Operating Under Uncertainty: The Public and Private Funding of Domestic Violence Service Providers in Virginia

This piece intends to provide a comprehensive description of the funding structures in place to support non-profit domestic violence service providers in the state of Virginia

The Readiness Monitoring Tool: Investigating The Psychometric Evidence For Group-Level Aggregation In Two Samples

Organizational readiness is an essential factor for successful implementation of a particular innovation. Although there is general consensus within the research literature on the importance of organizational readiness, there has been significantly less agreement on the nature of readiness as a construct and how it should be operationalized. Previous research has focused on organizational readiness for change at both the individual and organizational levels, but measures based on these theories of readiness have typically lacked evidence of reliability and validity. The R=MC2 heuristic and its associated measure, the Readiness Monitoring Tool (RMT), offer a compelling and comprehensive approach by which organizations can identify specific areas of readiness which could benefit from capacity-building efforts to strengthen implementation supports. Initial psychometric analysis of the RMT has included establishing internal reliability, content validity, criterion validity, and preliminary factor structure, but additional testing is required to establish the RMT as a theoretically-informed and psychometrically-sound measure. This study presents the results of a psychometric assessment of data from two project samples, including 1) a comparison of internal consistency measures to determine whether this property is maintained across project-specific adaptations and 2) calculation of interrater agreement and interrater reliability statistics to provide evidence for group-level aggregation of individual-level RMT data. Individual-level data was collected from seven projects that had previously adapted the RMT; two projects were selected for analysis based on strong per-site participation. Internal consistency was assessed by calculating alpha coefficients for each RMT subscale. Interrater agreement and interrater reliability was assessed using rWG, ADM, ICC(1), and ICC(2) estimates. Internal reliability analysis showed very good internal consistency for the majority of subscales. Interrater reliability and interrater agreement statistics supported group-level aggregation of individual-level responses. This study provides evidence in support of RMT as an adaptable measure capable of reliably and validly representing an organization’s readiness by surveying its members. Occasional variability in results between subscales, sites, and projects informs recommendations for future study and implications for practical RMT use. Although further development is required, the RMT shows promise as an adaptable measure of organizational readiness capable of informing targeted capacity-building support

Deep space network support of the manned space flight network for Apollo, volume 2 Technical memorandum, 1969 - 1970

Deep Space Network support activities for Apollo 9 through 13 flights and associated equipmen

Support Vector Machine classification of strong gravitational lenses

The imminent advent of very large-scale optical sky surveys, such as Euclid and LSST, makes it important to find efficient ways of discovering rare objects such as strong gravitational lens systems, where a background object is multiply gravitationally imaged by a foreground mass. As well as finding the lens systems, it is important to reject false positives due to intrinsic structure in galaxies, and much work is in progress with machine learning algorithms such as neural networks in order to achieve both these aims. We present and discuss a Support Vector Machine (SVM) algorithm which makes use of a Gabor filterbank in order to provide learning criteria for separation of lenses and non-lenses, and demonstrate using blind challenges that under certain circumstances it is a particularly efficient algorithm for rejecting false positives. We compare the SVM engine with a large-scale human examination of 100000 simulated lenses in a challenge dataset, and also apply the SVM method to survey images from the Kilo-Degree Survey.Comment: Accepted by MNRA

Computational design of graphitic carbon nitride photocatalysts for water splitting

A series of structures based on graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4), a layered material composed of linked carbon-nitrogen heterocycles arranged in a plane, were investigated by density functional theory calculations. g-C3N4 is a semiconductor that absorbs UV light and visible light at the blue end of the visible spectrum, and is widely studied as a photocatalyst for water splitting; however, its photocatalytic efficiency is limited by its poor light-harvesting ability and low charge mobilities. Modifications to the g-C3N4 structure could greatly improve its optical and electronic properties and its photocatalytic efficiency. In this work, the g-C3N4 structure was modified by replacing the nitrogen linker with heteroatoms (phosphorus, boron) or aromatic groups (benzene, s-triazine and substituted benzenes). Two-dimensional (2D) sheets and three-dimensional (3D) multilayer structures with different stacking types were modelled. Several new structures were predicted to have electronic properties superior to g-C3N4 for use as water splitting photocatalysts. In particular, introduction of benzene and s-triazine groups led to band gaps smaller than in the standard g-C3N4 (down to 2.4 eV, corresponding to green light). Doping with boron in the linker positions dramatically reduced the band gap (to 1.7 eV, corresponding to red light); the doped material had the valence band position suitable for water oxidation. Our computational study showed that chemical modification of g-C3N4 is a powerful method to tune this material’s electronic properties and improve its photocatalytic activity

A Strategy for Imidazotetrazine Prodrugs with Anti-cancer Activity Independent of MGMT and MMR

The imidazotetrazine ring is an acid-stable precursor and prodrug of highly-reactive alkyl diazonium ions. We have shown that this reactivity can be managed productively in an aqueous system for the generation of aziridinium ions with 96% efficiency. The new compounds are potent DNA alkylators and have antitumor activity independent of the O6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase and DNA mismatch repair constraints that limit the use of temozolomide

‘Paris with snakes’? The future of communication is/as ‘Cultural Science’

What if communication has been pursuing the wrong kind of science? This article argues that the physics-based or ‘transmission’ model derived from Claude Shannon and criticised by James Carey does not explain how communication works. We argue instead for a model derived from the evolutionary and complexity sciences. Here, communication is based on dynamic systems of meaning (not individual ‘particles’ of information), and relations among knowledge-producing agents in culture-made groups. We call this sign-based evolutionary and systems model of communication ‘cultural science’ (Hartley and Potts, 2014), and invite communication scholars to assist in its development as a ‘modern synthesis’ for communication, along the lines of Huxley’s synthesis of botany and zoology as evolutionary bioscience

Dysphonia secondary to traumatic avulsion of the vocal fold in infants

Objective: Airway compromise due to paediatric intubation injuries is well documented; however, intubation injuries may also cause severe voice disorders. We report our experience and review the world literature on the voice effects of traumatic paediatric intubation. Case series: We report five cases of children referred to Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children who suffered traumatic avulsion of the vocal fold at the time of, or secondary to, endotracheal intubation. All children had significant dysphonia and underwent specialist voice therapy. Conclusions: The mechanisms of injury, risk factors and management of the condition are discussed. Children suffering traumatic intubation require follow up throughout childhood and beyond puberty as their vocal needs and abilities change. At the time of writing, none of the reported patients had yet undergone reconstructive or medialisation surgery. However, regular specialist voice therapy evaluation is recommended for such patients, with consideration of phonosurgical techniques including injection laryngoplasty or thyroplasty

Stories tell us? Political narrative, demes, and the transmission of knowledge through culture

This paper compares two institutions of storytelling, mainstream national narratives and self-represented digital storytelling. It considers the centenary of World War 1, especially the Gallipoli campaign (1915) and its role in forming Australian ‘national character’. Using the new approach of cultural science, it investigates storytelling as a means by which cultures make and bind groups or ‘demes’. It finds that that demic (group-made) knowledge trumps individual experience, and that self-representation (digital storytelling) tends to copy the national narrative, even when the latter is known not to be true. The paper discusses the importance of culture in the creation of knowledge, arguing that if the radical potential of digital storytelling is to be understood – and realised – then a systems (as opposed to behavioural) approach to communication is necessary. Without a new model of knowledge, it seems we are stuck with repetition of the same old story