Investigation of the visual reference requirements for pilot control of gliding parachutes for land landing of spacecraft

Test program for determining visual reference requirements for pilot control of gliding parachutes used in landing spacecraft on lan

An Evaluation of Virginia Gold: A Medicaid Program to Improve Nursing Facility Quality of Care

A qualitative case study design employing focus groups was used to evaluate certified nursing assistant (CNA) (n = 26) and resident (n = 30) perceptions of the Virginia Gold Quality Improvement Program, a Medicaid funded 2-year quality improvement intervention piloted in five nursing facilities. As part of the program, the nursing facilities implemented quality improvement projects to develop supportive work environments in an effort to reduce CNA turnover and improve quality of care. Overall, the focus group participants viewed Virginia Gold positively and reported that CNA turnover decreased, while care quality improved during the program. These findings are supported by a previous Virginia Gold evaluation as well as by the results from a quantitative analysis of nursing facility CNA turnover and quality of care data and interviews with selected nursing facility management staff (n = 7) 1-year following the program’s culmination. A key finding from the management interviews is that the quality improvement projects became self-sustaining over time allowing all five nursing facilities to continue the projects without state funding

Brain Trust: Students for Students: VCU to RPS Mentorship Program

As a public, urban research institution, Virginia Commonwealth University embraces the importance of developing university-community partnerships that generate innovative solutions to societal challenges and prepare engaged citizens of tomorrow. The Students for Students: VCU to RPS Mentorship Program provides a model that will connect current VCU students to current Richmond Public Schools (RPS) students through a formal, multi-year mentorship. The ultimate goal of this program is to support and positively influence RPS students, while providing current VCU students with an opportunity to give back to the community while developing their mentorship skills. The mentoring relationship will seek to motivate RPS sophomores, juniors and seniors to improve school performance, graduate on time, and craft a post-high school path

SARS-CoV replication and pathogenesis in an in vitro model of the human conducting airway epithelium

SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV) emerged in 2002 as an important cause of severe lower respiratory tract infection in humans and in vitro models of the lung are needed to elucidate cellular targets and the consequences of viral infection. The severe and sudden onset of symptoms, resulting in an atypical pneumonia with dry cough and persistent high fever in cases of severe acute respiratory virus brought to light the importance of coronaviruses as potentially lethal human pathogens and the identification of several zoonotic reservoirs has made the reemergence of new strains and future epidemics all the more possible. In this chapter, we describe the pathology of SARS-CoV infection in humans and explore the use of two models of the human conducting airway to develop a better understanding of the replication and pathogenesis of SARS-CoV in relevant in vitro systems. The first culture model is a human bronchial epithelial cell line Calu3 that can be inoculated by viruses either as a non-polarized monolayer of cells or polarized cells with tight junctions and microvilli. The second model system, derived from primary cells isolated from human airway epithelium and grown on Transwells, form a pseudostratified mucociliary epithelium that recapitulates the morphological and physiological features of the human conducting airway in vivo. Experimental results using these lung epithelial cell models demonstrate that in contrast to the pathology reported in late stage cases SARS-CoV replicates to high titers in epithelial cells of the conducting airway. The SARS-CoV receptor, human angiotensin 1 converting enzyme 2 (hACE2), was detected exclusively on the apical surface of cells in polarized Calu3 cells and human airway epithelial cultures (HAE), indicating that hACE2 was accessible by SARS-CoV after airway lumenal delivery. Furthermore, in HAE, hACE2 was exclusively localized to ciliated airway epithelial cells. In support of the hACE2 localization data, the most productive route of inoculation and progeny virion egress in both polarized Calu3 and ciliated cells of HAE was the apical surface suggesting mechanisms to release large quantities of virus into the lumen of the human lung. Preincubation of the apical surface of cultures with antisera directed against hACE2 reduced viral titers by 2 logs while antisera against DC-SIGN/DC-SIGNR did not reduce viral replication levels suggesting that hACE2 is the primary receptor for entry of SARS-CoV into the ciliated cells of HAE cultures. To assess infectivity in ciliated airway cultures derived from susceptible animal species we generated a recombinant SARS-CoV by deletion of open reading frame 7a/7b (ORF 7a/b) and insertion of the green fluorescent protein (GFP) resulting in SARS-CoV GFP. SARS-CoV GFP replicated to similar titers as wild type viruses in Vero E6, MA104, and CaCo2 cells. In addition, SARS-CoV replication in airway epithelial cultures generated from Golden Syrian hamster tracheas reached similar titers to the human cultures by 72 hours post infection. Efficient SARS-CoV infection of ciliated cell-types in HAE provides a useful in vitro model of human lung origin to study characteristics of SARS-CoV replication and pathogenesis

On the origin of enstatite chondrite chondrules based on their petrography and comparison with experimentally produced chondrules

The recent discovery of several types 3 and 4 enstatite chondrites (EC) in the Antarctic collection increases greatly the ability to compare unaltered, naturally-formed EC chondrules with chondrules produced experimentally from melts of enstatitic chondrule composition. Because these discoveries are so recent we have undertaken the task of characterizing these chondrules for purposes of comparison. We have looked at several new Antarctic E3 chondrites and Qingzhen. They all have numerous chondrules with well defined outlines and readily identifiable textures. All have mostly porphyritic chondrules, but there are differences in the size and kinds of textures. Radial pyroxene, barred/dendritic px, and cryptocrystalline chondrules are present in differing amounts with one exception

Effects of Computer-Assisted Telecommunications on School Attendance

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to determine if selected students whose homes were called, using a computer-assisted telecommunications device, on days when they were not in school would show an expected difference in school attendance, compared with selected students whose homes were not called. We also compared students in the control group with students in experimental groups by race, sex, and socioeconomic level. The results of the year-long study revealed that students whose homes were called on days when they were absent, using the computer-assisted telecommuni-cation devices, showed higher subsequent attendance rates than did students whose homes were not called. 1 The purpose of this study was to determine if selected students who were absent from school and who received calls to their homes from the principal, via a computer message device, would have a better school attendance record than would students whose homes were not called. 2 We expect that students who were absent on a particular day, and whose homes were called by a programmed computer device, would have better attendance records than would students whose homes were not called. It was also anticipated that there would be improved school attendance by students of differing sexes, races, and socioeconomic levels whose homes were called when they wer

Riparian canopy and channel response to hillslope disturbance in Elk River Basin, southwest Oregon

Elk River is a sixth order stream, draining a 200 square kilometer basin in the Klainath Mountain province of southwestern Oregon. Timber harvesting began in the basin during the 1950's, with peak removal of wood occurring in the mid to late 1960's. This activity lead to an increase in the frequency of landsliding and surface erosion. The downstream effects of this increase in sediment were evaluated by interpreting aerial photography spanning the period 1956 to 1979. Opening or enlargement of the riparian canopy cover was used as an indicator of sediment impacts. Results indicate that in most basins, changes in downstream channel conditions could not be directly linked to the increase in sediment delivered from harvested areas. Opening on higher order channels occurred throughout the study period, but did not exhibit patterns indicative of a large pulse of sediment moving through the system. Rather, opening in fourth to fifth order channels was attributed to the interaction between local sediment sources and channel morphology, with unconstrained, flat channel segments exhibiting chronic opening. The distribution of constrained and unconstrained channel reaches was defined by a Channel Morphology Index (CMI), which compared relative width and gradient changes to channel averages. A 100-year event in 1964 did not produce effects in Elk River Basin on the same order of magnitude as other basins in the Pacific Northwest. Downstream effects were important in a few areas where landslides and high rates of surface erosion were directly linked to opening and channel widening downstream. Limited channel response to hillslope. disturbance in Elk River Basin over the period 1956-79 was attributed to four factors: lack of debris flows in most areas of the basin, channels constrained by competent hillslopes and bedrock limiting the extent of opening, channel conditions inherited from storms prior to 1956, and essentially pristine conditions over much of the basin at the time of the 1964 storm. Finally, sequential air photo interpretation proved useful in deciphering disturbance history and analyzing processes which create downstream effects

The effects of climatic fluctuations and extreme events on running water ecosystems

Most research on the effects of environmental change in freshwaters has focused on incremental changes in average conditions, rather than fluctuations or extreme events such as heatwaves, cold snaps, droughts, floods or wildfires, which may have even more profound consequences. Such events are commonly predicted to increase in frequency, intensity and duration with global climate change, with many systems being exposed to conditions with no recent historical precedent. We propose a mechanistic framework for predicting potential impacts of environmental fluctuations on running water ecosystems by scaling up effects of fluctuations from individuals to entire ecosystems. This framework requires integration of four key components: effects of the environment on individual metabolism, metabolic and biomechanical constraints on fluctuating species interactions, assembly dynamics of local food webs and mapping the dynamics of the meta-community onto ecosystem function. We illustrate the framework by developing a mathematical model of environmental fluctuations on dynamically assembling food webs. We highlight (currently limited) empirical evidence for emerging insights and theoretical predictions. For example, widely supported predictions about the effects of environmental fluctuations are: high vulnerability of species with high per capita metabolic demands such as large-bodied ones at the top of food webs; simplification of food web network structure and impaired energetic transfer efficiency; reduced resilience and top-down relative to bottom-up regulation of food web and ecosystem processes. We conclude by identifying key questions and challenges that need to be addressed to develop more accurate and predictive bio-assessments of the effects of fluctuations, and implications of fluctuations for management practices in an increasingly uncertain world