Noncontacting device to indicate deflection of turbopump internal rotating parts

Phase 2 (development) which was concluded for the ultrasonic Doppler device and the light-pipe-reflectance device is reported. An ultrasonic Doppler breadboard system was assembled which accurately measured runout in the J-2 LOX pump impeller during operation. The transducer was mounted on the outside of the pump volute using a C-clamp. Vibration was measured by conducting the ultrasonic wave through the volute housing and through the fluid in the volute to the impeller surface. The impeller vibration was also measured accurately using the light-pipe probe mounted in an elastomeric-gland fitting in the pump case. A special epoxy resin developed for cryogenic applications was forced into the end of the fiber-optic probe to retain the fibers. Subsequently, the probe suffered no damage after simultaneous exposure to 2150 psi and 77 F. Preliminary flash X-radiographs were taken of the turbine wheel and the shaft-bearing-seal assembly, using a 2-megavolt X-ray unit. Reasonable resolution and contrast was obtained. A fast-neutron detector was fabricated and sensitivity was measured. The results demonstrated that the technique is feasible for integrated-time measurements requiring, perhaps, 240 revolutions to obtain sufficient exposure at 35,000 rpm. The experimental verification plans are included

Noncontacting devices to indicate deflection and vibration of turbopump internal rotating parts

Published report discusses feasibility of ultrasonic techniques; neutron techniques; X-radiography; optical devices; gamma ray devices; and conventional displacement sensors. Use of signal transmitters in place of slip rings indicated possible improvement and will be subject of futher study

What's in a grade? The multidimensional nature of what teacher-assigned grades assess in high school

Historically, teacher-assigned grades have been seen as unreliable subjective measures of academic knowledge, since grades and standardized tests have traditionally correlated at about the 0.5 to 0.6 level, and thus explain about 25–35% of each other. However, emerging literature indicates that grades may be a multidimensional assessment of both student academic knowledge and a student's ability to negotiate the social processes of schooling, such as behavior, participation, and effort. This study analyzed the high school transcript component of the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002) using multidimensional scaling (MDS) to describe the relationships between core subject grades, non-core subject grades, and standardized test scores in mathematics and reading. The results indicate that when accounting for the academic knowledge component assessed through standardized tests, teacher-assigned grades may be a useful assessment of a student's ability at the non-cognitive aspects of school. Implications for practice, research, and policy are discussed

Environmental Factors Influence Language Development in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

International audienc

Do agreements between adolescent and parent reports on family socioeconomic status vary with household financial stress?

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Many studies compared the degree of concordance between adolescents' and parents' reports on family socioeconomic status (SES). However, none of these studies analyzed whether the degree of concordance varies by different levels of household financial stress. This research examines whether the degree of concordance between adolescents' and parent reports for the three traditional SES measures (parental education, parental occupation and household income) varied with parent-reported household financial stress and relative standard of living.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>2,593 adolescents with a mean age of 13 years, and one of their corresponding parents from the Taiwan Longitudinal Youth Project conducted in 2000 were analyzed. Consistency of adolescents' and parents' reports on parental educational attainment, parental occupation and household income were examined by parent-reported household financial stress and relative standard of living.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Parent-reported SES variables are closely associated with family financial stress. For all levels of household financial stress, the degree of concordance between adolescent's and parent's reports are highest for parental education (κ ranging from 0.87 to 0.71) followed by parental occupation (κ ranging from 0.50 to 0.34) and household income (κ ranging from 0.43 to 0.31). Concordance for father's education and parental occupation decreases with higher parent-reported financial stress. This phenomenon was less significant for parent-reported relative standard of living.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Though the agreement between adolescents' and parents' reports on the three SES measures is generally judged to be good in most cases, using adolescents reports for family SES may still be biased if analysis is not stratified by family financial stress.</p

Hospital mortality is associated with ICU admission time

Previous studies have shown that patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) after "office hours" are more likely to die. However these results have been challenged by numerous other studies. We therefore analysed this possible relationship between ICU admission time and in-hospital mortality in The Netherlands. This article relates time of ICU admission to hospital mortality for all patients who were included in the Dutch national ICU registry (National Intensive Care Evaluation, NICE) from 2002 to 2008. We defined office hours as 08:00-22:00 hours during weekdays and 09:00-18:00 hours during weekend days. The weekend was defined as from Saturday 00:00 hours until Sunday 24:00 hours. We corrected hospital mortality for illness severity at admission using Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II) score, reason for admission, admission type, age and gender. A total of 149,894 patients were included in this analysis. The relative risk (RR) for mortality outside office hours was 1.059 (1.031-1.088). Mortality varied with time but was consistently higher than expected during "off hours" and lower during office hours. There was no significant difference in mortality between different weekdays of Monday to Thursday, but mortality increased slightly on Friday (RR 1.046; 1.001-1.092). During the weekend the RR was 1.103 (1.071-1.136) in comparison with the rest of the week. Hospital mortality in The Netherlands appears to be increased outside office hours and during the weekends, even when corrected for illness severity at admission. However, incomplete adjustment for certain confounders might still play an important role. Further research is needed to fully explain this differenc

Identification of Host Cytosolic Sensors and Bacterial Factors Regulating the Type I Interferon Response to Legionella pneumophila

Legionella pneumophila is a gram-negative bacterial pathogen that replicates in host macrophages and causes a severe pneumonia called Legionnaires' Disease. The innate immune response to L. pneumophila remains poorly understood. Here we focused on identifying host and bacterial factors involved in the production of type I interferons (IFN) in response to L. pneumophila. It was previously suggested that the delivery of L. pneumophila DNA to the host cell cytosol is the primary signal that induces the type I IFN response. However, our data are not easily reconciled with this model. We provide genetic evidence that two RNA-sensing proteins, RIG-I and MDA5, participate in the IFN response to L. pneumophila. Importantly, these sensors do not seem to be required for the IFN response to L. pneumophila DNA, whereas we found that RIG-I was required for the response to L. pneumophila RNA. Thus, we hypothesize that bacterial RNA, or perhaps an induced host RNA, is the primary stimulus inducing the IFN response to L. pneumophila. Our study also identified a secreted effector protein, SdhA, as a key suppressor of the IFN response to L. pneumophila. Although viral suppressors of cytosolic RNA-sensing pathways have been previously identified, analogous bacterial factors have not been described. Thus, our results provide new insights into the molecular mechanisms by which an intracellular bacterial pathogen activates and also represses innate immune responses

Developing a Collaboration with the Houston Independent School District: Testing the Generalizability of a Partnership Model

Moving evidence-based practices into real-world settings is a high priority for education and public health. This paper describes the development of a partnership among the Houston Independent School District, the American Institutes of Research, and the Houston Federation of Teachers to support research on and program sustainability for the Good Behavior Game, a team-based classroom behavior management strategy that has shown positive impact in randomized field trials. The conceptual framework guiding partnership development is presented, followed by an application of the framework in Houston. Lessons learned and implications for the next stage of research and practice are then discussed