BackgroundChaplains are increasingly seen as key members of interdisciplinary palliative care teams, yet the specific interventions and hoped for outcomes of their work are poorly understood. This project served to develop a standard terminology inventory for the chaplaincy field, to be called the chaplaincy taxonomy.MethodsThe research team used a mixed methods approach to generate, evaluate and validate items for the taxonomy. We conducted a literature review, retrospective chart review, focus groups, self-observation, experience sampling, concept mapping, and reliability testing. Chaplaincy activities focused primarily on palliative care in an intensive care unit setting in order to capture a broad cross section of chaplaincy activities.ResultsLiterature and chart review resulted in 438 taxonomy items for testing. Chaplain focus groups generated an additional 100 items and removed 421 items as duplications. Self-Observation, Experience Sampling and Concept Mapping provided validity that the taxonomy items were actual activities that chaplains perform in their spiritual care. Inter-rater reliability for chaplains to identify taxonomy items from vignettes was 0.903.ConclusionsThe 100 item chaplaincy taxonomy provides a strong foundation for a normative inventory of chaplaincy activities and outcomes. A deliberative process is proposed to further expand and refine the taxonomy to create a standard terminological inventory for the field of chaplaincy. A standard terminology could improve the ways inter-disciplinary palliative care teams communicate about chaplaincy activities and outcomes.

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Aircraft morphing is referred to as the ability for an aircraft to change its geometry in flight. Formally, flaps, spoilers, and control devices are considered morphing, but in general, morphing in aerospace is associated with geometrical changes using smart materials such as shape memory alloys. Shape memory alloy is a material that changes shape under heating and produces force and deflections, which make it potential actuator for a wing morphing system. The motivation behind this study is the application to small-sized and medium-sized unmanned air vehicles and the potential to increase range or endurance for a given fuel load through improved lift-to-drag ratio. The camber line of an airfoil section, the predominant parameter affecting lift and drag, is changed by resistive heating of a shape memory alloy actuator and cooling in the surrounding air. Experiments were conducted under wind tunnel conditions to verify analysis and to investigate the effects of its application on the aerodynamic behavior of the wing. This study investigated three control methodologies: the conventional proportional-integral-derivative controller, proportional-integral-derivative with robust compensator, and proportional-integral-derivative with anti-windup compensator. The latter proved to have superior performance in achieving and maintaining a required level of morphing. In addition, the power required to the shape memory alloy actuators under aerodynamic load, and the effect of ambient temperature was also investigated.

This is the authors' pre-publication version. This paper does not include changes and revisions arising from the peer review and publishing processes. The final definitive copy, which should be used for all referencing,

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