Effect of Vibration of Unconsolidated Sand on the Performance of Interferometric Vibration Sensors

Interferometric vibration sensors are widely used for ground vibration measurements where traditional contact sensors are not desired. Laser Doppler vibrometers (LDV) and digital speckle pattern interferometers are studied in this thesis. The working principle of laser Doppler vibrometry and digital shearography is described. The effect of vibration of the unconsolidated sand on the performance of both sensors is experimentally investigated. The vibration of unconsolidated sand can cause an increase of noise in the laser Doppler vibrometer output and cause speckle decorrelation in digital speckle pattern interferometry (referred to as digital shearography). An experimental investigation of the effect of varying the grain size and the vibration amplitude of sand is conducted. The experiments are two-fold: the first experiment focuses on digital shearography ground vibration measurements on ten different sands with varying grain size ranges to study the effect of speckle decorrelation on the performance of digital shearography; and, the second experiment utilizes the LDV to measure the same ten sands at incrementally higher vibration amplitudes to see the effect of sand particle motion on the performance and noise of the LDV. It was found that for digital shearography, the vibration amplitude necessary to cause speckle decorrelation decreased from 4.18μ to 2μ for the increase in grain size from 0.15mm to 1mm. For the LDV, it was found that the average increase in noise is between 34.2dB and 45.6dB for an increase in vibration amplitude of 2μ to 22μ

Welfare Research, 1999 and Beyond

Many large-scale, ongoing welfare research projects will release interim or final reports in 1999. In addition, the federal government is funding studies about different populations and programs that, in general, have not been the subject of welfare research. This article describes: © Recent findings from some of the large-scale welfare waiver experiments and major national research efforts; © Relatively new federally-funded research projects; and © The evaluations that expect to release final reports in 1999. This research is contributing to an extensive body of knowledge about the effects of the welfare waiver programs initiated in the early 1990’s, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA), and related social policies. The Research Forum is currently keeping track of these and other research projects. Of the 43 large-scale research projects in the Research Forum’s on-line database, 27 have impact studies (20 of which are controlled experiments). Also included are implementation studies (some of which relate to the impact research), child outcomes studies embedded in larger impact studies, and policy analyses. Many smaller projects are also underway. Summaries of the 43 large-scale projects and 60 small-scale projects, names of individuals to contact for additional project information, and existing and forthcoming publications are all accessible at the Forum’s web site: www.researchforum.org

Organization and Growth among Early Complex Societies in Central Pacific Panama

This research explores the development of organizational variation among early complex societies in Central Pacific Panama. Beginning around the onset of the Late Ceramic II period (AD 700-1522) strongly hierarchal societies emerged in multiple parts of this macroregion, such as the Río Parita valley, and continued to develop until the sixteenth century. Social power within these societies was drawn from a wide range of different activities, but there is strong evidence to suggest that such power was drawn from the same general suite of activities in different regions, and at different points in time. Despite these similarities, however, there were other parts of Central Panama, such as the Río Tonosí valley, where early complex societies also evolved, but that did not develop the strong levels of social hierarchy or engage in the same sorts of aggrandizing behavior that is documented in other regions. These societies interacted with and shared many important sociocultural characteristics with those that were more hierarchical, but for some reason seem do not seem to have developed systems of strong hierarchical organization. This research set out to explore the factors that led to such variation by conducting a systematic, full-coverage regional-scale survey of the Río Tonosí valley, so as to compare the settlement and demographic patterns that played out in this region to those of the Río Parita valley, where regional survey has already been carried out. These results suggest that, despite exhibiting many strong similarities in demographic and social organization between AD 200 and 500, the trajectories of these two regions began to diverge sometime between AD 500 and 1000. This divergence seems to have been sparked by differential levels of regional demographic growth, coupled with differential levels of environmental risk that existed in these regions. These differences prompted early complex societies to organize their interaction in substantially different ways across the landscape, facilitating different sorts of activities and forms of social behavior, ultimately leading to the organizational variation that can be observed in the Late Ceramic II period

Dignity and Discrimination: Employment Civil Rights in the Workplace and in Courts

Employment civil rights and the litigation associated with enforcing them are a complex interplay of public and private employers, regulatory agencies, and federal courts. When an employee loses a job or their position in an employing organization, the financial effects are very real. If the employee makes a claim of discriminatory treatment using the employer’s human resources complaint processes or with the EEOC or state equivalent, they often face workplace retaliation and even termination. Using interviews conducted with parties to employment civil rights lawsuits, this article argues that the regime of employment civil rights in the United States can be conceived as perpetuating dignity takings (and occasionally dignity restorations) because (1) the state sanctions/permits/gives deference to management in ways that allow discrimination and loss of earnings and (2) does it in a way that allows and perpetuates dehumanizing infantilization which demonstrates that plaintiffs face dehumanizing stereotyped treatment in the workplace and in courts

I can do it: Year 3 children's perceptions of mathematics lessons identified through their drawings

This research involved children drawing themselves in a mathematics lesson, in order to access some of their perceptions about mathematics lessons. Drawings can provide a rich source of data and allow children to communicate emotional and social characteristics while focusing on other features that are important to them. The sample was 234 Year 3 pupils (7 and 8 years of age) from ten primary schools in Lincolnshire, England. The drawings were analysed for teacher-pupil interactions, pupil-pupil interactions and pupils’ perceptions of themselves as learners of mathematics, using a coding system devised for a similar study in Finland. The majority of pupils indicated perceived competence in mathematics. Some gender differences were noted in terms of teacher position and teacher-pupil interactions. Teacher-pupil interactions are an important aspect of mathematics lessons which emphasise communicating reasoning, so teachers should be aware that girls and boys may perceive teacher- pupil interactions differently

Optimization of Ameristar's Montage department: Senior design project report

In the Montage department at Ameristar, orders are being scheduled in a way where there are excessive daily changeovers. There is also a lack of communication between the production floor and scheduling department as to what sequence the orders should run in each day. This is a problem because there are significant productivity losses. An updated scheduling system is needed for this department to improve output of standard and custom-sized fence orders

Virological and Immunological Effects of Combination Antiretroviral Therapy with Zidovudine, Lamivudine, and Indinavir during Primary Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Infection

Forty-seven patients presenting with primary human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection were treated with zidovudine 200 mg 3 times a day, lamivudine 150 mg 2 times a day, and indinavir 800 mg 3 times a day for 1 year. From a mean pretreatment viral RNA level of 4.93 log10 copies/mL, the proportions of patients having <500 copies/mL at 24 and 52 weeks were 92.0% and 89.2%, respectively. For the 35 patients with data available at 24 and 52 weeks, the corresponding proportions for the <50 copies/mL analysis were 86.6% and 79.3%, respectively. The change in virus load was −2.19 and −2.41 log10 copies/mL at weeks 8 and 52, respectively. CD4 cell counts increased, from a mean of 546 cells/mm3, by 142 cells/mm3 at week 24 and by 210 cells/mm3 at week 52. Three patients discontinued the study because of drug-related toxicity. Six (12.8%) patients had adverse experiences associated with nephrolithiasis. Combination therapy with zidovudine, lamivudine, and indinavir during primary HIV infection results in a profound and sustained reduction in virus load with concurrent recovery of the CD4 cell populatio

Serum proteomic analysis focused on fibrosis in patients with hepatitis C virus infection

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Despite its widespread use to assess fibrosis, liver biopsy has several important drawbacks, including that is it semi-quantitative, invasive, and limited by sampling and observer variability. Non-invasive serum biomarkers may more accurately reflect the fibrogenetic process. To identify potential biomarkers of fibrosis, we compared serum protein expression profiles in patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC) virus infection and fibrosis.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Twenty-one patients with no or mild fibrosis (METAVIR stage F0, F1) and 23 with advanced fibrosis (F3, F4) were retrospectively identified from a pedigreed database of 1600 CHC patients. All samples were carefully phenotyped and matched for age, gender, race, body mass index, genotype, duration of infection, alcohol use, and viral load. Expression profiling was performed in a blinded fashion using a 2D polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis/LC-MS/MS platform. Partial least squares discriminant analysis and likelihood ratio statistics were used to rank individual differences in protein expression between the 2 groups.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Seven individual protein spots were identified as either significantly increased (α₂-macroglobulin, haptoglobin, albumin) or decreased (complement C-4, serum retinol binding protein, apolipoprotein A-1, and two isoforms of apolipoprotein A-IV) with advanced fibrosis. Three individual proteins, haptoglobin, apolipoprotein A-1, and α₂-macroglobulin, are included in existing non-invasive serum marker panels.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Biomarkers identified through expression profiling may facilitate the development of more accurate marker algorithms to better quantitate hepatic fibrosis and monitor disease progression.</p

Physical Activity Interventions Among Hispanics: A RE-AIM Review

Purpose: To determine the degree to which physical activity interventions for Hispanic populations reported on both internal and external validity factors using the RE-AIM framework (reach & representativeness, effectiveness, adoption, implementation, maintenance). Methods: We systematically identified English (PubMed; EbscoHost) and Spanish (SCIELO; Biblioteca Virtual en Salud) language studies published between 2001 and 2012 that tested physical activity, exercise, or fitness promotion interventions in Hispanic populations. We reviewed 142 abstracts and identified 40 studies that met the eligibility criteria (27 in English and 13 in Spanish). A validated 21-item RE-AIM abstraction tool was used to determine the quality of reporting across studies (0-7=low, 8-14=moderate, and 15-21=high). Additional items were included to provide more detail about the methods used across the RE-AIM dimensions (n=29 items). Results: The number of indicators reported ranged from 4-14 with the majority of studies falling in the moderate quality-reporting category. English and Spanish language articles did not differ on the number of indictors reported (8.1 vs 7.9), but Spanish articles were superior in reporting reach (59% vs 43% of indicators) while English articles were superior in reporting effectiveness (69% vs 56%). Representativeness of participants and settings was rarely reported regardless of publication language with no studies reporting on characteristic differences between settings that participated and those that did not. Only 14% of the studies reported on participant representativeness. Further, only 11% of studies reported on cost of implementation, none reported on costs associated with start-up or maintenance of the intervention, and no study conducted a cost effectiveness analysis. Conclusions: Regardless of language of publication, physical activity intervention research for Hispanics should increase the attention to, and measurement of, external validity and cost factors that are critical in the decision making process in practice settings and can increase the likelihood of translation into community or clinical practice