Useful field of view of an indicator of accident risk: results from a college sample

Driving is an important part of daily life in our society. Neurocognitive deficits acquired from a head injury can affect driving ability. Determining when it is safe for a person recovering from a head injury to return to the road can often be difficult. With the risk involved in an on-the-road driving evaluation, effective measures are needed to determine when patients are ready to be evaluated. Some neuropsychological measures have shown promise in this area. The Useful Field of View (UFOV) is one test that has been used successfully with older drivers to predict accident risk. Research has also been conducted examining the ability of the UFOV to predict the driving ability of patients recovering from traumatic brain injury (TBI). The ability of the UFOV to predict accident risk in samples of both non-injured and head-injured college students was examined. The UFOV was unable to predict crash involvement in the either the TBI or non-impaired subject group. The relationship of the UFOV with a number of neuropsychological measures was also explored. Possible implications of the findings and future directions are discussed

Etiology of traumatic brain injury: impact on psychological functioning

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) due to violence has received increased research focus in recent years, with numerous studies examining the impact of violent TBI on cognitive and psychosocial outcomes. However, few studies have examined psychological outcomes following violent TBI. The present study examined the prevalence of symptoms of depression and anxiety in individuals with TBI due to violence (n = 180) and other causes (n = 360). Results indicated that while etiology was not a significant predictor of psychological status, overall there were some differences in endorsement of depressive and anxious symptoms among individuals with moderate to severe injuries compared to those with mild injuries. Implications of these findings and future directions are discussed

In Pursuit of Police Professionalism: The Development and Assessment of a Conceptual Model of Professionalism in Law Enforcement

Adherence to the highest standards and fundamentals of professionalism is essential to the profession of law enforcement. Police professionalism has many meanings but no definitive model of professionalism in policing has been established. Historically, the idea of policing as a profession has emerged slowly. The professional model, as proposed in this research, seeks to define a working model of professionalism in policing. It is proposed that police work is a "true profession," similar to the professions of medicine, law, and education. Advocates of any professional model of policing argue that police officers are experts through training, certification, education, and experience, and thus should be viewed as professionals in every sense of the term. In selecting the criteria for this developmental model of professionalism, a content analysis of the literature was conducted in order to define key elements of professionalism and professionalism in policing. The development of this descriptive profile resulted in the conceptualization of a professional model utilizing nine criteria, or attributes: high standards of recruitment and selection (civil service), formal education (college) requirements, formal training (police academy) and state certification, state-mandated (annual) specialized training and re-certification, sworn police officers empowered to arrest, armed police officers (firearms), formal policies (departmental) for operations and function, community policing (commitment and service), and accreditation. Select specialists (N=25) in the field of criminal justice - law enforcement practitioners and higher education faculty - were sampled to assess the proposed model. The focus of this study was that professionalism in policing could be defined and achieved by meeting the established criteria as proposed by the Professional Model of Policing. The results indicate the majority of the specialists in this study felt the proposed model was acceptable, and could serve as a basic blueprint of professionalism in law enforcement, or "ideal type", pending further relevant research on police professionalism

Fabrication and Compressive Behavior of Corrugated Aramid-Epoxy Cellular Solids

Cellular solids are materials whose base material does not always occupy the entire solid fraction available. A number of cellular solids can provide blast protection and absorb impact energy, but few perform well resisting blunt object (ballistic) penetration. In this thesis, a method is proposed for fabricating cellular solids from aramid-epoxy composites that can absorb impact energy and resist blunt object penetration. The aramid-epoxy samples were fabricated using wet-layup techniques, with two different styles of Kevlar 49 woven fabric in a variety of orientations. Test sample density ranged from 0.08 0.23 g/cm3. Different lamination orientations, assembly techniques, and bonding adhesives were investigated and assessed for their effect on quasi-static and dynamic crushing. A maximum plateau stress of 1.5 MPa was recorded with corresponding energy absorption of 4.2 J/g; values comparable to commercially produced metal foams. Methods for prediction of mechanical properties are presented/assessed along with suggestions for further improvements

School quality, safe schools: an emperical analysis

While the vast majority of US public schools are safe, problems exist that not only threaten the teaching and learning environment, but cause substantive problems for educators. Sensing that certain troubling student behaviors can lead to greater problems, schools have implemented many safe school programs and strategies. Unfortunately, these approaches are viewed as "add-ons" by the education community; that is, additional activities and work for them. What is needed is a framework where safe school programs and strategies are fully integrated into the schooling process. Such a framework exists, and the purpose of our paper has been to integrate the safe schools literature with the quality schools literature in developing such a framework. After reviewing the school quality and school safety literature we extracted main concepts from both bodies of research, and led to an overriding proposition. The proposition suggests that safe school activities can be successful if they are part of the larger task of developing and sustaining quality schools. An analysis of school quality and safety data collected by the NEA tentatively confirms our main proposition. We found that school quality is significantly related to school safety. Additional findings suggest that safety varies across schools, middle schools have more problems than either elementary or high schools, and that the effect of school quality on safety does not depend on grade level. Taken as a whole, the effect of school quality on school safety appears to be very robus

Advances in Solid State Joining of Haynes 230 High Temperature Alloy

The J-2X engine is being designed for NASA s new class of crew and launch vehicles, the Ares I and Ares V. The J-2X is a LOX/Hydrogen upper stage engine with 294,000 lbs of thrust and a minimum Isp of 448 seconds. As part of the design criteria to meet the performance requirements a large film-cooled nozzle extension is being designed to further expand the hot gases and increases the specific impulse. The nozzle extension is designed using Haynes 230, a nickel-chromium-tungsten-molybdenum superalloy. The alloy was selected for its high strength at elevated temperatures and resistance to hydrogen embrittlement. The nozzle extension is manufactured from Haynes 230 plate spun-forged to form the contour and chemically-milled pockets for weight reduction. Currently fusion welding is being evaluated for joining the panels which are then mechanically etched and thinned to required dimensions for the nozzle extension blank. This blank is then spun formed into the parabolic geometry required for the nozzle. After forming the nozzle extension, weight reduction pockets are chemically milled into the nozzle. Fusion welding of Haynes results in columnar grains which are prone to hot cracking during forming processes. This restricts the ability to use spin forging to produce the nozzle contour. Solid state joining processes are being pursued as an alternative process to produce a structure more amenable to spin forming. Solid state processes have been shown to produce a refined grain structure within the joint regions as illustrated in Figure 1. Solid state joining processes include friction stir welding (FSW) and a patented modification termed thermal stir welding (TSW). The configuration of TSWing utilizes an induction coil to preheat the material minimizing the burden on the weld tool extending its life. This provides the ability to precisely select and control the temperature. The work presented in this presentation investigates the feasibility of joining the Haynes 230 alloy using the solid state welding processes of FSW and TSW. Process descriptions and attributes of each weld process will be presented. Weld process set-up and welding techniques will be discussed leading to the challenges experienced in joining the superalloy. Mechanical property data will also be presented

Surface Brightness of Starbursts at Low and High Redshifts

Observations in the rest frame ultraviolet from various space missions are used to define the nearby starburst regions having the highest surface brightness on scales of several hundred pc. The bright limit is found to be 6x10^-16 ergs/cm^2-s-A-arcsec^2 for rest frame wavelength of 1830 A. Surface brightness in the brightest pixel is measured for 18 galaxies in the Hubble Deep Field having z > 2.2. After correcting for cosmological dimming, we find that the high redshift starbursts have intrinsic ultraviolet surface brightness that is typically four times brighter than low redshift starbursts. It is not possible to conclude whether this difference is caused by decreased dust obscuration in the high redshift starburst regions or by intrinsically more intense star formation. Surface brightness enhancement of starburst regions may be the primary factor for explaining the observed increase with redshift of the ultraviolet luminosity arising from star formation.Comment: accepted for publication in AJ; 11 pages text, 3 tables, 3 figures (embedded