Sweep activity: managing bank reserves in the Seventh District

This article examines the evolution of retail sweep programs at banks throughout the Seventh Federal Reserve District. Such programs help banks reduce their reserve requirements, freeing up funds for investment.Bank reserves

Supercritical Water Gasification and Pyrolysis – Cleaning up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

This research paper is a comparative meta-analysis of gasification of hydrocarbons in supercritical water, specifically concerning the great pacific garbage patch (GPGP). The research explores two ways to clean up the GPGP while also harnessing the waste as biofuel. This research compares the environmental and economic outcomes between supercritical water gasification and pyrolysis. I will be comparing which thermochemical process of converting hydro-pollution into usable, methane-rich gas is most economically beneficial and environmentally sustainable. The relevance of this use of plastic refuse is that it would not just be diverted to a different landfill or back right where it started in the first place, but rather serve a new purpose: A source of energy that will not run out quickly. The application of this to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) is that this process can be used to clean up the material and give an economic incentive to do so by harnessing energy from the broken-down materials. (Bai, 2019) This is relevant to the GPGP because the materials are not all solids. The GPGP is not a giant solid object floating through the pacific gyre. The Patch is primarily supercritical water and a mixture of water-soluble/broken-down microplastics floating in the east, west, and the subtropical convergence zone of the Pacific Ocean. This breakdown of chemicals makes a thick gelatinous-like material. Because the material is viscous in nature, it is much easier for fish to get caught in the matrix of the supercritical water, consume the material as if it were food, or simply ingest it into their diet – affecting their offspring and the food we eat. Both of these ways of harnessing the energy from the waste tie back to the main problem of cleaning up the GPGP without causing further harm to the environment and solving a growing issue. (Gilsam, 2021) The benefits of cleaning up the GPGP outweigh the negatives. Human health, migration patterns in marine life, economic opportunity, and sustainable energy consumption are just a few of the many ways that this topic can affect everyone, whether they live in a land-locked state like Nebraska, or they are over 50% of the population of the world that lives by a coast

Geochronology of the middle Eocene Purple Bench locality (Devil’s Graveyard Formation), Trans-Pecos Texas, USA

Purple Bench is a middle Eocene fossil locality in the Devil’s Graveyard Formation of the Trans-Pecos region of West Texas. In addition to yielding a range of taxa characteristic of the Uintan North American Land Mammal Age, the Purple Bench locality is noteworthy in documenting a number of endemic species that are known only from the site. Despite the Uintan character of the mammalian fauna, the absolute age of Purple Bench is a matter of debate. This uncertainty stems from the wide interval of time encompassed by current radiometric dates bracketing the Purple Bench locality and from conflicting magnetostratigraphic correlations in the Devil’s Graveyard Formation. This study constrains the absolute age of the Purple Bench locality through detrital zircon U-Pb geochronological analyses. For these analyses, 147 new detrital zircon U-Pb ages were collected from five tuffaceous sandstones and reworked tuff horizons and analyzed via Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICPMS). These new detrital zircon U-Pb geochronological analyses suggest a maximum depositional age of 43.7 +0.8 / -0.2 Ma for the Purple Bench tuff, a significant marker horizon immediately below the Purple Bench locality. These new maximum depositional age dates presented here provide constraints on the true depositional age of the lower and middle members of the Devil’s Graveyard Formation, bringing clarity to the previously ambiguous age of the fossil-bearing Purple Bench locality. The age constraints presented here also aid the characterization of the temporally and spatially variable Uintan North American Land Mammal Age

Higher Rates of Head Contacts, Body Checking, and Suspected Injuries in Ringette Than Female Ice Hockey:Time to Ring in Opportunities for Prevention

Objective: Ringette is a popular team ice sport in Canada, primarily played by females. Bodychecking is prohibited at all levels of play. This study used video-analysis to evaluate physical contact (PC), head contact (HC), and suspected injury and concussion incidence rates (IR) in youth ringette. Study Design: Cross-sectional. Subjects: Youth ringette players from the 2021-2022 season playing in the U16 (ages 14-15) or U19 (ages 16-18) age groups (A or AA levels). Games were filmed from regular season, provincials, and nationals (AA only). Observation Technique: Game video-recordings were analyzed using Dartfish video-analysis software. Validated criteria were used to assess trunk PC intensity (levels 1-3=lower-intensity PC, levels 4-5=higher-intensity bodychecking), HC type (HC1=direct player-to-player, HC2=indirect), suspected injury (concussion, non-concussion), and penalty enforcement. Outcome Measures: Multivariable Poisson regression analyses (adjusted for cluster by teamgame, offset by game-minutes) were used to estimate PC, HC, and suspected injury and concussion IRs. Incidence rate ratios (IRR) were used to compare IR across age groups, levels of play, and game types. Proportions of bodychecks and HC1s penalized were reported. Results: Seventy-eight team-games were included (U16 n=40, U19 n=38; A n=30, AA n=48; regular season n=30, provincials n=32, nationals n=16). The overall bodychecking IR was 17.34/100 team-minutes (95% CI:14.80-20.33), HC 19.09/100 team-minutes (95% CI:16.7421.78), suspected injury 1.53/100 team-minutes (95% CI:1.13-2.09), and suspected concussion 0.74/100 team-minutes (95% CI:0.48-1.13). Only 29% (95% CI:24.97-32.59) of bodychecks and 7% (95% CI:4.76-9.70) of HC1s were penalized. No differences were found in bodychecking, HCs, or suspected injury and concussion IRs between age groups or levels of play. Bodychecking IRs were 64% (IRR=1.64; 95% CI:1.13-2.39) higher in provincials and 24% (IRR=1.24; 95% CI:1.02-1.50) higher in nationals than regular season games. A 31% (IRR=0.69; 95% CI:0.49-0.97) lower rate of HCs was reported in national games compared to provincial games. Bodychecking was the most common mechanism for concussion (70%) and nonconcussion injuries (67%), with concussions most often associated with HC2s (62.5%). Conclusions: Bodychecking and HC1 IRs were high among youth ringette players, despite rules prohibiting them. Future research should target prevention strategies aimed to reduce HC1s and bodychecking to reduce injury and concussion IRs in youth ringette

Feature-specific terrain park-injury rates and risk factors in snowboarders : a case–control study

Background : Snowboarding is a popular albeit risky sport and terrain park (TP) injuries are more severe than regular slope injuries. TPs contain man-made features that facilitate aerial manoeuvres. The objectives of this study were to determine overall and feature-specific injury rates and the potential risk factors for TP injuries. Methods : Case–control study with exposure estimation, conducted in an Alberta TP during two ski seasons. Cases were snowboarders injured in the TP who presented to ski patrol and/or local emergency departments. Controls were uninjured snowboarders in the same TP. κ Statistics were used to measure the reliability of reported risk factor information. Injury rates were calculated and adjusted logistic regression was used to calculate the feature-specific odds of injury. Results : Overall, 333 cases and 1261 controls were enrolled. Reliability of risk factor information was κ>0.60 for 21/24 variables. The overall injury rate was 0.75/1000 runs. Rates were highest for jumps and half-pipe (both 2.56/1000 runs) and lowest for rails (0.43/1000 runs) and quarter-pipes (0.24/1000 runs). Compared with rails, there were increased odds of injury for half-pipe (OR 9.63; 95% CI 4.80 to 19.32), jumps (OR 4.29; 95% CI 2.72 to 6.76), mushroom (OR 2.30; 95% CI 1.20 to 4.41) and kickers (OR 1.99; 95% CI 1.27 to 3.12). Conclusions : Higher feature-specific injury rates and increased odds of injury were associated with features that promote aerial manoeuvres or a large drop to the ground. Further research is required to determine ways to increase snowboarder safety in the TP

Comparing the characteristics of snowboarders injured in a terrain park who present to the ski patrol, the emergency department or both

Ski patrol report forms are a common data source in ski/snowboard research, but it is unclear if those who only present to the emergency department (ED) are systematically different from those who see the ski patrol. To determine the proportion and characteristics of injured snowboarders who bypass the ski patrol before presenting to the ED, three groups of injured snowboarders were compared: presented to the ED only, ski patrol only and ski patrol and ED. Data were collected from ski patrol Accident Report Forms (ARFs), ED medical records and telephone interviews. There were 333 injured snowboarders (ED only: 34, ski patrol only: 107, both: 192). Ability, time of day, snow conditions or drugs/alcohol predicted ED only presentation. Concussions (RRR: 4.66; 95% CI: 1.83, 11.90), sprains/strains (RRR: 4.22; 95% CI: 1.87, 9.49), head/neck (RRR: 2.90; 95% CI: 1.48, 5.78), trunk (RRR: 4.17; 95% CI: 1.92, 9.09) or lower extremity (RRR: 3.65; 95% CI: 1.32, 10.07) injuries were significantly more likely to present to ski patrol only versus ski patrol and ED. In conclusion, snowboarders who presented to the ED only had similar injuries as those who presented to both

Characteristics of injuries sustained by snowboarders in a terrain park

Abstract OBJECTIVE: To determine injured body regions and injury type resulting from snowboarding on aerial and nonaerial terrain park features and the accuracy of ski patrol assessments compared with physician diagnoses. DESIGN: Case series study. SETTING: An Alberta terrain park during the 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 seasons. PATIENTS: There were 333 snowboarders injured on features (379 injuries). ASSESSMENT OF RISK FACTORS: Aerial or nonaerial terrain park feature used at injury, injured body region, injury type, and additional risk factors were recorded from ski patrol Accident Report Forms, emergency department medical records, and telephone interviews. MEASURES: Odds of injury to body regions and injury types on aerial versus nonaerial features were calculated using multinomial logistic regression. Accuracy of ski patrol injury assessments was examined through sensitivity, specificity, and kappa (κ) statistics. RESULTS: The wrist was the most commonly injured body region (20%), and fracture was the most common injury type (36%). Compared with the upper extremity, the odds of head/neck [odds ratio (OR), 2.58; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.37-4.85] and trunk (OR, 3.65; 95% CI, 1.68-7.95) injuries were significantly greater on aerial features. There was no significant association between aerial versus nonaerial feature and injury type. The accuracy of ski patrol injury assessment was higher for injured body region (κ = 0.65; 95% CI, 0.54-0.75) than for injury type (κ = 0.29; 95% CI, 0.22-0.37). CONCLUSIONS: Snowboarders were significantly more likely to sustain head/neck or trunk injuries than upper extremity injuries on aerial features. Investigators should acknowledge potential misclassification when using ski patrol injury assessments

Proton Elastic and Inelastic Scattering at Intermediate Energies from Isotopes of Oxygen and 9-Be as Part of a Unified Study of These Nuclei

This work was supported by National Science Foundation Grants PHY 76-84033A01, PHY 78-22774, and Indiana Universit

Can the Weak Surface Currents of the Cape Verde Frontal Zone Be Measured With Altimetry?

Three data types are compared in the low-current-velocity regime in the southeastern North Atlantic, between 12-degrees-N and 30-degrees-N, 29-degrees-W and 18-degrees-W: Geosat altimetric sea level and derived surface geostrophic velocities, shallow current meter velocities, and dynamic heights derived from hydrographic data from cruises 4, 6, and 9 of the research vessel Meteor. The four current meter daily time series, at depths around 200 m, were smoothed over 1 month; the altimetric geostrophic velocities were computed from sea surface slopes over 142 km every 17 days. The correlation coefficients between the current meter and altimetric geostrophic velocities range between 0.64 and 0.90 for the moorings near 29-degrees-N but between 0.32 and 0.71 for the two around 21-degrees-N; the associated rms discrepancies between the two measurement types range between 1.5 and 4.4 cm/s, which is 49% to 127% of the rms of the respective current meter time series. Dynamic heights relative to 1950 dbar for the months of November 1986 (d(M4)), November 1987 (d(M6)), and February 1989 (d(M9)) were computed from Meteor cruises 4, 6, and 9. Both dynamic heights and altimetric heights (h(M4), h(M6), h(M9)) were averaged over 1-degrees boxes for the duration of each cruise. Differences d(M4) - d(M6) and d(M9) - d(M6) were computed only at bins where at least one station from both cruises existed, Assuming that dynamic heights d in dynamic centimeters are equivalent to sea level h in centimeters, the standard deviation sigma of the differences ((h(M4) - h(M6)) - (d(M4) - d(M6))) and corresponding M9 - M6 values was 2.1 cm. This value (squared) is only 13% of the (5.8 cm)2 variance of the dynamic height differences and is indistinguishable from the 2.7- to 5.6-cm natural variability of sea level in the area expected between the times when the ship and the satellite sampled the ocean. The areally averaged discrepancy for M9 - M6 was only 0.7 cm, but the corresponding value for M4 - M6 was 5.2 cm. A systematic difference between the water vapor corrections used before and after July 1987 is responsible for the M4 - M6 difference. The average M4 - M6 discrepancy is only 0.1 cm using the Fleet Numerical Oceanography Center correction, with a standard deviation of 3.1 cm. In spite of the underlying differences in sampling and physics, including unknown barotropic components not included in our hydrographic dynamic heights, and in data errors, including water vapor, ionospheric, and orbital effects on the altimetry, consistent interannual changes of the mean sea level from the independently obtained altimetric and hydrographic data sets are obtained, and correlated seasonal changes in surface currents are observed with both altimetry and current meters