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 “hands-on” 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 “Triple Constraints.” At MAMTC, the project “Triple Constraints” 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 “hands on” 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 “real world” 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) Kerzner’s 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 Service‐Connected 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

Discovery of Three Distant, Cold Brown Dwarfs in the WFC3 Infrared Spectroscopic Parallels Survey

We present the discovery of three late type (>T4) brown dwarfs, including a probable Y dwarf, in the WFC3 Infrared Spectroscopic Parallels (WISP) Survey. We use the G141 grism spectra to determine the spectral types of the dwarfs and derive distance estimates based on a comparison with nearby T dwarfs with known parallaxes. These are the most distant spectroscopically confirmed T/Y dwarfs, with the farthest at an estimated distance of ~400 pc. We compare the number of cold dwarfs found in the WISP survey with simulations of the brown dwarf mass function. The number found is generally consistent with an initial stellar mass function dN/dM \propto M^{-\alpha} with \alpha = 0.0--0.5, although the identification of a Y dwarf is somewhat surprising and may be indicative of either a flatter absolute magnitude/spectral type relation than previously reported or an upturn in the number of very late type brown dwarfs in the observed volume.Comment: Accepted for publication by ApJ Letters. 10 pages, 2 figure

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 MDR2−/− 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 MDR2−/− mice (n = 3/tracer) with HCC and 12 m MDR2−/+ control mice (n = 3/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 MDR2−/− (n = 10) 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 MDR2−/− mice. In contrast, hepatic 11C-acetate metabolism was significantly elevated in MDR2−/− mice when compared to MDR2−/+ controls. Serum AFP and LPA levels increased in MDR2−/− 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 MDR2−/− 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)

Magnetic Resonance Diffusion Tensor Imaging and Diffusion Compartmental Modeling in an Animal Model of Chronic Kidney Disease

poster abstractPurpose: According to National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) affects 25% of the US population over age 601. Renal fibrosis, a common pathological consequence of CKD, is a progressive process that ultimately leads to end-stage renal failure that requires dialysis or kidney transplantation2. There is a compelling need for non-invasive biomarkers that track changes in the tissue microenvironment associated with CKD. Several studies using magnetic resonance diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) have been proposed as imaging biomarkers for CKD3. In this study, in addition to DTI, we explored a diffusion-compartmental modeling technique4 to study the microstructures of hypoxia induced animal models of CKD. Method: Preparation of the animal CKD model: Experiments were performed in 4 Wistar Rats using protocols approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC). Two days prior to the first magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan; surgical intervention in right renal artery was performed in all the animals to create hypoxia induced renal fibrosis. The MRI scans were repeated at an interval of approximately one month. During the imaging session, the rats were sedated and kept in head-first supine position. MRI imaging: The MRI diffusion pulse sequence was a single-shot spin-echo echo-planar imaging (SS-SE-EPI) sequence with multiple diffusion-weighting b-values (i.e. 3 shells with b-values of 150, 300 and 450 s/mm2) and multiple diffusion-weighting directions at each shell (i.e., 10, 19 and 30, respectively). Diffusion directions in each shell and in the projected sphere with all directions (i.e., total 59) were optimized for uniform diffusion sampling in the spherical space5. The repetition time (TR) is 2200 ms and echo time (TE) is 73.6 ms. A total of four signal averages was performed. The imaging parameters were field-of-view (FOV) = 128 x 64 mm, matrix size = 128 x 64, isotropic voxel size of 1 mm3, and 20 oblique coronal slices. Image data processing: DTI derived parameters including axial diffusivity (Da), radial diffusivity (Dr), mean diffusivity (MD), and fractional anisotropy (FA) were computed6. The diffusion compartmental model originally proposed for the brain called neutrite orientation dispersion and density imaging (NODDI)4 was modified to fit the water diffusivities of kidneys. The NODDI model with Watson stick framework produces the volume fraction of stick like diffusion compartment that may explain the active diffusion (transport) of water in the interstitial space between renal tubules, ellipsoid like diffusion compartment that may explain diffusion inside renal tubule, and a fast isotropic diffusion to account for the pseudo-diffusion term relating to bulk vascular flow. The normalized diffusion intensity was fit with a non-linear mathematical model given by A = (1-Viso) (VicAic+(1-Vic) Aec) + VisoAiso ; where Vic and Viso are the volume fraction of active water transport and free diffusion compartments in the kidney, respectively. Aic, Aec and Aiso are the normalized diffusion signal contribution from stick, tubule and free diffusion compartments, respectively. In the raw DW data, the b-value=0 volume clearly shows three distinct layers in the rat kidney representing the inner medulla, outer medulla and cortex (Figure1). Non-overlapping ROI's were constructed from the b-value =0 images. Figure 1: The DTI and Diffusion compartmental modeling parameter for RAT Kidney 2 days after surgical intervention. The Cortex (C), the Outer Medulla (OM) and Inner Medulla (IM) are shown in raw b0 maps. The orientation of the images follows radiology convention. Results: On post-surgical day 2, the overall water diffusivity (i.e., mean diffusivity (MD)) decreased significantly in the outer medullae and inner medullae of the surgical kidneys (Figure 2 B green bars). In the compartmental model, the volume fraction of the stick (interstitial) diffusion compartment (Vic) in right outer and inner medulla was significantly increased compared to the left (Figure 2A blue bars), whereas the volume fraction of water diffusion inside the tubules (Vec = (1-Vic)) decreased significantly. In addition, isotropic free diffusion compartment (Viso) was significantly lower in the inner medullae of the right kidneys. The axial diffusivity (Da) that may describe the diffusion parallel to the tubules decreased significantly in outer and inter medullae of the right surgical kidneys (Figure 2 B blue bars). The radial diffusivity (Dr) that may describe the water diffusion perpendicularly to the renal tubules decreased significantly in only the outer medullae of the right kidneys (Figure 2B gray bars). While FA shows high value in the inner medullae for both left and right kidneys, no significant results were found between left and right kidneys and between two time points. Over the one-month period of time, right inner medullae continued the significant changes in the diffusivity measurements (Figure 2C and D, right groups), but the diffusivities remained similar in the outer medullae (Figure 2 C and D, middle groups). No significant findings were found in the renal cortices between the right and left kidneys on post-surgical day 2 (Figure 2 A and B). Interestingly, the right renal cortices did have significant increase in Vic and decreases in Da, Dr, and MD over the one-month time period (Figure 2 C and D). Figure 2: Diffusion Compartmental (Figure 2A) and DTI (Figure 2B) parameters for Right Cortex (RC) and Left Cortex (LC), Right Outer Medulla (ROM) and Left Outer Medulla (LOM) and Right Inner Medulla (RIM) and Left Inner Medulla (LIM) on post-surgical day 2. (Figure 2C) Is the time series study of diffusion compartmental parameters and (Figure 2D) for DTI parameters for the right kidneys at post-surgical day 2 and 30, respectively. The bars represent diffusion measurements of all four rats. The overhead connecting lines represent significant statistical student t-test with p-value < 0.01. Discussions and Conclusion: The DTI and NODDI analogous diffusion compartment derived parameters are sensitive to the micro-structural changes in kidneys after surgical hypoxia intervention. The outer and inner medullae appear most sensitive to the surgical hypoxia intervention as early as post-surgical day 2. The preliminary result suggests that water diffusion decreases due to renal fibrosis, and more so inside the Henle tubules. In post-surgical day 30, renal cortices start to show changes in water diffusivities while inner medullae continue pathological changes. The NODDI compartmental model shows promising preliminary results in revealing renal microenvironments under the influences of hypoxia induced renal fibrosis. Further study is required to optimize and validate the model

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