Analysis of underground coal mine refuge shelters

This thesis summarizes the technique used to build underground coal refuge shelters and their availabilities. The first step is to discuss the manufacturers of the shelter and the types that they can provide. Next, the requirements set forth by the West Virginia Office of Miners Health, Safety and Training (WVOMHST) and Mine Safety and Health (MSHA) regarding the design of the shelters/chambers are examined.;The first specification examined is whether or not the shelters/chambers can withstand a 15 psi overpressure. This is determined by using techniques used in the analysis of rectangular steel beams and steel sheets. The equations used for this analysis are provided by the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC). The end result is the calculation of a safety factor that determines if the steel rectangular beams or steel sheets will survive a 15 psi pressure that may result from an explosion.;The second specification examined is the air quality/quantity requirements. The WVOMHST requires that an internal shelter atmosphere contain at least 19.5 percent oxygen, \u3c 0.5 percent carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide levels must not be above 50 parts per million (ppm). The ability of the chambers to maintain these requirements are examined using the respiratory quotient technique. Also, the ability of the shelters/chamber to dilute high carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide levels are examined.;Finally, the WVOMHST require that the shelters/chambers be capable of maintaining an apparent internal temperature of 95 degrees fahrenheit. The shelters/chambers ability to do this are examined using a technique common to the American Society of Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers ASHRAE). The process used determines the specific humidity and temperature of the internal atmosphere of a shelter/chamber. Using these calculations the heat index, also known as apparent temperature, is determined

Comparison Of Outcomes In Emergency Department Treated By Nurse Practitioners Or Physicians

The increasing number of patients who seek health care in the emergency department has placed a great strain on the resources of facilities to meet those primary health care needs. Utilization of nurse practitioners as health care providers in the emergency department has been suggested to meet the continuing influx of patients. The purpose of this study was to examine the outcomes for patient satisfaction, patient knowledge, and problem resolution. Three hypotheses were generated : (a) There is no difference in the outcome of satisfaction in nonurgent patients presenting to the emergency department when treated by a physician or a nurse practitioner, (b) There is no difference in the outcome of knowledge in nonurgent patients presenting to the emergency department when treated by a physician or a nurse practitioner, and (c) There is no difference in the outcome of problem resolution in nonurgent patients presenting to the emergency department when treated by a physician or a nurse practitioner. King\u27s Theory of Goal Attainment provided the theoretical framework. The Aldridge Questionnaire, adapted from a tool developed by Powers, Jalowiec, and Reichelt (1981), was used to gather data iii from the sample (N = 151). No significant difference in patient satisfaction emerged; therefore. Hypothesis 1 was accepted. However, there were significant differences in patient knowledge and problem resolution, thus Hypotheses 2 and 3 were rejected. Significantly more instructions were recalled by patients treated by nurse practitioners. Also, there was a significant difference in problem resolution in patients when measured by unscheduled visits seeking additional health care. Also, within a 4-week period following discharge from the emergency department, no patients treated by nurse practitioners made additional unscheduled visits while 8 patients treated by physicians made unscheduled visits seeking additional health care. These findings support the placement of nurse practitioners in the emergency department to help alleviate the pressures brought on by increasing numbers of patients who utilize the local emergency department for primary care. A recommendation is to implement a longitudinal study which focuses on the evolution of the nurse practitioner in the emergency department

C-type virus particles in human urogenital tumours after heterotransplantation into nude mice.

C-type viruses were formed in heterotransplants of 5/14 human urogenital tumours which had been serially transferred in nude mice of NIH(S) background. Except for one case in which C-type particles were present in the epithelial cells as well as the connective tissue, the viruses were only found within the stroma of the heterotransplanted tumours. Peroxidase labelling with anti-mouse serum demonstrated that the connective tissue supporting the transplanted human tumours was of mouse origin. Competition radioimmunoassays demonstrated that MuLV interspecies viral protein was present in high titre in the transplanted tumour extracts and also in extracts of 2 spontaneous mouse-tumour extracts. These data suggest that endogenous viruses of the nude mice are activated by the graft, and only subsequently infect the human tumour cells and form particles

An imaging vector magnetograph for the next solar maximum

Researchers describe the conceptual design of a new imaging vector magnetograph currently being constructed at the University of Hawaii. The instrument combines a modest solar telescope with a rotating quarter-wave plate, an acousto-optical tunable prefilter as a blocker for a servo-controlled Fabry-Perot etalon, CCD cameras, and on-line digital image processing. Its high spatial resolution (1/2 arcsec pixel size) over a large field of view (5 by 5 arcmin) will be sufficient to significantly measure, for the first time, the magnetic energy dissipated in major solar flares. Its millisecond tunability and wide spectral range (5000 to 7000 A) enable nearly simultaneous vector magnetic field measurements in the gas-pressure-dominated photosphere and magnetically-dominated chromosphere, as well as effective co-alignment with Solar-A's X ray images. Researchers expect to have the instrument in operation at Mees Solar Observatory (Haleakala) in early 1991. They have chosen to use tunable filters as wavelength-selection elements in order to emphasize the spatial relationships between magnetic field elements, and to permit construction of a compact, efficient instrument. This means that spectral information must be obtained from sequences of images, which can cause line profile distortions due to effects of atmospheric seeing

Supporting Continued Academic Success, Resilience, and Agency of Boys in Urban Catholic Alternative Middle Schools

The persistent inequalities in urban public education in the U. S. that have left far too many Black and Hispanic male students behind with respect to academic skill development, high school graduation, and college success have led Catholic groups to provide alternative secondary school models to advance the academic and career success of urban students. One of these initiatives is the NativityMiguel model school, the first of which opened in New York City in 1971. The present study examines the lived experience, with respect to benefits of this education on the subsequent academic and career successes, of male graduates of two of these schools, one for African American, or Black, students and one for Mexican American students in different parts of the country. Analyses of interviews with 37 graduates showed that they benefitted from the schools’ approach to academic skill development and the building of resilience, leadership, and a commitment to service in the context of a community that continued to support the development of resilience after middle school graduation. Differences in aspects of the two programs are examined along with the implications for making use of the schools’ initiatives on a larger scale

Bankfull curves for the temperate rainforests in the Southern Appalachian Mountains of Western North Carolina

Bankfull hydraulic geometry relationships, also called regional curves, relate bankfull stream channel dimensions and discharge to watershed drainage area. This paper describes results of bankfull curve relationships developed for the temperate rainforests of the Southern Appalachian Mountains primarily on Western North Carolina Mountain streams in the Southeastern United States. Gauge stations for small and larger catchments were selected with a range of 10 to 50 years of continuous or peak discharge measurements, no major impoundments, no significant change in land use over the past 10 years, and impervious cover ranges of <20%. Cross-sectional and longitudinal surveys were measured at each study reach to determine channel dimension, pattern, and profile information. Log-Pearson Type III distributions were used to analyze annual peak discharge data for nine small watersheds sites gauged by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Forest Service, Southern Research Station, Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory and for eleven larger watersheds gauged by the United States Geological Survey (USGS). Power function relationships were developed using regression analyses for bankfull discharge, channel cross-sectional area, mean depth, and width as functions of watershed drainage area