A Socio-Ecological Analysis of Childhood Obesity and School Nutrition Policies and Practices in Select Elementary and Middle Schools on the Navajo Reservation

Navajo and other American Indian children are most affected by overweight and obesity in comparison to their US counterparts, and schools have become a focal setting for prevention interventions. The study applied an ecological and a cultural framework to analyze the various factors that influence the food choices available to students and the impact of these choices on childhood obesity. The overall purpose of this descriptive study was to examine and describe how schools that participate in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) are contributing to the diets of Navajo students since the passage of the Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act of 2010. National data have shown that schools have not always supported a healthy food environment, and with no current data about the food environment of schools serving Navajo students, this study was designed to collect data from multiple sources that included survey questions with quantitative and qualitative questions, conversations with participants, and observations. As a baseline study, the results of this study addressed a number of areas. Overall, school lunches were meeting the nutrition standards by providing healthy food options, while a few schools also offered unhealthy foods through a la carte food options. Participants offered mixed views about students’ nutrition behaviors. One on hand, students were making healthy food choices, but there were also concerns about food waste of nourishing foods. Further, students’ access to unhealthy foods often displaced healthful food choices. From a policy and policy implementation perspective, there are areas where schools are doing well, and other areas that still need additional work. Schools have an opportunity to incorporate strategies to enhance their food environment, including finding ways to further strengthen and integrate Navajo culture teachings and practices that will ultimately create a school environment that reflects the teachings of Hozho’, as well as restoring Hozho’ in health and wellness within Navajo children

Fault Localization in Multi-Threaded C Programs using Bounded Model Checking (extended version)

Software debugging is a very time-consuming process, which is even worse for multi-threaded programs, due to the non-deterministic behavior of thread-scheduling algorithms. However, the debugging time may be greatly reduced, if automatic methods are used for localizing faults. In this study, a new method for fault localization, in multi-threaded C programs, is proposed. It transforms a multi-threaded program into a corresponding sequential one and then uses a fault-diagnosis method suitable for this type of program, in order to localize faults. The code transformation is implemented with rules and context switch information from counterexamples, which are typically generated by bounded model checkers. Experimental results show that the proposed method is effective, in such a way that sequential fault-localization methods can be extended to multi-threaded programs.Comment: extended version of paper published at SBESC'1

Strengthening a tube connected building group by base isolators and story isolators

Seismic isolation systems have been used to retrofit existing buildings. However seldom studies have focused on retrofit existing building groups by isolation system. This study uses base isolation technologies and story isolators to retrofit an existing tube connected building group. Base isolators are designed to protect the frames from strong earthquakes. Story isolators are chosen to provide lateral resistance and dissipate energies from serious earthquakes. Equations of motion are formulated to study the responses of the new building system to strong earthquake motions. Simulation results show the maximum drifts of the tubes and the maximum drifts of frame are very small. Maximum relative displacement between the tube and frame is much less than the seismic joint limit

Plight of Black Farmers in the Context of USDA Farm Loan Programs: A Research Agenda for the Future

Black farmers remain an underdeveloped topic in academic literature. This historical study used a historical research methodology to assess the plight of Black farmers in the context of United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) farm loan programs and offered an array of future research recommendations. We investigated the severity of the plight of Black farmers in the context of USDA farm loan programs with an emphasis on effective and responsive leadership in relation to four elements: 1) legislative initiatives, 2) policy initiatives, 3) USDA structure and delivery systems, and the 4) Pigford v. Glickman class action and consent decree. We identified research and development recommendations for the future, such as interviews to determine the perceptions of Black farmers pertaining to the current accessibility of USDA loans. This research agenda may better assist both scholars and advocates in supporting the steady rise of Black farmers in the U.S

An overview of NASA testing requirements for alternate cleaning solvents used in liquid and gaseous oxygen environments

The elimination of CFC-containing cleaning solvents for oxygen systems has prompted the development of a number of alternative cleaning solvents that must now be evaluated not only for cleanability, but compatibility as well. NASA Handbook 8060.1(NHB 8060.1) establishes the requirements for evaluation, testing, and selection of materials for use in oxygen rich environments. Materials intended for use in space vehicles, specified test facilities, and ground support equipment must meet the requirements of this document. In addition to the requirements of NHB 8060.1 for oxygen service, alternative cleaning solvents must also be evaluated in other areas (such as corrosivity, non-metals compatibility, non-volatile residue contamination, etc.). This paper will discuss the testing requirements of NHB 8060.1 and present preliminary results from early screening tests performed at Marshall Space Flight Center's Materials Combustion Research Facility

Verification of Magnitude and Phase Responses in Fixed-Point Digital Filters

In the digital signal processing (DSP) area, one of the most important tasks is digital filter design. Currently, this procedure is performed with the aid of computational tools, which generally assume filter coefficients represented with floating-point arithmetic. Nonetheless, during the implementation phase, which is often done in digital signal processors or field programmable gate arrays, the representation of the obtained coefficients can be carried out through integer or fixed-point arithmetic, which often results in unexpected behavior or even unstable filters. The present work addresses this issue and proposes a verification methodology based on the digital-system verifier (DSVerifier), with the goal of checking fixed-point digital filters w.r.t. implementation aspects. In particular, DSVerifier checks whether the number of bits used in coefficient representation will result in a filter with the same features specified during the design phase. Experimental results show that errors regarding frequency response and overflow are likely to be identified with the proposed methodology, which thus improves overall system's reliability

Micromanipulation of InP lasers with optoelectronic tweezers for integration on a photonic platform

The integration of light sources on a photonic platform is a key aspect of the fabrication of self-contained photonic circuits with a small footprint that does not have a definitive solution yet. Several approaches are being actively researched for this purpose. In this work we propose optoelectronic tweezers for the manipulation and integration of light sources on a photonic platform and report the positional and angular accuracy of the micromanipulation of standard Fabry-Pérot InP semiconductor laser die. These lasers are over three orders of magnitude bigger in volume than any previously assembled with optofluidic techniques and the fact that they are industry standard lasers makes them significantly more useful than previously assembled microdisk lasers. We measure the accuracy to be 2.5 ± 1.4 µm and 1.4 ± 0.4° and conclude that optoelectronic tweezers are a promising technique for the micromanipulation and integration of optoelectronic components in general and semiconductor lasers in particular