Management Studies: Roosevelt City Fire Department and Vehicle Maintenance Division, Roosevelt, Utah

The recent and rapid development of energy producing natural resources experienced in Utah, Colorado and Wyoming has created major growth problems for roosevelt City as well as all other political subdivisions located within the region. Emphasis on efficient management of public programs has been one of several methods utilized by Roosevelt City to meet the growing demand for municipal services. This is necessary as some services such as fire protection, are managed jointly with other municipalities. Then too, with inflation driving up operating costs, it is essential to carefully control expenditures of all public programs. The management studies conducted on the Roosevelt City Fire Department and Equipment Maintenance Division were designed to identify areas which would benefit form improved management practices and, further, to suggest alternatives for accomplishing these objectives. Results of the studies are as follows: 1. Roosevelt City would benefit significantly from a more equitable distribution of fire department expenditures. 2. Provisions of the joint fire department agreement allows for annual adjustments of departmental costs among the three municipalities. To do this, however, a reporting system is needed to more accurately monitor annual expenditures. 3.Greater inventory control and reporting of equipment maintenance costs to the city administrator is needed by the equipment maintenance department. A program to accomplish this is provided. 4. With more comprehensive vehicle record and reporting system, better budgetary planning and control is possible, and as a result, more efficient use of city revenues can be achieved

The Heat Is On! Perspectives and Practices Regarding Extreme Heat Risk

Remembering negative experiences with extreme heat may promote future protective actions and provide insight to improve heat risk awareness and communication practices. This two-part thesis found 1) that experiencing heat-related health symptoms predicted what Americans would do to protect themselves and others during subsequent heat waves; and 2) that Utah professionals regard heat-related experience as an important factor in how they responded to extreme heat events. In the first study, a US national survey showed that personal experience with heat-related health symptoms was related to the tendency to say that one engaged in different protective behaviors, while other factors like risk perception and temperature were less related to self-reported behaviors. Sociodemographic factors such as age, race, and gender were related to Americans’ reported efforts to check on other people during a heat wave—with African-Americans, women, and older adults being more likely to do so— but did not have much relationship with how people personally protect themselves. The second study found that heat experience was an important factor in how public officials and media broadcasters manage extreme heat situations. Interviews of professionals in Utah revealed that experience with heat impacts influenced public forecasters, practitioners, and media members alike in their heat risk decisions and messaging practices even though official heat risk communication products in Utah were somewhat unfamiliar. This study also found that public forecasters recently changed how they measure extreme heat to better communicate the dangers of dry heat in the Intermountain West. This change will likely cause more official heat alerts to be issued in this region

WIRE Instrument Description: Focal Planes, Optics, Electronics

An elegantly simple cryogenic instrument has been proposed to measure far infrared radiation from starburst galaxies. The experiment—known as WIRE—employs a Cassegrain telescope with diamond-turned mirrors to provide a light-weight optical system for photon collection. A dichroic beamsplitter and filter separate the light into two broad, well-defined bands of interest. Two 128- x 128-pixel arsenic-doped silicon focal plane arrays spatially sample the incoming photons. These arrays feature exceptionally low dark current and low read noise, which allows the coaddition of thousands of images. The entire optical section and focal plane arrays are cooled to 12 Kelvin and 7.5 Kelvin, respectively, by a two-stage, solid-hydrogen cryostat. An uncomplicated electronics package provides some on-board coaddition of images, accepts the simple commands required by the WIRE instrument, and interfaces the data signals to the SMEX spacecraft for telemetry to the ground

Modeled vs. Actual Performance of the Geosynchronous Imaging Fourier Transform Spectrometer (GIFTS)

The NASA Geosynchronous Imaging Fourier Transform Spectrometer (GIFTS) has been completed as an Engineering Demonstration Unit (EDU) and has recently finished thermal vacuum testing and calibration. The GIFTS EDU was designed to demonstrate new and emerging sensor and data processing technologies with the goal of making revolutionary improvements in meteorological observational capability and forecasting accuracy. The GIFTS EDU includes a cooled (150 K), imaging FTS designed to provide the radiometric accuracy and atmospheric sounding precision required to meet the next generation GOES sounder requirements. This paper discusses a GIFTS sensor response model and its validation during thermal vacuum testing and calibration. The GIFTS sensor response model presented here is a component-based simulation written in IDL with the model component characteristics updated as actual hardware has become available. We discuss our calibration approach, calibration hardware used, and preliminary system performance, including NESR, spectral radiance responsivity, and instrument line shape. A comparison of the model predictions and hardware performance provides useful insight into the fidelity of the design approach

An Advanced Mesospheric Temperature Mapper for high-latitude airglow studies

Over the past 60 years, ground-based remote sensing measurements of the Earth’s mesospheric temperature have been performed using the nighttime hydroxyl (OH) emission, which originates at an altitude of ∼87  km∼87  km. Several types of instruments have been employed to date: spectrometers, Fabry–Perot or Michelson interferometers, scanning-radiometers, and more recently temperature mappers. Most of them measure the mesospheric temperature in a few sample directions and/or with a limited temporal resolution, restricting their research capabilities to the investigation of larger-scale perturbations such as inertial waves, tides, or planetary waves. The Advanced Mesospheric Temperature Mapper (AMTM) is a novel infrared digital imaging system that measures selected emission lines in the mesospheric OH (3,1) band (at ∼1.5  μm)∼1.5  μm) to create intensity and temperature maps of the mesosphere around 87 km. The data are obtained with an unprecedented spatial (∼0.5  km∼0.5  km) and temporal (typically 30″) resolution over a large 120° field of view, allowing detailed measurements of wave propagation and dissipation at the ∼87  km∼87  km level, even in the presence of strong aurora or under full moon conditions. This paper describes the AMTM characteristics, compares measured temperatures with values obtained by a collocated Na lidar instrument, and presents several examples of temperature maps and nightly keogram representations to illustrate the excellent capabilities of this new instrument

‘‘Can You Take the Heat?’’ Heat-Induced Health Symptoms Are Associated with Protective Behaviors

The risks associated with extreme heat are increasing as heat waves become more frequent and severe across larger areas. As people begin to experience heat waves more often and in more places, how will individuals respond? Measuring experience with heat simply as exposure to extreme temperatures may not fully capture how people subjectively experience those temperatures or their varied impacts on human health. These impacts may also influence an individual’s response to heat and motivate risk-reduction behaviors. If subjectively experiencing negative health effects from extreme heat promotes protective actions, these effects could be used alongside temperature exposure to more accurately measure extreme heat experience and inform risk prevention and communication strategies according to local community needs. Using a multilevel regression model, this study analyzes georeferenced national survey data to assess whether Americans’ exposure to extreme heat and experience with its health effects are associated with selfreported protective behaviors. Subjective experience with heat-related health symptoms strongly predicted all reported protective behaviors while measured heat exposure had a much weaker influence. Risk perception was strongly associated with some behaviors. This study focuses particularly on the practice of checking on family, friends, and neighbors during a heat wave, which can be carried out by many people. For this behavior, age, race/ethnicity, gender, and income, along with subjective experience and risk perception, were important predictors. Results suggest that the subjective experience of extreme heat influences health-related behavioral responses and should therefore be considered when designing or improving local heat protection plans

Advanced Mesospheric Temperature Mapper for High-Latitude Airglow Studies

Over the past 60 years, ground-based remote sensing measurements of the Earth’s mesospheric temperature have been performed using the nighttime hydroxyl (OH) emission, which originates at an altitude of ∼87 km. Several types of instruments have been employed to date: spectrometers, Fabry–Perot or Michelson interferometers, scanning-radiometers, and more recently temperature mappers. Most of them measure the mesospheric temperature in a few sample directions and/or with a limited temporal resolution, restricting their research capabilities to the investigation of larger-scale perturbations such as inertial waves, tides, or planetary waves. The Advanced Mesospheric Temperature Mapper (AMTM) is a novel infrared digital imaging system that measures selected emission lines in the mesospheric OH (3,1) band (at ∼1.5 μm to create intensity and temperature maps of the mesosphere around 87 km. The data are obtained with an unprecedented spatial (∼0.5 km) and temporal (typically 30″) resolution over a large 120° field of view, allowing detailed measurements of wave propagation and dissipation at the ∼87 km level, even in the presence of strong aurora or under full moon conditions. This paper describes the AMTM characteristics, compares measured temperatures with values obtained by a collocated Na lidar instrument, and presents several examples of temperature maps and nightly keogram representations to illustrate the excellent capabilities of this new instrument

Identification of a 6-cM Minimal Deletion at 11q23.1–23.2 and Exclusion of PPP2R1B Gene as a Deletion Target in Cervical Cancer

Previous functional and deletion mapping studies on cervical cancer (CC) have implicated one or more tumor suppressor genes (TSGs) on chromosome 11 at q13 and q22–24 regions. Of these, the 11q22–24 region exhibits frequent allelic deletions in a variety of solid tumor types, sug- gesting the presence of critical genes for tumor suppression in this region. However, the precise region of deletion on 11q is not clearly defined in CC. In an attempt to accurately map the deleted region, we performed an extensive loss of heterozygosity (LOH) mapping in 58 tumors using 25 polymorphic loci on both the short and long arms. The pattern of LOH identified three sites of deletions, two on 11p (p15.11–p15.3 and p12–13), and one on 11q (q23.1–q23.2). The 11q23.1–q23.2 exhibited highest fre- quency (60.6%) of deletions, suggesting that this could be the site of a candidate TSG in CC. The minimal deletion at 11q23.1–23.2 was re- stricted to a 6-cM region between 123.5 and 129.5 cM genetic distance on chromosome 11, identifying the site of a potential TSG important in the pathogenesis of CC. At least five known genes and 28 UniGene clusters were mapped to the present commonly deleted region. In addition, we have excluded a previously known TSG PPP2R1B at 11q23 as a deletion target in CC. The definition of the minimal deletion and the availability of expressed sequence resources should facilitate the identification of the candidate TSG

Prescription and Other Medication Use in Pregnancy

OBJECTIVE: To characterize prescription and other medication use in a geographically and ethnically diverse cohort of women in their first pregnancy. METHODS: In a prospective, longitudinal cohort study of nulliparous women followed through pregnancy from the first trimester, medication use was chronicled longitudinally throughout pregnancy. Structured questions and aids were used to capture all medications taken as well as reasons they were taken. Total counts of all medications taken including number in each category and class were captured. Additionally, reasons the medications were taken were recorded. Trends in medications taken across pregnancy and in the first trimester were determined. RESULTS: Of the 9,546 study participants, 9,272 (97.1%) women took at least one medication during pregnancy with 9,139 (95.7%) taking a medication in the first trimester. Polypharmacy, defined as taking at least five medications, occurred in 2,915 (30.5%) women. Excluding vitamins, supplements, and vaccines, 73.4% of women took a medication during pregnancy with 55.1% taking one in the first trimester. The categories of drugs taken in pregnancy and in the first trimester include the following: gastrointestinal or antiemetic agents (34.3%, 19.5%), antibiotics (25.5%, 12.6%), and analgesics (23.7%, 15.6%, which includes 3.6%; 1.4% taking an opioid pain medication). CONCLUSION: In this geographically and ethnically diverse cohort of nulliparous pregnant women, medication use was nearly universal and polypharmacy was common

Off-Axis Response Measurement of the Sounding of the Atmosphere Using Broadband Emission Radiometry (SABER) Telescope

The Sounding of the Atmosphere using Broadband Emission Radiometry (SABER) instrument is a 10-channel earth limb-viewing sensor that measures atmospheric emissions in the spectral range of 1.27 μm to 16.9 μm. SABER is part of NASA’s Thermosphere-Ionosphere-Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED) mission, which was successfully launched in December 2001. Uncommon among limb-viewing sensors, SABER employs an on-axis telescope design with reimaging optics to allow for an intermediate field stop and a Lyot stop. Additional stray light protection is achieved by an innovative inner Lyot stop, which is placed conjugate to the secondary obscuration and support structure. Presented in this paper is the off-axis response of SABER as measured in the Terrestrial Black Hole off-axis scatter facility at the Space Dynamics Laboratory. The measurement was made at visible wavelengths; thus, the response is only representative of SABER’s short wavelength channels. The measurement validated the stray light design and complemented the APART software model, which predicts that mirror scatter is the dominant stray light mechanism at short wavelengths. In addition, estimates of the mirror bi-directional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) were made. The off-axis response measurement indicates that SABER is an exceptional stray light suppression telescope