Recovery Assessment Scale - Domains and Stages (RAS-DS) Manual - Version 2

Manual to guide administration of the Recovery Assessment Scale - Domains and Stages (RAS-DS). The RAS-DS has 38 items or statements for the consumer to rate. It is a Likert scale with 4 rating categories for consumers to select from: “untrue”; “a bit true”; “mostly true” and “completely true”. The items have been divided into 4 recovery domains: Doing Things I Value (functional recovery); Looking Forward (personal recovery); Mastering My Illness (clinical recovery) and Connecting and Belonging (social recovery)

Modal Test of Six-Meter Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator

A modal test was performed on the six-meter Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (HIAD) test article to gain a firm understanding of the dynamic characteristics of the unloaded structure within the low frequency range. The tests involved various configurations of the HIAD to understand the influence of the tri-torus, the varying pressure within the toroids and the influence of straps. The primary test was conducted utilizing an eletrodynamic shaker and the results were verified using a step relaxation technique. The analysis results show an increase in the structure's stiffness with respect to increasing pressure. The results also show the rise of coupled modes with the tri-torus configurations. During the testing activity, the attached straps exhibited a behavior that is similar to that described as fuzzy structures in the literature. Therefore extensive tests were also performed by utilizing foam to mitigate these effects as well as understand the modal parameters of these fuzzy sub structures. Results are being utilized to update the finite element model of the six-meter HIAD and to gain a better understanding of the modeling of complex inflatable structures

Natural Categorization: Electrophysiological Responses to Viewing Natural Versus Built Environments

Environments are unique in terms of structural composition and evoked human experience. Previous studies suggest that natural compared to built environments may increase positive emotions. Humans in natural environments also demonstrate greater performance on attention-based tasks. Few studies have investigated cortical mechanisms underlying these phenomena or probed these differences from a neural perspective. Using a temporally sensitive electrophysiological approach, we employ an event-related, implicit passive viewing task to demonstrate that in humans, a greater late positive potential (LPP) occurs with exposure to built than natural environments, resulting in a faster return of activation to pre-stimulus baseline levels when viewing natural environments. Our research thus provides new evidence suggesting natural environments are perceived differently from built environments, converging with previous behavioral findings and theoretical assumptions from environmental psychology

Recommendations for Developing a Process to Prioritize and Evaluate Performance-based Pay Raise Requests

This research project seeks to develop recommendations for a systematic process for prioritizing and evaluating performance-based pay increase requests at the South Carolina Department of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism that can be applied throughout all agency divisions and that relies either exclusively or primarily on objective criteria and information about the employee

Kink scaling functions in 2D non--integrable quantum field theories

We determine the semiclassical energy levels for the \phi^4 field theory in the broken symmetry phase on a 2D cylindrical geometry with antiperiodic boundary conditions by quantizing the appropriate finite--volume kink solutions. The analytic form of the kink scaling functions for arbitrary size of the system allows us to describe the flow between the twisted sector of c=1 CFT in the UV region and the massive particles in the IR limit. Kink-creating operators are shown to correspond in the UV limit to disorder fields of the c=1 CFT. The problem of the finite--volume spectrum for generic 2D Landau--Ginzburg models is also discussed.Comment: 30 pages, 10 figure

Oligopolyphenylenevinylene-Conjugated Oligoelectrolyte Membrane Insertion Molecules Selectively Disrupt Cell Envelopes of Gram-Positive Bacteria

The modification of microbial membranes to achieve biotechnological strain improvement with exogenous small molecules, such as oligopolyphenylenevinylene-conjugated oligoelectrolyte (OPV-COE) membrane insertion molecules (MIMs), is an emerging biotechnological field. Little is known about the interactions of OPV-COEs with their target, the bacterial envelope. We studied the toxicity of three previously reported OPV-COEs with a selection of Gram-negative and Gram-positive organisms and demonstrated that Gram-positive bacteria are more sensitive to OPV-COEs than Gram-negative bacteria. Transmission electron microscopy demonstrated that these MIMs disrupt microbial membranes and that this occurred to a much greater degree in Gram-positive organisms. We used a number of mutants to probe the nature of MIM interactions with the microbial envelope but were unable to align the membrane perturbation effects of these compounds to previously reported membrane disruption mechanisms of, for example, cationic antimicrobial peptides. Instead, the data support the notion that OPV-COEs disrupt microbial membranes through a suspected interaction with diphosphatidylglycerol (DPG), a major component of Gram-positive membranes. The integrity of model membranes containing elevated amounts of DPG was disrupted to a greater extent by MIMs than those prepared from Escherichia coli total lipid extracts alone

Breaking down Barriers: Co-designed recommendations to reduce stakeholder identified NDIS access barriers for people with psychosocial disability

The Issue The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) commenced in 2016 and is designed to support people with all types of disability including those living with psychosocial disability. However, many thousands of Australians living with psychosocial disability have still not applied to access the Scheme and are consequently missing out on their right to receive valuable NDIS supports to advance their social and economic inclusion. The Project Aims The project aims were to work with stakeholders to 1. Understand the barriers to applying to the NDIS for people living with psychosocial disability, and 2. Identify solutions to remove or reduce these barriers and to synthesise these into a practical set of stakeholder-informed recommendations. Across all states and territories, 386 stakeholders collaborated on this project. Stakeholders included: 1. people living with psychosocial disability of mental distress; 2. their family and friends, and 3. workers and organisations engaged in supporting or advocating for them. The Approach The project was conducted over three phases: 1. A scoping review of literature to identify previously reported barriers to applying to the NDIS for people with psychosocial disability – used to inform phase 2 survey. 2. A national survey to identify current, stakeholder informed and prioritised barriers. 3. Co-design of practical, lived experience informed recommendations to address NDIS access barriers with stakeholders. The Barriers Stakeholders described ten broad and interconnected NDIS access barriers for people with psychosocial disability. These included: 1. Key information about NDIS is confusing or not accessible 2. Hard to get supports to help to apply - formal (services) and informal (family and friends) 3. Hard to obtain evidence required by the NDIA 4. Application process is too long, complicated, and inflexible 5. Application process is harmful to mental health and well-being 6. The application process does not accommodate for mental illness and psychosocial disability 7. The negative reputation of NDIA staff and culture 8. Disconnect between ‘disability’ and ‘recovery’ 9. Personal beliefs, fears and stigma, and 10. It is not worth it – NDIS won’t meet my needs anyway. Each of these is detailed within the report. The Recommendations Seven recommendations were identified, reviewed and refined by stakeholders. These recommendations are practical, lived-experience informed actions to address NDIS access barriers faced by people living with psychosocial disability. 1. Build, maintain and disseminate accurate, up-to-date, easily accessible information - Update, enhance and build upon best currently available information. Invest in and maintain the update of a single national source of information. Enhance the dissemination of this information including easy read downloadable one-pagers that can be printed and paper-based fliers to maximise accessibility. 2. Co-develop and co-deliver systemic training and establish workforce support champions – Co-develop and deliver continually available training for health and community service providers. GPs, public, community and private mental health, disability and social services require ongoing access to training about the psychosocial stream of the NDIS. Workforce support champions will provide expert support and guidance to complement this training so that workers can provide accurate and helpful support, advice and evidence to people who are considering or are applying for the NDIS. 3. Establish navigator positions – independent and psychosocial specific - Create a clear, independent NDIS Psychosocial specific Navigator role to assist individuals, family members and service providers throughout the NDIS application process. 4. Cover out-of-pocket expenses - Create funding streams or models of reimbursement to ensure that people have equitable access to the experts required to provide evidence of psychosocial disability without incurring out-of-pocket expenses. 5. Commission and fund an independent evaluation of the application process specifically for people with psychosocial disability - Independent evaluation of the impacts of: a) recent legislative changes; b) the future implementation of the Recovery Framework; and c) adoption and future implementation of the recommendations within this report, on the experiences of the NDIS application process for people living with psychosocial disability. 6. Co-develop and co-deliver recovery and psychosocial disability training for a. NDIA staff, b) NDIA partner staff (Local Area Coordinators - LACs), and c) NDIS service provider staff (community managed/controlled organisations) - All staff within these 3 distinct workforces need to have access to recovery-oriented, trauma-informed psychosocial disability training and education that is co-developed and co-delivered with people with psychosocial disability. 7. Commission and fund an independent review of NDIA culture and workforce issues - Review the impact of implementing the NDIS Psychosocial Recovery-Oriented Framework agenda on NDIA staffing practice and cultural issues. Conclusion Almost 400 stakeholders partnered with us to identify current barriers to applying for NDIS support. They then engaged with us to develop seven key, lived experience informed, recommendations to address those barriers. These seven practical action-oriented recommendations need urgent implementation to enable the people living with psychosocial disability who are most disadvantaged and most in need of NDIS support to be able to apply for that support. The feasibility and value of each of these recommendations is evidenced by them being raised across numerous previous national NDIS-focused reports including for example, the Tune Review and the ‘Mind the Gap’ report. Today, stakeholders are asking for more than policymakers’ awareness of the barriers that deny much needed NDIS access – although these too are re-iterated and further detailed within this report. Stakeholders call for immediate investment in these practical actions to ‘break down barriers’ to accessing NDIS support and by doing so, improve the lives of many Australians living with psychosocial disability

Ice Core Collection Experimental Device (ICCED)

The Ice Core Collection Experimental Device (ICCED) is designed for participation in the NASA Microgravity Neutral Buoyancy Experiment Design Teams (Micro-g NExT) “Under Ice Sampling Device” challenge. This challenge involves the design, development, and testing of a sampling device that will interface with a submersible vehicle in order to obtain subsurface ice samples in an underwater environment. ICCED is a remotely controlled, underwater drilling device designed to excavate and extract ice cores of 0.5 inches in diameter and 3 inches in length. ICCED consists of a drill connected to a linear slide, which is controlled by a microprocessor and able to cut through ice with the help of attached blades and a servo to power the drill. This device is designed for operation in environments such as those present on the moons of Europa and Enceladus, during which it will be able to drill into an ice surface, collect a sample, and secure the sample inside an insulated module. Development of the device is currently in the prototyping stage. Prototyping will be finished by the end of March, and the team will begin testing the prototype and redesigning, with a final model completed in April. Once final development is completed, the design will be tested in the Johnson Space Center’s Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory

PRECISE - pregabalin in addition to usual care for sciatica: Study protocol for a randomised controlled trial

Background: Sciatica is a type of neuropathic pain that is characterised by pain radiating into the leg. It is often accompanied by low back pain and neurological deficits in the lower limb. While this condition may cause significant suffering for the individual, the lack of evidence supporting effective treatments for sciatica makes clinical management difficult. Our objectives are to determine the efficacy of pregabalin on reducing leg pain intensity and its cost-effectiveness in patients with sciatica.Methods/Design: PRECISE is a prospectively registered, double-blind, randomised placebo-controlled trial of pregabalin compared to placebo, in addition to usual care. Inclusion criteria include moderate to severe leg pain below the knee with evidence of nerve root/spinal nerve involvement. Participants will be randomised to receive either pregabalin with usual care (n = 102) or placebo with usual care (n = 102) for 8 weeks. The medicine dosage will be titrated up to the participant's optimal dose, to a maximum 600 mg per day. Follow up consultations will monitor individual progress, tolerability and adverse events. Usual care, if deemed appropriate by the study doctor, may include a referral for physical or manual therapy and/or prescription of analgesic medication. Participants, doctors and researchers collecting participant data will be blinded to treatment allocation. Participants will be assessed at baseline and at weeks 2, 4, 8, 12, 26 and 52. The primary outcome will determine the efficacy of pregabalin in reducing leg pain intensity. Secondary outcomes will include back pain intensity, disability and quality of life. Data analysis will be blinded and by intention-to-treat. A parallel economic evaluation will be conducted from health sector and societal perspectives.Discussion: This study will establish the efficacy of pregabalin in reducing leg pain intensity in patients with sciatica and provide important information regarding the effect of pregabalin treatment on disability and quality of life. The impact of this research may allow the future development of a cost-effective conservative treatment strategy for patients with sciatica.Trial registration: ClinicalTrial.gov, ACTRN 12613000530729