Our Parents, Ourselves: Health Care for an Aging Population; A Report of the Dartmouth Atlas Project

The new Dartmouth Atlas, funded by The John A. Hartford Foundation, is a report card that analyzes Medicare data to show us where the United States is making progress in patient-centered, evidence-based care for Medicare beneficiaries and where improvement is still needed. It also offers insight into regional variations in care.Filling in the gaps in our knowledge about the state of care across the country will help health care providers, health systems, and patients and families work together to improve care for all older adults.This Dartmouth Atlas report looks at a number of measures from Medicare data, including:The number of days older adults spend in contact with the health care system;Use of high-risk medications;Cancer screening rates (and how they compare with recommendations);30-day hospital readmission rates;Annual Wellness Visit (AWV) rates;Late hospice referral; andThe number of days spent in intensive care.The report also offers a historical look at key practices, comparing data from 2003-05 and 2012

DEVELOPMENT OF A REAL-TIME BIOFEEDBACK TOOL FOR MARTIAL ARTS COACHING PRACTICE

Power and neural response are two vital elements in martial arts striking. Currently, there are no practical methods exist to present these aspects to practitioners in a training environment. Our study has developed one. Our method consisted of an optical signal system, EMG and 3D motion capture. The feedback provided was generated by a selfdeveloped dynamic calculation programs using kinematics and EMG data as input. The results showed that our system provided both total power and its components (i.e. linear & angular) of a striking as well as the related response time. Since the method offers feedback of power intensity, attack accuracy, central and peripheral reaction time to practitioners in a quasi-training environment, it has great potential to become a real-time biofeedback tool in practice for increasing training efficiency and effectiveness

Early Higgs Boson Discovery in Non-minimal Higgs Sectors

Particle physics models with more than one Higgs boson occur in many frameworks for physics beyond the standard model, including supersymmetry, technicolor, composite Higgs, and "little Higgs" models. If the Higgs sector contains couplings stronger than electroweak gauge couplings, there will be heavy Higgs particles that decay to lighter Higgs particles plus heavy particles such as $W$, $Z$, and $t$. This motivates searches for final states involving multiple $W$, $Z$, $t$, and $\bar{b}b$ pairs. A two Higgs doublet model with custodial symmetry is a useful simplified model to describe many of these signals. The model can be parameterized by the physical Higgs masses and the mixing angles \al and \be, so discovery or exclusion in this parameter space has a straightforward physical interpretation. We illustrate this with a detailed analysis of the process $gg \to A$ followed by $A \to h Z$ and $h \to WW$. For m_{A} \simeq 330\GeV, m_{h} \simeq 200\GeV we can get a 4.5\si signal with 1 fb${}^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity at the Large Hadron Collider.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

The Evolution of the VASIMR Engine

Our future deep space explorers face many daunting challenges but three of these loom high above the rest: Physiological debilitation, radiation sickness and psychological stress. Many countermeasures are presently being considered to ameliorate these difficulties however, in the long run, two important new developments are required: abundant space power and advanced propulsion. The development of the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR) addresses these important areas of need. The VASIMR is a high power, radio frequency-driven magneto plasma rocket, capable of very high exhaust velocities. In addition, its unique architecture allows in-flight mission-optimization of thrust and specific impulse to enhance performance and reduce trip time. A NASA-led, research team, involving industry, academia and government facilities is pursuing the development of this concept in the United States. The technology can be validated, in the near term, in venues such as the International Space Station, where it can also serve as both a drag compensation device and a plasma contactor for the orbital facility. Other near-Earth applications in the commercial and scientific satellite sectors are also envisioned. This presentation covers the present status of the technology, plans for its near term deployment and a vision for its future evolution

Characterization of Ion Cyclotron Resonance Acceleration for Electric Propulsion with Interferometery

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/90620/1/AIAA-48087-936.pd

Validating A Plasma Momentum Flux Sensor Against an Inverted Pendulum Thrust Stand

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/76115/1/AIAA-2008-4739-514.pd

Hall Thruster and VASIMR VX-100 Force measurements using a Plasma Momentum Flux Sensor

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/76509/1/AIAA-2009-246-125.pd