Seeing It Through: Advanced Strategies for Influencing Education Policy

Outlines recommendations from a May 2009 Education Grantmakers Institute about the opportunities and risks of public policy grantmaking, navigating policy from federal to individual levels, funding research, acting as policy entrepreneurs, and evaluation

Communication Bandwidth Considerations for Exploration Medical Care During Space Missions

Destinations beyond low Earth orbit, especially Mars, have several important constraints, including limited resupply, limited to no possibility of medical evacuation, and delayed communication with ground support teams. Therefore, medical care is driven towards greater autonomy and necessitates a medical system that supports this paradigm, including the potential for high medical data transfer rates in order to share medical information and coordinate care with the ground in an intermittent fashion as communication allows. The medical data transfer needs for a Martian exploration mission were estimated by defining two medical scenarios that would require high data rate communications between the spacecraft and Earth. One medical scenario involves a case of hydronephrosis (outflow obstruction of the kidney) that evolves into pyelonephritis (kidney infection), then urosepsis (systemic infection originating from the kidney), due to obstruction by a kidney stone. A second medical scenario involved the death of a crewmembers child back on Earth that requires behavioral health care. For each of these scenarios, a data communications timeline was created following the medical care described by the scenario. From these timelines, total medical data transfers and burst transmission rates were estimated. Total data transferred from the vehicle-to-ground were estimated to be 94 gigabytes (GB) and 835 GB for the hydronephrosis and behavioral health scenarios, respectively. Data burst rates were estimated to be 7.7 megabytes per second (MB/s) and 15 MB/s for the hydronephrosis and behavioral health scenarios, respectively. Even though any crewed Mars mission should be capable of functioning autonomously, as long as the possibility of communication between Earth and Mars exists, Earth-based subject matter experts will be relied upon to augment mission medical capability. Therefore, setting an upper boundary limit for medical communication rates can help factor medical system needs into total vehicle communication requirements

The Impact of Million Hearts Screening and Education in Ohio Adolescents

Many lifestyle behaviors that contribute to or reduce risk for chronic disease and disability in adulthood are developed in adolescence. The Ohio Adolescent Health Partnership, in collaboration with the Ohio Department of Health and Child Health Program, identified behavioral health, physical activity and nutrition as key areas for their 2013-2020 strategic plan to improve adolescent health. The Million Hearts initiative, a national, evidence-based intervention from the Department of Health and Human Services, promotes the ABCS(S), which are strategies to improve physical and mental health. Purpose: The Ohio State College of Nursing, in partnership with Ohio State health science colleges students and faculty, provided state of Ohio adolescent community residents with a Wellness on Wheels event, to screen and educate Ohio adolescents on the Million Hearts ABCS(S) intervention components and importance of self-care through healthy eating, physical activity and stress reduction. Methods: High school students from a suburban and rural high school were recruited to participate in a Wellness on Wheels event during the school day. Parent/guardian permission was required. Results: Aggregate generalize anxiety disorder scale (GAD-7) and personal health questionnaire scale (PHQ-9) will be shared with attendees; additional aspects of the intervention will also be shared. Discussion: The Wellness on Wheels event, focused on the ABCS(S) and the importance of self-care, is a useful strategy to provide valuable health information to not only the adolescents but their caretakers, in hopes of reducing the risk of chronic illness in adulthood. Intended audience: Health promotion and medical/clinical professionals and practitioners working to improve and care for Ohio adolescent health and well-being.AUTHOR AFFILIATION: Megan Amaya, Assistant Professor of Clinical Practice, College of Nursing, [email protected] (Corresponding Author); Kate Gawlik, Assistant Professor of Clinical Nursing, College of Nursing; Bernadette Melnyk, Dean, Chief Wellness Officer, College of Nursing.Many lifestyle behaviors that contribute to or reduce risk for chronic disease and disability in adulthood are developed in adolescence. The Ohio Adolescent Health Partnership, in collaboration with the Ohio Department of Health and Child Health Program, identified behavioral health, physical activity and nutrition as key areas for their 2013-2020 strategic plan to improve adolescent health. The Million Hearts initiative, a national, evidence-based intervention from the Department of Health and Human Services, promotes the ABCS(S), which are strategies to improve physical and mental health. The Ohio State College of Nursing, in partnership with Ohio State health sciences college students and faculty, provided state of Ohio adolescent community residents with a Wellness on Wheels event, to screen and educate Ohio adolescents on the Million Hearts ABCS(S) inter-vention components and importance of self-care through healthy eating, physical activity and stress reduction

School Finance Systems and Their Responsiveness to Performance Pressures: A Case Study of North Carolina

Details the mechanisms of and influences on the state's school finance system, changes caused by increased performance pressures, local officials' views on alternative allocation of resources, and obstacles to linking resources to student learning

The Brigade Combat Team (BCT): A Revolution in Organizational Structure

This paper explores the U.S. Army’s force reorganization around the Brigade Combat Team (BCT), which began in 2002. The BCT shifted how various army units interacted by changing the echelon at which different types of units report to a single commander, essentially creating self-sufficient units of about 2,500 soldiers instead of the previous self-sufficient units of about 15,000 soldiers. This paper utilizes existing organizational theories and research to better understand the implications for such a dramatic change in organizational structure. It contextualizes the army’s reorganization by applying the Rational Actor, Political, and Bureaucratic Models outlined in Essence of Decision by Graham Allison and Philip Zelikow. These models help explain why the army found the restructuring necessary. In changing the organizational structure of the U.S. Army, some processes that existed prior to the BCT became less effective and arguably outdated, such as the army’s decision-making process and personnel management system. At the same time, the army instituted a new communications system which was designed to better integrate disparate units, but was also stymied by the outdated decision-making processes. After understanding these factors, this paper asserts that various new technologies have failed to meet their full potential within the BCT due to ongoing implications related to not satisfactorily adjusting decision-making, communications systems, and personnel management based on the BCT reorganization. These technologies include unmanned aerial vehicles, integrated communications networks, and a particular armored vehicle (known as the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicle). This paper has implications for non-military organizations which have undergone or are examining the effects of structural reorganization