Solar Panel Integration as an Alternate Power Source on Centaur 2 (SPIAPS)

The dream of exploration has inspired thousands throughout time. Space exploration, in particular, has taken the past century by storm and caused a great advance in technology. In this project, a retractable solar panel array will be developed for use on the Centaur 2 Rover. Energy generated by the solar panels will go to power the Centaur 2 Robot (C2) or Regolith & Environment Science & Oxygen & Lunar Volatile Extraction (RESOLVE) payload, an in-situ resource utilization project. Such payload is designed to drill into lunar and Martian terrain as well as be able to conduct other geological testing; RESOLVE is slated for testing in 2012. Ultimately, this project will fit into NASA s larger goal of deep space exploration as well as long term presence outside Earth s orbit

Computing a Finite Size Representation of the Set of Approximate Solutions of an MOP

Recently, a framework for the approximation of the entire set of $\epsilon$-efficient solutions (denote by $E_\epsilon$) of a multi-objective optimization problem with stochastic search algorithms has been proposed. It was proven that such an algorithm produces -- under mild assumptions on the process to generate new candidate solutions --a sequence of archives which converges to $E_{\epsilon}$ in the limit and in the probabilistic sense. The result, though satisfactory for most discrete MOPs, is at least from the practical viewpoint not sufficient for continuous models: in this case, the set of approximate solutions typically forms an $n$-dimensional object, where $n$ denotes the dimension of the parameter space, and thus, it may come to perfomance problems since in practise one has to cope with a finite archive. Here we focus on obtaining finite and tight approximations of $E_\epsilon$, the latter measured by the Hausdorff distance. We propose and investigate a novel archiving strategy theoretically and empirically. For this, we analyze the convergence behavior of the algorithm, yielding bounds on the obtained approximation quality as well as on the cardinality of the resulting approximation, and present some numerical results

Factors affecting the successful implementation of a digital intervention for health financing in a low-resource setting at scale: semistructured interview study with health care workers and management staff

BACKGROUND: Digital interventions for health financing, if implemented at scale, have the potential to improve health system performance by reducing transaction costs and improving data-driven decision-making. However, many interventions never reach sustainability, and evidence on success factors for scale is scarce. The Insurance Management Information System (IMIS) is a digital intervention for health financing, designed to manage an insurance scheme and already implemented on a national scale in Tanzania. A previous study found that the IMIS claim function was poorly adopted by health care workers (HCWs), questioning its potential to enable strategic purchasing and succeed at scale. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to understand why the adoption of the IMIS claim function by HCWs remained low in Tanzania and to assess implications for use at scale. METHODS: We conducted 21 semistructured interviews with HCWs and management staff in 4 districts where IMIS was first implemented. We sampled respondents by using a maximum variation strategy. We used the framework method for data analysis, applying a combination of inductive and deductive coding to organize codes in a socioecological model. Finally, we related emerging themes to a framework for digital health interventions for scale. RESULTS: Respondents appreciated IMIS's intrinsic software characteristics and technical factors and acknowledged IMIS as a valuable tool to simplify claim management. Human factors, extrinsic ecosystem, and health care ecosystem were considered as barriers to widespread adoption. CONCLUSIONS: Digital interventions for health financing, such as IMIS, may have the potential for scale if careful consideration is given to the environment in which they are placed. Without a sustainable health financing environment, sufficient infrastructure, and human capacity, they cannot unfold their full potential to improve health financing functions and ultimately contribute to universal health coverage

Feasibility of Group Schema Therapy for Outpatients with Severe Borderline Personality Disorder in Germany:A Pilot Study with Three Year Follow-Up

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a severe, challenging to treat mental disorder. Schema therapy (ST) as an individual therapy has been proven to be an effective psychological treatment for BPD. A group format of ST (GST) has been developed and evaluated in a randomized controlled trial in the United States and piloted in The Netherlands. These results suggest that GST speeds up and amplifies treatment effects of ST and might reduce delivery costs. However, feasibility in the German health care system and with BPD patients with high BPD severity and comorbidity, and frequent hospitalization, has not been tested to date. We investigated GST in 10 severely impaired, highly comorbid female patients with BPD, that needed frequent hospital admission. Patients received an outpatient ST-treatment program with weekly group and individual sessions for 1 year. Outcome measures including BPD severity, general psychopathology, psychosocial functioning, quality of life, happiness, schemas, and modes, and days of hospitalization were assessed at the start of treatment and 6, 12, and 36 months later with semi-structured interviews and self-report measures. We observed significant decreases in severity of BPD symptoms, general symptom severity, dysfunctional BPD-specific modes and schemas, and days of hospitalization. Functional modes, quality of live and happiness improved. The results of this feasibility study are promising and encourage further implementation of ST outpatient treatment programs even for patients with severe BPD and high hospitalization risk. However, small sample size and the missing of a control group do not allow the generalizability of these findings

Методика вивчення контрольно-вимірювальних приладів у курсі «Технології» основної школи

(uk) У статті запропонована методика вивчення контрольно-вимірювальних приладів при вивчені шкільного курсу «Технології» з використанням сучасного електронного вимірювального обладнання.(en) In the article the technique of studying instrumentation to teach school course "Technology" using modern electronic measuring equipment

A new memetic strategy for the numerical treatment of multi-objective optimization problems

In this paper we propose a novel iterative search procedure for multi-objective optimization problems. The iteration process – though derivative free – utilizes the geometry of the directional cones of such optimization problems, and is capable both of moving toward and along the (local) Pareto set depending on the distance of the current iterate toward this set. Next, we give one possible way of integrating this local search procedure into a given EMO algorithm result-ing in a novel memetic strategy. Finally, we present some numerical results on some well-known benchmark problems indicating the strength of both the local search strategy as well as the new hybrid approach

Taking nature into lab: biomineralization by heavy metal-resistant streptomycetes in soil

Biomineralization by heavy metal-resistant streptomycetes was tested to evaluate the potential influence on metal mobilities in soil. Thus, we designed an experiment adopting conditions from classical laboratory methods to natural conditions prevailing in metal-rich soils with media spiked with heavy metals, soil agar, and nutrientenriched or unamended soil incubated with the bacteria. As a result, all strains were able to form struvite minerals (MgNH4PO4 6H2O) on tryptic soy broth (TSB)-media supplemented with AlCl3, MnCl2 and CuSO4, as well as on soil agar. Some strains additionally formed struvite on nutrient-enriched contaminated and control soil, as well as on metal contaminated soil without addition of media components. In contrast, switzerite (Mn3(PO4)2 7H2O) was exclusively formed on minimal media spiked with MnCl2 by four heavy metal-resistant strains, and on nutrient-enriched control soil by one strain. Hydrated nickel hydrogen phosphate was only crystallized on complex media supplemented with NiSO4 by most strains. Thus, mineralization is a dominant property of streptomycetes, with different processes likely to occur under laboratory conditions and sub-natural to natural conditions. This new understanding might have implications for our understanding of biological metal resistance mechanisms. We assume that biogeochemical cycles, nutrient storage and metal resistance might be affected by formation and re-solubilization of minerals like struvite in soil at microscale

Neurocan genome-wide psychiatric risk variant affects explicit memory performance and hippocampal function in healthy humans

Alterations of the brain extracellular matrix (ECM) can perturb the structure and function of brain networks like the hippocampus, a key region in human memory that is commonly affected in psychiatric disorders. Here, we investigated the potential effects of a genome‐wide psychiatric risk variant in the NCAN gene encoding the ECM proteoglycan neurocan (rs1064395) on memory performance, hippocampal function and cortical morphology in young, healthy volunteers. We assessed verbal memory performance in two cohorts (N = 572, 302) and found reduced recall performance in risk allele (A) carriers across both cohorts. In 117 participants, we performed functional magnetic resonance imaging using a novelty‐encoding task with visual scenes. Risk allele carriers showed higher false alarm rates during recognition, accompanied by inefficiently increased left hippocampal activation. To assess effects of rs1064395 on brain morphology, we performed voxel‐based morphometry in 420 participants from four independent cohorts and found lower grey matter density in the ventrolateral and rostral prefrontal cortex of risk allele carriers. In silico eQTL analysis revealed that rs1064395 SNP is linked not only to increased prefrontal expression of the NCAN gene itself, but also of the neighbouring HAPLN4 gene, suggesting a more complex effect of the SNP on ECM composition. Our results suggest that the NCAN rs1064395 A allele is associated with lower hippocampus‐dependent memory function, variation of prefrontal cortex structure and ECM composition. Considering the well‐documented hippocampal and prefrontal dysfunction in bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, our results may reflect an intermediate phenotype by which NCAN rs1064395 contributes to disease risk

The Evidence for a Causal Link Between Disease and Damaging Behavior in Pigs

Damaging behaviors (DB) such as tail and ear biting are prevalent in pig production and reduce welfare and performance. Anecdotal reports suggest that health challenges increase the risk of tail-biting. The prevalence of tail damage and health problems show high correlations across batches within and between farms. There are many common risk factors for tail-biting and health problems, notably respiratory, enteric and locomotory diseases. These include suboptimal thermal climate, hygiene, stocking density and feed quality. The prevalence of tail damage and health problems also show high correlations across batches within and between farms. However, limited evidence supports two likely causal mechanisms for a direct link between DB and health problems. The first is that generalized poor health (e.g., enzootic pneumonia) on farm poses an increased risk of pigs performing DB. Recent studies indicate a possible causal link between an experimental inflammation and an increase in DB, and suggest a link between cytokines and tail-biting. The negative effects of poor health on the ingestion and processing of nutrients means that immune-stimulated pigs may develop specific nutrient deficiencies, increasing DB. The second causal mechanism involves tail-biting causing poor health. Indirectly, pathogens enter the body via the tail lesion and once infected, systemic spread of infection may occur. This occurs mainly via the venous route targeting the lungs, and to a lesser extent via cerebrospinal fluid and the lymphatic system. In carcasses with tail lesions, there is an increase in lung lesions, abscessation, arthritis and osteomyelitis. There is also evidence for the direct spread of pathogens between biters and victims. In summary, the literature supports the association between poor health and DB, particularly tail-biting. However, there is insufficient evidence to confirm causality in either direction. Nevertheless, the limited evidence is compelling enough to suggest that improvements to management and housing to enhance pig health will reduce DB. In the same way, improvements to housing and management designed to address DB, are likely to result in benefits to pig health. While most of the available literature relates to tail-biting, we suggest that similar mechanisms are responsible for links between health and other DB.Peer reviewe