The CAB model of pain-related activity avoidance: description and implications for research and practice

Background and Purpose: Pain-related activity avoidance is a phenomenon that causes substantial annual patient morbidity. Therefore, it has been the subject of many recent studies related to physical therapist practice. The purposes of this review are: (1) to provide a rationale for considering cognition and affect in physical therapist practice, and (2) to propose the CAB Model for patient education in physical therapist management of pain-related activity avoidance. Method: Narrative review. Findings: \u27CAB\u27 is an acronym that emphasizes _Cognition and Affect in designing patient education programs that facilitate change in avoidant Behavior. Clinical Relevance: This review synthesizes literature that suggests pain-related cognitions and affect may be important targets for patient education by physical therapists, because they may serve as progenitors of pain-related activity avoidance. This narrative review provides a model for physical therapists to use in considering these features of clinical presentation and to guide future research

G93-1171 Using a Chlorophyll Meter to Improve N Management

This NebGuide describes how to use a chlorophyll meter as a tool to improve nitrogen management by detecting nitrogen deficiency and determining the need for additional N fertilizer. Fertilizer nitrogen (N) is increasingly recognized as the source of nitrate contamination in much of Nebraska\u27s groundwater. Improving the efficiency of fertilizer N use reduces the amount of N that can potentially contaminate water resources. Effective management of fertilizer N is a major challenge for grain crop producers. Many factors that affect its efficiency are beyond a producer\u27s control. Weather, equipment limitations and breakdowns, and availability of labor and fertilizer during critical periods can lead to inadequate N supply to the crop. Fertilizer N is relatively inexpensive, and deficiencies can result in substantial yield reductions. Producers are inclined to manage fertilizer N to minimize the risk of deficiency, which can lead to excessive fertilizer applications. Although they understand fertilizer applied at excessive rates costs money and may lead to contamination of the environment, producers also want assurance that applying less fertilizer N will not reduce crop yields

Habitat Condition and Associated Macrofauna Reflect Differences Between Protected and Exposed Seagrass Landscapes

Seagrass landscape configurations associated with different physical settings can affect habitat-structure and plant-animal relationships. We compared shoal grass (Halodule wrightii) habitat and macrofaunal variables between two fragmented seagrass landscapes at barrier-island locations subject to different disturbance regimes. Five seagrass habitat variables including above ground biomass (AGB), shoot number, per shoot biomass, epiphyte biomass and below ground biomass (BGB), differed significantly between the island landscapes. Per shoot biomass and epiphyte biomass also varied significantly over the seagrass growing season; and epiphyte biomass showed a strong landscape-time interaction. Abundances of microgastropods normalized to AGB differed significantly between landscapes. An inverse relationship between the abundance of microgastropods and epiphyte loading suggests a possible functional link. However, additional temporal mismatch between epiphyte loading and microgastropod abundance indicates that controls on epiphyte loading were complex. Seagrass habitat was more fragmented within the Cat Island (CI) landscape. Wind direction and strength imply that the CI landscape experienced more physical disturbance than the Horn Island (HI) landscape. This study highlights some potential links involving landscape configuration, habitat structure, and macrofaunal associations which can be further addressed using hypothesis-driven research

K-Band Traveling-Wave Tube Amplifier

A new space-qualified, high-power, high-efficiency, K-band traveling-wave tube amplifier (TWTA) will provide high-rate, high-capacity, direct-to-Earth communications for science data and video gathered by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) during its mission. Several technological advances were responsible for the successful demonstration of the K-band TWTA

Convergence of Agriculture and Energy: II. Producing Cellulosic Biomass for Biofuels

Global energy demand is increasing as known global petroleum supplies are decreas¬ing. Calls to supplement or replace the current fossil-based energy system with new, envi¬ronmentally and economically sustainable strategies continue to increase, especially in light of more expensive traditional energy sources. Various governmental agencies and working groups have set aggressive targets and timelines for decreasing fossil fuel consumption by substituting bio-based energy (Bush 2007; Foust et al. 2007; Perlack et al. 2005; Smith et al. 2004). The alignment and continuity of these goals is illustrated in Figure 1. Current biofuel production in the United States relies primarily on corn grain conver¬sion to ethanol, but future systems are expected to depend more intensively on plant biomass than on grain as a feedstock for production of ethanol and other biofuels. In addition, current cropping systems generally are designed to optimize grain production and are not designed to harvest all the aboveground portion of the plant for cellulose-containing biomass. Significant, immediate national investments are needed, along with changes in policy, to address chal¬lenges limiting the sustainable production and efficient use of cellulosic biomass as a fuel feedstock to meet anticipated U.S. demand. The Bush Administration outlined a portfolio of recommended technologies, pro¬cesses, and practices for bio-based energy production that targets improved rates of feedstock conversion and greater efficiency in energy use. The plan also states that a significant portion of the nation’s 2017 energy supply, especially transportation fuel, will come from conversion of biomass feedstock to liquid fuels. Considering just the biomass-derived fuels contribution, roughly 250 million tons or more of grain and cellulosic biomass per year will be needed to reach the 10-year goal, and 650 to 700 million tons per year of biomass to reach the 2025 goal (Figure 1)

K-Band TWTA for the NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter

This paper presents the K-Band traveling wave tube amplifier (TWTA) developed for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and discusses the new capabilities it provides

Spurious Shear in Weak Lensing with LSST

The complete 10-year survey from the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will image $\sim$ 20,000 square degrees of sky in six filter bands every few nights, bringing the final survey depth to $r\sim27.5$, with over 4 billion well measured galaxies. To take full advantage of this unprecedented statistical power, the systematic errors associated with weak lensing measurements need to be controlled to a level similar to the statistical errors. This work is the first attempt to quantitatively estimate the absolute level and statistical properties of the systematic errors on weak lensing shear measurements due to the most important physical effects in the LSST system via high fidelity ray-tracing simulations. We identify and isolate the different sources of algorithm-independent, \textit{additive} systematic errors on shear measurements for LSST and predict their impact on the final cosmic shear measurements using conventional weak lensing analysis techniques. We find that the main source of the errors comes from an inability to adequately characterise the atmospheric point spread function (PSF) due to its high frequency spatial variation on angular scales smaller than $\sim10'$ in the single short exposures, which propagates into a spurious shear correlation function at the $10^{-4}$--$10^{-3}$ level on these scales. With the large multi-epoch dataset that will be acquired by LSST, the stochastic errors average out, bringing the final spurious shear correlation function to a level very close to the statistical errors. Our results imply that the cosmological constraints from LSST will not be severely limited by these algorithm-independent, additive systematic effects.Comment: 22 pages, 12 figures, accepted by MNRA

Beyond planning tools: Experiential learning in climate adaptation planning and practices

In the past decade, several dedicated tools have been developed to help natural resources professionals integrate climate science into their planning and implementation; however, it is unclear how often these tools lead to on-the-ground climate adaptation. Here, we describe a training approach that we developed to help managers effectively plan to execute intentional, climate-informed actions. This training approach was developed through the Climate Change Response Framework (CCRF) and uses active and focused work time and peer-to-peer interaction to overcome observed barriers to using adaptation planning tools. We evaluate the effectiveness of this approach by examining participant evaluations and outlining the progress of natural resources projects that have participated in our trainings. We outline a case study that describes how this training approach can lead to place and context-based climate-informed action. Finally, we describe best practices based on our experience for engaging natural resources professionals and helping them increase their comfort with climate-informed planning