Build Back Better: The Reemergence of American Manufacturing - Is Easier Said Than Done Learning from Building the Defense Industrial Base

Excerpt from the Proceedings of the Nineteenth Annual Acquisition Research SymposiumThe reemergence of American manufacturing is easier said than done. On March 11, 2021, the three-part Build Back Better (BBB) agenda to rescue, recover, and rebuild the country became law. The agenda included the injection of billions of dollars in funding to small businesses that would have a domino effect by strengthening the American manufacturing supply chains, sparking innovation, and creating economic stability. On November 19, 2021, the House of Representatives (H.R.5376, 2021) voted 220–213 for the Build Back Better Act (BBBA), which remains stalled in the Senate (Build Back Better Act, 2021-2022). On November 15, 2021, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) was signed into law, and it benefits Small Businesses and Manufacturing (Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act). These acts are transformational change measures for guiding and streamlining to achieve economic growth and sustainment of domestic sources in America. At the onset, the “delivery of performance [will be] at the speed of relevance” (Mattis, 2018, p. 10). This paper analyzes past and current whole-of-government measures to determine the state of the Defense Industrial Base (DIB) for the reemergence of American manufacturing.Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited

AN EXAMINATION OF TEACHERS’ RATIONALES FOR CHANGING A PHYSICAL EDUCATION INTERVENTION

New school-based curricular interventions are fundamental in meeting the diverse needs of today’s students and improving student outcomes. In terms of curricular interventions, teachers are the primary implementation agents; therefore, the fidelity of such interventions depends on teacher adoption and delivery. To understand and meet such fidelity challenges, this qualitative research study examined the contextual components and implementation mechanisms contributing to the variation in teachers’ perspectives and methods of implementing the Science of Healthful Living curriculum; a research-based intervention designed to increase middle school students’ fitness-based knowledge through physically active lessons. The results of this study suggested a multitude of preexisting contextual factors, such as lack of instructional time, space, and equipment, influence teachers’ fidelity to the intended curriculum. These factors, however, may or may not negatively influence the intended scope of the curriculum and should be considered when making judgments about teacher fidelity. In conclusion, intervention researchers should consider the nature of the contextual factors and whether they negatively impact the intervention when designing and revising school-based interventions.  Article visualizations

Excess Body Weight and Physical Education: Opportunities are at Hand

Childhood overweight and obesity concerns continue to frame much of the discussion about physical activity in schools and school-based physical education. There are multiple factors impacting childhood obesity rates. Genetics, ethnicity, guardian education level, health-care access, food costs, cultural beliefs, policy, and energy-balance inequalities have all played a role in the current state of childhood overweight and obesity. Since schools are an ideal place to interact with children and adolescents of all body compositions, multiple researchers have attempted to design, implement, and evaluate school-based physical activity interventions. Many of the interventions have produced significant results. Overweight and obesity is not physical education’s problem, but it does present an opportunity for physical education to grow as an academic discipline as new interventions and curricula are developed and disseminated. This article focused on the large-scale, school-based, physical activity interventions that needs to be designed, implemented, and evaluated using rigorous standards and policymaker and educational community support

Relational Aggression in Emerging Adulthood: Association with Social Intelligence and the Moderating Role of Empathy

Relational aggression is intended to harm others through manipulating and damaging their relationships using traditionally indirect means (Crick & Grotpeter, 1995). Evidence has shown that social intelligence and empathy are related to indirect aggression (Björkvist, Österman, & Kaukiainen, 2000), and may also be similarly associated with relational aggression. Furthermore, emerging adulthood, a distinct developmental period between the ages of 18 and 25 (Arnett, 2000), may be a period in which developmental changes facilitate relational aggression use (Smits Doumen, Luyckx, Duriez, & Goossens, 2011). It was hypothesized that empathy would moderate the relationship between social intelligence and relational aggression. Constructs were assessed via self-report, and data was analyzed using multiple linear regression analyses in Mplus. Empathic concern was found to moderate the relationship between proactive relational aggression and social awareness and social information processing. Lower empathetic concern was associated with greater proactive relational aggression in general. The relationship between social awareness and proactive relational aggression decreased at higher levels of empathetic concern, whereas a positive relationship between social information processing and relational aggression was found at high levels of empathic concern. The results of this study can help guide future research aimed at understanding the conditions in which relational aggression is more likely to occur, such as to help another individual (Buffone & Poulin, 2014) or in conjunction with normative beliefs about the acceptability of relational aggression (You & Bellmore, 2014)

An evaluation of behavior’s role in range expansion

Understanding how species ranges evolve is central to a wide range of issues in ecology and evolution. A species’ range can evolve through a variety of factors, one of which is through barriers to dispersal. Physical dispersal barriers are often considered in range dynamics, but the role of behavior in dispersal is less appreciated, though it can have major consequences. For example, the presence of more exploratory individuals at expanding range fronts has been found in some systems yet is still not often acknowledged, motivating us to further investigate the relationship, as it could greatly impact distribution models and ecosystem dynamics. Within our system, we expected that exploratory behaviors associated with higher rates of dispersal would be more prominent among individuals closer to a recently expanded portion of their range. We conducted behavioral tests on Spadefoot toads collected from across their range to examine this relationship in their exploratory behaviors. Higher rates of exploration were found in individuals who were collected closer to the recently expanded range front. This pattern suggests that, as expected, exploratory behaviors are associated with range expansion and would have consequences for predicting future changes to species ranges.  Therefore, behavior may be critical in the development of species ranges, supporting the need to conduct future studies evaluating their mechanisms and role.Bachelor of Scienc

Flashcard Interventions to Teach Sight Words and Math Facts

Many elementary students struggle with the acquisition of sight words which can hinder development of complex reading skills. Additionally, students who lack fluency with computation of basic math facts may struggle with higher-order math concepts. In this study, we compared the efficacy of two flashcard interventions for teaching sight words and math facts to 4 elementary students. The results showed that Strategic Incremental Rehearsal (SIR) was generally superior to Incremental Rehearsal (IR) in that more targets were mastered. We assessed student preference for the flashcard interventions and found that 2 students showed preference for each of the flashcard interventions. In addition, we evaluated social validity of the flashcard procedures with 6 teachers from the students’ school, and all rated both interventions favorabl

A Review of Current Safe Distance Calculations and the Risk of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury

Explosive breaching is a tactic operational professionals use to gain rapid entry and tactical advantage. This tactic exposes individuals to repeated low-level blasts (LLB), overpressure exposure generally occurring from user-directed munitions. The experimentation described in this paper highlights the need for further research into implementing explosives in tactical situations, specifically in confined areas, and the effects on individuals exposed. While current safety calculations predict peak pressures from an open-air detonation, this study incorporates the impulse of the total explosive event in a confined space. Sixteen explosive events were conducted to measure peak overpressures of the total duration of the event using pencil probes and flush mount-type sensors. These pressure sensors measured detonations at distances greater than or equal to the calculated minimum safe distances (MSD). The study compares these data with the Hopkinson–Cranz scaling law, the Weibull formula, and Kingery–Bulmash (KB) predictions. Additionally, a scaled mouse-to-human model for developing mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) using pressure vs. impulse (P–I) graphs demonstrates areas of concern in the collected data. Results show that at distances exceeding the MSD, with personal protective equipment (PPE), and at pressures lower than those considered safe, mTBI is possible. Peak overpressures were measured to be 2.5 times higher than safety thresholds and impulses as high as 274 kPa ms. Confined area detonations produced 1.2–1.4 times greater pressures than open-air detonation measurements. Individuals who undergo breaching training will likely experience multiple exposures of this nature throughout their career, often occurring in rapid succession

Measuring Denatured Collagen Debridement After in vivo ACL Cyclic Loading in Mice

Background/Objective:Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries are one of the most common and debilitating injuries in sports. Once thought to be caused due to acute stress events, recent research has demonstrated that this could be from chronic overuse and fatigue. We hypothesized that the estimated time that denatured collagen removal occurs is around 6 days to start ACL repair and there will be no changes between right and left knee mechanical parameters.Methods:Forty B6 female 10-wk old mice were used in a custom setup that cyclically loads to 60% of the ACL’s max force for 500 cycles. All right legs were tested, and the specimens were randomly separated into four equal cohorts for rest times in 3-day increments. Following each cohort’s rest time, the left knee was loaded in the same manner (n=7) and the remaining from each group (n=3) were used as untested contralateral controls. Immediately after each cohort was tested, they were euthanized, and legs were harvested, fixated, and decalcified for paraffin infiltration. Tissue was sectioned and deparaffinized for staining with R-CHP for immunofluorescence, followed by Raman spectroscopy to examine proteoglycan activity.Results:Current results demonstrate the mechanical data of all tested ACLs via measures of hysteresis and stiffness. No statistical differences were found, except for the hysteresis of the left ACLs between cohorts 2 and 3 and upper stiffness of the right ACLs in all mice compared to the left ACLs in cohort 3. The results from CHP staining will be analyzed in future work.Conclusion and Implications:Ultimately, this study will help narrow down when denatured ACL collagen from fatigue begins as an indication of the repair process taking place. This knowledge may be used in athletes with strained ACLs to know how long to adequately rest before continuing sport activity