Bulgarian fuel models developed for implementation in FARSITE simulations for test cases in Zlatograd area

Treesearch

Nina Dobrinkova; LaWen Hollingsworth; Faith Ann Heinsch; Greg Dillon; Georgi Dobrinkov

2014-01-01

As a key component of the cross-border project between Bulgaria and Greece known as OUTLAND, a team from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and Rocky Mountain Research Station started a collaborative project to identify and describe various fuel types for a test area in Bulgaria in order to model fire behavior for recent wildfires. Although there have been various...

The Human Toxome Project

EPA Science Inventory

The Human Toxome project, funded as an NIH Transformative Research grant 2011--‐ 2016, is focused on developing the concepts and the means for deducing, validating, and sharing molecular Pathways of Toxicity (PoT). Using the test case of estrogenic endocrine disruption, the respo...

The Dynamical Core Model Intercomparison Project (DCMIP-2016): Results of the Supercell Test Case

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zarzycki, C. M.; Reed, K. A.; Jablonowski, C.; Ullrich, P. A.; Kent, J.; Lauritzen, P. H.; Nair, R. D.

2016-12-01

The 2016 Dynamical Core Model Intercomparison Project (DCMIP-2016) assesses the modeling techniques for global climate and weather models and was recently held at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in conjunction with a two-week summer school. Over 12 different international modeling groups participated in DCMIP-2016 and focused on the evaluation of the newest non-hydrostatic dynamical core designs for future high-resolution weather and climate models. The paper highlights the results of the third DCMIP-2016 test case, which is an idealized supercell storm on a reduced-radius Earth. The supercell storm test permits the study of a non-hydrostatic moist flow field with strong vertical velocities and associated precipitation. This test assesses the behavior of global modeling systems at extremely high spatial resolution and is used in the development of next-generation numerical weather prediction capabilities. In this regime the effective grid spacing is very similar to the horizontal scale of convective plumes, emphasizing resolved non-hydrostatic dynamics. The supercell test case sheds light on the physics-dynamics interplay and highlights the impact of diffusion on model solutions.

The 1992-1993 advanced design program. Part 1: The Mars methane engine project. Part 2: The Mars oxygen processor new furnace

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lauer, Stephen; Hoover, Scott; Lawrence, Lori; Paparistodemou, Christos; Taylor, Doug

1993-04-01

Three constituents of the Martian atmosphere, methane, carbon dioxide, and oxygen, can be used for internal combustion in engines utilized for future space exploration on Mars. These three gases, considered as the test case in this research, will be examined to determine required flow rates needed for combustion and optimization of engine performance. Results of the test case are examined in relation to a base case of methane and air for comparative purposes. Testing of exhaust temperatures, cylinder pressure, and exhaust gas analysis were performed for the base case and test case. Also described is a study utilizing a zirconia cell to convert carbon dioxide into usable oxygen to help support future Mars missions.

The 1992-1993 advanced design program. Part 1: The Mars methane engine project. Part 2: The Mars oxygen processor new furnace

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lauer, Stephen; Hoover, Scott; Lawrence, Lori; Paparistodemou, Christos; Taylor, Doug

1993-01-01

Three constituents of the Martian atmosphere, methane, carbon dioxide, and oxygen, can be used for internal combustion in engines utilized for future space exploration on Mars. These three gases, considered as the test case in this research, will be examined to determine required flow rates needed for combustion and optimization of engine performance. Results of the test case are examined in relation to a base case of methane and air for comparative purposes. Testing of exhaust temperatures, cylinder pressure, and exhaust gas analysis were performed for the base case and test case. Also described is a study utilizing a zirconia cell to convert carbon dioxide into usable oxygen to help support future Mars missions.

Lessons learned applying CASE methods/tools to Ada software development projects

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Blumberg, Maurice H.; Randall, Richard L.

1993-01-01

This paper describes the lessons learned from introducing CASE methods/tools into organizations and applying them to actual Ada software development projects. This paper will be useful to any organization planning to introduce a software engineering environment (SEE) or evolving an existing one. It contains management level lessons learned, as well as lessons learned in using specific SEE tools/methods. The experiences presented are from Alpha Test projects established under the STARS (Software Technology for Adaptable and Reliable Systems) project. They reflect the front end efforts by those projects to understand the tools/methods, initial experiences in their introduction and use, and later experiences in the use of specific tools/methods and the introduction of new ones.

Integrated test plan for directional boring

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

Volk, B.W.

This integrated test plan describes the field testing of the DITCH WITCH Directional Boring System. DITCH WITCH is a registered trademark of The Charles Machine Works, Inc., Perry, Oklahoma. The test is being conducted as a coordinated effort between Charles Machine Works (CMW), Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), and the Westinghouse Hanford Company (WHC). Funding for the WHC portion of the project is through the Volatile Organic Compound-Arid Integrated Demonstration (VOC-Arid ID). The purpose of the test is to evaluate the performance of the directional boring system for possible future use on environmental restoration projects at Hanford and other Department ofmore » Energy (DOE) sites. The test will be conducted near the 200 Areas Fire Station located between the 200 East and 200 West Area of the Hanford Site. The directional boring system will be used to drill and complete (with fiberglass casing) two horizontal boreholes. A third borehole will be drilled to test sampling equipment but will not be completed with casing.« less

Statistical Analysis of the Polarimetric Cloud Analysis and Seeding Test (POLCAST) Field Projects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ekness, Jamie Lynn

The North Dakota farming industry brings in more than $4.1 billion annually in cash receipts. Unfortunately, agriculture sales vary significantly from year to year, which is due in large part to weather events such as hail storms and droughts. One method to mitigate drought is to use hygroscopic seeding to increase the precipitation efficiency of clouds. The North Dakota Atmospheric Research Board (NDARB) sponsored the Polarimetric Cloud Analysis and Seeding Test (POLCAST) research project to determine the effectiveness of hygroscopic seeding in North Dakota. The POLCAST field projects obtained airborne and radar observations, while conducting randomized cloud seeding. The Thunderstorm Identification Tracking and Nowcasting (TITAN) program is used to analyze radar data (33 usable cases) in determining differences in the duration of the storm, rain rate and total rain amount between seeded and non-seeded clouds. The single ratio of seeded to non-seeded cases is 1.56 (0.28 mm/0.18 mm) or 56% increase for the average hourly rainfall during the first 60 minutes after target selection. A seeding effect is indicated with the lifetime of the storms increasing by 41 % between seeded and non-seeded clouds for the first 60 minutes past seeding decision. A double ratio statistic, a comparison of radar derived rain amount of the last 40 minutes of a case (seed/non-seed), compared to the first 20 minutes (seed/non-seed), is used to account for the natural variability of the cloud system and gives a double ratio of 1.85. The Mann-Whitney test on the double ratio of seeded to non-seeded cases (33 cases) gives a significance (p-value) of 0.063. Bootstrapping analysis of the POLCAST set indicates that 50 cases would provide statistically significant results based on the Mann-Whitney test of the double ratio. All the statistical analysis conducted on the POLCAST data set show that hygroscopic seeding in North Dakota does increase precipitation. While an additional POLCAST field project would be necessary to obtain standardly accepted statistically significant results (p < 0.5) for the double ratio of precipitation amount, the obtained p-value of 0.063 is close and considering the positive result from other hygroscopic seeding experiments, the North Dakota Cloud Modification Project should consider implementation of hygroscopic seeding.

Augmenting SCA project management and automation framework

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Iyapparaja, M.; Sharma, Bhanupriya

2017-11-01

In our daily life we need to keep the records of the things in order to manage it in more efficient and proper way. Our Company manufactures semiconductor chips and sale it to the buyer. Sometimes it manufactures the entire product and sometimes partially and sometimes it sales the intermediary product obtained during manufacturing, so for the better management of the entire process there is a need to keep the track record of all the entity involved in it. Materials and Methods: Therefore to overcome with the problem the need raised to develop the framework for the maintenance of the project and for the automation testing. Project management framework provides an architecture which supports in managing the project by marinating the records of entire requirements, the test cases that were created for testing each unit of the software, defect raised from the past years. So through this the quality of the project can be maintained. Results: Automation framework provides the architecture which supports the development and implementation of the automation test script for the software testing process. Conclusion: For implementing project management framework the product of HP that is Application Lifecycle management is used which provides central repository to maintain the project.

Generic project definitions for improvement of health care delivery: a case-based approach.

PubMed

Niemeijer, Gerard C; Does, Ronald J M M; de Mast, Jeroen; Trip, Albert; van den Heuvel, Jaap

2011-01-01

The purpose of this article is to create actionable knowledge, making the definition of process improvement projects in health care delivery more effective. This study is a retrospective analysis of process improvement projects in hospitals, facilitating a case-based reasoning approach to project definition. Data sources were project documentation and hospital-performance statistics of 271 Lean Six Sigma health care projects from 2002 to 2009 of general, teaching, and academic hospitals in the Netherlands and Belgium. Objectives and operational definitions of improvement projects in the sample, analyzed and structured in a uniform format and terminology. Extraction of reusable elements of earlier project definitions, presented in the form of 9 templates called generic project definitions. These templates function as exemplars for future process improvement projects, making the selection, definition, and operationalization of similar projects more efficient. Each template includes an explicated rationale, an operationalization in the form of metrics, and a prototypical example. Thus, a process of incremental and sustained learning based on case-based reasoning is facilitated. The quality of project definitions is a crucial success factor in pursuits to improve health care delivery. We offer 9 tried and tested improvement themes related to patient safety, patient satisfaction, and business-economic performance of hospitals.

13 CFR 134.609 - What is the difference between a fee and an expense?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... connection with your case. An expense is the cost to you of any study, analysis, engineering report, test, project, or similar matter prepared in connection with your case. ... ADMINISTRATION RULES OF PROCEDURE GOVERNING CASES BEFORE THE OFFICE OF HEARINGS AND APPEALS Implementation of the...

A multi-site evaluation of innovative approaches to increase tuberculosis case notification: summary results.

PubMed

Creswell, Jacob; Sahu, Suvanand; Blok, Lucie; Bakker, Mirjam I; Stevens, Robert; Ditiu, Lucica

2014-01-01

Globally, TB notifications have stagnated since 2007, and sputum smear positive notifications have been declining despite policies to improve case detection. We evaluate results of 28 interventions focused on improving TB case detection. We measured additional sputum smear positive cases treated, defined as the intervention area's increase in case notification during the project compared to the previous year. Projects were encouraged to select control areas and collect historical notification data. We used time series negative binomial regression for over-dispersed cross-sectional data accounting for fixed and random effects to test the individual projects' effects on TB notification while controlling for trend and control populations. Twenty-eight projects, 19 with control populations, completed at least four quarters of case finding activities, covering a population of 89.2 million. Among all projects sputum smear positive (SS+) TB notifications increased 24.9% and annualized notification rates increased from 69.1 to 86.2/100,000 (p = 0.0209) during interventions. Among the 19 projects with control populations, SS+TB case notifications increased 36.9% increase while in the control populations a 3.6% decrease was observed. Fourteen (74%) of the 19 projects' SS+TB notification rates in intervention areas increased from the baseline to intervention period when controlling for historical trends and notifications in control areas. Interventions were associated with large increases in TB notifications across many settings, using an array of interventions. Many people with TB are not reached using current approaches. Different methods and interventions tailored to local realities are urgently needed.

Demonstration of load rating capabilities through physical load testing : Sioux County bridge case study.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2013-08-01

The objective of this work, Pilot Project - Demonstration of Capabilities and Benefits of Bridge Load Rating through Physical Testing, was to demonstrate the capabilities for load testing and rating bridges in Iowa, study the economic benefit of perf...

Demonstration of load rating capabilities through physical load testing : Ida County bridge case study.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2013-08-01

The objective of this work, Pilot Project - Demonstration of Capabilities and Benefits of Bridge Load Rating through Physical Testing, was to demonstrate the capabilities for load testing and rating bridges in Iowa, study the economic benefit of perf...

Demonstration of load rating capabilities through physical load testing : Johnson County bridge case study.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2013-08-01

The objective of this work, Pilot Project - Demonstration of Capabilities and Benefits of Bridge Load Rating through Physical Testing, was to demonstrate the capabilities for load testing and rating bridges in Iowa, study the economic benefit of perf...

COMMUNITY-ORIENTED DESIGN AND EVALUATION PROCESS FOR SUSTAINABLE INFRASTRUCTURE

EPA Science Inventory

We met our first objective by completing the physical infrastructure of the La Fortuna-Tule water and sanitation project using the CODE-PSI method. This physical component of the project was important in providing a real, relevant, community-scale test case for the methods ...

The General Mission Analysis Tool (GMAT) System Test Plan

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Conway, Darrel J.; Hughes, Steven P.

2007-01-01

This document serves as the System Test Approach for the GMAT Project. Preparation for system testing consists of three major stages: 1) The Test Approach sets the scope of system testing, the overall strategy to be adopted, the activities to be completed, the general resources required and the methods and processes to be used to test the release. It also details the activities, dependencies and effort required to conduct the System Test. 2) Test Planning details the activities, dependencies and effort required to conduct the System Test. 3) Test Cases documents the tests to be applied, the data to be processed, the automated testing coverage and the expected results. This document covers the first two of these items, and established the framework used for the GMAT test case development. The test cases themselves exist as separate components, and are managed outside of and concurrently with this System Test Plan.

Pile Driving Analysis for Pile Design and Quality Assurance

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2017-08-01

Driven piles are commonly used in foundation engineering. The most accurate measurement of pile capacity is achieved from measurements made during static load tests. Static load tests, however, may be too expensive for certain projects. In these case...

Environmental testing of block 2 solar cell modules

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Griffith, J. S.

1979-01-01

The testing procedures and results of samples of the LSA Project Block 2 procurement of silicon solar cell modules are described. Block 2 was the second large scale procurement of silicon solar cell modules made by the JPL Low-cost Solar Array Project with deliveries in 1977 and early 1978. The results showed that the Block 2 modules were greatly improved over Block 1 modules. In several cases it was shown that design improvements were needed to reduce environmental test degradation. These improvements were incorporated during this production run.

Second order tensor finite element

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Oden, J. Tinsley; Fly, J.; Berry, C.; Tworzydlo, W.; Vadaketh, S.; Bass, J.

1990-01-01

The results of a research and software development effort are presented for the finite element modeling of the static and dynamic behavior of anisotropic materials, with emphasis on single crystal alloys. Various versions of two dimensional and three dimensional hybrid finite elements were implemented and compared with displacement-based elements. Both static and dynamic cases are considered. The hybrid elements developed in the project were incorporated into the SPAR finite element code. In an extension of the first phase of the project, optimization of experimental tests for anisotropic materials was addressed. In particular, the problem of calculating material properties from tensile tests and of calculating stresses from strain measurements were considered. For both cases, numerical procedures and software for the optimization of strain gauge and material axes orientation were developed.

Usability Testing with Online Research Panels: A Case Study from the Field of Instructional Design

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Williams Van Rooij, Shahron

2013-01-01

One of the challenges experienced by students of instructional design is eliciting user participation when designing and developing products for course or program projects, particularly over multiple cycles of evaluation. Student projects do not normally have budgets to engage recruitment companies or provide participant incentives. This paper…

Flexible Delivery as a "Whole-Organisation": What Does This Mean in Practice?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Henry, John; Wakefield, Lyn

A research project called Support Services for Flexible Delivery was commissioned by the Australian organization TAFE (technical and further education) Frontiers. Since 1995, the project has been conducted by using a research approach called the Generalizations from Case Studies (GCS) research method. The GCS method was developed, tested, and…

Breath Test Refusals and Their Effect on DWI Prosecution

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2012-07-01

This report describes the design and results of a project aimed at estimating the rate that drivers : refuse to submit to a legally-requested breath alcohol concentration test, and the effect of such : refusals on the prosecution of DWI cases. The st...

Test What You Fly?

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Margolies, Don

2002-01-01

It was the first time on any NASA project I know of that all the instruments on an observatory came off for rework or calibration after the full range of environmental tests, and then were reintegrated at the launch center without the benefit of an observatory environmental retest. Perhaps you've heard the expression, 'Test what you fly, fly what you test'? In theory, it's hard to argue with that. In this case, I was willing to take the risk of not testing what I flew. As the project manager for the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) mission, I was the one who ultimately decided what risks to take, just as it was my responsibility to get buy-in from the stakeholders.

Test What You Fly?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Margolies, Don

2002-10-01

It was the first time on any NASA project I know of that all the instruments on an observatory came off for rework or calibration after the full range of environmental tests, and then were reintegrated at the launch center without the benefit of an observatory environmental retest. Perhaps you've heard the expression, 'Test what you fly, fly what you test'? In theory, it's hard to argue with that. In this case, I was willing to take the risk of not testing what I flew. As the project manager for the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) mission, I was the one who ultimately decided what risks to take, just as it was my responsibility to get buy-in from the stakeholders.

Design Authority in the Test Programme Definition: The Alenia Spazio Experience

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Messidoro, P.; Sacchi, E.; Beruto, E.; Fleming, P.; Marucchi Chierro, P.-P.

2004-08-01

In addition, being the Verification and Test Programme a significant part of the spacecraft development life cycle in terms of cost and time, very often the subject of the mentioned discussion has the objective to optimize the verification campaign by possible deletion or limitation of some testing activities. The increased market pressure to reduce the project's schedule and cost is originating a dialecting process inside the project teams, involving program management and design authorities, in order to optimize the verification and testing programme. The paper introduces the Alenia Spazio experience in this context, coming from the real project life on different products and missions (science, TLC, EO, manned, transportation, military, commercial, recurrent and one-of-a-kind). Usually the applicable verification and testing standards (e.g. ECSS-E-10 part 2 "Verification" and ECSS-E-10 part 3 "Testing" [1]) are tailored to the specific project on the basis of its peculiar mission constraints. The Model Philosophy and the associated verification and test programme are defined following an iterative process which suitably combines several aspects (including for examples test requirements and facilities) as shown in Fig. 1 (from ECSS-E-10). The considered cases are mainly oriented to the thermal and mechanical verification, where the benefits of possible test programme optimizations are more significant. Considering the thermal qualification and acceptance testing (i.e. Thermal Balance and Thermal Vacuum) the lessons learned originated by the development of several satellites are presented together with the corresponding recommended approaches. In particular the cases are indicated in which a proper Thermal Balance Test is mandatory and others, in presence of more recurrent design, where a qualification by analysis could be envisaged. The importance of a proper Thermal Vacuum exposure for workmanship verification is also highlighted. Similar considerations are summarized for the mechanical testing with particular emphasis on the importance of Modal Survey, Static and Sine Vibration Tests in the qualification stage in combination with the effectiveness of Vibro-Acoustic Test in acceptance. The apparent relative importance of the Sine Vibration Test for workmanship verification in specific circumstances is also highlighted. Fig. 1. Model philosophy, Verification and Test Programme definition The verification of the project requirements is planned through a combination of suitable verification methods (in particular Analysis and Test) at the different verification levels (from System down to Equipment), in the proper verification stages (e.g. in Qualification and Acceptance).

International Energy Agency Ocean Energy Systems Task 10 Wave Energy Converter Modeling Verification and Validation: Preprint

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

Wendt, Fabian F; Yu, Yi-Hsiang; Nielsen, Kim

This is the first joint reference paper for the Ocean Energy Systems (OES) Task 10 Wave Energy Converter modeling verification and validation group. The group is established under the OES Energy Technology Network program under the International Energy Agency. OES was founded in 2001 and Task 10 was proposed by Bob Thresher (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) in 2015 and approved by the OES Executive Committee EXCO in 2016. The kickoff workshop took place in September 2016, wherein the initial baseline task was defined. Experience from similar offshore wind validation/verification projects (OC3-OC5 conducted within the International Energy Agency Wind Task 30)more » [1], [2] showed that a simple test case would help the initial cooperation to present results in a comparable way. A heaving sphere was chosen as the first test case. The team of project participants simulated different numerical experiments, such as heave decay tests and regular and irregular wave cases. The simulation results are presented and discussed in this paper.« less

Existing Whole-House Solutions Case Study: Bay Ridge Gardens - Mixed Humid Affordable Multifamily Housing Deep Energy Retrofit, Annapolis, Maryland

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

None

2013-10-01

Under this project, the BA-PIRC research team evaluated the installation, measured performance, and cost-effectiveness of efficiency upgrade measures for a tenant-in-place deep energy retrofit at the Bay Ridge multifamily development in Annapolis, Maryland. The design and construction phase of the Bay Ridge project was completed in August 2012. This case study summarizes system commissioning, short-term test results, utility bill data analysis, and analysis of real-time data collected over a one-year period after the retrofit was complete.

Two ESP Projects under the Test of Time: The Case of Brazil and Tunisia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Labassi, Tahar

2010-01-01

The paper is a response to Holmes and Celani's (2006) invitation to learn from the Brazilian ESP experience. It discusses the conditions which sustained this experience, and compares the Brazilian situation to the Tunisian one. The paper also discusses the challenges that ESP projects in EFL environments face, the opportunities that ESP…

User-Centered Design and Usability Testing of a Web Site: An Illustrative Case Study.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Corry, Michael D.; Frick, Theodore W.; Hansen, Lisa

1997-01-01

Presents an overview of user-centered design and usability testing. Describes a Web site evaluation project at a university, the iterative process of rapid prototyping and usability testing, and how the findings helped to improve the design. Discusses recommendations for university Web site design and reflects on problems faced in usability…

Application of NEPA to nuclear weapons production, storage, and testing Weinberger v. Catholic Action of Hawaii/Peace Education Project

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

Sauber, A.J.

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requirement of environmental impact statements for the testing of military equipment, specifically nuclear weapons, conflicts with national security objectives. The author examines NEPA and the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in terms of the environmental effects of weapons testing and the relevant case law. The Supreme Court's decision in Catholic Action of Hawaii/Peace Education Project sought to resolve the conflict by distinguishing between a project which is contemplated and one which is proposed. The classification scheme embodied in the FOIA exemption for national security may cause unwarranted frustration of NEPA's goals. The author outlinesmore » a new classification system and review mechanism that could curb military abuse in this area.« less

Space Shuttle Projects

NASA Image and Video Library

1975-01-01

As early as September 1972, the Marshall Space Flight Center arnounced plans for a series of 20 water-entry simulation tests with a solid-fueled rocket casing assembly. The tests would provide valuable data for assessment of solid rocket booster parachute water recovery and aid in preliminary solid rocket motor design.

Case Studies for the Statistical Design of Experiments Applied to Powered Rotor Wind Tunnel Tests

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Overmeyer, Austin D.; Tanner, Philip E.; Martin, Preston B.; Commo, Sean A.

2015-01-01

The application of statistical Design of Experiments (DOE) to helicopter wind tunnel testing was explored during two powered rotor wind tunnel entries during the summers of 2012 and 2013. These tests were performed jointly by the U.S. Army Aviation Development Directorate Joint Research Program Office and NASA Rotary Wing Project Office, currently the Revolutionary Vertical Lift Project, at NASA Langley Research Center located in Hampton, Virginia. Both entries were conducted in the 14- by 22-Foot Subsonic Tunnel with a small portion of the overall tests devoted to developing case studies of the DOE approach as it applies to powered rotor testing. A 16-47 times reduction in the number of data points required was estimated by comparing the DOE approach to conventional testing methods. The average error for the DOE surface response model for the OH-58F test was 0.95 percent and 4.06 percent for drag and download, respectively. The DOE surface response model of the Active Flow Control test captured the drag within 4.1 percent of measured data. The operational differences between the two testing approaches are identified, but did not prevent the safe operation of the powered rotor model throughout the DOE test matrices.

Case Study: Converting Paper-based Case Report Forms to an Electronic Format (e-CRF) with ACASI Self-Report Integration.

PubMed

Mierzwa, Stan; Souidi, Samir; Akello, Carolyne; Etima, Juliane; Ssebagala, Richard; Nolan, Monica; Kabwigu, Samuel; Nakablito, Clemensia

2017-01-01

This paper will discuss the integration of electronic Case Report Forms (e-CRFs) into an already existing Android-based Audio Computer-Assisted Self-Interview (ACASI) software solution that was developed for a public health project in Kampala, Uganda, the technical outcome results, and lessons learned that may be useful to other projects requiring or considering such a technology solution. The developed product can function without a connection to the Internet and allows for synchronizing collected data once connectivity is possible. Previously, only paper-based CRFs were utilized at the Uganda project site. A subset or select group of CRFs were targeted for integration with ACASI in order to test feasibility and success. Survey volume, error rate, and acceptance of the system, as well as the operational and technical design of the solution, will be discussed.

Fort Meade demonstration test LEDS in freezer rooms, fiber optics in display cases

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

Parker, Steven; Parker, Graham B.

2008-10-25

Demonstration projects at Fort George G. Meade, MD, substituted LED lighting for incandescent bulbs in commisary wal-in freezers and fiber optic lighting in reach-in display cases. The goal was to reduce energy consumption and the results were positive. Journal article published in Public Works Digest

Formulation of state projected centroid molecular dynamics: Microcanonical ensemble and connection to the Wigner distribution.

PubMed

Orr, Lindsay; Hernández de la Peña, Lisandro; Roy, Pierre-Nicholas

2017-06-07

A derivation of quantum statistical mechanics based on the concept of a Feynman path centroid is presented for the case of generalized density operators using the projected density operator formalism of Blinov and Roy [J. Chem. Phys. 115, 7822-7831 (2001)]. The resulting centroid densities, centroid symbols, and centroid correlation functions are formulated and analyzed in the context of the canonical equilibrium picture of Jang and Voth [J. Chem. Phys. 111, 2357-2370 (1999)]. The case where the density operator projects onto a particular energy eigenstate of the system is discussed, and it is shown that one can extract microcanonical dynamical information from double Kubo transformed correlation functions. It is also shown that the proposed projection operator approach can be used to formally connect the centroid and Wigner phase-space distributions in the zero reciprocal temperature β limit. A Centroid Molecular Dynamics (CMD) approximation to the state-projected exact quantum dynamics is proposed and proven to be exact in the harmonic limit. The state projected CMD method is also tested numerically for a quartic oscillator and a double-well potential and found to be more accurate than canonical CMD. In the case of a ground state projection, this method can resolve tunnelling splittings of the double well problem in the higher barrier regime where canonical CMD fails. Finally, the state-projected CMD framework is cast in a path integral form.

Formulation of state projected centroid molecular dynamics: Microcanonical ensemble and connection to the Wigner distribution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Orr, Lindsay; Hernández de la Peña, Lisandro; Roy, Pierre-Nicholas

2017-06-01

A derivation of quantum statistical mechanics based on the concept of a Feynman path centroid is presented for the case of generalized density operators using the projected density operator formalism of Blinov and Roy [J. Chem. Phys. 115, 7822-7831 (2001)]. The resulting centroid densities, centroid symbols, and centroid correlation functions are formulated and analyzed in the context of the canonical equilibrium picture of Jang and Voth [J. Chem. Phys. 111, 2357-2370 (1999)]. The case where the density operator projects onto a particular energy eigenstate of the system is discussed, and it is shown that one can extract microcanonical dynamical information from double Kubo transformed correlation functions. It is also shown that the proposed projection operator approach can be used to formally connect the centroid and Wigner phase-space distributions in the zero reciprocal temperature β limit. A Centroid Molecular Dynamics (CMD) approximation to the state-projected exact quantum dynamics is proposed and proven to be exact in the harmonic limit. The state projected CMD method is also tested numerically for a quartic oscillator and a double-well potential and found to be more accurate than canonical CMD. In the case of a ground state projection, this method can resolve tunnelling splittings of the double well problem in the higher barrier regime where canonical CMD fails. Finally, the state-projected CMD framework is cast in a path integral form.

Reaching Out: The Role of Audio Cassette Communication in Rural Development. Occasional Paper 19.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Adhikarya, Ronny; Colle, Royal D.

This report describes the state-of-the-art of audio cassette technology (ACT) and reports findings from field tests, case studies, and pilot projects in several countries which demonstrate the potential of audio cassettes as a medium for communicating with rural people. Specific guidance is also offered on how a project can use cassettes as a…

Practical Results from the Application of Model Checking and Test Generation from UML/SysML Models of On-Board Space Applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Faria, J. M.; Mahomad, S.; Silva, N.

2009-05-01

The deployment of complex safety-critical applications requires rigorous techniques and powerful tools both for the development and V&V stages. Model-based technologies are increasingly being used to develop safety-critical software, and arguably, turning to them can bring significant benefits to such processes, however, along with new challenges. This paper presents the results of a research project where we tried to extend current V&V methodologies to be applied on UML/SysML models and aiming at answering the demands related to validation issues. Two quite different but complementary approaches were investigated: (i) model checking and the (ii) extraction of robustness test-cases from the same models. These two approaches don't overlap and when combined provide a wider reaching model/design validation ability than each one alone thus offering improved safety assurance. Results are very encouraging, even though they either fell short of the desired outcome as shown for model checking, or still appear as not fully matured as shown for robustness test case extraction. In the case of model checking, it was verified that the automatic model validation process can become fully operational and even expanded in scope once tool vendors help (inevitably) to improve the XMI standard interoperability situation. For the robustness test case extraction methodology, the early approach produced interesting results but need further systematisation and consolidation effort in order to produce results in a more predictable fashion and reduce reliance on expert's heuristics. Finally, further improvements and innovation research projects were immediately apparent for both investigated approaches, which point to either circumventing current limitations in XMI interoperability on one hand and bringing test case specification onto the same graphical level as the models themselves and then attempting to automate the generation of executable test cases from its standard UML notation.

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

Neuhauser, K.

Through discussion of five case studies (test homes), this project evaluates strategies to elevate the performance of existing homes to a level commensurate with best-in-class implementation of high-performance new construction homes. The test homes featured in this research activity participated in Deep Energy Retrofit (DER) Pilot Program sponsored by the electric and gas utility National Grid in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Building enclosure retrofit strategies are evaluated for impact on durability and indoor air quality in addition to energy performance. Evaluation of strategies is structured around the critical control functions of water, airflow, vapor flow, and thermal control. The aimmore » of the research project is to develop guidance that could serve as a foundation for wider adoption of high performance, 'deep' retrofit work. The project will identify risk factors endemic to advanced retrofit in the context of the general building type, configuration and vintage encountered in the National Grid DER Pilot. Results for the test homes are based on observation and performance testing of recently completed projects. Additional observation would be needed to fully gauge long-term energy performance, durability, and occupant comfort.« less

Refractive errors and cataract as causes of visual impairment in Brazil.

PubMed

Eduardo Leite Arieta, Carlos; Nicolini Delgado, Alzira Maria; José, Newton Kara; Temporini, Edméia Rita; Alves, Milton Ruiz; de Carvalho Moreira Filho, Djalma

2003-02-01

To identify the main causes of visual impairment (VA

Field Testing and Modeling of Supermarket Refrigeration Systems as a Demand Response Resource

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

Deru, Michael; Hirsch, Adam; Clark, Jordan

Supermarkets offer a substantial demand response (DR) resource because of their high energy intensity and use patterns; however, refrigeration as the largest load has been challenging to access. Previous work has analyzed supermarket DR using heating, ventilating, and air conditioning; lighting; and anti-sweat heaters. This project evaluated and quantified the DR potential inherent in supermarket refrigeration systems in the Bonneville Power Administration service territory. DR events were carried out and results measured in an operational 45,590-ft2 supermarket located in Hillsboro, Oregon. Key results from the project include the rate of temperature increase in freezer reach-in cases and walk-ins when refrigerationmore » is suspended, the load shed amount for DR tests, and the development of calibrated models to quantify available DR resources. Simulations showed that demand savings of 15 to 20 kilowatts (kW) are available for 1.5 hours for a typical store without precooling and for about 2.5 hours with precooling using only the low-temperature, non-ice cream cases. This represents an aggregated potential of 20 megawatts within BPA's service territory. Inability to shed loads for medium-temperature (MT) products because of the tighter temperature requirements is a significant barrier to realizing larger DR for supermarkets. Store owners are reluctant to allow MT case set point changes, and laboratory tests of MT case DR strategies are needed so that owners become comfortable testing, and implementing, MT case DR. The next-largest barrier is the lack of proper controls in most supermarket displays over ancillary equipment, such as anti-sweat heaters, lights, and fans.« less

33 CFR 241.4 - General policy.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... amount of credits will be limited by the lower share. (f) The test is based on the following principles... in only a limited number of cases of severe economic hardship. (2) The test should depend not only on the economic circumstances within a project area, but also on the conditions of the state(s) in which...

Comfort parameters - Ventilation of a subway wagon

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Petr, Pavlíček; Ladislav, Tříska

2017-09-01

Research and development of a ventilation system is being carried out as a part of project TA04030774 of the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic. Name of the project is "Research and Development of Mass-optimized Components for Rail Vehicles". Problems being solved are development and testing of a new concept for ventilation systems for public transport vehicles. The main improvements should be a reduction of the mass of the whole system, easy installation and reduction of the noise of the ventilation system. This article is focused on the comfort parameters in a subway wagon (measurement and evaluation carried out on a function sample in accordance with the regulations). The input to the project is a ventilator hybrid casing for a subway wagon, which was manufactured and tested during the Ministry of Industry and Trade project TIP FR-TI3/449.

The National Ballistics Imaging Comparison (NBIC) project.

PubMed

Song, J; Vorburger, T V; Ballou, S; Thompson, R M; Yen, J; Renegar, T B; Zheng, A; Silver, R M; Ols, M

2012-03-10

In response to the guidelines issued by the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors/Laboratory Accreditation Board (ASCLD/LAB-International) to establish traceability and quality assurance in U.S. crime laboratories, a NIST/ATF joint project entitled National Ballistics Imaging Comparison (NBIC) was initialized in 2008. The NBIC project aims to establish a National Traceability and Quality System for ballistics identifications in crime laboratories within the National Integrated Ballistics Information Network (NIBIN) of the U.S. NIST Standard Reference Material (SRM) 2460 bullets and 2461 cartridge cases are used as reference standards. 19 ballistics examiners from 13 U.S. crime laboratories participated in this project. They each performed 24 periodic image acquisitions and correlations of the SRM bullets and cartridge cases over the course of a year, but one examiner only participated in Phase 1 tests of SRM cartridge case. The correlation scores were collected by NIST for statistical analyses, from which control charts and control limits were developed for the proposed Quality System and for promoting future assessments and accreditations for firearm evidence in U.S. forensic laboratories in accordance with the ISO 17025 Standard. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.

Investigation of different modeling approaches for computational fluid dynamics simulation of high-pressure rocket combustors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ivancic, B.; Riedmann, H.; Frey, M.; Knab, O.; Karl, S.; Hannemann, K.

2016-07-01

The paper summarizes technical results and first highlights of the cooperation between DLR and Airbus Defence and Space (DS) within the work package "CFD Modeling of Combustion Chamber Processes" conducted in the frame of the Propulsion 2020 Project. Within the addressed work package, DLR Göttingen and Airbus DS Ottobrunn have identified several test cases where adequate test data are available and which can be used for proper validation of the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tools. In this paper, the first test case, the Penn State chamber (RCM1), is discussed. Presenting the simulation results from three different tools, it is shown that the test case can be computed properly with steady-state Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) approaches. The achieved simulation results reproduce the measured wall heat flux as an important validation parameter very well but also reveal some inconsistencies in the test data which are addressed in this paper.

2014 Schooling in America Survey: Perspectives on School Choice, Common Core, and Standardized Testing. Polling Paper No. 20

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

DiPerna, Paul

2014-01-01

The "Schooling in America Survey" is an annual project, commissioned by the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice and conducted by Braun Research, Inc. (BRI). The purpose of the project is to measure public opinion--and in some cases awareness or knowledge--on a range of K-12 education topics and reforms. The author and his…

Newly invented biobased materials from low-carbon, diverted waste fibers: research methods, testing, and full-scale application in a case study structure

Treesearch

Julee A Herdt; John Hunt; Kellen Schauermann

2016-01-01

This project demonstrates newly invented, biobased construction materials developed by applying lowcarbon, biomass waste sources through the Authors’ engineered fiber processes and technology. If manufactured and applied large-scale the project inventions can divert large volumes of cellulose waste into high-performance, low embodied energy, environmental construction...

Pay as You Speed, ISA with incentives for not speeding: a case of test driver recruitment.

PubMed

Lahrmann, Harry; Agerholm, Niels; Tradisauskas, Nerius; Næss, Teresa; Juhl, Jens; Harms, Lisbeth

2012-09-01

The Intelligent Speed Adaptation (ISA) project we describe in this article is based on Pay as You Drive principles. These principles assume that the ISA equipment informs a driver of the speed limit, warns the driver when speeding and calculates penalty points. Each penalty point entails the reduction of a 30% discount on the driver's car insurance premium, which therefore produced the name, Pay as You Speed. The ISA equipment consists of a GPS-based On Board Unit with a mobile phone connection to a web server. The project was planned for a three-year test period with 300 young car drivers, but it never succeeded in recruiting that number of drivers. After several design changes, the project eventually went forward with 153 test drivers of all ages. This number represents approximately one thousandth of all car owners in the proving ground of North Jutland in Denmark. Furthermore the project was terminated before its scheduled closing date. This article describes the project with an emphasis on recruitment efforts and the project's progress. We include a discussion of possible explanations for the failure to recruit volunteers for the project and reflect upon the general barriers to using ISA with ordinary drivers. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Solar powered rotorcraft: a multidisciplinary engineering challenge for undergraduate students

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Danner, Aaron J.; Henz, Martin; Teo, Brian Shohei

2017-08-01

Controlled, fully solar-powered flight in a rotorcraft is a difficult engineering challenge. Over the past five years, multidiciplinary teams of undergraduate engineering students at the National University of Singapore have built and test-flown a succession of increasingly impressive and larger, more efficient aircraft. While many other multidisciplinary or purely photonics projects are available to students in our programme, this particular project attracts an unusual level of excitement and devotion among students working on it. Why is that the case, and what, in general, makes a good final year undergraduate design project? These questions will be explored. Additionally, videos of solar helicopter test flights and spectacular crashes will be shown in the presentation for which the proceedings below have been prepared.

Bench-Scale Testing and Process Performance Projections of CO2 Capture by CO2–Binding Organic Liquids (CO2BOLs) With and Without Polarity-Swing-Assisted Regeneration

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

Zheng, Feng; Heldebrant, David J.; Mathias, Paul M.

This manuscript provides a detailed analysis of a continuous flow, bench scale study of the CO2BOL solvent platform with and without its Polarity Swing Assisted Regeneration (PSAR). This study encompassed four months of continuous flow testing of a candidate CO2BOL with a thermal regeneration and PSAR regeneration using decane antisolvent. In both regeneration schemes, steady state capture of >90 %CO2 was achieved using simulated flue gas at acceptable L/G ratios. Aspen Plus™ modeling was performed to assess process performance compared to previous equilibrium performance projections. This paper also includes net power projections, and comparisons to DOE’s Case 10 amine baseline.

Space Shuttle Projects

NASA Image and Video Library

1991-07-01

This photograph shows the Solid Propellant Test Article (SPTA) test stand with the Modified Nasa Motor (M-NASA) test article at the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). The SPTA test stand, 12-feet wide by 12-feet long by 24-feet high, was built in 1989 to provide comparative performance data on nozzle and case insulation material and to verify thermostructural analysis models. A modified NASA 48-inch solid motor (M-NASA motor) with a 12-foot blast tube and 10-inch throat makes up the SPTA. The M-NASA motor is being used to evaluate solid rocket motor internal non-asbestos insulation materials, nozzle designs, materials, and new inspection techniques. New internal motor case instrumentation techniques are also being evaluated.

Stakeholder approach for evaluating organizational change projects.

PubMed

Peltokorpi, Antti; Alho, Antti; Kujala, Jaakko; Aitamurto, Johanna; Parvinen, Petri

2008-01-01

This paper aims to create a model for evaluating organizational change initiatives from a stakeholder resistance viewpoint. The paper presents a model to evaluate change projects and their expected benefits. Factors affecting the challenge to implement change were defined based on stakeholder theory literature. The authors test the model's practical validity for screening change initiatives to improve operating room productivity. Change initiatives can be evaluated using six factors: the effect of the planned intervention on stakeholders' actions and position; stakeholders' capability to influence the project's implementation; motivation to participate; capability to change; change complexity; and management capability. The presented model's generalizability should be explored by filtering presented factors through a larger number of historical cases operating in different healthcare contexts. The link between stakeholders, the change challenge and the outcomes of change projects needs to be empirically tested. The proposed model can be used to prioritize change projects, manage stakeholder resistance and establish a better organizational and professional competence for managing healthcare organization change projects. New insights into existing stakeholder-related understanding of change project successes are provided.

Mars Science Laboratory Flight Software Boot Robustness Testing Project Report

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Roth, Brian

2011-01-01

On the surface of Mars, the Mars Science Laboratory will boot up its flight computers every morning, having charged the batteries through the night. This boot process is complicated, critical, and affected by numerous hardware states that can be difficult to test. The hardware test beds do not facilitate testing a long duration of back-to-back unmanned automated tests, and although the software simulation has provided the necessary functionality and fidelity for this boot testing, there has not been support for the full flexibility necessary for this task. Therefore to perform this testing a framework has been build around the software simulation that supports running automated tests loading a variety of starting configurations for software and hardware states. This implementation has been tested against the nominal cases to validate the methodology, and support for configuring off-nominal cases is ongoing. The implication of this testing is that the introduction of input configurations that have yet proved difficult to test may reveal boot scenarios worth higher fidelity investigation, and in other cases increase confidence in the robustness of the flight software boot process.

Private participation in infrastructure: A risk analysis of long-term contracts in power sector

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ceran, Nisangul

The objective of this dissertation is to assess whether the private participation in energy sector through long term contracting, such as Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) type investments, is an efficient way of promoting efficiency in the economy. To this end; the theoretical literature on the issue is discussed, the experience of several developing countries are examined, and a BOT project, which is undertaken by the Enron company in Turkey, has been studied in depth as a case study. Different risk analysis techniques, including sensitivity and probabilistic risk analysis with the Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS) method have been applied to assess the financial feasibility and risks of the case study project, and to shed light on the level of rent-seeking in the BOT agreements. Although data on rent seeking and corruption is difficult to obtain, the analysis of case study investment using the sensitivity and MCS method provided some information that can be used in assessing the level of rent-seeking in BOT projects. The risk analysis enabled to test the sustainability of the long-term BOT contracts through the analysis of projects financial feasibility with and without the government guarantees in the project. The approach of testing the sustainability of the project under different scenarios is helpful to understand the potential costs and contingent liabilities for the government and project's impact on a country's overall economy. The results of the risk analysis made by the MCS method for the BOT project used as the case study strongly suggest that, the BOT projects does not serve to the interest of the society and transfers substantial amount of public money to the private companies, implying severe governance problems. It is found that not only government but also private sector may be reluctant about full privatization of infrastructure due to several factors such as involvement of large sunk costs, very long time period for returns to be received, political and macroeconomic uncertainties and insufficient institutional and regulatory environment. It is concluded that the BOT type infrastructure projects are not an efficient way of promoting private sector participation in infrastructure. They tend to serve the interest of rent-seekers rather than the interest of the society. Since concession contracts and Treasury guarantees shift the commercial risk to government, the private sector has no incentive to be efficient. The concession agreements distort the market conditions by preventing free completion in the market.

Inferring monopartite projections of bipartite networks: an entropy-based approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Saracco, Fabio; Straka, Mika J.; Di Clemente, Riccardo; Gabrielli, Andrea; Caldarelli, Guido; Squartini, Tiziano

2017-05-01

Bipartite networks are currently regarded as providing a major insight into the organization of many real-world systems, unveiling the mechanisms driving the interactions occurring between distinct groups of nodes. One of the most important issues encountered when modeling bipartite networks is devising a way to obtain a (monopartite) projection on the layer of interest, which preserves as much as possible the information encoded into the original bipartite structure. In the present paper we propose an algorithm to obtain statistically-validated projections of bipartite networks, according to which any two nodes sharing a statistically-significant number of neighbors are linked. Since assessing the statistical significance of nodes similarity requires a proper statistical benchmark, here we consider a set of four null models, defined within the exponential random graph framework. Our algorithm outputs a matrix of link-specific p-values, from which a validated projection is straightforwardly obtainable, upon running a multiple hypothesis testing procedure. Finally, we test our method on an economic network (i.e. the countries-products World Trade Web representation) and a social network (i.e. MovieLens, collecting the users’ ratings of a list of movies). In both cases non-trivial communities are detected: while projecting the World Trade Web on the countries layer reveals modules of similarly-industrialized nations, projecting it on the products layer allows communities characterized by an increasing level of complexity to be detected; in the second case, projecting MovieLens on the films layer allows clusters of movies whose affinity cannot be fully accounted for by genre similarity to be individuated.

Prevalence of Primary Sjögren's Syndrome in a US Population-Based Cohort.

PubMed

Maciel, Gabriel; Crowson, Cynthia S; Matteson, Eric L; Cornec, Divi

2017-10-01

To report the point prevalence of primary Sjögren's syndrome (SS) in the first US population-based study. Cases of all potential primary SS patients living in Olmsted County, Minnesota, on January 1, 2015, were retrieved using Rochester Epidemiology Project resources, and ascertained by manual medical records review. Primary SS cases were defined according to physician diagnosis. The use of diagnostic tests was assessed and the performance of classification criteria was evaluated. The number of prevalent cases in 2015 was also projected based on 1976-2005 incidence data from the same source population. A total of 106 patients with primary SS were included in the study: 86% were female, with a mean ± SD age of 64.6 ± 15.2 years, and a mean ± SD disease duration of 10.5 ± 8.4 years. A majority were anti-SSA positive (75%) and/or anti-SSB positive (58%), but only 22% met American-European Consensus Group or American College of Rheumatology criteria, because the other tests required for disease classification (ocular dryness objective assessment, salivary gland functional or morphologic tests, or salivary gland biopsy) were rarely performed in clinical practice. According to the physician diagnosis, the age- and sex-adjusted prevalence of primary SS was 10.3 per 10,000 inhabitants, but according to classification criteria, this prevalence was only 2.2 per 10,000. The analysis based on previous incidence data projected a similar 2015 prevalence rate of 11.0 per 10,000. The prevalence of primary SS in this geographically well-defined population was estimated to be between 2 and 10 per 10,000 inhabitants. Physicians rarely used tests included in the classification criteria to diagnose the disease in this community setting. © 2016, American College of Rheumatology.

[Domestic elder abuse and neglect--conclusions from the evaluation of a model project].

PubMed

Görgen, T; Nägele, B

2005-02-01

The main task of a federally funded model project in the German city of Hannover was to develop approaches for prevention and intervention in the field of domestic elder abuse. Over a three year period (1998-2001), different approaches--like a telephone helpline for senior citizens, and social workers operating as counsellors for elderly people and their relatives--were tested at a local level. The paper presents results from the evaluation of the project and draws conclusions for future prevention and intervention in the field. The authors argue that the explicit use of the conceptual framework of "violence"/"abuse" creates potentials for scandalizing the issue and is therefore supportive for media appearance, whereas it can impede the approach to the main target groups (elderly people and their relatives) and reduce accessibility of counselling services for potential clients. In the light of evaluation results the focus of the project ("domestic elder abuse" or "violence against elderly people in close relationships") was too narrow for a local project. Counselling services were used in a relatively small number of cases; analyses of cases show that incidents of domestic elder abuse are often embedded in complex problem constellations. Cases brought to the attention of the model project were multifaceted and not limited to incidents of neglect and abuse of elderly care recipients caused by caregiver overload. Cases of intimate violence in partnerships and of intergenerational violence without any of the participants being dependent on care show the need to develop a broader concept of domestic elder abuse. Integration of the concepts of domestic violence, violence against women, elder abuse/neglect and abuse/neglect in caregiving relationships is necessary on a conceptual level as well as on the level of interagency cooperation of institutions dealing with cases of "elder abuse".

Projecting the epidemiological effect, cost-effectiveness and transmission of HIV drug resistance in Vietnam associated with viral load monitoring strategies.

PubMed

Pham, Quang Duy; Wilson, David P; Nguyen, Thuong Vu; Do, Nhan Thi; Truong, Lien Xuan; Nguyen, Long Thanh; Zhang, Lei

2016-05-01

The objective of this study was to investigate the potential epidemiological impact of viral load (VL) monitoring and its cost-effectiveness in Vietnam, where transmitted HIV drug resistance (TDR) prevalence has increased from <5% to 5%-15% in the past decade. Using a population-based mathematical model driven by data from Vietnam, we simulated scenarios of various combinations of VL testing coverage, VL thresholds for second-line ART initiation and availability of HIV drug-resistance tests. We assessed the cost per disability-adjusted life year (DALY) averted for each scenario. Projecting expected ART scale-up levels, to approximately double the number of people on ART by 2030, will lead to an estimated 18 510 cases (95% CI: 9120-34 600 cases) of TDR and 55 180 cases (95% CI: 40 540-65 900 cases) of acquired drug resistance (ADR) in the absence of VL monitoring. This projection corresponds to a TDR prevalence of 16% (95% CI: 11%-24%) and ADR of 18% (95% CI: 15%-20%). Annual or biennial VL monitoring with 30% coverage is expected to relieve 12%-31% of TDR (2260-5860 cases), 25%-59% of ADR (9620-22 650 cases), 2%-6% of HIV-related deaths (360-880 cases) and 19 270-51 400 DALYs during 2015-30. The 30% coverage of VL monitoring is estimated to cost US$4848-5154 per DALY averted. The projected additional cost for implementing this strategy is US$105-268 million over 2015-30. Our study suggests that a programmatically achievable 30% coverage of VL monitoring can have considerable benefits for individuals and leads to population health benefits by reducing the overall national burden of HIV drug resistance. It is marginally cost-effective according to common willingness-to-pay thresholds. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Technical and investigative support for high density digital satellite recording systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schultz, R. A.

1983-01-01

Recent results of dropout measurements and defect analysis conducted on one reel of Ampex 721 which was submitted for evaluation by the manufacturer are described. The results or status of other tape evaluation activities are also reviewed. Several changes in test interpretations and applications are recommended. In some cases, deficiencies in test methods or equipment became apparent during continued work on this project and other IITRI tape evaluation projects. Techniques and equipment for future tasks such as tape qualification are also recommended and discussed. Project effort and expenditures were kept at a relatively low level. This rate provided added development time and experience with the IITRI Dropout Measurement System, which is approaching its potential as a computer based dropout analysis tool. Another benefit is the expanded data base on critical parameters that can be achieved from tests on different tape types and lots as they become available. More consideration and effort was directed toward identification of critical parameters, development of meaningful repeatable test procedures, and tape procurement strategy.

Research for Policy (R4P): development of a reflection tool for researchers to improve knowledge utilization.

PubMed

Hegger, Ingrid; Marks, Lisanne K; Janssen, Susan W J; Schuit, Albertine J; Keijsers, Jolanda F M; van Oers, Hans A M

2016-09-30

To improve knowledge utilization in policymaking, alignment between researchers and policymakers during knowledge production is essential, but difficult to maintain. In three previously reported case studies, we extensively evaluated complex research projects commissioned by policymakers to investigate how alignment is achieved in a research process and to discover ways to enhance knowledge contributions to health policy. In the present study, we investigated how the findings of these three research projects could be integrated into a practical tool for researchers to enhance their contribution to evidence-based policy. A cross-case analysis was conducted to integrate the findings of the evaluation of the three research projects and to identify important alignment areas in these projects. By means of an iterative process, we prepared a tool that includes reflection questions for researchers. The "Research for Policy" tool was tested with input from the project managers of three new research projects. Based on the findings, the final version of the Research for Policy tool was prepared. By cross-case analysis of the three case studies, the following important alignment areas were identified: the goal, quality, relevance, timing, and presentation of research, the tasks and authorities of actors, the consultative structure and vertical alignment within organizations, and the organizational environment. The project managers regarded the Research for Policy tool as a useful checklist for addressing the important alignment areas in a research project. Based on their feedback, the illustrative examples from the case studies were added to the reflection questions. The project managers suggested making the tool accessible not only to researchers but also to policymakers. The format of the Research for Policy tool was further adjusted to users' needs by adding clickable links. Alignment between research and policymaking requires continuous efforts and a clear understanding of process issues in the research project. The Research for Policy tool offers practical alignment guidance and facilitates reflection on process issues, which supports researchers in aligning with policymakers and in acting in a context-sensitive way.

Indicators of sustainable capacity building for health research: analysis of four African case studies.

PubMed

Bates, Imelda; Taegtmeyer, Miriam; Squire, S Bertel; Ansong, Daniel; Nhlema-Simwaka, Bertha; Baba, Amuda; Theobald, Sally

2011-03-28

Despite substantial investment in health capacity building in developing countries, evaluations of capacity building effectiveness are scarce. By analysing projects in Africa that had successfully built sustainable capacity, we aimed to identify evidence that could indicate that capacity building was likely to be sustainable. Four projects were selected as case studies using pre-determined criteria, including the achievement of sustainable capacity. By mapping the capacity building activities in each case study onto a framework previously used for evaluating health research capacity in Ghana, we were able to identify activities that were common to all projects. We used these activities to derive indicators which could be used in other projects to monitor progress towards building sustainable research capacity. Indicators of sustainable capacity building increased in complexity as projects matured and included- early engagement of stakeholders; explicit plans for scale up; strategies for influencing policies; quality assessments (awareness and experiential stages)- improved resources; institutionalisation of activities; innovation (expansion stage)- funding for core activities secured; management and decision-making led by southern partners (consolidation stage).Projects became sustainable after a median of 66 months. The main challenges to achieving sustainability were high turnover of staff and stakeholders, and difficulties in embedding new activities into existing systems, securing funding and influencing policy development. Our indicators of sustainable capacity building need to be tested prospectively in a variety of projects to assess their usefulness. For each project the evidence required to show that indicators have been achieved should evolve with the project and they should be determined prospectively in collaboration with stakeholders.

Multiple-Choice Question Tests: A Convenient, Flexible and Effective Learning Tool? A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Douglas, Mercedes; Wilson, Juliette; Ennis, Sean

2012-01-01

The research presented in this paper is part of a project investigating assessment practices, funded by the Scottish Funding Council. Using established principles of good assessment and feedback, the use of online formative and summative multiple choice tests (MCT's) was piloted to support independent and self-directed learning and improve…

Concept Mapping in Science Class: A Case Study of Fifth Grade Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Asan, Askin

2007-01-01

The purpose of this research project was to determine the effects of incorporating concept mapping on the achievement of fifth grade students in science class. The study was conducted with twenty-three students at Ata Elementary School, Trabzon, Turkey. The students were tested with teacher-constructed pre- and post tests containing 20…

The Tree Drawing Test: A Measurement of Cognitive Development. Symposium III B.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yoshikawa, Kimio; And Others

Reported at this symposium were investigations using the projective "Tree Drawing" test in (1) a case study of the impact of natural and cultural environments on Japanese children attending elementary and junior high schools in Singapore by Kimio Yoshikawa and K. Loganathan Mutharayan; (2) a study comparing cognitive processes of normal,…

Accelerating Software Development through Agile Practices--A Case Study of a Small-Scale, Time-Intensive Web Development Project at a College-Level IT Competition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhang, Xuesong; Dorn, Bradley

2012-01-01

Agile development has received increasing interest both in industry and academia due to its benefits in developing software quickly, meeting customer needs, and keeping pace with the rapidly changing requirements. However, agile practices and scrum in particular have been mainly tested in mid- to large-size projects. In this paper, we present…

Examining the Stationarity Assumption for Statistically Downscaled Climate Projections of Precipitation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wootten, A.; Dixon, K. W.; Lanzante, J. R.; Mcpherson, R. A.

2017-12-01

Empirical statistical downscaling (ESD) approaches attempt to refine global climate model (GCM) information via statistical relationships between observations and GCM simulations. The aim of such downscaling efforts is to create added-value climate projections by adding finer spatial detail and reducing biases. The results of statistical downscaling exercises are often used in impact assessments under the assumption that past performance provides an indicator of future results. Given prior research describing the danger of this assumption with regards to temperature, this study expands the perfect model experimental design from previous case studies to test the stationarity assumption with respect to precipitation. Assuming stationarity implies the performance of ESD methods are similar between the future projections and historical training. Case study results from four quantile-mapping based ESD methods demonstrate violations of the stationarity assumption for both central tendency and extremes of precipitation. These violations vary geographically and seasonally. For the four ESD methods tested the greatest challenges for downscaling of daily total precipitation projections occur in regions with limited precipitation and for extremes of precipitation along Southeast coastal regions. We conclude with a discussion of future expansion of the perfect model experimental design and the implications for improving ESD methods and providing guidance on the use of ESD techniques for impact assessments and decision-support.

Strengthening the Assessment Trajectory: Engaging Educators in the Policy Process. Making a Measurable Difference: Case Studies from the High-Quality Assessment Project

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McClellan, Catherine; Snyder, Rebecca; Woods-Murphy, Maryann; Basset, Katherine

2018-01-01

Great teachers recognize great assessments. As policy and education leaders work to make sure state tests are measuring the problem-solving, writing, and critical-thinking skills students need for success, they should convene and rely on teachers to review test quality and help answer the question: Do the questions on our state test reflect…

Nuclear code case development of printed-circuit heat exchangers with thermal and mechanical performance testing

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

Aakre, Shaun R.; Jentz, Ian W.; Anderson, Mark H.

The U.S. Department of Energy has agreed to fund a three-year integrated research project to close technical gaps involved with compact heat exchangers to be used in nuclear applications. This paper introduces the goals of the project, the research institutions, and industrial partners working in collaboration to develop a draft Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code Case for this technology. Heat exchanger testing, as well as non-destructive and destructive evaluation, will be performed by researchers across the country to understand the performance of compact heat exchangers. Testing will be performed using coolants and conditions proposed for Gen IV Reactor designs. Preliminarymore » observations of the mechanical failure mechanisms of the heat exchangers using destructive and non-destructive methods is presented. Unit-cell finite element models assembled to help predict the mechanical behavior of these high-temperature components are discussed as well. Performance testing methodology is laid out in this paper along with preliminary modeling results, an introduction to x-ray and neutron inspection techniques, and results from a recent pressurization test of a printed-circuit heat exchanger. The operational and quality assurance knowledge gained from these models and validation tests will be useful to developers of supercritical CO 2 systems, which commonly employ printed-circuit heat exchangers.« less

Cost-effectiveness of rapid syphilis screening in prenatal HIV testing programs in Haiti.

PubMed

Schackman, Bruce R; Neukermans, Christopher P; Fontain, Sandy N Nerette; Nolte, Claudine; Joseph, Patrice; Pape, Jean W; Fitzgerald, Daniel W

2007-05-01

New rapid syphilis tests permit simple and immediate diagnosis and treatment at a single clinic visit. We compared the cost-effectiveness, projected health outcomes, and annual cost of screening pregnant women using a rapid syphilis test as part of scaled-up prenatal testing to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission in Haiti. A decision analytic model simulated health outcomes and costs separately for pregnant women in rural and urban areas. We compared syphilis syndromic surveillance (rural standard of care), rapid plasma reagin test with results and treatment at 1-wk follow-up (urban standard of care), and a new rapid test with immediate results and treatment. Test performance data were from a World Health Organization-Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases field trial conducted at the GHESKIO Center Groupe Haitien d'Etude du Sarcome de Kaposi et des Infections Opportunistes in Port-au-Prince. Health outcomes were projected using historical data on prenatal syphilis treatment efficacy and included disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) of newborns, congenital syphilis cases, neonatal deaths, and stillbirths. Cost-effectiveness ratios are in US dollars/DALY from a societal perspective; annual costs are in US dollars from a payer perspective. Rapid testing with immediate treatment has a cost-effectiveness ratio of $6.83/DALY in rural settings and $9.95/DALY in urban settings. Results are sensitive to regional syphilis prevalence, rapid test sensitivity, and the return rate for follow-up visits. Integrating rapid syphilis testing into a scaled-up national HIV testing and prenatal care program would prevent 1,125 congenital syphilis cases and 1,223 stillbirths or neonatal deaths annually at a cost of $525,000. In Haiti, integrating a new rapid syphilis test into prenatal care and HIV testing would prevent congenital syphilis cases and stillbirths, and is cost-effective. A similar approach may be beneficial in other resource-poor countries that are scaling up prenatal HIV testing.

Advanced Monobore Concept, Development of CFEX Self-Expanding Tubular Technology

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

Jeff Spray

2007-09-30

The Advanced Monobore Concept--CFEX{copyright} Self-Expanding Tubular Technology Development was a successfully executed fundamental research through field demonstration project. This final report is presented as a progression, according to basic technology development steps. For this project, the research and development steps used were: concept development, engineering analysis, manufacturing, testing, demonstration, and technology transfer. The CFEX{copyright} Technology Development--Advanced Monobore Concept Project successfully completed all of the steps for technology development, covering fundamental research, conceptual development, engineering design, advanced-level prototype construction, mechanical testing, and downhole demonstration. Within an approximately two year period, a partially defined, broad concept was evolved into a substantial newmore » technological area for drilling and production engineering applicable a variety of extractive industries--which was also successfully demonstrated in a test well. The demonstration achievement included an actual mono-diameter placement of two self-expanding tubulars. The fundamental result is that an economical and technically proficient means of casing any size of drilling or production well or borehole is indicated as feasible based on the results of the project. Highlighted major accomplishments during the project's Concept, Engineering, Manufacturing, Demonstration, and Technology Transfer phases, are given.« less

Eliminating Tuberculosis One Neighborhood at a Time

PubMed Central

Griffith, David E.; McGaha, Paul K.; Wolfgang, Melanie; Robinson, Celia B.; Clark, Patricia A.; Hassell, Willis L.; Robison, Valerie A.; Walker, Kerfoot P.; Wallace, Charles

2014-01-01

Objectives. We evaluated a strategy for preventing tuberculosis (TB) in communities most affected by it. Methods. In 1996, we mapped reported TB cases (1985–1995) and positive tuberculin skin test (TST) reactors (1993–1995) in Smith County, Texas. We delineated the 2 largest, densest clusters, identifying 2 highest-incidence neighborhoods (180 square blocks, 3153 residents). After extensive community preparation, trained health care workers went door-to-door offering TST to all residents unless contraindicated. TST-positive individuals were escorted to a mobile clinic for radiography, clinical evaluation, and isoniazid preventive treatment (IPT) as indicated. To assess long-term impact, we mapped all TB cases in Smith County during the equivalent time period after the project. Results. Of 2258 eligible individuals, 1291 (57.1%) were tested, 229 (17.7%) were TST positive, and 147 were treated. From 1996 to 2006, there were no TB cases in either project neighborhood, in contrast with the preintervention decade and the continued occurrence of TB in the rest of Smith County. Conclusions. Targeting high-incidence neighborhoods for active, community-based screening and IPT may hasten TB elimination in the United States. PMID:24899457

Eliminating Tuberculosis One Neighborhood at a Time

PubMed Central

Griffith, David E.; McGaha, Paul K.; Wolfgang, Melanie; Robinson, Celia B.; Clark, Patricia A.; Hassell, Willis L.; Robison, Valerie A.; Walker, Kerfoot P.; Wallace, Charles

2013-01-01

Objectives. We evaluated a strategy for preventing tuberculosis (TB) in communities most affected by it. Methods. In 1996, we mapped reported TB cases (1985–1995) and positive tuberculin skin test (TST) reactors (1993–1995) in Smith County, Texas. We delineated the 2 largest, densest clusters, identifying 2 highest-incidence neighborhoods (180 square blocks, 3153 residents). After extensive community preparation, trained health care workers went door-to-door offering TST to all residents unless contraindicated. TST-positive individuals were escorted to a mobile clinic for radiography, clinical evaluation, and isoniazid preventive treatment (IPT) as indicated. To assess long-term impact, we mapped all TB cases in Smith County during the equivalent time period after the project. Results. Of 2258 eligible individuals, 1291 (57.1%) were tested, 229 (17.7%) were TST positive, and 147 were treated. From 1996 to 2006, there were no TB cases in either project neighborhood, in contrast with the preintervention decade and the continued occurrence of TB in the rest of Smith County. Conclusions. Targeting high-incidence neighborhoods for active, community-based screening and IPT may hasten TB elimination in the United States. PMID:23078465

Green and sustainable remediation (GSR) evaluation: framework, standards, and tool. A case study in Taiwan.

PubMed

Huang, Wen-Yen; Hung, Weiteng; Vu, Chi Thanh; Chen, Wei-Ting; Lai, Jhih-Wei; Lin, Chitsan

2016-11-01

Taiwan has a large number of poorly managed contaminated sites in need of remediation. This study proposes a framework, a set of standards, and a spreadsheet-based evaluation tool for implementing green and sustainable principles into remediation projects and evaluating the projects from this perspective. We performed a case study to understand how the framework would be applied. For the case study, we used a spreadsheet-based evaluation tool (SEFA) and performed field scale cultivation tests on a site contaminated with total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPHs). The site was divided into two lots: one treated by chemical oxidation and the other by bioremediation. We evaluated five core elements of green and sustainable remediation (GSR): energy, air, water resources, materials and wastes, and land and ecosystem. The proposed evaluation tool and field scale cultivation test were found to efficiently assess the effectiveness of the two remediation alternatives. The framework and related tools proposed herein can potentially be used to support decisions about the remediation of contaminated sites taking into account engineering management, cost effectiveness, and social reconciliation.

Optimization of knowledge-based systems and expert system building tools

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Yasuda, Phyllis; Mckellar, Donald

1993-01-01

The objectives of the NASA-AMES Cooperative Agreement were to investigate, develop, and evaluate, via test cases, the system parameters and processing algorithms that constrain the overall performance of the Information Sciences Division's Artificial Intelligence Research Facility. Written reports covering various aspects of the grant were submitted to the co-investigators for the grant. Research studies concentrated on the field of artificial intelligence knowledge-based systems technology. Activities included the following areas: (1) AI training classes; (2) merging optical and digital processing; (3) science experiment remote coaching; (4) SSF data management system tests; (5) computer integrated documentation project; (6) conservation of design knowledge project; (7) project management calendar and reporting system; (8) automation and robotics technology assessment; (9) advanced computer architectures and operating systems; and (10) honors program.

Organizing and Presenting Program Outcome Data.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anema, Marion G.; Brown, Barbara E.; Stringfield, Yvonne N.

2003-01-01

Data collection and assessment processes used by a nursing school are described. Sources include student achievement data from tests, projects, journals, case studies, community service, and clinical practicums. The ways in which data are organized, presented, and used are discussed. (SK)

Implementing HPC on the Sunshine Bridge project

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2007-11-01

This report presents the research work from a pilot program regarding the feasibility of implementing high performance concrete on Arizona bridge decks, using the Sunshine Bridge in Holbrook, Arizona as a test case. An existing concrete slab was remo...

Implementing HPC on the Sunshine Bridge Project

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2007-11-16

This report presents the research work from a pilot program regarding the feasibility of implementing high performance concrete on Arizona bridge decks, using the Sunshine Bridge in Holbrook, Arizona as a test case. An existing concrete slab was remo...

A Capstone Wiki Knowledge Base: A Case Study of an Online Tool Designed to Promote Life-Long Learning through Engineering Literature Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Clarke, James B.; Coyle, James R.

2011-01-01

This article reports the results of a case study in which an experimental wiki knowledge base was designed, developed, and tested by the Brill Science Library at Miami University for an undergraduate engineering senior capstone project. The wiki knowledge base was created to determine if the science library could enhance the engineering literature…

A Method for Calculating the Probability of Successfully Completing a Rocket Propulsion Ground Test

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Messer, Bradley P.

2004-01-01

Propulsion ground test facilities face the daily challenges of scheduling multiple customers into limited facility space and successfully completing their propulsion test projects. Due to budgetary and schedule constraints, NASA and industry customers are pushing to test more components, for less money, in a shorter period of time. As these new rocket engine component test programs are undertaken, the lack of technology maturity in the test articles, combined with pushing the test facilities capabilities to their limits, tends to lead to an increase in facility breakdowns and unsuccessful tests. Over the last five years Stennis Space Center's propulsion test facilities have performed hundreds of tests, collected thousands of seconds of test data, and broken numerous test facility and test article parts. While various initiatives have been implemented to provide better propulsion test techniques and improve the quality, reliability, and maintainability of goods and parts used in the propulsion test facilities, unexpected failures during testing still occur quite regularly due to the harsh environment in which the propulsion test facilities operate. Previous attempts at modeling the lifecycle of a propulsion component test project have met with little success. Each of the attempts suffered form incomplete or inconsistent data on which to base the models. By focusing on the actual test phase of the tests project rather than the formulation, design or construction phases of the test project, the quality and quantity of available data increases dramatically. A logistic regression model has been developed form the data collected over the last five years, allowing the probability of successfully completing a rocket propulsion component test to be calculated. A logistic regression model is a mathematical modeling approach that can be used to describe the relationship of several independent predictor variables X(sub 1), X(sub 2),..,X(sub k) to a binary or dichotomous dependent variable Y, where Y can only be one of two possible outcomes, in this case Success or Failure. Logistic regression has primarily been used in the fields of epidemiology and biomedical research, but lends itself to many other applications. As indicated the use of logistic regression is not new, however, modeling propulsion ground test facilities using logistic regression is both a new and unique application of the statistical technique. Results from the models provide project managers with insight and confidence into the affectivity of rocket engine component ground test projects. The initial success in modeling rocket propulsion ground test projects clears the way for more complex models to be developed in this area.

Contaminant Flux Reduction Barriers for Managing Difficult to Treat Source Zones in Unconsolidated Media

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-06-20

39  Table 7.4:  Description of Case Study Site... Research Flux Reduction Materials: Several novel silica gel/vegetable oil- formulations were developed and tested in lab-scale batch and column studies by...Demonstration Results The project demonstration had these results:  Two grout mixtures were selected based on gel tests and a treatability study by

ISWE: A Case Study of Technology Utilization

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Benfield, M. P.; Mitchell, D. P.; Vanhooser, M. T.; Landrum, D. B.

1998-01-01

The International Space Welding Experiment is a joint project between the E.O. Paton Welding Institute of Kiev, Ukraine and the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. When an international partner is involved in a project, differences in design and testing philosophy can become a factor in the development of the hardware. This report addresses selected issues that arose during the ISWE hardware development as well as the solutions the ISWE team made.

Characterizing Treatable Causes of Small Fiber Polyneuropathy in Gulf War Veterans

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-10-01

multisymptom illness CWP Chronic widespread pain DOD Department of Defense ESR Erythrocyte sedimentation rate GTT Glucose tolerance test Hgb Hemoglobin...War Veterans 5b. GRANT NUMBER W81XWH-14-1-0499 5c. PROGRAM ELEMENT NUMBER 6. AUTHOR(S) Anne Louise Oaklander MD, PhD 5d. PROJECT NUMBER Max M...widespread pain, chronic multisymptom illness, small- fiber polyneuropathy, case definition ACCOMPLISHMENTS: What were the major goals of the project

New Whole-House Solutions Case Study: Northwest Energy Efficient Manufactured Housing Program High-Performance Test Homes - Pacific Northwest

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

None

2015-05-01

This project represents the third phase of a multi-year effort to develop and bring to market a High Performance Manufactured Home (HPMH). In this project, the Northwest Energy Efficient Manufactured Housing Program worked with Building America Partnership for Improved Residential Construction and Bonneville Power Administration to help four factory homebuilders build prototype zero energy ready manufactured homes, resulting in what is expected to be a 30% savings relative to the Building America Benchmark. (The actual % savings varies depending on choice of heating equipment and climate zone). Previous phases of this project created a HPMH specification and prototyped individual measuresmore » from the package to obtain engineering approvals and develop preliminary factory construction processes. This case study describes the project team's work during 2014 to build prototype homes to the HPMH specifications and to monitor the homes for energy performance and durability. Monitoring is expected to continue into 2016.« less

Extension of moment projection method to the fragmentation process

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

Wu, Shaohua; Yapp, Edward K.Y.; Akroyd, Jethro

2017-04-15

The method of moments is a simple but efficient method of solving the population balance equation which describes particle dynamics. Recently, the moment projection method (MPM) was proposed and validated for particle inception, coagulation, growth and, more importantly, shrinkage; here the method is extended to include the fragmentation process. The performance of MPM is tested for 13 different test cases for different fragmentation kernels, fragment distribution functions and initial conditions. Comparisons are made with the quadrature method of moments (QMOM), hybrid method of moments (HMOM) and a high-precision stochastic solution calculated using the established direct simulation algorithm (DSA) and advantagesmore » of MPM are drawn.« less

Comparative analysis of student self-reflections on course projects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pomales-García, Cristina; Cortés Barreto, Kenneth

2014-11-01

This study presents the skills, experiences, and values identified in project self-reflections of 161 undergraduate engineering students. Self-reflections from two different engineering design courses, which provide experiences in project-based learning (PBL), are analysed through the content analysis methodology. Results show that 'application', 'true life', 'satisfaction', and 'communication' are the common keywords shared in the reflections. Multiple hypothesis tests to identify differences between courses, project types, years, and gender suggest that there are no significant differences between experiences, skills, and values self-reported by students who completed either a case study or an industry project. Based on research findings, recommendations will be provided to enhance the engineering curriculum based on PBL experiences to support the development of relevant professional skills and experiences.

Initial Multidisciplinary Design and Analysis Framework

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ozoroski, L. P.; Geiselhart, K. A.; Padula, S. L.; Li, W.; Olson, E. D.; Campbell, R. L.; Shields, E. W.; Berton, J. J.; Gray, J. S.; Jones, S. M.;

A Study in HRT Resolution: Seeking Maximum Sensitivity Among Variations in Sensing Element Material

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Morales, Jeremy M.

2005-01-01

The EXACT (Experiments Along Coexistence near Tricriticality) project endeavors to perform the most rigorous test to date of Renormalization Group theory. In most cases, the theory gives only approximate solutions, but it offers exact predictions in the case of the He-3-He-4 tricritical point. Currently, the project is focused on maximizing the performance of the low-temperature system's HRT (high resolution thermometer) near the tricritical point. The HRT uses a PdMn sensing element, the qualities of which change based on its Mn concentration and whether or not it is annealed. All sensing element combinations will be catalogued, and through the data, the optimum configuration will be reported.

On the rate of convergence of the alternating projection method in finite dimensional spaces

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Galántai, A.

2005-10-01

Using the results of Smith, Solmon, and Wagner [K. Smith, D. Solomon, S. Wagner, Practical and mathematical aspects of the problem of reconstructing objects from radiographs, Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. 83 (1977) 1227-1270] and Nelson and Neumann [S. Nelson, M. Neumann, Generalizations of the projection method with application to SOR theory for Hermitian positive semidefinite linear systems, Numer. Math. 51 (1987) 123-141] we derive new estimates for the speed of the alternating projection method and its relaxed version in . These estimates can be computed in at most O(m3) arithmetic operations unlike the estimates in papers mentioned above that require spectral information. The new and old estimates are equivalent in many practical cases. In cases when the new estimates are weaker, the numerical testing indicates that they approximate the original bounds in papers mentioned above quite well.

Increasing the applicability of wind power projects via a multi-criteria approach: methodology and case study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Polatidis, Heracles; Morales, Jan Borràs

2016-11-01

In this paper a methodological framework for increasing the actual applicability of wind farms is developed and applied. The framework is based on multi-criteria decision aid techniques that perform an integrated technical and societal evaluation of a number of potential wind power projects that are a variation of a pre-existing actual proposal that faces implementation difficulties. A number of evaluation criteria are established and assessed via particular related software or are comparatively evaluated among each other on a semi-qualitative basis. The preference of a diverse audience of pertinent stakeholders can be also incorporated in the overall analysis. The result of the process is an identification of a new project that will exhibit increased actual implementation potential compared with the original proposal. The methodology is tested in a case study of a wind farm in the UK and relevant conclusions are drawn.

Evaluation of ADAM/1 model for advanced coal extraction concepts

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Deshpande, G. K.; Gangal, M. D.

1982-01-01

Several existing computer programs for estimating life cycle cost of mining systems were evaluated. A commercially available program, ADAM/1 was found to be satisfactory in relation to the needs of the advanced coal extraction project. Two test cases were run to confirm the ability of the program to handle nonconventional mining equipment and procedures. The results were satisfactory. The model, therefore, is recommended to the project team for evaluation of their conceptual designs.

MEMS Deformable Mirror Technology Development for Space-Based Exoplanet Detection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bierden, Paul; Cornelissen, S.; Ryan, P.

2014-01-01

In the search for earth-like extrasolar planets that has become an important objective for NASA, a critical technology development requirement is to advance deformable mirror (DM) technology. High-actuator-count DMs are critical components for nearly all proposed coronagraph instrument concepts. The science case for exoplanet imaging is strong, and rapid recent advances in test beds with DMs made using microelectromechanical system (MEMS) technology have motivated a number of compelling mission concepts that set technical specifications for their use as wavefront controllers. This research will advance the technology readiness of the MEMS DMs components that are currently at the forefront of the field, and the project will be led by the manufacturer of those components, Boston Micromachines Corporation (BMC). The project aims to demonstrate basic functionality and performance of this key component in critical test environments and in simulated operational environments, while establishing model-based predictions of its performance relative to launch and space environments. Presented will be the current status of the project with modeling and initial test results.

Ares Launch Vehicles Lean Practices Case Study

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Doreswamy, Rajiv, N.; Self, Timothy A.

2008-01-01

This viewgraph presentation describes test strategies and lean philisophies and practices that are applied to Ares Launch Vehicles. The topics include: 1) Testing strategy; 2) Lean Practices in Ares I-X; 3) Lean Practices Applied to Ares I-X Schedule; 4) Lean Event Results; 5) Lean, Six Sigma, and Kaizen Practices in the Ares Projects Office; 6) Lean and Kaizen Success Stories; and 7) Ares Six Sigma Practices.

Why One-Shot Information Literacy Sessions Are Not the Future of Instruction: A Case for Online Credit Courses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mery,Yvonne; Newby, Jill; Peng, Ke

2012-01-01

This paper reports on a research project that examined the test scores of students who took part in an online information literacy course. Researchers analyzed the pre- and post-test scores of students who received different types of instruction including a traditional one-shot library session and an online course. Results show that students who…

Primary Teachers' Experiences Relating to the Administration Processes of High-Stakes Testing: The Case of Mathematics Annual National Assessments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Graven, Mellony; Venkat, Hamsa

2014-01-01

In this paper we highlight teacher experiences of the administration of high-stakes testing, in particular, of the 2012 Annual National Assessments (ANAs). The exploration is based on data gathered across two primary numeracy teacher development projects in the Eastern Cape and Gauteng in the form of open-ended questionnaires designed to elicit…

IPRT polarized radiative transfer model intercomparison project - Three-dimensional test cases (phase B)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Emde, Claudia; Barlakas, Vasileios; Cornet, Céline; Evans, Frank; Wang, Zhen; Labonotte, Laurent C.; Macke, Andreas; Mayer, Bernhard; Wendisch, Manfred

2018-04-01

Initially unpolarized solar radiation becomes polarized by scattering in the Earth's atmosphere. In particular molecular scattering (Rayleigh scattering) polarizes electromagnetic radiation, but also scattering of radiation at aerosols, cloud droplets (Mie scattering) and ice crystals polarizes. Each atmospheric constituent produces a characteristic polarization signal, thus spectro-polarimetric measurements are frequently employed for remote sensing of aerosol and cloud properties. Retrieval algorithms require efficient radiative transfer models. Usually, these apply the plane-parallel approximation (PPA), assuming that the atmosphere consists of horizontally homogeneous layers. This allows to solve the vector radiative transfer equation (VRTE) efficiently. For remote sensing applications, the radiance is considered constant over the instantaneous field-of-view of the instrument and each sensor element is treated independently in plane-parallel approximation, neglecting horizontal radiation transport between adjacent pixels (Independent Pixel Approximation, IPA). In order to estimate the errors due to the IPA approximation, three-dimensional (3D) vector radiative transfer models are required. So far, only a few such models exist. Therefore, the International Polarized Radiative Transfer (IPRT) working group of the International Radiation Commission (IRC) has initiated a model intercomparison project in order to provide benchmark results for polarized radiative transfer. The group has already performed an intercomparison for one-dimensional (1D) multi-layer test cases [phase A, 1]. This paper presents the continuation of the intercomparison project (phase B) for 2D and 3D test cases: a step cloud, a cubic cloud, and a more realistic scenario including a 3D cloud field generated by a Large Eddy Simulation (LES) model and typical background aerosols. The commonly established benchmark results for 3D polarized radiative transfer are available at the IPRT website (http://www.meteo.physik.uni-muenchen.de/ iprt).

Variations in the survival probabilities of the PVC-protected red mangrove propagules: testing the encased replanting technique.

PubMed

López-Ortiz, M I; Pérez, C M; Suárez, E; Ríos-Dávila, R

1999-12-01

The EcoEléctrica Mangrove Planting Project, a five-year voluntary effort, has the purpose of testing a recently developed mangrove planting technique at the EcoEléctrica site in Peñuelas, Puerto Rico. The goal of the project is to provide empirical validation to promote or improve the technique to be used in recovering mangrove ecosystems in Puerto Rico and United States. The research presented herein analyzed the information collected on the first two years of the project. The proportions of remaining casings and seeds per study zone were compared using the chi-square distribution. Zone 1 had the least pipes lost while Zone 4 had the most (p < 0.05). Forty-three percent of the seeds in Zone 1 remained in the casing, while 26% remained in Zone 2 (p = 0.03). Median growth rates of seeds per study zone showed that Zone 1 had the highest median growth rates. Survival analysis described the survival experience of the seeds, and differences in survival probabilities were compared with the log-rank test. Zone 1 seeds had a better survival experience compared to Zones 2, 3 and 4 (p < 0.0001). Survival probabilities for being free of spots were over 60% during the whole study period. No significant differences were observed in the survival experience with the use-or-no use of casing extensions (p = 0.40), and the use-or-no use of nursed seeds (p = 0.26). Differences in survival probabilities might be attributed to variations in wave energy, depth or substrate conditions. This hypothesis will be evaluated in the second phase of the study.

Testing and Modeling of a 3-MW Wind Turbine Using Fully Coupled Simulation Codes (Poster)

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

LaCava, W.; Guo, Y.; Van Dam, J.

This poster describes the NREL/Alstom Wind testing and model verification of the Alstom 3-MW wind turbine located at NREL's National Wind Technology Center. NREL,in collaboration with ALSTOM Wind, is studying a 3-MW wind turbine installed at the National Wind Technology Center(NWTC). The project analyzes the turbine design using a state-of-the-art simulation code validated with detailed test data. This poster describes the testing and the model validation effort, and provides conclusions about the performance of the unique drive train configuration used in this wind turbine. The 3-MW machine has been operating at the NWTC since March 2011, and drive train measurementsmore » will be collected through the spring of 2012. The NWTC testing site has particularly turbulent wind patterns that allow for the measurement of large transient loads and the resulting turbine response. This poster describes the 3-MW turbine test project, the instrumentation installed, and the load cases captured. The design of a reliable wind turbine drive train increasingly relies on the use of advanced simulation to predict structural responses in a varying wind field. This poster presents a fully coupled, aero-elastic and dynamic model of the wind turbine. It also shows the methodology used to validate the model, including the use of measured tower modes, model-to-model comparisons of the power curve, and mainshaft bending predictions for various load cases. The drivetrain is designed to only transmit torque to the gearbox, eliminating non-torque moments that are known to cause gear misalignment. Preliminary results show that the drivetrain is able to divert bending loads in extreme loading cases, and that a significantly smaller bending moment is induced on the mainshaft compared to a three-point mounting design.« less

Enhancing Environmental Communication and Products Through Qualitative Research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

DeLorme, D.; Hagen, S. C.

2014-12-01

This presentation discusses two ongoing interdisciplinary case studies that are using qualitative research to design and enhance environmental communication and science products for outreach and decision making purposes. Both cases demonstrate the viability and practical value of qualitative social science methodology, specifically focus group interviews, to better understand the viewpoints of target audiences, improve deliverables, and support project goals. The first case is a NOAA-funded project to conduct process-based modeling to project impact from climate change in general and sea level rise in particular to the natural and built environment. The project spans the Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida Panhandle coasts with concentration on the three National Estuarine Research Reserves. As part of the broader project, four annual focus groups were conducted with a purposive sample of coastal resource managers to capture their perspectives and suggestions to better meet their informational and operational needs. The second case is a Florida Sea Grant-funded project that is developing, implementing, and testing a cohesive outreach campaign to promote voluntary careful and responsible recreational boating to help protect sensitive marine life and habitats (especially seagrasses and oyster reefs) in the Mosquito Lagoon. Six focus groups were conducted with a purposive sample of the target audience of boaters to gain insights, feedback, and ideas on the direction of the campaign and design of the messages and products. The campaign materials created include a branded website, Facebook page, mobile app, information packets, brochures, pledge forms, and promotional items. A comparison of these two case studies will be provided and will explain how the qualitative findings were/are being implemented to tailor and refine the respective communication strategies and techniques including the emerging outreach products. The resulting outcomes are messages and tools that are readily accessible, understandable, engaging, useful, and memorable to the target audiences. The presentation will conclude with an overview of the strengths and role of qualitative methodology, how this approach can help address other science communication needs, and future research recommendations.

Cushing's syndrome: Stepwise approach to diagnosis

PubMed Central

Lila, Anurag R.; Sarathi, Vijaya; Jagtap, Varsha S.; Bandgar, Tushar; Menon, Padmavathy; Shah, Nalini S.

2011-01-01

The projected prevalence of Cushing's syndrome (CS) inclusive of subclinical cases in the adult population ranges from 0.2–2% and it may no longer be considered as an orphan disease (2–3 cases/million/year). The recognition of CS by physicians is important for early diagnosis and treatment. Late-night salivary cortisol, dexamethasone suppressiontesti, or 24-h urine free cortisol are good screening tests. Positively screened cases need stepwise evaluation by an endocrinologist. This paper discusses the importance of screening for CS and suggests a stepwise diagnostic approach to a case of suspected hypercortisolism. PMID:22145134

Canadian-US Demonstration Project Towards an International Nitrogen Assessment System

EPA Science Inventory

Bellingham Bay will provide the test case for an international nitrogen (N) management system for North America. Spanning a portion of the western interface of the U.S. and Canada, the region supports intensive agriculture, freshwater and estuarine fisheries, diverse wildlife, ci...

Digital case-based learning system in school.

PubMed

Gu, Peipei; Guo, Jiayang

2017-01-01

With the continuing growth of multi-media learning resources, it is important to offer methods helping learners to explore and acquire relevant learning information effectively. As services that organize multi-media learning materials together to support programming learning, the digital case-based learning system is needed. In order to create a case-oriented e-learning system, this paper concentrates on the digital case study of multi-media resources and learning processes with an integrated framework. An integration of multi-media resources, testing and learning strategies recommendation as the learning unit is proposed in the digital case-based learning framework. The learning mechanism of learning guidance, multi-media materials learning and testing feedback is supported in our project. An improved personalized genetic algorithm which incorporates preference information and usage degree into the crossover and mutation process is proposed to assemble the personalized test sheet for each learner. A learning strategies recommendation solution is proposed to recommend learning strategies for learners to help them to learn. The experiments are conducted to prove that the proposed approaches are capable of constructing personalized sheets and the effectiveness of the framework.

Digital case-based learning system in school

PubMed Central

Gu, Peipei

2017-01-01

With the continuing growth of multi-media learning resources, it is important to offer methods helping learners to explore and acquire relevant learning information effectively. As services that organize multi-media learning materials together to support programming learning, the digital case-based learning system is needed. In order to create a case-oriented e-learning system, this paper concentrates on the digital case study of multi-media resources and learning processes with an integrated framework. An integration of multi-media resources, testing and learning strategies recommendation as the learning unit is proposed in the digital case-based learning framework. The learning mechanism of learning guidance, multi-media materials learning and testing feedback is supported in our project. An improved personalized genetic algorithm which incorporates preference information and usage degree into the crossover and mutation process is proposed to assemble the personalized test sheet for each learner. A learning strategies recommendation solution is proposed to recommend learning strategies for learners to help them to learn. The experiments are conducted to prove that the proposed approaches are capable of constructing personalized sheets and the effectiveness of the framework. PMID:29107965

Life cycle assessment based environmental impact estimation model for pre-stressed concrete beam bridge in the early design phase

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

Kim, Kyong Ju, E-mail: kjkim@cau.ac.kr; Yun, Won Gun, E-mail: ogun78@naver.com; Cho, Namho, E-mail: nhc51@cau.ac.kr

The late rise in global concern for environmental issues such as global warming and air pollution is accentuating the need for environmental assessments in the construction industry. Promptly evaluating the environmental loads of the various design alternatives during the early stages of a construction project and adopting the most environmentally sustainable candidate is therefore of large importance. Yet, research on the early evaluation of a construction project's environmental load in order to aid the decision making process is hitherto lacking. In light of this dilemma, this study proposes a model for estimating the environmental load by employing only the mostmore » basic information accessible during the early design phases of a project for the pre-stressed concrete (PSC) beam bridge, the most common bridge structure. Firstly, a life cycle assessment (LCA) was conducted on the data from 99 bridges by integrating the bills of quantities (BOQ) with a life cycle inventory (LCI) database. The processed data was then utilized to construct a case based reasoning (CBR) model for estimating the environmental load. The accuracy of the estimation model was then validated using five test cases; the model's mean absolute error rates (MAER) for the total environmental load was calculated as 7.09%. Such test results were shown to be superior compared to those obtained from a multiple-regression based model and a slab area base-unit analysis model. Henceforth application of this model during the early stages of a project is expected to highly complement environmentally friendly designs and construction by facilitating the swift evaluation of the environmental load from multiple standpoints. - Highlights: • This study is to develop the model of assessing the environmental impacts on LCA. • Bills of quantity from completed designs of PSC Beam were linked with the LCI DB. • Previous cases were used to estimate the environmental load of new case by CBR model. • CBR model produces more accurate estimations (7.09%) than other conventional models. • This study supports decision making process in the early stage of a new construction case.« less

Pleiades and OCO-2: Using Supercomputing Resources to Process OCO-2 Science Data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

LaHaye, Nick

2012-01-01

For a period of ten weeks I got the opportunity to assist in doing research for the OCO-2 project in the Science Data Operations System Team. This research involved writing a prototype interface that would work as a model for the system implemented for the project's operations. This would only be the case if when the system is tested it worked properly and up to the team's standards. This paper gives the details of the research done and its results.

Seismic Stability Evaluation of Ririe Dam and Reservoir Project. Report 1. Construction History and Field and Laboratory Studies. Volume 1. Main Text

DTIC Science & Technology

1991-09-01

truck Service truck Steel casing, 8-foot diameter with 3/4-inch wall thickness, was installed as the shaft was advanced. A shaft cover, constructed of... steel mats. was hoisted over the shaft at night for security. To obtain in-situ density tests at selected intervals in the bottom of the shaft...subcontractor installed the three wells using an air-rotary rig, and driving steel casing as the wells were advanced. He then perforated the casings

Improving Access to Eye Care among Persons at High-Risk of Glaucoma in Philadelphia — Design and Methodology: The Philadelphia Glaucoma Detection and Treatment Project

PubMed Central

Myers, Jonathan S.; Henderer, Jeffrey; Crews, John E.; Saaddine, Jinan B.; Molineaux, Jeanne; Johnson, Deiana; Sembhi, Harjeet; Stratford, Shayla; Suleiman, Ayman; Pizzi, Laura; Spaeth, George L.; Katz, L. Jay

2016-01-01

Purpose The Wills Eye Glaucoma Research Center initiated a 2-year demonstration project to develop and implement a community-based intervention to improve detection and management of glaucoma in Philadelphia. Methods The glaucoma detection examination consisted of: ocular, medical, and family history; visual acuity testing; corneal pachymetry; biomicroscopy of the anterior segment; intraocular pressure (IOP) measurement; gonioscopy; funduscopy; automated visual field testing; and fundus-color photography. Treatment included laser surgery and/or IOP-lowering medication. A cost analysis was conducted to understand resource requirements. Outcome measures included; prevalence of glaucoma-related pathology and other eye diseases among high-risk populations; the impact of educational workshops on level of knowledge about glaucoma (assessed by pre- and post-test evaluation); and patient satisfaction of the glaucoma detection examinations in the community (assessed by satisfaction survey). Treatment outcome measures were change in IOP at 4–6 weeks and 4–6 months following selective laser trabeculoplasty treatment, deepening of the anterior chamber angle following laser-peripheral iridotomy treatment, and rate of adherence to recommended follow-up examinations. Cost outcomes included total program costs, cost per case of glaucoma detected, and cost per case of ocular disease detected. Results This project enrolled 1649 participants (African Americans aged 50+ years, adults 60+ years and individuals with a family history of glaucoma). A total of 1074 individuals attended a glaucoma educational workshop and 1508 scheduled glaucoma detection examination appointments in the community setting. Conclusions The Philadelphia Glaucoma Detection and Treatment Project aimed to improve access and use of eye care and to provide a model for a targeted community-based glaucoma program. PMID:26950056

Improving Access to Eye Care among Persons at High-Risk of Glaucoma in Philadelphia--Design and Methodology: The Philadelphia Glaucoma Detection and Treatment Project.

PubMed

Hark, Lisa; Waisbourd, Michael; Myers, Jonathan S; Henderer, Jeffrey; Crews, John E; Saaddine, Jinan B; Molineaux, Jeanne; Johnson, Deiana; Sembhi, Harjeet; Stratford, Shayla; Suleiman, Ayman; Pizzi, Laura; Spaeth, George L; Katz, L Jay

2016-01-01

The Wills Eye Glaucoma Research Center initiated a 2-year demonstration project to develop and implement a community-based intervention to improve detection and management of glaucoma in Philadelphia. The glaucoma detection examination consisted of: ocular, medical, and family history; visual acuity testing; corneal pachymetry; biomicroscopy of the anterior segment; intraocular pressure (IOP) measurement; gonioscopy; funduscopy; automated visual field testing; and fundus-color photography. Treatment included laser surgery and/or IOP-lowering medication. A cost analysis was conducted to understand resource requirements. Outcome measures included; prevalence of glaucoma-related pathology and other eye diseases among high-risk populations; the impact of educational workshops on level of knowledge about glaucoma (assessed by pre- and post-test evaluation); and patient satisfaction of the glaucoma detection examinations in the community (assessed by satisfaction survey). Treatment outcome measures were change in IOP at 4-6 weeks and 4-6 months following selective laser trabeculoplasty treatment, deepening of the anterior chamber angle following laser-peripheral iridotomy treatment, and rate of adherence to recommended follow-up examinations. Cost outcomes included total program costs, cost per case of glaucoma detected, and cost per case of ocular disease detected. This project enrolled 1649 participants (African Americans aged 50+ years, adults 60+ years and individuals with a family history of glaucoma). A total of 1074 individuals attended a glaucoma educational workshop and 1508 scheduled glaucoma detection examination appointments in the community setting. The Philadelphia Glaucoma Detection and Treatment Project aimed to improve access and use of eye care and to provide a model for a targeted community-based glaucoma program.

Multi-Mission Geographic Information System for Science Operations: A Test Case Using MSL Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Calef, F. J.; Abarca, H. E.; Soliman, T.; Abercrombie, S. P.; Powell, M. W.

2017-06-01

The Multi-Mission Geographic Information System (MMGIS) is a NASA AMMOS project in its second year of development, built to display and query science products in a spatial context. We present our progress building this tool using MSL in situ data.

Beyond surgical care improvement program compliance: antibiotic prophylaxis implementation gaps.

PubMed

Hawkins, Russell B; Levy, Shauna M; Senter, Casey E; Zhao, Jane Y; Doody, Kaitlin; Kao, Lillian S; Lally, Kevin P; Tsao, KuoJen

2013-10-01

Despite increased compliance with Surgical Care Improvement Project infection measures, surgical-site infections are not decreasing. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that documented compliance with antibiotic prophylaxis guidelines on a pediatric surgery service does not reflect implementation fidelity or adherence to guidelines as intended. A 7-week observational study of elective pediatric surgical cases was conducted. Adherence was evaluated for appropriate administration, type, timing, weight-based dosing, and redosing of antibiotics. Prophylactic antibiotics were administered appropriately in 141 of 143 cases (99%). Of 100 cases (70%) in which antibiotic prophylaxis was indicated, compliance was documented in 100% cases in the electronic medical record, but only 48% of cases adhered to all 5 guidelines. Lack of adherence was due primarily to dosing or timing errors. Lack of implementation fidelity in antibiotic prophylaxis guidelines may partly explain the lack of expected reduction in surgical-site infections. Future studies of Surgical Care Improvement Project effectiveness should measure adherence and implementation fidelity rather than just documented compliance. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Drilling and completion of the three CO2SINK boreholes in Europe's pilot CO2 storage and verification project in an onshore saline aquifer

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Prevedel, P.,; Wohlgemuth, L.; Legarth, B.; Henninges, J.; Schütt, H.; Schmidt-Hattenberger, C.; Norden, B.; Förster, A.; Hurter, S.

2009-04-01

This paper reports the CO2SINK drilling and permanent monitoring completions, as well as the well testing techniques applied in Europe's first scientific carbon dioxide onshore storage test in a saline aquifer near the town of Ketzin, 40 km east of Berlin/Germany. Three boreholes, one injection and two observation wells have been drilled in 2007 to a total depth of about 800 m. The wells were completed as "smart" wells containing a variety of permanently installed down-hole sensors, which have successfully proven their functionality during over their first injection year and are the key instruments for the continuous monitoring of the CO2 inside the reservoir during the storage phase. Constructing three wells in close proximity of 50 to 100m distance to each other with a dense sensor and monitoring cable population requires detailed planning and employment of high-end project management tools. All wells were cased with stainless final casings equipped with pre-perforated sand filters in the pay-zone and wired on the outside with two fibre-optical, one multi-conductor copper, and a PU-heating cable to the surface. The reservoir casing section is externally coated with a fibre-glass-resin wrap for electrical insulation of the 15 geo-electrical toroid antennas in the open hole section. A staged cementation program was selected in combination with the application of a newly developed swellable rubber packer technology and specialized cementation down-hole tools. This technology was given preference over perforation work inside the final casing at the reservoir face, which would have created unmanageable risks of potential damage of the outside casing cables. Prior to the start of the injection phase, an extensive production and injection well test program as well as well-to-well interference tests were performed in order to determine the optimum CO2 injection regime.

The net effects of the Project NetWork return-to-work case management experiment on participant earnings, benefit receipt, and other outcomes.

PubMed

Kornfeld, R; Rupp, K

2000-01-01

The Social Security Administration (SSA) initiated Project NetWork in 1991 to test case management as a means of promoting employment among persons with disabilities. The demonstration, which targeted Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) beneficiaries and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) applicants and recipients, offered intensive outreach, work-incentive waivers, and case management/referral services. Participation in Project NetWork was voluntary. Volunteers were randomly assigned to the "treatment" group or the "control" group. Those assigned to the treatment group met individually with a case or referral manager who arranged for rehabilitation and employment services, helped clients develop an individual employment plan, and provided direct employment counseling services. Volunteers assigned to the control group could not receive services from Project NetWork but remained eligible for any employment assistance already available in their communities. For both treatment and control groups, the demonstration waived specific DI and SSI program rules considered to be work disincentives. The experimental impact study thus measures the incremental effects of case and referral management services. The eight demonstration sites were successful in implementing the experimental design roughly as planned. Project NetWork staff were able to recruit large numbers of participants and to provide rehabilitation and employment services on a substantial scale. Most of the sites easily reached their enrollment targets and were able to attract volunteers with demographic characteristics similar to those of the entire SSI and DI caseload and a broad range of moderate and severe disabilities. However, by many measures, volunteers were generally more "work-ready" than project eligible in the demonstration areas who did not volunteer to receive NetWork services. Project NetWork case management increased average annual earnings by $220 per year over the first 2 years following random assignment. This statistically significant impact, an approximate 11-percent increase in earnings, is based on administrative data on earnings. For about 70 percent of sample members, a third year of followup data was available. For this limited sample, the estimated effect of Project NetWork on annual earnings declined to roughly zero in the third followup year. The findings suggest that the increase in earnings may have been short-lived and may have disappeared by the time Project NetWork services ended. Project NetWork did not reduce reliance on SSI or DI benefits by statistically significant amounts over the 30-42 month followup period. The services provided by Project NetWork thus did not reduce overall SSI and DI caseloads or benefits by substantial amounts, especially given that only about 5 percent of the eligible caseload volunteered to participate in Project NetWork. Project NetWork produced modest net benefits to persons with disabilities and net costs to taxpayers. Persons with disabilities gained mainly because the increases in their earnings easily outweighed the small (if any) reduction in average SSI and DI benefits. For SSA and the federal government as a whole, the costs of Project NetWork were not sufficiently offset by increases in tax receipts resulting from increased earnings or reductions in average SSI and DI benefits. The modest net benefits of Project NetWork to persons with disabilities are encouraging. How such benefits of an experimental intervention should be weighed against costs of taxpayers depends on value judgments of policymakers. Because different case management projects involve different kinds of services, these results cannot be directly generalized to other case management interventions. They are nevertheless instructive for planning new initiatives. Combining case and referral management services with various other interventions, such as longer term financial support for work or altered provider incentives, could produc

Recovery Act - LADWP Smart Grid Regional Demonstration Program Final Technical Report

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

Chiu, Sungly; Vohra, Surendra; Abdelshehid, Emil

LADWP collaborated with its project partners to carry out this demonstration in the designated areas to include two university campuses – the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and the University of Southern California (USC) – surrounding neighborhoods, City of Los Angeles facilities, and LADWP power system test labs. The last project partner, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) was responsible for the cyber security aspects of the project. The program’s use cases provided insightful information to understand triggers for customers, distributors, and generators to adapt their behavior which aid in reducing system demands and costs, increasing energy efficiency, and increasing gridmore » reliability.« less

Solar hot water systems application to the solar building test facility and the Tech House

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Goble, R. L.; Jensen, R. N.; Basford, R. C.

1976-01-01

Projects which relate to the current national thrust toward demonstrating applied solar energy are discussed. The first project has as its primary objective the application of a system comprised of a flat plate collector field, an absorption air conditioning system, and a hot water heating system to satisfy most of the annual cooling and heating requirements of a large commercial office building. The other project addresses the application of solar collector technology to the heating and hot water requirements of a domestic residence. In this case, however, the solar system represents only one of several important technology items, the primary objective for the project being the application of space technology to the American home.

Finite Element Analysis and Test Results Comparison for the Hybrid Wing Body Center Section Test Article

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Przekop, Adam; Jegley, Dawn C.; Rouse, Marshall; Lovejoy, Andrew E.

2016-01-01

This report documents the comparison of test measurements and predictive finite element analysis results for a hybrid wing body center section test article. The testing and analysis efforts were part of the Airframe Technology subproject within the NASA Environmentally Responsible Aviation project. Test results include full field displacement measurements obtained from digital image correlation systems and discrete strain measurements obtained using both unidirectional and rosette resistive gauges. Most significant results are presented for the critical five load cases exercised during the test. Final test to failure after inflicting severe damage to the test article is also documented. Overall, good comparison between predicted and actual behavior of the test article is found.

A Method for Calculating the Probability of Successfully Completing a Rocket Propulsion Ground Test

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Messer, Bradley

2007-01-01

Propulsion ground test facilities face the daily challenge of scheduling multiple customers into limited facility space and successfully completing their propulsion test projects. Over the last decade NASA s propulsion test facilities have performed hundreds of tests, collected thousands of seconds of test data, and exceeded the capabilities of numerous test facility and test article components. A logistic regression mathematical modeling technique has been developed to predict the probability of successfully completing a rocket propulsion test. A logistic regression model is a mathematical modeling approach that can be used to describe the relationship of several independent predictor variables X(sub 1), X(sub 2),.., X(sub k) to a binary or dichotomous dependent variable Y, where Y can only be one of two possible outcomes, in this case Success or Failure of accomplishing a full duration test. The use of logistic regression modeling is not new; however, modeling propulsion ground test facilities using logistic regression is both a new and unique application of the statistical technique. Results from this type of model provide project managers with insight and confidence into the effectiveness of rocket propulsion ground testing.

Software use cases to elicit the software requirements analysis within the ASTRI project

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Conforti, Vito; Antolini, Elisa; Bonnoli, Giacomo; Bruno, Pietro; Bulgarelli, Andrea; Capalbi, Milvia; Fioretti, Valentina; Fugazza, Dino; Gardiol, Daniele; Grillo, Alessandro; Leto, Giuseppe; Lombardi, Saverio; Lucarelli, Fabrizio; Maccarone, Maria Concetta; Malaguti, Giuseppe; Pareschi, Giovanni; Russo, Federico; Sangiorgi, Pierluca; Schwarz, Joseph; Scuderi, Salvatore; Tanci, Claudio; Tosti, Gino; Trifoglio, Massimo; Vercellone, Stefano; Zanmar Sanchez, Ricardo

2016-07-01

The Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) is leading the Astrofisica con Specchi a Tecnologia Replicante Italiana (ASTRI) project whose main purpose is the realization of small size telescopes (SST) for the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA). The first goal of the ASTRI project has been the development and operation of an innovative end-to-end telescope prototype using a dual-mirror optical configuration (SST-2M) equipped with a camera based on silicon photo-multipliers and very fast read-out electronics. The ASTRI SST-2M prototype has been installed in Italy at the INAF "M.G. Fracastoro" Astronomical Station located at Serra La Nave, on Mount Etna, Sicily. This prototype will be used to test several mechanical, optical, control hardware and software solutions which will be used in the ASTRI mini-array, comprising nine telescopes proposed to be placed at the CTA southern site. The ASTRI mini-array is a collaborative and international effort led by INAF and carried out by Italy, Brazil and South-Africa. We present here the use cases, through UML (Unified Modeling Language) diagrams and text details, that describe the functional requirements of the software that will manage the ASTRI SST-2M prototype, and the lessons learned thanks to these activities. We intend to adopt the same approach for the Mini Array Software System that will manage the ASTRI miniarray operations. Use cases are of importance for the whole software life cycle; in particular they provide valuable support to the validation and verification activities. Following the iterative development approach, which breaks down the software development into smaller chunks, we have analysed the requirements, developed, and then tested the code in repeated cycles. The use case technique allowed us to formalize the problem through user stories that describe how the user procedurally interacts with the software system. Through the use cases we improved the communication among team members, fostered common agreement about system requirements, defined the normal and alternative course of events, understood better the business process, and defined the system test to ensure that the delivered software works properly. We present a summary of the ASTRI SST-2M prototype use cases, and how the lessons learned can be exploited for the ASTRI mini-array proposed for the CTA Observatory.

The model test of restoration project of the gravel beach of Chen Village fishing port

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, D. X.; Gui, J. S.; Sun, J. W.

2016-08-01

Gravel beach is a case in coastal landform by wave action. It is more and more crucial for the environment of coastal engineering in recent years. However, it is poorly studied for it in China. And this paper which is based on the model test of Restoration Project of the Gravel Beach of Chen Village Fishing Port, uses two dimensional normal physical models, aiming at exploring the movement of gravel beach under wave action and verifying the stability of the gravel beach section. The test depends on different water levels (designed high water level, designed low water level, and extreme high water level) and return periods (2, 5, 10, 25, 50 years once). Finally, two distinct experimental sections are got under the changed conditions and the movement law of gravels is obtained.

NREL and SDG&E Collaboration to Support SDG&E Grid and Storage Efforts: Cooperative Research and Development Final Report, CRADA Number CRD-14-562

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

Baggu, Murali

2017-01-01

This project will enable effective utilization of high penetration of photovoltaics (PV) in islanded microgrids, increasing overall system efficiency, decreased fuel costs and resiliency of the overall system to help meet the SunShot goals of enhancing system integration methods to increase penetration of PV. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) will collaborate with San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) to provide research and testing support to address their needs in energy storage sizing and placement, Integrated Test Facility (ITF) development, Real Time Digital Simulator (RTDS) Modeling and simulation support at ITF, Visualization and Virtual connection to Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF),more » and microgrid simulation and testing areas. Specifically in this project a real microgrid scenario with high penetration of PV (existing in SDG&E territory) is tested in the ESIF laboratory. Multiple control cases for firming PV using storage in a microgrid scenario will be investigated and tested in the laboratory setup.« less

A methodology for determining economic impacts of raised medians : data analysis on additional case studies

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1999-10-01

The objective of this four-year research effort is to develop and test a methodology to estimate the economic impacts of median design. This report summarizes the activities performed in the third year of this project. The primary task in the third y...

Acute and chronic alcohol use correlated with methods of suicide in a Swiss national sample.

PubMed

Pfeifer, P; Bartsch, C; Hemmer, A; Reisch, T

2017-09-01

Chronic and acute alcohol use are highly associated risk factors for suicides worldwide. Therefore, we examined suicide cases with and without alcohol use disorder (AUD) using data from the SNSF project "Suicide in Switzerland: A detailed national survey". Our investigations focus on correlations between acute and chronic alcohol use with reference to suicide and potential interactions with the methods of suicide. We used data from the SNSF project in which all cases of registered completed suicide in Switzerland reported to any of the seven Swiss institutes of legal and forensic medicine between 2000 and 2010 were collected. We extracted cases that were tested for blood alcohol to use in our analysis. We compared clinical characteristics, blood alcohol concentrations, and methods of suicide in cases with and without AUD. Out of 6497 cases, 2946 subjects were tested for acute alcohol use and included in our analysis. Of the latter, 366 (12.4%) persons had a medical history of AUD. Subjects with AUD significantly had higher blood alcohol concentrations and were more often in medical treatment before suicide. Drug intoxication as method of suicide was more frequent in cases with AUD compared to NAUD. Overall, we found a high incidence of acute alcohol use at the time of death in chronic alcohol misusers (AUD). The five methods of suicide most commonly used in Switzerland differed considerably between individuals with and without AUD. Blood alcohol concentrations varied across different methods of suicide independently from the medical history in both groups. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Guidance and Control Software Project Data - Volume 3: Verification Documents

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hayhurst, Kelly J. (Editor)

2008-01-01

The Guidance and Control Software (GCS) project was the last in a series of software reliability studies conducted at Langley Research Center between 1977 and 1994. The technical results of the GCS project were recorded after the experiment was completed. Some of the support documentation produced as part of the experiment, however, is serving an unexpected role far beyond its original project context. Some of the software used as part of the GCS project was developed to conform to the RTCA/DO-178B software standard, "Software Considerations in Airborne Systems and Equipment Certification," used in the civil aviation industry. That standard requires extensive documentation throughout the software development life cycle, including plans, software requirements, design and source code, verification cases and results, and configuration management and quality control data. The project documentation that includes this information is open for public scrutiny without the legal or safety implications associated with comparable data from an avionics manufacturer. This public availability has afforded an opportunity to use the GCS project documents for DO-178B training. This report provides a brief overview of the GCS project, describes the 4-volume set of documents and the role they are playing in training, and includes the verification documents from the GCS project. Volume 3 contains four appendices: A. Software Verification Cases and Procedures for the Guidance and Control Software Project; B. Software Verification Results for the Pluto Implementation of the Guidance and Control Software; C. Review Records for the Pluto Implementation of the Guidance and Control Software; and D. Test Results Logs for the Pluto Implementation of the Guidance and Control Software.

Predicate Argument Structure Analysis for Use Case Description Modeling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Takeuchi, Hironori; Nakamura, Taiga; Yamaguchi, Takahira

In a large software system development project, many documents are prepared and updated frequently. In such a situation, support is needed for looking through these documents easily to identify inconsistencies and to maintain traceability. In this research, we focus on the requirements documents such as use cases and consider how to create models from the use case descriptions in unformatted text. In the model construction, we propose a few semantic constraints based on the features of the use cases and use them for a predicate argument structure analysis to assign semantic labels to actors and actions. With this approach, we show that we can assign semantic labels without enhancing any existing general lexical resources such as case frame dictionaries and design a less language-dependent model construction architecture. By using the constructed model, we consider a system for quality analysis of the use cases and automated test case generation to keep the traceability between document sets. We evaluated the reuse of the existing use cases and generated test case steps automatically with the proposed prototype system from real-world use cases in the development of a system using a packaged application. Based on the evaluation, we show how to construct models with high precision from English and Japanese use case data. Also, we could generate good test cases for about 90% of the real use cases through the manual improvement of the descriptions based on the feedback from the quality analysis system.

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

Neuhauser, K.

Through discussion of five case studies (test homes), this project evaluates strategies to elevate the performance of existing homes to a level commensurate with best-in-class implementation of high-performance new construction homes. The test homes featured in this research activity participated in Deep Energy Retrofit (DER) Pilot Program sponsored by the electric and gas utility National Grid in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Building enclosure retrofit strategies are evaluated for impact on durability and indoor air quality in addition to energy performance.

Operation Ivy. Project 8. 4. Report to the Scientific Director. High-resolution spectroscopy at Ivy compared with previous tests

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

Beck, C.A.

1985-04-01

The high-resolution ultraviolet and visible spectra of typical test nuclear detonations up to and including Operation Ivy were analyzed and compared. Topics studied include the types of atomc and molecular material observed (with calculations, in some cases, of the relative quantities involved), the ultraviolet cutoff, and rotational temperatures. Variation of these quantities with the radiochemical yield of the bomb is indicated.

Implementation of a Multimodal Mobile System for Point-of-Sale Surveillance: Lessons Learned From Case Studies in Washington, DC, and New York City.

PubMed

Cantrell, Jennifer; Ganz, Ollie; Ilakkuvan, Vinu; Tacelosky, Michael; Kreslake, Jennifer; Moon-Howard, Joyce; Aidala, Angela; Vallone, Donna; Anesetti-Rothermel, Andrew; Kirchner, Thomas R

2015-01-01

In tobacco control and other fields, point-of-sale surveillance of the retail environment is critical for understanding industry marketing of products and informing public health practice. Innovations in mobile technology can improve existing, paper-based surveillance methods, yet few studies describe in detail how to operationalize the use of technology in public health surveillance. The aims of this paper are to share implementation strategies and lessons learned from 2 tobacco, point-of-sale surveillance projects to inform and prepare public health researchers and practitioners to implement new mobile technologies in retail point-of-sale surveillance systems. From 2011 to 2013, 2 point-of-sale surveillance pilot projects were conducted in Washington, DC, and New York, New York, to capture information about the tobacco retail environment and test the feasibility of a multimodal mobile data collection system, which included capabilities for audio or video recording data, electronic photographs, electronic location data, and a centralized back-end server and dashboard. We established a preimplementation field testing process for both projects, which involved a series of rapid and iterative tests to inform decisions and establish protocols around key components of the project. Important components of field testing included choosing a mobile phone that met project criteria, establishing an efficient workflow and accessible user interfaces for each component of the system, training and providing technical support to fieldworkers, and developing processes to integrate data from multiple sources into back-end systems that can be utilized in real-time. A well-planned implementation process is critical for successful use and performance of multimodal mobile surveillance systems. Guidelines for implementation include (1) the need to establish and allow time for an iterative testing framework for resolving technical and logistical challenges; (2) developing a streamlined workflow and user-friendly interfaces for data collection; (3) allowing for ongoing communication, feedback, and technology-related skill-building among all staff; and (4) supporting infrastructure for back-end data systems. Although mobile technologies are evolving rapidly, lessons learned from these case studies are essential for ensuring that the many benefits of new mobile systems for rapid point-of-sale surveillance are fully realized.

Implementation of a Multimodal Mobile System for Point-of-Sale Surveillance: Lessons Learned From Case Studies in Washington, DC, and New York City

PubMed Central

Ganz, Ollie; Ilakkuvan, Vinu; Tacelosky, Michael; Kreslake, Jennifer; Moon-Howard, Joyce; Aidala, Angela; Vallone, Donna; Anesetti-Rothermel, Andrew; Kirchner, Thomas R

2015-01-01

Background In tobacco control and other fields, point-of-sale surveillance of the retail environment is critical for understanding industry marketing of products and informing public health practice. Innovations in mobile technology can improve existing, paper-based surveillance methods, yet few studies describe in detail how to operationalize the use of technology in public health surveillance. Objective The aims of this paper are to share implementation strategies and lessons learned from 2 tobacco, point-of-sale surveillance projects to inform and prepare public health researchers and practitioners to implement new mobile technologies in retail point-of-sale surveillance systems. Methods From 2011 to 2013, 2 point-of-sale surveillance pilot projects were conducted in Washington, DC, and New York, New York, to capture information about the tobacco retail environment and test the feasibility of a multimodal mobile data collection system, which included capabilities for audio or video recording data, electronic photographs, electronic location data, and a centralized back-end server and dashboard. We established a preimplementation field testing process for both projects, which involved a series of rapid and iterative tests to inform decisions and establish protocols around key components of the project. Results Important components of field testing included choosing a mobile phone that met project criteria, establishing an efficient workflow and accessible user interfaces for each component of the system, training and providing technical support to fieldworkers, and developing processes to integrate data from multiple sources into back-end systems that can be utilized in real-time. Conclusions A well-planned implementation process is critical for successful use and performance of multimodal mobile surveillance systems. Guidelines for implementation include (1) the need to establish and allow time for an iterative testing framework for resolving technical and logistical challenges; (2) developing a streamlined workflow and user-friendly interfaces for data collection; (3) allowing for ongoing communication, feedback, and technology-related skill-building among all staff; and (4) supporting infrastructure for back-end data systems. Although mobile technologies are evolving rapidly, lessons learned from these case studies are essential for ensuring that the many benefits of new mobile systems for rapid point-of-sale surveillance are fully realized. PMID:27227138

Testing, Requirements, and Metrics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rosenberg, Linda; Hyatt, Larry; Hammer, Theodore F.; Huffman, Lenore; Wilson, William

1998-01-01

The criticality of correct, complete, testable requirements is a fundamental tenet of software engineering. Also critical is complete requirements based testing of the final product. Modern tools for managing requirements allow new metrics to be used in support of both of these critical processes. Using these tools, potential problems with the quality of the requirements and the test plan can be identified early in the life cycle. Some of these quality factors include: ambiguous or incomplete requirements, poorly designed requirements databases, excessive or insufficient test cases, and incomplete linkage of tests to requirements. This paper discusses how metrics can be used to evaluate the quality of the requirements and test to avoid problems later. Requirements management and requirements based testing have always been critical in the implementation of high quality software systems. Recently, automated tools have become available to support requirements management. At NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), automated requirements management tools are being used on several large projects. The use of these tools opens the door to innovative uses of metrics in characterizing test plan quality and assessing overall testing risks. In support of these projects, the Software Assurance Technology Center (SATC) is working to develop and apply a metrics program that utilizes the information now available through the application of requirements management tools. Metrics based on this information provides real-time insight into the testing of requirements and these metrics assist the Project Quality Office in its testing oversight role. This paper discusses three facets of the SATC's efforts to evaluate the quality of the requirements and test plan early in the life cycle, thus preventing costly errors and time delays later.

CON4EI: Development of serious eye damage and eye irritation testing strategies with respect to the requirements of the UN GHS/EU CLP hazard categories.

PubMed

Verstraelen, Sandra; Van Rompay, An R

2018-06-01

The main objective of the CON4EI (CONsortium for in vitro Eye Irritation testing strategy) project (2015-2016) was to develop tiered, non-animal testing strategies for serious eye damage and eye irritation assessment in relation to the most important drivers of classification. The serious eye damage and eye irritation potential of a set of 80 chemicals was identified based on existing in vivo Draize eye test data and testing was conducted using the following eight alternative test methods: BCOP (Bovine Corneal Opacity and Permeability)+histopathology, BCOP-LLBO (BCOP Laser Light-Based Opacitometer), ICE (Isolated Chicken Eye)+histopathology, STE (Short Term Exposure), EpiOcular™ EIT (EpiOcular Eye Irritation Test), EpiOcular™ ET-50 (EpiOcular™ Time-to-toxicity), SkinEthic™ HCE EIT (SkinEthic™ Human Corneal Epithelial Eye Irritation Test), and SMI (Slug Mucosal Irritation). Project management decided to not include the ICE data in this project since the execution showed relevant, and not predictable, deviations from Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Test Guideline (TG) 438 and Guidance Document 160. At this stage, the outcome of these deviations has not been fully assessed. In addition to these alternative test methods, the computational models Toxtree and Case Ultra were taken into account. This project assessed the relevance of these test methods, their applicability domains and limitations in terms of 'drivers of classification', and their strengths and weaknesses. In this way, methods were identified that fit into a tiered-testing strategy for serious eye damage/eye irritation assessment to distinguish United Nations Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (UN GHS) Category 1 (Cat 1) chemicals from non-Cat 1 chemicals and address the gap namely distinguish between Category 2 (Cat 2) and Cat 1 chemicals. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Unit Testing for the Application Control Language (ACL) Software

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Heinich, Christina Marie

2014-01-01

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

Efficient Project Delivery Using Lean Principles - An Indian Case Study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kovvuri, P. Ramachandra Reddy; Sawhney, Anil; Ahuja, Ritu; Sreekumar, Aiswarya

2016-03-01

Construction industry in India is growing at a rapid pace. Along with this growth, the industry is facing numerous challenges that are making delivery of projects inefficient. Experts believe that capacity constraints in the industry need to be addressed immediately. Government has recommended `introduction of efficient technologies and modern management techniques' to increase the productivity of the industry. In this context, lean principles can act as a lever to make project delivery more efficient and provide the much needed impetus to the Indian construction sector. Around the globe lean principles are showing positive results on the projects. Project teams are reporting improvements in construction time, cost and quality along with softer benefits of enhanced collaboration, coordination and trust in project teams. Can adoption of lean principles provide similar benefits in the Indian construction sector? This research was conducted to answer this question. Using an action research approach a key lean construction tool called Last Planner System (LPS) was tested on a large Indian construction project. The work described in this work investigates the improvements achieved in project delivery by adopting LPS in Indian construction sector. Comparison in pre- and post-implementation data demonstrates increase in the certainty of work-flow and improves schedule compliance. This is measured through a simple LPS metric called percent plan complete. Explicit improvements in schedule performance are seen during 8 week LPS implementation along with implicit improvements in coordination, collaboration and trust in the project team. This work reports the findings of LPS implementation on the case study project outlining the barriers and drivers to adoption, strategies needed to ensure successful implementation and roadmap for implementation. Based on the findings the authors envision that lean construction can make project delivery more efficient in India.

The value of demonstration projects for new interventions: The case of human papillomavirus vaccine introduction in low- and middle-income countries.

PubMed

Howard, N; Mounier-Jack, S; Gallagher, K E; Kabakama, S; Griffiths, U K; Feletto, M; LaMontagne, D S; Burchett, H E D; Watson-Jones, D

2016-09-01

Demonstration projects or pilots of new public health interventions aim to build learning and capacity to inform country-wide implementation. Authors examined the value of HPV vaccination demonstration projects and initial national programmes in low-income and lower-middle-income countries, including potential drawbacks and how value for national scale-up might be increased. Data from a systematic review and key informant interviews, analyzed thematically, included 55 demonstration projects and 8 national programmes implemented between 2007-2015 (89 years' experience). Initial demonstration projects quickly provided consistent lessons. Value would increase if projects were designed to inform sustainable national scale-up. Well-designed projects can test multiple delivery strategies, implementation for challenging areas and populations, and integration with national systems. Introduction of vaccines or other health interventions, particularly those involving new target groups or delivery strategies, needs flexible funding approaches to address specific questions of scalability and sustainability, including learning lessons through phased national expansion.

Evaluation of the feasibility and viability of modular pumped storage hydro (m-PSH) in the United States

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

Witt, Adam M.; Hadjerioua, Boualem; Martinez, Rocio

The viability of modular pumped storage hydro (m-PSH) is examined in detail through the conceptual design, cost scoping, and economic analysis of three case studies. Modular PSH refers to both the compactness of the project design and the proposed nature of product fabrication and performance. A modular project is assumed to consist of pre-fabricated standardized components and equipment, tested and assembled into modules before arrival on site. This technology strategy could enable m-PSH projects to deploy with less substantial civil construction and equipment component costs. The concept of m-PSH is technically feasible using currently available conventional pumping and turbine equipment,more » and may offer a path to reducing the project development cycle from inception to commissioning.« less

Great Lakes O shore Wind Project: Utility and Regional Integration Study

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

Sajadi, Amirhossein; Loparo, Kenneth A.; D'Aquila, Robert

This project aims to identify transmission system upgrades needed to facilitate offshore wind projects as well as operational impacts of offshore generation on operation of the regional transmission system in the Great Lakes region. A simulation model of the US Eastern Interconnection was used as the test system as a case study for investigating the impact of the integration of a 1000MW offshore wind farm operating in Lake Erie into FirstEnergy/PJM service territory. The findings of this research provide recommendations on offshore wind integration scenarios, the locations of points of interconnection, wind profile modeling and simulation, and computational methods tomore » quantify performance, along with operating changes and equipment upgrades needed to mitigate system performance issues introduced by an offshore wind project.« less

The Development and Implementation of Ground Safety Requirements for Project Orion Abort Flight Testing - A Case Study

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kirkpatrick, Paul D.; Williams, Jeffrey G.; Condzella, Bill R.

2008-01-01

A rigorous set of detailed ground safety requirements is required to make sure that ground support equipment (GSE) and associated planned ground operations are conducted safely. Detailed ground safety requirements supplement the GSE requirements already called out in NASA-STD-5005. This paper will describe the initial genesis of these ground safety requirements, the establishment and approval process and finally the implementation process for Project Orion. The future of the requirements will also be described. Problems and issues encountered and overcame will be discussed.

Evaluation of the localization auditory screening test in children 6-18 months of age.

PubMed

Tillis, C H; Grimm, W A

1978-01-01

The present paper is a report of a project to develop an automated auditory screening test for infants six to 18 months of age. The first year of the project was devoted to developing equipment and test procedures; the second year was concerned with testing the effectiveness of the equipment and procedures on an actual population of six to 18 month old infants. Two-hundred and fifty infants were screened auditorily as part of a county health department child development clinic. The pass/fail results of the screening test were evaluated in terms of physical and developmental examination following the screening and by means of a case review of the child's previous history. The results indicate that the procedure under investigation can be used to differentiate the normal hearing infant from the infant with possible hearing problems. It is shown by the test environment in which this study was conducted that the procedure reported can be successfully incorporated into a public health program, i.e., child development clinics or EPSDT programs.

Polarization Decay Fit for Assured Cathodic Protection of Steel Structures: Final Report on Project F12-AR03

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-09-01

natural gas pipelines , water pipelines , and metallic USTs. The full and complete data sets for curve-fit development were not pro- vided to ERDC...Dunmire (OUSD(AT&L)), Bernie Rodriguez (IMPW-E), and Valerie D. Hines (DAIM-ODF). The work was performed by the Materials and Structures Branch...of structures being tested increases, as in the case of pipelines that run many miles or the case of when a structure’s coating quality

DAIDALUS Observations From UAS Integration in the NAS Project Flight Test 4

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Vincent, Michael J.; Tsakpinis, Dimitrios

2016-01-01

In order to validate the Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) Detect-and-Avoid (DAA) solution proposed by standards body RTCA Inc., the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) UAS Integration in the NAS project, alongside industry members General Atomics and Honeywell, conducted the fourth flight test in a series at Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. Flight Test 4 (FT4) investigated problems of interoperability with the TCAS collision avoidance system with a DAA system as well as problems associated with sensor uncertainty. A series of scripted flight encounters between the NASA Ikhana UAS and various "intruder" aircraft were flown while alerting and guidance from the DAA algorithm were recorded to investigate the timeliness of the alerts and correctness of the guidance triggered by the DAA system. The results found that alerts were triggered in a timely manner in most instances. Cases where the alerting and guidance was incorrect were investigated further.

The influence of alternative pedagogical methods in postsecondary biology education: How do students experience a multimedia case-study environment?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wolter, Bjorn Hugo Karl

The purpose of this study was to better understand how an online, multimedia case study method influenced students' motivation, performance, and perceptions of science in collegiate level biology classes. It utilized a mix-methods design including data from pre- and post-test, student surveys, and focus group interviews to answer one primary question, did participation in the affect student performance? Two sub-questions were: (a) did participation affect persistence? and (b) did students believe it to be a good learning experience? One hundred and eight students in 5 classes from 4 campuses in the United States and Puerto Rico participated in this study during spring semester 2009. After receiving instruction on HIV, students took a 6 questions pre-test to measure their initial knowledge of both HIV and lab procedures. Participants then engaged in the Case It! learning environment, where they watched case-studies on HIV, used virtual lab tools, created an online poster of their findings, and role-played as both family members and physicians about their case. A post-test identical to the pre-test was given to students upon completion. Both were then scored using rubrics and analyzed via paired t-Tests and ANOVA. The researcher visited all 4 study sites to conduct both the focus group interviews and student surveys. Student surveys were quantified and descriptive statistics generated. Focus group interviews were video recorded, transcribed, and inductively and deductively coded. Student knowledge increased because of participation, and the majority of students said they found the Case It! project to be both a good learning experience (95%) and one that would help with future classes or careers (87%). Based on student interviews, the Case It! project did have a beneficial impact on students' intentions to persist as science majors. Many students noted that the learning environment created an overall context in which they could apply knowledge from multiple classes that allowed students to fit all the pieces of their previous academic instruction together into a single, comprehensive picture---and to place themselves within that picture. Students enjoyed the autonomy and personal connections that using case studies and multimedia content offered, and found the material more engaging and relevant. By involving students in real-world situations, Case It! demonstrated the application and effect of theoretical knowledge and stimulated students' curiosity. Case It! motivates students by making material relevant and personal, thus creating enduring links between students and content which can result in better performance and higher retention rates. It is an effective pedagogical tool that, unlike many other such tools, is not instructor dependent, and is adaptable to fit various learner types, settings, and levels.

Reframing "Attainment": Creating and Developing Spaces for Learning within Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hope, Max A.

2017-01-01

This article, based on a keynote presentation given at a conference in Tasmania, examines the notion of "attainment" and argues that a narrow focus on standardised test scores is highly problematic for those concerned with social justice. Using examples from the Freedom to Learn Project, this article presents two case studies of schools…

Developing Instructional Applications at the Secondary Level. The Computer as a Tool.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McManus, Jack; And Others

Case studies are presented for seven Los Angeles area (California) high schools that worked with Pepperdine University in the IBM/ETS (International Business Machines/Educational Testing Service) Model Schools program, a project which provided training for selected secondary school teachers in the use of personal computers and selected software as…

High School Prayers at Graduation: Will the Supreme Court Pronounce the Benediction?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mawdsley, Ralph D.; Russo, Charles J.

1991-01-01

The Supreme Court has decided to address the facts in "Lee v. Weisman" involving the validity of graduation prayer. Reviews the opinions of the current justices regarding the role of the tripartite establishment clause "Lemon" test and concludes with a projection of the court's resolution of the "Lee" case. (73…

77 FR 51027 - Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed Collection; Comment Request; Communicating...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-08-23

... one research project cannot test them all. In this study, we have chosen to examine three different...) Advertising.'' This study is designed to explore how consumers understand and interpret composite endpoint... clinical trials (Refs. 1 and 2). In some cases, drug efficacy can be measured by a single endpoint, such as...

Building a Community among Teachers, Researchers and University Students. A Blended Approach to Training

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cesareni, Donatella; Martini, Francesca; Mancini, Ilaria

2011-01-01

In this paper we present a case study about a community of practice's foundation and development among Italian teachers, researchers and university students who participated in a European project aimed at developing and testing innovative pedagogical models and technologies for collaborative knowledge building. Forty-five people (34 teachers, five…

Diagnostic Challenges of Central Nervous System Tuberculosis

PubMed Central

Loeffler, Ann M.; Honarmand, Somayeh; Flood, Jennifer M.; Baxter, Roger; Jacobson, Susan; Alexander, Rick; Glaser, Carol A.

2008-01-01

Central nervous system tuberculosis (TB) was identified in 20 cases of unexplained encephalitis referred to the California Encephalitis Project. Atypical features (encephalitic symptoms, rapid onset, age) and diagnostic challenges (insensitive cerebrospinal fluid [CSF] TB PCR result, elevated CSF glucose levels in patients with diabetes, negative result for tuberculin skin test) complicated diagnosis. PMID:18760024

Safety analysis in test facility design

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Valk, A.; Jonker, R. J.

1990-09-01

The application of safety analysis techniques as developed in, for example nuclear and petrochemical industry, can be very beneficial in coping with the increasing complexity of modern test facility installations and their operations. To illustrate the various techniques available and their phasing in a project, an overview of the most commonly used techniques is presented. Two case studies are described: the hazard and operability study techniques and safety zoning in relation to the possible presence of asphyxiating atmospheres.

Nuclear Waste Facing the Test of Time: The Case of the French Deep Geological Repository Project.

PubMed

Poirot-Delpech, Sophie; Raineau, Laurence

2016-12-01

The purpose of this article is to consider the socio-anthropological issues raised by the deep geological repository project for high-level, long-lived nuclear waste. It is based on fieldwork at a candidate site for a deep storage project in eastern France, where an underground laboratory has been studying the feasibility of the project since 1999. A project of this nature, based on the possibility of very long containment (hundreds of thousands of years, if not longer), involves a singular form of time. By linking project performance to geology's very long timescale, the project attempts "jump" in time, focusing on a far distant future, without understanding it in terms of generations. But these future generations remain measurements of time on the surface, where the issue of remembering or forgetting the repository comes to the fore. The nuclear waste geological storage project raises questions that neither politicians nor scientists, nor civil society, have ever confronted before. This project attempts to address a problem that exists on a very long timescale, which involves our responsibility toward generations in the far future.

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

Panebianco, S.; Dore, D.; Giomataris, I.

Time Projection Chambers are widely used since many years for tracking and identification of charged particles in high energy physics. We present a new R and D project to investigate the feasibility of a Micromegas TPC for low energy heavy ions detection. Two physics cases are relevant for this project. The first is the study of the nuclear fission of actinides by measuring the fission fragments properties (mass, nuclear charge, kinetic energy) that will be performed at different installations and in particular at the NFS facility to be built in the framework of the SPIRAL2 project in GANIL. The secondmore » physics case is the study of heavy ion reactions, like ({alpha},{gamma}), ({alpha},p), ({alpha},n) and all the inverse reactions in the energy range between 1.5 and 3 AMeV using both stable and radioactive beams. These reactions have a key role in p process in nuclear astrophysics to explain the synthesis of heavy proton-rich nuclei. Within the project, a large effort is devoted to Monte-Carlo simulations and a detailed benchmark of different simulation codes on the energy loss and range in gas of heavy ions at low energy has been performed. A new approach for simulating the ion charge state evolution in GEANT4 is also presented. Finally, preliminary results of an experimental test campaign on prototype are discussed.« less

Prevention of homicidal violence in schools in Germany: the Berlin Leaking Project and the Networks Against School Shootings Project (NETWASS).

PubMed

Leuschner, Vincenz; Bondü, Rebecca; Schroer-Hippel, Miriam; Panno, Jennifer; Neumetzler, Katharina; Fisch, Sarah; Scholl, Johanna; Scheithauer, Herbert

2011-01-01

Since 1999, Germany has experienced at least twelve serious cases of targeted school violence. This article describes two projects designed to fill the gap between universal prevention and emergency response in preventing severe forms of school violence in Germany. The Berlin Leaking Project examined the viability of preventive efforts based on early identification of leaking behavior that often precedes targeted school attacks. Leaking refers to any behavior or communication that indicates a student is preparing to carry out a violent attack. This would include explicit or implied threats of violence, apparent fascination with prior acts of violence such as Columbine, and any evidence of planning or preparation to carry out an attack. The NETWASS project will test a training program and intervention strategy based on those findings, examining the usefulness of a threat assessment approach to prevent violence by training teachers to recognize leaking behavior by students. This approach is extended by training teachers on a larger scale to identify leaking and then having a school-based team evaluate the student and initiate appropriate interventions, such as mental health services, and in some cases, law enforcement action. Copyright © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company.

Hypersonic Navier Stokes Comparisons to Orbiter Flight Data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Campbell, Charles H.; Nompelis, Ioannis; Candler, Graham; Barnhart, Michael; Yoon, Seokkwan

2009-01-01

Hypersonic chemical nonequilibrium simulations of low earth orbit entry flow fields are becoming increasingly commonplace as software and computational capabilities become more capable. However, development of robust and accurate software to model these environments will always encounter a significant barrier in developing a suite of high quality calibration cases. The US3D hypersonic nonequilibrium Navier Stokes analysis capability has been favorably compared to a number of wind tunnel test cases. Extension of the calibration basis for this software to Orbiter flight conditions will provide an incremental increase in confidence. As part of the Orbiter Boundary Layer Transition Flight Experiment and the Hypersonic Thermodynamic Infrared Measurements project, NASA is performing entry flight testing on the Orbiter to provide valuable aerothermodynamic heating data. An increase in interest related to orbiter entry environments is resulting from this activity. With the advent of this new data, comparisons of the US3D software to the new flight testing data is warranted. This paper will provide information regarding the framework of analyses that will be applied with the US3D analysis tool. In addition, comparisons will be made to entry flight testing data provided by the Orbiter BLT Flight Experiment and HYTHIRM projects. If data from digital scans of the Orbiter windward surface become available, simulations will also be performed to characterize the difference in surface heating between the CAD reference OML and the digitized surface provided by the surface scans.

Use of satellite images for the monitoring of water systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hillebrand, Gudrun; Winterscheid, Axel; Baschek, Björn; Wolf, Thomas

2015-04-01

Satellite images are a proven source of information for monitoring ecological indicators in coastal waters and inland river systems. This potential of remote sensing products was demonstrated by recent research projects (e.g. EU-funded project Freshmon - www.freshmon.eu) and other activities by national institutions. Among indicators for water quality, a particular focus was set on the temporal and spatial dynamics of suspended particulate matter (SPM) and Chlorophyll-a (Chl-a). The German Federal Institute of Hydrology (BfG) was using the Weser and Elbe estuaries as test cases to compare in-situ measurements with results obtained from a temporal series of automatically generated maps of SPM distributions based on remote sensing data. Maps of SPM and Chl-a distributions in European inland rivers and alpine lakes were generated by the Freshmon Project. Earth observation based products are a valuable source for additional data that can well supplement in-situ monitoring. For 2015, the BfG and the Institute for Lake Research of the State Institute for the Environment, Measurements and Nature Conservation of Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany (LUBW) are in the process to start implementing an operational service for monitoring SPM and Chl-a based on satellite images (Landsat 7 & 8, Sentinel 2, and if required other systems with higher spatial resolution, e.g. Rapid Eye). In this 2-years project, which is part of the European Copernicus Programme, the operational service will be set up for - the inland rivers of Rhine and Elbe - the North Sea estuaries of Elbe, Weser and Ems. Furthermore - Lake Constance and other lakes located within the Federal State of Baden-Wuerttemberg. In future, the service can be implemented for other rivers and lakes as well. Key feature of the project is a data base that holds the stock of geo-referenced maps of SPM and Chl-a distributions. Via web-based portals (e.g. GGInA - geo-portal of the BfG; UIS - environmental information system of the Federal State of Baden-Wuerttemberg; BOWIS - information system for the Lake Constance) the maps will be made accessible to the public. The aim of the project is to implement a service that automatically recognizes new satellite images covering the area of selected water systems (lake, river or estuary) and therefore is able to continually update the data base. Furthermore, the service includes a procedure to analyse newly available data with the highest possible degree of automatization. It is planned to add new maps of SPM and Chl-a distributions to the data base within a couple of days after the satellite image was taken. A high degree of automatization is the essential condition to process a large number of satellite images each year at reasonable costs. It could be demonstrated by the Freshmon Project that there are simplified but robust algorithms and procedures existing. For the successful implementation of the service, it is important to further validate the results obtained by the service line as well as the used procedure and algorithms. Therefore, several test cases will be set up. Each case is going to include an analysis of the uncertainties to describe the expected deviation between values derived from earth observation data and the in-situ data obtained from the BfG and LUBW monitoring networks. Furthermore, it will include a description of possible sources of error and the boundary conditions which are most sensitive to the analysis. Test cases are planned to be made public with all necessary data. The scientific community is invited to use the data as a benchmark test case to develop their own algorithms and procedures.

Development of a Novel Gas Pressurized Stripping Process-Based Technology for CO₂ Capture from Post-Combustion Flue Gases

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

Chen, Shiaoguo

A novel Gas Pressurized Stripping (GPS) post-combustion carbon capture (PCC) process has been developed by Carbon Capture Scientific, LLC, CONSOL Energy Inc., Nexant Inc., and Western Kentucky University in this bench-scale project. The GPS-based process presents a unique approach that uses a gas pressurized technology for CO₂ stripping at an elevated pressure to overcome the energy use and other disadvantages associated with the benchmark monoethanolamine (MEA) process. The project was aimed at performing laboratory- and bench-scale experiments to prove its technical feasibility and generate process engineering and scale-up data, and conducting a techno-economic analysis (TEA) to demonstrate its energy usemore » and cost competitiveness over the MEA process. To meet project goals and objectives, a combination of experimental work, process simulation, and technical and economic analysis studies were applied. The project conducted individual unit lab-scale tests for major process components, including a first absorption column, a GPS column, a second absorption column, and a flasher. Computer simulations were carried out to study the GPS column behavior under different operating conditions, to optimize the column design and operation, and to optimize the GPS process for an existing and a new power plant. The vapor-liquid equilibrium data under high loading and high temperature for the selected amines were also measured. The thermal and oxidative stability of the selected solvents were also tested experimentally and presented. A bench-scale column-based unit capable of achieving at least 90% CO₂ capture from a nominal 500 SLPM coal-derived flue gas slipstream was designed and built. This integrated, continuous, skid-mounted GPS system was tested using real flue gas from a coal-fired boiler at the National Carbon Capture Center (NCCC). The technical challenges of the GPS technology in stability, corrosion, and foaming of selected solvents, and environmental, health and safety risks have been addressed through experimental tests, consultation with vendors and engineering analysis. Multiple rounds of TEA were performed to improve the GPS-based PCC process design and operation, and to compare the energy use and cost performance of a nominal 550-MWe supercritical pulverized coal (PC) plant among the DOE/NETL report Case 11 (the PC plant without CO₂ capture), the DOE/NETL report Case 12 (the PC plant with benchmark MEA-based PCC), and the PC plant using GPS-based PCC. The results reveal that the net power produced in the PC plant with GPS-based PCC is 647 MWe, greater than that of the Case 12 (550 MWe). The 20-year LCOE for the PC plant with GPS-based PCC is 97.4 mills/kWh, or 152% of that of the Case 11, which is also 23% less than that of the Case 12. These results demonstrate that the GPS-based PCC process is energy-efficient and cost-effective compared with the benchmark MEA process.« less

Feed-forward and feedback projections of midbrain reticular formation neurons in the cat

PubMed Central

Perkins, Eddie; May, Paul J.; Warren, Susan

2014-01-01

Gaze changes involving the eyes and head are orchestrated by brainstem gaze centers found within the superior colliculus (SC), paramedian pontine reticular formation (PPRF), and medullary reticular formation (MdRF). The mesencephalic reticular formation (MRF) also plays a role in gaze. It receives a major input from the ipsilateral SC and contains cells that fire in relation to gaze changes. Moreover, it provides a feedback projection to the SC and feed-forward projections to the PPRF and MdRF. We sought to determine whether these MRF feedback and feed-forward projections originate from the same or different neuronal populations by utilizing paired fluorescent retrograde tracers in cats. Specifically, we tested: 1. whether MRF neurons that control eye movements form a single population by injecting the SC and PPRF with different tracers, and 2. whether MRF neurons that control head movements form a single population by injecting the SC and MdRF with different tracers. In neither case were double labeled neurons observed, indicating that feedback and feed-forward projections originate from separate MRF populations. In both cases, the labeled reticulotectal and reticuloreticular neurons were distributed bilaterally in the MRF. However, neurons projecting to the MdRF were generally constrained to the medial half of the MRF, while those projecting to the PPRF, like MRF reticulotectal neurons, were spread throughout the mediolateral axis. Thus, the medial MRF may be specialized for control of head movements, with control of eye movements being more widespread in this structure. PMID:24454280

Feed-forward and feedback projections of midbrain reticular formation neurons in the cat.

PubMed

Perkins, Eddie; May, Paul J; Warren, Susan

2014-01-10

Gaze changes involving the eyes and head are orchestrated by brainstem gaze centers found within the superior colliculus (SC), paramedian pontine reticular formation (PPRF), and medullary reticular formation (MdRF). The mesencephalic reticular formation (MRF) also plays a role in gaze. It receives a major input from the ipsilateral SC and contains cells that fire in relation to gaze changes. Moreover, it provides a feedback projection to the SC and feed-forward projections to the PPRF and MdRF. We sought to determine whether these MRF feedback and feed-forward projections originate from the same or different neuronal populations by utilizing paired fluorescent retrograde tracers in cats. Specifically, we tested: 1. whether MRF neurons that control eye movements form a single population by injecting the SC and PPRF with different tracers, and 2. whether MRF neurons that control head movements form a single population by injecting the SC and MdRF with different tracers. In neither case were double labeled neurons observed, indicating that feedback and feed-forward projections originate from separate MRF populations. In both cases, the labeled reticulotectal and reticuloreticular neurons were distributed bilaterally in the MRF. However, neurons projecting to the MdRF were generally constrained to the medial half of the MRF, while those projecting to the PPRF, like MRF reticulotectal neurons, were spread throughout the mediolateral axis. Thus, the medial MRF may be specialized for control of head movements, with control of eye movements being more widespread in this structure.

The future burden of obesity-related diseases in the 53 WHO European-Region countries and the impact of effective interventions: a modelling study

PubMed Central

Webber, Laura; Divajeva, Diana; Marsh, Tim; McPherson, Klim; Brown, Martin; Galea, Gauden; Breda, Joao

2014-01-01

Objective Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are the biggest cause of death in Europe putting an unsustainable burden on already struggling health systems. Increases in obesity are a major cause of NCDs. This paper projects the future burden of coronary heart disease (CHD), stroke, type 2 diabetes and seven cancers by 2030 in 53 WHO European Region countries based on current and past body mass index (BMI) trends. It also tests the impact of obesity interventions on the future disease burden. Setting and participants Secondary data analysis of country-specific epidemiological data using a microsimulation modelling process. Interventions The effect of three hypothetical scenarios on the future burden of disease in 2030 was tested: baseline scenario, BMI trends go unchecked; intervention 1, population BMI decreases by 1%; intervention 2, BMI decreases by 5%. Primary and secondary outcome measures Quantifying the future burden of major NCDs and the impact of interventions on this future disease burden. Results By 2030 in the whole of the European region, the prevalence of diabetes, CHD and stroke and cancers was projected to reach an average of 3990, 4672 and 2046 cases/100 000, respectively. The highest prevalence of diabetes was predicted in Slovakia (10 870), CHD and stroke—in Greece (11 292) and cancers—in Finland (5615 cases/100 000). A 5% fall in population BMI was projected to significantly reduce cumulative incidence of diseases. The largest reduction in diabetes and CHD and stroke was observed in Slovakia (3054 and 3369 cases/100 000, respectively), and in cancers was predicted in Germany (331/100 000). Conclusions Modelling future disease trends is a useful tool for policymakers so that they can allocate resources effectively and implement policies to prevent NCDs. Future research will allow real policy interventions to be tested; however, better surveillance data on NCDs and their risk factors are essential for research and policy. PMID:25063459

Astronomical Infrastructure for Data Access (AIDA): service activities for higher education and outreach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Iafrate, G.; Ramella, M.; Boch, T.; Bonnarel, F.; Chèreau, F.; Fernique, P.; Osuna, P.

2009-04-01

We present preliminary simple interfaces developed to enable students, teachers, amateur astronomers and general public to access and use the wealth of astronomical data available in ground-based and space archives through the European Virtual Observatory (EuroVO). The development of these outreach interfaces are the aim of a workpackage of EuroVO-AIDA (Astronomical Infrastructure for Data Access), a project supported by EU in the framework of the FP7 Infrastructure Scientific Research Repositories initiative (project RI2121104). The aim of AIDA is to create an operating infrastructure enabling and stimulating new scientific usage of astronomy digital repositories. Euro VO AIDA is a collaboration between six European countries (PI Francoise Genova, CDS). The professional tools we adapt to the requirements of outreach activities are Aladin (CDS), Stellarium/VirGO (ESO) and VOSpec (ESA VO). Some initial requirements have been set a priori in order to produce a first version of the simplified interfaces, but the plan is to test the initial simplified versions with a sample of target users in order to take their feed-back into account for the development of the final outreach interface. The core of the test program consists of use cases we designed and complemented with proper multilingual documentation covering both the astrophysical context and the use of the software. In the special case of students in the age group 14-18 and their teachers, we take our use cases to schools. We work out the tests in classrooms supporting students working on PCs connected to the internet. At the current stage of the project, we are collecting the users feedback. Relevant links: Euro-VO AIDA Overview http://www.euro-vo.org/pub/aida/overview.html Euro-VO AIDA WP5 http://cds.u-strasbg.fr/twikiAIDA/bin/view/EuroVOAIDA/WP5WorkProgramme

Moving Towards a Science-Driven Workbench for Earth Science Solutions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Graves, S. J.; Djorgovski, S. G.; Law, E.; Yang, C. P.; Keiser, K.

2017-12-01

The NSF-funded EarthCube Integration and Test Environment (ECITE) prototype was proposed as a 2015 Integrated Activities project and resulted in the prototyping of an EarthCube federated cloud environment and the Integration and Testing Framework. The ECITE team has worked with EarthCube science and technology governance committees to define the types of integration, testing and evaluation necessary to achieve and demonstrate interoperability and functionality that benefit and support the objectives of the EarthCube cyber-infrastructure. The scope of ECITE also includes reaching beyond NSF and EarthCube to work with the broader Earth science community, such as the Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) to incorporate lessons learned from other testbed activities, and ultimately provide broader community benefits. This presentation will discuss evolving ECITE ideas for a science-driven workbench that will start with documented science use cases, map the use cases to solution scenarios that identify the available technology and data resources that match the use case, the generation of solution workflows and test plans, the testing and evaluation of the solutions in a cloud environment, and finally the documentation of identified technology and data gaps that will assist with driving the development of additional EarthCube resources.

Probability-of-success studies for geothermal projects: from subsurface data to geological risk analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schumacher, Sandra; Pierau, Roberto; Wirth, Wolfgang

2017-04-01

In recent years, the development of geothermal plants in Germany has increased significantly due to a favorable political setting and resulting financial incentives. However, most projects are developed by local communities or private investors, which cannot afford a project to fail. To cover the risk of total loss if the geothermal well should not provide the energy output necessary for an economically viable project, investors try to procure insurances for this worst case scenario. In order to issue such insurances, the insurance companies insist on so called probability-of-success studies (POS studies), in which the geological risk for not achieving the necessary temperatures and/or flow rates for an economically successful project is quantified. Quantifying the probability of reaching a minimum temperature, which has to be defined by the project investors, is relatively straight forward as subsurface temperatures in Germany are comparatively well known due tens of thousands of hydrocarbon wells. Moreover, for the German Molasse Basin a method to characterize the hydraulic potential of a site based on pump test analysis has been developed and refined in recent years. However, to quantify the probability of reaching a given flow rate with a given drawdown is much more challenging in areas where pump test data are generally not available (e.g. the North German Basin). Therefore, a new method based on log and core derived porosity and permeability data was developed to quantify the geological risk of reaching a determined flow rate in such areas. We present both methods for POS studies and show how subsurface data such as pump tests or log and core measurements can be used to predict the chances of a potential geothermal project from a geological point of view.

Student Ownership of Projects in an Upper-Division Optics Laboratory Course: A Multiple Case Study of Successful Experiences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dounas-Frazer, Dimitri R.; Stanley, Jacob T.; Lewandowski, H. J.

2017-01-01

We investigate students' sense of ownership of multiweek final projects in an upper-division optics lab course. Using a multiple case study approach, we describe three student projects in detail. Within-case analyses focused on identifying key issues in each project, and constructing chronological descriptions of those events. Cross-case analysis…

Collaborative testing of turbulence models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bradshaw, P.

1992-12-01

This project, funded by AFOSR, ARO, NASA, and ONR, was run by the writer with Profs. Brian E. Launder, University of Manchester, England, and John L. Lumley, Cornell University. Statistical data on turbulent flows, from lab. experiments and simulations, were circulated to modelers throughout the world. This is the first large-scale project of its kind to use simulation data. The modelers returned their predictions to Stanford, for distribution to all modelers and to additional participants ('experimenters')--over 100 in all. The object was to obtain a consensus on the capabilities of present-day turbulence models and identify which types most deserve future support. This was not completely achieved, mainly because not enough modelers could produce results for enough test cases within the duration of the project. However, a clear picture of the capabilities of various modeling groups has appeared, and the interaction has been helpful to the modelers. The results support the view that Reynolds-stress transport models are the most accurate.

Preliminary flight trajectories for the Apollo Soyuz test project

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Brooks, J. D.

1973-01-01

Preliminary data are documented for a typical launch window opening, a typical in-plane case, and a typical launch window closing trajectory, not necessarily in the same daily launch window, for the Apollo Soyuz test project mission. The Soyuz will be launched first and the Apollo will be launched on the first opportunity, 7 hours 21 minutes later. If the Apollo is unable to be launched on the first opportunity, four additional opportunities are available at 30 hours 56 minutes, 54 hours 31 minutes, 78 hours 05 minutes, and 101 hours 40 minutes. If the Apollo cannot be launched in this time frame, no further attempt will be made to launch and rendezvous with the first Soyuz. Soyuz will then be deorbited; however, a second Soyuz was made available for the same purposes.

World Bank oil-pipeline project designed to prevent HIV transmission.

PubMed

Kigotho, A W

1997-11-29

A World Bank-funded oil pipeline project, in Chad and Cameroon, is the first large-scale construction project in sub-Saharan Africa to incorporate an HIV/AIDS prevention component. The project entails the development of oil fields in southern Chad and construction of 1100 km of pipeline to port facilities on Cameroon's Atlantic coast. 3000 construction workers from the two countries will be employed between 1998 and 2001, including about 600 truck drivers. In some areas along the pipeline route, 50% of the prostitutes (who are frequented by truck drivers) are HIV-infected. The HIV/AIDS intervention aims to prevent HIV and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) among project workers through social marketing of condoms, treatment of STDs in prostitutes along the route, and health education to modify high-risk behaviors. The program is considered a test case for African governments and donors interested in whether the integration of a health component in major construction projects can avoid AIDS epidemics in affected countries.

Medication monitoring and drug testing ethics project.

PubMed

Payne, Richard; Moe, Jeffrey L; Sevier, Catherine Harvey; Sevier, David; Waitzkin, Michael

2015-01-01

In 2012, Duke University initiated a research project, funded by an unrestricted research grant from Millennium Laboratories, a drug testing company. The project focused on assessing the frequency and nature of questionable, unethical, and illegal business practices in the clinical drug testing industry and assessing the potential for establishing a business code of ethics. Laboratory leaders, clinicians, industry attorneys, ethicists, and consultants participated in the survey, were interviewed, and attended two face-to-face meetings to discuss a way forward. The study demonstrated broad acknowledgment of variations in the legal and regulatory environment, resulting in inconsistent enforcement of industry practices. Study participants expressed agreement that overtly illegal practices sometimes exist, particularly when laboratory representatives and clinicians discuss reimbursement, extent of testing, and potential business incentives with medical practitioners. Most respondents reported directly observing probable violations involving marketing materials, contracts, or, in the case of some individuals, directly soliciting people with offers of clinical supplies and other "freebies." While many study respondents were skeptical that voluntary standards alone would eliminate questionable business practices, most viewed ethics codes and credentialing as an important first step that could potentially mitigate uneven enforcement, while improving quality of care and facilitating preferred payment options for credentialed parties. Many were willing to participate in future discussions and industry-wide initiatives to improve the environment.

New Whole-House Solutions Case Study: Evaluating Through-Wall Air Transfer Fans, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

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

None

2014-10-01

In this project, Building America team IBACOS performed field testing in a new construction unoccupied test house in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to evaluate heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) distribution systems during heating, cooling, and midseason conditions. The team evaluated a market-available through-wall air transfer fan system that provides air to the bedrooms.The relative ability of this system was considered with respect to relevant Air Conditioning Contractors of America and ASHRAE standards for house temperature uniformity and stability.

Computer tomography of flows external to test models

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Prikryl, I.; Vest, C. M.

1982-01-01

Computer tomographic techniques for reconstruction of three-dimensional aerodynamic density fields, from interferograms recorded from several different viewing directions were studied. Emphasis is on the case in which an opaque object such as a test model in a wind tunnel obscures significant regions of the interferograms (projection data). A method called the Iterative Convolution Method (ICM), existing methods in which the field is represented by a series expansions, and analysis of real experimental data in the form of aerodynamic interferograms are discussed.

A Tale of Two Effective Title One Reward Charter Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Metcalfe, Laura

2014-01-01

This research project was a study that was based on a prior dissertation study that analyzed student success, as measured by achievement tests, within local communities with high poverty rates. Two Title 1 Reward high schools in the Phoenix area were examined through qualitative case studies to determine what had been implemented to help eliminate…

Evaluations of Introducing Project-Based Design Activities in the First and Second Years of Engineering Courses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Edward, Norrie S.

2004-01-01

This paper presents three evaluated case studies of the use of design activities in the early years of undergraduate engineering courses. Analyses of academic performance in these activities and in a separate test of understanding were correlated with student perceptions of the activities and with measures of learning style. General student…

Perfect Partners or Uneasy Bedfellows? Competing Understandings of the Place of Business Management within Contemporary Education Partnerships

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Woods, Charlotte; Armstrong, Paul; Bragg, Joanna; Pearson, Diana

2013-01-01

This article examines illustrative cases of partnerships from a government-funded programme of experimental projects in England designed to test out the potential of senior business managers to provide leadership across a group of schools. The article places the programme within the context of international public service reforms and, more…

Measuring Executive Function in Early Childhood: A Case for Formative Measurement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Willoughby, Michael T.; Blair, Clancy B.

2016-01-01

This study tested whether individual executive function (EF) tasks were better characterized as formative or reflective indicators of the latent construct of EF. EF data that were collected as part of the Family Life Project (FLP), a prospective longitudinal study of families who were recruited at the birth of a new child (N = 1,292), when…

An Inferentialist Perspective on the Coordination of Actions and Reasons Involved in Making a Statistical Inference

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bakker, Arthur; Ben-Zvi, Dani; Makar, Katie

2017-01-01

To understand how statistical and other types of reasoning are coordinated with actions to reduce uncertainty, we conducted a case study in vocational education that involved statistical hypothesis testing. We analyzed an intern's research project in a hospital laboratory in which reducing uncertainties was crucial to make a valid statistical…

Working within the System: The Effects of Standardized Testing on Education Outreach and Community Writing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Parfitt, Elizabeth; Shane, Stephen

2016-01-01

This snapshot describes and reflects upon two case studies of community writing projects between Emerson College and Boston Public Schools. Emerson College students were asked to tutor 10th grade BPS students for the English Language Arts portion of the state standardized assessment. Through both quantitative results and qualitative reflection,…

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders: A Case Study

PubMed Central

Glass, Leila; Mattson, Sarah N.

2017-01-01

This grand rounds manuscript reviews important considerations in developing case conceptualizations for individuals with a history of prenatal alcohol exposure. This case study provides an introduction to fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, diagnostic issues, a detailed description of the individual's history, presenting symptoms, neuropsychological test results, and an integrated summary. We describe a 9-year old girl diagnosed with a fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD): Neurobehavioral Disorder Associated with Prenatal Alcohol Exposure (ND-PAE). This patient is a composite of a prototypical child who participated as part of a research project at the Center for Behavioral Teratology who was subsequently seen at an outpatient child psychiatry facility. PMID:28948136

Software engineering techniques and CASE tools in RD13

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Buono, S.; Gaponenko, I.; Jones, R.; Khodabandeh, A.; Mapelli, L.; Mornacchi, G.; Prigent, D.; Sanchez-Corral, E.; Skiadelli, M.; Toppers, A.; Duval, P. Y.; Ferrato, D.; Le Van Suu, A.; Qian, Z.; Rondot, C.; Ambrosini, G.; Fumagalli, G.; Polesello, G.; Aguer, M.; Huet, M.

1994-12-01

The RD13 project was approved in April 1991 for the development of a scalable data-taking system suitable for hosting various LHC studies. One of its goals is the exploitation of software engineering techniques, in order to indicate their overall suitability for data acquisition (DAQ), software design and implementation. This paper describes how such techniques have been applied to the development of components of the RD13 DAQ used in test-beam runs at CERN. We describe our experience with the Artifex CASE tool and its associated methodology. The issues raised when code generated by a CASE tool has to be integrated into an existing environment are also discussed.

Misperceptions of angular velocities influence the perception of rigidity in the kinetic depth effect

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Domini, F.; Caudek, C.; Proffitt, D. R.; Kaiser, M. K. (Principal Investigator)

1997-01-01

Accuracy in discriminating rigid from nonrigid motion was investigated for orthographic projections of three-dimension rotating objects. In 3 experiments the hypothesis that magnitudes of angular velocity are misperceived in the kinetic depth effect was tested, and in 4 other experiments the hypothesis that misperceiving angular velocities leads to misperceiving rigidity was tested. The principal findings were (a) the magnitude of perceived angular velocity is derived heuristically as a function of a property of the first-order optic flow called deformation and (b) perceptual performance in discriminating rigid from nonrigid motion is accurate in cases when the variability of the deformations of the individual triplets of points of the stimulus displays favors this interpretation and not accurate in other cases.

Misperceptions of angular velocities influence the perception of rigidity in the kinetic depth effect.

PubMed

Domini, F; Caudek, C; Proffitt, D R

1997-08-01

Accuracy in discriminating rigid from nonrigid motion was investigated for orthographic projections of three-dimension rotating objects. In 3 experiments the hypothesis that magnitudes of angular velocity are misperceived in the kinetic depth effect was tested, and in 4 other experiments the hypothesis that misperceiving angular velocities leads to misperceiving rigidity was tested. The principal findings were (a) the magnitude of perceived angular velocity is derived heuristically as a function of a property of the first-order optic flow called deformation and (b) perceptual performance in discriminating rigid from nonrigid motion is accurate in cases when the variability of the deformations of the individual triplets of points of the stimulus displays favors this interpretation and not accurate in other cases.

Stennis Space Center Salinity Drifter Project. A Collaborative Project with Hancock High School, Kiln, MS

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kalcic, Maria; Turowski, Mark; Hall, Callie

2010-01-01

Presentation topics include: importance of salinity of coastal waters, habitat switching algorithm, habitat switching module, salinity estimates from Landsat for Sabine Calcasieu Basin, percent of time inundated in 2006, salinity data, prototyping the system, system as packaged for field tests, salinity probe and casing, opening for water flow, cellular antenna used to transmit data, preparing to launch, system is launched in the Pearl River at Stennis Space Center, data are transmitted to Twitter by cell phone modem every 15 minutes, Google spreadsheet I used to import the data from the Twitter feed and to compute salinity (from conductivity) and display charts of salinity and temperature, results are uploaded to NASA's Applied Science and Technology Project Office Webpage.

Investigation of drug products received for analysis in the Swedish STRIDA project on new psychoactive substances.

PubMed

Bäckberg, Matilda; Jönsson, Karl-Henrik; Beck, Olof; Helander, Anders

2018-02-01

The web-based open sale of unregulated new psychoactive substances (NPS) has shown a steady increase in recent years. Analysis of drug products sold as NPS is useful to confirm the true chemical contents, for comparison with the substances detected in corresponding body fluids, but also to study drug trends. This work describes the examination of 251 drug products that were randomly submitted for analysis in 173 cases of suspected NPS-related intoxications in the Swedish STRIDA project in 2010-2015. Of the products, 39% were powders/crystals, 32% tablets/capsules, 16% herbal materials, 8% liquids, 1% blotters, and 4% others. The analysis involved tandem mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. In 88 products (35%), classic psychoactive substances, prescription pharmaceuticals, dietary supplements, or doping agents were found; however, in none of these cases had an NPS-related intoxication been indicated from product markings or patient self-reports. Another 12 products tested negative for psychoactive substances. The remaining 151 products contained 86 different NPS (30% contained ≥2 substances). In 104 drug products, a specific NPS ingredient was indicated based on labelling (69%) or patient self-report; in 92 cases this was also analytically confirmed to be correct. Overall, the NPS products submitted for analysis in the STRIDA project showed a high degree of consistency between suspected and actual content (88%). The results of related urine and/or blood analysis further demonstrated that the patients commonly (89%) tested positive for the indicated NPS, but also revealed that polysubstance intoxication was common (83%), indicating use of additional drug products. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

CERTS Microgrid Laboratory Test Bed - PIER Final Project Report

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

Eto, Joseph H.; Eto, Joseph H.; Lasseter, Robert

2008-07-25

The objective of the CERTS Microgrid Laboratory Test Bed project was to enhance the ease of integrating small energy sources into a microgrid. The project accomplished this objective by developing and demonstrating three advanced techniques, collectively referred to as the CERTS Microgrid concept, that significantly reduce the level of custom field engineering needed to operate microgrids consisting of small generating sources. The techniques comprising the CERTS Microgrid concept are: 1) a method for effecting automatic and seamless transitions between grid-connected and islanded modes of operation; 2) an approach to electrical protection within the microgrid that does not depend on highmore » fault currents; and 3) a method for microgrid control that achieves voltage and frequency stability under islanded conditions without requiring high-speed communications. The techniques were demonstrated at a full-scale test bed built near Columbus, Ohio and operated by American Electric Power. The testing fully confirmed earlier research that had been conducted initially through analytical simulations, then through laboratory emulations, and finally through factory acceptance testing of individual microgrid components. The islanding and resychronization method met all Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers 1547 and power quality requirements. The electrical protections system was able to distinguish between normal and faulted operation. The controls were found to be robust and under all conditions, including difficult motor starts. The results from these test are expected to lead to additional testing of enhancements to the basic techniques at the test bed to improve the business case for microgrid technologies, as well to field demonstrations involving microgrids that involve one or mroe of the CERTS Microgrid concepts.« less

Implementation and application of the actuator line model by OpenFOAM for a vertical axis wind turbine

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Riva, L.; Giljarhus, K.-E.; Hjertager, B.; Kalvig, S. M.

2017-12-01

University of Stavanger has started The Smart Sustainable Campus & Energy Lab project, to gain knowledge and facilitate project based education in the field of renewable and sustainable energy and increase the research effort in the same area. This project includes the future installation of a vertical axis wind turbine on the campus roof. A newly developed Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model by OpenFOAM have been implemented to study the wind behavior over the building and the turbine performance. The online available wind turbine model case from Bachant, Goude and Wosnik from 2016 is used as the starting point. This is a Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes equations (RANS) case set up that uses the Actuator Line Model. The available test case considers a water tank with controlled external parameters. Bachant et al.’s model has been modified to study a VAWT in the atmospheric boundary layer. Various simulations have been performed trying to verify the models use and suitability. Simulation outcomes help to understand the impact of the surroundings on the turbine as well as its reaction to parameters changes. The developed model can be used for wind energy and flow simulations for both onshore and offshore applications.

Streaking into middle school science: The Dell Streak pilot project

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Austin, Susan Eudy

A case study is conducted implementing the Dell Streak seven-inch android device into eighth grade science classes of one teacher in a rural middle school in the Piedmont region of North Carolina. The purpose of the study is to determine if the use of the Dell Streaks would increase student achievement on standardized subject testing, if the Streak could be used as an effective instructional tool, and if it could be considered an effective instructional resource for reviewing and preparing for the science assessments. A mixed method research design was used for the study to analyze both quantitative and qualitative results to determine if the Dell Streaks' utilization could achieve the following: 1. instructional strategies would change, 2. it would be an effective instructional tool, and 3. a comparison of the students' test scores and benchmark assessments' scores would provide statistically significant difference. Through the use of an ANOVA it was determined a statistically significant difference had occurred. A Post Hoc analysis was conducted to identify where the difference occurred. Finally a T-test determined was there was no statistically significance difference between the mean End-of-Grade tests and four quarterly benchmark scores of the control and the experimental groups. Qualitative research methods were used to gather results to determine if the Streaks were an effective instructional tool. Classroom observations identified that the teacher's teaching styles and new instructional strategies were implemented throughout the pilot project. Students had an opportunity to complete a questionnaire three times during the pilot project. Results revealed what the students liked about using the devices and the challenges they were facing. The teacher completed a reflective questionnaire throughout the pilot project and offered valuable reflections about the use of the devices in an educational setting. The reflection data supporting the case study was drawn from the teacher's statements regarding the change in instructional delivery as a respect of using the students' device. The results section of the study will elaborate upon these findings. The study recommendations on the use of the Dell Streak device will address whether further actions as the use of the Streak technology in the classroom and summary section.

18 CFR 4.103 - General provisions for case-specific exemption.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

..., EXEMPTIONS, AND DETERMINATION OF PROJECT COSTS Exemption of Small Hydroelectric Power Projects of 5 Megawatts or Less § 4.103 General provisions for case-specific exemption. (a) Exemptible projects. Subject to... exempt on a case-specific basis any small hydroelectric power project from all or part of Part I of the...

18 CFR 4.103 - General provisions for case-specific exemption.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

..., EXEMPTIONS, AND DETERMINATION OF PROJECT COSTS Exemption of Small Hydroelectric Power Projects of 5 Megawatts or Less § 4.103 General provisions for case-specific exemption. (a) Exemptible projects. Subject to... exempt on a case-specific basis any small hydroelectric power project from all or part of Part I of the...

18 CFR 4.103 - General provisions for case-specific exemption.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

..., EXEMPTIONS, AND DETERMINATION OF PROJECT COSTS Exemption of Small Hydroelectric Power Projects of 5 Megawatts or Less § 4.103 General provisions for case-specific exemption. (a) Exemptible projects. Subject to... exempt on a case-specific basis any small hydroelectric power project from all or part of Part I of the...

18 CFR 4.103 - General provisions for case-specific exemption.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

..., EXEMPTIONS, AND DETERMINATION OF PROJECT COSTS Exemption of Small Hydroelectric Power Projects of 5 Megawatts or Less § 4.103 General provisions for case-specific exemption. (a) Exemptible projects. Subject to... exempt on a case-specific basis any small hydroelectric power project from all or part of Part I of the...

18 CFR 4.103 - General provisions for case-specific exemption.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

..., EXEMPTIONS, AND DETERMINATION OF PROJECT COSTS Exemption of Small Hydroelectric Power Projects of 5 Megawatts or Less § 4.103 General provisions for case-specific exemption. (a) Exemptible projects. Subject to... exempt on a case-specific basis any small hydroelectric power project from all or part of Part I of the...

High-speed technique based on a parallel projection correlation procedure for digital image correlation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zaripov, D. I.; Renfu, Li

2018-05-01

The implementation of high-efficiency digital image correlation methods based on a zero-normalized cross-correlation (ZNCC) procedure for high-speed, time-resolved measurements using a high-resolution digital camera is associated with big data processing and is often time consuming. In order to speed-up ZNCC computation, a high-speed technique based on a parallel projection correlation procedure is proposed. The proposed technique involves the use of interrogation window projections instead of its two-dimensional field of luminous intensity. This simplification allows acceleration of ZNCC computation up to 28.8 times compared to ZNCC calculated directly, depending on the size of interrogation window and region of interest. The results of three synthetic test cases, such as a one-dimensional uniform flow, a linear shear flow and a turbulent boundary-layer flow, are discussed in terms of accuracy. In the latter case, the proposed technique is implemented together with an iterative window-deformation technique. On the basis of the results of the present work, the proposed technique is recommended to be used for initial velocity field calculation, with further correction using more accurate techniques.

Smart-DS: Synthetic Models for Advanced, Realistic Testing: Distribution Systems and Scenarios

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

Krishnan, Venkat K; Palmintier, Bryan S; Hodge, Brian S

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in collaboration with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Universidad Pontificia Comillas (Comillas-IIT, Spain) and GE Grid Solutions, is working on an ARPA-E GRID DATA project, titled Smart-DS, to create: 1) High-quality, realistic, synthetic distribution network models, and 2) Advanced tools for automated scenario generation based on high-resolution weather data and generation growth projections. Through these advancements, the Smart-DS project is envisioned to accelerate the development, testing, and adoption of advanced algorithms, approaches, and technologies for sustainable and resilient electric power systems, especially in the realm of U.S. distribution systems. This talk will present themore » goals and overall approach of the Smart-DS project, including the process of creating the synthetic distribution datasets using reference network model (RNM) and the comprehensive validation process to ensure network realism, feasibility, and applicability to advanced use cases. The talk will provide demonstrations of early versions of synthetic models, along with the lessons learnt from expert engagements to enhance future iterations. Finally, the scenario generation framework, its development plans, and co-ordination with GRID DATA repository teams to house these datasets for public access will also be discussed.« less

Advanced engineering environment collaboration project.

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

Lamph, Jane Ann; Pomplun, Alan R.; Kiba, Grant W.

2008-12-01

The Advanced Engineering Environment (AEE) is a model for an engineering design and communications system that will enhance project collaboration throughout the nuclear weapons complex (NWC). Sandia National Laboratories and Parametric Technology Corporation (PTC) worked together on a prototype project to evaluate the suitability of a portion of PTC's Windchill 9.0 suite of data management, design and collaboration tools as the basis for an AEE. The AEE project team implemented Windchill 9.0 development servers in both classified and unclassified domains and used them to test and evaluate the Windchill tool suite relative to the needs of the NWC using weaponsmore » project use cases. A primary deliverable was the development of a new real time collaborative desktop design and engineering process using PDMLink (data management tool), Pro/Engineer (mechanical computer aided design tool) and ProductView Lite (visualization tool). Additional project activities included evaluations of PTC's electrical computer aided design, visualization, and engineering calculations applications. This report documents the AEE project work to share information and lessons learned with other NWC sites. It also provides PTC with recommendations for improving their products for NWC applications.« less

The CASE Project: Evaluation of Case-Based Approaches to Learning and Teaching in Statistics Service Courses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fawcett, Lee

2017-01-01

The CASE project (Case-based Approaches to Statistics Education; see www.mas.ncl.ac.uk/~nlf8/innovation) was established to investigate how the use of real-life, discipline-specific case study material in Statistics service courses could improve student engagement, motivation, and confidence. Ultimately, the project aims to promote deep learning…

SANDS: A Service-Oriented Architecture for Clinical Decision Support in a National Health Information Network

PubMed Central

Wright, Adam; Sittig, Dean F.

2008-01-01

In this paper we describe and evaluate a new distributed architecture for clinical decision support called SANDS (Service-oriented Architecture for NHIN Decision Support), which leverages current health information exchange efforts and is based on the principles of a service-oriented architecture. The architecture allows disparate clinical information systems and clinical decision support systems to be seamlessly integrated over a network according to a set of interfaces and protocols described in this paper. The architecture described is fully defined and developed, and six use cases have been developed and tested using a prototype electronic health record which links to one of the existing prototype National Health Information Networks (NHIN): drug interaction checking, syndromic surveillance, diagnostic decision support, inappropriate prescribing in older adults, information at the point of care and a simple personal health record. Some of these use cases utilize existing decision support systems, which are either commercially or freely available at present, and developed outside of the SANDS project, while other use cases are based on decision support systems developed specifically for the project. Open source code for many of these components is available, and an open source reference parser is also available for comparison and testing of other clinical information systems and clinical decision support systems that wish to implement the SANDS architecture. PMID:18434256

ETICS: the international software engineering service for the grid

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meglio, A. D.; Bégin, M.-E.; Couvares, P.; Ronchieri, E.; Takacs, E.

2008-07-01

The ETICS system is a distributed software configuration, build and test system designed to fulfil the needs of improving the quality, reliability and interoperability of distributed software in general and grid software in particular. The ETICS project is a consortium of five partners (CERN, INFN, Engineering Ingegneria Informatica, 4D Soft and the University of Wisconsin-Madison). The ETICS service consists of a build and test job execution system based on the Metronome software and an integrated set of web services and software engineering tools to design, maintain and control build and test scenarios. The ETICS system allows taking into account complex dependencies among applications and middleware components and provides a rich environment to perform static and dynamic analysis of the software and execute deployment, system and interoperability tests. This paper gives an overview of the system architecture and functionality set and then describes how the EC-funded EGEE, DILIGENT and OMII-Europe projects are using the software engineering services to build, validate and distribute their software. Finally a number of significant use and test cases will be described to show how ETICS can be used in particular to perform interoperability tests of grid middleware using the grid itself.

Computer-assisted map projection research

USGS Publications Warehouse

Snyder, John Parr

1985-01-01

Computers have opened up areas of map projection research which were previously too complicated to utilize, for example, using a least-squares fit to a very large number of points. One application has been in the efficient transfer of data between maps on different projections. While the transfer of moderate amounts of data is satisfactorily accomplished using the analytical map projection formulas, polynomials are more efficient for massive transfers. Suitable coefficients for the polynomials may be determined more easily for general cases using least squares instead of Taylor series. A second area of research is in the determination of a map projection fitting an unlabeled map, so that accurate data transfer can take place. The computer can test one projection after another, and include iteration where required. A third area is in the use of least squares to fit a map projection with optimum parameters to the region being mapped, so that distortion is minimized. This can be accomplished for standard conformal, equalarea, or other types of projections. Even less distortion can result if complex transformations of conformal projections are utilized. This bulletin describes several recent applications of these principles, as well as historical usage and background.

Recovery Act. Development and Validation of an Advanced Stimulation Prediction Model for Enhanced Geothermal System

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

Gutierrez, Marte

The research project aims to develop and validate an advanced computer model that can be used in the planning and design of stimulation techniques to create engineered reservoirs for Enhanced Geothermal Systems. The specific objectives of the proposal are to: 1) Develop a true three-dimensional hydro-thermal fracturing simulator that is particularly suited for EGS reservoir creation. 2) Perform laboratory scale model tests of hydraulic fracturing and proppant flow/transport using a polyaxial loading device, and use the laboratory results to test and validate the 3D simulator. 3) Perform discrete element/particulate modeling of proppant transport in hydraulic fractures, and use the resultsmore » to improve understand of proppant flow and transport. 4) Test and validate the 3D hydro-thermal fracturing simulator against case histories of EGS energy production. 5) Develop a plan to commercialize the 3D fracturing and proppant flow/transport simulator. The project is expected to yield several specific results and benefits. Major technical products from the proposal include: 1) A true-3D hydro-thermal fracturing computer code that is particularly suited to EGS, 2) Documented results of scale model tests on hydro-thermal fracturing and fracture propping in an analogue crystalline rock, 3) Documented procedures and results of discrete element/particulate modeling of flow and transport of proppants for EGS applications, and 4) Database of monitoring data, with focus of Acoustic Emissions (AE) from lab scale modeling and field case histories of EGS reservoir creation.« less

Recovery Act. Development and Validation of an Advanced Stimulation Prediction Model for Enhanced Geothermal Systems

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

Gutierrez, Marte

2013-12-31

This research project aims to develop and validate an advanced computer model that can be used in the planning and design of stimulation techniques to create engineered reservoirs for Enhanced Geothermal Systems. The specific objectives of the proposal are to; Develop a true three-dimensional hydro-thermal fracturing simulator that is particularly suited for EGS reservoir creation; Perform laboratory scale model tests of hydraulic fracturing and proppant flow/transport using a polyaxial loading device, and use the laboratory results to test and validate the 3D simulator; Perform discrete element/particulate modeling of proppant transport in hydraulic fractures, and use the results to improve understandmore » of proppant flow and transport; Test and validate the 3D hydro-thermal fracturing simulator against case histories of EGS energy production; and Develop a plan to commercialize the 3D fracturing and proppant flow/transport simulator. The project is expected to yield several specific results and benefits. Major technical products from the proposal include; A true-3D hydro-thermal fracturing computer code that is particularly suited to EGS; Documented results of scale model tests on hydro-thermal fracturing and fracture propping in an analogue crystalline rock; Documented procedures and results of discrete element/particulate modeling of flow and transport of proppants for EGS applications; and Database of monitoring data, with focus of Acoustic Emissions (AE) from lab scale modeling and field case histories of EGS reservoir creation.« less

EDS V25 containment vessel explosive qualification test report.

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

Rudolphi, John Joseph

2012-04-01

The V25 containment vessel was procured by the Project Manager, Non-Stockpile Chemical Materiel (PMNSCM) as a replacement vessel for use on the P2 Explosive Destruction Systems. It is the first EDS vessel to be fabricated under Code Case 2564 of the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code, which provides rules for the design of impulsively loaded vessels. The explosive rating for the vessel based on the Code Case is nine (9) pounds TNT-equivalent for up to 637 detonations. This limit is an increase from the 4.8 pounds TNT-equivalency rating for previous vessels. This report describes the explosive qualification tests thatmore » were performed in the vessel as part of the process for qualifying the vessel for explosive use. The tests consisted of a 11.25 pound TNT equivalent bare charge detonation followed by a 9 pound TNT equivalent detonation.« less

ECITE: A Testbed for Assessment of Technology Interoperability and Integration wiht Architecture Components

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Graves, S. J.; Keiser, K.; Law, E.; Yang, C. P.; Djorgovski, S. G.

2016-12-01

ECITE (EarthCube Integration and Testing Environment) is providing both cloud-based computational testing resources and an Assessment Framework for Technology Interoperability and Integration. NSF's EarthCube program is funding the development of cyberinfrastructure building block components as technologies to address Earth science research problems. These EarthCube building blocks need to support integration and interoperability objectives to work towards a coherent cyberinfrastructure architecture for the program. ECITE is being developed to provide capabilities to test and assess the interoperability and integration across funded EarthCube technology projects. EarthCube defined criteria for interoperability and integration are applied to use cases coordinating science problems with technology solutions. The Assessment Framework facilitates planning, execution and documentation of the technology assessments for review by the EarthCube community. This presentation will describe the components of ECITE and examine the methodology of cross walking between science and technology use cases.

Electric energy savings from new technologies. Revision 1

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

Harrer, B.J.; Kellogg, M.A.; Lyke, A.J.

1986-09-01

Purpose of the report is to provide information about the electricity-saving potential of new technologies to OCEP that it can use in developing alternative long-term projections of US electricity consumption. Low-, base-, and high-case scenarios of the electricity savings for 10 technologies were prepared. The total projected annual savings for the year 2000 for all 10 technologies were 137 billion kilowatt hours (BkWh), 279 BkWh, and 470 BkWh, respectively, for the three cases. The magnitude of these savings projections can be gauged by comparing them to the Department's reference case projection for the 1985 National Energy Policy Plan. In themore » Department's reference case, total consumption in 2000 is projected to be 3319 BkWh. Because approximately 75% of the base-case estimate of savings are already incorporated into the reference projection, only 25% of the savings estimated here should be subtracted from the reference projection for analysis purposes.« less

Evidence from Social Service Enhancement Projects: Selected Cases from Norway's HUSK Project.

PubMed

Johannessen, Asbjorn; Eide, Solveig Botnen

2015-01-01

Through this article the authors describe the social service context of the HUSK (The University Research Program to Support Selected Municipal Social Service Offices) projects and briefly describe 10 of the 50 projects funded throughout the country. The welfare state context for the cases and the criteria for case selection are also provided. The 10 cases are organized into three categories that feature the role of dialogue, educational innovation, and service innovation. These cases provide the foundation for the analysis and implications located in the subsequent articles of the special issue.

[Case control trial on putative factors antagonising the successful project course of MD thesis projects].

PubMed

Scharfenberg, J; Schaper, K; Krummenauer, F

2015-05-01

Award of the degree MD has special relevance in Germany since the underlying research project can be started during the qualification for admission to doctoral training. This leads to a large number of thesis projects with a not always sufficiently pronounced enthusiasm and thus poor chances of success. Accordingly a case control study was undertaken in the Department of Human Medicine, Witten/Herdecke University to investigate reported drop-outs of thesis projects. In autumn 2012 all students in the clinical phases of human medicine education were surveyed using a self-conceived questionnaire on previously initiated or terminated thesis projects, "terminated" is defined as the unsuccessful ending of a project after working for at least 3 months. Individually reported thesis terminations were evaluated using defined items in a 4-stage Likert scale regarding thesis plan and project, subsequently, graduate students who successfully completed a project received the same questionnaire. The items possibly corresponding to process determinants were averaged to a total of 7 dimensions prior to the analysis; the resulting scores were normalised in value ranges 0.0 to 1.0 (1.0 = optimal project situation) whereby individual items could be included in several scores. By means of 5 items a primary endpoint from the faculty's perspective on "compliance with formal procedures" was aggregated; by means of a two-sided Wilcoxon test at the 5 % level students with unsuccessful and successful courses were compared along the corresponding scores. 181 of 276 students from 7 study semesters participated in the screening; details of 17 terminations and 23 currently successful courses could be evaluated in the case control study. For significant differences (p < 0.001) between unsuccessful and successful courses in the primary endpoint, median scores of 0.17 (0.07-0.50) versus 0.73 (0.53-0.83) were estimated. There were differences between unsuccessful and (as yet) successful courses, especially with regard to the aspects "compliance with formal procedures". Thus a recommendation can be derived in the sense of a stricter and, if necessary, sanctioning demand for formal procedures such as early reporting of thesis projects to the responsible committees. A weakness is the low number of evaluable self-reported drop-outs as well as the overall moderate response rate. Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

An EMSO data case study within the INDIGO-DC project

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Monna, Stephen; Marcucci, Nicola M.; Marinaro, Giuditta; Fiore, Sandro; D'Anca, Alessandro; Antonacci, Marica; Beranzoli, Laura; Favali, Paolo

2017-04-01

We present our experience based on a case study within the INDIGO-DataCloud (INtegrating Distributed data Infrastructures for Global ExplOitation) project (www.indigo-datacloud.eu). The aim of INDIGO-DC is to develop a data and computing platform targeting scientific communities. Our case study is an example of activities performed by INGV using data from seafloor observatories that are nodes of the infrastructure EMSO (European Multidisciplinary Seafloor and water column Observatory)-ERIC (www.emso-eu.org). EMSO is composed of several deep-seafloor and water column observatories, deployed at key sites in the European waters, thus forming a widely distributed pan-European infrastructure. In our case study we consider data collected by the NEMO-SN1 observatory, one of the EMSO nodes used for geohazard monitoring, located in the Western Ionian Sea in proximity of Etna volcano. Starting from the case study, through an agile approach, we defined some requirements for INDIGO developers, and tested some of the proposed INDIGO solutions that are of interest for our research community. Given that EMSO is a distributed infrastructure, we are interested in INDIGO solutions that allow access to distributed data storage. Access should be both user-oriented and machine-oriented, and with the use of a common identity and access system. For this purpose, we have been testing: - ONEDATA (https://onedata.org), as global data management system. - INDIGO-IAM as Identity and Access Management system. Another aspect we are interested in is the efficient data processing, and we have focused on two types of INDIGO products: - Ophidia (http://ophidia.cmcc.it), a big data analytics framework for eScience for the analysis of multidimensional data. - A collection of INDIGO Services to run processes for scientific computing through the INDIGO Orchestrator.

[Advanced information technologies for financial services industry]. Final report

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

NONE

The project scope is to develop an advanced user interface utilizing speech and/or handwriting recognition technology that will improve the accuracy and speed of recording transactions in the dynamic environment of a foreign exchange (FX) trading floor. The project`s desired result is to improve the base technology for trader`s workstations on FX trading floors. Improved workstation effectiveness will allow vast amounts of complex information and events to be presented and analyzed, thus increasing the volume of money and other assets to be exchanged at an accelerated rate. The project scope is to develop and demonstrate technologies that advance interbank checkmore » imaging and paper check truncation. The following describes the tasks to be completed: (1) Identify the economics value case, the legal and regulatory issues, the business practices that are affected, and the effects upon settlement. (2) Familiarization with existing imaging technology. Develop requirements for image quality, security, and interoperability. Adapt existing technologies to meet requirements. (3) Define requirements for the imaging laboratory and design its architecture. Integrate and test technology from task 2 with equipment in the laboratory. (4) Develop and/or integrate and test remaining components; includes security, storage, and communications. (5) Build a prototype system and test in a laboratory. Install and run in two or more banks. Develop documentation. Conduct training. The project`s desired result is to enable a proof-of-concept trial in which multiple banks will exchange check images, exhibiting operating conditions which a check experiences as it travels through the payments/clearing system. The trial should demonstrate the adequacy of digital check images instead of paper checks.« less

The Woodworker's Website: A Project Management Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jance, Marsha

2014-01-01

A case study that focuses on building a website for a woodworking business is discussed. Project management and linear programming techniques can be used to determine the time required to complete the website project discussed in the case. This case can be assigned to students in an undergraduate or graduate decision modeling or management science…

Morphing wing system integration with wind tunnel testing =

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guezguez, Mohamed Sadok

Preserving the environment is a major challenge for today's aviation industry. Within this context, the CRIAQ MDO 505 project started, where a multidisciplinary approach was used to improve aircraft fuel efficiency. This international project took place between several Canadian and Italian teams. Industrial teams are Bombardier Aerospace, Thales Canada and Alenia Aermacchi. The academic partners are from Ecole de Technologie Superieure, Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal and Naples University. Teams from 'CIRA' and IAR-NRC research institutes had, also, contributed on this project. The main objective of this project is to improve the aerodynamic performance of a morphing wing prototype by reducing the drag. This drag reduction is achieved by delaying the flow transition (from laminar to turbulent) by performing shape optimization of the flexible upper skin according to different flight conditions. Four linear axes, each one actuated by a 'BLDC' motor, are used to morph the skin. The skin displacements are calculated by 'CFD' numerical simulation based on flow parameters which are Mach number, the angle of attack and aileron's angle of deflection. The wing is also equipped with 32 pressure sensors to experimentally detect the transition during aerodynamic testing in the subsonic wind tunnel at the IAR-NRC in Ottawa. The first part of the work is dedicated to establishing the necessary fieldbus communications between the control system and the wing. The 'CANopen' protocol is implemented to ensure real time communication between the 'BLDC' drives and the real-time controller. The MODBUS TCP protocol is used to control the aileron drive. The second part consists of implementing the skin control position loop based on the LVDTs feedback, as well as developing an automated calibration procedure for skin displacement values. Two 'sets' of wind tunnel tests were carried out to, experimentally, investigate the morphing wing controller effect; these tests also offered the opportunity to validate the implemented control platform. Control and calibration results were excellent as they satisfied the desired objectives in terms of precision and robustness. The maximum static error obtained for the skin displacement control was 0.03 mm. The analysis of the pressure data and balance loads has shown that the drag was reduced for many cases among those tested. Almost 30% of the cases were optimized for drag reduction.

Regional fringe analysis for improving depth measurement in phase-shifting fringe projection profilometry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chien, Kuang-Che Chang; Tu, Han-Yen; Hsieh, Ching-Huang; Cheng, Chau-Jern; Chang, Chun-Yen

2018-01-01

This study proposes a regional fringe analysis (RFA) method to detect the regions of a target object in captured shifted images to improve depth measurement in phase-shifting fringe projection profilometry (PS-FPP). In the RFA method, region-based segmentation is exploited to segment the de-fringed image of a target object, and a multi-level fuzzy-based classification with five presented features is used to analyze and discriminate the regions of an object from the segmented regions, which were associated with explicit fringe information. Then, in the experiment, the performance of the proposed method is tested and evaluated on 26 test cases made of five types of materials. The qualitative and quantitative results demonstrate that the proposed RFA method can effectively detect the desired regions of an object to improve depth measurement in the PS-FPP system.

The ALIVE Project: Astronomy Learning in Immersive Virtual Environments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yu, K. C.; Sahami, K.; Denn, G.

2008-06-01

The Astronomy Learning in Immersive Virtual Environments (ALIVE) project seeks to discover learning modes and optimal teaching strategies using immersive virtual environments (VEs). VEs are computer-generated, three-dimensional environments that can be navigated to provide multiple perspectives. Immersive VEs provide the additional benefit of surrounding a viewer with the simulated reality. ALIVE evaluates the incorporation of an interactive, real-time ``virtual universe'' into formal college astronomy education. In the experiment, pre-course, post-course, and curriculum tests will be used to determine the efficacy of immersive visualizations presented in a digital planetarium versus the same visual simulations in the non-immersive setting of a normal classroom, as well as a control case using traditional classroom multimedia. To normalize for inter-instructor variability, each ALIVE instructor will teach at least one of each class in each of the three test groups.

Systems-Oriented Workplace Learning Experiences for Early Learners: Three Models.

PubMed

O'Brien, Bridget C; Bachhuber, Melissa R; Teherani, Arianne; Iker, Theresa M; Batt, Joanne; O'Sullivan, Patricia S

2017-05-01

Early workplace learning experiences may be effective for learning systems-based practice. This study explores systems-oriented workplace learning experiences (SOWLEs) for early learners to suggest a framework for their development. The authors used a two-phase qualitative case study design. In Phase 1 (spring 2014), they prepared case write-ups based on transcribed interviews from 10 SOWLE leaders at the authors' institution and, through comparative analysis of cases, identified three SOWLE models. In Phase 2 (summer 2014), studying seven 8-week SOWLE pilots, the authors used interview and observational data collected from the seven participating medical students, two pharmacy students, and site leaders to construct case write-ups of each pilot and to verify and elaborate the models. In Model 1, students performed specific patient care activities that addressed a system gap. Some site leaders helped students connect the activities to larger systems problems and potential improvements. In Model 2, students participated in predetermined systems improvement (SI) projects, gaining experience in the improvement process. Site leaders had experience in SI and often had significant roles in the projects. In Model 3, students worked with key stakeholders to develop a project and conduct a small test of change. They experienced most elements of an improvement cycle. Site leaders often had experience with SI and knew how to guide and support students' learning. Each model could offer systems-oriented learning opportunities provided that key elements are in place including site leaders facile in SI concepts and able to guide students in SOWLE activities.

Aerodynamic Reconstruction Applied to Parachute Test Vehicle Flight Data Analysis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cassady, Leonard D.; Ray, Eric S.; Truong, Tuan H.

2013-01-01

The aerodynamics, both static and dynamic, of a test vehicle are critical to determining the performance of the parachute cluster in a drop test and for conducting a successful test. The Capsule Parachute Assembly System (CPAS) project is conducting tests of NASA's Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) parachutes at the Army Yuma Proving Ground utilizing the Parachute Test Vehicle (PTV). The PTV shape is based on the MPCV, but the height has been reduced in order to fit within the C-17 aircraft for extraction. Therefore, the aerodynamics of the PTV are similar, but not the same as, the MPCV. A small series of wind tunnel tests and computational fluid dynamics cases were run to modify the MPCV aerodynamic database for the PTV, but aerodynamic reconstruction of the flights has proven an effective source for further improvements to the database. The acceleration and rotational rates measured during free flight, before parachute inflation but during deployment, were used to con rm vehicle static aerodynamics. A multibody simulation is utilized to reconstruct the parachute portions of the flight. Aerodynamic or parachute parameters are adjusted in the simulation until the prediction reasonably matches the flight trajectory. Knowledge of the static aerodynamics is critical in the CPAS project because the parachute riser load measurements are scaled based on forebody drag. PTV dynamic damping is critical because the vehicle has no reaction control system to maintain attitude - the vehicle dynamics must be understood and modeled correctly before flight. It will be shown here that aerodynamic reconstruction has successfully contributed to the CPAS project.

FAST Model Calibration and Validation of the OC5-DeepCwind Floating Offshore Wind System Against Wave Tank Test Data

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

Wendt, Fabian F; Robertson, Amy N; Jonkman, Jason

During the course of the Offshore Code Comparison Collaboration, Continued, with Correlation (OC5) project, which focused on the validation of numerical methods through comparison against tank test data, the authors created a numerical FAST model of the 1:50-scale DeepCwind semisubmersible system that was tested at the Maritime Research Institute Netherlands ocean basin in 2013. This paper discusses several model calibration studies that were conducted to identify model adjustments that improve the agreement between the numerical simulations and the experimental test data. These calibration studies cover wind-field-specific parameters (coherence, turbulence), hydrodynamic and aerodynamic modeling approaches, as well as rotor model (blade-pitchmore » and blade-mass imbalances) and tower model (structural tower damping coefficient) adjustments. These calibration studies were conducted based on relatively simple calibration load cases (wave only/wind only). The agreement between the final FAST model and experimental measurements is then assessed based on more-complex combined wind and wave validation cases.« less

Introduction of the 2nd Phase of the Integrated Hydrologic Model Intercomparison Project

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kollet, Stefan; Maxwell, Reed; Dages, Cecile; Mouche, Emmanuel; Mugler, Claude; Paniconi, Claudio; Park, Young-Jin; Putti, Mario; Shen, Chaopeng; Stisen, Simon; Sudicky, Edward; Sulis, Mauro; Ji, Xinye

2015-04-01

The 2nd Phase of the Integrated Hydrologic Model Intercomparison Project commenced in June 2013 with a workshop at Bonn University funded by the German Science Foundation and US National Science Foundation. Three test cases were defined and compared that are available online at www.hpsc-terrsys.de including a tilted v-catchment case; a case called superslab based on multiple slab-heterogeneities in the hydraulic conductivity along a hillslope; and the Borden site case, based on a published field experiment. The goal of this phase is to further interrogate the coupling of surface-subsurface flow implemented in various integrated hydrologic models; and to understand and quantify the impact of differences in the conceptual and technical implementations on the simulation results, which may constitute an additional source of uncertainty. The focus has been broadened considerably including e.g. saturated and unsaturated subsurface storages, saturated surface area, ponded surface storage in addition to discharge, and pressure/saturation profiles and cross-sections. Here, first results are presented and discussed demonstrating the conceptual and technical challenges in implementing essentially the same governing equations describing highly non-linear moisture redistribution processes and surface-groundwater interactions.

Program Development from Start-to-Finish: A Case Study of the Healthy Relationship and Marriage Education Training Project

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Futris, Ted G.; Schramm, David G.

2015-01-01

What goes into designing and implementing a successful program? How do both research and practice inform program development? In this article, the process through which a federally funded training curriculum was developed and piloted tested is described. Using a logic model framework, important lessons learned are shared in defining the situation,…

Ministry, Union, the Church and Teachers: Bolivia's Partners in Innovation. LearnTech Case Study Series, No. 6.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fryer, Michelle L.

A process of developing and testing an instructional methodology called interactive radio instruction (IRI) was begun in 1986 in order to improve the quality of primary school mathematics in Bolivia. When the development phase was complete and implementation well under way, management of the resultant Radio Learning Project (RLP) passed from the…

Modular detector for deep underwater registration of muons and muon groups

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Demianov, A. I.; Sarycheva, L. I.; Sinyov, N. B.; Varadanyan, I. N.; Yershov, A. A.

1985-01-01

Registration and identification of muons and muon groups penetrating into the ocean depth, can be performed using a modular multilayer detector with high resolution bidimensional readout - deep underwater calorimeter (project NADIR). Laboratory testing of a prototype sensor cell with liquid scintillator in light-tight casing, testifies to the practicability of the full-scale experiment within reasonable expences.

Modeling forest ecosystem changes resulting from surface coal mining in West Virginia

Treesearch

John Brown; Andrew J. Lister; Mary Ann Fajvan; Bonnie Ruefenacht; Christine Mazzarella

2012-01-01

The objective of this project is to assess the effects of surface coal mining on forest ecosystem disturbance and restoration in the Coal River Subbasin in southern West Virginia. Our approach is to develop disturbance impact models for this subbasin that will serve as a case study for testing the feasibility of integrating currently available GIS data layers, remote...

Streaking into Middle School Science: The Dell Streak Pilot Project

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Austin, Susan Eudy

2012-01-01

A case study is conducted implementing the Dell Streak seven-inch android device into eighth grade science classes of one teacher in a rural middle school in the Piedmont region of North Carolina. The purpose of the study is to determine if the use of the Dell Streaks would increase student achievement on standardized subject testing, if the…

The Art of Red Tide Science

PubMed Central

Hall, Emily R.; Nierenberg, Kate; Boyes, Anamari J.; Heil, Cynthia A.; Flewelling, Leanne J.; Kirkpatrick, Barbara

2012-01-01

Over the years, numerous outreach strategies by the science community, such as FAQ cards and website information, have been used to explain blooms of the toxic dinoflagellate, Karenia brevis that occur annually off the west coast of Florida to the impacted communities. Many state and federal agencies have turned to funded research groups for assistance in the development and testing of environmental outreach products. In the case of Florida red tide, the Fish and Wildlife Research Institute/Mote Marine Laboratory (MML) Cooperative Red Tide Agreement allowed MML to initiate a project aimed at developing innovative outreach products about Florida red tide. This project, which we coined “The Art of Red Tide Science,” consisted of a team effort between scientists from MML and students from Ringling College of Art and Design. This successful outreach project focused on Florida red tide can be used as a model to develop similar outreach projects for equally complex ecological issues. PMID:22712002

The Art of Red Tide Science.

PubMed

Hall, Emily R; Nierenberg, Kate; Boyes, Anamari J; Heil, Cynthia A; Flewelling, Leanne J; Kirkpatrick, Barbara

2012-05-01

Over the years, numerous outreach strategies by the science community, such as FAQ cards and website information, have been used to explain blooms of the toxic dinoflagellate, Karenia brevis that occur annually off the west coast of Florida to the impacted communities. Many state and federal agencies have turned to funded research groups for assistance in the development and testing of environmental outreach products. In the case of Florida red tide, the Fish and Wildlife Research Institute/Mote Marine Laboratory (MML) Cooperative Red Tide Agreement allowed MML to initiate a project aimed at developing innovative outreach products about Florida red tide. This project, which we coined "The Art of Red Tide Science," consisted of a team effort between scientists from MML and students from Ringling College of Art and Design. This successful outreach project focused on Florida red tide can be used as a model to develop similar outreach projects for equally complex ecological issues.

Spotting the difference in molecular dynamics simulations of biomolecules

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sakuraba, Shun; Kono, Hidetoshi

2016-08-01

Comparing two trajectories from molecular simulations conducted under different conditions is not a trivial task. In this study, we apply a method called Linear Discriminant Analysis with ITERative procedure (LDA-ITER) to compare two molecular simulation results by finding the appropriate projection vectors. Because LDA-ITER attempts to determine a projection such that the projections of the two trajectories do not overlap, the comparison does not suffer from a strong anisotropy, which is an issue in protein dynamics. LDA-ITER is applied to two test cases: the T4 lysozyme protein simulation with or without a point mutation and the allosteric protein PDZ2 domain of hPTP1E with or without a ligand. The projection determined by the method agrees with the experimental data and previous simulations. The proposed procedure, which complements existing methods, is a versatile analytical method that is specialized to find the "difference" between two trajectories.

A climate model projection weighting scheme accounting for performance and interdependence

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Knutti, Reto; Sedláček, Jan; Sanderson, Benjamin M.; Lorenz, Ruth; Fischer, Erich M.; Eyring, Veronika

2017-02-01

Uncertainties of climate projections are routinely assessed by considering simulations from different models. Observations are used to evaluate models, yet there is a debate about whether and how to explicitly weight model projections by agreement with observations. Here we present a straightforward weighting scheme that accounts both for the large differences in model performance and for model interdependencies, and we test reliability in a perfect model setup. We provide weighted multimodel projections of Arctic sea ice and temperature as a case study to demonstrate that, for some questions at least, it is meaningless to treat all models equally. The constrained ensemble shows reduced spread and a more rapid sea ice decline than the unweighted ensemble. We argue that the growing number of models with different characteristics and considerable interdependence finally justifies abandoning strict model democracy, and we provide guidance on when and how this can be achieved robustly.

Transfer of training through a science education professional development program

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sowards, Alan Bosworth

Educational research substantiates that effective professional development models must be developed in order for reform-based teaching strategies to be implemented in classrooms. This study examined the effectiveness of an established reform-based science education professional development program, Project LIFE. The study investigated what impact Project LIFE had on participants implementation of reform-based instruction in their classroom three years after participation in the science inservice program. Participants in the case studies described use of reform-based instruction and program factors that influenced transfer of training to their classrooms. Subjects of the study were 5th--10th grade teachers who participated in the 1997--98 Project LIFE professional development program. The study employed a mixed design including both qualitative and quantitative methodology. The qualitative data was collected from multiple sources which included: an open-ended survey, classroom observations, structured interviews, and artifacts. Three purposeful selection of teachers for case studies were made with teacher approval and authorization from building principals. Interview responses from the three case studies were further analyzed qualitatively using the microcomputer software NUD*IST. Tables and figures generated from NUD*IST graphically represented the case study teachers response and case comparison to six established categories: (1) continued implementation of reform-based instruction, (2) use of reform-based instruction, (3) program factors supporting transfer of training, (4) professional development, (5) goals of Project LIFE, and (6) critical issues in science education. Paired t-tests were used to analysis the quantitative data collected from the Survey of Attitudes Toward Science and Science Teaching. The study concluded the 1997--98 Project LIFE participants continued to implement reform-based instruction in their classrooms three years later. According to the teachers the program factors having the most influence on transferring training to their classroom were the positive responses from students; reflections with other teachers regarding instructional activities and strategies; modeling of activities and strategies they received from Project LIFE staff while participating in the program; and teachers commitment to reform-based instruction. These findings are important in enhancing national science reform goals. In order for teachers to be able to implement science-reform-based instruction in their classrooms they must experience effective professional development models. Designers of professional development programs must understand which factors in staff development programs most contribute to transfer of training.

A cloud, precipitation and electrification modeling effort for COHMEX

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Orville, Harold D.; Helsdon, John H.; Farley, Richard D.

1991-01-01

In mid-1987, the Modeling Group of the Institute of Atmospheric Sciences (IAS) began to simulate and analyze cloud runs that were made during the Cooperative Huntsville Meteorological Experiment (COHMEX) Project and later. The cloud model was run nearly every day during the summer 1986 COHMEX Project. The Modeling Group was then funded to analyze the results, make further modeling tests, and help explain the precipitation processes in the Southeastern United States. The main science objectives of COHMEX were: (1) to observe the prestorm environment and understand the physical mechanisms leading to the formation of small convective systems and processes controlling the production of precipitation; (2) to describe the structure of small convective systems producing precipitation including the large and small scale events in the environment surrounding the developing and mature convective system; (3) to understand the interrelationships between electrical activity within the convective system and the process of precipitation; and (4) to develop and test numerical models describing the boundary layer, tropospheric, and cloud scale thermodynamics and dynamics associated with small convective systems. The latter three of these objectives were addressed by the modeling activities of the IAS. A series of cloud modes were used to simulate the clouds that formed during the operational project. The primary models used to date on the project were a two dimensional bulk water model, a two dimensional electrical model, and to a lesser extent, a two dimensional detailed microphysical cloud model. All of the models are based on fully interacting microphysics, dynamics, thermodynamics, and electrical equations. Only the 20 July 1986 case was analyzed in detail, although all of the cases run during the summer were analyzed as to how well they did in predicting the characteristics of the convection for that day.

Architectural Analysis of Complex Evolving Systems of Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lindvall, Mikael; Stratton, William C.; Sibol, Deane E.; Ray, Arnab; Ackemann, Chris; Yonkwa, Lyly; Ganesan, Dharma

2009-01-01

The goal of this collaborative project between FC-MD, APL, and GSFC and supported by NASA IV&V Software Assurance Research Program (SARP), was to develop a tool, Dynamic SAVE, or Dyn-SAVE for short, for analyzing architectures of systems of systems. The project team was comprised of the principal investigator (PI) from FC-MD and four other FC-MD scientists (part time) and several FC-MD students (full time), as well as, two APL software architects (part time), and one NASA POC (part time). The PI and FC-MD scientists together with APL architects were responsible for requirements analysis, and for applying and evaluating the Dyn-SAVE tool and method. The PI and a group of FC-MD scientists were responsible for improving the method and conducting outreach activities, while another group of FC-MD scientists were responsible for development and improvement of the tool. Oversight and reporting was conducted by the PI and NASA POC. The project team produced many results including several prototypes of the Dyn-SAVE tool and method, several case studies documenting how the tool and method was applied to APL s software systems, and several published papers in highly respected conferences and journals. Dyn-SAVE as developed and enhanced throughout this research period, is a software tool intended for software developers and architects, software integration testers, and persons who need to analyze software systems from the point of view of how it communicates with other systems. Using the tool, the user specifies the planned communication behavior of the system modeled as a sequence diagram. The user then captures and imports the actual communication behavior of the system, which is then converted and visualized as a sequence diagram by Dyn-SAVE. After mapping the planned to the actual and specifying parameter and timing constraints, Dyn-SAVE detects and highlights deviations between the planned and the actual behavior. Requirements based on the need to analyze two inter-system communication protocols that are representative of protocols used in the Aerospace industry have been specified. The protocols are related: APL s Common Ground System (CGS) as used in the MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) and the Radiation Belt Space Probes (RBSP) missions. The analyzed communications were implementations of the Telemetry protocol and the CCSDS File Delivery Protocol (CFDP) protocol. Based on these requirements, three prototypes of Dyn-SAVE were developed and applied to these protocols. The application of Dyn-SAVE to these protocols resulted in the detection of several issues. Dyn-SAVE was also applied to several Testbeds that have previously been used for experimentation earlier on this project, as well as, to other protocols and logs for testing its broader applicability. For example, Dyn-SAVE was used to analyze 1) the communication pattern between a web browser and a web server, 2) the system log of a computer in order to detect offnominal computer shut-down behavior, and 3) the actual test cases of NASA Goddard s Core Flight System (CFS) and automatically generated test cases in order to determine the overlap between the two sets of test cases. In all cases, Dyn-SAVE assisted in providing insightful conclusions about each of the cases identified above.

Considerations of study design.

PubMed

Koretz, Ronald L

2007-12-01

Research projects attempt to answer specific questions. The particular study design that is selected will depend in large measure on the nature of the question and the time and resources available. There are 5 common categories of clinical questions; they relate to etiology, prognosis, utility of diagnostic tests, efficacy of proposed interventions, and cost of treatment in specific disease states. A number of study designs can be used. Case reports serve to memorialize unusual or novel aspects of diseases. Retrospective case series are useful for defining natural history. Case-control studies are used by epidemiologists to elucidate potential etiologies of diseases. Prospective cohort studies can be used to assess natural history or to assess potential disease etiologies. Controlled trials are designed to assess the efficacy of therapeutic interventions. Studies that define the sensitivity and specificity of diagnostic tests can be used to assess the utility of those tests. Economic analyses estimate the costs that particular diseases or therapies will require. Each of these study designs has limitations; with the exception of high-quality randomized trials, none of these study designs can establish a causative relationship between putative etiologic (or therapeutic) factors and disease (outcomes).

Computer-aided detection in musculoskeletal projection radiography: A systematic review.

PubMed

Gundry, M; Knapp, K; Meertens, R; Meakin, J R

2018-05-01

To investigated the accuracy of computer-aided detection (CAD) software in musculoskeletal projection radiography via a systematic review. Following selection screening, eligible studies were assessed for bias, and had their study characteristics extracted resulting in 22 studies being included. Of these 22 three studies had tested their CAD software in a clinical setting; the first study investigated vertebral fractures, reporting a sensitivity score of 69.3% with CAD, compared to 59.8% sensitivity without CAD. The second study tested dental caries diagnosis producing a sensitivity score of 68.8% and specificity of 94.1% with CAD, compared to sensitivity of 39.3% and specificity of 96.7% without CAD. The third indicated osteoporotic cases based on CAD, resulting in 100% sensitivity and 81.3% specificity. The current evidence reported shows a lack of development into the clinical testing phase; however the research does show future promise in the variation of different CAD systems. Copyright © 2017 The College of Radiographers. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

IPRT polarized radiative transfer model intercomparison project - Phase A

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Emde, Claudia; Barlakas, Vasileios; Cornet, Céline; Evans, Frank; Korkin, Sergey; Ota, Yoshifumi; Labonnote, Laurent C.; Lyapustin, Alexei; Macke, Andreas; Mayer, Bernhard; Wendisch, Manfred

2015-10-01

The polarization state of electromagnetic radiation scattered by atmospheric particles such as aerosols, cloud droplets, or ice crystals contains much more information about the optical and microphysical properties than the total intensity alone. For this reason an increasing number of polarimetric observations are performed from space, from the ground and from aircraft. Polarized radiative transfer models are required to interpret and analyse these measurements and to develop retrieval algorithms exploiting polarimetric observations. In the last years a large number of new codes have been developed, mostly for specific applications. Benchmark results are available for specific cases, but not for more sophisticated scenarios including polarized surface reflection and multi-layer atmospheres. The International Polarized Radiative Transfer (IPRT) working group of the International Radiation Commission (IRC) has initiated a model intercomparison project in order to fill this gap. This paper presents the results of the first phase A of the IPRT project which includes ten test cases, from simple setups with only one layer and Rayleigh scattering to rather sophisticated setups with a cloud embedded in a standard atmosphere above an ocean surface. All scenarios in the first phase A of the intercomparison project are for a one-dimensional plane-parallel model geometry. The commonly established benchmark results are available at the IPRT website.

Conditions for Productive Learning in Networked Learning Environments: A Case Study from the VO@NET Project

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ryberg, Thomas; Koottatep, Suporn; Pengchai, Petch; Dirckinck-Holmfeld, Lone

2006-01-01

In this article we bring together experiences from two international research projects: the Kaleidoscope ERT research collaboration and the VO@NET project. We do this by using a shared framework identified for cross-case analyses within the Kaleidoscope ERT to analyse a particular case in the VO@NET project, a training course called "Green…

Project Career: A qualitative examination of five college students with traumatic brain injuries.

PubMed

Nardone, Amanda; Sampson, Elaine; Stauffer, Callista; Leopold, Anne; Jacobs, Karen; Hendricks, Deborah J; Elias, Eileen; Chen, Hui; Rumrill, Phillip

2015-01-01

Project Career is an interprofessional five-year development project designed to improve the employment success of undergraduate college and university students with traumatic brain injury (TBI). The case study information was collected and synthesized by the project's Technology and Employment Coordinators (TECs) at each of the project's three university sites. The project's evaluation is occurring independently through JBS International, Inc. Five case studies are presented to provide an understanding of student participants' experiences within Project Career. Each case study includes background on the student, engagement with technology, vocational supports, and interactions with his/her respective TEC. A qualitative analysis from the student's case notes is provided within each case study, along with a discussion of the overall qualitative analysis. Across all five students, the theme Positive Outcomes was mentioned most often in the case notes. Of all the different type of challenges, Cognitive Challenges were most often mentioned during meetings with the TECs, followed by Psychological Challenges, Physical Challenges, Other Challenges, and Academic Challenges, respectively. Project Career is providing academic enrichment and career enhancement that may substantially improve the unsatisfactory employment outcomes that presently await students with TBI following graduation.

Method for decreasing CT simulation time of complex phantoms and systems through separation of material specific projection data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Divel, Sarah E.; Christensen, Soren; Wintermark, Max; Lansberg, Maarten G.; Pelc, Norbert J.

2017-03-01

Computer simulation is a powerful tool in CT; however, long simulation times of complex phantoms and systems, especially when modeling many physical aspects (e.g., spectrum, finite detector and source size), hinder the ability to realistically and efficiently evaluate and optimize CT techniques. Long simulation times primarily result from the tracing of hundreds of line integrals through each of the hundreds of geometrical shapes defined within the phantom. However, when the goal is to perform dynamic simulations or test many scan protocols using a particular phantom, traditional simulation methods inefficiently and repeatedly calculate line integrals through the same set of structures although only a few parameters change in each new case. In this work, we have developed a new simulation framework that overcomes such inefficiencies by dividing the phantom into material specific regions with the same time attenuation profiles, acquiring and storing monoenergetic projections of the regions, and subsequently scaling and combining the projections to create equivalent polyenergetic sinograms. The simulation framework is especially efficient for the validation and optimization of CT perfusion which requires analysis of many stroke cases and testing hundreds of scan protocols on a realistic and complex numerical brain phantom. Using this updated framework to conduct a 31-time point simulation with 80 mm of z-coverage of a brain phantom on two 16-core Linux serves, we have reduced the simulation time from 62 hours to under 2.6 hours, a 95% reduction.

[Post-marketing re-evaluation of Kudiezi injection study on early treatment in patients with ischemic stroke].

PubMed

Ye, Xiaoqin; Wei, Xu; Xie, Yanming; Zou, Yihuai; Zhao, Xingquan; Han, Jianhua; Wang, Xinzhi; Ma, Yunzhi; Bi, Qi; Xie, Qingfan; Zhao, Jianjun; Cao, Xiaolan; Chen, Hongxia; Wang, Shizhong; Yan, Rongmei; Han, Zucheng; Yi, Danhui; Wang, Yongyan

2011-10-01

To study the effect and safety of Kudiezi injection on patients with acute ischemic stroke. Seven hundreds patients were divided into two groups by central randomization system. The study group, 346 cases, was treated with kudiezi injection plus traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) synthesis rehabilitation project, and the control group, 354 cases, was treated with synthetic rehabilitation project. The patients were treated for 10 to 21 days. Before treatment and at the 7th, 14th and 21th day of treatment, the indexes include NIHSS used for evaluating the neurological deficit degree and the motor function score (Fugl-Meyer) for evaluating motor function were observed. The safety index is defined by adverse observation event and laboratory test. The incidence of adverse events and laboratory tests results were observed before and after treatment at the same time. Application of generalized estimating equation model, we found that as the treatment time, NIHSS score and FMI score of the two groups showed a trend of improvement. And at the 14th days and 21th days of treatment, compared to the control group the treatment group showed significant statistical difference on the impact of NIHSS and FMI (P<0.05). No serious adverse events were observed. Kudiezi injection plus TCM rehabilitation project of ischemic stroke showed some superiority to western medicine rehabilitation program on improving the neurological deficit and motor function. Kudiezi injection is safe and effective in the treatment of acute ischemic stroke.

Treatment planning systems dosimetry auditing project in Portugal.

PubMed

Lopes, M C; Cavaco, A; Jacob, K; Madureira, L; Germano, S; Faustino, S; Lencart, J; Trindade, M; Vale, J; Batel, V; Sousa, M; Bernardo, A; Brás, S; Macedo, S; Pimparel, D; Ponte, F; Diaz, E; Martins, A; Pinheiro, A; Marques, F; Batista, C; Silva, L; Rodrigues, M; Carita, L; Gershkevitsh, E; Izewska, J

2014-02-01

The Medical Physics Division of the Portuguese Physics Society (DFM_SPF) in collaboration with the IAEA, carried out a national auditing project in radiotherapy, between September 2011 and April 2012. The objective of this audit was to ensure the optimal usage of treatment planning systems. The national results are presented in this paper. The audit methodology simulated all steps of external beam radiotherapy workflow, from image acquisition to treatment planning and dose delivery. A thorax CIRS phantom lend by IAEA was used in 8 planning test-cases for photon beams corresponding to 15 measuring points (33 point dose results, including individual fields in multi-field test cases and 5 sum results) in different phantom materials covering a set of typical clinical delivery techniques in 3D Conformal Radiotherapy. All 24 radiotherapy centers in Portugal have participated. 50 photon beams with energies 4-18 MV have been audited using 25 linear accelerators and 32 calculation algorithms. In general a very good consistency was observed for the same type of algorithm in all centres and for each beam quality. The overall results confirmed that the national status of TPS calculations and dose delivery for 3D conformal radiotherapy is generally acceptable with no major causes for concern. This project contributed to the strengthening of the cooperation between the centres and professionals, paving the way to further national collaborations. Copyright © 2013 Associazione Italiana di Fisica Medica. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Mission requirements CSM-111/DM-2 Apollo/Soyuz test project

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Blackmer, S. M.

1974-01-01

Test systems are developed for rendezvous and docking of manned spacecraft and stations that are suitable for use as a standard international system. This includes the rendezvous and docking of Apollo and Soyuz spacecraft, and crew transfer. The conduct of the mission will include: (1) testing of compatible rendezvous systems in orbit; (2) testing of universal docking assemblies; (3) verifying the techniques for transfer of cosmonauts and astronauts; (4) performing certain activities by U.S.A. and U.S.S.R. crews in joint flight; and (5) gaining of experience in conducting joint flights by U.S.A. and U.S.S.R. spacecraft, including, in case of necessity, rendering aid in emergency situations.

[Carpus and distal radioulnar joint : Clinical and radiological examination].

PubMed

Spies, C K; Langer, M F; Unglaub, F; Mühldorfer-Fodor, M; Müller, L P; Ahrens, C; Schlindwein, S F

2016-08-01

A precise medical history and specific symptom-oriented clinical tests of the wrist joint should always precede any radiological, computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) diagnostics. In many cases, specific clinical tests of the wrist joint allow at least a preliminary diagnosis, which can be supported by standard radiography using correct projections. A systematic approach is recommended covering the radiocarpal, midcarpal, ulnocarpal and distal radioulnar joints. Exact identification of the palpable anatomic landmarks is mandatory for correct application and interpretation of the various clinical tests. The results of the clinical tests in combination with radiological imaging can often detect precisely ruptures of distinct wrist joint ligaments and localized arthritis.

Building Technological Capability within Satellite Programs in Developing Countries

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wood, Danielle Renee

Global participation in space activity is growing as satellite technology matures and spreads. Countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America are creating or reinvigorating national satellite programs. These countries are building local capability in space through technological learning. They sometimes pursue this via collaborative satellite development projects with foreign firms that provide training. This phenomenon of collaborative satellite development projects is poorly understood by researchers of technological learning and technology transfer. The approach has potential to facilitate learning, but there are also challenges due to misaligned incentives and the tacit nature of the technology. Perspectives from literature on Technological Learning, Technology Transfer, Complex Product Systems and Product Delivery provide useful but incomplete insight for decision makers in such projects. This work seeks a deeper understanding of capability building through collaborative technology projects by conceiving of the projects as complex, socio-technical systems with architectures. The architecture of a system is the assignment of form to execute a function along a series of dimensions. The research questions explore the architecture of collaborative satellite projects, the nature of capability building during such projects, and the relationship between architecture and capability building. The research design uses inductive, exploratory case studies to investigate six collaborative satellite development projects. Data collection harnesses international field work driven by interviews, observation, and documents. The data analysis develops structured narratives, architectural comparison and capability building assessment. The architectural comparison reveals substantial variation in project implementation, especially in the areas of project initiation, technical specifications of the satellite, training approaches and the supplier selection process. The individual capability building assessment shows that most trainee engineers gradually progressed from no experience with satellites through theoretical training to supervised experience; a minority achieved independent experience. At the organizational level, the emerging space organizations achieved high levels of autonomy in project definition and satellite operation, but they were dependent on foreign firms for satellite design, manufacture, test and launch. The case studies can be summarized by three archetypal projects defined as "Politically Pushed," "Structured," and "Risk Taking." Countries in the case studies tended to start in a Politically Pushed mode, and then moved into either Structured or Risk Taking mode. Decision makers in emerging satellite programs can use the results of this dissertation to consider the broad set of architectural options for capability building. Future work will continue to probe how specific architectural decisions impact capability building outcomes in satellite projects and other technologies. (Copies available exclusively from MIT Libraries, libraries.mit.edu/docs - docs@mit.edu)

Heat Melt Compactor Development Progress

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lee, Jeffrey M.; Fisher, John W.; Pace, Gregory

2017-01-01

The status of the Heat Melt Compactor (HMC) development project is reported. HMC Generation 2 (Gen 2) has been assembled and initial testing has begun. A baseline mission use case for trash volume reduction, water recovery, trash sterilization, and the venting of effluent gases and water vapor to space has been conceptualized. A test campaign to reduce technical risks is underway. This risk reduction testing examines the many varied operating scenarios and conditions needed for processing trash during a space mission. The test results along with performance characterization of HMC Gen 2 will be used to prescribe requirements and specifications for a future ISS flight Technology Demonstration. We report on the current status, technical risks, and test results in the context of an ISS vent-to-space Technology Demonstration.

GSDO Program Hexavalent Chrome Alternatives: Final Pretreatments Test Report

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kessel, Kurt

2013-01-01

Hexavalent chrome free pretreatments should be considered for use on Ground Support Equipment (OSE) and Electrical Ground Support Equipment (EOSE). Both of the hexavalent chrome free pretreatments (Metalast TCP HF and SurTec 650C) evaluated by this project met, and in some instances exceeded, the requirements ofMIL-DTL-5541 "Chemical Conversion Coatings on Aluminum and Aluminum Alloys". For DC resistance measurements, both Metalast TCP HF and SurTec (!50C met initial requirements following assembly and in many cases continued to maintain passing readings for the duration of testing.

Benefits of Integration of Aerojet Rocketdyne and RTI Advanced Gasification Technologies for Hydrogen-Rich Syngas Production

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

Gupta, Vijay; Denton, David; SHarma, Pradeep

The key objective for this project was to evaluate the potential to achieve substantial reductions in the production cost of H 2-rich syngas via coal gasification with near-zero emissions due to the cumulative and synergistic benefits realized when multiple advanced technologies are integrated into the overall conversion process. In this project, Aerojet Rocketdyne’s (AR’s) advanced gasification technology (currently being offered as R-GAS™) and RTI International’s (RTI’s) advanced warm syngas cleanup technologies were evaluated via a number of comparative techno-economic case studies. AR’s advanced gasification technology consists of a dry solids pump and a compact gasifier system. Based on the uniquemore » design of this gasifier, it has been shown to reduce the capital cost of the gasification block by between 40 and 50%. At the start of this project, actual experimental work had been demonstrated through pilot plant systems for both the gasifier and dry solids pump. RTI’s advanced warm syngas cleanup technologies consist primarily of RTI’s Warm Gas Desulfurization Process (WDP) technology, which effectively allows decoupling of the sulfur and CO 2 removal allowing for more flexibility in the selection of the CO 2 removal technology, plus associated advanced technologies for direct sulfur recovery and water gas shift (WGS). WDP has been demonstrated at pre-commercial scale using an activated amine carbon dioxide recovery process which would not have been possible if a majority of the sulfur had not been removed from the syngas by WDP. This pre-commercial demonstration of RTI’s advanced warm syngas cleanup system was conducted in parallel to the activities on this project. The technical data and cost information from this pre-commercial demonstration were extensively used in this project during the techno-economic analysis. With this project, both of RTI’s advanced WGS technologies were investigated. Because RT’s advanced fixed-bed WGS (AFWGS) process was successfully implemented in the WDP pre-commercial demonstration test mentioned above, this technology was used as part of RTI’s advanced warm syngas technology package for the techno-economic analyses for this project. RTI’s advanced transport-reactor-based WGS (ATWGS) process was still conceptual at the start of this project, but one of the tasks for this project was to evaluate the technical feasibility of this technology. In each of the three application-based comparison studies conducted as part of this project, the reference case was based on an existing Department of Energy National Energy Technology Laboratory (DOE/NETL) system study. Each of these references cases used existing commercial technology and the system resulted in > 90% carbon capture. In the comparison studies for the use of the hydrogen-rich syngas generated in either an Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) or a Coal-to-Methanol (CTM) plant, the comparison cases consisted of the reference case, a case with the integration of each individual advanced technology (either AR or RTI), and finally a case with the integration of all the advanced technologies (AR and RTI combined). In the Coal-to-Liquids (CTL) comparison study, the comparison study consisted of only three cases, which included a reference case, a case with just RTI’s advanced syngas cleaning technology, and a case with AR’s and RTI’s advanced technologies. The results from these comparison studies showed that the integration of the advanced technologies did result in substantial benefits, and by far the greatest benefits were achieved for cases integrating all the advanced technologies. For the IGCC study, the fully integrated case resulted in a 1.4% net efficiency improvement, an 18% reduction in capital cost per kW of capacity, a 12% reduction in the operating cost per kWh, and a 75–79% reduction in sulfur emissions. For the CTM case, the fully integrated plant resulted in a 22% reduction in capital cost, a 13% reduction in operating costs, a > 99% net reduction in sulfur emissions, and a reduction of 13–15% in CO 2 emissions. Because the capital cost represents over 60% of the methanol Required Selling Price (RSP), the significant reduction in the capital cost for the advanced technology case resulted in an 18% reduction in methanol RSP. For the CTL case, the fully integrated plant resulted in a 16% reduction in capital cost, which represented a 13% reduction in diesel RSP. Finally, the technical feasibility analysis of RTI’s ATWGS process demonstrated that a fluid-bed catalyst with sufficient attrition resistance and WGS activity could be made and that the process achieved about a 24% reduction in capital cost compared to a conventional fixed-bed commercial process.« less

Applying DER-CAM for IIT Microgrid Explansion Planning

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

Shahidehpour, Mohammad; Li, Zuyi; Wang, Jianhui

The Distributed Energy Resources Customer Adoption Model (DER-CAM) is an economic and environmental model of customer DER adoption. This model has been in development at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory since 2000. The objective of the model is to find optimal DER investments while minimizing total energy costs or carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, or achieving a weighted objective that simultaneously considers both criteria. The Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) Microgrid project started in August 2008, and the majority of the project was completed in May 2013. IIT Microgrid, funded mostly by a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy asmore » well as State and philanthropic contributions, empowers the campus consumers with the objective of establishing a smart microgrid that is highly reliable, economically viable, environmentally friendly, fuel-efficient, and resilient in extreme circumstances with a self-healing capability. In this project, we apply DER-CAM to study the expansion planning of the IIT Microgrid. First, the load data, environmental data, utility data, and technology data for the IIT Microgrid are gathered and organized to follow the DER-CAM input requirements. Then, DERCAM is applied to study the expansion planning of the IIT Microgrid for different cases, where different objectives in DER-CAM and different utility conditions are tested. Case 1 considers the objective of minimizing energy costs with fixed utility rates and 100% electric utility availability. Case 2 considers the objective of minimizing energy costs with real-time utility rates and 4 emergency weeks when the IIT Microgrid does not have access to the electric utility grid and has to operate in island mode. In Case 3, the utility rates are restored to fixed values and 100% electric utility availability is assumed, but a weighted multi-objective (Obj: a × costs + b × CO2 emissions, where a and b are weights for cost minimization and CO2 emissions minimization) is utilized to consider both energy costs and CO2 emissions. On the basis of the test results, the IIT Microgrid has the potential to benefit from investments in more DER technologies. The current annual energy costs and CO2 emissions for the IIT Microgrid are 6,495.1 k$ and 39,838.5 metric tons, respectively. This represents the baseline for this project.« less

Experimental Charging Behavior of Orion UltraFlex Array Designs

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Golofaro, Joel T.; Vayner, Boris V.; Hillard, Grover B.

2010-01-01

The present ground based investigations give the first definitive look describing the charging behavior of Orion UltraFlex arrays in both the Low Earth Orbital (LEO) and geosynchronous (GEO) environments. Note the LEO charging environment also applies to the International Space Station (ISS). The GEO charging environment includes the bounding case for all lunar mission environments. The UltraFlex photovoltaic array technology is targeted to become the sole power system for life support and on-orbit power for the manned Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV). The purpose of the experimental tests is to gain an understanding of the complex charging behavior to answer some of the basic performance and survivability issues to ascertain if a single UltraFlex array design will be able to cope with the projected worst case LEO and GEO charging environments. Stage 1 LEO plasma testing revealed that all four arrays successfully passed arc threshold bias tests down to -240 V. Stage 2 GEO electron gun charging tests revealed that only the front side area of indium tin oxide coated array designs successfully passed the arc frequency tests

A case study of autonomy and motivation in a student-led game development project

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Prigmore, M.; Taylor, R.; De Luca, D.

2016-07-01

This paper presents the findings of an exploratory case study into the relationship between student autonomy and motivation in project based learning, using Self-Determination Theory (SDT) to frame the investigation. The case study explores how different forms of motivation affect the students' response to challenges and their intention to complete the project. Earlier studies have made little explicit use of theoretical perspectives on student autonomy and motivation, a weakness this study attempts to address. As an exploratory case study seeking to evaluate the suitability of a particular theoretical framework, we chose a small case: three students on a one-term computer games development project. Given the small scale, the approach is necessarily qualitative, drawing on project documentation and one-to-one interviews with the students. Our conclusion is that the concepts of SDT provide a useful framework for analysing students' motivations to undertake project work, and its predictions can offer useful guidance on how to initiate and supervise such projects.

Defrost Temperature Termination in Supermarket Refrigeration Systems

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

Fricke, Brian A; Sharma, Vishaldeep

2011-11-01

The objective of this project was to determine the potential energy savings associated with implementing demand defrost strategies to defrost supermarket refrigerated display case evaporators, as compared to the widely accepted current practice of controlling display case defrost cycles with a preset timer. The defrost heater energy use of several representative display case types was evaluated. In addition, demand defrost strategies for refrigerated display cases as well as those used in residential refrigerator/freezers were evaluated. Furthermore, it is anticipated that future work will include identifying a preferred defrost strategy, with input from Retail Energy Alliance members. Based on this strategy,more » a demand defrost system will be designed which is suitable for supermarket refrigerated display cases. Limited field testing of the preferred defrost strategy will be performed in a supermarket environment.« less

Serum apolipoprotein A1 and haptoglobin, in patients with suspected drug-induced liver injury (DILI) as biomarkers of recovery

PubMed Central

Peta, Valentina; Tse, Chantal; Perazzo, Hugo; Munteanu, Mona; Ngo, Yen; Ngo, An; Ramanujam, Nittia; Verglas, Lea; Mallet, Maxime; Ratziu, Vlad; Thabut, Dominique; Rudler, Marika; Thibault, Vincent; Schuppe-Koistinen, Ina; Bonnefont-Rousselot, Dominique; Hainque, Bernard; Imbert-Bismut, Françoise; Merz, Michael; Kullak-Ublick, Gerd; Andrade, Raul; van Boemmel, Florian; Schott, Eckart

2017-01-01

Background There is a clear need for better biomarkers of drug-induced-liver-injury (DILI). Aims We aimed to evaluate the possible prognostic value of ActiTest and FibroTest proteins apoliprotein-A1, haptoglobin and alpha-2-macroglobulin, in patients with DILI. Methods We analyzed cases and controls included in the IMI-SAFE-T-DILI European project, from which serum samples had been stored in a dedicated biobank. The analyses of ActiTest and FibroTest had been prospectively scheduled. The primary objective was to analyze the performance (AUROC) of ActiTest components as predictors of recovery outcome defined as an ALT <2x the upper limit of normal (ULN), and BILI <2x ULN. Results After adjudication, 154 patients were considered to have DILI and 22 were considered to have acute liver injury without DILI. A multivariate regression analysis (ActiTest-DILI patent pending) combining the ActiTest components without BILI and ALT (used as references), apolipoprotein-A1, haptoglobin, alpha-2-macroglobulin and GGT, age and gender, resulted in a significant prediction of recovery with 67.0% accuracy (77/115) and an AUROC of 0.724 (P<0.001 vs. no prediction 0.500). Repeated apolipoprotein-A1 and haptoglobin remained significantly higher in the DILI cases that recovered (n = 65) versus those that did not (n = 16), at inclusion, at 4–8 weeks and at 8–12 weeks. The same results were observed after stratification on APAP cases and non-APAP cases. Conclusions We identified that apolipoprotein-A1 and haptoglobin had significant predictive values for the prediction of recovery at 12 weeks in DILI, enabling the construction of a new prognostic panel, the DILI-ActiTest, which needs to be independently validated. PMID:29287080

Highlight report: Launch of a large integrated European in vitro toxicology project: EU-ToxRisk.

PubMed

Daneshian, Mardas; Kamp, Hennicke; Hengstler, Jan; Leist, Marcel; van de Water, Bob

2016-05-01

The integrated European project, EU-ToxRisk, proudly sees itself as "flagship" exploring new alternative-to-animal approaches to chemical safety evaluation. It promotes mechanism-based toxicity testing and risk assessment according to the principles laid down for toxicology for the twenty-first century. The project was officially launched in January 2016 with a kickoff meeting in Egmond aan Zee, the Netherlands. Over 100 scientists representing academia and industry as well as regulatory authorities attended the inaugural meeting. The project will integrate advances in in vitro and in silico toxicology, read-across methods, and adverse outcome pathways. EU-ToxRisk will continue to make use of the case study strategy deployed in SEURAT-1, a FP7 initiative ended in December 2015. Even though the development of new non-animal methods is one target of EU-ToxRisk, the project puts special emphasis on their acceptance and implementation in regulatory contexts. This €30 million Horizon 2020 project involves 38 European partners and one from the USA. EU-ToxRisk aims at the "development of a new way of risk assessment."

Quality management for space systems in ISRO

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Satish, S.; Selva Raju, S.; Nanjunda Swamy, T. S.; Kulkarni, P. L.

2009-11-01

In a little over four decades, the Indian Space Program has carved a niche for itself with the unique application driven program oriented towards National development. The end-to-end capability approach of the space projects in the country call for innovative practices and procedures in assuring the quality and reliability of space systems. The System Reliability (SR) efforts initiated at the start of the projects continue during the entire life cycle of the project encompassing design, development, realisation, assembly, testing and integration and during launch. Even after the launch, SR groups participate in the on-orbit evaluation of transponders in communication satellites and camera systems in remote sensing satellites. SR groups play a major role in identification, evaluation and inculcating quality practices in work centres involved in the fabrication of mechanical, electronics and propulsion systems required for Indian Space Research Organization's (ISRO's) launch vehicle and spacecraft projects. Also the reliability analysis activities like prediction, assessment and demonstration as well as de-rating analysis, Failure Mode Effects and Criticality Analysis (FMECA) and worst-case analysis are carried out by SR groups during various stages of project realisation. These activities provide the basis for project management to take appropriate techno-managerial decisions to ensure that the required reliability goals are met. Extensive test facilities catering to the needs of the space program has been set up. A system for consolidating the experience and expertise gained for issue of standards called product assurance specifications to be used in all ISRO centres has also been established.

Acquisition and Processing Protocols for Uav Images: 3d Modeling of Historical Buildings Using Photogrammetry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Murtiyoso, A.; Koehl, M.; Grussenmeyer, P.; Freville, T.

2017-08-01

Photogrammetry has seen an increase in the use of UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) for both large and smaller scale cartography. The use of UAVs is also advantageous because it may be used for tasks requiring quick response, including in the case of the inspection and monitoring of buildings. The objective of the project is to study the acquisition and processing protocols which exist in the literature and to adapt them for UAV projects. This implies a study on the calibration of the sensors, flight planning, comparison of software solutions, data management, and analysis on the different products of a UAV project. Two historical buildings of the city of Strasbourg were used as case studies: a part of the Rohan Palace façade and the St-Pierre-le-Jeune Catholic church. In addition, a preliminary test was performed on the Josephine Pavilion. Two UAVs were used in this research; namely the Sensefly Albris and the DJI Phantom 3 Professional. The experiments have shown that the calibration parameters tend to be unstable for small sensors. Furthermore, the dense matching of images remains a particular problem to address in a close range photogrammetry project, more so in the presence of noise on the images. Data management in cases where the number of images is high is also very important. The UAV is nevertheless a suitable solution for the surveying and recording of historical buildings because it is able to take images from points of view which are normally inaccessible to classical terrestrial techniques.

SENER molten salt tower technology. Ouarzazate NOOR III case

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Relloso, Sergio; Gutiérrez, Yolanda

2017-06-01

NOOR III 150 MWe project is the evolution of Gemasolar (19.9 MWe) to large scale Molten Salt Tower plants. With more than 5 years of operational experience, Gemasolar lessons learned have been the starting point for the optimization of this technology, considered the leader of potential cost reduction in CSP. In addition, prototypes of plant key components (heliostat and receiver) were manufactured and thoroughly tested before project launch in order to prove the new engineering solutions adopted. The SENER proprietary technology of NOOR III will be applied in the next Molten Salt Tower plants that will follow in other countries, such as South Africa, Chile and Australia.

Building America Case Study: Project Overcoat: Airtightness Strategies and Impacts for 1-1/2 Story Homes, Minneapolis, Minnesota (Fact Sheet)

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

None, None

In this second study on solutions to ice dams in 1-1/2 story homes, five test homes located in both cold and very cold climates were analyzed for air leakage reduction rates following modifications by independent contractors on owner-occupied homes. The reason for choosing this house type was they are very common in our area and very difficult to air seal and insulate effectively. Two projects followed a roof-only Exterior Thermal Moisture Management System (ETMMS) process. One project used an interior-only approach to roof air sealing and insulation. The remaining two projects used a deep energy retrofit approach for whole housemore » (foundation wall, above grade wall, roof) air leakage and heat loss reduction. All were asked to provide information regarding project goals, process, and pre and post-blower door test results. Additional air leakage reduction data was provided by several NorthernSTAR Building America industry partners for interior-applied, roof-only modifications on 1-1/2 story homes. The data represents homes in the general market as well as homes that were part of the state of Minnesota weatherization program. A goal was to compare exterior air sealing methods with interior approaches. This pool of data enabled us to compare air tightness data from over 220 homes using similar air seal methods.« less

Experiences Using Lightweight Formal Methods for Requirements Modeling

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Easterbrook, Steve; Lutz, Robyn; Covington, Rick; Kelly, John; Ampo, Yoko; Hamilton, David

1997-01-01

This paper describes three case studies in the lightweight application of formal methods to requirements modeling for spacecraft fault protection systems. The case studies differ from previously reported applications of formal methods in that formal methods were applied very early in the requirements engineering process, to validate the evolving requirements. The results were fed back into the projects, to improve the informal specifications. For each case study, we describe what methods were applied, how they were applied, how much effort was involved, and what the findings were. In all three cases, formal methods enhanced the existing verification and validation processes, by testing key properties of the evolving requirements, and helping to identify weaknesses. We conclude that the benefits gained from early modeling of unstable requirements more than outweigh the effort needed to maintain multiple representations.

Diagnosis of Parkinsonian disorders using a channelized Hotelling observer model: Proof of principle

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

Bal, H.; Bal, G.; Acton, P. D.

2007-10-15

Imaging dopamine transporters using PET and SPECT probes is a powerful technique for the early diagnosis of Parkinsonian disorders. In order to perform automated accurate diagnosis of these diseases, a channelized Hotelling observer (CHO) based model was developed and evaluated using the SPECT tracer [Tc-99m]TRODAT-1. Computer simulations were performed using a digitized striatal phantom to characterize early stages of the disease (20 lesion-present cases with varying lesion size and contrast). Projection data, modeling the effects of attenuation and geometric response function, were obtained for each case. Statistical noise levels corresponding to those observed clinically were added to the projection datamore » to obtain 100 noise realizations for each case. All the projection data were reconstructed, and a subset of the transaxial slices containing the striatum was summed and used for further analysis. CHO models, using the Laguerre-Gaussian functions as channels, were designed for two cases: (1) By training the model using individual lesion-present samples and (2) by training the model using pooled lesion-present samples. A decision threshold obtained for each CHO model was used to classify the study population (n=40). It was observed that individual lesion trained CHO models gave high diagnostic accuracy for lesions that were larger than those used to train the model and vice-versa. On the other hand, the pooled CHO model was found to give a high diagnostic accuracy for all the lesion cases (average diagnostic accuracy=0.95{+-}0.07; p<0.0001 Fisher's exact test). Based on our results, we conclude that a CHO model has the potential to provide early and accurate diagnosis of Parkinsonian disorders, thereby improving patient management.« less

Large increase in opportunistic testing for chlamydia during a pilot project in a primary health organisation.

PubMed

Azariah, Sunita; McKernon, Stephen; Werder, Suzanne

2013-06-01

The Auckland chlamydia pilot project was one of three funded by the Ministry of Health to trial implementation of the 2008 Chlamydia Management Guidelines. Chlamydia is the most commonly notified sexually transmitted infection in New Zealand. To increase opportunistic testing in under-25-year-olds and to improve documentation of partner notification in primary care. A four-month pilot was initiated in Total Healthcare Otara using a nurse-led approach. Laboratory testing data was analysed to assess whether the pilot had any impact on chlamydia testing volumes in the target age-group. Data entered in the practice management system was used to assess follow-up and management of chlamydia cases. During the pilot there was a 300% increase in the number of chlamydia tests in the target age group from 812 to 2410 and the number of male tests increased by nearly 500%. Twenty-four percent of people tested were positive for chlamydia, with no significant difference in prevalence by ethnicity. The pilot resulted in better documentation of patient follow-up in the patient management system. There was a large increase in chlamydia testing during the pilot with a high prevalence found in the population tested. Chlamydia remains an important health problem in New Zealand. The cost benefit of increased chlamydia screening at a population level has yet to be established.

Website Redesign: A Case Study.

PubMed

Wu, Jin; Brown, Janis F

2016-01-01

A library website redesign is a complicated and at times arduous task, requiring many different steps including determining user needs, analyzing past user behavior, examining other websites, defining design preferences, testing, marketing, and launching the site. Many different types of expertise are required over the entire process. Lessons learned from the Norris Medical Library's experience with the redesign effort may be useful to others undertaking a similar project.

Climate Change Implications for Tropical Islands: Interpolating and Interpreting Statistically Downscaled GCM Projections for Management and Planning

Treesearch

Azad Henareh Khalyani; William A. Gould; Eric Harmsen; Adam Terando; Maya Quinones; Jaime A. Collazo

2016-01-01

Security Engineering Project

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-01-31

from a wireless joystick console broadcasting at 2.4 GHz. Figure 6. GTRI Airborne Unmanned Sensor System As shown in Figure 7 the autopilot has a...generating wind turbines , and video reconnaissance systems on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The most basic decision problem in designing a...chosen test UAV case was the GTRI Aerial Unmanned Sensor System (GAUSS) aircraft. The GAUSS platform is a small research UAV with a widely used

Land Vehicle Tire Qualification

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-03-25

Bead damage / separation -Severe open splices and/or liner separations - Tire induced loss of air -Exposed or broken casing -Bulges in tread or...sidewall SAE J2014 11 SAE J2014 4.14 Tire Treadlife Durability -10000 miles duration -Evaluate tread wear performance of candidate tire -Measurements at... Tread Depth measurement of reference and candidate tires taken at specified intervals • Candidate tires must complete the test and tread wear projections

Combining Adaptive Hypermedia with Project and Case-Based Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Papanikolaou, Kyparisia; Grigoriadou, Maria

2009-01-01

In this article we investigate the design of educational hypermedia based on constructivist learning theories. According to the principles of project and case-based learning we present the design rational of an Adaptive Educational Hypermedia system prototype named MyProject; learners working with MyProject undertake a project and the system…

Two case studies: QuietRock QR-530 drywall panels in new and remediated multifamily construction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tinianov, Brian D.

2005-09-01

Reliable acoustical isolation continues to be a high risk element of contemporary multifamily construction. Traditional construction techniques, offering potentially high acoustical performance, exist but may be compromised during typical construction or occupation. This paper presents two case studies using a new class of construction material-drywall panels employing constrained layer damping. QuietRock QR-530 damped gypsum board panels are used in a new construction project and as part of a remediation treatment. In a first study, QR-530 panels were used as a drywall alternative in a 2×6, semistaggered, framed wall separating luxury condominiums. Field evaluation per ASTM E36 revealed a normalized noise isolation class of 56. In a second case study, a single layer of QuietRock was applied directly to an existing single stud assembly in a resort hotel. Before and after testing yielded a change of 14 points, raising the noise isolation class from 36 to 50. This paper reviews the details of the test cases and the underlying physical principals of the subject materials.

Student ownership of projects in an upper-division optics laboratory course: A multiple case study of successful experiences

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dounas-Frazer, Dimitri R.; Stanley, Jacob T.; Lewandowski, H. J.

2017-12-01

We investigate students' sense of ownership of multiweek final projects in an upper-division optics lab course. Using a multiple case study approach, we describe three student projects in detail. Within-case analyses focused on identifying key issues in each project, and constructing chronological descriptions of those events. Cross-case analysis focused on identifying emergent themes with respect to five dimensions of project ownership: student agency, instructor mentorship, peer collaboration, interest and value, and affective responses. Our within- and cross-case analyses yielded three major findings. First, coupling division of labor with collective brainstorming can help balance student agency, instructor mentorship, and peer collaboration. Second, students' interest in the project and perceptions of its value can increase over time; initial student interest in the project topic is not a necessary condition for student ownership of the project. Third, student ownership is characterized by a wide range of emotions that fluctuate as students alternate between extended periods of struggle and moments of success while working on their projects. These findings not only extend the literature on student ownership into a new educational domain—namely, upper-division physics labs—they also have concrete implications for the design of experimental physics projects in courses for which student ownership is a desired learning outcome. We describe the course and projects in sufficient detail that others can adapt our results to their particular contexts.

Reliability analysis and utilization of PEMs in space application

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jiang, Xiujie; Wang, Zhihua; Sun, Huixian; Chen, Xiaomin; Zhao, Tianlin; Yu, Guanghua; Zhou, Changyi

2009-11-01

More and more plastic encapsulated microcircuits (PEMs) are used in space missions to achieve high performance. Since PEMs are designed for use in terrestrial operating conditions, the successful usage of PEMs in space harsh environment is closely related to reliability issues, which should be considered firstly. However, there is no ready-made methodology for PEMs in space applications. This paper discusses the reliability for the usage of PEMs in space. This reliability analysis can be divided into five categories: radiation test, radiation hardness, screening test, reliability calculation and reliability assessment. One case study is also presented to illuminate the details of the process, in which a PEM part is used in a joint space program Double-Star Project between the European Space Agency (ESA) and China. The influence of environmental constrains including radiation, humidity, temperature and mechanics on the PEM part has been considered. Both Double-Star Project satellites are still running well in space now.

The effectiveness of collaborative care for people with memory problems in primary care: results of the CAREDEM case management modelling and feasibility study.

PubMed

Iliffe, Steve; Waugh, Amy; Poole, Marie; Bamford, Claire; Brittain, Katie; Chew-Graham, Carolyn; Fox, Chris; Katona, Cornelius; Livingston, Gill; Manthorpe, Jill; Steen, Nick; Stephens, Barbara; Hogan, Vanessa; Robinson, Louise

2014-08-01

People with dementia and their families need support in different forms, but currently services are often fragmented with variable quality of care. Case management offers a way of co-ordinating services along the care pathway and therefore could provide individualised support; however, evidence of the effectiveness of case management for dementia is inconclusive. To adapt the intervention used in a promising case management project in the USA and test its feasibility and acceptability in English general practice. In work package 1, a design group of varied professionals, with a carer and staff from the voluntary sector, met six times over a year to identify the skills and personal characteristics required for case management; protocols from the US study were adapted for use in the UK. The feasibility of recruiting general practices and patient-carer dyads and of delivering case management were tested in a pilot study (work package 2). An embedded qualitative study explored stakeholder views on study procedures and case management. Four general practices, two in the north-east of England (Newcastle) one in London and one in Norfolk, took part in a feasibility pilot study of case management. Community-dwelling people with dementia and their carers who were not already being case managed by other services. A social worker shared by the two practices in the north-east and practice nurses in the other two practices were trained to deliver case management. We aimed to recruit 11 people with dementia from each practice who were not already being case managed. Numbers of people with dementia and their carers recruited, numbers and content of contacts, needs identified and perceptions of case management among stakeholders. Recruitment of practices and patients was slow and none of the practices achieved its recruitment target. It took more than 6 months to recruit a total of 28 people with dementia. Practice Quality and Outcome Framework registers for dementia contained only 60% of the expected number of people, most living in care homes. All stakeholders were positive about the potential of case management; however, only one of the four practices achieved a level of case management activity that might have influenced patient and carer outcomes. Case managers' activity levels were not related solely to time available for case management. Delivery of case management was hindered by limited clarity about the role, poor integration with existing services and a lack of embeddedness within primary care. There were discrepancies between case manager and researcher judgements about need, and evidence of a high threshold for acting on unmet need. The practice nurses experienced difficulties in ring-fencing case management time. The model of case management developed and evaluated in this feasibility study is unlikely to be sustainable in general practice under current conditions and in our view it would not be appropriate to attempt a definitive trial of this model. This study could inform the development of a case management role with a greater likelihood of impact. Different approaches to recruiting and training case managers, and identifying people with dementia who might benefit from case management, are needed, as is exploration of the scale of need for this type of working. Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN74015152. This project was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Technology Assessment programme and will be published in full in Health Technology Assessment; Vol. 18, No. 52. See the NIHR Journals Library website for further project information.

RELAP5 Analyses of OECD/NEA ROSA-2 Project Experiments on Intermediate-Break LOCAs at Hot Leg or Cold Leg

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Takeda, Takeshi; Maruyama, Yu; Watanabe, Tadashi; Nakamura, Hideo

Experiments simulating PWR intermediate-break loss-of-coolant accidents (IBLOCAs) with 17% break at hot leg or cold leg were conducted in OECD/NEA ROSA-2 Project using the Large Scale Test Facility (LSTF). In the hot leg IBLOCA test, core uncovery started simultaneously with liquid level drop in crossover leg downflow-side before loop seal clearing (LSC) induced by steam condensation on accumulator coolant injected into cold leg. Water remained on upper core plate in upper plenum due to counter-current flow limiting (CCFL) because of significant upward steam flow from the core. In the cold leg IBLOCA test, core dryout took place due to rapid liquid level drop in the core before LSC. Liquid was accumulated in upper plenum, steam generator (SG) U-tube upflow-side and SG inlet plenum before the LSC due to CCFL by high velocity vapor flow, causing enhanced decrease in the core liquid level. The RELAP5/MOD3.2.1.2 post-test analyses of the two LSTF experiments were performed employing critical flow model in the code with a discharge coefficient of 1.0. In the hot leg IBLOCA case, cladding surface temperature of simulated fuel rods was underpredicted due to overprediction of core liquid level after the core uncovery. In the cold leg IBLOCA case, the cladding surface temperature was underpredicted too due to later core uncovery than in the experiment. These may suggest that the code has remaining problems in proper prediction of primary coolant distribution.

SANDS: a service-oriented architecture for clinical decision support in a National Health Information Network.

PubMed

Wright, Adam; Sittig, Dean F

2008-12-01

In this paper, we describe and evaluate a new distributed architecture for clinical decision support called SANDS (Service-oriented Architecture for NHIN Decision Support), which leverages current health information exchange efforts and is based on the principles of a service-oriented architecture. The architecture allows disparate clinical information systems and clinical decision support systems to be seamlessly integrated over a network according to a set of interfaces and protocols described in this paper. The architecture described is fully defined and developed, and six use cases have been developed and tested using a prototype electronic health record which links to one of the existing prototype National Health Information Networks (NHIN): drug interaction checking, syndromic surveillance, diagnostic decision support, inappropriate prescribing in older adults, information at the point of care and a simple personal health record. Some of these use cases utilize existing decision support systems, which are either commercially or freely available at present, and developed outside of the SANDS project, while other use cases are based on decision support systems developed specifically for the project. Open source code for many of these components is available, and an open source reference parser is also available for comparison and testing of other clinical information systems and clinical decision support systems that wish to implement the SANDS architecture. The SANDS architecture for decision support has several significant advantages over other architectures for clinical decision support. The most salient of these are:

On scientific utility inspired by collecting real-time reports of the aurora

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

MacDonald, E.; Kosar, B.; Heavner, M.; Case, N.; Michael, C. R.; Edwardson, A.; Patel, K.; Hall, M.

2016-12-01

Aurorasaurus is a new source of global, real-time data on the visibility of the aurora. Citizen science observations have been collected via a website, social media, and apps for over two years during active aurora times. In the data-starved field of space physics thousands of such reports are scientifically useful to test and extend coarse models predicting the extent of aurora. Accuracy improvements to the leading model based on case and statistical studies have been developed and these improvements implemented in better real time tools. Our project also uses Twitter data in novel ways, showing that it can robustly indicate geomagnetic activity in real-time, that locations can be extracted from tweets at significantly higher than usual rates, that the real-time veracity of reports can be verified, and that the efficacy of such a system can be tested. Through the project, enthusiasts and credentialed scientists have collaborated to investigate and make discoveries of rare auroral phenomena as well. We will discuss the scientific results in 5 papers to date, as well as aspects of these results that have similarities to other citizen science projects. We will discuss elements of the project particularly well suited for scientific inquiry as well as those aspects that have presented challenges.

Spatially constrained Bayesian inversion of frequency- and time-domain electromagnetic data from the Tellus projects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kiyan, Duygu; Rath, Volker; Delhaye, Robert

2017-04-01

The frequency- and time-domain airborne electromagnetic (AEM) data collected under the Tellus projects of the Geological Survey of Ireland (GSI) which represent a wealth of information on the multi-dimensional electrical structure of Ireland's near-surface. Our project, which was funded by GSI under the framework of their Short Call Research Programme, aims to develop and implement inverse techniques based on various Bayesian methods for these densely sampled data. We have developed a highly flexible toolbox using Python language for the one-dimensional inversion of AEM data along the flight lines. The computational core is based on an adapted frequency- and time-domain forward modelling core derived from the well-tested open-source code AirBeo, which was developed by the CSIRO (Australia) and the AMIRA consortium. Three different inversion methods have been implemented: (i) Tikhonov-type inversion including optimal regularisation methods (Aster el al., 2012; Zhdanov, 2015), (ii) Bayesian MAP inversion in parameter and data space (e.g. Tarantola, 2005), and (iii) Full Bayesian inversion with Markov Chain Monte Carlo (Sambridge and Mosegaard, 2002; Mosegaard and Sambridge, 2002), all including different forms of spatial constraints. The methods have been tested on synthetic and field data. This contribution will introduce the toolbox and present case studies on the AEM data from the Tellus projects.

Melanoma detection using a mobile phone app

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Diniz, Luciano E.; Ennser, K.

2016-03-01

Mobile phones have had their processing power greatly increased since their invention a few decades ago. As a direct result of Moore's Law, this improvement has made available several applications that were impossible before. The aim of this project is to develop a mobile phone app, integrated with its camera coupled to an amplifying lens, to help distinguish melanoma. The proposed device has the capability of processing skin mole images and suggesting, using a score system, if it is a case of melanoma or not. This score system is based on the ABCDE signs of melanoma, and takes into account the area, the perimeter and the colors present in the nevus. It was calibrated and tested using images from the PH2 Dermoscopic Image Database from Pedro Hispano Hospital. The results show that the system created can be useful, with an accuracy of up to 100% for malign cases and 80% for benign cases (including common and atypical moles), when used in the test group.

Changes in serial laboratory test results in snakebite patients: when can we safely exclude envenoming?

PubMed

Ireland, Graham; Brown, Simon G A; Buckley, Nicholas A; Stormer, Jeff; Currie, Bart J; White, Julian; Spain, David; Isbister, Geoffrey K

2010-09-06

To determine which laboratory tests are first associated with severe envenoming after a snakebite, when (ie, how long after the bite) the test results become abnormal, and whether this can determine a safe observation period after suspected snakebite. Prospective cohort study of 478 patients with suspected or confirmed snakebite recruited to the Australian Snakebite Project from January 2002 to April 2009, who had at least three sets of laboratory test results and at least 12 hours of observation in hospital after the bite. Severe envenoming was defined as venom-induced consumption coagulopathy (VICC), myotoxicity, neurotoxicity or thrombotic microangiopathy. International normalised ratio (INR), activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT), creatine kinase (CK) level, and neurological examination. There were 240 patients with severe envenoming, 75 with minor envenoming and 163 non-envenomed patients. Of 206 patients with VICC, 178 had an INR > 1.2 (abnormal) on admission, and the remaining 28 had an INR > 1.2 within 12 hours of the bite. Of 33 patients with myotoxicity, a combination of CK > 250 U/L and an abnormal aPTT identified all but two cases by 12 hours; one of these two was identified within 12 hours by leukocytosis. Nine cases of isolated neurotoxicity had a median time of onset after the bite of 4 hours (range, 35 min - 12 h). The combination of serial INR, aPTT and CK tests and repeated neurological examination identified 213 of 222 severe envenoming cases (96%) by 6 hours and 238 of 240 (99%) by 12 hours. Laboratory parameters (INR, aPTT and CK) and neurological reassessments identified nearly all severe envenoming cases within 12 hours of the bite, even in this conservative analysis that assumed normal test results if the test was not done.

The Holocaust in Hungary and Poland: Case Studies of Response to Genocide. Curriculum Project. Fulbright-Hays Summer Seminars Abroad Program, 1998 (Hungary/Poland).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hartley, William L.

This curriculum project was designed primarily to be incorporated into a larger world history unit on the Holocaust and World War II. The project can be adapted for a lesson on 'situational ethics' for use in a philosophy class. The lesson requires students to examine a historical case and to write and discuss that particular case. The project's…

Research use of the AIDA www.2aida.org diabetes software simulation program: a review-part 1. decision support testing and neural network training.

PubMed

Lehmann, Eldon D

2003-01-01

The purpose of this two-part review is to overview research use of the AIDA diabetes software simulator. AIDA is a diabetes computer program that permits the interactive simulation of plasma insulin and blood glucose profiles for teaching, demonstration, and self-learning purposes. It has been made freely available, without charge, on the Internet as a noncommercial contribution to continuing diabetes education. Since its launch in 1996 over 300,000 visits have been logged at the main AIDA Website-www.2aida.org-and over 60,000 copies of the AIDA program have been downloaded free-of-charge. This review describes research projects and ventures, undertaken for the most part by other research workers in the diabetes computing field, that have made use of the freeware AIDA software. Relevant research work was identified in three main ways: (i) by personal (e-mail/written) communications from researchers, (ii) via the ISI Web of Science citation database to identify published articles that referred to AIDA-related papers, and (iii) via searches on the Internet. In a number of cases research students who had sought advice about AIDA, and diabetes computing in general, provided copies of their research dissertations/theses upon the completion of their projects. The two reviews highlight some of the many and varied research projects that have made use of the AIDA diabetes simulation software to date. A wide variety of diabetes computing topics have been addressed. In Part 1 of the review, these range from testing decision support prototypes to training artificial neural networks. In Part 2 of the review, issues surrounding dietary assessments, developing new diabetes models, and performance monitoring of closed-loop insulin delivery devices are considered. Overall, research projects making use of AIDA have been identified in Australia, Italy, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States. These reviews confirm an unexpected but useful benefit of distributing medical software, like AIDA, for free via the Internet-demonstrating how it is possible to have a synergistic benefit with other researchers-facilitating their own research projects in related medical fields. The reviews highlight a variety of these projects that have benefited from the free availability of the AIDA diabetes software simulator. In a number of cases these other research projects simply would not have been possible without unrestricted access to the AIDA software and/or technical descriptions of its workings. In addition, some specific common themes begin to emerge from the research ventures that have been reviewed. These include the use of simulated blood glucose data from the AIDA program for preliminary computerlab-based testing of other decision support prototypes. Issues surrounding such use of simulated data for separate prototype testing are discussed further in Part 2 of the review.

18 CFR 4.106 - Standard terms and conditions of case-specific exemption from licensing.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... LICENSES, PERMITS, EXEMPTIONS, AND DETERMINATION OF PROJECT COSTS Exemption of Small Hydroelectric Power Projects of 5 Megawatts or Less § 4.106 Standard terms and conditions of case-specific exemption from licensing. Any case-specific exemption from licensing granted for a small hydroelectric power project is...

18 CFR 4.106 - Standard terms and conditions of case-specific exemption from licensing.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... LICENSES, PERMITS, EXEMPTIONS, AND DETERMINATION OF PROJECT COSTS Exemption of Small Hydroelectric Power Projects of 5 Megawatts or Less § 4.106 Standard terms and conditions of case-specific exemption from licensing. Any case-specific exemption from licensing granted for a small hydroelectric power project is...

18 CFR 4.106 - Standard terms and conditions of case-specific exemption from licensing.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... LICENSES, PERMITS, EXEMPTIONS, AND DETERMINATION OF PROJECT COSTS Exemption of Small Hydroelectric Power Projects of 5 Megawatts or Less § 4.106 Standard terms and conditions of case-specific exemption from licensing. Any case-specific exemption from licensing granted for a small hydroelectric power project is...

Teaching Case: Enterprise Architecture Specification Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Steenkamp, Annette Lerine; Alawdah, Amal; Almasri, Osama; Gai, Keke; Khattab, Nidal; Swaby, Carval; Abaas, Ramy

2013-01-01

A graduate course in enterprise architecture had a team project component in which a real-world business case, provided by an industry sponsor, formed the basis of the project charter and the architecture statement of work. The paper aims to share the team project experience on developing the architecture specifications based on the business case…

Degradation and ESR Failures in MnO2 Chip Tantalum Capacitors

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Teverovsky, Alexander A.

2017-01-01

Equivalent series resistance (ESR) of chip tantalum capacitors determines the rate of energy delivery and power dissipation thus affecting temperature and reliability of the parts. Employment of advanced capacitors with reduced ESR decreases power losses and improves efficiency in power systems. Stability of ESR is essential for correct operations of power units and might cause malfunctioning and failures when ESR becomes too high or too low. Several cases with ESR values in CWR29 capacitors exceeding the specified limit that were observed recently raised concerns regarding environmental factors affecting ESR and the adequacy of the existing screening and qualification testing. In this work, results of stress testing of various types of military and commercial capacitors obtained over years by GSFC test lab and NEPP projects that involved ESR measurements are described. Environmental stress tests include testing in humidity and vacuum chambers, temperature cycling, long-term storage at high temperatures, and various soldering simulation tests. Note that in many cases parts failed due to excessive leakage currents or reduced breakdown voltages. However, only ESR-related degradation and failures are discussed. Mechanisms of moisture effect are discussed and recommendations to improve screening and qualification system are suggested.

Influence of isovector pairing and particle-number projection effects on spectroscopic factors for one-pair like-particle transfer reactions in proton-rich even-even nuclei

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Benbouzid, Y.; Allal, N. H.; Fellah, M.; Oudih, M. R.

2018-04-01

Isovector neutron-proton (np) pairing and particle-number fluctuation effects on the spectroscopic factors (SF) corresponding to one-pair like-particle transfer reactions in proton-rich even-even nuclei are studied. With this aim, expressions of the SF corresponding to two-neutron stripping and two-proton pick-up reactions, which take into account the isovector np pairing effect, are established within the generalized BCS approach, using a schematic definition proposed by Chasman. Expressions of the same SF which strictly conserve the particle number are also established within the Sharp-BCS (SBCS) discrete projection method. In both cases, it is shown that these expressions generalize those obtained when only the pairing between like particles is considered. First, the formalism is tested within the Richardson schematic model. Second, it is applied to study even-even proton-rich nuclei using the single-particle energies of a Woods-Saxon mean-field. In both cases, it is shown that the np pairing effect and the particle-number projection effect on the SF values are important, particularly in N = Z nuclei, and must then be taken into account.

MER : from landing to six wheels on Mars ... twice

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Krajewski, Joel; Burke, Kevin; Lewicki, Chris; Limonadi, Daniel; Trebi-Ollennu, Ashitey; Voorhees, Chris

2005-01-01

Application of the Pathfinder landing system design to enclose the much larger Mars Exploration Rover required a variety of Rover deployments to achieve the surface driving configuration. The project schedule demanded that software design, engineering model test, and flight hardware build to be accomplished in parallel. This challenge was met through (a) bounding unknown environments against which to design and test, (b) early mechanical prototype testing, (c) constraining the scope of on-board autonomy to survival-critical deployments, (d) executing a balance of nominal and off-nominal test cases, (e) developing off-nominal event mitigation techniques before landing, (f) flexible replanning in response to surprises during operations. Here is discussed several specific events encountered during initial MER surface operations.

Evaluation and Uncertainty of a New Method to Detect Suspected Nuclear and WMD Activity: Project Report

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

Kurzeja, R.; Werth, D.; Buckley, R.

The Atmospheric Technology Group at SRNL developed a new method to detect signals from Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) activities in a time series of chemical measurements at a downwind location. This method was tested with radioxenon measured in Russia and Japan after the 2013 underground test in North Korea. This LDRD calculated the uncertainty in the method with the measured data and also for a case with the signal reduced to 1/10 its measured value. The research showed that the uncertainty in the calculated probability of origin from the NK test site was small enough to confirm the test.more » The method was also wellbehaved for small signal strengths.« less

The effect of occlusion on the semantics of projective spatial terms: a case study in grounding language in perception.

PubMed

Kelleher, John D; Ross, Robert J; Sloan, Colm; Mac Namee, Brian

2011-02-01

Although data-driven spatial template models provide a practical and cognitively motivated mechanism for characterizing spatial term meaning, the influence of perceptual rather than solely geometric and functional properties has yet to be systematically investigated. In the light of this, in this paper, we investigate the effects of the perceptual phenomenon of object occlusion on the semantics of projective terms. We did this by conducting a study to test whether object occlusion had a noticeable effect on the acceptance values assigned to projective terms with respect to a 2.5-dimensional visual stimulus. Based on the data collected, a regression model was constructed and presented. Subsequent analysis showed that the regression model that included the occlusion factor outperformed an adaptation of Regier & Carlson's well-regarded AVS model for that same spatial configuration.

Development of a Three-Dimensional Spectral Element Model for NWP: Idealized Simulations on the Sphere

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Viner, K.; Reinecke, P. A.; Gabersek, S.; Flagg, D. D.; Doyle, J. D.; Martini, M.; Ryglicki, D.; Michalakes, J.; Giraldo, F.

2016-12-01

NEPTUNE: the Navy Environmental Prediction sysTem Using the NUMA*corE, is a 3D spectral element atmospheric model composed of a full suite of physics parameterizations and pre- and post-processing infrastructure with plans for data assimilation and coupling components to a variety of Earth-system models. This talk will focus on the initial struggles and solutions in adapting NUMA for stable and accurate integration on the sphere using both the deep atmosphere equations and a newly developed shallow-atmosphere approximation, as demonstrated through idealized test cases. In addition, details of the physics-dynamics coupling methodology will be discussed. NEPTUNE results for test cases from the 2016 Dynamical Core Model Intercomparison Project (DCMIP-2016) will be shown and discussed. *NUMA: Nonhydrostatic Unified Model of the Atmosphere; Kelly and Giraldo 2012, JCP

Do transportation subsidies and living allowances improve tuberculosis control outcomes among internal migrants in urban Shanghai, China?

PubMed

Lu, Hui; Yan, Fei; Wang, Wei; Wu, Laiwa; Ma, Weiping; Chen, Jing; Shen, Xin; Mei, Jian

2013-01-01

Tuberculosis (TB) in internal migrants is one of three threats for TB control in China. To address this threat, a project was launched in eight of the 19 districts of Shanghai in 2007 to provide transportation subsidies and living allowances for all migrant TB cases. This study aims to determine if this project contributed to improved TB control outcomes among migrants in urban Shanghai. This was a community intervention study. The data were derived from the TB Management Information System in three project districts and three non-project districts in Shanghai between 2006 and 2010. The impact of the project was estimated in a difference-in-difference (DID) analysis framework, and a multivariable binary logistic regression analysis. A total of 1872 pulmonary TB (PTB) cases in internal migrants were included in the study. The treatment success rate (TSR) for migrant smear-positive cases in project districts increased from 59.9% in 2006 to 87.6% in 2010 (P < 0.001). The crude DID improvement of TSR was 18.9%. There was an increased probability of TSR in the project group before and after the project intervention period (coefficient = 1.156, odds ratio = 3.178, 95% confidence interval: 1.305-7.736, P = 0.011). The study showed the project could improve treatment success in migrant PTB cases. This was a short-term programme using special financial subsidies for all migrant PTB cases. It is recommended that project funds be continuously invested by governments with particular focus on the more vulnerable PTB cases among migrants.

QUEST/Ada (Query Utility Environment for Software Testing of Ada): The development of a prgram analysis environment for Ada, task 1, phase 2

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Brown, David B.

1990-01-01

The results of research and development efforts are described for Task one, Phase two of a general project entitled The Development of a Program Analysis Environment for Ada. The scope of this task includes the design and development of a prototype system for testing Ada software modules at the unit level. The system is called Query Utility Environment for Software Testing of Ada (QUEST/Ada). The prototype for condition coverage provides a platform that implements expert system interaction with program testing. The expert system can modify data in the instrument source code in order to achieve coverage goals. Given this initial prototype, it is possible to evaluate the rule base in order to develop improved rules for test case generation. The goals of Phase two are the following: (1) to continue to develop and improve the current user interface to support the other goals of this research effort (i.e., those related to improved testing efficiency and increased code reliable); (2) to develop and empirically evaluate a succession of alternative rule bases for the test case generator such that the expert system achieves coverage in a more efficient manner; and (3) to extend the concepts of the current test environment to address the issues of Ada concurrency.

Systems Engineering Technical Leadership Development Program

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-02-01

leading others in creative problem solving, complexity, and why projects fail . These topics were additionally supported by case studies designed to...Your Core Values Dominick Wed 12:30-1:30 Lunch Wed 1:30-2:45 Case Study: Why Projects Fail Pennotti Wed 2:45-3:00 Break Wed 3:00-4:30 Project...Case Study: When Good Wasn’t Good Enough 11. Technical Value-5: Group Project: AR2D2 RFP 12. Customer Expectation-1: Lecture: Why Systems Fail

The affordability for patients of a new universal MDR-TB coverage model in China.

PubMed

Ruan, Y-Z; Li, R-Z; Wang, X-X; Wang, L-X; Sun, Q; Chen, C; Xu, C-H; Su, W; Zhao, J; Pang, Y; Cheng, J; Wang, Q; Fu, Y-T; Huan, S-T; Chen, M-T; Scano, F; Floyd, K; Chin, D P; Fitzpatrick, C

2016-05-01

China has piloted a new model of universal coverage for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), designed to rationalize hospital use of drugs and tests and move away from fee-for-service payment towards a standard package with financial protection against catastrophic health costs. To evaluate the affordability to patients of this new model. This was an observational study of 243 MDR-TB cases eligible for enrolment on treatment under the project. We assessed the affordability of the project from the perspective of households, with a focus on catastrophic costs. Of the 243 eligible cases, 172 (71%) were enrolled on treatment; of the 71 cases not enrolled, 26 (37%) cited economic reasons. The 73 surveyed cases paid an average of RMB 5977 (US$920) out-of-pocket in search costs incurred outside the pilot model. Within the pilot, they paid another RMB 2094 (US$322) in medical fees and RMB 5230 (US$805) in direct non-medical costs. Despite 90% reimbursement of medical fees, 78% of households experienced catastrophic costs, including indirect costs. The objectives of the pilot model are aligned with health reform in China and universal health coverage globally. Enrollment would almost certainly be higher with 100% reimbursement of medical fees, but patient enablers will be required to truly eliminate catastrophic costs.

A new analytical framework of 'continuum of prevention and care' to maximize HIV case detection and retention in care in Vietnam

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background The global initiative ‘Treatment 2.0’ calls for expanding the evidence base of optimal HIV service delivery models to maximize HIV case detection and retention in care. However limited systematic assessment has been conducted in countries with concentrated HIV epidemic. We aimed to assess HIV service availability and service connectedness in Vietnam. Methods We developed a new analytical framework of the continuum of prevention and care (COPC). Using the framework, we examined HIV service delivery in Vietnam. Specifically, we analyzed HIV service availability including geographical distribution and decentralization and service connectedness across multiple services and dimensions. We then identified system-related strengths and constraints in improving HIV case detection and retention in care. This was accomplished by reviewing related published and unpublished documents including existing service delivery data. Results Identified strengths included: decentralized HIV outpatient clinics that offer comprehensive care at the district level particularly in high HIV burden provinces; functional chronic care management for antiretroviral treatment (ART) with the involvement of people living with HIV and the links to community- and home-based care; HIV testing and counseling integrated into tuberculosis and antenatal care services in districts supported by donor-funded projects, and extensive peer outreach networks that reduce barriers for the most-at-risk populations to access services. Constraints included: fragmented local coordination mechanisms for HIV-related health services; lack of systems to monitor the expansion of HIV outpatient clinics that offer comprehensive care; underdevelopment of pre-ART care; insufficient linkage from HIV testing and counseling to pre-ART care; inadequate access to HIV-related services in districts not supported by donor-funded projects particularly in middle and low burden provinces and in mountainous remote areas; and no systematic monitoring of referral services. Conclusions Our COPC analytical framework was instrumental in identifying system-related strengths and constraints that contribute to HIV case detection and retention in care. The national HIV program plans to strengthen provincial programming by re-defining various service linkages and accelerate the transition from project-based approach to integrated service delivery in line with the ‘Treatment 2.0’ initiative. PMID:23272730

A new analytical framework of 'continuum of prevention and care' to maximize HIV case detection and retention in care in Vietnam.

PubMed

Fujita, Masami; Poudel, Krishna C; Do, Thi Nhan; Bui, Duc Duong; Nguyen, Van Kinh; Green, Kimberly; Nguyen, Thi Minh Thu; Kato, Masaya; Jacka, David; Cao, Thi Thanh Thuy; Nguyen, Thanh Long; Jimba, Masamine

2012-12-29

The global initiative 'Treatment 2.0' calls for expanding the evidence base of optimal HIV service delivery models to maximize HIV case detection and retention in care. However limited systematic assessment has been conducted in countries with concentrated HIV epidemic. We aimed to assess HIV service availability and service connectedness in Vietnam. We developed a new analytical framework of the continuum of prevention and care (COPC). Using the framework, we examined HIV service delivery in Vietnam. Specifically, we analyzed HIV service availability including geographical distribution and decentralization and service connectedness across multiple services and dimensions. We then identified system-related strengths and constraints in improving HIV case detection and retention in care. This was accomplished by reviewing related published and unpublished documents including existing service delivery data. Identified strengths included: decentralized HIV outpatient clinics that offer comprehensive care at the district level particularly in high HIV burden provinces; functional chronic care management for antiretroviral treatment (ART) with the involvement of people living with HIV and the links to community- and home-based care; HIV testing and counseling integrated into tuberculosis and antenatal care services in districts supported by donor-funded projects, and extensive peer outreach networks that reduce barriers for the most-at-risk populations to access services. Constraints included: fragmented local coordination mechanisms for HIV-related health services; lack of systems to monitor the expansion of HIV outpatient clinics that offer comprehensive care; underdevelopment of pre-ART care; insufficient linkage from HIV testing and counseling to pre-ART care; inadequate access to HIV-related services in districts not supported by donor-funded projects particularly in middle and low burden provinces and in mountainous remote areas; and no systematic monitoring of referral services. Our COPC analytical framework was instrumental in identifying system-related strengths and constraints that contribute to HIV case detection and retention in care. The national HIV program plans to strengthen provincial programming by re-defining various service linkages and accelerate the transition from project-based approach to integrated service delivery in line with the 'Treatment 2.0' initiative.

The Dynamics of Project-Based Learning Extension Courses: The "Laboratory of Social Projects" Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arantes do Amaral, Joao Alberto

2017-01-01

In this case study we discuss the dynamics that drive a free-of-charge project-based learning extension course. We discuss the lessons learned in the course, "Laboratory of Social Projects." The course aimed to teach project management skills to the participants. It was conducted from August to November of 2015, at Federal University of…

International energy outlook 1996

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

NONE

1996-05-01

This International Energy Outlook presents historical data from 1970 to 1993 and EIA`s projections of energy consumption and carbon emissions through 2015 for 6 country groups. Prospects for individual fuels are discussed. Summary tables of the IEO96 world energy consumption, oil production, and carbon emissions projections are provided in Appendix A. The reference case projections of total foreign energy consumption and of natural gas, coal, and renewable energy were prepared using EIA`s World Energy Projection System (WEPS) model. Reference case projections of foreign oil production and consumption were prepared using the International Energy Module of the National Energy Modeling Systemmore » (NEMS). Nuclear consumption projections were derived from the International Nuclear Model, PC Version (PC-INM). Alternatively, nuclear capacity projections were developed using two methods: the lower reference case projections were based on analysts` knowledge of the nuclear programs in different countries; the upper reference case was generated by the World Integrated Nuclear Evaluation System (WINES)--a demand-driven model. In addition, the NEMS Coal Export Submodule (CES) was used to derive flows in international coal trade. As noted above, foreign projections of electricity demand are now projected as part of the WEPS. 64 figs., 62 tabs.« less

A Case Study of Teaching Marketing Research Using Client-Sponsored Projects: Method, Challenges, and Benefits

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bove, Liliana L.; Davies, W. Martin

2009-01-01

This case study outlines the use of client-sponsored research projects in a quantitative postgraduate marketing research subject conducted in a 12-week semester in a research-intensive Australian university. The case study attempts to address the dearth of recent literature on client-sponsored research projects in the discipline of marketing.…

Airpower Projection in the Anti-Access/Area Denial Environment: Dispersed Operations

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-02-01

Raptor Case Study.....................................................................6 Risks to Dispersed Operations...project airpower, this paper breaks down a case study of the Rapid Raptor concept. The risks with executing a dispersed model are analyzed and mitigation...will force leaders to look at alternative ways to project power. Alternative Option: Rapid Raptor Case Study The ability to defend forward operating

Estimating the impact of enterprise resource planning project management decisions on post-implementation maintenance costs: a case study using simulation modelling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fryling, Meg

2010-11-01

Organisations often make implementation decisions with little consideration for the maintenance phase of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, resulting in significant recurring maintenance costs. Poor cost estimations are likely related to the lack of an appropriate framework for enterprise-wide pre-packaged software maintenance, which requires an ongoing relationship with the software vendor (Markus, M.L., Tanis, C., and Fenema, P.C., 2000. Multisite ERP implementation. CACM, 43 (4), 42-46). The end result is that critical project decisions are made with little empirical data, resulting in substantial long-term cost impacts. The product of this research is a formal dynamic simulation model that enables theory testing, scenario exploration and policy analysis. The simulation model ERPMAINT1 was developed by combining and extending existing frameworks in several research domains, and by incorporating quantitative and qualitative case study data. The ERPMAINT1 model evaluates tradeoffs between different ERP project management decisions and their impact on post-implementation total cost of ownership (TCO). Through model simulations a variety of dynamic insights were revealed that could assist ERP project managers. Major findings from the simulation show that upfront investments in mentoring and system exposure translate to long-term cost savings. The findings also indicate that in addition to customisations, add-ons have a significant impact on TCO.

An opposite view data replacement approach for reducing artifacts due to metallic dental objects

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

Yazdi, Mehran; Lari, Meghdad Asadi; Bernier, Gaston

Purpose: To present a conceptually new method for metal artifact reduction (MAR) that can be used on patients with multiple objects within the scan plane that are also of small sized along the longitudinal (scanning) direction, such as dental fillings. Methods: The proposed algorithm, named opposite view replacement, achieves MAR by first detecting the projection data affected by metal objects and then replacing the affected projections by the corresponding opposite view projections, which are not affected by metal objects. The authors also applied a fading process to avoid producing any discontinuities in the boundary of the affected projection areas inmore » the sinogram. A skull phantom with and without a variety of dental metal inserts was made to extract the performance metric of the algorithm. A head and neck case, typical of IMRT planning, was also tested. Results: The reconstructed CT images based on this new replacement scheme show a significant improvement in image quality for patients with metallic dental objects compared to the MAR algorithms based on the interpolation scheme. For the phantom, the authors showed that the artifact reduction algorithm can efficiently recover the CT numbers in the area next to the metallic objects. Conclusions: The authors presented a new and efficient method for artifact reduction due to multiple small metallic objects. The obtained results from phantoms and clinical cases fully validate the proposed approach.« less

Evaluation of an image-based tracking workflow using a passive marker and resonant micro-coil fiducials for automatic image plane alignment in interventional MRI.

PubMed

Neumann, M; Breton, E; Cuvillon, L; Pan, L; Lorenz, C H; de Mathelin, M

2012-01-01

In this paper, an original workflow is presented for MR image plane alignment based on tracking in real-time MR images. A test device consisting of two resonant micro-coils and a passive marker is proposed for detection using image-based algorithms. Micro-coils allow for automated initialization of the object detection in dedicated low flip angle projection images; then the passive marker is tracked in clinical real-time MR images, with alternation between two oblique orthogonal image planes along the test device axis; in case the passive marker is lost in real-time images, the workflow is reinitialized. The proposed workflow was designed to minimize dedicated acquisition time to a single dedicated acquisition in the ideal case (no reinitialization required). First experiments have shown promising results for test-device tracking precision, with a mean position error of 0.79 mm and a mean orientation error of 0.24°.

Acquisition and review of diagnostic images for use in medical research and medical testing examinations via the Internet

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pauley, Mark A.; Dalrymple, Glenn V.; Zhu, Quiming; Chu, Wei-Kom

2000-12-01

With the continued centralization of medical care into large, regional centers, there is a growing need for a flexible, inexpensive, and secure system to rapidly provide referring physicians in the field with the results of the sophisticated medical tests performed at these facilities. Furthermore, the medical community has long recognized the need for a system with similar characteristics to maintain and upgrade patient case sets for oral and written student examinations. With the move toward filmless radiographic instrumentation, the widespread and growing use of digital methods and the Internet, both of these processes can now be realized. This article describes the conceptual development and testing of a protocol that allow users to transmit, modify, remotely store and display the images and textual information of medical cases via the Internet. We also discuss some of the legal issues we encountered regarding the transmission of medical information; these issues have had a direct impact on the implementation of the results of this project.

Factors Influencing Teachers’ Implementation of an Innovative Tobacco Prevention Curriculum for Multiethnic Youth: Project SPLASH

PubMed Central

Sy, Angela; Glanz, Karen

2013-01-01

BACKGROUND The effectiveness of school-based tobacco use prevention programs depends on proper implementation. This study examined factors associated with teachers’ implementation of a smoking prevention curriculum in a cluster randomized trial called Project SPLASH (Smoking Prevention Launch Among Students in Hawaii). METHODS A process evaluation was conducted and a cross-condition comparison used to examine whether teacher characteristics, teacher training, external facilitators and barriers, teacher attitudes, and curriculum attributes were associated with the dose of teacher implementation in the intervention and control arms of the study. Data were collected from a total of 62 middle school teachers in 20 public schools in Hawaii, during the 2000-2001 and 2001-2002 school years. Sources included teacher questionnaires and interviews. Chi-square test and t test revealed that implementation dose was related to teachers’ disciplinary backgrounds and skills and student enjoyment of the curriculum. RESULTS Content analysis, within case, and cross-case analyses of qualitative data revealed that implementing the curriculum in a yearlong class schedule and high teacher self-efficacy supported implementation, while high perceived curriculum complexity was associated with less complete implementation. CONCLUSIONS The results have implications for research, school health promotion practice, and the implementation of evidence-based youth tobacco use prevention curricula. PMID:18387026

[Three patients with pneumonia due to Legionella associated with a sauna, a cooling tower and a caravan in The Netherlands].

PubMed

Bencini, M A; IJzerman, E P F; Bruin, J P; den Boer, J W

2005-09-03

In three male patients with lower respiratory disease, aged 51, 32 and 63 years, Legionnaires' disease was diagnosed by urinary antigen test and culture of the respiratory-tract fluid. In the second patient, the bronchoalveolar fluid also contained Streptococcus pneumoniae and Haemophilus influenzae. All three patients recovered after treatment with azithromycin in the first, cefotaxime, vancomycin and levofloxacin in the second, and erythromycin and ciprofloxacin in the third, respectively. Legionella pneumophila pneumonia is clinically not clearly distinct from other pneumonias and has a high mortality rate when not treated with the proper antibiotics. For that reason, adequate and swift diagnosis is of great importance. The urinary antigen test meets both of these criteria. Still, it is advisable to use culture and serology as well if Legionnaires' disease is suspected in a patient, since the urinary antigen test has limitations. In addition, patient isolates are ofepidemiological importance for public health. By comparing available patient isolates with Legionella strains from water sources, it is possible to identify sources of infection. In 2002, based on this principle, a project was started in The Netherlands aimed at identifying sources of infection, thereby preventing outbreaks of Legionnaires' disease by swift elimination of the source. Since the start of the project, 29 sources have been identified. In the cases described above these were a sauna, a cooling tower and a caravan, respectively. In suspected cases, respiratory-tract fluid must be collected to make possible such a source investigation.

A Testing Framework for Critical Space SW

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fernandez, Ignacio; Di Cerbo, Antonio; Dehnhardt, Erik; Massimo, Tipaldi; Brünjes, Bernhard

2015-09-01

This paper describes a testing framework for critical space SW named Technical Specification Validation Framework (TSVF). It provides a powerful and flexible means and can be used throughout the SW test activities (test case specification & implementation, test execution and test artifacts analysis). In particular, tests can be run in an automated and/or step-by-step mode. The TSVF framework is currently used for the validation of the Satellite Control Software (SCSW), which runs on the Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) satellite on-board computer. The main purpose of the SCSW is to control the spacecraft along with its various subsystems (AOCS, Payload, Electrical Power, Telemetry Tracking & Command, etc.) in a way that guarantees a high degree of flexibility and autonomy. The TSVF framework serves the challenging needs of the SCSW project, where a plan-driven approach has been combined with an agile process in order to produce preliminary SW versions (with a reduced scope of implemented functionality) in order to fulfill the stakeholders needs ([1]). The paper has been organised as follows. Section 2 gives an overview of the TSVF architecture and interfaces versus the test bench along with the technology used for its implementation. Section 3 describes the key elements of the XML based language for the test case implementation. Section 4 highlights all the benefits compared to conventional test environments requiring a manual test script development, whereas section 5 concludes the paper.

FAST Model Calibration and Validation of the OC5- DeepCwind Floating Offshore Wind System Against Wave Tank Test Data: Preprint

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

Wendt, Fabian F; Robertson, Amy N; Jonkman, Jason

During the course of the Offshore Code Comparison Collaboration, Continued, with Correlation (OC5) project, which focused on the validation of numerical methods through comparison against tank test data, the authors created a numerical FAST model of the 1:50-scale DeepCwind semisubmersible system that was tested at the Maritime Research Institute Netherlands ocean basin in 2013. This paper discusses several model calibration studies that were conducted to identify model adjustments that improve the agreement between the numerical simulations and the experimental test data. These calibration studies cover wind-field-specific parameters (coherence, turbulence), hydrodynamic and aerodynamic modeling approaches, as well as rotor model (blade-pitchmore » and blade-mass imbalances) and tower model (structural tower damping coefficient) adjustments. These calibration studies were conducted based on relatively simple calibration load cases (wave only/wind only). The agreement between the final FAST model and experimental measurements is then assessed based on more-complex combined wind and wave validation cases.« less

Eddy current testing of composite pressure vessels

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Casperson, R.; Pohl, R.; Munzke, D.; Becker, B.; Pelkner, M.

2018-04-01

The use of composite pressure vessels instead of conventional vessels made of steel or aluminum grew strongly over the last decade. The reason for this trend is the tremendous weight saving in the case of composite vessels. However, the long-time behavior is not fully understood for filling and discharging cycles and creep strength and their influence on the CFRP coating (carbon fiber reinforced plastics) and the internal liner (steel, aluminum, or plastics). The CFRP ensures the pressure resistance while the inner liner is used as a container for liquid or gas. To overcome the missing knowledge of aging, BAM started an internal project to investigate degradation of these material systems. Therefore, applicable testing methods like eddy current testing are needed. Normally, high-frequency eddy current testing (HF-ET, f > 10 MHz) is deployed for CFRP due to its low conductivity of the fiber, which is in the order of 0.01 MS/s, and the capacitive coupling between the fibers. Nevertheless, in some cases conventional ET can be applied. We show a concise summary of studies on the application of conventional ET of composite pressure vessels.

Testing the Neutral Theory of Biodiversity with Human Microbiome Datasets.

PubMed

Li, Lianwei; Ma, Zhanshan Sam

2016-08-16

The human microbiome project (HMP) has made it possible to test important ecological theories for arguably the most important ecosystem to human health-the human microbiome. Existing limited number of studies have reported conflicting evidence in the case of the neutral theory; the present study aims to comprehensively test the neutral theory with extensive HMP datasets covering all five major body sites inhabited by the human microbiome. Utilizing 7437 datasets of bacterial community samples, we discovered that only 49 communities (less than 1%) satisfied the neutral theory, and concluded that human microbial communities are not neutral in general. The 49 positive cases, although only a tiny minority, do demonstrate the existence of neutral processes. We realize that the traditional doctrine of microbial biogeography "Everything is everywhere, but the environment selects" first proposed by Baas-Becking resolves the apparent contradiction. The first part of Baas-Becking doctrine states that microbes are not dispersal-limited and therefore are neutral prone, and the second part reiterates that the freely dispersed microbes must endure selection by the environment. Therefore, in most cases, it is the host environment that ultimately shapes the community assembly and tip the human microbiome to niche regime.

Testing the Neutral Theory of Biodiversity with Human Microbiome Datasets

PubMed Central

Li, Lianwei; Ma, Zhanshan (Sam)

2016-01-01

The human microbiome project (HMP) has made it possible to test important ecological theories for arguably the most important ecosystem to human health—the human microbiome. Existing limited number of studies have reported conflicting evidence in the case of the neutral theory; the present study aims to comprehensively test the neutral theory with extensive HMP datasets covering all five major body sites inhabited by the human microbiome. Utilizing 7437 datasets of bacterial community samples, we discovered that only 49 communities (less than 1%) satisfied the neutral theory, and concluded that human microbial communities are not neutral in general. The 49 positive cases, although only a tiny minority, do demonstrate the existence of neutral processes. We realize that the traditional doctrine of microbial biogeography “Everything is everywhere, but the environment selects” first proposed by Baas-Becking resolves the apparent contradiction. The first part of Baas-Becking doctrine states that microbes are not dispersal-limited and therefore are neutral prone, and the second part reiterates that the freely dispersed microbes must endure selection by the environment. Therefore, in most cases, it is the host environment that ultimately shapes the community assembly and tip the human microbiome to niche regime. PMID:27527985

Seismic waveform inversion best practices: regional, global and exploration test cases

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Modrak, Ryan; Tromp, Jeroen

2016-09-01

Reaching the global minimum of a waveform misfit function requires careful choices about the nonlinear optimization, preconditioning and regularization methods underlying an inversion. Because waveform inversion problems are susceptible to erratic convergence associated with strong nonlinearity, one or two test cases are not enough to reliably inform such decisions. We identify best practices, instead, using four seismic near-surface problems, one regional problem and two global problems. To make meaningful quantitative comparisons between methods, we carry out hundreds of inversions, varying one aspect of the implementation at a time. Comparing nonlinear optimization algorithms, we find that limited-memory BFGS provides computational savings over nonlinear conjugate gradient methods in a wide range of test cases. Comparing preconditioners, we show that a new diagonal scaling derived from the adjoint of the forward operator provides better performance than two conventional preconditioning schemes. Comparing regularization strategies, we find that projection, convolution, Tikhonov regularization and total variation regularization are effective in different contexts. Besides questions of one strategy or another, reliability and efficiency in waveform inversion depend on close numerical attention and care. Implementation details involving the line search and restart conditions have a strong effect on computational cost, regardless of the chosen nonlinear optimization algorithm.

Definition and test of the electromagnetic immunity of UAS for first responders

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Adami, C.; Chmel, S.; Jöster, M.; Pusch, T.; Suhrke, M.

2015-11-01

Recent technological developments considerably lowered the barrier for unmanned aerial systems (UAS) to be employed in a variety of usage scenarios, comprising live video transmission from otherwise inaccessible vantage points. As an example, in the French-German ANCHORS project several UAS guided by swarm intelligence provide aerial views and environmental data of a disaster site while deploying an ad-hoc communication network for first responders. Since being able to operate in harsh environmental conditions is a key feature, the immunity of the UAS against radio frequency (RF) exposure has been studied. Conventional Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) applied to commercial and industrial electronics is not sufficient since UAS are airborne and can as such move beyond the bounds within which RF exposure is usually limited by regulatory measures. Therefore, the EMC requirements have been complemented by a set of specific RF test frequencies and parameters where strong sources are expected to interfere in the example project test case of an inland port environment. While no essential malfunctions could be observed up to field strengths of 30 V m-1, a sophisticated, more exhaustive approach for testing against potential sources of interference in key scenarios of UAS usage should be derived from our present findings.

Data for ground-water test hole near Zamora, Central Valley Aquifer Project, California

USGS Publications Warehouse

French, J.J.; Page, R.W.; Bertoldi, G.L.

1982-01-01

Preliminary data are presented for the first of seven test holes drilled as a part of the Central Valley Aquifer Project which is part of the National Regional Aquifer Systems Analysis Program. The test hole was drilled in the SW 1/4 SE 1/4 sec. 34, T. 12 N. , R. 1 E., Yolo County, California, about 3 miles northeast of the town of Zamora. Drilled to a depth of 2,500 feet below land surface, the hole is cased to a depth of 190 feet and equipped with three piezometer tubes to depths of 947, 1,401, and 2,125 feet. A 5-foot well screen is at the bottom of each piezometer. Eighteen cores and 68 sidewall cores were recovered. Laboratory tests were made for mineralogy, hydraulic conductivity, porosity , consolidation, grain-size distribution, Atterberg limits, X-ray diffraction, diatom identification, thermal conductivity, and chemical analysis of water. Geophysical and thermal gradient logs were made. The hole is sampled periodically for chemical analysis and measured for water level in the three tapped zones. This report presents methods used to obtain field samples, laboratory procedures, and the data obtained. (USGS)

A structured approach to Exposure Based Waiving of human health endpoints under REACH developed in the OSIRIS project.

PubMed

Marquart, Hans; Meijster, Tim; Van de Bovenkamp, Marja; Ter Burg, Wouter; Spaan, Suzanne; Van Engelen, Jacqueline

2012-03-01

Exposure Based Waiving (EBW) is one of the options in REACH when there is insufficient hazard data on a specific endpoint. Rules for adaptation of test requirements are specified and a general option for EBW is given via Appendix XI of REACH, allowing waiving of repeated dose toxicity studies, reproductive toxicity studies and carcinogenicity studies under a number of conditions if exposure is very low. A decision tree is described that was developed in the European project OSIRIS (Optimised Strategies for Risk Assessment of Industrial Chemicals through Integration of Non-Test and Test Information) to help decide in what cases EBW can be justified. The decision tree uses specific criteria as well as more general questions. For the latter, guidance on interpretation and resulting conclusions is provided. Criteria and guidance are partly based on an expert elicitation process. Among the specific criteria a number of proposed Thresholds of Toxicological Concern are used. The decision tree, expanded with specific parts on absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion that are not described in this paper, is implemented in the OSIRIS webtool on integrated testing strategies. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Shape measurement of objects with large discontinuities and surface isolations using complementary grating projection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hao, Yudong; Zhao, Yang; Li, Dacheng

1999-11-01

Grating projection 3D profilometry has three major problems that have to be handled with great care. They are local shadows, phase discontinuities and surface isolations. Carrying no information, shadow areas give us no clue about the profile there. Phase discontinuities often baffle phase unwrappers because they may be generated for several reasons difficult to distinguish. Spatial phase unwrapping will inevitably fail if the object under teste have surface isolations. In this paper, a complementary grating projection profilometry is reported, which attempts to tackle the three aforementioned problems simultaneously. This technique involves projecting two grating patterns form both sides of the CCD camera. Phase unwrapping is carried out pixel by pixel using the two phase maps based on the excess fraction method, which is immune to phase discontinuities or surface isolations. Complementary projection makes sure that no area in the visible volume of CCD is devoid of fringe information, although in some cases a small area of the reconstructed profile is of low accuracy compared with others. The system calibration procedures and measurement results are presented in detail, and possible improvement is discussed.

AI Techniques for Space: The APSI Approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Steel, R.; Niézette, M.; Cesta, A.; Verfaille, G., Lavagna, M.; Donati, A.

2009-05-01

This paper will outline the framework and tools developed under the Advanced Planning and Schedule Initiative (APSI) study performed by VEGA for the European Space Agency in collaboration with three academic institutions, ISTC-CNR, ONERA, and Politecnico di Milano. We will start by illustrating the background history to APSI and why it was needed, giving a brief summary of all the partners within the project and the rolls they played within it. We will then take a closer look at what APSI actually consists of, showing the techniques that were used and detailing the framework that was developed within the scope of the project. We will follow this with an elaboration on the three demonstration test scenarios that have been developed as part of the project, illustrating the re-use and synergies between the three cases along the way. We will finally conclude with a summary of some pros and cons of the approach devised during the project and outline future directions to be further investigated and expanded on within the context of the work performed within the project.

Case Study of 'Engineering Peer Meetings' in JPL's ST-6 Project

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chao, Lawrence P.; Tumer, Irem

2004-01-01

This design process error-proofing case study describes a design review practice implemented by a project manager at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. There are many types of reviews at NASA: required and not, formalized and informal, programmatic and technical. Standing project formal reviews such as the Preliminary Design Review (PDR) and Critical Design Review (CDR) are a required part of every project and mission development. However, the engineering peer reviews that support teams technical work on such projects are often informal, ad hoc, and inconsistent across the organization. This case study discusses issues and innovations identified by a project manager at JPL and implemented in 'engineering peer meetings' for his group.

Case Study of "Engineering Peer Meetings" in JPL's ST-6 Project

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tumer, Irem Y.; Chao, Lawrence P.

2003-01-01

This design process error-proofing case study describes a design review practice implemented by a project manager at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. There are many types of reviews at NASA: required and not, formalized and informal, programmatic and technical. Standing project formal reviews such as the Preliminary Design Review (PDR) and Critical Design Review (CDR) are a required part of every project and mission development. However, the engineering peer reviews that support teams technical work on such projects are often informal, ad hoc, and inconsistent across the organization. This case study discusses issues and innovations identified by a project manager at JPL and implemented in "engineering peer meetings" for his group.

Technology Solutions Case Study: High-Performance Ducts in Hot-Dry Climates

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

M. Hoeschele, A. German, E. Weitzel, R. Chitwood

2015-08-01

Ducts in conditioned space (DCS) represent a high priority measure for moving the next generation of new homes to the Zero Net Energy performance level. Various strategies exist for incorporating ducts within the conditioned thermal envelope. To support this activity, in 2013 the Pacific Gas & Electric Company initiated a project with Davis Energy Group (lead for the Building America team, Alliance for Residential Building Innovation) to solicit builder involvement in California to participate in field demonstrations of various DCS strategies. Builders were given incentives and design support in exchange for providing site access for construction observation, diagnostic testing, andmore » builder survey feedback. Information from the project was designed to feed into California's 2016 Title 24 process, but also to serve as an initial mechanism to engage builders in more high performance construction strategies. This Building America project complemented information collected in the California project with BEopt simulations of DCS performance in hot/dry climate regions.« less

Financial arrangement selection for energy management projects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Woodroof, Eric Aubrey

Scope and method of study. The purpose of this study was to develop a model (E-FUND) to help facility managers select financial arrangements for energy management projects (EMPs). The model was developed with the help of a panel of expert financiers. The panel also helped develop a list of key objectives critical to the decision process. The E-FUND model was tested by a population of facility managers in four case studies. Findings and conclusions. The results may indicate that having a high economic benefit (from an EMP) is not overwhelmingly important, when compared to other qualitative objectives. The results may also indicate that the true lease and performance contract may be the most applicable financial arrangements for EMPs.

The Contribution of Vegetation and Landscape Configuration for Predicting Environmental Change Impacts on Iberian Birds

PubMed Central

Triviño, Maria; Thuiller, Wilfried; Cabeza, Mar; Hickler, Thomas; Araújo, Miguel B.

2011-01-01

Although climate is known to be one of the key factors determining animal species distributions amongst others, projections of global change impacts on their distributions often rely on bioclimatic envelope models. Vegetation structure and landscape configuration are also key determinants of distributions, but they are rarely considered in such assessments. We explore the consequences of using simulated vegetation structure and composition as well as its associated landscape configuration in models projecting global change effects on Iberian bird species distributions. Both present-day and future distributions were modelled for 168 bird species using two ensemble forecasting methods: Random Forests (RF) and Boosted Regression Trees (BRT). For each species, several models were created, differing in the predictor variables used (climate, vegetation, and landscape configuration). Discrimination ability of each model in the present-day was then tested with four commonly used evaluation methods (AUC, TSS, specificity and sensitivity). The different sets of predictor variables yielded similar spatial patterns for well-modelled species, but the future projections diverged for poorly-modelled species. Models using all predictor variables were not significantly better than models fitted with climate variables alone for ca. 50% of the cases. Moreover, models fitted with climate data were always better than models fitted with landscape configuration variables, and vegetation variables were found to correlate with bird species distributions in 26–40% of the cases with BRT, and in 1–18% of the cases with RF. We conclude that improvements from including vegetation and its landscape configuration variables in comparison with climate only variables might not always be as great as expected for future projections of Iberian bird species. PMID:22216263

Academic Health Center Management of Chronic Diseases through Knowledge Networks: Project ECHO

PubMed Central

Arora, Sanjeev; Geppert, Cynthia M. A.; Kalishman, Summers; Dion, Denise; Pullara, Frank; Bjeletich, Barbara; Simpson, Gary; Alverson, Dale C.; Moore, Lori B.; Kuhl, Dave; Scaletti, Joseph V.

2013-01-01

The authors describe an innovative academic health center (AHC)-led program of health care delivery and clinical education for the management of complex, common, and chronic diseases in underserved areas, using hepatitis C virus (HCV) as a model. The program, based at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine, represents a paradigm shift in thinking and funding for the threefold mission of AHCs, moving from traditional fee-for-service models to public health funding of knowledge networks. This program, Project Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (ECHO), involves a partnership of academic medicine, public health offices, corrections departments, and rural community clinics dedicated to providing best practices and protocol-driven health care in rural areas. Telemedicine and Internet connections enable specialists in the program to comanage patients with complex diseases, using case-based knowledge networks and learning loops. Project ECHO partners (nurse practitioners, primary care physicians, physician assistants, and pharmacists) present HCV-positive patients during weekly two-hour telemedicine clinics using a standardized, case-based format that includes discussion of history, physical examination, test results, treatment complications, and psychiatric, medical, and substance abuse issues. In these case-based learning clinics, partners rapidly gain deep domain expertise in HCV as they collaborate with university specialists in hepatology, infectious disease, psychiatry, and substance abuse in comanaging their patients. Systematic monitoring of treatment outcomes is an integral aspect of the project. The authors believe this methodology will be generalizable to other complex and chronic conditions in a wide variety of underserved areas to improve disease outcomes, and it offers an opportunity for AHCs to enhance and expand their traditional mission of teaching, patient care, and research. PMID:17264693

Evaluation of Liquefaction Susceptibility of Clean Sands after Blast Densification

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vega Posada, Carlos Alberto

The effect of earthquakes on infrastructure facilities is an important topic of interest in geotechnical research. A key design issue for such facilities is whether or not liquefaction will occur during an earthquake. The consequences of this type of ground failure are usually severe, resulting in severe damage to a facility and in some cases the loss of human life. One approach to minimize the effect of liquefaction is to improve the ground condition by controlled blasting. The main limitations of the blast densification technique are that the design is mostly empirical and verification studies of densification have resulted in contradictory results in some case studies. In such cases, even though the ground surface settles almost immediately after blasting, common verification tests such as the cone penetration test (CPT), standard penetration test (SPT), and shear wave velocity test (Vs) suggest that the soil mass has not been improved at all. This raises concerns regarding the future performance of the soil and casts doubts on whether or not the improved deposit is still susceptible to liquefaction. In this work, a blast densification program was implemented at the Oakridge Landfill located in Dorchester County, SC, to gain information regarding the condition of a loose sand deposit during and after each blast event. In addition, an extensive laboratory testing program was conducted on reconstituted sand specimens to evaluate the mechanical behavior of saturated and gassy, medium dense sands during monotonic and cyclic loading. The results from the field and laboratory program indicate that gas released during blasting can remain trapped in the soil mass for several years, and this gas greatly affects the mechanical behavior of the sand. Gas greatly increases the liquefaction resistance of the soil. If the gas remains in the sand over the life of a project, then it will maintain this increased resistance to liquefaction, whether or not the penetration resistance increases with time. As part of this work, a methodology based on the critical state concepts was described to quantify the amount of densification needed at a certain project to make the soil more resistant to liquefaction and flow.

Fuel efficient traffic signal operation and evaluation: Garden Grove Demonstration Project

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

Not Available

1983-02-01

The procedures and results of a case study of fuel efficient traffic signal operation and evaluation in the City of Garden Grove, California are documented. Improved traffic signal timing was developed for a 70-intersection test network in Garden Grove using an optimization tool called the TRANSYT Version 8 computer program. Full-scale field testing of five alternative timing plans was conducted using two instrumented vehicles equipped to measure traffic performance characteristics and fuel consumption. The field tests indicated that significant improvements in traffic flow and fuel consumption result from the use of timing plans generated by the TRANSYT optimization model. Changingmore » from pre-existing to an optimized timing plan yields a networkwide 5 percent reduction in total travel time, more than 10 percent reduction in both the number of stops and stopped delay time, and 6 percent reduction in fuel consumption. Projections are made of the benefits and costs of implementing such a program at the 20,000 traffic signals in networks throughout the State of California.« less

Annual Energy Outlook 2016 With Projections to 2040

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

None, None

The Annual Energy Outlook 2016 (AEO2016), prepared by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), presents long-term projections of energy supply, demand, and prices through 2040. The projections, focused on U.S. energy markets, are based on results from EIA’s National Energy Modeling System (NEMS). NEMS enables EIA to make projections under alternative, internallyconsistent sets of assumptions. The analysis in AEO2016 focuses on the Reference case and 17 alternative cases. EIA published an Early Release version of the AEO2016 Reference case (including U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean Power Plan (CPP)) and a No CPP case (excluding the CPP) in May 2016.

A study on the effectiveness of task manager board game as a training tool in managing project

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yusof, Shahrul Azmi Mohd; Radzi, Shanizan Herman Md; Din, Sharifah Nadera Syed; Khalid, Nurhafizah

2016-08-01

Nowadays, games have become one of the useful tools in training. Many instructors choose to use games to enhance the way of delivering the subject. Failure to apply the suitable tool in training will lead to discouragement in learning and causing waste to the resources. An effective game will help the student understand the concept quickly. It can also help students to get involve in experiential learning where the student can manage and solve the problem as in the actual situation. This study will focus on the effectiveness of board game as a training tool for managing projects. This game has 4 tasks to be completed by students. They will be divided into a group of 4 or 5. Two methods are used in this study, pilot test, and post-test. These methods are chosen to analyze the effectiveness of using Task Manager Board Game as a teaching tool and the improvement of student's knowledge in project management. Three sub-components assessed were motivation, user experience and learning using case studies on Kirkpatrick's level one base on the perception of the students. The result indicated that the use of Task Manager board game as a training tool for managing project has a positive impact on students. It helps students to experience the situation of managing projects. It is one of the easiest ways for improving time management, human resources and communication skill.

5-SPICE: the application of an original framework for community health worker program design, quality improvement and research agenda setting

PubMed Central

Palazuelos, Daniel; DaEun Im, Dana; Peckarsky, Matthew; Schwarz, Dan; Farmer, Didi Bertrand; Dhillon, Ranu; Johnson, Ari; Orihuela, Claudia; Hackett, Jill; Bazile, Junior; Berman, Leslie; Ballard, Madeleine; Panjabi, Raj; Ternier, Ralph; Slavin, Sam; Lee, Scott; Selinsky, Steve; Mitnick, Carole Diane

2013-01-01

Introduction Despite decades of experience with community health workers (CHWs) in a wide variety of global health projects, there is no established conceptual framework that structures how implementers and researchers can understand, study and improve their respective programs based on lessons learned by other CHW programs. Objective To apply an original, non-linear framework and case study method, 5-SPICE, to multiple sister projects of a large, international non-governmental organization (NGO), and other CHW projects. Design Engaging a large group of implementers, researchers and the best available literature, the 5-SPICE framework was refined and then applied to a selection of CHW programs. Insights gleaned from the case study method were summarized in a tabular format named the ‘5×5-SPICE chart’. This format graphically lists the ways in which essential CHW program elements interact, both positively and negatively, in the implementation field. Results The 5×5-SPICE charts reveal a variety of insights that come from a more complex understanding of how essential CHW projects interact and influence each other in their unique context. Some have been well described in the literature previously, while others are exclusive to this article. An analysis of how best to compensate CHWs is also offered as an example of the type of insights that this method may yield. Conclusions The 5-SPICE framework is a novel instrument that can be used to guide discussions about CHW projects. Insights from this process can help guide quality improvement efforts, or be used as hypothesis that will form the basis of a program's research agenda. Recent experience with research protocols embedded into successfully implemented projects demonstrates how such hypothesis can be rigorously tested. PMID:23561023

Case Study of Using High Performance Commercial Processors in Space

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ferguson, Roscoe C.; Olivas, Zulema

2009-01-01

The purpose of the Space Shuttle Cockpit Avionics Upgrade project (1999 2004) was to reduce crew workload and improve situational awareness. The upgrade was to augment the Shuttle avionics system with new hardware and software. A major success of this project was the validation of the hardware architecture and software design. This was significant because the project incorporated new technology and approaches for the development of human rated space software. An early version of this system was tested at the Johnson Space Center for one month by teams of astronauts. The results were positive, but NASA eventually cancelled the project towards the end of the development cycle. The goal to reduce crew workload and improve situational awareness resulted in the need for high performance Central Processing Units (CPUs). The choice of CPU selected was the PowerPC family, which is a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) known for its high performance. However, the requirement for radiation tolerance resulted in the re-evaluation of the selected family member of the PowerPC line. Radiation testing revealed that the original selected processor (PowerPC 7400) was too soft to meet mission objectives and an effort was established to perform trade studies and performance testing to determine a feasible candidate. At that time, the PowerPC RAD750s were radiation tolerant, but did not meet the required performance needs of the project. Thus, the final solution was to select the PowerPC 7455. This processor did not have a radiation tolerant version, but had some ability to detect failures. However, its cache tags did not provide parity and thus the project incorporated a software strategy to detect radiation failures. The strategy was to incorporate dual paths for software generating commands to the legacy Space Shuttle avionics to prevent failures due to the softness of the upgraded avionics.

Case Study of Using High Performance Commercial Processors in a Space Environment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ferguson, Roscoe C.; Olivas, Zulema

2009-01-01

The purpose of the Space Shuttle Cockpit Avionics Upgrade project was to reduce crew workload and improve situational awareness. The upgrade was to augment the Shuttle avionics system with new hardware and software. A major success of this project was the validation of the hardware architecture and software design. This was significant because the project incorporated new technology and approaches for the development of human rated space software. An early version of this system was tested at the Johnson Space Center for one month by teams of astronauts. The results were positive, but NASA eventually cancelled the project towards the end of the development cycle. The goal to reduce crew workload and improve situational awareness resulted in the need for high performance Central Processing Units (CPUs). The choice of CPU selected was the PowerPC family, which is a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) known for its high performance. However, the requirement for radiation tolerance resulted in the reevaluation of the selected family member of the PowerPC line. Radiation testing revealed that the original selected processor (PowerPC 7400) was too soft to meet mission objectives and an effort was established to perform trade studies and performance testing to determine a feasible candidate. At that time, the PowerPC RAD750s where radiation tolerant, but did not meet the required performance needs of the project. Thus, the final solution was to select the PowerPC 7455. This processor did not have a radiation tolerant version, but faired better than the 7400 in the ability to detect failures. However, its cache tags did not provide parity and thus the project incorporated a software strategy to detect radiation failures. The strategy was to incorporate dual paths for software generating commands to the legacy Space Shuttle avionics to prevent failures due to the softness of the upgraded avionics.

Space Shuttle Projects

NASA Image and Video Library

1988-03-21

The Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) successfully test fired the third in a series of Transient Pressure Test Articles (TPTA) in its east test area. The test article was a short-stack solid rocket motor 52-feet long and 12-feet in diameter. The TPTA tests were designed to evaluate the effects of temperature, pressure and external loads encountered by the SRM, primarily during ignition transients. Instrumentation on the motor recorded approximately 1,000 charnels of data to verify the structural performance, thermal response, sealing capability of the redesign field, and case-to-nozzle joints. The TPTA test stand, 14-feet wide by 26-feet long by 33-feet high, was built in 1987. The TPTA series was a joint effort among Morton Thiokol, Inc., United Space Boosters, Inc., Wyle Laboratories, and MSFC. Wyle Laboratories conducted the tests for the MSFC, which manages the redesigned SRM program for NASA.

Hardware fault insertion and instrumentation system: Mechanization and validation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Benson, J. W.

1987-01-01

Automated test capability for extensive low-level hardware fault insertion testing is developed. The test capability is used to calibrate fault detection coverage and associated latency times as relevant to projecting overall system reliability. Described are modifications made to the NASA Ames Reconfigurable Flight Control System (RDFCS) Facility to fully automate the total test loop involving the Draper Laboratories' Fault Injector Unit. The automated capability provided included the application of sequences of simulated low-level hardware faults, the precise measurement of fault latency times, the identification of fault symptoms, and bulk storage of test case results. A PDP-11/60 served as a test coordinator, and a PDP-11/04 as an instrumentation device. The fault injector was controlled by applications test software in the PDP-11/60, rather than by manual commands from a terminal keyboard. The time base was especially developed for this application to use a variety of signal sources in the system simulator.

Quality improvement primer part 1: Preparing for a quality improvement project in the emergency department.

PubMed

Chartier, Lucas B; Cheng, Amy H Y; Stang, Antonia S; Vaillancourt, Samuel

2018-01-01

Emergency medicine (EM) providers work in a fast-paced and often hectic environment that has a high risk for patient safety incidents and gaps in the quality of care. These challenges have resulted in opportunities for frontline EM providers to play a role in quality improvement (QI) projects. QI has developed into a mature field with methodologies that can dramatically improve the odds of having a successful project with a sustainable impact. However, this expertise is not yet commonly taught during professional training. In this first of three articles meant as a QI primer for EM clinicians, we will introduce QI methodology and strategic planning using a fictional case study as an example. We will review how to identify a QI problem, define components of an effective problem statement, and identify stakeholders and core change team members. We will also describe three techniques used to perform root cause analyses-Ishikawa diagrams, Pareto charts and process mapping-and how they relate to preparing for a QI project. The next two papers in this series will focus on the execution of the QI project itself using rapid-cycle testing and on the evaluation and sustainability of QI projects.

Implications of the Bangor Hydro decision on FERC relicensings

USGS Publications Warehouse

Pizzi, L.

1997-01-01

In the next 15 years, over 400 existing nonfederal dams will require new licenses by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in order to continue operations. In many cases, state or federal agencies have a unique opportunity to condition the hydropower licenses to protect environmental values. In 1996, the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued an opinion striking down a mandatory license condition imposed by the U.S. Department of the Interior in a FERC relicensing. The case, Bangor Hydro-Electric Company v.Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, is instructive for agencies regarding the procedures to be followed in imposing mandatory FERC licensing conditions in the future. After Bangor Hydro, agencies should: (1) support their decisions by substantial evidence in the FERC record, (2) request applicant studies to support agency decisions and allow public comment on the decisions as a means to test the facts and analysis, and (3) consider intervening in a case to defend the condition on appeal. Bangor Hydro also raises, but does not decide, the issue of whether the agency imposing the mandatory condition should engage in balancing the economics of the hydropower project with the public resources affected by the project.

Acoustic and Thermal Testing of an Integrated Multilayer Insulation and Broad Area Cooling Shield System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wood, Jessica J.; Foster, Lee W.

2013-01-01

A Multilayer Insulation (MLI) and Broad Area Cooling (BAC) shield thermal control system shows promise for long-duration storage of cryogenic propellant. The NASA Cryogenic Propellant Storage and Transfer (CPST) project is investigating the thermal and structural performance of this tank-applied integrated system. The MLI/BAC Shield Acoustic and Thermal Test was performed to evaluate the MLI/BAC shield's structural performance by subjecting it to worst-case launch acoustic loads. Identical thermal tests using Liquid Nitrogen (LN2) were performed before and after the acoustic test. The data from these tests was compared to determine if any degradation occurred in the thermal performance of the system as a result of exposure to the acoustic loads. The thermal test series consisted of two primary components: a passive boil-off test to evaluate the MLI performance and an active cooling test to evaluate the integrated MLI/BAC shield system with chilled vapor circulating through the BAC shield tubes. The acoustic test used loads closely matching the worst-case envelope of all launch vehicles currently under consideration for CPST. Acoustic test results yielded reasonable responses for the given load. The thermal test matrix was completed prior to the acoustic test and successfully repeated after the acoustic test. Data was compared and yielded near identical results, indicating that the MLI/BAC shield configuration tested in this series is an option for structurally implementing this thermal control system concept.

Integration of basic science and clinical medicine: the innovative approach of the cadaver biopsy project at the Boston University School of Medicine.

PubMed

Eisenstein, Anna; Vaisman, Lev; Johnston-Cox, Hillary; Gallan, Alexander; Shaffer, Kitt; Vaughan, Deborah; O'Hara, Carl; Joseph, Lija

2014-01-01

Curricular integration has emerged as a consistent theme in medical education reform. Vertical integration of topics such as pathology offers the potential to bring basic science content into the clinical arena, but faculty/student acceptance and curricular design pose challenges for such integration. The authors describe the Cadaver Biopsy Project (CBP) at Boston University School of Medicine as a sustainable model of vertical integration. Faculty and select senior medical students obtained biopsies of cadavers during the first-year gross anatomy course (fall 2009) and used these to develop clinical cases for courses in histology (spring 2010), pathology (fall 2010-spring 2011), and radiology (fall 2011 or spring 2012), thereby linking students' first experiences in basic sciences with other basic science courses and later clinical courses. Project goals included engaging medical stu dents in applying basic science princi ples in all aspects of patient care as they acquire skills. The educational intervention used a patient (cadaver)-centered approach and small-group, collaborative, case-based learning. Through this project, the authors involved clinical and basic science faculty-plus senior medical students-in a collaborative project to design and implement an integrated curriculum through which students revisited, at several different points, the microscopic structure and pathophysiology of common diseases. Developing appropriate, measurable out comes for medical education initiatives, including the CBP, is challenging. Accumu lation of qualitative feedback from surveys will guide continuous improvement of the CBP. Documenting longer-term impact of the curricular innovation on test scores and other competency-based outcomes is an ultimate goal.

Case Study: AOP, Alliance Organizing Project. Strong Neighborhoods, Strong Schools. The Indicators Project on Education Organizing.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gold, Eva; Pickron-Davis, Marcine; Brown, Chris

This report describes Philadelphia, Pennsylvania's, Alliance Organizing Project (AOP), which organized parents and families of Philadelphia's public school students to become full partners in Philadelphia school reform. It is one of five case studies in the Indicators Project on Education Organizing, which identified eight indicators of the impact…

LYNX community advocacy & service engagement (CASE) project final report.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2009-05-14

This report is a final assessment of the Community Advocacy & Service Engagement (CASE) project, a LYNX-FTA research project designed : to study transit education and public engagement methods in Central Florida. In the Orlando area, as in other part...

Feasibility and acceptability of home-based management of malaria strategy adapted to Sudan's conditions using artemisinin-based combination therapy and rapid diagnostic test.

PubMed

Elmardi, Khalid A; Malik, Elfatih M; Abdelgadir, Tarig; Ali, Salah H; Elsyed, Abdalla H; Mudather, Mahmoud A; Elhassan, Asma H; Adam, Ishag

2009-03-09

Malaria remains a major public health problem especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Despite the efforts exerted to provide effective anti-malarial drugs, still some communities suffer from getting access to these services due to many barriers. This research aimed to assess the feasibility and acceptability of home-based management of malaria (HMM) strategy using artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) for treatment and rapid diagnostic test (RDT) for diagnosis. This is a study conducted in 20 villages in Um Adara area, South Kordofan state, Sudan. Two-thirds (66%) of the study community were seeking treatment from heath facilities, which were more than 5 km far from their villages with marked inaccessibility during rainy season. Volunteers (one per village) were trained on using RDTs for diagnosis and artesunate plus sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine for treating malaria patients, as well as referral of severe and non-malaria cases. A system for supply and monitoring was established based on the rural health centre, which acted as a link between the volunteers and the health system. Advocacy for the policy was done through different tools. Volunteers worked on non-monetary incentives but only a consultation fee of One Sudanese Pound (equivalent to US$0.5).Pre- and post-intervention assessment was done using household survey, focus group discussion with the community leaders, structured interview with the volunteers, and records and reports analysis. The overall adherence of volunteers to the project protocol in treating and referring cases was accepted that was only one of the 20 volunteers did not comply with the study guidelines. Although the use of RDTs seemed to have improved the level of accuracy and trust in the diagnosis, 30% of volunteers did not rely on the negative RDT results when treating fever cases. Almost all (94.7%) the volunteers felt that they were satisfied with the spiritual outcome of their new tasks. As well, volunteers have initiated advocacy campaigns supported by their village health committees which were found to have a positive role to play in the project that proved their acceptability of the HMM design. The planned system for supply was found to be effective. The project was found to improve the accessibility to ACTs from 25% to 64.7% and the treatment seeking behaviour from 83.3% to 100% before- and after the HMM implementation respectively. The evaluation of the project identified the feasibility of the planned model in Sudan's condition. Moreover, the communities as well as the volunteers found to be satisfied with and supportive to the system and the outcome. The problem of treating other febrile cases when diagnosis is not malaria and other non-fever cases needs to be addressed as well.

Business and public health collaboration for emergency preparedness in Georgia: a case study.

PubMed

Buehler, James W; Whitney, Ellen A; Berkelman, Ruth L

2006-11-20

Governments may be overwhelmed by a large-scale public health emergency, such as a massive bioterrorist attack or natural disaster, requiring collaboration with businesses and other community partners to respond effectively. In Georgia, public health officials and members of the Business Executives for National Security have successfully collaborated to develop and test procedures for dispensing medications from the Strategic National Stockpile. Lessons learned from this collaboration should be useful to other public health and business leaders interested in developing similar partnerships. The authors conducted a case study based on interviews with 26 government, business, and academic participants in this collaboration. The partnership is based on shared objectives to protect public health and assure community cohesion in the wake of a large-scale disaster, on the recognition that acting alone neither public health agencies nor businesses are likely to manage such a response successfully, and on the realization that business and community continuity are intertwined. The partnership has required participants to acknowledge and address multiple challenges, including differences in business and government cultures and operational constraints, such as concerns about the confidentiality of shared information, liability, and the limits of volunteerism. The partnership has been facilitated by a business model based on defining shared objectives, identifying mutual needs and vulnerabilities, developing carefully-defined projects, and evaluating proposed project methods through exercise testing. Through collaborative engagement in progressively more complex projects, increasing trust and understanding have enabled the partners to make significant progress in addressing these challenges. As a result of this partnership, essential relationships have been established, substantial private resources and capabilities have been engaged in government preparedness programs, and a model for collaborative, emergency mass dispensing of pharmaceuticals has been developed, tested, and slated for expansion. The lessons learned from this collaboration in Georgia should be considered by other government and business leaders seeking to develop similar partnerships.

Business and public health collaboration for emergency preparedness in Georgia: a case study

PubMed Central

Buehler, James W; Whitney, Ellen A; Berkelman, Ruth L

2006-01-01

Background Governments may be overwhelmed by a large-scale public health emergency, such as a massive bioterrorist attack or natural disaster, requiring collaboration with businesses and other community partners to respond effectively. In Georgia, public health officials and members of the Business Executives for National Security have successfully collaborated to develop and test procedures for dispensing medications from the Strategic National Stockpile. Lessons learned from this collaboration should be useful to other public health and business leaders interested in developing similar partnerships. Methods The authors conducted a case study based on interviews with 26 government, business, and academic participants in this collaboration. Results The partnership is based on shared objectives to protect public health and assure community cohesion in the wake of a large-scale disaster, on the recognition that acting alone neither public health agencies nor businesses are likely to manage such a response successfully, and on the realization that business and community continuity are intertwined. The partnership has required participants to acknowledge and address multiple challenges, including differences in business and government cultures and operational constraints, such as concerns about the confidentiality of shared information, liability, and the limits of volunteerism. The partnership has been facilitated by a business model based on defining shared objectives, identifying mutual needs and vulnerabilities, developing carefully-defined projects, and evaluating proposed project methods through exercise testing. Through collaborative engagement in progressively more complex projects, increasing trust and understanding have enabled the partners to make significant progress in addressing these challenges. Conclusion As a result of this partnership, essential relationships have been established, substantial private resources and capabilities have been engaged in government preparedness programs, and a model for collaborative, emergency mass dispensing of pharmaceuticals has been developed, tested, and slated for expansion. The lessons learned from this collaboration in Georgia should be considered by other government and business leaders seeking to develop similar partnerships. PMID:17116256

Prenatal Transmission of Syphilis and Human Immunodeficiency Virus in Brazil: Achieving Regional Targets for Elimination

PubMed Central

Cerda, Rodrigo; Perez, Freddy; Domingues, Rosa Maria S.M.; Luz, Paula M.; Grinsztejn, Beatriz; Veloso, Valdilea G.; Caffe, Sonja; Francke, Jordan A.; Freedberg, Kenneth A.; Ciaranello, Andrea L.

2015-01-01

Background. The Pan-American Health Organization has called for reducing (1) human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) to ≤0.30 infections/1000 live births (LB), (2) HIV MTCT risk to ≤2.0%, and (3) congenital syphilis (CS) incidence to ≤0.50/1000 LB in the Americas by 2015. Methods. Using published Brazilian data in a mathematical model, we simulated a cohort of pregnant women from antenatal care (ANC) through birth. We investigated 2 scenarios: “current access” (89.1% receive one ANC syphilis test and 41.1% receive 2; 81.7% receive one ANC HIV test and 18.9% receive birth testing; if diagnosed, 81.0% are treated for syphilis and 87.5% are treated for HIV) and “ideal access” (95% of women undergo 2 HIV and syphilis screenings; 95% receive appropriate treatment). We conducted univariate and multivariate sensitivity analyses on key inputs. Results. With current access, we projected 2.95 CS cases/1000 LB, 0.29 HIV infections/1000 LB, 7.1% HIV MTCT risk, and 11.11 intrauterine fetal demises (IUFD)/1000 pregnancies, with significant regional variation. With ideal access, we projected improved outcomes: 1.00 CS cases/1000 LB, 0.10 HIV infections/1000 LB, HIV MTCT risk of 2.4%, and 10.65 IUFD/1000 pregnancies. Increased testing drove the greatest improvements. Even with ideal access, only HIV infections/1000 LB met elimination goals. Achieving all targets required testing and treatment >95% and reductions in prevalence and incidence of HIV and syphilis. Conclusions. Increasing access to care and HIV and syphilis antenatal testing will substantially reduce HIV and syphilis MTCT in Brazil. In addition, regionally tailored interventions reducing syphilis incidence and prevalence and supporting HIV treatment adherence are necessary to completely meet elimination goals. PMID:26180825

Prenatal Transmission of Syphilis and Human Immunodeficiency Virus in Brazil: Achieving Regional Targets for Elimination.

PubMed

Cerda, Rodrigo; Perez, Freddy; Domingues, Rosa Maria S M; Luz, Paula M; Grinsztejn, Beatriz; Veloso, Valdilea G; Caffe, Sonja; Francke, Jordan A; Freedberg, Kenneth A; Ciaranello, Andrea L

2015-04-01

Background.  The Pan-American Health Organization has called for reducing (1) human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) to ≤0.30 infections/1000 live births (LB), (2) HIV MTCT risk to ≤2.0%, and (3) congenital syphilis (CS) incidence to ≤0.50/1000 LB in the Americas by 2015. Methods.  Using published Brazilian data in a mathematical model, we simulated a cohort of pregnant women from antenatal care (ANC) through birth. We investigated 2 scenarios: "current access" (89.1% receive one ANC syphilis test and 41.1% receive 2; 81.7% receive one ANC HIV test and 18.9% receive birth testing; if diagnosed, 81.0% are treated for syphilis and 87.5% are treated for HIV) and "ideal access" (95% of women undergo 2 HIV and syphilis screenings; 95% receive appropriate treatment). We conducted univariate and multivariate sensitivity analyses on key inputs. Results.  With current access, we projected 2.95 CS cases/1000 LB, 0.29 HIV infections/1000 LB, 7.1% HIV MTCT risk, and 11.11 intrauterine fetal demises (IUFD)/1000 pregnancies, with significant regional variation. With ideal access, we projected improved outcomes: 1.00 CS cases/1000 LB, 0.10 HIV infections/1000 LB, HIV MTCT risk of 2.4%, and 10.65 IUFD/1000 pregnancies. Increased testing drove the greatest improvements. Even with ideal access, only HIV infections/1000 LB met elimination goals. Achieving all targets required testing and treatment >95% and reductions in prevalence and incidence of HIV and syphilis. Conclusions.  Increasing access to care and HIV and syphilis antenatal testing will substantially reduce HIV and syphilis MTCT in Brazil. In addition, regionally tailored interventions reducing syphilis incidence and prevalence and supporting HIV treatment adherence are necessary to completely meet elimination goals.

The Rescue911 Emergency Response Information System (ERIS): A Systems Development Project Case

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cohen, Jason F.; Thiel, Franz H.

2010-01-01

This teaching case presents a systems development project useful for courses in object-oriented analysis and design. The case has a strong focus on the business, methodology, modeling and implementation aspects of systems development. The case is centered on a fictitious ambulance and emergency services company (Rescue911). The case describes that…

Experimental Investigations into CO2 Interactions with Injection Well Infrastructure for CO2 Storage

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Syed, Amer; Shi, Ji-Quan; Durucan, Sevket; Nash, Graham; Korre, Anna

2013-04-01

Wellbore integrity is an essential requirement to ensure the success of a CO2 Storage project as leakage of CO2 from the injection or any other abandoned well in the storage complex, could not only severely impede the efficiency of CO2 injection and storage but also may result in potential adverse impact on the surrounding environment. Early research has revealed that in case of improper well completions and/or significant changes in operating bottomhole pressure and temperature could lead to the creation of microannulus at cement-casing interface which may constitute a preferential pathway for potential CO2 leakage during and post injection period. As a part of a European Commission funded CO2CARE project, the current research investigates the sealing behaviour of such microannulus at the cement-casing interface under simulated subsurface reservoir pressure and temperature conditions and uses the findings to develop a methodology to assess the overall integrity of CO2 storage. A full scale wellbore experimental test set up was constructed for use under elevated pressure and temperature conditions as encountered in typical CO2 storage sites. The wellbore cell consists of an assembly of concentric elements of full scale casing (Diameter= 0.1524m), cement sheath and an outer casing. The stainless steel outer ring is intended to simulate the stiffness offered by the reservoir rock to the displacement applied at the wellbore. The Central Loading Mechanism (CLM) consists of four case hardened shoes that can impart radial load onto the well casing. The radial movement of the shoes is powered through the synchronised movement of four precision jacks controlled hydraulically which could impart radial pressures up to 15 MPa. The cell body is a gas tight enclosure that houses the wellbore and the central loading mechanism. The setup is enclosed in a laboratory oven which acts both as temperature and safety enclosure. Prior to a test, cement mix is set between the casing and outer steel ring. A radial pressure is maintained on the wellbore casing during cement setting, i.e., the casing is in a state of tension, so that a microannulus can be created by subsequent contraction of CLM when the radial pressure is relieved. The aperture (permeability) of the microannulus can be controlled by varying the CLM pressure on the casing, which is maintained throughout a flow test. During a test, pure CO2/brine saturated CO2 is flown through the microannulus over a period of time to study its permeability behaviour under simulated downhole conditions. Evolution in permeability is monitored and the effluent is collected and analysed regularly. These experimental results will be used as an input to implement a time-dependent microannulus permeability in the numerical model to assess the impact of such behaviour on the storage performance of a CO2 storage reservoir. The results of the first set of experiments, where the permeability behaviour of pure CO2 was monitored over a 3 months period, are presented and discussed in this paper.

Alternatives to ozone depleting refrigerants in test equipment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hall, Richard L.; Johnson, Madeleine R.

1995-01-01

This paper describes the initial results of a refrigerant retrofit project at the Aerospace Guidance and Metrology Center (AGMC) at Newark Air Force Base, Ohio. The objective is to convert selected types of test equipment to properly operate on hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) alternative refrigerants, having no ozone depleting potential, without compromising system reliability or durability. This paper discusses the primary technical issues and summarizes the test results for 17 different types of test equipment: ten environmental chambers, two ultralow temperature freezers, two coolant recirculators, one temperature control unit, one vapor degreaser, and one refrigerant recovery system. The postconversion performance test results have been very encouraging: system capacity and input power remained virtually unchanged. In some cases, the minimum operating temperature increased by a few degrees as a result of the conversion, but never beyond AGMC's functional requirements.

What Are Student Inservice Teachers Talking about in Their Online Communities of Practice? Investigating Student Inservice Teachers' Experiences in a Double-Layered CoP

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Kyungmee; Brett, Clare

2013-01-01

This qualitative case study is the first phase of a large-scale design-based research project to implement a theoretically derived double-layered CoP model within real-world teacher development practices. The main goal of this first iteration is to evaluate the courses and test and refine the CoP model for future implementations. This paper…

PDCI Wide-Area Damping Control: PSLF Simulations of the 2016 Open and Closed Loop Test Plan

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

Wilches Bernal, Felipe; Pierre, Brian Joseph; Elliott, Ryan Thomas

To demonstrate and validate the performance of the wide-are a damping control system, the project plans to conduct closed-loop tests on the PDCI in summer/fall 2016. A test plan details the open and closed loop tests to be conducted on the P DCI using the wide-area damping control system. To ensure the appropriate level of preparedness, simulations were performed in order to predict and evaluate any possible unsafe operations before hardware experiments are attempted. This report contains the result s from these simulations using the power system dynamics software PSLF (Power System Load Flow, trademark of GE). The simulations usemore » the WECC (Western Electricity Coordinating Council) 2016 light summer and heavy summer base cases.« less

Experimental quiet engine program

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cornell, W. G.

1975-01-01

Full-scale low-tip-speed fans, a full-scale high-tip-speed fan, scale model versions of fans, and two full-scale high-bypass-ratio turbofan engines, were designed, fabricated, tested, and evaluated. Turbine noise suppression was investigated. Preliminary design studies of flight propulsion system concepts were used in application studies to determine acoustic-economic tradeoffs. Salient results are as follows: tradeoff evaluation of fan tip speed and blade loading; systematic data on source noise characteristics and suppression effectiveness; documentation of high- and low-fan-speed aerodynamic and acoustic technology; aerodynamic and acoustic evaluation of acoustic treatment configurations, casing tip bleed, serrated and variable pitch rotor blades, leaned outlet guide vanes, slotted tip casings, rotor blade shape modifications, and inlet noise suppression; systematic evaluation of aerodynamic and acoustic effects; flyover noise projections of engine test data; turbine noise suppression technology development; and tradeoff evaluation of preliminary design high-fan-speed and low-fan-speed flight engines.

Injector Design Tool Improvements: User's manual for FDNS V.4.5

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chen, Yen-Sen; Shang, Huan-Min; Wei, Hong; Liu, Jiwen

1998-01-01

The major emphasis of the current effort is in the development and validation of an efficient parallel machine computational model, based on the FDNS code, to analyze the fluid dynamics of a wide variety of liquid jet configurations for general liquid rocket engine injection system applications. This model includes physical models for droplet atomization, breakup/coalescence, evaporation, turbulence mixing and gas-phase combustion. Benchmark validation cases for liquid rocket engine chamber combustion conditions will be performed for model validation purpose. Test cases may include shear coaxial, swirl coaxial and impinging injection systems with combinations LOXIH2 or LOXISP-1 propellant injector elements used in rocket engine designs. As a final goal of this project, a well tested parallel CFD performance methodology together with a user's operation description in a final technical report will be reported at the end of the proposed research effort.

Development and tests of x-ray multifoil optical system for 1D imaging (Conference Presentation)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pína, Ladislav; Hudec, René; Inneman, Adolf J.; Baca, Tomas; Blazek, M.; Platkevic, M.; Sieger, Ladislav; Doubravova, Daniela; McEntaffer, Randall L.; Schultz, Ted B.; Dániel, Vladimír.

2016-09-01

The proposed wide-field optical system has not been used yet. Described novel approach is based on the use of 1D "Lobster eye" optics in combination with Timepix X-ray detector in the energy range 3 - 40 keV. The proposed project includes theoretical study and a functional sample of the Timepix X-ray detector with multifoil wide-field X-ray "Lobster eye" optics. Using optics to focus X-rays on a detector is necessary in cases where the intensity of impinging X-ray radiation is below the sensitivity of the detector without optic. Generally this is the case of very low light phenomena, or e.g. monitoring astrophysical objects in space. Namely, such optical system could find applications in laboratory spectroscopy systems or in a rocket space experiment. Designed wide-field optical system combined with Timepix X-ray detector is described together with experimental results obtained during laboratory tests.

Optimizing Data Centre Energy and Environmental Costs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aikema, David Hendrik

Data centres use an estimated 2% of US electrical power which accounts for much of their total cost of ownership. This consumption continues to grow, further straining power grids attempting to integrate more renewable energy. This dissertation focuses on assessing and reducing data centre environmental and financial costs. Emissions of projects undertaken to lower the data centre environmental footprints can be assessed and the emission reduction projects compared using an ISO-14064-2-compliant greenhouse gas reduction protocol outlined herein. I was closely involved with the development of the protocol. Full lifecycle analysis and verifying that projects exceed business-as-usual expectations are addressed, and a test project is described. Consuming power when it is low cost or when renewable energy is available can be used to reduce the financial and environmental costs of computing. Adaptation based on the power price showed 10--50% potential savings in typical cases, and local renewable energy use could be increased by 10--80%. Allowing a fraction of high-priority tasks to proceed unimpeded still allows significant savings. Power grid operators use mechanisms called ancillary services to address variation and system failures, paying organizations to alter power consumption on request. By bidding to offer these services, data centres may be able to lower their energy costs while reducing their environmental impact. If providing contingency reserves which require only infrequent action, savings of up to 12% were seen in simulations. Greater power cost savings are possible for those ceding more control to the power grid operator. Coordinating multiple data centres adds overhead, and altering at which data centre requests are processed based on changes in the financial or environmental costs of power is likely to increase this overhead. Tests of virtual machine migrations showed that in some cases there was no visible increase in power use while in others power use rose by 20--30W. Estimates of how migration was likely to impact other services used in current cloud environments were derived.

CoopEUS Case Study: Tsunami Modelling and Early Warning Systems for Near Source Areas (Mediterranean, Juan de Fuca).

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Beranzoli, Laura; Best, Mairi; Chierici, Francesco; Embriaco, Davide; Galbraith, Nan; Heeseman, Martin; Kelley, Deborah; Pirenne, Benoit; Scofield, Oscar; Weller, Robert

2015-04-01

There is a need for tsunami modeling and early warning systems for near-source areas. For example this is a common public safety threat in the Mediterranean and Juan de Fuca/NE Pacific Coast of N.A.; Regions covered by the EMSO, OOI, and ONC ocean observatories. Through the CoopEUS international cooperation project, a number of environmental research infrastructures have come together to coordinate efforts on environmental challenges; this tsunami case study tackles one such challenge. There is a mutual need of tsunami event field data and modeling to deepen our experience in testing methodology and developing real-time data processing. Tsunami field data are already available for past events, part of this use case compares these for compatibility, gap analysis, and model groundtruthing. It also reviews sensors needed and harmonizes instrument settings. Sensor metadata and registries are compared, harmonized, and aligned. Data policies and access are also compared and assessed for gap analysis. Modelling algorithms are compared and tested against archived and real-time data. This case study will then be extended to other related tsunami data and model sources globally with similar geographic and seismic scenarios.

Shear-wave velocity-based probabilistic and deterministic assessment of seismic soil liquefaction potential

USGS Publications Warehouse

Kayen, R.; Moss, R.E.S.; Thompson, E.M.; Seed, R.B.; Cetin, K.O.; Der Kiureghian, A.; Tanaka, Y.; Tokimatsu, K.

2013-01-01

Shear-wave velocity (Vs) offers a means to determine the seismic resistance of soil to liquefaction by a fundamental soil property. This paper presents the results of an 11-year international project to gather new Vs site data and develop probabilistic correlations for seismic soil liquefaction occurrence. Toward that objective, shear-wave velocity test sites were identified, and measurements made for 301 new liquefaction field case histories in China, Japan, Taiwan, Greece, and the United States over a decade. The majority of these new case histories reoccupy those previously investigated by penetration testing. These new data are combined with previously published case histories to build a global catalog of 422 case histories of Vs liquefaction performance. Bayesian regression and structural reliability methods facilitate a probabilistic treatment of the Vs catalog for performance-based engineering applications. Where possible, uncertainties of the variables comprising both the seismic demand and the soil capacity were estimated and included in the analysis, resulting in greatly reduced overall model uncertainty relative to previous studies. The presented data set and probabilistic analysis also help resolve the ancillary issues of adjustment for soil fines content and magnitude scaling factors.

[Research applications in digital radiology. Big data and co].

PubMed

Müller, H; Hanbury, A

2016-02-01

Medical imaging produces increasingly complex images (e.g. thinner slices and higher resolution) with more protocols, so that image reading has also become much more complex. More information needs to be processed and usually the number of radiologists available for these tasks has not increased to the same extent. The objective of this article is to present current research results from projects on the use of image data for clinical decision support. An infrastructure that can allow large volumes of data to be accessed is presented. In this way the best performing tools can be identified without the medical data having to leave secure servers. The text presents the results of the VISCERAL and Khresmoi EU-funded projects, which allow the analysis of previous cases from institutional archives to support decision-making and for process automation. The results also represent a secure evaluation environment for medical image analysis. This allows the use of data extracted from past cases to solve information needs occurring when diagnosing new cases. The presented research prototypes allow direct extraction of knowledge from the visual data of the images and to use this for decision support or process automation. Real clinical use has not been tested but several subjective user tests showed the effectiveness and efficiency of the process. The future in radiology will clearly depend on better use of the important knowledge in clinical image archives to automate processes and aid decision-making via big data analysis. This can help concentrate the work of radiologists towards the most important parts of diagnostics.

Improving diagnosis for congenital cataract by introducing NGS genetic testing.

PubMed

Musleh, Mohammud; Ashworth, Jane; Black, Graeme; Hall, Georgina

2016-01-01

Childhood cataract (CC) has an incidence of 3.5 per 10,000 by age 15 years. Diagnosis of any underlying cause is important to ensure effective and prompt management of multisystem complications, to facilitate accurate genetic counselling and to streamline multidisciplinary care. Next generation sequencing (NGS) has been shown to be effective in providing an underlying diagnosis in 70% of patients with CC in a research setting. This project aimed to integrate NGS testing in CC within six months of presentation and increase the rate of diagnosis. A retrospective case note review was undertaken to define the baseline efficacy of current care in providing a precise diagnosis. Quality improvement methods were used to integrate and optimize NGS testing in clinical care and measure the improvements made. The percentage of children receiving an NGS result within six months increased from 26% to 71% during the project period. The mean time to NGS testing and receiving a report decreased and there was a reduction in variation over the study period. Several patients and families had a change in management or genetic counselling as a direct result of the diagnosis given by the NGS test. The current recommended investigation of patients with bilateral CC is ineffective in identifying a diagnosis. Quality Improvement methods have facilitated successful integration of NGS testing into clinical care, improving time to diagnosis and leading to development of a new care pathway.

Development of Procedures for Assessing the Impact of Vocational Education Research and Development on Vocational Education (Project IMPACT). Volume 4--A Case Study of Illinois Projects in Horticulture.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hook, Colin; Ethridge, James

As part of Project IMPACT's efforts to identify and develop procedures for complying with the impact requirements of Public Law 94-482, a case study was made of Illinois Projects in Horticulture. Fourteen horticulture projects in high schools and junior colleges were discovered through a previous study, personal interviews with two University of…

Worker Dislocation. Case Studies of Causes and Cures.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cook, Robert F., Ed.

Case studies were made of the following dislocated worker programs: Cummins Engine Company Dislocated Worker Project; GM-UAW Metropolitan Pontiac Retraining and Employment Program; Minnesota Iron Range Dislocated Worker Project; Missouri Dislocated Worker Program Job Search Assistance, Inc.; Hillsborough, North Carolina, Dislocated Worker Project;…

Influences of Government Championship on the Technology Innovation Process at the Project-level

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yue, Xin

Government support is a popular instrument to foster technology innovation. It can take various forms such as financial aid, tax credits, and technological assistance. Along with the firm characteristics, strategic behavior of the project team, characteristics of the technology and the market, and the regulatory environment, government support influences firms' research and development (R&D) motivations, decision making process, and hence technology development performance. How government support influences the performance in different industries is an important policy and research question. There are many studies on the effectiveness and impacts of government support, mostly at program-level or industry-level. Government Championship is a form of government support distinct from direct financial or technological assistance. Championship includes expressing confidence in the innovation, encouraging others to support the innovation, and persisting under adversity. Championship has been studied as a critical inside factor for innovation success, particularly at project-level. Usually a champion emerged within the organization responsible for the innovation project. However, with the intention to encourage technology development, governments can also play a championship role. Government championship, besides government financial and technological assistance (hereafter "government F&T"), could be one major category of government support to facilitate high-technology innovation. However, there are few studies focusing on the effectiveness of government championship, and how it influences the innovation process. This thesis addresses this question through two studies on high-technology development projects. The first study has tested the effectiveness of government championship on the performance of 431 government sponsored technology innovation projects. Government championship and government F&T, as well as project team strategic behavior, are hypothesized to influence the technology innovation performance. The team strategy has two dimensions in this model: pro-activeness and defensiveness, which indicate the emphasis of the team on exploiting new opportunities, and enhancing the current methods, respectively. A survey was administered to the project managers of li-ion battery projects in the United States. After data was collected, factor analysis and regression were used to test hypotheses. The results suggest that both government championship and government F&T are positive factors in technology innovation performance, while strategic behaviors are positive and more significant. The results also suggest a strong correlation between government support (both championship and F&T assistance) and the R&D team strategy, which means government intervention and team strategic behavior could affect each other. To understand how the government champions and the project team impact each other during the project, the second study employed a single in-depth case study, investigating the Shenhua Direct-Coal-Liquefaction (DCL) Project. A variety of government championship behaviors have been identified, and their situation and impacts on the project performance and outcome were analyzed. This case is a good start to accumulate information and observations for a better understanding of the influences of government championship in technology innovation. These two studies will help increase understanding of how government championship behaviors influence the process, the project performance, and the outcome of technology innovation, particularly in high-technology industries.

Grid-enabled mammographic auditing and training system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yap, M. H.; Gale, A. G.

2008-03-01

Effective use of new technologies to support healthcare initiatives is important and current research is moving towards implementing secure grid-enabled healthcare provision. In the UK, a large-scale collaborative research project (GIMI: Generic Infrastructures for Medical Informatics), which is concerned with the development of a secure IT infrastructure to support very widespread medical research across the country, is underway. In the UK, there are some 109 breast screening centers and a growing number of individuals (circa 650) nationally performing approximately 1.5 million screening examinations per year. At the same, there is a serious, and ongoing, national workforce issue in screening which has seen a loss of consultant mammographers and a growth in specially trained technologists and other non-radiologists. Thus there is a need to offer effective and efficient mammographic training so as to maintain high levels of screening skills. Consequently, a grid based system has been proposed which has the benefit of offering very large volumes of training cases that the mammographers can access anytime and anywhere. A database, spread geographically across three university systems, of screening cases is used as a test set of known cases. The GIMI mammography training system first audits these cases to ensure that they are appropriately described and annotated. Subsequently, the cases are utilized for training in a grid-based system which has been developed. This paper briefly reviews the background to the project and then details the ongoing research. In conclusion, we discuss the contributions, limitations, and future plans of such a grid based approach.

The Case Study as Research Heuristic: Lessons from the R&D Value Mapping Project.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bozeman, Barry; Klein, Hans K.

1999-01-01

Examines the role of prototype case studies as the foundation for later evaluation through two studies from the "R&D Value Mapping Project," a study that will involve more than 30 cases. Explores the usefulness of case studies in defining and assessing subsequent research efforts. (SLD)

Digital Workflow for the Acquisition and Elaboration of 3d Data in a Monumental Complex: the Fortress of Saint John the Baptist in Florence

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tucci, G.; Bonora, V.; Conti, A.; Fiorini, L.

2017-08-01

In recent years, the GeCo Laboratory has undertaken numerous projects to digitalize vast and complex buildings; the specific nature of the different projects has resulted in a case-by-case approach, each time working on past experiences and updating not only the hardware and software tools but also the management and processing methods. This paper presents the workflow followed for the survey of the Fortress of Saint John the Baptist in Florence, an on-going interdisciplinary project. Presently Florence's main trade fair congress centre, at the same time it hosts various buildings that bear witness to the fortress's life-history, combining constructions from the Medici and Lorraine eras with recently built exhibition facilities. Now new research has been required due to the realization of new pavilions and the regeneration of the whole complex. This has included a critical survey, material testing, diagnostic investigations and stratigraphic analyses to define the building's state of preservation. The working group comprises specialists from different institutions, amongst which the Italian Military Geographic Institute, the University of Florence, the National Research Council Institute for the Preservation and Enhancement of the Cultural Heritage, and the Florence City Council.

[Formula: see text] regularity properties of singular parameterizations in isogeometric analysis.

PubMed

Takacs, T; Jüttler, B

2012-11-01

Isogeometric analysis (IGA) is a numerical simulation method which is directly based on the NURBS-based representation of CAD models. It exploits the tensor-product structure of 2- or 3-dimensional NURBS objects to parameterize the physical domain. Hence the physical domain is parameterized with respect to a rectangle or to a cube. Consequently, singularly parameterized NURBS surfaces and NURBS volumes are needed in order to represent non-quadrangular or non-hexahedral domains without splitting, thereby producing a very compact and convenient representation. The Galerkin projection introduces finite-dimensional spaces of test functions in the weak formulation of partial differential equations. In particular, the test functions used in isogeometric analysis are obtained by composing the inverse of the domain parameterization with the NURBS basis functions. In the case of singular parameterizations, however, some of the resulting test functions do not necessarily fulfill the required regularity properties. Consequently, numerical methods for the solution of partial differential equations cannot be applied properly. We discuss the regularity properties of the test functions. For one- and two-dimensional domains we consider several important classes of singularities of NURBS parameterizations. For specific cases we derive additional conditions which guarantee the regularity of the test functions. In addition we present a modification scheme for the discretized function space in case of insufficient regularity. It is also shown how these results can be applied for computational domains in higher dimensions that can be parameterized via sweeping.

Experimental evaluation of the ring focus test for X-ray telescopes using AXAF's technology mirror assembly, MSFC CDDF Project No. H20

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zissa, D. E.; Korsch, D.

1986-01-01

A test method particularly suited for X-ray telescopes was evaluated experimentally. The method makes use of a focused ring formed by an annular aperture when using a point source at a finite distance. This would supplement measurements of the best focus image which is blurred when the test source is at a finite distance. The telescope used was the Technology Mirror Assembly of the Advanced X-ray Astrophysis Facility (AXAF) program. Observed ring image defects could be related to the azimuthal location of their sources in the telescope even though in this case the predicted sharp ring was obscured by scattering, finite source size, and residual figure errors.

Evaluation of deflectometry for E-ELT optics.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sironi, G.; Canestrari, R.; Civitani, M. M.

A deflectometrical facility was developed at Italian National Institute for Astrophysics-OAB in the context of the ASTRI project to characterize free-form segments for Cherenkov optics. The test works as an inverse Ronchi test in combination with a ray-tracing code: the under-test surface is illuminated by a known light pattern and the pattern warped by local surface errors is observed. Knowing the geometry of the system it is possible to retrieve the surface normal vectors. This contribution presents the analysis of the upgrades and of the configuration modifications required to allow the use of deflectometry in the realization of optical components suitable for European Extremely Large Telescope and as a specific case to support the manufacturing of the Multi-conjugate Adaptive Optics Relay (MAORY) module.

Fuel use control in the fishing industry. Final report

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

Billington, G.

1985-08-01

The project undertook fuel flow monitoring of a random sample of fishing vessels in the New Zealand fishing industry. The object of the project was to determine the value of fuel flow measurement on a range of vessels of differing size and fishing method, and to investigate the effect on fuel consumption of hull fouling and propeller repitching where this appeared to be required. Eight vessels in the port of Tauranga were included in the trials. Three of these are company-owned and operated and the remainder are owner-operated. One purse seiner, two longliners and five trawlers (pair and single) weremore » involved. Fuel flow measurements were carried out, with before-and-after tests on one vessel to determine the value of removing hull fouling. In two cases propeller repitching was undertaken. The tests demonstrated that five of the eight vessels could, through minor operational changes, make significant fuel conservation gains with minimal loss of performance.« less

NCTR using a polarization-agile coherent radar system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Walton, E. K.; Moffatt, D. L.; Garber, F. D.; Kamis, A.; Lai, C. Y.

1986-01-01

This report describes the results of the first year of a research project performed by the Ohio State University ElectroScience Laboratory (OSU/ESL) for the Naval Weapons Center (NWC). The goal of this project is to explore the use of the polarization properties of the signal scattered from a radar target for the purpose of radar target identification. Various radar target identification algorithms were applied to the case of a full polarization coherent radar system, and were tested using a specific data base and noise model. The data base used to test the performance of the radar target identification algorithms developed here is a unique set of measurements made on scale models of aircraft. Measurements were made using the OSU/ESL Compact Radar Measurement Range. The range was operated in a broad-band (1-12 GHZ) mode and the full polarization matrix was measured. Calibrated values (amplitude and phase) of the RCS for the three polarization states were thus available. The polarization states are listed below.

F-18 HARV research pilot Dana Purifoy

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1996-01-01

Dana D. Purifoy is an aerospace research pilot at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California. He joined NASA in August 1994. Purifoy is a former Air Force test pilot who served as a project pilot in the joint NASA/Air Force X-29 Forward Swept Wing research program conducted at Dryden from 1984 to 1991. His most recent assignment in the Air Force was flying U-2 aircraft as a test pilot at Air Force Plant 42, Palmdale, CA. In addition to flying the X-29 at Dryden as an Air Force pilot, Purifoy also served as project pilot and joint test force director with the AFTI F-16 (Advanced Fighter Technology Integration/F-16) program, also located at Dryden. Before his assignments as project pilot on the X-29 and AFTI/F-16 aircraft, Purifoy was chief of the Academics Systems Branch at the Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards. Prior to becoming a test pilot, he flew F-111 and F-16 aircraft in Great Britain and Germany. He has accumulated 3800 hours of flying time in his career. The final flight for the F-18 High Alpha Research Vehicle (HARV) took place at NASA Dryden on May 29, 1996. The highly modified F-18 airplane flew 383 flights over a nine year period and demonstrated concepts that greatly increase fighter maneuverability. Among concepts proven in the aircraft is the use of paddles to direct jet engine exhaust in cases of extreme altitudes where conventional control surfaces lose effectiveness. Another concept, developed by NASA Langley Research Center, is a deployable wing-like surface installed on the nose of the aircraft for increased right and left (yaw) control on nose-high flight angles.

How to scientifically assess a restoration project: a case study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alvarez de Buergo, M.; Fort, R.; Freire, D. M.; Lopez-Arce, P.; Vazquez-Calvo, C.

2012-04-01

Commonly, it is said that there is lack of communication among scientists, conservators, restorers, project managers and architects. But sometimes this communication flows, and we can find enormous benefits from and for all the participating agents. This is the case we present in this work, in which technical agents in charge of the restoration of a building, asked for some scientific advice to perform the restoration of a heritage building. The results were successful and fantastic for both of them, in terms of one part asking for consultation and the other answering to the demands and resolving real problems. This is the case of a marvellous Renaissance building (Medinaceli Dukes palace, 15th-16th centuries) in the central area of Spain (Cogolludo, Guadalajara). Focused on the restoration project, we were asked for consultancy on how to solve matters like the assessment of the already fixed in project cleaning method for the stone façades, the efficacy and durability methods for some conservation products to be applied, the presence or not of a patina on the stone; the viability of using some restoration mortars, and the origin of some efflorescences that came out just after placed in the building a restoration rendering mortar. Responses to these matters were answered by performing tests both in the lab and on site in the building. The efficiency and effects on stone of the blasting cleaning method was assessed by first analysing the nature and thickness of the surface deposits to be removed (SEM-EDS analyses); secondly, roughness and colour measurements were performed, and thirdly, SEM-EDS analyses were carried out again to determine whether the cleaning method was able to remove part of the surface deposits, completely, or even part of the stone substrate. Some conservation products were tested on stone specimens, both their efficacy and their durability, concluding that it was better not to apply any of them. A patina was found on the stone façade under SEM, probably applied for colouring and homogenizing purpose, and below it and on the stone, an acrylic film was analysed. It was in good state, and its removal could be worse and more dangerous to the substrate than leaving it. Two restoration mortars were tested to characterize them and to determine their durability, the results showing that one of them was much better than the other. Finally, a restoration render was analysed and we found, by analysing it and the raw materials used for its preparation, that one of them, a marketed cement, had a very high content on sulfates, responsible for the efflorescences (sulphate compounds) that appeared just after the render was placed in the building, this resulting on stopping using this product in the restoration project. Consequently, conservation science should be considered as not only useful but essential for cultural heritage conservation, besides it is cost-saving, because failed interventions are much more expensive in the short, medium and long term.

Identification of critical factors affecting flexibility in hospital construction projects.

PubMed

Olsson, Nils E O; Hansen, Geir K

2010-01-01

This paper analyzes the dynamics relating to flexibility in a hospital project context. Three research questions are addressed: (1) When is flexibility used in the life cycle of a project? (2) What are the stakeholders' perspectives on project flexibility? And (3) What is the nature of the interaction between flexibility in the process of a project and flexibility in terms of the characteristics of a building? Flexibility is discussed from both a project management point of view and from a hospital architecture perspective. Flexibility in project life cycle and from a stakeholder perspective is examined, and the interaction between flexibility in scope lock-in and building flexibility is investigated. The results are based on case studies of four Norwegian hospital projects. Information relating to the projects has been obtained from evaluation reports, other relevant documents, and interviews. Observations were codified and analyzed based on selected parameters that represent different aspects of flexibility. One of the cases illustrates how late changes can have a significant negative impact on the project itself, contributing to delays and cost overruns. Another case illustrates that late scope lock-in on a limited part of the project, in this case related to medical equipment, can be done in a controlled manner. Project owners and users appear to have given flexibility high priority. Project management teams are less likely to embrace changes and late scope lock-in. Architects and consultants are important for translating program requirements into physical design. A highly flexible building did not stop some stakeholders from pushing for significant changes and extensions during construction.

Case studies of transportation investment to identify the impacts on the local and state economy.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2013-01-01

This project provides case studies of the impact of transportation investments on local economies. We use multiple : approaches to measure impacts since the effects of transportation projects can vary according to the size of a : project and the size...

24 CFR 241.1010 - Feasibility letter.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... SUPPLEMENTARY FINANCING FOR INSURED PROJECT MORTGAGES Insurance for Equity Loans and Acquisition Loans... Commissioner's estimate of the supportable loan amount, based upon the project's equity in the case of an equity loan and based on the project's purchase price in the case of an acquisition loan, but such...

Methodological Ambiguities of the Projective Technique: An Overview and Attempt to Clarify.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Veiel, H.; Coles, E. M.

1982-01-01

Definitions of projective tests are critiqued. A distinction is made between projective tests and projective techniques. The unique feature of the latter is its scoring process: response categories are intensionally defined and comprise infinite sets of responses. A continuity from psychometric to projective tests is argued. Statistical…

Specialist perioperative allergy clinic services in the UK 2018: Results from the Royal College of Anaesthetists Sixth National Audit Project (NAP6) Investigation of Perioperative Anaphylaxis.

PubMed

Egner, W; Cook, T M; Garcez, T; Marinho, S; Kemp, H; Lucas, D N; Floss, K; Farooque, S; Torevell, H; Thomas, M; Ferguson, K; Nasser, S; Karanam, S; Kong, K-L; McGuire, N; Bellamy, M; Warner, A; Hitchman, J; Farmer, L; Harper, N J N

2018-05-19

The Royal College of Anaesthetists 6th National Audit Project examined Grade 3-5 perioperative anaphylaxis for one year in the UK. To describe the causes and investigation of anaphylaxis in the NAP6 cohort, in relation to published guidance and previous baseline survey results. We used a secure registry to gather details of Grade 3-5 perioperative anaphylaxis. Anonymous reports were aggregated for analysis and reviewed in detail. Panel consensus diagnosis, reaction grade, review of investigations and clinic assessment are reported and compared to the prior NAP6 baseline clinic survey. 266 cases met inclusion criteria between November 2015 and 2016, detailing reactions and investigations. 192/266 (72%) had anaphylaxis with a trigger identified, of which 140/192(75%) met NAP6 criteria for IgE-mediated allergic anaphylaxis, 13% lacking evidence of positive IgE tests were labelled "non-allergic anaphylaxis". 3% were non-IgE mediated anaphylaxis. Adherence to guidance was similar to the baseline survey for waiting time for clinic assessment. However, lack of testing for chlorhexidine and latex, non-harmonised testing practices and poor coverage of all possible culprits was confirmed. Challenge testing may be under-used and many have unacceptably delayed assessments, even in urgent cases. Communication or information provision for patients was insufficient, especially for avoidance advice and communication of test results. Insufficient detail regarding skin test methods was available to draw conclusions regarding techniques. Current clinical assessment in the UK is effective but harmonisation of approach to testing, access to services and MHRA reporting is needed. Expert anaesthetist involvement should increase to optimise diagnostic yield and advice for future anaesthesia. Dynamic tryptase evaluation improves detection of tryptase release where peak tryptase is <14mcg/L and should be adopted. Standardised clinic reports containing appropriate details of tests, conclusions, avoidance, cross-reactivity and suitable alternatives are required to ensure effective, safe future management options. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Treatment as Prevention for Hepatitis C (TraP Hep C) - a nationwide elimination programme in Iceland using direct-acting antiviral agents.

PubMed

Olafsson, S; Tyrfingsson, T; Runarsdottir, V; Bergmann, O M; Hansdottir, I; Björnsson, E S; Johannsson, B; Sigurdardottir, B; Fridriksdottir, R H; Löve, A; Hellard, M; Löve, T J; Gudnason, T; Heimisdottir, M; Gottfredsson, M

2018-05-01

A nationwide programme for the treatment of all patients infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV) was launched in Iceland in January 2016. By providing universal access to direct-acting antiviral agents to the entire patient population, the two key aims of the project were to (i) offer a cure to patients and thus reduce the long-term sequelae of chronic hepatitis C, and (ii) to reduce domestic incidence of HCV in the population by 80% prior to the WHO goal of HCV elimination by the year 2030. An important part of the programme is that vast majority of cases will be treated within 36 months from the launch of the project, during 2016-2018. Emphasis is placed on early case finding and treatment of patients at high risk for transmitting HCV, that is people who inject drugs (PWID), as well as patients with advanced liver disease. In addition to treatment scale-up, the project also entails intensification of harm reduction efforts, improved access to diagnostic tests, as well as educational campaigns to curtail spread, facilitate early detection and improve linkage to care. With these efforts, Iceland is anticipated to achieve the WHO hepatitis C elimination goals well before 2030. This article describes the background and organization of this project. Clinical trial number: NCT02647879. © 2018 The Authors. Journal of Internal Medicine published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Association for Publication of The Journal of Internal Medicine.

Color image quality in projection displays: a case study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Strand, Monica; Hardeberg, Jon Y.; Nussbaum, Peter

2005-01-01

Recently the use of projection displays has increased dramatically in different applications such as digital cinema, home theatre, and business and educational presentations. Even if the color image quality of these devices has improved significantly over the years, it is still a common situation for users of projection displays that the projected colors differ significantly from the intended ones. This study presented in this paper attempts to analyze the color image quality of a large set of projection display devices, particularly investigating the variations in color reproduction. As a case study, a set of 14 projectors (LCD and DLP technology) at Gjovik University College have been tested under four different conditions: dark and light room, with and without using an ICC-profile. To find out more about the importance of the illumination conditions in a room, and the degree of improvement when using an ICC-profile, the results from the measurements was processed and analyzed. Eye-One Beamer from GretagMacbeth was used to make the profiles. The color image quality was evaluated both visually and by color difference calculations. The results from the analysis indicated large visual and colorimetric differences between the projectors. Our DLP projectors have generally smaller color gamut than LCD projectors. The color gamuts of older projectors are significantly smaller than that of newer ones. The amount of ambient light reaching the screen is of great importance for the visual impression. If too much reflections and other ambient light reaches the screen, the projected image gets pale and has low contrast. When using a profile, the differences in colors between the projectors gets smaller and the colors appears more correct. For one device, the average ΔE*ab color difference when compared to a relative white reference was reduced from 22 to 11, for another from 13 to 6. Blue colors have the largest variations among the projection displays and makes them therefore harder to predict.

Color image quality in projection displays: a case study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Strand, Monica; Hardeberg, Jon Y.; Nussbaum, Peter

2004-10-01

Recently the use of projection displays has increased dramatically in different applications such as digital cinema, home theatre, and business and educational presentations. Even if the color image quality of these devices has improved significantly over the years, it is still a common situation for users of projection displays that the projected colors differ significantly from the intended ones. This study presented in this paper attempts to analyze the color image quality of a large set of projection display devices, particularly investigating the variations in color reproduction. As a case study, a set of 14 projectors (LCD and DLP technology) at Gjøvik University College have been tested under four different conditions: dark and light room, with and without using an ICC-profile. To find out more about the importance of the illumination conditions in a room, and the degree of improvement when using an ICC-profile, the results from the measurements was processed and analyzed. Eye-One Beamer from GretagMacbeth was used to make the profiles. The color image quality was evaluated both visually and by color difference calculations. The results from the analysis indicated large visual and colorimetric differences between the projectors. Our DLP projectors have generally smaller color gamut than LCD projectors. The color gamuts of older projectors are significantly smaller than that of newer ones. The amount of ambient light reaching the screen is of great importance for the visual impression. If too much reflections and other ambient light reaches the screen, the projected image gets pale and has low contrast. When using a profile, the differences in colors between the projectors gets smaller and the colors appears more correct. For one device, the average ΔE*ab color difference when compared to a relative white reference was reduced from 22 to 11, for another from 13 to 6. Blue colors have the largest variations among the projection displays and makes them therefore harder to predict.

Case Studies on Technical and Vocational Education in Asia and the Pacific. Report of Regional Meeting (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, December 12-15, 1994). Exemplar Curriculum Project Working Group Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Haas, Adrian, Ed.

This conference report provides summaries of presentations of country case studies from a project to investigate factors that impinged upon the status of technical and vocational education (TVE) in Asian and Pacific countries. The report includes the case study project terms of reference, a list of delegates, and agenda. Summaries follow of the…

CO 2 Binding Organic Liquids Gas Capture with Polarity Swing Assisted Regeneration

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

Heldebrant, David

This report outlines the comprehensive bench-scale testing of the CO 2-binding organic liquids (CO 2BOLs) solvent platform and its unique Polarity Swing Assisted Regeneration (PSAR). This study outlines all efforts on a candidate CO 2BOL solvent molecule, including solvent synthesis, material characterization, preliminary toxicology studies, and measurement of all physical, thermodynamic and kinetic data, including bench-scale testing. Equilibrium and kinetic models and analysis were made using Aspen Plus™. Preliminary process configurations, a technoeconomic assessment and solvent performance projections for separating CO 2 from a subcritical coal-fired power plant are compared to the U.S. Department of Energy's Case 10 monoethanolamine baseline.

Use of high-speed photography and associated techniques as a measurement tool in the research, development, test, and evaluation of weapons systems and armaments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Haddleton, Graham P.

1995-05-01

Photography's inestimable contribution to science and technology is beyond question. Applied photography, or in this case applied cinematography, is that area of work which assumes an integral part of a research project and where the results of photographic analysis form a major source of information. In military research and development or testing there are various fast events that need to be recorded and analyzed. High speed cameras allow the capture of movement too fast to be recognized by the human eye and provide data that is essential for the analysis of such events.

Software engineering for ESO's VLT project

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Filippi, G.

1994-12-01

This paper reports on the experience at the European Southern Observatory on the application of software engineering techniques to a 200 man-year control software project for the Very Large Telescope (VLT). This shall provide astronomers, before the end of the century, with one of the most powerful telescopes in the world. From the definition of the general model, described in the software management plan, specific activities have been and will be defined: standards for documents and for code development, design approach using a CASE tool, the process of reviewing both documentation and code, quality assurance, test strategy, etc. The initial choices, the current implementation and the future planned activities are presented and, where feedback is already available, pros and cons are discussed.

Evaluation of the Impact of ESEA Title I Programs for Migrant Children of Migrant Agricultural Workers. Volume IV--Appendices. Final Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Exotech Systems, Inc., Falls Church, VA.

Volume IV of the evaluation report consists of case studies from 10 migrant education projects in 8 of the sample States. These projects were visited in July through September 1973. The case studies give noteworthy or innovative aspects of the projects, detailed descriptions, and the functions. The projects are: (1) Harnett County Summer Migrant…

Improving coding accuracy in an academic practice.

PubMed

Nguyen, Dana; O'Mara, Heather; Powell, Robert

2017-01-01

Practice management has become an increasingly important component of graduate medical education. This applies to every practice environment; private, academic, and military. One of the most critical aspects of practice management is documentation and coding for physician services, as they directly affect the financial success of any practice. Our quality improvement project aimed to implement a new and innovative method for teaching billing and coding in a longitudinal fashion in a family medicine residency. We hypothesized that implementation of a new teaching strategy would increase coding accuracy rates among residents and faculty. Design: single group, pretest-posttest. military family medicine residency clinic. Study populations: 7 faculty physicians and 18 resident physicians participated as learners in the project. Educational intervention: monthly structured coding learning sessions in the academic curriculum that involved learner-presented cases, small group case review, and large group discussion. overall coding accuracy (compliance) percentage and coding accuracy per year group for the subjects that were able to participate longitudinally. Statistical tests used: average coding accuracy for population; paired t test to assess improvement between 2 intervention periods, both aggregate and by year group. Overall coding accuracy rates remained stable over the course of time regardless of the modality of the educational intervention. A paired t test was conducted to compare coding accuracy rates at baseline (mean (M)=26.4%, SD=10%) to accuracy rates after all educational interventions were complete (M=26.8%, SD=12%); t24=-0.127, P=.90. Didactic teaching and small group discussion sessions did not improve overall coding accuracy in a residency practice. Future interventions could focus on educating providers at the individual level.

Application of correspondence analysis in the assessment of mine tailings dam breakage risk in the Mediterranean region.

PubMed

Salgueiro, Ana Rita; Pereira, Henrique Garcia; Rico, Maria-Teresa; Benito, Gerado; Díez-Herreo, Andrés

2008-02-01

A new statistical approach for preliminary risk evaluation of breakage in tailings dam is presented and illustrated by a case study regarding the Mediterranean region. The objective of the proposed method is to establish an empirical scale of risk, from which guidelines for prioritizing the collection of further specific information can be derived. The method relies on a historical database containing, in essence, two sets of qualitative data: the first set concerns the variables that are observable before the disaster (e.g., type and size of the dam, its location, and state of activity), and the second refers to the consequences of the disaster (e.g., failure type, sludge characteristics, fatalities categorization, and downstream range of damage). Based on a modified form of correspondence analysis, where the second set of attributes are projected as "supplementary variables" onto the axes provided by the eigenvalue decomposition of the matrix referring to the first set, a "qualitative regression" is performed, relating the variables to be predicted (contained in the second set) with the "predictors" (the observable variables). On the grounds of the previously derived relationship, the risk of breakage in a new case can be evaluated, given observable variables. The method was applied in a case study regarding a set of 13 test sites where the ranking of risk obtained was validated by expert knowledge. Once validated, the procedure was included in the final output of the e-EcoRisk UE project (A Regional Enterprise Network Decision-Support System for Environmental Risk and Disaster Management of Large-Scale Industrial Spills), allowing for a dynamic historical database updating and providing a prompt rough risk evaluation for a new case. The aim of this section of the global project is to provide a quantified context where failure cases occurred in the past for supporting analogue reasoning in preventing similar situations.

Improving tuberculosis control through public-private collaboration in India: literature review.

PubMed

Dewan, Puneet K; Lal, S S; Lonnroth, Knut; Wares, Fraser; Uplekar, Mukund; Sahu, Suvanand; Granich, Reuben; Chauhan, Lakhbir Singh

2006-03-11

To review the characteristics of public-private mix projects in India and their effect on case notification and treatment outcomes for tuberculosis. Literature review. Review of surveillance records from Indian tuberculosis programme project, evaluation reports, and medical literature for public-private mix projects in India. Project characteristics, tuberculosis case notification of new patients with sputum smear results positive for acid fast bacilli, and treatment outcome. Of 24 identified public-private mix projects, data were available from 14 (58%), involving private practitioners, corporations, and non-governmental organisations. In all reviewed projects, the public sector tuberculosis programme provided training and supervision of private providers. Among the five projects with available data on historical controls, case notification rates were higher after implementation of a public-private mix project. Among seven projects involving private practitioners, 2796 of 12 147 (23%) new patients positive for acid fast bacilli were attributed to private providers. Corporate based and non-governmental organisations served as the main source for tuberculosis programme services in seven project areas, detecting 9967 new patients positive for acid fast bacilli. In nine of 12 projects with data on treatment outcomes, private providers exceeded the programme target of 85% treatment success for new patients positive for acid fast bacilli. Public-private mix activities were associated with increased case notification, while maintaining acceptable treatment outcomes. Collaborations between public and private providers of health care hold considerable potential to improve tuberculosis control in India.

Recovery Act: Innovative CO 2 Sequestration from Flue Gas Using Industrial Sources and Innovative Concept for Beneficial CO 2 Use

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

Dando, Neal; Gershenzon, Mike; Ghosh, Rajat

2012-07-31

The overall goal of this DOE Phase 2 project was to further develop and conduct pilot-scale and field testing of a biomimetic in-duct scrubbing system for the capture of gaseous CO 2 coupled with sequestration of captured carbon by carbonation of alkaline industrial wastes. The Phase 2 project, reported on here, combined efforts in enzyme development, scrubber optimization, and sequestrant evaluations to perform an economic feasibility study of technology deployment. The optimization of carbonic anhydrase (CA) enzyme reactivity and stability are critical steps in deployment of this technology. A variety of CA enzyme variants were evaluated for reactivity and stabilitymore » in both bench scale and in laboratory pilot scale testing to determine current limits in enzyme performance. Optimization of scrubber design allowed for improved process economics while maintaining desired capture efficiencies. A range of configurations, materials, and operating conditions were examined at the Alcoa Technical Center on a pilot scale scrubber. This work indicated that a cross current flow utilizing a specialized gas-liquid contactor offered the lowest system operating energy. Various industrial waste materials were evaluated as sources of alkalinity for the scrubber feed solution and as sources of calcium for precipitation of carbonate. Solids were mixed with a simulated sodium bicarbonate scrubber blowdown to comparatively examine reactivity. Supernatant solutions and post-test solids were analyzed to quantify and model the sequestration reactions. The best performing solids were found to sequester between 2.3 and 2.9 moles of CO 2 per kg of dry solid in 1-4 hours of reaction time. These best performing solids were cement kiln dust, circulating dry scrubber ash, and spray dryer absorber ash. A techno-economic analysis was performed to evaluate the commercial viability of the proposed carbon capture and sequestration process in full-scale at an aluminum smelter and a refinery location. For both cases the in-duct scrubber technology was compared to traditional amine- based capture. Incorporation of the laboratory results showed that for the application at the aluminum smelter, the in-duct scrubber system is more economical than traditional methods. However, the reverse is true for the refinery case, where the bauxite residue is not effective enough as a sequestrant, combined with challenges related to contaminants in the bauxite residue accumulating in and fouling the scrubber absorbent. Sensitivity analyses showed that the critical variables by which process economics could be improved are enzyme concentration, efficiency, and half-life. At the end of the first part of the Phase 2 project, a gate review (DOE Decision Zero Gate Point) was conducted to decide on the next stages of the project. The original plan was to follow the pre-testing phase with a detailed design for the field testing. Unfavorable process economics, however, resulted in a decision to conclude the project before moving to field testing. It is noted that CO 2 Solutions proposed an initial solution to reduce process costs through more advanced enzyme management, however, DOE program requirements restricting any technology development extending beyond 2014 as commercial deployment timeline did not allow this solution to be undertaken.« less

Program Evaluation - Automotive Lightweighting Materials Program Research and Development Projects Assessment of Benefits - Case Studies No. 2

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

Das, S.

This report is the second of a series of studies to evaluate research and development (R&D) projects funded by the Automotive Lightweighting Materials (ALM) Program of the Office of Advanced Automotive Technologies (OAAT) of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The objectives of the program evaluation are to assess short-run outputs and long-run outcomes that may be attributable to the ALM R&D projects. The ALM program focuses on the development and validation of advanced technologies that significantly reduce automotive vehicle body and chassis weight without compromising other attributes such as safety, performance, recyclability, and cost. Funded projects range from fundamentalmore » materials science research to applied research in production environments. Collaborators on these projects include national laboratories, universities, and private sector firms, such as leading automobile manufacturers and their suppliers. Three ALM R&D projects were chosen for this evaluation: Design and Product Optimization for Cast Light Metals, Durability of Lightweight Composite Structures, and Rapid Tooling for Functional Prototyping of Metal Mold Processes. These projects were chosen because they have already been completed. The first project resulted in development of a comprehensive cast light metal property database, an automotive application design guide, computerized predictive models, process monitoring sensors, and quality assurance methods. The second project, the durability of lightweight composite structures, produced durability-based design criteria documents, predictive models for creep deformation, and minimum test requirements and suggested test methods for establishing durability properties and characteristics of random glass-fiber composites for automotive structural composites. The durability project supported Focal Project II, a validation activity that demonstrates ALM program goals and reduces the lead time for bringing new technology into the marketplace. Focal projects concentrate on specific classes of materials and nonproprietary components and are done jointly by DOE and the Automotive Composites Consortium of U.S. Council for Automotive Research (USCAR). The third project developed a rapid tooling process that reduces tooling time, originally some 48-52 weeks, to less than 12 weeks by means of rapid generation of die-casting die inserts and development of generic holding blocks, suitable for use with large casting applications. This project was conducted by the United States Automotive Materials Partnership, another USCAR consortium.« less

Project-Based Learning in Electronic Technology: A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Li, Li

2015-01-01

A case study of project-based learning (PBL) implemented in Tianjin University of Technology and Education is presented. This multidiscipline project is innovated to meet the novel requirements of industry while keeping its traditional effectiveness in driving students to apply knowledge to practice and problem-solving. The implementation of PBL…

Integrated Test Approach

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cotton, Will; Liechty, John

2015-01-01

This paper describes a testing methodology undertaken on the Facilities Development and Operations Contract (FDOC) by Lockheed Martin. The methodology was defined with the intent of reducing project schedule time to enable NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) to be able to deliver the Mission Control Center (MCC) 21 project as quickly as possible. 21 represents the 21st century where NASA JSC is updating its control center with new technology and operational concepts in order to support NASA customers wanting to use control center assets to support space vehicle operations. In collaboration with the NASA customer, a new test concept was conceived early during MCC21 project planning with the goal of reducing project delivery time. One enabler that could help reduce delivery time was testing. Within the project, testing was performed by two entities, software development responsible for subsystem testing and system test responsible for system integration testing. The MCC21 project took a deliberate review of testing to determine how it could be performed differently to realize an overall reduction in test time to support the goal of a more rapid project delivery.

Reference materials and representative test materials to develop nanoparticle characterization methods: the NanoChOp project case

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Roebben, Gert; Kestens, Vikram; Varga, Zoltan; Charoud-Got, Jean; Ramaye, Yannic; Gollwitzer, Christian; Bartczak, Dorota; Geißler, Daniel; Noble, James; Mazoua, Stéphane; Meeus, Nele; Corbisier, Philippe; Palmai, Marcell; Mihály, Judith; Krumrey, Michael; Davies, Julie; Resch-Genger, Ute; Kumarswami, Neelam; Minelli, Caterina; Sikora, Aneta; Goenaga-Infante, Heidi

2015-10-01

This paper describes the production and characteristics of the nanoparticle test materials prepared for common use in the collaborative research project NanoChOp (Chemical and optical characterisation of nanomaterials in biological systems), in casu suspensions of silica nanoparticles and CdSe/CdS/ZnS quantum dots. This paper is the first to illustrate how to assess whether nanoparticle test materials meet the requirements of a 'reference material' (ISO Guide 30:2015) or rather those of the recently defined category of 'representative test material' (ISO TS 16195:2013). The NanoChOp test materials were investigated with small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), dynamic light scattering (DLS) and centrifugal liquid sedimentation (CLS) to establish whether they complied with the required monomodal particle size distribution. The presence of impurities, aggregates, agglomerates and viable microorganisms in the suspensions was investigated with DLS, CLS, optical and electron microscopy and via plating on nutrient agar. Suitability of surface functionalization was investigated with attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (ATR-FTIR) and via the capacity of the nanoparticles to be fluorescently labeled or to bind antibodies. Between-unit homogeneity and stability were investigated in terms of particle size and zeta potential. This paper shows that only based on the outcome of a detailed characterization process one can raise the status of a test material to representative test material or reference material, and how this status depends on its intended use.

Core Cutting Test with Vertical Rock Cutting Rig (VRCR)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yasar, Serdar; Osman Yilmaz, Ali

2017-12-01

Roadheaders are frequently used machines in mining and tunnelling, and performance prediction of roadheaders is important for project economics and stability. Several methods were proposed so far for this purpose and, rock cutting tests are the best choice. Rock cutting tests are generally divided into two groups which are namely, full scale rock cutting tests and small scale rock cutting tests. These two tests have some superiorities and deficiencies over themselves. However, in many cases, where rock sampling becomes problematic, small scale rock cutting test (core cutting test) is preferred for performance prediction, since small block samples and core samples can be conducted to rock cutting testing. Common problem for rock cutting tests are that they can be found in very limited research centres. In this study, a new mobile rock cutting testing equipment, vertical rock cutting rig (VRCR) was introduced. Standard testing procedure was conducted on seven rock samples which were the part of a former study on cutting rocks with another small scale rock cutting test. Results showed that core cutting test can be realized successfully with VRCR with the validation of paired samples t-test.

Instructional Modules for Training Special Education Teachers: A Final Report on the Development and Field Testing of the CUNY-CBTEP Special Education Modules. Case 30-76. Toward Competence Instructional Materials for Teacher Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

City Univ. of New York, NY. Center for Advanced Study in Education.

The City University of New York Competency Based Teacher Education Project (CUNY-CBTEP) in Special Education studied Modularization, focusing on the variables in the instructional setting that facilitate learning from modular materials for a wide range of students. Four of the five modules for the training of special education teachers developed…

Layoff Time Training: A Key to Upgrading Workforce Utilization and EEOC Affirmative Action. A Case Study in the Northern California Canning Industry. R & D Monograph 61.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aller, Curtis C.; And Others

An experimental and demonstration project was conducted over a five-year period in California to test the concept of lay-off time training to enable workers to qualify for promotion and increase their earnings. The canning industry was found to be a suitable area for this type of training since it had annual lay-offs followed by assured recalls to…

DECAF - Density Estimation for Cetaceans from Passive Acoustic Fixed Sensors

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-01-01

david.k.mellinger@noaa.gov Steve Martin SPAWAR Systems Center San Diego, Code 2374, 53560 Hull Street, San Diego, CA 92152-5001 Phone: (619) 553-9882...Diego, CA. Mr. Steve Martin oversaw the test cases based on data from PMRF. Martin was previously the PI on the ONR-funded project to collect...Ward, Dr. Ronald Morrissey, Ms. Nancy DiMarzio, Ms. Susan Jarvis , and Dr. Paul Baggenstoss. They used new detection algorithms developed under this

Resource estimation from historical data: Mercury, a test case

USGS Publications Warehouse

Cargill, S.M.; Root, D.H.; Bailey, E.H.

1980-01-01

A simple technique based on historical records of tonnage and grade of ore produced provides a means for calculating how much of a mineral product will be available in the future at various average grades. Estimates made on this basis are independent of geologic considerations or changing economic and political factors, although they are based on mining history, which was largely determined by these factors. The relatively minor element, mercury, was used for the test case reported here, but the method has been found applicable to forecasts of resources for other mineral products. Mercury resources available in ore in which the average grade is as low as 0.1% are estimated to be 53 ??106kg (1.5 ??106flasks) for the United States and 1551 ??106kg (45 ??106flasks) for the world; this amount is more than adequate to meet predicted demand to the year 2000. The expectable price of mercury in 1978 dollars at this 0.1% grade is projected to be $58.75 per kg ($2,025 per flask), but at a 10% annual inflation rate, it would be more than $12,000 per flask. To satisfy just the projected U.S. demand for mercury by 2000, the price is calculated to be $48.96 per kg ($1,688 per flask) in 1978 dollars at an average annual grade of 0.12%. ?? 1980 Plenum Publishing Corporation.

The Animal Genetic Resource Information Network (AnimalGRIN) Database: A Database Design & Implementation Case

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Irwin, Gretchen; Wessel, Lark; Blackman, Harvey

2012-01-01

This case describes a database redesign project for the United States Department of Agriculture's National Animal Germplasm Program (NAGP). The case provides a valuable context for teaching and practicing database analysis, design, and implementation skills, and can be used as the basis for a semester-long team project. The case demonstrates the…

The development and technology transfer of software engineering technology at NASA. Johnson Space Center

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pitman, C. L.; Erb, D. M.; Izygon, M. E.; Fridge, E. M., III; Roush, G. B.; Braley, D. M.; Savely, R. T.

1992-01-01

The United State's big space projects of the next decades, such as Space Station and the Human Exploration Initiative, will need the development of many millions of lines of mission critical software. NASA-Johnson (JSC) is identifying and developing some of the Computer Aided Software Engineering (CASE) technology that NASA will need to build these future software systems. The goal is to improve the quality and the productivity of large software development projects. New trends are outlined in CASE technology and how the Software Technology Branch (STB) at JSC is endeavoring to provide some of these CASE solutions for NASA is described. Key software technology components include knowledge-based systems, software reusability, user interface technology, reengineering environments, management systems for the software development process, software cost models, repository technology, and open, integrated CASE environment frameworks. The paper presents the status and long-term expectations for CASE products. The STB's Reengineering Application Project (REAP), Advanced Software Development Workstation (ASDW) project, and software development cost model (COSTMODL) project are then discussed. Some of the general difficulties of technology transfer are introduced, and a process developed by STB for CASE technology insertion is described.

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

Moody, Mark; Sminchak, J.R.

Under this three year project, the condition of legacy oil and gas wells in the Midwest United States was evaluated through analysis of well records, well plugging information, CBL evaluation, sustained casing pressure (SCP) field testing, and analysis of hypothetical CO 2 test areas to provide a realistic description of wellbore integrity factors. The research included a state-wide review of oil and gas well records for Ohio and Michigan, along with more detailed testing of wells in Ohio. Results concluded that oil and gas wells are clustered along fields in areas. Well records vary in quality, and there may bemore » wells that have not been identified in records, but there are options for surveying unknown wells. Many of the deep saline formations being considered for CO 2 storage have few wells that penetrate the storage zone or confining layers. Research suggests that a variety of well construction and plugging approaches have been used over time in the region. The project concluded that wellbore integrity is an important issue for CO 2 storage applications in the Midwest United States. Realistic CO 2 storage projects may cover an area in the subsurface with several hundred legacy oil and gas wells. However, closer inspection may often establish that most of the wells do not penetrate the confining layers or storage zone. Therefore, addressing well integrity may be manageable. Field monitoring of SCP also indicated that tested wells provided zonal isolation of the reservoirs they were designed to isolate. Most of these wells appeared to exhibit gas pressure originating from intermediate zones. Based on these results, more flexibility in terms of cementing wells to surface, allowing well testing, and monitoring wells may aid operators in completing CO 2 storage project. Several useful products were developed under this project for examining wellbore integrity for CO 2 storage applications including, a database of over 4 million items on well integrity parameters in the study areas, a systematic CBL evaluation tool for rating cement in boreholes, SCP field testing procedures and analysis methodology, a process for summarizing well integrity at CO 2 storage fields, a statistical analysis of well integrity indicators, and an assessment of practical methods and costs necessary to repair/remediate typical wells in the region based on assessment of six test study areas. Project results may benefit both CO 2 storage and improved oil recovery applications. This study of wellbore integrity is a useful precursor to support development of geologic storage in the Midwest United States because it sheds more light on the actual well conditions (rather than the perceived condition) of historic oil and gas wells in the region.« less

Targeting the initial investigation and management in cases of acute pulmonary embolism.

PubMed

Moore, Nicholas; Hawkins, Peter

2013-01-01

It was noted by consultants in our hospital that the early investigation of suspected pulmonary embolism (PE) lacked structure. This was causing delays in definitive diagnosis and early management. The resulting unnecessary use of investigation was also wasting resources. In particular, the inappropriate use of serum d-dimer tests was causing concern. The National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidelines recommend use of the 2-level Well's score to target investigation in suspected PE. A baseline audit against the NICE guideline revealed that Well's scores were rarely used (only calculated in 12% of cases) and confirmed the suspicion that early investigation was poorly targeted. This project intervened using educational talks promoting the use of Well's scores in cases of suspected PE. Well's score proformas were placed in the emergency department and emergency assessment unit for reference. Their availability was advertised. This significantly increased the use of Well's scores (46% vs 11%, p<0.001). Fewer patients underwent unnecessary d-dimer measurements in cases of likely PE (65% vs 86%). Initial investigation was more targeted in cases where a Well's score had been calculated than in cases without a Well's score. For example, significantly fewer unnecessary d-dimer tests were performed in these cases (45% vs 100%, p<0.05). The cost of unnecessary investigation in suspected PE is not only significant financially but also in the resulting delay in definitive diagnosis and management for the patient. The simple intervention used here was effective in addressing this problem.

Contextualizing and assessing the social capital of seniors in congregate housing residences: study design and methods

PubMed Central

Moore, Spencer; Shiell, Alan; Haines, Valerie; Riley, Therese; Collier, Carrie

2005-01-01

Background This article discusses the study design and methods used to contextualize and assess the social capital of seniors living in congregate housing residences in Calgary, Alberta. The project is being funded as a pilot project under the Institute of Aging, Canadian Institutes for Health Research. Design/Methods Working with seniors living in 5 congregate housing residencies in Calgary, the project uses a mixed method approach to develop grounded measures of the social capital of seniors. The project integrates both qualitative and quantitative methods in a 3-phase research design: 1) qualitative, 2) quantitative, and 3) qualitative. Phase 1 uses gender-specific focus groups; phase 2 involves the administration of individual surveys that include a social network module; and phase 3 uses anamolous-case interviews. Not only does the study design allow us to develop grounded measures of social capital but it also permits us to test how well the three methods work separately, and how well they fit together to achieve project goals. This article describes the selection of the study population, the multiple methods used in the research and a brief discussion of our conceptualization and measurement of social capital. PMID:15836784

Systems engineering in the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope project: an application of model based systems engineering

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Claver, C. F.; Selvy, Brian M.; Angeli, George; Delgado, Francisco; Dubois-Felsmann, Gregory; Hascall, Patrick; Lotz, Paul; Marshall, Stuart; Schumacher, German; Sebag, Jacques

2014-08-01

The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope project was an early adopter of SysML and Model Based Systems Engineering practices. The LSST project began using MBSE for requirements engineering beginning in 2006 shortly after the initial release of the first SysML standard. Out of this early work the LSST's MBSE effort has grown to include system requirements, operational use cases, physical system definition, interfaces, and system states along with behavior sequences and activities. In this paper we describe our approach and methodology for cross-linking these system elements over the three classical systems engineering domains - requirement, functional and physical - into the LSST System Architecture model. We also show how this model is used as the central element to the overall project systems engineering effort. More recently we have begun to use the cross-linked modeled system architecture to develop and plan the system verification and test process. In presenting this work we also describe "lessons learned" from several missteps the project has had with MBSE. Lastly, we conclude by summarizing the overall status of the LSST's System Architecture model and our plans for the future as the LSST heads toward construction.

Active solution of homography for pavement crack recovery with four laser lines.

PubMed

Xu, Guan; Chen, Fang; Wu, Guangwei; Li, Xiaotao

2018-05-08

An active solution method of the homography, which is derived from four laser lines, is proposed to recover the pavement cracks captured by the camera to the real-dimension cracks in the pavement plane. The measurement system, including a camera and four laser projectors, captures the projection laser points on the 2D reference in different positions. The projection laser points are reconstructed in the camera coordinate system. Then, the laser lines are initialized and optimized by the projection laser points. Moreover, the plane-indicated Plücker matrices of the optimized laser lines are employed to model the laser projection points of the laser lines on the pavement. The image-pavement homography is actively determined by the solutions of the perpendicular feet of the projection laser points. The pavement cracks are recovered by the active solution of homography in the experiments. The recovery accuracy of the active solution method is verified by the 2D dimension-known reference. The test case with the measurement distance of 700 mm and the relative angle of 8° achieves the smallest recovery error of 0.78 mm in the experimental investigations, which indicates the application potentials in the vision-based pavement inspection.

Geopressured well project Sweet Lake, Cameron Parish, Louisiana. Final report Feb 80-Sep 82

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

Hoffman, K.S.

1983-01-01

The Sweet Lake geopressured-geothermal test well(Magma Gulf-Technadril/DOE Amoco Fee 1) was drilled in Cameron Parish, Louisiana under a Department of Energy contract. The primary purpose was to demonstrate technological and economic recovery of the geopressured-geothermal resource. The Gas Research Institute funded ancillary work in mud logging, micropaleontology, organic geochemistry, rock mechanics, and core analysis. The well was perforated in the upper Frio Miogypsinoides sand, at a depth of 15,387-15,414 feet. Mud logging and micropaleontology were used to monitor stratigraphic position during the drilling of the well and were particularly important in picking the casing point at the top of themore » Miogypsinoides sand. Several phases of testing have been carried out, including an initial flow test, a reservoir limit test, and long-term (6+ month) testing.« less

Metric freeness and projectivity for classical and quantum normed modules

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

Helemskii, A Ya

2013-07-31

In functional analysis, there are several diverse approaches to the notion of projective module. We show that a certain general categorical scheme contains all basic versions as special cases. In this scheme, the notion of free object comes to the foreground, and, in the best categories, projective objects are precisely retracts of free ones. We are especially interested in the so-called metric version of projectivity and characterize the metrically free classical and quantum (= operator) normed modules. Informally speaking, so-called extremal projectivity, which was known earlier, is interpreted as a kind of 'asymptotical metric projectivity'. In addition, we answer themore » following specific question in the geometry of normed spaces: what is the structure of metrically projective modules in the simplest case of normed spaces? We prove that metrically projective normed spaces are precisely the subspaces of l{sub 1}(M) (where M is a set) that are denoted by l{sub 1}{sup 0}(M) and consist of finitely supported functions. Thus, in this case, projectivity coincides with freeness. Bibliography: 28 titles.« less

Using a telehealth service delivery approach to working with an undergraduate student with a traumatic brain injury: A case study.

PubMed

Quaco, Carrie

2017-09-14

Project Career is a five year NIDILRR-funded interprofessional demonstration project aimed to improve the academic and career success of undergraduate students who have a traumatic brain injury (TBI). The information for this case study was collected and synthesized by an occupational therapy graduate student intern for one of the Project Career sites in collaboration with the Technology and Employment Coordinator for the site, the co-PI for Project Career, and the student participant. A case study is presented to provide an understanding of one of the Project Career participant's experience using a telehealth service delivery approach to working with Project Career for academic and career support. The participant's case notes, direct communication with the intern, and outcome assessments were used to perform a qualitative analysis. The participant reported that he believed Project Career was an effective support service for him. However, the participant's initial and 6-month outcome assessment scores are inconclusive regarding improvements in his academic abilities and satisfaction with academic and career attainment. Further research on the effectiveness of using a telehealth service delivery approach to working with undergraduate students with a TBI is needed.

Field evidence that ecosystem service projects support biodiversity and diversify options.

PubMed

Goldman, Rebecca L; Tallis, Heather; Kareiva, Peter; Daily, Gretchen C

2008-07-08

Ecosystem service approaches to conservation are being championed as a new strategy for conservation, under the hypothesis that they will broaden and deepen support for biodiversity protection. Where traditional approaches focus on setting aside land by purchasing property rights, ecosystem service approaches aim to engage a much wider range of places, people, policies, and financial resources in conservation. This is particularly important given projected intensification of human impacts, with rapid growth in population size and individual aspirations. Here we use field research on 34 ecosystem service (ES) projects and 26 traditional biodiversity (BD) projects from the Western Hemisphere to test whether ecosystem service approaches show signs of realizing their putative potential. We find that the ES projects attract on average more than four times as much funding through greater corporate sponsorship and use of a wider variety of finance tools than BD projects. ES projects are also more likely to encompass working landscapes and the people in them. We also show that, despite previous concern, ES projects not only expand opportunities for conservation, but they are no less likely than BD projects to include or create protected areas. Moreover, they do not draw down limited financial resources for conservation but rather engage a more diverse set of funders. We also found, however, that monitoring of conservation outcomes in both cases is so infrequent that it is impossible to assess the effectiveness of either ES or BD approaches.

Field evidence that ecosystem service projects support biodiversity and diversify options

PubMed Central

Goldman, Rebecca L.; Tallis, Heather; Kareiva, Peter; Daily, Gretchen C.

2008-01-01

Ecosystem service approaches to conservation are being championed as a new strategy for conservation, under the hypothesis that they will broaden and deepen support for biodiversity protection. Where traditional approaches focus on setting aside land by purchasing property rights, ecosystem service approaches aim to engage a much wider range of places, people, policies, and financial resources in conservation. This is particularly important given projected intensification of human impacts, with rapid growth in population size and individual aspirations. Here we use field research on 34 ecosystem service (ES) projects and 26 traditional biodiversity (BD) projects from the Western Hemisphere to test whether ecosystem service approaches show signs of realizing their putative potential. We find that the ES projects attract on average more than four times as much funding through greater corporate sponsorship and use of a wider variety of finance tools than BD projects. ES projects are also more likely to encompass working landscapes and the people in them. We also show that, despite previous concern, ES projects not only expand opportunities for conservation, but they are no less likely than BD projects to include or create protected areas. Moreover, they do not draw down limited financial resources for conservation but rather engage a more diverse set of funders. We also found, however, that monitoring of conservation outcomes in both cases is so infrequent that it is impossible to assess the effectiveness of either ES or BD approaches. PMID:18591667

Testing of a Wireless Sensor System for Instrumented Thermal Protection Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kummer, Allen T.; Weir, Erik D.; Morris, Trey J.; Friedenberger, Corey W.; Singh, Aseem; Capuro, Robert M.; Bilen, Sven G.; Fu, Johnny; Swanson, Gregory T.; Hash, David B.

2011-01-01

Funded by NASA's Constellation Universities Institutes Project (CUIP), we have been developing and testing a system to wirelessly power and collect data from sensors on space platforms in general and, in particular, the harsh environment of spacecraft re-entry. The elimination of wires and associated failures such as chafing, sparking, ageing, and connector issues can increase reliability and design flexibility while reducing costs. These factors present an appealing case for the pursuit of wireless solutions for harsh environments, particularly for their use in space and on spacecraft. We have designed and built a prototype wireless sensor system. The system, with capabilities similar to that of a wired sensor system, was tested in NASA Ames Research Center s Aerodynamic Heating Facility and Interaction Heating Facility. This paper discusses the overall development effort, testing results, as well as future directions.

Subsistence restoration project: Food safety testing. Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Restoration Project. Final report restoration project 94279

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

Miraglia, R.A.; Chartrand, A.W.

1997-05-01

The goal of this project was to restore the confidence of subsistence users in their abilities to determine the safety of their resources. Methods included community meetings, collection and testing of subsistence resources samples for hydrocarbon contamination, accompanying community representatives on tours of the laboratory where tests were conducted and informational newsletters. Over the two years of the project combined, 228 composite samples of edible tissues from shellfish were tested. The bile of forty rockfish, six sockeye salmon, twelve seals, twenty-three ducks were tested for the presence of hydrocarbon metabolites. Edible tissue (blubber) from seals was also tested. Generally, themore » tests showed such low levels of hydrocarbons and their metabolites, as to be within the test`s margin of error. The project was partly successful in disseminating the subsistence food safety advice of the Oil Spill Health Task Force and in improving the level of trust in the results of hydrocarbon tests on the resources.« less

Symmetry breaking in the opinion dynamics of a multi-group project organization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhu, Zhen-Tao; Zhou, Jing; Li, Ping; Chen, Xing-Guang

2012-10-01

A bounded confidence model of opinion dynamics in multi-group projects is presented in which each group's opinion evolution is driven by two types of forces: (i) the group's cohesive force which tends to restore the opinion back towards the initial status because of its company culture; and (ii) nonlinear coupling forces with other groups which attempt to bring opinions closer due to collaboration willingness. Bifurcation analysis for the case of a two-group project shows a cusp catastrophe phenomenon and three distinctive evolutionary regimes, i.e., a deadlock regime, a convergence regime, and a bifurcation regime in opinion dynamics. The critical value of initial discord between the two groups is derived to discriminate which regime the opinion evolution belongs to. In the case of a three-group project with a symmetric social network, both bifurcation analysis and simulation results demonstrate that if each pair has a high initial discord, instead of symmetrically converging to consensus with the increase of coupling scale as expected by Gabbay's result (Physica A 378 (2007) p. 125 Fig. 5), project organization (PO) may be split into two distinct clusters because of the symmetry breaking phenomenon caused by pitchfork bifurcations, which urges that apart from divergence in participants' interests, nonlinear interaction can also make conflict inevitable in the PO. The effects of two asymmetric level parameters are tested in order to explore the ways of inducing dominant opinion in the whole PO. It is found that the strong influence imposed by a leader group with firm faith on the flexible and open minded follower groups can promote the formation of a positive dominant opinion in the PO.

Contraceptive social marketing in the third world: a case of multiple transfer.

PubMed

Luthra, R

1991-01-01

A researcher conducted a case study of the Family Planning Social Marketing Project (FPSMP) in Bangladesh between 1974-1987 to point out the irreducible qualitative differences between the commercial and social contexts and between the developed and developing world. The research consisted of interviews with chief personnel of the technical assistance contractor Population Services International (PSI), project documentation, a review of marketing principles and methods, and summary reports on contraceptive social marketing projects in various countries. FPSMP, a vertical marketing organization, marketed 3 condom brands, 2 oral contraceptive brands, and 1 vaginal foam tablet. At least 70% of the advertising budget was allocated for conventional media (television [TV], radio, and newspapers), even though the poor and illiterate target population did not own a radio or TV and could not read a newspaper. In fact, conventional media were basically accessible to the urban elite. A PSI leader defended the use of conventional media because opinion leaders (urban elite) exert considerable influence on the population so they must receive the family planning messages in order to support family planning. Yet this assumption had not been tested, but was based on the experience of technical assistance contractors from previous projects in developing countries. Moreover, FPSMP based acceptability of message content on the elite's definition and not on the definition of the target group. Its information strategy included emphasis on the sales indicator and the creation of positive product associations while downplaying information about side effects and contraindications. This indicated that FPSMP did not consider client health and well being as important. Another issue was the need to satisfy USAID and the government. More research on other social marketing projects is needed.

Integrated Toolset for WSN Application Planning, Development, Commissioning and Maintenance: The WSN-DPCM ARTEMIS-JU Project.

PubMed

Antonopoulos, Christos; Asimogloy, Katerina; Chiti, Sarah; D'Onofrio, Luca; Gianfranceschi, Simone; He, Danping; Iodice, Antonio; Koubias, Stavros; Koulamas, Christos; Lavagno, Luciano; Lazarescu, Mihai T; Mujica, Gabriel; Papadopoulos, George; Portilla, Jorge; Redondo, Luis; Riccio, Daniele; Riesgo, Teresa; Rodriguez, Daniel; Ruello, Giuseppe; Samoladas, Vasilis; Stoyanova, Tsenka; Touliatos, Gerasimos; Valvo, Angela; Vlahoy, Georgia

2016-06-02

In this article we present the main results obtained in the ARTEMIS-JU WSN-DPCM project between October 2011 and September 2015. The first objective of the project was the development of an integrated toolset for Wireless sensor networks (WSN) application planning, development, commissioning and maintenance, which aims to support application domain experts, with limited WSN expertise, to efficiently develop WSN applications from planning to lifetime maintenance. The toolset is made of three main tools: one for planning, one for application development and simulation (which can include hardware nodes), and one for network commissioning and lifetime maintenance. The tools are integrated in a single platform which promotes software reuse by automatically selecting suitable library components for application synthesis and the abstraction of the underlying architecture through the use of a middleware layer. The second objective of the project was to test the effectiveness of the toolset for the development of two case studies in different domains, one for detecting the occupancy state of parking lots and one for monitoring air concentration of harmful gasses near an industrial site.

Integrated Toolset for WSN Application Planning, Development, Commissioning and Maintenance: The WSN-DPCM ARTEMIS-JU Project

PubMed Central

Antonopoulos, Christos; Asimogloy, Katerina; Chiti, Sarah; D’Onofrio, Luca; Gianfranceschi, Simone; He, Danping; Iodice, Antonio; Koubias, Stavros; Koulamas, Christos; Lavagno, Luciano; Lazarescu, Mihai T.; Mujica, Gabriel; Papadopoulos, George; Portilla, Jorge; Redondo, Luis; Riccio, Daniele; Riesgo, Teresa; Rodriguez, Daniel; Ruello, Giuseppe; Samoladas, Vasilis; Stoyanova, Tsenka; Touliatos, Gerasimos; Valvo, Angela; Vlahoy, Georgia

2016-01-01

In this article we present the main results obtained in the ARTEMIS-JU WSN-DPCM project between October 2011 and September 2015. The first objective of the project was the development of an integrated toolset for Wireless sensor networks (WSN) application planning, development, commissioning and maintenance, which aims to support application domain experts, with limited WSN expertise, to efficiently develop WSN applications from planning to lifetime maintenance. The toolset is made of three main tools: one for planning, one for application development and simulation (which can include hardware nodes), and one for network commissioning and lifetime maintenance. The tools are integrated in a single platform which promotes software reuse by automatically selecting suitable library components for application synthesis and the abstraction of the underlying architecture through the use of a middleware layer. The second objective of the project was to test the effectiveness of the toolset for the development of two case studies in different domains, one for detecting the occupancy state of parking lots and one for monitoring air concentration of harmful gasses near an industrial site. PMID:27271622

Structural equation model for the evaluation of national funding on R&D project of SMEs in consideration with MBNQA criteria.

PubMed

Sohn, S Y; Gyu Joo, Yong; Kyu Han, Hong

2007-02-01

Financial support on the R&D in Science & Technology for SMEs at the governmental level plays a crucial role on the improvement of the national competitiveness. Korea Science & Engineering Foundation (KOSEF) has supported the R&D projects of SMEs with the competitive technology ability by way of the Science and Technology Promotion Fund. In this paper, we propose a structural equation model (SEM) to evaluate the performance of such a funding program in terms of three aspects: output, outcome and impact under given funding inputs, R&D environment of a recipient company, and external evaluation programs of funding organization. We adopt Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) criteria to assess the R&D environmental factors of recipient companies. In addition, we test the effect of interim evaluation of the funded project. The proposed model is applied to the real case and is used to identify the best practices as well as to provide feedback information for the improvement of the government funding programs of the R&D projects of SMEs.

Advanced Planning and Scheduling Initiative- MrSpock Aims for Xmas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Steel, R.; Niezette, M.; Cesta, A.; Fratini, S.; Oddi, A.; Cortellessa, G.; Rasconi, R.; Verfaillie, G.; Pralet, C.; Lavagna, M.; Brambilla, A.; Castellini, F.; Donati, A.; Policella, N.

2009-09-01

This paper will outline the framework and tools developed under the Advanced Planning and Schedule Initiative (APSI) study performed by VEGA for the European Space Agency in collaboration with three academic institutions, ISTC-CNR, ONERA, and Politecnico di Milano. We will start by illustrating the background history to APSI and why it was needed, giving a brief summary of all the partners within the project and the roles they played within it. We will then take a closer look at what the APSI study actually consisted of, showing the techniques that were used and illustrating the framework that was developed within the scope of the project. This will be followed by an elaboration on the three demonstration test scenarios that have been developed as part of the project to validated the framework and demonstrate in an operational environment its applicability, illustrating the re-use and synergies between the three cases along the way. We will finally conclude with a brief summary and outline future directions to be further investigated and expanded on within the context of the work performed within the project.

Potential impacts of climate change on the ecology of dengue and its mosquito vector the Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Erickson, R. A.; Hayhoe, K.; Presley, S. M.; Allen, L. J. S.; Long, K. R.; Cox, S. B.

2012-09-01

Shifts in temperature and precipitation patterns caused by global climate change may have profound impacts on the ecology of certain infectious diseases. We examine the potential impacts of climate change on the transmission and maintenance dynamics of dengue, a resurging mosquito-vectored infectious disease. In particular, we project changes in dengue season length for three cities: Atlanta, GA; Chicago, IL and Lubbock, TX. These cities are located on the edges of the range of the Asian tiger mosquito within the United States of America and were chosen as test cases. We use a disease model that explicitly incorporates mosquito population dynamics and high-resolution climate projections. Based on projected changes under the Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES) A1fi (higher) and B1 (lower) emission scenarios as simulated by four global climate models, we found that the projected warming shortened mosquito lifespan, which in turn decreased the potential dengue season. These results illustrate the difficulty in predicting how climate change may alter complex systems.

Accelerated perturbation-resilient block-iterative projection methods with application to image reconstruction

PubMed Central

Nikazad, T; Davidi, R; Herman, G. T.

2013-01-01

We study the convergence of a class of accelerated perturbation-resilient block-iterative projection methods for solving systems of linear equations. We prove convergence to a fixed point of an operator even in the presence of summable perturbations of the iterates, irrespective of the consistency of the linear system. For a consistent system, the limit point is a solution of the system. In the inconsistent case, the symmetric version of our method converges to a weighted least squares solution. Perturbation resilience is utilized to approximate the minimum of a convex functional subject to the equations. A main contribution, as compared to previously published approaches to achieving similar aims, is a more than an order of magnitude speed-up, as demonstrated by applying the methods to problems of image reconstruction from projections. In addition, the accelerated algorithms are illustrated to be better, in a strict sense provided by the method of statistical hypothesis testing, than their unaccelerated versions for the task of detecting small tumors in the brain from X-ray CT projection data. PMID:23440911

Accelerated perturbation-resilient block-iterative projection methods with application to image reconstruction.

PubMed

Nikazad, T; Davidi, R; Herman, G T

2012-03-01

We study the convergence of a class of accelerated perturbation-resilient block-iterative projection methods for solving systems of linear equations. We prove convergence to a fixed point of an operator even in the presence of summable perturbations of the iterates, irrespective of the consistency of the linear system. For a consistent system, the limit point is a solution of the system. In the inconsistent case, the symmetric version of our method converges to a weighted least squares solution. Perturbation resilience is utilized to approximate the minimum of a convex functional subject to the equations. A main contribution, as compared to previously published approaches to achieving similar aims, is a more than an order of magnitude speed-up, as demonstrated by applying the methods to problems of image reconstruction from projections. In addition, the accelerated algorithms are illustrated to be better, in a strict sense provided by the method of statistical hypothesis testing, than their unaccelerated versions for the task of detecting small tumors in the brain from X-ray CT projection data.

2D Affine and Projective Shape Analysis.

PubMed

Bryner, Darshan; Klassen, Eric; Huiling Le; Srivastava, Anuj

2014-05-01

Current techniques for shape analysis tend to seek invariance to similarity transformations (rotation, translation, and scale), but certain imaging situations require invariance to larger groups, such as affine or projective groups. Here we present a general Riemannian framework for shape analysis of planar objects where metrics and related quantities are invariant to affine and projective groups. Highlighting two possibilities for representing object boundaries-ordered points (or landmarks) and parameterized curves-we study different combinations of these representations (points and curves) and transformations (affine and projective). Specifically, we provide solutions to three out of four situations and develop algorithms for computing geodesics and intrinsic sample statistics, leading up to Gaussian-type statistical models, and classifying test shapes using such models learned from training data. In the case of parameterized curves, we also achieve the desired goal of invariance to re-parameterizations. The geodesics are constructed by particularizing the path-straightening algorithm to geometries of current manifolds and are used, in turn, to compute shape statistics and Gaussian-type shape models. We demonstrate these ideas using a number of examples from shape and activity recognition.

Final 2014 Remedial Action Report Project Chariot, Cape Thompson, Alaska

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

None, None

2015-03-01

This report was prepared to document remedial action (RA) work performed at the former Project Chariot site located near Cape Thompson, Alaska during 2014. The work was managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Alaska District for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Legacy Management (LM). Due to the short field season and the tight barge schedule, all field work was conducted at the site July 6 through September 12, 2014. Excavation activities occurred between July 16 and August 26, 2014. A temporary field camp was constructed at the site prior to excavation activities to accommodatemore » the workers at the remote, uninhabited location. A total of 785.6 tons of petroleum, oil, and lubricants (POL)-contaminated soil was excavated from four former drill sites associated with test holes installed circa 1960. Diesel was used in the drilling process during test hole installations and resulted in impacts to surface and subsurface soils at four of the five sites (no contamination was identified at Test Hole Able). Historic information is not definitive as to the usage for Test Hole X-1; it may have actually been a dump site and not a drill site. In addition to the contaminated soil, the steel test hole casings were decommissioned and associated debris was removed as part of the remedial effort.« less

Climate change induced risk analysis of Dar es Salaam city (Tanzania)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Topa, Maria Elena; Herslund, Lise; Cavan, Gina; Printz, Andreas; Simonis, Ingo; Bucchignani, Edoardo; Jean-Baptiste, Nathalie; Hellevik, Siri; Johns, Regina; Kibassa, Deusdedit; Kweka, Clara; Magina, Fredrick; Mangula, Alpha; Mbuya, Elinorata; Uhinga, Guido; Kassenga, Gabriel; Kyessi, Alphonce; Shemdoe, Riziki; Kombe, Wilbard

2013-04-01

CLUVA (CLimate change and Urban Vulnerability in Africa; http://www.cluva.eu/) is a 3 years project, funded by the European Commission in 2010. The main objective of CLUVA is to develop context-centered methods and knowledge to be applied to African cities to assess vulnerabilities and increase knowledge on managing climate related risks. The project estimates the impacts of climate changes in the next 40 years at urban scale and downscales IPCC climate projections to evaluate specific threats to selected African test cities. These are mainly from floods, sea-level rise, droughts, heat waves, and desertification. The project evaluates and links: social vulnerability; urban green structures and ecosystem services; urban-rural interfaces; vulnerability of urban built environment and lifelines; and related institutional and governance dimensions of adaptation. The multi-scale and multi-disciplinary qualitative, quantitative and probabilistic approach of CLUVA is currently being applied to selected African test cities (Addis Ababa - Ethiopia; Dar es Salaam - Tanzania; Douala - Cameroun; Ouagadougou - Burkina Faso; St. Louis - Senegal). In particular, the poster will present preliminary findings for the Dar es Salaam case study. Dar es Salaam, which is Tanzania's largest coastal city, is exposed to floods, coastal erosion, droughts and heat waves, and highly vulnerable to impacts as a result of ineffective urban planning (about 70% unplanned settlements), poverty and lack of basic infrastructure (e.g. lack of or poor quality storm water drainage systems). Climate change could exacerbate the current situation increasing hazard-exposure alongside the impacts of development pressures which act to increase urban vulnerability for example because of informal (unregulated) urbanization. The CLUVA research team - composed of climate and environmental scientists, risk management experts, urban planners and social scientists from both European and African institutions - has started to produce research outputs suitable for use in evidence-based planning activities in the case study cities through interdisciplinary methods and analysis. Climate change projections at 8 km resolution are ready for regions containing each of the case study cities; a preliminary hazard assessment for floods, droughts and heat waves has been performed, based on historical data; urban morphology and related green structures have been characterized; preliminary findings in social vulnerability provide insights how communities and households can resist and cope with, as well as recover from climate induced hazards; vulnerability of informal settlements to floods has been assessed for a case study area (Suna sub ward) and a GIS based identification of urban residential hotspots to flooding is completed. Furthermore, a set of indicators has been identified and the most relevant for Dar es Salaam has been selected by local stakeholders to identify particular vulnerable high risk areas and communities. An investigation of the existing urban planning and governance system and its interface with climate risks and vulnerability has inter-alia suggested severe institutional deficits including over-centralized institutions for disaster risk management and climate change adaptation. A multi-risk framework considering climate-related hazards, and physical and social fragilities has been set up.

Climate change induced risk analysis of Addis Ababa city (Ethiopia)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jalayer, Fatemeh; Herslund, Lise; Cavan, Gina; Printz, Andreas; Simonis, Ingo; Bucchignani, Edoardo; Jean-Baptiste, Nathalie; Hellevik, Siri; Fekade, Rebka; Nebebe, Alemu; Woldegerima, Tekle; Workalemahu, Liku; Workneh, Abraham; Yonas, Nebyou; Abebe Bekele, Essete; Yeshitela, Kumelachew

2013-04-01

CLUVA (CLimate change and Urban Vulnerability in Africa; http://www.cluva.eu/) is a 3 years project, funded by the European Commission in 2010. Its objective is to develop context-centered methods to assess vulnerability and increase knowledge on managing climate related risks and to estimate the impacts of climate changes in the next 40 years at urban scale in Africa. The project downscales IPCC climate projections to evaluate threats to selected African test cities; mainly floods, sea-level rise, droughts, heat waves, desertification. It also evaluates and links: social vulnerability; urban green structures and ecosystem services; urban-rural interfaces; vulnerability of urban built environment and lifelines; and related institutional and governance dimensions of adaptation. CLUVA combines assessment approaches to investigate how cities, communities and households can resist and cope with, as well as recover from climate induced hazards. This multi-scale and multi-disciplinary qualitative, quantitative and probabilistic approach of CLUVA is currently being applied to selected African test cities (Addis Ababa - Ethiopia; Dar es Salaam - Tanzania; Douala - Cameroun; Ouagadougou - Burkina Faso; St. Louis - Senegal). In particular, the poster will report on the progresses of the Addis Ababa case study. Addis Ababa, the largest city in Ethiopia, is exposed to heat waves, drought, and, more recently, to flash floods. Due to undulating topography, poor waste management and the absence of sustainable storm water management, Addis Ababa is prone to severe flood events during the rainy seasons. Metropolitan Addis Ababa is crossed by several small watercourses. Torrential rains, very common during the rainy season, cause a sudden rise in the flow of these water courses, inundating and damaging the settlements along their banks and affecting the livelihood of the local population. The combination of climate change and development pressures are expected to exacerbate the current situation. The CLUVA research team - composed of climate and environmental scientists, engineers, risk management experts, urban planners and social scientists from both European and African institutions - has started to produce research outputs suitable for use in evidence-based planning activities in the case study cities. Indeed, climate change projections at 8 km resolution are ready for regions containing each of the case study cities; a preliminary hazard assessment for floods, drought and heat waves has already been performed, based on historical data; urban morphology and related green structures have been characterized; preliminary findings in social vulnerability have been achieved; a GIS based identification of Urban Residential hotspots to flooding is completed; and the vulnerability of informal settlements to flooding has been evaluated for one of the hotspots identified (Little Akaki case study area). Furthermore, a set of indicators relevant for Addis Ababa has been selected by local stakeholders to identify especially vulnerable, high risk areas and communities and an investigation of existing urban planning and governance systems and its interface with climate risks and vulnerability is ongoing. Evidence from the CLUVA project is being used to develop the next Master Plan for the Addis Ababa metropolitan area.

Measuring Primary Students' Graph Interpretation Skills Via a Performance Assessment: A case study in instrument development

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Peterman, Karen; Cranston, Kayla A.; Pryor, Marie; Kermish-Allen, Ruth

2015-11-01

This case study was conducted within the context of a place-based education project that was implemented with primary school students in the USA. The authors and participating teachers created a performance assessment of standards-aligned tasks to examine 6-10-year-old students' graph interpretation skills as part of an exploratory research project. Fifty-five students participated in a performance assessment interview at the beginning and end of a place-based investigation. Two forms of the assessment were created and counterbalanced within class at pre and post. In situ scoring was conducted such that responses were scored as correct versus incorrect during the assessment's administration. Criterion validity analysis demonstrated an age-level progression in student scores. Tests of discriminant validity showed that the instrument detected variability in interpretation skills across each of three graph types (line, bar, dot plot). Convergent validity was established by correlating in situ scores with those from the Graph Interpretation Scoring Rubric. Students' proficiency with interpreting different types of graphs matched expectations based on age and the standards-based progression of graphs across primary school grades. The assessment tasks were also effective at detecting pre-post gains in students' interpretation of line graphs and dot plots after the place-based project. The results of the case study are discussed in relation to the common challenges associated with performance assessment. Implications are presented in relation to the need for authentic and performance-based instructional and assessment tasks to respond to the Common Core State Standards and the Next Generation Science Standards.

Duration of Dengue Viremia in Blood Donors and Relationships Between Donor Viremia, Infection Incidence and Clinical Case Reports During a Large Epidemic

PubMed Central

Busch, Michael P.; Sabino, Ester C.; Brambilla, Donald; Lopes, Maria Esther; Capuani, Ligia; Chowdhury, Dhuly; McClure, Christopher; Linnen, Jeffrey M.; Prince, Harry; Simmons, Graham; Lee, Tzong-Hae; Kleinman, Steven; Custer, Brian

2016-01-01

Background. Dengue viruses (DENV-1–4) pose a transfusion-transmission risk. This study estimated the dengue RNA detection period in asymptomatic blood donors and relationships between donor viremia and dengue incidence during a large epidemic. Methods. Donor samples from the 2012 dengue transmission season in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, were tested for DENV RNA by a transcription-mediated amplification (TMA) assay, with DENV types and viral loads determined by polymerase chain reaction. Samples collected during the first and last weeks of enrollment were tested for DENV immunoglobulin (Ig) G and IgM to estimate incidence during the study period, which was analyzed relative to nucleic acid amplification technology (NAT) yield to estimate the duration of NAT-detectable viremia and compared with reported clinical dengue cases in Rio. Results. Samples from 16 241 donations were tested; 87 (0.54%) were confirmed as DENV-4 RNA positive. Dengue IgM-positive/IgG-positive reactivity increased from 2.8% to 8.8%, indicating a 6.2% incidence (95% confidence interval [CI], 3.2%–9.1%) during the study period. Based on these data, we estimated a 9.1-day period (95% CI, 4.4–13.9 days) of RNA detectable with TMA. With 100 475 reported cases of clinical dengue, 1 RNA-positive donation was identified per 800 DENV cases. Conclusions. These parameters allow projections of dengue incidence from donor NAT yield data and vice versa, and suggest that viremic donations will be rare relative to clinical disease cases. PMID:27302934

Psychometric instrumentation: reliability and validity of instruments used for clinical practice, evidence-based practice projects and research studies.

PubMed

Mayo, Ann M

2015-01-01

It is important for CNSs and other APNs to consider the reliability and validity of instruments chosen for clinical practice, evidence-based practice projects, or research studies. Psychometric testing uses specific research methods to evaluate the amount of error associated with any particular instrument. Reliability estimates explain more about how well the instrument is designed, whereas validity estimates explain more about scores that are produced by the instrument. An instrument may be architecturally sound overall (reliable), but the same instrument may not be valid. For example, if a specific group does not understand certain well-constructed items, then the instrument does not produce valid scores when used with that group. Many instrument developers may conduct reliability testing only once, yet continue validity testing in different populations over many years. All CNSs should be advocating for the use of reliable instruments that produce valid results. Clinical nurse specialists may find themselves in situations where reliability and validity estimates for some instruments that are being utilized are unknown. In such cases, CNSs should engage key stakeholders to sponsor nursing researchers to pursue this most important work.

Interdisciplinary Student Teams Projects: A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kruck, S. E.; Teer, Faye P.

2009-01-01

In today's organizations team work has become an integral part of the day-to-day routine. For this reason, University professors are including group projects in many courses. In such group assessments, we advocate the use of interdisciplinary teams, where possible. As a case study, we report an interdisciplinary group technical project with…

Youth Leadership Development through School-Based Civic Engagement Activities: A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Horstmeier, Robin Peiter; Ricketts, Kristina G.

2009-01-01

Leadership development through a civic engagement activity in a local FFA chapter is explored. Through a case study design, researchers illuminate a project that encouraged youth leadership development through the creation and execution of a civic engagement project in their own local community. Holistically, FFA members viewed the project as a…

Flawed Execution: A Case Study on Operational Contract Support

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-06-01

NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA JOINT APPLIED PROJECT FLAWED EXECUTION: A CASE STUDY ON OPERATIONAL CONTRACT SUPPORT June 2016...applied project 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE FLAWED EXECUTION: A CASE STUDY ON OPERATIONAL CONTRACT SUPPORT 5. FUNDING NUMBERS 6. AUTHOR(S) Scott F...unlimited FLAWED EXECUTION: A CASE STUDY ON OPERATIONAL CONTRACT SUPPORT Scott F. Taggart, Captain, United States Marine Corps Jacob Ledford

Project W-314 specific test and evaluation plan for transfer line SN-633 (241-AX-B to 241-AY-02A)

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

Hays, W.H.

1998-03-20

The purpose of this Specific Test and Evaluation Plan (STEP) is to provide a detailed written plan for the systematic testing of modifications made by the addition of the SN-633 transfer line by the W-314 Project. The STEP develops the outline for test procedures that verify the system`s performance to the established Project design criteria. The STEP is a lower tier document based on the W-314 Test and Evaluation Plan (TEP). This STEP encompasses all testing activities required to demonstrate compliance to the project design criteria as it relates to the addition of transfer line SN-633. The Project Design Specificationsmore » (PDS) identify the specific testing activities required for the Project. Testing includes Validations and Verifications (e.g., Commercial Grade Item Dedication activities), Factory Acceptance Tests (FATs), installation tests and inspections, Construction Acceptance Tests (CATs), Acceptance Test Procedures (ATPs), Pre-Operational Test Procedures (POTPs), and Operational Test Procedures (OTPs). It should be noted that POTPs are not required for testing of the transfer line addition. The STEP will be utilized in conjunction with the TEP for verification and validation.« less

Opportunities for Open Automated Demand Response in Wastewater Treatment Facilities in California - Phase II Report. San Luis Rey Wastewater Treatment Plant Case Study

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

Thompson, Lisa; Lekov, Alex; McKane, Aimee

2010-08-20

This case study enhances the understanding of open automated demand response opportunities in municipal wastewater treatment facilities. The report summarizes the findings of a 100 day submetering project at the San Luis Rey Wastewater Treatment Plant, a municipal wastewater treatment facility in Oceanside, California. The report reveals that key energy-intensive equipment such as pumps and centrifuges can be targeted for large load reductions. Demand response tests on the effluent pumps resulted a 300 kW load reduction and tests on centrifuges resulted in a 40 kW load reduction. Although tests on the facility?s blowers resulted in peak period load reductions ofmore » 78 kW sharp, short-lived increases in the turbidity of the wastewater effluent were experienced within 24 hours of the test. The results of these tests, which were conducted on blowers without variable speed drive capability, would not be acceptable and warrant further study. This study finds that wastewater treatment facilities have significant open automated demand response potential. However, limiting factors to implementing demand response are the reaction of effluent turbidity to reduced aeration load, along with the cogeneration capabilities of municipal facilities, including existing power purchase agreements and utility receptiveness to purchasing electricity from cogeneration facilities.« less

Application of data cubes for improving detection of water cycle extreme events

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Teng, W. L.; Albayrak, A.

2015-12-01

As part of an ongoing NASA-funded project to remove a longstanding barrier to accessing NASA data (i.e., accessing archived time-step array data as point-time series), for the hydrology and other point-time series-oriented communities, "data cubes" are created from which time series files (aka "data rods") are generated on-the-fly and made available as Web services from the Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC). Data cubes are data as archived rearranged into spatio-temporal matrices, which allow for easy access to the data, both spatially and temporally. A data cube is a specific case of the general optimal strategy of reorganizing data to match the desired means of access. The gain from such reorganization is greater the larger the data set. As a use case for our project, we are leveraging existing software to explore the application of the data cubes concept to machine learning, for the purpose of detecting water cycle extreme (WCE) events, a specific case of anomaly detection, requiring time series data. We investigate the use of the sequential probability ratio test (SPRT) for anomaly detection and support vector machines (SVM) for anomaly classification. We show an example of detection of WCE events, using the Global Land Data Assimilation Systems (GLDAS) data set.

What Was Learned in Predicting Slender Airframe Aerodynamics with the F-16XL Aircraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rizzi, Arthur; Luckring, James M.

2016-01-01

The second Cranked-Arrow Wing Aerodynamics Project, International, coordinated project has been underway to improve high-fidelity computational-fluid-dynamics predictions of slender airframe aerodynamics. The work is focused on two flow conditions and leverages a unique flight data set obtained with the F-16XL aircraft for comparison and validation. These conditions, a low-speed high-angle-of-attack case and a transonic low-angle-of-attack case, were selected from a prior prediction campaign wherein the computational fluid dynamics failed to provide acceptable results. In revisiting these two cases, approaches for improved results include better, denser grids using more grid adaptation to local flow features as well as unsteady higher-fidelity physical modeling like hybrid Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes/unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes/large-eddy simulation methods. The work embodies predictions from multiple numerical formulations that are contributed from multiple organizations where some authors investigate other possible factors that could explain the discrepancies in agreement (e.g., effects due to deflected control surfaces during the flight tests as well as static aeroelastic deflection of the outer wing). This paper presents the synthesis of all the results and findings and draws some conclusions that lead to an improved understanding of the underlying flow physics, finally making the connections between the physics and aircraft features.

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

Robertson, F. Russell; Carroll, J. Ritchie; Sanders, William

The major objectives of the SIEGate project were to improve the security posture and minimize the cyber-attack surface of electric utility control centers and to reduce the cost of maintaining control-room-to-control-room information exchange. Major project goals included the design, development, testing, and commercialization of a single security-hardened appliance that could meet industry needs for resisting cyber-attacks while protecting the confidentiality and integrity of a growing volume of real-time information needed to ensure the reliability of the bulk electric system and interoperating with existing data formats and networking technologies. The SIEGate project has achieved its goals and objectives. The SIEGate Designmore » Document, issued in March 2012, presented SIEGate use cases, provided SIEGate requirements, established SIEGate design principles, and prescribed design functionality of SIEGate as well as the components that make up SIEGate. SIEGate Release Version 1.0 was posted in January 2014. Release Version 1.0.83, which was posted on March 28, 2014, fixed many issues discovered by early adopters and added several new features. Release Candidate 1.1, which added additional improvements and bug fixes, was posted in June 2014. SIEGate executables have been downloaded more than 300 times. SIEGate has been tested at PJM, Entergy, TVA, and Southern. Security testing and analysis of SIEGate has been conducted at PNNL and PJM. Alstom has provided a summary of recommended steps for commercialization of the SIEGate Appliance and identified two deployment models with immediate commercial application.« less

Investment feasibility tracking: the importance of measuring and tracking the success level of the project during commercialization phase

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Saputra, Y. A.; Setyaningtyas, V. E. D.; Latiffianti, E.; Wijaya, S. H.; Ladamay, O. S. A.

2018-04-01

Measuring project success level is a challenging activity. This area of works has attracted many researchers to look deeper into the method of measurement, success factor identification, risk management, and many others relevant topics. However, the project management scope is limited until the project handover stage. After a project handover, the control of a project management changes from Project Management Team to the project owner/commercialization team. From an investor’s point of view, the success of a project delivery needs to be followed by the success of commercialization phase. This paper aims to present an approach on how we track and measure the progress and success level of a project investment in the commercialization phase. This is an interesting topic which probably often being forgotten in many practical case. Our proposed concept modify Freeman and Beale concept by estimating the variance between the Planned Net Present Value / Annual Worth (as it is in the Feasibility Study Document) and the Actual Net Present Value / Annual Worth (until the point time of evaluation). The gap will lead us to the next analysis and give us some important information, especially exposing whether our project investment performs better than the planning or underperformed. Some corrective actions can be suggested based on the provided information. Practical cases to exercise the concept is also provided and discussed; one case in a property sector in the middle of commercialization phase, and another case in a Power Plant investment approaching the end of commercialization phase.

Library-ABE Projects. Case Studies.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

MacVicar, Phyllis

This document contains 41 case studies submitted to the Appalachian Adult Education Center by the staffs of four projects demonstrating library services to disadvantaged adults, in cooperation with adult basic education programs. Included in each case study is the coping skill area in which an individual need was recognized and met through the…

A case study : Georgia's intelligent transportation system : NAVIGATOR systems integrator contract -- use of a systems integrator to manage ITS implementation

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2000-03-01

This case study is one of a series of case studies that examine procurement approaches used to deliver Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) projects. ITS projects are often complex and leverage the latest technology in telecommunications, computer...

Water supply management using an extended group fuzzy decision-making method: a case study in north-eastern Iran

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Minatour, Yasser; Bonakdari, Hossein; Zarghami, Mahdi; Bakhshi, Maryam Ali

2015-09-01

The purpose of this study was to develop a group fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making method to be applied in rating problems associated with water resources management. Thus, here Chen's group fuzzy TOPSIS method extended by a difference technique to handle uncertainties of applying a group decision making. Then, the extended group fuzzy TOPSIS method combined with a consistency check. In the presented method, initially linguistic judgments are being surveyed via a consistency checking process, and afterward these judgments are being used in the extended Chen's fuzzy TOPSIS method. Here, each expert's opinion is turned to accurate mathematical numbers and, then, to apply uncertainties, the opinions of group are turned to fuzzy numbers using three mathematical operators. The proposed method is applied to select the optimal strategy for the rural water supply of Nohoor village in north-eastern Iran, as a case study and illustrated example. Sensitivity analyses test over results and comparing results with project reality showed that proposed method offered good results for water resources projects.

Optimization of subcutaneous vein contrast enhancement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zeman, Herbert D.; Lovhoiden, Gunnar; Deshmukh, Harshal

2000-05-01

A technique for enhancing the contrast of subcutaneous veins has been demonstrated. This techniques uses a near IR light source and one or more IR sensitive CCD TV cameras to produce a contrast enhanced image of the subcutaneous veins. This video image of the veins is projected back onto the patient's skin using a n LCD video projector. The use of an IR transmitting filter in front of the video cameras prevents any positive feedback from the visible light from the video projector from causing instabilities in the projected image. The demonstration contrast enhancing illuminator has been tested on adults and children, both Caucasian and African-American, and it enhances veins quite well in all cases. The most difficult cases are those where significant deposits of subcutaneous fat are present which make the veins invisible under normal room illumination. Recent attempts to see through fat using different IR wavelength bands and both linearly and circularly polarized light were unsuccessful. The key to seeing through fat turns out to be a very diffuse source of RI light. Results on adult and pediatric subjects are shown with this new IR light source.

Case studies evaluating the quality of synthetic environments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Deisinger, Joachim; Blach, Roland; Simon, Andreas

1999-03-01

Multi wall stereo projection systems (MWSP) are an emerging display paradigm, promising a new quality in 3D-real-time interactions. Not much is known about the ergonomics of these systems. In this paper some basics of perception and approaches to improve the visual quality will be discussed and results of four experiments will be presented in order to obtain a better understanding of user interactions with existing projection technology. Due to the limited number of participants the experiments are considered as case-studies only. The first task was the estimation of absolute geometrical dimensions of simple objects. The second task was grabbing simple objects of different sizes. In order to classify MWSP, these tasks were compared to other display devices and compared to physical reality. We conducted two further experiments to compare different viewing devices for virtual reality (VR) like Head Mounted Displays (HMD), monitor, and the MWSP. For all of those experiments quantitative data was collected as a measure of interaction quality. The last two tests were supported by pre- and post questionnaires to obtain subjective judgement of the displays as well.

Instrumentation used for hydraulic testing of potential water-bearing formations at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant site in southeastern New Mexico

USGS Publications Warehouse

Basler, J.A.

1983-01-01

Requirements for testing hydrologic test wells at the proposed Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, New Mexico, necessitated the use of inflatable formation packers and pressure transducers. Observations during drilling and initial development indicated small formation yields which would require considerable test times by conventional open-casing methods. A pressure-monitoring system was assembled for performance evaluation utilizing commercially available components. Formation pressures were monitored with a down-hole strain-gage transducer. An inflatable packer equipped with a 1/4-inch-diameter steel tube extending through the inflation element permitted sensing formation pressures in isolated test zones. Surface components of the monitoring system provided AC transducer excitation, signal conditioning for recording directly in engineering units, and both analog and digital recording. Continuous surface monitoring of formation pressures provided a means of determining test status and projecting completion times during any phase of testing. Maximum portability was afforded by battery operation with all surface components mounted in a small self-contained trailer. (USGS)

NASA-STD-6001B Test 7: Impact of Test Methodology and Detection Advancements on the Obsolescence of Historical Offgas Data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Buchanan, Vanessa D.; Woods, Brenton; Harper, Susana A.; Beeson, Harold D.; Perez, Horacio; Ryder, Valerie; Tapia, Alma S.; Pedley, Michael D.

2017-01-01

NASA-STD-6001B states "all nonmetals tested in accordance with NASA-STD-6001 should be retested every 10 years or as required by the responsible program/project." The retesting of materials helps ensure the most accurate data are used in material selection. Manufacturer formulas and processes can change over time, sometimes without an update to product number and material information. Material performance in certain NASA-STD-6001 tests can be particularly vulnerable to these changes, such as material offgas (Test 7). In addition, Test 7 analysis techniques at NASA White Sands Test Facility were dramatically enhanced in the early 1990s, resulting in improved detection capabilities. Low level formaldehyde identification was improved again in 2004. Understanding the limitations in offgas analysis data prior to 1990 puts into question the validity and current applicability of that data. Case studies on Super Koropon (Registered trademark) and Aeroglaze (Registered trademark) topcoat highlight the importance of material retesting.

Advanced EVA Suit Camera System Development Project

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mock, Kyla

2016-01-01

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) is developing a new extra-vehicular activity (EVA) suit known as the Advanced EVA Z2 Suit. All of the improvements to the EVA Suit provide the opportunity to update the technology of the video imagery. My summer internship project involved improving the video streaming capabilities of the cameras that will be used on the Z2 Suit for data acquisition. To accomplish this, I familiarized myself with the architecture of the camera that is currently being tested to be able to make improvements on the design. Because there is a lot of benefit to saving space, power, and weight on the EVA suit, my job was to use Altium Design to start designing a much smaller and simplified interface board for the camera's microprocessor and external components. This involved checking datasheets of various components and checking signal connections to ensure that this architecture could be used for both the Z2 suit and potentially other future projects. The Orion spacecraft is a specific project that may benefit from this condensed camera interface design. The camera's physical placement on the suit also needed to be determined and tested so that image resolution can be maximized. Many of the options of the camera placement may be tested along with other future suit testing. There are multiple teams that work on different parts of the suit, so the camera's placement could directly affect their research or design. For this reason, a big part of my project was initiating contact with other branches and setting up multiple meetings to learn more about the pros and cons of the potential camera placements we are analyzing. Collaboration with the multiple teams working on the Advanced EVA Z2 Suit is absolutely necessary and these comparisons will be used as further progress is made for the overall suit design. This prototype will not be finished in time for the scheduled Z2 Suit testing, so my time was also spent creating a case for the original interface board that is already being used. This design is being done by use of Creo 2. Due to time constraints, I may not be able to complete the 3-D printing portion of this design, but I was able to use my knowledge of the interface board and Altium Design to help in the task. As a side project, I assisted another intern in selecting and programming a microprocessor to control linear actuators. These linear actuators will be used to move various increments of polyethylene for controlled radiation testing. For this, we began the software portion of the project using the Arduino's coding environment to control an Arduino Due and H-Bridge components. Along with the obvious learning of computer programs such as Altium Design and Creo 2, I also acquired more skills with networking and collaborating with others, being able to multi-task because of responsibilities to work on various projects, and how to set realistic goals in the work place. Like many internship projects, this project will be continued and improved, so I also had the chance to improve my organization and communication skills as I documented all of my meetings and research. As a result of my internship at JSC, I desire to continue a career with NASA, whether that be through another internship or possibly a co-op. I am excited to return to my university and continue my education in electrical engineering because of all of my experiences at JSC.

A comparison of the lattice discrete particle method to the finite-element method and the K&C material model for simulating the static and dynamic response of concrete.

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

Smith, Jovanca J.; Bishop, Joseph E.

2013-11-01

This report summarizes the work performed by the graduate student Jovanca Smith during a summer internship in the summer of 2012 with the aid of mentor Joe Bishop. The projects were a two-part endeavor that focused on the use of the numerical model called the Lattice Discrete Particle Model (LDPM). The LDPM is a discrete meso-scale model currently used at Northwestern University and the ERDC to model the heterogeneous quasi-brittle material, concrete. In the first part of the project, LDPM was compared to the Karagozian and Case Concrete Model (K&C) used in Presto, an explicit dynamics finite-element code, developed atmore » Sandia National Laboratories. In order to make this comparison, a series of quasi-static numerical experiments were performed, namely unconfined uniaxial compression tests on four varied cube specimen sizes, three-point bending notched experiments on three proportional specimen sizes, and six triaxial compression tests on a cylindrical specimen. The second part of this project focused on the application of LDPM to simulate projectile perforation on an ultra high performance concrete called CORTUF. This application illustrates the strengths of LDPM over traditional continuum models.« less

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

J. Ford Brett; Robert V. Westermark

This Technical Quarterly Report is for the reporting period March 31, 2002 to June 30, 2002. The report provides details of the work done on the project entitled ''Enhanced Oil Recovery with Downhole Vibration Stimulation in Osage County Oklahoma''. The project is divided into nine separate tasks. Several of the tasks are being worked on simultaneously, while other tasks are dependent on earlier tasks being completed. The vibration stimulation Well 111-W-27 is located in section 8 T26N R6E of the North Burbank Unit (NBU), Osage County Oklahoma. It was drilled to 3090-feet cored, logged, cased and cemented. The rig movedmore » off August 6, 2001. Phillips Petroleum Co. has performed several core studies on the cores recovered from the test well. Standard porosity, permeability and saturation measurements have been conducted. In addition Phillips has prepared a Core Petrology Report, detailing the lithology, stratigraphy and sedimentology for Well 111-W27, NBU. Phillips has also conducted the sonic stimulation core tests, the final sonic stimulation report has not yet been released. Calumet Oil Company, the operator of the NBU, began collecting both production and injection wells information to establish a baseline for the project in the pilot field test area since May 2001. The original 7-inch Downhole Vibration Tool (DHVT) has been thoroughly tested and it has been concluded that it needs to be redesigned. An engineering firm from Fayetteville AR has been retained to assist in developing a new design for the DHVT. The project participants requested from the DOE, a no-cost extension for the project through December 31, 2002. The no-cost extension amendment to the contract was signed during this reporting period. A technical paper SPE 75254 ''Enhanced Oil Recovery with Downhole Vibration Stimulation, Osage County, Oklahoma'' was presented at the 2002 SPE/DOE Thirteenth Symposium on Improved Oil Recovery, in Tulsa OK, April 17, 2002. A one-day short course was conducted at the SPE/DOE Thirteenth Symposium on Improved Oil Recovery in Tulsa, OK, April 13-14, 2002. Dan Maloney, Phillips and Bob Westermark, OGCI, Brett Davidson and Tim Spanos, Prism Production Technologies, were the instructors. The sixteen attendees also participated in the half-day field trip to the test facility near Tulsa.« less

Reinventing Image Detective: An Evidence-Based Approach to Citizen Science Online

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Romano, C.; Graff, P. V.; Runco, S.

2017-12-01

Usability studies demonstrate that web users are notoriously impatient, spending as little as 15 seconds on a home page. How do you get users to stay long enough to understand a citizen science project? How do you get users to complete complex citizen science tasks online?Image Detective, a citizen science project originally developed by scientists and science engagement specialists at the NASA Johnson Space center to engage the public in the analysis of images taken from space by astronauts to help enhance NASA's online database of astronaut imagery, partnered with the CosmoQuest citizen science platform to modernize, offering new and improved options for participation in Image Detective. The challenge: to create a web interface that builds users' skills and knowledge, creating engagement while learning complex concepts essential to the accurate completion of tasks. The project team turned to usability testing for an objective understanding of how users perceived Image Detective and the steps required to complete required tasks. A group of six users was recruited online for unmoderated and initial testing. The users followed a think-aloud protocol while attempting tasks, and were recorded on video and audio. The usability test examined users' perception of four broad areas: the purpose of and context for Image Detective; the steps required to successfully complete the analysis (differentiating images of Earth's surface from those showing outer space and identifying common surface features); locating the image center point on a map of Earth; and finally, naming geographic locations or natural events seen in the image.Usability test findings demonstrated that the following best practices can increase participation in Image Detective and can be applied to the successful implementation of any citizen science project:• Concise explanation of the project, its context, and its purpose;• Including a mention of the funding agency (in this case, NASA);• A preview of the specific tasks required of participants;• A dedicated user interface for the actual citizen science interaction.In addition, testing revealed that users may require additional context when a task is complex, difficult, or unusual (locating a specific image and its center point on a map of Earth). Video evidence will be made available with this presentation.

Reinventing Image Detective: An Evidence-Based Approach to Citizen Science Online

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Romano, Cia; Graff, Paige V.; Runco, Susan

2017-01-01

Usability studies demonstrate that web users are notoriously impatient, spending as little as 15 seconds on a home page. How do you get users to stay long enough to understand a citizen science project? How do you get users to complete complex citizen science tasks online? Image Detective, a citizen science project originally developed by scientists and science engagement specialists at the NASA Johnson Space center to engage the public in the analysis of images taken from space by astronauts to help enhance NASA's online database of astronaut imagery, partnered with the CosmoQuest citizen science platform to modernize, offering new and improved options for participation in Image Detective. The challenge: to create a web interface that builds users' skills and knowledge, creating engagement while learning complex concepts essential to the accurate completion of tasks. The project team turned to usability testing for an objective understanding of how users perceived Image Detective and the steps required to complete required tasks. A group of six users was recruited online for unmoderated and initial testing. The users followed a think-aloud protocol while attempting tasks, and were recorded on video and audio. The usability test examined users' perception of four broad areas: the purpose of and context for Image Detective; the steps required to successfully complete the analysis (differentiating images of Earth's surface from those showing outer space and identifying common surface features); locating the image center point on a map of Earth; and finally, naming geographic locations or natural events seen in the image. Usability test findings demonstrated that the following best practices can increase participation in Image Detective and can be applied to the successful implementation of any citizen science project: (1) Concise explanation of the project, its context, and its purpose; (2) Including a mention of the funding agency (in this case, NASA); (3) A preview of the specific tasks required of participants; (4) A dedicated user interface for the actual citizen science interaction. In addition, testing revealed that users may require additional context when a task is complex, difficult, or unusual (locating a specific image and its center point on a map of Earth). Video evidence will be made available with this presentation.

Identifying Glucokinase Monogenic Diabetes in a Multiethnic Gestational Diabetes Mellitus Cohort: New Pregnancy Screening Criteria and Utility of HbA1c.

PubMed

Rudland, Victoria L; Hinchcliffe, Marcus; Pinner, Jason; Cole, Stuart; Mercorella, Belinda; Molyneaux, Lynda; Constantino, Maria; Yue, Dennis K; Ross, Glynis P; Wong, Jencia

2016-01-01

Glucokinase monogenic diabetes (GCK-maturity-onset diabetes of the young [MODY]) should be differentiated from gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) because management differs. New pregnancy-specific screening criteria (NSC) have been proposed to identify women who warrant GCK genetic testing. We tested NSC and HbA1c in a multiethnic GDM cohort and examined projected referrals for GCK testing. Using a GDM database, 63 of 776 women had a postpartum oral glucose tolerance test suggestive of GCK-MODY. Of these 63 women, 31 agreed to undergo GCK testing. NSC accuracy and HbA1c were examined. Projected referrals were calculated by applying the NSC to a larger GDM database (n = 4,415). Four of 31 women were confirmed as having GCK-MODY (prevalence ∼0.5-1/100 with GDM). The NSC identified all Anglo-Celtic women but did not identify one Indian woman. The NSC will refer 6.1% of GDM cases for GCK testing, with more Asian/Indian women referred despite lower disease prevalence. Antepartum HbA1c was not higher in those with GCK-MODY. The NSC performed well in Anglo-Celtic women. Ethnic-specific criteria should be explored. © 2016 by the American Diabetes Association. Readers may use this article as long as the work is properly cited, the use is educational and not for profit, and the work is not altered.

On the monitoring and prediction of flash floods in small and medium-sized catchments - the EXTRUSO project

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wiemann, Stefan; Eltner, Anette; Sardemann, Hannes; Spieler, Diana; Singer, Thomas; Thanh Luong, Thi; Janabi, Firas Al; Schütze, Niels; Bernard, Lars; Bernhofer, Christian; Maas, Hans-Gerd

2017-04-01

Flash floods regularly cause severe socio-economic damage worldwide. In parallel, climate change is very likely to increase the number of such events, due to an increasing frequency of extreme precipitation events (EASAC 2013). Whereas recent work primarily addresses the resilience of large catchment areas, the major impact of hydro-meteorological extremes caused by heavy precipitation is on small areas. Those are very difficult to observe and predict, due to sparse monitoring networks and only few means for hydro-meteorological modelling, especially in small catchment areas. The objective of the EXTRUSO project is to identify and implement appropriate means to close this gap by an interdisciplinary approach, combining comprehensive research expertise from meteorology, hydrology, photogrammetry and geoinformatics. The project targets innovative techniques for achieving spatio-temporal densified monitoring and simulations for the analysis, prediction and warning of local hydro-meteorological extreme events. The following four aspects are of particular interest: 1. The monitoring, analysis and combination of relevant hydro-meteorological parameters from various sources, including existing monitoring networks, ground radar, specific low-cost sensors and crowdsourcing. 2. The determination of relevant hydro-morphological parameters from different photogrammetric sensors (e.g. camera, laser scanner) and sensor platforms (e.g. UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) and UWV (unmanned water vehicle)). 3. The continuous hydro-meteorological modelling of precipitation, soil moisture and water flows by means of conceptual and data-driven modelling. 4. The development of a collaborative, web-based service infrastructure as an information and communication point, especially in the case of an extreme event. There are three major applications for the planned information system: First, the warning of local extreme events for the population in potentially affected areas, second, the support for decision makers and emergency responders in the case of an event and, third, the development of open, interoperable tools for other researchers to be applied and further developed. The test area of the project is the Free State of Saxony (Germany) with a number of small and medium catchment areas. However, the whole system, comprising models, tools and sensor setups, is planned to be transferred and tested in other areas, within and outside Europe, as well. The team working on the project consists of eight researchers, including five PhD students and three postdocs. The EXTRUSO project is funded by the European Social Fund (ESF grant nr. 100270097) with a project duration of three years until June 2019. EASAC (2013): Trends in extreme weather events in Europe: implications for national and European Union adaption strategies. European Academies Science Advisory Council. Policy report 22, November 2013 The EXTRUSO project is funded by the European Social Fund (ESF), grant nr. 100270097

Compendium of Dental Residents’ Research Project and Literature Reviews - 1991.

DTIC Science & Technology

1992-04-01

4-log1 0 (99.99%) reduction of any of the microorgan- isms under the test conditions. Sporicidin and 0.525% sodium hypochlorite were able to effect a...4-log1 0 reduction against S. aureus only. Impresept and 5.25% sodium hypochlorite did achieve a 4-log10 reduction in bacterial counts in all cases...alginate impressions is currently unknown and warrants investigation. Full strength (5.25%) sodium hypochlorite was effective in the shortest contact time (1

Women Content in Units: Force Development Test (MAX WAC)

DTIC Science & Technology

1977-10-03

ARTEPs, the positive nature of the responses to th"se questions suggests that it is -alikely that gros& errors would be made.usin& the ARTEP as a basis...companies, while the second ARTEP was conducted solely for the purpose& of the project. The unofficial nature of the second ARTEP was alto true for the...been excluded from this section of the report due to its voluminous and, in some cases, draft style nature . All refrences are available for inspection

Improving the Selection, Classification, and Utilization of Army Enlisted Personnel. Project A: Research Plan

DTIC Science & Technology

1983-05-01

occur. 4) It is also true that during a given time period, at a given base, not all of the people in the sample will actually be available for testing...taken sample sizes into consideration, we currently estimate that with few exceptions, we will have adequate samples to perform the analysis of simple ...aalanced Half Sample Repli- cations (BHSA). His analyses of simple cases have shown that this method is substantially more efficient than the

A Study of Enabling Factors for Rapid Fielding: Combined Practices to Balance Speed and Stability

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-05-01

as contributors to the success of Agile projects, such as Scrum status meetings, continuous integration, test-driven development, etc. A second...Management Approach Type Product Size Team Size Sprint length / Prod Release Cycle A-P1 Pre- release Scrum Case management system ᝺M...SLOC 10-20 2 weeks/ TBD B-P1 12 years Scrum Analysis support system ᝺M SLOC 10-20 2 weeks/ 6 months – 1 year C-P1 3 years Scrum Training

Comparisons of rational engineering correlations of thermophoretically-augmented particle mass transfer with STAN5-predictions for developing boundary layers

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gokoglu, S. A.; Rosner, D. E.

1984-01-01

Modification of the code STAN5 to properly include thermophoretic mass transport, and examination of selected test cases developing boundary layers which include variable properties, viscous dissipation, transition to turbulence and transpiration cooling. Under conditions representative of current and projected GT operation, local application of St(M)/St(M),o correlations evidently provides accurate and economical engineering design predictions, especially for suspended particles characterized by Schmidt numbers outside of the heavy vapor range.

Expert Systems In Medical Studies - A New Twist

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Slagle, James R.; Long, John M.; Wick, Michael R.; Matts, John P.; Leon, Arthur S.

1986-03-01

The use of experts to evaluate large amounts of trial data results in increasingly expensive and time consuming research. We are investigating the role expert systems can play in reducing the time and expense of research projects. Current methods in large clinical studies for evaluating data are often crude and superficial. We have developed, for a large clinical trial, an expert system for analysis of treadmill exercise ECG test results. In the cases we are studying, a patient is given a treadmill exercise ECG test once a year for five years. Pairs of these exercise tests are then evaluated by cardiologists to determine the condition of the patient's heart. The results of our system show great promise for the use of expert systems in reducing the time and expense of large clinical trials.

A Robustness Testing Campaign for IMA-SP Partitioning Kernels

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grixti, Stephen; Lopez Trecastro, Jorge; Sammut, Nicholas; Zammit-Mangion, David

2015-09-01

With time and space partitioned architectures becoming increasingly appealing to the European space sector, the dependability of partitioning kernel technology is a key factor to its applicability in European Space Agency projects. This paper explores the potential of the data type fault model, which injects faults through the Application Program Interface, in partitioning kernel robustness testing. This fault injection methodology has been tailored to investigate its relevance in uncovering vulnerabilities within partitioning kernels and potentially contributing towards fault removal campaigns within this domain. This is demonstrated through a robustness testing case study of the XtratuM partitioning kernel for SPARC LEON3 processors. The robustness campaign exposed a number of vulnerabilities in XtratuM, exhibiting the potential benefits of using such a methodology for the robustness assessment of partitioning kernels.

The Challenge of Implementing an ERP System in a Small and Medium Enterprise--A Teaching Case of ERP Project Management

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Xu, Hongjiang; Rondeau, Patrick J.; Mahenthiran, Sakthi

2011-01-01

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system implementation projects are notoriously risky. While large-scale ERP cases continue to be developed, relatively few new ERP cases have been published that further ERP implementation education in small to medium size firms. This case details the implementation of a new ERP system in a medium sized…

Implementation of Metal Casting Best Practices

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

Eppich, Robert; Naranjo, Robert D.

2007-01-01

The project examined cases where metal casters had implemented ITP research results and the benefits they received due to that implementation. In cases where casters had not implemented those results, the project examined the factors responsible for that lack of implementation. The project also informed metal casters of the free tools and service offered by the ITP Technology Delivery subprogram.

Using Single-Case Design and Personalized Behavior Change Projects to Teach Research Methods

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Morgan, David L.

2009-01-01

Students in research methods courses, especially those taught in an intense format, might be hard pressed to actually conduct research studies due to logistics and time constraints. I describe the use of single-case research design and a personalized behavior project as an alternative research project for students in an undergraduate psychology…

Appendix: Case Studies. Strong Neighborhoods, Strong Schools. The Indicators Project on Education Organizing.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gold, Eva; Simon, Elaine; Brown, Chris; Blanc, Suzanne; Pickron-Davis, Marcine; Brown, Joanna; Navarez-La Torre, Aida

This report presents summaries of five case studies from the Indicators Project on Education Organizing, which was designed to examine the role of community organizing in school reform. For over 2 years, this action research project documented the education organizing of five urban groups. The research developed an Education Organizing Indicators…

The role of international research projects in the dissemination of innovative technologies in Russia: AgroAtlas case study

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

This paper uses the AgroAtlas project (www.agroatlas.ru) as a case study to illustrate how international projects can be an important resource to help train teachers and scientists in emerging technology including geographic information systems (GIS) software. The paper discusses a series of 10- day...

Project-Based Social Justice Mathematics: A Case Study of Five 6th Grade Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McHugh, Maighread L.

2015-01-01

The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore how five sixth grade female students navigated the process of project-based learning as they designed and implemented their own project centered on mathematics while using a social justice lens. The theoretical frameworks of Authentic Intellectual Work and Social Justice…

An Overview of Follow-On Testing Activities of the A-3 Subscale Diffuser Test Project

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ryan, James E.

2009-01-01

An overview of NASA Stennis Space Center's (SSC) A-3 Subscale Diffuser Test (SDT) Project is presented. The original scope of the SDT Project, conducted from April 2007 to January 2008, collected data to support mitigation of risk associated with design and procurement activities of the A-3 Test Stand Project, an effort to construct a simulated altitude test facility at SSC in support of NASA's Constellation Program. Follow-on tests were conducted from May 2008 through August 2009, utilizing the SDT test setup as a testbed for additional risk mitigation activities. Included are descriptions of the Subscale Diffuser (SD) test article, the test facility configuration, and test approaches.

Active pulmonary tuberculosis case detection and treatment among floating population in China: an effective pilot.

PubMed

Li, Xinxu; Zhang, Hui; Jiang, Shiwen; Wang, Jia; Liu, Xiaoqiu; Li, Weibin; Yao, Hongyan; Wang, Lixia

2010-12-01

China has more and more floating population because of reform and opening-up. As one of the high burden countries in tuberculosis (TB) control in the world, China has to face more challenges about the TB case detection and treatment among floating population in China. Aim to evaluate the effect of case detection and treatment of the Floating Population TB Control Pilot Project from Global Fund Round Five (GFR5) TB Control Program in China. During October 2006 to September 2008, the pilot project was implemented gradually in 60 counties in Tianjin, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Shandong and Guangdong. All quarterly reports of the pilot project were collected, and these materials were summarized and analyzed. In seven coastal provinces, 19,584 active pulmonary TB (PTB) cases were registered among floating population in 2 years. Among the active PTB cases, 87.2% were 15-45 years old, and 62.8% were male. In second year, 15,629 active PTB cases were registered, and the overall registration rate was 68 per 100,000 people. DOT treatments were provided for 18,125 active PTB cases in 2 years, and overall DOT treatment rate was 92.6%. There were 3,955 active PTB cases registered in first year, and the overall cure rate was 86.0%. Through the implementation of the pilot project, the TB case detection and treatment among floating population have been enhanced in pilot areas of China. The useful experience and results from the pilot project have been being gradually generalized nationally.

Past, Current, and Future Incidence Rates and Burden of Metastatic Prostate Cancer in the United States.

PubMed

Kelly, Scott P; Anderson, William F; Rosenberg, Philip S; Cook, Michael B

2017-11-18

Metastatic prostate cancer (PCA) remains a highly lethal malignancy in the USA. As prostate-specific antigen testing declines nationally, detailed assessment of current age- and race-specific incidence trends and quantitative forecasts are needed. To evaluate the current trends of metastatic PCA by age and race, and forecast the number of new cases (annual burden) and future trends. We derived incidence data for men aged ≥45 yr who were diagnosed with metastatic PCA from the population-based Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results registries. We examined the current trends of metastatic PCA from 2004 to 2014, and forecast the annual burden and incidence rates by age and race for 2015-2025, using age-period-cohort models and population projections. We also examined alternative forecasts (2012-2025) using trends prior to the revised screening guidelines issued in 2012. Metastatic PCA, steadily declining from 2004 to 2007 by 1.45%/yr, began to increase by 0.58%/yr after 2008, which accelerated to 2.74%/yr following the 2012 United States Preventive Services Task Force recommendations-a pattern that was magnified among men aged ≤69 yr and white men. Forecasts project the incidence to increase by 1.03%/yr through 2025, with men aged 45-54 yr (2.29%/yr) and 55-69 yr (1.53%/yr) increasing more rapidly. Meanwhile, the annual burden is expected to increase 42% by 2025. Our forecasts estimated an additional 15 891 metastatic cases from 2015 to 2025 compared with alternative forecasts using trends prior to 2012. The recent uptick in metastatic PCA rates has resulted in forecasts that project increasing rates through 2025, particularly among men aged ≤69 yr. Moreover, racial disparities are expected to persist and the annual burden will increase considerably. The impact of the prior and current PCA screening recommendations on metastatic PCA rates requires continued examination. In this report, we assessed how the incidence of metastatic prostate cancer has changed over recent years, and forecast future incidence trends and the number of new cases expected each year. We found that the incidence of metastatic prostate cancer has been increasing more rapidly since 2012, resulting in a rise in both future incidence and the number of new cases by 2025. Future incidence rates and the number of new cases were reduced in alternative forecasts using data prior to the 2012 United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommendations against prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing for prostate cancer. There is a need for additional research that examines whether national declines in PSA testing contributed to increases in rates of metastatic disease. The incidence of metastatic disease in black men is still expected to occur at considerably higher rates compared with that in white men. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Geophysical techniques applied to urban planning in complex near surface environments. Examples of Zaragoza, NE Spain

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pueyo-Anchuela, Ó.; Casas-Sainz, A. M.; Soriano, M. A.; Pocoví-Juan, A.

Complex geological shallow subsurface environments represent an important handicap in urban and building projects. The geological features of the Central Ebro Basin, with sharp lateral changes in Quaternary deposits, alluvial karst phenomena and anthropic activity can preclude the characterization of future urban areas only from isolated geomechanical tests or from non-correctly dimensioned geophysical techniques. This complexity is here analyzed in two different test fields, (i) one of them linked to flat-bottomed valleys with irregular distribution of Quaternary deposits related to sharp lateral facies changes and irregular preconsolidated substratum position and (ii) a second one with similar complexities in the alluvial deposits and karst activity linked to solution of the underlying evaporite substratum. The results show that different geophysical techniques allow for similar geological models to be obtained in the first case (flat-bottomed valleys), whereas only the application of several geophysical techniques can permit to correctly evaluate the geological model complexities in the second case (alluvial karst). In this second case, the geological and superficial information permit to refine the sensitivity of the applied geophysical techniques to different indicators of karst activity. In both cases 3D models are needed to correctly distinguish alluvial lateral sedimentary changes from superimposed karstic activity.

Best Practice No 177: Best practice guideline: writing a business case for service development in pathology.

PubMed

Galloway, M J

2004-04-01

This guideline reviews the introduction and development of business planning in the National Health Service. A guideline for writing a business case for service development that would form part of a pathology business plan has been developed. This guideline outlines six steps that are required in the preparation of a business case. The format of the guideline has been developed largely from other national guidelines that have been published for the development of capital projects. In view of the publication of these guidelines, the scope of this guideline excludes business cases for information, management, and technology projects and large capital projects.

Beyond "objective" and "projective": a logical system for classifying psychological tests: comment on Meyer and Kurtz (2006).

PubMed

Wagner, Edwin E

2008-07-01

I present a formal system that accounts for the misleading distinction between tests formerly termed objective and projective, duly noted by Meyer and Kurtz (2006). Three principles of Response Rightness, Response Latitude and Stimulus Ambiguity are shown to govern, in combination, the formal operating characteristics of tests, producing inevitable overlap between "objective" and "projective" tests and creating at least three "types" of tests historically regarded as being projective in nature. The system resolves many past issues regarding test classification and can be generalized to include all psychological tests.

Innovative Comparison of Transient Ignition Temperature at the Booster Interface, New Stainless Steel Pyrovalve Primer Chamber Assembly "V" (PCA) Design Versus the Current Aluminum "Y" PCA Design

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Saulsberry, Regor L.; McDougle, Stephen H.; Garcia,Roberto; Johnson, Kenneth L.; Sipes, William; Rickman, Steven; Hosangadi, Ashvin

2011-01-01

An assessment of four spacecraft pyrovalve anomalies that occurred during ground testing was conducted by the NASA Engineering & Safety Center (NESC) in 2008. In all four cases, a common aluminum (Al) primer chamber assembly (PCA) was used with dual NASA Standard Initiators (NSIs) and the nearly simultaneous (separated by less than 80 microseconds) firing of both initiators failed to ignite the booster charge. The results of the assessment and associated test program were reported in AIAA Paper AIAA-2008-4798, NESC Independent Assessment of Pyrovalve Ground Test Anomalies. As a result of the four Al PCA anomalies, and the test results and findings of the NESC assessment, the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) project team decided to make changes to the PCA. The material for the PCA body was changed from aluminum (Al) to stainless steel (SS) to avoid melting, distortion, and potential leakage of the NSI flow passages when the device functioned. The flow passages, which were interconnected in a Y-shaped configuration (Y-PCA) in the original design, were changed to a V-shaped configuration (V-PCA). The V-shape was used to more efficiently transfer energy from the NSIs to the booster. Development and qualification testing of the new design clearly demonstrated faster booster ignition times compared to the legacy AL Y-PCA design. However, the final NESC assessment report recommended that the SS V-PCA be experimentally characterized and quantitatively compared to the Al Y-PCA design. This data was deemed important for properly evaluating the design options for future NASA projects. This test program has successfully quantified the improvement of the SS V-PCA over the Al Y-PCA. A phase B of the project was also conducted and evaluated the effect of firing command skew and enlargement of flame channels to further assist spacecraft applications.

Merkel cell carcinoma: Current US incidence and projected increases based on changing demographics.

PubMed

Paulson, Kelly G; Park, Song Youn; Vandeven, Natalie A; Lachance, Kristina; Thomas, Hannah; Chapuis, Aude G; Harms, Kelly L; Thompson, John A; Bhatia, Shailender; Stang, Andreas; Nghiem, Paul

2018-03-01

Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) incidence rates are rising and strongly age-associated, relevant for an aging population. Determine MCC incidence in the United States and project incident cases through the year 2025. Registry data were obtained from the SEER-18 Database, containing 6600 MCC cases. Age- and sex-adjusted projections were generated using US census data. During 2000-2013, the number of reported solid cancer cases increased 15%, melanoma cases increased 57%, and MCC cases increased 95%. In 2013, the MCC incidence rate was 0.7 cases/100,000 person-years in the United States, corresponding to 2488 cases/year. MCC incidence increased exponentially with age, from 0.1 to 1.0 to 9.8 (per 100,000 person-years) among age groups 40-44 years, 60-64 years, and ≥85 years, respectively. Due to aging of the Baby Boomer generation, US MCC incident cases are predicted to climb to 2835 cases/year in 2020 and 3284 cases/year in 2025. We assumed that the age-adjusted incidence rate would stabilize, and thus, the number of incident cases we projected might be an underestimate. An aging population is driving brisk increases in the number of new MCC cases in the United States. This growing impact combined with the rapidly evolving therapeutic landscape warrants expanded awareness of MCC diagnosis and management. Copyright © 2017 American Academy of Dermatology, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Development of Procedures for Assessing the Impact of Vocational Education Research and Development on Vocational Education (Project IMPACT). Volume 2--A Case Study of the Illinois Occupational Curriculum Project.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cheney-Stern, Marilyn R.; Phelps, L. Allen

As part of Project IMPACT's efforts to develop procedures for complying with the impact requirements of Public Law 94-482, a case study was made of the Illinois Occupational Curriculum Project (IOCP). The top-down study traced the IOCP from its developers to its users and documented measurable changes in the 1971 versus the 1979 curriculum…

Comparing Efficiency Projections (released in AEO2010)

EIA Publications

2010-01-01

Realized improvements in energy efficiency generally rely on a combination of technology and economics. The figure below illustrates the role of technology assumptions in the Annual Energy Outlook 2010 projections for energy efficiency in the residential and commercial buildings sector. Projected energy consumption in the Reference case is compared with projections in the Best Available Technology, High Technology, and 2009 Technology cases and an estimate based on an assumption of no change in efficiency for building shells and equipment.

The present and the future of AIDS and tuberculosis in Illinois.

PubMed Central

Coté, T R; Nelson, M R; Anderson, S P; Martin, R J

1990-01-01

The relation between the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) and tuberculosis (TB) was examined by matching the Illinois AIDS and TB registries. The match group was examined and compared with patients with only one disease by race, method of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) transmission, site of tuberculous disease, radiographic findings, and results of Mantoux tests. The time of TB diagnosis was centrally distributed around the time of AIDS diagnosis; from this, it was determined that 4.1 percent of AIDS patients develop active TB. Projections for future AIDS cases were made by fitting a polynomial model to historical data. These projections were then used to predict the future impact of AIDS-related TB upon state TB rates. The rise in TB rates call for special efforts to minimize this impact. PMID:2368856

SU-E-T-131: Artificial Neural Networks Applied to Overall Survival Prediction for Patients with Periampullary Carcinoma

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

Gong, Y; Yu, J; Yeung, V

Purpose: Artificial neural networks (ANN) can be used to discover complex relations within datasets to help with medical decision making. This study aimed to develop an ANN method to predict two-year overall survival of patients with peri-ampullary cancer (PAC) following resection. Methods: Data were collected from 334 patients with PAC following resection treated in our institutional pancreatic tumor registry between 2006 and 2012. The dataset contains 14 variables including age, gender, T-stage, tumor differentiation, positive-lymph-node ratio, positive resection margins, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and tumor histology.After censoring for two-year survival analysis, 309 patients were left, of which 44 patients (∼15%) weremore » randomly selected to form testing set. The remaining 265 cases were randomly divided into training set (211 cases, ∼80% of 265) and validation set (54 cases, ∼20% of 265) for 20 times to build 20 ANN models. Each ANN has one hidden layer with 5 units. The 20 ANN models were ranked according to their concordance index (c-index) of prediction on validation sets. To further improve prediction, the top 10% of ANN models were selected, and their outputs averaged for prediction on testing set. Results: By random division, 44 cases in testing set and the remaining 265 cases have approximately equal two-year survival rates, 36.4% and 35.5% respectively. The 20 ANN models, which were trained and validated on the 265 cases, yielded mean c-indexes as 0.59 and 0.63 on validation sets and the testing set, respectively. C-index was 0.72 when the two best ANN models (top 10%) were used in prediction on testing set. The c-index of Cox regression analysis was 0.63. Conclusion: ANN improved survival prediction for patients with PAC. More patient data and further analysis of additional factors may be needed for a more robust model, which will help guide physicians in providing optimal post-operative care. This project was supported by PA CURE Grant.« less

Morpheus Lander Testing Campaign

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hart, Jeremy J.; Mitchell, Jennifer D.

2011-01-01

NASA s Morpheus Project has developed and tested a prototype planetary lander capable of vertical takeoff and landing designed to serve as a testbed for advanced spacecraft technologies. The Morpheus vehicle has successfully performed a set of integrated vehicle test flights including hot-fire and tether tests, ultimately culminating in an un-tethered "free-flight" This development and testing campaign was conducted on-site at the Johnson Space Center (JSC), less than one year after project start. Designed, developed, manufactured and operated in-house by engineers at JSC, the Morpheus Project represents an unprecedented departure from recent NASA programs and projects that traditionally require longer development lifecycles and testing at remote, dedicated testing facilities. This paper documents the integrated testing campaign, including descriptions of test types (hot-fire, tether, and free-flight), test objectives, and the infrastructure of JSC testing facilities. A major focus of the paper will be the fast pace of the project, rapid prototyping, frequent testing, and lessons learned from this departure from the traditional engineering development process at NASA s Johnson Space Center.

The Ophidia framework: toward cloud-based data analytics for climate change

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fiore, Sandro; D'Anca, Alessandro; Elia, Donatello; Mancini, Marco; Mariello, Andrea; Mirto, Maria; Palazzo, Cosimo; Aloisio, Giovanni

2015-04-01

The Ophidia project is a research effort on big data analytics facing scientific data analysis challenges in the climate change domain. It provides parallel (server-side) data analysis, an internal storage model and a hierarchical data organization to manage large amount of multidimensional scientific data. The Ophidia analytics platform provides several MPI-based parallel operators to manipulate large datasets (data cubes) and array-based primitives to perform data analysis on large arrays of scientific data. The most relevant data analytics use cases implemented in national and international projects target fire danger prevention (OFIDIA), interactions between climate change and biodiversity (EUBrazilCC), climate indicators and remote data analysis (CLIP-C), sea situational awareness (TESSA), large scale data analytics on CMIP5 data in NetCDF format, Climate and Forecast (CF) convention compliant (ExArch). Two use cases regarding the EU FP7 EUBrazil Cloud Connect and the INTERREG OFIDIA projects will be presented during the talk. In the former case (EUBrazilCC) the Ophidia framework is being extended to integrate scalable VM-based solutions for the management of large volumes of scientific data (both climate and satellite data) in a cloud-based environment to study how climate change affects biodiversity. In the latter one (OFIDIA) the data analytics framework is being exploited to provide operational support regarding processing chains devoted to fire danger prevention. To tackle the project challenges, data analytics workflows consisting of about 130 operators perform, among the others, parallel data analysis, metadata management, virtual file system tasks, maps generation, rolling of datasets, import/export of datasets in NetCDF format. Finally, the entire Ophidia software stack has been deployed at CMCC on 24-nodes (16-cores/node) of the Athena HPC cluster. Moreover, a cloud-based release tested with OpenNebula is also available and running in the private cloud infrastructure of the CMCC Supercomputing Centre.

Delamination Assessment Tool for Spacecraft Composite Structures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Portela, Pedro; Preller, Fabian; Wittke, Henrik; Sinnema, Gerben; Camanho, Pedro; Turon, Albert

2012-07-01

Fortunately only few cases are known where failure of spacecraft structures due to undetected damage has resulted in a loss of spacecraft and launcher mission. However, several problems related to damage tolerance and in particular delamination of composite materials have been encountered during structure development of various ESA projects and qualification testing. To avoid such costly failures during development, launch or service of spacecraft, launcher and reusable launch vehicles structures a comprehensive damage tolerance verification approach is needed. In 2009, the European Space Agency (ESA) initiated an activity called “Delamination Assessment Tool” which is led by the Portuguese company HPS Lda and includes academic and industrial partners. The goal of this study is the development of a comprehensive damage tolerance verification approach for launcher and reusable launch vehicles (RLV) structures, addressing analytical and numerical methodologies, material-, subcomponent- and component testing, as well as non-destructive inspection. The study includes a comprehensive review of current industrial damage tolerance practice resulting from ECSS and NASA standards, the development of new Best Practice Guidelines for analysis, test and inspection methods and the validation of these with a real industrial case study. The paper describes the main findings of this activity so far and presents a first iteration of a Damage Tolerance Verification Approach, which includes the introduction of novel analytical and numerical tools at an industrial level. This new approach is being put to the test using real industrial case studies provided by the industrial partners, MT Aerospace, RUAG Space and INVENT GmbH

Computer-aided detection of bladder wall thickening in CT urography (CTU)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cha, Kenny H.; Hadjiiski, Lubomir M.; Chan, Heang-Ping; Caoili, Elaine M.; Cohan, Richard H.; Weizer, Alon Z.; Gordon, Marshall N.; Samala, Ravi K.

2018-02-01

We are developing a computer-aided detection system for bladder cancer in CT urography (CTU). Bladder wall thickening is a manifestation of bladder cancer and its detection is more challenging than the detection of bladder masses. We first segmented the inner and outer bladder walls using our method that combined deep-learning convolutional neural network with level sets. The non-contrast-enhanced region was separated from the contrast-enhanced region with a maximum-intensity-projection-based method. The non-contrast region was smoothed and gray level threshold was applied to the contrast and non-contrast regions separately to extract the bladder wall and potential lesions. The bladder wall was transformed into a straightened thickness profile, which was analyzed to identify regions of wall thickening candidates. Volume-based features of the wall thickening candidates were analyzed with linear discriminant analysis (LDA) to differentiate bladder wall thickenings from false positives. A data set of 112 patients, 87 with wall thickening and 25 with normal bladders, was collected retrospectively with IRB approval, and split into independent training and test sets. Of the 57 training cases, 44 had bladder wall thickening and 13 were normal. Of the 55 test cases, 43 had wall thickening and 12 were normal. The LDA classifier was trained with the training set and evaluated with the test set. FROC analysis showed that the system achieved sensitivities of 93.2% and 88.4% for the training and test sets, respectively, at 0.5 FPs/case.

Advances and Best Practices in Airborne Gravimetry from the U.S. GRAV-D Project

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Diehl, Theresa; Childers, Vicki; Preaux, Sandra; Holmes, Simon; Weil, Carly

2013-04-01

The Gravity for the Redefinition of the American Vertical Datum (GRAV-D) project, an official policy of the U.S. National Geodetic Survey as of 2007, is working to survey the entire U.S. and its holdings with high-altitude airborne gravimetry. The goal of the project is to provide a consistent, high-quality gravity dataset that will become the cornerstone of a new gravimetric geoid and national vertical datum in 2022. Over the last five years, the GRAV-D project has surveyed more than 25% of the country, accomplishing almost 500 flights on six different aircraft platforms and producing more than 3.7 Million square km of data thus far. This wealth of experience has led to advances in the collection, processing, and evaluation of high-altitude (20,000 - 35,000 ft) airborne gravity data. This presentation will highlight the most important practical and theoretical advances of the GRAV-D project, giving an introduction to each. Examples of innovation include: 1. Use of navigation grade inertial measurement unit data and precise lever arm measurements for positioning; 2. New quality control tests and software for near real-time analysis of data in the field; 3. Increased accuracy of gravity post-processing by reexamining assumptions and simplifications that were inconsistent with a goal of 1 mGal precision; and 4. Better final data evaluation through crossovers, additional statistics, and inclusion of airborne data into harmonic models that use EGM08 as a base model. The increases in data quality that resulted from implementation of the above advances (and others) will be shown with a case study of the GRAV-D 2008 southern Alaska survey near Anchorage, over Cook Inlet. The case study's statistics and comparisons to global models illustrate the impact that these advances have had on the final airborne gravity data quality. Finally, the presentation will summarize the best practices identified by the project from its last five years of experience.

System Safety in Early Manned Space Program: A Case Study of NASA and Project Mercury

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hansen, Frederick D.; Pitts, Donald

2005-01-01

This case study provides a review of National Aeronautics and Space Administration s (NASA's) involvement in system safety during research and evolution from air breathing to exo-atmospheric capable flight systems culminating in the successful Project Mercury. Although NASA has been philosophically committed to the principals of system safety, this case study points out that budget and manpower constraints-as well as a variety of internal and external pressures can jeopardize even a well-designed system safety program. This study begins with a review of the evolution and early years of NASA's rise as a project lead agency and ends with the lessons learned from Project Mercury.

Building America Case Study: Evaluating Through-Wall Air Transfer Fans, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (Fact Sheet)

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

Not Available

2014-10-01

In this project, Building America team IBACOS performed field testing in a new construction unoccupied test house in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to evaluate heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) distribution systems during heating, cooling, and midseason conditions. Four air-based HVAC distribution systems were assessed:-a typical airflow ducted system to the bedrooms, a low airflow ducted system to the bedrooms, a system with transfer fans to the bedrooms, and a system with no ductwork to the bedrooms. The relative ability of each system was considered with respect to relevant Air Conditioning Contractors of America and ASHRAE standards for house temperature uniformity andmore » stability, respectively.« less

Hormonal regulation of wheat growth during hydroponic culture

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wetherell, Donald

1988-01-01

Hormonal control of root growth has been explored as one means to alleviate the crowding of plant root systems experienced in prototype hydroponic biomass production chambers being developed by the CELSS Breadboard Project. Four plant hormones, or their chemical analogs, which have been reported to selectively inhibit root growth, were tested by adding them to the nutrient solutions on day 10 of a 25 day growth test using spring wheat in hydroponic cultures. Growth and morphological changes is both shoot and root systems were evaluated. In no case was it possible to inhibit root growth without a comparable inhibition of shoot growth. It was concluded that this approach is unlikely to prove useful for wheat.

Error detection and correction unit with built-in self-test capability for spacecraft applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Timoc, Constantin

1990-01-01

The objective of this project was to research and develop a 32-bit single chip Error Detection and Correction unit capable of correcting all single bit errors and detecting all double bit errors in the memory systems of a spacecraft. We designed the 32-bit EDAC (Error Detection and Correction unit) based on a modified Hamming code and according to the design specifications and performance requirements. We constructed a laboratory prototype (breadboard) which was converted into a fault simulator. The correctness of the design was verified on the breadboard using an exhaustive set of test cases. A logic diagram of the EDAC was delivered to JPL Section 514 on 4 Oct. 1988.

Impact of electric vehicles on the IEEE 34 node distribution infrastructure

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

Jiang, Zeming; Shalalfel, Laith; Beshir, Mohammed J.

With the growing penetration of the electric vehicles to our daily life owing to their economic and environmental benefits, there will be both opportunities and challenges to the utilities when adopting plug-in electric vehicles (PEV) to the distribution network. In this study, a thorough analysis based on real-world project is conducted to evaluate the impacts of electric vehicles infrastructure on the grid relating to system load flow, load factor, and voltage stability. IEEE 34 node test feeder was selected and tested along with different case scenarios utilizing the electrical distribution design (EDD) software to find out the potential impacts tomore » the grid.« less

Impact of electric vehicles on the IEEE 34 node distribution infrastructure

DOE PAGES

Jiang, Zeming; Shalalfel, Laith; Beshir, Mohammed J.

2014-10-01

With the growing penetration of the electric vehicles to our daily life owing to their economic and environmental benefits, there will be both opportunities and challenges to the utilities when adopting plug-in electric vehicles (PEV) to the distribution network. In this study, a thorough analysis based on real-world project is conducted to evaluate the impacts of electric vehicles infrastructure on the grid relating to system load flow, load factor, and voltage stability. IEEE 34 node test feeder was selected and tested along with different case scenarios utilizing the electrical distribution design (EDD) software to find out the potential impacts tomore » the grid.« less

A New Framework for Adptive Sampling and Analysis During Long-Term Monitoring and Remedial Action Management

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

Minsker, Barbara

2005-06-01

Yonas Demissie, a research assistant supported by the project, has successfully created artificial data and assimilated it into coupled Modflow and artificial neural network models. His initial findings show that the neural networks help correct errors in the Modflow models. Abhishek Singh has used test cases from the literature to show that performing model calibration with an interactive genetic algorithm results in significantly improved parameter values. Meghna Babbar, the third research assistant supported by the project, has found similar results when applying an interactive genetic algorithms to long-term monitoring design. She has also developed new types of interactive genetic algorithmsmore » that significantly improve performance. Gayathri Gopalakrishnan, the last research assistant who is partially supported by the project, has shown that sampling branches of phytoremediation trees is an accurate approach to estimating soil and groundwater contaminations in areas surrounding the trees at the Argonne 317/319 site.« less

Single-shot color fringe projection for three-dimensional shape measurement of objects with discontinuities.

PubMed

Dai, Meiling; Yang, Fujun; He, Xiaoyuan

2012-04-20

A simple but effective fringe projection profilometry is proposed to measure 3D shape by using one snapshot color sinusoidal fringe pattern. One color fringe pattern encoded with a sinusoidal fringe (as red component) and one uniform intensity pattern (as blue component) is projected by a digital video projector, and the deformed fringe pattern is recorded by a color CCD camera. The captured color fringe pattern is separated into its RGB components and division operation is applied to red and blue channels to reduce the variable reflection intensity. Shape information of the tested object is decoded by applying an arcsine algorithm on the normalized fringe pattern with subpixel resolution. In the case of fringe discontinuities caused by height steps, or spatially isolated surfaces, the separated blue component is binarized and used for correcting the phase demodulation. A simple and robust method is also introduced to compensate for nonlinear intensity response of the digital video projector. The experimental results demonstrate the validity of the proposed method.

Community Wind: Once Again Pushing the Envelope of Project Finance

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

bolinger, Mark A.

In the United States, the 'community wind' sector - loosely defined here as consisting of relatively small utility-scale wind power projects that sell power on the wholesale market and that are developed and owned primarily by local investors - has historically served as a 'test bed' or 'proving grounds' for up-and-coming wind turbine manufacturers that are trying to break into the U.S. wind power market. For example, community wind projects - and primarily those located in the state of Minnesota - have deployed the first U.S. installations of wind turbines from Suzlon (in 2003), DeWind (2008), Americas Wind Energy (2008)more » and later Emergya Wind Technologies (2010), Goldwind (2009), AAER/Pioneer (2009), Nordic Windpower (2010), Unison (2010), and Alstom (2011). Thus far, one of these turbine manufacturers - Suzlon - has subsequently achieved some success in the broader U.S. wind market as well. Just as it has provided a proving grounds for new turbines, so too has the community wind sector served as a laboratory for experimentation with innovative new financing structures. For example, a variation of one of the most common financing arrangements in the U.S. wind market today - the special allocation partnership flip structure (see Figure 1 in Section 2.1) - was first developed by community wind projects in Minnesota more than a decade ago (and is therefore sometimes referred to as the 'Minnesota flip' model) before being adopted by the broader wind market. More recently, a handful of community wind projects built over the past year have been financed via new and creative structures that push the envelope of wind project finance in the U.S. - in many cases, moving beyond the now-standard partnership flip structures involving strategic tax equity investors. These include: (1) a 4.5 MW project in Maine that combines low-cost government debt with local tax equity, (2) a 25.3 MW project in Minnesota using a sale/leaseback structure, (3) a 10.5 MW project in South Dakota financed by an intrastate offering of both debt and equity, (4) a 6 MW project in Washington state that taps into New Markets Tax Credits using an 'inverted' or 'pass-through' lease structure, and (5) a 9 MW project in Oregon that combines a variety of state and federal incentives and loans with unconventional equity from high-net-worth individuals. In most cases, these are first-of-their-kind structures that could serve as useful examples for other projects - both community and commercial wind alike. This report describes each of these innovative new financing structures in some detail, using a case-study approach. The purpose is twofold: (1) to disseminate useful information on these new financial structures, most of which are widely replicable; and (2) to highlight the recent policy changes - many of them temporary unless extended - that have facilitated this innovation. Although the community wind market is currently only a small sub-sector of the U.S. wind market - as defined here, less than 2% of the overall market at the end of 2009 (Wiser and Bolinger 2010) - its small size belies its relevance to the broader market. As such, the information provided in this report has relevance beyond its direct application to the community wind sector. The next two sections of this report briefly summarize how most community wind projects in the U.S. have been financed historically (i.e., prior to this latest wave of innovation) and describe the recent federal policy changes that have enabled a new wave of financial innovation to occur, respectively. Section 4 contains brief case studies of how each of the five projects mentioned above were financed, noting the financial significance of each. Finally, Section 5 concludes by distilling a number of general observations or pertinent lessons learned from the experiences of these five projects.« less

Stress induced near fault-zone breakout rotation: Two case studies in TCDP and JFAST

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, H. Y.; Brodsky, E. E.; Moe, K.; Kinoshita, M.

2014-12-01

Within the past decade, two successful rapid-response drilling projects have measured breakouts within the nearfault of a recently ruptured fault. Breakout observation is the direct way to detect the far and near filed stress orientation in drilling. Here we compare those data. In 2006, ICDP performed an inland drilling project to penetrate Chelungpu fault plane in central of Taiwan, which had recently slipped in 1999 Mw 7.6 Chi-Chi earthquake. This drilling project succeeded in full coring and collecting comprehensive logging data in the borehole. The resistivity images run by Formation Micro Imager (FMI) indicated that a breakout rotation in the vicinity of the fault (1111mbf). Leak-off tests on site constrained the magnitude of minimum horizontal principal stress. Here we use these data to determine the stress variation in the fault plane in our breakout dislocation model. Based on the amount of breakout azimuth, rotation and fault geometry, the stress drop can be estimated in this model. In 2012, IODP initiated a rapid drilling project after the 2011 Mw9.0 Tohoku earthquake in Japan Trench. Due to the deep-water depth, only a real-time resistivity image recorded by Logging While Drilling (LWD) and few core samples are recovered by this expedition. However, the breakout azimuth occurred near the plate boundary (820mbsf) represents the stress disturbance after the dramatic slip comparing to TCDP case. In this research, we are attempting to discuss the possible effect factors and reconstruct the geo-mechanical models to interpret the breakout distribution observed from logging data and the stress state after these huge earthquakes.

MULTIPLE CONTAMINANTS CASE STUDIES

EPA Science Inventory

The presentation provides information taken from the arsenic demonstration program projects that have treatment systems removing multiply contaminants from drinking water. The case studies sited in the presentation consist of projects that have arsenic along with either nitrate, ...

Development of Oil Spill Monitoring System for the Black Sea, Caspian Sea and the Barents/Kara Seas (DEMOSS)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sandven, Stein; Kudriavtsev, Vladimir; Malinovsky, Vladimir; Stanovoy, Vladimir

2008-01-01

DEMOSS will develop and demonstrate elements of a marine oil spill detection and prediction system based on satellite Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and other space data. In addition, models for prediction of sea surface pollution drift will be developed and tested. The project implements field experiments to study the effect of artificial crude oil and oil derivatives films on short wind waves and multi-frequency (Ka-, Ku-, X-, and C-band) dual polarization radar backscatter power and Doppler shift at different wind and wave conditions. On the basis of these and other available experimental data, the present model of short wind waves and radar scattering will be improved and tested.A new approach for detection and quantification of the oil slicks/spills in satellite SAR images is developed that can discriminate human oil spills from biogenic slicks and look-alikes in the SAR images. New SAR images are obtained in coordination with the field experiments to test the detection algorithm. Satellite SAR images from archives as well as from new acquisitions will be analyzed for the Black/Caspian/Kara/Barents seas to investigate oil slicks/spills occurrence statistics.A model for oil spills/slicks transport and evolution is developed and tested in ice-infested arctic seas, including the Caspian Sea. Case studies using the model will be conducted to simulate drift and evolution of oil spill events observed in SAR images. The results of the project will be disseminated via scientific publications and by demonstration to users and agencies working with marine monitoring. The project lasts for two years (2007 - 2009) and is funded under INTAS Thematic Call with ESA 2006.

The OECD Fish Testing Framework Project

EPA Science Inventory

OECD Project 2.30 on a Fish Testing Framework was initiated in mid-2009, with the United States as the lead country. The objectives of the project are to review the regulatory needs and data requirements for fish testing and review the currency of existing OECD Test Guidelines. ...

Influence of Projected Changes in North American Snow Cover Extent on Mid-Latitude Cyclone Progression

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Clare, R. M.; Desai, A. R.; Martin, J. E.; Notaro, M.; Vavrus, S. J.

2017-12-01

It has long been hypothesized that snow cover and snow extent have an influence on the development or steering of synoptic mid-latitude cyclones (MLCs). Rydzik and Desai (2014) showed a robust statistical relationship among snow cover extent, generation of low-level baroclinicity, and MLC tracks. Though snow cover extent is highly variable year to year, the changing global climate is expected to continue an already observed pattern of poleward retreat of mean snow cover in North America, particularly in late winter and spring. For this experiment, large ensemble simulations with the Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF) were forced with output from the Community Earth System Model (CESM) to test the effect contributed solely by snow cover and the projected effects of a changing climate. Our experiment induces an adjustment to the extent of snow cover in North America according to CESM RCP 8.5 projections for each decade from 2020 to 2100 before and during several cases of MLCs moving east across the Great Plains near the snow line. To evaluate mechanisms of pre-existing and current snow influence on MLCs, model cases are started with snow line adjustment occurring from three days prior up to the storm's arrival over the Great Plains. We demonstrate that snow cover changes do alter MLC intensity and path via modification of low-level potential vorticity.

The Role of Wakes in Modelling Tidal Current Turbines

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Conley, Daniel; Roc, Thomas; Greaves, Deborah

2010-05-01

The eventual proper development of arrays of Tidal Current Turbines (TCT) will require a balance which maximizes power extraction while minimizing environmental impacts. Idealized analytical analogues and simple 2-D models are useful tools for investigating questions of a general nature but do not represent a practical tool for application to realistic cases. Some form of 3-D numerical simulations will be required for such applications and the current project is designed to develop a numerical decision-making tool for use in planning large scale TCT projects. The project is predicated on the use of an existing regional ocean modelling framework (the Regional Ocean Modelling System - ROMS) which is modified to enable the user to account for the effects of TCTs. In such a framework where mixing processes are highly parametrized, the fidelity of the quantitative results is critically dependent on the parameter values utilized. In light of the early stage of TCT development and the lack of field scale measurements, the calibration of such a model is problematic. In the absence of explicit calibration data sets, the device wake structure has been identified as an efficient feature for model calibration. This presentation will discuss efforts to design an appropriate calibration scheme which focuses on wake decay and the motivation for this approach, techniques applied, validation results from simple test cases and limitations shall be presented.

An Analysis of Rocket Propulsion Testing Costs

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ramirez-Pagan, Carmen P.; Rahman, Shamim A.

2009-01-01

The primary mission at NASA Stennis Space Center (SSC) is rocket propulsion testing. Such testing is generally performed within two arenas: (1) Production testing for certification and acceptance, and (2) Developmental testing for prototype or experimental purposes. The customer base consists of NASA programs, DOD programs, and commercial programs. Resources in place to perform on-site testing include both civil servants and contractor personnel, hardware and software including data acquisition and control, and 6 test stands with a total of 14 test positions/cells. For several business reasons there is the need to augment understanding of the test costs for all the various types of test campaigns. Historical propulsion test data was evaluated and analyzed in many different ways with the intent to find any correlation or statistics that could help produce more reliable and accurate cost estimates and projections. The analytical efforts included timeline trends, statistical curve fitting, average cost per test, cost per test second, test cost timeline, and test cost envelopes. Further, the analytical effort includes examining the test cost from the perspective of thrust level and test article characteristics. Some of the analytical approaches did not produce evidence strong enough for further analysis. Some other analytical approaches yield promising results and are candidates for further development and focused study. Information was organized for into its elements: a Project Profile, Test Cost Timeline, and Cost Envelope. The Project Profile is a snap shot of the project life cycle on a timeline fashion, which includes various statistical analyses. The Test Cost Timeline shows the cumulative average test cost, for each project, at each month where there was test activity. The Test Cost Envelope shows a range of cost for a given number of test(s). The supporting information upon which this study was performed came from diverse sources and thus it was necessary to build several intermediate databases in order to understand, validate, and manipulate data. These intermediate databases (validated historical account of schedule, test activity, and cost) by themselves are of great value and utility. For example, for the Project Profile, we were able to merged schedule, cost, and test activity. This kind of historical account conveys important information about sequence of events, lead time, and opportunities for improvement in future propulsion test projects. The Product Requirement Document (PRD) file is a collection of data extracted from each project PRD (technical characteristics, test requirements, and projection of cost, schedule, and test activity). This information could help expedite the development of future PRD (or equivalent document) on similar projects, and could also, when compared to the actual results, help improve projections around cost and schedule. Also, this file can be sorted by the parameter of interest to perform a visual review of potential common themes or trends. The process of searching, collecting, and validating propulsion test data encountered a lot of difficulties which then led to a set of recommendations for improvement in order to facilitate future data gathering and analysis.

Urban High School Student Engagement Through CincySTEM iTEST Projects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Beckett, Gulbahar H.; Hemmings, Annette; Maltbie, Catherine; Wright, Kathy; Sherman, Melissa; Sersion, Brian

2016-12-01

This paper focuses on the notable heightening of underrepresented students' engagement in STEM education through project-based learning CincySTEM iTEST projects. The projects, funded by an iTEST NSF grant, were designed and facilitated by teachers at a new STEM urban public high school serving low-income African-American students. Student engagement conceptualized as a psychological process involving affective and behavioral participation in classroom activities was evaluated through a mixed-methods approach. Findings indicate that affective and behavioral participation was significantly enhanced when project activities utilized digital devices in hands-on investigations of real-world project activities. Explanations for the success of CincySTEM iTEST projects are presented in the conclusion along with challenges for sustainability.