International Space Station Cathode Life Testing

Four hollow cathode assembly (HCA) life tests were initiated at operating conditions simulating on-orbit operation of the International Space Station plasma contactor. The objective of these tests is to demonstrate the mission-required 18,000 hour lifetime with high-fidelity development model HCAS. HCAs are operated with a continuous 6 sccm xenon flow rate and 3 A anode current. On-orbit emission current requirements are simulated with a square waveform consisting of 50 minutes at a 2.5 A emission current and 40 minutes with no emission current. One HCA test was terminated after approximately 8,000 hours so that a destructive analysis could be performed. The analysis revealed no life-limiting processes and the ultimate lifetime was projected to be greater than the mission requirement. Testing continues for the remaining three HCAs which have accumulated approximately 8,000 hours, 10,000 hours, and 11,000 hours, respectively, as of June 1997. Anode and bias voltages, strong indicators of cathode electron emitter condition, are within acceptable ranges and have exhibited no life- or performance-limiting phenomena to date

Solar Cell Panel and the Method for Manufacturing the Same

According to an aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure, there is provided a solar cell panel and a method for manufacturing the same. The solar cell panel comprises: a solar cell for generating electric power from sunlight; a coverglass for covering the solar cell; transparent shims, which are disposed between the solar cell and the coverglass at the points where the distance between the solar cell and the coverglass needs to be controlled, and form a space between the solar cell and the coverglass; and adhesive layer, which fills the space between the solar cell and the coverglass and has the thickness the same as that of the transparent shims

Early Childhood Teacher Turnover in Nebraska

Teacher turnover is a serious challenge across early childhood settings. Turnover can be expensive for early childhood programs, burdensome to staff, and harmful to children throughout the nation. Nebraska is no exception. This research brief describes teacher turnover in the state’s early care and education settings, including licensed child care, state-funded PreK, and Kindergarten through Grade 3. Research Questions The following research questions were asked across early childhood programs (licensed child care, state-funded PreK, and K-3): 1. What was the average rate of annual teacher turnover? 2. According to administrators, what was the most common reason teachers left their employment? 3. Which hiring challenges did administrators experience in filling positions? 4. On average

Workforce well-being: Personal and workplace contributions to early educators\u27 depression across settings

Building on research demonstrating the importance of teachers\u27 well-being, this study examined personal and contextual factors related to early childhood educators\u27 (n =1640) depressive symptoms across licensed child care homes, centers, and schools. Aspects of teachers\u27 beliefs, economic status, and work-related stress were explored, and components of each emerged as significant in an OLS regression. After controlling for demographics and setting, teachers with more adult-centered beliefs, lower wages, multiple jobs, no health insurance, more workplace demands, and fewer work-related resources, had more depressive symptoms. Adult-centered beliefs were more closely associated with depression for teachers working in home-based settings compared to center-based settings. These findings provide preliminary evidence about what relates to depression in the early childhood workforce, which has implications for supporting well-being across settings

Risk Factors for Depression Among Early Childhood Teachers

This study examined possible risk factors associated with teachers’ depression in a variety of early childhood settings. Teachers with lower pay, no health insurance, multiple jobs, greater job stress, and more adult-centered beliefs reported more symptoms of depression. To reduce these symptoms, efforts should be made to support teachers’ mental health at multiple levels, including individual, environmental, and policy. Researchers used data collected in 2015-16 from a large survey of early childhood educators in Nebraska. Four early childhood settings were sampled: licensed family child care homes (home-based), licensed child care centers (center-based), state-funded PreK programs, and elementary schools serving children in Kindergarten through Grade 3 (K-3). Across settings, a total of 1,640 teachers responded to the survey: 36% in K-3, 25% home-based, 23% center-based, and 17% PreK. The survey included various measures, including economic circumstances (health insurance status, pay, public assistance use, and working multiple jobs), work-related stress, beliefs about children’s development (the extent to which teachers held more adult-centered vs. child-centered beliefs), and symptoms of depression

Predicting Emergency Department “Bouncebacks”: A Retrospective Cohort Analysis

Introduction: The short-term return visit rate among patients discharged from emergency departments (ED) is a quality metric and target for interventions. The ability to accurately identify which patients are more likely to revisit the ED could allow EDs and health systems to develop more focused interventions, but efforts to reduce revisits have not yet found success. Whether patients with a high number of ED visits are at increased risk of a return visit remains underexplored.Methods: This was a population-based, retrospective, cohort study using administrative data from a large physician partnership. We included patients discharged from EDs from 80 hospitals in seven states from July 2014 – June 2016. We performed multivariable logistic regression of short-term return visits on patient, visit, hospital, and community characteristics. The primary outcome was the proportion of patients who had a return visit within 14 days of an index ED visit.Results: Among 6,699,717 index visits, the overall risk of 14-day revisit was 12.6%. Frequent visitors accounted for 18.7% of all visits and 40.2% of all 14-day revisits. Frequent visitor status was associated with the highest odds of a revisit (odds ratio [OR] 3.06; 95% confidence interval [CI], 3.041 – 3.073). Other predictors of revisits were cellulitis (OR 2.131; 95% CI, 2.106 – 2.156), alcohol-related disorders (OR 1.579; 95%CI, 1.548 – 1.610), congestive heart failure (OR 1.175; 95% CI, 1.126 – 1.226), and public insurance (Medicaid OR 1.514; 95% CI, 1.501 – 1.528; Medicare OR 1.601; 95% CI, 1.583 – 1.620).Conclusion: Previous ED use – even a single previous visit – was a stronger predictor of a return visit than any other patient, hospital, or community characteristic. Clinicians should consider previous ED use when considering treatment decisions and risk of return visit, as should stakeholders targeting patients at risk of a return visit

Functional Testing of the Space Station Plasma Contactor

A plasma contactor system has been baselined for the International Space Station Alpha (ISSA) to control the electrical potentials of surfaces to eliminate/mitigate damaging interactions with the space environment. The system represents a dual-use technology which is a direct outgrowth of the NASA electric propulsion program and, in particular, the technology development effort on ion thruster systems. The plasma contactor subsystems include a hollow cathode assembly, a power electronics unit, and an expellant management unit. Under a pre-flight development program these subsystems are being developed to the level of maturity appropriate for transfer to U.S. industry for final development. Development efforts for the hollow cathode assembly include design selection and refinement, validating its required lifetime, and quantifying the cathode performance and interface specifications. To date, cathode components have demonstrated over 10,000 hours lifetime, and a hollow cathode assembly has demonstrated over 3,000 ignitions. Additionally, preliminary integration testing of a hollow cathode assembly with a breadboard power electronics unit has been completed. This paper discusses test results and the development status of the plasma contactor subsystems for ISSA, and in particular, the hollow cathode assembly

Inhibiting tryptophan metabolism enhances interferon therapy in kidney cancer.

Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is increasing in incidence, and a complete cure remains elusive. While immune-checkpoint antibodies are promising, interferon-based immunotherapy has been disappointing. Tryptophan metabolism, which produces immunosuppressive metabolites, is enhanced in RCC. Here we show indolamine-2,3-dioxygenase-1 (IDO1) expression, a kynurenine pathway enzyme, is increased not only in tumor cells but also in the microenvironment of human RCC compared to normal kidney tissues. Neither kynurenine metabolites nor IDO inhibitors affected the survival or proliferation of human RCC or murine renal cell adenocarcinoma (RENCA) cells in vitro. However, interferon-gamma (IFNγ) induced high levels of IDO1 in both RCC and RENCA cells, concomitant with enhanced kynurenine levels in conditioned media. Induction of IDO1 by IFNα was weaker than by IFNγ. Neither the IDO1 inhibitor methyl-thiohydantoin-DL-tryptophan (MTH-trp) nor IFNα alone inhibited RENCA tumor growth, however the combination of MTH-trp and IFNα reduced tumor growth compared to IFNα. Thus, the failure of IFNα therapy for human RCC is likely due to its inability to overcome the immunosuppressive environment created by increased IDO1. Based on our data, and given that IDO inhibitors are already in clinical trials for other malignancies, IFNα therapy with an IDO inhibitor should be revisited for RCC

Sex differences in tendon structure and function

Tendons play a critical role in the transmission of forces between muscles and bones, and chronic tendon injuries and diseases are among the leading causes of musculoskeletal disability. Little is known about sex‐based differences in tendon structure and function. Our objective was to evaluate the mechanical properties, biochemical composition, transcriptome, and cellular activity of plantarflexor tendons from 4 month old male and female C57BL/6 mice using in vitro biomechanics, mass spectrometry‐based proteomics, genome‐wide expression profiling, and cell culture techniques. While the Achilles tendons of male mice were approximately 6% larger than female mice (p  0.05) of plantaris tendons were observed. Mass spectrometry proteomics analysis revealed no significant difference between sexes in the abundance of major extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins such as collagen types I (p = 0.30) and III (p = 0.68), but female mice had approximately twofold elevations (p < 0.05) in less abundant ECM proteins such as fibronectin, periostin, and tenascin C. The transcriptome of male and female tendons differed by only 1%. In vitro, neither the sex of the serum that fibroblasts were cultured in, nor the sex of the ECM in which they were embedded, had profound effects on the expression of collagen and cell proliferation genes. Our results indicate that while male mice expectedly had larger tendons, male and female tendons have very similar mechanical properties and biochemical composition, with small increases in some ECM proteins and proteoglycans evident in female tendons. © 2017 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 35:2117–2126, 2017.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138868/1/jor23516-sup-0001-SuppTab-S1.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138868/2/jor23516_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138868/3/jor23516-sup-0002-SuppTab-S2.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138868/4/jor23516.pd

Analysis of different characteristics of smile

Introduction: Analysis of smile is imperative in the diagnosis and treatment planning phases of aesthetic dentistry.Aim: To evaluate the components of smile among students of a dental institution.Methods: Frontal view digital photographs with posed smile of 157 dental students were assessed using Adobe Photoshop7.0. Smile characteristics evaluated included; smile line, smile arc, smile design, upper lip curvature, labiodental relationship and number of teeth displayed. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 23.0. Pearson chi-square test was used to determine the gender based differences for various parameters.Results: Average smile line (43.3%), consonant smile arcs (45.2%), cuspid smiles (45.9%), upward lip curvature (43.9%), maxillary anterior teeth not covered by lower lip (60.5%) and teeth displayed up to first premolars (35.7%). Gender based differences were not statistically significant except for smile arc (p value = 0.02) and number of teeth displayed (p value \u3c 0.001). There was a significant relationship between lip curvature and smile pattern (p value \u3c 0.001) and lip curvature and smile arc (p value = 0.01) revealing that upward lip curvature was associated with commissure type smiles and consonant smile arcs.Conclusions: The smile characteristics should be considered before beginning the aesthetic treatment of the patient to obtain adequate results in oral rehabilitation