Affective Infrastructures: Toward a Cultural Neuropsychology of Sport

Recently there has been a turn toward considerations of embodiment, cognition, and context in sport studies. Many researchers have argued that the traditional focus on clinical psychology and performance enhancement within the discipline is incomplete, and now emphasize the importance of athletes’ social and familial contexts in a research paradigm that examines interconnections between movement, cognition, emotion, and the social and cultural context in which movement takes place. While it is important that the sport studies focus is being expanded to consider these interactions, I will argue that this model is still incomplete in that it is missing a fundamental variable – that of our evolutionary neurobiological roots. I will use the work of affective neuroscientists Jaak Panksepp and Stephen Porges to show that because sport so clearly activates neural systems that function at both proximate and ultimate levels of causation, it can be seen to serve fundamental needs for affective balance. A neurobiology of affect shows how the evolution of the mammalian autonomic nervous system has resulted in neurophysiological substrates for affective processes and stress responses, and has wide-ranging implications for sport studies in terms of suggesting what forms of coaching might be the most effective in what context. I propose the term cultural neuropsychology of sport as a descriptor for a model that examines the relationships between neurophysiological substrates and athletes’ social and familial contexts in terms of how these variables facilitate or fail to facilitate athletes’ neuroceptions of safety, which in turn have a direct impact on their performance. A cultural neuropsychological model of sport might thereby be seen to elaborate a relationship between proximate and ultimate mechanisms in concretely applied ways

Effects of spaceflight on the proliferation of jejunal mucosal cells

The purpose of this project was to test the hypothesis that the generalized, whole body decrease in synthetic activity due to microgravity conditions encountered during spaceflight would be demonstrable in cells and tissues characterized by a rapid rate of turnover. Jejunal mucosal cells were chosen as a model since these cells are among the most rapidly proliferating in the body. Accordingly, the percentage of mitotic cells present in the crypts of Lieberkuhn in each of 5 rats flown on the COSMOS 2044 mission were compared to the percentage of mitotic cells present in the crypts in rats included in each of 3 ground control groups (i.e., vivarium, synchronous and caudal-elevated). No significant difference (p greater than .05) was detected in mitotic indices between the flight and vivarium group. Although the ability of jejunal mucosal cells to divide by mitosis was not impaired in flight group, there was, however, a reduction in the length of villi and depth of crypts. The concommitant reduction in villus length and crypth depth in the flight group probably reflects changes in connective tissue components within the core of villi

Simulation of Hydrogen Generation from Methane Partial Oxidation in a Plasma Fuel Reformer

A model for the chemistry in a plasma fuel reformer or plasmatron has been developed. The plasma fuel reformer is set up to produce syngas (hydrogen and carbon monoxide gas mixture) from partial oxidation of hydrocarbons. The behavior of methane as fuel has been investigated to characterize and simulate the plasmatron performance. The goal of this work has been improved understanding of the physical/chemical processes within the reactor. The simulation tool used was CHEMKIN 3.7, using the GRI methane combustion mechanism. The Partially Stirred Reactor application (PASR) simulates random mixing by a frequency mixing parameter, which is directly dependant of the system fluid dynamic properties. The fuel reformer was designed as a reactor where combustion is initiated by an electric discharge due to ohmic heating of the arc region. From discharge observations, energy estimations and model simulations, it was found that the electric arc initiates combustion by locally raising the temperature and then propagating the reaction by heat and mass transfer/mixing to the surroundings. Simulation results demonstrated that there is an optimum characteristic mixing time for each residence time, depending on the initial temperature reached at the arc. It was also found that for given power input into the system, the more spread the energy is, or the more mass is heated to a moderate temperature, the better the calculated performance

The Stripe 82 1-2 GHz Very Large Array Snapshot Survey: Multiwavelength Counterparts

We have combined spectrosopic and photometric data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) with $1.4$ GHz radio observations, conducted as part of the Stripe 82 $1-2$ GHz Snapshot Survey using the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA), which covers $\sim100$ sq degrees, to a flux limit of 88 $\mu$Jy rms. Cross-matching the $11\,768$ radio source components with optical data via visual inspection results in a final sample of $4\,795$ cross-matched objects, of which $1\,996$ have spectroscopic redshifts and $2\,799$ objects have photometric redshifts. Three previously undiscovered Giant Radio Galaxies (GRGs) were found during the cross-matching process, which would have been missed using automated techniques. For the objects with spectroscopy we separate radio-loud Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) and star-forming galaxies (SFGs) using three diagnostics and then further divide our radio-loud AGN into the HERG and LERG populations. A control matched sample of HERGs and LERGs, matched on stellar mass, redshift and radio luminosity, reveals that the host galaxies of LERGs are redder and more concentrated than HERGs. By combining with near-infrared data, we demonstrate that LERGs also follow a tight $K-z$ relationship. These results imply the LERG population are hosted by population of massive, passively evolving early-type galaxies. We go on to show that HERGs, LERGs, QSOs and star-forming galaxies in our sample all reside in different regions of a WISE colour-colour diagram. This cross-matched sample bridges the gap between previous `wide but shallow' and `deep but narrow' samples and will be useful for a number of future investigations.Comment: 17 pages, 19 figures. Resubmitted to MNRAS after the initial comment

Onboard Plasmatron Generation of Hydrogen Rich Gas for Diesel Engine Exhaust Aftertreatment and Other Applications

Plasmatron reformers can provide attractive means for conversion of diesel fuel into hydrogen rich gas. The hydrogen rich gas can be used for improved NOx trap technology and other aftertreatment applications