What Impact Will NCLB Waivers Have on the Consistency, Complexity and Transparency of State Accountability Systems?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Riddle, Wayne

2012-01-01

In September 2011, the Obama Administration initiated a program to grant states waivers of several significant requirements of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), as amended by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). This initiative grew out of a concern that "in its implementation, No Child Left Behind had some serious flaws that…

A Body of Work Standard-Setting Method with Construct Maps

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wyse, Adam E.; Bunch, Michael B.; Deville, Craig; Viger, Steven G.

2014-01-01

This article describes a novel variation of the Body of Work method that uses construct maps to overcome problems of transparency, rater inconsistency, and scores gaps commonly occurring with the Body of Work method. The Body of Work method with construct maps was implemented to set cut-scores for two separate K-12 assessment programs in a large…

MBASIC batch processor architectural overview

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Reynolds, S. M.

1978-01-01

The MBASIC (TM) batch processor, a language translator designed to operate in the MBASIC (TM) environment is described. Features include: (1) a CONVERT TO BATCH command, usable from the ready mode; and (2) translation of the users program in stages through several levels of intermediate language and optimization. The processor is to be designed and implemented in both machine-independent and machine-dependent sections. The architecture is planned so that optimization processes are transparent to the rest of the system and need not be included in the first design implementation cycle.

A Systematic and Transparent Approach for Assessing the Methodological Quality of Intervention Effectiveness Research: The Study Design and Implementation Assessment Device (Study DIAD)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Valentine, Jeffrey C.; Cooper, Harris

2008-01-01

Assessments of studies meant to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions, programs, and policies can serve an important role in the interpretation of research results. However, evidence suggests that available quality assessment tools have poor measurement characteristics and can lead to opposing conclusions when applied to the same body of…

Transparent 3D display for augmented reality

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Byoungho; Hong, Jisoo

2012-11-01

Two types of transparent three-dimensional display systems applicable for the augmented reality are demonstrated. One of them is a head-mounted-display-type implementation which utilizes the principle of the system adopting the concave floating lens to the virtual mode integral imaging. Such configuration has an advantage in that the threedimensional image can be displayed at sufficiently far distance resolving the accommodation conflict with the real world scene. Incorporating the convex half mirror, which shows a partial transparency, instead of the concave floating lens, makes it possible to implement the transparent three-dimensional display system. The other type is the projection-type implementation, which is more appropriate for the general use than the head-mounted-display-type implementation. Its imaging principle is based on the well-known reflection-type integral imaging. We realize the feature of transparent display by imposing the partial transparency to the array of concave mirror which is used for the screen of reflection-type integral imaging. Two types of configurations, relying on incoherent and coherent light sources, are both possible. For the incoherent configuration, we introduce the concave half mirror array, whereas the coherent one adopts the holographic optical element which replicates the functionality of the lenslet array. Though the projection-type implementation is beneficial than the head-mounted-display in principle, the present status of the technical advance of the spatial light modulator still does not provide the satisfactory visual quality of the displayed three-dimensional image. Hence we expect that the head-mounted-display-type and projection-type implementations will come up in the market in sequence.

Clustalnet: the joining of Clustal and CORBA.

PubMed

Campagne, F

2000-07-01

Performing sequence alignment operations from a different program than the original sequence alignment code, and/or through a network connection, is often required. Interactive alignment editors and large-scale biological data analysis are common examples where such a flexibility is important. Interoperability between the alignment engine and the client should be obtained regardless of the architectures and programming languages of the server and client. Clustalnet, a Clustal alignment CORBA server is described, which was developed on the basis of Clustalw. This server brings the robustness of the algorithms and implementations of Clustal to a new level of reuse. A Clustalnet server object can be accessed from a program, transparently through the network. We present interfaces to perform the alignment operations and to control these operations via immutable contexts. The interfaces that select the contexts do not depend on the nature of the operation to be performed, making the design modular. The IDL interfaces presented here are not specific to Clustal and can be implemented on top of different sequence alignment algorithm implementations.

A Design for an Interactive Videodisc Training Program for the Sun Workstation.

DTIC Science & Technology

1984-03-01

level, beginner program. A - l *" Ii. * reply was obtained by asl:ing it the, re2t any cre . t 1 1 t I.t cf -,,I-tL Five sThd thet thv did not - rv more... flowcharts . These three forms spring from the need to specify motion sequences, still frames, and the manner of interaction or branching to be implemented...but should be similar to good over- head transparencies with lots of space between lines. Branching networks or flowcharts are used to describe the

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

Strout, Michelle

Programming parallel machines is fraught with difficulties: the obfuscation of algorithms due to implementation details such as communication and synchronization, the need for transparency between language constructs and performance, the difficulty of performing program analysis to enable automatic parallelization techniques, and the existence of important "dusty deck" codes. The SAIMI project developed abstractions that enable the orthogonal specification of algorithms and implementation details within the context of existing DOE applications. The main idea is to enable the injection of small programming models such as expressions involving transcendental functions, polyhedral iteration spaces with sparse constraints, and task graphs into full programsmore » through the use of pragmas. These smaller, more restricted programming models enable orthogonal specification of many implementation details such as how to map the computation on to parallel processors, how to schedule the computation, and how to allocation storage for the computation. At the same time, these small programming models enable the expression of the most computationally intense and communication heavy portions in many scientific simulations. The ability to orthogonally manipulate the implementation for such computations will significantly ease performance programming efforts and expose transformation possibilities and parameter to automated approaches such as autotuning. At Colorado State University, the SAIMI project was supported through DOE grant DE-SC3956 from April 2010 through August 2015. The SAIMI project has contributed a number of important results to programming abstractions that enable the orthogonal specification of implementation details in scientific codes. This final report summarizes the research that was funded by the SAIMI project.« less

77 FR 40072 - Assessment of the Program for Enhanced Review Transparency and Communication for New Molecular...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-07-06

... DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES Food and Drug Administration [Docket No. FDA-2012-N-0603] Assessment of the Program for Enhanced Review Transparency and Communication for New Molecular Entity New... statement of work for an assessment of the Program for Enhanced Review Transparency and Communication for...

Implementing real-time robotic systems using CHIMERA II

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stewart, David B.; Schmitz, Donald E.; Khosla, Pradeep K.

1990-01-01

A description is given of the CHIMERA II programming environment and operating system, which was developed for implementing real-time robotic systems. Sensor-based robotic systems contain both general- and special-purpose hardware, and thus the development of applications tends to be a time-consuming task. The CHIMERA II environment is designed to reduce the development time by providing a convenient software interface between the hardware and the user. CHIMERA II supports flexible hardware configurations which are based on one or more VME-backplanes. All communication across multiple processors is transparent to the user through an extensive set of interprocessor communication primitives. CHIMERA II also provides a high-performance real-time kernel which supports both deadline and highest-priority-first scheduling. The flexibility of CHIMERA II allows hierarchical models for robot control, such as NASREM, to be implemented with minimal programming time and effort.

Pay for performance programs in Australia: a need for guiding principles.

PubMed

Scott, Ian A

2008-11-01

Pay-for-performance (P4P) programs which reward clinical providers with incentive payments based on one or more measures of quality of care are now common in the United States and the United Kingdom and it is likely they will attract increasing interest in Australia. However, empirical evidence demonstrating effectiveness of such programs is limited and many existing programs have not had rigorous outcome evaluation. To maximise success, future P4P programs should incorporate the lessons and insights obtained from previous experience. Based on a review of published trials, program evaluations and position statements, the following principles that may guide future program design and implementation were synthesised: 1) formulate a rationale and a business case for P4P; 2) use established evidence-based performance measures; 3) use rigorous and verifiable methods of data collection and analysis; 4) define performance targets using absolute and relative thresholds; 5) use rewards that are sufficient, equitable and transparent; 6) address appropriateness of provider responses and avoid perverse incentives; 7) implement communication and feedback strategies; 8) use existing organisational structures to implement P4P programs; 9) attribute credit for performance to participants in ways that foster population-based perspectives; and 10) invest in outcomes and health service research. Recommendations flowing from these principles relevant to Australian settings are provided.

Application of Intervention Mapping to the Development of a Complex Physical Therapist Intervention.

PubMed

Jones, Taryn M; Dear, Blake F; Hush, Julia M; Titov, Nickolai; Dean, Catherine M

2016-12-01

Physical therapist interventions, such as those designed to change physical activity behavior, are often complex and multifaceted. In order to facilitate rigorous evaluation and implementation of these complex interventions into clinical practice, the development process must be comprehensive, systematic, and transparent, with a sound theoretical basis. Intervention Mapping is designed to guide an iterative and problem-focused approach to the development of complex interventions. The purpose of this case report is to demonstrate the application of an Intervention Mapping approach to the development of a complex physical therapist intervention, a remote self-management program aimed at increasing physical activity after acquired brain injury. Intervention Mapping consists of 6 steps to guide the development of complex interventions: (1) needs assessment; (2) identification of outcomes, performance objectives, and change objectives; (3) selection of theory-based intervention methods and practical applications; (4) organization of methods and applications into an intervention program; (5) creation of an implementation plan; and (6) generation of an evaluation plan. The rationale and detailed description of this process are presented using an example of the development of a novel and complex physical therapist intervention, myMoves-a program designed to help individuals with an acquired brain injury to change their physical activity behavior. The Intervention Mapping framework may be useful in the development of complex physical therapist interventions, ensuring the development is comprehensive, systematic, and thorough, with a sound theoretical basis. This process facilitates translation into clinical practice and allows for greater confidence and transparency when the program efficacy is investigated. © 2016 American Physical Therapy Association.

Algorithm-Based Fault Tolerance for Numerical Subroutines

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tumon, Michael; Granat, Robert; Lou, John

2007-01-01

A software library implements a new methodology of detecting faults in numerical subroutines, thus enabling application programs that contain the subroutines to recover transparently from single-event upsets. The software library in question is fault-detecting middleware that is wrapped around the numericalsubroutines. Conventional serial versions (based on LAPACK and FFTW) and a parallel version (based on ScaLAPACK) exist. The source code of the application program that contains the numerical subroutines is not modified, and the middleware is transparent to the user. The methodology used is a type of algorithm- based fault tolerance (ABFT). In ABFT, a checksum is computed before a computation and compared with the checksum of the computational result; an error is declared if the difference between the checksums exceeds some threshold. Novel normalization methods are used in the checksum comparison to ensure correct fault detections independent of algorithm inputs. In tests of this software reported in the peer-reviewed literature, this library was shown to enable detection of 99.9 percent of significant faults while generating no false alarms.

Promoting transparency, accountability, and access through a multi-stakeholder initiative: lessons from the medicines transparency alliance.

PubMed

Vian, Taryn; Kohler, Jillian C; Forte, Gilles; Dimancesco, Deirdre

2017-01-01

Barriers to expanding access to medicines include weak pharmaceutical sector governance, lack of transparency and accountability, inadequate attention to social services on the political agenda, and financing challenges. Multi-stakeholder initiatives such as the Medicines Transparency Alliance (MeTA) may help overcome these barriers. Between 2008 and 2015, MeTA engaged stakeholders in the pharmaceutical sectors of seven countries (Ghana, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Peru, Philippines, Uganda, and Zambia) to promote access goals through greater transparency. We reviewed archival data to document MeTA activities and results related to transparency and accountability in the seven countries where it was implemented. We identified common themes and content areas, noting specific activities used to make information transparent and accessible, how data were used to inform discussions, and the purpose and timing of meetings and advocacy activities to help set priorities and influence governance decisions. The cross-case analysis looked for pathways which might link the MeTA strategies to results such as better policies or program improvements. Countries used evidence gathering, open meetings, and proactive information dissemination to increase transparency. MeTA fostered policy dialogue to bring together the many government, civil society and private company stakeholders concerned with access issues, and provided them with information to understand barriers to access at policy, organizational, and community levels. We found strong evidence that transparency was enhanced. Some evidence suggests that MeTA efforts contributed to new policies and civil society capacity strengthening although the impact on government accountability is not clear. MeTA appears to have achieved its goal of creating a multi-stakeholder shared policy space in which government, civil society, and private sector players can come together and have a voice in the national pharmaceutical policy making process. Assuming that transparency is in place to leverage accountability, the success of MeTA's efforts to promote accountability by the government as well as other stakeholders in the pharmaceutical sector will depend on how well efforts are sustained over time.

chemf: A purely functional chemistry toolkit.

PubMed

Höck, Stefan; Riedl, Rainer

2012-12-20

Although programming in a type-safe and referentially transparent style offers several advantages over working with mutable data structures and side effects, this style of programming has not seen much use in chemistry-related software. Since functional programming languages were designed with referential transparency in mind, these languages offer a lot of support when writing immutable data structures and side-effects free code. We therefore started implementing our own toolkit based on the above programming paradigms in a modern, versatile programming language. We present our initial results with functional programming in chemistry by first describing an immutable data structure for molecular graphs together with a couple of simple algorithms to calculate basic molecular properties before writing a complete SMILES parser in accordance with the OpenSMILES specification. Along the way we show how to deal with input validation, error handling, bulk operations, and parallelization in a purely functional way. At the end we also analyze and improve our algorithms and data structures in terms of performance and compare it to existing toolkits both object-oriented and purely functional. All code was written in Scala, a modern multi-paradigm programming language with a strong support for functional programming and a highly sophisticated type system. We have successfully made the first important steps towards a purely functional chemistry toolkit. The data structures and algorithms presented in this article perform well while at the same time they can be safely used in parallelized applications, such as computer aided drug design experiments, without further adjustments. This stands in contrast to existing object-oriented toolkits where thread safety of data structures and algorithms is a deliberate design decision that can be hard to implement. Finally, the level of type-safety achieved by Scala highly increased the reliability of our code as well as the productivity of the programmers involved in this project.

chemf: A purely functional chemistry toolkit

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background Although programming in a type-safe and referentially transparent style offers several advantages over working with mutable data structures and side effects, this style of programming has not seen much use in chemistry-related software. Since functional programming languages were designed with referential transparency in mind, these languages offer a lot of support when writing immutable data structures and side-effects free code. We therefore started implementing our own toolkit based on the above programming paradigms in a modern, versatile programming language. Results We present our initial results with functional programming in chemistry by first describing an immutable data structure for molecular graphs together with a couple of simple algorithms to calculate basic molecular properties before writing a complete SMILES parser in accordance with the OpenSMILES specification. Along the way we show how to deal with input validation, error handling, bulk operations, and parallelization in a purely functional way. At the end we also analyze and improve our algorithms and data structures in terms of performance and compare it to existing toolkits both object-oriented and purely functional. All code was written in Scala, a modern multi-paradigm programming language with a strong support for functional programming and a highly sophisticated type system. Conclusions We have successfully made the first important steps towards a purely functional chemistry toolkit. The data structures and algorithms presented in this article perform well while at the same time they can be safely used in parallelized applications, such as computer aided drug design experiments, without further adjustments. This stands in contrast to existing object-oriented toolkits where thread safety of data structures and algorithms is a deliberate design decision that can be hard to implement. Finally, the level of type-safety achieved by Scala highly increased the reliability of our code as well as the productivity of the programmers involved in this project. PMID:23253942

Missile Defense: European Phased Adaptive Approach Acquisitions Face Synchronization, Transparency, and Accountability Challenges

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-12-21

House of Representatives Subject: Missile Defense: European Phased Adaptive Approach Acquisitions Face Synchronization , Transparency, and...TITLE AND SUBTITLE Missile Defense: European Phased Adaptive Approach Acquisitions Face Synchronization , Transparency, and Accountability...However, we found that DOD has not fully implemented a management process that synchronizes EPAA acquisition activities and ensures transparency and

Teaching and learning curriculum programs: recommendations for postgraduate pharmacy experiences in education.

PubMed

Wright, Eric A; Brown, Bonnie; Gettig, Jacob; Martello, Jay L; McClendon, Katie S; Smith, Kelly M; Teeters, Janet; Ulbrich, Timothy R; Wegrzyn, Nicole; Bradley-Baker, Lynette R

2014-08-01

Recommendations for the development and support of teaching and learning curriculum (TLC) experiences within postgraduate pharmacy training programs are discussed. Recent attention has turned toward meeting teaching- and learning-related educational outcomes through a programmatic process during the first or second year of postgraduate education. These programs are usually coordinated by schools and colleges of pharmacy and often referred to as "teaching certificate programs," though no national standards or regulation of these programs currently exists. In an effort to describe the landscape of these programs and to develop a framework for their basic design and content, the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy Pharmacy Practice Section's Task Force on Student Engagement and Involvement, with input from the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, reviewed evidence from the literature and conference proceedings and considered author experience and expertise over a two-year period. The members of the task force created and reached consensus on a policy statement and 12 recommendations to guide the development of best practices of TLC programs. The recommendations address topics such as the value of TLC programs, program content, teaching and learning experiences, feedback for participants, the development of a teaching portfolio, the provision of adequate resources for TLC programs, programmatic assessment and improvement, program transparency, and accreditation. TLC programs provide postgraduate participants with valuable knowledge and skills in teaching applicable to the practitioner and academician. Postgraduate programs should be transparent to candidates and seek to ensure the best experiences for participants through systematic program implementation and assessments. Copyright © 2014 by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Inc. All rights reserved.

A distributed programming environment for Ada

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Brennan, Peter; Mcdonnell, Tom; Mcfarland, Gregory; Timmins, Lawrence J.; Litke, John D.

1986-01-01

Despite considerable commercial exploitation of fault tolerance systems, significant and difficult research problems remain in such areas as fault detection and correction. A research project is described which constructs a distributed computing test bed for loosely coupled computers. The project is constructing a tool kit to support research into distributed control algorithms, including a distributed Ada compiler, distributed debugger, test harnesses, and environment monitors. The Ada compiler is being written in Ada and will implement distributed computing at the subsystem level. The design goal is to provide a variety of control mechanics for distributed programming while retaining total transparency at the code level.

2009 Annual Health Physics Report for the HEU Transparency Program

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

Radev, R

2010-04-14

During the 2009 calendar year, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) provided health physics support for the Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU) Transparency Program for external and internal radiation protection. LLNL also provided technical expertise related to BDMS radioactive sources and Russian radiation safety regulatory compliance. For the calendar year 2009, there were 159 person-trips that required dose monitoring of the U.S. monitors. Of the 159 person-trips, 149 person-trips were SMVs and 10 person-trips were Transparency Monitoring Office (TMO) trips. There were 4 monitoring visits by TMO monitors to facilities other than UEIE and 10 to UEIE itself. LLNL's Hazard Control Departmentmore » laboratories provided the dosimetry services for the HEU Transparency monitors. In 2009, the HEU Transparency activities in Russia were conducted in a radiologically safe manner for the HEU Transparency monitors in accordance with the expectations of the HEU Transparency staff, NNSA and DOE. The HEU Transparency Program now has over fifteen years of successful experience in developing and providing health and safety support in meeting its technical objectives.« less

Are Key Principles for improved health technology assessment supported and used by health technology assessment organizations?

PubMed

Neumann, Peter J; Drummond, Michael F; Jönsson, Bengt; Luce, Bryan R; Schwartz, J Sanford; Siebert, Uwe; Sullivan, Sean D

2010-01-01

Previously, our group-the International Working Group for HTA Advancement-proposed a set of fifteen Key Principles that could be applied to health technology assessment (HTA) programs in different jurisdictions and across a range of organizations and perspectives. In this commentary, we investigate the extent to which these principles are supported and used by fourteen selected HTA organizations worldwide. We find that some principles are broadly supported: examples include being explicit about HTA goals and scope; considering a wide range of evidence and outcomes; and being unbiased and transparent. Other principles receive less widespread support: examples are addressing issues of generalizability and transferability; being transparent on the link between HTA findings and decision-making processes; considering a full societal perspective; and monitoring the implementation of HTA findings. The analysis also suggests a lack of consensus in the field about some principles--for example, considering a societal perspective. Our study highlights differences in the uptake of key principles for HTA and indicates considerable room for improvement for HTA organizations to adopt principles identified to reflect good HTA practices. Most HTA organizations espouse certain general concepts of good practice--for example, assessments should be unbiased and transparent. However, principles that require more intensive follow-up--for example, monitoring the implementation of HTA findings--have received little support and execution.

77 FR 5027 - Food and Drug Administration Transparency Initiative: Exploratory Program To Increase Access to...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-02-01

... DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES Food and Drug Administration [Docket No. FDA-2009-N-0247] Food and Drug Administration Transparency Initiative: Exploratory Program To Increase Access to the... responsible for a broad range of compliance and enforcement activities. Increasing the transparency of these...

Developing an active implementation model for a chronic disease management program.

PubMed

Smidth, Margrethe; Christensen, Morten Bondo; Olesen, Frede; Vedsted, Peter

2013-04-01

Introduction and diffusion of new disease management programs in healthcare is usually slow, but active theory-driven implementation seems to outperform other implementation strategies. However, we have only scarce evidence on the feasibility and real effect of such strategies in complex primary care settings where municipalities, general practitioners and hospitals should work together. The Central Denmark Region recently implemented a disease management program for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) which presented an opportunity to test an active implementation model against the usual implementation model. The aim of the present paper is to describe the development of an active implementation model using the Medical Research Council's model for complex interventions and the Chronic Care Model. We used the Medical Research Council's five-stage model for developing complex interventions to design an implementation model for a disease management program for COPD. First, literature on implementing change in general practice was scrutinised and empirical knowledge was assessed for suitability. In phase I, the intervention was developed; and in phases II and III, it was tested in a block- and cluster-randomised study. In phase IV, we evaluated the feasibility for others to use our active implementation model. The Chronic Care Model was identified as a model for designing efficient implementation elements. These elements were combined into a multifaceted intervention, and a timeline for the trial in a randomised study was decided upon in accordance with the five stages in the Medical Research Council's model; this was captured in a PaTPlot, which allowed us to focus on the structure and the timing of the intervention. The implementation strategies identified as efficient were use of the Breakthrough Series, academic detailing, provision of patient material and meetings between providers. The active implementation model was tested in a randomised trial (results reported elsewhere). The combination of the theoretical model for complex interventions and the Chronic Care Model and the chosen specific implementation strategies proved feasible for a practice-based active implementation model for a chronic-disease-management-program for COPD. Using the Medical Research Council's model added transparency to the design phase which further facilitated the process of implementing the program. http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/(NCT01228708).

Transparency in a Pediatric Quality Improvement Collaborative: A Passionate Journey by NPC-QIC Clinicians and Parents.

PubMed

Lihn, Stacey L; Kugler, John D; Peterson, Laura E; Lannon, Carole M; Pickles, Diane; Beekman, Robert H

2015-01-01

Transparency-sharing data or information about outcomes, processes, protocols, and practices-may be the most powerful driver of health care improvement. In this special article, the development and growth of transparency within the National Pediatric Cardiology Quality Improvement Collaborative is described. The National Pediatric Cardiology Quality Improvement Collaborative transparency journey is guided by equal numbers of clinicians and parents of children with congenital heart disease working together in a Transparency Work Group. Activities are organized around four interrelated levels of transparency (individual, organizational, collaborative, and system), each with a specified purpose and aim. A number of Transparency Work Group recommendations have been operationalized. Aggregate collaborative performance is now reported on the public-facing web site. Specific information that the Transparency Work Group recommends centers provide to parents has been developed and published. Almost half of National Pediatric Cardiology Quality Improvement Collaborative centers participated in a pilot of transparently sharing their outcomes achieved with one another. Individual centers have also begun successfully implementing recommended transparency activities. Despite progress, barriers to full transparency persist, including health care organization concerns about potential negative effects of disclosure on reputation and finances, and lack of reliable definitions, data, and reporting standards for fair comparisons of centers. The National Pediatric Cardiology Quality Improvement Collaborative's transparency efforts have been a journey that continues, not a single goal or destination. Balanced participation of clinicians and parents has been a critical element of the collaborative's success on this issue. Plans are in place to guide implementation of additional transparency recommendations across all four levels, including extension of the activities beyond the collaborative to support transparency efforts in national cardiology and cardiac surgery societies. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Challenges in knowledge translation: the early years of Cancer Care Ontario's Program in Evidence-Based Care.

PubMed

Browman, G P

2012-02-01

Cancer Care Ontario's Program in Evidence-Based Care (pebc) was formalized in 1997 to produce clinical practice guidelines for cancer management for the Province of Ontario. At the time, the gap between guideline development and implementation was beginning to be acknowledged. The Program implemented strategies to promote use of guidelines. The program had to overcome numerous social challenges to survive. Prospective strategies useful to practitioners-including participation, transparent communication, a methodological vision, and methodology skills development offerings-were used to create a culture of research-informed oncology practice within a broad community of practitioners.Reactive strategies ensured the survival of the program in the early years, when some within the influential academic community and among decision-makers were skeptical about the feasibility of a rigorous methodologic approach meeting the fast turnaround times necessary for policy. The paper details the pebc strategies within the context of what was known about knowledge translation (kt) at the time, and it tries to identify key success factors. Many of the barriers faced in the implementation of kt-and the strategies for overcoming them-are unavailable in the public domain because the relevant reporting does not fit the traditional paradigm for publication. Telling the "stories behind the story" should be encouraged to enhance the practice of kt beyond the science.

Implementation of Environmental Flows for Intermittent River Systems: Adaptive Management and Stakeholder Participation Facilitate Implementation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Conallin, John; Wilson, Emma; Campbell, Josh

2018-03-01

Anthropogenic pressure on freshwater ecosystems is increasing, and often leading to unacceptable social-ecological outcomes. This is even more prevalent in intermittent river systems where many are already heavily modified, or human encroachment is increasing. Although adaptive management approaches have the potential to aid in providing the framework to consider the complexities of intermittent river systems and improve utility within the management of these systems, success has been variable. This paper looks at the application of an adaptive management pilot project within an environmental flows program in an intermittent stream (Tuppal Creek) in the Murray Darling Basin, Australia. The program focused on stakeholder involvement, participatory decision-making, and simple monitoring as the basis of an adaptive management approach. The approach found that by building trust and ownership through concentrating on inclusiveness and transparency, partnerships between government agencies and landholders were developed. This facilitated a willingness to accept greater risks and unintended consequences allowing implementation to occur.

How Are New Vaccines Prioritized in Low-Income Countries? A Case Study of Human Papilloma Virus Vaccine and Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine in Uganda

PubMed Central

Wallace, Lauren; Kapirir, Lydia

2017-01-01

Background: To date, research on priority-setting for new vaccines has not adequately explored the influence of the global, national and sub-national levels of decision-making or contextual issues such as political pressure and stakeholder influence and power. Using Kapiriri and Martin’s conceptual framework, this paper evaluates priority setting for new vaccines in Uganda at national and sub-national levels, and considers how global priorities can influence country priorities. This study focuses on 2 specific vaccines, the human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine and the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV). Methods: This was a qualitative study that involved reviewing relevant Ugandan policy documents and media reports, as well as 54 key informant interviews at the global level and national and sub-national levels in Uganda. Kapiriri and Martin’s conceptual framework was used to evaluate the prioritization process. Results: Priority setting for PCV and HPV was conducted by the Ministry of Health (MoH), which is considered to be a legitimate institution. While respondents described the priority setting process for PCV process as transparent, participatory, and guided by explicit relevant criteria and evidence, the prioritization of HPV was thought to have been less transparent and less participatory. Respondents reported that neither process was based on an explicit priority setting framework nor did it involve adequate representation from the districts (program implementers) or publicity. The priority setting process for both PCV and HPV was negatively affected by the larger political and economic context, which contributed to weak institutional capacity as well as power imbalances between development assistance partners and the MoH. Conclusion: Priority setting in Uganda would be improved by strengthening institutional capacity and leadership and ensuring a transparent and participatory processes in which key stakeholders such as program implementers (the districts) and beneficiaries (the public) are involved. Kapiriri and Martin’s framework has the potential to guide priority setting evaluation efforts, however, evaluation should be built into the priority setting process a priori such that information on priority setting is gathered throughout the implementation cycle. PMID:29172378

Transparent Proxy for Secure E-Mail

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Michalák, Juraj; Hudec, Ladislav

2010-05-01

The paper deals with the security of e-mail messages and e-mail server implementation by means of a transparent SMTP proxy. The security features include encryption and signing of transported messages. The goal is to design and implement a software proxy for secure e-mail including its monitoring, administration, encryption and signing keys administration. In particular, we focus on automatic public key on-the-fly encryption and signing of e-mail messages according to S/MIME standard by means of an embedded computer system whose function can be briefly described as a brouter with transparent SMTP proxy.

Designing a Software Tool for Fuzzy Logic Programming

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abietar, José M.; Morcillo, Pedro J.; Moreno, Ginés

2007-12-01

Fuzzy Logic Programming is an interesting and still growing research area that agglutinates the efforts for introducing fuzzy logic into logic programming (LP), in order to incorporate more expressive resources on such languages for dealing with uncertainty and approximated reasoning. The multi-adjoint logic programming approach is a recent and extremely flexible fuzzy logic paradigm for which, unfortunately, we have not found practical tools implemented so far. In this work, we describe a prototype system which is able to directly translate fuzzy logic programs into Prolog code in order to safely execute these residual programs inside any standard Prolog interpreter in a completely transparent way for the final user. We think that the development of such fuzzy languages and programing tools might play an important role in the design of advanced software applications for computational physics, chemistry, mathematics, medicine, industrial control and so on.

Transparency in the ePortfolio Creation Process

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jones, Stephanie A.; Downs, Elizabeth; Jenkins, Stephen J.

2015-01-01

This paper presents the findings of a study examining the effect of transparency on the ePortfolio creation process. The purpose of the study was to examine whether increased awareness of other students' ePortfolios through the implementation of transparency and peer review would positively affect the quality of performance of school library media…

Challenges to implementing Gavi's health system strengthening support in Chad and Cameroon: results from a mixed-methods evaluation.

PubMed

Dansereau, Emily; Miangotar, Yodé; Squires, Ellen; Mimche, Honoré; El Bcheraoui, Charbel

2017-11-16

Since 2005, Gavi has provided health system strengthening (HSS) grants to address bottlenecks affecting immunization services. This study is the first to evaluate the Gavi HSS implementation process in either Cameroon or Chad, two countries with significant health system challenges and poor achievement on the child and maternal health Millennium Development Goals. We triangulated quantitative and qualitative data including financial records, document review, field visit questionnaires, and key informant interviews (KII) with representatives from the Ministries of Health, Gavi, and other partners. We conducted a Root Cause Analysis of key implementation challenges, guided by the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research. We conducted 124 field visits and 43 KIIs in Cameroon, and 57 field visits and 39 KIIs in Chad. Cameroon's and Chad's HSS programs were characterized by delayed disbursements, significant deviations from approved expenditures, and reprogramming of funds. Nearly a year after the programs were intended to be complete, many district and facility-level activities were only partially implemented and significant funds remained unabsorbed. Root causes of these challenges included unpredictable Gavi processes and disbursements, poor communication between the countries and Gavi, insufficient country planning without adequate technical assistance, lack of country staff and leadership, and weak country systems to manage finances and promote institutional memory. Though Chad and Cameroon both critically needed support to strengthen their weak health systems, serious challenges drastically limited implementation of their Gavi HSS programs. Implementation of future HSS programs in these and similar settings can be improved by transparent and reliable procedures and communication from Gavi, proposals that account for countries' programmatic capacity and the potential for delayed disbursements, implementation practices that foster learning and adaptation, and an early emphasis on developing managerial and other human resources.

A Prospective Programmatic Cost Analysis of Fuel Your Life: A Worksite Translation of DPP.

PubMed

Ingels, Justin B; Walcott, Rebecca L; Wilson, Mark G; Corso, Phaedra S; Padilla, Heather M; Zuercher, Heather; DeJoy, David M; Vandenberg, Robert J

2016-11-01

An accounting of the resources necessary for implementation of efficacious programs is important for economic evaluations and dissemination. A programmatic costs analysis was conducted prospectively in conjunction with an efficacy trial of Fuel Your Life (FYL), a worksite translation of the Diabetes Prevention Program. FYL was implemented through three different modalities, Group, Phone, and Self-study, using a micro-costing approach from both the employer and societal perspectives. The Phone modality was the most costly at $354.6 per participant, compared with $154.6 and $75.5 for the Group and Self-study modalities, respectively. With the inclusion of participant-related costs, the Phone modality was still more expensive than the Group modality but with a smaller incremental difference ($461.4 vs $368.1). This level of cost-related detail for a preventive intervention is rare, and our analysis can aid in the transparency of future economic evaluations.

48 CFR 4.1400 - Scope of subpart.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

.... This subpart implements section 2 of the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (Pub. L. 109-282), as amended by section 6202 of the Government Funding Transparency Act of 2008 (Pub...

Developing an active implementation model for a chronic disease management program

PubMed Central

Smidth, Margrethe; Christensen, Morten Bondo; Olesen, Frede; Vedsted, Peter

2013-01-01

Background Introduction and diffusion of new disease management programs in healthcare is usually slow, but active theory-driven implementation seems to outperform other implementation strategies. However, we have only scarce evidence on the feasibility and real effect of such strategies in complex primary care settings where municipalities, general practitioners and hospitals should work together. The Central Denmark Region recently implemented a disease management program for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) which presented an opportunity to test an active implementation model against the usual implementation model. The aim of the present paper is to describe the development of an active implementation model using the Medical Research Council’s model for complex interventions and the Chronic Care Model. Methods We used the Medical Research Council’s five-stage model for developing complex interventions to design an implementation model for a disease management program for COPD. First, literature on implementing change in general practice was scrutinised and empirical knowledge was assessed for suitability. In phase I, the intervention was developed; and in phases II and III, it was tested in a block- and cluster-randomised study. In phase IV, we evaluated the feasibility for others to use our active implementation model. Results The Chronic Care Model was identified as a model for designing efficient implementation elements. These elements were combined into a multifaceted intervention, and a timeline for the trial in a randomised study was decided upon in accordance with the five stages in the Medical Research Council’s model; this was captured in a PaTPlot, which allowed us to focus on the structure and the timing of the intervention. The implementation strategies identified as efficient were use of the Breakthrough Series, academic detailing, provision of patient material and meetings between providers. The active implementation model was tested in a randomised trial (results reported elsewhere). Conclusion The combination of the theoretical model for complex interventions and the Chronic Care Model and the chosen specific implementation strategies proved feasible for a practice-based active implementation model for a chronic-disease-management-program for COPD. Using the Medical Research Council’s model added transparency to the design phase which further facilitated the process of implementing the program. Trial registration: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/(NCT01228708). PMID:23882169

Effect of a health system's medical error disclosure program on gastroenterology-related claims rates and costs.

PubMed

Adams, Megan A; Elmunzer, B Joseph; Scheiman, James M

2014-04-01

In 2001, the University of Michigan Health System (UMHS) implemented a novel medical error disclosure program. This study analyzes the effect of this program on gastroenterology (GI)-related claims and costs. This was a review of claims in the UMHS Risk Management Database (1990-2010), naming a gastroenterologist. Claims were classified according to pre-determined categories. Claims data, including incident date, date of resolution, and total liability dollars, were reviewed. Mean total liability incurred per claim in the pre- and post-implementation eras was compared. Patient encounter data from the Division of Gastroenterology was also reviewed in order to benchmark claims data with changes in clinical volume. There were 238,911 GI encounters in the pre-implementation era and 411,944 in the post-implementation era. A total of 66 encounters resulted in claims: 38 in the pre-implementation era and 28 in the post-implementation era. Of the total number of claims, 15.2% alleged delay in diagnosis/misdiagnosis, 42.4% related to a procedure, and 42.4% involved improper management, treatment, or monitoring. The reduction in the proportion of encounters resulting in claims was statistically significant (P=0.001), as was the reduction in time to claim resolution (1,000 vs. 460 days) (P<0.0001). There was also a reduction in the mean total liability per claim ($167,309 pre vs. $81,107 post, 95% confidence interval: 33682.5-300936.2 pre vs. 1687.8-160526.7 post). Implementation of a novel medical error disclosure program, promoting transparency and quality improvement, not only decreased the number of GI-related claims per patient encounter, but also dramatically shortened the time to claim resolution.

Investigation using data from ERTS-1 to develop and implement utilization of living marine resources. [availability and distribution of menhaden fish in Mississippi Sound and Gulf waters

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stevenson, W. H. (Principal Investigator); Pastula, E. J., Jr.

1973-01-01

The author has identified the following significant results. This 15-month ERTS-1 investigation produced correlations between satellite, aircraft, menhaden fisheries, and environmental sea truth data from the Mississippi Sound. Selected oceanographic, meteorological, and biological parameters were used as indirect indicators of the menhaden resource. Synoptic and near real time sea truth, fishery, satellite imagery, aircraft acquired multispectral, photo and thermal IR information were acquired as data inputs. Computer programs were developed to manipulate these data according to user requirements. Preliminary results indicate a correlation between backscattered light with chlorophyll concentration and water transparency in turbid waters. Eight empirical menhaden distribution models were constructed from combinations of four fisheries-significant oceanographic parameters: water depth, transparency, color, and surface salinity. The models demonstrated their potential for management utilization in areas of resource assessment, prediction, and monitoring.

A Transparently-Scalable Metadata Service for the Ursa Minor Storage System

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-06-25

provide application-level guarantees. For example, many document editing programs imple- ment atomic updates by writing the new document ver- sion into a...Transparently-Scalable Metadata Service for the Ursa Minor Storage System 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER 5b. GRANT NUMBER 5c. PROGRAM ELEMENT NUMBER 6...operations that could involve multiple servers, how close existing systems come to transparent scala - bility, how systems that handle multi-server

Transparent Democratic Foresight Strategies in the California EMF Program.

PubMed

Neutra, Raymond Richard; Delpizzo, Vincent

2002-01-01

A California Department of Health Services program dealt with possible health effects from Electric and Magnetic Fields (EMF) from power lines. With the advice of stakeholders, and well before any risk determinations were made, transparent policy analyses about the power grid and schools asked the question, "How confident must one be of how big an effect before one would adopt cheap or expensive EMF avoidance measures?" A risk evaluation was carried out with features that promoted transparency. It was formatted to provide a policy-neutral "degree of certainty of causality" to adherents of utilitarian, environmental justice, and libertarian policy frameworks. Though the program had many features advocated by adherents of the precautionary principle, it might be better characterized as following "Transparent Democratic Foresight Strategies," since no single principle justifies the strategies used in this participatory program, and it examined the pros and cons of options but made no recommendations, precautionary or otherwise.

Residential Building Energy Code Field Study

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

R. Bartlett, M. Halverson, V. Mendon, J. Hathaway, Y. Xie

This document presents a methodology for assessing baseline energy efficiency in new single-family residential buildings and quantifying related savings potential. The approach was developed by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Building Energy Codes Program with the objective of assisting states as they assess energy efficiency in residential buildings and implementation of their building energy codes, as well as to target areas for improvement through energy codes and broader energy-efficiency programs. It is also intended to facilitate a consistent and replicable approach to research studies of this type and establish a transparent data setmore » to represent baseline construction practices across U.S. states.« less

The Design of a Transparent Vertical Multizone Furnace: Application to Thermal Field Tuning and Crystal Growth

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Duvual, Walter M. B.; Batur, Celal; Bennett, Robert J.

1998-01-01

We present an innovative design of a vertical transparent multizone furnace which can operate in the temperature range of 25 C to 750 C and deliver thermal gradients of 2 C/cm to 45 C/cm for the commercial applications to crystal growth. The operation of the eight zone furnace is based on a self-tuning temperature control system with a DC power supply for optimal thermal stability. We show that the desired thermal profile over the entire length of the furnace consists of a functional combination of the fundamental thermal profiles for each individual zone obtained by setting the set-point temperature for that zone. The self-tuning system accounts for the zone to zone thermal interactions. The control system operates such that the thermal profile is maintained under thermal load, thus boundary conditions on crystal growth ampoules can be predetermined prior to crystal growth. Temperature profiles for the growth of crystals via directional solidification, vapor transport techniques, and multiple gradient applications are shown to be easily implemented. The unique feature of its transparency and ease of programming thermal profiles make the furnace useful in scientific and commercial applications for determining the optimized process parameters for crystal growth.

A framework for learning about improvement: embedded implementation and evaluation design to optimize learning

PubMed Central

Barry, Danika; Kimble, Leighann E; Nambiar, Bejoy; Parry, Gareth; Jha, Ashish; Chattu, Vijay Kumar; Massoud, M Rashad; Goldmann, Don

2018-01-01

Abstract Improving health care involves many actors, often working in complex adaptive systems. Interventions tend to be multi-factorial, implementation activities diverse, and contexts dynamic and complicated. This makes improvement initiatives challenging to describe and evaluate as matching evaluation and program designs can be difficult, requiring collaboration, trust and transparency. Collaboration is required to address important epidemiological principles of bias and confounding. If this does not take place, results may lack credibility because the association between interventions implemented and outcomes achieved is obscure and attribution uncertain. Moreover, lack of clarity about what was implemented, how it was implemented, and the context in which it was implemented often lead to disappointment or outright failure of spread and scale-up efforts. The input of skilled evaluators into the design and conduct of improvement initiatives can be helpful in mitigating these potential problems. While evaluation must be rigorous, if it is too rigid necessary adaptation and learning may be compromised. This article provides a framework and guidance on how improvers and evaluators can work together to design, implement and learn about improvement interventions more effectively. PMID:29873794

High-energy physics software parallelization using database techniques

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Argante, E.; van der Stok, P. D. V.; Willers, I.

1997-02-01

A programming model for software parallelization, called CoCa, is introduced that copes with problems caused by typical features of high-energy physics software. By basing CoCa on the database transaction paradimg, the complexity induced by the parallelization is for a large part transparent to the programmer, resulting in a higher level of abstraction than the native message passing software. CoCa is implemented on a Meiko CS-2 and on a SUN SPARCcenter 2000 parallel computer. On the CS-2, the performance is comparable with the performance of native PVM and MPI.

Responding to the call for globalization in nursing education: the implementation of the transatlantic double-degree program.

PubMed

Hornberger, Cynthia A; Erämaa, Sirkka; Helembai, Kornélia; McCartan, Patrick J; Turtiainen, Tarja

2014-01-01

Increased demand for nurses worldwide has highlighted the need for a flexible nursing workforce eligible for licensure in multiple countries. Nursing's curricular innovation mirrors the call for reform within higher education including globalization of curricula (E. J. S. Hovenga, 2004; D. Nayyar, 2008; B. J. G. Wood, S. M. Tapsall, & G. N. Soutar, 2005), increased opportunities for student mobility exchanges, dialogue between different academic traditions, and mutual understanding and transparency between universities (J. González & R. Wagenaar, 2005). The European Union (EU) and United States have combined efforts to achieve these objectives by creating the Atlantis program in 2007 (U.S. Department of Education, 2011). This article describes experiences of four nursing programs participating in an Atlantis project to develop a double-degree baccalaureate program for undergraduate nursing students. Early learnings include increasing awareness and appreciation of essential curricular and performance competencies of the baccalaureate-prepared professional nurse. Challenges include language competency; variations in curriculum, cultural norms, student expectations, and learning assessment; and philosophical differences regarding first-level professional nurse preparation as specialist versus generalist. The Transatlantic Double Degree program has successfully implemented the double-degree program. Members have gained valuable insights into key issues surrounding the creation of a more uniform, yet flexible, educational standard between our countries. © 2014.

How Are New Vaccines Prioritized in Low-Income Countries? A Case Study of Human Papilloma Virus Vaccine and Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine in Uganda.

PubMed

Wallace, Lauren; Kapirir, Lydia

2017-04-08

To date, research on priority-setting for new vaccines has not adequately explored the influence of the global, national and sub-national levels of decision-making or contextual issues such as political pressure and stakeholder influence and power. Using Kapiriri and Martin's conceptual framework, this paper evaluates priority setting for new vaccines in Uganda at national and sub-national levels, and considers how global priorities can influence country priorities. This study focuses on 2 specific vaccines, the human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine and the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV). This was a qualitative study that involved reviewing relevant Ugandan policy documents and media reports, as well as 54 key informant interviews at the global level and national and sub-national levels in Uganda. Kapiriri and Martin's conceptual framework was used to evaluate the prioritization process. Priority setting for PCV and HPV was conducted by the Ministry of Health (MoH), which is considered to be a legitimate institution. While respondents described the priority setting process for PCV process as transparent, participatory, and guided by explicit relevant criteria and evidence, the prioritization of HPV was thought to have been less transparent and less participatory. Respondents reported that neither process was based on an explicit priority setting framework nor did it involve adequate representation from the districts (program implementers) or publicity. The priority setting process for both PCV and HPV was negatively affected by the larger political and economic context, which contributed to weak institutional capacity as well as power imbalances between development assistance partners and the MoH. Priority setting in Uganda would be improved by strengthening institutional capacity and leadership and ensuring a transparent and participatory processes in which key stakeholders such as program implementers (the districts) and beneficiaries (the public) are involved. Kapiriri and Martin's framework has the potential to guide priority setting evaluation efforts, however, evaluation should be built into the priority setting process a priori such that information on priority setting is gathered throughout the implementation cycle. © 2017 The Author(s); Published by Kerman University of Medical Sciences. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Optical quantum memory based on electromagnetically induced transparency

PubMed Central

Ma, Lijun; Slattery, Oliver

2017-01-01

Electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) is a promising approach to implement quantum memory in quantum communication and quantum computing applications. In this paper, following a brief overview of the main approaches to quantum memory, we provide details of the physical principle and theory of quantum memory based specifically on EIT. We discuss the key technologies for implementing quantum memory based on EIT and review important milestones, from the first experimental demonstration to current applications in quantum information systems. PMID:28828172

Optical quantum memory based on electromagnetically induced transparency.

PubMed

Ma, Lijun; Slattery, Oliver; Tang, Xiao

2017-04-01

Electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) is a promising approach to implement quantum memory in quantum communication and quantum computing applications. In this paper, following a brief overview of the main approaches to quantum memory, we provide details of the physical principle and theory of quantum memory based specifically on EIT. We discuss the key technologies for implementing quantum memory based on EIT and review important milestones, from the first experimental demonstration to current applications in quantum information systems.

2011 Annual Health Physics Report for the HEU transparency Program

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

Radev, R

2012-04-30

During the 2008 calendar year, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) provided health physics support for the Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU) Transparency Program for external and internal radiation protection. They also provided technical expertise related to BDMS radioactive sources and Russian radiation safety regulatory compliance. For the calendar year 2008, there were 158 person-trips that required dose monitoring of the U.S. monitors. Of the 158 person-trips, 148 person-trips were SMVs and 10 person-trips were Transparency Monitoring Office (TMO) trips. There were 6 monitoring visits by TMO monitors to facilities other than UEIE and 8 to UEIE itself. There were three monitoringmore » visits (source changes) that were back-to-back with a total of 24 monitors. LLNL's Hazard Control Department laboratories provided the dosimetry services for the HEU Transparency monitors. In 2008, the HEU Transparency activities in Russia were conducted in a radiologically safe manner for the HEU Transparency monitors in accordance with the expectations of the HEU Transparency staff, NNSA and DOE. The HEU Transparency now has thirteen years of successful experience in developing and providing health and safety support in meeting its technical objectives.« less

2008 Annual Health Physics Report for the HEU Transparency Program

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

Radev, R.

2009-03-24

During the 2008 calendar year, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) provided health physics support for the Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU) Transparency Program for external and internal radiation protection. They also provided technical expertise related to BDMS radioactive sources and Russian radiation safety regulatory compliance. For the calendar year 2008, there were 158 person-trips that required dose monitoring of the U.S. monitors. Of the 158 person-trips, 148 person-trips were SMVs and 10 person-trips were Transparency Monitoring Office (TMO) trips. There were 6 monitoring visits by TMO monitors to facilities other than UEIE and 8 to UEIE itself. There were three monitoringmore » visits (source changes) that were back-to-back with a total of 24 monitors. LLNL’s Hazard Control Department laboratories provided the dosimetry services for the HEU Transparency monitors. In 2008, the HEU Transparency activities in Russia were conducted in a radiologically safe manner for the HEU Transparency monitors in accordance with the expectations of the HEU Transparency staff, NNSA and DOE. The HEU Transparency now has thirteen years of successful experience in developing and providing health and safety support in meeting its technical objectives.« less

Physics of the Cosmos (PCOS) Technology Development Program Overview

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pham, B. Thai; Clampin, M.; Werneth, R. L.

2014-01-01

The Physics of the Cosmos (PCOS) Program Office was established in FY11 and resides at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). The office serves as the implementation arm for the Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters for PCOS Program related matters. We present an overview of the Program’s technology management activities and the Program’s technology development portfolio. We discuss the process for addressing community-provided technology needs and the Technology Management Board (TMB)-vetted prioritization and investment recommendations. This process improves the transparency and relevance of technology investments, provides the community a voice in the process, and leverages the technology investments of external organizations by defining a need and a customer. Goals for the PCOS Program envisioned by the National Research Council’s (NRC) “New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics” (NWNH) Decadal Survey report include science missions and technology development for dark energy, gravitational waves, X-ray, and inflation probe science.

Substance-Treatment Professionals' Perceived Barriers to Incorporating Mindfulness Into Treatment.

PubMed

Edwards, Emily Rachel; Cohen, Mia Gintoft; Wupperman, Peggilee

2016-12-05

Despite scientific favor, psychological interventions supported by research are often underutilized by practitioners due to perceived obstacles in implementation. Increased transparency between researchers and practitioners throughout treatment development and dissemination is therefore necessary. The rising popularity of mindfulness-based approaches in the treatment of substance-use disorders suggests such transparency is necessary in further developing, disseminating, and implementing such approaches within the context of substance treatment. The present study aimed to increase transparency by surveying substance-treatment professionals regarding their perceptions of barriers to adopting mindfulness in the treatment of substance use. Substance-treatment professionals throughout the United States (N = 103) completed an online survey about their perceptions of potential barriers to implementing mindfulness into substance treatment. Overall, professionals were moderately familiar with mindfulness as a treatment for substance use. Approximately one-third reported providing mindfulness in substance treatment; however, only 7% reported providing mindfulness using a research-supported treatment manual. Across professionals of various backgrounds, the need for further training was rated as the greatest barrier to implementation. Results suggest that practitioners are generally familiar with and willing to implement mindfulness in the treatment of substance use. Future research and implementation efforts should focus on methods of increasing training availability, accessibility, and relevance to address the needs and expectations of substance-treatment professionals.

Communication of scientific uncertainty: international case studies on the development of folate and vitamin D Dietary Reference Values.

PubMed

Brown, Kerry A; de Wit, Liesbeth; Timotijevic, Lada; Sonne, Anne-Mette; Lähteenmäki, Liisa; Brito Garcia, Noé; Jeruszka-Bielak, Marta; Sicińska, Ewa; Moore, Alana N; Lawrence, Mark; Raats, Monique M

2015-06-01

Transparent evidence-based decision making has been promoted worldwide to engender trust in science and policy making. Yet, little attention has been given to transparency implementation. The degree of transparency (focused on how uncertain evidence was handled) during the development of folate and vitamin D Dietary Reference Values was explored in three a priori defined areas: (i) value request; (ii) evidence evaluation; and (iii) final values. Qualitative case studies (semi-structured interviews and desk research). A common protocol was used for data collection, interview thematic analysis and reporting. Results were coordinated via cross-case synthesis. Australia and New Zealand, Netherlands, Nordic countries, Poland, Spain and UK. Twenty-one interviews were conducted in six case studies. Transparency of process was not universally observed across countries or areas of the recommendation setting process. Transparency practices were most commonly seen surrounding the request to develop reference values (e.g. access to risk manager/assessor problem formulation discussions) and evidence evaluation (e.g. disclosure of risk assessor data sourcing/evaluation protocols). Fewer transparency practices were observed to assist with handling uncertainty in the evidence base during the development of quantitative reference values. Implementation of transparency policies may be limited by a lack of dedicated resources and best practice procedures, particularly to assist with the latter stages of reference value development. Challenges remain regarding the best practice for transparently communicating the influence of uncertain evidence on the final reference values. Resolving this issue may assist the evolution of nutrition risk assessment and better inform the recommendation setting process.

A prospective programmatic cost analysis of Fuel Your Life: A worksite translation of DPP

PubMed Central

Walcott, Rebecca L; Wilson, Mark G; Corso, Phaedra S; Padilla, Heather; Zuercher, Heather; DeJoy, David M.; Vandenberg, Robert J.

2018-01-01

Objective An accounting of the resources necessary for implementation of efficacious programs is important for economic evaluations and dissemination. Methods A programmatic costs analysis was conducted prospectively in conjunction with an efficacy trial of Fuel Your Life (FYL), a worksite translation of the Diabetes Prevention Program. FYL was implemented through three different modalities, Group, Phone, and Self-study, using a micro-costing approach from both the employer and societal perspectives. Results The Phone modality was the most costly at $354.6 per participant, compared to $154.6 and $75.5 for the Group and Self-study modalities, respectively. With the inclusion of participant-related costs, the Phone modality was still more expensive than the Group modality but with a smaller incremental difference ($461.4 vs. $368.1). Conclusions This level of cost-related detail for a preventive intervention is rare, and our analysis can aid in the transparency of future economic evaluations. PMID:27820760

Scenarios for exercising technical approaches to verified nuclear reductions

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

Doyle, James

2010-01-01

Presidents Obama and Medvedev in April 2009 committed to a continuing process of step-by-step nuclear arms reductions beyond the new START treaty that was signed April 8, 2010 and to the eventual goal of a world free of nuclear weapons. In addition, the US Nuclear Posture review released April 6, 2010 commits the US to initiate a comprehensive national research and development program to support continued progress toward a world free of nuclear weapons, including expanded work on verification technologies and the development of transparency measures. It is impossible to predict the specific directions that US-RU nuclear arms reductions willmore » take over the 5-10 years. Additional bilateral treaties could be reached requiring effective verification as indicated by statements made by the Obama administration. There could also be transparency agreements or other initiatives (unilateral, bilateral or multilateral) that require monitoring with a standard of verification lower than formal arms control, but still needing to establish confidence to domestic, bilateral and multilateral audiences that declared actions are implemented. The US Nuclear Posture Review and other statements give some indication of the kinds of actions and declarations that may need to be confirmed in a bilateral or multilateral setting. Several new elements of the nuclear arsenals could be directly limited. For example, it is likely that both strategic and nonstrategic nuclear warheads (deployed and in storage), warhead components, and aggregate stocks of such items could be accountable under a future treaty or transparency agreement. In addition, new initiatives or agreements may require the verified dismantlement of a certain number of nuclear warheads over a specified time period. Eventually procedures for confirming the elimination of nuclear warheads, components and fissile materials from military stocks will need to be established. This paper is intended to provide useful background information for establishing a conceptual approach to a five-year technical program plan for research and development of nuclear arms reductions verification and transparency technologies and procedures.« less

SDS: A Framework for Scientific Data Services

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

Dong, Bin; Byna, Surendra; Wu, Kesheng

2013-10-31

Large-scale scientific applications typically write their data to parallel file systems with organizations designed to achieve fast write speeds. Analysis tasks frequently read the data in a pattern that is different from the write pattern, and therefore experience poor I/O performance. In this paper, we introduce a prototype framework for bridging the performance gap between write and read stages of data access from parallel file systems. We call this framework Scientific Data Services, or SDS for short. This initial implementation of SDS focuses on reorganizing previously written files into data layouts that benefit read patterns, and transparently directs read callsmore » to the reorganized data. SDS follows a client-server architecture. The SDS Server manages partial or full replicas of reorganized datasets and serves SDS Clients' requests for data. The current version of the SDS client library supports HDF5 programming interface for reading data. The client library intercepts HDF5 calls and transparently redirects them to the reorganized data. The SDS client library also provides a querying interface for reading part of the data based on user-specified selective criteria. We describe the design and implementation of the SDS client-server architecture, and evaluate the response time of the SDS Server and the performance benefits of SDS.« less

Transparent process migration: Design alternatives and the Sprite implementation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Douglis, Fred; Ousterhout, John

1991-01-01

The Sprite operating system allows executing processes to be moved between hosts at any time. We use this process migration mechanism to offload work onto idle machines, and also to evict migrated processes when idle workstations are reclaimed by their owners. Sprite's migration mechanism provides a high degree of transparency both for migrated processes and for users. Idle machines are identified, and eviction is invoked, automatically by daemon processes. On Sprite it takes up to a few hundred milliseconds on SPARCstation 1 workstations to perform a remote exec, while evictions typically occur in a few seconds. The pmake program uses remote invocation to invoke tasks concurrently. Compilations commonly obtain speedup factors in the range of three to six; they are limited primarily by contention for centralized resources such as file servers. CPU-bound tasks such as simulations can make more effective use of idle hosts, obtaining as much as eight-fold speedup over a period of hours. Process migration has been in regular service for over two years.

[The transparency commission: evaluation and re-evaluation].

PubMed

Bergmann, J F

The purpose of the French Transparency Commission is to provide scientific advice concerning the usefulness, interest and good use of drugs. The work of the Transparency Commission lies at the interface between the French or European marketing approval procedures and the health and economic prerequisites of the French community. The opinion of the French Transparency Commission is used to assess the medical service provided by a new drug and the improvement of this medical service subsequent to its use. This opinion is taken into consideration for establishing the reimbursement rate applied by the social security organizations and the selling price set by the administration. The expert opinions and recommendations established by the Transparency Commission participate in implementing good use of drugs.

NASA's Physics of the Cosmos and Cosmic Origins technology development programs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Clampin, Mark; Pham, Thai

2014-07-01

NASA's Physics of the Cosmos (PCOS) and Cosmic Origins (COR) Program Offices, established in 2011, reside at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). The offices serve as the implementation arm for the Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters. We present an overview of the programs' technology development activities and technology investment portfolio, funded by NASA's Strategic Astrophysics Technology (SAT) program. We currently fund 19 technology advancements to enable future PCOS and COR missions to help answer the questions "How did our universe begin and evolve?" and "How did galaxies, stars, and planets come to be?" We discuss the process for addressing community-provided technology gaps and Technology Management Board (TMB)-vetted prioritization and investment recommendations that inform the SAT program. The process improves the transparency and relevance of our technology investments, provides the community a voice in the process, and promotes targeted external technology investments by defining needs and identifying customers. The programs' goal is to promote and support technology development needed to enable missions envisioned by the National Research Council's (NRC) "New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics" (NWNH) Decadal Survey report [1] and the Astrophysics Implementation Plan (AIP) [2]. These include technology development for dark energy, gravitational waves, X-ray and inflation probe science, and a 4m-class UV/optical telescope to conduct imaging and spectroscopy studies, as a post-Hubble observatory with significantly improved sensitivity and capability.

NASA's Physics of the Cosmos and Cosmic Origins Technology Development Programs

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Clampin, Mark; Pham, Thai

2014-01-01

NASA's Physics of the Cosmos (PCOS) and Cosmic Origins (COR) Program Offices, established in 2011, reside at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). The offices serve as the implementation arm for the Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters. We present an overview of the programs' technology development activities and technology investment portfolio, funded by NASA's Strategic Astrophysics Technology (SAT) program. We currently fund 19 technology advancements to enable future PCOS and COR missions to help answer the questions "How did our universe begin and evolve?" and "How did galaxies, stars, and planets come to be?" We discuss the process for addressing community-provided technology gaps and Technology Management Board (TMB)-vetted prioritization and investment recommendations that inform the SAT program. The process improves the transparency and relevance of our technology investments, provides the community a voice in the process, and promotes targeted external technology investments by defining needs and identifying customers. The programs' goal is to promote and support technology development needed to enable missions envisioned by the National Research Council's (NRC) "New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics" (NWNH) Decadal Survey report [1] and the Astrophysics Implementation Plan (AIP) [2]. These include technology development for dark energy, gravitational waves, X-ray and inflation probe science, and a 4m-class UV/optical telescope to conduct imaging and spectroscopy studies, as a post-Hubble observatory with significantly improved sensitivity and capability.

Resource Kit Tips for Teaching Textiles and Clothing.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

New York State Education Dept., Albany. Bureau of Continuing Education Curriculum Development.

This kit has been designed to acquaint the instructor of adult textiles and clothing programs with some of the teaching aids that might be used to improve the learning process. The main parts of the publication include: Preparing and Using Transparencies; Developing a Learning Experience Using a Transparency; A Master Transparency with Overlays;…

7 CFR 205.311 - USDA Seal.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... PROVISIONS NATIONAL ORGANIC PROGRAM Labels, Labeling, and Market Information § 205.311 USDA Seal. (a) The... (2) On a white or transparent background with black outer circle and black “USDA” on a white or transparent upper half of the circle with a contrasting white or transparent “organic” on the black lower half...

7 CFR 205.311 - USDA Seal.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... PROVISIONS NATIONAL ORGANIC PROGRAM Labels, Labeling, and Market Information § 205.311 USDA Seal. (a) The... (2) On a white or transparent background with black outer circle and black “USDA” on a white or transparent upper half of the circle with a contrasting white or transparent “organic” on the black lower half...

7 CFR 205.311 - USDA Seal.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... PROVISIONS NATIONAL ORGANIC PROGRAM Labels, Labeling, and Market Information § 205.311 USDA Seal. (a) The... (2) On a white or transparent background with black outer circle and black “USDA” on a white or transparent upper half of the circle with a contrasting white or transparent “organic” on the black lower half...

7 CFR 205.311 - USDA Seal.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... PROVISIONS NATIONAL ORGANIC PROGRAM Labels, Labeling, and Market Information § 205.311 USDA Seal. (a) The... (2) On a white or transparent background with black outer circle and black “USDA” on a white or transparent upper half of the circle with a contrasting white or transparent “organic” on the black lower half...

7 CFR 205.311 - USDA Seal.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... PROVISIONS NATIONAL ORGANIC PROGRAM Labels, Labeling, and Market Information § 205.311 USDA Seal. (a) The... (2) On a white or transparent background with black outer circle and black “USDA” on a white or transparent upper half of the circle with a contrasting white or transparent “organic” on the black lower half...

Four challenges in selecting and implementing methods to monitor and evaluate participatory processes: Example from the Rwenzori region, Uganda.

PubMed

Hassenforder, Emeline; Ducrot, Raphaëlle; Ferrand, Nils; Barreteau, Olivier; Anne Daniell, Katherine; Pittock, Jamie

2016-09-15

Participatory approaches are now increasingly recognized and used as an essential element of policies and programs, especially in regards to natural resource management (NRM). Most practitioners, decision-makers and researchers having adopted participatory approaches also acknowledge the need to monitor and evaluate such approaches in order to audit their effectiveness, support decision-making or improve learning. Many manuals and frameworks exist on how to carry out monitoring and evaluation (M&E) for participatory processes. However, few provide guidelines on the selection and implementation of M&E methods, an aspect which is also often obscure in published studies, at the expense of the transparency, reliability and validity of the study. In this paper, we argue that the selection and implementation of M&E methods are particularly strategic when monitoring and evaluating a participatory process. We demonstrate that evaluators of participatory processes have to tackle a quadruple challenge when selecting and implementing methods: using mixed-methods, both qualitative and quantitative; assessing the participatory process, its outcomes, and its context; taking into account both the theory and participants' views; and being both rigorous and adaptive. The M&E of a participatory planning process in the Rwenzori Region, Uganda, is used as an example to show how these challenges unfold on the ground and how they can be tackled. Based on this example, we conclude by providing tools and strategies that can be used by evaluators to ensure that they make utile, feasible, coherent, transparent and adaptive methodological choices when monitoring and evaluating participatory processes for NRM. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

2007 Annual Health Physics Report for the HEU Transparency Program

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

Radev, R

2008-04-09

During the 2007 calendar year, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) provided health physics support for the Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU) Transparency Program for external and internal radiation protection and technical expertise related to BDMS radioactive sources and Russian radiation safety regulatory compliance. For the calendar year 2007, there were 172 person-trips that required dose monitoring of the U.S. monitors. Of the 172 person-trips, 160 person-trips were SMVs and 12 person-trips were Transparency Monitoring Office (TMO) trips. There were 12 monitoring visits by TMO monitors to facilities other than UEIE and 10 to UEIE itself. There were two monitoring visits (sourcemore » changes) that were back to back with 14 monitors. LLNL's Hazard Control Division laboratories provided the dosimetry services for the HEU Transparency monitors.« less

Implementing incentivized practice to improve patient care in developing countries.

PubMed

Mohiuddin, Zia; Sanchez, Laura Rosemary; Alcantra, Jose Manuel; Shuaib, Waqas

2014-01-01

Faculty awards provide an incentive to encourage higher standards of personal performance, which closely reflects the quality of health care. We report the development and implementation of the first medical faculty award program in the region. Anonymous preaward survey evaluated responses to understand the overall state of our institution. Five awards were celebrated. An anonymous postaward survey gathered responses to evaluate the effectiveness of the program. A total of 60% (307/509) of preaward survey responses were collected. Among those, 92% (283/307) felt that employee recognition was important and 78% (240/307) felt that performance should be the deciding criteria for employee recognition. A 24% (20/85) of the faculty received the decade of excellence award and 13% (11/85) received the compassionate physician award. Best service award was granted to 7% (6/85) of the nominees. Postaward survey showed 68% (170/250) agreed that the award ceremony incentivized them to increase quality of personal performance. In summary, we feel that this transparent, objective, and peer-nominated awards program could serve as an incentivized model for health care providers to elevate the standards of personal performance, which in turn will benefit the advancement of patient care.

[Regulatory Program for Medical Devices in Cuba: experiences and current challenges].

PubMed

Pereira, Dulce María Martínez; Rodríguez, Yadira Álvarez; Valdés, Yamila Cedeño; Ribas, Silvia Delgado

2016-05-01

Regulatory control of medical devices in Cuba is conducted through a system based on the Regulatory Program for Medical Devices as a way to ensure the safety, efficacy, and effectiveness of these technologies, which are in use by the National Health System. This program was launched in 1992, when the Regulations for State Evaluation and Registration of Medical Devices were approved. Its successive stages and the merging of regulatory activities for drugs and medical equipment have meant progress toward stronger, more transparent strategies and greater control of industry and the National Health System. Throughout its course the Cuban program has met with challenges and difficulties that it has addressed by drawing on its own experiences. During the new period, the greatest challenges revolve around ensuring that regulatory systems incorporate scientific evaluation, risk levels, maximum rigor through the use of technical standards, and the implementation of international recommendations, together with the application of the ISO 13485 certification scheme, enhanced market monitoring, and classification of medical devices in accordance with their relevance to the country's national health policies. From the regional standpoint, the greatest challenge lies in working toward regulatory convergence. The Collaborating Centre for the Regulation of Health Technologies will support the proposed regulatory strategy and established regional priorities, in particular in connection with the implementation of actions involving medical devices.

Tunable optical analog to electromagnetically induced transparency in graphene-ring resonators system.

PubMed

Wang, Yonghua; Xue, Chenyang; Zhang, Zengxing; Zheng, Hua; Zhang, Wendong; Yan, Shubin

2016-12-12

The analogue of electromagnetically induced transparency in optical ways has shown great potential in optical delay and quantum-information technology due to its flexible design and easy implementation. The chief drawback for these devices is the bad tunability. Here we demonstrate a tunable optical transparency system formed by graphene-silicon microrings which could control the transparent window by electro-optical means. The device consists of cascaded coupled ring resonators and a graphene/graphene capacitor which integrated on one of the rings. By tuning the Fermi level of the graphene sheets, we can modulate the round-trip ring loss so that the transparency window can be dynamically tuned. The results provide a new method for the manipulation and transmission of light in highly integrated optical circuits and quantum information storage devices.

Time Management: A Lesson Plan, Transparencies, Handouts and Media Evaluations on the Topic.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Campbell, Clifton P.

Intended for use in a 3-hour instructional program at the graduate level, the packet contains an outline of the instructional content, 9 transparencies, 12 handouts, and 7 supplementary materials. The outline is organized in terms of content, instructor activity (such as showing a transparency), and student activity. Instruction covers the…

The Role of Effective Modeling in the Development of Self-Efficacy: The Case of the Transparent Engine

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scheibe, Kevin P.; Mennecke, Brian E.; Luse, Andy

2007-01-01

Computing technology augments learning in education in a number of ways. One particular method uses interactive programs to demonstrate complex concepts. The purpose of this article is to examine one type of interactive learning technology, the transparent engine. The transparent engine allows instructors and students to view and directly interact…

Assessment of Electro-Mechanic Technician Qualifications in the Context of European Transparency Tools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ozcan, Mustafa; Vuranok, Turan Tolga; Ball, Claudia

2017-01-01

Purpose: This study explores the applicability and transferability of tools developed for the realization of comparability and transparency of qualifications across Europe. It relates to the implementation of the European Credit System for Vocational Education and Training (ECVET) and the European Qualifications Framework (EQF) in the automotive…

[Implementation of a proactive integrated primary care program for frail older people: from science to evidence-based practice].

PubMed

Bleijenberg, Nienke; de Jonge, Artine; Brand, Morris P; O'Flynn, Caitriona; Schuurmans, Marieke J; de Wit, Niek J

2016-12-01

Multimorbidity, functional impairment and frailty among community-dwelling older people are causing increasing complexity in primary care. A proactive integrated primary care approach is therefore essential. Between October 2014-2015, an evidence-based proactive care program for frail older people was implemented in the region Noord-West Veluwe en Zeewolde, the Netherlands. This study evaluated the feasibility of the implementation, having a strong focus on the collaboration between the medical and social domain. Using a mixed-methods design we evaluated several process indicators. Data were obtained from electronic routine medical record data within primary care, questionnaires, and interviews with older adults. The questionnaires provided information regarding the expectations and experiences towards the program and were sent to health care professionals at baseline and six months follow-up. Stakeholders from various domains were asked to fill in the questionnaire at baseline and twelve months follow-up. Interviews were conducted to explore the experiences of older adults with the program. Regional work groups were set up in each municipality to enhance the interdisciplinary and domain transcending collaboration. The proactive primary care program was implemented in 42 general practices who provided care to 7904 older adults aged 75 years or older. A total of 101 health care professionals and 44 stakeholders filled in the questionnaires. The need for better structure and interdisciplinary cooperation seemed widespread among the participants. The implementation resulted in a positive significant change in the demand for a better regional healthcare-framework (34% p ≤ .001) among health care professionals, and the needs for transparency regarding the possibilities for referral improved (27% , p = .009). Half of the participants reported that the regional collaboration has been improved after the implementation. Health care professionals and stakeholders gained increased attention and awareness of frail elderly in their area compared to before the implementation. Older people and their caregivers were positive about the proactive approach. The nurses reported that the screenings questionnaire was too lengthy and therefore time consuming. The implementation of the proactive primary care approach in daily practice was feasible. A strong interdisciplinary collaboration was realized. The program was easily adapted to the local context.

Scribed transparency microplates mounted on a modified standard microplate.

PubMed

Cheong, Brandon Huey-Ping; Chua, Wei Seong; Liew, Oi Wah; Ng, Tuck Wah

2014-08-01

The immense cost effectiveness of using transparencies as analyte handling implements in microplate instrumentation offers the possibility of application even in resource-limited laboratories. In this work, a standard microplate was adapted to serve as the permanent base for disposable scribed transparencies. The approach is shown to ameliorate evaporation, which can affect assay accuracy when analytes need to be incubated for some time. It also offers assurance against fluorescence measurement errors due to the cross-talk of samples from adjacent wells. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Tunable optical analog to electromagnetically induced transparency in graphene-ring resonators system

PubMed Central

Wang, Yonghua; Xue, Chenyang; Zhang, Zengxing; Zheng, Hua; Zhang, Wendong; Yan, Shubin

2016-01-01

The analogue of electromagnetically induced transparency in optical ways has shown great potential in optical delay and quantum-information technology due to its flexible design and easy implementation. The chief drawback for these devices is the bad tunability. Here we demonstrate a tunable optical transparency system formed by graphene-silicon microrings which could control the transparent window by electro-optical means. The device consists of cascaded coupled ring resonators and a graphene/graphene capacitor which integrated on one of the rings. By tuning the Fermi level of the graphene sheets, we can modulate the round-trip ring loss so that the transparency window can be dynamically tuned. The results provide a new method for the manipulation and transmission of light in highly integrated optical circuits and quantum information storage devices. PMID:27941895

The transformative nature of transparency in research funding.

PubMed

Mietchen, Daniel

2014-12-01

Central to research funding are grant proposals that researchers send in to potential funders for review, in the hope of approval. A survey of policies at major research funders found that there is room for more transparency in the process of grant review, which would strengthen the case for the efficiency of public spending on research. On that basis, debate was invited on which transparency measures should be implemented and how, with some concrete suggestions at hand. The present article adds to this discussion by providing further context from the literature, along with considerations on the effect size of the proposed measures. The article then explores the option of opening to the public key components of the process, makes the case for pilot projects in this area, and sketches out the potential that such measures might have to transform the research landscape in those areas in which they are implemented.

Fostering Good Governance at School Level in Honduras: The Role of Transparency Bulletin Boards

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boehm, Frédéric; Caprio, Temby

2014-01-01

Corruption is at the core of weak governance. In the education sector, corruption is a threat to the quality of and access to education. Although the diagnosis is straightforward, effective reforms are more difficult to implement. The principles of good governance (transparency, participation, accountability, and integrity) provide us guidance,…

Easier Said Than Done: Keys to Successful Implementation of the Distress Assessment and Response Tool (DART) Program.

PubMed

Li, Madeline; Macedo, Alyssa; Crawford, Sean; Bagha, Sabira; Leung, Yvonne W; Zimmermann, Camilla; Fitzgerald, Barbara; Wyatt, Martha; Stuart-McEwan, Terri; Rodin, Gary

2016-05-01

Systematic screening for distress in oncology clinics has gained increasing acceptance as a means to improve cancer care, but its implementation poses enormous challenges. We describe the development and implementation of the Distress Assessment and Response Tool (DART) program in a large urban comprehensive cancer center. DART is an electronic screening tool used to detect physical and emotional distress and practical concerns and is linked to triaged interprofessional collaborative care pathways. The implementation of DART depended on clinician education, technological innovation, transparent communication, and an evaluation framework based on principles of change management and quality improvement. There have been 364,378 DART surveys completed since 2010, with a sustained screening rate of > 70% for the past 3 years. High staff satisfaction, increased perception of teamwork, greater clinical attention to the psychosocial needs of patients, patient-clinician communication, and patient satisfaction with care were demonstrated without a resultant increase in referrals to specialized psychosocial services. DART is now a standard of care for all patients attending the cancer center and a quality performance indicator for the organization. Key factors in the success of DART implementation were the adoption of a programmatic approach, strong institutional commitment, and a primary focus on clinic-based response. We have demonstrated that large-scale routine screening for distress in a cancer center is achievable and has the potential to enhance the cancer care experience for both patients and staff. Copyright © 2016 by American Society of Clinical Oncology.

Highly Conductive Transparent and Flexible Electrodes Including Double-Stacked Thin Metal Films for Transparent Flexible Electronics.

PubMed

Han, Jun Hee; Kim, Do-Hong; Jeong, Eun Gyo; Lee, Tae-Woo; Lee, Myung Keun; Park, Jeong Woo; Lee, Hoseung; Choi, Kyung Cheol

2017-05-17

To keep pace with the era of transparent and deformable electronics, electrode functions should be improved. In this paper, an innovative structure is suggested to overcome the trade-off between optical and electrical properties that commonly arises with transparent electrodes. The structure of double-stacked metal films showed high conductivity (<3 Ω/sq) and high transparency (∼90%) simultaneously. A proper space between two metal films led to high transmittance by an optical phenomenon. The principle of parallel connection allowed the electrode to have high conductivity. In situ fabrication was possible because the only materials composing the electrode were silver and WO 3 , which can be deposited by thermal evaporation. The electrode was flexible enough to withstand 10 000 bending cycles with a 1 mm bending radius. Furthermore, a few μm scale patterning of the electrode was easily implemented by using photolithography, which is widely employed industrially for patterning. Flexible organic light-emitting diodes and a transparent flexible thin-film transistor were successfully fabricated with the proposed electrode. Various practical applications of this electrode to new transparent flexible electronics are expected.

Comparing the Medicaid Retrospective Drug Utilization Review Program Cost-Savings Methods Used by State Agencies.

PubMed

Prada, Sergio I

2017-12-01

The Medicaid Drug Utilization Review (DUR) program is a 2-phase process conducted by Medicaid state agencies. The first phase is a prospective DUR and involves electronically monitoring prescription drug claims to identify prescription-related problems, such as therapeutic duplication, contraindications, incorrect dosage, or duration of treatment. The second phase is a retrospective DUR and involves ongoing and periodic examinations of claims data to identify patterns of fraud, abuse, underutilization, drug-drug interaction, or medically unnecessary care, implementing corrective actions when needed. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services requires each state to measure prescription drug cost-savings generated from its DUR programs on an annual basis, but it provides no guidance or unified methodology for doing so. To describe and synthesize the methodologies used by states to measure cost-savings using their Medicaid retrospective DUR program in federal fiscal years 2014 and 2015. For each state, the cost-savings methodologies included in the Medicaid DUR 2014 and 2015 reports were downloaded from Medicaid's website. The reports were then reviewed and synthesized. Methods described by the states were classified according to research designs often described in evaluation textbooks. In 2014, the most often used prescription drugs cost-savings estimation methodology for the Medicaid retrospective DUR program was a simple pre-post intervention method, without a comparison group (ie, 12 states). In 2015, the most common methodology used was a pre-post intervention method, with a comparison group (ie, 14 states). Comparisons of savings attributed to the program among states are still unreliable, because of a lack of a common methodology available for measuring cost-savings. There is great variation among states in the methods used to measure prescription drug utilization cost-savings. This analysis suggests that there is still room for improvement in terms of methodology transparency, which is important, because lack of transparency hinders states from learning from each other. Ultimately, the federal government needs to evaluate and improve its DUR program.

Creating financial transparency in public health: examining best practices of system partners.

PubMed

Honoré, Peggy A; Clarke, Richard L; Mead, Dean Michael; Menditto, Susan M

2007-01-01

Financial transparency is based on concepts for valid, standardized information that is readily accessible and routinely disseminated to stakeholders. While Congress and others continuously ask for an accounting of public health investments, transparency remains an ignored concept. The objective of this study was to examine financial transparency practices in other industries considered as part of the public health system. Key informants, regarded as financial experts on the operations of hospitals, school systems, and higher education, were a primary source of information. Principal findings were that system partners have espoused some concepts for financial transparency beginning in the early 20th century--signifying an 80-year implementation gap for public health. Critical features that promote accountability included standardized data collection methods and infrastructures, uniform practices for quantitative analysis of financial performance, and credentialing of the financial management workforce. Recommendations are offered on the basis of these findings to aid public health to close this gap by framing a movement toward transparency.

Transparency in Distributed File Systems

DTIC Science & Technology

1989-01-01

ORGANIZATION NAME AND ADDRESS 10. PROGRAM ELEMENT. PROJECT, TASK Computer Science Department AREA & WORK UNIT NUMBERS 734 Comouter Studies Bldc . University of...sistency control , file and director) placement, and file and directory migration in a way that pro- 3 vides full network transparency. This transparency...areas of naming, replication, con- sistency control , file and directory placement, and file and directory migration in a way that pro- 3 vides full

Allocative and implementation efficiency in HIV prevention and treatment for people who inject drugs.

PubMed

Benedikt, Clemens; Kelly, Sherrie L; Wilson, David; Wilson, David P

2016-12-01

Estimated global new HIV infections among people who inject drugs (PWID) remained stable over the 2010-2015 period and the target of a 50% reduction over this period was missed. To achieve the 2020 UNAIDS target of reducing adult HIV infections by 75% compared to 2010, accelerated action in scaling up HIV programs for PWID is required. In a context of diminishing external support to HIV programs in countries where most HIV-affected PWID live, it is essential that available resources are allocated and used as efficiently as possible. Allocative and implementation efficiency analysis methods were applied. Optima, a dynamic, population-based HIV model with an integrated program and economic analysis framework was applied in eight countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA). Mathematical analyses established optimized allocations of resources. An implementation efficiency analysis focused on examining technical efficiency, unit costs, and heterogeneity of service delivery models and practices. Findings from the latest reported data revealed that countries allocated between 4% (Bulgaria) and 40% (Georgia) of total HIV resources to programs targeting PWID - with a median of 13% for the eight countries. When distributing the same amount of HIV funding optimally, between 9% and 25% of available HIV resources would be allocated to PWID programs with a median allocation of 16% and, in addition, antiretroviral therapy would be scaled up including for PWID. As a result of optimized allocations, new HIV infections are projected to decline by 3-28% and AIDS-related deaths by 7-53% in the eight countries. Implementation efficiencies identified involve potential reductions in drug procurement costs, service delivery models, and practices and scale of service delivery influencing cost and outcome. A high level of implementation efficiency was associated with high volumes of PWID clients accessing a drug harm reduction facility. A combination of optimized allocation of resources, improved implementation efficiency and increased investment of non-HIV resources is required to enhance coverage and improve outcomes of programs for PWID. Increasing efficiency of HIV programs for PWID is a key step towards avoiding implicit rationing and ensuring transparent allocation of resources where and how they would have the largest impact on the health of PWID, and thereby ensuring that funding spent on PWID becomes a global best buy in public health. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier B.V.

2010 Annual Health Physics Report for the HEU Transparency Program

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

Radev, Radoslav

2011-05-16

During the 2010 calendar year, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) provided health physics support for the Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU) Transparency Program for external and internal radiation protection. LLNL also provided technical expertise related to BDMS radioactive sources and Russian radiation safety regulatory compliance. For the calendar year 2010, there were 141 person-trips that required dose monitoring of the U.S. monitors. Of the 141 person-trips, 129 person-trips were Special Monitoring Visits (SMVs) and 12 person-trips were Transparency Monitoring Office (TMO) trips. In 8 of these TMO trips the TMO monitors participated also in the UEIE SMVs and in 2 TMOmore » trips the TMO monitors participated in UEIE and MPA SMVs. There were three monitoring visits (source changes) that were back-to-back SMVs with a total of 25 monitors. LLNL’s Hazard Control Department laboratories provided the dosimetry services for the HEU Transparency monitors.« less

Demonstration of transparent solar array module design

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pack, G. J.

1984-01-01

This report discusses the design, development, fabrication and testing of IR transparent solar array modules. Three modules, consisting of a baseline design using back surface reflector cells, and two modules using gridded back contact, IR transparent cells, were subjected to vacuum thermal balance testing to verify analytical predictions of lower operating emperature and increased efficiency. As a result of this test program, LMSC has verified that a significant degree of IR transparency can be designed into a flexible solar array. Test data correlates with both steady state and transient thermal analysis.

BioNet Digital Communications Framework

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gifford, Kevin; Kuzminsky, Sebastian; Williams, Shea

2010-01-01

BioNet v2 is a peer-to-peer middleware that enables digital communication devices to talk to each other. It provides a software development framework, standardized application, network-transparent device integration services, a flexible messaging model, and network communications for distributed applications. BioNet is an implementation of the Constellation Program Command, Control, Communications and Information (C3I) Interoperability specification, given in CxP 70022-01. The system architecture provides the necessary infrastructure for the integration of heterogeneous wired and wireless sensing and control devices into a unified data system with a standardized application interface, providing plug-and-play operation for hardware and software systems. BioNet v2 features a naming schema for mobility and coarse-grained localization information, data normalization within a network-transparent device driver framework, enabling of network communications to non-IP devices, and fine-grained application control of data subscription band width usage. BioNet directly integrates Disruption Tolerant Networking (DTN) as a communications technology, enabling networked communications with assets that are only intermittently connected including orbiting relay satellites and planetary rover vehicles.

Performance of europium-doped strontium iodide, transparent ceramics and bismuth-loaded polymer scintillators

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cherepy, N. J.; Payne, S. A.; Sturm, B. W.; O'Neal, S. P.; Seeley, Z. M.; Drury, O. B.; Haselhorst, L. K.; Rupert, B. L.; Sanner, R. D.; Thelin, P. A.; Fisher, S. E.; Hawrami, R.; Shah, K. S.; Burger, A.; Ramey, J. O.; Boatner, L. A.

2011-09-01

Recently discovered scintillators for gamma ray spectroscopy - single-crystal SrI2(Eu), GYGAG(Ce) transparent ceramic and Bismuth-loaded plastics - offer resolution and fabrication advantages compared to commercial scintillators, such as NaI(Tl) and standard PVT plastic. Energy resolution at 662 keV of 2.7% is obtained with SrI2(Eu), while 4.5% is obtained with GYGAG(Ce). A new transparent ceramic scintillator for radiographic imaging systems, GLO(Eu), offers high light yield of 70,000 Photons/MeV, high stopping, and low radiation damage. Implementation of single-crystal SrI2(Eu), Gd-based transparent ceramics, and Bi-loaded plastic scintillators can advance the state-of-the art in ionizing radiation detection systems.

Transparent actuator made with few layer graphene electrode and dielectric elastomer, for variable focus lens

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hwang, Taeseon; Kwon, Hyeok-Yong; Oh, Joon-Suk; Hong, Jung-Pyo; Hong, Seung-Chul; Lee, Youngkwan; Ryeol Choi, Hyouk; Jin Kim, Kwang; Hossain Bhuiya, Mainul; Nam, Jae-Do

2013-07-01

A transparent dielectric elastomer actuator driven by few-layer-graphene (FLG) electrode was experimentally investigated. The electrodes were made of graphene, which was dispersed in N-methyl-pyrrolidone. The transparent actuator was fabricated from developed FLG electrodes. The FLG electrode with its sheet resistance of 0.45 kΩ/sq (80 nm thick) was implemented to mask silicone elastomer. The developed FLG-driven actuator exhibited an optical transparency of over 57% at a wavenumber of 600 nm and produced bending displacement performance ranging from 29 to 946 μm as functions of frequency and voltage. The focus variation was clearly demonstrated under actuation to study its application-feasibility in variable focus lens and various opto-electro-mechanical devices.

Performance of Europium-Doped Strontium Iodide, Transparent Ceramics and Bismuth-loaded Polymer Scintillators

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

Cherepy, N J; Payne, S A; Sturm, B W

2011-08-30

Recently discovered scintillators for gamma ray spectroscopy, single crystal SrI{sub 2}(Eu), GYGAG(Ce) transparent ceramic and Bismuth-loaded plastics, offer resolution and fabrication advantages compared to commercial scintillators, such as NaI(Tl) and standard PVT plastic. Energy resolution at 662 keV of 2.7% is obtained with SrI{sub 2}(Eu), while 4.5% is obtained with GYGAG(Ce). A new transparent ceramic scintillator for radiographic imaging systems, GLO(Eu) offers high light yield of 70,000 Photons/MeV, high stopping, and low radiation damage. Implementation of single crystal SrI{sub 2}(Eu), Gd-based transparent ceramics, and Bi-loaded plastic scintillators can advance the state-of-the art in ionizing radiation detection systems.

A tool to determine crown and plot canopy transparency for forest inventory and analysis phase 3 plots using digital photographs

Treesearch

Matthew F. Winn; Philip A. Araman

2012-01-01

The USDA Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program collects crown foliage transparency estimates for individual trees on Phase 3 (P3) inventory plots. The FIA crown foliage estimate is obtained from a pair of perpendicular side views of the tree. Researchers with the USDA Forest Service Southern Research Station have developed a computer program that...

Notification: Lessons Learned from Implementing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act)

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Project #OA-FY12-0360, March 5, 2012. The Recovery Funds Working Group of the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board has initiated a project to capture lessons learned from Recovery Act implementation.

Content-based image retrieval in medical applications for picture archiving and communication systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lehmann, Thomas M.; Guld, Mark O.; Thies, Christian; Fischer, Benedikt; Keysers, Daniel; Kohnen, Michael; Schubert, Henning; Wein, Berthold B.

2003-05-01

Picture archiving and communication systems (PACS) aim to efficiently provide the radiologists with all images in a suitable quality for diagnosis. Modern standards for digital imaging and communication in medicine (DICOM) comprise alphanumerical descriptions of study, patient, and technical parameters. Currently, this is the only information used to select relevant images within PACS. Since textual descriptions insufficiently describe the great variety of details in medical images, content-based image retrieval (CBIR) is expected to have a strong impact when integrated into PACS. However, existing CBIR approaches usually are limited to a distinct modality, organ, or diagnostic study. In this state-of-the-art report, we present first results implementing a general approach to content-based image retrieval in medical applications (IRMA) and discuss its integration into PACS environments. Usually, a PACS consists of a DICOM image server and several DICOM-compliant workstations, which are used by radiologists for reading the images and reporting the findings. Basic IRMA components are the relational database, the scheduler, and the web server, which all may be installed on the DICOM image server, and the IRMA daemons running on distributed machines, e.g., the radiologists" workstations. These workstations can also host the web-based front-ends of IRMA applications. Integrating CBIR and PACS, a special focus is put on (a) location and access transparency for data, methods, and experiments, (b) replication transparency for methods in development, (c) concurrency transparency for job processing and feature extraction, (d) system transparency at method implementation time, and (e) job distribution transparency when issuing a query. Transparent integration will have a certain impact on diagnostic quality supporting both evidence-based medicine and case-based reasoning.

Making Information Useful: Engagement in the Sustained National Climate Assessment Process

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lough, G. C.; Cloyd, E.

2015-12-01

Creation of actionable information requires that the producers of that information understand the needs of the intended users and decision makers. To that end, the U.S. Global Change Research Program's sustained National Climate Assessment process includes a focus on engaging users through an inclusive, broad-based, and ongoing process. Such a process provides opportunities for scientific experts and decision makers to share knowledge about the climate-related issues, impacts, and potential response actions that are most important in a particular region or sector. Such a process is also highly transparent in order to produce results that are credible, salient, and legitimate for both scientists and decision makers, ultimately making the results extremely useful. To implement these principles, USGCRP implements a broad-based engagement strategy that invites participation from users and stakeholder communities and considers methods for communicating with potential users at every step. The strategy elicits contributions to help shape the framing of the assessment process and products, improve the transparency of the process, and increase the utility of the final information. Specific user inputs are gathered through workshops, public comment opportunities, town hall meetings, presentations, requests for information, submitted documents, and open meetings. Further, a network of contributors self-organizes around topics of interest to extend assessment activities to a wider range of user groups. Here, we describe the outcomes of these innovations in assessment engagement and identify clear successes, notable surprises, future evaluation needs, and areas for new ideas.

OXlearn: a new MATLAB-based simulation tool for connectionist models.

PubMed

Ruh, Nicolas; Westermann, Gert

2009-11-01

OXlearn is a free, platform-independent MATLAB toolbox in which standard connectionist neural network models can be set up, run, and analyzed by means of a user-friendly graphical interface. Due to its seamless integration with the MATLAB programming environment, the inner workings of the simulation tool can be easily inspected and/or extended using native MATLAB commands or components. This combination of usability, transparency, and extendability makes OXlearn an efficient tool for the implementation of basic research projects or the prototyping of more complex research endeavors, as well as for teaching. Both the MATLAB toolbox and a compiled version that does not require access to MATLAB can be downloaded from http://psych.brookes.ac.uk/oxlearn/.

Performance and scalability evaluation of "Big Memory" on Blue Gene Linux.

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

Yoshii, K.; Iskra, K.; Naik, H.

2011-05-01

We address memory performance issues observed in Blue Gene Linux and discuss the design and implementation of 'Big Memory' - an alternative, transparent memory space introduced to eliminate the memory performance issues. We evaluate the performance of Big Memory using custom memory benchmarks, NAS Parallel Benchmarks, and the Parallel Ocean Program, at a scale of up to 4,096 nodes. We find that Big Memory successfully resolves the performance issues normally encountered in Blue Gene Linux. For the ocean simulation program, we even find that Linux with Big Memory provides better scalability than does the lightweight compute node kernel designed solelymore » for high-performance applications. Originally intended exclusively for compute node tasks, our new memory subsystem dramatically improves the performance of certain I/O node applications as well. We demonstrate this performance using the central processor of the LOw Frequency ARray radio telescope as an example.« less

A software bus for thread objects

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Callahan, John R.; Li, Dehuai

1995-01-01

The authors have implemented a software bus for lightweight threads in an object-oriented programming environment that allows for rapid reconfiguration and reuse of thread objects in discrete-event simulation experiments. While previous research in object-oriented, parallel programming environments has focused on direct communication between threads, our lightweight software bus, called the MiniBus, provides a means to isolate threads from their contexts of execution by restricting communications between threads to message-passing via their local ports only. The software bus maintains a topology of connections between these ports. It routes, queues, and delivers messages according to this topology. This approach allows for rapid reconfiguration and reuse of thread objects in other systems without making changes to the specifications or source code. A layered approach that provides the needed transparency to developers is presented. Examples of using the MiniBus are given, and the value of bus architectures in building and conducting simulations of discrete-event systems is discussed.

Distributed Cognition and Process Management Enabling Individualized Translational Research: The NIH Undiagnosed Diseases Program Experience

PubMed Central

Links, Amanda E.; Draper, David; Lee, Elizabeth; Guzman, Jessica; Valivullah, Zaheer; Maduro, Valerie; Lebedev, Vlad; Didenko, Maxim; Tomlin, Garrick; Brudno, Michael; Girdea, Marta; Dumitriu, Sergiu; Haendel, Melissa A.; Mungall, Christopher J.; Smedley, Damian; Hochheiser, Harry; Arnold, Andrew M.; Coessens, Bert; Verhoeven, Steven; Bone, William; Adams, David; Boerkoel, Cornelius F.; Gahl, William A.; Sincan, Murat

2016-01-01

The National Institutes of Health Undiagnosed Diseases Program (NIH UDP) applies translational research systematically to diagnose patients with undiagnosed diseases. The challenge is to implement an information system enabling scalable translational research. The authors hypothesized that similar complex problems are resolvable through process management and the distributed cognition of communities. The team, therefore, built the NIH UDP integrated collaboration system (UDPICS) to form virtual collaborative multidisciplinary research networks or communities. UDPICS supports these communities through integrated process management, ontology-based phenotyping, biospecimen management, cloud-based genomic analysis, and an electronic laboratory notebook. UDPICS provided a mechanism for efficient, transparent, and scalable translational research and thereby addressed many of the complex and diverse research and logistical problems of the NIH UDP. Full definition of the strengths and deficiencies of UDPICS will require formal qualitative and quantitative usability and process improvement measurement. PMID:27785453

Quality management as knowledge sharing: experiences of the Napa County Health and Human Services Agency.

PubMed

Harrison, Lindsay

2012-01-01

Lacking a coordinated effort in utilizing data and tracking program outcomes, one agency developed a Quality Management (QM) division to facilitate and manage more effective data use. To support this process, the agency sought to develop a collective, agency-wide understanding and investment in improving and measuring client outcomes. Similarly, the agency also focused efforts on creating a culture of transparency and accountability, with goals of improving service, increasing agency integrity, meeting regulatory compliance, and engaging in effective risk management. Operationalizing the QM initiative involved developing procedures, systems, and guidelines that would facilitate the generation of reliable and accurate data that could be used to inform program change and decision-making. This case study describes this agency's experience in successfully creating and implementing a QM initiative aimed at engaging in greater knowledge sharing. Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

Design, implementation and reporting strategies to reduce the instance and impact of missing patient-reported outcome (PRO) data: a systematic review

PubMed Central

Mercieca-Bebber, Rebecca; Palmer, Michael J; Brundage, Michael; Stockler, Martin R; King, Madeleine T

2016-01-01

Objectives Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) provide important information about the impact of treatment from the patients' perspective. However, missing PRO data may compromise the interpretability and value of the findings. We aimed to report: (1) a non-technical summary of problems caused by missing PRO data; and (2) a systematic review by collating strategies to: (A) minimise rates of missing PRO data, and (B) facilitate transparent interpretation and reporting of missing PRO data in clinical research. Our systematic review does not address statistical handling of missing PRO data. Data sources MEDLINE and Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) databases (inception to 31 March 2015), and citing articles and reference lists from relevant sources. Eligibility criteria English articles providing recommendations for reducing missing PRO data rates, or strategies to facilitate transparent interpretation and reporting of missing PRO data were included. Methods 2 reviewers independently screened articles against eligibility criteria. Discrepancies were resolved with the research team. Recommendations were extracted and coded according to framework synthesis. Results 117 sources (55% discussion papers, 26% original research) met the eligibility criteria. Design and methodological strategies for reducing rates of missing PRO data included: incorporating PRO-specific information into the protocol; carefully designing PRO assessment schedules and defining termination rules; minimising patient burden; appointing a PRO coordinator; PRO-specific training for staff; ensuring PRO studies are adequately resourced; and continuous quality assurance. Strategies for transparent interpretation and reporting of missing PRO data include utilising auxiliary data to inform analysis; transparently reporting baseline PRO scores, rates and reasons for missing data; and methods for handling missing PRO data. Conclusions The instance of missing PRO data and its potential to bias clinical research can be minimised by implementing thoughtful design, rigorous methodology and transparent reporting strategies. All members of the research team have a responsibility in implementing such strategies. PMID:27311907

Visualisation Ability of Senior High School Students with Using GeoGebra and Transparent Mica

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thohirudin, M.; Maryati, TK; Dwirahayu, G.

2017-04-01

Visualisation ability is an ability to process, inform, and transform object which suitable for geometry topic in math. This research aims to describe the influence of using software GeoGebra and transparent mica for student’s visualisation ability. GeoGebra is shortness of geometry and algebra. GeoGebra is an open source program that is created for math. Transparent mica is a tool that is created by the author to transform a geometry object. This research is a quantitative experiment model. The subject of this research were students in grade XII of science program in Annajah Senior High School Rumpin with two classes which one as an experiment class (science one) and another one as a control class (science two). Experiment class use GeoGebra and transparent mica in the study, and control class use powerpoint in the study. Data of student’s visualisation ability is collected from posttest with visual questions which are gifted at the end of the research to both classes with topic “transformation geometry”. This research resulted that studying with GeoGebra and transparent mica had a better influence than studying with powerpoint to student’s visualisation ability. The time of study in class and the habit of the students to use software and tool affected the result of research. Although, GeoGebra and transparent mica can give help to students in transformation geometry topic.

Quality assurance in gerontological and geriatric training programs: the European case.

PubMed

Politynska, Barbara; van Rijsselt, René J T; Lewko, Jolanta; Philp, Ian; Figueiredo, Daniella; De Sousa, Lilliana

2012-01-01

Quality assurance (QA) in gerontological and geriatric education programs is regarded as essential to maintain standards, strengthen accountability, improve readability of qualifications, and facilitate professional mobility. In this article the authors present a summary of international developments in QA and elaborate four international trends, including the pros and cons of QA. Furthermore, the authors focus on accreditation and credit transfer opportunities in vocational and academic education programs for primary care practitioners, including nurses, home care workers, social workers, physiotherapists, and family doctors involved in the care of older people in nine European countries and highlight changes that have occurred over the last decade. Vocational education and professional training in elderly care at the basic and postgraduate specialization level remains extremely diversified, reflecting the lack of standardization for programs outside the higher education sector. The situation is ripe for the implementation of the European Qualifications Framework, which is intended to promote transparency, comparability and portability of qualifications at different levels and the introduction of a credit transfer system for vocational education to be established in 2012.

Using CLIPS in the domain of knowledge-based massively parallel programming

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dvorak, Jiri J.

1994-01-01

The Program Development Environment (PDE) is a tool for massively parallel programming of distributed-memory architectures. Adopting a knowledge-based approach, the PDE eliminates the complexity introduced by parallel hardware with distributed memory and offers complete transparency in respect of parallelism exploitation. The knowledge-based part of the PDE is realized in CLIPS. Its principal task is to find an efficient parallel realization of the application specified by the user in a comfortable, abstract, domain-oriented formalism. A large collection of fine-grain parallel algorithmic skeletons, represented as COOL objects in a tree hierarchy, contains the algorithmic knowledge. A hybrid knowledge base with rule modules and procedural parts, encoding expertise about application domain, parallel programming, software engineering, and parallel hardware, enables a high degree of automation in the software development process. In this paper, important aspects of the implementation of the PDE using CLIPS and COOL are shown, including the embedding of CLIPS with C++-based parts of the PDE. The appropriateness of the chosen approach and of the CLIPS language for knowledge-based software engineering are discussed.

Optimizing electrical conductivity and optical transparency of IZO thin film deposited by radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Lei

Transparent conducting oxide (TCO) thin films of In2O3, SnO2, ZnO, and their mixtures have been extensively used in optoelectronic applications such as transparent electrodes in solar photovoltaic devices. In this project I deposited amorphous indium-zinc oxide (IZO) thin films by radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering from a In2O3-10 wt.% ZnO sintered ceramic target to optimize the RF power, argon gas flowing rate, and the thickness of film to reach the maximum conductivity and transparency in visible spectrum. The results indicated optimized conductivity and transparency of IZO thin film is closer to ITO's conductivity and transparency, and is even better when the film was deposited with one specific tilted angle. National Science Foundation (NSF) MRSEC program at University of Nebraska Lincoln, and was hosted by Professor Jeff Shields lab.

Through-transmission laser welding of glass fibre composite: Experimental light scattering identification

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cosson, Benoit; Asséko, André Chateau Akué; Dauphin, Myriam

2018-05-01

The purpose of this paper is to develop a cost-effective, efficient and quick to implement experimental optical method in order to predict the optical properties (extinction coefficient) of semi-transparent polymer composites. The extinction coefficient takes into account the effects due to the absorption and the scattering phenomena in a semi-transparent component during the laser processes, i.e. TTLW (through-transmission laser welding). The present method used a laser as light source and a reflex camera equipped with a macro lens as a measurement device and is based on the light transmission measurement through different thickness samples. The interaction between the incident laser beam and the semi-transparent composite is exanimated. The results are presented for the case of a semi-transparent composite reinforced with the unidirectional glass fiber (UD). A numerical method, ray tracing, is used to validate the experimental results. The ray tracing method is appropriate to characterize the light-scattering phenomenon in semi-transparent materials.

When good practices by water committees are not relevant: Sustainability of small water infrastructures in semi-arid mozambique

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ducrot, Raphaëlle

2017-12-01

This paper explores the contradiction between the need for large scale interventions in rural water supplies and the need for flexibility when providing support for community institutions, by investigating the implementation of the Mozambique - National Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Program in a semi-arid district of the Limpopo Basin. Our results showed that coordinated leadership by key committee members, and the level of village governance was more important for borehole sustainability than the normative functioning of the committee. In a context in which the centrality of leadership prevails over collective action the sustainability of rural water infrastructure derives from the ability of leaders to motivate the community to provide supplementary funding. This, in turn, depends on the added value to the community of the water points and on village politics. Any interventions that increased community conflicts, for example because of lack of transparency or unequitable access to the benefit of the intervention, weakened the coordination and the collective action capacity of the community and hence the sustainability of the infrastructures even if the intervention was not directly related to water access. These results stress the importance of the project/program implementation pathway.

RevBayes: Bayesian Phylogenetic Inference Using Graphical Models and an Interactive Model-Specification Language

PubMed Central

Höhna, Sebastian; Landis, Michael J.

2016-01-01

Programs for Bayesian inference of phylogeny currently implement a unique and fixed suite of models. Consequently, users of these software packages are simultaneously forced to use a number of programs for a given study, while also lacking the freedom to explore models that have not been implemented by the developers of those programs. We developed a new open-source software package, RevBayes, to address these problems. RevBayes is entirely based on probabilistic graphical models, a powerful generic framework for specifying and analyzing statistical models. Phylogenetic-graphical models can be specified interactively in RevBayes, piece by piece, using a new succinct and intuitive language called Rev. Rev is similar to the R language and the BUGS model-specification language, and should be easy to learn for most users. The strength of RevBayes is the simplicity with which one can design, specify, and implement new and complex models. Fortunately, this tremendous flexibility does not come at the cost of slower computation; as we demonstrate, RevBayes outperforms competing software for several standard analyses. Compared with other programs, RevBayes has fewer black-box elements. Users need to explicitly specify each part of the model and analysis. Although this explicitness may initially be unfamiliar, we are convinced that this transparency will improve understanding of phylogenetic models in our field. Moreover, it will motivate the search for improvements to existing methods by brazenly exposing the model choices that we make to critical scrutiny. RevBayes is freely available at http://www.RevBayes.com. [Bayesian inference; Graphical models; MCMC; statistical phylogenetics.] PMID:27235697

RevBayes: Bayesian Phylogenetic Inference Using Graphical Models and an Interactive Model-Specification Language.

PubMed

Höhna, Sebastian; Landis, Michael J; Heath, Tracy A; Boussau, Bastien; Lartillot, Nicolas; Moore, Brian R; Huelsenbeck, John P; Ronquist, Fredrik

2016-07-01

Programs for Bayesian inference of phylogeny currently implement a unique and fixed suite of models. Consequently, users of these software packages are simultaneously forced to use a number of programs for a given study, while also lacking the freedom to explore models that have not been implemented by the developers of those programs. We developed a new open-source software package, RevBayes, to address these problems. RevBayes is entirely based on probabilistic graphical models, a powerful generic framework for specifying and analyzing statistical models. Phylogenetic-graphical models can be specified interactively in RevBayes, piece by piece, using a new succinct and intuitive language called Rev. Rev is similar to the R language and the BUGS model-specification language, and should be easy to learn for most users. The strength of RevBayes is the simplicity with which one can design, specify, and implement new and complex models. Fortunately, this tremendous flexibility does not come at the cost of slower computation; as we demonstrate, RevBayes outperforms competing software for several standard analyses. Compared with other programs, RevBayes has fewer black-box elements. Users need to explicitly specify each part of the model and analysis. Although this explicitness may initially be unfamiliar, we are convinced that this transparency will improve understanding of phylogenetic models in our field. Moreover, it will motivate the search for improvements to existing methods by brazenly exposing the model choices that we make to critical scrutiny. RevBayes is freely available at http://www.RevBayes.com [Bayesian inference; Graphical models; MCMC; statistical phylogenetics.]. © The Author(s) 2016. Published by Oxford University Press, on behalf of the Society of Systematic Biologists.

Trials, tricks and transparency: how disclosure rules affect clinical knowledge.

PubMed

Dahm, Matthias; González, Paula; Porteiro, Nicolás

2009-12-01

Scandals of selective reporting of clinical trial results by pharmaceutical firms have underlined the need for more transparency in clinical trials. We provide a theoretical framework which reproduces incentives for selective reporting and yields three key implications concerning regulation. First, a compulsory clinical trial registry complemented through a voluntary clinical trial results database can implement full transparency (the existence of all trials as well as their results is known). Second, full transparency comes at a price. It has a deterrence effect on the incentives to conduct clinical trials, as it reduces the firms' gains from trials. Third, in principle, a voluntary clinical trial results database without a compulsory registry is a superior regulatory tool; but we provide some qualified support for additional compulsory registries when medical decision-makers cannot anticipate correctly the drug companies' decisions whether to conduct trials.

Investigating the Defect Structures in Transparent Conducting Oxides Using X-ray and Neutron Scattering Techniques

PubMed Central

González, Gabriela B.

2012-01-01

Transparent conducting oxide (TCO) materials are implemented into a wide variety of commercial devices because they possess a unique combination of high optical transparency and high electrical conductivity. Created during the processing of the TCOs, defects within the atomic-scale structure are responsible for their desirable optical and electrical properties. Therefore, studying the defect structure is essential to a better understanding of the behavior of transparent conductors. X-ray and neutron scattering techniques are powerful tools to investigate the atomic lattice structural defects in these materials. This review paper presents some of the current developments in the study of structural defects in n-type TCOs using x-ray diffraction (XRD), neutron diffraction, extended x-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS), pair distribution functions (PDFs), and x-ray fluorescence (XRF). PMID:28817010

Implementation and control of a 3 degree-of-freedom, force-reflecting manual controller

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, Whee-Kuk; Bevill, Pat; Tesar, Delbert

1991-02-01

Most available manual controllers which are used in bilateral or force-reflecting teleoperator systems can be characterized by their bulky size heavy weight high cost low magnitude of reflecting-force lack of smoothness insufficient transparency and simplified architectures. A compact smooth lightweight portable universal manual controller could provide a markedly improved level of transparency and be able to drive a broad spectrum of slave manipulators. This implies that a single stand-off position could be used for a diverse population of remote systems and that a standard environment for training of operators would result in reduced costs and higher reliability. In the implementation presented in this paper a parallel 3 degree-of-freedom (DOF) spherical structure (for compactness and reduced weight) is combined with high gear-ratio reducers using a force control algorithm to produce a " power steering" effect for enhanced smoothness and transparency. The force control algorithm has the further benefit of minimizing the effect of the system friction and non-linear inertia forces. The fundamental analytical description for the spherical force-reflecting manual controller such as forward position analysis reflecting-force transformation and applied force control algorithm are presented. Also a brief description of the system integration its actual implementation and preliminary test results are presented in the paper.

Full Computer Access for People with Disabilities: The Goal of Transparency.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scheffel, Debora L.; Agnew, Jo

This paper examines the goal of providing transparent computer access to people with disabilities, especially those with visual impairments. First, four basic strategies to provide this population with access to technology are identified: (1) building features into the computer, operating system, or application programs; (2) using adaptive…

Acoustic Metadata Management and Transparent Access to Networked Oceanographic Data Sets

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-09-30

connectivity (ODBC) compliant data source for which drivers are available (e.g. MySQL , Oracle database, Postgres) can now be imported. Implementation...the possibility of speeding data transmission through compression (implemented) or the potential to use alternative data formats such as Java script

The Use of Performance Metrics for the Assessment of Safeguards Effectiveness at the State Level

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

Bachner K. M.; George Anzelon, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA Yana Feldman, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA Mark Goodman,Department of State, Washington, DC Dunbar Lockwood, National Nuclear Security Administration, Washington, DC Jonathan B. Sanborn, JBS Consulting, LLC, Arlington, VA.

In the ongoing evolution of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards at the state level, many safeguards implementation principles have been emphasized: effectiveness, efficiency, non-discrimination, transparency, focus on sensitive materials, centrality of material accountancy for detecting diversion, independence, objectivity, and grounding in technical considerations, among others. These principles are subject to differing interpretations and prioritizations and sometimes conflict. This paper is an attempt to develop metrics and address some of the potential tradeoffs inherent in choices about how various safeguards policy principles are implemented. The paper carefully defines effective safeguards, including in the context of safeguards approaches that take accountmore » of the range of state-specific factors described by the IAEA Secretariat and taken note of by the Board in September 2014, and (2) makes use of performance metrics to help document, and to make transparent, how safeguards implementation would meet such effectiveness requirements.« less

Is your article EV-TRACKed?

PubMed

Van Deun, Jan; Hendrix, An

2017-01-01

The EV-TRACK knowledgebase is developed to cope with the need for transparency and rigour to increase reproducibility and facilitate standardization of extracellular vesicle (EV) research. The knowledgebase includes a checklist for authors and editors intended to improve the transparency of methodological aspects of EV experiments, allows queries and meta-analysis of EV experiments and keeps track of the current state of the art. Widespread implementation by the EV research community is key to its success.

Human resource governance: what does governance mean for the health workforce in low- and middle-income countries?

PubMed

Kaplan, Avril D; Dominis, Sarah; Palen, John Gh; Quain, Estelle E

2013-02-15

Research on practical and effective governance of the health workforce is limited. This paper examines health system strengthening as it occurs in the intersection between the health workforce and governance by presenting a framework to examine health workforce issues related to eight governance principles: strategic vision, accountability, transparency, information, efficiency, equity/fairness, responsiveness and citizen voice and participation. This study builds off of a literature review that informed the development of a framework that describes linkages and assigns indicators between governance and the health workforce. A qualitative analysis of Health System Assessment (HSA) data, a rapid indicator-based methodology that determines the key strengths and weaknesses of a health system using a set of internationally recognized indicators, was completed to determine how 20 low- and middle-income countries are operationalizing health governance to improve health workforce performance. The 20 countries assessed showed mixed progress in implementing the eight governance principles. Strengths highlighted include increasing the transparency of financial flows from sources to providers by implementing and institutionalizing the National Health Accounts methodology; increasing responsiveness to population health needs by training new cadres of health workers to address shortages and deliver care to remote and rural populations; having structures in place to register and provide licensure to medical professionals upon entry into the public sector; and implementing pilot programs that apply financial and non-financial incentives as a means to increase efficiency. Common weaknesses emerging in the HSAs include difficulties with developing, implementing and evaluating health workforce policies that outline a strategic vision for the health workforce; implementing continuous licensure and regulation systems to hold health workers accountable after they enter the workforce; and making use of health information systems to acquire data from providers and deliver it to policymakers. The breadth of challenges facing the health workforce requires strengthening health governance as well as human resource systems in order to effect change in the health system. Further research into the effectiveness of specific interventions that enhance the link between the health workforce and governance are warranted to determine approaches to strengthening the health system.

Human resource governance: what does governance mean for the health workforce in low- and middle-income countries?

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background Research on practical and effective governance of the health workforce is limited. This paper examines health system strengthening as it occurs in the intersection between the health workforce and governance by presenting a framework to examine health workforce issues related to eight governance principles: strategic vision, accountability, transparency, information, efficiency, equity/fairness, responsiveness and citizen voice and participation. Methods This study builds off of a literature review that informed the development of a framework that describes linkages and assigns indicators between governance and the health workforce. A qualitative analysis of Health System Assessment (HSA) data, a rapid indicator-based methodology that determines the key strengths and weaknesses of a health system using a set of internationally recognized indicators, was completed to determine how 20 low- and middle-income countries are operationalizing health governance to improve health workforce performance. Results/discussion The 20 countries assessed showed mixed progress in implementing the eight governance principles. Strengths highlighted include increasing the transparency of financial flows from sources to providers by implementing and institutionalizing the National Health Accounts methodology; increasing responsiveness to population health needs by training new cadres of health workers to address shortages and deliver care to remote and rural populations; having structures in place to register and provide licensure to medical professionals upon entry into the public sector; and implementing pilot programs that apply financial and non-financial incentives as a means to increase efficiency. Common weaknesses emerging in the HSAs include difficulties with developing, implementing and evaluating health workforce policies that outline a strategic vision for the health workforce; implementing continuous licensure and regulation systems to hold health workers accountable after they enter the workforce; and making use of health information systems to acquire data from providers and deliver it to policymakers. Conclusions The breadth of challenges facing the health workforce requires strengthening health governance as well as human resource systems in order to effect change in the health system. Further research into the effectiveness of specific interventions that enhance the link between the health workforce and governance are warranted to determine approaches to strengthening the health system. PMID:23414237

Selecting university undergraduate student activities via compromised-analytical hierarchy process and 0-1 integer programming to maximize SETARA points

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nazri, Engku Muhammad; Yusof, Nur Ai'Syah; Ahmad, Norazura; Shariffuddin, Mohd Dino Khairri; Khan, Shazida Jan Mohd

2017-11-01

Prioritizing and making decisions on what student activities to be selected and conducted to fulfill the aspiration of a university as translated in its strategic plan must be executed with transparency and accountability. It is becoming even more crucial, particularly for universities in Malaysia with the recent budget cut imposed by the Malaysian government. In this paper, we illustrated how 0-1 integer programming (0-1 IP) model was implemented to select which activities among the forty activities proposed by the student body of Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) to be implemented for the 2017/2018 academic year. Two different models were constructed. The first model was developed to determine the minimum total budget that should be given to the student body by the UUM management to conduct all the activities that can fulfill the minimum targeted number of activities as stated in its strategic plan. On the other hand, the second model was developed to determine which activities to be selected based on the total budget already allocated beforehand by the UUM management towards fulfilling the requirements as set in its strategic plan. The selection of activities for the second model, was also based on the preference of the members of the student body whereby the preference value for each activity was determined using Compromised-Analytical Hierarchy Process. The outputs from both models were compared and discussed. The technique used in this study will be useful and suitable to be implemented by organizations with key performance indicator-oriented programs and having limited budget allocation issues.

Demonstration of an advanced solar garden with a water ceiling. Final technical report, July 1, 1979-June 30, 1980

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

Maes, R.; Riseng, C.; Thomas, G.

1980-09-01

A history of the solar garden with the addition of the transparent water ceiling is presented, and a statement of the overall goals of the program is given. The objectives of the water ceiling grant are detailed. The rationale of the transparent water ceiling is developed and its implementation in the solar garden is described. The experimental procedures for evaluating the water ceiling as an integral part of an ongoing garden agricultural experiment are discussed and the results presented. The water ceiling has proven useful in providing extra thermal capacity to the solar garden. It provides heat at night aftermore » the water has been warmed during the day and retards overheating in the daytime by absorbing infrared energy into the water. In growing non-flowering plants, such as lettuce and Chinese cabbage, the water ceiling showed no noticeable degradation in yield or maturation rate. In flowering plants, such as tomatoes, the reduced light levels delayed yields by a couple of weeks but the total yield was only slightly diminished. In geographic areas where there is less cloud cover than in Michigan the water ceiling could be much more effective.« less

Crystal Growth Control

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Duval, Walter M. B.; Batur, Celal; Bennett, Robert J.

1997-01-01

We present an innovative design of a vertical transparent multizone furnace which can operate in the temperature range of 25 C to 750 C and deliver thermal gradients of 2 C/cm to 45 C/cm for the commercial applications to crystal growth. The operation of the eight zone furnace is based on a self-tuning temperature control system with a DC power supply for optimal thermal stability. We show that the desired thermal profile over the entire length of the furnace consists of a functional combination of the fundamental thermal profiles for each individual zone obtained by setting the set-point temperature for that zone. The self-tuning system accounts for the zone to zone thermal interactions. The control system operates such that the thermal profile is maintained under thermal load, thus boundary conditions on crystal growth ampoules can be predetermined prior to crystal growth. Temperature profiles for the growth of crystals via directional solidification, vapor transport techniques, and multiple gradient applications are shown to be easily implemented. The unique feature of its transparency and ease of programming thermal profiles make the furnace useful for scientific and commercial applications for the determination of process parameters to optimize crystal growth conditions.

Machine Learning Based Online Performance Prediction for Runtime Parallelization and Task Scheduling

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

Li, J; Ma, X; Singh, K

2008-10-09

With the emerging many-core paradigm, parallel programming must extend beyond its traditional realm of scientific applications. Converting existing sequential applications as well as developing next-generation software requires assistance from hardware, compilers and runtime systems to exploit parallelism transparently within applications. These systems must decompose applications into tasks that can be executed in parallel and then schedule those tasks to minimize load imbalance. However, many systems lack a priori knowledge about the execution time of all tasks to perform effective load balancing with low scheduling overhead. In this paper, we approach this fundamental problem using machine learning techniques first to generatemore » performance models for all tasks and then applying those models to perform automatic performance prediction across program executions. We also extend an existing scheduling algorithm to use generated task cost estimates for online task partitioning and scheduling. We implement the above techniques in the pR framework, which transparently parallelizes scripts in the popular R language, and evaluate their performance and overhead with both a real-world application and a large number of synthetic representative test scripts. Our experimental results show that our proposed approach significantly improves task partitioning and scheduling, with maximum improvements of 21.8%, 40.3% and 22.1% and average improvements of 15.9%, 16.9% and 4.2% for LMM (a real R application) and synthetic test cases with independent and dependent tasks, respectively.« less

Insights From the Development of an Environmental Science Professional Development Field Course for Undergraduates from Two-Year and Four-Year Colleges.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schmidt, C. M.; Hall, S. R.; Walker, B.; Paul, J.

2017-12-01

Existing STEM retention and diversity programs have identified access to field and professional experiences as critical to helping students identify as scientists, form networks, and gain important skills necessary for employment. This program reimagines the traditional geology field course as a professional development experience for students at 2-year and 4-year institutions interested in environmental careers. Students participate in a summer field course in the Sierra Nevada of California, during which time they complete geology, geomorphology, hydrology, and ecology field projects designed to compliment the curriculum of Environmental Geoscience, Environmental Science, and Environmental Studies programs. During the course students interact with local professionals in the environmental sector and work to earn badges based on the skills demonstrated during field projects. Badges create transparent documentation of skill mastery for students and provide a new way for students to understand and market their skills and competencies to potential employers. We will report on the curriculum development, implementation and assessment of the first cohort of students to participate in the program. Preliminary results of formative and summative assessments and their implications for student success and program design will be addressed.

Continuous, highly flexible, and transparent graphene films by chemical vapor deposition for organic photovoltaics.

PubMed

Gomez De Arco, Lewis; Zhang, Yi; Schlenker, Cody W; Ryu, Koungmin; Thompson, Mark E; Zhou, Chongwu

2010-05-25

We report the implementation of continuous, highly flexible, and transparent graphene films obtained by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) as transparent conductive electrodes (TCE) in organic photovoltaic cells. Graphene films were synthesized by CVD, transferred to transparent substrates, and evaluated in organic solar cell heterojunctions (TCE/poly-3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene:poly styrenesulfonate (PEDOT:PSS)/copper phthalocyanine/fullerene/bathocuproine/aluminum). Key to our success is the continuous nature of the CVD graphene films, which led to minimal surface roughness ( approximately 0.9 nm) and offered sheet resistance down to 230 Omega/sq (at 72% transparency), much lower than stacked graphene flakes at similar transparency. In addition, solar cells with CVD graphene and indium tin oxide (ITO) electrodes were fabricated side-by-side on flexible polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrates and were confirmed to offer comparable performance, with power conversion efficiencies (eta) of 1.18 and 1.27%, respectively. Furthermore, CVD graphene solar cells demonstrated outstanding capability to operate under bending conditions up to 138 degrees , whereas the ITO-based devices displayed cracks and irreversible failure under bending of 60 degrees . Our work indicates the great potential of CVD graphene films for flexible photovoltaic applications.

Transparent Seismic Mitigation for Community Resilience

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Poland, C. D.; Pekelnicky, R.

2008-12-01

Healthy communities continuously grow by leveraging their intellectual capital to drive economic development while protecting their cultural heritage. Success, in part, depends on the support of a healthy built environment that is rooted in contemporary urban planning, sustainability and disaster resilience. Planners and policy makers are deeply concerned with all aspects of their communities, including its seismic safety. Their reluctance to implement the latest plans for achieving seismic safety is rooted in a misunderstanding of the hazard they face and the risk it poses to their built environment. Probabilistic lingo and public debate about how big the "big one" will be drives them to resort to their own experience and intuition. There is a fundamental lack of transparency related to what is expected to happen, and it is partially blocking the policy changes that are needed. The solution: craft the message in broad based, usable terms that name the hazard, defines performance, and establishes a set of performance goals that represent the resiliency needed to drive a community's natural ability to rebound from a major seismic event. By using transparent goals and measures with an intuitive vocabulary for both performance and hazard, earthquake professionals, working with the San Francisco Urban Planning and Research Association (SPUR), have defined a level of resiliency that needs to be achieved by the City of San Francisco to assure their response to an event will be manageable and full recovery achievable within three years. Five performance measures for buildings and three for lifeline systems have been defined. Each declares whether people will be safe inside, whether the building will be able to be repaired and whether they will be usable during repairs. Lifeline systems are further defined in terms of the time intervals to restore 90%, 95%, and full service. These transparent categories are used in conjunction with the expected earthquake level to describe the standards needed for new buildings and lifelines and the rehabilitation programs needed for existing buildings and systems. Earthquake professionals -- Emergency Response Planners, Earth Scientists, and Earthquake Engineers - need to embrace this level of transparency and work with their communities to craft the policies needed to instill change and achieve disaster resilience.

Comparing the Medicaid Retrospective Drug Utilization Review Program Cost-Savings Methods Used by State Agencies

PubMed Central

Prada, Sergio I.

2017-01-01

Background The Medicaid Drug Utilization Review (DUR) program is a 2-phase process conducted by Medicaid state agencies. The first phase is a prospective DUR and involves electronically monitoring prescription drug claims to identify prescription-related problems, such as therapeutic duplication, contraindications, incorrect dosage, or duration of treatment. The second phase is a retrospective DUR and involves ongoing and periodic examinations of claims data to identify patterns of fraud, abuse, underutilization, drug–drug interaction, or medically unnecessary care, implementing corrective actions when needed. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services requires each state to measure prescription drug cost-savings generated from its DUR programs on an annual basis, but it provides no guidance or unified methodology for doing so. Objectives To describe and synthesize the methodologies used by states to measure cost-savings using their Medicaid retrospective DUR program in federal fiscal years 2014 and 2015. Method For each state, the cost-savings methodologies included in the Medicaid DUR 2014 and 2015 reports were downloaded from Medicaid's website. The reports were then reviewed and synthesized. Methods described by the states were classified according to research designs often described in evaluation textbooks. Discussion In 2014, the most often used prescription drugs cost-savings estimation methodology for the Medicaid retrospective DUR program was a simple pre-post intervention method, without a comparison group (ie, 12 states). In 2015, the most common methodology used was a pre-post intervention method, with a comparison group (ie, 14 states). Comparisons of savings attributed to the program among states are still unreliable, because of a lack of a common methodology available for measuring cost-savings. Conclusion There is great variation among states in the methods used to measure prescription drug utilization cost-savings. This analysis suggests that there is still room for improvement in terms of methodology transparency, which is important, because lack of transparency hinders states from learning from each other. Ultimately, the federal government needs to evaluate and improve its DUR program. PMID:29403573

Thermomechanical properties and transparency of self-reinforced polylactide composites with stereocomplex polylactide nanofibers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kurokawa, Naruki; Hotta, Atsushi

By compounding stereocomplex polylactide (sc-PLA) nanofibers into poly(L-lactide) (PLLA), we obtained an sc-PLA/PLLA composite with high transparency and sufficient mechanical properties. One of the major problems in the practical use of PLLA is its poor thermomechanical properties especially in the amorphous state: when heated, the storage modulus of pure PLLA drastically decreases through its glass transition temperature (Tg 68 degree). The fiber composite method could be an efficient way to solve the problem, while possibly avoiding marked reduction in its transparency. To maintain the high transparency of the original PLLA, the sc-PLA fiber diameter was optimized to be lower than the optical wavelength. In addition, to enhance the transparency, the reflective index should be closer and the sc-PLA fiber surface should be compatible with the PLLA matrix. Thus, the sc-PLA fibers of 367 nm in the average diameter were mixed with PLLA to improve its thermomechanical properties. At the sc-PLA nanofiber concentration of 15 weight percent, the storage modulus was increased by 21.8 times as compared with that of PLLA at 80 degree. It was also found that the transparency of PLLA did not drastically change after compounding. The work was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A) from JSPS: KAKENHIà (No. 15H02298 to A.H.), 2016 Keio University Doctorate Student Grant-in-Aid Program (N.K.), and MEXT Grant-in-Aid for the Program for Leading Graduate Schools (N.K.).

The power of data--from data mining to consumer pricing and quality-of-care tools.

PubMed

Malof, Leah C

2013-01-01

Transparency tools, whether offered by carriers or third-party administrators, rely on adequate experience, by market and by service, to provide information to consumers about health care costs and quality of care. The opportunities for savings to individual consumers and to employer-sponsored health plans are clearly significant and possible if people will use the tools and act. This article reviews two studies showing a shift in consumer claims experience to less costly services afte the implementation of a transparency tool and when combined with a consumer-driven health plan. It also outlines best practices employers can implement to carefully craft interventions to engage and create value in the minds of health care consumers.

Ionic Liquid Activation of Amorphous Metal-Oxide Semiconductors for Flexible Transparent Electronic Devices

DOE PAGES

Pudasaini, Pushpa Raj; Noh, Joo Hyon; Wong, Anthony T.; ...

2016-02-09

To begin this abstract, amorphous metal-oxide semiconductors offer the high carrier mobilities and excellent large-area uniformity required for high performance, transparent, flexible electronic devices; however, a critical bottleneck to their widespread implementation is the need to activate these materials at high temperatures which are not compatible with flexible polymer substrates. The highly controllable activation of amorphous indium gallium zinc oxide semiconductor channels using ionic liquid gating at room temperature is reported. Activation is controlled by electric field-induced oxygen migration across the ionic liquid-semiconductor interface. In addition to activation of unannealed devices, it is shown that threshold voltages of a transistormore » can be linearly tuned between the enhancement and depletion modes. Finally, the first ever example of transparent flexible thin film metal oxide transistor on a polyamide substrate created using this simple technique is demonstrated. Finally, this study demonstrates the potential of field-induced activation as a promising alternative to traditional postdeposition thermal annealing which opens the door to wide scale implementation into flexible electronic applications.« less

78 FR 27115 - Draft Guidance for Industry on Expanded Access to Investigational Drugs for Treatment Use...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-05-09

... a more transparent process by increasing awareness and knowledge of expanded access programs and the... regulations. Consistent with the goal of making expanded access processes more transparent, FDA is providing... (IRB) review and approval required for individual patient expanded access?'' In the draft guidance, FDA...

Intelligent Agent Transparency in Human-Agent Teaming for Multi-UxV Management.

PubMed

Mercado, Joseph E; Rupp, Michael A; Chen, Jessie Y C; Barnes, Michael J; Barber, Daniel; Procci, Katelyn

2016-05-01

We investigated the effects of level of agent transparency on operator performance, trust, and workload in a context of human-agent teaming for multirobot management. Participants played the role of a heterogeneous unmanned vehicle (UxV) operator and were instructed to complete various missions by giving orders to UxVs through a computer interface. An intelligent agent (IA) assisted the participant by recommending two plans-a top recommendation and a secondary recommendation-for every mission. A within-subjects design with three levels of agent transparency was employed in the present experiment. There were eight missions in each of three experimental blocks, grouped by level of transparency. During each experimental block, the IA was incorrect three out of eight times due to external information (e.g., commander's intent and intelligence). Operator performance, trust, workload, and usability data were collected. Results indicate that operator performance, trust, and perceived usability increased as a function of transparency level. Subjective and objective workload data indicate that participants' workload did not increase as a function of transparency. Furthermore, response time did not increase as a function of transparency. Unlike previous research, which showed that increased transparency resulted in increased performance and trust calibration at the cost of greater workload and longer response time, our results support the benefits of transparency for performance effectiveness without additional costs. The current results will facilitate the implementation of IAs in military settings and will provide useful data to the design of heterogeneous UxV teams. © 2016, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.

Is your article EV-TRACKed?

PubMed Central

Van Deun, Jan; Hendrix, An

2017-01-01

ABSTRACT The EV-TRACK knowledgebase is developed to cope with the need for transparency and rigour to increase reproducibility and facilitate standardization of extracellular vesicle (EV) research. The knowledgebase includes a checklist for authors and editors intended to improve the transparency of methodological aspects of EV experiments, allows queries and meta-analysis of EV experiments and keeps track of the current state of the art. Widespread implementation by the EV research community is key to its success. PMID:29184624

Optimization of GaN Nanorod Growth Conditions for Coalescence Overgrowth

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-02-04

GaN core and QW deposition, an NR LED array can be implemented by covering the NRs with a transparent conductor . It has been demonstrated that the...with a transparent conductor . It has been demonstrated that the optical and electrical performances of an NR LED array can be comparable to those of a...a process of buffered oxide etching for removing this SiNx layer on the sidewalls is required before sidewall QW deposition. Nevertheless, the

[The experience of public guarantees of free-of-charge medical care foreign countries].

PubMed

Ulumbekova, G E

2010-01-01

The article deals with the analysis of the volumes of financing of public guarantees program of free-of-charge medical care and its algorithm of its elaboration in foreign countries. In the advanced countries, the higher financing of public health permit to ensure factually overall population the full free-of-charge spectrum of up-to-date medical interventions as a "public guarantees pack". It includes the pharmaceuticals supply in outpatient conditions and in most cases the long-term care services. In economically advanced countries, the general trend is the transfer from fundamental principles ("everything needed") to the more transparent approaches in case of implementation of the guarantees to achieve the balance between actual financial resources and stated population guarantees.

Facilitating preemptive hardware system design using partial reconfiguration techniques.

PubMed

Dondo Gazzano, Julio; Rincon, Fernando; Vaderrama, Carlos; Villanueva, Felix; Caba, Julian; Lopez, Juan Carlos

2014-01-01

In FPGA-based control system design, partial reconfiguration is especially well suited to implement preemptive systems. In real-time systems, the deadline for critical task can compel the preemption of noncritical one. Besides, an asynchronous event can demand immediate attention and, then, force launching a reconfiguration process for high-priority task implementation. If the asynchronous event is previously scheduled, an explicit activation of the reconfiguration process is performed. If the event cannot be previously programmed, such as in dynamically scheduled systems, an implicit activation to the reconfiguration process is demanded. This paper provides a hardware-based approach to explicit and implicit activation of the partial reconfiguration process in dynamically reconfigurable SoCs and includes all the necessary tasks to cope with this issue. Furthermore, the reconfiguration service introduced in this work allows remote invocation of the reconfiguration process and then the remote integration of off-chip components. A model that offers component location transparency is also presented to enhance and facilitate system integration.

Facilitating Preemptive Hardware System Design Using Partial Reconfiguration Techniques

PubMed Central

Rincon, Fernando; Vaderrama, Carlos; Villanueva, Felix; Caba, Julian; Lopez, Juan Carlos

2014-01-01

In FPGA-based control system design, partial reconfiguration is especially well suited to implement preemptive systems. In real-time systems, the deadline for critical task can compel the preemption of noncritical one. Besides, an asynchronous event can demand immediate attention and, then, force launching a reconfiguration process for high-priority task implementation. If the asynchronous event is previously scheduled, an explicit activation of the reconfiguration process is performed. If the event cannot be previously programmed, such as in dynamically scheduled systems, an implicit activation to the reconfiguration process is demanded. This paper provides a hardware-based approach to explicit and implicit activation of the partial reconfiguration process in dynamically reconfigurable SoCs and includes all the necessary tasks to cope with this issue. Furthermore, the reconfiguration service introduced in this work allows remote invocation of the reconfiguration process and then the remote integration of off-chip components. A model that offers component location transparency is also presented to enhance and facilitate system integration. PMID:24672292

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

Benton, J; Wall, D; Parker, E

This paper presents the latest information on one of the Accelerated Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU) Disposition initiatives that resulted from the May 2002 Summit meeting between Presidents George W. Bush and Vladimir V. Putin. These initiatives are meant to strengthen nuclear nonproliferation objectives by accelerating the disposition of nuclear weapons-useable materials. The HEU Transparency Implementation Program (TIP), within the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is working to implement one of the selected initiatives that would purchase excess Russian HEU (93% 235U) for use as fuel in U.S. research reactors over the next ten years. This will parallel efforts to convertmore » the reactors' fuel core from HEU to low enriched uranium (LEU) material, where feasible. The paper will examine important aspects associated with the U.S. research reactor HEU purchase. In particular: (1) the establishment of specifications for the Russian HEU, and (2) transportation safeguard considerations for moving the HEU from the Mayak Production Facility in Ozersk, Russia, to the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, TN.« less

Request redirection paradigm in medical image archive implementation.

PubMed

Dragan, Dinu; Ivetić, Dragan

2012-08-01

It is widely recognized that the JPEG2000 facilitates issues in medical imaging: storage, communication, sharing, remote access, interoperability, and presentation scalability. Therefore, JPEG2000 support was added to the DICOM standard Supplement 61. Two approaches to support JPEG2000 medical image are explicitly defined by the DICOM standard: replacing the DICOM image format with corresponding JPEG2000 codestream, or by the Pixel Data Provider service, DICOM supplement 106. The latest one supposes two-step retrieval of medical image: DICOM request and response from a DICOM server, and then JPIP request and response from a JPEG2000 server. We propose a novel strategy for transmission of scalable JPEG2000 images extracted from a single codestream over DICOM network using the DICOM Private Data Element without sacrificing system interoperability. It employs the request redirection paradigm: DICOM request and response from JPEG2000 server through DICOM server. The paper presents programming solution for implementation of request redirection paradigm in a DICOM transparent manner. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

76 FR 75603 - Family Educational Rights and Privacy

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-12-02

...The Secretary of Education (Secretary) amends the regulations implementing section 444 of the General Education Provisions Act (GEPA), which is commonly referred to as the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). These amendments are needed to ensure that the U.S. Department of Education (Department or we) continues to implement FERPA in a way that protects the privacy of education records while allowing for the effective use of data. Improved access to data will facilitate States' ability to evaluate education programs, to ensure limited resources are invested effectively, to build upon what works and discard what does not, to increase accountability and transparency, and to contribute to a culture of innovation and continuous improvement in education. The use of data is vital to ensuring the best education for our children. However, the benefits of using student data must always be balanced with the need to protect student privacy. Protecting student privacy helps achieve a number of important goals, including avoiding discrimination, identity theft, as well as other malicious and damaging criminal acts.

Fenix, A Fault Tolerant Programming Framework for MPI Applications

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

Gamel, Marc; Teranihi, Keita; Valenzuela, Eric

2016-10-05

Fenix provides APIs to allow the users to add fault tolerance capability to MPI-based parallel programs in a transparent manner. Fenix-enabled programs can run through process failures during program execution using a pool of spare processes accommodated by Fenix.

Involvement of the US Department of Defense in Civilian Assistance, Part I: a quantitative description of the projects funded by the Overseas Humanitarian, Disaster, and Civic Aid Program.

PubMed

Bourdeaux, Margaret Ellis; Lawry, Lynn; Bonventre, Eugene V; Burkle, Frederick M

2010-03-01

To review the history and goals of the US Department of Defense's largest civilian assistance program, the Overseas Humanitarian, Disaster and Civic Aid Program and to describe the number, geographic regions, years, key words, countries, and types of projects carried out under this program since 2001. Using the program's central database, we reviewed all approved projects since 2001 and tabulated them by year, combatant command, country, and key word. We also reviewed the project descriptions of projects funded between January 1, 2006, and February 9, 2008, and examined how their activities varied by combatant command and year. Of the 5395 projects in the database, 2097 were funded. Projects took place in more than 90 countries, with Southern, Pacific, and Africa Command hosting the greatest number. The most common types of projects were school, health, disaster response, and water infrastructure construction, and disaster-response training. The "global war on terror" was the key word most frequently tagged to project descriptions. Project descriptions lacked stated goals as well as implementation and coordination strategies with potential partners, and did not report outcome or impact indicators. The geographic reach of the program is vast and projects take place in a wide variety of public sectors. Yet their security and civilian assistance value remains unclear given the lack of stated project goals, implementation strategies, or measures of effectiveness. To facilitate transparency and policy discussion, we recommend project proposals include hypotheses as to how they will enhance US security, their relevance to the public sector they address, and outcome and impact indicators that can assess their value and effectiveness.

Economic implications of cardiovascular disease management programs: moving beyond one-off experiments.

PubMed

Maru, Shoko; Byrnes, Joshua; Carrington, Melinda J; Stewart, Simon; Scuffham, Paul A

2015-01-01

Substantial variation in economic analyses of cardiovascular disease management programs hinders not only the proper assessment of cost-effectiveness but also the identification of heterogeneity of interest such as patient characteristics. The authors discuss the impact of reporting and methodological variation on the cost-effectiveness of cardiovascular disease management programs by introducing issues that could lead to different policy or clinical decisions, followed by the challenges associated with net intervention effects and generalizability. The authors conclude with practical suggestions to mitigate the identified issues. Improved transparency through standardized reporting practice is the first step to advance beyond one-off experiments (limited applicability outside the study itself). Transparent reporting is a prerequisite for rigorous cost-effectiveness analyses that provide unambiguous implications for practice: what type of program works for whom and how.

Training for Phonological Awareness in an Orthographically Transparent Language in Two Different Modalities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kartal, Günizi; Babür, Nalan; Erçetin, Gülcan

2016-01-01

The main goal of this study was to investigate the effects of an experimental program designed to develop the phonological awareness (PA) skills of beginning readers in Turkish, an orthographically transparent language. We administered pre-, post-, and follow-up tests to assess the PA skills of 113 first graders and kindergartners in 2…

ForestCrowns: a transparency estimation tool for digital photographs of forest canopies

Treesearch

Matthew Winn; Jeff Palmer; S.-M. Lee; Philip Araman

2016-01-01

ForestCrowns is a Windows®-based computer program that calculates forest canopy transparency (light transmittance) using ground-based digital photographs taken with standard or hemispherical camera lenses. The software can be used by forest managers and researchers to monitor growth/decline of forest canopies; provide input for leaf area index estimation; measure light...

Transparency of Vocational Qualifications: The Leonardo da Vinci Approach. CEDEFOP Panorama Series.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bjornavold, Jens; Pettersson, Sten

This report gives an overview of the situation of transparency of vocational qualifications by presenting measures introduced at the European Community level and by drawing attention to projects within the Leonardo da Vinci Program dealing with the issue. A 16-page executive summary appears first. Chapter 1 provides general background and aims.…

Design, implementation and reporting strategies to reduce the instance and impact of missing patient-reported outcome (PRO) data: a systematic review.

PubMed

Mercieca-Bebber, Rebecca; Palmer, Michael J; Brundage, Michael; Calvert, Melanie; Stockler, Martin R; King, Madeleine T

2016-06-15

Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) provide important information about the impact of treatment from the patients' perspective. However, missing PRO data may compromise the interpretability and value of the findings. We aimed to report: (1) a non-technical summary of problems caused by missing PRO data; and (2) a systematic review by collating strategies to: (A) minimise rates of missing PRO data, and (B) facilitate transparent interpretation and reporting of missing PRO data in clinical research. Our systematic review does not address statistical handling of missing PRO data. MEDLINE and Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) databases (inception to 31 March 2015), and citing articles and reference lists from relevant sources. English articles providing recommendations for reducing missing PRO data rates, or strategies to facilitate transparent interpretation and reporting of missing PRO data were included. 2 reviewers independently screened articles against eligibility criteria. Discrepancies were resolved with the research team. Recommendations were extracted and coded according to framework synthesis. 117 sources (55% discussion papers, 26% original research) met the eligibility criteria. Design and methodological strategies for reducing rates of missing PRO data included: incorporating PRO-specific information into the protocol; carefully designing PRO assessment schedules and defining termination rules; minimising patient burden; appointing a PRO coordinator; PRO-specific training for staff; ensuring PRO studies are adequately resourced; and continuous quality assurance. Strategies for transparent interpretation and reporting of missing PRO data include utilising auxiliary data to inform analysis; transparently reporting baseline PRO scores, rates and reasons for missing data; and methods for handling missing PRO data. The instance of missing PRO data and its potential to bias clinical research can be minimised by implementing thoughtful design, rigorous methodology and transparent reporting strategies. All members of the research team have a responsibility in implementing such strategies. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/

Improving health aid for a better planet: The planning, monitoring and evaluation tool (PLANET).

PubMed

Sridhar, Devi; Car, Josip; Chopra, Mickey; Campbell, Harry; Woods, Ngaire; Rudan, Igor

2015-12-01

International development assistance for health (DAH) quadrupled between 1990 and 2012, from US$ 5.6 billion to US$ 28.1 billion. This generates an increasing need for transparent and replicable tools that could be used to set investment priorities, monitor the distribution of funding in real time, and evaluate the impact of those investments. In this paper we present a methodology that addresses these three challenges. We call this approach PLANET, which stands for planning, monitoring and evaluation tool. Fundamentally, PLANET is based on crowdsourcing approach to obtaining information relevant to deployment of large-scale programs. Information is contributed in real time by a diverse group of participants involved in the program delivery. PLANET relies on real-time information from three levels of participants in large-scale programs: funders, managers and recipients. At each level, information is solicited to assess five key risks that are most relevant to each level of operations. The risks at the level of funders involve systematic neglect of certain areas, focus on donor's interests over that of program recipients, ineffective co-ordination between donors, questionable mechanisms of delivery and excessive loss of funding to "middle men". At the level of managers, the risks are corruption, lack of capacity and/or competence, lack of information and /or communication, undue avoidance of governmental structures / preference to non-governmental organizations and exclusion of local expertise. At the level of primary recipients, the risks are corruption, parallel operations / "verticalization", misalignment with local priorities and lack of community involvement, issues with ethics, equity and/or acceptability, and low likelihood of sustainability beyond the end of the program's implementation. PLANET is intended as an additional tool available to policy-makers to prioritize, monitor and evaluate large-scale development programs. In this, it should complement tools such as LiST (for health care/interventions), EQUIST (for health care/interventions) and CHNRI (for health research), which also rely on information from local experts and on local context to set priorities in a transparent, user-friendly, replicable, quantifiable and specific, algorithmic-like manner.

Illumination and radiative cooling

DOEpatents

Fan, Shanhui; Raman, Aaswath Pattabhi; Zhu, Linxiao; Rephaeli, Eden

2018-03-20

Aspects of the present disclosure are directed to providing and/or controlling electromagnetic radiation. As may be implemented in accordance with one or more embodiments, an apparatus includes a first structure that contains an object, and a second structure that is transparent at solar wavelengths and emissive in the atmospheric electromagnetic radiation transparency window. The second structure operates with the first structure to pass light into the first structure for illuminating the object, and to radiatively cool the object while preserving the object's color.

2005 Annual Health Physics Report for HEU Transparency Program

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

Radev, R

2006-04-21

During the 2005 calendar year, LLNL provided health physics support for the Highly Enriched Uranium Transparency Program (HEU-TP) in external and internal radiation protection and technical expertise into matters related to BDMS radioactive sources and Russian radiation safety regulatory compliance. For the calendar year 2005, there were 161 person-trips that required dose monitoring of the U.S. monitors. Of the 161 person-trips, 149 person-trips were SMVs and 12 person-trips were Transparency Monitoring Office (TMO) trips. Additionally, there were 11 monitoring visits by TMO monitors to facilities other than UEIE and 3 to UEIE itself. There were two monitoring visits (source changes)more » that were back to back with 16 monitors. Each of these concurring visits were treated as single person-trips for dosimetry purposes. Counted individually, there were 191 individual person-visits in 2005. The LLNL Safety Laboratories Division provided the dosimetry services for the HEU-TP monitors.« less

Cosmic Origins (COR) Technology Development Program Overview

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Werneth, Russell; Pham, B.; Clampin, M.

2014-01-01

The Cosmic Origins (COR) Program Office was established in FY11 and resides at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). The office serves as the implementation arm for the Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters for COR Program related matters. We present an overview of the Program’s technology management activities and the Program’s technology development portfolio. We discuss the process for addressing community-provided technology needs and the Technology Management Board (TMB)-vetted prioritization and investment recommendations. This process improves the transparency and relevance of technology investments, provides the community a voice in the process, and leverages the technology investments of external organizations by defining a need and a customer. Goals for the COR Program envisioned by the National Research Council’s (NRC) “New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics” (NWNH) Decadal Survey report includes a 4m-class UV/optical telescope that would conduct imaging and spectroscopy as a post-Hubble observatory with significantly improved sensitivity and capability, a near-term investigation of NASA participation in the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency/Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (JAXA/ISAS) Space Infrared Telescope for Cosmology and Astrophysics (SPICA) mission, and future Explorers.

NASA's Physics of the Cosmos and Cosmic Origins programs manage Strategic Astrophysics Technology (SAT) development

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pham, Thai; Thronson, Harley; Seery, Bernard; Ganel, Opher

2016-07-01

The strategic astrophysics missions of the coming decades will help answer the questions "How did our universe begin and evolve?" "How did galaxies, stars, and planets come to be?" and "Are we alone?" Enabling these missions requires advances in key technologies far beyond the current state of the art. NASA's Physics of the Cosmos2 (PCOS), Cosmic Origins3 (COR), and Exoplanet Exploration Program4 (ExEP) Program Offices manage technology maturation projects funded through the Strategic Astrophysics Technology (SAT) program to accomplish such advances. The PCOS and COR Program Offices, residing at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), were established in 2011, and serve as the implementation arm for the Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters. We present an overview of the Programs' technology development activities and the current technology investment portfolio of 23 technology advancements. We discuss the process for addressing community-provided technology gaps and Technology Management Board (TMB)-vetted prioritization and investment recommendations that inform the SAT program. The process improves the transparency and relevance of our technology investments, provides the community a voice in the process, and promotes targeted external technology investments by defining needs and identifying customers. The Programs' priorities are driven by strategic direction from the Astrophysics Division, which is informed by the National Research Council's (NRC) "New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics" (NWNH) 2010 Decadal Survey report [1], the Astrophysics Implementation Plan (AIP) [2] as updated, and the Astrophysics Roadmap "Enduring Quests, Daring Visions" [3]. These priorities include technology development for missions to study dark energy, gravitational waves, X-ray and inflation probe science, and large far-infrared (IR) and ultraviolet (UV)/optical/IR telescopes to conduct imaging and spectroscopy studies. The SAT program is the Astrophysics Division's main investment method to mature technologies that will be identified by study teams set up to inform the 2020 Decadal Survey process on several large astrophysics mission concepts.

The development of an artificial organic networks toolkit for LabVIEW.

PubMed

Ponce, Hiram; Ponce, Pedro; Molina, Arturo

2015-03-15

Two of the most challenging problems that scientists and researchers face when they want to experiment with new cutting-edge algorithms are the time-consuming for encoding and the difficulties for linking them with other technologies and devices. In that sense, this article introduces the artificial organic networks toolkit for LabVIEW™ (AON-TL) from the implementation point of view. The toolkit is based on the framework provided by the artificial organic networks technique, giving it the potential to add new algorithms in the future based on this technique. Moreover, the toolkit inherits both the rapid prototyping and the easy-to-use characteristics of the LabVIEW™ software (e.g., graphical programming, transparent usage of other softwares and devices, built-in programming event-driven for user interfaces), to make it simple for the end-user. In fact, the article describes the global architecture of the toolkit, with particular emphasis in the software implementation of the so-called artificial hydrocarbon networks algorithm. Lastly, the article includes two case studies for engineering purposes (i.e., sensor characterization) and chemistry applications (i.e., blood-brain barrier partitioning data model) to show the usage of the toolkit and the potential scalability of the artificial organic networks technique. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Implementation of Systematic Review Tools in IRIS | Science ...

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Currently, the number of chemicals present in the environment exceeds the ability of public health scientists to efficiently screen the available data in order to produce well-informed human health risk assessments in a timely manner. For this reason, the US EPA’s Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) program has started implementing new software tools into the hazard characterization workflow. These automated tools aid in multiple phases of the systematic review process including scoping and problem formulation, literature search, and identification and screening of available published studies. The increased availability of these tools lays the foundation for automating or semi-automating multiple phases of the systematic review process. Some of these software tools include modules to facilitate a structured approach to study quality evaluation of human and animal data, although approaches are generally lacking for assessing complex mechanistic information, in particular “omics”-based evidence tools are starting to become available to evaluate these types of studies. We will highlight how new software programs, online tools, and approaches for assessing study quality can be better integrated to allow for a more efficient and transparent workflow of the risk assessment process as well as identify tool gaps that would benefit future risk assessments. Disclaimer: The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the view

The Faculty Costs to Educate a Biomedical Sciences Graduate Student

PubMed Central

Smolka, Adam J.; Halushka, Perry V.; Garrett-Mayer, Elizabeth

2015-01-01

Academic medical centers nationwide face numerous fiscal challenges resulting from implementation of restructured healthcare delivery models, contracting state support for higher education, and increased competition for federal and other sources of biomedical research funding. In pursuing greater accountability and transparency in its fiscal operations, the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) has implemented a responsibility centers management budgetary model, which requires all MUSC colleges to be eventually self-sustaining financially. Graduate schools in the biomedical sciences are particularly vulnerable in the face of these challenges, depending traditionally as they do on financial support from training grant tuition, occasional medical school tuition and medical practice plan revenues, graduate college–based revenue-generating programs, and faculty payment of PhD tuition. The revenue streams are often insufficient to support PhD training programs, and supplemental financial support is required from the institution. In the context of a college of graduate studies, estimates of the cost of educating a graduate student become a significant necessity. This study presents a readily applicable model of empirically estimating the faculty salary costs that may provide a basis for budgetary planning that will help to sustain a biomedical sciences graduate school’s commitment to its teaching, research, and service mission goals. PMID:25673355

Mitigation of Marijuana-Related Legal Harms to Youth in California.

PubMed

Banys, Peter

2016-01-01

If recreational marijuana is legalized for adults in California, a rational implementation of public policy would neither criminalize youth possession, nor medically pathologize it by conflating possession with addiction. The harms of a criminal justice approach to juveniles should not exceed the harms of the drug itself. Juvenile arrests and probation have consequences: (1) arrest records, probation, and juvenile hall; (2) an incarceration subculture, "crime school," psychological and re-entry costs; (3) school "zero-tolerance" expulsions and suspensions; (4) ineligibility for federal school loans; (5) employment screening problems; (6) racial disparities in arrests; (7) fines and attorney's fees; and (8) immigration/naturalization problems. Marijuana-related arrest rates in California dropped after a 2011 law making possession under 1 oz. an infraction for all, but juvenile marijuana arrests continue to outnumber arrests for hard drugs. Recommendations for prudent implementation policy include: stable marijuana tax funding for Student Assistance Programs (SAPs) in high schools; elimination of "zero-tolerance" suspension/expulsion policies in favor of school retention and academic remediation programs; juvenile justice transparency discriminating among infractions, misdemeanors, and felonies. Criminal sanctions and durations must be proportional to the offense. Probation-based interventions should be reserved for larger possession amounts and recidivist offenders, and outcomes should be independently evaluated.

Algorithms for database-dependent search of MS/MS data.

PubMed

Matthiesen, Rune

2013-01-01

The frequent used bottom-up strategy for identification of proteins and their associated modifications generate nowadays typically thousands of MS/MS spectra that normally are matched automatically against a protein sequence database. Search engines that take as input MS/MS spectra and a protein sequence database are referred as database-dependent search engines. Many programs both commercial and freely available exist for database-dependent search of MS/MS spectra and most of the programs have excellent user documentation. The aim here is therefore to outline the algorithm strategy behind different search engines rather than providing software user manuals. The process of database-dependent search can be divided into search strategy, peptide scoring, protein scoring, and finally protein inference. Most efforts in the literature have been put in to comparing results from different software rather than discussing the underlining algorithms. Such practical comparisons can be cluttered by suboptimal implementation and the observed differences are frequently caused by software parameters settings which have not been set proper to allow even comparison. In other words an algorithmic idea can still be worth considering even if the software implementation has been demonstrated to be suboptimal. The aim in this chapter is therefore to split the algorithms for database-dependent searching of MS/MS data into the above steps so that the different algorithmic ideas become more transparent and comparable. Most search engines provide good implementations of the first three data analysis steps mentioned above, whereas the final step of protein inference are much less developed for most search engines and is in many cases performed by an external software. The final part of this chapter illustrates how protein inference is built into the VEMS search engine and discusses a stand-alone program SIR for protein inference that can import a Mascot search result.

Space-Derived Transparency: Players, Policies, Implications, and Synergies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kinnan, C. J.

2001-06-01

Space-derived transparency will become a common means of monitoring, preventing, and mitigating crises, verifying compliance with treaties and law, and enabling confidence and security building measures. Democratization and globalization, the proliferation of information technologies, the availability of commercial space high-resolution imagery, and the growing influence of NGOs invite this question: What is (space-derived) transparency and what effect does it have on US security policy? Three camps have emerged in the debate -Horaeists who seek to build a transnational society through complete transparency; Preservationists, mostly military, who fear the threat to national security, want to deny most space-derived information to non-traditional/non-state actors; and Synergists who seek to capitalize on the best of both camps. There is evidence suggesting that space-derived transparency is an inevitable trend and will resist even the best means of preservationist control. Space-derived transparency may change the dynamic of the security environment by introducing new players into the policy fomentation and implementation process. These players, if not properly schooled in imagery analysis or the potential effects of their use of misinterpreted space-derived imagery, could force policy makers to make fast, ill-considered decisions in order to respond to incidents. In some cases this fast response will defuse potential crises and in other situations these rushed decisions might result in policies without considering the potential consequences, which could turn incidents into crises. Space-derived transparency is a step forward into the future for each camp . . . the challenge for the United States lies in forging synergies in an increasingly transparent world while maintaining the balance between openness and security.

A Resource Management Tool for Implementing Strategic Direction in an Academic Department

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ringwood, John V.; Devitt, Frank; Doherty, Sean; Farrell, Ronan; Lawlor, Bob; McLoone, Sean C.; McLoone, Seamus F.; Rogers, Alan; Villing, Rudi; Ward, Tomas

2005-01-01

This paper reports on a load balancing system for an academic department, which can be used as an implementation mechanism for strategic planning. In essence, it consists of weighting each activity within the department and performing workload allocation based on this transparent scheme. The experience to date has been very positive, in terms of…

76 FR 23221 - Joint Public Roundtable on Issues Related to the Schedule for Implementing Final Rules for Swaps...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-04-26

... submissions will be reviewed jointly by the Agencies. All comments must be in English or be accompanied by an English translation. All submissions provided to either Agency in any electronic form or on paper will be... of CFTC Commissioner Scott D. O'Malia; Implementation Roundtable Seriatim; Certainty & Transparency I...

Implementing a trustworthy cost-accounting model.

PubMed

Spence, Jay; Seargeant, Dan

2015-03-01

Hospitals and health systems can develop an effective cost-accounting model and maximize the effectiveness of their cost-accounting teams by focusing on six key areas: Implementing an enhanced data model. Reconciling data efficiently. Accommodating multiple cost-modeling techniques. Improving transparency of cost allocations. Securing department manager participation. Providing essential education and training to staff members and stakeholders.

Artificial Intelligence Tools for Scaling Up of High Shear Wet Granulation Process.

PubMed

Landin, Mariana

2017-01-01

The results presented in this article demonstrate the potential of artificial intelligence tools for predicting the endpoint of the granulation process in high-speed mixer granulators of different scales from 25L to 600L. The combination of neurofuzzy logic and gene expression programing technologies allowed the modeling of the impeller power as a function of operation conditions and wet granule properties, establishing the critical variables that affect the response and obtaining a unique experimental polynomial equation (transparent model) of high predictability (R 2 > 86.78%) for all size equipment. Gene expression programing allowed the modeling of the granulation process for granulators of similar and dissimilar geometries and can be improved by implementing additional characteristics of the process, as composition variables or operation parameters (e.g., batch size, chopper speed). The principles and the methodology proposed here can be applied to understand and control manufacturing process, using any other granulation equipment, including continuous granulation processes. Copyright © 2016 American Pharmacists Association®. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Local School Wellness Policy Implementation Under the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. Final rule.

PubMed

2016-07-29

This final rule requires all local educational agencies that participate in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs to meet expanded local school wellness policy requirements consistent with the requirements set forth in section 204 of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. The final rule requires each local educational agency to establish minimum content requirements for the local school wellness policies, ensure stakeholder participation in the development and updates of such policies, and periodically assess and disclose to the public schools' compliance with the local school wellness policies. These regulations are expected to result in local school wellness policies that strengthen the ability of a local educational agency to create a school nutrition environment that promotes students' health, well-being, and ability to learn. In addition, these regulations will increase transparency for the public with regard to school wellness policies and contribute to integrity in the school nutrition program.

Readiness for Delivering Digital Health at Scale: Lessons From a Longitudinal Qualitative Evaluation of a National Digital Health Innovation Program in the United Kingdom

PubMed Central

Lennon, Marilyn R; Bouamrane, Matt-Mouley; Devlin, Alison M; O'Connor, Siobhan; O'Donnell, Catherine; Chetty, Ula; Agbakoba, Ruth; Bikker, Annemieke; Grieve, Eleanor; Finch, Tracy; Watson, Nicholas; Wyke, Sally

2017-01-01

Background Digital health has the potential to support care delivery for chronic illness. Despite positive evidence from localized implementations, new technologies have proven slow to become accepted, integrated, and routinized at scale. Objective The aim of our study was to examine barriers and facilitators to implementation of digital health at scale through the evaluation of a £37m national digital health program: ‟Delivering Assisted Living Lifestyles at Scale” (dallas) from 2012-2015. Methods The study was a longitudinal qualitative, multi-stakeholder, implementation study. The methods included interviews (n=125) with key implementers, focus groups with consumers and patients (n=7), project meetings (n=12), field work or observation in the communities (n=16), health professional survey responses (n=48), and cross program documentary evidence on implementation (n=215). We used a sociological theory called normalization process theory (NPT) and a longitudinal (3 years) qualitative framework analysis approach. This work did not study a single intervention or population. Instead, we evaluated the processes (of designing and delivering digital health), and our outcomes were the identified barriers and facilitators to delivering and mainstreaming services and products within the mixed sector digital health ecosystem. Results We identified three main levels of issues influencing readiness for digital health: macro (market, infrastructure, policy), meso (organizational), and micro (professional or public). Factors hindering implementation included: lack of information technology (IT) infrastructure, uncertainty around information governance, lack of incentives to prioritize interoperability, lack of precedence on accountability within the commercial sector, and a market perceived as difficult to navigate. Factors enabling implementation were: clinical endorsement, champions who promoted digital health, and public and professional willingness. Conclusions Although there is receptiveness to digital health, barriers to mainstreaming remain. Our findings suggest greater investment in national and local infrastructure, implementation of guidelines for the safe and transparent use and assessment of digital health, incentivization of interoperability, and investment in upskilling of professionals and the public would help support the normalization of digital health. These findings will enable researchers, health care practitioners, and policy makers to understand the current landscape and the actions required in order to prepare the market and accelerate uptake, and use of digital health and wellness services in context and at scale. PMID:28209558

Curriculum reform for residency training: competence, change, and opportunities for leadership.

PubMed

Fraser, Amy B; Stodel, Emma J; Chaput, Alan J

2016-07-01

Certain pressures stemming from within the medical community and from society in general, such as the need for increased accountability in resident training and restricted resident duty hours, have prompted a re-examination of methods for training physicians. Leaders in medical education in North America and around the world champion competency-based medical education (CBME) as a solution. The Department of Anesthesiology at the University of Ottawa launched Canada's first CBME program for anesthesiology residents on July 1, 2015. In this paper, we discuss the opportunities and challenges associated with CBME and delineate the elements of the new CBME program at the University of Ottawa. Review of the current literature. Competency-based medical education addresses some of the challenges associated with physician training, such as ensuring that specialists are competent in all key areas and reducing training costs. In principle, competency-based medical education can better meet the needs of patients, providers, and other stakeholders in the healthcare system, but its success will depend on support from all involved. As CBME is implemented, anesthesiologists have the opportunity to become leaders in innovation and medical education. The University of Ottawa has implemented a CBME program with a twofold purpose, namely, to focus learning opportunities on the development of the specific competencies required of practicing anesthesiologists and to test the effectiveness of a reduction in the length of training. Canadian anesthesia residency programs will soon transition to CBME in order to promote better transparency, accountability, fairness, fiscal responsibility, and patient safety. Competency-based medical education offers significant potential advantages for healthcare stakeholders.

Development and implementation of a comprehensive strategic plan for medical education at an academic medical center.

PubMed

Schwartzstein, Richard M; Huang, Grace C; Coughlin, Christine M

2008-06-01

Despite their vital contributions to the training of future physicians, many academic teaching hospitals have grown operationally and financially distinct from affiliated medical schools because of divergent missions, contributing to the erosion of clinical training. Some institutions have responded by building hybrid organizations; others by creating large health care networks with variable relationships with the affiliated medical school. In this case, the authors wished to establish the future educational mission of their medical center as a core element of the institution by creating data-driven recommendations for reorganization, programs, and financing. They conducted a self-study of all constituents, the results of which confirmed the importance of education at their institution but also revealed the insufficiency of incentives for teaching. They underwent an external review by a committee of prominent educators, and they involved administrators at the hospital and the medical school. Together, these inputs composed an informed assessment of medical education at their teaching hospital, from which they developed and actualized an institution-wide strategic plan for education. Over the course of three years, they centralized the administrative structure for education, implemented programs that cross departments and reinforce the UME-GME continuum, and created transparency in the financing of medical education. The plan was purposefully aligned with the clinical and research strategic plans by supporting patient safety in programs and the professional development of faculty. The application of a rigorous strategic planning process to medical education at an academic teaching hospital can focus the mission, invigorate faculty, and lead to innovative programs.

Experimental study of the rigidity and transparency to ionizing radiation of composite materials used in the enclosure under pressure of the Micromegas detector

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Harbaoui, Imen; Besbes, Hatem; Chafra, Moez

Innovation in the field of nuclear imaging is necessarily followed by a radical change in the detection principle. The gas detector Micromegas (Mesh Micro Structure Gaseous) could be an interesting option, thanks to the stability and robustness of such a detector. Thus, it was necessary to study the implementation of the detector enclosure in composite materials. The focus of the present study was the robustness and gamma rays transparency of a set of composites. The studied composites were reinforced with vegetable fibers (alfa), and synthetic fibers. The mechanical properties of all composites specimen were evaluated by three-point bending test, whereas, gamma ray transparency was evaluated by the exposition of composites specimen to a mono-energetic gamma ray beam emitted by a Technetium 99-m source. Findings revealed that the biocomposite materials using alfa fiber and Polymethyl Methacrylate matrix are very promising as long as they present good robustness and high gamma ray transparency in diagnostic range.

High-performance single-crystalline arsenic-doped indium oxide nanowires for transparent thin-film transistors and active matrix organic light-emitting diode displays.

PubMed

Chen, Po-Chiang; Shen, Guozhen; Chen, Haitian; Ha, Young-geun; Wu, Chao; Sukcharoenchoke, Saowalak; Fu, Yue; Liu, Jun; Facchetti, Antonio; Marks, Tobin J; Thompson, Mark E; Zhou, Chongwu

2009-11-24

We report high-performance arsenic (As)-doped indium oxide (In(2)O(3)) nanowires for transparent electronics, including their implementation in transparent thin-film transistors (TTFTs) and transparent active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) displays. The As-doped In(2)O(3) nanowires were synthesized using a laser ablation process and then fabricated into TTFTs with indium-tin oxide (ITO) as the source, drain, and gate electrodes. The nanowire TTFTs on glass substrates exhibit very high device mobilities (approximately 1490 cm(2) V(-1) s(-1)), current on/off ratios (5.7 x 10(6)), steep subthreshold slopes (88 mV/dec), and a saturation current of 60 microA for a single nanowire. By using a self-assembled nanodielectric (SAND) as the gate dielectric, the device mobilities and saturation current can be further improved up to 2560 cm(2) V(-1) s(-1) and 160 microA, respectively. All devices exhibit good optical transparency (approximately 81% on average) in the visible spectral range. In addition, the nanowire TTFTs were utilized to control green OLEDs with varied intensities. Furthermore, a fully integrated seven-segment AMOLED display was fabricated with a good transparency of 40% and with each pixel controlled by two nanowire transistors. This work demonstrates that the performance enhancement possible by combining nanowire doping and self-assembled nanodielectrics enables silicon-free electronic circuitry for low power consumption, optically transparent, high-frequency devices assembled near room temperature.

Shelter from the Storm: Roles, responsibilities, and challenges in United States housing policy governance.

PubMed

Willison, Charley

2017-11-01

Housing is a critical social determinant of health. Housing policy not only affects health by improving housing quality, affordability, and insecurity; housing policy affects health upstream through the politics that shape housing policy design, implementation, and management. These politics, or governance strategies, determine the successes or failures of housing policy programs. This paper is an overview of challenges in housing policy governance in the United States. I examine the important relationship between housing and health, and emphasize why studying housing policy governance matters. I then present three cases of housing governance challenges in the United States, from each pathway by which housing affects health - housing quality, affordability, and insecurity. Each case corresponds to an arm of the TAPIC framework for evaluating governance (Krieger and Higgins) [1], to assess mechanisms of housing governance in each case. While housing governance has come a long way over the past century, political decentralization and the expansion of the submerged state have increased the number of political actors and policy conflict in many areas. This creates inherent challenges for improving accountability, transparency, and policy capacity. In many instances, too, reduced government accountability and transparency increases the risk of harm to the public and lessens governmental integrity. Copyright © 2017 The Author. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Experimental evaluation of certification trails using abstract data type validation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wilson, Dwight S.; Sullivan, Gregory F.; Masson, Gerald M.

1993-01-01

Certification trails are a recently introduced and promising approach to fault-detection and fault-tolerance. Recent experimental work reveals many cases in which a certification-trail approach allows for significantly faster program execution time than a basic time-redundancy approach. Algorithms for answer-validation of abstract data types allow a certification trail approach to be used for a wide variety of problems. An attempt to assess the performance of algorithms utilizing certification trails on abstract data types is reported. Specifically, this method was applied to the following problems: heapsort, Hullman tree, shortest path, and skyline. Previous results used certification trails specific to a particular problem and implementation. The approach allows certification trails to be localized to 'data structure modules,' making the use of this technique transparent to the user of such modules.

NASA's Physics of the Cosmos and Cosmic Origins Technology Development Programs

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pham, Thai; Seery, Bernard; Ganel, Opher

2016-01-01

The strategic astrophysics missions of the coming decades will help answer the questions "How did our universe begin and evolve?" and "How did galaxies, stars, and planets come to be?" Enabling these missions requires advances in key technologies far beyond the current state of the art. NASA's Physics of the Cosmos (PCOS) and Cosmic Origins (COR) Program Offices manage technology maturation projects funded through the Strategic Astrophysics Technology (SAT) program to accomplish such advances. The PCOS and COR Program Offices, residing at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), were established in 2011, and serve as the implementation arm for the Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters. We present an overview of the Programs' technology development activities and the current technology investment portfolio of 23 technology advancements. We discuss the process for addressing community-provided technology gaps and Technology Management Board (TMB)-vetted prioritization and investment recommendations that inform the SAT program. The process improves the transparency and relevance of our technology investments, provides the community a voice in the process, and promotes targeted external technology investments by defining needs and identifying customers. The Programs' priorities are driven by strategic direction from the Astrophysics Division, which is informed by the National Research Council's (NRC) "New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics" (NWNH) 2010 Decadal Survey report [1], the Astrophysics Implementation Plan (AIP) [2] as updated, and the Astrophysics Roadmap "Enduring Quests, Daring Visions" [3]. These priorities include technology development for missions to study dark energy, gravitational waves, X-ray and inflation probe science, and large far-infrared (IR) and ultraviolet (UV)/optical/IR telescopes to conduct imaging and spectroscopy studies. The SAT program is the Astrophysics Division's main investment method to mature technologies that will be identified by study teams set up to inform the 2020 Decadal Survey process on several large astrophysics mission concepts.

EarthCube Cyberinfrastructure: The Importance of and Need for International Strategic Partnerships to Enhance Interconnectivity and Interoperability

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ramamurthy, M. K.; Lehnert, K.; Zanzerkia, E. E.

2017-12-01

The United States National Science Foundation's EarthCube program is a community-driven activity aimed at transforming the conduct of geosciences research and education by creating a well-connected cyberinfrastructure for sharing and integrating data and knowledge across all geoscience disciplines in an open, transparent, and inclusive manner and to accelerate our ability to understand and predict the Earth system. After five years of community engagement, governance, and development activities, EarthCube is now transitioning into an implementation phase. In the first phase of implementing the EarthCube architecture, the project leadership has identified the following architectural components as the top three priorities, focused on technologies, interfaces and interoperability elements that will address: a) Resource Discovery; b) Resource Registry; and c) Resource Distribution and Access. Simultaneously, EarthCube is exploring international partnerships to leverage synergies with other e-infrastructure programs and projects in Europe, Australia, and other regions and discuss potential partnerships and mutually beneficial collaborations to increase interoperability of systems for advancing EarthCube's goals in an efficient and effective manner. In this session, we will present the progress of EarthCube on a number of fronts and engage geoscientists and data scientists in the future steps toward the development of EarthCube for advancing research and discovery in the geosciences. The talk will underscore the importance of strategic partnerships with other like eScience projects and programs across the globe.

Image quality affected by diffraction of aperture structure arrangement in transparent active-matrix organic light-emitting diode displays.

PubMed

Tsai, Yu-Hsiang; Huang, Mao-Hsiu; Jeng, Wei-de; Huang, Ting-Wei; Lo, Kuo-Lung; Ou-Yang, Mang

2015-10-01

Transparent display is one of the main technologies in next-generation displays, especially for augmented reality applications. An aperture structure is attached on each display pixel to partition them into transparent and black regions. However, diffraction blurs caused by the aperture structure typically degrade the transparent image when the light from a background object passes through finite aperture window. In this paper, the diffraction effect of an active-matrix organic light-emitting diode display (AMOLED) is studied. Several aperture structures have been proposed and implemented. Based on theoretical analysis and simulation, the appropriate aperture structure will effectively reduce the blur. The analysis data are also consistent with the experimental results. Compared with the various transparent aperture structure on AMOLED, diffraction width (zero energy position of diffraction pattern) of the optimize aperture structure can be reduced 63% and 31% in the x and y directions in CASE 3. Associated with a lenticular lens on the aperture structure, the improvement could reach to 77% and 54% of diffraction width in the x and y directions. Modulation transfer function and practical images are provided to evaluate the improvement of image blurs.

Interim Open Source Software (OSS) Policy

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

This interim Policy establishes a framework to implement the requirements of the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) Federal Source Code Policy to achieve efficiency, transparency and innovation through reusable and open source software.

Programmable on-chip and off-chip network architecture on demand for flexible optical intra-datacenters.

PubMed

Rofoee, Bijan Rahimzadeh; Zervas, Georgios; Yan, Yan; Amaya, Norberto; Qin, Yixuan; Simeonidou, Dimitra

2013-03-11

The paper presents a novel network architecture on demand approach using on-chip and-off chip implementations, enabling programmable, highly efficient and transparent networking, well suited for intra-datacenter communications. The implemented FPGA-based adaptable line-card with on-chip design along with an architecture on demand (AoD) based off-chip flexible switching node, deliver single chip dual L2-Packet/L1-time shared optical network (TSON) server Network Interface Cards (NIC) interconnected through transparent AoD based switch. It enables hitless adaptation between Ethernet over wavelength switched network (EoWSON), and TSON based sub-wavelength switching, providing flexible bitrates, while meeting strict bandwidth, QoS requirements. The on and off-chip performance results show high throughput (9.86Ethernet, 8.68Gbps TSON), high QoS, as well as hitless switch-over.

3Ts for Reducing Lead in Drinking Water: Telling

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Lead in drinking water in schools or childcare facilities programs should include communicating with parents, teachers, and the public. Transparency and a communication strategy are a key piece to developing a lead testing program.

Improving health aid for a better planet: The planning, monitoring and evaluation tool (PLANET)

PubMed Central

Sridhar, Devi; Car, Josip; Chopra, Mickey; Campbell, Harry; Woods, Ngaire; Rudan, Igor

2015-01-01

Background International development assistance for health (DAH) quadrupled between 1990 and 2012, from US$ 5.6 billion to US$ 28.1 billion. This generates an increasing need for transparent and replicable tools that could be used to set investment priorities, monitor the distribution of funding in real time, and evaluate the impact of those investments. Methods In this paper we present a methodology that addresses these three challenges. We call this approach PLANET, which stands for planning, monitoring and evaluation tool. Fundamentally, PLANET is based on crowdsourcing approach to obtaining information relevant to deployment of large–scale programs. Information is contributed in real time by a diverse group of participants involved in the program delivery. Findings PLANET relies on real–time information from three levels of participants in large–scale programs: funders, managers and recipients. At each level, information is solicited to assess five key risks that are most relevant to each level of operations. The risks at the level of funders involve systematic neglect of certain areas, focus on donor’s interests over that of program recipients, ineffective co–ordination between donors, questionable mechanisms of delivery and excessive loss of funding to “middle men”. At the level of managers, the risks are corruption, lack of capacity and/or competence, lack of information and /or communication, undue avoidance of governmental structures / preference to non–governmental organizations and exclusion of local expertise. At the level of primary recipients, the risks are corruption, parallel operations / “verticalization”, misalignment with local priorities and lack of community involvement, issues with ethics, equity and/or acceptability, and low likelihood of sustainability beyond the end of the program’s implementation. Interpretation PLANET is intended as an additional tool available to policy–makers to prioritize, monitor and evaluate large–scale development programs. In this, it should complement tools such as LiST (for health care/interventions), EQUIST (for health care/interventions) and CHNRI (for health research), which also rely on information from local experts and on local context to set priorities in a transparent, user–friendly, replicable, quantifiable and specific, algorithmic–like manner. PMID:26322228

Transparent TiO 2 nanotube array photoelectrodes prepared via two-step anodization

DOE PAGES

Kim, Jin Young; Zhu, Kai; Neale, Nathan R.; ...

2014-04-04

Two-step anodization of transparent TiO 2 nanotube arrays has been demonstrated with aid of a Nb-doped TiO 2 buffer layer deposited between the Ti layer and TCO substrate. Enhanced physical adhesion and electrochemical stability provided by the buffer layer has been found to be important for successful implementation of the two-step anodization process. As a result, with the proposed approach, the morphology and thickness of NT arrays could be controlled very precisely, which in turn, influenced their optical and photoelectrochemical properties.

Defense Technology Plan

DTIC Science & Technology

1994-09-01

implementation of the services necessary to support transparent "information pull " operation of decision support systems. This infrastructure will be implemented...technology. Some aspects of this area such as user- pull , mobile and highly distributed operation, bandwidth needs and degree of securihy are Dol)-driven...by a variety of statutory requirements. R&D will provide enhanced mission effectiveness and maintenance of fragile ecosystems. The goalis to develop

Implementation of a Tool to Enhance Evidence-Informed Decision Making in Public Health: Identifying Barriers and Facilitating Factors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

van der Heide, Iris; van der Noordt, Maaike; Proper, Karin I.; Schoemaker, Casper; van den Berg, Matthijs; Hamberg-van Reenen, Heleen H.

2016-01-01

One of the barriers regarding evidence-informed decision making is the gap between the needs of policy makers and the ways researchers present evidence. This pilot study evaluates the barriers and facilitators to the implementation of a tool to enhance transparent and unambiguous communication on scientific evidence by knowledge workers.…

Non-compliance with the International Code of Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes is not confined to the infant formula industry.

PubMed

Forsyth, Stewart

2013-06-01

Infant feeding policy and practice continues to be a contentious area of global health care. The infant formula industry is widely considered to be the bête noire with frequent claims that they adopt marketing and sales practices that are not compliant with the WHO Code. However, failure to resolve these issues over three decades suggests that there may be wider systemic failings. Review of published papers, commentaries and reports relating to the implementation and governance of the WHO Code with specific reference to issues of non-compliance. The analysis set out in this paper indicates that there are systemic failings at all levels of the implementation and monitoring process including the failure of WHO to successfully 'urge' governments to implement the Code in its entirety; a lack of political will by Member States to implement and monitor the Code and a lack of formal and transparent governance structures. Non-compliance with the WHO Code is not confined to the infant formula industry and several actions are identified, including the need to address issues of partnership working and the establishment of governance systems that are robust, independent and transparent.

76 FR 67991 - Medicare Program; Final Waivers in Connection With the Shared Savings Program

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-11-02

... governance, management, and leadership of the ACO, as well as program integrity, transparency, compliance... ACOs to promote accountability for individual Medicare beneficiaries and population health management...-kickback statute safe harbors include, among others, those for employment, personal services and management...

77 FR 52105 - Announcement of the Innovation in Arms Control Challenge Under the America Competes...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-08-28

...,'' with the goal of spurring innovation, and developing scientific and technological options that will... transparency efforts. Processes, incentives, and technologies must, in theory, be practical and implementable...

Cash grants in humanitarian assistance: a nongovernmental organization experience in Aceh, Indonesia, following the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami.

PubMed

Doocy, Shannon; Johnson, Diane; Robinson, Courtland

2008-06-01

Historically, cash interventions, as opposed to material or in-kind aid, have been relatively uncommon in the humanitarian response to emergencies. The widespread implementation of cash-based programs following the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami provided an opportunity to examine cash distributions following disasters. The Mercy Corps cash grant program in Aceh, Indonesia, was a short-term intervention intended to assist in recompensing losses from the December 2004 tsunami. An evaluation of the Mercy Corps cash grant program was conducted for the 12-month period following the tsunami using program monitoring data and a systematic survey of cash grant beneficiaries. in 2005, the cash grant program disbursed more than US$3.3 million to more than 53,000 beneficiaries; the average cash grant award was US$6390, which was shared by an average of 108 beneficiaries. In a beneficiary survey, more than 95% of respondents reported the grant allocation processes were fair and transparent and that grant funds were received. The Mercy Corps experience with cash programs suggests that cash interventions in the emergency context, when properly administered, can have an immediate impact and serve as an efficient mechanism for providing assistance. Organizations involved in humanitarian relief, particularly donors and nongovernmental organizations, should consider incorporating cash-based interventions as an element of their response in future emergencies.

The Christensen Rhetoric Program.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tufte, Virginia

1969-01-01

Designed to instruct teachers as well as high school or college students in improving their writing, the Christensen Rhetoric Program is a sequential, cumulative program, published in kit form. The kit includes a script with lectures for the teacher, directions for using 200 transparencies on an overhead projector, and student workbooks which…

CLIPS, AppleEvents, and AppleScript: Integrating CLIPS with commercial software

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Compton, Michael M.; Wolfe, Shawn R.

1994-01-01

Many of today's intelligent systems are comprised of several modules, perhaps written in different tools and languages, that together help solve the user's problem. These systems often employ a knowledge-based component that is not accessed directly by the user, but instead operates 'in the background' offering assistance to the user as necessary. In these types of modular systems, an efficient, flexible, and eady-to-use mechanism for sharing data between programs is crucial. To help permit transparent integration of CLIPS with other Macintosh applications, the AI Research Branch at NASA Ames Research Center has extended CLIPS to allow it to communicate transparently with other applications through two popular data-sharing mechanisms provided by the Macintosh operating system: Apple Events (a 'high-level' event mechanism for program-to-program communication), and AppleScript, a recently-released scripting language for the Macintosh. This capability permits other applications (running on either the same or a remote machine) to send a command to CLIPS, which then responds as if the command were typed into the CLIPS dialog window. Any result returned by the command is then automatically returned to the program that sent it. Likewise, CLIPS can send several types of Apple Events directly to other local or remote applications. This CLIPS system has been successfully integrated with a variety of commercial applications, including data collection programs, electronics forms packages, DBMS's, and email programs. These mechanisms can permit transparent user access to the knowledge base from within a commercial application, and allow a single copy of the knowledge base to service multiple users in a networked environment.

Challenges in developing e-government for good governance in North Sumatra

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Siahaan, AY

2017-01-01

E-government as one form of public administration reform in Indonesia is increasingly related to the pursuance of good governance. This paper examines the relationship between of e-government and good governance by utilizing the case study design on the implementation of e-procurement in North Sumatra. It reveals centrality of local politics and business culture in understanding resistances of both local government officials and local business which creates loopholes’ for the practice of ‘bad governance’ in all phases of e-procurement in North Sumatra province. Data transparency does not equate and guarantee the realization of good governance. Public knowledge and understanding on government decision making processes and accountability (process and policy transparency) are central to achieve good governance through e-procurement. E-procurement system does not automatically change organizational and working culture of the implementers and suppliers. This paper provides insight to the attitude and the perception of private sector engage in e-procurement towards government in implementing e-government. Resistance, digital divide and local politics interrelatedly obstruct the realization of pursuing good governance through e-procurement.

From Data Poor, Information Poor to Data Rich, Information Rich Decision-Making: Design and Implementation of a Student Information System

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burger, John M.; Nadirova, Anna

2013-01-01

In this paper, we report on the design and implementation of a state of the art Student Information System (SIS) being developed in a moderate size Alberta, Canada school jurisdiction. The SIS design is premised upon transparency, balanced, comprehensive, and multi-method assessments that links qualitative and quantitative data in support of…

Utilization of multiple-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) to support healthcare decision-making FIFARMA, 2016

PubMed Central

Drake, Julia I.; de Hart, Juan Carlos Trujillo; Monleón, Clara; Toro, Walter; Valentim, Joice

2017-01-01

ABSTRACT Background and objectives:   MCDA is a decision-making tool with increasing use in the healthcare sector, including HTA (Health Technology Assessment). By applying multiple criteria, including innovation, in a comprehensive, structured and explicit manner, MCDA fosters a transparent, participative, consistent decision-making process taking into consideration values of all stakeholders. This paper by FIFARMA (Latin American Federation of Pharmaceutical Industry) proposes the deliberative (partial) MCDA as a more pragmatic, agile approach, especially when newly implemented. Methods: Literature review including real-world examples of effective MCDA implementation in healthcare decision making in both the public and private sector worldwide and in LA. Results and conclusion: It is the view of FIFARMA that MCDA should strongly be considered as a tool to support HTA and broader healthcare decision making such as the contracts and tenders process in order to foster transparency, fairness, and collaboration amongst stakeholders. PMID:29081919

Dynamically tunable implementation of electromagnetically induced transparency with two coupling graphene-nanostrips in terahertz region

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shu, Chang; Chen, Qing-Guo; Mei, Jin-Shuo; Yin, Jing-Hua

2018-03-01

In this paper, we numerically demonstrated a dynamically tunable implementation of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) response with two coupling graphene-nanostrips in terahertz region. Compared to the metal-based structures or separated graphene structures, the Fermi energies of proposed two coupling graphene-nanostrips can be independently tuned by changing bias voltage between the metallic pads and substrate, the EIT window which appears from the near-field coupling between two resonators can be dynamically tuned without reoptimizing and refabricating the structures. As a result, the EIT window has a significant tunable capacity which can realize a higher frequency modulation depth and control the amplitude of transmission peak at a fixed frequency; moreover, the group delay of transmission peak at a fixed frequency with the amplitude of over 0.95 could be dynamically tuned. These results would exhibit potential applications in modulators and tunable slow light devices.

Atomic Physics Effects on Convergent, Child-Langmuir Ion Flow between Nearly Transparent Electrodes

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

Santarius, John F.; Emmert, Gilbert A.

Research during this project at the University of Wisconsin Fusion Technology Institute (UW FTI) on ion and neutral flow through an arbitrary, monotonic potential difference created by nearly transparent electrodes accomplished the following: (1) developed and implemented an integral equation approach for atomic physics effects in helium plasmas; (2) extended the analysis to coupled integral equations that treat atomic and molecular deuterium ions and neutrals; (3) implemented the key deuterium and helium atomic and molecular cross sections; (4) added negative ion production and related cross sections; and (5) benchmarked the code against experimental results. The analysis and codes treat themore » species D0, D20, D+, D2+, D3+, D and, separately at present, He0 and He+. Extensions enhanced the analysis and related computer codes to include He++ ions plus planar and cylindrical geometries.« less

The WHO evidence-informed guideline development process and implications for vitamin and mineral research priorities: symposium rationale and summary.

PubMed

Neufeld, Lynnette M; Jalal, Chowdhury S B; Peña-Rosas, Juan Pablo; Tovey, David; Lutter, Chessa K; Stoltzfus, Rebecca J; Habicht, Jean-Pierre

2013-09-01

The WHO evidence-informed guidelines provide recommendations to Member States and their partners on interventions with vitamins and minerals. Evidence gathered and synthesized through systematic reviews contributes to the development of these guidelines, a process that is dependent on the availability and quality of evidence. Although the guideline development process is stringently governed and supervised to maintain clarity and transparency, the lack of adequacy and specificity of available evidence poses limitations to the formulation of recommendations that can be easily applied for policy and program decision making in diverse contexts. The symposium created a space for dialogue among scientists and public health practitioners to improve the understanding of how evidence fulfills the needs and reflect on mechanisms by which policy and program guidance and priorities for research could be better informed by policy and program needs. Ultimately, programmatic success depends not only on identifying efficacious agents but ensuring effective delivery to those with the potential to respond. To do this, we must understand the rationale for recommending interventions, the biological pathways by which interventions work, delivery systems required to make efficacious interventions work, and other contextual factors that might limit or facilitate successful implementation.

Community Engagement in Youth Violence Prevention: Crafting Methods to Context.

PubMed

Morrel-Samuels, Susan; Bacallao, Martica; Brown, Shelli; Bower, Meredith; Zimmerman, Marc

2016-04-01

The purpose of the Youth Violence Prevention Centers (YVPC) Program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is to reduce youth violence in defined high-risk communities through the implementation and evaluation of comprehensive, evidence based prevention strategies. Within this common framework, each YVPC varies in its structure and methods, however all engage communities in multiple ways. We explore aspects of community engagement employed by three centers that operate in very different contexts: a rural county in North Carolina; a suburban area of Denver, Colorado; and an urban setting in Flint, Michigan. While previous research has addressed theories supporting community involvement in youth violence prevention, there has been less attention to the implementation challenges of achieving and sustaining participation. In three case examples, we describe the foci and methods for community engagement in diverse YVPC sites and detail the barriers and facilitating factors that have influenced implementation. Just as intervention programs may need to be adapted in order to meet the needs of specific populations, methods of community engagement must be tailored to the context in which they occur. We discuss case examples of community engagement in areas with varying geographies, histories, and racial and ethnic compositions. Each setting presents distinct challenges and opportunities for conducting collaborative violence prevention initiatives and for adapting engagement methods to diverse communities. Although approaches may vary depending upon local contexts, there are certain principles that appear to be common across cultures and geography: trust, transparency, communication, commitment. We also discuss the importance of flexibility in community engagement efforts.

Addressing the nation's physician workforce needs: The Society of General Internal Medicine (SGIM) recommendations on graduate medical education reform.

PubMed

Jackson, Angela; Baron, Robert B; Jaeger, Jeffrey; Liebow, Mark; Plews-Ogan, Margaret; Schwartz, Mark D

2014-11-01

The Graduate Medical Education (GME) system in the United States (US) has garnered worldwide respect, graduating over 25,000 new physicians from over 8,000 residency and fellowship programs annually. GME is the portal of entry to medical practice and licensure in the US, and the pathway through which resident physicians develop the competence to practice independently and further develop their career plans. The number and specialty distribution of available GME positions shapes the overall composition of our national workforce; however, GME is failing to provide appropriate programs that support the delivery of our society's system of healthcare. This paper, prepared by the Health Policy Education Subcommittee of the Society of General Internal Medicine (SGIM) and unanimously endorsed by SGIM's Council, outlines a set of recommendations on how to reform the GME system to best prepare a physician workforce that can provide high quality, high value, population-based, and patient-centered health care, aligned with the dynamic needs of our nation's healthcare delivery system. These recommendations include: accurate workforce needs assessment, broadened GME funding sources, increased transparency of the use of GME dollars, and implementation of incentives to increase the accountability of GME-funded programs for the preparation and specialty selection of their program graduates.

Finding Resolution for the Responsible Transparency of Economic Models in Health and Medicine.

PubMed

Padula, William V; McQueen, Robert Brett; Pronovost, Peter J

2017-11-01

The Second Panel on Cost-Effectiveness in Health and Medicine recommendations for conduct, methodological practices, and reporting of cost-effectiveness analyses has a number of questions unanswered with respect to the implementation of transparent, open source code interface for economic models. The possibility of making economic model source code could be positive and progressive for the field; however, several unintended consequences of this system should be first considered before complete implementation of this model. First, there is the concern regarding intellectual property rights that modelers have to their analyses. Second, the open source code could make analyses more accessible to inexperienced modelers, leading to inaccurate or misinterpreted results. We propose several resolutions to these concerns. The field should establish a licensing system of open source code such that the model originators maintain control of the code use and grant permissions to other investigators who wish to use it. The field should also be more forthcoming towards the teaching of cost-effectiveness analysis in medical and health services education so that providers and other professionals are familiar with economic modeling and able to conduct analyses with open source code. These types of unintended consequences need to be fully considered before the field's preparedness to move forward into an era of model transparency with open source code.

Perceived impact of human subjects protection training on community partners in community-based participatory research.

PubMed

Hawley, Nancy C; Wieland, Mark L; Weis, Jennifer A; Sia, Irene G

2014-01-01

Human subjects protection training (HSPT) is a requirement of institutional review boards (IRBs) for individuals who engage in research. The lack of HSPT among community partners may contribute to power imbalance between community and academic members of community-based participatory research (CBPR) partnerships. The Rochester Healthy Community Partnership (RHCP) is an established CBPR partnership in Minnesota that works primarily with immigrant and refugee populations. We sought to describe the implementation and evaluation of HSPT among community members of a CBPR partnership. Seven community partners participated in HSPT through adaptation of an existing institutional program. Evaluation of program acceptability was measured through a 5-item survey (5-point Likert scales). A focus group with all seven participants was conducted to evaluate the impact of training on perceptions of research, characteristics of a successful program, and potential value of training to CBPR partnerships. Coding and inductive analysis were done on the transcript with NVIVO-9 software. The HSPT program was highly acceptable (mean score, 4.5 ± 0.2). Focus groups revealed that training implementation should be done as a cohesive group with the opportunity to discuss concepts as they pertain to partnership projects. Training fostered an encouraging and safe environment, accommodated diverse learning styles, and promoted interaction. Participants reported improved trust in research as a result of the training. Perceived impact of the training on the CBPR partnership included improved transparency and enhanced camaraderie while establishing essential knowledge required for community leaders. HSPT is feasible among community members of a CBPR partnership, and may improve perceptions of research while strengthening capacity of partnerships to impact community health.

Letting the daylight in: Reviewing the reviewers and other ways to maximize transparency in science

PubMed Central

Wicherts, Jelte M.; Kievit, Rogier A.; Bakker, Marjan; Borsboom, Denny

2012-01-01

With the emergence of online publishing, opportunities to maximize transparency of scientific research have grown considerably. However, these possibilities are still only marginally used. We argue for the implementation of (1) peer-reviewed peer review, (2) transparent editorial hierarchies, and (3) online data publication. First, peer-reviewed peer review entails a community-wide review system in which reviews are published online and rated by peers. This ensures accountability of reviewers, thereby increasing academic quality of reviews. Second, reviewers who write many highly regarded reviews may move to higher editorial positions. Third, online publication of data ensures the possibility of independent verification of inferential claims in published papers. This counters statistical errors and overly positive reporting of statistical results. We illustrate the benefits of these strategies by discussing an example in which the classical publication system has gone awry, namely controversial IQ research. We argue that this case would have likely been avoided using more transparent publication practices. We argue that the proposed system leads to better reviews, meritocratic editorial hierarchies, and a higher degree of replicability of statistical analyses. PMID:22536180

Kernel-based Linux emulation for Plan 9.

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

Minnich, Ronald G.

2010-09-01

CNKemu is a kernel-based system for the 9k variant of the Plan 9 kernel. It is designed to provide transparent binary support for programs compiled for IBM's Compute Node Kernel (CNK) on the Blue Gene series of supercomputers. This support allows users to build applications with the standard Blue Gene toolchain, including C++ and Fortran compilers. While the CNK is not Linux, IBM designed the CNK so that the user interface has much in common with the Linux 2.0 system call interface. The Plan 9 CNK emulator hence provides the foundation of kernel-based Linux system call support on Plan 9.more » In this paper we discuss cnkemu's implementation and some of its more interesting features, such as the ability to easily intermix Plan 9 and Linux system calls.« less

The Australian model of immunization advice and vaccine funding.

PubMed

Nolan, Terry M

2010-04-19

The Australian Government has implemented new arrangements for public funding of vaccines over the past 5 years. By utilising the standard Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) application process, whether for funding under the National Immunisation Program Schedule (NIP) or under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), a predictable and transparent process for vaccine funding recommendations has been established. This process uses the high-level technical resources available through the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) to ensure that both vaccine manufacturers and the PBAC are optimally informed about all relevant aspects of population benefits and delivery of vaccines. ATAGI has a long-standing and mutually beneficial dialogue with State and Territory Governments, providers, and vaccine manufacturers to ensure that pipeline awareness, supply issues, and all relevant scientific and clinical details are well understood. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Clouds distributed operating system - Functional description, implementation details and related work

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dasgupta, Partha; Leblanc, Richard J., Jr.; Appelbe, William F.

1988-01-01

Clouds is an operating system in a novel class of distributed operating systems providing the integration, reliability, and structure that makes a distributed system usable. Clouds is designed to run on a set of general purpose computers that are connected via a medium-of-high speed local area network. The system structuring paradigm chosen for the Clouds operating system, after substantial research, is an object/thread model. All instances of services, programs and data in Clouds are encapsulated in objects. The concept of persistent objects does away with the need for file systems, and replaces it with a more powerful concept, namely the object system. The facilities in Clouds include integration of resources through location transparency; support for various types of atomic operations, including conventional transactions; advanced support for achieving fault tolerance; and provisions for dynamic reconfiguration.

[Public reporting of the Californian "pay for performance" conducted by the Integrated Healthcare Association (IHA)].

PubMed

Emmert, M; Schöffski, O

2007-01-01

In Germany, there is little transparency when it comes to quality of care of national health care providers. The population has hardly any opportunity to identify well-performing health-care providers. Therefore, the emerging quality improvement initiative "Pay for Performance (P4P)" developed in California, USA is examined with regard to an implementation into the German health care sector. This program wants to achieve higher levels of health care by setting both goal-oriented financial and non-financial incentives. Therefore, performance-based payment is combined with Public Reporting of the measured quality of care. As people can be influenced by the information provided, Public Reporting is supposed to have a positive effect on the quality of treatment. Published data to the American population will be highlighted as well as indications and examinations included in the P4P program. Also, it will be shown how the performance of health care providers is determined. Since published performance results can be considered not only for a specific indication but also as a whole, patients have the opportunity to choose a well-performing health-care provider, according to their specific requirements. Thus, Public Reporting might be regarded as an effective method in order to improve the quality of care provided by health-care providers. Public Reporting in P4P is already conducted in a differentiated but also in a broad context. In the development of this key success element, many stakeholders have been involved, including health-care providers. So, the presented way of Public Reporting can be regarded as a business case to learn from with regard to more transparency in the German health-care sector.

An Effective Health and Medical Technical Authority

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fogarty, Jennifer A.

2009-01-01

The NASA Governance model directed the formation of three Technical Authorities, Engineering; Safety and Mission Assurance; and Health and Medical, to ensure that risks are identified and adjudicated efficiently and transparently in concert with the spaceflight programs and projects. The Health and Medical Technical Authority (HMTA) has been implemented at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) and consists of the Chief Medical Office (CMO), the Deputy CMO, and HMTA Delegates. The JSC HMTA achieves the goals of risk identification and adjudication through the discharge of the appropriate technical expertise to human space flight programs and projects and the escalation of issues within program and technical authority boards. The JSC HMTA relies on subject matter experts (SMEs) in the Space Life Sciences Directorate at JSC as well as experts from other Centers to work crew health and performance issues at the technical level, develop requirements, oversee implementation and validation of requirements, and identify risks and non-compliances. Once a risk or potential noncompliance has been identified and reported to the programs or projects, the JSC HMTA begins to track it and closely monitor the program's or project's response. As a risk is developed or a non-compliance negotiated, positions from various levels of decision makers are sought at the program and project control boards. The HMTA may support a program or project position if it is satisfied with the decision making and vetting processes (ex. the subject matter expert voiced his/her concerns and all dissenting opinions were documented) and finds that the position both acknowledges the risk and cost of the mitigation and resolves the issue without changing NASA risk posture. The HMTA may disagree with a program or project position if the NASA risk posture has been elevated or obfuscated. If the HMTA does disagree with the program or project position, it will appeal to successively higher levels of authority so that risk acceptance and risk trades will be acknowledged and sanctioned at the highest appropriate level; this includes Program Managers, Mission Directorate Associate Administrators and the Agency Administrator.

77 FR 22042 - Self-Regulatory Organizations; The NASDAQ Stock Market LLC; Notice of Filing of Proposed Rule...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-04-12

... investor confidence and market integrity, the Exchange designed the MQP Program to be highly transparent...), respectively. Background The proposed Market Quality Program is a voluntary program designed to promote market... obligations of listed Companies. The Rule 5300, 5400, and 5500 Series contain the specific quantitative...

There Is More to Transparency than Meets the Eye: The Impact of Mandatory Disclosure Laws Aimed at Promoting Breastfeeding.

PubMed

Lytton, Timothy D; Dennison, Barbara A; Nguyen, Trang Q; Jurkowski, Janine M

2014-01-01

Requiring hospitals to inform patients of clinical best practices and to disclose performance data are two common regulatory strategies for improving healthcare. Proponents of such mandatory disclosure laws--sometimes referred to as "targeted transparency "--argue that they increase patient awareness and thereby create reputational incentives for hospitals to improve their performance. Evaluation of targeted transparency typically focuses on patient responses to information and changes in hospital behavior based on reputational concerns. This standard account, however, overlooks other important ways targeted transparency can influence hospital performance. This article presents a case study of disclosure laws designed to promote breastfeeding to illustrate how targeted transparency can influence hospitals independently of its effects on patients' choice of provider or hospitals' fear of losing business. We found that mandatory disclosure laws emboldened state regulators to take a more aggressive approach to enforcement of hospital regulations, empowered nurse managers to advocate more effectively within hospitals for changes in hospital policies, and enabled nurse managers to implement verifiable performance goals for clinical staff under their supervision. These findings suggest that the study of mandatory disclosure more generally--in areas such as financial regulation, environmental protection, food labeling, and workplace safety--would benefit by analyzing not only its influence on public awareness and its reputational effects but also how regulators use transparency laws and how managers within regulated entities employ the information that the laws provide.

Implementing large-scale workforce change: learning from 55 pilot sites of allied health workforce redesign in Queensland, Australia

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background Increasingly, health workforces are undergoing high-level ‘re-engineering’ to help them better meet the needs of the population, workforce and service delivery. Queensland Health implemented a large scale 5-year workforce redesign program across more than 13 health-care disciplines. This study synthesized the findings from this program to identify and codify mechanisms associated with successful workforce redesign to help inform other large workforce projects. Methods This study used Inductive Logic Reasoning (ILR), a process that uses logic models as the primary functional tool to develop theories of change, which are subsequently validated through proposition testing. Initial theories of change were developed from a systematic review of the literature and synthesized using a logic model. These theories of change were then developed into propositions and subsequently tested empirically against documentary, interview, and survey data from 55 projects in the workforce redesign program. Results Three overarching principles were identified that optimized successful workforce redesign: (1) drivers for change need to be close to practice; (2) contexts need to be supportive both at the local levels and legislatively; and (3) mechanisms should include appropriate engagement, resources to facilitate change management, governance, and support structures. Attendance to these factors was uniformly associated with success of individual projects. Conclusions ILR is a transparent and reproducible method for developing and testing theories of workforce change. Despite the heterogeneity of projects, professions, and approaches used, a consistent set of overarching principles underpinned success of workforce change interventions. These concepts have been operationalized into a workforce change checklist. PMID:24330616

Readiness for Delivering Digital Health at Scale: Lessons From a Longitudinal Qualitative Evaluation of a National Digital Health Innovation Program in the United Kingdom.

PubMed

Lennon, Marilyn R; Bouamrane, Matt-Mouley; Devlin, Alison M; O'Connor, Siobhan; O'Donnell, Catherine; Chetty, Ula; Agbakoba, Ruth; Bikker, Annemieke; Grieve, Eleanor; Finch, Tracy; Watson, Nicholas; Wyke, Sally; Mair, Frances S

2017-02-16

Digital health has the potential to support care delivery for chronic illness. Despite positive evidence from localized implementations, new technologies have proven slow to become accepted, integrated, and routinized at scale. The aim of our study was to examine barriers and facilitators to implementation of digital health at scale through the evaluation of a £37m national digital health program: ‟Delivering Assisted Living Lifestyles at Scale" (dallas) from 2012-2015. The study was a longitudinal qualitative, multi-stakeholder, implementation study. The methods included interviews (n=125) with key implementers, focus groups with consumers and patients (n=7), project meetings (n=12), field work or observation in the communities (n=16), health professional survey responses (n=48), and cross program documentary evidence on implementation (n=215). We used a sociological theory called normalization process theory (NPT) and a longitudinal (3 years) qualitative framework analysis approach. This work did not study a single intervention or population. Instead, we evaluated the processes (of designing and delivering digital health), and our outcomes were the identified barriers and facilitators to delivering and mainstreaming services and products within the mixed sector digital health ecosystem. We identified three main levels of issues influencing readiness for digital health: macro (market, infrastructure, policy), meso (organizational), and micro (professional or public). Factors hindering implementation included: lack of information technology (IT) infrastructure, uncertainty around information governance, lack of incentives to prioritize interoperability, lack of precedence on accountability within the commercial sector, and a market perceived as difficult to navigate. Factors enabling implementation were: clinical endorsement, champions who promoted digital health, and public and professional willingness. Although there is receptiveness to digital health, barriers to mainstreaming remain. Our findings suggest greater investment in national and local infrastructure, implementation of guidelines for the safe and transparent use and assessment of digital health, incentivization of interoperability, and investment in upskilling of professionals and the public would help support the normalization of digital health. These findings will enable researchers, health care practitioners, and policy makers to understand the current landscape and the actions required in order to prepare the market and accelerate uptake, and use of digital health and wellness services in context and at scale. ©Marilyn R Lennon, Matt-Mouley Bouamrane, Alison M Devlin, Siobhan O'Connor, Catherine O'Donnell, Ula Chetty, Ruth Agbakoba, Annemieke Bikker, Eleanor Grieve, Tracy Finch, Nicholas Watson, Sally Wyke, Frances S Mair. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (http://www.jmir.org), 16.02.2017.

Fabrication of InGaZnO Nonvolatile Memory Devices at Low Temperature of 150 degrees C for Applications in Flexible Memory Displays and Transparency Coating on Plastic Substrates.

PubMed

Hanh, Nguyen Hong; Jang, Kyungsoo; Yi, Junsin

2016-05-01

We directly deposited amorphous InGaZnO (a-IGZO) nonvolatile memory (NVM) devices with oxynitride-oxide-dioxide (OOO) stack structures on plastic substrate by a DC pulsed magnetron sputtering and inductively coupled plasma chemical vapor deposition (ICPCVD) system, using a low-temperature of 150 degrees C. The fabricated bottom gate a-IGZO NVM devices have a wide memory window with a low operating voltage during programming and erasing, due to an effective control of the gate dielectrics. In addition, after ten years, the memory device retains a memory window of over 73%, with a programming duration of only 1 ms. Moreover, the a-IGZO films show high optical transmittance of over 85%, and good uniformity with a root mean square (RMS) roughness of 0.26 nm. This film is a promising candidate to achieve flexible displays and transparency on plastic substrates because of the possibility of low-temperature deposition, and the high transparent properties of a-IGZO films. These results demonstrate that the a-IGZO NVM devices obtained at low-temperature have a suitable programming and erasing efficiency for data storage under low-voltage conditions, in combination with excellent charge retention characteristics, and thus show great potential application in flexible memory displays.

Insights in Public Health: Protecting Public Health Through Governmental Transparency: How the Hawai'i Department of Health's New "Stoplight" Placarding Program is Attempting to Influence Behavioral Change in Hawai'i's Food Industry.

PubMed

Oshiro, Peter

2015-08-01

Reducing the occurrence of and influencing the rapid correction of food illness risk factors is a common goal for all governmental food regulatory programs nationwide. Foodborne illness in the United States is a major cause of personal distress, preventable illness, and death. To improve public health outcomes, additional workforce was required due to long standing staffing shortages and was obtained partially through consolidation of the Hawai'i Department of Health's (HDOH) two food safety programs, the Sanitation Branch, and the Food & Drug Branch in July 2012, and through legislation that amended existing statutes governing the use of food establishment permit fees. Additionally, a more transparent food establishment grading system was developed after extensive work with industry partners based on three possible placards issued after routine inspections: green, yellow, and red. From late July 2014 to May 2015, there were 6,559 food establishments inspected statewide using the placard system with 79% receiving a green, 21% receiving a yellow, and no red placards issued. Sufficient workforce to allow timely inspections, continued governmental transparency, and use of new technologies are important to improve food safety for the public.

Perovskite Solar Cells with Large-Area CVD-Graphene for Tandem Solar Cells.

PubMed

Lang, Felix; Gluba, Marc A; Albrecht, Steve; Rappich, Jörg; Korte, Lars; Rech, Bernd; Nickel, Norbert H

2015-07-16

Perovskite solar cells with transparent contacts may be used to compensate for thermalization losses of silicon solar cells in tandem devices. This offers a way to outreach stagnating efficiencies. However, perovskite top cells in tandem structures require contact layers with high electrical conductivity and optimal transparency. We address this challenge by implementing large-area graphene grown by chemical vapor deposition as a highly transparent electrode in perovskite solar cells, leading to identical charge collection efficiencies. Electrical performance of solar cells with a graphene-based contact reached those of solar cells with standard gold contacts. The optical transmission by far exceeds that of reference devices and amounts to 64.3% below the perovskite band gap. Finally, we demonstrate a four-terminal tandem device combining a high band gap graphene-contacted perovskite top solar cell (Eg = 1.6 eV) with an amorphous/crystalline silicon bottom solar cell (Eg = 1.12 eV).

It’s Time to Shine the Light on Direct-to-Consumer Advertising

PubMed Central

Mackey, Tim K.; Liang, Bryan A.

2015-01-01

Pharmaceutical marketing is undergoing a transition as the business, delivery, and consumption of health care have increasingly become part of a growing digital landscape. Changes in pharmaceutical promotion also coincide with federal “sunshine” regulations newly implemented under the Affordable Care Act that require disclosure of certain marketing and industry payments to physicians. Collectively, these trends could lead to fundamental shifts in physician-directed and direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) that have yet to be adequately identified or explored. In response, we advocate for greater DTCA transparency, especially in the emerging digital forms of DTCA, to complement forthcoming sunshine transparency data. This will allow more robust study and understanding of changes in overall pharmaceutical marketing trends and their impact on health care consumption and behavior. This can also lead to more targeted state and federal policy interventions leveraging existing federal transparency regulations to ensure appropriate marketing, sales, and consumption of pharmaceutical products. PMID:25583897

Self-activated ultrahigh chemosensitivity of oxide thin film nanostructures for transparent sensors

PubMed Central

Moon, Hi Gyu; Shim, Young-Soek; Kim, Do Hong; Jeong, Hu Young; Jeong, Myoungho; Jung, Joo Young; Han, Seung Min; Kim, Jong Kyu; Kim, Jin-Sang; Park, Hyung-Ho; Lee, Jong-Heun; Tuller, Harry L.; Yoon, Seok-Jin; Jang, Ho Won

2012-01-01

One of the top design priorities for semiconductor chemical sensors is developing simple, low-cost, sensitive and reliable sensors to be built in handheld devices. However, the need to implement heating elements in sensor devices, and the resulting high power consumption, remains a major obstacle for the realization of miniaturized and integrated chemoresistive thin film sensors based on metal oxides. Here we demonstrate structurally simple but extremely efficient all oxide chemoresistive sensors with ~90% transmittance at visible wavelengths. Highly effective self-activation in anisotropically self-assembled nanocolumnar tungsten oxide thin films on glass substrate with indium-tin oxide electrodes enables ultrahigh response to nitrogen dioxide and volatile organic compounds with detection limits down to parts per trillion levels and power consumption less than 0.2 microwatts. Beyond the sensing performance, high transparency at visible wavelengths creates opportunities for their use in transparent electronic circuitry and optoelectronic devices with avenues for further functional convergence. PMID:22905319

DebtRank-transparency: Controlling systemic risk in financial networks

PubMed Central

Thurner, Stefan; Poledna, Sebastian

2013-01-01

Nodes in a financial network, such as banks, cannot assess the true risks associated with lending to other nodes in the network, unless they have full information on the riskiness of all other nodes. These risks can be estimated by using network metrics (as DebtRank) of the interbank liability network. With a simple agent based model we show that systemic risk in financial networks can be drastically reduced by increasing transparency, i.e. making the DebtRank of individual banks visible to others, and by imposing a rule, that reduces interbank borrowing from systemically risky nodes. This scheme does not reduce the efficiency of the financial network, but fosters a more homogeneous risk-distribution within the system in a self-organized critical way. The reduction of systemic risk is due to a massive reduction of cascading failures in the transparent system. A regulation-policy implementation of the proposed scheme is discussed. PMID:23712454

History and Flight Devleopment of the Electrodynamic Dust Shield

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Johansen, Michael R.; Mackey, Paul J.; Hogue, Michael D.; Cox, Rachel E.; Phillips, James R., III; Calle, Carlos I.

2015-01-01

The surfaces of the moon, Mars, and that of some asteroids are covered with a layer of dust that may hinder robotic and human exploration missions. During the Apollo missions, for example, lunar dust caused a number of issues including vision obscuration, false instrument readings, contamination, and elevated temperatures. In fact, some equipment neared failure after only 75 hours on the lunar surface due to effects of lunar dust. NASA's Kennedy Space Center has developed an active technology to remove dust from surfaces during exploration missions. The Electrodynamic Dust Shield (EDS), which consists of a series of embedded electrodes in a high dielectric strength substrate, uses a low power, low frequency signal that produces an electric field wave that travels across the surface. This non-uniform electric field generates dielectrophoretic and electrostatic forces capable of moving dust out of these surfaces. Implementations of the EDS have been developed for solar radiators, optical systems, camera lenses, visors, windows, thermal radiators, and fabrics The EDS implementation for transparent applications (solar panels, optical systems, windows, etc.) uses transparent indium tin oxide electrodes on glass or transparent lm. Extensive testing was performed in a roughly simulated lunar environment (one-sixth gravity at 1 mPa atmospheric pressure) with lunar simulant dust. EDS panels over solar radiators showed dust removal that restored solar panel output reaching values very close to their initial output. EDS implementations for thermal radiator protection (metallic spacecraft surfaces with white thermal paint and reflective films) were also extensively tested at similar high vacuum conditions. Reflectance spectra for these types of implementations showed dust removal efficiencies in the 96% to 99% range. These tests indicate that the EDS technology is now at a Technology Readiness Level of 4 to 5. As part of EDS development, a flight version is being prepared for several flight opportunities. The flight version of the EDS will incorporate significantly smaller electronics, with an expected mass and volume of 500 g and 350 cm(exp. 3) respectively. One of the opportunities is an International Space Station (ISS) experiment: Materials for International Space Station Experiment 10 (MISSE-10). This experiment aims to verify the EDS can withstand the harsh environment of space and will look to closely replicate the solar environment experienced on the moon. A second flight opportunity exists to provide an EDS to several companies as part of NASA's Lunar CATALYST program. The current mission concept would fly the EDS on the footpad of one of the Lunar CATALYST vehicles. Dust will likely deposit on the footpad through normal surface rover activities, but also upon landing where lunar dust is expected to be uplifted. To analyze the e effectiveness of the EDS system, photographs of the footpad with one of the spacecrafts onboard cameras are anticipated. If successful in these test flights, the EDS technology will be ready to be used in the protection of actual mission equipment for future NASA and commercial missions to the moon, asteroids, and Mars.

Negotiating action

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

2017-12-01

After years of working towards a climate accord, the Paris Agreement of 2015 marked the shift from negotiating to reach consensus on climate action to implementation of such action. The challenge now is to ensure transparency in the processes and identify the details of what is required.

Microsimulation Modeling for Health Decision Sciences Using R: A Tutorial.

PubMed

Krijkamp, Eline M; Alarid-Escudero, Fernando; Enns, Eva A; Jalal, Hawre J; Hunink, M G Myriam; Pechlivanoglou, Petros

2018-04-01

Microsimulation models are becoming increasingly common in the field of decision modeling for health. Because microsimulation models are computationally more demanding than traditional Markov cohort models, the use of computer programming languages in their development has become more common. R is a programming language that has gained recognition within the field of decision modeling. It has the capacity to perform microsimulation models more efficiently than software commonly used for decision modeling, incorporate statistical analyses within decision models, and produce more transparent models and reproducible results. However, no clear guidance for the implementation of microsimulation models in R exists. In this tutorial, we provide a step-by-step guide to build microsimulation models in R and illustrate the use of this guide on a simple, but transferable, hypothetical decision problem. We guide the reader through the necessary steps and provide generic R code that is flexible and can be adapted for other models. We also show how this code can be extended to address more complex model structures and provide an efficient microsimulation approach that relies on vectorization solutions.

Engagement of scientific community and transparency in C accounting: the Brazilian case for anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions from land use, land-use change and forestry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bustamante, M. M. C.; Silva, J. S. O.; Cantinho, R. Z.; Shimbo, J. Z.; Oliveira, P. V. C.; Santos, M. M. O.; Ometto, J. P. H. B.; Cruz, M. R.; Mello, T. R. B.; Godiva, D.; Nobre, C. A.

2018-05-01

To effectively implement the Paris Agreement, capacity in carbon accounting must be strengthened in the developing world, and partnerships with local academic institutions can do the accounting for governments and fill the capacity gap. This paper highlights the Brazilian case, focusing on ways in which climate change science information and transparency are being incorporated in national C accounting initiatives, particularly the national inventory of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and removals. We report how the third inventory for the sector of land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) was implemented to address scientific challenges involved in the monitoring of carbon stocks and land-use changes of diverse and complex biomes while addressing international and national policy demands (report and decision support) and transparency to various stakeholders. GHG emissions and removals associated with 2002–2010 carbon changes in aboveground, belowground biomass, necromass and soil carbon by land use and land cover changes were estimated for all Brazilian biomes, and for the Amazon estimates were also presented for the periods of 2002–2005 and 2005–2010. The inventory improved regional estimates for carbon stock and national emission factors with the support and engagement of the scientific community. Incorporation of local context is essential to reduce uncertainties and properly monitor efforts to contribute to GHG emission/reduction targets. To promote transparency and make information more accessible, the national inventory results were made available by the National Emissions Registry System (SIRENE). This system was built to support climate change policies as an important legal apparatus and by increasing access to emissions and land-use change data.

Photoresist-Free Patterning by Mechanical Abrasion of Water-Soluble Lift-Off Resists and Bare Substrates: Toward Green Fabrication of Transparent Electrodes

PubMed Central

Printz, Adam D.; Chan, Esther; Liong, Celine; Martinez, René S.; Lipomi, Darren J.

2013-01-01

This paper describes the fabrication of transparent electrodes based on grids of copper microwires using a non-photolithographic process. The process—“abrasion lithography”—takes two forms. In the first implementation (Method I), a water-soluble commodity polymer film is abraded with a sharp tool, coated with a conductive film, and developed by immersion in water. Water dissolves the polymer film and lifts off the conductive film in the unabraded areas. In the second implementation (Method II), the substrate is abraded directly by scratching with a sharp tool (i.e., no polymer film necessary). The abraded regions of the substrate are recessed and roughened. Following deposition of a conductive film, the lower profile and roughened topography in the abraded regions prevents mechanical exfoliation of the conductive film using adhesive tape, and thus the conductive film remains only where the substrate is scratched. As an application, conductive grids exhibit average sheet resistances of 17 Ω sq–1 and transparencies of 86% are fabricated and used as the anode in organic photovoltaic cells in concert with the conductive polymer, poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS). Compared to devices in which PEDOT:PSS alone serves as an anode, devices comprising grids of copper/nickel microwires and PEDOT:PSS exhibit lowered series resistance, which manifests in greater fill factor and power conversion efficiency. This simple method of forming micropatterns could find use in applications where cost and environmental impact should be minimized, especially as a potential replacement for the transparent electrode indium tin oxide (ITO) in thin-film electronics over large areas (i.e., solar cells) or as a method of rapid prototyping for laboratory-scale devices. PMID:24358321

[Evaluation of methodological quality in published RCTs on cataract surgery : Pilot study on the degree of adherence to CONSORT statement requirements and their qualitative validity].

PubMed

Baulig, C; Krummenauer, F; Knippschild, S

2018-01-01

The CONSORT statement can be considered as a guideline to ensure transparency in the reporting of randomized clinical trials (RCT), in addition to specific author instructions and requirements of journals. It provides a total of 25 criteria and 12 additional subcriteria on methodological and regulatorical determinants of clinical trials. The availability of the CONSORT recommendations, however, does not necessarily imply adherence to their obligations and correct realisation of the latter from a methodological perspective, so that even in ophthalmology a lack of transparency in trial reporting cannot be excluded. The question was whether a consistent consideration of the CONSORT checklist criteria by authors actually implied transparent reporting of underlying study results. This pilot study was based on a random sample of six published RCTs on cataract surgery extracted from an existing trial publication register. Compliance with each of the 25 CONSORT criteria and its 12 subcriteria and the content accuracy of the latter were independently assessed by two parallel raters for the six trial publications. The median compliance with the 37 CONSORT criteria and subcriteria was 62% [min-max 48-81%]; the median fraction of their correct implementation was 47% [min-max 34-69%]. Promotion of transparent reporting by means of the CONSORT statement appears to be problematic in implementation. There is a discrepancy between information as required by CONSORT and the content accuracy of its actual presentation. Thus, in particular, reviewers of clinical trial publications should not only check for the presence of data to be provided according to CONSORT, but also verify the meaningfulness in the respective context, at least on a random basis.

Photoresist-free patterning by mechanical abrasion of water-soluble lift-off resists and bare substrates: toward green fabrication of transparent electrodes.

PubMed

Printz, Adam D; Chan, Esther; Liong, Celine; Martinez, René S; Lipomi, Darren J

2013-01-01

This paper describes the fabrication of transparent electrodes based on grids of copper microwires using a non-photolithographic process. The process--"abrasion lithography"--takes two forms. In the first implementation (Method I), a water-soluble commodity polymer film is abraded with a sharp tool, coated with a conductive film, and developed by immersion in water. Water dissolves the polymer film and lifts off the conductive film in the unabraded areas. In the second implementation (Method II), the substrate is abraded directly by scratching with a sharp tool (i.e., no polymer film necessary). The abraded regions of the substrate are recessed and roughened. Following deposition of a conductive film, the lower profile and roughened topography in the abraded regions prevents mechanical exfoliation of the conductive film using adhesive tape, and thus the conductive film remains only where the substrate is scratched. As an application, conductive grids exhibit average sheet resistances of 17 Ω sq(-1) and transparencies of 86% are fabricated and used as the anode in organic photovoltaic cells in concert with the conductive polymer, poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS). Compared to devices in which PEDOT:PSS alone serves as an anode, devices comprising grids of copper/nickel microwires and PEDOT:PSS exhibit lowered series resistance, which manifests in greater fill factor and power conversion efficiency. This simple method of forming micropatterns could find use in applications where cost and environmental impact should be minimized, especially as a potential replacement for the transparent electrode indium tin oxide (ITO) in thin-film electronics over large areas (i.e., solar cells) or as a method of rapid prototyping for laboratory-scale devices.

Explicitly covariant dispersion relations and self-induced transparency

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mahajan, S. M.; Asenjo, Felipe A.

2017-02-01

Explicitly covariant dispersion relations for a variety of plasma waves in unmagnetized and magnetized plasmas are derived in a systematic manner from a fully covariant plasma formulation. One needs to invoke relatively little known invariant combinations constructed from the ambient electromagnetic fields and the wave vector to accomplish the program. The implication of this work applied to the self-induced transparency effect is discussed. Some problems arising from the inconsistent use of relativity are pointed out.

Measurement of Refractive Index Using a Michelson Interferometer.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fendley, J. J.

1982-01-01

Describes a novel and simple method of measuring the refractive index of transparent plates using a Michelson interferometer. Since it is necessary to use a computer program when determining the refractive index, undergraduates could be given the opportunity of writing their own programs. (Author/JN)

Assuring data transparency through design methodologies

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Williams, Allen

1990-01-01

This paper addresses the role of design methodologies and practices in the assurance of technology transparency. The development of several subsystems on large, long life cycle government programs was analyzed to glean those characteristics in the design, development, test, and evaluation that precluded or enabled the insertion of new technology. The programs examined were Minuteman, DSP, B1-B, and space shuttle. All these were long life cycle, technology-intensive programs. The design methodologies (or lack thereof) and design practices for each were analyzed in terms of the success or failure in incorporating evolving technology. Common elements contributing to the success or failure were extracted and compared to current methodologies being proposed by the Department of Defense and NASA. The relevance of these practices to the design and deployment of Space Station Freedom were evaluated. In particular, appropriate methodologies now being used on the core development contract were examined.

The IARC monographs: critics and controversy.

PubMed

Samet, Jonathan M

2015-07-01

The monograph program of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), which relies on the efforts of volunteer Working Groups, uses a transparent approach to evaluate the carcinogenicity of agents for which scoping has determined that there is sufficient evidence to warrant a review. Because of the potentially powerful implications of the conclusions of the monographs and the sometimes challenging nature of the evidence reviewed, the monographs and the IARC process have been criticized from time to time. This commentary describes the IARC monograph process and addresses recent criticisms of the program, drawing on a recent defense of the program authored by 124 researchers. These authors concluded that the IARC processes are robust and transparent and not flawed and biased as suggested by some critics. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Application Transparent HTTP Over a Disruption Tolerant Smartnet

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-09-01

American Standard Code for Information Interchange BP Bundle Protocol BPA bundle protocol agent CLA convergence layer adapters CPU central processing...forwarding them through the plugin pipeline. The initial version of the DTNInput plugin uses the BBN Spindle bundle protocol agent ( BPA ) implementation

Developing and implementing a computerized nursing quality control system in a tertiary general medical center in Israel.

PubMed

Kagan, Ilya; Cohen, Rachel; Fish, Miri; Mezare, Henia Perry

2014-01-01

This article describes the development and implementation of the Nursing Quality Indicators Scale and a quality control system for hospital nursing care, which allows universal access to all external and internal audit results, thus ensuring complete data transparency. Standardized indicators make departments' performance comparable. Key to the new system is nurses' self-audit and responsibility for making quality improvements at the ward level.

Multiple transparency windows and Fano interferences induced by dipole-dipole couplings

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Diniz, E. C.; Borges, H. S.; Villas-Boas, C. J.

2018-04-01

We investigate the optical properties of a two-level system (TLS) coupled to a one-dimensional array of N other TLSs with dipole-dipole coupling between the first neighbors. The first TLS is probed by a weak field, and we assume that it has a decay rate much greater than the decay rates of the other TLSs. For N =1 and in the limit of a Rabi frequency of a probe field much smaller than the dipole-dipole coupling, the optical response of the first TLS, i.e., its absorption and dispersion, is equivalent to that of a three-level atomic system in the configuration which allows one to observe the electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) phenomenon. Thus, here we investigate an induced transparency phenomenon where the dipole-dipole coupling plays the same role as the control field in EIT in three-level atoms. We describe this physical phenomenon, named a dipole-induced transparency (DIT), and investigate how it scales with the number of coupled TLSs. In particular, we have shown that the number of TLSs coupled to the main TLS is exactly equal to the number of transparency windows. The ideas presented here are very general and can be implemented in different physical systems, such as an array of superconducting qubits, or an array of quantum dots, spin chains, optical lattices, etc.

Implementation of evidence-based humanitarian programs in military-led missions: part I. Qualitative gap analysis of current military and international aid programs.

PubMed

Reaves, Erik J; Schor, Kenneth W; Burkle, Frederick M

2008-12-01

A recent Department of Defense instruction mandates country-specific assessments, identification of interventions, and development of guidance for Department of Defense to plan, train, and prepare for the provision of humanitarian assistance in stability operations. It also directs the use of outcome-based measures of effectiveness and the establishment of processes facilitating transparency of information. Whereas this would align military-led projects closer to the standards of the international aid community, how this process will be developed and implemented within the military has not yet been determined. To begin developing an evidence-based program for military-led humanitarian aid, we conducted a qualitative gap analysis comparing information from a Web search of Department of Defense medical after-action reports, lessons learned, and expert interviews with the internationally accepted standards in humanitarian assistance impact assessment. There is a major gap in the ability of the Department of Defense to assess the impact of humanitarian assistance in stability operations compared with international development standards. Of the 1000 Department of Defense after-action reports and lessons learned reviewed, only 7 (0.7%) reports refer to, but do not discuss, impact assessment or outcome-based measures of effectiveness. This investigation shows that the Department of Defense humanitarian assistance operations are, historically, recorded without documentation using quantifiable health data identifying which aid activities contributed directly to desired outcomes or favorable public opinion, and rarely are analyzed for effectiveness. As humanitarian assistance operations assume an ever greater role in US military strategy, it is imperative that we investigate useful impact assessment models to meet mission directives and, more important, to maximize coordination in a necessarily integrated and cooperative development environment. These findings provide baseline knowledge for the implementation of an evidence-based impact assessment process to validate future Department of Defense humanitarian assistance operations.

Designing a Hydro-Economic Collaborative Computer Decision Support System: Approaches, Best Practices, Lessons Learned, and Future Trends

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rosenberg, D. E.

2008-12-01

Designing and implementing a hydro-economic computer model to support or facilitate collaborative decision making among multiple stakeholders or users can be challenging and daunting. Collaborative modeling is distinguished and more difficult than non-collaborative efforts because of a large number of users with different backgrounds, disagreement or conflict among stakeholders regarding problem definitions, modeling roles, and analysis methods, plus evolving ideas of model scope and scale and needs for information and analysis as stakeholders interact, use the model, and learn about the underlying water system. This presentation reviews the lifecycle for collaborative model making and identifies some key design decisions that stakeholders and model developers must make to develop robust and trusted, verifiable and transparent, integrated and flexible, and ultimately useful models. It advances some best practices to implement and program these decisions. Among these best practices are 1) modular development of data- aware input, storage, manipulation, results recording and presentation components plus ways to couple and link to other models and tools, 2) explicitly structure both input data and the meta data that describes data sources, who acquired it, gaps, and modifications or translations made to put the data in a form usable by the model, 3) provide in-line documentation on model inputs, assumptions, calculations, and results plus ways for stakeholders to document their own model use and share results with others, and 4) flexibly program with graphical object-oriented properties and elements that allow users or the model maintainers to easily see and modify the spatial, temporal, or analysis scope as the collaborative process moves forward. We draw on examples of these best practices from the existing literature, the author's prior work, and some new applications just underway. The presentation concludes by identifying some future directions for collaborative modeling including geo-spatial display and analysis, real-time operations, and internet-based tools plus the design and programming needed to implement these capabilities.

76 FR 58252 - Applications for New Awards; Statewide, Longitudinal Data Systems Program

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-09-20

... DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Applications for New Awards; Statewide, Longitudinal Data Systems Program... analysis and informed decision- making at all levels of the education system, increase the efficiency with... accountability systems, and simplify the processes used by SEAs to make education data transparent through...

Standardization of blood smears prepared in transparent acetate: an alternative method for the microscopic diagnosis of malaria.

PubMed

Mello, Marcia B C; Luz, Francisco C; Leal-Santos, Fabio A; Alves, Eduardo R; Gasquez, Thamires M; Fontes, Cor J F

2014-06-17

Due to students' initial inexperience, slides are frequently broken and blood smears are damaged in microscopy training, leading to the need for their constant replacement. To minimize this problem a method of preparing blood smears on transparent acetate sheets was developed with the goal of implementing appropriate and more readily available teaching resources for the microscopic diagnosis of malaria. Acetate sheets derived from polyester were used to standardize the preparation and staining of thin and thick blood smears on transparent acetate sheets. Thick and thin blood smears were also prepared using the conventional method on glass slides. The staining was conducted using Giemsa staining for the thick and thin smears. Microscopic examination (1,000x) of the thin and thick blood smears prepared on transparent acetate produced high-quality images for both the parasites and the blood cells. The smears showed up on a clear background and with minimal dye precipitation. It was possible to clearly identify the main morphological characteristics of Plasmodium, neutrophils and platelets. After 12 months of storage, there was no change in image quality or evidence of fungal colonization. Preparation of thin and thick blood smears in transparent acetate for the microscopic diagnosis of malaria does not compromise the morphological and staining characteristics of the parasites or blood cells. It is reasonable to predict the applicability of transparent acetate in relevant situations such as the training of qualified professionals for the microscopic diagnosis of malaria and the preparation of positive specimens for competency assessment (quality control) of professionals and services involved in the diagnosis of malaria.

Chem Ed Compacts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wolf, Walter A., Ed.

1978-01-01

Presents four simple laboratory procedures for: preparation of organometallic compounds, a realistic qualitative organic analysis project, a computer program to plot potentiometric titration curves, and preparation of stereoscopic transparencies. (SL)

Transparent Large-Area MoS2 Phototransistors with Inkjet-Printed Components on Flexible Platforms.

PubMed

Kim, Tae-Young; Ha, Jewook; Cho, Kyungjune; Pak, Jinsu; Seo, Jiseok; Park, Jongjang; Kim, Jae-Keun; Chung, Seungjun; Hong, Yongtaek; Lee, Takhee

2017-10-24

Two-dimensional (2D) transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) have gained considerable attention as an emerging semiconductor due to their promising atomically thin film characteristics with good field-effect mobility and a tunable band gap energy. However, their electronic applications have been generally realized with conventional inorganic electrodes and dielectrics implemented using conventional photolithography or transferring processes that are not compatible with large-area and flexible device applications. To facilitate the advantages of 2D TMDCs in practical applications, strategies for realizing flexible and transparent 2D electronics using low-temperature, large-area, and low-cost processes should be developed. Motivated by this challenge, we report fully printed transparent chemical vapor deposition (CVD)-synthesized monolayer molybdenum disulfide (MoS 2 ) phototransistor arrays on flexible polymer substrates. All the electronic components, including dielectric and electrodes, were directly deposited with mechanically tolerable organic materials by inkjet-printing technology onto transferred monolayer MoS 2 , and their annealing temperature of <180 °C allows the direct fabrication on commercial flexible substrates without additional assisted-structures. By integrating the soft organic components with ultrathin MoS 2 , the fully printed MoS 2 phototransistors exhibit excellent transparency and mechanically stable operation.

The Impact of Price Transparency for Surgical Services.

PubMed

Mehta, Ambar; Xu, Tim; Bai, Ge; Hawley, Kristy L; Makary, Martin A

2018-04-01

Increasing insurance deductibles have prompted some medical centers to initiate transparent pricing. However, the impact of price transparency (PT) on surgical volume, revenue, and patient satisfaction is unknown, along with the barriers to achieving PT. We identified ambulatory surgical centers in the Free Market Medical Association database that publicly list prices for surgical services online. Six of eight centers (75%) responded to our data collection inquiry. Among five centers that reported their patient volume and revenue after adopting PT, patient volume increased by a median of 50 per cent (range 10-200%) at one year. Four centers (80%) reported an increase in revenue by a median of 30 per cent (range 4-75%), whereas three centers (60%) experienced an increase in third-party administrator contracts with the average increase being seven new third-party administrator contracts (range = 2-12 contracts). Three centers (50%) reported a reduction in their administrative burden and five centers (83%) reported an increase in patient satisfaction and patient engagement after PT. The leading barrier reported to making prices transparent was discouragement from another practice, hospital, or insurance company. The findings of this preliminary study may help guide medical practices in designing and implementing PT strategies.

Addressing Medical Errors in Hand Surgery

PubMed Central

Johnson, Shepard P.; Adkinson, Joshua M.; Chung, Kevin C.

2014-01-01

Influential think-tank such as the Institute of Medicine has raised awareness about the implications of medical errors. In response, organizations, medical societies, and institutions have initiated programs to decrease the incidence and effects of these errors. Surgeons deal with the direct implications of adverse events involving patients. In addition to managing the physical consequences, they are confronted with ethical and social issues when caring for a harmed patient. Although there is considerable effort to implement system-wide changes, there is little guidance for hand surgeons on how to address medical errors. Admitting an error is difficult, but a transparent environment where patients are notified of errors and offered consolation and compensation is essential to maintain trust. Further, equipping hand surgeons with a guide for addressing medical errors will promote compassionate patient interaction, help identify system failures, provide learning points for safety improvement, and demonstrate a commitment to ethically responsible medical care. PMID:25154576

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

Fang, Aiman; Laguna, Ignacio; Sato, Kento

Future high-performance computing systems may face frequent failures with their rapid increase in scale and complexity. Resilience to faults has become a major challenge for large-scale applications running on supercomputers, which demands fault tolerance support for prevalent MPI applications. Among failure scenarios, process failures are one of the most severe issues as they usually lead to termination of applications. However, the widely used MPI implementations do not provide mechanisms for fault tolerance. We propose FTA-MPI (Fault Tolerance Assistant MPI), a programming model that provides support for failure detection, failure notification and recovery. Specifically, FTA-MPI exploits a try/catch model that enablesmore » failure localization and transparent recovery of process failures in MPI applications. We demonstrate FTA-MPI with synthetic applications and a molecular dynamics code CoMD, and show that FTA-MPI provides high programmability for users and enables convenient and flexible recovery of process failures.« less

Pybus -- A Python Software Bus

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

Lavrijsen, Wim T.L.P.

2004-10-14

A software bus, just like its hardware equivalent, allows for the discovery, installation, configuration, loading, unloading, and run-time replacement of software components, as well as channeling of inter-component communication. Python, a popular open-source programming language, encourages a modular design on software written in it, but it offers little or no component functionality. However, the language and its interpreter provide sufficient hooks to implement a thin, integral layer of component support. This functionality can be presented to the developer in the form of a module, making it very easy to use. This paper describes a Pythonmodule, PyBus, with which the conceptmore » of a ''software bus'' can be realized in Python. It demonstrates, within the context of the ATLAS software framework Athena, how PyBus can be used for the installation and (run-time) configuration of software, not necessarily Python modules, from a Python application in a way that is transparent to the end-user.« less

The use of key indicators as a foundation for knowledge management: the experiences of Monterey County's Social and Employment Services Department.

PubMed

Lindberg, Arley

2012-01-01

While effective knowledge management practices are commonly sought by organizations, facilitating the use and ongoing engagement in these practices can be challenging. To this end, one agency developed a strategy for institutionalizing their knowledge management functions by appointing a team responsible for monitoring and implementing knowledge management functions, and creating a report for use as a tool by departments agency-wide. Aimed at increasing transparency both within the agency and with the surrounding community, the report provides an overview of individual departments' programs, goals, recent caseload trends, and latest achievements. The report is made available online and accessible by the general public. This case study describes the development of this team and report, as well as lessons learned and future knowledge management goals for the agency. Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

OpenMS: a flexible open-source software platform for mass spectrometry data analysis.

PubMed

Röst, Hannes L; Sachsenberg, Timo; Aiche, Stephan; Bielow, Chris; Weisser, Hendrik; Aicheler, Fabian; Andreotti, Sandro; Ehrlich, Hans-Christian; Gutenbrunner, Petra; Kenar, Erhan; Liang, Xiao; Nahnsen, Sven; Nilse, Lars; Pfeuffer, Julianus; Rosenberger, George; Rurik, Marc; Schmitt, Uwe; Veit, Johannes; Walzer, Mathias; Wojnar, David; Wolski, Witold E; Schilling, Oliver; Choudhary, Jyoti S; Malmström, Lars; Aebersold, Ruedi; Reinert, Knut; Kohlbacher, Oliver

2016-08-30

High-resolution mass spectrometry (MS) has become an important tool in the life sciences, contributing to the diagnosis and understanding of human diseases, elucidating biomolecular structural information and characterizing cellular signaling networks. However, the rapid growth in the volume and complexity of MS data makes transparent, accurate and reproducible analysis difficult. We present OpenMS 2.0 (http://www.openms.de), a robust, open-source, cross-platform software specifically designed for the flexible and reproducible analysis of high-throughput MS data. The extensible OpenMS software implements common mass spectrometric data processing tasks through a well-defined application programming interface in C++ and Python and through standardized open data formats. OpenMS additionally provides a set of 185 tools and ready-made workflows for common mass spectrometric data processing tasks, which enable users to perform complex quantitative mass spectrometric analyses with ease.

Impact of the 2013 National Rollout of CMS Competitive Bidding Program: The Disruption Continues.

PubMed

Puckrein, Gary A; Hirsch, Irl B; Parkin, Christopher G; Taylor, Bruce T; Xu, Liou; Marrero, David G

2018-05-01

Use of glucose monitoring is essential to the safety of individuals with insulin-treated diabetes. In 2011, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) implemented the Medicare Competitive Bidding Program (CBP) in nine test markets. This resulted in a substantial disruption of beneficiary access to self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG) supplies and significant increases in the percentage of beneficiaries with either reduced or no acquisition of supplies. These reductions were significantly associated with increased mortality, hospitalizations, and costs. The CBP was implemented nationally in July 2013. We evaluated the impact of this rollout to determine if the adverse outcomes seen in 2011 persisted. This longitudinal study followed 529,627 insulin-treated beneficiaries from 2009 through 2013 to assess changes in beneficiary acquisition of testing supplies in the initial nine test markets (TEST, n = 43,939) and beneficiaries not affected by the 2011 rollout (NONTEST, n = 485,688). All Medicare beneficiary records for analysis were obtained from CMS. The percentages of beneficiaries with partial/no SMBG acquisition were significantly higher in both the TEST (37.4%) and NONTEST (37.6%) groups after the first 6 months of the national CBP rollout, showing increases of 48.1% and 60.0%, respectively (both P < 0.0001). The percentage of beneficiaries with no record for SMBG acquisition increased from 54.1% in January 2013 to 62.5% by December 2013. Disruption of beneficiary access to their prescribed SMBG supplies has persisted and worsened. Diabetes testing supplies should be excluded from the CBP until transparent, science-based methodologies for safety monitoring are adopted and implemented. © 2017 by the American Diabetes Association.

Opticks : GPU Optical Photon Simulation for Particle Physics using NVIDIA® OptiX™

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

C, Blyth Simon

2017-10-01

Opticks is an open source project that integrates the NVIDIA OptiX GPU ray tracing engine with Geant4 toolkit based simulations. Massive parallelism brings drastic performance improvements with optical photon simulation speedup expected to exceed 1000 times Geant4 when using workstation GPUs. Optical photon simulation time becomes effectively zero compared to the rest of the simulation. Optical photons from scintillation and Cherenkov processes are allocated, generated and propagated entirely on the GPU, minimizing transfer overheads and allowing CPU memory usage to be restricted to optical photons that hit photomultiplier tubes or other photon detectors. Collecting hits into standard Geant4 hit collections then allows the rest of the simulation chain to proceed unmodified. Optical physics processes of scattering, absorption, scintillator reemission and boundary processes are implemented in CUDA OptiX programs based on the Geant4 implementations. Wavelength dependent material and surface properties as well as inverse cumulative distribution functions for reemission are interleaved into GPU textures providing fast interpolated property lookup or wavelength generation. Geometry is provided to OptiX in the form of CUDA programs that return bounding boxes for each primitive and ray geometry intersection positions. Some critical parts of the geometry such as photomultiplier tubes have been implemented analytically with the remainder being tessellated. OptiX handles the creation and application of a choice of acceleration structures such as boundary volume hierarchies and the transparent use of multiple GPUs. OptiX supports interoperation with OpenGL and CUDA Thrust that has enabled unprecedented visualisations of photon propagations to be developed using OpenGL geometry shaders to provide interactive time scrubbing and CUDA Thrust photon indexing to enable interactive history selection.

Assessment Practices in Higher Education & Results of the German Research Program Modeling and Measuring Competencies in Higher Education (KoKoHs)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, Olga; Pant, Hans Anand; Kuhn, Christiane; Toepper, Miriam; Lautenbach, Corinna

2016-01-01

The ever-increasing internationalization of study programs and global mobility of students call for greater transparency of and valid information on the knowledge and skills students acquire over the course of their studies. Several theoretical and methodological challenges arise from the immense diversity of degree courses, study programs, and…

Decision Aids Using Heterogeneous Intelligence Analysis

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-08-20

developing a Geocultural service, a software framework and inferencing engine for the Transparent Urban Structures program. The scope of the effort...has evolved as the program has matured and is including multiple data sources, as well as interfaces out to the ONR architectural framework . Tasks...Interface; Application Program Interface; Application Programmer Interface CAF Common Application Framework EDA Event Driven Architecture a 16. SECURITY

Implementing Infrastructures for Managing Learning Objects

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Klemke, Roland; Ternier, Stefaan; Kalz, Marco; Specht, Marcus

2010-01-01

Making learning objects available is critical to reuse learning resources. Making content transparently available and providing added value to different stakeholders is among the goals of the European Commission's eContentplus programme. This paper analyses standards and protocols relevant for making learning objects accessible in distributed data…

75 FR 20298 - Privacy Act Regulations

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-04-19

... Part 200 RIN 0430-AA03 Privacy Act Regulations AGENCY: Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board... amend the Board's regulations implementing the Privacy Act of 1974 (Privacy Act), as amended. This proposed rule would exempt certain systems of records from certain sections of the Privacy Act. These...

Overview of Nonelectronic Eye-Gaze Communication Techniques.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goossens, Carol A.; Crain, Sharon S.

1987-01-01

The article discusses currently used eye gaze communication techniques with the severely physically disabled (eye-gaze vest, laptray, transparent display, and mirror/prism communicator), presents information regarding the types of message displays used to depict encoded material, and discusses the advantages of implementing nonelectronic eye-gaze…

77 FR 37456 - Self-Regulatory Organizations; Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Inc.; Notice of Filing and Order...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-06-21

... the policies underlying the Act, including, for example, promoting market transparency for derivatives... a derivatives clearing organization with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (''CFTC'') and... derivatives clearing organization, is implementing the proposed changes in furtherance with applicable CFTC...

The Faculty Costs to Educate a Biomedical Sciences Graduate Student

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smolka, Adam J.; Halushka, Perry V.; Garrett-Mayer, Elizabeth

2015-01-01

Academic medical centers nationwide face numerous fiscal challenges resulting from implementation of restructured healthcare delivery models, contracting state support for higher education, and increased competition for federal and other sources of biomedical research funding. In pursuing greater accountability and transparency in its fiscal…

AVAILABLE INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Indiana State Univ., Terre Haute.

THE INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS INCLUDE PROGRAM BROCHURES, CHARTS, COURSE OUTLINES, OVERHEAD TRANSPARENCIES, ASSIGNMENT SHEETS, STUDENT MANUALS, TEACHER MANUALS, TECHNICAL INFORMATION, AND RELATED INFORMATION IN VOCATIONAL EDUCATION. A BRIEF NOTE DESCRIBES EACH. (EM)

Port Authority of New York & New Jersey

Science.gov Websites

Action Program Corporate Information Governance and Ethics > Board of Commissioners > PA Leadership > By-Laws > Transparency in Governance > Board Committee Charters > Code of Ethics for

TICK: Transparent Incremental Checkpointing at Kernel Level

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

Petrini, Fabrizio; Gioiosa, Roberto

2004-10-25

TICK is a software package implemented in Linux 2.6 that allows the save and restore of user processes, without any change to the user code or binary. With TICK a process can be suspended by the Linux kernel upon receiving an interrupt and saved in a file. This file can be later thawed in another computer running Linux (potentially the same computer). TICK is implemented as a Linux kernel module, in the Linux version 2.6.5

Defense Health Care Reform: Additional Implementation Details Would Increase Transparency of DOD’s Plans and Enhance Accountability

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-11-01

on timelines; and was not required to include information on shared services because the reporting time frame was not applicable. GAO also assessed...implementation costs and aggregated cost-savings estimates for the consolidation of four shared services . However, some key details of a sound business...case were missing, such as the basis for the savings. DOD’s business cases aggregated the separate business lines of its shared services , which

Improving Transparency in the Reporting of Safeguards Implementation: FY11 Update

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

Toomey, Christopher; Odlaug, Christopher S.; Wyse, Evan T.

2011-09-30

In 2008, the Standing Advisory Group on Safeguards Implementation (SAGSI) indicated that the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) Safeguards Implementation Report (SIR) has not kept pace with the evolution of safeguards and provided the IAEA with a set of recommendations for improvement. The SIR is the primary mechanism for providing an overview of safeguards implementation in a given year and reporting on the annual safeguards findings and conclusions drawn by the Secretariat. As the IAEA transitions to State-level safeguards approaches, SIR reporting must adapt to reflect these evolutionary changes. This evolved report will better reflect the IAEA's transition to amore » more qualitative and information-driven approach, based upon State-as-a-whole considerations. This paper applies SAGSI's recommendations to the development of multiple models for an evolved SIR and finds that an SIR repurposed as a 'safeguards portal' could significantly enhance information delivery, clarity, and transparency. In addition, this paper finds that the 'portal concept' also appears to have value as a standardized information presentation and analysis platform for use by Country Officers, for continuity of knowledge purposes, and the IAEA Secretariat in the safeguards conclusion process. Accompanying this paper is a fully functional prototype of the 'portal' concept, built using commercial software and IAEA Annual Report data and available for viewing at http://safeguardsportal.pnnl.gov.« less

An Object-Oriented Network-Centric Software Architecture for Physical Computing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Palmer, Richard

1997-08-01

Recent developments in object-oriented computer languages and infrastructure such as the Internet, Web browsers, and the like provide an opportunity to define a more productive computational environment for scientific programming that is based more closely on the underlying mathematics describing physics than traditional programming languages such as FORTRAN or C++. In this talk I describe an object-oriented software architecture for representing physical problems that includes classes for such common mathematical objects as geometry, boundary conditions, partial differential and integral equations, discretization and numerical solution methods, etc. In practice, a scientific program written using this architecture looks remarkably like the mathematics used to understand the problem, is typically an order of magnitude smaller than traditional FORTRAN or C++ codes, and hence easier to understand, debug, describe, etc. All objects in this architecture are ``network-enabled,'' which means that components of a software solution to a physical problem can be transparently loaded from anywhere on the Internet or other global network. The architecture is expressed as an ``API,'' or application programmers interface specification, with reference embeddings in Java, Python, and C++. A C++ class library for an early version of this API has been implemented for machines ranging from PC's to the IBM SP2, meaning that phidentical codes run on all architectures.

Has Lean improved organizational decision making?

PubMed

Simons, Pascale; Benders, Jos; Bergs, Jochen; Marneffe, Wim; Vandijck, Dominique

2016-06-13

Purpose - Sustainable improvement is likely to be hampered by ambiguous objectives and uncertain cause-effect relations in care processes (the organization's decision-making context). Lean management can improve implementation results because it decreases ambiguity and uncertainties. But does it succeed? Many quality improvement (QI) initiatives are appropriate improvement strategies in organizational contexts characterized by low ambiguity and uncertainty. However, most care settings do not fit this context. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether a Lean-inspired change program changed the organization's decision-making context, making it more amenable for QI initiatives. Design/methodology/approach - In 2014, 12 professionals from a Dutch radiotherapy institute were interviewed regarding their perceptions of a Lean program in their organization and the perceived ambiguous objectives and uncertain cause-effect relations in their clinical processes. A survey (25 questions), addressing the same concepts, was conducted among the interviewees in 2011 and 2014. The structured interviews were analyzed using a deductive approach. Quantitative data were analyzed using appropriate statistics. Findings - Interviewees experienced improved shared visions and the number of uncertain cause-effect relations decreased. Overall, more positive (99) than negative Lean effects (18) were expressed. The surveys revealed enhanced process predictability and standardization, and improved shared visions. Practical implications - Lean implementation has shown to lead to greater transparency and increased shared visions. Originality/value - Lean management decreased ambiguous objectives and reduced uncertainties in clinical process cause-effect relations. Therefore, decision making benefitted from Lean increasing QI's sustainability.

Making a Library Catalog Adaptive.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Buckland, Michael K.; And Others

1992-01-01

Describes the design of a prototype adaptive online catalog that was implemented as a transparent workstation-based front end system to MELVYL, the online catalog for the University of California libraries. Problems with searching bibliographic retrieval systems are reviewed, including irrelevant retrievals and the inexperience of most users.…

Learning Outcomes in Professional Contexts in Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Prøitz, Tine S.; Havnes, Anton; Briggs, Mary; Scott, Ian

2017-01-01

With the policy of developing a transparent and competitive European higher education sector, learning outcomes (LOs) are attributed a foundation stone role in policy and curriculum development. A premise for their implementation is that they bear fundamental similarities across national, institutional or professional/disciplinary contexts. In…

Addressing Phonological Questions with Ultrasound

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davidson, Lisa

2005-01-01

Ultrasound can be used to address unresolved questions in phonological theory. To date, some studies have shown that results from ultrasound imaging can shed light on how differences in phonological elements are implemented. Phenomena that have been investigated include transitional schwa, vowel coalescence, and transparent vowels. A study of…

76 FR 16587 - Risk Management Requirements for Derivatives Clearing Organizations

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-03-24

... COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING COMMISSION 17 CFR Part 39 RIN 3038-AC98 Risk Management Requirements for... other things, would implement DCO Core Principle D (Risk Management) and would establish a related... framework to reduce risk, increase transparency, and promote market integrity within the financial system...

Marketing Residential Treatment Programs for Eating Disorders: A Call for Transparency.

PubMed

Attia, Evelyn; Blackwood, Kristy L; Guarda, Angela S; Marcus, Marsha D; Rothman, David J

2016-06-01

Residential behavioral treatment is a growing sector of the health care industry and is used by a large proportion of adolescent and adult patients with eating disorders. These programs and the organizations that own them have developed extensive marketing strategies that target clinicians and include promotional gifts, meals, travel reimbursement, and continuing education credit. Legislation and policy changes have limited these types of activities when conducted by the pharmaceutical industry, and awareness of conflicts of interest associated with clinician-targeted advertising of drugs and devices has increased. However, similar practices by the behavioral health care industry have evolved without oversight. The authors urge clinicians to consider how marketing strategies by treatment facilities may influence their referral behaviors and call for improved transparency regarding gifts and payments from treatment facilities.

Iraqi Police Development Program: Opportunities for Improved Program Accountability and Budget Transparency

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-10-24

makes three recommendations to the Secretary of State, highlighting the need for (1) an adequate current assessment of the Iraqi police forces, (2...with documents obtained from other sources, allowed us to determine that: • DoS does not have a current assessment of Iraqi police forces...capabilities upon which to base its program. Such an assessment is essential for effective program targeting. Further, DoS does not have a sufficiently

MO-D-213-01: Workflow Monitoring for a High Volume Radiation Oncology Center

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

Laub, S; Dunn, M; Galbreath, G

2015-06-15

Purpose: Implement a center wide communication system that increases interdepartmental transparency and accountability while decreasing redundant work and treatment delays by actively monitoring treatment planning workflow. Methods: Intake Management System (IMS), a program developed by ProCure Treatment Centers Inc., is a multi-function database that stores treatment planning process information. It was devised to work with the oncology information system (Mosaiq) to streamline interdepartmental workflow.Each step in the treatment planning process is visually represented and timelines for completion of individual tasks are established within the software. The currently active step of each patient’s planning process is highlighted either red or greenmore » according to whether the initially allocated amount of time has passed for the given process. This information is displayed as a Treatment Planning Process Monitor (TPPM), which is shown on screens in the relevant departments throughout the center. This display also includes the individuals who are responsible for each task.IMS is driven by Mosaiq’s quality checklist (QCL) functionality. Each step in the workflow is initiated by a Mosaiq user sending the responsible party a QCL assignment. IMS is connected to Mosaiq and the sending or completing of a QCL updates the associated field in the TPPM to the appropriate status. Results: Approximately one patient a week is identified during the workflow process as needing to have his/her treatment start date modified or resources re-allocated to address the most urgent cases. Being able to identify a realistic timeline for planning each patient and having multiple departments communicate their limitations and time constraints allows for quality plans to be developed and implemented without overburdening any one department. Conclusion: Monitoring the progression of the treatment planning process has increased transparency between departments, which enables efficient communication. Having built-in timelines allows easy prioritization of tasks and resources and facilitates effective time management.« less

Transparent Fingerprint Sensor System for Large Flat Panel Display.

PubMed

Seo, Wonkuk; Pi, Jae-Eun; Cho, Sung Haeung; Kang, Seung-Youl; Ahn, Seong-Deok; Hwang, Chi-Sun; Jeon, Ho-Sik; Kim, Jong-Uk; Lee, Myunghee

2018-01-19

In this paper, we introduce a transparent fingerprint sensing system using a thin film transistor (TFT) sensor panel, based on a self-capacitive sensing scheme. An armorphousindium gallium zinc oxide (a-IGZO) TFT sensor array and associated custom Read-Out IC (ROIC) are implemented for the system. The sensor panel has a 200 × 200 pixel array and each pixel size is as small as 50 μm × 50 μm. The ROIC uses only eight analog front-end (AFE) amplifier stages along with a successive approximation analog-to-digital converter (SAR ADC). To get the fingerprint image data from the sensor array, the ROIC senses a capacitance, which is formed by a cover glass material between a human finger and an electrode of each pixel of the sensor array. Three methods are reviewed for estimating the self-capacitance. The measurement result demonstrates that the transparent fingerprint sensor system has an ability to differentiate a human finger's ridges and valleys through the fingerprint sensor array.

Transparent Fingerprint Sensor System for Large Flat Panel Display

PubMed Central

Seo, Wonkuk; Pi, Jae-Eun; Cho, Sung Haeung; Kang, Seung-Youl; Ahn, Seong-Deok; Hwang, Chi-Sun; Jeon, Ho-Sik; Kim, Jong-Uk

2018-01-01

In this paper, we introduce a transparent fingerprint sensing system using a thin film transistor (TFT) sensor panel, based on a self-capacitive sensing scheme. An armorphousindium gallium zinc oxide (a-IGZO) TFT sensor array and associated custom Read-Out IC (ROIC) are implemented for the system. The sensor panel has a 200 × 200 pixel array and each pixel size is as small as 50 μm × 50 μm. The ROIC uses only eight analog front-end (AFE) amplifier stages along with a successive approximation analog-to-digital converter (SAR ADC). To get the fingerprint image data from the sensor array, the ROIC senses a capacitance, which is formed by a cover glass material between a human finger and an electrode of each pixel of the sensor array. Three methods are reviewed for estimating the self-capacitance. The measurement result demonstrates that the transparent fingerprint sensor system has an ability to differentiate a human finger’s ridges and valleys through the fingerprint sensor array. PMID:29351218

Private governance, public purpose? Assessing transparency and accountability in self-regulation of food advertising to children.

PubMed

Reeve, Belinda

2013-06-01

Reducing non-core food advertising to children is an important priority in strategies to address childhood obesity. Public health researchers argue for government intervention on the basis that food industry self-regulation is ineffective; however, the industry contends that the existing voluntary scheme adequately addresses community concerns. This paper examines the operation of two self-regulatory initiatives governing food advertising to children in Australia, in order to determine whether these regulatory processes foster transparent and accountable self-regulation. The paper concludes that while both codes appear to establish transparency and accountability mechanisms, they do not provide for meaningful stakeholder participation in the self-regulatory scheme. Accordingly, food industry self-regulation is unlikely to reflect public health concerns or to be perceived as a legitimate form of governance by external stakeholders. If industry regulation is to remain a feasible alternative to statutory regulation, there is a strong argument for strengthening government oversight and implementing a co-regulatory scheme.

E-Government Attempts in Small Island Developing States: The Rate of Corruption with Virtualization.

PubMed

Sari, Arif

2017-12-01

In recent years, many Small Island Developing State (SIDS) governments have worked to increase openness and transparency of their transactions as a means to enhance efficiency and reduce corruption in their economies. In order to achieve a cost-effective and efficient strategy to implement a transparent government, Information Communication Technologies offer an opportunity of virtualization by deploying e-government services to promote transparency, accountability and consistency in the public sector and to minimize corruption. This paper explores the potential impact of government virtualization by SIDS and against corruption by comparing the corruption perception index (CPI) rates of 15 SIDS countries. The CPI relates to the degree by which corruption is perceived to exist among public officials and politicians by business people and country analysts. In order to reveal the long-term impact of virtual deployment and its consequences on corruption, an in-depth case analysis based on the CPI index rates was conducted on the deployment of the e-government system in Cyprus.

A GPU accelerated PDF transparency engine

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Recker, John; Lin, I.-Jong; Tastl, Ingeborg

2011-01-01

As commercial printing presses become faster, cheaper and more efficient, so too must the Raster Image Processors (RIP) that prepare data for them to print. Digital press RIPs, however, have been challenged to on the one hand meet the ever increasing print performance of the latest digital presses, and on the other hand process increasingly complex documents with transparent layers and embedded ICC profiles. This paper explores the challenges encountered when implementing a GPU accelerated driver for the open source Ghostscript Adobe PostScript and PDF language interpreter targeted at accelerating PDF transparency for high speed commercial presses. It further describes our solution, including an image memory manager for tiling input and output images and documents, a PDF compatible multiple image layer blending engine, and a GPU accelerated ICC v4 compatible color transformation engine. The result, we believe, is the foundation for a scalable, efficient, distributed RIP system that can meet current and future RIP requirements for a wide range of commercial digital presses.

It's time to shine the light on direct-to-consumer advertising.

PubMed

Mackey, Tim K; Liang, Bryan A

2015-01-01

Pharmaceutical marketing is undergoing a transition as the business, delivery, and consumption of health care have increasingly become part of a growing digital landscape. Changes in pharmaceutical promotion also coincide with federal "sunshine" regulations newly implemented under the Affordable Care Act that require disclosure of certain marketing and industry payments to physicians. Collectively, these trends could lead to fundamental shifts in physician-directed and direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) that have yet to be adequately identified or explored. In response, we advocate for greater DTCA transparency, especially in the emerging digital forms of DTCA, to complement forthcoming sunshine transparency data. This will allow more robust study and understanding of changes in overall pharmaceutical marketing trends and their impact on health care consumption and behavior. This can also lead to more targeted state and federal policy interventions leveraging existing federal transparency regulations to ensure appropriate marketing, sales, and consumption of pharmaceutical products. © 2015 Annals of Family Medicine, Inc.

2 CFR 170.200 - Requirements for program announcements, regulations, and application instructions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... 2 Grants and Agreements 1 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Requirements for program announcements, regulations, and application instructions. 170.200 Section 170.200 Grants and Agreements Office of Management... are subject to Transparency Act reporting requirements; and (2) That either: (i) Is issued on or after...

2 CFR 170.200 - Requirements for program announcements, regulations, and application instructions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... 2 Grants and Agreements 1 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Requirements for program announcements, regulations, and application instructions. 170.200 Section 170.200 Grants and Agreements Office of Management... are subject to Transparency Act reporting requirements; and (2) That either: (i) Is issued on or after...

2 CFR 170.200 - Requirements for program announcements, regulations, and application instructions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... 2 Grants and Agreements 1 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Requirements for program announcements, regulations, and application instructions. 170.200 Section 170.200 Grants and Agreements Office of Management... Transparency Act reporting requirements; and (2) That either: (i) Is issued on or after the effective date of...

2 CFR 170.200 - Requirements for program announcements, regulations, and application instructions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... 2 Grants and Agreements 1 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Requirements for program announcements, regulations, and application instructions. 170.200 Section 170.200 Grants and Agreements Office of Management... Transparency Act reporting requirements; and (2) That either: (i) Is issued on or after the effective date of...

76 FR 65909 - Medicare and Medicaid Program; Regulatory Provisions To Promote Program Efficiency, Transparency...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-10-24

... commonly found in other medical facilities, for example, cooking, anesthesia, paint shops, or piped-in... Part A and Part B claims appeals. In 2003, the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and... BIPA. The Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) categorization of a product as a category A device is...

The Genre of Instructor Feedback in Doctoral Programs: A Corpus Linguistic Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Walters, Kelley Jo; Henry, Patricia; Vinella, Michael; Wells, Steve; Shaw, Melanie; Miller, James

2015-01-01

Providing transparent written feedback to doctoral students is essential to the learning process and preparation for the capstone. The purpose of this study was to conduct a qualitative exploration of faculty feedback on benchmark written assignments across multiple, online doctoral programs. The Corpus for this analysis included 236 doctoral…

77 FR 29001 - Medicare and Medicaid Program; Regulatory Provisions to Promote Program Efficiency, Transparency...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-05-16

... constructed after January 1, 2008. Ambulatory Surgical Centers (ASC) Emergency Equipment: We have removed the detailed list of emergency equipment that must be available in an ASC's operating room. The current list includes outdated terminology as well as equipment that are not suitable for ASCs that furnish minor...

Fiscal Year 2007 Performance and Accountability Report

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

US Department of Education, 2007

2007-01-01

This document represents the annual report card of the U.S. Department of Education's efforts and outcomes during fiscal year 2007. This year's report builds on efforts to increase transparency, and more effectively communicate goals and objectives. The report emphasizes achievements and challenges associated with implementing the Department of…

Voice-Based Technology for Parent Involvement: Results and Effects.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bauch, Jerold P.

A study was conducted to implement and evaluate the Transparent School Model for improving parent involvement in nine Indiana schools. The Model uses computer-based voice messaging to exchange information between teachers and parents. Teachers record a brief message for parents that describes what was taught, special learning events, homework…

Designing and Researching Technology-Enhanced Learning for the Zone of Proximal Implementation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McKenney, Susan

2013-01-01

Internationally, society is increasingly demanding that the relevance and practical applicability of research be made transparent. Despite intentions to the contrary, insights on pedagogically appropriate uses of educational technology for representative teachers in everyday school settings are severely limited. In part, this is because (design)…

77 FR 27502 - Self-Regulatory Organizations; Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc.; Notice of Filing and Order...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-05-10

... number of the policies underlying the Exchange Act, such as promoting market transparency for derivatives... Statutory Basis for, the Proposed Rule Change CME is registered as a derivatives clearing organization with... number of new regulations designed to implement the core principles for derivatives clearing...

The role of relationships in collaborative partnership success: Lessons from the Alaska Fourth R project.

PubMed

Crooks, Claire V; Exner-Cortens, Deinera; Siebold, Wendi; Moore, Kami; Grassgreen, Lori; Owen, Patricia; Rausch, Ann; Rosier, Mollie

2018-04-01

Collaborative partnerships are critical to achieving health equity. As such, it is important to understand what contributes to the success of such partnerships. This paper describes the Alaska Fourth R collaborative, a multisectoral group of agencies (including education, health and human services, the violence against women sector, the governor's council on domestic violence, and an external evaluator) that successfully planned, implemented and evaluated a multi-focus health education program statewide. The purpose of this paper was to explore the ways in which seven pre-identified factors contributed to the successful achievement of the collaborative's goals. This project was grounded in community-based research principles, and collectively, the group chose to use Roussos and Fawcett's (2000) seven-factor model as the basis for the project. Using this model as a guide, semi-structured interviews were conducted with five leaders from the key organizations in the collaborative. In interviews, stakeholders described how each of the seven factors functioned in the Alaska collaborative to contribute to project success, with a particular focus on the critical role of relationships. Three specific relationship facets emerged as cross-cutting themes: flexibility, transparency, and prioritization. In sum, taking the time to build deep and authentic relationships, and then developing a shared vision and mission within the context of relationships that are flexible, transparent and prioritized, provided a strong foundation for future success in this collaborative. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A modular architecture for transparent computation in recurrent neural networks.

PubMed

Carmantini, Giovanni S; Beim Graben, Peter; Desroches, Mathieu; Rodrigues, Serafim

2017-01-01

Computation is classically studied in terms of automata, formal languages and algorithms; yet, the relation between neural dynamics and symbolic representations and operations is still unclear in traditional eliminative connectionism. Therefore, we suggest a unique perspective on this central issue, to which we would like to refer as transparent connectionism, by proposing accounts of how symbolic computation can be implemented in neural substrates. In this study we first introduce a new model of dynamics on a symbolic space, the versatile shift, showing that it supports the real-time simulation of a range of automata. We then show that the Gödelization of versatile shifts defines nonlinear dynamical automata, dynamical systems evolving on a vectorial space. Finally, we present a mapping between nonlinear dynamical automata and recurrent artificial neural networks. The mapping defines an architecture characterized by its granular modularity, where data, symbolic operations and their control are not only distinguishable in activation space, but also spatially localizable in the network itself, while maintaining a distributed encoding of symbolic representations. The resulting networks simulate automata in real-time and are programmed directly, in the absence of network training. To discuss the unique characteristics of the architecture and their consequences, we present two examples: (i) the design of a Central Pattern Generator from a finite-state locomotive controller, and (ii) the creation of a network simulating a system of interactive automata that supports the parsing of garden-path sentences as investigated in psycholinguistics experiments. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Smart home-based health platform for behavioral monitoring and alteration of diabetes patients.

PubMed

Helal, Abdelsalam; Cook, Diane J; Schmalz, Mark

2009-01-01

Researchers and medical practitioners have long sought the ability to continuously and automatically monitor patients beyond the confines of a doctor's office. We describe a smart home monitoring and analysis platform that facilitates the automatic gathering of rich databases of behavioral information in a manner that is transparent to the patient. Collected information will be automatically or manually analyzed and reported to the caregivers and may be interpreted for behavioral modification in the patient. Our health platform consists of five technology layers. The architecture is designed to be flexible, extensible, and transparent, to support plug-and-play operation of new devices and components, and to provide remote monitoring and programming opportunities. The smart home-based health platform technologies have been tested in two physical smart environments. Data that are collected in these implemented physical layers are processed and analyzed by our activity recognition and chewing classification algorithms. All of these components have yielded accurate analyses for subjects in the smart environment test beds. This work represents an important first step in the field of smart environment-based health monitoring and assistance. The architecture can be used to monitor the activity, diet, and exercise compliance of diabetes patients and evaluate the effects of alternative medicine and behavior regimens. We believe these technologies are essential for providing accessible, low-cost health assistance in an individual's own home and for providing the best possible quality of life for individuals with diabetes. © Diabetes Technology Society

Digitizing the KSO white light images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pötzi, W.

From 1989 up to 2007 the Sun was observed at the Kanzelhöhe Observatory in white light on photographic film material. The images are on transparent sheet films and are not available to the scientific community now. With a photo scanner for transparent film material the films are now scanned and then prepared for scientific use. The programs for post processing are already finished and as an output FITS and JPEG-files are produced. The scanning should be finished end of 2011 and the data should then be available via our homepage.

75 FR 14608 - Statement of Organization, Functions, and Delegations of Authority

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-03-26

... situations; (5) helps to develop and encourage innovation throughout the spectrum from scientific discovery... transparency and accountability of CDC extramural research programs; (5) provides oversight of knowledge...

Unsupervised learning of contextual constraints in neural networks for simultaneous visual processing of multiple objects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Marshall, Jonathan A.

1992-12-01

A simple self-organizing neural network model, called an EXIN network, that learns to process sensory information in a context-sensitive manner, is described. EXIN networks develop efficient representation structures for higher-level visual tasks such as segmentation, grouping, transparency, depth perception, and size perception. Exposure to a perceptual environment during a developmental period serves to configure the network to perform appropriate organization of sensory data. A new anti-Hebbian inhibitory learning rule permits superposition of multiple simultaneous neural activations (multiple winners), while maintaining contextual consistency constraints, instead of forcing winner-take-all pattern classifications. The activations can represent multiple patterns simultaneously and can represent uncertainty. The network performs parallel parsing, credit attribution, and simultaneous constraint satisfaction. EXIN networks can learn to represent multiple oriented edges even where they intersect and can learn to represent multiple transparently overlaid surfaces defined by stereo or motion cues. In the case of stereo transparency, the inhibitory learning implements both a uniqueness constraint and permits coactivation of cells representing multiple disparities at the same image location. Thus two or more disparities can be active simultaneously without interference. This behavior is analogous to that of Prazdny's stereo vision algorithm, with the bonus that each binocular point is assigned a unique disparity. In a large implementation, such a NN would also be able to represent effectively the disparities of a cloud of points at random depths, like human observers, and unlike Prazdny's method

An Integrated Framework for Gender Equity in Academic Medicine.

PubMed

Westring, Alyssa; McDonald, Jennifer M; Carr, Phyllis; Grisso, Jeane Ann

2016-08-01

In 2008, the National Institutes of Health funded 14 R01 grants to study causal factors that promote and support women's biomedical careers. The Research Partnership on Women in Biomedical Careers, a multi-institutional collaboration of the investigators, is one product of this initiative.A comprehensive framework is needed to address change at many levels-department, institution, academic community, and beyond-and enable gender equity in the development of successful biomedical careers. The authors suggest four distinct but interrelated aspects of culture conducive to gender equity: equal access to resources and opportunities, minimizing unconscious gender bias, enhancing work-life balance, and leadership engagement. They review the collection of eight articles in this issue, which each address one or more of the four dimensions of culture. The articles suggest that improving mentor-mentee fit, coaching grant reviewers on unconscious bias, and providing equal compensation and adequate resources for career development will contribute positively to gender equity in academic medicine.Academic medicine must adopt an integrated perspective on culture for women and acknowledge the multiple facets essential to gender equity. To effect change, culture must be addressed both within and beyond academic health centers (AHCs). Leaders within AHCs must examine their institutions' processes, resources, and assessment for fairness and transparency; mobilize personnel and financial resources to implement evidence-based initiatives; and assign accountability for providing transparent progress assessments. Beyond AHCs, organizations must examine their operations and implement change to ensure parity of funding, research, and leadership opportunities as well as transparency of assessment and accreditation.

Transparency in the reporting of in vivo pre-clinical pain research: The relevance and implications of the ARRIVE (Animal Research: Reporting In Vivo Experiments) guidelines.

PubMed

Rice, Andrew S C; Morland, Rosemary; Huang, Wenlong; Currie, Gillian L; Sena, Emily S; Macleod, Malcolm R

2017-12-29

Clear reporting of research is crucial to the scientific process. Poorly designed and reported studies are damaging not only to the efforts of individual researchers, but also to science as a whole. Standardised reporting methods, such as those already established for reporting randomised clinical trials, have led to improved study design and facilitated the processes of clinical systematic review and meta-analysis. Such standards were lacking in the pre-clinical field until the development of the ARRIVE (Animal Research: Reporting In Vivo Experiments) guidelines. These were prompted following a survey which highlighted a widespread lack of robust and consistent reporting of pre-clinical in vivo research, with reports frequently omitting basic information required for study replication and quality assessment. The resulting twenty item checklist in ARRIVE covers all aspects of experimental design with particular emphasis on bias reduction and methodological transparency. Influential publishers and research funders have already adopted ARRIVE. Further dissemination and acknowledgement of the importance of these guidelines is vital to their widespread implementation. Conclusions and implications Wide implementation of the ARRIVE guidelines for reporting of in vivo preclinical research, especially pain research, are essential for a much needed increased transparency and quality in publishing such research. ARRIVE will also positively influence improvements in experimental design and quality, assist the conduct of accurate replication studies of important new findings and facilitate meta-analyses of preclinical research.

High-performance NiO/Ag/NiO transparent electrodes for flexible organic photovoltaic cells.

PubMed

Xue, Zhichao; Liu, Xingyuan; Zhang, Nan; Chen, Hong; Zheng, Xuanming; Wang, Haiyu; Guo, Xiaoyang

2014-09-24

Transparent electrodes with a dielectric-metal-dielectric (DMD) structure can be implemented in a simple manufacturing process and have good optical and electrical properties. In this study, nickel oxide (NiO) is introduced into the DMD structure as a more appropriate dielectric material that has a high conduction band for electron blocking and a low valence band for efficient hole transport. The indium-free NiO/Ag/NiO (NAN) transparent electrode exhibits an adjustable high transmittance of ∼82% combined with a low sheet resistance of ∼7.6 Ω·s·q(-1) and a work function of 5.3 eV after UVO treatment. The NAN electrode shows excellent surface morphology and good thermal, humidity, and environmental stabilities. Only a small change in sheet resistance can be found after NAN electrode is preserved in air for 1 year. The power conversion efficiencies of organic photovoltaic cells with NAN electrodes deposited on glass and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrates are 6.07 and 5.55%, respectively, which are competitive with those of indium tin oxide (ITO)-based devices. Good photoelectric properties, the low-cost material, and the room-temperature deposition process imply that NAN electrode is a striking candidate for low-cost and flexible transparent electrode for efficient flexible optoelectronic devices.

Tracking and Establishing Provenance of Earth Science Datasets: A NASA-based Example

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ramapriyan, Hampapuram K.; Goldstein, Justin C.; Hua, Hook; Wolfe, Robert E.

2016-01-01

Information quality is of paramount importance to science. Accurate, scientifically vetted and statistically meaningful and, ideally, reproducible information engenders scientific trust and research opportunities. Therefore, so-called Highly Influential Scientific Assessments (HISA) such as the U.S. Third National Climate Assessment undergo a very rigorous process to ensure transparency and credibility. As an activity to support the transparency of such reports, the U.S. Global Change Research Program has developed the Global Change Information System (GCIS). Specifically related to the transparency of NCA3, a recent activity was carried out to trace the provenance as completely as possible for all figures in the NCA3 report that predominantly used NASA data. This paper discusses lessons learned from this activity that trace the provenance of NASA figures in a major HISA-class pdf report.

Aligning clinical compensation with clinical productivity: design and implementation of the financial value unit (FVU) system in an academic department of internal medicine.

PubMed

Stites, Steven; Steffen, Patrick; Turner, Scott; Pingleton, Susan

2013-07-01

A new metric was developed and implemented at the University of Kansas School of Medicine Department of Internal Medicine, the financial value unit (FVU). This metric analyzes faculty clinical compensation compared with clinical work productivity as a transparent means to decrease the physician compensation variability and compensate faculty equitably for clinical work.The FVU is the ratio of individual faculty clinical compensation compared with their total work relative value units (wRVUs) generated divided by Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) salary to wRVUs of a similar MGMA physician.The closer the FVU ratio is to 1.0, the closer clinical compensation is to that of an MGMA physician with similar clinical productivity. Using FVU metrics to calculate a faculty salary gap compared with MGMA median salary and wRVU productivity, a divisional production payment was established annually.From FY 2006 to FY 2011, both total faculty numbers and overall clinical activity increased. With the implementation of the FVU, both clinical productivity and compensation increased while, at the same time, physician retention rates remained high. Variability in physician compensation decreased. Dramatic clinical growth was associated with the alignment of clinical work and clinical compensation in a transparent and equable process.

Improving the Transparency of IAEA Safeguards Reporting

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

Toomey, Christopher; Hayman, Aaron M.; Wyse, Evan T.

2011-07-17

In 2008, the Standing Advisory Group on Safeguards Implementation (SAGSI) indicated that the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) Safeguards Implementation Report (SIR) has not kept pace with the evolution of safeguards and provided the IAEA with a set of recommendations for improvement. The SIR is the primary mechanism for providing an overview of safeguards implementation in a given year and reporting on the annual safeguards findings and conclusions drawn by the Secretariat. As the IAEA transitions to State-level safeguards approaches, SIR reporting must adapt to reflect these evolutionary changes. This evolved report will better reflect the IAEA's transition to amore » more qualitative and information-driven approach, based upon State-as-a-whole considerations. This paper applies SAGSI's recommendations to the development of multiple models for an evolved SIR and finds that an SIR repurposed as a 'safeguards portal' could significantly enhance information delivery, clarity, and transparency. In addition, this paper finds that the 'portal concept' also appears to have value as a standardized information presentation and analysis platform for use by Country Officers, for continuity of knowledge purposes, and the IAEA Secretariat in the safeguards conclusion process. Accompanying this paper is a fully functional prototype of the 'portal' concept, built using commercial software and IAEA Annual Report data.« less

K-12 Education: Selected States and School Districts Cited Numerous Federal Requirements as Burdensome, While Recognizing Some Benefits. Report to Congressional Requesters. GAO-12-672

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scott, George A.

2012-01-01

States and school districts receive funding through ESEA, IDEA, and national school meals programs. Some requirements for these programs are intended to help ensure program integrity and transparency, among other purposes, but questions have been raised about whether some federal requirements place an undue burden on states and school districts.…

Transparency in authors' contributions and responsibilities to promote integrity in scientific publication.

PubMed

McNutt, Marcia K; Bradford, Monica; Drazen, Jeffrey M; Hanson, Brooks; Howard, Bob; Jamieson, Kathleen Hall; Kiermer, Véronique; Marcus, Emilie; Pope, Barbara Kline; Schekman, Randy; Swaminathan, Sowmya; Stang, Peter J; Verma, Inder M

2018-03-13

In keeping with the growing movement in scientific publishing toward transparency in data and methods, we propose changes to journal authorship policies and procedures to provide insight into which author is responsible for which contributions, better assurance that the list is complete, and clearly articulated standards to justify earning authorship credit. To accomplish these goals, we recommend that journals adopt common and transparent standards for authorship, outline responsibilities for corresponding authors, adopt the Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT) (docs.casrai.org/CRediT) methodology for attributing contributions, include this information in article metadata, and require authors to use the ORCID persistent digital identifier (https://orcid.org). Additionally, we recommend that universities and research institutions articulate expectations about author roles and responsibilities to provide a point of common understanding for discussion of authorship across research teams. Furthermore, we propose that funding agencies adopt the ORCID identifier and accept the CRediT taxonomy. We encourage scientific societies to further authorship transparency by signing on to these recommendations and promoting them through their meetings and publications programs. Copyright © 2018 the Author(s). Published by PNAS.

Transparency in authors’ contributions and responsibilities to promote integrity in scientific publication

PubMed Central

Bradford, Monica; Drazen, Jeffrey M.; Hanson, Brooks; Howard, Bob; Jamieson, Kathleen Hall; Kiermer, Véronique; Marcus, Emilie; Swaminathan, Sowmya; Stang, Peter J.

2018-01-01

In keeping with the growing movement in scientific publishing toward transparency in data and methods, we propose changes to journal authorship policies and procedures to provide insight into which author is responsible for which contributions, better assurance that the list is complete, and clearly articulated standards to justify earning authorship credit. To accomplish these goals, we recommend that journals adopt common and transparent standards for authorship, outline responsibilities for corresponding authors, adopt the Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT) (docs.casrai.org/CRediT) methodology for attributing contributions, include this information in article metadata, and require authors to use the ORCID persistent digital identifier (https://orcid.org). Additionally, we recommend that universities and research institutions articulate expectations about author roles and responsibilities to provide a point of common understanding for discussion of authorship across research teams. Furthermore, we propose that funding agencies adopt the ORCID identifier and accept the CRediT taxonomy. We encourage scientific societies to further authorship transparency by signing on to these recommendations and promoting them through their meetings and publications programs. PMID:29487213

Blockchain Based Decentralized Management of Demand Response Programs in Smart Energy Grids.

PubMed

Pop, Claudia; Cioara, Tudor; Antal, Marcel; Anghel, Ionut; Salomie, Ioan; Bertoncini, Massimo

2018-01-09

In this paper, we investigate the use of decentralized blockchain mechanisms for delivering transparent, secure, reliable, and timely energy flexibility, under the form of adaptation of energy demand profiles of Distributed Energy Prosumers, to all the stakeholders involved in the flexibility markets (Distribution System Operators primarily, retailers, aggregators, etc.). In our approach, a blockchain based distributed ledger stores in a tamper proof manner the energy prosumption information collected from Internet of Things smart metering devices, while self-enforcing smart contracts programmatically define the expected energy flexibility at the level of each prosumer, the associated rewards or penalties, and the rules for balancing the energy demand with the energy production at grid level. Consensus based validation will be used for demand response programs validation and to activate the appropriate financial settlement for the flexibility providers. The approach was validated using a prototype implemented in an Ethereum platform using energy consumption and production traces of several buildings from literature data sets. The results show that our blockchain based distributed demand side management can be used for matching energy demand and production at smart grid level, the demand response signal being followed with high accuracy, while the amount of energy flexibility needed for convergence is reduced.

Public health measures to control tuberculosis in low-income countries: ethics and human rights considerations.

PubMed

Kraemer, J D; Cabrera, O A; Singh, J A; Depp, T B; Gostin, L O

2011-06-01

In low-income countries, tuberculosis (TB) control measures should be guided by ethical concerns and human rights obligations. Control programs should consider the principles of necessity, reasonableness and effectiveness of means, proportionality, distributive justice, and transparency. Certain measures-detention, infection control, and treatment to prevent transmission-raise particular concerns. While isolation is appropriate under certain circumstances, quarantine is never an acceptable control measure for TB, and any detention must be limited by necessity and conducted humanely. States have a duty to implement hospital infection control to the extent of their available resources and to provide treatment to health care workers (HCWs) infected on the job. HCWs, in turn, have an obligation to provide care unless conditions are unreasonably and unforeseeably unsafe. Finally, states have an obligation to provide adequate access to treatment, as a means of preventing transmission, as broadly as possible and in a non-discriminatory fashion. Along with treatment, states should provide support to increase treatment adherence and retention with respect for patient privacy and autonomy. Compulsory treatment is almost never acceptable. Governments should take care to respect human rights and ethical obligations as they execute TB control programs.

ScaMo: Realisation of an OO-functional DSL for cross platform mobile applications development

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Macos, Dragan; Solymosi, Andreas

2013-10-01

The software market is dynamically changing: the Internet is going mobile, the software applications are shifting from the desktop hardware onto the mobile devices. The largest markets are the mobile applications for iOS, Android and Windows Phone and for the purpose the typical programming languages include Objective-C, Java and C ♯. The realization of the native applications implies the integration of the developed software into the environments of mentioned mobile operating systems to enable the access to different hardware components of the devices: GPS module, display, GSM module, etc. This paper deals with the definition and possible implementation of an environment for the automatic application generation for multiple mobile platforms. It is based on a DSL for mobile application development, which includes the programming language Scala and a DSL defined in Scala. As part of a multi-stage cross-compiling algorithm, this language is translated into the language of the affected mobile platform. The advantage of our method lies in the expressiveness of the defined language and the transparent source code translation between different languages, which implies, for example, the advantages of debugging and development of the generated code.

Troubled Asset Relief Program Transparency Reporting Act

THOMAS, 111th Congress

Sen. Feinstein, Dianne [D-CA

2009-01-06

Senate - 01/06/2009 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. (All Actions) Tracker: This bill has the status IntroducedHere are the steps for Status of Legislation:

Ranking Journalism and Mass Communications Programs: Administrators and Faculty Approve of the Idea and Assess Potential Criteria

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weber, Joseph

2017-01-01

Rankings of universities and colleges are common and controversial. However, few rankers produce useful lists that assess and compare journalism and mass communications programs. The few currently available involve superficial reputational surveys or are less than transparent about their methodology. To determine potential criteria for a useful…

Breakfast of Champions? The School Breakfast Program and the Nutrition of Children and Families

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bhattacharya, Jayanta; Currie, Janet; Haider, Steven J.

2006-01-01

We examine the effect of the School Breakfast Program (SBP) availability with the National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey III. Our work builds on previous research by developing a transparent difference-in-differences strategy to account for unobserved differences between students with access to SBP and those without, using serum…

UrbanCrowns: an assessment and monitoring tool for urban trees

Treesearch

Matthew F. Winn; Philip A. Araman; Sang-Mook Lee

2011-01-01

UrbanCrowns is a Windows®-based computer program used to assess the crown characteristics of urban trees. The software analyzes side-view digital photographs of trees to compute several crown metrics, including crown height, crown diameter, live crown ratio, crown volume, crown density, and crown transparency. Potential uses of the UrbanCrowns program include...

Implementing guidelines on reporting research using animals (ARRIVE etc.): new requirements for publication in BJP

PubMed Central

McGrath, John C; Lilley, Elliot

2015-01-01

The ARRIVE guidelines have been implemented in BJP for 4 years with the aim of increasing transparency in reporting experiments involving animals. BJP has assessed our success in implementing them and concluded that we could do better. This editorial discusses the issues and explains how we are changing our requirements for authors to report their findings in experiments involving animals. This is one of a series of editorials discussing updates to the BJP Instructions to Authors Video To view the video on the ARRIVE guidelines, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYXoUAnhoPM PMID:25964986

An universal read-out controller

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Manz, S.; Abel, N.; Gebelein, J.; Kebschull, U.

2010-11-01

Since 2007 we design and develop a ROC (read-out controller) for FAIR's data-acquisition. While our first implementation solely focused on the nXYTER, today we are also designing and implementing readout logic for the GET4 which is supposed to be part of the ToF detector. Furthermore, we fully support both Ethernet and Optical transport as two transparent solutions. The usage of a strict modularization of the Read Out Controller enables us to provide an Universal ROC where front-end specific logic and transport logic can be combined in a very flexible way. Fault tolerance techniques are only required for some of those modules and hence are only implemented there.

Competences as the Core Element of the European Qualifications Framework

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bohlinger, Sandra

2008-01-01

The development and implementation of the EQF, as a meta-framework for the promotion of transparency, quality assurance, mobility and mutual recognition of qualifications, has given rise to some difficulties. These are due partly to different definitions of competences, skills and knowledge. Taking the German-speaking countries as an example, the…

The Values Awareness Teaching Strategy; An Overview.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dalis, Gus T.; Strasser, Ben B.

The transcript of a values awareness lesson in communicable diseases is presented to illustrate the two stages of a typical values class--introducing the lesson and implementing the lesson. In this case, an overhead slide-transparency is used (along with prefacing remarks) to lead the class into considering those whom a gonorrhea-infected youth…

Descriptors for Competence: Towards an International Standard Classification for Skills and Competences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Markowitsch, Jorg; Plaimauer, Claudia

2009-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the potential of already existing skills and competence ontologies to benefit European transparency tools and especially the implementation of the European Qualification Framework. Furthermore, it asks whether any of them could serve as a starting point to develop an International Standard…

Impact of the Shodan Computer Search Engine on Internet-facing Industrial Control System Devices

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-03-27

bridge implementation. The transparent bridge is designed using a Raspberry Pi configured with Linux IPtables and bridge-utils to bridge the on board...Ethernet card and a second USB Ethernet adapter. A Raspberry Pi is a credit-card-sized single-board computer running a version of Debian Linux. There

Improving Finance for Qatari Education Reform. Research Brief

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Guarino, Cassandra M.; Galama, Titus; Constant, Louay; Gonzalez, Gabriella; Tanner, Jeffery C.; Goldman, Charles A.

2009-01-01

Qatar's education reform, which included implementation of a new finance system, appears to be providing schools with adequate funding but is still struggling with issues of transparency and swift policy shifts that have been difficult to accommodate. [For full report, "Developing a School Finance System for K-12 Reform in Qatar", see…

75 FR 64173 - Notice of Proposed Rulemaking Implementing Certain Orderly Liquidation Authority Provisions of...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-10-19

... Title II reflects the Dodd-Frank Act's mandate of transparency in the liquidation of failing systemic... in all other cases. This procedure is similar to that which is applied to systemic risk... payments will be enforced. Parties who are familiar with the liquidation of insured depository institutions...

Quality Assurance in Australian Higher Education: Historical and Future Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shah, Mahsood; Nair, Sid; Wilson, Mark

2011-01-01

Higher education policies related to quality assurance are implemented in many countries. The purposes of such policies are to ensure the provision for high-quality education, university accountability and transparency in the use of public funding and meeting the needs of the diverse stakeholders. The current Australian Higher Education Quality…

77 FR 27530 - Self-Regulatory Organizations; Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc.; Notice of Filing and Order...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-05-10

... number of the policies underlying the Exchange Act, such as promoting market transparency for derivatives... Statutory Basis for, the Proposed Rule Change CME is registered as a derivatives clearing organization with... adopted a number of new regulations designed to implement the core principles for derivatives clearing...

Learner-Content-Interface as an Approach for Self-Reliant and Student-Centered Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nicolay, Robin; Schwennigcke, Bastian; Sahl, Sarah; Martens, Alke

2015-01-01

Conceptualization and implementation of computer supported teaching and training is currently not tailored to the paradigm of learner centration. Many technical solutions lack transparency and consistency regarding the supported learner activities. An insight into learners activities correlated to learning tasks is needed. In this paper we outline…

Implementing LCFF: Communicating about District Plans. Policy and Practice Brief

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Knudson, Joel

2016-01-01

California educators continue in their struggle to communicate district plans to parents, teachers, and other members of the school community. Local Control Accountability Plans (LCAPs), have ballooned into jargon-laden stacks of tables, impenetrable to all but the most sophisticated reader. Envisioned as a tool to improve transparency, the LCAP…

Informing Environmental Water Management Decisions: Using Conditional Probability Networks to Address the Information Needs of Planning and Implementation Cycles.

PubMed

Horne, Avril C; Szemis, Joanna M; Webb, J Angus; Kaur, Simranjit; Stewardson, Michael J; Bond, Nick; Nathan, Rory

2018-03-01

One important aspect of adaptive management is the clear and transparent documentation of hypotheses, together with the use of predictive models (complete with any assumptions) to test those hypotheses. Documentation of such models can improve the ability to learn from management decisions and supports dialog between stakeholders. A key challenge is how best to represent the existing scientific knowledge to support decision-making. Such challenges are currently emerging in the field of environmental water management in Australia, where managers are required to prioritize the delivery of environmental water on an annual basis, using a transparent and evidence-based decision framework. We argue that the development of models of ecological responses to environmental water use needs to support both the planning and implementation cycles of adaptive management. Here we demonstrate an approach based on the use of Conditional Probability Networks to translate existing ecological knowledge into quantitative models that include temporal dynamics to support adaptive environmental flow management. It equally extends to other applications where knowledge is incomplete, but decisions must still be made.

Informing Environmental Water Management Decisions: Using Conditional Probability Networks to Address the Information Needs of Planning and Implementation Cycles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Horne, Avril C.; Szemis, Joanna M.; Webb, J. Angus; Kaur, Simranjit; Stewardson, Michael J.; Bond, Nick; Nathan, Rory

2018-03-01

One important aspect of adaptive management is the clear and transparent documentation of hypotheses, together with the use of predictive models (complete with any assumptions) to test those hypotheses. Documentation of such models can improve the ability to learn from management decisions and supports dialog between stakeholders. A key challenge is how best to represent the existing scientific knowledge to support decision-making. Such challenges are currently emerging in the field of environmental water management in Australia, where managers are required to prioritize the delivery of environmental water on an annual basis, using a transparent and evidence-based decision framework. We argue that the development of models of ecological responses to environmental water use needs to support both the planning and implementation cycles of adaptive management. Here we demonstrate an approach based on the use of Conditional Probability Networks to translate existing ecological knowledge into quantitative models that include temporal dynamics to support adaptive environmental flow management. It equally extends to other applications where knowledge is incomplete, but decisions must still be made.

Ethics, morality, and conflicting interests: how questionable professional integrity in some scientists supports global corporate influence in public health.

PubMed

Baur, Xaver; Budnik, Lygia Therese; Ruff, Kathleen; Egilman, David S; Lemen, Richard A; Soskolne, Colin L

2015-01-01

Clinical and public health research, education, and medical practice are vulnerable to influence by corporate interests driven by the for-profit motive. Developments over the last 10 years have shown that transparency and self-reporting of corporate ties do not always mitigate bias. In this article, we provide examples of how sound scientific reasoning and evidence-gathering are undermined through compromised scientific enquiry resulting in misleading science, decision-making, and policy intervention. Various medical disciplines provide reference literature essential for informing public, environmental, and occupational health policy. Published literature impacts clinical and laboratory methods, the validity of respective clinical guidelines, and the development and implementation of public health regulations. Said literature is also used in expert testimony related to resolving tort actions on work-related illnesses and environmental risks. We call for increased sensitivity, full transparency, and the implementation of effective ethical and professional praxis rules at all relevant regulatory levels to rout out inappropriate corporate influence in science. This is needed because influencing the integrity of scientists who engage in such activities cannot be depended upon.

Exploring efficacy of residential energy efficiency programs in Florida

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Taylor, Nicholas Wade

Electric utilities, government agencies, and private interests in the U.S. have committed and continue to invest substantial resources in the pursuit of energy efficiency and conservation through demand-side management (DSM) programs. Program investments, and the demand for impact evaluations that accompany them, are projected to grow in coming years due to increased pressure from state-level energy regulation, costs and challenges of building additional production capacity, fuel costs and potential carbon or renewable energy regulation. This dissertation provides detailed analyses of ex-post energy savings from energy efficiency programs in three key sectors of residential buildings: new, single-family, detached homes; retrofits to existing single-family, detached homes; and retrofits to existing multifamily housing units. Each of the energy efficiency programs analyzed resulted in statistically significant energy savings at the full program group level, yet savings for individual participants and participant subgroups were highly variable. Even though savings estimates were statistically greater than zero, those energy savings did not always meet expectations. Results also show that high variability in energy savings among participant groups or subgroups can negatively impact overall program performance and can undermine marketing efforts for future participation. Design, implementation, and continued support of conservation programs based solely on deemed or projected savings is inherently counter to the pursuit of meaningful energy conservation and reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. To fully understand and optimize program impacts, consistent and robust measurement and verification protocols must be instituted in the design phase and maintained over time. Furthermore, marketing for program participation must target those who have the greatest opportunity for savings. In most utility territories it is not possible to gain access to the type of large scale datasets that would facilitate robust program analysis. Along with measuring and optimizing energy conservation programs, utilities should provide public access to historical consumption data. Open access to data, program optimization, consistent measurement and verification and transparency in reported savings are essential to reducing energy use and its associated environmental impacts.

Validation of Quality Rating and Improvement Systems for Early Care and Education and School-Age Care. Research-to-Policy, Research-to-Practice Brief. OPRE 2012-29

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zellman, Gail L.; Fiene, Richard

2012-01-01

Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS) for early care and education and school age care programs are designed to collect information about quality and to use that information to produce program-level ratings, which are the foundation of a QRIS. The ratings are intended to make program quality transparent for parents and other stakeholders…

Development of transparent microwell arrays for optical monitoring and dissection of microbial communities

DOE PAGES

Halsted, Michelle; Wilmoth, Jared L.; Briggs, Paige A.; ...

2016-09-29

Microbial communities are incredibly complex systems that dramatically and ubiquitously influence our lives. They help to shape our climate and environment, impact agriculture, drive business, and have a tremendous bearing on healthcare and physical security. Spatial confinement, as well as local variations in physical and chemical properties, affects development and interactions within microbial communities that occupy critical niches in the environment. Recent work has demonstrated the use of silicon based microwell arrays, combined with parylene lift-off techniques, to perform both deterministic and stochastic assembly of microbial communities en masse, enabling the high-throughput screening of microbial communities for their response tomore » growth in confined environments under different conditions. The implementation of a transparent microwell array platform can expand and improve the imaging modalities that can be used to characterize these assembled communities. In this paper, the fabrication and characterization of a next generation transparent microwell array is described. The transparent arrays, comprised of SU-8 patterned on a glass coverslip, retain the ability to use parylene lift-off by integrating a low temperature atomic layer deposition of silicon dioxide into the fabrication process. This silicon dioxide layer prevents adhesion of the parylene material to the patterned SU-8, facilitating dry lift-off, and maintaining the ability to easily assemble microbial communities within the microwells. These transparent microwell arrays can screen numerous community compositions using continuous, high resolution, imaging. Finally, the utility of the design was successfully demonstrated through the stochastic seeding and imaging of green fluorescent protein expressing Escherichia coli using both fluorescence and brightfield microscopies.« less

Price Transparency in the Online Age.

PubMed

Kaplan, Jonathan L; Mills, Parker H

2016-05-01

Plastic surgeons are sometimes hesitant to provide their pricing information online, due to several concerns. However, if implemented right, price transparency can be used as a lead generation tool that provides consumers with the pricing information they want and gives the physician the consumer's contact information for follow-up. This study took place during the author's first year in private practice in a new city. An interactive price transparency platform (ie, cost estimator) was integrated into his website, allowing consumers to submit a "wishlist" of procedures to check pricing on these procedures of interest. However, the consumer must submit their contact information to receive the desired breakdown of costs that are tailored based on the author's medical fees. During that first year, without any advertising expenditure, the author's website received 412 wishlists from 208 unique consumers. Consumers (17.8%) that submitted a wishlist came in for a consultation and 62% of those booked a procedure. The average value of a booked procedure was over US $4000 and cumulatively, all of the leads from this one lead source in that first year generated over US $92,000 in revenue. When compared with non-price-aware patients, price-aware patients were 41% more likely to book a procedure. Price transparency led to greater efficiency and reduced consultations that ended in "sticker shock." When prudently integrated into a medical practice, price transparency can be a great lead generation source for patients that are (1) paying out of pocket for medically necessary services due to a high-deductible health plan or (2) paying for services not typically covered by insurance, such as cosmetic services.

Broadband tunable electromagnetically induced transparency analogue metamaterials based on graphene in terahertz band

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Yue; Leng, Yanbing; Wang, Li; Dong, Lianhe; Liu, Shunrui; Wang, Jun; Sun, Yanjun

2018-06-01

Most of the actively controlled electromagnetically induced transparency analogue (EIT-like) metamaterials were implemented with narrowband modulations. In this paper, a broadband tunable EIT-like metamaterial based on graphene in the terahertz band is presented. It consists of a cut wire as the bright resonator and two couples of H-shaped resonators in mirror symmetry as the dark resonators. A broadband tunable property of transmission amplitude is realized by changing the Fermi level of graphene. Furthermore, the geometries of the metamaterial structure are optimized to achieve the ideal curve through the simulation. Such EIT-like metamaterials proposed here are promising candidates for designing active wide-band slow-light devices, wide-band terahertz active filters, and wide-band terahertz modulators.

A flexible telecom satellite repeater based on microwave photonic technologies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sotom, Michel; Benazet, Benoît; Maignan, Michel

2017-11-01

Future telecom satellite based on geo-stationary Earth orbit (GEO) will require advanced payloads in Kaband so as to receive, route and re-transmit hundreds of microwave channels over multiple antenna beams. We report on the proof-of-concept demonstration of a analogue repeater making use of microwave photonic technologies for supporting broadband, transparent, and flexible cross-connectivity. It has microwave input and output sections, and features a photonic core for LO distribution, frequency down-conversion, and cross-connection of RF channels. With benefits such as transparency to RF frequency, infinite RF isolation, mass and volume savings, such a microwave photonic cross-connect would compare favourably with microwave implementations, and based on optical MEMS switches could grow up to large port counts.

Vacuum-induced quantum memory in an opto-electromechanical system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Qin, Li-Guo; Wang, Zhong-Yang; Wu, Shi-Chao; Gong, Shang-Qing; Ma, Hong-Yang; Jing, Jun

2018-03-01

We propose a scheme to implement electrically controlled quantum memory based on vacuum-induced transparency (VIT) in a high-Q tunable cavity, which is capacitively coupled to a mechanically variable capacitor by a charged mechanical cavity mirror as an interface. We analyze the changes of the cavity photons arising from vacuum-induced-Raman process and discuss VIT in an atomic ensemble trapped in the cavity. By slowly adjusting the voltage on the capacitor, the VIT can be adiabatically switched on or off, meanwhile, the transfer between the probe photon state and the atomic spin state can be electrically and adiabatically modulated. Therefore, we demonstrate a vacuum-induced quantum memory by electrically manipulating the mechanical mirror of the cavity based on electromagnetically induced transparency mechanism.

Electromagnetically induced transparency in a Zeeman-sublevels Λ-system of cold 87Rb atoms in free space

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xiaojun, Jiang; Haichao, Zhang; Yuzhu, Wang

2016-03-01

We report the experimental investigation of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in a Zeeman-sublevels Λ-type system of cold 87Rb atoms in free space. We use the Zeeman substates of the hyperfine energy states 52S1/2, F = 2 and 52P3/2, F‧ = 2 of 87Rb D2 line to form a Λ-type EIT scheme. The EIT signal is obtained by scanning the probe light over 1 MHz in 4 ms with an 80 MHz arbitrary waveform generator. More than 97% transparency and 100 kHz EIT window are observed. This EIT scheme is suited for an application of pulsed coherent storage atom clock (Yan B, et al. 2009 Phys. Rev. A 79 063820). Project supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2011CB921504) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 91536107).

Optimising the use of observational electronic health record data: Current issues, evolving opportunities, strategies and scope for collaboration.

PubMed

Liaw, Siaw-Teng; Powell-Davies, Gawaine; Pearce, Christopher; Britt, Helena; McGlynn, Lisa; Harris, Mark F

2016-03-01

With increasing computerisation in general practice, national primary care networks are mooted as sources of data for health services and population health research and planning. Existing data collection programs - MedicinesInsight, Improvement Foundation, Bettering the Evaluation and Care of Health (BEACH) - vary in purpose, governance, methodologies and tools. General practitioners (GPs) have significant roles as collectors, managers and users of electronic health record (EHR) data. They need to understand the challenges to their clinical and managerial roles and responsibilities. The aim of this article is to examine the primary and secondary use of EHR data, identify challenges, discuss solutions and explore directions. Representatives from existing programs, Medicare Locals, Local Health Districts and research networks held workshops on the scope, challenges and approaches to the quality and use of EHR data. Challenges included data quality, interoperability, fragmented governance, proprietary software, transparency, sustainability, competing ethical and privacy perspectives, and cognitive load on patients and clinicians. Proposed solutions included effective change management; transparent governance and management of intellectual property, data quality, security, ethical access, and privacy; common data models, metadata and tools; and patient/community engagement. Collaboration and common approaches to tools, platforms and governance are needed. Processes and structures must be transparent and acceptable to GPs.

The Education Review Board: A Mechanism for Managing Potential Conflicts of Interest in Medical Education.

PubMed

Borus, Jonathan F; Alexander, Erik K; Bierer, Barbara E; Bringhurst, F Richard; Clark, Christopher; Klanica, Kaley E; Stewart, Erin C; Friedman, Lawrence S

2015-12-01

Concerns about the influence of industry support on medical education, research, and patient care have increased in both medical and political circles. Some academic medical centers, questioning whether industry support of medical education could be appropriate and not a conflict of interest, banned such support. In 2009, a Partners HealthCare System commission concluded that interactions with industry remained important to Partners' charitable academic mission and made recommendations to transparently manage such relationships. An Education Review Board (ERB) was created to oversee and manage all industry support of Partners educational activities.Using a case review method, the ERB developed guidelines to implement the commission's recommendations. A multi-funder rule was established that prohibits industry support from only one company for any Partners educational activity. Within that framework, the ERB established guidelines on industry support of educational conferences, clinical fellowships, and trainees' expenses for attending external educational programs; gifts of textbooks and other educational materials; promotional opportunities associated with Partners educational activities; Partners educational activities under contract with an industry entity; and industry-run programs using Partners resources.Although many changes have resulted from the implementation of the ERB guidelines, the number of industry grants for Partners educational activities has remained relatively stable, and funding for these activities declined only moderately during the first three full calendar years (2011-2013) of ERB oversight. The ERB continually educates both the Partners community and industry about the rationale for its guidelines and its openness to their refinement in response to changes in the external environment.

Program Quality Review Training Materials for Elementary and Middle School Levels. Overhead Transparencies, Readings, Handouts, Samples of Student Work.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

California State Dept. of Education, Sacramento. Office of School Improvement.

This guidebook contains training materials to be used by California elementary and middle-level schools in conducting the Program Quality Review (PQR). The PQR process of curriculum self-review enables the school community to focus, through extensive discussion, on how the school's curriculum and instruction can be improved so that all students…

An Educational MONTE CARLO Simulation/Animation Program for the Cosmic Rays Muons and a Prototype Computer-Driven Hardware Display.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kalkanis, G.; Sarris, M. M.

1999-01-01

Describes an educational software program for the study of and detection methods for the cosmic ray muons passing through several light transparent materials (i.e., water, air, etc.). Simulates muons and Cherenkov photons' paths and interactions and visualizes/animates them on the computer screen using Monte Carlo methods/techniques which employ…

Behind the Curtain of the Beauty Pageant: An Investigation of U.S. News Undergraduate Business Program Rankings

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Perry, Pam

2010-01-01

The undergraduate business program rankings in USNWR are based solely on peer assessments from deans and associate deans of AACSB accredited U.S. business schools. Often these reputation-based rankings are discounted and likened to a beauty pageant because the process lacks transparent input data. In this study, ten deans and ten associate…

77 FR 77141 - Self-Regulatory Organizations; The NASDAQ Stock Market LLC; Notice of Filing of a Proposed Rule...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-12-31

... housing the Exchange Traded Fund or, if the Exchange Traded Fund is not a series of a trust or company... investor confidence and market integrity, the Exchange designed the MQP Program to be highly transparent... voluntary program designed to promote market quality in MQP Securities.\\9\\ An MQP Company may list an...

Linear System of Equations, Matrix Inversion, and Linear Programming Using MS Excel

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

El-Gebeily, M.; Yushau, B.

2008-01-01

In this note, we demonstrate with illustrations two different ways that MS Excel can be used to solve Linear Systems of Equation, Linear Programming Problems, and Matrix Inversion Problems. The advantage of using MS Excel is its availability and transparency (the user is responsible for most of the details of how a problem is solved). Further, we…

Improving Older Adults' Functional Ability through Service Use in a Home Care Program in Hong Kong

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cheung, Chau-kiu; Ngan, Raymond Man-hung

2005-01-01

Objective: Despite past findings about the contribution of home care services to older users' functional ability, the effective processes and components of the services are not transparent. Such processes appear to rely on the actual use of component services of the home care program. Method: The study gathered 116 observations during 2 years…

Status and Opportunities for Improving the Consistency of Technical Reference Manuals

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

Jayaweera, Tina; Velonis, Aquila; Haeri, Hossein

Across the United States, energy-efficiency program administrators rely on Technical Reference Manuals (TRMs) as sources for calculations and deemed savings values for specific, well-defined efficiency measures. TRMs play an important part in energy efficiency program planning by providing a common and consistent source for calculation of ex ante and often ex post savings. They thus help reduce energy-efficiency resource acquisition costs by obviating the need for extensive measurement and verification and lower performance risk for program administrators and implementation contractors. This paper considers the benefits of establishing region-wide or national TRMs and considers the challenges of such undertaking due tomore » the difficulties in comparing energy savings across jurisdictions. We argue that greater consistency across TRMs in the approaches used to determine deemed savings values, with more transparency about assumptions, would allow better comparisons in savings estimates across jurisdictions as well as improve confidence in reported efficiency measure savings. To support this thesis, we review approaches for the calculation of savings for select measures in TRMs currently in use in 17 jurisdictions. The review reveals differences in the saving methodologies, technical assumptions, and input variables used for estimating deemed savings values. These differences are described and their implications are summarized, using four, common energy-efficiency measures as examples. Recommendations are then offered for establishing a uniform approach for determining deemed savings values.« less

Air Force highly integrated photonics program: development and demonstration of an optically transparent fiber optic network for avionics applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Whaley, Gregory J.; Karnopp, Roger J.

2010-04-01

The goal of the Air Force Highly Integrated Photonics (HIP) program is to develop and demonstrate single photonic chip components which support a single mode fiber network architecture for use on mobile military platforms. We propose an optically transparent, broadcast and select fiber optic network as the next generation interconnect on avionics platforms. In support of this network, we have developed three principal, single-chip photonic components: a tunable laser transmitter, a 32x32 port star coupler, and a 32 port multi-channel receiver which are all compatible with demanding avionics environmental and size requirements. The performance of the developed components will be presented as well as the results of a demonstration system which integrates the components into a functional network representative of the form factor used in advanced avionics computing and signal processing applications.

THREaD Mapper Studio: a novel, visual web server for the estimation of genetic linkage maps

PubMed Central

Cheema, Jitender; Ellis, T. H. Noel; Dicks, Jo

2010-01-01

The estimation of genetic linkage maps is a key component in plant and animal research, providing both an indication of the genetic structure of an organism and a mechanism for identifying candidate genes associated with traits of interest. Because of this importance, several computational solutions to genetic map estimation exist, mostly implemented as stand-alone software packages. However, the estimation process is often largely hidden from the user. Consequently, problems such as a program crashing may occur that leave a user baffled. THREaD Mapper Studio (http://cbr.jic.ac.uk/threadmapper) is a new web site that implements a novel, visual and interactive method for the estimation of genetic linkage maps from DNA markers. The rationale behind the web site is to make the estimation process as transparent and robust as possible, while also allowing users to use their expert knowledge during analysis. Indeed, the 3D visual nature of the tool allows users to spot features in a data set, such as outlying markers and potential structural rearrangements that could cause problems with the estimation procedure and to account for them in their analysis. Furthermore, THREaD Mapper Studio facilitates the visual comparison of genetic map solutions from third party software, aiding users in developing robust solutions for their data sets. PMID:20494977

NSI customer service representatives and user support office: NASA Science Internet

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1991-01-01

The NASA Science Internet, (NSI) was established in 1987 to provide NASA's Offices of Space Science and Applications (OSSA) missions with transparent wide-area data connectivity to NASA's researchers, computational resources, and databases. The NSI Office at NASA/Ames Research Center has the lead responsibility for implementing a total, open networking program to serve the OSSA community. NSI is a full-service communications provider whose services include science network planning, network engineering, applications development, network operations, and network information center/user support services. NSI's mission is to provide reliable high-speed communications to the NASA science community. To this end, the NSI Office manages and operates the NASA Science Internet, a multiprotocol network currently supporting both DECnet and TCP/IP protocols. NSI utilizes state-of-the-art network technology to meet its customers' requirements. THe NASA Science Internet interconnects with other national networks including the National Science Foundation's NSFNET, the Department of Energy's ESnet, and the Department of Defense's MILNET. NSI also has international connections to Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, and several European countries. NSI cooperates with other government agencies as well as academic and commercial organizations to implement networking technologies which foster interoperability, improve reliability and performance, increase security and control, and expedite migration to the OSI protocols.

Spraylon fluorocarbon encapsulation for silicon solar cell arrays

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1977-01-01

A development program was performed for evaluating, modifying, and optimizing the Lockheed formulated liquid transparent filmforming Spraylon fluorocarbon protective coating for silicon solar cells and modules. The program objectives were designed to meet the requirements of the low-cost automated solar cell array fabrication process. As part of the study, a computer program was used to establish the limits of the safe working stress in the coated silicon solar cell array system under severe thermal shock.

Modelling and simulation of a thermally induced optical transparency in a dual micro-ring resonator

PubMed Central

2017-01-01

This paper introduces the simulation and modelling of a novel dual micro-ring resonator. The geometric configuration of the resonators, and the implementation of a simulated broadband excitation source, results in the realization of optical transparencies in the combined through port output spectrum. The 130 nm silicon on insulator rib fabrication process is adopted for the simulation of the dual-ring configuration. Two titanium nitride heaters are positioned over the coupling regions of the resonators, which can be operated independently, to control the spectral position of the optical transparency. A third heater, centrally located above the dual resonator rings, can be used to red shift the entire spectrum to a required reference resonant wavelength. The free spectral range with no heater currents applied is 4.29 nm. For a simulated heater current of 7 mA (55.7 mW heater power) applied to one of the through coupling heaters, the optical transparency exhibits a red shift of 1.79 nm from the reference resonant wavelength. The ring-to-ring separation of approximately 900 nm means that it can be assumed that there is a zero ring-to-ring coupling field in this model. This novel arrangement has potential applications as a gas mass airflow sensor or a gas species identification sensor. PMID:28791167

Modelling and simulation of a thermally induced optical transparency in a dual micro-ring resonator.

PubMed

Lydiate, Joseph

2017-07-01

This paper introduces the simulation and modelling of a novel dual micro-ring resonator. The geometric configuration of the resonators, and the implementation of a simulated broadband excitation source, results in the realization of optical transparencies in the combined through port output spectrum. The 130 nm silicon on insulator rib fabrication process is adopted for the simulation of the dual-ring configuration. Two titanium nitride heaters are positioned over the coupling regions of the resonators, which can be operated independently, to control the spectral position of the optical transparency. A third heater, centrally located above the dual resonator rings, can be used to red shift the entire spectrum to a required reference resonant wavelength. The free spectral range with no heater currents applied is 4.29 nm. For a simulated heater current of 7 mA (55.7 mW heater power) applied to one of the through coupling heaters, the optical transparency exhibits a red shift of 1.79 nm from the reference resonant wavelength. The ring-to-ring separation of approximately 900 nm means that it can be assumed that there is a zero ring-to-ring coupling field in this model. This novel arrangement has potential applications as a gas mass airflow sensor or a gas species identification sensor.

ODIN-object-oriented development interface for NMR.

PubMed

Jochimsen, Thies H; von Mengershausen, Michael

2004-09-01

A cross-platform development environment for nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) experiments is presented. It allows rapid prototyping of new pulse sequences and provides a common programming interface for different system types. With this object-oriented interface implemented in C++, the programmer is capable of writing applications to control an experiment that can be executed on different measurement devices, even from different manufacturers, without the need to modify the source code. Due to the clear design of the software, new pulse sequences can be created, tested, and executed within a short time. To post-process the acquired data, an interface to well-known numerical libraries is part of the framework. This allows a transparent integration of the data processing instructions into the measurement module. The software focuses mainly on NMR imaging, but can also be used with limitations for spectroscopic experiments. To demonstrate the capabilities of the framework, results of the same experiment, carried out on two NMR imaging systems from different manufacturers are shown and compared with the results of a simulation.

A false start in the race against doping in sport: concerns with cycling's biological passport.

PubMed

Hailey, Nicholas

2011-11-01

Professional cycling has suffered from a number of doping scandals. The sport's governing bodies have responded by implementing an aggressive new antidoping program known as the biological passport. Cycling's biological passport marks a departure from traditional antidoping efforts, which have focused on directly detecting prohibited substances in a cyclist's system. Instead, the biological passport tracks biological variables in a cyclist's blood and urine over time, monitoring for fluctuations that are thought to indirectly reveal the effects of doping. Although this method of indirect detection is promising, it also raises serious legal and scientific concerns. Since its introduction, the cycling community has debated the reliability of indirect biological-passport evidence and the clarity, consistency, and transparency of its use in proving doping violations. Such uncertainty undermines the legitimacy of finding cyclists guilty of doping based on this indirect evidence alone. Antidoping authorities should address these important concerns before continuing to pursue doping sanctions against cyclists solely on the basis of their biological passports.

Guidelines for reporting evaluations based on observational methodology.

PubMed

Portell, Mariona; Anguera, M Teresa; Chacón-Moscoso, Salvador; Sanduvete-Chaves, Susana

2015-01-01

Observational methodology is one of the most suitable research designs for evaluating fidelity of implementation, especially in complex interventions. However, the conduct and reporting of observational studies is hampered by the absence of specific guidelines, such as those that exist for other evaluation designs. This lack of specific guidance poses a threat to the quality and transparency of these studies and also constitutes a considerable publication hurdle. The aim of this study thus was to draw up a set of proposed guidelines for reporting evaluations based on observational methodology. The guidelines were developed by triangulating three sources of information: observational studies performed in different fields by experts in observational methodology, reporting guidelines for general studies and studies with similar designs to observational studies, and proposals from experts in observational methodology at scientific meetings. We produced a list of guidelines grouped into three domains: intervention and expected outcomes, methods, and results. The result is a useful, carefully crafted set of simple guidelines for conducting and reporting observational studies in the field of program evaluation.

Coordinating complex decision support activities across distributed applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Adler, Richard M.

1994-01-01

Knowledge-based technologies have been applied successfully to automate planning and scheduling in many problem domains. Automation of decision support can be increased further by integrating task-specific applications with supporting database systems, and by coordinating interactions between such tools to facilitate collaborative activities. Unfortunately, the technical obstacles that must be overcome to achieve this vision of transparent, cooperative problem-solving are daunting. Intelligent decision support tools are typically developed for standalone use, rely on incompatible, task-specific representational models and application programming interfaces (API's), and run on heterogeneous computing platforms. Getting such applications to interact freely calls for platform independent capabilities for distributed communication, as well as tools for mapping information across disparate representations. Symbiotics is developing a layered set of software tools (called NetWorks! for integrating and coordinating heterogeneous distributed applications. he top layer of tools consists of an extensible set of generic, programmable coordination services. Developers access these services via high-level API's to implement the desired interactions between distributed applications.

Implementing Stakeholders' Access to Expertise: Experimenting on Nuclear Installations' Safety Cases - 12160

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

Gilli, Ludivine; Charron, Sylvie

2012-07-01

In 2009 and 2010, the Institute for Nuclear Safety and Radiation Protection (IRSN) led two pilot actions dealing with nuclear installations' safety cases. One concerned the periodical review of the French 900 MWe nuclear reactors, the other concerned the decommissioning of a workshop located on the site of Areva's La Hague fuel-reprocessing plant site in Northwestern France. The purpose of both these programs was to test ways for IRSN and a small number of stakeholders (Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) members, local elected officials, etc.) to engage in technical discussions. The discussions were intended to enable the stakeholders to review future applicationsmore » and provide valuable input. The test cases confirmed there is a definite challenge in successfully opening a meaningful dialogue to discuss technical issues, in particular the fact that most expertise reports were not public and the conflict that exists between the contrary demands of transparency and confidentiality of information. The test case also confirmed there are ways to further improvement of stakeholders' involvement. (authors)« less

Incentive Program Requirements for Eligible Hospitals, Critical Access Hospitals, and Eligible Professionals; Provider-Based Status of Indian Health Service and Tribal Facilities and Organizations; Costs Reporting and Provider Requirements; Agreement Termination Notices. Final rule.

PubMed

2017-08-14

We are revising the Medicare hospital inpatient prospective payment systems (IPPS) for operating and capital-related costs of acute care hospitals to implement changes arising from our continuing experience with these systems for FY 2018. Some of these changes implement certain statutory provisions contained in the Pathway for Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) Reform Act of 2013, the Improving Medicare Post-Acute Care Transformation Act of 2014, the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015, the 21st Century Cures Act, and other legislation. We also are making changes relating to the provider-based status of Indian Health Service (IHS) and Tribal facilities and organizations and to the low-volume hospital payment adjustment for hospitals operated by the IHS or a Tribe. In addition, we are providing the market basket update that will apply to the rate-of-increase limits for certain hospitals excluded from the IPPS that are paid on a reasonable cost basis subject to these limits for FY 2018. We are updating the payment policies and the annual payment rates for the Medicare prospective payment system (PPS) for inpatient hospital services provided by long-term care hospitals (LTCHs) for FY 2018. In addition, we are establishing new requirements or revising existing requirements for quality reporting by specific Medicare providers (acute care hospitals, PPS-exempt cancer hospitals, LTCHs, and inpatient psychiatric facilities). We also are establishing new requirements or revising existing requirements for eligible professionals (EPs), eligible hospitals, and critical access hospitals (CAHs) participating in the Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Programs. We are updating policies relating to the Hospital Value-Based Purchasing (VBP) Program, the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program, and the Hospital-Acquired Condition (HAC) Reduction Program. We also are making changes relating to transparency of accrediting organization survey reports and plans of correction of providers and suppliers; electronic signature and electronic submission of the Certification and Settlement Summary page of the Medicare cost reports; and clarification of provider disposal of assets.

NASA Program Office Technology Investments to Enable Future Missions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thronson, Harley; Pham, Thai; Ganel, Opher

2018-01-01

The Cosmic Origins (COR) and Physics of the Cosmos (PCOS) Program Offices (POs) reside at NASA GSFC and implement priorities for the NASA HQ Astrophysics Division (APD). One major aspect of the POs’ activities is managing our Strategic Astrophysics Technology (SAT) program to mature technologies for future strategic missions. The Programs follow APD guidance on which missions are strategic, currently informed by the NRC’s 2010 Decadal Survey report, as well as APD’s Implementation Plan and the Astrophysics Roadmap.In preparation for the upcoming 2020 Decadal Survey, the APD has established Science and Technology Definition Teams (STDTs) to study four large-mission concepts: the Origins Space Telescope (née, Far-IR Surveyor), Habitable Exoplanet Imaging Mission, Large UV/Optical/IR Surveyor, and Lynx (née, X-ray Surveyor). The STDTs will develop the science case and design reference mission, assess technology development needs, and estimate the cost of their concept. A fifth team, the L3 Study Team (L3ST), was charged to study potential US contributions to ESA’s planned Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) gravitational-wave observatory.The POs use a rigorous and transparent process to solicit technology gaps from the scientific and technical communities, and prioritize those entries based on strategic alignment, expected impact, cross-cutting applicability, and urgency. For the past two years, the technology-gap assessments of the four STDTs and the L3ST are included in our process. Until a study team submits its final report, community-proposed changes to gaps submitted or adopted by a study team are forwarded to that study team for consideration.We discuss our technology development process, with strategic prioritization informing calls for SAT proposals and informing investment decisions. We also present results of the 2017 technology gap prioritization and showcase our current portfolio of technology development projects. To date, 96 COR and 86 PCOS SAT proposals have been received, of which 22 COR and 28 PCOS projects were awarded. For more information, see the Program Annual Technology Reports available through the PO Technology web page at https://apd440.gsfc.nasa.gov/technology.html .

Checkpoint-Restart in User Space

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

CRUISE implements a user-space file system that stores data in main memory and transparently spills over to other storage, like local flash memory or the parallel file system, as needed. CRUISE also exposes file contents fo remote direct memory access, allowing external tools to copy files to the parallel file system in the background with reduced CPU interruption.

Transparency and Accountability: "Implementing a Postsecondary Institution Rating System That Empowers Students While Avoiding Unintended Consequences"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harmon, Tim; Cielinski, Anna

2014-01-01

In an economy that increasingly demands postsecondary credentials to access high-paying jobs with the potential for career advancement, students need comprehensive and reliable information to make better college and career choices. This need has prompted a vigorous national dialogue about the best way to provide information on the performance of…

From Equivalence to Transparency of Vocational Diplomas: The Case of France and Germany.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mobus, Martine

2000-01-01

The decision to establish equivalencies between vocational training diplomas in France and Germany is a legal act subject to publication in the official gazettes of both countries. The procedure for establishing the equivalence and forms of implementation is defined in arrangements adopted by the committee of Franco-German experts in application…

Optimal Sample Size Determinations for the Heteroscedastic Two One-Sided Tests of Mean Equivalence: Design Schemes and Software Implementations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jan, Show-Li; Shieh, Gwowen

2017-01-01

Equivalence assessment is becoming an increasingly important topic in many application areas including behavioral and social sciences research. Although there exist more powerful tests, the two one-sided tests (TOST) procedure is a technically transparent and widely accepted method for establishing statistical equivalence. Alternatively, a direct…

75 FR 5491 - Privacy Act of 1974: Implementation of Exemptions; Department of Homeland Security/U.S. Customs...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-02-03

... nature and the sharing of DHS/ CBP--007 Border Crossing Information system of records information in... system of records also provides notice and transparency to the public as to nature and extent of the... integrity.'' United States v. Flores-Montano, 541 U.S. 149, 153 (2004). Indeed, ``the Government's interest...

How to Present It? On the Rhetoric of an Outstanding Lecturer

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Movshovitz-Hadar, Nitsa; Hazzan, Orit

2004-01-01

This paper analyses a lecture by an excellent teaching award winner professor of mathematics, given to high school mathematics teachers. The analysis is based upon two sources: (i) the lecture plan, as expressed in a series of 29 transparencies, prepared by the lecturer in advance; (ii) the actual implementation of the lecture, as transcribed from…

Warhead Confirmation: A Follow-on to New START

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

MacArthur, Duncan W.

This presentation's slides are comprised of the following: Warhead Confirmation: A Follow-on to New START; What May Change?; Generic Arms Reduction Treaty; Challenges; Dismantlement and Warhead Confirmation; Confirmation Approaches; Certification; Information Barriers (IBs); The Fissile Material Transparency Technology Demonstration (FMTTD); More Recent Implementations; The Monitor’s View; Authentication; Authentication Options; Authentication in Phases; and Future Treaties.

3 CFR 8469 - Proclamation 8469 of December 31, 2009. 40th Anniversary of the National Environmental Policy Act...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... transparency in their implementation of the National Environmental Policy Act. I also encourage every American... Anniversary of the National Environmental Policy Act, 2010 8469 Proclamation 8469 Presidential Documents... Policy Act, 2010By the President of the United States of America A Proclamation Forty years ago, the...

High Performance Transparent Transistor Memory Devices Using Nano-Floating Gate of Polymer/ZnO Nanocomposites

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shih, Chien-Chung; Lee, Wen-Ya; Chiu, Yu-Cheng; Hsu, Han-Wen; Chang, Hsuan-Chun; Liu, Cheng-Liang; Chen, Wen-Chang

2016-02-01

Nano-floating gate memory devices (NFGM) using metal nanoparticles (NPs) covered with an insulating polymer have been considered as a promising electronic device for the next-generation nonvolatile organic memory applications NPs. However, the transparency of the device with metal NPs is restricted to 60~70% due to the light absorption in the visible region caused by the surface plasmon resonance effects of metal NPs. To address this issue, we demonstrate a novel NFGM using the blends of hole-trapping poly (9-(4-vinylphenyl) carbazole) (PVPK) and electron-trapping ZnO NPs as the charge storage element. The memory devices exhibited a remarkably programmable memory window up to 60 V during the program/erase operations, which was attributed to the trapping/detrapping of charge carriers in ZnO NPs/PVPK composite. Furthermore, the devices showed the long-term retention time (>105 s) and WRER test (>200 cycles), indicating excellent electrical reliability and stability. Additionally, the fabricated transistor memory devices exhibited a relatively high transparency of 90% at the wavelength of 500 nm based on the spray-coated PEDOT:PSS as electrode, suggesting high potential for transparent organic electronic memory devices.

Spin-independent transparency of pure spin current at normal/ferromagnetic metal interface

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hao, Runrun; Zhong, Hai; Kang, Yun; Tian, Yufei; Yan, Shishen; Liu, Guolei; Han, Guangbing; Yu, Shuyun; Mei, Liangmo; Kang, Shishou

2018-03-01

The spin transparency at the normal/ferromagnetic metal (NM/FM) interface was studied in Pt/YIG/Cu/FM multilayers. The spin current generated by the spin Hall effect (SHE) in Pt flows into Cu/FM due to magnetic insulator YIG blocking charge current and transmitting spin current via the magnon current. Therefore, the nonlocal voltage induced by an inverse spin Hall effect (ISHE) in FM can be detected. With the magnetization of FM parallel or antiparallel to the spin polarization of pure spin currents ({{\\boldsymbol{σ }}}sc}), the spin-independent nonlocal voltage is induced. This indicates that the spin transparency at the Cu/FM interface is spin-independent, which demonstrates that the influence of spin-dependent electrochemical potential due to spin accumulation on the interfacial spin transparency is negligible. Furthermore, a larger spin Hall angle of Fe20Ni80 (Py) than that of Ni is obtained from the nonlocal voltage measurements. Project supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2015CB921502), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11474184 and 11627805), the 111 Project, China (Grant No. B13029), and the Fundamental Research Funds of Shandong University, China.

The role of healthcare communications agencies in maintaining compliance when working with the pharmaceutical industry and healthcare professionals.

PubMed

Cairns, Angela; Yarker, Yvonne E

2008-05-01

Relationships between the pharmaceutical industry and healthcare professionals continue to drive discussion about the potential for conflicts of interest. Despite greater regulation and oversight, there are still calls for increased transparency and further restrictions on these relationships. Regulatory authorities, the pharmaceutical industry, professional societies, and other interested parties have responded by developing robust guidelines for interactions between the pharmaceutical industry and healthcare professionals. This, in turn, is driving change in the way that healthcare communications agencies work, increasing the need for them to visibly demonstrate processes that ensure their employees comply with relevant laws, regulations, and guidelines. In our group of healthcare communications agencies we have established an internal compliance program and developed a policy that reflects the services we provide, and we recommend that other agencies adopt a similar program. Compliance training, implemented by a nominated compliance team, can be enforced by including compulsory tests for employees who interact with the pharmaceutical industry and healthcare professionals, with annual reassessment. The compliance team also has an important role to play in ensuring ongoing communication and staff education, including awareness of new legal and best practice developments. Management of the compliance program is essential, with clear mechanisms for auditing and evaluation, and the inclusion of compliance adherence in staff performance objectives. A visible framework for handling potential compliance issues should also be developed, with clear definitions of different levels of noncompliance and potential associated consequences. Compliance programs may also include other elements, such as terminology and documentation guidance, so that the program becomes an integral tool used by employees on a daily basis. With a robust internal compliance program, healthcare communication agencies can play a significant role in helping maintain appropriate pharmaceutical industry-healthcare professional relationships in an increasingly regulated and scrutinized environment.

76 FR 78741 - Medicare, Medicaid, Children's Health Insurance Programs; Transparency Reports and Reporting of...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-12-19

... Vol. 76 Monday, No. 243 December 19, 2011 Part II Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services 42 CFR Parts 402 and 403 Medicare, Medicaid, Children's Health...; [[Page 78742

Dynamics of Implementation and Maintenance of Organizational Health Interventions.

PubMed

Jalali, Mohammad S; Rahmandad, Hazhir; Bullock, Sally Lawrence; Ammerman, Alice

2017-08-15

In this study, we present case studies to explore the dynamics of implementation and maintenance of health interventions. We analyze how specific interventions are built and eroded, how the building and erosion mechanisms are interconnected, and why we can see significantly different erosion rates across otherwise similar organizations. We use multiple comparative obesity prevention case studies to provide empirical information on the mechanisms of interest, and use qualitative systems modeling to integrate our evolving understanding into an internally consistent and transparent theory of the phenomenon. Our preliminary results identify reinforcing feedback mechanisms, including design of organizational processes, motivation of stakeholders, and communication among stakeholders, which influence implementation and maintenance of intervention components. Over time, these feedback mechanisms may drive a wedge between otherwise similar organizations, leading to distinct configurations of implementation and maintenance processes.

Minimally invasive surgical video analysis: a powerful tool for surgical training and navigation.

PubMed

Sánchez-González, P; Oropesa, I; Gómez, E J

2013-01-01

Analysis of minimally invasive surgical videos is a powerful tool to drive new solutions for achieving reproducible training programs, objective and transparent assessment systems and navigation tools to assist surgeons and improve patient safety. This paper presents how video analysis contributes to the development of new cognitive and motor training and assessment programs as well as new paradigms for image-guided surgery.

[Certified medical centers--A measurable benefit to patients?!].

PubMed

Eberlein-Gonska, Maria; Schellong, Sebastian; Baumann, Michael

2007-01-01

The establishment of medical centers should meet the high requirements of the healthcare system. They should provide innovative solutions for a number of problems, e.g. the interdisciplinary collaboration of various health departments with due regard to their autonomy. This is reminiscent of the implementation and advancement of a quality management system required by law where a clear idea of how to manage the organizational and procedural structures as an integral part of the management concept implemented is missing. The genuine efforts to implement and advance interdisciplinary medical centers are up against "bogus models" created out of sheer marketing interests. The term "medical center" has so far not been protected under trademark law, leaving patients, relatives or even the referring physicians unsure about how to judge a medical center's actual performance. The same is true of certified centers. Their numbers are growing, but not so the transparency about the amount of measurable, traceable and understandable benefits that a certified center provides to the patient. Therefore clear demands need to be placed on certified centers, especially with regard to the implementation of a concept that provides interdisciplinarity and process-oriented transparent structures and defines quality ratios and quality objectives. This includes providing resources for the continuous collection and evaluation of hard and soft data as well as deriving improvement measures. The three centers of the University Hospital Dresden--the University Cancer Center, the University Vascular Center and the University Pain Center--fulfil this high demand. They have created fundamentals for measurable improvement of patient care and are able to present first results.

Principles of shared decision-making within teams.

PubMed

Jacobs, Jeffrey P; Wernovsky, Gil; Cooper, David S; Karl, Tom R

2015-12-01

In the domain of paediatric and congenital cardiac care, the stakes are huge. Likewise, the care of these children assembles a group of "A+ personality" individuals from the domains of cardiac surgery, cardiology, anaesthesiology, critical care, and nursing. This results in an environment that has opportunity for both powerful collaboration and powerful conflict. Providers of healthcare should avoid conflict when it has no bearing on outcome, as it is clearly a squandering of individual and collective political capital. Outcomes after cardiac surgery are now being reported transparently and publicly. In the present era of transparency, one may wonder how to balance the following potentially competing demands: quality healthcare, transparency and accountability, and teamwork and shared decision-making. An understanding of transparency and public reporting in the domain of paediatric cardiac surgery facilitates the implementation of a strategy for teamwork and shared decision-making. In January, 2015, the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) began to publicly report outcomes of paediatric and congenital cardiac surgery using the 2014 Society of Thoracic Surgeons Congenital Heart Surgery Database (STS-CHSD) Mortality Risk Model. The 2014 STS-CHSD Mortality Risk Model facilitates description of Operative Mortality adjusted for procedural and patient-level factors. The need for transparency in reporting of outcomes can create pressure on healthcare providers to implement strategies of teamwork and shared decision-making to assure outstanding results. A simple strategy of shared decision-making was described by Tom Karl and was implemented in multiple domains by Jeff Jacobs and David Cooper. In a critical-care environment, it is not unusual for healthcare providers to disagree about strategies of management of patients. When two healthcare providers disagree, each provider can classify the disagreement into three levels: • SDM Level 1 Decision: "We disagree but it really does not matter, so do whatever you desire!" • SDM Level 2 Decision: "We disagree and I believe it matters, but I am OK if you do whatever you desire!!" • SDM Level 3 Decision: "We disagree and I must insist (diplomatically and politely) that we follow the strategy that I am proposing!!!!!!" SDM Level 1 Decisions and SDM Level 2 Decisions typically do not create stress on the team, especially when there is mutual purpose and respect among the members of the team. SDM Level 3 Decisions are the real challenge. Periodically, the healthcare team is faced with such Level 3 Decisions, and teamwork and shared decision-making may be challenged. Teamwork is a learned behaviour, and mentorship is critical to achieve a properly balanced approach. If we agree to leave our egos at the door, then, in the final analysis, the team will benefit and we will set the stage for optimal patient care. In the environment of strong disagreement, true teamwork and shared decision-making are critical to preserve the unity and strength of the multi-disciplinary team and simultaneously provide excellent healthcare.

A Cost-Effective Transparency-Based Digital Imaging for Efficient and Accurate Wound Area Measurement

PubMed Central

Li, Pei-Nan; Li, Hong; Wu, Mo-Li; Wang, Shou-Yu; Kong, Qing-You; Zhang, Zhen; Sun, Yuan; Liu, Jia; Lv, De-Cheng

2012-01-01

Wound measurement is an objective and direct way to trace the course of wound healing and to evaluate therapeutic efficacy. Nevertheless, the accuracy and efficiency of the current measurement methods need to be improved. Taking the advantages of reliability of transparency tracing and the accuracy of computer-aided digital imaging, a transparency-based digital imaging approach is established, by which data from 340 wound tracing were collected from 6 experimental groups (8 rats/group) at 8 experimental time points (Day 1, 3, 5, 7, 10, 12, 14 and 16) and orderly archived onto a transparency model sheet. This sheet was scanned and its image was saved in JPG form. Since a set of standard area units from 1 mm2 to 1 cm2 was integrated into the sheet, the tracing areas in JPG image were measured directly, using the “Magnetic lasso tool” in Adobe Photoshop program. The pixel values/PVs of individual outlined regions were obtained and recorded in an average speed of 27 second/region. All PV data were saved in an excel form and their corresponding areas were calculated simultaneously by the formula of Y (PV of the outlined region)/X (PV of standard area unit) × Z (area of standard unit). It took a researcher less than 3 hours to finish area calculation of 340 regions. In contrast, over 3 hours were expended by three skillful researchers to accomplish the above work with traditional transparency-based method. Moreover, unlike the results obtained traditionally, little variation was found among the data calculated by different persons and the standard area units in different sizes and shapes. Given its accurate, reproductive and efficient properties, this transparency-based digital imaging approach would be of significant values in basic wound healing research and clinical practice. PMID:22666449

NASE 2015: Implementation of a Management Quality System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ros, Rosa Maria; García, Beatriz; Santa Maria, Delia

2015-08-01

ISO 29990:2010, Learning services for non-formal education and training - Basic requirements for service providers, proposes enhance transparency and allow comparison on a worldwide basis of learning services, offering a single alternative backed by international consensus to the huge variety of national service and management standards which now exists in the field of non-formal learning. The objective of ISO 29990:2010 is to provide a generic model for quality professional practice and performance, and a common reference for learning service providers and their clients in the design, development and delivery of non-formal education, training and development.NASE project, which was born as a consequence of the implementation of IAU-10 Years Strategic Plan and it is in agreement with the proposal to increase the interest and efforts of IAU on schools before the university and constitutes good objective for the implementation of ISO 29990-2010.Taking into account the main objectives of the Strategic Plan, it is possible to remark that NASE acts on all the education levels, and had, during the past 5 years a big impact because Ministries of Education, Universities and Planetariums are involved. After 5 years NASE organized more than 60 courses in about 20 countries distributed in America, Africa, Asia and Europe. In many countries local governments changed their curriculum according NASE course contents (i.e. Nicaragua, Argentina and Honduras).The knowledge obtained by teachers is evaluated by the department of education of the local government or universities who participated. NASE acts as part of the Professional formation of Professors in Science and in this sense is a Program directed to the Tertiary and University Education.After 5 years of development, we present the implementation of a Quality Management System, according to ISO 29990:2010, devoted to Learning services for non-formal education and training. Basic requirements for service providers, and show that an Educational Program as NASE can also rich the international management standard levels’, demonstrating that knowledge is a factor of economic growing in the World.

Space radiation resistant transparent polymeric materials

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Giori, C.; Yamauchi, T.

1977-01-01

A literature search in the field of ultraviolet and charged particle irradiation of polymers was utilized in an experimental program aimed at the development of radiation stable materials for space applications. The rationale utilized for material selection and the synthesis, characterization and testing performed on several selected materials is described. Among the materials tested for ultraviolet stability in vacuum were: polyethyleneoxide, polyvinylnaphthalene, and the amino resin synthesized by the condensation of o-hydroxybenzoguanamine with formaldehyde. Particularly interesting was the radiation behavior of poly(ethyleneoxide), irradiation did not cause degradation of optical properties but rather an improvement in transparency as indicated by a decrease in solar absorptance with increasing exposure time.

Reproducibility and Transparency of Omics Research - Impacts on Human Health Risk Assessment

EPA Science Inventory

Omics technologies are becoming more widely used in toxicology, necessitating their consideration in human health hazard and risk assessment programs. Today, risk assessors in the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) Toxicologi...

Dipy, a library for the analysis of diffusion MRI data.

PubMed

Garyfallidis, Eleftherios; Brett, Matthew; Amirbekian, Bagrat; Rokem, Ariel; van der Walt, Stefan; Descoteaux, Maxime; Nimmo-Smith, Ian

2014-01-01

Diffusion Imaging in Python (Dipy) is a free and open source software project for the analysis of data from diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) experiments. dMRI is an application of MRI that can be used to measure structural features of brain white matter. Many methods have been developed to use dMRI data to model the local configuration of white matter nerve fiber bundles and infer the trajectory of bundles connecting different parts of the brain. Dipy gathers implementations of many different methods in dMRI, including: diffusion signal pre-processing; reconstruction of diffusion distributions in individual voxels; fiber tractography and fiber track post-processing, analysis and visualization. Dipy aims to provide transparent implementations for all the different steps of dMRI analysis with a uniform programming interface. We have implemented classical signal reconstruction techniques, such as the diffusion tensor model and deterministic fiber tractography. In addition, cutting edge novel reconstruction techniques are implemented, such as constrained spherical deconvolution and diffusion spectrum imaging (DSI) with deconvolution, as well as methods for probabilistic tracking and original methods for tractography clustering. Many additional utility functions are provided to calculate various statistics, informative visualizations, as well as file-handling routines to assist in the development and use of novel techniques. In contrast to many other scientific software projects, Dipy is not being developed by a single research group. Rather, it is an open project that encourages contributions from any scientist/developer through GitHub and open discussions on the project mailing list. Consequently, Dipy today has an international team of contributors, spanning seven different academic institutions in five countries and three continents, which is still growing.

Dipy, a library for the analysis of diffusion MRI data

PubMed Central

Garyfallidis, Eleftherios; Brett, Matthew; Amirbekian, Bagrat; Rokem, Ariel; van der Walt, Stefan; Descoteaux, Maxime; Nimmo-Smith, Ian

2014-01-01

Diffusion Imaging in Python (Dipy) is a free and open source software project for the analysis of data from diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) experiments. dMRI is an application of MRI that can be used to measure structural features of brain white matter. Many methods have been developed to use dMRI data to model the local configuration of white matter nerve fiber bundles and infer the trajectory of bundles connecting different parts of the brain. Dipy gathers implementations of many different methods in dMRI, including: diffusion signal pre-processing; reconstruction of diffusion distributions in individual voxels; fiber tractography and fiber track post-processing, analysis and visualization. Dipy aims to provide transparent implementations for all the different steps of dMRI analysis with a uniform programming interface. We have implemented classical signal reconstruction techniques, such as the diffusion tensor model and deterministic fiber tractography. In addition, cutting edge novel reconstruction techniques are implemented, such as constrained spherical deconvolution and diffusion spectrum imaging (DSI) with deconvolution, as well as methods for probabilistic tracking and original methods for tractography clustering. Many additional utility functions are provided to calculate various statistics, informative visualizations, as well as file-handling routines to assist in the development and use of novel techniques. In contrast to many other scientific software projects, Dipy is not being developed by a single research group. Rather, it is an open project that encourages contributions from any scientist/developer through GitHub and open discussions on the project mailing list. Consequently, Dipy today has an international team of contributors, spanning seven different academic institutions in five countries and three continents, which is still growing. PMID:24600385

Importance of strategic management in the implementation of private medicine retailer programmes: case studies from three districts in Kenya

PubMed Central

2010-01-01

Abstract Background The home-management of malaria strategy seeks to improve prompt and effective anti-malarial drug use through the informal sector, with a potential channel being the Private Medicine Retailers (PMRs). Previous evaluations of PMR programmes focused on their impact on retailer knowledge and practices, with limited evidence about the influence of implementation processes on the impacts at scale. This paper examines how the implementation processes of three PMR programmes in Kenya, each scaled up within a district, contributed to the outcomes observed. These were a Ministry of Health programme in Kwale district; and two programmes supported by non-governmental organizations in collaboration with government in Kisii Central and Bungoma districts. Methods The research methods included 24 focus group discussions with clients and PMRs, 19 in-depth interviews with implementing actors, document review and a diary of events. The data were analysed using the combination of a broad policy analysis framework and more specific scaling up/diffusion of innovations frameworks. Results The Kisii programme, a case study of successful implementation, was underpinned by good relationships between district health managers and a “resource team”, supported by a memorandum of understanding which enabled successful implementation. It had flexible budgetary and decision making processes which were responsive to local contexts, and took account of local socio-economic activities. In contrast, the Kwale programme, which had implementation challenges, was characterised by a complex funding process, with lengthy timelines, that was tied to the government financial management system which constrained implementation Although there was a flexible funding system in Bungoma, a perceived lack of transparency in fund management, inadequate management of inter-organisational relationships, and inability to adapt and respond to changing circumstances led to implementation difficulties. Conclusions For effective scaling up of PMR programmes, the provision of technical support and adequate resources are vital, but not sufficient on their own. An active strategy to manage relationships between implementing actors through effective communication mechanisms is essential. Successful outcomes may be realised if a strong and transparent management system, including management of financial resources, is put in place. This study provides evidence of the value of assessing implementation processes as part of impact evaluation for public health programmes. PMID:20594373

Importance of strategic management in the implementation of private medicine retailer programmes: case studies from three districts in Kenya.

PubMed

Abuya, Timothy; Amin, Abdinasir; Molyneux, Sassy; Akhwale, Willis; Marsh, Vicki; Gilson, Lucy

2010-07-02

The home-management of malaria strategy seeks to improve prompt and effective anti-malarial drug use through the informal sector, with a potential channel being the Private Medicine Retailers (PMRs). Previous evaluations of PMR programmes focused on their impact on retailer knowledge and practices, with limited evidence about the influence of implementation processes on the impacts at scale. This paper examines how the implementation processes of three PMR programmes in Kenya, each scaled up within a district, contributed to the outcomes observed. These were a Ministry of Health programme in Kwale district; and two programmes supported by non-governmental organizations in collaboration with government in Kisii Central and Bungoma districts. The research methods included 24 focus group discussions with clients and PMRs, 19 in-depth interviews with implementing actors, document review and a diary of events. The data were analysed using the combination of a broad policy analysis framework and more specific scaling up/diffusion of innovations frameworks. The Kisii programme, a case study of successful implementation, was underpinned by good relationships between district health managers and a "resource team", supported by a memorandum of understanding which enabled successful implementation. It had flexible budgetary and decision making processes which were responsive to local contexts, and took account of local socio-economic activities. In contrast, the Kwale programme, which had implementation challenges, was characterised by a complex funding process, with lengthy timelines, that was tied to the government financial management system which constrained implementation Although there was a flexible funding system in Bungoma, a perceived lack of transparency in fund management, inadequate management of inter-organisational relationships, and inability to adapt and respond to changing circumstances led to implementation difficulties. For effective scaling up of PMR programmes, the provision of technical support and adequate resources are vital, but not sufficient on their own. An active strategy to manage relationships between implementing actors through effective communication mechanisms is essential. Successful outcomes may be realised if a strong and transparent management system, including management of financial resources, is put in place. This study provides evidence of the value of assessing implementation processes as part of impact evaluation for public health programmes.

Informing Education Policy in Afghanistan: Using Design of Experiments and Data Envelopment Analysis to Provide Transparency in Complex Simulation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marlin, Benjamin

2013-01-01

Education planning provides the policy maker and the decision maker a logical framework in which to develop and implement education policy. At the international level, education planning is often confounded by both internal and external complexities, making the development of education policy difficult. This research presents a discrete event…

Quantitative Analysis in the General Chemistry Laboratory: Training Students to Analyze Individual Results in the Context of Collective Data

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ling, Chris D.; Bridgeman, Adam J.

2011-01-01

Titration experiments are ideal for generating large data sets for use in quantitative-analysis activities that are meaningful and transparent to general chemistry students. We report the successful implementation of a sophisticated quantitative exercise in which the students identify a series of unknown acids by determining their molar masses…

Show Me What I'm Looking for: A Trustee's Guide to Reviewing the New IRS Form 990

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hyatt, Thomas K.

2009-01-01

Much has been made of the Internal Revenue Service's introduction of the completely revised Form 990 last year. The Internal Revenue Service's primary goals in implementing the revised form are to increase transparency and promote accountability and compliance. Indeed, the information required in the new form will offer the clearest picture to…

Local network interconnection through a satellite point-to-multipoint link. Ph.D. Thesis - Ecole Nationale Superieure des Telecommunications, 6 Jul. 1985

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Duarte, O. Muniz Bandeira

1986-01-01

Four architectures to implement a point to multipoint satellite link protocol for communication services offered by the Telecom 1 satellite network are presented. A safe communication service with error correction and flow control facilities is described. It is shown that a time transparent communication system combines simplicity and cost advantages.

Using Visible Speech to Train Perception and Production of Speech for Individuals with Hearing Loss.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Massaro, Dominic W.; Light, Joanna

2004-01-01

The main goal of this study was to implement a computer-animated talking head, Baldi, as a language tutor for speech perception and production for individuals with hearing loss. Baldi can speak slowly; illustrate articulation by making the skin transparent to reveal the tongue, teeth, and palate; and show supplementary articulatory features, such…

Recurrent network dynamics reconciles visual motion segmentation and integration.

PubMed

Medathati, N V Kartheek; Rankin, James; Meso, Andrew I; Kornprobst, Pierre; Masson, Guillaume S

2017-09-12

In sensory systems, a range of computational rules are presumed to be implemented by neuronal subpopulations with different tuning functions. For instance, in primate cortical area MT, different classes of direction-selective cells have been identified and related either to motion integration, segmentation or transparency. Still, how such different tuning properties are constructed is unclear. The dominant theoretical viewpoint based on a linear-nonlinear feed-forward cascade does not account for their complex temporal dynamics and their versatility when facing different input statistics. Here, we demonstrate that a recurrent network model of visual motion processing can reconcile these different properties. Using a ring network, we show how excitatory and inhibitory interactions can implement different computational rules such as vector averaging, winner-take-all or superposition. The model also captures ordered temporal transitions between these behaviors. In particular, depending on the inhibition regime the network can switch from motion integration to segmentation, thus being able to compute either a single pattern motion or to superpose multiple inputs as in motion transparency. We thus demonstrate that recurrent architectures can adaptively give rise to different cortical computational regimes depending upon the input statistics, from sensory flow integration to segmentation.

Interface Engineering with MoS2 -Pd Nanoparticles Hybrid Structure for a Low Voltage Resistive Switching Memory.

PubMed

Wang, Xue-Feng; Tian, He; Zhao, Hai-Ming; Zhang, Tian-Yu; Mao, Wei-Quan; Qiao, Yan-Cong; Pang, Yu; Li, Yu-Xing; Yang, Yi; Ren, Tian-Ling

2018-01-01

Metal oxide-based resistive random access memory (RRAM) has attracted a lot of attention for its scalability, temperature robustness, and potential to achieve machine learning. However, a thick oxide layer results in relatively high program voltage while a thin one causes large leakage current and a small window. Owing to these fundamental limitations, by optimizing the oxide layer itself a novel interface engineering idea is proposed to reduce the programming voltage, increase the uniformity and on/off ratio. According to this idea, a molybdenum disulfide (MoS 2 )-palladium nanoparticles hybrid structure is used to engineer the oxide/electrode interface of hafnium oxide (HfO x )-based RRAM. Through its interface engineering, the set voltage can be greatly lowered (from -3.5 to -0.8 V) with better uniformity under a relatively thick HfO x layer (≈15 nm), and a 30 times improvement of the memory window can be obtained. Moreover, due to the atomic thickness of MoS 2 film and high transmittance of ITO, the proposed RRAM exhibits high transparency in visible light. As the proposed interface-engineering RRAM exhibits good transparency, low SET voltage, and a large resistive switching window, it has huge potential in data storage in transparent circuits and wearable electronics with relatively low supply voltage. © 2017 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Introduction of new technologies and decision making processes: a framework to adapt a Local Health Technology Decision Support Program for other local settings.

PubMed

Poulin, Paule; Austen, Lea; Scott, Catherine M; Poulin, Michelle; Gall, Nadine; Seidel, Judy; Lafrenière, René

2013-01-01

Introducing new health technologies, including medical devices, into a local setting in a safe, effective, and transparent manner is a complex process, involving many disciplines and players within an organization. Decision making should be systematic, consistent, and transparent. It should involve translating and integrating scientific evidence, such as health technology assessment (HTA) reports, with context-sensitive evidence to develop recommendations on whether and under what conditions a new technology will be introduced. However, the development of a program to support such decision making can require considerable time and resources. An alternative is to adapt a preexisting program to the new setting. We describe a framework for adapting the Local HTA Decision Support Program, originally developed by the Department of Surgery and Surgical Services (Calgary, AB, Canada), for use by other departments. The framework consists of six steps: 1) development of a program review and adaptation manual, 2) education and readiness assessment of interested departments, 3) evaluation of the program by individual departments, 4) joint evaluation via retreats, 5) synthesis of feedback and program revision, and 6) evaluation of the adaptation process. Nine departments revised the Local HTA Decision Support Program and expressed strong satisfaction with the adaptation process. Key elements for success were identified. Adaptation of a preexisting program may reduce duplication of effort, save resources, raise the health care providers' awareness of HTA, and foster constructive stakeholder engagement, which enhances the legitimacy of evidence-informed recommendations for introducing new health technologies. We encourage others to use this framework for program adaptation and to report their experiences.

Anesthesiology residents' perspective about good teaching--a qualitative needs assessment.

PubMed

Ortwein, Heiderose; Blaum, Wolf E; Spies, Claudia D

2014-01-01

Germany, like many other countries, will soon have a shortage of qualified doctors. One reason for the dissatisfaction amongst medical residents are the relatively unstructured residency training programs despite increasing importance of outcome-based education. The aim of our study was to identify characteristics and requirements for good teaching during anesthesiology residency training from the resident's point of view. A consensus workshop with residents from all medical universities in Germany was held. Participants were allocated to one of the three topics, chosen based on a 2009 nationwide evaluation of residency. The three topics were (A) characteristics of helpful/good teachers, (B) characteristics of helpful/good conditions and (C) characteristics of helpful/good curricular structure. Each group followed a nominal group technique consensus process to define and rank characteristics for a good residency. 31 (79.5%) resident representatives were present. The consented results put emphasis on the importance of structured curricula including transparent goals and objectives, in training formative assessments and quality assurance measures for the program. Residents further long for trained trainers with formal teaching qualifications and protected teaching time. Good residency training requires careful consideration of all stakeholders' needs. Results reflect and extend previous findings and are at least to some degree easily implemented. These findings are an important step to establish a broader consensus within the discipline.

Blockchain Based Decentralized Management of Demand Response Programs in Smart Energy Grids

PubMed Central

Pop, Claudia; Cioara, Tudor; Antal, Marcel; Anghel, Ionut; Salomie, Ioan; Bertoncini, Massimo

2018-01-01

In this paper, we investigate the use of decentralized blockchain mechanisms for delivering transparent, secure, reliable, and timely energy flexibility, under the form of adaptation of energy demand profiles of Distributed Energy Prosumers, to all the stakeholders involved in the flexibility markets (Distribution System Operators primarily, retailers, aggregators, etc.). In our approach, a blockchain based distributed ledger stores in a tamper proof manner the energy prosumption information collected from Internet of Things smart metering devices, while self-enforcing smart contracts programmatically define the expected energy flexibility at the level of each prosumer, the associated rewards or penalties, and the rules for balancing the energy demand with the energy production at grid level. Consensus based validation will be used for demand response programs validation and to activate the appropriate financial settlement for the flexibility providers. The approach was validated using a prototype implemented in an Ethereum platform using energy consumption and production traces of several buildings from literature data sets. The results show that our blockchain based distributed demand side management can be used for matching energy demand and production at smart grid level, the demand response signal being followed with high accuracy, while the amount of energy flexibility needed for convergence is reduced. PMID:29315250

Linear units improve articulation between social and physical constructs: An example from caregiver parameterization for children supported by complex medical technologies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bezruczko, N.; Stanley, T.; Battle, M.; Latty, C.

2016-11-01

Despite broad sweeping pronouncements by international research organizations that social sciences are being integrated into global research programs, little attention has been directed toward obstacles blocking productive collaborations. In particular, social sciences routinely implement nonlinear, ordinal measures, which fundamentally inhibit integration with overarching scientific paradigms. The widely promoted general linear model in contemporary social science methods is largely based on untransformed scores and ratings, which are neither objective nor linear. This issue has historically separated physical and social sciences, which this report now asserts is unnecessary. In this research, nonlinear, subjective caregiver ratings of confidence to care for children supported by complex, medical technologies were transformed to an objective scale defined by logits (N=70). Transparent linear units from this transformation provided foundational insights into measurement properties of a social- humanistic caregiving construct, which clarified physical and social caregiver implications. Parameterized items and ratings were also subjected to multivariate hierarchical analysis, then decomposed to demonstrate theoretical coherence (R2 >.50), which provided further support for convergence of mathematical parameterization, physical expectations, and a social-humanistic construct. These results present substantial support for improving integration of social sciences with contemporary scientific research programs by emphasizing construction of common variables with objective, linear units.

Cloud flexibility using DIRAC interware

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fernandez Albor, Víctor; Seco Miguelez, Marcos; Fernandez Pena, Tomas; Mendez Muñoz, Victor; Saborido Silva, Juan Jose; Graciani Diaz, Ricardo

2014-06-01

Communities of different locations are running their computing jobs on dedicated infrastructures without the need to worry about software, hardware or even the site where their programs are going to be executed. Nevertheless, this usually implies that they are restricted to use certain types or versions of an Operating System because either their software needs an definite version of a system library or a specific platform is required by the collaboration to which they belong. On this scenario, if a data center wants to service software to incompatible communities, it has to split its physical resources among those communities. This splitting will inevitably lead to an underuse of resources because the data centers are bound to have periods where one or more of its subclusters are idle. It is, in this situation, where Cloud Computing provides the flexibility and reduction in computational cost that data centers are searching for. This paper describes a set of realistic tests that we ran on one of such implementations. The test comprise software from three different HEP communities (Auger, LHCb and QCD phenomelogists) and the Parsec Benchmark Suite running on one or more of three Linux flavors (SL5, Ubuntu 10.04 and Fedora 13). The implemented infrastructure has, at the cloud level, CloudStack that manages the virtual machines (VM) and the hosts on which they run, and, at the user level, the DIRAC framework along with a VM extension that will submit, monitorize and keep track of the user jobs and also requests CloudStack to start or stop the necessary VM's. In this infrastructure, the community software is distributed via the CernVM-FS, which has been proven to be a reliable and scalable software distribution system. With the resulting infrastructure, users are allowed to send their jobs transparently to the Data Center. The main purpose of this system is the creation of flexible cluster, multiplatform with an scalable method for software distribution for several VOs. Users from different communities do not need to care about the installation of the standard software that is available at the nodes, nor the operating system of the host machine, which is transparent to the user.

Oxide semiconductors for organic opto-electronic devices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sigdel, Ajaya K.

In this dissertation, I have introduced various concepts on the modulations of various surface, interface and bulk opto-electronic properties of ZnO based semiconductor for charge transport, charge selectivity and optimal device performance. I have categorized transparent semiconductors into two sub groups depending upon their role in a device. Electrodes, usually 200 to 500 nm thick, optimized for good transparency and transporting the charges to the external circuit. Here, the electrical conductivity in parallel direction to thin film, i.e bulk conductivity is important. And contacts, usually 5 to 50 nm thick, are optimized in case of solar cells for providing charge selectivity and asymmetry to manipulate the built in field inside the device for charge separation and collection. Whereas in Organic LEDs (OLEDs), contacts provide optimum energy level alignment at organic oxide interface for improved charge injections. For an optimal solar cell performance, transparent electrodes are designed with maximum transparency in the region of interest to maximize the light to pass through to the absorber layer for photo-generation, plus they are designed for minimum sheet resistance for efficient charge collection and transport. As such there is need for material with high conductivity and transparency. Doping ZnO with some common elements such as B, Al, Ga, In, Ge, Si, and F result in n-type doping with increase in carriers resulting in high conductivity electrode, with better or comparable opto-electronic properties compared to current industry-standard indium tin oxide (ITO). Furthermore, improvement in mobility due to improvement on crystallographic structure also provide alternative path for high conductivity ZnO TCOs. Implementing these two aspects, various studies were done on gallium doped zinc oxide (GZO) transparent electrode, a very promising indium free electrode. The dynamics of the superimposed RF and DC power sputtering was utilized to improve the microstructure during the thin films growth, resulting in GZO electrode with conductivity greater than 4000 S/cm and transparency greater than ˜ 90%. Similarly, various studies on research and development of Indium Zinc Tin Oxide and Indium Zinc Oxide thin films which can be applied to flexible substrates for next generation solar cells application is presented. In these new TCO systems, understanding the role of crystallographic structure ranging from poly-crystalline to amorphous phase and the influence on the charge transport and optical transparency as well as important surface passivation and surface charge transport properties. Implementation of these electrode based on ZnO on opto-electronics devices such as OLED and OPV is complicated due to chemical interaction over time with the organic layer or with ambient. The problem of inefficient charge collection/injection due to poor understanding of interface and/or bulk property of oxide electrode exists at several oxide-organic interfaces. The surface conductivity, the work function, the formation of dipoles and the band-bending at the interfacial sites can positively or negatively impact the device performance. Detailed characterization of the surface composition both before and after various chemicals treatment of various oxide electrode can therefore provide insight into optimization of device performance. Some of the work related to controlling the interfacial chemistry associated with charge transport of transparent electrodes are discussed. Thus, the role of various pre-treatment on poly-crystalline GZO electrode and amorphous indium zinc oxide (IZO) electrode is compared and contrasted. From the study, we have found that removal of defects and self passivating defects caused by accumulation of hydroxides in the surface of both poly-crystalline GZO and amorphous IZO, are critical for improving the surface conductivity and charge transport. Further insight on how these insulating and self-passivating defects cause charge accumulation and recombination in an device is discussed. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

IRIS Toxicological Review of Halogenated Platinum Salts and Platinum Compounds (External Review Draft)

EPA Science Inventory

EPA released the draft toxicological review for public comment under the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) Program. The original draft assessment (January 2009) has been archived but is available on this web page for the sake of transparency.

Improving Institutional Report Card Indicators

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McGowan, Veronica

2016-01-01

Institutional report cards are increasingly being used by higher educational institutions to present academic outcomes to external audiences of prospective students and parents, as well as program and institutional evaluators. While some prospective students are served by national transparency measures most users mine information from the…

Positive youth development programs for adolescents with greater psychosocial needs: evaluation based on program implementers.

PubMed

Shek, Daniel T L; Ng, Catalina S M; Law, Moon Y M

2017-02-01

As program implementers' views are seldom included in program evaluation and there are few related studies in different Chinese communities, this study examined the perceptions of the program implementers who implemented the Tier 2 Program of the P.A.T.H.S. Program in Hong Kong. The Tier 2 Program was designed to promote the development of adolescents with greater psychosocial needs. In the community-based P.A.T.H.S. Project, 400 program implementers completed a subjective outcome evaluation form (Form D) for program implementers. Consistent with the previous findings, program implementers generally held positive views towards the program, implementers, and program effectiveness and their views towards these three domains did not differ across grades. In line with the hypotheses, perceived program quality and perceived implementer quality predicted program effectiveness. The present findings provided an alternative perspective showing that the Tier 2 Program was well received by the program implementers and they regarded the program to be beneficial to the program participants.

Laser-Direct Writing of Silver Metal Electrodes on Transparent Flexible Substrates with High-Bonding Strength.

PubMed

Zhou, Weiping; Bai, Shi; Ma, Ying; Ma, Delong; Hou, Tingxiu; Shi, Xiaomin; Hu, Anming

2016-09-21

We demonstrate a novel approach to rapidly fabricate conductive silver electrodes on transparent flexible substrates with high-bonding strength by laser-direct writing. A new type of silver ink composed of silver nitrate, sodium citrate, and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) was prepared in this work. The role of PVP was elucidated for improving the quality of silver electrodes. Silver nanoparticles and sintered microstructures were simultaneously synthesized and patterned on a substrate using a focused 405 nm continuous wave laser. The writing was completed through the transparent flexible substrate with a programmed 2D scanning sample stage. Silver electrodes fabricated by this approach exhibit a remarkable bonding strength, which can withstand an adhesive tape test at least 50 times. After a 1500 time bending test, the resistance only increased 5.2%. With laser-induced in-situ synthesis, sintering, and simultaneous patterning of silver nanoparticles, this technology is promising for the facile fabrication of conducting electronic devices on flexible substrates.

Impact of health care price transparency on price variation: the New Hampshire experience.

PubMed

Tu, Ha T; Lauer, Johanna R

2009-11-01

Price variation for medical procedures performed in both hospital outpatient departments and freestanding facilities has not decreased in New Hampshire since the state launched the HealthCost price transparency program in early 2007, according to new research jointly conducted by the New Hampshire Insurance Department and the Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC). New Hampshire stakeholders cited weak provider competition as the key reason for lack of impact. The state's hospital market is geographically segmented in rural areas and has few competitors even in urban areas. In addition, few consumers have strong incentives to shop based on price: Only 5 percent of the state's privately insured residents were enrolled in high-deductible plans in 2007. However, some observers suggested that HealthCost--along with other state price transparency initiatives--has helped to focus employer and policy maker attention on provider price differences and has caused some hospitals to moderate their demands for rate increases.

Procedures and methods of benefit assessments for medicines in Germany.

PubMed

Bekkering, Geertruida E; Kleijnen, Jos

2008-11-01

The Federal Joint Committee (FJC; Gemeinsamer Bundesausschuss, G-BA) defines the health-care elements that are to be reimbursed by sickness funds. To define a directive, the FJC can commission benefit assessments, which provide an overview of the scientific evidence regarding the efficacy and benefits of an intervention. This paper describes the operational implementation of the legal requirements with regard to the benefit assessments of medicines. Such benefit assessments are sometimes referred to as "isolated benefit assessments," to distinguish them from benefit assessments as part of a full economic evaluation.The FJC has the freedom to commission these assessments from any agency; however, to date the majority have commissioned the Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG). Nevertheless, the content of this paper applies integrally to any institute commissioned for such assessments. In this report, 'the institute' is used when the text refers to any of these institutes.The legal framework for benefit assessments is laid out in the German Social Code Book version V ( http://www.sozialgesetzbuch.de ), Sects. 35b ( section 1), 139a ( section 4-6) and Sect. 139b ( section 3). It is specified that: The institute must guarantee high transparency. The institute must provide appropriate participation of relevant parties for the commission-related development of assessments, and opportunity for comment on all important segments of the assessment procedure. The institute has to report on the progress and results of the work at regular intervals. The institute is held to giving the commission to external experts. Based on the legal framework, the institute must guarantee a high procedural transparency. Transparency of the whole process should be achieved, which is evidenced by clear reporting of procedures and criteria in all phases undertaken in the benefit assessment. The most important means of enhancing transparency are: 1. To implement a scoping process to support the development of the research question. 2. To separate the work of the external experts performing the evidence assessment from that of the institute formulating recommendations. Therefore, the preliminary report as produced by external experts needs to be public, and published separately from any subsequent amendments or (draft-)reports made by the institute, which includes the institute's recommendations. 3. To implement open peer review by publishing both the comments of the reviewers and their names. Based on the legal framework, the institute must provide for adequate participation of relevant parties. These include organisations representing the interests of patients; experts of medical, pharmaceutical and health economic science and practice; the professional organisations of pharmacists and pharmaceutical companies; and experts on alternative therapies. Patients and health care professionals bring in new insights with respect to research priorities, treatment and outcomes.The relevant parties should be identified and contacted whenever the global scope of the assessment has been drafted. Subsequently, the relevant parties should be involved in defining the research question, developing the protocol and commenting on the preliminary report. To implement the involvement of relevant parties in defining the research question a scoping process is suggested. For the other phases, written comments followed by an oral discussion should be used. Finally, the relevant parties should have the right to appeal the final decision on judicial grounds. None of these steps mean that the institute would lose any part of its scientific independence.From the relevant sections of the legal framework with respect to the assessment methods, it can be concluded that: 1. The institute must ensure that the assessment is made in accordance with internationally recognised standards of evidence-based medicine (EBM). 2. The assessment is conducted in comparison with other medicines and treatment forms under consideration of the additional therapeutic benefit for the patients. 3. The minimum criteria for assessing patient benefit are improvements in the state of health, shortening the duration of illness, extension of the duration of life, reduction of side effects and improvements in quality of life. EBM refers to the application of the best available evidence to answer a research question, which can inform questions about the care of patients. The optimal design, even for effectiveness questions, is not always the randomised, controlled trial (RCT) but depends on the research question and the outcomes of interest. To increase transparency for each question, the levels of evidence examined should be made explicit. There is no empirical evidence to support the use of cutoff points with respect to the number of studies before making recommendations. To get the best available evidence for the research question(s), all relevant evidence should be considered for each question, and the best available evidence should be used to answer the question. Separate levels of evidence may have to be used for each outcome.There are many ways in which bias can be introduced in systematic reviews. Some types of bias can be prevented, other types can only be reported and, for some, the influence of the bias can be investigated. Reviews must show that potential sources of bias have been dealt with adequately.Methods used by other agencies that perform benefit assessments are useful to interpret the term 'international standards' to which the institute must comply. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is a good example in this respect. NICE shows that it is possible to have transparent procedures for benefit assessments but that this requires detailed documentation. NICE has implemented an open procedure with respect to the comments of reviewers, which makes the procedure transparent. Although the Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) in Germany invites comments on their protocol and preliminary report by posting them on their website, and comments are made public, the individual comments are not evaluated openly, and therefore it remains uncertain whether or not they lead to changes in the reports. The participation of relevant parties in the assessment process as implemented by NICE guarantees a process that is transparent to all relevant parties.Transparency of the whole process is assured by clear reporting of procedures and criteria in all phases undertaken in the benefit assessment. In a scoping process, a draft scope is commented on first in writing and subsequently in the form of a scoping workshop. In this way, all relevant aspects can be heard and included in the final scope. The protocol is then developed, followed by evidence assessment. The methods used should be completely reported to show readers that the assessment has been performed with scientific rigour and that bias has been prevented where possible. All relevant parties should have the opportunity to comment on the draft protocol and the draft preliminary report. Each comment should be evaluated as to whether or not it will lead to changes, and both the comments and the evaluation should be made public to ensure transparency of this process. The same procedure should be used for the peer-review phase. Based on the final report of the evidence assessment, the institute forms recommendations and the FJC appraises the evidence.During the writing of the final report, a separation between the evidence assessment and the evidence-appraisal phase should be implemented. Ideally, this separation should be legally enforced to prevent any confusion about conflict of interests.Such a process guarantees a feasible combination of the legal requirements for transparency and involvement of relevant parties with international standards of EBM to ensure that the benefit assessments of medicines in Germany are performed according to the highest standards.

[Procedures and methods of benefit assessments for medicines in Germany].

PubMed

Bekkering, G E; Kleijnen, J

2008-12-01

The Federal Joint Committee (FJC; Gemeinsamer Bundesausschuss, G-BA) defines the health-care elements that are to be reimbursed by sickness funds. To define a directive, the FJC can commission benefit assessments, which provide an overview of the scientific evidence regarding the efficacy and benefits of an intervention. This paper describes the operational implementation of the legal requirements with regard to the benefit assessments of medicines. Such benefit assessments are sometimes referred to as "isolated benefit assessments," to distinguish them from benefit assessments as part of a full economic evaluation. The FJC has the freedom to commission these assessments from any agency; however, to date the majority have commissioned the Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG). Nevertheless, the content of this paper applies integrally to any institute commissioned for such assessments. In this report, "the institute"' is used when the text refers to any of these institutes. The legal framework for benefit assessments is laid out in the German Social Code Book version V (http://www. sozialgesetzbuch.de), Sects. 35b ( section sign 1), 139a ( section sign 4-6) and Sect. 139b ( section sign 3). It is specified that: The institute must guarantee high transparency. The institute must provide appropriate participation of relevant parties for the commission-related development of assessments, and opportunity for comment on all important segments of the assessment procedure. The institute has to report on the progress and results of the work at regular intervals. The institute is held to giving the commission to external experts. Based on the legal framework, the institute must guarantee a high procedural transparency. Transparency of the whole process should be achieved, which is evidenced by clear reporting of procedures and criteria in all phases undertaken in the benefit assessment. The most important means of enhancing transparency are: 1. To implement a scoping process to support the development of the research question. 2. To separate the work of the external experts performing the evidence assessment from that of the institute formulating recommendations. Therefore, the preliminary report as produced by external experts needs to be public, and published separately from any subsequent amendments or (draft-)reports made by the institute, which includes the institute's recommendations. 3. To implement open peer review by publishing both the comments of the reviewers and their names. Based on the legal framework, the institute must provide for adequate participation of relevant parties. These include organisations representing the interests of patients; experts of medical, pharmaceutical and health economic science and practice; the professional organisations of pharmacists and pharmaceutical companies; and experts on alternative therapies. Patients and health care professionals bring in new insights with respect to research priorities, treatment and outcomes. The relevant parties should be identified and contacted whenever the global scope of the assessment has been drafted. Subsequently, the relevant parties should be involved in defining the research question, developing the protocol and commenting on the preliminary report. To implement the involvement of relevant parties in defining the research question a scoping process is suggested. For the other phases, written comments followed by an oral discussion should be used. Finally, the relevant parties should have the right to appeal the final decision on judicial grounds. None of these steps mean that the institute would lose any part of its scientific independence. From the relevant sections of the legal framework with respect to the assessment methods, it can be concluded that: 1. The institute must ensure that the assessment is made in accordance with internationally recognised standards of evidence-based medicine (EBM). 2. The assessment is conducted in comparison with other medicines and treatment forms under consideration of the additional therapeutic benefit for the patients. 3. The minimum criteria for assessing patient benefit are improvements in the state of health, shortening the duration of illness, extension of the duration of life, reduction of side effects and improvements in quality of life. EBM refers to the application of the best available evidence to answer a research question, which can inform questions about the care of patients. The optimal design, even for effectiveness questions, is not always the randomised, controlled trial (RCT) but depends on the research question and the outcomes of interest. To increase transparency for each question, the levels of evidence examined should be made explicit. There is no empirical evidence to support the use of cutoff points with respect to the number of studies before making recommendations. To get the best available evidence for the research question(s), all relevant evidence should be considered for each question, and the best available evidence should be used to answer the question. Separate levels of evidence may have to be used for each outcome. There are many ways in which bias can be introduced in systematic reviews. Some types of bias can be prevented, other types can only be reported and, for some, the influence of the bias can be investigated. Reviews must show that potential sources of bias have been dealt with adequately. Methods used by other agencies that perform benefit assessments are useful to interpret the term 'international standards' to which the institute must comply. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is a good example in this respect. NICE shows that it is possible to have transparent procedures for benefit assessments but that this requires detailed documentation. NICE has implemented an open procedure with respect to the comments of reviewers, which makes the procedure transparent. Although the Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) in Germany invites comments on their protocol and preliminary report by posting them on their website, and comments are made public, the individual comments are not evaluated openly, and therefore it remains uncertain whether or not they lead to changes in the reports. The participation of relevant parties in the assessment process as implemented by NICE guarantees a process that is transparent to all relevant parties. Transparency of the whole process is assured by clear reporting of procedures and criteria in all phases undertaken in the benefit assessment. In a scoping process, a draft scope is commented on first in writing and subsequently in the form of a scoping workshop. In this way, all relevant aspects can be heard and included in the final scope. The protocol is then developed, followed by evidence assessment. The methods used should be completely reported to show readers that the assessment has been performed with scientific rigour and that bias has been prevented where possible. All relevant parties should have the opportunity to comment on the draft protocol and the draft preliminary report. Each comment should be evaluated as to whether or not it will lead to changes, and both the comments and the evaluation should be made public to ensure transparency of this process. The same procedure should be used for the peer-review phase. Based on the final report of the evidence assessment, the institute forms recommendations and the FJC appraises the evidence. During the writing of the final report, a separation between the evidence assessment and the evidence appraisal phase should be implemented. Ideally, this separation should be legally enforced to prevent any confusion about conflict of interests. Such a process guarantees a feasible combination of the legal requirements for transparency and involvement of relevant parties with international standards of EBM to ensure that the benefit assessments of medicines in Germany are performed according to the highest standards.

Income Eligibility Thresholds, Premium Contributions, and Children's Coverage Outcomes: A Study of CHIP Expansions

PubMed Central

Gresenz, Carole Roan; Edgington, Sarah E; Laugesen, Miriam J; Escarce, José J

2013-01-01

Objective To understand the effects of Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) income eligibility thresholds and premium contribution requirements on health insurance coverage outcomes among children. Data Sources 2002–2009 Annual Social and Economic Supplements of the Current Population Survey linked to data from multiple secondary data sources. Study Design We use a selection correction model to simultaneously estimate program eligibility and coverage outcomes conditional upon eligibility. We simulate the effects of three premium schedules representing a range of generosity levels and the effects of income eligibility thresholds ranging from 200 to 400 percent of the federal poverty line. Principal Findings Premium contribution requirements decrease enrollment in public coverage and increase enrollment in private coverage, with larger effects for greater contribution levels. Our simulation results suggest minimal changes in coverage outcomes from eligibility expansions to higher income families under premium schedules that require more than a modest contribution (medium or high schedules). Conclusions Our simulation results are useful counterpoints to previous research that has estimated the average effect of program expansions as they were implemented without disentangling the effects of premiums or other program features. The sensitivity to premiums observed suggests that although contribution requirements may be effective in reducing crowd-out, they also have the potential, depending on the level of contribution required, to nullify the effects of CHIP expansions entirely. The persistence of uninsurance among children under the range of simulated scenarios points to the importance of Affordable Care Act provisions designed to make the process of obtaining coverage transparent and navigable. PMID:23398477

Income eligibility thresholds, premium contributions, and children's coverage outcomes: a study of CHIP expansions.

PubMed

Gresenz, Carole Roan; Edgington, Sarah E; Laugesen, Miriam J; Escarce, José J

2013-04-01

To understand the effects of Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) income eligibility thresholds and premium contribution requirements on health insurance coverage outcomes among children. 2002-2009 Annual Social and Economic Supplements of the Current Population Survey linked to data from multiple secondary data sources. We use a selection correction model to simultaneously estimate program eligibility and coverage outcomes conditional upon eligibility. We simulate the effects of three premium schedules representing a range of generosity levels and the effects of income eligibility thresholds ranging from 200 to 400 percent of the federal poverty line. Premium contribution requirements decrease enrollment in public coverage and increase enrollment in private coverage, with larger effects for greater contribution levels. Our simulation results suggest minimal changes in coverage outcomes from eligibility expansions to higher income families under premium schedules that require more than a modest contribution (medium or high schedules). Our simulation results are useful counterpoints to previous research that has estimated the average effect of program expansions as they were implemented without disentangling the effects of premiums or other program features. The sensitivity to premiums observed suggests that although contribution requirements may be effective in reducing crowd-out, they also have the potential, depending on the level of contribution required, to nullify the effects of CHIP expansions entirely. The persistence of uninsurance among children under the range of simulated scenarios points to the importance of Affordable Care Act provisions designed to make the process of obtaining coverage transparent and navigable. © Health Research and Educational Trust.

Visual programming for next-generation sequencing data analytics.

PubMed

Milicchio, Franco; Rose, Rebecca; Bian, Jiang; Min, Jae; Prosperi, Mattia

2016-01-01

High-throughput or next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies have become an established and affordable experimental framework in biological and medical sciences for all basic and translational research. Processing and analyzing NGS data is challenging. NGS data are big, heterogeneous, sparse, and error prone. Although a plethora of tools for NGS data analysis has emerged in the past decade, (i) software development is still lagging behind data generation capabilities, and (ii) there is a 'cultural' gap between the end user and the developer. Generic software template libraries specifically developed for NGS can help in dealing with the former problem, whilst coupling template libraries with visual programming may help with the latter. Here we scrutinize the state-of-the-art low-level software libraries implemented specifically for NGS and graphical tools for NGS analytics. An ideal developing environment for NGS should be modular (with a native library interface), scalable in computational methods (i.e. serial, multithread, distributed), transparent (platform-independent), interoperable (with external software interface), and usable (via an intuitive graphical user interface). These characteristics should facilitate both the run of standardized NGS pipelines and the development of new workflows based on technological advancements or users' needs. We discuss in detail the potential of a computational framework blending generic template programming and visual programming that addresses all of the current limitations. In the long term, a proper, well-developed (although not necessarily unique) software framework will bridge the current gap between data generation and hypothesis testing. This will eventually facilitate the development of novel diagnostic tools embedded in routine healthcare.

Bottom-up priority setting revised. A second evaluation of an institutional intervention in a Swedish health care organisation.

PubMed

Waldau, Susanne

2015-09-01

Transparent priority setting in health care based on specific ethical principles is requested by the Swedish Parliament since 1997. Implementation has been limited. In this case, transparent priority setting was performed for a second time round and engaged an entire health care organisation. Objectives were to refine a bottom-up priority setting process, reach a political decision on service limits to make reallocation towards higher prioritised services possible, and raise systems knowledge. An action research approach was chosen. The national model for priority setting was used with addition of dimensions costs, volumes, gender distribution and feasibility. The intervention included a three step process and specific procedures for each step which were created, revised and evaluated regarding factual and functional aspects. Evaluations methods included analyses of documents, recordings and surveys. Vertical and horizontal priority setting occurred and resources were reallocated. Participants' attitudes remained positive, however less so than in the first priority setting round. Identifying low-priority services was perceived difficult, causing resentment and strategic behaviour. The horizontal stage served to raise quality of the knowledge base, level out differences in ranking of services and raise systems knowledge. Existing health care management systems do not meet institutional requirements for transparent priority setting. Introducing transparent priority setting constitutes a complex institutional reform, which needs to be driven by management/administration. Strong managerial commitment is required. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

Halsted, Michelle; Wilmoth, Jared L.; Briggs, Paige A.

Microbial communities are incredibly complex systems that dramatically and ubiquitously influence our lives. They help to shape our climate and environment, impact agriculture, drive business, and have a tremendous bearing on healthcare and physical security. Spatial confinement, as well as local variations in physical and chemical properties, affects development and interactions within microbial communities that occupy critical niches in the environment. Recent work has demonstrated the use of silicon based microwell arrays, combined with parylene lift-off techniques, to perform both deterministic and stochastic assembly of microbial communities en masse, enabling the high-throughput screening of microbial communities for their response tomore » growth in confined environments under different conditions. The implementation of a transparent microwell array platform can expand and improve the imaging modalities that can be used to characterize these assembled communities. In this paper, the fabrication and characterization of a next generation transparent microwell array is described. The transparent arrays, comprised of SU-8 patterned on a glass coverslip, retain the ability to use parylene lift-off by integrating a low temperature atomic layer deposition of silicon dioxide into the fabrication process. This silicon dioxide layer prevents adhesion of the parylene material to the patterned SU-8, facilitating dry lift-off, and maintaining the ability to easily assemble microbial communities within the microwells. These transparent microwell arrays can screen numerous community compositions using continuous, high resolution, imaging. Finally, the utility of the design was successfully demonstrated through the stochastic seeding and imaging of green fluorescent protein expressing Escherichia coli using both fluorescence and brightfield microscopies.« less

Quality management, a directive approach to patient safety.

PubMed

Ayuso-Murillo, Diego; de Andrés-Gimeno, Begoña; Noriega-Matanza, Concha; López-Suárez, Rafael Jesús; Herrera-Peco, Ivan

Nowadays the implementation of effective quality management systems and external evaluation in healthcare is a necessity to ensure not only transparency in activities related to health but also access to health and patient safety. The key to correctly implementing a quality management system is support from the managers of health facilities, since it is managers who design and communicate to health professionals the strategies of action involved in quality management systems. This article focuses on nursing managers' approach to quality management through the implementation of cycles of continuous improvement, participation of improvement groups, monitoring systems and external evaluation quality models (EFQM, ISO). The implementation of a quality management system will enable preventable adverse effects to be minimized or eliminated, and promote patient safety and safe practice by health professionals. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

Dynamics of Implementation and Maintenance of Organizational Health Interventions

PubMed Central

Rahmandad, Hazhir; Bullock, Sally Lawrence; Ammerman, Alice

2017-01-01

In this study, we present case studies to explore the dynamics of implementation and maintenance of health interventions. We analyze how specific interventions are built and eroded, how the building and erosion mechanisms are interconnected, and why we can see significantly different erosion rates across otherwise similar organizations. We use multiple comparative obesity prevention case studies to provide empirical information on the mechanisms of interest, and use qualitative systems modeling to integrate our evolving understanding into an internally consistent and transparent theory of the phenomenon. Our preliminary results identify reinforcing feedback mechanisms, including design of organizational processes, motivation of stakeholders, and communication among stakeholders, which influence implementation and maintenance of intervention components. Over time, these feedback mechanisms may drive a wedge between otherwise similar organizations, leading to distinct configurations of implementation and maintenance processes. PMID:28809807

Improved Operating Room Efficiency via Constraint Management: Experience of a Tertiary-Care Academic Medical Center.

PubMed

Kimbrough, Charles W; McMasters, Kelly M; Canary, Jeff; Jackson, Lisa; Farah, Ian; Boswell, Mark V; Kim, Daniel; Scoggins, Charles R

2015-07-01

Suboptimal operating room (OR) efficiency is a universal complaint among surgeons. Nonetheless, maximizing efficiency is critical to institutional success. Here, we report improvement achieved from low-cost, low-technology measures instituted within a tertiary-care academic medical center/Level I trauma center. Improvements in preadmission testing and OR scheduling, including appointing a senior nurse anesthetist to help direct OR use, were instituted in March 2012. A retrospective review of prospectively maintained OR case data was performed to evaluate time periods before and after program implementation, as well as to assess trends over time. Operating room performance metrics were compared using Mann-Whitney and chi-squared tests. Changes over time were analyzed using linear regression. Data including all surgical cases were available for a 36-month period; 10 months (6,581 cases) before program implementation and 26 months afterward (17,574 cases). Dramatic improvement was seen in first-case on-time starts, which increased from 39.3% to 83.8% (p < 0.0001). Additionally, the percent utilization of available OR time demonstrated a steady increase (p < 0.001). After an initial lag, case volume also improved, evident by an increase observed in the 12-month rolling average of cases per month (p < 0.001). The increase in case volume occurred during peak OR time (7 am to 5 pm), and did not result from adding cases after hours (5 pm to 11 pm). After many years of what seemed an insoluble problem, simple changes fostering collaboration among services, including active management of the OR schedule and transparent data, have resulted in substantial improvement in OR efficiency and case volume. Copyright © 2015 American College of Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Technical Note: The Modular Earth Submodel System (MESSy) - a new approach towards Earth System Modeling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jöckel, P.; Sander, R.; Kerkweg, A.; Tost, H.; Lelieveld, J.

2005-02-01

The development of a comprehensive Earth System Model (ESM) to study the interactions between chemical, physical, and biological processes, requires coupling of the different domains (land, ocean, atmosphere, ...). One strategy is to link existing domain-specific models with a universal coupler, i.e. an independent standalone program organizing the communication between other programs. In many cases, however, a much simpler approach is more feasible. We have developed the Modular Earth Submodel System (MESSy). It comprises (1) a modular interface structure to connect to a , (2) an extendable set of such for miscellaneous processes, and (3) a coding standard. MESSy is therefore not a coupler in the classical sense, but exchanges data between a and several within one comprehensive executable. The internal complexity of the is controllable in a transparent and user friendly way. This provides remarkable new possibilities to study feedback mechanisms (by two-way coupling). Note that the MESSy and the coupler approach can be combined. For instance, an atmospheric model implemented according to the MESSy standard could easily be coupled to an ocean model by means of an external coupler. The vision is to ultimately form a comprehensive ESM which includes a large set of submodels, and a base model which contains only a central clock and runtime control. This can be reached stepwise, since each process can be included independently. Starting from an existing model, process submodels can be reimplemented according to the MESSy standard. This procedure guarantees the availability of a state-of-the-art model for scientific applications at any time of the development. In principle, MESSy can be implemented into any kind of model, either global or regional. So far, the MESSy concept has been applied to the general circulation model ECHAM5 and a number of process boxmodels.

A Call to Digital Health Practitioners: New Guidelines Can Help Improve the Quality of Digital Health Evidence

PubMed Central

Agarwal, Smisha; Lefevre, Amnesty E

2017-01-01

Background Despite the rapid proliferation of health interventions that employ digital tools, the evidence on the effectiveness of such approaches remains insufficient and of variable quality. To address gaps in the comprehensiveness and quality of reporting on the effectiveness of digital programs, the mHealth Technical Evidence Review Group (mTERG), convened by the World Health Organization, proposed the mHealth Evidence Reporting and Assessment (mERA) checklist to address existing gaps in the comprehensiveness and quality of reporting on the effectiveness of digital health programs. Objective We present an overview of the mERA checklist and encourage researchers working in the digital health space to use the mERA checklist for reporting their research. Methods The development of the mERA checklist consisted of convening an expert group to recommend an appropriate approach, convening a global expert review panel for checklist development, and pilot-testing the checklist. Results The mERA checklist consists of 16 core mHealth items that define what the mHealth intervention is (content), where it is being implemented (context), and how it was implemented (technical features). Additionally, a 29-item methodology checklist guides authors on reporting critical aspects of the research methodology employed in the study. We recommend that the core mERA checklist is used in conjunction with an appropriate study-design specific checklist. Conclusions The mERA checklist aims to assist authors in reporting on digital health research, guide reviewers and policymakers in synthesizing evidence, and guide journal editors in assessing the completeness in reporting on digital health studies. An increase in transparent and rigorous reporting can help identify gaps in the conduct of research and understand the effects of digital health interventions as a field of inquiry. PMID:28986340

Accelerated Adaptive MGS Phase Retrieval

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lam, Raymond K.; Ohara, Catherine M.; Green, Joseph J.; Bikkannavar, Siddarayappa A.; Basinger, Scott A.; Redding, David C.; Shi, Fang

2011-01-01

The Modified Gerchberg-Saxton (MGS) algorithm is an image-based wavefront-sensing method that can turn any science instrument focal plane into a wavefront sensor. MGS characterizes optical systems by estimating the wavefront errors in the exit pupil using only intensity images of a star or other point source of light. This innovative implementation of MGS significantly accelerates the MGS phase retrieval algorithm by using stream-processing hardware on conventional graphics cards. Stream processing is a relatively new, yet powerful, paradigm to allow parallel processing of certain applications that apply single instructions to multiple data (SIMD). These stream processors are designed specifically to support large-scale parallel computing on a single graphics chip. Computationally intensive algorithms, such as the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), are particularly well suited for this computing environment. This high-speed version of MGS exploits commercially available hardware to accomplish the same objective in a fraction of the original time. The exploit involves performing matrix calculations in nVidia graphic cards. The graphical processor unit (GPU) is hardware that is specialized for computationally intensive, highly parallel computation. From the software perspective, a parallel programming model is used, called CUDA, to transparently scale multicore parallelism in hardware. This technology gives computationally intensive applications access to the processing power of the nVidia GPUs through a C/C++ programming interface. The AAMGS (Accelerated Adaptive MGS) software takes advantage of these advanced technologies, to accelerate the optical phase error characterization. With a single PC that contains four nVidia GTX-280 graphic cards, the new implementation can process four images simultaneously to produce a JWST (James Webb Space Telescope) wavefront measurement 60 times faster than the previous code.

Factors affecting the academic performance of optometry students in Mozambique.

PubMed

Shah, Kajal; Naidoo, Kovin; Bilotto, Luigi; Loughman, James

2015-06-01

The Mozambique Eyecare Project is a higher education partnership for the development, implementation, and evaluation of a model of optometry training at UniLúrio in Mozambique. There are many composite elements to the development of sustainable eye health structures, and appropriate education for eye health workers remains a key determinant of successful eye care development. However, from the first intake of 16 students, only 9 students graduated from the program, whereas only 6 graduated from the second intake of 24 students. This low graduation rate is attributable to a combination of substandard academic performance and student dropout. The aim of this article was to identify factors affecting the academic performance of optometry students in Mozambique. Nine lecturers (the entire faculty) and 15 students (9 from the first intake and 6 from the second) were recruited to the study. Clinical competency assessments were carried out on the students, semistructured individual interviews were conducted with the course lecturers, and a course evaluation questionnaire was completed by students. The results were combined to understand the complexities surrounding the optometry student training and performance. One student out of nine from the first intake and three students out of six from the second were graded as competent in all the elements of the refraction clinical competency examination. Analysis of data from the interviews and questionnaire yielded four dominant themes that were viewed as important determinants of student refraction competencies: student learning context, teaching context, clinic conditions and assessment, and the existing operating health care context. The evaluations have helped the university and course partners to better structure the teaching and adapt the learning environments by recommending a preparatory year and a review of the curriculum and clinic structure, implementing more transparent entry requirements, increasing awareness of the program, and improving Internet infrastructure.

Effects of dimensionality and laser polarization on kinetic simulations of laser-ion acceleration in the transparency regime

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stark, David; Yin, Lin; Albright, Brian; Guo, Fan

2017-10-01

The often cost-prohibitive nature of three-dimensional (3D) kinetic simulations of laser-plasma interactions has resulted in heavy use of two-dimensional (2D) simulations to extract physics. However, depending on whether the polarization is modeled as 2D-S or 2D-P (laser polarization in and out of the simulation plane, respectively), different results arise. In laser-ion acceleration in the transparency regime, VPIC particle-in-cell simulations show that 2D-S and 2D-P capture different physics that appears in 3D simulations. The electron momentum distribution is virtually two-dimensional in 2D-P, unlike the more isotropic distributions in 2D-S and 3D, leading to greater heating in the simulation plane. As a result, target expansion time scales and density thresholds for the onset of relativistic transparency differ dramatically between 2D-S and 2D-P. The artificial electron heating in 2D-P exaggerates the effectiveness of target-normal sheath acceleration (TNSA) into its dominant acceleration mechanism, whereas 2D-S and 3D both have populations accelerated preferentially during transparency to higher energies than those of TNSA. Funded by the LANL Directed Research and Development Program.

Building Support for Adolescent Sexuality and Reproductive Health Education and Responding to Resistance in Conservative Contexts: Cases From Pakistan.

PubMed

Chandra-Mouli, Venkatraman; Plesons, Marina; Hadi, Sheena; Baig, Qadeer; Lang, Iliana

2018-03-21

Despite international recommendations and supportive evidence, there are few examples of scaled-up and sustained programs to provide adolescents with sexuality education. Moreover, despite acknowledgment that building community support and responding to resistance are key challenges, there is a lack of detailed discussion on specific programmatic strategies to address these issues. This article reviews the work of 2 organizations-Aahung and Rutgers Pakistan-that are successfully implementing large-scale sexuality education programs in Pakistan, collectively reaching more than 500,000 students. This review aims to answer the following questions: (1) How did Aahung and Rutgers Pakistan work to understand Pakistani society and culture and shape their programs to build community support? (2) How did Aahung and Rutgers Pakistan overcome resistance to their efforts? We reviewed program documents and publications, synthesized key themes, identified questions of interest, and engaged key informants from Aahung and Rutgers Pakistan's leadership. The success of Aahung and Rutgers Pakistan was grounded in their readiness to understand the nuanced context within the communities, collaborate with groups of stakeholders-including parents, school officials, religious leaders, media personnel, and adolescents themselves-to ensure support, and stand up to forces of resistance to pursue their goals. Specific strategies included working with communities to select content, tactfully selecting and framing issues with careful consideration for sensitivities, engaging adolescents' influencers, strengthening media presence, showcasing school programs to increase understanding and transparency, and choosing opportune times to introduce messages. The successful strategies used by Aahung and Rutgers Pakistan to promote adolescent sexual and reproductive health through sexuality education can inform programs worldwide. Additionally, the programmatic weaknesses identified can guide future planning and action by Aahung and Rutgers Pakistan. We call on other programs to continue sharing challenges, specifically related to resistance, with sexuality education programs in order to develop a toolbox of additional strategies for community uptake. © Chandra-Mouli et al.

Building Support for Adolescent Sexuality and Reproductive Health Education and Responding to Resistance in Conservative Contexts: Cases From Pakistan

PubMed Central

Chandra-Mouli, Venkatraman; Plesons, Marina; Hadi, Sheena; Baig, Qadeer; Lang, Iliana

2018-01-01

Background: Despite international recommendations and supportive evidence, there are few examples of scaled-up and sustained programs to provide adolescents with sexuality education. Moreover, despite acknowledgment that building community support and responding to resistance are key challenges, there is a lack of detailed discussion on specific programmatic strategies to address these issues. Objectives: This article reviews the work of 2 organizations—Aahung and Rutgers Pakistan—that are successfully implementing large-scale sexuality education programs in Pakistan, collectively reaching more than 500,000 students. This review aims to answer the following questions: (1) How did Aahung and Rutgers Pakistan work to understand Pakistani society and culture and shape their programs to build community support? (2) How did Aahung and Rutgers Pakistan overcome resistance to their efforts? Methods: We reviewed program documents and publications, synthesized key themes, identified questions of interest, and engaged key informants from Aahung and Rutgers Pakistan's leadership. Results: The success of Aahung and Rutgers Pakistan was grounded in their readiness to understand the nuanced context within the communities, collaborate with groups of stakeholders—including parents, school officials, religious leaders, media personnel, and adolescents themselves—to ensure support, and stand up to forces of resistance to pursue their goals. Specific strategies included working with communities to select content, tactfully selecting and framing issues with careful consideration for sensitivities, engaging adolescents' influencers, strengthening media presence, showcasing school programs to increase understanding and transparency, and choosing opportune times to introduce messages. Conclusion: The successful strategies used by Aahung and Rutgers Pakistan to promote adolescent sexual and reproductive health through sexuality education can inform programs worldwide. Additionally, the programmatic weaknesses identified can guide future planning and action by Aahung and Rutgers Pakistan. We call on other programs to continue sharing challenges, specifically related to resistance, with sexuality education programs in order to develop a toolbox of additional strategies for community uptake. PMID:29444802

Self-visualization of transparent microscopic objects in optical glasses under the conditions of the thermal self-action of an illuminating laser beam

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bubis, E. L.; Palashov, O. V.; Kuz'min, I. V.; Snetkov, I. L.; Gusev, S. A.

2017-03-01

We demonstrate the process of adaptive self-visualization of small-scale transparent objects and structures in weakly absorbing optical glasses (a glass plate made of K8 and an NS-1 neutral density filter) placed in the Fourier plane of the optical system under the conditions of thermal self-action of the illuminating laser beam. The process is based on the ideology of the classical Zernike phase contrast method. The process is implemented at the level of power of radiation of the illuminated object varying from several milliwatts to tens of watts in the visible and IR spectral ranges. The conducted experiments indicate that the visualization takes place in all glasses and optical elements fabricated from them at an appropriate level of the radiation power.

Multiplexed image storage by electromagnetically induced transparency in a solid

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Heinze, G.; Rentzsch, N.; Halfmann, T.

2012-11-01

We report on frequency- and angle-multiplexed image storage by electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in a Pr3+:Y2SiO5 crystal. Frequency multiplexing by EIT relies on simultaneous storage of light pulses in atomic coherences, driven in different frequency ensembles of the inhomogeneously broadened solid medium. Angular multiplexing by EIT relies on phase matching of the driving laser beams, which permits simultaneous storage of light pulses propagating under different angles into the crystal. We apply the multiplexing techniques to increase the storage capacity of the EIT-driven optical memory, in particular to implement multiplexed storage of larger two-dimensional amounts of data (images). We demonstrate selective storage and readout of images by frequency-multiplexed EIT and angular-multiplexed EIT, as well as the potential to combine both multiplexing approaches towards further enhanced storage capacities.

Early Environmental Field Research Career Exploration: An Analysis of Impacts on Precollege Apprentices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Flowers, Susan K.; Beyer, Katherine M.; Pérez, Maria; Jeffe, Donna B.

2016-01-01

Research apprenticeships offer opportunities for deep understanding of scientific practice, transparency about research careers, and possible transformational effects on precollege youth. We examined two consecutive field-based environmental biology apprenticeship programs designed to deliver realistic career exploration and connections to…

78 FR 35038 - Proposed Information Collection Activity; Comment Request

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-06-11

..., reliable, and transparent method for identifying high-quality programs that can receive continuing five... the system is working. The study will employ a mixed-methods design that integrates and layers administrative and secondary data sources, observational measures, and interviews to develop a rich knowledge...

tcpl: The ToxCast Pipeline for High-Throughput Screening Data

EPA Science Inventory

Motivation: The large and diverse high-throughput chemical screening efforts carried out by the US EPAToxCast program requires an efficient, transparent, and reproducible data pipeline.Summary: The tcpl R package and its associated MySQL database provide a generalized platform fo...

Babinet-Inverted Optical Nanoantenna Analogue of Electromagnetically Induced Transparency

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ding, Yin-Xing; Wang, Lu-Lu; Yu, Li

2018-01-01

Not Available Supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China under Grant No 2016YFA0301300, the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Nos 11374041, 11574035 and 11404030, and the State Key Laboratory of Information Photonics and Optical Communications.

Unexpected findings in the exploration of African American underrepresentation in biospecimen collection and biobanks

PubMed Central

Hagiwara, Nao; Berry-Bobovski, Lisa; Francis, Carie; Ramsey, Lauren; Chapman, Robert A.; Albrecht, Terrance L.

2014-01-01

Racial/ethnic minorities are underrepresented in current biobanking programs. The current study utilized community-based participatory research to identify motivating factors and barriers that affect older African Americans’ willingness to donate biospecimens. The standardized phone survey was administered to 78 African Americans who are 55 years old or older and live in the metropolitan Detroit area to assess their overall willingness to donate biospecimens and what factors were associated with it. The majority of the participants were willing to donate biospecimens, along with their personal information, for medical research and indicated that they did donate biospecimens when they were asked. However, African Americans were rarely asked to participate in biobanking programs. Furthermore, African Americans were not as concerned with research exploitation or as mistrusting of medical researchers as previously thought by the medical researchers. Even if African Americans were concerned over potential research exploitation or mistrust of medical researchers, these concerns or mistrust did not translate into an actual unwillingness to participate in biobanking programs. Rather, transparency in medical research and biobanking programs was more important when predicting African Americans’ willingness to donate biospecimens for medical research. The findings suggest that underrepresentation of African Americans in current biobanking programs may not be due to their willingness/unwillingness to participate in such programs, but rather due to a failure of medical researchers to approach them. Additionally, researchers and clinicians should focus on increasing the transparency of medical research and biobanking programs rather than changing African Americans’ potential negative attitudes toward them. PMID:24243440

Time delay and integration array (TDI) using charge transfer device technology. Phase 2, volume 1: Technical

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1977-01-01

The 20x9 TDI array was developed to meet the LANDSAT Thematic Mapper Requirements. This array is based upon a self-aligned, transparent gate, buried channel process. The process features: (1) buried channel, four phase, overlapping gate CCD's for high transfer efficiency without fat zero; (2) self-aligned transistors to minimize clock feedthrough and parasitic capacitance; and (3) transparent tin oxide electrode for high quantum efficiency with front surface irradiation. The requirements placed on the array and the performance achieved are summarized. This data is the result of flat field measurements only, no imaging or dynamic target measurements were made during this program. Measurements were performed with two different test stands. The bench test equipment fabricated for this program operated at the 8 micro sec line time and employed simple sampling of the gated MOSFET output video signal. The second stand employed Correlated Doubled Sampling (CDS) and operated at 79.2 micro sec line time.

Mind the gap: implementation challenges break the link between HIV/AIDS research and practice.

PubMed

MacCarthy, Sarah; Reisner, Sari; Hoffmann, Michael; Perez-Brumer, Amaya; Silva-Santisteban, Alfonso; Nunn, Amy; Bastos, Leonardo; Vasconcellos, Mauricio Teixeira Leite de; Kerr, Ligia; Bastos, Francisco Inácio; Dourado, Inês

2016-11-03

Sampling strategies such as respondent-driven sampling (RDS) and time-location sampling (TLS) offer unique opportunities to access key populations such as men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender women. Limited work has assessed implementation challenges of these methods. Overcoming implementation challenges can improve research quality and increase uptake of HIV services among key populations. Drawing from studies using RDS in Brazil and TLS in Peru, we summarize challenges encountered in the field and potential strategies to address them. In Brazil, study site selection, cash incentives, and seed selection challenged RDS implementation with MSM. In Peru, expansive geography, safety concerns, and time required for study participation complicated TLS implementation with MSM and transgender women. Formative research, meaningful participation of key populations across stages of research, and transparency in study design are needed to link HIV/AIDS research and practice. Addressing implementation challenges can close gaps in accessing services among those most burdened by the epidemic.

Mind the gap: implementation challenges break the link between HIV/AIDS research and practice

PubMed Central

MacCarthy, Sarah; Reisner, Sari; Hoffmann, Michael; Perez-Brumer, Amaya; Silva-Santisteban, Alfonso; Nunn, Amy; Bastos, Leonardo; de Vasconcellos, Mauricio Teixeira Leite; Kerr, Ligia; Bastos, Francisco Inácio; Dourado, Inês

2018-01-01

Sampling strategies such as respondent-driven sampling (RDS) and time-location sampling (TLS) offer unique opportunities to access key populations such as men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender women. Limited work has assessed implementation challenges of these methods. Overcoming implementation challenges can improve research quality and increase uptake of HIV services among key populations. Drawing from studies using RDS in Brazil and TLS in Peru, we summarize challenges encountered in the field and potential strategies to address them. In Brazil, study site selection, cash incentives, and seed selection challenged RDS implementation with MSM. In Peru, expansive geography, safety concerns, and time required for study participation complicated TLS implementation with MSM and transgender women. Formative research, meaningful participation of key populations across stages of research, and transparency in study design are needed to link HIV/AIDS research and practice. Addressing implementation challenges can close gaps in accessing services among those most burdened by the epidemic. PMID:27828609

Quantum phase gate based on electromagnetically induced transparency in optical cavities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Borges, Halyne S.; Villas-Bôas, Celso J.

2016-11-01

We theoretically investigate the implementation of a quantum controlled-phase gate in a system constituted by a single atom inside an optical cavity, based on the electromagnetically induced transparency effect. First we show that a probe pulse can experience a π phase shift due to the presence or absence of a classical control field. Considering the interplay of the cavity-EIT effect and the quantum memory process, we demonstrated a controlled-phase gate between two single photons. To this end, first one needs to store a (control) photon in the ground atomic states. In the following, a second (target) photon must impinge on the atom-cavity system. Depending on the atomic state, this second photon will be either transmitted or reflected, acquiring different phase shifts. This protocol can then be easily extended to multiphoton systems, i.e., keeping the control photon stored, it may induce phase shifts in several single photons, thus enabling the generation of multipartite entangled states. We explore the relevant parameter space in the atom-cavity system that allows the implementation of quantum controlled-phase gates using the recent technologies. In particular, we have found a lower bound for the cooperativity of the atom-cavity system which enables the implementation of phase shift on single photons. The induced shift on the phase of a photonic qubit and the controlled-phase gate between single photons, combined with optical devices, enable one to perform universal quantum computation.

Ethical issues with colorectal cancer screening-a systematic review.

PubMed

Hofmann, Bjørn

2017-06-01

Colorectal cancer (CRC) screening is widely recommended and implemented. However, sometimes CRC screening is not implemented despite good evidence, and some types of CRC screening are implemented despite lack of evidence. The objective of this article is to expose and elucidate relevant ethical issues in the literature on CRC screening that are important for open and transparent deliberation on CRC screening. An axiological question-based method is used for exposing and elucidating ethical issues relevant in HTA. A literature search in MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, PubMed Bioethics subset, ISI Web of Knowledge, Bioethics Literature Database (BELIT), Ethics in Medicine (ETHMED), SIBIL Base dati di bioetica, LEWI Bibliographic Database on Ethics in the Sciences and Humanities, and EUROETHICS identified 870 references of which 114 were found relevant according to title and abstract. The content of the included papers were subject to ethical analysis to highlight the ethical issues, concerns, and arguments. A wide range of important ethical issues were identified. The main benefits are reduced relative CRC mortality rate, and potentially incidence rate, but there is no evidence of reduced absolute mortality rate. Potential harms are bleeding, perforation, false test results, overdetection, overdiagnosis, overtreatment (including unnecessary removal of polyps), and (rarely) death. Other important issues are related to autonomy and informed choice equity, justice, medicalization, and expanding disease. A series of important ethical issues have been identified and need to be addressed in open and transparent deliberation on CRC screening. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Simply delivered meals: a tale of collaboration.

PubMed

Martin, Sarah L; Connelly, Nancy; Parsons, Cassandra; Blackstone, Katlyn

2018-06-01

Western medicine is undergoing a transition toward transparency of quality and costs, and healthcare systems are striving to achieve the Triple Aim, a framework for improving the patient experience of care, improving the health of populations, and reducing the per capita cost of healthcare. Meanwhile, there is growing recognition of the impact of social determinants of health and a new federal requirement for nonprofit hospitals to implement prevention strategies. A specialized meal delivery program called Simply Delivered for ME (SDM) was formed in an effort to improve care and reduce 30-day hospital readmission rates.The Maine Medical Center (MMC) partnered with the Southern Maine Agency on Aging to offer SDM on a voluntary basis to high-risk Medicare patients already enrolled in the Community-based Care Transition Program (CCTP) at MMC. We report the results of the 2-year intervention in terms of 30-day hospital readmission rates and cost measures (ie, return on investment and cost savings).Of the 622 MMC patients who received SDM during the 24 months, the 30-day readmission rate was 10.3% (compared with the 16.6% 30-day rate of hospital readmission at baseline [ie, before the adoption of CCTP]) for all-cause readmissions. The cost savings for reduced readmissions were $212,160. The return on investment was 387%, or a benefit-cost ratio of $3.87 for every $1.00 spent on meals. Programs such as SDM may reduce the rate of hospital readmission among high-risk older adults and, thereby, yield lower healthcare costs.

Realisation of Bologna Declaration at the Slovak medical schools.

PubMed

Bergendi, L; Bernadic, M; Kralova, E; Kukurova, E

2007-01-01

Implementation of Bologna Declaration should result in development and facilitating of the education system. Following tasks need to be done: (1) Establish committees of expert, at the level of institutes, schools and universities, which would compare and harmonize syllabus and credits of individual courses with the aim to maximally support students' and teachers' mobility. (2) It is necessary to re-evaluate the transformation of medical education in Slovakia in the near future, so as key identical courses within Slovak schools of medicine have similar syllabus, number of hours and number of given credits. Then medical study at the School of Medicine Comenius University Bratislava will be comparable to study at Slovak, Czech and other European schools of medicine. (3) Harmonize academic titles within European Union. (4) Finish all syllabi of new study programs according the programs of European Union. (5) Evaluate the prerequisites and consider the variability of some study programs. (6) Maintain flexibility of theory and practice in relation 1:2 in theoretical and practical study. (7) Determine possible forms of thesis, their content and forms, technical equipment considering experience in student's research activity. (8) Develop conditions for an adequate teachers input. (9) Objectively validate and evaluate students' gained knowledge regarding their use in practice. (10) Solve transparent conditions of support and economic guarantee of higher education for universities, teachers and students by Ministry of Education of Slovak Republic (Ref. 18). Full Text (Free, PDF) www.bmj.sk.

A Proposed Resident's Operative Case Tracking and Evaluation System.

PubMed

Sehli, Deema N; Esene, Ignatius N; Baeesa, Saleh S

2016-03-01

Neurosurgery program trainers are continuously searching for new methods to evaluate trainees' competency besides number of cases and training duration. Recently, efforts are made on the development of reliable methods to teach competency and valid methods to measure teaching efficacy. Herein, we propose the "Resident's Operative Case Tracking and Evaluation System" (ROCTES) for the assessment and monitoring of the resident's performance quality during each procedure. We developed a data-based website and smartphone application for neurosurgical attending physicians, residents, and resident review committees in our accredited neurosurgical institutions. ROCTES runs through five steps: Login (Resident), Case Entry, Login (Attending Physician), Case Approval and Evaluation, and Report. The Resident enters each case record under "Case Entry" field and can "save," "edit," or "submit" the case data to the Attending Physician. The latter from the attending physician login profile will be able to "approve and evaluate" the resident's "knowledge," "skills," and "attitude" ranking from 1 to 15 for that particular case; add his comments and then "save," "edit," or "submit" the data, which can be viewed by users as a "report." Program Directors can also "login" to monitor the resident's progress. The implementation of this communication tool should enable the filtering and retrieval of information needed for the better assessment and monitoring of residents' exposure to variety of cases in each training center. This proposed evaluation system will provide a transparent assessment for residency training programs and should convert trainees into competent neurosurgeons. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Allocating limited resources in a time of fiscal constraints: a priority setting case study from Dalhousie University Faculty of Medicine.

PubMed

Mitton, Craig; Levy, Adrian; Gorsky, Diane; MacNeil, Christina; Dionne, Francois; Marrie, Tom

2013-07-01

Facing a projected $1.4M deficit on a $35M operating budget for fiscal year 2011/2012, members of the Dalhousie University Faculty of Medicine developed and implemented an explicit, transparent, criteria-based priority setting process for resource reallocation. A task group that included representatives from across the Faculty of Medicine used a program budgeting and marginal analysis (PBMA) framework, which provided an alternative to the typical public-sector approaches to addressing a budget deficit of across-the-board spending cuts and political negotiation. Key steps to the PBMA process included training staff members and department heads on priority setting and resource reallocation, establishing process guidelines to meet immediate and longer-term fiscal needs, developing a reporting structure and forming key working groups, creating assessment criteria to guide resource reallocation decisions, assessing disinvestment proposals from all departments, and providing proposal implementation recommendations to the dean. All departments were required to submit proposals for consideration. The task group approved 27 service reduction proposals and 28 efficiency gains proposals, totaling approximately $2.7M in savings across two years. During this process, the task group faced a number of challenges, including a tight timeline for development and implementation (January to April 2011), a culture that historically supported decentralized planning, at times competing interests (e.g., research versus teaching objectives), and reductions in overall health care and postsecondary education government funding. Overall, faculty and staff preferred the PBMA approach to previous practices. Other institutions should use this example to set priorities in times of fiscal constraints.

A nationwide quality improvement project to accelerate Ghana's progress toward Millennium Development Goal Four: design and implementation progress.

PubMed

Twum-Danso, Nana A Y; Akanlu, George B; Osafo, Enoch; Sodzi-Tettey, Sodzi; Boadu, Richard O; Atinbire, Solomon; Adondiwo, Ane; Amenga-Etego, Isaac; Ashagbley, Francis; Boadu, Eric A; Dasoberi, Ireneous; Kanyoke, Ernest; Yabang, Elma; Essegbey, Ivan T; Adjei, George A; Buckle, Gilbert B; Awoonor-Williams, J Koku; Nang-Beifubah, Alexis; Twumasi, Akwasi; McCannon, C Joseph; Barker, Pierre M

2012-12-01

The gap between evidence-based guidelines and practice of care is reflected, in low- and middle-income countries, by high rates of maternal and child mortality and limited effectiveness of large-scale programing to decrease those rates. We designed a phased, rapid, national scale-up quality improvement (QI) intervention to accelerate the achievement of Millennium Development Goal Four in Ghana. Our intervention promoted systems thinking, active participation of managers and frontline providers, generation and testing of local change ideas using iterative learning from transparent district and local data, local ownership and sustainability. After 50 months of implementation, we have completed two prototype learning phases and have begun regional spread phases to all health facilities in all 38 districts of the three northernmost regions and all 29 Catholic hospitals in the remaining regions of the country. To accelerate the spread of improvement, we developed 'change packages' of rigorously tested process changes along the continuum of care from pregnancy to age 5 in both inpatient and outpatient settings. The primary successes for the project so far include broad and deep adoption of QI by local stakeholders for improving system performance, widespread capacitation of leaders, managers and frontline providers in QI methods, incorporation of local ideas into change packages and successful scale-up to approximately 25% of the country's districts in 3 years. Implementation challenges include variable leadership uptake and commitment at the district level, delays due to recruiting and scheduling barriers, weak data systems and repeated QI training due to high staff turnover.

NASA Astrophysics Prioritizes Technology Development Funding for Strategic Missions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thronson, Harley A.; Pham, Bruce; Ganel, Opher

2017-01-01

The Cosmic Origins (COR) and Physics of the Cosmos (PCOS) Program Offices (POs) reside at NASA GSFC and implement priorities for the NASA HQ Astrophysics Division (APD). One major aspect of the POs’ activities is managing our Strategic Astrophysics Technology (SAT) program to mature technologies for future strategic missions. The Programs follow APD guidance on which missions are strategic, currently informed by the NRC’s 2010 Decadal Survey report, as well as APD’s Implementation Plan and the Astrophysics Roadmap.In preparation for the upcoming 2020 Decadal Survey, the APD has established Science and Technology Definition Teams (STDTs) to study four large-mission concepts: the Origins Space Telescope, Habitable Exoplanet Imaging Mission, Large UV/Optical/IR Surveyor, and X-ray Surveyor. The STDTs will develop the science case and design reference mission, assess technology development needs, and estimate the cost of their concept. A fifth team, the L3 Study Team (L3ST), was charged to study potential US contributions to ESA’s planned L3 gravitational-wave observatory.The POs use a rigorous and transparent process to solicit technology gaps from the scientific and technical communities, and prioritize those entries based on strategic alignment, expected impact, cross-cutting applicability, and urgency. Starting in 2016, the technology-gap assessments of the four STDTs and the L3ST are included in our process. Until a study team submits its final report, community-proposed changes to gaps submitted or adopted by a study team are forwarded to that study team for consideration.We discuss our technology development process, with strategic prioritization informing calls for SAT proposals and informing investment decisions. We also present results of this year’s technology gap prioritization and showcase our current portfolio of technology development projects. To date, 77 COR and 80 PCOS SAT proposals have been received, of which 18 COR and 22 PCOS projects were funded (PCOS awards starting in 2017 have yet to be announced). For more information, see the respective Program Annual Technology Reports under the technology tabs of the COR website at cor.gsfc.nasa.gov and the PCOS website at pcos.gsfc.nasa.gov.

Designing Transparent Teacher Evaluation: The Role of Oversight Panels for Professional Accountability

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goldstein, Jennifer

2009-01-01

Background/Context: Peer Assistance and Review (PAR), or peer review as it has historically been called, has existed in a handful of school districts since the early 1980s. In 1999, California became the first state to pass PAR legislation; at that time, a major district had not implemented the policy in over a decade. Setting: This is an in-depth…

Improving the Implementation of an United States Accrediting Agency's Retention Standard through Best Practices: An Action Research Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

King, Terron A.

2016-01-01

Over the last decade, higher education has come under intense scrutiny from the government; accrediting agencies in particular have come under fire for a lack of accountability and transparency. Reports from the Commission on the Future of Higher Education and the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee served as a driving force for…

From Onions to Shallots: Rewarding Tor Relays with TEARS

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-07-18

distributed banking using protocols from distributed digital cryp- tocurrency systems like Bitcoin . Shallots are publicly-verifiable, minimiz- ing reliance on...model; none of these have yet been implemented. In this paper, we draw upon the distributed Bitcoin architecture to design a transparent, efficient, and... Bitcoin . Shallots are publicly-veri able, minimiz- ing reliance on and trust in banking authorities, making them auditable while naturally distributing

Digital technology for health sector governance in low and middle income countries: a scoping review.

PubMed

Holeman, Isaac; Cookson, Tara Patricia; Pagliari, Claudia

2016-12-01

Poor governance impedes the provision of equitable and cost-effective health care in many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Although systemic problems such as corruption and inefficiency have been characterized as intractable, "good governance" interventions that promote transparency, accountability and public participation have yielded encouraging results. Mobile phones and other Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are beginning to play a role in these interventions, but little is known about their use and effects in the context of LMIC health care. Multi-stage scoping review: Research questions and scope were refined through a landscape scan of relevant implementation activities and by analyzing related concepts in the literature. Relevant studies were identified through iterative Internet searches (Google, Google Scholar), a systematic search of academic databases (PubMed, Web of Science), social media crowdsourcing (targeted LinkedIn and Twitter appeals) and reading reference lists and websites of relevant organizations. Parallel expert interviews helped to verify concepts and emerging findings and identified additional studies for inclusion. Results were charted, analyzed thematically and summarized. We identified 34 articles from a wide range of disciplines and sectors, including 17 published research articles and 17 grey literature reports. Analysis of these articles revealed 15 distinct ways of using ICTs for good governance activities in LMIC health care. These use cases clustered into four conceptual categories: 1) gathering and verifying information on services to improve transparency and auditability 2) aggregating and visualizing data to aid communication and decision making 3) mobilizing citizens in reporting poor practices to improve accountability and quality and 4) automating and auditing processes to prevent fraud. Despite a considerable amount of implementation activity, we identified little formal evaluative research. Innovative digital approaches are increasingly being used to facilitate good governance in the health sectors of LMICs but evidence of their effectiveness is still limited. More empirical studies are needed to measure concrete impacts, document mechanisms of action, and elucidate the political and sociotechnical dynamics that make designing and implementing ICTs for good governance so complex. Many digital good governance interventions are driven by an assumption that transparency alone will effect change; however responsive feedback mechanisms are also likely to be necessary.

High Cycle Fatigue (HCF) Science and Technology Program 2002 Annual Report

DTIC Science & Technology

2003-08-01

Turbine Engine Airfoils, Phase I 4.3 Probabilistic Design of Turbine Engine Airfoils, Phase II 4.4 Probabilistic Blade Design System 4.5...XTL17/SE2 7.4 Conclusion 8.0 TEST AND EVALUATION 8.1 Characterization Test Protocol 8.2 Demonstration Test Protocol 8.3 Development of Multi ...transparent and opaque overlays for processing. The objective of the SBIR Phase I program was to identify and evaluate promising methods for

Improving clinical productivity in an academic surgical practice through transparency.

PubMed

Scoggins, Charles R; Crockett, Timothy; Wafford, Lex; Cannon, Robert M; McMasters, Kelly M

2013-07-01

Patient care revenue is becoming an increasingly important source of funding to support the academic surgery department missions of research and education. Transparency regarding productivity metrics will improve clinical productivity among members of an academic surgical practice. Clinical productivity-related data were collected and compared between 2 time periods. Data were stratified by pretransparency and post-transparency time periods. Comparisons were made using the Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test, and p values ≤0.05 were considered significant. The faculty compensation plan remained the same across both time periods; faculty members were paid a base salary plus practice plan income based on individual collections minus practice overhead and academic program support taxes. Before 2006, clinical productivity data were not made public among faculty members. In 2006, the departmental leadership developed a physician scorecard that led to transparency with regard to productivity. After publication of the scorecard, clinical productivity increased, as did the number of partners producing a threshold number of work relative value units (RVU) (6,415 wRVU = 1.0 full time equivalent [FTE]). This occurred during a time of reduced collections per RVU. There was no change in the work assignments (percent effort for clinical service, research, and teaching) for the physicians between the 2 time periods, or the overall effort assigned to the Veterans Affairs hospital. Clinical productivity can be improved by making productivity metrics transparent among faculty members. Additional measures must be taken to ensure that research and teaching activities are appropriately incentivized. Copyright © 2013 American College of Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Navigation Guide systematic review methodology: a rigorous and transparent method for translating environmental health science into better health outcomes.

PubMed

Woodruff, Tracey J; Sutton, Patrice

2014-10-01

Synthesizing what is known about the environmental drivers of health is instrumental to taking prevention-oriented action. Methods of research synthesis commonly used in environmental health lag behind systematic review methods developed in the clinical sciences over the past 20 years. We sought to develop a proof of concept of the "Navigation Guide," a systematic and transparent method of research synthesis in environmental health. The Navigation Guide methodology builds on best practices in research synthesis in evidence-based medicine and environmental health. Key points of departure from current methods of expert-based narrative review prevalent in environmental health include a prespecified protocol, standardized and transparent documentation including expert judgment, a comprehensive search strategy, assessment of "risk of bias," and separation of the science from values and preferences. Key points of departure from evidence-based medicine include assigning a "moderate" quality rating to human observational studies and combining diverse evidence streams. The Navigation Guide methodology is a systematic and rigorous approach to research synthesis that has been developed to reduce bias and maximize transparency in the evaluation of environmental health information. Although novel aspects of the method will require further development and validation, our findings demonstrated that improved methods of research synthesis under development at the National Toxicology Program and under consideration by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are fully achievable. The institutionalization of robust methods of systematic and transparent review would provide a concrete mechanism for linking science to timely action to prevent harm.

Communicating LightSail: Embedded Reporting and Web Strategies for Citizen-Funded Space Missions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hilverda, M.; Davis, J.

2015-12-01

The Planetary Society (TPS) is a non-profit space advocacy group with a stated mission to "empower the world's citizens to advance space science and exploration." In 2009, TPS began work on LightSail, a small, citizen-funded spacecraft to demonstrate solar sailing propulsion technology. The program included a test flight, completed in June 2015, with a primary mission slated for late 2016. TPS initiated a LightSail public engagement campaign to provide the public with transparent mission updates, and foster educational outreach. A credentialed science journalist was given unrestricted access to the team and data, and provided regular reports without editorial oversight. An accompanying website, sail.planetary.org, provided project updates, multimedia, and real-time spacecraft data during the mission. Design approaches included a clean layout with text optimized for easy reading, balanced by strong visual elements to enhance reader comprehension and interest. A dedicated "Mission Control" page featured social media feeds, links to most recent articles, and a ground track showing the spacecraft's position, including overflight predictions based on user location. A responsive, cross-platform design allowed easy access across a broad range of devices. Efficient web server performance was prioritized by implementing a static content management system (CMS). Despite two spacecraft contingencies, the test mission successfully completed its primary objective of solar sail deployment. Qualitative feedback on the transparent, embedded reporting style was positive, and website metrics showed high user retention times. The website also grew awareness and support for the primary 2016 mission, driving traffic to a Kickstarter campaign that raised $1.24 million. Websites constantly evolve, and changes for the primary mission will include a new CMS to better support multiple authors and a custom dashboard to display real-time spacecraft sensor data.

Computerized design of controllers using data models

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Irwin, Dennis; Mitchell, Jerrel; Medina, Enrique; Allwine, Dan; Frazier, Garth; Duncan, Mark

1995-01-01

The major contributions of the grant effort have been the enhancement of the Compensator Improvement Program (CIP), which resulted in the Ohio University CIP (OUCIP) package, and the development of the Model and Data-Oriented Computer Aided Design System (MADCADS). Incorporation of direct z-domain designs into CIP was tested and determined to be numerically ill-conditioned for the type of lightly damped problems for which the development was intended. Therefore, it was decided to pursue the development of z-plane designs in the w-plane, and to make this conversion transparent to the user. The analytical development needed for this feature, as well as that needed for including compensator damping ratios and DC gain specifications, closed loop stability requirements, and closed loop disturbance rejection specifications into OUCIP are all contained in Section 3. OUCIP was successfully tested with several example systems to verify proper operation of existing and new features. The extension of the CIP philosophy and algorithmic approach to handle modern multivariable controller design criteria was implemented and tested. Several new algorithms for implementing the search approach to modern multivariable control system design were developed and tested. This analytical development, most of which was incorporated into the MADCADS software package, is described in Section 4, which also includes results of the application of MADCADS to the MSFC ACES facility and the Hubble Space Telescope.

Creating Quality Media Materials.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hortin, John A.; Bailey, Gerald D.

1982-01-01

Innovation, imagination, and student creativity are key ingredients in creating quality media materials for the small school. Student-produced media materials, slides without a camera, personalized slide programs and copy work, self-made task cards, self-made overhead transparencies, graphic materials, and utilization of the mass media are some of…

77 FR 33226 - Agency Information Collection Activities: Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-06-05

... Pricing Program while maintaining efficiency, transparency and integrity, the HRSA Office of Pharmacy... minimal for submitting change requests. Contract Pharmacy Self-Certification In order to ensure that drug manufacturers and drug wholesalers recognize contract pharmacy arrangements, covered entities that elect to...

77 FR 42747 - Agency Information Collection Activities: Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-07-20

... Pricing Program while maintaining efficiency, transparency and integrity, the HRSA Office of Pharmacy... requests. Contract Pharmacy Self-Certification In order to ensure that drug manufacturers and drug wholesalers recognize contract pharmacy arrangements, covered entities that elect to utilize one or more...

A Mini-Curriculum for Robotics Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jones, Preston K.

This practicum report documents the development of a four-lesson multimedia program for robotics instruction for fourth and seventh grade students. The commercial film "Robot Revolution" and the videocassette tape "Robotics" were used, along with two author-developed slide/audiotape presentations and 14 overhead transparency foils. Two robots,…

Transparent Walls: Library Services to Prisoners.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hemp, Susan J.; Montgomery, Jack G., Ed.

1996-01-01

The population of state and federal prisons quadrupled between 1971 and 1991, increasing demand for library resources. Outlines the history of prison libraries (1700s-1990s); discusses prison libraries and librarians, law collections, reference services, literacy programs, and funding; and provides a bibliography of prison librarianship covering…

DOD Open Government

Science.gov Websites

Skip to main content (Press Enter). DOD Open Government Logo DOD Open Government U.S. Department of Defense Search DOD Open Government: Home Open Government @ DoD Transparency Congressional Inquiries Cooperation Regulatory Program Initiatives FRD Declassification DARPA Open Catalog Contact Us 2016

FOIA

Science.gov Websites

Skip to main content (Press Enter). DOD Open Government Logo DOD Open Government U.S. Department of Defense Search DOD Open Government: Home Open Government @ DoD Transparency Congressional Inquiries Cooperation Regulatory Program Initiatives FRD Declassification DARPA Open Catalog Contact Us Freedom of

How to estimate the cost of point-of-care CD4 testing in program settings: an example using the Alere Pima Analyzer in South Africa.

PubMed

Larson, Bruce; Schnippel, Kathryn; Ndibongo, Buyiswa; Long, Lawrence; Fox, Matthew P; Rosen, Sydney

2012-01-01

Integrating POC CD4 testing technologies into HIV counseling and testing (HCT) programs may improve post-HIV testing linkage to care and treatment. As evaluations of these technologies in program settings continue, estimates of the costs of POC CD4 tests to the service provider will be needed and estimates have begun to be reported. Without a consistent and transparent methodology, estimates of the cost per CD4 test using POC technologies are likely to be difficult to compare and may lead to erroneous conclusions about costs and cost-effectiveness. This paper provides a step-by-step approach for estimating the cost per CD4 test from a provider's perspective. As an example, the approach is applied to one specific POC technology, the Pima Analyzer. The costing approach is illustrated with data from a mobile HCT program in Gauteng Province of South Africa. For this program, the cost per test in 2010 was estimated at $23.76 (material costs  = $8.70; labor cost per test  = $7.33; and equipment, insurance, and daily quality control  = $7.72). Labor and equipment costs can vary widely depending on how the program operates and the number of CD4 tests completed over time. Additional costs not included in the above analysis, for on-going training, supervision, and quality control, are likely to increase further the cost per test. The main contribution of this paper is to outline a methodology for estimating the costs of incorporating POC CD4 testing technologies into an HCT program. The details of the program setting matter significantly for the cost estimate, so that such details should be clearly documented to improve the consistency, transparency, and comparability of cost estimates.

Evaluation of light penetration on Navigation Pools 8 and 13 of the Upper Mississippi River

USGS Publications Warehouse

Giblin, Shawn; Hoff, Kraig; Fischer, Jim; Dukerschein, Terry

2010-01-01

The availability of light can have a dramatic affect on macrophyte and phytoplankton abundance in virtually all aquatic ecosystems. The Long Term Resource Monitoring Program and other monitoring programs often measure factors that affect light extinction (nonvolatile suspended solids, volatile suspended solids, and chlorophyll) and correlates of light extinction (turbidity and Secchi depth), but rarely do they directly measure light extinction. Data on light extinction, Secchi depth, transparency tube, turbidity, total suspended solids, and volatile suspended solids were collected during summer 2003 on Pools 8 and 13 of the Upper Mississippi River. Regressions were developed to predict light extinction based upon Secchi depth, transparency tube, turbidity, and total suspended solids. Transparency tube, Secchi depth, and turbidity all showed strong relations with light extinction and can effectively predict light extinction. Total suspended solids did not show as strong a relation to light extinction. Volatile suspended solids had a greater affect on light extinction than nonvolatile suspended solids. The data were compared to recommended criteria established for light extinction, Secchi depth, total suspended solids, and turbidity by the Upper Mississippi River Conservation Committee to sustain submersed aquatic vegetation in the Upper Mississippi River. During the study period, the average condition in Pool 8 met or exceeded all of the criteria whereas the average condition in Pool 13 failed to meet any of the criteria. This report provides river managers with an effective tool to predict light extinction based upon readily available data.

Spelling and Meaning of Compounds in the Early School Years through Classroom Games: An Intervention Study.

PubMed

Tsesmeli, Styliani N

2017-01-01

The study aimed to evaluate the intervention effects on spelling and meaning of compounds by Greek students via group board games in classroom settings. The sample consisted of 60 pupils, who were attending the first and second grade of two primary schools in Greece. Each grade-class was divided into an intervention ( N = 29 children) and a control group ( N = 31 children). Before intervention, groups were evaluated by standardized tests of reading words/pseudowords, spelling words, and vocabulary. Students were also assessed on compound knowledge by a word analogy task, a meaning task and a spelling task. The experimental design of the intervention included a pre-test, a training program, and a post-test. The pre- and post-assessments consisted of the spelling and the meaning tasks entailing equally morphologically transparent and opaque compounds. The training program was based on word families ( N = 10 word families, 56 trained items, 5 sessions) and aimed to offer instruction of morphological decomposition and meaning of words. The findings showed that training was effective in enhancing the spelling and most notably the meaning of compounds. A closer inspection of intervention data in terms of morphological transparency, revealed that training group of first graders improved significantly both on transparent and opaque compounds, while the degree of gains was larger on opaque items for the second graders. These findings are consistent with the experimental literature and particularly optimistic for the literacy enhancement of typically developing children in regular classrooms.

Reproducing Epidemiologic Research and Ensuring Transparency.

PubMed

Coughlin, Steven S

2017-08-15

Measures for ensuring that epidemiologic studies are reproducible include making data sets and software available to other researchers so they can verify published findings, conduct alternative analyses of the data, and check for statistical errors or programming errors. Recent developments related to the reproducibility and transparency of epidemiologic studies include the creation of a global platform for sharing data from clinical trials and the anticipated future extension of the global platform to non-clinical trial data. Government agencies and departments such as the US Department of Veterans Affairs Cooperative Studies Program have also enhanced their data repositories and data sharing resources. The Institute of Medicine and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors released guidance on sharing clinical trial data. The US National Institutes of Health has updated their data-sharing policies. In this issue of the Journal, Shepherd et al. (Am J Epidemiol. 2017;186:387-392) outline a pragmatic approach for reproducible research with sensitive data for studies for which data cannot be shared because of legal or ethical restrictions. Their proposed quasi-reproducible approach facilitates the dissemination of statistical methods and codes to independent researchers. Both reproducibility and quasi-reproducibility can increase transparency for critical evaluation, further dissemination of study methods, and expedite the exchange of ideas among researchers. © The Author(s) 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Spelling and Meaning of Compounds in the Early School Years through Classroom Games: An Intervention Study

PubMed Central

Tsesmeli, Styliani N.

2017-01-01

The study aimed to evaluate the intervention effects on spelling and meaning of compounds by Greek students via group board games in classroom settings. The sample consisted of 60 pupils, who were attending the first and second grade of two primary schools in Greece. Each grade-class was divided into an intervention (N = 29 children) and a control group (N = 31 children). Before intervention, groups were evaluated by standardized tests of reading words/pseudowords, spelling words, and vocabulary. Students were also assessed on compound knowledge by a word analogy task, a meaning task and a spelling task. The experimental design of the intervention included a pre-test, a training program, and a post-test. The pre- and post-assessments consisted of the spelling and the meaning tasks entailing equally morphologically transparent and opaque compounds. The training program was based on word families (N = 10 word families, 56 trained items, 5 sessions) and aimed to offer instruction of morphological decomposition and meaning of words. The findings showed that training was effective in enhancing the spelling and most notably the meaning of compounds. A closer inspection of intervention data in terms of morphological transparency, revealed that training group of first graders improved significantly both on transparent and opaque compounds, while the degree of gains was larger on opaque items for the second graders. These findings are consistent with the experimental literature and particularly optimistic for the literacy enhancement of typically developing children in regular classrooms. PMID:29238316

Uncertainty indication in soil function maps - transparent and easy-to-use information to support sustainable use of soil resources

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Greiner, Lucie; Nussbaum, Madlene; Papritz, Andreas; Zimmermann, Stephan; Gubler, Andreas; Grêt-Regamey, Adrienne; Keller, Armin

2018-05-01

Spatial information on soil function fulfillment (SFF) is increasingly being used to inform decision-making in spatial planning programs to support sustainable use of soil resources. Soil function maps visualize soils abilities to fulfill their functions, e.g., regulating water and nutrient flows, providing habitats, and supporting biomass production based on soil properties. Such information must be reliable for informed and transparent decision-making in spatial planning programs. In this study, we add to the transparency of soil function maps by (1) indicating uncertainties arising from the prediction of soil properties generated by digital soil mapping (DSM) that are used for soil function assessment (SFA) and (2) showing the response of different SFA methods to the propagation of uncertainties through the assessment. For a study area of 170 km2 in the Swiss Plateau, we map 10 static soil sub-functions for agricultural soils for a spatial resolution of 20 × 20 m together with their uncertainties. Mapping the 10 soil sub-functions using simple ordinal assessment scales reveals pronounced spatial patterns with a high variability of SFF scores across the region, linked to the inherent properties of the soils and terrain attributes and climate conditions. Uncertainties in soil properties propagated through SFA methods generally lead to substantial uncertainty in the mapped soil sub-functions. We propose two types of uncertainty maps that can be readily understood by stakeholders. Cumulative distribution functions of SFF scores indicate that SFA methods respond differently to the propagated uncertainty of soil properties. Even where methods are comparable on the level of complexity and assessment scale, their comparability in view of uncertainty propagation might be different. We conclude that comparable uncertainty indications in soil function maps are relevant to enable informed and transparent decisions on the sustainable use of soil resources.

Qualitative analysis of the dynamics of policy design and implementation in hospital funding reform.

PubMed

Palmer, Karen S; Brown, Adalsteinn D; Evans, Jenna M; Marani, Husayn; Russell, Kirstie K; Martin, Danielle; Ivers, Noah M

2018-01-01

As in many health care systems, some Canadian jurisdictions have begun shifting away from global hospital budgets. Payment for episodes of care has begun to be implemented. Starting in 2012, the Province of Ontario implemented hospital funding reforms comprising three elements: Global Budgets; Health Based Allocation Method (HBAM); and Quality-Based Procedures (QBP). This evaluation focuses on implementation of QBPs, a procedure/diagnosis-specific funding approach involving a pre-set price per episode of care coupled with best practice clinical pathways. We examined whether or not there was consensus in understanding of the program theory underpinning QBPs and how this may have influenced full and effective implementation of this innovative funding model. We undertook a formative evaluation of QBP implementation. We used an embedded case study method and in-depth, one-on-one, semi-structured, telephone interviews with key informants at three levels of the health care system: Designers (those who designed the QBP policy); Adoption Supporters (organizations and individuals supporting adoption of QBPs); and Hospital Implementers (those responsible for QBP implementation in hospitals). Thematic analysis involved an inductive approach, incorporating Framework analysis to generate descriptive and explanatory themes that emerged from the data. Five main findings emerged from our research: (1) Unbeknownst to most key informants, there was neither consistency nor clarity over time among QBP designers in their understanding of the original goal(s) for hospital funding reform; (2) Prior to implementation, the intended hospital funding mechanism transitioned from ABF to QBPs, but most key informants were either unaware of the transition or believe it was intentional; (3) Perception of the primary goal(s) of the policy reform continues to vary within and across all levels of key informants; (4) Four years into implementation, the QBP funding mechanism remains misunderstood; and (5) Ongoing differences in understanding of QBP goals and funding mechanism have created challenges with implementation and difficulties in measuring success. Policy drift and policy layering affected both the goal and the mechanism of action of hospital funding reform. Lack of early specification in both policy goals and hospital funding mechanism exposed the reform to reactive changes that did not reflect initial intentions. Several challenges further exacerbated implementation of complex hospital funding reforms, including a prolonged implementation schedule, turnover of key staff, and inconsistent messaging over time. These factors altered the trajectory of the hospital funding reforms and created confusion amongst those responsible for implementation. Enacting changes to hospital funding policy through a process that is transparent, collaborative, and intentional may increase the likelihood of achieving intended effects.

Laser-driven deflection arrangements and methods involving charged particle beams

DOEpatents

Plettner, Tomas [San Ramon, CA; Byer, Robert L [Stanford, CA

2011-08-09

Systems, methods, devices and apparatus are implemented for producing controllable charged particle beams. In one implementation, an apparatus provides a deflection force to a charged particle beam. A source produces an electromagnetic wave. A structure, that is substantially transparent to the electromagnetic wave, includes a physical structure having a repeating pattern with a period L and a tilted angle .alpha., relative to a direction of travel of the charged particle beam, the pattern affects the force of the electromagnetic wave upon the charged particle beam. A direction device introduces the electromagnetic wave to the structure to provide a phase-synchronous deflection force to the charged particle beam.

Beam position monitor gate functionality implementation and applications

DOE PAGES

Cheng, Weixing; Ha, Kiman; Li, Yongjun; ...

2018-06-14

We introduce a novel technique to implement gate functionality for the beam position monitors (BPM) at the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II). The functionality, now implemented in FPGA, allows us to acquire two separated bunch-trains’ synchronized turn-by-turn (TBT) data simultaneously with the NSLS-II in-house developed BPM system. The gated position resolution is improved about 3 times by narrowing the sampling width. Experimentally we demonstrated that the machine lattice could be transparently characterized with the gated TBT data of a short diagnostic bunch-train Cheng et al., 2017; Li et al., 2017. Other applications, for example, precisely characterizing storage ring impedance/wake-fieldmore » through recording the beam positions of two separated bunch trains has been experimentally demonstrated.« less

A Framework for Enhancing the Value of Research for Dissemination and Implementation

PubMed Central

Glasgow, Russell E.; Carpenter, Christopher R.; Grimshaw, Jeremy M.; Rabin, Borsika A.; Fernandez, Maria E.; Brownson, Ross C.

2015-01-01

A comprehensive guide that identifies critical evaluation and reporting elements necessary to move research into practice is needed. We propose a framework that highlights the domains required to enhance the value of dissemination and implementation research for end users. We emphasize the importance of transparent reporting on the planning phase of research in addition to delivery, evaluation, and long-term outcomes. We highlight key topics for which well-established reporting and assessment tools are underused (e.g., cost of intervention, implementation strategy, adoption) and where such tools are inadequate or lacking (e.g., context, sustainability, evolution) within the context of existing reporting guidelines. Consistent evaluation of and reporting on these issues with standardized approaches would enhance the value of research for practitioners and decision-makers. PMID:25393182

Beam position monitor gate functionality implementation and applications

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

Cheng, Weixing; Ha, Kiman; Li, Yongjun

We introduce a novel technique to implement gate functionality for the beam position monitors (BPM) at the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II). The functionality, now implemented in FPGA, allows us to acquire two separated bunch-trains’ synchronized turn-by-turn (TBT) data simultaneously with the NSLS-II in-house developed BPM system. The gated position resolution is improved about 3 times by narrowing the sampling width. Experimentally we demonstrated that the machine lattice could be transparently characterized with the gated TBT data of a short diagnostic bunch-train Cheng et al., 2017; Li et al., 2017. Other applications, for example, precisely characterizing storage ring impedance/wake-fieldmore » through recording the beam positions of two separated bunch trains has been experimentally demonstrated.« less

Casting and Angling.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Little, Mildred J.; Bunting, Camille

The self-contained packet contains background information, lesson plans, 15 transparency and student handout masters, drills and games, 2 objective examinations, and references for teaching a 15-day unit on casting and angling to junior high and senior high school students, either as part of a regular physical education program or as a club…

Teaching Photography without a Darkroom.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McDole, Thomas L.

Alternative curriculum strategies can be used to conduct an effective photography program without the expense usually associated with a darkroom. Three methods can be used to eliminate the need for a darkroom facility: outside vendors, an emulsion that can be user-processed without access to a darkroom (slide or transparency film), and emulsions…

75 FR 37811 - Agency Information Collection Request; 60-Day Public Comment Request

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-06-30

... Health and Human Services' (HHS) high priority programs and is supportive of HHS Strategic Goal 1: Health...- prescribing and quality reporting functionalities, and the number of providers who have become meaningful.... Additionally, it allows for the synergy of grantee business processes and technology to increase transparency...

Where Local and National Evaluators Meet: Unintended Threats to Ethical Evaluation Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rodi, Michael S.; Paget, Kathleen D.

2007-01-01

The ethical work of program evaluators is based on a covenant of honesty and transparency among stakeholders. Yet even under the most favorable evaluation conditions, threats to ethical standards exist and muddle that covenant. Unfortunately, ethical issues associated with different evaluation structures and contracting arrangements have received…

78 FR 40403 - Energy Conservation Program for Consumer Products and Certain Commercial and Industrial Equipment...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-07-05

... from today's proposed determination. There currently is no statutory definition of portable ACs. DOE...\\ Transparency Media Research. Air Conditioning Systems Market--Global Scenario, Trends, Industry Analysis, Size... amended by the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996) requires preparation of an...

Measurement. Teacher's Guide. Small Engine Repair Series.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

East Texas State Univ., Commerce. Occupational Curriculum Lab.

This teacher's guide is part of an instructional series on small engine repair that is intended for use with mentally retarded and learning disabled students in general mechanical repair programs. Notes to the instructor cover equipment needed, preparation before teaching, and use of evaluation charts, transparency masters, audiovisual(s), and…

[Senior High School Program.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wisconsin Univ. - Stout, Menomonie. Center for Vocational, Technical and Adult Education.

This student directed document contains five activity packages, a proposed curriculum, and a set of transparency masters; all pertain to field objectives 1, 4, or 5 of the Wisconsin Guide to Local Curriculum Improvement in Industrial Education, K-12. Geared to the junior and senior high school level, the packages are entitled: Co-op Program…

78 FR 49760 - Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-08-15

... transparent method for identifying high-quality programs that can receive continuing five-year grants without... will employ a mixed-methods design that integrates and layers administrative and secondary data sources, observational measures, and interviews to develop a rich knowledge base about what the DRS accomplishes and how...

Impact of Competency-Based Education and Assessment on Program Outcomes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Konkoth, Shanthi

2016-01-01

Since the publication of the "College Scorecard" by The U.S. Department of Education in 2015, comparisons between college attendance costs and institutional outcomes (i.e., graduation rates, post-graduation earnings) have come into sharp focus. This increased scrutiny requires institutions of higher learning to be more transparent about…

The Navigation Guide Systematic Review Methodology: A Rigorous and Transparent Method for Translating Environmental Health Science into Better Health Outcomes

PubMed Central

Sutton, Patrice

2014-01-01

Background: Synthesizing what is known about the environmental drivers of health is instrumental to taking prevention-oriented action. Methods of research synthesis commonly used in environmental health lag behind systematic review methods developed in the clinical sciences over the past 20 years. Objectives: We sought to develop a proof of concept of the “Navigation Guide,” a systematic and transparent method of research synthesis in environmental health. Discussion: The Navigation Guide methodology builds on best practices in research synthesis in evidence-based medicine and environmental health. Key points of departure from current methods of expert-based narrative review prevalent in environmental health include a prespecified protocol, standardized and transparent documentation including expert judgment, a comprehensive search strategy, assessment of “risk of bias,” and separation of the science from values and preferences. Key points of departure from evidence-based medicine include assigning a “moderate” quality rating to human observational studies and combining diverse evidence streams. Conclusions: The Navigation Guide methodology is a systematic and rigorous approach to research synthesis that has been developed to reduce bias and maximize transparency in the evaluation of environmental health information. Although novel aspects of the method will require further development and validation, our findings demonstrated that improved methods of research synthesis under development at the National Toxicology Program and under consideration by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are fully achievable. The institutionalization of robust methods of systematic and transparent review would provide a concrete mechanism for linking science to timely action to prevent harm. Citation: Woodruff TJ, Sutton P. 2014. The Navigation Guide systematic review methodology: a rigorous and transparent method for translating environmental health science into better health outcomes. Environ Health Perspect 122:1007–1014; http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1307175 PMID:24968373

Redefining nondiscriminatory access to remote sensing imagery and its impact on global transparency

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aten, Michelle L.

2003-04-01

Global transparency is founded on the Open Skies philosophy and its precept of non-discriminatory access. Global transparency implies that anyone can have anytime, anyplace access to a wide-array of remotely sensed imagery. The custom of non-discriminatory access requires that datasets of interest must be affordable, usable, and obtainable in a timely fashion devoid of political, economic or technical obstacles. Thus, an assessment of the correlation between the availability of satellite imagery and changes in governmental policies, pricing fluctuations of data, and advances in technology is critical to assessing the viability of global transparency. The Open Skies philosophy was originally proposed at the 1955 Geneva Summit to advocate mutually beneficial aerial reconnaissance missions over the USSR and the US as a verification tool for arms control and non-proliferation agreements. However, due to Cold War tensions, this philosophy and the custom of non-discriminatory were not widely adopted in the civilian remote sensing community until the commissioning of the Landsat Program in 1972. Since this time, commercial high-resolution satellites have drastically changed the circumstances on which the fundamental tenets of this philosophy are based. Since the successful launch of the first of this satellite class, the IKONOS satellite, high-resolution imagery is now available to non-US governments and an unlimited set of non-state actors. As more advanced capabilities are added to the growing assortment of remote sensing satellites, the reality of global transparency will rapidly evolve. This assessment includes an overview of historical precedents and a brief explanation of relevant US policy decisions that define non-discriminatory access with respect to US government and US based corporate assets. It also presents the dynamics of the political, economic, and technical barriers that may dictate or influence the remote sensing community's access to satellite data. In conclusion, this analysis considers strategies for balancing the dual-use nature of hyperspectral and high-resolution satellite imagery and discusses the potential impact of these policies on gloal transparency.

An Exploratory Study Examining the National School Lunch Program; How It Functions on a Daily Basis; and How It May Be Improved

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bereza, John Matthew

2009-01-01

The purpose of this study is to make transparent the current National School Lunch Program (NSLP). The first mission of this project is to clarify how the NSLP functions on a day-to-day basis in Columbus, Ohio. Columbus is used as a sample city, yet the aim of this research is to be transferable to other locations. The second objective is to…

Teaching corner: child family health international : the ethics of asset-based global health education programs.

PubMed

Evert, Jessica

2015-03-01

Child Family Health International (CFHI) is a U.S.-based nonprofit, nongovernmental organization (NGO) that has more than 25 global health education programs in seven countries annually serving more than 600 interprofessional undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate participants in programs geared toward individual students and university partners. Recognized by Special Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), CFHI utilizes an asset-based community engagement model to ensure that CFHI's programs challenge, rather than reinforce, historical power imbalances between the "Global North" and "Global South." CFHI's programs are predicated on ethical principles including reciprocity, sustainability, humility, transparency, nonmaleficence, respect for persons, and social justice.

Simplified microprocessor design for VLSI control applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cameron, K.

1991-01-01

A design technique for microprocessors combining the simplicity of reduced instruction set computers (RISC's) with the richer instruction sets of complex instruction set computers (CISC's) is presented. They utilize the pipelined instruction decode and datapaths common to RISC's. Instruction invariant data processing sequences which transparently support complex addressing modes permit the formulation of simple control circuitry. Compact implementations are possible since neither complicated controllers nor large register sets are required.

Review of digital holography reconstruction methods

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dovhaliuk, Rostyslav Yu.

2018-01-01

Development of digital holography opened new ways of both transparent and opaque objects non-destructive study. In this paper, a digital hologram reconstruction process is investigated. The advantages and limitations of common wave propagation methods are discussed. The details of a software implementation of a digital hologram reconstruction methods are presented. Finally, the performance of each wave propagation method is evaluated, and recommendations about possible use cases for each of them are given.

Cooperative high-performance storage in the accelerated strategic computing initiative

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gary, Mark; Howard, Barry; Louis, Steve; Minuzzo, Kim; Seager, Mark

1996-01-01

The use and acceptance of new high-performance, parallel computing platforms will be impeded by the absence of an infrastructure capable of supporting orders-of-magnitude improvement in hierarchical storage and high-speed I/O (Input/Output). The distribution of these high-performance platforms and supporting infrastructures across a wide-area network further compounds this problem. We describe an architectural design and phased implementation plan for a distributed, Cooperative Storage Environment (CSE) to achieve the necessary performance, user transparency, site autonomy, communication, and security features needed to support the Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative (ASCI). ASCI is a Department of Energy (DOE) program attempting to apply terascale platforms and Problem-Solving Environments (PSEs) toward real-world computational modeling and simulation problems. The ASCI mission must be carried out through a unified, multilaboratory effort, and will require highly secure, efficient access to vast amounts of data. The CSE provides a logically simple, geographically distributed, storage infrastructure of semi-autonomous cooperating sites to meet the strategic ASCI PSE goal of highperformance data storage and access at the user desktop.

The value of mainstreaming human rights into health impact assessment.

PubMed

MacNaughton, Gillian; Forman, Lisa

2014-09-26

Health impact assessment (HIA) is increasingly being used to predict the health and social impacts of domestic and global laws, policies and programs. In a comprehensive review of HIA practice in 2012, the authors indicated that, given the diverse range of HIA practice, there is an immediate need to reconsider the governing values and standards for HIA implementation [1]. This article responds to this call for governing values and standards for HIA. It proposes that international human rights standards be integrated into HIA to provide a universal value system backed up by international and domestic laws and mechanisms of accountability. The idea of mainstreaming human rights into HIA is illustrated with the example of impact assessments that have been carried out to predict the potential effects of intellectual property rights in international trade agreements on the availability and affordability of medicines. The article concludes by recommending international human rights standards as a legal and ethical framework for HIA that will enhance the universal values of nondiscrimination, participation, transparency and accountability and bring legitimacy and coherence to HIA practice as well.

Ethical Issues in the Use of Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation in Controlled Donation After Circulatory Determination of Death.

PubMed

Dalle Ave, A L; Shaw, D M; Bernat, J L

2016-08-01

The use of donor extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) to improve graft outcomes by some controlled donation after circulatory determination of death (cDCDD) programs raises ethical issues. We reviewed cDCDD protocols using ECMO and the relevant ethics literature to analyze these issues. It is not obvious that ECMO in cDCDD improves graft outcomes. In our opinion, ECMO implemented before death can interfere with end-of-life care and damage bodily integrity. By restoring systemic circulation, ECMO risks invalidating the preceding declaration of death if brain and cardiac perfusion is not adequately excluded because of malfunction or misplacement of the supradiaphragmatic aortic occlusion balloon. The use of ECMO is not compatible with the acronym DCDD because circulation is restored after the determination of death. Because of these deficiencies, we concluded that other techniques are preferable, such as rapid recovery or in situ cold infusion. If ECMO is performed, it requires a specific informed consent and transparency. © Copyright 2016 The American Society of Transplantation and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons.

The Value of Mainstreaming Human Rights into Health Impact Assessment

PubMed Central

MacNaughton, Gillian; Forman, Lisa

2014-01-01

Health impact assessment (HIA) is increasingly being used to predict the health and social impacts of domestic and global laws, policies and programs. In a comprehensive review of HIA practice in 2012, the authors indicated that, given the diverse range of HIA practice, there is an immediate need to reconsider the governing values and standards for HIA implementation [1]. This article responds to this call for governing values and standards for HIA. It proposes that international human rights standards be integrated into HIA to provide a universal value system backed up by international and domestic laws and mechanisms of accountability. The idea of mainstreaming human rights into HIA is illustrated with the example of impact assessments that have been carried out to predict the potential effects of intellectual property rights in international trade agreements on the availability and affordability of medicines. The article concludes by recommending international human rights standards as a legal and ethical framework for HIA that will enhance the universal values of nondiscrimination, participation, transparency and accountability and bring legitimacy and coherence to HIA practice as well. PMID:25264683

Efficient generation of connectivity in neuronal networks from simulator-independent descriptions

PubMed Central

Djurfeldt, Mikael; Davison, Andrew P.; Eppler, Jochen M.

2014-01-01

Simulator-independent descriptions of connectivity in neuronal networks promise greater ease of model sharing, improved reproducibility of simulation results, and reduced programming effort for computational neuroscientists. However, until now, enabling the use of such descriptions in a given simulator in a computationally efficient way has entailed considerable work for simulator developers, which must be repeated for each new connectivity-generating library that is developed. We have developed a generic connection generator interface that provides a standard way to connect a connectivity-generating library to a simulator, such that one library can easily be replaced by another, according to the modeler's needs. We have used the connection generator interface to connect C++ and Python implementations of the previously described connection-set algebra to the NEST simulator. We also demonstrate how the simulator-independent modeling framework PyNN can transparently take advantage of this, passing a connection description through to the simulator layer for rapid processing in C++ where a simulator supports the connection generator interface and falling-back to slower iteration in Python otherwise. A set of benchmarks demonstrates the good performance of the interface. PMID:24795620

Risk and Outbreak Communication: Lessons from Taiwan's Experiences in the Post-SARS Era.

PubMed

Hsu, Yu-Chen; Chen, Yu-Ling; Wei, Han-Ning; Yang, Yu-Wen; Chen, Ying-Hwei

In addition to the impact of a disease itself, public reaction could be considered another outbreak to be controlled during an epidemic. Taiwan's experience with SARS in 2003 highlighted the critical role played by the media during crisis communication. After the SARS outbreak, Taiwan's Centers for Disease Control (Taiwan CDC) followed the WHO outbreak communication guidelines on trust, early announcements, transparency, informing the public, and planning, in order to reform its risk communication systems. This article describes the risk communication framework in Taiwan, which has been used to respond to the 2009-2016 influenza epidemics, Ebola in West Africa (2014-16), and MERS-CoV in South Korea (2015) during the post-SARS era. Many communication strategies, ranging from traditional media to social and new media, have been implemented to improve transparency in public communication and promote civic engagement. Taiwan CDC will continue to maintain the strengths of its risk communication systems and resolve challenges as they emerge through active evaluation and monitoring of public opinion to advance Taiwan's capacity in outbreak communication and control. Moreover, Taiwan CDC will continue to implement the IHR (2005) and to promote a global community working together to fight shared risks and to reach the goal of "One World, One Health."

Life cycle of medical product rules issued by the US Food and Drug Administration.

PubMed

Hwang, Thomas J; Avorn, Jerry; Kesselheim, Aaron S

2014-08-01

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) uses rulemaking as one of its primary tools to protect the public health and implement laws enacted by Congress and the president. Because of the many effects that these rules have on social welfare and the economy, the FDA and other executive agencies receive input from the executive branch, the public, and in some cases, the courts, during the process of rulemaking. In this article, we examine the life cycle of FDA regulations concerning medical products and review notable features of the rulemaking process. The current system grants substantial opportunities for diverse stakeholders to participate in and influence how rules are written and implemented. However, the duration, complexity, and adversarial qualities of the rulemaking process can hinder the FDA's ability to achieve its policy and public health goals. There is considerable variation in the level of transparency at different stages in the process, ranging from freely accessible public comments to undisclosed internal agency deliberations. In addition, significant medical product rules are associated with lengthy times to finalization, in some cases for unclear reasons. We conclude by identifying potential areas for reform on the basis of transparency and efficiency. Copyright © 2014 by Duke University Press.

Risk and Outbreak Communication: Lessons from Taiwan's Experiences in the Post-SARS Era

PubMed Central

Chen, Yu-Ling; Wei, Han-Ning; Yang, Yu-Wen; Chen, Ying-Hwei

2017-01-01

In addition to the impact of a disease itself, public reaction could be considered another outbreak to be controlled during an epidemic. Taiwan's experience with SARS in 2003 highlighted the critical role played by the media during crisis communication. After the SARS outbreak, Taiwan's Centers for Disease Control (Taiwan CDC) followed the WHO outbreak communication guidelines on trust, early announcements, transparency, informing the public, and planning, in order to reform its risk communication systems. This article describes the risk communication framework in Taiwan, which has been used to respond to the 2009-2016 influenza epidemics, Ebola in West Africa (2014-16), and MERS-CoV in South Korea (2015) during the post-SARS era. Many communication strategies, ranging from traditional media to social and new media, have been implemented to improve transparency in public communication and promote civic engagement. Taiwan CDC will continue to maintain the strengths of its risk communication systems and resolve challenges as they emerge through active evaluation and monitoring of public opinion to advance Taiwan's capacity in outbreak communication and control. Moreover, Taiwan CDC will continue to implement the IHR (2005) and to promote a global community working together to fight shared risks and to reach the goal of “One World, One Health.” PMID:28418746

Conference: Statistical Physics and Biological Information

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

Gross, David J.; Hwa, Terence

OAK B188 In the spring of 2001, the Institute for Theoretical Physics ran a 6 month scientific program on Statistical Physics and Biological Information. This program was organized by Walter Fitch (UC Irvine), Terence Hwa (UC San Diego), Luca Peliti (University Federico II), Naples Gary Stormo (Washington University School of Medicine) and Chao Tang (NEC). Overall scientific supervision was provided by David Gross, Director, ITP. The ITP has an online conference/program proceeding which consists of audio and transparencies of almost all of the talks held during this program. Over 100 talks are available on the site at http://online.kitp.ucsb.edu/online/infobio01/.

The evolution to transparent optical networking

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wrage, Marc; Kirstaedter, Andreas; Rohde, Harald

2005-02-01

Optical data transmission has undergone a tremendous evolution. Starting with unrepeated point-to-point transmission in the 80s the inventions of wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) and erbium doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs) have let to an explosion of system capacity as well as of system reach. After the steep downturn of recent years network operators have now regained the strength to upgrade their networks and to implement new services. This paper will review current and upcoming technologies in the long haul (LH) and ultra long haul (ULH) data transmission. It will further discuss the future evolution of transparent optical networks towards dynamically routed meshed optical networks with respect to operator"s technical operational and economical requirements. Upgradeability turns out as a key issue as it on the one hand side facilitates low front investments for network providers and on the other hand side enables organic and flexible network growth.

Secure and Trustable Electronic Medical Records Sharing using Blockchain.

PubMed

Dubovitskaya, Alevtina; Xu, Zhigang; Ryu, Samuel; Schumacher, Michael; Wang, Fusheng

2017-01-01

Electronic medical records (EMRs) are critical, highly sensitive private information in healthcare, and need to be frequently shared among peers. Blockchain provides a shared, immutable and transparent history of all the transactions to build applications with trust, accountability and transparency. This provides a unique opportunity to develop a secure and trustable EMR data management and sharing system using blockchain. In this paper, we present our perspectives on blockchain based healthcare data management, in particular, for EMR data sharing between healthcare providers and for research studies. We propose a framework on managing and sharing EMR data for cancer patient care. In collaboration with Stony Brook University Hospital, we implemented our framework in a prototype that ensures privacy, security, availability, and fine-grained access control over EMR data. The proposed work can significantly reduce the turnaround time for EMR sharing, improve decision making for medical care, and reduce the overall cost.

Secure and Trustable Electronic Medical Records Sharing using Blockchain

PubMed Central

Dubovitskaya, Alevtina; Xu, Zhigang; Ryu, Samuel; Schumacher, Michael; Wang, Fusheng

2017-01-01

Electronic medical records (EMRs) are critical, highly sensitive private information in healthcare, and need to be frequently shared among peers. Blockchain provides a shared, immutable and transparent history of all the transactions to build applications with trust, accountability and transparency. This provides a unique opportunity to develop a secure and trustable EMR data management and sharing system using blockchain. In this paper, we present our perspectives on blockchain based healthcare data management, in particular, for EMR data sharing between healthcare providers and for research studies. We propose a framework on managing and sharing EMR data for cancer patient care. In collaboration with Stony Brook University Hospital, we implemented our framework in a prototype that ensures privacy, security, availability, and fine-grained access control over EMR data. The proposed work can significantly reduce the turnaround time for EMR sharing, improve decision making for medical care, and reduce the overall cost. PMID:29854130

Rationalisation and Validation of an Acrylamide-Free Procedure in Three-Dimensional Histological Imaging

PubMed Central

Lai, Hei Ming; Liu, Alan King Lun; Ng, Wai-Lung; DeFelice, John; Lee, Wing Sang; Li, Heng; Li, Wen; Ng, Ho Man; Chang, Raymond Chuen-Chung; Lin, Bin; Wu, Wutian; Gentleman, Steve M.

2016-01-01

Three-dimensional visualization of intact tissues is now being achieved by turning tissues transparent. CLARITY is a unique tissue clearing technique, which features the use of detergents to remove lipids from fixed tissues to achieve optical transparency. To preserve tissue integrity, an acrylamide-based hydrogel has been proposed to embed the tissue. In this study, we examined the rationale behind the use of acrylamide in CLARITY, and presented evidence to suggest that the omission of acrylamide-hydrogel embedding in CLARITY does not alter the preservation of tissue morphology and molecular information in fixed tissues. We therefore propose a novel and simplified workflow for formaldehyde-fixed tissue clearing, which will facilitate the laboratory implementation of this technique. Furthermore, we have investigated the basic tissue clearing process in detail and have highlighted some areas for targeted improvement of technologies essential for the emerging subject of three-dimensional histology. PMID:27359336

The effect of electromagnetically induced transparency in a potassium nanocell

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sargsyan, A.; Amiryan, A.; Leroy, C.; Vartanyan, T. A.; Sarkisyan, D.

2017-07-01

The effect of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) has been experimentally implemented for the first time for the (4 S 1/2-4 P 1/2-4 S 1/2) Λ-system of potassium atom levels in a nanocell with a 770-nm-thick column of atomic vapor. It is shown that, at such a small thickness of the vapor column, the EIT resonance can be observed only when the coupling-laser frequency is in exact resonance with the frequency of the corresponding atomic transition. The EIT resonance disappears even if the coupling-laser frequency differs slightly (by 50 MHz) from that of the corresponding atomic transition, which is due to the high thermal velocity of K atoms. The EIT resonance and related velocity selective optical pumping resonances caused by optical pumping (formed by the coupling) can be simultaneously recorded because of the small ( 462 MHz) hyperfine splitting of the lower 4 S 1/2 level.

Electromagnetically induced transparency control in terahertz metasurfaces based on bright-bright mode coupling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yahiaoui, R.; Burrow, J. A.; Mekonen, S. M.; Sarangan, A.; Mathews, J.; Agha, I.; Searles, T. A.

2018-04-01

We demonstrate a classical analog of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in a highly flexible planar terahertz metamaterial (MM) comprised of three-gap split-ring resonators. The keys to achieve EIT in this system are the frequency detuning and hybridization processes between two bright modes coexisting in the same unit cell as opposed to bright-dark modes. We present experimental verification of two bright modes coupling for a terahertz EIT-MM in the context of numerical results and theoretical analysis based on a coupled Lorentz oscillator model. In addition, a hybrid variation of the EIT-MM is proposed and implemented numerically to dynamically tune the EIT window by incorporating photosensitive silicon pads in the split gap region of the resonators. As a result, this hybrid MM enables the active optical control of a transition from the on state (EIT mode) to the off state (dipole mode).

Unique strategies for technical information management at Johnson Space Center

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Krishen, Vijay

1994-01-01

In addition to the current NASA manned programs, the maturation of Space Station and the introduction of the Space Exploration programs are anticipated to add substantially to the number and variety of data and documentation at NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC). This growth in the next decade has been estimated at five to ten fold compared to the current numbers. There will be an increased requirement for the tracking and currency of space program data and documents with National pressures to realize economic benefits from the research and technological developments of space programs. From a global perspective the demand for NASA's technical data and documentation is anticipated to increase at local, national, and international levels. The primary users will be government, industry, and academia. In our present national strategy, NASA's research and technology will assume a great role in the revitalization of the economy and gaining international competitiveness. Thus, greater demand will be placed on NASA's data and documentation resources. In this paper the strategies and procedures developed by DDMS, Inc., to accommodate the present and future information utilization needs are presented. The DDMS, Inc., strategies and procedures rely on understanding user requirements, library management issues, and technological applications for acquiring, searching, storing, and retrieving specific information accurately and quickly. The proposed approach responds to changing customer requirements and product deliveries. The unique features of the proposed strategy include: (1) To establish customer driven data and documentation management through an innovative and unique methods to identify needs and requirements. (2) To implement a structured process which responds to user needs, aimed at minimizing costs and maximizing services, resulting in increased productivity. (3) To provide a process of standardization of services and procedures. This standardization is the central theme of the strategic approach. It will allow Division level Data and Documentation Libraries (DDL's) to function independently and optimize efficiency at the Directorate level. This process also facilitates interconnectivity between Division level DDL's and makes them transparent to the users. (4) To implement the process of 'cost savings', and at the same time the objective is to gain substantial improvement in the organization, categorization, and preservation of JSC-generated data and documentation, and (5) To find, locate, retrace, restore, and preserve the Center-generated crucial scientific and technical information that has been and is being provided by the engineers and scientists of JSC. This is important to the preservation of 'lessons learned'. Preliminary estimates of the possible cost savings which will result from the implementation of this process will also be discussed in this paper.

Blockchain protocols in clinical trials: Transparency and traceability of consent.

PubMed

Benchoufi, Mehdi; Porcher, Raphael; Ravaud, Philippe

2017-01-01

Clinical trial consent for protocols and their revisions should be transparent for patients and traceable for stakeholders. Our goal is to implement a process allowing for collection of patients' informed consent, which is bound to protocol revisions, storing and tracking the consent in a secure, unfalsifiable and publicly verifiable way, and enabling the sharing of this information in real time. For that, we build a consent workflow using a trending technology called Blockchain. This is a distributed technology that brings a built-in layer of transparency and traceability. From a more general and prospective point of view, we believe Blockchain technology brings a paradigmatical shift to the entire clinical research field. We designed a Proof-of-Concept protocol consisting of time-stamping each step of the patient's consent collection using Blockchain, thus archiving and historicising the consent through cryptographic validation in a securely unfalsifiable and transparent way. For each protocol revision, consent was sought again.  We obtained a single document, in an open format, that accounted for the whole consent collection process: a time-stamped consent status regarding each version of the protocol. This document cannot be corrupted and can be checked on any dedicated public website. It should be considered a robust proof of data. However, in a live clinical trial, the authentication system should be strengthened to remove the need for third parties, here trial stakeholders, and give participative control to the peer users. In the future, the complex data flow of a clinical trial could be tracked by using Blockchain, which core functionality, named Smart Contract, could help prevent clinical trial events not occurring in the correct chronological order, for example including patients before they consented or analysing case report form data before freezing the database. Globally, Blockchain could help with reliability, security, transparency and could be a consistent step toward reproducibility.

Blockchain protocols in clinical trials: Transparency and traceability of consent

PubMed Central

Benchoufi, Mehdi; Porcher, Raphael; Ravaud, Philippe

2018-01-01

Clinical trial consent for protocols and their revisions should be transparent for patients and traceable for stakeholders. Our goal is to implement a process allowing for collection of patients’ informed consent, which is bound to protocol revisions, storing and tracking the consent in a secure, unfalsifiable and publicly verifiable way, and enabling the sharing of this information in real time. For that, we build a consent workflow using a trending technology called Blockchain. This is a distributed technology that brings a built-in layer of transparency and traceability. From a more general and prospective point of view, we believe Blockchain technology brings a paradigmatical shift to the entire clinical research field. We designed a Proof-of-Concept protocol consisting of time-stamping each step of the patient’s consent collection using Blockchain, thus archiving and historicising the consent through cryptographic validation in a securely unfalsifiable and transparent way. For each protocol revision, consent was sought again.  We obtained a single document, in an open format, that accounted for the whole consent collection process: a time-stamped consent status regarding each version of the protocol. This document cannot be corrupted and can be checked on any dedicated public website. It should be considered a robust proof of data. However, in a live clinical trial, the authentication system should be strengthened to remove the need for third parties, here trial stakeholders, and give participative control to the peer users. In the future, the complex data flow of a clinical trial could be tracked by using Blockchain, which core functionality, named Smart Contract, could help prevent clinical trial events not occurring in the correct chronological order, for example including patients before they consented or analysing case report form data before freezing the database. Globally, Blockchain could help with reliability, security, transparency and could be a consistent step toward reproducibility. PMID:29167732

Voluntary organ donation system adapted to Chinese cultural values and social reality.

PubMed

Huang, Jiefu; Millis, J Michael; Mao, Yilei; Millis, M Andrew; Sang, Xinting; Zhong, Shouxian

2015-04-01

Organ donation and transplant systems have unique characteristics based on the local culture and socioeconomic context. China's transplant and organ donation systems developed without regulatory oversight until 2006 when regulation and policy were developed and then implemented over the next several years. Most recently, the pilot project of establishing a voluntary citizen-based deceased donor program was established. The pilot program addressed the legal, financial, and cultural barriers to organ donation in China. The pilot program has evolved into a national program. Significantly, it established a uniquely Chinese donor classification system. The Chinese donor classification system recognizes donation after brain death (category I), donation after circulatory death (category II), and donation after brain death followed by circulatory death (category III). Through August 2014, the system has identified 2326 donors and provided 6416 organs that have been allocated though a transparent organ allocation system. The estimated number of donors in 2014 is 1147. As China's attitudes toward organ donation have matured and evolved and as China, as a nation, is taking its place on the world stage, it is recognizing that its past practice of using organs from executed prisoners is not sustainable. It is time to recognize that the efforts to regulate transplantation and provide voluntary citizen-based deceased organ donation have been successful and that China should use this system to provide organs for all transplants in every province and hospital in China. At the national organ transplant congress on October 30, 2014, the Chairman of the China's national organ donation and transplantation committee, Jeifu Huang required all hospitals to stop using organs from executed prisoners immediately and the civilian organ donation will be sole source for organ transplant in China starting January 2015. © 2015 American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases.