NASTRAN implementation of an isoparametric doubly-curved quadrilateral shell element

A quadrilateral shell element, CQUAD4, was added to level 15.5 and subsequently to level 16.0 of NASTRAN. The element exhibited doubly curved surfaces and used biquadratic interpolation functions. Reduced integration techniques were used to improve the performance of the element in thin shell problems. The creation of several new bulk data items is discussed, along with a special module, GPNORM, to process SHLNORM bulk data cards. In addition to the theoretical basis for the element stiffness matrix, consistent mass and load matrices are presented. Several potential sources of degenerate behavior of the element were investigated. Guidelines for proper use of the element were suggested. Performance of the element on several widely published classical examples was demonstrated. The results showed a significant improvement over presently available NASTRAN shell elements for even the coarsest meshes. Potential applications to two classes of practical problems are discussed

The use of a battery of tracking tests in the quantitative evaluation of neurological function

A tracking test battery has been applied in a drug trail designed to compare the efficacy of L-DOPA and amantadine to that of L-DOPA and placebo in the treatment of 28 patients with Parkinson's disease. The drug trial provided an ideal opportunity for objectively evaluating the usefulness of tracking tests in assessing changes in neurologic function. Evaluating changes in patient performance resulting from disease progression and controlled clinical trials is of great importance in establishing effective treatment programs

Interface Tensions and Perfect Wetting in the Two-Dimensional Seven-State Potts Model

We present a numerical determination of the order-disorder interface tension, \sod, for the two-dimensional seven-state Potts model. We find \sod=0.0114\pm0.0012, in good agreement with expectations based on the conjecture of perfect wetting. We take into account systematic effects on the technique of our choice: the histogram method. Our measurements are performed on rectangular lattices, so that the histograms contain identifiable plateaus. The lattice sizes are chosen to be large compared to the physical correlation length. Capillary wave corrections are applied to our measurements on finite systems.Comment: 8 pages, LaTex file, 2 postscript figures appended, HLRZ 63/9

Interface Tension in Quenched QCD

We calculate the tension $\sigma$ of the interface between the confined and deconfined phases by the histogram method in SU(3) lattice gauge theory for temporal extents of 4 and 6 using the recent high-statistics data by QCDPAX collaboration. The results are $\sigma/T_c^3 = 0.0292(22)$ and 0.0218(33) for $N_t=4$ and 6, respectively. The ratio $\sigma/T_c^3$ shows a scaling violation similar to that already observed for the latent heat \latent. However, we find that the physically interesting dimensionless combinations (\sigma^{3}/\latent^2 T)^{1/2} and \sigma T/ \latent scale within the statistical errors.Comment: 13 pages with 2 PostScript figures, LaTeX, CERN-TH.6798/93, AZPH-TH/93-04, UTHEP-25

THE EFFECTS OF CONSTRAINING OPENSIM INVERSE KINEMATICS TO A BONE PIN MARKER DEFINED RANGE

The aim of this study was to apply bone pin kinematic constraints to an OpenSim model to determine differences in knee joint kinematics and kinetics beween the constrained and unconstrained solutions. In vivo data from healthy, anterior cruciate ligament deficient and reoonstructed patients completing a forward jump lunge were combined with bone pin data from a past study to redefine ranges that the knee degrees of freedom were constrained to. Differences between the constrained and unconstrained solutions existed for all participants at various points of the jump lunge movement, especially at the time of impact. Soft tissue artifact was most apparent in transverse plane translations. In conclusion, musculoskeletal modelling based solely on surface marker positions is inherently affected by soft tissue artifact and thus, results from these analyses should be interpreted with caution

A Systematic Review of the Efficacy of Cognitive Stimulation Therapy (CST) on Quality of Life in Persons with Dementia

Quality of life (QoL) is an established outcome measure of patients with dementia and is strongly influenced by an individual\u27s environment and mood. While there are many outcomes that can be examined with Cognitive stimulation therapy (CST) interventions, this systematic review focused on quality of life

A comparison of influences on the landscape of two social-ecological systems

AbstractCase studies of social-ecological landscapes that consider local, spatially explicit land cover changes are necessary for the development of generalised knowledge on deforestation. This study focussed on two indigenous territories of eastern Panama that share the same settlement history, size and location but are perceived by local dwellers to differ in terms of land cover. By considering the territories social-ecological systems made up of Resource Systems, Resource Units, Actors and Governance Structures, following Ostrom’s framework for analysing the sustainability of social-ecological systems (McGinnis and Ostrom, 2014), we sought to determine which social-ecological factors could have led to divergent land cover outcomes to address local leaders’ concerns and inform future land management strategies. We conducted quantitative, spatial analysis using ArcGIS and multivariate statistics from numerical ecology on land cover data from participatory maps, and household level socio-economic data from semi-structured interviews and surveys. Results illustrate that the Resource System’s topography and Actors’ socioeconomics, namely number of people at home and household land ownership, are constraining variables on land cover and help explain divergent forest cover. To reconstruct the influence of history and Governance Structure on the landscapes, we conducted qualitative data collection, namely participatory pebble scoring of historical land cover, interviews with key informants, an archival search, and creation of a participatory historical timeline. Historical governmental timber extraction in the region pre-settlement, guided by topography constraints, may have led to degraded Resource Units (forests) susceptible to clearing. The Governance Structure’s self-organizing, monitoring and networking activities with outside institutions in scientific projects, enabled by Actors’ leadership and social capital, likely encouraged forest conservation in the forest-rich territory. Future land management could therefore benefit from establishment of a local non-governmental organisation to coordinate a communal vision of management and harness external conservation resources. Our findings suggest that inputting both qualitative and quantitative data obtained by participatory methods into Ostrom’s framework can help diagnose territories with divergent landscapes, and thereby inform both forest conservation science and local land management

Quantitative evaluation of neuropharmacological trials

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/116906/1/cpt1974153229.pd

The Quark-Hadron Phase Transition, QCD Lattice Calculations and Inhomogeneous Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis

We review recent lattice QCD results for the surface tension at the finite temperature quark-hadron phase transition and discuss their implications on the possible scale of inhomogeneities. In the quenched approximation the average distance between nucleating centers is smaller than the diffusion length of a protron, so that inhomogeneities are washed out by the time nucleosynthesis sets in. Consequently the baryon density fluctuations formed by a QCD phase transition in the early universe cannot significantly affect standard big-bang nucleosynthesis calculations and certainly cannot allow baryons to close the universe. At present lattice results are inconclusive when dynamical fermions are included.Comment: 8 pages, LaTe