The Nia Project: Baseline report

The onset of puberty and menarche is a particularly vulnerable time for girls, when external pressures are exacerbated by their lack of knowledge of their bodies, their rights, and the implications of their decisions, and by their inability to manage puberty and adolescence safely and comfortably with appropriate menstrual health and hygiene management (MHM) products. Although several programs have previously been developed to address girls’ MHM needs globally, few have been evaluated, and where evidence does exist the results have been mixed. In collaboration with ZanaAfrica, the Population Council is evaluating the Nia Project, a set of interventions for adolescent girls in Kilifi County, Kenya. This evaluation analyzes the effect of distribution of Nia brand disposable sanitary pads and provision of reproductive health education (i.e., facilitated sessions and the Nia Teen magazine) on girls’ education and reproductive health outcomes. This report presents data from the baseline survey of the Nia Project, providing a multidimensional description of a sample of the girls who will be participating in the Nia Project and the schools they attend

The Nia Project—Brief

This brief provides highlights from the Nia Project conducted in Kenya. The study found that while gaps exist in girls’ capabilities, particularly knowledge and attitudes related to menstruation and reproductive health, the Nia Project has the potential to bridge those gaps. The Project is one of the first randomized controlled trials to explore the role of sanitary pad distribution and reproductive health education—individually and in combination—to improve girls’ educational and sexual and reproductive health outcomes. The findings of this study will make a critical contribution to filling an evidence gap in the field of menstrual health and hygiene management, and in doing so will guide education and health policy in this area in Kenya and in the region

Binary Black-Hole Mergers in Magnetized Disks: Simulations in Full General Relativity

We present results from the first fully general relativistic, magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) simulations of an equal-mass black hole binary (BHBH) in a magnetized, circumbinary accretion disk. We simulate both the pre and post-decoupling phases of a BHBH-disk system and both "cooling" and "no-cooling" gas flows. Prior to decoupling, the competition between the binary tidal torques and the effective viscous torques due to MHD turbulence depletes the disk interior to the binary orbit. However, it also induces a two-stream accretion flow and mildly relativistic polar outflows from the BHs. Following decoupling, but before gas fills the low-density "hollow" surrounding the remnant, the accretion rate is reduced, while there is a prompt electromagnetic (EM) luminosity enhancement following merger due to shock heating and accretion onto the spinning BH remnant. This investigation, though preliminary, previews more detailed GRMHD simulations we plan to perform in anticipation of future, simultaneous detections of gravitational and EM radiation from a merging BHBH-disk system.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

Histone Hypervariants H2A.Z.1 and H2A.Z.2 Play Independent and Context-Specific Roles in Neuronal Activity-Induced Transcription of Arc/Arg3.1 and Other Immediate Early Genes.

The histone variant H2A.Z is an essential and conserved regulator of eukaryotic gene transcription. However, the exact role of this histone in the transcriptional process remains perplexing. In vertebrates, H2A.Z has two hypervariants, H2A.Z.1 and H2A.Z.2, that have almost identical sequences except for three amino acid residues. Due to such similarity, functional specificity of these hypervariants in neurobiological processes, if any, remain largely unknown. In this study with dissociated rat cortical neurons, we asked if H2A.Z hypervariants have distinct functions in regulating basal and activity-induced gene transcription. Hypervariant-specific RNAi and microarray analyses revealed that H2A.Z.1 and H2A.Z.2 regulate basal expression of largely nonoverlapping gene sets, including genes that code for several synaptic proteins. In response to neuronal activity, rapid transcription of our model gene Arc is impaired by depletion of H2A.Z.2, but not H2A.Z.1. This impairment is partially rescued by codepletion of the H2A.Z chaperone, ANP32E. In contrast, under a different context (after 48 h of tetrodotoxin, TTX), rapid transcription of Arc is impaired by depletion of either hypervariant. Such context-dependent roles of H2A.Z hypervariants, as revealed by our multiplexed gene expression assays, are also evident with several other immediate early genes, where regulatory roles of these hypervariants vary from gene to gene under different conditions. Together, our data suggest that H2A.Z hypervariants have context-specific roles that complement each other to mediate activity-induced neuronal gene transcription

Mussel Inventory and Population Status of the Federally Endangered Potamilus capax (Green 1832) in the Tyronza River, Arkansas

Currently, few data exist for the mussel assemblages of the Tyronza River, Arkansas. The goal of this project was to inventory the freshwater mussel assemblages of the Tyronza River and determine the status of the federally endangered Potamilus capax. We qualitatively and quantitatively sampled mussel assemblages and documented the occurrence of S1 (extremely rare), S2 (very rare), and S3 (rare to uncommon) species. A total of 70.4 river kilometers were sampled in 2006 and 2007 resulting in 363 sampling sites, 4030 live individuals, and 25 species. We observed a total of 1 S1, 2 S2, and 9 S3 species. Mean catch-per-unit-of-effort was 0.9 (1.2 SD) individuals / min. and mean species richness and individual abundance were 3.4 (2.7 SD) species / site and 11.1 (15.1 SD) individuals / site, respectively. Thirteen Potamilus capax were collected during this survey, with only 1 gravid female and 2 juveniles. Quantitative survey mean densities per site ranged from 1.0 to 1.9 mussels / m2 with an overall mean of 1.4 individuals / m2 (0.3 SD). A total of 7 Potamilus capax were observed during quantitative sampling. Community Numerical Standing Crop estimates ranged from 70 ± 30 to 22,986 ± 7,905 individuals. The data collected from this survey provide a valuable baseline on the mussel assemblages of an altered-alluvial river and the location and status of all S1, S2 and S3 species. This information is essential to the management of this imperiled fauna in the Tyronza River

Deconstructing the power resistance relationship for squats: a joint-level analysis

Generating high leg power outputs is important for executing rapid movements. Squats are commonly used to increase leg strength and power. Therefore, it is useful to understand factors affecting power output in squatting. We aimed to deconstruct the mechanisms behind why power is maximized at certain resistances in squatting. Ten male rowers (age = 20 ± 2.2 years; height = 1.82 ± 0.03 m; mass = 86 ± 11 kg) performed maximal power squats with resistances ranging from body weight to 80% of their one repetition maximum (1RM). Three-dimensional kinematics was combined with ground reaction force (GRF) data in an inverse dynamics analysis to calculate leg joint moments and powers. System center of mass (COM) velocity and power were computed from GRF data. COM power was maximized across a range of resistances from 40% to 60% 1RM. This range was identified because a trade-off in hip and knee joint powers existed across this range, with maximal knee joint power occurring at 40% 1RM and maximal hip joint power at 60% 1RM. A non-linear system force-velocity relationship was observed that dictated large reductions in COM power below 20% 1RM and above 60% 1RM. These reductions were due to constraints on the control of the movement

Measurements of Si Hybrid CMOS X-Ray Detector Characteristics

The development of Hybrid CMOS Detectors (HCDs) for X-Ray telescope focal planes will place them in con- tention with CCDs on future satellite missions due to their faster frame rates, flexible readout scenarios, lower power consumption, and inherent radiation hardness. CCDs have been used with great success on the current generation of X-Ray telescopes (e.g. Chandra, XMM, Suzaku, and Swift). However their bucket-brigade read-out architecture, which transfers charge across the chip with discrete component readout electronics, results in clockrate limited readout speeds that cause pileup (saturation) of bright sources and an inherent susceptibility to radiation induced displacement damage that limits mission lifetime. In contrast, HCDs read pixels with low power, on-chip multiplexer electronics in a random access fashion. Faster frame rates achieved with multi-output readout design will allow the next generation's larger effective area telescopes to observe bright sources free of pileup. Radiation damaged lattice sites effect a single pixel instead of an entire row. Random access, multi-output readout will allow for novel readout modes such as simultaneous bright-source-fast/whole-chip-slow readout. In order for HCDs to be useful as X-Ray detectors, they must show noise and energy resolution performance similar to CCDs while retaining advantages inherent to HCDs. We will report on readnoise, conversion gain, and energy resolution measurements of an X-Ray enhanced Teledyne HAWAII-1RG (H1RG) HCD and describe techniques of H1RG data reduction.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figure

Prediction of Fretting Crack Location and Orientation in a Single Crystal Nickel Alloy

Fretting is a structural damage mechanism arising between two nominally clamped surfaces subjected to an oscillatory loading. A critical location for fretting induced damage has been identified at the blade/disk and blade/damper interfaces of gas turbine engine turbomachinery and space propulsion components. The high- temperature, high-frequency loading environment seen by these components lead to severe stress gradients at the edge-of-contact that could potentially foster crack growth leading to component failure. These contact stresses drive crack nucleation in fretting and are very sensitive to the geometry of the contacting bodies, the contact loads, materials, temperature, and contact surface tribology (friction). Recently, a high-frequency, high-temperature load frame has been designed for experimentally investigating fretting damage of single crystal nickel materials employed in aircraft and spacecraft turbomachinery. A modeling method for characterizing the fretting stresses of the spherical fretting contact stress behavior in this experiment is developed and described. The calculated fretting stresses for a series of experiments are then correlated to the observed fretting damage. Results show that knowledge of the normal stresses and resolved shear stresses on each crystal plane can aid in predicting crack locations and orientations