Helicopter roll control effectiveness criteria program summary

A study of helicopter roll control effectiveness is summarized for the purpose of defining military helicopter handling qualities requirements. The study is based on an analysis of pilot-in-the-loop task performance of several basic maneuvers. This is extended by a series of piloted simulations using the NASA Ames Vertical Motion Simulator and selected flight data. The main results cover roll control power and short-term response characteristics. In general the handling qualities requirements recommended are set in conjunction with desired levels of flight task and maneuver response which can be directly observed in actual flight. An important aspect of this, however, is that vehicle handling qualities need to be set with regard to some quantitative aspect of mission performance. Specific examples of how this can be accomplished include a lateral unmask/remask maneuver in the presence of a threat and an air tracking maneuver which recognizes the kill probability enhancement connected with decreasing the range to the target. Conclusions and recommendations address not only the handling qualities recommendations, but also the general use of flight simulators and the dependence of mission performance on handling qualities

The Evolutionary History of Protein Domains Viewed by Species Phylogeny

Protein structural domains are evolutionary units whose relationships can be detected over long evolutionary distances. The evolutionary history of protein domains, including the origin of protein domains, the identification of domain loss, transfer, duplication and combination with other domains to form new proteins, and the formation of the entire protein domain repertoire, are of great interest.A methodology is presented for providing a parsimonious domain history based on gain, loss, vertical and horizontal transfer derived from the complete genomic domain assignments of 1015 organisms across the tree of life. When mapped to species trees the evolutionary history of domains and domain combinations is revealed, and the general evolutionary trend of domain and combination is analyzed.We show that this approach provides a powerful tool to study how new proteins and functions emerged and to study such processes as horizontal gene transfer among more distant species

Study of helicopterroll control effectiveness criteria

A study of helicopter roll control effectiveness based on closed-loop task performance measurement and modeling is presented. Roll control critieria are based on task margin, the excess of vehicle task performance capability over the pilot's task performance demand. Appropriate helicopter roll axis dynamic models are defined for use with analytic models for task performance. Both near-earth and up-and-away large-amplitude maneuvering phases are considered. The results of in-flight and moving-base simulation measurements are presented to support the roll control effectiveness criteria offered. This Volume contains the theoretical analysis, simulation results and criteria development

The Canadian Joint Replacement Registry—what have we learned?

The Canadian Joint Replacement Registry (CJRR) was launched in 2000 through the collaborative efforts of the Canadian Orthopedic Association and the Canadian Institutes for Health Information. Participation is voluntary, and data collected by participating surgeons in the operating room is linked to hospital stay information from administrative databases to compile yearly reports. In the fiscal year 2006–2007, there were 62,196 hospitalizations for hip and knee replacements in Canada, excluding Quebec. This represents a 10-year increase of 101% and a 1-year increase of 6%. Compared to men, Canadian women have higher age-adjusted rates per 105 for both TKA (148 vs. 110) and THA (86 vs. 76). There also exist substantial inter-provincial variations in both age-adjusted rates of arthroplasty and implant utilization that cannot be explained entirely on the basis of differing patient demographics. The reasons for these variations are unclear, but probably represent such factors as differences in provincial health expenditure, efforts to reduce waiting lists, and surgeon preference. The main challenge currently facing the CJRR is to increase procedure capture to > 90%. This is being pursued through a combination of efforts including simplification of the consent process, streamlining of the data collection form, and the production of customized reports with information that has direct clinical relevance for surgeons and administrators. As the CJRR continues to mature, we are optimistic that it will provide clinically important information on the wide range of factors that affect arthroplasty outcome

A Birds-Eye (Re)View of Acid-Suppression Drugs, COVID-19, and the Highly Variable Literature

This Perspective examines a recent surge of information regarding the potential benefits of acid-suppression drugs in the context of COVID-19, with a particular eye on the great variability (and, thus, confusion) that has arisen across the reported findings, at least as regards the popular antacid famotidine. The degree of inconsistency and discordance reflects contradictory conclusions from independent, clinical-based studies that took roughly similar approaches, in terms of both experimental design (retrospective, observational, cohort-based, etc.) and statistical analysis workflows (propensity-score matching and stratification into sub-cohorts, etc.). The contradictions and potential confusion have ramifications for clinicians faced with choosing therapeutically optimal courses of intervention: e.g., do any potential benefits of famotidine suggest its use in a particular COVID-19 case? (If so, what administration route, dosage regimen, duration, etc. are likely optimal?) As succinctly put this March in Freedberg et al. (2021), "…several retrospective studies show relationships between famotidine and outcomes in COVID-19 and several do not." Beyond the pressing issue of possible therapeutic indications, the conflicting data and conclusions related to famotidine must be resolved before its inclusion/integration in ontological and knowledge graph (KG)-based frameworks, which in turn are useful for drug discovery and repurposing. As a broader methodological issue, note that reconciling inconsistencies would bolster the validity of meta-analyses which draw upon the relevant data-sources. And, perhaps most broadly, developing a system for treating inconsistencies would stand to improve the qualities of both 1) real world evidence-based studies (retrospective), on the one hand, and 2) placebo-controlled, randomized multi-center clinical trials (prospective), on the other hand. In other words, a systematic approach to reconciling the two types of studies would inherently improve the quality and utility of each type of study individually

Effects of Flooding Pecan Seedlings During Dormancy, Bud Break, and Active Growth

This study was conducted to determine the effects of seasonal flooding on plant growth, elemental absorption and translocation on pecan seedlings grown in the greenhouse.Horticultur

Probabilistic earthquake locations of induced seismicity in the Groningen region, the Netherlands

The Groningen gas reservoir, situated in the northeast of the Netherlands, is western Europe’s largest producing gas field and has been in production since 1963. The gas production has induced both subsidence and seismicity. Seismicity is detected and located using the Koninklijk Nederlands Meteorologisch Instituut shallow-borehole array for the period 2015–2017, incorporating the back projection techniques of QuakeMigrate and the nonlinear location procedure to constrain earthquake locations and depths. The uncertainties on the estimated depths are estimated taking into account velocity model, changes in station array geometry and uncertainties in the measurement of arrival times of the P and S waves. We show that the depth distribution of seismicity is consistent with nucleation within the reservoir (28 per cent) or in the overburden (60 per cent) within ∼500 m from the top of the reservoir. Earthquakes with hypocentres in the overburden likely originate from overlying Zechstein anhydrite caprock. Based on their depth distribution, it seems like the earthquakes are primarily driven by the elastic strain in the reservoir and overburden, induced by the reservoir compaction. We estimate the probability of earthquakes nucleating beneath the reservoir in the underlying Carboniferous limestone and basement, to be no more than 12 per cent

Chemotaxis in Escherichia coli: A Molecular Model for Robust Precise Adaptation

The chemotaxis system in the bacterium Escherichia coli is remarkably sensitive to small relative changes in the concentrations of multiple chemical signals over a broad range of ambient concentrations. Interactions among receptors are crucial to this sensitivity as is precise adaptation, the return of chemoreceptor activity to prestimulus levels in a constant chemoeffector environment. Precise adaptation relies on methylation and demethylation of chemoreceptors by the enzymes CheR and CheB, respectively. Experiments indicate that when transiently bound to one receptor, these enzymes act on small assistance neighborhoods (AN) of five to seven receptor homodimers. In this paper, we model a strongly coupled complex of receptors including dynamic CheR and CheB acting on ANs. The model yields sensitive response and precise adaptation over several orders of magnitude of attractant concentrations and accounts for different responses to aspartate and serine. Within the model, we explore how the precision of adaptation is limited by small AN size as well as by CheR and CheB kinetics (including dwell times, saturation, and kinetic differences among modification sites) and how these kinetics contribute to noise in complex activity. The robustness of our dynamic model for precise adaptation is demonstrated by randomly varying biochemical parameters

Ten Simple Rules for Getting Help from Online Scientific Communities

The increasing complexity of research requires scientists to work at the intersection of multiple fields and to face problems for which their formal education has not prepared them. For example, biologists with no or little background in programming are now often using complex scripts to handle the results from their experiments; vice versa, programmers wishing to enter the world of bioinformatics must know about biochemistry, genetics, and other fields. In this context, communication tools such as mailing lists, web forums, and online communities acquire increasing importance. These tools permit scientists to quickly contact people skilled in a specialized field. A question posed properly to the right online scientific community can help in solving difficult problems, often faster than screening literature or writing to publication authors. The growth of active online scientific communities, such as those listed in Table S1, demonstrates how these tools are becoming an important source of support for an increasing number of researchers. Nevertheless, making proper use of these resources is not easy. Adhering to the social norms of World Wide Web communication—loosely termed “netiquette”—is both important and non-trivial. In this article, we take inspiration from our experience on Internet-shared scientific knowledge, and from similar documents such as “Asking the Questions the Smart Way” and “Getting Answers”, to provide guidelines and suggestions on how to use online communities to solve scientific problems