A study of flame spread in engineered cardboard fuelbeds: Part I: Correlations and observations

Treesearch

Mark A. Finney; Jason Forthofer; Isaac C. Grenfell; Brittany A. Adam; Nelson K. Akafuah; Kozo Saito

2013-01-01

Wind tunnel laboratory fires spreading through laser-cut cardboard fuel beds were instrumented and analyzed for physical processes associated with spread. Flames in the span-wise direction appeared as a regular series of peaks-and-troughs that scaled directly with flame length. Flame structure in the stream-wise direction fluctuated with the forward advection of...

Entrepreneur*Wise Training Program for Displaced Homemakers at Westchester Community College, April 1, 1997-December 31, 1999. Final Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wald, Marilyn

This paper presents the final report of the Kauffman Grant--JumpStart III Entrepreneur*Wise Training Program for Displaced Homemakers at Westchester Community College from April 1, 1997 to December 31, 1999. This report is divided into nine parts. Section 1 looks at programs offered and individuals counseled. Section 2 discusses the…

GridWise Standards Mapping Overview

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

Bosquet, Mia L.

''GridWise'' is a concept of how advanced communications, information and controls technology can transform the nation's energy system--across the spectrum of large scale, central generation to common consumer appliances and equipment--into a collaborative network, rich in the exchange of decision making information and an abundance of market-based opportunities (Widergren and Bosquet 2003) accompanying the electric transmission and distribution system fully into the information and telecommunication age. This report summarizes a broad review of standards efforts which are related to GridWise--those which could ultimately contribute significantly to advancements toward the GridWise vision, or those which represent today's current technological basis uponmore » which this vision must build.« less

Software Project Management and Measurement on the World-Wide-Web (WWW)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Callahan, John; Ramakrishnan, Sudhaka

1996-01-01

We briefly describe a system for forms-based, work-flow management that helps members of a software development team overcome geographical barriers to collaboration. Our system, called the Web Integrated Software Environment (WISE), is implemented as a World-Wide-Web service that allows for management and measurement of software development projects based on dynamic analysis of change activity in the workflow. WISE tracks issues in a software development process, provides informal communication between the users with different roles, supports to-do lists, and helps in software process improvement. WISE minimizes the time devoted to metrics collection and analysis by providing implicit delivery of messages between users based on the content of project documents. The use of a database in WISE is hidden from the users who view WISE as maintaining a personal 'to-do list' of tasks related to the many projects on which they may play different roles.

Wheel inspection system environment qualification and validation : final report for public distribution.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2009-03-20

International Electronic Machines Corporation (IEM) has developed and is now marketing a state-of-the-art Wheel Inspection System Environment (WISE). WISE provides wheel profile and dimensional measurements, i.e. rim thickness, flange height, flange ...

Preliminary Results from NEOWISE: An Enhancement to the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer for Solar System Science

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mainzer, A.; Bauer, J.; Grav, T.; Masiero, J.; Cutri, R. M.; Dailey, J.; Eisenhardt, P.; McMillan, R. S.; Wright, E.; Walker, R.; Jedicke, R.; Spahr, T.; Tholen, D.; Alles, R.; Beck, R.; Brandenburg, H.; Conrow, T.; Evans, T.; Fowler, J.; Jarrett, T.; Marsh, K.; Masci, F.; McCallon, H.; Wheelock, S.; Wittman, M.; Wyatt, P.; DeBaun, E.; Elliott, G.; Elsbury, D.; Gautier, T., IV; Gomillion, S.; Leisawitz, D.; Maleszewski, C.; Micheli, M.; Wilkins, A.

2011-04-01

The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) has surveyed the entire sky at four infrared wavelengths with greatly improved sensitivity and spatial resolution compared to its predecessors, the Infrared Astronomical Satellite and the Cosmic Background Explorer. NASA's Planetary Science Division has funded an enhancement to the WISE data processing system called "NEOWISE" that allows detection and archiving of moving objects found in the WISE data. NEOWISE has mined the WISE images for a wide array of small bodies in our solar system, including near-Earth objects (NEOs), Main Belt asteroids, comets, Trojans, and Centaurs. By the end of survey operations in 2011 February, NEOWISE identified over 157,000 asteroids, including more than 500 NEOs and ~120 comets. The NEOWISE data set will enable a panoply of new scientific investigations.

WISE Observations of Comets, Centaurs, & Scattered Disk Objects

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bauer, J.; Walker, R.; Mainzer, A.; Masiero, J.; Grav, T.; Cutri, R.; Dailey, J.; McMillan, R.; Lisse, C. M.; Fernandez, Y. R.;

Privacy Impact Assessment for the Registration and Tracking System for SunWise

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

The Registration and Tracking System for SunWise collects contact information and demographics about each educator. Learn how this data is collected, used, access to the data, the purpose of data collection, and record retention policies.

Integrated health care delivery system conducts ad agency search as part of its brand-launching effort.

PubMed

Lewicki, G

1999-01-01

PennState Geisinger Health System, Hershey, Pa., conducted an extensive ad agency search after its inception in 1997. The integrated health care delivery system needed to introduce its brand to an audience that was confused by the wide array of available health care options. BVK/McDonald, Milwaukee, the agency selected, has created a branding campaign that revolves around the tag-line "The power of health." PennState Geisinger will tabulate the results of BVK/McDonald's multi-million dollar campaign in 2000; at that time it will know whether its selection committee chose wisely.

Brown Dwarfs in our Backyard

NASA Image and Video Library

2014-03-07

The third closest star system to the sun, called WISE J104915.57-531906, center of large image, which was taken by NASA WISE. It appeared to be a single object, but a sharper image from Gemini Observatory, revealed that it was binary star system.

unWISE: Unblurred Coadds of the WISE Imaging

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lang, Dustin

2014-05-01

The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) satellite observed the full sky in four mid-infrared bands in the 2.8-28 μm range. The primary mission was completed in 2010. The WISE team has done a superb job of producing a series of high-quality, well-documented, complete data releases in a timely manner. However, the "Atlas Image" coadds that are part of the recent AllWISE and previous data releases were intentionally blurred. Convolving the images by the point-spread function while coadding results in "matched-filtered" images that are close to optimal for detecting isolated point sources. But these matched-filtered images are sub-optimal or inappropriate for other purposes. For example, we are photometering the WISE images at the locations of sources detected in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey through forward modeling, and this blurring decreases the available signal-to-noise by effectively broadening the point-spread function. This paper presents a new set of coadds of the WISE images that have not been blurred. These images retain the intrinsic resolution of the data and are appropriate for photometry preserving the available signal-to-noise. Users should be cautioned, however, that the W3- and W4-band coadds contain artifacts around large, bright structures (large galaxies, dusty nebulae, etc.); eliminating these artifacts is the subject of ongoing work. These new coadds, and the code used to produce them, are publicly available at http://unwise.me.

Implementation of a self-management support approach (WISE) across a health system: a process evaluation explaining what did and did not work for organisations, clinicians and patients.

PubMed

Kennedy, Anne; Rogers, Anne; Chew-Graham, Carolyn; Blakeman, Thomas; Bowen, Robert; Gardner, Caroline; Lee, Victoria; Morris, Rebecca; Protheroe, Joanne

2014-10-21

Implementation of long-term condition management interventions rests on the notion of whole systems re-design, where incorporating wider elements of health care systems are integral to embedding effective and integrated solutions. However, most self-management support (SMS) evaluations still focus on particular elements or outcomes of a sub-system. A randomised controlled trial of a SMS intervention (WISE-Whole System Informing Self-management Engagement) implemented in primary care showed no effect on patient-level outcomes. This paper reports on a parallel process evaluation to ascertain influences affecting WISE implementation at patient, clinical and organisational levels. Normalisation Process Theory (NPT) provided a sensitising background and analytical framework. A multi-method approach using surveys and interviews with organisational stakeholders, practice staff and trial participants about impact of training and use of tools developed for WISE. Analysis was sensitised by NPT (coherence, cognitive participation, collective action and reflective monitoring). The aim was to identify what worked and what did not work for who and in what context. Interviews with organisation stakeholders emphasised top-down initiation of WISE by managers who supported innovation in self-management. Staff from 31 practices indicated engagement with training but patchy adoption of WISE tools; SMS was neither prioritised by practices nor fitted with a biomedically focussed ethos, so little effort was invested in WISE techniques. Interviews with 24 patients indicated no awareness of any changes following the training of practice staff; furthermore, they did not view primary care as an appropriate place for SMS. The results contribute to understanding why SMS is not routinely adopted and implemented in primary care. WISE was not embedded because of the perceived lack of relevance and fit to the ethos and existing work. Enacting SMS within primary care practice was not viewed as a legitimate activity or a professional priority. There was failure to, in principle, engage with and identify patients' support needs. Policy presumptions concerning SMS appear to be misplaced. Implementation of SMS within the health service does not currently account for patient circumstances. Primary care priorities and support for SMS could be enhanced if they link to patients' broader systems of implementation networks and resources.

Explanatory Supplement to the AllWISE Data Release Products

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cutri, R. M.; Wright, E. L.; Conrow, T.; Fowler, J. W.; Eisenhardt, P. R. M.; Grillmair, C.; Kirkpatrick, J. D.; Masci, F.; McCallon, H. L.; Wheelock, S. L.; Fajardo-Acosta, S.; Yan, L.; Benford, D.; Harbut, M.; Jarrett, T.; Lake, S.; Leisawitz, D.; Ressler, M. E.; Stanford, S. A.; Tsai, C. W.; Liu, F.; Helou, G.; Mainzer, A.; Gettings, D.; Gonzalez, A.; Hoffman, D.; Marsh, K. A.; Padgett, D.; Skrutskie, M. F.; Beck, R. P.; Papin, M.; Wittman, M.

2013-11-01

The AllWISE program builds upon the successful Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE; Wright et al. 2010) mission by combining data from all WISE and NEOWISE (Mainzer et al. 2011) survey phases to form the most comprehensive view of the mid-infrared sky currently available. By combining the data from two complete sky coverage epochs in an advanced data processing system, AllWISE has generated new products that have enhanced photometric sensitivity and accuracy, and improved astrometric precision compared with the earlier WISE All-Sky Data Release. Exploiting the 6 month baseline between the WISE sky coverage epochs enables AllWISE to measure source motions for the first time, and to compute improved flux variability statistics. AllWISE data release products include: a Source Catalog that contains 4-band fluxes, positions, apparent motion measurements, and flux variability statistics for over 747 million objects detected at SNR>5 in the combined exposures; a Multiepoch Photometry Database containing over 42 billion time-tagged, single-exposure fluxes for each object detected on the combined exposures; and an Image Atlas of 18,240 4-band calibrated FITS images, depth-of-coverage and noise maps that cover the sky produced by coadding nearly 7.9 million single-exposure images from the cryogenic and post-cryogenic survey phases. The Explanatory Supplement to the AllWISE Data Release Products is a general guide for users of the AllWISE data. The Supplement contains detailed descriptions of the format and characteristics of the AllWISE data products, as well as a summary of cautionary notes that describe known limitations. The Supplement is an on-line document that is updated frequently to provide the most current information for users of the AllWISE data products. The Explanatory Supplement is maintained at: http://wise2.ipac.caltech.edu/docs/release/allwise/expsup/index.html AllWISE makes use of data from WISE, which is a joint project of the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology, and NEOWISE, which is a project of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology. WISE and NEOWISE are funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

The WIRED Survey. 2; Infrared Excesses in the SDSS DR7 White Dwarf Catalog

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Debes, John H.; Hoard, D. W.; Wachter, Stefanie; Leisawitz, David T.; Cohen, Martin

2011-01-01

With the launch of the Wide-field Infrar.ed Survey Explorer (WISE), a new era of detecting planetary debris and brown dwarfs (BDs) around white dwarfs (WDs) has begun with the WISE InfraRed Excesses around Degenerates (WIRED) Survey. The WIRED Survey is sensitive to substellar objects and dusty debris around WDs out to distances exceeding 100 pc, well beyond the completeness level of local WDs. In this paper, we present a cross-correlation of the preliminary Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 7 (DR7) WD catalog between the WISE, Two-Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS), UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS), and SDSS DR7 photometric catalogs. From -18,000 input targets, there are WISE detections comprising 344 "naked" WDs (detection of the WD photosphere only), 1020 candidate WD+M dwarf binaries, 42 candidate WD+BD systems, 52 candidate WD+dust disk systems, and 69 targets with indeterminate infrared excess. We classified all of the detected targets through spectral energy distribution model fitting of the merged optical, near-IR, and WISE photometry. Some of these detections could be the result of contaminating sources within the large (approx. 6") WISE point-spread function; we make a preliminary estimate for the rates of contamination for our WD+BD and WD+disk candidates and provide notes for each target of interest. Each candidate presented here should be confirmed with higher angular resolution infrared imaging or infrared spectroscopy. We also present an overview of the observational characteristics of the detected WDs in the WISE photometric bands, including the relative frequencies of candidate WD+M, WD+BD, and WD+disk systems.

Searching for Planet Nine and Other Nearby Worlds with WISE and NEOWISE

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meisner, Aaron Michael; Bromley, Benjamin; Nugent, Peter; Schlegel, David; Kenyon, Scott; Schlafly, Eddie; Dawson, Kyle; Anderson, Teddy

2018-01-01

Launched nearly eight years ago, NASA's WISE satellite continues to collect millions of infrared images at 3-5 microns as part of its asteroid-hunting NEOWISE mission. We have repurposed these NEOWISE exposures for science beyond the main belt by generating a novel full-sky set of time-resolved coadded images. This reprocessing allows for moving object searches reaching ~1.3 magnitudes fainter than previous studies while also providing a factor of ten increase in time baseline. This creates an exciting opportunity for motion-based discovery of very cold and faint objects which may have thus far eluded detection despite residing close to the Sun. We present the results of our latest WISE/NEOWISE search for 'Planet Nine', a giant planet hypothesized to orbit the Sun at hundreds of astronomical units. Our search incorporates over four years of WISE W1 observations spanning a seven year time period, and covers more than 75% of the sky. Variants of the WISE/NEOWISE Planet Nine search methodology we have developed should enable motion-based discoveries of large numbers of cold, faint brown dwarfs, especially those which are not detectable with Gaia.

Welcome to the Twilight Zone: The Mid-infrared Properties of Post-starburst Galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alatalo, Katherine; Bitsakis, Theodoros; Lanz, Lauranne; Lacy, Mark; Brown, Michael J. I.; French, K. Decker; Ciesla, Laure; Appleton, Philip N.; Beaton, Rachael L.; Cales, Sabrina L.; Crossett, Jacob; Falcón-Barroso, Jesús; Kelson, Daniel D.; Kewley, Lisa J.; Kriek, Mariska; Medling, Anne M.; Mulchaey, John S.; Nyland, Kristina; Rich, Jeffrey A.; Urry, C. Meg

2017-07-01

We investigate the optical and Wide-field Survey Explorer (WISE) colors of “E+A” identified post-starburst galaxies, including a deep analysis of 190 post-starbursts detected in the 2 μm All Sky Survey Extended Source Catalog. The post-starburst galaxies appear in both the optical green valley and the WISE Infrared Transition Zone. Furthermore, we find that post-starbursts occupy a distinct region of [3.4]-[4.6] versus [4.6]-[12] WISE colors, enabling the identification of this class of transitioning galaxies through the use of broadband photometric criteria alone. We have investigated possible causes for the WISE colors of post-starbursts by constructing a composite spectral energy distribution (SED), finding that the mid-infrared (4-12 μm) properties of post-starbursts are consistent with either 11.3 μm polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon emission, or thermally pulsating asymptotic giant branch (TP-AGB) and post-AGB stars. The composite SED of extended post-starburst galaxies with 22 μm emission detected with signal-to-noise ratio ≥slant 3 requires a hot dust component to produce their observed rising mid-infrared SED between 12 and 22 μm. The composite SED of WISE 22 μm non-detections (S/N < 3), created by stacking 22 μm images, is also flat, requiring a hot dust component. The most likely source of the mid-infrared emission of these E+A galaxies is a buried active galactic nucleus (AGN). The inferred upper limits to the Eddington ratios of post-starbursts are 10-2-10-4, with an average of 10-3. This suggests that AGNs are not radiatively dominant in these systems. This could mean that including selections capable of identifying AGNs as part of a search for transitioning and post-starburst galaxies would create a more complete census of the transition pathways taken as a galaxy quenches its star formation.

Searching For Infrared Excesses Around White Dwarf Stars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Deeb Wilson, Elin; Rebull, Luisa M.; Debes, John H.; Stark, Chris

2017-01-01

Many WDs have been found to be “polluted,” meaning they contain heavier elements in their atmospheres. Either an active process that counters gravitational settling is taking place, or an external mechanism is the cause. One proposed external mechanism for atmospheric pollution of WDs is the disintegration and accretion of rocky bodies, which would result in a circumstellar (CS) disk. As CS disks are heated, they emit excess infrared (IR) emission. WDs with IR excesses indicative of a CS disk are known as dusty WDs. Statistical studies are still needed to determine how numerous dusty, polluted WDs are, along with trends and correlations regarding rate of planetary accretion, the lifetimes of CS disks, and the structure and evolution of CS disks. These findings will allow for a better understanding of the fates of planets along with potential habitability of surviving planets.In this work, we are trying to confirm IR excesses around a sample of 69 WD stars selected as part of the WISE InfraRed Excesses around Degenerates (WIRED) Survey (Debes et al. 2011). We have archival data from WISE, Spitzer, 2MASS, DENIS, and SDSS. The targets were initially selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), and identified as containing IR excesses based on WISE data. We also have data from the Four Star Infrared Camera array, which is part of Carnegie Institution’s Magellan 6.5 meter Baade Telescope located at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile. These Four Star data are much higher spatial resolution than the WISE data that were used to determine if each WD has an IR excess. There are often not many bands delineating the IR excess portion of the SED; therefore, we are using the Four Star data to check if there is another source in the WISE beam affecting the IR excess.

The Mission Operations System for Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Heinrichsen, Ingolf H.

2006-01-01

The goal of the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission is to perform a highly sensitive all-sky survey in 4 wavebands from 3 to 25(mu)m. Launched on a Delta II rocket into a 500km Sun-synchronous orbit in June 2009, during its 7 months of operations, WISE will acquire about 50GBytes of raw science data every day, which will be down-linked via the TDRSS relay satellite system and processed into an astronomical catalogue and image atlas. The WISE mission operations system is being implemented in collaboration between UCLA, JPL and IPAC (Caltech). In this paper we describe the challenges to manage a high data rate, cryogenic, low earth-orbit mission; maintaining safe on-orbit operations, fast anomaly recoveries (mandated by the desire to provide complete sky coverage in a limited lifetime), production and dissemination of high quality science products, given the constraints imposed by funding profiles for small space missions.

Preliminary Assessment of Detection Efficiency for the Geostationary Lightning Mapper Using Intercomparisons with Ground-Based Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bateman, Monte; Mach, Douglas; Blakeslee, Richard J.; Koshak, William

2018-01-01

As part of the calibration/validation (cal/val) effort for the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) on GOES-16, we need to assess instrument performance (detection efficiency and accuracy). One major effort is to calculate the detection efficiency of GLM by comparing to multiple ground-based systems. These comparisons will be done pair-wise between GLM and each other source. A complication in this process is that the ground-based systems sense different properties of the lightning signal than does GLM (e.g., RF vs. optical). Also, each system has a different time and space resolution and accuracy. Preliminary results indicate that GLM is performing at or above its specification.

KSC-2009-6554

NASA Image and Video Library

2009-10-20

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. - The logo for NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, mission. WISE will survey the entire sky at infrared wavelengths, creating a cosmic clearinghouse of hundreds of millions of objects which will be catalogued and provide a vast storehouse of knowledge about the solar system, the Milky Way, and the universe. Launch is scheduled for Dec. 9. For additional information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/wise. Photo credit: NASA/Doug Kulkow, VAFB

A survey of ground operations tools developed to simulate the pointing of space telescopes and the design for WISE

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fabinsky, Beth

2006-01-01

WISE, the Wide Field Infrared Survey Explorer, is scheduled for launch in June 2010. The mission operations system for WISE requires a software modeling tool to help plan, integrate and simulate all spacecraft pointing and verify that no attitude constraints are violated. In the course of developing the requirements for this tool, an investigation was conducted into the design of similar tools for other space-based telescopes. This paper summarizes the ground software and processes used to plan and validate pointing for a selection of space telescopes; with this information as background, the design for WISE is presented.

The Impact of PeerWise Approach on the Academic Performance of Medical Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kadir, Farkaad A.; Ansari, Reshma M.; AbManan, Norhafizah; Abdullah, Mohd Hafiz Ngoo; Nor, Hamdan Mohd

2014-01-01

PeerWise is a novel, freely available, online pedagogical tool that allows students to create and deposit questions for peer evaluation. A participatory learning approach through this web-based system was used to motivate and promote a deep approach in learning nervous system by 124 second year MBBS students at Cyberjaya University College of…

Achievable Information Rates for Coded Modulation With Hard Decision Decoding for Coherent Fiber-Optic Systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sheikh, Alireza; Amat, Alexandre Graell i.; Liva, Gianluigi

2017-12-01

We analyze the achievable information rates (AIRs) for coded modulation schemes with QAM constellations with both bit-wise and symbol-wise decoders, corresponding to the case where a binary code is used in combination with a higher-order modulation using the bit-interleaved coded modulation (BICM) paradigm and to the case where a nonbinary code over a field matched to the constellation size is used, respectively. In particular, we consider hard decision decoding, which is the preferable option for fiber-optic communication systems where decoding complexity is a concern. Recently, Liga \\emph{et al.} analyzed the AIRs for bit-wise and symbol-wise decoders considering what the authors called \\emph{hard decision decoder} which, however, exploits \\emph{soft information} of the transition probabilities of discrete-input discrete-output channel resulting from the hard detection. As such, the complexity of the decoder is essentially the same as the complexity of a soft decision decoder. In this paper, we analyze instead the AIRs for the standard hard decision decoder, commonly used in practice, where the decoding is based on the Hamming distance metric. We show that if standard hard decision decoding is used, bit-wise decoders yield significantly higher AIRs than symbol-wise decoders. As a result, contrary to the conclusion by Liga \\emph{et al.}, binary decoders together with the BICM paradigm are preferable for spectrally-efficient fiber-optic systems. We also design binary and nonbinary staircase codes and show that, in agreement with the AIRs, binary codes yield better performance.

A new scale for assessing wisdom based on common domains and a neurobiological model: The San Diego Wisdom Scale (SD-WISE).

PubMed

Thomas, Michael L; Bangen, Katherine J; Palmer, Barton W; Sirkin Martin, Averria; Avanzino, Julie A; Depp, Colin A; Glorioso, Danielle; Daly, Rebecca E; Jeste, Dilip V

2017-09-08

Wisdom is an ancient concept that has gained new interest among clinical researchers as a complex trait relevant to well-being and healthy aging. As the empirical data regarding wisdom have grown, several measures have been used to assess an individual's level of wisdom. However, none of these measures has been based on a construct of wisdom with neurobiological underpinnings. We sought to develop a new scale, the San Diego Wisdom Scale (SD-WISE), which builds upon recent gains in the understanding of psychological and neurobiological models of the trait. Data were collected from 524 community-dwelling adults age 25-104 years as part of a structured multi-cohort study of adult lifespan. Participants were administered the SD-WISE along with two existing measures of wisdom that have been shown to have good psychometric properties. Factor analyses confirmed the hypothesized measurement model. SD-WISE total scores were reliable, demonstrated convergent and discriminant validity, and correlated, as hypothesized, negatively with emotional distress, but positively with well-being. However, the magnitudes of these associations were small, suggesting that the SD-WISE is not just a global measure of mental state. The results support the reliability and validity of SD-WISE scores. Study limitations are discussed. The SD-WISE, with good psychometric properties, a brief administration time, and a measurement model that is consistent with commonly cited content domains of wisdom based on a putative neurobiological model, may be useful in clinical practice as well as in bio-psycho-social research, especially investigations into the neurobiology of wisdom and experimental interventions to enhance wisdom. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A participatory learning approach to biochemistry using student authored and evaluated multiple-choice questions.

PubMed

Bottomley, Steven; Denny, Paul

2011-01-01

A participatory learning approach, combined with both a traditional and a competitive assessment, was used to motivate students and promote a deep approach to learning biochemistry. Students were challenged to research, author, and explain their own multiple-choice questions (MCQs). They were also required to answer, evaluate, and discuss MCQs written by their peers. The technology used to support this activity was PeerWise--a freely available, innovative web-based system that supports students in the creation of an annotated question repository. In this case study, we describe students' contributions to, and perceptions of, the PeerWise system for a cohort of 107 second-year biomedical science students from three degree streams studying a core biochemistry subject. Our study suggests that the students are eager participants and produce a large repository of relevant, good quality MCQs. In addition, they rate the PeerWise system highly and use higher order thinking skills while taking an active role in their learning. We also discuss potential issues and future work using PeerWise for biomedical students. Copyright © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Longitudinally Jointed Edge-wise Compression Honeycomb Composite Sandwich Coupon Testing and FE Analysis: Three Methods of Strain Measurement, and Comparison

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Farrokh, Babak; AbdulRahim, Nur Aida; Segal, Ken; Fan, Terry; Jones, Justin; Hodges, Ken; Mashni, Noah; Garg, Naman; Sang, Alex; Gifford, Dawn;

Instructions included? Make safety training part of medical device procurement process.

PubMed

Keller, James P

2010-04-01

Before hospitals embrace new technologies, it's important that medical personnel agree on how best to use them. Likewise, hospitals must provide the support to operate these sophisticated devices safely. With this in mind, it's wise for hospitals to include medical device training in the procurement process. Moreover, purchasing professionals can play a key role in helping to increase the amount of user training for medical devices and systems. What steps should you take to help ensure that new medical devices are implemented safely? Here are some tips.

The First Government Sanctioned Delivery of Medical Supplies by Remotely Controlled Unmanned Aerial System (UAS)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Howell, Charles T., III; Jones, Frank; Thorson, Taylor; Grube, Richard; Mellanson, Cecil; Joyce, Lee; Coggin, John; Kennedy, Jack

2016-01-01

The first government sanctioned delivery of medical supplies by UAS occurred at Wise, Virginia, on July 17, 2015. The "Let's Fly Wisely" event was a demonstration of the humanitarian use of UAS to facilitate delivery of medical supplies to remote or otherwise difficult-to-reach areas. The event was the result of coordinated efforts by a partnership which included the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Langley Research Center (LaRC), Virginia Polytechnic Institute, the Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership (MAAP), Flirtey Corporation, Lonesome Pine Airport, Remote Area Medical (RAM), Health Wagon, SEESPAN Aerial Interactive, Rx Partnership, and Wise County, Virginia. The historic event occurred during the annual Remote Area Medical clinic at the Wise County Fairgrounds. The medical supplies in small packages were delivered to the Wise County Fairgrounds from the Lonesome Pine Airport by UAS operated by Firtey. A larger supply of medical supplies were delivered to the Lonesome Pine Airport from the Tazewell County Airport by NASA Langley's SR22 UAS Surrogate Research aircraft. The UAS Surrogate aircraft was remotely controlled for most of the flight by a UAS Ground Control Station located at the Lonesome Pine Airport. The medical supplies were delivered from the UAS Surrogate to Flirtey for final delivery by Hex Multi-Rotor UAS in smaller packages and multiple trips to the fairgrounds. A Certificate of Authorization (COA) issued by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) designated the site as an authorized UAS test site. The paper will present additional details of the historic delivery of pharmaceuticals by UAS during the "Let's Fly Wisely" event. The paper will also provide details of NASA's SR22 UAS Surrogate Research aircraft. The UAS Surrogate was designed to investigate the procedures, aircraft sensors and other systems that may be required to allow Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) to safely operate with manned aircraft in the National Airspace System (NAS).

The three-dimensional evolution of a plane mixing layer. Part 2: Pairing and transition to turbulence

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Moser, Robert D.; Rogers, Michael M.

1992-01-01

The evolution of three-dimensional temporally evolving plane mixing layers through as many as three pairings was simulated numerically. Initial conditions for all simulations consisted of a few low-wavenumber disturbances, usually derived from linear stability theory, in addition to the mean velocity. Three-dimensional perturbations were used with amplitudes ranging from infinitesimal to large enough to trigger a rapid transition to turbulence. Pairing is found both to inhibit the growth of infinitesimal three-dimensional disturbances and to trigger the transition to turbulence in highly three dimensional flows. The mechanisms responsible for the growth of three-dimensionality as well as the initial phases of the transition to turbulence are described. The transition to turbulence is accompanied by the formation of thin sheets of span wise vorticity, which undergo a secondary roll up. Transition also produces an increase in the degree of scalar mixing, in agreement with experimental observations of mixing transition. Simulations were also conducted to investigate changes in span wise length scale that may occur in response to the change in stream wise length scale during a pairing. The linear mechanism for this process was found to be very slow, requiring roughly three pairings to complete a doubling of the span wise scale. Stronger three-dimensionality can produce more rapid scale changes but is also likely to trigger transition to turbulence. No evidence was found for a change from an organized array of rib vortices at one span wise scale to a similar array at a larger span wise scale.

Automatic Video Analysis for Obstructive Sleep Apnea Diagnosis.

PubMed

Abad, Jorge; Muñoz-Ferrer, Aida; Cervantes, Miguel Ángel; Esquinas, Cristina; Marin, Alicia; Martínez, Carlos; Morera, Josep; Ruiz, Juan

2016-08-01

We investigated the diagnostic accuracy for the identification of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and its severity of a noninvasive technology based on image processing (SleepWise). This is an observational, prospective study to evaluate the degree of agreement between polysomnography (PSG) and SleepWise. We recruited 56 consecutive subjects with suspected OSA who were referred as outpatients to the Sleep Unit of the Hospital Universitari Germans Trias i Pujol (HUGTiP) from January 2013 to January 2014. All patients underwent laboratory PSG and image processing with SleepWise simultaneously the same night. Both PSG and SleepWise analyses were carried independently and blindly. We analyzed 50 of the 56 patients recruited. OSA was diagnosed through PSG in a total of 44 patients (88%) with a median apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) of 25.35 (24.9). According to SleepWise, 45 patients (90%) met the criteria for a diagnosis of OSA, with a median AHI of 22.8 (22.03). An analysis of the ability of PSG and SleepWise to classify patients by severity on the basis of their AHI shows that the two diagnostic systems distribute the different groups similarly. According to PSG, 23 patients (46%) had a diagnosis of severe OSA, 11 patients (22%) moderate OSA, and 10 patients (20%) mild OSA. According to SleepWise, 20, 13, and 12 patients (40%, 26%, and 24%, respectively) had a diagnosis of severe, moderate, and mild OSA respectively. For OSA diagnosis, SleepWise was found to have sensitivity of 100% and specificity of 83% in relation to PSG. The positive predictive value was 97% and the negative predictive value was 100%. The Bland-Altman plot comparing the mean AHI values obtained through PSG and SleepWise shows very good agreement between the two diagnostic techniques, with a bias of -3.85, a standard error of 12.18, and a confidence interval of -0.39 to -7.31. SleepWise was reasonably accurate for noninvasive and automatic diagnosis of OSA in outpatients. SleepWise determined the severity of OSA with high reliability. The current study including simultaneous laboratory PSG and SleepWise processing image is proposed as a reasonable validation standard. © 2016 Associated Professional Sleep Societies, LLC.

Wisdom in clinical reasoning and medical practice.

PubMed

Edmondson, Ricca; Pearce, Jane; Woerner, Markus H

2009-01-01

Exploring informal components of clinical reasoning, we argue that they need to be understood via the analysis of professional wisdom. Wise decisions are needed where action or insight is vital, but neither everyday nor expert knowledge provides solutions. Wisdom combines experiential, intellectual, ethical, emotional and practical capacities; we contend that it is also more strongly social than is usually appreciated. But many accounts of reasoning specifically rule out such features as irrational. Seeking to illuminate how wisdom operates, we therefore build on Aristotle's work on informal reasoning. His account of rhetorical communication shows how non-formal components can play active parts in reasoning, retaining, or even enhancing its reasonableness. We extend this account, applying it to forms of healthcare-related reasoning which are characterised by the need for wise decision-making. We then go on to explore some of what clinical wise reasoning may mean, concluding with a case taken from psychotherapeutic practice.

Water Clouds in the Atmosphere of a Jupiter-Like Brown Dwarf

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kohler, Susanna

2016-07-01

Lying a mere 7.2 light-years away, WISE 0855 is the nearest known planetary-mass object. This brown dwarf, a failed star just slightly more massive than Jupiter, is also the coldest known compact body outside of our solar system and new observations have now provided us with a first look at its atmosphere.Temperaturepressure profiles of Jupiter, WISE 0855, and what was previously the coldest extrasolar object with a 5-m spectrum, Gl 570D. Thicker lines show the location of each objects 5-m photospheres. WISE 0855s and Jupiters photospheres are near the point where water starts to condense out into clouds (dashed line). [Skemer et al. 2016]Challenging ObservationsWith a chilly temperature of 250 K, the brown dwarf WISE 0855 is the closest thing weve been able to observe to a body resembling Jupiters ~130 K. WISE 0855 therefore presents an intriguing opportunity to directly study the atmosphere of an object whose physical characteristics are similar to our own gas giants.But studying the atmospheric characteristics of such a body is tricky. WISE 0855 is too cold and faint to be able to obtain traditional optical or near-infrared ( 2.5 m) spectroscopy of it. Luckily, like Jupiter, the opacity of its gas allows thermal emission from its deep atmosphere to escape through an atmospheric window around ~5 m.A team of scientists led by Andrew Skemer (UC Santa Cruz) set out to observe WISE 0855 in this window with the Gemini-North telescope and the Gemini Near-Infrared Spectrograph. Though WISE 0855 is five times fainter than the faintest object previously detected with ground-based 5-m spectroscopy, the dry air of Mauna Kea (and a lot of patience!) allowed the team to obtain unprecedented spectra of this object.WISE 0855s spectrum shows absorption features consistent with water vapor, and its best fit by a cloudy brown-dwarf model. [Skemer et al. 2016]Water Clouds FoundExoplanets and brown dwarfs cooler than ~350 K are expected to form water ice clouds in upper atmosphere and these clouds should be thick enough to alter the emergent spectrum that we observe. Does WISE 0855 fit this picture?Yes! By modeling the spectrum of WISE 0855, Skemer and collaborators demonstrate that its completely dominated by water absorption lines. This represents the first evidence of water clouds in a body outside of our solar system.Atmospheric TurbulenceWISE 0855s water absorption profile bears a striking resemblance to Jupiters. Where the spectra differ, however, is in the lower-wavelength end of observations: Jupiter also shows absorption by a molecule called phosphine, whereas WISE 0855 doesnt.Jupiters spectrum is strikingly similar to WISE 0855s from 4.8 to 5.2 m, where both objects are dominated by water absorption. But from 4.5 to 4.8 m, Jupiters spectrum is dominated by phosphine absorption, indicating a turbulent atmosphere, while WISE 0855s is not. [Skemer et al. 2016]Interestingly, if the bodies were both in equilibrium, neither WISE 0855 nor Jupiter should contain detectable phosphine in their photospheres. The reason Jupiter does is because theres a significant amount of turbulent mixing in its atmosphere that dredges up phosphine from the planets hot interior. The fact that WISE 0855 has no sign of phosphine suggests its atmosphere may be much less turbulent than Jupiters.These observations represent an important step as we attempt to understand the atmospheres of extrasolar bodies that are similar to our own gas-giant planets. Observations of other such bodies in the future especially using new technology like the James Webb Space Telescope will allow us to learn more about the dynamical and chemical processes that occur in cold atmospheres.CitationAndrew J. Skemer et al 2016 ApJ 826 L17. doi:10.3847/2041-8205/826/2/L17

The First Brown Dwarf Discovered by the Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 Citizen Science Project

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kuchner, Marc J.; Faherty, Jacqueline K.; Schneider, Adam C.; Meisner, Aaron M.; Filippazzo, Joseph C.; Gagne, Jonathan; Trouille, Laura; Silverberg, Steven M.; Castro, Rosa; Fletcher, Bob;

Target and (Astro-)WISE technologies Data federations and its applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Valentijn, E. A.; Begeman, K.; Belikov, A.; Boxhoorn, D. R.; Brinchmann, J.; McFarland, J.; Holties, H.; Kuijken, K. H.; Verdoes Kleijn, G.; Vriend, W.-J.; Williams, O. R.; Roerdink, J. B. T. M.; Schomaker, L. R. B.; Swertz, M. A.; Tsyganov, A.; van Dijk, G. J. W.

2017-06-01

After its first implementation in 2003 the Astro-WISE technology has been rolled out in several European countries and is used for the production of the KiDS survey data. In the multi-disciplinary Target initiative this technology, nicknamed WISE technology, has been further applied to a large number of projects. Here, we highlight the data handling of other astronomical applications, such as VLT-MUSE and LOFAR, together with some non-astronomical applications such as the medical projects Lifelines and GLIMPS; the MONK handwritten text recognition system; and business applications, by amongst others, the Target Holding. We describe some of the most important lessons learned and describe the application of the data-centric WISE type of approach to the Science Ground Segment of the Euclid satellite.

Evolution of group-wise cooperation: Is direct reciprocity insufficient?

PubMed

Kurokawa, Shun; Ihara, Yasuo

2017-02-21

Group-wise cooperation, or cooperation among three or more individuals, is an integral part of human societies. It is likely that group-wise cooperation also played a crucial role in the survival of early hominins, who were confronted with novel environmental challenges, long before the emergence of Homo sapiens. However, previous theoretical and empirical studies, focusing mainly on modern humans, have tended to suggest that evolution of cooperation in sizable groups cannot be explained by simple direct reciprocity and requires some additional mechanisms (reputation, punishment, etc.), which are cognitively too demanding for early hominins. As a partial resolution of the paradox, our recent analysis of a stochastic evolutionary model, which considers the effect of random drift, has revealed that evolution of group-wise cooperation is more likely to occur in larger groups when an individual's share of the benefit produced by one cooperator does not decrease with increasing group size (i.e., goods are non-rivalrous). In this paper, we further extend our previous analysis to explore possible consequences of introducing rare mistakes in behavior or imperfect information about behavior of others on the model outcome. Analyses of the extended models show that evolution of group-wise cooperation can be facilitated by large group size even when individuals intending to cooperate sometimes fail to do so or when all the information about the past behavior of group members is not available. We argue, therefore, that evolution of cooperation in sizable groups does not necessarily require other mechanisms than direct reciprocity if the goods to be produced via group-wise cooperation are non-rivalrous. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

THE SPITZER-WISE SURVEY OF THE ECLIPTIC POLES

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

Jarrett, T. H.; Masci, F.; Cutri, R. M.

2011-07-10

We have carried out a survey of the north and south ecliptic poles, EP-N and EP-S, respectively, with the Spitzer Space Telescope and the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). The primary objective was to cross-calibrate WISE with the Spitzer and Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX) photometric systems by developing a set of calibration stars that are common to these infrared missions. The ecliptic poles were continuous viewing zones for WISE due to its polar-crossing orbit, making these areas ideal for both absolute and internal calibrations. The Spitzer IRAC and MIPS imaging survey covers a complete area of 0.40 deg{sup 2} formore » the EP-N and 1.28 deg{sup 2} for the EP-S. WISE observed the whole sky in four mid-infrared bands, 3.4, 4.6, 12, and 22 {mu}m, during its eight-month cryogenic mission, including several hundred ecliptic polar passages; here we report on the highest coverage depths achieved by WISE, an area of {approx}1.5 deg{sup 2} for both poles. Located close to the center of the EP-N, the Sy-2 galaxy NGC 6552 conveniently functions as a standard calibrator to measure the red response of the 22 {mu}m channel of WISE. Observations from Spitzer-IRAC/MIPS/IRS-LL and WISE show that the galaxy has a strong red color in the mid-infrared due to star-formation and the presence of an active galactic nucleus (AGN), while over a baseline >1 year the mid-IR photometry of NGC 6552 is shown to vary at a level less than 2%. Combining NGC 6552 with the standard calibrator stars, the achieved photometric accuracy of the WISE calibration, relative to the Spitzer and MSX systems, is 2.4%, 2.8%, 4.5%, and 5.7% for W1 (3.4 {mu}m), W2 (4.6 {mu}m), W3 (12 {mu}m), and W4 (22 {mu}m), respectively. The WISE photometry is internally stable to better than 0.1% over the cryogenic lifetime of the mission. The secondary objective of the Spitzer-WISE Survey was to explore the poles at greater flux-level depths, exploiting the higher angular resolution Spitzer observations and the exceptionally deep (in total coverage) WISE observations that potentially reach down to the confusion limit of the survey. The rich Spitzer and WISE data sets were used to study the Galactic and extragalactic populations through source counts, color-magnitude and color-color diagrams. As an example of what the data sets facilitate, we have separated stars from galaxies, delineated normal galaxies from power-law-dominated AGNs, and reported on the different fractions of extragalactic populations. In the EP-N, we find an AGN source density of {approx}260 deg{sup -2} to a 12 {mu}m depth of 115 {mu}Jy, representing 15% of the total extragalactic population to this depth, similar to what has been observed for low-luminosity AGNs in other fields.« less

Learning from peer feedback on student-generated multiple choice questions: Views of introductory physics students

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kay, Alison E.; Hardy, Judy; Galloway, Ross K.

2018-06-01

PeerWise is an online application where students are encouraged to generate a bank of multiple choice questions for their classmates to answer. After answering a question, students can provide feedback to the question author about the quality of the question and the question author can respond to this. Student use of, and attitudes to, this online community within PeerWise was investigated in two large first year undergraduate physics courses, across three academic years, to explore how students interact with the system and the extent to which they believe PeerWise to be useful to their learning. Most students recognized that there is value in engaging with PeerWise, and many students engaged deeply with the system, thinking critically about the quality of their submissions and reflecting on feedback provided to them. Students also valued the breadth of topics and level of difficulty offered by the questions, recognized the revision benefits afforded by the resource, and were often willing to contribute to the community by providing additional explanations and engaging in discussion.

Nissan Showcases the Results of an Energy-Wise Corporate Culture

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

None

2010-06-11

The corporate leadership at Nissan cultivates a culture of energy efficiency, encouraging employees to practice good energy management at work and in every part of their lives. Read about Nissan's energy-conscience culture.

KSC-2009-5882

NASA Image and Video Library

2009-10-21

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. - At Space Launch Complex 2 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, workers receive the first of three solid rocket boosters for the United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket for launch of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, at the pad. WISE will survey the entire sky at infrared wavelengths, creating a cosmic clearinghouse of hundreds of millions of objects which will be catalogued and provide a vast storehouse of knowledge about the solar system, the Milky Way, and the universe. Launch is scheduled for Dec. 7. For additional information, visit http://wise.ssl.berkeley.edu. Photo credit: NASA/VAFB

An overview of 2016 WISE Urban Summer Observation Campaign (WUSOC 2016) in the Seoul metropolitan area of South Korea

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jung, Jae-Won; Kim, Sang-Woo; Shim, Jae-Kwan; Kwak, Kyung-Hwan

2017-04-01

The Weather Information Service Engine (WISE), launched project of the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA), aims to operate the urban meteorological observation network from 2012 to 2019 and to test and operate the application weather service (e.g., flash flood, road weather, city ecology, city microclimate, dispersion of hazardous substance etc.) in 2019 through the development of Advanced Storm-scale Analysis Prediction System(ASAPS) for the production of storm-scale hazard weather monitoring and prediction system. The WISE institute has completed construction of 31 urban meteorological observation cities in Seoul metropolitan area and has built a real-time test operation and verification system by improving the ASAPS that produces 1 km and 6 hour forecast information based on the 5 km forecast information of KMA. Field measurements of 2016 WISE Urban Summer Observation Campaign (WUSOC 2016) was conducted in the Seoul metropolitan area of South Korea from August 22 to October 14, 2016. Involving over 70 researchers from more than 12 environmental and atmospheric science research groups in South Korea, WUSOC2016 focused on special observations, severe rain storm observations using mobile observation car and radiosonde, wind profile observations using Wind Doppler Lidar and radiosonde, etc., around the Seoul metropolitan area. WUSOC2016 purpose at data quality control, accuracy verification, usability check, and quality improvement of ASAPS at observation stations constructed in WISE. In addition, we intend to contribute to the activation of urban fusion weather research and risk weather research through joint observation and data sharing.

WISE J080822.18-644357.3 - a 45 Myr-old accreting M dwarf hosting a primordial disc

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Murphy, Simon J.; Mamajek, Eric E.; Bell, Cameron P. M.

2018-05-01

WISE J080822.18-644357.3 (WISE J0808-6443) was recently identified as a new M dwarf debris disc system and a candidate member of the 45 Myr-old Carina association. Given that the strength of its infrared excess (LIR/L⋆ ≃ 0.1) appears to be more consistent with a young protoplanetary disc, we present the first optical spectra of the star and reassess its evolutionary and membership status. We find WISE J0808-6443 to be a Li-rich M5 star with strong H α emission (-125 < EW < -65 Å over 4 epochs) whose strength and broad width are consistent with accretion at a low level (˜10-10 M⊙ yr-1) from its disc. The spectral energy distribution of the star is consistent with a primordial disc and is well-fitted using a two-temperature blackbody model with Tinner ≃ 1100 K and Touter ≃ 240 K. AllWISE multi-epoch photometry shows the system exhibits significant variability in the 3.4 and 4.6 μm bands. We calculate an improved proper motion based on archival astrometry, and combined with a new radial velocity, the kinematics of the star are consistent with membership in Carina at a kinematic distance of 90 ± 9 pc. The spectroscopic and photometric data are consistent with WISE J0808-6443 being a ˜0.1 M⊙ Classical T-Tauri star and one of the oldest known accreting M-type stars. These results provide further evidence that the upper limit on the lifetimes of gas-rich discs - and hence the time-scales to form and evolve protoplanetary systems - around the lowest mass stars may be longer than previously recognized, or some mechanism may be responsible for regenerating short-lived discs at later stages of pre-main sequence evolution.

The need to approximate the use-case in clinical machine learning

PubMed Central

Saeb, Sohrab; Jayaraman, Arun; Mohr, David C.; Kording, Konrad P.

2017-01-01

Abstract The availability of smartphone and wearable sensor technology is leading to a rapid accumulation of human subject data, and machine learning is emerging as a technique to map those data into clinical predictions. As machine learning algorithms are increasingly used to support clinical decision making, it is vital to reliably quantify their prediction accuracy. Cross-validation (CV) is the standard approach where the accuracy of such algorithms is evaluated on part of the data the algorithm has not seen during training. However, for this procedure to be meaningful, the relationship between the training and the validation set should mimic the relationship between the training set and the dataset expected for the clinical use. Here we compared two popular CV methods: record-wise and subject-wise. While the subject-wise method mirrors the clinically relevant use-case scenario of diagnosis in newly recruited subjects, the record-wise strategy has no such interpretation. Using both a publicly available dataset and a simulation, we found that record-wise CV often massively overestimates the prediction accuracy of the algorithms. We also conducted a systematic review of the relevant literature, and found that this overly optimistic method was used by almost half of the retrieved studies that used accelerometers, wearable sensors, or smartphones to predict clinical outcomes. As we move towards an era of machine learning-based diagnosis and treatment, using proper methods to evaluate their accuracy is crucial, as inaccurate results can mislead both clinicians and data scientists. PMID:28327985

VizieR Online Data Catalog: NIR albedos of main-belt asteroids (Masiero+, 2014)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Masiero, J. R.; Grav, T.; Mainzer, A. K.; Nugent, C. R.; Bauer, J. M.; Stevenson, R.; Sonnett, S.

2017-04-01

To fit for NIR albedos of main-belt asteroids, we use data from the WISE/NEOWISE all-sky single exposure source table, which are available for download from the Infrared Science Archive (IRSA, http://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu ; Cutri et al. 2012, xplanatory Supplement to the WISE All-Sky Data Release Products, http://wise2.ipac.caltech.edu/docs/release/allsky/expsup/index.html). We extract photometric measurements of all asteroids observed by WISE following the technique described in Masiero et al. (2011, J/ApJ/741/68) and Mainzer et al. (2011ApJ...731...53M). In particular, we use the NEOWISE observations reported to the MPC and included in the MPC's minor planet observation database as the final validated list of reliable NEOWISE detections of solar system objects. (1 data file).

Small Body Populations According to NEOWISE

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mainzer, A.

The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) surveyed the entire sky in four infrared wavelengths (3.4, 4.6, 12 and 22 microns) over the course of one year. From its sun-synchronous orbit, WISE imaged the entire sky multiple times with significant improvements in spatial resolution and sensitivity over its predecessor, the Infrared Astronomical Satellite. Enhancements to the WISE science data processing pipeline to support solar system science, collectively known as NEOWISE, enabled the indi- vidual exposures to be archived and new moving objects to be discovered. When the solid hydrogen used to cool the 12 and 22 micron detectors and telescope was depleted, NASA supported the continuation of the survey in the 3.4 and 4.6 micron bands for an additional four months to search for near-Earth objects and to complete a survey of the inner solar system. In total, NEOWISE detected more than 158,000 minor planets, including >34,000 new discoveries. This mid-infrared synoptic survey has resulted in range of scientific investigations throughout our solar system and beyond. Following one year of survey operations, the WISE spacecraft was put into hibernation in early 2011. NASA has recently opted to resurrect the mission as NEOWISE for the purpose of discovering and characterizing near-Earth objects.

WISE WEBSITE – WHOLE SYSTEMS INTEGRATED SUSTAINABLE DESIGN FOR EDUCATION: AN INTERACTIVE WEBSITE FOR EDUCATORS AND STUDENTS

EPA Science Inventory

The success of the project will be measured in terms of the actual extent of the dissemination and use of the WISE tool by schools. Focus of evaluation will be on what learning needs of divergent stakeholders were being met and what demonstrable impact was evident in the sc...

Using Data Wisely at the System Level

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lockwood, Meghan; Dillman, Mary; Boudett, Kathryn Parker

2017-01-01

District administrators who want to build capacity for data use in schools may be well-served by starting in the central office. This case study of the Boston Public Schools shows how central office administrators can leverage their own data inquiry cycles to improve the ways they support schools in using data. Using the Data Wise Improvement…

The First Brown Dwarf Discovered by the Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 Citizen Science Project

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kuchner, Marc J.; Faherty, Jacqueline K.; Schneider, Adam C.; Meisner, Aaron M.; Filippazzo, Joseph C.; Gagné, Jonathan; Trouille, Laura; Silverberg, Steven M.; Castro, Rosa; Fletcher, Bob; Mokaev, Khasan; Stajic, Tamara

2017-06-01

The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) is a powerful tool for finding nearby brown dwarfs and searching for new planets in the outer solar system, especially with the incorporation of NEOWISE and NEOWISE-Reactivation data. However, so far, searches for brown dwarfs in WISE data have yet to take advantage of the full depth of the WISE images. To efficiently search this unexplored space via visual inspection, we have launched a new citizen science project, called “Backyard Worlds: Planet 9,” which asks volunteers to examine short animations composed of difference images constructed from time-resolved WISE coadds. We report the first new substellar object discovered by this project, WISEA J110125.95+540052.8, a T5.5 brown dwarf located approximately 34 pc from the Sun with a total proper motion of ˜0.″7 {{yr}}-1. WISEA J110125.95+540052.8 has a WISE W2 magnitude of W2=15.37+/- 0.09; our sensitivity to this source demonstrates the ability of citizen scientists to identify moving objects via visual inspection that are 0.9 mag fainter than the W2 single-exposure sensitivity, a threshold that has limited prior motion-based brown dwarf searches with WISE.

Caring Wisely: A Program to Support Frontline Clinicians and Staff in Improving Healthcare Delivery and Reducing Costs.

PubMed

Gonzales, Ralph; Moriates, Christopher; Lau, Catherine; Valencia, Victoria; Imershein, Sarah; Rajkomar, Alvin; Prasad, Priya; Boscardin, Christy; Grady, Deborah; Johnston, S

2017-08-01

We describe a program called "Caring Wisely"®, developed by the University of California, San Francisco's (UCSF), Center for Healthcare Value, to increase the value of services provided at UCSF Health. The overarching goal of the Caring Wisely® program is to catalyze and advance delivery system redesign and innovations that reduce costs, enhance healthcare quality, and improve health outcomes. The program is designed to engage frontline clinicians and staff-aided by experienced implementation scientists-to develop and implement interventions specifically designed to address overuse, underuse, or misuse of services. Financial savings of the program are intended to cover the program costs. The theoretical underpinnings for the design of the Caring Wisely® program emphasize the importance of stakeholder engagement, behavior change theory, market (target audience) segmentation, and process measurement and feedback. The Caring Wisely® program provides an institutional model for using crowdsourcing to identify "hot spot" areas of low-value care, inefficiency and waste, and for implementing robust interventions to address these areas. © 2017 Society of Hospital Medicine.

Natural resources inventory system ASVT project

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Joyce, A. T. (Principal Investigator)

1978-01-01

The author has identified the following significant results. One of the main advantages, both cost-wise and time-wise, of the natural resource inventory system involved the use of LANDSAT-acquired digital data for the land cover information component; thereby, eliminating the need to digitize such dynamic information from a map or aerial photo base. It was thought that the utility and the cost of information as derived from LANDSAT data for the various applications justified the operational use of data generated by LANDSAT.

Advanced Information Systems Design: Technical Basis and Human Factors Review Guidance

DTIC Science & Technology

2000-03-01

D ., Wise, J ., and Hanes, L., "An Evaluation of Nuclear Power Plant Safety Parameter Display Systems," Proceedings of the Human Factors Society 25th...Reactor (PWR) (Source: Reprinted with permission from Woods, D ., Wise, J ., and Hanes, L., "An Evaluation of Nuclear Power Plant Safety Parameter...Dials display rpCJni?3 (b) Fluid-Tanks display B (c) Seesaw display I 72 CF \\^- J B ’ V ’II ’ ( d ) Mimic display B E * • \\ ^r 7

Infrared Astronomy and Education: Linking Infrared Whole Sky Mapping with Teacher and Student Research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Borders, Kareen; Mendez, Bryan; Thaller, Michelle; Gorjian, Varoujan; Borders, Kyla; Pitman, Peter; Pereira, Vincent; Sepulveda, Babs; Stark, Ron; Knisely, Cindy; Dandrea, Amy; Winglee, Robert; Plecki, Marge; Goebel, Jeri; Condit, Matt; Kelly, Susan

The Spitzer Space Telescope and the recently launched WISE (Wide Field Infrared Survey Explorer) observe the sky in infrared light. Among the objects WISE will study are asteroids, the coolest and dimmest stars, and the most luminous galaxies. Secondary students can do authentic research using infrared data. For example, students will use WISE data to mea-sure physical properties of asteroids. In order to prepare students and teachers at this level with a high level of rigor and scientific understanding, the WISE and the Spitzer Space Tele-scope Education programs provided an immersive teacher professional development workshop in infrared astronomy.The lessons learned from the Spitzer and WISE teacher and student pro-grams can be applied to other programs engaging them in authentic research experiences using data from space-borne observatories such as Herschel and Planck. Recently, WISE Educator Ambassadors and NASA Explorer School teachers developed and led an infrared astronomy workshop at Arecibo Observatory in PuertoRico. As many common misconceptions involve scale and distance, teachers worked with Moon/Earth scale, solar system scale, and distance and age of objects in the Universe. Teachers built and used basic telescopes, learned about the history of telescopes, explored ground and satellite based telescopes, and explored and worked on models of WISE Telescope. An in-depth explanation of WISE and the Spitzer telescopes gave participants background knowledge for infrared astronomy observations. We taught the electromagnetic spectrum through interactive stations. We will outline specific steps for sec-ondary astronomy professional development, detail student involvement in infrared telescope data analysis, provide data demonstrating the impact of the above professional development on educator understanding and classroom use, and detail future plans for additional secondary professional development and student involvement in infrared astronomy. Funding was provided by NASA, WISE Telescope, the Spitzer Space Telescope, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the National Optical Astronomy Observatory, Starbucks, and Washington Space Grant Consortium.

KSC-2009-5874

NASA Image and Video Library

2009-10-19

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. - At Space Launch Complex 2 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, workers supervise the first stage of the United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket for launch of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, as it is lowered onto pedestal's in the pad's mobile service tower. WISE will survey the entire sky at infrared wavelengths, creating a cosmic clearinghouse of hundreds of millions of objects which will be catalogued and provide a vast storehouse of knowledge about the solar system, the Milky Way, and the universe. Launch is scheduled for Dec. 7. For additional information, visit http://wise.ssl.berkeley.edu. Photo credit: NASA/Roy Allison, VAFB

WISE Detections of Dust in the Habitable Zones of Planet-Bearing Stars

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Morales, Farisa Y.; Padgett, Deborah L.; Bryden, Geoffrey; Werner, M. W.; Furlan, E.

2012-01-01

We use data from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) all-sky release to explore the incidence of warm dust in the habitable zones around exoplanet-host stars. Dust emission at 12 and/or 22 microns (T(sub dust) approx.300 and/or approx.150 K) traces events in the terrestrial planet zones; its existence implies replenishment by evaporation of comets or collisions of asteroids, possibly stirred by larger planets. Of the 591 planetary systems (728 extrasolar planets) in the Exoplanet Encyclopedia as of 2012 January 31, 350 are robustly detected by WISE at > or = 5(sigma) level. We perform detailed photosphere subtraction using tools developed for Spitzer data and visually inspect all the WISE images to confirm bona fide point sources. We find nine planet-bearing stars show dust excess emission at 12 and/or 22 microns at > or = 3(sigma) level around young, main-sequence, or evolved giant stars. Overall, our results yield an excess incidence of approx.2.6% for stars of all evolutionary stages, but approx.1% for planetary debris disks around main-sequence stars. Besides recovering previously known warm systems, we identify one new excess candidate around the young star UScoCTIO 108.

Cure-WISE: HETDEX data reduction with Astro-WISE

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Snigula, J. M.; Cornell, M. E.; Drory, N.; Fabricius, Max.; Landriau, M.; Hill, G. J.; Gebhardt, K.

2012-09-01

The Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX) is a blind spectroscopic survey to map the evolution of dark energy using Lyman-alpha emitting galaxies at redshifts 1:9 < z < 3:5 as tracers. The survey instrument, VIRUS, consists of 75 IFUs distributed across the 22-arcmin field of the upgraded 9.2-m HET. Each exposure gathers 33,600 spectra. Over the projected five year run of the survey we expect about 170 GB of data per night. For the data reduction we developed the Cure pipeline. Cure is designed to automatically find and calibrate the observed spectra, subtract the sky background, and detect and classify different types of sources. Cure employs rigorous statistical methods and complete pixel-level error propagation throughout the reduction process to ensure Poisson-limited performance and meaningful significance values. To automate the reduction of the whole dataset we implemented the Cure pipeline in the Astro-WISE framework. This integration provides for HETDEX a database backend with complete dependency tracking of the various reduction steps, automated checks, and a searchable interface to the detected sources and user management. It can be used to create various web interfaces for data access and quality control. Astro-WISE allows us to reduce the data from all the IFUs in parallel on a compute cluster. This cluster allows us to reduce the observed data in quasi real time and still have excess capacity for rerunning parts of the reduction. Finally, the Astro-WISE interface will be used to provide access to reduced data products to the general community.

The need to approximate the use-case in clinical machine learning.

PubMed

Saeb, Sohrab; Lonini, Luca; Jayaraman, Arun; Mohr, David C; Kording, Konrad P

2017-05-01

The availability of smartphone and wearable sensor technology is leading to a rapid accumulation of human subject data, and machine learning is emerging as a technique to map those data into clinical predictions. As machine learning algorithms are increasingly used to support clinical decision making, it is vital to reliably quantify their prediction accuracy. Cross-validation (CV) is the standard approach where the accuracy of such algorithms is evaluated on part of the data the algorithm has not seen during training. However, for this procedure to be meaningful, the relationship between the training and the validation set should mimic the relationship between the training set and the dataset expected for the clinical use. Here we compared two popular CV methods: record-wise and subject-wise. While the subject-wise method mirrors the clinically relevant use-case scenario of diagnosis in newly recruited subjects, the record-wise strategy has no such interpretation. Using both a publicly available dataset and a simulation, we found that record-wise CV often massively overestimates the prediction accuracy of the algorithms. We also conducted a systematic review of the relevant literature, and found that this overly optimistic method was used by almost half of the retrieved studies that used accelerometers, wearable sensors, or smartphones to predict clinical outcomes. As we move towards an era of machine learning-based diagnosis and treatment, using proper methods to evaluate their accuracy is crucial, as inaccurate results can mislead both clinicians and data scientists. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press.

Warm Debris Disk Candidates from WISE

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Padgett, Deborah; Stapelfeldt, Karl; Liu, Wilson; Leisawitz, David

2011-01-01

The Wide Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) has just completed a sensitive all-sky survey in photometric bands at 3.4, 4.6, 12, and 22 microns. We report on a preliminary investigation of main sequence Hipparcos and Tycho catalog stars with 22 micron emission in excess of photospheric levels. This warm excess emission traces material in the circumstellar region likely to host terrestrial planets and is preferentially found in young systems with ages < 1 Gyr. Nearly a hundred new warm debris disk candidates are detected among FGK stars and 150 A stars within 120 pc. We are in the process of obtaining spectra to determine spectral types and activity level of these stars and are using HST, Herschel and Keck to characterize the dust, multiplicity, and substellar companions of these systems. In this contribution, we will discuss source selection methods and individual examples from among the WISE debris disk candidates.

Warm Debris Disks from WISE

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Padgett, Deborah L.

2011-01-01

"The Wide Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) has just completed a sensitive all-sky survey in photometric bands at 3.4, 4.6, 12, and 22 microns. We report on a preliminary investigation of main sequence Hipparcos and Tycho catalog stars with 22 micron emission in excess of photospheric levels. This warm excess emission traces material in the circumstellar region likely to host terrestrial planets and is preferentially found in young systems with ages < 1 Gyr. Nearly a hundred new warm debris disk candidates are detected among FGK stars and a similar number of A stars within 120 pc. We are in the process of obtaining spectra to determine spectral types and activity level of these stars and are using HST, Herschel and Keck to characterize the dust, multiplicity, and substellar companions of these systems. In this contribution, we will discuss source selection methods and individual examples from among the WISE debris disk candidates. "

Strategic Global Climate Command?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Long, J. C. S.

2016-12-01

Researchers have been exploring geoengineering because Anthropogenic GHG emissions could drive the globe towards unihabitability for people, wildlife and vegetation. Potential global deployment of these technologies is inherently strategic. For example, solar radiation management to reflect more sunlight might be strategically useful during a period of time where the population completes an effort to cease emissions and carbon removal technologies might then be strategically deployed to move the atmospheric concentrations back to a safer level. Consequently, deployment of these global technologies requires the ability to think and act strategically on the part of the planet's governments. Such capacity most definitely does not exist today but it behooves scientists and engineers to be involved in thinking through how global command might develop because the way they do the research could support the development of a capacity to deploy intervention rationally -- or irrationally. Internationalizing research would get countries used to working together. Organizing the research in a step-wise manner where at each step scientists become skilled at explaining what they have learned, the quality of the information they have, what they don't know and what more they can do to reduce or handle uncertainty, etc. Such a process can increase societal confidence in being able to make wise decisions about deployment. Global capacity will also be enhanced if the sceintific establishment reinvents misssion driven research so that the programs will identify the systemic issues invovled in any proposed technology and systematically address them with research while still encouraging individual creativity. Geoengineering will diverge from climate science in that geoengineering research needs to design interventions for some publically desirable goal and investigates whether a proposed intervention will acheive desired outcomes. The effort must be a systems-engineering design problem with public engagement about the goals of intervention. The research enterprise alone cannot ensure wise global governance of climate strategy, but making the science highly tranparent and coherent in a way that ensures public interest will improve the chances for effective global climate action.

KSC-2009-6550

NASA Image and Video Library

2009-10-19

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. - At the Astrotech payload processing facility at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, spacecraft technicians supervise the lift of a transportation canister containing NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, from a work stand for its move to Space Launch Complex 2. WISE will survey the entire sky at infrared wavelengths, creating a cosmic clearinghouse of hundreds of millions of objects which will be catalogued and provide a vast storehouse of knowledge about the solar system, the Milky Way, and the universe. Launch aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket is scheduled for Dec. 9. For additional information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/wise. Photo credit: NASA/Daniel Liberotti, VAFB

KSC-2009-6543

NASA Image and Video Library

2009-10-18

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. - At the Astrotech payload processing facility at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, spacecraft technicians inspect the direct mate adapter, a transport fixture on which NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, enclosed in an environmental covering, will be moved to Space Launch Complex 2. WISE will survey the entire sky at infrared wavelengths, creating a cosmic clearinghouse of hundreds of millions of objects which will be catalogued and provide a vast storehouse of knowledge about the solar system, the Milky Way, and the universe. Launch aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket is scheduled for Dec. 9. For additional information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/wise. Photo credit: NASA

KSC-2009-6547

NASA Image and Video Library

2009-10-19

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. - At the Astrotech payload processing facility at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, spacecraft technicians secure the transportation canister, in which NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, is enclosed, to the direct mate adapter, a transport fixture, for the spacecraft's move to Space Launch Complex 2. WISE will survey the entire sky at infrared wavelengths, creating a cosmic clearinghouse of hundreds of millions of objects which will be catalogued and provide a vast storehouse of knowledge about the solar system, the Milky Way, and the universe. Launch aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket is scheduled for Dec. 9. For additional information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/wise. Photo credit: NASA/Daniel Liberotti, VAFB

Combination of GRACE monthly gravity field solutions from different processing strategies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jean, Yoomin; Meyer, Ulrich; Jäggi, Adrian

2018-02-01

We combine the publicly available GRACE monthly gravity field time series to produce gravity fields with reduced systematic errors. We first compare the monthly gravity fields in the spatial domain in terms of signal and noise. Then, we combine the individual gravity fields with comparable signal content, but diverse noise characteristics. We test five different weighting schemes: equal weights, non-iterative coefficient-wise, order-wise, or field-wise weights, and iterative field-wise weights applying variance component estimation (VCE). The combined solutions are evaluated in terms of signal and noise in the spectral and spatial domains. Compared to the individual contributions, they in general show lower noise. In case the noise characteristics of the individual solutions differ significantly, the weighted means are less noisy, compared to the arithmetic mean: The non-seasonal variability over the oceans is reduced by up to 7.7% and the root mean square (RMS) of the residuals of mass change estimates within Antarctic drainage basins is reduced by 18.1% on average. The field-wise weighting schemes in general show better performance, compared to the order- or coefficient-wise weighting schemes. The combination of the full set of considered time series results in lower noise levels, compared to the combination of a subset consisting of the official GRACE Science Data System gravity fields only: The RMS of coefficient-wise anomalies is smaller by up to 22.4% and the non-seasonal variability over the oceans by 25.4%. This study was performed in the frame of the European Gravity Service for Improved Emergency Management (EGSIEM; http://www.egsiem.eu) project. The gravity fields provided by the EGSIEM scientific combination service (ftp://ftp.aiub.unibe.ch/EGSIEM/) are combined, based on the weights derived by VCE as described in this article.

Full-Depth Coadds of the WISE and First-Year NEOWISE-Reactivation Images

DOE PAGES

Meisner, Aaron M.; Lang, Dustin; Schlegel, David J.

2017-01-03

The Near Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) Reactivation mission released data from its first full year of observations in 2015. This data set includes ~2.5 million exposures in each of W1 and W2, effectively doubling the amount of WISE imaging available at 3.4 μm and 4.6 μm relative to the AllWISE release. In this paper, we have created the first ever full-sky set of coadds combining all publicly available W1 and W2 exposures from both the AllWISE and NEOWISE-Reactivation (NEOWISER) mission phases. We employ an adaptation of the unWISE image coaddition framework, which preserves the native WISE angularmore » resolution and is optimized for forced photometry. By incorporating two additional scans of the entire sky, we not only improve the W1/W2 depths, but also largely eliminate time-dependent artifacts such as off-axis scattered moonlight. We anticipate that our new coadds will have a broad range of applications, including target selection for upcoming spectroscopic cosmology surveys, identification of distant/massive galaxy clusters, and discovery of high-redshift quasars. In particular, our full-depth AllWISE+NEOWISER coadds will be an important input for the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument selection of luminous red galaxy and quasar targets. Our full-depth W1/W2 coadds are already in use within the DECam Legacy Survey (DECaLS) and Mayall z-band Legacy Survey (MzLS) reduction pipelines. Finally, much more work still remains in order to fully leverage NEOWISER imaging for astrophysical applications beyond the solar system.« less

Choosing wisely: prevalence and correlates of low-value health care services in the United States.

PubMed

Colla, Carrie H; Morden, Nancy E; Sequist, Thomas D; Schpero, William L; Rosenthal, Meredith B

2015-02-01

Specialty societies in the United States identified low-value tests and procedures that contribute to waste and poor health care quality via implementation of the American Board of Internal Medicine Foundation's Choosing Wisely initiative. To develop claims-based algorithms, to use them to estimate the prevalence of select Choosing Wisely services and to examine the demographic, health and health care system correlates of low-value care at a regional level. Using Medicare data from 2006 to 2011, we created claims-based algorithms to measure the prevalence of 11 Choosing Wisely-identified low-value services and examined geographic variation across hospital referral regions (HRRs). We created a composite low-value care score for each HRR and used linear regression to identify regional characteristics associated with more intense use of low-value services. Fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries over age 65. Prevalence of selected Choosing Wisely low-value services. The national average annual prevalence of the selected Choosing Wisely low-value services ranged from 1.2% (upper urinary tract imaging in men with benign prostatic hyperplasia) to 46.5% (preoperative cardiac testing for low-risk, non-cardiac procedures). Prevalence across HRRs varied significantly. Regional characteristics associated with higher use of low-value services included greater overall per capita spending, a higher specialist to primary care ratio and higher proportion of minority beneficiaries. Identifying and measuring low-value health services is a prerequisite for improving quality and eliminating waste. Our findings suggest that the delivery of wasteful and potentially harmful services may be a fruitful area for further research and policy intervention for HRRs with higher per-capita spending. These findings should inform action by physicians, health systems, policymakers, payers and consumer educators to improve the value of health care by targeting services and areas with greater use of potentially inappropriate care.

Cure-WISE: HETDEX Data Reduction with Astro-WISE

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Snigula, J. M.; Drory, N.; Fabricius, M.; Landriau, M.; Montesano, F.; Hill, G. J.; Gebhardt, K.; Cornell, M. E.

2014-05-01

The Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX, Hill et al. 2012b) is a blind spectroscopic survey to map the evolution of dark energy using Lyman-alpha emitting galaxies at redshifts 1.9< ɀ <3.5 as tracers. The survey will use an array of 75 integral field spectrographs called the Visible Integral field Replicable Unit (IFU) Spectrograph (VIRUS, Hill et al. 2012c). The 10m HET (Ramsey et al. 1998) currently receives a wide-field upgrade (Hill et al. 2012a) to accomodate the spectrographs and to provide the needed field of view. Over the projected five year run of the survey we expect to obtain approximately 170 GB of data each night. For the data reduction we developed the Cure pipeline, to automatically find and calibrate the observed spectra, subtract the sky background, and detect and classify different types of sources. Cure employs rigorous statistical methods and complete pixel-level error propagation throughout the reduction process to ensure Poisson-limited performance and meaningful significance values. To automate the reduction of the whole dataset we implemented the Cure pipeline in the Astro-WISE framework. This integration provides for HETDEX a database backend with complete dependency tracking of the various reduction steps, automated checks, and a searchable interface to the detected sources and user management. It can be used to create various web interfaces for data access and quality control. Astro-WISE allows us to reduce the data from all the IFUs in parallel on a compute cluster. This cluster allows us to reduce the observed data in quasi real time and still have excess capacity for rerunning parts of the reduction. Finally, the Astro-WISE interface will be used to provide access to reduced data products to the general community.

A dimension-wise analysis method for the structural-acoustic system with interval parameters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xu, Menghui; Du, Jianke; Wang, Chong; Li, Yunlong

2017-04-01

The interval structural-acoustic analysis is mainly accomplished by interval and subinterval perturbation methods. Potential limitations for these intrusive methods include overestimation or interval translation effect for the former and prohibitive computational cost for the latter. In this paper, a dimension-wise analysis method is thus proposed to overcome these potential limitations. In this method, a sectional curve of the system response surface along each input dimensionality is firstly extracted, the minimal and maximal points of which are identified based on its Legendre polynomial approximation. And two input vectors, i.e. the minimal and maximal input vectors, are dimension-wisely assembled by the minimal and maximal points of all sectional curves. Finally, the lower and upper bounds of system response are computed by deterministic finite element analysis at the two input vectors. Two numerical examples are studied to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method and show that, compared to the interval and subinterval perturbation method, a better accuracy is achieved without much compromise on efficiency by the proposed method, especially for nonlinear problems with large interval parameters.

Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA): Mid-infrared Properties and Empirical Relations from WISE

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cluver, M. E.; Jarrett, T. H.; Hopkins, A. M.; Driver, S. P.; Liske, J.; Gunawardhana, M. L. P.; Taylor, E. N.; Robotham, A. S. G.; Alpaslan, M.; Baldry, I.; Brown, M. J. I.; Peacock, J. A.; Popescu, C. C.; Tuffs, R. J.; Bauer, A. E.; Bland-Hawthorn, J.; Colless, M.; Holwerda, B. W.; Lara-López, M. A.; Leschinski, K.; López-Sánchez, A. R.; Norberg, P.; Owers, M. S.; Wang, L.; Wilkins, S. M.

2014-02-01

The Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey furnishes a deep redshift catalog that, when combined with the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), allows us to explore for the first time the mid-infrared properties of >110, 000 galaxies over 120 deg2 to z ~= 0.5. In this paper we detail the procedure for producing the matched GAMA-WISE catalog for the G12 and G15 fields, in particular characterizing and measuring resolved sources; the complete catalogs for all three GAMA equatorial fields will be made available through the GAMA public releases. The wealth of multiwavelength photometry and optical spectroscopy allows us to explore empirical relations between optically determined stellar mass (derived from synthetic stellar population models) and 3.4 μm and 4.6 μm WISE measurements. Similarly dust-corrected Hα-derived star formation rates can be compared to 12 μm and 22 μm luminosities to quantify correlations that can be applied to large samples to z < 0.5. To illustrate the applications of these relations, we use the 12 μm star formation prescription to investigate the behavior of specific star formation within the GAMA-WISE sample and underscore the ability of WISE to detect star-forming systems at z ~ 0.5. Within galaxy groups (determined by a sophisticated friends-of-friends scheme), results suggest that galaxies with a neighbor within 100 h -1 kpc have, on average, lower specific star formation rates than typical GAMA galaxies with the same stellar mass.

Data Wise in Action: Stories of Schools Using Data to Improve Teaching and Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boudett, Kathryn Parker, Ed.; Steele, Jennifer L., Ed.

2007-01-01

What does it look like when a school uses data wisely? "Data Wise in Action", a new companion and sequel to the bestselling "Data Wise", tells the stories of eight very different schools following the Data Wise process of using assessment results to improve teaching and learning. "Data Wise in Action" highlights the…

WISE Design for Knowledge Integration.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Linn, Marcia C.; Clark, Douglas; Slotta, James D.

2003-01-01

Examines the implementation of Web-based Inquiry Science Environment (WISE), which can incorporate modeling tools and hand-held devices. Describes WISE design team practices, features of the WISE learning environment, and patterns of feature use in WISE library projects. (SOE)

The WHAT project

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shporer, A.; Mazeh, T.; Moran, A.; Bakos, G.; Kovacs, G.; Mashal, E.

2006-02-01

We describe WHAT, a small-aperture short focal length automated telescope with an 8.2° × 8.2° field of view, located at the Wise Observatory. The system is aimed at searching for transiting extrasolar planets and variable stars. Preliminary results of 3892 exposures of a single field are presented, where the telescope achieved already a precision of a few mmag for the brightest objects. Additional information can be found at: http://wise-obs.tau.ac.il/~what.

Pair-Wise and Many-Body Dispersive Interactions Coupled to an Optimally Tuned Range-Separated Hybrid Functional.

PubMed

Agrawal, Piyush; Tkatchenko, Alexandre; Kronik, Leeor

2013-08-13

We propose a nonempirical, pair-wise or many-body dispersion-corrected, optimally tuned range-separated hybrid functional. This functional retains the advantages of the optimal-tuning approach in the prediction of the electronic structure. At the same time, it gains accuracy in the prediction of binding energies for dispersively bound systems, as demonstrated on the S22 and S66 benchmark sets of weakly bound dimers.

A Chandra Snapshot Survey of Extremely Red Quasars from SDSS BOSS and WISE

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Garmire, Gordon

2017-09-01

We propose Chandra snapshot observations of a sample of 15 extremely red and highly luminous quasars at z > 2. These Type 1 objects have recently been discovered via the SDSS BOSS and WISE surveys, and they are among the most-luminous quasars in the Universe. They appear to be part of the missing evolutionary link as merger-induced starburst galaxies transform into typical ultraviolet luminous quasars. Our aim is to efficiently gather X-ray information about a sufficiently large sample of these objects that general conclusions about their basic X-ray properties, especially obscuration level and luminosity, can be drawn reliably. The results will also allow effective targeting of promising objects in longer X-ray spectroscopic observations.

An L Band Spectrum of the Coldest Brown Dwarf

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Morley, Caroline V.; Skemer, Andrew J.; Allers, Katelyn N.; Marley, Mark. S.; Faherty, Jacqueline K.; Visscher, Channon; Beiler, Samuel A.; Miles, Brittany E.; Lupu, Roxana; Freedman, Richard S.; Fortney, Jonathan J.; Geballe, Thomas R.; Bjoraker, Gordon L.

2018-05-01

The coldest brown dwarf, WISE 0855, is the closest known planetary-mass, free-floating object and has a temperature nearly as cold as the solar system gas giants. Like Jupiter, it is predicted to have an atmosphere rich in methane, water, and ammonia, with clouds of volatile ices. WISE 0855 is faint at near-infrared wavelengths and emits almost all its energy in the mid-infrared. Skemer et al. presented a spectrum of WISE 0855 from 4.5–5.1 μm (M band), revealing water vapor features. Here, we present a spectrum of WISE 0855 in the L band, from 3.4–4.14 μm. We present a set of atmosphere models that include a range of compositions (metallicities and C/O ratios) and water ice clouds. Methane absorption is clearly present in the spectrum. The mid-infrared color can be better matched with a methane abundance that is depleted relative to solar abundance. We find that there is evidence for water ice clouds in the M band spectrum, and we find a lack of phosphine spectral features in both the L and M band spectra. We suggest that a deep continuum opacity source may be obscuring the near-infrared flux, possibly a deep phosphorous-bearing cloud, ammonium dihyrogen phosphate. Observations of WISE 0855 provide critical constraints for cold planetary atmospheres, bridging the temperature range between the long-studied solar system planets and accessible exoplanets. The James Webb Space Telescope will soon revolutionize our understanding of cold brown dwarfs with high-precision spectroscopy across the infrared, allowing us to study their compositions and cloud properties, and to infer their atmospheric dynamics and formation processes.

Evaluating Results of Human Resources Programs/Practices.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Blai, Boris Jr.

1989-01-01

Contends that wise management human resources decisions may yield direct payroll savings in fewer workers for compatible production; controllable personnel turnover; greater flexibility to achieve new and emergency jobs; low waste, reject and accident programs; and low sick absences. Systematic follow-up must be integral part of effort to achieve…

Characterization of wise protein and its molecular mechanism to interact with both Wnt and BMP signals.

PubMed

Lintern, Katherine B; Guidato, Sonia; Rowe, Alison; Saldanha, José W; Itasaki, Nobue

2009-08-21

Cross-talk of BMP and Wnt signaling pathways has been implicated in many aspects of biological events during embryogenesis and in adulthood. A secreted protein Wise and its orthologs (Sostdc1, USAG-1, and Ectodin) have been shown to modulate Wnt signaling and also inhibit BMP signals. Modulation of Wnt signaling activity by Wise is brought about by an interaction with the Wnt co-receptor LRP6, whereas BMP inhibition is by binding to BMP ligands. Here we have investigated the mode of action of Wise on Wnt and BMP signals. It was found that Wise binds LRP6 through one of three loops formed by the cystine knot. The Wise deletion construct lacking the LRP6-interacting loop domain nevertheless binds BMP4 and inhibits BMP signals. Moreover, BMP4 does not interfere with Wise-LRP6 binding, suggesting separate domains for the physical interaction. Functional assays also show that the ability of Wise to block Wnt1 activity through LRP6 is not impeded by BMP4. In contrast, the ability of Wise to inhibit BMP4 is prevented by additional LRP6, implying a preference of Wise in binding LRP6 over BMP4. In addition to the interaction of Wise with BMP4 and LRP6, the molecular characteristics of Wise, such as glycosylation and association with heparan sulfate proteoglycans on the cell surface, are suggested. This study helps to understand the multiple functions of Wise at the molecular level and suggests a possible role for Wise in balancing Wnt and BMP signals.

Infrared Astronomy Professional Development for K-12 Educators: WISE Telescope

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Borders, Kareen; Mendez, B. M.

2010-01-01

K-12 educators need effective and relevant astronomy professional development. WISE Telescope (Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer) and Spitzer Space Telescope Education programs provided an immersive teacher professional development workshop at Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico during the summer of 2009. As many common misconceptions involve scale and distance, teachers worked with Moon/Earth scale, solar system scale, and distance of objects in the universe. Teachers built and used basic telescopes, learned about the history of telescopes, explored ground and satellite based telescopes, and explored and worked on models of WISE Telescope. An in-depth explanation of WISE and Spitzer telescopes gave participants background knowledge for infrared astronomy observations. We taught the electromagnetic spectrum through interactive stations. The stations included an overview via lecture and power point, the use of ultraviolet beads to determine ultraviolet exposure, the study of WISE lenticulars and diagramming of infrared data, listening to light by using speakers hooked up to photoreceptor cells, looking at visible light through diffraction glasses and diagramming the data, protocols for using astronomy based research in the classroom, and infrared thermometers to compare environmental conditions around the observatory. An overview of LIDAR physics was followed up by a simulated LIDAR mapping of the topography of Mars. We will outline specific steps for K-12 infrared astronomy professional development, provide data demonstrating the impact of the above professional development on educator understanding and classroom use, and detail future plans for additional K-12 professional development. Funding was provided by WISE Telescope, Spitzer Space Telescope, Starbucks, Arecibo Observatory, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and the Washington Space Grant Consortium.

THE FIRST HUNDRED BROWN DWARFS DISCOVERED BY THE WIDE-FIELD INFRARED SURVEY EXPLORER (WISE)

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

Davy Kirkpatrick, J.; Gelino, Christopher R.; Griffith, Roger L.

2011-12-01

We present ground-based spectroscopic verification of 6 Y dwarfs (see also Cushing et al.), 89 T dwarfs, 8 L dwarfs, and 1 M dwarf identified by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). Eighty of these are cold brown dwarfs with spectral types {>=}T6, six of which have been announced earlier by Mainzer et al. and Burgasser et al. We present color-color and color-type diagrams showing the locus of M, L, T, and Y dwarfs in WISE color space. Near-infrared and, in a few cases, optical spectra are presented for these discoveries. Near-infrared classifications as late as early Y are presentedmore » and objects with peculiar spectra are discussed. Using these new discoveries, we are also able to extend the optical T dwarf classification scheme from T8 to T9. After deriving an absolute WISE 4.6 {mu}m (W2) magnitude versus spectral type relation, we estimate spectrophotometric distances to our discoveries. We also use available astrometric measurements to provide preliminary trigonometric parallaxes to four of our discoveries, which have types of L9 pec (red), T8, T9, and Y0; all of these lie within 10 pc of the Sun. The Y0 dwarf, WISE 1541-2250, is the closest at 2.8{sup +1.3}{sub -0.6} pc; if this 2.8 pc value persists after continued monitoring, WISE 1541-2250 will become the seventh closest stellar system to the Sun. Another 10 objects, with types between T6 and >Y0, have spectrophotometric distance estimates also placing them within 10 pc. The closest of these, the T6 dwarf WISE 1506+7027, is believed to fall at a distance of {approx}4.9 pc. WISE multi-epoch positions supplemented with positional info primarily from the Spitzer/Infrared Array Camera allow us to calculate proper motions and tangential velocities for roughly one-half of the new discoveries. This work represents the first step by WISE to complete a full-sky, volume-limited census of late-T and Y dwarfs. Using early results from this census, we present preliminary, lower limits to the space density of these objects and discuss constraints on both the functional form of the mass function and the low-mass limit of star formation.« less

Pixel-Wise-Inter/Intra-Channel Color and Luminance Uniformity Corrections for Multi-Channel Projection Displays

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-08-11

Journal Article 3. DATES COVERED (From – To) Jan 2015 – Dec 2015 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE PIXEL-WISE INTER/INTRA-CHANNEL COLOR & LUMINANCE UNIFORMITY...Conference Dayton, Ohio – 28-29 June 2016 14. ABSTRACT Inter- and intra-channel color and luminance are generally non-uniform in multi-channel...projection display systems. Several methods have been proposed to correct for both inter- and intra-channel color and luminance variation in multi-channel

Wise, a context-dependent activator and inhibitor of Wnt signalling.

PubMed

Itasaki, Nobue; Jones, C Michael; Mercurio, Sara; Rowe, Alison; Domingos, Pedro M; Smith, James C; Krumlauf, Robb

2003-09-01

We have isolated a novel secreted molecule, Wise, by a functional screen for activities that alter the anteroposterior character of neuralised Xenopus animal caps. Wise encodes a secreted protein capable of inducing posterior neural markers at a distance. Phenotypes arising from ectopic expression or depletion of Wise resemble those obtained when Wnt signalling is altered. In animal cap assays, posterior neural markers can be induced by Wnt family members, and induction of these markers by Wise requires components of the canonical Wnt pathway. This indicates that in this context Wise activates the Wnt signalling cascade by mimicking some of the effects of Wnt ligands. Activation of the pathway was further confirmed by nuclear accumulation of beta-catenin driven by Wise. By contrast, in an assay for secondary axis induction, extracellularly Wise antagonises the axis-inducing ability of Wnt8. Thus, Wise can activate or inhibit Wnt signalling in a context-dependent manner. The Wise protein physically interacts with the Wnt co-receptor, lipoprotein receptor-related protein 6 (LRP6), and is able to compete with Wnt8 for binding to LRP6. These activities of Wise provide a new mechanism for integrating inputs through the Wnt coreceptor complex to modulate the balance of Wnt signalling.

Altered voxel-wise gray matter structural brain networks in schizophrenia: Association with brain genetic expression pattern.

PubMed

Liu, Feng; Tian, Hongjun; Li, Jie; Li, Shen; Zhuo, Chuanjun

2018-05-04

Previous seed- and atlas-based structural covariance/connectivity analyses have demonstrated that patients with schizophrenia is accompanied by aberrant structural connection and abnormal topological organization. However, it remains unclear whether this disruption is present in unbiased whole-brain voxel-wise structural covariance networks (SCNs) and whether brain genetic expression variations are linked with network alterations. In this study, ninety-five patients with schizophrenia and 95 matched healthy controls were recruited and gray matter volumes were extracted from high-resolution structural magnetic resonance imaging scans. Whole-brain voxel-wise gray matter SCNs were constructed at the group level and were further analyzed by using graph theory method. Nonparametric permutation tests were employed for group comparisons. In addition, regression modes along with random effect analysis were utilized to explore the associations between structural network changes and gene expression from the Allen Human Brain Atlas. Compared with healthy controls, the patients with schizophrenia showed significantly increased structural covariance strength (SCS) in the right orbital part of superior frontal gyrus and bilateral middle frontal gyrus, while decreased SCS in the bilateral superior temporal gyrus and precuneus. The altered SCS showed reproducible correlations with the expression profiles of the gene classes involved in therapeutic targets and neurodevelopment. Overall, our findings not only demonstrate that the topological architecture of whole-brain voxel-wise SCNs is impaired in schizophrenia, but also provide evidence for the possible role of therapeutic targets and neurodevelopment-related genes in gray matter structural brain networks in schizophrenia.

Extrastriatal dopamine D2-receptor availability in social anxiety disorder.

PubMed

Plavén-Sigray, Pontus; Hedman, Erik; Victorsson, Pauliina; Matheson, Granville J; Forsberg, Anton; Djurfeldt, Diana R; Rück, Christian; Halldin, Christer; Lindefors, Nils; Cervenka, Simon

2017-05-01

Alterations in the dopamine system are hypothesized to influence the expression of social anxiety disorder (SAD) symptoms. However, molecular imaging studies comparing dopamine function between patients and control subjects have yielded conflicting results. Importantly, while all previous investigations focused on the striatum, findings from activation and blood flow studies indicate that prefrontal and limbic brain regions have a central role in the pathophysiology. The objective of this study was to investigate extrastriatal dopamine D2-receptor (D2-R) availability in SAD. We examined 12 SAD patients and 16 healthy controls using positron emission tomography and the high-affinity D2-R radioligand [ 11 C]FLB457. Parametric images of D2-R binding potential were derived using the Logan graphical method with cerebellum as reference region. Two-tailed one-way independent ANCOVAs, with age as covariate, were used to examine differences in D2-R availability between groups using both region-based and voxel-wise analyses. The region-based analysis showed a medium effect size of higher D2-R levels in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) in patients, although this result did not remain significant after correction for multiple comparisons. The voxel-wise comparison revealed elevated D2-R availability in patients within OFC and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex after correction for multiple comparisons. These preliminary results suggest that an aberrant extrastriatal dopamine system may be part of the disease mechanism in SAD. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

High-fidelity and low-latency mobile fronthaul based on segment-wise TDM and MIMO-interleaved arraying.

PubMed

Li, Longsheng; Bi, Meihua; Miao, Xin; Fu, Yan; Hu, Weisheng

2018-01-22

In this paper, we firstly demonstrate an advanced arraying scheme in the TDM-based analog mobile fronthaul system to enhance the signal fidelity, in which the segment of the antenna carrier signal (AxC) with an appropriate length is served as the granularity for TDM aggregation. Without introducing extra processing, the entire system can be realized by simple DSP. The theoretical analysis is presented to verify the feasibility of this scheme, and to evaluate its effectiveness, the experiment with ~7-GHz bandwidth and 20 8 × 8 MIMO group signals are conducted. Results show that the segment-wise TDM is completely compatible with the MIMO-interleaved arraying, which is employed in an existing TDM scheme to improve the bandwidth efficiency. Moreover, compared to the existing TDM schemes, our scheme can not only satisfy the latency requirement of 5G but also significantly reduce the multiplexed signal bandwidth, hence providing higher signal fidelity in the bandwidth-limited fronthaul system. The experimental result of EVM verifies that 256-QAM is supportable using the segment-wise TDM arraying with only 250-ns latency, while with the ordinary TDM arraying, only 64-QAM is bearable.

Range wise busy checking 2-way imbalanced algorithm for cloudlet allocation in cloud environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alanzy, Mohammed; Latip, Rohaya; Muhammed, Abdullah

2018-05-01

Cloud computing considers as a new business paradigm and a popular platform over the last few years. Many organizations, agencies, and departments consider responsible tasks time and tasks needed to be accomplished as soon as possible. These agencies counter IT issues due to the massive arise of data, applications, and solution scopes. Currently, the main issue related with the cloud is the way of making the environment of the cloud computing more qualified, and this way needs a competent allocation strategy of the cloudlet, Thus, there are huge number of studies conducted with regards to this matter that sought to assign the cloudlets to VMs or resources by variety of strategies. In this paper we have proposed range wise busy checking 2-way imbalanced Algorithm in cloud computing. Compare to other methods, it decreases the completion time to finish tasks’ execution, it is considered the fundamental part to enhance the system performance such as the makespan. This algorithm was simulated using Cloudsim to give more opportunity to the higher VM speed to accommodate more Cloudlets in its local queue without considering the threshold balance condition. The simulation result shows that the average makespan time is lesser compare to the previous cloudlet allocation strategy.

Quantum interference between two phonon paths and reduced heat transport in diamond lattice with atomic-scale planar defects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kosevich, Yu. A.; Strelnikov, I. A.

2018-02-01

Destructive quantum interference between the waves propagating through laterally inhomogeneous layer can result in their total reflection, which in turn reduces energy flux carried by these waves. We consider the systems of Ge atoms, which fully or partly, in the chequer-wise order, fill a crystal plane in diamond-like Si lattice. We have revealed that a single type of the atomic defects, which are placed in identical positions in different unit cells in the defect crystal plane, can result in double transmission antiresonances of phonon wave packets. This new effect we relate with the complex structure of the diamond-like unit cell, which comprises two atoms in different positions and results in two distinct vibration resonances in two interfering phonon paths. We also consider the propagation of phonon wave packets in the superlatticies made of the defect planes, half-filled in the chequer-wise order with Ge atoms. We have revealed relatively broad phonon stop bands with center frequencies at the transmission antiresonances. We elaborate the equivalent analytical quasi-1D lattice model of the two phonon paths through the complex planar defect in the diamond-like lattice and describe the reduction of phonon heat transfer through the atomic-scale planar defects.

THE SPECTRAL ENERGY DISTRIBUTION OF THE COLDEST KNOWN BROWN DWARF

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

Luhman, K. L.; Esplin, T. L., E-mail: kluhman@astro.psu.edu

2016-09-01

WISE J085510.83–071442.5 (hereafter WISE 0855–0714) is the coldest known brown dwarf (∼250 K) and the fourth-closest known system to the Sun (2.2 pc). It has been previously detected only in the J band and two mid-IR bands. To better measure its spectral energy distribution (SED), we have performed deep imaging of WISE 0855–0714 in six optical and near-IR bands with Gemini Observatory, the Very Large Telescope, and the Hubble Space Telescope . Five of the bands show detections, although one detection is marginal (S/N ∼ 3). We also have obtained two epochs of images with the Spitzer Space Telescope for use inmore » refining the parallax of the brown dwarf. By combining astrometry from this work and previous studies, we have derived a parallax of 0.449 ± 0.008″ (2.23 ± 0.04 pc). We have compared our photometry for WISE 0855–0714 to data for known Y dwarfs and to the predictions of three suites of models by Saumon et al. and Morley et al. that are defined by the presence or absence of clouds and nonequilibrium chemistry. Our estimates of Y − J and J − H for WISE 0855–0714 are redder than colors of other Y dwarfs, confirming a predicted reversal of near-IR colors to redder values at temperatures below 300–400 K. In color–magnitude diagrams, no single suite of models provides a clearly superior match to the sequence formed by WISE 0855–0714 and other Y dwarfs. Instead, the best-fitting model changes from one diagram to the next. Similarly, all of the models have substantial differences from the SED of WISE 0855–0714. As a result, we are currently unable to constrain the presence of clouds or nonequilibrium chemistry in its atmosphere.« less

Review of two-phase flow liquid metal MHD and turbine energy conversion concepts for space applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fabris, Gracio

1992-01-01

Two-phase energy conversion systems could be liquid metal magnetohydrodynamic (LMMHD) with no moving parts or two-phase turbines. Both of them are inherently simple and reliable devices which can operate in a wide range of temperatures. Their thermal efficiency is significantly higher than for conventional cycles due to reheat of vapor by liquid phase during the energy converting expansion. Often they can be more easily coupled to heat sources. These features make two-phase systems particularly promising for space application. Insufficient research has been done in the past. So far achieved LMMHD generator and two-phase turbine efficiencies are in the 40 to 45 percent range. However if certain fluid dynamic and design problems are resolved these efficiencies could be brought into the range of 70 percent. This would make two-phase systems extremely competitive as compared to present or other proposed conversion system for space. Accordingly, well directed research effort on potential space applications of two-phase conversion systems would be a wise investment.

Basic Fishing. Aquatic Skills Series. Instructor Manual.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Staton, Robert D., Jr.

Part of a series of self-contained instructional units to teach Missourians how to use outdoor resources wisely and skillfully, this module of the Aquatic Skills Series introduces the basics of sport fishing using spin-casting equipment. The instructor may modify the module to meet the individual needs of class members based on age, experience…

Elephants: Big, Strong and Wise. Young Discovery Library Series.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pfeffer, Pierre

This book is written for children ages 5 through 10. Part of a series designed to develop their curiosity, fascinate them and educate them, this volume examines the characteristics and natural history of elephants. Topics included are: (1) elephant's ancestors; (2) elephant life; and (3) training elephants for work. Quiz items are included. (YP)

Are Learning Disabled Students "Test-Wise?": An Inquiry into Reading Comprehension Test Items.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scruggs, Thomas E.; Lifson, Steve

1986-01-01

Two experiments compared the ability of learning disabled (LD) students and more typical age peers to answer such reading comprehension questions presented independently of reading passages. Results suggested a relative deficiency on the part of LD students with respect to reasoning strategies and test-taking skills. (Author/LMO)

Harnessing Wind and Sun: Using Energy Wisely

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Primary Science Review, 2007

2007-01-01

Cassop Primary School and Eastchurch Church of England Primary School were winners of the 2006 Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy. This article describes how these schools have proved that the promotion of sustainable energy and the responsible use of energy is a central part of their practice and culture. Over the last eight years, a dedicated…

Madagascar Adventure. Water in Africa.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abernathy-Tabor, Michelle

The Water in Africa Project was realized over a 2-year period by a team of Peace Corps volunteers, World Wise Schools (WWS) classroom teachers, and WWS staff members. As part of an expanded, detailed design, resources were collected from over 90 volunteers serving in African countries, photos and stories were prepared, and standards-based learning…

Narrative Cartoons. Water in Africa.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McKoski, David

The Water in Africa Project was realized over a 2-year period by a team of Peace Corps volunteers, World Wise Schools (WWS) classroom teachers, and WWS staff members. As part of an expanded, detailed design, resources were collected from over 90 volunteers serving in African countries, photos and stories were prepared, and standards-based learning…

A Sense of Water. Water in Africa.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abernathy-Tabor, Michelle

The Water in Africa Project was realized over a 2-year period by a team of Peace Corps volunteers, World Wise Schools (WWS) classroom teachers, and WWS staff members. As part of an expanded, detailed design, resources were collected from over 90 volunteers serving in African countries, photos and stories were prepared, and standards-based learning…

Evaluating Federal Social Programs: Finding out What Works and What Does Not

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Muhlhausen, David B.

2012-01-01

Federal social programs are rarely evaluated to determine whether they are actually accomplishing their intended purposes. As part of its obligation to spend taxpayers' dollars wisely, Congress should mandate that experimental evaluations of every federal social program be conducted. The evaluations should be large-scale, multisite studies to…

Managing Your Money. Leader's Guide [and] Participant's Workbook.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nieuwenhuis, Ann; Hathaway, Irene

This document contains both a leader's guide and participant's workbook on money management. The leader's and participant's guides contain 10 parts each: (1) danger signs in money management; (2) what's important to you; (3) spending for the future; (4) financial fitness; (5) use credit wisely; (6) decisions, decisions; (7) shopping basics; (8)…

IRAC Photometry of the Coldest CatWISE-selected Brown Dwarfs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meisner, Aaron; Kirkpatrick, J. Davy; Kirkpatrick, J. Davy; Eisenhardt, Peter; Marocco, Federico; Faherty, Jacqueline; Cushing, Michael; Wright, Edward

2018-05-01

We will obtain IRAC [3.6] and [4.5] photometry of 250 extremely cool brown dwarfs newly revealed by the powerful combination of WISE and NEOWISE imaging at 4.6 microns. Our CatWISE effort, which is an archival data analysis program using WISE and NEOWISE data, will improve upon the motion selection of AllWISE by enabling a >10x time baseline enhancement, from 0.5 years (AllWISE) to 6.5 years (CatWISE). As a result, CatWISE motion selection is expected to yield a dramatic 8-fold increase in the sample of known brown dwarfs at spectral types T5 and later (T < 1,200 K). Many of the coolest such CatWISE discoveries will be detected exclusively in the WISE 4.6 micron (W2) channel. WISE W1 (3.4 micron) nondetections, which we expect for the majority of our most interesting sources, will provide only limits on mid-infrared color. Spitzer can supply this critical datum by measuring accurate [3.6]-[4.5] colors of our discoveries. These Spitzer color measurements will permit photometric spectral type estimates, which in turn yield estimates for critical parameters including luminosity, distance, and near-infrared flux. Using large [3.6]-[4.5] color to pinpoint the coldest late T and Y dwarfs among our CatWISE sample will enable us to prioritize these objects for spectroscopic follow-up, better understand the bottom of the substellar mass function, and identify nearby giant planet analogs suitable for future atmospheric studies with JWST.

WISE Photometry for 400 million SDSS sources

DOE PAGES

Lang, Dustin; Hogg, David W.; Schlegel, David J.

2016-01-28

Here, we present photometry of images from the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) of over 400 million sources detected by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). We also use a "forced photometry" technique, using measured SDSS source positions, star-galaxy classification, and galaxy profiles to define the sources whose fluxes are to be measured in the WISE images. We perform photometry with The Tractor image modeling code, working on our "unWISE" coaddds and taking account of the WISE point-spread function and a noise model. The result is a measurement of the flux of each SDSS source in each WISE band. Manymore » sources have little flux in the WISE bands, so often the measurements we report are consistent with zero given our uncertainties. But, for many sources we get 3σ or 4σ measurements; these sources would not be reported by the "official" WISE pipeline and will not appear in the WISE catalog, yet they can be highly informative for some scientific questions. In addition, these small-signal measurements can be used in stacking analyses at the catalog level. The forced photometry approach has the advantage that we measure a consistent set of sources between SDSS and WISE, taking advantage of the resolution and depth of the SDSS images to interpret the WISE images; objects that are resolved in SDSS but blended together in WISE still have accurate measurements in our photometry. Our results, and the code used to produce them, are publicly available at http://unwise.me.« less

Functional brain networks associated with eating behaviors in obesity.

PubMed

Park, Bo-Yong; Seo, Jongbum; Park, Hyunjin

2016-03-31

Obesity causes critical health problems including diabetes and hypertension that affect billions of people worldwide. Obesity and eating behaviors are believed to be closely linked but their relationship through brain networks has not been fully explored. We identified functional brain networks associated with obesity and examined how the networks were related to eating behaviors. Resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans were obtained for 82 participants. Data were from an equal number of people of healthy weight (HW) and non-healthy weight (non-HW). Connectivity matrices were computed with spatial maps derived using a group independent component analysis approach. Brain networks and associated connectivity parameters with significant group-wise differences were identified and correlated with scores on a three-factor eating questionnaire (TFEQ) describing restraint, disinhibition, and hunger eating behaviors. Frontoparietal and cerebellum networks showed group-wise differences between HW and non-HW groups. Frontoparietal network showed a high correlation with TFEQ disinhibition scores. Both frontoparietal and cerebellum networks showed a high correlation with body mass index (BMI) scores. Brain networks with significant group-wise differences between HW and non-HW groups were identified. Parts of the identified networks showed a high correlation with eating behavior scores.

OPERATOR BURDEN IN METAL ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING

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

Elliott, Amy M; Love, Lonnie J

2016-01-01

Additive manufacturing (AM) is an emerging manufacturing process that creates usable machine parts via layer-by-layer joining of a stock material. With this layer-wise approach, high-performance geometries can be created which are impossible with traditional manufacturing methods. Metal AM technology has the potential to significantly reduce the manufacturing burden of developing custom hardware; however, a major consideration in choosing a metal AM system is the required amount of operator involvement (i.e., operator burden) in the manufacturing process. The operator burden not only determines the amount of operator training and specialization required but also the usability of the system in a facility.more » As operators of several metal AM processes, the Manufacturing Demonstration Facility (MDF) at Oak Ridge National Labs is uniquely poised to provide insight into requirements for operator involvement in each of the three major metal AM processes. The paper covers an overview of each of the three metal AM technologies, focusing on the burden on the operator to complete the build cycle, process the part for final use, and reset the AM equipment for future builds.« less

Wise Detections of Known QSOS at Redshifts Greater Than Six

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Blain, Andrew W.; Assef, Roberto; Stern, Daniel; Tsai, Chao-Wei; Eisenhardt, Peter; Bridge, Carrie; Benford, Dominic; Jarrett, Tom; Cutri, Roc; Petty, Sara;

Automated novelty detection in the WISE survey with one-class support vector machines

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Solarz, A.; Bilicki, M.; Gromadzki, M.; Pollo, A.; Durkalec, A.; Wypych, M.

2017-10-01

Wide-angle photometric surveys of previously uncharted sky areas or wavelength regimes will always bring in unexpected sources - novelties or even anomalies - whose existence and properties cannot be easily predicted from earlier observations. Such objects can be efficiently located with novelty detection algorithms. Here we present an application of such a method, called one-class support vector machines (OCSVM), to search for anomalous patterns among sources preselected from the mid-infrared AllWISE catalogue covering the whole sky. To create a model of expected data we train the algorithm on a set of objects with spectroscopic identifications from the SDSS DR13 database, present also in AllWISE. The OCSVM method detects as anomalous those sources whose patterns - WISE photometric measurements in this case - are inconsistent with the model. Among the detected anomalies we find artefacts, such as objects with spurious photometry due to blending, but more importantly also real sources of genuine astrophysical interest. Among the latter, OCSVM has identified a sample of heavily reddened AGN/quasar candidates distributed uniformly over the sky and in a large part absent from other WISE-based AGN catalogues. It also allowed us to find a specific group of sources of mixed types, mostly stars and compact galaxies. By combining the semi-supervised OCSVM algorithm with standard classification methods it will be possible to improve the latter by accounting for sources which are not present in the training sample, but are otherwise well-represented in the target set. Anomaly detection adds flexibility to automated source separation procedures and helps verify the reliability and representativeness of the training samples. It should be thus considered as an essential step in supervised classification schemes to ensure completeness and purity of produced catalogues. The catalogues of outlier data are only available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (http://130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/qcat?J/A+A/606/A39

Wise retained in the endoplasmic reticulum inhibits Wnt signaling by reducing cell surface LRP6.

PubMed

Guidato, Sonia; Itasaki, Nobue

2007-10-15

The Wnt signaling pathway is tightly regulated by extracellular and intracellular modulators. Wise was isolated as a secreted protein capable of interacting with the Wnt co-receptor LRP6. Studies in Xenopus embryos revealed that Wise either enhances or inhibits the Wnt pathway depending on the cellular context. Here we show that the cellular localization of Wise has distinct effects on the Wnt pathway readout. While secreted Wise either synergizes or inhibits the Wnt signals depending on the partner ligand, ER-retained Wise consistently blocks the Wnt pathway. ER-retained Wise reduces LRP6 on the cell surface, making cells less susceptible to the Wnt signal. This study provides a cellular mechanism for the action of Wise and introduces the modulation of cellular susceptibility to Wnt signals as a novel mechanism of the regulation of the Wnt pathway.

WiseView: Visualizing motion and variability of faint WISE sources

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Caselden, Dan; Westin, Paul, III; Meisner, Aaron; Kuchner, Marc; Colin, Guillaume

2018-06-01

WiseView renders image blinks of Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) coadds spanning a multi-year time baseline in a browser. The software allows for easy visual identification of motion and variability for sources far beyond the single-frame detection limit, a key threshold not surmounted by many studies. WiseView transparently gathers small image cutouts drawn from many terabytes of unWISE coadds, facilitating access to this large and unique dataset. Users need only input the coordinates of interest and can interactively tune parameters including the image stretch, colormap and blink rate. WiseView was developed in the context of the Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 citizen science project, and has enabled hundreds of brown dwarf candidate discoveries by citizen scientists and professional astronomers.

Spacewatch Survey for Asteroids and Comets

DTIC Science & Technology

2005-11-01

radar images. Relationship of Spacewatch to the WISE spacecraft mission: E. L. Wright of the UCLA Astronomy Dept. is the PI of the Wide-field Infrared ...Survey Explorer (WISE) MIDEX spacecraft mission. WISE will map the whole sky at thermal infrared wavelengths with 500 times more sensitivity than the...elongations. WISE=s detections in the thermal infrared will also provide a size-limited sample of asteroids instead of the brightness-limited surveys

GHASP: an Hα kinematical survey of spiral galaxies - XI. Distribution of luminous and dark matter in spiral and irregular nearby galaxies using WISE photometry.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Korsaga, M.; Carignan, C.; Amram, P.; Epinat, B.; Jarrett, T. H.

2018-04-01

We present the mass distribution of a sample of 121 nearby galaxies with high quality optical velocity fields and available infra-red WISE 3.4 μm data. Contrary to previous studies, this sample covers all morphological types and is not biased toward late-type galaxies. These galaxies are part of the Fabry-Perot kinematical GHASP survey of spirals and irregular nearby galaxies. Combining the kinematical data to the WISE surface brightness data probing the emission from the old stellar population, we derive mass models allowing us to compare the luminous to the dark matter halo mass distribution in the optical regions of those galaxies. Dark matter (DM) models are constructed using the isothermal core profile and the Navarro-Frenk-White cuspy profile. We allow the M/L of the baryonic disc to vary or we keep it fixed, constrained by stellar evolutionary models (WISE W1-W2 color) and we carry out best fit (BFM) and pseudo-isothermal maximum disc (MDM) models. We found that the MDM provides M/L values four times higher than the BFM, suggesting that disc components, on average, tend to be maximal. The main results are: (i) the rotation curves of most galaxies are better fitted with core rather than cuspy profiles; (ii) the relation between the parameters of the DM and of the luminous matter components mostly depends on morphological types. More precisely, the distribution of the DM inside galaxies depends on whether or not the galaxy has a bulge.

Use of Deo's classification system on rock : final report.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1983-01-01

A shale from a construction site on Route 23 in Wise County, Virginia, was classified using Deo's classification system, and the usefulness of the classification system was evaluated. In addition, rock that had previously been used in the development...

Numerical and experimental investigation of enhancement of heat transfer in dimpled rib heat exchanger tube

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kumar, Anil; Maithani, Rajesh; Suri, Amar Raj Singh

2017-12-01

In this study, numerical and experimental investigation has been carried out for a range of system and operating parameters in order to analyse the effect of dimpled rib on heat and fluid flow behaviours in heat exchanger tube. Tube has, stream wise spacing ( x/ d d ) range of 15-35, span wise spacing ( y/ d d ) range of 15-35, ratio of dimpled depth to print diameter ( e/ d d ) of 1.0 and Reynolds number ( Re n ) ranges from 4000 to 28,000. Simulations were carried out to obtain heat and fluid flow behaviour of smooth and rough tube, using commercial CFD software, ANSYS 16.0 (Fluent). Renormalization k - ɛ model was employed to assess the influence of dimpled on turbulent flow and velocity field. Simulation results show that, the enhancement of 3.18 times in heat transfer and 2.87 times enhancement in thermal hydraulic performance as a function of stream wise direction ( x/ d d ) of 15 and span wise direction ( y/ d d ) of 15 respectively. Comparison between numerical and experimental simulation results showed that good agreement as the data fell within ±10% error band.

Engaging physicians and consumers in conversations about treatment overuse and waste: a short history of the choosing wisely campaign.

PubMed

Wolfson, Daniel; Santa, John; Slass, Lorie

2014-07-01

Wise management of health care resources is a core tenet of medical professionalism. To support physicians in fulfilling this responsibility and to engage patients in discussions about unnecessary care, tests, and procedures, in April 2012 the American Board of Internal Medicine Foundation, Consumer Reports, and nine medical specialty societies launched the Choosing Wisely campaign. The authors describe the rationale for and history of the campaign, its structure and approach in terms of engaging both physicians and patients, lessons learned, and future steps.In developing the Choosing Wisely campaign, the specialty societies each developed lists of five tests and procedures that physicians and patients should question. Over 50 specialty societies have developed more than 250 evidence-based recommendations, some of which Consumer Reports has "translated" into consumer-friendly language and helped disseminate to tens of millions of consumers. A number of delivery systems, specialty societies, state medical societies, and regional health collaboratives are also advancing the campaign's recommendations. The campaign's success lies in its unique focus on professional values and patient-physician conversations to reduce unnecessary care. Measurement and evaluation of the campaign's impact on attitudinal and behavioral change is needed.

The Hare and the Water: A Tanzanian Folktale. Water in Africa.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abernathy-Tabor, Michelle

The Water in Africa Project was realized over a 2-year period by a team of Peace Corps volunteers, World Wise Schools (WWS) classroom teachers, and WWS staff members. As part of an expanded, detailed design, resources were collected from over 90 volunteers serving in African countries, photos and stories were prepared, and standards-based learning…

Water: From Neglect to Respect. Water in Africa.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cohen, Amy

The Water in Africa Project was realized over a 2-year period by a team of Peace Corps volunteers, World Wise Schools (WWS) classroom teachers, and WWS staff members. As part of an expanded, detailed design, resources were collected from over 90 volunteers serving in African countries, photos and stories were prepared, and standards-based learning…

Water Safari, a Journey of Life. Water in Africa.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ray, Dany

The Water in Africa Project was realized over a 2-year period by a team of Peace Corps volunteers, World Wise Schools (WWS) classroom teachers, and WWS staff members. As part of an expanded, detailed design, resources were collected from over 90 volunteers serving in African countries, photos and stories were prepared, and standards-based learning…

Climate and Water in Ghana. Water in Africa.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Maher, Robert

The Water in Africa Project was realized over a 2-year period by a team of Peace Corps volunteers, World Wise Schools (WWS) classroom teachers, and WWS staff members. As part of an expanded, detailed design, resources were collected from over 90 volunteers serving in African countries, photos and stories were prepared, and standards-based learning…

Water Uses and Children's Lives in East Africa. Water in Africa.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Maher, Robert

The Water in Africa Project was realized over a 2-year period by a team of Peace Corps volunteers, World Wise Schools (WWS) classroom teachers, and WWS staff members. As part of an expanded, detailed design, resources were collected from over 90 volunteers serving in African countries, photos and stories were prepared, and standards-based learning…

Splish Splash: A Daily Use of Water. Water in Africa.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Franz, Kristi Rennebohm

The Water in Africa Project was realized over a 2-year period by a team of Peace Corps volunteers, World Wise Schools (WWS) classroom teachers, and WWS staff members. As part of an expanded, detailed design, resources were collected from over 90 volunteers serving in African countries, photos and stories were prepared, and standards-based learning…

Precious Droplets: The Value of Water. Water in Africa.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Franz, Kristi Rennebohm

The Water in Africa Project was realized over a 2-year period by a team of Peace Corps volunteers, World Wise Schools (WWS) classroom teachers, and WWS staff members. As part of an expanded, detailed design, resources were collected from over 90 volunteers serving in African countries, photos and stories were prepared, and standards-based learning…

Drip Drop: Access to Water. Water in Africa.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Franz, Kristi Rennebohm

The Water in Africa Project was realized over a 2-year period by a team of Peace Corps volunteers, World Wise Schools (WWS) classroom teachers, and WWS staff members. As part of an expanded, detailed design, resources were collected from over 90 volunteers serving in African countries, photos and stories were prepared, and standards-based learning…

Water: Source of Health, Source of Illness. Water in Africa.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cohen, Amy

The Water in Africa Project was realized over a 2-year period by a team of Peace Corps volunteers, World Wise Schools (WWS) classroom teachers, and WWS staff members. As part of an expanded, detailed design, resources were collected from over 90 volunteers serving in African countries, photos and stories were prepared, and standards-based learning…

Water: The Flow of Women's Work. Water in Africa.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cohen, Amy

The Water in Africa Project was realized over a 2-year period by a team of Peace Corps volunteers, World Wise Schools (WWS) classroom teachers, and WWS staff members. As part of an expanded, detailed design, resources were collected from over 90 volunteers serving in African countries, photos and stories were prepared, and standards-based learning…

Celebrating Our Connections through Water. Water in Africa.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abernathy-Tabor, Michelle

The Water in Africa Project was realized over a 2-year period by a team of Peace Corps volunteers, World Wise Schools (WWS) classroom teachers, and WWS staff members. As part of an expanded, detailed design, resources were collected from over 90 volunteers serving in African countries, photos and stories were prepared, and standards-based learning…

Forest products research in IUFRO history and potential

Treesearch

Robert L. Youngs; John A. Youngquist

1999-01-01

When silviculture researchers in central Europe were gathering together to form IUFRO in 1892, forest products researchers were occupied with making useful forest products and conserving the forest resource through wise use. Forest products researchers did not become an active part of IUFRO until 50 years later. Research in forest products was stimulated by World War I...

Water Sources in Cape Verde and West Africa. Water in Africa.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Maher, Robert

The Water in Africa Project was realized over a 2-year period by a team of Peace Corps volunteers, World Wise Schools (WWS) classroom teachers, and WWS staff members. As part of an expanded, detailed design, resources were collected from over 90 volunteers serving in African countries, photos and stories were prepared, and standards-based learning…

Inventory: 26 Reasons for Doing One

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Braxton, Barbara

2005-01-01

A stocktake is a legal requirement that ensures that teacher-librarians are accountable for the money they have spent throughout the year. Including staff salaries, the library absorbs a large amount of the annual school budget, so it is essential that funds are spent wisely. Inventory is done at the end of each academic year as part of the…

Incidence and anatomy of gaze-evoked nystagmus in patients with cerebellar lesions.

PubMed

Baier, Bernhard; Dieterich, Marianne

2011-01-25

Disorders of gaze-holding--organized by a neural network located in the brainstem or the cerebellum--may lead to nystagmus. Based on previous animal studies it was concluded that one key player of the cerebellar part of this gaze-holding neural network is the flocculus. Up to now, in humans there are no systematic studies in patients with cerebellar lesions examining one of the most common forms of nystagmus: gaze-evoked nystagmus (GEN). The aim of our present study was to clarify which cerebellar structures are involved in the generation of GEN. Twenty-one patients with acute unilateral cerebellar stroke were analyzed by means of modern MRI-based voxel-wise lesion-behavior mapping. Our data indicate that cerebellar structures such as the vermal pyramid, the uvula, and the tonsil, but also parts of the biventer lobule and the inferior semilunar lobule, were affected in horizontal GEN. It seems that these structures are part of a gaze-holding neural integrator control system. Furthermore, GEN might present a diagnostic sign pointing toward ipsilesionally located lesions of midline and lower cerebellar structures.

Attitudes, perceptions and awareness concerning quaternary prevention among family doctors working in the Social Security System, Peru: a cross-sectional descriptive study.

PubMed

Cuba Fuentes, María Sofía; Zegarra Zamalloa, Carlos Orlando; Reichert, Sonja; Gill, Dawn

2016-04-27

Quaternary Prevention is defined as the action taken to identify patients at risk of overtreatment, to protect them from additional medical treatments, and to suggest interventions that are ethically acceptable. Many countries and organizations have joined in the efforts to practice quaternary prevention. These countries started a campaign called Choosing Wisely that implements recommendations in order to avoid harming patients. To determine the attitudes, perceptions and awareness towards Quaternary Prevention and the practice of “Choosing Wisely Canada Recommendations” among family doctors working in the Social Security System in Peru. A questionnaire was developed after reviewing the literature and contacting experts in the field and was sent by email to all 64 family physicians in the Social Security System (Essalud) in Lima Peru. Responses were received from 40 participants. The response rate was 64%. Approximately 95% reported that they understand the concept of quaternary prevention. Agreement with all the recommendations was 90% or higher. In most of the recommendations the applicability was more than 80%. The most important barriers perceived for the practice of Quaternary Prevention were patients’ expectations (33%). There are positive perceptions towards Quaternary Preventions and Choosing Wisely recommendations in the family doctors of social security in Lima Peru.

Emerging technologies and their impact on disability.

PubMed

Wise, Paul H

2012-01-01

Technological innovation is transforming the prevalence and functional impact of child disability, the scale of social disparities in child disability, and perhaps the essential meaning of disability in an increasingly technology-dominated world. In this article, Paul Wise investigates several specific facets of this transformation. He begins by showing how technological change influences the definition of disability, noting that all technology attempts to address some deficiency in human capacity or in the human condition. Wise then looks at the impact of technology on childhood disabilities. Technical improvements in the physical environment, such as better housing, safer roads, and poison-prevention packaging, have significantly reduced childhood injury and disability. Other technological breakthroughs, such as those that identify genetic disorders that may lead to pregnancy termination, raise difficult moral and ethical issues. Technologies that identify potential health risks are also problematic in the absence of any efficient treatment. Wise stresses the imbalance in the existing health care delivery system, which is geared toward treating childhood physical illnesses that are declining in prevalence at a time when mental and emotional conditions, many of which are not yet well understood, are on the rise. This mismatch, Wise says, poses complex challenges to caring for disabled children, particularly in providing them with highly coordinated and integrated systems of care. Technology can also widen social disparities in health care for people, including children with disabilities. As Wise observes, efficacy--the ability of a technology to change health outcomes--is key to understanding the relationship of technology to social disparities. As technological innovation enhances efficacy, access to that technology becomes more important. Health outcomes may improve for those who can afford the technology, for example, but not for others. Hence, as efficacy grows, so too does the burden on society to provide access to technology equitably to all those in need. Without such access, technological innovation will likely expand disparities in child outcomes rather than reduce them.

Lessions learned in WISE image quality

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kendall, Martha; Duval, Valerie G.; Larsen, Mark F.; Heinrichsen, Ingolf H.; Esplin, Roy W.; Shannon, Mark; Wright, Edward L.

2010-08-01

The Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission launched in December of 2009 is a true success story. The mission is performing beyond expectations on-orbit and maintained cost and schedule throughout. How does such a thing happen? A team constantly focused on mission success is a key factor. Mission success is more than a program meeting its ultimate science goals; it is also meeting schedule and cost goals to avoid cancellation. The WISE program can attribute some of its success in achieving the image quality needed to meet science goals to lessons learned along the way. A requirement was missed in early decomposition, the absence of which would have adversely affected end-to-end system image quality. Fortunately, the ability of the cross-organizational team to focus on fixing the problem without pointing fingers or waiting for paperwork was crucial in achieving a timely solution. Asking layman questions early in the program could have revealed requirement flowdown misunderstandings between spacecraft control stability and image processing needs. Such is the lesson learned with the WISE spacecraft Attitude Determination & Control Subsystem (ADCS) jitter control and the image data reductions needs. Spacecraft motion can affect image quality in numerous ways. Something as seemingly benign as different terminology being used by teammates in separate groups working on data reduction, spacecraft ADCS, the instrument, mission operations, and the science proved to be a risk to system image quality. While the spacecraft was meeting the allocated jitter requirement , the drift rate variation need was not being met. This missing need was noticed about a year before launch and with a dedicated team effort, an adjustment was made to the spacecraft ADCS control. WISE is meeting all image quality requirements on-orbit thanks to a diligent team noticing something was missing before it was too late and applying their best effort to find a solution.

A cluster randomised controlled trial of the Wellbeing in Secondary Education (WISE) Project - an intervention to improve the mental health support and training available to secondary school teachers: protocol for an integrated process evaluation.

PubMed

Evans, Rhiannon; Brockman, Rowan; Grey, Jillian; Bell, Sarah; Harding, Sarah; Gunnell, David; Campbell, Rona; Murphy, Simon; Ford, Tamsin; Hollingworth, William; Tilling, Kate; Morris, Richard; Kadir, Bryar; Araya, Ricardo; Kidger, Judi

2018-05-04

Secondary school teachers have low levels of wellbeing and high levels of depression compared with the general population. Teachers are in a key position to support students, but poor mental health may be a barrier to doing so effectively. The Wellbeing in Secondary Education (WISE) project is a cluster randomised controlled trial (RCT) of an intervention to improve the mental health support and training available to secondary school teachers through delivery of the training package Mental Health First Aid and a staff peer support service. We will conduct a process evaluation as part of the WISE trial to support the interpretation of trial outcomes and refine intervention theory. The domains assessed will be: the extent to which the hypothesised mechanisms of change are activated; system level influences on these mechanisms; programme differentiation and usual practice; intervention implementation, including any adaptations; intervention acceptability; and intervention sustainability. Research questions will be addressed via quantitative and qualitative methods. All study schools (n = 25) will provide process evaluation data, with more detailed focus group, interview and observation data being collected from a subsample of case study schools (4 intervention and 4 control). Mechanisms of change, as outlined in a logic model, will be measured via teacher and student surveys and focus groups. School context will be explored via audits of school practice that relate to mental health and wellbeing, combined with stakeholder interviews and focus groups. Implementation of the training and peer support service will be assessed via training observations, training participant evaluation forms, focus groups with participants, interviews with trainers and peer support service users, and peer supporter logs recording help provided. Acceptability and sustainability will be examined via interviews with funders, head teachers, trainers and peer support services users, and focus groups with training participants. The process evaluation embedded within the WISE cluster RCT will illuminate how and why the intervention was effective, ineffective or conferred iatrogenic effects. It will contribute to the refinement of the theory underpinning the intervention, and will help to inform any future implementation. International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial Number: ISRCTN95909211 registered on 24 March 2016.

Disk Detective Follow-Up Program

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kuchner, Marc

As new data on exoplanets and young stellar associations arrive, we will want to know: which of these planetary systems and young stars have circumstellar disks? The vast allsky database of 747 million infrared sources from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission can supply answers. WISE is a discovery tool intended to find targets for JWST, sensitive enough to detect circumstellar disks as far away as 3000 light years. The vast WISE archive already serves us as a roadmap to guide exoplanet searches, provide information on disk properties as new planets are discovered, and teach us about the many hotly debated connections between disks and exoplanets. However, because of the challenges of utilizing the WISE data, this resource remains underutilized as a tool for disk and planet hunters. Attempts to use WISE to find disks around Kepler planet hosts were nearly scuttled by confusion noise. Moreover, since most of the stars with WISE infrared excesses were too red for Hipparcos photometry, most of the disks sensed by WISE remain obscure, orbiting stars unlisted in the usual star databases. To remedy the confusion noise problem, we have begun a massive project to scour the WISE data archive for new circumstellar disks. The Disk Detective project (Kuchner et al. 2016) engages layperson volunteers to examine images from WISE, NASA's Two Micron All-Sky Survey (2MASS) and optical surveys to search for new circumstellar disk candidates via the citizen science website DiskDetective.org. Fueled by the efforts of > 28,000 citizen scientists, Disk Detective is the largest survey for debris disks with WISE. It has already uncovered 4000 disk candidates worthy of follow-up. However, most host stars of the new Disk Detective disk candidates have no known spectral type or distance, especially those with red colors: K and M stars and Young Stellar Objects. Others require further observations to check for false positives. The Disk Detective project is supported by NASA ADAP funds, which are not allowed to fund a major observational follow-up campaign. So here we propose a campaign of follow-up observations that will turn the unique, growing catalog of Disk Detective disk candidates into a reliable, publically-available treasure trove of new data on nearby disks in time to complement the upcoming new catalogs of planet hosts and stellar moving groups. We will use automated adaptive optics (AO) instruments to image disk candidates and check them for contamination from background objects. We will correlate our discoveries with the vast Gaia and LAMOST surveys to study disks in associations with other young stars. We will follow up disk candidates spectroscopically to remove more false positives. We will search for cold dust around our disk candidates with the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) and analyze data from the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) to image young, nearby disk candidates. This follow up work will realize the full potential of the WISE mission as a roadmap to future exoplanet discoveries. It will yield contamination rates that will be crucial for interpreting all disk searches done with WISE. Our search will yield 2000 well-vetted nearby disks, including 60 that the Gaia mission will likely find to contain giant planets. This crucial follow-up work should be done now to take full advantage of Gaia during JWST's planned lifetime.

Cleaning of parts for new manufacturing and parts rebuilding

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Doherty, Jeff

1994-06-01

Parts cleaning is the largest single expense, and the most time consuming activity, in rebuilding and new manufacturing. On average, 25% to 40% of the total labor and overhead burden is spent on cleaning. EPA and OSHA pressures add to the burden by making some methods and chemicals obsolete. Some of the processes and chemicals in current use will be curtailed and or outlawed in the future. How can a shops and industries make long term decisions or capital investments in cleaning and process improvements when the government keeps changing its rules? At the MART Corporation in Saint Louis, Missouri, we manufacture a line of cabinet-style batch cleaning machines known as Power Washers. Twenty years ago MART invented and patented the Power Washer process, a cleaning method that recycles wash solution and blasts contaminates as they are washed off the more heavily contaminated parts. Since the initial invention MART has continued to R&D the washing process and develop ancillary systems that comply with EPA and OSHA regulations. For applications involving new industrial parts or items requiring specification cleaned surfaces. MART provides filtration and solution conditioning systems, part drying operations, and triple rinsing. Units are available in stainless steel or higher alloys. We are not alone in the washer manufacturing business. You have many choices of cleaning solutions (no pun intended) which will perform in your operations and yield good results. As a manufacturer, we are interested in your success with our equipment. We have all heard the horror stories of companies having selected inappropriate cleaning systems and or processes which then brought the company to its knees, production wise. Assembly, appearance, warranty, and performance shortcomings of finished products can often be directly related to the cleaning process and its shortcomings.

KSC-2009-4750

NASA Image and Video Library

2009-08-17

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --At Vandenberg Air Force Base's Astrotech processing facility in California, the fixed panel solar panel is seen on NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, spacecraft. WISE will be moved from the travel dolly it's on to a work stand. The satellite will survey the entire sky at infrared wavelengths, creating a cosmic clearinghouse of hundreds of millions of objects, which will be catalogued, providing a vast storehouse of knowledge about the solar system, the Milky Way, and the universe. Launch is scheduled no earlier than Dec. 10. Photo credit: NASA/Moore, VAFB

Bit-wise arithmetic coding for data compression

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kiely, A. B.

1994-01-01

This article examines the problem of compressing a uniformly quantized independent and identically distributed (IID) source. We present a new compression technique, bit-wise arithmetic coding, that assigns fixed-length codewords to the quantizer output and uses arithmetic coding to compress the codewords, treating the codeword bits as independent. We examine the performance of this method and evaluate the overhead required when used block-adaptively. Simulation results are presented for Gaussian and Laplacian sources. This new technique could be used as the entropy coder in a transform or subband coding system.

Cool Astronomy: Education and Public Outreach for the WISE mission

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mendez, Bryan J.

2011-01-01

The Education and Public Outreach (E/PO) program of the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) aims to educate and engage students, teachers, and the general public in the endeavor of science. We bring a collection of accomplished professionals in formal and informal astronomy education from around the nation to create learning materials and experiences that appeal to broad audiences. Our E/PO program trains teachers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) topics related to WISE; creates standards-based classroom resources and lessons using WISE data and WISE-related STEM topics; develops interactive programming for museums and science centers; and inspires the public with WISE science and images.

Public awareness and misunderstanding about DrinkWise Australia: a cross-sectional survey of Australian adults.

PubMed

Brennan, Emily; Wakefield, Melanie A; Durkin, Sarah J; Jernigan, David H; Dixon, Helen G; Pettigrew, Simone

2017-08-01

DrinkWise Australia is an alcohol industry Social Aspects/Public Relations Organisation (SAPRO). We assessed the Australian public's awareness of DrinkWise, beliefs about its funding source, and associations between funding beliefs and perceptions of DrinkWise. A total of 467 adult weekly drinkers completed an online cross-sectional survey in February 2016. Half the sample had heard of DrinkWise (48.6%); of these, the proportion aware that DrinkWise is industry funded (37.0%) was much smaller than the proportion believing it receives government funding (84.1%). Respondents who incorrectly believed DrinkWise receives government funding were more likely to hold a favourable perception of the organisation's credibility, trustworthiness and respectability than those who did not believe it receives government funding (75.9% vs. 58.3%; p=0.032). The drinking population is vulnerable to believing that alcohol industry public relations organisations such as DrinkWise are government funded, which in turn is associated with more favourable perceptions of the organisation's credibility, trustworthiness, and respectability. Implications for public health: Favourable perceptions of DrinkWise may enhance the industry's ability to delay or dilute potentially effective alcohol control policies. Future research should investigate whether educating the public about DrinkWise's alcohol industry funding alters the public's perception of how credible, trustworthy and respectable the organisation is. © 2017 The Authors.

Expression of Wise in chick embryos.

PubMed

Shigetani, Y; Itasaki, N

2007-08-01

We have performed in situ hybridization to study the expression of Wise in early chick embryos. Wise expression is first detectable in the ectoderm at posterior levels of late neurula. As development proceeds, Wise expression is seen in specific patterns in the ectoderm of the trunk region, pharyngeal arches, limb buds, and feather buds. In addition to these areas, particular cartilages such as the ones in the maxillary process and limbs start to express Wise at the late pharyngula stage, and the expression in these cartilages becomes stronger than that in epidermal components at later stages. Importantly, Wise is expressed in regions where other signaling molecules such as Wnt, Bmp, and Shh are known to function in morphogenesis and differentiation. Direct comparisons of the expression of Wise and these genes are also demonstrated. (c) 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

WISE PHOTOMETRY FOR 400 MILLION SDSS SOURCES

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

Lang, Dustin; Hogg, David W.; Schlegel, David J., E-mail: dstndstn@gmail.com

2016-02-15

We present photometry of images from the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) of over 400 million sources detected by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). We use a “forced photometry” technique, using measured SDSS source positions, star–galaxy classification, and galaxy profiles to define the sources whose fluxes are to be measured in the WISE images. We perform photometry with The Tractor image modeling code, working on our “unWISE” coaddds and taking account of the WISE point-spread function and a noise model. The result is a measurement of the flux of each SDSS source in each WISE band. Many sources havemore » little flux in the WISE bands, so often the measurements we report are consistent with zero given our uncertainties. However, for many sources we get 3σ or 4σ measurements; these sources would not be reported by the “official” WISE pipeline and will not appear in the WISE catalog, yet they can be highly informative for some scientific questions. In addition, these small-signal measurements can be used in stacking analyses at the catalog level. The forced photometry approach has the advantage that we measure a consistent set of sources between SDSS and WISE, taking advantage of the resolution and depth of the SDSS images to interpret the WISE images; objects that are resolved in SDSS but blended together in WISE still have accurate measurements in our photometry. Our results, and the code used to produce them, are publicly available at http://unwise.me.« less

An empirical examination of WISE/NEOWISE asteroid analysis and results

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Myhrvold, Nathan

2017-10-01

Observations made by the WISE space telescope and subsequent analysis by the NEOWISE project represent the largest corpus of asteroid data to date, describing the diameter, albedo, and other properties of the ~164,000 asteroids in the collection. I present a critical reanalysis of the WISE observational data, and NEOWISE results published in numerous papers and in the JPL Planetary Data System (PDS). This analysis reveals shortcomings and a lack of clarity, both in the original analysis and in the presentation of results. The procedures used to generate NEOWISE results fall short of established thermal modelling standards. Rather than using a uniform protocol, 10 modelling methods were applied to 12 combinations of WISE band data. Over half the NEOWISE results are based on a single band of data. Most NEOWISE curve fits are poor quality, frequently missing many or all the data points. About 30% of the single-band results miss all the data; 43% of the results derived from the most common multiple-band combinations miss all the data in at least one band. The NEOWISE data processing procedures rely on inconsistent assumptions, and introduce bias by systematically discarding much of the original data. I show that error estimates for the WISE observational data have a true uncertainty factor of ~1.2 to 1.9 times larger than previously described, and that the error estimates do not fit a normal distribution. These issues call into question the validity of the NEOWISE Monte-Carlo error analysis. Comparing published NEOWISE diameters to published estimates using radar, occultation, or spacecraft measurements (ROS) reveals 150 for which the NEOWISE diameters were copied exactly from the ROS source. My findings show that the accuracy of diameter estimates for NEOWISE results depend heavily on the choice of data bands and model. Systematic errors in the diameter estimates are much larger than previously described. Systematic errors for diameters in the PDS range from -3% to +27%. Random errors range from -14% to +19% when using all four WISE bands, and from -45% to +74% in cases using only the W2 band. The results presented here show that much work remains to be done towards understanding asteroid data from WISE/NEOWISE.

Some Applications of Piece-Wise Smooth Dynamical Systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Janovská, Drahoslava; Hanus, Tomáš; Biák, Martin

2010-09-01

The Filippov systems theory is applied to selected problems from biology and chemical engineering, namely we explore and simulate Bazykin's ecological model, an ideal closed gas-liquid system including its dimensionless formulation. The last investigated system is a CSTR with an outfall and the CSTR with a reactor volume control.

Longitudinally Jointed Edge-Wise Compression HoneyComb Composite Sandwich Coupon Testing And Fe Analysis: Three Methods of Strain Measurement, And Comparison

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Farrokh, Babak; Rahim, Nur Aida Abul; Segal, Ken; Fan, Terry; Jones, Justin; Hodges, Ken; Mashni, Noah; Garg, Naman; Sang, Alex

2013-01-01

Three distinct strain measurement methods (i.e., foil resistance strain gages, fiber optic strain sensors, and a three-dimensional digital image photogrammetry that gives full field strain and displacement measurements) were implemented to measure strains on the back and front surfaces of a longitudinally jointed curved test article subjected to edge-wise compression testing, at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, according to ASTM C364. The pre-test finite element analysis (FEA) was conducted to assess ultimate failure load and predict strain distribution pattern throughout the test coupon. The predicted strain pattern contours were then utilized as guidelines for installing the strain measurement instrumentations. The foil resistance strain gages and fiber optic strain sensors were bonded on the specimen at locations with nearly the same analytically predicted strain values, and as close as possible to each other, so that, comparisons between the measured strains by strain gages and fiber optic sensors, as well as the three-dimensional digital image photogrammetric system are relevant. The test article was loaded to failure (at 167 kN), at the compressive strain value of 10,000 micro epsilon. As a part of this study, the validity of the measured strains by fiber optic sensors is examined against the foil resistance strain gages and the three-dimensional digital image photogrammetric data, and comprehensive comparisons are made with FEA predictions.

Inhibition of WISE preserves renal allograft function.

PubMed

Qian, Xueming; Yuan, Xiaodong; Vonderfecht, Steven; Ge, Xupeng; Lee, Jae; Jurisch, Anke; Zhang, Li; You, Andrew; Fitzpatrick, Vincent D; Williams, Alexia; Valente, Eliane G; Pretorius, Jim; Stevens, Jennitte L; Tipton, Barbara; Winters, Aaron G; Graham, Kevin; Harriss, Lindsey; Baker, Daniel M; Damore, Michael; Salimi-Moosavi, Hossein; Gao, Yongming; Elkhal, Abdallah; Paszty, Chris; Simonet, W Scott; Richards, William G; Tullius, Stefan G

2013-01-01

Wnt-modulator in surface ectoderm (WISE) is a secreted modulator of Wnt signaling expressed in the adult kidney. Activation of Wnt signaling has been observed in renal transplants developing interstitial fibrosis and tubular atrophy; however, whether WISE contributes to chronic changes is not well understood. Here, we found moderate to high expression of WISE mRNA in a rat model of renal transplantation and in kidneys from normal rats. Treatment with a neutralizing antibody against WISE improved proteinuria and graft function, which correlated with higher levels of β-catenin protein in kidney allografts. In addition, treatment with the anti-WISE antibody reduced infiltration of CD68(+) macrophages and CD8(+) T cells, attenuated glomerular and interstitial injury, and decreased biomarkers of renal injury. This treatment reduced expression of genes involved in immune responses and in fibrogenic pathways. In summary, WISE contributes to renal dysfunction by promoting tubular atrophy and interstitial fibrosis.

DriveWise: an interdisciplinary hospital-based driving assessment program.

PubMed

O'Connor, Margaret G; Kapust, Lissa R; Hollis, Ann M

2008-01-01

Health care professionals working with the elderly have opportunities through research and clinical practice to shape public policy affecting the older driver. This article describes DriveWise, an interdisciplinary hospital-based driving assessment program developed in response to clinical concerns about the driving safety of individuals with medical conditions. DriveWise clinicians use evidence-based, functional assessments to determine driving competence. In addition, the program was designed to meet the emotional needs of individuals whose driving safety has been called into question. To date, approximately 380 participants have been assessed through DriveWise. The following report details the DriveWise mission, DriveWise team members, and road test results. We continue to refine the assessment process to promote safety and support the dignity and independence of all participants. The DriveWise interdisciplinary approach to practice is a concrete example of how gerontological education across professions can have direct benefits to the older adult.

Measuring the Test-Wiseness of Medical Students.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harvill, Leo M.

The objectives for this study were to: (1) develop a valid, reliable measure of test-wiseness with equivalent forms for use with students in the health sciences; and (2) determine the level of test-wiseness of entering medical students. The test-wiseness areas included in this study were: similar options, umbrella term, item give-away, convergence…

Choosing Wisely: the American College of Rheumatology's Top 5 for pediatric rheumatology.

PubMed

Rouster-Stevens, Kelly A; Ardoin, Stacy P; Cooper, Ashley M; Becker, Mara L; Dragone, Leonard L; Huttenlocher, Anna; Jones, Karla B; Kolba, Karen S; Moorthy, L Nandini; Nigrovic, Peter A; Stinson, Jennifer N; Ferguson, Polly J

2014-05-01

To create a pediatric rheumatology Top 5 list as part of the American Board of Internal Medicine Foundation's Choosing Wisely campaign. Delphi surveys of a core group of representative pediatric rheumatology providers from across North America generated candidate Top 5 items. Items with high content agreement and perceived to be of prevalent use and of high impact were included in a survey of all American College of Rheumatology (ACR) members who identified themselves as providing care to pediatric patients. Items with the highest ratings were subjected to literature review and further evaluation. A total of 121 candidate items were proposed in the initial Delphi survey and were reduced to 28 items in subsequent surveys. These 28 items were sent to 1,198 rheumatology providers who care for pediatric patients, and 397 (33%) responded. Based upon survey data and literature review, the Top 5 items were identified. These items focused on testing for antinuclear antibodies, autoantibody panels, Lyme disease, methotrexate toxicity monitoring, and use of routine radiographs. The ACR pediatric rheumatology Top 5 is one of the first pediatric subspecialty-specific Choosing Wisely Top 5 lists and provides an opportunity for patients and providers to discuss appropriate use of health care in pediatric rheumatology. Copyright © 2014 by the American College of Rheumatology.

First-principles anharmonic quantum calculations for peptide spectroscopy: VSCF calculations and comparison with experiments.

PubMed

Roy, Tapta Kanchan; Sharma, Rahul; Gerber, R Benny

2016-01-21

First-principles quantum calculations for anharmonic vibrational spectroscopy of three protected dipeptides are carried out and compared with experimental data. Using hybrid HF/MP2 potentials, the Vibrational Self-Consistent Field with Second-Order Perturbation Correction (VSCF-PT2) algorithm is used to compute the spectra without any ad hoc scaling or fitting. All of the vibrational modes (135 for the largest system) are treated quantum mechanically and anharmonically using full pair-wise coupling potentials to represent the interaction between different modes. In the hybrid potential scheme the MP2 method is used for the harmonic part of the potential and a modified HF method is used for the anharmonic part. The overall agreement between computed spectra and experiment is very good and reveals different signatures for different conformers. This study shows that first-principles spectroscopic calculations of good accuracy are possible for dipeptides hence it opens possibilities for determination of dipeptide conformer structures by comparison of spectroscopic calculations with experiment.

The Faintest WISE Debris Disks: Enhanced Methods for Detection and Verification

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Patel, Rahul I.; Metchev, Stanimir A.; Heinze, Aren; Trollo, Joseph

2017-02-01

In an earlier study, we reported nearly 100 previously unknown dusty debris disks around Hipparcos main-sequence stars within 75 pc by selecting stars with excesses in individual WISE colors. Here, we further scrutinize the Hipparcos 75 pc sample to (1) gain sensitivity to previously undetected, fainter mid-IR excesses and (2) remove spurious excesses contaminated by previously unidentified blended sources. We improve on our previous method by adopting a more accurate measure of the confidence threshold for excess detection and by adding an optimally weighted color average that incorporates all shorter-wavelength WISE photometry, rather than using only individual WISE colors. The latter is equivalent to spectral energy distribution fitting, but only over WISE bandpasses. In addition, we leverage the higher-resolution WISE images available through the unWISE.me image service to identify contaminated WISE excesses based on photocenter offsets among the W3- and W4-band images. Altogether, we identify 19 previously unreported candidate debris disks. Combined with the results from our earlier study, we have found a total of 107 new debris disks around 75 pc Hipparcos main-sequence stars using precisely calibrated WISE photometry. This expands the 75 pc debris disk sample by 22% around Hipparcos main-sequence stars and by 20% overall (including non-main-sequence and non-Hipparcos stars).

Wise regulates bone deposition through genetic interactions with Lrp5.

PubMed

Ellies, Debra L; Economou, Androulla; Viviano, Beth; Rey, Jean-Philippe; Paine-Saunders, Stephenie; Krumlauf, Robb; Saunders, Scott

2014-01-01

In this study using genetic approaches in mouse we demonstrate that the secreted protein Wise plays essential roles in regulating early bone formation through its ability to modulate Wnt signaling via interactions with the Lrp5 co-receptor. In Wise-/- mutant mice we find an increase in the rate of osteoblast proliferation and a transient increase in bone mineral density. This change in proliferation is dependent upon Lrp5, as Wise;Lrp5 double mutants have normal bone mass. This suggests that Wise serves as a negative modulator of Wnt signaling in active osteoblasts. Wise and the closely related protein Sclerostin (Sost) are expressed in osteoblast cells during temporally distinct early and late phases in a manner consistent with the temporal onset of their respective increased bone density phenotypes. These data suggest that Wise and Sost may have common roles in regulating bone development through their ability to control the balance of Wnt signaling. We find that Wise is also required to potentiate proliferation in chondrocytes, serving as a potential positive modulator of Wnt activity. Our analyses demonstrate that Wise plays a key role in processes that control the number of osteoblasts and chondrocytes during bone homeostasis and provide important insight into mechanisms regulating the Wnt pathway during skeletal development.

Identification of coffee bean varieties using hyperspectral imaging: influence of preprocessing methods and pixel-wise spectra analysis.

PubMed

Zhang, Chu; Liu, Fei; He, Yong

2018-02-01

Hyperspectral imaging was used to identify and to visualize the coffee bean varieties. Spectral preprocessing of pixel-wise spectra was conducted by different methods, including moving average smoothing (MA), wavelet transform (WT) and empirical mode decomposition (EMD). Meanwhile, spatial preprocessing of the gray-scale image at each wavelength was conducted by median filter (MF). Support vector machine (SVM) models using full sample average spectra and pixel-wise spectra, and the selected optimal wavelengths by second derivative spectra all achieved classification accuracy over 80%. Primarily, the SVM models using pixel-wise spectra were used to predict the sample average spectra, and these models obtained over 80% of the classification accuracy. Secondly, the SVM models using sample average spectra were used to predict pixel-wise spectra, but achieved with lower than 50% of classification accuracy. The results indicated that WT and EMD were suitable for pixel-wise spectra preprocessing. The use of pixel-wise spectra could extend the calibration set, and resulted in the good prediction results for pixel-wise spectra and sample average spectra. The overall results indicated the effectiveness of using spectral preprocessing and the adoption of pixel-wise spectra. The results provided an alternative way of data processing for applications of hyperspectral imaging in food industry.

More Than a Pretty Picture: Making WISE Data Accessible to the Public

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ali, Nancy; Mendez, B.; Fricke, K.; Wright, E. L.; Eisenhardt, P. R.; Cutri, R. M.; Hurt, R.; WISE Team

2011-01-01

NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) has surveyed the sky in four bands of infrared light, creating a treasure trove of data. This data is of interest not only to the professional astronomical community, but also to educators, students and the general public. The Education and Public Outreach (E/PO) program for WISE is creating opportunities to make WISE data accessible to these audiences through the Internet as well as through teacher professional development programs. Shortly after WISE took its first light image in January 2010, images have been featured weekly on the WISE website. These images serve to engage the general public through "pretty pictures” that are accompanied by educational captions. Social media such as Facebook and Twitter are used to further engage the public with the images. For a more comprehensive view of WISE images, we are creating a guided tour of the infrared sky on the WorldWide Telescope. The public will be able to use the free WorldWide Telescope software to interact with WISE images and listen to narration that describes features of the Universe as seen in infrared light. We are also developing resources for teachers and students to access WISE data when in becomes public in 2011 to learn about astronomical imaging and to conduct authentic scientific investigations.

Development of the digital design environment ProjectWise(TM) - phase 1.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2017-04-28

The goal of this research was to develop a project document management system capable of managing : Connecticut Department of Transportation (CTDOT) Capital Road and Bridge Program. Primary targets of : research and development included the system, c...

Line Up, Line Up: Using Technology to Align and Enhance Peer Learning and Assessment in a Student Centred Foundation Organic Chemistry Module

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ryan, Barry J.

2013-01-01

This paper describes how three technologies were utilised in combination to align student learning and assessment as part of a case study. Multiple choice questions (MCQs) were central to all these technologies. The peer learning technologies; Personal Response Devices (a.k.a. "Clickers") and "PeerWise"…

Street Wise Part 1: Promoting Safe Bicycling and Walking to School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crider, Linda B.; Hall, Amanda K.

2005-01-01

If school is a child's "workplace," the daily trip to school is the child's "commute." This trip may be taken in a car or bus, but if it is taken on foot or by bicycle, it offers children multiple opportunities for regular physical activity--a vitally important benefit at a time when overweight and related disorders are…

Bringing Water to a Lesotho Village: A Classroom Simulation. Water in Africa.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ray, Dany M.

The Water in Africa Project was realized over a 2-year period by a team of Peace Corps volunteers, World Wise Schools (WWS) classroom teachers, and WWS staff members. As part of an expanded, detailed design, resources were collected from over 90 volunteers serving in African countries, photos and stories were prepared, and standards-based learning…

Electric Motors Everywhere: Most Forms of Energy Go through Some Conversion Process to Do Useful Work for Us

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Deal, Walter F., III

2004-01-01

This article discusses electric motors and the many ways in which they are used. Selecting the most appropriate miniature DC electric motor wisely will contribute toward success and satisfaction in designing and building motorized projects and activities. Typical parts suppliers stock a variety of miniature DC motors and provide sufficient…

Superintendent Searches Public or Confidential? The Case for an Open Search Process

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davis, Terre

2010-01-01

Board of education members come and go, but the community remains. Wise candidates for a superintendent position, as well as the dedicated board members involved in fulfilling this important duty, understand this and therefore want the public to be part of the superintendent search process. As a search consultant to school boards for 20 years, the…

The Long Path to Higher Education for African Americans

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Duster, Troy

2009-01-01

When one considers the possibilities for a new progressive era in American higher education, the author contends that it is wise to review the past because there are lessons to be learned. In fact, the latter part of the 20th century was one of great progress for diversity in higher education, generally speaking, and for African Americans in…

Association of Protein Distribution and Gene Expression Revealed by PET and Post-Mortem Quantification in the Serotonergic System of the Human Brain

PubMed Central

Komorowski, A.; James, G. M.; Philippe, C.; Gryglewski, G.; Bauer, A.; Hienert, M.; Spies, M.; Kautzky, A.; Vanicek, T.; Hahn, A.; Traub-Weidinger, T.; Winkler, D.; Wadsak, W.; Mitterhauser, M.; Hacker, M.; Kasper, S.; Lanzenberger, R.

2017-01-01

Abstract Regional differences in posttranscriptional mechanisms may influence in vivo protein densities. The association of positron emission tomography (PET) imaging data from 112 healthy controls and gene expression values from the Allen Human Brain Atlas, based on post-mortem brains, was investigated for key serotonergic proteins. PET binding values and gene expression intensities were correlated for the main inhibitory (5-HT1A) and excitatory (5-HT2A) serotonin receptor, the serotonin transporter (SERT) as well as monoamine oxidase-A (MAO-A), using Spearman's correlation coefficients (rs) in a voxel-wise and region-wise analysis. Correlations indicated a strong linear relationship between gene and protein expression for both the 5-HT1A (voxel-wise rs = 0.71; region-wise rs = 0.93) and the 5-HT2A receptor (rs = 0.66; 0.75), but only a weak association for MAO-A (rs = 0.26; 0.66) and no clear correlation for SERT (rs = 0.17; 0.29). Additionally, region-wise correlations were performed using mRNA expression from the HBT, yielding comparable results (5-HT1Ars = 0.82; 5-HT2Ars = 0.88; MAO-A rs = 0.50; SERT rs = −0.01). The SERT and MAO-A appear to be regulated in a region-specific manner across the whole brain. In contrast, the serotonin-1A and -2A receptors are presumably targeted by common posttranscriptional processes similar in all brain areas suggesting the applicability of mRNA expression as surrogate parameter for density of these proteins. PMID:27909009

Integrated Mueller-matrix near-infrared imaging and point-wise spectroscopy improves colonic cancer detection

PubMed Central

Wang, Jianfeng; Zheng, Wei; Lin, Kan; Huang, Zhiwei

2016-01-01

We report the development and implementation of a unique integrated Mueller-matrix (MM) near-infrared (NIR) imaging and Mueller-matrix point-wise diffuse reflectance (DR) spectroscopy technique for improving colonic cancer detection and diagnosis. Point-wise MM DR spectra can be acquired from any suspicious tissue areas indicated by MM imaging. A total of 30 paired colonic tissue specimens (normal vs. cancer) were measured using the integrated MM imaging and point-wise MM DR spectroscopy system. Polar decomposition algorithms are employed on the acquired images and spectra to derive three polarization metrics including depolarization, diattentuation and retardance for colonic tissue characterization. The decomposition results show that tissue depolarization and retardance are significantly decreased (p<0.001, paired 2-sided Student’s t-test, n = 30); while the tissue diattentuation is significantly increased (p<0.001, paired 2-sided Student’s t-test, n = 30) associated with colonic cancer. Further partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) and leave-one tissue site-out, cross validation (LOSCV) show that the combination of the three polarization metrics provide the best diagnostic accuracy of 95.0% (sensitivity: 93.3%, and specificity: 96.7%) compared to either of the three polarization metrics (sensitivities of 93.3%, 83.3%, and 80.0%; and specificities of 90.0%, 96.7%, and 80.0%, respectively, for the depolarization, diattentuation and retardance metrics) for colonic cancer detection. This work suggests that the integrated MM NIR imaging and point-wise MM NIR diffuse reflectance spectroscopy has the potential to improve the early detection and diagnosis of malignant lesions in the colon. PMID:27446640

GHASP: an H α kinematical survey of spiral galaxies - XI. Distribution of luminous and dark matter in spiral and irregular nearby galaxies using WISE photometry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Korsaga, M.; Carignan, C.; Amram, P.; Epinat, B.; Jarrett, T. H.

2018-07-01

We present the mass distribution of a sample of 121 nearby galaxies with high-quality optical velocity fields and available infrared Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer(WISE) 3.4 μm data. Contrary to previous studies, this sample covers all morphological types and is not biased towards late-type galaxies. These galaxies are part of the Fabry-Perot kinematical Gassendi HAlpha survey of SPirals survey of spirals and irregular nearby galaxies. Combining the kinematical data to the WISE surface brightness data probing the emission from the old stellar population, we derive mass models allowing us to compare the luminous to the dark matter (DM) halo mass distribution in the optical regions of those galaxies. DM models are constructed using the isothermal core profile and the Navarro-Frenk-White cuspy profile. We allow the mass-to-light ratio (M/L) of the baryonic disc to vary or we keep it fixed, constrained by stellar evolutionary models (WISE W1-W2 colour) and we carry out best fit (BFM) and pseudo-isothermal maximum disc (MDM) models. We found that the MDM provides M/L values four times higher than the BFM, suggesting that disc components, on average, tend to be maximal. The main results are: (i) the rotation curves of most galaxies are better fitted with core rather than cuspy profiles; and (ii) the relation between the parameters of the DM and of the luminous matter components mostly depends on morphological types. More precisely, the distribution of the DM inside galaxies depends on whether or not the galaxy has a bulge.

Drop-wise and film-wise water condensation processes occurring on metallic micro-scaled surfaces

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Starostin, Anton; Valtsifer, Viktor; Barkay, Zahava; Legchenkova, Irina; Danchuk, Viktor; Bormashenko, Edward

2018-06-01

Water condensation was studied on silanized (superhydrophobic) and fluorinated (superoleophobic) micro-rough aluminum surfaces of the same topography. Condensation on superhydrophobic surfaces occurred via film-wise mechanism, whereas on superoleophobic surfaces it was drop-wise. The difference in the pathways of condensation was attributed to the various energy barriers separating the Cassie and Wenzel wetting states on the investigated surfaces. The higher barriers inherent for superoleophobic surfaces promoted the drop-wise condensation. Triple-stage kinetics of growth of droplets condensed on superoleophobic surfaces is reported and discussed.

Changes in serum interleukin-6, C-reactive protein and thrombomodulin levels under periodontal ultrasonic debridement.

PubMed

Ushida, Yuka; Koshy, Geena; Kawashima, Yoko; Kiji, Makoto; Umeda, Makoto; Nitta, Hiroshi; Nagasawa, Toshiyuki; Ishikawa, Isao; Izumi, Yuichi

2008-11-01

This study aimed to compare the effect of single-visit full-mouth mechanical debridement (FMD) and quadrant-wise mechanical debridement (QMD) on the levels of serum interleukin (IL)-6, C-reactive protein (CRP) and soluble thrombomodulin. Thirty-six subjects with chronic periodontitis were randomly allocated to three groups: undergoing QMD, single-visit FMD with povidone iodine or with water. Serum IL-6 and soluble thrombomodulin were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and serum CRP was measured by the latex-enhanced nephelometric method. Serum IL-6 level increased significantly immediately after debridement in all the three groups, with this increase being greatest in the full-mouth groups. However, the increase in the full-mouth groups was not significantly higher than that of quadrant-wise group. In the quadrant-wise group, serum IL-6 level decreased significantly 1 month after debridement compared with baseline. Serum-soluble thrombomodulin decreased significantly in the full-mouth groups but not in the quadrant-wise group. Changes in CRP level were not significant at baseline or after debridement in all the three groups. FMD increased serum IL-6 and reduced serum-soluble thrombomodulin to a greater extent than QMD, suggesting that the former technique has stronger transient effects on systemic vascular endothelial functions than the latter.

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

Masiero, Joseph R.; Mainzer, A. K.; Bauer, J. M.

We present preliminary diameters and albedos for 13511 Main Belt asteroids (MBAs) that were observed during the 3-Band Cryo phase of the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE; after the outer cryogen tank was exhausted) and as part of the NEOWISE Post-Cryo Survey (after the inner cryogen tank was exhausted). With a reduced or complete loss of sensitivity in the two long wavelength channels of WISE, the uncertainty in our fitted diameters and albedos is increased to {approx}20% for diameter and {approx}40% for albedo. Diameter fits using only the 3.4 and 4.6 {mu}m channels are shown to be dependent on themore » literature optical H absolute magnitudes. These data allow us to increase the number of size estimates for large MBAs which have been identified as members of dynamical families. We present thermal fits for 14 asteroids previously identified as the parents of a dynamical family that were not observed during the fully cryogenic mission.« less

Analysis of laser printer and photocopier toners by spectral properties and chemometrics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Verma, Neha; Kumar, Raj; Sharma, Vishal

2018-05-01

The use of printers to generate falsified documents has become a common practice in today's world. The examination and identification of the printed matter in the suspected documents (civil or criminal cases) may provide important information about the authenticity of the document. In the present study, a total number of 100 black toner samples both from laser printers and photocopiers were examined using diffuse reflectance UV-Vis Spectroscopy. The present research is divided into two parts; visual discrimination and discrimination by using multivariate analysis. A comparison between qualitative and quantitative analysis showed that multivariate analysis (Principal component analysis) provides 99.59%pair-wise discriminating power for laser printer toners while 99.84% pair-wise discriminating power for photocopier toners. The overall results obtained confirm the applicability of UV-Vis spectroscopy and chemometrics, in the nondestructive analysis of toner printed documents while enhancing their evidential value for forensic applications.

Radio-loud AGN through the eyes of 3XMM, WISE and FIRST/NVSS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mingo, B.

2014-07-01

We present the results from a new radio-loud AGN sample, obtained through the cross-correlation between the 3XMM, WISE and FIRST/NVSS catalogues. The radio selection allows us to eliminate the restrictions traditionally associated with mid-IR and X-ray sample selections, and to explore the population of lower luminosity AGN, in which the host galaxy contribution is substantial. We investigate the correlations between radio, mid-IR and X-ray emission associated to both stellar and AGN activity, and whether they can be disentangled. This work has been carried out as part of the ARCHES project. ARCHES (Astronomical Resource Cross-matching for High Energy Studies), funded within the EU/FP7-Cooperation Space framework, is a project which aims to produce well-characterised multi-wavelength data for large samples of sources drawn from the 3XMM serendipitous source catalogue.

Asteroid and Comet Census from WISE

NASA Image and Video Library

2010-10-04

This frame from a video demonstrates how NASA Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer surveys asteroids and comets in the solar system. Perspective shown here is looking down from high above Earth North Pole, a kind of bird eye view of the solar system.

Equivalent model construction for a non-linear dynamic system based on an element-wise stiffness evaluation procedure and reduced analysis of the equivalent system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, Euiyoung; Cho, Maenghyo

2017-11-01

In most non-linear analyses, the construction of a system matrix uses a large amount of computation time, comparable to the computation time required by the solving process. If the process for computing non-linear internal force matrices is substituted with an effective equivalent model that enables the bypass of numerical integrations and assembly processes used in matrix construction, efficiency can be greatly enhanced. A stiffness evaluation procedure (STEP) establishes non-linear internal force models using polynomial formulations of displacements. To efficiently identify an equivalent model, the method has evolved such that it is based on a reduced-order system. The reduction process, however, makes the equivalent model difficult to parameterize, which significantly affects the efficiency of the optimization process. In this paper, therefore, a new STEP, E-STEP, is proposed. Based on the element-wise nature of the finite element model, the stiffness evaluation is carried out element-by-element in the full domain. Since the unit of computation for the stiffness evaluation is restricted by element size, and since the computation is independent, the equivalent model can be constructed efficiently in parallel, even in the full domain. Due to the element-wise nature of the construction procedure, the equivalent E-STEP model is easily characterized by design parameters. Various reduced-order modeling techniques can be applied to the equivalent system in a manner similar to how they are applied in the original system. The reduced-order model based on E-STEP is successfully demonstrated for the dynamic analyses of non-linear structural finite element systems under varying design parameters.

Wise promotes coalescence of cells of neural crest and placode origins in the trigeminal region during head development.

PubMed

Shigetani, Yasuyo; Howard, Sara; Guidato, Sonia; Furushima, Kenryo; Abe, Takaya; Itasaki, Nobue

2008-07-15

While most cranial ganglia contain neurons of either neural crest or placodal origin, neurons of the trigeminal ganglion derive from both populations. The Wnt signaling pathway is known to be required for the development of neural crest cells and for trigeminal ganglion formation, however, migrating neural crest cells do not express any known Wnt ligands. Here we demonstrate that Wise, a Wnt modulator expressed in the surface ectoderm overlying the trigeminal ganglion, play a role in promoting the assembly of placodal and neural crest cells. When overexpressed in chick, Wise causes delamination of ectodermal cells and attracts migrating neural crest cells. Overexpression of Wise is thus sufficient to ectopically induce ganglion-like structures consisting of both origins. The function of Wise is likely synergized with Wnt6, expressed in an overlapping manner with Wise in the surface ectoderm. Electroporation of morpholino antisense oligonucleotides against Wise and Wnt6 causes decrease in the contact of neural crest cells with the delaminated placode-derived cells. In addition, targeted deletion of Wise in mouse causes phenotypes that can be explained by a decrease in the contribution of neural crest cells to the ophthalmic lobe of the trigeminal ganglion. These data suggest that Wise is able to function cell non-autonomously on neural crest cells and promote trigeminal ganglion formation.

Explanatory Supplement to the WISE All-Sky Release Products

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2012-01-01

The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE; Wright et al. 2010) surveyed the entire sky at 3.4, 4.6, 12 and 22 microns in 2010, achieving 5-sigma point source sensitivities per band better than 0.08, 0.11, 1 and 6 mJy in unconfused regions on the ecliptic. The WISE All-Sky Data Release, conducted on March 14, 2012, incorporates all data taken during the full cryogenic mission phase, 7 January 2010 to 6 August 20l0,that were processed with improved calibrations and reduction algorithms. Release data products include: (1) an Atlas of 18,240 match-filtered, calibrated and coadded image sets; (2) a Source Catalog containing positions and four-band photometry for over 563 million objects, and (3) an Explanatory Supplement. Ancillary products include a Reject Table that contains 284 million detections that were not selected for the Source Catalog because they are low signal-to-noise ratio or spurious detections of image artifacts, an archive of over 1.5 million sets of calibrated WISE Single-exposure images, and a database of 9.4 billion source extractions from those single images, and moving object tracklets identified by the NEOWISE program (Mainzer et aI. 2011). The WISE All-Sky Data Release products supersede those from the WISE Preliminary Data Release (Cutri et al. 2011). The Explanatory Supplement to the WISE All-Sky Data Release Products is a general guide for users of the WISE data. The Supplement contains an overview of the WISE mission, facilities, and operations, a detailed description of WISE data processing algorithms, a guide to the content and formals of the image and tabular data products, and cautionary notes that describe known limitations of the All-Sky Release products. Instructions for accessing the WISE data products via the services of the NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive are provided. The Supplement also provides analyses of the achieved sky coverage, photometric and astrometric characteristics and completeness and reliability of the All-Sky Release data products. The WISE All-Sky Release Explanatory Supplement is an on-line document that is updated frequently to provide the most current information for users of the WISE data products. The Explanatory Supplement is maintained at: http://wise2.ipac.caltech.edu/docs/release/allsky/expsup/index.html WISE is a joint project of the University of California, Los Angeles and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology, funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NEOWISE is a project of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology, funded by the Planetary Science Division of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Teachers and Technology Use in Secondary Science Classrooms: Investigating the Experiences of Middle School Science Teachers Implementing the Web-based Inquiry Science Environment (WISE)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schulz, Rachel Corinne

This study investigated the intended teacher use of a technology-enhanced learning tool, Web-based Inquiry Science Environment (WISE), and the first experiences of teachers new to using it and untrained in its use. The purpose of the study was to learn more about the factors embedded into the design of the technology that enabled it or hindered it from being used as intended. The qualitative research design applied grounded theory methods. Using theoretical sampling and a constant comparative analysis, a document review of WISE website led to a model of intended teacher use. The experiences of four middle school science teachers as they enacted WISE for the first time were investigated through ethnographic field observations, surveys and interviews using thematic analysis to construct narratives of each teachers use. These narratives were compared to the model of intended teacher use of WISE. This study found two levels of intended teacher uses for WISE. A basic intended use involved having student running the project to completion while the teacher provides feedback and assesses student learning. A more optimal description of intended use involved the supplementing the core curriculum with WISE as well as enhancing the core scope and sequence of instruction and aligning assessment with the goals of instruction through WISE. Moreover, WISE projects were optimally intended to be facilitated through student-centered teaching practices and inquiry-based instruction in a collaborative learning environment. It is also optimally intended for these projects to be shared with other colleagues for feedback and iterative development towards improving the Knowledge Integration of students. Of the four teachers who participated in this study, only one demonstrated the use of WISE as intended in the most basic way. This teacher also demonstrated the use of WISE in a number of optimal ways. Teacher confusion with certain tools available within WISE suggests that there may be a way to develop the user experience through these touch points and help teachers learn how to use the technology as they are selecting and setting up a project run. Further research may study whether improving these touch points can improve the teachers' use of WISE as intended both basically and optimally. It may also study whether or not teacher in basic and optimal ways directly impact student learning results.

WISE Choices? Understanding Occupational Decision-Making in a Climate of Equal Opportunities for Women in Science and Technology.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Henwood, Flis

1996-01-01

Examines Women into Science and Engineering (WISE) discourse and explains why WISE has had limited success. It argues the WISE discourse limits the space women have to speak of the conflicts and contradictions they experience, and suggests the need for a greater understanding of how subjective experiences of gender and sexuality impinge upon work…

The Windy Island Soliton Experiment (WISE): Shallow Water and Basin Experiment Configuration and Preliminary Observations

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-02-19

Virginia 22203-1995 The Windy Island Soliton Experiment (WISE): Shallow Water and Basin Experiment Configuration and Preliminary Observations...case letters) The Windy Island Soliton Experiment (WISE): Shallow water and Basin Experiment Configuration and Preliminary Observations 5. FUNDING...release; distribution is unlimited 12b. DISTRIBUTION CODE 13. ABSTRACT (maximum 200 words) The Windy Islands Soliton Experiment (WISE) was

Background for Community-Level Work on School Readiness: A Review of Definitions, Assessments, and Investment Strategies. Final Report to the Knight Foundation.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zaslow, Martha; Calkins, Julia; Halle, Tamara; Zaff, Jonathan; Margie, Nancy Geyelin

Noting that many communities in the United States have set the ambitious goal of enhancing school readiness, this report is intended to help communities invest wisely in school readiness initiatives. Part 1 of the report summarizes recommendations from the National Education Goals Panel (NEGP) for defining and assessing school readiness. The core…

SunWise: A Program that Radiates Good Ideas. Policy Information

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

US Environmental Protection Agency, 2010

2010-01-01

The school day makes up a major part of a child's everyday life. The time children spend outside of the classroom, including recess, lunch, physical education classes, field trips, and after-school activities, can result in a significant amount of sun exposure, especially if it occurs during the hours of peak sun intensity from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.…

Update on the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mainzer, Amanda K.; Eisenhardt, Peter; Wright, Edward L.; Liu, Feng-Chuan; Irace, William; Heinrichsen, Ingolf; Cutri, Roc; Duval, Valerie

2006-01-01

The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), a NASA MIDEX mission, will survey the entire sky in four bands from 3.3 to 23 microns with a sensitivity 1000 times greater than the IRAS survey. The WISE survey will extend the Two Micron All Sky Survey into the thermal infrared and will provide an important catalog for the James Webb Space Telescope. Using 1024(sup 2) HgCdTe and Si:As arrays at 3.3, 4.7, 12 and 23 microns, WISE will find the most luminous galaxies in the universe, the closest stars to the Sun, and it will detect most of the main belt asteroids larger than 3 km. The single WISE instrument consists of a 40 cm diamond-turned aluminum afocal telescope, a two-stage solid hydrogen cryostat, a scan mirror mechanism, and reimaging optics giving 5 resolution (full-width-half-maximum). The use of dichroics and beamsplitters allows four color images of a 47' x47' field of view to be taken every 8.8 seconds, synchronized with the orbital motion to provide total sky coverage with overlap between revolutions. WISE will be placed into a Sun-synchronous polar orbit on a Delta 7320-10 launch vehicle. The WISE survey approach is simple and efficient. The three-axis-stabilized spacecraft rotates at a constant rate while the scan mirror freezes the telescope line of sight during each exposure. WISE has completed its mission Preliminary Design Review and its NASA Confirmation Review, and the project is awaiting confirmation from NASA to proceed to the Critical Design phase. Much of the payload hardware is now complete, and assembly of the payload will occur over the next year. WISE is scheduled to launch in late 2009; the project web site can be found at www.wise.ssl.berkeley.edu.

Consistency-based rectification of nonrigid registrations

PubMed Central

Gass, Tobias; Székely, Gábor; Goksel, Orcun

2015-01-01

Abstract. We present a technique to rectify nonrigid registrations by improving their group-wise consistency, which is a widely used unsupervised measure to assess pair-wise registration quality. While pair-wise registration methods cannot guarantee any group-wise consistency, group-wise approaches typically enforce perfect consistency by registering all images to a common reference. However, errors in individual registrations to the reference then propagate, distorting the mean and accumulating in the pair-wise registrations inferred via the reference. Furthermore, the assumption that perfect correspondences exist is not always true, e.g., for interpatient registration. The proposed consistency-based registration rectification (CBRR) method addresses these issues by minimizing the group-wise inconsistency of all pair-wise registrations using a regularized least-squares algorithm. The regularization controls the adherence to the original registration, which is additionally weighted by the local postregistration similarity. This allows CBRR to adaptively improve consistency while locally preserving accurate pair-wise registrations. We show that the resulting registrations are not only more consistent, but also have lower average transformation error when compared to known transformations in simulated data. On clinical data, we show improvements of up to 50% target registration error in breathing motion estimation from four-dimensional MRI and improvements in atlas-based segmentation quality of up to 65% in terms of mean surface distance in three-dimensional (3-D) CT. Such improvement was observed consistently using different registration algorithms, dimensionality (two-dimensional/3-D), and modalities (MRI/CT). PMID:26158083

The WISE Satellite Development: Managing the Risks and the Opportunities

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Duval, Valerie G.; Elwell, John D.; Howard, Joan F.; Irace, William R.; Liu, Feng-Chuan

2010-01-01

NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) MIDEX mission is surveying the entire sky in four infrared bands from 3.4 to 22 micrometers. The WISE instrument consists of a 40 cm telescope, a solid hydrogen cryostat, a scan mirror mechanism, and four 1K x1K infrared detectors. The WISE spacecraft bus provides communication, data handling, and avionics including instrument pointing. A Delta 7920 successfully launched WISE into a Sun-synchronous polar orbit on December 14, 2009. WISE was competitively selected by NASA as a Medium cost Explorer mission (MIDEX) in 2002. MIDEX missions are led by the Principal Investigator who delegates day-to-day management to the Project Manager. Given the tight cost cap and relatively short development schedule, NASA chose to extend the development period one year with an option to cancel the mission if certain criteria were not met. To meet this and other challenges, the WISE management team had to learn to work seamlessly across institutional lines and to recognize risks and opportunities in order to develop the flight hardware within the project resources. In spite of significant technical issues, the WISE satellite was delivered on budget and on schedule. This paper describes our management approach and risk posture, technical issues, and critical decisions made.

Wise Regulates Bone Deposition through Genetic Interactions with Lrp5

PubMed Central

Ellies, Debra L.; Economou, Androulla; Viviano, Beth; Rey, Jean-Philippe; Paine-Saunders, Stephenie; Krumlauf, Robb; Saunders, Scott

2014-01-01

In this study using genetic approaches in mouse we demonstrate that the secreted protein Wise plays essential roles in regulating early bone formation through its ability to modulate Wnt signaling via interactions with the Lrp5 co-receptor. In Wise−/− mutant mice we find an increase in the rate of osteoblast proliferation and a transient increase in bone mineral density. This change in proliferation is dependent upon Lrp5, as Wise;Lrp5 double mutants have normal bone mass. This suggests that Wise serves as a negative modulator of Wnt signaling in active osteoblasts. Wise and the closely related protein Sclerostin (Sost) are expressed in osteoblast cells during temporally distinct early and late phases in a manner consistent with the temporal onset of their respective increased bone density phenotypes. These data suggest that Wise and Sost may have common roles in regulating bone development through their ability to control the balance of Wnt signaling. We find that Wise is also required to potentiate proliferation in chondrocytes, serving as a potential positive modulator of Wnt activity. Our analyses demonstrate that Wise plays a key role in processes that control the number of osteoblasts and chondrocytes during bone homeostasis and provide important insight into mechanisms regulating the Wnt pathway during skeletal development. PMID:24789067

Inhibition of Wnt signaling by Wise (Sostdc1) and negative feedback from Shh controls tooth number and patterning.

PubMed

Ahn, Youngwook; Sanderson, Brian W; Klein, Ophir D; Krumlauf, Robb

2010-10-01

Mice carrying mutations in Wise (Sostdc1) display defects in many aspects of tooth development, including tooth number, size and cusp pattern. To understand the basis of these defects, we have investigated the pathways modulated by Wise in tooth development. We present evidence that, in tooth development, Wise suppresses survival of the diastema or incisor vestigial buds by serving as an inhibitor of Lrp5- and Lrp6-dependent Wnt signaling. Reducing the dosage of the Wnt co-receptor genes Lrp5 and Lrp6 rescues the Wise-null tooth phenotypes. Inactivation of Wise leads to elevated Wnt signaling and, as a consequence, vestigial tooth buds in the normally toothless diastema region display increased proliferation and continuous development to form supernumerary teeth. Conversely, gain-of-function studies show that ectopic Wise reduces Wnt signaling and tooth number. Our analyses demonstrate that the Fgf and Shh pathways are major downstream targets of Wise-regulated Wnt signaling. Furthermore, our experiments revealed that Shh acts as a negative-feedback regulator of Wnt signaling and thus determines the fate of the vestigial buds and later tooth patterning. These data provide insight into the mechanisms that control Wnt signaling in tooth development and into how crosstalk among signaling pathways controls tooth number and morphogenesis.

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

Patel, Rahul I.; Metchev, Stanimir A.; Trollo, Joseph

In an earlier study, we reported nearly 100 previously unknown dusty debris disks around Hipparcos main-sequence stars within 75 pc by selecting stars with excesses in individual WISE colors. Here, we further scrutinize the Hipparcos  75 pc sample to (1) gain sensitivity to previously undetected, fainter mid-IR excesses and (2) remove spurious excesses contaminated by previously unidentified blended sources. We improve on our previous method by adopting a more accurate measure of the confidence threshold for excess detection and by adding an optimally weighted color average that incorporates all shorter-wavelength WISE photometry, rather than using only individual WISE colors. Themore » latter is equivalent to spectral energy distribution fitting, but only over WISE bandpasses. In addition, we leverage the higher-resolution WISE images available through the unWISE.me image service to identify contaminated WISE excesses based on photocenter offsets among the W 3- and W 4-band images. Altogether, we identify 19 previously unreported candidate debris disks. Combined with the results from our earlier study, we have found a total of 107 new debris disks around 75 pc Hipparcos main-sequence stars using precisely calibrated WISE photometry. This expands the 75 pc debris disk sample by 22% around Hipparcos main-sequence stars and by 20% overall (including non-main-sequence and non- Hipparcos stars).« less

THE MOST LUMINOUS GALAXIES DISCOVERED BY WISE

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

Tsai, Chao-Wei; Eisenhardt, Peter R. M.; Stern, Daniel

2015-06-01

We present 20 Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE)-selected galaxies with bolometric luminosities L{sub bol} > 10{sup 14} L{sub ☉}, including five with infrared luminosities L{sub IR} ≡ L{sub (rest} {sub 8–1000} {sub μm)} > 10{sup 14} L{sub ☉}. These “extremely luminous infrared galaxies,” or ELIRGs, were discovered using the “W1W2-dropout” selection criteria which requires marginal or non-detections at 3.4 and 4.6 μm (W1 and W2, respectively) but strong detections at 12 and 22 μm in the WISE survey. Their spectral energy distributions are dominated by emission at rest-frame 4–10 μm, suggesting that hot dust with T{sub d} ∼ 450 Kmore » is responsible for the high luminosities. These galaxies are likely powered by highly obscured active galactic nuclei (AGNs), and there is no evidence suggesting these systems are beamed or lensed. We compare this WISE-selected sample with 116 optically selected quasars that reach the same L{sub bol} level, corresponding to the most luminous unobscured quasars in the literature. We find that the rest-frame 5.8 and 7.8 μm luminosities of the WISE-selected ELIRGs can be 30%–80% higher than that of the unobscured quasars. The existence of AGNs with L{sub bol} > 10{sup 14} L{sub ☉} at z > 3 suggests that these supermassive black holes are born with large mass, or have very rapid mass assembly. For black hole seed masses ∼10{sup 3} M{sub ☉}, either sustained super-Eddington accretion is needed, or the radiative efficiency must be <15%, implying a black hole with slow spin, possibly due to chaotic accretion.« less

The WISE AGN Catalog

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Assef, R. J.; Stern, D.; Noirot, G.; Jun, H. D.; Cutri, R. M.; Eisenhardt, P. R. M.

2018-02-01

We present two large catalogs of active galactic nucleus (AGN) candidates identified across 30,093 deg2 of extragalactic sky from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer’s AllWISE Data Release. Both catalogs are selected purely using the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) W1 and W2 bands. The R90 catalog consists of 4,543,530 AGN candidates with 90% reliability, while the C75 catalog consists of 20,907,127 AGN candidates with 75% completeness. These reliability and completeness figures were determined from a detailed analysis of UV- to near-IR spectral energy distributions of ∼ {10}5 sources in the 9 deg2 Boötes field. The AGN selection criteria are based on those of Assef et al. (2013) recalibrated to the AllWISE data release. We provide a detailed discussion of potential artifacts and excise portions of the sky close to the Galactic Center, Galactic Plane, nearby galaxies, and other expected contaminating sources. These catalogs are expected to enable a broad range of science, and we present a few illustrative cases. From the R90 sample, we identify 45 highly variable AGNs lacking radio counterparts in the FIRST survey. One of these sources, WISEA J142846.71+172353.1, is a changing-look quasar at z = 0.104, which has changed from having broad Hα to being a narrow-lined AGN. We characterize our catalogs by comparing them to large, wide-area AGN catalogs in the literature. We identify four ROSAT X-ray sources that are each matched to three WISE-selected AGNs in the R90 sample within 30″. Spectroscopy reveals that one of these systems, 2RXS J150158.6+691029, consists of a triplet of quasars at z = 1.133 ± 0.004, suggestive of a rich group or forming galaxy cluster.

Educational Materials - Burn Wise

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Burn Wise outreach material. Burn Wise is a partnership program of that emphasizes the importance of burning the right wood, the right way, in the right wood-burning appliance to protect your home, health, and the air we breathe.

Apply for 2018 WasteWise Awards

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Partner and endorser awards are based on data reported in the SMM Data Management System and a narrative description of activities. Partners will be evaluated using a weighted average of evaluation criteria.

Sustainable Materials Management (SMM) Food Recovery Challenge (FRC) Data

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

As part of EPA's Food Recovery Challenge (FRC), organizations pledge to improve their sustainable food management practices and report their results. The FRC is part of EPA's Sustainable Materials Management Program (SMM). SMM seeks to reduce the environmental impact of materials through their entire life cycle. This includes how they are extracted, manufactured, distributed, used, reused, recycled, and disposed. Organizations are encouraged to follow the Food Recovery Hierarchy (https://www.epa.gov/sustainable-management-food/food-recovery-hierarchy) to prioritize their actions to prevent and divert wasted food. Each tier of the Food Recovery Hierarchy focuses on different management strategies for your wasted food. The program started in 2011 and the first data were made available in 2012. The FRC is part of EPA's larger SMM program (https://www.epa.gov/smm). Sustainable Materials Management (SMM) is a systemic approach to using and reusing materials more productively over their entire lifecycles. It represents a change in how our society thinks about the use of natural resources and environmental protection. By looking at a product's entire lifecycle we can find new opportunities to reduce environmental impacts, conserve resources, and reduce costs. There are multiple challenge programs available as part of the SMM program, including the Food Recovery Challenge, the Electronics Challenge, the Federal Green Challenge, and the WasteWise program.

IMRT verification using a radiochromic/optical-CT dosimetry system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Oldham, Mark; Guo, Pengyi; Gluckman, Gary; Adamovics, John

2006-12-01

This work represents our first experiences relating to IMRT verification using a relatively new 3D dosimetry system consisting of a PRESAGETM dosimeter (Heuris Inc, Pharma LLC) and an optical-CT scanning system (OCTOPUSTM TM MGS Inc). This work builds in a step-wise manner on prior work in our lab.

Burn Wise Educational Materials for Businesses

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Burn Wise outreach material. Burn Wise is a partnership program of that emphasizes the importance of burning the right wood, the right way, in the right wood-burning appliance to protect your home, health, and the air we breathe.

Characterizing the evolution of WISE-selected obscured and unobscured quasars using HOD models.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Myers, Adam D.; DiPompeo, Michael A.; Mitra, Kaustav; Hickox, Ryan C.; Chatterjee, Suchetana; Whalen, Kelly

2018-06-01

Large-area imaging surveys in the infrared are now beginning to unlock the links between the activity of supermassive black holes and the cosmic evolution of dark matter halos during the significant times when black hole growth is enshrouded in dust. With data from the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) and complementary optical photometry, we construct samples of nearly half-a-million obscured and unobscured quasars around redshift 1. We study the dark matter halos of these populations using both angular autocorrelation functions and CMB lensing cross-correlations, carefully characterizing the redshift distribution of the obscured quasar sample using cross-correlations. Independent of our measurement technique, we find that obscured quasars occupy dark matter halos a few times more massive than their unobscured counterparts, despite being matched in luminosity at 12 and 22 microns. Modeling the two-point correlation function using a four-parameter Halo Occupation Distribution (HOD) formalism, we determine that purely optically selected quasars reside in dark matter halos that are about half the mass of WISE-selected obscured quasars, and that satellite fractions are somewhat larger for obscured quasars. We investigate scenarios such as merger-driven fueling and Eddington-dependent obscuration to explore what combinations of physical effects can reproduce our observed halo mass measurements. This work was, in part, supported by NASA ADAP award NNX16AN48G.

An Integrated Modeling and Simulation Methodology for Intelligent Systems Design and Testing

DTIC Science & Technology

2002-08-01

simulation and actual execution. KEYWORDS: Model Continuity, Modeling, Simulation, Experimental Frame, Real Time Systems , Intelligent Systems...the methodology for a stand-alone real time system. Then it will scale up to distributed real time systems . For both systems, step-wise simulation...MODEL CONTINUITY Intelligent real time systems monitor, respond to, or control, an external environment. This environment is connected to the digital

Searching for Variables in one of the WHAT Fields

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shporer, A.; Mazeh, T.; Moran, A.; Bakos, G.; Kovacs, G.

2007-07-01

We present preliminary results on a single field observed by WHAT, a small-aperture short focal length automated telescope with an 8.2° × 8.2° deg field of view, located at the Wise Observatory. The system is similar to the members of HATNet (http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/~gbakos/HAT/) and is aimed at searching for transiting extrasolar planets and variable objects. With 5 min integration time, the telescope achieved a precision of a few mmag for the brightest objects. We detect variables with amplitudes less than 0.01 mag. All 152 periodic variables are presented at http://wise-obs.tau.ac.il/~amit/236/.

Structure based alignment and clustering of proteins (STRALCP)

DOEpatents

Zemla, Adam T.; Zhou, Carol E.; Smith, Jason R.; Lam, Marisa W.

2013-06-18

Disclosed are computational methods of clustering a set of protein structures based on local and pair-wise global similarity values. Pair-wise local and global similarity values are generated based on pair-wise structural alignments for each protein in the set of protein structures. Initially, the protein structures are clustered based on pair-wise local similarity values. The protein structures are then clustered based on pair-wise global similarity values. For each given cluster both a representative structure and spans of conserved residues are identified. The representative protein structure is used to assign newly-solved protein structures to a group. The spans are used to characterize conservation and assign a "structural footprint" to the cluster.

Retinal slit lamp video mosaicking.

PubMed

De Zanet, Sandro; Rudolph, Tobias; Richa, Rogerio; Tappeiner, Christoph; Sznitman, Raphael

2016-06-01

To this day, the slit lamp remains the first tool used by an ophthalmologist to examine patient eyes. Imaging of the retina poses, however, a variety of problems, namely a shallow depth of focus, reflections from the optical system, a small field of view and non-uniform illumination. For ophthalmologists, the use of slit lamp images for documentation and analysis purposes, however, remains extremely challenging due to large image artifacts. For this reason, we propose an automatic retinal slit lamp video mosaicking, which enlarges the field of view and reduces amount of noise and reflections, thus enhancing image quality. Our method is composed of three parts: (i) viable content segmentation, (ii) global registration and (iii) image blending. Frame content is segmented using gradient boosting with custom pixel-wise features. Speeded-up robust features are used for finding pair-wise translations between frames with robust random sample consensus estimation and graph-based simultaneous localization and mapping for global bundle adjustment. Foreground-aware blending based on feathering merges video frames into comprehensive mosaics. Foreground is segmented successfully with an area under the curve of the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.9557. Mosaicking results and state-of-the-art methods were compared and rated by ophthalmologists showing a strong preference for a large field of view provided by our method. The proposed method for global registration of retinal slit lamp images of the retina into comprehensive mosaics improves over state-of-the-art methods and is preferred qualitatively.

The Myth about CIOs "If We Could just Find a Good CIO, These Problems Would Go Away"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hawkins, Brian L .; Oblinger, Diana G.

2005-01-01

Have you ever heard, "If we could just find a good CIO, these problems would go away"? Certainly, having a strong and wise leader at the top of the IT organization is important; however, having such a person is not sufficient to effectively integrate IT into a key part of the institutional strategy. In a number of recent EDUCAUSE Review articles,…

Institutionalizing Sex Education in Diverse U.S. School Districts.

PubMed

Saul Butler, Rebekah; Sorace, Danene; Hentz Beach, Kathleen

2018-02-01

This paper describes the Working to Institutionalize Sex Education (WISE) Initiative, a privately funded effort to support ready public school districts to advance and sustain comprehensive sexuality programs, and examines the degree to which WISE has been successful in increasing access to sex education, removing barriers, and highlighting best practices. The data for this study come from a set of performance indicators, guidance documents, and tools designed for the WISE Initiative to capture changes in sex education institutionalization at WISE school districts. The evaluation includes the analysis of 186 school districts across 12 states in the U.S. As a result of the WISE Initiative, 788,865 unique students received new or enhanced sex education in school classrooms and 88 school districts reached their sex education institutionalization goals. In addition to these school district successes, WISE codified the WISE Method and toolkit-a practical guide to help schools implement sex education. Barriers to implementing sexuality education can be overcome with administrative support and focused technical assistance and training, resulting in significant student reach in diverse school districts nationwide. Copyright © 2017 The Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Challenging a dogma; AJCC 8th staging system is not sufficient to predict outcomes of patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma.

PubMed

Abdel-Rahman, Omar

2017-11-01

The 8th edition of malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) staging system has been published. The current analysis aims to evaluate its performance in a population-based setting among patients recorded within the surveillance, epidemiology and end results (SEER) database. SEER database (2004-2013) has been accessed through SEER*Stat program and AJCC 8th edition stage groups were reconstructed. Survival analyses (overall and cancer-specific) were conducted according to 6th and 8th editions through Kaplan-Meier analysis. Cox-regression multivariate model was also utilized for pair wise comparisons between different prognostic groups for overall and cancer-specific survival. A total of 5382 patients with MPM were identified in the period from 2004 to 2013. According to the 6th edition, significant pair wise P values for overall survival included: IA vs. III (P=0.027); IA vs. IV: P<0.0001; IB vs. IV: P<0.0001; II vs. III: P<0.0001; II vs. IV: P<0.0001; III vs. IV: P<0.0001). According to the 8th edition, significant pair wise P values for overall survival included: all stages vs. IV: P<0.0001; IA vs. II: P=0.046; IA vs. IIIA: P=0.022; IA vs. IIIB: P <0.0001; IB vs. II: P<0.0001; IB vs. IIIB: P<0.0001; II vs. IIIA: P<0.0001; IIIA vs. IIIB: P<0.0001). C-index for 6th edition was 0.539 (SE: 0.008; 95% CI: 0.524-0.555); while C-index for 8th edition was 0.540 (SE: 0.008; 95% CI: 0.525-0.556). Based on the above findings, a simplified staging system was proposed and overall and cancer-specific survivals were evaluated according to the simplified system. For overall and cancer-specific survival assessment, P values for all pair wise comparisons among different stages were significant (<0.01). The prognostic performance of both the 6th and 8th AJCC editions is unsatisfactory; there is a need for a more practical and prognostically relevant staging system for MPM. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Using Websites Wisely

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coiro, Julie; Fogleman, Jay

2011-01-01

Online resources can deepen student learning--if teachers design the right tasks and learner supports. In this article, the authors look at instructional websites teachers will want to use with their students. They focus on three types of web-based learning environments--(1) informational reading systems; (2) interactive learning systems; and (3)…

Rethinking Technology-Enhanced Physics Teacher Education: From Theory to Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Milner-Bolotin, Marina

2016-01-01

This article discusses how modern technology, such as electronic response systems, PeerWise system, data collection and analysis tools, computer simulations, and modeling software can be used in physics methods courses to promote teacher-candidates' professional competencies and their positive attitudes about mathematics and science education. We…

Lrp4 and Wise interplay controls the formation and patterning of mammary and other skin appendage placodes by modulating Wnt signaling.

PubMed

Ahn, Youngwook; Sims, Carrie; Logue, Jennifer M; Weatherbee, Scott D; Krumlauf, Robb

2013-02-01

The future site of skin appendage development is marked by a placode during embryogenesis. Although Wnt/β-catenin signaling is known to be essential for skin appendage development, it is unclear which cellular processes are controlled by the signaling and how the precise level of the signaling activity is achieved during placode formation. We have investigated roles for Lrp4 and its potential ligand Wise (Sostdc1) in mammary and other skin appendage placodes. Lrp4 mutant mice displayed a delay in placode initiation and changes in distribution and number of mammary precursor cells leading to abnormal morphology, number and position of mammary placodes. These Lrp4 mammary defects, as well as limb defects, were associated with elevated Wnt/β-catenin signaling and were rescued by reducing the dose of the Wnt co-receptor genes Lrp5 and Lrp6, or by inactivating the gene encoding β-catenin. Wise-null mice phenocopied a subset of the Lrp4 mammary defects and Wise overexpression reduced the number of mammary precursor cells. Genetic epistasis analyses suggest that Wise requires Lrp4 to exert its function and that, together, they have a role in limiting mammary fate, but Lrp4 has an early Wise-independent role in facilitating placode formation. Lrp4 and Wise mutants also share defects in vibrissa and hair follicle development, suggesting that the roles played by Lrp4 and Wise are common to skin appendages. Our study presents genetic evidence for interplay between Lrp4 and Wise in inhibiting Wnt/β-catenin signaling and provides an insight into how modulation of Wnt/β-catenin signaling controls cellular processes important for skin placode formation.

Quasar probabilities and redshifts from WISE mid-IR through GALEX UV photometry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

DiPompeo, M. A.; Bovy, J.; Myers, A. D.; Lang, D.

2015-09-01

Extreme deconvolution (XD) of broad-band photometric data can both separate stars from quasars and generate probability density functions for quasar redshifts, while incorporating flux uncertainties and missing data. Mid-infrared photometric colours are now widely used to identify hot dust intrinsic to quasars, and the release of all-sky WISE data has led to a dramatic increase in the number of IR-selected quasars. Using forced photometry on public WISE data at the locations of Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) point sources, we incorporate this all-sky data into the training of the XDQSOz models originally developed to select quasars from optical photometry. The combination of WISE and SDSS information is far more powerful than SDSS alone, particularly at z > 2. The use of SDSS+WISE photometry is comparable to the use of SDSS+ultraviolet+near-IR data. We release a new public catalogue of 5537 436 (total; 3874 639 weighted by probability) potential quasars with probability PQSO > 0.2. The catalogue includes redshift probabilities for all objects. We also release an updated version of the publicly available set of codes to calculate quasar and redshift probabilities for various combinations of data. Finally, we demonstrate that this method of selecting quasars using WISE data is both more complete and efficient than simple WISE colour-cuts, especially at high redshift. Our fits verify that above z ˜ 3 WISE colours become bluer than the standard cuts applied to select quasars. Currently, the analysis is limited to quasars with optical counterparts, and thus cannot be used to find highly obscured quasars that WISE colour-cuts identify in significant numbers.

Evaluation of a metal artifact reduction algorithm applied to post-interventional flat detector CT in comparison to pre-treatment CT in patients with acute subarachnoid haemorrhage.

PubMed

Mennecke, Angelika; Svergun, Stanislav; Scholz, Bernhard; Royalty, Kevin; Dörfler, Arnd; Struffert, Tobias

2017-01-01

Metal artefacts can impair accurate diagnosis of haemorrhage using flat detector CT (FD-CT), especially after aneurysm coiling. Within this work we evaluate a prototype metal artefact reduction algorithm by comparison of the artefact-reduced and the non-artefact-reduced FD-CT images to pre-treatment FD-CT and multi-slice CT images. Twenty-five patients with acute aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH) were selected retrospectively. FD-CT and multi-slice CT before endovascular treatment as well as FD-CT data sets after treatment were available for all patients. The algorithm was applied to post-treatment FD-CT. The effect of the algorithm was evaluated utilizing the pre-post concordance of a modified Fisher score, a subjective image quality assessment, the range of the Hounsfield units within three ROIs, and the pre-post slice-wise Pearson correlation. The pre-post concordance of the modified Fisher score, the subjective image quality, and the pre-post correlation of the ranges of the Hounsfield units were significantly higher for artefact-reduced than for non-artefact-reduced images. Within the metal-affected slices, the pre-post slice-wise Pearson correlation coefficient was higher for artefact-reduced than for non-artefact-reduced images. The overall diagnostic quality of the artefact-reduced images was improved and reached the level of the pre-interventional FD-CT images. The metal-unaffected parts of the image were not modified. • After coiling subarachnoid haemorrhage, metal artefacts seriously reduce FD-CT image quality. • This new metal artefact reduction algorithm is feasible for flat-detector CT. • After coiling, MAR is necessary for diagnostic quality of affected slices. • Slice-wise Pearson correlation is introduced to evaluate improvement of MAR in future studies. • Metal-unaffected parts of image are not modified by this MAR algorithm.

USTRANSCOM 2007 Annual Report

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-01-01

USTRANSCOM recently completed another successful Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore (JLOTS) exercise in Puerto Quetzal , Guatemala. Planning for the exercise...to track requisitions through the system and enable effective decisions exercise in Puerto Quetzal , Guatemala. • Efficiency. Using wise

WISE TF: A MID-INFRARED, 3.4 {mu}m EXTENSION OF THE TULLY-FISHER RELATION USING WISE PHOTOMETRY

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

Lagattuta, David J.; Mould, Jeremy R.; Staveley-Smith, Lister

2013-07-10

We present a mid-infrared Tully-Fisher (TF) relation using photometry from the 3.4 {mu}m W1 band of the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) satellite. The WISE TF relation is formed from 568 galaxies taken from the all-sky 2MASS Tully-Fisher (2MTF) galaxy catalog, spanning a range of environments including field, group, and cluster galaxies. This constitutes the largest mid-infrared TF relation constructed to date. After applying a number of corrections to galaxy magnitudes and line widths, we measure a master TF relation given by M{sub corr} = -22.24 - 10.05[log (W{sub corr}) - 2.5], with an average dispersion of {sigma}{sub WISE} =more » 0.686 mag. There is some tension between WISE TF and a preliminary 3.6 {mu}m relation, which has a shallower slope and almost no intrinsic dispersion. However, our results agree well with a more recent relation constructed from a large sample of cluster galaxies. We additionally compare WISE TF to the near-infrared 2MTF template relations, finding a good agreement between the TF parameters and total dispersions of WISE TF and the 2MTF K-band template. This fact, coupled with typical galaxy colors of (K - W1) {approx} 0, suggests that these two bands are tracing similar stellar populations, including the older, centrally-located stars in the galactic bulge which can (for galaxies with a prominent bulge) dominate the light profile.« less

WashWise cleans up the Northwest: Lessons learned from the Northwest high-efficiency clothes washer initiative

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

Gordon, L.M.; Banks, D.L.; Brenneke, M.E.

1998-07-01

WashWise is a regional market transformation program designed to promote the sale and acceptance or resource-efficient clothes washers (RECWs) in the Northwest through financial incentives, education, and marketing. The Program is sponsored by the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (the Alliance), a non-profit regional consortium of utilities, government, public interest groups, and private sector organizations. WashWise started in May 1997 and will continue through the end of 1999. WashWise works to transform the clothes washer market primarily at the retail level through an in-store instant rebate and a retailer bonus. In addition to financial incentives, WashWise has undertaken a collaborative marketingmore » and promotional campaign to educate consumers about the financial savings and other benefits of RECWs. The program promotes only RECWs that meet strict energy and water savings criteria. WashWise has far exceeded initial expectations; annual program sales goals were met in the first three months. As of June 1998, 30,000 RECWs have been sold through the program (representing approximately 13 percent of the Northwest residential clothes washer market). In addition, over 540 retailers, including national and regional chains, are participating in the program. Preliminary survey results also have also provided evidence of broad customer satisfaction. This paper reviews the key elements that have contributed to the success of the WashWise program. In addition, the paper provides program results and indicates future directions for WashWise and the RECW market.« less

THE EXEMPLAR T8 SUBDWARF COMPANION OF WOLF 1130

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

Mace, Gregory N.; McLean, Ian S.; Logsdon, Sarah E.

We have discovered a wide separation (188.''5) T8 subdwarf companion to the sdM1.5+WD binary Wolf 1130. Companionship of WISE J200520.38+542433.9 is verified through common proper motion over a ∼3 yr baseline. Wolf 1130 is located 15.83 ± 0.96 pc from the Sun, placing the brown dwarf at a projected separation of ∼3000 AU. Near-infrared colors and medium resolution (R ≈ 2000-4000) spectroscopy establish the uniqueness of this system as a high-gravity, low-metallicity benchmark. Although there are a number of low-metallicity T dwarfs in the literature, WISE J200520.38+542433.9 has the most extreme inferred metallicity to date with [Fe/H] = –0.64 ±more » 0.17 based on Wolf 1130. Model comparisons to this exemplar late-type subdwarf support it having an old age, a low metallicity, and a small radius. However, the spectroscopic peculiarities of WISE J200520.38+542433.9 underscore the importance of developing the low-metallicity parameter space of the most current atmospheric models.« less

Disk Detective: Discovery of New Circumstellar Disk Candidates Through Citizen Science

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kuchner, Marc J.; Silverberg, Steven M.; Bans, Alissa S.; Bhattacharjee, Shambo; Kenyon, Scott J.; Debes, John H.; Currie, Thayne; Garcia, Luciano; Jung, Dawoon; Lintott, Chris;

Disk Detective: Discovery of New Circumstellar Disk Candidates through Citizen Science

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kuchner, Marc J.; Silverberg, Steven M.; Bans, Alissa S.; Bhattacharjee, Shambo; Kenyon, Scott J.; Debes, John H.; Currie, Thayne; García, Luciano; Jung, Dawoon; Lintott, Chris; McElwain, Michael; Padgett, Deborah L.; Rebull, Luisa M.; Wisniewski, John P.; Nesvold, Erika; Schawinski, Kevin; Thaller, Michelle L.; Grady, Carol A.; Biggs, Joseph; Bosch, Milton; Černohous, Tadeáš; Durantini Luca, Hugo A.; Hyogo, Michiharu; Wah, Lily Lau Wan; Piipuu, Art; Piñeiro, Fernanda; Disk Detective Collaboration

2016-10-01

The Disk Detective citizen science project aims to find new stars with 22 μm excess emission from circumstellar dust using data from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission. Initial cuts on the AllWISE catalog provide an input catalog of 277,686 sources. Volunteers then view images of each source online in 10 different bands to identify false positives (galaxies, interstellar matter, image artifacts, etc.). Sources that survive this online vetting are followed up with spectroscopy on the FLWO Tillinghast telescope. This approach should allow us to unleash the full potential of WISE for finding new debris disks and protoplanetary disks. We announce a first list of 37 new disk candidates discovered by the project, and we describe our vetting and follow-up process. One of these systems appears to contain the first debris disk discovered around a star with a white dwarf companion: HD 74389. We also report four newly discovered classical Be stars (HD 6612, HD 7406, HD 164137, and HD 218546) and a new detection of 22 μm excess around the previously known debris disk host star HD 22128.

Step-wise refolding of recombinant proteins.

PubMed

Tsumoto, Kouhei; Arakawa, Tsutomu; Chen, Linda

2010-04-01

Protein refolding is still on trial-and-error basis. Here we describe step-wise dialysis refolding, in which denaturant concentration is altered in step-wise fashion. This technology controls the folding pathway by adjusting the concentrations of the denaturant and other solvent additives to induce sequential folding or disulfide formation.

Parenting Interventions Implementation Science: How Delivery Format Impacts the Parenting Wisely Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cotter, Katie L.; Bacallao, Martica; Smokowski, Paul R.; Robertson, Caroline I. B.

2013-01-01

Objectives: This study examines the implementation and effectiveness of Parenting Wisely, an Internet-based parenting skills intervention. The study assesses whether parents benefit from Parenting Wisely participation and whether the delivery format influences program effectiveness. Method: This study uses a quasi-experimental design.…

Spending Money Wisely.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wentworth, Donald R.; And Others

1982-01-01

The theme article of this issue, "Spending Money Wisely," by Donald R. Wentworth, begins with an explanation of basic strategies which aid wise spending. The article goes on to provide an introduction to economic reasoning related to consumer purchases and focusing on the role of incentives, scarcity, and alternatives. Four teaching units follow…

Choosing Wisely When It Comes to Eye Care: Punctal Plugs for Dry Eye

MedlinePlus

... Wisely campaign is available at Choosing Wisely . Related Stories Solar Eclipse Inflicts Damage in the Shape of the Eclipse Itself Dec 08, 2017 Eye Injuries from Laundry Packets On the Rise Jun 30, 2017 New Technology Helps the Legally Blind Be More Independent Oct ...

Impact of HealthWise South Africa on polydrug use and high-risk sexual behavior.

PubMed

Tibbits, Melissa K; Smith, Edward A; Caldwell, Linda L; Flisher, Alan J

2011-08-01

This study was designed to evaluate the efficacy of the HealthWise South Africa HIV and substance abuse prevention program at impacting adolescents' polydrug use and sexual risk behaviors. HealthWise is a school-based intervention designed to promote social-emotional skills, increase knowledge and refusal skills relevant to substance use and sexual behaviors, and encourage healthy free time activities. Four intervention schools in one township near Cape Town, South Africa were matched to five comparison schools (N = 4040). The sample included equal numbers of male and female participants (Mean age = 14.0). Multiple regression was used to assess the impact of HealthWise on the outcomes of interest. Findings suggest that among virgins at baseline (beginning of eighth grade) who had sex by Wave 5 (beginning of 10th grade), HealthWise youth were less likely than comparison youth to engage in two or more risk behaviors at last sex. Additionally, HealthWise was effective at slowing the onset of frequent polydrug use among non-users at baseline and slowing the increase in this outcome among all participants. Program effects were not found for lifetime sexual activity, condomless sex refusal and past-month polydrug use. These findings suggest that HealthWise is a promising approach to HIV and substance abuse prevention.

Enlarging the Societal Pie Through Wise Legislation: A Psychological Perspective.

PubMed

Baron, Jonathan; Bazerman, Max H; Shonk, Katherine

2006-06-01

We offer a psychological perspective to explain the failure of governments to create near-Pareto improvements. Our tools for analyzing these failures reflect the difficulties people have trading small losses for large gains: the fixed-pie approach to negotiations, the omission bias and status quo bias, parochialism and dysfunctional competition, and the neglect of secondary effects. We examine the role of human judgment in the failure to find wise trade-offs by discussing diverse applications of citizen and government decision making, including AIDS treatment, organ-donation systems, endangered-species protection, subsidies, and free trade. Our overall goal is to offer a psychological approach for understanding suboptimality in government decision making. © 2006 Association for Psychological Science.

Soft Decision Analyzer and Method

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zucha, Joan P. (Inventor); Schlesinger, Adam M. (Inventor); Lansdowne, Chatwin (Inventor); Steele, Glen F. (Inventor)

2015-01-01

A soft decision analyzer system is operable to interconnect soft decision communication equipment and analyze the operation thereof to detect symbol wise alignment between a test data stream and a reference data stream in a variety of operating conditions.

Soft Decision Analyzer and Method

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zucha, Joan P. (Inventor); Schlesinger, Adam M. (Inventor); Lansdowne, Chatwin (Inventor); Steele, Glen F. (Inventor)

2016-01-01

A soft decision analyzer system is operable to interconnect soft decision communication equipment and analyze the operation thereof to detect symbol wise alignment between a test data stream and a reference data stream in a variety of operating conditions.

On the Incidence of Wise Infrared Excess Among Solar Analog, Twin, and Sibling Stars

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

Da Costa, A. D.; Martins, B. L. Canto; Lima Jr, J. E.

2017-03-01

This study presents a search for infrared (IR) excess in the 3.4, 4.6, 12, and 22 μ m bands in a sample of 216 targets, composed of solar sibling, twin, and analog stars observed by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer ( WISE ) mission. In general, an IR excess suggests the existence of warm dust around a star. We detected 12 μ m and/or 22 μ m excesses at the 3 σ level of confidence in five solar analog stars, corresponding to a frequency of 4.1% of the entire sample of solar analogs analyzed, and in one out of 29more » solar sibling candidates, confirming previous studies. The estimation of the dust properties shows that the sources with IR excesses possess circumstellar material with temperatures that, within the uncertainties, are similar to that of the material found in the asteroid belt in our solar system. No photospheric flux excess was identified at the W1 (3.4 μ m) and W2 (4.6 μ m) WISE bands, indicating that, in the majority of stars of the present sample, no detectable dust is generated. Interestingly, among the 60 solar twin stars analyzed in this work, no WISE photospheric flux excess was detected. However, a null-detection excess does not necessarily indicate the absence of dust around a star because different causes, including dynamic processes and instrument limitations, can mask its presence.« less

VizieR Online Data Catalog: WISE IR excesses among main sequence stars (Da Costa+, 2017)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

da Costa, A. D.; Canto Martins, B. L.; Leao, I. C.; Lima, J. E., Jr.; Freire da Silva, D.; de Freitas, D. B.; de Medeiros, J. R.

2017-10-01

This study presents a search for infrared (IR) excess in the 3.4, 4.6, 12, and 22μm bands in a sample of 216 targets, composed of solar sibling, twin, and analog stars observed by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission. In general, an IR excess suggests the existence of warm dust around a star. We detected 12μm and/or 22μm excesses at the 3σ level of confidence in five solar analog stars, corresponding to a frequency of 4.1% of the entire sample of solar analogs analyzed, and in one out of 29 solar sibling candidates, confirming previous studies. The estimation of the dust properties shows that the sources with IR excesses possess circumstellar material with temperatures that, within the uncertainties, are similar to that of the material found in the asteroid belt in our solar system. No photospheric flux excess was identified at the W1 (3.4μm) and W2 (4.6μm) WISE bands, indicating that, in the majority of stars of the present sample, no detectable dust is generated. Interestingly, among the 60 solar twin stars analyzed in this work, no WISE photospheric flux excess was detected. However, a null-detection excess does not necessarily indicate the absence of dust around a star because different causes, including dynamic processes and instrument limitations, can mask its presence. (1 data file).

Observation of freakish-asteroid-discovered-resembles support my idea that many dark comets were arrested and lurked in the solar system after every impaction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cao, Dayong

2014-03-01

New observations show that some asteroids are looked like comets. http://www.astrowatch.net/2013/11/freakish-asteroid-discovered-resembles.html, http://www.astrowatch.net/2013/11/astronomers-puzzle-over-newfound.html. It supports my idea that ``many dark comets with very special tilted orbits were arrested and lurked in the solar system'' - ``Sun's companion-dark hole seasonal took its dark comets belt and much dark matter to impact near our earth. And some of them probability hit on our earth. So this model kept and triggered periodic mass extinctions on our earth every 25 to 27 million years. After every impaction, many dark comets with very special tilted orbits were arrested and lurked in the solar system. Because some of them picked up many solar matter, so it looked like the asteroids. When the dark hole-Tyche goes near the solar system again, they will impact near planets.'' The idea maybe explains why do the asteroid looks like the comet? Where are the asteroids come from? What relationship do they have with the impactions and extinctions? http://meetings.aps.org/link/BAPS.2011.CAL.C1.7, http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/CAL12/Event/181168, http://meetings.aps.org/link/BAPS.2013.MAR.H1.267. During 2009 to 2010, I had presented there are many dark comets like dark Asteroids near the orbit of Jupiter in ASP Meetings. In 2010, NASA's WISE found them. http://meetings.aps.org/link/BAPS.2011.APR.K1.17, http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/WISE/news/wise20100122.html Avoid Earth Extinction Associ.

OT2_dardila_2: PACS Photometry of Transiting-Planet Systems with Warm Debris Disks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ardila, D.

2011-09-01

Dust in debris disks is produced by colliding or evaporating planetesimals, the remnant of the planet formation process. Warm dust disks, known by their emission at =<24 mic, are rare (4% of FGK main-sequence stars), and specially interesting because they trace material in the region likely to host terrestrial planets, where the dust has very short dynamical lifetimes. Dust in this region comes from very recent asteroidal collisions, migrating Kuiper Belt planetesimals, or migrating dust. NASA's Kepler mission has just released a list of 1235 candidate transiting planets, and in parallel, the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) has just completed a sensitive all-sky mapping in the 3.4, 4.6, 12, and 22 micron bands. By cross-identifying the WISE sources with Kepler candidates as well as with other transiting planetary systems we have identified 21 transiting planet hosts with previously unknown warm debris disks. We propose Herschel/PACS 100 and 160 micron photometry of this sample, to determine whether the warm dust in these systems represents stochastic outbursts of local dust production, or simply the Wien side of emission from a cold outer dust belt. These data will allow us to put constraints in the dust temperature and infrared luminosity of these systems, allowing them to be understood in the context of other debris disks and disk evolution theory. This program represents a unique opportunity to exploit the synergy between three great space facilities: Herschel, Kepler, and WISE. The transiting planet sample hosts will remain among the most studied group of stars for the years to come, and our knowledge of their planetary architecture will remain incomplete if we do not understand the characteristics of their debris disks.

TREATMENT INTENSIFICATION WITH INSULIN DEGLUDEC/INSULIN ASPART TWICE DAILY: RANDOMIZED STUDY TO COMPARE SIMPLE AND STEP-WISE TITRATION ALGORITHMS.

PubMed

Gerety, Gregg; Bebakar, Wan Mohamad Wan; Chaykin, Louis; Ozkaya, Mesut; Macura, Stanislava; Hersløv, Malene Lundgren; Behnke, Thomas

2016-05-01

This 26-week, multicenter, randomized, open-label, parallel-group, treat-to-target trial in adults with type 2 diabetes compared the efficacy and safety of treatment intensification algorithms with twice-daily (BID) insulin degludec/insulin aspart (IDegAsp). Patients randomized 1:1 to IDegAsp BID used either a 'Simple' algorithm (twice-weekly dose adjustments based on a single prebreakfast and pre-evening meal self-monitored plasma glucose [SMPG] measurement; IDegAsp[BIDSimple], n = 136) or a 'Stepwise' algorithm (once-weekly dose adjustments based on the lowest of 3 pre-breakfast and 3 pre-evening meal SMPG values; IDegAsp[BIDStep-wise], n = 136). After 26 weeks, mean change from baseline in glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) with IDegAsp[BIDSimple] was noninferior to IDegAsp[BIDStep-wise] (-15 mmol/mol versus -14 mmol/mol; 95% confidence interval [CI] upper limit, <4 mmol/mol) (baseline HbA1c: 66.3 mmol/mol IDegAsp[BIDSimple] and 66.6 mmol/mol IDegAsp[BIDStep-wise]). The proportion of patients who achieved HbA1c <7.0% (<53 mmol/mol) at the end of the trial was 66.9% with IDegAsp[BIDSimple] and 62.5% with IDegAsp[BIDStep-wise]. Fasting plasma glucose levels were reduced with each titration algorithm (-1.51 mmol/L IDegAsp[BIDSimple] versus -1.95 mmol/L IDegAsp[BIDStep-wise]). Weight gain was 3.8 kg IDegAsp[BIDSimple] versus 2.6 kg IDegAsp[BIDStep-wise], and rates of overall confirmed hypoglycemia (5.16 episodes per patient-year of exposure [PYE] versus 8.93 PYE) and nocturnal confirmed hypoglycemia (0.78 PYE versus 1.33 PYE) were significantly lower with IDegAsp[BIDStep-wise] versus IDegAsp[BIDSimple]. There were no significant differences in insulin dose increments between groups. Treatment intensification with IDegAsp[BIDSimple] was noninferior to IDegAsp[BIDStep-wise]. Both titration algorithms were well tolerated; however, the more conservative step-wise algorithm led to less weight gain and fewer hypoglycemic episodes. Clinicaltrials.gov: NCT01680341.

Choosing Wisely in Emergency Medicine: A National Survey of Emergency Medicine Academic Chairs and Division Chiefs.

PubMed

Maughan, Brandon C; Baren, Jill M; Shea, Judy A; Merchant, Raina M

2015-12-01

The Choosing Wisely campaign was launched in 2011 to promote stewardship of medical resources by encouraging patients and physicians to speak with each other regarding the appropriateness of common tests and procedures. Medical societies including the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) have developed lists of potentially low-value practices for their members to address with patients. No research has described the awareness or attitudes of emergency physicians (EPs) regarding the Choosing Wisely campaign. The study objective was to assess these beliefs among leaders of academic departments of emergency medicine (EM). This was a Web-based survey of emergency department (ED) chairs and division chiefs at institutions with allopathic EM residency programs. The survey examined awareness of Choosing Wisely, anticipated effects of the program, and discussions of Choosing Wisely with patients and professional colleagues. Participants also identified factors they associated with the use of potentially low-value services in the ED. Questions and answer scales were refined using iterative pilot testing with EPs and health services researchers. Seventy-eight percent (105/134) of invited participants responded to the survey. Eighty percent of respondents were aware of Choosing Wisely. A majority of participants anticipate the program will decrease costs of care (72% of respondents) and use of ED diagnostic imaging (69%) but will have no effect on EP salaries (94%) or medical-legal risks (65%). Only 45% of chairs have ever addressed Choosing Wisely with patients, in contrast to 88 and 82% who have discussed it with faculty and residents, respectively. Consultant-requested tests were identified by 97% of residents as a potential contributor to low-value services in the ED. A substantial majority of academic EM leaders in our study were aware of Choosing Wisely, but only slightly more than half could recall any ACEP recommendations for the program. Respondents familiar with Choosing Wisely anticipated generally positive effects, but chairs reported only infrequently discussing Choosing Wisely with patients. Future research should identify potentially low-value tests requested by consultants and objectively measure the utility and cost of these tests among ED patient populations. © 2015 by the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine.

Course Management Systems and Campus-Based Learning. Professional File. Number 29

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lopes, Valerie

2008-01-01

Course management systems (CMSs) have become a symbol of innovation at institutions of higher education and in less than a decade they have been rapidly adopted by a large number of colleges and universities in many countries around the world (Coates, 2005; Dutton, Cheong, & Park, 2004; Malikowski, Thompson, & Theis, 2007; Wise &…

Treadmill Exercise Within LBNP as an Integrated Coutermeasure to Microgravity

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lee, Stuart; Hargens, A. R.; Schneider, S. M.; Watenpaugh, D. E.

2010-01-01

An integrated exercise countermeasure for microgravity is needed to protect multiple physiologic systems and save crew time. Such a countermeasure should protect orthostatic tolerance, upright ambulatory capability (including sprinting), aerobic capacity, muscle strength/endurance, and other physiologic parameters relevant to human performance. We developed a novel physiologic countermeasure, treadmill exercise within LBNP, for preventing cardiovascular and musculoskeletal deconditioning associated with prolonged bed rest and spaceflight. We evaluated 40 min of daily LBNP treadmill exercise by a battery of physiologic parameters relevant to maintaining exercise performance and health of both women and men during bed-rest (simulated microgravity) studies lasting from 5 to 60 days. For 30 day studies, we employed identical twins with one twin as the control and the other twin as the exerciser to improve comparative power. During the WISE 60-day HDT study, the treadmill exercise within LBNP was performed 3-4 days each week and resistive exercise was performed 2-3 days each week. Our treadmill within LBNP protocol maintained plasma volume and sprint speed (30 day HDT bed-rest studies of identical twins), orthostatic tolerance to a degree, upright exercise capacity, muscle strength and endurance, and some bone parameters during 30 day (twin studies) and 60 day (WISE-2005) bed-rest simulations of microgravity. When combining treadmill exercise within LBNP and resistive exercise (WISE), cardiac mass increased significantly in the exercise (EX) group during bed rest relative to controls (CON). Upright peak VO2, and knee extensor strength and endurance decreased significantly in CON subjects; but these parameters were preserved in the EX group. In the 60 day WISE study, each LBNP exercise session was followed immediately by 10 minutes of static LBNP, and the last such session occurred three days before the end of bed rest. Still, orthostatic tolerance was better maintained in the EX group than in the CON group. Therefore, these collective peer-reviewed results document that our treadmill exercise within LBNP countermeasure safely and efficiently protects multiple physiologic systems in women and men during bed-rest studies of up to 60 days. Supported by NASA grants NNJ04HF71G and NAG 9-1425, NIH grant GCRC M01 RR00827 and by WISE support from ESA, NASA, CSA, and CNES.

Comparison between various patch wise strategies for reconstruction of ultra-spectral cubes captured with a compressive sensing system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Oiknine, Yaniv; August, Isaac Y.; Revah, Liat; Stern, Adrian

2016-05-01

Recently we introduced a Compressive Sensing Miniature Ultra-Spectral Imaging (CS-MUSI) system. The system is based on a single Liquid Crystal (LC) cell and a parallel sensor array where the liquid crystal cell performs spectral encoding. Within the framework of compressive sensing, the CS-MUSI system is able to reconstruct ultra-spectral cubes captured with only an amount of ~10% samples compared to a conventional system. Despite the compression, the technique is extremely complex computationally, because reconstruction of ultra-spectral images requires processing huge data cubes of Gigavoxel size. Fortunately, the computational effort can be alleviated by using separable operation. An additional way to reduce the reconstruction effort is to perform the reconstructions on patches. In this work, we consider processing on various patch shapes. We present an experimental comparison between various patch shapes chosen to process the ultra-spectral data captured with CS-MUSI system. The patches may be one dimensional (1D) for which the reconstruction is carried out spatially pixel-wise, or two dimensional (2D) - working on spatial rows/columns of the ultra-spectral cube, as well as three dimensional (3D).

WISE Science: Web-based Inquiry in the Classroom. Technology, Education--Connections

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Slotta, James D.; Linn, Marcia C.

2009-01-01

This book shares the lessons learned by a large community of educational researchers and science teachers as they designed, developed, and investigated a new technology-enhanced learning environment known as WISE: The Web-Based Inquiry Science Environment. WISE offers a collection of free, customizable curriculum projects on topics central to the…

Evaluation of the Wise Guys Male Responsibility Curriculum: Participant-Control Comparisons

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gruchow, Harvey William; Brown, Roger K.

2011-01-01

Background: Although males are often the initiators of teen sexual activity, pregnancy prevention programs generally target females. To address this deficiency, the Wise Guys Male Responsibility Curriculum was developed to be delivered to adolescent males in weekly classroom sessions. Methods: Seventh grade participants (n = 124) in the Wise Guys…

Viewing Violence, Mental Illness and Addiction through a Wise Practices Lens

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wesley-Esquimaux, Cynthia C.; Snowball, Andrew

2010-01-01

The progressive approaches First Nations, Metis, and Inuit communities use to address health and wellness concerns are rarely written about or acknowledged in a positive manner. This paper speaks to a concept introduced through the Canadian Aboriginal Aids Network (CAAN) entitled "wise practices". CAAN saw a "wise practices"…

R-WISE: A Computerized Environment for Tutoring Critical Literacy.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carlson, P.; Crevoisier, M.

This paper describes a computerized environment for teaching the conceptual patterns of critical literacy. While the full implementation of the software covers both reading and writing, this paper covers only the writing aspects of R-WISE (Reading and Writing in a Supportive Environment). R-WISE consists of a suite of computerized…

Social class and wise reasoning about interpersonal conflicts across regions, persons and situations

PubMed Central

Brienza, Justin P.

2017-01-01

We propose that class is inversely related to a propensity for using wise reasoning (recognizing limits of their knowledge, consider world in flux and change, acknowledges and integrate different perspectives) in interpersonal situations, contrary to established class advantage in abstract cognition. Two studies—an online survey from regions differing in economic affluence (n = 2 145) and a representative in-lab study with stratified sampling of adults from working and middle-class backgrounds (n = 299)—tested this proposition, indicating that higher social class consistently related to lower levels of wise reasoning across different levels of analysis, including regional and individual differences, and subjective construal of specific situations. The results held across personal and standardized hypothetical situations, across self-reported and observed wise reasoning, and when controlling for fluid and crystallized cognitive abilities. Consistent with an ecological framework, class differences in wise reasoning were specific to interpersonal (versus societal) conflicts. These findings suggest that higher social class weighs individuals down by providing the ecological constraints that undermine wise reasoning about interpersonal affairs. PMID:29263284

Social class and wise reasoning about interpersonal conflicts across regions, persons and situations.

PubMed

Brienza, Justin P; Grossmann, Igor

2017-12-20

We propose that class is inversely related to a propensity for using wise reasoning (recognizing limits of their knowledge, consider world in flux and change, acknowledges and integrate different perspectives) in interpersonal situations, contrary to established class advantage in abstract cognition. Two studies-an online survey from regions differing in economic affluence ( n = 2 145) and a representative in-lab study with stratified sampling of adults from working and middle-class backgrounds ( n = 299)-tested this proposition, indicating that higher social class consistently related to lower levels of wise reasoning across different levels of analysis, including regional and individual differences, and subjective construal of specific situations. The results held across personal and standardized hypothetical situations, across self-reported and observed wise reasoning, and when controlling for fluid and crystallized cognitive abilities. Consistent with an ecological framework, class differences in wise reasoning were specific to interpersonal (versus societal) conflicts. These findings suggest that higher social class weighs individuals down by providing the ecological constraints that undermine wise reasoning about interpersonal affairs. © 2017 The Authors.

VizieR Online Data Catalog: WISE Preliminary Data Release (Cutri+ 2011)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cutri, R. M.; et al.

2012-01-01

The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE; see Wright et al. 2010AJ....140.1868W) is a NASA Medium Class Explorer mission that conducted a digital imaging survey of the entire sky in the 3.4, 4.6, 12 and 22um mid-infrared bandpasses (hereafter W1, W2, W3 and W4). WISE will produce and release to the world astronomical and educational communities and general public a digital Image Atlas covering the sky in the four survey bands, and a reliable Source Catalog containing accurate photometry and astrometry for over 300 million objects. The WISE Catalog and Atlas will enable a broad variety of research efforts ranging from the search for the closest stars and brown dwarfs to the most luminous galaxies in the Universe. WISE science data products will serve as an important reference data set for planning observations and interpreting data obtained with future ground and space-borne observatories, such as JWST. WISE was launched on 2009-12-14 from Vandenberg SLC2W. (1 data file).

VizieR Online Data Catalog: WISE All-Sky Data Release (Cutri+ 2012)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cutri, R. M.; et al.

2012-04-01

The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE; see Wright et al. 2010AJ....140.1868W) is a NASA Medium Class Explorer mission that conducted a digital imaging survey of the entire sky in the 3.4, 4.6, 12 and 22um mid-infrared bandpasses (hereafter W1, W2, W3 and W4). WISE will produce and release to the world astronomical and educational communities and general public a digital Image Atlas covering the sky in the four survey bands, and a reliable Source Catalog containing accurate photometry and astrometry for over 300 million objects. The WISE Catalog and Atlas will enable a broad variety of research efforts ranging from the search for the closest stars and brown dwarfs to the most luminous galaxies in the Universe. WISE science data products will serve as an important reference data set for planning observations and interpreting data obtained with future ground and space-borne observatories, such as JWST. WISE was launched on 2009-12-14 from Vandenberg SLC2W. (1 data file).

[Effect of spatial location on the generality of block-wise conflict adaptation between different types of scripts].

PubMed

Watanabe, Yurina; Yoshizaki, Kazuhito

2014-10-01

This study aimed to investigate the generality of conflict adaptation associated with block-wise conflict frequency between two types of stimulus scripts (Kanji and Hiragana). To this end, we examined whether the modulation of the compatibility effect with one type of script depending on block-wise conflict frequency (75% versus 25% generalized to the other type of script whose block-wise conflict frequency was kept constant (50%), using the Spatial Stroop task. In Experiment 1, 16 participants were required to identify the target orientation (up or down) presented in the upper or lower visual-field. The results showed that block-wise conflict adaptation with one type of stimulus script generalized to the other. The procedure in Experiment 2 was the same as that in Experiment 1, except that the presentation location differed between the two types of stimulus scripts. We did not find a generalization from one script to the other. These results suggest that presentation location is a critical factor contributing to the generality of block-wise conflict adaptation.

VizieR Online Data Catalog: WISE W1/W2 Tully-Fisher relation calibrator data (Neill+, 2014)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Neill, J. D.; Seibert, M.; Tully, R. B.; Courtois, H.; Sorce, J. G.; Jarrett, T. H.; Scowcroft, V.; Masci, F. J.

2017-04-01

We have instigated a separate project to provide high-quality surface photometry of all WISE galaxies larger than 0.8' on the sky. The WISE Nearby Galaxy Atlas (WNGA; M. Seibert et al., in preparation) will provide photometry that is quality controlled for over 20000 galaxies. This photometry, optimized for extended sources, significantly reduces the resulting scatter in the Tully-Fisher relation (here after TFR) calibration and thus improves the resulting distances. Having an accurate calibration of the TFR for these two WISE passbands will allow the use of this large sample to explore the structure and dynamics of local galaxy bulk flows. With the current tally, there are 310 cluster calibrators with WISE W1 and W2 photometry, compared with 213 available to Sorce et al. (2013, J/ApJ/765/94) for the Spitzer calibration, and 291 of the 310 WISE calibrators have I-band photometry, compared with the 267 available to Tully & Courtois (2012ApJ...749...78T) for the previous I-band calibration. (1 data file).

Cold and Quick: a Fast-Moving Brown Dwarf

NASA Image and Video Library

2014-04-25

This frame from an animation shows the coldest brown dwarf yet seen, and the fourth closest system to our sun. Called WISE J085510.83-071442.5, this dim object was discovered through its rapid motion across the sky.

Boosting wisdom: distance from the self enhances wise reasoning, attitudes, and behavior.

PubMed

Kross, Ethan; Grossmann, Igor

2012-02-01

Although humans strive to be wise, they often fail to do so when reasoning over issues that have profound personal implications. Here we examine whether psychological distance enhances wise reasoning, attitudes and behavior under such circumstances. Two experiments demonstrate that cueing people to reason about personally meaningful issues (Study 1: Career prospects for the unemployed during an economic recession; Study 2: Anticipated societal changes associated with one's chosen candidate losing the 2008 U.S. Presidential election) from a distanced perspective enhances wise reasoning (dialecticism; intellectual humility), attitudes (cooperation-related attitude assimilation), and behavior (willingness to join a bipartisan group).

Improvement of Advanced Storm-scale Analysis and Prediction System (ASAPS) on Seoul Metropolitan Area, Korea

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Park, Jeong-Gyun; Jee, Joon-Bum

2017-04-01

Dangerous weather such as severe rain, heavy snow, drought and heat wave caused by climate change make more damage in the urban area that dense populated and industry areas. Urban areas, unlike the rural area, have big population and transportation, dense the buildings and fuel consumption. Anthropogenic factors such as road energy balance, the flow of air in the urban is unique meteorological phenomena. However several researches are in process about prediction of urban meteorology. ASAPS (Advanced Storm-scale Analysis and Prediction System) predicts a severe weather with very short range (prediction with 6 hour) and high resolution (every hour with time and 1 km with space) on Seoul metropolitan area based on KLAPS (Korea Local Analysis and Prediction System) from KMA (Korea Meteorological Administration). This system configured three parts that make a background field (SUF5), analysis field (SU01) with observation and forecast field with high resolution (SUF1). In this study, we improve a high-resolution ASAPS model and perform a sensitivity test for the rainfall case. The improvement of ASAPS include model domain configuration, high resolution topographic data and data assimilation with WISE observation data.

Important ingredients for health adaptive information systems.

PubMed

Senathirajah, Yalini; Bakken, Suzanne

2011-01-01

Healthcare information systems frequently do not truly meet clinician needs, due to the complexity, variability, and rapid change in medical contexts. Recently the internet world has been transformed by approaches commonly termed 'Web 2.0'. This paper proposes a Web 2.0 model for a healthcare adaptive architecture. The vision includes creating modular, user-composable systems which aim to make all necessary information from multiple internal and external sources available via a platform, for the user to use, arrange, recombine, author, and share at will, using rich interfaces where advisable. Clinicians can create a set of 'widgets' and 'views' which can transform data, reflect their domain knowledge and cater to their needs, using simple drag and drop interfaces without the intervention of programmers. We have built an example system, MedWISE, embodying the user-facing parts of the model. This approach to HIS is expected to have several advantages, including greater suitability to user needs (reflecting clinician rather than programmer concepts and priorities), incorporation of multiple information sources, agile reconfiguration to meet emerging situations and new treatment deployment, capture of user domain expertise and tacit knowledge, efficiencies due to workflow and human-computer interaction improvements, and greater user acceptance.

Methodology for the analysis of transcription and translation in transcription-coupled-to-translation systems in vitro.

PubMed

Castro-Roa, Daniel; Zenkin, Nikolay

2015-09-15

The various properties of RNA polymerase (RNAP) complexes with nucleic acids during different stages of transcription involve various types of regulation and different cross-talk with other cellular entities and with fellow RNAP molecules. The interactions of transcriptional apparatus with the translational machinery have been focused mainly in terms of outcomes of gene expression, whereas the study of the physical interaction of the ribosome and the RNAP remains obscure partly due to the lack of a system that allows such observations. In this article we will describe the methodology needed to set up a pure, transcription-coupled-to-translation system in which the translocation of the ribosome can be performed in a step-wise manner towards RNAP allowing investigation of the interactions between the two machineries at colliding and non-colliding distances. In the same time RNAP can be put in various types of states, such as paused, roadblocked, backtracked, etc. The experimental system thus allows studying the effects of the ribosome on different aspects of transcription elongation and the effects by RNAP on translation. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Continuum-wise expansiveness for generic diffeomorphisms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Manseob

2018-06-01

Let M be a closed smooth manifold and let be a diffeomorphism. C 1-generically, a continuum-wise expansive satisfies Axiom A without cycles. Let and let . There are a C 1 neighborhood of and a residual set such that for any , g is not continuum-wise expansive, where is the set of all robustly transitive diffeomorphisms on

Impact of HealthWise South Africa on Polydrug Use and High-Risk Sexual Behavior

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tibbits, Melissa K.; Smith, Edward A.; Caldwell, Linda L.; Flisher, Alan J.

2011-01-01

This study was designed to evaluate the efficacy of the HealthWise South Africa HIV and substance abuse prevention program at impacting adolescents' polydrug use and sexual risk behaviors. HealthWise is a school-based intervention designed to promote social-emotional skills, increase knowledge and refusal skills relevant to substance use and…

A Closer Look at Chinese EFL Learners' Test-Wiseness Strategies in Reading Test

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Haiyan, Miao; Rilong, Liu

2016-01-01

This paper reports on an investigation into the relationship of test-takers' use of test-wiseness strategies to Chinese EFL learners' reading test performance. A test-wiseness questionnaire was administered immediately after the final achievement test to probe into how learners thought while completing the reading section of the test. It was found…

Test-Wiseness Cues in the Options of Mathematics Items.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kuntz, Patricia

The quality of mathematics multiple choice items and their susceptibility to test wiseness were examined. Test wiseness was defined as "a subject's capacity to utilize the characteristics and formats of the test and/or test taking situation to receive a high score." The study used results of the Graduate Record Examinations Aptitude Test (GRE) and…

A Case Study Showing Parameters Affecting the Quality of Education: Faculty Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kumari, Neeraj

2014-01-01

The study aims to examine the faculty members' perspective (age Wise, Gender Wise and Work Experience wise) of parameters affecting the quality of education in an affiliated Undergraduate Engineering Institution in Haryana. It is a descriptive type of research. The data has been collected with the help of 'Questionnaire Based Survey'. The sample…

The SunWise School Program Guide: A School Program that Radiates Good Ideas

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

US Environmental Protection Agency, 2003

2003-01-01

To help educators raise sun safety awareness, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has developed the SunWise School Program, a national education program for children in grades K through 8. SunWise Partner Schools sponsor classroom and schoolwide activities that raise children's awareness of stratospheric ozone depletion, UV radiation,…

Differential Benefits of Memory Training for Minority Older Adults in the SeniorWISE Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McDougall, Graham J., Jr.; Becker, Heather; Pituch, Keenan; Acee, Taylor W.; Vaughan, Phillip W.; Delville, Carol L.

2010-01-01

Purpose: Cognitive training improves mental abilities in older adults, but the benefit to minority elders is unclear. We conducted a subgroup analysis of subjects in the SeniorWISE (Wisdom Is Simply Exploration) trial to examine this issue. Design and Methods: SeniorWISE was a Phase 3 randomized trial that enrolled 265 nondemented…

Key Elements of Observing Practice: A Data Wise DVD and Facilitator's Guide

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boudett, Kathryn Parker; City, Elizabeth A.; Russell, Marcia K.

2010-01-01

Based on the bestselling book "Data Wise: A Step-by-Step Guide to Using Assessment Results to Improve Teaching and Learning", and its companion volume, "Data Wise in Action", this DVD and Facilitator's Guide offer insight into one of the most challenging steps in capturing data about school performance: observing and analyzing instructional…

MEDWISE: an innovative public health information system infrastructure.

PubMed

Sahin, Yasar Guneri; Celikkan, Ufuk

2012-06-01

In this paper, we present MedWise, a high level design of a medical information infrastructure, and its architecture. The proposed system offers a comprehensive, modular, robust and extensible infrastructure to be used in public health care systems. The system gathers reliable and evidence based health data, which it then classifies, interprets and stores into a particular database. It creates a healthcare ecosystem that aids the medical community by providing for less error prone diagnoses and treatment of diseases. This system will be standards-compliant; therefore it would be complementary to the existing healthcare and clinical information systems. The key objective of the proposed system is to provide as much medical historical and miscellaneous data as possible about the patients with minimal consultation, thus allowing physicians to easily access Patients' Ancillary Data (PAD) such as hereditary, residential, travel, custom, meteorological, biographical and demographical data before the consultation. In addition, the system can help to diminish problems and misdiagnosis situations caused by language barriers-disorders and misinformation. MedWise can assist physicians to shorten time for diagnosis and consultations, therefore dramatically improving quality and quantity of the physical examinations of patients. Furthermore, since it intends to supply a significant amount of data, it may be used to improve skills of students in medical education.

Tools for Modeling & Simulation of Molecular and Nanoelectronics Devices

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-06-14

implemented a prototype DFT simulation software using two different open source Finite Element (FE) libraries: DEALII and FENICS . These two libraries have been...ATK. In the first part of this Phase I project we investigated two different candidate finite element libraries, DEAL II and FENICS . Although both...element libraries, Deal.II and FEniCS /dolfin, for use as back-ends to a finite element DFT in ATK, Quantum Insight and QuantumWise A/S, October 2011.

Contemporary nursing wisdom in the UK and ethical knowing: difficulties in conceptualising the ethics of nursing.

PubMed

Newham, Roger; Curzio, Joan; Carr, Graham; Terry, Louise

2014-01-01

This paper's philosophical ideas are developed from a General Nursing Council for England and Wales Trust-funded study to explore nursing knowledge and wisdom and ways in which these can be translated into clinical practice and fostered in junior nurses. Participants using Carper's (1978) ways of knowing as a framework experienced difficulty conceptualizing a link between the empirics and ethics of nursing. The philosophical problem is how to understand praxis as a moral entity with intrinsic value when so much of value seems to be technical and extrinsic depending on desired ends. Using the Aristotelian terms poesis and praxis can articulate the concerns that the participants as well as Carper (1978) and Dreyfus (in Flyvbjerg, 1991) among others share that certain actions or ways of knowing important for nursing are being devalued and deformed by the importance placed on quantitative data and measurable outcomes. The sense of praxis is a moralized one and most of what nurses do is plausibly on any account of normative ethics a morally good thing; the articulation of the idea of praxis can go some way in showing how it is a part of the discipline of nursing. Nursing's acts as poesis can be a part of how practitioners come to have praxis as phronesis or practical wisdom. So to be a wise nurse, one needs be a wise person. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Med Wise: A theory-based program to improve older adults' communication with pharmacists about their medicines.

PubMed

Martin, B A; Chewning, B A; Margolis, A R; Wilson, D A; Renken, J

2016-01-01

The health and economic toll of medication errors by older adults is well documented. Poor communication and medication coordination problems increase the likelihood of adverse drug events (ADEs). Older adults have difficulty communicating with health care professionals, including pharmacists. As such, the theory-based Med Wise program was designed. Building on the Self-efficacy Framework and the Chronic Care Model, this program was tested with community-dwelling older adults. This study and its resultant paper: (1) describe the theory-based design of the Med Wise program; (2) describe the collaboration of multiple community partners to develop a sustainable model for implementing Med Wise; and (3) present findings from the Med Wise course evaluation. Med Wise was designed to be a sustainable, skill-based educational and behavior change program consisting of two, 2-h interactive classes to enhance participants' medication communication skills and self-efficacy. To explore the potential to disseminate Med Wise throughout the state, a partnership was formed between the pharmacy team and the statewide Aging & Disability Resource Centers (ADRCs), as well as the Community-Academic Aging Research Network (CAARN). Over 30 lay volunteer leaders in 8 Wisconsin (U.S. State) counties were trained, and they delivered Med Wise through ADRC community centers. The CAARN staff evaluated the fidelity of the course delivery by leaders. To evaluate Med Wise, a quasi-experimental design using pre/post surveys assessed knowledge, worry and self-efficacy. A telephone follow-up three months later assessed self-efficacy and translation of medication management skills and behaviors. Med Wise programs were presented to 198 community-dwelling older adults while maintaining program fidelity. This evaluation found significant increases in older adults' knowledge about pharmacists' roles and responsibilities, likelihood of talking with a pharmacist about medication concerns, and self-efficacy for communicating with pharmacists. At the 3 month follow-up, participants reported increased interactions with pharmacists, with 29.2% of participants reported seeking medication reviews and 28.5% medication schedule reviews. The two-class Med Wise program showed sustained impact at 3 months on key outcomes. Further, the community partners successfully implemented the program with fidelity across 8 counties suggesting its ability to be disseminated and sustained. Future directions include expanding the program to examine wider adoption, and measuring program impact on regimen safety and health outcomes linked to increases in patient engagement. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The clinician in the driver's seat: part 2 - intelligent uses of space in a drag/drop user-composable electronic health record.

PubMed

Senathirajah, Yalini; Kaufman, David; Bakken, Suzanne

2014-12-01

User-composable approaches provide clinicians with the control to design and assemble information elements on screen via drag/drop. They hold considerable promise for enhancing the electronic-health-records (EHRs) user experience. We previously described this novel approach to EHR design and our illustrative system, MedWISE. The purpose of this paper is to describe clinician users' intelligent uses of space during completion of real patient case studies in a laboratory setting using MedWISE. Thirteen clinicians at a quaternary academic medical center used the system to review four real patient cases. We analyzed clinician utterances, behaviors, screen layouts (i.e., interface designs), and their perceptions associated with completing patient case studies. Clinicians effectively used the system to review all cases. Two coding schemata pertaining to human-computer interaction and diagnostic reasoning were used to analyze the data. Users adopted three main interaction strategies: rapidly gathering items on screen and reviewing ('opportunistic selection' approach); creating highly structured screens ('structured' approach); and interacting with small groups of items in sequence as their case review progressed ('dynamic stage' approach). They also used spatial arrangement in ways predicted by theory and research on workplace spatial arrangement. This includes assignment of screen regions for particular purposes (24% of spatial codes), juxtaposition to facilitate calculation or other cognitive tasks ('epistemic action'), and grouping elements with common meanings or relevance to the diagnostic facets of the case (20.3%). A left-to-right progression of orienting materials, data, and action items or reflection space was a commonly observed pattern. Widget selection was based on user assessment of what information was useful or relevant. We developed and tested an illustrative system that gives clinicians greater control of the EHR, and demonstrated its feasibility for case review by typical clinicians. Producing the simplifying inventions, such as user-composable platforms that shift control to the user, may serve to promote productive EHR use and enhance its value as an instrument of patient care. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Clinician in the Driver’s Seat: Part 2 – Intelligent Uses of Space in a Drag/Drop User-Composable Electronic Health Record

PubMed Central

Senathirajah, Yalini; Kaufman, David; Bakken, Suzanne

2018-01-01

User-composable approaches provide clinicians with the control to design and assemble information elements on screen via drag/drop. They hold considerable promise for enhancing the electronic-health-records (EHRs) user experience. We previously described this novel approach to EHR design and our illustrative system, MedWISE. The purpose of this paper is to describe clinician users’ intelligent uses of space during completion of real patient case studies in a laboratory setting using MedWISE. Thirteen clinicians at a quaternary academic medical center used the system to review four real patient cases. We analyzed clinician utterances, behaviors, screen layouts (i.e., interface designs), and their perceptions associated with completing patient case studies. Clinicians effectively used the system to review all cases. Two coding schemata pertaining to human-computer interaction and diagnostic reasoning were used to analyze the data. Users adopted three main interaction strategies: rapidly gathering items on screen and reviewing (‘opportunistic selection’ approach); creating highly structured screens (‘structured’ approach); and interacting with small groups of items in sequence as their case review progressed (‘dynamic stage’ approach). They also used spatial arrangement in ways predicted by theory and research on workplace spatial arrangement. This includes assignment of screen regions for particular purposes (24% of spatial codes), juxtaposition to facilitate calculation or other cognitive tasks (‘epistemic action’), and grouping elements with common meanings or relevance to the diagnostic facets of the case (20.3%). A left-to-right progression of orienting materials, data, and action items or reflection space was a commonly observed pattern. Widget selection was based on user assessment of what information was useful or relevant. We developed and tested an illustrative system that gives clinicians greater control of the EHR, and demonstrated its feasibility for case review by typical clinicians. Producing the simplifying inventions, such as user-composable platforms that shift control to the user, may serve to promote productive EHR use and enhance its value as an instrument of patient care. PMID:25445921

Revisiting the Gamma-Ray Source 2FGL J1823.8+4312

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stern, Daniel; Assef, Roberto J.

2013-02-01

One of the great challenges of gamma-ray astronomy is identifying the lower energy counterparts to these high-energy sources. Recently, in this journal, Massaro et al. attempted to find the counterpart of 2FGL J1823.8+4312, a gamma-ray active galactic nucleus (AGN) of uncertain type from the Second Fermi Large Area Telescope catalog. After considering mid-infrared data in the field from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), those authors conclude that the preferred identification of 2FGL J1823.8+4312 is WISE J182352.33+431452.5, despite the fact that the mid-infrared source is undetected at radio energies. They claim that WISE J182352.33+431452.5 constitutes the discovery of a new class of extragalactic X-ray source, either a radio-faint blazar or the prototype of a new class of active galaxy with an enigmatic spectral energy distribution. This conclusion is claimed to be independent of whether or not the WISE source is the actual counterpart to 2FGL J1823.8+4312. Based on a re-analysis of public data in this field and new spectroscopy from Palomar, we conclude that WISE J182352.33+431452.5 is a dust-reddened quasar at z = 0.560, a representative example of a very common extragalactic AGN class. Were WISE J182352.33+431452.5 to be associated with the gamma-ray emission, this would be an unusual and exciting discovery. However, we argue that 2FGL J1823.8+4312 is more likely associated with either WISE J182409.25+431404.7 or, more likely, WISE J182419.04+430949.6, two radio-loud sources in the field. The former is a radio-loud quasar and the latter is an optically variable source with a featureless blue spectrum.

Psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the Body Weight, Image and Self-Esteem Evaluation Questionnaire in patients with severe mental disorders.

PubMed

Al-Halabi, Susana; Garcia-Portilla, Maria Paz; Saiz, Pilar Alejandra; Fonseca, Eduardo; Bobes-Bascaran, Maria Teresa; Galván, Gonzalo; Iglesias, Celso; Arrojo, Manuel; Benabarre, Antoni; Goikolea, José Manuel; Sanchez, Emilio; Sarramea, Fernando; Bobes, Julio

2012-11-01

Clinicians need brief and valid instruments to monitor the psychosocial impact of weight gain in persons with psychiatric disorders. We examined the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the Body Weight, Image and Self-Esteem Evaluation (B-WISE) questionnaire in patients with severe mental disorders. The data come from a naturalistic, cross-sectional, validation study conducted at 6 centres in Spain. A total of 211 outpatients with severe mental disorders, 118 with schizophrenia and 93 with bipolar disorder, were evaluated using the B-WISE, the Visual Analogue Scale for Weight and Body Image, and the Clinical Global Impression-Severity (CGI-S). The body mass index was also obtained. The principal component analysis confirms 3 components explaining 50.93% of the variance. The Cronbach α values for B-WISE scales ranged between .55 and .73. Significant Pearson correlations were found between B-WISE total score and CGI-S (r = -0.25; P < .001) and Visual Analogue Scale for Weight and Body Image (r = 0.47; P < .001). The B-WISE discriminates among patients with mild, moderate, and severe mental disorders according to CGI-S scores (F = 6.52; P < .005). Body mass index categorization significantly influenced total B-WISE scores (F = 3.586, P < .050). The B-WISE score corresponding to the 5th and 10th percentiles was 22. We were able to demonstrate that the Spanish version of the B-WISE is a valid instrument for assessing psychosocial impact of weight gain in patients with severe mental disorders in daily clinical practice. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A New Flow-Diverter (the FloWise): In-Vivo Evaluation in an Elastase-Induced Rabbit Aneurysm Model.

PubMed

Kim, Byung Moon; Kim, Dong Joon; Kim, Dong Ik

2016-01-01

We aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of a newly developed, partially retrievable flow-diverter (the FloWise) in an elastase-induced rabbit aneurysm model. We developed a partially retrievable flow diverter composed of 48 strands of Nitinol and platinum wire. The FloWise is compatible with any microcatheter of 0.027-inch inner diameter, and is retrievable up to 70% deployment. The efficacy and safety of the FloWise were evaluated in the elastase-induced rabbit aneurysm model. The rate of technical success (full coverage of aneurysm neck) and assessment of aneurysm occlusion and stent patency was conducted by angiograms and histologic examinations at the 1-month, 3-month, and 6-month follow-up. The patency of small arterial branches (intercostal or lumbar arteries) covered by the FloWise were also assessed in the 5 subjects. We attempted FloWise insertion in a total of 32 aneurysm models. FloWise placement was successful in 31 subjects (96.9%). Two stents (6.2%) were occluded at the 3-month follow-up, but there was no evidence of in-stent stenosis in other subjects. All stented aneurysms showed progressive occlusion: grade I (complete aneurysm occlusion) in 44.4% and grade II (aneurysm occlusion > 90%) in 55.6% at 1 month; grade I in 90% and II in 10% at 3 months; and grade I in 90% and II in 10% at 6 months. All small arterial branches covered by the FloWise remained patent. A newly developed, partially retrievable flow-diverter seems to be a safe and effective tool of aneurysm occlusion, as evaluated in the rabbit aneurysm model.

Detection of longitudinal visual field progression in glaucoma using machine learning.

PubMed

Yousefi, Siamak; Kiwaki, Taichi; Zheng, Yuhui; Suigara, Hiroki; Asaoka, Ryo; Murata, Hiroshi; Lemij, Hans; Yamanishi, Kenji

2018-06-16

Global indices of standard automated perimerty are insensitive to localized losses, while point-wise indices are sensitive but highly variable. Region-wise indices sit in between. This study introduces a machine-learning-based index for glaucoma progression detection that outperforms global, region-wise, and point-wise indices. Development and comparison of a prognostic index. Visual fields from 2085 eyes of 1214 subjects were used to identify glaucoma progression patterns using machine learning. Visual fields from 133 eyes of 71 glaucoma patients were collected 10 times over 10 weeks to provide a no-change, test-retest dataset. The parameters of all methods were identified using visual field sequences in the test-retest dataset to meet fixed 95% specificity. An independent dataset of 270 eyes of 136 glaucoma patients and survival analysis were utilized to compare methods. The time to detect progression in 25% of the eyes in the longitudinal dataset using global mean deviation (MD) was 5.2 years (95% confidence interval, 4.1 - 6.5 years); 4.5 years (4.0 - 5.5) using region-wise, 3.9 years (3.5 - 4.6) using point-wise, and 3.5 years (3.1 - 4.0) using machine learning analysis. The time until 25% of eyes showed subsequently confirmed progression after two additional visits were included were 6.6 years (5.6 - 7.4 years), 5.7 years (4.8 - 6.7), 5.6 years (4.7 - 6.5), and 5.1 years (4.5 - 6.0) for global, region-wise, point-wise, and machine learning analyses, respectively. Machine learning analysis detects progressing eyes earlier than other methods consistently, with or without confirmation visits. In particular, machine learning detects more slowly progressing eyes than other methods. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Wisdom in Context.

PubMed

Grossmann, Igor

2017-03-01

Philosophers and psychological scientists have converged on the idea that wisdom involves certain aspects of thinking (e.g., intellectual humility, recognition of uncertainty and change), enabling application of knowledge to life challenges. Empirical evidence indicates that people's ability to think wisely varies dramatically across experiential contexts that they encounter over the life span. Moreover, wise thinking varies from one situation to another, with self-focused contexts inhibiting wise thinking. Experiments can show ways to buffer thinking against bias in cases in which self-interests are unavoidable. Specifically, an ego-decentering cognitive mind-set enables wise thinking about personally meaningful issues. It appears that experiential, situational, and cultural factors are even more powerful in shaping wisdom than previously imagined. Focus on such contextual factors sheds new light on the processes underlying wise thought and its development, helps to integrate different approaches to studying wisdom, and has implications for measurement and development of wisdom-enhancing interventions.

Adaptive evolution of Escherichia coli to Ciprofloxacin in controlled stress environments: emergence of resistance in continuous and step-wise gradients

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Deng, J.; Zhou, L.; Dong, Y.; Sanford, R. A.; Shechtman, L. A.; Alcalde, R.; Werth, C. J.; Fouke, B. W.

2017-12-01

Microorganisms in nature have evolved in response to a variety of environmental stresses, including gradients in pH, flow and chemistry. While environmental stresses are generally considered to be the driving force of adaptive evolution, the impact and extent of any specific stress needed to drive such changes has not been well characterized. In this study, a microfluidic diffusion chamber (MDC) and a batch culturing system were used to systematically study the effects of continuous versus step-wise stress increments on adaptation of E. coli to the antibiotic ciprofloxacin. In the MDC, a diffusion gradient of ciprofloxacin was established across a microfluidic well array to microscopically observe changes in Escherichia coli strain 307 replication and migration patterns that would indicate emergence of resistance due to genetic mutations. Cells recovered from the MDC only had resistance of 50-times the original minimum inhibition concentration (MICoriginal) of ciprofloxacin, although minimum exposure concentrations were over 80 × MICoriginal by the end of the experiment. In complementary batch experiments, E. coli 307 were exposed to step-wise daily increases of ciprofloxacin at rates equivalent to 0.1×, 0.2×, 0.4× or 0.8× times MICoriginal/day. Over a period of 18 days, E. coli cells were able to acquire resistance of up to 225 × MICoriginal, with exposure to ciprofloxacin concentration up to only 14.9 × MIC­original. The different levels of acquired resistance in the continuous MDC versus step-wise batch increment experiments suggests that the intrinsic rate of E. coli adaptation was exceeded in the MDC, while the step-wise experiments favor adaptation to the highest ciprofloxacin experiments. Genomic analyses of E. coli DNA extracted from the microfluidic cell and batch cultures indicated four single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) mutations of amino acid 82, 83 and 87 in the gyrA gene. The progression of adaptation in the step-wise increments of ciprofloxacin indicate that the Ser83-Leu mutation gradually becomes dominant over other gyrA mutations with increased antibiotic resistance. Co-existence of the Ser83-Leu and Asp87—Gly mutations appear to provide the greatest level of resistance (i.e., 85 × to 225 × MICoriginal), and only emerged after the whole community acquired the Ser83—Leu mutation.

It's Easy To Be Wise after the Event: Concepts for Redesigning an Educational System on Logistics Derived from Reflecting Its Development and Use.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Neumann, Gaby; Ziems, Dietrich; Hopner, Christian

This paper introduces a multimedia-based educational system on logistics developed at the University of Magdeburg (Germany), reports on development and implementation of the prototype, and discusses ideas for redesign. The system was tested, used, and evaluated at the university and within a European network of 24 universities, colleges, and…

On Test-Wiseness and Some Related Constructs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nilsson, Ingvar; Wedman, Ingemar

1976-01-01

States that, due to confusion of concepts and lack of systemization, "previous studies are often difficult to interpret and consequently...afford little possibility of formulating more precise statements about those errors the concepts represent...." A proposal for systematization is presented. (Author/RW)

Step wise, multiple objective calibration of a hydrologic model for a snowmelt dominated basin

USGS Publications Warehouse

Hay, L.E.; Leavesley, G.H.; Clark, M.P.; Markstrom, S.L.; Viger, R.J.; Umemoto, M.

2006-01-01

The ability to apply a hydrologic model to large numbers of basins for forecasting purposes requires a quick and effective calibration strategy. This paper presents a step wise, multiple objective, automated procedure for hydrologic model calibration. This procedure includes the sequential calibration of a model's simulation of solar radiation (SR), potential evapotranspiration (PET), water balance, and daily runoff. The procedure uses the Shuffled Complex Evolution global search algorithm to calibrate the U.S. Geological Survey's Precipitation Runoff Modeling System in the Yampa River basin of Colorado. This process assures that intermediate states of the model (SR and PET on a monthly mean basis), as well as the water balance and components of the daily hydrograph are simulated, consistently with measured values.

Assessing High Order Thinking of Students Participating in the "WISE" Project in Israel.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tal, Revital; Hochberg, Nurit

2003-01-01

Studied the higher order thinking of 53 Israeli ninth graders in 3 schools using the Web-Based Inquiry Science Environment (WISE) learning environment to study about malaria. Findings show that all students used higher order thinking skills and that their English was good enough to use the WISE learning environment in the Israeli setting. (SLD)

Investigation of deformation mechanisms of staggered nanocomposites using molecular dynamics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mathiazhagan, S.; Anup, S.

2016-08-01

Biological materials with nanostructure of regularly or stair-wise staggered arrangements of hard platelets reinforced in a soft protein matrix have superior mechanical properties. Applications of these nanostructures to ceramic matrix composites could enhance their toughness. Using molecular dynamics simulations, mechanical behaviour of the bio-inspired nanocomposites is studied. Regularly staggered model shows better flow behaviour compared to stair-wise staggered model due to the symmetrical crack propagation along the interface. Though higher stiffness and strength are obtained for stair-wise staggered models, rapid crack propagation reduces the toughness. Arresting this crack propagation could lead to superior mechanical properties in stair-wise staggered models.

Is there a step-wise migration in Nigeria? A case study of the migrational histories of migrants in Lagos.

PubMed

Afolayan, A A

1985-09-01

"The paper sets out to test whether or not the movement pattern of people in Nigeria is step-wise. It examines the spatial order in the country and the movement pattern of people. It then analyzes the survey data and tests for the validity of step-wise migration in the country. The findings show that step-wise migration cannot adequately describe all the patterns observed." The presence of large-scale circulatory migration between rural and urban areas is noted. Ways to decrease the pressure on Lagos by developing intermediate urban areas are considered. excerpt

WISE and the Dusty Universe

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Benford, Dominic J.

2010-01-01

The Wide-field Infrared Survey is a medium class Explorer mission that was launched onl4Dec 2009. WISE should detect hundreds of millions of stars and galaxies, including millions of ULIRGS and QSOs; hundreds of thousands of asteroids; and hundreds of cold brown dwarfs. The telescope cover was ejected on 29 Dec 2009 and the all-sky survey started on 14 Jan 2010. WISE takes more the 7000 framesets per day, with each frameset covering 0.6 square degrees in four bands centered at 3.4, 4.6, 12 and 22 microns. WISE is well-suited to the discovery of brown dwarfs, ultraluminous infrared galaxies, and near-Earth objects. With an angular resolution of 6 arcsecouds at 12 microns, a 5(sigma) point-source sensitivity of around 1 mJy at 12 microns and 6 mJy at 22 microns, and coverage of over 99% of the sky, WISE also provides a powerful database for the study of the dusty ISM in our own galaxy. A preliminary release of WISE data will be made available to the community 6 months after the end of the cryogenic survey, or about May 2011. The final data release will be 11 months later, about April 2012.

The Aging Well through Interaction and Scientific Education (AgeWISE) Program.

PubMed

O'Connor, Maureen K; Kraft, Malissa L; Daley, Ryan; Sugarman, Michael A; Clark, Erika L; Scoglio, Arielle A J; Shirk, Steven D

2017-12-08

We conducted a randomized controlled trial of the Aging Well through Interaction and Scientific Education (AgeWISE) program, a 12-week manualized cognitive rehabilitation program designed to provide psychoeducation to older adults about the aging brain, lifestyle factors associated with successful brain aging, and strategies to compensate for age related cognitive decline. Forty-nine cognitively intact participants ≥ 60 years old were randomly assigned to the AgeWISE program (n = 25) or a no-treatment control group (n = 24). Questionnaire data were collected prior to group assignment and post intervention. Two-factor repeated-measures analyses of covariance (ANCOVAs) were used to compare group outcomes. Upon completion, participants in the AgeWISE program reported increases in memory contentment and their sense of control in improving memory; no significant changes were observed in the control group. Surprisingly, participation in the group was not associated with significant changes in knowledge of memory aging, perception of memory ability, or greater use of strategies. The AgeWISE program was successfully implemented and increased participants' memory contentment and their sense of control in improving memory in advancing age. This study supports the use of AgeWISE to improve perspectives on healthy cognitive aging.

Recent Asteroid Disruptions in the WISE Dataset - Constraining Asteroid Surface Properties Using Solar System Dust Bands

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kehoe, A. E.; Shaw, C.; Kehoe, T. J. J.

2017-12-01

Zodiacal dust bands are a fine-structure feature of the mid-IR emission profile of the zodiacal cloud. The dust bands have been studied for many years dating back to the InfraRed Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) data of the 1980's. The recent discovery and modeling (Espy et al., 2009; 2010; Espy Kehoe et al., 2015) of a very young, still-forming dust band structure has shown that, in the early stages following an asteroid disruption, much information on the dust parameters of the original disruption is retained in the band. Partial dust bands allow a never-before-seen observational look at the size distribution and cross-sectional area of dust produced in an asteroidal disruption, before it has been lost or significantly altered by orbital and collisional decay. The study of these partial band structures reveals information on the way asteroids disrupt and allow us to reconstruct the surface properties of the parent asteroid, including the depth of the surface regolith and the size distribution of particles composing the regolith. Using the greatly increased sensitivity of the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), we can now detect much fainter (and thus younger) dust bands. The WISE data also reveals much better longitudinal resolution of the bands, allowing a better constraint on the source and age of the disruption. We will present our newest results from the WISE dataset, including detection of faint partial dust bands, improved models of more prominent bands, and our constraints on the asteroid surface properties from modeling these structures.

The Coldest Discoveries of Backyard Worlds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Faherty, Jacqueline; Kuchner, Marc; Logsdon, Sarah; Bardalez Gagliuffi, Daniella; Meisner, Aaron; Schneider, Adam; Gagne, Jonathan; Caselden, Dan

2018-05-01

Over the past five years, our view of the local solar neighborhood has changed drastically thanks to the Wide Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). Not only did WISE redefine the five closest systems to the Sun with the discovery of Luhman16AB and WISE0855, but it also revealed the Sun's closest fly by and it defined an entirely new class of extremely cold and close compact objects: the Y dwarfs. At present, all but two of the Y dwarfs were discovered through a WISE single epoch photometric identification. As a whole, these objects are of critical importance to identifying the efficiency of star formation at the lowest masses. As individuals, each of these objects represents a unique probe into the complex chemistry present in the coldest photospheres produced in the Universe. Every single Y dwarf discovered is an observational treasure. In February 2017, we launched a citizen science project called Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 with the intention of scanning the entire sky using not just photometric information but positional as well to identify the coldest, closest, and fastest moving objects near the Sun. In this Spitzer Cycle 14 proposal, we have identified 65 tantalizingly fast moving objects that appear to be extremely cold hence potentially among the Sun's nearest neighbors. We ask for 26.8 hours with Spitzer to obtain critical ch1 and ch2 photometry as well as astrometric information (to confirm motion) which will allow us to characterize these new cold brown dwarf neighbors. The coldest objects discovered through this proposal will be important follow-up targets for JWST spectroscopy.

Computer-aided discovery of debris disk candidates: A case study using the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) catalog

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nguyen, T.; Pankratius, V.; Eckman, L.; Seager, S.

2018-04-01

Debris disks around stars other than the Sun have received significant attention in studies of exoplanets, specifically exoplanetary system formation. Since debris disks are major sources of infrared emissions, infrared survey data such as the Wide-Field Infrared Survey (WISE) catalog potentially harbors numerous debris disk candidates. However, it is currently challenging to perform disk candidate searches for over 747 million sources in the WISE catalog due to the high probability of false positives caused by interstellar matter, galaxies, and other background artifacts. Crowdsourcing techniques have thus started to harness citizen scientists for debris disk identification since humans can be easily trained to distinguish between desired artifacts and irrelevant noises. With a limited number of citizen scientists, however, increasing data volumes from large surveys will inevitably lead to analysis bottlenecks. To overcome this scalability problem and push the current limits of automated debris disk candidate identification, we present a novel approach that uses citizen science results as a seed to train machine learning based classification. In this paper, we detail a case study with a computer-aided discovery pipeline demonstrating such feasibility based on WISE catalog data and NASA's Disk Detective project. Our approach of debris disk candidates classification was shown to be robust under a wide range of image quality and features. Our hybrid approach of citizen science with algorithmic scalability can facilitate big data processing for future detections as envisioned in future missions such as the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST).

Fixed Pattern Noise pixel-wise linear correction for crime scene imaging CMOS sensor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Jie; Messinger, David W.; Dube, Roger R.; Ientilucci, Emmett J.

2017-05-01

Filtered multispectral imaging technique might be a potential method for crime scene documentation and evidence detection due to its abundant spectral information as well as non-contact and non-destructive nature. Low-cost and portable multispectral crime scene imaging device would be highly useful and efficient. The second generation crime scene imaging system uses CMOS imaging sensor to capture spatial scene and bandpass Interference Filters (IFs) to capture spectral information. Unfortunately CMOS sensors suffer from severe spatial non-uniformity compared to CCD sensors and the major cause is Fixed Pattern Noise (FPN). IFs suffer from "blue shift" effect and introduce spatial-spectral correlated errors. Therefore, Fixed Pattern Noise (FPN) correction is critical to enhance crime scene image quality and is also helpful for spatial-spectral noise de-correlation. In this paper, a pixel-wise linear radiance to Digital Count (DC) conversion model is constructed for crime scene imaging CMOS sensor. Pixel-wise conversion gain Gi,j and Dark Signal Non-Uniformity (DSNU) Zi,j are calculated. Also, conversion gain is divided into four components: FPN row component, FPN column component, defects component and effective photo response signal component. Conversion gain is then corrected to average FPN column and row components and defects component so that the sensor conversion gain is uniform. Based on corrected conversion gain and estimated image incident radiance from the reverse of pixel-wise linear radiance to DC model, corrected image spatial uniformity can be enhanced to 7 times as raw image, and the bigger the image DC value within its dynamic range, the better the enhancement.

Measuring pair-wise molecular interactions in a complex mixture

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chakraborty, Krishnendu; Varma, Manoj M.; Venkatapathi, Murugesan

2016-03-01

Complex biological samples such as serum contain thousands of proteins and other molecules spanning up to 13 orders of magnitude in concentration. Present measurement techniques do not permit the analysis of all pair-wise interactions between the components of such a complex mixture to a given target molecule. In this work we explore the use of nanoparticle tags which encode the identity of the molecule to obtain the statistical distribution of pair-wise interactions using their Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance (LSPR) signals. The nanoparticle tags are chosen such that the binding between two molecules conjugated to the respective nanoparticle tags can be recognized by the coupling of their LSPR signals. This numerical simulation is done by DDA to investigate this approach using a reduced system consisting of three nanoparticles (a gold ellipsoid with aspect ratio 2.5 and short axis 16 nm, and two silver ellipsoids with aspect ratios 3 and 2 and short axes 8 nm and 10 nm respectively) and the set of all possible dimers formed between them. Incident light was circularly polarized and all possible particle and dimer orientations were considered. We observed that minimum peak separation between two spectra is 5 nm while maximum is 184nm.

'Witch Head' Brews Baby Stars

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

A witch appears to be screaming out into space in this new image from NASA's Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE. The infrared portrait shows the Witch Head nebula, named after its resemblance to the profile of a wicked witch. Astronomers say the billowy clouds of the nebula, where baby stars are brewing, are being lit up by massive stars. Dust in the cloud is being hit with starlight, causing it to glow with infrared light, which was picked up by WISE's detectors. The Witch Head nebula is estimated to be hundreds of light-years away in the Orion constellation, just off the famous hunter's knee. WISE was recently "awakened" to hunt for asteroids in a program called NEOWISE. The reactivation came after the spacecraft was put into hibernation in 2011, when it completed two full scans of the sky, as planned. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

DISK DETECTIVE: DISCOVERY OF NEW CIRCUMSTELLAR DISK CANDIDATES THROUGH CITIZEN SCIENCE

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

Kuchner, Marc J.; McElwain, Michael; Padgett, Deborah L.

The Disk Detective citizen science project aims to find new stars with 22 μ m excess emission from circumstellar dust using data from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer ( WISE ) mission. Initial cuts on the AllWISE catalog provide an input catalog of 277,686 sources. Volunteers then view images of each source online in 10 different bands to identify false positives (galaxies, interstellar matter, image artifacts, etc.). Sources that survive this online vetting are followed up with spectroscopy on the FLWO Tillinghast telescope. This approach should allow us to unleash the full potential of WISE for finding new debris disksmore » and protoplanetary disks. We announce a first list of 37 new disk candidates discovered by the project, and we describe our vetting and follow-up process. One of these systems appears to contain the first debris disk discovered around a star with a white dwarf companion: HD 74389. We also report four newly discovered classical Be stars (HD 6612, HD 7406, HD 164137, and HD 218546) and a new detection of 22 μ m excess around the previously known debris disk host star HD 22128.« less

Layer moduli of Nebraska pavements for the new Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG).

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2010-12-01

As a step-wise implementation effort of the Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG) for the design : and analysis of Nebraska flexible pavement systems, this research developed a database of layer moduli dynamic : modulus, creep compl...

EPA MODELING TOOLS FOR CAPTURE ZONE DELINEATION

EPA Science Inventory

The EPA Office of Research and Development supports a step-wise modeling approach for design of wellhead protection areas for water supply wells. A web-based WellHEDSS (wellhead decision support system) is under development for determining when simple capture zones (e.g., centri...

Two Stochastic Phases of Tick-wise Price Fluctuation and the Price Prediction Generator

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tanaka-Yamawaki, Mieko; Tokuoka, Seiji

2007-07-01

We report in this paper the existence of two different stochastic phases in the tick-wise price fluctuations. Based on this observation, we improve our old method of developing the evolutional strategy to predict the direction of the tick-wise price movements. We obtain a stable predictive power even in the region where the old method had a difficulty.

Sun Savvy Students: Free Teaching Resources from EPA's SunWise Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hall-Jordan, Luke

2008-01-01

With summer in full swing and the sun is naturally on our minds, what better time to take advantage of a host of free materials provided by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Sun Wise program. Sun Wise aims to teach students and teachers about the stratospheric ozone layer, ultraviolet (UV) radiation, and how to be safe while in the Sun.…

The Waste Wise Schools Program: Evidence of Educational, Environmental, Social and Economic Outcomes at the School and Community Level

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Armstrong, Patricia; Sharpley, Brian; Malcolm, Stephen

2004-01-01

The Waste Wise Schools Program was established by EcoRecycle Victoria to implement waste and litter education in Victorian schools. It is now operating in over 900 schools in Victoria and 300 schools in other Australian states / territories. This paper provides detailed case studies of two active schools in the Waste Wise Schools Program and…

On the Progenitor System of V392 Persei

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Darnley, M. J.; Starrfield, S.

2018-05-01

A discussion regarding the progenitor system of the nova and dwarf nova system V392 Persei using archival data from 2MASS and WISE. We find that the system is unlikely to contain a luminous red giant donor (i.e. a symbiotic system), but cannot exclude the presence of a lower luminosity red giant or a sub-giant donor. The similarity of the SED of the quiescent V392 Per to that of GK Persei is noted.

Cost estimating Brayton and Stirling engines

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fortgang, H. R.

1980-01-01

Brayton and Stirling engines were analyzed for cost and selling price for production quantities ranging from 1000 to 400,000 units per year. Parts and components were subjected to indepth scrutiny to determine optimum manufacturing processes coupled with make or buy decisions on materials and small parts. Tooling and capital equipment costs were estimated for each detail and/or assembly. For low annual production volumes, the Brayton engine appears to have a lower cost and selling price than the Stirling Engine. As annual production quantities increase, the Stirling becomes a lower cost engine than the Brayton. Both engines could benefit cost wise if changes were made in materials, design and manufacturing process as annual production quantities increase.

Referral Coordination in the Next TRICARE Contract Environment: A Case Study Applying Failure Mode Effects Analysis

DTIC Science & Technology

2004-06-13

antiquity. Plutarch is credited for saying in Morals--Against Colotes the Epicurean, "For to err in opinion, though it be not the part of wise men, it is at...least human" ( Plutarch , AD 110). Of the 5 definitions for error given in Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, the third one listed "an act that...Identifying and managing inappropriate hospital utilization: A policy synthesis. Health Services Research, 22(5), 710-57. Plutarch . (AD 110) . Worldofquotes

Stimulus-related independent component and voxel-wise analysis of human brain activity during free viewing of a feature film.

PubMed

Lahnakoski, Juha M; Salmi, Juha; Jääskeläinen, Iiro P; Lampinen, Jouko; Glerean, Enrico; Tikka, Pia; Sams, Mikko

2012-01-01

Understanding how the brain processes stimuli in a rich natural environment is a fundamental goal of neuroscience. Here, we showed a feature film to 10 healthy volunteers during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of hemodynamic brain activity. We then annotated auditory and visual features of the motion picture to inform analysis of the hemodynamic data. The annotations were fitted to both voxel-wise data and brain network time courses extracted by independent component analysis (ICA). Auditory annotations correlated with two independent components (IC) disclosing two functional networks, one responding to variety of auditory stimulation and another responding preferentially to speech but parts of the network also responding to non-verbal communication. Visual feature annotations correlated with four ICs delineating visual areas according to their sensitivity to different visual stimulus features. In comparison, a separate voxel-wise general linear model based analysis disclosed brain areas preferentially responding to sound energy, speech, music, visual contrast edges, body motion and hand motion which largely overlapped the results revealed by ICA. Differences between the results of IC- and voxel-based analyses demonstrate that thorough analysis of voxel time courses is important for understanding the activity of specific sub-areas of the functional networks, while ICA is a valuable tool for revealing novel information about functional connectivity which need not be explained by the predefined model. Our results encourage the use of naturalistic stimuli and tasks in cognitive neuroimaging to study how the brain processes stimuli in rich natural environments.

Stimulus-Related Independent Component and Voxel-Wise Analysis of Human Brain Activity during Free Viewing of a Feature Film

PubMed Central

Lahnakoski, Juha M.; Salmi, Juha; Jääskeläinen, Iiro P.; Lampinen, Jouko; Glerean, Enrico; Tikka, Pia; Sams, Mikko

2012-01-01

Understanding how the brain processes stimuli in a rich natural environment is a fundamental goal of neuroscience. Here, we showed a feature film to 10 healthy volunteers during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of hemodynamic brain activity. We then annotated auditory and visual features of the motion picture to inform analysis of the hemodynamic data. The annotations were fitted to both voxel-wise data and brain network time courses extracted by independent component analysis (ICA). Auditory annotations correlated with two independent components (IC) disclosing two functional networks, one responding to variety of auditory stimulation and another responding preferentially to speech but parts of the network also responding to non-verbal communication. Visual feature annotations correlated with four ICs delineating visual areas according to their sensitivity to different visual stimulus features. In comparison, a separate voxel-wise general linear model based analysis disclosed brain areas preferentially responding to sound energy, speech, music, visual contrast edges, body motion and hand motion which largely overlapped the results revealed by ICA. Differences between the results of IC- and voxel-based analyses demonstrate that thorough analysis of voxel time courses is important for understanding the activity of specific sub-areas of the functional networks, while ICA is a valuable tool for revealing novel information about functional connectivity which need not be explained by the predefined model. Our results encourage the use of naturalistic stimuli and tasks in cognitive neuroimaging to study how the brain processes stimuli in rich natural environments. PMID:22496909

Synergy of WISE and SDSS in Stripe 82

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Musin, Marat; Yan, Haojing

2018-06-01

We report the current results from our effort to synergize WISE and SDSS in the ~ 300 sq. degree Stripe 82 region. Using the SDSS images as the prior, we fit the SDSS-detected objects to the WISE W1/W2 images to obtain consistent optical-to-IR SEDs. The major outcome will consist of two catalogs: (1) one is the "SDSS-WISE" photometric catalog on ~ 22 million SDSS-detected sources, and (2) the other one is the "WoDrop" catalog that are optical-dropouts detected on the residual W1/W2 images that do not have SDSS counterparts. The applications and the implications of our results will be briefly discussed.

A node-wise analysis of the uterine muscle networks for pregnancy monitoring.

PubMed

Nader, N; Hassan, M; Falou, W; Marque, C; Khalil, M

2016-08-01

The recent past years have seen a noticeable increase of interest in the correlation analysis of electrohysterographic (EHG) signals in the perspective of improving the pregnancy monitoring. Here we propose a new approach based on the functional connectivity between multichannel (4×4 matrix) EHG signals recorded from the women's abdomen. The proposed pipeline includes i) the computation of the statistical couplings between the multichannel EHG signals, ii) the characterization of the connectivity matrices, computed by using the imaginary part of the coherence, based on the graph-theory analysis and iii) the use of these measures for pregnancy monitoring. The method was evaluated on a dataset of EHGs, in order to track the correlation between EHGs collected by each electrode of the matrix (called `node-wise' analysis) and follow their evolution along weeks before labor. Results showed that the strength of each node significantly increases from pregnancy to labor. Electrodes located on the median vertical axis of the uterus seemed to be the more discriminant. We speculate that the network-based analysis can be a very promising tool to improve pregnancy monitoring.

Beyond signal functions in global obstetric care: Using a clinical cascade to measure emergency obstetric readiness

PubMed Central

Dettinger, Julia; Calkins, Kimberly; Kibore, Minnie; Gachuno, Onesmus; Walker, Dilys

2018-01-01

Background Globally, the rate of reduction in delivery-associated maternal and perinatal mortality has been slow compared to improvements in post-delivery mortality in children under five. Improving clinical readiness for basic obstetric emergencies is crucial for reducing facility-based maternal deaths. Emergency readiness is commonly assessed using tracers derived from the maternal signal functions model. Objective-method We compare emergency readiness using the signal functions model and a novel clinical cascade. The cascades model readiness as the proportion of facilities with resources to identify the emergency (stage 1), treat it (stage 2) and monitor-modify therapy (stage 3). Data were collected from 44 Kenyan clinics as part of an implementation trial. Findings Although most facilities (77.0%) stock maternal signal function tracer drugs, far fewer have resources to practically identify and treat emergencies. In hypertensive emergencies for example, 38.6% of facilities have resources to identify the emergency (Stage 1 readiness, including sphygmomanometer, stethoscope, urine collection device, protein test). 6.8% have the resources to treat the emergency (Stage 2, consumables (IV Kit, fluids), durable goods (IV pole) and drugs (magnesium sulfate and hydralazine). No facilities could monitor or modify therapy (Stage 3). Across five maternal emergencies, the signal functions overestimate readiness by 54.5%. A consistent, step-wise pattern of readiness loss across signal functions and care stage emerged and was profoundly consistent at 33.0%. Significance Comparing estimates from the maternal signal functions and cascades illustrates four themes. First, signal functions overestimate practical readiness by 55%. Second, the cascade’s intuitive indicators can support cross-sector health system or program planners to more precisely measure and improve emergency care. Third, adding few variables to existing readiness inventories permits step-wise modeling of readiness loss and can inform more precise interventions. Fourth, the novel aggregate readiness loss indicator provides an innovative and intuitive approach for modeling health system emergency readiness. Additional testing in diverse contexts is warranted. PMID:29474397

Power systems and requirements for the integration of smart structures into aircraft

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lockyer, Allen J.; Martin, Christopher A.; Lindner, Douglas K.; Walia, Paramjit S.

2002-07-01

Electrical power distribution for recently developed smart actuators becomes an important air-vehicle challenge if projected smart actuation benefits are to be met. Among the items under development are variable shape inlets and control surfaces that utilize shape memory alloys (SMA); full span, chord-wise and span-wise contouring trailing control surfaces that use SMA or piezoelectric materials for actuation; and other strain-based actuators for buffet load alleviation, flutter suppression and flow control. At first glance, such technologies afford overall vehicle performance improvement, however, integration system impacts have yet to be determined or quantified. Power systems to support smart structures initiatives are the focus of the current paper. The paper has been organized into five main topics for further discussion: (1) air-vehicle power system architectures - standard and advanced distribution concepts for actuators, (2) smart wing actuator power requirements and results - highlighting wind tunnel power measurements from shape memory alloy and piezoelectric ultrasonic motor actuated control surfaces and different dynamic pressure and angle of attack; (3) vehicle electromagnetic effects (EME) issues, (4) power supply design considerations for smart actuators - featuring the aircraft power and actuator interface, and (5) summary and conclusions.

A Route to Well-being: Intelligence vs. Wise Reasoning

PubMed Central

Grossmann, Igor; Na, Jinkyung; Varnum, Michael E.W.; Kitayama, Shinobu; Nisbett, Richard E.

2012-01-01

Laypeople and many social scientists assume that superior reasoning abilities lead to greater well-being. However, previous research has been inconclusive. This may be because prior investigators used operationalizations of reasoning that favored analytic as opposed to wise thinking. We assessed wisdom in terms of the degree to which people use various pragmatic schemas to deal with social conflicts. With a random sample of Americans we found that wise reasoning is associated with greater life satisfaction, less negative affect, better social relationships, less depressive rumination, more positive vs. negative words used in speech, and greater longevity. The relationship between wise reasoning and well-being held even when controlling for socio-economic factors, verbal abilities, and several personality traits. As in prior work there was no association between intelligence and well-being. Further, wise reasoning mediated age-related differences in well-being, particularly among the middle-aged and older adults. Implications for research on reasoning, well-being and aging are discussed. PMID:22866683

Risk management in the North sea offshore industry: History, status and challenges

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Smith, E. J.

1995-10-01

There have been major changes in the UK and Norwegian offshore safety regimes in the last decade. On the basis of accumulated experience (including some major accidents), there has been a move away from a rigid, prescriptive approach to setting safety standards; it is now recognised that a more flexible, "goal-setting" approach is more suited to achieving cost-effective solutions to offshore safety. In order to adapt to this approach, offshore operators are increasingly using Quantitative Risk Assessment (QRA) techniques as part of their risk management programmes. Structured risk assessment can be used at all stages of a project life-cycle. In the design stages (concept and detailed design), these techniques are valuable tools in ensuring that money is wisely spent on safety-related systems. In the operational stage, QRA can aid the development of procedures. High quality Safety Management Systems (SMSs), covering issues such as training, inspection, and emergency planning, are crucial to maintain "asdesigned" levels of safety and reliability. Audits of SMSs should be carried out all through the operational phase to ensure that risky conditions do not accumulate.

Data transmission and acquisition in NEMO

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bunkheila, G.

2006-11-01

A comprehensive system for data transmission and acquisition has been developed for an "à la NEMO" underwater neutrino telescope based on Čerenkov light detection using photomultipliers (PMTs) as sensors. Signals generated by each sensor are triggered, sampled and tagged by an electronics board, called Front End Module (FEM). Data streams from up to eight FEMs located on one tower floor are collected by a concentration board called Floor Control Module (FCM) and sent to a twin FCM board—located at the onshore station and plugged into an interface machine (FCM Interface, or FCMI) via a PCI bus—through a DWDM-compliant optical fiber and using a self-synchronous serial protocol. All sensor data reach the onshore lab through FCMI where they are made available to subsequent elaboration processes, such as time-wise alignment and muon track event-triggering. To meet requirements of the latter, onshore data unpacking is carried out with respect to their topological origin. The system promised, and keeps on showing, very light charges on power consumption and infrastructure complexity, while having recently proved to behave at high performance levels in its optical part.

GEO Collisional Risk Assessment Based on Analysis of NASA-WISE Data and Modeling

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-10-18

GEO Collisional Risk Assessment Based on Analysis of NASA -WISE Data and Modeling Jeremy Murray Krezan1, Samantha Howard1, Phan D. Dao1, Derek...Surka2 1AFRL Space Vehicles Directorate,2Applied Technology Associates Incorporated From December 2009 through 2011 the NASA Wide-Field Infrared...of known debris. The NASA -WISE GEO belt debris population adds potentially thousands previously uncataloged objects. This paper describes

The Level of Test-Wiseness for the Students of Arts and Science Faculty at Sharourah and Its Relationship with Some Variables

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Otoum, Abedalqader; Khalaf, Hisham Bani; Bajbeer, Abedalqader; Hamad, Hassan Bani

2015-01-01

This study aimed to identify the level of using Test-wiseness strategies for the students of arts and sciences Faculty at Sharourah and its relationship with some variables. a questionnaire was designed which consisted of (29) items measuring three domains of Test-wiseness strategies. It was applied on a sample which consisted of (299) students.…

Simulating (log(c) n)-wise Independence in NC

DTIC Science & Technology

1989-05-01

independent) distribution. However, Xk (A) = (1x(I))k = Z Z y (i,)...X(ik). iEA ijEAi 2 EA IkEA So Lemma 2.4 applies to show that any k-wise independent...AEA AEAi1EA ikEA So henceforth we want an X such that F(X) >_ E[F(X)]. 2.5 Generating k-Wise Independent Variables It still remains to demonstrate a k

Piezoelectrically actuated flextensional micromachined ultrasound transducers--I: theory.

PubMed

Perçin, Gökhan; Khuri-Yakub, Butrus T

2002-05-01

This series of two papers considers piezoelectrically actuated flextensional micromachined ultrasound transducers (PAFMUTs) and consists of theory, fabrication, and experimental parts. The theory presented in this paper is developed for an ultrasound transducer application presented in the second part. In the absence of analytical expressions for the equivalent circuit parameters of a flextensional transducer, it is difficult to calculate its optimal parameters and dimensions and difficult to choose suitable materials. The influence of coupling between flexural and extensional deformation and that of coupling between the structure and the acoustic volume on the dynamic response of piezoelectrically actuated flextensional transducer are analyzed using two analytical methods: classical thin (Kirchhoff) plate theory and Mindlin plate theory. Classical thin plate theory and Mindlin plate theory are applied to derive two-dimensional plate equations for the transducer and to calculate the coupled electromechanical field variables such as mechanical displacement and electrical input impedance. In these methods, the variations across the thickness direction vanish by using the bending moments per unit length or stress resultants. Thus, two-dimensional plate equations for a step-wise laminated circular plate are obtained as well as two different solutions to the corresponding systems. An equivalent circuit of the transducer is also obtained from these solutions.

Do choosing wisely tools meet criteria for patient decision aids? A descriptive analysis of patient materials

PubMed Central

Légaré, France; Hébert, Jessica; Goh, Larissa; Lewis, Krystina B; Leiva Portocarrero, Maria Ester; Robitaille, Hubert; Stacey, Dawn

2016-01-01

Objectives Choosing Wisely is a remarkable physician-led campaign to reduce unnecessary or harmful health services. Some of the literature identifies Choosing Wisely as a shared decision-making approach. We evaluated the patient materials developed by Choosing Wisely Canada to determine whether they meet the criteria for shared decision-making tools known as patient decision aids. Design Descriptive analysis of all Choosing Wisely Canada patient materials. Data source In May 2015, we selected all Choosing Wisely Canada patient materials from its official website. Main outcomes and measures Four team members independently extracted characteristics of the English materials using the International Patient Decision Aid Standards (IPDAS) modified 16-item minimum criteria for qualifying and certifying patient decision aids. The research team discussed discrepancies between data extractors and reached a consensus. Descriptive analysis was conducted. Results Of the 24 patient materials assessed, 12 were about treatments, 11 were about screening and 1 was about prevention. The median score for patient materials using IPDAS criteria was 10/16 (range: 8–11) for screening topics and 6/12 (range: 6–9) for prevention and treatment topics. Commonly missed criteria were stating the decision (21/24 did not), providing balanced information on option benefits/harms (24/24 did not), citing evidence (24/24 did not) and updating policy (24/24 did not). Out of 24 patient materials, only 2 met the 6 IPDAS criteria to qualify as patient decision aids, and neither of these 2 met the 6 certifying criteria. Conclusions Patient materials developed by Choosing Wisely Canada do not meet the IPDAS minimal qualifying or certifying criteria for patient decision aids. Modifications to the Choosing Wisely Canada patient materials would help to ensure that they qualify as patient decision aids and thus as more effective shared decision-making tools. PMID:27566638

Solar radiation - to - power generation models for one-axis tracking PV system with on-site measurements from Eskisehir, Turkey

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Filik, Tansu; Başaran Filik, Ümmühan; Nezih Gerek, Ömer

2017-11-01

In this study, new analytic models are proposed for mapping on-site global solar radiation values to electrical power output values in solar photovoltaic (PV) panels. The model extraction is achieved by simultaneously recording solar radiation and generated power from fixed and tracking panels, each with capacity of 3 kW, in Eskisehir (Turkey) region. It is shown that the relation between the solar radiation and the corresponding electric power is not only nonlinear, but it also exhibits an interesting time-varying characteristic in the form of a hysteresis function. This observed radiation-to-power relation is, then, analytically modelled with three piece-wise function parts (corresponding to morning, noon and evening times), which is another novel contribution of this work. The model is determined for both fixed panels and panels with a tracking system. Especially the panel system with a dynamic tracker produces a harmonically richer (with higher values in general) characteristic, so higher order polynomial models are necessary for the construction of analytical solar radiation models. The presented models, characteristics of the hysteresis functions, and differences in the fixed versus solar-tracking panels are expected to provide valuable insight for further model based researches.

Title: Characterizing a Frozen Extrasolar World

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Skemer, Andrew J.; Morley, Caroline V.; Allers, Katelyn N.; Geballe, Thomas R.; Marley, Mark S.; Fortney, Jonathan J.; Faherty, Jacqueline K.; Bjoraker, Gordon L.

2016-01-01

The recently discovered brown dwarf WISE 0855 presents our first opportunity to study an object outside the Solar System that is nearly as cold as our own gas giant planets. However the traditional methodology for characterizing brown dwarfs-near infrared spectroscopy-is not currently feasible as WISE 0855 is too cold and faint. To characterize this frozen extrasolar world we obtained a 4.5-5.2 micrometers spectrum, the same bandpass long used to study Jupiter's deep thermal emission. Our spectrum reveals the presence of atmospheric water vapor and clouds, with an absorption profile that is strikingly similar to Jupiter. The spectrum is high enough quality to allow the investigation of dynamical and chemical processes that have long been studied in Jupiter's atmosphere, but this time on an extrasolar world.

Estimation of (co)variances for genomic regions of flexible sizes: application to complex infectious udder diseases in dairy cattle

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background Multi-trait genomic models in a Bayesian context can be used to estimate genomic (co)variances, either for a complete genome or for genomic regions (e.g. per chromosome) for the purpose of multi-trait genomic selection or to gain further insight into the genomic architecture of related traits such as mammary disease traits in dairy cattle. Methods Data on progeny means of six traits related to mastitis resistance in dairy cattle (general mastitis resistance and five pathogen-specific mastitis resistance traits) were analyzed using a bivariate Bayesian SNP-based genomic model with a common prior distribution for the marker allele substitution effects and estimation of the hyperparameters in this prior distribution from the progeny means data. From the Markov chain Monte Carlo samples of the allele substitution effects, genomic (co)variances were calculated on a whole-genome level, per chromosome, and in regions of 100 SNP on a chromosome. Results Genomic proportions of the total variance differed between traits. Genomic correlations were lower than pedigree-based genetic correlations and they were highest between general mastitis and pathogen-specific traits because of the part-whole relationship between these traits. The chromosome-wise genomic proportions of the total variance differed between traits, with some chromosomes explaining higher or lower values than expected in relation to chromosome size. Few chromosomes showed pleiotropic effects and only chromosome 19 had a clear effect on all traits, indicating the presence of QTL with a general effect on mastitis resistance. The region-wise patterns of genomic variances differed between traits. Peaks indicating QTL were identified but were not very distinctive because a common prior for the marker effects was used. There was a clear difference in the region-wise patterns of genomic correlation among combinations of traits, with distinctive peaks indicating the presence of pleiotropic QTL. Conclusions The results show that it is possible to estimate, genome-wide and region-wise genomic (co)variances of mastitis resistance traits in dairy cattle using multivariate genomic models. PMID:22640006

VizieR Online Data Catalog: Luminosity and redshift of galaxies from WISE/SDSS (Toba+, 2014)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Toba, Y.; Oyabu, S.; Matsuhara, H.; Malkan, M. A.; Gandhi, P.; Nakagawa, T.; Isobe, N.; Shirahata, M.; Oi, N.; Ohyama, Y.; Takita, S.; Yamauchi, C.; Yano, K.

2017-07-01

We selected 12 and 22 um flux-limited galaxies based on the WISE (Cat. II/311) and SDSS (Cat. II/294) catalogs, and these galaxies were then classified into five types according to their optical spectroscopic information in the SDSS catalog. For spectroscopically classified galaxies, we constructed the luminosity functions using the 1/Vmax method, considering the detection limit of the WISE and SDSS catalogs. (1 data file).

Be Water Wise.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Birch, Sandra K.; Pettus, Alvin M.

Various topics on water and water conservation are discussed, each general topic followed by a student activity. Topics include: (1) importance of water; (2) water in the environment; (3) getting water to and from homes (making water usable; treating wastewater; on-site systems, including water wells and septic tanks); (4) relationship between…

IRSA

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Ipac_logo NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive Search for Source Search Radius 10 deg arcmin arcsec Guide for Solar System Observers Search Catalog: WISE 2MASS Spitzer Planck Herschel Gaia COSMOS PTF IRAS MSX AKARI Bolocam USNO DENIS Composite_Catalogs Contributed_Data_Sets INTERNALS Search Catalogs

Automatic recognition of 3D GGO CT imaging signs through the fusion of hybrid resampling and layer-wise fine-tuning CNNs.

PubMed

Han, Guanghui; Liu, Xiabi; Zheng, Guangyuan; Wang, Murong; Huang, Shan

2018-06-06

Ground-glass opacity (GGO) is a common CT imaging sign on high-resolution CT, which means the lesion is more likely to be malignant compared to common solid lung nodules. The automatic recognition of GGO CT imaging signs is of great importance for early diagnosis and possible cure of lung cancers. The present GGO recognition methods employ traditional low-level features and system performance improves slowly. Considering the high-performance of CNN model in computer vision field, we proposed an automatic recognition method of 3D GGO CT imaging signs through the fusion of hybrid resampling and layer-wise fine-tuning CNN models in this paper. Our hybrid resampling is performed on multi-views and multi-receptive fields, which reduces the risk of missing small or large GGOs by adopting representative sampling panels and processing GGOs with multiple scales simultaneously. The layer-wise fine-tuning strategy has the ability to obtain the optimal fine-tuning model. Multi-CNN models fusion strategy obtains better performance than any single trained model. We evaluated our method on the GGO nodule samples in publicly available LIDC-IDRI dataset of chest CT scans. The experimental results show that our method yields excellent results with 96.64% sensitivity, 71.43% specificity, and 0.83 F1 score. Our method is a promising approach to apply deep learning method to computer-aided analysis of specific CT imaging signs with insufficient labeled images. Graphical abstract We proposed an automatic recognition method of 3D GGO CT imaging signs through the fusion of hybrid resampling and layer-wise fine-tuning CNN models in this paper. Our hybrid resampling reduces the risk of missing small or large GGOs by adopting representative sampling panels and processing GGOs with multiple scales simultaneously. The layer-wise fine-tuning strategy has ability to obtain the optimal fine-tuning model. Our method is a promising approach to apply deep learning method to computer-aided analysis of specific CT imaging signs with insufficient labeled images.

An efficient and secure partial image encryption for wireless multimedia sensor networks using discrete wavelet transform, chaotic maps and substitution box

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Khan, Muazzam A.; Ahmad, Jawad; Javaid, Qaisar; Saqib, Nazar A.

2017-03-01

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) is widely deployed in monitoring of some physical activity and/or environmental conditions. Data gathered from WSN is transmitted via network to a central location for further processing. Numerous applications of WSN can be found in smart homes, intelligent buildings, health care, energy efficient smart grids and industrial control systems. In recent years, computer scientists has focused towards findings more applications of WSN in multimedia technologies, i.e. audio, video and digital images. Due to bulky nature of multimedia data, WSN process a large volume of multimedia data which significantly increases computational complexity and hence reduces battery time. With respect to battery life constraints, image compression in addition with secure transmission over a wide ranged sensor network is an emerging and challenging task in Wireless Multimedia Sensor Networks. Due to the open nature of the Internet, transmission of data must be secure through a process known as encryption. As a result, there is an intensive demand for such schemes that is energy efficient as well as highly secure since decades. In this paper, discrete wavelet-based partial image encryption scheme using hashing algorithm, chaotic maps and Hussain's S-Box is reported. The plaintext image is compressed via discrete wavelet transform and then the image is shuffled column-wise and row wise-wise via Piece-wise Linear Chaotic Map (PWLCM) and Nonlinear Chaotic Algorithm, respectively. To get higher security, initial conditions for PWLCM are made dependent on hash function. The permuted image is bitwise XORed with random matrix generated from Intertwining Logistic map. To enhance the security further, final ciphertext is obtained after substituting all elements with Hussain's substitution box. Experimental and statistical results confirm the strength of the anticipated scheme.

THE WISE LIGHT CURVES OF POLARS

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

Harrison, Thomas E.; Campbell, Ryan K., E-mail: tharriso@nmsu.edu, E-mail: Ryan.Campbell@humboldt.edu

2015-08-15

We have extracted the WISE (Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer) single-exposure data for a sample of 72 polars, which are highly magnetic cataclysmic variables (CVs). We combine these data with both published and unpublished optical and infrared data to explore the origins of the large amplitude variations seen in these systems. In nearly every case, we find evidence for cyclotron emission in the WISE bandpasses. We find that the derived magnetic field strengths for some polars are either too high, or cyclotron emission from lower field components, located spatially coincident to the main accreting poles, must be occurring. We have alsomore » estimated field strengths for a number of polars where no such values exist. In addition, contrary to expectations, we find that emission from the fundamental cyclotron harmonic (n = 1) appears to be nearly always present when the magnetic field is of the appropriate strength that it falls within a WISE bandpass. We find that the light curves for RBS 490, an ultrashort-period (46 minutes) CV, suggest that it is a polar. Modeling its spectrum indicates that its donor star is much hotter than expected. Nearly all of the detected polars show 11.5 μm (“W3 band”) excesses. The general lack of variability seen in the W3 bandpass light curves for higher-field polars demonstrates that these excesses are probably not due to cyclotron emission. There is circumstantial evidence that these excesses can be attributed to bremsstrahlung emission from their accretion streams. Reduction of the Spitzer 24 μm image of V1500 Cyg shows that it appears to be located at the center of a small nebula.« less

GISentinel: a software platform for automatic ulcer detection on capsule endoscopy videos

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yi, Steven; Jiao, Heng; Meng, Fan; Leighton, Jonathon A.; Shabana, Pasha; Rentz, Lauri

2014-03-01

In this paper, we present a novel and clinically valuable software platform for automatic ulcer detection on gastrointestinal (GI) tract from Capsule Endoscopy (CE) videos. Typical CE videos take about 8 hours. They have to be reviewed manually by physicians to detect and locate diseases such as ulcers and bleedings. The process is time consuming. Moreover, because of the long-time manual review, it is easy to lead to miss-finding. Working with our collaborators, we were focusing on developing a software platform called GISentinel, which can fully automated GI tract ulcer detection and classification. This software includes 3 parts: the frequency based Log-Gabor filter regions of interest (ROI) extraction, the unique feature selection and validation method (e.g. illumination invariant feature, color independent features, and symmetrical texture features), and the cascade SVM classification for handling "ulcer vs. non-ulcer" cases. After the experiments, this SW gave descent results. In frame-wise, the ulcer detection rate is 69.65% (319/458). In instance-wise, the ulcer detection rate is 82.35%(28/34).The false alarm rate is 16.43% (34/207). This work is a part of our innovative 2D/3D based GI tract disease detection software platform. The final goal of this SW is to find and classification of major GI tract diseases intelligently, such as bleeding, ulcer, and polyp from the CE videos. This paper will mainly describe the automatic ulcer detection functional module.

An official American Thoracic Society/American Association of Critical-Care Nurses/American College of Chest Physicians/Society of Critical Care Medicine policy statement: the Choosing Wisely® Top 5 list in Critical Care Medicine.

PubMed

Halpern, Scott D; Becker, Deborah; Curtis, J Randall; Fowler, Robert; Hyzy, Robert; Kaplan, Lewis J; Rawat, Nishi; Sessler, Curtis N; Wunsch, Hannah; Kahn, Jeremy M

2014-10-01

The high costs of health care in the United States and other developed nations are attributable, in part, to overuse of tests, treatments, and procedures that provide little to no benefit for patients. To improve the quality of care while also combating this problem of cost, the American Board of Internal Medicine Foundation developed the Choosing Wisely Campaign, tasking professional societies to develop lists of the top five medical services that patients and physicians should question. To present the Critical Care Societies Collaborative's Top 5 list in Critical Care Medicine and describe its development. Each professional society in the Collaborative nominated members to the Choosing Wisely task force, which established explicit criteria for evaluating candidate items, generated lists of items, performed literature reviews on each, and sought external input from content experts. Task force members narrowed the list to the Top 5 items using a standardized scoring system based on each item's likely overall impact and merits on the five explicit criteria. From an initial list of 58 unique recommendations, the task force proposed a Top 5 list that was ultimately endorsed by each Society within the Collaborative. The five recommendations are: (1) do not order diagnostic tests at regular intervals (such as every day), but rather in response to specific clinical questions; (2) do not transfuse red blood cells in hemodynamically stable, nonbleeding ICU patients with an Hb concentration greater than 7 g/dl; (3) do not use parenteral nutrition in adequately nourished critically ill patients within the first 7 days of an ICU stay; (4) do not deeply sedate mechanically ventilated patients without a specific indication and without daily attempts to lighten sedation; and (5) do not continue life support for patients at high risk for death or severely impaired functional recovery without offering patients and their families the alternative of care focused entirely on comfort. These five recommendations provide a starting point for clinicians and patients to make decisions leading to higher-quality, lower-cost care. Future work is needed to promote adherence to these recommendations and to develop additional ways for intensive care clinicians to take leadership in reining in health-care costs.

Effects of residual hydrogen in sputtering atmosphere on structures and properties of amorphous In-Ga-Zn-O thin films

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

Tang, Haochun; Ishikawa, Kyohei; Ide, Keisuke

2015-11-28

We investigated the effects of residual hydrogen in sputtering atmosphere on subgap states and carrier transport in amorphous In-Ga-Zn-O (a-IGZO) using two sputtering systems with different base pressures of ∼10{sup −4} and 10{sup −7 }Pa (standard (STD) and ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) sputtering, respectively), which produce a-IGZO films with impurity hydrogen contents at the orders of 10{sup 20} and 10{sup 19 }cm{sup −3}, respectively. Several subgap states were observed by hard X-ray photoemission spectroscopy, i.e., peak-shape near-valence band maximum (near-VBM) states, shoulder-shape near-VBM states, peak-shape near-conduction band minimum (near-CBM) states, and step-wise near-CBM states. It was confirmed that the formation of these subgapmore » states were affected strongly by the residual hydrogen (possibly H{sub 2}O). The step-wise near-CBM states were observed only in the STD films deposited without O{sub 2} gas flow and attributed to metallic In. Such step-wise near-CBM state was not detected in the other films including the UHV films even deposited without O{sub 2} flow, substantiating that the metallic In is segregated by the strong reduction effect of the hydrogen/H{sub 2}O. Similarly, the density of the near-VBM states was very high for the STD films deposited without O{sub 2}. These films had low film density and are consistent with a model that voids in the amorphous structure form a part of the near-VBM states. On the other hand, the UHV films had high film densities and much less near-VBM states, keeping the possibility that some of the near-VBM states, in particular, of the peak-shape ones, originate from –OH and weakly bonded oxygen. These results indicate that 2% of excess O{sub 2} flow is required for the STD sputtering to compensate the effects of the residual hydrogen/H{sub 2}O. The high-density near-VBM states and the metallic In segregation deteriorated the electron mobility to 0.4 cm{sup 2}/(V s)« less

The 'wise list'- a comprehensive concept to select, communicate and achieve adherence to recommendations of essential drugs in ambulatory care in Stockholm.

PubMed

Gustafsson, Lars L; Wettermark, Björn; Godman, Brian; Andersén-Karlsson, Eva; Bergman, Ulf; Hasselström, Jan; Hensjö, Lars-Olof; Hjemdahl, Paul; Jägre, Ingrid; Julander, Margaretha; Ringertz, Bo; Schmidt, Daniel; Sjöberg, Susan; Sjöqvist, Folke; Stiller, Carl-Olav; Törnqvist, Elisabeth; Tryselius, Rolf; Vitols, Sigurd; von Bahr, Christer

2011-04-01

The aim was to present and evaluate the impact of a comprehensive strategy over 10 years to select, communicate and achieve adherence to essential drug recommendations (EDR) in ambulatory care in a metropolitan healthcare region. EDRs were issued and launched as a 'Wise List' by the regional Drug and Therapeutics Committee in Stockholm. This study presents the concept by: (i) documenting the process for selecting, communicating and monitoring the impact of the 'Wise List'; (ii) analysing the variation in the number of drug substances recommended between 2000 and 2010; (iii) assessing the attitudes to the 'Wise List' among prescribers and the public; (iv) evaluating the adherence to recommendations between 2003 and 2009. The 'Wise List' consistently contained 200 drug substances for treating common diseases. The drugs were selected based on their efficacy, safety, suitability and cost-effectiveness. The 'Wise List' was known among one-third of a surveyed sample of the public in 2002 after initial marketing campaigns. All surveyed prescribers knew about the concept and 81% found the recommendations trustworthy in 2005. Adherence to recommendations increased from 69% in 1999 to 77% in 2009. In primary care, adherence increased from 83% to 87% from 2003 to 2009. The coefficient of variation (CV%) decreased from 6.1% to 3.8% for 156 healthcare centres between these years. The acceptance of the 'Wise List' in terms of trust among physicians and among the public and increased adherence may be explained by clear criteria for drug recommendations, a comprehensive communication strategy, electronic access to recommendations, continuous medical education and involvement of professional networks and patients.

On the nature and correction of the spurious S-wise spiral galaxy winding bias in Galaxy Zoo 1

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hayes, Wayne B.; Davis, Darren; Silva, Pedro

2017-04-01

The Galaxy Zoo 1 catalogue displays a bias towards the S-wise winding direction in spiral galaxies, which has yet to be explained. The lack of an explanation confounds our attempts to verify the Cosmological Principle, and has spurred some debate as to whether a bias exists in the real Universe. The bias manifests not only in the obvious case of trying to decide if the universe as a whole has a winding bias, but also in the more insidious case of selecting which Galaxies to include in a winding direction survey. While the former bias has been accounted for in a previous image-mirroring study, the latter has not. Furthermore, the bias has never been corrected in the GZ1 catalogue, as only a small sample of the GZ1 catalogue was reexamined during the mirror study. We show that the existing bias is a human selection effect rather than a human chirality bias. In effect, the excess S-wise votes are spuriously 'stolen' from the elliptical and edge-on-disc categories, not the Z-wise category. Thus, when selecting a set of spiral galaxies by imposing a threshold T so that max (PS, PZ) > T or PS + PZ > T, we spuriously select more S-wise than Z-wise galaxies. We show that when a provably unbiased machine selects which galaxies are spirals independent of their chirality, the S-wise surplus vanishes, even if humans still determine the chirality. Thus, when viewed across the entire GZ1 sample (and by implication, the Sloan catalogue), the winding direction of arms in spiral galaxies as viewed from Earth is consistent with the flip of a fair coin.

Object similarity affects the perceptual strategy underlying invariant visual object recognition in rats

PubMed Central

Rosselli, Federica B.; Alemi, Alireza; Ansuini, Alessio; Zoccolan, Davide

2015-01-01

In recent years, a number of studies have explored the possible use of rats as models of high-level visual functions. One central question at the root of such an investigation is to understand whether rat object vision relies on the processing of visual shape features or, rather, on lower-order image properties (e.g., overall brightness). In a recent study, we have shown that rats are capable of extracting multiple features of an object that are diagnostic of its identity, at least when those features are, structure-wise, distinct enough to be parsed by the rat visual system. In the present study, we have assessed the impact of object structure on rat perceptual strategy. We trained rats to discriminate between two structurally similar objects, and compared their recognition strategies with those reported in our previous study. We found that, under conditions of lower stimulus discriminability, rat visual discrimination strategy becomes more view-dependent and subject-dependent. Rats were still able to recognize the target objects, in a way that was largely tolerant (i.e., invariant) to object transformation; however, the larger structural and pixel-wise similarity affected the way objects were processed. Compared to the findings of our previous study, the patterns of diagnostic features were: (i) smaller and more scattered; (ii) only partially preserved across object views; and (iii) only partially reproducible across rats. On the other hand, rats were still found to adopt a multi-featural processing strategy and to make use of part of the optimal discriminatory information afforded by the two objects. Our findings suggest that, as in humans, rat invariant recognition can flexibly rely on either view-invariant representations of distinctive object features or view-specific object representations, acquired through learning. PMID:25814936

Patient accounting systems: needs and capabilities.

PubMed

Kennedy, O G; Collignon, S

1987-09-01

In the first article of this series, it was stated that most finance executives are not very satisfied with the performance of their current patient accounting systems. What steps can a patient accounting system planner take to help ensure the system selected will garner high ratings from managers and users? Two primarily steps need to be taken. First, the planner needs to perform a thorough evaluation of both near- and long-term patient accounting requirements. He should determine which features and functions are most critical and ensure they are incorporated as selection criteria. The planner should also incorporate institutional planning into that process, such as planned expansion of facilities or services, to ensure that the system selected has the growth potential, interfacing capabilities, and flexibility to respond to the changing environment. Then, once system needs are fully charted, the planner should educate himself about the range of patient accounting system solutions available. The data show that most financial managers lack knowledge about most of the major patient accounting system vendors in the marketplace. Once vendors that offer systems that seemingly could meet needs are identified, the wise system planner will also want to obtain information from users about those vendors, to determine whether the systems perform as described and whether the vendor has been responsive to the needs of its customers. This step is a particularly important part of the planning process, because the data also show that users of some systems are significantly more satisfied than users of other patient accounting systems.

Community Wise: paving the way for empowerment in community reentry.

PubMed

Windsor, Liliane Cambraia; Jemal, Alexis; Benoit, Ellen

2014-01-01

Theoretical approaches traditionally applied in mental health and criminal justice interventions fail to address the historical and structural context that partially explains health disparities. Community Wise was developed to address this gap. It is a 12week group intervention informed by Critical Consciousness Theory and designed to prevent substance abuse, related health risk behaviors, psychological distress, and reoffending among individuals with a history of incarceration and substance abuse. This paper reports findings from the first implementation and pilot evaluation of Community Wise in two community-based organizations. This pre-posttest evaluation pilot-tested Community Wise and used findings to improve the intervention. Twenty-six participants completed a phone and clinical screening, baseline, 6- and 12-week follow-ups, and a focus group at the end of the intervention. Measures assessed participants' demographic information, psychological distress, substance use, criminal offending, HIV risk behaviors, community cohesion, community support, civic engagement, critical consciousness, ethnic identification, group cohesion, client satisfaction, and acquired treatment skills. Research methods were found to be feasible and useful in assessing the intervention. Results indicated that while Community Wise is a promising intervention, several changes need to be made in order to enhance the intervention. Community Wise is a new approach where oppressed individuals join in critical dialogue, tap into existing community resources, and devise, implement and evaluate their own community solutions to structural barriers. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Asteroid Euphrosyne as Seen by WISE

NASA Image and Video Library

2015-08-03

The asteroid Euphrosyne glides across a field of background stars in this time-lapse view from NASA's WISE spacecraft. WISE obtained the images used to create this view over a period of about a day around May 17, 2010, during which it observed the asteroid four times. Because WISE (renamed NEOWISE in 2013) is an infrared telescope, it senses heat from asteroids. Euphrosyne is quite dark in visible light, but glows brightly at infrared wavelengths. This view is a composite of images taken at four different infrared wavelengths: 3.4 microns (color-coded blue), 4.6 microns (cyan), 12 microns (green) and 22 microns (red). The moving asteroid appears as a string of red dots because it is much cooler than the distant background stars. Stars have temperatures in the thousands of degrees, but the asteroid is cooler than room temperature. Thus the stars are represented by shorter wavelength (hotter) blue colors in this view, while the asteroid is shown in longer wavelength (cooler) reddish colors. The WISE spacecraft was put into hibernation in 2011 upon completing its goal of surveying the entire sky in infrared light. WISE cataloged three quarters of a billion objects, including asteroids, stars and galaxies. In August 2013, NASA decided to reinstate the spacecraft on a mission to find and characterize more asteroids. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA19645

Micro-PIV/LIF measurements on electrokinetically-driven flow in surface modified microchannels

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ichiyanagi, Mitsuhisa; Sasaki, Seiichi; Sato, Yohei; Hishida, Koichi

2009-04-01

Effects of surface modification patterning on flow characteristics were investigated experimentally by measuring electroosmotic flow velocities, which were obtained by micron-resolution particle image velocimetry using a confocal microscope. The depth-wise velocity was evaluated by using the continuity equation and the velocity data. The microchannel was composed of a poly(dimethylsiloxane) chip and a borosilicate cover-glass plate. Surface modification patterns were fabricated by modifying octadecyltrichlorosilane (OTS) on the glass surface. OTS can decrease the electroosmotic flow velocity compared to the velocity in the glass microchannel. For the surface charge varying parallel to the electric field, the depth-wise velocity was generated at the boundary area between OTS and the glass surfaces. For the surface charge varying perpendicular to the electric field, the depth-wise velocity did not form because the surface charge did not vary in the stream-wise direction. The surface charge pattern with the oblique stripes yielded a three-dimensional flow in a microchannel. Furthermore, the oblique patterning was applied to a mixing flow field in a T-shaped microchannel, and mixing efficiencies were evaluated from heterogeneity degree of fluorescent dye intensity, which was obtained by laser-induced fluorescence. It was found that the angle of the oblique stripes is an important factor to promote the span-wise and depth-wise momentum transport and contributes to the mixing flow in a microchannel.

Overdensities of SMGs around WISE-selected, ultraluminous, high-redshift AGNs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jones, Suzy F.; Blain, Andrew W.; Assef, Roberto J.; Eisenhardt, Peter; Lonsdale, Carol; Condon, James; Farrah, Duncan; Tsai, Chao-Wei; Bridge, Carrie; Wu, Jingwen; Wright, Edward L.; Jarrett, Tom

2017-08-01

We investigate extremely luminous dusty galaxies in the environments around Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE)-selected hot dust-obscured galaxies (Hot DOGs) and WISE/radio-selected active galactic nuclei (AGNs) at average redshifts of z = 2.7 and 1.7, respectively. Previous observations have detected overdensities of companion submillimetre-selected sources around 10 Hot DOGs and 30 WISE/radio AGNs, with overdensities of ˜2-3 and ˜5-6, respectively. We find that the space densities in both samples to be overdense compared to normal star-forming galaxies and submillimetre galaxies (SMGs) in the Submillimetre Common-User Bolometer Array 2 (SCUBA-2) Cosmology Legacy Survey (S2CLS). Both samples of companion sources have consistent mid-infrared (mid-IR) colours and mid-IR to submm ratios as SMGs. The brighter population around WISE/radio AGNs could be responsible for the higher overdensity reported. We also find that the star formation rate densities are higher than the field, but consistent with clusters of dusty galaxies. WISE-selected AGNs appear to be good signposts for protoclusters at high redshift on arcmin scales. The results reported here provide an upper limit to the strength of angular clustering using the two-point correlation function. Monte Carlo simulations show no angular correlation, which could indicate protoclusters on scales larger than the SCUBA-2 1.5-arcmin scale maps.

Maturation of Cortico-Subcortical Structural Networks-Segregation and Overlap of Medial Temporal and Fronto-Striatal Systems in Development.

PubMed

Walhovd, Kristine B; Tamnes, Christian K; Bjørnerud, Atle; Due-Tønnessen, Paulina; Holland, Dominic; Dale, Anders M; Fjell, Anders M

2015-07-01

The brain consists of partly segregated neural circuits within which structural convergence and functional integration occurs during development. The relationship of structural cortical and subcortical maturation is largely unknown. We aimed to study volumetric development of the hippocampus and basal ganglia (caudate, putamen, pallidum, accumbens) in relation to volume changes throughout the cortex. Longitudinal MRI data were obtained across a mean interval of 2.6 years in 85 participants with an age range of 8-19 years at study start. Left and right subcortical changes were related to cortical change vertex-wise in the ipsilateral hemisphere with general linear models with age, sex, interval between scans, and mean cortical volume change as covariates. Hippocampal-cortical change relationships centered on parts of the Papez circuit, including entorhinal, parahippocampal, and isthmus cingulate areas, and lateral temporal, insular, and orbitofrontal cortices in the left hemisphere. Basal ganglia-cortical change relationships were observed in mostly nonoverlapping and more anterior cortical areas, all including the anterior cingulate. Other patterns were unique to specific basal ganglia structures, including pre-, post-, and paracentral patterns relating to putamen change. In conclusion, patterns of cortico-subcortical development as assessed by morphometric analyses in part map out segregated neural circuits at the macrostructural level. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

[Guidelines for wise utilization of knee imaging].

PubMed

Finestone, Aharon S; Eshed, Iris; Freedman, Yehuda; Beer, Yiftah; Bar-Sever, Zvi; Kots, Yavvgeni; Adar, Eliyahu; Mann, Gideon

2012-02-01

The knee is a complex structure afflicted with diverse pathologies. Correct management of knee complaints demands wise utilization of imaging modalities, considering their accuracy in the specific clinical situation, the patient's safety and availability and financial issues. Some of these considerations are universal, while others are local, depending on medical and insurance systems. There is controversy and unclearness regarding the best imaging modality in different clinical situations. To develop clinical guidelines for utilizing knee imaging. Leading physicians in specialties associated with knee disease and imaging were invited to participate in a panel on the guidelines. Controversies were settled in the main panel or in sub-panels. The panel agreed on the principles in choosing from the various modalities, primarily medical accuracy, followed by patient safety, availability and cost. There was agreement that the physician is responsible to choose the most appropriate diagnostic tool, consulting, when necessary, on the advantages, limitations and risks of the various imaging modalities. A comprehensive table was compiled with the importance of the different imaging modalities in various clinical situations. For the first time, Israeli guidelines on wise utilization of knee imaging are presented. They take into consideration the clinical situations and also availability and financial issues specific to Israel. These guidelines will serve physicians of several disciplines and medical insurers to improve patient management efficiently.

Reducing computational costs in large scale 3D EIT by using a sparse Jacobian matrix with block-wise CGLS reconstruction.

PubMed

Yang, C L; Wei, H Y; Adler, A; Soleimani, M

2013-06-01

Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) is a fast and cost-effective technique to provide a tomographic conductivity image of a subject from boundary current-voltage data. This paper proposes a time and memory efficient method for solving a large scale 3D EIT inverse problem using a parallel conjugate gradient (CG) algorithm. The 3D EIT system with a large number of measurement data can produce a large size of Jacobian matrix; this could cause difficulties in computer storage and the inversion process. One of challenges in 3D EIT is to decrease the reconstruction time and memory usage, at the same time retaining the image quality. Firstly, a sparse matrix reduction technique is proposed using thresholding to set very small values of the Jacobian matrix to zero. By adjusting the Jacobian matrix into a sparse format, the element with zeros would be eliminated, which results in a saving of memory requirement. Secondly, a block-wise CG method for parallel reconstruction has been developed. The proposed method has been tested using simulated data as well as experimental test samples. Sparse Jacobian with a block-wise CG enables the large scale EIT problem to be solved efficiently. Image quality measures are presented to quantify the effect of sparse matrix reduction in reconstruction results.

Plus Ca Change: Minitel and Teletel, Electronic Marvels with Language Teaching Potential.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carney, William J.

The impact and cultural implications of the French Minitel and Teletel system are discussed, and second language clasroom applications are examined. These electronic instruments were developed for nationwide transmission of computerized data using small television-like terminals connected by modem to existing telephone circuits. Wise marketing…

WHOLE SYSTEMS, INTEGRATED SITE DESIGN FOR EDUCATION (WISE) WEBSITE: AN INTERACTIVE WEBSITE FOR EDUCATORS AND STUDENTS

EPA Science Inventory

Technical Challenge to Sustainability: Students who engage with their environment develop values that promote sustainability and perform better on standardized tests [1]. While there are many websites that focus on sustainability education and students, there is no in...

Exploring the Success of Transfer Programs for Community College Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Blaylock, Reginald S.; Bresciani, Marilee J.

2011-01-01

The state's educational systems must collaborate together to enable transfer students to gain the necessary skills that support degree completion strategies. Given the current economic state, an investment in California community college transfer students in order to provide the best possible university transition would seem wise and fiscally…

WISE Views of Centaurs & Scattered Disk Objects

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bauer, J. M.; Walker, R.; Mainzer, A.; Blauvelt, E.; Masiero, J.; Grav, T.; Cutri, R.; Dailey, J.; Lisse, C. M.; Fernandez, Y. R.;

High Schools at the Tipping Point

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wise, Bob

2008-01-01

The U. S. high school system is in crisis, Wise argues. More than 1 million students drop out every year, significant numbers of college freshmen require remedial courses to handle college work, and employers consistently express disappointment in the skills of graduates. The high dropout rate and students' lack of preparedness carries…

The ISIS Project: Real Experience with a Fault Tolerant Programming System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Birman, Kenneth; Cooper, Robert

1990-01-01

The ISIS project has developed a distributed programming toolkit and a collection of higher level applications based on these tools. ISIS is now in use at more than 300 locations world-wise. The lessons (and surprises) gained from this experience with the real world are discussed.

A translational registration system for LANDSAT image segments

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Parada, N. D. J. (Principal Investigator); Erthal, G. J.; Velasco, F. R. D.; Mascarenhas, N. D. D.

1983-01-01

The use of satellite images obtained from various dates is essential for crop forecast systems. In order to make possible a multitemporal analysis, it is necessary that images belonging to each acquisition have pixel-wise correspondence. A system developed to obtain, register and record image segments from LANDSAT images in computer compatible tapes is described. The translational registration of the segments is performed by correlating image edges in different acquisitions. The system was constructed for the Burroughs B6800 computer in ALGOL language.

Discovery of a Possible Early-T Thick-disk Subdwarf from the AllWISE2 Motion Survey

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kellogg, Kendra; Kirkpatrick, J. Davy; Metchev, Stanimir; Gagné, Jonathan; Faherty, Jacqueline K.

2018-02-01

We have discovered a potential T0 ± 1 subdwarf from a search for sources in the AllWISE2 Motion Survey that do not have counterparts in surveys at shorter wavelengths. With a tangential velocity of ∼170 km s‑1, this object—WISE J071121.36–573634.2—has kinematics that are consistent with the thick-disk population of the Milky Way. Spectral fits suggest a low-metallicity for this object but also allow for the possibility of unresolved multiplicity. If WISE J0711–5736 is indeed an sdT0 dwarf, it would be only the second early-T subdwarf discovered to date. This paper includes data gathered with the 6.5 m Magellan Telescopes located at Las Campanas Observatory, Chile.

Programmatic Efforts Affect Retention of Women in Science and Engineering

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hathaway, Russel S.; Sharp, Sally; Davis, Cinda-Sue

This article presents findings from a study that investigated the impact of a women in science and engineering residence program (WISE-RP) on the retention of women in science and engineering disciplines. From a matched sample of 1,852 science and engineering students, the authors compared WISE-RP participants with male and female control students for science and engineering retention. The findings suggest a strong connection between WISE-KP participation and science retention, but not engineering retention. The results also indicate that a WISE-RP is more effective in retaining White and Asian students than underrepresented students of color. The authors highlight the importance of combining academic and personal support in a residential learning program and draw implications for retaining women т science, mathematics, and engineering disciplines.

An empirical examination of WISE/NEOWISE asteroid analysis and results

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Myhrvold, Nathan

2018-11-01

Asteroid observations by the WISE space telescope and the analysis of those observations by the NEOWISE project have provided more information about the diameter, albedo, and other properties of approximately 164,000 asteroids, more than all other sources combined. The raw data set from this mission will likely be the largest and most important such data on asteroids available for many years. To put this trove of data to productive use, we must understand its strengths and weaknesses, and we need clear and reproducible methods for analyzing the data set. This study critically examines the WISE observational data and the NEOWISE results published in both the original papers and the NASA Planetary Data System (PDS). There seem to be multiple areas where the analysis might benefit from improvement or independent verification. The NEOWISE results were obtained by the application of 10 different modeling methods, many of which are not adequately explained or even defined, to 12 different combinations of WISE band data. More than half of NEOWISE results are based on a single band of data. The majority of curve fits to the data in the NEOWISE results are of poor quality, frequently missing most or all of the data points on which they are based. Complete misses occur for about 30% of single-band results, and among the results derived from the most common multiple-band combinations, about 43% miss all data points in at least one band. The NEOWISE data analysis relies on assumptions that are in many cases inconsistent with each other. A substantial fraction of WISE data was systematically excluded from the NEOWISE analysis. Building on methods developed by Hanuš et al. (2015), I show that error estimates for the WISE observational data were not well characterized, and all observations have true uncertainty at least a factor of 1.3-2.5 times larger than previously described, depending on the band. I also show that the error distribution is not well fit by a normal distribution. These findings are important because the Monte Carlo error-analysis method used by the NEOWISE project depends on both the observational errors and the normal distribution. An empirical comparison of published NEOWISE diameters to those in the literature that were estimated by using radar, occultation, or spacecraft (ROS) measurements shows that, for 129 results involving 105 asteroids, the NEOWISE diameters presented in tables of thermal-modeling results exactly match prior ROS results from the literature. While these are only a tiny fraction (0.06%) of the asteroids analyzed, they are important because they represent the only independent check on NEOWISE diameter accuracy. After removing the exact matches and adding additional ROS results, I find that the accuracy of diameter estimates for NEOWISE results depends strongly on the choice of data bands and on which of the 10 models was used. I show that systematic errors in the diameter estimates are much larger than previously described and range from - 5% to + 23%. In addition, random errors range from - 15% to + 19% when all four WISE bands were used, and from - 39% to + 57% in cases employing only the W2 band. The empirical results presented here show that much work remains to be done in analyzing data from the WISE/NEOWISE mission and interpreting it for asteroid science.

Using Medicines Wisely

MedlinePlus

... Consumers Consumer Information by Audience For Women Use Medicines Wisely Share Tweet Linkedin Pin it More sharing ... or foods should I avoid? 2. Keep a Medicine List Write down the important facts about each ...

Genetic and environmental influences on structural variability of the brain in pediatric twin: deformation based morphometry.

PubMed

Yoon, Uicheul; Perusse, Daniel; Lee, Jong-Min; Evans, Alan C

2011-04-08

Twin studies are one of the most powerful study designs for estimating the relative contribution of genetic and environmental influences on phenotypic variation inhuman brain morphology. In this study, we applied deformation based morphometry, a technique that provides a voxel-wise index of local tissue growth or atrophy relative to a template brain, combined with univariate ACE model, to investigate the genetic and environmental effects on the human brain structural variations in a cohort of homogeneously aged healthy pediatric twins. In addition, anatomical regions of interest (ROIs) were defined in order to explore global and regional genetic effects. ROI results showed that the influence of genetic factors on cerebrum (h(2)=0.70), total gray matter (0.67), and total white matter (0.73) volumes were significant. In particular, structural variability of left-side lobar volumes showed a significant heritability. Several subcortical structures such as putamen (h(ROI)(2)=0.79/0.77(L/R),h(MAX)(2)=0.82/0.79) and globus pallidus (0.81/0.76, 0.88/0.82) were also significantly heritable in both voxel-wise and ROI-based results. In the voxel-wise results, lateral parts of right cerebellum (c(2)=0.68) and the posterior portion of the corpus callosum (0.63) were rather environmentally determined, but it failed to reach statistical significance. Pediatric twin studies are important because they can discriminate several influences on developmental brain trajectories and identify relationships between gene and behavior. Several brain structures showed significant genetic effects and might therefore serve as biological markers for inherited traits, or as targets for genetic linkage and association studies. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

THE FIRST SPECTRUM OF THE COLDEST BROWN DWARF

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

Skemer, Andrew J.; Morley, Caroline V.; Fortney, Jonathan J.

2016-08-01

The recently discovered brown dwarf WISE 0855 presents the first opportunity to directly study an object outside the solar system that is nearly as cold as our own gas giant planets. However, the traditional methodology for characterizing brown dwarfs—near-infrared spectroscopy—is not currently feasible, as WISE 0855 is too cold and faint. To characterize this frozen extrasolar world we obtained a 4.5–5.2 μ m spectrum, the same bandpass long used to study Jupiter’s deep thermal emission. Our spectrum reveals the presence of atmospheric water vapor and clouds, with an absorption profile that is strikingly similar to Jupiter’s. The spectrum quality ismore » high enough to allow for the investigation of dynamical and chemical processes that have long been studied in Jupiter’s atmosphere, but now on an extrasolar world.« less

Dynamic Sensing Performance of a Point-Wise Fiber Bragg Grating Displacement Measurement System Integrated in an Active Structural Control System

PubMed Central

Chuang, Kuo-Chih; Liao, Heng-Tseng; Ma, Chien-Ching

2011-01-01

In this work, a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensing system which can measure the transient response of out-of-plane point-wise displacement responses is set up on a smart cantilever beam and the feasibility of its use as a feedback sensor in an active structural control system is studied experimentally. An FBG filter is employed in the proposed fiber sensing system to dynamically demodulate the responses obtained by the FBG displacement sensor with high sensitivity. For comparison, a laser Doppler vibrometer (LDV) is utilized simultaneously to verify displacement detection ability of the FBG sensing system. An optical full-field measurement technique called amplitude-fluctuation electronic speckle pattern interferometry (AF-ESPI) is used to provide full-field vibration mode shapes and resonant frequencies. To verify the dynamic demodulation performance of the FBG filter, a traditional FBG strain sensor calibrated with a strain gauge is first employed to measure the dynamic strain of impact-induced vibrations. Then, system identification of the smart cantilever beam is performed by FBG strain and displacement sensors. Finally, by employing a velocity feedback control algorithm, the feasibility of integrating the proposed FBG displacement sensing system in a collocated feedback system is investigated and excellent dynamic feedback performance is demonstrated. In conclusion, our experiments show that the FBG sensor is capable of performing dynamic displacement feedback and/or strain measurements with high sensitivity and resolution. PMID:22247683

Detecting phase separation of freeze-dried binary amorphous systems using pair-wise distribution function and multivariate data analysis.

PubMed

Chieng, Norman; Trnka, Hjalte; Boetker, Johan; Pikal, Michael; Rantanen, Jukka; Grohganz, Holger

2013-09-15

The purpose of this study is to investigate the use of multivariate data analysis for powder X-ray diffraction-pair-wise distribution function (PXRD-PDF) data to detect phase separation in freeze-dried binary amorphous systems. Polymer-polymer and polymer-sugar binary systems at various ratios were freeze-dried. All samples were analyzed by PXRD, transformed to PDF and analyzed by principal component analysis (PCA). These results were validated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) through characterization of glass transition of the maximally freeze-concentrate solute (Tg'). Analysis of PXRD-PDF data using PCA provides a more clear 'miscible' or 'phase separated' interpretation through the distribution pattern of samples on a score plot presentation compared to residual plot method. In a phase separated system, samples were found to be evenly distributed around the theoretical PDF profile. For systems that were miscible, a clear deviation of samples away from the theoretical PDF profile was observed. Moreover, PCA analysis allows simultaneous analysis of replicate samples. Comparatively, the phase behavior analysis from PXRD-PDF-PCA method was in agreement with the DSC results. Overall, the combined PXRD-PDF-PCA approach improves the clarity of the PXRD-PDF results and can be used as an alternative explorative data analytical tool in detecting phase separation in freeze-dried binary amorphous systems. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Component-wise exergy and energy analysis of vapor compression refrigeration system using mixture of R134a and LPG as refrigerant

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gill, Jatinder; Singh, Jagdev

2018-05-01

In this work, the experimental examination was carried out using a mixture of R134a and LPG refrigerant (consisting of R134a and LPG in a proportion of 28:72 by weight) as a replacement for R134a in a vapor compression refrigeration system. Exergy and energy tests were carried out at different evaporator and condenser temperatures with controlled environmental conditions. The results showed that the exergy destruction in the compressor, condenser, evaporator, and a capillary tube of the R134a / LPG refrigeration system was found lower by approximately 11.13-3.41%, 2.24-3.43%, 12.02-13.47% and 1.54-5.61% respectively. The compressor exhibits the highest level of destruction, accompanied by a condenser, an evaporator and a capillary tube in refrigeration systems. The refrigeration capacity, COP and power consumption of the compressor of the R134a /LPG refrigeration system were detected higher and lower compared to the R134a refrigeration system by about 7.04-11.41%, 15.1-17.82%, and 3.83-8.08% respectively. Also, the miscibility of R134a and LPG blend with mineral oil discovered good. The R134a and LPG refrigerant mixture proposed in this study perform superior to R134a from component-wise exergy and energy analyses under similar experimental conditions.

DISCOVERY OF FOUR HIGH PROPER MOTION L DWARFS, INCLUDING A 10 pc L DWARF AT THE L/T TRANSITION {sup ,}

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

Castro, Philip J.; Gizis, John E.; Harris, Hugh C.

2013-10-20

We discover four high proper motion L dwarfs by comparing the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) to the Two Micron All Sky Survey. WISE J140533.32+835030.5 is an L dwarf at the L/T transition with a proper motion of 0.85 ± 0.''02 yr{sup –1}, previously overlooked due to its proximity to a bright star (V ≈ 12 mag). From optical spectroscopy we find a spectral type of L8, and from moderate-resolution J band spectroscopy we find a near-infrared spectral type of L9. We find WISE J140533.32+835030.5 to have a distance of 9.7 ± 1.7 pc, bringing the number of L dwarfsmore » at the L/T transition within 10 pc from six to seven. WISE J040137.21+284951.7, WISE J040418.01+412735.6, and WISE J062442.37+662625.6 are all early L dwarfs within 25 pc, and were classified using optical and low-resolution near-infrared spectra. WISE J040418.01+412735.6 is an L2 pec (red) dwarf, a member of the class of unusually red L dwarfs. We use follow-up optical and low-resolution near-infrared spectroscopy to classify a previously discovered fifth object WISEP J060738.65+242953.4 as an (L8 Opt/L9 NIR), confirming it as an L dwarf at the L/T transition within 10 pc. WISEP J060738.65+242953.4 shows tentative CH{sub 4} in the H band, possibly the result of unresolved binarity with an early T dwarf, a scenario not supported by binary spectral template fitting. If WISEP J060738.65+242953.4 is a single object, it represents the earliest onset of CH{sub 4} in the H band of an L/T transition dwarf in the SpeX Library. As very late L dwarfs within 10 pc, WISE J140533.32+835030.5 and WISEP J060738.65+242953.4 will play a vital role in resolving outstanding issues at the L/T transition.« less

High-Resolution Observations of a Binary Black Hole Candidate

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tsai, Chao-Wei; Phillips, Chris; Norris, Ray; Jarrett, Thomas; Emonts, Bjorn; Cluver, Michelle; Eisenhardt, Peter; Stern, Daniel; Assef, Roberto

2012-10-01

We propose a 12-hour 2.3 GHz continuum Long Baseline Array (LBA) observation of WISE J2332-5056, a newly discovered supermassive black hole (SMBH) merger candidate that is located in the nearby universe (z = 0.3447). Our recently acquired 9 GHz ATCA map shows unusual radio morphology: a one-sided, smaller (and likely younger) FR-I jet perpendicular to a larger, Doppler-boosted FR-II jet. Follow-up Gemini-S/GMOS spectroscopy of this WISE-selected radio galaxy reveals broad emission lines blue-shifted by > 3,500 km/s with respect to the narrow lines and host galaxy, hallmarks of a dual AGN system. Combined, the optical spectroscopy and radio morphology of this object are strongly suggestive of a black hole merger system. Even in the local universe these systems are extremely difficult to identify; yet the process of supermassive blackhole growth is vital toward understanding galaxy evolution from the early to the current universe. Moreover, nearby merging SMBHs may serve as outstanding targets for gravitational wave studies. The proposed high resolution LBA map, reaching 50 pc resolution at the source redshift will allow us to investigate the SMBH merger scenario hypothesis.

Detection of Spoofed MAC Addresses in 802.11 Wireless Networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tao, Kai; Li, Jing; Sampalli, Srinivas

Medium Access Control (MAC) address spoofing is considered as an important first step in a hacker's attempt to launch a variety of attacks on 802.11 wireless networks. Unfortunately, MAC address spoofing is hard to detect. Most current spoofing detection systems mainly use the sequence number (SN) tracking technique, which has drawbacks. Firstly, it may lead to an increase in the number of false positives. Secondly, such techniques cannot be used in systems with wireless cards that do not follow standard 802.11 sequence number patterns. Thirdly, attackers can forge sequence numbers, thereby causing the attacks to go undetected. We present a new architecture called WISE GUARD (Wireless Security Guard) for detection of MAC address spoofing on 802.11 wireless LANs. It integrates three detection techniques - SN tracking, Operating System (OS) fingerprinting & tracking and Received Signal Strength (RSS) fingerprinting & tracking. It also includes the fingerprinting of Access Point (AP) parameters as an extension to the OS fingerprinting for detection of AP address spoofing. We have implemented WISE GUARD on a test bed using off-the-shelf wireless devices and open source drivers. Experimental results show that the new design enhances the detection effectiveness and reduces the number of false positives in comparison with current approaches.

WISEP J061135.13-041024.0 AB: A J-band Flux Reversal Binary at the L/T Transition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gelino, Christopher R.; Smart, R. L.; Marocco, Federico; Kirkpatrick, J. Davy; Cushing, Michael C.; Mace, Gregory; Mendez, Rene A.; Tinney, C. G.; Jones, Hugh R. A.

2014-07-01

We present Keck II laser guide star adaptive optics observations of the brown dwarf WISEP J061135.13-041024.0 showing it is a binary with a component separation of 0.''4. This system is one of the six known resolved binaries in which the magnitude differences between the components show a reversal in sign between the Y/J band and the H/K bands. Deconvolution of the composite spectrum results in a best-fit binary solution with L9 and T1.5 components. We also present a preliminary parallax placing the system at a distance of 21.2 ± 1.3 pc. Using the distance and resolved magnitudes we are able to place WISEP J061135.13-041024.0 AB on a color-absolute magnitude diagram, showing that this system contributes to the well-known "J-band bump" and the components' properties appear similar to other late-type L and early-type T dwarfs. Fitting our data to a set of cloudy atmosphere models suggests the system has an age >1 Gyr with WISE 0611-0410 A having an effective temperature (T eff) of 1275-1325 K and mass of 64-65 M Jup, and WISE 0611-0410 B having T eff = 1075-1115 K and mass 40-65 M Jup.

Burn Wise

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Burn Wise is a partnership program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that emphasizes the importance of burning the right wood, the right way, in the right appliance to protect your home, health, and the air we breathe.

Using Dietary Supplements Wisely

MedlinePlus

... T U V W X Y Z Using Dietary Supplements Wisely Share: On This Page Key Points About ... will help ensure coordinated and safe care. About Dietary Supplements Dietary supplements were defined in a law passed ...

Freezing WISE Hydrogen

NASA Image and Video Library

2009-11-12

A scaffolding structure built around NASA Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer allows engineers to freeze its hydrogen coolant. The WISE infrared instrument is kept extremely cold by a bottle-like tank filled with frozen hydrogen, called the cryostat.

Burn Wise - Partners

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Within this site you will find information for consumers to make informed decisions about what it means to burn wise. And partners will learn about how they can work with EPA to bring cleaner-burning appliances to market.

Focus on Teen Men: Evaluating the Effectiveness of the Wise Guys Program.

PubMed

Herrman, Judith W; Moore, Christopher; Rahmer, Brian

2016-04-01

Many interventions designed to promote safe sexual behaviors in teens focus on young women. Wise Guys is one curricular intervention designed to foster safe sexual practices in young men. This study assessed knowledge, attitude, and behavioral changes as the result of Wise Guys. This pre/posttest descriptive study measured changes in knowledge, attitudes, and sexual behaviors in 159 young men. This study detected limited knowledge and attitude changes but yielded statistically significant differences in safe sexual behaviors and likelihood to talk with parents or guardians about sexuality and dating. This study revealed important benefits of Wise Guys and proposed future mixed methods research to ensure that authentic teen voices inform programming. Nurses working with adolescents may find this information valuable as they address sexual health issues in their work. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Managing the Development of the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer Mission

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Irace, William; Cutri, Roc; Duval, Valerie; Eisenhardt, Peter; Elwell, John; Greanias, George; Heinrichsen, Ingolf; Howard, Joan; Liu, Feng-Chuan; Royer, Donald;

Statistical testing and power analysis for brain-wide association study.

PubMed

Gong, Weikang; Wan, Lin; Lu, Wenlian; Ma, Liang; Cheng, Fan; Cheng, Wei; Grünewald, Stefan; Feng, Jianfeng

2018-04-05

The identification of connexel-wise associations, which involves examining functional connectivities between pairwise voxels across the whole brain, is both statistically and computationally challenging. Although such a connexel-wise methodology has recently been adopted by brain-wide association studies (BWAS) to identify connectivity changes in several mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, autism and depression, the multiple correction and power analysis methods designed specifically for connexel-wise analysis are still lacking. Therefore, we herein report the development of a rigorous statistical framework for connexel-wise significance testing based on the Gaussian random field theory. It includes controlling the family-wise error rate (FWER) of multiple hypothesis testings using topological inference methods, and calculating power and sample size for a connexel-wise study. Our theoretical framework can control the false-positive rate accurately, as validated empirically using two resting-state fMRI datasets. Compared with Bonferroni correction and false discovery rate (FDR), it can reduce false-positive rate and increase statistical power by appropriately utilizing the spatial information of fMRI data. Importantly, our method bypasses the need of non-parametric permutation to correct for multiple comparison, thus, it can efficiently tackle large datasets with high resolution fMRI images. The utility of our method is shown in a case-control study. Our approach can identify altered functional connectivities in a major depression disorder dataset, whereas existing methods fail. A software package is available at https://github.com/weikanggong/BWAS. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

PathFinder: reconstruction and dynamic visualization of metabolic pathways.

PubMed

Goesmann, Alexander; Haubrock, Martin; Meyer, Folker; Kalinowski, Jörn; Giegerich, Robert

2002-01-01

Beyond methods for a gene-wise annotation and analysis of sequenced genomes new automated methods for functional analysis on a higher level are needed. The identification of realized metabolic pathways provides valuable information on gene expression and regulation. Detection of incomplete pathways helps to improve a constantly evolving genome annotation or discover alternative biochemical pathways. To utilize automated genome analysis on the level of metabolic pathways new methods for the dynamic representation and visualization of pathways are needed. PathFinder is a tool for the dynamic visualization of metabolic pathways based on annotation data. Pathways are represented as directed acyclic graphs, graph layout algorithms accomplish the dynamic drawing and visualization of the metabolic maps. A more detailed analysis of the input data on the level of biochemical pathways helps to identify genes and detect improper parts of annotations. As an Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) based internet application PathFinder reads a list of EC-numbers or a given annotation in EMBL- or Genbank-format and dynamically generates pathway graphs.

Update on the biological effects of ionizing radiation, relative dose factors and radiation hygiene.

PubMed

White, Stuart C; Mallya, S M

2012-03-01

Diagnostic imaging is an indispensable part of contemporary medical and dental practice. Over the last few decades there has been a dramatic increase in the use of ionizing radiation for diagnostic imaging. The carcinogenic effects of high-dose exposure are well known. Does diagnostic radiation rarely cause cancer? We don't know but we should act as if it does. Accordingly, dentists should select patients wisely - only make radiographs when there is patient-specific reason to believe there is a reasonable expectation the radiograph will offer unique information influencing diagnosis or treatment. Low-dose examinations should be made: intraoral imaging - use fast film or digital sensors, thyroid collars, rectangular collimation; panoramic and lateral cephalometric imaging - use digital systems or rare-earth film screen combinations; and cone beam computed tomography - use low-dose machines, restrict field size to region of interest, reduce mA and length of exposure arc as appropriate. © 2012 Australian Dental Association.

Engagement of the left extrastriate body area during body-part metaphor comprehension.

PubMed

Lacey, Simon; Stilla, Randall; Deshpande, Gopikrishna; Zhao, Sinan; Stephens, Careese; McCormick, Kelly; Kemmerer, David; Sathian, K

2017-03-01

Grounded cognition explanations of metaphor comprehension predict activation of sensorimotor cortices relevant to the metaphor's source domain. We tested this prediction for body-part metaphors using functional magnetic resonance imaging while participants heard sentences containing metaphorical or literal references to body parts, and comparable control sentences. Localizer scans identified body-part-specific motor, somatosensory and visual cortical regions. Both subject- and item-wise analyses showed that, relative to control sentences, metaphorical but not literal sentences evoked limb metaphor-specific activity in the left extrastriate body area (EBA), paralleling the EBA's known visual limb-selectivity. The EBA focus exhibited resting-state functional connectivity with ipsilateral semantic processing regions. In some of these regions, the strength of resting-state connectivity correlated with individual preference for verbal processing. Effective connectivity analyses showed that, during metaphor comprehension, activity in some semantic regions drove that in the EBA. These results provide converging evidence for grounding of metaphor processing in domain-specific sensorimotor cortical activity. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Infrared excesses in stars with and without planets using revised WISE photometry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Maldonado, Raul F.; Chavez, Miguel; Bertone, Emanuele; Cruz-Saenz de Miera, Fernando

2017-11-01

We present an analysis on the potential prevalence of mid-infrared excesses in stars with and without planetary companions. Based on an extended data base of stars detected with the Wide Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) satellite, we studied two stellar samples: one with 236 planet hosts and another with 986 objects for which planets have been searched, but not found. We determined the presence of an excess over the photosphere by comparing the observed flux ratio at 22 and 12 μm (f22/f12) with the corresponding synthetic value, derived from results of classical model photospheres. We found a detection rate of 0.85 per cent at 22 μm (two excesses) in the sample of stars with planets and 0.1 per cent (1 detection) for the stars without planets. The difference of the detection rate between the two samples is not statistically significant, a result that is independent of the different approaches found in the literature to define an excess in the wavelength range covered by WISE observations. As an additional result, we found that the WISE fluxes required a normalization procedure to make them compatible with synthetic data, probably pointing out a revision of the WISE data calibration.

Deep Full-sky Coadds from Three Years of WISE and NEOWISE Observations

DOE PAGES

Meisner, A. M.; Lang, D.; Schlegel, D. J.

2017-09-26

Here, we have reprocessed over 100 terabytes of single-exposure Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE)/NEOWISE images to create the deepest ever full-sky maps at 3-5 microns. We include all publicly available W1 and W2 imaging - a total of ~8 million exposures in each band - from ~37 months of observations spanning 2010 January to 2015 December. Our coadds preserve the native WISE resolution and typically incorporate ~3× more input frames than those of the AllWISE Atlas stacks. Our coadds are designed to enable deep forced photometry, in particular for the Dark Energy Camera Legacy Survey (DECaLS) and Mayall z-Band Legacymore » Survey (MzLS), both of which are being used to select targets for the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument. We describe newly introduced processing steps aimed at leveraging added redundancy to remove artifacts, with the intent of facilitating uniform target selection and searches for rare/exotic objects (e.g., high-redshift quasars and distant galaxy clusters). Forced photometry depths achieved with these coadds extend 0.56 (0.46) magnitudes deeper in W1 (W2) than is possible with only pre-hibernation WISE imaging.« less

Evaluation of body-wise and organ-wise registrations for abdominal organs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xu, Zhoubing; Panjwani, Sahil A.; Lee, Christopher P.; Burke, Ryan P.; Baucom, Rebeccah B.; Poulose, Benjamin K.; Abramson, Richard G.; Landman, Bennett A.

2016-03-01

Identifying cross-sectional and longitudinal correspondence in the abdomen on computed tomography (CT) scans is necessary for quantitatively tracking change and understanding population characteristics, yet abdominal image registration is a challenging problem. The key difficulty in solving this problem is huge variations in organ dimensions and shapes across subjects. The current standard registration method uses the global or body-wise registration technique, which is based on the global topology for alignment. This method (although producing decent results) has substantial influence of outliers, thus leaving room for significant improvement. Here, we study a new image registration approach using local (organ-wise registration) by first creating organ-specific bounding boxes and then using these regions of interest (ROIs) for aligning references to target. Based on Dice Similarity Coefficient (DSC), Mean Surface Distance (MSD) and Hausdorff Distance (HD), the organ-wise approach is demonstrated to have significantly better results by minimizing the distorting effects of organ variations. This paper compares exclusively the two registration methods by providing novel quantitative and qualitative comparison data and is a subset of the more comprehensive problem of improving the multi-atlas segmentation by using organ normalization.

Deep Full-sky Coadds from Three Years of WISE and NEOWISE Observations

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

Meisner, A. M.; Lang, D.; Schlegel, D. J., E-mail: ameisner@lbl.gov

We have reprocessed over 100 terabytes of single-exposure Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer ( WISE )/NEOWISE images to create the deepest ever full-sky maps at 3–5 microns. We include all publicly available W1 and W2 imaging—a total of ∼8 million exposures in each band—from ∼37 months of observations spanning 2010 January to 2015 December. Our coadds preserve the native WISE resolution and typically incorporate ∼3× more input frames than those of the AllWISE Atlas stacks. Our coadds are designed to enable deep forced photometry, in particular for the Dark Energy Camera Legacy Survey (DECaLS) and Mayall z-Band Legacy Survey (MzLS), bothmore » of which are being used to select targets for the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument. We describe newly introduced processing steps aimed at leveraging added redundancy to remove artifacts, with the intent of facilitating uniform target selection and searches for rare/exotic objects (e.g., high-redshift quasars and distant galaxy clusters). Forced photometry depths achieved with these coadds extend 0.56 (0.46) magnitudes deeper in W1 (W2) than is possible with only pre-hibernation WISE imaging.« less

A 3π Search for Planet Nine at 3.4 μm with WISE and NEOWISE

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meisner, A. M.; Bromley, B. C.; Kenyon, S. J.; Anderson, T. E.

2018-04-01

The recent “Planet Nine” hypothesis has led to many observational and archival searches for this giant planet proposed to orbit the Sun at hundreds of astronomical units. While trans-Neptunian object searches are typically conducted in the optical, models suggest Planet Nine could be self-luminous and potentially bright enough at ∼3–5 μm to be detected by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). We have previously demonstrated a Planet Nine search methodology based on time-resolved WISE coadds, allowing us to detect moving objects much fainter than would be possible using single-frame extractions. In the present work, we extend our 3.4 μm (W1) search to cover more than three-quarters of the sky and incorporate four years of WISE observations spanning a seven-year time period. This represents the deepest and widest-area WISE search for Planet Nine to date. We characterize the spatial variation of our survey’s sensitivity and rule out the presence of Planet Nine in the parameter space searched at W1 < 16.7 in high Galactic latitude regions (90% completeness).

Deep Full-sky Coadds from Three Years of WISE and NEOWISE Observations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meisner, A. M.; Lang, D.; Schlegel, D. J.

2017-10-01

We have reprocessed over 100 terabytes of single-exposure Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE)/NEOWISE images to create the deepest ever full-sky maps at 3-5 microns. We include all publicly available W1 and W2 imaging—a total of ˜8 million exposures in each band—from ˜37 months of observations spanning 2010 January to 2015 December. Our coadds preserve the native WISE resolution and typically incorporate ˜3× more input frames than those of the AllWISE Atlas stacks. Our coadds are designed to enable deep forced photometry, in particular for the Dark Energy Camera Legacy Survey (DECaLS) and Mayall z-Band Legacy Survey (MzLS), both of which are being used to select targets for the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument. We describe newly introduced processing steps aimed at leveraging added redundancy to remove artifacts, with the intent of facilitating uniform target selection and searches for rare/exotic objects (e.g., high-redshift quasars and distant galaxy clusters). Forced photometry depths achieved with these coadds extend 0.56 (0.46) magnitudes deeper in W1 (W2) than is possible with only pre-hibernation WISE imaging.

Deep Full-sky Coadds from Three Years of WISE and NEOWISE Observations

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

Meisner, A. M.; Lang, D.; Schlegel, D. J.

Here, we have reprocessed over 100 terabytes of single-exposure Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE)/NEOWISE images to create the deepest ever full-sky maps at 3-5 microns. We include all publicly available W1 and W2 imaging - a total of ~8 million exposures in each band - from ~37 months of observations spanning 2010 January to 2015 December. Our coadds preserve the native WISE resolution and typically incorporate ~3× more input frames than those of the AllWISE Atlas stacks. Our coadds are designed to enable deep forced photometry, in particular for the Dark Energy Camera Legacy Survey (DECaLS) and Mayall z-Band Legacymore » Survey (MzLS), both of which are being used to select targets for the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument. We describe newly introduced processing steps aimed at leveraging added redundancy to remove artifacts, with the intent of facilitating uniform target selection and searches for rare/exotic objects (e.g., high-redshift quasars and distant galaxy clusters). Forced photometry depths achieved with these coadds extend 0.56 (0.46) magnitudes deeper in W1 (W2) than is possible with only pre-hibernation WISE imaging.« less

WISE J061213.85-303612.5: a new T-dwarf binary candidate

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huélamo, N.; Ivanov, V. D.; Kurtev, R.; Girard, J. H.; Borissova, J.; Mawet, D.; Mužić, K.; Cáceres, C.; Melo, C. H. F.; Sterzik, M. F.; Minniti, D.

2015-06-01

Context. T and Y dwarfs are among the coolest and least luminous objects detected, and they can help to understand the properties of giant planets. Up to now, there are more than 350 T dwarfs that have been identified thanks to large imaging surveys in the infrared, and their multiplicity properties can shed light on the formation process. Aims: The aim of this work is to look for companions around a sample of seven ultracoool objects. Most of them have been discovered by the WISE observatory and have not been studied before for multiplicity. Methods: We observed a sample six T dwarfs and one L9 dwarf with the Laser Guide Star (LGS) and NAOS-CONICA, the adaptive optics (AO) facility, and the near infrared camera at the ESO Very Large Telescope. We observed all the objects in one or more near-IR filters (JHKs). Results: From the seven observed objects, we have identified a subarcsecond binary system, WISE J0612-3036, composed of two similar components with spectral types of T6. We measure a separation of ρ = 350 ± 5 mas and a position angle of PA = 235 ± 1°. Using the mean absolute magnitudes of T6 dwarfs in the 2MASS JHKs bands, we estimate a distance of d = 31 ± 6 pc and derive a projected separation of ρ ~ 11 ± 2 au. Another target, WISE J2255-3118, shows a very faint object at 1.̋3 in the Ks image. The object is marginally detected in H, and we derive a near infrared color of H - Ks> 0.1 mag. HST/WFC3 public archival data reveals that the companion candidate is an extended source. Together with the derived color, this suggests that the source is most probably a background galaxy. The five other sources are apparently single, with 3-σ sensitivity limits between H = 19-21 for companions at separations ≥0.̋5. Conclusions: WISE 0612-3036 is probably a new T-dwarf binary composed of two T6 dwarfs. As in the case of other late T-dwarf binaries, it shows a mass ratio close to 1, although its projected separation, ~11 au, is larger than the average (~5 au). Additional observations are needed to confirm that the system is bound. This work used data collected at the VLT under runs 89.C-0494(A, B, C) and 91.C-0501(A, B).Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, and obtained from the Hubble Legacy Archive, which is a collaboration between the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI/NASA), the Space Telescope European Coordinating Facility (ST-ECF/ESA), and the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre (CADC/NRC/CSA).

Communities of Ethical Practice: Using New Technologies for Ethical Dialectical Discourse

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Newman, Linda; Findlay, John

2008-01-01

The authors report on a project in which a new experiential form of professional learning combined ethical thinking processes with a collaborative meeting technology known as the Zing team learning system (ZTLS). A new software program called "Working Wisely" was built by the completion of the project. The ZTLS in combination with…

Health Wise: March 2010

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Streker, Meg

2010-01-01

In this article, the author discusses how to tell the difference between a cold and airborne allergy symptoms. A cold is caused by a viral infection. Viruses spread through an infected person's cough, sneeze, handshake, or contact with a contaminated surface. When a virus enters one's body, his/her immune system reacts. This produces the symptoms…

The Energy-Wise Homebuyer: A Guide to Selecting an Energy-Efficient Home.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hogarth, Peter T.; And Others

Presented is a guide for purchasers of new or used homes who wish to make informed comparisons of energy costs. Included are 12 energy features to look for, detailed energy checklists, and charts for calculating energy expenses. Among the considerations discussed are heating systems, insulation, thermostats, caulking and weatherstripping, and…

Inter-annual variability of urolithiasis epidemic from semi-arid part of Deccan Volcanic Province, India: climatic and hydrogeochemical perspectives.

PubMed

Kale, Sanjay S; Ghole, Vikram Shantaram; Pawar, N J; Jagtap, Deepak V

2014-01-01

Semi-arid Karha basin from Deccan Volcanic Province, India was investigated for inter-annual variability of urolithiasis epidemic. The number of reported urolith patient, weather station data and groundwater quality results was used to assess impact of geoenvironment on urolithiasis. Data of 7081 urolith patient were processed for epidemiological study. Gender class, age group, year-wise cases and urolith type were studied in epidemiology. Rainfall, temperature, pan evaporation and sunshine hours were used to correlate urolithiasis. Further, average values of groundwater parameters were correlated with the number of urolith episodes. A total of 52 urolith samples were collected from hospitals and analysed using FTIR technique to identify dominant urolith type in study area. Result shows that male population is more prone, age group of 20-40 is more susceptible and calcium oxalate uroliths are dominant in study area. Year-wise distribution revealed that there is steady increase in urolithiasis with inflation in drought years. In climatic parameters, hot days are significantly correlated with urolithiasis. In groundwater quality, EC, Na and F are convincingly correlated with urolith patients, which concludes the strong relation between geo-environment and urolithiasis.

Effect of Surface Roughness on Polymer Drag Reduction with a High-Reynolds-Number Turbulent Boundary Layer

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Elbing, Brian; Dowling, David; Solomon, Michael; Bian, Sherry; Ceccio, Steven

2007-11-01

A recent experiment at the U.S. Navy's Large Cavitation Channel (LCC) investigated the effect of wall roughness on wall-injection polymer drag reduction (PDR) within a high-Reynolds-number (10^7 to 2x10^8 based on downstream distance) turbulent boundary layer (TBL). Testing was performed in two parts: 1) PDR experiment on a 12.9 m long, 3.05 m wide hydro-dynamically smooth flat plate and 2) PDR experiment on the same model with the entire surface roughened. The roughness was produced by blowing glass beads into epoxy paint that was applied to the entire model. The roughened model had an average roughness height ranging between 307 and 1154 μm. Drag reduction was determined using six, stream-wise located integrated skin-friction balances. In addition to skin-friction measurements, sampling was performed at three stream-wise located ports. The sampling ports were used to determine the amount of degradation, if any, caused by the turbulent flow on the polymer. Both the skin-friction measurements and sampling analysis indicates that wall roughness in a turbulent boundary layer significantly increases degradation of the polymer solution.

NASA WISE Cryostat

NASA Image and Video Library

2009-10-13

Initial assembly of NASA Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer cryostat. The cryostat is a 2-stage solid hydrogen dewar that is used to cool the WISE optics and detectors. Here the cryostat internal structures are undergoing their initial vacuum pumpdown.

Bringing Technology in Line with the Natural Laws.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Clark, Mary E.

1979-01-01

Biology teachers can provide lessons for students to help them plan the future wisely. Three natural laws are emphasized as imperative to understanding how to plan wisely for restoring a balance in nature. (SA)

Burn Wise - What You Can Do

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Within this site you will find information for consumers to make informed decisions about what it means to burn wise. State & local agencies learn to improve air quality in their communities through changeout programs and education.

Introduction of the Mobile Platform for the Meteorological Observations in Seoul Metropolitan City of Korea

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baek, K. T.; Lee, S.; Kang, M.; Lee, G.

2016-12-01

Traffic accidents due to adverse weather such as fog, heavy rainfall, flooding and road surface freezing have been increasing in Korea. To reduce damages caused by the severe weather on the road, a forecast service of combined real-time road-wise weather and the traffic situation is required. Conventional stationary meteorological observations in sparse location system are limited to observe the detailed road environment. For this reason, a mobile meteorological observation platform has been coupled in Weather Information Service Engine (WISE) which is the prototype of urban-scale high resolution weather prediction system in Seoul metropolitan area of Korea in early August 2016. The instruments onboard are designed to measure 15 meteorological parameters; pressure, temperature, relative humidity, precipitation, up/down net radiation, up/down longwave radiation, up/down shortwave radiation, road surface condition, friction coefficient, water depth, wind direction and speed. The observations from mobile platform show a distinctive advantage of data collection in need for road conditions and inputs for the numerical forecast model. In this study, we introduce and examine the feasibility of mobile observations in urban weather prediction and applications.

Finite element approximation of the radiative transport equation in a medium with piece-wise constant refractive index

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

Lehtikangas, O., E-mail: Ossi.Lehtikangas@uef.fi; Tarvainen, T.; Department of Computer Science, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT

2015-02-01

The radiative transport equation can be used as a light transport model in a medium with scattering particles, such as biological tissues. In the radiative transport equation, the refractive index is assumed to be constant within the medium. However, in biomedical media, changes in the refractive index can occur between different tissue types. In this work, light propagation in a medium with piece-wise constant refractive index is considered. Light propagation in each sub-domain with a constant refractive index is modeled using the radiative transport equation and the equations are coupled using boundary conditions describing Fresnel reflection and refraction phenomena onmore » the interfaces between the sub-domains. The resulting coupled system of radiative transport equations is numerically solved using a finite element method. The approach is tested with simulations. The results show that this coupled system describes light propagation accurately through comparison with the Monte Carlo method. It is also shown that neglecting the internal changes of the refractive index can lead to erroneous boundary measurements of scattered light.« less

The First Hundred Brown Dwarfs Discovered by the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kirkpatrick, J. Davy; Cushing, Michael C.; Gelino, Christopher R.; Griffith, Roger L.; Skrutskie, Michael F.; Marsh, Kenneth A.; Wright, Edward L.; Mainzer, Amanda K.; Eisenhardt, Peter R.; McLean, Ian S.;

Central Stars of Mid-Infrared Nebulae Discovered with Spitzer and WISE

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gvaramadze, V. V.; Kniazev, A. Y.

2017-02-01

Searches for compact mid-IR nebulae with the Spitzer Space Telescope and the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), accompanied by spectroscopic observations of central stars of these nebulae led to the discovery of many dozens of massive stars at different evolutionary stages, of which the most numerous are candidate luminous blue variables (LBVs). In this paper, we give a census of candidate and confirmed Galactic LBVs revealed with Spitzer and WISE, and present some new results of spectroscopic observations of central stars of mid-IR nebulae.

Correction of Microplate Data from High-Throughput Screening.

PubMed

Wang, Yuhong; Huang, Ruili

2016-01-01

High-throughput screening (HTS) makes it possible to collect cellular response data from a large number of cell lines and small molecules in a timely and cost-effective manner. The errors and noises in the microplate-formatted data from HTS have unique characteristics, and they can be generally grouped into three categories: run-wise (temporal, multiple plates), plate-wise (background pattern, single plate), and well-wise (single well). In this chapter, we describe a systematic solution for identifying and correcting such errors and noises, mainly basing on pattern recognition and digital signal processing technologies.

Using Large-Scale Linkage Data to Evaluate the Effectiveness of a National Educational Program on Antithrombotic Prescribing and Associated Stroke Prevention in Primary Care.

PubMed

Liu, Zhixin; Moorin, Rachael; Worthington, John; Tofler, Geoffrey; Bartlett, Mark; Khan, Rabia; Zuo, Yeqin

2016-10-13

The National Prescribing Service (NPS) MedicineWise Stroke Prevention Program, which was implemented nationally in 2009-2010 in Australia, sought to improve antithrombotic prescribing in stroke prevention using dedicated interventions that target general practitioners. This study evaluated the impact of the NPS MedicineWise Stroke Prevention Program on antithrombotic prescribing and primary stroke hospitalizations. This population-based time series study used administrative health data linked to 45 and Up Study participants with a high risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) to assess the possible impact of the NPS MedicineWise program on first-time aspirin prescriptions and primary stroke-related hospitalizations. Time series analysis showed that the NPS MedicineWise program was significantly associated with increased first-time prescribing of aspirin (P=0.03) and decreased hospitalizations for primary ischemic stroke (P=0.03) in the at-risk study population (n=90 023). First-time aspirin prescription was correlated with a reduction in the rate of hospitalization for primary stroke (P=0.02). Following intervention, the number of first-time aspirin prescriptions increased by 19.8% (95% confidence interval, 1.6-38.0), while the number of first-time stroke hospitalizations decreased by 17.3% (95% confidence interval, 1.8-30.0). Consistent with NPS MedicineWise program messages for the high-risk CVD population, the NPS MedicineWise Stroke Prevention Program (2009) was associated with increased initiation of aspirin and a reduced rate of hospitalization for primary stroke. The findings suggest that the provision of evidence-based multifaceted large-scale educational programs in primary care can be effective in changing prescriber behavior and positively impacting patient health outcomes. © 2016 The Authors and NPS MedicineWise. Published on behalf of the American Heart Association, Inc., by Wiley Blackwell.

Validation of Regression-Based Myogenic Correction Techniques for Scalp and Source-Localized EEG

PubMed Central

McMenamin, Brenton W.; Shackman, Alexander J.; Maxwell, Jeffrey S.; Greischar, Lawrence L.; Davidson, Richard J.

2008-01-01

EEG and EEG source-estimation are susceptible to electromyographic artifacts (EMG) generated by the cranial muscles. EMG can mask genuine effects or masquerade as a legitimate effect - even in low frequencies, such as alpha (8–13Hz). Although regression-based correction has been used previously, only cursory attempts at validation exist and the utility for source-localized data is unknown. To address this, EEG was recorded from 17 participants while neurogenic and myogenic activity were factorially varied. We assessed the sensitivity and specificity of four regression-based techniques: between-subjects, between-subjects using difference-scores, within-subjects condition-wise, and within-subject epoch-wise on the scalp and in data modeled using the LORETA algorithm. Although within-subject epoch-wise showed superior performance on the scalp, no technique succeeded in the source-space. Aside from validating the novel epoch-wise methods on the scalp, we highlight methods requiring further development. PMID:19298626

Mechanism of tonal noise generation from circular cylinder with spiral fin

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yamashita, Ryo; Hayashi, Hidechito; Okumura, Tetsuya; Hamakawa, Hiromitsu

2014-12-01

The pitch of the spiral finned tube influences seriously to the acoustic resonance in the heat exchanger. In this research, the flow characteristics in relating to the aeolian tone from the finned cylinder are studied by the numerical simulation. It is observed that the tonal noise generated from the finned tube at two pitch spaces. The ratio of the fin pitch to the cylinder diameter is changed at 0.11 and 0.27. The tone level increases and the frequency decreases with the pitch shorter. The separation flow from the cylinder generates the span-wise vortices, Karman vortices, and the separation flow from the fin generates the stream-wise vortices. When the fin pitch ratio is small, the stream-wise vortices line up to span-wise and become weak rapidly. Only the Karman vortices are remained and integrate in span. So the Karman vortex became large. This causes the low frequency and the large aeolian tone.

Clinical Decisions Made in Primary Care Clinics Before and After Choosing Wisely.

PubMed

Kost, Amanda; Genao, Inginia; Lee, Jay W; Smith, Stephen R

2015-01-01

The Choosing Wisely campaign encourages physicians to avoid low-value care. Although widely lauded, no study has examined its impact on clinical decisions made in primary care settings. We compared clinical decisions made for 5 Choosing Wisely recommendations over two 6-month time periods before and after the campaign launch and an educational intervention to promote it at 3 primary care residency clinics. The rate of recommendations adherence was high (93.2%) at baseline but did significantly increase to 96.5% after the launch. These findings suggest primary care physicians respond to training and publicity in low-value care, though further research is needed. Given that even small decreases of physician test ordering can produce large cost savings, the Choosing Wisely project may help achieve the health care triple aim. © Copyright 2015 by the American Board of Family Medicine.

Towards a Full-sky, High-resolution Dust Extinction Map with WISE and Planck

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meisner, Aaron M.; Finkbeiner, D. P.

2014-01-01

We have recently completed a custom processing of the entire WISE 12 micron All-sky imaging data set. The result is a full-sky map of diffuse, mid-infrared Galactic dust emission with angular resolution of 15 arcseconds, and with contaminating artifacts such as compact sources removed. At the same time, the 2013 Planck HFI maps represent a complementary data set in the far-infrared, with zero-point relatively immune to zodiacal contamination and angular resolution superior to previous full-sky data sets at similar frequencies. Taken together, these WISE and Planck data products present an opportunity to improve upon the SFD (1998) dust extinction map, by virtue of enhanced angular resolution and potentially better-controlled systematics on large scales. We describe our continuing efforts to construct and test high-resolution dust extinction and temperature maps based on our custom WISE processing and Planck HFI data.

The Overdense Environments of WISE-selected, ultra-luminous, high-redshift AGN in the submillimetre

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jones, Suzy F.

2017-11-01

The environments around WISE-selected hot dust obscured galaxies (Hot DOGs) and WISE/radio-selected active galactic nuclei (AGNs) at average redshifts of z = 2.7 and z = 1.7, respectively, were found to have overdensities of companion submillimetre-selected sources. The overdensities were of ˜ 2 - 3 and ˜ 5 - 6 , respectively, compared with blank field submm surveys. The space densities in both samples were found to be overdense compared to normal star-forming galaxies and submillimetre galaxies (SMGs). All of the companion sources have consistent mid-IR colours and mid-IR to submm ratios to SMGs. Monte Carlo simulations show no angular correlation, which could indicate protoclusters on scales larger than the SCUBA-2 1.5 arcmin scale maps. WISE-selected AGNs appear to be good indicators of overdense areas of active galaxies at high redshift.

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

Casagrande, L.; Asplund, M.; Ramirez, I.

Solar infrared colors provide powerful constraints on the stellar effective temperature scale, but they must be measured with both accuracy and precision in order to do so. We fulfill this requirement by using line-depth ratios to derive in a model-independent way the infrared colors of the Sun, and we use the latter to test the zero point of the Casagrande et al. effective temperature scale, confirming its accuracy. Solar colors in the widely used Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) JHK{sub s} and WISE W1-4 systems are provided: (V - J){sub Sun} = 1.198, (V - H){sub Sun} = 1.484,more » (V - K{sub s} ){sub Sun} = 1.560, (J - H){sub Sun} = 0.286, (J - K{sub s} ){sub Sun} = 0.362, (H - K{sub s} ){sub Sun} = 0.076, (V - W1){sub Sun} = 1.608, (V - W2){sub Sun} = 1.563, (V - W3){sub Sun} = 1.552, and (V - W4){sub Sun} = 1.604. A cross-check of the effective temperatures derived implementing 2MASS or WISE magnitudes in the infrared flux method confirms that the absolute calibration of the two systems agrees within the errors, possibly suggesting a 1% offset between the two, thus validating extant near- and mid-infrared absolute calibrations. While 2MASS magnitudes are usually well suited to derive T{sub eff}, we find that a number of bright, solar-like stars exhibit anomalous WISE colors. In most cases, this effect is spurious and can be attributed to lower-quality measurements, although for a couple of objects (3% {+-} 2% of the total sample) it might be real, and may hint at the presence of warm/hot debris disks.« less

Digital Morphing Wing: Active Wing Shaping Concept Using Composite Lattice-Based Cellular Structures.

PubMed

Jenett, Benjamin; Calisch, Sam; Cellucci, Daniel; Cramer, Nick; Gershenfeld, Neil; Swei, Sean; Cheung, Kenneth C

2017-03-01

We describe an approach for the discrete and reversible assembly of tunable and actively deformable structures using modular building block parts for robotic applications. The primary technical challenge addressed by this work is the use of this method to design and fabricate low density, highly compliant robotic structures with spatially tuned stiffness. This approach offers a number of potential advantages over more conventional methods for constructing compliant robots. The discrete assembly reduces manufacturing complexity, as relatively simple parts can be batch-produced and joined to make complex structures. Global mechanical properties can be tuned based on sub-part ordering and geometry, because local stiffness and density can be independently set to a wide range of values and varied spatially. The structure's intrinsic modularity can significantly simplify analysis and simulation. Simple analytical models for the behavior of each building block type can be calibrated with empirical testing and synthesized into a highly accurate and computationally efficient model of the full compliant system. As a case study, we describe a modular and reversibly assembled wing that performs continuous span-wise twist deformation. It exhibits high performance aerodynamic characteristics, is lightweight and simple to fabricate and repair. The wing is constructed from discrete lattice elements, wherein the geometric and mechanical attributes of the building blocks determine the global mechanical properties of the wing. We describe the mechanical design and structural performance of the digital morphing wing, including their relationship to wind tunnel tests that suggest the ability to increase roll efficiency compared to a conventional rigid aileron system. We focus here on describing the approach to design, modeling, and construction as a generalizable approach for robotics that require very lightweight, tunable, and actively deformable structures.

The public lands and their water supply: Section in Sixteenth Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey to the Secretary of the Interior, 1894-1895: Part II - Papers of an economic character

USGS Publications Warehouse

Newell, Frederick Haynes

1896-01-01

Questions as to the best methods of utilization and disposal of the vacant public lands have been of great prominence ever since the birth of the Republic, and the inauguration of a wise and judicious system of land laws that has been deemed one of the noteworthy achievements of the early part of the century. Many questions, however, are still far from being finally settled; for with the rapid changes incident to the growth of the nation, the settlement of the Mississippi Valley, and the construction of many transcontinental lines of communication leading to the highly cultivated and thickly populated lands of the Pacific Coast, new conditions have arisen to which former precedents and customs are no longer applicable.While the well-watered lands stretching from the Ohio to the Missouri were open to settlement, the problems were mainly those of administration; but now that the humid lands are disposed of, and pioneers are pressing forward to every part of the vast interior region where water and not land is the first item of value, it becomes necessary to modify the treatment of the public lands and to introduce better methods. Such necessary improvements, or the introduction of systems leading to greater prosperity, must depend to a large extent upon the possession by the general public of broad yet accurate knowledge of the chief characteristics of the remaining public domain. This knowledge can be obtained only by a thorough scientific examination and an impartial statement of the facts as ascertained by disinterested observers.

Digital Morphing Wing: Active Wing Shaping Concept Using Composite Lattice-Based Cellular Structures

PubMed Central

Jenett, Benjamin; Calisch, Sam; Cellucci, Daniel; Cramer, Nick; Gershenfeld, Neil; Swei, Sean

2017-01-01

Abstract We describe an approach for the discrete and reversible assembly of tunable and actively deformable structures using modular building block parts for robotic applications. The primary technical challenge addressed by this work is the use of this method to design and fabricate low density, highly compliant robotic structures with spatially tuned stiffness. This approach offers a number of potential advantages over more conventional methods for constructing compliant robots. The discrete assembly reduces manufacturing complexity, as relatively simple parts can be batch-produced and joined to make complex structures. Global mechanical properties can be tuned based on sub-part ordering and geometry, because local stiffness and density can be independently set to a wide range of values and varied spatially. The structure's intrinsic modularity can significantly simplify analysis and simulation. Simple analytical models for the behavior of each building block type can be calibrated with empirical testing and synthesized into a highly accurate and computationally efficient model of the full compliant system. As a case study, we describe a modular and reversibly assembled wing that performs continuous span-wise twist deformation. It exhibits high performance aerodynamic characteristics, is lightweight and simple to fabricate and repair. The wing is constructed from discrete lattice elements, wherein the geometric and mechanical attributes of the building blocks determine the global mechanical properties of the wing. We describe the mechanical design and structural performance of the digital morphing wing, including their relationship to wind tunnel tests that suggest the ability to increase roll efficiency compared to a conventional rigid aileron system. We focus here on describing the approach to design, modeling, and construction as a generalizable approach for robotics that require very lightweight, tunable, and actively deformable structures. PMID:28289574

Estimating Atomic Contributions to Hydration and Binding Using Free Energy Perturbation.

PubMed

Irwin, Benedict W J; Huggins, David J

2018-06-12

We present a general method called atom-wise free energy perturbation (AFEP), which extends a conventional molecular dynamics free energy perturbation (FEP) simulation to give the contribution to a free energy change from each atom. AFEP is derived from an expansion of the Zwanzig equation used in the exponential averaging method by defining that the system total energy can be partitioned into contributions from each atom. A partitioning method is assumed and used to group terms in the expansion to correspond to individual atoms. AFEP is applied to six example free energy changes to demonstrate the method. Firstly, the hydration free energies of methane, methanol, methylamine, methanethiol, and caffeine in water. AFEP highlights the atoms in the molecules that interact favorably or unfavorably with water. Finally AFEP is applied to the binding free energy of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 protease to lopinavir, and AFEP reveals the contribution of each atom to the binding free energy, indicating candidate areas of the molecule to improve to produce a more strongly binding inhibitor. FEP gives a single value for the free energy change and is already a very useful method. AFEP gives a free energy change for each "part" of the system being simulated, where part can mean individual atoms, chemical groups, amino acids, or larger partitions depending on what the user is trying to measure. This method should have various applications in molecular dynamics studies of physical, chemical, or biochemical phenomena, specifically in the field of computational drug discovery.

A density functional theory study on peptide bond cleavage at aspartic residues: direct vs cyclic intermediate hydrolysis.

PubMed

Sang-aroon, Wichien; Amornkitbamrung, Vittaya; Ruangpornvisuti, Vithaya

2013-12-01

In this work, peptide bond cleavages at carboxy- and amino-sides of the aspartic residue in a peptide model via direct (concerted and step-wise) and cyclic intermediate hydrolysis reaction pathways were explored computationally. The energetics, thermodynamic properties, rate constants, and equilibrium constants of all hydrolysis reactions, as well as their energy profiles were computed at the B3LYP/6-311++G(d,p) level of theory. The result indicated that peptide bond cleavage of the Asp residue occurred most preferentially via the cyclic intermediate hydrolysis pathway. In all reaction pathways, cleavage of the peptide bond at the amino-side occurred less preferentially than at the carboxy-side. The overall reaction rate constants of peptide bond cleavage of the Asp residue at the carboxy-side for the assisted system were, in increasing order: concerted < step-wise < cyclic intermediate.

Substance abuse intervention for health care workers: a preliminary report.

PubMed

Lapham, S C; Chang, I; Gregory, C

2000-05-01

The Workplace Managed Care Cooperative Agreement project targets 3,300 health care professionals in hospital, specialty clinic, and primary care settings located in metropolitan New Mexico communities. This project will evaluate whether enhancements to existing substance abuse prevention/early intervention programs can prevent the onset of risky drinking, reduce prevalence of risky drinking, better identify employees who abuse alcohol and drugs, and improve employee wellness. This article describes one such enhancement (Project WISE [Workplace Initiative in Substance Education]), implemented at Lovelace Health Systems. Project WISE includes relatively low-cost elements such as substance abuse awareness training, information on how to reduce drinking, and brief motivational counseling. Evaluation will consist of baseline comparisons of the intervention and comparison sites, a process evaluation, a qualitative analysis using focus groups, and an outcome evaluation using health and work records. Methodological challenges, solutions, and implications for researchers undertaking similar projects are presented.

Adverse effects of metallic artifacts on voxel-wise analysis and tract-based spatial statistics in diffusion tensor imaging.

PubMed

Goto, Masami; Abe, Osamu; Hata, Junichi; Fukunaga, Issei; Shimoji, Keigo; Kunimatsu, Akira; Gomi, Tsutomu

2017-02-01

Background Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) is a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique that reflects the Brownian motion of water molecules constrained within brain tissue. Fractional anisotropy (FA) is one of the most commonly measured DTI parameters, and can be applied to quantitative analysis of white matter as tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) and voxel-wise analysis. Purpose To show an association between metallic implants and the results of statistical analysis (voxel-wise group comparison and TBSS) for fractional anisotropy (FA) mapping, in DTI of healthy adults. Material and Methods Sixteen healthy volunteers were scanned with 3-Tesla MRI. A magnetic keeper type of dental implant was used as the metallic implant. DTI was acquired three times in each participant: (i) without a magnetic keeper (FAnon1); (ii) with a magnetic keeper (FAimp); and (iii) without a magnetic keeper (FAnon2) as reproducibility of FAnon1. Group comparisons with paired t-test were performed as FAnon1 vs. FAnon2, and as FAnon1 vs. FAimp. Results Regions of significantly reduced and increased local FA values were revealed by voxel-wise group comparison analysis (a P value of less than 0.05, corrected with family-wise error), but not by TBSS. Conclusion Metallic implants existing outside the field of view produce artifacts that affect the statistical analysis (voxel-wise group comparisons) for FA mapping. When statistical analysis for FA mapping is conducted by researchers, it is important to pay attention to any dental implants present in the mouths of the participants.

Evaluation of Solid Modeling Software for Finite Element Analysis of Woven Ceramic Matrix Composites

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nemeth, Noel N.; Mital, Subodh; Lang, Jerry

2010-01-01

Three computer programs, used for the purpose of generating 3-D finite element models of the Repeating Unit Cell (RUC) of a textile, were examined for suitability to model woven Ceramic Matrix Composites (CMCs). The programs evaluated were the open-source available TexGen, the commercially available WiseTex, and the proprietary Composite Material Evaluator (COMATE). A five-harness-satin (5HS) weave for a melt-infiltrated (MI) silicon carbide matrix and silicon carbide fiber was selected as an example problem and the programs were tested for their ability to generate a finite element model of the RUC. The programs were also evaluated for ease-of-use and capability, particularly for the capability to introduce various defect types such as porosity, ply shifting, and nesting of a laminate. Overall, it was found that TexGen and WiseTex were useful for generating solid models of the tow geometry; however, there was a lack of consistency in generating well-conditioned finite element meshes of the tows and matrix. TexGen and WiseTex were both capable of allowing collective and individual shifting of tows within a ply and WiseTex also had a ply nesting capability. TexGen and WiseTex were sufficiently userfriendly and both included a Graphical User Interface (GUI). COMATE was satisfactory in generating a 5HS finite element mesh of an idealized weave geometry but COMATE lacked a GUI and was limited to only 5HS and 8HS weaves compared to the larger amount of weave selections available with TexGen and WiseTex.

Three-dimensional validation of the impact of the quantity of teeth or tooth parts on the morphological difference between twin dentitions.

PubMed

Franco, A; Willems, G; Couto Souza, P H; Coucke, W; Thevissen, P

2016-07-01

The number of teeth involved in cases of bite-mark analysis is generally fewer in comparison to the number of teeth available for cases of dental identification. This decreases the amount of information available and can hamper the distinction between bite suspects. The opposite is true in cases of dental identification and the assumption is that more teeth contribute to a higher degree of specificity and the possibility of identification in these cases. Despite being broadly accepted in forensic dentistry, this hypothesis has never been scientifically tested. The present study aims to assess the impact of the quantity of teeth or tooth parts on morphological differences in twin dentitions. A sample of 344 dental casts collected from 86 pairs of twins was used. The dental casts were digitized using an automated motion device (XCAD 3D® (XCADCAM Technology®, São Paulo, SP, Brazil) and were imported as three-dimensional dental model images (3D-DMI) in Geomagic Studio® (3D Systems®, Rock Hill, SC, USA) software package. Sub samples were established based on the quantity of teeth and tooth parts studied. Pair wise morphological comparisons between the corresponding twin siblings were established and quantified. Increasing the quantity of teeth and tooth parts resulted in an increase of morphological difference between twin dentitions. More evident differences were observed comparing anterior vs. entire dentitions (p < 0.05) and complete vs. partial anterior dentitions (p < 0.05). Dental identifications and bite-mark analysis must include all the possibly related dental information to reach optimal comparison outcomes.

Traditional Admissions Variables as Predictors of Minority Students' Performance in Medical School — A Cause for Concern

PubMed Central

Johnson, Henry C.; Rosevear, G. Craig

1977-01-01

This study explored the relationship between traditional admissions criteria, performance in the first semester of medical school, and performance on the National Board of Medical Examiners' (NBME) Examination, Part 1 for minority medical students, non-minority medical students, and the two groups combined. Correlational analysis and step-wise multiple regression procedures were used as the analysis techniques. A different pattern of admissions variables related to National Board Part 1 performance for the two groups. The General Information section of the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) contributed the most variance for the minority student group. MCAT-Science contributed the most variance for the non-minority student group. MCATs accounted for a substantial portion of the variance on the National Board examination. PMID:904005

Utilization of curve offsets in additive manufacturing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Haseltalab, Vahid; Yaman, Ulas; Dolen, Melik

2018-05-01

Curve offsets are utilized in different fields of engineering and science. Additive manufacturing, which lately becomes an explicit requirement in manufacturing industry, utilizes curve offsets widely. One of the necessities of offsetting is for scaling which is required if there is shrinkage after the fabrication or if the surface quality of the resulting part is unacceptable. Therefore, some post-processing is indispensable. But the major application of curve offsets in additive manufacturing processes is for generating head trajectories. In a point-wise AM process, a correct tool-path in each layer can reduce lots of costs and increase the surface quality of the fabricated parts. In this study, different curve offset generation algorithms are analyzed to show their capabilities and disadvantages through some test cases and improvements on their drawbacks are suggested.

Stratigraphic record of the Yellowstone hotspot track, Neogene Sixmile Creek Formation grabens, southwest Montana

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sears, James W.; Hendrix, Marc S.; Thomas, Robert C.; Fritz, William J.

2009-11-01

The Sixmile Creek Formation fills deep grabens in southwest Montana and preserves a stratigraphic record of the evolution of the Yellowstone hotspot track from ~ 17 Ma to ~ 2 Ma. The Ruby, Beaverhead, Big Hole, Deer Lodge, Medicine Lodge-Grasshopper, Three Forks, Canyon Ferry, Jefferson, Melrose, Wise River, and Paradise grabens were active during outbreak of the hotspot. They appear to be parts of a radial system of extensional structures that may have formed on a broad dome that was centered on the hotspot outbreak area in southwest Idaho and southeast Oregon. Early in the evolution of the grabens, massive debris flows surged down Paleogene paleovalleys from uplifted and tilted horst blocks and accumulated in the grabens. The grabens captured runoff from the hotspot dome with thick deposits of river gravel that appear to have been derived, in part, from east-central Idaho. As the hotspot track propagated along the eastern Snake River Plain, silicic ash fell into the graben drainage basins and was reworked into thick fluvial beds along graben axes. The grabens were cross-cut by northwest-trending late Neogene grabens that propagated on the flanks of silicic volcanic centers along the hotspot track. The late Neogene grabens diverted the Middle Miocene drainage patterns in southwest Montana.

Molecular markers for establishing distinctness in vegetatively propagated crops: a case study in grapevine.

PubMed

Ibáñez, Javier; Vélez, M Dolores; de Andrés, M Teresa; Borrego, Joaquín

2009-11-01

Distinctness, uniformity and stability (DUS) testing of varieties is usually required to apply for Plant Breeders' Rights. This exam is currently carried out using morphological traits, where the establishment of distinctness through a minimum distance is the key issue. In this study, the possibility of using microsatellite markers for establishing the minimum distance in a vegetatively propagated crop (grapevine) has been evaluated. A collection of 991 accessions have been studied with nine microsatellite markers and pair-wise compared, and the highest intra-variety distance and the lowest inter-variety distance determined. The collection included 489 different genotypes, and synonyms and sports. Average values for number of alleles per locus (19), Polymorphic Information Content (0.764) and heterozygosities observed (0.773) and expected (0.785) indicated the high level of polymorphism existing in grapevine. The maximum intra-variety variability found was one allele between two accessions of the same variety, of a total of 3,171 pair-wise comparisons. The minimum inter-variety variability found was two alleles between two pairs of varieties, of a total of 119,316 pair-wise comparisons. In base to these results, the minimum distance required to set distinctness in grapevine with the nine microsatellite markers used could be established in two alleles. General rules for the use of the system as a support for establishing distinctness in vegetatively propagated crops are discussed.

Inflammatory markers as predictors of depression and anxiety in adolescents: Statistical model building with component-wise gradient boosting.

PubMed

Walss-Bass, Consuelo; Suchting, Robert; Olvera, Rene L; Williamson, Douglas E

2018-07-01

Immune system abnormalities have been repeatedly observed in several psychiatric disorders, including severe depression and anxiety. However, whether specific immune mediators play an early role in the etiopathogenesis of these disorders remains unknown. In a longitudinal design, component-wise gradient boosting was used to build models of depression, assessed by the Mood-Feelings Questionnaire-Child (MFQC), and anxiety, assessed by the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED) in 254 adolescents from a large set of candidate predictors, including sex, race, 39 inflammatory proteins, and the interactions between those proteins and time. Each model was reduced via backward elimination to maximize parsimony and generalizability. Component-wise gradient boosting and model reduction found that female sex, growth- regulated oncogene (GRO), and transforming growth factor alpha (TGF-alpha) predicted depression, while female sex predicted anxiety. Differential onset of puberty as well as a lack of control for menstrual cycle may also have been responsible for differences between males and females in the present study. In addition, investigation of all possible nonlinear relationships between the predictors and the outcomes was beyond the computational capacity and scope of the present research. This study highlights the need for novel statistical modeling to identify reliable biological predictors of aberrant psychological behavior. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The forgotten dispute: A.I. Oparin and H.J. Muller on the origin of life.

PubMed

Falk, Raphael; Lazcano, Antonio

2012-01-01

The debate between A.I. Oparin's heterotrophic proposal of the origin of life and H.J. Muller's suggestion that what may be considered a posteriori the beginning of life, was an autocatalytic, replicative gene, is analyzed. Although both recognized that what was needed was an interacting system contiguous in space and time, it is now rarely mentioned that this scientific confrontation went on for several decades against the background of intense ideological issues, political tensions, and scientific developments that include the rise and demise of Lysenkoism, on the one hand, and, on the other, the establishment of neoDarwinism and the birth of molecular biology. Whereas for Oparin life was the outcome of the step-wise slow process of precellular evolution in which membrane-bounded polymolecular systems played a key role, Muller argued that life started with the appearance of the first nucleic-acid (DNA) molecule in the primitive oceans. Oparin and Muller came from different scientific backgrounds and almost opposite intellectual traditions, so their common interest in the origin of life did nothing to assuage their opposing views, which as argued soon became part of the debates that took place within the framework of intense ideological confrontations.

Microfluidic strategy to investigate dynamics of small blood vessel function

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yasotharan, Sanjesh; Bolz, Steffen-Sebastian; Guenther, Axel

2010-11-01

Resistance arteries (RAs, 30-300 microns in diameter) that are located within the terminal part of the vascular tree regulate the laminar perfusion of tissue with blood, via the peripheral vascular resistance, and hence controls the systemic blood pressure. The structure of RAs is adapted to actively controlling flow resistance by dynamically changing their diameter, which is non-linearly dependent on the temporal variation of the transmural pressure, perfusion flow rate and spatiotemporal changes in the chemical environment. Increases in systemic blood pressure (hypertension) resulting from pathologic changes in the RA response represent the primary risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. We use a microfluidic strategy to investigate small blood vessels by quantifying structural variations within the arterial wall, RA outer contour and diameter over time. First, we document the artery response to vasomotor drugs that were homogeneously applied at step-wise increasing concentration. Second, we investigate the response in the presence of well-defined axial and circumferential heterogeneities. Artery per- and superfusion is discussed based on microscale PIV measurements of the fluid velocity on both sides of the arterial wall. Structural changes in the arterial wall are quantified using cross-correlation and proper orthogonal decomposition analyses of bright-field micrographs.

50 CFR 253.10 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... less overutilized species than before; applying new technology; improving safety or fuel efficiency..., growth, productivity, or any other business attribute. Demand means a noteholder's request that the.... Wise use means the wise use of fisheries resources and their development, advancement, management...

Grand Challenges for Disaster Reduction

DTIC Science & Technology

2005-06-01

6—Promote risk-wise behavior. Develop and apply principles of economics and human behavior to enhance communications, trust, and understand- ing...Challenges for Disaster Reduction Promote Risk-Wise Behavior. Develop and apply principles of economics and human behavior to enhance communications

Does the Effort of Processing Potential Incentives Influence the Adaption of Context Updating in Older Adults?

PubMed Central

Schmitt, Hannah; Kray, Jutta; Ferdinand, Nicola K.

2017-01-01

A number of aging studies suggest that older adults process positive and negative information differently. For instance, the socioemotional selectivity theory postulates that older adults preferably process positive information in service of emotional well-being (Reed and Carstensen, 2012). Moreover, recent research has started to investigate whether incentives like gains or losses can influence cognitive control in an ongoing task. In an earlier study (Schmitt et al., 2015), we examined whether incentive cues, indicating potential monetary gains, losses, or neutral outcomes for good performance in the following trial, would influence older adults’ ability to exert cognitive control. Cognitive control was measured in an AX-Continuous-Performance-Task (AX-CPT) in which participants had to select their responses to probe stimuli depending on a preceding context cue. In this study, we did not find support for a positivity effect in older adults, but both gains and losses led to enhanced context processing. As the trial-wise presentation mode may be too demanding on cognitive resources for such a bias to occur, the main goal of the present study was to examine whether motivational mindsets, induced by block-wise presentation of incentives, would result in a positivity effect. For this reason, we examined 17 older participants (65–76 years) in the AX-CPT using a block-wise presentation of incentive cues and compared them to 18 older adults (69–78 years) with the trial-wise presentation mode from our earlier study (Schmitt et al., 2015). Event-related potentials were recorded to the onset of the motivational cue and during the AX-CPT. Our results show that (a) older adults initially process cues signaling potential losses more strongly, but later during the AX-CPT invest more cognitive resources in preparatory processes like context updating in conditions with potential gains, and (b) block-wise and trial-wise presentation of incentive cues differentially influenced cognitive control. When incentives were presented block-wise, the above described valence effects were consistently found. In contrast, when incentives were presented trial-wise, the effects were mixed and salience as well as valence effects can be obtained. Hence, how positive and negative incentive cues influence cognitive control in older adults is dependent on demands of cue processing. PMID:29170649

Does the Effort of Processing Potential Incentives Influence the Adaption of Context Updating in Older Adults?

PubMed

Schmitt, Hannah; Kray, Jutta; Ferdinand, Nicola K

2017-01-01

A number of aging studies suggest that older adults process positive and negative information differently. For instance, the socioemotional selectivity theory postulates that older adults preferably process positive information in service of emotional well-being (Reed and Carstensen, 2012). Moreover, recent research has started to investigate whether incentives like gains or losses can influence cognitive control in an ongoing task. In an earlier study (Schmitt et al., 2015), we examined whether incentive cues, indicating potential monetary gains, losses, or neutral outcomes for good performance in the following trial, would influence older adults' ability to exert cognitive control. Cognitive control was measured in an AX-Continuous-Performance-Task (AX-CPT) in which participants had to select their responses to probe stimuli depending on a preceding context cue. In this study, we did not find support for a positivity effect in older adults, but both gains and losses led to enhanced context processing. As the trial-wise presentation mode may be too demanding on cognitive resources for such a bias to occur, the main goal of the present study was to examine whether motivational mindsets, induced by block-wise presentation of incentives, would result in a positivity effect. For this reason, we examined 17 older participants (65-76 years) in the AX-CPT using a block-wise presentation of incentive cues and compared them to 18 older adults (69-78 years) with the trial-wise presentation mode from our earlier study (Schmitt et al., 2015). Event-related potentials were recorded to the onset of the motivational cue and during the AX-CPT. Our results show that (a) older adults initially process cues signaling potential losses more strongly, but later during the AX-CPT invest more cognitive resources in preparatory processes like context updating in conditions with potential gains, and (b) block-wise and trial-wise presentation of incentive cues differentially influenced cognitive control. When incentives were presented block-wise, the above described valence effects were consistently found. In contrast, when incentives were presented trial-wise, the effects were mixed and salience as well as valence effects can be obtained. Hence, how positive and negative incentive cues influence cognitive control in older adults is dependent on demands of cue processing.

DairyWise, a whole-farm dairy model.

PubMed

Schils, R L M; de Haan, M H A; Hemmer, J G A; van den Pol-van Dasselaar, A; de Boer, J A; Evers, A G; Holshof, G; van Middelkoop, J C; Zom, R L G

2007-11-01

A whole-farm dairy model was developed and evaluated. The DairyWise model is an empirical model that simulated technical, environmental, and financial processes on a dairy farm. The central component is the FeedSupply model that balanced the herd requirements, as generated by the DairyHerd model, and the supply of homegrown feeds, as generated by the crop models for grassland and corn silage. The output of the FeedSupply model was used as input for several technical, environmental, and economic submodels. The submodels simulated a range of farm aspects such as nitrogen and phosphorus cycling, nitrate leaching, ammonia emissions, greenhouse gas emissions, energy use, and a financial farm budget. The final output was a farm plan describing all material and nutrient flows and the consequences on the environment and economy. Evaluation of DairyWise was performed with 2 data sets consisting of 29 dairy farms. The evaluation showed that DairyWise was able to simulate gross margin, concentrate intake, nitrogen surplus, nitrate concentration in ground water, and crop yields. The variance accounted for ranged from 37 to 84%, and the mean differences between modeled and observed values varied between -5 to +3% per set of farms. We conclude that DairyWise is a powerful tool for integrated scenario development and evaluation for scientists, policy makers, extension workers, teachers and farmers.

Girls Just Want to Know Where to Have Fun: Preventing Substance Use Initiation in an Under-Resourced Community in South Africa Through HealthWise

PubMed Central

Caldwell, Linda; Wegner, Lisa; Smith, Edward; Jones, Damon

2016-01-01

This study examined how the perception of the availability of leisure opportunities may prevent substance use initiation through HealthWise, a school-based program focused on reducing risky behavior. In this study, we specifically focused on whether HealthWise increased student perceptions of leisure opportunities between 8th grade and 10th grade (N = 5610) in an under-resourced community in South Africa. Path analyses were used to test hypotheses. Given gender differences in substance use patterns, societal norms, and leisure opportunities in under-resourced communities, such as the townships of Cape Town, South Africa, it was especially important to examine associations within each gender. Results suggested that HealthWise directly reduced the likelihood of initiating alcohol and cigarette use and increased the amount of perceived leisure opportunities among girls but not boys. Perceived leisure opportunities mediated the effect of HealthWise on reducing the initiation of alcohol and cigarette use directly, and marijuana use indirectly, among girls but not boys. This is the first study to demonstrate how experimentally targeting leisure through an intervention can increase perceived leisure opportunities and thereby prevent early substance use initiation for a specific population. The importance of considering the context of gender, age, and location is discussed. PMID:27129478

VizieR Online Data Catalog: The magnetic field of L1544. I. NIR data (Clemens+, 2016)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Clemens, D. P.; Tassis, K.; Goldsmith, P. F.

2017-04-01

NIR imaging polarimetric observations of L1544 were conducted on the UT nights of 2013 January 20, 2015 October 27 and 31, 2015 November 1 and 2, and 2016 January 27 and 31 using the Mimir instrument on the 1.83m Perkins Telescope, located outside Flagstaff, Arizona. Six pointing centers ("fields") were selected toward a Center direction (RAJ200=05:04:16.6, DEJ2000=+25:10:48), the four equatorial NSEW directions offset by 6 arcmin from the Center, and one field to the NW offset mostly diagonally by about 10.9 arcmin. In addition, the AllWISE (Cutri+ 2013, II/328) catalog entries for the field shown in Figure 1 were fetched, resulting in 3616 stars with a detection in at least the WISE W1 (3.6um) band or W2 (4.5um) band. These were positionally matched to the H-band catalog, yielding 1262 matches. The properties of the 450 H-band stars without WISE star matches and the WISE stars without H-band star matches were similar in being fainter than the subset of stars with H-to-WISE matches. The combined data set of 1712 stars is listed in Table 1. (1 data file).

Information and Communication Technology as a Pedagogical Tool in Teacher Preparation and Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yang, Chien-Hui; Tzuo, Pei-Wen; Higgins, Heidi; Tan, Clarence Puay Yon

2012-01-01

Under the current trend of globalization and economic dynamics, the accountability of our educational systems is being seriously tested. In response to the demands of the future, the Ministry of Education (MOE) in Singapore has wisely proposed several initiatives to promote the integration of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in…

Wise Leadership for Student Success: An Interview with Tim White

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kezar, Adrianna

2015-01-01

Adrianna Kezar recently sat down with Chancellor Tim White of the California State University system to discuss, among many other things, the newly released California State Graduation Initiative and what it will take to enact it. The key commitments of the initiative are: (1) hire more tenure-track faculty; (2) develop engaged advising; (3) solve…

Doing It for Themselves: Students Creating a High Quality Peer-Learning Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Galloway, Kyle W.; Burns, Simon

2015-01-01

To support our students during their study and exam preparation we have developed a novel synoptic revision exercise using the online PeerWise system. Academic staff involvement was passive after introducing the assignment to the cohort via scaffolding activities, thus generating an entirely student-led peer-learning environment for the task.…

The Database Management Module of the Splice System.

DTIC Science & Technology

1983-06-01

standardization is the only wise chocs . E. FUNCTIONS OF THE EATABASE MkNAGEMENT MODULE As a result of onqoing research in thmc impl1msntaticn of SPLICE, thns...u an e-v Offset by one or mc--l orders of ma#-inuIs inorcvesnnt --L tue execution time cf user transacdrioas. Purthermore, ’is s-toraqe requlrement

Efficient space-time sampling with pixel-wise coded exposure for high-speed imaging.

PubMed

Liu, Dengyu; Gu, Jinwei; Hitomi, Yasunobu; Gupta, Mohit; Mitsunaga, Tomoo; Nayar, Shree K

2014-02-01

Cameras face a fundamental trade-off between spatial and temporal resolution. Digital still cameras can capture images with high spatial resolution, but most high-speed video cameras have relatively low spatial resolution. It is hard to overcome this trade-off without incurring a significant increase in hardware costs. In this paper, we propose techniques for sampling, representing, and reconstructing the space-time volume to overcome this trade-off. Our approach has two important distinctions compared to previous works: 1) We achieve sparse representation of videos by learning an overcomplete dictionary on video patches, and 2) we adhere to practical hardware constraints on sampling schemes imposed by architectures of current image sensors, which means that our sampling function can be implemented on CMOS image sensors with modified control units in the future. We evaluate components of our approach, sampling function and sparse representation, by comparing them to several existing approaches. We also implement a prototype imaging system with pixel-wise coded exposure control using a liquid crystal on silicon device. System characteristics such as field of view and modulation transfer function are evaluated for our imaging system. Both simulations and experiments on a wide range of scenes show that our method can effectively reconstruct a video from a single coded image while maintaining high spatial resolution.

Evaluation of key driver categories influencing sustainable waste management development with the analytic hierarchy process (AHP): Serbia example.

PubMed

Tot, Bojana; Srđević, Bojan; Vujić, Bogdana; Russo, Mário Augusto Tavares; Vujić, Goran

2016-08-01

The problems of waste management have become increasingly complex in recent decades. The increasing amount of generated waste, adopted legislation in the field of waste management, administrative issues, economic impacts and social awareness are important drivers in achieving a sustainable waste management system. However, in practice, there are many other drivers that are often mutually in conflict. The purpose of this research is to define the precise driver and their corresponding sub-drivers, which are relevant for developing a waste management system and, on the basis of their importance, to determine which has the predominant influence on the slow development of a waste management system at the national and regional level, within the Republic of Serbia and similar countries of southeast Europe. This research presents two levels of decision making: the first is a pair-wise comparison of the drivers in relation to the goal and the second is a pair-wise comparison of the sub-drivers in relation to the driver and in relation to the goal. Results of performed analyses on the waste management drivers were integrated via the decision-making process supported by an analytic hierarchy process (AHP). The final results of this research shows that the Institutional-Administrative driver is the most important for developing a sustainable waste management system. © The Author(s) 2016.

PHOTOMETRIC MONITORING OF THE COLDEST KNOWN BROWN DWARF WITH THE SPITZER SPACE TELESCOPE

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

Esplin, T. L.; Luhman, K. L.; Cushing, M. C.

2016-11-20

Because WISE J085510.83-071442.5 (hereafter WISE 0855-0714) is the coldest known brown dwarf (∼250 K) and one of the Sun’s closest neighbors (2.2 pc), it offers a unique opportunity to study a planet-like atmosphere in an unexplored regime of temperature. To detect and characterize inhomogeneities in its atmosphere (e.g., patchy clouds, hot spots), we have performed time-series photometric monitoring of WISE 0855-0714 at 3.6 and 4.5 μ m with the Spitzer Space Telescope during two 23 hr periods that were separated by several months. For both bands, we have detected variability with peak-to-peak amplitudes of 4%–5% and 3%–4% in the firstmore » and second epochs, respectively. The light curves are semiperiodic in the first epoch for both bands, but they are more irregular in the second epoch. Models of patchy clouds have predicted a large increase in mid-infrared (mid-IR) variability amplitudes (for a given cloud covering fraction) with the appearance of water ice clouds at T {sub eff} < 375 K, so if such clouds are responsible for the variability of WISE 0855-0714, then its small amplitudes of variability indicate a very small deviation in cloud coverage between hemispheres. Alternatively, the similarity in mid-IR variability amplitudes between WISE 0855-0714 and somewhat warmer T and Y dwarfs may suggest that they share a common origin for their variability (i.e., not water clouds). In addition to our variability data, we have examined other constraints on the presence of water ice clouds in the atmosphere of WISE 0855-0714, including the recent mid-IR spectrum from Skemer et al. (2016). We find that robust evidence of such clouds is not yet available.« less

The First Hyper-Luminous Infrared Galaxy Discovered by WISE

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Eisenhardt, Peter R.; Wu, Jingwen; Tsai, Chao-Wei; Assef, Roberto; Benford, Dominic; Blain, Andrew; Bridge, Carrie; Condon, J. J.; Cushing, Michael C.; Cutri, Roc;

Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA): Exploring the WISE Web in G12

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jarrett, T. H.; Cluver, M. E.; Magoulas, C.; Bilicki, M.; Alpaslan, M.; Bland-Hawthorn, J.; Brough, S.; Brown, M. J. I.; Croom, S.; Driver, S.; Holwerda, B. W.; Hopkins, A. M.; Loveday, J.; Norberg, P.; Peacock, J. A.; Popescu, C. C.; Sadler, E. M.; Taylor, E. N.; Tuffs, R. J.; Wang, L.

2017-02-01

We present an analysis of the mid-infrared Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) sources seen within the equatorial GAMA G12 field, located in the North Galactic Cap. Our motivation is to study and characterize the behavior of WISE source populations in anticipation of the deep multiwavelength surveys that will define the next decade, with the principal science goal of mapping the 3D large-scale structures and determining the global physical attributes of the host galaxies. In combination with cosmological redshifts, we identify galaxies from their WISE W1 (3.4 μm) resolved emission, and we also perform a star-galaxy separation using apparent magnitude, colors, and statistical modeling of star counts. The resulting galaxy catalog has ≃590,000 sources in 60 deg2, reaching a W1 5σ depth of 31 μJy. At the faint end, where redshifts are not available, we employ a luminosity function analysis to show that approximately 27% of all WISE extragalactic sources to a limit of 17.5 mag (31 μJy) are at high redshift, z> 1. The spatial distribution is investigated using two-point correlation functions and a 3D source density characterization at 5 Mpc and 20 Mpc scales. For angular distributions, we find that brighter and more massive sources are strongly clustered relative to fainter sources with lower mass; likewise, based on WISE colors, spheroidal galaxies have the strongest clustering, while late-type disk galaxies have the lowest clustering amplitudes. In three dimensions, we find a number of distinct groupings, often bridged by filaments and superstructures. Using special visualization tools, we map these structures, exploring how clustering may play a role with stellar mass and galaxy type.

A spectroscopic survey of WISE-selected obscured quasars with the southern african large telescope

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

Hainline, Kevin N.; Hickox, Ryan C.; Carroll, Christopher M.

2014-11-10

We present the results of an optical spectroscopic survey of a sample of 40 candidate obscured quasars identified on the basis of their mid-infrared emission detected by the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). Optical spectra for this survey were obtained using the Robert Stobie Spectrograph on the Southern African Large Telescope. Our sample was selected with WISE colors characteristic of active galactic nuclei (AGNs), as well as red optical to mid-IR colors indicating that the optical/UV AGN continuum is obscured by dust. We obtain secure redshifts for the majority of the objects that comprise our sample (35/40), and find thatmore » sources that are bright in the WISE W4 (22 μm) band are typically at moderate redshift ((z) = 0.35) while sources fainter in W4 are at higher redshifts ((z) = 0.73). The majority of the sources have narrow emission lines with optical colors and emission line ratios of our WISE-selected sources that are consistent with the locus of AGN on the rest-frame g – z color versus [Ne III] λ3869/[O II] λλ3726+3729 line ratio diagnostic diagram. We also use empirical AGN and galaxy templates to model the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) for the objects in our sample, and find that while there is significant variation in the observed SEDs for these objects, the majority require a strong AGN component. Finally, we use the results from our analysis of the optical spectra and the SEDs to compare our selection criteria to alternate criteria presented in the literature. These results verify the efficacy of selecting luminous obscured AGNs based on their WISE colors.« less

Constructing a Way to Victory: The US Interagency Conflict over Reconstruction and Development Operations during Wartime

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-01-01

Andrade and Willbanks, “Cords/Phoenix,” 16. Knowlege is indivisable. When people grow wise in one direction, they are sure to make it easier for themselves to grow wise in other directions as well. -- Isaac Asimov

Moving Technology to the Center of Instruction: How One Experienced Teacher Incorporates a Web-based Environment Over Time

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Williams, Michelle

2008-08-01

The paper reports on a 3-year study of an experienced fifth grade teacher learning to integrate a Web-based Inquiry Science Environment (WISE) into his core science instruction. Data from this study included videotapes and transcripts of classroom instruction, and audiotapes and transcripts of professional development meetings and interviews conducted with the teacher as he was implementing the curriculum. The results suggest that the teacher's classroom practices shifted meaningfully over time, thus moving WISE from the peripheral to the center of his science class instruction. There was an increased integrated use of the technology by this teacher during the WISE enactments in years two and three. The teacher also engaged his students in significantly more science dialogues during the WISE online investigations. Further findings suggest that this shift in pedagogy can be attributed to repeated opportunities for the instructor to teach an inquiry-based curriculum, as well as reflecting on his teaching experiences.

Enhanced Condensation Heat Transfer On Patterned Surfaces

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alizadeh-Birjandi, Elaheh; Kavehpour, H. Pirouz

2017-11-01

Transition from film to drop wise condensation can improve the efficiency of thermal management applications and result in considerable savings in investments and operating costs by millions of dollars every year. The current methods available are either hydrophobic coating or nanostructured surfaces. The former has little adhesion to the structure which tends to detach easily under working conditions, the fabrication techniques of the latter are neither cost-effective nor scalable, and both are made with low thermal conductivity materials that would negate the heat transfer enhancement by drop wise condensation. Therefore, the existing technologies have limitations in enhancing vapor-to-liquid condensation. This work focuses on development of surfaces with wettability contrast to boost drop wise condensation, which its overall heat transfer efficiency is 2-3 times film wise condensation, while maintaining high conduction rate through the surface at low manufacturing costs. The variation in interfacial energy is achieved through crafting hydrophobic patterns to the surface of the metal via scalable fabrication techniques. The results of experimental and surface optimization studies are also presented.

WISE Discovery of Hyper Luminous Galaxies at z=2-4 and Their Implications for Galaxy and AGN Evolution

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tsai, Chao Wei; Eisenhardt, Peter; Wu, Jingwen; Bridge, Carrie; Assef, Roberto; Benford, Dominic; Blain, Andrew; Cutri, Roc; Griffith, Robert L.; Jarrett, Thomas;

Machine-learning identification of galaxies in the WISE × SuperCOSMOS all-sky catalogue

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Krakowski, T.; Małek, K.; Bilicki, M.; Pollo, A.; Kurcz, A.; Krupa, M.

2016-11-01

Context. The two currently largest all-sky photometric datasets, WISE and SuperCOSMOS, have been recently cross-matched to construct a novel photometric redshift catalogue on 70% of the sky. Galaxies were separated from stars and quasars through colour cuts, which may leave imperfections because different source types may overlap in colour space. Aims: The aim of the present work is to identify galaxies in the WISE × SuperCOSMOS catalogue through an alternative approach of machine learning. This allows us to define more complex separations in the multi-colour space than is possible with simple colour cuts, and should provide a more reliable source classification. Methods: For the automatised classification we used the support vector machines (SVM) learning algorithm and employed SDSS spectroscopic sources that we cross-matched with WISE × SuperCOSMOS to construct the training and verification set. We performed a number of tests to examine the behaviour of the classifier (completeness, purity, and accuracy) as a function of source apparent magnitude and Galactic latitude. We then applied the classifier to the full-sky data and analysed the resulting catalogue of candidate galaxies. We also compared the resulting dataset with the one obtained through colour cuts. Results: The tests indicate very high accuracy, completeness, and purity (>95%) of the classifier at the bright end; this deteriorates for the faintest sources, but still retains acceptable levels of 85%. No significant variation in the classification quality with Galactic latitude is observed. When we applied the classifier to all-sky WISE × SuperCOSMOS data, we found 15 million galaxies after masking problematic areas. The resulting sample is purer than the one produced by applying colour cuts, at the price of a lower completeness across the sky. Conclusions: The automatic classification is a successful alternative approach to colour cuts for defining a reliable galaxy sample. The identifications we obtained are included in the public release of the WISE × SuperCOSMOS galaxy catalogue. The public release of the WISE × SuperCOSMOS galaxy catalogue is available from http://ssa.roe.ac.uk/WISExSCOS

The fraction and mid-infrared properties of broad absorption line quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pu, Xingting

2014-02-01

We present the results of a study which uses a sample of 1822 Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) quasars with reliable Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) detections in the redshift range 1.7≤ z≤4.38 to investigate the mid-infrared fraction of broad absorption line (BAL) quasars. The BAL quasars in the sample include both high-ionization BAL (HiBAL) quasars that show broad absorption from C iv and low-ionization BAL (LoBAL) quasars that show additional broad absorption from Mg ii. The fraction of C iv BAL quasars with nonzero absorption index (AI) is found to be 38.7±1.2 %, in good agreement with that derived for the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) sample. The C iv BAL quasar fractions remain constant with magnitude in the WISE 3.4 μm (W1) and 4.6 μm (W2) bands, and increase rapidly with decreasing magnitude in the WISE 12 μm (W3) and 22 μm (W4) bands. The nonzero AI fraction of 44.5±2.1 % determined in the WISE W4 band is more likely to represent the intrinsic BAL quasar fraction. No evidence that the fraction is a strong function of redshift is found. At 1.7≤ z≤2.15, the overall mid-infrared LoBAL fraction is and the fractions increase significantly with decreasing magnitude in all four of WISE bands. Moreover, it is found that the mean optical-to-WISE colors of BAL quasars are ≃0.2 mag redder than that of non-BAL quasars, while the traditional (nonzero balnicity) BAL quasars are redder than the nontraditional BAL quasars by ≃0.15 mag, which suggest a continuum of more reddening from non-BAL to nontraditional BAL to traditional BAL. No evidence that nontraditional BALs are a distinct class from traditional BALs is found. Finally, it is shown that the mean optical-to-WISE colors of LoBALs are ≃0.4 mag redder than that of HiBALs at 1.7≤ z≤2.15.

Optimization of MLS receivers for multipath environments

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mcalpine, G. A.; Highfill, J. H., III

1976-01-01

The design of a microwave landing system (MLS) aircraft receiver, capable of optimal performance in multipath environments found in air terminal areas, is reported. Special attention was given to the angle tracking problem of the receiver and includes tracking system design considerations, study and application of locally optimum estimation involving multipath adaptive reception and then envelope processing, and microcomputer system design. Results show processing is competitive in this application with i-f signal processing performance-wise and is much more simple and cheaper. A summary of the signal model is given.

The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wright, E. L.

2009-12-01

The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) will map the whole sky in the thermal infrared, filling a gap in sensitive all-sky surveys between the 2MASS near infrared survey and the AKARI Far-Infrared Survey. WISE will survey the sky in 6 months following its launch and in-orbit checkout. Launch is currently scheduled for November, 2009. WISE should cover more than 95% of sky with sensitivities of 120, 160, 650 & 2600 μJy or better in bands centered at 3.3, 4.7, 12 & 23 μm wavelength. The angular resolution should be 6 arcsec except at 23 μm where diffraction gives 12 arcsec.

Platelet Function in Basset Hound Hereditary Thrombopathy.

DTIC Science & Technology

1986-01-01

4021, 1975. 20. DZANDU, J.K., DEH, M.E., BARRETT, D.L., AND WISE, G.E. Detec- tion of erythrocyte membrane proteins, sialoproteins , and lipids in the...Wise GE. Detection of erythrocyte membrane proteins, sialoproteins , and lipids in the same polyacrylamide gel using a double staining technique. Proc

Go Green

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kennedy, Mike

2007-01-01

In 2007, schools and universities allocated billions of dollars to build education facilities. Responsible administrators strive to spend those funds wisely, but over the years, educators and community members have not always agreed on what constitutes wise spending. In the Baby Boom years, the accelerating demand for space led many schools and…

Leading Educational Change Wisely

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Forrester, Gillian

2011-01-01

In this article, the author reviews Christopher Branson's book entitled "Leading Educational Change Wisely". The book provides an alternative and engaging perspective on leading educational change. Branson utilises "wisdom" as its central conceptual device to present a thought-provoking and philosophical account on how leaders are able to build a…

The effect of fabric structure on the mechanical properties of warp knitted surgical mesh for hernia repair.

PubMed

Mirjavan, Mohammad; Asayesh, Azita; Asgharian Jeddi, Ali Asghar

2017-02-01

Surgical mesh is being used for healing hernia, pelvic organ prolapse, skull injuries and urinary incontinence. In this research the effect of fabric structure on the mechanical properties of warp knitted surgical meshes in comparison to abdominal fascia has been investigated. For this purpose, warp knitted surgical mesh with five different structures (Tricot, Pin-hole-net, quasi-Sandfly, Sandfly and quasi-Marquissite) were produced using polypropylene monofilament. Thereafter, their mechanical properties such as uniaxial tensile behavior in various directions (wale-wise (90°), course-wise (0°) and diagonal (45°)), bending resistance and crease recovery were analyzed. The meshes demonstrated different elastic modulus in various directions, which can be attributed to the pore shape (pore angle) and underlap angle in the structure of mesh. Except Pin-hole-net mesh, other produced meshes exhibited better level of orthotropy in comparison to abdominal fascia. The most flexible mesh in both wale-wise and course-wise directions was quasi-Sandfly and thereafter quasi-Marquissite. Tricot and Pin-hole-net manifested the highest crease recovery in wale-wise and coursewise directions respectively. The most desirable mesh in terms of porosity was quasi-Marquissite mesh. Overall, the quasi-Marquissite mesh was selected as the most suitable surgical mesh considering all advantages and disadvantages of each produced mesh in this study. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Formative student-authored question bank: perceptions, question quality and association with summative performance

PubMed Central

Walsh, Jason L; Harris, Benjamin H L; Denny, Paul; Smith, Phil

2018-01-01

Purpose of the study There are few studies on the value of authoring questions as a study method, the quality of the questions produced by students and student perceptions of student-authored question banks. Here we evaluate PeerWise, a widely used and free online resource that allows students to author, answer and discuss multiple-choice questions. Study design We introduced two undergraduate medical student cohorts to PeerWise (n=603). We looked at their patterns of PeerWise usage; identified associations between student engagement and summative exam performance; and used focus groups to assess student perceptions of the value of PeerWise for learning. We undertook item analysis to assess question difficulty and quality. Results Over two academic years, the two cohorts wrote 4671 questions, answered questions 606 658 times and posted 7735 comments. Question writing frequency correlated most strongly with summative performance (Spearman’s rank: 0.24, p=<0.001). Student focus groups found that: (1) students valued curriculum specificity; and (2) students were concerned about student-authored question quality. Only two questions of the 300 ’most-answered' questions analysed had an unacceptable discriminatory value (point-biserial correlation <0.2). Conclusions Item analysis suggested acceptable question quality despite student concerns. Quantitative and qualitative methods indicated that PeerWise is a valuable study tool. PMID:28866607

Finite cohesion due to chain entanglement in polymer melts.

PubMed

Cheng, Shiwang; Lu, Yuyuan; Liu, Gengxin; Wang, Shi-Qing

2016-04-14

Three different types of experiments, quiescent stress relaxation, delayed rate-switching during stress relaxation, and elastic recovery after step strain, are carried out in this work to elucidate the existence of a finite cohesion barrier against free chain retraction in entangled polymers. Our experiments show that there is little hastened stress relaxation from step-wise shear up to γ = 0.7 and step-wise extension up to the stretching ratio λ = 1.5 at any time before or after the Rouse time. In contrast, a noticeable stress drop stemming from the built-in barrier-free chain retraction is predicted using the GLaMM model. In other words, the experiment reveals a threshold magnitude of step-wise deformation below which the stress relaxation follows identical dynamics whereas the GLaMM or Doi-Edwards model indicates a monotonic acceleration of the stress relaxation dynamics as a function of the magnitude of the step-wise deformation. Furthermore, a sudden application of startup extension during different stages of stress relaxation after a step-wise extension, i.e. the delayed rate-switching experiment, shows that the geometric condensation of entanglement strands in the cross-sectional area survives beyond the reptation time τd that is over 100 times the Rouse time τR. Our results point to the existence of a cohesion barrier that can prevent free chain retraction upon moderate deformation in well-entangled polymer melts.

Hot DOGs: The Most Luminous Galaxies Found by WISE

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Eisenhardt, Peter; Tsai, Chao-Wei; Wu, Jingwen; Griffith, Roger; Yan, Lin; Stern, Daniel; Stanford, Adam; Blain, Andrew; Benford, Dominic; Bridge, Carrie; Assef, Roberto; Petty, Sara

2013-02-01

NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) has achieved its fundamental goal by delivering its all-sky survey at 3.4, 4.6, 12 and 22 (micron) (W1, W2, W3, and W4), reaching sensitivities hundreds of times deeper than IRAS. One of the two primary science objectives for WISE is to identify the most luminous galaxies in the Universe (Ultra-Luminous IR Galaxies, or ULIRGs). We have used WISE photometry to select an all- sky sample of objects which are extremely luminous, and for which Herschel far-IR follow-up observations are underway. The objects are prominent in W3 and W4, but faint or undetected in W1 and W2. Available spectroscopy and far IR photometry for these objects show they typically have redshifts z > 2 and luminosities over 10^13 L_odot, with about 10% exceeding 10^14 L_odot and rivaling the brightest known QSOs. Their dust is more than twice as hot as other IR luminous objects: they are hot dust obscured galaxies or ``hot DOGs," and may represent a new phase in galaxy evolution. We request NOAO time to obtain redshifts and optical and near IR photometry for the all-sky sample of the brightest hot DOGs, all of which are in our Herschel program. With existing and allocated observations, this request should complete the acquisition of these crucial data for this primary WISE science objective.

Hot DOGs: The Most Luminous Galaxies Found by WISE

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Eisenhardt, Peter; Tsai, Chao-Wei; Wu, Jingwen; Assef, Roberto; Stern, Daniel; Wright, Edward

2013-08-01

NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) has achieved its fundamental goal by delivering an all-sky survey at 3.4, 4.6, 12 and 22 (micron) (W1, W2, W3, and W4), reaching sensitivities hundreds of times deeper than IRAS. One of the two primary science objectives for WISE is to identify the most luminous galaxies in the Universe. We have used WISE photometry to select an all-sky sample of objects which are extremely luminous, and for which Herschel far-IR follow-up observations are 99% complete. The objects are prominent in W3 and W4, but faint or undetected in W1 and W2. The spectroscopy and far IR photometry for these objects show they typically have redshifts z > 2 and luminosities over 10^13 L_⊙, with about 5 - 10% exceeding 10^14 L_⊙ and rivaling the brightest known QSOs. Their dust is more than twice as hot as other IR luminous objects: they are hot dust obscured galaxies or ``hot DOGs," and may represent a new phase in galaxy evolution. Because our 2012B allocation had mixed weather, we request 2013B NOAO time to complete the collection of redshifts and optical and near IR photometry for this all-sky sample of the brightest hot DOGs. With existing and allocated observations, this request should complete the acquisition of these crucial data for this primary WISE science objective.

Raman exfoliative cytology for oral precancer diagnosis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sahu, Aditi; Gera, Poonam; Pai, Venkatesh; Dubey, Abhishek; Tyagi, Gunjan; Waghmare, Mandavi; Pagare, Sandeep; Mahimkar, Manoj; Murali Krishna, C.

2017-11-01

Oral premalignant lesions (OPLs) such as leukoplakia, erythroplakia, and oral submucous fibrosis, often precede oral cancer. Screening and management of these premalignant conditions can improve prognosis. Raman spectroscopy has previously demonstrated potential in the diagnosis of oral premalignant conditions (in vivo), detected viral infection, and identified cancer in both oral and cervical exfoliated cells (ex vivo). The potential of Raman exfoliative cytology (REC) in identifying premalignant conditions was investigated. Oral exfoliated samples were collected from healthy volunteers (n=20), healthy volunteers with tobacco habits (n=20), and oral premalignant conditions (n=27, OPL) using Cytobrush. Spectra were acquired using Raman microprobe. Spectral acquisition parameters were: λex: 785 nm, laser power: 40 mW, acquisition time: 15 s, and average: 3. Postspectral acquisition, cell pellet was subjected to Pap staining. Multivariate analysis was carried out using principal component analysis and principal component-linear discriminant analysis using both spectra- and patient-wise approaches in three- and two-group models. OPLs could be identified with ˜77% (spectra-wise) and ˜70% (patient-wise) sensitivity in the three-group model while with 86% (spectra-wise) and 83% (patient-wise) in the two-group model. Use of histopathologically confirmed premalignant cases and better sampling devices may help in development of improved standard models and also enhance the sensitivity of the method. Future longitudinal studies can help validate potential of REC in screening and monitoring high-risk populations and prognosis prediction of premalignant lesions.

Robust group-wise rigid registration of point sets using t-mixture model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ravikumar, Nishant; Gooya, Ali; Frangi, Alejandro F.; Taylor, Zeike A.

2016-03-01

A probabilistic framework for robust, group-wise rigid alignment of point-sets using a mixture of Students t-distribution especially when the point sets are of varying lengths, are corrupted by an unknown degree of outliers or in the presence of missing data. Medical images (in particular magnetic resonance (MR) images), their segmentations and consequently point-sets generated from these are highly susceptible to corruption by outliers. This poses a problem for robust correspondence estimation and accurate alignment of shapes, necessary for training statistical shape models (SSMs). To address these issues, this study proposes to use a t-mixture model (TMM), to approximate the underlying joint probability density of a group of similar shapes and align them to a common reference frame. The heavy-tailed nature of t-distributions provides a more robust registration framework in comparison to state of the art algorithms. Significant reduction in alignment errors is achieved in the presence of outliers, using the proposed TMM-based group-wise rigid registration method, in comparison to its Gaussian mixture model (GMM) counterparts. The proposed TMM-framework is compared with a group-wise variant of the well-known Coherent Point Drift (CPD) algorithm and two other group-wise methods using GMMs, using both synthetic and real data sets. Rigid alignment errors for groups of shapes are quantified using the Hausdorff distance (HD) and quadratic surface distance (QSD) metrics.

Combining computer and manual overlays—Willamette River Greenway Study

Treesearch

Asa Hanamoto; Lucille Biesbroeck

1979-01-01

We will present a method of combining computer mapping with manual overlays. An example of its use is the Willamette River Greenway Study produced for the State of Oregon Department of Transportation in 1974. This one year planning study included analysis of data relevant to a 286-mile river system. The product is a "wise use" plan which conserves the basic...

Using steady-state equations for transient flow calculation in natural gas pipelines

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

Maddox, R.N.; Zhou, P.

1984-04-02

Maddox and Zhou have extended their technique for calculating the unsteady-state behavior of straight gas pipelines to complex pipeline systems and networks. After developing the steady-state flow rate and pressure profile for each pipe in the network, analysts can perform the transient-state analysis in the real-time step-wise manner described for this technique.

An Updated Account of the WISELAV Project: A Visual Construction of the English Verb System

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pablos, Andrés Palacios

2016-01-01

This article presents the state of the art in WISELAV, an on-going research project based on the metaphor Languages Are (like) Visuals (LAV) and its mapping Words-In-Shapes Exchange (WISE). First, the cognitive premises that motivate the proposal are recalled: the power of images, students' increasingly visual cognitive learning style, and the…

VizieR Online Data Catalog: Vilnius photometry near Sh 2-205 (Straizys+, 2016)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Straizys, V.; Cepas, V.; Boyle, R. P.; Zdanavicius, J.; Maskoliunas, M.; Kazlauskas, A.; Zdanavicius, K.; Cernis, K.

2016-04-01

Table 1 contains the results of photometry of 302 stars down to V=19.5mag in the Vilnius seven-color system in the vicinity of the dark cloud TGU H942 P7 and emission nebula Sh2-205. Photometric data are used to classify stars in spectral and luminosity classes. The identification numbers, coordinates, V magnitudes and six color indices in the Vilnius system, photometric two-dimensional spectral types (spectral and luminosity classes) are given. The identification numbers start from from 1001 to avoid confusion with the catalog of Cepas et al. (2013BaltA..22..243C, Cat. J/BaltA/22/223). The coordinates are from PPMXL catalog (Roeser et al. 2010AJ....139.2440R, Cat. I/317). Table 2 contains the list of 88 YSOs, identified using the Koenig & Leisawitz (2014ApJ...791..131K) classification scheme, which combines the WISE and 2MASS near- and mid-infrared colours. The identification number and W1, W2, W3, J, H, Ks magnitudes are from WISE All-sky Data Release (Cutri et al., 2012yCat.2311....0C, Cat. II/311). The types of identified YSOs are given. (2 data files).

WISE J233237.05-505643.5: A Double-Peaked Broad-Lined AGN with Spiral-Shaped Radio Morphology

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tsai, Chao Wei; Jarrett, Thomas H.; Stern, Daniel; Emonts, Bjorn; Barrows, R. Scott; Assef, Roberto J.; Norris, Ray P.; Eisenhardt, Peter R. M.; Lonsdale, Carol; Blain, Andrew W.;

Objectives and conditions for protection of unique peatlands in the south of Western Siberia in connection with issues of conservation and use of unique reed mire in suburbs of Tomsk

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Semenova, N. M.

2018-03-01

The article covers the issues of protection of the wetlands located in different natural and economic conditions of Western Siberia. The main focus is on preservation and wise use of the peatlands in the southern part of the West Siberian Plain, which was greatly altered and transformed during the long-term economic development. The field research was conducted in the southern suburbs of Tomsk. A unique peatland, which is an object of a special protection effort, is described in this work. The peatland develops in the conditions of a rich groundwater feed. The peatland deposits are a mixture of peat and travertine. The extension area and the maximum thickness of organo-mineral deposits were determined. The composition of the peat deposits waters and feeding springs was studied. The specific properties of the surface waters formed under the influence of the wedging-out underground waters of the Paleozoic horizons were considered. The flora and vegetation of the study area were analyzed. A list of rare and endangered plant species was compiled. The ecological and social value of the investigated territory was substantiated. As a result we defined pertinent measures needed to protect the natural landscape and to use wisely its resources.

The Army’s Penny-Wise, Pound-Foolish Publications System: A Prescription for Change.

DTIC Science & Technology

1982-06-07

typographical and layout design concept for use in the computer maintained system. (The Internal Revenue Service has invested heavily over the years in...obtaining the best design advice. Before seeking more costly design consultant advice, the IRS experience should be thoroughly considered.) 12. One...abandoned. For the benefit of those who ask: "Why not put all of the regulations in a computer?" the answer is that use of computer-assisted typography auto

WISE Inquiry in Fifth Grade Biology.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Williams, Michelle; Linn, Marcia C.

2002-01-01

Reports on a two-year study designed to investigate how a Web-Based Integrated Science Environment (WISE) project called "Plants in Space" featuring classroom investigations enabled 5th grade students to increase their understanding of plant growth and development. Investigates two versions of the curriculum and considers how understanding of the…

DriveWise: An Interdisciplinary Hospital-Based Driving Assessment Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Connor, Margaret G.; Kapust, Lissa R.; Hollis, Ann M.

2008-01-01

Health care professionals working with the elderly have opportunities through research and clinical practice to shape public policy affecting the older driver. This article describes DriveWise, an interdisciplinary hospital-based driving assessment program developed in response to clinical concerns about the driving safety of individuals with…

A Qualitative Inquiry of Wisdom Development: Educators' Perspectives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Li-Ming; Wu, Pi-Ju; Cheng, Ying-Yao; Hsueh, Hsiu-I

2011-01-01

This study draws on the perspectives of educators to explore the factors and processes underlying wisdom development. We interviewed 25 wise Taiwanese nominees and used a grounded theory method to analyze the qualitative data. The wise nominees mentioned eight facilitative factors, including work experiences, life experiences, social interactions,…

Retrospective Case Study in Wise County, Texas, Study of the Potential Impacts of Hydraulic Fracturing on Drinking Water Resources

EPA Science Inventory

This report describes the retrospective case study in north central Texas, conducted at three locations in Wise County where both conventional and unconventional gas production occurred in the past. Currently unconventional gas production occurs from the Mississippian-aged Barne...

Annotated Bibliography on the Teaching of Psychology: 2007

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnson, David E.; Schroder, Simone I.; Erickson, Jonathan P.; Grimes, Katherine N.

2008-01-01

This annotated bibliography is a continuation of those previously published in "Teaching of Psychology" (e.g., Berry & Daniel, 1984; Fulkerson & Wise, 1987; Johnson & Schroder, 1997; Wise & Fulkerson, 1996). In this paper, the authors maintained similar search methods and criteria for inclusion that were used in previous bibliographies. They also…

Asia Wise Workbook Number One.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tasmanian Education Dept., Hobart (Australia).

This workbook is a compilation of work sheets from the teacher's sections of the 1989 issues of "Asia Wise," an Auatralian magazine devoted to the study of Asia. Profiles and worksheets are provided for the countries of China, Indo-China, Indonesia, Japan, Philippines, and Thailand. Worksheets feature the following themes: Asian…

Wise Crowd Content Assessment and Educational Rubrics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Passonneau, Rebecca J.; Poddar, Ananya; Gite, Gaurav; Krivokapic, Alisa; Yang, Qian; Perin, Dolores

2018-01-01

Development of reliable rubrics for educational intervention studies that address reading and writing skills is labor-intensive, and could benefit from an automated approach. We compare a main ideas rubric used in a successful writing intervention study to a highly reliable wise-crowd content assessment method developed to evaluate…

36 CFR 272.4 - Commercial use.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

..., importation, reproduction, or use of Woodsy Owl upon the following findings: (1) That the proposed use of Woodsy Owl will contribute to public knowledge about wise use of the environment and programs which... the status of Woodsy Owl as a national symbol for a public service campaign to promote wise use of the...

46 CFR 56.50-55 - Bilge pumps.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... Type of vessel Waters navigated Power pumps (1) Hand pumps Sailing Ocean and coastwise Two (2) Manned... Vessels Vessel length, in feet Passenger vessels 1 International voyages 3 Ocean, coast-wise and Great Lakes All other waters Dry-cargo vessels 2 Ocean, coast-wise and Great Lakes All waters Tankvessels All...

46 CFR 56.50-55 - Bilge pumps.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... Type of vessel Waters navigated Power pumps (1) Hand pumps Sailing Ocean and coastwise Two (2) Manned... Vessels Vessel length, in feet Passenger vessels 1 International voyages 3 Ocean, coast-wise and Great Lakes All other waters Dry-cargo vessels 2 Ocean, coast-wise and Great Lakes All waters Tank vessels All...

46 CFR 56.50-55 - Bilge pumps.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... Type of vessel Waters navigated Power pumps (1) Hand pumps Sailing Ocean and coastwise Two (2) Manned... Vessels Vessel length, in feet Passenger vessels 1 International voyages 3 Ocean, coast-wise and Great Lakes All other waters Dry-cargo vessels 2 Ocean, coast-wise and Great Lakes All waters Tankvessels All...

46 CFR 56.50-55 - Bilge pumps.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... Type of vessel Waters navigated Power pumps (1) Hand pumps Sailing Ocean and coastwise Two (2) Manned... Vessels Vessel length, in feet Passenger vessels 1 International voyages 3 Ocean, coast-wise and Great Lakes All other waters Dry-cargo vessels 2 Ocean, coast-wise and Great Lakes All waters Tankvessels All...

Features of Wisdom: Prototypical Attributes of Wise People.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Maciel, Anna G.; And Others

Features of everyday conceptions of a "wise person" were examined, based on a model of wisdom-related knowledge (Baltes & Smith, 1990). The goal was to examine whether the psychological theory underlying this model is consistent with lay conceptions of wisdom, and whether everyday conceptions contain additional features not contained…

'Witch Head' Brews Baby Stars

NASA Image and Video Library

2015-10-30

A witch appears to be screaming out into space in this new image from NASA's Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE. The infrared portrait shows the Witch Head nebula, named after its resemblance to the profile of a wicked witch. Astronomers say the billowy clouds of the nebula, where baby stars are brewing, are being lit up by massive stars. Dust in the cloud is being hit with starlight, causing it to glow with infrared light, which was picked up by WISE's detectors. The Witch Head nebula is estimated to be hundreds of light-years away in the Orion constellation, just off the famous hunter's knee. WISE was recently "awakened" to hunt for asteroids in a program called NEOWISE. The reactivation came after the spacecraft was put into hibernation in 2011, when it completed two full scans of the sky, as planned. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech NASA image use policy. ( http://www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelines.html ) NASA Goddard Space Flight Center ( http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/home/index.html ) enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter ( http://twitter.com/NASA_GoddardPix ) Like us on Facebook ( http://www.facebook.com/pages/Greenbelt-MD/NASA-Goddard/395013845897?ref=tsd ) Find us on Instagram ( http://instagram.com/nasagoddard?vm=grid )

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

Masiero, Joseph R.; Mainzer, A. K.; Bauer, J. M.

We present initial results from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), a four-band all-sky thermal infrared survey that produces data well suited for measuring the physical properties of asteroids, and the NEOWISE enhancement to the WISE mission allowing for detailed study of solar system objects. Using a NEATM thermal model fitting routine, we compute diameters for over 100,000 Main Belt asteroids from their IR thermal flux, with errors better than 10%. We then incorporate literature values of visible measurements (in the form of the H absolute magnitude) to determine albedos. Using these data we investigate the albedo and diameter distributionsmore » of the Main Belt. As observed previously, we find a change in the average albedo when comparing the inner, middle, and outer portions of the Main Belt. We also confirm that the albedo distribution of each region is strongly bimodal. We observe groupings of objects with similar albedos in regions of the Main Belt associated with dynamical breakup families. Asteroid families typically show a characteristic albedo for all members, but there are notable exceptions to this. This paper is the first look at the Main Belt asteroids in the WISE data, and only represents the preliminary, observed raw size, and albedo distributions for the populations considered. These distributions are subject to survey biases inherent to the NEOWISE data set and cannot yet be interpreted as describing the true populations; the debiased size and albedo distributions will be the subject of the next paper in this series.« less

Choosing Wisely: The Top-5 Recommendations from the Italian Panel of the National Guidelines for the Management of Acute Pharyngitis in Children.

PubMed

Chiappini, Elena; Bortone, Barbara; Di Mauro, Giuseppe; Esposito, Susanna; Galli, Luisa; Landi, Massimo; Novelli, Andrea; Marchisio, Paola; Marseglia, Gian Luigi; Principi, Nicola; de Martino, Maurizio

2017-03-01

With the aim to reduce waste in the health care system and avoid risks associated with unnecessary treatment, the Italian Panel of the National Guidelines for the Management of Acute Pharyngitis in Children joined the Choosing Wisely initiative. An ad hoc Choosing Wisely task force was selected to develop a candidate list of items for the top-5 list on pharyngitis medicine. Through a process of literature review and consensus, the final list of 5 items was chosen. Drafted recommendations were formulated and then reviewed by the task force members until a final consensus was reached. The 5 recommendations approved are: blood exams should not be performed; antibiotics should not be administrated unless microbiologic confirmation of streptococcal infection has been carried out; if a throat culture is performed, susceptibility tests on isolates should not be executed; antibiotic course should not be shortened; because penicillin V is not available in Italy, amoxicillin (50 mg/kg/d in 2-3 doses orally) for 10 days is the first choice treatment; and steroids should not be administered for the risk of masking possible underlying severe condition. This top-5 list can be a novel tool to spread the key messages of guidelines and to avoid unnecessary diagnostic procedures, and to promote a rational use of antibiotics in children. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier HS Journals, Inc. All rights reserved.

CI-KNOW: Cyberinfrastructure Knowledge Networks on the Web. A Social Network Enabled Recommender System for Locating Resources in Cyberinfrastructures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Green, H. D.; Contractor, N. S.; Yao, Y.

2006-12-01

A knowledge network is a multi-dimensional network created from the interactions and interconnections among the scientists, documents, data, analytic tools, and interactive collaboration spaces (like forums and wikis) associated with a collaborative environment. CI-KNOW is a suite of software tools that leverages automated data collection, social network theories, analysis techniques and algorithms to infer an individual's interests and expertise based on their interactions and activities within a knowledge network. The CI-KNOW recommender system mines the knowledge network associated with a scientific community's use of cyberinfrastructure tools and uses relational metadata to record connections among entities in the knowledge network. Recent developments in social network theories and methods provide the backbone for a modular system that creates recommendations from relational metadata. A network navigation portlet allows users to locate colleagues, documents, data or analytic tools in the knowledge network and to explore their networks through a visual, step-wise process. An internal auditing portlet offers administrators diagnostics to assess the growth and health of the entire knowledge network. The first instantiation of the prototype CI-KNOW system is part of the Environmental Cyberinfrastructure Demonstration project at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, which supports the activities of hydrologic and environmental science communities (CLEANER and CUAHSI) under the umbrella of the WATERS network environmental observatory planning activities (http://cleaner.ncsa.uiuc.edu). This poster summarizes the key aspects of the CI-KNOW system, highlighting the key inputs, calculation mechanisms, and output modalities.

NuSTAR Observations of WISE J1036+0449, a Galaxy at z~1 Obscured by Hot Dust

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ricci, C.; Assef, R. J.; Stern, D.; Nikutta, R.; Alexander, D. M.; Asmus, D.; Ballantyne, D. R.; Bauer, F. E.; Blain, A. W.; Boggs, S.; Boorman, P. G.; Brandt, W. N.; Brightman, M.; Chang, C. S.; Chen, C.-T. J.; Christensen, F. E.; Comastri, A.; Craig, W. W.; Díaz-Santos, T.; Eisenhardt, P. R.; Farrah, D.; Gandhi, P.; Hailey, C. J.; Harrison, F. A.; Jun, H. D.; Koss, M. J.; LaMassa, S.; Lansbury, G. B.; Markwardt, C. B.; Stalevski, M.; Stanley, F.; Treister, E.; Tsai, C.-W.; Walton, D. J.; Wu, J. W.; Zappacosta, L.; Zhang, W. W.

2017-01-01

Hot dust-obscured galaxies (hot DOGs), selected from Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer’s all-sky infrared survey, host some of the most powerful active galactic nuclei known and may represent an important stage in the evolution of galaxies. Most known hot DOGs are located at z> 1.5, due in part to a strong bias against identifying them at lower redshift related to the selection criteria. We present a new selection method that identifies 153 hot DOG candidates at z˜ 1, where they are significantly brighter and easier to study. We validate this approach by measuring a redshift z = 1.009 and finding a spectral energy distribution similar to that of higher-redshift hot DOGs for one of these objects, WISE J1036+0449 ({L}{Bol}≃ 8× {10}46 {erg} {{{s}}}-1). We find evidence of a broadened component in Mg II, which would imply a black hole mass of {M}{BH}≃ 2× {10}8 {M}⊙ and an Eddington ratio of {λ }{Edd}≃ 2.7. WISE J1036+0449 is the first hot DOG detected by the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, and observations show that the source is heavily obscured, with a column density of {N}{{H}}≃ (2{--}15)× {10}23 {{cm}}-2. The source has an intrinsic 2-10 keV luminosity of ˜ 6× {10}44 {erg} {{{s}}}-1, a value significantly lower than that expected from the mid-infrared/X-ray correlation. We also find that other hot DOGs observed by X-ray facilities show a similar deficiency of X-ray flux. We discuss the origin of the X-ray weakness and the absorption properties of hot DOGs. Hot DOGs at z≲ 1 could be excellent laboratories to probe the characteristics of the accretion flow and of the X-ray emitting plasma at extreme values of the Eddington ratio.

Analysis of Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar Phase Data at Brady Hot Springs, Nevada, USA Using Prior Information

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reinisch, E. C.; Ali, S. T.; Cardiff, M. A.; Morency, C.; Kreemer, C.; Feigl, K. L.; Team, P.

2016-12-01

Time-dependent deformation has been observed at Brady Hot Springs using interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) [Ali et al. 2016, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.geothermics.2016.01.008]. Our goal is to evaluate multiple competing hypotheses to explain the observed deformation at Brady. To do so requires statistical tests that account for uncertainty. Graph theory is useful for such an analysis of InSAR data [Reinisch, et al. 2016, http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00190-016-0934-5]. In particular, the normalized edge Laplacian matrix calculated from the edge-vertex incidence matrix of the graph of the pair-wise data set represents its correlation and leads to a full data covariance matrix in the weighted least squares problem. This formulation also leads to the covariance matrix of the epoch-wise measurements, representing their relative uncertainties. While the formulation in terms of incidence graphs applies to any quantity derived from pair-wise differences, the modulo-2π ambiguity of wrapped phase renders the problem non-linear. The conventional practice is to unwrap InSAR phase before modeling, which can introduce mistakes without increasing the corresponding measurement uncertainty. To address this issue, we are applying Bayesian inference. To build the likelihood, we use three different observables: (a) wrapped phase [e.g., Feigl and Thurber 2009, http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-246X.2008.03881.x]; (b) range gradients, as defined by Ali and Feigl [2012, http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2012GC004112]; and (c) unwrapped phase, i.e. range change in mm, which we validate using GPS data. We apply our method to InSAR data taken over Brady Hot Springs geothermal field in Nevada as part of a project entitled "Poroelastic Tomography by Adjoint Inverse Modeling of Data from Seismology, Geodesy, and Hydrology" (PoroTomo) [ http://geoscience.wisc.edu/feigl/porotomo].

Untangling the Relatedness among Correlations, Part II: Inter-Subject Correlation Group Analysis through Linear Mixed-Effects Modeling

PubMed Central

Chen, Gang; Taylor, Paul A.; Shin, Yong-Wook; Reynolds, Richard C.; Cox, Robert W.

2016-01-01

It has been argued that naturalistic conditions in FMRI studies provide a useful paradigm for investigating perception and cognition through a synchronization measure, inter-subject correlation (ISC). However, one analytical stumbling block has been the fact that the ISC values associated with each single subject are not independent, and our previous paper (Chen et al., 2016) used simulations and analyses of real data to show that the methodologies adopted in the literature do not have the proper control for false positives. In the same paper, we proposed nonparametric subject-wise bootstrapping and permutation testing techniques for one and two groups, respectively, which account for the correlation structure, and these greatly outperformed the prior methods in controlling the false positive rate (FPR); that is, subject-wise bootstrapping (SWB) worked relatively well for both cases with one and two groups, and subject-wise permutation (SWP) testing was virtually ideal for group comparisons. Here we seek to explicate and adopt a parametric approach through linear mixed-effects (LME) modeling for studying the ISC values, building on the previous correlation framework, with the benefit that the LME platform offers wider adaptability, more powerful interpretations, and quality control checking capability than nonparametric methods. We describe both theoretical and practical issues involved in the modeling and the manner in which LME with crossed random effects (CRE) modeling is applied. A data-doubling step further allows us to conveniently track the subject index, and achieve easy implementations. We pit the LME approach against the best nonparametric methods, and find that the LME framework achieves proper control for false positives. The new LME methodologies are shown to be both efficient and robust, and they will be added as an additional option and settings in an existing open source program, 3dLME, in AFNI (http://afni.nimh.nih.gov). PMID:27751943

NuSTAR Observations of WISE J1036+0449, A Galaxy at Z Approx. 1 Obscured by Hot Dust

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ricci, C.; Assef, R. J.; Stern, D.; Nikutta, R.; Alexander, D. M.; Asmus, D.; Ballantyne, D. R.; Bauer, F. E.; Blain, A. W.; Boggs, S.;

NuSTAR Observations of WISE J1036+0449, A Galaxy at zeta approx 1 Obscured by Hot Dust

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ricci, C.; Assef, R. J.; Stern, Daniel K.; Nikutta, R.; Alexander, D. M.; Asmus, D.; Ballantyne, D. R.; Bauer, F. E.; Blain, A.W.; Zhang, William W.;

H I observations of the nearest starburst galaxy NGC 253 with the SKA precursor KAT-7

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lucero, D. M.; Carignan, C.; Elson, E. C.; Randriamampandry, T. H.; Jarrett, T. H.; Oosterloo, T. A.; Heald, G. H.

2015-07-01

We present H I observations of the Sculptor group starburst spiral galaxy NGC 253, obtained with the Karoo Array Telescope (KAT-7). KAT-7 is a pathfinder for the Square Kilometre Array precursor MeerKAT, under construction. The short baselines and low system temperature of the telescope make it very sensitive to large-scale, low-surface-brightness emission. The KAT-7 observations detected 33 per cent more flux than previous Very Large Array observations, mainly in the outer parts and in the halo for a total H I mass of 2.1 ± 0.1 × 109 M⊙. H I can be found at large distances perpendicular to the plane out to projected distances of ˜9-10 kpc away from the nucleus and ˜13-14 kpc at the edge of the disc. A novel technique, based on interactive profile fitting, was used to separate the main disc gas from the anomalous (halo) gas. The rotation curve (RC) derived for the H I disc confirms that it is declining in the outer parts, as seen in previous optical Fabry-Perot measurements. As for the anomalous component, its RC has a very shallow gradient in the inner parts and turns over at the same radius as the disc, kinematically lagging by 100 km s-1. The kinematics of the observed extra-planar gas is compatible with an outflow due to the central starburst and galactic fountains in the outer parts. However, the gas kinematics shows no evidence for inflow. Analysis of the near-IR WISE data, shows clearly that the star formation rate is compatible with the starburst nature of NGC 253.

Cold Brown Dwarfs with WISE: Y Dwarfs and the Field Mass Function

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kirkpatrick, J. Davy

2012-01-01

Why study Brown Dwarf stars? They re the lowest mass byproducts of star formation.. They provide time capsules across the age of the Galaxy.. They show what low-T(sub eff) atmospheres look like.. They may be some of our closest neighbors in space..WISE is a 40cm Earth-orbiting telescope. There are 211 stars and only 33 brown dwarfs in this volume.. This means that stars outnumber brown dwarfs by a factor of 6:1 currently.. The number of brown dwarfs will continue to increase if:: (a) more nearby Y dwarf candidates are confirmed, or (b) our distances to known Y s are overestimated, or (c) there are colder BDs invisible to WISE..

Does reflection lead to wise choices?

PubMed Central

Bortolotti, Lisa

2011-01-01

Does conscious reflection lead to good decision-making? Whereas engaging in reflection is traditionally thought to be the best way to make wise choices, recent psychological evidence undermines the role of reflection in lay and expert judgement. The literature suggests that thinking about reasons does not improve the choices people make, and that experts do not engage in reflection, but base their judgements on intuition, often shaped by extensive previous experience. Can we square the traditional accounts of wisdom with the results of these empirical studies? Should we even attempt to? I shall defend the view that philosophy and cognitive sciences genuinely interact in tackling questions such as whether reflection leads to making wise choices. PMID:22408385

Choosing Wisely in pediatric anesthesia: An interpretation from the German Scientific Working Group of Paediatric Anaesthesia (WAKKA).

PubMed

Becke, Karin; Eich, Christoph; Höhne, Claudia; Jöhr, Martin; Machotta, Andreas; Schreiber, Markus; Sümpelmann, Robert

2018-05-30

Inspired by the Choosing Wisely initiative, a group of pediatric anesthesiologists representing the German Working Group on Paediatric Anaesthesia (WAKKA) coined and agreed upon 10 concise positive ("dos") or negative ("don'ts") evidence-based recommendations. (i) In infants and children with robust indications for surgical, interventional, or diagnostic procedures, anesthesia or sedation should not be avoided or delayed due to the potential neurotoxicity associated with the exposure to anesthetics. (ii) In children without relevant preexisting illnesses (ie, ASA status I/II) who are scheduled for elective minor or medium-risk surgical procedures, no routine blood tests should be performed. (iii) Parental presence during the induction of anesthesia should be an option for children whenever possible. (iv) Perioperative fasting should be safe and child-friendly with shorter real fasting times and more liberal postoperative drinking and enteral feeding. (v) Perioperative fluid therapy should be safe and effective with physiologically composed balanced electrolyte solutions to maintain a normal extracellular fluid volume; addition of 1%-2.5% glucose to avoid lipolysis, hypoglycemia, and hyperglycemia, and colloids as needed to maintain a normal blood volume. (vi) To achieve safe and successful airway management, the locally accepted airway algorithm and continued teaching and training of basic and alternative techniques of ventilation and endotracheal intubation are required. (vii) Ultrasound and imaging systems (eg, transillumination) should be available for achieving central venous access and challenging peripheral venous and arterial access. (viii) Perioperative disturbances of the patient's homeostasis, such as hypotension, hypocapnia, hypothermia, hypoglycemia, hyponatremia, and severe anemia, should not be ignored and should be prevented or treated immediately. (ix) Pediatric patients with an elevated perioperative risk, eg, preterm and term neonates, infants, and critically ill children, should be treated at institutions where all caregivers have sufficient expertise and continuous clinical exposure to such patients. (x) A strategy for preventing postoperative vomiting, emergence delirium, and acute pain should be a part of every anesthetic procedure. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Parametric study on mixing process in an in-plane spiral micromixer utilizing chaotic advection.

PubMed

Vatankhah, Parham; Shamloo, Amir

2018-08-31

Recent advances in the field of microfabrication have made the application of high-throughput microfluidics feasible. Mixing which is an essential part of any miniaturized standalone system remains the key challenge. This paper proposes a geometrically simple micromixer for efficient mixing for high-throughput microfluidic devices. The proposed micromixer utilizes a curved microchannel (spiral microchannel) to induce chaotic advection and enhance the mixing process. It is shown that the spiral microchannel is more efficient in comparison to a straight microchannel, mixing wise. The pressure drop in the spiral microchannel is only slightly higher than that in the straight microchannel. It is found that the mixing process in the spiral microchannel enhances with increasing the inlet velocity, unlike what happens in the straight microchannel. It is also realized that the initial radius of the spiral microchannel plays a prominent role in enhancing the mixing process. Studying different cross sections, it is gathered that the square cross section yields a higher mixing quality. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

Szoka de Valladares, M.R.; Mack, S.

The DOE Hydrogen Program needs to develop criteria as part of a systematic evaluation process for proposal identification, evaluation and selection. The H Scan component of this process provides a framework in which a project proposer can fully describe their candidate technology system and its components. The H Scan complements traditional methods of capturing cost and technical information. It consists of a special set of survey forms designed to elicit information so expert reviewers can assess the proposal relative to DOE specified selection criteria. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) component of the decision process assembles the management defined evaluation andmore » selection criteria into a coherent multi-level decision construct by which projects can be evaluated in pair-wise comparisons. The AHP model will reflect management`s objectives and it will assist in the ranking of individual projects based on the extent to which each contributes to management`s objectives. This paper contains a detailed description of the products and activities associated with the planning and evaluation process: The objectives or criteria; the H Scan; and The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP).« less

Early dynamical evolution of young substructured clusters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dorval, Julien; Boily, Christian

2017-03-01

Stellar clusters form with a high level of substructure, inherited from the molecular cloud and the star formation process. Evidence from observations and simulations also indicate the stars in such young clusters form a subvirial system. The subsequent dynamical evolution can cause important mass loss, ejecting a large part of the birth population in the field. It can also imprint the stellar population and still be inferred from observations of evolved clusters. Nbody simulations allow a better understanding of these early twists and turns, given realistic initial conditions. Nowadays, substructured, clumpy young clusters are usually obtained through pseudo-fractal growth and velocity inheritance. We introduce a new way to create clumpy initial conditions through a ''Hubble expansion'' which naturally produces self consistent clumps, velocity-wise. In depth analysis of the resulting clumps shows consistency with hydrodynamical simulations of young star clusters. We use these initial conditions to investigate the dynamical evolution of young subvirial clusters. We find the collapse to be soft, with hierarchical merging leading to a high level of mass segregation. The subsequent evolution is less pronounced than the equilibrium achieved from a cold collapse formation scenario.

Graph Curvature for Differentiating Cancer Networks

PubMed Central

Sandhu, Romeil; Georgiou, Tryphon; Reznik, Ed; Zhu, Liangjia; Kolesov, Ivan; Senbabaoglu, Yasin; Tannenbaum, Allen

2015-01-01

Cellular interactions can be modeled as complex dynamical systems represented by weighted graphs. The functionality of such networks, including measures of robustness, reliability, performance, and efficiency, are intrinsically tied to the topology and geometry of the underlying graph. Utilizing recently proposed geometric notions of curvature on weighted graphs, we investigate the features of gene co-expression networks derived from large-scale genomic studies of cancer. We find that the curvature of these networks reliably distinguishes between cancer and normal samples, with cancer networks exhibiting higher curvature than their normal counterparts. We establish a quantitative relationship between our findings and prior investigations of network entropy. Furthermore, we demonstrate how our approach yields additional, non-trivial pair-wise (i.e. gene-gene) interactions which may be disrupted in cancer samples. The mathematical formulation of our approach yields an exact solution to calculating pair-wise changes in curvature which was computationally infeasible using prior methods. As such, our findings lay the foundation for an analytical approach to studying complex biological networks. PMID:26169480

Are the Dyson rings around pulsars detectable?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Osmanov, Z.

2018-04-01

In the previous paper ring (Osmanov 2016) (henceforth Paper-I) we have extended the idea of Freeman Dyson and have shown that a supercivilization has to use ring-like megastructures around pulsars instead of a spherical shell. In this work we reexamine the same problem in the observational context and we show that facilities of modern infrared (IR) telescopes (Very Large Telescope Interferometer and Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE)) might efficiently monitor the nearby zone of the solar system and search for the IR Dyson-rings up to distances of the order of 0.2 kpc, corresponding to the current highest achievable angular resolution, 0.001 mas. In this case the total number of pulsars in the observationally reachable area is about 64 +/- 21. We show that pulsars from the distance of the order of ~ 1 kpc are still visible for WISE as point-like sources but in order to confirm that the object is the neutron star, one has to use the ultraviolet telescopes, which at this moment cannot provide enough sensitivity.

Project WISE: Building STEM-Focused Youth-Programs that Serve the Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

DiLisi, Gregory A.; McMillin, Keith A.; Virostek, Margaret E.

2011-01-01

We describe the design and implementation of Project WISE, a multi-institutional partnership that assembles interdisciplinary teams of undergraduate and high school students charged with developing STEM-focused community youth-programs. Our goal is twofold: (i.) to promote young women's interest in STEM-oriented careers through an early, positive…

Assessing the Effectiveness of "Wise Guys": A Mixed-Methods Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Herrman, Judith W.; Gordon, Mellissa; Rahmer, Brian; Moore, Christopher C.; Habermann, Barbara; Haigh, Katherine M.

2017-01-01

Previous research raised questions on the validity of survey studies with the teen population. As one response, our team implemented a mixed-methods study to evaluate an evidence-based, interactive curriculum, "Wise Guys," which is designed to promote healthy relationships and sexual behavior in young men ages 4-17. The current study…

Boxes with Fires: Wisely Integrating Learning Technologies into the Art Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gregory, Diane C.

2009-01-01

By integrating and infusing computer learning technologies wisely into student-centered or social constructivist art learning environments, art educators can improve student learning and at the same time provide a creative, substantive model for how schools can and should be reformed. By doing this, art educators have an opportunity to demonstrate…

SunWise[R] Meteorologist Tool Kit

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

US Environmental Protection Agency, 2007

2007-01-01

The SunWise Program is designed to help meteorologists raise sun safety awareness by addressing the science of the sun, the risk of overexposure to its ultraviolet (UV) radiation, and what students and their families can do to protect themselves from overexposure. This Tool Kit has been designed for use all over the United States and its…

Wise Humanising Creativity: Changing How We Create in a Virtual Learning Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chappell, Kerry; Walsh, Chris; Wren, Heather; Kenny, Karen; Schmoelz, Alexander; Stouraitis, Elias

2017-01-01

This article interrogates how a particular conception of creativity: "wise humanising creativity" (WHC) is manifest within a virtual learning environment (VLE) with children and young people. It reports on the outcomes of C[superscript 2]Learn, a three-year European Commission funded project which introduced innovative digital gaming…

Methods as Tools: A Response to O'Keefe.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hewes, Dean E.

2003-01-01

Tries to distinguish the key insights from some distortions by clarifying the goals of experiment-wise error control that D. O'Keefe correctly identifies as vague and open to misuse. Concludes that a better understanding of the goal of experiment-wise error correction erases many of these "absurdities," but the clarifications necessary…

Using Computer Assisted Instruction in a Reading and Study Skills Course.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rauch, Margaret

Test wiseness programs and computer assisted study skills instruction (CASSI) were found to be valuable resources for college reading and study skills instructors and students at St. Cloud State University (Minnesota). Two booklets on test wiseness cues were reorganized and used as computer programs to allow the information to be presented outside…

Using PeerWise to Develop a Contributing Student Pedagogy for Postgraduate Psychology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McKenzie, Wendy; Roodenburg, John

2017-01-01

The importance of the role of peer and self-assessment in developing formative and sustainable assessment practice in higher education is increasingly becoming evident. PeerWise is an online software tool that engages students in contributing to their own and others' learning by authoring, answering and providing feedback on multiple choice…

Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies: An Indian Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pinninti, Lakshmana Rao

2016-01-01

Over the last four decades, there has been a substantial body of research on metacognitive awareness of reading strategies. However, very few studies have focused on stage-wise frequency (pre-, while- and post-reading) and conditional knowledge of reading strategies. The purpose of this paper is to report stage-wise frequency and conditional…

Measurements of Rationality: Individual Differences in Information Processing, the Transitivity of Preferences and Decision Strategies

PubMed Central

Sleboda, Patrycja; Sokolowska, Joanna

2017-01-01

The first goal of this study was to validate the Rational-Experiential Inventory (REI) and the Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT) through checking their relation to the transitivity axiom. The second goal was to test the relation between decision strategies and cognitive style as well as the relation between decision strategies and the transitivity of preferences. The following characteristics of strategies were investigated: requirements for trade-offs, maximization vs. satisficing and option-wise vs. attribute-wise information processing. Respondents were given choices between two multi-attribute options. The options were designed so that the choice indicated which strategy was applied. Both the REI-R and the CRT were found to be good predictors of the transitivity of preferences. Respondents who applied compensatory strategies and the maximization criterion scored highly on the REI-R and in the CRT, whereas those who applied the satisficing rule scored highly on the REI-R but not in the CRT. Attribute-wise information processing was related to low scores in both measurements. Option-wise information processing led to a high transitivity of preferences. PMID:29093695

NuSTAR Observations of Heavily Obscured Quasars Selected by WISE

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yan, Wei

2017-08-01

A key goal of the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) program is to find and characterize heavily obscured quasars, luminous accreting supermassive black holes hidden by gas and dust. Based on mid-infrared (IR) photometry from Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) and optical photometry from the Sloan Digital Sky Surveys, we have selected a large population of obscured quasars; here we report the NuSTAR observations of four WISE-selected heavily obscured quasars for which we have optical spectroscopy from the Southern African Large Telescope and KECK Telescope. Three of four objects are undetected with NuSTAR, while the fourth has only a marginal detection. We confirm our objects have observed hard X-ray (10-40 keV) luminosities at or below ~1043 erg s-1. We compare IR and X-ray luminosities to obtain estimates of hydrogen column NH based on the suppression of the hard X-ray emission. We estimate NH to be at or greater than 1025 cm-2, confirming that WISE and optical selection can identify very heavily obscured quasars that may be missed in X-ray surveys.

Assessing the effects of cocaine dependence and pathological gambling using group-wise sparse representation of natural stimulus FMRI data.

PubMed

Ren, Yudan; Fang, Jun; Lv, Jinglei; Hu, Xintao; Guo, Cong Christine; Guo, Lei; Xu, Jiansong; Potenza, Marc N; Liu, Tianming

2017-08-01

Assessing functional brain activation patterns in neuropsychiatric disorders such as cocaine dependence (CD) or pathological gambling (PG) under naturalistic stimuli has received rising interest in recent years. In this paper, we propose and apply a novel group-wise sparse representation framework to assess differences in neural responses to naturalistic stimuli across multiple groups of participants (healthy control, cocaine dependence, pathological gambling). Specifically, natural stimulus fMRI (N-fMRI) signals from all three groups of subjects are aggregated into a big data matrix, which is then decomposed into a common signal basis dictionary and associated weight coefficient matrices via an effective online dictionary learning and sparse coding method. The coefficient matrices associated with each common dictionary atom are statistically assessed for each group separately. With the inter-group comparisons based on the group-wise correspondence established by the common dictionary, our experimental results demonstrated that the group-wise sparse coding and representation strategy can effectively and specifically detect brain networks/regions affected by different pathological conditions of the brain under naturalistic stimuli.

Evidence-based guidelines for the wise use of computers by children: physical development guidelines.

PubMed

Straker, L; Maslen, B; Burgess-Limerick, R; Johnson, P; Dennerlein, J

2010-04-01

Computer use by children is common and there is concern over the potential impact of this exposure on child physical development. Recently principles for child-specific evidence-based guidelines for wise use of computers have been published and these included one concerning the facilitation of appropriate physical development. This paper reviews the evidence and presents detailed guidelines for this principle. The guidelines include encouraging a mix of sedentary and whole body movement tasks, encouraging reasonable postures during computing tasks through workstation, chair, desk, display and input device selection and adjustment and special issues regarding notebook computer use and carriage, computing skills and responding to discomfort. The evidence limitations highlight opportunities for future research. The guidelines themselves can inform parents and teachers, equipment designers and suppliers and form the basis of content for teaching children the wise use of computers. STATEMENT OF RELEVANCE: Many children use computers and computer-use habits formed in childhood may track into adulthood. Therefore child-computer interaction needs to be carefully managed. These guidelines inform those responsible for children to assist in the wise use of computers.

The G-HAT Search for Advanced Extraterrestrial Civilizations: The Reddest Extended WISE Sources

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Maldonado, Jessica; Povich, Matthew S.; Wright, Jason; Griffith, Roger; Sigurdsson, Steinn; Mullan, Brendan L.

2015-01-01

Freeman Dyson (1960) theorized how to identify possible signatures of advanced extra-terrestrial civilizations by their waste heat, an inevitable byproduct of a civilization using a significant fraction of the luminosity from their host star. If a civilizations could tap the starlight throughout their host galaxy their waste heat would be easily detectable by recent infrared surveys. The Glimpsing Heat from Alien Technologies (G-HAT) pilot project aims to place limits on the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations at pan-galactic scales. We present results from the G-HAT cleaned catalog of 563 extremely red, extended high Galactic latitude (|b| ≥ 10) sources from the WISE All-Sky Catalog. Our catalog includes sources new to the scientific literature along with well-studied objects (e.g. starburst galaxies, AGN, and planetary nebulae) that exemplify extreme WISE colors. Objects of particular interest include a supergiant Be star (48 Librae) surrounded by a resolved, mid-infrared nebula, possibly indicating dust in the stellar wind ejecta, and a curious cluster of seven extremely red WISE sources (associated with IRAS 04287+6444) that have no optical counterparts.

Measurements of Rationality: Individual Differences in Information Processing, the Transitivity of Preferences and Decision Strategies.

PubMed

Sleboda, Patrycja; Sokolowska, Joanna

2017-01-01

The first goal of this study was to validate the Rational-Experiential Inventory ( REI ) and the Cognitive Reflection Test ( CRT ) through checking their relation to the transitivity axiom. The second goal was to test the relation between decision strategies and cognitive style as well as the relation between decision strategies and the transitivity of preferences. The following characteristics of strategies were investigated: requirements for trade-offs, maximization vs. satisficing and option-wise vs. attribute-wise information processing. Respondents were given choices between two multi-attribute options. The options were designed so that the choice indicated which strategy was applied. Both the REI-R and the CRT were found to be good predictors of the transitivity of preferences. Respondents who applied compensatory strategies and the maximization criterion scored highly on the REI-R and in the CRT , whereas those who applied the satisficing rule scored highly on the REI-R but not in the CRT . Attribute-wise information processing was related to low scores in both measurements. Option-wise information processing led to a high transitivity of preferences.

Hierarchical structure of biological systems

PubMed Central

Alcocer-Cuarón, Carlos; Rivera, Ana L; Castaño, Victor M

2014-01-01

A general theory of biological systems, based on few fundamental propositions, allows a generalization of both Wierner and Berthalanffy approaches to theoretical biology. Here, a biological system is defined as a set of self-organized, differentiated elements that interact pair-wise through various networks and media, isolated from other sets by boundaries. Their relation to other systems can be described as a closed loop in a steady-state, which leads to a hierarchical structure and functioning of the biological system. Our thermodynamical approach of hierarchical character can be applied to biological systems of varying sizes through some general principles, based on the exchange of energy information and/or mass from and within the systems. PMID:24145961

Hierarchical structure of biological systems: a bioengineering approach.

PubMed

Alcocer-Cuarón, Carlos; Rivera, Ana L; Castaño, Victor M

2014-01-01

A general theory of biological systems, based on few fundamental propositions, allows a generalization of both Wierner and Berthalanffy approaches to theoretical biology. Here, a biological system is defined as a set of self-organized, differentiated elements that interact pair-wise through various networks and media, isolated from other sets by boundaries. Their relation to other systems can be described as a closed loop in a steady-state, which leads to a hierarchical structure and functioning of the biological system. Our thermodynamical approach of hierarchical character can be applied to biological systems of varying sizes through some general principles, based on the exchange of energy information and/or mass from and within the systems.

KSC-2009-4852

NASA Image and Video Library

2009-08-18

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- The logo for NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, spacecraft. The satellite will survey the entire sky at infrared wavelengths, creating a cosmic clearinghouse of hundreds of millions of objects, which will be catalogued, providing a vast storehouse of knowledge about the solar system, the Milky Way, and the universe. Launch is scheduled no earlier than Dec. 7. Photo credit: NASA/Doug Kolkow