VSA Universal Design Access Guide: Every Thing Benefits Every One

The intent of this publication is to provide guidance and resources to VSA staff, contractors, and volunteers regarding implementation of universal design principles in presentations, meeting and conference planning, accessibility services, and web content. The objective of universal design is for everyone to access the same things at the same time, in the same place, and in as close to the same manner as possible. No checklist can produce universal design. In achieving universal design, precision with accessibility standards is only as important as the commitment to embracing inclusion. Universal design manifests only when an understanding of basic accessibility is coupled with a flexible and open mind. Creativity and basic respect make up its foundation. Preparing your organization to embrace self-determination to the fullest extent will foster an atmosphere of universal design. This document briefly describes the Seven Principles of Universal Design. However, Universal Design is more of an ongoing process than a prescription. We hope that you will use this document to foster the habit of using Universal Design principles to guide decision-making. More in-depth information on its history, current applications, and potential can be found by utilizing the resources section of this document

Environmental performance and practice across sectors : methodology and preliminary results

Abstract: This paper introduces a methodology for measuring and modeling manufacturers' environmental performance and the managerial and technological practices that affect it. Facility level licensing data from the Irish Environmental Protection Agency are used to develop indicators that can be analysed across sectors, addressing the problem that environmental performance and determinants tend to be sector-specific, while modeling and policy interests are often more general. Using Integrated Pollution Control (IPC) information generated EU-wide , this approach should be capable of cross-country extension. The methodology is tested on a sample of Irish facilities in three sectors during 1996-2004. Preliminary results show its usefulness in exploring the determinants of environmental performance at the sector and cross-sector levels, and suggest potential uses in future research

Environmental performance and practice across sectors : methodology and preliminary results

Abstract: This paper introduces a new methodology for measuring and modelling manufacturers" environmental performance and the managerial and technological practices that affect it. Facility level licensing data are used to develop indicators based on sector-specific criteria but capable of being analysed across sectors, at various levels of aggregation. This addresses the problem that environmental performance and determinants tend to be highly context-specific, while modelling and policy interests are often more general. Using Integrated Pollution Control (IPC) information generated EUwide, this approach should be capable of cross-country extension. The methodology is tested on a sample of Irish facilities in three sectors during 1996-2004. Preliminary results show its usefulness in exploring the determinants of environmental performance at the sector and cross-sector levels. Word count = 10,049

Complex Probabilities on R^N as Real Probabilities on C^N and an Application to Path Integrals

We establish a necessary and sufficient condition for averages over complex valued weight functions on R^N to be represented as statistical averages over real, non-negative probability weights on C^N. Using this result, we show that many path-integrals for time-ordered expectation values of bosonic degrees of freedom in real-valued time can be expressed as statistical averages over ensembles of paths with complex-valued coordinates, and then speculate on possible consequences of this result for the relation between quantum and classical mechanics.Comment: 4 pages, 0 figure

CENP-meta, an Essential Kinetochore Kinesin Required for the Maintenance of Metaphase Chromosome Alignment in Drosophila

CENP-meta has been identified as an essential, kinesin-like motor protein in Drosophila. The 257-kD CENP-meta protein is most similar to the vertebrate kinetochore-associated kinesin-like protein CENP-E, and like CENP-E, is shown to be a component of centromeric/kinetochore regions of Drosophila chromosomes. However, unlike CENP-E, which leaves the centromere/kinetochore region at the end of anaphase A, the CENP-meta protein remains associated with the centromeric/kinetochore region of the chromosome during all stages of the Drosophila cell cycle. P-element–mediated disruption of the CENP-meta gene leads to late larval/pupal stage lethality with incomplete chromosome alignment at metaphase. Complete removal of CENP-meta from the female germline leads to lethality in early embryos resulting from defects in metaphase chromosome alignment. Real-time imaging of these mutants with GFP-labeled chromosomes demonstrates that CENP-meta is required for the maintenance of chromosomes at the metaphase plate, demonstrating that the functions required to establish and maintain chromosome congression have distinguishable requirements

Lumbar muscle size and locations from CT scans of 96 women of age 40 to 63 years

Computed tomography scans of 96 women aged between 40 and 63 years were systematically measured to determine torso muscle moment arms and cross-sectional areas at L2/L3, L3/L4 and L4/L5 disc levels. The major findings were as follows: (1) the mean muscle moment arm and area data were not different bilaterally; (2) psoas, quadratus lumborum, and latissimus dorsi muscle moment arms consistently changed at the three disc levels, while erector spinae, rectus abdominis, transverse abdominis and the oblique muscles remained about the same distance from the three disc centroids; (3) psoas and quadratus lumborum muscles increased in mean size at the lower levels and (4 gross torso anthropometry and body weight had a significant (P r2 from 0[middle dot]12 to 0[middle dot]65) with the size of the erector spinae and psoas muscles, and with the moment arms of the rectus abdominis, transverse abdominis, latissimus dorsi, and oblique muscles.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/28726/1/0000549.pd

Analysis of cumulative strain in tendons and tendon sheaths

Twenty-five fresh frozen flexor digitorum profundus tendons stratified by sex were subjected to uniaxial step stress and cyclic loads in twelve intact human cadaver hands. By attaching specially designed clip strain gage transducers on tendons just proximal and distal to an undisrupted carpal tunnel, the interactions of the tendons, tendon sheath and retinacula were measured.The elastic and viscous response of the tendon composites to step stresses were found to fit fractional power functions of stress and time respectively. A significant and quantifiable decrease in strain from the proximal to the distal tendon segment was found to be a function of wrist deviation.The results indicate that an accumulation of strain does occur in tendinous tissues during physiologic loading.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/26842/1/0000402.pd

A standardized kinesin nomenclature

In recent years the kinesin superfamily has become so large that several different naming schemes have emerged, leading to confusion and miscommunication. Here, we set forth a standardized kinesin nomenclature based on 14 family designations. The scheme unifies all previous phylogenies and nomenclature proposals, while allowing individual sequence names to remain the same, and for expansion to occur as new sequences are discovered

The Morningside Initiative: Collaborative Development of a Knowledge Repository to Accelerate Adoption of Clinical Decision Support

The Morningside Initiative is a public-private activity that has evolved from an August, 2007, meeting at the Morningside Inn, in Frederick, MD, sponsored by the Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC) of the US Army Medical Research Materiel Command. Participants were subject matter experts in clinical decision support (CDS) and included representatives from the Department of Defense, Veterans Health Administration, Kaiser Permanente, Partners Healthcare System, Henry Ford Health System, Arizona State University, and the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA). The Morningside Initiative was convened in response to the AMIA Roadmap for National Action on Clinical Decision Support and on the basis of other considerations and experiences of the participants. Its formation was the unanimous recommendation of participants at the 2007 meeting which called for creating a shared repository of executable knowledge for diverse health care organizations and practices, as well as health care system vendors. The rationale is based on the recognition that sharing of clinical knowledge needed for CDS across organizations is currently virtually non-existent, and that, given the considerable investment needed for creating, maintaining and updating authoritative knowledge, which only larger organizations have been able to undertake, this is an impediment to widespread adoption and use of CDS. The Morningside Initiative intends to develop and refine (1) an organizational framework, (2) a technical approach, and (3) CDS content acquisition and management processes for sharing CDS knowledge content, tools, and experience that will scale with growing numbers of participants and can be expanded in scope of content and capabilities. Intermountain Healthcare joined the initial set of participants shortly after its formation. The efforts of the Morningside Initiative are intended to serve as the basis for a series of next steps in a national agenda for CDS. It is based on the belief that sharing of knowledge can be highly effective as is the case in other competitive domains such as genomics. Participants in the Morningside Initiative believe that a coordinated effort between the private and public sectors is needed to accomplish this goal and that a small number of highly visible and respected health care organizations in the public and private sector can lead by example. Ultimately, a future collaborative knowledge sharing organization must have a sustainable long-term business model for financial support

Performance of CMS muon reconstruction in pp collision events at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

The performance of muon reconstruction, identification, and triggering in CMS has been studied using 40 inverse picobarns of data collected in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV at the LHC in 2010. A few benchmark sets of selection criteria covering a wide range of physics analysis needs have been examined. For all considered selections, the efficiency to reconstruct and identify a muon with a transverse momentum pT larger than a few GeV is above 95% over the whole region of pseudorapidity covered by the CMS muon system, abs(eta) < 2.4, while the probability to misidentify a hadron as a muon is well below 1%. The efficiency to trigger on single muons with pT above a few GeV is higher than 90% over the full eta range, and typically substantially better. The overall momentum scale is measured to a precision of 0.2% with muons from Z decays. The transverse momentum resolution varies from 1% to 6% depending on pseudorapidity for muons with pT below 100 GeV and, using cosmic rays, it is shown to be better than 10% in the central region up to pT = 1 TeV. Observed distributions of all quantities are well reproduced by the Monte Carlo simulation.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO