Tool post modification allows easy turret lathe cutting-tool alignment

Modified tool holder and tool post permit alignment of turret lathe cutting tools on the center of the spindle. The tool is aligned with the spindle by the holder which is kept in position by a hydraulic lock in feature of the tool post. The tool post is used on horizontal and vertical turret lathes and other engine lathes

Material Analysis of 3D Welded 5356 Aluminum Alloy

Metal 3D printing has been reserved for aerospace and high-end automotive industries because of its cost. A gas metal arc welder (GMAW) on a rugged 3D printer frame could make metal additive manufacturing an option for more industries and consumers. 3D welded aluminum has not been examined in depth as an option for additive manufacturing (AM). Extensive tests are necessary to determine the correct settings to use a metal inert gas (MIG) welder for AM. Porosity within the welded material must be evaluated to better understand the additive process. The material properties of 3D welded aluminum will be tested and compared to existing additive and traditional manufacturing methods. If strong enough this could reduce the cost of aerospace expeditions making tools like CubeSats more accessible to lower budget entities. Additionally, metal additive manufacturing could become more available and cost effective to use in any industry that requires manufacturing

Pharmacist Perceptions Toward Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment for Prescription Opioid Misuse: Initial Instrument Reliability and Validity

Prescription opioid misuse has become a growing problem in the United States, and there has been a significant increase in the number of nonfatal overdose and overdose deaths since the 1990s. Idaho has also experienced an increase in the number of drug-induced deaths over time, increasing nearly 30% from 2012 to 2016. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicates overprescribing and dispensing of prescription opioids is a main driver to the increase in overdoses. Evidence-based early intervention methods, such as screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT), can be utilized in health care settings to identify risky behaviors among individuals who may not be seeking help for substance problems. However, limited research has been done to examine SBIRT in a pharmacy setting and in pharmacist perceptions toward performing SBIRT for prescription opioid misuse. The purpose of this study was to develop an instrument based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to measure pharmacist perceptions toward using SBIRT for prescription misuse and then test initial validity and reliability. To construct appropriate questions, survey items for attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, past behavior, and intention were developed from a previous TPB instrument on the utilization of the prescription monitoring program. After data was collected, psychometric testing was initiated and included factor analysis, testing the internal consistency of the subscales, and a correlation to determine the degree of similarity between subscales. A Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used to extract factors in this study with a non-orthogonal rotation (Direct Oblimin). Items were retained if they loaded onto a factor at |0.4| or higher. Findings supported the eight-factor solution that was conceptually hypothesized with strong internal consistency for each construct. Cronbach’s alpha scores were 0.7 and above for all factors except for past behavior. These results offer a foundation for future research to build on the instrument and inform interventions that may shape pharmacist readiness in prescription misuse early intervention strategies

Chimpanzee Signing: Darwinian Realities and Cartesian Delusions

Truly discontinuous, all-or-none phenomena must be rare in nature. Historically, the great discontinuities have turned out to be conceptual barriers rather than natural phenomena. They have been passed by and abandoned rather than broken through in the course of scientific progress. The sign language studies in chimpanzees have neither sought nor discovered a means of breathing humanity into the soul of a beast. They have assumed instead that there is no discontinuity between verbal behavior and the rest of human behavior or between human behavior and the rest of animal behavior—no barrier to be broken, no chasm to be bridged, only unknown territory to be explored

Development and implementation of the verification process for the shuttle avionics system

The background of the shuttle avionics system design and the unique drivers associated with the redundant digital multiplexed data processing system are examined. With flight software pervading to the lowest elements of the flight critical subsystems, it was necessary to identify a unique and orderly approach of verifying the system as flight ready for STS-1. The approach and implementation plan is discussed, and both technical problems and management issues are dealt with