618 research outputs found
A Multidimensional Conceptualization of Environmental Velocity
Environmental velocity has emerged as an important concept but remains theoretically underdeveloped, particularly with respect to its multidimensionality. In response, we develop a framework that examines the variations in velocity across multiple dimensions of the environment (homology) and the causal linkages between those velocities (coupling). We then propose four velocity regimes based on different patterns of homology and coupling and argue that the conditions of each regime have important implications for organizations
Lean Enterprise Transformation in a Job Shop Environment
This field project paper titled, Lean Enterprise Transformation (LET) in a Job Shop Environment involves planning, teaching others, implementing and continuously improving organizational performance. The project case study is being delivered to a company headquartered in Paola, Kansas that has contracted with the not-for profit organization Mid-America Manufacturing Technology Center (MAMTC) to provide Lean Enterprise Transformation (LET) training, facilitating, coaching, implementation, and âhands-onâ consulting services. The company, Taylor Forge Engineered Systems (TFES), Inc. designs and delivers very high quality engineer-to-order and make-to-order forgings, pipe fittings, and accessories for a variety of industries including gas, oil, and petrochemical. Lean Enterprise Transformation (LET) consulting services are being delivered to three TFES, Inc. Facilities located in Paola, Garnett, and Greeley, Kansas.
A preliminary LET Operations and Business Systems Assessment was conducted during June-July, 2005, by MAMTC Project Manager/Field Engineers. A 3rd party sub-contractor Integrated Manufacturing Solutions (IMS), Inc. coordinated the assessment of the Information Systems and Network Architecture portion of the overall LET Business and Operations Systems Assessment. Also, the overall project scope, timeline, deliverables, and completion process will be defined in greater detail within the body of this LET Field Project Paper and Work Plan and the defined âTriple Constraints.â At MAMTC, the project âTriple Constraintsâ focuses on the well defined project scope of work (SOW) that indicates the timeframe, project costs, and customer quality project performance specifications (PMBOK Guide 3rd Edition, 2004).
The two key senior executive leaders at TFES, Inc supporting the LET Project Work Plan & Timeline are the President and Vice President/General Manager. Both people have graciously allowed MAMTC to jointly document the TFES LET Project planning, training and âhands onâ implementation efforts throughout the duration of the Continuous Improvement Journey. Other key TFES personnel involved in the LET Project Core Leadership Team include: the Material and Production Inventory Control Manager at Paola, Kansas Facility, the Operations Manager for the Garnett & Greeley, Kansas Facilities, and the Plant Manager at the Paola, Kansas Facility, along with the many other TFES production and support personnel that made this field project a reality.
The overall purpose of this EMGT Masters Field Project Paper is to research, learn and share the experiences of developing and implementing this âreal worldâ LET Job Shop Case Study. Also, sharing the trials, tribulations, successes, and lessons learned with all TFES and MAMTC employees involved in the LET Project Training & Implementation efforts, and other interested readers. Currently, the Core Leadership Team is in the process of creating a TFES, Inc. Lean Newsletter to share this Continuous Improvement Journey with others in both organizations. Both EMGT 823 textbooks: (a) Kerznerâs Project Management 9th Edition4 and (b) the PMBOK Guide 3rd Edition are utilized heavily in creating the template and structure, and for monitoring, and controlling this joint TFES and MAMTC LET Project Work Plan. The timeline for the joint MAMTC and TFES LET Field Project Work Plan and Job Shop Case Study has been subdivided and revised as follows: (1) Initial LET & Business System Assessment Project Scope of Work (SOW) from the June to July 2005 timeframe. (2) Overall LET Project SOW for the original contract has been lengthened from the October 2005 to the March 2007 timeframe
Mental Health Service Utilization before and after Receipt of a ServiceâConnected Disability Award for PTSD: Findings from a National Sample
Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146624/1/hesr12859.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146624/2/hesr12859-sup-0001-AppendixSA1.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146624/3/hesr12859_am.pd
The SEGUE Stellar Parameter Pipeline. IV. Validation with an Extended Sample of Galactic Globular and Open Clusters
Spectroscopic and photometric data for likely member stars of five Galactic
globular clusters (M3, M53, M71, M92, and NGC 5053) and three open clusters
(M35, NGC 2158, and NGC 6791) are processed by the current version of the SEGUE
Stellar Parameter Pipeline (SSPP), in order to determine estimates of
metallicities and radial velocities for the clusters. These results are then
compared to values from the literature. We find that the mean metallicity
() and mean radial velocity () estimates for each cluster are
almost all within 2{\sigma} of the adopted literature values; most are within
1{\sigma}. We also demonstrate that the new version of the SSPP achieves small,
but noteworthy, improvements in estimates at the extrema of the
cluster metallicity range, as compared to a previous version of the pipeline
software. These results provide additional confidence in the application of the
SSPP for studies of the abundances and kinematics of stellar populations in the
Galaxy.Comment: 98 pages, 31 figures; accepted for publication in A
Evaluation of 11C-Acetate and 18 F-FDG PET/CT in mouse multidrug resistance gene-2 deficient mouse model of hepatocellular carcinoma
Background
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains a global health problem with unique diagnostic and therapeutic challenges, including difficulties in identifying the highest risk patients. Previous work from our lab has established the murine multidrug resistance-2 mouse (MDR2) model of HCC as a reasonable preclinical model that parallels the changes seen in human inflammatory associated HCC. The purpose of this study is to evaluate modalities of PET/CT in MDR2â/â mice in order to facilitate therapeutic translational studies from bench to bedside.
Methods
18F-FDG and 11C-acetate PET/CT was performed on 12 m MDR2â/â mice (nâ=â3/tracer) with HCC and 12 m MDR2â/+ control mice (nâ=â3/tracer) without HCC. To compare PET/CT to biological markers of HCC and cellular function, serum alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), lysophosphatidic acid (LPA), cAMP and hepatic tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα) were quantified in 3-12 m MDR2â/â (nâ=â10) mice using commercially available ELISA analysis. To translate results in mice to patients 11C-acetate PET/CT was also performed in 8 patents suspected of HCC recurrence following treatment and currently on the liver transplant wait list.
Results
Hepatic18F-FDG metabolism was not significantly increased in MDR2â/â mice. In contrast, hepatic 11C-acetate metabolism was significantly elevated in MDR2â/â mice when compared to MDR2â/+ controls. Serum AFP and LPA levels increased in MDR2â/â mice contemporaneous with the emergence of HCC. This was accompanied by a significant decrease in serum cAMP levels and an increase in hepatic TNFα. In patients suspected of HCC recurrence there were 5 true positives, 2 true negatives and 1 suspected false 11C-acetate negative.
Conclusions
Hepatic 11C-acetate PET/CT tracks well with HCC in MDR2â/â mice and patients with underlying liver disease. Consequently 11C-acetate PET/CT is well suited to study 1) HCC emergence/progression in patients and 2) reduce animal numbers required to study new chemotherapeutics in murine models of HCC
Physical Properties of Emission-Line Galaxies at z ~ 2 from Near-Infrared Spectroscopy with Magellan FIRE
We present results from near-infrared spectroscopy of 26 emission-line
galaxies at z ~ 2 obtained with the FIRE spectrometer on the Magellan Baade
telescope. The sample was selected from the WISP survey, which uses the
near-infrared grism of the Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera 3 to detect
emission-line galaxies over 0.3 < z < 2.3. Our FIRE follow-up spectroscopy
(R~5000) over 1.0-2.5 micron permits detailed measurements of physical
properties of the z~2 emission-line galaxies. Dust-corrected star formation
rates for the sample range from ~5-100 M_sun yr-1. We derive a median
metallicity for the sample of ~0.45 Z_sun, and the estimated stellar masses
range from ~10^8.5 - 10^9.5 M_sun. The average ionization parameters measured
for the sample are typically much higher than what is found for local
star-forming galaxies. We derive composite spectra from the FIRE sample, from
which we infer typical nebular electron densities of ~100-400 cm^-3. Based on
the location of the galaxies and composite spectra on BPT diagrams, we do not
find evidence for significant AGN activity in the sample. Most of the galaxies
as well as the composites are offset in the BPT diagram toward higher [O
III]/H-beta at a given [N II]/H-alpha, in agreement with other observations of
z > 1 star-forming galaxies, but composite spectra derived from the sample do
not show an appreciable offset from the local star-forming sequence on the [O
III]/H-beta versus [S II]/H-alpha diagram. We infer a high nitrogen-to-oxygen
abundance ratio from the composite spectrum, which may contribute to the offset
of the high-redshift galaxies from the local star-forming sequence in the [O
III]/H-beta versus [N II]/H-alpha diagram. We speculate that the elevated
nitrogen abundance could result from substantial numbers of Wolf-Rayet stars in
starbursting galaxies at z~2. (Abridged)Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap
The Impact of Temporal Geopotential Variations on GPS
Lemoine et al. (2006) and Lemoine et al. (2010) showed that applying more detailed models of time-variable gravity (TVG) improved the quality of the altimeter satellite orbits (e.g. TOPEX/Poseidon, Jason-1, Jason-2). This modeling include application of atmospheric gravity derived from 6-hrly pressure fields obtained from the ECMWF and annual gravity variations to degree & order 20x20 in spherical harmonics derived from GRACE data. This approach allowed the development of a consistent geophysical model for application to altimeter satellite orbit determination from 1993 to 2011. In addition, we have also evaluated the impact of TVG modeling on the POD of Jason-1 and Jason-2 by application of a weekly degree & order four gravity coefficient time series developed using data from ten SLR & DORIS-tracked satellites from 1993 to 2011 (Lemoine et al., 2011)
In vivo UTE-MRI reveals positive effects of raloxifene on skeletal bound water in skeletally mature beagle dogs
Raloxifene positively affects mechanical properties of the bone matrix in part through modification of skeletal bound water. The goal of this study was to determine if raloxifene induced alterations in skeletal hydration could be measured in vivo using ultra-short echotime magnetic resonance imaging (UTE-MRI). Twelve skeletally mature female beagle dogs (n=6/group) were treated for 6 months with oral doses of saline vehicle (VEH, 1 ml/kg/day) or raloxifene (RAL, 0.5 mg/kg/day). Following six months of treatment, all animals underwent in vivo UTE-MRI of the proximal tibial cortical bone. UTE-MRI signal intensity versus echotime curves were analyzed by fitting a double exponential to determine the short and long relaxation times of water with the bone (dependent estimations of bound and free water, respectively). Raloxifene-treated animals had significantly higher bound water (+14%; p = 0.05) and lower free water (-20%) compared to vehicle-treated animals. These data provide the first evidence that drug-induced changes in skeletal hydration can be non-invasively assessed using UTE-MRI.Funding for this study was provided by NIH (AR 62002 and a BIRT supplement). Raloxifene was provided by through an MTA with Eli Lilly
Surgical treatment of prosthetic valve endocarditis
AbstractFrom 1975 through 1992, we reoperated on 146 patients for the treatment of prosthetic valve endocarditis. Prosthetic valve endocarditis was considered to be early (<1 year after operation) in 46 cases and active in 103 cases. The extent of the infection was prosthesis only in 66 patients, anulus in 46, and cardiac invasion in 34. Surgical techniques evolved in the direction of increasingly radical débridement of infected tissue and reconstruction with biologic materials. All patients were treated with prolonged postoperative antibiotic therapy. There were 19 (13%) in-hospital deaths. Univariate analyses demonstrated trends toward increasing risk for patients with active endocarditis and extension of infection beyond the prosthesis; however, the only variables with a significant (p < 0.05) association with increased in-hospital mortality confirmed with multivariate testing were impaired left ventricular function, preoperative heart block, coronary artery disease, and culture of organisms from the surgical specimen. During the study period, mortality decreased from 20% (1975 to 1984) to 10% (1984 to 1992). For hospital survivors the mean length of stay was 25 days. Follow-up (mean interval 62 months) documented a late survival of 82% at 5 postoperative years and 60% at 10 years. Older age was the only factor associated (p = 0.006) with late death. Nineteen patients needed at least one further operation; reoperation-free survival was 75% at 5 and 50% at 10 postoperative years. Fever in the immediate preoperative period was the only factor associated with decreased late reoperation-free survival (p = 0.032). Prosthetic valve endocarditis remains a serious complication of valve replacement, but the in-hospital mortality of reoperations for prosthetic valve endocarditis has declined. With extensive débridement of infected tissue and postoperative antibiotic therapy, the extent and activity of prosthetic valve endocarditis does not appear to have a major impact on late outcome, and the majority of patients with this complication survive for 10 years after the operation. (J THORAC CARDIOVASC SURG 1996;111:198-210
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