Drug Users in Fall 2009 Television Dramas: Character Profiles

How do narrative structures inform us about our own world? This study was conducted to discover the implications of drug content depicted in primetime television through the evaluation of contemporary and stereotypical characterization trends. This study examines drug content in two medical dramas and two crime dramas: ‘Grey’s Anatomy’, ‘House’, ‘Law & Order SVU’, and ‘CSI’

Formation of rings in galactic discs by infalling small companions

We use N-body simulations to study the formation of rings in a disc galaxy by the impact of a small spherical companion. Both barred and nonbarred target discs are considered. We discuss the effect of the properties of the target disc (distribution of mass in the disc, velocity dispersion, etc.) as well as of the mass and orbit of the companion on the properties of the rings, such as their amplitude, width, shape, expansion velocity and lifetime. In particular the amplitude, width, lifetime and expansion velocity of the first ring increase considerably with companion mass, and so does the expansion velocity of the particles in it and the total extent of the disc after the interaction. We also discuss the formation and evolution of spokes and show that they can be caused by companions of relatively small mass. In our three examples of oblique impacts on barred target galaxies we note important transient displacements of the bar, as well as changes of its pattern speed and size. An asymmetric pseudoring is formed in each case, and during the first stages of its evolution the bar forms part of it.Comment: 21 pages Latex, 22 figures, of which 7 as separate gif-files. Requires mn.sty, accepted for publication in MNRAS. High resolution version at http://www-obs.cnrs-mrs.fr/dynamique/pap/ring.htm

Computational experimentation to understand C2 for Teams of Autonomous Systems and People

The technological capabilities of autonomous systems (AS) continue to accelerate. Although AS are replacing people in many skilled mission domains and demanding environmental circumstances, people and machines have complementary capabilities, and integrated performance by AS and people working together can be superior to that of either AS or people working alone. We refer to this increasingly important phenomenon as Teams of Autonomous Systems and People (TASP), and we identify a plethora of open, command and control (C2) research, policy and decision making questions. Computational experimentation offers unmatched yet largely unexplored potential to address C2 questions along these lines. The central problem is, this kind of C2 organization experimentation capability has yet to be developed and demonstrated in the TASP domain. This is where our ongoing research project begins to make an important contribution. In this article, we motivate and introduce such TASP research, and we provide an overview of the computational environment used to experiment on TASP C2 organizations and phenomena. We summarize in turn the research method. Key results follow, and we conclude then by summarizing our agenda for continued research along these lines.Consortium for Robotics and Unmanned Systems Education and Research (CRUSER)Consortium for Robotics and Unmanned Systems Education and Research (CRUSER)Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Toward Computational Modeling of C2 for Teams of Autonomous Systems and People (19th ICCRTS)

19th ICCRTS, Toward Computational Modeling of C2 for Teams of Autonomous Systems and People, Autonomy Track – Paper 116The technological capabilities of autonomous systems (AS) continue to accelerate. Although AS are replacing people in many skilled mission domains and demanding environmental circumstances, people and machines have complementary capabilities, and integrated performance by AS and people working together can be superior to that of either AS or people working alone. We refer to this increasingly important phenomenon as Teams of Autonomous Systems and People (TASP), and we identify a plethora of open, command and control (C2) research, policy and decision making questions. Computational modeling and simulation offer unmatched yet largely unexplored potential to address C2 questions along these lines. The central problem is, this kind of C2 organization modeling and simulation capability has yet to be developed and demonstrated in the TASP domain. This is where our ongoing research project begins to make an important contribution. In this article, we motivate and introduce such TASP research, and we provide an overview of the computational environment used to model and simulate TASP C2 organizations and phenomena. We follow in turn with an approach to characterizing a matrix of diverse TASP C2 contexts, as well as a strategy for specifying, tailoring and using this computational environment to conduct experiments to examine such contexts. We conclude then by summarizing our agenda for continued research along these lines

AOIPS water resources data management system

A geocoded data management system applicable for hydrological applications was designed to demonstrate the utility of the Atmospheric and Oceanographic Information Processing System (AOIPS) for hydrological applications. Within that context, the geocoded hydrology data management system was designed to take advantage of the interactive capability of the AOIPS hardware. Portions of the Water Resource Data Management System which best demonstrate the interactive nature of the hydrology data management system were implemented on the AOIPS. A hydrological case study was prepared using all data supplied for the Bear River watershed located in northwest Utah, southeast Idaho, and western Wyoming

The farmer trainers approach in technology dissemination in Uganda: Farmer trainers’ and trainees’ perspectives.

This working paper presents the results of the first phase of a study that aims to determine the effectiveness of the farmer trainers approach in the dissemination of feed technologies in the East Africa Dairy Development Project (EADD). The starting point of this study is in the recognition that public sector extension services are no longer able to provide small scale farmers with adequate extension services. As a result, new approaches and mechanisms are being developed to fill the gap. One such approach that is being used by the EADD project is the volunteer farmer trainers approach. It is a form of farmer-to farmer extension where farmers host demonstration plots and take centre stage in information sharing. Although this approach has been in use in the EADD project since its inception in 2008, not much is understood about its effectiveness. A study was therefore initiated to assess its effectiveness. The study was organised into three phases. The first phase, which is the subject of this report, is an exploratory informal survey to collect qualitative data from both the trainers and trainees to be used in formulating hypothesis for more in depth formal surveys in the next phases. Group discussions were held in three sites of the EADD project in three districts, namely Jinja, Mukono and Mityana to get the perceptions of farmer trainers and trainees on the effectiveness of the approach. Farmer trainers have served an average of 15.6 months and train an average of 5 trainees per month. Most of them undertake their activities by foot and a few use their own bicycles. Farmer trainers use various means of mobilizing farmers for their training sessions. Training sessions are normally held at trading centres, local county halls, demonstration sites and homesteads of trainees and trainers. Farmer trainers are motivated by the desire to gain more knowledge/skills, improve their own livelihoods and those of other farmers in the community and becoming popular among other factors. Some of the costs that farmer trainers incur are: transport, time and bicycle maintenance. Benefits received range from gaining knowledge and skills, popularity, increasing social networks to satisfaction. Challenges faced include transport, lack of training materials and family conflicts involving some farmer trainees and their spouses. Some of the low-cost opportunities for improving the approach include provision of training materials (manila paper, marker pen, sample seeds) and certification of farmer trainers. If resources are available, bicycles would help improve performance. Farmer trainers are an important source of information to farmers. Rating of topics taught by trainers was mixed with some topics being rated highly in terms of relevance, understanding and ease of use while others were rated low. On technology uptake by farmer trainees, the highest uptake was for Napier (Elephant) grass and pasture improvement (50%), followed by calliandra (47%). Other technologies such as silage, hay, lablab, leuceana and setaria had less than 30% uptake

Preliminary tank characterization report for single-shell tank 241-TY-102: best-basis inventory

This document is a preliminary Tank Characterization Report (TCR). It only contains the current best-basis inventory (Appendix D) for single-shell tank 241-TY-102. No TCRs have been previously issued for this tank, and current core sample analyses are not available. The best-basis inventory, therefore, is based on an engineering assessment of waste type, process flowsheet data, early sample data, and/or other available information. The Standard Inventories of Chemicals and Radionuclides in Hanford Site Tank Wastes describes standard methodology used to derive the tank-by-tank best-basis inventories. This preliminary TCR will be updated using this same methodology when additional data on tank contents become available

Structured Discharge Education: A Benchmark Study

Patient satisfaction is a topic of interest in many clinical settings. There are many ways healthcare providers can attempt to promote patient satisfaction. One of the most important is to ensure comprehensive discharge instructions are given to patients, especially in the emergency department (ED). One particular study found that in patients discharged from the emergency department, approximately one-fifth experience negative health-related issues that result in readmission or return visits to the ED in the month post-discharge (Campione, Smith & Mardon, 2017). “To reduce the readmission rate, various discharge planning and patient education programs have been provided to the patients preparing to go home, and many studies have reported that these efforts would reduce the unplanned readmission rate” (Oh, Lee, Yang, & Kim, 2019). Nurse practitioners are leaders in the healthcare field and should work to improve upon basic practices such as delivery of inadequate education. This notion lead to the development of this benchmark study to present the need for improved discharge education in the ED

Is attending a mental process?

The nature of attention has been the topic of a lively research programme in psychology for over a century. But there is widespread agreement that none of the theories on offer manage to fully capture the nature of attention. Recently, philosophers have become interested in the debate again after a prolonged period of neglect. This paper contributes to the project of explaining the nature of attention. It starts off by critically examining Christopher Mole’s prominent “adverbial” account of attention, which traces the failure of extant psychological theories to their assumption that attending is a kind of process. It then defends an alternative, process-based view of the metaphysics of attention, on which attention is understood as an activity and not, as psychologists seem to implicitly assume, an accomplishment. The entrenched distinction between accomplishments and activities is shown to shed new light on the metaphysics of attention. It also provides a novel diagnosis of the empirical state of play