Letter to Donna K. Bausch regarding Scholarship Committee guidelines, February 13, 1989

A letter from Alva T. Stone to Donna K. Bausch detailing Stone\u27s thoughts on changes to the Scholarship Committee guidelines & criteria

Letter to Claire Engel regarding award of the Lucile Elliott Scholarship, March 16, 1988

A letter from Alva T. Stone to Claire Engel accepting the Lucile Elliott Scholarship

Letter to Wes Daniels regarding Scholarship announcements, 1990

A letter from Alva T. Stone to Wes Daniels discussing mailings for a SEAALL Scholarship and a proposed article for the SEAALL newsletter

Advanced manufacturing development of a composite empennage component for L-1011 aircraft

This is the final report of technical work conducted during the fourth phase of a multiphase program having the objective of the design, development and flight evaluation of an advanced composite empennage component manufactured in a production environment at a cost competitive with those of its metal counterpart, and at a weight savings of at least 20 percent. The empennage component selected for this program is the vertical fin box of the L-1011 aircraft. The box structure extends from the fuselage production joint to the tip rib and includes front and rear spars. During Phase 4 of the program, production quality tooling was designed and manufactured to produce three sets of covers, ribs, spars, miscellaneous parts, and subassemblies to assemble three complete ACVF units. Recurring and nonrecurring cost data were compiled and documented in the updated producibility/design to cost plan. Nondestruct inspections, quality control tests, and quality acceptance tests were performed in accordance with the quality assurance plan and the structural integrity control plan. Records were maintained to provide traceability of material and parts throughout the manufacturing development phase. It was also determined that additional tooling would not be required to support the current and projected L-1011 production rate

Fast Bowler’s knee – anteromedial articular impingement

Purpose: To describe a series of impingement lesions found on the anterior aspect of the medial femoral condyle in international cricketers. Methods: Seven international level fast bowlers presented to our clinic with knee pain in the lead leg between 2005 and 2013. The mean age of the patients was 26.7 years (20–29 years). In all patients a careful history and examination was undertaken followed by appropriate investigations. Conservative management and arthroscopic surgery were performed on these cases. We aimed for a pain free quiet knee with resolved oedema on MRI and return to sport. Results: MRI images showed oedema in the medial femoral condyle in all patients and 4 patients also had associated cartilage loss. These 4 patients underwent arthroscopic surgery whereas the other 3 were less symptomatic and were managed conservatively. All patients returned to international cricket at an average of 6 months in the non-operative group and 8 months in the operative group. Conclusion: Anterior impingement of the anteromedial femoral condyle can be a potentially serious lesion in the fast bowler. A strong index of suspicion regarding this lesion has to be exercised when a fast bowler attends with knee pain and effusion

The evolution of the huntingtin-associated protein 40 (HAP40) in conjunction with huntingtin

Background The huntingtin-associated protein 40 (HAP40) abundantly interacts with huntingtin (HTT), the protein that is altered in Huntington's disease (HD). Therefore, we analysed the evolution of HAP40 and its interaction with HTT. Results We found that in amniotes HAP40 is encoded by a single-exon gene, whereas in all other organisms it is expressed from multi-exon genes. HAP40 co-occurs with HTT in unikonts, including filastereans such as Capsaspora owczarzaki and the amoebozoan Dictyostelium discoideum, but both proteins are absent from fungi. Outside unikonts, a few species, such as the free-living amoeboflagellate Naegleria gruberi, contain putative HTT and HAP40 orthologs. Biochemically we show that the interaction between HTT and HAP40 extends to fish, and bioinformatic analyses provide evidence for evolutionary conservation of this interaction. The closest homologue of HAP40 in current protein databases is the family of soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor attachment proteins (SNAPs). Conclusion Our results indicate that the transition from a multi-exon to a single-exon gene appears to have taken place by retroposition during the divergence of amphibians and amniotes, followed by the loss of the parental multi-exon gene. Furthermore, it appears that the two proteins probably originated at the root of eukaryotes. Conservation of the interaction between HAP40 and HTT and their likely coevolution strongly indicate functional importance of this interaction

PENGARUH MODULUS GESER TANAH TERHADAP KESTABILAN PONDASI MESIN JENIS BLOK STUDI KASUS: MESIN ID FAN PLTU 2 AMURANG SULUT

Mesin ID Fan merupakan salah satu mesin penunjang untuk mesin penghasil listrik. Mesin ini menghasilkan beban statis berupa berat mesin itu sendiri dan beban dinamis berupa getaran ketika mesin tersebut beroperasi. Untuk itu, diperlukan analisis statis dan analisis dinamissebagai indikator dalam menentukan kestabilan pondasi mesin dan mengaitkan pengaruh modulus geser tanah terhadap kestabilan pondasi mesin. Analisis statis yang memperhitungkan penurunan tanah dan daya dukung tanah dengan menggunakan Metode Terzaghi dan Metode Meyerhof, sedangkan untuk analisis dinamis memperhitungkan frekuensi, redaman, dan amplitudo getaran yang terjadi pada getaran vertikal, getaran horizontal, getaran rocking dan getaran torsi dengan menggunakan Metode Lumped Parameter. Pada analisis statis, untuk Metode Terzaghi hasil yang diperoleh yaitu daya dukung tanah ultimate (qu) = 447,20 t/m2 dan daya dukung izin (qall) = 149,07 t/m2 sedangkan untuk Metode Meyerhof hasil yang diperoleh yaitu daya dukung tanah ultimate (qu) = 472,95 t/m dan daya dukung izin (qall)= 157,65 t/m2. Nilai beban pondasi untuk pondasi blok massive (σ) =6,24 t/m2  dan pondasi blok rangka (σstatis) = 2,19 t/m2. Hal ini menunjukkan bahwa nilai beban dari pondasi lebih kecil dari daya dukung tanah yang diizinkan sehingga daya dukung tanah aman mendukung beban struktur. Sedangkan hasil yang diperoleh pada penurunan tanah  untuk pondasi blok massive akibat beban statis 137,68  ton yaitu 0,0196 cm dan pondasi blok rangka akibat beban statis 48,38 ton yaitu 0,0069 cm.   Pada analisis dinamis, hasil yang diperoleh dari perhitunganmenunjukkan bahwa pondasi blok massive dan pondasi blok rangka tetap stabil pada semua ragam getaran dengan nilai modulus geser tanah 528 t/m2. Selain itu, pondasi blok rangka juga tetap stabil pada getaran vertikal dan getaran horizontal dengan nilai modulus geser tanah 6274 t/m. Sedangkan, untuk hasil variasi nilai modulus geser tanah pada masing-masing ragam getaran didapat bahwa penambahan nilai modulus geser tanah berbanding lurus dengan frekuensi sehingga meningkatkan kemungkinan terjadinya resonansi. Namun untuk redaman, nilai yang dihasilkan tetap konstan dan untuk amplitudo getaran, nilai yang dihasilkan cenderung meningkat sebelum terjadi resonansi tetapi akan cenderung berkurang setelah terjadi resonansi. Hal ini berlaku untuk pondasi blok massive dan pondasi blok rangka.   Kata kunci : beban dinamis, pondasi mesin, pondasi massive, pondasi rangka, modulus gese

Urban Park Development and Pediatric Obesity Rates: A Quasi-Experiment Using Electronic Health Record Data

INTRODUCTION: Childhood obesity affects ~20% of children in the United States. Environmental influences, such as parks, are linked with increased physical activity (PA). OBJECTIVE: To examine whether changes in Body Mass Index (BMI) z-score were associated with construction of a new park. METHODS: A quasi-experimental design was used to determine whether living in proximity of a park was associated with a reduction in BMI z-score. Children were selected from health clinics within an 11 mile radius of the park. A repeated-measure ANOVA was employed for analysis of the relationship between exposure (new park) and BMI z-score. RESULTS: Participants were 1443 (median age 10.3 range (2-17.9 years), BMI: z-score 0.84 ± 1.09) African American (77.4%) adolescents. Change in BMI z-score was not statistically different for children living at different distances from the park after controlling for age, gender, race, ethnicity, or payer type (p = 0.4482). We did observe a small 0.03 increase in BMI z-score from pre- to post-park (p = 0.0007). There was a significant positive association between child's baseline age and BMI z-score (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: This study found proximity to a park was not associated with reductions in BMI z-score. Additional efforts to understand the complex relationship between park proximity, access, and PA are warranted

Rapid monitoring of anti-tuberculosis therapy using fluorescein diacetate microscopy: a simple method to determine infectiousness and screen for drug resistance

Background: Tuberculosis treatment and infection control are hampered by difficulty assessing mycobacterial viability to determine infectiousness and early treatment response. TB culture takes weeks; molecular tests are technically demanding; and acid-fast staining cannot differentiate live from dead tuberculosis. / Objectives: To develop and evaluate a simple slide-microscopy test to rapidly determine tuberculosis viability. / Methods: A protocol was optimized to stain viable but not dead tuberculosis in decontaminated sputum dried onto microscope slides and stained with the vital stain fluorescein diacetate (FDA). The reliability of this FDA slide microscopy for determining the concentration of viable tuberculosis in sputum was then compared with quantitative culture. / Results-laboratory evaluation: In untreated patients, tuberculosis auramine staining was unaffected whether sputum was fresh or had been sterilized by boiling, whereas FDA stained only un-boiled, viable tuberculosis. Quantification of viable tuberculosis by culture was reliably predicted by FDA, but not by auramine microscopy. / Results-clinical evaluation : Sequential sputums were collected from 35 patients before and after 3, 6 and 9 days of first-line tuberculosis treatment. Culture quantification of viable mycobacteria in sputum was predicted by slide microscopy with FDA (r2=0.77) but not auramine (r2=0.33). Quantification of viable tuberculosis in sputum by both quantitative culture and FDA microscopy fell 10-100 fold during the first nine days of treatment in all patients with drug-susceptible tuberculosis, whereas there was little change for patients with MDRTB. Specifically, 70% of samples from patients with drug-susceptible tuberculosis had a decline in the FDA count of viable tuberculosis of at least 0.2 logs/treatment-day, compared with none of the samples from MDRTB patients (P1 month required for culture. This simple and inexpensive technique rapidly assessed patient infectiousness on treatment, potentially guiding infection control measures. FDA staining also revealed differences in early treatment response between non-MDR and MDRTB and may allow early field screening for MDRTB and impending treatment failure

How Low Can We Go?: Comparing Long-term Oncologic Outcomes for APR and LAR in Very Low Rectal Cancer

Management of very low rectal cancer is one of the most challenging issues faced by colorectal surgeons. For tumors in the mid and upper rectum, procedures can be done to resect the cancer while maintaining continence, a major determinant of post-operative quality of life. In the low rectum, however, to optimize oncologic outcomes, many surgeons feel compelled to pursue abdominoperineal (APR) over low anterior resection (LAR), a sphincter-preserving procedure. It was hypothesized that after robust adjustment, procedure choice will not be associated with a difference in disease-free survival in the resection of tumors in the low rectum. To analyze this, the US Rectal Cancer Collaborative Database, a comprehensive, multi-center dataset obtained from six institutions between 2010 and 2016, was queried. Patients undergoing TME resection for Stage I-III very low rectal cancers (involvement) were selected for this study. Patients were categorized by procedure- LAR vs APR. Primary outcome was five-year disease-free survival. Secondary outcomes included overall survival, recurrence, length of stay, and complications. An adjusted analysis was performed to account for all known potential confounders. 431 patients with very low rectal cancer treated by either APR or LAR were identified. 154 (35.7%) underwent APR. The overall recurrence rate was 19.6%. Median follow-up time was 42.5 months. An analysis adjusted for age, gender, BMI, ASA class, and pathologic stage observed no difference in disease free survival between operative types (HR=0.90, 95% CI [0.53-1.52], p=0.70). Similarly, secondary outcomes demonstrated no significant difference between operation types, including length of stay (Beta: 0.04, Std. error = 0.25, p = 0.54), overall survival (HR=1.29, 95% CI [0.71-2.32], p=0.39), or complications (OR = 1.53, 95% CI [0.94 - 2.50], p=0.09). In this analysis, no significant difference in disease-free survival or overall survival was observed between patients undergoing APR or LAR for very low rectal cancer. This comprehensive study supports the treatment of very low rectal cancer, less than 5cm from the anorectal ring with no sphincter involvement, by either abdominal perineal or low anterior resection. Further studies may focus on patient-reported and quality of life outcomes which may influence decision-making