The 3-D wake measurements near a hovering rotor for determining profile and induced drag

Primarily an experimental effort, this study focuses on the velocity and vorticity fields in the near wake of a hovering rotor. Drag terminology is reviewed, and the theory for separately determining the profile-and-induced-drag components from wake quantities is introduced. Instantaneous visualizations of the flow field are used to center the laser velocimeter (LV) measurements on the vortex core and to assess the extent of the positional mandering of the trailing vortex. Velocity profiles obtained at different rotor speeds and distances behind the rotor blade clearly indicate the position, size, and rate of movement of the wake sheet and the core of the trailing vortex. The results also show the distribution of vorticity along the wake sheet and within the trailing vortex

Strategic and Interactive Writing Instruction: An efficacy study in grades 3-5

A quasi-experimental study was conducted to examine the impact of Strategic and Interactive Writing Instruction on 3rd-5th grade deaf and hard of hearing students’ writing and language compared to a business-as-usual condition (N=63). A total of 18 hours of instruction was provided for each of two types of writing—personal narrative (known as recount) and persuasive. Writing samples, collected prior to instruction and after, were scored for writing traits, language accuracy and complexity. Data were analyzed using a two-level, mixed-effects regression. Results show the treatment to be effective for recount and persuasive writing traits, and recount language variables, with effect sizes ranging from 0.46 to 2.01. Treatment effects were also substantial for persuasive writing language outcomes (0.38 to 1.06), although not all were statistically significant at the 0.05 level. The findings suggest the importance of apprenticeship in writing and consideration for the specific language needs of students with hearing loss

Infected Necrosis in Severe Pancreatitis - Combined Nonsurgical Multi-Drainage with Directed Transabdominal High-Volume Lavage in Critically Ill Patients

Background: Infection of pancreatic necrosis is a life-threatening complication during the course of acute pancreatitis. In critically ill patients, surgical or extended endoscopic interventions are associated with high morbidity and mortality. Minimally invasive procedures on the other hand are often insufficient in patients suffering from large necrotic areas containing solid or purulent material. We present a strategy combining percutaneous and transgastric drainage with continuous high-volume lavage for treatment of extended necroses and liquid collections in a series of patients with severe acute pancreatitis. Patients and Methods: Seven consecutive patients with severe acute pancreatitis and large confluent infected pancreatic necrosis were enrolled. In all cases, the first therapeutic procedure was placement of a CT-guided drainage catheter into the fluid collection surrounding peripancreatic necrosis. Thereafter, a second endosonographically guided drainage was inserted via the gastric or the duodenal wall. After communication between the separate drains had been proven, an external to internal directed high-volume lavage with a daily volume of 500 ml up to 2,000 ml was started. Results: In all patients, pancreatic necrosis/liquid collections could be resolved completely by the presented regime. No patient died in the course of our study. After initiation of the directed high-volume lavage, there was a significant clinical improvement in all patients. Double drainage was performed for a median of 101 days, high-volume lavage for a median of 41 days. Several endoscopic interventions for stent replacement were required (median 8). Complications such as bleeding or perforation could be managed endoscopically, and no subsequent surgical therapy was necessary. All patients could be dismissed from the hospital after a median duration of 78 days. Conclusion: This approach of combined percutaneous/endoscopic drainage with high-volume lavage shows promising results in critically ill patients with extended infected pancreatic necrosis and high risk of surgical intervention. Neither surgical nor endoscopic necrosectomy was necessary in any of our patients. Copyright (C) 2009 S. Karger AG, Basel and IA

Maternal Body Mass Index and Daughters’ Age at Menarche

The role of inter-generational influences on age at menarche has not been explored far beyond the association between mothers’ and daughters’ menarcheal ages. Small size at birth and childhood obesity have been associated with younger age at menarche, but the influence of maternal overweight or obesity on daughters’ age at menarche has not been thoroughly examined

An Item Response Curves Analysis of the Force Concept Inventory

Several years ago, we introduced the idea of item response curves (IRC), a simplistic form of item response theory (IRT), to the physics education research community as a way to examine item performance on diagnostic instruments such as the Force Concept Inventory (FCI). We noted that a full-blown analysis using IRT would be a next logical step, which several authors have since taken. In this paper, we show that our simple approach not only yields similar conclusions in the analysis of the performance of items on the FCI to the more sophisticated and complex IRT analyses but also permits additional insights by characterizing both the correct and incorrect answer choices. Our IRC approach can be applied to a variety of multiple-choice assessments but, as applied to a carefully designed instrument such as the FCI, allows us to probe student understanding as a function of ability level through an examination of each answer choice. We imagine that physics teachers could use IRC analysis to identify prominent misconceptions and tailor their instruction to combat those misconceptions, fulfilling the FCI authors\u27 original intentions for its use. Furthermore, the IRC analysis can assist test designers to improve their assessments by identifying nonfunctioning distractors that can be replaced with distractors attractive to students at various ability levels

Using a self-guided app to provide communication strategies for caregivers of young children with developmental disorders

One important evidence-based component of early communication interventions in high-income countries is teaching parents and other primary caregivers to provide communication opportunities in daily activities to stimulate the development of beginning communication skills. To address some of the barriers to communication interventions for children with developmental disorders (DD) in rural South Africa, we developed a prototype Web-based selfguided app for caregivers to use at home with their children with DD who were at the beginning stages of communication development. The purpose of this study is to examine how this app intervention functioned for caregivers and its secondary effects on their children. Fifty-one caregiver-child dyads were randomly assigned to either a typical care intervention group (a 30- minute hospital-based intervention once a month) or the self-guided mobile health technology (MHT) app plus the typical care intervention. We assessed both the caregivers and their children. The majority of the 27 caregiver-child dyads (81%) assigned to the app group used the app and completed a mean of 35.8 sessions across the 48 sessions (mean range = 5.08–15.75). Eighty percent of these caregivers employed the “help” function of the app (M per caregiver = 9.89). The caregivers who completed 44–48 sessions reported that more than half of the children moved from pre-symbolic forms of communication (e.g., crying) to symbolic forms of communication (e.g., words) by the end of the intervention. Compared to the typical care group, the caregivers perceived that their children's success increased even though their difficulties remained stable. The app group showed a very modest gain in expressive language while the typical care group did not. The findings suggest that the self-guided app framework shows promise as a supplement to traditional monthly speechlanguage intervention in South Africa.The National Institute of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders and the NIH Fogarty International Center.https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/17411130am2024Centre for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (CAAC)SDG-03:Good heatlh and well-bein

A note on clinical presentations of amebic liver abscess: an overview from 62 Thai patients

BACKGROUND: Amebic liver abscess is a tropical disease with a wide spectrum of clinical presentations. Given the often nonspecific nature of the complaints related to amebic abscess, a retrospective review of patients with confirmed disease to recognize the most common patterns of presentation is useful. Here, we study the clinical presentations of 62 Thai patients with amebic liver abscess. We also compare the clinical presentations of Anti HIV seronegative and Anti HIV seropositive patients. METHODS: A retrospective case review was carried out for 62 Thai patients who had been diagnosed with amebic liver abscess. Clinical information was collected, including symptoms and signs, location and number of abscesses. The Anti HIV serology laboratory investigation was also reviewed. RESULTS: According to our study, the common clinical symptoms and signs are abdominal pain (85.5 %), fever and chills (74.2 %), and abdominal tenderness (69.4 %). The location of the abscess was predominantly in the right lobe (74.2 %), and most of patients had a single abscess (77.4 %). Similar trends in clinical presentations were observed in both Anti HIV seropositive and Anti HIV seronegative subjects. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, the clinical presentations of our amebic liver abscess patients were similar to those in previous reports. A similarity to those in the pyogenic liver abscess patients can be observed. Nevertheless, we could not detect important significant differences in the clinical presentations between Anti HIV seropositive and Anti HIV seronegative groups of patients

Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG-supplemented formula expands butyrate-producing bacterial strains in food allergic infants.

Dietary intervention with extensively hydrolyzed casein formula supplemented with Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (EHCF+LGG) accelerates tolerance acquisition in infants with cow's milk allergy (CMA). We examined whether this effect is attributable, at least in part, to an influence on the gut microbiota. Fecal samples from healthy controls (n=20) and from CMA infants (n=19) before and after treatment with EHCF with (n=12) and without (n=7) supplementation with LGG were compared by 16S rRNA-based operational taxonomic unit clustering and oligotyping. Differential feature selection and generalized linear model fitting revealed that the CMA infants have a diverse gut microbial community structure dominated by Lachnospiraceae (20.5±9.7%) and Ruminococcaceae (16.2±9.1%). Blautia, Roseburia and Coprococcus were significantly enriched following treatment with EHCF and LGG, but only one genus, Oscillospira, was significantly different between infants that became tolerant and those that remained allergic. However, most tolerant infants showed a significant increase in fecal butyrate levels, and those taxa that were significantly enriched in these samples, Blautia and Roseburia, exhibited specific strain-level demarcations between tolerant and allergic infants. Our data suggest that EHCF+LGG promotes tolerance in infants with CMA, in part, by influencing the strain-level bacterial community structure of the infant gut