Duct growth factor.

Submitted by the senior author in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of the University of Missouri, 1939--P. [5].Includes bibliographical references (pages 69-72)

Performance of Compressor of XJ-41-V Turbojet Engine II - Static-Pressure Ratios and Limitation of Maximum Flow at Equivalent Compressor Speed of 8000 rpm

At the request of the Air Material Command, Army Air Forces, an investigation was conducted by the NACA Cleveland laboratory to determine the performance characteristics of the compressor of the XJ-41-V turbojet engine. This report is the second in a series presenting the compressor performance and analysis of flow conditions in the compressor. The static-pressure variation in the direction of flow through the compressor and the location and the cause of the maximum flow restriction at an equivalent speed of 8000 rpm are presented. After the initial runs were reported, the leading edges of the impeller blades and the diffuser surfaces were found to have been roughened by steel particles from a minor failure of auxiliary equipment. The leading edges of the impeller blades were refinished and all high spots resulting from scratches in the diffuser and the accessible parts of the vaned collector passages were removed. The initial overall performance and that obtained with the refinished blades are presented

Epidemiology of Surgical Site Infection in a Community Hospital Network

OBJECTIVE To describe the epidemiology of complex surgical site infection (SSI) following commonly performed surgical procedures in community hospitals and to characterize trends of SSI prevalence rates over time for MRSA and other common pathogens METHODS We prospectively collected SSI data at 29 community hospitals in the southeastern United States from 2008 through 2012. We determined the overall prevalence rates of SSI for commonly performed procedures during this 5-year study period. For each year of the study, we then calculated prevalence rates of SSI stratified by causative organism. We created log-binomial regression models to analyze trends of SSI prevalence over time for all pathogens combined and specifically for MRSA. RESULTS A total of 3,988 complex SSIs occurred following 532,694 procedures (prevalence rate, 0.7 infections per 100 procedures). SSIs occurred most frequently after small bowel surgery, peripheral vascular bypass surgery, and colon surgery. Staphylococcus aureus was the most common pathogen. The prevalence rate of SSI decreased from 0.76 infections per 100 procedures in 2008 to 0.69 infections per 100 procedures in 2012 (prevalence rate ratio [PRR], 0.90; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.82–1.00). A more substantial decrease in MRSA SSI (PRR, 0.69; 95% CI, 0.54–0.89) was largely responsible for this overall trend. CONCLUSIONS The prevalence of MRSA SSI decreased from 2008 to 2012 in our network of community hospitals. This decrease in MRSA SSI prevalence led to an overall decrease in SSI prevalence over the study period. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2016;37:519–52

Fast Cosmological Parameter Estimation from Microwave Background Temperature and Polarization Power Spectra

We improve the algorithm of Kosowsky, Milosavljevic, and Jimenez (2002) for computing power spectra of the cosmic microwave background. The present algorithm computes not only the temperature power spectrum but also the E-mode polarization and the temperature-polarization cross power spectra, providing the accuracy required for current cosmological parameter estimation. We refine the optimum set of cosmological parameters for computing the power spectra as perturbations around a fiducial model, leading to an accuracy better than 0.5% for the temperature power spectrum throughout the region of parameter space within WMAP's first-year 3sigma confidence region. This accuracy is comparable to the difference between the widely-used CMBFAST code (Seljak and Zaldarriaga 1996) and Boltzmann codes. Our algorithm (CMBwarp) makes possible a full exploration of the likelihood region for eight cosmological parameters in about one hour on a laptop computer. We provide the code to compute power spectra as well as the Markov Chain Monte Carlo algorithm for cosmological parameters estimation at http://www.physics.upenn.edu/~raulj/CMBwarpComment: Submitted to PR

Inter-sectoral Linkages and Multipliers of MGNREGA in a Rainfed Village in Karnataka: Applications of Social Accounting Matrix (SAM)

This chapter examines inter-sectoral linkages of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) interventions in a village economy of Karnataka state. This is done using framework of social analysis matrix (SAM) in Markabbinahalli village, a predominantly a rainfed village, of Bijapur District in northern Karnataka. An in-depth survey was done in 2013, SAM of 82 × 82 column and rows (activities) was constructed to analyze direct, indirect and inter-sectoral linkages of village level activities for year of 2012–13, in relation to MGNREGA interventions. The SAM analysis suggests that additional investment of Rs. 1 million by MGNREGA in the studied village increased 1.1% of total income of the village, provided a full employment to 18 households at the rate of 340 days of work per person per household annually at a wage rate of Rs. 300 per day. Major share of the MGNREGA investment went to indirect impact (84%), also known as multiplier effects of the investment. The net impact of MGNREGA on labour income in the studied village was weak due to expenditure to several activities that were produced outside of villages such as machinery uses in construction, skilled labour uses, etc. We suggest that making the programme more demand driven, taking more labour intensive work activities under MGNREGA would also ensure more circulation of MGNREGA expenditures within the local economy, which would produces more employment and income locally due to increased feedback and inter-sectoral linkage (or multiplier) effects

Cardiorespiratory Fitness and Attentional Control in the Aging Brain

A growing body of literature provides evidence for the prophylactic influence of cardiorespiratory fitness on cognitive decline in older adults. This study examined the association between cardiorespiratory fitness and recruitment of the neural circuits involved in an attentional control task in a group of healthy older adults. Employing a version of the Stroop task, we examined whether higher levels of cardiorespiratory fitness were associated with an increase in activation in cortical regions responsible for imposing attentional control along with an up-regulation of activity in sensory brain regions that process task-relevant representations. Higher fitness levels were associated with better behavioral performance and an increase in the recruitment of prefrontal and parietal cortices in the most challenging condition, thus providing evidence that cardiorespiratory fitness is associated with an increase in the recruitment of the anterior processing regions. There was a top-down modulation of extrastriate visual areas that process both task-relevant and task-irrelevant attributes relative to the baseline. However, fitness was not associated with differential activation in the posterior processing regions, suggesting that fitness enhances attentional function by primarily influencing the neural circuitry of anterior cortical regions. This study provides novel evidence of a differential association of fitness with anterior and posterior brain regions, shedding further light onto the neural changes accompanying cardiorespiratory fitness

Ernst Freund as Precursor of the Rational Study of Corporate Law

Gindis, David, Ernst Freund as Precursor of the Rational Study of Corporate Law (October 27, 2017). Journal of Institutional Economics, Forthcoming. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2905547, doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2905547The rise of large business corporations in the late 19th century compelled many American observers to admit that the nature of the corporation had yet to be understood. Published in this context, Ernst Freund's little-known The Legal Nature of Corporations (1897) was an original attempt to come to terms with a new legal and economic reality. But it can also be described, to paraphrase Oliver Wendell Holmes, as the earliest example of the rational study of corporate law. The paper shows that Freund had the intuitions of an institutional economist, and engaged in what today would be called comparative institutional analysis. Remarkably, his argument that the corporate form secures property against insider defection and against outsiders anticipated recent work on entity shielding and capital lock-in, and can be read as an early contribution to what today would be called the theory of the firm.Peer reviewe