Interaction of two tributary glacier branches and implications for surge behavior

Thesis (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2018A glacier surge is a dynamic phenomenon where the glacier after a long period of quiescence, increases its velocities by up to two orders of magnitude. These surges tend to have complex interactions with tributaries, yet the role of these tributary interactions towards glacier surging has yet to be fully investigated. In this work we construct a synthetic glacier with an adjustable tributary intersection angle to study tributary interaction with the trunk glacier. The geometry we choose is loosely based on the main trunk and tributary interaction of Black Rapids Glacier, AK, USA, which last surged in 1936-1937. We investigate surface elevations, medial moraine locations, and erosive power at the bed of the glacier in response to our adjustable domain and relative flux. A nonlinear relationship between tributary flux and surface elevations is found that indicates flow restrictions can occur with geometries like Black Rapids Glacier. These flow restrictions cause increased ice thicknesses up-glacier which can lead to surges via increased stresses

Using the CRISPR/Cas9 system to understand neuropeptide biology and regulation

Funding was provided by a Wellcome Trust ISSF starting grant (105625/Z/14/Z), Medical Research Scotland (PhD-719-2013), GW Pharmaceuticals (PhD-719-2013 - S.5242.001) and the BBSRC (BB/J012343/1).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

The Correlation of Music Preference and Personality

The research behind the relationship between one\u27s music preference and personality

The impact of in-season national team soccer play on injury and player availability in a professional club

This study investigated the impact of in-season national team duty on injury rates and player availability in a professional soccer club. Time-loss injuries and exposure time during club and national team duties were recorded prospectively over 5 seasons (2009–2014). A time-loss injury was sustained by 37.7% of squad members participating in national duty, all injuries occurring in match-play. The incidence (per 1000 h exposure) for national team player match-play injuries did not differ (P = 0.608) to that for all players in club competitions: 48.0 (95% CI 20.9–75.5) vs. 41.9 (95% CI 36.5–47.4), incidence rate ratio = 1.2 (CI: 0.8–2.4). The majority (58%) of national team injuries resulted in a layoff ≤1 week. Of all working days lost to injury generally, 5.2% were lost through injury on national duty. Injury incidence in the week following national duty was comparable (P = 0.818) in players participating or not: 7.8 (95% CI 3.6–12.0) vs. 7.1 (95% CI: 4.6–9.6), incidence rate ratio = 1.1 (CI: 0.7–2.7). While approximately 40% of participating players incurred a time-loss injury on national duty, no training injuries were sustained and injuries made up a negligible part of overall club working days lost to injury. Following duty, players had a similar injury risk to peers without national obligations

A study on episodic memory reconsolidation that tells us more about consolidation

Awake quiescence immediately after encoding is conducive to episodic memory consolidation. Retrieval can render episodic memories labile again, but reconsolidation can modify and re-strengthen them. It remained unknown whether awake quiescence after retrieval supports episodic memory reconsolidation. We sought to examine this question via an object-location memory paradigm. We failed to probe the effect of quiescence on reconsolidation, but we did observe an unforeseen ‘delayed’ effect of quiescence on consolidation. Our findings reveal that the beneficial effect of quiescence on episodic memory consolidation is not restricted to immediately following encoding but can be achieved at a delayed stage and even following a period of task engagement

Comparing Mental Health of Athletes and Non-Athletes as they Emerge from a COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown

Athletes going through transition periods such as injury or retirement have previously reported feelings of depression and anxiety, especially when feeling unsupported. Cessation of competitive sport during the pandemic has forced athletes through a non-normative transition and has reduced many opportunities to satisfy their basic psychological needs increasing the risk of poor wellbeing and loneliness. Whilst athletes are often praised for their resilience—a trait that serves to support them during tough times—the inability to play sport can be particularly challenging for those with strong athletic identities. An online cross-sectional survey (n = 744) was conducted to capture adult athlete and non-athlete mental health factors (specifically wellbeing, depression, anxiety, loneliness) during emergence from a COVID-19 lockdown. Results showed that resilience was positively correlated with mental health but was no higher in athletes than non-athletes. Furthermore, athletes reported greater anxiety than non-athletes, a difference mediated by negative affectivity—a subfactor of athletic identity. We present evidence that after a temporary transition away from sport, athletes' resilience is comparable to non-athletes leaving them just as likely to suffer poor mental health. Moreover, athletes with strong athletic identities are likely to experience anxiety symptoms above and beyond those reported by non-athletes. Findings have implications for the development of self-management guidance for athletes as the COVID-19 pandemic and restrictions on sport participation continue

Brush/Fin Thermal Interfaces

Brush/fin thermal interfaces are being developed to increase heat-transfer efficiency and thereby enhance the thermal management of orbital replaceable units (ORUs) of electronic and other equipment aboard the International Space Station. Brush/fin thermal interfaces could also be used to increase heat-transfer efficiency in terrestrial electronic and power systems. In a typical application according to conventional practice, a replaceable heat-generating unit includes a mounting surface with black-anodized metal fins that mesh with the matching fins of a heat sink or radiator on which the unit is mounted. The fins do not contact each other, but transfer heat via radiation exchange. A brush/fin interface also includes intermeshing fins, the difference being that the gaps between the fins are filled with brushes made of carbon or other fibers. The fibers span the gap between intermeshed fins, allowing heat transfer by conduction through the fibers. The fibers are attached to the metal surfaces as velvet-like coats in the manner of the carbon fiber brush heat exchangers described in the preceding article. The fiber brushes provide both mechanical compliance and thermal contact, thereby ensuring low contact thermal resistance. A certain amount of force is required to intermesh the fins due to sliding friction of the brush s fiber tips against the fins. This force increases linearly with penetration distance, reaching ~1 psi (~6.9 kPa) for full 2-in. (5.1 cm) penetration for the conventional radiant fin interface. Removal forces can be greater due to fiber buckling upon reversing the sliding direction. This buckling force can be greatly reduced by biasing the fibers at an angle perpendicularly to the sliding direction. Means of containing potentially harmful carbon fiber debris, which is electrically conductive, have been developed. Small prototype brush/fin thermal interfaces have been tested and found to exhibit temperature drops about onesixth of that of conventional meshing-fin thermal interface, when fabricated as a retrofit. In this case, conduction through the long, thin metal fins themselves becomes a thermal bottleneck. Further improvement could be made by prescribing aluminum fins to be shorter and thicker than those of the conventional meshing-fin thermal interfaces; the choice of height and thickness would be optimized to obtain greater overall thermal conductance, lower weight, and lower cost

Platform based screening strategies that deliver reliable and high quality continous biomanufacturing processes

The challenge during mammalian cell line and upstream process development is to identify and isolate stable, high expressing cell lines producing product with the appropriate critical product quality attributes rapidly, reproducibly and with relative ease. Current platform processes are based on a defined set of hierarchical screening strategies utilised to identify key cellular performance criteria required for fed-batch culture (Porter et al 2010a,b). The application of continuous biomanufacturing principles has introduced a paradigm shift, due to their inherent advantage of higher productivity which can facilitate the implementation of smaller process equipment and result in cost-effective, lean and agile manufacturing facilities. However, as we move from fed-batch to continuous manufacturing we must re-evaluate and leverage the correct platform technologies (host cell line, expression vector, cell line development process, cell culture media/feed, process control) to rapidly identify the correct cellular performance criteria that are important for continuous biomanufacturing processes. Furthermore, whereas the adoption of robust and reproducible platform processes have been widely adopted for fed-batch processes, optimal upstream continuous processes performance still largely relies on the optimisation of key bioprocess parameters which are optimised in an ad-hoc manner during process development. To increase speed-to-clinic we show the application of both a new cell line development and continuous upstream production platform methodology which has been successfully utilised to establish reliable and high quality continuous upstream biomanufacturing processes for multiple CHO-DG44 derived cell lines and recombinant monoclonal antibody products. References Porter AJ, Dickson AJ, Racher AJ. (2010a) Strategies for selecting recombinant CHO cell lines for cGMP manufacturing: Realising the potential in bioreactors. Biotechnol Prog 26(5):1446-54 Porter AJ, Racher AJ, Preziosi R, Dickson AJ (2010b) Strategies for selecting recombinant CHO cell lines for cGMP manufacturing: Improving the efficiency of cell line generation. Biotechnol Prog 26(5): 1455-64