Optimum maneuvers of hypervelocity vehicles

Optimum maneuvering of glide vehicle at hypersonic speed

Brief Report: Exercise and Anxiety in Adults with Arthritis and Other Rheumatic Diseases: Support for Evidential Value

Objective. Given the high prevalence of anxiety in adults with arthritis and other rheumatic diseases (AORD) and the subsequent need for interventions to reduce anxiety, this brief report sought to determine if evidential value exists to support the role of exercise for reducing anxiety in adults with AORD. Methods. Utilizing data from a prior meta-analysis, a recently developed approach, P- curve, was used to determine evidential value by assessing for publication bias and p-hacking. Binomial tests as well as the more robust Stouffer’s test were used to examine for evidential value. To examine the influence of selected studies on p-curve results, findings were also examined by dropping the highest and lowest p values from the analysis. Results. The binomial test for evidential value was not statistically significant (p = 0.11) while the more robust Stouffer’s test satisfied both conditions for evidential value (p = 0.002). Power analyses suggested a good fit for the observed p-curve. Results were generally robust when the least and most extreme values were excluded. Conclusions. The results of this study provide evidential support for the benefits of exercise on anxiety in adults with AORD

Clinical relevance of Tai Chi on pain and physical function in adults with knee osteoarthritis: An ancillary meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

The clinical relevance of Tai Chi on pain, stiffness, and physical function in adults with knee osteoarthritis (KOA) has not been established. Therefore, the purpose of the current study was to address this gap. Eight randomized controlled trials from a recent meta-analysis representing 407 participants (216 Tai Chi, 191 control) in adults ≥18 years of age with KOA and included the assessment of pain, stiffness, and physical function using the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Arthritis Index (WOMAC) were assessed. The inverse variance heterogeneity model (IVhet) was first used to pool standardized mean difference effect sizes (ES) for each outcome. Clinical relevance, i.e., number-needed-to treat (NNT) ≤10 and relative risk reduction (RRR) ≥25% was calculated across assumed controlled risks (ACR) ranging from 0.01 to 0.99. Statistically significant improvements were found for pain (ES, −0.75, 95% CI, −0.99, −0.51; Q = 8.9, p = 0.26; I2 = 21%), stiffness (ES, −0.70, 95% CI, −0.95, −0.46; Q = 9.6, p = 0.21; I2 = 27%), and physical function (ES, −0.91, 95% CI, −1.12, −0.70; Q = 7.2, p = 0.40; I2 = 3%). The intersection of results for a NNT ≤10 and RRR ≥25% yielded high evidence and clinically relevant improvements across a wide range of ACR for pain (0.15 to 0.88), stiffness (0.15 to 0.87), and physical function (0.13 to 0.97). These findings suggest that Tai Chi results in statistically significant as well as clinically important improvements in pain, stiffness, and physical function across a wide range of ACR in adults with KOA

Improving Access to Precipitation Data for GIS Users: Designing for Ease of Use

The Global Precipitation Measurement Mission (GPM) is a NASA/JAXA led international mission to configure a constellation of space-based radiometers to monitor precipitation over the globe. The GPM goal of making global 3-hour precipitation products available in near real-time will make such global products more useful to a broader community of modelers and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) users than is currently the case with remote sensed precipitation products. Based on the existing interest to make Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) data available to a growing community of GIS users as well as what will certainly be an expanded community during the GPM era, it is clear that data systems must make a greater effort to provide data in formats easily used by GIS. We describe precipitation GIS products being developed for TRMM data. These products will serve as prototypes for production efforts during the GPM era. We describe efforts to convert TRMM precipitation data to GeoTIFF, Shapefile, and ASCII grid. Clearly, our goal is to format GPM data so that it can be easily used within GIS applications. We desire feedback on these efforts and any additions or direction changes that should be undertaken by the data system

TRMM Version 7 Level 3 Gridded Monthly Accumulations of GPROF Precipitation Retrievals

In July 2011, improved versions of the retrieval algorithms were approved for TRMM. All data starting with June 2011 are produced only with the version 7 code. At the same time, version 7 reprocessing of all TRMM mission data was started. By the end of August 2011, the 14+ years of the reprocessed mission data became available online to users. This reprocessing provided the opportunity to redo and enhance upon an analysis of V7 impacts on L3 data accumulations that was presented at the 2010 EGU General Assembly. This paper will discuss the impact of algorithm changes made in th GPROF retrieval on the Level 2 swath products. Perhaps the most important change in that retrieval was to replacement of a model based a priori database with one created from Precipitation Radar (PR) and TMI brightness temperature (Tb) data. The radar pays a major role in the V7 GPROF (GPROF2010) in determining existence of rain. The level 2 retrieval algorithm also introduced a field providing the probability of rain. This combined use of the PR has some impact on the retrievals and created areas, particularly over ocean, where many areas of low-probability precipitation are retrieved whereas in version 6, these areas contained zero rain rates. This paper will discuss how these impacts get translated to the space/time averaged monthly products that use the GPROF retrievals. The level 3 products discussed are the gridded text product 3G68 and the standard 3A12 and 3B31 products. The paper provides an overview of the changes and explanation of how the level 3 products dealt with the change in the retrieval approach. Using the .25 deg x .25 degree grid, the paper will show that agreement between the swath product and the level 3 remains very high. It will also present comparisons of V6 and V7 GPROF retrievals as seen both at the swath level and the level 3 time/space gridded accumulations. It will show that the various L3 products based on GPROF level 2 retrievals are in close agreement. The paper concludes by outlining some of the challenges of the TRMM version 7 level 3 products

Fault Slip and Exhumation History of the Willard Thrust Sheet, Sevier Fold‐Thrust Belt, Utah: Relations to Wedge Propagation, Hinterland Uplift, and Foreland Basin Sedimentation

Zircon (U‐Th)/He (ZHe) and zircon fission track thermochronometric data for 47 samples spanning the areally extensive Willard thrust sheet within the western part of the Sevier fold‐thrust belt record enhanced cooling and exhumation during major thrust slip spanning approximately 125–90 Ma. ZHe and zircon fission track age‐paleodepth patterns along structural transects and age‐distance relations along stratigraphic‐parallel traverses, combined with thermo‐kinematic modeling, constrain the fault slip history, with estimated slip rates of ~1 km/Myr from 125 to 105 Ma, increasing to ~3 km/Myr from 105 to 92 Ma, and then decreasing as major slip was transferred onto eastern thrusts. Exhumation was concentrated during motion up thrust ramps with estimated erosion rates of ~0.1 to 0.3 km/Myr. Local cooling ages of approximately 160–150 Ma may record a period of regional erosion, or alternatively an early phase of limited... (see full abstract in article)

Collisional damping rates for plasma waves

The distinction between the plasma dynamics dominated by collisional transport versus collective processes has never been rigorously addressed until recently. A recent paper [Yoon et al., Phys. Rev. E 93, 033203 (2016)] formulates for the first time, a unified kinetic theory in which collective processes and collisional dynamics are systematically incorporated from first principles. One of the outcomes of such a formalism is the rigorous derivation of collisional damping rates for Langmuir and ion-acoustic waves, which can be contrasted to the heuristic customary approach. However, the results are given only in formal mathematical expressions. The present Brief Communication numerically evaluates the rigorous collisional damping rates by considering the case of plasma particles with Maxwellian velocity distribution function so as to assess the consequence of the rigorous formalism in a quantitative manner. Comparison with the heuristic ("Spitzer") formula shows that the accurate damping rates are much lower in magnitude than the conventional expression, which implies that the traditional approach over-estimates the importance of attenuation of plasma waves by collisional relaxation process. Such a finding may have a wide applicability ranging from laboratory to space and astrophysical plasmas.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures; Published in Physics of Plasmas, volume/Issue 23/6. Publisher: AIP Publishing LLC. Date: Jun 1, 2016. URL: http://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/1.4953802 Rights managed by AIP Publishing LL