Design and test of a prototype scale ejector wing

A two dimensional momentum integral analysis was used to examine the effect of changing inlet area ratio, diffuser area ratio, and the ratio of ejector length to width. A relatively wide range of these parameters was considered. It was found that for constant inlet area ratio the augmentation increases with the ejector length, and for constant length: width ratio the augmentation increases with inlet area ratio. Scale model tests were used to verify these trends and to examine th effect of aspect ratio. On the basis of these results, an ejector configuration was selected for fabrication and testing at a scale representative of an ejector wing aircraft. The test ejector was powered by a Pratt-Whitney F401 engine developing approximately 12,000 pounds of thrust. The results of preliminary tests indicate that the ejector develops a thrust augmentation ratio better than 1.65

Randomised controlled trial of a home-based physical activity intervention in breast cancer survivors

Background: To improve adherence to physical activity (PA), behavioural support in the form of behavioural change counselling may be necessary. However, limited evidence of the effectiveness of home-based PA combined with counselling in breast cancer patients exists. The aim of this current randomised controlled trial with a parallel group design was to evaluate the effectiveness of a home-based PA intervention on PA levels, anthropometric measures, health-related quality of life (HRQoL), and blood biomarkers in breast cancer survivors. Methods: Eighty post-adjuvant therapy invasive breast cancer patients (age = 53.6 ± 9.4 years; height = 161.2 ± 6.8 cm; mass = 68.7 ± 10.5 kg) were randomly allocated to a 6-month home-based PA intervention or usual care. The intervention group received face-to-face and telephone PA counselling aimed at encouraging the achievement of current recommended PA guidelines. All patients were evaluated for our primary outcome, PA (International PA Questionnaire) and secondary outcomes, mass, BMI, body fat %, HRQoL (Functional assessment of Cancer Therapy-Breast), insulin resistance, triglycerides (TG) and total (TC), high-density lipoprotein (HDL-C) and low-density lipoprotein (LDL-C) cholesterol were assessed at baseline and at 6-months. Results: On the basis of linear mixed-model analyses adjusted for baseline values performed on 40 patients in each group, total, leisure and vigorous PA significantly increased from baseline to post-intervention in the intervention compared to usual care (between-group differences, 578.5 MET-min∙wk−1, p = .024, 382.2 MET-min∙wk−1, p = .010, and 264.1 MET-min∙wk−1, p = .007, respectively). Both body mass and BMI decreased significantly in the intervention compared to usual care (between-group differences, −1.6 kg, p = .040, and −.6 kg/m2, p = .020, respectively). Of the HRQoL variables, FACT-Breast, Trial Outcome Index, functional wellbeing, and breast cancer subscale improved significantly in the PA group compared to the usual care group (between-group differences, 5.1, p= .024; 5.6, p = .001; 1.9 p = .025; and 2.8, p=.007, respectively). Finally, TC and LDL-C was significantly reduced in the PA group compared to the usual care group (between-group differences, −.38 mmol∙L−1, p=.001; and −.3 mmol∙L−1, p=.023, respectively). Conclusions: We found that home-based PA resulted in significant albeit small to moderate improvements in selfreported PA, mass, BMI, breast cancer specific HRQoL, and TC and LDL-C compared with usual care

A comparative study: tongue muscle performance in weightlifters and runners

© 2018 The Authors. Physiological Reports published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of The Physiological Society and the American Physiological Society. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Exercise mode (i.e., resistance training, endurance training) is known to yield mode-specific effects on strength and endurance of muscles that are directly targeted during the exercise. Such mode-specific effects can also be observed in indirectly involved (i.e., nontargeted) muscles. Mode-specific muscle performance changes of nontargeted muscles, however, have only been investigated within the skeletal system. Therefore, as a first step, this study aimed to determine if bulbar muscle performance (tongue strength [TS], tongue endurance [TE]) differs between weightlifters and runners and if group differences are tongue region-specific. The Iowa Oral Performance Instrument (IOPI) was used to measure TS and TE of the anterior and posterior tongue regions in 21 weightlifters and 23 runners. In weightlifters anterior TS was significantly greater than posterior TS (P = 0.008), whereas in runners anterior and posterior TS were comparable. Furthermore, weightlifters produced significantly greater anterior TS than runners (P = 0.001). Finally, TE was overall significantly greater in runners than in weightlifters (P = 0.001). Findings suggest that exercise mode may differentially impact performance patterns of nontargeted bulbar muscles. More research is warranted to better understand the mechanisms underlying tongue muscle performance differences between weightlifters and runners

Incomplete Denitrification Phenotypes in Diverse Thermus Species From Diverse Geothermal Spring Sediments and Adjacent Soils in Southwest China

A few members of the bacterial genus Thermus have been shown to be incomplete denitrifiers, terminating with nitrite (NO2−) or nitrous oxide (N2O). However, the denitrification abilities of the genus as a whole remain poorly characterized. Here, we describe diverse denitrification phenotypes and genotypes of a collection of 24 strains representing ten species, all isolated from a variety of geothermal systems in China. Confirmed terminal products of nitrate reduction were nitrite or N2O, while nitric oxide (NO) was inferred as the terminal product in some strains. Most strains produced N2O; complete denitrification was not observed. Denitrification phenotypes were largely consistent with the presence of denitrification genes, and strains of the same species often had the same denitrification phenotypes and largely syntenous denitrification gene clusters. Genes for nirS and nirK coexisted in three Thermus brockianus and three Thermus oshimai genomes, which is a unique hallmark of some denitrifying Thermus strains and may be ecologically important. These results show that incomplete denitrification phenotypes are prominent, but variable, within and between Thermus species. The incomplete denitrification phenotypes described here suggest Thermus species may play important roles in consortial denitrification in high-temperature terrestrial biotopes where sufficient supply of oxidized inorganic nitrogen exists

Effect of Orientation, Inclination, and Length of Diagonal of Necker Cubes on Perspective Dominance

Orientation of the diagonal in a Necker cube drawing was shown to affect the first perspective reported and the relative amount of time that each perspective was dominant. Length and inclination of diagonal did not affect either measure of perspective dominance. </jats:p

Repetitive Psychometric Measures: Spatial Orientation

A Spatial Orientation measure with 20 parallel forms was evaluated under various conditions with three samples, totalling 265 Ss. The forms were based on the Thurstone Card Test, but the format and time limits were modified. The new measure correlated at low positive levels with Speed of Closure (.35), Visualization (.28), Number Facility (.27), and Wechsler-Bellevue Vocabulary scores (.43), but factor analyses established that it and the Thurstone Card Test were independent of the other nine measures in the present Repetitive Psychometric Measures battery. Although the internal consistency of single forms was low before practice, it increased with practice (e.g., .63 to .77). </jats:p

Long-Term Changes in Properties of the Autokinetic Illusion

Large inter-individual differences were noted in latency, complexity, amount, and direction of movement reported by three sophisticated Ss exposed to the autokinetic illusion for 90 sec. on each of 120 consecutive days. Systematic changes characteristic of each S were far too complex to permit the typical analyses found in the literature, using only the four primary directions, simple latencies, simple qualitative comparison of drawings, etc. </jats:p