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Risk and Uncertainty,

Communication System For Firefighters

Currently firefighters use two-way radios to communicate on the job, and they are forced to write reports based on their memory because there is not an easy way to record the communications between two-way radios. Firefighters need a system to automatically document what happened while they were responding to a call. To save them a significant amount of time when creating reports, our solution is to implement an application that allows firefighters to take pictures, record video and communicate in real time with their team of on-site responders. The proposed system will use a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) hosted on the fire truck itself to act as an access point (AP) to which the firefighters can connect. This AP will also save communication between firefighters to a local storage location. Upon return to the fire station, the AP will route all of the information stored locally to a larger database. For now, Wi-Fi will be our communication medium, with a prediction that our technology can eventually be extended to include radio signal

Operations Research in the High Tech Military Environment: A Survey

The use of operations research as a technology to solve many of the problems of government and industry has become a major field of study within the very short span of the last fifty years. In the paper entitled, Operations Research in the High Tech Military Environment: A Survey, the reader is provided with a better understanding of the tenets of operations research through an examination of a representative sample of the latest operations research applications developed for the high tech environment. Initially, this involves providing the reader with some fundamental insights into what operations research is, what its practitioners do, and how the state-of-the-art has evolved to its present form. It then involves providing a brief description of what is meant by the term, high tech military environment. A survey, which constitutes the bulk of the material presented, focuses on how various operations research methodologies are being used within that environment. The paper concludes with a discussion of the possible directions operations research will take in the future, based on the present state-of-the-art

Workers of the Sunshine State Unite!: The Florida Socialist Party During the Progressive Era, 1900-1920

Florida, whether under Democratic or Republican political control, has always appeared to most outside observers as a haven for political conservatism. Outward appearances, however, often prove to be quite deceptive. Florida politics during the Progressive Era may be such a case. In 1912, the Socialist presidential candidate, Eugene Debs, garnered more votes in Florida than Theodore Roosevelt or William Howard Taft, and Florida was the only state of the former Confederacy where this minor party finished as high as second place in the total vote. A canvass of Progressive Era voting results reveals the steady growth of Socialist electoral strength in Florida from 1900 to 1912, before tapering off from 1912 to 1920. From 1904 to 1920 Florida was the only southern state registering more than 2,000 radical votes in every presidential election. Florida recorded the highest percentage of left-winged votes for any ex-Confederate state in four presidential elections: 1904, 1908, 1912, and 1920. Only Arkansas\u27s returns, in 1916, interrupted the sunshine state\u27s claim as the home of southern radicalism.

A Case Study Exploration of Blue-Collar Worker Retirement Plan Investment Decisions

The finances of blue-collar workers were the most acutely impacted as these workers lost their jobs during the Great Recession of 2007 through 2009. The literature revealed a minimal understanding of how blue-collar workers allocated funds for their retirement, and what their investments might be when they invested. To address this problem, the current qualitative study addressed (a) how blue-collar workers chose to invest or not invest for retirement and (b) how blue-collar workers diversified their portfolio if they chose to invest. Theoretical foundations of the study were based on regret theory and prospect theory. A nonrandom purposeful sample of 10 blue-collar worker participants answered 19 open-ended questions. Data from these questions were analyzed inductively. Findings revealed that, as participants reached the age of 30, they started to consider investing for their retirement. Participants under the age of 30 were not as likely to invest. Only one person over the age of 30 did not invest for retirement. The factors that contributed to these blue-collar workers’ investment decisions for retirement were based on an employer-provided retirement accounts, the fear of running out of money later in life during retirement, and the addition of new family members. One of the most popular retirement investment products for the participant group, which included mechanics, laborers, and material movers, was the U.S. Treasury bonds. Other popular investments were mutual funds, 401(k)s, and IRAs. These findings may inform researchers who are conducting a study on the investment decisions of blue-collar workers. The findings can also be beneficial for other blue-collar workers by showing them that other blue-collar workers do invest, and by revealing their rationales in doing so

Evacuated Enclosure Mounted Acoustic Actuator and Passive Attenuator

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/77190/1/AIAA-2002-1355-680.pd

Self-Tuning Tunable Mass Dampers

A tunable mass damper incorporates a frame and a voice coil supported in the frame. A magnet concentric with the voice coil is movable relative to the housing via the voice coil. A plurality of flexures having a first end extending from the magnet and an arm releasably coupled to the frame are adjustable to an effective length for a desired frequency of reciprocation of the magnet

Redo aortic valve replacement after partial upper sternotomy (hemisternotomy) in a patient with idiopathic thrombocytopenia: a case report

BACKGROUND: We present a case of redo aortic valve replacement in a patient with thrombocytopenia. The initial operation was performed through limited access transverse sternotomy. This is the first report of this kind in the literature. CASE PRESENTATION: A 62 year old Caucasian male farmer with thrombocytopenia had uneventful redo aortic valve replacement when the first xenograft failed after 9 years, the transverse upper hemisternotomy in the first operation appearing to facilitate the redo complete sternotomy. CONCLUSION: With this only case of redo aortic valve replacement in our practice of 90 hemisternotomies over 10 years we present for consideration the use of a tissue valve in a complex relatively young patient

Low zinc status and absorption exist in infants with jejunostomies or ileostomies which persists after intestinal repair.

There is very little data regarding trace mineral nutrition in infants with small intestinal ostomies. Here we evaluated 14 infants with jejunal or ileal ostomies to measure their zinc absorption and retention and biochemical zinc and copper status. Zinc absorption was measured using a dual-tracer stable isotope technique at two different time points when possible. The first study was conducted when the subject was receiving maximal tolerated feeds enterally while the ostomy remained in place. A second study was performed as soon as feasible after full feeds were achieved after intestinal repair. We found biochemical evidence of deficiencies of both zinc and copper in infants with small intestinal ostomies at both time points. Fractional zinc absorption with an ostomy in place was 10.9% ± 5.3%. After reanastamosis, fractional zinc absorption was 9.4% ± 5.7%. Net zinc balance was negative prior to reanastamosis. In conclusion, our data demonstrate that infants with a jejunostomy or ileostomy are at high risk for zinc and copper deficiency before and after intestinal reanastamosis. Additional supplementation, especially of zinc, should be considered during this time period