Industrial Brush Coiler Attachment

Problem Statement: Company initially desired a new machine that would be able to produce external coiled brushes that would help in increasing revenue and project opportunities. The design has shifted to making an attachment to the existing equipment that would help in this effort instead of developing a completely new unit. Rationale: Sealeze sees this as an opportunity of increasing revenue and also taking on the effort of making externally coiled brushes more efficiently. If successful, more clients can be taken in and it would make Sealeze a more versatile company. Approach: The main approach revolved around weekly meetings with Sealeze. E-mail was utilized daily in order to make sure that the desire of the company were met. There were at least three different iterations to the design until one was settled upon. Main design tool used was SolidWorks and the design model was shown to the company frequently. Interim Results and Conclusions: The main problems that were of concern revolved around the amount of force needed to bend the brush and in a circular fashion. Calculations were done to insure that the brush would be bent with the right amount of force when also taking into consideration the motor driven components that were guiding the brush. Anticipated Results and Conclusions: According to the calculations, it is expected that the brush will not buckle while the machine is running and will be able to formed into the desired spiral.https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/capstone/1059/thumbnail.jp

Time to revisit the passive overconsumption hypothesis?:Humans show sensitivity to calories in energy-rich meals

BACKGROUND: A possible driver of obesity is insensitivity (passive overconsumption) to food energy density (ED, kcal/g); however, it is unclear whether this insensitivity applies to all meals. OBJECTIVES: We assessed the influence of ED on energy intake (kcal) across a broad and continuous range of EDs comprised of noncovertly manipulated, real-world meals. We also allowed for the possibility that the association between energy intake and ED is nonlinear. METHODS: We completed a secondary analysis of 1519 meals which occurred in a controlled environment as part of a study conducted by Hall and colleagues to assess the effects of food ultra-processing on energy intake. To establish the generalizability of the findings, the analyses were repeated in 32,162 meals collected from free-living humans using data from the UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS). Segmented regressions were performed to establish ED “breakpoints” at which the association between consumed meal ED and mean centered meal caloric intake (kcal) changed. RESULTS: Significant breakpoints were found in both the Hall et al. data set (1.41 kcal/g) and the NDNS data set (1.75 and 2.94 kcal/g). Centered meal caloric intake did not increase linearly with consumed meal ED, and this pattern was captured by a 2-component (“volume” and “calorie content” [biologically derived from the sensing of fat, carbohydrate, and protein]) model of physical meal size (g), in which volume is the dominant signal with lower energy-dense foods and calorie content is the dominant signal with higher energy-dense foods. CONCLUSIONS: These analyses reveal that, on some level, humans are sensitive to the energy content of meals and adjust meal size to minimize the acute aversive effects of overconsumption. Future research should consider the relative importance of volume and calorie-content signals, and how individual differences impact everyday dietary behavior and energy balance

Comparison of nutrient management recommendations and soil health indicators in southern Idaho

Advanced soil tests are being developed to help improve the estimation of plant available nutrients in order to better match fertilizer additions with plant needs as well as provide a measure of soil health, in some instances. The Soil Health Tool (SHT) has been developed with both goals in mind, yet it has not been tested for use in semi-arid regions such as southern Idaho. In the present study, we compared the use of the SHT for making fertilizer recommendations vs. using the standard regional method as well as evaluated the SHT soil health score (SHS) relative to crop yields and quality. The SHT was designed to analyze samples for 0-15 cm depth and regional guidelines call for deeper soil sampling (0-30 cm or 0-60 cm). In order to determine N fertilizer applications, use of the tool without accounting for depth, would recommend greater N application (~138 kg/ha) than the current regional methodology. However, it does appear that by accounting for depth in the SHT can provide similar available N estimates for the top 30 cm of soil. While N mineralization was not well predicted utilizing the method included in the SHT or from the regional methodology, the average estimated available N for these soils (47 kg/ha) was similar to the N mineralization value used in the current regional methodology (50 kg/ha). The P fertilizer recommendations were more similar between the two methodologies with the SHT recommending, on average 4.7 kg/ha less P than the regional method. The lower P recommendation are likely due to a lack of accounting for the effects of high calcium carbonate levels on the P availability from fertilizers in this region. The SHS was highly correlated with measures of soil C but was not positively correlated to crop yield. In some instances, increasing SHS resulted in decreases in crop quality as the addition of manure increased soil C but also created other potential problems such as high salt contents and release of late season N. With modification to more accurately represent irrigation conditions and including sampling to greater soil depths, this test may be tailored to better estimate soil nutrient status and provide better fertilizer recommendations for the region

Public engagement promotes consumer choice in favour of sustainable palm oil

Despite the superior productivity, utility and economic benefits of palm oil compared with other oil crops, the palm oil industry often receives negative publicity for its environmental impact. As such, there is widespread confusion over the perception of palm oil. The fact is that it is difficult to avoid palm oil consumption, and consumer boycotts will do little to resolve the social and environmental issues associated with oil palm agriculture. Instead, greater awareness of the importance of certified sustainable palm oil (CSPO) is needed. We used a mixed-methods survey to explore public awareness of palm oil and understand the factors underpinning sustainable consumer choice. The survey, which was conducted in the world-renowned Rainforest Biome of the Eden Project, revealed that public awareness of palm oil was generally low and that consumers had poor knowledge of CSPO. We identified that the most significant barriers preventing consumer choice for CSPO products were unclear labelling, product availability and cost. We recommend that the palm oil industry focus on enhancing sustainability, promoting the benefits of CSPO and increasing the visibility of CSPO in supply chains and final products , rather than waiting for consumer choice alone to drive change

Ascent Aerodynamic Force and Moment Database Development for the Space Launch System

The Space Launch System Aerodynamics Task Team is responsible for delivering aerodynamic force and moment databases from liftoff through ascent until the rocket leaves the Earths atmosphere. The process for developing the ascent portion of this database is described in the current paper. The data used to develop the database were generated using a combination of wind tunnel testing and CFD simulations. The details of the wind tunnel testing performed at the NASA Ames Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel and CFD simulations performed using FUN3D at wind tunnel and flight conditions are discussed, and comparisons of these data sets are provided. The methods used for converting the source data into the final database response surfaces with corresponding uncertainty are also detailed

Retrospective observational study of chloral hydrate use in mechanically-ventilated pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) patients 2012–2017

Introduction: Chloral hydrate (CH) has long been utilized as a pediatric procedural sedation agent. However, very little is published describing CH use in a pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) setting. The aim of this retrospective observational cohort study was to investigate and describe the use of CH in mechanically-ventilated, critically ill children at a large pediatric tertiary referral hospital.Methods: Data were extracted from the hospital electronic medical record and a locally maintained registry of all children admitted to the PICU between 2012 and 2017. Patients admitted to the cardiovascular ICU were not included in this review. The clinical and pharmacy data for 3806 consecutive PICU admissions of mechanically-ventilated, critically ill children were examined.Results: 283 admissions received CH during their first ICU stay. CH-exposed children were younger (16 months vs. 35 months, p < 0.001), the median total dose of CH (indexed to duration of ventilation) was 11 mg/kg/day, the median time to first CH dose was 3 days and more CH doses were administered at night (1112 vs. 958, p < 0.001). We constructed a propensity score to adjust for the differences in patients with and without CH exposure using logistic regression including variables of age, sex, diagnosis, and PRISM3 score. After adjustment, the median length of mechanical ventilation was 5 days longer in the CH-exposed group (95% Confidence Interval [CI] 4–6) compared to unexposed CH patients. Similarly, the median length of ICU duration was 9.4 days longer (95% CI 7.1–11.6) and median length of hospital admission duration was 13.2 days longer (95% CI 7.8–18.6) in CH-exposed patients compared to CH-non-exposed. After adjustment, CH-exposed patients had a 9% higher median exposure to HFOV (95% CI 3.9–14.6), but did not have higher median exposures to new tracheostomy (95% CI −0.4–2.2) or ECMO (95% CI −0.2–5.0).Discussion: As part of an extended sedation regimen in mechanically-ventilated and critically ill children, CH is associated with somewhat higher complexity of illness and longer ICU durations

SPAG17 Mediates Nuclear Translocation of Protamines During Spermiogenesis

Protamines (PRM1 and PRM2) are small, arginine-rich, nuclear proteins that replace histones in the final stages of spermiogenesis, ensuring chromatin compaction and nuclear remodeling. Defects in protamination lead to increased DNA fragmentation and reduced male fertility. Since efficient sperm production requires the translocation of protamines from the cytoplasm to the nucleus, we investigated whether SPAG17, a protein crucial for intracellular protein trafficking during spermiogenesis, participates in protamine transport. Initially, we assessed the protein-protein interaction between SPAG17 and protamines using proximity ligation assays, revealing a significant interaction originating in the cytoplasm and persisting within the nucleus. Subsequently, immunoprecipitation and mass spectrometry (IP/MS) assays validated this initial observation. Sperm and spermatids fro

Natural product (L)-gossypol inhibits colon cancer cell growth by targeting RNA-binding protein Musashi-1

Musashi-1 (MSI1) is an RNA-binding protein that acts as a translation activator or repressor of target mRNAs. The best-characterized MSI1 target is Numb mRNA, whose encoded protein negatively regulates Notch signaling. Additional MSI1 targets include the mRNAs for the tumor suppressor protein APC that regulates Wnt signaling and the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor P21WAF−1. We hypothesized that increased expression of NUMB, P21 and APC, through inhibition of MSI1 RNA-binding activity might be an effective way to simultaneously downregulate Wnt and Notch signaling, thus blocking the growth of a broad range of cancer cells. We used a fluorescence polarization assay to screen for small molecules that disrupt the binding of MSI1 to its consensus RNA binding site. One of the top hits was (−)-gossypol (Ki = 476 ± 273 nM), a natural product from cottonseed, known to have potent anti-tumor activity and which has recently completed Phase IIb clinical trials for prostate cancer. Surface plasmon resonance and nuclear magnetic resonance studies demonstrate a direct interaction of (−)-gossypol with the RNA binding pocket of MSI1. We further showed that (−)-gossypol reduces Notch/Wnt signaling in several colon cancer cell lines having high levels of MSI1, with reduced SURVIVIN expression and increased apoptosis/autophagy. Finally, we showed that orally administered (−)-gossypol inhibits colon cancer growth in a mouse xenograft model. Our study identifies (−)-gossypol as a potential small molecule inhibitor of MSI1-RNA interaction, and suggests that inhibition of MSI1's RNA binding activity may be an effective anti-cancer strategy