Feasibility of a New Indiana Coordinate Reference System (INCRS)

Engineers, Surveyors, and GIS Professionals spend an enormous amount of time correcting field surveys to the classical State Plane Coordinate System (SPCS). The current mapping corrections are in the order of 1:33,000, or 30 parts per million (ppm). Modern surveys (e.g., GPS/InCORS) have an accuracy of a few parts per million. Whenever original surveys made on the surface of the Earth need to be reduced to a mapping reference surface, surveyed distances and angles (azimuths) need to be corrected. Measured distances need to be corrected for two scale factors: 1) due to the mapping scale inherent in conformal mappings, and 2) due to terrain heights. Measured angles (azimuths) need to be corrected for so-called convergence angles. The application of these necessary corrections is time consuming and may add an estimated 15 to 20% to the cost of a survey. The omission of these corrections corrupts the reliability of survey results. A new Indiana Coordinate Reference System (INCRS) allows for so much smaller corrections that when omitted the errors committed are small, and may be even neglected for surveys less accurate than a few ppm. In a few areas of Indiana (e.g. Clark County), terrain heights corrections are still needed because these corrections due to the terrain roughness are at the 14 ppm level. Not only reduces the proposed INCRS reduces the scale factor from 30 ppm to a few ppm, but also the convergence angles are reduced by a factor of four (from about 0.5 degree to about 7-8 arcminutes)

Meaning and Practice of Palliative Care for Hospitalized Older Adults with Life Limiting Illnesses

Objective. To illustrate distinctions and intersections of palliative care (PC) and end-of-life (EOL) services through examples from case-centered data of older adults cared for during a four-year ethnographic study of an acute care hospital palliative care consultation service. Methods. Qualitative narrative and thematic analysis. Results. Description of four practice paradigms (EOL transitions, prognostic uncertainty, discharge planning, and patient/family values and preferences) and identification of the underlying structure and communication patterns of PC consultation services common to them. Conclusions. Consistent with reports by other researchers, study data support the need to move beyond equating PC with hospice or EOL care and the notion that EOL is a well-demarcated period of time before death. If professional health care providers assume that PC services are limited to assisting with and helping patients and families prepare for dying, they miss opportunities to provide care considered important to older individuals confronting life-limiting illnesses

Observable Unruh Effect and Unmasked Unruh Radiation

The Unruh effect, thereby an ideally accelerated quantum detector is predicted to absorb thermalized virtual photons and re-emit real photons, is significantly extended for laboratory accessible configurations. Using modern influence functional techniques, we obtain explicit expressions describing the excitation and relaxation of the quantum levels of an Unruh detector as a general noninertial open quantum system. Remarkably, for controllable periodical motions, an exact master equation is found for the Unruh detector within the prevailing framework of quantum optics with a well-defined Unruh temperature for given acceleration ($\alpha$), acceleration frequency ($\omega_\alpha$), and transition frequency ($\omega_0$) of the detector. We further show that the measurable Unruh temperatures and corresponding transition rates are comparable or higher than their values for the ideally accelerated cases if $c\omega_0$ and $c\omega_\alpha$ have similar orders of magnitude as $\alpha$. This allows us to select the transition rates of the detector to unmask Unruh radiation against Larmor radiation which has been a major competing noise. Our work suggests experiments with such settings may directly confirm the Unruh effect within the current technology, based on which a laboratory test of black hole thermodynamics will become possible.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure

Observable Unruh Effect and Unmasked Unruh Radiation

6 pages, 3 figure

Stress, Depression and Coping among Latino Migrant and Seasonal Farmworkers

Research shows that one in four migrant farmworkers experienced an episode of one or more mental health disorders such as stress, depression, or anxiety in their lifetime. The purpose of this mixed methods study was to explore experiences and perceptions related to stress and depression among Latino migrant and seasonal farmworkers (MSFWs), and to identify their coping behaviors for dealing with these mental health conditions. Using a mixed methods research approach, three focus group interviews of a sample of Latino MSFWs (N = 29) were conducted and a quantitative survey was implemented (N = 57) at community sites in eastern North Carolina. Four major themes emerged from the focus group data: (1) physical stress related to working conditions; (2) mental stress related to family situations, work environment, documentation status, and lack of resources; (3) depression related to separation from family and the lack of resources; and (4) use of positive and negative mechanisms for coping with stress and depression. A discussion of these themes, results from the survey findings, implications for intervention and outreach programs, along with recommendations for further research, are provided.Keywords: Migrant and seasonal farmworkers, Depression, Stress, Coping, Latin

Thrombopoietin: A Novel Bone Healing Agent

poster abstractCritical-size defects in bones do not heal spontaneously and usually require the use of grafts. Unfortunately, grafts have several limitations. To improve bone formation, many clinicians now use bone morphogenetic proteins (BMP), particularly in spinal fusion, fracture healing, and in critical-size defect regeneration. However, multiple side effects of BMP treatment have been uncovered including increased incidence of cancer. Thus, there is great interest in alternatives that allow for safe and effective bone regeneration. Here we show the ability of thrombopoietin (TPO), the main megakaryocyte growth factor, to heal critical-size femoral defects rodents. 5mm or 4mm segmental defects were created in the femur of Long Evans rats or C57BL/6 mice, respectively. The defects were filled with a novel bioabsorbable scaffold which was loaded with recombinant human TPO, BMP-2, or saline, and held stable by a retrograde 1.6 mm intramedullary Kirschner wire (rats) or 23G needle (mice). Xrays were taken every 3 weeks in rats and weekly in mice. Animal were sacrificed at 15 weeks, at which time micro-computed tomography (μCT) and histological analyses were performed. The results observed in mice and rats were similar. The saline control group did not show bridging callus at any time. Both the BMP-2 and TPO groups healed the defect, although bridging callus was evident at earlier times in the BMP-2 groups. However, the TPO groups showed a much more remodeled and physiologic contour on both Xray and μCT. μCT and histological analysis confirms that compared to BMP-2, TPO-treated specimens have a thicker cortex but smaller diameter and smoother contour. TPO appears to restore the original bone contour by stimulating osteoblastogenesis, allowing for periosteal bridging and stabilization to occur, while simultaneously stimulating osteoclast formation. Thus, TPO may serve as a novel bone healing agent

Multiple-University Extension Program Addresses Postdisaster Oil Spill Needs Through Private Funding Partnership

In response to the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) was formed to answer oil spill–related scientific questions. However, peer-reviewed scientific discoveries were not reaching people whose livelihoods depended on a healthy Gulf of Mexico. GoMRI and the four Gulf of Mexico Sea Grant programs partnered to develop a regional Extension program with a team of multidisciplinary specialists and a regional manager embedded within the Sea Grant programs. The team answered oil spill science questions from target audiences. The program leaders also identified the value of adding a regional Extension communicator to enhance their Extension products

Visualization and Analysis of 3D Gene Expression Data

Recent methods for extracting precise measurements ofspatial gene expression patterns from three-dimensional (3D) image dataopens the way for new analysis of the complex gene regulatory networkscontrolling animal development. To support analysis of this novel andhighly complex data we developed PointCloudXplore (PCX), an integratedvisualization framework that supports dedicated multi-modal, physical andinformation visualization views along with algorithms to aid in analyzingthe relationships between gene expression levels. Using PCX, we helpedour science stakeholders to address many questions in 3D gene expressionresearch, e.g., to objectively define spatial pattern boundaries andtemporal profiles of genes and to analyze how mRNA patterns arecontrolled by their regulatory transcription factors