Genesis of soils from ancient alluvium, Maryville Limestone and Nolichucky Shale in East Tennessee

The nature and properties of soils overlying the Maryville and Nolichucky geologic formations at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Rese~vation-Solid Waste Storage Area 6 (SWSA-6) were investigated to determine 1) their pedogenesis from physical, chemical, mineralogical, morphological and micromorphological properties, 2) the relationship between geological formations and soils and 3) soil genesis relationships. Physical, chemical, mineralogical, morphological and micromorphological analyses were conducted on soils from the study area. The following physical and chemical analyses were conducted: particle size, water and KCl pH, total carbon, calcium carbonate equivalence (CCE), effective cation exchange capacity (ECEC) using sum of exchangeable bases plus KCl total acidity, exchangeable aluminum, exchangeable acidity, hydroxylamine reducible manganese and sodium dithionite (CBD) extractable manganese and iron. The mineralogy of the clay fraction was determined and micromorphological characteristics were observed. Two Ultisols and two Alfisols were investigated and classified in the study area. Major parent materials present in the study site were ancient alluvium, Maryville Limestone and Nolichucky Shale. Some colluvial soils were present on sideslopes. Areas of ancient alluvium were found in the southwestern portion of the Maryville Limestone area. High silt contents were predominant in the surface horizons and some Bt horizons of all soil profiles due to the deposition of fine alluvium and weathering of silty parent material. Higher sand percentages were found in the Cr horizons due to weathering of sandstone bedrock. Some fragmentation of partially weathered bedrock occurred from the sieving process during sample preparation. This may have resulted in higher sand percentages than what is present in the field. Clay content generally increased with depth and decreased after contact with partially weathered bedrock. With the exception of some surface horizons, low organic carbon values were found throughout the soil profiles and generally decreased with depth. The pH values of the soil and partially weathered bedrock ranged from 4.5 to 7.3. The pH of the carbonate bedrock of the HHMS-4B and HHMS-5A core drillings ranged from 7.5 to 8.4. The values for extractable aluminum and total acidity generally increased with depth in all soil profiles. Effective cation exchange capacity values varied from 2.38 to 52.67 cmol(+) kg-1 and exchangeable bases values varied from 0.01 to 44.06 cmol(+) kg-1 throughout all soils investigated. Ammonium acetate extractable calcium values of samples from the 4Cr and 5Cr horizons of profile four ranged from 44.06 to 30.80 cmol(+) kg-1 and high values were contributed from carbonates. Ammonium acetate extractable magnesium values varied from 0.07 to 7.87 cmol(+) kg -1throughout all soil profiles. Magnesium values were high (6.25, 7.87 and 6.26 mg kg-1 respectfully) in the 3Cr, 4Cr and SCr horizons of profile four, which suggests the presence of dolomite in the bedrock. Weathering sequences and soil forming processes of the soils were evaluated using x-ray diffraction (XRD) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Minerals present in the clay size fraction included kaolinite, hydroxy interlayered vermiculite, vermiculite, illite, and gibbsite. Other constituents of the clay size fraction were organics and manganese and iron oxides. High values of CBD extractable manganese and iron were found throughout most soil profiles. Microscopically, manganese and iron oxides were observed as 1) nodules, 2) granular segregated bodies, 3) crystalline forms, 4) neomangans, 5) infillings, and 6) impregnations. They were also present along with highly oriented clay coatings on pores, and faces of peds and partially weathered bedrock. The development of soil on the interbedded Nolichucky Shale and Maryville Limestone formations exemplified how slope effects soil formation. Soil and partially weathered bedrock were deeper on the upland position than on side slopes and footslope positions. This was due to greater stability and water infiltration which resulted in greater weathering on the upland position. The soil on the footslope was shallow due to removal of material by overland flow of water

Perceptions of Fairness of Discipline Events in the Work Place

Employees are concerned with the fairness of organizational outcomes they receive and the fairness of the decision-making processes used to determine how these outcomes are allocated in accordance with organizational policies. The present study focused on the distributive justice and procedural justice outcomes of disciplinary actions in work place settings. This study assessed the effects of three levels of the severity of rule violation, severity of punishment, and decision-making processes utilized. The results indicated that conditions allowing participation in the decision-making process resulted in perceptions of greater procedural fairness to employees, but did not influence perceptions of distributive fairness. The moderately severe punishment was perceived to be more appropriate and more fair to the punished employee and his/her co-workers. Increased punishment severity was perceived as significantly more likely to deter future rule violations by the punished employee and the employee\u27s co-workers

The Impact of a Multi-Layered Approach to Professional Development on Early Reading Aquisition

This mixed-methods study investigated the impact of a multilayered approach to coaching that combined on-going coaching with a six hour staff development session. It examined the effects of coaching on the reading progress of students whose teachers received only staff development to teachers who received staff development and coaching. Reading progress was measured by 1st-3rd grade students’ Benchmark Assessment System (BAS) scores and running records. The qualitative component entailed an examination of teachers’ running records as well as observations of guided reading lessons in both experimental and control groups to determine whether coaching teachers after staff development increased teachers’ use of reading prompts as compared to teachers receiving staff development without coaching. Teacher surveys and interviews of the coach and campus principal were also conducted. A one-way analysis of covariance was used to determine the effects of coaching on students reading scores. Results provided evidence to suggest that teachers better retain what is learned during training when they receive follow-up coaching cycles. This is based on the observed decline in the use of language in teacher running records associated with the training session when teachers did not receive follow up coaching support. In contrast, when teachers received follow up coaching cycles, language used in the workshop increased in three out of five teachers’ running records. Additionally, coaching significantly impacted student reading scores in reading when teachers experienced both professional development and coaching sessions with a focus on prompting as compared to teachers who experienced professional development with no follow up coaching sessions. The test was not significant for students identified as at-risk

Evaluation of an occupational therapy led Paediatric Burns Telehealth Review Clinic: exploring the experience of family/carers and clinicians

Introduction: Children with deep-partial or full-thickness burns often require complicated post-surgical care and rehabilitation, including specialist occupational therapy (OT) intervention, to achieve optimal outcomes. Those from rural and remote areas rarely have access to these services and must travel to a tertiary referral hospital to access follow-up, placing them at higher risk of complications and poorer outcomes. The OT-Led Paediatric Burn Telehealth Review (OTPB) Clinic, based at Townsville University Hospital in northern Queensland, Australia, was set up to address this inequity. The aim of this study was to investigate the experience of both family members and clinicians in using the OTPB Clinic. Methods: A qualitative approach, guided by interpretive phenomenology, was used. Eight family members and six clinicians participated in semi-structured interviews conducted by phone or telehealth. Thematic analysis was used to identify key themes. Results: Four major themes were derived through thematic analysis: continuity of care, family-centred care, technology and building of rural capacity. Conclusion: Family and clinicians confirm benefits of a telehealth service for delivering care to rural and remote children after burn injury. The results show this expanded-scope, OT-led telehealth model provides quality patient-centred and expert clinical advice within local communities and builds the skill and capacity of local clinicians. Areas for service enhancement were uncovered. This telehealth model can be translated to other clinical subspecialties across Australia

Development of an occupational therapy-led paediatric burn telehealth review clinic

Context: Burns are a common injury in children. Rural and remote children with burn injuries are disadvantaged if their burns require hospitalisation and specialist rehabilitation. Most specialist burn rehabilitation is provided in regional or metropolitan cities by a multidisciplinary team. Therefore, rural and remote burn patients are required to travel to access these services. This project aimed to develop an Occupational Therapy (OT)-Led Paediatric Burn Telehealth Review Clinic (OTPB Clinic) at Townsville University Hospital (TUH) to provide ongoing rehabilitation to rural and remote children after burn injury closer to home. Issues: Local audits identified inequitable service delivery to children from rural and remote areas after burn injury. A project officer was appointed to develop the OTPB Clinic, including comprehensive guidelines to support sustainability. An expanded scope role was undertaken by the treating OT, and allied health assistants were engaged to promote efficient service delivery. Lessons learned: The OTPB Clinic commenced in 2017 and was evaluated using patient satisfaction surveys and number of clinical encounters pre- and post-implementation. During the implementation period, 28 rural or remote paediatric burn patients were reviewed. Review frequency increased from 20-week to 8-week intervals. Travel time was reduced by approximately 12 hours per appointment. Families identified numerous benefits of the clinic including continuity of care and reduced time away from work. Less than 4% of patients required re-engagement with paediatric surgeons for surgical intervention. The model has the potential to be transferred to other tertiary referral burns services

Sucrose density gradient centrifugation and cross-flow filtration methods for the production of arbovirus antigens inactivated by binary ethylenimine

BACKGROUND: Sucrose density gradient centrifugation and cross-flow filtration methods have been developed and standardised for the safe and reproducible production of inactivated arbovirus antigens which are appropriate for use in diagnostic serological applications. METHODS: To optimise the maximum titre of growth during the propagation of arboviruses, the multiplicity of infection and choice of cell line were investigated using stocks of Ross River virus and Barmah Forest virus grown in both mosquito and mammalian cell lines. To standardise and improve the efficacy of the inactivation of arboviral suspensions, stocks of Ross River virus, Barmah Forest virus, Japanese encephalitis virus, Murray Valley encephalitis virus and Alfuy virus were chemically inactivated using binary ethylenimine at a final concentration of 3 mM. Aliquots were then taken at hourly intervals and crude inactivation rates were determined for each virus using a plaque assay. To ensure complete inactivation, the same aliquots were each passaged 3 times in Aedes albopictus C6/36 cells and the presence of viral growth was detected using an immunofluorescent assay. For larger quantities of viral suspensions, centrifugation on an isopycnic sucrose density gradient or cross-flow filtration was used to produce concentrated, pure antigens or partially concentrated, semi-purified antigens respectively. RESULTS: The results of the propagation experiments suggested that the maximum viral titres obtained for both Ross River virus and Barmah Forest virus were affected by the incubation period and choice of cell line, rather than the use of different multiplicity of infection values. Results of the binary ethylenimine inactivation trial suggested that standardised periods of 5 or 8 hours would be suitable to ensure effective and complete inactivation for a number of different arboviral antigens. CONCLUSION: Two methods used to prepare inactivated arbovirus antigens have been standardised to minimise production failure and expenditure and to provide reagents that conform to the highest quality and safety requirements of a diagnostic serology laboratory. The antigens are suitable for use in either enzyme linked immunosorbent assays or haemagglutination inhibition assays and the optimised protocols can be directly applied to produce antigens from new or emerging arboviral pathogens

The Planning Execution Monitoring Architecture

The Planning Execution Monitoring (PEM) architecture is a design concept for developing autonomous cockpit command and control software. The PEM architecture is designed to reduce the operations costs in the space transportation system through the use of automation while improving safety and operability of the system. Specifically, the PEM autonomous framework enables automatic performance of many vehicle operations that would typically be performed by a human. Also, this framework supports varying levels of autonomous control, ranging from fully automatic to fully manual control. The PEM autonomous framework interfaces with the core flight software to perform flight procedures. It can either assist human operators in performing procedures or autonomously execute routine cockpit procedures based on the operational context. Most importantly, the PEM autonomous framework promotes and simplifies the capture, verification, and validation of the flight operations knowledge. Through a hierarchical decomposition of the domain knowledge, the vehicle command and control capabilities are divided into manageable functional "chunks" that can be captured and verified separately. These functional units, each of which has the responsibility to manage part of the vehicle command and control, are modular, re-usable, and extensible. Also, the functional units are self-contained and have the ability to plan and execute the necessary steps for accomplishing a task based upon the current mission state and available resources. The PEM architecture has potential for application outside the realm of spaceflight, including management of complex industrial processes, nuclear control, and control of complex vehicles such as submarines or unmanned air vehicles