Search

Este trabalho, a partir de uma regressão na historiografia da educação acreana, analisa alguns elementos da política educacional implementada no Estado do Acre em intersecção com as ações voltadas para implantação, desenvolvimento e institucionalização do sistema público de ensino. Tem como foco as características políticas, econômicas, culturais do contexto educacional no qual se ambienta a análise na perspectiva de mapear as principais mudanças que se inserem no processo de desenvolvimento da educação. O marco de desenvolvimento da abordagem é o processo de elevação do Acre à categoria de Estado, nos idos da década de 60, e suas implicações e consequências nas décadas subsequentes, sobretudo no que se refere à administração do sistema de ensino, às políticas educacionais e os processos de gestão administrativa, financeira e pedagógica das unidades escolares com o advento da gestão democrática e seu processo de regulamentação. O trabalho se organiza a partir do levantamento e análise de documentos legais, isto é, de um conjunto de atos normativos e prescritivos, os quais são utilizados como referências preliminares para montar e fundamentar o arcabouço mais geral por onde transitarão as reflexões que revelam alguns dos traços, contornos e características organizacionais do sistema de ensino com relevo para o processo de institucionalização e regulamentação do princípio da gestão democrática e do desenvolvimento do sistema público de ensino. Palavras-chave: Sistema de Ensino. Política Educacional. Gestão Democrática da Escola.

The present study aimed: i) to characterize the performance of different areas in Enem, from an Integrative Review; ii) to compare Physical Education performance in this exam by region, sex gender and type of institution; iii) to relate the items of this component to the Languages and Codes area; and iv) to analyze the psychometric characteristics of Physical Education items. The results have pointed out: a) lack of studies related to the subject, both in the different areas of Enem and in the Physical Education items; b) better performance of students who were from private schools and also from the South and Southeast regions; and c) Physical Education items with difficulty index classified, for the most part, as Easy and Medium, respectively. El estudio tuvo como objetivos: i) caracterizar el desempeño de las diferentes áreas en el Enem a partir de una Revisión Integradora; ii) comparar el desempeño de la Educación Física en este examen según la región, sexo o tipo de institución; iii) relacionar los ítems de este componente con el área de Lenguajes y Códigos ; y iv) analizar las características psicométricas de los ítems de Educación Física. Los resultados indican: a) falta de estudios relacionados con el tema, tanto en las diferentes áreas del Enem como en los ítems de Educación Física; b) mejores desempeños de estudiantes de escuelas privadas y de las regiones sur y sudeste; c) los ítems de Educación Física son classificados con un índice de dificultad, en su mayoría, principalmente como fácil y medio respectivamente. O estudo teve como objetivos: i) caracterizar o desempenho de diferentes áreas no Enem a partir de uma Revisão Integrativa; ii) comparar o desempenho em Educação Física nesse exame por região, sexo e tipo de instituição; iii) relacionar os itens desse componente com a área de Linguagens e Códigos; e iv) analisar características psicométricas dos itens de Educação Física. Os resultados apontam: a) carência de estudos relacionados à temática, tanto nas diferentes áreas do Enem, como nos itens de Educação Física; b) melhores desempenhos dos estudantes de escolas privadas e da região Sul e Sudeste; e c) os itens de Educação Física com o índice de dificuldade classificado, em sua maioria, como Fácil e médio, respectivamente.

Network on Chips (NoCs) are the interconnect fabric of choice for multicore processors due to their superiority over traditional buses and crossbars in terms of scalability. While NoC’s offer several advantages, they still suffer from high static and dynamic power consumption. Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling (DVFS) is a popular technique that allows dynamic energy to be saved, but it can potentially lead to loss in throughput. In this paper, we propose LEAD - Learning-enabled Energy-Aware Dynamic voltage/frequency scaling for NoC architectures wherein we use machine learning techniques to enable energy-performance trade-offs at reduced overhead cost. LEAD enables a proactive energy management strategy that relies on an offline trained regression model and provides a wide variety of voltage/frequency pairs (modes). LEAD groups each router and the router’s outgoing links locally into the same V/F domain, allowing energy management at a finer granularity without additional timing complications and overhead. Our simulation results using PARSEC and Splash-2 benchmarks on a 4 × 4 concentrated mesh architecture show an average dynamic energy savings of 17% with a minimal loss of 4% in throughput and no latency increase.

O presente trabalho tem como foco de análise a questão da valorização do magistério e objetiva analisar a remuneração dos profissionais da educação do quadro de magistério da rede pública municipal de Rio Branco. O texto se organiza a partir de pesquisa empírica e revisão de literatura que procura sistematizar o arcabouço legal que define as diretrizes gerais a serem observadas por Estados e Municípios no que se refere propriamente à definição de uma política de valorização do magistério com destaque para Constituição Federal de1988, a LDB 9.394/1996, a Emenda Constitucional nº 14/1996, a Lei Lei nº 9.424/1996 do Fundo de Desenvolvimento do Ensino Fundamental e Valorização do Magistério (FUNDEF), a EC nº 53/2006 que alterou o Art. 206 da CF 1988, a Lei nº 11.494/2007 que regulamenta o Fundo de Desenvolvimento da Educação Básica e Valorização dos Profissionais da Educação (FUNDEB) e a Lei nº 11.738/2008 que institui o Piso Salarial Profissional Nacional (PSPN). No contexto em que a análise está circunscrita toma-se como base de referência e análise a Lei nº 35/2017 que instituiu o PCCR do Município de Rio Branco de cuja análise se indica que o vencimento base e a remuneração dos profissionais da educação muito mais do que refletirem ganhos salariais estão pautados por um política de bônus de lógica e princípios gerencialista, de performance e desempenho dos profissionais da educação.

O estudo teve o objetivo de analisar o desempenho dos candidatos da EJA nos itens de Educação Física do Enem edição de 2014. Participaram da amostra 305 estudantes selecionados aleatoriamente. Foi realizada a comparação de desempenho por sexo, tipo de escola e regiões geográficas do país. Para a análise utilizou-se o teste t de Student e Análise de Variância. A média geral de desempenho é baixa e observou-se diferenças significativas no desempenho entre os sexos, visto que os homens obtiveram notas maiores que as mulheres, mas não quanto ao tipo de escola e entre as regiões do Brasil

The changing landscape of environmental regulations, discovery of new domestic sources of natural gas, and the economics of energy markets has resulted in a major shift in the choice of fuel for electric power generation. This research focuses on the relevant factors that impact a power plant's decision to switch fuel from coal to natural gas and the timing of such decisions. The factors studied in this article include capital costs of plant replacement, public policy, associated monetary penalties, availability and access to gas supply networks, and the option of plant retirement. These factors are evaluated in a case study of power plants in the Southeastern United States, using mathematical programming and logistic regression models. The results show that environmental regulations can be effective if the monetary penalties imposed by such regulations are set at an appropriate level, with respect to plant replacement costs. Although it is economic for large-size (power generation capacity > 600 ...

Statistical process control (SPC) is a collection of problem-solving tools used to achieve process stability and improve process capability through variation reduction. Because of its sound statistical basis and intuitive use of visual displays, SPC has been extensively used in manufacturing and health care and service industries. Deploying SPC involves both a technical aspect and a proper environment for continuous improvement activities based on management support and worker empowerment. Many of the commonly used SPC tools, including histograms, fishbone diagrams, scatter plots, and defect concentration diagrams, were proposed prior to the advent of microcomputers as efficient methods to record and visualize data for single (or few) variable(s) processes. As the volume, variety, and velocity of data continues to evolve, there are opportunities to supplement and improve these methods for understanding and visualizing process variation. In this paper, we propose enhancements to some of the basic quality tools that can be easily applied with a desktop computer. We demonstrate how these updated tools can be used to better characterize, understand, and/or diagnose variation in a case study involving a US manufacturer of structural tubular metal products. Finally, we create the quality visualization toolkit to allow practitioners to implement some of these visualization tools without the need for training, extensive statistical background, and/or specialized statistical software. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

We combined C and N related pedon data from the USDA-NRCS National Cooperative Soil Survey Soil Characterization Database with data from the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) northern soils research program, representing 58 and 30 years of field work, respectively. Carbon and N data from 117 UAF pedons were added to 541 pedons from the USDA-NRCS data set for a total of 658. Missing carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and related data were added to nearly all of the USDA-NRCS Arctic region pedons from unpublished UAF data. We present relationships among soil parameters of the data set that are necessary for calculation of pedon soil organic C and N stores. These new relationships are necessary for better estimating missing soil bulk density (Db) from measured soil organic C by high-temperature combustion (SOCHTC) and for conversion of acid chromate reduction soil organic carbon (SOCACR) to SOCHTC. For the USDA-NRCS data, missing Db data were estimated and SOCACR corrected to SOCHTC using the new functional relationships developed. This allowed for pedon SOC and N stores to be calculated for 609 and 468 Alaska pedons respectively, the most available to-date. Additionally, functional relationships were developed for data within soil orders to estimate total SOCHTC and N stores in pedons with missing surface organic horizons where only thicknesses were known. These relationships are presented in order to fill-in missing data and to better define the existing data set for future use. Some 1904 missing Db data points and 1612 corrected SOCHTC data points were added to the total of 4240 points in the 609 pedons that constitute the updated dataset. When O-layer thickness functions developed here were used, SOC and N stores were calculated for an additional 137 and 184 pedons respectively.

Alaska covers 1,508,120 km2, about 25 % of the contiguous USA. Alaska is organized into three Land Resource Regions (LRRs): Southern and Aleutian Alaska (W1, W2), Interior and Western Alaska (X1, X2), and Northern Alaska (Y). The soil moisture regimes range from subhumid and humid in northern, interior, and western Alaska to humid and perhumid in southern Alaska. The soil temperature regime ranges from cryic in southern Alaska to pergelic in northern Alaska. Northern Alaska has continuous permafrost, and thus, the soils are dominantly Gelisols formed under tundra with gelic Inceptisols and Entisols in areas shallow to bedrock and along streams. Very small areas of gelic Mollisols are found on well-drained uplands with calcareous parent materials. Interior and Western Alaska are in the zone of discontinuous permafrost . Gelisols dominate northerly slopes under black spruce forest and peatlands. Inceptisols dominate southerly slopes and well-drained uplands under white spruce and deciduous forests. Histels or Histic Gelisols dominate poorly drained lowlands and depressions. In southern and western Alaska, moderately leached Spodosols form in volcanic ash and glacial deposits under conifer forests, and Andisols form under herbaceous and grassy vegetation. Histosols form in extensive peatlands in southern Alaska. There are limited areas in Interior and Southern Alaska under cultivation for grains, hay, and vegetables. Urban use of land is limited because of small population in the state. Most lands are in native forest and rangelands supporting wildlife habitat.

Differentiation of horizons in soils formed in volcanic ash can be problematic as recent ash deposits often have the same morphological appearance as eluvial albic horizons. Furthermore, differentiation of spodic horizons can be difficult as multiple horizons can appear homogeneous. A portable x-ray fluorescence (PXRF) spectrometer was utilized to scan volcanic ash-derived Spodosols, Andisols, and Inceptisols in northern Idaho and southern Alaska. Distinct patterns of elemental concentrations were identified in soil profiles. These data can be used to quantitatively differentiate seemingly nondescript horizons. Organic carbon variability within soil profiles was found to significantly correlate to elemental concentrations as evidenced by strong regression r2 and low root mean squared errors (RMSEs). Specifically, Fe/Zr ratios proved useful for documenting spodic horizons in the studied profiles, and showed some potential for differentiating volcanic ash from true E horizons. In areas of frequent saturation or inundation, the PXRF also demonstrated the ability to distinguish depleted soil matrix materials from reduced Fe. Summarily, the PXRF proved to be a useful instrument for rapid, on-site analysis of volcanic ash soils.

The article is a review by a policing practitioner of the impact that the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has had on government policy, together with the vulner...

Purpose This report describes a technique for use of resorbable mesh (Resorb-X) and an ultrasonic sonotrode unit (SonicWeld Rx) to bond a pin (SonicPin Rx) to the mesh and underlying bone for Le Fort I osteotomy fixation, precluding the need to tap, shortening the time needed for fixation, and eliminating many disadvantages of titanium. In total, 659 cases have been performed from October 2005 through December 2010. This study examined the first 103 consecutive Le Fort osteotomies performed with this resorbable system and thus those with the longest follow-up. Materials and Methods One hundred three consecutive patients who had completed growth and presurgical orthodontics were operated on using the Resorb-X plating system and SonicWeld Rx. Intraoperative adverse events were monitored and a minimum 12-month postoperative follow-up for complications was completed. Results One patient (0.9%) had maxillary mobility at initial postoperative evaluation that resolved without malocclusion. Two patients (1.9%) exhibited signs of residual soreness and swelling in the maxilla, attributed to sterile abscess formation. At last follow-up, all patients demonstrated a clinically stable maxilla with correction of their malocclusion. Conclusion Use of ultrasonic-aided pins in fixation of resorbable mesh plates, in Le Fort I osteotomies, is a viable technique and superior resorbable plating system because it is easy to use, results in adequate fixation strength, and shortens time of application by eliminating the need for tapping. In addition, this resorbable system eliminates many disadvantages associated with using all-titanium fixation.

Introduction: Physician burnout has received considerable attention in the literature and impacts a large number of emergency medicine physicians, but there is no standardized curriculum for wellness in resident education. A culture change is needed to educate about wellness, adopt a preventative and proactive approach, and focus on resiliency. Discussion: We describe a novel approach to wellness education by focusing on resiliency rather than the unintended endpoint of physician burnout. One barrier to adoption of wellness education has been establishing legitimacy among emergency medicine (EM) residents and educators. We discuss a change in the language of wellness education and provide several specific topics to facilitate the incorporation of these topics in resident education. Conclusion: Wellness education and a culture of training that promotes well-being will benefit EM residents. Demonstrating the impact of several factors that positively affect emergency physicians may help to facilitate alert residents to the importance of practicing activities that will result in wellness. A change in culture and focus on resiliency is needed to adequately address and optimize physician self-care.

The direction and magnitude of soil organic carbon (SOC) changes in response to climate change remain unclear and depend on the spatial distribution of SOC across landscapes. Uncertainties regarding the fate of SOC are greater in high-latitude systems where data are sparse and the soils are affected by sub-zero temperatures. To address these issues in Alaska, a first-order assessment of data gaps and spatial distributions of SOC was conducted from a recently compiled soil carbon database. Temperature and landform type were the dominant controls on SOC distribution for selected ecoregions. Mean SOC pools (to a depth of 1-m) varied by three, seven and ten-fold across ecoregion, landform, and ecosystem types, respectively. Climate interactions with landform type and SOC were greatest in the uplands. For upland SOC there was a six-fold non-linear increase in SOC with latitude (i.e., temperature) where SOC was lowest in the Intermontane Boreal compared to the Arctic Tundra and Coastal Rainforest. Additionally, in upland systems mineral SOC pools decreased as climate became more continental, suggesting that the lower productivity, higher decomposition rates and fire activity, common in continental climates, interacted to reduce mineral SOC. For lowland systems, in contrast, these interactions and their impacts on SOC were muted or absent making SOC in these environments more comparable across latitudes. Thus, the magnitudes of SOC change across temperature gradients were non-uniform and depended on landform type. Additional factors that appeared to be related to SOC distribution within ecoregions included stand age, aspect, and permafrost presence or absence in black spruce stands. Overall, these results indicate the influence of major interactions between temperature-controlled decomposition and topography on SOC in high-latitude systems. However, there remains a need for more SOC data from wetlands and boreal-region permafrost soils, especially at depths > 1 m in order to fully understand the effects of climate on soil carbon in Alaska.

The article presents, for future research, a possible conceptual model for understanding the elements of public order within postmodern society. It deconstructs public order into component parts of progressive collective victimisation, social mores and human rights. It argues that public order may be undermined by progressive collective victimisation that commences with the erosion of social mores that support networks of understandings within the community, and that continues until it creates a perception of a threat to the physical security of a defined class. It presents the view that this victimisation process can be related to social exclusion that precludes the individual from self-actualisation. This continues, unless abated, until it threatens the fundamentals of human survival. The victimisation process, if unchecked, creates within the excluded societal group, a ‘fight’ or ‘flight’ response. The article suggests that future police administrators may need a political awareness not required of their predecessors, and supportive information systems to keep the peace in the 21st century.

This article seeks to examine the cooperative networks between terrorists and organised criminals and lay a basis for an argument that the use of the threat assessment model, based upon a philosophy of realism, may no longer serve Australia's interests. The narcoterrorist networks that produce, transport and distribute illicit narcotics illustrates a ‘crossover’ between criminality and defence threat, and, potentially, an operational disconnect in a federated country, such as Australia. Local police may not be able to support defence measures to the fullest extent. A liberal philosophical threat assessment model, supported by a target-centric operational orientation, may enable defence and policing to act in unison to protect local and offshore communities that are vulnerable. A widening of the ‘philosophical lens' may integrate operations and intelligence to allow maximum pressure to be brought upon key points.

Marker genes are essential for selective amplification of rare transformed plastid genome copies to obtain genetically stable transplastomic plants. However, the marker gene becomes dispensable when homoplastomic plants are obtained. Here we report excision of plastid marker genes by the phiC31 phage site-specific integrase (Int) that mediates recombination between bacterial (attB) and phage (attP) attachment sites. We tested marker gene excision in a two-step process. First we transformed the tobacco plastid genome with the pCK2 vector in which the spectinomycin resistance (aadA) marker gene is flanked with suitably oriented attB and attP sites. The transformed plastid genomes were stable in the absence of Int. We then transformed the nucleus with a gene encoding a plastid-targeted Int that led to efficient marker gene excision. The aadA marker free Nt-pCK2-Int plants were resistant to phosphinothricin herbicides since the pCK2 plastid vector also carried a bar herbicide resistance gene that, due to the choice of its promoter, causes a yellowish-golden (aurea) phenotype. Int-mediated marker excision reported here is an alternative to the currently used CRE/loxP plastid marker excision system and expands the repertoire of the tools available for the manipulation of the plastid genome.

In our academic emergency department, our senior residents lead their own patient care team, known as the red team (RT). Attending physicians are responsible for managing their own team (AT) and precepting the senior resident's cases.We hypothesized that the RT would have the same number of morbidity and mortality (MM) cases and similar numbers of adverse outcomes as the AT. We also hypothesized that there would be no increase in MM cases during the first quarter of every academic year.We obtained data from MM cases from 2009-2013, including month and year of patient visit, standard of care code (SoCC), and whether the patient was seen by the RT or an AT. Data were analyzed using a χ(2) test comparing expected outcomes with observed outcomes.There was a total of 117 MM cases during the study period with a SoCC ≥ 3; 76 cases were AT and 41 cases were RT. There was no statistically significant difference between expected and observed number of cases. Mean RT and AT SoCCs were 4.03 and 4.23, respectively. There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups for SoCC. Mean SoCC was not significantly different for the first quarter of the year.We found that our patient care model did not lead to an increased number of MM cases and RT cases were not associated with worse outcomes overall. Additionally, there was no increased rate of MM cases in the beginning of the academic year.

This research presents a coordination approach for the expansion of gas transportation networks to serve an increasing customer base. An empirical study of natural gas markets in the southeastern United States shows that horizontal cooperation among transportation service providers (i.e., pipeline companies) allows for expanding the gas transportation networks efficiently to serve new customers. The benefits of coordination are identified through key structural elements such as number and location of additional pipeline links, lower infrastructure expansion costs, and demand segmentation for the gas transportation service providers.

Job applicants describe their skills and expertise in resumes and curriculum vitaes (CVs). These biographic data are often evaluated by human resource personnel or a search committee. This manual approach works well when the number of resumes is small. However, in this information age, the volume of available resumes can be overwhelming and there is a need for automatic evaluation of applicant skills and expertise. In this paper, we describe a user modeling algorithm to quantitatively identify skills and expertise from biographic data. This algorithm is called REMA (Resume Expertise Modeling Algorithm). REMA takes data from a resume document as input and produces an expertise model. The expertise model details the expertise topics for which the resume owner has claimed competency. Each topic carries a weight indicating the level of competency. There are two key insights for this algorithm. First, one’s expertise is the cumulative result of the various “learning events” in one’s career. These learning events are mentioned in various sections of the resume, such as earning a degree, writing a paper, or getting a patent. Second, one’s knowledge and skills can become outdated or forgotten over time if not reinforced by learning. We have developed a prototype resume evaluation system based on REMA and are in the process of evaluating REMA’s performance.

PurposeTo provide a concept for a different policing organizational model, founded upon democratic policing principles and a victim‐centered philosophy, which may be more useful for a postmodernist society.Design/methodology/approachThe paper presents an alternative model of policing; based upon a literature review of authoritative material concerning the postmodernist environment, the historical background of policing, police organizational research, and the philosophy of victim‐centered policing.FindingsThe paper presents a literature review, which identifies that the bureaucratic model of policing may no longer be functional for policing post‐modern society and inconsistent with modern governance principles. A more democratic heteronomous model of policing, where management determines the broad philosophical principles and co‐ordination of tasks while the policing practitioner makes localized decisions, may improve organizational effectiveness. A philosophy of victim‐centered policing may assist in achieving a policing legitimacy and the development of a new administrative approach. An existing model of this new approach may be found in the community beat officer, which is currently operating in many jurisdictions.Practical implicationsThe implementation of the principles espoused in this paper may improve the policing legitimacy in heavily fragmented societies, reduce deviant behavior by police officers while increasing job satisfaction, support restorative justice issues for victims, and assist the maintenance of public order.Originality/valueThe paper may be of value of policy‐makers, police administrators, police union officials, anti‐corruption units, and criminal justice academics/practitioners.

This article argues that the modern concept of problem-orientated policing requires that organised crime be redefined in sociological and political science terminology to identify opportunities for community-based policing initiatives to be utilised in undermining its institutional base. It seeks to redefine organised crime by its use of power and acts of victimisation. The article reviews a number of traditional organised crime groups by undertaking an historical power analysis process to substantiate this argument. It identifies the conditions and societies that gave rise to organised crime. It discusses the initial community or institutional purpose of the organised group and how it mutated to dominate by acts of criminal victimisation. The view is expressed that a victim-centred, problem-orientated policing policy is necessary to understand the legitimacy of organised crime in isolated communities and to remove barriers between the police and these communities. This view promotes the use of specially trained community police officers who are directly linked to other agencies engaged in suppressing organized crime to develop community capacity building to resist crime in isolated communities.

According to medieval legend, Gratian, Peter Lombard, and Peter Comestor were bro7thers. What united these men in the medieval imagination were the three great works they produced, respectively, over the course of the twelfth century: theDecretum, theSentences, and theHistoria scholastica. The two Peters, in particular, were connected. Stephen Langton, one of the most prominent teachers of Scripture and theology at Paris during the last decades of the twelfth century, praised both Peters for their mastery of Sacred Scripture. The joint ascendancy of the reputations of Peter Lombard and Peter Comestor can also be seen in the tradition of medieval chroniclers such as Otto of St. Blaise, who wrote that “in those days Peter Lombard and Peter Comestor shone forth as distinguished masters at Paris.”

The article discusses the emergence of victim-centred policing as a philosophical approach to reducing the effects of criminal victimisation. It discusses the convergence of criminological thought with policing in identifying the importance of the victim in the response to crime. It identifies the need to restructure policing practices to position the victim as a strategic focus for policing in the twenty-first century and to take the institutional lead in the criminal justice system. The symbolic, cultural and philosophical transformation necessary to operationalise the philosophy of victim-centred policing is examined. The importance of social research and the need for professional expertise within the policing unit to facilitate victim-centred police operations is also discussed. The article explores the role of the victim in traditional law enforcement and the move towards models of community policing that emphasise victim involvement in the criminal justice system. A discussion of the victimisation process and the inclusion of principles of restorative justice as a critical factor in the recovery of the victim are provided.

This article will first set rehabilitation nursing and the older person into an appropriate context and then address the nature of rehabilitation nursing, how definitions have developed over time and lastly, what it is that we now provide, in conjunction with others, to meet the rehabilitative needs of our older population. The boundaries defining ‘old’, and between seeing a person as experienced, a bit wrinkly, forgetful and perhaps eccentric, versus a person who is old and demented are by no means clear-cut.

This research presents a technique to obtain production sequences requiring minimal tooling replacements, via exploitation of statistical metrics along with a heuristic approach. Tool preservation has always been an important issue, and in many cases, since the production of some products tends to wear the tooling differently than others, the production sequence plays an important role in this preservation. Thus, if tool preservation is a priority then maintaining uniform tool-wear through careful product sequencing should be of concern. In some industries, minimizing tool replacement by increasing its useful life can result in large annual savings for manufacturing firms--due to increased tool life, reduction of unscheduled downtime, and increased flexibility of the machining center. This research presents sequencing techniques that attempt to minimize the number of tool replacements on a single machine over a given period of time (via sequences which have uniformity of tool wear). The sequences are obtained via simulated annealing, with a measurement criterion of three correlation-related statistics. Experimentation indicates that sequences obtained via the presented metrics and simulated annealing provide fewer tooling replacements as compared to more conventional sequencing methods.

Central line-associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI) is a preventable nosocomial infection. Simulation-based training in sterile technique during central venous catheter (CVC) placement for emergency medicine (EM) residents, and its effect on changing the medical intensive care unit (MICU) practice of routine replacement of CVCs placed under sterile technique in the emergency department (ED), has not been evaluated.Emergency medicine residents received simulation-based sterile technique training during CVC placement between May 2008 and September 2010. Between June 2008 and January 2011, the authors reviewed records of patients who had CVCs placed in the ED under sterile technique by EM residents and were admitted to the MICU (group 1) and CVCs placed in the MICU under sterile technique by internal medicine (IM) residents (group 2). IM residents completed similar simulation-based training before May 2008. Changes in EM residents' sterile technique performance scores were compared, as well as CLABSI rates in both groups. EM residents' CVC procedural skills were not assessed.Seventy-six EM residents completed simulation-based training with significant improvement in performance (median scores 13 out of 24 before training, 24 out of 24 after training; p0.001). CLABSI rates per 1,000 catheter-days were 1.02 in group 1 and 1.02 in group 2 (p = 0.99). Both groups had similar demographics, acuity, and mortality (p0.5).Routine replacement of CVCs placed in the ED under sterile technique after simulation-based training would appear to be unnecessary. These findings demonstrate patient-centered outcomes that are comparable for CVCs in ED-admitted MICU patients, regardless of whether the CVC was placed in the ED or MICU.

(2000). Reintroduction of wetland functions to the urban landscape: the Stormwater Ecological Enhancement Project. SIL Proceedings, 1922-2010: Vol. 27, No. 5, pp. 3097-3101.

In this paper we develop a new model for harvest operation costs that can be used to evaluate stands for potential harvest. The model is based on felling, extraction, and access costs and is unique in its consideration of the interaction between harvest area shapes and access roads. We illustrate the model and evaluate the impact of stand size, volume, and road cost when determining harvest layouts. We also present a generalized case where multiple unit road costs are considered in the same stand.

The first ‘information age’ was slow to evolve. The second, the ‘Internet information age’ has exploded. It provides a communication revolution for the citizen and industry. The role of the academic, the student and support services, including the library, must undergo enormous change.