Unsubstantiated bias toward foster care versus group home placements for wards of the state.

High number of placements for children in U.S. DHHS custody has led to class action lawsuits around the country. The current study proposes that social stigmatization effects in the form of family ideology drive foster home favorability over group home placements. Fifty-four students completed an Implicit Association Test, Go/No-Go Association Task, and self-report assessing associations of foster home and group home stimuli to either good or bad stimuli using three dependent measures: sensitivity (d'), hit RTs, and false alarms. Results revealed participants were more sensitive, faster, and had fewer erroneous responses when foster was paired with good or when group was paired with bad. Results supported hypothesis of a positive bias towards foster homes and a negative group home bias

Oxidative and electrophilic pathways in the reactions of organochromium(III) complexes with nitrous acid and tris(2,2\u27-bipyridyl)ruthenium(III)

The kinetics and mechanisms of the reactions of nitrous acid with pentaaquoorganochromium(III) complexes were studied. Nitrous acid reacts with (H(,2)O)(,5)CrR(\u272+) complexes via an NO(\u27+) intermediate by either an electrophilic or electron transfer mechanism depending on the nature of the R group. The rate constants for the aliphatic organochromium complexes can be correlated using a linear free energy correlation which implies a common transition state for these reactions. The lack of steric effects for the reactions of the alkyl-chromium complexes, and the detection of Cr(\u272+) as an intermediate in the reactions of the (alpha)-hydroxy- and (alpha)-alkoxyalkylchromium complexes suggests that these complexes react with HONO by an electron transfer mechanism. A mechanism has been proposed in which NO(\u27+) is formed which then oxidizes CrR(\u272+) by one electron to give CrR(\u273+). This species decomposes to Cr(\u273+) and R(.) when R is an alkyl group, but forms Cr(\u272+) and ROH when R is an (alpha)-hydroxy- or (alpha)-alkoxyalkyl group. R(.) and Cr(\u272+) react with the NO formed in the reaction to give RNO and CrNO(\u272+), respectively;In contrast, aralkylchromium(III) complexes react with nitrous acid by an electrophilic mechanism as indicated by the products and correlations of the rate constants with other electrophilic reactions in the literature;Photochemically generated tris(2,2\u27-bipyridyl)-ruthenium(III) oxidizes a range of pentaaquoorganochromium(III) complexes by one electron. The trends in the rate constants and the usual behavior of Ru(bpy)(,3)(\u273+) suggest that electron transfer is occurring by an outer-sphere mechanism. In the case of CrCH(,2)CH(,3)(\u272+), the intermediate;formed, CrCH(,2)CH(,3)(\u273+), decays to Cr(\u273+) and (.)CH(,2)CH(,3) as shown by kinetic studies and a product analysis; (\u271)DOE Report IS-T-1193. This work was performed under contract W-7405-Eng-82 with the Department of Energy

OpenSatKit Enables Quick Startup for CubeSat Missions

The software required to develop, integrate, and operate a spacecraft is substantial regardless of whether it’s a large or small satellite. Even getting started can be a monumental task. Every satellite mission requires three primary categories of software to function. The first is Flight Software (FSW) which provides the onboard control of the satellites and its payload(s). Second, while developing a satellite on earth, it is necessary to simulate the satellite’s orbit, attitude, and actuators, to ensure that the systems that control these aspects will work correctly in the real environment. Finally, the ground has to be able to communicate with the satellite, monitor its performance and health, and display its data. OpenSatKit provides these three software components in an open source software package. It combines NASA’s Core Flight System (cFS)1,2, NASA’s 423 spacecraft dynamics simulator, and Ball Aerospace’s COSMOS4 ground system into a system that can be deployed and operational within hours. OpenSatKit is designed to simplify the task of integrating new FSW applications and an example Raspberry Pi target is included so users can gain experience working with a low-cost embedded hardware target. All users can benefit from OpenSatKit but the greatest impact and benefits will be to SmallSat missions with constrained budgets and small software teams

Situational Leadership in United States Air Force Air Traffic Control Towers

On December 17, 1903, the world as man knew it from the dawn of time changed. Orville Wright broke the bounds of Earth's gravity in controlled flight and in slightly more than a century that singular flight manifested into over 18 million annual worldwide flights. As the skies became more crowded it became necessary to develop a means to maintain safety, and the air traffic control profession was born. Developing into what is often considered one of the most stressful occupations, leadership in air traffic control facilities is critical the safe, orderly, and efficient flow of air traffic. The purpose of this qualitative study was to determine the preferred leadership style for United States Air Force air traffic control tower watch supervisors. A panel of 10 functional experts completed a 25 question, scenario based survey to establish a baseline for this study's four research questions. A purposeful sample of eight control tower chief controllers representing the eight United States Air Force major commands were interviewed and their responses were compared to the mean of the experts panel. The data from the interviews was analyzed and in addition to the straight forward responses to the research questions two themes emerged: the role of the monitor and apprentice controller's role in emergency situations. The study discovered that United States Air Force control towers are fully implementing the fundamentals of situational leadership. The eight interviewee's responses mirrored the expert panel's answers. The results of this study provide control tower chief controllers, watch supervisors, and future watch supervisors a frame of reference on how situations are handled across the spectrum of facilities.Aviation & Space Scienc

Selecting Projects for a Capstone Spacecraft Design Course from Real World Solicitations

The first decision that goes into setting the tone for a senior capstone spacecraft design course is the choice of the projects. There are several sources of ideas for design projects, including design competitions and topics set by various technical committees. A new source of design ideas comes from real world design projects. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration\u27s Office of Space Science originally released an Announcement of Opportunity in spring 2002 to solicit designs for a complete Mars mission. The Senior Capstone Spacecraft Design course in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at The Pennsylvania State University paralleled this proposal process for the spacecraft design projects for the 2002-2003 academic year. While the original announcement called for proposers to determine what kind of a flight mission they would conduct, eight specific, realistic flight missions were chosen and assigned to the eight teams in the class. Many of the important aspects of the original project were duplicated; however, a significant amount of material was deleted. This paper discusses the outcome of the year-long course, compares some of the designs developed by the students to the designs chosen in the actual NASA mission design, and draws conclusions about the advantages and disadvantages of selecting a project based from a real solicitation

Balanced Expertise Distribution in Remote Ultrasound Imaging Aboard The International Space Station (ISS)

Astronaut training for ISS operations usually ensures independent performance. With small crew size same crews also conduct all science work onboard. With diverse backgrounds, a good "match" between the existing and required skills can only be anecdotal. Furthermore, full proficiency in most of the complex tasks can be attained only through long training and practice, which may not be justified and may be impossible given the scarcity of training time. To enable a number of operational and science advancements, authors have developed a new approach to expertise distribution in time and among the space and ground personnel. Methods: As part of NASA Operational Ultrasound Project (1998-2003) and the NASA-solicited experiment "Advanced Diagnostic Ultrasound in Microgravity-ADUM" (P.I. -S.D., ongoing), the authors have created a "Balanced Expertise Distribution" approach to perform complex ultrasound imaging tasks on ISS for both operational and science use. The four components of expertise are a) any pre-existing pertinent expertise; b) limited preflight training c) adaptive onboard proficiency enhancement tools; d) real-time ' guidance from the ground. Throughout the pre-flight training and flight time preceding the experiments, the four components are shaped in a dynamic fashion to meet in an optimum combination during the experiment sessions. Results: Procedure validation sessions and feasibility studies have given encouraging results. While several successful real-time remote guidance sessions have been conducted on ISS, Expedition 8 is the first to use an "on-orbit proficiency enhancement" tool. Conclusions: In spite of severely limited training time, daring peer-reviewed research and operational enhancements are feasible through a balanced distribution of expertise in time, as well as among the crewmembers and ground personnel. This approach shows great promise for biomedical research, but may be applicable for other areas of micro gravity-based scienc