Integrated optimization of nonlinear R/C frames with reliability constraints

A structural optimization algorithm was researched including global displacements as decision variables. The algorithm was applied to planar reinforced concrete frames with nonlinear material behavior submitted to static loading. The flexural performance of the elements was evaluated as a function of the actual stress-strain diagrams of the materials. Formation of rotational hinges with strain hardening were allowed and the equilibrium constraints were updated accordingly. The adequacy of the frames was guaranteed by imposing as constraints required reliability indices for the members, maximum global displacements for the structure and a maximum system probability of failure

An Educational History of the Gullahs of Coastal South Carolina from 1700 to 1900 (black Education)

The educational efforts of the first fifty years of the 1700s for the Gullahs, black slaves brought to South Carolina\u27s low country, were a by-product of the Church of England\u27s concern for the souls of heathens. Through the Church\u27s offspring, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, missionaries were sent to South Carolina beginning in 1702. By 1704, Samuel Thomas, the Society\u27s first missionary there, reported that he had taught about twenty blacks to read, and by 1743 the Society opened a school for blacks in Charleston despite a 1740 law prohibiting slave education. Using two black slaves as teachers, the Society\u27s school continued until 1764, graduating about twenty students a year. After the Revolutionary War, the free person of color population grew in numbers and influence, establishing the Brown Fellowship Society, the first non-white benevolent society in Charleston. One of its activities was the education of members\u27 children. Other societies followed suit, and by 1834 there were dozens of private schools in Charleston for free persons of color. While an 1834 law created additional restrictions on the education of the free persons of color, many private schools continued to operate. As early as 1861, teachers from the North, under the auspices of freedmen aid societies, arrived in the sea islands to help the blacks adjust to their new status. In 1865, their efforts were coordinated by the federal government under the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands. With a new state constitution in 1868, the public schools of South Carolina were reorganized. Although tremendous gains were made, by 1870, the majority of the black students were still studying only spelling and reading. After the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision which created a separate but equal school system, the actual situation was anything but equal, with black schools in session a shorter term and a higher pupil-teacher ratio for black students. The education of the Gullahs from 1700 to 1900 was the result of compromise, and the blacks suffered from a lack of educational opportunities, not a lack of intellectual abilities

SIZING OPTIMIZATION.

A method for structural member sizing optimization to be used for designing planar frames is presented. The procedure is based on the Augmented Lagrangian Multiplier method. The algorithm includes the displacements as state variables and consequently combines the analysis and the search for the optimal section properties into a single step. This combination process avoids the usual cycling between analysis and optimization phases. The width and height of rectangular elements are chosen from a finite compact set. The static equilibrium equations are treated as equality constraints eliminating the need to solve the standard structural analysis problem. The method handles displacement and stress limits as inequality constraints. Comparisons of performance and results are made with other optimization techniques

Supplementing the PICA: The Effects of Language Sampling on Intervention Strategies

TB

Measuring the Impact of an Individual Course on Students' Success

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/95653/1/j.2168-9830.2009.tb01032.x.pd

Resting pulmonary haemodynamics and shunting: a comparison of sea-level inhabitants to high altitude Sherpas

The incidence of blood flow through intracardiac shunt and intrapulmonary arteriovenous anastomoses (IPAVA) may differ between Sherpas permanently residing at high altitude (HA) and sea-level (SL) inhabitants as a result of evolutionary pressure to improve gas exchange and/or resting pulmonary haemodynamics. To test this hypothesis we compared sea-level inhabitants at SL (SL-SL; n = 17), during acute isocapnic hypoxia (SL-HX; n = 7) and following 3 weeks at 5050 m (SL-HA; n = 8 non-PFO subjects) to Sherpas at 5050 m (n = 14). inline image, heart rate, pulmonary artery systolic pressure (PASP) and cardiac index (Qi) were measured during 5 min of room air breathing at SL and HA, during 20 min of isocapnic hypoxia (SL-HX; inline image = 47 mmHg) and during 5 min of hyperoxia (inline image = 1.0; Sherpas only). Intracardiac shunt and IPAVA blood flow was evaluated by agitated saline contrast echocardiography. Although PASP was similar between groups at HA (Sherpas: 30.0 ± 6.0 mmHg; SL-HA: 32.7 ± 4.2 mmHg; P = 0.27), it was greater than SL-SL (19.4 ± 2.1 mmHg; P < 0.001). The proportion of subjects with intracardiac shunt was similar between groups (SL-SL: 41%; Sherpas: 50%). In the remaining subjects, IPAVA blood flow was found in 100% of subjects during acute isocapnic hypoxia at SL, but in only 4 of 7 Sherpas and 1 of 8 SL-HA subjects at rest. In conclusion, differences in resting pulmonary vascular regulation, intracardiac shunt and IPAVA blood flow do not appear to account for any adaptation to HA in Sherpas. Despite elevated pulmonary pressures and profound hypoxaemia, IPAVA blood flow in all subjects at HA was lower than expected compared to acute normobaric hypoxia

Left atrial diameter, left ventricle filling indices, and association with all-cause mortality: Results from the population-based Tromsø Study.

AIMS: To examine the associations between diastolic dysfunction indices and long-term risk of all-cause mortality in adults over 23-year follow-up. METHODS AND RESULTS: Participants (n = 2734) of the population-based Tromsø Study of Norway had echocardiography in 1994-1995. Of these 67% were repeated in 2001 and/or 2007-2008. Mortality between 1994 and 2016 was determined by linkage to the national death registry. Cox regression was used to model the hazard of all-cause mortality in relation to left atrial parameters (treated as time-dependent using repeated measurements) adjusted for traditional risk factors and cardiovascular disease. During the follow-up, 1399 participants died. Indexed left atrial diameter, mitral peak E deceleration time, and mitral peak E to peak A ratio showed an U-shaped association with all-cause mortality. Combining left atrial diameter with mitral peak E deceleration time increased the prognostic accuracy for all-cause mortality whereas adding mitral peak E to peak A ratio did not increase prognostic value. We estimated new optimal cutoff values of left atrial diameter, mitral peak E deceleration time, and mitral peak E to peak A ratio for all-cause mortality outcome. E/e' had a cubic relation to mortality. CONCLUSION: Both enlarged and small left atrial diameters were associated with increased all-cause mortality risk. A combination of Doppler-based left ventricle filling parameters had an incremental effect on all-cause mortality risk. The cutoff values of diastolic dysfunction indices we determined had similar all-cause mortality prediction ability as those recommended by American Association of Echocardiography and European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging