Final Project Report: Wine Suitcase

The Wine Suitcase Project was proposed by Dr. Becker to address the problem of a lack of safe and secure transportation of wine during worldwide travel. Currently, there are some solutions, like wine bottle diapers (a special bag to put a wine bottle in and catch the liquid if the bottle breaks) and an expensive wine suitcase, but a protective, insulated and cost-effective wine travel suitcase would be of great help to the wine community. This past year, our team has worked to design and produce said suitcase. The major objectives of this design are that the suitcase has to keep the bottles below the critical temperature of 70°F and safe from breaking during travel and baggage handling. Specifically, the suitcase should be able to pass the International Safe Transit Association’s (ISTA) Test Procedure 2A for Packaged-Products 150 pounds or less and keep the wine below a temperature of 70 °F for up to 36 hours [1]. The bottles should be placed in the bag at a maximum of 65 °F initially. In order for the user to know if his/her wine has been above the 70 °F mark, the design should also include a notification system or temperature tracker. Finally, the suitcase should hold up to 12 bottles of 750 mL wine and come in at a total cost of less than $350 to be competitive against current suitcase designs. The suitcase also needs to be able to hold at least one case of wine (12 bottles) of various sizes. According to these objectives and requirements, a wine suitcase was designed and fabricated using a hard-shell suitcase, foam, insulation and a temperature sensor. Specifically, the hard-shell suitcase and the foam padding satisfied the safety requirement for the bottles and for the temperature stability requirement, the insulation was added as a layer between the foam and suitcase shell. Additionally, in order to communicate to the user what the temperature of the wine is inside the suitcase, the team added a handheld sensor device with Bluetooth capabilities. After fabrication, 7 tests were performed to evaluate the success of the design against the requirements: bottle physical protection test, bottle quantity test, bottle thermal protection test, weight of suitcase test, size of suitcase test, ThermoplusTM temperature sensor test and a heat transfer simulation test. The team was unable to perform the thermal protection test due to the displacement from San Antonio from COVID-19. Each of the other 6 tests were performed and resulted in a success and satisfied their appropriate requirement. The heat transfer simulation test was added after the displacement from COVID-19 to offset the inability to perform the thermal test in person. The thermal simulation test was run to focus on the most critical 15-minute time-frame of the travel journey where the suitcase may be held in direct sunlight. At all other times, the suitcase will be in the cargo hold or inside the air-conditioned airport. While the simulation is not the same as an in-person test, we can still use it as a good measure of the thermal protection capabilities of our design and were satisfied with the passing results. Overall, once the temperature sensor has been installed, we assert that the Wine Suitcase that was fabricated before displacement will be a fully functioning device that can safely transport wine due to the successes of our testing

Beetroot Juice Does Not Enhance Altitude Running Performance in Well-Trained Athletes

We hypothesized that acute dietary nitrate (NO3-) provided as concentrated beetroot juice supplement would improve endurance running performance of well-trained runners in normobaric hypoxia. Ten male runners (mean (SD): sea level V�O2max 66 (7) mL.kg^-1.min^-1, 10 km personal best 36 (2) min) completed incremental exercise to exhaustion at 4000 m and a 10 km treadmill time trial at 2500 m simulated altitude on separate days, after supplementation with ~7 mmol NO3- and a placebo, 2.5 h before exercise. Oxygen cost, arterial oxygen saturation, heart rate and ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) were determined during the incremental exercise test. Differences between treatments were determined using means [95% confidence intervals], paired sample t-tests and a probability of individual response analysis. NO3- supplementation increased plasma [nitrite] (NO3-, 473 (226) nM vs. placebo, 61 (37) nM, P < 0.001) but did not alter time to exhaustion during the incremental test (NO3-, 402 (80) s vs. placebo 393 (62) s, P = 0.5) or time to complete the 10 km time trial (NO3-, 2862 (233) s vs. placebo, 2874 (265) s, P = 0.6). Further, no practically meaningful beneficial effect on time trial performance was observed as the 11 [-60 to 38] s improvement was less than the a priori determined minimum important difference (51 s), and only three runners experienced a ´likely, probable´ performance improvement. NO3- also did not alter oxygen cost, arterial oxygen saturation, heart rate or RPE. Acute dietary NO3- supplementation did not consistently enhance running performance of well-trained athletes in normobaric hypoxia

Ramanujan and Extensions and Contractions of Continued Fractions

If a continued fraction $K_{n=1}^{\infty} a_{n}/b_{n}$ is known to converge but its limit is not easy to determine, it may be easier to use an extension of $K_{n=1}^{\infty}a_{n}/b_{n}$ to find the limit. By an extension of $K_{n=1}^{\infty} a_{n}/b_{n}$ we mean a continued fraction $K_{n=1}^{\infty} c_{n}/d_{n}$ whose odd or even part is $K_{n=1}^{\infty} a_{n}/b_{n}$. One can then possibly find the limit in one of three ways: (i) Prove the extension converges and find its limit; (ii) Prove the extension converges and find the limit of the other contraction (for example, the odd part, if $K_{n=1}^{\infty}a_{n}/b_{n}$ is the even part); (ii) Find the limit of the other contraction and show that the odd and even parts of the extension tend to the same limit. We apply these ideas to derive new proofs of certain continued fraction identities of Ramanujan and to prove a generalization of an identity involving the Rogers-Ramanujan continued fraction, which was conjectured by Blecksmith and Brillhart.Comment: 16 page

Deeply Christian and serving the common good? A survey of Anglican cathedral provision for schools

The Church of England’s vision for education is generous and seeks to allow the riches of Christian life to overflow throughout schools. The vision is captured by the strapline ‘Deeply Christian, serving the common good’. The present study assesses the contribution made to service this vision by the 43 Anglican cathedrals within England and the Isle of Man. Drawing on a careful analysis of information presented by the websites of these cathedrals, the study concluded that all 43 Anglican cathedrals dedicated considerable space on their websites to a regular programme of teaching and learning provision across the age range from early years foundation stage to sixth-form, relevant to a range of curriculum areas, and giving attention to pupils’ personal development and well-being

Modelling of Weibull distributions in brittle solids using 2-dimensional peridynamics

Peridynamics is a continuum mechanics modelling method, which offers advantages over traditional continuum methods when modelling brittle fracture. Brittle fracture typically follows a Weibull fracture distribution, but this behaviour is not well represented in bond-based peridynamics using a single valued bond failure stretch. In order to recreate specific Weibull-type behaviour in bond-based peridynamics, consideration must be given to scaling the distribution to account for the size of peridynamics bonds. Care must also be taken to avoid (wherever possible) non-physical crack arrest, caused by the variations in fracture toughness in the model, distorting the distributions. In this work a method for recreating a variety of Weibull distributions is outlined, based on applying Weibull-type bond behaviour only to surface bonds, including a transition zone across one horizon. The method is shown to be insensitive to variations in mesh refinement

Enhancing inclusivity and diversity among cathedral visitors: the Brecon Jazz Festival and psychographic segmentation

A series of previous studies concerned with the psychographic segmentation of visitors to six cathedrals across England and Wales, employing psychological type theory, reported highly similar results, suggesting that cathedrals had a well-defined, but somewhat restricted appeal. Several cathedrals are attempting to widen their appeal by engaging a variety of events or exhibitions. Taking one specific example, the Brecon Jazz Festival, the present study found that 196 visitors to Brecon Cathedral during this period differed significantly from the standard psychological type profile of cathedral visitors in two ways. There were significantly more intuitive types (41% compared with 28%) and significantly more perceiving types (27% compared with 20%). These findings demonstrate that specific events have the capacity to widen the psychographic appeal of cathedrals

Disks, Tori, and Cocoons: Emission and Absorption Diagnostics of AGN Environments

One of the most important problems in the study of active galaxies is understanding the detailed geometry, physics, and evolution of the central engines and their environments. The leading models involve an accretion disk and torus structure around a central dense object, thought to be a supermassive black hole. Gas found in the environment of AGN is associated with different structures: molecular accretion disks, larger scale atomic tori, ionized and neutral "cocoons" in which the nuclear regions can be embedded. All of them can be studied at radio wavelengths by various means. Here, we summarize the work that has been done to date in the radio band to characterize these structures. Much has been learned about the central few parsecs of AGN in the last few decades with contemporary instruments but the picture remains incomplete. In order to be able to define a more accurate model of this region, significant advances in sensitivity, spectral and angular resolution, and bandpass stability are required. The necessary advances will only be provided by the Square Kilometer Array and we discuss the possibilities that these dramatic improvements will open for the study of the gas in the central region of AGN.Comment: To appear in "Science with the Square Kilometer Array," eds. C. Carilli and S. Rawlings, New Astronomy Reviews (Elsevier: Amsterdam); 17 pages, 7 figures (four of them in separate gif/tif files) The full paper with high resolution images can be downloaded from http://www.astron.nl/~morganti/Papers/AGNenvironment.ps.g

Measuring the bulk impedance of brain tissue in vitro

Theoretical and numerical models of brain activity suggest a link between seizures and electrical connectivity. We have therefore been motivated to measure electrical conductivity in brain tissue. Such measurements in vitro are difficult; it is necessary to use a conductive inorganic salt solution, artificial cerebrospinal fluid (ACSF), to keep the tissue alive. We have attempted to provide a robust method to make such measurements. Mouse brain tissue was sliced (400 μm) using established methods. Half the slices were placed in standard ACSF; half were placed in ACSF devoid of magnesium ions. The latter case promotes seizure activity. Electrical activity was measured with a tungsten electrode at various places on the slices. Sixty-nine samples of cortex (2 mm × 2 mm) were cut with a razor. Their areas were measured with a calibrated microscope. Each sample was placed between two flat Ag/AgCl electrodes in a Perspex sandwich. Excess ACSF was removed with filter paper. The impedance was measured at 25°C from 20 Hz to 2 MHz with an Agilent E4980A four-point impedance meter in a shielded room, using a low current. Between 1 kHz and 100 kHz the conductivity was approximately 0.2 S m⁻¹; outside this range dispersion occurred. Samples prepared in the magnesium-free ACSF had a conductivity about 10% lower. The Cole-Cole model of conductivity was fitted. There were few significant differences between the parameters for the different groups measured

Spectral flow and boundary string field theory for angled D-branes

D-branes intersecting at an arbitrary fixed angle generically constitute a configuration unstable toward recombination. The reconnection of the branes nucleates at the intersection point and involves a generalization of the process of brane decay of interest to non-perturbative string dynamics as well as cosmology. After reviewing the string spectrum of systems of angled branes, we show that worldsheet twist superfields may be used in the context of Boundary Superstring Field Theory to describe the dynamics. Changing the angle between the branes is seen from the worldsheet as spectral flow with boundary insertions flowing from bosonic to fermionic operators. We calculate the complete tachyon potential and the low energy effective action as a function of angle and find an expression that interpolates between the brane-antibrane and the Dirac-Born-Infeld actions. The potential captures the mechanism of D-brane recombination and provides for interesting new physics for tachyon decay.Comment: 32 pages, 9 figures; v2 references added; v3 discussion clarifie

Mask formulas for cograssmannian Kazhdan-Lusztig polynomials

We give two contructions of sets of masks on cograssmannian permutations that can be used in Deodhar's formula for Kazhdan-Lusztig basis elements of the Iwahori-Hecke algebra. The constructions are respectively based on a formula of Lascoux-Schutzenberger and its geometric interpretation by Zelevinsky. The first construction relies on a basis of the Hecke algebra constructed from principal lower order ideals in Bruhat order and a translation of this basis into sets of masks. The second construction relies on an interpretation of masks as cells of the Bott-Samelson resolution. These constructions give distinct answers to a question of Deodhar.Comment: 43 page