ATTRA—National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service is managed by the National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) and is funded under a grant from the United States Department of Agriculture’s Rural Business-Cooperative Service. Visit the NCAT Web site (www.ncat.org/agri. html) for more information on our sustainable agriculture projects. Funding for the development of this publica...

We investigate the effect of heart rate on the quality and artifact generation in coronary artery images obtained using multi-slice computed tomography (MSCT) with the purpose of finding the optimal time resolution for data acquisition. To perform the study, we used the 4D NCAT phantom, a computer model of the normal human anatomy and cardiac and respiratory motions developed in our laboratory....

The cardiac model of the 4D NCAT phantom was enhanced by incorporating a physiological basis from which to realistically model left ventricular (LV) motion defects. A finite element mechanical model of the LV was developed to simulate deficits in contractile function and to study the effect of ischemia on LV function. The model geometry was based on high resolution CT and MRI data sets of a hea...

An effective workforce performing within the context of a positive cultural environment is central to a healthcare organization's ability to achieve quality outcomes. The Nursing Culture Assessment Tool (NCAT) provides nurses with a valid and reliable tool that captures the general aspects of nursing culture. This study extends earlier work confirming the tool's construct validity and dimension...

The National Center for Asphalt Technology (NCAT) completed a roundrobin study in March to determine the accuracy and precision of the NCAT asphalt content tester. The Center has conducted research since 1990 to develop this test method for determining asphalt content of hot mix asphalt (HMA) mixtures by ignition (See the fall, 1994, issue of Asphalt Technology News). In the ignition method, a ...

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy plus trastuzumab (NCT) increases the rate of pathological complete response (pCR) and event-free survival (EFS) compared to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NC) alone in women with HER2 positive breast cancer (BC). pCR in this setting is associated with improved EFS. Whether NCT preferentially improves EFS in comparison to NC followed by adjuvant trastuzumab initiated postoper...

for Appropriate Technology through a grant from the Rural Business-Cooperative Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture. These organizations do not recommend or endorse products, companies, or individuals. NCAT has offices in Fayetteville, Arkansas (P.O. Box 3657, Fayetteville, AR 72702), Butte, Montana, and Davis, California. By George L. Kuepper, Holly Born, Janet Bachmann NCAT Agriculture Spe...

Putting Research Into Practice Page 10 The National Center for Asphalt Technology (NCAT) has just completed a National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Project: NCHRP 9-11, “Segregation in Hot Mix Asphalt Pavements.” Dr. Mary Stroup-Gardiner was the principal investigator on this project. Segregation has historically been defined to mean localized areas of coarse materials in some a...

Computerized Adaptive Testing (CAT) refers to an efficient and personalized test mode in online education, aiming accurately measure student proficiency level on the required subject/domain. The key component of CAT is "adaptive" question selection algorithm, which automatically selects best suited for based his/her current estimated proficiency, reducing length. Existing algorithms rely some m...

The non-canonical amino acid labeling techniques BONCAT (bioorthogonal non-canonical amino acid tagging) and FUNCAT (fluorescent non-canonical amino acid tagging) enable the specific identification and visualization of newly synthesized proteins. Recently, these techniques have been applied to neuronal systems to elucidate protein synthesis dynamics during plasticity, identify stimulation-induc...