Upgrading the NRCS Y-14 dam in Gwinnett County

Suburban development of Gwinnett County has surrounded many of the flood control watershed dams that were built in the mid-1900s. In many cases, the watersheds and downstream reaches have developed significantly since the time of construction. Development has changed the runoff characteristics of the watershed and many homes are now in the breach zones of these dams. The spillways of many of these dams cannot safely pass flood flows based on current design standards required by the State of Georgia Rules for Dam Safety or the NRCS design criteria for high hazard dams. The Yellow River Watershed Dam No. 14 (Y-14) is the first of the watershed dams to be upgraded in Gwinnett County. Y-14 was originally constructed in 1967 by the Soil Conservation Service (SCS – currently the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service or NRCS) to control drainage from a 3.1 square mile watershed. The structure has a 40 feet high embankment dam, a traditional SCS principal spillway structure with a riser tower and outlet pipe, and a 50 ft. wide earthen auxiliary spillway through a saddle on the left abutment. In 2003, the dam was upgraded to bring it into compliance with modern standards by constructing a new Roller Compacted Concrete (RCC) Stepped Spillway on top of the embankment dam and decommissioning the original auxiliary spillway. This paper describes the evaluation of the original dam and the design of the upgrades to the dam.Sponsored by: Georgia Environmental Protection Division U.S. Geological Survey, Georgia Water Science Center U.S. Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia Water Resources Institute The University of Georgia, Water Resources Facult

Characterizing the Habitable Zones of Exoplanetary Systems with a Large Ultraviolet/Visible/Near-IR Space Observatory

Understanding the surface and atmospheric conditions of Earth-size, rocky planets in the habitable zones (HZs) of low-mass stars is currently one of the greatest astronomical endeavors. Knowledge of the planetary effective surface temperature alone is insufficient to accurately interpret biosignature gases when they are observed in the coming decades. The UV stellar spectrum drives and regulates the upper atmospheric heating and chemistry on Earth-like planets, is critical to the definition and interpretation of biosignature gases, and may even produce false-positives in our search for biologic activity. This white paper briefly describes the scientific motivation for panchromatic observations of exoplanetary systems as a whole (star and planet), argues that a future NASA UV/Vis/near-IR space observatory is well-suited to carry out this work, and describes technology development goals that can be achieved in the next decade to support the development of a UV/Vis/near-IR flagship mission in the 2020s.Comment: Submitted in response to NASA call for white papers: "Large Astrophysics Missions to Be Studied by NASA Prior to the 2020 Decadal Survey

Use of mobile device technology to continuously collect patient-reported symptoms during radiation therapy for head and neck cancer: A prospective feasibility study

AbstractPurposeAccurate assessment of toxicity allows for timely delivery of supportive measures during radiation therapy for head and neck cancer. The current paradigm requires weekly evaluation of patients by a provider. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the feasibility of monitoring patient reported symptoms via mobile devices.Methods and materialsWe developed a mobile application for patients to report symptoms in 5 domains using validated questions. Patients were asked to report symptoms using a mobile device once daily during treatment or more often as needed. Clinicians reviewed patient-reported symptoms during weekly symptom management visits and patients completed surveys regarding perceptions of the utility of the mobile application. The primary outcome measure was patient compliance with mobile device reporting. Compliance is defined as number of days with a symptom report divided by number of days on study.ResultsThere were 921 symptom reports collected from 22 patients during treatment. Median reporting compliance was 71% (interquartile range, 45%-80%). Median number of reports submitted per patient was 34 (interquartile range, 21-53). Median number of reports submitted by patients per week was similar throughout radiation therapy and there was significant reporting during nonclinic hours. Patients reported high satisfaction with the use of mobile devices to report symptoms.ConclusionsA substantial percentage of patients used mobile devices to continuously report symptoms throughout a course of radiation therapy for head and neck cancer. Future studies should evaluate the impact of mobile device symptom reporting on improving patient outcomes

Synthesis of Functionalised 3-Isochromanones by Silylcarbocyclisation/Desilylation Reactions

A new protocol for the synthesis of 3-isochromanone derivatives based on rhodium-promoted silylcarbocyclisation reactions of ethynylbenzyl alcohol with different arylsilanes is described. The structure of the isochromanone depends upon the reaction conditions used: when the reaction is carried out without base, (Z)-4-(aryldimethylsilyl)methylene]isochroman-3-ones are obtained as major products. These compounds can be submitted to a desilylation/aryl migration reaction to give 4-(arylmethyl)isochroman-3-ones in high yields. In contrast, in the presence of DBU (1,8-diazabicyclo[5.4.0]undec-7-ene), hydrogenation of methyleneisochroman-3-ones takes place, and the corresponding -(silylmethyl)-3-isochromanones are formed. Moreover, when internal alkynes are treated with hydrosilanes under silylcarbocyclisation reaction conditions, alcoholysis of the hydrosilanes occurs exclusively

Globular cluster systems in fossil groups: NGC6482, NGC1132 and ESO306-017

We study the globular cluster (GC) systems in three representative fossil group galaxies: the nearest (NGC6482), the prototype (NGC1132) and the most massive known to date (ESO306-017). This is the first systematic study of GC systems in fossil groups. Using data obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys in the F475W and F850LP filters, we determine the GC color and magnitude distributions, surface number density profiles, and specific frequencies. In all three systems, the GC color distribution is bimodal, the GCs are spatially more extended than the starlight, and the red population is more concentrated than the blue. The specific frequencies seem to scale with the optical luminosities of the central galaxy and span a range similar to that of the normal bright elliptical galaxies in rich environments. We also analyze the galaxy surface brightness distributions to look for deviations from the best-fit S\'ersic profiles; we find evidence of recent dynamical interaction in all three fossil group galaxies. Using X-ray data from the literature, we find that luminosity and metallicity appear to correlate with the number of GCs and their mean color, respectively. Interestingly, although NGC6482 has the lowest mass and luminosity in our sample, its GC system has the reddest mean color, and the surrounding X-ray gas has the highest metallicity.Comment: 16 pages, 13 figures. Accepted for publication in A&

'Correction:'Peer chart audits: A tool to meet Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) competency in practice-based learning and improvement

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) supports chart audit as a method to track competency in Practice-Based Learning and Improvement. We examined whether peer chart audits performed by internal medicine residents were associated with improved documentation of foot care in patients with diabetes mellitus.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A retrospective electronic chart review was performed on 347 patients with diabetes mellitus cared for by internal medicine residents in a university-based continuity clinic from May 2003 to September 2004. Residents abstracted information pertaining to documentation of foot examinations (neurological, vascular, and skin) from the charts of patients followed by their physician peers. No formal feedback or education was provided.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Significant improvement in the documentation of foot exams was observed over the course of the study. The percentage of patients receiving neurological, vascular, and skin exams increased by 20% (from 13% to 33%) (p = 0.001), 26% (from 45% to 71%) (p < 0.001), and 18% (51%–72%) (p = 0.005), respectively. Similarly, the proportion of patients receiving a well-documented exam which includes all three components – neurological, vascular and skin foot exam – increased over time (6% to 24%, p < 0.001).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Peer chart audits performed by residents in the absence of formal feedback were associated with improved documentation of the foot exam in patients with diabetes mellitus. Although this study suggests that peer chart audits may be an effective tool to improve practice-based learning and documentation of foot care in diabetic patients, evaluating the actual performance of clinical care was beyond the scope of this study and would be better addressed by a randomized controlled trial.</p

A virtual versus an augmented reality cooking task based-tools: a behavioral and physiological study on the assessment of executive functions.

[EN] Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are two novel graphics immersive techniques (GIT) that, in the last decade, have been attracting the attention of many researchers, especially in psychological research. VR can provide 3D real-life synthetic environments in which controllers allow human interaction. AR overlays synthetic elements to the real world and the human gaze to target allow hand gesture to act with synthetic elements. Both techniques are providing more ecologically environments than traditional methods, and most of the previous researches, on one side, have more focused on the use of VR for treatment and assessment showing positive effectiveness results. On the other, AR has been proving for the treatment of specific disorders but there are no studies that investigated the feasibility and effectiveness of augmented reality in the neuropsychological assessment. Starting from these premises, the present study aimed to compare the performance and sense of presence using both techniques during an ecological task, such as cooking. The study included 50 cognitively healthy subjects. The cooking task consisted of 4 levels that increased in difficulty. As the level increased, additional activities appeared. The order of presentation of each exposure condition (AR and VR) was counterbalanced for each participant. The virtual reality-cooking task has been performed through ¿HTC/VIVE¿ and augmented reality through ¿Microsoft HoloLens¿.¿Furthermore, the study recorded and compared the psychophysiological changes (heart rate and skin conductance response) during the cooking task in both conditions. To measure the sense of presence occurring during the two exposure conditions, subjects completed the SUSQ and the ITC-SOPI immediately after each condition. 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