\u27Texas Maroon’ Bluebonnet

The Texas state flower, the bluebonnet, encompasses all six of the Lupinus species native to Texas. The most widespread and popular bluebonnet, Lupinus texensis Hook., is a winter annual that produces violet-blue [violet-blue group 96A, Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), 1982] racemes in early to midspring and is predominately self-pollinating. The Texas Dept. of Transportation uses this species widely for floral displays along roadsides throughout much of the state (Andrews, 1986). Rare white and even rarer pink variants exist in native populations, and a breeding project was initiated in 1985 to develop bluebonnets with novel flower colors for use as bedding plants. ‘Abbott Pink’ was the first seed-propagated cultivar to be developed from this program (Parsons and Davis, 1993). The second cultivar, ‘Barbara Bush’ with novel lavender shade flowers, was developed more recently (Parsons et al., 1994). As with the cultivars previously developed, we used recurrent phenotypic selection to develop ‘Texas Maroon’. This cultivar is intended for use as a bedding plant for maroon flower color

Autonomous system identification and control of MACE II using the Frequency Domain Expert algorithm

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/77122/1/AIAA-1999-4586-175.pd

Development of a Coherent Doppler Lidar for Precision Maneuvering and Landing of Space Vehicles

A coherent Doppler lidar has been developed to address NASAs need for a high-performance, compact, and cost-effective velocity and altitude sensor onboard its landing vehicles. Future robotic and manned missions to planetary bodies require precise ground-relative velocity vector and altitude data to execute complex descent maneuvers and safe, soft landing at a pre-designated site. This lidar sensor, referred to as a Navigation Doppler Lidar, meets the required performance of landing missions while complying with vehicle size, mass, and power constraints. Operating from over five kilometers altitude, the lidar obtains velocity and range precision measurements with 2 cm/sec and 2 meters, respectively, dominated by the vehicle motion. After a series of flight tests onboard helicopters and rocket-powered free-flyer vehicles, the Navigation Doppler Lidar is now being ruggedized for future missions to various destinations in the solar system

Addressing the Surgical Deficit: A Global Imperative for Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons

Despite poor access to quality surgical and anesthesia care for the majority of the world\u27s people, with greatest impact on low- and middle-income countries, surgery has only recently begun to gain acceptance as a necessary component of global health. As a leader in global surgical funding, the field of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery is uniquely positioned to influence change in global policy and financial support. For improvements in surgical access and outcomes worldwide, investment in surgical systems, commitment to national surgery, obstetric, and anesthesia planning, and continued evaluation and improvement of care delivery should be pursued

A Church-based Diabetes Self-management Education Program for African Americans With Type 2 Diabetes

INTRODUCTION: Diabetes self-management education interventions in community gathering places have been moderately effective, but very few studies of intervention effectiveness have been conducted among African Americans with type 2 diabetes. This paper describes a church-based diabetes self-management education intervention for African Americans, a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the intervention, and baseline characteristics of study participants. METHODS: A New DAWN: Diabetes Awareness & Wellness Network was conducted among 24 churches of varying size in North Carolina. Each church recruited congregants with type 2 diabetes and designated a diabetes advisor, or peer counselor, to be part of the intervention team. Participants were enrolled at each church and randomized as a unit to either the special intervention or the minimal intervention. The special intervention included one individual counseling visit, twelve group sessions, three postcard messages from the participant's diabetes care provider, and twelve monthly telephone calls from a diabetes advisor. Baseline data included measures of weight, hemoglobin A1c, blood pressure, physical activity, dietary and diabetes self-care practices, and psychosocial factors. The study to evaluate the intervention (from enrollment visit to last follow-up) began in February 2001 and ended in August 2003. RESULTS: Twenty-four churches (with 201 total participants) were randomized. Sixty-four percent of the participants were women. On average, the participants were aged 59 years and sedentary. They had an average of 12 years of education, had been diagnosed with diabetes for 9 years, had a body mass index of 35, had a hemoglobin A1c level of 7.8%, and had a reported dietary intake of 39% of calories from fat. CONCLUSION: A New DAWN is a culturally sensitive, church-based diabetes self-management education program for African Americans with type 2 diabetes that is being evaluated for effectiveness in a randomized controlled trial. The outcomes of A New DAWN will contribute to the literature on community-based interventions for minority populations and help to inform the selection of approaches to improve diabetes care in this population

Adaptive neural control for space structure vibration suppression

Despite recent advances in efficiency, current methodologies for space structure control design still engage significant human resources for engineering development and routine maintenance. The adaptive neural control (ANC) program is part of an effort to develop neural network based controllers capable of self-optimization, on-line adaptation and autonomous fault detection and control recovery. This development in addition supports the long-term space exploration objectives for which autonomous spacecraft involving self-reliant control systems are a necessity. The ANC program comprises two phases. The first, basic phase focused on the development of efficient and completely autonomous neural network feedforward control for the case of broadband disturbances. Algorithms were developed that work with no prior modeling information about the system to be controlled and adapt to changing conditions, while minimizing or eliminating the introduction of extraneous training signals. The algorithms were demonstrated experimentally on an optical structure testbed at Harris. The second phase of the program demonstrated a more complex neural controller on the advanced space structures technology research experiments (ASTREX) test facility at the Air Force Research Laboratory capable of the fault-tolerant adaptive control of multiple sensors and actuators. This system used six actuation channels of the existing ACESA struts on the ASTREX structure to simultaneously cancel three independent tonal disturbances in the 10-15 Hz band, measured at non-collocated sensors on the secondary tower of the structure. The system demonstrated impressive fault-recovery performance, maintaining good cancellation performance with successive actuators disabled. Cancellation of individual tones was between 25 and 55 dB, with over 27 dB attenuation realized root mean square. The algorithm required very low computational throughput, operating at a sample rate of 1/20 Hz. The results of the ANC program show that adaptive cancellation systems can reduce vibrations in precision structures without prior modeling information and can adapt successfully to certain failures in actuators or sensors, optimally reconfiguring themselves without human intervention. These capabilities should significantly reduce the expense of designing and maintaining vibration control systems for spacecraft.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/49009/2/sm9605.pd

Moderate-Intensity Exercise Improves Body Composition and Improves Physiological Markers of Stress in HIV-Infected Men

HIV/AIDS and its treatment often alter body composition and result in poorer physical functioning. The aim of this study was to determine the effects of a moderate-intensity exercise program on body composition and the hormones and cytokines associated with adverse health outcomes. HIV-infected males (N = 111) were randomized to an exercise group (EX) who completed 6 weeks of moderate-intensity exercise training, or to a nonintervention control group (CON). In pre- and postintervention, body composition was estimated via DXA, peak strength was assessed, and resting blood samples were obtained. There was a decrease in salivary cortisol at wake (P = 0.025) in the EX and a trend (P = 0.07) for a decrease 1 hour after waking. The EX had a significant increase in lean tissue mass (LTM) (P \u3c 0.001) following the intervention. Those in the EX below median body fat (20%) increased LTM (P = 0.014) only, while those above 20% decreased fat mass (P = 0.02), total fat (N = 0.009), and trunk fat (P = 0.001), while also increasing LTM (P = 0.027). Peak strength increased between 14% and 28% on all exercises in the EX group. These data indicate that 6 weeks of moderate-intensity exercise training can decrease salivary cortisol levels, improve physical performance, and improve body composition in HIV-infected men

The Head-On Collision of Two Equal Mass Black Holes Peter Anninos

We study the head-on collision of two equal mass, nonrotating black holes. Various initial configurations are investigated, including holes which are initially surrounded by a common apparent horizon to holes that are separated by about $20M$, where $M$ is the mass of a single black hole. We have extracted both $\ell = 2$ and $\ell=4$ gravitational waveforms resulting from the collision. The normal modes of the final black hole dominate the spectrum in all cases studied. The total energy radiated is computed using several independent methods, and is typically less than $0.002 M$. We also discuss an analytic approach to estimate the total gravitational radiation emitted in the collision by generalizing point particle dynamics to account for the finite size and internal dynamics of the two black holes. The effects of the tidal deformations of the horizons are analysed using the membrane paradigm of black holes. We find excellent agreement between the numerical results and the analytic estimates.Comment: 33 pages, NCSA 94-048, WUGRAV-94-