An Analysis Of The Validity Of Commercial Industry employment Barriers Facing Unemployed aerospace Engineers And Aerospace Scientists

The purpose of this dissertation was to study the conditions associated with the hiring of former aerospace scientists and engineers in commercial (non-aerospace) industry, and to examine the validity of certain apparent employment barriers. These particular barriers were hypothesized to be presuppositions by commercial industry employment managers based on incorrect information, such as anticipated behavior patterns of ex-aerospace employees. The investigation also identified other barriers to commercial employment. Dependency relationships were determined between certain attributes of former aerospace professionals and their behavior patterns. Attributes and behavior of commercial industry employment managers were also examined for dependency relationships. Two mail-questionnaire surveys were conducted concurrently, one to 614 unemployed or once-unemployed individual aerospace scientists and engineers and another to 300 employment managers of commercial firms. The sample covered individuals who had been laid off from three major areas of high-aerospace unemployment: Huntsville, Alabama; Cape Kennedy, Florida; and Atlanta, Georgia. The commercial firms were the one-hundred largest (by employment) corporations in the states of Alabama, Florida, and Georgia. Response rates exceeded 60% for both surveys. The following hypotheses were tested: 1. A barrier to employment is the widely held presupposition by non-aerospace employers that former aerospace engineers and scientists will return to aerospace work when it is offered. 2. Once employed in a non-aerospace job which is not merely of an emergency stop-gap nature, paying substantially less than the amount earned in aerospace, most former aerospace scientists and engineers will not return to aerospace work when given the opportunity. 3. A barrier to employment is the widely held presupposition by non-aerospace employers that former aerospace engineers and scientists are, or will become, dissatisfied and poorly motivated in non-aerospace work due to their previous high salary ranges, more challenging jobs and general over qualifications. 4. A majority of former aerospace engineers and scientists adapt readily to non-aerospace work and become effective, motivated and satisfied employees. Sample proportions were used as estimates of population proportions and independency was examined with the chi-square statistic. The first and third hypotheses were rejected; the second and fourth hypotheses were accepted. Statistically significant dependency was found between an individual's tendency to eventually return to aerospace employment and the attributes of age, highest college degree held, and state where the layoff took place. Dependency was also seen in a commercial firm's general industrial classification and its tendency to hire ex-aerospace professionals. The study indicated that the most significant barrier to commercial employment faced by former aerospace scientists and engineers is the lack of non-aerospace experience or overspecialization. Recommendations were made that further study be done on the overspecialization problem and the potential problem of aerospace manpower shortages.ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii LIST OF TABLES . vi LIST OF FIGURES viii ABSTRACT . . ix Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION 1 2 BACKGROUND . 13 Severity of the Problem 13 3 4 Remedial Actions . . . . . . . 15 Historical Experience and Related Research . . . . . . . 24 Background Summary . . . . . . . . . . 27 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY . COLLECTION OF DATA . . Data from Individual Engineers and Scientists . . . Data from Commercial Firms . . . . . . 28 35 35 45 5 ANALYSIS OF DATA . . 51 6 Data Reduction . . Hypothesis Testing . Identification of Related Employment Barriers . . Statistical Independency . Profiles . . . . . . . SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY iv 51 55 66 70 82 84 APPENDIX BIBLIOGRAPHY VITA Summary Conclusions Recommendations for Further study v 84 89 91 93 107 113Robertson, LeonJordan, Augustus E.Techo, RobertYoung, Harley B.Ph.DPhilosoph

A New Narrowbeam, Multi-Frequency Scanning Radiometer and Its Application to In-Flight Icing Detection

A narrow-beam (1 degree beamwidth), multi-channel (20 to 30 and 89 GHz), polarized (89 vertical and horizontal) radiometer with full azimuth and elevation scanning capabilities has been built with the purpose of improving the detection of in-flight icing hazards to aircraft in the near airport environment. This goal was achieved by co-locating the radiometer with Colorado State University's CHILL polarized Doppler radar and taking advantage of similar beamwidth and volume scan regiments. In this way, the liquid water path and water vapor measurements derived from the radiometer were merged with CHILL's moment fields to provide diagnoses of water phase and microphysics aloft. The radiometer was field tested at Colorado State University's CHILL radar site near Greeley, Colorado, during the summer of 2009. Instrument design, calibration and initial field testing results are discussed in this pape

The ACTIVE cognitive training trial and predicted medical expenditures

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Health care expenditures for older adults are disproportionately high and increasing at both the individual and population levels. We evaluated the effects of the three cognitive training interventions (memory, reasoning, or speed of processing) in the ACTIVE study on changes in predicted medical care expenditures.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>ACTIVE was a multisite randomized controlled trial of older adults (≥ 65). Five-year follow-up data were available for 1,804 of the 2,802 participants. Propensity score weighting was used to adjust for potential attrition bias. Changes in predicted annual<b/>medical expenditures were calculated at the first and fifth annual follow-up assessments using a new method for translating functional status scores. Multiple linear regression methods were used in this cost-offset analysis.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>At one and five years post-training, annual predicted expenditures declined<b/>by $223 (p = .024) and$128 (p = .309), respectively, in the speed of processing treatment group, but there were no statistically significant changes in the memory or reasoning treatment groups compared to the no-contact control group at either period. Statistical adjustment for age, race, education, MMSE scores, ADL and IADL performance scores, EPT scores, chronic condition counts, and the SF-36 PCS and MCS scores at baseline did not alter the one-year ($244; p = .012) or five-year ($143; p = .250) expenditure declines in the speed of processing treatment group.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The speed of processing intervention significantly reduced subsequent annual predicted medical care expenditures at the one-year post-baseline comparison, but annual savings were no longer statistically significant at the five-year post-baseline comparison.</p

Associations of Patient Health-Related Problem Solving with Disease Control, Emergency Department Visits, and Hospitalizations in HIV and Diabetes Clinic Samples

BACKGROUND: Patient problem solving and decision making are recognized as essential to effective self-management across multiple chronic diseases. However, a health-related problem-solving instrument that demonstrates sensitivity to disease control parameters in multiple diseases has not been established. OBJECTIVES: To determine, in two disease samples, internal consistency and associations with disease control of the Health Problem-Solving Scale (HPSS), a 50-item measure with 7 subscales assessing effective and ineffective problem-solving approaches, learning from past experiences, and motivation/orientation. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. PARTICIPANTS: Outpatients from university-affiliated medical center HIV (N = 111) and diabetes mellitus (DM, N = 78) clinics. MEASUREMENTS: HPSS, CD4, hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), and number of hospitalizations in the previous year and Emergency Department (ED) visits in the previous 6 months. RESULTS: Administration time for the HPSS ranged from 5 to 10 minutes. Cronbach’s alpha for the total HPSS was 0.86 and 0.89 for HIV and DM, respectively. Higher total scores (better problem solving) were associated with higher CD4 and fewer hospitalizations in HIV and lower HbA1c and fewer ED visits in DM. Health Problem-Solving Scale subscales representing negative problem-solving approaches were consistently associated with more hospitalizations (HIV, DM) and ED visits (DM). CONCLUSIONS: The HPSS may identify problem-solving difficulties with disease self-management and assess effectiveness of interventions targeting patient decision making in self-care

Intelligence in youth and mental health at age 50

Background: Few cognitive epidemiology studies on mental health have focused on the links between pre-morbid intelligence and self-reports of common mental disorders, such as depression, sleep difficulties, and mental health status. The current study examines these associations in 50-year-old adults. Methods: The study uses data from the 5793 participants in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 cohort (NLSY-79) who responded to questions on mental health at age 50 and had IQ measured with the Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT) when they were aged between 15 and 23 years in 1980. Mental health outcomes were: life-time diagnosis of depression; the mental component score of the 12-item short-form Health Survey (SF-12); the 7-item Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D); and a summary measure of sleep difficulty. Results and conclusion: Higher intelligence in youth is associated with a reduced risk of self-reported mental health problems at age 50, with age-at-first-interview and sex adjusted Bs as follows: CES-depression (B = − 0.16, C.I. − 0.19 to − 0.12, p &lt; 0.001), sleep difficulties (B = − 0.11, C.I. − 0.13 to − 0.08, p &lt; 0.001), and SF-12 mental health status (OR = 0.78, C.I. 0.72 to 0.85, p &lt; 0.001; r = − 0.03 p = 0.075). Conversely, intelligence in youth is linked with an increased risk of receiving a diagnosis of depression by the age of 50 (OR 1.11, C.I. 1.01 to 1.22, p = 0.024; r = 0.03, p = 0.109). No sex differences were observed in the associations. Adjusting for adult SES accounted for most of the association between IQ and the mental health outcomes, except for having reported a diagnosis of depression, in which case adjusting for adult SES led to an increase in the size of the positive association (OR = 1.32, C.I. 1.16 to 1.51, p &lt; 0.001)

Improving management of type 1 diabetes in the UK: the Dose Adjustment For Normal Eating (DAFNE) programme as a research test-bed. A mixed-method analysis of the barriers to and facilitators of successful diabetes self-management, a health economic analysis, a cluster randomised controlled trial of different models of delivery of an educational intervention and the potential of insulin pumps and additional educator input to improve outcomes

Peer reviewe

Mitochondrial Function and Dysfunction in Dilated Cardiomyopathy

Cardiac tissue requires a persistent production of energy in order to exert its pumping function. Therefore, the maintenance of this function relies on mitochondria that represent the "powerhouse" of all cardiac activities. Mitochondria being one of the key players for the proper functioning of the mammalian heart suggests continual regulation and organization. Mitochondria adapt to cellular energy demands via fusion-fission events and, as a proof-reading ability, undergo mitophagy in cases of abnormalities. Ca2+ fluxes play a pivotal role in regulating all mitochondrial functions, including ATP production, metabolism, oxidative stress balance and apoptosis. Communication between mitochondria and others organelles, especially the sarcoplasmic reticulum is required for optimal function. Consequently, abnormal mitochondrial activity results in decreased energy production leading to pathological conditions. In this review, we will describe how mitochondrial function or dysfunction impacts cardiac activities and the development of dilated cardiomyopathy