Unauthorized cultural resource alterations range from looting and grave robbing to contract violations and wildland fires. Such alterations degrade cultural resources’ spiritual, communal, ecological, economic, and scientific values. Alterations often violate communal senses of place, security, and belonging. Alterations complicate jurisdiction-specific management, which is premised on up-to-date information on resource sizes, conditions, and significance. Cultural resource damage assessment protocols based on proven forensic practices distil to eight fieldwork steps: verify the alteration, assemble the team, survey the scene, document the evidence, gather the evidence, assess the archaeological value and the cost of repair and restoration, prescribe emergency remediation, and confirm evidence documentation and custody. The eight steps give special consideration to local communities and Indigenous Territories, where unauthorized alterations are as common as they are elsewhere, whereas impacts to spiritual and cultural values are generally greater. Adapted to jurisdiction- and incident-specific circumstances, the steps will guide responses to alterations by community leaders, land managers, regulators, law enforcement agents, and archaeologists, including preparation of excellent damage assessment reports. Damage assessment practitioners and land managers should refine these practices to deter alterations, engage Tribes and other affected communities, halt postalteration degradation, ensure accountability, and enable jurisdiction-scale curation of cultural resources and their unique value constellations.

Background: US healthcare facilities experienced significant personal protective equipment (PPE) shortages, including N95 masks, in the spring and summer of 2020. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued guidance for extended use, reprocessing, and reuse of N95s. Eskenazi Health (EH) implemented a program to reprocess N95s and other PPE on-site using low-heat decontamination (LHD). EH considered large-scale and small-scale ultraviolet (UV), hydrogen peroxide vapor, and LHD for on-site reprocessing of N95s. All of these methods allowed up to 3 reprocessing cycles according to most literature available at the time. However, each method differed in feasibility and acceptability to staff. EH chose to implement LHD based on both considerations. Methods: Numerous small-group meetings were held in April 2020 to determine the feasibility and acceptability of N95 reprocessing methods. Staff wanted a method that was easy for the end user, had quick turnaround, and allowed them to retrieve their own N95s. They favored a method that could be used for all PPE. EH had deployed numerous small UV machines that individuals could use for N95s. The UV machines could not be scaled up easily. To scale up, a multidisciplinary team comprising infection prevention, biomedical engineering, and sterile processing representatives reviewed available methods and implemented LHD. Biomedical engineers determined that existing blanket warmers could be reprogrammed and repurposed for low-heat decontamination. Food warmers were also available but were not needed. Biomedical engineers reprogrammed the blanket warmers to 70°C and developed a wicking system using a towel and water tray to maintain humidity; decontamination took 30 minutes. Testing runs determined that both N95s and eye protection tolerated LHD without apparent damage. Infection prevention staff developed a workflow in which staff deposited all PPE in a paper bag; the PPE bag was centrally reprocessed, marked (Figure 1), and returned to designated locations (Figure 2) for staff to retrieve their original PPE. Sterile processing staff facilitated the reprocessing workflow, and elective surgeries were canceled during the COVID-19 surge. Results: From April 20, 2020, to July 19, 2020, 7,512 units were decontaminated with LHD. If each N95 was sterilized thrice (4 uses per N95), then LHD reduced the need to purchase 22,536 N95s. Restarting elective surgeries decreased staff and support from sterile processing; the space was needed for other purposes; and N95 availability increased. All of these factors led to the discontinuation of LHD. Conclusions: LHD enables reprocessing of N95s and other PPE using existing assets. LHD is advantageous because of scalability and the capacity to provide staff with their own reprocessed PPE.

Funding: No

Disclosures: None

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Figure 2.

In 2020 a group of U.S. healthcare leaders formed the National Organization to Prevent Hospital-Acquired Pneumonia (NOHAP) to issue a call to action to address non–ventilator-associated hospital-acquired pneumonia (NVHAP). NVHAP is one of the most common and morbid healthcare-associated infections, but it is not tracked, reported, or actively prevented by most hospitals. This national call to action includes (1) launching a national healthcare conversation about NVHAP prevention; (2) adding NVHAP prevention measures to education for patients, healthcare professionals, and students; (3) challenging healthcare systems and insurers to implement and support NVHAP prevention; and (4) encouraging researchers to develop new strategies for NVHAP surveillance and prevention. The purpose of this document is to outline research needs to support the NVHAP call to action. Primary needs include the development of better models to estimate the economic cost of NVHAP, to elucidate the pathophysiology of NVHAP and identify the most promising pathways for prevention, to develop objective and efficient surveillance methods to track NVHAP, to rigorously test the impact of prevention strategies proposed to prevent NVHAP, and to identify the policy levers that will best engage hospitals in NVHAP surveillance and prevention. A joint task force developed this document including stakeholders from the Veterans’ Health Administration (VHA), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), The Joint Commission, the American Dental Association, the Patient Safety Movement Foundation, Oral Health Nursing Education and Practice (OHNEP), Teaching Oral-Systemic Health (TOSH), industry partners and academia.

We describe 14 yr of public data from the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array (PPTA), an ongoing project that is producing precise measurements of pulse times of arrival from 26 millisecond pulsars using the 64-m Parkes radio telescope with a cadence of approximately 3 weeks in three observing bands. A comprehensive description of the pulsar observing systems employed at the telescope since 2004 is provided, including the calibration methodology and an analysis of the stability of system components. We attempt to provide full accounting of the reduction from the raw measured Stokes parameters to pulse times of arrival to aid third parties in reproducing our results. This conversion is encapsulated in a processing pipeline designed to track provenance. Our data products include pulse times of arrival for each of the pulsars along with an initial set of pulsar parameters and noise models. The calibrated pulse profiles and timing template profiles are also available. These data represent almost 21 000 h of recorded data spanning over 14 yr. After accounting for processes that induce time-correlated noise, 22 of the pulsars have weighted root-mean-square timing residuals of $<\!\!1\,\mu\text{s}$ in at least one radio band. The data should allow end users to quickly undertake their own gravitational wave analyses, for example, without having to understand the intricacies of pulsar polarisation calibration or attain a mastery of radio frequency interference mitigation as is required when analysing raw data files.

Boasting supreme magnetic strengths, magnetars are among the prime candidates to generate fast radio bursts. Several theories have been proposed for the formation mechanism of magnetars, but have not yet been fully tested. As different magnetar formation theories expect distinct magnetar space velocity distributions, high-precision astrometry of Galactic magnetars can serve as a probe for the formation theories. In addition, magnetar astrometry can refine the understanding of the distribution of Galactic magnetars. This distribution can be compared against fast radio bursts (FRBs) localized in spiral galaxies, in order to test the link between FRBs and magnetars. Swift J1818.0–1607 is the hitherto fastest-spinning magnetar and the fifth discovered radio magnetar. In an ongoing astrometric campaign, we have observed Swift J1818.0–1607 for one year using the Very Long Baseline Array, and have determined a precise proper motion as well as a tentative parallax for the magnetar.

We describe an ultra-wide-bandwidth, low-frequency receiver recently installed on the Parkes radio telescope. The receiver system provides continuous frequency coverage from 704 to 4032 MHz. For much of the band ( ${\sim}60\%$ ), the system temperature is approximately 22 K and the receiver system remains in a linear regime even in the presence of strong mobile phone transmissions. We discuss the scientific and technical aspects of the new receiver, including its astronomical objectives, as well as the feed, receiver, digitiser, and signal processor design. We describe the pipeline routines that form the archive-ready data products and how those data files can be accessed from the archives. The system performance is quantified, including the system noise and linearity, beam shape, antenna efficiency, polarisation calibration, and timing stability.

Electrodynamic screens (EDS) are transparent dielectric films, consisting of embedded, interdigitated parallel conducting electrodes that can be integrated onto the optical surface of a photovoltaic (PV) module or concentrated solar power (CSP) mirror for their self-cleaning function to mitigate the energy yield losses caused by soiling. The EDS film removes dust particles using electrostatic forces thus eliminating the need for water or robotic devices to clean the solar devices. In this paper we report the methods experimented to produce EDS film stacks integrated onto individual PV modules (33 cm x 28 cm) for solar field applications using an industrial vacuum lamination process for the purpose of outdoor testing. Steps taken to optimize the lamination process to provide high optical transparency, resistance against moisture ingress and to withstand dust abrasion are described. The experiments performed to arrive at the optimal curing temperature, curing time, and vacuum pressure maintenance for the lamination process are elaborated. Details on the construction, functionality and operation of the outdoor testing units are provided. Measurements of the optical transmission efficiency (TE) and output power restoration (OPR) of the EDS film stack laminated onto PV modules are presented along with a model for full-scale lamination with an aim for advancing the EDS film technology as a commercially available product.

The frequency dependence of normal pulsar radio emission is typically observed to be a power law, with some indications of a flattening or turnover at low frequencies (≲ 100 MHz). The spectrum of the Crab pulsar’s giant pulse emission has not been examined as closely. We conducted simultaneous wideband observations of the Crab pulsar, with the Parkes radio telescope and the Murchison Widefield Array, to study the spectral behaviour of its giant pulses. Our analysis shows that the mean spectral index of Crab giant pulses flattens at low frequencies, from −2.6 ± 0.5 between the Parkes bands, to −0.7 ± 1.4 between the lowest MWA subbands.

Background: Obsessive beliefs account for substantial (but not all) obsessive-compulsive (OC) symptoms. Intolerance of internal experiences (IIE), which encompasses the constructs of experiential avoidance (EA) and distress tolerance (DT), refers to difficulty managing unwanted thoughts, emotions, and other internal states, and might add to current explanatory models. Although IIE appears to be conceptually relevant to obsessive-compulsive (OC) symptoms, scant research has examined this relationship empirically. Aim: The present study examined the relative contributions of EA and DT as predictors of OC symptom dimensions. Method: A nonclinical sample (n = 496) completed self-report questionnaires measuring general distress, EA, DT and OC symptom dimensions. Results: All variables of interest were significantly (all ps ≤ .001) correlated with one another, such that higher general distress, higher EA, and lower DT were associated with greater OC symptom severity for all symptom dimensions; however, only EA independently predicted obsessional symptoms, but not other OC symptom dimensions. Conclusions: One's willingness to endure (i.e. EA), rather than their ability to tolerate (i.e. DT) unpleasant internal experiences best predicts obsessional symptoms (i.e. obsessing) above and beyond general distress. Potential implications for understanding, assessing, and treating OC symptoms are discussed.

Sea-ice thicknesses observed in Canadian coastal waters with helicopter-borne electromagnetic–laser sensors show large interannual variability caused by atmospheric fluctuations in two years for two areas where surveys were repeated, one in the Amundsen Gulf of the Canadian Beaufort Sea and one over the Labrador Shelf. For the Amundsen Gulf, the bimodal ice thickness peaks shifted by 40 cm to thinner thicknesses for the warmer winter of 2008 compared with 2004. The thinner ice in 2008 can be explained partially by reduced thermodynamic ice growth during the warmer winter of 2008. In addition, winds from the east were more persistent throughout the winter of 2008, increasing ice export from the Amundsen Gulf and thereby creating open-water areas where new ice growth in late winter produced the thinner ice classes. For the Labrador Shelf, the mean ice thicknesses of the warmer winter of 2011 (0.71 m) were much less than those of the near-normal winter of 2009 (1.60 m). Again the difference can be explained by the fact that along the entire Labrador Shelf the winter of 2011 was much warmer, reducing ice growth and resulting in thinner ice locally and thinner ice being transported into the survey region from northern latitudes. In addition, northwesterly winds occurred less frequently during the winter of 2011, reducing the transport of relatively thicker ice into the survey area from northern latitudes.

The direct detection of gravitational waves will usher in a new era of astrophysics, enabling the study of regions of the universe opaque to electromagnetic radiation or electromagnetically quiet. An ensemble of pulsars (referred to as a pulsar timing array) provides a set of clocks distributed across the Galaxy sensitive to gravitational waves with periods on the order of five years (frequencies of many nanohertz). Plausible source of gravitational waves in this frequency band include massive black hole binaries in the throes of mergers and oscillating cosmic strings. The stochastic gravitational wave background, the sum of gravitational waves emitted throughout the universe, is the most likely signal to be detected by a pulsar timing array.

While the detection of gravitational waves will be a milestone in pulsar astronomy, a constraining limit on the strength of the gravitational wave background can be used to constrain cosmological models and early Universe physics. Here we present a new algorithm that can be used to constrain the strength of the GWB with a pulsar timing array. We then apply this technique to Parkes Pulsar Timing Array observations and place a new limit on the strength of the GWB. We conclude by discussing the astrophysical implications of this limit and the prospects for detecting gravitational waves with pulsars.

Cell division is thought to be powered by the constriction of an actomyosin containing contractile ring found transiently in the cleavage furrow. Conventional myosin II plays a fundamental role in this process of cytokinesis where, in the form of a multimeric complex known as the bipolar thick filament, it is thought to be the molecular motor that generates the force necessary to cause ring constriction.

In order to study the dynamics of this protein in the dividing cell, we have made a fusion protein of the green fluorescent protein (GFP) and the amino terminus of the Dictyostelium myosin heavy chain (GFP-myosin), and imaged the location of this protein in dividing Dictyostelium cells were it is the only myosin II present in the cell. The addition of GFP does not compromise the functioning of the myosin motor as evidenced by the fact that purified GFP-myosin has solution ATPase and in vitro motility kinetics similar to that of non-labelled myosin. In addition, GFP-myosin fully complements the myosin null mutation for both development and cytokinesis in suspension suggesting that GFP-myosin acts as a regulated motor when expressed in cells.