Metal drilling with portable hand drills

Study of metal drilling solves problems of excessive burring, oversized holes, and out-of-round holes. Recommendations deal with using the proper chemical coolants, applying the coolants effectively, employing cutting oils, and dissipating the heat caused by drilling

Prehabilitation for Shoulder Dysfunction in Breast Cancer

Objective: To evaluate prehabilitation exercises to improve shoulder pain and abduction range of motion (ROM) after breast cancer surgery; to evaluate methods of exercise teaching; to assess postsurgical seroma formation. Design: Pilot study Setting: Academic medical center Participants: 60 breast cancer patients were randomly assigned to either personal exercise instruction, group 1, n=36, or video only instruction, group 2, n=24. Interventions: Shoulder exercises were assigned to both groups 1 month prior to surgery at an outpatient visit. Group 1 received personal instruction on exercises, plus written exercise instruction, and a link to access an online video. Group 2 received only written exercise instruction and a link to access the online video. Main Outcome Measures: Exercise compliance, pain (via visual analog scale), shoulder abduction ROM (via goniometer), and presence or absence of seroma. Results or Clinical Course: 76% of study patients chose to exercise. There was no difference in exercise compliance between personal instruction versus video teaching. (75%, 24/32 in-person vs. 77%, 10/13 video only, OR=1.03). 66% of patients (20/30) lost greater than 10 degrees shoulder abduction ROM at 1 month post surgery. 29% of patients (9/31) had worse shoulder pain at one month post surgery than at baseline (24%, 6/25 exercisers, and 50%, 3/6 non-exercisers). 15% of patients (4/27) had worse shoulder pain at 3 months post surgery than at baseline (8%, 2/25 exercisers, and 100%, 2/2 non-exercisers). Prehabilitation exercise program inferred no additional risk of seroma formation (21%, 7/33 exercisers vs. 22%, 2/9 non-exercisers OR=.94). Conclusion: In-person teaching does not appear superior to video teaching for prehabilitation exercises in breast cancer. A high quality randomized controlled trial is necessary to assess efficacy of prehabilitation for improving post surgical outcomes. Prehabilitation exercises do not appear to increase risk of seroma formation in breast cancer surgery

Reading with drama: relations between texts, readers and experiences

This article explores the intersections of drama and reading, specifically focusing on approaches that are situated within “drama in education.” Supported with a retrospective analysis, this article portrays the research, related practice and possible futures in drama education in relation to literacy and in particular to reading fiction as meaning making practice. This study is situated in a reassertion of the value of relational literacies through imaginative practices that dramatic modes generate and support. The article disrupts common misconceptions about the purposes and effects of drama in reading and establishes prominent research discourses and definitions across the history of drama and reading practices. By locating paradigmatic and practical opportunities in our analysis of contemporary research, we bring visibility to the intricacies of drama in education as a generative pedagogy in reading as relational meaning making work

Geologic controls on the recent evolution of oyster reefs in Apalachicola Bay and St. George Sound, Florida

This paper is not subject to U.S. copyright. The definitive version was published in Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science 88 (2010): 385-394, doi:10.1016/j.ecss.2010.04.019.Apalachicola Bay and St. George Sound contain the largest oyster fishery in Florida, and the growth and distribution of the numerous oyster reefs here are the combined product of modern estuarine conditions in the bay and its late Holocene evolution. Sidescan-sonar imagery, bathymetry, high-resolution seismic profiles, and sediment cores show that oyster beds occupy the crests of a series of shoals that range from 1 to 7 km in length, trend roughly north-south perpendicular to the long axes of the bay and sound, and are asymmetrical with steeper sides facing to the west. Surface sediment samples show that the oyster beds consist of shelly sand, while much of the remainder of the bay floor is covered by mud delivered by the Apalachicola River. The present oyster reefs rest on sandy delta systems that advanced southward across the region between 6400 and 4400 yr BP when sea level was 4–6 m lower than present. Oysters started to colonize the region around 5100 yr BP and became extensive by 1200 and 2400 yr BP. Since 1200 yr BP, their aerial extent has decreased due to burial of the edges of the reefs by the prodelta mud that continues to be supplied by the Apalachicola River. Oyster reefs that are still active are narrower than the original beds, have grown vertically, and become asymmetrical in cross-section. Their internal bedding indicates they have migrated westward, suggesting a net westerly transport of sediment in the bay.Funding for this research was provided by the NOAA Coastal Services Center

Hunger and the welfare state: Food insecurity among benefit claimants in the UK

In this report, we look at the extent of food insecurity among different types of claimants

Solidarity in a crisis? Trends in attitudes to benefits during COVID-19

In this report, we look at whether COVID-19 transformed welfare attitudes - and what this means for polic

Navigating pandemic social security : benefits, employment and crisis support during COVID-19

An expanding range of external actors and organisations have come to mediate the relationship between benefit claimants and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). Reflecting on the important role benefits, crisis and employment support play in the lives of claimants, this report looks at two dimensions of navigating social security in the UK today. The first section of this report draws on a large representative survey of working-age benefit claimants (i.e. aged 18–64) to establish the extent to which people access support when making a claim for benefits and how this differs according to key claimant characteristics. The second section of this report explores how COVID-19 has affected the coverage and quality of support that many benefit claimants rely on through case studies of four local areas (Leeds, Newham, Salford and Thanet). Here, we draw on qualitative interviews with 32 local support organisations and meetings with 13 national informants representing key stakeholder groups and service delivery organisations

Welfare attitudes in a crisis: How COVID exceptionalism undermined greater solidarity

COVID-19 had the potential to dramatically increase public support for welfare. It was a time of apparent increased solidarity, of apparently deserving claimants, and of increasingly widespread exposure to the benefits system. However, there are also reasons to expect the opposite effect: an increase in financial strain fostering austerity and self-interest, and thermostatic responses to increasing welfare generosity. In this paper, we investigate the effects of the pandemic on attitudes towards working-age unemployment benefits in the UK using a unique combination of data sources: (i) temporally fine-grained data on attitudinal change over the course of the pandemic; and (ii) a novel nationally representative survey contrasting attitudes towards pandemic-era and pre-pandemic claimants (including analysis of free-text responses). Our results show that the pandemic prompted little change in UK welfare attitudes. However, we also find that COVID-era unemployment claimants were perceived as substantially more deserving than those claiming prior to the pandemic. This contrast suggests a strong degree of 'COVID exceptionalism'-with COVID claimants seen as categorically different from conventional claimants, muting the effect of the pandemic on welfare attitudes overall

Maximally-localized generalized Wannier functions for composite energy bands

We discuss a method for determining the optimally-localized set of generalized Wannier functions associated with a set of Bloch bands in a crystalline solid. By ``generalized Wannier functions'' we mean a set of localized orthonormal orbitals spanning the same space as the specified set of Bloch bands. Although we minimize a functional that represents the total spread sum_n [ _n - _n^2 ] of the Wannier functions in real space, our method proceeds directly from the Bloch functions as represented on a mesh of k-points, and carries out the minimization in a space of unitary matrices U_mn^k describing the rotation among the Bloch bands at each k-point. The method is thus suitable for use in connection with conventional electronic-structure codes. The procedure also returns the total electric polarization as well as the location of each Wannier center. Sample results for Si, GaAs, molecular C2H4, and LiCl will be presented.Comment: 22 pages, two-column style with 4 postscript figures embedded. Uses REVTEX and epsf macros. Also available at http://www.physics.rutgers.edu/~dhv/preprints/index.html#nm_wan

Plasma structures observed in gas breakdown using a 1.5 MW, 110 GHz pulsed gyrotron

Regular two-dimensional plasma filamentary arrays have been observed in gas breakdown experiments using a pulsed 1.5 MW, 110 GHz gyrotron. The gyrotron Gaussian output beam is focused to an intensity of up to 4 MW/ cm2. The plasma filaments develop in an array with a spacing of about one quarter wavelength, elongated in the electric field direction. The array was imaged using photodiodes, a slow camera, which captures the entire breakdown event, and a fast camera with a 6 ns window. These diagnostics demonstrate the sequential development of the array propagating back toward the source. Gases studied included air, nitrogen, SF6, and helium at various pressures. A discrete plasma array structure is observed at high pressure, while a diffuse plasma is observed at lower pressure. The propagation speed of the ionization front for air and nitrogen at atmospheric pressure for 3 MW/ cm2 was found to be of the order of 10 km/s.open322