Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, and Other Characteristics: An Examination of Managerial Perceptions of Effective Contracting Officers

This study examined the attributes contracting managers perceived to be most critical in effective contracting officers. Questionnaires were used to gather relevant data from managers in the operational, specialized, and systems contracting specialty areas. The resultant data was classified and weighted in accordance with the formula defined in the methodology. Additionally, some respondents provided comments via the follow-up interviews. The resultant data was analyzed qualitatively in order to determine the extent of concurrence in managerial perceptions. In addition, the researchers attempted to seek answers in three additional areas. First, they examined the degree to which critical attributes varied by specialty area. Second, they examined the degree to which managers perceived differences in attribute criticality with respect to the contracting officer\u27s status as military or civil servant; and finally, they examined the extent to which the DAU certification courses address the educational needs of the contracting personnel. Ultimately, the study defined the attributes and determined that they varied little by specialty area. Additionally, the managers perceived the same attributes as critical regardless of duty status, and finally, it appears DAU provides acceptable training in knowledge related attributes, however, training personnel in other attributes may do so more effectively in alternate forums

Growing Pains: Reflections at the Intersection(s) of Pedagogy and Self-Study in Whiteness Research in Education

In this paper we work to place personal reflections of ourselves as researchers in conversation with interview data generated from white practicing teachers. Our work seeks to engage what the praxis of pedagogical qualitative analysis, coupled with self-study, can offer other researchers. This paper thus has two primary aims: to investigate our research findings from the interview data and the teachers who participated in the professional development seminar, and to explore what such work makes available to us as white researcher/practitioners. We move back and forth between both in the pages that follow, as we hope to showcase what becomes possible when we blur the lines between researcher and researched, and the implications in particular for white researchers/teachers committed to combatting racism in their practice(s)

Exploring Foodie Segmentation

Previous research studies have explored the activities, motivations, and outcomes for the culinary tourist, and researchers have theorized certain segments of culinary travelers (Boniface, 2003; Mitchell, Hall & McIntosh, 2000). Contrasting to this, investigation into “the foodie” and his or her activities at home has been strikingly infrequent. Exploring the foodie ‘at home’ or the foodie’s everyday behavior is critical to understanding different types of foodies, how to market to foodies, and their decision-making processes for culinary travel. The purpose of this study is to test, via an online survey, a scale that distinguishes between different types of foodies, and determine if their home-foodie habits are the same while traveling. The study includes five samples: all of the populations were selected to attempt to get a variety of respondents; some settings were food-focused and some were not. Factor analysis was used to group like respondents together; factors that overlapped across samples includes Sustainable Food Activist, Cooking, Cooking Competitor/Do-It-Yourself, Trendy Traveler, Gardening, and Drinking activity dimensions. Food-related businesses and tourism marketers would benefit from greater distinction between types of foodies so as to develop and market specific products to them, to create new packages with complementary activities, and to convert ‘crossover’ markets who visit for one reason but who could be convinced to ‘cross over’ to participate in other activities

GSE statistics without spin

Energy levels statistics following the Gaussian Symplectic Ensemble (GSE) of Random Matrix Theory have been predicted theoretically and observed numerically in numerous quantum chaotic systems. However in all these systems there has been one unifying feature: the combination of half-integer spin and time-reversal invariance. Here we provide an alternative mechanism for obtaining GSE statistics that is based on geometric symmetries of a quantum system which alleviates the need for spin. As an example, we construct a quantum graph with a particular discrete symmetry given by the quaternion group Q8. GSE statistics is then observed within one of its subspectra.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figure

Emergency care provision for, and psychological distress in, survivors of domestic violence

Background This study aimed (i) to ascertain the number of treatment referrals and information about protection orders given to survivors of domestic violence presenting for emergency trauma care, as reported at the one-month visit, (ii) to obtain a profile of violent incidents and injuries, and (iii) to assess self-esteem and posttraumatic and depressive symptomatology in the aftermath of injury. Methods A survey of 62 participants presenting in the acute aftermath of domestic violence (as defined by the Domestic Violence Act of 1998) was conducted over 12 weeks at the Trauma and Resuscitation Unit of a Level One trauma centre in an urban public hospital in South Africa.1 Following informed consent, face-to-face structured interviews were conducted during admission and a month later. The following instruments were administered at baseline: a Demographic and Injury Questionnaire, the Beck Depression and Rosenberg Self-Esteem Inventories, and the Davidson Trauma Scale. A psychosocial questionnaire was administered at the one-month follow-up. Results Fifty-eight per cent of the participants were female and 42% were male. Seventy-four per cent of the perpetrators were male. Ninety-five per cent of the participants said that no health professional had informed them about where or how they could find help. Although all were seriously injured, 76% of the participants said only the researcher had asked about their experience. Sixty-six per cent of the cases of domestic violence were related to intimate partner violence. Overall, subjects displayed high levels of depressive and post-traumatic stress symptomatology that had neither been treated nor adequately referred. Conclusion Even though domestic violence poses significant health threats and costs to the health system, it appears to be a neglected area of South African health care. Health professionals should at least be able to identify and intervene within the "open window" period when psychosocial opportunities are pivotal. South African Family Practice Vol. 49 (3) 2007: pp. 1

Paper Session I-C - Launchpad to Learning

KSC Associate Director for Advanced Development and Shuttle Upgrades identified the project need as a result of National Academy of Engineering visit Academy asked NASA-KSC to pursue a pilot module for a self-paced, highly interactive Web-based course with the ability to provide longitudinal data on target users (7th grade females) KSC identified an incubator company in Cocoa, FL; with distance learning software architectures and relevant experience Proposal received from RWD in September 1999 Funding on the order of $48K obtained from end of year training dollars (Fund Source 41

The Medical Futures Program: How One Regional Medical Campus Educates Its Community

Poster created for the 2012 GRMC Session of the AAMC Annual Meeting. The Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine Inova Campus has extensive ties to the northern Virginia community. The Medical Futures Program was created to provide valuable information regarding medical school admissions and current physician workforce issues to high school and university students, their parents, and guests

Semiclassical approach to discrete symmetries in quantum chaos

We use semiclassical methods to evaluate the spectral two-point correlation function of quantum chaotic systems with discrete geometrical symmetries. The energy spectra of these systems can be divided into subspectra that are associated to irreducible representations of the corresponding symmetry group. We show that for (spinless) time reversal invariant systems the statistics inside these subspectra depend on the type of irreducible representation. For real representations the spectral statistics agree with those of the Gaussian Orthogonal Ensemble (GOE) of Random Matrix Theory (RMT), whereas complex representations correspond to the Gaussian Unitary Ensemble (GUE). For systems without time reversal invariance all subspectra show GUE statistics. There are no correlations between non-degenerate subspectra. Our techniques generalize recent developments in the semiclassical approach to quantum chaos allowing one to obtain full agreement with the two-point correlation function predicted by RMT, including oscillatory contributions.Comment: 26 pages, 8 Figure

Antibacterial activity of fractions from three Chumash medicinal plant extracts and in vitro inhibition of the enzyme enoyl reductase by the flavonoid jaceosidin

We have investigated the in vitro antibacterial bioactivity of dichloromethane-soluble fractions of Artemisia californica, Trichostema lanatum, Salvia apiana, Sambucus nigra ssp. cerulea and Quercus agrifolia Née against a ΔtolC mutant strain of E. coli. These plants are traditional medicinal plants of the Chumash Native Americans of Southern California. Bioassay-guided fractionation led to the isolation of three flavonoid compounds from A. californica: jaceosidin (1), jaceidin (2), and chrysoplenol B (3). Compounds 1 and 2 exhibited anti-bacterial activity against E. coli ΔtolC in liquid cultures. The in vitro activity of 1 against the enoyl reductase enzyme (FabI) was measured using a spectrophotometric assay and found to completely inhibit FabI activity at a concentration of 100 μM. However, comparison of MIC values for 1-3 against E. coli ΔtolC and an equivalent strain containing a plasmid constitutively expressing fabI did not reveal any selectivity for FabI in vivo