Administrative automation in a scientific environment

Although the scientific personnel at GSFC were advanced in the development and use of hardware and software for scientific applications, resistance to the use of automation or purchase of terminals, software and services, specifically for administrative functions was widespread. The approach used to address problems and constraints and plans for administrative automation within the Space and Earth Sciences Directorate are delineated. Accomplishments thus far include reduction of paperwork and manual efforts; improved communications through telemail and committees; additional support staff; increased awareness at all levels on ergonomic concerns and the need for training; better equipment; improved ADP skills through experience; management commitment; and an overall strategy for automating

The development and initial validation of the Perinatal Mental Health Awareness scale in student midwives

Background & aim: Perinatal mental health problems have been demonstrated to impact upon maternal, and fetal/child outcomes. Despite the global evidence and a policy-driven responsibility for identification of these problems, research demonstrates that student midwives/midwives lack knowledge and confidence to assess, identify, and manage them. A similar context is evident for learning disabilities, despite the holistic care philosophy of midwifery. A brief assessment tool to identify knowledge and confidence defecits and strengths within a holistic care framework could support curriculum development. This study sought to develop a Perinatal Mental Health Awareness scale and evaluate its psychometric properties in student midwives.Methods: We employed a cross-sectional and exploratory instrument development and evaluation design to determine the measurement veracity of the new scale.Results: The scale demonstrated good psychometric properties, revealing three subscales mapping onto (i) mental health symptoms, (ii) physical/medical issues and (iii) learning disability. Results indicated a clear differentiation in scores across the subscales, indicating comparative deficits in mental health domains.Conclusion: Our findings facilitate confidence in the psychometric robustness of the measure. The scale enables student midwives to assess and compare different domains of midwifery practice, in line with a holistic model of midwifery care. A focus on physical health in midwifery education appears to disadvantage knowledge and confidence for managing mental health problems in a midwifery context. This valuable finding highlights the potential need for curriculum rebalancing. The measure offers the opportunity to assess and develop curriculum/training provision and monitor the effectiveness of subsequent curricular developments

Effects of cobalt in nickel-base superalloys

The role of cobalt in a representative wrought nickel-base superalloy was determined. The results show cobalt affecting the solubility of elements in the gamma matrix, resulting in enhanced gamma' volume fraction, in the stabilization of MC-type carbides, and in the stabilization of sigma phase. In the particular alloy studied, these microstructural and microchemistry changes are insufficient in extent to impact on tensile strength, yield strength, and in the ductilities. Depending on the heat treatment, creep and stress rupture resistance can be cobalt sensitive. In the coarse grain, fully solutioned and aged condition, all of the alloy's 17% cobalt can be replaced by nickel without deleteriously affecting this resistance. In the fine grain, partially solutioned and aged condition, this resistance is deleteriously affected only when one-half or more of the initial cobalt content is removed. The structure and property results are discussed with respect to existing theories and with respect to other recent and earlier findings on the impact of cobalt, if any, on the performance of nickel-base superalloys

Experiences of student midwives in the care of women with perinatal loss: a qualitative descriptive study

Background: Student midwives often encounter perinatal loss, such as stillbirth and neonatal death, as part of their experience of clinical practice. Coping with these events can be challenging because loss and death are the antitheses of birth, which predominates midwifery practice. There has been limited research on how student midwives are supported when caring for women with bereavement; however, poor support may have repercussions for future practice. Aim: The aim of this study is to explore the experiences of final-year student midwives when caring for women with perinatal loss. Methods: Two focus groups were conducted with 10 final-year BSc (Hons) Midwifery students. The focus groups lasted approximately 1 hour and used a semi-structured interview schedule. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. Findings: Four key themes were identified from the data: preparation for perinatal loss; ‘just dealing with it’; contradiction and challenges with the role of the midwife; and emotional impact and coping strategies. Conclusions Final-year student midwives believed they were ill-prepared in caring for women with perinatal loss, reported difficulties in communicating with women and believed they were excluded from their care. Students valued support from the bereavement midwife and identified effective strategies which helped them cope with bereavement and loss

On How to Extend the NIR Tully-Fisher Relation to be Truly All-Sky

Dust extinction and stellar confusion by the Milky Way reduce the efficiency of detecting galaxies at low Galactic latitudes, creating the so-called Zone of Avoidance. This stands as a stumbling block in charting the distribution of galaxies and cosmic flow fields, and therewith our understanding of the local dynamics in the Universe (CMB dipole, convergence radius of bulk flows). For instance, ZoA galaxies are generally excluded from the whole-sky Tully-Fisher Surveys ($|b| \leq 5^\circ$) even if catalogued. We show here that by fine-tuning the near-infrared TF relation, there is no reason not to extend peculiar velocity surveys deeper into the ZoA. Accurate axial ratios ($b/a$) are crucial to both the TF sample selection and the resulting TF distances. We simulate the effect of dust extinction on the geometrical properties of galaxies. As expected, galaxies appear rounder with increasing obscuration level, even affecting existing TF samples. We derive correction models and demonstrate that we can reliably reproduce the intrinsic axial ratio from the observed value up to extinction level of about $A_J\simeq3$ mag ($A_V\sim11$ mag), we also recover a fair fraction of galaxies that otherwise would fall out of an uncorrected inclination limited galaxy sample. We present a re-calibration of the 2MTF relation in the NIR $J$, $H$, and $K_s$-bands for isophotal rather than total magnitudes, using their same calibration sample. Both TF relations exhibit similar scatter at high Galactic latitudes. However, the isophotal TF relation results in a significant improvement in the scatter for galaxies in the ZoA, and low surface brightness galaxies in general, because isophotal apertures are more robust in the face of significant stellar confusion.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figures, 4 tables, accepted for publication in MNRA

Galaxy peculiar velocities in the Zone of Avoidance

Dust extinction and stellar confusion of the Milky Way hinder the detection of galaxies at low Galactic latitude, creating the so-called Zone of Avoidance (ZoA). This has hampered our understanding of the local dynamics, cosmic flow fields and the origin of the Cosmic Microwave Background dipole. The ZoA ($|b| \le 5^\circ$) is also excluded from the "whole-sky" Two Micron All-Sky Survey (2MASS) Redshift Survey (2MRS) and 2MASS Tully-Fisher Survey (2MTF). The latter aims to provide distances and peculiar velocities for all bright inclined 2MASS galaxies with $K_s^o$ \leq 11\hbox{.\!\!^{\rm m}}25. Correspondingly, knowledge about the density distribution in the ZoA remains limited to statistical interpolations. To improve on this bias we pursued two different surveys to fill in the southern and northern ZoA. These data will allow a direct measurement of galaxy peculiar velocities. In this paper we will present a newly derived optimized Tully-Fisher (TF) relation that allow accurate measures of galaxy distances and peculiar velocities for dust-obscured galaxies. We discuss further corrections for magnitudes and biases and present some preliminary results on flow fields in the southern ZoA.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, to appear in Proceedings of SAIP2013, the 58th Annual Conference of the South African Institute of Physics, edited by Roelf Botha and Thulani Jili (SAIP and University of Zululand, 2014). ISBN: 978-0-620-62819-

The Role of Environmental Attitudes in Trip Spending for Motor Racing Event Attendees: Initial Findings and Future Directions

Sustainability within the event industry is becoming increasingly important. This study used the revised New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) to assess sustainability attitudes of racing event attendees at a series of major racing events in Monterey, California, USA. Racing events were specifically chosen for this research based on their reputation of being an event type that is not popularly considered sustainable. The NEP scale assessment provided the foundation for an examination of the relationships between sustainability attitudes and trip spending as well as a variety of demographic characteristics. Attendees were found to have similar NEP scores to other event and non-event research. However, an inverse relationship was found between environmental attitudes and per-person trip spending. Results provide practical and academic implications within event sustainability and marketing as well as within tourism and sustainability

JURY-EFFECT OF DEVIATION FROM STATUTORY PROCEDURE FOR EXCUSING JURORS

In a prosecution for murder, a special venire was summoned and a list thereof served on the accused. On the day of trial, he learned for the first time that the trial judge had excused twenty-six of the seventy-four veniremen summoned. The excuses out of court violated a statute requiring that all requests for excuse be heard in open court. More than the minimum number of veniremen were present, and when it appeared that the original array might be exhausted thirty additional veniremen were called. Accused\u27s motions to quash the jury panel and for a mistrial were overruled. On appeal from conviction, held, affirmed. The statute was directory only, and mere irregularity was not reversible error where there was no showing of fraud or prejudice to the accused. Two justices dissented. Parker v. State, (Miss. 1947) 29 S. (2d) 910

Groups of dwarf galaxies in the Local supercluster

We present a project on study of groups composed of dwarf galaxies only. We selected such structures using HyperLEDA and NED databases with visual inspection on SDSS images and on digital copy of POSS. The groups are characterized by size of few tens of kpc and line-of-sight velocity dispersion about 18 km/s. Our groups similar to associations of nearby dwarfs from Tully et al. (2006). This specific population of multiple dwarf galaxies such as IZw18 may contain significant amount of dark matter. It is very likely that we see them at the stage just before merging of its components.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures; the proceedings of the conference "A Universe of dwarf galaxies" (Lyon, June 14-18, 2010