3,039 research outputs found
The mechanical design of a vapor compressor for a heat pump to be used in space
A heat pump developed for use in Spacelab as a stand-alone refrigeration unit as well as within a fluid loop system is discussed. It will provide an active thermal control for payloads. Specifications for the heat pump were established: (1) heat removal rates at the source; (2) heat source temperatures from room temperature; (3) heat-sink fluid temperatures at condenser inlet; and (4) minimum power consumption. A reversed Carnot cycle heat pump using Freon 12 as working fluid incorporating a one-cylinder reciprocating compressor was selected. The maximum crankshaft speed was fixed relatively high at 100 rpm. The specified cooling rates then made it necessary to select a cylinder volume of 10 cu cm, which was obtained with a bore of 40 mm and a stroke of 8 mm
Dynamic splinting in wrist extension following distal radius fractures
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Wrist flexion contracture is a common pathology which presents secondary to distal radius fractures. Joint stability, restoration and early mobilization are frequently achieved through surgical treatment after such an injury. The purpose of this retrospective study was to evaluate the initial effect of dynamic splinting on wrist extension (active range of motion), in both surgical and non-surgical patients following distal radius fractures.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Records were obtained from 133 patients who were treated with a Wrist Extension Dynasplint (WED) following distal radius fractures, between May 2007 and May 2009. Forty-two of these patients received surgical treatment for their fractures. This study specifically examined the initial usage of the WED as a home therapy. The retrospective analysis included categorization of patients who received the WED exclusively vs. patients who received WED treatment with concurrent hand therapy; surgical categorization included surgical patients vs. nonsurgical patients.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>There was a significant improvement in maximal active range of motion (AROM) for all patients (P < 0.0001) after a mean duration of 3.9 weeks of dynamic splinting. Patients showed a mean 62% increase in active extension. There was not a significant difference between patients who had received surgical treatment for the fracture vs. nonsurgical.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This dynamic splinting modality contributed 138 to 185 hours of stretching at the end range of motion for these patients in their first month following fracture. This unique regime is considered directly responsible for significant gains in AROM.</p
Large-eddy simulation of mesoscale dynamics and entrainment around a pocket of open cells observed in VOCALS-REx RF06
Large-eddy simulations of a pocket of open cells (POC) based on VOCALS Regional Experiment (REx) NSF C-130 Research Flight 06 are analyzed and compared with aircraft observations. A doubly-periodic domain 192 km Ă— 24 km with 125 m horizontal and 5 m vertical grid spacing near the capping inversion is used. The POC is realized in the model as a fixed 96 km wide region of reduced cloud droplet number concentration (<i>N</i><sub>c</sub>) based on observed values; initialization and forcing are otherwise uniform across the domain. The model reproduces aircraft-observed differences in boundary-layer structure and precipitation organization between a well-mixed overcast region and a decoupled POC with open-cell precipitating cumuli, although the simulated cloud cover is too large in the POC. A sensitivity study in which <i>N</i><sub>c</sub> is allowed to advect following the turbulent flow gives nearly identical results over the 16 h length of the simulation (which starts at night and goes into the next afternoon). <br><br> The simulated entrainment rate is nearly a factor of two smaller in the less turbulent POC than in the more turbulent overcast region. However, the inversion rises at a nearly uniform rate across the domain because powerful buoyancy restoring forces counteract horizontal inversion height gradients. A secondary circulation develops in the model that diverts subsiding free-tropospheric air away from the POC into the surrounding overcast region, counterbalancing the weaker entrainment in the POC with locally weaker subsidence
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Neural hypersensitivity to pleasant touch in women remitted from anorexia nervosa.
Interoception, or the sensing and integration of bodily state signals, has been implicated in anorexia nervosa (AN), given that the hallmark symptoms involve food restriction and body image disturbance. Here we focus on brain response to the anticipation and experience of affective interoceptive stimuli. Women remitted from AN (RAN; N = 18) and healthy comparison women (CW; N = 26) underwent a pleasant affective touch paradigm consisting of gentle strokes with a soft brush administered to the forearm or palm during functional neuroimaging. RAN had a lower brain response relative to CW during anticipation of touch, but a greater response when experiencing touch in the right ventral mid-insula. In RAN, this reduced anticipatory response was associated with higher levels of harm avoidance. Exploratory analyses in RAN also suggested that lower response during touch anticipation was associated with greater body dissatisfaction and higher perceived touch intensity ratings. This reduced responsivity to the anticipation of pleasant affective interoceptive stimuli in association with higher harm avoidance, along with an elevated response to the experience of touch, suggests an impaired ability in AN to predict and interpret incoming physiological stimuli. Impaired interoception may thus impact one's sense of self, thereby supporting observations of disturbed body image and avoidance of affective and social stimuli. Therapeutic approaches that help AN to better anticipate and interpret salient affective stimuli or improve tolerance of interoceptive experiences may be an important addition to current interventions
Raman and fluorescence contributions to resonant inelastic soft x-ray scattering on LaAlO/SrTiO heterostructures
We present a detailed study of the Ti 3 carriers at the interface of
LaAlO/SrTiO heterostructures by high-resolution resonant inelastic soft
x-ray scattering (RIXS), with special focus on the roles of overlayer thickness
and oxygen vacancies. Our measurements show the existence of interfacial Ti
3 electrons already below the critical thickness for conductivity and an
increase of the total interface charge up to a LaAlO overlayer thickness of
6 unit cells before it levels out. By comparing stoichiometric and oxygen
deficient samples we observe strong Ti 3 charge carrier doping by oxygen
vacancies. The RIXS data combined with photoelectron spectroscopy and transport
measurements indicate the simultaneous presence of localized and itinerant
charge carriers. However, it is demonstrated that the relative amount of
localized and itinerant Ti electrons in the ground state cannot be deduced
from the relative intensities of the Raman and fluorescence peaks in excitation
energy dependent RIXS measurements, in contrast to previous interpretations.
Rather, we attribute the observation of either the Raman or the fluorescence
signal to the spatial extension of the intermediate state reached in the RIXS
excitation process.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figure
Generalized intrinsic symmetry detection
In this paper, we address the problem of detecting partial symmetries in 3D objects. In contrast to previous work, our algorithm is able to match deformed symmetric parts: We first develop an algorithm for the case of approximately isometric deformations, based on matching graphs of surface feature lines that are annotated with intrinsic geometric properties. The sensitivity to non-isometry is controlled by tolerance parameters for each such annotation. Using large tolerance values for some of these annotations and a robust matching of the graph topology yields a more general symmetry detection algorithm that can detect similarities in structures that have undergone strong deformations. This approach for the first time allows for detecting partial intrinsic as well as more general, non-isometric symmetries. We evaluate the recognition performance of our technique for a number synthetic and real-world scanner data sets
Cenozoic paleoceanography 1986: An introduction
New developments in Cenozoic paleoceanography include the application of climate models and atmospheric general circulation models to questions of climate reconstruction, the refinement of conceptual models for interpretation of the carbon isotope record in terms of carbon mass balance, paleocirculation, paleoproductivity, and the regional mapping of paleoceanographic events by acoustic stratigraphy. Sea level change emerges as a master variable to which changes in the ocean environment must be traced in many cases, and tests of the onlap-offlap paradigm therefore are of crucial importance
Direct k-space mapping of the electronic structure in an oxide-oxide interface
The interface between LaAlO3 and SrTiO3 hosts a two-dimensional electron
system of itinerant carriers, although both oxides are band insulators.
Interface ferromagnetism coexisting with superconductivity has been found and
attributed to local moments. Experimentally, it has been established that Ti 3d
electrons are confined to the interface. Using soft x-ray angle-resolved
resonant photoelectron spectroscopy we have directly mapped the interface
states in k-space. Our data demonstrate a charge dichotomy. A mobile fraction
contributes to Fermi surface sheets, whereas a localized portion at higher
binding energies is tentatively attributed to electrons trapped by O-vacancies
in the SrTiO3. While photovoltage effects in the polar LaAlO3 layers cannot be
excluded, the apparent absence of surface-related Fermi surface sheets could
also be fully reconciled in a recently proposed electronic reconstruction
picture where the built-in potential in the LaAlO3 is compensated by surface
O-vacancies serving also as charge reservoir.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, incl. Supplemental Informatio
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