China's vocational and technical training

China has embarked on a series of reforms designed to improve the efficiency of productive enterprises through the introduction of elements of a competitive market economy. Vocational and technical education and training (VTE) is to be expanded and improved to meet the skilled labor requirements of a changing economy. The efficiency of the VTE system in meeting changing requirements for skilled labor depends in large part on effective planning and linkages with employment. This study analyzes VTE planning and labor market linkages in the context of the economic reforms, and in comparison with the vocational education and training systems in other countries.Teaching and Learning,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Curriculum&Instruction,Gender and Education,Tertiary Education

Alignment filtering of ICESat flight data

textICESat consisted of the Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) and a commercial spacecraft bus. The stability of the GLAS to bus alignment was unknown and significant for GLAS pointing. Pointing control was performed by the bus, and variations of the GLAS alignment were effectively pointing control errors. There were four star trackers making measurements sensitive to this alignment, two on GLAS and two on the bus. Tracker pointing variations during samples from seven years of flight data were estimated using an alignment filter. The states of an alignment filter represent multiple independent attitudes, enabling the fusion of measurements from an arbitrary number of trackers and gyro units. The ICESat alignment filter states were equivalent to four tracker pointing vectors, expressed in both the body and celestial frames. Together with a star catalog, the four pointing vectors were equivalent to predictions of the tracker measurements. The stars provided nearly ideal reference points, but filter performance was improved by detecting and handling deterministic star errors. The primary result was evidence for relatively large pointing variations of the two GLAS trackers, on the order of fifty arcseconds, with both periodic orbital variations and trends on long time scales. There was also evidence of correlations between the variations of the two GLAS trackers, suggesting that they reflected GLAS to bus alignment variations.Aerospace Engineerin

The OECD Review and Higher Education

Professor Sheffield tells how the OECD review of educational policies in Canada proceeded, who were involved, and what the examiners stressed in their report. He reports also on a tentative assessment of its impact, most of which is potential or not provable. Professor Noah describes the history and procedures of OECD's reviews of the national education policies of its member states - exercises in the comparative study of education, with practical benefits. Dr. Hamm-Briicher reflects in a highly personal way on her experience as a member of the examining team and her disappointment with the meagre response to the final report on the part of Canadian governments and academics. Nevertheless, she believes strongly in the kind of international co-operation represented by the OECD reviews.Le professeur Sheffield explique a) comment l'OCED a passé en revue les politiques canadiennes de l'enseignement, b) qui a été engagé comme enquêteurs et c) où ces personnes ont mis l'accent dans leur rapport. Il donne également une évaluation provisoire d l'impact du rapport - impact potentiel pour lequel il n'existe aucune preuve. Le professeur Noah donne l'historique et les procédures des revues de l'OCED des politiques nationales d'enseignement de ses états-membres — une étude comparée de l'enseignment avec des avantages pratiques. Le docteur Hamm-Briicher donne de façon personnelle des réflexions sur ses expériences en tant que membre de l'équipe des enquêteurs. Elle indique aussi sa déception à l'égard du concours peu encourageant en vue du rapport final de la part des gouvernments au Canada et des pédagogues canadiens. Elle croit fortement, néanmoins, au genre de coopération internationale qu 'impliquent les revues de l'OCED

Central role of carotid body chemoreceptors in disordered breathing and cardiorenal dysfunction in chronic heart failure.

Oscillatory breathing (OB) patterns are observed in pre-term infants, patients with cardio-renal impairment, and in otherwise healthy humans exposed to high altitude. Enhanced carotid body (CB) chemoreflex sensitivity is common to all of these populations and is thought to contribute to these abnormal patterns by destabilizing the respiratory control system. OB patterns in chronic heart failure (CHF) patients are associated with greater levels of tonic and chemoreflex-evoked sympathetic nerve activity (SNA), which is associated with greater morbidity and poor prognosis. Enhanced chemoreflex drive may contribute to tonic elevations in SNA by strengthening the relationship between respiratory and sympathetic neural outflow. Elimination of CB afferents in experimental models of CHF has been shown to reduce OB, respiratory-sympathetic coupling, and renal SNA, and to improve autonomic balance in the heart. The CB chemoreceptors may play an important role in progression of CHF by contributing to respiratory instability and OB, which in turn further exacerbates tonic and chemoreflex-evoked increases in SNA to the heart and kidney

Design of the Data Description Language Processor

The Data Description Language (DDL) is a language for describing the structure of data, and expressing transformations that are to be performed on that data. The DDL Processor is a set of computer programs which interprets DDL statements and generates a computer program to perform the specified transformations. Together the DDL and its Processor provide a utility which can be used to perform jobs such as creating new data bases, reorganizing or extracting data from existing data bases, moving data to different storage devices, interfacing files between different programming languages, or between different operating systems. This report documents the design of the DDL Processor. Special features of the design include the use of special purpose internal languages, compiler-compiler techniques, bootstrapping methods, and a descriptor tree which aids in the parsing of input data

Relevance of the Carotid Body Chemoreflex in the Progression of Heart Failure.

Chronic heart failure (CHF) is a global health problem affecting millions of people. Autonomic dysfunction and disordered breathing patterns are commonly observed in patients with CHF, and both are strongly related to poor prognosis and high mortality risk. Tonic activation of carotid body (CB) chemoreceptors contributes to sympathoexcitation and disordered breathing patterns in experimental models of CHF. Recent studies show that ablation of the CB chemoreceptors improves autonomic function and breathing control in CHF and improves survival. These exciting findings indicate that alterations in CB function are critical to the progression of CHF. Therefore, better understanding of the physiology of the CB chemoreflex in CHF could lead to improvements in current treatments and clinical management of patients with CHF characterized by high chemosensitivity. Accordingly, the main focus of this brief review is to summarize current knowledge of CB chemoreflex function in different experimental models of CHF and to comment on their potential translation to treatment of human CHF

Designing a Solar PV System for Tree 4 Hope

The Solar Photovoltaics (PV) team designs and installs solar electricity systems in developing countries where power is less reliable or non-existent. Starting in 2020, the Solar PV team began collaborating with Tree 4 Hope—a nonprofit organization that partners with an orphanage near Guatemala City, Guatemala. Over the past year, the team has designed a solar system to be installed at the orphanage which will provide them with a cleaner and cheaper source of electricity. Thus far, the overall 5 kW solar panel system design including lead-acid batteries has been completed. Key components of the system consisting of the system controller, two charge controllers and the inverter have been programmed and tested, by plugging them into existing elements of the solar lab system, in preparation for installation in Guatemala. This poster details the progress accomplished this year in the design, testing, and programming of the Solar PV system including wiring considerations and communication with in-country suppliers for installation at the orphanage during May of this year. Funding for this work provided by The Collaboratory for Strategic Partnerships and Applied Research.https://mosaic.messiah.edu/engr2022/1016/thumbnail.jp

Carotid Body-Mediated Chemoreflex Drive in The Setting of low and High Output Heart Failure.

Enhanced carotid body (CB) chemoreflex function is strongly related to cardiorespiratory disorders and disease progression in heart failure (HF). The mechanisms underlying CB sensitization during HF are not fully understood, however previous work indicates blood flow per se can affect CB function. Then, we hypothesized that the CB-mediated chemoreflex drive will be enhanced only in low output HF but not in high output HF. Myocardial infarcted rats and aorto-caval fistulated rats were used as a low output HF model (MI-CHF) and as a high output HF model (AV-CHF), respectively. Blood flow supply to the CB region was decreased only in MI-CHF rats compared to Sham and AV-CHF rats. MI-CHF rats exhibited a significantly enhanced hypoxic ventilatory response compared to AV-CHF rats. However, apnea/hypopnea incidence was similarly increased in both MI-CHF and AV-CHF rats compared to control. Kruppel-like factor 2 expression, a flow sensitive transcription factor, was reduced in the CBs of MI-CHF rats but not in AV-CHF rats. Our results indicate that in the setting of HF, potentiation of the CB chemoreflex is strongly associated with a reduction in cardiac output and may not be related to other pathophysiological consequences of HF

SNPs Associated with Cerebrospinal Fluid Phospho-Tau Levels Influence Rate of Decline in Alzheimer's Disease

Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is a complex and multifactorial disease. While large genome-wide association studies have had some success in identifying novel genetic risk factors for AD, case-control studies are less likely to uncover genetic factors that influence progression of disease. An alternative approach to identifying genetic risk for AD is the use of quantitative traits or endophenotypes. The use of endophenotypes has proven to be an effective strategy, implicating genetic risk factors in several diseases, including anemia, osteoporosis and heart disease. In this study we identify a genetic factor associated with the rate of decline in AD patients and present a methodology for identification of other such factors. We have used an established biomarker for AD, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) tau phosphorylated at threonine 181 (ptau181) levels as an endophenotype for AD, identifying a SNP, rs1868402, in the gene encoding the regulatory sub-unit of protein phosphatase B, associated with CSF ptau181 levels in two independent CSF series . We show no association of rs1868402 with risk for AD or age at onset, but detected a very significant association with rate of progression of disease that is consistent in two independent series . Our analyses suggest that genetic variants associated with CSF ptau181 levels may have a greater impact on rate of progression, while genetic variants such as APOE4, that are associated with CSF Aβ42 levels influence risk and onset but not the rate of progression. Our results also suggest that drugs that inhibit or decrease tau phosphorylation may slow cognitive decline in individuals with very mild dementia or delay the appearance of memory problems in elderly individuals with low CSF Aβ42 levels. Finally, we believe genome-wide association studies of CSF tau/ptau181 levels should identify novel genetic variants which will likely influence rate of progression of AD