Development of a menu of performance tests self-administered on a portable microcomputer

Eighteen cognitive, motor, and information processing performance subtests were screened for self-administration over 10 trials by 16 subjects. When altered presentation forms of the same test were collectively considered, the battery composition was reduced to 10 distinctly different measures. A fully automated microbased testing system was employed in presenting the battery of subtests. Successful self-administration of the battery provided for the field testing of the automated system and facilitated convenient data collection. Total test administration time was 47.2 minutes for each session. Results indicated that nine of the tests stabilized, but for a short battery of tests only five are recommended for use in repeated-measures research. The five recommended tests include: the Tapping series, Number Comparison, Short-term Memory, Grammatical Reasoning, and 4-Choice Reaction Time. These tests can be expected to reveal three factors: (1) cognition, (2) processing quickness, and (3) motor. All the tests stabilized in 24 minutes, or approximately two 12-minute sessions

Preliminary evaluation of a micro-based repeated measures testing system

A need exists for an automated performance test system to study the effects of various treatments which are of interest to the aerospace medical community, i.e., the effects of drugs and environmental stress. The ethics and pragmatics of such assessment demand that repeated measures in small groups of subjects be the customary research paradigm. Test stability, reliability-efficiency and factor structure take on extreme significance; in a program of study by the U.S. Navy, 80 percent of 150 tests failed to meet minimum metric requirements. The best is being programmed on a portable microprocessor and administered along with tests in their original formats in order to examine their metric properties in the computerized mode. Twenty subjects have been tested over four replications on a 6.0 minute computerized battery (six tests) and which compared with five paper and pencil marker tests. All tests achieved stability within the four test sessions, reliability-efficiencies were high (r greater than .707 for three minutes testing), and the computerized tests were largely comparable to the paper and pencil version from which they were derived. This computerized performance test system is portable, inexpensive and rugged

A menu of self-administered microcomputer-based neurotoxicology tests

This study examined the feasibility of repeated self-administration of a newly developed battery of mental acuity tests. Researchers developed this battery to be used to screen the fitness for duty of persons in at-risk occupations (astronauts, race car drivers), or those who may be exposed to environmental stress, toxic agents, or disease. The menu under study contained cognitive and motor tests implemented on a portable microcomputer including: a five-test core battery, lasting six minutes, which had demonstrable reliabilities and stability from several previous repeated-measures studies, and also 13 new tests, lasting 42 minutes, which had appeared in other batteries but had not yet been evaluated for repeated-measures implementation in this medium. Sixteen subjects self-administered the battery over 10 repeated sessions. The hardware performed well throughout the study and the tests appeared to be easily self-administered. Stabilities and reliabilities of the test from the core battery were comparable to those obtained previously under more controlled experimental conditions. Analyses of metric properties of the remaining 13 tests produced eight additional tests with satisfactory properties. Although the average retest reliability was high, cross-correlations between tests were low, indicating factorial richness. The menu can be used to form batteries of flexible total testing time which are likely to tap different mental processes and functions

Compact Termination for Structural Soft-goods

Glass fiber is unique in its ability to withstand atomic oxygen and ultraviolet radiation in-space environments. However, glass fiber is also difficult to terminate by traditional methods without decreasing its strength significantly. Glass fiber products are especially sensitive to bend radius, and do not work very well with traditional 'sewn loop on pin' type connections. As with most composites, getting applied loads from a metallic structure into the webbing without stress concentrations is the key to a successful design. A potted end termination has been shown in some preliminary work to out-perform traditional termination methods. It was proposed to conduct a series of tensile tests on structural webbing or cord to determine the optimum potting geometry, and to then be able to estimate a weight and volume savings over traditional sewn-overa- pin connections. During the course of the investigation into potted end terminations for glass fiber webbing, a new and innovative connection was developed that has lower weight, reduced fabrication time, and superior thermal tolerance over the metallic end terminations that were to be optimized in the original proposal. This end termination essentially transitions the flexible glass fiber webbing into a rigid fiberglass termination, which can be bolted/fastened with traditional method

Profinite properties of RAAGs and special groups

In this paper we prove that RAAGs are distinguished from each other by their pro-$p$ completions for any choice of prime $p$, and that RACGs are distinguished from each other by their pro-2 completions. We also give a new proof that hyperbolic virtually special groups are good in the sense of Serre. Furthermore we give an example of a property of the underlying graph of a RAAG that translates to a property of the profinite completion

A Model for Career Planning in Healthcare: Investing in a Career Development Program Will Retain Workers for Growth

Organizations face projected shortages in their workforces due to retirement compounded by the realized forecasted gap of skilled workers available to fill positions. The additional strain of tremendous growth in the healthcare industry adds to the workforce shortage to create vacancies that threaten survival for many hospitals. To prepare for this turbulent future, we suggest that hospitals create career development programs to retain key workers, build their existing workforce to meet future needs, and remain competitive. Healthcare organizations taking these proactive steps to promote career development will prepare their workforce for future growth, increase their ability to achieve organizational goals, and retain valued employees by focusing on their needs for continued development. We provide two models that HRD professionals can use to increase the likelihood of successful implementation of career development programs

Microcomputer-based tests for repeated-measures: Metric properties and predictive validities

A menu of psychomotor and mental acuity tests were refined. Field applications of such a battery are, for example, a study of the effects of toxic agents or exotic environments on performance readiness, or the determination of fitness for duty. The key requirement of these tasks is that they be suitable for repeated-measures applications, and so questions of stability and reliability are a continuing, central focus of this work. After the initial (practice) session, seven replications of 14 microcomputer-based performance tests (32 measures) were completed by 37 subjects. Each test in the battery had previously been shown to stabilize in less than five 90-second administrations and to possess retest reliabilities greater than r = 0.707 for three minutes of testing. However, all the tests had never been administered together as a battery and they had never been self-administered. In order to provide predictive validity for intelligence measurement, the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised and the Wonderlic Personnel Test were obtained on the same subjects

ℓ2\ell^2 Betti numbers and coherence of random groups

We study $\ell^2$ Betti numbers, coherence, and virtual fibring of random groups in the few-relator model. In particular, random groups with negative Euler characteristic are coherent, have $\ell^2$ homology concentrated in dimension 1, and embed in a virtually free-by-cyclic group with high probability. Similar results are shown with positive probability in the zero Euler characteristic case.Comment: 19 page

The Hidden Pre-Raphaelite: The Art and Writings of Frederic George Stephens from 1848–70

This interdisciplinary thesis presents a fresh assessment of the art and writings of Frederic George Stephens (1827–1907), one of the seven founding members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, during the period from 1848 until 1870. Despite his centrality within the Pre-Raphaelite circle, and his lifelong dedication to communicating their ideals to the reading public, Stephens has remained a marginal figure in studies of Pre-Raphaelitism, frequently quoted from but seldom considered as an independent subject in his own right. I have discovered letters, manuscripts and artworks by Stephens which have been previously unknown to scholars and which deepen our understanding of his art, his writing and his personal relationships. His few surviving paintings and drawings have been neglected or even wholeheartedly dismissed by art historians and are examined here in detail for the first time, reinstating his work in the canon of Pre-Raphaelite art. By concentrating on the earlier part of Stephens’s career, I show how he navigated the transition from practising artist to professional critic in the 1850s. His early training as a painter at the Royal Academy gave him a unique perspective for his art criticism, which used a lyrical prose style to convey his acute knowledge of art history and his belief in the moral purpose of art. Consequently, this study demonstrates Stephens’s development of a critical voice which enabled him not only to vocalise the aims and ideals of Pre-Raphaelitism, but also to adapt to emerging aesthetic theories in British art during the volatile decade of the 1860s. Little-seen articles and essays in the Germ, the Critic, the Crayon, the Athenaeum and Macmillan’s Magazine are examined chronologically in order to chart the evolution of his critical opinions