Education and Employment Outcomes in Persons with Pediatric-Onset Spinal Cord Injury vs. Adult-Onset Spinal Cord Injury

Employment is considered to be an important predictor of life satisfaction and success. Statistics on unemployment rates are of concern among our society, especially when the statistics involve individuals with disabilities. In an era where the American with Disabilities Act and Rehabilitation Act have pushed for the community and workforce to become more accessible, unemployment rates among individuals with disabilities still remain high. Spinal cord injury (SCI) is an interesting population in that individuals, who want to work, can work with the appropriate technology and accommodations. Yet, over half of the individuals with SCI who worked prior to their injury remain unemployed years later. Many of the past and current studies investigating employment recruit subjects who are at least 18 years of age, with some recruiting individuals who are 16 years of age. Children with disabilities have a plethora of resources and services offered to them within the school district. From Individualized Education Programs (IEP) to transition services, many individuals work with the child to help them become an active participant in society. This study looks specifically at SCI of pediatric-onset. Examining already existing data collected by the NSCID, we investigated: a) employment and education rates among individuals with pediatric-onset SCI (PO-SCI) compared with adult-onset SCI (AO-SCI); b) variables that may contribute to vocational outcomes among this population; and c) if acquiring an SCI at a young age is positively correlated with higher rates of employment and levels of education. Statistical results yielded no difference between PO-SCI and AO-SCI with respect to employment rates (working vs. not working). Differences were noted in level of education achieved between PO-SCI and AO-SCI, with individuals who had PO-SCI more likely to pursue additional education and higher levels of education post-injury. Results do indicate that post-injury level of education does correlate with post-injury employment status; higher levels of education yielded higher employment levels at follow-up. Results from the study also indicate that individuals with spinal cord injury, regardless of age at injury, still remain unemployed years after their injury. Rehabilitation counselors can play a crucial role in helping individuals with SCI overcome employment barriers

A Hot Microflare Observed With RHESSI and Hinode

RHESSI and Hinode observations of a GOES B-class flare are combined to investigate the origin of 15 MK plasma. The absence of any detectable hard X-ray emission coupled with weak blueshifted emission lines (indicating upward velocities averaging only 14 km/s) suggests that this was a result of direct heating in the corona, as opposed to nonthermal electron precipitation causing chromospheric evaporation. These findings are in agreement with a recent hydrodynamical simulation of microflare plasmas which found that higher temperatures can be attained when less energy is used to accelerate electrons out of the thermal distribution. In addition, unusual redshifts in the 2 MK Fe XV line (indicating downward velocities of 14 km/s) were observed cospatial with one of the flare ribbons during the event. Downflows of such high temperature plasma are not predicted by any common flare model.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, ApJL (Accepted

The Thermal Properties of Solar Flares Over Three Solar Cycles Using GOES X-ray Observations

Solar flare X-ray emission results from rapidly increasing temperatures and emission measures in flaring active region loops. To date, observations from the X-Ray Sensor (XRS) onboard the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) have been used to derive these properties, but have been limited by a number of factors, including the lack of a consistent background subtraction method capable of being automatically applied to large numbers of flares. In this paper, we describe an automated temperature and emission measure-based background subtraction method (TEBBS), which builds on the methods of Bornmann (1990). Our algorithm ensures that the derived temperature is always greater than the instrumental limit and the pre-flare background temperature, and that the temperature and emission measure are increasing during the flare rise phase. Additionally, TEBBS utilizes the improved estimates of GOES temperatures and emission measures from White et al. (2005). TEBBS was successfully applied to over 50,000 solar flares occurring over nearly three solar cycles (1980-2007), and used to create an extensive catalog of the solar flare thermal properties. We confirm that the peak emission measure and total radiative losses scale with background subtracted GOES X-ray flux as power-laws, while the peak temperature scales logarithmically. As expected, the peak emission measure shows an increasing trend with peak temperature, although the total radiative losses do not. While these results are comparable to previous studies, we find that flares of a given GOES class have lower peak temperatures and higher peak emission measures than previously reported. The resulting TEBBS database of thermal flare plasma properties is publicly available on Solar Monitor (www.solarmonitor.org/TEBBS/) and will be available on Heliophysics Integrated Observatory (www.helio-vo.eu)

Effect of target type on near point of convergence in a healthy, active, young adult population

Purpose: Measuring near point of convergence (NPC) has recently emerged as a concussion assessment tool. Differences in administration of the test can be seen within the literature, which may affect results and normative values. There has been little investigation examining if clinically accessible target types affects NPC and no examination of NPC in a healthy, active young adult population. Methods: NPC was measured in 39 subjects using 5 different targets two times each with an accommodative ruler. Results: NPC ranged from 1.5-10cm in this population with an overall mean of 5.9+-1.6 cm. There were significant differences between the middle sized font and the line (p = .024) and pen (p = .047), and also between the largest sized font and the line (p = .026). Conclusion: For physically active young adults, the measurement of NPC is affected by target type

Centreless governance for the management of a global R&D process: Public-Private Partnerships and Plant-Genetic Resource Management

Public-private partnership is one new model of centreless or networked governance that has emerged in recent years. This article examines the development and use of partnerships in the management and funding of public pulse breeding programs. The paper evaluates the theory of innovation and knowledge management and uses case study and social network analysis to examine the nature and strength of the international public pulse breeding system and analyzes in detail the three major national public pulse breeding systems in Australia, the US and Canada. Australia appears to have the most developed system of public-private partnerships, centred on the Grains Research Development Corporation and, CLIMA. Canada lacks a centralized national body such as the GRDC, but possesses a regional system centred on a university research centre (the Crop Development Centre) and a hybrid organization (the Saskatchewan Pulse Growers). The US is remarkable for the lack of any significant public-private partnerships in public pulse breeding

By force or by fraud: optimizing U.S. information strategy with deception

Military deception (MILDEC) operations have a long and illustrious place in America's battlefield history. To great effect, MILDEC has enabled countless victories in every U.S. conflict since the Revolutionary War. However, the United States has allowed its deception capability to atrophy. Possible explanations for our MILDEC divestiture range from structural insufficiencies to an ethical framework that emphasizes truth and transparency. Simultaneously, the onset of the Information Age has leveled the playing field between state and non-state actors (NSA) and proved that lasting victory cannot be achieved by force alone. Yet, due in part to the difficulty involved in quantifiably measuring information strategy, the contemporary military's acceptance and understanding of information warfare has been limited. This necessitates the re-examination of U.S. information strategy formulation to address more effectively the challenges and complexities encountered in the human domain. To overcome this impediment, this thesis examines the intangible aspects of information warfare and proposes a structured decision-making tool capable of generating precise computations of optimal information strategies. By Force or by Fraud is a quantitative assessment of MILDEC's utility on the modern battlefield that is qualitatively tested against historic cases of information warfare.http://archive.org/details/byforceorbyfraud1094549457Major, United States ArmyMajor, United States ArmyApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Integer programming for minimal perturbation problems in university course timetabling

In this paper we present a general integer programming-based approach for the minimal perturbation problem in university course timetabling. This problem arises when an existing timetable contains hard constraint violations, or infeasibilities, which need to be resolved. The objective is to resolve these infeasibilities while minimising the disruption or perturbation to the remainder of the timetable. This situation commonly occurs in practical timetabling, for example when there are unexpected changes to course enrolments or available rooms. Our method attempts to resolve each infeasibility in the smallest neighbourhood possible, by utilising the exactness of integer programming. Operating within a neighbourhood of minimal size keeps the computations fast, and does not permit large movements of course events, which cause widespread disruption to timetable structure. We demonstrate the application of this method using examples based on real data from the University of Auckland

Quantifying variation in δ13C and δ15N isotopes within and between feathers and individuals : is one sample enough?

This study represents a contribution to the ecosystems component of the British Antarctic Survey Polar Science for Planet Earth Programme, funded by The Natural Environment Research Council and through a NERC standard grant NE/I02237X/1.Studies of avian migration increasingly use stable isotope analysis to provide vital trophic and spatial markers. However, when interpreting differences in stable isotope values of feathers, many studies are forced to make assumptions about the timing of moult. A fundamental question remains about the consistency of these values within and between feathers from the same individual. In this study, we examine variation in carbon and nitrogen isotopes by sub-sampling feathers collected from the wings of adults of two small congeneric petrel species, the broad-billed Pachyptila vittata and Antarctic prion P. desolata. Broad-billed prion feather vane material was enriched in 15N compared to feather rachis material, but there was no detectable difference in δ13C. Comparison of multiple samples taken from Antarctic prion feathers indicated subtle difference in isotopes; rachis material was enriched in 13C compared to vane material, and there were differences along the length of the feather, with samples from the middle and tip of the feather depleted in 15N compared to those from the base. While the greatest proportion of model variance was explained by differences between feathers and individuals, the magnitude of these within-feather differences was up to 0.5 ‰ in δ15N and 0.8 ‰ in δ13C. We discuss the potential drivers of these differences, linking isotopic variation to individual-level dietary differences, movement patterns and temporal dietary shifts. A novel result is that within-feather differences in δ13C may be attributed to differences in keratin structure within feathers, suggesting further work is required to understand the role of different amino acids. Our results highlight the importance of multiple sampling regimes that consider both within- and between-feather variation in studies using stable isotopes.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Changing measurements or changing movements? Sampling scale and movement model identifiability across generations of biologging technology

Animal movement patterns contribute to our understanding of variation in breeding success and survival of individuals, and the implications for population dynamics. Over time, sensor technology for measuring movement patterns has improved. Although older technologies may be rendered obsolete, the existing data are still valuable, especially if new and old data can be compared to test whether a behavior has changed over time. We used simulated data to assess the ability to quantify and correctly identify patterns of seabird flight lengths under observational regimes used in successive generations of wet/dry logging technology. Care must be taken when comparing data collected at differing timescales, even when using inference procedures that incorporate the observational process, as model selection and parameter estimation may be biased. In practice, comparisons may only be valid when degrading all data to match the lowest resolution in a set. Changes in tracking technology, such as the wet/dry loggers explored here, that lead to aggregation of measurements at different temporal scales make comparisons challenging. We therefore urge ecologists to use synthetic data to assess whether accurate parameter estimation is possible for models comparing disparate data sets before planning experiments and conducting analyses such as responses to environmental changes or the assessment of management actions