A Review of Air Medical Safety: 2005-2011

This study was designed to research current air medical risks and identify the extent of the risk from 2005 - 2011 by looking at NTSB data. Sixty-eight rotorcraft air medical incidents were discovered based on preset criteria, such as resulting injury or significant damage to aircraft, for severe air medical incidents. Six major concerns in air medical safety were researched in this study: day and nighttime incidents, takeoff/landing and in-flight incidents, Part 91 and Part 135 regulations, pilot hours, post-crash fire, and changing visual conditions. From information given in the NTSB reports based on incident investigation, this information was collected then analyzed for statistical significance

INITIAL MICROSEISMIC RECORDINGS AT THE ONSET OF UNCONVENTIONAL HYDROCARBON DEVELOPMENT IN THE ROME TROUGH, EASTERN KENTUCKY

The Cambrian Rogersville Shale is a part of a hydrocarbon system in the Rome Trough of eastern Kentucky and West Virginia that can only be produced unconventionally. In Kentucky, the Rogersville Shale ranges in depth from ~1,800 to ~3,700 m below the surface with the crystalline basement ~1,000 m lower than the formation’s base. Baseline Rome Trough microseismicity data were collected, focusing on wastewater injection wells and recently completed and planned unconventional hydrocarbon test wells in the Rogersville Shale, using thirteen broadband seismic stations installed between June, 2015 and June, 2016 and existing University of Kentucky and central and eastern United States network stations. In addition, the network’s minimum detection threshold, the magnitude at which the theoretical signal exceeds the noise by a factor of 3 between 1 and 20 Hz for at least 4 stations, was estimated for the project area. Thirty-eight local and regional events were located and magnitudes were calculated for each event. No events were proximal to operating disposal or hydrocarbon test wells, nor did any occur in the eastern Kentucky’s Rome Trough. The minimum detection threshold varies between 0.4 and 0.7 Mw from 0000-1100 UTC and 0.6 to 0.9 Mw from 1100-2300 UTC

Characterizing Domestic Fecal Transmission and Child Enteric Infections during an Urban Onsite Sanitation Intervention

Several recent water, sanitation, and hygiene (WaSH) intervention studies to improve child health have highlighted the need for better understanding the environmental transmission and exposure patterns that drive fecal-oral disease. Most evaluations of sanitation interventions have been conducted in rural settings, even as an increasing proportion of the global population lives in crowded, informal urban settlements that lack basic services. We characterized fecal contamination in Mozambican households participating in the first rigorous evaluation of urban onsite sanitation (MapSan: the Maputo Sanitation Study), immediately before and one year after half the compounds replaced pit latrines in poor condition with pour-flush to septic systems. We measured general and host-associated fecal microbes at potential domestic exposure points, including household stored water, entrance soil, and food preparation surfaces, and compound source water and latrine entrance soil. Samples were analyzed using five locally validated microbial targets: culturable general fecal indicator E. coli (cEC), molecular E. coli marker EC23S, human-associated molecular markers HF183 and Mnif, and avian-associated molecular marker GFD. For each microbial target and sample type, we assessed pre-intervention associations with sociodemographic, meteorological, and physical sample characteristics, and employed a difference-in-differences (DID) approach to isolate intervention effects. We also investigated associations between source-specific measures of domestic fecal contamination and objectively measured enteric infection in children. The domestic environment was heavily impacted by both general and human-source fecal contamination, and the majority of children were infected with multiple enteric pathogens. Associations with fecal contamination for both pre-intervention risk factors and child enteric infections were generally small and inconsistent in direction for different targets and sample types. The intervention also was not consistently associated with a change in E. coli concentrations or the odds of human target detection. Our results describe a setting impacted by pervasive domestic fecal contamination, including from human sources, that is largely disconnected from local variation in socioeconomic and sanitary conditions. This pattern suggests that in such heavily burdened settings, transformational changes to the community environment may be required before meaningful impacts on fecal contamination can be realized.Doctor of Philosoph

Space Launch System Spacecraft and Payload Elements: Progress Toward Crewed Launch and Beyond

While significant and substantial progress continues to be accomplished toward readying the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket for its first test flight, work is already underway on preparations for the second flight - using an upgraded version of the vehicle - and beyond. Designed to support human missions into deep space, SLS is the most powerful human-rated launch vehicle the United States has ever undertaken, and is one of three programs being managed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA's) Exploration Systems Development division. The Orion spacecraft program is developing a new crew vehicle that will support human missions beyond low Earth orbit (LEO), and the Ground Systems Development and Operations (GSDO) program is transforming Kennedy Space Center (KSC) into a next-generation spaceport capable of supporting not only SLS but also multiple commercial users. Together, these systems will support human exploration missions into the proving ground of cislunar space and ultimately to Mars. For its first flight, SLS will deliver a near-term heavy-lift capability for the nation with its 70-metric-ton (t) Block 1 configuration. Each element of the vehicle now has flight hardware in production in support of the initial flight of the SLS, which will propel Orion around the moon and back. Encompassing hardware qualification, structural testing to validate hardware compliance and analytical modeling, progress is on track to meet the initial targeted launch date. In Utah and Mississippi, booster and engine testing are verifying upgrades made to proven shuttle hardware. At Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) in Louisiana, the world's largest spacecraft welding tool is producing tanks for the SLS core stage. Providing the Orion crew capsule/launch vehicle interface and in-space propulsion via a cryogenic upper stage, the Spacecraft/Payload Integration and Evolution (SPIE) element serves a key role in achieving SLS goals and objectives. The SPIE element marked a major milestone in 2014 with the first flight of original SLS hardware, the Orion Stage Adapter (OSA) which was used on Exploration Flight Test-1 with a design that will be used again on the first flight of SLS. The element has overseen production of the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS), an in-space stage derived from the Delta Cryogenic Second Stage, which was manufactured at United Launch Alliance (ULA) in Decatur, Alabama, prior to being shipped to Florida for flight preparations. Manufacture of the OSA and the Launch Vehicle Stage Adapter (LVSA) took place at the Friction Stir Facility located at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Alabama. Marshall is also home to the Integrated Structural Test of the ICPS, LVSA, and OSA, subjecting the stacked components to simulated stresses of launch. The SPIE Element is also overseeing integration of 13 "CubeSat" secondary payloads that will fly on the first flight of SLS, providing access to deep space regions in a way currently not available to the science community. At the same time as this preparation work is taking place toward the first launch of SLS, however, the Space Launch System Program is actively working toward its second launch. For its second flight, SLS will be upgraded to the more-capable Block 1B configuration. While the Block 1 configuration is capable of delivering more than 70 t to LEO, the Block 1B vehicle will increase that capability to 105 t. For that flight, the new configuration introduces two major new elements to the vehicle - an Exploration Upper Stage (EUS) that will be used for both ascent and in-space propulsion, and a Universal Stage Adapter (USA) that serves as a "payload bay" for the rocket, allowing the launch of large exploration systems along with the Orion spacecraft. Already, flight hardware is being prepared for the Block 1B vehicle. Welding is taking place on the second rocket's core stage. Flight hardware production has begun on booster components. An RS-25 engine slated for that flight has been tested. Development work is taking place on the EUS, with contracts in place for both the stage and the RL10 engines which will power it. (The EUS will use four RL10 engines, an increase from one on the ICPS.) For the crew configuration of the Block 1B vehicle, the SLS SPIE element is managing the USA and accompanying Payload Adapter, which will accommodate both large payloads co-manifested with Orion and small-satellite secondary payloads. This co-manifested payload capacity will be instrumental for missions into the proving ground around the moon, where NASA will test new systems and demonstrate new capabilities needed for human exploration farther into deep space

Ground Motions Induced by the March 11, 2018, Implosion of the Capital Plaza Tower, Frankfort, Kentucky

The demolition by implosion of the Capital Plaza Tower in downtown Frankfort provided an opportunity to record seismic waves from a known source of seismic energy in order to observe local ground-motion amplification and resonance within the underlying unconsolidated sediment. The Kentucky Geological Survey deployed three strong-motion accelerographs at approximately equal distances around the tower to record ground motions induced by its collapse. The KGS instruments were installed at sites with different underlying geology: one on bedrock and two on Kentucky River Valley unconsolidated sediments. Using images captured by a high-speed video camera, with timing synchronized with the clock of one of the strong-motion accelerographs, the sequence of ground-motion-inducing events from the tower demolition (blast explosions and the collapsing tower’s impact with the ground) was identified in the ground-motion time histories recorded at the rock site. This allowed the ground motions from the tower collapse recorded at all stations deployed for the event to be isolated and analyzed. The ground motions from the tower collapse recorded at the observation sites were weak and were likely imperceptible to humans. The detected motions, which had modified Mercalli intensities of only I to II at the rock and soil sites, respectively, were unlikely to have caused any damage there. Seismic-wave resonance within the Kentucky River Valley sediment was identified from the analysis of these recordings. The resonance frequencies were similar at all KGS soil sites, and also were similar to those observed on seismographs deployed by the Energy and Environment Cabinet’s Explosives and Blasting Branch. These observations indicate that in the unlikely event of a nearby strong earthquake, shaking is expected to be amplified within the unconsolidated Kentucky River Valley sediments underlying downtown Frankfort

Seismic Monitoring and Baseline Microseismicity in the Rome Trough, Eastern Kentucky

In the central and eastern United States, felt earthquakes likely triggered by fluid injection from oil and gas production or wastewater disposal have dramatically increased in frequency since the onset of the unconventional shale gas and oil boom. In the Rome Trough of eastern Kentucky, fracture stimulations and wastewater injection are ongoing and occur near areas of historical seismic activity. Unlike in surrounding and nearby states (Ohio, West Virginia, and Arkansas), in Kentucky, no seismic events related to subsurface fluid injections have been reported as felt or detected by regional seismic networks, including the Kentucky Seismic and Strong-Motion Network. Oil and gas development of the deep Cambrian Rogersville Shale in the Rome Trough is in a very early stage, and will require horizontal drilling and high-volume hydraulic fracturing. To characterize natural seismicity rates and the conditions that might lead to induced or triggered events, the Kentucky Geological Survey is conducting a collaborative study, the Eastern Kentucky Microseismic Monitoring Project, prior to large-scale oil and gas production and wastewater injection. A temporary network of broadband seismographs was deployed near dense clusters of Class II wastewater-injection wells and near the locations of new, deep oil and gas test wells in eastern Kentucky. Network installation began in mid-2015 and by November 2015, 12 stations were operating, with data acquired in real time and jointly with regional network data. Additional stations were installed between June 2016 and October 2017 in targeted locations. The network improved the monitoring sensitivity near wastewater-injection wells and deep oil and gas test wells by approximately an entire unit of magnitude: With the temporary network, the detectable magnitudes range from 0.7 to 1.0, and without it, the detectable magnitudes range from 1.5 to 1.9. Using the real-time recordings of this network in tandem with the recordings of other temporary and permanent regional seismic stations, we generated a catalog of local seismicity and developed a calibrated magnitude scale. At the time this report was prepared, 151 earthquakes had been detected and located, 38 of which were in the project area, defined as the region bounded by 37.1°N to 38.7°N latitude and 84.5°W to 82.0°W longitude. Only six earthquakes occurred in the Rome Trough of eastern Kentucky, none of which were reported in regional monitoring agency catalogs, and none of which appear to be associated with the deep Rogersville Shale test wells that were completed during the time the network was in operation or with wastewater-injection wells

Growing North American indigenous corn

The Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service periodically issues revisions to its publications. The most current edition is made available. For access to an earlier edition, if available for this title, please contact the Oklahoma State University Library Archives by email at [email protected] or by phone at 405-744-6311

Linked Lives: Does Disability and Marital Quality Influence Risk of Marital Dissolution among Older Couples?

Using fourteen waves of data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), a longitudinal panel survey with respondents in the United States, this research explores whether marital quality—as measured by reports of enjoyment of time together—influences risk of divorce or separation when either spouse acquires basic care disability. Discrete-time event history models with multiple competing events were estimated using multinomial logistic regression. Respondents were followed until they experienced the focal event (i.e., divorce or separation) or right-hand censoring (i.e., a competing event or were still married at the end of observation). Disability among wives was predictive of divorce/separation in the main effects model. Low levels of marital quality (i.e., enjoy time together) were associated with marital dissolution. An interaction between marital quality and disability yielded a significant association among couples where at least one spouse acquired basic care disability. For couples who acquired disability, those who reported low enjoyment were more likely to divorce/separate than those with high enjoyment; however, the group with the highest predicted probability were couples with low enjoyment, but no acquired disability

Cognitive status impacts age-related changes in attention to novel and target events in normal adults.

In this study, the authors investigated the relationship between the cognitive status of normal adults and age-related changes in attention to novel and target events. Old, middle-age, and young subjects, divided into cognitively high and cognitively average performing groups, viewed repetitive standard stimuli, infrequent target stimuli, and unique novel visual stimuli. Subjects controlled viewing duration by a button press that led to the onset of the next stimulus. They also responded to targets by pressing a foot pedal. The amount of time spent looking at different kinds of stimuli served as a measure of visual attention and exploratory activity. Cognitively high performers spent more time viewing novel stimuli than cognitively average performers. The magnitude of the difference between cognitively high and cognitively average performing groups was largest among old subjects. Cognitively average performers had slower and less accurate responses to targets than cognitively high performers. The results provide strong evidence that the link between engagement by novelty and higher cognitive performance increases with age. Moreover, the results support the notion of there being different patterns of normal cognitive aging and the need to identify the factors that influence them