Ionosphere/microwave beam interaction study

A solar power satellite microwave power density of 20mw sq cm was confirmed as the level where nonlinear interactions may occur in the ionosphere, particularly at 100 km altitude. Radio wave heating at this altitude, produced at the Arecibo Observatory, yielded negative results for radio wave heating of an underdense ionosphere. Overdense heating produced striations in the ionosphere which may cause severe radio frequency interference problems under certain conditions. The effects of thermal self-focusing are shown to be limited severely geographically. The aspect sensitivity of field-aligned striations makes interference-free regions above magnetic latitude about 60 deg. A test program is proposed to simulate the interaction of the SPS beam with the ionosphere, to measure the effects of the interaction on the ionosphere and on communication and navigation systems, and to interpret the results

Using shared goal setting to improve access and equity: a mixed methods study of the Good Goals intervention

Background: Access and equity in children’s therapy services may be improved by directing clinicians’ use of resources toward specific goals that are important to patients. A practice-change intervention (titled ‘Good Goals’) was designed to achieve this. This study investigated uptake, adoption, and possible effects of that intervention in children’s occupational therapy services. Methods: Mixed methods case studies (n = 3 services, including 46 therapists and 558 children) were conducted. The intervention was delivered over 25 weeks through face-to-face training, team workbooks, and ‘tools for change’. Data were collected before, during, and after the intervention on a range of factors using interviews, a focus group, case note analysis, routine data, document analysis, and researchers’ observations. Results: Factors related to uptake and adoptions were: mode of intervention delivery, competing demands on therapists’ time, and leadership by service manager. Service managers and therapists reported that the intervention: helped therapists establish a shared rationale for clinical decisions; increased clarity in service provision; and improved interactions with families and schools. During the study period, therapists’ behaviours changed: identifying goals, odds ratio 2.4 (95% CI 1.5 to 3.8); agreeing goals, 3.5 (2.4 to 5.1); evaluating progress, 2.0 (1.1 to 3.5). Children’s LoT decreased by two months [95% CI −8 to +4 months] across the services. Cost per therapist trained ranged from £1,003 to £1,277, depending upon service size and therapists’ salary bands. Conclusions: Good Goals is a promising quality improvement intervention that can be delivered and adopted in practice and may have benefits. Further research is required to evaluate its: (i) impact on patient outcomes, effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, and (ii) transferability to other clinical contexts

An airborne remote sensing system for urban air quality

Several NASA sponsored remote sensors and possible airborne platforms were evaluated. Outputs of dispersion models for SO2 and CO pollution in the Washington, D.C. area were used with ground station data to establish the expected performance and limitations of the remote sensors. Aircraft/sensor support requirements are discussed. A method of optimum flight plan determination was made. Cost trade offs were performed. Conclusions about the implementation of various instrument packages as parts of a comprehensive air quality monitoring system in Washington are presented

On board sampling of the rockfish and lingcod commerical passenger fishing vessel industry in northern and central California, May 1987 to December 1991

From May 1987 to June 1990 and from August to December 1991 Fishery Technicians sampled catches on board 690 Commercial Passenger Fishing Vessel (CPFV) trips targeting rockfish and lingcod from the general port areas of Fort Bragg, Bodega Bay, San Francisco, Monterey, and Morro Bay. Data are presented for species composition by port area, year, and month, for catch-per-unit-effort, mean length, and length frequency of lingcod and the 18 most frequently observed rockfish species, and for trends in fishing effort related to fishing time, depth, and distance from port. Total catch estimates are presented based on unadjusted logbook records, logbook records adjusted by sampling data and compliance rates, and effort data from a marine recreational fishing statistics survey. Average catch of kept fish per angler day was 11.8 and average catch of kept fish per angler hour was 3.7. A trend of an increasing frequency of trips to deep (>40 fm) locations was observed in the Bodega Bay, San Francisco, and Monterey areas from 1988 to 1990-91. No trend was evident relative to trip frequency and distance from port. A total of 74 species was observed caught during the study. Rockfishes comprised 88.5% to 97.9% by number of the observed catch by port area. The five most frequently observed species were chilipepper, blue, yellowtail, and widow rockfishes, and bocaccio, with lingcod ranking seventh. In general, mean length and catch-per-angler-hour of sport fishes caught by CPFV anglers varied considerably and did not show steady declines during the study period. However, port-specific areas of major concern were identified for chilipepper, lingcod, and black rockfish, and to a lesser extent brown, canary, vermilion, yelloweye, olive, and widow rockfish. These areas of concern included steadily declining catch rate, steadily declining mean length, and a high percentage of sexually immature fish in the sampled-catch. Recent sampling of the commercial hook-and-line fishery in northern and central California indicated that most species of rockfishes taken by CPFV anglers are also harvested commercially. (261pp.

Extending electron orbital precession to the molecular case: Can orbital alignment be used to observe wavepacket dynamics?

The complexity of ultrafast molecular photoionization presents an obstacle to the modelling of pump-probe experiments. Here, a simple optimized model of atomic rubidium is combined with a molecular dynamics model to predict quantitatively the results of a pump-probe experiment in which long range rubidium dimers are first excited, then ionized after a variable delay. The method is illustrated by the outline of two proposed feasible experiments and the calculation of their outcomes. Both of these proposals use Feshbach 87Rb2 molecules. We show that long-range molecular pump-probe experiments should observe spin-orbit precession given a suitable pump-pulse, and that the associated high-frequency beat signal in the ionization probability decays after a few tens of picoseconds. If the molecule was to be excited to only a single fine structure state state, then a low-frequency oscillation in the internuclear separation would be detectable through the timedependent ionization cross section, giving a mechanism that would enable observation of coherent vibrational motion in this molecule.Comment: 9 pages, 10 figures, PRA submissio

Integrating Gender into the Political Science Core Curriculum

The New Research on Gender in Political Psychology Conference brought together new and experienced teachers with interests in gender politics. The conference session Teaching Gender throughout the Curriculum generated a great deal of discussion concerning the pedagogical practice of gender mainstreaming. Gender mainstreaming-the integration of gendered content into courses required for a major-was recognized as one of 11 recommendations for reforming the undergraduate political science curriculum in the 1991 APSA report Liberal Learning an The Political Science Major: A Report to the Profession (popularly referred to as the Wahlke Report). Little information is available on the prevalence of gender courses in the undergraduate curriculum, but the data that does exist suggest such courses are uncommon (Brandes et al. 2001). We found virtually no data on the practice of gender mainstreaming in political science and little data in the way of assessing the impact of gendered content when students are exposed to it. This absence of data suggests gender mainstreaming has not emerged as a serious priority for curricular reform. © 2012 American Political Science Association

Risk factors for failure of outpatient parenteral antibiotic therapy (OPAT) in infective endocarditis

Objectives: To identify risk factors for failure of outpatient antibiotic therapy (OPAT) in infective endocarditis (IE). Patients and methods: We identified IE cases managed at a single centre over 12 years from a prospectively maintained database. ‘OPAT failure’ was defined as unplanned readmission or antibiotic switch due to adverse drug reaction or antibiotic resistance. We analysed patient and disease-related risk factors for OPAT failure by univariate and multivariate logistic regression. We also retrospectively collected follow-up data on adverse disease outcome (defined as IE-related death or relapse) and performed Kaplan–Meier survival analysis up to 36 months following OPAT. Results: We identified 80 episodes of OPAT in IE. Failure occurred in 25/80 episodes (31.3%). On multivariate analysis, cardiac or renal failure [pooled OR 7.39 (95% CI 1.84–29.66), P = 0.005] and teicoplanin therapy [OR 8.69 (95% CI 2.01–37.47), P = 0.004] were independently associated with increased OPAT failure. OPAT failure with teicoplanin occurred despite therapeutic plasma levels. OPAT failure predicted adverse disease outcome up to 36 months (P = 0.016 log-rank test). Conclusions: These data caution against selecting patients with endocarditis for OPAT in the presence of cardiac or renal failure and suggest teicoplanin therapy may be associated with suboptimal OPAT outcomes. Alternative regimens to teicoplanin in the OPAT setting should be further investigated

Manual prático para formação e capacitação de grupos comunitários em métodos de monitoramento de qualidade da água - Módulo II: avaliação bacteriológica da água.

O ambiente aquático; O meio ambiente e o mundo invisível dos micróbios; Poluição e padrões de qualidade de água; Desenvolvendo um plano de monitoramento; Material de amostragem; Metodologia; Manejo de dados e desenvolvimento de ações.bitstream/CNPAT-2010/12000/1/Doc-120.pdfTraduzido e adaptado de Alabama Water Watch - Bacteriological Monitoring, 2004 - Auburn University; Tradução Ivan Vieira

Executive function in first-episode schizophrenia

BACKGROUND: We tested the hypothesis that schizophrenia is primarily a frontostriatal disorder by examining executive function in first-episode patients. Previous studies have shown either equal decrements in many cognitive domains or specific deficits in memory. Such studies have grouped test results or have used few executive measures, thus, possibly losing information. We, therefore, measured a range of executive ability with tests known to be sensitive to frontal lobe function. METHODS: Thirty first-episode schizophrenic patients and 30 normal volunteers, matched for age and NART IQ, were tested on computerized test of planning, spatial working memory and attentional set shifting from the Cambridge Automated Neuropsychological Test Battery. Computerized and traditional tests of memory were also administered for comparison. RESULTS: Patients were worse on all tests but the profile was non-uniform. A componential analysis indicated that the patients were characterized by a poor ability to think ahead and organize responses but an intact ability to switch attention and inhibit prepotent responses. Patients also demonstrated poor memory, especially for free recall of a story and associate learning of unrelated word pairs. CONCLUSIONS: In contradistinction to previous studies, schizophrenic patients do have profound executive impairments at the beginning of the illness. However, these concern planning and strategy use rather than attentional set shifting, which is generally unimpaired. Previous findings in more chronic patients, of severe attentional set shifting impairment, suggest that executive cognitive deficits are progressive during the course of schizophrenia. The finding of severe mnemonic impairment at first episode suggests that cognitive deficits are not restricted to one cognitive domain