Development and Validation of a Computational Musculoskeletal Model of the Elbow Joint

Musculoskeletal computational modeling is a versatile and effective tool which may be used to study joint mechanics, examine muscle and ligament function, and simulate surgical reconstructive procedures. While injury to the elbow joint can be significantly debilitating, questions still remain regarding its normal, pathologic, and repaired behavior. Biomechanical models of the elbow have been developed, but all have assumed fixed joint axes of rotation and ignored the effects of ligaments. Therefore, the objective of this thesis was to develop and validate a computational model of the elbow joint whereby joint kinematics are dictated by three-dimensional bony geometry contact, ligamentous constraints, and muscle loading.Accurate three-dimensional bone geometry was generated by acquiring CT scans, segmenting the images to isolate skeletal features, and fitting surfaces to the segmented data. Ligaments were modeled as tension-only linear springs, and muscle were represented as force vectors with discrete attachment points. Bone contact was modeled by a routine which applied a normal force at points of penetration, with a force magnitude being a function of penetration depth. A rigid body dynamics simulator was used to predict the model\u27s behavior under particular external loading conditions.The computational model was validated by simulating past experimental investigations and comparing results. Passive flexion-extension range of motion predicted by the model correlated exceptionally well with reported values. Bony and ligamentous structures responsible for enforcing motion limits also agreed with past observations. The model\u27s varus stability as a function of elbow flexion and coronoid process resection was also investigated. The trends predicted by the model matched those of the associated cadaver study.This thesis successfully developed an accurate musculoskeletal computational model of the elbow joint complex. While the model may now be used in a predictive manner, further refinements may expand its applicability. These include accounting for the interference between soft tissue and bone, and representing the dynamic behavior of muscles

Findings of the 2019 National Food Hub Survey

This report was nearing completion in March 2020 and therefore does not address the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis in detail. Please see the epilogue, on page 44, for the authors' reflections on the role food hubs have played in supporting and enhancing the resiliency of local and regional food systems throughout the pandemic. We encourage readers to consider this context as they read the report, which offers a unique snapshot of pre-COVID food hub operations.

Disturbance distance: quantifying forests' vulnerability to disturbance under current and future conditions

Disturbances, both natural and anthropogenic, are critical determinants of forest structure, function, and distribution. The vulnerability of forests to potential changes in disturbance rates remains largely unknown. Here, we developed a framework for quantifying and mapping the vulnerability of forests to changes in disturbance rates. By comparing recent estimates of observed forest disturbance rates over a sample of contiguous US forests to modeled rates of disturbance resulting in forest loss, a novel index of vulnerability, Disturbance Distance, was produced. Sample results indicate that 20% of current US forestland could be lost if disturbance rates were to double, with southwestern forests showing highest vulnerability. Under a future climate scenario, the majority of US forests showed capabilities of withstanding higher rates of disturbance then under the current climate scenario, which may buffer some impacts of intensified forest disturbanceinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Numerical Investigation of the Interface Tension in the three-dimensional Ising Model

The interface tension in the three-dimensional Ising model in the low temperature phase is investigated by means of the Monte Carlo method. Together with other physically relevant quantities it is obtained from a calculation of time-slice correlation functions in a cylindrical geometry. The results at three different values of the temperature are compared with the predictions from a semiclassical approximation in the framework of renormalized $\phi^4$ theory in three dimensions, and are in good agreement with them.Comment: 17 pages, MS-TPI-92-13 (replaced due to correction of minor numerical errors

Harmonization of global land-use change and management for the period 850-2100 (LUH2) for CMPIP6

Human land use activities have resulted in large changes to the biogeochemical and biophysical properties of the Earth's surface, with consequences for climate and other ecosystem services. In the future, land use activities are likely to expand and/or intensify further to meet growing demands for food, fiber, and energy. As part of the World Climate Research Program Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6), the international community has developed the next generation of advanced Earth system models (ESMs) to estimate the combined effects of human activities (e.g., land use and fossil fuel emissions) on the carbon-climate system. A new set of historical data based on the History of the Global Environment database (HYDE), and multiple alternative scenarios of the future (2015-2100) from Integrated Assessment Model (IAM) teams, is required as input for these models. With most ESM simulations for CMIP6 now completed, it is important to document the land use patterns used by those simulations. Here we present results from the Land-Use Harmonization 2 (LUH2) project, which smoothly connects updated historical reconstructions of land use with eight new future projections in the format required for ESMs. The harmonization strategy estimates the fractional land use patterns, underlying land use transitions, key agricultural management information, and resulting secondary lands annually, while minimizing the differences between the end of the historical reconstruction and IAM initial conditions and preserving changes depicted by the IAMs in the future. The new approach builds on a similar effort from CMIP5 and is now provided at higher resolution (0.25◦ × 0.25◦) over a longer time domain (850-2100, with extensions to 2300) with more detail (including multiple crop and pasture types and associated management practices) using more input datasets (including Landsat remote sensing data) and updated algorithms (wood harvest and shifting cultivation); it is assessed via a new diagnostic package. The new LUH2 products contain > 50 times the information content of the datasets used in CMIP5 and are designed to enable new and improved estimates of the combined effects of land use on the global carbon-climate system. © Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License

Marine mammal hotspots across the circumpolar Arctic

Aim: Identify hotspots and areas of high species richness for Arctic marine mammals. Location: Circumpolar Arctic. Methods: A total of 2115 biologging devices were deployed on marine mammals from 13 species in the Arctic from 2005 to 2019. Getis-Ord Gi* hotspots were calculated based on the number of individuals in grid cells for each species and for phyloge-netic groups (nine pinnipeds, three cetaceans, all species) and areas with high spe-cies richness were identified for summer (Jun-Nov), winter (Dec-May) and the entire year. Seasonal habitat differences among species’ hotspots were investigated using Principal Component Analysis. Results: Hotspots and areas with high species richness occurred within the Arctic continental-shelf seas and within the marginal ice zone, particularly in the “Arctic gateways” of the north Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Summer hotspots were generally found further north than winter hotspots, but there were exceptions to this pattern, including bowhead whales in the Greenland-Barents Seas and species with coastal distributions in Svalbard, Norway and East Greenland. Areas with high species rich-ness generally overlapped high-density hotspots. Large regional and seasonal dif-ferences in habitat features of hotspots were found among species but also within species from different regions. Gap analysis (discrepancy between hotspots and IUCN ranges) identified species and regions where more research is required. Main conclusions: This study identified important areas (and habitat types) for Arctic marine mammals using available biotelemetry data. The results herein serve as a benchmark to measure future distributional shifts. Expanded monitoring and teleme-try studies are needed on Arctic species to understand the impacts of climate change and concomitant ecosystem changes (synergistic effects of multiple stressors). While efforts should be made to fill knowledge gaps, including regional gaps and more com-plete sex and age coverage, hotspots identified herein can inform management ef-forts to mitigate the impacts of human activities and ecological changes, including creation of protected areas

Differential cross section measurements for the production of a W boson in association with jets in proton–proton collisions at √s = 7 TeV

Measurements are reported of differential cross sections for the production of a W boson, which decays into a muon and a neutrino, in association with jets, as a function of several variables, including the transverse momenta (pT) and pseudorapidities of the four leading jets, the scalar sum of jet transverse momenta (HT), and the difference in azimuthal angle between the directions of each jet and the muon. The data sample of pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV was collected with the CMS detector at the LHC and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 fb[superscript −1]. The measured cross sections are compared to predictions from Monte Carlo generators, MadGraph + pythia and sherpa, and to next-to-leading-order calculations from BlackHat + sherpa. The differential cross sections are found to be in agreement with the predictions, apart from the pT distributions of the leading jets at high pT values, the distributions of the HT at high-HT and low jet multiplicity, and the distribution of the difference in azimuthal angle between the leading jet and the muon at low values.United States. Dept. of EnergyNational Science Foundation (U.S.)Alfred P. Sloan Foundatio

Penilaian Kinerja Keuangan Koperasi di Kabupaten Pelalawan

This paper describe development and financial performance of cooperative in District Pelalawan among 2007 - 2008. Studies on primary and secondary cooperative in 12 sub-districts. Method in this stady use performance measuring of productivity, efficiency, growth, liquidity, and solvability of cooperative. Productivity of cooperative in Pelalawan was highly but efficiency still low. Profit and income were highly, even liquidity of cooperative very high, and solvability was good

Juxtaposing BTE and ATE – on the role of the European insurance industry in funding civil litigation

One of the ways in which legal services are financed, and indeed shaped, is through private insurance arrangement. Two contrasting types of legal expenses insurance contracts (LEI) seem to dominate in Europe: before the event (BTE) and after the event (ATE) legal expenses insurance. Notwithstanding institutional differences between different legal systems, BTE and ATE insurance arrangements may be instrumental if government policy is geared towards strengthening a market-oriented system of financing access to justice for individuals and business. At the same time, emphasizing the role of a private industry as a keeper of the gates to justice raises issues of accountability and transparency, not readily reconcilable with demands of competition. Moreover, multiple actors (clients, lawyers, courts, insurers) are involved, causing behavioural dynamics which are not easily predicted or influenced. Against this background, this paper looks into BTE and ATE arrangements by analysing the particularities of BTE and ATE arrangements currently available in some European jurisdictions and by painting a picture of their respective markets and legal contexts. This allows for some reflection on the performance of BTE and ATE providers as both financiers and keepers. Two issues emerge from the analysis that are worthy of some further reflection. Firstly, there is the problematic long-term sustainability of some ATE products. Secondly, the challenges faced by policymakers that would like to nudge consumers into voluntarily taking out BTE LEI