A Tracking System to Assure Quality and User Satisfaction

This article describes a Tracking System employed to organize an enterprise information system into a comprehensive system to ensure quality and customer satisfaction. Using database searches to locate past users of a service and identify previous users of a similar or related service, the Tracking System allows Extension professionals to efficiently deliver value to customers

Agriculture Environmental Management System Electronic Manure Handling Process Map

Utah State University Cooperative Extension Agriculture Environmental Management Systems participants developed an electronic process flow method for identifying aspects and assessing impacts from the manure handling systems on animal feeding operations. This method breaks the manure handling system into manageable portions by delineating every process and support activity on a process flow diagram. Then each process and activity is individually examined to identify associated aspects. This approach expedites the identification of aspects in relation to those processes and activities. It also fulfills the operational control condition to identify those operations and activities that are associated with identified significant environmental aspects

Prevalence of iron deficiency in 62,685 women of seven race/ethnicity groups: The HEIRS Study.

BackgroundFew cross-sectional studies report iron deficiency (ID) prevalence in women of different race/ethnicity and ages in US or Canada.Materials and methodsWe evaluated screening observations on women who participated between 2001-2003 in a cross-sectional, primary care-based sample of adults ages ≥25 y whose observations were complete: race/ethnicity; age; transferrin saturation; serum ferritin; and HFE p.C282Y and p.H63D alleles. We defined ID using a stringent criterion: combined transferrin saturation <10% and serum ferritin <33.7 pmol/L (<15 μg/L). We compared ID prevalence in women of different race/ethnicity subgrouped by age and determined associations of p.C282Y and p.H63D to ID overall, and to ID in women ages 25-44 y with or without self-reported pregnancy.ResultsThese 62,685 women included 27,079 whites, 17,272 blacks, 8,566 Hispanics, 7,615 Asians, 449 Pacific Islanders, 441 Native Americans, and 1,263 participants of other race/ethnicity. Proportions of women with ID were higher in Hispanics and blacks than whites and Asians. Prevalence of ID was significantly greater in women ages 25-54 y of all race/ethnicity groups than women ages ≥55 y of corresponding race/ethnicity. In women ages ≥55 y, ID prevalence did not differ significantly across race/ethnicity. p.C282Y and p.H63D prevalence did not differ significantly in women with or without ID, regardless of race/ethnicity, age subgroup, or pregnancy.ConclusionsID prevalence was greater in Hispanic and black than white and Asian women ages 25-54 y. p.C282Y and p.H63D prevalence did not differ significantly in women with or without ID, regardless of race/ethnicity, age subgroup, or pregnancy

On the de Haas-van Alphen effect in inhomogeneous alloys

We show that Landau level broadening in alloys occurs naturally as a consequence of random variations in the local quasiparticle density, without the need to consider a relaxation time. This approach predicts Lorentzian-broadened Landau levels similar to those derived by Dingle using the relaxation-time approximation. However, rather than being determined by a finite relaxation time $\tau$, the Landau-level widths instead depend directly on the rate at which the de Haas-van Alphen frequency changes with alloy composition. The results are in good agreement with recent data from three very different alloy systems.Comment: 5 pages, no figure

Assessing direct contributions of morphological awareness and prosodic sensitivity to children’s word reading and reading comprehension

We examined the independent contributions of prosodic sensitivity and morphological awareness to word reading, text reading accuracy, and reading comprehension. We did so in a longitudinal study of English-speaking children (N = 70). At 5 to 7 years of age, children completed the metalinguistic measures along with control measures of phonological awareness and vocabulary. Children completed the reading measures two years later. Morphological awareness, but not prosodic sensitivity made a significant independent contribution to word reading, text reading accuracy and reading comprehension. The effects of morphological awareness on reading comprehension remained after controls for word reading. These results suggest that morphological awareness needs to be considered seriously in models of reading development and that prosodic sensitivity might have primarily indirect relations to reading outcomes. Keywords: Morphological Awareness; Prosody; Word Reading; Reading Comprehension

Test for interlayer coherence in a quasi-two-dimensional superconductor

Peaks in the magnetoresistivity of the layered superconductor $\kappa$-(BEDT-TTF)$_2$Cu(NCS)$_2$, measured in fields $\leq 45$ T applied within the layers, show that the Fermi surface is extended in the interlayer direction and enable the interlayer transfer integral ($t_{\perp} \approx 0.04$ meV) to be deduced. However, the quasiparticle scattering rate $\tau^{-1}$ is such that $\hbar/\tau \sim 6t_{\perp}$, implying that $\kappa$-(BEDT-TTF)$_2$Cu(NCS)$_2$ meets the criterion used to identify interlayer incoherence. The applicability of this criterion to anisotropic materials is thus shown to be questionable.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Brokered Graph State Quantum Computing

We describe a procedure for graph state quantum computing that is tailored to fully exploit the physics of optically active multi-level systems. Leveraging ideas from the literature on distributed computation together with the recent work on probabilistic cluster state synthesis, our model assigns to each physical system two logical qubits: the broker and the client. Groups of brokers negotiate new graph state fragments via a probabilistic optical protocol. Completed fragments are mapped from broker to clients via a simple state transition and measurement. The clients, whose role is to store the nascent graph state long term, remain entirely insulated from failures during the brokerage. We describe an implementation in terms of NV-centres in diamond, where brokers and clients are very naturally embodied as electron and nuclear spins.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Spherical Curvature Inhomogeneities in String Cosmology

We study the evolution of non-linear spherically symmetric inhomogeneities in string cosmology. Friedmann solutions of different spatial curvature are matched to produce solutions which describe the evolution of non-linear density and curvature inhomogeneities. The evolution of bound and unbound inhomogeneities are studied. The problem of primordial black hole formation is discussed in the string cosmological context and the pattern of evolution is determined in the pre- and post-big-bang phases of evolution.Comment: 19 pages, Latex, 4 figure

Work-Unit Absenteeism: Effects of Satisfaction, Commitment, Labor Market Conditions, and Time

Prior research is limited in explaining absenteeism at the unit level and over time. We developed and tested a model of unit-level absenteeism using five waves of data collected over six years from 115 work units in a large state agency. Unit-level job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and local unemployment were modeled as time-varying predictors of absenteeism. Shared satisfaction and commitment interacted in predicting absenteeism but were not related to the rate of change in absenteeism over time. Unit-level satisfaction and commitment were more strongly related to absenteeism when units were located in areas with plentiful job alternatives

The meaning of life in a developing universe

The evolution of life on Earth has produced an organism that is beginning to model and understand its own evolution and the possible future evolution of life in the universe. These models and associated evidence show that evolution on Earth has a trajectory. The scale over which living processes are organized cooperatively has increased progressively, as has its evolvability. Recent theoretical advances raise the possibility that this trajectory is itself part of a wider developmental process. According to these theories, the developmental process has been shaped by a larger evolutionary process that involves the reproduction of universes. This evolutionary process has tuned the key parameters of the universe to increase the likelihood that life will emerge and develop to produce outcomes that are successful in the larger process (e.g. a key outcome may be to produce life and intelligence that intentionally reproduces the universe and tunes the parameters of ‘offspring’ universes). Theory suggests that when life emerges on a planet, it moves along this trajectory of its own accord. However, at a particular point evolution will continue to advance only if organisms emerge that decide to advance the evolutionary process intentionally. The organisms must be prepared to make this commitment even though the ultimate nature and destination of the process is uncertain, and may forever remain unknown. Organisms that complete this transition to intentional evolution will drive the further development of life and intelligence in the universe. Humanity’s increasing understanding of the evolution of life in the universe is rapidly bringing it to the threshold of this major evolutionary transition