Policy analysis: Compressed workweek

Today the economy has slowed down and inflation has risen to near record highs. Corporations, governments, and agencies are looking at ways to save costs. Budget expenditures on payroll are addressed as well as the cost of utilities, resources, and the costs of doing business. One implicated method to help solve these problems is for the use of compressed workweeks. Compressed workweeks are both beneficial to the agencies and the employees. The employee can have more time for home life while putting in the same amount of hours at work, and save money on commuting to work. Additionally the agency is saving on the budget, because of an extended weekend for the worker. An employer can shorten its workweek and lower operational costs, while improving employee attendance through the use of compressed workweeks. This study is going to examine the different workweeks for differences in attendance, the best measurable variable in favor for the agency. The study will focus on the Clark County, Nevada, the Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJS), which has an identical job classification working both traditional workweeks and compressed workweeks. This type of study is rare in that the comparison group is within the same agency and job classification as the experimental group. This examination of compressed work weeks comes at a time where most work in the area of compressed work weeks remain exploratory (Pierce & Dunham 1992), and current agencies, and even entire government agencies are moving radically toward compressed workweeks because of the slowing of the economy and increased inflation

Implementation and evaluation of the VA DPP clinical demonstration: protocol for a multi-site non-randomized hybrid effectiveness-implementation type III trial.

BackgroundThe Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) study showed that lifestyle intervention resulted in a 58% reduction in incidence of type 2 diabetes among individuals with prediabetes. Additional large randomized controlled trials have confirmed these results, and long-term follow-up has shown sustained benefit 10-20 years after the interventions ended. Diabetes is a common and costly disease, especially among Veterans, and despite strong evidence supporting the feasibility of type 2 diabetes prevention, the DPP has not been widely implemented. The first aim of this study will evaluate implementation of the Veterans Affairs (VA) DPP in three VA medical centers. The second aim will assess weight and hemoglobin A1c (A1c) outcomes, and the third aim will determine the cost-effectiveness and budget impact of implementation of the VA DPP from a health system perspective.Methods/designThis partnered multi-site non-randomized systematic assignment study will use a highly pragmatic hybrid effectiveness-implementation type III mixed methods study design. The implementation and administration of the VA DPP will be funded by clinical operations while the evaluation of the VA DPP will be funded by research grants. Seven hundred twenty eligible Veterans will be systematically assigned to the VA DPP clinical demonstration or the usual care VA MOVE!® weight management program. A multi-phase formative evaluation of the VA DPP implementation will be conducted. A theoretical program change model will be used to guide the implementation process and assess applicability and feasibility of the DPP for VA. The Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) will be used to guide qualitative data collection, analysis, and interpretation of barriers and facilitators to implementation. The RE-AIM framework will be used to assess Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance of the VA DPP. Twelve-month weight and A1c change will be evaluated for the VA DPP compared to the VA MOVE!ProgramMediation analyses will be conducted to identify whether program design differences impact outcomes.DiscussionFindings from this pragmatic evaluation will be highly applicable to practitioners who are tasked with implementing the DPP in clinical settings. In addition, findings will determine the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the VA DPP in the Veteran population

Forecasting Evaluation of WindSat in the Coastal Environment

WindSat has demonstrated that measurements from polarimetric space-based microwave radiometers can be used to retrieve global ocean surface vector winds. Since the date of launch in 2003, substantial incremental improvements have been made to WindSat data processing, calibration, and retrieval algorithms. The retrievals now have higher resolution, improved wind vector ambiguity removal, and enhanced capability to represent high winds. Utilization of WindSat retrievals (wind vectors, total precipitable water, rainrate and sea surface temperature) will be demonstrated in the context of operational weather forecasting applications, especially the monitoring of topographically-forced winds. Examples will be presented from various parts of the world, including inland seas, midlatitude oceans, the tropics, and the United States. We will illustrate retrievals in extreme high- and extreme low-wind regimes, both of which can be problematic. Rain contamination will be addressed. We will include a comparison of WindSat vector maps to corresponding maps from the QuikScat scatterometer. We will discuss how near-realtime data from WindSat is being transitioned to specific offices within the National Weather Service

Investigating the influence of smoking on willed action and cognitive function in individuals with brain injury

Rationale: Smoking triggers dopamine release, particularly in the mesocorticolimbic dopamine system. Activation of this system has a major overlap with functioning of the frontostriatal circuitry, which has been labelled the 'willed action system'. 'Willed action' describes action that is non-automatic, internally generated, effortful, and involves conscious control. It is implicated in initiation and motivation. There is evidence that abstinence from smoking leads to acute impairments in a range of cognitive and motivational measures, many of which are associated with frontal / frontostriatal functioning. Aims: The current study aimed to investigate the effects of smoking on willed action in 18 brain-injured smokers. Method: A within-subjects cross-over design was utilised, to compare performance after an acute (>2 hours) period of abstinence from smoking with performance after smoking. The test battery included measures of reward responsivity (objective and subjective measures of motivation), initiation (verbal fluency), and working memory. Results: Reward responsivity was enhanced after a cigarette had been smoked compared to the abstinent condition. Additionally, performance on the card sorting task was particularly enhanced after smoking on the first occasion, i.e. when the task was novel. There was no significant enhancement on any other measure. Conclusion: The results suggest that reward responsivity is modulated by acute smoking status, suggesting a specific effect of nicotine on aspects of motivation. Enhancement of performance is particularly seen when the task is novel. These conclusions are partially in concordance with a willed action framework. Implications are discussed with reference to routine neuropsychological assessments, and a possible role for nicotine as a therapeutic agent for enhancing motivation after acquired brain injury

Impact of Organic Matter Composition from Urban Streams and Storm Water on Oxygen Consumption in the Jordan River

Coarse particulate organic matter (CPOM) is an essential part of the food chain in aquatic ecosystems because it represents a readily available carbon and energy source. The process by which it decomposes in rivers has been well studied and documented. However, the rate and extent of biodegradability of various CPOM components (i.e., twigs, leaves, grass, etc.) in storm drains is not well understood. The Jordan River TMDL study identified storm water generated CPOM as a likely cause of low dissolved oxygen levels in the lower Jordan River, but recent investigations have suggested that dissolved organic matter generated from this CPOM in storm drains and culverts entering into the Jordan River, rather than the CPOM itself, is the main driver of oxygen impairment. The degradability of CPOM components transported and stored in the storm drain system was studied to understand its relative impact on dissolved oxygen and nutrient status in the Jordan River. Results indicate the generation of highly degradable organic material is a function of the starting CPOM, and oxygen consumption is associated with the dissolved portion of organic material leached from CPOM in water. Leaves and grass produced the highest levels of all parameters studied. Between 93% to 95% of total oxygen demand is generated within the first 1 to 3 hours of the 24 hour test. Chemical oxygen demand and dissolved organic carbon proved to be the best indicator of biochemical oxygen demand. By using the results of the leaching study an estimate of water quality indicator levels in the Jordan River was made, and was compared to levels in samples collected from the Jordan River. The estimate proved accurate for dissolved organic carbon but not for total or volatile suspended solids. Results of this study were used to discuss possible solutions to reduce oxygen demand in the Jordan River

High Spatial Resolution Imaging of NGC 1068 in the Mid Infrared

Mid-infrared observations of the central source of NGC 1068 have been obtained with a spatial resolution in the deconvolved image of 0.1" (~ 7pc). The central source is extended by ~1" in the north-south direction but appears unresolved in the east-west direction over most of its length. About two-thirds of its flux can be ascribed to a core structure which is itself elongated north-south and does not show a distinct unresolved compact source. The source is strongly asymmetric, extending significantly further to the north than to the south. The morphology of the mid-infrared emission appears similar to that of the radio jet, and has features which correlate with the images in [O III]. Its 12.5-24.5 micron color temperature ranges from 215 to 260 K and does not decrease smoothly with distance from the core. Silicate absorption is strongest in the core and to the south and is small in the north. The core, apparently containing two-thirds of the bolometric luminosity of the inner 4" diameter area, may be explained by a thick, dusty torus near the central AGN viewed at an angle of ~65 deg to its plane. There are, however, detailed difficulties with existing models, especially the narrow east-west width of the thin extended mid-infrared "tongue" to the north of the core. We interpret the tongue as re-processed visual and ultraviolet radiation that is strongly beamed and that originates in the AGN.Comment: 42 pages, 2 tables, 9 figures; Accepted for publication in A

The XMM Cluster Survey: The Stellar Mass Assembly of Fossil Galaxies

This paper presents both the result of a search for fossil systems (FSs) within the XMM Cluster Survey and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the results of a study of the stellar mass assembly and stellar populations of their fossil galaxies. In total, 17 groups and clusters are identified at z < 0.25 with large magnitude gaps between the first and fourth brightest galaxies. All the information necessary to classify these systems as fossils is provided. For both groups and clusters, the total and fractional luminosity of the brightest galaxy is positively correlated with the magnitude gap. The brightest galaxies in FSs (called fossil galaxies) have stellar populations and star formation histories which are similar to normal brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs). However, at fixed group/cluster mass, the stellar masses of the fossil galaxies are larger compared to normal BCGs, a fact that holds true over a wide range of group/cluster masses. Moreover, the fossil galaxies are found to contain a significant fraction of the total optical luminosity of the group/cluster within 0.5R200, as much as 85%, compared to the non-fossils, which can have as little as 10%. Our results suggest that FSs formed early and in the highest density regions of the universe and that fossil galaxies represent the end products of galaxy mergers in groups and clusters. The online FS catalog can be found at http://www.astro.ljmu.ac.uk/~xcs/Harrison2012/XCSFSCat.html.Comment: 30 pages, 50 figures. ApJ published version, online FS catalog added: http://www.astro.ljmu.ac.uk/~xcs/Harrison2012/XCSFSCat.htm

Genomic associations with bill length and disease reveal drift and selection across island bird populations

Island species provide excellent models for investigating how selection and drift operate in wild populations, and for determining how these processes act to influence local adaptation and speciation. Here, we examine the role of selection and drift in shaping genomic and phenotypic variation across recently separated populations of Berthelot's pipit (Anthus berthelotii), a passerine bird endemic to three archipelagos in the Atlantic. We first characterized genetic diversity and population structuring that supported previous inferences of a history of recent colonizations and bottlenecks. We then tested for regions of the genome associated with the ecologically important traits of bill length and malaria infection, both of which vary substantially across populations in this species. We identified a SNP associated with variation in bill length among individuals, islands, and archipelagos; patterns of variation at this SNP suggest that both phenotypic and genotypic variation in bill length is largely shaped by founder effects. Malaria was associated with SNPs near/within genes involved in the immune response, but this relationship was not consistent among archipelagos, supporting the view that disease resistance is complex and rapidly evolving. Although we found little evidence for divergent selection at candidate loci for bill length and malaria resistance, genome scan analyses pointed to several genes related to immunity and metabolism as having important roles in divergence and adaptation. Our findings highlight the utility and challenges involved with combining association mapping and population genetic analysis in nonequilibrium populations, to disentangle the effects of drift and selection on shaping genotypes and phenotypes