the Delivery of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education through Geographic Information Systems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stone, Matthew

2011-01-01

The Network for a Healthy California (Network) employs a Geographic Information System (GIS) to identify the target audience and plan program activities because GIS is a powerful tool for assisting in data integration and planning. This paper describes common uses of GIS by Network contractors as well as demonstrating the possibilities of GIS as a…

TECHNIQUES FOR THE FABRICATION OF GEOMEMBRANE FILLED SEAMS

EPA Science Inventory

Geomembranes employed to overlay the excavation for landfills must be seamed together on-site at the landfill. To ensure the integrity of the containment system of the landfill, these sheets or blankets must be carefully seamed. Present methods in common use are: extrusion fil...

Medical teleconferencing with high-definition video presentation on the 'usual' Internet.

PubMed

Obuchi, Toshiro; Shima, Hiroji; Iwasaki, Akinori

2013-06-01

Although medical teleconferences on advanced academic networks have been common (Telemed J E Health 15:112-117, 1; Asian J Endosc Surg 3:185-188, 2; Surg Today 41:1579-1581, 3; Telemedicine development center of Asia. http://www.aqua.med.kyushu-u.ac.jp/eg/index.html . Accessed 6 March 2013, 4), reports regarding 'usual' Internet teleconferences or tele-lectures employing a telecommunication system for business use are very rare. Medical teleconferences and tele-lectures on the Internet were held three times between our institutions and other institutions, using the 'HD Com' made by Panasonic (HD Com. http://panasonic.biz/com/visual/ . Accessed 6 March 2013, 5), which is a high-definition telecommunication system for business tele-meeting. All of our medical telecommunications were successfully completed without any troubles. This system allows for all kinds of presentations using personal computers to be made from each station, so that discussions with high-definition surgical video presentation, which has recently been developed, could be effortlessly established despite the distance between institutions. Unlike telecommunication using advanced academic networks, this system can run without any need for specific engineering support, on the usual Internet. Medical telecommunication employing this system is likely to become common among ordinary hospitals in the near future.

21 CFR 801.62 - Declaration of net quantity of contents.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... paragraph (p) of this section. (c) The declaration may contain common or decimal fractions. A common... there exists a firmly established, general consumer usage and trade custom of employing different common fractions in the net quantity declaration of a particular commodity, they may be employed. A common fraction...

21 CFR 201.62 - Declaration of net quantity of contents.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... this section. (c) The declaration may contain common or decimal fractions. A common fraction shall be... firmly established, general consumer usage and trade custom of employing different common fractions in the net quantity declaration of a particular commodity, they may be employed. A common fraction shall...

21 CFR 201.62 - Declaration of net quantity of contents.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... this section. (c) The declaration may contain common or decimal fractions. A common fraction shall be... firmly established, general consumer usage and trade custom of employing different common fractions in the net quantity declaration of a particular commodity, they may be employed. A common fraction shall...

21 CFR 701.13 - Declaration of net quantity of contents.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... will give such information. (d) The declaration may contain common or decimal fractions. A common... there exists a firmly established, general consumer usage and trade custom of employing different common fractions in the net quantity declaration of a particular commodity they may be employed. A common fraction...

Alcoholism and drug abuse--some legal issues for employers.

PubMed

Howard, G

1990-05-01

Three specific areas of the law concern employers faced with problems of addiction at the workplace. At common law an employer may be guilty of negligence where a person has suffered personal injuries or economic loss as a result of an act of negligence committed in the course of employment by an employee. An example would be an employee with a serious addiction to alcohol or drugs who caused an accident in the company car whilst on company business. Employers may also be guilty of a criminal offence for breach of a statutory duty. One such duty is to have a 'safe system of work'. Other statutory rights guarantee employees a right not to be unfairly dismissed and this includes employees with addiction problems. Lastly, employers must be careful not to break the contract of employment if, for example, an employee with an addiction problem were to be suspended from duty or have his company car withdrawn, even if this was a temporary measure only.

INSPECTION TECHNIQUES FOR THE FABRICATION OF GEOMEMBRANE FIELD SEAMS

EPA Science Inventory

Geomembranes employed to overlay the excavation for landfills must be seamed together at the site of the landfill. o ensure the integrity of the containment system of the landfill, these sheets or blankets must be carefully seamed. he methods in present, common use are extrusion ...

High School Inspection by the University of Wisconsin, 1877-1931

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gough, Robert J.

2010-01-01

During the decades around the beginning of the twentieth century, public universities in the United States commonly employed a "certificate system" to establish eligibility for undergraduate admittance. "Certification" meant that between 1877 and 1931 representatives of the University of Wisconsin inspected high schools and had…

An Adaptive Database Intrusion Detection System

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barrios, Rita M.

2011-01-01

Intrusion detection is difficult to accomplish when attempting to employ current methodologies when considering the database and the authorized entity. It is a common understanding that current methodologies focus on the network architecture rather than the database, which is not an adequate solution when considering the insider threat. Recent…

Employment-based health insurance: a look at tax issues and public opinion.

PubMed

Fronstin, P

1999-07-01

This Issue Brief provides background information on the employment-based health insurance system and its alternatives. The report discusses the advantages and disadvantages of the current employment-based health insurance system, the current tax treatment of health insurance, and the strength and weaknesses of recent proposals to introduce tax credits. It presents findings from the public opinion survey conducted by the Employee Benefit Research Institute on public attitudes toward health insurance and summarizes recent research on the effects of tax changes on employment-based health benefits and the uninsured. Employment-based health plans are the most common source of health insurance among nonelderly individuals in the United States, providing coverage to nearly two-thirds of this population in 1997. Health insurance is probably the benefit most used and valued by workers and their families. Sixty-four percent of respondents to a recent survey rated employment-based health insurance benefits as the most important benefit. Despite essentially five years of very low health care cost increases and the recent increase in the percentage of Americans with employment-based health insurance coverage, the uninsured population has continued to rise. This has resulted in a new interest among policymakers in finding ways to reverse this trend. One question that continues to be asked is whether the employment-based health insurance system is the appropriate mechanism for expanding health insurance to the uninsured. Employment-based health plans are popular because they offer many advantages over other forms of health insurance and types of delivery systems. However, there are also potential drawbacks to the employment-based system. The advantages include reduced risk of adverse selection, group-purchasing efficiencies, employers acting as a workers' advocate, delivery innovation, and health care quality. The disadvantages include an unfair tax treatment, lack of portability and job lock, little choice of health plans, and lack of universal coverage. The tax credit proposals for health insurance, which come in all shapes and sizes, would either enhance the current employment-based health insurance system or put it at risk. This has potentially enormous public policy implications, since the vast majority of Americans get their health insurance coverage through employers. Such a change may also have political implications, as public opinion currently may not support such a fundamental change in the U.S. health insurance system. A recent public opinion survey conducted by the Employee Benefit Research Institute found that 68 percent of Americans with employment-based health insurance were satisfied with the current mix of benefits and wages. The EBRI survey found that under a changing tax code scenario, there is still strong support for the employment-based system. Strong support for the employment-based system may be the result of respondents' lack of confidence in their ability to choose the best health plan if their employer stopped offering health insurance.

Department of Defense Computer Technology. A Report to Congress.

DTIC Science & Technology

1983-08-01

system and evolves his employment tactics. (8) Lack of adequate competition. Conclusions Based on both software and hardware arguments, it is...environments, Services should be encouraged to use either common-commercial, ruggedized-commercial or "off-the-shelf" militarized computers based upon...the performance requirements of the specific application. Full consideration should be given to Ada- based systems where there is no strict hardware

Energy and the Confused Student V: The Energy/Momentum Approach to Problems Involving Rotating and Deformable Systems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jewett, John W., Jr.

2008-01-01

Energy is a critical concept in physics problem-solving, but is often a major source of confusion for students if the presentation is not carefully crafted by the instructor or the textbook. A common approach to problems involving deformable or rotating systems that has been discussed in the literature is to employ the work-kinetic energy theorem…

Local electric dipole moments for periodic systems via density functional theory embedding.

PubMed

Luber, Sandra

2014-12-21

We describe a novel approach for the calculation of local electric dipole moments for periodic systems. Since the position operator is ill-defined in periodic systems, maximally localized Wannier functions based on the Berry-phase approach are usually employed for the evaluation of local contributions to the total electric dipole moment of the system. We propose an alternative approach: within a subsystem-density functional theory based embedding scheme, subset electric dipole moments are derived without any additional localization procedure, both for hybrid and non-hybrid exchange-correlation functionals. This opens the way to a computationally efficient evaluation of local electric dipole moments in (molecular) periodic systems as well as their rigorous splitting into atomic electric dipole moments. As examples, Infrared spectra of liquid ethylene carbonate and dimethyl carbonate are presented, which are commonly employed as solvents in Lithium ion batteries.

Streaming and particle motion in acoustically-actuated leaky systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nama, Nitesh; Barnkob, Rune; Jun Huang, Tony; Kahler, Christian; Costanzo, Francesco

2017-11-01

The integration of acoustics with microfluidics has shown great promise for applications within biology, chemistry, and medicine. A commonly employed system to achieve this integration consists of a fluid-filled, polymer-walled microchannel that is acoustically actuated via standing surface acoustic waves. However, despite significant experimental advancements, the precise physical understanding of such systems remains a work in progress. In this work, we investigate the nature of acoustic fields that are setup inside the microchannel as well as the fundamental driving mechanism governing the fluid and particle motion in these systems. We provide an experimental benchmark using state-of-art 3D measurements of fluid and particle motion and present a Lagrangian velocity based temporal multiscale numerical framework to explain the experimental observations. Following verification and validation, we employ our numerical model to reveal the presence of a pseudo-standing acoustic wave that drives the acoustic streaming and particle motion in these systems.

Catalyst-controlled oligomerization for the collective synthesis of polypyrroloindoline natural products.

PubMed

Jamison, Christopher R; Badillo, Joseph J; Lipshultz, Jeffrey M; Comito, Robert J; MacMillan, David W C

2017-12-01

In nature, many organisms generate large families of natural product metabolites that have related molecular structures as a means to increase functional diversity and gain an evolutionary advantage against competing systems within the same environment. One pathway commonly employed by living systems to generate these large classes of structurally related families is oligomerization, wherein a series of enzymatically catalysed reactions is employed to generate secondary metabolites by iteratively appending monomers to a growing serial oligomer chain. The polypyrroloindolines are an interesting class of oligomeric natural products that consist of multiple cyclotryptamine subunits. Herein we describe an iterative application of asymmetric copper catalysis towards the synthesis of six distinct oligomeric polypyrroloindoline natural products: hodgkinsine, hodgkinsine B, idiospermuline, quadrigemine H and isopsychotridine B and C. Given the customizable nature of the small-molecule catalysts employed, we demonstrate that this strategy is further amenable to the construction of quadrigemine H-type alkaloids not isolated previously from natural sources.

Catalyst-controlled oligomerization for the collective synthesis of polypyrroloindoline natural products

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jamison, Christopher R.; Badillo, Joseph J.; Lipshultz, Jeffrey M.; Comito, Robert J.; MacMillan, David W. C.

2017-12-01

In nature, many organisms generate large families of natural product metabolites that have related molecular structures as a means to increase functional diversity and gain an evolutionary advantage against competing systems within the same environment. One pathway commonly employed by living systems to generate these large classes of structurally related families is oligomerization, wherein a series of enzymatically catalysed reactions is employed to generate secondary metabolites by iteratively appending monomers to a growing serial oligomer chain. The polypyrroloindolines are an interesting class of oligomeric natural products that consist of multiple cyclotryptamine subunits. Herein we describe an iterative application of asymmetric copper catalysis towards the synthesis of six distinct oligomeric polypyrroloindoline natural products: hodgkinsine, hodgkinsine B, idiospermuline, quadrigemine H and isopsychotridine B and C. Given the customizable nature of the small-molecule catalysts employed, we demonstrate that this strategy is further amenable to the construction of quadrigemine H-type alkaloids not isolated previously from natural sources.

Low-Noise Band-Pass Amplifier

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kleinberg, L.

1982-01-01

Circuit uses standard components to overcome common limitation of JFET amplifiers. Low-noise band-pass amplifier employs JFET and operational amplifier. High gain and band-pass characteristics are achieved with suitable choice of resistances and capacitances. Circuit should find use as low-noise amplifier, for example as first stage instrumentation systems.

A Pursuit Theory Account for the Perception of Common Motion in Motion Parallax.

PubMed

Ratzlaff, Michael; Nawrot, Mark

2016-09-01

The visual system uses an extraretinal pursuit eye movement signal to disambiguate the perception of depth from motion parallax. Visual motion in the same direction as the pursuit is perceived nearer in depth while visual motion in the opposite direction as pursuit is perceived farther in depth. This explanation of depth sign applies to either an allocentric frame of reference centered on the fixation point or an egocentric frame of reference centered on the observer. A related problem is that of depth order when two stimuli have a common direction of motion. The first psychophysical study determined whether perception of egocentric depth order is adequately explained by a model employing an allocentric framework, especially when the motion parallax stimuli have common rather than divergent motion. A second study determined whether a reversal in perceived depth order, produced by a reduction in pursuit velocity, is also explained by this model employing this allocentric framework. The results show than an allocentric model can explain both the egocentric perception of depth order with common motion and the perceptual depth order reversal created by a reduction in pursuit velocity. We conclude that an egocentric model is not the only explanation for perceived depth order in these common motion conditions. © The Author(s) 2016.

Learning Locked down: Evaluating the Treatment of Students' Rights in High Security School Environments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bracy, Nicole L.

2009-01-01

Public schools have transformed significantly over the past several decades in response to broad concerns about rising school violence. Today's public schools are high security environments employing tactics commonly found in jails and prisons such as police officers, security cameras, identification systems, and secure building strategies.…

Community Services for the Aged: The View from Eight Countries

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kamerman, Sheila B.

1976-01-01

A country, case-descriptive methodology was employed in a cross-national study of social service systems. The major findings with regard to the aged are: (1) countries must establish a firm infrastructure of basic social provision for community services to function adequately and: (2) a common core of "personal social services" is emerging…

Precise FIA plot registration using field and dense LIDAR data

Treesearch

Demetrios Gatziolis

2009-01-01

Precise registration of forest inventory and analysis (FIA) plots is a prerequisite for an effective fusion of field data with ancillary spatial information, which is an approach commonly employed in the mapping of various forest parameters. Although the adoption of Global Positioning System technology has improved the precision of plot coordinates obtained during...

Travelling Policies and Contextual Considerations: On Threshold Criteria

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nir, Adam; Kondakci, Yasar; Emil, Serap

2018-01-01

Educational policy borrowing has become rather common in our globalised world. However, the literature lacks contextual criteria that may be employed by researchers and policy makers to assess the correspondence of a particular policy to the local context of a borrowing system. Based on a secondary analysis of documents and research reports, this…

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

Dana L. Kelly

Typical engineering systems in applications with high failure consequences such as nuclear reactor plants often employ redundancy and diversity of equipment in an effort to lower the probability of failure and therefore risk. However, it has long been recognized that dependencies exist in these redundant and diverse systems. Some dependencies, such as common sources of electrical power, are typically captured in the logic structure of the risk model. Others, usually referred to as intercomponent dependencies, are treated implicitly by introducing one or more statistical parameters into the model. Such common-cause failure models have limitations in a simulation environment. In addition,more » substantial subjectivity is associated with parameter estimation for these models. This paper describes an approach in which system performance is simulated by drawing samples from the joint distributions of dependent variables. The approach relies on the notion of a copula distribution, a notion which has been employed by the actuarial community for ten years or more, but which has seen only limited application in technological risk assessment. The paper also illustrates how equipment failure data can be used in a Bayesian framework to estimate the parameter values in the copula model. This approach avoids much of the subjectivity required to estimate parameters in traditional common-cause failure models. Simulation examples are presented for failures in time. The open-source software package R is used to perform the simulations. The open-source software package WinBUGS is used to perform the Bayesian inference via Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling.« less

Space Telecommunications Radio System (STRS) Architecture Standard. Release 1.02.1

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Reinhart, Richard C.; Kacpura, Thomas J.; Handler, Louis M.; Hall, C. Steve; Mortensen, Dale J.; Johnson, Sandra K.; Briones, Janette C.; Nappier, Jennifer M.; Downey, Joseph A.; Lux, James P.

2012-01-01

This document contains the NASA architecture standard for software defined radios used in space- and ground-based platforms to enable commonality among radio developments to enhance capability and services while reducing mission and programmatic risk. Transceivers (or transponders) with functionality primarily defined in software (e.g., firmware) have the ability to change their functional behavior through software alone. This radio architecture standard offers value by employing common waveform software interfaces, method of instantiation, operation, and testing among different compliant hardware and software products. These common interfaces within the architecture abstract application software from the underlying hardware to enable technology insertion independently at either the software or hardware layer.

Open Architecture Standard for NASA's Software-Defined Space Telecommunications Radio Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Reinhart, Richard C.; Johnson, Sandra K.; Kacpura, Thomas J.; Hall, Charles S.; Smith, Carl R.; Liebetreu, John

2008-01-01

NASA is developing an architecture standard for software-defined radios used in space- and ground-based platforms to enable commonality among radio developments to enhance capability and services while reducing mission and programmatic risk. Transceivers (or transponders) with functionality primarily defined in software (e.g., firmware) have the ability to change their functional behavior through software alone. This radio architecture standard offers value by employing common waveform software interfaces, method of instantiation, operation, and testing among different compliant hardware and software products. These common interfaces within the architecture abstract application software from the underlying hardware to enable technology insertion independently at either the software or hardware layer. This paper presents the initial Space Telecommunications Radio System (STRS) Architecture for NASA missions to provide the desired software abstraction and flexibility while minimizing the resources necessary to support the architecture.

Flow Control and Measurement in Electric Propulsion Systems: Towards an AIAA Reference Standard

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Snyder, John Steven; Baldwin, Jeff; Frieman, Jason D.; Walker, Mitchell L. R.; Hicks, Nathan S.; Polzin, Kurt A.; Singleton, James T.

2013-01-01

Accurate control and measurement of propellant flow to a thruster is one of the most basic and fundamental requirements for operation of electric propulsion systems, whether they be in the laboratory or on flight spacecraft. Hence, it is important for the electric propulsion community to have a common understanding of typical methods for flow control and measurement. This paper addresses the topic of propellant flow primarily for the gaseous propellant systems which have dominated laboratory research and flight application over the last few decades, although other types of systems are also briefly discussed. While most flight systems have employed a type of pressure-fed flow restrictor for flow control, both thermal-based and pressure-based mass flow controllers are routinely used in laboratories. Fundamentals and theory of operation of these types of controllers are presented, along with sources of uncertainty associated with their use. Methods of calibration and recommendations for calibration processes are presented. Finally, details of uncertainty calculations are presented for some common calibration methods and for the linear fits to calibration data that are commonly used.

Graphics-oriented Battlefield Tracking Systems: U.S. Army and Air Force Interoperability

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-12-10

systems. There are hundreds of applications used to control joint air operations, to synchronize land forces, and to develop a common operational...plan and synchronize the employment of 5 combat power (Department of Defense 2010c, II-9). The subsystem that facilitates graphics-oriented...during the battle recounts, “we had so many different assets up in the air . . . they were stacked up on so many different levels” ( Jung 2009

Development of optical surface-profiling instrumentation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lin, Yao; Takacs, Peter Z.; Tsang, Thomas; Furenlid, Karen; Wang, Runwen

1992-12-01

A novel non-contact optical profiler described in this paper is designed and made for measuring the surface characteristics of optical parts. Measurements are based on a combination of an optical heterodyne technique and a precise phase measurement procedure without the need of a reference surface. A Zeeman-split He-Ne laser is employed as the light source which offers two common-path polarized beams. The frequency difference between the beams is 1.8 MHz. A special optical head is designed and fashioned as a beam splitter which contains a birefringent lens and an objective. The whole optical system is completely common- path. This allows the optical common-mode rejection technique to be applied in the system for minimizing the environmental effects in measurements such as air turbulence, vibrations and temperature variations. To keep the sample surface focused on the ordinary rays in the optical head, an astigmatic autofocus system is employed. A stepping micro-stepping system can move the optical head in the range of 25 mm with 0.1 micrometers resolution. A data acquisition system is made to control the auto-focus system, data receiving and analyses. This makes the measurement automatically while the sample is being scanned. The characteristics of the surface can be displayed on the computer screen. The theoretical and experimental analyses of the profiler are completed. The profiler measures samples with 1.1 angstroms height accuracy and 4 micrometers lateral resolution when a 40X objective is used in the optical head. The accuracy comparisons of the profiler with different objectives 5X, 10X, 20X, and 40X are shown in good agreement. The advantages of the present profiler are presented. Based on the autofocus system, the profiler optical system will be designed to mount on a large linear air-bearing slide, so that it is capable of scanning over a distance covering from 4 micrometers to 1 m.

Machine Learning in Ultrasound Computer-Aided Diagnostic Systems: A Survey

PubMed Central

Zhang, Fan; Li, Xuelong

2018-01-01

The ultrasound imaging is one of the most common schemes to detect diseases in the clinical practice. There are many advantages of ultrasound imaging such as safety, convenience, and low cost. However, reading ultrasound imaging is not easy. To support the diagnosis of clinicians and reduce the load of doctors, many ultrasound computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) systems are proposed. In recent years, the success of deep learning in the image classification and segmentation led to more and more scholars realizing the potential of performance improvement brought by utilizing the deep learning in the ultrasound CAD system. This paper summarized the research which focuses on the ultrasound CAD system utilizing machine learning technology in recent years. This study divided the ultrasound CAD system into two categories. One is the traditional ultrasound CAD system which employed the manmade feature and the other is the deep learning ultrasound CAD system. The major feature and the classifier employed by the traditional ultrasound CAD system are introduced. As for the deep learning ultrasound CAD, newest applications are summarized. This paper will be useful for researchers who focus on the ultrasound CAD system. PMID:29687000

Machine Learning in Ultrasound Computer-Aided Diagnostic Systems: A Survey.

PubMed

Huang, Qinghua; Zhang, Fan; Li, Xuelong

2018-01-01

The ultrasound imaging is one of the most common schemes to detect diseases in the clinical practice. There are many advantages of ultrasound imaging such as safety, convenience, and low cost. However, reading ultrasound imaging is not easy. To support the diagnosis of clinicians and reduce the load of doctors, many ultrasound computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) systems are proposed. In recent years, the success of deep learning in the image classification and segmentation led to more and more scholars realizing the potential of performance improvement brought by utilizing the deep learning in the ultrasound CAD system. This paper summarized the research which focuses on the ultrasound CAD system utilizing machine learning technology in recent years. This study divided the ultrasound CAD system into two categories. One is the traditional ultrasound CAD system which employed the manmade feature and the other is the deep learning ultrasound CAD system. The major feature and the classifier employed by the traditional ultrasound CAD system are introduced. As for the deep learning ultrasound CAD, newest applications are summarized. This paper will be useful for researchers who focus on the ultrasound CAD system.

Applied Graph-Mining Algorithms to Study Biomolecular Interaction Networks

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks carry vital information on the organization of molecular interactions in cellular systems. The identification of functionally relevant modules in PPI networks is one of the most important applications of biological network analysis. Computational analysis is becoming an indispensable tool to understand large-scale biomolecular interaction networks. Several types of computational methods have been developed and employed for the analysis of PPI networks. Of these computational methods, graph comparison and module detection are the two most commonly used strategies. This review summarizes current literature on graph kernel and graph alignment methods for graph comparison strategies, as well as module detection approaches including seed-and-extend, hierarchical clustering, optimization-based, probabilistic, and frequent subgraph methods. Herein, we provide a comprehensive review of the major algorithms employed under each theme, including our recently published frequent subgraph method, for detecting functional modules commonly shared across multiple cancer PPI networks. PMID:24800226

Collinear interferometer with variable delay for carrier-envelope offset frequency measurement

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

Pawlowska, Monika; Ozimek, Filip; Fita, Piotr

2009-08-15

We demonstrate a novel scheme for measuring the carrier-envelope offset frequency in a femtosecond optical frequency comb. Our method is based on a common-path interferometer with a calcite Babinet-Soleil compensator employed to control the delay between the two interfering beams of pulses. The large delay range (up to 8 ps) of our device is sufficient for systems that rely on spectral broadening in microstructured fibers. We show an experimental proof that the stability of a common-path arrangement is superior to that of the standard interferometers.

Collinear interferometer with variable delay for carrier-envelope offset frequency measurement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pawłowska, Monika; Ozimek, Filip; Fita, Piotr; Radzewicz, Czesław

2009-08-01

We demonstrate a novel scheme for measuring the carrier-envelope offset frequency in a femtosecond optical frequency comb. Our method is based on a common-path interferometer with a calcite Babinet-Soleil compensator employed to control the delay between the two interfering beams of pulses. The large delay range (up to 8 ps) of our device is sufficient for systems that rely on spectral broadening in microstructured fibers. We show an experimental proof that the stability of a common-path arrangement is superior to that of the standard interferometers.

Autonomously managed electrical power systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Callis, Charles P.

1986-01-01

The electric power systems for future spacecraft such as the Space Station will necessarily be more sophisticated and will exhibit more nearly autonomous operation than earlier spacecraft. These new power systems will be more reliable and flexible than their predecessors offering greater utility to the users. Automation approaches implemented on various power system breadboards are investigated. These breadboards include the Hubble Space Telescope power system test bed, the Common Module Power Management and Distribution system breadboard, the Autonomusly Managed Power System (AMPS) breadboard, and the 20 kilohertz power system breadboard. Particular attention is given to the AMPS breadboard. Future plans for these breadboards including the employment of artificial intelligence techniques are addressed.

4.5-Gb/s RGB-LED based WDM visible light communication system employing CAP modulation and RLS based adaptive equalization.

PubMed

Wang, Yiguang; Huang, Xingxing; Tao, Li; Shi, Jianyang; Chi, Nan

2015-05-18

Inter-symbol interference (ISI) is one of the key problems that seriously limit transmission data rate in high-speed VLC systems. To eliminate ISI and further improve the system performance, series of equalization schemes have been widely investigated. As an adaptive algorithm commonly used in wireless communication, RLS is also suitable for visible light communication due to its quick convergence and better performance. In this paper, for the first time we experimentally demonstrate a high-speed RGB-LED based WDM VLC system employing carrier-less amplitude and phase (CAP) modulation and recursive least square (RLS) based adaptive equalization. An aggregate data rate of 4.5Gb/s is successfully achieved over 1.5-m indoor free space transmission with the bit error rate (BER) below the 7% forward error correction (FEC) limit of 3.8x10(-3). To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest data rate ever achieved in RGB-LED based VLC systems.

Workplace discrimination and disfigurement: the national EEOC ADA research project.

PubMed

Tartaglia, Alexander; McMahon, Brian T; West, Steven L; Belongia, Lisa

2005-01-01

Using the Integrated Mission System of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the employment discrimination experience of Americans with disfigurement is documented. Key dimensions of workplace discrimination involving Americans with disfigurement and persons with missing limbs are compared and contrasted. Specifically, the researchers examine demographic characteristics of Charging Parties; the industry designation, location and size of Respondents/employers; the discrimination Issue (i.e., type of adverse action) alleged to occur; and the legal outcome or Resolution of these allegations. Charging Parties with disfigurement who are female or between 30 and 39 years of age are more likely to encounter employment discrimination than their counterparts with missing limbs. Harassment and Non-wage Benefits are the Issues that emerge in higher proportion. Allegations derived from persons with disfigurement are more common in among mid-size employers, those located in the South, or those in Retail or Service industries. Following investigation, allegations derived from persons with disfigurement are less likely to have Merit Resolutions than those brought by Charging Parties with missing limbs.

Multi-Product Total Cost Functions for Higher Education: The Case of Chinese Research Universities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Longlong, Hou; Fengliang, Li; Weifang, Min

2009-01-01

This paper empirically investigates the economies of scale and economies of scope for the Chinese research universities by employing the flexible fixed cost quadratic (FFCQ) function. The empirical results show that both economies of scale and economies of scope exist in the Chinese higher education system and support the common belief of…

41 CFR 301-75.103 - What are our responsibilities when we authorize an interviewee to use common carrier...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... interview travel? 301-75.103 Section 301-75.103 Public Contracts and Property Management Federal Travel Regulation System TEMPORARY DUTY (TDY) TRAVEL ALLOWANCES AGENCY RESPONSIBILITIES 75-PRE-EMPLOYMENT INTERVIEW TRAVEL Travel Expenses § 301-75.103 What are our responsibilities when we authorize an interviewee to use...

A reliable methodology for quantitative extraction of fruit and vegetable physiological amino acids and their subsequent analysis with commonly available HPLC systems

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

High performance liquid chromatography of dabsyl derivatives of amino acids was employed for quantification of physiological amino acids in selected fruits and vegetables. This method was found to be particularly useful because the dabsyl derivatives of glutamine and citrulline were sufficiently se...

A review of classification algorithms for EEG-based brain-computer interfaces.

PubMed

Lotte, F; Congedo, M; Lécuyer, A; Lamarche, F; Arnaldi, B

2007-06-01

In this paper we review classification algorithms used to design brain-computer interface (BCI) systems based on electroencephalography (EEG). We briefly present the commonly employed algorithms and describe their critical properties. Based on the literature, we compare them in terms of performance and provide guidelines to choose the suitable classification algorithm(s) for a specific BCI.

Legal Considerations Regarding Merit Pay Systems.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Twomey, Rosemarie Feuerbach

This paper examines how a merit-pay award may lead to employer liability under the following types of laws: constitutional (federal and state); federal and state statutory law; and the common or case law handed down by the federal and state court judges. First, several court decisions are presented to indicate the status of the law as it is likely…

Acoustic Shotgun System

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-09-16

dispersing a plurality of relatively small, supercavitating projectiles in the water over a wide spatial field at long ranges from an underwater gun...or surface gun. (2) Description of the Prior Art [0004] One major technical challenge related to employing supercavitating projectiles against...accordingly is more limited. [0005] A second problem common to supercavitating projectiles is the configuration of the projectile itself. The primary

Tung Chung Shu and the Ideological Transformation of Confucian Educational Thought.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brown, Hubert O.

This paper examines Tung's ideas of Chinese education for the ruler, for the common people, and for government servants. Tung, an important educational theorist and Confucian philosopher in China's history, suggested the imperial examination system which led to employment in the imperial civil service. It is the thesis of this paper that there was…

Strategies for Working with Employers and Union Reps. How To Respond to Common Reasons for Not Hiring Women in NTOs.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wider Opportunities for Women, Inc., Washington, DC.

This paper provides tips for approaching employers and labor union representatives on the issue of hiring more women in nontraditional occupations, suggesting ways to respond to common excuses for not hiring women in such occupations. The paper first lists general strategies for developing a good working relationship with employers and union…

A reconfigurable common spare for co-located direct television broadcasting satellites

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Roederer, A.; Fromm, H.-H.; Berretta, G.

1984-10-01

Spare spacecraft are needed to assure continuous operation in broadcasting services provided with the aid of satellites. The present investigation is concerned with the employment of a common spare approach in which two or three countries share one or several spare spacecraft that can support or temporarily replace any of the prime satellites. Such common spares would have to be reconfigurable to adapt their antenna coverage and polarization, as well as their operating frequencies and possibly their RF output power, to the corresponding parameters assigned to the country to be served. The considered concept is discussed, taking into account questions related to system and transponder, a repointable antenna with a few feed horns, a fixed antenna (apart from fine pointing) with more feeds, and a reconfigurable broadcast payload for a common spare. A common spare for France, Germany, and Italy is considered along with a common spare for the United Kingdom and Spain.

Energy recovery system using an organic rankine cycle

DOEpatents

Ernst, Timothy C

2013-10-01

A thermodynamic system for waste heat recovery, using an organic rankine cycle is provided which employs a single organic heat transferring fluid to recover heat energy from two waste heat streams having differing waste heat temperatures. Separate high and low temperature boilers provide high and low pressure vapor streams that are routed into an integrated turbine assembly having dual turbines mounted on a common shaft. Each turbine is appropriately sized for the pressure ratio of each stream.

20 CFR 655.715 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... Employment Standards Administration, DOL. Employed, employed by the employer, or employment relationship means the employment relationship as determined under the common law, under which the key determinant is... * * *. [A]ll of the incidents of the relationship must be assessed and weighed with no one factor being...

Field-deployable sniffer for 2,4-dinitrotoluene detection.

PubMed

Albert, K J; Myrick, M L; Brown, S B; James, D L; Milanovich, F P; Walt, D R

2001-08-01

A field-deployable instrument has been developed to detect low-level 2,4-dinitrotoluene (2,4-DNT) vapors. The system is based on previously developed artificial nose technology and employs an array of sensory materials attached to the distal tips of an optical fiber bundle. Both semiselective and nonspecific, cross-reactive sensors were employed. Each sensor within the array responds differentially to vapor exposure so the array's fluorescence response patterns are unique for each analyte. The instrument is computationally "trained" to discriminate target response patterns from nontarget and background environments. This detection system has been applied to detect 2,4-DNT, an analyte commonly detected on the soil surface above buried 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) land mines, in spiked soil and aqueous and ground samples. The system has been characterized and demonstrated the ability to detect 120 ppb 2,4-DNT vapor in blind (unknown) humidified samples during a supervised field test.

An efficient approach to integrated MeV ion imaging.

PubMed

Nikbakht, T; Kakuee, O; Solé, V A; Vosuoghi, Y; Lamehi-Rachti, M

2018-03-01

An ionoluminescence (IL) spectral imaging system, besides the common MeV ion imaging facilities such as µ-PIXE and µ-RBS, is implemented at the Van de Graaff laboratory of Tehran. A versatile processing software is required to handle the large amount of data concurrently collected in µ-IL and common MeV ion imaging measurements through the respective methodologies. The open-source freeware PyMca, with image processing and multivariate analysis capabilities, is employed to simultaneously process common MeV ion imaging and µ-IL data. Herein, the program was adapted to support the OM_DAQ listmode data format. The appropriate performance of the µ-IL data acquisition system is confirmed through a case study. Moreover, the capabilities of the software for simultaneous analysis of µ-PIXE and µ-RBS experimental data are presented. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A mobile system for the improvement of heart failure management: Evaluation of a prototype.

PubMed

Haynes, Sarah C; Kim, Katherine K

2017-01-01

Management of heart failure is complex, often involving interaction with multiple providers, monitoring of symptoms, and numerous medications. Employing principles of user-centered design, we developed a high- fidelity prototype of a mobile system for heart failure self-management and care coordination. Participants, including both heart failure patients and health care providers, tested the mobile system during a one-hour one-on-one session with a facilitator. The facilitator interviewed participants about the strengths and weaknesses of the prototype, necessary features, and willingness to use the technology. We performed a qualitative content analysis using the transcripts of these interviews. Fourteen distinct themes were identified in the analysis. Of these themes, integration, technology literacy, memory, and organization were the most common. Privacy was the least common theme. Our study suggests that this integration is essential for adoption of a mobile system for chronic disease management and care coordination.

The database management system: A topic and a tool

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Plummer, O. R.

1984-01-01

Data structures and data base management systems are common tools employed to deal with the administrative information of a university. An understanding of these topics is needed by a much wider audience, ranging from those interested in computer aided design and manufacturing to those using microcomputers. These tools are becoming increasingly valuable to academic programs as they develop comprehensive computer support systems. The wide use of these tools relies upon the relational data model as a foundation. Experience with the use of the IPAD RIM5.0 program is described.

An improved camera trap for amphibians, reptiles, small mammals, and large invertebrates

USGS Publications Warehouse

Hobbs, Michael T.; Brehme, Cheryl S.

2017-01-01

Camera traps are valuable sampling tools commonly used to inventory and monitor wildlife communities but are challenged to reliably sample small animals. We introduce a novel active camera trap system enabling the reliable and efficient use of wildlife cameras for sampling small animals, particularly reptiles, amphibians, small mammals and large invertebrates. It surpasses the detection ability of commonly used passive infrared (PIR) cameras for this application and eliminates problems such as high rates of false triggers and high variability in detection rates among cameras and study locations. Our system, which employs a HALT trigger, is capable of coupling to digital PIR cameras and is designed for detecting small animals traversing small tunnels, narrow trails, small clearings and along walls or drift fencing.

An improved camera trap for amphibians, reptiles, small mammals, and large invertebrates.

PubMed

Hobbs, Michael T; Brehme, Cheryl S

2017-01-01

Camera traps are valuable sampling tools commonly used to inventory and monitor wildlife communities but are challenged to reliably sample small animals. We introduce a novel active camera trap system enabling the reliable and efficient use of wildlife cameras for sampling small animals, particularly reptiles, amphibians, small mammals and large invertebrates. It surpasses the detection ability of commonly used passive infrared (PIR) cameras for this application and eliminates problems such as high rates of false triggers and high variability in detection rates among cameras and study locations. Our system, which employs a HALT trigger, is capable of coupling to digital PIR cameras and is designed for detecting small animals traversing small tunnels, narrow trails, small clearings and along walls or drift fencing.

Enhanced High Performance Power Compensation Methodology by IPFC Using PIGBT-IDVR

PubMed Central

Arumugom, Subramanian; Rajaram, Marimuthu

2015-01-01

Currently, power systems are involuntarily controlled without high speed control and are frequently initiated, therefore resulting in a slow process when compared with static electronic devices. Among various power interruptions in power supply systems, voltage dips play a central role in causing disruption. The dynamic voltage restorer (DVR) is a process based on voltage control that compensates for line transients in the distributed system. To overcome these issues and to achieve a higher speed, a new methodology called the Parallel IGBT-Based Interline Dynamic Voltage Restorer (PIGBT-IDVR) method has been proposed, which mainly spotlights the dynamic processing of energy reloads in common dc-linked energy storage with less adaptive transition. The interline power flow controller (IPFC) scheme has been employed to manage the power transmission between the lines and the restorer method for controlling the reactive power in the individual lines. By employing the proposed methodology, the failure of a distributed system has been avoided and provides better performance than the existing methodologies. PMID:26613101

Sensitivity vector fields in time-delay coordinate embeddings: theory and experiment.

PubMed

Sloboda, A R; Epureanu, B I

2013-02-01

Identifying changes in the parameters of a dynamical system can be vital in many diagnostic and sensing applications. Sensitivity vector fields (SVFs) are one way of identifying such parametric variations by quantifying their effects on the morphology of a dynamical system's attractor. In many cases, SVFs are a more effective means of identification than commonly employed modal methods. Previously, it has only been possible to construct SVFs for a given dynamical system when a full set of state variables is available. This severely restricts SVF applicability because it may be cost prohibitive, or even impossible, to measure the entire state in high-dimensional systems. Thus, the focus of this paper is constructing SVFs with only partial knowledge of the state by using time-delay coordinate embeddings. Local models are employed in which the embedded states of a neighborhood are weighted in a way referred to as embedded point cloud averaging. Application of the presented methodology to both simulated and experimental time series demonstrates its utility and reliability.

Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act: Information on Planned Changes to State Performance Reporting and Related Challenges. Report to Congressional Committees. GAO-16-287

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

US Government Accountability Office, 2016

2016-01-01

Enacted in 2014, the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) brought numerous changes to existing federal employment and training programs, including requiring the Department of Labor (DOL) and the Department of Education (Education) to implement a common performance accountability system across the six WIOA-designated core programs. WIOA…

AF RPA Training: Utility and Tradition in Conflict

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-06-01

The AF and the Army offer competing views on the future of UAS training . Both services export its cultural values, as the Navy, USMC, and...and visions. Despite common technologies, each service approached UAS from different starting points, and created different training models. The AF...issues reflected different approaches each service took to Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) operational employment, personnel management, and training

Fluid Flow, Newton's Second Law and River Rescue

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Shea, Michael J.

2006-01-01

We consider the situation of a boat pinned or wrapped against a rock by moving water in a river. The force exerted by moving water is calculated and the force required to extricate the boat is estimated. Rafts, canoes and kayaks are each considered. A rope system commonly employed by river runners to extricate a boat is analysed. This system…

Education for Employment in the New Economy. A Report of the Economic Partners Team of the Comparative Learning Teams Project.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schaeffer, Esther F.; And Others

U.S. business, labor, and public policy representatives visited Denmark, Sweden, and Switzerland to study the roles of their counterparts in school-to-work systems. They identified these common strengths: education viewed as an economic investment tool by all partners; strong partnerships of business, labor, and government; voluntary national,…

Dynamic (Vibration) Testing: Design-Certification of Aerospace System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Aggarwal, Pravin K.

2010-01-01

Various types of dynamic testing of structures for certification purposes are described, including vibration, shock and acoustic testing. Modal testing is discussed as it frequently complements dynamic testing and is part of the structural verification/validation process leading up to design certification. Examples of dynamic and modal testing are presented as well as the common practices, procedures and standards employed.

Channel-Based Key Generation for Encrypted Body-Worn Wireless Sensor Networks.

PubMed

Van Torre, Patrick

2016-09-08

Body-worn sensor networks are important for rescue-workers, medical and many other applications. Sensitive data are often transmitted over such a network, motivating the need for encryption. Body-worn sensor networks are deployed in conditions where the wireless communication channel varies dramatically due to fading and shadowing, which is considered a disadvantage for communication. Interestingly, these channel variations can be employed to extract a common encryption key at both sides of the link. Legitimate users share a unique physical channel and the variations thereof provide data series on both sides of the link, with highly correlated values. An eavesdropper, however, does not share this physical channel and cannot extract the same information when intercepting the signals. This paper documents a practical wearable communication system implementing channel-based key generation, including an implementation and a measurement campaign comprising indoor as well as outdoor measurements. The results provide insight into the performance of channel-based key generation in realistic practical conditions. Employing a process known as key reconciliation, error free keys are generated in all tested scenarios. The key-generation system is computationally simple and therefore compatible with the low-power micro controllers and low-data rate transmissions commonly used in wireless sensor networks.

MiR-204 down-regulation elicited perturbation of a gene target signature common to human cholangiocarcinoma and gastric cancer.

PubMed

Canu, Valeria; Sacconi, Andrea; Lorenzon, Laura; Biagioni, Francesca; Lo Sardo, Federica; Diodoro, Maria Grazia; Muti, Paola; Garofalo, Alfredo; Strano, Sabrina; D'Errico, Antonietta; Grazi, Gian Luca; Cioce, Mario; Blandino, Giovanni

2017-05-02

There is high need of novel diagnostic and prognostic tools for tumors of the digestive system, such as gastric cancer and cholangiocarcinoma. We recently found that miR-204 was deeply downregulated in gastric cancer tissues. Here we investigated whether this was common to other tumors of the digestive system and whether this elicited a miR-204-dependent gene target signature, diagnostically and therapeutically relevant. Finally, we assessed the contribution of the identified target genes to the cell cycle progression and clonogenicity of gastric cancer and cholangiocarcinoma cell lines. We employed quantitative PCR and Affymetrix profiling for gene expression studies. In silico analysis aided us to identifying a miR-204 target signature in publicly available databases (TGCA). We employed transient transfection experiments, clonogenic assays and cell cycle profiling to evaluate the biological consequences of miR-204 perturbation. We identified a novel miR-204 gene target signature perturbed in gastric cancer and in cholangiocarcinoma specimens. We validated its prognostic relevance and mechanistically addressed its biological relevance in GC and CC cell lines. We suggest that restoring the physiological levels of miR-204 in some gastrointestinal cancers might be exploited therapeutically.

Innovation in the Face of Adversity: Major-General Sir Percy Hobart and the 79th Armoured Division (British)

DTIC Science & Technology

2003-06-06

to employ these varied formations, the only characteristic in common being their “armoured,” or more accurately, mechanized, structures. The core ...rocket-fired mine-clearing charges, a newly developed technology of the period, and precursors to the systems still in use today. One such system ...dustbin,” partly due to its ungainly appearance and flight , but also due to the smoke, dust and rubble created on the receiving end. Another

Job Accommodations Availability and Utilization Among People With Lupus: An Examination of Workplace Activity Limitations and Work Context Factors.

PubMed

Al Dhanhani, Ali M; Gignac, Monique A M; Beaton, Dorcas E; Su, Jiandong; Fortin, Paul R

2015-11-01

The aim of this study was to examine the availability of diverse job accommodations (or flexible working arrangements) and to describe their use among people with systemic lupus erythematosus (lupus), as well as to examine factors associated with the use of job accommodations. A mail survey was sent to adult lupus patients receiving care from a lupus clinic based in Toronto, Canada. The survey assessed demographic information, self-reported disease activity, work history, workplace activity limitations, job strain, and the availability and use of job accommodations. Standard multivariable linear regression analysis was used to examine factors associated with the use of job accommodations. We received 362 responses of 604 mailed surveys (60% response rate). Participants who were employed within the last 5 years, but who were not currently working, were less likely than currently employed participants to report having had job accommodations available to them at their last place of employment. The use of job accommodations was reported by 70% of currently employed respondents and by 72% of those not currently employed. The most common job accommodation used was sick leave days. Factors positively associated with the use of job accommodations among those who were employed included higher levels of education, being diagnosed with fibromyalgia, at least 1 episode of short-term work disability, not belonging to a union, greater workplace activity limitations, and greater job strain. The use of job accommodations among people with lupus is common. Work context factors, such as workplace activity limitations and job strain, are the main factors associated with the use of job accommodations. © 2015, American College of Rheumatology.

QR code based noise-free optical encryption and decryption of a gray scale image

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jiao, Shuming; Zou, Wenbin; Li, Xia

2017-03-01

In optical encryption systems, speckle noise is one major challenge in obtaining high quality decrypted images. This problem can be addressed by employing a QR code based noise-free scheme. Previous works have been conducted for optically encrypting a few characters or a short expression employing QR codes. This paper proposes a practical scheme for optically encrypting and decrypting a gray-scale image based on QR codes for the first time. The proposed scheme is compatible with common QR code generators and readers. Numerical simulation results reveal the proposed method can encrypt and decrypt an input image correctly.

Malone-brayton cycle engine/heat pump

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gilmour, Thomas A.

1994-07-01

A machine, such as a heat pump, and having an all liquid heat exchange fluid, operates over a more nearly ideal thermodynamic cycle by adjustment of the proportionality of the volumetric capacities of a compressor and an expander to approximate the proportionality of the densities of the liquid heat exchange fluid at the chosen working pressures. Preferred forms of a unit including both the compressor and the expander on a common shaft employs difference in axial lengths of rotary pumps of the gear or vane type to achieve the adjustment of volumetric capacity. Adjustment of the heat pump system for differing heat sink conditions preferably employs variable compression ratio pumps.

Development of an Agent-Based Model (ABM) to Simulate the Immune System and Integration of a Regression Method to Estimate the Key ABM Parameters by Fitting the Experimental Data

PubMed Central

Tong, Xuming; Chen, Jinghang; Miao, Hongyu; Li, Tingting; Zhang, Le

2015-01-01

Agent-based models (ABM) and differential equations (DE) are two commonly used methods for immune system simulation. However, it is difficult for ABM to estimate key parameters of the model by incorporating experimental data, whereas the differential equation model is incapable of describing the complicated immune system in detail. To overcome these problems, we developed an integrated ABM regression model (IABMR). It can combine the advantages of ABM and DE by employing ABM to mimic the multi-scale immune system with various phenotypes and types of cells as well as using the input and output of ABM to build up the Loess regression for key parameter estimation. Next, we employed the greedy algorithm to estimate the key parameters of the ABM with respect to the same experimental data set and used ABM to describe a 3D immune system similar to previous studies that employed the DE model. These results indicate that IABMR not only has the potential to simulate the immune system at various scales, phenotypes and cell types, but can also accurately infer the key parameters like DE model. Therefore, this study innovatively developed a complex system development mechanism that could simulate the complicated immune system in detail like ABM and validate the reliability and efficiency of model like DE by fitting the experimental data. PMID:26535589

Reference Avionics Architecture for Lunar Surface Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Somervill, Kevin M.; Lapin, Jonathan C.; Schmidt, Oron L.

2010-01-01

Developing and delivering infrastructure capable of supporting long-term manned operations to the lunar surface has been a primary objective of the Constellation Program in the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate. Several concepts have been developed related to development and deployment lunar exploration vehicles and assets that provide critical functionality such as transportation, habitation, and communication, to name a few. Together, these systems perform complex safety-critical functions, largely dependent on avionics for control and behavior of system functions. These functions are implemented using interchangeable, modular avionics designed for lunar transit and lunar surface deployment. Systems are optimized towards reuse and commonality of form and interface and can be configured via software or component integration for special purpose applications. There are two core concepts in the reference avionics architecture described in this report. The first concept uses distributed, smart systems to manage complexity, simplify integration, and facilitate commonality. The second core concept is to employ extensive commonality between elements and subsystems. These two concepts are used in the context of developing reference designs for many lunar surface exploration vehicles and elements. These concepts are repeated constantly as architectural patterns in a conceptual architectural framework. This report describes the use of these architectural patterns in a reference avionics architecture for Lunar surface systems elements.

Application of least mean square algorithm to suppression of maglev track-induced self-excited vibration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhou, D. F.; Li, J.; Hansen, C. H.

2011-11-01

Track-induced self-excited vibration is commonly encountered in EMS (electromagnetic suspension) maglev systems, and a solution to this problem is important in enabling the commercial widespread implementation of maglev systems. Here, the coupled model of the steel track and the magnetic levitation system is developed, and its stability is investigated using the Nyquist criterion. The harmonic balance method is employed to investigate the stability and amplitude of the self-excited vibration, which provides an explanation of the phenomenon that track-induced self-excited vibration generally occurs at a specified amplitude and frequency. To eliminate the self-excited vibration, an improved LMS (Least Mean Square) cancellation algorithm with phase correction (C-LMS) is employed. The harmonic balance analysis shows that the C-LMS cancellation algorithm can completely suppress the self-excited vibration. To achieve adaptive cancellation, a frequency estimator similar to the tuner of a TV receiver is employed to provide the C-LMS algorithm with a roughly estimated reference frequency. Numerical simulation and experiments undertaken on the CMS-04 vehicle show that the proposed adaptive C-LMS algorithm can effectively eliminate the self-excited vibration over a wide frequency range, and that the robustness of the algorithm suggests excellent potential for application to EMS maglev systems.

Barriers to Employment for Transition-age Youth with Developmental and Psychiatric Disabilities.

PubMed

Noel, Valerie A; Oulvey, Eugene; Drake, Robert E; Bond, Gary R

2017-05-01

Youth with developmental and psychiatric disabilities encounter significant vocational challenges, even when they receive supported employment services. We examined the barriers to employment for 280 transition-age youth with disabilities enrolled in supported employment in eight community rehabilitation centers. Employment team members identified each youth's top three barriers to employment using a 21-item checklist. Lack of work experience, transportation problems, and program engagement issues represented common barriers for both youth with developmental disabilities (53, 36, and 25%) and youth with psychiatric disabilities (20, 33, and 26%). Additional common barriers among youth with developmental disabilities included cognitive problems (32%) and lack of social skills (23%) and among youth with psychiatric disabilities included poor control of psychiatric symptoms (23%). Despite receiving evidence-based employment services, youth with disabilities encounter many barriers to employment. Awareness of typical barriers for transition-age youth, including those specific to different disability groups, may help employment programs anticipate challenges and develop strategies that avoid these barriers and their effects on employment opportunities.

Employers, workers, and the future of employment-based health benefits.

PubMed

Blakely, Stephen

2010-02-01

EBRI'S BIANNUAL POLICY FORUM: This Issue Brief summarizes presentations at EBRI's 65th biannual policy forum, held in Washington, DC, on Dec. 10, 2009, on the topic, "Employers, Workers, and the Future of Employment-Based Health Benefits." The forum brought together a wide range of economic, benefits, management, and labor experts to share their expertise at a time when major health reform legislation was being debated in Congress. The focus: How might this affect the way that the vast majority of Americans currently get their health insurance coverage? THE EMPLOYMENT-BASED HEALTH INSURANCE SYSTEM: Most people who have health insurance coverage in the United States get it through their job: In 2008, about 61 percent of the nonelderly population had employment-based health benefits, 19 percent were covered by public programs, 6 percent had individual coverage, and 17 percent were uninsured. Not surprisingly, given the deep conflicts that exist over President Obama's health reform plan and the different bills that have passed the House and Senate, benefits experts also do not agree on what "health reform" will mean for either workers or employers. Views ranged from "Will anyone notice?" to predictions of great upheaval for workers and their employers, patients and health care providers, and the entire U.S. health care system. One point of consensus among both labor and management representatives: Imposing a tax on health benefits is likely to cause major cuts in health benefits and might result in structural changes in the employment-based benefits system. A common disappointment voiced at the forum was that the initial effort to reform the delivery and cost of health care in America gradually became focused on just financing and coverage of health insurance. The ever-rising cost of health insurance affects different employers and workers in different ways--with small employers and low-wage workers being the most disadvantaged. With health premiums having risen almost five times as much as the overall rate of inflation since 2000, employers face unsustainable cost increases in health benefits. For a minimum-wage worker, the cost of family coverage (averaging about $13,700 a year in a small firm) exceeds their total annual income (about $11,500 a year). Small employers, if they offer health benefits at all, pay proportionately more than large employers for the same health coverage. As reflected by the debate in Congress, the American public has conflicted opinions on both the U.S. health care system and on reform: Surveys find that people tend to be satisfied with the quality of their own care but not with costs and access, and a majority rates the system as fair or poor. Opinions divide sharply along partisan lines. While large employers tend to express continued commitment to health benefits, small employers see themselves strongly disadvantaged by the current system. Consultants report many employers privately want to drop benefits to control costs, but realize there are risks to doing so and none wants to be first. Employers express strong interest in wellness and disease management programs as a way to control costs, even though some experts say there is no evidence these work. Consumer-driven health plans are expected to continue their slow rate of growth.

Restrictive lung defects: parenchymal, chest wall and neuromuscular.

PubMed

Shanks, Anne-Marie; Desai, Sujal R; Rice, Alexandra; Thomas, Stephen R; Polkey, Michael I; George, Peter M

2018-06-07

Sarcoidosis is a multisystem condition which may affect a number of organs and, within the cardiopulmonary system, most commonly manifests as parenchymal, airway-centred, nodal, vascular or cardiac disease. Pleural involvement is rare, but well described, and often presents as pleural effusions or pleural thickening. Here, we present the first case of active sarcoidosis manifesting as bilateral pleural calcification. We highlight the importance of a nuanced understanding of pulmonary physiology when dissecting coexistent extrathoracic and intrathoracic pulmonary restriction. We demonstrate the value of positron emission tomography scanning for identification of sites of sarcoid activity, in this case the pleura, to ensure tissue confirmation of this rare but functionally important manifestation of disease. Sarcoidosis should be considered within the differential diagnosis for patients with pleural calcification, not explained by more common causes. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2018. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

A Generic Method for Distribution and Transfer of ECTS and Other Norm-Referenced Grades within Student Cohorts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Warfvinge, Per

2008-01-01

The ECTS grade transfer scale is an interface grade scale to help European universities, students and employers to understand the level of student achievement. Hence, the ECTS scale can be seen as an interface, transforming local scales to a common system where A-E denote passing grades. By definition, ECTS should distribute the passing students…

Employment and hospital support among pediatric surgeons.

PubMed

Stehr, Wolfgang; Nakayama, Don K

2014-12-01

Employment, either by an academic entity or a hospital, is increasingly becoming a feature of surgical practice. Independent practices receive indirect subsidies to support their revenue. A survey of the extent of employment and the forms of indirect subsidies by which hospitals support independent practices, not previously done, would be of interest to all clinicians. A 2012 Internet survey of pediatric surgeons, asking practice description, hospital support, governance and management, conditions of compensation, selected contractual obligations, and arrangements for part-time coverage was conducted. Response rate was 21.8 per cent (253 of 1,163). Employed surgeons comprised 80 per cent: 60 per cent academic (152 of 253) and 20 per cent nonacademic (51). Only eight per cent (19) were in private practice. Half (47% [106 of 226]) had administrative tasks. One-fifth (20% [45 of 223]) was in a system without physician input in governance. The rest were in practices with physicians involved in management: on boards of directors (35% [78]), in management positions (31% [69]), and entirely physician-run (14% [31]). Most salaries were independent of external benchmarks. Productivity measures, when applied to compensation (54% [117 of 218]), used relative value units (71% [83 of 117]) more often than revenue production (29% [34]). Patient contact minimums (4% [nine of 217]) and penalties were less common (20% [43 of 218]) than bonus provisions (53% [116 of 218]). Most surgeons in private practice (75% [14 of 19]) received nonsalary hospital support. Pediatric surgery reflects the current trend of physician employment and hospital subsidies. Surgeon participation in governance and strategic system decisions will be necessary as healthcare systems evolve.

An improved camera trap for amphibians, reptiles, small mammals, and large invertebrates

PubMed Central

2017-01-01

Camera traps are valuable sampling tools commonly used to inventory and monitor wildlife communities but are challenged to reliably sample small animals. We introduce a novel active camera trap system enabling the reliable and efficient use of wildlife cameras for sampling small animals, particularly reptiles, amphibians, small mammals and large invertebrates. It surpasses the detection ability of commonly used passive infrared (PIR) cameras for this application and eliminates problems such as high rates of false triggers and high variability in detection rates among cameras and study locations. Our system, which employs a HALT trigger, is capable of coupling to digital PIR cameras and is designed for detecting small animals traversing small tunnels, narrow trails, small clearings and along walls or drift fencing. PMID:28981533

Right main bronchial fracture resolution by digital thoracic drainage system.

PubMed

Cortés Julián, Gildardo; Mier, José M; Iñiguez, Marco A; Guzmán de Alba, Enrique

2016-03-01

Tracheobronchial stenosis is common in the thoracic surgery service, and iatrogenic injury of the airway after manipulation is not infrequent. When a digital thoracic drainage system came onto the market, many advantages were evident. A 24-year-old woman with critical right main bronchial stenosis underwent airway dilation that was complicated by a tear with a massive air leak, resulting in a total right pneumothorax. We employed a pleural drain connected to a digital thoracic drainage system. The drain was removed 2 days after successful resolution of the air leak. © The Author(s) 2015.

Magnetic force driven six degree-of-freedom active vibration isolation system using a phase compensated velocity sensor.

PubMed

Kim, Yongdae; Kim, Sangyoo; Park, Kyihwan

2009-04-01

A six-axis active vibration isolation system (AVIS) is developed using voice coil actuators. Point contact configuration is employed to have an easy assembly of eight voice coil actuators to an upper and a base plates. The velocity sensor, using an electromagnetic principle that is commonly used in the vibration control, is investigated since its phase lead characteristic causes an instability problem for a low frequency vibration. The performances of the AVIS are investigated in the frequency domain and finally validated by comparing with the passive isolation system using the atomic force microscope images.

Solar energy control system. [temperature measurement

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Currie, J. R. (Inventor)

1981-01-01

A solar energy control system for a hot air type solar energy heating system wherein thermocouples are arranged to sense the temperature of a solar collector, a space to be heated, and a top and bottom of a heat storage unit is disclosed. Pertinent thermocouples are differentially connected together, and these are employed to effect the operation of dampers, a fan, and an auxiliary heat source. In accomplishing this, the differential outputs from the thermocouples are amplified by a single amplifier by multiplexing techniques. Additionally, the amplifier is corrected as to offset by including as one multiplex channel a common reference signal.

"This Is Still a Work in Progress": Common Ground, Littleton, New Hampshire.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hall, Mair; Walker, Pam

This site-visit report describes Common Ground, a program located in New Hampshire that supports 52 people with developmental disabilities, including some with severe and multiple impairments, in a broad range of individualized, integrated daytime activities, including supported and competitive employment, self-employment, volunteer work, and the…

[Motivations for foreign employment and carrier change among Hungarian physiotherapists].

PubMed

Pónusz, Róbert; Kovács, Dalma; Raposa, László Bence; Hock, Márta; Decsi, Tamás; Kránicz, János; Endrei, Dóra

2016-02-28

An increasing motivation can be experienced among professional workers within the Hungarian healthcare system towards foreign employment or career change. The aim of the authors was to assess Hungarian physiotherapists' migration and career changing behaviour and to understand the underlying factors. A national survey in Hungary from April to August, 2014 was performed. Only physiotherapists who practice in Hungary were included (n = 215). The results suggest that age (p<0.05) and the rate of financial appreciation experienced in the workplace (p<0.01) significantly affect the appearance of migratory thoughts. Those physiotherapists who do not feel themselves financially appreciated, are 55 times more likely to search for employment outside the country's borders [OR = 55.28 CI (95%) = 18.85 to 161.12]. The most common causes for that are unfavourable financial (p<0.01) and moral recognition (p<0.01). In order to prevent our already highly-qualified colleagues from leaving the country or from considering to leave the profession we should concentrate on increasing the financial and moral appreciation of the profession within the Hungarian healthcare system.

Principles of Sociology in Systems Engineering

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Watson, Michael D.; Andrews, James G.; Larsen, Jordan A.

2017-01-01

Systems engineering involves both the integration of the system and the integration of the disciplines which develop and operate the system. Integrating the disciplines is a sociological effort to bring together different groups, often with different terminology, to achieve a common goal, the system. The focus for the systems engineer is information flow through the organization, between the disciplines, to ensure the system is developed and operated with all relevant information informing system decisions. Robert K. Merton studied the sociological principles of the sciences and the sociological principles he developed apply to systems engineering. Concepts such as specification of ignorance, common terminology, opportunity structures, role-sets, and the reclama (reconsideration) process are all important sociological approaches that should be employed by the systems engineer. In bringing the disciplines together, the systems engineer must also be wary of social ambivalence, social anomie, social dysfunction, insider-outsider behavior, unintended consequences, and the self-fulfilling prophecy. These sociological principles provide the systems engineer with key approaches to manage the information flow through the organization as the disciplines are integrated and share their information. This also helps identify key sociological barriers to information flow through the organization. This paper will discuss this theoretical basis for the application of sociological principles to systems engineering.

[Can informal employment be compared in South America? Analysis of its definition, measurement and classification].

PubMed

Ruiz, Marisol E; Tarafa Orpinell, Gemma; Jódar Martínez, Pere; Benach, Joan

2015-01-01

To characterize and analyze the situation of informal employment with regard to its definition, measurement and classification in South American countries. A literature review was conducted from four databases and grey literature through a scoping review, which included reports from international organizations and from the 12 countries in South America. The data were analyzed by evaluating content and establishing similarities among countries. The data reviewed showed a disparity in the definitions used, although many countries define informal employment as workers with no contract. Most countries measured informal employment through household surveys, but due to the differences in classifications, the information found was heterogeneous, with little standardization among registries. Therefore, the data could not be compared at a regional level. The definition of the International Labour Organization was not useful to study informal employment in the countries studied. The definition should include protected and unprotected workers. An appropriate and specific definition of informal employment would allow nuances to be studied within the concept, revealing the loopholes faced by most of the population working informally. The key to meaningful comparisons within the study region is to incorporate common indicators among local registration systems (measurement) in order to determine the public health impact in the informally employed population. Copyright © 2014 SESPAS. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

A matter of collection and detection for intraoperative and noninvasive near-infrared fluorescence molecular imaging: To see or not to see?

PubMed Central

Zhu, Banghe; Rasmussen, John C.; Sevick-Muraca, Eva M.

2014-01-01

Purpose: Although fluorescence molecular imaging is rapidly evolving as a new combinational drug/device technology platform for molecularly guided surgery and noninvasive imaging, there remains no performance standards for efficient translation of “first-in-humans” fluorescent imaging agents using these devices. Methods: The authors employed a stable, solid phantom designed to exaggerate the confounding effects of tissue light scattering and to mimic low concentrations (nM–pM) of near-infrared fluorescent dyes expected clinically for molecular imaging in order to evaluate and compare the commonly used charge coupled device (CCD) camera systems employed in preclinical studies and in human investigational studies. Results: The results show that intensified CCD systems offer greater contrast with larger signal-to-noise ratios in comparison to their unintensified CCD systems operated at clinically reasonable, subsecond acquisition times. Conclusions: Camera imaging performance could impact the success of future “first-in-humans” near-infrared fluorescence imaging agent studies. PMID:24506637

Heteroatom-Doped Carbon Materials for Electrocatalysis.

PubMed

Asefa, Tewodros; Huang, Xiaoxi

2017-08-10

Fuel cells, water electrolyzers, and metal-air batteries are important energy systems that have started to play some roles in our renewable energy landscapes. However, despite much research works carried out on them, they have not yet found large-scale applications, mainly due to the unavailability of sustainable catalysts that can catalyze the reactions employed in them. Currently, noble metal-based materials are the ones that are commonly used as catalysts in most commercial fuel cells, electrolyzers, and metal-air batteries. Hence, there has been considerable research efforts worldwide to find alternative noble metal-free and metal-free catalysts composed of inexpensive, earth-abundant elements for use in the catalytic reactions employed in these energy systems. In this concept paper, a brief introduction on catalysis in renewable energy systems, followed by the recent efforts to develop sustainable, heteroatom-doped carbon and non-noble metal-based electrocatalysts, the challenges to unravel their structure-catalytic activity relationships, and the authors' perspectives on these topics and materials, are discussed. © 2017 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

A matter of collection and detection for intraoperative and noninvasive near-infrared fluorescence molecular imaging: To see or not to see?

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

Zhu, Banghe; Rasmussen, John C.; Sevick-Muraca, Eva M., E-mail: Eva.Sevick@uth.tmc.edu

2014-02-15

Purpose: Although fluorescence molecular imaging is rapidly evolving as a new combinational drug/device technology platform for molecularly guided surgery and noninvasive imaging, there remains no performance standards for efficient translation of “first-in-humans” fluorescent imaging agents using these devices. Methods: The authors employed a stable, solid phantom designed to exaggerate the confounding effects of tissue light scattering and to mimic low concentrations (nM–pM) of near-infrared fluorescent dyes expected clinically for molecular imaging in order to evaluate and compare the commonly used charge coupled device (CCD) camera systems employed in preclinical studies and in human investigational studies. Results: The results show thatmore » intensified CCD systems offer greater contrast with larger signal-to-noise ratios in comparison to their unintensified CCD systems operated at clinically reasonable, subsecond acquisition times. Conclusions: Camera imaging performance could impact the success of future “first-in-humans” near-infrared fluorescence imaging agent studies.« less

Design and construction of a cost-efficient Arduino-based mirror galvanometer system for scanning optical microscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hsu, Jen-Feng; Dhingra, Shonali; D'Urso, Brian

2017-01-01

Mirror galvanometer systems (galvos) are commonly employed in research and commercial applications in areas involving laser imaging, laser machining, laser-light shows, and others. Here, we present a robust, moderate-speed, and cost-efficient home-built galvo system. The mechanical part of this design consists of one mirror, which is tilted around two axes with multiple surface transducers. We demonstrate the ability of this galvo by scanning the mirror using a computer, via a custom driver circuit. The performance of the galvo, including scan range, noise, linearity, and scan speed, is characterized. As an application, we show that this galvo system can be used in a confocal scanning microscopy system.

20 CFR 404.1058 - Special situations.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... Employees' Benefits SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION FEDERAL OLD-AGE, SURVIVORS AND DISABILITY INSURANCE (1950- ) Employment, Wages, Self-Employment, and Self-Employment Income Wages § 404.1058 Special situations. (a... as a home worker in a common-law employment relationship (see § 404.1007) count as wages regardless...

20 CFR 404.1058 - Special situations.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... Employees' Benefits SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION FEDERAL OLD-AGE, SURVIVORS AND DISABILITY INSURANCE (1950- ) Employment, Wages, Self-Employment, and Self-Employment Income Wages § 404.1058 Special situations. (a... as a home worker in a common-law employment relationship (see § 404.1007) count as wages regardless...

20 CFR 404.1058 - Special situations.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... Employees' Benefits SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION FEDERAL OLD-AGE, SURVIVORS AND DISABILITY INSURANCE (1950- ) Employment, Wages, Self-Employment, and Self-Employment Income Wages § 404.1058 Special situations. (a... as a home worker in a common-law employment relationship (see § 404.1007) count as wages regardless...

20 CFR 404.1058 - Special situations.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... Employees' Benefits SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION FEDERAL OLD-AGE, SURVIVORS AND DISABILITY INSURANCE (1950- ) Employment, Wages, Self-Employment, and Self-Employment Income Wages § 404.1058 Special situations. (a... as a home worker in a common-law employment relationship (see § 404.1007) count as wages regardless...

Building a common pipeline for rule-based document classification.

PubMed

Patterson, Olga V; Ginter, Thomas; DuVall, Scott L

2013-01-01

Instance-based classification of clinical text is a widely used natural language processing task employed as a step for patient classification, document retrieval, or information extraction. Rule-based approaches rely on concept identification and context analysis in order to determine the appropriate class. We propose a five-step process that enables even small research teams to develop simple but powerful rule-based NLP systems by taking advantage of a common UIMA AS based pipeline for classification. Our proposed methodology coupled with the general-purpose solution provides researchers with access to the data locked in clinical text in cases of limited human resources and compact timelines.

Monoterpenes released from fruit, plant, and vegetable systems.

PubMed

Iqbal, Mohammad Asif; Kim, Ki-Hyun; Ahn, Jeong Hyeon

2014-09-29

To quantify the emission rate of monoterpenes (MTs) from diverse natural sources, the sorbent tube (ST)-thermal desorption (TD) method was employed to conduct the collection and subsequent detection of MTs by gas chromatography. The calibration of MTs, when made by both mass spectrometric (MS) and flame ionization detector (FID), consistently exhibited high coefficient of determination values (R2 > 0.99). This approach was employed to measure their emission rate from different fruit/plant/vegetable (F/P/V) samples with the aid of an impinger-based dynamic headspace sampling system. The results obtained from 10 samples (consisting of carrot, pine needle (P. sylvestris), tangerine, tangerine peel, strawberry, sepals of strawberry, plum, apple, apple peel, and orange juice) marked α-pinene, β-pinene, myrcene, α-terpinene, R-limonene, γ-terpinene, and p-cymene as the most common MTs. R-limonene was the major species emitted from citrus fruits and beverages with its abundance exceeding 90%. In contrast, α-pinene was the most abundant MT (37%) for carrot, while it was myrcene (31%) for pine needle. The overall results for F/P/V samples confirmed α-pinene, β-pinene, myrcene, α-terpinene, and γ-terpinene as common MTs. Nonetheless, the types and magnitude of MTs released from fruits were distinguished from those of vegetables and plants.

Effect of postgraduate training on job and career satisfaction among health-system pharmacists.

PubMed

Padiyara, Rosalyn S; Komperda, Kathy E

2010-07-01

The effect of postgraduate training on job and career satisfaction among health-system pharmacists was evaluated. A mail-based questionnaire was sent to a random sample of pharmacist members of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists. Previously validated questions for job and career satisfaction among pharmacists were utilized. The questionnaire was designed to obtain information regarding general employment, work environment, job satisfaction, career satisfaction, postgraduate training, and demographic characteristics. Pharmacists who had completed either a pharmacy residency or fellowship were classified as having postgraduate training. Questionnaires returned within two months of the original mailing date were included in the analysis. Responses from pharmacists who were retired, employed in a nonpharmacy career, or unemployed were excluded. Data were analyzed using SPSS software. Of the 2499 questionnaires mailed, 36 were undeliverable; 1058 were completed, yielding a response rate of 43%. Of these, 48 were excluded, resulting in 1010 questionnaires suitable for analysis. Approximately 37% of respondents indicated completion of postgraduate training. The most common practice setting was a community, not-for-profit hospital (40.9%). Overall, 90.7% of respondents indicated they were either satisfied or highly satisfied with their current employment. Approximately 45% of pharmacists with postgraduate training indicated they were highly satisfied with their employment, compared with 32.7% of pharmacists without postgraduate training (p < 0.001). Pharmacists who completed postgraduate training were more satisfied with their job than those who did not complete such training.

A Kinect-Based Sign Language Hand Gesture Recognition System for Hearing- and Speech-Impaired: A Pilot Study of Pakistani Sign Language.

PubMed

Halim, Zahid; Abbas, Ghulam

2015-01-01

Sign language provides hearing and speech impaired individuals with an interface to communicate with other members of the society. Unfortunately, sign language is not understood by most of the common people. For this, a gadget based on image processing and pattern recognition can provide with a vital aid for detecting and translating sign language into a vocal language. This work presents a system for detecting and understanding the sign language gestures by a custom built software tool and later translating the gesture into a vocal language. For the purpose of recognizing a particular gesture, the system employs a Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) algorithm and an off-the-shelf software tool is employed for vocal language generation. Microsoft(®) Kinect is the primary tool used to capture video stream of a user. The proposed method is capable of successfully detecting gestures stored in the dictionary with an accuracy of 91%. The proposed system has the ability to define and add custom made gestures. Based on an experiment in which 10 individuals with impairments used the system to communicate with 5 people with no disability, 87% agreed that the system was useful.

Education, employment, absenteeism, and work disability in women with systemic lupus erythematosus.

PubMed

Ekblom-Kullberg, S; Kautiainen, H; Alha, P; Leirisalo-Repo, M; Julkunen, H

2015-01-01

To study education, employment, absenteeism, and work disability (WD) in women with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) compared to population controls. The study included 181 women of working age with SLE (mean age 44.0 years, disease duration 12.7 years) and 549 female population controls matched for age living in the same metropolitan area of Helsinki. Data regarding education, employment, absenteeism, and WD in patients and controls were obtained by questionnaire and personal interview. Basic education, vocational, or academic degrees and occupational categories in patients with SLE were similar to those in controls. In total, 62% of the patients were employed, compared to 77% of the controls (p < 0.001). During the preceding 12 months, employed SLE patients had been on sick leave for 25.4 days vs. 10.2 days in controls (p < 0.001). Subjective work ability regarding physical and mental demands of the job were lower in SLE patients than in controls (p < 0.001 and p = 0.036, respectively). The rate of permanent WD, defined as receiving disability benefits, was 34.3% in SLE patients vs. 10.3% in controls (p < 0.001). Cumulative WD due to SLE 5, 10, and 20 years after the clinical diagnosis was 13, 22, and 47%, respectively. SLE does not seem to affect educational achievements and the employment rate for SLE patients is reasonably high. Absenteeism and work disability are, however, 2-3 times more common than in controls. Less than half of the patients were on permanent disability pension due to SLE 20 years after diagnosis of the disease.

Organizational factors affecting successful adoption of innovative eHealth services: a case study employing the FITT framework.

PubMed

Tsiknakis, Manolis; Kouroubali, Angelina

2009-01-01

The paper presents an application of the "Fit between Individuals, Task and Technology" (FITT) framework to analyze the socio-organizational-technical factors that influence IT adoption in the healthcare domain. The FITT framework was employed as the theoretical instrument for a retrospective analysis of a 15-year effort in implementing IT systems and eHealth services in the context of a Regional Health Information Network in Crete. Quantitative and qualitative research methods, interviews and participant observations were employed to gather data from a case study that involved the entire region of Crete. The detailed analysis of the case study based on the FITT framework, showed common features, but also differences of IT adoption within the various health organizations. The emerging picture is a complex nexus of factors contributing to IT adoption, and multi-level interventional strategies to promote IT use. The work presented in this paper shows the applicability of the FITT framework in explaining the complexity of aspects observed in the implementation of healthcare information systems. The reported experiences reveal that fit management can be viewed as a system with a feedback loop that is never really stable, but ever changing based on external factors or deliberate interventions. Management of fit, therefore, becomes a constant and complex task for the whole life cycle of IT systems.

Supported employment for persons with serious mental illness: current status and future directions.

PubMed

Mueser, K T; McGurk, S R

2014-06-01

The individual placement and supported (IPS) model of supported employment is the most empirically validated model of vocational rehabilitation for persons with schizophrenia or another serious mental illness. Over 18 randomized controlled trials have been conducted throughout the world demonstrating the effectiveness of supported employment at improving competitive work compared to other vocational programs: IPS supported employment is defined by the following principles: 1) inclusion of all clients who want to work; 2) integration of vocational and clinical services; 3) focus on competitive employment; 4) rapid job search and no required prevocational skills training; 5) job development by the employment specialist; 6) attention to client preferences about desired work and disclosure of mental illness to prospective employers; 7) benefits counseling; and 8) follow-along supports after a job is obtained. Supported employment has been successfully implemented in a wide range of cultural and clinical populations, although challenges to implementation are also encountered. Common challenges are related to problems such as the failure to access technical assistance, system issues, negative beliefs and attitudes of providers, funding restrictions, and poor leadership. These challenges can be overcome by tapping expertise in IPS supported employment, including standardized and tested models of training and consultation. Efforts are underway to increase the efficiency of training methods for supported employment and the overall program, and to improve its effectiveness for those clients who do not benefit. Progress in IPS supported employment offers people with a serious mental illness realistic hope for achieving their work goals, and taking greater control over their lives. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS.

Developing a Novel Parameter Estimation Method for Agent-Based Model in Immune System Simulation under the Framework of History Matching: A Case Study on Influenza A Virus Infection

PubMed Central

Li, Tingting; Cheng, Zhengguo; Zhang, Le

2017-01-01

Since they can provide a natural and flexible description of nonlinear dynamic behavior of complex system, Agent-based models (ABM) have been commonly used for immune system simulation. However, it is crucial for ABM to obtain an appropriate estimation for the key parameters of the model by incorporating experimental data. In this paper, a systematic procedure for immune system simulation by integrating the ABM and regression method under the framework of history matching is developed. A novel parameter estimation method by incorporating the experiment data for the simulator ABM during the procedure is proposed. First, we employ ABM as simulator to simulate the immune system. Then, the dimension-reduced type generalized additive model (GAM) is employed to train a statistical regression model by using the input and output data of ABM and play a role as an emulator during history matching. Next, we reduce the input space of parameters by introducing an implausible measure to discard the implausible input values. At last, the estimation of model parameters is obtained using the particle swarm optimization algorithm (PSO) by fitting the experiment data among the non-implausible input values. The real Influeza A Virus (IAV) data set is employed to demonstrate the performance of our proposed method, and the results show that the proposed method not only has good fitting and predicting accuracy, but it also owns favorable computational efficiency. PMID:29194393

Developing a Novel Parameter Estimation Method for Agent-Based Model in Immune System Simulation under the Framework of History Matching: A Case Study on Influenza A Virus Infection.

PubMed

Li, Tingting; Cheng, Zhengguo; Zhang, Le

2017-12-01

Since they can provide a natural and flexible description of nonlinear dynamic behavior of complex system, Agent-based models (ABM) have been commonly used for immune system simulation. However, it is crucial for ABM to obtain an appropriate estimation for the key parameters of the model by incorporating experimental data. In this paper, a systematic procedure for immune system simulation by integrating the ABM and regression method under the framework of history matching is developed. A novel parameter estimation method by incorporating the experiment data for the simulator ABM during the procedure is proposed. First, we employ ABM as simulator to simulate the immune system. Then, the dimension-reduced type generalized additive model (GAM) is employed to train a statistical regression model by using the input and output data of ABM and play a role as an emulator during history matching. Next, we reduce the input space of parameters by introducing an implausible measure to discard the implausible input values. At last, the estimation of model parameters is obtained using the particle swarm optimization algorithm (PSO) by fitting the experiment data among the non-implausible input values. The real Influeza A Virus (IAV) data set is employed to demonstrate the performance of our proposed method, and the results show that the proposed method not only has good fitting and predicting accuracy, but it also owns favorable computational efficiency.

An integrated charge exchange recombination spectroscopy/beam emission spectroscopy diagnostic for Alcator C-Mod tokamak.

PubMed

Bespamyatnov, I O; Rowan, W L; Liao, K T; Granetz, R S

2010-10-01

A novel integrated charge exchange recombination spectroscopy (CXRS)/beam emission spectroscopy (BES) system is proposed for C-Mod, in which both measurements are taken from a shared viewing geometry. The supplementary BES system serves to quantify local beam densities and supplants the common calculation of beam attenuation. The new system employs two optical viewing arrays, 20 poloidal and 22 toroidal channels. A dichroic filter splits the light between two spectrometers operating at different wavelengths for impurity ion and beam neutrals emission. In this arrangement, the impurity density is inferred from the electron density, measured BES and CXRS spectral radiances, and atomic emission rates.

Laboratory and in vivo transport characterization of hollow fiber membranes and adjacent scar tissue that forms following their implantation in the central nervous system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bridge, Michael John

Hollow fiber membrane (HFM) cell encapsulation devices use a semipermeable membrane to physically immunoisolate transplanted secretory cells from host tissues and high molecular weight solutes. Advantages inherent to macroencapsulation technology have led to extensive research towards their utilization for treating a wide range of disorders including a number of neurodegenerative diseases and diabetes. Although feasibility studies have already established the therapeutic potential of macroencapsulation technology, a common observation among these and later studies is diminishing therapeutic efficacy over a span of a few weeks following implantation of devices. Progress towards fulfilling the therapeutic potential of this technology initially recognized by investigators has potentially been hampered by inadequate diffusive transport characterization of membranes employed in studies. In addition, the potential effects of host tissue responses following central nervous system (CNS) implantation of these devices is completely unknown. To address these issues a membrane characterization instrument capable of efficiently characterizing the diffusive and convective transport properties of individual HFM segments, such as they are used in devices, was developed. The instrument was then employed to study the effects of ethanol exposure, a common sterilization method, on PAN-PVC membranes commonly used in CNS implantation macro encapsulation device studies. Lastly, the solute diffusivity properties of tissue that forms adjacent to the membranes of brain implanted transcranial access devices were investigated. Coinciding with this investigation was the development of a novel technique for examining the solute diffusivity properties in the extracellular spaces of CNS tissue.

47 CFR 101.311 - Equal employment opportunities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... 47 Telecommunication 5 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Equal employment opportunities. 101.311 Section 101.311 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION (CONTINUED) SAFETY AND SPECIAL RADIO SERVICES FIXED MICROWAVE SERVICES Miscellaneous Common Carrier Provisions § 101.311 Equal employment...

47 CFR 101.311 - Equal employment opportunities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 47 Telecommunication 5 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Equal employment opportunities. 101.311 Section 101.311 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION (CONTINUED) SAFETY AND SPECIAL RADIO SERVICES FIXED MICROWAVE SERVICES Miscellaneous Common Carrier Provisions § 101.311 Equal employment...

47 CFR 101.311 - Equal employment opportunities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... 47 Telecommunication 5 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Equal employment opportunities. 101.311 Section 101.311 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION (CONTINUED) SAFETY AND SPECIAL RADIO SERVICES FIXED MICROWAVE SERVICES Miscellaneous Common Carrier Provisions § 101.311 Equal employment...

47 CFR 101.311 - Equal employment opportunities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... 47 Telecommunication 5 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Equal employment opportunities. 101.311 Section 101.311 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION (CONTINUED) SAFETY AND SPECIAL RADIO SERVICES FIXED MICROWAVE SERVICES Miscellaneous Common Carrier Provisions § 101.311 Equal employment...

47 CFR 101.311 - Equal employment opportunities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... 47 Telecommunication 5 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Equal employment opportunities. 101.311 Section 101.311 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION (CONTINUED) SAFETY AND SPECIAL RADIO SERVICES FIXED MICROWAVE SERVICES Miscellaneous Common Carrier Provisions § 101.311 Equal employment...

Delegation control of multiple unmanned systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Flaherty, Susan R.; Shively, Robert J.

2010-04-01

Maturing technologies and complex payloads coupled with a future objective to reduce the logistics burden of current unmanned aerial systems (UAS) operations require a change to the 2-crew employment paradigm. Increased automation and operator supervisory control of unmanned systems have been advocated to meet the objective of reducing the crew requirements, while managing future technologies. Specifically, a delegation control employment strategy has resulted in reduced workload and higher situation awareness for single operators controlling multiple unmanned systems in empirical studies1,2. Delegation control is characterized by the ability for an operator to call a single "play" that initiates prescribed default actions for each vehicle and associated sensor related to a common mission goal. Based upon the effectiveness of delegation control in simulation, the U.S. Army Aeroflightdynamics Directorate (AFDD) developed a Delegation Control (DelCon) operator interface with voice recognition implementation for play selection, real-time play modification, and play status with automation transparency to enable single operator control of multiple unmanned systems in flight. AFDD successfully demonstrated delegation control in a Troops-in-Contact mission scenario at Ft. Ord in 2009. This summary showcases the effort as a beneficial advance in single operator control of multiple UAS.

Employer Engagement Practices of UK Business Schools and Departments: An Empirical Investigation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bennett, Roger; Kane, Suzanne

2009-01-01

A survey of managers in charge of employer engagement activities in UK business schools and departments was completed to ascertain: (1) the employer engagement methods that were most commonly used by institutions; (2) business school managers' attitudes towards employers' involvement in course design; and (3) the respondents' perceptions of the…

Adaptive Fuzzy Control Design for Stochastic Nonlinear Switched Systems With Arbitrary Switchings and Unmodeled Dynamics.

PubMed

Li, Yongming; Sui, Shuai; Tong, Shaocheng

2017-02-01

This paper deals with the problem of adaptive fuzzy output feedback control for a class of stochastic nonlinear switched systems. The controlled system in this paper possesses unmeasured states, completely unknown nonlinear system functions, unmodeled dynamics, and arbitrary switchings. A state observer which does not depend on the switching signal is constructed to tackle the unmeasured states. Fuzzy logic systems are employed to identify the completely unknown nonlinear system functions. Based on the common Lyapunov stability theory and stochastic small-gain theorem, a new robust adaptive fuzzy backstepping stabilization control strategy is developed. The stability of the closed-loop system on input-state-practically stable in probability is proved. The simulation results are given to verify the efficiency of the proposed fuzzy adaptive control scheme.

Efficiency optimization of class-D biomedical inductive wireless power transfer systems by means of frequency adjustment.

PubMed

Schormans, Matthew; Valente, Virgilio; Demosthenous, Andreas

2015-01-01

Inductive powering for implanted medical devices is a commonly employed technique, that allows for implants to avoid more dangerous methods such as the use of transcutaneous wires or implanted batteries. However, wireless powering in this way also comes with a number of difficulties and conflicting requirements, which are often met by using designs based on compromise. In particular, one aspect common to most inductive power links is that they are driven with a fixed frequency, which may not be optimal depending on factors such as coupling and load. In this paper, a method is proposed in which an inductive power link is driven by a frequency that is maintained at an optimum value f(opt), to ensure that the link is in resonance. In order to maintain this resonance, a phase tracking technique is employed at the primary side of the link; this allows for compensation of changes in coil separation and load. The technique is shown to provide significant improvements in maintained secondary voltage and efficiency for a range of loads when the link is overcoupled.

Speed synchronization control for integrated automotive motor-transmission powertrain system with random delays

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhu, Xiaoyuan; Zhang, Hui; Fang, Zongde

2015-12-01

This paper presents a robust speed synchronization controller design for an integrated motor-transmission powertrain system in which the driving motor and multi-gearbox are directly coupled. As the controller area network (CAN) is commonly used in the vehicle powertrain system, the possible network-induced random delays in both feedback and forward channel are considered and modeled by using two Markov chains in the controller design process. For the application perspective, the control law adopted here is a generalized proportional-integral (PI) control. By employing the system-augmentation technique, a delay-free stochastic closed-loop system is obtained and the generalized PI controller design problem is converted to a static output feedback (SOF) controller design problem. Since there are external disturbances involved in the closed-loop system, the energy-to-peak performance is considered to guarantee the robustness of the controller. And the controlled output is chosen as the speed synchronization error. To further improve the transient response of the closed-loop system, the pole placement is also employed in the energy-to-peak performance based speed synchronization control. The mode-dependent control gains are obtained by using an iterative linear matrix inequality (LMI) algorithm. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed control approach.

Two complementary personal medication management applications developed on a common platform: case report.

PubMed

Ross, Stephen E; Johnson, Kevin B; Siek, Katie A; Gordon, Jeffry S; Khan, Danish U; Haverhals, Leah M

2011-07-12

Adverse drug events are a major safety issue in ambulatory care. Improving medication self-management could reduce these adverse events. Researchers have developed medication applications for tethered personal health records (PHRs), but little has been reported about medication applications for interoperable PHRs. Our objective was to develop two complementary personal health applications on a common PHR platform: one to assist children with complex health needs (MyMediHealth), and one to assist older adults in care transitions (Colorado Care Tablet). The applications were developed using a user-centered design approach. The two applications shared a common PHR platform based on a service-oriented architecture. MyMediHealth employed Web and mobile phone user interfaces. Colorado Care Tablet employed a Web interface customized for a tablet PC. We created complementary medication management applications tailored to the needs of distinctly different user groups using common components. Challenges were addressed in multiple areas, including how to encode medication identities, how to incorporate knowledge bases for medication images and consumer health information, how to include supplementary dosing information, how to simplify user interfaces for older adults, and how to support mobile devices for children. These prototypes demonstrate the utility of abstracting PHR data and services (the PHR platform) from applications that can be tailored to meet the needs of diverse patients. Based on the challenges we faced, we provide recommendations on the structure of publicly available knowledge resources and the use of mobile messaging systems for PHR applications.

Bioethics and multiculturalism: nuancing the discussion.

PubMed

Durante, Chris

2018-02-01

In his recent analysis of multiculturalism, Tom Beauchamp has argued that those who implement multicultural reasoning in their arguments against common morality theories, such as his own, have failed to understand that multiculturalism is neither a form of moral pluralism nor ethical relativism but is rather a universalistic moral theory in its own right. Beauchamp's position is indeed on the right track in that multiculturalists do not consider themselves ethical relativists. Yet, Beauchamp tends to miss the mark when he argues that multiculturalism is in effect a school of thought that endorses a form of moral universalism that is akin to his own vision of a common morality. As a supporter of multiculturalism, I would like to discuss some aspects of Beauchamp's comments on multiculturalism and clarify what a multicultural account of public bioethics might look like. Ultimately, multiculturalism is purported as a means of managing diversity in the public arena and should not be thought of as endorsing either a version of moral relativism or a universal morality. By simultaneously refraining from the promotion of a comprehensive common moral system while it attempts to avoid a collapse into relativism, multiculturalism can serve as the ethico-political framework in which diverse moralities can be managed and in which opportunities for ethical dialogue, debate and deliberation on the prospects of common bioethical norms are made possible. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2018. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

Leaf and canopy reflectance spectrometry applied to the estimation of angular leaf spot disease severity of common bean crops

PubMed Central

Martínez-Martínez, Víctor; Machado, Marley L.; Pinto, Francisco A. C.

2018-01-01

This study is aimed at (i) estimating the angular leaf spot (ALS) disease severity in common beans crops in Brazil, caused by the fungus Pseudocercospora griseola, employing leaf and canopy spectral reflectance data, (ii) evaluating the informative spectral regions in the detection, and (iii) comparing the estimation accuracy when the reflectance or the first derivative reflectance (FDR) is employed. Three data sets of useful spectral reflectance measurements in the 440 to 850 nm range were employed; measurements were taken over the leaves and canopy of bean crops with different levels of disease. A system based in Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) was developed to estimate the disease severity from leaf and canopy hyperspectral reflectance spectra. Levels of disease to be taken as true reference were determined from the proportion of the total leaf surface covered by necrotic lesions on RGB images. When estimating ALS disease severity in bean crops by using hyperspectral reflectance spectrometry, this study suggests that (i) successful estimations with coefficients of determination up to 0.87 can be achieved if the spectra is acquired by the spectroradiometer in contact with the leaves, (ii) unsuccessful estimations are obtained when the spectra are acquired by the spectroradiometer from one or more meters above the crop, (iii) the red to near-infrared spectral region (630–850 nm) offers the same precision in the estimation as the blue to near-infrared spectral region (440–850), and (iv) neither significant improvements nor significant detriments are achieved when the input data to the estimation processing system are the FDR spectra, instead of the reflectance spectra. PMID:29698420

Initial Test Results of a Dual Closed-Brayton-Cycle Power Conversion System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Johnson, Paul K.; Mason, Lee S.

2007-01-01

The dual Brayton power conversion system constructed for NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) was acceptance tested April 2007 at Barber-Nichols, Inc., Arvada, Colorado. This uniquely configured conversion system is built around two modified commercial Capstone C30 microturbines and employs two closed-Brayton-cycle (CBC) converters sharing a common gas inventory and common heat source. Because both CBCs share the gas inventory, behavior of one CBC has an impact on the performance of the other CBC, especially when one CBC is standby or running at a different shaft speed. Testing performed to date includes the CBCs operating at equal and unequal shaft speeds. A test was also conducted where one CBC was capped off and the other was operated as a single CBC converter. The dual Brayton configuration generated 10.6 kWe at 75 krpm and a turbine inlet temperature of 817 K. Single Brayton operation generated 14.8 kWe at 90 krpm and a turbine inlet temperature of 925 K.

Barriers to wider adoption of mobile telerobotic surgery: engineering, clinical and business challenges.

PubMed

Moses, Gerald R; Doarn, Charles R

2008-01-01

A portable robotic telesurgery network could remove the geographic disparity of surgical care and provide expert surgical support for first responders to traumatic injury. This is particularly relevant to battlefield medicine where surgical intervention is currently not available to the most perilous fighting circumstances. Similar utility applies to the peacetime healthcare mission. The authors identify the potential advantage to healthcare from a mobile robotic telesurgery system and specify barriers to the employability and acceptance of such a system. The proposed research roadmap will describe a portable telesurgery system that represe government/industrial recognition and reward for excellent care provided by quality surgeons. The provision of expert surgical care improves the outcomes of surgical intervention by reducing errors. For example, during the common procedure of laparoscopic cholecystectomy, distributed telesurgical care could normalize surgical performance and limit major variance of surgeon outliers; such as reducing common bile duct injury to the very low rate seen with operation by proficient surgeons.

Extracting the sovereigns’ CDS market hierarchy: A correlation-filtering approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

León, Carlos; Leiton, Karen; Pérez, Jhonatan

2014-12-01

This paper employs correlation-into-distance mapping techniques and a minimal spanning tree-based correlation-filtering methodology on 36 sovereign CDS spread time-series in order to identify the sovereigns’ informational hierarchy. The resulting hierarchy (i) concurs with sovereigns’ eigenvector centrality; (ii) confirms the importance of geographical and credit rating clustering; (iii) identifies Russia, Turkey and Brazil as regional benchmarks; (iv) reveals the idiosyncratic nature of Japan and United States; (v) confirms that a small set of common factors affects the system; (vi) suggests that lower-medium grade rated sovereigns are the most influential, but also the most prone to contagion; and (vii) suggests the existence of a “Latin American common factor”.

Microfluidics-to-Mass Spectrometry: A review of coupling methods and applications

PubMed Central

Wang, Xue; Yi, Lian; Mukhitov, Nikita; Schrell, Adrian M.; Dhumpa, Raghuram; Roper, Michael G.

2014-01-01

Microfluidic devices offer great advantages in integrating sample processes, minimizing sample and reagent volumes, and increasing analysis speed, while mass spectrometry detection provides high information content, is sensitive, and can be used in quantitative analyses. The coupling of microfluidic devices to mass spectrometers is becoming more common with the strengths of both systems being combined to analyze precious and complex samples. This review summarizes select achievements published between 2010 – July 2014 in novel coupling between microfluidic devices and mass spectrometers. The review is subdivided by the types of ionization sources employed, and the different microfluidic systems used. PMID:25458901

Goal-seismic computer programs in BASIC: Part I; Store, plot, and edit array data

USGS Publications Warehouse

Hasbrouck, Wilfred P.

1979-01-01

Processing of geophysical data taken with the U.S. Geological Survey's coal-seismic system is done with a desk-top, stand-alone computer. Programs for this computer are written in an extended BASIC language specially augmented for acceptance by the Tektronix 4051 Graphic System. This report presents five computer programs used to store, plot, and edit array data for the line, cross, and triangle arrays commonly employed in our coal-seismic investigations. * Use of brand names in this report is for descriptive purposes only and does not constitute endorsement by the U.S. Geological Survey.

Fourth Conference on Artificial Intelligence for Space Applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Odell, Stephen L. (Compiler); Denton, Judith S. (Compiler); Vereen, Mary (Compiler)

1988-01-01

Proceedings of a conference held in Huntsville, Alabama, on November 15-16, 1988. The Fourth Conference on Artificial Intelligence for Space Applications brings together diverse technical and scientific work in order to help those who employ AI methods in space applications to identify common goals and to address issues of general interest in the AI community. Topics include the following: space applications of expert systems in fault diagnostics, in telemetry monitoring and data collection, in design and systems integration; and in planning and scheduling; knowledge representation, capture, verification, and management; robotics and vision; adaptive learning; and automatic programming.

Tailor-made resealable micro(bio)reactors providing easy integration of in situ sensors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Viefhues, Martina; Sun, Shiwen; Valikhani, Donya; Nidetzky, Bernd; Vrouwe, Elwin X.; Mayr, Torsten; Bolivar, Juan M.

2017-06-01

Flow microreactors utilizing immobilized enzymes are of great interest in biocatalysis development. Most of the common devices are permanently closed, single-use systems, which allow limited physical and chemical surface modifications and evaluation methods. In this paper we will present resealable flowcells that overcome these limitations and moreover allow a quick and easy integration of sensor systems, because of the use of modular building blocks. The devices were utilized to study the enzyme activity of glucose oxidase immobilized on chemically modified glass surfaces under flow conditions, employing integrated optical oxygen sensors for on-line monitoring.

Tolerancing aspheres based on manufacturing knowledge

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wickenhagen, S.; Kokot, S.; Fuchs, U.

2017-10-01

A standard way of tolerancing optical elements or systems is to perform a Monte Carlo based analysis within a common optical design software package. Although, different weightings and distributions are assumed they are all counting on statistics, which usually means several hundreds or thousands of systems for reliable results. Thus, employing these methods for small batch sizes is unreliable, especially when aspheric surfaces are involved. The huge database of asphericon was used to investigate the correlation between the given tolerance values and measured data sets. The resulting probability distributions of these measured data were analyzed aiming for a robust optical tolerancing process.

Tolerancing aspheres based on manufacturing statistics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wickenhagen, S.; Möhl, A.; Fuchs, U.

2017-11-01

A standard way of tolerancing optical elements or systems is to perform a Monte Carlo based analysis within a common optical design software package. Although, different weightings and distributions are assumed they are all counting on statistics, which usually means several hundreds or thousands of systems for reliable results. Thus, employing these methods for small batch sizes is unreliable, especially when aspheric surfaces are involved. The huge database of asphericon was used to investigate the correlation between the given tolerance values and measured data sets. The resulting probability distributions of these measured data were analyzed aiming for a robust optical tolerancing process.

Optical monitoring of scoliosis by 3D medical laser scanner

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rodríguez-Quiñonez, Julio C.; Sergiyenko, Oleg Yu.; Preciado, Luis C. Basaca; Tyrsa, Vera V.; Gurko, Alexander G.; Podrygalo, Mikhail A.; Lopez, Moises Rivas; Balbuena, Daniel Hernandez

2014-03-01

Three dimensional recording of the human body surface or anatomical areas have gained importance in many medical applications. In this paper, our 3D Medical Laser Scanner is presented. It is based on the novel principle of dynamic triangulation. We analyze the method of operation, medical applications, orthopedically diseases as Scoliosis and the most common types of skin to employ the system the most proper way. It is analyzed a group of medical problems related to the application of optical scanning in optimal way. Finally, experiments are conducted to verify the performance of the proposed system and its method uncertainty.

29 CFR 780.714 - Employees employed “in such operations” to be counted.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... § 780.714 Employees employed “in such operations” to be counted. (a) The five-employee limitation on the... operations.” This means that the employees to be counted include those employed in, and do not include any who are not employed in, the operations of the establishment commonly recognized as a country elevator...

Working While Studying: The Impact of Term-Time Employment on Dropout Rates

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hovdhaugen, Elisabeth

2015-01-01

There are many possible reasons why students leave university prior to degree completion, and one of the more commonly cited is being employed while studying. This paper analyses the impact of employment status on dropout rates using survival analysis. It finds that employment status does have an impact on dropout rates; students who work full…

New Common Proper-Motion Pairs with R.A. Between 00h and 01h

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Caballero, Rafael

2015-07-01

This paper presents 37 new common proper-motion pairs. The new pairs have been obtained employing a semi-automatic procedure based on the inspection of images using the tool Aladin, completed with information obtained from the catalogs available at VizieR. All the pairs fulfill the Halbwachs criteria, employed to increase the probability of a physical bond between the two components.

Portable integrated capillary-electrophoresis system using disposable polymer chips with capacitively coupled contactless conductivity detection for on-site analysis of foodstuff

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gärtner, Claudia; Hoffmann, Werner; Demattio, Horst; Clemens, Thomas; Klotz, Matthias; Klemm, Richard; Becker, Holger

2009-05-01

We present a compact portable chip-based capillary electrophoresis system that employs capacitively coupled contactless conductivity detection (C4D) operating at 4 MHz as an alternative detection method compared to the commonly used optical detection based on laser-induced fluorescence. Emphasis was put on system integration and industrial manufacturing technologies for the system. Therefore, the disposable chip for this system is fabricated out of PMMA using injection molding; the electrodes are screen-printed or thin-film electrodes. The system is designed for the measurement of small ionic species like Li+, Na+, K+, SO42- or NO3- typically present in foods like milk and mineral water as well as acids e.g. in wine.

Managing Sustainable Data Infrastructures: The Gestalt of EOSDIS

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Behnke, Jeanne; Lowe, Dawn; Lindsay, Francis; Lynnes, Chris; Mitchell, Andrew

2016-01-01

EOSDIS epitomizes a System of Systems, whose many varied and distributed parts are integrated into a single, highly functional organized science data system. A distributed architecture was adopted to ensure discipline-specific support for the science data, while also leveraging standards and establishing policies and tools to enable interdisciplinary research, and analysis across multiple scientific instruments. The EOSDIS is composed of system elements such as geographically distributed archive centers used to manage the stewardship of data. The infrastructure consists of underlying capabilities connections that enable the primary system elements to function together. For example, one key infrastructure component is the common metadata repository, which enables discovery of all data within the EOSDIS system. EOSDIS employs processes and standards to ensure partners can work together effectively, and provide coherent services to users.

Efficient and Robust Optimization for Building Energy Simulation

PubMed Central

Pourarian, Shokouh; Kearsley, Anthony; Wen, Jin; Pertzborn, Amanda

2016-01-01

Efficiently, robustly and accurately solving large sets of structured, non-linear algebraic and differential equations is one of the most computationally expensive steps in the dynamic simulation of building energy systems. Here, the efficiency, robustness and accuracy of two commonly employed solution methods are compared. The comparison is conducted using the HVACSIM+ software package, a component based building system simulation tool. The HVACSIM+ software presently employs Powell’s Hybrid method to solve systems of nonlinear algebraic equations that model the dynamics of energy states and interactions within buildings. It is shown here that the Powell’s method does not always converge to a solution. Since a myriad of other numerical methods are available, the question arises as to which method is most appropriate for building energy simulation. This paper finds considerable computational benefits result from replacing the Powell’s Hybrid method solver in HVACSIM+ with a solver more appropriate for the challenges particular to numerical simulations of buildings. Evidence is provided that a variant of the Levenberg-Marquardt solver has superior accuracy and robustness compared to the Powell’s Hybrid method presently used in HVACSIM+. PMID:27325907

Efficient and Robust Optimization for Building Energy Simulation.

PubMed

Pourarian, Shokouh; Kearsley, Anthony; Wen, Jin; Pertzborn, Amanda

2016-06-15

Efficiently, robustly and accurately solving large sets of structured, non-linear algebraic and differential equations is one of the most computationally expensive steps in the dynamic simulation of building energy systems. Here, the efficiency, robustness and accuracy of two commonly employed solution methods are compared. The comparison is conducted using the HVACSIM+ software package, a component based building system simulation tool. The HVACSIM+ software presently employs Powell's Hybrid method to solve systems of nonlinear algebraic equations that model the dynamics of energy states and interactions within buildings. It is shown here that the Powell's method does not always converge to a solution. Since a myriad of other numerical methods are available, the question arises as to which method is most appropriate for building energy simulation. This paper finds considerable computational benefits result from replacing the Powell's Hybrid method solver in HVACSIM+ with a solver more appropriate for the challenges particular to numerical simulations of buildings. Evidence is provided that a variant of the Levenberg-Marquardt solver has superior accuracy and robustness compared to the Powell's Hybrid method presently used in HVACSIM+.

Employment in Contemporary Japan.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dillon, Ken; And Others

This paper presents guidelines and suggestions for non-Japanese English-as-a-Second-Language teachers seeking employment in Japan. The first section outlines the educational qualifications needed to teach in language schools, secondary schools, and higher education institutions, and notes common employment patterns and the timing required to make…

Self-employed individuals performing different types of work have different occupational safety and health problems.

PubMed

Park, Jungsun; Han, Boyoung; Kim, Yangho

2018-05-22

We assessed the occupational safety and health (OSH) issues of self-employed individuals in Korea. The working conditions and OSH issues in three groups were analyzed using the Korean Working Conditions Survey of 2014. Among self-employed individuals, "Physical work" was more common among males, whereas "Emotional work" was more common among females. Self-employed individuals performing "Mental work" had more education, higher incomes, and the lowest exposure to physical/chemical and ergonomic hazards in the workplace. In contrast, those performing "Physical work" were older, had less education, lower incomes, greater exposure to physical/chemical and ergonomic hazards in the workplace, and more health problems. Individuals performing "Physical work" were most vulnerable to OSH problems. The self-employed are a heterogeneous group of individuals. We suggest development of specific strategies that focus on workers performing "Physical work" to improve the health and safety of self-employed workers in Korea. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Naval Postgraduate School Research. Volume 11, Number 2, June 2001

DTIC Science & Technology

2001-06-01

Asynchronous Transfer Mode Protocols for Communi- cation of TCP / IP Based Voice, Video and Data over Long Delay Wireless Links.” LCDR Bermingham is...accurate, DD-21 is planned to employ an Integrated Power System ( IPS ), where both ship service and ship propulsion power are derived from a common set...electric drive and to shipboard distribu- tion. The advantages of electric drive and IPS are manifold including: a reduction in the number of prime movers

Study of Command and Control (C&C) Structures on the Employment of Collaborative Engagement Capability (CEC) on Land Systems

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-09-01

especially the sophisticated sea- skimming missiles that take advantage of the earth’s spherical nature as well the “sea clutter” that obstructs...radar capabilities such as the radar scanning range and ability to filter sea clutter to detect sea- skimming missile. The longer the range and the more...sea clutter Compact, cluttered with buildings, residents Common Threats Long-range sea skimming missiles Projectiles Platform Large platform

Application of Yb:YAG short pulse laser system

DOEpatents

Erbert, Gaylen V.; Biswal, Subrat; Bartolick, Joseph M.; Stuart, Brent C.; Crane, John K.; Telford, Steve; Perry, Michael D.

2004-07-06

A diode pumped, high power (at least 20W), short pulse (up to 2 ps), chirped pulse amplified laser using Yb:YAG as the gain material is employed for material processing. Yb:YAG is used as the gain medium for both a regenerative amplifier and a high power 4-pass amplifier. A single common reflective grating optical device is used to both stretch pulses for amplification purposes and to recompress amplified pulses before being directed to a workpiece.

On Designing Lightweight Threads for Substrate Software

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Haines, Matthew

1997-01-01

Existing user-level thread packages employ a 'black box' design approach, where the implementation of the threads is hidden from the user. While this approach is often sufficient for application-level programmers, it hides critical design decisions that system-level programmers must be able to change in order to provide efficient service for high-level systems. By applying the principles of Open Implementation Analysis and Design, we construct a new user-level threads package that supports common thread abstractions and a well-defined meta-interface for altering the behavior of these abstractions. As a result, system-level programmers will have the advantages of using high-level thread abstractions without having to sacrifice performance, flexibility or portability.

Individualized Levels System and Systematic Stimulus Pairing to Reduce Multiply Controlled Aggression of a Child With Autism Spectrum Disorder.

PubMed

Randall, Kayla R; Lambert, Joseph M; Matthews, Mary P; Houchins-Juarez, Nealetta J

2018-05-01

Research has shown that physical aggression is common in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Interventions for multiply controlled aggression may be complex and difficult to implement with fidelity. As a result, the probability of treatment efficacy for this class of behavior may suffer. We designed an individualized levels system to reduce the physical aggression of an 11-year-old female with ASD. We then employed a systematic stimulus pairing procedure to facilitate generalization. Results suggest individualized levels systems can suppress multiply controlled aggression and that systematic stimulus pairing is an effective way to transfer treatment effects from trained therapists to caregivers.

Visualization of the influence of the air conditioning system to the high-power laser beam quality with the modulation coherent imaging method.

PubMed

Tao, Hua; Veetil, Suhas P; Pan, Xingchen; Liu, Cheng; Zhu, Jianqiang

2015-08-01

Air conditioning systems can lead to dynamic phase change in the laser beams of high-power laser facilities for the inertial confinement fusion, and this kind of phase change cannot be measured by most of the commonly employed Hartmann wavefront sensor or interferometry due to some uncontrollable factors, such as too large laser beam diameters and the limited space of the facility. It is demonstrated that this problem can be solved using a scheme based on modulation coherent imaging, and thus the influence of the air conditioning system on the performance of the high-power facility can be evaluated directly.

Envision: An interactive system for the management and visualization of large geophysical data sets

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Searight, K. R.; Wojtowicz, D. P.; Walsh, J. E.; Pathi, S.; Bowman, K. P.; Wilhelmson, R. B.

1995-01-01

Envision is a software project at the University of Illinois and Texas A&M, funded by NASA's Applied Information Systems Research Project. It provides researchers in the geophysical sciences convenient ways to manage, browse, and visualize large observed or model data sets. Envision integrates data management, analysis, and visualization of geophysical data in an interactive environment. It employs commonly used standards in data formats, operating systems, networking, and graphics. It also attempts, wherever possible, to integrate with existing scientific visualization and analysis software. Envision has an easy-to-use graphical interface, distributed process components, and an extensible design. It is a public domain package, freely available to the scientific community.

Organ transplant tissue rejection: detection and staging by fluorescence spectroscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

MacAulay, Calum E.; Whitehead, Peter D.; McManus, Bruce; Zeng, Haishan; Wilson-McManus, Janet; MacKinnon, Nick; Morgan, David C.; Dong, Chunming; Gerla, Paul; Kenyon, Jennifer

1998-07-01

Patients receiving heart or other organ transplants usually require some level of anti-rejection drug therapy, most commonly cyclosporine. The rejection status of the organ must be monitored to determine the optimal anti-rejection drug therapy. The current method for monitoring post-transplant rejection status of heart transplant patients consists of taking biopsies from the right ventricle. In this work we have developed a system employing optical and signal-processing techniques that will allow a cardiologist to measure spectral changes associated with tissue rejection using an optical catheter probe. The system employs time gated illumination and detection systems to deal with the dynamic signal acquisition problems associated with in vivo measurements of a beating heart. Spectral data processing software evaluates and processes the data to produce a simple numerical score. Results of measurements made on 100 excised transplanted isograft and allograft rat hearts have demonstrated the ability of the system to detect the presence of rejection and to accurately correlate the spectroscopic results with the ISHLT (International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation) stage of rejection determined by histopathology. In vivo measurements using a pig transplant model are now in process.

Theoretical Analysis and Bench Tests of a Control-Surface Booster Employing a Variable Displacement Hydraulic Pump

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mathews, Charles W.; Kleckner, Harold F.

1947-01-01

The NACA is conducting a general investigation of servo-mechanisms for use in powering aircraft control surfaces. This paper presents a theoretical analysis and the results of bench tests of a control-booster system which employs a variable displacement hydraulic pump. The booster is intended for use in a flight investigation to determine the effects of various booster parameters on the handling qualities of airplanes. Such a flight investigation would aid in formulating specific requirements concerning the design of control boosters in general. Results of the theoretical analysis and the bench tests indicate that the subject booster is representative of types which show promise of satisfactory performance. The bench tests showed that the following desirable features were inherent in this booster system: (1) No lost motion or play in any part of the system; (2) no detectable lag between motion of the contra1 stick and control surface; and (3) Good agreement between control displacements and stick-force variations with no hysteresis in the stick-force characteristics. The final design configuration of this booster system showed no tendency to oscillate, overshoot, or have other undesirable transient characteristics common to boosters.

Reservoir Computing Beyond Memory-Nonlinearity Trade-off.

PubMed

Inubushi, Masanobu; Yoshimura, Kazuyuki

2017-08-31

Reservoir computing is a brain-inspired machine learning framework that employs a signal-driven dynamical system, in particular harnessing common-signal-induced synchronization which is a widely observed nonlinear phenomenon. Basic understanding of a working principle in reservoir computing can be expected to shed light on how information is stored and processed in nonlinear dynamical systems, potentially leading to progress in a broad range of nonlinear sciences. As a first step toward this goal, from the viewpoint of nonlinear physics and information theory, we study the memory-nonlinearity trade-off uncovered by Dambre et al. (2012). Focusing on a variational equation, we clarify a dynamical mechanism behind the trade-off, which illustrates why nonlinear dynamics degrades memory stored in dynamical system in general. Moreover, based on the trade-off, we propose a mixture reservoir endowed with both linear and nonlinear dynamics and show that it improves the performance of information processing. Interestingly, for some tasks, significant improvements are observed by adding a few linear dynamics to the nonlinear dynamical system. By employing the echo state network model, the effect of the mixture reservoir is numerically verified for a simple function approximation task and for more complex tasks.

Comparison through a LCA evaluation analysis of food waste disposal options from the perspective of global warming and resource recovery.

PubMed

Kim, Mi-Hyung; Kim, Jung-Wk

2010-09-01

This study evaluated feed manufacturing including dry feeding and wet feeding, composting, and landfilling for food waste disposal options from the perspective of global warming and resource recovery. The method of the expanded system boundaries was employed in order to compare different by-products. The whole stages of disposal involved in the systems such as separate discharge, collection, transportation, treatment, and final disposal, were included in the system boundary and evaluated. The Global Warming Potential generated from 1tonne of food wastes for each disposal system was analyzed by the life cycle assessment method. The results showed that 200kg of CO(2)-eq could be produced from dry feeding process, 61kg of CO(2)-eq from wet feeding process, 123kg of CO(2)-eq from composting process, and 1010kg of CO(2)-eq from landfilling. Feed manufacturing and composting, the common treatment methods currently employed, have been known to be environment friendlier than other methods. However, this study shows that they can negatively affect the environment if their by-products are not appropriately utilized as intended. Copyright 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

41 CFR 301-75.100 - Must we pay all of the interviewee's pre-employment interview travel expenses?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... interviewee's pre-employment interview travel expenses? 301-75.100 Section 301-75.100 Public Contracts and... RESPONSIBILITIES 75-PRE-EMPLOYMENT INTERVIEW TRAVEL Travel Expenses § 301-75.100 Must we pay all of the interviewee's pre-employment interview travel expenses? If you decide to pay the interviewee per diem or common...

Employment Law, Negotiation, and the Business Environment: A Cooperative Collective Bargaining Negotiation of the National Hockey League Lockout of 2004

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ciocchetti, Corey A.

2008-01-01

Employment law is a "must-cover" subject in business environment courses. Comparing the plethora of topics requiring coverage with the limited time devoted to employment law during a typical academic term, other important employment subjects--such as negotiation and collective bargaining--commonly receive short shrift. This article offers a…

Common themes in microbial pathogenicity revisited.

PubMed Central

Finlay, B B; Falkow, S

1997-01-01

Bacterial pathogens employ a number of genetic strategies to cause infection and, occasionally, disease in their hosts. Many of these virulence factors and their regulatory elements can be divided into a smaller number of groups based on the conservation of similar mechanisms. These common themes are found throughout bacterial virulence factors. For example, there are only a few general types of toxins, despite a large number of host targets. Similarly, there are only a few conserved ways to build the bacterial pilus and nonpilus adhesins used by pathogens to adhere to host substrates. Bacterial entry into host cells (invasion) is a complex mechanism. However, several common invasion themes exist in diverse microorganisms. Similarly, once inside a host cell, pathogens have a limited number of ways to ensure their survival, whether remaining within a host vacuole or by escaping into the cytoplasm. Avoidance of the host immune defenses is key to the success of a pathogen. Several common themes again are employed, including antigenic variation, camouflage by binding host molecules, and enzymatic degradation of host immune components. Most virulence factors are found on the bacterial surface or secreted into their immediate environment, yet virulence factors operate through a relatively small number of microbial secretion systems. The expression of bacterial pathogenicity is dependent upon complex regulatory circuits. However, pathogens use only a small number of biochemical families to express distinct functional factors at the appropriate time that causes infection. Finally, virulence factors maintained on mobile genetic elements and pathogenicity islands ensure that new strains of pathogens evolve constantly. Comprehension of these common themes in microbial pathogenicity is critical to the understanding and study of bacterial virulence mechanisms and to the development of new "anti-virulence" agents, which are so desperately needed to replace antibiotics. PMID:9184008

Workers' compensation: a historical review and description of a legal and social insurance system.

PubMed

Kiselica, Daria; Sibson, Bruce; Green-McKenzie, Judith

2004-05-01

The workers' compensation system is a no-fault legal and social insurance system established to address compensation issues that involve work-related injuries and illnesses. The system was developed in response to dissatisfaction with common law litigation on the parts of injured workers and employers. The history of the development of workers' compensation is reviewed, and a general description of the system is offered, including discussion of state law and insurance structures, benefits and costs, administrative boards/commissions, and the federal systems for workers' compensation and related programs. The recent history of the workers' compensation system is provided, the recommendations of the National Commission on State Workmen's Compensation Laws in 1972 are reviewed, and the problems and state-initiated changes in worker's compensation that occurred during the 1990s are discussed.

Swept Frequency Laser Metrology System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zhao, Feng (Inventor)

2010-01-01

A swept frequency laser ranging system having sub-micron accuracy that employs multiple common-path heterodyne interferometers, one coupled to a calibrated delay-line for use as an absolute reference for the ranging system. An exemplary embodiment uses two laser heterodyne interferometers to create two laser beams at two different frequencies to measure distance and motions of target(s). Heterodyne fringes generated from reflections off a reference fiducial X(sub R) and measurement (or target) fiducial X(sub M) are reflected back and are then detected by photodiodes. The measured phase changes Delta phi(sub R) and Delta phi (sub m) resulting from the laser frequency swept gives target position. The reference delay-line is the only absolute reference needed in the metrology system and this provides an ultra-stable reference and simple/economical system.

Influence of temperature and electrolyte on the performance of activated-carbon supercapacitors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Ping; Verbrugge, Mark; Soukiazian, Souren

For hybrid electric vehicle traction applications, energy storage devices with high power density and energy efficiency are required. A primary attribute of supercapacitors is that they retain their high power density and energy efficiency even at -30 °C, the lowest temperature at which unassisted starting must be provided to customers. More abuse-tolerant electrolytes are preferred to the high-conductivity acetonitrile-based systems commonly employed. Propylene carbonate based electrolytes are a promising alternative. In this work, we compare the electrochemical performance of two high-power density electrical double layer supercapacitors employing acetonitrile and propylene carbonate as solvents. From this study, we are able to elucidate phenomena that control the resistance of supercapacitor at lower temperatures, and quantify the difference in performance associated with the two electrolytes.

GEOGRAPHIC FACTORS IN EMPLOYMENT AND MANPOWER DEVELOPMENT.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Department of Labor, Washington, DC.

THIS COUNTRY MUST FACE THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONSEQUENCES OF CHANGING PATTERNS OF EMPLOYMENT LOCATION WHICH RESULT FROM SHIFTING CURRENTS OF TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE, PRODUCT DEMAND, AND JOB AND PROFIT SEEKING. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS OF THE LAST 7 YEARS, EMPLOYING A WIDE VARIETY OF APPROACHES TO THEIR COMMON GOAL OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND…

Sick leave certification: a unique perspective on frequency and duration of episodes - a complete record of sickness certification in a defined population of employees in Malta.

PubMed

Soler, Jean Karl

2003-03-27

In Malta, sickness certificates are needed from the first day of illness, and are issued by family physicians (FPs) either employed by the government primary health care system, self-employed in private practice, or employed by an employer for this purpose alone. The latter system, when applied by the employer, is compulsory. In order to contribute to the debate on the role of the FP in this context, electronic data collected by a group of company-employed FPs was used to study the phenomenon of sickness certification. This database is a complete record of the selected employees' sick leave certification during the study period. Data collected by company-employed FPs from a defined population was used: all employees of selected Maltese companies served by a group of FPs. The database included episode-based data from home visits over three years (01/01/1997 - 31/12/1999), by 9 company-appointed FPs regarding 421 employees of five companies. 3015 episodes of sickness absenteeism, with an average duration of 2.9 days, were documented. Employees who did intensive manual work had relatively higher rates. Furthermore, a relatively higher incidence of work injury, sprains and strains, anxiety and depression and low back pain as found in manual workers, and in male workers. This trend was shown to be statistically significant. The frequency of sick-leave certification in Malta is comparable to that in other European countries, but the average duration of certificates is much less than reported in other studies that generally did not include data on short-term illness and certification. This has important implications on future research in the field. A number of common disorders were found to be significantly more prevalent causes of sickness certification in manual workers, amongst them anxiety and depression.

Application of Smart Infrastructure Systems approach to precision medicine.

PubMed

Govindaraju, Diddahally R; Annaswamy, Anuradha M

2015-12-01

All biological variation is hierarchically organized dynamic network system of genomic components, organelles, cells, tissues, organs, individuals, families, populations and metapopulations. Individuals are axial in this hierarchy, as they represent antecedent, attendant and anticipated aspects of health, disease, evolution and medical care. Humans show individual specific genetic and clinical features such as complexity, cooperation, resilience, robustness, vulnerability, self-organization, latent and emergent behavior during their development, growth and senescence. Accurate collection, measurement, organization and analyses of individual specific data, embedded at all stratified levels of biological, demographic and cultural diversity - the big data - is necessary to make informed decisions on health, disease and longevity; which is a central theme of precision medicine initiative (PMI). This initiative also calls for the development of novel analytical approaches to handle complex multidimensional data. Here we suggest the application of Smart Infrastructure Systems (SIS) approach to accomplish some of the goals set forth by the PMI on the premise that biological systems and the SIS share many common features. The latter has been successfully employed in managing complex networks of non-linear adaptive controls, commonly encountered in smart engineering systems. We highlight their concordance and discuss the utility of the SIS approach in precision medicine programs.

From the doctor's workshop to the iron cage? Evolving modes of physician control in US health systems.

PubMed

Kitchener, Martin; Caronna, Carol A; Shortell, Stephen M

2005-03-01

As national health systems pursue the common goals of containing expenditure growth and improving quality, many have sought to replace autonomous modes (systems) of physician control that rely on initial professional training and subsequent peer review. A common approach has involved extending bureaucratic modes of physician control that employ techniques such as hierarchical coordination and salaried positions. This paper applies concepts from studies of professional work to frame an empirical analysis of emergent bureaucratic modes of physician control in US hospital-based systems. Conceptually, we draw from recent studies to update Scott's (Health Services Res. 17(3) (1982) 213) typology to specify three bureaucratic modes of physician control: heteronomous, conjoint, and custodial. Empirically, we use case study evidence from eight US hospital-based systems to illustrate the heterogeneity of bureaucratic modes of physician control that span each of the ideal types. The findings indicate that some influential analysts perpetuate a caricature of bureaucratic organization which underplays its capacity to provide multiple modes of physician control that maintain professional autonomy over the content of work, and present opportunities for aligning practice with social goals.

A computerized recognition system for the home-based physiotherapy exercises using an RGBD camera.

PubMed

Ar, Ilktan; Akgul, Yusuf Sinan

2014-11-01

Computerized recognition of the home based physiotherapy exercises has many benefits and it has attracted considerable interest among the computer vision community. However, most methods in the literature view this task as a special case of motion recognition. In contrast, we propose to employ the three main components of a physiotherapy exercise (the motion patterns, the stance knowledge, and the exercise object) as different recognition tasks and embed them separately into the recognition system. The low level information about each component is gathered using machine learning methods. Then, we use a generative Bayesian network to recognize the exercise types by combining the information from these sources at an abstract level, which takes the advantage of domain knowledge for a more robust system. Finally, a novel postprocessing step is employed to estimate the exercise repetitions counts. The performance evaluation of the system is conducted with a new dataset which contains RGB (red, green, and blue) and depth videos of home-based exercise sessions for commonly applied shoulder and knee exercises. The proposed system works without any body-part segmentation, bodypart tracking, joint detection, and temporal segmentation methods. In the end, favorable exercise recognition rates and encouraging results on the estimation of repetition counts are obtained.

From microscopic to macroscopic sports injuries. Applying the complex dynamic systems approach to sports medicine: a narrative review.

PubMed

Pol, Rafel; Hristovski, Robert; Medina, Daniel; Balague, Natalia

2018-04-19

A better understanding of how sports injuries occur in order to improve their prevention is needed for medical, economic, scientific and sports success reasons. This narrative review aims to explain the mechanisms that underlie the occurrence of sports injuries, and an innovative approach for their prevention on the basis of complex dynamic systems approach. First, we explain the multilevel organisation of living systems and how function of the musculoskeletal system may be impaired. Second, we use both, a constraints approach and a connectivity hypothesis to explain why and how the susceptibility to sports injuries may suddenly increase. Constraints acting at multiple levels and timescales replace the static and linear concept of risk factors, and the connectivity hypothesis brings an understanding of how the accumulation of microinjuries creates a macroscopic non-linear effect, that is, how a common motor action may trigger a severe injury. Finally, a recap of practical examples and challenges for the future illustrates how the complex dynamic systems standpoint, changing the way of thinking about sports injuries, offers innovative ideas for improving sports injury prevention. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2018. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

Integrating Multiscale Modeling with Drug Effects for Cancer Treatment.

PubMed

Li, Xiangfang L; Oduola, Wasiu O; Qian, Lijun; Dougherty, Edward R

2015-01-01

In this paper, we review multiscale modeling for cancer treatment with the incorporation of drug effects from an applied system's pharmacology perspective. Both the classical pharmacology and systems biology are inherently quantitative; however, systems biology focuses more on networks and multi factorial controls over biological processes rather than on drugs and targets in isolation, whereas systems pharmacology has a strong focus on studying drugs with regard to the pharmacokinetic (PK) and pharmacodynamic (PD) relations accompanying drug interactions with multiscale physiology as well as the prediction of dosage-exposure responses and economic potentials of drugs. Thus, it requires multiscale methods to address the need for integrating models from the molecular levels to the cellular, tissue, and organism levels. It is a common belief that tumorigenesis and tumor growth can be best understood and tackled by employing and integrating a multifaceted approach that includes in vivo and in vitro experiments, in silico models, multiscale tumor modeling, continuous/discrete modeling, agent-based modeling, and multiscale modeling with PK/PD drug effect inputs. We provide an example application of multiscale modeling employing stochastic hybrid system for a colon cancer cell line HCT-116 with the application of Lapatinib drug. It is observed that the simulation results are similar to those observed from the setup of the wet-lab experiments at the Translational Genomics Research Institute.

Resting-state fMRI data reflects default network activity rather than null data: A defense of commonly employed methods to correct for multiple comparisons.

PubMed

Slotnick, Scott D

2017-07-01

Analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data typically involves over one hundred thousand independent statistical tests; therefore, it is necessary to correct for multiple comparisons to control familywise error. In a recent paper, Eklund, Nichols, and Knutsson used resting-state fMRI data to evaluate commonly employed methods to correct for multiple comparisons and reported unacceptable rates of familywise error. Eklund et al.'s analysis was based on the assumption that resting-state fMRI data reflect null data; however, their 'null data' actually reflected default network activity that inflated familywise error. As such, Eklund et al.'s results provide no basis to question the validity of the thousands of published fMRI studies that have corrected for multiple comparisons or the commonly employed methods to correct for multiple comparisons.

Common Core Implementation Decisions Made by Principals in Elementary Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Norman, Alexis Cienfuegos

2016-01-01

The purpose of this study was to understand the decisions elementary principals have made during the Common Core State Standards reform. Specifically, (a) what decisions principals have made to support Common Core implementation, (b) what strategies elementary principals have employed to communicate with stakeholders about Common Core State…

Final Technical Report - Center for Technology for Advanced Scientific Component Software (TASCS)

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

Sussman, Alan

2014-10-21

This is a final technical report for the University of Maryland work in the SciDAC Center for Technology for Advanced Scientific Component Software (TASCS). The Maryland work focused on software tools for coupling parallel software components built using the Common Component Architecture (CCA) APIs. Those tools are based on the Maryland InterComm software framework that has been used in multiple computational science applications to build large-scale simulations of complex physical systems that employ multiple separately developed codes.

Advanced nickel-hydrogen cell configuration study

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Adler, E.; Perez, F.

1984-01-01

Three nickel hydrogen battery designs, individual pressure vessel (IPV), common pressure vessel (CPV), and a bipolar battery module were studied. Weight, system complexity and cost were compared for a satellite operating in a 6 hour, 5600 nautical mile orbit. The required energy storage is 52 kWh. A 25% improvement in specific energy is observed by employing a bipolar battery versus a battery comprised of hundreds of IPV's. Further weight benefits are realized by the development of light weight technologies in the bipolar design.

Using business analytics to improve outcomes.

PubMed

Rivera, Jose; Delaney, Stephen

2015-02-01

Orlando Health has brought its hospital and physician practice revenue cycle systems into better balance using four sets of customized analytics: Physician performance analytics gauge the total net revenue for every employed physician. Patient-pay analytics provide financial risk scores for all patients on both the hospital and physician practice sides. Revenue management analytics bridge the gap between the back-end central business office and front-end physician practice managers and administrators. Enterprise management analytics allow the hospitals and physician practices to share important information about common patients.

Integrative Analysis to Identify Common Genetic Markers of Metabolic Syndrome, Dementia, and Diabetes

PubMed Central

Zhang, Weihong; Xin, Linlin; Lu, Ying

2017-01-01

Background Emerging data have established links between systemic metabolic dysfunction, such as diabetes and metabolic syndrome (MetS), with neurocognitive impairment, including dementia. The common gene signature and the associated signaling pathways of MetS, diabetes, and dementia have not been widely studied. Material/Methods We exploited the translational bioinformatics approach to choose the common gene signatures for both dementia and MetS. For this we employed “DisGeNET discovery platform”. Results Gene mining analysis revealed that a total of 173 genes (86 genes common to all three diseases) which comprised a proportion of 43% of the total genes associated with dementia. The gene enrichment analysis showed that these genes were involved in dysregulation in the neurological system (23.2%) and the central nervous system (20.8%) phenotype processes. The network analysis revealed APOE, APP, PARK2, CEPBP, PARP1, MT-CO2, CXCR4, IGFIR, CCR5, and PIK3CD as important nodes with significant interacting partners. The meta-regression analysis showed modest association of APOE with dementia and metabolic complications. The directionality of effects of the variants on Alzheimer disease is generally consistent with previous observations and did not differ by race/ethnicity (p>0.05), although our study had low power for this test. Conclusions Our novel approach showed APOE as a common gene signature with a link to dementia, MetS, and diabetes. Future gene association studies should focus on the association of gene polymorphisms with multiple disease models to identify novel putative drug targets. PMID:29229897

Children at health risks.

PubMed

Sekar, H R

1992-01-01

In India, 69% of the children of the working class die, most of whom are child laborers. Economic pressure forces parents to make their children work. Employers want child workers because they can manipulate them and pay them low wages, thereby ensuring their viability. The caste system induces social inequality, inheritance invokes cultural inequality, and patriarchal socialization is responsible for gender inequality, all of which perpetuates exploitation of children by employers. In Sivakasi, an estimated 125,000 children make up the child labor force, comprising 30% of the entire labor force. 75% are from the lowest castes. 90% of child workers are girls because they are more obedient and accept even lower wages than boys, and girls need to save for their dowry. Girls often suffer verbal and physical abuse. Like their parents who were also child workers, child workers are illiterate and work long hours. A small rich elite in Sivakasi controls most of the trading and industrial capital, educational institutions, and voluntary organizations. Employers' agents give parents a loan and use their children's labor as security. Each day, they bring child workers to Sivakasi in factory buses from villages to work at least 12 hour days. They work under hazardous conditions, e.g., working with toxic chemicals. Coughing, sore throat, dizziness, methemoglobinemia, and anemia are common effects of ingestion or inhalation of chlorate dust. Inhalation of sulphur dust causes respiratory infections, eye infections, and chronic lung diseases (e.g., asthma). Fires and explosions are common risks for working children. Factory management seldom undertake fire prevention measures. An extensive survey of the problem of child labor is needed in Sivakasi before systematic planning to protect children could be done. Overall development, especially agricultural development, is needed. Parents, employers, enforcement authorities, trade unions, and social groups need to be sensitized to the abomination of child labor. The government should provide monetary incentives to employers that do not use child labor and disincentives to those that do.

Doxycycline Impairs Mitochondrial Function and Protects Human Glioma Cells from Hypoxia-Induced Cell Death: Implications of Using Tet-Inducible Systems.

PubMed

Luger, Anna-Luisa; Sauer, Benedikt; Lorenz, Nadja I; Engel, Anna L; Braun, Yannick; Voss, Martin; Harter, Patrick N; Steinbach, Joachim P; Ronellenfitsch, Michael W

2018-05-17

Inducible gene expression is an important tool in molecular biology research to study protein function. Most frequently, the antibiotic doxycycline is used for regulation of so-called tetracycline (Tet)-inducible systems. In contrast to stable gene overexpression, these systems allow investigation of acute and reversible effects of cellular protein induction. Recent reports have already called for caution when using Tet-inducible systems as the employed antibiotics can disturb mitochondrial function and alter cellular metabolism by interfering with mitochondrial translation. Reprogramming of energy metabolism has lately been recognized as an important emerging hallmark of cancer and is a central focus of cancer research. Therefore, the scope of this study was to systematically analyze dose-dependent metabolic effects of doxycycline on a panel of glioma cell lines with concomitant monitoring of gene expression from Tet-inducible systems. We report that doxycycline doses commonly used with inducible expression systems (0.01⁻1 µg/mL) substantially alter cellular metabolism: Mitochondrial protein synthesis was inhibited accompanied by reduced oxygen and increased glucose consumption. Furthermore, doxycycline protected human glioma cells from hypoxia-induced cell death. An impairment of cell growth was only detectable with higher doxycycline doses (10 µg/mL). Our findings describe settings where doxycycline exerts effects on eukaryotic cellular metabolism, limiting the employment of Tet-inducible systems.

Computer vision applications for coronagraphic optical alignment and image processing.

PubMed

Savransky, Dmitry; Thomas, Sandrine J; Poyneer, Lisa A; Macintosh, Bruce A

2013-05-10

Modern coronagraphic systems require very precise alignment between optical components and can benefit greatly from automated image processing. We discuss three techniques commonly employed in the fields of computer vision and image analysis as applied to the Gemini Planet Imager, a new facility instrument for the Gemini South Observatory. We describe how feature extraction and clustering methods can be used to aid in automated system alignment tasks, and also present a search algorithm for finding regular features in science images used for calibration and data processing. Along with discussions of each technique, we present our specific implementation and show results of each one in operation.

Dominant resistance against plant viruses

PubMed Central

de Ronde, Dryas; Butterbach, Patrick; Kormelink, Richard

2014-01-01

To establish a successful infection plant viruses have to overcome a defense system composed of several layers. This review will overview the various strategies plants employ to combat viral infections with main emphasis on the current status of single dominant resistance (R) genes identified against plant viruses and the corresponding avirulence (Avr) genes identified so far. The most common models to explain the mode of action of dominant R genes will be presented. Finally, in brief the hypersensitive response (HR) and extreme resistance (ER), and the functional and structural similarity of R genes to sensors of innate immunity in mammalian cell systems will be described. PMID:25018765

Performance and economics of residential solar space heating

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zehr, F. J.; Vineyard, T. A.; Barnes, R. W.; Oneal, D. L.

1982-11-01

The performance and economics of residential solar space heating were studied for various locations in the contiguous United States. Common types of active and passive solar heating systems were analyzed with respect to an average-size, single-family house designed to meet or exceed the thermal requirements of the Department of Housing and Urban Development Minimum Property Standards (HUD-MPS). The solar systems were evaluated in seventeen cities to provide a broad range of climatic conditions. Active systems evaluated consist of air and liquid flat plate collectors with single- and double-glazing: passive systems include Trombe wall, water wall, direct gain, and sunspace systems. The active system solar heating performance was computed using the University of Wisconsin's F-CHART computer program. The Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory's Solar Load Ratio (SLR) method was employed to compute solar heating performance for the passive systems. Heating costs were computed with gas, oil, and electricity as backups and as conventional heating system fuels.

Burden of illness in systemic lupus erythematosus: results from a UK patient and carer online survey.

PubMed

Kent, T; Davidson, A; Newman, D; Buck, G; D'Cruz, D

2017-09-01

Objective The objective of this study was to assess the impact of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) on patients and carers. Methods Adults with SLE and carers of SLE patients completed a UK-specific online survey covering many aspects of the disease. Surveys were developed in collaboration with an NHS lupus unit and a lupus patient organization. Results A total of 121 patients and 31 carers completed the surveys. Of the 70% of patients initially misdiagnosed with another condition, 59% received treatment for the misdiagnosis. Fatigue was the most debilitating symptom, experienced daily by 79% of patients. The proportion of patients not reporting flares to healthcare providers varied with flare severity: mild flares (43%), moderate flares (15%) and severe flares (5%). Most patients (89%) reported reduced ability to socialize, and 76% had changed employment; of these, 52% stopped working completely. Over one-half (52%) of carers in paid employment missed time from work, and 55% of carers reported a worsened financial status. Most carers (87%) experienced interference with social activities. Conclusion SLE is commonly misdiagnosed and has a considerable impact on the physical, social and financial status of patients and carers. Increased awareness of the disease among healthcare providers and employers of patients and their carers is needed.

5 CFR 3601.107 - Prior approval for outside employment and business activities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... or other financial relationship not involving the provision of personal services by the DoD employee... common stock, that is available to the general public; (2) Employment. Any form of non-Federal employment or business relationship involving the provision of personal services by the DoD employee. It...

5 CFR 3601.107 - Prior approval for outside employment and business activities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... or other financial relationship not involving the provision of personal services by the DoD employee... common stock, that is available to the general public; (2) Employment. Any form of non-Federal employment or business relationship involving the provision of personal services by the DoD employee. It...

The Mentally Retarded Worker: An Economic Discovery. Report to the President. 14th Annual Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

President's Committee on Mental Retardation, Washington, DC.

The booklet examines potential contributions that can be made by mentally retarded workers and exposes common misconceptions about their employability. Initial sections introduce the nature of retardation and describe real-life situations showing economic benefits of employment to employers, taxpayers, and retarded persons themselves. Among the…

How US Smokers Refer to E-cigarettes: An Examination of User-Generated Posts From a Web-Based Smoking Cessation Intervention, 2008-2015.

PubMed

Pearson, Jennifer L; Amato, Michael S; Wang, Xi; Zhao, Kang; Cha, Sarah; Cohn, Amy M; Papandonatos, George D; Graham, Amanda L

2017-02-01

A challenge in Electronic Nicotine Delivery System (ENDS) research is how to refer to these devices in ways that are meaningful to current or potential users. The objectives of this study were to: (1) describe the frequency of ENDS terms in a web-based smoking cessation intervention; and (2) determine whether terms vary by US geographic region and date. Data were drawn from public posts between 2008-2015 on http://BecomeAnEX.org and limited to US users. We conducted "exact" and "fuzzy" searches to find posts containing ENDS keywords using custom Python scripts, and extracted geocoding data and date for each post. We examined counts and frequencies of ENDS terms by unique user, by unique user and region, and by unique user and date. We identified 1023 unique US website users who had written a post containing one or more ENDS keywords. Posters were majority female (79%), educated (78% attended at least some college), and had a median age of 47 years. Overall, 92% of ENDS posters employed the term "e-cigarette" or a derivation. Derivations of "vape" became increasingly popular in 2013, whereas "NJoy" and "blu" were employed by fewer than 2% of posters. We found no variation in frequency of ENDS terms by US region. Researchers may have confidence that "e-cigarette" and "vape" are recognizable terms among US treatment-seeking smokers. Conversely, terms such as "ENDS," commonly employed by researchers and public health advocates, are not used by smokers and may be an impediment to tobacco control research. Researchers may have confidence that "e-cigarette," and, to a lesser extent, "vape" are recognizable terms among US adult smokers referring to ENDS (including accessories, brand names, and actions). Conversely, terms such as "electronic nicotine delivery systems," commonly employed by researchers and public health advocates, are not used by US smokers and may be an impediment to tobacco control research and practice. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

How US Smokers Refer to E-cigarettes: An Examination of User-Generated Posts From a Web-Based Smoking Cessation Intervention, 2008–2015

PubMed Central

Amato, Michael S.; Wang, Xi; Zhao, Kang; Cha, Sarah; Cohn, Amy M.; Papandonatos, George D.; Graham, Amanda L.

2017-01-01

Introduction: A challenge in Electronic Nicotine Delivery System (ENDS) research is how to refer to these devices in ways that are meaningful to current or potential users. The objectives of this study were to: (1) describe the frequency of ENDS terms in a web-based smoking cessation intervention; and (2) determine whether terms vary by US geographic region and date. Methods: Data were drawn from public posts between 2008–2015 on http://BecomeAnEX.org and limited to US users. We conducted “exact” and “fuzzy” searches to find posts containing ENDS keywords using custom Python scripts, and extracted geocoding data and date for each post. We examined counts and frequencies of ENDS terms by unique user, by unique user and region, and by unique user and date. Results: We identified 1023 unique US website users who had written a post containing one or more ENDS keywords. Posters were majority female (79%), educated (78% attended at least some college), and had a median age of 47 years. Overall, 92% of ENDS posters employed the term “e-cigarette” or a derivation. Derivations of “vape” became increasingly popular in 2013, whereas “NJoy” and “blu” were employed by fewer than 2% of posters. We found no variation in frequency of ENDS terms by US region. Conclusions: Researchers may have confidence that “e-cigarette” and “vape” are recognizable terms among US treatment-seeking smokers. Conversely, terms such as “ENDS,” commonly employed by researchers and public health advocates, are not used by smokers and may be an impediment to tobacco control research. Implications: Researchers may have confidence that “e-cigarette,” and, to a lesser extent, “vape” are recognizable terms among US adult smokers referring to ENDS (including accessories, brand names, and actions). Conversely, terms such as “electronic nicotine delivery systems,” commonly employed by researchers and public health advocates, are not used by US smokers and may be an impediment to tobacco control research and practice. PMID:27613899

Common symptoms in middle aged women: their relation to employment status, psychosocial work conditions and social support in a Swedish setting.

PubMed

Krantz, G; Ostergren, P O

2000-03-01

Over the past few decades there has been a growing interest among researchers, in women's overall life circumstances and their relation to women's health status. For example, paid employment has been considered an important part of women's living conditions in Western societies as the number of women entering the labour market has grown constantly over the past decades. When comparing men's and women's health, one of the most consistent findings is a higher rate of symptoms among women. The most commonly reported symptoms in women are depressive symptoms, symptoms of bodily tension and chronic pain from muscles and joints. The aim of this study was to investigate whether socioeconomic factors, employment status, psychosocial work conditions and social network/support are associated with middle aged women's health status in terms of common symptoms. A mailed questionnaire was used in a cross sectional design assessing socioeconomic factors, employment status, psychosocial work conditions according to the demand/control model, social network/support and an index based on the 15 most frequent symptoms presented by middle aged women when seeking health care. A rural community with 13,200 inhabitants in the western part of Sweden. Women were randomly selected from the general population in the study area, 40 to 50 years of age. The response rate was 81.7 per cent. Women who were non-employed had a significantly increased odds of a high level of common symptoms (OR = 2.82; 95% confidence intervals 1.69, 4.70), as well as women exposed to job strain (OR = 3.27; 1.92, 5.57), independently of the level of social network/support. Furthermore, exposure to low social support, low social anchorage or low social participation independently showed significantly increased odds of a high level of common symptoms (OR = 2.75; 1.71, 4.42; OR = 2.91; 1.81, 4.69 and OR = 1.69; 1.10, 2.61, respectively). Work related factors, such as non-employment and job strain, and circumstances within the private sphere, such as social network/support, seem equally important for middle aged women's health status. These findings ought to have important policy implications and also to be of major importance in a primary health care setting when meeting women who seek health care because of common symptoms.

A common anchor facilitated GO-DNA nano-system for multiplex microRNA analysis in live cells.

PubMed

Yu, Jiantao; He, Sihui; Shao, Chen; Zhao, Haoran; Li, Jing; Tian, Leilei

2018-04-19

The design of a nano-system for the detection of intracellular microRNAs is challenging as it must fulfill complex requirements, i.e., it must have a high sensitivity to determine the dynamic expression level, a good reliability for multiplex and simultaneous detection, and a satisfactory biostability to work in biological environments. Instead of employing a commonly used physisorption or a full-conjugation strategy, here, a GO-DNA nano-system was developed under graft/base-pairing construction. The common anchor sequence was chemically grafted to GO to base-pair with various microRNA probes; and the hybridization with miRNAs drives the dyes on the probes to leave away from GO, resulting in "turned-on" fluorescence. This strategy not only simplifies the synthesis but also efficiently balances the loading yields of different probes. Moreover, the conjugation yield of GO with a base-paired hybrid has been improved by more than two-fold compared to that of the conjugation with a single strand. We demonstrated that base-paired DNA probes could be efficiently delivered into cells along with GO and are properly stabilized by the conjugated anchor sequence. The resultant GO-DNA nano-system exhibited high stability in a complex biological environment and good resistance to nucleases, and was able to accurately discriminate various miRNAs without cross-reaction. With all of these positive features, the GO-DNA nano-system can simultaneously detect three miRNAs and monitor their dynamic expression levels.

Psychophysiological correlates of aggression and violence: an integrative review.

PubMed

Patrick, Christopher J

2008-08-12

This paper reviews existing psychophysiological studies of aggression and violent behaviour including research employing autonomic, electrocortical and neuroimaging measures. Robust physiological correlates of persistent aggressive behaviour evident in this literature include low baseline heart rate, enhanced autonomic reactivity to stressful or aversive stimuli, enhanced EEG slow wave activity, reduced P300 brain potential response and indications from structural and functional neuroimaging studies of dysfunction in frontocortical and limbic brain regions that mediate emotional processing and regulation. The findings are interpreted within a conceptual framework that draws on two integrative models in the literature. The first is a recently developed hierarchical model of impulse control (externalizing) problems, in which various disinhibitory syndromes including aggressive and addictive behaviours of different kinds are seen as arising from common as well as distinctive aetiologic factors. This model represents an approach to organizing these various interrelated phenotypes and investigating their common and distinctive aetiologic substrates. The other is a neurobiological model that posits impairments in affective regulatory circuits in the brain as a key mechanism for impulsive aggressive behaviour. This model provides a perspective for integrating findings from studies employing different measures that have implicated varying brain structures and physiological systems in violent and aggressive behaviour.

An evaluation of Turbo Prolog with an emphasis on its application to the development of expert systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Loftin, Richard B.

1987-01-01

Turbo Prolog is a recently available, compiled version of the programming language Prolog. Turbo Prolog is designed to provide not only a Prolog compiler, but also a program development environment for the IBM Personal Computer family. An evaluation of Turbo Prolog was made, comparing its features to other versions of Prolog and to the community of languages commonly used in artificial intelligence (AI) research and development. Three programs were employed to determine the execution speed of Turbo Prolog applied to various problems. The results of this evaluation demonstrated that Turbo Prolog can perform much better than many commonly employed AI languages for numerically intensive problems and can equal the speed of development languages such as OPS5+ and CLIPS, running on the IBM PC. Applications for which Turbo Prolog is best suited include those which (1) lend themselves naturally to backward-chaining approaches, (2) require extensive use of mathematics, (3) contain few rules, (4) seek to make use of the window/color graphics capabilities of the IBM PC, and (5) require linkage to programs in other languages to form a complete executable image.

Knowledge representation for commonality

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Yeager, Dorian P.

1990-01-01

Domain-specific knowledge necessary for commonality analysis falls into two general classes: commonality constraints and costing information. Notations for encoding such knowledge should be powerful and flexible and should appeal to the domain expert. The notations employed by the Commonality Analysis Problem Solver (CAPS) analysis tool are described. Examples are given to illustrate the main concepts.

A multitasking finite state architecture for computer control of an electric powertrain

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

Burba, J.C.

1984-01-01

Finite state techniques provide a common design language between the control engineer and the computer engineer for event driven computer control systems. They simplify communication and provide a highly maintainable control system understandable by both. This paper describes the development of a control system for an electric vehicle powertrain utilizing finite state concepts. The basics of finite state automata are provided as a framework to discuss a unique multitasking software architecture developed for this application. The architecture employs conventional time-sliced techniques with task scheduling controlled by a finite state machine representation of the control strategy of the powertrain. The complexitiesmore » of excitation variable sampling in this environment are also considered.« less

Forum: The challenge of global change

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Roederer, Juan G.

1990-09-01

How can we sustain a public sense of the common danger of global change while remaining honest in view of the realities of scientific uncertainty? How can we nurture this sense of common danger without making statements based on half-baked ideas, statistically unreliable results, or oversimplified models? How can we strike a balance between the need to overstate a case to attract the attention of the media and the obligation to adhere strictly to the ethos of science?The task of achieving a scientific understanding of the inner workings of the terrestrial environment is one of the most difficult and ambitious endeavors of humankind. It is full of traps, temptations and deceptions for the participating scientists. We are dealing with a horrendously complex, strongly interactive, highly non-linear system. Lessons learned from disciplines such as plasma physics and solid state physics which have been dealing with complex non-linear systems for decades, are not very encouraging. The first thing one learns is that there are intrinsic, physical limits to the quantitative predictability of a complex system that have nothing to do with the particular techniques employed to model it.

Significantly improved precision of cell migration analysis in time-lapse video microscopy through use of a fully automated tracking system

PubMed Central

2010-01-01

Background Cell motility is a critical parameter in many physiological as well as pathophysiological processes. In time-lapse video microscopy, manual cell tracking remains the most common method of analyzing migratory behavior of cell populations. In addition to being labor-intensive, this method is susceptible to user-dependent errors regarding the selection of "representative" subsets of cells and manual determination of precise cell positions. Results We have quantitatively analyzed these error sources, demonstrating that manual cell tracking of pancreatic cancer cells lead to mis-calculation of migration rates of up to 410%. In order to provide for objective measurements of cell migration rates, we have employed multi-target tracking technologies commonly used in radar applications to develop fully automated cell identification and tracking system suitable for high throughput screening of video sequences of unstained living cells. Conclusion We demonstrate that our automatic multi target tracking system identifies cell objects, follows individual cells and computes migration rates with high precision, clearly outperforming manual procedures. PMID:20377897

A Comparative Framework for Studying the Histories of the Humanities and Science.

PubMed

Bod, Rens

2015-06-01

While the humanities and the sciences have a closely connected history, there are no general histories that bring the two fields together on an equal footing. This paper argues that there is a level at which some humanistic and scientific disciplines can be brought under a common denominator and compared. This is at the level of underlying methods, especially at the level of formalisms and rule systems used by different disciplines. The essay formally compares linguistics and computer science by noting that the same grammar formalism was used in the 1950s for describing both human and. programming languages. Additionally, it examines the influence of philology on molecular biology, and vice versa, by recognizing that the tree-formalism and rule system used for text reconstruction was also employed in DNA genetics. It also shows that rule systems for source criticism in history are used in forensic science, evidence-based medicine, and jurisprudence. This paper thus opens up a new comparative approach within which the histories of the humanities and the sciences can be examined on a common level.

Effects of child long-term illness on maternal employment: longitudinal findings from the UK Millennium Cohort Study

PubMed Central

Pearce, Anna; Whitehead, Margaret; Law, Catherine

2017-01-01

Background: Maternal employment has increased in European countries, but levels of employment are lower among mothers whose children have a limiting long-term illness or disability. However, we do not know whether having a child with a limiting illness prevents take-up or maintenance of paid employment or whether ‘common causes’, such as lack of qualifications or maternal disability lead to both maternal unemployment and childhood illness. Longitudinal data have the potential to distinguish between these. Methods: We analyzed four waves (3, 5, 7 and 11 years) of the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) to examine the relationship between childhood limiting illness and maternal employment, unadjusted and adjusted for covariates. Multinomial regression models were used to test the association between child illness and trajectories of maternal employment. Fixed effects models assessed whether a new report of a child illness increased the odds of a mother exiting employment. Results: At every wave, maternal employment was more likely if the child did not have a limiting illness. After adjustment for covariates, childhood illness was associated with risks of continuous non-employment (adjusted Relative Risk Ratio = 1.46 [Confidence Interval: 1.21, 1.76]) or disrupted employment (aRRR = 1.26 [CI: 1.06, 1.49]), compared with entering or maintaining employment. If a child developed a limiting long-term illness, the likelihood of their mother exiting employment increased (adjusted Odds Ratio = 1.27 [CI: 1.05, 1.54]). Conclusions: ‘Common causes’ did not fully account for the association between child illness and maternal employment. Having a child with a limiting illness potentially reduces maternal employment opportunities. PMID:28177497

Personal digital assistant-based, internet-enabled remote communication system for a wearable pneumatic biventricular assist device.

PubMed

Nam, Kyoung Won; Lee, Jung Joo; Hwang, Chang Mo; Choi, Seong Wook; Son, Ho Sung; Sun, Kyung

2007-11-01

Currently, personal mobile communication devices have become quite common, and the applications of such devices have expanded quickly. Remote communication systems might be employed for the telemonitoring of patients or the operating status of their medical devices. In this article, we describe the development of a mobile-based artificial heart telemanagement system for use in a wearable extracorporeal pneumatic biventricular assist device, which is capable of telemonitoring and telecontrolling the operating status of the ventricular assist device from any site. The system developed herein utilized small mobile phones for the client device and adopted a standard transmission control protocol/Internet protocol communication protocol for the purposes of telecommunication. The results of in vitro and animal experiments showed that the telemanagement system developed herein operated in accordance with the desired parameters.

Probing individual tunneling fluctuators with coherently controlled tunneling systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meißner, Saskia M.; Seiler, Arnold; Lisenfeld, Jürgen; Ustinov, Alexey V.; Weiss, Georg

2018-05-01

Josephson junctions made from aluminum and its oxide are the most commonly used functional elements for superconducting circuits and qubits. It is generally known that the disordered thin film AlOx contains atomic tunneling systems. Coherent tunneling systems may couple strongly to a qubit via their electric dipole moment, giving rise to spectral level repulsion. In addition, slowly fluctuating tunneling systems are observable when they are located close to coherent ones and distort their potentials. This interaction causes telegraphic switching of the coherent tunneling systems' energy splitting. Here, we measure such switching induced by individual fluctuators on timescales from hours to minutes using a superconducting qubit as a detector. Moreover, we extend the range of measurable switching times to millisecond scales by employing a highly sensitive single-photon qubit swap spectroscopy and statistical analysis of the measured qubit states.

A Current-Mode Common-Mode Feedback Circuit (CMFB) with Rail-to-Rail Operation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Suadet, Apirak; Kasemsuwan, Varakorn

2011-03-01

This paper presents a current-mode common-mode feedback (CMFB) circuit with rail-to-rail operation. The CMFB is a stand-alone circuit, which can be connected to any low voltage transconductor without changing or upsetting the existing circuit. The proposed CMFB employs current mirrors, operating as common-mode detector and current amplifier to enhance the loop gain of the CMFB. The circuit employs positive feedback to enhance the output impedance and gain. The circuit has been designed using a 0.18 μm CMOS technology under 1V supply and analyzed using HSPICE with BSIM3V3 device models. A pseudo-differential amplifier using two common sources and the proposed CMFB shows rail to rail output swing (± 0.7 V) with low common-mode gain (-36 dB) and power dissipation of 390 μW.

On position/force tracking control problem of cooperative robot manipulators using adaptive fuzzy backstepping approach.

PubMed

Baigzadehnoe, Barmak; Rahmani, Zahra; Khosravi, Alireza; Rezaie, Behrooz

2017-09-01

In this paper, the position and force tracking control problem of cooperative robot manipulator system handling a common rigid object with unknown dynamical models and unknown external disturbances is investigated. The universal approximation properties of fuzzy logic systems are employed to estimate the unknown system dynamics. On the other hand, by defining new state variables based on the integral and differential of position and orientation errors of the grasped object, the error system of coordinated robot manipulators is constructed. Subsequently by defining the appropriate change of coordinates and using the backstepping design strategy, an adaptive fuzzy backstepping position tracking control scheme is proposed for multi-robot manipulator systems. By utilizing the properties of internal forces, extra terms are also added to the control signals to consider the force tracking problem. Moreover, it is shown that the proposed adaptive fuzzy backstepping position/force control approach ensures all the signals of the closed loop system uniformly ultimately bounded and tracking errors of both positions and forces can converge to small desired values by proper selection of the design parameters. Finally, the theoretic achievements are tested on the two three-link planar robot manipulators cooperatively handling a common object to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. Copyright © 2017 ISA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Temporary Contracts: Effect on Job Satisfaction and Personal Lives of Recent Phd Graduates

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Waaijer, Cathelijn J. F.; Belder, Rosalie; Sonneveld, Hans; van Bochove, Cornelis A.; van der Weijden, Inge C. M.

2017-01-01

In this study, we assess the effects of temporary employment on job satisfaction and the personal lives of recent PhD graduates. Temporary employment is becoming increasingly prevalent in many sectors, but has been relatively common in academia, especially for early career scientists. Labor market theory shows temporary employment to have a…

29 CFR 825.105 - Counting employees for determining coverage.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... suffer or permit to work.” The courts have indicated that, while “to permit” requires a more positive action than “to suffer,” both terms imply much less positive action than required by the common law. Mere knowledge by an employer of work done for the employer by another is sufficient to create the employment...

Los Angeles County Office Survey, Research Study Number 80-9.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rudnitsky, Andrea

A survey of area employers was conducted by Los Angeles City College in Fall 1979 to determine: (1) the skill requirements for entry-level secretarial and clerical workers, (2) the salaries earned by these employees, (3) the word processing equipment commonly used by employers, (4) future employment trends in secretarial/clerical fields, and (5)…

Graduate Attributes and Employability Skills: Graduates' Perspectives on Employers' Expectations in Oman

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Belwal, Rakesh; Priyadarshi, Pushpendra; Al Fazari, Mariam Humaid

2017-01-01

Purpose: Supply and demand characteristics, influenced by the pre- and post-oil economy of Oman, have caused unemployment challenges to Omani graduates. The purpose of this paper is to explore the most common graduate attributes as they apply to graduates' employability in Oman. Design/methodology/approach: The study uses the principles of…

Health and safety strategies in a changing Europe.

PubMed

Walters, D

1998-01-01

This article presents a synthesis of some of the more significant findings from two recent surveys on working conditions and national strategies for their improvement in the European Union in the 1990s. As patterns and organization of employment have changed in the past decade, the consequences for health and safety present new challenges for legislators, the social partners, the regulatory agencies, and the specialists. These challenges are only partially met in most European member states. Because of the continued deregulation of employment, reduced public expenditure, and reduced trade union presence, the operation of strategies to implement a common framework of E.U. legislation is limited and often incomplete. This issue must be confronted if systems for promoting the well-being of people at work in Europe are to keep up with the rapidly changing nature of the risks that they face.

An overview of the model integration process: From pre ...

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Integration of models requires linking models which can be developed using different tools, methodologies, and assumptions. We performed a literature review with the aim of improving our understanding of model integration process, and also presenting better strategies for building integrated modeling systems. We identified five different phases to characterize integration process: pre-integration assessment, preparation of models for integration, orchestration of models during simulation, data interoperability, and testing. Commonly, there is little reuse of existing frameworks beyond the development teams and not much sharing of science components across frameworks. We believe this must change to enable researchers and assessors to form complex workflows that leverage the current environmental science available. In this paper, we characterize the model integration process and compare integration practices of different groups. We highlight key strategies, features, standards, and practices that can be employed by developers to increase reuse and interoperability of science software components and systems. The paper provides a review of the literature regarding techniques and methods employed by various modeling system developers to facilitate science software interoperability. The intent of the paper is to illustrate the wide variation in methods and the limiting effect the variation has on inter-framework reuse and interoperability. A series of recommendation

Modification of the Creator recombination system for proteomics applications--improved expression by addition of splice sites.

PubMed

Colwill, Karen; Wells, Clark D; Elder, Kelly; Goudreault, Marilyn; Hersi, Kadija; Kulkarni, Sarang; Hardy, W Rod; Pawson, Tony; Morin, Gregg B

2006-03-06

Recombinational systems have been developed to rapidly shuttle Open Reading Frames (ORFs) into multiple expression vectors in order to analyze the large number of cDNAs available in the post-genomic era. In the Creator system, an ORF introduced into a donor vector can be transferred with Cre recombinase to a library of acceptor vectors optimized for different applications. Usability of the Creator system is impacted by the ability to easily manipulate DNA, the number of acceptor vectors for downstream applications, and the level of protein expression from Creator vectors. To date, we have developed over 20 novel acceptor vectors that employ a variety of promoters and epitope tags commonly employed for proteomics applications and gene function analysis. We also made several enhancements to the donor vectors including addition of different multiple cloning sites to allow shuttling from pre-existing vectors and introduction of the lacZ alpha reporter gene to allow for selection. Importantly, in order to ameliorate any effects on protein expression of the loxP site between a 5' tag and ORF, we introduced a splicing event into our expression vectors. The message produced from the resulting 'Creator Splice' vector undergoes splicing in mammalian systems to remove the loxP site. Upon analysis of our Creator Splice constructs, we discovered that protein expression levels were also significantly increased. The development of new donor and acceptor vectors has increased versatility during the cloning process and made this system compatible with a wider variety of downstream applications. The modifications introduced in our Creator Splice system were designed to remove extraneous sequences due to recombination but also aided in downstream analysis by increasing protein expression levels. As a result, we can now employ epitope tags that are detected less efficiently and reduce our assay scale to allow for higher throughput. The Creator Splice system appears to be an extremely useful tool for proteomics.

Modification of the Creator recombination system for proteomics applications – improved expression by addition of splice sites

PubMed Central

Colwill, Karen; Wells, Clark D; Elder, Kelly; Goudreault, Marilyn; Hersi, Kadija; Kulkarni, Sarang; Hardy, W Rod; Pawson, Tony; Morin, Gregg B

2006-01-01

Background Recombinational systems have been developed to rapidly shuttle Open Reading Frames (ORFs) into multiple expression vectors in order to analyze the large number of cDNAs available in the post-genomic era. In the Creator system, an ORF introduced into a donor vector can be transferred with Cre recombinase to a library of acceptor vectors optimized for different applications. Usability of the Creator system is impacted by the ability to easily manipulate DNA, the number of acceptor vectors for downstream applications, and the level of protein expression from Creator vectors. Results To date, we have developed over 20 novel acceptor vectors that employ a variety of promoters and epitope tags commonly employed for proteomics applications and gene function analysis. We also made several enhancements to the donor vectors including addition of different multiple cloning sites to allow shuttling from pre-existing vectors and introduction of the lacZ alpha reporter gene to allow for selection. Importantly, in order to ameliorate any effects on protein expression of the loxP site between a 5' tag and ORF, we introduced a splicing event into our expression vectors. The message produced from the resulting 'Creator Splice' vector undergoes splicing in mammalian systems to remove the loxP site. Upon analysis of our Creator Splice constructs, we discovered that protein expression levels were also significantly increased. Conclusion The development of new donor and acceptor vectors has increased versatility during the cloning process and made this system compatible with a wider variety of downstream applications. The modifications introduced in our Creator Splice system were designed to remove extraneous sequences due to recombination but also aided in downstream analysis by increasing protein expression levels. As a result, we can now employ epitope tags that are detected less efficiently and reduce our assay scale to allow for higher throughput. The Creator Splice system appears to be an extremely useful tool for proteomics. PMID:16519801

A fuzzy classifier system for process control

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Karr, C. L.; Phillips, J. C.

1994-01-01

A fuzzy classifier system that discovers rules for controlling a mathematical model of a pH titration system was developed by researchers at the U.S. Bureau of Mines (USBM). Fuzzy classifier systems successfully combine the strengths of learning classifier systems and fuzzy logic controllers. Learning classifier systems resemble familiar production rule-based systems, but they represent their IF-THEN rules by strings of characters rather than in the traditional linguistic terms. Fuzzy logic is a tool that allows for the incorporation of abstract concepts into rule based-systems, thereby allowing the rules to resemble the familiar 'rules-of-thumb' commonly used by humans when solving difficult process control and reasoning problems. Like learning classifier systems, fuzzy classifier systems employ a genetic algorithm to explore and sample new rules for manipulating the problem environment. Like fuzzy logic controllers, fuzzy classifier systems encapsulate knowledge in the form of production rules. The results presented in this paper demonstrate the ability of fuzzy classifier systems to generate a fuzzy logic-based process control system.

A New Approach for Mining Order-Preserving Submatrices Based on All Common Subsequences.

PubMed

Xue, Yun; Liao, Zhengling; Li, Meihang; Luo, Jie; Kuang, Qiuhua; Hu, Xiaohui; Li, Tiechen

2015-01-01

Order-preserving submatrices (OPSMs) have been applied in many fields, such as DNA microarray data analysis, automatic recommendation systems, and target marketing systems, as an important unsupervised learning model. Unfortunately, most existing methods are heuristic algorithms which are unable to reveal OPSMs entirely in NP-complete problem. In particular, deep OPSMs, corresponding to long patterns with few supporting sequences, incur explosive computational costs and are completely pruned by most popular methods. In this paper, we propose an exact method to discover all OPSMs based on frequent sequential pattern mining. First, an existing algorithm was adjusted to disclose all common subsequence (ACS) between every two row sequences, and therefore all deep OPSMs will not be missed. Then, an improved data structure for prefix tree was used to store and traverse ACS, and Apriori principle was employed to efficiently mine the frequent sequential pattern. Finally, experiments were implemented on gene and synthetic datasets. Results demonstrated the effectiveness and efficiency of this method.

A recurrent neural-network-based sensor and actuator fault detection and isolation for nonlinear systems with application to the satellite's attitude control subsystem.

PubMed

Talebi, H A; Khorasani, K; Tafazoli, S

2009-01-01

This paper presents a robust fault detection and isolation (FDI) scheme for a general class of nonlinear systems using a neural-network-based observer strategy. Both actuator and sensor faults are considered. The nonlinear system considered is subject to both state and sensor uncertainties and disturbances. Two recurrent neural networks are employed to identify general unknown actuator and sensor faults, respectively. The neural network weights are updated according to a modified backpropagation scheme. Unlike many previous methods developed in the literature, our proposed FDI scheme does not rely on availability of full state measurements. The stability of the overall FDI scheme in presence of unknown sensor and actuator faults as well as plant and sensor noise and uncertainties is shown by using the Lyapunov's direct method. The stability analysis developed requires no restrictive assumptions on the system and/or the FDI algorithm. Magnetorquer-type actuators and magnetometer-type sensors that are commonly employed in the attitude control subsystem (ACS) of low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites for attitude determination and control are considered in our case studies. The effectiveness and capabilities of our proposed fault diagnosis strategy are demonstrated and validated through extensive simulation studies.

Employer-employee relations.

PubMed

Copeland, J D

1993-09-01

As an employer, a veterinarian must be vigilant to protect the rights of both job applicants and employees. Federal and state statutes guarantee that applicants and employees will not be subjected to discrimination in any aspect of employment, including recruitment, hiring, promotion, compensation, and termination of employment. An employer may not discriminate on the basis of sex, race, color, national origin, religion, age, or physical disability. In addition, common law tort actions give employees powerful causes of action be against those employers who injure employees. More than ever, employers must be diligent in obeying the law. Employers must also take measures to protect themselves from employee claims by instituting risk management plans and purchasing adequate insurance coverage.

Generating a Double-Scroll Attractor by Connecting a Pair of Mutual Mirror-Image Attractors via Planar Switching Control

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sun, Changchun; Chen, Zhongtang; Xu, Qicheng

2017-12-01

An original three-dimensional (3D) smooth continuous chaotic system and its mirror-image system with eight common parameters are constructed and a pair of symmetric chaotic attractors can be generated simultaneously. Basic dynamical behaviors of two 3D chaotic systems are investigated respectively. A double-scroll chaotic attractor by connecting the pair of mutual mirror-image attractors is generated via a novel planar switching control approach. Chaos can also be controlled to a fixed point, a periodic orbit and a divergent orbit respectively by switching between two chaotic systems. Finally, an equivalent 3D chaotic system by combining two 3D chaotic systems with a switching law is designed by utilizing a sign function. Two circuit diagrams for realizing the double-scroll attractor are depicted by employing an improved module-based design approach.

Architectural development of an advanced EVA Electronic System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lavelle, Joseph

1992-01-01

An advanced electronic system for future EVA missions (including zero gravity, the lunar surface, and the surface of Mars) is under research and development within the Advanced Life Support Division at NASA Ames Research Center. As a first step in the development, an optimum system architecture has been derived from an analysis of the projected requirements for these missions. The open, modular architecture centers around a distributed multiprocessing concept where the major subsystems independently process their own I/O functions and communicate over a common bus. Supervision and coordination of the subsystems is handled by an embedded real-time operating system kernel employing multitasking software techniques. A discussion of how the architecture most efficiently meets the electronic system functional requirements, maximizes flexibility for future development and mission applications, and enhances the reliability and serviceability of the system in these remote, hostile environments is included.

Analytical and finite element performance evaluation of embedded piezoelectric sensors in polyethylene

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Safaei, Mohsen; Anton, Steven R.

2017-04-01

A common application of piezoelectric transducers is to obtain operational data from working structures and dynamic components. Collected data can then be used to evaluate dynamic characterization of the system, perform structural health monitoring, or implement various other assessments. In some applications, piezoelectric transducers are bonded inside the host structure to satisfy system requirements; for example, piezoelectric transducers can be embedded inside the biopolymers of total joint replacements to evaluate the functionality of the artificial joint. The interactions between the piezoelectric device (inhomogeneity) and the surrounding polymer matrix determine the mechanical behavior of the matrix and the electromechanical behavior of the sensor. In this work, an analytical approach is employed to evaluate the electromechanical performance of 2-D plane strain piezoelectric elements of both circular and rectangular-shape inhomogeneities. These piezoelectric elements are embedded inside medical grade ultra-high molecular weight (UHMW) polyethylene, a material commonly used for bearing surfaces of joint replacements, such as total knee replacements (TKRs). Using the famous Eshelby inhomogeneity solution, the stress and electric field inside the circular (elliptical) inhomogeneity is obtained by decoupling the solution into purely elastic and dielectric systems of equations. For rectangular (non-elliptical) inhomogeneities, an approximation method based on the boundary integral function is utilized and the same decoupling method is employed. In order to validate the analytical result, a finite element analysis is performed for both the circular and rectangular inhomogeneities and the error for each case is calculated. For elliptical geometry, the error is less than 1% for stress and electric fields inside and outside the piezoelectric inhomogeneity, whereas, the error for non-elliptical geometry is obtained as 11% and 7% for stress and electric field inside the inhomogeneity, respectively.

Cross-phenotype analysis of Immunochip data identifies KDM4C as a relevant locus for the development of systemic vasculitis.

PubMed

Ortiz-Fernández, Lourdes; Carmona, Francisco David; López-Mejías, Raquel; González-Escribano, Maria Francisca; Lyons, Paul A; Morgan, Ann W; Sawalha, Amr H; Smith, Kenneth G C; González-Gay, Miguel A; Martín, Javier

2018-04-01

Systemic vasculitides represent a heterogeneous group of rare complex diseases of the blood vessels with a poorly understood aetiology. To investigate the shared genetic component underlying their predisposition, we performed the first cross-phenotype meta-analysis of genetic data from different clinically distinct patterns of vasculitis. Immunochip genotyping data from 2465 patients diagnosed with giant cell arteritis, Takayasu's arteritis, antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody-associated vasculitis or IgA vasculitis as well as 4632 unaffected controls were analysed to identify common susceptibility loci for vasculitis development. The possible functional consequences of the associated variants were interrogated using publicly available annotation data. The strongest association signal corresponded with an intergenic polymorphism located between HLA-DQB1 and HLA-DQA2 (rs6932517, P=4.16E-14, OR=0.74). This single nucleotide polymorphism is in moderate linkage disequilibrium with the disease-specific human leucocyte antigen (HLA) class II associations of each type of vasculitis and could mark them. Outside the HLA region, we identified the KDM4C gene as a common risk locus for vasculitides (highest peak rs16925200, P=6.23E-07, OR=1.75). This gene encodes a histone demethylase involved in the epigenetic control of gene expression. Through a combined analysis of Immunochip data, we have identified KDM4C as a new risk gene shared between systemic vasculitides, consistent with the increasing evidences of the crucial role that the epigenetic mechanisms have in the development of complex immune-mediated conditions. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2018. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

Occupational health of self-employed women workers. Experiences from community based studies of the Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA).

PubMed

Chatterjee, M

1993-02-01

The Self-Employed Workers' Association (SEWA) has conducted 4 longitudinal, community-based studies to survey the occupational health of self-employed women in Ahmedabad and Indore, India. It included the workers in all stages of research. SEWA staff examined women in readymade garment, bidi, agarbatti, and masala fields. Since SEWA did not use control groups, they could not establish cause and effect relationships. Masala workers had the highest illiteracy rate (66%). At least 50% of all workers (89% of readymade garment workers) worked 8-12 hours/day. Daily wages of most workers did not exceed Rs.10, confirming their low poverty level. The most common occupational health problem while working was pain in the limbs for bidi (63%) and readymade garment workers (80%). They also experienced back pain and headaches. After work, back pain was common among agarbatti (73%) and masala (39%) workers. Masala workers also suffered from blisters and calluses (51%) and burning sensation (45%), particularly in their hands. Gynecological problems (e.g., early periods, white discharge, and burning sensation while urinating) and abdominal pain were common in all 4 groups. These results demonstrated a need for further research on occupational health and gynecological diseases; health facilities to adjust services to meet self-employed workers needs; provision of safe and subsidized tools, safety equipment, benefits (e.g., sick leave and child care), and health insurance; and health education. SEWA recommends that self-employed workers receive identity cards, the government enforce minimum wage laws and regulate working hours, and workers are provided basic amenities (e.g., potable water and sanitation).

Experiencing Term-Time Employment as a Non-Traditional Aged University Student: A Welsh Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mercer, Jenny; Clay, James; Etheridge, Leanne

2016-01-01

Engaging in term-time employment appears to be becoming a common feature of contemporary UK student life. This study examined the ways in which a cohort of full-time non-traditional aged students negotiated paid employment whilst pursuing a full-time higher education course in Wales. Taking a qualitative approach to explore this further,…

Supporting Youth Transitioning out of Foster Care. Issue Brief 3: Employment Programs. OPRE Report No. 2014-70

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Edelstein, Sara; Lowenstein, Christopher

2014-01-01

This issue brief is one of three that focus on programs providing services to youth transitioning out of foster care in three common service domains: education, employment, and financial literacy and asset building. This brief highlights why employment services are important to youth currently or formerly in foster care, what we know about the…

University Studies as a Side Job: Causes and Consequences of Massive Student Employment in Estonia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beerkens, Maarja; Magi, Eve; Lill, Liis

2011-01-01

Student employment is increasingly common in many countries. Compared to earlier decades, not only more students work but they also work longer hours. Among European countries Estonia is one of the clear "leaders" in student employment. This study uses survey data from 2,496 students in Estonian public and private universities to examine…

Credentials in Context: The Meaning and Use of Associate Degrees in the Employment of IT Technicians

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Van Noy, Michelle

2011-01-01

Educational credentials are clearly linked to economic success, but the reasons for this link are not clear. Common theoretical approaches provide explanations but lack direct employer perspectives on credentials' meaning and the context in which employers make sense of credentials. In this study, I used an alternative perspective based in Meyer's…

Women's experiences of developing musculoskeletal diseases: employment challenges and policy recommendations.

PubMed

Crooks, Valorie A

2007-07-30

To answer three specific questions: (i) How do women experience the workplace after the onset of a musculoskeletal disease; (ii) What employment policy and programme suggestions can they offer for ways to better support chronically ill women in their abilities to maintain workforce participation; and (iii) How are these women's employment policy and programme recommendations informed by their own lived experiences and desires? In-depth interviews were conducted with 18 women who had developed musculoskeletal diseases while involved in the labour market. Data were coded and analysed thematically. Participants identified three common workplace barriers experienced and three types of workplace accommodations commonly requested. They offered four specific employment policy and programme recommendations for ways to better support women who develop musculoskeletal diseases in maintaining labour market participation. It is found that their employment policy and programme recommendations are informed by their own experiences in the workplace and desires for being supported in maintaining involvement in paid labour. Creating employment programmes and policies that support chronically ill women in their attempts to remain involved in the workforce based on how much paid labour they are able to perform and where they are best able to work is of the utmost importance.

Liquid lift for the Shuttle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Demeis, Richard

1989-02-01

After the operational failure of a Solid Rocket Booster (SRB) led to the Space Shuttle Challenger accident, NASA reexamined the use of liquid-fueled units in place of the SRBs in order to ascertain whether they could improve safety and payload. In view of favorable study results obtained, the posibility has arisen of employing a common liquid rocket booster for the Space Shuttle, its cargo version ('Shuttle-C'), and the next-generation Advanced Launch System. The system envisioned would involve two booster units, whose four engines/unit would be fed by integral LOX and kerosene tanks. Mission aborts with one-booster unit and two-unit failures would not be catastrophic, and would respectively allow LEO or an emergency landing in Africa.

A Selective-Echo Method for Chemical-Shift Imaging of Two-Component Systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gerald, Rex E., II; Krasavin, Anatoly O.; Botto, Robert E.

A simple and effective method for selectively imaging either one of two chemical species in a two-component system is presented and demonstrated experimentally. The pulse sequence employed, selective- echo chemical- shift imaging (SECSI), is a hybrid (frequency-selective/ T1-contrast) technique that is executed in a short period of time, utilizes the full Boltzmann magnetization of each chemical species to form the corresponding image, and requires only hard pulses of quadrature phase. This approach provides a direct and unambiguous representation of the spatial distribution of the two chemical species. In addition, the performance characteristics and the advantages of the SECSI sequence are compared on a common basis to those of other pulse sequences.

Using Heuristic Evaluation to Improve Sepsis Alert Usability.

PubMed

Pertiwi, Ariani Arista Putri; Fraczkowski, Dan; Stogis, Sheryl L; Lopez, Karen Dunn

2018-06-01

Sepsis, life-threatening organ dysfunction in response to infection, is an alarmingly common and aggressive illness in US hospitals, especially for intensive care patients. Preventing sepsis deaths rests on the clinicians' ability to promptly recognize and treat sepsis. To aid early recognition, many organizations have employed clinician-facing electronic sepsis alert systems. However, the effectiveness of the alert relies on heavily on the visual interface, textual information, and overall usability. This article reports a usability inspection of a sepsis alert system. The authors found violations in 12 of the 14 usability principles and promote use of this method in practice to systematically identify usability problems. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Protective broadband window coatings

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Askinazi, Joel; Narayanan, Authi A.

1997-06-01

Optical windows employed in current and future airborne and ground based optical sensor systems are required to provide long service life under extreme environmental conditions including blowing sand and high speed rain. State of the art sensor systems are employing common aperture windows which must provide optical bandpasses from the TV to the LWIR. Operation Desert Storm experience indicates that current optical coatings provide limited environmental protection which adversely affects window life cycle cost. Most of these production coatings also have limited optical bandpasses (LWIR, MWIR, or TV-NIR). A family of optical coatings has been developed which provide a significant increase in rain and sand impact protection to current optical window materials. These coatings can also be tailored to provide either narrow optical bandwidth (e.g., LWIR) or broadband transmittance (TV- LWIR). They have been applied to a number of standard optical window materials. These coating have successfully completed airborne rain and sand abrasion test with minimal impact on optical window performance. Test results are presented. Low cost service life is anticipated as well as the ability to operate windows in even more taxing environments than currently feasible.

The use of dual mode thermionic reactors in supporting Earth orbital and space exploration missions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zubrin, Robert M.; Sulmeisters, Tal K.

1993-01-01

Missions requiring large amounts of electric power to support their payload functions can be enabled through the employment of nuclear electric power reactors, which in some cases can also assist the mission by making possible the employment of high specific impulse electric propulsion. However it is found that the practicality and versality of using a power reactor to provide advanced propulsion is enormously enhanced if the reactor is configured in such a way to allow it to generate a certain amount of direct thrust as well. The use of such a system allows the creation of a common bus upper stage that can provide both high power and high impulse (with short orbit transfer times). It is shown that such a system, termed an Integral Power and Propulsion Stage (IPAPS), is optimal for supporting many Earth, Lunar, planetary and asteroidal observation, exploration, and communication support missions, and it is therefore recommended that the nuclear power reactor ultimately selected by the government for development and production be one that can be configured for such a function.

A Simple Method to Improve Autonomous GPS Positioning for Tractors

PubMed Central

Gomez-Gil, Jaime; Alonso-Garcia, Sergio; Gómez-Gil, Francisco Javier; Stombaugh, Tim

2011-01-01

Error is always present in the GPS guidance of a tractor along a desired trajectory. One way to reduce GPS guidance error is by improving the tractor positioning. The most commonly used ways to do this are either by employing more precise GPS receivers and differential corrections or by employing GPS together with some other local positioning systems such as electronic compasses or Inertial Navigation Systems (INS). However, both are complex and expensive solutions. In contrast, this article presents a simple and low cost method to improve tractor positioning when only a GPS receiver is used as the positioning sensor. The method is based on placing the GPS receiver ahead of the tractor, and on applying kinematic laws of tractor movement, or a geometric approximation, to obtain the midpoint position and orientation of the tractor rear axle more precisely. This precision improvement is produced by the fusion of the GPS data with tractor kinematic control laws. Our results reveal that the proposed method effectively reduces the guidance GPS error along a straight trajectory. PMID:22163917

Reducing employee travelling time through smart commuting

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rahman, A. N. N. A.; Yusoff, Z. M.; Aziz, I. S.; Omar, D.

2014-02-01

Extremely congested roads will definitely delay the arrival time of each trip.This certainly impacted the journey of employees. Tardiness at the workplace has become a perturbing issue for companies where traffic jams are the most common worker excuses. A depressing consequence on daily life and productivity of the employee occurs. The issues of commuting distance between workplace and resident area become the core point of this research. This research will emphasize the use of Geographical Information System (GIS) technique to explore the distance parameter to the employment area and will focus on the accessibility pattern of low-cost housing. The research methodology consists of interview sessions and a questionnaire to residents of low-cost housing areas in Melaka Tengah District in Malaysia. The combination of these processes will show the criteria from the selected parameter for each respondent from their resident area to the employment area. This will further help in the recommendation of several options for a better commute or improvement to the existing routes and public transportations system. Thus enhancing quality of life for employees and helping to reduce stress, decrease lateness, absenteeism and improving productivity in workplace.

Cognitive dysfunction and functional magnetic resonance imaging in systemic lupus erythematosus.

PubMed

Barraclough, M; Elliott, R; McKie, S; Parker, B; Bruce, I N

2015-10-01

Cognitive dysfunction is a common aspect of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and is increasingly reported as a problem by patients. In many cases the exact cause is unclear. Limited correlations between specific autoantibodies or structural brain abnormalities and cognitive dysfunction in SLE have been reported. It may be that the most appropriate biomarkers have yet to be found. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a technique used in many other conditions and provides sensitive measures of brain functionality during cognitive tasks. It is now beginning to be employed in SLE studies. These studies have shown that patients with SLE often perform similarly to healthy controls in terms of behavioural measures on cognitive tasks. However, SLE patients appear to employ compensatory brain mechanisms, such as increased response in fronto-parietal regions, to maintain adequate cognitive performance. As there have been only a few studies using fMRI in SLE to investigate cognitive dysfunction, many questions remain unanswered. Further research could, however, help to identify biomarkers for cognitive dysfunction in SLE. © The Author(s) 2015.

Where is information quality lost at clinical level? A mixed-method study on information systems and data quality in three urban Kenyan ANC clinics

PubMed Central

Hahn, Daniel; Wanjala, Pepela; Marx, Michael

2013-01-01

Background Well-working health information systems are considered vital with the quality of health data ranked of highest importance for decision making at patient care and policy levels. In particular, health facilities play an important role, since they are not only the entry point for the national health information system but also use health data (and primarily) for patient care. Design A multiple case study was carried out between March and August 2012 at the antenatal care (ANC) clinics of two private and one public Kenyan hospital to describe clinical information systems and assess the quality of information. The following methods were developed and employed in an iterative process: workplace walkthroughs, structured and in-depth interviews with staff members, and a quantitative assessment of data quality (completeness and accurate transmission of clinical information and reports in ANC). Views of staff and management on the quality of employed information systems, data quality, and influencing factors were captured qualitatively. Results Staff rated the quality of information higher in the private hospitals employing computers than in the public hospital which relies on paper forms. Several potential threats to data quality were reported. Limitations in data quality were common at all study sites including wrong test results, missing registers, and inconsistencies in reports. Feedback was seldom on content or quality of reports and usage of data beyond individual patient care was low. Conclusions We argue that the limited data quality has to be seen in the broader perspective of the information systems in which it is produced and used. The combination of different methods has proven to be useful for this. To improve the effectiveness and capabilities of these systems, combined measures are needed which include technical and organizational aspects (e.g. regular feedback to health workers) and individual skills and motivation. PMID:23993022

Where is information quality lost at clinical level? A mixed-method study on information systems and data quality in three urban Kenyan ANC clinics.

PubMed

Hahn, Daniel; Wanjala, Pepela; Marx, Michael

2013-08-29

Well-working health information systems are considered vital with the quality of health data ranked of highest importance for decision making at patient care and policy levels. In particular, health facilities play an important role, since they are not only the entry point for the national health information system but also use health data (and primarily) for patient care. A multiple case study was carried out between March and August 2012 at the antenatal care (ANC) clinics of two private and one public Kenyan hospital to describe clinical information systems and assess the quality of information. The following methods were developed and employed in an iterative process: workplace walkthroughs, structured and in-depth interviews with staff members, and a quantitative assessment of data quality (completeness and accurate transmission of clinical information and reports in ANC). Views of staff and management on the quality of employed information systems, data quality, and influencing factors were captured qualitatively. Staff rated the quality of information higher in the private hospitals employing computers than in the public hospital which relies on paper forms. Several potential threats to data quality were reported. Limitations in data quality were common at all study sites including wrong test results, missing registers, and inconsistencies in reports. Feedback was seldom on content or quality of reports and usage of data beyond individual patient care was low. We argue that the limited data quality has to be seen in the broader perspective of the information systems in which it is produced and used. The combination of different methods has proven to be useful for this. To improve the effectiveness and capabilities of these systems, combined measures are needed which include technical and organizational aspects (e.g. regular feedback to health workers) and individual skills and motivation.

A Wavelength Optimization Study on Visible and Infrared Propagation Systems in Coastal Environments

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Reid, J. S.; Tsay, Si-Chee; Moision, W. K.; Gasso, S.; Cook, J. R.; Westphal, D. L.; Paulus, R. A.; Bucholtz, A.; Lau, William K. M. (Technical Monitor)

2002-01-01

Electro-optical (EO) systems employed for communications, surveillance and weapons systems are commonly assessed in the North American and European continents. However, the atmospheric propagation environment in these regions is often dissimilar to most other parts of the world. In particular, atmospheric dust, industrial pollution, and smoke frequently reduce visibility to less than 5 km in Asia and South America significantly hampering EO system performance. Because atmospheric aerosol species vary considerably in size and chemistry, optimal wavelengths for EO systems vary from region to region. In this paper we examine the extinction effects from aerosol particles and water vapor on a regional basis. Theoretical studies are coupled with visibility and satellite climatologies to make an assessment for the coastal regions of the world. While longer wavelengths permit higher transmission by particles in regions significantly hampered by fine mode particles (such as industrial pollution and smoke), this advantage is commonly offset by high extinction values from water vapor. This offsetting effect is particularly strong in industrial and developing countries in the tropics and sub-tropics such as Southeast Asia and South America. Conversely, the advantage of low water vapor concentrations in longer wavelengths is offset by high mass-extinction efficiencies of atmospheric dust in this portion of the spectrum.

Simplified stereo-optical ultrasound plane calibration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hoßbach, Martin; Noll, Matthias; Wesarg, Stefan

2013-03-01

Image guided therapy is a natural concept and commonly used in medicine. In anesthesia, a common task is the injection of an anesthetic close to a nerve under freehand ultrasound guidance. Several guidance systems exist using electromagnetic tracking of the ultrasound probe as well as the needle, providing the physician with a precise projection of the needle into the ultrasound image. This, however, requires additional expensive devices. We suggest using optical tracking with miniature cameras attached to a 2D ultrasound probe to achieve a higher acceptance among physicians. The purpose of this paper is to present an intuitive method to calibrate freehand ultrasound needle guidance systems employing a rigid stereo camera system. State of the art methods are based on a complex series of error prone coordinate system transformations which makes them susceptible to error accumulation. By reducing the amount of calibration steps to a single calibration procedure we provide a calibration method that is equivalent, yet not prone to error accumulation. It requires a linear calibration object and is validated on three datasets utilizing di erent calibration objects: a 6mm metal bar and a 1:25mm biopsy needle were used for experiments. Compared to existing calibration methods for freehand ultrasound needle guidance systems, we are able to achieve higher accuracy results while additionally reducing the overall calibration complexity. Ke

Fitting Residual Error Structures for Growth Models in SAS PROC MCMC

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McNeish, Daniel

2017-01-01

In behavioral sciences broadly, estimating growth models with Bayesian methods is becoming increasingly common, especially to combat small samples common with longitudinal data. Although Mplus is becoming an increasingly common program for applied research employing Bayesian methods, the limited selection of prior distributions for the elements of…

The Private Voice Made Public Record: "Common Threads" and Filmic Strategy.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stoddart, Scott F.

This paper analyzes Robert Epstein's Academy Award winning documentary "Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt," which consciously employs a binary rhetoric, a "common" method, by which to read the complex narrativity of the Names Project Quilt (the quilt memorial to AIDS victims). The paper addresses the inherently rhetorical…

A Model-Based Expert System for Space Power Distribution Diagnostics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Quinn, Todd M.; Schlegelmilch, Richard F.

1994-01-01

When engineers diagnose system failures, they often use models to confirm system operation. This concept has produced a class of advanced expert systems that perform model-based diagnosis. A model-based diagnostic expert system for the Space Station Freedom electrical power distribution test bed is currently being developed at the NASA Lewis Research Center. The objective of this expert system is to autonomously detect and isolate electrical fault conditions. Marple, a software package developed at TRW, provides a model-based environment utilizing constraint suspension. Originally, constraint suspension techniques were developed for digital systems. However, Marple provides the mechanisms for applying this approach to analog systems such as the test bed, as well. The expert system was developed using Marple and Lucid Common Lisp running on a Sun Sparc-2 workstation. The Marple modeling environment has proved to be a useful tool for investigating the various aspects of model-based diagnostics. This report describes work completed to date and lessons learned while employing model-based diagnostics using constraint suspension within an analog system.

Two-stage single-phase grid-connected photovoltaic system with reduced complexity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

da Silva, Cintia S.; Motta, Filipe R.; Tofoli, Fernando L.

2011-06-01

This article presents a grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) system using the classical DC-DC buck converter, which is responsible for stepping down the resulting voltage from several series-connected panels. Besides, the structure provides high power factor operation by injecting a quasi-sinusoidal current into the grid, with near no displacement in relation to the line voltage at the point of common coupling among the PV system and the loads. A CSI employing thyristors is cascaded with the DC-DC stage so that AC voltage results. The inverter output voltage level is adjusted by using a low-frequency transformer, which also provides galvanic isolation. The proposed system is described as mathematical approach and design guidelines are presented, providing an overview of the topology. An experimental prototype is also implemented, and relevant results to validate the proposal are discussed.

Curvature and bottlenecks control molecular transport in inverse bicontinuous cubic phases

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Assenza, Salvatore; Mezzenga, Raffaele

2018-02-01

We perform a simulation study of the diffusion of small solutes in the confined domains imposed by inverse bicontinuous cubic phases for the primitive, diamond, and gyroid symmetries common to many lipid/water mesophase systems employed in experiments. For large diffusing domains, the long-time diffusion coefficient shows universal features when the size of the confining domain is renormalized by the Gaussian curvature of the triply periodic minimal surface. When bottlenecks are widely present, they become the most relevant factor for transport, regardless of the connectivity of the cubic phase.

Methods for using argon-39 to age-date groundwater using ultra-low-background proportional counting

DOE PAGES

Mace, Emily; Aalseth, Craig; Brandenberger, Jill; ...

2016-12-21

Argon-39 can be used as a tracer for age-dating glaciers, oceans, and more recently, groundwater. With a half-life of 269 years, 39Ar fills an intermediate age range gap (50–1,000 years) not currently covered by other common groundwater tracers. Therefore, adding this tracer to the data suite for groundwater studies provides an important tool for improving our understanding of groundwater systems. Lastly, we present the methods employed for arriving at an age-date for a given sample of argon degassed from groundwater.

Surface chemistry and tribology of MEMS.

PubMed

Maboudian, Roya; Carraro, Carlo

2004-01-01

The microscopic length scale and high surface-to-volume ratio, characteristic of microelectro-mechanical systems (MEMS), dictate that surface properties are of paramount importance. This review deals with the effects of surface chemical treatments on tribological properties (adhesion, friction, and wear) of MEMS devices. After a brief review of materials and processes that are utilized in MEMS technology, the relevant tribological and chemical issues are discussed. Various MEMS microinstruments are discussed, which are commonly employed to perform adhesion, friction, and wear measurements. The effects of different surface treatments on the reported tribological properties are discussed.

Shockless spalling damage of alumina ceramic

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Erzar, B.; Buzaud, E.

2012-05-01

Ceramic materials are commonly used to build multi-layer armour. However reliable test data is needed to identify correctly models and to be able to perform accurate numerical simulation of the dynamic response of armour systems. In this work, isentropic loading waves have been applied to alumina samples to induce spalling damage. The technique employed allows assessing carefully the strain-rate at failure and the dynamic strength. Moreover, specimens have been recovered and analysed using SEM. In a damaged but unbroken specimen, interactions between cracks has been highlighted illustrating the fragmentation process.

Connecting coherent structures and strange attractors

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Keefe, Laurence R.

1990-01-01

A concept of turbulence derived from nonlinear dynamical systems theory suggests that turbulent solutions to the Navier-Stokes equations are restricted to strange attractors, and, by implication, that turbulent phenomenology must find some expression or source in the structure of these mathematical objects. Examples and discussions are presented to link coherent structures to some of the commonly known characteristics of strange attractors. Basic to this link is a geometric interpretation of conditional sampling techniques employed to educe coherent structures that offers an explanation for their appearance in measurements as well as their size.

Methods for using argon-39 to age-date groundwater using ultra-low-background proportional counting

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

Mace, Emily; Aalseth, Craig; Brandenberger, Jill

Argon-39 can be used as a tracer for age-dating glaciers, oceans, and more recently, groundwater. With a half-life of 269 years, 39Ar fills an intermediate age range gap (50-1,000 years) not currently covered by other common groundwater tracers. Therefore, adding this tracer to the data suite for groundwater studies provides an important tool for improving our understanding of groundwater systems. We present the methods employed for arriving at an age-date for a given sample of argon degassed from groundwater.

Methods for using argon-39 to age-date groundwater using ultra-low-background proportional counting

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

Mace, Emily; Aalseth, Craig; Brandenberger, Jill

Argon-39 can be used as a tracer for age-dating glaciers, oceans, and more recently, groundwater. With a half-life of 269 years, 39Ar fills an intermediate age range gap (50–1,000 years) not currently covered by other common groundwater tracers. Therefore, adding this tracer to the data suite for groundwater studies provides an important tool for improving our understanding of groundwater systems. Lastly, we present the methods employed for arriving at an age-date for a given sample of argon degassed from groundwater.

20 CFR 404.1077 - Individuals under railroad retirement system.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

..., SURVIVORS AND DISABILITY INSURANCE (1950- ) Employment, Wages, Self-Employment, and Self-Employment Income Self-Employment § 404.1077 Individuals under railroad retirement system. If you are an employee or... business. Your services are covered under the railroad retirement system. Self-Employment Income ...

20 CFR 404.1077 - Individuals under railroad retirement system.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

..., SURVIVORS AND DISABILITY INSURANCE (1950- ) Employment, Wages, Self-Employment, and Self-Employment Income Self-Employment § 404.1077 Individuals under railroad retirement system. If you are an employee or... business. Your services are covered under the railroad retirement system. Self-Employment Income ...

20 CFR 404.1077 - Individuals under railroad retirement system.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

..., SURVIVORS AND DISABILITY INSURANCE (1950- ) Employment, Wages, Self-Employment, and Self-Employment Income Self-Employment § 404.1077 Individuals under railroad retirement system. If you are an employee or... business. Your services are covered under the railroad retirement system. Self-Employment Income ...

20 CFR 404.1077 - Individuals under railroad retirement system.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

..., SURVIVORS AND DISABILITY INSURANCE (1950- ) Employment, Wages, Self-Employment, and Self-Employment Income Self-Employment § 404.1077 Individuals under railroad retirement system. If you are an employee or... business. Your services are covered under the railroad retirement system. Self-Employment Income ...

20 CFR 404.1077 - Individuals under railroad retirement system.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

..., SURVIVORS AND DISABILITY INSURANCE (1950- ) Employment, Wages, Self-Employment, and Self-Employment Income Self-Employment § 404.1077 Individuals under railroad retirement system. If you are an employee or... business. Your services are covered under the railroad retirement system. Self-Employment Income ...

GERIREX - growing a second generation medical expert system

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

Kocur, J. Jr.; Suh, S.C.

This article describes GERIREX, a medical expert system as the core module of an integrated system for total management of a medical practice. GERIREX is currently a first-generation consultant in the domain of prescribing for the geriatric patient with multiple ailments. Employing rule and objective probabilistic knowledge representations, the system performs at the near-expert level, correctly ranking single and multiple drug therapy for hypertension and/or congestive heart failure in the presence of between two and seven of 18 common accompanying or underlying conditions. GERIREX creates permanent consultation records and can access patient information from existing databases. System requirements are metmore » by very modest PCs, yet power, speed, flexibility, and ease of use rival or exceed those of many other systems. GERIREX interfaces with a variety of configurations and applications, including text, spreadsheets, databases, and executables, to fit in with current plans to upgrade to a second generation system, providing a degree of self-maintenance through intelligent parsing of a drug data source such as the Physicians` Desk Reference (PDR - CDROM version). Another option under consideration is developing neural networks to both replace the current knowledge base, and to embody the rationale employed by the medical expert in evaluating drug data for treatment selection. In this version, the current drug database would be used as warning data for the network tasked with adding new drugs to the drug database, imitating the process whereby a physician determines their personal arsenal from among the wide range of available options.« less

Common Readout Unit (CRU) - A new readout architecture for the ALICE experiment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mitra, J.; Khan, S. A.; Mukherjee, S.; Paul, R.

2016-03-01

The ALICE experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is presently going for a major upgrade in order to fully exploit the scientific potential of the upcoming high luminosity run, scheduled to start in the year 2021. The high interaction rate and the large event size will result in an experimental data flow of about 1 TB/s from the detectors, which need to be processed before sending to the online computing system and data storage. This processing is done in a dedicated Common Readout Unit (CRU), proposed for data aggregation, trigger and timing distribution and control moderation. It act as common interface between sub-detector electronic systems, computing system and trigger processors. The interface links include GBT, TTC-PON and PCIe. GBT (Gigabit transceiver) is used for detector data payload transmission and fixed latency path for trigger distribution between CRU and detector readout electronics. TTC-PON (Timing, Trigger and Control via Passive Optical Network) is employed for time multiplex trigger distribution between CRU and Central Trigger Processor (CTP). PCIe (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express) is the high-speed serial computer expansion bus standard for bulk data transport between CRU boards and processors. In this article, we give an overview of CRU architecture in ALICE, discuss the different interfaces, along with the firmware design and implementation of CRU on the LHCb PCIe40 board.

Simulation and measurement of nonlinear behavior in a high-power test cell.

PubMed

Harvey, Gerald; Gachagan, Anthony

2011-04-01

High-power ultrasound has many diverse uses in process applications in industries ranging from food to pharmaceutical. Because cavitation is frequently a desirable effect within many high-power, low-frequency systems, these systems are commonly expected to feature highly nonlinear acoustic propagation because of the high input levels employed. This generation of harmonics significantly alters the field profile compared with that of a linear system, making accurate field modeling difficult. However, when the short propagation distances involved are considered, it is not unreasonable to assume that these systems may remain largely linear until the onset of cavitation, in terms of classical acoustic propagation. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the possible nonlinear effects within such systems before the onset of cavitation. A theoretical description of nonlinear propagation will be presented and the merits of common analytical models will be discussed. Following this, a numerical model of nonlinearity will be outlined and the advantages it presents for representing nonlinear effects in bounded fields will be discussed. Next, the driving equipment and transducers will be evaluated for linearity to disengage any effects from those formed in the transmission load. Finally, the linearity of the system will be measured using an acoustic hydrophone and compared with finite element analysis to confirm that nonlinear effects are not prevalent in such systems at the onset of cavitation. © 2011 IEEE

Employers' use of value-based purchasing strategies.

PubMed

Rosenthal, Meredith B; Landon, Bruce E; Normand, Sharon-Lise T; Frank, Richard G; Ahmad, Thaniyyah S; Epstein, Arnold M

2007-11-21

Value-based purchasing by employers has often been portrayed as the lynchpin to quality improvement in a market-based health care system. Although a small group of the largest national employers has been actively engaged in promoting quality measurement, reporting, and pay for performance, it is unknown whether these ideas have significantly permeated employer-sponsored health benefit purchasing. To provide systematic descriptions and analyses of value-based purchasing and related efforts to improve quality of care by health care purchasers. We conducted telephone interviews with executives at 609 of the largest employers across 41 US markets between July 2005 and March 2006. The 41 randomly selected markets have at least 100,000 persons enrolled in health maintenance organizations, include approximately 91% of individuals enrolled in health maintenance organizations nationally, and represent roughly 78% of the US metropolitan population. Using the Dun & Bradstreet database of US employers, we identified the 26 largest firms in each market. Firms ranged in size from 60 to 250,000 employees. The degree to which value-based purchasing and related strategies are reported being used by employers. Percentages were weighted by number of employees. Of 1041 companies contacted, 609 employer representatives completed the survey (response rate, 64%). A large percentage of surveyed executives reported that they examine health plan quality data (269 respondents; 65% [95% confidence interval {CI}, 57%-74%]; P<.001), but few reported using it for performance rewards (49 respondents; 17% [95% CI, 7%-27%]; P=.008) or to influence employees (71 respondents; 23% [95% CI, 13%-33%]). Physician quality information is even less commonly examined (71 respondents; 16% [95% CI, 9%-23%]) or used by employers to reward performance (8 respondents; 2% [95% CI, 0%-3%]) or influence employee choice of providers (34 respondents; 8% [95% CI, 3%-12%]). Surveyed employers as a whole do not appear to be individually implementing incentives and programs in line with value-based purchasing ideals.

Cardea: Providing Support for Dynamic Resource Access in a Distributed Computing Environment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lepro, Rebekah

2003-01-01

The environment framing the modem authorization process span domains of administration, relies on many different authentication sources, and manages complex attributes as part of the authorization process. Cardea facilitates dynamic access control within this environment as a central function of an inter-operable authorization framework. The system departs from the traditional authorization model by separating the authentication and authorization processes, distributing the responsibility for authorization data and allowing collaborating domains to retain control over their implementation mechanisms. Critical features of the system architecture and its handling of the authorization process differentiate the system from existing authorization components by addressing common needs not adequately addressed by existing systems. Continuing system research seeks to enhance the implementation of the current authorization model employed in Cardea, increase the robustness of current features, further the framework for establishing trust and promote interoperability with existing security mechanisms.

The Gemini Planet Imager Calibration Wavefront Sensor Instrument

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wallace, J. Kent; Burruss, Rick S.; Bartos, Randall D.; Trinh, Thang Q.; Pueyo, Laurent A.; Fregoso, Santos F.; Angione, John R.; Shelton, J. Chris

2010-01-01

The Gemini Planet Imager is an extreme adaptive optics system that will employ an apodized-pupil coronagraph to make direct detections of faint companions of nearby stars to a contrast level of the 10(exp -7) within a few lambda/D of the parent star. Such high contrasts from the ground require exquisite wavefront sensing and control both for the AO system as well as for the coronagraph. Un-sensed non-common path phase and amplitude errors after the wavefront sensor dichroic but before the coronagraph would lead to speckles which would ultimately limit the contrast. The calibration wavefront system for GPI will measure the complex wavefront at the system pupil before the apodizer and provide slow phase corrections to the AO system to mitigate errors that would cause a loss in contrast. The calibration wavefront sensor instrument for GPI has been built. We will describe the instrument and its performance.

Microscopy imaging system and method employing stimulated raman spectroscopy as a contrast mechanism

DOEpatents

Xie, Xiaoliang Sunney [Lexington, MA; Freudiger, Christian [Boston, MA; Min, Wei [Cambridge, MA

2011-09-27

A microscopy imaging system includes a first light source for providing a first train of pulses at a first center optical frequency .omega..sub.1, a second light source for providing a second train of pulses at a second center optical frequency .omega..sub.2, a modulator system, an optical detector, and a processor. The modulator system is for modulating a beam property of the second train of pulses at a modulation frequency f of at least 100 kHz. The optical detector is for detecting an integrated intensity of substantially all optical frequency components of the first train of pulses from the common focal volume by blocking the second train of pulses being modulated. The processor is for detecting, a modulation at the modulation frequency f, of the integrated intensity of the optical frequency components of the first train of pulses to provide a pixel of an image for the microscopy imaging system.

Dynamical class of a two-dimensional plasmonic Dirac system.

PubMed

Silva, Érica de Mello

2015-10-01

A current goal in plasmonic science and technology is to figure out how to manage the relaxational dynamics of surface plasmons in graphene since its damping constitutes a hinder for the realization of graphene-based plasmonic devices. In this sense we believe it might be of interest to enlarge the knowledge on the dynamical class of two-dimensional plasmonic Dirac systems. According to the recurrence relations method, different systems are said to be dynamically equivalent if they have identical relaxation functions at all times, and such commonality may lead to deep connections between seemingly unrelated physical systems. We employ the recurrence relations approach to obtain relaxation and memory functions of density fluctuations and show that a two-dimensional plasmonic Dirac system at long wavelength and zero temperature belongs to the same dynamical class of standard two-dimensional electron gas and classical harmonic oscillator chain with an impurity mass.

Asymmetric interaction paired with a super-rational strategy might resolve the tragedy of the commons without requiring recognition or negotiation.

PubMed

He, Jun-Zhou; Wang, Rui-Wu; Jensen, Christopher X J; Li, Yao-Tang

2015-01-14

Avoiding the tragedy of the commons requires that one or more individuals in a group or partnership "volunteer", benefiting the group at a cost to themselves. Recognition and negotiation with social partners can maintain cooperation, but are often not possible. If recognition and negotiation are not always the mechanism by which cooperative partnerships avoid collective tragedies, what might explain the diverse social cooperation observed in nature? Assuming that individuals interact asymmetrically and that both "weak" and "strong" players employ a super-rational strategy, we find that tragedy of the commons can be avoided without requiring either recognition or negotiation. Whereas in the volunteer's dilemma game a rational "strong" player is less likely to volunteer to provide a common good in larger groups, we show that under a wide range of conditions a super-rational "strong" player is more likely to provide a common good. These results imply that the integration of super-rationality and asymmetric interaction might have the potential to resolve the tragedy of the commons. By illuminating the conditions under which players are likely to volunteer, we shed light on the patterns of volunteerism observed in variety of well-studied cooperative social systems, and explore how societies might avert social tragedies.

Asymmetric interaction paired with a super-rational strategy might resolve the tragedy of the commons without requiring recognition or negotiation

PubMed Central

He, Jun-Zhou; Wang, Rui-Wu; Jensen, Christopher X. J.; Li, Yao-Tang

2015-01-01

Avoiding the tragedy of the commons requires that one or more individuals in a group or partnership “volunteer”, benefiting the group at a cost to themselves. Recognition and negotiation with social partners can maintain cooperation, but are often not possible. If recognition and negotiation are not always the mechanism by which cooperative partnerships avoid collective tragedies, what might explain the diverse social cooperation observed in nature? Assuming that individuals interact asymmetrically and that both “weak” and “strong” players employ a super-rational strategy, we find that tragedy of the commons can be avoided without requiring either recognition or negotiation. Whereas in the volunteer's dilemma game a rational “strong” player is less likely to volunteer to provide a common good in larger groups, we show that under a wide range of conditions a super-rational “strong” player is more likely to provide a common good. These results imply that the integration of super-rationality and asymmetric interaction might have the potential to resolve the tragedy of the commons. By illuminating the conditions under which players are likely to volunteer, we shed light on the patterns of volunteerism observed in variety of well-studied cooperative social systems, and explore how societies might avert social tragedies. PMID:25586876

Asymmetric interaction paired with a super-rational strategy might resolve the tragedy of the commons without requiring recognition or negotiation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

He, Jun-Zhou; Wang, Rui-Wu; Jensen, Christopher X. J.; Li, Yao-Tang

2015-01-01

Avoiding the tragedy of the commons requires that one or more individuals in a group or partnership ``volunteer'', benefiting the group at a cost to themselves. Recognition and negotiation with social partners can maintain cooperation, but are often not possible. If recognition and negotiation are not always the mechanism by which cooperative partnerships avoid collective tragedies, what might explain the diverse social cooperation observed in nature? Assuming that individuals interact asymmetrically and that both ``weak'' and ``strong'' players employ a super-rational strategy, we find that tragedy of the commons can be avoided without requiring either recognition or negotiation. Whereas in the volunteer's dilemma game a rational ``strong'' player is less likely to volunteer to provide a common good in larger groups, we show that under a wide range of conditions a super-rational ``strong'' player is more likely to provide a common good. These results imply that the integration of super-rationality and asymmetric interaction might have the potential to resolve the tragedy of the commons. By illuminating the conditions under which players are likely to volunteer, we shed light on the patterns of volunteerism observed in variety of well-studied cooperative social systems, and explore how societies might avert social tragedies.

Differences in clinical ocular outcomes between exogenous and endogenous endophthalmitis caused by Sporothrix: a systematic review of published literature.

PubMed

Ramírez Soto, Max Carlos

2017-09-28

Sporotrichosis is an implantation mycosis caused by Sporothrix species prevalent worldwide, which occasionally can also result in intraocular infection presenting as an exogenous or endogenous infection (disseminated sporotrichosis). Knowledge in its clinical recognition and management is limited. To systematically review and analyse data from published literature with a view to comparing clinical outcomes between exogenous and endogenous endophthalmitis caused by Sporothrix . Case reports of intraocular sporotrichosis, published from 1960 to 2016, were retrieved from MEDLINE, Embase, Cochrane, LILACS and SciELO databases. The entire data set was divided into two patient groups: (1) exogenous endophthalmitis and (2) endogenous endophthalmitis. Primary outcomes were differences in ocular findings and clinical ocular outcomes between the two groups. From 16 publications retrieved, a total of 8 eyes of 8 patients with exogenous endophthalmitis and 13 eyes of 10 patients with endogenous endophthalmitis were identified. Compared with exogenous endophthalmitis, endogenous endophthalmitis was more common in patients infected with HIV (p=0.001) and those from hyperendemic areas (p=0.036). Anterior uveitis (p=0.015) and posterior uveitis (p=0.04) were more common in the exogenous and endogenous endophthalmitis groups, respectively. The majority of patients with endogenous endophthalmitis had partial or full clinical resolution of ocular lesions with systemic amphotericin B alone or in combination with an oral antifungal, whereas patients with exogenous endophthalmitis had poor outcomes with irreversible vision loss, enucleation and evisceration. Anterior uveitis is more common in exogenous endophthalmitis with worse overall outcomes and complications, compared with endogenous endophthalmitis where posterior uveitis is the most common clinical manifestation, especially in patients infected with HIV and those from hyperendemic areas. Sporothrix infection should be included in the differential diagnosis for ocular inflammation, regardless of the presence or absence of autoimmune comorbidities and whether the patient resides in an endemic area or not. Ophthalmologists should consider intravitreal and systemic antifungal therapy for exogenous and endogenous endophthalmitis caused by Sporothrix . © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2017. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

Emergency department visits for work-related injuries.

PubMed

Tadros, Allison; Sharon, Melinda; Chill, Nicholas; Dragan, Shane; Rowell, Jeremy; Hoffman, Shelley

2018-04-25

Work-related injuries are commonly seen in the emergency department (ED). This study sought to analyze characteristics of ED patient visits that were billed under workers' compensation. This was a retrospective chart review of visits during 2015 that were billed under workers' compensation at an academic ED. The following variables were collected: age, gender, mechanism of injury/exposure, diagnoses, imaging performed, specialty consultation, operative requirement, follow-up specialty, and ED disposition. In 2015, 377 patients presented to the ED for work-related injuries. The most common mechanism of injury was fall. Frequent diagnoses included lower extremity injuries and hand/finger injuries. The most common consulting service was orthopedics. Only five patients were referred to occupational medicine for follow up. Knowledge of the types of occupational injuries and subsequent care required may help guide both workers and employers how to best triage patients within the healthcare system. Alternative settings such as occupational medicine or primary care services may be appropriate for some patients. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Measuring self-management of patients' and employees' health: further validation of the Patient Activation Measure (PAM) based on its relation to employee characteristics.

PubMed

Fowles, Jinnet Briggs; Terry, Paul; Xi, Min; Hibbard, Judith; Bloom, Christine Taddy; Harvey, Lisa

2009-10-01

Evaluate the Patient Activation Measure (PAM) in relation to personal characteristics in employed populations. Further validate the PAM for use in improving clinical or employer-based health-intervention programs. Data for analysis were taken from baseline survey information and health screenings collected during a randomized, controlled trial testing two different health promotion programs. Study population included 625 employees (predominantly white collar) from two companies in the northern Midwest of the United States: a large, integrated health care system and a national airline. PAM's psychometric properties are robust in two employed populations. Activation is directly related not only to health status, but also to job performance measures. The strong positive relationship of PAM to measures of healthy behavior, health information-seeking and readiness-to-change further validate the measure. Commonly, a difference of 5 points on the PAM separated healthy from less healthy behaviors. Activation can be understood in a broader population health context and need not be restricted to people with chronic illnesses. The study provides guidance on how to interpret PAM scores. The PAM can be used as part of any health-intervention program designed to improve patients' or employees' self-management skills, whether the program is clinic-based or employer-based. 2009 Elsevier Ireland Ltd.

Use of employer administrative databases to identify systematic causes of injury in aluminum manufacturing.

PubMed

Pollack, Keshia M; Agnew, Jacqueline; Slade, Martin D; Cantley, Linda; Taiwo, Oyebode; Vegso, Sally; Sircar, Kanta; Cullen, Mark R

2007-09-01

Employer administrative files are an underutilized source of data in epidemiologic studies of occupational injuries. Personnel files, occupational health surveillance data, industrial hygiene data, and a real-time incident and injury management system from a large multi-site aluminum manufacturer were linked deterministically. An ecological-level measure of physical job demand was also linked. This method successfully created a database containing over 100 variables for 9,101 hourly employees from eight geographically dispersed U.S. plants. Between 2002 and 2004, there were 3,563 traumatic injuries to 2,495 employees. The most common injuries were sprain/strains (32%), contusions (24%), and lacerations (14%). A multivariable logistic regression model revealed that physical job demand was the strongest predictor of injury risk, in a dose dependent fashion. Other strong predictors of injury included female gender, young age, short company tenure and short time on current job. Employer administrative files are a useful source of data, as they permit the exploration of risk factors and potential confounders that are not included in many population-based surveys. The ability to link employer administrative files with injury surveillance data is a valuable analysis strategy for comprehensively studying workplace injuries, identifying salient risk factors, and targeting workforce populations disproportionately affected. (c) 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Interviewing in Virtual Worlds: A Phenomenological Study Exploring the Success Factors of Job Applicants Utilizing Second Life to Gain Employment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Koufoudakis-Whittington, Stefania

2014-01-01

This study explored the phenomenon of success factors of job applicants utilizing Second Life to gain employment. The study focused on identifying the perception of what qualified as a successful interview through the lived common experiences of 16 employment recruiters. The research problem was that a gap existed in scholarly research on…

The Hard-to-Employ--Who Are They? Perspectives on Training the Disadvantaged--The Hard-to-Employ. Personnel Services Review Series 2.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harrison, Don K.; Brown, Dorothy R.

The hard-to-employ, both urban and rural, share common characteristics of inadequate income, slum housing, inferior education, no medical attention, and lack of real job opportunities. The deficiencies dove-tail, and families are often afflicted with all. The picture may seem bleak, but there is optimism in reclamation of the so-called…

Experimental Demonstration of a Synthetic Lorentz Force by Using Radiation Pressure.

PubMed

Šantić, N; Dubček, T; Aumiler, D; Buljan, H; Ban, T

2015-09-02

Synthetic magnetism in cold atomic gases opened the doors to many exciting novel physical systems and phenomena. Ubiquitous are the methods used for the creation of synthetic magnetic fields. They include rapidly rotating Bose-Einstein condensates employing the analogy between the Coriolis and the Lorentz force, and laser-atom interactions employing the analogy between the Berry phase and the Aharonov-Bohm phase. Interestingly, radiation pressure - being one of the most common forces induced by light - has not yet been used for synthetic magnetism. We experimentally demonstrate a synthetic Lorentz force, based on the radiation pressure and the Doppler effect, by observing the centre-of-mass motion of a cold atomic cloud. The force is perpendicular to the velocity of the cold atomic cloud, and zero for the cloud at rest. Our novel concept is straightforward to implement in a large volume, for a broad range of velocities, and can be extended to different geometries.

Risk Factors for Heat-related Illness in U.S. Workers: An OSHA Case Series.

PubMed

Tustin, Aaron W; Cannon, Dawn L; Arbury, Sheila B; Thomas, Richard J; Hodgson, Michael J

2018-05-30

The aim of this study was to describe risk factors for heat-related illness (HRI) in U.S. workers. We reviewed a subset of HRI enforcement investigations conducted by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) from 2011 through 2016. We assessed characteristics of the workers, employers, and events. We stratified cases by severity to assess whether risk factors were more prevalent in fatal HRIs. We analyzed 38 investigations involving 66 HRIs. Many workers had predisposing medical conditions or used predisposing medications. Comorbidities were more prevalent in workers who died. Most (73%) fatal HRIs occurred during the first week on the job. Common clinical findings in heat stroke cases included multiorgan failure, muscle breakdown, and systemic inflammation. Severe HRI is more likely when personal susceptibilities coexist with work-related and environmental risk factors. Almost all HRIs occur when employers do not adhere to preventive guidelines.

Deep convolutional neural network for the automated detection and diagnosis of seizure using EEG signals.

PubMed

Acharya, U Rajendra; Oh, Shu Lih; Hagiwara, Yuki; Tan, Jen Hong; Adeli, Hojjat

2017-09-27

An encephalogram (EEG) is a commonly used ancillary test to aide in the diagnosis of epilepsy. The EEG signal contains information about the electrical activity of the brain. Traditionally, neurologists employ direct visual inspection to identify epileptiform abnormalities. This technique can be time-consuming, limited by technical artifact, provides variable results secondary to reader expertise level, and is limited in identifying abnormalities. Therefore, it is essential to develop a computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) system to automatically distinguish the class of these EEG signals using machine learning techniques. This is the first study to employ the convolutional neural network (CNN) for analysis of EEG signals. In this work, a 13-layer deep convolutional neural network (CNN) algorithm is implemented to detect normal, preictal, and seizure classes. The proposed technique achieved an accuracy, specificity, and sensitivity of 88.67%, 90.00% and 95.00%, respectively. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A Bitslice Implementation of Anderson's Attack on A5/1

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bulavintsev, Vadim; Semenov, Alexander; Zaikin, Oleg; Kochemazov, Stepan

2018-03-01

The A5/1 keystream generator is a part of Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) protocol, employed in cellular networks all over the world. Its cryptographic resistance was extensively analyzed in dozens of papers. However, almost all corresponding methods either employ a specific hardware or require an extensive preprocessing stage and significant amounts of memory. In the present study, a bitslice variant of Anderson's Attack on A5/1 is implemented. It requires very little computer memory and no preprocessing. Moreover, the attack can be made even more efficient by harnessing the computing power of modern Graphics Processing Units (GPUs). As a result, using commonly available GPUs this method can quite efficiently recover the secret key using only 64 bits of keystream. To test the performance of the implementation, a volunteer computing project was launched. 10 instances of A5/1 cryptanalysis have been successfully solved in this project in a single week.

[Market oriented occupational medicine].

PubMed

Rurik, Imre; Cseh, Károly

2012-09-09

The history and the recent state of occupational medicine in Hungary, and its relation with governmental labor organizations are analyzed. In the past 20 years, large "socialist" factories were replaced by smaller companies employing fewer workers. They have been forced to establish contract with occupational health providers. Many of them offer primary care services, whereas family physicians having a board examination in occupational medicine are allowed to work in this field as well. The market of occupational medicine is less regulated, and ethical rules are not always considered. Undercutting prices is a common practice. The recent system could be improved by some regulations which should be respected. There is no reason to make rough changes establishing a new market for profit oriented insurance companies, and to allow employees and employers to work without specification neglecting international agreements. Occupational medicine should be supervised again by the health authorities instead of economists who have quite different, short-term priorities.

Suicide in Northern Ireland: An Analysis of Gender Differences in Demographic, Psychological, and Contextual Factors.

PubMed

O'Neill, Siobhan; Corry, Colette; McFeeters, Danielle; Murphy, Sam; Bunting, Brendan

2016-01-01

The circumstances surrounding death by suicide can give us insight into the factors affecting suicide risk in particular regions. This study examined gender and circumstances surrounding death by suicide in Northern Ireland from 2005 to 2011. The study analyzed 1,671 suicides (77% male and 23% female cases) using information contained from the coroner's files on suicides and undetermined deaths. Hanging was the most common method and more than one third of the deceased had prior suicide attempts. There was evidence of alcohol use in 41% of the cases. Only, 61% of cases had recorded adverse events; most had multiple and complex combinations of experiences. Relationship and interpersonal difficulties were the most common category of adverse event (40.3%). However, illness and bereavement, employment /financial crisis, and health problems were also common. One third of those who died by suicide were employed, compared with 50.3% who were not in employment. Just over half (50.1%) were known to have a mental health disorder. The results provide the first profile of deaths by suicide in Northern Ireland. They highlight the need to target people who have difficult life experiences in suicide prevention work, notably men, people with employment, financial and relationship crises, and those with mental disorders.

Looking Forward from "A Common Faith"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Noddings, Nel

2009-01-01

"A Common Faith," according to this author, is arguably one of John Dewey's least effective books. In it, he tries to persuade readers that the best of two epistemologically different worlds can be reconciled in a common faith--one that employs the methods of science with a generously religious attitude. Possibly most people today believe this…

21 CFR 101.105 - Declaration of net quantity of contents when exempt.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... individual units of the foods as will provide such information. (d) The declaration may contain common or decimal fractions. A common fraction shall be in terms of halves, quarters, eighths, sixteenths, or thirty... employing different common fractions in the net quantity declaration of a particular commodity, they may be...

Link prediction with node clustering coefficient

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, Zhihao; Lin, Youfang; Wang, Jing; Gregory, Steve

2016-06-01

Predicting missing links in incomplete complex networks efficiently and accurately is still a challenging problem. The recently proposed Cannistrai-Alanis-Ravai (CAR) index shows the power of local link/triangle information in improving link-prediction accuracy. Inspired by the idea of employing local link/triangle information, we propose a new similarity index with more local structure information. In our method, local link/triangle structure information can be conveyed by clustering coefficient of common-neighbors directly. The reason why clustering coefficient has good effectiveness in estimating the contribution of a common-neighbor is that it employs links existing between neighbors of a common-neighbor and these links have the same structural position with the candidate link to this common-neighbor. In our experiments, three estimators: precision, AUP and AUC are used to evaluate the accuracy of link prediction algorithms. Experimental results on ten tested networks drawn from various fields show that our new index is more effective in predicting missing links than CAR index, especially for networks with low correlation between number of common-neighbors and number of links between common-neighbors.

Modeling population exposures to silver nanoparticles present in consumer products

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Royce, Steven G.; Mukherjee, Dwaipayan; Cai, Ting; Xu, Shu S.; Alexander, Jocelyn A.; Mi, Zhongyuan; Calderon, Leonardo; Mainelis, Gediminas; Lee, KiBum; Lioy, Paul J.; Tetley, Teresa D.; Chung, Kian Fan; Zhang, Junfeng; Georgopoulos, Panos G.

2014-11-01

Exposures of the general population to manufactured nanoparticles (MNPs) are expected to keep rising due to increasing use of MNPs in common consumer products (PEN 2014). The present study focuses on characterizing ambient and indoor population exposures to silver MNPs (nAg). For situations where detailed, case-specific exposure-related data are not available, as in the present study, a novel tiered modeling system, Prioritization/Ranking of Toxic Exposures with GIS (geographic information system) Extension (PRoTEGE), has been developed: it employs a product life cycle analysis (LCA) approach coupled with basic human life stage analysis (LSA) to characterize potential exposures to chemicals of current and emerging concern. The PRoTEGE system has been implemented for ambient and indoor environments, utilizing available MNP production, usage, and properties databases, along with laboratory measurements of potential personal exposures from consumer spray products containing nAg. Modeling of environmental and microenvironmental levels of MNPs employs probabilistic material flow analysis combined with product LCA to account for releases during manufacturing, transport, usage, disposal, etc. Human exposure and dose characterization further employ screening microenvironmental modeling and intake fraction methods combined with LSA for potentially exposed populations, to assess differences associated with gender, age, and demographics. Population distributions of intakes, estimated using the PRoTEGE framework, are consistent with published individual-based intake estimates, demonstrating that PRoTEGE is capable of capturing realistic exposure scenarios for the US population. Distributions of intakes are also used to calculate biologically relevant population distributions of uptakes and target tissue doses through human airway dosimetry modeling that takes into account product MNP size distributions and age-relevant physiological parameters.

Why involve families in acute mental healthcare? A collaborative conceptual review.

PubMed

Dirik, Aysegul; Sandhu, Sima; Giacco, Domenico; Barrett, Katherine; Bennison, Gerry; Collinson, Sue; Priebe, Stefan

2017-09-27

Family involvement is strongly recommended in clinical guidelines but suffers from poor implementation. To explore this topic at a conceptual level, a multidisciplinary review team including academics, clinicians and individuals with lived experience undertook a review to explore the theoretical background of family involvement models in acute mental health treatment and how this relates to their delivery. A conceptual review was undertaken, including a systematic search and narrative synthesis. Included family models were mapped onto the most commonly referenced underlying theories: the diathesis-stress model, systems theories and postmodern theories of mental health. Common components of the models were summarised and compared. Lastly, a thematic analysis was undertaken to explore the role of patients and families in the delivery of the approaches. General adult acute mental health treatment. Six distinct family involvement models were identified: Calgary Family Assessment and Intervention Models, ERIC (Equipe Rapide d'Intervention de Crise), Family Psychoeducation Models, Family Systems Approach, Open Dialogue and the Somerset Model. Findings indicated that despite wide variation in the theoretical models underlying family involvement models, there were many commonalities in their components, such as a focus on communication, language use and joint decision-making. Thematic analysis of the role of patients and families identified several issues for implementation. This included potential harms that could emerge during delivery of the models, such as imposing linear 'patient-carer' relationships and the risk of perceived coercion. We conclude that future staff training may benefit from discussing the chosen family involvement model within the context of other theories of mental health. This may help to clarify the underlying purpose of family involvement and address the diverse needs and world views of patients, families and professionals in acute settings. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2017. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

LMI-based stability and performance conditions for continuous-time nonlinear systems in Takagi-Sugeno's form.

PubMed

Lam, H K; Leung, Frank H F

2007-10-01

This correspondence presents the stability analysis and performance design of the continuous-time fuzzy-model-based control systems. The idea of the nonparallel-distributed-compensation (non-PDC) control laws is extended to the continuous-time fuzzy-model-based control systems. A nonlinear controller with non-PDC control laws is proposed to stabilize the continuous-time nonlinear systems in Takagi-Sugeno's form. To produce the stability-analysis result, a parameter-dependent Lyapunov function (PDLF) is employed. However, two difficulties are usually encountered: 1) the time-derivative terms produced by the PDLF will complicate the stability analysis and 2) the stability conditions are not in the form of linear-matrix inequalities (LMIs) that aid the design of feedback gains. To tackle the first difficulty, the time-derivative terms are represented by some weighted-sum terms in some existing approaches, which will increase the number of stability conditions significantly. In view of the second difficulty, some positive-definitive terms are added in order to cast the stability conditions into LMIs. In this correspondence, the favorable properties of the membership functions and nonlinear control laws, which allow the introduction of some free matrices, are employed to alleviate the two difficulties while retaining the favorable properties of PDLF-based approach. LMI-based stability conditions are derived to ensure the system stability. Furthermore, based on a common scalar performance index, LMI-based performance conditions are derived to guarantee the system performance. Simulation examples are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

Understanding Drivers of Employment Changes in a Multiple Sclerosis Population

PubMed Central

Boscoe, Audra N.; Currie, Brooke M.; Landrian, Amanda S.; Wandstrat, Todd L.

2015-01-01

Background: Qualitative data are lacking on decision making and factors surrounding changes in employment for patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). This study aimed to increase our understanding of the key symptoms and factors leading patients with MS to leave work or reduce employment. Methods: Adults with MS who reported leaving the workforce, reducing work hours, or changing jobs due to MS in the past 6 months were recruited from four US clinical sites. Patients participated in semistructured interviews to discuss MS symptoms and reasons for changing employment status. All interviews were transcribed and coded for descriptive analyses. Results: Twenty-seven adults (mean age = 46.3 years, mean duration of MS diagnosis = 10.9 years) with a range of occupations participated; most were white (81.5%) and female (70.4%). Physical symptoms (eg, fatigue, visual deficits) (77.8%) were the most common reasons for employment change; 40.7% of patients reported at least one cognitive symptom (eg, memory loss). Fatigue emerged as the most pervasive symptom and affected physical and mental aspects of patients' jobs. Most patients (85.2%) reported at least two symptoms as drivers for change. Some patients reported a significant negative impact of loss of employment on their mental status, family life, and financial stability. Conclusions: Fatigue was the most common symptom associated with the decision to leave work or reduce employment and can lead to a worsening of other MS symptoms. Comprehensive symptom management, especially fatigue management, may help patients preserve their employment status. PMID:26472946

Societal Consequences of the g Factor in Employment.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gottfredson, Linda S.

1986-01-01

Reviews and rebuts seven common arguments that intelligence (g) is of little or no practical importance in employment. Illustrates in several ways the profound effect that differences in intelligence in a work force may have on the structure and functioning of whole societies. (Author/ABB)

How to locate & hire clinical/biomedical engineers, supervisors, managers & biomedical equipment technicians.

PubMed

Pacela, A F; Brush, L C

1993-01-01

This article has described the process and the resources available for locating and hiring clinical/biomedical engineers, supervisors, managers, and biomedical equipment technicians. First, the employer must determine the qualifications for the position, including job titles, descriptions, pay scales, and certification requirements. Next, the employer must find qualified applicants. The most common way to do this is to use "outside" contacts, such as help-wanted advertising, specialized job placement agencies, schools and colleges, military resources, regional biomedical societies, and nationwide societies. An "inside" search involves limited internal advertising of the position and using personal referrals for candidates. Finally, the employer must screen the applicants. The position description is the obvious first step in this process, but there are other pre-screening techniques, such as employment testing. Interviewing is the most common way to hire for job positions, but the interviewer needs to know about the position and ask the right questions. Post-interview screening is a final step to help determine the best job-person match.

Total costs of IBS: employer and managed care perspective.

PubMed

Cash, Brooks; Sullivan, Sean; Barghout, Victoria

2005-04-01

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a common gastrointestinal motility disorder that typically affects persons of working age and is costly to employers. The financial burden attributable to the direct (use of healthcare resources) and indirect (missed days from work [absenteeism] and loss of productivity while at work [presenteeism]) costs of IBS is similar to that of other common long-term medical disorders, such as asthma, migraine, hypertension, and congestive heart failure. The symptoms of IBS are significantly bothersome and place a substantial burden on the personal and working lives of patients. As with other long-term medical conditions that have a significant impact on productivity, directed efforts by employers can address IBS in the workplace and thereby potentially decrease its impact. In this article, the symptoms of IBS and its impact on patients and on society as a whole are discussed; options are outlined by which employers can help reduce the total costs of IBS, including lost productivity (both absenteeism and presenteeism), in the workplace.

Noninvasive Strategies to Promote Functional Recovery after Stroke

PubMed Central

Mauro, Alessandro; Rossi, Ferdinando; Carulli, Daniela

2013-01-01

Stroke is a common and disabling global health-care problem, which is the third most common cause of death and one of the main causes of acquired adult disability in many countries. Rehabilitation interventions are a major component of patient care. In the last few years, brain stimulation, mirror therapy, action observation, or mental practice with motor imagery has emerged as interesting options as add-on interventions to standard physical therapies. The neural bases for poststroke recovery rely on the concept of plasticity, namely, the ability of central nervous system cells to modify their structure and function in response to external stimuli. In this review, we will discuss recent noninvasive strategies employed to enhance functional recovery in stroke patients and we will provide an overview of neural plastic events associated with rehabilitation in preclinical models of stroke. PMID:23864962

Walking and talking the tree of life: Why and how to teach about biodiversity.

PubMed

Ballen, Cissy J; Greene, Harry W

2017-03-01

Taxonomic details of diversity are an essential scaffolding for biology education, yet outdated methods for teaching the tree of life (TOL), as implied by textbook content and usage, are still commonly employed. Here, we show that the traditional approach only vaguely represents evolutionary relationships, fails to denote major events in the history of life, and relies heavily on memorizing near-meaningless taxonomic ranks. Conversely, a clade-based strategy-focused on common ancestry, monophyletic groups, and derived functional traits-is explicitly based on Darwin's "descent with modification," provides students with a rational system for organizing the details of biodiversity, and readily lends itself to active learning techniques. We advocate for a phylogenetic classification that mirrors the TOL, a pedagogical format of increasingly complex but always hierarchical presentations, and the adoption of active learning technologies and tactics.

Fundamental performance determining factors of the ultrahigh-precision space-borne optical metrology system for the LISA Pathfinder mission

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hechenblaikner, Gerald; Flatscher, Reinhold

2013-05-01

The LISA Pathfinder mission to space employs an optical metrology system (OMS) at its core to measure the distance and attitude between two freely floating test-masses to picometer and nanorad accuracy, respectively, within the measurement band of [1 mHz, 30 mHz]. The OMS is based upon an ultra-stable optical bench with 4 heterodyne interferometers from which interference signals are read-out and processed by a digital phase-meter. Laser frequency noise, power fluctuations and optical path-length variations are suppressed to uncritical levels by dedicated control loops so that the measurement performance approaches the sensor limit imposed by the phasemeter. The system design is such that low frequency common mode noise which affects the read-out phase of all four interferometers is generally well suppressed by subtraction of a reference phase from the other interferometer signals. However, high frequency noise directly affects measurement performance and its common mode rejection depends strongly on the relative signal phases. We discuss how the data from recent test campaigns point towards high frequency phase noise as a likely performance limiting factor which explains some important performance features.

Past, Present, and Future Technologies for Oral Delivery of Therapeutic Proteins

PubMed Central

SINGH, RAJESH; SINGH, SHAILESH; LILLARD, JAMES W.

2015-01-01

Biological drugs are usually complex proteins and cannot be orally delivered due to problems related to degradation in the acidic and protease-rich environment of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. The high molecular weight of these drugs often results in poor absorption into the periphery when administered orally. The most common route of administration for these therapeutic proteins is injection. Most of these proteins have short serum half-lives and need to be administered frequently or in high doses to be effective. So, difficulties in the administration of protein-based drugs provides the motivation for developing drug delivery systems (DDSs) capable of maintaining therapeutic drug levels without side effects as well as traversing the deleterious mucosal environment. Employing a polymer as an entrapment matrix is a common feature among the different types of systems currently being pursued for protein delivery. Protein release from these matrices can occur through various mechanisms, such as diffusion through or erosion of the polymer matrix, and sometimes a combination of both. Encapsulation of proteins in liposomes has also been a widely investigated technology for protein delivery. All of these systems have merit and our worthy of pursuit. PMID:17918721

GP consultations for common mental disorders and subsequent sickness certification: register-based study of the employed population in Norway

PubMed Central

Gjesdal, Sturla; Holmaas, Tor Helge; Monstad, Karin; Hetlevik, Øystein

2016-01-01

Background. Challenges related to work are in focus when employed people with common mental disorders (CMDs) consult their GPs. Many become sickness certified and remain on sick leave over time. Objectives. To investigate the frequency of new CMD episodes among employed patients in Norwegian general practice and subsequent sickness certification. Methods. Using a national claims register, employed persons with a new episode of CMD were included. Sickness certification, sick leave over 16 days and length of absences were identified. Patient- and GP-related predictors for the different outcomes were assessed by means of logistic regression. Results. During 1 year 2.6% of employed men and 4.2% of employed women consulted their GP with a new episode of CMD. Forty-five percent were sickness certified, and 24 percent were absent over 16 days. Thirty-eight percent had depression and 19% acute stress reaction, which carried the highest risk for initial sickness certification, 75%, though not for prolonged absence. Men and older patients had lower risk for sickness certification, but higher risk for long-term absence. Conclusion. Better knowledge of factors at the workplace detrimental to mental health, and better treatment for depression and stress reactions might contribute to timely return of sickness absentees. PMID:27535329

Wide field of view common-path lateral-shearing digital holographic interference microscope

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vora, Priyanka; Trivedi, Vismay; Mahajan, Swapnil; Patel, Nimit; Joglekar, Mugdha; Chhaniwal, Vani; Moradi, Ali-Reza; Javidi, Bahram; Anand, Arun

2017-12-01

Quantitative three-dimensional (3-D) imaging of living cells provides important information about the cell morphology and its time variation. Off-axis, digital holographic interference microscopy is an ideal tool for 3-D imaging, parameter extraction, and classification of living cells. Two-beam digital holographic microscopes, which are usually employed, provide high-quality 3-D images of micro-objects, albeit with lower temporal stability. Common-path digital holographic geometries, in which the reference beam is derived from the object beam, provide higher temporal stability along with high-quality 3-D images. Self-referencing geometry is the simplest of the common-path techniques, in which a portion of the object beam itself acts as the reference, leading to compact setups using fewer optical elements. However, it has reduced field of view, and the reference may contain object information. Here, we describe the development of a common-path digital holographic microscope, employing a shearing plate and converting one of the beams into a separate reference by employing a pin-hole. The setup is as compact as self-referencing geometry, while providing field of view as wide as that of a two-beam microscope. The microscope is tested by imaging and quantifying the morphology and dynamics of human erythrocytes.

Wide field of view common-path lateral-shearing digital holographic interference microscope.

PubMed

Vora, Priyanka; Trivedi, Vismay; Mahajan, Swapnil; Patel, Nimit; Joglekar, Mugdha; Chhaniwal, Vani; Moradi, Ali-Reza; Javidi, Bahram; Anand, Arun

2017-12-01

Quantitative three-dimensional (3-D) imaging of living cells provides important information about the cell morphology and its time variation. Off-axis, digital holographic interference microscopy is an ideal tool for 3-D imaging, parameter extraction, and classification of living cells. Two-beam digital holographic microscopes, which are usually employed, provide high-quality 3-D images of micro-objects, albeit with lower temporal stability. Common-path digital holographic geometries, in which the reference beam is derived from the object beam, provide higher temporal stability along with high-quality 3-D images. Self-referencing geometry is the simplest of the common-path techniques, in which a portion of the object beam itself acts as the reference, leading to compact setups using fewer optical elements. However, it has reduced field of view, and the reference may contain object information. Here, we describe the development of a common-path digital holographic microscope, employing a shearing plate and converting one of the beams into a separate reference by employing a pin-hole. The setup is as compact as self-referencing geometry, while providing field of view as wide as that of a two-beam microscope. The microscope is tested by imaging and quantifying the morphology and dynamics of human erythrocytes. (2017) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE).

Clinical Data Systems to Support Public Health Practice: A National Survey of Software and Storage Systems Among Local Health Departments.

PubMed

McCullough, J Mac; Goodin, Kate

2016-01-01

Numerous software and data storage systems are employed by local health departments (LHDs) to manage clinical and nonclinical data needs. Leveraging electronic systems may yield improvements in public health practice. However, information is lacking regarding current usage patterns among LHDs. To analyze clinical and nonclinical data storage and software types by LHDs. Data came from the 2015 Informatics Capacity and Needs Assessment Survey, conducted by Georgia Southern University in collaboration with the National Association of County and City Health Officials. A total of 324 LHDs from all 50 states completed the survey (response rate: 50%). Outcome measures included LHD's primary clinical service data system, nonclinical data system(s) used, and plans to adopt electronic clinical data system (if not already in use). Predictors of interest included jurisdiction size and governance type, and other informatics capacities within the LHD. Bivariate analyses were performed using χ and t tests. Up to 38.4% of LHDs reported using an electronic health record (EHR). Usage was common especially among LHDs that provide primary care and/or dental services. LHDs serving smaller populations and those with state-level governance were both less likely to use an EHR. Paper records were a common data storage approach for both clinical data (28.9%) and nonclinical data (59.4%). Among LHDs without an EHR, 84.7% reported implementation plans. Our findings suggest that LHDs are increasingly using EHRs as a clinical data storage solution and that more LHDs are likely to adopt EHRs in the foreseeable future. Yet use of paper records remains common. Correlates of electronic system usage emerged across a range of factors. Program- or system-specific needs may be barriers or facilitators to EHR adoption. Policy makers can tailor resources to address barriers specific to LHD size, governance, service portfolio, existing informatics capabilities, and other pertinent characteristics.

The impact of inter-organizational alignment (IOA) on implementation outcomes: evaluating unique and shared organizational influences in education sector mental health.

PubMed

Lyon, Aaron R; Whitaker, Kelly; Locke, Jill; Cook, Clayton R; King, Kevin M; Duong, Mylien; Davis, Chayna; Weist, Mark D; Ehrhart, Mark G; Aarons, Gregory A

2018-02-07

Integrated healthcare delivered by work groups in nontraditional service settings is increasingly common, yet contemporary implementation frameworks typically assume a single organization-or organizational unit-within which system-level processes influence service quality and implementation success. Recent implementation frameworks predict that inter-organizational alignment (i.e., similarity in values, characteristics, activities related to implementation across organizations) may facilitate the implementation of evidence-based practices (EBP), but few studies have evaluated this premise. This study's aims examine the impact of overlapping organizational contexts by evaluating the implementation contexts of externally employed mental health clinicians working in schools-the most common integrated service delivery setting for children and adolescents. Aim 1 is to estimate the effects of unique intra-organizational implementation contexts and combined inter-organizational alignment on implementation outcomes. Aim 2 is to examine the underlying mechanisms through which inter-organizational alignment facilitates or hinders EBP implementation. This study will conduct sequential, exploratory mixed-methods research to evaluate the intra- and inter-organizational implementation contexts of schools and the external community-based organizations that most often employ school-based mental health clinicians, as they relate to mental health EBP implementation. Aim 1 will involve quantitative surveys with school-based, externally-employed mental health clinicians, their supervisors, and proximal school-employed staff (total n = 120 participants) to estimate the effects of each organization's general and implementation-specific organizational factors (e.g., climate, leadership) on implementation outcomes (fidelity, acceptability, appropriateness) and assess the moderating role of the degree of clinician embeddedness in the school setting. Aim 2 will explore the mechanisms through which inter-organizational alignment influences implementation outcomes by presenting the results of Aim 1 surveys to school-based clinicians (n = 30) and conducting semi-structured qualitative interviews. Qualitative data will be evaluated using an integrative inductive and deductive approach. The study aims are expected to identify intra- and inter-organizational constructs that are most instrumental to EBP implementation success in school-based integrated care settings and illuminate mechanisms that may account for the influence of inter-organizational alignment. In addition to improving school-based mental health, these findings will spur future implementation science that considers the relationships across organizations and optimize the capacity of implementation science to guide practice in increasingly complex systems of care.

Systems Thinking for the Enterprise: A Thought Piece

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rebovich, George

This paper suggests a way of managing the acquisition of capabilities for large-scale government enterprises that is different from traditional "specify and build" approaches commonly employed by U.S. government agencies in acquiring individual systems or systems of systems (SoS). Enterprise capabilities evolve through the emergence and convergence of information and other technologies and their integration into social, institutional and operational organizations and processes. Enterprise capabilities evolve whether or not the enterprise has processes in place to actively manage them. Thus the critical role of enterprise system engineering (ESE) processes should be to shape, enhance and accelerate the "natural" evolution of enterprise capabilities. ESE processes do not replace or add a layer to traditional system engineering (TSE) processes used in developing individual systems or SoS. ESE processes should complement TSE processes by shaping outcome spaces and stimulating interactions among enterprise participants through marketlike mechanisms to reward those that create innovation which moves and accelerates the evolution of the enterprise.

Rapid diagnosis of common deletional α-thalassemia in the Chinese population by qPCR based on identical primer homologous fragments.

PubMed

Long, Ju

2016-05-01

In China, -(SEA), -α(3.7) and -α(4.2) are common deletional α-thalassemia alleles. Gap-PCR is the currently used detection method for these alleles, whose disadvantages include time-consuming procedure and increased potential for PCR product contamination. Therefore, this detection method needs to be improved. Based on identical-primer homologous fragments, a qPCR system was developed for deletional α-thalassemia genotyping, which was composed of a group of quantitatively-related primers and their corresponding probes plus two groups of qualitatively-related primers and their corresponding probes. In order to verify the accuracy of the qPCR system, known genotype samples and random samples are employed. The standard curve result demonstrated that designed primers and probes all yielded good amplification efficiency. In the tests of known genotype samples and random samples, sample detection results were consistent with verification results. In detecting αα, -(SEA), -α(3.7) and -α(4.2) alleles, deletional α-thalassemia alleles are accurately detected by this method. In addition, this method is provided with a wider detection range, greater speed and reduced PCR product contamination risk when compared with current common gap-PCR detection reagents. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

An Adaptive Insertion and Promotion Policy for Partitioned Shared Caches

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mahrom, Norfadila; Liebelt, Michael; Raof, Rafikha Aliana A.; Daud, Shuhaizar; Hafizah Ghazali, Nur

2018-03-01

Cache replacement policies in chip multiprocessors (CMP) have been investigated extensively and proven able to enhance shared cache management. However, competition among multiple processors executing different threads that require simultaneous access to a shared memory may cause cache contention and memory coherence problems on the chip. These issues also exist due to some drawbacks of the commonly used Least Recently Used (LRU) policy employed in multiprocessor systems, which are because of the cache lines residing in the cache longer than required. In image processing analysis of for example extra pulmonary tuberculosis (TB), an accurate diagnosis for tissue specimen is required. Therefore, a fast and reliable shared memory management system to execute algorithms for processing vast amount of specimen image is needed. In this paper, the effects of the cache replacement policy in a partitioned shared cache are investigated. The goal is to quantify whether better performance can be achieved by using less complex replacement strategies. This paper proposes a Middle Insertion 2 Positions Promotion (MI2PP) policy to eliminate cache misses that could adversely affect the access patterns and the throughput of the processors in the system. The policy employs a static predefined insertion point, near distance promotion, and the concept of ownership in the eviction policy to effectively improve cache thrashing and to avoid resource stealing among the processors.

[Methods of cholesterol determination: conventional procedure or "dry chemistry"?].

PubMed

Riesen, W; Keller, H

1990-06-01

The search for the cardiovascular risk factor cholesterol should essentially be done in the physicians' laboratory. The majority of such analyses is performed by 'dry' chemistry tests. This review compares this technique with conventional methods for the determination of cholesterol. The reagents and the reaction mechanisms are principally the same for both techniques, i.e. fully enzymatic methods are used. In 'dry' chemistry the reagents are fixed on a solid carrier. The reactive state is provided by the liquid of the specimen. Two principles are employed: the technique of strips which is already utilised in urinary analysis and the system of multiple film layers as it is common in color-film technique. Three already introduced systems are discussed: the Seralyzer (Ames), the Ektachem (Kodak), and the Reflotron (Boehringer, Mannheim), and one system which is still in evaluation (the Clinistat, Ames). All the systems give a good agreement provided that they are operated by well-trained operators. Problems arise with quality control, since matrix effects are particularly important. The exactitude of the results depends on the calibration. Both, the Reflotron and the Clinistat are calibrated by the manufactories himself, the employer has no influence and is entirely dependent on the reliability of the producer. Although clinical chemistry analyses are facilitated by 'dry' chemistry it is by no means devoid of risks because the errors are more difficult to recognize.

77 FR 55229 - National Farmworker Jobs Program (NFJP) Information Collection Forms; Comment Request for Regular...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-09-07

... DEPARTMENT OF LABOR Employment and Training Administration National Farmworker Jobs Program (NFJP... Comment Request for Regular Extension of approval (with revisions) for the National Farmworker Jobs... ETA to calculate the common performance measures for entered employment, retention, and earnings. The...

Student Employment as a Model for Experiential Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fede, Jacquelyn H.; Gorman, Kathleen S.; Cimini, Maria E.

2018-01-01

Background: Evidence suggests experiential learning promotes the development of a range of transferrable skills including communication, responsibility, and social skills. However, many students are unable to participate in internships or other common forms of experiential education because they need to work for pay. University employment has been…

75 FR 70949 - Proposed Information Collection for the Evaluation of the Aging Worker Initiative; Comment Request

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-11-19

... OMB-approved quarterly and Common Measures reporting requirements for High Growth Job Training Grants... DEPARTMENT OF LABOR Employment and Training Administration Proposed Information Collection for the Evaluation of the Aging Worker Initiative; Comment Request AGENCY: Employment and Training Administration...

The Common Law Threesome: Libel, Slander, and Invasion of Privacy.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anapol, Malthon M.

Unlike most of the regulatory constraints which have impact on the media, libel, slander, and invasion of privacy are common law concepts developed from the precedents of previous court decisions and from reasoning employed in the written judicial opinions of appellate courts. Since common law is thus both traditional in nature and subject to…

The Common Core Is a Change for the Better

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gardner, Nancy S.; Powell, Rod

2014-01-01

The authors, two high school teachers, endorse the Common Core State Standards saying they will improve teaching and learning. The Common Core, they say, not only help students acquire the skills for success in life after high school, but they offer consistency in a student's educational journey and let employers know what to expect.…

Dealing with Diversity: On the Uses of Common Sense in Descartes and Montaigne

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

De Marzio, Darryl M.

2010-01-01

This essay attempts to retrieve the notion of "common sense" within the writings of Descartes and Montaigne. I suggest that both writers represent distinct traditions in which the notion is employed. Descartes represents a modernist tradition in which common sense is understood to be a cognitive faculty, while Montaigne represents a humanist…

Remote imaging laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy and laser-induced fluorescence spectroscopy using nanosecond pulses from a mobile lidar system.

PubMed

Grönlund, Rasmus; Lundqvist, Mats; Svanberg, Sune

2006-08-01

A mobile lidar system was used in remote imaging laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) and laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) experiments. Also, computer-controlled remote ablation of a chosen area was demonstrated, relevant to cleaning of cultural heritage items. Nanosecond frequency-tripled Nd:YAG laser pulses at 355 nm were employed in experiments with a stand-off distance of 60 meters using pulse energies of up to 170 mJ. By coaxial transmission and common folding of the transmission and reception optical paths using a large computer-controlled mirror, full elemental imaging capability was achieved on composite targets. Different spectral identification algorithms were compared in producing thematic data based on plasma or fluorescence light.

Cross-coupling effects in circuit-QED stimulated Raman adiabatic passage

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vepsäläinen, A.; Paraoanu, G. S.

2018-03-01

Stimulated Raman adiabatic passage is a quantum protocol that can be used for robust state preparation in a three-level system. It has been commonly employed in quantum optics, but recently this technique has drawn attention also in circuit quantum electrodynamics. The protocol relies on two slowly varying drive pulses that couple the initial and the target state via an intermediate state, which remains unpopulated. Here we study the detrimental effect of the parasitic couplings of the drives into transitions other than those required by the protocol. The effect is most prominent in systems with almost harmonic energy level structure, such as the transmon. We show that under these conditions in the presence of decoherence there exists an optimal STIRAP amplitude for population transfer.

The value of self-medication: summary of existing evidence.

PubMed

Noone, Joshua; Blanchette, Christopher M

2018-02-01

The aim of this review was to identify the international evidence that is currently available on the economic value of self-care through responsible self-medication, in terms of the measures related to access to treatment, time, and productivity. A targeted literature search was conducted for 1990-2016, including data gathered from members of the World Self-Medication Industry and searches on PubMed, EBSCOHost, and Google Scholar. Specific searches of individual drug classes known to be switched to non-prescription status in this period were also conducted. A total of 71 articles were identified, of which 17 (11 modeling studies, six retrospective analyses) were included in the review. Evidence from modeling studies and retrospective analyses of grouped data across a range of common conditions for which non-prescription medications are available in different countries/regions showed that the use of non-prescription products for the treatment of common conditions or for symptom management (e.g. allergies, chronic pain, migraine, vaginitis, gastrointestinal symptoms, or common cold symptoms) had considerable value to patients, payers, and employers alike in terms of cost savings and improved productivity. Potential benefits of self-medication were also identified in preventative healthcare strategies, such as those for cardiovascular health and osteoporosis. This review was limited by a targeted, but non-systematic approach to literature retrieval, as well as the inclusion of unpublished reports/white papers and patient self-reported data. The evidence identified in this literature review shows that responsible, appropriate self-medication with non-prescription products can provide significant economic benefits for patients, employers, and healthcare systems worldwide.

Treatment of Dermatophytosis in Elderly, Children, and Pregnant Women

PubMed Central

Kaul, Subuhi; Yadav, Savita; Dogra, Sunil

2017-01-01

Dermatophytic infection of the skin and its appendages is a common occurrence. Though usually straightforward, treatment of dermatophytosis becomes notably challenging in certain population groups – pregnant women, children, and elderly. Treatment with topical azoles/allylamines alone is effective in limited cutaneous disease in all three groups. Terbinafine is the preferred oral agent in elderly population for treatment of extensive cutaneous disease and onychomycosis due to its lack of cardiac complications and lower propensity for drug interactions. If required, additional physical/mechanical modalities can be employed for symptomatic onychomycosis. Data for systemic therapy in children mainly pertains to the treatment of tinea capitis. At present, very little data exists regarding the safety of systemic antifungals in pregnancy and there is an effort to restrict treatment to topical therapies because of their negligible systemic absorption. PMID:28979861

No Magic Bullet: A Theory-Based Meta-Analysis of Markov Transition Probabilities in Studies of Service Systems for Persons With Mental Disabilities.

PubMed

Leff, Hugh Stephen; Chow, Clifton M; Graves, Stephen C

2017-03-01

A random-effects meta-analysis of studies that used Markov transition probabilities (TPs) to describe outcomes for mental health service systems of differing quality for persons with serious mental illness was implemented to improve the scientific understanding of systems performance, to use in planning simulations to project service system costs and outcomes over time, and to test a theory of how outcomes for systems varying in quality differ. Nineteen systems described in 12 studies were coded as basic (B), maintenance (M), and recovery oriented (R) on the basis of descriptions of services provided. TPs for studies were aligned with a common functional-level framework, converted to a one-month time period, synthesized, and compared with theory-based expectations. Meta-regression was employed to explore associations between TPs and characteristics of service recipients and studies. R systems performed better than M and B systems. However, M systems did not perform better than B systems. All systems showed negative as well as positive TPs. For approximately one-third of synthesized TPs, substantial interstudy heterogeneity was noted. Associations were found between TPs and service recipient and study variables Conclusions: Conceptualizing systems as B, M, and R has potential for improving scientific understanding and systems planning. R systems appear more effective than B and M systems, although there is no "magic bullet" system for all service recipients. Interstudy heterogeneity indicates need for common approaches to reporting service recipient states, time periods for TPs, service recipient attributes, and service system characteristics. TPs found should be used in Markov simulations to project system effectiveness and costs of over time.

Health and social support services to HIV/AIDS infected individuals in Tanzania: employees and employers perceptions.

PubMed

Kassile, Telemu; Anicetus, Honest; Kukula, Raphael; Mmbando, Bruno P

2014-06-20

HIV is a major public health problem in the world, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. It often leads to loss of productive labour and disruption of existing social support system which results in deterioration of population health. This poses a great challenge to infected people in meeting their essential goods and services. This paper examines health and social support services provided by employers to HIV/AIDS infected employees in Tanzania. This was a cross-sectional study, which employed qualitative and quantitative methods in data collection and analysis. Structured questionnaires and in-depth interviews were used to assess the health and social support services provision at employers and employees perspectives. The study participants were employees and employers from public and private organizations. A total of 181 employees and 23 employers from 23 workplaces aged between 18-68 years were involved. The results show that 23.8% (i.e., 20.4% males and 27.3% females) of the employees had at least one member of the family or close relatives living with HIV at the time of the study. Fifty six percent of the infected employees reported to have been receiving health or social support from their employers. Employees' responses were consistent with those reported by their employers. A total of 12(52.2%) and 11(47.8%) employers reported to have been providing health and social supports respectively. Female employees (58.3%) from the private sector (60.0%) were more likely to receive supports than male employees (52.6%) and than those from the public sector (46.2%). The most common health and social support received by the employees were treatment, and nutritional support and reduction of workload, respectively. HIV/AIDS infected employees named treatment and nutritional support, and soft loans and reduced workload respectively, as the most important health and social supports they needed from their employers. This study provides baseline information for further studies on provision of health and social support services by employers to HIV/AIDS infected employees in the context of a developing economy like Tanzania.

Health and social support services to HIV/AIDS infected individuals in Tanzania: employees and employers perceptions

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background HIV is a major public health problem in the world, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. It often leads to loss of productive labour and disruption of existing social support system which results in deterioration of population health. This poses a great challenge to infected people in meeting their essential goods and services. This paper examines health and social support services provided by employers to HIV/AIDS infected employees in Tanzania. Methods This was a cross-sectional study, which employed qualitative and quantitative methods in data collection and analysis. Structured questionnaires and in-depth interviews were used to assess the health and social support services provision at employers and employees perspectives. The study participants were employees and employers from public and private organizations. Results A total of 181 employees and 23 employers from 23 workplaces aged between 18–68 years were involved. The results show that 23.8% (i.e., 20.4% males and 27.3% females) of the employees had at least one member of the family or close relatives living with HIV at the time of the study. Fifty six percent of the infected employees reported to have been receiving health or social support from their employers. Employees’ responses were consistent with those reported by their employers. A total of 12(52.2%) and 11(47.8%) employers reported to have been providing health and social supports respectively. Female employees (58.3%) from the private sector (60.0%) were more likely to receive supports than male employees (52.6%) and than those from the public sector (46.2%). The most common health and social support received by the employees were treatment, and nutritional support and reduction of workload, respectively. Conclusions HIV/AIDS infected employees named treatment and nutritional support, and soft loans and reduced workload respectively, as the most important health and social supports they needed from their employers. This study provides baseline information for further studies on provision of health and social support services by employers to HIV/AIDS infected employees in the context of a developing economy like Tanzania. PMID:24950701

Employer Attitudes toward Study Abroad

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Trooboff, Stevan; Vande Berg, Michael; Rayman, Jack

2008-01-01

In recent years, as study abroad professionals have come to focus more squarely on the question of what students are in fact learning abroad, there has been increasing speculation about the extent to which study abroad increases prospects for employability following graduation. Common wisdom has it that undergraduates who study abroad have an…

Employment Counseling and Organizational Ethical Values

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Valentine, Sean

2004-01-01

Employment counseling is commonly used in companies to assist employees with various personal and professional challenges that are confronted in the workplace. Such guidance could affect the degree to which employees believe a company proactively supports an ethical orientation; the purpose of this study was to explore this issue. A self-report…

Spin Decoherence in III-V Quantum Wells and Superlattices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lau, Wayne H.; Flatté, Michael E.

2001-03-01

Electron spin decoherence in zincblende type quantum wells (QW) and superlattices (SL) near room temperature is dominated by the precessional D'yakonov-Perel' (DP) mechanism. The effective precession is a direct result of the spin splitting of the conduction band due to bulk inversion asymmetry (BIA) of the constituent zincblende semiconductors and also to any native interface asymmetry (NIA) of the heterointerfaces. The effect of BIA is dominant in common atom (CA) systems such as GaAs/AlGaAs QWs. However, in no common atom (NCA) systems such as InAs/GaSb, the interface bonds are different in character from those in the bulk and are asymmetrically oriented (giving rise to NIA). To accurately describe the DP spin relaxation mechanism we employ a nonperturbative nanostructure model based on a fourteen-bulk-band basis, including both BIA and NIA. Quantitative agreement between these calculations and measurements is found for GaAs/AlGaAs, InGaAs/InP, and GaSb/AlSb QW's, as well as for an InAs/GaSb SL.

Video display terminal operation: a potential risk in the etiology and maintenance of temporomandibular disorders.

PubMed

Horowitz, L; Sarkin, J M

1992-01-01

Surveys indicate over 50 million Americans, mostly women, currently operate video display terminals (VDTs) at home or in the workplace. Recent epidemiological studies reveal more than 75% of approximately 30 million American temporomandibular disorder (TMD) sufferers are women. What does the VDT and TMD have in common besides an affinity for the female gender? TMD is associated with numerous risk factors that commonly initiate sympathetic nervous system and stress hormone response mechanisms resulting in muscle spasms, trigger point formation, and pain in the head and neck. Likewise VDT operation may be linked to three additional sympathetic nervous system irritants including: (1) electrostatic ambient air negative ion depletion, (2) electromagnetic radiation, and (3) eyestrain and postural stress associated with poor work habits and improper work station design. Additional research considering the roles these three factors may play in the etiology of TMD and other myofascial pain problems is indicated. Furthermore, dentists are advised to educate patients as to these possible risks, encourage preventive behaviors on the part of employers and employees, and recommend workplace health, safety, and ergonomic upgrades when indicated.

Quantum key distribution with an efficient countermeasure against correlated intensity fluctuations in optical pulses

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yoshino, Ken-ichiro; Fujiwara, Mikio; Nakata, Kensuke; Sumiya, Tatsuya; Sasaki, Toshihiko; Takeoka, Masahiro; Sasaki, Masahide; Tajima, Akio; Koashi, Masato; Tomita, Akihisa

2018-03-01

Quantum key distribution (QKD) allows two distant parties to share secret keys with the proven security even in the presence of an eavesdropper with unbounded computational power. Recently, GHz-clock decoy QKD systems have been realized by employing ultrafast optical communication devices. However, security loopholes of high-speed systems have not been fully explored yet. Here we point out a security loophole at the transmitter of the GHz-clock QKD, which is a common problem in high-speed QKD systems using practical band-width limited devices. We experimentally observe the inter-pulse intensity correlation and modulation pattern-dependent intensity deviation in a practical high-speed QKD system. Such correlation violates the assumption of most security theories. We also provide its countermeasure which does not require significant changes of hardware and can generate keys secure over 100 km fiber transmission. Our countermeasure is simple, effective and applicable to wide range of high-speed QKD systems, and thus paves the way to realize ultrafast and security-certified commercial QKD systems.

Cross-correlation measurement of quantum shot noise using homemade transimpedance amplifiers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hashisaka, Masayuki; Ota, Tomoaki; Yamagishi, Masakazu; Fujisawa, Toshimasa; Muraki, Koji

2014-05-01

We report a cross-correlation measurement system, based on a new approach, which can be used to measure shot noise in a mesoscopic conductor at milliKelvin temperatures. In contrast to other measurement systems in which high-speed low-noise voltage amplifiers are commonly used, our system employs homemade transimpedance amplifiers (TAs). The low input impedance of the TAs significantly reduces the crosstalk caused by unavoidable parasitic capacitance between wires. The TAs are designed to have a flat gain over a frequency band from 2 kHz to 1 MHz. Low-noise performance is attained by installing the TAs at a 4 K stage of a dilution refrigerator. Our system thus fulfills the technical requirements for cross-correlation measurements: low noise floor, high frequency band, and negligible crosstalk between two signal lines. Using our system, shot noise generated at a quantum point contact embedded in a quantum Hall system is measured. The good agreement between the obtained shot-noise data and theoretical predictions demonstrates the accuracy of the measurements.

Joint Channel and Phase Noise Estimation in MIMO-OFDM Systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ngebani, I. M.; Chuma, J. M.; Zibani, I.; Matlotse, E.; Tsamaase, K.

2017-05-01

The combination of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) techniques with orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), MIMO-OFDM, is a promising way of achieving high spectral efficiency in wireless communication systems. However, the performance of MIMO-ODFM systems is highly degraded by radio frequency (RF) impairments such as phase noise. Similar to the single-input single-output (SISO) case, phase noise in MIMO-OFDM systems results in a common phase error (CPE) and inter carrier interference (ICI). In this paper the problem of joint channel and phase noise estimation in a system with multiple transmit and receive antennas where each antenna is equipped with its own independent oscillator is tackled. The technique employed makes use of a novel placement of pilot carriers in the preamble and data portion of the MIMO-OFDM frame. Numerical results using a 16 and 64 quadrature amplitude modulation QAM schemes are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme for MIMO-OFDM systems.

Finally, fixing health care: what's different now?

PubMed

Wyden, Ron; Bennett, Bob

2008-01-01

Is now the time to fix the U.S. health care system? Those who remember the failed attempts of the past would say no. We see it differently. Our optimism is rooted in new developments that didn't exist the last time Congress addressed health care. These include bipartisan support for our Healthy Americans Act; an ideological truce over the role of government in health care; common ground between business and labor; the realization that states can't go it alone on health care; the plight of employers in a global marketplace; and the need for coverage that is affordable, accessible, and portable.

Outline of Toshiba Business Information Center

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nagata, Yoshihiro

Toshiba Business Information Center gathers and stores inhouse and external business information used in common within the Toshiba Corp., and provides companywide circulation, reference and other services. The Center established centralized information management system by employing decentralized computers, electronic file apparatus (30cm laser disc) and other office automation equipments. Online retrieval through LAN is available to search the stored documents and increasing copying requests are processed by electronic file. This paper describes the purpose of establishment of the Center, the facilities, management scheme, systematization of the files and the present situation and plan of each information service.

Historical flight qualifications of space nuclear systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bennett, Gary L.

1997-01-01

An overview is presented of the qualification programs for the general-purpose heat source radioisotope thermoelectric generators (GPHS-RTGs) as developed for the Galileo and Ulysses missions; the SNAP-10A space reactor; the Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Applications (NERVA); the F-1 chemical rocket engine used on the Saturn-V Apollo lunar missions; and the Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSMEs). Some similarities and contrasts between the qualification testing employed on these five programs will be noted. One common thread was that in each of these successful programs there was an early focus on component and subsystem tests to uncover and correct problems.

Variable pitch fan system for NASA/Navy research and technology aircraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ryan, W. P.; Black, D. M.; Yates, A. F.

1977-01-01

Preliminary design of a shaft driven, variable-pitch lift fan and lift-cruise fan was conducted for a V/STOL Research and Technology Aircraft. The lift fan and lift-cruise fan employed a common rotor of 157.5 cm diameter, 1.18 pressure ratio variable-pitch fan designed to operate at a rotor-tip speed of 284 mps. Fan performance maps were prepared and detailed aerodynamic characteristics were established. Cost/weight/risk trade studies were conducted for the blade and fan case. Structural sizing was conducted for major components and weights determined for both the lift and lift-cruise fans.

Persuasive system design does matter: a systematic review of adherence to web-based interventions.

PubMed

Kelders, Saskia M; Kok, Robin N; Ossebaard, Hans C; Van Gemert-Pijnen, Julia E W C

2012-11-14

Although web-based interventions for promoting health and health-related behavior can be effective, poor adherence is a common issue that needs to be addressed. Technology as a means to communicate the content in web-based interventions has been neglected in research. Indeed, technology is often seen as a black-box, a mere tool that has no effect or value and serves only as a vehicle to deliver intervention content. In this paper we examine technology from a holistic perspective. We see it as a vital and inseparable aspect of web-based interventions to help explain and understand adherence. This study aims to review the literature on web-based health interventions to investigate whether intervention characteristics and persuasive design affect adherence to a web-based intervention. We conducted a systematic review of studies into web-based health interventions. Per intervention, intervention characteristics, persuasive technology elements and adherence were coded. We performed a multiple regression analysis to investigate whether these variables could predict adherence. We included 101 articles on 83 interventions. The typical web-based intervention is meant to be used once a week, is modular in set-up, is updated once a week, lasts for 10 weeks, includes interaction with the system and a counselor and peers on the web, includes some persuasive technology elements, and about 50% of the participants adhere to the intervention. Regarding persuasive technology, we see that primary task support elements are most commonly employed (mean 2.9 out of a possible 7.0). Dialogue support and social support are less commonly employed (mean 1.5 and 1.2 out of a possible 7.0, respectively). When comparing the interventions of the different health care areas, we find significant differences in intended usage (p=.004), setup (p<.001), updates (p<.001), frequency of interaction with a counselor (p<.001), the system (p=.003) and peers (p=.017), duration (F=6.068, p=.004), adherence (F=4.833, p=.010) and the number of primary task support elements (F=5.631, p=.005). Our final regression model explained 55% of the variance in adherence. In this model, a RCT study as opposed to an observational study, increased interaction with a counselor, more frequent intended usage, more frequent updates and more extensive employment of dialogue support significantly predicted better adherence. Using intervention characteristics and persuasive technology elements, a substantial amount of variance in adherence can be explained. Although there are differences between health care areas on intervention characteristics, health care area per se does not predict adherence. Rather, the differences in technology and interaction predict adherence. The results of this study can be used to make an informed decision about how to design a web-based intervention to which patients are more likely to adhere.

Long-Term Effects of Mental disorders on Employment In the National Comorbidity Survey Ten-Year Follow-up

PubMed Central

Mojtabai, Ramin; Stuart, Elizabeth A.; Hwang, Irving; Susukida, Ryoko; Eaton, William W.; Sampson, Nancy; Kessler, Ronald C.

2015-01-01

Purpose Although significant negative associations of mental disorders with employment have been documented in epidemiological research, much of this research was based on cross-sectional samples and focused only on severe and persistent mental disorders. The present study examined the longitudinal associations of more common mental disorders with employment. Methods Data on the associations of common mental disorders with employment are presented here from 4,501 respondents in the National Comorbidity Survey panel study, a two-wave community epidemiological survey of respondents aged 15-54 at baseline (1990-1992) who were re-interviewed in 2001-2003 and were employed, unemployed in the labor force or student at baseline. Lifetime mental disorders at baseline and disorders with onset after baseline were assessed with the Composite International Diagnostic Interview, a fully-structured interview that assessed lifetime prevalence of internalizing fear disorders (panic, phobias), anxiety/misery disorders (major depression, generalized anxiety disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder), externalizing disorders (conduct disorder, alcohol and illicit drug abuse-dependence), and bipolar disorder. Results Both baseline lifetime disorders and disorders with onsets after baseline were associated with significantly reduced odds of subsequent employment among respondents who were either employed or students at baseline. Population projections based on the assumption that these associations represented causal effects suggest that the mental disorders considered here were associated with 1.7-3.2 million adults being unemployed in the US population at follow-up. Conclusions Expanded access to treatment among current employees and students with mental disorders might lead to improved employment outcomes in these segments of the population. PMID:26211661

Extrudability of four common beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.)

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Extrusion method has been used to cook different food materials by employing the combination of high temperature, pressure and shearing stresses. Effects of extrusion cooking on functional, physicochemical and nutritional properties of common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) have been reported for years...

Applications of common beans in food and biobased materials

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Extrusion method has been used to cook different food materials by employing the combination of high temperature, pressure and shearing stresses. Effects of extrusion cooking on functional, physicochemical and nutritional properties of common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) have been reported for years...

High Prevalence of Vitamin D Deficiency and Associated Risk Factors among Employed Women in a Sunny Industrial City.

PubMed

Hassannia, Tahereh; GhaznaviRad, Ehsan; Vakili, Rosita; Taheri, Sohaila; Rezaee, Seyed Abdolrahim

2015-01-01

Vitamin D deficiency is a public health concern associated with the pathogenesis of several chronic disorders, particularly in women. To evaluate serum vitamin D levels and its deficiency and risk factors among employed women in a sunny industrial city. In this cross-sectional study, serum vitamin D levels, biochemical and hematological factors were assessed in 382 healthy employed women. Demographic information was collected using a standard questionnaire and data was analyzed by SPSS software. The mean vitamin D serum level was 22 ± 19.8 ng/ml. Prevalence of vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency were 62 % and 12.94 %, respectively. Deficiency was more common among younger subjects (< 29 years old). 23.5 % of subjects had normal and 1.35 % had toxic levels of vitamin D. Maximum serum level was observed in part-time job employees (33 ng/ml), and the lowest in Media and Culture Organizations (15 ng/ml).Vitamin D deficiency was associated with the lack of sunlight exposure at home, and taking anti-hypertensive medications. The common symptoms in deficiency condition were history of hyperlipidemia, depression, weakness, fatigue, finger tingling, leg cramps, and body and muscle pain. Moreover, LDL-cholesterol serum levels were significantly higher in the vitamin D deficiency group, with a prevalence of 40 %. The symptoms of vitamin D deficiency including depression, weakness, fatigue, tingling, leg cramps and body and muscle pain have been observed in more than 90 % after recruitment and treatment. Therefore, for improving the health and productivity of employees, a routine monitoring system for vitamin D and the other factors should be put in place.

Evaluation of an enzyme immunoassay system for measuring herpes simplex virus (HSV) type 1-specific and HSV type 2-specific IgG antibodies.

PubMed

Prince, H E; Ernst, C E; Hogrefe, W R

2000-01-01

MRL Diagnostics has developed a dual enzyme immunoassay (EIA) system that employs the recombinant Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV) type-specific glycoproteins G1 (HSV1) and G2 (HSV2) to detect HSV type-specific IgG antibodies. This system was evaluated using 155 consecutive sera previously tested in a conventional dual EIA system (Zeus) that employs multiple HSV1 and HSV2 proteins to detect type-common as well as type-specific antibodies. Sera were also analyzed by Western blot to determine the true HSV type-specific IgG reactivity pattern. Of 110 sera giving concordant reactivity patterns in the MRL and Zeus EIA systems, 108 (98%) also displayed concordant Western blot patterns; two sera gave false positive HSV2 reactivity in both EIA systems. Of 45 sera giving discordant MRL and Zeus EIA reactivity patterns, 41 (91%) displayed a Western blot reactivity pattern that matched the MRL reactivity pattern. Both the HSV1 IgG component and the HSV2 IgG component of the MRL EIA system were 100% sensitive and > 95% specific. In contrast, the Zeus HSV1 IgG EIA was 98% sensitive and 79% specific, and the Zeus HSV2 IgG EIA was 85% sensitive and 79% specific. An analysis of the distribution of index values in the MRL EIA system showed that low-positive values (1.0-3.0) were rare, but, when detected, often represented false positive results; only 11 MRL low-positive results were observed, but all 6 MRL false positive results were found within this low-positive subgroup. These findings show that the MRL dual EIA system effectively detects HSV type-specific IgG antibodies. Copyright 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Development of blood vessel searching system for HMS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kandani, Hirofumi; Uenoya, Toshiyuki; Uetsuji, Yasutomo; Nakamachi, Eiji

2008-08-01

In this study, we develop a new 3D miniature blood vessel searching system by using near-infrared LED light, a CMOS camera module with an image processing unit for a health monitoring system (HMS), a drug delivery system (DDS) which requires very high performance for automatic micro blood volume extraction and automatic blood examination. Our objective is to fabricate a highly reliable micro detection system by utilizing image capturing, image processing, and micro blood extraction devices. For the searching system to determine 3D blood vessel location, we employ the stereo method. The stereo method is a common photogrammetric method. It employs the optical path principle to detect 3D location of the disparity between two cameras. The principle for blood vessel visualization is derived from the ratio of hemoglobin's absorption of the near-infrared LED light. To get a high quality blood vessel image, we adopted an LED, with peak a wavelength of 940nm. The LED is set on the dorsal side of the finger and it irradiates the human finger. A blood vessel image is captured by a CMOS camera module, which is set below the palmer side of the finger. 2D blood vessel location can be detected by the luminance distribution of a one pixel line. To examine the accuracy of our detecting system, we carried out experiments using finger phantoms with blood vessel diameters of 0.5, 0.75, 1.0mm, at the depths of 0.5 ~ 2.0 mm from the phantom's surface. The experimental results of the estimated depth obtained by our detecting system shows good agreements with the given depths, and the viability of this system is confirmed.

Paid employment and common mental disorders in 50-64-year olds: analysis of three cross-sectional nationally representative survey samples in 1993, 2000 and 2007.

PubMed

Perera, G; Di Gessa, G; Corna, L M; Glaser, K; Stewart, R

2017-08-24

Associations between employment status and mental health are well recognised, but evidence is sparse on the relationship between paid employment and mental health in the years running up to statutory retirement ages using robust mental health measures. In addition, there has been no investigation into the stability over time in this relationship: an important consideration if survey findings are used to inform future policy. The aim of this study is to investigate the association between employment status and common mental disorder (CMD) in 50-64-year old residents in England and its stability over time, taking advantage of three national mental health surveys carried out over a 14-year period. Data were analysed from the British National Surveys of Psychiatric Morbidity of 1993, 2000 and 2007. Paid employment status was the primary exposure of interest and CMD the primary outcome - both ascertained identically in all three surveys (CMD from the revised Clinical Interview Schedule). Multivariable logistic regression models were used. The prevalence of CMD was higher in people not in paid employment across all survey years; however, this association was only present for non-employment related to poor health as an outcome and was not apparent in those citing other reasons for non-employment. Odds ratios for the association between non-employment due to ill health and CMD were 3.05 in 1993, 3.56 in 2000, and 2.80 in 2007, after adjustment for age, gender, marital status, education, social class, housing tenure, financial difficulties, smoking status, recent physical health consultation and activities of daily living impairment. The prevalence of CMD was higher in people not in paid employment for health reasons, but was not associated with non-employment for other reasons. Associations had been relatively stable in strength from 1993 to 2007 in those three cross-sectional nationally representative samples.

Targeted disruption of sp7 and myostatin with CRISPR-Cas9 results in severe bone defects and more muscular cells in common carp

PubMed Central

Zhong, Zhaomin; Niu, Pengfei; Wang, Mingyong; Huang, Guodong; Xu, Shuhao; Sun, Yi; Xu, Xiaona; Hou, Yi; Sun, Xiaowen; Yan, Yilin; Wang, Han

2016-01-01

The common carp (Cyprinus carpio) as one of the most important aquaculture fishes produces over 3 million metric tones annually, approximately 10% the annual production of the all farmed freshwater fish worldwide. However, the tetraploidy genome and long generation-time of the common carp have made its breeding and genetic studies extremely difficult. Here, TALEN and CRISPR-Cas9, two versatile genome-editing tools, are employed to target common carp bone-related genes sp7, runx2, bmp2a, spp1, opg, and muscle suppressor gene mstn. TALEN were shown to induce mutations in the target coding sites of sp7, runx2, spp1 and mstn. With CRISPR-Cas9, the two common carp sp7 genes, sp7a and sp7b, were mutated individually, all resulting in severe bone defects; while mstnba mutated fish have grown significantly more muscle cells. We also employed CRISPR-Cas9 to generate double mutant fish of sp7a;mstnba with high efficiencies in a single step. These results demonstrate that both TALEN and CRISPR-Cas9 are highly efficient tools for modifying the common carp genome, and open avenues for facilitating common carp genetic studies and breeding. PMID:26976234

Robust watermark technique using masking and Hermite transform.

PubMed

Coronel, Sandra L Gomez; Ramírez, Boris Escalante; Mosqueda, Marco A Acevedo

2016-01-01

The following paper evaluates a watermark algorithm designed for digital images by using a perceptive mask and a normalization process, thus preventing human eye detection, as well as ensuring its robustness against common processing and geometric attacks. The Hermite transform is employed because it allows a perfect reconstruction of the image, while incorporating human visual system properties; moreover, it is based on the Gaussian functions derivates. The applied watermark represents information of the digital image proprietor. The extraction process is blind, because it does not require the original image. The following techniques were utilized in the evaluation of the algorithm: peak signal-to-noise ratio, the structural similarity index average, the normalized crossed correlation, and bit error rate. Several watermark extraction tests were performed, with against geometric and common processing attacks. It allowed us to identify how many bits in the watermark can be modified for its adequate extraction.

Walking and talking the tree of life: Why and how to teach about biodiversity

PubMed Central

Ballen, Cissy J.; Greene, Harry W.

2017-01-01

Taxonomic details of diversity are an essential scaffolding for biology education, yet outdated methods for teaching the tree of life (TOL), as implied by textbook content and usage, are still commonly employed. Here, we show that the traditional approach only vaguely represents evolutionary relationships, fails to denote major events in the history of life, and relies heavily on memorizing near-meaningless taxonomic ranks. Conversely, a clade-based strategy—focused on common ancestry, monophyletic groups, and derived functional traits—is explicitly based on Darwin’s “descent with modification,” provides students with a rational system for organizing the details of biodiversity, and readily lends itself to active learning techniques. We advocate for a phylogenetic classification that mirrors the TOL, a pedagogical format of increasingly complex but always hierarchical presentations, and the adoption of active learning technologies and tactics. PMID:28319149

Convergence studies in meshfree peridynamic simulations

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

Seleson, Pablo; Littlewood, David J.

2016-04-15

Meshfree methods are commonly applied to discretize peridynamic models, particularly in numerical simulations of engineering problems. Such methods discretize peridynamic bodies using a set of nodes with characteristic volume, leading to particle-based descriptions of systems. In this article, we perform convergence studies of static peridynamic problems. We show that commonly used meshfree methods in peridynamics suffer from accuracy and convergence issues, due to a rough approximation of the contribution to the internal force density of nodes near the boundary of the neighborhood of a given node. We propose two methods to improve meshfree peridynamic simulations. The first method uses accuratemore » computations of volumes of intersections between neighbor cells and the neighborhood of a given node, referred to as partial volumes. The second method employs smooth influence functions with a finite support within peridynamic kernels. Numerical results demonstrate great improvements in accuracy and convergence of peridynamic numerical solutions, when using the proposed methods.« less

Patient Outcomes as Transformative Mechanisms to Bring Health Information Technology Industry and Research Informatics Closer Together.

PubMed

Krive, Jacob

2015-01-01

Despite the fast pace of recent innovation within the health information technology and research informatics domains, there remains a large gap between research and academia, while interest in translating research innovations into implementations in the patient care settings is lacking. This is due to absence of common outcomes and performance measurement targets, with health information technology industry employing financial and operational measures and academia focusing on patient outcome concerns. The paper introduces methodology for and roadmap to introduction of common objectives as a way to encourage better collaboration between industry and academia using patient outcomes as a composite measure of demonstrated success from health information systems investments. Along the way, the concept of economics of health informatics, or "infonomics," is introduced to define a new way of mapping future technology investments in accordance with projected clinical impact.

Synthesis, metabolism and systemic transport of a fluorinated mimic of the endogenous jasmonate precursor OPC-8:0.

PubMed

Jimenez-Aleman, Guillermo H; Scholz, Sandra S; Heyer, Monika; Reichelt, Michael; Mithöfer, Axel; Boland, Wilhelm

2015-12-01

Jasmonates (JAs) are fatty acid derivatives that mediate many developmental processes and stress responses in plants. Synthetic jasmonate derivatives (commonly isotopically labeled), which mimic the action of the endogenous compounds are often employed as internal standards or probes to study metabolic processes. However, stable-isotope labeling of jasmonates does not allow the study of spatial and temporal distribution of these compounds in real time by positron emission tomography (PET). In this study, we explore whether a fluorinated jasmonate could mimic the action of the endogenous compound and therefore, be later employed as a tracer to study metabolic processes by PET. We describe the synthesis and the metabolism of (Z)-7-fluoro-8-(3-oxo-2-(pent-2-en-1-yl)cyclopentyl)octanoic acid (7F-OPC-8:0), a fluorinated analog of the JA precursor OPC-8:0. Like endogenous jasmonates, 7F-OPC-8:0 induces the transcription of marker jasmonate responsive genes (JRG) and the accumulation of jasmonates after its application to Arabidopsis thaliana plants. By using UHPLC-MS/MS, we could show that 7F-OPC-8:0 is metabolized in vivo similarly to the endogenous OPC-8:0. Furthermore, the fluorinated analog was successfully employed as a probe to show its translocation to undamaged systemic leaves when it was applied to wounded leaves. This result suggests that OPC-8:0 - and maybe other oxylipins - may contribute to the mobile signal which triggers systemic defense responses in plants. We highlight the potential of fluorinated oxylipins to study the mode of action of lipid-derived molecules in planta, either by conventional analytical methods or fluorine-based detection techniques. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Designing scalable product families by the radial basis function-high-dimensional model representation metamodelling technique

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pirmoradi, Zhila; Haji Hajikolaei, Kambiz; Wang, G. Gary

2015-10-01

Product family design is cost-efficient for achieving the best trade-off between commonalization and diversification. However, for computationally intensive design functions which are viewed as black boxes, the family design would be challenging. A two-stage platform configuration method with generalized commonality is proposed for a scale-based family with unknown platform configuration. Unconventional sensitivity analysis and information on variation in the individual variants' optimal design are used for platform configuration design. Metamodelling is employed to provide the sensitivity and variable correlation information, leading to significant savings in function calls. A family of universal electric motors is designed for product performance and the efficiency of this method is studied. The impact of the employed parameters is also analysed. Then, the proposed method is modified for obtaining higher commonality. The proposed method is shown to yield design solutions with better objective function values, allowable performance loss and higher commonality than the previously developed methods in the literature.

Recent advancements in supporting materials for immobilised photocatalytic applications in waste water treatment.

PubMed

Srikanth, B; Goutham, R; Badri Narayan, R; Ramprasath, A; Gopinath, K P; Sankaranarayanan, A R

2017-09-15

The aim of this paper is to provide a review on the usage of different anchoring media (supports) for immobilising commonly employed photocatalysts for degradation of organic pollutants. The immobilisation of nano-sized photocatalysts can eliminate costly and impractical post-treatment recovery of spent photocatalysts in largescale operations. Some commonly employed immobilisation aids such as glass, carbonaceous substances, zeolites, clay and ceramics, polymers, cellulosic materials and metallic agents that have been previously discussed by various research groups have been reviewed. The study revealed that factors such as high durability, ease of availability, low density, chemical inertness and mechanical stability are primary factors responsible for the selection of suitable supports for catalysts. Common techniques for immobilisation namely, dip coating, cold plasma discharge, polymer assisted hydrothermal decomposition, RF magnetron sputtering, photoetching, solvent casting, electrophoretic deposition and spray pyrolysis have been discussed in detail. Finally, some common techniques adopted for the characterisation of the catalyst particles and their uses are also discussed. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Low-cost human motion capture system for postural analysis onboard ships

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nocerino, Erica; Ackermann, Sebastiano; Del Pizzo, Silvio; Menna, Fabio; Troisi, Salvatore

2011-07-01

The study of human equilibrium, also known as postural stability, concerns different research sectors (medicine, kinesiology, biomechanics, robotics, sport) and is usually performed employing motion analysis techniques for recording human movements and posture. A wide range of techniques and methodologies has been developed, but the choice of instrumentations and sensors depends on the requirement of the specific application. Postural stability is a topic of great interest for the maritime community, since ship motions can make demanding and difficult the maintenance of the upright stance with hazardous consequences for the safety of people onboard. The need of capturing the motion of an individual standing on a ship during its daily service does not permit to employ optical systems commonly used for human motion analysis. These sensors are not designed for operating in disadvantageous environmental conditions (water, wetness, saltiness) and with not optimal lighting. The solution proposed in this study consists in a motion acquisition system that could be easily usable onboard ships. It makes use of two different methodologies: (I) motion capture with videogrammetry and (II) motion measurement with Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU). The developed image-based motion capture system, made up of three low-cost, light and compact video cameras, was validated against a commercial optical system and then used for testing the reliability of the inertial sensors. In this paper, the whole process of planning, designing, calibrating, and assessing the accuracy of the motion capture system is reported and discussed. Results from the laboratory tests and preliminary campaigns in the field are presented.

Disinfection by-products in ballast water treatment: an evaluation of regulatory data.

PubMed

Werschkun, Barbara; Sommer, Yasmin; Banerji, Sangeeta

2012-10-15

To reduce the global spread of invasive aquatic species, international regulations will soon require reductions of the number of organisms in ballast water discharged by ships. For this purpose, ballast water treatment systems were developed and approved by an international procedure. These systems rely on established water treatment principles which, to different degrees, have been proven to generate disinfection by-products with hazardous properties but have only scarcely been investigated in marine environments. Our study evaluates the publicly available documentation about approved ballast water treatment systems with regard to by-product formation. The most commonly employed methods are chlorination, ozonation, and ultraviolet (UV) irradiation. Chlorination systems generate trihalomethanes, halogenated acetic acids, and bromate in substantially larger quantities than reported for other areas of application. Levels are highest in brackish water, and brominated species predominate, in particular bromoform and dibromoacetic acid. Ozonation, which is less frequently utilized, produces bromoform in lower concentrations but forms higher levels of bromate, both of which were effectively reduced by active carbon treatment. In systems based on UV radiation, medium pressure lamps are employed as well as UV-induced advanced oxidation. For all UV systems, by-product formation is reported only occasionally. The most notable observations were small increases in nitrite, hydrogen peroxide, halogenated methanes and acetic acids. The assessment of by-product formation during ballast water treatment is limited by the lacking completeness and quality of available information. This concerns the extent and statistical characterisation of chemical analysis as well as the documentation of the test water parameters. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

ATOS-1: Designing the infrastructure for an advanced spacecraft operations system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Poulter, K. J.; Smith, H. N.

1993-01-01

The space industry has identified the need to use artificial intelligence and knowledge based system techniques as integrated, central, symbolic processing components of future mission design, support and operations systems. Various practical and commercial constraints require that off-the-shelf applications, and their knowledge bases, are reused where appropriate and that different mission contractors, potentially using different KBS technologies, can provide application and knowledge sub-modules of an overall integrated system. In order to achieve this integration, which we call knowledge sharing and distributed reasoning, there needs to be agreement on knowledge representations, knowledge interchange-formats, knowledge level communications protocols, and ontology. Research indicates that the latter is most important, providing the applications with a common conceptualization of the domain, in our case spacecraft operations, mission design, and planning. Agreement on ontology permits applications that employ different knowledge representations to interwork through mediators which we refer to as knowledge agents. This creates the illusion of a shared model without the constraints, both technical and commercial, that occur in centralized or uniform architectures. This paper explains how these matters are being addressed within the ATOS program at ESOC, using techniques which draw upon ideas and standards emerging from the DARPA Knowledge Sharing Effort. In particular, we explain how the project is developing an electronic Ontology of Spacecraft Operations and how this can be used as an enabling component within space support systems that employ advanced software engineering. We indicate our hope and expectation that the core ontology developed in ATOS, will permit the full development of standards for such systems throughout the space industry.

Questions and Answers on Unfair Labor Practices. A Practitioner's Guide.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Indiana Univ., Bloomington. Midwest Center for Public Sector Labor Relations.

An unfair labor practice is the violation of any right granted employees, unions, or employers by a collective bargaining law. This guide answers common questions about unfair labor practices in public sector labor relations. The booklet is divided into two sections, unfair employer labor practices and unfair union labor practices. The section…

26 CFR 1.416-1 - Questions and answers on top-heavy plans.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

..., employers under common control or affiliated service group. A partner of a partnership will not be treated... preceding plan years) of key employees, former key employees, and non-key employees. (b) All employers that... aggregated must be categorized as key employees, as former key employees, or as non-key employees. See...

26 CFR 1.416-1 - Questions and answers on top-heavy plans.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

..., employers under common control or affiliated service group. A partner of a partnership will not be treated... preceding plan years) of key employees, former key employees, and non-key employees. (b) All employers that... aggregated must be categorized as key employees, as former key employees, or as non-key employees. See...

26 CFR 1.50A-3 - Recomputation of credit allowed by section 40.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... (h) of § 1.50B-1) if the employment relationship (as determined under common law principles) has... a termination of the employment relationship between the taxpayer and any WIN employee. (2) Failure..., or experience. However, there must be a reasonable relationship between the lower wages or salary of...

Employer Perception of the Preparation of Agricultural and Extension Education Graduates.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Graham, Donna L.

Educational reform measures have forced schools to form partnerships with business and industry to achieve common goals of a prepared workforce. These partnerships have forced colleges of agriculture to examine its mission and update the curriculum. This study sought to provide benchmark data from employers on the skills and abilities deemed…

Examining Reactions to Employer Information Using a Simulated Web-Based Job Fair

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Highhouse, Scott; Stanton, Jeffrey M.; Reeve, Charlie L.

2004-01-01

The approach taken in the present investigation was to examine reactions to positive and negative employer information by eliciting online (i.e., moment-to-moment) reactions in a simulated computer-based job fair. Reactions to positive and negative information commonly reveal a negatively biased asymmetry. Positively biased asymmetries have been…

Youth Unemployment in Rural Areas. Work and Opportunity Series.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cartmel, Fred; Furlong, Andy

This study investigated factors leading to employment and unemployment for young people living in urban and rural areas in Scotland. Surveys and interviews were conducted with 817 youths, 40 rural employers, and 25 professionals from across Scotland. Findings include: (1) long-term youth unemployment was less common in rural than in urban areas,…

The Making of Vulnerable Workers: Uncredentialed Young Adults in Postindustrial, Urban America

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brown, Tara M.

2016-01-01

Common explanations for the employment difficulties facing young adults without a secondary credential center on skill deficits, with little attention given to policies and practices that shape the nature of work. Using interview data from a participatory action research project, this article examines the employment experiences of 43…

Employers' Support for Adult Higher Education Students in Liberal Post-Socialist Contexts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Saar, Ellu; Vöörmann, Rein; Lang, Ailen

2014-01-01

In most European countries, the proportion of adult students among both full-time and part-time workers has increased significantly over recent decades. Undertaking paid work is also increasingly common among traditional students. The opportunities to work while studying depend largely on the role of employers in promoting learning. However, both…

26 CFR 1.416-1 - Questions and answers on top-heavy plans.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

..., employers under common control or affiliated service group. A partner of a partnership will not be treated... preceding plan years) of key employees, former key employees, and non-key employees. (b) All employers that... aggregated must be categorized as key employees, as former key employees, or as non-key employees. See...

Negotiating Uncertain Economic Times: Youth Employment Strategies in England

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hoskins, Bryony; Leonard, Pauline; Wilde, Rachel J.

2018-01-01

Higher education is commonly understood as the gateway to better, higher-paying jobs. This paper draws on longitudinal survey and interview data to explore how different groups of young people, those who left school at 18 and those graduating from higher education, negotiated pathways into employment or otherwise during the recent economic…

The Current Status of Women's Employment in Outdoor Leadership.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Loeffler, T. A.

A common assumption in the outdoor field has been that women's development as outdoor leaders has not kept pace with their participation in outdoor adventure activities. A survey about women's employment was mailed to 103 outdoor education programs with an adventure component; 62 responded. The programs served 160,585 participants in 1994, of…

Employment Profile of the Service Sector in Selected Countries.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bednarzik, Robert W.

The rise of the service sector is a major trend common to all western, industrialized countries. Employment in the service sector has increased in 1960-1986 in all 10 countries participating in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's Centre for Educational Research and Innovation Human Resources project (Japan, Belgium, France,…

Job Applicants and Preemployment Agreements: What Employment Counselors Need to Know

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Soper, Barlow; Von Bergen, C. W.; Mawer, William T.; Von Bergen, Alison N.; Rosenthal, Gary T.

2004-01-01

U.S. society is becoming increasingly litigious. Nowhere is this more evident than in the employment process, where preemployment agreements for job applicants are becoming more common. Preemployment agreements require applicants to accept certain terms or provisions before they are offered a position. In this article, the authors describe types…

Factors associated with employment status before and during pregnancy: Implications for studies of pregnancy outcomes.

PubMed

Rocheleau, Carissa M; Bertke, Stephen J; Lawson, Christina C; Romitti, Paul A; Desrosiers, Tania A; Agopian, Aaron J; Bell, Erin; Gilboa, Suzanne M

2017-04-01

Potential confounding or effect modification by employment status is frequently overlooked in pregnancy outcome studies. To characterize how employed and non-employed women differ, we compared demographics, behaviors, and reproductive histories by maternal employment status for 8,343 mothers of control (non-malformed) infants in the National Birth Defects Prevention Study (1997-2007) and developed a multivariable model for employment status anytime during pregnancy and the 3 months before conception. Sixteen factors were independently associated with employment before or during pregnancy, including: maternal age, pre-pregnancy body mass index, pregnancy intention, periconceptional/first trimester smoking and alcohol consumption, and household income. Employment status was significantly associated with many common risk factors for adverse pregnancy outcomes. Pregnancy outcome studies should consider adjustment or stratification by employment status. In studies of occupational exposures, these differences may cause uncontrollable confounding if non-employed women are treated as unexposed instead of excluded from analysis. Am. J. Ind. Med. 60:329-341, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Most common problems across health conditions as described by the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health.

PubMed

Ptyushkin, Pavel; Cieza, Alarcos; Stucki, Gerold

2015-09-01

Health conditions are associated with a variety of functional outcomes. Even though functional outcomes are diverse for different health conditions, they can have important commonalities. The aim of this study was to identify the most common problems in functioning across the wide range of health conditions using the International Classification of Functioning (ICF). Existing databases created for the 21 ICF Core Sets studies were descriptively analyzed. These included data collected in 44 countries on 9978 patients with one of 21 health conditions as the main diagnosis. A frequency cutoff of 50% was used to identify the most common problems in functioning when looking at single health conditions and across them. No category was identified as common to all health conditions included in the study. Fifteen most frequent categories were common in 10 to 13 health conditions out of 21. Eleven categories correspond to the list of activities and participation, and four to the list of body functions. These are related to mobility, daily routine, mental functions, intimate relations, employment, and leisure. Some health conditions have more commonalities between each other. The most common problems across health conditions are therefore related to mental functions, mobility, daily life, intimate relations, employment, and leisure. The results contribute toward the identification of the universal set of ICF categories that can be used in clinical practice for the general assessment of functioning.

Comparative analysis of effluent water quality from a municipal treatment plant and two on-site wastewater treatment systems.

PubMed

Garcia, Santos N; Clubbs, Rebekah L; Stanley, Jacob K; Scheffe, Brian; Yelderman, Joe C; Brooks, Bryan W

2013-06-01

Though decentralized on-site technologies are extensively employed for wastewater treatment around the globe, an understanding of effluent water quality impairments associated with these systems remain less understood than effluent discharges from centralized municipal wastewater treatment facilities. Using a unique experimental facility, a novel comparative analysis of effluent water quality was performed from model decentralized aerobic (ATS) and septic (STS) on-site wastewater treatment systems and a centralized municipal wastewater treatment plant (MTP). The ATS and STS units did not benefit from further soil treatment. Each system received common influent wastewater from the Waco, Texas, USA Metropolitan Area Regional Sewerage System. We tested the hypothesis that MTP effluent would exhibit higher water quality than on-site effluents, based on parameters selected for study. A tiered testing approach was employed to assess the three effluent discharges: select routine water quality parameters (Tier I), whole effluent toxicity (Tier II), and select endocrine-active compounds (Tier III). Contrary to our hypothesis, ATS effluent was not statistically different from MTP effluents, based on Tier I and III parameters, but reproductive responses of Daphnia magna were slightly more sensitive to ATS than MTP effluents. STS effluent water quality was identified as most degraded of the three wastewater treatment systems. Parameters used to assess centralized wastewater treatment plant effluent water quality such as whole effluent toxicity and endocrine active substances appear useful for water quality assessments of decentralized discharges. Aerobic on-site wastewater treatment systems may represent more robust options than traditional septic systems for on-site wastewater treatment in watersheds with appreciable groundwater - surface water exchange. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Second order nonlinear QED processes in ultra-strong laser fields

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mackenroth, Felix

2017-10-01

In the interaction of ultra-intense laser fields with matter the ever increasing peak laser intensities render nonlinear QED effects ever more important. For long, ultra-intense laser pulses scattering large systems, like a macroscopic plasma, the interaction time can be longer than the scattering time, leading to multiple scatterings. These are usually approximated as incoherent cascades of single-vertex processes. Under certain conditions, however, this common cascade approximation may be insufficient, as it disregards several effects such as coherent processes, quantum interferences or pulse shape effects. Quantifying deviations of the full amplitude of multiple scatterings from the commonly employed cascade approximations is a formidable, yet unaccomplished task. In this talk we are going to discuss how to compute second order nonlinear QED amplitudes and relate them to the conventional cascade approximation. We present examples for typical second order processes and benchmark the full result against common approximations. We demonstrate that the approximation of multiple nonlinear QED scatterings as a cascade of single interactions has certain limitations and discuss these limits in light of upcoming experimental tests.

[Detection of the introgression of genome elements of the Aegilops cylindrica host. into the Triticum aestivum L. genome by ISSR and SSR analysis].

PubMed

Galaev, A V; Babaiants, L T; Sivolap, Iu M

2004-12-01

To reveal sites of the donor genome in wheat crossed with Aegilops cylindrica, which acquired conferred resistance to fungal diseases, a comparative analysis of introgressive and parental forms was conducted. Two systems of PCR analysis, ISSR and SSR-PCR, were employed. Upon use of 7 ISSR primers in genotypes of 30 individual plants BC1 F9 belonging to lines 5/55-91 and 5/20-91, 19 ISSR loci were revealed and assigned to introgressive fragments of Aegilops cylindrica genome in Triticum aestivum. The 40 pairs of SSR primers allowed the detection of seven introgressive alleles; three of these alleles were located on common wheat chromosomes in the B genome, while four alleles, in the D genome. Based on data of microsatellite analysis, it was assumed that the telomeric region of the long arm of common wheat chromosome 6A also changed. ISSR and SSR methods were shown to be effective for detecting variability caused by introgression of foreign genetic material into the genome of common wheat.

Modular Activating Receptors in Innate and Adaptive Immunity.

PubMed

Berry, Richard; Call, Matthew E

2017-03-14

Triggering of cell-mediated immunity is largely dependent on the recognition of foreign or abnormal molecules by a myriad of cell surface-bound receptors. Many activating immune receptors do not possess any intrinsic signaling capacity but instead form noncovalent complexes with one or more dimeric signaling modules that communicate with a common set of kinases to initiate intracellular information-transfer pathways. This modular architecture, where the ligand binding and signaling functions are detached from one another, is a common theme that is widely employed throughout the innate and adaptive arms of immune systems. The evolutionary advantages of this highly adaptable platform for molecular recognition are visible in the variety of ligand-receptor interactions that can be linked to common signaling pathways, the diversification of receptor modules in response to pathogen challenges, and the amplification of cellular responses through incorporation of multiple signaling motifs. Here we provide an overview of the major classes of modular activating immune receptors and outline the current state of knowledge regarding how these receptors assemble, recognize their ligands, and ultimately trigger intracellular signal transduction pathways that activate immune cell effector functions.

Overview of the production of sintered SiC optics and optical sub-assemblies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Williams, S.; Deny, P.

2005-08-01

The following is an overview on sintered silicon carbide (SSiC) material properties and processing requirements for the manufacturing of components for advanced technology optical systems. The overview will compare SSiC material properties to typical materials used for optics and optical structures. In addition, it will review manufacturing processes required to produce optical components in detail by process step. The process overview will illustrate current manufacturing process and concepts to expand the process size capability. The overview will include information on the substantial capital equipment employed in the manufacturing of SSIC. This paper will also review common in-process inspection methodology and design rules. The design rules are used to improve production yield, minimize cost, and maximize the inherent benefits of SSiC for optical systems. Optimizing optical system designs for a SSiC manufacturing process will allow systems designers to utilize SSiC as a low risk, cost competitive, and fast cycle time technology for next generation optical systems.

Methods of Model Reduction for Large-Scale Biological Systems: A Survey of Current Methods and Trends.

PubMed

Snowden, Thomas J; van der Graaf, Piet H; Tindall, Marcus J

2017-07-01

Complex models of biochemical reaction systems have become increasingly common in the systems biology literature. The complexity of such models can present a number of obstacles for their practical use, often making problems difficult to intuit or computationally intractable. Methods of model reduction can be employed to alleviate the issue of complexity by seeking to eliminate those portions of a reaction network that have little or no effect upon the outcomes of interest, hence yielding simplified systems that retain an accurate predictive capacity. This review paper seeks to provide a brief overview of a range of such methods and their application in the context of biochemical reaction network models. To achieve this, we provide a brief mathematical account of the main methods including timescale exploitation approaches, reduction via sensitivity analysis, optimisation methods, lumping, and singular value decomposition-based approaches. Methods are reviewed in the context of large-scale systems biology type models, and future areas of research are briefly discussed.

Optimal Bi-Objective Redundancy Allocation for Systems Reliability and Risk Management.

PubMed

Govindan, Kannan; Jafarian, Ahmad; Azbari, Mostafa E; Choi, Tsan-Ming

2016-08-01

In the big data era, systems reliability is critical to effective systems risk management. In this paper, a novel multiobjective approach, with hybridization of a known algorithm called NSGA-II and an adaptive population-based simulated annealing (APBSA) method is developed to solve the systems reliability optimization problems. In the first step, to create a good algorithm, we use a coevolutionary strategy. Since the proposed algorithm is very sensitive to parameter values, the response surface method is employed to estimate the appropriate parameters of the algorithm. Moreover, to examine the performance of our proposed approach, several test problems are generated, and the proposed hybrid algorithm and other commonly known approaches (i.e., MOGA, NRGA, and NSGA-II) are compared with respect to four performance measures: 1) mean ideal distance; 2) diversification metric; 3) percentage of domination; and 4) data envelopment analysis. The computational studies have shown that the proposed algorithm is an effective approach for systems reliability and risk management.

To zoom or not to zoom: do we have enough pixels?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Youngworth, Richard N.; Herman, Eric

2015-09-01

Common lexicon in imaging systems includes the frequently used term digital zoom. Of course this term is somewhat of a misnomer as there is no actual zooming in such systems. Instead, digital zoom describes the zoom effect that comes with an image rewriting or reprinting that perhaps can be more accurately described as cropping and enlarging an image (a pixel remapping) for viewing. If done properly, users of the overall hybrid digital-optical system do not know the methodology employed. Hence the essential question, pondered and manipulated since the advent of mature digital image science, really becomes "do we have enough pixels to avoid optical zoom." This paper discusses known imaging factors for hybrid digital-optical systems, most notably resolution considerations. The paper is fundamentally about communication, and thereby includes information useful to the greater consumer, technical, and business community who all have an interest in understanding the key technical details that have driven the amazing technology and development of zoom systems.

Spring 2013 Graduate Engineering Internship Summary

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ehrlich, Joshua

2013-01-01

In the spring of 2013, I participated in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Pathways Intern Employment Program at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. This was my final internship opportunity with NASA, a third consecutive extension from a summer 2012 internship. Since the start of my tenure here at KSC, I have gained an invaluable depth of engineering knowledge and extensive hands-on experience. These opportunities have granted me the ability to enhance my systems engineering approach in the field of payload design and testing as well as develop a strong foundation in the area of composite fabrication and testing for repair design on space vehicle structures. As a systems engineer, I supported the systems engineering and integration team with final acceptance testing of the Vegetable Production System, commonly referred to as Veggie. Verification and validation (V and V) of Veggie was carried out prior to qualification testing of the payload, which incorporated the process of confirming the system's design requirements dependent on one or more validation methods: inspection, analysis, demonstration, and testing.

Bureaucratization and medical professionals' values: A cross-national analysis.

PubMed

Racko, Girts

2017-05-01

Understanding the impact of the bureaucratization of governance systems on the occupational values of medical professionals is a fundamental concern of the sociological research of healthcare professions. While previous studies have examined the impact of bureaucratized management, organizations, and healthcare fields on medical professionals' values, there is a lack of cross-national research on the normative impact of the bureaucratized systems of national governance. Using the European Social Survey data for 29 countries, this study examines the impact of the bureaucratization of national governance systems on the occupational values of medical professionals. The findings indicate that medical professionals who are employed in countries with the more bureaucratized systems of national governance are less concerned with openness to change values, that emphasize autonomy and creativity, and self-transcendence values, that emphasize common good. The findings also indicate that the negative effect of the bureaucratization of national governance on the openness to change values is stronger for medical professionals in more bureaucratized organizations with more rationalized administration systems. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A critical review about methodologies for the analysis of mucoadhesive properties of drug delivery systems.

PubMed

Bassi da Silva, Jéssica; Ferreira, Sabrina Barbosa de Souza; de Freitas, Osvaldo; Bruschi, Marcos Luciano

2017-07-01

Mucoadhesion is a useful strategy for drug delivery systems, such as tablets, patches, gels, liposomes, micro/nanoparticles, nanosuspensions, microemulsions and colloidal dispersions. Moreover, it has contributed to many benefits like increased residence time at application sites, drug protection, increased drug permeation and improved drug availability. In this context, investigation into the mucoadhesive properties of pharmaceutical dosage forms is fundamental, in order to characterize, understand and simulate the in vivo interaction between the formulation and the biological substrate, contributing to the development of new mucoadhesive systems with effectiveness, safety and quality. There are a lot of in vivo, in vitro and ex vivo methods for the evaluation of the mucoadhesive properties of drug delivery systems. However, there also is a lack of standardization of these techniques, which makes comparison between the results difficult. Therefore, this work aims to show an overview of the most commonly employed methods for mucoadhesion evaluation, relating them to different proposed systems and using artificial or natural mucosa from humans and animals.

A comparison of three developmental stage scoring systems.

PubMed

Dawson, Theo Linda

2002-01-01

In social psychological research the stage metaphor has fallen into disfavor due to concerns about bias, reliability, and validity. To address some of these issues, I employ a multidimensional partial credit analysis comparing moral judgment interviews scored with the Standard Issue Scoring System (SISS) (Colby and Kohlberg, 1987b), evaluative reasoning interviews scored with the Good Life Scoring System (GLSS) (Armon, 1984b), and Good Education interviews scored with the Hierarchical Complexity Scoring System (HCSS) (Commons, Danaher, Miller, and Dawson, 2000). A total of 209 participants between the ages of 5 and 86 were interviewed. The multidimensional model reveals that even though the scoring systems rely upon different criteria and the data were collected using different methods and scored by different teams of raters, the SISS, GLSS, and HCSS all appear to measure the same latent variable. The HCSS exhibits more internal consistency than the SISS and GLSS, and solves some methodological problems introduced by the content dependency of the SISS and GLSS. These results and their implications are elaborated.

A Hybrid Evaluation System Framework (Shell & Web) with Standardized Access to Climate Model Data and Verification Tools for a Clear Climate Science Infrastructure on Big Data High Performance Computers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kadow, C.; Illing, S.; Kunst, O.; Cubasch, U.

2014-12-01

The project 'Integrated Data and Evaluation System for Decadal Scale Prediction' (INTEGRATION) as part of the German decadal prediction project MiKlip develops a central evaluation system. The fully operational hybrid features a HPC shell access and an user friendly web-interface. It employs one common system with a variety of verification tools and validation data from different projects in- and outside of MiKlip. The evaluation system is located at the German Climate Computing Centre (DKRZ) and has direct access to the bulk of its ESGF node including millions of climate model data sets, e.g. from CMIP5 and CORDEX. The database is organized by the international CMOR standard using the meta information of the self-describing model, reanalysis and observational data sets. Apache Solr is used for indexing the different data projects into one common search environment. This implemented meta data system with its advanced but easy to handle search tool supports users, developers and their tools to retrieve the required information. A generic application programming interface (API) allows scientific developers to connect their analysis tools with the evaluation system independently of the programming language used. Users of the evaluation techniques benefit from the common interface of the evaluation system without any need to understand the different scripting languages. Facilitating the provision and usage of tools and climate data increases automatically the number of scientists working with the data sets and identify discrepancies. Additionally, the history and configuration sub-system stores every analysis performed with the evaluation system in a MySQL database. Configurations and results of the tools can be shared among scientists via shell or web-system. Therefore, plugged-in tools gain automatically from transparency and reproducibility. Furthermore, when configurations match while starting a evaluation tool, the system suggests to use results already produced by other users-saving CPU time, I/O and disk space. This study presents the different techniques and advantages of such a hybrid evaluation system making use of a Big Data HPC in climate science. website: www-miklip.dkrz.de visitor-login: guest password: miklip

A Hybrid Evaluation System Framework (Shell & Web) with Standardized Access to Climate Model Data and Verification Tools for a Clear Climate Science Infrastructure on Big Data High Performance Computers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kadow, Christopher; Illing, Sebastian; Kunst, Oliver; Ulbrich, Uwe; Cubasch, Ulrich

2015-04-01

The project 'Integrated Data and Evaluation System for Decadal Scale Prediction' (INTEGRATION) as part of the German decadal prediction project MiKlip develops a central evaluation system. The fully operational hybrid features a HPC shell access and an user friendly web-interface. It employs one common system with a variety of verification tools and validation data from different projects in- and outside of MiKlip. The evaluation system is located at the German Climate Computing Centre (DKRZ) and has direct access to the bulk of its ESGF node including millions of climate model data sets, e.g. from CMIP5 and CORDEX. The database is organized by the international CMOR standard using the meta information of the self-describing model, reanalysis and observational data sets. Apache Solr is used for indexing the different data projects into one common search environment. This implemented meta data system with its advanced but easy to handle search tool supports users, developers and their tools to retrieve the required information. A generic application programming interface (API) allows scientific developers to connect their analysis tools with the evaluation system independently of the programming language used. Users of the evaluation techniques benefit from the common interface of the evaluation system without any need to understand the different scripting languages. Facilitating the provision and usage of tools and climate data increases automatically the number of scientists working with the data sets and identify discrepancies. Additionally, the history and configuration sub-system stores every analysis performed with the evaluation system in a MySQL database. Configurations and results of the tools can be shared among scientists via shell or web-system. Therefore, plugged-in tools gain automatically from transparency and reproducibility. Furthermore, when configurations match while starting a evaluation tool, the system suggests to use results already produced by other users-saving CPU time, I/O and disk space. This study presents the different techniques and advantages of such a hybrid evaluation system making use of a Big Data HPC in climate science. website: www-miklip.dkrz.de visitor-login: click on "Guest"

30 CFR 75.902-2 - Approved ground check systems not employing pilot check wires.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Approved ground check systems not employing pilot check wires. 75.902-2 Section 75.902-2 Mineral Resources MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION... employing pilot check wires. Ground check systems not employing pilot check wires will be approved only if...

30 CFR 75.902-2 - Approved ground check systems not employing pilot check wires.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Approved ground check systems not employing pilot check wires. 75.902-2 Section 75.902-2 Mineral Resources MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION... employing pilot check wires. Ground check systems not employing pilot check wires will be approved only if...

Employers' Views on Improving the Vocational Education and Training System. Occasional Paper

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rittie, Toni; Awodeyi, Tomi

2009-01-01

This study examines employers' views, taken from the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) Survey of Employer Use and Views on the VET (vocational education and training) System, on the three ways they can engage with the VET system: by having vocational qualifications as a job requirement; employing apprentices and trainees;…

Temporal Correlation Mechanisms and Their Role in Feature Selection: A Single-Unit Study in Primate Somatosensory Cortex

PubMed Central

Gomez-Ramirez, Manuel; Trzcinski, Natalie K.; Mihalas, Stefan; Niebur, Ernst

2014-01-01

Studies in vision show that attention enhances the firing rates of cells when it is directed towards their preferred stimulus feature. However, it is unknown whether other sensory systems employ this mechanism to mediate feature selection within their modalities. Moreover, whether feature-based attention modulates the correlated activity of a population is unclear. Indeed, temporal correlation codes such as spike-synchrony and spike-count correlations (rsc) are believed to play a role in stimulus selection by increasing the signal and reducing the noise in a population, respectively. Here, we investigate (1) whether feature-based attention biases the correlated activity between neurons when attention is directed towards their common preferred feature, (2) the interplay between spike-synchrony and rsc during feature selection, and (3) whether feature attention effects are common across the visual and tactile systems. Single-unit recordings were made in secondary somatosensory cortex of three non-human primates while animals engaged in tactile feature (orientation and frequency) and visual discrimination tasks. We found that both firing rate and spike-synchrony between neurons with similar feature selectivity were enhanced when attention was directed towards their preferred feature. However, attention effects on spike-synchrony were twice as large as those on firing rate, and had a tighter relationship with behavioral performance. Further, we observed increased rsc when attention was directed towards the visual modality (i.e., away from touch). These data suggest that similar feature selection mechanisms are employed in vision and touch, and that temporal correlation codes such as spike-synchrony play a role in mediating feature selection. We posit that feature-based selection operates by implementing multiple mechanisms that reduce the overall noise levels in the neural population and synchronize activity across subpopulations that encode the relevant features of sensory stimuli. PMID:25423284

Beta-glucuronidase and hexosaminidase are marker enzymes for different compartments of the endo-lysosomal system in mussel digestive cells.

PubMed

Izagirre, U; Angulo, E; Wade, S C; ap Gwynn, I; Marigómez, I

2009-02-01

In environmental toxicology, the most commonly used techniques used to visualise lysosomes in order to determine their responses to pollutants (LSC test: lysosomal structural changes test; LMS test: lysosomal membrane stability test) are based on the histochemical application of lysosomal marker enzymes. In mussel digestive cells, the marker enzymes used are beta-glucuronidase (beta-Gus) and hexosaminidase (Hex). The present work has been aimed at determining the distribution of these lysosomal marker enzymes in the various compartments of the endo-lysosomal system (ELS) of mussel digestive cells and at exploring whether intercellular transfer of lysosomal enzymes occurs between digestive and basophilic cells. Immunogold cytochemistry has allowed us to conclude that beta-Gus is present in every compartment of the digestive cell ELS, whereas Hex is not so widely distributed. Moreover, Hex is intimately linked to the lysosomal membrane, whereas beta-Gus appears to be not necessarily membrane-bound. Therefore, two populations of heterolysosomes with different enzyme load and membrane stability have been distinguished in the digestive cell. In addition, heterolysosomes of different electron density have been commonly observed merging together by contact; we suggest that some might act as storage granules for lysosomal enzymes. On the other hand, beta-Gus seems to be released to the digestive alveolar lumen in secretory lysosomes produced by basophilic cells and endocytosed by digestive cells. Regarding the implications of the present study on the interpretation of lysosomal biomarkers, we conclude that beta-Gus, but not Hex, histochemistry provides an appropriate marker for the LSC test and that, although both lysosomal marker enzymes can be employed in the LMS test, different values would be obtained depending on the marker enzyme employed.

The influence of solvent processing on polyester bioabsorbable polymers.

PubMed

Manson, Joanne; Dixon, Dorian

2012-01-01

Solvent-based methods are commonly employed for the production of polyester-based samples and coatings in both medical device production and research. The influence of solvent casting and subsequent drying time was studied using thermal analysis, spectroscopy and weight measurement for four grades of 50 : 50 poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) produced by using chloroform, dichloromethane, and acetone. The results demonstrate that solvent choice and PLGA molecular weight are critical factors in terms of solvent removal rate and maintaining sample integrity, respectively. The protocols widely employed result in high levels of residual solvent and a new protocol is presented together with solutions to commonly encountered problems.

Enforced Sparse Non-Negative Matrix Factorization

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-01-23

documents to find interesting pieces of information. With limited resources, analysts often employ automated text - mining tools that highlight common...represented as an undirected bipartite graph. It has become a common method for generating topic models of text data because it is known to produce good results...model and the convergence rate of the underlying algorithm. I. Introduction A common analyst challenge is searching through large quantities of text

Common measure of quality of life for people with systemic sclerosis across seven European countries: a cross-sectional study.

PubMed

Ndosi, Mwidimi; Alcacer-Pitarch, Begonya; Allanore, Yannick; Del Galdo, Francesco; Frerix, Marc; García-Díaz, Sílvia; Hesselstrand, Roger; Kendall, Christine; Matucci-Cerinic, Marco; Mueller-Ladner, Ulf; Sandqvist, Gunnel; Torrente-Segarra, Vicenç; Schmeiser, Tim; Sierakowska, Matylda; Sierakowska, Justyna; Sierakowski, Stanslaw; Redmond, Anthony

2018-02-20

The aim of this study was to adapt the Systemic Sclerosis Quality of Life Questionnaire (SScQoL) into six European cultures and validate it as a common measure of quality of life in systemic sclerosis (SSc). This was a seven-country (Germany, France, Italy, Poland, Spain, Sweden and UK) cross-sectional study. A forward-backward translation process was used to adapt the English SScQoL into target languages. SScQoL was completed by patients with SSc, then data were validated against the Rasch model. To correct local response dependency, items were grouped into the following subscales: function, emotion, sleep, social and pain and reanalysed for fit to the model, unidimensionality and cross-cultural equivalence. The adaptation of the SScQoL was seamless in all countries except Germany. Cross-cultural validation included 1080 patients with a mean age 58.0 years (SD 13.9) and 87% were women. Local dependency was evident in individual country data. Grouping items into testlets corrected the local dependency in most country specific data. Fit to the model, reliability and unidimensionality was achieved in six-country data after cross-cultural adjustment for Italy in the social subscale. The SScQoL was then calibrated into an interval level scale. The individual SScQoL items have translated well into five languages and overall, the scale maintained its construct validity, working well as a five-subscale questionnaire. Measures of quality of life in SSc can be directly compared across five countries (France, Poland Spain, Sweden and UK). Data from Italy are also comparable with the other five countries although require an adjustment. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2018. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

Investigation of Attitudinal Differences among Individuals of Different Employment Status

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-10-28

be included in order to statistically control for common method variance (see Podsakoff , MacKenzie, Lee, & Podsakoff , 2003). Results Hypotheses 1...social identity theory. Social Psychology Quarterly, 58, 255-269. Podsakoff , P. M., MacKenzie, S. B., Lee, J., & Podsakoff , N. P. (2003). Common method

Maritime domain awareness community of interest net centric information sharing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Andress, Mark; Freeman, Brian; Rhiddlehover, Trey; Shea, John

2007-04-01

This paper highlights the approach taken by the Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) Community of Interest (COI) in establishing an approach to data sharing that seeks to overcome many of the obstacles to sharing both within the federal government and with international and private sector partners. The approach uses the DOD Net Centric Data Strategy employed through Net Centric Enterprise Services (NCES) Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) foundation provided by Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), but is unique in that the community is made up of more than just Defense agencies. For the first pilot project, the MDA COI demonstrated how four agencies from DOD, the Intelligence Community, Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and Department of Transportation (DOT) could share Automatic Identification System (AIS) data in a common format using shared enterprise service components.

The role of the National Launch System in support of Space Station Freedom

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Green, J. L.; Saucillo, R. J.; Cirillo, W. M.

1992-01-01

A study was performed to determine the most appropriate potential use of the National Launch System (NLS) for Space Station Freedom (SSF) logistics resupply and growth assembly needs. Objectives were to estimate earth-to-SSF cargo requirements, identify NLS sizing trades, and assess operational constraints of a shuttle and NLS transportation infrastructure. Detailed NLS and Shuttle flight manifests were developed to model varying levels of NLS support. NLS delivery of SSF propellant, and in some cases, cryoenic fluids, yield significant shuttle flight savings with minimum impact to the baseline SSF design. Additional cargo can be delivered by the NLS if SSF trash disposal techniques are employed to limit return cargo requirements. A common vehicle performance level can be used for both logistics resupply and growth hardware delivery.

High-Power Collective Charging of a Solid-State Quantum Battery

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ferraro, Dario; Campisi, Michele; Andolina, Gian Marcello; Pellegrini, Vittorio; Polini, Marco

2018-03-01

Quantum information theorems state that it is possible to exploit collective quantum resources to greatly enhance the charging power of quantum batteries (QBs) made of many identical elementary units. We here present and solve a model of a QB that can be engineered in solid-state architectures. It consists of N two-level systems coupled to a single photonic mode in a cavity. We contrast this collective model ("Dicke QB"), whereby entanglement is genuinely created by the common photonic mode, to the one in which each two-level system is coupled to its own separate cavity mode ("Rabi QB"). By employing exact diagonalization, we demonstrate the emergence of a quantum advantage in the charging power of Dicke QBs, which scales like √{N } for N ≫1 .

Behavior of Insulated Carbon-FRP-Strengthened RC Beams Exposed to Fire

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sayin, B.

2014-09-01

There are two main approaches to improving the fire resistance of fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) systems. While the most common method is to protect or insulate the FRP system, an other way is to use fibers and resins with a better fire performance. This paper presents a numerical investigation into the five protection behavior of insulated carbon-fiber-reinforced-polymer (CFRP)-strengthened reinforced concrete (RC) beams. The effects of external loading and thermal expansion of materials at elevated temperatures are taken into consideration in a finite-element model. The validity of the numerical model is demonstrated with results from an existing experimental study on insulated CFRP-strengthened RC beams. Conclusions of this investigation are employed to predict the structural behavior of CFRP-strengthened concrete structures.

Three-dimensional heat transfer effects during the growth of LiCaAlF 6 in a modified Bridgman furnace

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brandon, Simon; Derby, Jeffrey J.; Atherton, L. Jeffrey; Roberts, David H.; Vital, Russel L.

1993-09-01

A novel process modification, the simultaneous growth of three cylindrical Cr:LiCaAlf 6 (Cr:LiCAF) crystals grown from a common seed in a vertical Bridgman furnace of rectangular cross section, is assessed using computational modeling. The analysis employs the FIDAP finite-element package and accounts for three-dimensional, steady-state, conductive heat transfer throughout the system. The induction heating system is rigorously simulated via solution of Maxwell's equations. The implementation of realistic thermal boundary conditions and furnace details is shown to be important. Furnace design features are assessed through calculations, and simulations indicate expected growth conditions to be favorable. In addition, the validity of using ampoules containing "dummy" charges for experimental furnace characterization measurements is examined through test computations.

75 FR 16987 - Trade Adjustment Assistance; Merit Staffing of State Administration and Allocation of Training...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-04-02

...The Employment and Training Administration (ETA) of the Department of Labor (Department) issues this final rule to implement changes to the regulations for the Trade Adjustment Assistance for Workers (TAA) program under the Trade Act of 1974, as amended (Trade Act). This rule requires that personnel engaged in TAA-funded functions undertaken to carry out the worker adjustment assistance provisions must be State employees covered by a merit system of personnel administration. This rule also prescribes the system for allocating training funds to the States, as required by amendments to the Trade Act contained in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, commonly called the Recovery Act. The Recovery Act included provisions which reauthorized and significantly amended the TAA program.

Faraday anomalous dispersion optical tuners

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wanninger, P.; Valdez, E. C.; Shay, T. M.

1992-01-01

Common methods for frequency stabilizing diode lasers systems employ gratings, etalons, optical electric double feedback, atomic resonance, and a Faraday cell with low magnetic field. Our method, the Faraday Anomalous Dispersion Optical Transmitter (FADOT) laser locking, is much simpler than other schemes. The FADOT uses commercial laser diodes with no antireflection coatings, an atomic Faraday cell with a single polarizer, and an output coupler to form a compound cavity. This method is vibration insensitive, thermal expansion effects are minimal, and the system has a frequency pull in range of 443.2 GHz (9A). Our technique is based on the Faraday anomalous dispersion optical filter. This method has potential applications in optical communication, remote sensing, and pumping laser excited optical filters. We present the first theoretical model for the FADOT and compare the calculations to our experimental results.

Present status of metrology of electro-optical surveillance systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chrzanowski, K.

2017-10-01

There has been a significant progress in equipment for testing electro-optical surveillance systems over the last decade. Modern test systems are increasingly computerized, employ advanced image processing and offer software support in measurement process. However, one great challenge, in form of relative low accuracy, still remains not solved. It is quite common that different test stations, when testing the same device, produce different results. It can even happen that two testing teams, while working on the same test station, with the same tested device, produce different results. Rapid growth of electro-optical technology, poor standardization, limited metrology infrastructure, subjective nature of some measurements, fundamental limitations from laws of physics, tendering rules and advances in artificial intelligence are major factors responsible for such situation. Regardless, next decade should bring significant improvements, since improvement in measurement accuracy is needed to sustain fast growth of electro-optical surveillance technology.

Practical, Real-Time, and Robust Watermarking on the Spatial Domain for High-Definition Video Contents

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, Kyung-Su; Lee, Hae-Yeoun; Im, Dong-Hyuck; Lee, Heung-Kyu

Commercial markets employ digital right management (DRM) systems to protect valuable high-definition (HD) quality videos. DRM system uses watermarking to provide copyright protection and ownership authentication of multimedia contents. We propose a real-time video watermarking scheme for HD video in the uncompressed domain. Especially, our approach is in aspect of practical perspectives to satisfy perceptual quality, real-time processing, and robustness requirements. We simplify and optimize human visual system mask for real-time performance and also apply dithering technique for invisibility. Extensive experiments are performed to prove that the proposed scheme satisfies the invisibility, real-time processing, and robustness requirements against video processing attacks. We concentrate upon video processing attacks that commonly occur in HD quality videos to display on portable devices. These attacks include not only scaling and low bit-rate encoding, but also malicious attacks such as format conversion and frame rate change.

High-frequency ac power distribution in Space Station

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tsai, Fu-Sheng; Lee, Fred C. Y.

1990-01-01

A utility-type 20-kHz ac power distribution system for the Space Station, employing resonant power-conversion techniques, is presented. The system converts raw dc voltage from photovoltaic cells or three-phase LF ac voltage from a solar dynamic generator into a regulated 20-kHz ac voltage for distribution among various loads. The results of EASY5 computer simulations of the local and global performance show that the system has fast response and good transient behavior. The ac bus voltage is effectively regulated using the phase-control scheme, which is demonstrated with both line and load variations. The feasibility of paralleling the driver-module outputs is illustrated with the driver modules synchronized and sharing a common feedback loop. An HF sinusoidal ac voltage is generated in the three-phase ac input case, when the driver modules are phased 120 deg away from one another and their outputs are connected in series.

Stabilization of Model Membrane Systems by Disaccharides. Quasielastic Neutron Scattering Experiments and Atomistic Simulations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Doxastakis, Emmanouil; Garcia Sakai, Victoria; Ohtake, Satoshi; Maranas, Janna K.; de Pablo, Juan J.

2006-03-01

Trehalose, a disaccharide of glucose, is often used for the stabilization of cell membranes in the absence of water. This work studies the effects of trehalose on model membrane systems as they undergo a melting transition using a combination of experimental methods and atomistic molecular simulations. Quasielastic neutron scattering experiments on selectively deuterated samples provide the incoherent dynamic structure over a wide time range. Elastic scans probing the lipid tail dynamics display clear evidence of a main melting transition that is significantly lowered in the presence of trehalose. Lipid headgroup mobility is considerably restricted at high temperatures and directly associated with the dynamics of the sugar in the mixture. Molecular simulations provide a detailed overview of the dynamics and their spatial and time dependence. The combined simulation and experimental methodology offers a unique, molecular view of the physics of systems commonly employed in cryopreservation and lyophilization processes.

Ultra-wideband microwave photonic link based on single-sideband modulation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Jingnan; Wang, Yunxin; Wang, Dayong; Zhou, Tao; Zhong, Xin; Xu, Jiahao; Yang, Dengcai; Rong, Lu

2017-10-01

Comparing with the conventional double-sideband (DSB) modulation in communication system, single-sideband (SSB) modulation only demands half bandwidth of DSB in transmission. Two common ways are employed to implement SSB modulation by using optical filter (OF) or electrical 90° phase shift, respectively. However, the bandwidth of above methods is limited by characteristics of current OF and electrical phase shift. To overcome this problem, an ultra-wideband microwave photonic link based on SSB modulation is proposed and demonstrated. The radio frequency (RF) signal modulates a single-drive dual-parallel Mach-Zehnder modulator, and the SSB modulation is realized by combining an electrical 90° hybrid coupler and an optical bandpass filter. The experimental results indicate that the system can achieve SSB modulation for RF signal from 2 to 40 GHz. The proposed microwave photonic link provides an ultra-wideband approach based on SSB modulation for radio-over-fiber system.

Development of a novel combined fluorescence and reflectance spectroscopy system for guiding high-grade glioma resections: confirmation of capability in lab experiments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mousavi, Monirehalsadat; Xie, Haiyan; Xie, Zhiyuan; Brydegaard, Mikkel; Axelsson, Johan; Andersson-Engels, Stefan

2013-11-01

Total resection of glioblastoma multiform (GBM), the most common and aggressive malignant brain tumor, is challenging among other things due to difficulty in intraoperative discrimination between normal and residual tumor cells. This project demonstrates the potential of a system based on a combination of autofluorescence and diffuse reflectance spectroscopy to be useful as an intraoperative guiding tool. In this context, a system based on 5 LEDs coupled to optical fibers was employed to deliver UV/visible light to the sample sequentially. Remitted light from the tissue; including diffuse reflected and fluorescence of endogenous and exogenous fluorophores, as well as its photobleaching product, is transmitted to one photodiode and four avalanche photodiodes. This instrument has been evaluated with very promising results by performing various tissue-equivalent phantom laboratory and clinical studies on skin lesions.

A model for ubiquitous care of noncommunicable diseases.

PubMed

Vianna, Henrique Damasceno; Barbosa, Jorge Luis Victória

2014-09-01

The ubiquitous computing, or ubicomp, is a promising technology to help chronic diseases patients managing activities, offering support to them anytime, anywhere. Hence, ubicomp can aid community and health organizations to continuously communicate with patients and to offer useful resources for their self-management activities. Communication is prioritized in works of ubiquitous health for noncommunicable diseases care, but the management of resources is not commonly employed. We propose the UDuctor, a model for ubiquitous care of noncommunicable diseases. UDuctor focuses the resources offering, without losing self-management and communication supports. We implemented a system and applied it in two practical experiments. First, ten chronic patients tried the system and filled out a questionnaire based on the technology acceptance model. After this initial evaluation, an alpha test was done. The system was used daily for one month and a half by a chronic patient. The results were encouraging and show potential for implementing UDuctor in real-life situations.

Glassblowers' ocular health and safety: optical radiation hazards and eye protection assessment.

PubMed

Oriowo, O M; Chou, B R; Cullen, A P

1997-05-01

The aims of this study were to investigate the levels of optical radiation exposure in glassblowing and to determine type(s) of protective eyewear commonly used. Radiometric measurements of radiant emissions from different molten glass materials and heating systems were carried out in six installations. Spectral transmittance curves of available protective lenses used at the locations were obtained. Significant variation (P = 0.0001) in ocular irradiation was obtained. All operations produced irradiances higher than the threshold limit values (TLVs) for the visible spectrum (400 to 700 nm). In craft glassblowing which employs furnace systems, irradiance levels exceeding the TLVs for near infrared (760 1o 1100 nm) were obtained. Molten soda-lime and quartz glasses emitted substantial subthreshold near UV radiation. This study shows that variation exists in glassblowing ocular radiation exposure due to different glass materials and heating systems, therefore selection of appropriate eye protector should be on an individual basis.

Simultaneous classical communication and quantum key distribution using continuous variables*

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Qi, Bing

2016-10-01

Presently, classical optical communication systems employing strong laser pulses and quantum key distribution (QKD) systems working at single-photon levels are very different communication modalities. Dedicated devices are commonly required to implement QKD. In this paper, we propose a scheme which allows classical communication and QKD to be implemented simultaneously using the same communication infrastructure. More specially, we propose a coherent communication scheme where both the bits for classical communication and the Gaussian distributed random numbers for QKD are encoded on the same weak coherent pulse and decoded by the same coherent receiver. Simulation results based on practical system parameters show that both deterministic classical communication with a bit error rate of 10-9 and secure key distribution could be achieved over tens of kilometers of single-mode fibers. It is conceivable that in the future coherent optical communication network, QKD will be operated in the background of classical communication at a minimal cost.

Next Generation Launch Technology Program Lessons Learned

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cook, Stephen; Tyson, Richard

2005-01-01

In November 2002, NASA revised its Integrated Space Transportation Plan (ISTP) to evolve the Space Launch Initiative (SLI) to serve as a theme for two emerging programs. The first of these, the Orbital Space Plane (OSP), was intended to provide crew-escape and crew-transfer functions for the ISS. The second, the NGLT Program, developed technologies needed for safe, routine space access for scientific exploration, commerce, and national defense. The NGLT Program was comprised of 12 projects, ranging from fundamental high-temperature materials research to full-scale engine system developments (turbine and rocket) to scramjet flight test. The Program included technology advancement activities with a broad range of objectives, ultimate applications/timeframes, and technology maturity levels. An over-arching Systems Engineering and Analysis (SE&A) approach was employed to focus technology advancements according to a common set of requirements. Investments were categorized into three segments of technology maturation: propulsion technologies, launch systems technologies, and SE&A.

Checkpoint-based forward recovery using lookahead execution and rollback validation in parallel and distributed systems. Ph.D. Thesis, 1992

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Long, Junsheng

1994-01-01

This thesis studies a forward recovery strategy using checkpointing and optimistic execution in parallel and distributed systems. The approach uses replicated tasks executing on different processors for forwared recovery and checkpoint comparison for error detection. To reduce overall redundancy, this approach employs a lower static redundancy in the common error-free situation to detect error than the standard N Module Redundancy scheme (NMR) does to mask off errors. For the rare occurrence of an error, this approach uses some extra redundancy for recovery. To reduce the run-time recovery overhead, look-ahead processes are used to advance computation speculatively and a rollback process is used to produce a diagnosis for correct look-ahead processes without rollback of the whole system. Both analytical and experimental evaluation have shown that this strategy can provide a nearly error-free execution time even under faults with a lower average redundancy than NMR.

Meeting the challenges to European healthcare: lessons learned from the 'Stockholm Revolution'.

PubMed

Hjertqvist, Johan

2002-01-01

Healthcare is a political 'hot potato' in Sweden, just as it is throughout Europe. Regardless of whether the focus is on the 'Swedish model' or a 'European model', the operative term should be 'Culture - a set of values common to European healthcare systems'. An analysis of change and challenge in European healthcare systems must examine these values in the context of technological and societal forces before addressing the overarching concerns of where the money will come from. Discussion of the reform evidenced by the 'Stockholm Revolution' will serve as a model of how European healthcare systems can adapt to new conditions by the following approaches: modernising services through incentives; making the consumer a partner by focusing on consumer-related outcomes; building employee networks that encourage responsibility and problem solving; making healthcare an attractive labour market; and creating self-employment opportunities in the healthcare market to increase efficiency and emphasis on consumer satisfaction.

The benefits of paid employment among persons with common mental health problems: evidence for the selection and causation mechanism.

PubMed

Schuring, Merel; Robroek, Suzan Jw; Burdorf, Alex

2017-11-01

Objectives The aims of this study were to (i) investigate the impact of paid employment on self-rated health, self-esteem, mastery, and happiness among previously unemployed persons with common mental health problems, and (ii) determine whether there are educational inequalities in these effects. Methods A quasi-experimental study was performed with a two-year follow-up period among unemployed persons with mental health problems. Eligible participants were identified at the social services departments of five cities in The Netherlands when being diagnosed with a common mental disorder, primarily depression and anxiety disorders, in the past 12 months by a physician (N=749). Employment status (defined as paid employment for ≥12 hours/week), mental health [Short Form 12 (SF-12)], physical health (SF-12), self-esteem, mastery, and happiness were measured at baseline, after 12 months and 24 months. The repeated-measurement longitudinal data were analyzed using a hybrid method, combining fixed and random effects. The regression coefficient was decomposed into between- and within-individual associations, respectively. Results The between-individuals associations showed that persons working ≥12 hours per week reported better mental health (b=26.7, SE 5.1), mastery (b=2.7, SE 0.6), self-esteem (b=5.7, SE 1.1), physical health (b=14.6, SE 5.6) and happiness (OR 7.7, 95% CI 2.3-26.4). The within-individual associations showed that entering paid employment for ≥12 hours per week resulted in better mental health (b=16.3, SE 3.4), mastery (b=1.7, SE 0.4), self-esteem (b=3.4, SE 0.7), physical health (b=9.8, SE 2.9), and happiness (OR 3.1, 95% CI 1.4-6.9). Among intermediate- and high-educated persons, entering paid employment had significantly larger effect on mental health than among low-educated persons. Conclusions This study provides evidence that entering paid employment has a positive impact on self-reported health; thus work should be considered as an important part of health promotion programs among unemployed persons.

Precarious employment and occupational accidents and injuries - a systematic review.

PubMed

Koranyi, Isa; Jonsson, Johanna; Rönnblad, Torkel; Stockfelt, Leo; Bodin, Theo

2018-02-14

bjectives Precarious employment conditions have become more common in many countries over the last decades, and have been linked to various adverse health outcomes. The objective of this review was to collect and summarize existing scientific research of the relationship between dimensions of precarious employment and the rate of occupational injuries. Methods A protocol was developed in accordance with the PRISMA-P checklist for systematic literature reviews. We searched PubMed, Web of Science and Scopus for articles on observational studies from North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand published in peer-reviewed journals 1990-2017. A minimum of two independent reviewers assessed each article with respect to quality and eligibility criteria. Articles of high/moderate quality meeting all specified inclusion criteria were included in the review. Results The literature search resulted in 471 original titles, of which 17 articles met all the inclusion criteria. The most common exposures were in descending order; temporary employment, multiple jobs, working for a subcontractor at the same worksite/temp agency, part-time, self-employment, hourly pay, union membership, insurance benefits, flexible versus fixed work schedule, wages, job insecurity, work-time control and precarious career trajectories. Ten studies reported a positive association between precarious employment and occupational injuries. Four studies reported a negative association, and three studies did not show any significant association. Conclusions This review supports an association between some of the dimensions of precarious employment and occupational injuries; most notably for multiple jobholders and employees of temp agencies or subcontractors at the same worksite. However, results for temporary employment are inconclusive. There is a need for more prospective studies of high quality, designed to measure effect sizes as well as causality.

29 CFR 1915.507 - Land-side fire protection systems.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... 29 Labor 7 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false Land-side fire protection systems. 1915.507 Section 1915... Protection in Shipyard Employment § 1915.507 Land-side fire protection systems. (a) Employer responsibilities. The employer must ensure all fixed and portable fire protection systems needed to meet an OSHA...

29 CFR 1915.507 - Land-side fire protection systems.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... 29 Labor 7 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false Land-side fire protection systems. 1915.507 Section 1915... Protection in Shipyard Employment § 1915.507 Land-side fire protection systems. (a) Employer responsibilities. The employer must ensure all fixed and portable fire protection systems needed to meet an OSHA...

29 CFR 1915.507 - Land-side fire protection systems.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 29 Labor 7 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Land-side fire protection systems. 1915.507 Section 1915... Protection in Shipyard Employment § 1915.507 Land-side fire protection systems. (a) Employer responsibilities. The employer must ensure all fixed and portable fire protection systems needed to meet an OSHA...

29 CFR 1915.507 - Land-side fire protection systems.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... 29 Labor 7 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false Land-side fire protection systems. 1915.507 Section 1915... Protection in Shipyard Employment § 1915.507 Land-side fire protection systems. (a) Employer responsibilities. The employer must ensure all fixed and portable fire protection systems needed to meet an OSHA...

Employers' Use and Views of the VET System 2017. Australian Vocational Education and Training Statistics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER), 2017

2017-01-01

This publication presents information on employers' use and views of the vocational education and training (VET) system. The findings relate to the various ways in which Australian employers use the VET system and unaccredited training to meet their skill needs, and their satisfaction with these methods of training. Australian employers can engage…

Increased fitness and realized heritability in emamectin benzoate-resistant Chrysoperla carnea (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae).

PubMed

Mansoor, Muhammad Mudassir; Abbas, Naeem; Shad, Sarfraz Ali; Pathan, Attaullah Khan; Razaq, Muhammad

2013-10-01

The common green lacewing Chrysoperla carnea is a key biological control agent employed in integrated pest management (IPM) programs for managing various insect pests. A field collected population of C. carnea was selected for emamectin benzoate resistance in the laboratory and fitness costs and realized heritability were investigated. After five generations of selection with emamectin benzoate, C. carnea developed a 318-fold resistance to the insecticide. The resistant population had a relative fitness of 1.49, with substantially higher emergence rate of healthy adults, fecundity and hatchability and shorter larval duration, pupal duration, and development time compared to the susceptible population. Mean population growth rates; such as the intrinsic rate of natural population increase and biotic potential were higher for the emamectin benzoate selected population compared to the susceptible population. The realized heritability (h(2)) value of emamectin benzoate resistance was 0.34 in emamectin benzoate selected population of C. carnea. Chrysoperla species which show resistance to insecticides makes them compatible with those IPM systems where emamectin benzoate is employed.

Changing safety net of last resort: downsizing general assistance for employable adults.

PubMed

Anderson, Steven G; Halter, Anthony P; Gryzlak, Brian M

2002-07-01

General assistance (GA) has served as an income support program of last resort for people not eligible for other programs. Because each state has complete discretion to design its program, the GA services model parallels Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) in its reliance on decentralized government decision making. Thus, GA programs can provide lessons about services variability and common program features that have arisen in a decentralized income support system. This study examined the characteristics of state GA programs across several program dimensions--eligibility criteria, work requirements, time limits, administrative arrangements, and caseloads. The authors show that GA programs have changed from 1989 to 1998. Although most states retained GA programs in some form, caseloads declined as a result of tightening eligibility requirements for people considered employable. This casts doubt on the viability of GA as a safety net program for economically vulnerable people, including those who do not qualify for or exceed time limits under TANF.

Employment of electrodonating capacity as an index of reactive modulation by substituent effects: application for electron-transfer-controlled hydrogen bonding.

PubMed

Martínez-González, Eduardo; Frontana, Carlos

2014-02-07

Evaluation of the substituent effect in reaction series is an issue of interest, as it is fundamental for controlling chemical reactivity in molecules. Within the framework of density functional theory, employment of the chemical potential, μ, and the chemical hardness, η, leads to the calculation of properties of common use, such as the electrodonating (ω(-)) and electroaccepting (ω(+)) powers, in many chemical systems. In order to examine the predictive character of the substituent effect by these indexes, a comparison between these and experimental binding constants (Kb) for binding of a series of radical anions from para- and ortho-substituted nitrobenzenes with 1,3-diethylurea in acetonitrile was performed, and fair correlations were obtained; furthermore, this strategy was suitable for all of the studied compounds, even those for which empirical approximations, such as Hammett's model, are not valid. Visual representations of substituent effects are presented by considering the local electrodonating power ω(-)(r).

Integrated Method for Purification and Single-Particle Characterization of Lentiviral Vector Systems by Size Exclusion Chromatography and Tunable Resistive Pulse Sensing.

PubMed

Heider, Susanne; Muzard, Julien; Zaruba, Marianne; Metzner, Christoph

2017-07-01

Elements derived from lentiviral particles such as viral vectors or virus-like particles are commonly used for biotechnological and biomedical applications, for example in mammalian protein expression, gene delivery or therapy, and vaccine development. Preparations of high purity are necessary in most cases, especially for clinical applications. For purification, a wide range of methods are available, from density gradient centrifugation to affinity chromatography. In this study we have employed size exclusion columns specifically designed for the easy purification of extracellular vesicles including exosomes. In addition to viral marker protein and total protein analysis, a well-established single-particle characterization technology, termed tunable resistive pulse sensing, was employed to analyze fractions of highest particle load and purity and characterize the preparations by size and surface charge/electrophoretic mobility. With this study, we propose an integrated platform combining size exclusion chromatography and tunable resistive pulse sensing for monitoring production and purification of viral particles.

Two Analyte Calibration From The Transient Response Of Potentiometric Sensors Employed With The SIA Technique

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

Cartas, Raul; Mimendia, Aitor; Valle, Manel del

2009-05-23

Calibration models for multi-analyte electronic tongues have been commonly built using a set of sensors, at least one per analyte under study. Complex signals recorded with these systems are formed by the sensors' responses to the analytes of interest plus interferents, from which a multivariate response model is then developed. This work describes a data treatment method for the simultaneous quantification of two species in solution employing the signal from a single sensor. The approach used here takes advantage of the complex information recorded with one electrode's transient after insertion of sample for building the calibration models for both analytes.more » The departure information from the electrode was firstly processed by discrete wavelet for transforming the signals to extract useful information and reduce its length, and then by artificial neural networks for fitting a model. Two different potentiometric sensors were used as study case for simultaneously corroborating the effectiveness of the approach.« less

Cooperative microbial tolerance behaviors in host-microbiota mutualism

PubMed Central

Ayres, Janelle S.

2016-01-01

Animal defense strategies against microbes are most often thought of as a function of the immune system, the primary function of which is to sense and kill microbes through the execution of resistance mechanisms. However, this antagonistic view creates complications for our understanding of beneficial host-microbe interactions. Pathogenic microbes are described as employing a few common behaviors that promote their fitness at the expense of host health and fitness. Here, a complementary framework is proposed to suggest that in addition to pathogens, beneficial microbes have evolved behaviors to manipulate host processes in order to promote their own fitness and do so through the promotion of host health and fitness. In this Perspective, I explore the idea that patterns or behaviors traditionally ascribed to pathogenic microbes are also employed by beneficial microbes to promote host tolerance defense strategies. Such strategies would promote host health without having a negative impact on microbial fitness and would thereby yield cooperative evolutionary dynamics that are likely required to drive mutualistic co-evolution of hosts and microbes. PMID:27259146

Are Level of Education and Employment Related to Symptoms of Common Mental Disorders in Current and Retired Professional Footballers?

PubMed

Gouttebarge, Vincent; Aoki, Haruhito; Verhagen, Evert; Kerkhoffs, Gino

2016-06-01

Mental disorders have become a topic of increasing interest in research due to their serious consequences for quality of life and functioning. The objective of this study was to explore the relationship of level of education, employment status and working hours with symptoms of common mental disorders (distress, anxiety/depression, sleep disturbance, adverse alcohol behaviour, smoking, adverse nutritional behaviour) among current and retired professional footballers. Cross-sectional analyses were conducted on baseline questionnaires from an ongoing prospective cohort study among current and retired professional footballers. Based on validated scales, an electronic questionnaire was set up and distributed by players' unions in 11 countries across three continents. A total of 607 current professional footballers (mean age of 27 years) and 219 retired professional footballers (mean age of 35 years) were involved in the study. Among retired professional footballers, statistically significant negative correlations were found between employment status and symptoms of distress and anxiety/depression (P < 0.05), as well as between number of working hours and symptoms of anxiety/depression (P < 0.05). No other statistically significant associations were found among retired players. Among current professional footballers, level of education was not associated with symptoms of common mental disorders. Among retired professional footballers, employment status as well as a higher number of working hours was weakly correlated to symptoms of distress and anxiety/depression. Combining a football career with sustainable attention for educational and career planning might be important and of high priority.

PPM-based System for Guided Waves Communication Through Corrosion Resistant Multi-wire Cables

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Trane, G.; Mijarez, R.; Guevara, R.; Pascacio, D.

Novel wireless communication channels are a necessity in applications surrounded by harsh environments, for instance down-hole oil reservoirs. Traditional radio frequency (RF) communication schemes are not capable of transmitting signals through metal enclosures surrounded by corrosive gases and liquids. As an alternative to RF, a pulse position modulation (PPM) guided waves communication system has been developed and evaluated using a corrosion resistant 4H18 multi-wire cable, commonly used to descend electronic gauges in down-hole oil applications, as the communication medium. The system consists of a transmitter and a receiver that utilizes a PZT crystal, for electrical/mechanical coupling, attached to each extreme of the multi-wire cable. The modulator is based on a microcontroller, which transmits60 kHz guided wave pulses, and the demodulator is based on a commercial digital signal processor (DSP) module that performs real time DSP algorithms. Experimental results are presented, which were obtained using a 1m corrosion resistant 4H18multi-wire cable, commonly used with downhole electronic gauges in the oil sector. Although there was significant dispersion and multiple mode excitations of the transmitted guided wave energy pulses, the results show that data rates on the order of 500 bits per second are readily available employing PPM and simple communications techniques.

[Tendinopathy in rheumatic diseases].

PubMed

Henniger, M; Rehart, S

2017-03-01

Involvement of tendons and tendon sheaths is frequently found in the most common inflammatory systemic diseases, rheumatoid arthritis and spondyloarthritis. In rheumatoid arthritis tendon manifestations occur as tenosynovitis, with swelling and pain of the tendons mainly on the hands and feet. In spondyloarthritis the involvement of tendons presents as enthesitis with pain and swelling directly at the attachment points of tendons to the bony structures and more commonly in the lower extremities. Pathological alterations of tendons can be normally visualized by sonography and only sometimes with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or scintigraphy. Furthermore, it is important for diagnostics and effective therapy to detect all joints involved by means of clinical, sonographic and radiological examination as well as laboratory parameters of inflammation, antibody serology (e.g. anti-CCP antibodies) and HLA-B27. The histopathological alterations of tendinopathy in rheumatic diseases differ from degenerative/posttraumatic tendinopathy in their expression of the changes; however, a clear differentiation of the different rheumatic inflammatory systemic diseases is histopathologically not possible. Therapeutically, systemic medication is the most important part of treatment in rheumatic diseases. Local therapeutic measures can be employed in the treatment of tenosynovitis and enthesitis. In the case of failure or lack of efficacy of the medication and conservative therapy, tenosynovectomy is performed for persistent tenosynovitis and reconstructive surgical procedures are necessary for tendon ruptures.

Smart sensor for real-time quantification of common symptoms present in unhealthy plants.

PubMed

Contreras-Medina, Luis M; Osornio-Rios, Roque A; Torres-Pacheco, Irineo; Romero-Troncoso, Rene de J; Guevara-González, Ramon G; Millan-Almaraz, Jesus R

2012-01-01

Plant responses to physiological function disorders are called symptoms and they are caused principally by pathogens and nutritional deficiencies. Plant symptoms are commonly used as indicators of the health and nutrition status of plants. Nowadays, the most popular method to quantify plant symptoms is based on visual estimations, consisting on evaluations that raters give based on their observation of plant symptoms; however, this method is inaccurate and imprecise because of its obvious subjectivity. Computational Vision has been employed in plant symptom quantification because of its accuracy and precision. Nevertheless, the systems developed so far lack in-situ, real-time and multi-symptom analysis. There exist methods to obtain information about the health and nutritional status of plants based on reflectance and chlorophyll fluorescence, but they use expensive equipment and are frequently destructive. Therefore, systems able of quantifying plant symptoms overcoming the aforementioned disadvantages that can serve as indicators of health and nutrition in plants are desirable. This paper reports an FPGA-based smart sensor able to perform non-destructive, real-time and in-situ analysis of leaf images to quantify multiple symptoms presented by diseased and malnourished plants; this system can serve as indicator of the health and nutrition in plants. The effectiveness of the proposed smart-sensor was successfully tested by analyzing diseased and malnourished plants.

Test verification and design of the bicycle frame parameters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Long; Xiang, Zhongxia; Luo, Huan; Tian, Guan

2015-07-01

Research on design of bicycles is concentrated on mechanism and auto appearance design, however few on matches between the bike and the rider. Since unreasonable human-bike relationship leads to both riders' worn-out joints and muscle injuries, the design of bicycles should focus on the matching. In order to find the best position of human-bike system, simulation experiments on riding comfort under different riding postures are done with the lifemode software employed to facilitate the cycling process as well as to obtain the best position and the size function of it. With BP neural network and GA, analyzing simulation data, conducting regression analysis of parameters on different heights and bike frames, the equation of best position of human-bike system is gained at last. In addition, after selecting testers, customized bikes based on testers' height dimensions are produced according to the size function. By analyzing and comparing the experimental data that are collected from testers when riding common bicycles and customized bicycles, it is concluded that customized bicycles are four times even six times as comfortable as common ones. The equation of best position of human-bike system is applied to improve bikes' function, and the new direction on future design of bicycle frame parameters is presented.

Distributed computing system with dual independent communications paths between computers and employing split tokens

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rasmussen, Robert D. (Inventor); Manning, Robert M. (Inventor); Lewis, Blair F. (Inventor); Bolotin, Gary S. (Inventor); Ward, Richard S. (Inventor)

1990-01-01

This is a distributed computing system providing flexible fault tolerance; ease of software design and concurrency specification; and dynamic balance of the loads. The system comprises a plurality of computers each having a first input/output interface and a second input/output interface for interfacing to communications networks each second input/output interface including a bypass for bypassing the associated computer. A global communications network interconnects the first input/output interfaces for providing each computer the ability to broadcast messages simultaneously to the remainder of the computers. A meshwork communications network interconnects the second input/output interfaces providing each computer with the ability to establish a communications link with another of the computers bypassing the remainder of computers. Each computer is controlled by a resident copy of a common operating system. Communications between respective ones of computers is by means of split tokens each having a moving first portion which is sent from computer to computer and a resident second portion which is disposed in the memory of at least one of computer and wherein the location of the second portion is part of the first portion. The split tokens represent both functions to be executed by the computers and data to be employed in the execution of the functions. The first input/output interfaces each include logic for detecting a collision between messages and for terminating the broadcasting of a message whereby collisions between messages are detected and avoided.

An alternative didactic, functional and topographic systematization of the spinal muscles.

PubMed

de Araújo Baptista, Vivianne Izabelle; Mayer, William Paganini; Eustáquio da Silva, Ricardo; de Vasconcellos Fontes, Ricardo Bragança; da Silva Baptista, Josemberg

2017-09-01

Back muscles are commonly described in a topographically-oriented manner without necessarily following morphological criteria. In this manner, non-standard terms may be employed which convey incorrect morphological concepts and demanding more time from both faculty and students to transmit knowledge. We propose a classification system for spinal muscles incorporating morphological concepts with the goal of facilitating knowledge transfer and suggest the term "spinal muscles". Those muscles were systematically divided and classified in seven strata from anterior to posterior: vertebro-appendicular (VA), transversarium (Tr), deep post-transversarium (DPT), middle post-transversarium (MPT), superficial post-transversarium (SPT), deep spino-appendicular (DSA) and superficial spino-appendicular (SSA). Besides topography and function, this system incorporates innervation and embryological origins of each muscle. The extrinsic (VA, DSA, SSA) or intrinsic (Tr, DPT, MPT, SPT) nature of these muscles in relation to the spine and also the topographic relationship to the transverse process is represented in this system. Specific areas of functional, nervous and developmental transition exist on Tr and DPT strata due to being adjacent to extrinsic strata. We believe this system represents a more modern and concise teaching strategy for back muscles which may be employed partially or fully within any program. We envision its full version may be particularly useful in postgraduate medical training for specialties dealing with the spinal column such as neurosurgery, orthopedic surgery and physical medicine and rehabilitation. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

Low-wage workers and health insurance coverage: can policymakers target them through their employers?

PubMed

Long, S H; Marquis, M S

2001-01-01

Many policy initiatives to increase health insurance coverage would subsidize employers to offer coverage or subsidize employees to participate in their employers' health plans. Using data from the 1997 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Employer Health Insurance Survey, we contrast "low-wage employers" with all other employers. Employees in low-wage businesses have significantly worse access to employment-based insurance than other employees do; they are less likely to work for an employer that offers insurance, less likely to be eligible if working in a business that offers insurance, and less likely to be enrolled if eligible. Low-wage employers contribute lower shares of premiums and offer less generous benefits than other employers do. Policies that would target subsidies to selected employers to increase insurance offers to low-wage workers are difficult to design, however, because several commonly mentioned employer characteristics (including firm size) are found to be poor indicators of low-wage worker concentration. Programs that would set minimum standards for employer plans to be eligible for "buy-ins" need to base these standards on the less generous terms offered by low-wage employers in order to effectively reach low-wage workers and their dependents.

Addressing Low Colorectal Cancer Screening in African Americans: Using Focus Groups to Inform the Development of Effective Interventions.

PubMed

May, Folasade P; Whitman, Cynthia B; Varlyguina, Ksenia; Bromley, Erica G; Spiegel, Brennan M R

2016-09-01

African Americans have the highest burden of colorectal cancer (CRC) in the United States of America (USA) yet lower CRC screening rates than whites. Although poor screening has prompted efforts to increase screening uptake, there is a persistent need to develop public health interventions in partnership with the African American community. The aim of this study was to conduct focus groups with African Americans to determine preferences for the content and mode of dissemination of culturally tailored CRC screening interventions. In June 2013, 45-75-year-old African Americans were recruited through online advertisements and from an urban Veterans Affairs system to create four focus groups. A semi-structured interview script employing open-ended elicitation was used, and transcripts were analyzed using ATLAS.ti software to code and group data into a concept network. A total of 38 participants (mean age = 54) were enrolled, and 59 ATLAS.ti codes were generated. Commonly reported barriers to screening included perceived invasiveness of colonoscopy, fear of pain, and financial concerns. Facilitators included poor diet/health and desire to prevent CRC. Common sources of health information included media and medical providers. CRC screening information was commonly obtained from medical personnel or media. Participants suggested dissemination of CRC screening education through commercials, billboards, influential African American public figures, Internet, and radio. Participants suggested future interventions include culturally specific information, including details about increased risk, accessing care, and dispelling of myths. Public health interventions to improve CRC screening among African Americans should employ media outlets, emphasize increased risk among African Americans, and address race-specific barriers. Specific recommendations are presented for developing future interventions.

Sickness certification for common mental disorders and GP return-to-work advice.

PubMed

Gabbay, Mark; Shiels, Chris; Hillage, Jim

2016-09-01

Aim To report the types and duration of sickness certification for different common mental disorders (CMDs) and the prevalence of GP advice aimed at returning the patient to work. In the United Kingdom, common mental health problems, such and depression and stress, have become the main reasons for patients requesting a sickness certificate to abstain from usual employment. Increasing attention is being paid to mental health and its impact on employability and work capacity in all parts of the welfare system. However, relatively little is known about the extent to which different mental health diagnoses impact upon sickness certification outcomes, and how the GP has used the new fit note (introduced in 2010) to support a return to work for patients with mental health diagnoses. Sickness certification data was collected from 68 UK-based general practices for a period of 12 months. Findings The study found a large part of all sickness absence certified by GPs was due to CMDs (29% of all sickness absence episodes). Females, younger patients and those living in deprived areas were more likely to receive a fit note for a CMD (compared with one for a physical health problem). The highest proportion of CMD fit notes were issued for 'stress'. However, sickness certification for depression contributed nearly half of all weeks certified for mental health problems. Only 7% of CMD fit notes included any 'may be fit' advice from the GP, with type of advice varying by mental health diagnostic category. Patients living in the most socially deprived neighbourhoods were less likely to receive 'may be fit' advice on their CMD fit notes.

Simple group password-based authenticated key agreements for the integrated EPR information system.

PubMed

Lee, Tian-Fu; Chang, I-Pin; Wang, Ching-Cheng

2013-04-01

The security and privacy are important issues for electronic patient records (EPRs). The goal of EPRs is sharing the patients' medical histories such as the diagnosis records, reports and diagnosis image files among hospitals by the Internet. So the security issue for the integrated EPR information system is essential. That is, to ensure the information during transmission through by the Internet is secure and private. The group password-based authenticated key agreement (GPAKE) allows a group of users like doctors, nurses and patients to establish a common session key by using password authentication. Then the group of users can securely communicate by using this session key. Many approaches about GAPKE employ the public key infrastructure (PKI) in order to have higher security. However, it not only increases users' overheads and requires keeping an extra equipment for storing long-term secret keys, but also requires maintaining the public key system. This investigation presents a simple group password-based authenticated key agreement (SGPAKE) protocol for the integrated EPR information system. The proposed SGPAKE protocol does not require using the server or users' public keys. Each user only remembers his weak password shared with a trusted server, and then can obtain a common session key. Then all users can securely communicate by using this session key. The proposed SGPAKE protocol not only provides users with convince, but also has higher security.

The effect of work system on the hand exposure of workers in 18F-FDG production centres.

PubMed

Wrzesień, Małgorzata

2018-05-07

The production of the 18 F isotope-the marker of deoxyglucose ( 18 F-FDG)-the radiopharmaceutical most commonly used in the oncological diagnostic technique of positron emission tomography, requires a cyclotron device. At present, there are nine facilities working in Poland that are equipped with cyclotrons used for producing the short-lived isotopes. The aim of the paper is to determine the hand exposure of workers employed in the two 18 F-FDG production centres taking in to account the production procedures and work system in those facilities. Measurements, which included all professional workers exposed to ionizing radiation that were employed in two facilities, were performed by using high-sensitivity thermoluminescent detectors during the routine activities of the personnel. The work system used at the production centre has an impact on the level of the recorded doses. Among the production procedures performed by the staff, the highest ionizing radiation doses have been received by the staff during the 18 F-FDG quality control. The maximum estimated annual Hp(0.07) for chemists from the quality control department can exceed the annual skin limit dose (500 mSv). The source of lowest doses on the hands are the cyclotron operating procedure and the 18 F-FDG production, provided that these procedures can't be combined with other production procedures.

Reduction, analysis, and properties of electric current systems in solar active regions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gary, G. Allen; Demoulin, Pascal

1995-01-01

The specific attraction and, in large part, the significance of solar magnetograms lie in the fact that they give the most important data on the electric currents and the nonpotentiality of active regions. Using the vector magnetograms from the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), we employ a unique technique in the area of data analysis for resolving the 180 deg ambiguity in order to calculate the spatial structure of the vertical electric current density. The 180 deg ambiguity is resolved by applying concepts from the nonlinear multivariable optimization theory. The technique is shown to be of particular importance in very nonpotential active regions. The characterization of the vertical electric current density for a set of vector magnetograms using this method then gives the spatial scale, locations, and magnitude of these current systems. The method, which employs an intermediate parametric function which covers the magnetogram and which defines the local `preferred' direction, minimizes a specific functional of the observed transverse magnetic field. The specific functional that is successful is the integral of the square of the vertical current density. We find that the vertical electric current densities have common characteristics for the extended bipolar (beta) (gamma) (delta)-regions studied. The largest current systems have j(sub z)'s which maximizes around 30 mA/sq m and have a linear decreasing distribution to a diameter of 30 Mn.

Reduction, Analysis, and Properties of Electric Current Systems in Solar Active Regions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gary, G. Allen; Demoulin, Pascal

1995-01-01

The specific attraction and, in large part, the significance of solar vector magnetograms lie in the fact that they give the most important data on the electric currents and the nonpotentiality of active regions. Using the vector magnetograms from the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), we employ a unique technique in the area of data analysis for resolving the 180 degree ambiguity in order to calculate the spatial structure of the vertical electric current density. The 180 degree ambiguity is resolved by applying concepts from the nonlinear multivariable optimization theory. The technique is shown to be of particular importance in very nonpotential active regions. The characterization of the vertical electric current density for a set of vector magnetograms using this method then gives the spatial scale, locations, and magnitude of these current systems. The method, which employs an intermediate parametric function which covers the magnetogram and which defines the local "preferred" direction, minimizes a specific functional of the observed transverse magnetic field. The specific functional that is successful is the integral of the square of the vertical current density. We find that the vertical electric current densities have common characteristics for the extended bipolar beta gamma delta-regions studied. The largest current systems have j(sub z)'s which maximizes around 30 mA per square meter and have a linear decreasing distribution to a diameter of 30 Mm.

Systems and Sensors for Debris-flow Monitoring and Warning

PubMed Central

Arattano, Massimo; Marchi, Lorenzo

2008-01-01

Debris flows are a type of mass movement that occurs in mountain torrents. They consist of a high concentration of solid material in water that flows as a wave with a steep front. Debris flows can be considered a phenomenon intermediate between landslides and water floods. They are amongst the most hazardous natural processes in mountainous regions and may occur under different climatic conditions. Their destructiveness is due to different factors: their capability of transporting and depositing huge amounts of solid materials, which may also reach large sizes (boulders of several cubic meters are commonly transported by debris flows), their steep fronts, which may reach several meters of height and also their high velocities. The implementation of both structural and non-structural control measures is often required when debris flows endanger routes, urban areas and other infrastructures. Sensor networks for debris-flow monitoring and warning play an important role amongst non-structural measures intended to reduce debris-flow risk. In particular, debris flow warning systems can be subdivided into two main classes: advance warning and event warning systems. These two classes employ different types of sensors. Advance warning systems are based on monitoring causative hydrometeorological processes (typically rainfall) and aim to issue a warning before a possible debris flow is triggered. Event warning systems are based on detecting debris flows when these processes are in progress. They have a much smaller lead time than advance warning ones but are also less prone to false alarms. Advance warning for debris flows employs sensors and techniques typical of meteorology and hydrology, including measuring rainfall by means of rain gauges and weather radar and monitoring water discharge in headwater streams. Event warning systems use different types of sensors, encompassing ultrasonic or radar gauges, ground vibration sensors, videocameras, avalanche pendulums, photocells, trip wires etc. Event warning systems for debris flows have a strong linkage with debris-flow monitoring that is carried out for research purposes: the same sensors are often used for both monitoring and warning, although warning systems have higher requirements of robustness than monitoring systems. The paper presents a description of the sensors employed for debris-flow monitoring and event warning systems, with attention given to advantages and drawbacks of different types of sensors. PMID:27879828

76 FR 76221 - Filings Required of Multiple Employer Welfare Arrangements and Certain Other Related Entities

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-12-06

... single employer if such trades or businesses are within the same control group. The term ``control group'' means a group of trades or businesses under common control, and the determination of whether a trade or... not group health plans (``non-plan MEWAs''), the proposal preserves the structure promulgated as part...

A Review of Commonly-Used State Employment Measures in Intellectual and Developmental Disability Services. Policy Research Brief. Volume 22, Number 1

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nord, Derek

2012-01-01

This "Policy Research Brief" summarizes publicly-available data sources that provide information about the employment of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. It provides important information about these data sources, including their purposes, key definitions, and where to access the public data. Using these data…

Nonstandard Work, Substandard Jobs. Flexible Work Arrangements in the U.S.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kalleberg, Arne L.; Rasell, Edith; Cassirer, Naomi; Reskin, Barbara F.; Hudson, Ken; Webster, David; Appelbaum, Eileen; Spalter-Roth, Roberta M.

Nonstandard work arrangements (independent contracting, working for a temporary help agency, contract or on-call work, day labor, self-employment, and regular part-time employment) are growing more common in the United States. In 1995, more than 29 percent of all jobs were in nonstandard work arrangements. A study of these jobs and the…

The Career Transition Process: A Qualitative Exploration of Korean Middle-Aged Workers in Postretirement Employment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Seon-Joo

2014-01-01

Today's society, shaped by demographic changes and a global economy, has created different employment trends and work lives that result in adults' engaging in postretirement second careers. This phenomenon is a common occurrence in rapidly aging societies like Korea. This qualitative study examined the postretirement career transition process of…

"Can't String a Sentence Together"? UK Employers' Views of Graduates' Writing Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kotzee, Ben; Johnston, Roger

2011-01-01

Concern exists among both academics and employers regarding the quality of graduates' writing. The complaint, as it is most commonly phrased, is that young graduates can no longer "string a simple sentence together". If true, this is a problem: the quality of students' writing seriously affects their chances in the job market. In this…

Morbid Obesity and the Transition from Welfare to Work

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cawley, John; Danziger, Sheldon

2005-01-01

This paper utilizes a rich longitudinal data set--the Women's Employment Study (WES)--to investigate whether obesity, which is common among women of low socioeconomic status, is a barrier to employment and earnings for current and former welfare recipients. We find that former welfare recipients who are both White and morbidly obese have been less…

New Technologies in Screening for Disease Risk: Implications for the Worksite and for Health Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McLeroy, Kenneth R.

The screening of workers for health problems has been ubiquitous in the worksite for many years. These screening procedures may have ethical and policy implications. Three common types of screening in use include pre-employment, early identification of health problems, and employee monitoring. Pre-employment screening may be used to screen out…

Empirical Investigation of Job Applicants' Reactions to Taking a Pre-Employment Honesty Test.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jones, John W.; Joy, Dennis

Employee theft is widespread and difficult to detect. Many companies have attempted to control the employee theft problem through pre-employment screening. The use of paper-and-pencil honesty tests in this process has become increasingly common. These two studies empirically investigated job applicants' (N=450) reactions to taking a pre-employment…

26 CFR 1.416-1 - Questions and answers on top-heavy plans.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

..., employers under common control or affiliated service group. A partner of a partnership will not be treated... employees, former key employees, and non-key employees. (b) All employers that are aggregated under section... as key employees, as former key employees, or as non-key employees. See Question and Answer T-12 for...

26 CFR 1.416-1 - Questions and answers on top-heavy plans.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

..., employers under common control or affiliated service group. A partner of a partnership will not be treated... employees, former key employees, and non-key employees. (b) All employers that are aggregated under section... as key employees, as former key employees, or as non-key employees. See Question and Answer T-12 for...

An Exploratory Study of the Impacts of an Employer-Supported Child Care Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Morrissey, Taryn W.; Warner, Mildred E.

2011-01-01

Although employer-sponsored child care programs have become more common, there is little empirical research on whether these programs affect employees' satisfaction with child care or their work-life balance, and if effects vary across employee characteristics. In this exploratory study, we administered a survey to employees with children at one…

Socrates and the Madness of Method

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schneider, Jack

2012-01-01

What do we know about Socrates and the teaching method that, having taken his name, has become widely used from kindergarten through postgraduate seminars? The practitioners employing so-called Socratic methods include vastly different styles, the author says, noting that "we may be mistaking common phrasing for common practice." The differences…

Student Perceptions of Classroom Achievement Goal Structure: Is It Appropriate to Aggregate?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lam, Arena C.; Ruzek, Erik A.; Schenke, Katerina; Conley, AnneMarie M.; Karabenick, Stuart A.

2015-01-01

Student reports are a common approach to characterizing how students experience their classrooms. We used a recently developed method--multilevel confirmatory factor analysis--to determine whether commonly employed measures of achievement goal structure constructs (mastery and performance) typically verified at the student level can be verified at…

Districts Gear up for Shift to Informational Texts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gewertz, Catherine

2012-01-01

The Common Core State Standards' emphasis on informational text arose in part from research suggesting that employers and college instructors found students weak at comprehending technical manuals, scientific and historical journals, and other texts pivotal to work in those arenas. The common core's vision of informational text includes literary…

Development of an Instrument to Assess Work Ethics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boatwright, John R.; Slate, John R.

2002-01-01

According to the literature, affective work competencies and personal-social competencies are but two of the terminologies among the plethora of captions employed to describe the set of behaviors commonly referred to as work ethics. The commonality linking these various captions is that all terminologies relate to the concepts of individual…

Preliminary assessment of rover power systems for the Mars Rover Sample Return Mission

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bents, D. J.

1989-01-01

Four isotope power system concepts were presented and compared on a common basis for application to on-board electrical prime power for an autonomous planetary rover vehicle. A representative design point corresponding to the Mars Rover Sample Return (MRSR) preliminary mission requirements (500 W) was selected for comparison purposes. All systems concepts utilize the General Purpose Heat Source (GPHS) isotope heat source developed by DOE. Two of the concepts employ thermoelectric (TE) conversion: one using the GPHS Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (RTG) used as a reference case, the other using an advanced RTG with improved thermoelectric materials. The other two concepts employed are dynamic isotope power systems (DIPS): one using a closed Brayton cycle (CBC) turboalternator, and the other using a free piston Stirling cycle engine/linear alternator (FPSE) with integrated heat source/heater head. Near-term technology levels have been assumed for concept characterization using component technology figure-of-merit values taken from the published literature. For example, the CBC characterization draws from the historical test database accumulated from space Brayton cycle subsystems and components from the NASA B engine through the mini-Brayton rotating unit. TE system performance is estimated from Voyager/multihundred Watt (MHW)-RTG flight experience through Mod-RTG performance estimates considering recent advances in TE materials under the DOD/DOE/NASA SP-100 and NASA Committee on Scientific and Technological Information programs. The Stirling DIPS system is characterized from scaled-down Space Power Demonstrator Engine (SPDE) data using the GPHS directly incorporated into the heater head. The characterization/comparison results presented here differ from previous comparison of isotope power (made for LEO applications) because of the elevated background temperature on the Martian surface compared to LEO, and the higher sensitivity of dynamic systems to elevated s

The Structure and Effectiveness of Health Systems: Exploring the Impact of System Integration in Rural China.

PubMed

Wang, Xin; Birch, Stephen; Ma, Huifen; Zhu, Weiming; Meng, Qingyue

2016-08-12

Facing the challenges of aging populations, increasing chronic diseases prevalence and health system fragmentation, there have been several pilots of integrated health systems in China. But little is known about their structure, mechanism and effectiveness. The aim of this paper is to analyze health system integration and develop recommendations for achieving integration. Huangzhong and Hualong counties in Qinghai province were studied as study sites, with only Huangzhong having implemented health system integration. Questionnaires, interviews, and health insurance records were sources of data. Social network analysis was employed to analyze integration, through structure measurement and effectiveness evaluation. Health system integration in Huangzhong is higher than in Hualong, so is system effectiveness. The patient referral network in Hualong has more "leapfrog" referrals. The information sharing networks in both counties are larger than the other types of networks. The average distance in the joint training network of Huangzhong is less than in Hualong. Meanwhile, there are deficiencies common to both systems. Both county health systems have strengths and limitations regarding system integration. The use of medical consortia in Huangzhong has contributed to system effectiveness. Future research might consider alternative more context specific models of health system integration.

49 CFR 40.26 - What form must an employer use to report Management Information System (MIS) data to a DOT agency?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 49 Transportation 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false What form must an employer use to report Management Information System (MIS) data to a DOT agency? 40.26 Section 40.26 Transportation Office of the... Employer Responsibilities § 40.26 What form must an employer use to report Management Information System...

49 CFR 40.26 - What form must an employer use to report Management Information System (MIS) data to a DOT agency?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... 49 Transportation 1 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false What form must an employer use to report Management Information System (MIS) data to a DOT agency? 40.26 Section 40.26 Transportation Office of the... Employer Responsibilities § 40.26 What form must an employer use to report Management Information System...

49 CFR 40.26 - What form must an employer use to report Management Information System (MIS) data to a DOT agency?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... 49 Transportation 1 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false What form must an employer use to report Management Information System (MIS) data to a DOT agency? 40.26 Section 40.26 Transportation Office of the... Employer Responsibilities § 40.26 What form must an employer use to report Management Information System...

49 CFR 40.26 - What form must an employer use to report Management Information System (MIS) data to a DOT agency?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... 49 Transportation 1 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false What form must an employer use to report Management Information System (MIS) data to a DOT agency? 40.26 Section 40.26 Transportation Office of the... Employer Responsibilities § 40.26 What form must an employer use to report Management Information System...

49 CFR 40.26 - What form must an employer use to report Management Information System (MIS) data to a DOT agency?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... 49 Transportation 1 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false What form must an employer use to report Management Information System (MIS) data to a DOT agency? 40.26 Section 40.26 Transportation Office of the... Employer Responsibilities § 40.26 What form must an employer use to report Management Information System...

30 CFR 77.902-2 - Approved ground check systems not employing pilot check wires.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... pilot check wires. 77.902-2 Section 77.902-2 Mineral Resources MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION... Approved ground check systems not employing pilot check wires. Ground check systems not employing pilot check wires shall be approved by the Secretary only after it has been determined that the system...

30 CFR 77.902-2 - Approved ground check systems not employing pilot check wires.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... pilot check wires. 77.902-2 Section 77.902-2 Mineral Resources MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION... Approved ground check systems not employing pilot check wires. Ground check systems not employing pilot check wires shall be approved by the Secretary only after it has been determined that the system...

30 CFR 77.902-2 - Approved ground check systems not employing pilot check wires.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... pilot check wires. 77.902-2 Section 77.902-2 Mineral Resources MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION... Approved ground check systems not employing pilot check wires. Ground check systems not employing pilot check wires shall be approved by the Secretary only after it has been determined that the system...

30 CFR 77.902-2 - Approved ground check systems not employing pilot check wires.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... pilot check wires. 77.902-2 Section 77.902-2 Mineral Resources MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION... Approved ground check systems not employing pilot check wires. Ground check systems not employing pilot check wires shall be approved by the Secretary only after it has been determined that the system...

30 CFR 77.902-2 - Approved ground check systems not employing pilot check wires.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... pilot check wires. 77.902-2 Section 77.902-2 Mineral Resources MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION... Approved ground check systems not employing pilot check wires. Ground check systems not employing pilot check wires shall be approved by the Secretary only after it has been determined that the system...

CO2 and O2 Gas Exchange in an Experimental Model of the Btlss with Plant Wastes and Human Wastes Included in the Mass Exchange

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ushakova, Sofya; Tikhomirov, Alexander A.; Velichko, Vladimir; Tikhomirova, Natalia; Trifonov, Sergey V.

2016-07-01

Mass exchange processes in the new experimental model of the biotechnical life support system (BTLSS) constructed at the Institute of Biophysics SB RAS have a higher degree of closure than in the previous BTLSS, and, thus, the technologies employed in the new system are more complex. Therefore, before closing the loops of mass exchange processes for several months, the new model of the BTLSS was run to match the technologies employed to cultivate plants and the methods used to involve inedible plant parts and human wastes into the mass exchange with the CO2 absorption rate and the amount of the resulting O2. The plant compartment included vegetables grown on the soil-like substrate (SLS) (chufa, beet, carrot, radish, and lettuce), plants hydroponically grown on expanded clay aggregate (wheat, soybean, watercress), and plants grown in aquaculture (common glasswort and watercress). Nutrient solutions for hydroponically grown plants were prepared by using products of physicochemical mineralization of human wastes. Growing the plants in aquaculture enabled maintaining NaCl concentration in the irrigation solution for hydroponically grown plants at a level safe for the plants. Inedible plant biomass was added to the SLS. Three cycles of closing the system were run, which lasted 7, 7, and 10 days. The comparison of the amount of CO2 fed into the system over 24 h (simulating human respiration) and the amount of CO2 daily exhaled by a 70-kg middle-aged human showed that between 1% and 4% of the daily emissions of CO2 were assimilated in the system, and about 3% of the average human daily O2 requirement accumulated in the system. Plant productivity was between 4 and 4.7% of the human daily vegetable requirement, or between 3 and 3.5% of the total human daily food requirement. Thus, testing of the BTLSS showed a match between the technologies employed to arrange mass exchange processes. This study was supported by the grant of the Russian Science Foundation (Project No. 14-14-00599).

Employer attitudes about criminal histories.

PubMed

Swanson, Sarah J; Langfitt-Reese, Sandra; Bond, Gary R

2012-09-01

Although the individual placement and support (IPS) approach has demonstrated superior competitive employment outcomes for people with severe mental illness, practitioners report that job obtainment for people with criminal convictions is particularly challenging. The current study examined employer hiring decisions and attitudes regarding job applicants with felonies. The main purpose of the study was to identify the percentage of employers who had knowingly hired applicants with felonies, and if the hiring patterns differed by employer type. Twelve employment specialists from nine states interviewed 128 employers about their past hiring practices. Two IPS trainers coordinated the project with the specialists. Survey findings did not support common assumptions held by employment specialists about employer attitudes. Sixty-three percent of employers surveyed said that they had knowingly hired at least one person with a felony conviction. Further, few businesses had written policies that would prohibit the hiring of people with felony convictions. Employers' reported reasons for having hired individuals with felony convictions provide a framework to help jobseekers improve their prospects for favorable hiring decisions. Employers suggested that relationships with employment specialists can also facilitate the hiring of applicants with felonies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).

Next generation interatomic potentials for condensed systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Handley, Christopher Michael; Behler, Jörg

2014-07-01

The computer simulation of condensed systems is a challenging task. While electronic structure methods like density-functional theory (DFT) usually provide a good compromise between accuracy and efficiency, they are computationally very demanding and thus applicable only to systems containing up to a few hundred atoms. Unfortunately, many interesting problems require simulations to be performed on much larger systems involving thousands of atoms or more. Consequently, more efficient methods are urgently needed, and a lot of effort has been spent on the development of a large variety of potentials enabling simulations with significantly extended time and length scales. Most commonly, these potentials are based on physically motivated functional forms and thus perform very well for the applications they have been designed for. On the other hand, they are often highly system-specific and thus cannot easily be transferred from one system to another. Moreover, their numerical accuracy is restricted by the intrinsic limitations of the imposed functional forms. In recent years, several novel types of potentials have emerged, which are not based on physical considerations. Instead, they aim to reproduce a set of reference electronic structure data as accurately as possible by using very general and flexible functional forms. In this review we will survey a number of these methods. While they differ in the choice of the employed mathematical functions, they all have in common that they provide high-quality potential-energy surfaces, while the efficiency is comparable to conventional empirical potentials. It has been demonstrated that in many cases these potentials now offer a very interesting new approach to study complex systems with hitherto unreached accuracy.

Dietary Assessment on a Mobile Phone Using Image Processing and Pattern Recognition Techniques: Algorithm Design and System Prototyping.

PubMed

Probst, Yasmine; Nguyen, Duc Thanh; Tran, Minh Khoi; Li, Wanqing

2015-07-27

Dietary assessment, while traditionally based on pen-and-paper, is rapidly moving towards automatic approaches. This study describes an Australian automatic food record method and its prototype for dietary assessment via the use of a mobile phone and techniques of image processing and pattern recognition. Common visual features including scale invariant feature transformation (SIFT), local binary patterns (LBP), and colour are used for describing food images. The popular bag-of-words (BoW) model is employed for recognizing the images taken by a mobile phone for dietary assessment. Technical details are provided together with discussions on the issues and future work.

Models for Models: An Introduction to Polymer Models Employing Simple Analogies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tarazona, M. Pilar; Saiz, Enrique

1998-11-01

An introduction to the most common models used in the calculations of conformational properties of polymers, ranging from the freely jointed chain approximation to Monte Carlo or molecular dynamics methods, is presented. Mathematical formalism is avoided and simple analogies, such as human chains, gases, opinion polls, or marketing strategies, are used to explain the different models presented. A second goal of the paper is to teach students how models required for the interpretation of a system can be elaborated, starting with the simplest model and introducing successive improvements until the refinements become so sophisticated that it is much better to use an alternative approach.

Pre-registration children's and young people's nurse preparation. A SWOT analysis.

PubMed

Richardson, Jim; McEwing, Gillian; Glasper, Edward Alan

2006-12-01

An investigation was undertaken into the views of nurse educators on current approaches to preparing children's and young people's nurses in the UK. A convenience sample of lead academics in 17 child health nursing departments of British universities was contacted by email and invited to liaise with colleagues to generate lists of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) of the educational system. Thirteen departments provided data that were analysed and themed. Major themes included the common foundation programme, clinical skills learning, clinical placements and employment. More detailed evaluative work should be undertaken before wholesale changes are made to a relatively new curriculum.

Apollo/Skylab suit program management systems study. Volume 2: Cost analysis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1974-01-01

The business management methods employed in the performance of the Apollo-Skylab Suit Program are studied. The data accumulated over the span of the contract as well as the methods used to accumulate the data are examined. Management methods associated with the monitoring and control of resources applied towards the performance of the contract are also studied and recommended upon. The primary objective is the compilation, analysis, and presentation of historical cost performance criteria. Cost data are depicted for all phases of the Apollo-Skylab program in common, meaningful terms, whereby the data may be applicable to future suit program planning efforts.

Progress on the J-2X Upper Stage Engine for the Ares I Crew Launch Vehicle and the Ares V Cargo Launch Vehicle

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Byrd, Thomas D.; Kynard, Michael .

2007-01-01

NASA's Vision for Exploration requires a safe, reliable, affordable upper stage engine to power the Ares I Crew Launch Vehicle (CLV) and the Ares V Cargo Launch Vehicle. The J-2X engine is being developed for that purpose, epitomizing NASA's philosophy of employing legacy knowledge, heritage hardware, and commonality to carry the next generation of explorers into low-Earth orbit and out into the solar system This presentation gives top-level details on accomplishments to date and discusses forward work necessary to bring the J-2X engine to the launch pad.

Agricultural employers' hiring and safety practices for adolescent workers.

PubMed

Lee, B C; Westaby, J D; Chyou, P H; Purschwitz, M A

2007-01-01

The goal of the "Safety Training for Employers and Supervisors of Adolescent Farmworkers" initiative is to improve the occupational health and safety knowledge and practices of agricultural employers and supervisors responsible for employees, ages 14 to 17 years. Surveys were sent to members of the National Council of Agricultural Employers and the Washington Growers League to measure attitudes regarding adolescent employees, current hiring and training practices, and future intentions. More than half of the respondents hire adolescents. Two-thirds were male, nearly three-quarters of the respondents had college or post-graduate degrees, and more than half were 50 years or older. The majority of respondents had positive perceptions of adolescents in terms of dependability, helpfulness, and work ethic. Among those who currently hire young workers, the most common reasons were to provide a job for children of friends and family and because they can work part-time to fill a labor demand. Among those not hiring adolescents, the most common reason was concern about child labor regulations and associated tasks (e.g., paperwork, monitoring hours). Respondents use a variety of safety training resources, especially posters and safety meetings. For the future, they expect to need more handout materials and training videos. Study results provide insights into barriers to the employment of young workers and suggest methods by which agricultural safety specialists can best assist those employers and producers who are willing to hire adolescents into agricultural work settings.

Ego defense mechanisms in Pakistani medical students: a cross sectional analysis.

PubMed

Parekh, Maria A; Majeed, Hina; Khan, Tuba R; Khan, Anum B; Khalid, Salman; Khwaja, Nadia M; Khalid, Roha; Khan, Mohammad A; Rizqui, Ibrahim M; Jehan, Imtiaz

2010-01-29

Ego defense mechanisms (or factors), defined by Freud as unconscious resources used by the ego to reduce conflict between the id and superego, are a reflection of how an individual deals with conflict and stress. This study assesses the prevalence of various ego defense mechanisms employed by medical students of Karachi, which is a group with higher stress levels than the general population. A questionnaire based cross-sectional study was conducted on 682 students from five major medical colleges of Karachi over 4 weeks in November 2006. Ego defense mechanisms were assessed using the Defense Style Questionnaire (DSQ-40) individually and as grouped under Mature, Immature, and Neurotic factors. Lower mean scores of Immature defense mechanisms (4.78) were identified than those for Neurotic (5.62) and Mature (5.60) mechanisms among medical students of Karachi. Immature mechanisms were more commonly employed by males whereas females employed more Neurotic mechanisms than males. Neurotic and Immature defenses were significantly more prevalent in first and second year students. Mature mechanisms were significantly higher in students enrolled in Government colleges than Private institutions (p < 0.05). Immature defense mechanisms were less commonly employed than Neurotic and Mature mechanisms among medical students of Karachi. The greater employment of Neurotic defenses may reflect greater stress levels than the general population. Employment of these mechanisms was associated with female gender, enrollment in a private medical college, and students enrolled in the first 2 years of medical school.

77 FR 24740 - Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP) Performance Measurement System

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-04-25

... Employment Program (SCSEP); Final Rule, Additional Indicator on Volunteer Work. See 77 FR 4654. [[Page 24741... DEPARTMENT OF LABOR Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP) Performance Measurement System AGENCY: Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, Division of National Programs...

Elements of integrated care approaches for older people: a review of reviews.

PubMed

Briggs, Andrew M; Valentijn, Pim P; Thiyagarajan, Jotheeswaran A; Araujo de Carvalho, Islene

2018-04-07

The World Health Organization (WHO) recently proposed an Integrated Care for Older People approach to guide health systems and services in better supporting functional ability of older people. A knowledge gap remains in the key elements of integrated care approaches used in health and social care delivery systems for older populations. The objective of this review was to identify and describe the key elements of integrated care models for elderly people reported in the literature. Review of reviews using a systematic search method. A systematic search was performed in MEDLINE and the Cochrane database in June 2017. Reviews of interventions aimed at care integration at the clinical (micro), organisational/service (meso) or health system (macro) levels for people aged ≥60 years were included. Non-Cochrane reviews published before 2015 were excluded. Reviews were assessed for quality using the Assessment of Multiple Systematic Reviews (AMSTAR) 1 tool. Fifteen reviews (11 systematic reviews, of which six were Cochrane reviews) were included, representing 219 primary studies. Three reviews (20%) included only randomised controlled trials (RCT), while 10 reviews (65%) included both RCTs and non-RCTs. The region where the largest number of primary studies originated was North America (n=89, 47.6%), followed by Europe (n=60, 32.1%) and Oceania (n=31, 16.6%). Eleven (73%) reviews focused on clinical 'micro' and organisational 'meso' care integration strategies. The most commonly reported elements of integrated care models were multidisciplinary teams, comprehensive assessment and case management. Nurses, physiotherapists, general practitioners and social workers were the most commonly reported service providers. Methodological quality was variable (AMSTAR scores: 1-11). Seven (47%) reviews were scored as high quality (AMSTAR score ≥8). Evidence of elements of integrated care for older people focuses particularly on micro clinical care integration processes, while there is a relative lack of information regarding the meso organisational and macro system-level care integration strategies. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2018. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

Pig brain stereotaxic standard space: mapping of cerebral blood flow normative values and effect of MPTP-lesioning.

PubMed

Andersen, Flemming; Watanabe, Hideaki; Bjarkam, Carsten; Danielsen, Erik H; Cumming, Paul

2005-07-15

The analysis of physiological processes in brain by position emission tomography (PET) is facilitated when images are spatially normalized to a standard coordinate system. Thus, PET activation studies of human brain frequently employ the common stereotaxic coordinates of Talairach. We have developed an analogous stereotaxic coordinate system for the brain of the Gottingen miniature pig, based on automatic co-registration of magnetic resonance (MR) images obtained in 22 male pigs. The origin of the pig brain stereotaxic space (0, 0, 0) was arbitrarily placed in the centroid of the pineal gland as identified on the average MRI template. The orthogonal planes were imposed using the line between stereotaxic zero and the optic chiasm. A series of mean MR images in the coronal, sagittal and horizontal planes were generated. To test the utility of the common coordinate system for functional imaging studies of minipig brain, we calculated cerebral blood flow (CBF) maps from normal minipigs and from minipigs with a syndrome of parkisonism induced by 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP)-poisoning. These maps were transformed from the native space into the common stereotaxic space. After global normalization of these maps, an undirected search for differences between the groups was then performed using statistical parametric mapping. Using this method, we detected a statistically significant focal increase in CBF in the left cerebellum of the MPTP-lesioned group. We expect the present approach to be of general use in the statistical parametric mapping of CBF and other physiological parameters in living pig brain.

Brain corticostriatal systems and the major clinical symptom dimensions of obsessive-compulsive disorder.

PubMed

Harrison, Ben J; Pujol, Jesus; Cardoner, Narcis; Deus, Joan; Alonso, Pino; López-Solà, Marina; Contreras-Rodríguez, Oren; Real, Eva; Segalàs, Cinto; Blanco-Hinojo, Laura; Menchon, José M; Soriano-Mas, Carles

2013-02-15

Functional neuroimaging studies have provided consistent support for the idea that obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is associated with disturbances of brain corticostriatal systems. However, in general, these studies have not sought to account for the disorder's prominent clinical heterogeneity. To address these concerns, we investigated the influence of major OCD symptom dimensions on brain corticostriatal functional systems in a large sample of OCD patients (n = 74) and control participants (n = 74) examined with resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. We employed a valid method for mapping ventral and dorsal striatal functional connectivity, which supported both standard group comparisons and linear regression analyses with patients' scores on the Dimensional Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale. Consistent with past findings, patients demonstrated a common connectivity alteration involving the ventral striatum and orbitofrontal cortex that predicted overall illness severity levels. This common alteration was independent of the effect of particular symptom dimensions. Instead, we observed distinct anatomical relationships between the severity of symptom dimensions and striatal functional connectivity. Aggression symptoms modulated connectivity between the ventral striatum, amygdala, and ventromedial frontal cortex, while sexual/religious symptoms had a specific influence on ventral striatal-insular connectivity. Hoarding modulated the strength of ventral and dorsal striatal connectivity with distributed frontal regions. Taken together, these results suggest that pathophysiological changes among orbitofrontal-striatal regions may be common to all forms of OCD. They suggest that a further examination of certain dimensional relationships will also be relevant for advancing current neurobiological models of the disorder. Copyright © 2013 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Qualitative study to develop processes and tools for the assessment and tracking of African institutions' capacity for operational health research.

PubMed

Wallis, Selina; Cole, Donald C; Gaye, Oumar; Mmbaga, Blandina T; Mwapasa, Victor; Tagbor, Harry; Bates, Imelda

2017-09-05

Research is key to achieving global development goals. Our objectives were to develop and test an evidence-informed process for assessing health research management and support systems (RMSS) in four African universities and for tracking interventions to address capacity gaps. Four African universities. 83 university staff and students from 11 cadres. A literature-informed 'benchmark' was developed and used to itemise all components of a university's health RMSS. Data on all components were collected during site visits to four African universities using interview guides, document reviews and facilities observation guides. Gaps in RMSS capacity were identified against the benchmark and institutional action plans developed to remedy gaps. Progress against indicators was tracked over 15 months and common challenges and successes identified. Common gaps in operational health research capacity included no accessible research strategy, a lack of research e-tracking capability and inadequate quality checks for proposal submissions and contracts. Feedback indicated that the capacity assessment was comprehensive and generated practical actions, several of which were no-cost. Regular follow-up helped to maintain focus on activities to strengthen health research capacity in the face of challenges. Identification of each institutions' strengths and weaknesses against an evidence-informed benchmark enabled them to identify gaps in in their operational health research systems, to develop prioritised action plans, to justify resource requests to fulfil the plans and to track progress in strengthening RMSS. Use of a standard benchmark, approach and tools enabled comparisons across institutions which has accelerated production of evidence about the science of research capacity strengthening. The tools could be used by institutions seeking to understand their strengths and to address gaps in research capacity. Research capacity gaps that were common to several institutions could be a 'smart' investment for governments and health research funders. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2017. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

Interferometric system based on swept source-optical coherence tomography scheme applied to the measurement of distances of industrial interest

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Morel, Eneas N.; Russo, Nélida A.; Torga, Jorge R.; Duchowicz, Ricardo

2016-01-01

We used an interferometric technique based on typical optical coherence tomography (OCT) schemes for measuring distances of industrial interest. The system employed as a light source a tunable erbium-doped fiber laser of ˜20-pm bandwidth with a tuning range between 1520 and 1570 nm. It has a sufficiently long coherence length to enable long depth range imaging. A set of fiber Bragg gratings was used as a self-calibration method, which has the advantage of being a passive system that requires no additional electronic devices. The proposed configuration and the coherence length of the laser enlarge the range of maximum distances that can be measured with the common OCT configuration, maintaining a good axial resolution. A measuring range slightly >17 cm was determined. The system performance was evaluated by studying the repeatability and axial resolution of the results when the same optical path difference was measured. Additionally, the thickness of a semitransparent medium was also measured.

Simple models for rope substructure mechanics: application to electro-mechanical lifts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Herrera, I.; Kaczmarczyk, S.

2016-05-01

Mechanical systems modelled as rigid mass elements connected by tensioned slender structural members such as ropes and cables represent quite common substructures used in lift engineering and hoisting applications. Special interest is devoted by engineers and researchers to the vibratory response of such systems for optimum performance and durability. This paper presents simplified models that can be employed to determine the natural frequencies of systems having substructures of two rigid masses constrained by tensioned rope/cable elements. The exact solution for free un-damped longitudinal displacement response is discussed in the context of simple two-degree-of-freedom models. The results are compared and the influence of characteristics parameters such as the ratio of the average mass of the two rigid masses with respect to the rope mass and the deviation ratio of the two rigid masses with respect to the average mass is analyzed. This analysis gives criteria for the application of such simplified models in complex elevator and hoisting system configurations.

Dechlorination by ultraviolet radiation: a suitable alternative to activated carbon in dialysis water systems?

PubMed

James, Ray

2009-12-01

Chlorine-based products are widely used in the water supply industry, and the potential for adverse effects in the haemodialysis setting is well documented. To date, the most commonly used method of chlorine removal has been granular activated carbon filters. An increasingly popular method of dechlorination is the use of high intensity, broad-spectrum UV systems to reduce both free chlorine and combined chlorine compounds (chloramines) into easily removed by-products. UV radiation has been successfully used in the pharmaceutical and food industries to destroy free chlorine and/or chloramines present in water, and kill all known spoilage microorganisms including bacteria, viruses, yeasts and moulds (and their spores). This nonchemical method can offer significant advantages and benefits compared to conventional dechlorination technologies currently employed in dialysis water systems. Whilst UV treatment at 254 nm wavelength has been routinely used for disinfection purposes in dialysis water systems, this paper considers whether UV radiation can be used as an alternative to more traditional methods of chlorine removal.

A Secure and Robust Object-Based Video Authentication System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

He, Dajun; Sun, Qibin; Tian, Qi

2004-12-01

An object-based video authentication system, which combines watermarking, error correction coding (ECC), and digital signature techniques, is presented for protecting the authenticity between video objects and their associated backgrounds. In this system, a set of angular radial transformation (ART) coefficients is selected as the feature to represent the video object and the background, respectively. ECC and cryptographic hashing are applied to those selected coefficients to generate the robust authentication watermark. This content-based, semifragile watermark is then embedded into the objects frame by frame before MPEG4 coding. In watermark embedding and extraction, groups of discrete Fourier transform (DFT) coefficients are randomly selected, and their energy relationships are employed to hide and extract the watermark. The experimental results demonstrate that our system is robust to MPEG4 compression, object segmentation errors, and some common object-based video processing such as object translation, rotation, and scaling while securely preventing malicious object modifications. The proposed solution can be further incorporated into public key infrastructure (PKI).