Remarks of James E. Denny before the Study Group on Legal Remedies, Commission on Government Procurement

Legalities of patent infringements resulting from government procurement policie

Documentation of the Analyses of the Benefits and Costs of Aeronautical Research and Technology models (ABC-ART). Volume 2: Appendices

Fleet variables are defined, and source codes for each module are presented

Documentation of the analysis of the benefits and costs of aeronautical research and technology models, volume 1

The analysis of the benefits and costs of aeronautical research and technology (ABC-ART) models are documented. These models were developed by NASA for use in analyzing the economic feasibility of applying advanced aeronautical technology to future civil aircraft. The methodology is composed of three major modules: fleet accounting module, airframe manufacturing module, and air carrier module. The fleet accounting module is used to estimate the number of new aircraft required as a function of time to meet demand. This estimation is based primarily upon the expected retirement age of existing aircraft and the expected change in revenue passenger miles demanded. Fuel consumption estimates are also generated by this module. The airframe manufacturer module is used to analyze the feasibility of the manufacturing the new aircraft demanded. The module includes logic for production scheduling and estimating manufacturing costs. For a series of aircraft selling prices, a cash flow analysis is performed and a rate of return on investment is calculated. The air carrier module provides a tool for analyzing the financial feasibility of an airline purchasing and operating the new aircraft. This module includes a methodology for computing the air carrier direct and indirect operating costs, performing a cash flow analysis, and estimating the internal rate of return on investment for a set of aircraft purchase prices

Tuning gastropod locomotion: Modeling the influence of mucus rheology on the cost of crawling

Common gastropods such as snails crawl on a solid substrate by propagating muscular waves of shear stress on a viscoelastic mucus. Producing the mucus accounts for the largest component in the gastropod's energy budget, more than twenty times the amount of mechanical work used in crawling. Using a simple mechanical model, we show that the shear-thinning properties of the mucus favor a decrease in the amount of mucus necessary for crawling, thereby decreasing the overall energetic cost of locomotion.Comment: Corrected typo

A systematic review of interventions in primary care to improve health literacy for chronic disease behavioral risk factors

Background: To evaluate the effectiveness of interventions used in primary care to improve health literacy for change in smoking, nutrition, alcohol, physical activity and weight (SNAPW). Methods: A systematic review of intervention studies that included outcomes for health literacy and SNAPW behavioral risk behaviors implemented in primary care settings. We searched the Cochrane Library, Johanna Briggs Institute, Medline, Embase, CINAHL, Psychinfo, Web of Science, Scopus, APAIS, Australasian Medical Index, Google Scholar, Community of Science and four targeted journals (Patient Education and Counseling, Health Education and Behaviour, American Journal of Preventive Medicine and Preventive Medicine). Study inclusion criteria: Adults over 18 years; undertaken in a primary care setting within an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) country; interventions with at least one measure of health literacy and promoting positive change in smoking, nutrition, alcohol, physical activity and/or weight; measure at least one outcome associated with health literacy and report a SNAPW outcome; and experimental and quasi-experimental studies, cohort, observational and controlled and non-controlled before and after studies. Papers were assessed and screened by two researchers (JT, AW) and uncertain or excluded studies were reviewed by a third researcher (MH). Data were extracted from the included studies by two researchers (JT, AW). Effectiveness studies were quality assessed. A typology of interventions was thematically derived from the studies by grouping the SNAPW interventions into six broad categories: individual motivational interviewing and counseling; group education; multiple interventions (combination of interventions); written materials; telephone coaching or counseling; and computer or web based interventions. Interventions were classified by intensity of contact with the subjects (High ≥ 8 points of contact/hours; Moderate \u3e3 and \u3c8; Low ≤ 3 points of contact hours) and setting (primary health, community or other). Studies were analyzed by intervention category and whether significant positive changes in SNAPW and health literacy outcomes were reported. Results: 52 studies were included. Many different intervention types and settings were associated with change in health literacy (73% of all studies) and change in SNAPW (75% of studies). More low intensity interventions reported significant positive outcomes for SNAPW (43% of studies) compared with high intensity interventions (33% of studies). More interventions in primary health care than the community were effective in supporting smoking cessation whereas the reverse was true for diet and physical activity interventions. Conclusion: Group and individual interventions of varying intensity in primary health care and community settings are useful in supporting sustained change in health literacy for change in behavioral risk factors. Certain aspects of risk behavior may be better handled in clinical settings while others more effectively in the community. Our findings have implications for the design of programs

Preventing human immunodeficiency virus infection among sexual assault survivors in Cape Town, South Africa: an observational study.

We describe 131 South African sexual assault survivors offered HIV post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP). While the median days completed was 27 (IQR 27, 28), 34% stopped PEP or missed doses. Controlling for baseline symptoms, PEP was not associated with symptoms (OR = 1.30, 95% CI = 0.66, 2.64). Factors associated with unprotected sex included prior unprotected sex (OR = 6.46, 95% CI = 3.04, 13.74), time since the assault (OR = 1.33, 95% CI = 1.12, 1.57) and age (OR = 1.30, 95% CI = 1.08, 1.57). Trauma counseling was protective (OR = 0.18, 95% CI = 0.05, 0.58). Four instances of seroconversion were observed by 6 months (risk = 3.7%, 95% CI = 1.0, 9.1). Proactive follow-up is necessary to increase the likelihood of PEP completion and address the mental health and HIV risk needs of survivors. Adherence interventions and targeted risk reduction counseling should be provided to minimize HIV acquisition

Blood ordering practices in the management of ectopic pregnancy at Groote Schuur hospital

The International Society for Burns Injuries (ISBI) has published guidelines for the management of multiple or mass burns casualties, and recommends that 'each country has or should have a disaster planning system that addresses its own particular needs.' The need for a national burns disaster plan integrated with national and provincial disaster planning was discussed at the South African Burns Society Congress in 2009, but there was no real involvement in the disaster planning prior to the 2010 World Cup; the country would have been poorly prepared had there been a burns disaster during the event. This article identifies some of the lessons learnt and strategies derived from major burns disasters and burns disaster planning from other regions. Members of the South African Burns Society are undertaking an audit of burns care in South Africa to investigate the feasibility of a national burns disaster plan. This audit (which is still under way) also aims to identify weaknesses of burns care in South Africa and implement improvements where necessary

Blood ordering practices in the management of ectopic pregnancy at Groote Schuur hospital

No Abstract

Calculating Chemical Evolution on the Web

We have constructed a web site that may be of interest to cosmochemists seeking to under-stand the evolution of isotopes in the Galaxy. The URL is http://photon.phys.clemson.edu/gce.html. It is fully interactive and uses IDL on the Net (ION) to construct tables and graphs dynamically. The resulting tables may be downloaded as text files while the graphs may be downloaded as gif or postscript files. The present ab-stract presents a brief tutorial on using the “GCE tool” on this site and illustrates some of its capabilities. Ques-tions or comments should be addressed to either of the first two authors

The Small World of Psychopathology

Background: Mental disorders are highly comorbid: people having one disorder are likely to have another as well. We explain empirical comorbidity patterns based on a network model of psychiatric symptoms, derived from an analysis of symptom overlap in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-IV (DSM-IV). Principal Findings: We show that a) half of the symptoms in the DSM-IV network are connected, b) the architecture of these connections conforms to a small world structure, featuring a high degree of clustering but a short average path length, and c) distances between disorders in this structure predict empirical comorbidity rates. Network simulations of Major Depressive Episode and Generalized Anxiety Disorder show that the model faithfully reproduces empirical population statistics for these disorders. Conclusions: In the network model, mental disorders are inherently complex. This explains the limited successes of genetic, neuroscientific, and etiological approaches to unravel their causes. We outline a psychosystems approach to investigate the structure and dynamics of mental disorders