EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS AND COMPUTER SIMULATION OF A LABORATORY-SCALE INTERMITTENT WATER SUPPLY SYSTEM

Intermittent water systems (IWS) are prevalent throughout developing regions of the world. However, few tools exist to predict IWS performance because modeling transient flow is difficult: IWS networks can experience widely fluctuating conditions, ranging from completely empty to completely full (pressurized flow). An experimental IWS, consisting of a 50.75-gallon reservoir, an elevated distribution network, and four outlets was constructed to study the hydraulics of IWS. Three experiments were run on the system that represented two falling-head scenarios and a constant-head scenario. Computer simulation models of the experimental IWS were developed in EPANET 2.2.0 and EPA-SWMM 5.1, which are open-source modeling software for pressured water distribution networks and stormwater conveyance systems, respectively. EPANET 2.2.0 was incapable of representing flows observed in the experiments, likely due to the steady-state assumptions inherent to its global gradient algorithm. However, EPA-SWMM 5.1, which models the propagation of network flows with dynamic wave routing, was able to generate outflow hydrographs that emulated experimental discharge flows. Therefore, it is recommended that further verification be undertaken to validate SWMM’s capacity to model IWS systems under a range of hydraulic scenarios. If SWMM can withstand rigorous experimentation, potential may exist for this software to be retooled for the design of IWS

Mild acute stress improves response speed without impairing accuracy or interference control in two selective attention tasks: Implications for theories of stress and cognition.

Acute stress is generally thought to impair performance on tasks thought to rely on selective attention. This effect has been well established for moderate to severe stressors, but no study has examined how a mild stressor-the most common type of stressor-influences selective attention. In addition, no study to date has examined how stress influences the component processes involved in overall selective attention task performance, such as controlled attention, automatic attentional activation, decision-making, and motor abilities. To address these issues, we randomly assigned 107 participants to a mild acute stress or control condition. As expected, the mild acute stress condition showed a small but significant increase in cortisol relative to the control condition. Following the stressor, we assessed attention with two separate flanker tasks. One of these tasks was optimized to investigate component attentional processes using computational cognitive modeling, whereas the other task employed mouse-tracking to illustrate how response conflict unfolded over time. The results for both tasks showed that mild acute stress decreased response time (i.e., increased response speed) without influencing accuracy or interference control. Further, computational modeling and mouse-tracking analyses indicated that these effects were due to faster motor action execution time for chosen actions. Intriguingly, however, cortisol responses were unrelated to any of the observed effects of mild stress. These results have implications for theories of stress and cognition, and highlight the importance of considering motor processes in understanding the effects of stress on cognitive task performance

Prospectus, May 2, 2001

https://spark.parkland.edu/prospectus_2001/1015/thumbnail.jp

Tackling Bullying in Scotland's Schools : a View from the Sidelines

This policy brief considers the proposals to reduce bullying in Scotland's schools. A number of interventions have been introduced in Scotland’s schools that that place an emphasis on peer-initiated interventions. However these interventions often fail to consider the mental health and wellbeing of the pupils involved. The role of the so-called pupil 'bystander' is fundamentally misunderstood as these pupils often have multiple roles within ‘school yard’ culture. The lack of independently evaluated evidence on the success of direct pupil-initiated interventions to reduce the level of bullying in schools should be of concern to policymakers. A key recommendation is that schools, education authorities and policymakers pause, review the evidence and have an informed discussion about the most effective interventions to deliver safer schools in Scotland

Barbers Against Prostate Cancer: A Feasibility Study for Prostate Cancer Education in an Urban African American Community

The goal of this pilot study was to assess the feasibility of training barbers to deliver a brief culturally and literacy appropriate prostate cancer educational intervention to urban African American men. Eight barbers received training to deliver a 2-month educational intervention in the barbershop and completed pre- and posttest training assessments. The training workshops led to a significant increase in mean prostate cancer knowledge scores among the barbers (60% before vs. 79% after; P \u3c 0.05). The barbers also reported positively on the intervention in terms of satisfaction and relative ease of engaging clients. Training barbers to deliver a prostate cancer educational intervention is a feasible strategy for raising prostate cancer awareness of the disease among a priority population

Cardiac Complications in Acute Ischemic Stroke

<p>Introduction: To characterize cardiac complications in acute ischemic stroke (AIS) patients admitted from an urban emergency department (ED).</p> <p>Methods: Retrospective cross-sectional study evaluating AIS patients admitted from the ED within 24 hours of symptom onset who also had an echocardiogram performed within 72 hours of admission.</p> <p>Results: Two hundred AIS patients were identified with an overall in-hospital mortality rate of 8% (n¼ 16). In our cohort, 57 (28.5%) of 200 had an ejection fraction less than 50%, 35 (20.4%) of 171 had ischemic changes on electrocardiogram (ECG), 18 (10.5%) of 171 presented in active atrial fibrillation, 21 (13.0%) of 161 had serum troponin elevation, and 2 (1.1%) of 184 survivors had potentially lethal</p> <p>arrhythmias on telemetry monitoring. Subgroup analysis revealed higher in-hospital mortality rates among those with systolic dysfunction (15.8% versus 4.9%; P ¼ 0.0180), troponin elevation (38.1% versus 3.4%; P , 0.0001), atrial fibrillation on ECG (33.3% versus 3.8%; P ¼ 0.0003), and ischemic changes on ECG (17.1% versus 6.1%; P ¼ 0.0398) compared with those without.</p> <p>Conclusion: A proportion of AIS patients may have cardiac complications. Systolic dysfunction, troponin elevation, atrial fibrillation, or ischemic changes on ECG may be associated with higher inhospital mortality rates. These findings support the adjunctive role of cardiac-monitoring strategies in the acute presentation of AIS. [West J Emerg Med. 2011;12(4):414–420.]</p

Lessons Learned in the Early Stages of a Community-Academic Partnership to Address Health Disparities in a Rural Community

In rural Georgia, African American men are burdened by chronic health diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Community-academic partnerships that leverage community-based participatory research (CBPR) principles can facilitate the adaptation and translation of multilevel programs to address chronic disease prevention and management in rural areas. The objective of this study was to explore key components of the CBPR process that bolstered the early stages of a partnership established between rural-residing community leaders and academic partners in Georgia. Qualitative methodology was used to collect and assess data regarding the initial engagement between the community and academic partners. Findings indicate that five components supported initial engagement: utilizing the public service and outreach arm of the university to connect with rural communities; creating synergy around identified community health needs; encouraging community members to provide input into the research design to ensure the research goals reflect community values; enhancing the capacity of community partners; and following the lead of the community. Findings provide insights into how to begin engaging rural communities in the southeast in order to strengthen the adaptation and translation of initiatives to improve cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular disease outcomes

Connection between the Accretion Disk and Jet in the Radio Galaxy 3C 111

We present the results of extensive multi-frequency monitoring of the radio galaxy 3C 111 between 2004 and 2010 at X-ray (2.4--10 keV), optical (R band), and radio (14.5, 37, and 230 GHz) wave bands, as well as multi-epoch imaging with the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) at 43 GHz. Over the six years of observation, significant dips in the X-ray light curve are followed by ejections of bright superluminal knots in the VLBA images. This shows a clear connection between the radiative state near the black hole, where the X-rays are produced, and events in the jet. The X-ray continuum flux and Fe line intensity are strongly correlated, with a time lag shorter than 90 days and consistent with zero. This implies that the Fe line is generated within 90 light-days of the source of the X-ray continuum. The power spectral density function of X-ray variations contains a break, with steeper slope at shorter timescales. The break timescale of 13 (+12,-6) days is commensurate with scaling according to the mass of the central black hole based on observations of Seyfert galaxies and black hole X-ray binaries (BHXRBs). The data are consistent with the standard paradigm, in which the X-rays are predominantly produced by inverse Compton scattering of thermal optical/UV seed photons from the accretion disk by a distribution of hot electrons --- the corona --- situated near the disk. Most of the optical emission is generated in the accretion disk due to reprocessing of the X-ray emission. The relationships that we have uncovered between the accretion disk and the jet in 3C 111, as well as in the FR I radio galaxy 3C 120 in a previous paper, support the paradigm that active galactic nuclei and Galactic BHXRBs are fundamentally similar, with characteristic time and size scales proportional to the mass of the central black holeComment: Accepted for publication in ApJ. 18 pages, 17 figures, 11 tables (full machine readable data-tables online in ApJ website

Peer Evaluation in Group Projects: Insight into Effective Student Critique and Feedback

Collaborative projects are common in higher education. They yield authentic learning which nurtures employability. However, they can be difficult to assess. A concern is how educators measure collaboration fairly and equally. This research explores peer evaluation as a mechanism to critically examine such collaboration and form constructive feedback. Thematic analysis of comments made by fifty student teams using Feedback Fruits during retrospectives provides insight into what students believe noteworthy and how they formulate feedback. Correlating these with outcomes then illustrates the trends which lead to success, forming heuristics on good practice: key facets to consider and means to convey them. The session presents the question: “To what extent can university students offer insightful commentary on how they collaborate with peers?” An outline of the literature on peer feedback (Nicol et al, 2014) is situated in models of effective teamwork (Salas, Sims & Burke, 2005). This leads to hypotheses related to those facets of teamwork students focus on during their critique and their ability to formulate effective feedback (informed by Aivaloglou and Meulen, 2021). Next, the research methodology and context are described: a pair of large-scale modules implementing a group working strategy involving more than 50 teams of 6-12 game developers drawn from multiple disciplines who undertake a 30-week digital project. Notions of sprint retrospective sessions and the staff supervisor as a facilitator are provided alongside a light demonstration of the Feedback Fruits tool. Results from a thematic analysis highlight characteristics and trends typical of peer evaluation. Excerpts inform discussion on equality, diversity, and inclusion. Then, correlations with game ratings by assessors reveal those facets of peer evaluation that seem to support effective teamwork. Nokes-Malach, Richey, and Gadgils' (2015) insights on collaborative learning help distil these into heuristics that educators could use to nurture good practice in student critique and feedback