Portocaval-Right Atrial Shunt

A shunt includes a tubular body having first and second legs at a proximal end and a third leg at a distal end. A fluid distensible balloon and cooperating insufflation conduit are carried on the tubular body. The first leg of the tubular body includes a longitudinal slit for receiving the second leg whereby the first and second legs may be positioned substantially coaxial so as to allow easier introduction of the shunt into the blood vessel of a patient. Similarly, the second leg having a longitudinally slit for receiving a portion of the cooperating insufflation conduit and also holding it in a coaxial position. A leader tube with a blunt atraumatic tip is received over the proximal end of the tubular body to further aid in the introduction of the shunt

Method of Tendon Repair

A method for repairing a transected or torn flexor or extensor tendon of a finger that has retracted proximally within its protective sheath includes the steps of: (a) visually locating a distal end of the tendon within the sheath; (b) engaging the distal end of the tendon, (c) pulling the tendon distally through the sheath to a tendon mending position; and (d) repairing the tendon

Angled Snare Assembly

A snare assembly includes an outer, flexible sheath having a distal opening and a loop received for relative sliding movement with respect to the sheath. The loop has a proximal end and a distal end. The loop is formed from a resilient wire and includes a substantially 180° reverse bend at a midpoint forming the distal end and the ends of the wire are fastened together at the proximal end. A control handle is carried on the sheath for extending and retracting the loop out of and into the sheath through the distal opening. A flexible connector connects the control handle to the proximal end of the loop

Prospects for Measuring Cosmic Microwave Background Spectral Distortions in the Presence of Foregrounds

Measurements of cosmic microwave background spectral distortions have profound implications for our understanding of physical processes taking place over a vast window in cosmological history. Foreground contamination is unavoidable in such measurements and detailed signal-foreground separation will be necessary to extract cosmological science. We present MCMC-based spectral distortion detection forecasts in the presence of Galactic and extragalactic foregrounds for a range of possible experimental configurations, focusing on the Primordial Inflation Explorer (PIXIE) as a fiducial concept. We consider modifications to the baseline PIXIE mission (operating 12 months in distortion mode), searching for optimal configurations using a Fisher approach. Using only spectral information, we forecast an extended PIXIE mission to detect the expected average non-relativistic and relativistic thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich distortions at high significance (194$\sigma$ and 11$\sigma$, respectively), even in the presence of foregrounds. The $\Lambda$CDM Silk damping $\mu$-type distortion is not detected without additional modifications of the instrument or external data. Galactic synchrotron radiation is the most problematic source of contamination in this respect, an issue that could be mitigated by combining PIXIE data with future ground-based observations at low frequencies ($\nu < 15-30$GHz). Assuming moderate external information on the synchrotron spectrum, we project an upper limit of $|\mu| < 3.6\times 10^{-7}$ (95\% c.l.), slightly more than one order of magnitude above the fiducial $\Lambda$CDM signal from the damping of small-scale primordial fluctuations, but a factor of $\simeq 250$ improvement over the current upper limit from COBE/FIRAS. This limit could be further reduced to $|\mu| < 9.4\times 10^{-8}$ (95\% c.l.) with more optimistic assumptions about low-frequency information. (Abridged)Comment: (16 pages, 11 figures, submitted to MNRAS. Fisher code available at https://github.com/mabitbol/sd_foregrounds. Updated with published version.

An Economic Risk Analysis of No-Till Rice Management from the Landlord’s Perspective

Rice production generally involves intensive cultivation. The profitability of no-till rice has been investigated but solely from the producer’s perspective. Most farmed cropland is owned by someone else. This study evaluates the risk efficiency of no-till rice from the landlord’s perspective using stochastic efficiency with respect to a function (SERF).Crop Production/Industries,

Whole Farm Economic Evaluation of No-Till Rice Production in Arkansas

Rice in Arkansas is typically produced using intensive tillage. No-till rice has been studied, but the research focus has been limited to impacts on yields and per acre net returns. This analysis evaluates the profitability of no-till rice at the whole-farm level using both enterprise budget analysis and linear programming.Crop Production/Industries,

‘The Old People had Brooms’: Yanyuwa Women, Material Culture and Resistance

This piece investigates the complex and multiple meanings associated with one piece of Australian Aboriginal material culture, a broom made by Yanyuwa woman Emalina Evans a-Wanajabi in the 1980s. Yanyuwa people constitute one nation of the myriad Aboriginal peoples of Australia, with Yanyuwa country being in the southwest Gulf of Carpentaria, in the far north of Australia. In this piece, we explore both the uses of and the meanings associated with brooms within Aboriginal and colonial contexts. Emalina a-Wanajabi’s broom stands as a testament to her response to the colonial imposition on Yanyuwa women during the assimilationist years of 1950s Australia. The broom highlights the false and essentialist rhetoric invented concerning Aboriginal identity in the eyes of the coloniser. Emalina’s experiences of welfare intervention in her early life may have contributed to her decision to manufacture this broom in her later years. Surveillance into Aboriginal home life and routine inspections conducted by welfare administrators played a role in Emalina’s formative years, as was the case for Aboriginal people in many regions of Australia. For Emalina welfare intervention resulted in the removal of two of her children during the period we call the “Stolen Generations”. Interventions into Aboriginal family life by colonial authorities, based in racialised discourses of cleanliness and domesticity, have played key roles in the colonisation of Australia and have had particular impact on Aboriginal women. Emalina’s broom therefore becomes a particularly powerful response to colonial discourses of cleanliness. Material evidence of Aboriginal women’s resistance appears less often in studies of material culture and anthropology more generally. Exploring the meanings associated with the broom as a physical manifestation of resistance allows us to recognise a significant assertion of women’s cultural identity and essential position as holder of knowledge within the Yanyuwa community, as well as their role in resisting colonisation

SPRINT SPECIFICITY FOR RUGBY AND SOCCER PLAYERS

It is well accepted that speed is a crucial factor for success in both rugby and soccer. It is less clear how to narrow down a definition of speed so that we are actually measuring the ability that is needed in a game situation. The principle of specificity indicates that the sprints that are used for training/diagnosis should mimic those that occur in a game situation. Brown (1999) reported that rugby players perform intensive efforts from 5 to 45 seconds in duration. It is not clear from this article what percentage of those efforts are sprints. Presumably some of the longer efforts would include scrummage, rucks and mauls. Docherty et al. (1988) examined results of a time analysis of international rugby games and reported that props average 22 sprints of 1.75 seconds and centers average 37 sprints of 2.3 seconds. In these times a player can travel from between 10 and 20 meters. It is clear that these shorts sprints are accelerations that do not reach the top speed of the athletes. It is common knowledge that sprinters reach their top speed well after 30 meters (Mero et al. 1992). If the distances covered by the players in a rugby game are typically under 30 meters than it is not ultimate maximum running speed of a rugby player that seems to be the critical factor, but rather acceleration, or maximum speeds at various short distances. Sayer (2000) reported that sprints performed during field sports are rarely over more than 30 meters and that most of the time players are covering less than 10 meters at a time. The analysis of rugby and soccer specific sprinting should take these factors into consideration. In addition to the distances, another important factor is direction. It has been reported (Gerisch et al. 1988) that in soccer linear sprints of up to 40 meters occur as well as non linear short sprints with turns of up to 180 degrees. Casual observation would indicate that nonlinear sprints also occur regularly during rugby games. It has also been reported (Frick et al. 1992) that sprint speed in soccer is typically tested using linear sprints between 10-40 meters. It was not clear to the authors of this paper how rugby speed is typically tested. References to both linear sprint testing and nonrinear sprint testing were found (Noakes and DuPlessis, 1996). One reason for the occurrence of nonlinear sprints in rugby and soccer is that in both rugby and soccer there are opponents from the other team that have to be avoided on the way towards the goal. To do this effectively the athlete needs the ability to either run extremely fast in a relatively straight line to run past the opposing player or to be able to change direction quickly and outmaneuver the opposing player. The ability to change directions quickly may not be the same ability as that of accelerating quickly in a straight 'iine or that of achieving a high maximum speed. Therefore purpose of this study was to: Develop nonlinear tests that include various cutting moves. To test rugby and soccer players over linear sprints and nonlinear sprints to see if the ability to accelerate over linear distances correlates well wit'h the ability to perform directional changes quickly

Advanced Cyberinfrastructure for Science, Engineering, and Public Policy

Progress in many domains increasingly benefits from our ability to view the systems through a computational lens, i.e., using computational abstractions of the domains; and our ability to acquire, share, integrate, and analyze disparate types of data. These advances would not be possible without the advanced data and computational cyberinfrastructure and tools for data capture, integration, analysis, modeling, and simulation. However, despite, and perhaps because of, advances in "big data" technologies for data acquisition, management and analytics, the other largely manual, and labor-intensive aspects of the decision making process, e.g., formulating questions, designing studies, organizing, curating, connecting, correlating and integrating crossdomain data, drawing inferences and interpreting results, have become the rate-limiting steps to progress. Advancing the capability and capacity for evidence-based improvements in science, engineering, and public policy requires support for (1) computational abstractions of the relevant domains coupled with computational methods and tools for their analysis, synthesis, simulation, visualization, sharing, and integration; (2) cognitive tools that leverage and extend the reach of human intellect, and partner with humans on all aspects of the activity; (3) nimble and trustworthy data cyber-infrastructures that connect, manage a variety of instruments, multiple interrelated data types and associated metadata, data representations, processes, protocols and workflows; and enforce applicable security and data access and use policies; and (4) organizational and social structures and processes for collaborative and coordinated activity across disciplinary and institutional boundaries.Comment: A Computing Community Consortium (CCC) white paper, 9 pages. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1604.0200