A County Wide Study of Pupil Transportation in McMinn County, Tennessee

BACKGROUND FOR THE STUDY The need for a study of school bus transportation in McMinn County, Tennessee, was first called to the attention of the writer in 1948. This was further accented by attendance at a number of school board meetings, and by hearing discussions of the routes that buses were traveling at that time. It was believed that some improvement of the routes could be made. The writer discussed the transportation problem with the county superintendent of McMinn County. He urged the writer to give some thought to the problem as a thesis. The problem was later discussed with some of the officials of the College of Education at the University of Tennessee. Encouragement to study the problem was also given by these men. A McMinn County Survey Group was organized in September of 1949 under the guidance of some of the professors of the College of Education. This survey group set up the following objectives: 1. Survey of the present physical conditions of buildings and grounds 2. Survey of the school plant utilization 3. Survey of population status and trends 4. Survey of transportation system 5. Statement of education objectives and needs 6. Survey of financial status of the county 7. Recommendations concerning the present school program and building needs. The writer selected the transportation problem as part of his contribution to the survey group. The survey group held a number of meetings during the past school year and it plans to continue these meetings through the summer. Weekly meeting approximately five hours in length were the pattern for the school year. Some leaders in the College of Education as well as a large number of educators and laymen participated in these meetings

Alien Registration- Truder, Reuben R. (Leeds, Androscoggin County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/26820/thumbnail.jp

Local interaction Strategies and Capacity for Better Care in Nursing Homes: A Multiple Case Study

To describe relationship patterns and management practices in nursing homes (NHs) that facilitate or pose barriers to better outcomes for residents and staff. Methods: We conducted comparative, multiple-case studies in selected NHs (N = 4). Data were collected over six months from managers and staff (N = 406), using direct observations, interviews, and document reviews. Manifest content analysis was used to identify and explore patterns within and between cases. Results: Participants described interaction strategies that they explained could either degrade or enhance their capacity to achieve better outcomes for residents; people in all job categories used these 'local interaction strategies'. We categorized these two sets of local interaction strategies as the 'common pattern' and the 'positive pattern' and summarize the results in two models of local interaction. Conclusions: The findings suggest the hypothesis that when staff members in NHs use the set of positive local interaction strategies, they promote inter-connections, information exchange, and diversity of cognitive schema in problem solving that, in turn, create the capacity for delivering better resident care. We propose that these positive local interaction strategies are a critical driver of care quality in NHs. Our hypothesis implies that, while staffing levels and skill mix are important factors for care quality, improvement would be difficult to achieve if staff members are not engaged with each other in these ways.National Institutes of Health 2 R01NR003178-04A2Claude A. Pepper Older American's Independence Center AG-11268Paul A. Beeson Award NIA AG024787VA Health Services Research and Development EDU 08-417John A. Hartford Building Academic Geriatric Nursing Claire M. Fagin FellowshipBusiness Administratio

An optical fibre dynamic instrumented palpation sensor for the characterisation of biological tissue

AbstractThe diagnosis of prostate cancer using invasive techniques (such as biopsy and blood tests for prostate-specific antigen) and non-invasive techniques (such as digital rectal examination and trans-rectal ultrasonography) may be enhanced by using an additional dynamic instrumented palpation approach to prostate tissue classification. A dynamically actuated membrane sensor/actuator has been developed that incorporates an optical fibre Fabry–Pérot interferometer to record the displacement of the membrane when it is pressed on to different tissue samples. The membrane sensor was tested on a silicon elastomer prostate model with enlarged and stiffer material on one side to simulate early stage prostate cancer. The interferometer measurement was found to have high dynamic range and accuracy, with a minimum displacement resolution of ±0.4μm over a 721μm measurement range. The dynamic response of the membrane sensor when applied to different tissue types changed depending on the stiffness of the tissue being measured. This demonstrates the feasibility of an optically tracked dynamic palpation technique for classifying tissue type based on the dynamic response of the sensor/actuator

The isolation of spatial patterning modes in a mathematical model of juxtacrine cell signalling

Juxtacrine signalling mechanisms are known to be crucial in tissue and organ development, leading to spatial patterns in gene expression. We investigate the patterning behaviour of a discrete model of juxtacrine cell signalling due to Owen \& Sherratt (\emph{Math. Biosci.}, 1998, {\bf 153}(2):125--150) in which ligand molecules, unoccupied receptors and bound ligand-receptor complexes are modelled. Feedback between the ligand and receptor production and the level of bound receptors is incorporated. By isolating two parameters associated with the feedback strength and employing numerical simulation, linear stability and bifurcation analysis, the pattern-forming behaviour of the model is analysed under regimes corresponding to lateral inhibition and induction. Linear analysis of this model fails to capture the patterning behaviour exhibited in numerical simulations. Via bifurcation analysis we show that, since the majority of periodic patterns fold subcritically from the homogeneous steady state, a wide variety of stable patterns exists at a given parameter set, providing an explanation for this failure. The dominant pattern is isolated via numerical simulation. Additionally, by sampling patterns of non-integer wavelength on a discrete mesh, we highlight a disparity between the continuous and discrete representations of signalling mechanisms: in the continuous case, patterns of arbitrary wavelength are possible, while sampling such patterns on a discrete mesh leads to longer wavelength harmonics being selected where the wavelength is rational; in the irrational case, the resulting aperiodic patterns exhibit `local periodicity', being constructed from distorted stable shorter-wavelength patterns. This feature is consistent with experimentally observed patterns, which typically display approximate short-range periodicity with defects

Integrating invasion and disease in the risk assessment of live bird trade.

AimInternational trade in plants and animals generates significant economic benefits. It also leads to substantial unintended impacts when introduced species become invasive, causing environmental disturbance or transmitting diseases that affect people, livestock, other wildlife or the environment. Policy responses are usually only implemented after these species become established and damages are already incurred. International agreements to control trade are likewise usually based on selection of species with known impacts. We aim to further develop quantitative invasive species risk assessment for bird imports and extend the tool to explicitly address disease threats.LocationUnited States of America.MethodsWe use a two-step approach for rapid risk assessment based on the expected biological risks due to both the environmental and health impact of a potentially invasive wildlife species in trade. We assess establishment probability based on a model informed by historical observations and then construct a model of emerging infectious disease threat based on economic and ecological characteristics of the exporting country.ResultsWe illustrate how our rapid assessment tool can be used to identify high-priority species for regulation based on a combination of the threat they pose for becoming established and vectoring emerging infectious diseases.Main conclusionsOur approach can be executed for a species in a matter of days and is nested in an economic decision-making framework for determining whether the biological risk is justified by trade benefits