Organization's Orderly Interest Exploration: Inception, Development and Insights of AIAA's Topics Database

Since 2003, AIAA's Computer Systems and Software Systems Technical Committees (TCs) have developed a database that aids technical committee management to map technical topics to their members. This Topics/Interest (T/I) database grew out of a collection of charts and spreadsheets maintained by the TCs. Since its inception, the tool has evolved into a multi-dimensional database whose dimensions include the importance, interest and expertise of TC members and whether or not a member and/or a TC is actively involved with the topic. In 2005, the database was expanded to include the TCs in AIAA s Information Systems Group and then expanded further to include all AIAA TCs. It was field tested at an AIAA Technical Activities Committee (TAC) Workshop in early 2006 through live access by over 80 users. Through the use of the topics database, TC and program committee (PC) members can accomplish relevant tasks such as: to identify topic experts (for Aerospace America articles or external contacts), to determine the interest of its members, to identify overlapping topics between diverse TCs and PCs, to guide new member drives and to reveal emerging topics. This paper will describe the origins, inception, initial development, field test and current version of the tool as well as elucidate the benefits and insights gained by using the database to aid the management of various TC functions. Suggestions will be provided to guide future development of the database for the purpose of providing dynamics and system level benefits to AIAA that currently do not exist in any technical organization

Establishing the Learned Effect of Repeated Wingate Anaerobic Tests

The Wingate anaerobic test (WAnT) is a recognized and well-established measure of power output, muscular endurance, and fatigue. However, a learning effect could reduce the reliability of these measures. PURPOSE: To establish the number of WAnT trials needed to produce a learned effect. METHODS: Thirty-six apparently healthy college-aged men (n=20) and women (n=16) who had not previously performed a WAnT participated in five WAnT trials separated by a minimum of 72 hours. Peak Power (PP) and Mean Power (MP) were recorded for each trial. Resistance for trials was calculated at 7.5% of each respective participant’s weight. RESULTS: In men, paired samples t-test revealed PP increased on all trials (2-5) when compared to trial 1 (+44.66W, +49.19W, +55.80W, +63.95W; p=0.02, p=0.01, p=0.01, p=0.00, respectively). PP significantly increased from trial 1 to trial 2 (849.21±127.41 watts to 893.87±143.92 watts, p\u3c.05), but leveled thereafter with no significant differences between trials 2-5 (p\u3e.05). The same results were found for MP, with a significant increase from trial 1 to 2 (627.90±79.01 watts to 660.04±79.66 watts, p\u3c.01), but no differences found between trials 2-5 (p\u3e.05). There was a trend toward an elicited peak MP at trial 3 (p=.09, Cohen’s d= -.83). In women, the average PP and MP for trial 1 was 547.74±94.56 watts and 415.91±68.21 watts, respectively, with no significant differences found between trials (p\u3e.05). These results suggest that a learned effect is present within PP and MP until trial 2 of the WAnT, with a trend toward peak MP at trial 3 for male participants. CONCLUSION: Thereby, suggesting that when performing WAnT, utilizing less than 3 practice trials might elicit significant power increase in male participants due to this learned effect. Current data suggests that female participants elicit peak power at trial 1 of the WAnT, with no significant increase in subsequent trials. Additional research should be conducted in order to further investigate the non-significant trend of increasing power output across WAnT trials in male participants as well the lack of female learned response

PONV Prophylaxis Failure Disproportionately Affects Female Patients, Despite Intraoperative Computerized Decision Support Guidance

Objectives: To compare postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) prophylaxis treatment and outcomes based on patients’ sex, using a retrospective cohort. The setting was the operating room and post-anesthesia care unit of a tertiary care university medical center. Patients: A total of 678 adult male and female patients with American Society of Anesthesiologist (ASA) scores of 1-4 underwent surgery with general anesthesia. All patients received preoperative PONV risk assessment. PONV prophylaxis was administered at the discretion of the anesthesia care team members with guidance from a computerized decision support system. Measurements: Adequacy of prophylaxis was retrospectively determined based on individual patient risk factors and the observed treatment received, compared with guideline-based prophylaxis recommendations. Patient outcome was measured by diagnosis of PONV in recovery. Results: Comparing patients who received fewer than the guideline-recommended number of prophylactic antiemetics by sex, 94.6% were female and 5.4% were males (p \u3c 0.001). Patients who received fewer than guideline-recommended number of antiemetics had significantly higher rates of nausea or vomiting in the post-anesthesia care unit (30.4% vs 17.5%, p \u3c 0.001). Conclusion: This retrospective cohort study shows that female patients receiving general anesthesia are disproportionately affected by failure to adhere to PONV prevention guidelines

Factors Contributing To Student-Athlete Retention

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of scholarship support, gender and sport-type (individual or team) on student-athlete retention. Student-athlete retention was defined by utilizing the Academic Progress Rate (APR) instituted by the National Collegiate Athletic Association in February, 2005. A single mid-major Division I Conference provided data (eight institutions) on student-athletes participating from 2001-2005, resulting in 12,980 total observations. Data were analyzed utilizing analysis of variance (ANOVA), discriminant function analysis, and binary logistic regression to determine the extent to which scholarship support, gender and sport type influenced retention. Results indicated scholarship support alone was not significantly related to retention; however, gender and sport type were significant predictors of retention with female and individual sport athletes retained at a higher rate than their male and team sport counterparts. Additionally, the combination of scholarship support, gender and sport type emerged as a significant predictor of retention. These findings indicated certain populations of student-athletes leave institutions at a higher rate than others, and may suggest a need to target retention efforts at particular sub-sets of student-athletes

Complementing compost with biochar for agriculture, soil remediation and climate mitigation

We are racing to manage a phenomenally increasing volume of organic wastes from urban, industrial and agricultural entities. Composting is one of the preferred ways to convert biodegradable wastes into nutrient-rich soil conditioners. The age-old technique of composting process is being improved with innovative scientific means. Biochar, a widely studied soil amendment, is a carbonaceous material that can hold nutrients from endogenic/exogenic sources. Biochar-compost, a biochar-complemented compost, may provide a wide range of benefits expected from both materials. Compost and biochar can improve physicochemical and microbiological attributes of soils by supplying labile and stable carbons, and nutrients. Compost may also supply beneficial microbes. This means biochar-compost is a synergic soil amendment that can improve soil quality, increase crop production, and remediate contaminated soils. Having stable carbon, large reactive surface with nutrient loads, biochar can interact widely with organic biomass and modify physicochemical and-microbial states during a composting process while making biochar-compost. Production and application methods of biochar, compost and biochar-compost are covered for agricultural and contaminated soils. Metal and organic contaminations are also discussed. A case study on making and field-testing a mineral-enhanced biochar and a biochar-compost to improve rice yield, is presented at the end

Well-being in post-primary schools in Ireland: the assessment and contribution of character strengths

Enhancing the well-being of primary and post-primary students is one of the priorities of the Department of Education and Skills in Ireland. Whilst interventions are being implemented across the board, little is known about the current levels of adolescents’ well-being. Drawing from research on positive education, in the current study well-being was assessed amongst 2822 adolescents, aged 12–19 in Ireland, using the PERMA profiler [Butler, J., and M. L. Kern. (2016). “The PERMA-Profiler: A Brief Multidimensional Measure of Flourishing.” International Journal of Wellbeing 6 (3): 1–48. doi:10.5502/ijw. v6i3.526] and “VIA-Youth Survey” [VIA Character (2014). http://www. viacharacter.org/www/Research-Old2/Psychometric-Data-VIA-Youth-Survey]. Mann–Whitney U-test and multiple regression analyses were conducted in the examination of age and sex differences in students’ well-being scores, and the prediction of the contribution of character-strength-development to well-being. The results showed that students’ well-being decreased steadily from the first year, through to the middle and senior years of post-primary school. Furthermore, in comparison to males, females reported lower levels of wellbeing across the board, and higher levels of negative emotions and loneliness. Finally, the underuse of character strengths predicted lower levels of well-being in Irish schools. Implications for practice include the importance of customising well-being programmes across different schools and age groups, as well as the potential for the incorporation of psychological tests to evaluate the effectiveness of such interventions

The astrobiology primer: An outline of general knowledge - Version 1, 2006

Peer reviewe

Preparing a creole dictionary on historical principles: the case of the Jamaican National Dictionary

Compiling a dictionary on historical principles for any language is quite an ambitious task, but preparing one for a creole language presents several additional challenges. This paper looks at several problems faced by the fledgling Jamaican Lexicography Project (Jamlex) in the preparation of the Jamaican National Dictionary (JND). First, most dictionaries of creoles present contrast lexicons which might help to strengthen the view that creoles are impoverished languages. Second, Jamaican is still largely an oral language, and so finding illustrative quotations from written (published sources) is sometimes a challenge. Third, seeing that Jamaican is an oral language, the lexicographer does not have the luxury to pick and choose quotations from written (published) sources. Fourth, since the language exists alongside its major lexifier language, English, with which it forms a continuum of varieties, it is often difficult to say whether a word/expression belongs to Jamaican or English, or both. Fifth, while property concepts in English are generally realised as adjectives, in Jamaican they tend to be verby - a fact which presents special challenges for lexicographers. This paper examines how existing dictionaries of creole languages deal with these issues, and goes further to propose and explore the solutions which have been adapted by Jamlex for the Jamaican National Dictionary

MarTurtSI_3a_SubsidiaryQuantitativeDataset_AdultSIMeans_CSV_2018

50 studies yielding 91 records of mean stable isotope values of adult marine turtles in different ocean basins compiled in a Subsidiary Quantitative Dataset. CSV file format