A unique challenge: Emergency egress and life support equipment at KSC

As a result of the investigation following the January 1967 fire, which took the lives of three astronauts, materials were developed, flight hardware was modified, and test procedures were rewritten in order to establish the framework within which a more effective rescue concept could be developed. Topics discussed include breathing units, improved life support equipment, miniresuscitators, and hazardous tasks during space shuttle launch and landing operations

Astronaut Rescue Air Pack (ARAP) and Emergency Egress Air Pack (EEAP)

Two designs for a lightweight, low profile, mobile rescue apparatus providing a 15-minute air supply and self-contained two-way communications assembly are described. Units are designed for astronaut use in hazardous environments

Impact of Imagine Learning English in Two Northern Mississippi Schools

The study, Impact of Imagine Learning English in Two Northern Mississippi Schools, describes an effectiveness study of the impact that the computer program Imagine Learning English (ILE) has on English language learning. The study sought to determine the impact of ILE on the annual yearly progress and reading skills of mid-level English language learners (ELL). The objective of the study was to see if ILE was successful in raising the reading comprehension skill scores of English Language Learners (ELL) who worked the program as a language training tool. This study is the result of data that was collected from students in grades 3 through 5 with English Language Proficiency (ELP) levels of two through four. End-of the year test results were compared in the following categories: World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment\u27s (WIDA), ACCESS for ELLs and Northwest Evaluation Association\u27s Measures of Academic Progress (MAP). The results were further broken down into grade levels and ELP levels to see if the subgroups shovariance

Improving Obesity Management in Primary Care

This project examined how advanced practice nurses (APNs) manage overweight and obesity in primary care. Not only were their general attitudes and beliefs toward overweight and obesity explored, but their beliefs about the treatment and management of obesity were also examined. The APNs’ knowledge and current practice with managing obesity in the primary care setting were evaluated. This project went on to examine the APNs’ awareness and utilization of clinical practice guidelines in managing overweight and obesity. Finally, the study asked about the perceived impact of a website designed to provide guidance managing obesity based on the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists and the American College of Endocrinology’s 2016 guideline. According to the findings, advance practice nurses are willing to treat overweight and obesity, but feel ill-prepared to do so. Accessibility and consistent utilization of clinical practice guidelines remain problematic. A majority of APNs agreed that improving access to guidelines would improve confidence in their knowledge base and abilities, thus increasing the likelihood of managing obesity in the primary care setting. Participants were directed to the website http://www.obesitycpg.com to use as a practice resource following the conclusion of the study. During the first two months of being active, the site averaged approximately 239 unique hits per month based on back-end data from Google Analytics. Search engine promotion has never been in effect and the site has not been monetized

Alcohol and Student Performance: Estimating the Effect of Legal Access

We consider the effect of legal access to alcohol on student achievement. We first estimate the effect using an RD design but argue that this approach is not well suited to the research question in our setting. Our preferred approach instead exploits the longitudinal nature of the data, identifying the effect by measuring the extent to which a student’s performance changes after he gains legal access to alcohol, controlling flexibly for the expected evolution of grades as students make progress towards their degrees. We find that students’ grades fall below their expected levels upon being able to drink legally, but by less than previously documented. We also show that there are effects on women and that the effects are persistent.

Alcohol and Student Performance: Estimating the Effect of Legal Access

We consider the effect of legal access to alcohol, which is known to increase drinking behavior, on academic performance. We first estimate the effect using an RD design but argue that this approach is not well-suited to the research question in our setting. Our preferred approach instead exploits the longitudinal nature of the data, essentially identifying the effect by comparing a student's academic performance before and after turning 21. We find that students' grades fall below their expected levels upon being able to drink legally, but by less than previously documented. We also show that there are effects on women and that the effects are persistent. The main results are robust to the inclusion of individual fixed effects, individual trends, and individual quadratics, in addition to other controls, that account for the expected evolution of performance as students make progress towards their degrees.alcohol, post-secondary education, minimum legal drinking age

Running and Jumping Variables in RD Designs: Evidence Based on Race, Socioeconomic Status, and Birth Weights

Throughout the years spanned by the U.S. Vital Statistics Linked Birth and Infant Death Data (1983-2002), birth weights are measured most precisely for children of white and highly educated mothers. As a result, less healthy children, who are more likely to be of low socioeconomic status, are disproportionately represented at multiples of round numbers. This has crucial implications for any study using a regression discontinuity design in which birth weights are used as the running variable. For example, estimates will be biased in a manner that leads one to conclude that it is “good” to be strictly to the left of any 100-gram cutoff. As such, prior estimates of the effects of very low birth weight classification (Almond, Doyle, Kowalski, and Williams 2010) have been overstated and appear to be zero. This analysis highlights a more general problem that can afflict regression discontinuity designs. In cases where attributes related to the outcomes of interest predict heaping in the running variable, estimated effects are likely to be biased. We discuss approaches to diagnosing and correcting for this type of problem.regression discontinuity, donut RD, birth weight, infant mortality

The Role of Adult Fiddler Crab Environmental Acoustic Cues and Chemical Cues in Stimulating Molting of Field-Caught Megalopae

In mid-Atlantic estuaries, three fiddler crab species, Uca pugilator, Uca pugnax and Uca minax co-occur, with their adults occupying different habitat types distinguished by salinity and sediment size. Some evidence exists that selective settlement is responsible for this separation but the mechanism is largely unknown. We tested the hypothesis that field-caught megalopae would accelerate metamorphosis in the presence of adult species-specific environmental acoustic cues and conspecific chemical cues. We placed megalopae in seawater with and without adult chemical cues, exposed them to one of three sound treatments for 8 days, and recorded the time each megalopa took to metamorphose. In the absence of adult chemical cues, very few megalopae molted regardless of sound treatment. Molting in the presence of habitat sound and chemical cues varied by species. Many U. pugilator molted in all sound and odor combinations, including no odor/sound. U. pugnax was stimulated to molt by chemical cues from either U. pugilator or U. pugnax, but molting was similar across sound treatments. Our results do not support the hypothesis that sound stimulates molting by fiddler crab megalopae, but support the role of chemical odors from adults as molting cues

Low English Proficiency in the United States Associated with Reduced Healthcare Access Under the Affordable Care Act

Background: From 2014-2018, the US Census Bureau reported that 8.3 percent of Americans had limited English proficiency (LEP), defined as speaking English less than very well. Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) ensures meaningful access to care for individuals with LEP. Purpose: This research aims to identify the current relationship between LEP and healthcare access. Methods: Data used in this study were obtained from electronic files from the 2019 Full Year Consolidated File of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, or MEPS. Binary logistic regression was used to analyze the relationship between insurance coverage and whether an individual speaks another language at home, was born in the USA, their sex, whether they could afford medical care, their ethnicity, their poverty category, and how well they speak English. Results: A total of 21,722 participants were included in the analysis. A total of 5,274 participants spoke another language, other than English, at home and were therefore asked to self-report on their LEP, with 27.7 percent reporting LEP. When controlling for all other variables, Hispanic/Latino individuals in the same had 2.7 times higher odds of being uninsured (95% CI 2.342-3.12) compared to non-Hispanic/Latino individuals, p \u3c 0.001. Those not born in the U.S. had 1.45 times higher odds of not being insured (95% CI 1.259-1.667) versus those born in the U.S., p \u3c 0.001. Those who spoke another language at home had 1.59 times higher odds for being uninsured (95% CI 1.344-1.88) than those who only spoke English, p \u3c 0.001. Discussion: In the initial years of ACA’s implementation, the racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare access were significantly reduced. Still, however, all of the disparities have not been erased