Maintaining an expert system for the Hubble Space Telescope ground support

The transformation portion of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Proposal Entry Processor System converts astronomer-oriented description of a scientific observing program into a detailed description of the parameters needed for planning and scheduling. The transformation system is one of a very few rulebased expert systems that has ever entered an operational phase. The day to day operations of the system and its rulebase are no longer the responsibility of the original developer. As a result, software engineering properties of the rulebased approach become more important. Maintenance issues associated with the coupling of rules within a rulebased system are discussed and a method is offered for partitioning a rulebase so that the amount of knowledge needed to modify the rulebase is minimized. This method is also used to develop a measure of the coupling strength of the rulebase

A Profile of Top Performers on the Uniform CPA Exam

The Elijah Watt Sells Award, one of the most prestigious professional awards in the US, honors top performers on the Uniform CPA Examination. This article provides statistics by state and by gender of past award winners, from the first CPA exam in 1923 through the most recent available exam results for 2012. In addition, it presents a profile of the top performers based on the results of a survey administered by the authors to recent Sells Award winners. Specifically, the survey examined the recipient\u27s educational level, the amount and type of preparation, and the impact of the award on the winner\u27s career. It is hoped that future candidates and state boards of accountancy will find this information useful and that this discussion will further promote the award\u27s prestige. This discussion focused on winners of the Elijah Watt Sells Award for outstanding performance on the CPA exam, providing data by state and by gender for the period from 1924 through 2012

Intake social workers tendency to base values on a law enforcement practice model

This study proposed to determine if there are different personality traits between police officers, Department of Children\u27s Services (DCS) intake and carrier workers. It was proposed that differences may indicate that investigations done by DCS be delegated as a law enforcement function whereas family preservation services be the responsibility of DCS

NASA Cold Land Processes Experiment (CLPX 2002/03): ground-based and near-surface meteorological observations

A short-term meteorological database has been developed for the Cold Land Processes Experiment (CLPX). This database includes meteorological observations from stations designed and deployed exclusively for CLPXas well as observations available from other sources located in the small regional study area (SRSA) in north-central Colorado. The measured weather parameters include air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and direction, barometric pressure, short- and long-wave radiation, leaf wetness, snow depth, snow water content, snow and surface temperatures, volumetric soil-moisture content, soil temperature, precipitation, water vapor flux, carbon dioxide flux, and soil heat flux. The CLPX weather stations include 10 main meteorological towers, 1 tower within each of the nine intensive study areas (ISA) and one near the local scale observation site (LSOS); and 36 simplified towers, with one tower at each of the four corners of each of the nine ISAs, which measured a reduced set of parameters. An eddy covariance system within the North Park mesocell study area (MSA) collected a variety of additional parameters beyond the 10 standard CLPX tower components. Additional meteorological observations come from a variety of existing networks maintained by the U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Geological Survey, Natural Resource Conservation Service, and the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research. Temporal coverage varies from station to station, but it is most concentrated during the 2002/ 03 winter season. These data are useful in local meteorological energy balance research and for model development and testing. These data can be accessed through the National Snow and Ice Data Center Web site

Addressing health literacy in patient decision aids

MethodsWe reviewed literature for evidence relevant to these two aims. When high-quality systematic reviews existed, we summarized their evidence. When reviews were unavailable, we conducted our own systematic reviews.ResultsAim 1: In an existing systematic review of PtDA trials, lower health literacy was associated with lower patient health knowledge (14 of 16 eligible studies). Fourteen studies reported practical design strategies to improve knowledge for lower health literacy patients. In our own systematic review, no studies reported on values clarity per se, but in 2 lower health literacy was related to higher decisional uncertainty and regret. Lower health literacy was associated with less desire for involvement in 3 studies, less question-asking in 2, and less patient-centered communication in 4 studies; its effects on other measures of patient involvement were mixed. Only one study assessed the effects of a health literacy intervention on outcomes; it showed that using video to improve the salience of health states reduced decisional uncertainty. Aim 2: In our review of 97 trials, only 3 PtDAs overtly addressed the needs of lower health literacy users. In 90% of trials, user health literacy and readability of the PtDA were not reported. However, increases in knowledge and informed choice were reported in those studies in which health literacy needs were addressed.ConclusionLower health literacy affects key decision-making outcomes, but few existing PtDAs have addressed the needs of lower health literacy users. The specific effects of PtDAs designed to mitigate the influence of low health literacy are unknown. More attention to the needs of patients with lower health literacy is indicated, to ensure that PtDAs are appropriate for lower as well as higher health literacy patients

Effects of Varying Doses of Caffeine on Peak Torque in the Knee Extensors and Knee Flexors

Health, Physical Education and Recreatio

Integrating Crop, Livestock and Irrigation Technologies to Ensure Food Security and Environmental Quality

The metropolitan areas of Denver and Omaha sit like bookends for the Platte River Basin and High Plains region. In the 500 miles between these metropolitan areas lies a vast, almost completely rural region where farming and ranching are the mainstays of the economy and the culture. Agriculture is not just the primary industry; it is a way of life. This way of life is very vulnerable to changes in climate. The perspectives of the people who work and live in this region are crucial to informing research on climate change. They are on the frontlines of climate change, as climate impacts and shapes every facet of their lives. In turn, because agriculture is in the business of sequestering and recycling carbon, the decisions and choices agricultural producers make in managing the natural resources in their care can have an impact on mitigating climate change. Most see themselves as stewards of the land and are motivated to pass their land on to the next generation in the best possible condition. But they also are driven by economics – they can’t pass on the land if they can’t hold on to it – and that means paying the mortgage every year. Research solutions and recommendations need to work economically for farmers and ranchers if they are expected to adopt them