The Feasibility of Using Metacognitive Strategy Training to Improve Performance, Foster Participation, and Reduce Impairment Following Neurological Injury

Executive function is central to our ability to learn and participate in everyday life activities and rehabilitation outcomes for individuals with executive dysfunction after neurological injury are poor. The impairments and performance challenges these individuals experience are typically not identified appropriately so they often do not receive adequate rehabilitation and can have significant challenges returning to complex everyday life activities. The vast majority of rehabilitation efforts to support individuals with neurological injuries with executive dysfunction are based on a restoration model that aims to improve cognitive function with the expectation that these gains will translate to everyday life. The available evidence suggests this translation is not happening as improvement in cognitive performance is often not leading to improvement in everyday life activities. Performance-based interventions that target improved engagement in everyday life activity are being developed with the expectation that this approach will remediate/mitigate impairments; however, these performance-based approaches have not been adequately evaluated. The purpose of this dissertation was to evaluate the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of a performance-based intervention approach, metacognitive-strategy training, on performance and impairment reduction in individuals with central neurological injury

Predictors of Occupational Competence in People Hospitalized with Chronic Conditions

Background: Chronic diseases limit participation in meaningful daily activities, roles, and routines, which can negatively impact occupational competence, a sense of self, and life satisfaction, especially when hospitalization is required to manage disease symptoms. Standardized measures of occupational competence and related functional, cognitive, and environmental factors may enhance occupational therapists’ ability to identify potential barriers to and make targeted recommendations for self- and health management in the community. Method: This cross-sectional study investigated occupational competence in patients hospitalized with chronic conditions. The participants completed measures of occupational competence, values, self-care function, environmental impact, and functional cognition while hospitalized. Results: The participants (n = 51) reported moderate to high levels of occupational competence. The overall regression model was significant. Values, self-care function, and environmental impact were significant predictors of occupational competence. Conclusion: Values, self-care function, and environmental impact predict occupational competence in people hospitalized with chronic conditions. Occupational therapists should incorporate standardized measures of occupational competence, values, self-care function, and environmental impact into current evaluation practices to support recommendations for follow-up care and community supports. Future research should include a larger sample that is more representative of an occupational therapy caseload and incorporate alternative measures of functional cognition to better measure this construct

Predictors of Hospital Readmissions for People with Chronic Conditions

Background: Hospital readmissions remain prominent in health care. Functional, cognitive, and environmental factors predict hospital readmissions but may not be thoroughly measured or addressed prior to discharge. Method: In this cross-sectional study, people hospitalized with chronic conditions completed measures of self-care function, functional cognition, occupational competence, and environmental impact. They also participated in a phone call or medical records review to identify hospital readmissions within 30 days of discharge. In a group session, occupational therapists who work in acute care completed acceptability, appropriateness, and feasibility measures for the standardized assessments administered to hospital participants. Results: Occupational competence and functional cognition were significant predictors of hospital readmissions. Therapists rated the Activity Measure of Post-Acute Care (AM-PAC) as the most acceptable, appropriate, and feasible measure for acute care. Conclusions: Occupational competence and functional cognition are predictors of hospital readmissions in people with chronic conditions. Occupational therapists in acute care should consider supplementing current evaluation practices with standardized measures of functional cognition and occupational competence to identify client needs objectively and initiate post-acute referrals that help clients discharge home successfully. Standardized measures, such as the AM-PAC may be feasible in acute care. Further research on the efficacy of standardized measures in this setting is needed

Modeling Longitudinal Change in Cervical Length Across Pregnancy

Introduction: A short cervix (cervical length \u3c 25 mm) in the mid-trimester (18 to 24 weeks) of pregnancy is a powerful predictor of spontaneous preterm delivery (gestational age at delivery \u3c 37 weeks). Although the biological mechanisms of cervical remodeling have been the subject of extensive investigation, very little is known about the rate of change in cervical length over the course of a pregnancy, or the extent to which rapid cervical shortening increases maternal risk for spontaneous preterm delivery. Methods: A cohort of 5,160 unique women carrying 5,971 singleton pregnancies provided two or more measurements of cervical length during pregnancy. Cervical length was measured in millimeters using a transvaginal 12-3 MHz ultrasound endocavity probe (SuperSonic Imagine). Maternal characteristics, including relevant medical history and birth outcome data, were collected for each participant. Gestational age at delivery was measured from the first day of each woman’s last menstrual period and confirmed by ultrasound. Repeated measurements of cervical length during pregnancy were modeled as a longitudinal, multilevel growth curve in MPlus. A three-level variance structure was used to account for non-independence of repeated measurements clustered within pregnancies, which are clustered within participants. Results: The average number of cervical length measurements per pregnancy is 6. Shorter mid-trimester cervical lengths and accelerated rates of cervical shortening are associated with shorter gestational duration. A smaller initial cervical length (p \u3c 1*10-4) and a faster rate of change in cervical change length during pregnancy (p \u3c 1*10-4) are significantly associated with an earlier gestational age at delivery. A higher pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) is associated with shorter initial cervical length in early pregnancy (p \u3c 1*10-4), while maternal age is associated with a more rapid rate of change in cervical length (p \u3c 1*10-4). Parameters describing cervical length and its rate change during pregnancy (i.e., intercept, linear slope, and quadratic slope parameters) explained 59% more variance in gestational age at delivery than a single mid-rimester cervical length measurement, which is the current gold standard in clinical practice. However, a significant amount of residual variance in individual estimates of cervical length growth parameters remains (p \u3c 1*10-4), which could be accounted for, in part, by common variation in the population. Conclusion: We have developed longitudinal models of cervical length that describe individual and group level trajectories of cervical change across pregnancy. Extensions of this model incorporating genomic data, can be used to estimate the heritability of cervical length and its role in mediating the timing of birth.https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/gradposters/1141/thumbnail.jp

Modelling of Explosion Venting Fireballs

PresentationThe purpose of this study is to compare calculated sizes of explosion venting fireballs to correlations for a range of gas explosions in enclosures fitted with an explosion vent. Explosion vents are commonly used to protect process equipment containing flammable gases. When properly designed, an explosion vent can reduce the peak overpressure inside the enclosure so that the enclosure does not permanently deform or fail catastrophically. The fuel and combustion products that exit the vent, however, create an external fireball hazard. Deflectors can be used to reduce the extent of that external fireball, but their effectiveness has not been rigorously tested for vessels larger than 20 m3Recently, there have been questions about the accuracy of correlations to predict fireball dimensions from explosion vents and the effects of deflectors on those dimensions. The fireball size during venting is crucial in determining the thermal hazard area around the protected enclosure. The National Fire Protection Association standard NFPA 68 and International Standard EN14994 provide correlations for calculating the extent of the expected fireball during explosion venting scenarios. The formulas for gas-explosion fireball-sizes are empirical and based on data from a limited number of experiments. In this study, explosion-venting scenarios are modelled numerically using FLACS v10. FLACS is a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software widely used in the oil and gas industry to perform explosion consequence modelling (Gexcon 2015). The CFD model was used to evaluate the fireball extent and temperature. The model results provide the fireball shape and size for different scenarios including scenarios with deflectors. A number of parameters are varied, including: Enclosure size Type of fuel Presence of a deflagration deflector plate The study elucidates the relative importance of each of these parameters on the explosion fireball size. This can assist in designing future testing programs to examine fireball size and identifying parameters for use in improved fireball size correlations

Fast Attitude Maneuvers for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter

This paper describes a new operational capability for fast attitude maneuvering that is being developed for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). The LRO hosts seven scientific instruments. For some instruments, it is necessary to per-form large off-nadir slews to collect scientific data. The accessibility of off-nadir science targets has been limited by slew rates and/or occultation, thermal and power constraints along the standard slew path. The new fast maneuver (FastMan) algorithm employs a slew path that autonomously avoids constraint violations while simultaneously minimizing the slew time. The FastMan algo-rithm will open regions of observation that were not previously feasible and improve the overall science return for LRO's extended mission. The design of an example fast maneuver for LRO's Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter that reduc-es the slew time by nearly 40% is presented. Pre-flight, ground-test, end-to-end tests are also presented to demonstrate the readiness of FastMan. This pioneer-ing work is extensible and has potential to improve the science data collection return of other NASA spacecraft, especially those observatories in extended mission phases where new applications are proposed to expand their utility

Probing the extragalactic fast transient sky at minute timescales with DECam

Searches for optical transients are usually performed with a cadence of days to weeks, optimised for supernova discovery. The optical fast transient sky is still largely unexplored, with only a few surveys to date having placed meaningful constraints on the detection of extragalactic transients evolving at sub-hour timescales. Here, we present the results of deep searches for dim, minute-timescale extragalactic fast transients using the Dark Energy Camera, a core facility of our all-wavelength and all-messenger Deeper, Wider, Faster programme. We used continuous 20s exposures to systematically probe timescales down to 1.17 minutes at magnitude limits $g > 23$ (AB), detecting hundreds of transient and variable sources. Nine candidates passed our strict criteria on duration and non-stellarity, all of which could be classified as flare stars based on deep multi-band imaging. Searches for fast radio burst and gamma-ray counterparts during simultaneous multi-facility observations yielded no counterparts to the optical transients. Also, no long-term variability was detected with pre-imaging and follow-up observations using the SkyMapper optical telescope. We place upper limits for minute-timescale fast optical transient rates for a range of depths and timescales. Finally, we demonstrate that optical $g$-band light curve behaviour alone cannot discriminate between confirmed extragalactic fast transients such as prompt GRB flashes and Galactic stellar flares.Comment: Published in MNRA

The Need for Laboratory Measurements and Ab Initio Studies to Aid Understanding of Exoplanetary Atmospheres

We are now on a clear trajectory for improvements in exoplanet observations that will revolutionize our ability to characterize their atmospheric structure, composition, and circulation, from gas giants to rocky planets. However, exoplanet atmospheric models capable of interpreting the upcoming observations are often limited by insufficiencies in the laboratory and theoretical data that serve as critical inputs to atmospheric physical and chemical tools. Here we provide an up-to-date and condensed description of areas where laboratory and/or ab initio investigations could fill critical gaps in our ability to model exoplanet atmospheric opacities, clouds, and chemistry, building off a larger 2016 white paper, and endorsed by the NAS Exoplanet Science Strategy report. Now is the ideal time for progress in these areas, but this progress requires better access to, understanding of, and training in the production of spectroscopic data as well as a better insight into chemical reaction kinetics both thermal and radiation-induced at a broad range of temperatures. Given that most published efforts have emphasized relatively Earth-like conditions, we can expect significant and enlightening discoveries as emphasis moves to the exotic atmospheres of exoplanets.Comment: Submitted as an Astro2020 Science White Pape

It’s RAINing : Remotely Accessible Instruments in Nanotechnology to Promote Student Success

Remotely Accessible Instruments in Nanotechnology (RAIN) is a community of educators that aims to bring advanced technologies into K-12 and college classrooms via remote access. RAIN\u27s mission is to facilitate the study of nanoscale science by lowering barriers for instructors to deliver relevant educational activities for younger students interested in learning about nanotechnology across traditional STEM fields. Additionally, RAIN engages the next generation STEM workforce with a connection to experts, tools and institutions where cutting-edge research is being performed. This resource is particularly vital for underrepresented and minority students, especially those attending institutions that cannot provide on-site access to advanced technologies. Currently the RAIN network consists of ten sites across the United States and offers its services free of charge to make STEM education more accessible to the students that would otherwise not encounter these resources. Data shows that RAIN is effective at fostering a passion for the sciences when used in K-12 thru college curricula