Individual Mission Research Articles

The impact of contextualization on immersion in healthcare simulation.

BackgroundThe aim of this paper is to explore how contextualization of a healthcare simulation scenarios impacts immersion, by using a novel objective instrument, the Immersion Score Rating Instrument. This instrument consists of 10 triggers that indicate reduced or enhanced immersion among participants in a simulation scenario. Triggers refer to events such as jumps in time or space (sign of reduced immersion) and natural interaction with the manikin (sign of enhanced immersion) and can be used to calculate an immersion score.MethodsAn experiment using a randomized controlled crossover design was conducted to compare immersion between two simulation training conditions for prehospital care: one basic and one contextualized. The Immersion Score Rating Instrument was used to compare the total immersion score for the whole scenario, the immersion score for individual mission phases, and to analyze differences in trigger occurrences. A paired t test was used to test for significance.ResultsThe comparison shows that the overall immersion score for the simulation was higher in the contextualized condition. The average immersion score was 2.17 (sd = 1.67) in the contextualized condition and −0.77 (sd = 2.01) in the basic condition (p < .001). The immersion score was significantly higher in the contextualized condition in five out of six mission phases. Events that might be disruptive for the simulation participants’ immersion, such as interventions of the instructor and illogical jumps in time or space, are present to a higher degree in the basic scenario condition; while events that signal enhanced immersion, such as natural interaction with the manikin, are more frequently observed in the contextualized condition.ConclusionsThe results suggest that contextualization of simulation training with respect to increased equipment and environmental fidelity as well as functional task alignment might affect immersion positively and thus contribute to an improved training experience.

The #museumsrespondtoFerguson Initiative, a Necessary Conversation

The killing of unarmed African American teenager Michael Brown by a white police officer in Ferguson, MO in August 2014 has stimulated an ongoing national dialogue about race and racism in the United States. Museums have been involved in this discussion, primarily on social media. This article documents the origins, the evolution, and the impact of the #museumsrespondtoFerguson initiative that began in December 2014 and that continues a year later. It discusses the role that museums can and should play in the Ferguson initiative, and addresses questions about the relationship of museums’ individual missions to larger civic issues. The word “Ferguson” in museum discourse has come to refer not so much to the town and event as to larger concerns about race, racism, and the continuing lack of inclusion in our cultural spaces.

News from the NIH: using an experimental medicine approach to facilitate translational research.

Basic research to understand the mechanisms of normal human functioning has been called “the engine of discovery,” driving innovation and underlying many therapeutic breakthroughs. But in order for basic research findings to inform therapeutic interventions, those findings need to be translated and tested in a clinical context. The challenges of translating basic findings into clinical care are well documented, including in the high-profile 2001 Institute of Medicine report that described the “quality chasm” between scientific knowledge and quality clinical care [1]. Since this landmark report, many institutes at the NIH have developed behavioral and social science initiatives to support translational research relevant to their individual missions. In 1992, The National Institute on Aging (NIA) established the Roybal Centers for Translational Research on Aging, with the explicit goal of translating basic behavioral and social research findings into programs and practices that will improve the lives of older people and the capacity of institutions to adapt to societal aging. Support for the Roybal Centers continues, with a significant expansion of the program in 2009. In 2001, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) developed a stage model of behavioral therapy development, adapted from the phases of medications development, to support translational research in drug abuse treatment [2]. In 2009, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), in partnership with several other institutes, launched a program to support translational research on obesity called the Obesity-Related Behavioral Intervention Trials (ORBIT) program. These translational programs, and others like them across the NIH, have led to important advances for their respective communities.

Book Review: Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War, by Mark Harris

Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War. Mark Harris. New York: Penguin Press, 2014. 528 pp. $29.95 hbk.The of the title of Mark Harris's excellent book are A-list feature film directors who volunteered to shoot footage for the armed services during World War II. Frank Capra, John Ford, John Huston, George Stevens, and William Wyler were all too old, too established in their careers, and completely inexperienced in the ways and wiles of the military when they enlisted and offered to help the Office of War Information document both the European and Pacific theaters. They just were not the types of theaters they were familiar with. Nevertheless, off they went into the fierce and often terrifying world of war. Each was changed forever.Harris, author of Pictures at a Revolution and Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood, presents a vivid picture of the adventures, at times dangerous, often heart breaking, nearly fatal, and on occasion humorous of the five disparate personalities, all of whom were honored by their profession and stood among the giants of the industry.Through exhaustive research and examination of original documents and footage, Harris constructs a mostly chronological and location-based study of why and how these particular five chose to go to war, and the repercussions of their individual missions. There are other major filmmakers represented as well: Darryl F. Zanuck, David O. Selznick, Jack Warner, John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, and writers James Agee, Eric Ambler, and Irwin Shaw among them.Harris's clear conversational style offers a wealth of personal anecdotes as well as history, served up with enough inside film industry references to satisfy both academic and casual readers. With the history of American film becoming more widely taught outside of strict film school curricula, Five Came Back is a welcome addition to the expanding bookshelf.As Harris relates, there was a good deal of resentment on the part of career officers who saw recently commissioned Hollywood directors as parvenus, and yet the five directors approached their assignments with enthusiasm and vigor, certain that their contributions would be welcomed and valued. They were also accustomed to being in charge, accustomed to being deferred to, and not accustomed to hearing the word no. They saw their military counterparts as bumbling, the weighty bureaucracy inefficient, and knowledge of the filmmaking process cursory at best. Five Came Back is full of great stories many of which would make fine movies on their own. Assigned to the Signal Corps, Army Air Corps, and the Navy, these five shot footage from the perspective of true filmmakers, offering a look back at a time in history much less conflicted than our own.Frank Capra, commissioned into the Signal Corps, was the commanding officer of the unit, supervising operations from Washington, D. …

Agency at the Managerial Interface: Public Sector Reform as Institutional Work

This article draws on recent developments in institutional theory to better understand the managerial efforts implicated in the implementation of government-led reforms in public sector services. Based on a longitudinal study of a massive reform effort aimed at transforming the province of Quebec’s publicly-funded healthcare system, the article applies the notion of institutional work to understand how managers responsible for newly formed healthcare organizations defined and carried out their individual missions while simultaneously clarifying and operationalizing the government’s reform mandate. We identify and describe the properties of four types of work implicated in this process and suggest that structural work, conceptual work, and operational work need to be underpinned by relational work to offer chances for successful policy reform. By showing the specific processes whereby top-down reform initiatives are taken up by managers and hybridized with existing institutionalized forms and practices, this article helps us better understand both the importance of managerial agency in enacting reform, and the dynamics that lead to policy slippage in complex reform contexts.

Mobile Factory Network (MFN) – Network of Flexible and Agile Manufacturing Systems in the Construction Industry

The concept of the "On-site Factory" consists in the temporary use of fully functioning mobile mini-factories or production cells at the site of consumption. Mobile Factories are well suitable for situations in the construction industry with long distances and therefore high logistics costs. The advantage of this concept is its economic efficiency combined with a maximum of flexibility and a just-in-time supply. By a high degree of reconfigurability and scalability of the On-site Factory, it can be adapted to its individual mission and the quantity demand at the construction site. This research discusses the need for new and innovative JIT solutions for construction industry and addresses the specific case of networks of mobile on-site factories. The creation of a Mobile Factory Network (MFN) shows an interesting new and innovative business model for decentralized manufacturing on-site. The research shows a possible form of network structure and organization as well as its advantages and potential for the construction sector.

New host factors and pathways involved in CD4 downregulation in HIV-1 infected cells

Background: Downregulation of the CD4 receptor is one of the hallmarks of HIV infection. The virus has evolved redundant mechanisms to remove the receptor from the cell surface and accelerate its degradation, mainly mediated by three viral proteins: Vpu, Env and Nef. We were interested in the discovery of pathways and human proteins involved in the process, which eventually could represent new drug targets. Materials and methods: A genome-wide short-hairpin RNA (shRNA) screening using a SBI shRNA lentiviral interference delivery system library compatible with the GeneChip® Human Genome U133 Plus 2.0 Array (Affymetrix) was performed in HeLa CD4+ cells expressing the Nef protein introduced by retroviral transduction. CD4 surface levels were measured by flow cytometry. The read-out in the screen showed the rescue of the CD4-high phenotype despite Nef expression. shRNA sequences enriched in the CD4-high cells compared to the CD4-low cells were identified and filtered via pathway analysis. For the confirmation and further selection of the hits two cell lines in different conditions were used: 1. HeLa CD4+ cells expressing Nef after retroviral transduction (similar to previous screening effort). 2. SupT1 lymphocytic cells infected with replication competent HIV-1 encoding a GFP reporter. 3. SupT1 cells expressing Nef or Vpu after retroviral transduction. In all three experimental set-ups, the cells were selectively knocked-down for each of the hits individually after transduction with a different set of shRNA encoding lentiviral vectors (Mission Consortium, Sigma Aldrich) prior to HIV-1 infection or retroviral transduction. Results: The genome-wide screen with the SBI library was repeated 4 times to obtain a final list of 75 genes as a first selection of possible new host co-factors in CD4 downregulation by Nef. Of these, 22 proteins were confirmed independently with individual Mission consortium vectors in the same cell line. Eight proteins contributed to CD4 downregulation in HIV-1 infected SupT1 cells. The host factors identified show differential effect on CD4 surface levels in SupT1 cells expressing either HIV-1 Vpu or Nef proteins individually, that together determine CD4 levels on infected cells. These proteins are mainly involved in endosomal and trans Golgi network (TGN) trafficking. Conclusion: Several host proteins involved in endosomal and TGN trafficking differentially affect Nef or Vpu mediated CD4 down-regulation in HIV1-1 infected cells.

German Missionaries, Race, and Othering Entanglements and Comparisons between German Southwest Africa, Indonesia, and Brazil

Recent approaches in global history and postcolonial studies have pointed to global aspects of colonialism and suggested that the history of colonialism should not be described just as a unidirectional history of power, because the reverberations of colonialism within the metropolis were also important. If we reflect further, we might ask not only if the metropolis and the colonies were entangled, but also if different colonial contexts had connections to one another. Pursuing this in the case of missionary activities, Rebekka Habermas recently demanded that scholars connect missionary history and global history so as to examine the global entanglements of the mission. She drew attention to missionary societies’ active on a global scale. It stands to reason that missionary societies, as global actors, pursued similar politics in different regions and, therefore, different regions and contexts were thereby connected. But is it possible to show direct entanglements between individual mission contexts? Can we explain certain practices and discourses in colonial situations better if we look at other regional contexts?In testing these questions, the case of the so-called “emigrant mission” (Auswanderermission), directed at Germans emigrants to Brazil by a sister organisation of the Protestant Rhenish Missionary Society, is instructive. Strangely, Habermas mentioned neither the Americas nor the emigrant mission when she proposed the analysis of global entanglements of the mission, as if there had been no missionary activities in the Americas. But it is exactly this kind of entanglement that seems most interesting, the entanglement between regions with apparently different histories. This paper tries to address this lacuna by asking if the history of the emigrant mission in Brazil can be linked with “normal” missionary contexts of, for example, missions directed at non-Europeans, in order to understand why certain discourses were circulating in Brazil. In this instance, the former German colony of Southwest Africa and the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Nias serve as classical missionary examples, as the Rhenish Missionary Society was very active in these regions. In considering relations between German emigrants in Brazil, the German colony in Africa, and the German mission in a Dutch colony, one must remember that Brazil, although it figured very prominently in German colonial debates of the nineteenth century, was not a formal German colony.

The final frontier-on your phone [Resources_App Watch

In 1997, the website for NASA's Mars Pathfinder mission became an Internet sensation. But as the world has shifted from computers to smart gadgets, NASA has been increasingly using apps to reach the public. Some are tied to individual missions, while others educate users about scientific or engineering topics.

An Evaluation of India's National Action Plan on Climate Change

This study develops a broad-stroke analysis of the design of India’s climate missions of the National Action Plan on Climate Change. The study is based on interviews of experts in particular domains who also understand climate change. The broad crosscutting issues relating to these missions as well as their individual strengths, challenges and weaknesses, as evaluated by the experts, are presented in this report. Detailed qualitative assessment cards have been developed separately for the individual missions and are included in the annex. The study aims to provide policy makers, academics and researchers, civil society groups and others a snapshot of the climate missions as perceived by the experts in the country at this time. It is hoped that the outputs will inform the government so that appropriate mid-stream corrections may be made. The results of the study will also be useful to hone the country’s strategic thinking on long-term economic development in the context of climate change.

Comparison of SA Measurement Techniques in a Human-Robot Team Task

Increasingly intelligent and capable robots may lead to human-robot interaction characterized by close collaboration with robots as team members rather than remotely manipulated tools. In this mode of operation, it is important that robot team members contribute to, rather than limit, the situation awareness (SA) of soldiers. An exploratory study was conducted in which the effects of individual differences and mission factors on three measures of SA were compared. The Situational Awareness Rating Technique (SART) was the best metric for capturing elements of SA that were useful in mission performance, although the results suggest that other measures should not be disregarded. Practical implications for the use of SA metrics in human-robot teams are discussed.

Utility-based bandwidth adaptation in mission-oriented wireless sensor networks

This article develops a utility-based optimization framework for resource sharing by multiple competing missions in a mission-oriented wireless sensor network (WSN) environment. Prior work on network utility maximization (NUM) based optimization has focused on unicast flows with sender-based utilities in either wireline or wireless networks. In this work, we develop a generalized NUM model to consider three key new features observed in mission-centric WSN environments: i) the definition of the utility of an individual mission (receiver) as a joint function of data from multiple sensor sources; ii) the consumption of each sender's (sensor) data by multiple missions; and iii) the multicast-tree-based dissemination of each sensor's data flow, using link-layer broadcasts to exploit the “wireless broadcast advantage” in data forwarding. We show how a price-based, distributed protocol (WSN-NUM) can ensure optimal and proportionally fair rate allocation across multiple missions, without requiring any coordination among missions or sensors. We also discuss techniques to improve the speed of convergence of the protocol, which is essential in an environment as dynamic as the WSN. Further, we analyze the impact of various network and protocol parameters on the bandwidth utilization of the network, using a discrete-event simulation of a stationary wireless network. Finally, we corroborate our simulation-based performance results of the WSN-NUM protocol with an implementation of an 802.11b network.

Adaptive information design for outdoor augmented reality

Augmented Reality focuses on the enrichment of the user's natural field of view by consistent integration of text, symbols and interactive three-dimensional objects in real time. Placing virtual objects directly into the user's view in a natural context empowers highly dynamic applications. On the other hand, this necessitates deliberate choice of information design and density, in particular for deployment in hazardous environments like military combat scenarios. As the amount of information needed is not foreseeable and strongly depends on the individual mission, an appropriate system must offer adequate adaptation capabilities. The paper presents a prototypical, vehicle-mountable Augmented Reality vision system, designed for enhancing situation awareness in stressful urban warfare scenarios. Tracking, as one of the most crucial challenges for outdoor Augmented Reality, is accomplished by means of a Differential-GPS approach while the type of display to attach can be modified, ranging from ocular displays to standard LCD mini-screens. The overall concept also includes envisioning of own troops (blue forces), for which a multi-sensor tracking approach has been chosen. As a main feature, the system allows switching between different information categories, focusing on friendly, hostile, unidentified or neutral data. Results of an empirical study on the superiority of an in-view navigation cue approach conclude the paper.

Creating a 21st Century Global Health Agenda

On May 13, 2010, the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) voted unanimously for UN Resolution 64/265 to hold a High Level Meeting on Non-Communicable Diseases in September 2011. This UN High Level Meeting, to be held in New York, is an unparalleled opportunity to put noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), including cancer, diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, stroke, and chronic respiratory disease, on the global health and development agenda. It also has the potential to secure political commitments from heads of government for a coordinated global response to NCDs, to promote multisectoral action to addressing NCDs within countries, and to ensure that resource allocations for addressing NCDs are more commensurate with their contribution to the global disease burden. Such actions will provide the urgent and necessary momentum to dramatically improve the prevention and management of NCDs for future generations. Our 3 organizations, as well as other partners, are working together to maximize the impact of this meeting. The world can no longer afford to ignore the ever-expanding global social and economic threat posed by chronic diseases. NCDs account for >60% of all deaths globally, and the overall burden of chronic diseases continues to grow.1 By 2030, it is estimated that NCDs will be responsible for 7 in 10 deaths worldwide.2 In addition to the human toll, the economic impact of chronic disease is staggering and will continue to rise. The World Health Organization estimates that the cumulative estimated national income losses attributable to chronic disease from 2005 to 2015 could exceed $1 trillion in just 3 countries: China ($558 billion), Russia ($303 billion), and India ($237 billion).1 Moreover, the chronic disease mortality burden is heaviest in less affluent nations. Of the world's roughly 35 million annual deaths attributable to NCDs, ≈80% occur in low- and middle-income countries.3 …

Topside ionospheric vertical electron density profile reconstruction using GPS and ionosonde data: possibilities for South Africa

Abstract. Successful empirical modeling of the topside ionosphere relies on the availability of good quality measured data. The Alouette, ISIS and Intercosmos-19 satellite missions provided large amounts of topside sounder data, but with limited coverage of relevant geophysical conditions (e.g., geographic location, diurnal, seasonal and solar activity) by each individual mission. Recently, methods for inferring the electron density distribution in the topside ionosphere from Global Positioning System (GPS)-based total electron content (TEC) measurements have been developed. This study is focused on the modeling efforts in South Africa and presents the implementation of a technique for reconstructing the topside ionospheric electron density (Ne) using a combination of GPS-TEC and ionosonde measurements and empirically obtained Upper Transition Height (UTH). The technique produces reasonable profiles as determined by the global models already in operation. With the added advantage that the constructed profiles are tied to reliable measured GPS-TEC and the empirically determined upper transition height, the technique offers a higher level of confidence in the resulting Ne profiles.

Evolutionary research of optimal strategies for exclusive positioned clustering in simulated environment of collective robotics

One of the captivating characteristics of social insects, in spite of their rudimentary individual constitution, is the ability by which they have to solve complicated problems in an elastic and robust way. This includes elasticity which ensures the adaptation of the insect system to the unpredictable changes of their environment, and robustness which guarantees a functioning continuity of the system, in spite of the possible failure of a certain number of its elements in the achievement of their individual missions. From this point of view, fields of research have emerged over the past decades, with the aim of trying to reveal the secret behind the relationship between individual and society, so perfectly designed in nature. Collective robotics is one of those fields where we try to find microscopic rules allowing a group of autonomous robots, mobile and with limited capacity, to carry out a specific macro-task, such as exclusive positioned heap formation. The idea, behind this, is to use a model of oriented reactive agent simulation, to seek the relations which can link the local perceptions of the simulated robots with their basic actions, in order to make the above mentioned gathering task a success. An evolutionary approach is used for this purpose, making it possible to discover the functional control relations of these simulated robots. An analogy with the precepts specific to the ant community is established and results of simulation indicating the effectiveness of the detected rules are presented.

Merged satellite ocean color data products using a bio-optical model: Characteristics, benefits and issues

The characteristics and benefits of ocean color merged data sets created using a semi-analytical model and the normalized water-leaving radiance observations from the SeaWiFS, MODIS-AQUA and MERIS ocean color missions are presented. Merged data products are coalesced from multiple mission observations into a single data product with better spatial and temporal coverage than the individual missions. Using the data from SeaWiFS, MODIS-AQUA and MERIS for the 2002–2009 time period, the average daily coverage of a merged product is ∼ 25% of the world ocean which is nearly twice that of any single mission's observations. The frequency at which a particular area is sampled from space is also greatly improved in merged data as some areas can be sampled as frequently as 64% of the time (in days). The merged data presented here are validated through matchup analyses and by comparing them to the data sets obtained from individual missions. Further, a complete error budget for the final merged data products was developed which accounts for uncertainty associated with input water-leaving radiances and provides uncertainty levels for the output products (i.e. the chlorophyll concentration, the combined dissolved and detrital absorption coefficient and the particulate backscattering coefficient). These merged products and their uncertainties at each pixel were developed within the NASA REASON/MEaSUREs and ESA GlobColour projects and are available to the scientific community. Our approach has many benefits for the creation of unified Climate Data Records from satellite ocean color observations.

Managing Learning Experiences In An AACSB Environment: Beyond The Classroom

The study explores the development and management of a rich learning environment that extends the traditional classroom to include significant co-curricular programs. Learning enrichment is guided by the individual mission of the business school, accreditation agency (AACSB), and in our case, the Jesuit mission. That central framework provides a student centric focus to achieve our mission as well as our specific Assurance of Learning objectives. Key concepts discussed include identifying management models/approaches, how to measure the richness of the learning experience, maintaining Assurance of Learning standards, as well as a variety of implementation issues.

Promise of professionalism: personal mission statements among a national cohort of medical students.

While historic medical oaths and numerous contemporary medical organizations offer guidelines for professionalism, the nature of the professional aspirations, commitments, and values of current medical students is not well known. We sought to provide a thematic catalogue of individual mission statements written by medical students nationally. In the Healer's Art elective course, students write a personal mission statement about their highest professional values. In 2006-2007, we randomly selected 100 student mission statements from 10 representative schools nationally. Three researchers coded content using a team-based qualitative approach and categorized the codes into major themes. Student mission statements were compared with classic medical oaths and contemporary professionalism guidelines. The mission statements were similar across different schools. Three major themes emerged, comprised of codes identified in 20% or more of the mission statements. The first theme, professional skills, includes dealing with the negatives of training, listening and empathy, growth and development. The second theme, personal qualities, includes wholeness, humility, and constancy/perfectionism. The third theme, scope of professional practice, includes physician relationships, positive emotions, healing, service, spirituality, and balance. Unlike the content of classic oaths and contemporary professionalism statements, the students' statements dealt with fears, personal-professional balance, love, nonhierachical relationships, self-care, healing, and awe as key to being a physician. In their personal mission statements, this national cohort of medical students described an expanded view of physicianhood that includes such elements as presence, love, and awe. Medical school curricula may require adaptation to support the personal aspirations of those now entering the profession.

Operation FLYSWATTER: A war within a war

Despite extensive experience with mosquito-borne diseases affect-ing combat capability of the Armed Forces during World War II andKorea, in 1965 the United States military was unprepared to dealwith the Anopheles mosquito in the highlands of South Vietnam andthe subsequent malarial casualties. Regardless of the weekly use ofprophylactic measures, up to 50 percent of American soldiers ini-tially involved in combat operations in the heavily forested regions ofSouth Vietnam developed malaria. Not until nearly two years afterthe introduction of American ground troops into the Southeast Asianconflict did the Department of Defense authorize the extensive in-secticide aerial spraying necessary to protect both Allied and indig-enous forces. Even then, military leadership failed to take advan-tage of much of the knowledge and experience of an existing statesideunit specifically tasked in aerial spraying and mosquito control.This commentary reviews the events and supporting historical infor-mation related to the fixed-wing aerial spraying of insecticides fromOctober 1966 to December 1971 during the Vietnam War. The his-torical information was divided into two categories; the need for criti-cal information assessing the spread and impact of malaria amongmilitary and civilian personnel, and the operational information es-sential for combating the mosquitoes that were the carriers of ma-laria. Using modified UC-123 transport planes to spray malathioninsecticide, Operation FLYSWATTER was the eventual fixed-wing,large-area answer to the biting insect. Unlike the short time-on-tar-get of the defoliation missions, the insecticide spray aircraft's treetoplevel flights lasted for as much as two very hazardous hours of fly-ing. So successful were these missions in controlling mosquitoesthat preventative medicine requests ultimately resulted in 14 majorallied military bases and their adjoining Vietnamese cities beingsprayed routinely every 9 days, weather permitting. The 'mosquitowar' required over 1,300 individual missions and dispensed approxi-mately 1.76 million liters of malathion concentrate. OperationFLYSWATTER was a significant part of the overall United States'preventative medicine program to reduce the number of man-dayslost to ground forces due to malaria. Ironically, although the programwas widely publicized through both military and civilian in-countrychannels, the memories of many veterans of the Vietnam War wouldlater confuse exposure to the insecticide spray missions with thespraying of the Agent Orange defoliant in Vietnam.